#hopefully it's ok i spent less time on this than the other one

[columbidae-creature]

mayhaps a mountain lion poem? I love poetry and making g poetry so i love seeing others doing it :333

here you go! this will be my last one for today cause I gotta write a paper but I'll get to the other requests soon enough! I'm very connected to cougars cause we have a lot where I live!

Cougar

Many named beast roams in montane solitude I shift between the trees There is the line of my tail, There is the line of horizon– It follows through me.

To be made for this, A dust-brown body weaving night-time forests I know the secret ways– I know the stars.

I’ll fold them up into my pelt, And never drop them, Too dexterous on the rock-sides to ever flinch. You would almost think I had stars in my eyes With how they glow

On roadside remote patrol I am singularity to deer– Unseen, I dress myself in the silence Of a moss-draped forest.

I rest my head upon the cold floor Of a sheltering cave, And sway to forest music Only cat ears can know.

[jezabelle9299]

Fashion Show S.R x FEM! Reader

Overture- You try on a new dress for a night out, and Spencer is continuously surprised by how beautiful you are

CWs- Reader wears a dress and heels, Spencer walks in before she's zipped the dress up all the way (But he doesn't really see anything-- just the back of her bra), Penelope is one pushy matchmaker and we love her for it

A/N- Day 19, I did not in fact fall off the face of the Earth (Yet), and I will hopefully get caught up with everything by Thursday! But I can't make any promises. If you like it, let me know-- and if you hate it, then maybe don't tell me, please, thank you.

Finally having your first fancy professional job came with something you were not all that familiar with, disposable income. So when Penelope invited you for a shopping trip on your lunch break, you obliged. You walked around the mall with her, and ended the trip with three new outfits, and a new pair of shoes. Two were for work, since you spent most of your time there anyway; and the third, along with the shoes were for the occasional night out. Whether a date (Which were few and far between), or the rare occasion of the government paying for a nice hotel with a bar you felt the need to dress up for. 

The fitting rooms were closed for maintenance when you went, so Penelope convinced you to do a quick fashion show when you got back, just for her in her office. The bathroom was right next to her office, so no one would even see you on the walk while you tried to decide if you liked the things you got. 

You tried on the work outfits first, working your way up to the piece you were most nervous to try on. It was a somewhat short purple dress, with a lace trim to complete it. But of course, this was the one thing you could not zip yourself. You threw on a jacket for the ten foot walk, and made it into Penelope’s office without seeing anyone. But as soon as she ran over to you in her very high heels to help you zip up, someone knocked ‘shave and a haircut’ on her office door, before promptly walking in. 

You knew from the knock that it was Spencer, unfortunately Spencer had no idea you were in there, let alone what you were doing. 

“Hey Garcia—“ as soon as he caught a glimpse of you, right as Penelope started zipping you up, he froze. No recollection of why he came over here, barely even registering Penelope’s presence when you looked like that. 

As if his life was one cruel joke, his favorite person in the world was wearing his favorite color, in a dress that could have been engineered specifically to render him speechless. And in the workplace no less. And in one final twist of the knife, he wasn’t supposed to see you. And he knew it. As soon as his brain could get him to move even an inch, he was covering his eyes. Like a child during a scary movie, he fully covered his eyes with one hand placed sideways, only to double the other one over top of it. 

You couldn’t not laugh at him. Just a little bit. He was just so scandalized at seeing a little bit of your bra. 

He was just trying to figure out how to excuse himself without opening his eyes when he felt your hands over his wrists, gently tugging his hands from his eyes. 

“Spencer, it’s ok. I promise I’m fully dressed now.” 

“What did you need, boy wonder?” After shooting you a look declaring, once again, her support of you and Spencer becoming a couple– Penelope sat herself back in her desk chair, ready to do whatever Spencer needed. 

“I—uh.” He quickly readjusted his glasses, but it didn’t help. Functionally, he was a brick in a sportcoat. 

“The incomparable Dr.Reid speechless? This dress is better than I thought.” You made the joke to undercut the tension you were feeling, but it only made it worse for both of you. 

“Sorry, I—I’ve just never seen you this dressed up.”

“She bought it to go out, you should take her for a night out tonight!” Both of you looked at Penelope, you couldn’t believe she would do that to you. Setting you up for that kind of rejection? Even if he did say yes— would it be for the sole factor of you dressing in a form fitting outfit? Spencer had a similar line of thinking– Penelope knew he liked you, and he was deeply upset that she would force him to actually hear your rejection. 

“Oh–um. I’m sure you have plans, I mean– you look really nice, I’m sure you have someone in mind or somewhere specific you wanted to go.”

“She doesn’t have any plans tonight! You don’t either, so you two are hitting the town.”

“I don’t have any plans.”

“Me neither.”

“It’s a good thing we’re getting off work soon, and the chinese place down the street is open late anyway.”

You looked at each other, or in the general direction anyway. Neither of you wanted to make eye contact, and then when Spencer shot Penelope a betrayed look at her meddling, she just tilted her head to the side in a ‘go on’ motion.   

“Would you maybe like to go to the Chinese place with me after work? As a– I mean as a date?”

“You want to go out with me?” He was so surprised by your reaction, he ended up taking a full step back– his brow furrowing as he did. 

“Well yes– of course, but we don’t have to if you don’t want to.” By the end of his sentence his cheeks were starting to turn pink again. 

“I thought that you knew I liked you, is all. Of course I want to go out with you.”

“Oh– ok, can I pick you up at your desk after we’re done with paperwork?”

“That sounds nice, thank you Spencer.”

“Of course, and could you– maybe– keep the dress on? You just look really, really, great.”

“Sure Spencer, I’m glad you like it.” The teasing you endured from the rest of the team was worth it, because every time you looked at him, he was already looking at you– tossing you a shy smile that could only increase your excitement for tonight.  

[not-xpr-art]

Len and Tommy's life told through nine photos ~

A fanart based on the Inside no 9 episode 'Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room' because I loved it so much!

(09/2024)

See below for close ups and unnecessarily detailed explanations of each individual artwork lol

First wanna say that I spent wayy too long on these (like 25+ hours), especially trying to make them look like actual old photos lol... also trying to get their likeness right for the various ages was really bloody hard lol, but hopefully each photo has the essence of each character even if it might not look 100% right pfft...

Second thing is that the dates & locations are very much my own subjective thoughts on their life and not particularly rooted in the canon of the show lol

Also I did go really heavy with the colour symbolism lol...

Ravenhill School, 1965.

The year they met, both are around the age of 10 (give or take). Len is 3 from the left in the top row, Tommy 2 in from the left on the bottom row (also I tried to include references to the other 2 League Of Gentlemen guys... Though I think the only vaguely recognisable one is Jeremy pfft)

Also shout out to @lapis-lazuliie for the idea that they met at school!

(side note, this is the least detailed of all the paintings not just because I was too lazy to render all those children's faces pfft but ALSO because of the significance of them being less recognisable or prominent in each other's lives in this point...)

I was planning on making another childhood/early teen photo but couldn't really think of any good subject matter that could also fit thematically with the episode (also the fact both are coming from poor families who would have had limited access to cameras in this era means we can just pretend that there are just no photos that really exist of them at these ages pfft...)

Photo booth in Leeds, 1974.

Both in their late teens, they'd (well, mainly Tommy) gone to a photo booth in Leeds with the intention of getting some professional looking photos only for Len to immediately make Tommy laugh once they got in there lol

The middle photo is covered in lines as Tommy had planned on throwing it away, only to find he couldn't bring himself to do it in the end... Is it platonic? Romantic? Both? Who knows, you decide lol! I mainly wanted it to be a candid moment between two people that love each other lol

(final one is them play fighting because that's kinda just what 19 year olds are like pfft... also I think photo booths technically gave you 4 photos? so let's pretend there was another photo that they did throw away for whatever reason lol...)

Rehearsals, 1979.

Deep in the midst of practising their routine for some of their first performances!

I'll admit this photo was mainly me wanting to include something more episode specific lol and also to get in some much needed heavy handed symbolism (the crease in the photo separating them, the bottle in front of Len's face, etc)

Polaroids taken at Tommy's flat, 1985.

In-between shows the two often spent a lot of time at Tommy's place (featuring that god awful sofa the previous home owner had left). I did originally plan to have them in the sofa shot together, but was finding it hard to figure out who would have been taking that kind of photo so figured it made more sense to make it shots they took of each other.

Also marks the beginnings of Tommy's weariness (& Len's over drinking...)

Outside the Glasgow Pavilion, 1988.

The morning of that fateful performance...

Ok not much else I wanna say about this other than the reference I used for the pose had Reece sorta awkwardly clasping his hands in front of him which I really liked but unfortunately in my art it just looked like he was trying to cover his crotch so I had to change it pfft...

Tommy standing at Len's grave, 2024.

The sixth anniversary of Len's death, and the sixth time Tommy has travelled across from France to lay flowers at his grave. Photo taken by Leanne from the inside of a taxi (I'd like to have had more references to her in these photos but was unsure of dates/ages where it would have fitted...)

She couldn't get her phone to not focus on the raindrops on the window as she tried to take a picture of Tommy at her father's grave but then realised that she actually liked the pathetic fallacy and had it made into a print anyway lol (look I'll be the first to admit that this is the least 'realistic' in terms of a photo that people would take, but I couldn't resist the symbolism of it lol...)

There were a lot more ideas for photos I wanted to do but for obvious reasons had to keep it to just 9 lol

Also will be posting these on my ao3 with snippets of stories to go with each photo so keep an eye out for when I share that link!

[sunsinourhands]

That Time I Reincarnated as a Lewd Monster Man Exorcist

The Cave Slime was a lot bigger than the guild scouting party reported. Bigger. Tougher. Stronger. More Aggressive. Was it possible for slimes to be mean? Were Dire Slimes even a thing? Charlotte, as a Guild Receptionist, was tasked with filling out report on the expedition. Was she a member of the Adventurer’s Guild? Yes. But, she wasn’t an adventurer! She wasn’t prepared for this! 

So why the hell did the Slime grab both the cute young redhead rogue from the guild and also Charlotte?! If this happened to be some sort of perverted, naughty-tentacle situation, Lin Lin was an obvious choice! After all, the young rogue was barely into her twentieth year: svelt and slim where she was supposed to be and perky where it counted. Lin Lin looked like she belonged in this world. And she had the speed and dexterity that suited her class. Ah, youth was wonder��that was not the point! 

The point was that Charlotte, pushing 33, and now an unwilling victim of gravity and a slowing metabolism, was also getting dragged off by the giant blue slime towards what was probably the back of the cave. Hopefully not to die via digestion. Charlotte never would have said she was particularly ugly. But, she was decidedly softer than she was in her first world, over a decade ago in her college days. Especially around the thighs and her stomach. And, well, she just wasn’t quite as ‘proud and perky’ as she was back in the day, even if she had gained a little fullness. 

When she first came to the second world, Charlotte did receive a class. Was it a fighter? Or a wizard? Would she get to shoot fireballs and Drago-Slaves like she had always wanted? Hell no. Her class was stated as ‘Lewd Exorcist’ but there was a little asterisk by it. A popup stated, as if making fun of her, ‘You can pacify angry monsters by getting fucked by them.’ 

All of this had to be a punishment of some kind. Was it because she masturbated too much to fictional characters? Or because she spent her money on custom dildos ostensibly shaped like the genitals of various fantasy monsters? Or was it her secret tentacle kink? 

Regardless, Charlotte had decided that maybe she needed a change. Her and eyes had changed to a dark, almost pine dark green. So maybe she should give up the Pervert Life and try to be normal. She decided to forget her class—which was probably just divine punishment of some kind—and get a secure, stable, and less dangerous job. 

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Charlotte noted that she would have to get a new Guild Uniform. Because the one she wore got all kinds of torn up, and was only shredding more. Some of is was probably just gone. 

It was fucking dark, ok? Charlotte couldn’t see anything, and there were no torches or magic stones along the wall to provide any light. For an undetermined amount of time, Charlotte could only feel the tight grip of the slime’s (tentacle? Pseudopod?) around her midsection as it carried her deeper and deeper into the cave. 

The worst thing was that Charlotte knew she had bought innumerable erotica stories and hentai doujins of nearly this exact situation in her past world. And it was decidedly less sexy when she thought this really might end in a very painful, very slow death. But, some horrible, horny part of her brain commented that this could very well be a dream come true. 

That part of her brain needed to learn to shut up. 

I shouldn’t have been such a horn dog, Charlotte thought. 

Or maybe I should have not been such a coward and actually learned to fight or something. Anything, she mentally lamented. 

Eventually, the darkness gave way to the tiniest light. More, then a little more. And it occurred to Charlotte that the slime was actually taking Lin Lin and herself towards a light source. After a little more time, Charlotte could make out the shape of her hand, then a handful of other, close things in an eerie green light. There, who-knew-how-deep into the cave system, there was a space the size of a small stable covered in strange plants with flowers that cast light. 

The Slime dropped Lin Lin into a make-shift cage built from thin, acid-burned lengths of stone. Then, using more strength than it should have possessed, the slime pulled a flat sheet of iron on top. 

It tossed Charlotte onto the cave floor. 

Or…set her? 

That didn’t feel right to say. But, it wasn’t nearly as rough as it could have been, even though Charlotte still ended up on her butt. 

Before Charlotte could begin pondering the unique horrors of a Slime that could use tools and pre-meditate its actions, it began to change. She was reminded of play-dough. Or, perhaps, that toy slime that kids were obsessed with before she got pulled into the other world. The slime stretched, twisted, and folded in on itself like a giant, invisible pair of hands was sculpting it. The cool, aqua blue of the creature then shifted into a bright, fluorescent green. 

Then the Slime seemed to somehow condense itself into a tighter, more defined form. Eventually, it formed the shape like a person with no fine detail. The figure seemed to have long hair pulled up into a tail, which then split off into a thick pile of slimy green tendrils. 

Ah, this must be my lucky day. I’m really going to eat great tonight. With no vocal cords, the slime seemed to telepathically express itself. The words and strange voice just wriggled into Charlotte’s head. 

It paused, then turned its featureless, flat face towards Charlotte. 

What an expression. Not like she can actually hear me. It laughed. 

Unless…she actually can? It seemed amused. 

Charlotte must not have been to keep up a pokerface. 

Perfect! The Slime’s telepathic voice bubbled. 

Half a dozen glistening, featureless tentacles shot forward from the creature. 

[fayesia]

Hello, I hope this doesn't bother you but I had an idea for mike schmidt. Imagine him and the reader are fighting and the reader leaves him. Ever since the reader left him he starts to loose his mind cause he needs the reader to function. Abby notices her brother's situation so she makes it her mission to get him and the reader back together.

Short and Sweet — mike schmidt x reader

a/n: Hiii ofc u r not bothering me! Thank you for the request, congrats you’re the first one so i’m very much appreciative!!! I hope i did justice to your idea, again i’m kind of new to all of this but hopefully you like it :D

“god your so selfish do you even think before you act!!”

You can feel the eyes of people passing by as they return to their cars and pack away their shopping. Except you don’t care, not when this is the third time Mike has forgotten to pick Abby up from school.

“come on at least say something!”

“GODDAMNIT, i’m sorry ok!!”

“well sorry’s not enough Mike! Because when i get home from work and she comes running into my arms having already had a bad day at school it’s on you for making it worse” you exclaim back to him slamming the car door shut.

He does the same, quickly started the engine and driving with rough movements.

“oh yeah, now what? you’re gonna get us both in a car crash, leave your sister alone again-“

“oh my god ENOUGH OK shut up!!”

You fumble with your fingers looking out the window, not in sadness or fear but rather an immense amount of anger. You knew that your emotions would take over your response and you were not going to cry in front of Mike as if what he said effected you.

He parks in the driveway, opens the trunk to collect the groceries and rushes through the front door. You follow after him entering the bedroom and collecting all your things from the closet and bathroom. carrying your duffel bag, you make your way retrieving any items left around the house. Your wallet, keys, shoes and a picture of you and abby are collected as you leave back outside to your car parked across the road.

Sitting down in the drivers seat you stare blankly ahead slowly lowering your head to rest against the steering wheel, soft crys quickly turning into loud sobs that rack through your body. They continue until you reach your apartment, gloomily walking into the place you haven’t been in for months, having spent most days of the week at Mikes house. This place doesn’t feel homely like his though, rather it’s cold and depressing reflecting how you felt right now, which really wasn’t helping.

You’re pulled away from these thoughts as your phone starts ringing. ‘Abby bear’ flashes on your screen as you clear your throat to remove any hints of you crying.

“Hi Abby what’s up?”

“why did you leave” her shaky voice almost has you in tears again.

“what did mike say honey? i’m not leaving forever i just needed to get some stuff from my place”

“he said you were gonna be gone for awhile but would come back. I think he’s lying though his eyes are all red like he’s been crying and he hasn’t moved from your spot on the couch”.

As you listen to her soft voice explain all of this more tears drop down to your chin.

“i’m sorry abby i just think we need a break from each other i don’t know for how long but its something that needed to happen sooner rather than later. I promise i’ll come by and visit you soon, maybe Friday for this weeks movie night?”

“Yayy ok sounds good”

“i have to go now sweetie but make sure you finish all your homework and then you can relax”

“ok byee y/n love u”

“bye abby bear i love you too”

ending the call, you’re left with a gut wrenching feeling spending the rest of the evening crying yourself to sleep on the couch. pitiful? maybe. but you really needed this and now was the right time.

While you spent hours sleeping the pain away, Mike was basically doing the same thing. Abby walked up to him handing him a tub of ice cream “i heard from a movie that eating ice cream makes you less sad after a breakup”

“that’s not true Abby”

her face drops a little at this, Mike quickly trying to cover up his mistake.

“but thank you, why don’t we both eat ice cream and watch a movie”

“ok!!” she settles herself next to him, cuddling into his side with blankets strewn across their laps.

Abby was not very knowledgeable about breakups, only being ten years old herself, and the most she experienced in the romance department was having a crush on the fastest runner in her class.

She did know however that the way Mike was acting was not healthy for him. He spent hours on the couch or in bed, barely eating and if he wasn’t doing that then he would be at work or picking Abby up from school, sometimes they would go and get frozen yogurt which Abby loved the most. She just wished you were there with them like before, when the three of you would go together and spend hours having fun at park.

Abby knew she had to do something, anything she could to get things back to the way they were and she knew just the way to do that.

It had been a week since the break up and neither you or mike seemed to be doing to well in Abby’s opinion but she had a plan set up and tonight she was putting it into action.

Mike received a message from you, his eyes widening as he read, “meet at the park 6pm” a short and simple text. Effective too with the way Mike jumped up running to the closet to pull out his nicest shirt and trousers, and then to the bathroom to shower and prepare him for the night to come.

Abby giggled to herself as she heard the commotion from her brother, taking his phone she started phase two of the plan.

‘bzzz’ you flayed your arm around in an attempt to grab your phone, a yelp coming from your throat as you read the message on the screen. A singular sentence from Mike that read, “meet at the park 6pm”. You expected to read more but that seemed to be it. Short and sweet. You layed out a simple long sleeve top and your favourite pair of jeans, readying yourself for an everything shower.

Soon it was 5:55 and both you and Mike climbed up opposite ends of the hill to the park situated right at the top. There in the middle was a bench and that bench was surrounded by rose petals, with a rose bouquet in the middle, and the bench itself was surrounded by mini lights illuminating the area with a gentle yellow tone similar to the sky’s as the sun set. All of this of course was done courtesy of Abby and you were quick to realise when mikes face was filled with shock when stumbling over one of the yellow lamps, it was clear he was not the one who had set this up. However that didn’t matter to you, the feeling of being swept off your feet into Mikes arms instead was all you were thinking about. He pulled you close to his chest whispering how sorry he was over and over again into your hair as your head rested against his chest, listening to his rapid heartbeat. You silently basked in the feeling of his comfort you dearly missed for that lonesome week the two of you spent apart, not quite ready yet to utter the words ‘i forgive you’ and he knew that after all the hateful words he’d said.

Instead you both sat together on the bench looking out at the setting sun, content with each other presence and no words. As nightfall was falling upon the park Mike grabbed your hand “gotta get back now, Abby will be waiting” he brushed your hand with his thumb for awhile almost hesitant to say something as you waited patiently. “do you want to come?” you break out into a smile, “of course, i always want to go with you”, you reply already dragging him by the arm to the directions of his house.

His house which you knew inside had a very nervous ten year old girl who would see you both walk through the door holding hands and celebrate the most out of all of you.

~unedited~

[rivendell-poet]

*･༓˚✧❝𝐒𝐅𝐖 𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐭 - 𝐀𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐧❞‧͙⁺˚༓˚✧ « SFW Alphabet »

First time doing one of these, so hopefully you enjoy it! As always, thank you for reading. Also if you have anyone you particularly want me to do next, just ask <3 (not just from LotR, either)

Wordcount : 2.4k (only including my answers to the questions)

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?) Aragorn's very affectionate, but not often in an overly showy way. He prefers more simple gestures, like holding your hand or simply being there - next to you. There's almost always a smile on his face when he's around you, and if nothing around him is interesting he always ends up going back to you. Also, he does those hugs from behind - completely enveloping you - before whispering how much he loves you in your ear (this is generally in private however). Aragorn is a very tactile person, so being close to you (even if it's only a brief hand holding or placing his arms around your shoulders) is something he does a lot. Totally ok with being little or big spoon, and enjoys hugging/resting on and near each other in downtime.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?) Aragorn wants his partner to be someone he can spend the rest of his life with, so he would want his lover to be his best friend as well. He's also a good friend - very willing to stop what he's doing if you need any help. Prefers to spend time with his friends over most things, even if it's just sitting in silence with them. His friendships generally develop overtime with whoever he's spent enough time with; Aragorn's charismatic enough to charm most people into spending time with him.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?) Aragorn is a big fan of physical touch, and so will gladly cuddle with you. It starts with the two of you simply sitting near each other, and then he's slowly edging towards you and before long the two of you are cuddling. He's equally fine being little or big spoon, but when he's nervous or worried about you he prefers to be big spoon. If you two sleep in the same bed, he will seek you out in it and when you wake up he's somehow completely put you in his arms.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?) While he's a ranger he'd want to settle down less - most of his life is based on movement. However, when he becomes king he'll want to settle down, if only out of obligation. If he didn't need to do one or the other, he'd be happy with either option.

Aragorn is decent at food, he can make almost anything well - but nothing exceptionally. If he tries he can do decently at baking, but he's always struggled with fancier cooking. Raised by elves, he's also good at keeping places clean - he just has slightly lower standards after spending years in the wild. Low for elves, at least, better than most people. Will do it to whatever standard you set, so if you're super clean he works with you.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?) I feel Aragorn holds Elvish beliefs, so the love he commits with is the one he wants to spend all his life with - it would take a lot to make him break something off. But if it did end up happening, he'd be polite about it. Sit down and explain what was happening and why. He really would try to make it work, however.

The only exception is if you're an elf, in which case he may do a similar thing to you as he did to Arwen, but it's fairly obvious he doesn't really want to leave you. Just prove to him you're with him no matter what.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?) Aragorn believes in elvish love, so the person he falls in love with - that's the person he wants to spend the rest of their life with. Once you've been in the relationship he expects absolute commitment from both of you, although only in the sense the two of you are together. I think it would probably take two years before he's ready to ask you, although if you asked sooner he'd say yes.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?) To you, he's physically and emotionally gentle - however he does insist on teaching you how to fight/how to fire a bow (or at least the basics), and he isn't as gentle around that. He'll still make sure you aren't hurt, but he doesn't see the point in treating you like you're made in glass.

Emotionally he's always available and isn't afraid of crying in front of you or expressing emotions. He isn't going to cry at the drop of a hat, but if something is deeply affecting him he's not going to bottle it up inside. Aragorn also makes sure to know your emotions, including the little tells of anger or sadness. He might not act on them, but he keeps an eye on you.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?) Yes. As I said, he's very tactile - so yes. This man hugged an elf he didn't know very well. He'll often start with the two of you just holding hands, and when one of you has to stop he'll pull you into a quick hug before you pull away. Also will hug as a form of greeting, or a form of thanks. If the hug is brief it's just light and around the shoulders, and he tends to pull you in more. If it's one he's got time for, he'll properly place his arms around you, although it's up to you if you want to lean in. If he's taller than you he loves it when you rest your head on his chest, and he might put his head slightly overs yours as well. If you're somehow taller than him, he will 100% fully lean into you as a support.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?) Aragorn knows it for a long time before he says it, because he's aware of how big a milestone it is in a relationship. He probably saves it for a key moment in the beginning of your relationship, but if that never comes it could be more casual. He feels he's waited long enough and, at some time when you're alone and enjoying each other's company, he'll simply say 'I love you'.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?) Not a very jealous person, he’s fairly confident that you won’t leave him for anyone. He’s more annoyed if someone constantly hits on you, and will go over to make them stop - but that’s as far as it goes. He gets more jealous about friendships, honestly. If you’ve been spending a lot of time with someone and not with him he’ll try to subtly commandeer your time, but he understands you have other priorities.

If he ever truly is jealous he’ll simply go up behind you with a hug, or maybe hold your hand. A small but obvious gesture that the two of you are together. He’s also generally either in full ranger gear, or is recognised as the king, so it’s a very effective mechanism to get people to stop.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?) He likes to pepper you with lots of small, gentle kisses that are generally around the head and neck area - so light he almost isn’t touching you. If he’s properly kissing you he likes to be directly in front of you, hands holding onto you and in a hug while you kiss - he views it as very intimate.

He enjoys being properly kissed, and also being kissed around the neck (does not mind at what pressure, but does enjoy it being slightly harder as long as it doesn’t leave marks that are too obvious).

L = Little ones (How are they around children?) He’s pretty good with children in the same way he’s pretty good with everyone. They tend to like him because he’s a tall warrior with a sword, and he doesn’t mind entertaining them with stories and elvish tales. He also knows lots of obscure facts - which is always a hit.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?) Aragorn will probably wake up before you, but in case he doesn’t whenever you wake up you are always absolutely tangled in his arms. There’s a certain art to getting yourself out of them, but in the early days you often wake him up and before he’s properly alert he’ll ask you to please stay with him. And this man has a morning voice. It’s deeper, but not too a bad amount, and it generally clears up after a while - just sounds slightly husky.

He’ll eat breakfast with you but might be slightly distracted with kingly duties and reading the paperwork for the meetings he’ll need to attend that day. On the chance he doesn’t have meetings he’s much more engaged, actually making the effort to properly wake up and spending as much time as he can with you.

If you get up before him and he doesn’t have meetings he’ll often, silently, come up behind you and you won’t notice until he’s hugging you. He gets clingy while he’s still half-awake.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?) There’s less meetings going on at night, so this - and mid-day - are generally the times when he tries to spend as much time as possible with you. He’s surprisingly active, and always willing to hold a conversation. Does try to convince you to take moonlit walks with him slightly too much.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?) Depends on how personal it is. If it’s a semi-obscure but impersonal fact he’ll share it when it comes up or when it’s asked, it doesn’t really occur to him to tell you more useless facts about himself.

In terms of his heritage, it takes longer for Aragorn to open up - probably a month or three - and when he does there’s proper decorum around it, sitting you down and having a long conversation. If you were to ask him about his past on that first announcement, such as him being raised by elves, he’d answer honestly but if not he’d tell you those details later. It comes out at a reasonable pace once he’s revealed the big secret, however.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?) Always had good patience, was even more improved when he had to become king and listen to people all day. Occasionally it gets to him, but the most he’ll do is suddenly raise his voice - and he instantly apologises after, eyes ashamed and avoidant.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?) Spends time trying to commit everything to memory, but he will forget sometimes. If it’s something important that slipped his mind, or something he thinks would be nice for him to know, he does ask you transparently and you know he doesn’t do it maliciously.

R = Remember (What is their favourite moment in your relationship?) It had been a little after he’d told you about his heritage, and he had briefly taken off the ring of Barahir (for what reason he can’t remember). You’d put your ring down too, and accidentally put his on instead of yours because you weren’t paying attention. He’d watched you put it on, so casually wearing his heirloom and it looked perfect on you. It was that moment that made him realise he wanted to propose to you, and that he could see you as his queen.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?) Aragorn is very protective. He tries not to be overbearing, and generally manages it quite well, but you both know that if you wanted three armed guards around you at all times he’d be happy with it. The way he deals with it is trying to teach you to fight, so he knows you’ll never be helpless and can hold your own. If you do not already own a sword, he absolutely gets you a sword (it’s adorable how excited he is over it).

Doesn’t feel he needs protection, but whenever you do something - even if it’s just to make your presence known in a potentially dangerous situation - his heart skips a beat and he’s reminded of just how much he loves you. Also feels protected while in a hug, so would welcome that depending on the situation.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?) Tries to make sure his schedule is cleaned once a week, so he can spend time with you properly. Sometimes it can’t and he always apologies - setting up a date the second he can spare time, and leaving an extravagant gift for you on the day you were supposed to go out.

The day you two got married is an actual festival day in Gondor, so he always has the free day for you then. It’s nice to see so many people celebrate your marriage, but sometimes he wishes that it was just the two of you. That’s why he celebrates the anniversary of you two getting together so heavily, because it’s something for just the two of you and still about your love for each other.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?) Sometimes, he almost seems to forget he’s from the race of men - you’ve definitely caught him going for too long without sleep or proper food because that’s what elves do. Doesn’t mean much by it, and genuinely forgets. Whenever his family is here you tell, because he’s instantly in traditional elven garments and sometimes struggles too much trying to get himself to fit in. (Also carries his sword constantly, even in places where there should not be swords).

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?) He wants to look nice, he has high standards as he was raised by elves, but doesn’t care too much. He actually puts more effort into his appearance than he wants to, because it would ‘be unseemly for Gondor’s king to not care about his appearance’. On the days when it’s just the two of you he’s a lot more relaxed, sometimes in ranger gear.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?) It depends on if it’s before or after his coronation. Before he certainly feels there’s something missing, as he does want to love someone. It would take a long time for him to get over you - but he could feel whole with Gondor, it’s absorbing enough for him and he’s helping people while being loved.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.) Really enjoys gardening. Was overjoyed when he discovered the king’s gardens were still in good condition, and can be seen there if he’s got free time and has already spent time with you. He also 100% knows flower language, and can tell you exactly what his garden and the displays in them ‘mean’ at any given time.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?) Someone with no sense of duty or responsibility. It’s something he’s had a lot of, his entire life, and he doesn’t feel he can relate to someone without either.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?) Falls asleep very easily if in a bed, but is also very easy to awaken. Also, even if you put a pillow wall up between you (which he would be very sad about) he would somehow find a way to get over it and cuddle with you in his sleep. Genuinely doesn’t know how you keep end up getting in his arms, he will fall asleep on the other side of the bed to test this theory and somehow end up next to you.

thank you for reading *･༓˚✧ wish to be tagged?

[yallthemwitches]

Level Headed

Posting @jilytoberfest Day 27, prompt “What if it doesn’t work” “What if it does work” early because I have to catch a train at 5am and the internet can be spotty.

Hopefully this fluffy little piece will make up for the soul crushing sadness of my Day 26....

“Please Lily, be my girlfriend,” he repeats. He’s using her name as ammunition, a clear delineation that they are no longer enemies or even acquaintances. To be fair, he has every reason to: at this point he probably knows her body as well as she does. “We’ve been through this, their is just a lot—” “Yes, I remember,” he cuts in, unwavering. “--and I have deliberated all of the pros and cons. So again, we should become serious.”

AO3 Here

“I don’t appreciate being cornered like this, Potter.”

She would try to gesture around at the tiny enclosed alcove he has shoved them in, but there is hardly enough room for the both of them, much less her extended wingspan. 

“You didn’t seem to mind it the last few times we were in here.” 

She can’t see it, but she can tell he is making that face—the one that is teasing and sexy and infuriating all wrapped into one. 

“Do you plan to tell me what is so pressing that you had to pull me from potions—”

“Be my girlfriend,” he says simply, voice firm. It’s too dark for her to read his face, but something in her desperately wants to know if he’s blushing.

“James—”

“Please Lily, be my girlfriend,” he repeats. He’s using her name as ammunition, a clear delineation that they are no longer enemies or even acquaintances. To be fair, he has every reason to: at this point he probably knows her body as well as she does.

“We’ve been through this, their is just a lot—”

“Yes, I remember,” he cuts in, unwavering. “--and I have deliberated all of the pros and cons. So again, we should become serious.”

“I think you might be a little biased,” she murmurs, arms crossing around her chest. “You always have a knack for simplifying things and this–,” she makes a gesture between them, “is not exactly simple.”

“Ok Evans, hit me. Tell me one complication.”

She sighs. “Well, to start, we fight too much.”

James laughs and the jostle of his body makes their forearms graze.

“Hardly. Since we started snogging we’ve found better ways to deal with that type of energy.”

She feels her face flush but she pushes forward.

“Yeah but you can’t expect every fight to be resolved by snogging, it’s not healthy.”

“Seems better than no snogging,” he muses. She can hear a smile on his face. 

“Fine, ok number two: the whole school will go mad—it will knock off the whole ecosystem.”

“Brilliant, always wanted to be a revolutionary.”

 “James—can we please be serious,” she says, patience running thin.

“Of course—seeing as that’s exactly what I’ve been asking for.”

She scoffs, “you know that’s not what I —“

A set of arms snake around her, tugging on her waist to move closer. Eyes now adjusting to the dark, she can see that his face is unbearably close, taunting her with memories of every other more pleasurable time they have spent in the same spot.

“Think about it,” he whispers, now close at her ear, “ we can hold hands on our way to class…I’ll carry your books…make you tea while you study….give you a kiss good morning the second I see you at breakfast, until the blessed day where I don’t have to wait until breakfast— I can just roll over and kiss you because we don’t have to hide in drafty alcoves, we can just be…..”

She has always fought to not give him what he wants -–because he always gets what he wants—but he’s making a pretty compelling argument.

“You will be an arrogant arsehole,” she whispers, her last feeble attempt, hardly convincing herself. 

“Never. Not if you’re there to keep me level headed.” 

His lips ghost over hers and a hand slides up her spine to find her neck, massaging a pressure point with his thumb. She doesn’t wait for him anymore, letting their lips find each other and the world slip into a familiar, delicious haze.

“Yeah, ok,” she breathes out, barely capable of waiting until they can slot themselves together again. He kisses her with a newfound vigor, and she returns it gladly. 

“But only because we’ve never been very level-headed.”

[scrubbinn]

Mimic HRT: 19 months “Tiger & Help”

Sitting outside the auditorium doors of the THEMS support group stood Mayday. A mandatory requirement of ending her house arrest was either to speak with a therapist appointed directly by Erian, or the Hyper city government. Or to spend several sessions with a therian support group and pass a psych exam from THEMS. One of the options was a lot more pro-therian and less likely to be mocked for being inhuman than the other. And here she stood, right outside the doors that were the keys back to her life. She was several hours early and shaking like a leaf in a tornado, but she had to make a good first impression, otherwise everything would just go wrong again, just like all the other times. Did she deserve happiness if she's just going to spiral out of control again? Who wants to hear about that? It'd be the worst kind of rude to take over this meeting with her own problems. Perhaps she should just leave. She made it to the doors. And next time she'll step inside! Maybe. Hopefully. Mayday decided that for now, the best option was to leave.

As she turned away, a sharp creaking sound came from behind her as the doors opened.  “Ow…  Damn noise…  Need to get some oil or something for that…”  The voice was low, but feminine, belonging to a tall white tiger therian with long dark purple hair who was wearing dark, flowing clothing and walking with a cane.  “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there!  Do you need anything?  Were you out here waiting for someone?”

Mayday couldn’t help but jump in shock at the poor timing, Oh no, someone who could potentially relate to her problems! This is fine, just need to make smart and normal words come out of a mouth. “Yes, hello, I was standing here because I like to stand, I’ll be going now bye!” Great. Now Mayday has to flee not only in fear but in embarrassment as well.

“Oh, um, alright.  Are you sure you don’t need anything?”  The tiger therian was confused by the awkward reply, but wasn’t pursuing Mayday.  “Our doors are always open.”

This was her chance, this is her moment, she could leave now if she just kept walking, just say thank you and leave, that’s all she had to do. “I’m here for the support group.”

Oops.

“Oh, yes, of course!”  The tiger gave a grin; it was difficult to tell with her feline face whether it was meant to be kind or predatory.  “I’m afraid you’re a few hours early for the scheduled meet-up, but if there’s something on your mind, I’m available until then, or you could just come in and sit down if you like.”

“Um. Yeah, thank you. I’m… well I’m a bit nervous. I don’t.” Oh of all the times to suddenly get a frog in her throat why now. Ugh! If this goes on she’s going to think Mayday’s a weirdo! Ok, just calm down. Just relax and calm yourself Mayday. “Sorry, it’s been a bad past couple of months. I sort of spent a lot of it dealing with legal battles and lawyers explaining the dumbest concepts to me. Not that I’m a criminal! Just, well you might have heard about an incident and while back. About a bite.”

The tiger looked thoughtful for a moment.  “...I do seem to recall something like that in the news.  A… mimic otherkin, if I’m remembering right?”  She gave a look of sympathy.  “If that was you, then… I’m sorry.  It must have been terrible.”  She stepped to the side, holding the door open invitingly.  “Would you like to come in and talk?  Maybe have something to drink or snack on?”

“No snacks please, I’m not very hungry.” Mayday couldn’t help but view the room as massive. Simultaneously so much larger than herself yet bearing down on her in a claustrophobic death grip. “Being a mimic has been a lot more troubling than I thought it would be. I don’t just mean the recent events. I didn’t even originally want to be a mimic. I was taking what I thought was a slime HRT. I sort of just hoped it would end with spending most days sitting around not having to worry about a single thing in the world. Turns out no matter what, I’m still stuck in a human society.”

The tiger silently listened, concern spreading across her face.  At the end of Mayday’s explanation, she gave a solemn nod.  “That can be the hardest thing to accept about humanity removal.  It’s easier than ever to change our selves, it’s a whole lot harder to change the world around us.  You also aren’t the only case I’ve heard of where someone wasn’t getting the treatment they thought they were.  It’s… a bit scary, how much of a crapshoot humanity removal can be.”  She angled her head towards the room.  “Let’s at least get you sitting somewhere comfy.  I’m Alexis, by the way.  Resource Coordinator for THEMS.”

Mayday simply stood in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do or how to not stand out like a sore thumb. She looks around, trying to imagine this place, full of other therians and otherkin just like her. It's a pleasant image, but one she quickly shoos away. This isn't a good time to imagine pleasantries. “Others getting screwed over like me huh? I can only imagine what kind of messed up junk Erian has pulled on other people. I assume it's Erian at least. He's the only actual provider I know of.” Oh stars, this is the resource coordinator for THEMS. How do you talk to someone so important? “So, could I ask you a question? If that's ok.”

Alexis followed her in, and took a seat on a cushioned chair nearby.  “Yeah, it’s usually Theo-...  Usually Erian connected to the sketchier stuff.  I swear that man would be buried under lawsuits if he didn’t make us all sign stacks of liability waivers.  There ARE other providers now though, we keep a list of all the ones we’ve personally checked out so we can hand them out to anyone who needs one.  Oh, and go ahead.  Ask anything you like.”

“Well, I. How do I phrase this? Recently I made a decision to stay the way I am. Erian gave the whole crossroads talk after I already passed it. It’s caused problems, well you’ve already heard about it. I think a lot more like a mimic than a human, and I don’t know if that means I get to exist in human society anymore. I don’t want to go to a zoo, or get adopted by a friend. I want to live the life I had before. But I don’t think that’s possible anymore. I never thought about it before but what the heck do therians do to live among humans? What am I doing wrong? …Ok. Look, I understand our existence isn’t cursed, or wrong, or disgusting. But sometimes I hear people attack me so much now that I sometimes end up believing them. Maybe they’re right, why should they let a dangerous monster walk around next to them… Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that! I shouldn’t drop something that heavy on you. Oh universe, stupid Mayday, stupid! I’m sorry, I can leave.”

“Please don’t leave.”  Alexis held up a paw, trying to get Mayday to calm down, and breathe.  “It sounds like you have a lot to sort out, like you need someone who gets it, and believe me, I do get it.”  Her eyes fell downward, a regretful look on her face.  “You aren’t the only one who… lost control, and hurt someone.  I hadn’t even reached the crossroads yet at the time...”  She sat forward, leaning on her cane, and spoke softly, calmly.  “I’ve got a lot of opinions about the crossroads, I won’t get into it unless you want to hear them, but the point is that as big a deal as Erian makes it out to be, the crossroads isn’t a hard line.  It’s not ‘you must be this human to participate in society’.  You aren’t a monster, Mayday.  You’ve just got a new set of instincts that you’re not used to, and it’s going to take some time and effort to learn to live with them.  We can definitely help you with that.”

“I’m sorry, you’re right.” Mayday takes the time to practice her breathing and moves to find a seat. It’s obvious to anyone that she’s shaking even more now. It’s taking all her mental energy to move one limb forward at a time. “I sort of. Well I kinda figured the crossroads for me was a little, I guess blurry. I lost all my memories around, I think, more than half a year ago. It’s been tough adjusting to life after that. How do you figure out who you are during the biggest change of your life, the only change you’ve ever experienced. Figuring out if I’m Mayday or someone else has been something I keep putting off, and every time I think about it, I just… stop thinking about it. It’s been a tough half a year living in Hyper city, and moving back to my original home feels like an impossibility. I guess I just want to know if it does get easier. When the treatment is over, does everything just end up working out?”

Alexis took a long pause, thinking back on all of her own experiences, considering her next words carefully.  “The truth is, things very rarely ‘just work out’.  But… that’s just as true for anyone, human or therian.  I can’t say I understand what it’s like to lose all of your memories like that, but I’ve had a few identity crises in my time, and the way I’ve found to deal with them is, well… to let yourself exist as you are.  Let yourself exist as Mayday, let ‘home’ be where you feel comfortable being.  You are who and where you are right now, and that’s enough.  You are enough.”  She offered a reassuring smile.  “And to answer your other question, yes.  It does get easier.  Some days are worse than others, and sometimes it’s so slow you don’t even notice it, but eventually you look back at how far you’ve come, and you notice how much stronger you are.”

“That… It helps to hear that. Thank you. Like, sincerely, thank you. I feel like lately I keep learning this same lesson over and over again and every time I think I understand it, something new hits me like a speeding truck and I need to relearn everything again. It’s been rough.” Mayday’s shaking seems to slow and calm a little. She slows her breathing to a normal pace. “I have people here to help at least. Despite nearly killing her. My partner and even her family have been way, way too understanding of the situation. The kind of understanding that you can’t help feeling more guilty about heh heh. But there’s been other people too who keep reaffirming my choices. It’s so weird how quickly I’ve been making friends with total strangers. Funny story, I lived in the apartment system here for. Well I think since I first lost my memories, and I only recently learned about the support group from one of the previous attendees. I think her name was Aria. She seemed nice, if a little… spacy. Sorry, that's probably rude to say.”

Alexis continued paying close attention throughout, allowing Mayday to say whatever she needed to, but when she mentioned someone named Aria, Alexis’ expression immediately shifted to one of concern, perhaps even alarm.  “...Aria?  Couldn’t be…  Unless…”  Alexis seemed to suddenly remember where she was, and what she was doing.  “I-I’m sorry, that was rude of me…  I’m…  I’m glad you’re finding those connections with people, and it sounds like you’ve found someone very kind and forgiving for a partner.  It’s… understandable, to feel guilty, but if they’re forgiving towards you, it’s because they want to be.”  She seemed a little more awkward now, as if some of her thoughts were somewhere else.

Several eyes open around Mayday's body and head at the sudden stutter. Mayday's face of worry turns to one more of curiosity and cautiousness. “Is Aria not someone I should have brought up? Did you know her well or. Is this about that zoo place?” Mayday can't help but show a flash of fear across her face. Immediately anxious about prying into what is probably such a delicate topic.

“No, no, it’s not a bad thing!”  Alexis was quick to answer.  “You…  You might have just given me something I’ve been looking for, actually…”  She paused.  "It's... a long shot, but I have to ask, or I'm going to regret it.  The 'Aria' you met...  was she a lamia otherkin?  Blue scales, dark hair, yellow eyes?  And…  And you said she was at a zoo??”

An idea, no, an out. I mean sure Mayday is here to discuss her own problems and find a solution, but is that really true? Every time she's found happiness it's been ripped right out. Happiness is something she's just not allowed to have, right? At least that's how that new brain sees it. All she has to do is strike. “Yeah that sounds like Aria. I tried visiting the zoo again to see her, but after she ran away from her guards at the aquarium, I guess they had her somewhere else away from the public. It's honestly been long enough that I don't even know if she goes by Aria. She could barely remember this place to begin with.”

Alexis slumped in her seat, letting out a breath of relief.  "I feel like I owe you an explanation...  Aria was part of the online chat server that eventually grew into this support group, back before we found a home with THEMS.  She's actually the one who invited me to the server, back during my own species transition.  I probably wouldn't be a part of THEMS at all without her."  Her hands and voice were beginning to tremble.  "But... a while back, she disappeared.  She…  She left a message saying she was taking the crossroads, and said goodbye."  Tears began to well up in the tiger's eyes.  "I moved to Hyper City partly to try to find her, but I'd...  I'd almost given up on ever seeing her again."  Her eyes pinched shut.  “If she’s losing her memories, it might already be too late, but…  I have to try to see her.”  She opened her eyes again, giving Mayday a look of sadness, but gratitude.  “Thank you.  Thank you for giving me this.”

Mayday just looks horrified. She runs forward and takes Alexis's hands into her own. “I didn't mean to make you cry! I'm so sorry, I, well I'm glad I could help. Are you going to be ok? I didn't realize how big this was for you. Now I just feel like a jerk trying to pivot away to something I don't know anything about. I'll make it up to you somehow!” Mayday notices a mouth of hers slowly creeping towards her hands and pulls herself away before another bite incident can occur. “Oh, uh, sorry, I shouldn't get close to people when my emotions are too high.”

Alexis couldn’t help but smile at Mayday’s genuineness.  “Yes, I’m going to be okay, thank you!”  Alexis reaches up with a paw and wipes away a tear.  “You don’t need to make anything up to me, we’re here to help you, remember?  But if you really want to do something for me, just don’t forget to show up to the group later, okay?  You can participate as much or as little as you like, but I think it’ll do good for you.  It’ll help your instincts get used to being around people, too, so hopefully soon you won’t have to worry about your emotions running high.  You can also leave at any time if it gets to be too much, I promise nobody’s going to judge you for it.”

“Huh- Oh! Right! Yeah, that's why I came here, haha. Didn't expect things would get so emotional on the first day. Well before the first day I guess. It feels weird to think about how terrifying it'll be to join, but it's also weirdly exciting. I guess talking with someone really can help clear the head. It's nice of you to say all those things, and I'm sure I'll find what I need here, and if it's not too intrusive, I can let you know the next time I'll be trying to visit Aria if you want to tag along. Uh, but for now, I can help set things up for the group since I'm here so early anyways.”

“I think I’d really like that, going out with a new friend to meet up with an old one.”  Putting some of her weight on her cane, the white tiger got to her feet.  “And since you’re offering, I could use some help getting the furniture set up…  Leg’s not what it used to be, after my own ��incident’.”

“Of course! I’ll make sure this place is perfect for everyone! I’m going to do my absolute best to support others in this group, just you watch! Wait hold on, where are the chairs? Um, how do I arrange everything? Uhhh, I guess we’ll just take it one step at a time.”

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Hey y'all, Navi here! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I mentioned in the 17th month chapter how much of an inspiration @tigergirltail is and so we got the chance to write a collaboration story. You have no idea how much fun it was to write this chapter, and at this point I've almost completed the next chapter because Tigergirltail is too good at filling our brain with ideas. So thank you again for being so amazing, writing this collab with us, and for writing your own amazing series.

And thank you to everyone who read this chapter. Here's hoping the inspiration train keeps pushing along and maybe I'll have the next chapter out by Sunday/Monday. See you there.

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Mention list: @a-shramp, @calliecwrites, @be702, @respectfulevil, @hyacinthdoll1315

@aster-is-confused, @bloodandbrandywyne, @glitchgloop, @nyxthewary, @lunadook

[lizard-on-a-window-pane]

Could you a James Potter x reader fluff thank you so much

hope you like it!

pairing: James Potter x reader 

tags: fluff, first date 

word count: 2.3k

The Best Worst First Date

“Do you want to go out? Maybe tomorrow?” There. He said it. He couldn’t believe he said it. It had been weighing on him so heavily for so long; there’s no way he had actually asked. He probably just imagined it like he had a million times already.

“Sure!” you respond. 

Okay, way too easy, definitely imagined it. 

“Is there anything in particular you were thinking? I know Remus has been talking about that new restaurant.” 

Dinner! Great, he could take you to dinner. 

“Although, I know Sirius wasn’t super excited by the menu, so we should probably choose something everyone wants.” 

Wait, what?

“Sirius?” 

“Yeah. What? Is he busy tomorrow or something? Just us and Rem and Lily then?”

Oh, god. No wonder. How could he possibly clarify without loads of awkwardness? Maybe he should just forget it, go out with all his friends like every other weekend, you included. Or… or… “No, Sirius isn’t busy.” “Oh.” “As far as I know, anyway. I dunno, maybe he is.” Fuck, not relevant, not relevant. 

“Ok?” “But, uh, I actually meant maybe, you know, not just us and Rem and Lily, but just… just us.” A beat. “If you fancy it!” God, too loud, shit. Had he ever had any game? or does he just lose it any time you’re around?

“Oh.”

“Yeah…”

“Sure,” softer this time. Unsure? But you smile your adorable smile, the subtle one where your lips go more sideways than up and your eyes sparkle a little, though he almost misses that as you look down. 

“Yeah?” hopeful, bright. “Yeah,” certain, warm. 

“Brilliant.” 

You’re not sure what to wear. James didn’t tell you what you were doing on your date. It is a date, right? That word never came up, now that you think about it (although, let’s be honest, it’s all you’ve been thinking about since yesterday; you’ve run it over and over in your mind about a million and a half times). But he wanted it to just be you and him. Sounds like a date. Right?

You try on all your favorite clothes, even a few you think might surprise you. Nothing feels quite right, but you opt for staying yourself, just yourself a little done up.

You’re considering changing or putting on more make up or perhaps spontaneously combusting when James knocks.

You run over, take a deep breath, and open the door to the most handsome man you’ve ever met. “Ready?” he asks. “You look lovely. You always do though.” It’s cheesy, but coming from him, and with that melting sincerity, it makes you feel warm and loved. 

“Thanks, Jamie. You look lovely too.” 

He blushes and smiles, adjusts his glasses, and leads you out.

He had it all planned. An early dinner first, a walk in your favourite park next, then seeing that new film you’d talked about excitedly last week. A bit typical, but hey, hopefully classic is classic for a reason. 

He’d spent hours debating the right restaurant to take you to. He opted for somewhere that advertised itself as an intimate space with a home-cooked menu. Sounded wholesome. And romantic, hopefully. 

You walk in to the restaurant, and his stomach drops. It’s not “intimate.” It’s tiny. And not in an exclusive way, or a cute way, or just a tiny way. It’s tiny in a dingy way, and he cringes as you struggle to get across the small space when the appearance of a waiter — a common occurrence at a restaurant, you’d think — fills the cramped space between tables too much for you to be able to get past without some awkward squeezing.

He’s grateful when you finally sit down… until your chair creaks and leaves you sitting lopsided. It gets a bit - just a bit - less mortifying when you laugh, seemingly actually amused at the situation. James chuckles with you.

“Shit, I’m so sorry, love. Um, excuse me? Can we get a different chair here please?” “Thanks,” you laugh. 

You get a new chair, with plenty more awkward squeezing due to size constraints, but all seems to be going smoothly after that. You chat, you laugh, you order. 

Just as James is settling in, thinking maybe this place isn’t so bad, though, the food arrives. And he wants to go bury himself in a pile of blankets at home and never face the outside world - let alone you — again. 

It looks terrible. Terrible is a compliment actually. It looks downright inedible. “Home-made”? More like rubbish-rummaged.

“Uh…” you hold up a bit of it with your fork but plop it right back down. You laugh again, but this time James doesn’t join you. “Would you think I’m a terrible person if I don’t eat any of this and they have to take it back as is?” you ask, half joking. “No, no. I mean, it’s not great, but god, what’s the alternative?” He sticks his fork in his food, and the texture reminds him of 80’s horror movie special effects. 

“I dunno? Food poisoning?” you respond conspiratorially. He can’t help but chuckle with you. 

You fill up a bit on the stale bread, make a lame excuse about being in a rush, pay and start to leave. “I was thinking we could for a walk now? If you fancy it. That park you always talk about isn’t far from here, right?” That was a main consideration in choosing this crap restaurant, and he hopes it makes it worth it. 

“Right! Sounds great,” you smile at him. 

You squeeze past another unlucky couple heading into the restaurant and head out… into a cold drizzly evening. God, this had to be a cruel joke from the universe. It had been sunny just this afternoon. 

James looks over at you and catches you tugging your jumper sleeves down and bundling into it as best as possible. He thinks of proposing a different plan, but he can’t for the life of him think of something else to do from how nervous he is. What do people do?? The movie isn’t for a while. You don’t say anything either, though, so he just smiles and turns toward the park. He takes a chance and puts his arm around you — a new thing for the two of you — and rubs your shoulders to warm you up. It definitely helps warm you up, for more reasons than mere body heat. You lean into him, and he can’t help but think that maybe this isn’t so bad. As he does, an icy gust of wind freezes his face and hands. 

You trudge through to the park, getting only a bit damp but very cold. The park looks absolutely lovely in the wintry weather, but you’re more than a bit uncomfortable from the cold. You try to make conversation, especially because James looks stunned into silence, and you can tell he feels responsible for bad weather of all things. You can’t get more than a couple words out, though, from how hard your teeth start chattering. 

It’s cartoonish, and it makes you laugh. James looks down at you as if you’ve gone mad, but at the sight of your laughing face, his stressed demeanor melts into deep laughter. 

You’re still on the edge of the park, and at another gust of wind, you take his hand and pull him over to the small lane alongside it. 

There’s a little shop there, and you pop in to see if there is a nice scarf, hat, mittens, anything really that might help. Others may have had the same idea, though, because there is only one scarf left, and it’s pretty horrendous. The patterns don’t match, and it looks more like a costume piece than anything else. But it also feels very warm… 

James catches you eyeing it, and resting his hand on your lower back, asks, “You like it? I can get it for you if you want. It’s the least I can do,” he half laugh half grumbles. 

“After what? You’ve not done anything wrong,” you say gently. “Well, I dunno. It was my brilliant idea to go walking in this welcoming weather,” he responds sardonically. You don’t know how to comfort him, so you just bump him with your shoulder playfully, shaking your head at him that it was no big deal. The scarf is horrible, but you are cold, so you pick it up. He takes it to the counter and buys it for you.

When he comes back over, your cheeks warm up dramatically, not from the warm shop, but from his wrapping it around your neck gently and carefully, his face scrunched up in an adorable and adoring concentration. 

“Thanks,” you whisper. He just smiles. 

You kill time looking around from establishment to establishment, and when the movie is near enough, James tells you you should head to the next part of the night. You follow him excitedly. As you near the cinema, your anticipation builds, expecting what the next activity is. You remember talking animatedly about this new film, and wrap your arm around James in a loving half hug, overcome with affection at how he always pays attention to and remembers what you say to him. 

He reciprocates, squeezing tight and kissing the top of your head as you walk on. You’re surprised at how natural this all feels, all these new gestures between the two of you that just feel so right, exciting and comforting at once. 

Lost in your thoughts, you’re confused and worried when James goes stiff beside you, stopping dead in his tracks. Looking up at him, you see his face paling, his eyes wide as he looks ahead. You follow his gaze to see the big “sold out” sign splattered on top of the new movie title. “Fuck,” you hear beside you. “Fucking hell,” a bit louder. He turns toward you, stress all over his lovely features. “I’m so sorry, love. I didn’t think to get tickets ahead of time. I’m such an idiot; I can’t believe I didn’t think of it; of course there was a good chance it would sell out; and if I’d brought you earlier instead of just killing time,” spills out of his mouth at top speed. “Hey, hey, hey, it’s alright, really, it’s fine,” you try to stop him. You rub his shoulder comfortingly. 

He tilts his head back and groans. 

“I can’t believe how royally I’ve fucked this up. I finally work up the courage, and then this is what I deliver? God, I wouldn’t blame you for regretting this.” 

“I don’t regret this,” you say very seriously. His eyes meet yours and linger there. “You don’t?” he asks hopefully.

“Not even a tiny bit. Of course I don’t. It didn’t matter what we did, James; of course it didn’t. The worst restaurant, the ugliest scarf, no movie - none of this matters one bit as long as we get to experience it together,” you utter warmly, chuckling at your luck. “Shit, the scarf is ugly?” he asks aghast. “I was thinking it was about the only thing that had gone right tonight!” 

You’re laughing hard at his horrified expression, and you have to wipe a tear from your eye as you tell him you love it. 

“You just said it was horrible,” he challenges, but he’s failing to hold back his smile. “It is. Horrendous, really. But I love it. Because you gave it to me. And I’m going to treasure it always as a reminder of our first date.”

He playfully tugs on it, now fully smiling down on you. “Yeah? You want to remember this? Inedible food, freezing weather, not seeing the movie?” “Yup. Every second of it. I want to remember inedible food and the hilarious face you made when you stuck your fork in it, freezing weather and how much warmer I felt with your arm around me, not seeing the movie and having our first kiss outside the cinema instead…” Your voice is soft by the end, your nerves overpowering your hopes. 

His face grows serious, and he takes a step closer to you. His hand comes up to caress your cheek gently, and you lean into it. “That doesn’t sound too bad,” he whispers, smiling softly, his face nearer yours than it has ever been. 

You bite your lower lip in anticipation, and his eyes shoot down to it. You both inch closer, and your foreheads meet, and he bumps his nose with yours. It makes you smile, and a moment later, you are smiling into his kiss. 

His lips are cold and a bit chapped from the cold, but they feel perfect against yours. His other hand comes up to the other side of your face, and he cups it gently as his mouth explores yours slowly. You tilt your head one way, then the other, following his movements. He sucks on your lip, and you chuckle in response, moving your hands from his shoulders to around his neck, holding him closer. 

He pulls back a bit, gazing into your eyes, smiling, but as he goes to keep kissing you, your stomach grumbles loudly. 

“Oh, god,” you say, embarrassed, hiding your face in his chest. 

You’re worried his stress at the planning fiasco is going to return, but you feel him laughing against you, and the warmth of it fills you with a happy ease you know you’ll keep craving. 

“What do you say we get some take-away then watch a movie at mine? Won’t be as glamorous, but I can promise plenty of blankets and shared body warmth,” he says, still caressing your cheek. 

You lean forward, kissing him gently but lingeringly. 

“Sounds absolutely perfect.”

[sasuhinasno1fan]

When your boyfriend is a hero - Lukitty Week Day 2 2024

I had gotten distracted, but I did it. So, we've seen the episodes where Chat Noir has to be around Marinette, unknowing that she knows kitty better than he thinks. I did that, but with Luka. Reminder that this is set in the Wish universe where Luka is Scarlet Bug. Adrien has recently been given the cat miraculous and calls himself Bast Luck. Hopefully this still counts. It's still Adrien, he's just using a different name. @lukacouffaineappreciation Luka & Chat Noir (or in this case Bast Luck)

Luka knew this would have happened eventually. Getting sick from all the overworking. University classes weren’t bad, since he was doing a reduced schedule after getting extra classes done during summer break. It was just, Bob Roth decided that Kitty Section had to start their contract fully as school started for everyone involved and since the group wasn’t budging on those who helped them behind the scenes, most of the class was busy. Luka also knew a number of them would be out chasing akumas, thanks to the odd increase during the summer. Kagami had mostly spent it staying with Adrien, as her family was hosting Lila back from Japan, as she refused to return home and was apparently pitching a fit at the idea of staying at her new boarding school for the whole summer.

Akumas had been low for the summer, which was a blessing. With Su-Han taking over most of the Guardian tasks, Luka had actually gotten a break to go with Adrien to visit his family in Italy. The time there had been the subject of his first written piece for his songwriting class. Apparently, his classmates were a fan of the happy and in love emotions they got from the lyrics. Adrien used the recording as his new ringtone.

Anyway, now school had started back up and all the French heroes were busy thanks to Hawkmoth or Scarletmoth, who was showing up more and more. that added with Bob Roth’s brilliant plan to overload kids just starting new phases in their life and you ended up with Luka passing out in the middle of writing an essay so suddenly, Tikki freaked out and risked being seen to go find Juleka. Their mom was working in the middle of the French Riveria, and was ready to try and come back. Only, her current contract had actually been for charting the moving catwalk for a Fashion Week event, which turned out to be an unasked favour Jagged was doing for her. The pay check would set them up for their mom being able to stay around for a while, which they wanted, so Luka told his mom to stay put. Online classes were still done, but it did involve needing to replay recorded lectures over and set up a word document to text-to-speech live classes. Lying in bed meant he had time to work on assignments when the cold hadn’t muddled his mind. Tikki tried helping him speed along in healing, but like Plagg’s bad luck powers were a bit unpredictable, Tikki’s good luck powers were precise. She’d end up making him feel warm after shivering rather than break his fever. He appreciated the help non the less.

He was dozing off to the sounds of a book series Marc had recommended, an older one about fairies, their changeling warriors and the hidden princess of both Seelie and Unseelie courts, when the words about a war horse hiding behind long hair and beads was interrupted by the sound for an akuma attack warning. There had been one other attack during his illness and he almost ended up passing out before the fight even started. Bast Luck had to be the one to come up with a plan with his him, Scarlet Bug, Tigresse Poupre and Venom. He did well, but Luka didn’t want to place any of that stress on the others, not when they weren’t ready.

But moving…

After the noise from the notice stopped when he acknowledged it, the story started to continue only to be interrupted again by Juleka calling him.

“I don’t want you anywhere near that fight but you’re also the only one to get the akuma and make the charm, so listen ok? This is the plan.”

______________

Adrien wanted to throttle Hawkmoth on a daily bases but today was extra desirable because Luka was sick, nonna had sent the recipe for her miracle soup for her favourite devil boy and instead of making a pot to drop off to the liberty – between homework, cosplay pattern making and trying to word an email to Roth for the pictures he was promised for Kitty Section socials – he was here, actually dealing with an akumatized XY. The DJ was jealous of the popularity Kitty Section was getting and was taking it out on his father. word of targeting the band only just came up thanks to the balding yapping dog throwing them under the bus.

“I think I should go look after Luka.” Adrien suggested, while the group of them sat crouched behind an XY billboard. It was the only thing the overgrown baby wouldn’t try and destroy. “The guitar player? He’s like the true leader right?”

“Only cause he’s older. Rose is the front man.” Tigresse said before shaking her head. “I can take care of him, or better yet, get Scarlet to look after him.”

Adrien wanted to point out that Rose was less likely to be targeted because XY seemed to forget she existed half the time but Vixen interrupted him. “Where is Scarlet anyway? I asked that like 4 times already.”

Tarasq spoke from his collar. “He’s the only one who can get the akuma, unless you know of some other way?”

“I think having the person capable of destroying the item with the main person targeted is a better idea.” Adrien interrupted, trying to get their co-leader to listen to him.

“Why not focus on Adrien Rossi? He’s gone up against XY.” Tigresse reminded.

“He was also akumatized and stole XY’s voice after insulting him. I think he’ll be fine.”

“Does that mean the drummer is fine? I mean, he was the first akuma and he’s big.” Venom asked.

“Ok, but what about Juleka and Rose? Juleka is Luka’s sister and like you said, Rose is the front man. Shouldn’t we go after them?” Tarasq asked.

“Couffaine!” the akumatized XY screamed. “Show yourself, you fucking blueberry!”

Bast Luck gave Tigresse a look that screamed ‘see?’

“Ok, fine. Bast Luck, you go protect Luka. I’ll take care of Rose and Juleka. Venom, you keep an eye on Ivan. You two,” she pointed to Vixen and Tarasq, keep him distracted. I’ve got a plan, but it’s not gonna work if he has hostages or keep making a mess.”

“At least the ScarCat program will get to be used if Scarlet Bug doesn’t show up.” Vixen said, nodding to Tarasq. “Come on. think you can play keep away with a fake guitar player?”

Adrien didn’t wait much longer for Tigresse’s instructions, heading towards the Liberty. Last he heard, Luka was going to try and work on assignments, maybe sleep for as long as he could. Adrien knew his relationship with Luka was public knowledge, so he wondered if XY would go to Adrien’s house looking for Luka. the DJ was an idiot, so maybe they could luck out. how he was going to explain Adrien being missing, he didn’t know, but maybe he could expose his old Cat persona’s identity. But that might make the older one not trust him if he was willing to give out secrets so easily.

He reached the Liberty, confused when he saw Kagami’s red car and Luka getting into it. He didn’t feel bad jumping down onto the hood like Black Panther, just that the shaking startled them so bad it sent Luka into a coughing fit.

Kagami opened the sun roof, so he didn’t feel bad putting his boots all over the windshield, ignoring the computer’s voice about something being on it. “What are you doing?”

“I’d like to ask you that. My mother might be blind, but she will know if there’s a dent in the car. This thing senses everything that goes wrong with it and gives a report.” Kagami said, looking annoyed.

“Luka is being hunted by XY and he’s climbing into a car with you. I’m allowed to be concerned. Also, the city can pay for any damages Scarlet Bug can’t fix.” Adrien said, ignoring his friend to focus on his boyfriend.

Luka finally caught his breath, his eyes glassy but still looking determined. “My boyfriend’s place, I was going to go there, but Kagami’s house has better protection. We’re going over to Adrien’s apartment now to get him. My sister is with her girlfriend and Prince Ali at Le Grand Paris. I don’t know where Ivan is, but he texted that he’s ok.”

He was going to have to text the accurate locations to the others, but first… “Don’t you think XY knows about your boyfriend? Isn’t he a diplomates’ son? The Embassies have the same standard protection as things like the Mayor’s office.”

Adrien didn’t know why, but Luka got this look in his eye. he normally got it when he was keeping a secret from Adrien for a surprise.

“I’d rather just be with him. I’d feel better if I knew he was safe.”

That was so sweet. And so not helpful. Adrien wasn’t home as he was currently staring at his boyfriend, trying not to get red.

And why the hell was Luka smiling at him like that?

“I’ll bring him. Adrien. You just go to Kagami’s house and I’ll make sure Adrien gets there safe.”

“Really? See, I’ll always be a fan of Catseye but I think this is one of the reasons I love you Bast Luck.” Luka said, resting his chin on the drivers’ seat as he stared up at him, giving him the soft smile Luka gave him when he thought Adrien was being cute.

Ok, time to go. Adrien was never approaching his boyfriend as a hero ever again. Luka wasn’t even flirting, not doing a single thing that could be considered that and Adrien was nearly a mess from a few comments and looks.

_____________________

Luka felt a little bad making his boyfriend confused. He knew Kagami was going to get pulled in to fight since he and Juleka had to disappear to appear as themselves to keep XY on his toes. He had expected after Despera, Adrien wouldn’t want to split up – he had actually come to Kagami’s place, excuse that Bast Luck had to disappear to get back to the battle – but Juleka probably gave him some insistent demand that he needed to be there. As far as Adrien was aware, he’d left his boyfriend to rest inside the Tsurugi movie room while he took a while to get tea and get lost. While they were both gone and the house was empty thanks to Kagami’s mother being at the Japanese Embassy for some event or meeting, Luka was able to sneak back out onto the street. if everything was going well, Bast Luck should have XY’s item in hand with a Cataclysm and Scarlet Bug was going to show up to catch the akuma, before it spawned more.

The area by the fight was quiet except for XY’s yelling and the rumbling of buildings. He stopped by the front stoop of a building, trying to catch his breath. His hoodie was making him hot and the fuzzy pants was a choice but just a few more minutes and he could actually go back to bed.

“What are you doing here?”

Luka turned to see Bast Luck extending down on his staff.

Shit.

“Shouldn’t you be fighting?”

“Shouldn’t you be at Kagami’s house? I dropped off Adrien like I promised.”

“There you are, you blueberry!”

Fucking hell. XY, in all his weird, cheap Daft Punk look managed to get away and landed practically right on top of him. Luka spotted his sister, dress in her purple suit, looking panicked. Everything moved at once, XY screaming in anger, Bast Luck jumping towards them both, Tigresse yelling something and then the whole world spinning. Luka had to close his eyes to not be ill, only opening his eyes at the sound of Bast Luck’s staff. He was in Bast Luck’s arms, watching Ryuoko and Tigresse attack XY, rather violently. Kagami didn’t like XY and well, he’d do the same if the DJ tried attacking his sister out of costume.

The two landed on a roof a decent distance away and Luka felt worse at the worried look on Adrien’s face. “Are you ok? He didn’t get you did he?”

“No, no. I’m fine. thank you for saving me.”

Bast Luck looked annoyed, which, fair. “I wouldn’t need to if you stayed inside. You knew he was looking for you.”

“I know. I just…got worried he’d go after everyone else to get to me. I’m not exactly his favourite person.”

“I don’t think your boyfriend will exactly be happy with you when he hears about this.”

Luka knew that but if they wanted to end this now, Bast Luck had to get back to the fight. “He’ll be less thrilled if he finds out Team Miraculous couldn’t destroy the akuma in time.”

“Ah!. Ok, stay here! I’ll take you back myself ok?”

Tikki poked her head out when Bast Luck joined in attacking XY. “Poor Adrien. He’s gonna have a heart attack if Juleka can’t keep him busy so you can get back here. I’ve had some crazy experiences where holders don’t know everyone’s identity, but this had to be the most convoluted plan ever. You do plan on telling him right?”

“I will, just not right now. Once Su Han is more established as Guardian. Besides, it’s kinda cute watching your superhero boyfriend try not to overly panic when his supposedly civilian boyfriend is in trouble.”

Tikki sighed. “And here I thought my Egyptian holder trying to hide this from Anthony was bad enough.”

______________

Adrien found Luka curled up on one of the reclining chairs Bast Luck had left him in. It was weird finding out he could easily lift his boyfriend when sporting cat ears, since he was so used to feeling Luka’s weight whenever he laid on him. Seeing him out in the streets, seconds before XY spotted him took years off his life. Scarlet Bug had really crap timing, taking so long, but thankfully Luka didn’t try any other crazy self-sacrificing ideas and was waiting on the roof after Tigresse insisted on talking to the whole team while Scarlet Bug disappeared after fixing everything and shoving an anti-akumatization charm at XY.

“Hey. Time is it?” Luka asked, blinking tiredly at him. He had seemed pretty exhausted when Bast Luck brought him back to Kagami’s house. As much as Adrien wanted to call him out, Adrien had been in the kitchen for 30 minutes getting tea, not fighting an akuma who was after him, his boyfriend and the rest of their band because he got jealous of the attention. As far as Adrien knew, Luka stay right there in his seat, not at all whisked away and scolded by a hero with cat ears.

“Not long. how you feeling? I was going to start making soup when Bast Luck came to get me. You do know it probably would have been safer to stay separated right?” Adrien said, putting the mug down on the flat armrest and managing to snuggle in with Luka on the chair, letting the older boy use his lap as a pillow.

“Juleka was with Rose. Besides, you can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy being whisked away by a hero.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “I’ve met Scarlet Bug, twice in a situation where I could talk to him. Wasn’t that big a deal.”

Luka gave this sleepy smile. “I don’t know. I think I really like Bast Luck. He was very nice. Cute too, up close.” Adrien cleared his throat, not annoyed at the comment but he had to keep the lie up. “but you’re cuter.”

Adrien ran his hands through Luka’s hair. “Go to sleep. Trust me, when you wake up, you won’t even think Bast Luck is cuter than me.” Not if he had anything to say about it. he was not about to compete with his hero persona for his boyfriend’s attention.

Now only if he’d caught the smile Luka wore when he was teasing Adrien with information he already knew, maybe it would have started to click for the Italian boy, but for now, the secrets of Scarlet Bug and Bast Luck stayed where they were.

[hrtiu]

omg happy birthday!🥳 I hope you're having an amazing day with lots of sunshine, tasty food and happiness.

If you're feeling inspired can you write some domestic bliss with foxiyo? I'm thinking maybe when they're both old(er?) since that's something rarely explored (at least as far as I've seen). Idk I just think they'd be that cute elderly couple yk 😭

Thanks for the prompt and the birthday wishes! Sorry I wasn't able to finish it right away, but hey. I haven't written any fic in months so this is still pretty good for me??

I haven't really edited this so... hopefully it's ok???

Riyo Chuchi could not sleep.

She stared up at the dim, roughly-textured ceiling and blew out a breath. There was a time when she’d work herself so hard every day that she could barely keep her eyes open long enough to fall into bed rather than on the floor. And now she regularly found herself waking up in the wee hours of the morning, her body tired and aching but her mind stubbornly and insistently awake.

She rolled over onto her side and sighed. No, this position wasn’t any better. She felt no less restless, no less stretched thin by unwilling wakefulness. Across the bed from her, Fox’s broad back slowly expanded with a deep inhale. Riyo smiled to herself. At least the view was better on her side.

After another half hour of staring at Fox’s back, Riyo admitted defeat and got out of bed. She went to the ‘fresher, brushed her teeth, and combed her snow-white hair. The texture of her hair was wiry and tough--both its color and texture a far cry from the famously-luscious lavender locks of her youth. Then she went to her terminal and checked her messages. 

A few updates from Ahsoka, a brief, businesslike note from Mom Mothma, and a bunch of adverts. Great. Riyo wondered how she hadn’t appreciated the days when her terminal was stuffed to bursting with urgent messages--full of people wanting her assistance, her opinion, her time. It had been overwhelming, yes. But at least she’d felt needed.

She spent a while--much longer than necessary--answering her messages. Then she checked the news and let her eyes glaze over as the goings-on of distant planets filled the terminal. Several hours passed this way, and the sun finally began to peak through the closed shades of her study.

“Been up long?” Fox’s gravelly voice broke through Riyo’s near trance.

She looked up at him and smiled wryly. “A little while,” she said, knowing he would catch her understatement.

He crossed the room to her, his stiff leg traveling just a little slower than the other. He rested his hand on her shoulder, and she couldn’t help but notice the slight tremble to his once-firm grip.

“I’m sorry, my sun,” he said. “The meds aren’t helping?”

“They help me fall asleep, but I just can’t stay asleep for long,” Riyo said with a shrug. “I could take more, but I don’t want to overdo it.”

“That’s probably wise. You should wake me up next time. I’d be happy to keep you company.”

“At least one of us should be getting rest,” Riyo protested.

Fox let out a noncommittal sound and lowered himself into the chair next to her. 

Riyo rested her head on his shoulder, her whole body relaxing at the familiar contact. As her muscles melted into him, he still felt stiff beneath her. He hid it well, but she knew how uncomfortable the stiffness that held every joint in his body tight must be. He had once been a super soldier, a man in peak physical condition. If she was missing the way she used to feel, how hard must it be for him?

She peaked up at him through her lashes, his silvery stubble and strong nose still so attractive to her, after all these years. 

“How are you doing, love?” she asked. “I know you must be having trouble, too.”

Fox shook his head. “No, not at all.”

Riyo couldn’t hold back her snort. “I was at your last doctor’s appointment. I know your condition is progressing. But you never complain!” She sat up, turning in chair to face him fully. “You know you can always tell me how you feel, right?”

“Of course,” Fox said, taking her hands in his. “And you are right. I wake up in pain every day. It’s getting more difficult to walk. And I’m frustrated that I can’t trust myself with a blaster anymore.”

It was what she’d asked for, but still Riyo’s heart constricted in her chest. Fox was in pain, and she knew he wouldn’t even acknowledge any pain if it wasn’t significant. She squeezed his hands. “Fox…”

“But I’m happy, Riyo,” Fox cut in, firm and confident. “The pain is a nuisance, but it doesn’t bother me that much. I hardly even think of it.”

“How can you not think of it? It affects every step you take. It keeps you from doing so many things you love-”

“I don’t think of it, because I am happy.”

Riyo shook her head, feeling that she was still missing something. “I just don’t understand. Here I am, every day complaining and pitying myself for all the most common, least inconvenient inevitabilities of aging. But there you are, happy and unbothered while you deal with this diagnosis. Either something is wrong with you, or something is wrong with me.”

“Nothing is wrong with you. This diagnosis isn’t easy for me, but it is so much more than anything I ever expected.”

Any words Riyo could think to respond with died in her throat. What could she say to that? Especially when she knew what he said was true?

Fox stood up, moving slowly but with purpose. He held a hand down to her and she took it, rising to her feet at his side. 

One hand still holding hers, Fox stroked his fingers down a wisp of white hair that had escaped Riyo’s utilitarian bun. “Do you know how lucky I feel to be able to grow old with you? I never expected to grow old. Period. And now I get to experience it with the woman I care most for in the entire galaxy? Every grey hair. every aching joint, every hand tremor--every one is a privilege.”

A tear slipped down Riyo’s cheek, and she pressed her forehead to his. Her body still felt heavy and tired, and she still mourned for her youth long gone. But some of the weight of sorrow lifted from her shoulders.

“The privilege is all mine,” she said, meaning it with every ounce of her being.

[yournewfriendshouse]

Question: how do you exercise when you have chronic pain?

answer: in the pool—a heated pool if possible.

Today was my first class in the hydropool at my hospital with the pain clinic, and omg

OMG

I’m like…I wanted to cry because it was just so incredibly good. and I didn’t hurt once. the guy literally said out loud that pain is not gain.

he said it!

the class is an hour long, and I lasted 30 mins which is way longer than I thought I would. I hope that wasn’t pushing myself too far, but I think it will be ok. I paced myself inside of that 30mins, so I’m hoping I didn’t fuck up (I was having way too much fun in the warm gravity-less state, and could have gone much longer, but I just know that would have been so bad)

basically here is what I can remember from the workout:

they do a lot of gentle work that for other people counts as stretching or just the warm up but that is the work out for us. the physio did sets of five (and only one set of five) but was adamant that we had to pace (as opposed to every other person who has spoken to me about exercise ever in my life) so I only did two or three reps out of every set unless it was something that I do at home on land—and even then I generally did three or four.

the main points was that the pool was quite hot, they have it at human body temp. and he had us stand at a depth where it was up to our mid-chest, so that the water supports your movement. for shoulder stretches I think he wanted us to stand even deeper, but I left before they got to that

the second is the course is twelve weeks long, and you can come back after that. so if you’re thinking about seeing improvement, that’s the kind of timeframe (and longer) that we’re talking. you’re not going to see immediate results because you need to move extremely slowly and carefully

the concentration for his excercises started with what I’ve talked about before; building up your glutes and core muscles so that they are taking the weight that they are designed to, which takes strain off of your back. I’ll poke around and see if I can find any diagrams the kind of excercise that he did but it was just really good. he didn’t really ask where people had pain because he concentrates on conditioning the whole body—though as I left he was asking if anyone had an injured shoulder so he must take things into consideration so no one is exacerbating their pain but also he’s adamant that very gently working on the whole bod is important

being in the pool was just really lovely. it’s been ages since I felt so happy getting into my bikini and getting in the water but I practically skipped to the pool

because of the event I went to on saturday I was sure I wouldn’t even get wet today but when I saw the water I was like I can’t not.

when it had been 30 mins I spent some time watching and just went into this bit down the back where the water was extra deep and just floated, barely feeling any pain, it was so nice

anyway so I’m way too excited. tomorrow will probs suck but I actually miss exercising and the sore muscle feeling that is earned more than most things in my life, so hopefully it will feel like that and not like punishment. fingers crossed

[nokingsonlyfooles]

The website is migrating and so is my eyeball! (Updates!)

I got myself a clean bill of eyeball alignment! I am within normal range! It does still take me longer to focus because my left eye tries to "go exo" (which means "pull farther to the left," just like my political alignment!) but after a little over 9 months of practice, I'm able to straighten it out. I am, apparently, a hard worker and a fast learner. The doc didn't think I'd be able to fix it this well!

So I'm down to doing maintenance exercises, and I will need to deal with the effects of my age-appropriate presbyopia. Bifocals and progressives are a no-no for me. That's like an obstacle course, and my eye can't take it. That means [drumroll please]... LASIK and reading glasses! I need another checkup to confirm I'm a good candidate for the laser, and then I'll get me some surgery. Hopefully before the end of the year!

Now, as far as story updates go, it looks like your patience will be rewarded with a 12-pack! It probably won't all be illustrated, as I'll need some time for the surgery/new glasses, but I should be able to get you the text in a legible format!

The website is migrating servers today, from the one with the wishy-washy TOS to one that says "Porn OK!" and costs $102 FOR FOUR YEARS. After that, it'll go up to $4.99 a month for one site, but that's still less than I was paying before. My mortality can now be expressed in Hostinger contract renewals! I may live to pay for my webspace 10-15 more times! Max!

Technically, if we don't count labour, materials, and all the years spent in the red, I will be making a profit for the first time ever with just three Patrons! Thank you!

...And, of course, once I get my Canadian residency, I will be burning that Patreon page to the ground and building a new one that seems "family friendly" and has no adult-oriented history or flags. The naughty extra content will go on the site, available for free DL or name-your-price. I will probably lose that one Patron who never talks to me, but I think they've forgotten about that subscription and I don't feel great taking their money in that case anyway. Onward and upward! I hope I can replace them with more new supporters! (Or maybe they're still paying attention and they're just shy. That's cool too!)

In the immediate future, I will get an email notification when my site's all moved, and then I can see what needs fixing. Stuff needed fixing already, due to various updates, so some repairs are inevitable.

Nevertheless, if it's not too much of a disaster, I'm eyeing October 3rd as a restart date. Then you get (potentially) 12 weeks of content! Wow! Then I'll take however long a break I need to illustrate it and fix whatever else broke. Hopefully, I can keep working my my backlog of Tin Soldier illustrations too, but that's on the back burner.

All you Tumblr followers who are here because you like the stream of other people's content I curate: This is a threat. I am only here to get readers for my serial. I will do whatever else I need to put up with to get readers, but if I don't get any, I'm done and onto something else that might work. Y'all don't have to pay for it if you don't want, but I'm trying to build a community for some very patient and supportive people. I don't want to spend spoons for no community. I do not have a lot of spoons to spend.

People are doing complicated internet things to the site today, so no links yet, but once I bang it back into shape, I will get back to begging for attention in the best ways I can.

[theretirementstory]

14/04/24 I AM HOME, I came back on Thursday after my MRI scan and a transfusion of platelets. Was I pleased? I guess you could say that, Anie called with my shopping, I had a wander around my garden, got the car out of the garage and went to do more shopping, saw my friend Liisa and had a little chat then came home and prepared chorizo pasta bake and garlic bread.

My neighbour sent me the above photo showing the blossom on the cherry tree. I was so pleased to see my garden.

On Friday I had to go back to the hospital for what turned out to be two transfusions. I thought I would have been home by lunchtime but it was 16:30 when I got home.

So I am hoping against hope that I will be home until April 25th when I will be going up to Paris for a long stay, while the next round of treatment is carried out.

Monique had been in touch, she wanted to come down on Thursday but I needed some time to just chill. So she said she would come on Friday. However by the time she could get away it was too late. She did say that one of her twin granddaughters had got scarlet fever so you just know it won’t be long before the other one gets it.

I messaged my cleaner with the dates I am available to have her clean my home before the next hospital visit. She replied that she wasn’t available. That’s ok, hopefully we will get back to normal once all my treatment is completed.

The cough that I was starting with when I went into hospital, has now developed! My nose streams and then I start coughing, it is worse if I have been talking. The medicine they gave me in hospital contained codeine and it said not to use it for too many days. Well in my book, my wariness of medication, meant that I took it for three days then stopped. I didn’t want to become addicted!

The music this week, is really from my youth! I begin with “Love Hurts” by Jim Capaldi from 1975. Going even further back than that it’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” from 1965. The video shows Alan Price on keyboard, he will be celebrating his 82nd birthday at the end of next week, Eric Burdon, vocals, who will be 83 years old on a date in May which is the birthday of someone dear to me. Plus Chas Chandler, bassist, who later managed Jimi Hendrix and Slade. Unfortunately Chas passed away in 1996.

“The Trainee Solicitor” has met up with a few Uni friends this week and is going to see another couples new house today. He has been training the new guy at work and although he would prefer to get on with his own work, ensuring someone gets the training they need is the best way to moving onto your own work. Making sure they understand ensures less disruptions to your day.

“The Reconnect Navigator” has had to go out and buy a pair of Dr Marten boots for work. The boots she had bought previously have only lasted 5 weeks. I guess she is getting those “steps” in. It is great that they both have the weekend off as it allows them two days to do things together.

“The Photographer” and “The Jetsetter” spent a nice night in York on Friday evening. The platter they had with the wine looked exceptionally tasty. Then it was time for the “The Photographer” to head off to Boston, to photograph the match with Scarborough AFC. Although it was a 0-0 draw it was a good match (apparently). Plus he was the only photographer, for Scarborough, at the match and the photos have been in the local newspaper. That’s a feather in his cap, for sure.

“The Jetsetter” is busy preparing for her next jaunt (can’t remember where that is to). She does however spend the week in York which is a “getaway place” for a lot of people.

I have had a message from a friend in the UK, her grandson was born on the 17th February at around 26 weeks! Bless him he is still fighting and getting bigger which is such wonderful news.

Nadine (a friend here in town) has messaged to say that she will try to get down to visit at the weekend.

My neighbours have just popped in bringing a piece of flan. They always ask about my sons and grandchildren, I have shown them recent photos this morning and they think my grandson looks like his Daddy.

Now I am going to start getting food prepared. I am hoping that I will enjoy my roast chicken dinner. Then as we are due 22c today I would like to go out into the garden and clear a few weeds.

However you intend to spend your day, have a good one.

I am hoping that the hydrangea paniculata (pictured below) will have a growth spurt and put out some lovely flowers this year.

Bon dimanche!

[coffee---bean]

workn on the music and stuff

hello! been working on the score for the film. its made from feedback sounds (made by pressing electric guitar leads with my fingers) and then adding drums. the drums were recorded on my phone very loosely, just about trying to slowly increase the intensity of the score by drumming faster and faster over time. i panned one drum to one side and another to the other side, so hopefully it'll feel disorienting and immersive in something that doesn't actually exist!

then i added "jisas yu holem hand blong mi", which is probably my favourite little song. like, my automatic answer type of thing. not my favourite right now but a good answer for my favourite.

it's kind of religious, i just like chanting and clapping and i don't know what the words mean but the notes are pretty. i used a beat delay thing to distort it and make it sound like a broken brain or something. i also got a low-pitched version of it and put it underneath the entire thing, just to kind of fill the piece out and add some bassier tones to it, since the feedback sounds are higher-pitched and sporadic in the first half.

then i added a little bit of singing to give the audio a more human quality, the sense that there's a person hidden deep inside this fucked-up-ness. it's very quiet, but there is a completely unaffected voice somewhere in the right channel, singing softly.

i also added some super reverby piano organ chords. the chords are in the key of the above song, the organ was chosen cos it's sort of religion-y, and the chords were performed so that they get thicker and more dissonant and random as the score continues. it's inspired by "fittier happier" by radiohead, which is obviously 100 times better than mine, but they spent like 3 years making OK Computer so umm fuck u

i remember my friend showing me this video when i was like 13. he was like, this is so deep. and he was totally right but its funny to me cos he would totally hate radiohead now. he doesn't like rock music at all and radiohead is way too mainstream for him. just one of those weird things. why did he love THIS radiohead song out of all the radiohead songs. he's a really cool weirdo.

and then i sang a little melody over the chords, but i added a ridiculous amount of reverb and made it a little quieter and added another layer of the same performance but an octave higher, and panned them on different sides, and then made them slightly out of sync, and now the voice sounds like a weird beautiful synth. the tone of the first half is a lot more earnestly emotional. like, actually fucking me up kind of emotional. the music really does something to me now, which is great because so far this piece has felt a bit emotionally dead to me.

the tone of the music is kind of similar to this kind of thing:

david lynch often has like,, stupid and beautiful moments in his movies. there's so much unexplainable and horrifying darkness in his movies, and then sometimes there's just these equally absurd breaks in the clouds and it's really glorious and wonderful. and the music he uses is often very churchy or gospelly or very very suspended chords turning into some gigantic resolution / cadence thing. and the tone is always lifting organ energy and raw crying with happiness.

also the music from a movie like drive or really any recent nicolas winding refn thing. only god forgives also has music like this, but i guess drive has the most tender energy out of his films. this music is from a scene that goes from extremely beautiful love to extremely fucked violence almost instantly, which isn't exactly what my film is, but it's not totally off! the contrast is just a bit less exaggerated, and the transition is less sudden.

anyway the music feels mostly done. i've added it to the half-finished film and exported it, so i'll test how it sounds in the speaker-box system. i've texted someone about buying a crappy monitor, so hopefully that'll be done soon.

the last two things to do are:

figure out the monitor

animate and add in the gifs

yippee! it's gonna be tight but i think it's possible. i also think its possible it wont work. i have a kind of solution for if i cant get the monitor to work. the animation gif things are important, but i have time to do them, it'll be ok.

[gorewh0re90x-blog]

diary entries...

TW: substances, ed, TMI situations

1/7/2024

6pm

im so tired. i havent been this tired since i quit doing dope 7 months ago. i still miss her almost everyday. my one true love. she was with me through everything the last 12 years. our relationship was toxic as hell but she will always be the one who got away. even if (when) i relapse and run back to her it will always end. it might end in death or just another rehab but it will always end. thats the thing with her, no matter how many times i run back i always have to leave, even if its for a little bit. theres no way around it. i start doing good in life and i run back to her warm and beautiful arms. the beginning is always the best, the honeymoon phase, but it doesnt last longer than 6 months. she always asks for more and more. more time, more money, more attention, more destruction. we lay in bed all day and all night as she whispers sweetly in my ear 'you dont need any of this..not this job, not this money, not your friends, not your family, not the outside world..you only need me..' and i always agree because its true, i only need her to be ok with being alive. no matter how many times we go through the same notions, i always listen to her..how can i not? when im with her nothing else matters, nothing means a thing. she makes me feel so safe, so warm, so invincible, so beautiful, so amazing.. its only her, always and forever.. until she takes everything away from me, as she always does, and drags me to rock bottom where the only choice i have left, is to leave her again..

9pm

idk whats wrong with me the last few days. im so tired and feeling like crap. it cant be not enough sleep because im sleeping. it cant be not enough food because im eating. im tired, my stomach hurts, im cold until I get in bed and under the covers and then im hot. my head hurts. my body aches, although that could be just me trying to work out too much. it feels like im constipated but im still going a little everyday. consistency of soft serve ice cream, which is super foreign to me. ive been constipated for the last 12 years, going once a week, if i was lucky, and when i did go it was like pushing out baseballs made out of rocks. this whole thing is just strange and exhausting. i just feel like I have the flu. i took dulcolax, my savior, an hour and a half ago and im hoping it clears out everything i ate the last 4 days and not just little swirls of crap that take 10mins of wiping to clean up. gross, i know. i just want to sleep but i don't want to wake up at midnight and be wide awake til i get back from the clinic at 6:30am. maybe ill be able to sleep for the next 6 hours and then just work out some until its time to head to the clinic at 5:30. i took an hour nap earlier around 5pm and had a weird dream.. it had to do with 2 guys breaking in and trying to shoot us unsuccessfully and ended up with me stabbing one and the other getting shot. hopefully its not some premission.. im gonna try to nap.

1/8/2024

12:05am

i decided to let myself get an oreo mcflurry every sunday since ive been doing so well with my diet and exercise. i figured that since i burn more than the 510cal thats in the dam thing every day anyway, i can be a fat fucking pig and have one. theyre just so dam good 😩 cutting out all sugar has been a nightmare over the last month. ive spent the whole time i was an h addict living on sugar so its been rough. it will be totally worth it though. i should reach my current goal weight of 100lbs in the next 10 months or less as long as i keep doing what ive been doing. i cant wait to be thin and beautiful. i dont need drugs as long as im thin 🖤

1/9/2024

1am

i ate that slice of cheese pizza i said i wouldnt touch..378cals. 378!! im such a fat pig. disgusting. it doesnt matter that i burned twice as much in calories today. the only thing that matters is that i didn't have enough self control to not eat that dam slice of pizza. i hate that my husband eats the foods i cant have every freaking day. i know me needing to lose weight is not his problem but it still sucks to be put in these situations everyday. if its not pizza its cookies and sweets and danishes and everything else I cant eat. fuck this sucks so bad! starting tomorrow i need to burn more than 700-900cals each day. i need to walk more than 10-13k steps. i need to eat less than 1400cal each day. idc if im technically still losing weight. its not enough. i need to do better and damnit i will do better.

11pm

i ate less but didnt get to work out as much as i wanted to. i guess tomorrow will be better. it better be at least. i need to get to sleep before 3am tonight so i dont sleep til 5pm tomorrow.. i have to be up at 530am to go to the clinic 5 times a week and by 11am im so exhausted i need a freaking nap or im falling over on my feet. i think they need to lower the dose on my medicine. this is getting super annoying. i just wanna be thin already. fml.

1/11/2024

12:36am

today was good. i walked over 13k steps, worked out for an hour, burned about 1000cals and only ate about 800cals. definitely getting a hang of this. didnt have a headache either. got a decent amount of sleep too. im definitely gonna ask my clinic to lower the dose on my medication because im sure thats why im tired all the time. im super sore from the gym the other day but tomorrow i have to go either way. hopefully it wont be too crowded because i get really bad anxiety and paranoia around strangers. i hate going outside. goodnight my lovelies, i hope youre all staying on track and getting closer to your ugw 🖤🚬🦋

1/13/2024

5:16am

i had a good day yesterday but not a great night. i burned around 1200cals and had a 90min work out plus 15k steps. less food as well. ordered some stuff off amazon ive been wanting since beginning of december so i was super happy until my husband decided to drink and be..not great. he hasnt been drinking since we moved states 7 months ago except 1 or 2 previous occasions because he gets wasted and acts a fool. he was doing good until he wasnt. it just wasnt a good experience but hes finally asleep. im exhausted from not getting more than 3 hours of sleep the previous night and having to deep clean the whole house and do my workout and now being up all night. i want to go to sleep but i have a few things to worry about due to his drinking so its not looking so good right now.. i fed the stray cats i take care of just now and im gonna lay down and listen to some creepypastas and hope for sleep to come. hope everyone is doing well 🖤🚬🦋