#i am having trouble with choosing

[lost-in-fandoms]

Just Maxiel being boyfriends and having a date night.

cw: tiniest hint of implied sexual content

The first thing that Daniel notices when he comes inside the door is that the house smells different. It's not that their house smells bad usually (thanks cleaners for that, to be quite honest!), but it doesn't usually smell like candles and flowers. For a second, he wonders if somehow he managed to walk into the wrong door, but no, Max's shoes are in their usual place, and his wallet and keys are on the table beside the entrance, so that must not be it.

The mystery is quickly solved when Daniel gets out of the hallway and finds a bouquet of flowers on the kitchen island, a candle burning lowly beside it.

Maybe Max has been kidnapped while Daniel was away, or he's been replaced by an alien clone. Sure, Max has bought him flowers a couple of times, but candles?? Or maybe Daniel is in an alternate reality where Max cares about things like throw blankets and motivational quotes in frames.

"Oh! You're home early!"

Daniel turns around, finding his boyfriend standing in front of him, a small frown on his face. Or at least, what is pretending to be his boyfriend, because why would Max be wearing a shirt and nice pants at home? He looks gorgeous, his shoulders looking even wider and his thighs looking delicious, but Max despises wearing nice things at home.

Maybe Daniel forgot something. Are they supposed to be going somewhere?

"Baby?" he asks, but doesn't manage to get any more words out before Max is coming closer, kissing him hello. And sure, okay, Daniel can go with that plan. Except Max steps back way too quickly, not even letting Daniel get a little bit of tongue involved (which, rude!), to grab Daniel's bag and walk towards their bedroom, leaving a befuddled Daniel behind.

"Would you like to take a bath?"

Yep, alternate reality it is. Max doesn't like baths. He only allows them after particularly intense sex, or when one of them is really sore from a race or a crash. He dislikes (verbatim) "laying in his own dirt water", but now he's offering one?

"Together?" Daniel asks, just to clarify, finally unsticking himself from his spot and following his boyfriend to the bedroom, where he's already started to unpack Daniel's bag. Weird getting weirder. Max hates unpacking, would gladly leave his bags to rot if he didn't need to do laundry between race weekends. What is happening here?

Max immediately blushes, shaking his head a little. His hair is soft and unstyled, despite his nice clothes, and Daniel wishes he could just run his hand in it. This whole thing is throwing him off his "I missed my boyfriend and need to touch him as much as possible" routine.

"No, I thought, you? You can relax, after the flight and the drive."

That does sound nice, even if not as nice as having Max sitting naked behind him in the water, and for the moment Daniel decides to postpone figuring out who kidnapped and replaced his boyfriend, in favor of going along with this plan. Max insists on drawing him the bath, but once Daniel is in the bubbly water, he leaves the bathroom with nothing more than an enjoy!. Not even giving Daniel the chance to steal a kiss. Rude.

Despite everything, the bath is good. It doesn't matter for how many years he's been flying around the world, or how much more comfortable his flights have become, they always leave him with a leftover off feeling, and it's nice to wash it away, letting the warm water relax his muscles.

He takes his time, washing and styling his curls, because why not?, and when he finally steps outside the steamy bathroom he finds that Max has left out some clothes for him. Daniel had chosen some already, a hoodie and a pair of shorts, and Max hasn't put them away, so obviously the others are more a suggestion than a request, but Daniel is properly intrigued now. Max chose a green patterned shirt that Daniel loves, and a pair of pants that go suspiciously well with it to be something Max picked out all by himself.

Usually, they both prefer to be comfortable at home, changing immediately when they come back, Max going as far as starting to strip while he's still walking towards the bedroom, but Daniel is curious, so he puts the clothes on. It's clear that Max (real or alien that he is) has a plan, and Daniel has long learned to trust them because even in the occasions they don't work out, they still result in a good time.

He follows the smell of food out of the bedroom and finds Max in the kitchen. One of Daniel's own playlists is playing softly, and Max is at the stove, carefully stirring a pot, while muttering something in Dutch. Jimmy is next to his feet, probably waiting to trip him up, while Sassy is sitting on top of the fridge, asleep, and Daniel's heart is suddenly so full, he's afraid he'll do something silly like start crying. That's his family, in their house, cooking...

Wait, cooking?

Daniel blinks. Yep, that is definitely what is happening. Max is cooking. And he set the table. There is a different bouquet on the table, a smaller one with only red roses, near the fancy glasses Sophie had bought for them, and an unopened bottle of Daniel's favorite red wine. On a plate there is what looks like warm fresh bread, and Max is stirring a pot that smells like bolognese sauce, while some pasta is cooking in another.

This must be an alternate reality.

He's still trying to make some sense of it, when Max finally turns, still talking to the cats, and notices him, startling.

"You were quick!" he says, blushing for some reason Daniel doesn't even want to try and understand in the middle of all this, and all Daniel's brain can helplessly do in these trying times is resort to jokes.

"Careful, baby, if you keep bringing up how early I am, I'll have to start thinking you're not happy in the bedroom!"

It works, because Max snorts and rolls his eyes, abandoning the spoon to step closer to Daniel, finally tugging him closer for a decent kiss.

"I will show you how happy I am in the bedroom later" he promises, lips brushing against Daniel's, and Daniel is suddenly reminded of the fact that he hasn't seen his boyfriend naked for five days. Outrageous.

Before he can say anything though, Max pinches his side, stepping back with a frown.

"No, I said later!" he says, like he can read his mind or something. Maybe Daniel really should look into alien-replacing-boyfriends theories. As it is, all he can do is pout, which is useless, because Max is turning around again, reaching for the bigger of the two bouquets, the one Daniel had first seen, and offering it to Daniel with a shy smile.

"For you."

It's pretty, a mix of roses and three other flowers Daniel is not even going to attempt to guess the names of, and Daniel feels himself blush despite everything. He likes getting flowers and feeling special from time to time. Sue him.

"Thank you, baby" he says, smiling brightly while lightly touching one of the petals.

Max seems pleased by his reaction, leaning forward to kiss him again, but getting no further than a peck when an alarm goes off, making them both jump.

"The pasta!" Max exclaims, rushing back to the stove and talking to Daniel from over his shoulder. "Go sit down? And open the wine."

Daniel gives one last sniff to the flowers before putting them back down and going to sit. Max has chosen their fancier tablecloth too, something Daniel is pretty sure they had never used except when they had family over, and now he's worrying again about having forgotten something.

"Maxy, is it our anniversary or something? Is it my birthday?" he asks, working on getting the wine open without getting any on the tablecloth.

"What? No!" Max appears next to him, carrying two plates full of pasta, frowning at him in confusion.

"It's just..." Daniel gestures vaguely at the table, trying to find a word that won't make it seem like he's not happy with what is happening. "Unusual?"

Max still blushes, looking down at his own hands.

"It's just dinner, Daniel," he says. It doesn't look like just dinner, but it smells like dinner and Daniel is hungry, and he's sure that whatever is going on in Max's mind it will come out sooner or later, so he decides to let it go.

"Looks amazing, baby," he compliments, grabbing his fork, and enjoying the way Max's cheeks get even redder. He's pretty sure they would feel warm if he touched them right now.

Max waits for him to take the first bite, and Daniel would make a poisoning joke if it...

"Baby..." he pauses, feeling himself get embarrassingly choked up.

"I asked Grace for help," Max confirms shyly, not looking at Daniel in the eyes.

It tastes like home. It tastes like getting home from school to tell his mom about his day, like coming back after months of phone calls, like sitting down surrounded by his family.

"Is it okay?" Max asks, as if Daniel isn't on the verge of having a full breakdown on the spot because of his boyfriend asking his mom for help with making him food that tastes like love.

"It's perfect," is all he manages to get out, taking another bite to cover his reaction up. When he looks at Max again, he finds him staring at him, soft and lovely, blue eyes shining, and he can't help leaning forward to grab his hand and drag him closer for a kiss.

For his own sanity, Daniel brings the conversation back to safer grounds, telling Max about his flight and asking him about the days they had spent apart. There's not much to tell, since they had spent the whole time texting and every night calling, but it's nice, to just talk to him. To have this time together.

After the pasta, Max brings out some fruit, apologizing for the lack of dessert, but telling him that it would have been too far outside their diet plans with the bread, the pasta and the wine, but Daniel just shakes his head, accepting a slice of orange with a smile.

"So," he asks while he helps Max with tidying up, despite his protests, "I loved this, but what was it all about?"

He keeps watching as Max hesitates, taking his time loading the dishwasher, so he clocks in the moment when he decides to explain. Alien or not, he still knows Max.

"I was out playing with Charles, George and Alex, the other day," he finally says, closing the dishwasher and turning around. Daniel nods, thinking about the picture of a sweaty Alex laying on the padel court Max had sent three days ago. "Charles was talking about the last date he went on, and I realized that I couldn't remember ours."

Daniel blinks at him. He thinks back to it, but even if they live together and they spend as much time doing things together as possible, he can't remember a date date either. They're usually so happy to just be back home, they prefer to spend time on the couch with the cats or having sex, which is still nice and lovely, but not exactly a date.

"I thought that, you know, it is hard, of course, to go on dates outside for us," Max keeps on explaining, "but that didn't mean we couldn't have something nice."

So he bought Daniel flowers, drew him a bath, asked his mom for help with dinner. Oh, he loves this man so much.

He reaches forward, grabbing Max's waist and dragging him into a hug, before kissing him. This time, Max doesn't pull away until they're both panting for air.

"Thank you, baby, it was perfect" Daniel says, kissing Max's red cheek. "Do you have anything else planned?"

Max shakes his head. His eyes are blue blue blue and Daniel wants to love him forever.

"Then," he presses another kiss to Max's face, moving down towards his neck, "let me give you a treat, now."

He bites down, and Max moans, going pliant in Daniel's arms as usual.

"And the next date is on me."

[orion4ever]

hey dude, i know you mean well for the ol community, and i think you're really cool and have been following you for a while, but i really don't think all this shitting on rose is justified. spreading callout posts by taking shitty things people have said out of context, especially queer poc, is a real tactic used by terfs to spread discourse and isolate queer people from communities, and it's worked so well that queer people have started doing the same to their own with really good intentions, but the overall effect is nonsense discourse and the spread of hatred. kab herself has publicly said that she and rose have a good relationship and that she thinks most of rose's impact on the games and community has been really helpful for checking her own biases. the screenshots and shitty things you've read about her are not the full story, and yes, i do agree that rose handled certain things really really shittily and i am not excusing that at all, but rose isn't a bad person at all, what the callouts show is out of context and does not show rose accurately as a person, and the degree of hatred for a group of people honestly trying to create a safe space for queer people is wildly disproportional. i really hope this doesn't come off as any way accusatory, because it really isn't, and i really look up to you as a creator. i just want you to be aware that this is something that has been settled by the people involved, and continuing discourse and wanting rose fired goes directly against kab's own wishes and is based on misinformation. thanks for reading this far. please have a wonderful day

I respect you and I appreciate that you reached out respectfully with this.

I do not repost these call out post to be malicious or start a hate campaign like some people have been accusing others of.

I do not encourage witch-hunting or harassment of Rose or Kab ; As they are people and make mistakes , even if the mistakes are extremely shitty and I understand that those screenshots were a private conversation but frankly , I think some of the stuff Rose said was extremely odd and vulgar , context or without.

I am not in the official OL server so maybe your right about them not being as bad but even if that was the case they should still be let go of the role as sensitivity reader because they’re views aren’t open minded and its ironic that they are supposed to help prevent bias and keep the game inclusive when they’ve shown a weird rhetoric and the paper bag comment actually made my jaw drop.

OL has been one of the most comforting things to me , I was in a really dark place when I started a new save file and fell in love with all the characters and the game so believe me when I tell you I would never want to attack the very person who created and brought me that comfort. It physically exhausted me and upset me yesterday when it all came to light , considering it has been a huge hyperfixation and boosted my self esteem.

I don’t care if GB is okay with their friends talking an insane amount of crap behind their backs. It's not my business, I just think that they need better friends.

Even with this in mind, I can’t continue my support for Kab if they decide to keep Rose on the development team, not purely just because of what they said in private but how they treated my friend. The both of them are insinuating that they’re a “liar” or that they “overreacted” when they just wanted to express a grievance. And a surprisingly large number of people are harassing them and accusing them of starting a “racist campaign” towards Rose when they are a trans minority as well. If the fandom is so quick to villainize my friend for simply speaking out then frankly I don’t want to be a part of this fandom.

I hope you also have a good day.

[mellotronmkll]

Once again just find it really rich that people claim this is like the autistic website meanwhile everyone is mean as fuck about people actually having autistic traits

[gaskarth]

your icon is a metalocalypse character which is an adult swim show which is owned by cartoon network which is owned by warner bros which is owned by disney. you should probably ‘grow a spine’ and change it, since you feel so strongly about people enjoying any media produced by any of the major media conglomerates in america

disney literally doesn't own warner brothers they're two separate companies a quick google search proves this lol but that's not the point of this - the point is that actively choosing to support known & outspoken zionists is something you SHOULD be uncomfortable about doing so vocally because the stance you're taking is that your media interests are more important than a literal genocide happening palestinians.

anyways make sure to do your daily clicks & consider donating to PCRF (palestine children's relief fund) because they are close to their goal

[finrinrinfin]

I want to make stickers! And I want to sell them I think I’d be fun! What kind of stickers would you get?

[iniziare]

Tag drop: Jingliu

[isfjmel-phleg]

🫥

*it cut off my last tags which were: I don't know what I can do about this but in the meantime it's a struggle

[consolecadet]

Having parental figures in your childhood act like all of your needs and desires are frustrating, pointless, expensive, betray a weakness that will eventually result in the ultimate horror (A Fat Child), and just generally should not exist will. Uh. It doesn’t help you lead a rich and fulfilling life as an adult

[zincbot]

(insert another nothing post abt how good in stars and time is)

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

Anybody else slowly disassociating more and more as you slowly lose all of your touchstones in this world?

[whump-captain]

@coyotehusk 's Goretober

--- Part 1: Impaled ---

"With a sound like an unsheathed knife, a spike of gold ripped out from the stone and stabbed through Ethan's chest. The force lifted the body off of the ground where it hung impaled with arms splayed like a pinned butterfly. Blood poured down the golden stalagmite and swirled as it was absorbed into nothing more than a reddish sheen."

(Companion piece)

[Pose reference credit to AdorkaStock]

[ID in alt]

[piplupod]

the very nice guy who works at the centre was asking me abt my art and i was so anxious the entire time bc i didnt want to ramble or talk more than i was supposed to, but he kept asking questions and didn't seem like he was in any hurry to go talk to other members so i just kept talking and I'm like. so scared I did smth wrong w the amount i told him but fhdksl I didn't know how much I was supposed to converse with him and I was trying to be so careful in case he needed to go talk to other ppl but he hung around for so long (probably not even ten mins in reality but it felt like absolutely ages, i never get to talk that much with a person in a setting that isn't strictly one-on-one,,,, that was wild) so I guess ,,, i was okay ?? idk, im going to be overthinking this for the rest of the day now augh 😭

[technicolorxsn]

hm

[templeofshame]

I'm all for romantic gestures in fic and I'm not complaining (esp. if this amazing author ever saw this!) But I am just too cynical for spending over $1k and 4 flights to stop someone's wedding when like... are they meeting you even slightly halfway? I know it's gonna have a happy ending but still reading I'm like Don't Do It

[slutforsidewalks]

Oh naur, I'm having gender thoughts

[lord-squiggletits]

pharma really is such an interesting case. one thing i’ve always felt with pharma is that he absolutely doesn’t want consequences. and facing up to it requires a lot of looking at and showing people what he’s done and you know. the consequences. i mean hell he’d rather start a plague than say “hey i got coerced into doing a very bad thing by the djd”

I do understand what you mean about Pharma not wanting to face consequences, but on the other hand, I kind of understand why Pharma made a plague rather than admit to medical malpractice/murder? Because like, the thing that I don't see brought up often enough with regards to Pharma is that blackmail... is blackmail. Like, as someone who's unfortunately been on the receiving end of blackmail, the entire point of blackmailing someone is that you corner them into doing bad things by convincing them that they CAN'T turn to an authority figure to ask for help. Like, the person doing the blackmailing generally convinces the person who's getting blackmailed that if they try to reach out for help, the law/authorities/etc either won't care about their predicament or will punish them for the bad thing they did that they're getting blackmailed about.

I kind of feel like (and this isn't an attack on you, just a commentary about the nature of blackmail) when someone like Ratchet looks at Pharma and says "but you could've called for help or shut down the clinic or anything!", it kind of ignores the fact that...... when you're being blackmailed you're fucking terrified, and people who are terrified generally don't jump to the most rational, safe solutions possible? When you add in the fact that Pharma was blackmailed by Tarn of the DJD, notorious hater of Autobots and fanatic leader of a torture club, it's not hard to imagine that Pharma was both afraid and in pain (or threat of pain) while at Delphi and thus wouldn't be thinking straight about it.

I don't know, like. Yeah, on one hand Pharma made a plague and killed a bunch of people to try and cover up his crimes and maintain his career. But he didn't just do it for ego related reasons, he was also almost certainly facing threats of torture and death.