#i also had a lot of fun with cleo’s house

[kojitheopossum]

[Prologue] [Ch1] [Ch2] [Ch3] [Ch4] [Ch5] [Ch???]

In which Bdubs finally meets the siren!

A couple notes; one, cleo’s “zombie stitches” are just tattoos, and two, I completely forgot to add the logo onto their outfits last chapter but I’m gonna stick to that now o7 I had a lot of fun drawing this chapter probably because of the ethos, lucky for me i’ll be getting even more next chapter ;]

[ivys-garden]

Life Series Session Recap and Alliance Report: Session 5.

I can't believe they added mettaton to the life series.

Another week means more chaos in the block. This session has the wild card of… morally dubious trivia robots falling for the sky? OK?

It did mean we got more Life Series Oli and we got to find out how little our idiots actually know about their own series. So that's something

But hey lots of stuff that will affect the future of the season happens here, so let's stop dilly dallying and get to it.

The Final Girls (Cleo, Scott, Pearl, Impulse… Bigb!?)

Apparently Scott's desire to keep the team together is stronger than we thought, as despite having no good reason to, he allows Bigb to come back into the crew. Bigb does later try and fail to abandon them for Renwood, but it's the thought that counts.

Also established in the opening to this session, Scott is fully enabling whatever Pearl wants to do… provided what she wants to do is not hide a death pit from him.

No, what Pearl wants to do is murder people, and she has plenty of options since everyone wants to antagonise the girls this session. First Mumbo shows up to mace Cleo in the face, then Gem lures Cleo into a death trap & then Martyn explodes everyone but Pearl.

Naturally Cleo wants to get even with these pesky killers, and when Cleo wants to get even the flames are soon to come. Gem's Barn and Martyn's home are burnt by Cleo & Scott, and yet somehow everyone ends up chilling in the end, with everyone actually agreeing that they're even and that they should stop trying to kill each other. So yeah, no harm, no foul….

Except Ren, he got his house burnt down for no reason.

On the topic of revenge on martyn, Pearl tries to avenge her team by putting Martyns crystal trap back on him… only to blow herself up in the process. What follows might be Pearl's most pathetic showing in the life series as she repeatedly fails to trap Gem or kill Lizzie, still ending the session in red. Scott and his martyr complex come through in the end though and Scott gives one of his life's back to Pearl in a way that mirrors the powdered snow torture or yesteryear, only much wetter.

Oh yeah Impulse was here too. He was trap building’, he was bot nappin’, he was beepin’ N’ boopin’, and he gave up a Trident to acquire a new member… we'll talk about that washout later

Also congrats on Bigb finally getting diamonds, took you long enough.

Also also congrats on Cleo for getting the most difficult question in Trivia correct!... it was 50% a guess and they had help but shhh

The Family. (Gem & Joel)

Yeah I'm calling them the family now. Not because that's a good name, but because while Joel continues to be fast, Gem is no longer furious.

Yes, in this episode the Gals-Fam drama begins to sorta maybe kinda possibly come to a close. It starts with Gem admitting the drama was made up for the sake of having drama and being funny, something most of us guessed since if you think about the drama for more than five seconds you realise how silly and ultimately inconsequential it actually is.

The real amend making starts where all amends are made, in the smouldering remains of your home after the prison you lured into a trap burns it to the ground. Yes if they had not been interrupted by exploding, Gem and the Gals would have called each other even right here. Luckily Gem gets another chance to do this later as Pearl failing a task and having her mouth removed stops her from trying to eat Gem alive for long enough for the two of them to have a chat. In this chat that Pearl has literally no say in, it is agreed that once the two of them go red, they'll “have some fun”. Sp yeah, in the future we are looking at meminiun at a temporary alliance between Pearl & Gem.

(Also Gem and Joel try to get Pearl to betray Scott, which marks the second time this has happen this season)

In other stuff Gem builds possibly the worst tower I've ever seen. So I'm happy Cleo burnt that down. Of more consequence she also builds their very own Creeper spawner. Very dangerous in the hands of Joel.

Speaking of Joel he has a rollercoaster this session. He has many notable successes such as creating two hidden cow spawners, a chicken farm and braving the never to get Potion ingredients. But he also got his ugly car exploded by Skizz and got smashed and banged by Tango.

He did manage a three block jump over Etho's head though so I'd say this was his best session of the entire life series.

Renwood (Martyn & Ren)

Rambert last session when I said Scott probably regrets being teamed with 3 little chaos goblins? Yeah translate that to Ren this session. Martyn is an absolute menace and there is no way Ren will achieve his goal of “extinguishing the evil within this man”. Martyn is tricking folks into messing up Trivia, he's killing Gem with creepers despite being allied, he's killing The Gals right after seeing Cleo burn down Gems entire base, he might be the most chaotic one here.

That isn't to say Martyn doesn't get his narrative comeuppance, he gets ravaged off his own base and exploded by Pearl, but Ren still gets a lot of bad vibes his way due to Martyns actions. At least he can still rely on Jimmy to be his friend and not burn his house down on accident.

Speaking of burning, good luck doing that now. The mound has officially been flattened, no longer teh Ren Mound it is now In-The-Little-Lake and has been flooded with water in a rare showcase of a Ren plan working and being a big brain move overall.

However, while creating the lake, the most important discovery was made

THEY FOUND THAT STUPID HORSE! WOOOOOOOOO

anyway.

The Tuff Guys (Tango, Bdubs & …Etho?)

Bdubs starts the episode being objectively wrong about a game he's played for decades.

Due to his bad leadership last session, Etho takes over and immediately starts try harding, requiring everyone to get stacks of food, iron, the souls of the damned and probably other stiff to tbh I wasn't listening. Luckily neither were Bdubs or Tango so we're good

Speaking of Tango, despite getting of to a rock start of sucking and being pathetic, he does manage to get two pretty impressive kills on Joel, once with a mace and another with creepers. He also manages to stick a snail on Skizz by botnapping him while he was distracted by his, Impy and Pearls robot voice. He failed every other single trap he tried but it's something.

Now, more important horse news, Bdubs got his!... Etho immediately killed it since it was better than his. But bdubs got a new one! He needed 3 people to help him on it since he acquired the big curse at the time but he got the horse!

While he wasn't being a try hard, horse killer, or stunt ramp, Etho was off performing a very important task, Betrayal! But is it betrayal if they openly admit they won't help you or share their stuff? Yep Etho has made moves to leave the Tuff Guys, being the second member to do so, only with more success than bdubs. So, did he go off to his family? Nope. He went off to become one of the Final Girls. Etho officially joins that team and all it cost them was a Trident. How will this go over with the Family and the Tuff Guys? Who knows. That's the growth thing about the life series: everything is stupid and nothing is predictable, so don't worry!

The Bamboozelers (Jimmy, Scar, Lizzie)

Everyone says these 3 are doomed… including me I said that. But we all are wrong, these 3 are being extremely big brained and brave.

Let's start with Lizzie, she helps the team come up with a safety code word to bring people back up the mountain. She braves the Nether. She builds an ender porter to bring people to Bam Mountain safely & she survives several attempts on her life, including one from Pearl. She only falls into two traps, being killed by Skizz and having her Bot hidden resulting in the return of her snail. She also had one failed plan, a Drowned spawner plan to get Trident Drowned to kill people for Jimmy, but not a bad showing.

It's a toss up between Gem, Joel and Impulse for who will win, but I'm gonna go all in and sat Lizzie wins, just because I want her too.

Then there's Scar who makes some great diplomacy plays. Despite a rocky start to their relationship that might have actually caused the desertduo side of tumblr to explode, Scar and Grian are able to work out a peace deal between them, Scar gets a mace and in exchange they don't kill each other. Scar gets a lot more than just a mace though, he gets what he's always wanted: Friendship.

He also manages to get the Enchanter back and finds a great hiding spot for it. On top of this Scar also strengthens pre existing alliances with Gem, Martyn and Skizz, even helping Skizz in a Fast Na Furious style boat race to reclaim his out bot.

OK, Jimmy… yeah tbh Jimmy kinda underperformed compared to last session. He got toured by trivia bot, died to the ravager instead of checking his hotbar for his pearls, failed repeatedly to kill Scott and also killed himself in Impulse's lava trap. He got no kills this session and all his traps failed. He did blow a massive hole in the side of the Final Girl's tower for no reason tho.

Gem, seeing this utter failure tried to help Jimmy kill Scott, only for him to sacrifice himself to Pearl. Now Jimmy is in the hard possession of killing his family or his teammate. But hey, as long as he isn't first out, he's won

And on that note…

The Spanners (Grian & Skizz.)

…Let's start with skizz. He was really good! He got a good kill on Lizzie and one on Bigb too. Bigb wasn't Dark green but he's certainly got the spirit. He should also be kept away from the Bam Lands from now on, he gets spotted there way too easily. Scar isn't even that observant, it's kinda embarrassing.

Skizz does also do some alliance work, vowing never to kill Lizzie again due to how much he hates doing it. Lizzie repays him by literally babying him and dumping him on Ren.

Then there's Grian, he and Mumbo were able to collaborate revenge on Scar, even though he was too big and Mumbo couldn't speak. They buried Scars Bot Super low and neither he now Ren could find it.

And than, somehow, eSCARgot returned.

Feeling bad for an incredibly cheap kill, Grian did work with Scar to set aside there differences and create an alliance. Now with revenge off the agenda, all that was left was getting Mumbo a life.

Grian built a great tower, and within it built two super speedy tnt launchers. These were incredible basketballs for destroying the tower bdubs spent all session building, but in terms of netting kills for Mumbo… not very good.

Mumbo fell off that tower trying to get a kill.

Mumbo, desperate for a kill, begged Gem to die.

And when Gem was walking down the stairs with Jimmy, Mumbo got too desperate.

Mumbo died in a machine made to save him. Mumbo died in front of grian. Mumbo died and everybody just watched. Hell, Jimmy celebrated. He laughed. Because now there was no denying the curse was broken.

Skizz will mourn all of the next session. Grian will not. He will be consumed by the Dark rage within him. Jimmy should watch his back…

Kinda like Mumbo should have watched his back for that minecart, Amiright?

[applepixls]

i think something like season 8's moon big thing is going to happen again this season-

in several magical mountain people's recent episodes (i remember mumbo mentioning it a couple episodes back and grian as well? not sure who else) they've mentioned that something weird/something big feels like its happening in the world (grian even made a straight up moon big reference) but i think this time it's going to be something with the ocean

this kind of starts at the very beginning of the season and follows through. in grian's very first episode he calls magical mountain a volcano and that idea has followed through and now they're hollowing it out. in another episode when he gets flung up in the air he makes a moon big reference. soo early season ideas/references seem to be following through to now

in episode 2, grian gathers a crowd of people (gem, etho, impulse, skizz, ren, cleo, cub) and they all just chat and fish and make jokes about how the ocean can get you addicted to fishing and pretend the ocean is a higher being that will provide fishing rods to those it sees worthy (we also see it a bit in the end of grians episode 1) eventually leading to ren saying "i don't know why im doing this but i don't want to stop" and cleo agreeing. etho originally had also been skeptical but quickly got dragged into the shenanigans and very happy with getting lily pads for some reason? it's just a fun random interaction but some of those things can lead to lore.

etho also says in this interaction "dont drink the koolaid" because gem randomly suggests to all eat a pufferfish which i don't fully understand the phrase but it comes from a guy who made a cult and lured his followers out into a jungle (etho loves jungles) and because cults always have a like Date where they believe their higher power is coming to save them and commit mass suicide on that day, the guy made a lot of poisoned koolaid and everyone died. so cults

in gem's most recent episode (19) she builds an artists house and says the artist looks out on the water for inspiration but as a result has become quite paranoid.

in season 8 they have a cult of people not sleeping because they think the moon is a higher power come to save them or something and early season 10 was a cult of people fishing, not to mention that certain patterns seem to repeat every other season (season 7 and 9 were both really long, in season 9 people were nostalgic for season 7 and in season 8 people were nostalgic for season 6 and certain storylines that could have some parallels drawn not to mention that everyone compares season 7 and 9 for the length and says that they were incredibly long perhaps suggesting that this season might be a bit shorter? its also the fact that in season 7 and 9 everyone built Starter Bases and then moved out to larger bases but in season 8 and now season 10 they seem to have made starter homes and expanded on them while still living out of their day one builds)

basically, tldr: something big is happening and i think the oceans doing it

theres something in the water and its making the freaking frogs gay (its making the block people all do __punk or east asian vibe stuff and bureaucratic/public service-y)

[theplottdump]

ＳＩＤＥ ＰＬＯＴＴ - Ｇ Ａ Ｍ ＥＰＬＡＹ ＳＰＡ Ｍ - 𝙶𝚎𝚗 𝟼: 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝙺𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝙿𝚕𝚘𝚝𝚝? -

Yeah I didn't see that one coming either.

Kale needs to grind for satisfaction points to buy a potion of youth (cause I just spent them all on savant right before this like a genius) and they keep rolling the want to make gourmet pet food. Miss Honey is not complaining.

Me: What an iconic quee- GET OUT OF HERE CLEMENT

SHE KNOWS

Kale asked Svetlana to woohoo in the crypt. 🥴 Consider this a test Dave, keep it chill - full autonomy is a bitch. Windy is already sad that Svetlana is flirting with anything with a pulse, this place is a mess.

KEEP IT CHILL DAVE THIS ONE DOESNT END WELL FOR YOU

oh god we might have to kill Dave

Kale: You seem mad. Dave: Really? How could you tell?

Kale: It's a lot to take in- Dave: And all those people? Kale: Cowplant Milk.

Dave: Right. So how does this end?

Kale: Well the house is already maxed with 8 sims, the watcher has the limit at 15 so we could fit you and the baby. We'd just have to be careful going into CAS, but it also might be fun to play you as a ghos-

Dave: Wait- woah, hold on- baby?

Kale: It's not a big deal. Dave: It's a bit of a big deal. This is all a bit of a big deal. Kale: Dave, you're the blandest most unseasoned tray townie I've ever met- I don't even think Milkshake would be interested in eatin- Dave: Yes. Kale: What do you mean?

Dave: 𝙔𝙚𝙨, I'll marry you.

Author's Note: He agreed to adjust his romantic jealousy boundaries, his enamored moodlet overpowered his angry one and also autonomously asked about marriage during this conversation so we're rollin with it baby

After 3 botched attempts cause the gemology skill is ruthless, Cleo made Toni a bracelet to help with her writing skill!

Toni: For me? Really? Cleo: The watcher shoved you into university classes for gameplay, it's the least we can do to help. Toni: That's so nice…

Toni: Wow I really don't know how you lived through that one. Dave: Love? Toni: Nah. Either the watcher's gone soft or she's got different plans for you. Dave: Is that good? Toni: I dunno- you tell me when you find out!

Toni: SO DO YOU THINK ITS GONNA BE TWINS OR OCTUPLETS!? Like evil Cabbagepatch babies or something! Dave: Kale's not evil..? Toni: No they're worse, they're boring. Like you!

Townie Dave, which is just what i think I'll call him now, is happy he gets to live for another day! The Reaper Career had a position open up after the recent death of a clingy vampire obsessed grimtern- so he'll be starting as a Grimbro tomorrow!

Townie Dave had his first day of Active Work as a Grimbro! He did a fantastic job ticking boxes and swinging a scythe and even ordering office supplies!

And it only makes sense that when you've committed to getting married to a serial killer- that you're name is gonna be at the top of Grim's list. Pinned. 📌

But that only makes Townie Dave appreciate the little moments more! What a chill dude.

first | prev | next

[angelsanarchy]

Glass Houses: Jack Thurlow x Y/N One-Shot Series PRT 32

Tagging: @roryculkinluvr@thatsthewrongwallcraig@icarus-star @cc-luvr @madamemaximoff06@shady-the-simp @quicksilversg1rl @s-0lar @kristennero-wallacewellsver@ophelialaufey @mayathepsychic1999 @x-prettyboy-x @rorylover71 @auggiethecreator @tempt-ress @blacksoul-27

Jack moves about the house with his fresh tapes for the tape recording that sent him into a spiraling psychotic break over a year ago. Now he's using it to record his own tapes. He realizes it seems stupid but he wanted to replace the wounds from the past with potentially new and more positive things he can reflect on in the future.

"So this is the first recording...obviously it's me...Jack...God I feel stupid." Jack shook his head and lit a cigarette trying to calm his nerves.

"Okay...so the house is almost completely finished. I debated on painting the outside of it but decided it wasn't really necessary. Once the weather is nicer, I might consider doing more landscaping." Jack shook his head feeling like an idiot.

"I also finished writing my first book. I found a local editor to look over it and I'm kind of nervous about it. Y/n has been helping me work through those anxious moments which is nice. I like having her around. Y/n is different than anyone I've ever known. She makes me feel like I'm not a complete psychopath. She gives me hope that someday I can live a normal, happy life with all the issues I have. I know that sounds cliche and all but she makes life easier." He smiled to himself thinking about all the times she's helped him.

"I recently suffered a relapse...I honestly thought that was going to be it. I thought if I could just get Y/n out of the house, I could sink back into the darkest corners of my brain and fester there alone. But she wouldn't let me. She stayed. She wasn't scared of me and she didn't hold it against me. She stayed and got me through it." Jack looked at the little smiley face she had put on his thumb with a pen the other night while they were standing in line at the grocery store. He knew it was silly but he made sure to be careful when washing his hands just to preserve the little face.

"I don't know that I've ever felt like this for someone. Cleo...she was kind of my first love. She was special and I had planned a whole life with her but I was never able to visualize it. I could never close my eyes and see us in the future together." Jack looked across the street and could see a light turn on in Y/n's house. He knew it was her mother's room. He also knew this was about the time she got up to stretch her legs around the house. She was getting a lot stronger. He liked the visits they had started having. He liked having dinner with Y/n and her mom. It felt like a family.

"When I think about what a future with Y/n would look like, I see us living in this house that I've made my own. Getting another dog for Ace to play with. Maybe even a cat, I know how much Y/n has talked about having a cat and a dog and I think that would be fun. Waking up in the morning to see her out the door to work, having dinners with her mom in the evening and helping her take care of her garden." Jack felt warmth in his belly when he pictured it.

"I've only just finished this book about the worst parts of my life and I already want to write another about what my life is now, what it could be with her. I want her to come home to me, this beautiful house and our pets who we obnoxxiously treat like our children." Jack rambled.

"Are you talking to yourself?" Jack startled and dropped the recording on the porch. His eyes went wide seeing Cleo standing just 10 feet away from him.

"C-cleo? W-what are you..." Jack stood up and she held her hand up warning him not to approach.

"So you just sit out here by yourself and talk about how wonderful your life is now that you've destroyed everyone else's? God I knew you were a narcist but I never pictured you this far gone." Cleo looked him over and watched as he itched at his arms.

"What? Are you on drugs or something? Out here getting high and ranting to yourself? God Jack, you really are-"

"I'm not on drugs...i've got scabs...they're healing." He turned his arm slightly and she could see the remains of his self harm from his last relapse.

"You tried to kill yourself?" She asked almost annoyed.

"A few times actually. I'm...adjusting to my mental illnesses and all that comes with them. I recently had a relapse..." Jack cleared his throat and Cleo nodded.

"That explains the voicemail I got. You should really remove my cellphone from your medical charts." She crossed her arms.

"I will make a note of that. Sorry for them bothering you." He apologized.

"What are you doing here? I mean I thought you were done with me? Your voicemail said-"

"I know what the voicemail said. I found a box I forgot to drop off and after some thoughts of burning it, I decided to listen to someone's advice about getting closure." Cleo grabbed the chair that sat next to the one Jack was in and drug it away from him.

"Wh-what kind of closure?" Jack asked nervously. He was unsure of what she wanted from him at this point but he was willing to give her whatever she needed to have closure. She deserved that.

"I want to know the whole story. I want to know what happened here a year ago. I want to know what you found and why you were locked up. I want to know why you hung up on me and abandon me when I needed you the most. Why you turned your back on our life together with out son." Cleo tried not to cry but she was letting angry tears roll down her cheeks. Jack sat down slowly in the chair opposite her and took a deep breath.

Jack sat there and recounted everything to Cleo. He told her about how his parents died in the car crash together, how he started having a slip from reality thinking his mother was still alive. The hallucinations that came with it and how he thought he was plotting her murder. He told her about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child. He told her about the articles in the attic he found and how he had completely forgotten about all of it. He tried not to cry while he recounted it but she actually put her hand on his knee to comfort him. He told her about what his dad did to his twin brother when they were just babies. They both cried at that point.

"I'm not telling you all of this as some sort of excuse. What I did to you and the baby was inexcusable. I just want you to know that I've never been more sorry in my life for anything. You were such an important part of my life and-" She stopped him.

"I know Jack. I know you're sorry and I forgive you. I'm so sorry you suffered so much as a child. No one deserves that kind of pain and suffering." She looked at him much softer now, like she did truly forgive him.

"You seem to be doing well now...even after the relapse." She commented looking him over.

"I've had a lot of help." He ran his hand through his hair and she nodded.

"So I heard. You seem to talk about a Y/n quite a lot in that recording. Who is she?" She asked without a hint of jealousy.

"She's actually my neighbors daughter...she's helped me through a lot of this." Jack explained and Cleo pointed at his face.

"You're in love with her." She smiled.

"How do you know that?" He asked curiously.

"Because you smile just thinking about her. You used to do that with me." She said softly. She didn't seem upset, she just seemed relieved.

"I'm sorry-" She cut him off.

"Jack, you don't have to be sorry. I'm glad I came here and talked to you. I have been so angry and bitter about you, I needed this." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring.

"I've met someone. He's brilliant and you would probably think he's a complete ass but-" It was his turn to cut her off.

"I'm sure he's great. You've always had good taste." He teased.

"I'm happy with him and I wanted to be able to let go of this...us...what we had so I could truly start a life with him." She explained.

"I'm happy you're happy. You deserve the world Clo." Jack nodded at her. She stood up from the chair and he followed her to her car. She handed him his box and stopped to look at him once more.

"Take care of yourself Jack." She touched his face and he sighed at the gesture. She got in her car and as he watched her drive away, he knew this would be the last time he would hear or see Cleo ever again.

He felt himself getting overwhelmed and noticed his heartbeat picking up. A panic attack was coming and he wasn't sure what to do. He hurried into the house with the box and tried to steady his breathing. His hands shook as he fought against the pull in his chest.

A storm was coming.

[gladlypants]

Hey! I uploaded a ton of lots to the gallery today (id: gladlypants) Some were recent builds I was doing while I was waiting for GT, some I just furnished today, some I built last summer before HSY released and forgot about, and then vault Cleo’s grandparents’ house. I had a lot of fun practicing building over the last few weeks!  :) 

It’ll take me a bit to get all of these tray files up, will have to go back and take interior screenshots and all that. There are names of each and short descriptions under the cut, numbered like the screenshots, cuz I just felt like talking about em, and gallery images suck. I’ve playtested most of these at some point, except Charles E. Cheese’s, the shells, and the Batchelder house.

Lmk if you want any of these now for your new pack gameplay and I’ll shoot you a temporary dl.

1. Charles E. Cheese’s - Heavily branded for the feline version of Chuck, Charles! It’s a restaurant and I haven’t playtested it, sorryyyy, but I don’t foresee any issues. There’s a pizza vendor kiosk inside too if you want to change the lot type or have typical Dine Out problems. Intended as a kind of party space for kids. The upstairs feels a little chaotic to me but maybe not idk. ♥

2. Raymond’s Noodles - A little local noodle restaurant I built for a sim named Raymond I was playing in a recent rotation save. It’s small and cute. ♥

3. The Schneider House - a big ol’ traditional style Windenburg house. I was also playing a household on this lot, and I really loved it!

4. Batchelder Craftsman - I love the style of this house. Named for Batchelder tiles, which I am pretending this one has throughout! (reference)

5. Gray 2 Story Craftsman - The household I played the most in my rotation lived in this house and I love the layout, so it’s probably my favorite of the Craftsman shells I built, even if it is a little plain looking on the outside. It has an awesome, huge main bedroom suite! 

6. Green Family Craftsman - f*ck those rooves. This one has a a sunroom and a bedroom for grandparents/stay-overs. (reference)

7. Blue Craftsman - Built this one like a house my sister-in-law lived in here for a long time, it’s a common style and layout in older neighborhoods where I live.

8. Black Victorian Shell - It’s supposed to a small detached row house. I built it with the idea of using it for renting to roommates but you can use it however you like obviously.

9. Cleo’s Grandparents’ House - a desert mcm! Still has the camper in the yard that Cleo + Devon lived in before they got locked in the vault.

10. Single Mom House - I built this for one of my gallery households, who is a single mother and teenage daughter. It’s a little shabby, with some craftsman features and some Hispanic decor for them.

11. The LaFollette House - also built for one of my gallery families, a single military dad and his two daughters. I intended this one to be the same as the Single Mom house, but remodeled to be more modern and spacious.

12. The Gilbert House - for a gallery household, it’s a little retro inside!

13. Split Level Family Home - also for a gallery household, this one has very feminine style decor, except for one of the bedrooms for a teen, and a huge unfinished basement (just walls.) 

^^ Also this “Colorful Craftsman Shell” that I forgot about and don’t think I’ll get around to furnishing/finishing it anytime soon. It has a bonus attic room. You’ll need to move the back door, place it on a bigger lot, or lower the foundation because I didn’t leave space for steps there. 

And a big modern “apartment building” with one furnished unit and a gym and indoor pool downstairs, which is kind of unfinished but idk if I’ll get back to it.

Sorry for the wall of text, thank you if you read it all. ♥ 

[captainschaos]

ran late on this, but my last and biggest writing for @mcyt-aro-week! day 6: coming out / found family & day 7: free day!

just some really fun fluffy writing for the big ol polycule of a household I like to rotate in my head, a bunch of aromantics, queerplatonics, and family <3 really a very self indulgent writing but truly that's gotta be the point of it all yayyy ^_^ (includes joel, lizzie, cleo, bdubs, etho, and tango btw)

[ao3 link] words: 3002

(I'm also including a longer pronoun reference for this one since I use a lot of funky ones. like I said this piece is self indulgent LOL) Lizzie: she/her Bdubs: she/he Tango: he/it Cleo: she/they/rot Etho: he/she Joel: she/he

-/-/-

Lizzie felt quite lucky to have such a splendid garden behind the house. Full of life and fresh fragrances, light and color, it was truly an environment with instantaneous spirit-lifting effects. And even better- she’d built that!

Well, not exactly. She can’t take all the credit. 

“What’s all this!” Bdubs exclaimed. 

“Hm?” Lizzie peeked around the corner from the garden bed she’d been working in, and spotted Bdubs at the bed over. She was biting his lip, frowning down at the leaves he was inspecting. 

Lizzie stood and made her way over to look over Bdubs’ mossy shoulder. 

“Just a little dehydrated, isn’t it?” she said. 

Bdubs’ frown remained persistent. “I’m not sure.” She looked up at Lizzie with those enormous eyes of his, head tilted just a little bit, questioning. It was very cute. “Isn’t the color a bit off for that?” 

Lizzie had to work very hard to steer away from those beautiful brown eyes to look back at the sickly plant. “Hm… you might be right. I still think it could just be thirsty though, and that’s definitely easier to fix! So maybeee we just give it extra water for a few days, and hope it goes away?” 

Bdubs immediately burst into his hearty laugh, and Lizzie found herself giggling along with her. 

“Oh, yes~” he said in that funny way she did. “If we pretend it’s not bad soil or something then surely it will be so!” 

Lizzie laughed, and brushed her knuckles over Bdubs’ cheek before stepping back to the plants she was working at. “Exactly!” 

Bdubs’ gaze seemed to linger on Lizzie for a moment, smiling dopily, but she quickly hopped up and headed back toward the house. “Grabbing a watering can it is~!” Lizzie blushed just a bit, but quickly got back to work in the garden bed. 

Lizzie liked this way they went about their… crushes, no use beating around the bush. Not having to hide it, but they had both agreed they didn’t feel the need to make it a standard kind of romantic relationship. It was for fun, more than anything else. 

There was something very freeing about being the only two alloromantic people in a house of aromanticism, surrounded by webs of queerplatonic and otherwise non-standard relationships, when considering a thing like theirs. Both of them had their marriages, Lizzie in a happily constructed romantic relationship with Joel, and Bdubs the happy queerplatonic partner of Cleo, but they were also both very aware of their feelings for each other. Those feelings didn’t go much deeper than fluffy romance for the two of them, but the underlying friendship and their security in the net of other dedicated relationships around them meant they could feel just fine about that. 

Funny thing about aromantic ideas, they’re actually a lot more freeing for everyone. 

Bdubs pushed open the back door to the house, stepping into the mudroom behind the kitchen, singing, “I’m home~!!” 

“You were in here 15 minutes ago, moss man!” Tango snickered from where he stood by the sink. 

“And that’s a long time for people to miss my beautiful face!” 

Tango set a sparkling clean bowl on the towel that had been laid on the counter beside the sink. It seemed the phoenix had ended up with the dish duties for the day. “Of course!” He murmured the next part under its breath, with a teasing twinkle in its eye, “would have liked another five minutes of peace and quiet though…”

“HEY!” 

Tango burst into laughter, setting down the sponge as he flipped to face Bdubs, leaning back against the counter as he clutched his stomach. “Oh, it’s too easy!” 

Bdubs put her hands on her hips, expression split between an offended scowl and a suppressed grin. “What’s easy?! Being- being rude!?” 

With a last huff of laughter, Tango took two fresh towels from a drawer, and tossed one to drape over Bdubs’ face in a gentle attack. “Making you mad, mossy. Come help me dry, will ya?” 

“Hmph!” Bdubs’ voice remained angry, but his big eyes were smiling when she pulled the towel off his face. “Only because I’m so nice. Unlike some people.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Grab that pan.” 

The two of them fall into an easy rhythm in moments, only the soft clatter of stacking dishes interrupting the comfortable silence. It’s like that with them, the teasing and ribbing flowing as easily as simple, undemanding company. Partners of the same partners, that’s kind of how it settled. There was something rather reassuring about the metamour relationship for them, where they knew what the other liked because they knew what they liked themself, a kind of mirror of affection. Maybe in a world where they hadn’t found themselves colliding from shared orbits, they would have run into each other on their own and filled the gaps. But probably not. It was too comfortable like this, why would they change anything? Held in proximity by the people around them, and happy to do so. 

The drying was done in just a few minutes, and Tango giggling at its own last joke at Bdubs as she stepped back out into the garden, watering can in hand. The phoenix put his hands on its hips, surveying the now clean kitchen. Seemed everything was done here, so now to decide what to do next…

The phoenix jumped and let out a very manly squeak as a loud BANG sounded from upstairs. 

“I’m fine!” Cleo’s voice followed. 

“You sure?’ Tango shouted up, already hopping up the stairs two at a time. 

“Yep, I’m sure! Just don’t come u-” 

Whoops. Too late. Tango had already pushed open the door to Cleo’s workshop. In its defense, the zombie ought to have known he’d come running at any scary sound. 

There were bronze feathers scattered across the floor, and a life-sized figure in smooth, blank clay laying awkwardly on its side. There was some kind of contraption wrapped around its torso to cling to its back, mangled wiring in two flared shapes. Wings. A few of the bronzed feathers hung from these outstretched tendrils of copper, still swinging from the momentum of the crash, and a few splinters of clay were still spinning where they’d shattered from the elbow that had taken the brunt of the impact when the statue fell. 

“Turns out, wings are a real pain to balance!” Cleo said, shooting Tango a flicker of a smile before kneeling to gather the feathers that had come to a stop at rots feet. Tango’s own wings readjust as it kneels to join her. 

“Wait, was this-?” 

“Yeah, it was for you, silly,” Cleo cut him off with a chuckle. “Or of you. Something like that.” 

“Whah! Wh-” Tango made a series of strangled sounds as his hair started to flare up, golden flames flicking to frame his flustered expression. 

Cleo laughed even more at that, and began to teasingly shake one feather at it like a disapproving finger. “I do nice things, Tango! Don’t be so surprised.” But their smile betrayed that there was no real hurt. 

It wasn’t everyday that the two of them did things like this for each other, but it also wasn’t rare either. Tango and Cleo exchanged the occasional gift, went on the occasional date, all in a platonic sense but certainly with gestures generally associated with romance. Their relationship was more based in much smaller gestures, like huddling up together when a storm had them on edge, or holding hands on the walk to stressful adulting business. They were founded on that kind of comfort, and it occasionally, naturally for them, bloomed into these kinds of things. They’d been jokingly called girlfriends enough times for them to be able to laugh about that kind of thing, so sure! They were “just” friends, but also did dating things. Why not? But it still managed to make Tango’s wings puff up with happy embarrassment about gestures like this. 

Cleo particularly liked getting those kinds of reactions from Tango. As she watched the phoenix stumble for a response to rots jabbing, they laid a hand on his shoulder briefly. “I’ll forgive you for the rudeness because you helped clean up though.” They rubbed her thumb over his shoulder quickly before letting up and walking to the desk in one corner of the workshop, where rot very gracefully dumped all the collected feathers. Tango followed and did the same, finally seeming to recompose itself to jab back. 

“You’d better! I gotta say, bangin’ around up here with a surprise, not even with the door locked? Rookie mistake on your part.” 

“It was meant to be locked!” Cleo exclaimed with a playful pout. “I told Etho to lock it when she left a minute ago.” 

Cleo then registered the footsteps that had been passing by a few seconds ago, but were now halted outside the room. A very quiet voice piped up. “I thought I’d locked it.” 

Tango exploded with laughter as Cleo banged open the door, laughing too hard to even pretend to frown at Etho. His own eyes were smiling though behind her mask. 

“Foiled! You have to help me fix it then, since Tango already took cleanup.” 

Etho leaned over to peek into the room, eyeing the contraption on the back of the statue Tango was currently standing back up. 

“Sounds fun, actually. You were having trouble with the balancing, yeah?”

“Yeah, extra limbs are always hard. And attaching the feathers is more of a puzzle than an art, really.” Cleo stepped to the side to let Etho into the room, and began to actually assess the damage to the statue. “I’ll need to patch up that elbow too… I’ll need fresh clay.” 

“I can grab you some,” Tango offered. 

“You’re my hero, that’d be lovely Tango.” The phoenix nodded, and hopped to the door, pausing in the frame before ducking out of sight and down the stairs. 

“Coming right up!” 

So Cleo was left to look at Etho while he looked at the statue. 

“Well?” 

“I would have thought that’d do the trick, honestly,” Etho began. “It looks even enough, particularly over the leg positioning.” 

Cleo chuckled and stepped to stand beside her, crossing rots arms as rot assessed the structure. “Well, that’s what I’d thought too, but,” they gestured to the bits of clay shattering on the floor, “boom.” 

“Yeah… not ideal, huh?” 

“Nope!” 

“Hm… have you tried anchoring it with some kind of extra plating?” 

The two of them were quickly caught up in flowing discussion, as natural as water rolling downhill. Didn’t even have to think about it, they clicked so well, and ideas seemed near-telepathically tossed between them. They were built on understanding, like that. It’s why a partnership worked so well, why they were home to each other. Who cared if Etho was a good kisser or any of that, it was never a thought that crossed Cleo’s mind, or vice versa for the fae to think about the zombie like that. They didn’t have to think much about their relationship at all past the few establishing conversations they’d had about it, it just fell into place. They understood each other, in ways no one else did. If that’s not what “queerplatonic” was for, then what was? 

After several minutes of this, Tango returned from digging through closets and storage chests with a package of fresh, soft clay, and Etho took a step back as Cleo reached out for it. 

“Thanks, Tango!” 

“No problem!” The phoenix glanced between the two of them. “You guys get it figured out?” 

“I think so,” Cleo mumbled, already only half-focused on conversing, hands now occupied with smoothing over the clay patch on the statue’s elbow. It made Etho chuckle, noticing the way they stuck rots tongue out between her teeth just the tiniest bit in focus. 

“I think rot’s got a handle on it now,” Etho said. “I’ll leave you to it Cleo.” The zombie’s focus broke for just a moment to shoot him a soft smile in silent thanks, before turning back to work. Tango seemed to be settling in to chat idly while she worked, but Etho turned on heel and headed downstairs. 

There was a breeze coming in through the open windows near the front of the house, and it drew Etho toward them. She found herself wandering into the living room, where he picked a seat near one of the larger windows, and-

“RAH!” 

“Joel!” Etho exclaimed with a laugh as he suddenly found one of the house’s two brown and green folk on top of him. Not soft enough to be Bdubs’ mossy form though, and the shout was definitely Joel’s. If it wasn’t for the sound and feel of her, though, Etho wouldn’t be able to identify him through the pile of person on top of him. 

“What Etho, you stuck? Fallen into my trap? Seems like I win, Etho, if you give up that easy!” Joel was managing to poke one finger into Etho’s ribs with each sentence, so Etho started working on detangling her arms to poke back. 

“I didn’t tap yet!” After a second the fae managed to grab what seemed to be Joel’s shoulder and tug him to the side, so the smaller figure was tucked somewhat into the spot in between the side of the armchair and Etho’s body. Somewhat. She was definitely still halfway on top of Etho, with one of Etho’s arms pinned behind him, but at least he could see Joel’s overly pleased grin now. “There.”

Joel pushed at Etho, partially readjusting and partially for the continued fight of it. “You’re pinching my leg, Etho.” 

“Well whose fault is that?”

“Yours,” Joel said with a smirk. Etho flicked her ear. 

“Okay, sure! Says the guy that jumped on me.” 

But as much as they were poking at each other, verbally and physically, neither of them were really trying to get away from the other. They just needed an excuse, of course. For the closeness, for them to be able to sit like this- and the wonderful thing was, they always found it with each other. The both of them had old problems with putting up walls, with their reputations seeming to push out any room for moments of weakness, but all it takes is one excuse to knock those down. Double Life’s soulmate bond, of course, but past that, little moments like this. For whatever reason, it was able to override any protest their proud minds might make. This was a sparring match, clearly, so they could relax and be fulfilled by the contact and presence of the other. And there was fun in the game, and a kind of admission of love under Joel caring enough to “attack.” At this point, they’d broken the walls down enough they were far more comfortable with the casual and sweet, but there was still such a power to these kinds of interactions. The ability to completely ignore any kinds of social rules, and just lay on top of each other in a chair that really didn’t fit them. 

“What are you two doing?” Lizzie piped in with a chuckle as she appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. 

“I’m winning,” Joel said, beaming as she reached back to poke Etho’s ribs another time to demonstrate. “See?” 

Lizzie shook her head as the grinned at the sight of them. “You’re going to break that chair.” 

“Joel might,” Etho said, which Joel of course repaid with an elbow to the gut. “Ow!” 

“He might fall out of it, if nothing else.” Lizzie glanced to give Etho a friendly wink. “You can give him a good shove, I won’t tell.” 

“Hey!” Joel shouted as Etho started to slowly push her in a way that would roll him over the chair’s arm and onto the floor if kept up. “You’re my wife, you’re supposed to be on my side!” 

“I mean, I think being your wife is the perfect reason to want to see you pushed onto the floor,” Lizzie said with a last giggle as she turned away from the doorway. “Love you!” 

Joel suddenly found himself on the floor. “Love you too.” He pushed himself up to sit criss-cross, and crossed her arms to match as she glared up at Etho. “Can’t believe you’d team up with my wife against me.” 

Etho giggled as he peered down over the armrest at Joel, propping his cheek up with one arm against it. “Let’s be honest, I could get anyone in this house to team up to get you.” 

Joel huffed, but not quite in an annoyed enough fashion to cover her own giggling. “Yeah, you’re right.” 

And she was. Across the web of relationships stretching through this house, there were a million little reasons for anyone else to join in on the fun, to feel comfortable enough to get in on the teasing without worrying about anyone going to far, to have affection worth demonstrating in such a way. Because Joel may have been married to Lizzie, but Lizzie was kissing Bdubs, and Bdubs was linked up to Tango through partnerships with Cleo and Etho, and Joel was tangled back up into it through each unique, inescapable connection. None of them were the same, but they were all built on this household. This house, safe and vibrant and alive as it was, shared by all of them, connected all of them. It was a messy thing, all the complexities and relationships that didn’t fit in boxes or under labels, but it was their family of a strange sort. The people who were havens of safety, the place they’d built to just exist together, comfortable and happy. Far from conventional, always a blur of interwoven interactions, but at the end of the day, dinner was usually at six, and everyone would have a bed to sleep in at the end of the night. 

What more could you expect from a home? 

[lisacameron99]

taylor pt 2

jj x routledge!oc

this is longer than most of my works lol

summary: explaining my love for different taylor swift songs, eras, and taylor overall to my long time crush, jj, a few months after topper cheated on me with sarah

warnings: jj being sweet and a swiftie, oc was cheated on, kiara is questioning her sexuality in this one, pope hasn't started dating cleo, john b and sarah are "complicated"

it had been a busy week. jj had worked on extra cars to make some extra cash, john b had been working on boats, and i had been doing a lot of school work, trying to stay on top of my ap courses. i hadn't seen jj in days, he had been coming home late, and i had been going to sleep early.

"you're doing homework on a friday?" jj chastised me, walking into the kitchen where i had my stuff sprawled out.

"i'm studying for my math test." i huffed. math was my worst subject. i never truly understood most of what was going on in class, leaving it to me when i needed to learn my stuff.

"you should be doing something fun on a friday. you work so hard, you deserve a break."

"i can't take a break. i have to study." i stressed. i put my pen in my mouth, chewing on the tip of the pen while going back to the numbers.

jj took the pen out of my hand and mouth and pushed my notes away from me. "you can study later. lets go for a walk."

"jj, i have to study. i have a test on monday and i don't understand any of the stuff that's going to be on the test." i pushed the hair out of my face and tried to grab my notes.

"eyes." i flickered my wild eyes up to his blue ones. "you need a break."

"but --"

"you need a break." i let out a breath before covering my face with my hands. "let's go for a walk."

"we could stay in and -"

"did you leave the house today after school?" i pursed my lips at the question. "let's go for a walk."

i stood up and grabbed my sweatshirt, that was actually one of jj's old ones, and slipped it on before sliding my shoes on.

"okay, lets go."

jj smiled with triumph, knowing he had one. idiot.

"i have a question about taylor swift." jj asked as we made our way across the grass.

"why all the interest in taylor swift all of the sudden?" i countered.

"can't i be interested in stuff that you are interested in?" jj raised his eyebrow questioning at me.

i narrowed my eyes in retaliation. "you can, but you usually don't like any of the same music i like."

"usually, but you make me listen to it so i might as well learn the music." jj pointed out.

"that's valid." i agreed.

"so you said that you have different songs from different albums for our friends."

"i did say that." i agreed.

"i want to know what songs. we've been listening to taylor swift a lot and i want to know what songs make you think of our friends."

"okay," i shrugged at him.

"so her first album... does it have a name?" he asked, scrunching his nose in confusion.

i nodded. "yeah, well, it's her self title album. most fans call it debut."

"and that's her country one?"

"yep, aesthetically speaking, it's the most country of all her albums. it's also her first albums so it's seen as youngest, it's not as mature as say like evermore or the tortured poets department."

"what is the aesthetic of it?"

"well, country, cowgirl, her country twang, her guitar, it's her country girl era."

jj nodded in agreement. "i can see that. in that said no song, it's very country."

"should've said no, right." i agreed with him. "so i guess the song that comes to mind when i think of kie, is a place in this world. it's all about finding yourself and i feel like that's very kie."

"i don't know that one." jj admitted, turning us so we were walking on the sidewalk.

"i don't listen to it that much. i don't really listen to debut. not because i don't like it, but just because i like other songs more."

"what about pope?"

"pope is hard, it's not really his album."

"pope listens to taylor swift?" jj smiled, finding it funny.

"yeah, johnny does too." i told him. "sarah is a swiftie too and he still listens to her music even though he and sarah are ... complicated."

"complicated is a very nice word for that."

"yep. very nice. so i think pope is probably invisible."

"that's the one she did for a surprise song and you and sarah were shocked right?"

"yeah, i mean, i can't believe half of the songs she sings as surprise songs are surprise songs. he could also be the outside. i think johnny is probably our song, or that's the song i associate with him anyways because we sing that one a lot when we are drunk."

"john b sings taylor swift when he's drunk?" jj asked, smirking like the bastard he was. "that's the best thing i've heard." i smiled when i saw the spark in his eye.

"sarah is probably tim mcgraw." i said, thinking about it. "and i'm probably cold as you."

"what am i?"

"you - you're tied together with a smile."

"that's your favorite song from debut."

"it is. and it makes me think of you."

"that's... very sweet." jj said after a moment. "i don't really know what to say." he laughed awkwardly.

"well, i don't either, so." i smiled softly, stepping up to the side of the ocean and taking a deep breath.

"well - uh - what's next?"

"fearless." the wind hit my face and i soaked in the ocean breeze.

"that was the first one she re recorded." i nodded in agreement.

"in order, i would say kie is fearless, pope is don't you, johnny is forever and always."

"i like that one. forever and always."

"i like the piano version more than the regular, but i know johnny likes the regular."

"i like both, depends on my mood."

"i would say that i am probably mr. perfectly fine."

"sarah is we were happy, that's a vault song. i've played it on the piano on a few times. and i am you belong with me." i stared at the side of his face as he looked across the ocean, taking in the waves crashing against each other and the water.

"okay." i shoved my hands into the pockets of the sweatshirt and stared with him. "next is speak now."

"that's the one sarah likes."

"it is. one of my favorite songs is from speak now -"

"haunted." jj cut me off and finished.

"how do you know that?"

"i basically live with you. i think i know your favorite songs." jj tugged my wrist out of my pocket and we made our way down the beach.

"i liked that one before everything with topper. i never let him take taylor swift from me."

"that's good, you should never let a man ruin anything for you. especially that dumbass kook." i gave a faint smile as we walked.

"well, anyways, i think that kie is probably when emma falls in love," i'll admit, i had always been jealous of kie and jj's friendship. many times she had tried to assure me there was nothing between them, but there was no denying jj liked her, even if he didn't admit it. i'm not sure how strong those feelings were now, but he definitely had a thing for her.

"she's emma and you're taylor, aren't you?" i gave a small nod, not wanting to talk about their relationship.

"well, it's a good thing that she likes sarah's friend melissa." i gave jj a sharp look. she liked melissa?

"since when?" i stammered.

"since they hooked up at the last kegger." jj smiled at me, making my tummy flip. "she hasn't told many people."

"i didn't know, i had no idea."

"i know." jj told me. "i felt like i should let you know."

"i won't say anything to her about me knowing." i promised jj. "i love kie and would never out her. when she's ready to tell me, she'll tell me."

"yeah, she's still trying to figure stuff out."

"well, good for her." i commented, feeling a little more at ease.

"i think we're still on speak now." jj said after a second. i could tell he wanted to say something else, but i let it go. i knew jj well enough to know he would tell me when he was ready to tell me. if i pushed him, he would shut down. i guess that was the biggest different between us, he needed time to process his thoughts. he was easily the biggest internal processor i had ever met. i, on the other hand, processed my information out loud most of the time. i was what was called an external processor. another difference between us is that jj was an extrovert and i was an introvert.

"oh yeah, well pope is probably ..." i had to think. "pope is probably mine. i think that sums up him if he ever gets into a relationship. johnny is long live, one hundred percent. i would say sarah is maybe the story of us? hmmm... ooo! she's actually innocent!" i nodded to myself. i didn't see the way that jj was giving me a soft smile. "and me, i'm probably sparks fly. and you,"i said looking up at jj. "you are -"

"enchanted." jj cut me off again.

"i was going to say mean but i guess you can take your pick."

"i'm not the song mean." jj said, shaking his head. "i'm a way more complex song than mean."

"mean is a complex song - okay, you know what, i'm not arguing with you about this."

"fine!" jj shot back, trying to hide his smile.

"fine!" this time, neither of us could cover our laughs.

"red is next - one of my favorite song is from red - state of grace."

"you play that one a lot."

"i do, i like both the regular version and the acoustic. depends on my mood."

"is that the song you think you are?" jj questioned.

"i mean, probably. i think it sums me up. i think kie is starlight. it's a really cute song and i think she'd like it and it fits her. the song that makes me think of pope is message in a bottle or begin again. johnny is i knew you were trouble. and you are the lucky one."

"can i tell you what song makes me think of you from red?" i was taken aback by his question.

"yeah," i was really curious to see what he said.

"it's nothing new."

"you know that song?"

"yeah. it makes me think of you."

"okay. that's sweet i think?"

"it is."

we rounded back on the house and i sighed knowing i needed to get some sleep. "well, let's round this night off with 1989."

"i can do this one." jj said. "you listened to this album the other day when we had to go to the main land. kie is new romantics. that song is poppy just like her. pope is welcome to new york. that dude's gonna go there some day and listen to that song, mark my words. bird is style. he says he and sarah are done but we all know that they're not." i nodded, agreeing with jj. they would never be done with each other. "i would say sarah is style too, but if i had to give her a different song it would be blank space."

"i agree with you so far. i think johnny could also be i wish you would."

"dude that song is so underrated!" jj said. "it's so catchy!"

"it definitely is! 1989 is pop perfection." i smiled, becoming getting. since sarah and johnny decided to take a break, i hadn't had anybody to discuss taylor swift with and it was fun to talk to jj about it.

"okay, moving on. i think i'm probably wildest dreams and you are i know places."

"the song from 1989 that i'm listening to is clean, but i know places is good too. i was also thinking suburban legends is a good choice for me, and say don't go might also be johnny."

we smiled at each other, once we caught each other's eyes.

"you have nothing to worry about." jj told me, stepping in front of me, making me stop from walking into the house.

"i don't know what you're talking about." i tried to deny.

"nah, you do." jj ran a hand through his hair. "you don't gotta worry about me liking anybody else." my eyes searched his, trying to read him. "i'm waiting until you're ready." i stared at him as he walked into the house. "are you coming in or going to be eaten alive by bugs all night?"

fin. def a long one.

one more part for sure (pt 3), probably even a pt 4. i have a lot of thoughts about taylor and obx that i'm trying to work through.

[snalz-artt]

forgot to post this doodle SAY HELLO to the shittiest bbc ghosts/mcyt au ever conceived, thankyou @/luigra for helping hehe

i have A LOT to say so its going under the cut this is soso silly

basic bbc ghosts plot: A young woman inherits a huge mansion estate in england from a dubious familial connection and moves in with her husband. They plan to renovate the manor and guesthouses to make into a hotel/venue, but when she falls out a window and almost dies, she comes back to life with the ability to See Ghosts. With the house being very historic, there are quite a few interesting characters (the falling out the window thing might be their fault, actually). Hijinks ensue.

———

CLEO: Cleo is the Allison of the story, she inherits the house and falls out the window, now.. undead(?) they can see and interact with the cast of Ghosts they’re now stuck with. Making ZombieCleo one of the Alive characters was too funny, sorry.

SCOTT: Scott is Mike!! Cleo’s best friend/partner/chosen soulmate (like in double life), he Cannot see the ghosts but completely trusts they exist.

They get up to various antics as they try to renovate and market the place, usually while being hindered or helped by the ghosts. I haven’t thought of a good pun on the name Button House yet though..

The ghosts are not all from any specific series, but a selection of ghosts/dead characters from multiple mcyt sources ^^

JOE: Joseph Hills takes the role of Thomas Thorne. He is a dramatic regency era poet who mostly follows Cleo around, trying to impress her with his… unique poetry, that was considered before his time. Their ghost theming comes from Beetlejhost of course.

RANBOO: Ronald Booth is Pat, a 1980’s Scout Leader. To be honest, this is just because Ranboo is very associated with the 80’s aesthetic and can fit the silly yes-man subordinate role, and of course was a ghost on the dsmp (Boo).

BDUBS: Bdubs is Robin!! A caveman who lived on the land well before the house was built. He’s seen it all, which fits Bdubs’ storyteller theme!! This is also just a fun visual choice because instead of wearing animal furs he gets to wear a big mossy coat. He also talks in a quite a unique and funny way which could replace how Robin talks like. Yknow, a Caveman. There was also a tiny bit in.. last life? Where bdubs was a ghost? (We were running out of ghosts at this point.)

SLIME: Charles Slime is Humphrey Bone, a headless tudor nobleman!!! Slime has a pretty constant track record of dying dramatically in mcyt (dsmp, epic smp, slimecicle cinematic universe) hence getting to be a ghost here. He has a lot of comedy that i think fits pretty well with being a ghost and with the visual humour of having your body separate to your head <3

FLIPPA: Juanaflippa as Jemima!!! I had to get one of the Eggs in here, even if i dont know much about qsmp at this point its just too perfect for one of them to be Jemima, since we have Charlie why not have Juanaflippa ^^ This can fit the common bbc ghosts fanon of Humphrey being found family for Jemima, with Charlie and Flippa’s father-daughter relationship. Creepy little singing ghost girl!!!

QUACKITY/MEXICAN DREAM: Yeah ok we were really running out of mcyt ghosts at this point, if you dont know anything about the dsmp you would probably think im making this up- uh, quackity plays him, he died and became a very prominent dsmp ghost. He takes the role of Julian as a 90’s politician character (like quackity/md in el rapids etc) here. I GUESS.

GHOSTBUR: Im pretty sure that while alive Kitty didnt blow up a country or whatever but the innocent and kind character of ghostbur fits the role of Kitty pretty well, with both having poor/inaccurate memories of their lives and being very sweet. A georgian noblewoman! Instead of Kitty he’d be called Willy or something. That way one of the ghosts can still have an innuendo name. Thats important.

JIMMY: Jimmy (James) as Mary. A stuart era peasant who got burned in the witch trials. He could still have the power to make people smell smoke, i think it fits the canary thing a bit. AND SPOILERS FOR BBC GHOSTS, Mary being the First Ghost of the main group to get.. sucked away is just too perfect. While never explicitly being a Ghost, Jimmy has such a connection to death that i think im justified.

PIX: Pixie as Fanny!!! He used to own the house many years ago and is now a ghost that really wants it to be perfectly historically preserved. Pix was a ghost in empires s2 and an archeologist who wanted to preserve history of course, so this fits the really proper and old fashioned personality of Fanny pretty well. Also her love of animals fits pix having the ghost cat and the dodos…

SCHLATT: Schlatt as The Captain, a repressed gay ww2 Captain who never actually saw any combat. He can fit the leader role that the Captain does, especially the fact that he just assumes himself the leader, and the others kind of don't take him seriously. Schlatt was a ghost, Glatt, on the dsmp! He will be a bit less.. nice? Than the bbc ghosts captain, but could still have a good bit of development.

bonus convex as the plague ghosts, vex are kind of ghosty, right?

[digital-corruption]

Send in the Clowns

⚠ Trigger warning: Not suitable for people with coulrophobia (fear of clowns)

"Everyone's here?" MC asked as she walked into the small meeting room of the Mystery Investigators, Inc. office in Colville.

In the middle of the room sat a second-hand, oval wooden table with mismatching wooden chairs around it. Jake sat at the far end working at his laptop, ignoring Jessy and Cleo who had been gossiping all the latest happenings in Duskwood. Dan sat at the other end opposite Jake. While he seemed to be in quiet contemplation, the truth was he was still a bit hungover from the night before from one too many drinks at the Aurora.

"Well, everyone that was available," Jessy corrected. "Thomas and Hannah are still on their road trip and Lilly got stuck doing double shifts. She says, 'Hello', and wishes she could join us."

"Ah well, we'll take what we can get," MC shrugged and put a couple of large paper shopping bags down in the middle of the table.

"Hey, you've got me. What more do you need?" Dan boasted. "Honestly you could just send the rest of them home."

"Oh so you know how to bypass biometric locks?" Jake mocked.

"I am sure I can work it out. I graduated from the MacGyver School of Resourcefulness," Dan joked. "Just need some tape and some powder and boom! Instant fingerprint!"

"That might work on locks from the 80s, but this is the 21st century," Jake rolled his eyes. "And what would you do if it had an eye scanner?"

"The ol' knock-out-a-guard-and-hold-his-eye-open-in-front-of-the-scanner trick, duh!" Dan beamed.

"Wait, we're knocking out guards?" Cleo questioned.

"No, we are not!" MC exclaimed. "This is a nonviolent operation!"

"Ugh, fine," Dan leaned back in his seat with disappointment. "I suppose Jake can come then."

Cleo sighed with relief, "Ok, good. You know I don't mind a little B & E, but I have my limits."

"Well if everything goes according to my plan, you won't have to worry about the guards at all," MC began. "Our target is Jorge Santos. You may have seen his name on the signs around the city. He's a real estate agent here and we believe he's been scamming some of his clients, but the only way we can prove that is with access to his home computer."

"Is this legal?" Cleo questioned.

"Cleo, the man is an asshole," Dan pointed out.

"Yes, but if they steal information and give it to the police, it can't be used against him, right?" Cleo asked.

"If our goal was to get him arrested, sure. There are other ways to ruin him though," Jake interrupted.

"Our client knows proving a crime actually happened will be difficult with the way these scams are done. However, leaking the right information will heavily damage his image and his name, especially with high profile clients. The goal is to get the truth out in the open," MC explained.

"Ok, let's do it," Dan nodded. "What’s the plan?"

"Well, getting into Santos' house- mansion really, won't be easy. Due to his connections with the mob, his place is guarded. However, it also turns out Santos has an 8 year-old son who turns 9 on Monday. And Santos is going all out on his birthday party. His son wants a circus and has requested clowns," MC smiled with confidence.

"Wait, you mean…" Cleo trailed off, looking around the room.

"Jake as a clown!?" Dan burst out laughing. "This is the best news I've heard all year!"

"You too, numbskull," Jake glared from his laptop.

"Huh, what?" Dan's face twisted.

"Yes, I've ordered five costumes," MC motioned to the bags on the table.

"I think it will be fun," Jessy grinned.

"I don't know the first thing about being a clown," Cleo grimaced. "I could bake the pies though."

"Ah, just make it up as you go!" Jessy encouraged. "That's the great thing about clowns, right? Do whatever feels fun and silly!"

"I think it involves a lot more than that," Cleo frowned.

"Yeah, like a sense of humour," Dan mocked, earning him three eye rolls and a kick to his shin.

"Anyway, how do you propose to sneak around as clowns?" Cleo inquired. "I can't imagine clown costumes will provide much stealth."

"Not with squeaky shoes," Jessy humoured.

"But you need squeaky shoes if you're trying to appear authentic," Dan pointed out, already completely on board. "And a big, red noggin' for him."

Jake narrowed his eyes, "You’re enjoying this way too much."

"Oh, I'll be taking photos. Never know when I might need some quality blackmail material," Dan joked.

"Just remember I will have equally as much blackmail on you, if not more," Jake glared.

"Why would you have more?" Dan raised his eyebrow confused.

"Well, while you three are performing on stage, Jake and I will be breaking into the target's home office," MC shrugged.

"Excuse me!?" Cleo said abruptly. "While we're what!?"

"It'll be fine," Jessy insisted. "We'll spray water at each other and throw pies. The kids will love it."

"I also rented one of those tiny cars. Make Dan go into it and drive around all scrunched up. The kids will love it," MC assured them.

"I am pretty sure I had a nightmare once about this," Cleo sighed. "Ah screw it. It's just for a little while."

"So you’re in?" MC questioned.

"Yes, I'm in," Cleo waved her hand. "But I'm in charge of baking the pies. If I am going to have a pie smushed in my face, it must at least taste halfway decent!"

MC glanced at Jessy, her secretary. "Oh of course you know I'm in, boss," she giggled.

MC looked over to Dan, "Seeing Jake with a rainbow wig, ugly ass clothes and oversized red shoes is more than enough payment for me."

"You too, Dan," Jake reminded him. "You’re going to be wearing the same damn thing!"

"Yes, but you're going to be dressed as a clown," Dan reiterated. "And that will never get old."

"Ok, it's currently 10 o'clock. The party starts at 4. Let's get to it!" MC declared.

"Ah! I need to buy ingredients! Tell me you have pie pans!" Cleo jumped out of her chair.

"This is a private investigator's office. Why on earth would we have pie pans?" Jake pointed out.

"You at least have an oven?" Cleo frowned.

"A microwave oven?" MC shrugged.

"It’s ok, we can use my apartment," Jessy interrupted. "I have everything there."

"So I guess I'll just sit here and take a nap for the next five and a half hours?" Dan leaned back and stretched out his legs.

"Oh, no, you’re coming with us!" Cleo objected. "We can practise between batches."

MC nodded, "I'll go over the plans again. Jake you… you do Jake things."

Jake smiled, "I'll check all the programs."

"Great, let's reconvene here in four hours for costume changes, hair and makeup," MC announced.

"What? How long does is it take you to paint your faces white?" Dan asked astonished.

"It could take us that long just to get your feet into the big shoes," Jessy joked.

Six hours later, the Mystery Investigators, Inc. van rolled up to the security gate in front of the Santos mansion. Its occupants were in full costume and face paint. Their fake flowers pinned to their chest were full of water, ready to spray. Their pies were fresh and ready to be thrown. Dan sat in the back, practising his juggling every time the van stopped. Jake worked on his laptop doing Jake things. The three girls sat in the front with MC driving. A clown car had been loaded into the back, making the van heavier than usual.

"Company name?" The security guard asked, peering through the driver side window.

"Funky Feet. We're one of the hired acts for the party today," MC responded casually.

The guard checked his clipboard to confirm, "Ok, drive up and park on the left side by the servant's entrance."

"Servant's entrance?" Cleo questioned under her breath. "This guy makes that much money off real estate?"

MC nodded and closed the window as the gate opened, then drove up the driveway cautiously.

"You do when you're selling entire city blocks," Jessy pointed out.

"And work for the mob. Don't forget that mob part! No one makes that much money legally anymore," Dan spoke up.

"Now, now, it's time to get into character," said MC as she parked beside a catering van. "We're happy, jovial clowns, remember?"

"Yeah, happy, remember?" Dan nudged Jake with one of his bowling pins. "No sad clowns here."

Under his white face paint, thick red painted lips, blue stars over his eyes, bright green wig and big red nose, Jake glared at Dan. He reached his hand up and squeaked his nose.

"I can be happy," he said flatly.

"Could you at least say that with a smile?" Dan burst out laughing.

Jake faked a smile, but somehow it was even creepier.

"Stop! Stop! You're making it worse! Sweet Jesus, don't give this man any red balloons!" Dan cried out. "Every child is going to have nightmares tonight, I guarantee it!"

"Would you two stop?" MC frowned. "Come on, unload the little car."

Dan bounced up to his feet with two squeaks of his oversized red shoes as Jessy and Cleo went round the back to open the rear van doors. Jake begrudgingly shoved his laptop away in his backpack before getting up to help push the clown car out of the van. Once the car was out, Jake pulled MC aside.

"I'm not scary, am I?" he pouted.

"Aw, hey, don't listen to him. I mean look at Dan. Who are the kids going to be more frightened of? A little ol' sad clown or McBeefy, the body builder clown?" MC joked.

"His muscles do look ridiculous in those bright yellow clothes and those stupid looking suspenders," Jake conceded.

MC leant up and gave his nose a quick peck, not wanting to ruin her own makeup, "Hey, no sad clowns allowed here today, ok?" She moved around to rejoin the group, fighting the urge to laugh at the sight of Dan climbing into the tiny clown car. "Alright team! It's time for operation 'Send in the Clowns!'"

"No pun intended," Jessy giggled.

MC shook her head in amusement, then turned to lead the way around the side of the house to the backyard. The others followed her on either side with Dan in the clown car, Jessy and Cleo carrying boxes full of neatly stacked pies, and Jake working on his happy clown expression, which only got them startled looks from the other hired staff that they passed. Still, it was a power walk like none other seen before, with their oversized red shoes that squeaked out of sync with each other and their bright coloured wigs.

The event organiser approached MC and asked, "Ok, what act are you with?"

MC looked at her clown costume and at the others before turning back to the organiser, "We're the clowns."

The organiser rolled his eyes, "I can see that, but there are multiple clown groups." He gestured to the stage where another troupe was performing.

"We have competition!?" Dan exclaimed. "Oh it is on!"

"Dan! This is not a circus talent show! It's a kids party!" Cleo hushed him.

"Are you going to be satisfied with being second best?" Dan pointed out.

Cleo was quiet for a moment before responding, "I bet their pies taste like trash."

"Their clothes are too coordinated and don't even clash with their hair," Jessy winced.

"They don't have a clown car," Jake pointed out.

"Ha! Even hac-" Dan caught himself before he slipped. "Harlequin boy is getting into it!"

Jake glared at Dan, knowing full well what Dan nearly yelled for everyone to hear.

"Could you do something about that one?" The organiser gestured to Jake. "He's going to give kids nightmares if he keeps that up."

MC smiled while fighting back laughing, "I assure you once he gets into character, he's all smiles. He's just having a bad day because someone hit his cat this morning."

"Oh! I am sorry to hear that. Well, you can warm up over by the hors d'oeuvres table," the organiser motioned.

The group moved over to the buffet table and set down the boxes while Dan parked the car and climbed out. As he was stretching out, the performers on stage finished and swarms of children got up and flooded the area, catching the group by surprise. Dan quickly started to juggle his bowling pins in an attempt to entertain the children.

“You suck!” one of the children yelled suddenly, causing Dan to miss one of the pins. The children all burst out laughing from the comical squeak as it landed on his shoe, followed by the comical pained squeak from Dan’s mouth.

Dan grumbled under his breath, “You little twerp!” But then another child jumped on his oversized shoe to make it squeak again and landed on his toes in the process. A series of comical squeaks streamed from Dan’s mouth.

Meanwhile Jessy pulled out a long balloon from her pocket and blew it up to twist into a balloon animal, “Who would like a dog balloon?”

“I want an elephant!” one of the kids called out.

“Well, I don’t do elephants. I do dogs,” Jessy frowned. “Tell you what, I can make you a giraffe!”

“No, an elephant!” the kid reiterated.

Jessy was so stressed that she ended up popping the balloon anyway. The kids all laughed while she quickly tried to blow up another balloon, but one of the naughty kids poked the balloon with a pin and caused it to pop in her face.

Cleo would’ve come to Jessy’s aid, but she was busy trying to keep the children away from her carefully baked pies, “No touchies!”

Jake on the other hand was slowly walking backwards, trying to get as far away from the mob as possible. However some of the children spotted him and started poking at him.

“What’s in the backpack?” one asked.

“Hey, can you do any tricks?” another pestered.

“Why aren’t you smiling?” another pressured. “Clowns are supposed to be happy!”

“You are a terrible clown!” one called out.

“Ah, he’s so creepy!” another cried.

MC panicked, not sure who to help first. She hadn’t imagined there would be so many children. It felt like the entire school had been invited to the party, or at least the entire grade.

The previous performers walked past sneering at them, “What a bunch of amateurs!”

Just then, MC spotted one of the toddler’s tricycles and grabbed it. She sat down and started awkwardly riding around the group. Jessy saw her and joined MC on a tricycle as well, trundling along beside her. The kids pointed and started giggling at how ridiculous they looked. Dan walked in front of them and jokingly tried to stop them using pantomime, but the girls ran into him and they all fell over. Cleo shook her head, then grabbed two pies and dumped them on the heads of the two female pranksters. A couple of the kids ran over and jumped on top of Dan, but he lifted them up with his monstrous strength and stood up, then pretended to weight lift while the kids held onto his arms. A couple more children jumped on and tried to weigh Dan down, but he couldn’t be stopped.

Amidst all of the chaos, Jake watched by the sidelines confused as to what to do. A young girl grabbed his hand, catching him by surprise.

“It’s ok to be sad,” she looked up at Jake with sympathy.

Jake was speechless, but then he remembered he had a few paper flowers in his coat pocket. He had intended to give them to MC, but he decided it wouldn’t hurt to give one to away. He took it out and offered it to the little girl with a soft smile. As soon as she saw the flower she eagerly took it from him and ran off to show her mother. The speed that she ran off bewildered Jake, but he caught MC watching him with a smirk on her face. Not understanding why MC would look at him like that, he looked away and blushed, hoping the white paint would cover the redness in his face.

While MC was distracted, Cleo and Jessy started play bickering amongst themselves and threw pieces of pie back and forth between them. Some of the kids got involved and started to take sides. They grabbed the expensive hors d’oeuvres as ammunition and soon an all out food fight broke out. MC took the opportunity to sneak out and grab Jake’s hand. While security desperately tried to get the fight under control, they ran off towards the house.

“I started to worry we wouldn’t get away,” Jake commented as he plugged a handheld device into the security pad and unlocked it with brute force.

“Ah, creating chaos is what we do best,” MC smirked, while watching for guards.

“Ok, door’s open. Let’s go,” Jake announced as he opened the door for MC.

MC ran in first. As she spent the afternoon studying the house’s floorplan, she knew exactly where the office was. What she hadn’t expected to find was a guard exiting the bathroom as they came around the corner. They caught him still in the middle of zipping up his pants. Before he could pull out his sidearm, Jake stepped in front and squirted the liquid from his fake flower on his chest into the guard’s face. The guard stepped back stunned, then collapsed unconscious on the ground.

“What the hell was that?” MC exclaimed.

Jake shrugged as he stepped over the unconscious guard, “I figured swapping the water out would come in handy.”

“You did what!?” she glared. “What if one of the kids go their hands on it!?”

“You can discipline me later. Help me pick him up,” he leant down and lifted the guard by his armpits.

MC facepalmed herself in her head while she bent over and picked up the guard’s ankles. Quickly they shuffled him over to a closet and dropped him on the floor. After checking the hallway was clear, they made a mad dash for the office. As they expected. the office door had a digital lock as well, except this one had a fingerprint scanner. Jake pried open the panel and plugged in his device directly into the board, but it was taking a lot longer to break into.

“Dan’s method would’ve been faster,” MC teased.

“No, it would not,” Jake rolled his eyes. “We’d have to find the right fingerprints first and with so many people in the house, there’s no way of knowing whose print is whose. It’s almost done. Give it a bit more time.”

After another minute, the device finally beeped with success. The door clicked open, and MC dashed inside the office. Jake snapped the panel closed again and shut the door behind him.

“Check his bookcase while I install the virus on his computer,” Jake motioned to the bookcase on the side of the room as he marched over to the desk.

“Pfft, I give the orders around here,” MC frowned.

Jake glanced up and raised his eyebrow, “Would you like to break into his computer instead?”

“No, I’m good,” she turned away and started shuffling through the unmarked folders in the bookcase.

Jake shook his head and plopped down in the leather chair. Swiftly he pulled out his laptop and plugged it into the back of the all-in-one computer monitor. As soon as he unlocked his laptop, he started running his program to bypass the PIN login on Santos’ computer.

“There’s nothing here,” MC sighed and stepped away from the bookcase, then glanced over at the very serious clown sitting at the computer typing away like it was life or death. She pursed her lips in an attempt to keep a straight face, but as Jake looked up and noticed her watching, she burst out laughing anyway. “I’m sorry, you just look so ridiculous sitting there looking like that.”

Jake reached up and squeezed his red nose, “The things I do for you.” He couldn’t help but smile as he returned to his work.

MC giggled then noticed in the window behind Jake that Dan, Cleo and Jessy were being chastised by the event organiser. He was absolutely furious, but then one of the children threw a pie at him. While he was distracted, the others ran off with the kids helping their escape. MC then noticed the guard they had knocked out stumbling into the yard gesturing and shouting about a surprise clown attack.

“Oh shit! Jake! We’ve gotta go!” MC gasped.

Jake glanced over his shoulder at the chaos ensuing outside. Not wanting to leave the clown car behind, Dan jumped in and started to drive off just fast enough to keep ahead of security. Jessy and Cleo jumped onto the sides of the car and held for dear life. Jake snapped back around and quickly unplugged his laptop, shoving it back into his backpack.

“The installation is finished. Let’s get out of here before the cops arrive!” Jake said in a hurry.

The two ran for the door so fast their wigs fell off. MC nearly tripped over her shoes as they entered the hallway so she ripped them off and Jake followed suit. Running in their rainbow-coloured socks, they bumped into maids and cooks as they made their way for the servant’s entrance. At some point they lost their red noses, but they couldn’t remember when. As they exited the building, Dan was driving the clown car into the van with Jessy and Cleo still on holding on. MC ran for the driver’s side door while Jake went for the passenger side. They jumped in just as the girls closed the backdoors tight. MC swiftly turned the van on and put it into the reverse gear. She went backwards so quickly, she nearly hit some of the security guards, but sped forwards before they could recover. Luckily the security gate was already open to let a catering van through when MC pushed through in front of them and made it back out onto the open road. In the distance they could hear approaching sirens, but she quickly regained her cool and dropped back down to the speed limit, hiding amongst the everyday traffic on the road.

“Oh my God!” Cleo cried out from the back. “That was nuts!”

“Did we do it?” Jessy asked. “Please tell me we did it.”

MC glanced over at Jake, who was wiping the makeup off his face with a towel. He nodded to MC in confirmation.

“We did it,” she announced.

Later that night social media erupted when phone camera footage of Dan driving the clown car with Jessy and Cleo hanging on top while being chased by security was posted to Tiktok. Thankfully due to the heavy makeup and costumes, no one could identify them. Within the following days documents were leaked to the internet detailing Jorge Santos’ dirty techniques and scams to drive property prices up and down as he saw fit, but unsurprisingly no one managed to connect the two events together. Mystery Investigators, Inc. were successful once again.

[the-lavender-creator]

OKAY! I’m sleepy and tried as fuck, it’s 1 am and I feel like I’m about to slip off into the best damn sleep ever. But for some damn reason I decided NOW was the very best time for me to come and rant my heart out about your fic.

forgive me. This might be long.

AGGHHHDBDUSBSJAHIH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHHHHH-

Sorry. Had to get that out of me. It’s my knee jerk reaction to before, during, and after reading you fic.

now onto the- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

oh! Guess I had a little more in me! Ok now I seem- AGHHHH- to be- AGHHU- a little - Hxjdsisjsi- better???

BUT GOSH ALL THE THUNDER ANGST IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVED IT AND MY POOR LITTLE PATHETIC WET CAT LITERALLY

ok on to the specifics!!

first of all. I like how you make this a whole ass overall arc about Clawdeen and Toralei getting together, Toralei dealing with her plan and her feelings. And also hee super horrible mom RATerina! While also sprinkling in some absolutely god damn DELECTABLE thunder angst scenes. Oh I ate those up so ravishingly. They were so nice and angst and the most tasty words alive!

But yeah. The opening contrast of how Lighting is a norm to Monsters. And lots of times needed and wanted, compared to Thunder. Which is something Toralei fears more than anything. It’s just such a nice highlight. Cause really. Just like Cleo had her fear of the dark. It’s an unusual fear for monsters. These are stuff Humans are afraid of. And that’s probably something that gets under Toralei’s skin as well. Because Monsters don’t fear the dark or storms. They thrive in it. So when she, a definite monster, has this fear of a species she’s been trained to despise, it’s probably just this extra level of overwhelming humiliation and shame. And it really sets the tone nicely opening up!

I loved the first flashback, how it really shows the early signs of brainwashing and toxic ideologies her Mom had ingrained into her. Toralei loves power and thrives on it. It’s an unknowing coping mechanism. But at a young age she isn’t shown that it’s okay not to be in charge, and that others can be royalty too. Thag others can be in charge as well. That she’s not better than others. She was never taught that and it’s sad to read it through a child’s eyes.

and It’s so weird to see the dynamic Toralei and Lagooona have. Not friends. And more like. Hostages. Lagoona is somewhat of a hostage in her own room. Having her most personal thing used against her- where have we seen this before OH YEAH! FROM Raterina!!!

to think Toralei has inherited some of her mothers abusive traits is terrifying. For she truly is just an abused little girl who never got the love she deserved.

And oh. Oh my dear little heart. How it shriveled at reading the part where her mom yells and rants at her for hours until she is sobbing and crying hysterically for hours on end. My poor sweet girl who just wanted a hug got nothing but hate instead.

and OH. my head as poor little Toralei who wanted to be all grown up. Left alone in the house and realizing she left her guitar outside. Poor little kitten clinging to a branch and crying for all she’s worth as she thinks she’s gonna die. And what’s worse is she’d rather risk that imminent death and fear instead of going inside and risking her mothers wrath. god that sounds like a trauma inducing fear if I’d heard of any.

Ooooo the first Clawdeen and Toralei scene. Very interesting. Tantalizing. Fun how Toralei finds her adorable but excuses it like everyone does. It’s odd to see her try and manipulate her. But also it’s just. So easy to see at the same time. Hee wirh her British accent and feline smirk. Sharp claws and predatory eyes. So complex

Damn Raterina really was pulling the strings to Toraleis entire childhood. It’s gross in a way. Like she’s nothing but a puppet to her. A plaything she can control what happens too.

Also odd. Toralei says she doesn’t actually have anything against Lagoona. But it’s rather the fate of species. Is this something her mother has said? Or something that people assume from her that she eventually went ‘Oh, uh. Guess I have to hate her then?’ Too.

OH MY BABY. MY SWEET SWEET GIRL. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DONT CRY AND SHUFFER AND FUEBUFSNAIFHSUS (I love it. Hurt me more!)

Lol. Not her having a journal that said ‘diary’ in giant fancy letters that she can’t find a way to cover up. That’s such a mood. Why do companies even put diary on the front. It’s obviously embarrassing.

still rolling in my bed over the thunder angst. Poor kitty huddled up in a ball and crying and shaking and-

ok. I’m really trying not to loose myself in the angst here!

”that’s insensitive to mer-folk”

ok BESTIE THAT WAS ACTUALLY SO FUCKING FUNNY. idk y but I found that so hilarious.

Toralei giving draculaura a compliment then immediately insulting her lack of appreciation for the compliment is such a mood and a her thing idk what to do.

LOL ‘how to lure in a wolf and date her’. Throw the saddest fucking party in existence and fully lean into how much of a pathetic wet cat I am, and desperately try to ignore how deeply this all plays into my everlasting trauma from my mother!!!!

No but Raterina never celebrating Toraleis birthday 😩

Toralei the DRAMA. the one woman act. Turning up the pathetic wet cat levels to extreme today.

Aww little Frankie just wants to help but was definitely shoved into high school way before they were ready and honestly that’s so much trauma in itself cause they’re parents literally created them and the first thing they do is send them away to literally live out their life. Like- um. WHAT. The abandonment and rejection they must subtly feel. Like. Wow.

uh anyway this is about toralei.

Toralei. The drama. Who decides to have along ass gay fake romance with Clawdeen to get the necklace instead of just snatching it from her while she sleeps is such a gay mood I can’t.

it’s like ‘On one hand. I could sneak into her room and jsur steal it away? I’m a werecat I’m agile and silent! No one would hear or see me. It’s foolproof. And I have the necklace to give to my mom and win her love!….. OR I COULD DATE CLAWDEEN AND HAVE A SLOWBURN GAY ROMANCE AND BE GAY AND POSTPONE THE MISSION AND MAKE IT TAKE AS LONG AS FUCKING POSSIBLE!

oooo I’ll go with the second one! Definitely a smart decision!

AND NO POOR BABY NOT MORE PAIN AND ANGST AND YES I FUCKING LOVE IT ITS SO DELICIOUS AND JUICY AND RAW AND ANGSTY AND FONDUFNSUD CLAWDEEN IMMEDIATELY HUGGING HER AND TELLING HER ITS GONNA BE OK AND MY HEART IS BLEEDING EVERYWHERE

NO MORE TRAUMA WITH RATERINA. RHAT BITCH.

KSKSKDKS OOOOOO TORALEI YOU GAYYYY. WE ALL SEEEE ITT.

the vulnerability of fears 🥹. The little heart to heart is so precious. The exact moment toralei kinda screws up her plan by falling in love with Clawdeen

DAMN MEOWLODY AND PURRSEPHONY SO SUPPORTIVE AND MEAN AND BRUTAL AT RHE SAME TIME. like on one hand they’re being good people. But on the other GUYS TORALEI IS JUST A BAY GAY. A PATHETIC WET CAT. SHE DOESTN KNOW ANY BETTER BE KIND TO HER.

THE CONFESSION. BE STILL MY HEART.

AND YEAH THEIR ALL GAY AND HAPPY AND-

OH FUCK HERE COMES RATERINA. TIME FOR MORE AMAZING ANGST

NOOO NOT TORALEI IMMEDIATELY SHIFTING TO THE MEAN COLD TRAUMA PERSONA SHES BESN FORCED TO BE BY HER SUPER MEAN MOTHER.

oh man how angry I felt when Raterina greeted her by roughly grabbing her chin and telling her she looked like shit basically. Like THE ANGER

nooo more trauma. Her mom sucks ass.

Aw Toralei just wants to protect Clawdeen .

NO. NOT A THUNDERSTORM. NOT AT THE WORST POSSIBLE TIMING SHOWINB THE MOST HUMILIATING VULNERABILITY IN FRONT OF SOMEONE WHO WILL EXPLOIT IT MERCILESSLY AND MAKE THEM FEEL PATHETIC ABOUT IT! (Not me reacting as if I didn’t prompt that exact thing)

NOOOOO SHUT UP RATERINA.

YEAH GET OVER THEIR AND DEFEND YOUR GIRLFRIEND

SOMEONE GIVE TORALEI A FUCKING HUG

WHOOOOO LETS GO DRACULAURA.

LETS GO BLOODGOOD. SLAY BITCH

YES KICK HER ASS OUT!

Love how Frankie and Draculaura know to leave them alone. Almost as if they know Toralei showing this much vulnerability must already be mortifying for her. Especially with her mom calling her pathetic for it.

HDBSUDNS CLAWDEEN BEING SO SWEET AND TORALEI ADMITTING HER ORIGINAL INTENTIONS THROUGH THE TEARS AND FEAR. THIS WAS ACTUALLY SUCH AN EMOTIONAL RAW SCENE AND PROBABLY MY FAVORITE ONE BESIDES THE RATERINA THUNFER CONFRONTATION.

legitimately I love how she admits it. Cause she doesn’t want to keep anything away from her now. Cause she loves her so much and she’s getting love and comfort she’s so unfamiliar with and her mom truly just sucks ass and gosh. And how Clawdeen knew but had so much faith in her. Probably the first one to every trust and have faith in her. Loving her nevertheless. Finding the good in her.

YES. THEM ENDING WITH SNUGGLES AND COMFORT THROUGH THE STORM. THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING!

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH LAVANDER. THANK YIU SO GOD DAMN MCUH FOR WRITING THIS THIS IS TRULY A WORK OF ART. THIS REVIEW LITERALLY TOOK ME AN HOUR IT IS NOW TWO AM IM TIRED AS SHIT. BUT I HOPE YOU LIKED THIS. IM SO SORRY ITS SO LONG!

NUHBGYVFT AND THE WINNER FOR THE LONGEST NON-BEE MOVIE ASK EVER SENT GOES TO-

But also. AHhhhhhh thank you so much this is like legit my favorite ask ever, I love when people give me their scene-by-scene thoughts on my fics, tysm <3

For anyone who hasn't read it, the fic in question is There's Always a Storm!

[mossfordays]

Guys new charecter pitch:

Seamus Finnigans mom

“Dads a muggle, mums a witch, but of a nasty shock for him when he found out.”

(Detailed headcannons below)

What we know:

Left the Wizarding World sometime after Hogwarts

Didn’t talk about it for a while (trauma?)

Had a son named Seamus who acts like that

Is Irish

Has a sibling (source: Seamus discussing cousin who does magic)

Took Seamus riding through the countryside on a broomstick throughout his childhood

Potential names:

Claire Finnigan (my favorite)

Cleo Finnigan

Cassie Finnigan

Finn’ (nickname of her last name, doesn’t use her first name) (I’m gonna refer to her like this cause it’s short)

Potential Blood Status:

Muggleborn or half-blood (elaborate headcannon about Seamus’ cousin in relation to Finn’s blood status)

Potential House:

Hufflepuff (based on the fact we have like no Hufflepuffs, but also look at her son, tell me it wouldn’t make sense his mother was a Hufflepuff)

Quidditch? Yes, Seeker

Potential friendships:

Mary? In the “Mary is Deans mom” headcannon this would be fun to play with, both of them leaving the Wizarding World together and raising their sons as best friends, or simply both leaving the Wizarding World and their sons meeting at Hogwarts

Peter, potentially. I think this really stems from the fact that whenever there’s an extra person I think they should be friends with Peter so he had a life

Pandora! I think they would get along because Finn would have a bit awkward but extremely kind and friendly personality and her and Dora would vibe

Amelia Bones as… mentor! I headcannnon Amelia as a Hufflepuff in Alice, Frank and Narcissas year so I think it would be fun to see her also act as a mentor to Finn like they all do in their respective households.

I don’t think she ever got that close with the core Marauders, except for Peter, because they were all very intimidating to her. I do think she got along quite well with the Ravenclaws. I think this also fits well because Amelia and Sybil were very close (according to my mind and one mutual that said so), so as Amelia spent a lot of time with the Ravenclaws and decided to introduce this scared quiet Hufflepuff to them.

[theyluvsierra]

PART 5 JJ MAYBANK X Y/N

Warings:eating disorder, depression, hospitalization,SH,suic!de,drugs

Kie:I ordered pizza

Everyone: yum

*everyone hut y/n grabs a slice*

Kie:Y/n do u want some

Y/n:oh no thanks I ate a lot earlier and I'm taking care of the baby

Sarah:kie can me and u go to the store later I wanna get more pickles and ice cream

Y/n:pregnancy cravings hitting hard I assume

Sarah:yep

John b:I had to get this girl more ice cream and pickles from Wal-Mart at 2:30 am

Jj:u only do it cause u love her

A few weeks pass and the pogues would always order and cook food y/n would always say she is taking care of the baby and is full bc she ate already they also barely see y/n

Jb:I ordered Chinese

Kie:I'm not that hungry so im just gonna take a egg roll and some white rice

Pope:I'll take some chicken a egg roll,soup,dumplings, and Cleo I hot ur plate and soda for us

Cleo:thank u baby I love u

Kie:jb have u seen our sister (y/n)

Jb:no I only saw her once today

Jj:weird

Pope:I haven't seen her much in these past few weeks

Cleo:no one knows

Cleo:me either

Sarah:me either

Waves (the dog):*barks*

They hear a thud

Waves: *barks* signaling them

Everyone puts their plates down

Waves:*walks to y/n's room*

Jb:opens the door

Everyone sees coral (y/n and jjs daughter in the baby carrier y/n passed out)

Pope:how did this happen

Sarah:walks in sees there is a lighter next to y/n and burn marks on her arms and legs

Kie:jb I found a note

Jb:what's it say

Kie:if u find this note I probably have passed out from not eating anything and the baby is probably down with me and fainted and has a red spot on her cheek and jj I loved u so much so did coral and kid u were my sister I loved going to tan on the beach and jb I had so much fun surfing with u pope I had fun with u when we climbed the mountain on the beach and Cleo and me jumped off -love y/n

Jj:*crying* wait what about coral

Pope:*sniffles* I think she's gone too

Jb:*cries* probably

Sarah:*sniffling* call the fcking hospital

Cleo:*sniffling* dont be dumb pope hurry up call

Pope:calls

The operator: hi this is 911 what's ur emergency

Pope explains

30 mins late jj gets in the ambulance with y/n and the baby

Everyone Else drives in the Twinkie

At the hospital

Jj:so coral and y/n are in one big room with a bed and an incubator when can all stay the night

Jb:everyone grab ur things they follow jj

Jj:*sniffling* here's coral theres 3 pull out couches and 3 three recliners

Jb:Sarah can have a couch so can Cleo and kie

Jj:me,jb,and pope can have the recliners

Jj:looks at coral in her incubator with her tubes and all the.machines keeping her alive along with y/n in the bed next to her

Pope:coral is one strong baby she's not that hurt just fainted and has some bruises

Jb:y/n is much worse tho

Kie:I got us some food

Pope:I just want the small bag of chips and water *turns his phone*

Kie:I just got a salad and water for me and jb

Jj:and I got a pb and j with some chips and soda

Cleo:I just got a salad too

Sarah:I got a slice of pizza

Jj:hang on I need to refill corals feeding tube

Pope:not to make this depressing but y/n has what's called an eating disorder its where u eat too little or too much and coral has what's called fetal drug disorder,austim,cprs and probably more y/n has fetal drug disorder, borderline personality disorder and bipolar,And probably more

Jb:where would she get drugs.....

Sarah:that two faced lying backstabber RAFE

Sarah:Cleo come on lets go

Jb:where are u going

Sarah:to refer where's the gun btw jj

Jj:here gives her the gun

30 mins later they get back

Sarah and cleo:the problem has been dealt with

The boys: nvm we dont wanna know how

Sarah:rafe said to go to kie's house we found a SH/suic!de note

Cleo:we found a love letter to jj I think u should read it

Jj:reads it

Sarah:also y/n left u her favorite surf board if she is gone

Follow or like for part 6

[rubyroboticalt]

https://www.tumblr.com/rubyroboticalt/727267145704259584/the-current-final-page-i-dont-really-have-any?source=share

I NEED MORE OF THIS??? PLEASE tell me about this au omg

OH BABY I WAS SAVING THIS FOR WHEN I HAD THE BRIAN FOR IT! including bolding and italics for easier reading on my part

i am SO fond of my witch in the well au. the connection was between witch!lying and witchcraft smp being, well, witches. the basic concept was one of the witchcrafters accidentally summons/awakens an old power, which freed lying from the well. originally it was actually going to be scott who freed them, by trying and failing to contact an ancient power, but then joey literally fell into a well. and that was just too poetic to ignore. i think lying was going to be a fear witch specifically.

>i dont have significant plot beyond the comic, which is why it's ended (tentative, if i get ideas i may continue), but i and some friends did have ideas for interactions beyond it. if it had continued, joey was going to make some deals with the witch for more power. to quote my own discord msgs on it, "maybe he does want to be the supreme witch, but is it worth this? lying makes him uneasy. he can't help but feel he's in danger, whenever he's around them. like there's something off" (mar 2023). so joey ends up in an uneasy sort of alliance, in part because after he escaped the well by digging/building out (not bound by the magic lying was, free to move and craft as he pleases), they look very much like a wet cat.

>cleo would recognize that dealing with the fear witch is a bad idea, but also treats them more as a nuisance than a threat until given evidence to the contrary. she also antagonizes them a little, because cleo in witchcraft (and in general) refuses to be intimidated even when given good reason, and the witch is all about intimidating people.

something something slapfight between the fear witch trying to intimidate and cleo's refusal to be scared. cleo doesn't tend to overestimate themself, so how well that slapfight goes for her depends on if she realizes it won't go well for her and plays cautious or if she leans in to the slapfight and sees what lying is capable of. if it's the latter, they probably get taken out of commission long enough to preserve the critical mistake moment for others. lying, to cleo, seems a little like a jokey thing and there's a significant chance she underestimates them.

part of what makes cleo and lying's interaction/slapfight so interesting is both of them spec'd into defense and retaliation instead of offense, meaning there's a tense waiting period to see who strikes first. there might be social tension because witch!cleo and lying the witch are similar, but cleo has friendly allies and lying has only the hesitant alliance with joey. that could be dug into and inspected closely for good plot points.

another angle that was discussed was cleo, being the time witch, may have met other lyings/at least be aware of them, giving her a reason to be wary. if she has, then she probably plays cautious, and during the crux of the intimidation slapfight she makes an escape. she honestly may have been friends with other lyings in other timelines!

and, tbh, from what ive seen and heard of lyings in general, they are mostly posturing and intimidation. witch!lying has gotten their ass kicked both times ive seen an actual fight (priest!lying, maid!lying, for example). they have a lot of defensive power but there's not much to back up that posturing. in contrast, cleo is closer to 70% posturing, but has power to back that up. the witch is scary and smart, but cleo is on a server with a bunch of maniacs who kill each other for fun (civil war, house war, demise, turf war, whatever the hell season 8 was, tag, decked out 1 & 2, demise 2, etc) where the witch was on a server where folks killed in self defense or to settle scores. this means the way they approach conflict differs!

>cupquake keeps her distance because the trees give her a quick psa to Stay Away From That Thang, depicted in the comic as the trees becoming more storybook horror gnarled branches the closer cupquake got. another funny quote from the outline for the comic "for once it is the trees who speak for the lorax" (mar 2023). iirc i may have written stuff in the branches but idr? ik i wrote things in the fog but the fog was specifically lying luring ppl in to free them. cupquake nopes out and plays avoidance hardcore, bc what i recall from watching her as a kid is while she has a lot of magic power once she gets into the midgame of botania, she's also very easy to startle/scare.

>an interesting point brought up is the ravens, tameable ravens from the modpack! el had a conversation with one in her first episode and shelby tamed one. the witch can see through ravens' eyes iirc. el thinks they're crows but based on how they're tamed they're bewitchment ravens. i didnt go too deep into this one for the comic but theres potential there.

>i never fleshed out the end of the story/plot regarding the supreme witch but i imagine the goal is getting the witch back to their home server or something. maybe they partake in the competition to be supreme witch, maybe they dont. honestly feel free to riff off of what i have written! witch in the well was made collaboratively and id love to see how other folks play in the universe!

[bellshazes]

do it again directors commentary part 2

He and Etho had shown up at her favorite diner for takeout midnight breakfast while she had been hanging out at the bar, chatting with Scott, and without even thinking about it she’d joined their argument, switching sides periodically to keep it going. Years enough have passed that she can’t remember now what it had even been about, but she remembers Bdubs’ instant adoption of her as an ally and the wounded look he gave her when she conceded Etho had some good points, too. Etho had smiled brightly with his eyes and given her the faintest nod of approval, opening up the takeout boxes and settling down on the seat next to her.

this is very explicitly inspired by all the times i've gone to waffle house and the encounters i've had meeting old friends there who i never expected to see again. it's about the familiarity but also the capacity to shift and surprise and change the dynamic if it's funny. so it goes

Bdubs smiles knowingly at her. He heard all the goings-on of her tabletop campaigns and knows exactly what happened to her old D&D group. He’d been an exceptionally good sport about it, showing up for many late-night dinners to let her vent, as if it were a recap of his favorite TV show.

this and other things allude to the cleo-big b breakup that i never found a good place to make more explicit. i like the idea of it being some nebulous D&D situation partially because i despise D&D and because i think it's fun that since cleo continues to care that big b betrayed them, it should show up in silly ways, because it's fundamentally a betrayal in the specific context of a game. but it matters, what we did or didn't do, etc.

Cleo pauses and holds eye contact. For half a second she imagines a red bandana around Bdubs’ head, but it’s only the force of Bdubs’ belief that snares her.

another thing i never quite made explicit but is true: cleo received an unusually high number of lives, as did bdubs, and it's that fact that makes her more susceptible to remembering. if i had got to make it more explicit, i could've got into the exchange of lives as memory and as permanency, as debts and owing and relationships built across lifetimes... but I didn't. so this is what you get.

“That is a lot to ask of a guy, Cleo,” he says, but he stands up when she does. “If I for some reason am prevented from talking to Etho by such things as him being asleep all day, or un-overcomeable anxiety -”

i hate this line? i think i nailed bdubs' voice in the first half but i've spent so long trying to come up with something better than "un-overcomeable anxiety" and never did. i think he says things in super fucking weird ways but that's not right. it was worth leaving because i do believe in the dynamic of cleo playing mediator insofar as it's funny to them, and in cleo chastising bdubs, and their back and forth.

“Bdubs,” he says. “Hey, Bdubs.” He squeezes his hand again. “I wanted you to know. I’m so glad you were my partner.”

this whole Death Coffee Incident is borrowed wholesale from opera25's mll au, but it was fun making something kind of fantastical work. etho never was given any lives, and only gave one up to tango for the you bet your life game; he remembers here solely due to the life-threatening duress of consuming wayyyyyy too much caffeine. it was fun to write but also the pivotal moment in bdubs becoming convinced etho always had remembered and thinking then that the only reason he'd behave the way he did if he remembered was out of bloodlust... not that bdubs had yet unlocked memories of enjoying that murderousness and play back and forth.

there's a level to which this misunderstanding is a satirization/playing with fandom conceptions of if you view LL in a vacuum you get some crazy interpretations. but as they both learn, the threats were fun BECAUSE they had history and both enjoyed it. four more chapters for that to sink in though.

The process of checking into the ER is as onerous as he expected – trying to fill out the paperwork for Etho, who is still more out of it than Bdubs was when he had a head injury, having to put his foot down that he’d like to stay with his partner as much as possible and yes he had the paperwork to back him up, because Etho had made him keep a copy of important things in his wallet after he fell of the roof in case of something like this.

this part is in spite of my severe medical phobia, but also because of me working in insurance-related fields for the last 4 years. this document is called an advance directive or living will and if you live in the USA you should complete one by searching "advance directive [your state]" and filling it out and filing it according to the directions on your attorney general's website or whatever. it's genuinely imporant esp if you're not married and queer in any way. this is my one genuine PSA of the fic. but also they would. etho requesting to dot Is and cross Ts bc he thinks bdubs will be the one who needs and and then needing it himself... well. anyway.

He remembers fragments from his last death: that he had made some promise that didn’t save him, that cost him his last life. That he died calling Etho’s name, calling out to an Etho who took great joy in menacing him and making him paranoid, who had attacked him in that long dark stairway. It does not comfort him to know Etho thinks he’s responsible for whatever happened.

this chapter ends with bdubs trying and sort of succeeeding in believing in etho, but that last sentence is the lynchpin of what comes after: etho feeling even a little responsible for bdubs permadying - esp when bdubs remembers being a ghost for session 7 but was not present for etho's permadeath in session 8 - makes him think etho knows more than he does, and holds him accordingly responsible. the metacommentary is there but it wasn't the point; it's true, but incidental. the reveal eventually is that the trust was there, and that bdubs' permadeath was stupid and willing because it's about the novelty and the endless beginnings. spoilers but whatever if you're reading this you must not care by now.

chapter 4

He can feel his heart beating in his chest, and he has a sense-memory of falling down with all the vivid, terrifying sensation of jumping from the height of a swing in the park as a child, down to the faint awareness that the intervening years meant it was no longer quite the same body, that something had been knocked out of alignment by time.

it's a little tonally dissonant, but i'm still proud of this. you can tell later on i floundered for plot in this chapter, but the image of being both in the past and in the present and the overlay is important to me. it's very poetic.

Etho snagged a nametag off the apron that had been draped over the drinks counter, presumably in a now-ruined hope of ending the shift quickly, and slipped it into his pocket before turning back to smile placidly over Bdubs’ shoulder.

etho stealing the nametags is another MLL AU concept i stole and can't take credit for, but again trying to find a plausible concrete explanation for it was really fun and was the impetus for this whole chapter. grateful for it, and he's an ass and also nosy like that. he would.

Etho punched the crosswalk button and tried to remember that conversation but couldn’t. He remembered getting coffee, and that he’d almost finished it off by the time he’d gotten home. [...] “No,” he said, sounding strangled. “That hadn’t come up, actually.”

the limited alternating third person POV is restricting at times, but i really enjoy the contrast between what we already know of bdubs' perception of the Death Coffee Incident re: etho's knowledge and etho's POV making clear he doesn't know jack shit, but he cares. bdubs is reacting this way because etho saying he took the crazy coffee to stay up to see bdubs sounds like a threat, but it's also an expression of caring and not knowing how to bridge a distance.

if theres anything i believe it's that these two motherfuckers don't capital-T talk. they exclusively communicate through threats and shenanigans and team-ups and every time they mention talking outside of Events it shocks me. and yet their friendship persists over more than a decade! what miracles.

“You can’t take dreams too seriously,” Etho said, cat purring loudly under his hands, a soothing anchor. “It’s just your brain picking up on whatever’s going in your life and making up stories about it. No good worrying too much about them.”

this is mine own opinion on dreams, despite my sincere involuntary belief in signs and omens, but more importantly it is another point at which bdubs is implicitly in his own POV goign oh my god this son of a bitch is manipulating me. miscommunication for ages.

 He spends a few nights on the couch, methodically trying to rule the variables out: the quality of moonlight through his bedroom window, some oppressive sense of confinement, embracing the possibility his roommate is testing him and trying to prove to his subconscious that fishing rods are nothing to be worried about.

etho being experimental and scientific about this all is important to me. almost as much as half-remembering bdubs misinterprets this exacting need to know as being meaningful and knowing when it's not, especially when he was trying to elicit some response. guy gets a response and thinks the worst even though he's causing his own problems? there's a thesis in that

Etho bites back a comment about Bdubs’ dedication to sleep schedules and waves the criticism off instead. “I’m trying to sleep right now,” he lies. “Not my problem if you want to haunt me.”

if i ever let myself revise this chapter (and this chapter is the one i want to revise most) i want to include the detail from beau's comic of this passage of etho having his glasses on when he says this. my dude was definitely not tryign to sleep AT ALL and i forever wish i'd thought of that indicator myself.

When he sits down to start his own work for the day, he thinks about the drawing and decides then and there what his plan is to fix all this.

i wrote this line bc i have such a sense that chapter endings, like the endings of short stories, should have a paritcular cadence and effect - but neither etho nor i knew how "to fix all this" and in fact the subsequent chapters indicate he definitely was not laying his final plans yet. i've let it stay because putting this line in let me move on to write the rest of the fic... but it's untrue and a red herring and i hate it. i will fix you eventually. but not yet because i still dont' know how to satisfyingly transition.

etho doesn't get his next POV chapter until the second half of chapter 6 at the diner with cleo, where he finally confronts that his dreams might be real enough to have to deal with, and even then he goes through great lengths to validate cleo's theories by messing with tango... so who knows. but it's fine. it's fine. i hate it. it's fine

[lyon-amore]

Home for Christmas Jake x Fem!MC Oneshot

Story inspired by this melody. The truth is that this artist inspires me a lot with Jake and MC. Here MC has the name of my MC. I hope you like it. -------------------------------------------------- I hadn't heard from Jake in one month. From what he had told me, they were tied up with his release paperwork. There was a lot to work for and they had been like this for a month already. But these two weeks, all contact was broken because of being busy. Luckily, I got a tip from Lian. She had told me that Brian told her to get the guest room ready because he was going to have Jake in custody until his paperwork was finished. Since everything about his past had been made to disappear, it had to be restored. So here I am, at home being my best friend, with her daughter, decorating her house for Christmas. Lian was surprised when I told her that I wanted to help her, she just wanted me to come as a surprise to see Jake, but I wanted to do something as a thank her for telling me.     "You don't have to decorate with me, Macie." my friend tells me, concerned "I know how much these holidays are already costing you…"     "It doesn't bother me," I replied with a smile, "if you want I can also help you make the cookies."     "And eat the dough? Nope."      We laugh knowing how much I love sweets. I even sneaked a Cleo cake once just because it looked too delicious. After that, the group helped me control myself to avoid eating any cake or cupcake in front of me. It was a fun day. While Lian makes the cookies, I’m left to take care of little Shui. It's cute to hear how she laughs. Nothing compared to the monsters of my cousin's children. And knowing Lian and Brian, I'm sure Shui will grow up to be a good girl.     "Bad news, Macie," Lian comes into the living room, phone in hand "looks like there's a traffic jam and they're going to be late."     "Oh no… Do you think I should text Brian asking if Jake is okay? What if he's nervous? Maybe he's getting overwhelmed-"     "Calm down, honey," she lets out a small laugh, caressing her little one lovingly, "Brian still doesn't know you're here, I haven't told him."      I nod reassuring myself.  I hope they arrive as soon as possible, I can't with this weight on my chest. A month without knowing if Jake was okay. What did he think when he found out that he couldn't be home yet? What has to happen a season at Brian's house? We both wanted this whole nightmare to end and we could finally live together. But it seemed that as always, something came between the two. I'm trying to work hard this month for Jake. When he told me in one of our conversations that the last good memory he had before running away was from this month, December. I want him to feel the warmth of having new memories again. Even if he is being held in this house for a while. I wish so much that he is already here. Damn traffic jam... I sit by the window watching how it has started to snow.I start to remember that melody that I came across on YouTube, remember every sound that the piano made. The idea of being able to dance it in the living room with Jake, alone, without anyone interrupting us comes to mind. A smile escapes me as I imagine the scene. I pick up my phone and check the last messages I had with him. I'm glad he doesn't have to delete any messages from us anymore. -------------------------------------------------- Jake It seems that we are going to negotiate my “freedom”.  Macie "Freedom" They have made it quite clear to you that it is not going to be something you can choose, right?  Jake Too many rules, really. I have to read many documents before I sign them. I don't trust them.  Macie You’re doing well I wouldn't trust either But it’s a lot?  Jake Let's just say I've been handed something close to the size of the Bible to read. Macie Wow! And I thought it would be only two papers...  Jake We have our differences. Although your friend Brian is helping me out a bit.  Macie With what?  Jake With a bit of this and that.  Macie Come on Jake ��� Can't you give me a little hint?  Jake I'd like to, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to speak. They're watching me right now, you know that.  Macie And will they still watch you when you get back home?  Jake I don't know. But I guess so. Do you really think they are going to leave a hacker chased by the government that easy?  Macie True... They wouldn't…  Jake I don't want to discourage you with this, angel. Just that you understand that it is going to be difficult for us to have a normal life.  Macie I just don't want them to be in our relationship too much...  Jake I won't let that happen, I promise.  Macie I trust you…  Jake I'm dying to be home already.  Macie And I to be able to be with you again  Jake I have thought of thousands of scenarios of how to greet you when I return and all of them end the same.  Macie How?  Jake I can't tell, remember they're watching me more than before. But it's something we'll both like.  Macie Does it imply a bed?  Jake Maybe yes, maybe no, it depends on how far we go ;)  Macie 🤭 You always know how to keep my mind off worries Thank you Jake  Jake To you, angel, for coming into my life. -------------------------------------------------- Knowing that thanks to me he had hope in his life, makes me very happy. I take the phone to my chest, hugging it tightly. I can't stop thinking about what I'll do when I see him again I don't plan to separate from him for quite some time. I just hope I don't overwhelm him, I don't want him to think I'm actually a slug. It is only the illusion that I will finally be in his arms and that I will be able to help him return to having a normal life. I don't think he feels safe for a while. I manage to see through the snowflakes the lights of an approaching car. I recognize the car right away, moving away from the window.     "They’re here!" I exclaim running to the entrance and putting on my shoes to go down to the garage.     "Easy Macie!" I hear Lian yell at me from the kitchen. I run down the stairs with keys in hand to open the door to the garage, a smile too wide to occupy my face. Jake is back. He has returned, he is with me! I clumsily open the door and start looking for Brian's car. He just parks it next to Lian's car. Jake looks at me confused and at the same time surprised, getting out of the car quickly. We both get closer, although I run towards him and jump. He manages to hold me avoiding falling. My lips seek his, melting into a deep kiss. He holds me tight, letting himself go by slipping a hand under my shirt, stroking my back. I feel a pleasant chill at the touch of him again. I place my hands on his cheeks, caressing them until I reach his hair.     "Ahem…" Brian clears his throat and we stop kissing, seeing that he was there with us. "What are you doing here, Macie?"     "Lian has invited me to see Jake," my boyfriend puts me down carefully, but I continue to hug him and he doesn't let go of my waist "Did you think you were going to be able to hide it from me?"     "Great…" Brian taps on his car and sighs "I'll bring your bag up, Jake, don't take too long, okay?"     "Of course." he replies, kissing me on the forehead.     "And now it's my turn to confront my wife about this..."      I let out a laugh as I watch him walk away. I know that he is not capable of seriously fighting with Lian. I've seen how much he loves her enough to do it seriously. Jake pays attention to me again, stroking my face until he brushes his thumb across my lips. I sigh.     "You're still as beautiful as ever." he tells me, with a smile.     "You're going to make me blush," I answered with a laugh. "A rough trip?"     "It's been entertaining." He places his hands on my waist, trapping his body with mine. "We have criticized you two a lot."     "Really?"     "Yes."     "Too bad, Jake, one point down."     "I can fix it."     He kisses me gently, playing a little with his tongue on my lips.I missed this feeling...     "Sorry to spoil the moment," I broke away, putting my arms around his neck. "Do you think we can go home tomorrow? We'd be back by nightfall."     "As for that," he makes a groaning sound and pulls away from me, showing me a tracking anklet. "Gift from the government Do you like it?”     "What a shit…" I complained, looking at the device. "I knew you would stay here for a while, but not like this…"     "We'll get through this." He lifts my chin to look at him. His crooked smile shows that he doesn't want to bring me down "We've always done that."      I nod and kiss him again.It was too nice to be set free. Clearly there was something more to the agreement.     "And that device also detects your pulse?" I ask as we walk out of the garage.     "Let's hope not or they'll be wondering what happened to me to make my pulse race at the moment of our kiss." We got to the apartment and when we got there, we heard a little argument. We knock on the door and Lian opens it with a smile.    "The famous Jake." She holds out her hand to greet him and Jake accepts. "I'm Lian, Macie's friend. She's told me a lot about you, but I didn't expect you to be so handsome."    "Lian!" I exclaimed entering the apartment, still not separating from Jake, "Don't pay attention to her, I haven't told her anything about you."    "Nothing bad, I wanted to say." She winks mockingly and I blush.      I feel like I'm introducing my boyfriend to my parents.    "I'm so sorry I spoiled your Christmas," Jake apologizes calmly, "but Brian was the only one I trusted to handle my situation."    "And I'm glad of it," Lian accepts the glass of wine her husband brings her and he puts an arm around her shoulders, "although he may not seem like it, he's a good man, he just likes to play tough."    "I'm tough, not that I show it." Brian defends himself.    "Of course you do, honey."     Jake and I let out a small laugh as we watched them "argue." We see Brian kiss her on the nose and Lian lets out a laugh. Happy.     "I'm still mad that you didn't tell me Macie would be here, though." Brian looks at me now, frowning "If they find out that she's here, they'll be mad at me.”     "Well, I'm sorry, because starting tomorrow she and Henry are going to spend some time with us so that she can be with Jake." she points to me with her hand proud of herself.      Jake looks at me in surprise and I nod. He caresses my cheek looking at me like the last time we met, intense.     "Lian, don't-"     "Your room is at the end of the hall," my friend cut her husband off by placing her hand over his mouth, making him shut up. "Make yourself comfortable Jake, I'll take care of my husband."     "Thanks for this Lian," Jake takes my hand and I pull him to follow me "I promise to collaborate in whatever you need help."     "Collaborate first in not making too much noise." Lian jokes.     "We're going to settle in!" I exclaimed embarrassed, taking Jake's suitcase with my other hand. We let the married couple talk about the situation and we entered the room. On the floor was Henry's cage, sleeping peacefully. I puts the suitcase on the bed to get the clothes out and Jake hugs me from behind, leaving little kisses on my neck, tickling me.     "I've missed you so much, angel," he whispers to me, making my body feel that pleasant shiver again, "and the fact that you're going to stay with me for a while makes me even happier."      I turn around so I can see his face. I place my hands on his cheeks, bringing my lips closer to his. Now that we're alone, I try to make the kiss last longer. His hands run all over my body, as if he were memorizing it with his fingertips. I'm in his arms again, I fit in very well with him. What was missing in my life, I have regained it.     "I wasn't thinking of leaving you alone when you came back." My voice trembles, it's hard for me to speak, feeling loved by his displays of affection. If he continues like this, I don't think I control myself. "Jake, I've missed you so much, let's not separate anymore, okay?"     "I promise I won't leave again." He kisses my forehead and I smile. "I love you too much to ever abandon you again, Macie."     “I love you too, Jake."      And after those words, we melt again in a sweet kiss. Our lives start here. Together we will achieve the future we always wanted.

Image