#i have too many creative projects going on at once help

[ilysungho]

hi again! 🍓 here :) to start, ofc I have compliments for your writing! I love your ideas and how you capture the members, esp bc you portray them as both sub and dom so well!

speaking of, dom myungjae will be the death of me I swear 🫠. I think him being so usually-sweet adds to his appeal as a dom bc its fun to think only you can bring out that side of him yknow? also, lovee the finger sucking inclusion! and writing mine on your dress with his cum?! crazy hot n so jae-coded since we know he's quite possessive 🤭

i think he'd take enough photos to fill a gallery. he'd pose you, making you arch or open your mouth, even sliding back into the mess he made for one. but once he's done with his art project maybe he'd finally take pity on you... pushes your dress up now and dives in to eat you out like he's starving (munch jaehyun real)

- 🍓

oh you're so sweet love :( thank you so much for your compliments, it really does make me happy to know what you think about what i've written thus far. i can only hope that it gets better as time goes on. part of why i'm able to write as well as i do is because of my anons who send in so many amazing and creative asks so i'd like to thank you all for helping me! i love you guys so much <33

dom!myungjae is just a lover to you. he'd treat you so much sweeter than he treats anyone else. if he's as loving as he is now, he'd be a 100 times so with the love of his life. he's so incredibly loving of you, and that makes him so possessive of you too. he acts out when he sees anyone even looking in your direction. he has to let them know that you're taken and very much his, which leads him to being very into pda in any sense possible. but i digress!

he most definitely has a folder full of pictures he's taken of you while having sex. he wouldn't go around showing them to anyone because they're for his eyes only, but he would boast about how he is able to always make you feel so good. during times where he is so horny, he'd love having a photoshoot with you, taking pictures in all the positions and ways you described. his constant praise would have you so much needier, begging him to fuck your needy hole. "now darling, be patient. i'm trying to take some pictures of my sweetheart here." he'd say as he continuously clicks pictures of your body. eventually, after he's done, he would finally sink down to your cunt, exposing it after lifting your dress, exclaiming at how you're oozing out all your slick for him. he'd be so playfully teasing about it, asking you how long you've been this wet for, whether you were this wet during the event too. he'd have so much fun teasing you until you pull his face straight into your pussy, grinding against his smirking lips. and he gladly shuts up to eat you out properly as a reward. the dress is completely unusable once you take it off of you, but he would keep in mind to buy you more dresses like the one you have on currently.

[freak-attorney]

Do you have any school related (highschool and/or college) related AA headcanons? I'm not sure how schooling worked exactly for Mia, Maya, and Pearl given where they lived, so I dunno. Mainly Phoenix, Edgeworth, Franziska and Gumshoe

Ace Attorney HS/Uni Headcanons!

(I admittedly haven't thought about this much before but I'm happy to share!)

Phoenix Wright

High School

Really good at creative writing

Good at the humanities in general

Barely passed chemistry (started a fire in the lab and had to let his partner take over for the rest of the year)

Best friends with his Language Arts teacher

Got detention for being late to class too much

Did NOT pass the Presidential Fitness Test (he couldn't do a pull up)

On a first name basis with the lunch ladies

Applied to maybe 3 colleges

He was a band kid for sure... probably played the clarinet

University/College

Was really good friends with his roommate but they lost touch once he went to law school

Not great at pottery but still made little projects to give to his friends whenever he took a class

Rushed a few fraternities (he didn't get a bid to any of them)

Didn't learn how to talk to girls until Dahlia/Iris

Took a few philosophy classes and yapped in every discussion

Joined a debate club.. he lost most of the time but it made him want to get better!

Was very much oblivious to every girl that ever attempted to flirt with him

Had a group of 3-4 friends that he ate lunch with at the same time everyday

Got super wasted at a party and ended up in the front yard of a frat house off campus

Sweatpants + a hoodie were his go to fits

Miles Edgeworth

High School

Did not get along with many others

Went to public school up until high school where he went to a fancy private school

HATED group projects (asked the teachers if he could just do it himself)

It still haunts him that he got a "B" in Physics

Definitely took APUSH/any AP class he could

Did dual enrollment (completed his Associates)

Helped with the theatre program but only as part of the crew (probably stage manager or lead tech)

Valedictorian

Grade "A" instigator (he started a few fights)

Perfect attendance

Headphones in ALL THE TIME

Applied to at least 30 colleges

Scarily good at dodgeball whenever they played in phys ed

Threw up when they had to do frog dissections

College/University

Refused one of his top choices due to their communal showers

Never spoke a word to his roommate

Became a fan of women's rugby (introduced Franzi to it)

Thought Greek life was a waste of time and never even thought about rushing

Didn't go to a single party

Practically lived in the library

Took a class that introduced him to digital art and he really liked it (he didn't have time to continue it once the class ended)

Franziska von Karma

High School

Well-liked or feared?? Depends on who you ask

Fancy private schools her entire life. High school was no different.

Went through a phase of growing out her bangs but hated it

Full face of makeup every. single. day.

Straight A's (Papa would NOT be happy with anything less)

Extremely competitive with EVERYTHING (even the pacer test)

Excelled in the hard sciences but still went into law

She was the teacher's pet but no one dared to call her on it

Applied to every college she could find

Color coordinated notes for each class

Turned in assignments weeks before they were due

Dual enrollment/AP/IB is a given

She was in chorus (Alto)

Used a leather crossbody in place of a normal backpack

Valedictorian but she doesn't see it as a "real" achievement

College/University

Heavily involved with research

Knew her major the moment she applied (probably before then)

President of the debate team

Requested to not have a roommate

On the women's rugby team

Made out with one of the members of said rugby team and was too embarrassed afterwards to show up to practice for the next week (this one is so specific sorry)

Dressed well for class no matter how early

But she preferred late classes

Took many walks around campus at night

Got invited to Greek life formals (they were very bluntly turned down)

Overpacked for the school year every single time

Started the knitting club

Took ochem "for fun"

Godot/Diego

High School

Looked like a jock stereotype

Bullied the bullies

Public school all the way man

Kept photos of all his friends in his locker

On the track & field team (pole vaulting was his favorite)

Did swimming for a year (butterfly is his stroke)

Had several girlfriends before buckling down senior year and focusing on studying

Failed History

Took Spanish for his foreign language (he already knew it)

Applied to any college where he could get a scholarship

College/University

Involved in EVERYTHING

Didn't get along well with his roommate (Diego's side of the room was always messy)

Switched his major several times (started with music, then bio, then landed on polysci)

Definitely a tour guide

Continued playing sports throughout uni (including intramurals)

Joined 2 frats

Volunteered a lot (service distinction)

Got a job at a coffee shop near campus and that's where it all began...

Started growing out his facial hair sophomore year

Dick Gumshoe

High School

Not the smartest guy, but probably the nicest

Got along with everyone no problem

Found ways to skip phys ed

Friends with the nurse (very clumsy)

Excelled in trigonometry but not much else

Went to all the football games

Probably signed up to be the mascot

Did just enough to pass his classes

Fell asleep during class a lot

The chatty guy on the bus

Unintentional class clown

Spoke up in class a lot even if he was wrong

College/University

Only got into one college... but it was the one he really wanted!

Didn't do well in core classes but once he got to things he was interested in it was practically straight A's

Considered being a teacher for a long time but decided on detective

Signed up for a philosophy class but dropped it

Super interested in entomology

Joined club basketball (he wasn't super good but he had fun)

Kept the same roommate for all 4 years and still talks to him from time to time

Pretty well known on campus ("oh you mean the big, loud guy with the green jacket?")

Started wearing his iconic jacket at this time

Always wore jeans no matter the weather

Went to a few parties even though it's not his scene (some friends wanted him to go with them)

Received surprise bids from some fraternities but he declined

That's what I have for now! I hope you enjoyed, anon!!! I added Godot because I love him 🙂‍↕️

(feel free to request any other headcanons, I love making them! Other fandoms I'm in include Danganronpa (only played THH), Banana Fish, Haikyuu, Free, and Kakegurui!)

[ravinoforre]

I've long been inspired by @edgymilkshakeart's Shadow Lugia model repaint and today I finally made my own!

I got this Lugia kit for my birthday a couple months back and figured spray painting this might be easier and quicker than trying to repaint it (or my other Lugia figure) with acrylics. Couldn't really go outside to spray so outside in the apartment building hallway it was.

In the Lab lol ...unfortunately the grey paint was somehow a thicker and goopier consistency than the purple one? So I ended up with this lumpy, peeling tummy part . Ah well.

"have you ever been told that you have... eyes?"

XD001 ready! Keep it away from open seas with large ships sailing by.

[as-the-crows-feather-falls]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Too Stubborn for Your Own Good

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Summary: After returning to the lab early in the morning, Jayce Talis discovers that a certain someone never made it home. When his partner turns down his offers for breakfast, wishing to keep working on their latest hextech project, Jayce gets creative

Warnings: SFW, minor language, this is a tickle fic so if that’s not your thing keep scrolling :)

Author notes: first ever tk fic so uhhhh yeah enjoy and constructive criticism is welcome

——————————————————————————

Jayce walked through the halls of the academy, blearily rubbing his eyes with a yawn. He had wanted to get an early start on their latest hextech invention, picking up where Viktor left off last night. He was glad to get an early jump on the day, but man he did not want to leave his bed this morning.

He finally reached the doors to the lab and clumsily dug in his pockets for his keys, only to find the doors were already unlocked.

Odd.

He pushed through to find Viktor hunched over the desk, working meticulously with a screwdriver in hand. Jayce furrowed his brow with a small frown as he approached his partner.

He put a hand on Viktor’s shoulder, causing the other man to spook briefly before looking up at him.

“Oh, hello Jayce.”

“G’morning, V,” Jayce returned the greeting through a muffled yawn. He looked around at the work station, and the gears of the new machine. It was a lot further along than Jayce would have expected. Which meant someone didn’t keep his word about going to bed at a reasonable hour.

“Did you go home last night?” Jayce asked, his tone verging on scolding.

“What time is it?” Viktor didn’t look up from his work.

“6:30.”

“Then no.”

Jayce pinched the bridge of his nose with a groan. “Viktor-“

“I know, I know,” his partner sighed.

“You said you would sleep.”

“I did sleep.”

“How many hours?”

Viktor went silent at that, keeping his gaze firmly on his work but biting the inside of his cheek. “…I slept.”

“Jesus, Viktor,” Jayce couldn’t help but chuckle. This man would be the death of him, he swears. “Listen, why don’t you take a break. We can take a walk down to that café you like, get some breakfast and coffee. If you’re not gonna rest that brilliant brain of yours,” he ruffled his friend’s hair, earning an indignant yelp from him as he batted Jayce’s hand away, “at least give it some well-deserved fuel.”

Viktor drove a hand through his messy brown hair. “This brilliant brain is currently deep in thought working on this. You go ahead.”

“Viktor, you need to eat.” Jayce leaned down and tilted his head to better glare at his partner. “Don’t make me drag a cripple out of this lab.”

Viktor rolled his eyes, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Jayce, I will join you once I finish this.”

“And how long will that take?”

Viktor shrugged and worked at a stubborn gear on the machine with the screwdriver in his hold, his nose scrunching slightly. His work was abruptly put to an end when the screwdriver was promptly snatched from his grip. He sighed and turned slowly to face the other man, now standing a few paces away.

“I know for a fact you did not just do that.”

Jayce waved the screwdriver with an infuriatingly smug grin on his face. “Promise me you’ll take a break and join me for breakfast, and you can have it back.”

Viktor scrubbed a hand down his face. “You are such a child. Fine. I promise.” He held out a hand a made a quick grabbing motion. “Now give it back.”

Jayce huffed a small laugh as he handed the screwdriver back to his partner. He took a step towards the door, expecting Viktor to follow him, only for the other man to turn around and get back to work.

“Viktor.”

His partner barely looked at him, but the look given was oh so smug. “What? I promised I’d join you for breakfast. You never said what time.”

Jayce put his hands on his hips, amazed at the pure audacity of his partner. Even more so when Viktor chuckled to himself before turning his full attention to the task at hand.

“You stubborn little…You know what? Fine! We’ll play it your way.”

Viktor didn’t have time to register the threat before Jayce’s burly arms wrapped around his middle and hauled him out of his seat.

“Jayce! What the hell?!” Viktor squirmed and writhed violently, his heels dragging across the floor.

“I told you, don’t make me drag a cripple out of this lab. You have forced my hand, my friend.”

He held on firmly to the man in his hold before Viktor stopped squirming altogether, going completely limp. Suddenly dead weight in Jayce’s arms, he slipped from his grip and resigned to lying starfished on the ground. Jayce stood over him, brows raised. He appeared upside down to Viktor, and mixed with his expression of pure audacity it was quite the silly sight to behold. Viktor had to bite his cheek to fight a smile.

“Are you kidding me right now?”

Instead of providing any proper response, Viktor gave into the childish antics and stuck his tongue out at his partner, relishing the ways his brows shot up even further and his mouth parted briefly in shock.

Jayce bit his lip with a grin, looking to the side. “Alright then, tough guy, you asked for this.”

Jayce wasn’t sure where he had gotten the idea from. Perhaps it was from when his mother used to tickle him silly when he refused to clean his room as a child, or maybe the countless times he had pinned little Caitlyn down and blew raspberry after raspberry on her belly when she out-sassed him. Wherever it came from, he found himself stepping over Viktor and wasting no time shoving his hands under his arms.

They were quite lucky their lab was rather secluded, given the volume of Viktor’s resulting shriek. His back arched and he began to squirm violently, a smile splitting his face as he began to laugh. “W-wait! Wahahahahait JahahAHAHAYCE! Jayce plehehehehehease!”

“Don’t Jayce, please me, you little shit,” His assailant retorted, grinning. “You brought his upon yourself and you know it!”

Viktor was trying to say something to him, but couldn’t quite get it out through his laughter. His arms were clamped over Jayce’s hands as he tried to block out the buzzing sensation. This did nothing but encourage Jayce, who pulled one hand out from their assault on his partner’s underarms and used it to scribble along Viktor’s stomach.

“Nonononono Jahahahayce! JAHAHAHAYCE! I cahahahaHAHAHAHA- I cahahan’t!!!” Viktor batted helplessly at Jayce’s hands, his legs kicking weakly behind him. He couldn’t even remember the last time he was tickled. It definitely hasn’t been since before he left the undercity. His nerves were going absolutely ballistic, Jayce’s fingers sending little fireworks all over his abdomen. He’d never admit it to Jayce’s face, but he couldn’t help find it a little fun, albeit near-unbearable. To Viktor’s misfortune, his partner knew what he was doing.

Jayce was grinning from ear to ear. Seeing Viktor laughing his heart out, his hair mussed and his normally pale cheeks tinged pink, sent butterflies fluttering and flipping in his stomach. Viktor laughing unapologetically like this was already a rare sight to behold, but to be the cause of that laughter was a gift. He couldn’t help but chuckle along with his friend. His laugh was unexpectedly contagious.

“Are you gonna take care of yourself and get breakfast with your best friend? Or are you gonna keep being stubborn?” he smirked, stalling his attack and planting his hands on his knees as he stood over his partner.

“Eheheheh…in your dreheheams, Talis.”

Viktor wasn’t sure what he was expecting, his pride getting in the way of all rational thought, but he knew he was done for when Jayce’s grin grew crooked, one of his canines peeking over his lip. Viktor’s stomach started doing somersaults.

Shit.

“Ohhhhohohoh okay,” Jayce chuckled. “Your funeral, buddy.”

Viktor could only try his best to curl into a ball as Jayce kneeled down next to him, secured him belly-up with one arm, made a big show of taking a deep breath, and buried his face in Viktor’s stomach as he blew a massive raspberry into it, shaking his head back and forth.

The reaction was more than Jayce could have ever wished to receive. Viktor threw his head back in mirth, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. It was the loudest Jayce had ever heard him laugh, and Viktor’s wide smile alone warmed Jayce to his core.

“GAHAHAHAHAHA ALRIHIHIHIGHT!!! ALRIHIHIHIGHT YOU WIN!!! YOU WIHIHIHIN JAYCE PLEHEHEHEASE!!!” Viktor finally cried through his laughter, shoving desperately at Jayce’s face.

“Okahay, okay, V, I’ll stop.” He gave a quick pat to Viktor’s stomach before sitting back, leaning his weight on his hands and smiling as he watched Viktor recover from his giggle fit. The other man was greedily gasping for air and his arms hugged his middle. “Pfft, are you alright?” He chuckled.

“You…” Viktor glared, “evil…evil man.”

Jayce burst out laughing. “You think that’s evil, you should talk to Cait. She’s got some horror stories from when she was little.”

“Yes,” Viktor gave a malicious grin. “Perhaps she could tell me how to get revenge on your ocel.”

Jayce held up his hands defensively. “Hehehey, let’s save that for another time, huh? We’ve still got a lovely breakfast waiting for us and a machine to finish.”

Viktor gave a long, groaning sigh, looking up at the ceiling, before he stretched his hand towards it. “Help me up.”

Jayce happily obliged, standing himself before grabbing Viktor’s arm and hauling him to his feet as well, leaving him briefly to retrieve his cane for him. Viktor let Jayce put his arm around him as the two walked out of the lab. He briefly bumped his head against Jayce’s shoulder before giving a thoughtful hum.

“Toast and fruit with sweetmilk doesn’t sound too horrible right now.”

Jayce gave Viktor a small squeeze as they walked. His heart felt happy and full, holding his best friend close after starting the day with smiles and laughter. “I knew I could knock some sense into you.”

“Don’t you dare make it a habit.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

[lovewitchtarot]

future spouse pick a pile

Disclaimer: This is a collective reading; take what resonates, leave what doesn't. Never use tarot readings for medical or legal advice, and for the sake of legality, don't act on anything that could potentially hurt you or others because of a tarot reading. Don't take this reading or any others too seriously. Remember, this is for the collective, not just one person.

pile one

random attributes of you or your spouse: fire sign, summer (summer birthday or when you two meet), light skin, dark skin (could also be olive or tanned), green (eyes or a favorite color), long hair, and blond or light brown hair (could be dyed).

numbers and letters for pile one: a,x,t, and 4

have you and your future spouse already meet? yes! you and this person could be from the same culture, heritage, or religion (or spiritual belief). they highly value family and traditions they are quite literally a "family man (or woman)"

personality and relationship with this person: this person may be a perfectionist, and this at times can hold them back because they are afraid of failure and making mistakes. They may abandon projects because of this. This person has to work through this. You may help them realize that it's okay to not always be perfect and help them heal their wounds, and at the same time, they'll help heal yours. Before this person heals themselves, it may cause you two to have a falling out or a rough patch because they may push you away out of fear, but you two will work through and come back stronger than ever. In this relationship, you will be treated like a queen or king. This person loves to care for and nurture you; they are very gentle with you, especially when you are sick or not feeling 100%. You may have met this person through mutual friends, and in the future, you two will share friends, and you will be close with their family, and they'll be close with yours. You two will celebrate together a lot. You'll celebrate huge milestones and little everyday achievements. This person will really lift you up and cheer you on. This person is very creative; they may be an artist of sorts, and they'll bring out your inner artist as well. You will be this person's muse; they'll make art about or for you, and they will love to look at you because, in their eyes, you are the most beautiful thing they have ever seen. You two will celebrate many ups and downs. You will help this person with grief and loss, and they will help with yours too. This person will bring lots of stability to your life, both emotionally and financially. This person literally makes the impossible possible; they can manifest anything into reality without even trying. You two will have a family together, but it may take some time and it may not be easy, but you two will be loving, caring parents.

pile two

random attributes about you or your future spouse: light skin, summer, winter, spring (you could have birthdays in these seasons or you could meet during this time, you could also meet during a vacation maybe on a vacation to celebrate yours or their birthday)

numbers and letters: v,a,i,t,6,7,2,4,

have you met this person? no you have not but you will meet with the next 3 years possibly sooner.

how you meet: you will meet this person after going through a loss of some sort maybe a messy break up on your end or theirs you will provide support for them or they will provide support for you.

personality and relationship with this person: this person is brave and eager; they may be adventurous and outdoorsy; they may play a sport for fun or professionally; I can also see them riding horses or bikes. You two will go on hikes and adventures as dates. You two may go to the park for a picnic, or you may go to the beach to relax; they love the outdoors. This person really brings out your inner child; they themselves may be playful and full of life. This person does have the downfall of taking on too much at once; they overwork themselves and don't take time to take a break or relax; they are constantly on the move. Before you two met, they had battled with an addiction or extremely bad mental health, but they put in the work to get better. They may have done this for or because of you. This person brings stability into this relationship; they are definitely a level-headed person, and they help to balance you out. This person is also very creative, and they see the beauty in the mundane. It is very important to be patient and wait for this person instead of being with the wrong person, because, trust me, this relationship is definitely worth the wait. This relationship is quite literally a gift from the divine, and you will cherish it forever. This person is definitely your twin flame or your soulmate. I see you having two kids with someone and really loving them. I think you would really love being a parent, and it would give you fulfillment in life, whether you think so right now or not.

pile three

random attributes about you or you future spouse: medium to light skin color, medium hair (length or color), brown or green eyes, brown hair, short, older than you, extraverted, spring and winter

numbers and letters: 8,6,9,3,5,i,v,u,o,a

have you met this person yet? no you have not expect to meet them soon within 6 months.

how you meet? you two meet at a busy place could be a party of sorts or just a get together. it'll be crowded which may not be your scene but they thrive in that type of environment and you may be mesmerized with how well they get along with everyone and how effortless it is for them to talk to people.

personality and how they are in the relationship: this person may seem like a player at first, like they aren't ready for a relationship yet and like they don't want to settle down, but don't worry; in the long run, you two will have a steady, trustworthy relationship. You made this person realize that there's more to life than partying and going out every night. You made them realize that they want genuine love and to have an actual relationship. This person has healing energy, like being the therapist of a friend group or being good with kids or animals. You and this person are strong. You have both had hard times at times, and sometimes, especially in this relationship, it may take willpower from both sides. You and this person are yin and yang, black and white; you two balance each other's energy 50/50. This person is also everything you have and everything you have ever dreamed of, quite literally. You may have prophetic dreams of this person, or you may sit and daydream about them and your relationship with them. You may have some trouble opening up to this person and being sensitive, but don't worry, you will work through this and open up to them, even if it takes time. This person has authority; they are strong, stoic, and protective. You will have many decisions in this relationship, and your spouse may even consult you about their decisions and choices. Don't let fear hold you back. Don't hide in your fear. Take the leap and do big things. You or your spouse may be very psychic, especially at a young age. You and this person had past life connections, and your souls are tied together in a way; they may be your twin flame or soul mate. I don't see you having kids, but you could always adopt pets or even adopt later down the line.

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 19 - "What if we're wrong?"

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: T

Warnings: -

A/N: Sort of Danny's perspective and a different side to Prompt 4, probably not as creative as the awesome reblogs and comments but hope people will still like it. Also posting this early too because I am an impatient B and going to be busy with work tomorrow again.

Danny looked nervously up at his sister who was giving him an encouraging smile and had placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. His gaze wandered back to the paper in his hands, a face with a confident smile printed largely on it. A cutout from a business magazine Jazz had happened to read.

"It's not too late, we could still just turn around and go back to Amity." Danny muttered, the paper crumpling ever so slightly in his hands. His sister sighed, wishing that her brothers best friends could have come along with them.

"Danny, it will be fine." She told him her hand moved from his shoulder to rub comforting circles on her brother's back. "Let's settle into the hotel first. We have your entire semester vacation to figure out how to continue from there."

"But Jazz, what if we're wrong? Just because I was adopted as a baby and that Ancestry thing I did in middle school contacted us about someone matching up with the DNA I sent there in middle school, it doesn't mean that he is…"

"Danny." Jazz cut in, lightly pushing her brother forward so he would start moving. "You are starting to overthink again."

"But we could be wrong!" Danny insisted once more the paper now completely crumbled in his hands. "This sounds too good to be true! And you know that good things don't just easily happen to me! I know something is going to happen to mess it all up or maybe I will mess it all up and…"

Jazz turned on her brother to make him face her, they had barely managed to step out of the airport before her brother fell into another spiral, one of many he had ever since that Ancestry Agency had contacted them. She cradled her brother's face in her hands making him look at her.

"Danny. When you had that school project about Ancestry in middle school, Mom and Dad admitted to having you adopted as a baby but not your twin brother you already freaked out then. You did that whole DNA thing with the school project as cover in hopes that your brother might have done it too. When nothing came back from it, what did I tell you then?"

"That I was an idiot to do it behind your back?" Jazz pinched her little brother's cheeks with a fond smile.

"Not that, what else did I say?"

"That I will always be your brother no matter what?"

"And?"

"And… and that I shouldn't lose hope because you would help me if I really wanted to meet him."

Jazz changed her hold on her brother from cradling his face to hugging him tightly. "That's right idiot. So if you really want to go back to Amity Park we can easily do that, there is no need for you to panic." She felt her brother nodd into her shoulder. "So do you really want to go back?"

"I guess… I could at least see if all these magazines are telling the truth and if he really is living a good life." Jazz pulled away from her brother now holding him by his shoulders and beamed at him happily. Before leading her brother to the hotel she had booked for them.

Both did not notice that their little exchange had happened in perfect view of a surveillance camera and had gotten caught by someone who had gotten interested in their movements ever since a certain someone had a little freak out in regards to finding someone that shared his DNA.

Later at night on the same day, Danny found himself unable to sleep. Feeling restless he decided to take a look at the night sky's of Gotham in hopes to calm his growing nervousness ever since he arrived in this city. Jazz was sleeping peacefully in the room next to his, so to not disturb her, he changed forms, turned invisible and phased through several ceilings until he reached the roof.

Once there Danny dropped his invisibility as well as transformation and just sat on the roof, not on the edge mind you, but by the door that usually would have led up here doing his best to look as much as a normal civilian trying to enjoy the night sky as possible. He had heard about Batman not wanting any Metas in his city, Phantom probably wouldn't be very welcomed either then.

Danny sat there staring up at the cloudy skies, frowning how with the light pollution and clouds he was unable to see even a single star. He was contemplating the pros and cons about changing form and flying above the cloud level to see the stars when he heard a soft thud not too far from him. Too silent to be picked up by normal hearing but his ghost enchanted one picked it up.

"You are not from Gotham, are you?" Danny tensed at the voice that resounded over the roof. His head turned towards where the voice came from and noticed the figure shadowed by the clouds, glad in red and black colores. "Gothamites know not to be out on roofs at night."

Danny swallowed but didn't move as the figure stepped closer. "You are Red Robin."

"So you know of me?" Danny watched how the other twirled around a bo-staff, if he didn't know better he would have said that the vigilante appeared nervous.

"My best friend kind of told me about the vigilantes of Gotham when he learned that I was going to visit the city." He carefully admitted to Red Robin and Danny wasn't lying Tucker had prepared an entire list about Gotham's vigilantes as well as all the celebrities. Danny was very thankful that he had not mentioned to his best friend that Tim Drake-Wayne might be the twin he had been looking for for years now. That would have been a whole other ordeal he didn't want to deal with yet.

"Got a favorite yet?" The vigilante asked and did Danny imagine it or was his tone weirdly hopeful?

He shrugged as answer, noting how the vigilantes' shoulders appear to drop in disappointment. Though a moment later Red Robin walked a bit closer and crouched, while Danny had yet to move from his sitting position. "So… why are you out on the roof late at night?"

"I was hoping to see the stars."

"The stars?"

"Stargazing always helped me calm down." Danny admitted turning his gaze from the vigilante to the cloudy sky. He didn't take his eyes completely off the other, his shoulders were still tense but for some reasons his body wanted to relax in the other's presence.

"You went up on a roof late at night to calm down?" He eyed the vigilante, wondering why the other was so interested in Danny right now but also wondering if Danny was really going to dumb his whole emotional turmoil on a complete stranger. What would Jazz say if she knew about this? Probably psycho analyze this whole situation and reason that Danny just wanted someone not involved to just listen to him without the objectives Jazz wasn't able to provide.

He eyed the vigilante once more, noting how the other appeared to be just as tense as Danny was, before opening his mouth. "I am only in Gotham because the twin I have been looking for for years lives here."

The vigilante hummed, sounding interested, indicating for Danny to continue. "I don't even know if he knows about me or would even want to see me. For all I know he doesn't even know I exist. Mom and Dad adopted me from the orphanage as a baby but not my twin brother."

Danny started to ramble on not noticing the sharp intake of air Red Robin took. "He may have a perfectly good life! And here I am appearing out of nowhere and possibly destroying it! What if I mess up his whole family dynamic! I mean how crazy is that? A stranger just appears out of nowhere saying he is your twin with no proof other than the stupid mail from an Ancestry DNA Testing facility stating they found a DNA similar to your own? Ancients, this sounds even more stupid when I say it out loud!"

In his rant Danny hadn't noticed Red Robin having come closer and their hand carefully hovering over his shoulder. "Hey…"

He looked up sharply at the vigilante next to him that was now placed on his shoulder, radiating a warmth that felt grounding to Danny. "I am sure it is not as bad as you think it is. If those Ancestry people contacted you, they might have contacted your twin also and who knows he could possibly be very interested in learning more about your whole situation?"

Danny blinked at the vigilante that was apparently trying to give him a reassuring smile despite the upper half of his face being covered by a mask and he couldn't help but return the smile with a small grateful one of his own.

The vigilante looked like he wanted to say something else but Danny's phone suddenly started buzzing, he hurried to pull it out of his pockets noticing several texts from his sister arriving in a rapid fashion.

"My sister." He muttered, looks like Jazz had woken up and tried to check on him like he was still a little child, he smiled fondly at the phone.

Side eyeing the vigilante, both stood up. "I uh…"

"You better hurry back in. She will probably grow more worried the longer you stay up here."

Blinking at the vigilante, Danny nodded, moving towards the door that would lead back into the building while the vigilante started to move towards the edge of the building. Before Danny could try to see if the door was locked or open he turned over his shoulder wanting to voice his thanks to the other for listening to his ranting but found the vigilante gone.

Staring for a moment before shrugging Danny let his eyes wander over the roofs of the other buildings just in case before deciding to forgo his transformation and just phase through the floors invisible without it until he reached his room.

In the shadows on the roof of the building to the side Red Robin arched an eyebrow under his mask before turning to the coms. "Meta status is confirmed. Also Nightwing, think you can help me create the most natural and unsuspicious situation for me to meet him tomorrow? I already have a couple of ideas."

"I think we can work something out easily RR."

"Good."

"It sounded like there was a whole lot more to this twin situation than we originally thought."

"Yea..."

"Chin up Red! We will get to the bottom of this!"

"He likes stargazing..." Red Robin mutter to himself, not really listening to his siblings on the coms. "I will take him to the planetarium, first chance I got."

[lady-raziel]

long reaction to the update

ok. so they put out an update video! since i've been commentating for the last three days i might as well subject you all to more of my thoughts today.

main takeaway: this was a good apology video. i mean it. short and to the point, no overproduction, heartfelt and honest (and not a ukelele to be seen. thank god.) they took ownership of the situation, apologized, and restated how much they value their relationship with the fandom.

their solution is to make the watcher tv platform into kind of an iteration of patreon where content is available for early access before it is released onto youtube later. this is clearly a better option than paywalling everything for everyone. i'm not sure what the relative breakdown of costs turns out to be when you compare how much they were making on patreon after the platform took their cut VS how much it costs in overhead to run and maintain their own platform (how much it costs annually to contract via Vimeo, essentially). but i'm sure that's part of the calculation.

all things considered, that does seem like the best option out of all the alternatives. it allows them to not completely abandon any of the pans they have simmering over the fire for the time being. i don't think i ever thought they were going to just say "oops, forget about the streaming thing! let's pretend that never happened!" because at this point they've invested quite a lot of time and money into it, and i don't disagree that keeping it in some iteration may help them make up some of the funds they're lacking.

i would say, it's fine to keep the streamer. this is one of the ok outcomes, all things considered-- but if they're going to do it, they've GOT to do it smart from this point forward. listen to both the fans and the consultants intimately. both are going to have valid points, and both are going to be right. listening to too much of either side will sink this thing because each has motives and expertise that the other doesn't. if the fans say $6 is too much, listen to them-- but have conversations with business consultants about how much you realistically need to charge to make things work.

also, i'd use this whole situation as a learning experience. watcher is a young company, and it's literally inevitable that mistakes will happen. what's different is that the watcher crew haven't really been in a position before where they've been on the receiving end of the internet-angry-justice-hammer to this extent. it's one thing to watch it happen to others, but it's a position of extreme privilege (and a bit of hubris) to think "but that won't happen to me, because i'm built different." naw, man-- two things in life are inevitable: death and fuckups. the callout posts get us all in the end.

what's really important is that they use this as a wakeup call that even the most loyal fandoms will only follow you so far to the cliff's edge, and you don't want to push that. you have to strike a balance between the passion projects that you think are worthy and the stuff that maybe doesn't excite you as much anymore but the people want to see. a little fanservice keeps the lights on, as unfair as that might seem. i'm gonna make 50 markiplier choccy milk memes just so i can make one niche political joke once and a while for 6 likes. it is what it is.

i'd also use this as a chance to take a very careful look at company structure and finances. it's not fun to do and nobody likes it. trust me-- this is hard whether you're a single adult trying to pay the bills or the freaking US government (speaking from experience on both-- i have to read the president's budget for work frequently). but you all have to ask hard questions about the ratio of creative staff you take on VS staff for administrative and other business roles, as well as the costs and benefits of everything you spend money on. how many staff members are essential to location shoots? can this video be shot with 2 cameras instead of 3 and thus you don't need another cameraperson? you might even have to come to the decision that instead of pitching a new show it makes more sense to use those funds to hire your essential non-creative roles or contract firms or freelancers.

paying staff a fair wage with benefits speaks highly of what watcher wants their values to be. it's hard to find such a position in a creative role and still actually get to work on things you care about. but it would be much worse if watcher didn't make realistic decisions about finances and it lead to the death of the company and everyone losing their jobs. the whole watcher company can work, in my opinion, but not without some sacrifices. they're going to have to run it more like a business and less like a youtube-channel-turned-business in the future if they want to survive.

last thing i'll add is that while i do think this was a good apology video, i still think they hurt themselves by not putting out some sort of statement on Friday or Saturday just to say that they were formulating a response. As i've said in other posts, it's ok and in fact beneficial to not make a kneejerk reaction, but it's also very important to communicate that you SEE what's happening. you SEE what people are saying and THAT'S why you need more time to respond. saying nothing and leaving the angry public to wonder if you dropped your phone off the Hoover Dam or just don't care? that's a fumble. it's a common mistake companies make in a crisis, but that doesn't mean it doesn't erode trust fast.

this could have been handled better in many ways. we see that, and i'm glad watcher says they see that too. crucial going forward is taking all this and patching the errors that caused all this to fall apart and learning from the experience.

tbh at this point what i'm most sad about is that the watcher crew have probably been too stressed out and upset to appreciate some of the absolute bangers people have been laying down to clown on them. i think if it wasn't about them they might be touched by the collective attitude and creative spirit. /j

[tiredandoptimistic]

RvB tarot cards

I have once again cooked up a hypothetical tarot deck for a show I enjoy. I didn't make any art because I refuse to attempt Halo armor, but here's my pitch for which RvB character I'd assign to each of the major arcana.

0-The Fool: Franklin Delano Donut. The fool symbolizes new beginnings, and someone who is so excited to be on an adventure that they stop paying attention to the dangers around them. Donut is of course known for his vibrant enthusiasm, but he may not be the most mindful person. Despite all the dangers and near death experiences he's faces though, this plucky private just keeps on being fabulous.

1-The Magician: Frank "Doc" Dufrense. The magician is a powerful character because he stands outside the limits of the four suits, much like Doc's place beyond the constructed binary of Red vs Blue. He doesn't belong wholly to any group (and his mind doesn't even belong wholly to himself), but that won't stop him from showing up every day to make people more comfortable while they die. He is an outsider who comes to help others; it's just a question of whether he can live up to his own good intentions.

2-The High Priestess: Agent North Dakota. As an almost parental figure, the high priestess is often sought for advice and encourages cooler heads to prevail. North's place amongst the Freelancers was often defined by his role as a peacekeeper, serving as an advocate for calm and reasoned thinking in the face of bizarre circumstances. It's because of this logic and empathy that he was able to recognize Freelancer's corruption and ultimately defect from the project.

3- The Empress: Agent New York. The empress is a leader not through force but through nurturing. This suits York, who was consistently one of the highest ranked and best beloved Freelancers, in large part due to his amiable personality and willingness to listen to others. He often acted as a more passive or supportive member of the group, but his defection from the program proved that he was still an independent thinker and a leader in his own right.

4- The Emperor: Agent Carolina. In contrast to their counterpart, the emperor is the leader who maintains control through strict discipline. Carolina was the head of her squad in Project Freelancer due to her raw strength and combat ability, but she often allowed this reliance on rules and structure to go too far. She not only allowed the ranking system to control her life, but she expected her place as #1 to allow her to control the lives of others. After her time with the Reds and Blues she allowed herself to loosen up a bit, but she still maintained her domineering personality and commitment to victory.

5- The Hierophant: Col. Sarge. The hierophant is another leadership card, this one coming from a person who is entrenched in a place of authority and perhaps a bit too reliant on rules and history. Sarge is certainly a creative leader in many ways, but he also depends upon the army as the arbitrator of right and wrong; focusing heavily on receiving orders and passing them on to his subordinates. Sarge isn't completely unchangeable though, and we see in season eight onwards the sort of wild maneuvers he'll cook up on his own time.

6- The Lovers: Lopez and Sheila. This card is fairly self explanatory, I think. Two people in love! It just so happens that in this case, the happiest and most functional relationship is between a robot soldier and the enemy tank.

7- The Chariot: Agent South Dakota. The chariot is all about go-go-go. It's a card of action and movement, much like South's fiery and passionate personality. Though her impulsivity often got her benched, the limitations placed on her by the Director only added to her frustration and prevented her from getting any of that energy out in a healthy way. After Project Freelancer her main mission was always to keep moving and keep finding something new, no matter what destruction she had to leave behind.

8- Strength: Michael J. Caboose. While Caboose is of course strong in a physical sense, that's not exactly the meaning of the strength tarot card. Strength is the lion, but it's also the young woman who fearlessly scratches the lion's ears. Caboose can lift a tank, but his real power comes from the strength of his friendships and his willingness to trust anyone who comes his way. This endless optimism and determination to keep seeing the bright side of everything (even a killer robot) is what led the Reds and Blues out of many tough scrapes.

9- The Hermit: Dick Simmons. The hermit is a guy by himself, plain and simple. While Simmons craves the company of others, he often finds it easier to keep himself isolated than to deal with the complexities of humanity. If the Reds don't respect him he'll simply join the Blues and take over an empty base. He's smart, yes, but he sees his own powers as ultimate and doesn't want to be on the team if he isn't seen as essential.

10- The Wheel of Fortune: Agent Florida. As a symbol of fate and destiny, the wheel of fortune is suited to a character like Florida who may appear chaotic but ultimately pulls the strings of Blood Gulch. His personality can be a bit unpredictable at times, but Flowers is still completely in control. It's just a question of whether you've figured out his plan yet.

11- Justice: Agent Connecticut. While all the members of Project Freelancer were supposedly fighting for peace, CT is the only one who took it upon herself to keep their agency in check. The others followed of course, but she was the first whistleblower to really challenge Freelancer and uncover the twisted secrets of their organization, and she was more than willing to sacrifice her life if it meant getting that information to the right people. Though it didn't come to pass until after his death, CT was still the one who brought Project Freelancer to justice.

12- The Hanged Man: Lavernius Tucker. While the hanged man isn't exactly a cheery sounding card, what it's really about is looking at difficult situations from a creative perspective. Tucker was constantly tied up in the schemes of others (The Director, the Sangheli, Felix), but he always maintained his distinctive attitude and determination. While he would have preferred to stay the same guy he was in Blood Gulch, he proved again and again that he was more than able to adapt and evolve; thriving in lethal conflicts and becoming a hero unlike any other.

13- Death: The Meta. The Meta, like death, is not cruel or sadistic. It is simply coming for you, and you will not escape. Looking deeper though, the death card in tarot symbolizes the end to old systems and the transition to something new. The Meta was once Agent Maine, until is underwent a transformation more horrible than simply dying. It went through a metamorphosis, and in the process brought about the end of Project Freelancer and the beginning of a new era.

14- Temperance: Locus. This card is one that symbolizes balance more than anything else. As a man desperate to become a machine, Locus tried to maintain perfect control over himself. He wanted to appear solid and unshakeable, up until the bedrock of his partnership with Felix was shattered. After he turned on his partner, Locus struggled to maintain a different kind of balance; between the man he was and the man he wants to be.

15- The Devil: Felix. Well this one is pretty simple. The devil as a card is about evil, yes; but it's also about control and creativity. Felix found joy in his ability to wrap the people of the New Republic around his finger, and he thrived in command of an army of space pirates. More than that though, he had fun with it. He always came up with innovative ways to destroy his enemies or intimidate his allies, and he was completely free of guilt the entire time.

16- The Tower: The Director. While death and the devil sound scary on the surface, the tower is really the most powerfully negative card in the deck. Much like Dr. Church, the tower brings misery and despair to everyone associated with it. More specifically, the screaming people falling from a lightning struck tower symbolizes divine retribution for humans who saw themselves as gods. The Director spent his later years trying to build a program that could win a war and bring back his lost love, and his favorite tool was manipulation. He always wanted nothing more than to establish his own power and prove that he could maintain complete control over the world and people around him, but it was only a matter of time before his ship crashed into Sidewinder and his bitter children found his hiding place.

17- The Star: Dexter Grif. The star is another symbol of balance, though this one is more about fairness and hope. Grif is someone who may act discontented but clearly cares deeply about the people around him, and his unshakeable demeanor holds the Reds together (as much as Sarge would hate to admit it). While he doesn't literally nourish the land and water like the star, he stays calm amidst a team of fiery tempers and is able to keep the warthog running if they ever need a getaway vehicle.

18- The Moon: Agent Washington. The moon is all about changes and illusions, perfect for someone like Wash who spent so much time blending into different personas. While Wash, like the moon, can appear dark and mysterious; he's ultimately a force for positive change amongst the Reds and Blues, who in turn inspire him to change into the best version of himself.

19- The Sun: Kaikaina Grif. Simple joy, that's what the sun is all about. In a canyon full of shitty people and a show full of angst, Kai is one of the only characters who's just here to have a good time. As crazy as things get for her brother and his friends, she'll always be waiting back at Blue Base with enough music and glowsticks to keep the party going.

20- Judgement: Agent Texas. Much like the angel on this card descends to judge mankind, Tex was dragged from the afterlife to separate the worthy from the corrupt. While she was created as a sort of toy in the Director's grief, she quickly established her own sense of identity and justice. She saw the truth of Project Freelancer and made it her mission to destroy it, doing her best to free the Alpha. In Blood Gulch and beyond she acted as a sort of avenging angel for the Blues, swooping in to save their asses and punish whoever she deemed to be worthy of punishment. In the end they all learned something from Tex and her fierce determination. Church became his own protector, and he could finally let Allison rest.

21- The World: The AI fragments. The world is a card of ultimate completion. Much like the many fragments who came from a more powerful AI, many symbols surround the vast and vibrant landscape of this card. Delta, Theta, Gamma, Omega, Beta, Sigma, Eta, Iota, Epsilon, and Alpha are all characters in their own right; but they're also pieces of a whole. They were never able to reunite fully in Red vs Blue, but they live on in the memories of Epsilon and all of us who return to the show year after year.

[mxrcurysb1tch]

Sun and moon combo observations!

DISCLAIMER: this is my personal opinion based on my observations and people I know irl. If you don’t agree then you’re entitled to your opinion but don’t come at me xo

Libra sun, Aries moon- Oh man you guys are DYNAMIC especially socially. You run with so many different circles and somehow still manage to remember everyone’s name and balance everything perfectly, You have about a billion hobbies and projects on the go. It’s quite admirable. You have your fingers in all of the pies. Very extroverted and a lot of fun. You can be a bit blunt at times but the Libra sun helps to smooth over the worst of it.

Virgo sun, Libra moon- You guys come off as serious and “put together” but to your friends you’re really just a giggly, smiley ball of energy. You rarely overindulge in things and you probably know your limits fairly well. You’re likely pretty popular and have many different friends because of your playful nature and inherent understanding of social rules. Despite being able to charm anyone though, you probably prefer hanging around with the “weirdos” rather than the popular kids, because after all they are more fun.

Aquarius sun, Capricorn moon- You have a unique but hilarious sense of humour. You’re probably fairly introverted but you’re pretty good at making small talk and being around people if needed. You probably don’t push the boat out far in terms of your fashion choices, preferring to wear black and dark colours, but the pieces you do choose always look very cool nonetheless. You’re interested in some pretty weird or unconventional stuff but you don’t dare show anyone. You’re probably pretty artistic and creative too and have a keen eye. You’re not much one for casual relationships and although you may appear hap-hazardous at times, you’re actually pretty careful.

Capricorn sun, Sagittarius moon- I’ll admit it, you’re pretty funny. You also appreciate other people’s humour even if it’s different to your own. Thing is, you’re not as misunderstood as you think you are. You’re actually pretty easy to read. You have a pretty good balance between being serious and having fun. Compared to other sag moon combos you’re not as much of an escapist but you are fairly conflict avoidant and can be quite difficult to deal with sometimes. Despite this though, you’re such a good laugh and deep down a good person that even if you act out a lot, people will still want to keep you around.

Gemini sun, Leo moon- You’re so unintentionally funny. Sometimes you may come across as annoying. You tend to live in the moment but you know how to be serious when it’s something that really matters to you. You do what you want, when you want to do it. You will talk to anyone about anything but sometimes you can be pretty elusive. You love a good party, a good time, anything to get yourself living in the moment. You can be pretty avoidant though and rarely admit to anyone when things aren’t going so well.

Sagittarius sun, Gemini moon- You’re a bit of a risk taker. You’ve probably ended up in the hospital a few times after doing something dumb. You have a kind of “everywhere all at once” type of vibe to you. Despite being super extroverted you probably, surprisingly, view yourself as quiet and awkward but this is not something that people see about you unless they know you very well.

[inmyheaddd]

grayson hawthorne childhood bsf to lovers head canons

a/n: my first posttt!! grayson hawthorne ily if u have any advice pls lmk!! also will be taking requests if you have any 🤍

wc: 1.9k masterlist

you both come from very prominent families in texas, so it’s no surprise that you spent countless events and parties within each others company.

you and grayson were in the same nursery

there are multitudes of pictures of you with the brothers as babies/ toddlers, some you forgot even existed 

as you and the hawthorne brothers were all similar ages, you often found yourself ditching the adults and the formalities of the event and hanging out separately -usually in the treehouse.

you weren’t really chatty or outgoing per say, especially compared to xander and jameson. however, around them your shell would fade a little bit. 

grayson was still quiet around you. one time when you were 12 and he was 14, you were climbing up the tree house with a broken arm, (you were too stubborn, and slightly embarrassed to ask for help) he himself was walking towards the tree house from a distance. he sees you struggle, and runs to help you without any hesitation.

you offer him a smile and small “thankyou” when you are both up.

he’s already halfway turned, nods without making eye contact, and then he walks away. 

you and grayson didn’t hit the best friends level until around 14/15

you didn’t talk to him as much as you would with xander, which is what led to xander noticing how many things in common you and grayson had.

he would subtly (not subtle at all) tell grayson about recent things you were doing 

“yeah, she’s into photography… just like you! isn’t that crazy?“

“did you know that she plays cello? just like you!”

“i don’t play cello, xander“

“violin, cello, same thing! you could take pictures of violins together! tell me how many other people on earth you could do that with… none! because she fascinatedly enjoys the same weird things that you do, except she does it better.” he paused, finally taking a breath. “you could learn some things!”

grayson slowly started talking to you more and more in group settings, and you both became more comfortable in each others presence

one time, you needed help with an art project. you had to design your own fictional apartment and create paintings, posters, photos, and furniture unique to you. 

you were not the most creative person at 14, but heights country day had high expectations. 

after 3 days of no progress, you called grayson explaining and asking for help.

to your surprise, he agreed to do it and over the next few weeks you both worked on it.

you started to involve snacks and watching movies (ends up being background chatter whilst you talk) or just talking in the times you worked together, to make it feel less like an appointment and more like friends talking and helping each other out.

one time you suggested you play music ask background noise, and to his surprise you two had extremely similar music tastes. another thing for you to talk about!

as one of the requirements for the project were your own photos, you and grayson would sneak pictures of each other without the other knowing, and one time went out together for the sole purpose of taking photos of surroundings. 

jameson liked to call that “the ultimate first date for nerds”

you and grayson both repeatedly insisted it was not a date. (grayson would go all out and beyond if it was)

during these few weeks you became inseparably close, half the time you hung out to work on the project, it was long forgotten within the hour. 

you soon realized you started to develop a small crush on him.

after you turned it in and got 100, you took a chance and asked him if you two could go out to celebrate. he was extremely happy for you and your mark, and agreed.

you decided on going to the park and have a celebratory picnic, not so subtly accompanied by xander and jameson about 500ft away who just so happened to be coincidentally walking by! 

the awkwardness once present many years ago was long gone, and you two were laughing and talking like there was no tomorrow.

to anyone who didn’t know you two, they would’ve never even guessed you were as quiet as you were around other people. 

around eachother, you felt like there was no pressure to perform, put on a fake face, and any over thinking. 

xander and jameson were genuinely surprised, and thought you two were secretly together, and asked grayson about it a few days later 

“so! me and xander were casually strolling through the park as one does, and we just so happened to see you and a certain someone!”

graysons infamous eyebrow arch appears with a monotone, “and?” 

“you were more smiley than i’ve ever seen you in my whole entire life” xander deadpans. 

“do you have something to tell us?”

“yeah, why would you not tell me and jameson you two were secretly dating!”

“we are not secretly dating, we were celebrating her 100 on the project we worked on.” 

“oh yeah, the ‘project’” xander says in air quotes, dragging the oh with an inquisitive look on his face

graysons face is expressionless as he stays silent for a second. “i’m done with this conversation” grayson says as he walks away.

“you know gray, it wouldn’t be so wrong if you liked her. you deserve someone good for you.” jameson calls out. grayson pauses for a second, and continues to walk.

hes always liked you, he just didn’t want to ruin the one good thing he had going for him in his eyes. every time he lets someone in, which is rarely, they end up gone.

you were inseparable best friends, always getting mistaken as together by older adults, or getting told that you should be together. 

you and grayson swap annotated books all the time.

youd make fun of him for his over analysis of the lines and characters, whilst your annotations would often be “no fucking way” “I KNEW IT” “this psycho bitch” “WHAT” “aww”

he’d make fun of yours as well, but secretly, it was his favorite part of reading the books you’d give him, never failing to make him smile.

he went with you to homecoming, his suit and tie matched your dress and he gave you a matching corsage; all a total surprise to you

literally everybody thought you were together 

he held your shoes for you when your feet got tired 

after the party, you went to an icecream place and talked for hours still in your outfits. people looked at you strangely but you didn’t care because you were both too infatuated with eachother to pay any mind.

on movie nights you two would have together, you two would always look at eachother at seperate times, turning your head when his eyes are about to catch yours. 

when you’d fall asleep on the couch next to him, you’d somehow wake up in your bed 

when you watched the notebook together you noticed him shed a single tear whilst you were crying your eyes out

your crying immediately stopped when you saw it and relentlessly teased him for it as he says “he’d never cry to a romance movie”

when nash would come home he’d always ask grayson if you two were together yet.

you had liked grayson for around 3 years now, and you thought that if he liked you he would’ve said something by now (doesn’t make sense when you’ve liked him for 3 years but said nothing, but it’s ok) 

so when a cute guy in your math class asked you to prom, you agreed.

he ended up being 3 hours late, and when he did show up, he was dancing with another girl the whole time.

you didn’t even like the guy, so why were you so sad? you didn’t know.

you exited through the back door and sat in the parking lot. xander noticed your absence and called grayson right away

sitting in the parking lot with your knees to your chest, mascara threatening to run down your eyes, you notice a car pull up

upon further inspection you realise it’s grayson’s car.

you stand up and walk away and he jogs towards you, calling out your name.

you turn around “grayson? what are you doing here” you say with a light shake of your head

“what are you doing here.” 

“it’s my prom night?”

“no, i mean out here. why aren’t you inside with everyone else?”

“i was just getting a breather, drunk teenagers am i right?” you said, followed by a slight chuckle. “well, im going back inside now, you can go.” you point back to the door with a slight quiver in your voice.

you start to walk away as he’s still standing there.

“you always look down when you lie, you know that?” 

you stop dead in your tracks and turn around, “what?”

“whenever you lie, you look to the side, look back up, look down, and then look back up again.”

“what? you’re talking crazy grayson. just go home, i’m fine.” 

“there you go again, side, back up, down, up again.”

“how’d you even notice that?” you say with a star struck, almost in awe expression on your face.

he walks closer to you “i notice everything about you.” 

you’re at a loss for words, just silently staring at him while he keeps talking

“i notice that you always smile at people, even if you don’t talk, you smile. i notice that even when someone has wronged you numerous times, you’ll show them kindness. i notice that whenever you’re struggling, you keep it to yourself. i notice that you also insist on doing things yourself unless you absolutely need assistance, so you don’t feel like a burden, and it drives me crazy. you drive me crazy.”

you’re genuinely dumbfounded, not knowing what to say, too many thoughts jumping in of your mind you settle on “i… i don’t do that.” real smooth

“do you remember that day in the treehouse?” he pauses, “you broke your arm, yet you still tried to climb it.” 

you lightly laugh “yeah i was like 12, i thought i could do anything.”

“you were still you.”

your face stills, and you notice something unfamiliar in the way grayson looking at you, something you’ve never noticed in his eyes before 

“gray, what are you saying, what does all this mean?” 

“i would spend my entire life noticing all the things you don’t know about yourself, and remembering all the moments you forget. because that’s what my life is. it’s you.“ he’s breathing heavier now, and pauses again. “and i’ll work every single day of it proving to you that you don’t have to be alone. you are the one that showed me that, and you’re the one who needs to hear that the most. i’ll work everyday so that one day so you can see yourself from a lens that isn’t tinted with doubt. i’ll work everyday proving to you that i love you.”

by the end of his confession/monologue, he’s standing right in front of you inches away from your face you’re in genuine shock for a few seconds 

“say something. anything” after a beat of silence, you reply

“you know, i kept all the photos i took of you, of us, from that one art project years ago. it’s in my um, it’s in my special box.” you say with a light laugh

a smile starts to appear on his face “your what?” 

“my box full of things that i love, and never want to lose.” you say in a quieter voice, looking at him straight in the eyes. “i love you, grayson, and i never want to lose you.” 

he reaches for your face and kisses you like you were the air he breathed, kisses you like you were the only person in the whole world, and like his life depended on it. he kissed you, and suddenly your world felt a little bit lighter. 

from that point on, you were together. you never explicitly told anyone you were together, not secret, just private.

a few weeks later, you two were walking around the hawthorne house, holding hands when xander and jameson pass by 

“how do say they aren’t a couple when they do things like that!” xander exclaims pointing at your interlocked hands.

jameson rolls his eyes annoyedly with a smile on his face, “they’re practically married at this point.”

grayson turns around and looks back at xander with the faintest smile on his face “oh, we are a couple,” and continues walking. 

“WHAT??!!” 

“i so called it”

this is my first ever tumblr post i hope you enjoyedddd 

if you have any advice/improvements give them!! 

i have a part 2 started of what it’s like actually dating and it’s more head cannons than storytelling - this was def story/background heavy - lmk if anyone’s interested!!

[archandshri]

28th June ‘24 - [arch] One Page Limitation??? - My process for Traffic Zine #5

Hello All!

A couple months ago, I got accepted to @trafficzine, a digital anthology of pieces by a large group of artists and writers based on the most recent season of the Life Series. I made this piece back in April, but thankfully I kept some notes of my process. 

Heads up - this contains spoilers for Secret Life :D

We were able to choose our own prompt from a list! For this project, I wanted to push my comic making - especially how to communicate a lot of information in a small space. I went through and watched a few clips from the series to see which prompt would fit a comic and settled on Scott’s death.

As usual, I began by getting some reference images and going ham on some big paper. This gets me excited about the project and helps generate ideas. I go for whatever interests me in terms of medium and subject matter, but I try to use a process that doesn’t let me control too much (in this case brush and ink)

initial sketches for fun and vibes :D

During this, I also took the time to transcribe the scene - I wanted to use the dialogue directly, and see how much I could fit into the single page that I was allowed for the zine.

In these early planning stages I make sure to do warm-up sketches to remind myself of the energy I want to communicate. This also keeps things fun and fresh so I'm not ONLY thinking about page composition and making things 'good'. (the expectation for it to be 'good' kills a project prove me wrong)

Dialogue from the clip + warm up sketches

Next up, I started to plan what panels I have on the page. At this stage, some panels might just be a box with some words, and some may have a sketch if I have a clear composition in mind. This stage is mostly for pacing and plot, so instead of focusing on what the panel and page will look like, I will think about:

what will happen in the panel

it's purpose and

what it will communicate

Sometimes I'll illustrate a string of panels that tell the story and fit them on a page after - but this depends on the project and my confidence with the size of it.

After messing around with these and coming up with a pretty clear direction, I draw a bunch of boxes to see how the panels could sit nicely together. At this stage I might realise I have too many panels, and need to cut a few or come up with a creative solution. Nothing is set in stone at this point.

sketching panel layouts

Now begins the fun! I decide on the layout I prefer and I can start putting planned compositions into the boxes. I often do this digitally, or a digital editing process will be involved.

Once planned, I print these out to do a more refined sketch over. I find that my traditional drawings have a lot more life and character to them than digital ones, so I try to keep the majority of the process traditional, with passes of scanning and digital editing.

I tried a version with her looking out at the distance - ready to face the oncoming battle. But it still felt off. So I turned to my slides to ask myself some questions!!

I tried to think of more things that were working - but I really felt like it was lacking a lot. I was going for this slower emotional feeling because that came more naturally to me, but it just wasn't working for this image. The original clip is quite rushed and chaotic - which would be harder to communicate in a comic format but the challenge interested me. Either way, I knew I wasn't happy with this direction so... i decided to start from scratch! Back to the drawing board!!!

In the previous version, I had cut out a lot of the dialogue, but I decided to go back to the original clip and use AS MUCH as possible. Since passing the bow was my favourite part of that first composition, I really wanted to lean into it as the emotional height and final goodbye before Scott's death. It's a moment to slow down and absorb the vibes :D

I made a list of panels along with their descriptions to refer to when trying to figure out the order of panels. there were SO MANY and it was VERY CONFUSING when they were too small to read.

These thumbnails were super small and would not have made sense without my list, I swear.

I printed this tiny thumbnail out at A4, so I could sketch over it and get a clearer sense of flow. Then began a loooong process of printing out tiny photocopies and rearranging the panels to be legible. It was a difficult balance of communicating busyness while making sure the hierarchy/reading order made sense.

After some tweaking, i printed out an A3 copy to draw my panel borders and text.

Doing this on a separate piece of paper means I don't have to worry so much about messing up the text or borders when drawing the characters. This allows me to be more free and expressive with my illustration.

Woah! Quick trip back in time!! During the thumbnailing process I drew these warm up sketches! I looooved the way the linework came out. I drew this on an A3 piece of paper - and the shocked Gem would, in theory, be one of the smallest panels. So I decided to do a crazy thing.

I touched up the sketch digitally, compiling some of my favourite warm up sketches, some traditional sketches made for the panels, and filling the rest in digitally. Then I printed this image out in QUATERS at A3!! This meant the final sketch layer, printed out was A1!! (aka very large, considering the final file would be at A4, about 8x smaller)

I did this so I could get fairly small detailed lines with my pencil while being quite expressive and firm with my mark-making. Slowly, I dlined all of the panels traditionally and scanned them in. Then I assembled the finished linework on Photoshop, along with the text and panel borders and got to colouring :D

final linework :D

For colouring, I played a little bit with halftone but I found the texture made it feel a bit too busy - the panels are already doing enough. Because of this, I also decided to use a limited colour palette. Here are some images of the colouring process, which I won't go into today.

I'm really happy with how this came out - I think it captures the chaos of the moment, while taking time to linger on the emotion of it. Keeping that bow moment really made it, I think.

I think the last panel is still quite weak. Earlier in the process there was a low-angle shot of Gem about to kill Scott which may have been more powerful, but I think I was struggling with my actual drawing skill when it comes to perspective. A lot of learning how to draw, and in particular with comics, is about knowing where your skills are at, how to utilise them best and how to test and push them.

I'm glad that I started again, instead of finishing that composition I wasn't happy with. It was a tough project but I learnt sooooo much from it, and it's been essential skill-building for.... the current comic I'm working on (stay tuned!!! :0) Thanks for reading this incredibly long post! Go check out @trafficzine and look at all the other cool art Cool vibes and silly men,

Archie :D

[hazyange1s]

the process of detonation (g.w. x f!mc)

summary: Garreth has a bit of a crisis when the reality of growing up starts to hit hard. While trying to overcome self-doubt and bottle up the explosion waiting to happen, she’s there to show him that there’s nothing wrong with a little chaos.

tags: allusions to adhd, alcohol use, seventh year, awkwardness and fluff, literal fireworks, too many food metaphors?, friends to lovers, gryffindor!reader, garreth is an ace at pining, beater!Garreth because yes obviously, the “wearing his sweater” trope, seniors and their existential crises, mc only referred to by she/her pronouns

word count: 5.6 k

rating: T

a/n: my entry for @garrethweasleyfest ! the prompt I used was “explosion” (kind of got inspired by explode - mother mother)

read on ao3

Garreth wasn’t all that good at really explaining the inner workings of his mind, but perhaps he could give it a go.

He might be biased, but in a way; he thought people could be compared to potions. They’re messy, complex, and each have their own set of ingredients that make them what they are — and change how they react. Some people have a little extra rose petals to them, some a sprinkle of stardust, and others are just…pure poison.

In Garreth’s case, his brewing tended to say a lot about his own concoction of self.

Of course, for most of his life, he never really considered that there might be something fundamentally wrong with whatever recipe God or whoever had used to create him. It wasn’t until seventh year when he was finally considered a grown wizard that Garreth began to suspect… and to wonder if there was any leaf or powder out there that could be thrown in to stabilize him.

̶̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶  ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶

In Garreth’s defense, he had a lot on his mind that day.

Between his growing stack of homework assignments, early morning Quidditch practices three days a week, and the NEWT study group he’d been strong-armed into joining by Natsai and his Aunt, it was a wonder he had any working brain cells left at all. And that didn’t even count the time he spent on his own, er… creative projects.

So it wasn’t all that surprising that he’d accidentally broken a golden rule of potion-making in his sleepy endeavor at a cure for ague. Not once as his knife rocked against the cutting board did he consider that everybody else was flattening the blades and pressing down instead, and the rest of his friends were too oblivious to, either.

“— But then, he tried to kiss me! No request, no warning, nothing! One second I’m mid-conversation about centaurs’ rights, and the next his tongue is two inches from my face! All of that time wasted when I could have been doing any of the million other; more important things I have going on!”

Oddly enough, hearing about his friend’s failed attempts at courting (which were rather numerous) was the best part of his day so far.

Garreth nodded along politely, offering a vague “mhmm” and “you can’t be serious” at appropriate intervals, gaze flickering between his workstation and the witch in the midst of a passionate rant while turning her ladle idly in her own cauldron. He’d never been good at strictly keeping his eyes on his own work, and it was that much harder with her directly beside him; her vest unbuttoned and cheeks fairy floss pink from the vapors surrounding them.

She gave a resounding huff, dropping the ladle to rest her elbows on the textbook open in front of her. “All that is to say; I’ve come to the conclusion that men are incorrigible.”

“Sounds fairly accurate,” Garreth snorted. He gently nudged her off of the book (they often shared his, as it was filled with helpful notes) to double check a measurement.

Even if some little voice whispered that reasonable was boring and she should keep her — ahem — mind open to other possibilities, he dutifully ignored it.

“Although, we’re not all pigs, you know. Some of us have a spot of…well. Class, I suppose.” He grumbled.

“I hope you’re not referring to yourself,” her laughter rang out like the peal of a bell. “You’re a lot of things, Garreth, but you’re not exactly the epitome of a gentleman.”

His face pinched, and again she chuckled, which was a small consolation.

It stung because it was true. Garreth wasn’t exactly a rake by most standards, but he flirted with too many witches and wizards and had snogged half that number besides to be much else. He was a terrible dancer, didn’t have a fortune to inherit (even if he had been the eldest Weasley), and flaunted most rules and regulations.

So, no, he wasn’t winning any awards in Witch Weekly for Bachelor of the Year.

To spite her, he did the gentlemanly thing and conceded, albeit not so gracefully. “I’m only trying to say…you shouldn’t lump us all in with a few bad apples. I certainly wouldn’t have disappointed you like that.”

“How comforting to know. I’m still sticking with my hypothesis, but thanks for trying.”

Well, now he was thinking about how he would kiss her, if given the chance.

(This was purely for scientific reasons, of course.)

Garreth, eager to salvage what remained of his pride, readied another reply as he sprinkled the flakes of dittany into his lightly smoking cauldron. It would have been a good one, too, if not for —

“Garreth!”

There was only a hair of a second between her shouting his name in warning and what was possibly one of his most impressive explosions to date. Even though she lunged for him, she was too late to stop the blast from sending him reeling backwards with a hand over his burning-hot face and a very unbecoming cry of surprise.

Having expected him to be closer, she stumbled in her attempt at pushing him out of the way, and thus they collided like two atoms — tumbling to the stone floor in a jumble of limbs and hissed curses.

“Come on, seriously, Garreth?” Sebastian groaned from an adjacent potions station. He, along with a few others who’d been close to the blast, were coughing and waving away billowing clouds of smoke.

Natty sighed. “That’ll be another ten points from Gryffindor.”

But their protestations fell to the wayside once he was peering up at the sheepish face of his savior; no more than a few inches away. Within kissing distance, even.

Wait. What?

“Fuck. Ow. Sorry,” she groaned, trying to untangle their aching limbs as she lay half-splayed across Garreth’s chest.

It was then that his traitorous mind started paying attention to how warm she was, how bright that ring of pure gold in her eyes was, how infuriatingly good the blend of mallowsweet and smoke clinging to her like a second skin smelled…

Shiiiiittt. Shit, shit, shit.

“No, it’s, uh, it’s my fault. Totally my fault, I wasn’t, er…paying attention,” he panted. The wind had been thoroughly knocked out of him — and it wasn’t just because her elbow had struck him right in the stomach when they’d fallen.

When she managed to sort herself out and hastily climb to her feet, that stinging feeling from before returned, and Garreth didn’t notice the developing bruise on his tailbone one bit.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

“Oh, er, I think so,” he stood up, legs wobbling like a newborn thestral, and dusted off his robes. “My pride took the biggest blow. Though I suppose I should count myself lucky I had the Hero of Hogwarts to save me.”

He waggled his brows, and her jaw went slack before she was doubled over in a fit of raucous laughter.

“What?! It wasn’t that funny.“

“No, you —“ she can hardly get the words out between breathless giggles. “Garreth, your eyebrows.”

Reaching up, his fingers found the ridge just above his eyes — where, indeed, great chunks of what was once thick ginger hair are missing. “Bollocks. That’s the third time in six months.”

The unfortunate loss of his eyebrows (and dignity) became yesterday’s news when she traversed the newly formed space between them to rub what he assumed was soot off of his nose, still chuckling to herself. He resisted the urge to brush away the wayward hairs sticking to her forehead in kind.

“I’ll give you this — you’re definitely not most men,” she grinned.

It was probably an insult, but all Garreth heard was a ringing endorsement. Against the odds, he cracked a lopsided smile of his own.

Maybe he’d even call it a victory.

Professor Sharp waved his wand, and the thick fumes disappeared, allowing them all a good glimpse of his signature long-suffering scowl.

“Ten points from Gryffindor. Shocking, I know,” the ex-Auror sighed, resigned. “And I expect that cauldron to be replaced within the fortnight.”

Well. A bittersweet victory, to be sure.

̶̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶  ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶

Everything tumbled downhill from there.

In the spirit of further self-reflection, Garreth knew that their unceremonious meeting on the dirty floor of the Potions classroom wasn’t some hit-him-over-the-head moment of recognition — even if most of his revelations came in that form. This one had been creeping up on him since fifth year, like a wily sort of poison; disguised with a sweet scent to throw him off.

But just how massively fucked was he, you may ask?

That became clear one rainy afternoon. Not just any rainy afternoon, mind you, because those were a galleon a dozen during autumn in the Scottish Highlands; but the afternoon of their first Quidditch game of the year against Slytherin.

Which didn’t help the fact that his head was already so not in the game.

It started out well enough, with Gryffindor managing to make several goals in a row that had their swaths of supporters in the stands crowing with pride. Garreth did his best to keep up as he weaved and dodged and looped around the field, trying to focus solely on the hunt for Bludgers. Of course, this required him to pay equally close attention to his teammates lest they fall victim to one of the bloodthirsty balls.

One teammate in particular more than the others, perhaps.

Flying was made all the more difficult by the sheets of icy rain pelting his face. Not even the goggles – with the assistance of an Impervious Charm – were helping him distinguish much more than vague blobs of color streaking through the cloudy sky. This, he justified, was why he started to miss more swings than he made and almost dropped his bat (twice). It wasn’t Garreth’s fault the elements were working against them.

Despite that, they were still forty points up when the conniving snakes switched tactics and started going after Gryffindors’ three female Chasers. Natty was an expert at evasion, and Nellie tended to fly high to avoid them… but not her.

She always had to be in the bloody thick of it, didn’t she?

It might have been annoying, if it wasn’t so damn impressive. Garreth couldn’t help but admire the way she moved; how she’d feint and crack a little smile each time someone fell for the trick. The way her red sweater clung, dripping, from her frame and strands of hair curled around her wet forehead were particularly distracting, too.

For the first time in his career, Garreth found himself wishing he was in the crowd – just so he could watch her.

Sebastian tossed the Quaffle to Imelda over Natty’s head – only for his face to contort with rage when it was snatched from the air between them. Garreth whooped proudly when she took off towards the goal posts. The first Bludger was hot on her tail, but so was he, maneuvering between her and the ball. He spent the next few minutes as her guardian until having to turn tail at the last minute to rescue Lucan.

The next events happened so quickly he couldn’t quite recall much but this: a familiar, feminine cry of alarm from behind him, the brown blur of a Bludger streaking towards him, and the reverberation in his arm when his bat connected with it. There was a thunderous crack, and then another scream.

What he’d meant to do was send it towards any of the three Slytherins trying to overtake her, but instead…

Garreth’s entire world narrowed down to the moment when she just barely managed to duck out of the Bludger’s path. He’d come to a screeching halt on his broom, hovering mere feet away from her with his eyes wide as saucers behind his foggy goggles, something sinking inside him as the Slytherins flew off with the Quaffle. The stadium erupted into cheers for them seconds later.

“What the hell was that?” She panted, her indignant scowl apparent even through the downpour. “You almost took my bloody head off, Garreth!”

“It — it was an accident. And you’re fine, right, so no harm, no foul?” He had to shout to be heard over the spectators and the wind.

“An inch to the left and I wouldn’t have been fine at all! I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you need to get it together!”

“I just –”

She sped off so fast the resulting wind made him shiver. Either Garreth was simply losing his touch, or there was something seriously wrong with him lately. Cursing to himself, he shook off the chill her anger had left him with and the shame that followed, and threw himself back into the game comforted by the knowledge that he’d be able to get roaring drunk at the after party.

̶̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶  ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶

Drunk might be an understatement, actually.

By the time the party was in full swing, Garreth had already downed more than his share of the sneakily procured liquor (courtesy of yours truly, Sirona’s unrelenting generosity, and several bribes to the house elves in the kitchens). Someone had enchanted a few of the lamps to change color occasionally, throwing red and green and blue lights around Gryffindor’s common room, which teemed with House members in Quidditch jumpers and all other manner of memorabilia. Even little Doge and Dumbledore had emerged briefly to shyly congratulate the team.

Not even the jubilant music pouring from the gramophone or the well-earned laughter of the partygoers could drown out what was going on inside Garreth’s head.

He’d never embarrassed himself so profoundly at a match before. Quidditch, like potion-making, was one of the few areas Garreth excelled in, and he couldn’t even do that right. Ever since school had started up again, he’d been a mess. Exploding cauldrons, racking up more detentions than ever, always saying the wrong thing…

It was seventh year, for Merlin’s sake, and he was a grown wizard now. But while everyone else was coming into themselves, it seemed like he was just coming apart.

So instead of enjoying the victory, Garreth had taken to drowning his sorrows in drink while watching from the sidelines; neck-deep in an early quarter life crisis while slumped in one of the armchairs. Leander found him there eventually, his freckled face a mask of concern as he leaned against the wall beside him.

“What’s with the sour face?” Leander raised a brow. “We just beat Slytherin! I thought you’d be dancing on the tables or something.”

“I’m not really in the dancing mood. Go on, I’ll live vicariously through you.” Garreth grumbled.

“As much as everyone would probably love to see that, I’d rather find out what’s got your wand all knotted up.”

Garreth sighed, raking the hand not currently clutching a glass of Firewhiskey through his still-damp curls. “You saw what happened, Lee. The team’s probably pissed at me for being a massive disappointment, especially…”

He gestured vaguely to the hero of the hour (the hero of every hour of every day as far as he was concerned, and she’d earned the title several times over) across the room. She was talking with Natty, Nellie, and Cressida by the fireplace, her smile brighter than the flames’ glow that lit her from behind. A clawed hand squeezed at his heart.

“Oh, that? That was…I mean, you made a minor miscalculation. Most of them have forgotten already, I reckon.” Leander’s eyes darted to the side — as they always did when he was lying horribly.

“A minor miscalculation that could have led to the untimely death of one of my best friends.”

“You’re being even more dramatic than usual…are you tossed already?”

”I dunno, mum; am I?”

There was a quiet rumble around him, like thunder. At first he thought it was just his stomach informing him of how much he’d indeed had to drink, but then a fat drop of rain landed on his nose.

Leander’s big, dark eyes rolled to the ceiling, and he dragged Garreth onto his slightly unsteady feet with an arm in his. “Alright, you’re being bloody insufferable, and you’ve quite literally got a dark cloud hanging over you. Come on, up you get — go talk to her and apologize.”

“No, Lee, please!” Garreth whined. “I’ve suffered enough humiliation today.”

”Don’t be a coward, you’ll be fine.”

The taller boy weaved through the crowd easily, pulling a stumbling Garreth along beside him until they came face-to-face with the very group of girls he had been avoiding all night. They all went quiet immediately — which was not a good sign.

Garreth scratched the back of his head, glancing between Leander and the witch with the suspicious scowl in front of him, feeling for all the world like he’d never been less of a Gryffindor than in that moment. Surely the alcohol was supposed to help with these things, right?

”Er…would you like to dance?” He blurted.

Well, that wasn’t what he’d meant to say at all. But having to talk to her at all in his clumsy state seemed even more daunting with all eyes on him, and getting her alone was a simple solution.

“You sure you’ll be able to without tripping over your feet?” Nellie snorted.

“‘M perfectly cohabitated — uh, coordinated, I mean,” Garreth argued.

Natty shook her head, hiding her laughter behind a hand. “Oh, dear.”

His favorite witch turned a familiar shade of pink, and for a moment Garreth feared that she’d laugh in his face, but eventually she sighed and handed her bottle of Butterbeer to Natty.

“If you step on my toes, I’ll jinx you,” she warned, leading him to the center of the room where groups of friends and cozy couples were scattered to dance to the magically amplified music (it was a miracle none of the professors had come to complain about it, really).

“No promises.”

Garreth wrestled with what to do when they got there. Was he supposed to take her hand? Her waist? Or, rather, should he keep it friendly and avoid touching her at all? The latter option seemed much less risky, and yet he found himself longing to feel her hand in his and the heat of her body. He’d been hooked ever since that day in Potions.

Deciding it would be better to keep his distance for now, Garreth went with swaying awkwardly on the spot instead, but she had other ideas — her hand sought out his, and she threw him into a dizzying little turn that evoked both laughter and a slight wave of nausea.

“Oh, are you leading?” He chuckled, suddenly thankful for the ballroom lessons they’d all received the year prior as he mimicked her move, twirling her playfully with ease that surprised even him.

“That might be safer,” she said. “Although you’re not doing half bad so far.”

“Always the tone of surprise,” Garreth grinned proudly.

He spent the better part of five minutes praying he wouldn’t step on her toes while simultaneously working up the courage to acknowledge the erupment in the room. And, because the universe didn’t like to make anything easy for him, Garreth had to compete with the little flutters in his stomach that beat their furious wings each time she laughed or squeezed his hand.

Merlin, just pull your wand out of your ass.

“Hey, so, about earlier. You know, during the game… you’re right, I wasn’t…I don’t know where my head’s been lately. I didn’t mean to muck things up.”

His breath held until she shrugged, her easy smile fading into something edged with concern. “Don’t worry about it. We won, and my head’s still attached to my body, so no hard feelings.”

She drew back, the impish grin back as she spun him again — which wasn’t very easy considering he had to duck under her arm. The room seemed to be moving with him, and Garreth had to right himself as subtly as possible when he came to a stop as colors that didn’t belong to the lights danced in his vision.

“You alright?” She chuckled, her hands braced on his biceps to steady him. “I think Nellie might have had a point about you tripping.”

“No, no, I’m good, just waiting for the room to stop spinning so I can look at you again.”

That hadn’t quite come out right. In place of the eye roll he was expecting, she giggled, adding fuel to his liquid confidence.

“Gods, you’re cute when you laugh,” Garreth found himself saying. He realized she was leading him away from the crowd, and soon he sank into a squashy cushion beside her. “I mean, you’re a bit blurry right now, but…still cute.”

“Okay, what’s gotten into you lately? Not that I mind the flirting… but you’ve been a right mess for weeks. I don’t think I’ve seen you this drunk before; not even when you saw your OWL results.”

A low groan rumbled in the back of his throat. “I’m peachy, pinkie promise.” Did she just say she didn’t mind his flirting?

Giggling at how absurd the words sounded together, he stuck his pinkie out to her and waited. “Come on, these are sacred!”

She did actually roll her eyes this time, but then her smallest finger hooked around his, and it didn’t pull away even when they were certainly exceeding the normal amount of time for a handshake. Garreth could smell the sweetness of Butterbeer on her breath.

It wasn’t enough to convince her, though. “Are you stressed about NEWTs? Who am I kidding, everyone and their grandmothers are. But if it’s really getting to you, then —“

Apparently, she wasn’t giving up, so Garreth sighed and rested his head against the back of the couch.

“Yes, I’m a bit strung out over the exams that will decide our entire career, what d’you think? I’m not going to have a fit over it.”

“Sorry,” her hands raised in surrender. “Just trying to figure out why you haven’t quite been yourself since the term started because I bloody care.”

“I would argue that blowing things up and making stupid decisions is very much on brand for me.”

Releasing a heavy sigh (more like an impatient huff, really), she wrested her pinkie from his, leaving Garreth more than a bit disappointed. But then again, what had he expected? That she’d sit there and hold his hand?

He hadn’t earned that. Somehow, he had earned her friendship from the very first day of their fifth year, but in no way did he reserve the right to even hope of something more. She was, well… extraordinary, and Garreth was an extraordinary disaster.

Maybe it was time he rectified that.

“Wait,” he tugged pathetically on her sleeve when she rose from the couch. “Sit with me for a little bit longer? I might need someone to Accio a rubbish bin over here soon.”

To his great relief, she sat down again, shaking her head to disguise a little chuckle. “You’re something else, y’know?”

”I’ve been told once or twice.”

̶̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶  ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶

Bonfire Nights had been sparse the past couple of years around Hogwarts, as many of the residents had feared drawing attention to themselves with the looming threat of Ashwinders and goblins and the like. This year, Garreth had had the pleasure of seeing pyres built weeks beforehand, and by the end of October Zonko’s had sold out of Filibuster’s Fireworks.

As night settled over the Highlands, bonfires began to flare to life all along the rolling hills, appearing like flaming stars from the view at the castle. Garreth, alongside a group of fellow seventh years carrying sparklers and mini-fireworks, spent the brisk walk to the hill above Hogsmeade village lost in uncharacteristic melancholy. He’d never been the sort to reminisce; preferring to live in the here and now whenever possible, but for some reason the knowledge that this would be his last Bonfire Night at Hogwarts made it all a bit bittersweet (the flavor of the month, it seemed).

They drank hot chocolate in ceramic mugs provided by Sirona, surrounded by the body heat of the villages’ residents as they talked and laughed and chased their children away from the forest at the edge of the plateau. Hogsmeade’s lights had been dimmed for the occasion, glowing softly below them to allow the six foot pyre they gathered around to shine.

“I can’t believe next month is Christmas already,” Leander was saying between greedy sips of the drink cupped in his blue-tinged hands. “Then it’ll be the New Year, then Spring Break, and before we know it we’ll be taking our NEWTs and graduating…”

“Breathe, Lee,” Garreth chuckled. At least he wasn’t the only one getting hit with the terrifying reality of time all at once.

”I know, is it not amazing? The last few years have gone by so quickly. I will miss this place come summer, though,” Natty sighed wistfully.

Nellie snorted. “Speak for yourself. If I never have to open a textbook again after school is over, it’ll be too soon.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure, Leander?” His favorite Gryffindor (don’t tell Nats or Leander) joined their little circle, her frame wrapped in a thick red scarf and one of his old Christmas sweaters she’d stolen from him in fifth year and never given back — not that he minded, as it didn’t fit him anymore and looked far better on her, anyway.

The lanky redhead grumbled a reply, “Easy for you to say. Half of my job will be desk work.”

“No shame in that,” she shrugged. “Garreth’s going to be behind a cauldron, after all.”

“Hey, Potioneers do other things besides just… brew. I’ll still forage for my own ingredients, travel to sell them… hell, one day, I might just have my own shop.” Garreth said with pride.

“So long as you don’t blow it up,” her cheeks dimpled when she smiled.

As if on cue, a loud boom shook the ground beneath them. Everyone’s eyes shot to the sky, cheers swelling amongst the crowd as the first firework exploded in a shower of golden sparks, dissolving back towards the earth like falling stars. Despite all their talk of the future, Garreth felt like a first-year again as a smile broke out on his slightly chapped lips, apparently not immune to the childlike wonder the fireworks always seemed to bring.

The next one was even louder and brighter. Garreth nearly jumped out of his skin when an iron grip closed around his arm and a body pressed into his left side. She had buried her face in his shoulder, too, and a warm feeling unrelated to the cocoa spread from his stomach.

“Aww, is the big, bad Gryffindor afraid of fireworks?” he teased, trying not to enjoy the smell of her shampoo or the color in her cheeks too much as she looked up at him sheepishly.

“Shut up!” The shivering witch hissed. “Am not. I’m just…cold, and you’re a damn furnace, as usual.”

“Oh, you’re cold,” Garreth pouted just for the drama of it. Then, before he could convince himself it was a bad idea, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders to pull her closer still. “I suppose I’ll have to keep you warm, then.”

”And they say chivalry is dead.”

She flinched after the third blast, leading him to rub her shoulder in a subtle attempt at comfort, his heart thumping almost as loud as the fireworks now going off in quick succession when she curled into him. It was then that his Neanderthal brain concluded why she might have been so terrified; after fighting in a bloody war just two years ago.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Don’t be. I don’t mind.” At all. Garreth laughed to himself and set down his mug in the grass so he could cover the ear she didn’t have pressed to his chest with his hand.

“You know, you’re really sweet when you want to be,” he thought he heard her say over the explosions echoing throughout the valleys.

He lowered his head to speak into the ear closest to him, lips brushing the flyaways from her hair, rubbing her arm again when he noticed her shiver. “Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold; can’t have everyone think I’ve gone soft.”

Truth be told, his limbs always felt like melted taffy around her — he was practically a puddle at her feet.

They were quiet for a few minutes. Eventually, her head lifted partially from his shoulder, and with a sidelong glance he caught her peering up at the sky with a look best described as wonder. Each burst of sparks was reflected in her wide eyes, and Garreth felt tiny pricks of electricity along every nerve in his body at the sight.

“So, um…” he scrambled for something to say so he wouldn’t think about how close her lips would be if she turned to the side a bit. “Are you still going to write to me after school’s over? Or will you forget all about us little people when you’re off traveling the world in search of ancient relics and having daring adventures?”

“Of course I’m going to write, you moonmind,” she looked up at him, then, and his hand fell from the side of her head. “And I’ll come visit, too, so I can see that shop of yours.”

Perhaps she was just humoring him, but Garreth found nothing but sincerity in her soft smile, and his own crooked grin widened at the thought that she might be one of the first to genuinely believe in him.

“What’s got you so pensive all of a sudden?”

He shrugged, absentmindedly playing with the frayed edges of her cashmere scarf. “Maybe it’s just the old age catching up to me. It pairs well with my bum hip, I think.”

”Come on, I’m serious. I won’t tell anyone and ruin your sterling reputation, I swear.”

“I don’t know,” Garreth let out a sigh, his breath clouding in the air between them. “Just realized how much I’m gonna miss you.”

“And here I thought you’d be sick of my face after seeing it every day for three years,” her eyes darted away from him to watch a spray of green and red fill the starry sky. She wasn’t shaking anymore.

Never, he almost said. Garreth knew, as he gazed hopelessly at her perfect profile, that he would never be tired of her face — well, of all of her, really. In fact, he wouldn’t mind seeing her every day for the rest of his life.

“If you’re going to miss me so desperately… Perhaps you could join me on one of my so-called ‘daring adventures’ sometime; on the off chance Pippin gives you a holiday.”

His brows shot up as she met his stare. “Really? You’d want me to tag along?”

Their classmates and the villagers burst into raucous whistles and hollering as the finale began, fireworks filling the air with the smell of gunpowder and a rainbow of light that flashed on everyone’s uplifted faces. Garreth held her tightly lest she start to panic again, but the witch in his arms just laughed jubilantly at the crowd’s infectious excitement, nodding in response to his question.

“Sure. Never know when you might need a talented Potioneer to back you up. Fair warning that we’re bound to run into some trouble now and again, naturally.”

The thump of his heart became something wild and frantic, beating away beneath the hand she’d placed on his chest until he feared it, too, would simply explode. Gods, if they weren’t careful, he would wind up doing something massively stupid… or massively genius, depending on the results.

“As long as you’re there, I say bring it on,” Garreth beamed.

He could hardly believe his luck. She’d asked him to accompany her on her travels! That had to mean something, right?

Only one way to find out for sure…

“And would it be…er, just the two of us, or would Sebastian and Ominis and the rest of the crew be joining as well?”

Her eyes sparkled with recognition. “That depends on how you would feel about us traveling alone.”

”Would it be rather selfish of me to say that I’d love to have you to myself for a bit?”

“Probably…” her breath warmed his cheeks, though they were already burning hotter than a cauldron flame as Garreth became hypnotized by the way her teeth worried at her reddened lower lip. “But then I’d have to admit that I’m selfish, too.”

Now, that was a sign.

The last round of fireworks were utterly deafening, so Garreth had to lean in once again until the cold tips of their noses brushed to say, “Could I be even more of a self-serving bastard and ask you for one more thing?”

”Yes, you can — and yes to anything you want,” her lashes fluttered as her gaze dropped down to his slightly parted mouth.

“Anything?”

Garreth wasn’t one to ignore an opportunity when it arose. He took it and ran, gently placing his hand beneath her chin at the same moment his eyes slid shut and their lips brushed together with such a delicate touch that he shuddered. Then she took the lead, deepening the kiss with a wispy little sigh that had him weak at the knees and left him unable to form any solid thought but for how fucking incredible she tasted with the remnants of rich chocolate on her tongue.

When the two of them disconnected, the last sparks were fading from the sky, but they lived on in Garreth’s veins, popping and crackling like Fizzing Whizbees.

“See?” He murmured while still trying to catch his breath. “Didn’t disappoint you, did I?”

Her laughter bubbled up between them, brighter than any display. “You never disappoint, Garreth Weasley.”

Garreth had wondered before if he’d been made wrong; like one of his failed experiments with just a splash too much of the wrong thing. But perhaps — especially with someone like her to help keep him stable — some of the best things could come from the unpredictable and the unexpected.

He didn’t exactly find the missing ingredient…it had been there all along.

[opashoo]

staring so kindly at your sluglang post,, as someone working on a language as well this looks fantastic (and is also. super organized compared to mine BHAHAH) Any tips for putting together a language? Like resources on how to go about it, or notes? /genq

You are staring kindly... (thank you)

As for tips... Wikipedia is actually one of my biggest, most useful tools, because I love to read articles about grammatical concepts, and they will usually have a varaiety of examples of use if you can figure out how to parse the academic language. There are some core ideas that pop up all over the place crosslinguistically, like case marking or converbs, and you can get a lot from learning how other languages might parse the same idea, both how they handle the idea grammatically and what kind of metaphorical language might be involved; like how in Scottish Gaelic, to say you have something, you say it's 'at' you, or how it doesn't have an exact equivalent of English's infinitive, or how Mongolian has so many word endings that convey meaning, and a bunch of them are literally endings stacked on top of other endings.

There's also really good conlang youtubers, like David Peterson, the one who made Dothraki and other pop media conlangs, Artifexian, Biblaridion. They have videos on both interesting grammatical concepts that don't exist in english AND how to integrate them into conlangs. Davide Peterson especially has interesting videos on things like sound changes, vowel harmony, phonological concepts that can really help shape your language and bring a degree of naturalism if that's what you're looking for.

Etymology can be extremely informative though, and really help you to understand exactly how creative people have gotten with language over the past thousands of years. Etymonline is a great website for that. Did you know that the word "next" was originally literally "nearest"? Or that that the suffix "be-" was originally "by", so words like "before" actually meant "by the fore", and very often these meanings are metaphorically extended to the way we use them today. It's great for helping to develop very important words that can be structural to your language, so that you're not just trying to raw make up a new word with no basis every time.

Aside from that, there's no single source I go to for making conlangs. Everything is on a case by case basis. Something that has been really helpful for me is constantly writing example sentences and finding things to write about, because similar to translating existing texts, it forces me to reckon with the way my conlang works, figure out how to convey certain ideas (or whether or not the language can convey the idea at all).

Usually I'll have a few languages that I keep in mind for inspiration for any given project and if I'm stumped or need an idea, I'll actually look up learning resources for those languages. My slugcat language has had me looking up a lot of "How to say..." in Korean, Arabic, Japanese Filipino, a little bit of Indonesian? Some Russian for verb stuff. Once I find resources, I spend a bit of time dissecting how it works in those languages and figure out how that can fit in the existing framework of my own project, or if it's something I'd even want in the project at all.

Once I have an idea, I'll just start iterating on it, usually on paper, basically brainstorming how the sentence structure and sounds might work until I find something that is both sonically satisfying and logically sound within the existing framework. If I'm feeling extra spicy, I might try to consider how the culture and priorities of the speakers might shape the development of the language. The important thing while doing this is, just like brainstorming, to be unafraid to keep throwing ideas onto the page no matter how unviable or nonsensical it may seem in your head. You NEED to experiment and find what doesn't work or else your brain will be too clogged to find out what does. Exercising your pen will help you get into the mindset of someone using the language (because you are), it'll help you form connections to other parts of the language you've already developed, and once you've developed enough, the language will almost start writing itself.

I've actually had some really interesting interactions happen my scuglang between the archaic system of suffixes, the position word system, and the triconsonantal root system, which actually gave rise to an entire system of metaphorical extension, letting speakers use phrases like "at a crossing of" or "at a leaving of" to mean across or away and also talk about concurrent events like "He talked while eating noodles" (He, at an eating of noodles, talked).

Anyway, I know I got kind of scattered but these are some of the big parts of how I approach conlanging! If I have questions or needs, I look to other languages, find learning resources, apply it, and then ask more questions. Spend time with your language and get familiar with it. There's the time I read "Ergativity" by Robert Dixon, but reading literal textbooks is not a requirement for conlanging. You just need to chip away at it and keep asking question.

Here's some photos of my own conlanging notes so you can see how serious I am when I say iterating and brainstorming are extremely helpful. You need to be throwing shit on the paper. I will handwrite three pages just to contradict myself on the next because those three pages were important for forming the final idea.

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

I’ve always wanted to do a comic, but I can never follow through or end up burning out. Do you have any advice? I really admire what you’re doing here on every creative level and think it’s so cool you can do this kind of thing <:0

ok here's my comic QnA with an extremely elaborate explaination of my workflow, if u want to put this on in the background while working or soemhting (timestamps in video description):

in my newest video i explained how long it takes me to do the pages and how i manage to have a regular posting schedule without going insane again but shorter (linked with timestamp, actual time talking abt thoam is only 10 minutes):

TLDR:

In order to be able to follow through with thoam, as opposed to every other project i've had in the past, it was important i already had a finished outline before even attempting to do art. having a clear path/goal of where this comic was going to go from the start was super important for me not to be stressed about figuring out how the story will continue, because I've already done that work before I started.

I used to always make things up as i go in the past and it always ended in burnout because that is just too many creative processes at once, it'll fry the brain.

I work many many pages (weeks to post) in advance so that if i ever don't have the motivation I can rest for 2 weeks or even a whole month without ever touching the comic without stress that i'm missing the posting schedule.

Otherwise staying motivated can only be achieved for me by sharing with friends. constantly sharing wips and gushing abt my project helps me staying motivated to keep going, becasue i love when ppl respond and engage with what i'm doing.

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is: starryeyedjanai! @starryeyedjanai has 74 fics in the Stranger Things fandom and 60 of them are in the Steddie tag!

@steddieas-shegoes recommends the following works by @starryeyedjanai:

All things end and all things change.

what lurks beneath

nights like this

if i could hold you for a minute (i’d go through it again)

"Janai is one of those authors that can make absolutely anything hot. I could sit and talk for hours about how they characterize Steve and Eddie. I absolutely love everything they write and always make it a priority to open the AO3 email when the notification comes in!" -- @steddieas-shegoes

Below the cut, @starryeyedjanai answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

These two burrowed their way into my brain and just won’t leave. I can’t not write them when I am thinking about them literally all the time and am brimming with new ways for them to fall in love.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

I’m kind of a sucker for steddie talking via notes, letters, etc. before they ever meet in person. There’s just something so special about them falling in love in unconventional ways before they ever meet in person that hits the spot, you know? I also just really love all the creative AUs that people come up with that I never would have thought of writing.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

I love writing anything that has friends to lovers and especially if they are so, so stupid about it. Idiot4idiot my beloved. friends/acquaintances to lovers is So fun to explore because there are a million ways to do it. I love a good oh moment where things just click into place.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

It is So hard to pick just one!!! So i’ll list a few: One that I have reread a few times that I just really, really love is All I Do Is Want by novemberthorne. There’s just something really special about it—all the emotion in the beginning and then the smut which is just top tier. like a sack of bricks and literally anything by alligator_writes is great off the beaten path by pukner is also really, really great

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I have a fic idea that I've been thinking about for a while that involves alternate universes, like the metaverse, because if the Upside Down exists, there are probably other dimensions as well.

What is your writing process like?

It is honestly so variable. For the majority of my ficlets, I get an idea and just start hacking away at it intermittently until it’s done, so it’s safe to say that at any given time, I have like eight ficlets that are partially written. I never used to outline because I didn’t really write fics longer than around 5k, but since I’ve started writing longer fics, it is almost necessary for me to have an outline that hits all the major plot points because otherwise I will forget what I have planned. So for anything that I know will be longer than a ficlet, I’ll write out an outline, even just a few bullet points so that I can reference it when I’m writing and not lose sight of where the story is going. 

Do you have any writing quirks?

I use way too many em-dashes and my sentences are sometimes comically long, but the way I write is indicative of how fast my brain is moving, kind of. I typically headcanon Steve and Eddie to both have ADHD, so any fics in their points of view will have their thoughts coming out as fast as my own typically are. And sentence length and structure can really help convey that.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

I prefer posting once I’ve finished writing because my focus shifts around a lot and it sometimes takes a while for me to actually finish projects (like i had a fic that sat at 16k for months as I worked on other things that caught my attention and then I finally returned to finish the last couple thousand words six or so months later)

Which fic are you most proud of?

I am proud of all of my fics, but I really, really love how All things end and all things change. turned out. Some fics just come together so easily and this was one of them. I outlined the fic and let the idea marinate for a couple months and then I wrote ~20k in about a week and finished the fic.

How did you get the idea for All things end and all things change.?

This fic was for a holiday server exchange so my giftee gave me three prompts and I found ways to incorporate all of the prompts. I saw the prompt for mutual pining roommates and immediately knew I was going to write Eddie taking Steve home to Wayne over the holidays. I originally only planned on using that prompt, but the prompt for a snowy cabin getaway really called to me as I got further along in the fic and needed more tension between them. It was just a really excellent set of prompts.

When writing All things end and all things change., what was something you didn’t expect?

I did not expect it to get so long! My original estimate was 10k, but then I kept adding more to Wayne and Eddie showing Steve how special Christmas could be with people who care about him and then I added the cabin scene which added an easy 5k to the fic and then I was staring at what was, at that time, my longest complete fic. Wild.

What inspired what lurks beneath?

This honestly came out of left field for me because I had only ever written one other fic like it. I was doing kinktober for the first time and had a few different ideas for the prompt for that day and then I saw that the date of that prompt was Joey (@matchingbatebites)’s birthday and remembered her lake monster Eddie ficlet and instantly knew I wanted to explore a different version of lake monster Eddie.

What was your favorite part to write from if i could hold you for a minute (i’d go through it again)?

I really, really loved writing the flashes into the future at the end of the fic. Throughout the fic, there was some yearning and pining from afar and getting to write that everything works out in the end was cathartic.

How do/did you feel writing if i could hold you for a minute (i’d go through it again)?

Oh boy, this fic put me through the ringer. This was written for the steddie big bang and it was the first longer fic that I was attempting to write. I just had so many different ideas for this fic that it made it hard to choose the direction I wanted to go in. I probably have like an additional 20k words that just did not end up in the fic because it contradicted things that did end up in the fic or just didn’t fit with the vibe I was going for. There were times that I felt discouraged and felt like I might never finish it, but I am very pleased with how it turned out in the end! It was extremely rewarding to finally finish it and get it posted in February!

What was the most difficult part of writing nights like this?

Honestly, I don’t remember this one giving me any trouble at all. Once I got the idea in my brain, I think I sat down and wrote all 2.5k in a day. I do not know what my brain was doing during kinktober, but I think I ended up writing like over 60k that month and it was the only time that I’ve ever really been able to sit down and write a ficlet from start to finish like that and it happened with multiple of the ficlets that I ended up writing the day before they were published.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

I really love the lead up to the smut in my fic catch the embers on my tongue. Like eddie being a little self-deprecating and in awe that steve might feel the same way he does was so fun to write. Also the summary for surface level freak is probably one of my favorite things i’ve written.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Some of the projects I’m working on right now are things I can’t really talk about, but look forward to fics from me in the Steddie Summer Exchange, the Steddie Bang 2024, and the ST Sapphic Mini Bang!

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

Whoever nominated me, I am kissing you full on the mouth with tongue (if you’re into that kind of thing)

Thank you to our author, @starryeyedjanai, and our nominator, @steddieas-shegoes! See more of starryeyedjanai's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[bagopucks]

A. Matthews - Needs Approval

✄———��————————

Auston Matthews x Reader

Requested✨

Word count: 3.4k

Warning(s): itty bitty happy crying

Proofread once

—————————————

“Alright. We have plans.”

Spontaneity was not something I knew Auston for. So when he came through my front door with these ‘plans’, I had to refrain from looking too surprised.

“Auston, you can’t just blow through here unexpectedly, trying to take me out. I have a kid-“

“No, that’s who I’m looking for.”

My face lit up in shock and slight amusement.

“Sad is the day a woman is outshined by her son. To the man of her dreams, I have become but a mere oracle to consult.”

“Okay, Shakespeare.” Auston smiled, walking over to help me pick up Hudson’s few toys scattered across the floor.

“What are these plans?” I asked, watching him sit next to me.

“I was gonna take him to see that new kids movie.”

“Is there a reason I can’t go? I mean- I’m all for the bonding, but.. I’m a little surprised there’s no invite.”

“Well.. ya know I just thought,” Auston shrugged, “give you a night to yourself. Maybe you could call one of your friends, or- you could always go to my place and hang with Felix. Whatever you want.” I couldn’t quite tell what he was hiding, but I knew it was something. Auston didn’t like to make eye contact when he was avoiding a topic.

“You know I go stir crazy when you boys aren’t around.” I teased, gently nudging his leg with my foot.

“I promise I’ll invite you to the next movie outing.”

“Alright. He’s coming home from a friend’s house. They were working on a project.”

“What kind of project?” Auston glanced up at me before setting another toy into the tub Hudson had designated to his action figures.

“A science project. Creating your own habitat. He and his friend are doing something Arctic with penguins and polar bears.” I smiled, recalling the creativity Hudson had been blessed with. He had so many materials he wanted to use, and so many great ideas.

“He asked me if you could get him a little plush of Carlton so they could set it up in the hall by their habitat.”

“Sounds cool. I’ll definitely get one when I can.”

“By next week.” I was quick to add. “They’ll need it by Friday. That’s when the project is due.”

“I feel like two weeks is a long time for a project like that.”

“Not all kids can be as smart as the one we’ve been raising together.” I didn’t miss the way Auston’s eyes lit up. Then a sheepish smile took over his lips.

“That makes us sound like bad people.” He commented.

“But not bad parents.” I would never tell another person that my child was smarter than theirs, nor did I ever feel as such. I was aware all kids grew and learned at their own pace. But at times it was nice to admit that Hudson was such a curious and driven child, always eager to learn. It was nice to admit Auston and I were shaping a pretty successful child.

“So we’re parents now?”

“Auston, you’ve been here long enough. I’m not ignoring what’s in front of my face. You’re a father to Hudson. You know what he told me the other night?” Auston stopped what he was doing to focus on me. “He told me he wished you didn’t have to bring clothes over all the time. That you could just stay here and be with us every day.” I smiled and tossed another toy into a smaller bucket. “He also said he really loves your house. He said he loves when you have sleepovers there, because he can swim and have ice cream all day.”

“I feed him other stuff!” Auston laughed, shaking his head. “That kid. I promise I feed him other stuff.”

“I’m not too worried about it.” I admitted with a shrug, reaching for another toy. I glanced up at Auston, watched the way his eyes went blank, staring me down. I didn’t ask. Usually he spoke his mind. So I waited, going back to tossing toys in the bucket.

“Do you want me here?”

“You’ll have to explain a little.”

“If we ever move in together. Do you want me like- in this house with you, or do you want to live with me? Or we could get our own place.”

“Change is gonna be a little hard no matter what we do. But I think what’s best is searching for a new home together. Something that’s ours equally. I want a new house, with new memories. Unless that’s too expensive.”

“No, I totally understand. And nothing’s too expensive.”

“We’ll buy a place we agree on. And as much as I love the modern touch of your house, I still want something that feels like a home.”

“Whatever you and Hudson want.”

“I’ll let you have a man cave.” I teased, smiling at his quiet laugh. We had time to discuss it. We were in no rush. We had just only started talking of marriage a month ago. We actually had to get married before anything else. At least that was the next step Auston and I agreed on.

“Do you want any more kids?”

“Are you kidding?” I laughed, resting my hand on the floor to support my weight. “Every time I see you with Hudson I think I want another kid.”

“But after the change?” Auston asked.

“Yes.” I picked up the last action figure and set it in the small bucket. A small test. I knew Auston would pass it before his hand even reached into the bucket to remove the figure, tossing it into the bigger one. “I want Hudson to feel comfortable in a new place, and feel secure before we go making any additions.” I watched a brown curl fall out of place. “It’s important that he feels like your kid before we have any others. The last thing I’d want is for him to feel like you’ll love him any less.”

“I could never. He’d be my kid just as much as the others.” Auston slowly leaned back to lay on the floor. I made my way over to lay with him, resting my head on his chest.

“Others plural?”

“At least three.”

“Three between us?” I gasped.

“No! No. Like- Hudson, and then two others.”

“Why three?”

“‘Cause kids that grow up in families with just one sibling- they end up weird.”

“What?”

“My first example is Mitch.”

“Auston!” I scolded through soft laughter. “He’s not weird.”

“He’s pretty weird.” Auston chuckled, warming my heart with the way his body moved beneath me. I lifted my hand to check the time on my watch. A sigh fell from my lips. We’d only just laid down, and already we had to get up.

“You wanna come stand with me on the porch? Hudson’s gonna be here soon.”

“Boy do I.” Though Auston’s words were teasing, I knew he was excited. I stood up and helped him off the ground. I walked toward the door and unlocked it while I put my slippers on. Pulling the door open, I walked out onto the porch, Auston close behind.

“What time do you think you’ll be getting back?” I asked as I pulled the door shut.

“Probably around eight? If thats not too late.”

“Eight is just fine. Maybe hold off on the sweets though if you get movie snacks.”

“What do you mean if? You always get movie snacks.” I laughed at Auston’s argument.

“The popcorn is pretty good.”

“And the little chocolate crunchy things.”

“The Buncha Crunches?”

“Yeah, those.” Auston nodded. I leaned against the porch rail, and Auston mirrored my stance next to me.

“He’s gonna be so excited to see you.”

“Oh, quit that.” Auston bumped his hip against my own.

“You don’t understand how much he loves you. Or how much he misses you. When you’re on road trips. And how scared he gets when he thinks you’re hurt.”

“I’m always a call away.”

“Yeah I know. I just hate not knowing your schedule when you’re in another city.”

“Shoot me a text.” Auston rested his hand atop my own. “You’re a first priority. I’ll always text you back fast.”

Our conversation was cut off as a car pulled into the drive. The back window rolled down as Hudson hopped out with his book bag. His friend waved and shouted goodbye.

“Thanks for the ride Mrs. Haleigh!” Hudson bounced up the driveway, but the second he turned in our direction, his speed picked up. I waved to Haleigh before she pulled out of my driveway and left.

“Auston!” He climbed up the porch steps and dropped his bag.

“You mind if I steal ya for a bit tonight?” Auston asked, holding his hand out for their elaborate handshake.

“Did you ask mom?”

“Of course I did.”

“Can I put my stuff inside?”

“I’ll get it.” I answered quietly, laughing. “I’ll take a hug first before you leave.” I added quickly. Hudson was swift to spin around and hug my legs. “Be safe. And listen to Auston.”

“I always do.”

“I’m serious.” I pulled away to grab his bag from the floor.

“I’ll see you boys later.” Hudson was already jogging down the stairs by the time I turned to Auston. I rested my hand beneath his chin and guided his lips to my own. “I love you.” I whispered.

“I love you too.” Auston smiled, pressing another quick kiss to my lips. Hudson had never been one of those kids to gag or groan. He usually just smiled or looked away. I had no doubt it was because of his happiness. He didn’t grow up for five years with a proper example of love. He was content with knowing love provided happiness. With understanding that we had a good situation.

“Ready, Hudson?” Auston finally followed the kid down the steps.

“Yes!”

I gave one last wave before they left. When the silence set in, I felt both at ease and antsy. I decided to slip back inside to find something to busy myself with.

——————

“So what snacks do you want?”

“Can we get gummies?”

“I’m cool with that. What about slushees?”

“Oh! Blue!”

Auston followed and enforced every rule you did. Almost every rule. When it came to movies, he didn’t give Hudson a sugar limit other than what would make the kid sick. And when it came to hockey, Auston told Hudson sometimes cursing was appropriate. Hudson however, was keen on saying words and phrases you told him never to say. Like “stupid” and “jerk.” Hudson knew of curse words, but they weren’t well rounded in his vocabulary yet.

“Did you get that?” Auston asked the woman behind the counter, who smiled and nodded.

“Cute kid.” She complimented.

“He’s my girlfriend’s.” Auston used to love the attention in Toronto. Girls always managed to find him, speak to him, contact him. It brought a lot of confidence, and worked wonders on his ego. If he was honest with himself, Auston didn’t know what he was getting into when he first met Hudson. Auston always said he wasn’t opposed to meeting somebody, he just never found the right person. Turns out his right person was actually two people. Now he only needed one love to make him feel like a million bucks. And the admiration of the kid standing next to him, trying to gnaw open a bag of gummy worms.

“You think mom’s okay on her own?” Hudson asked after Auston had paid, and they were handed the rest of their snacks.

“I think she’s doing just fine.”

“How’s come you didn’t invite her?” Auston led the kid toward the theatre corridor.

“‘Cause I just wanted to have a fun night with you.”

“You always invite mom.” Auston sighed, glancing down at Hudson.

“I have a really important question for you.”

“How important?”

Auston had to pause, thinking of a good comparison.

“Like.. Stanley Cup important.” He found amusement in the way Hudson immediately looked up at him, wide eyed.

“Dude…” Hudson whispered. “That’s pretty important.”

“I know.”

“Why do you need to ask me?”

“Because right now, you’re kinda like.. the keeper of the cup.”

“That’s cool. What does he do?”

“He protects the cup. Makes sure it doesn’t get any scratches. Travels everywhere with it, and keeps an eye on it.”

“Well that sounds like a pretty boring job.”

“Yeah, but its important.” Auston paused as he pulled the door to their theatre open.

“So what are you asking me?”

“Well I can’t tell you right now.” Hudson groaned as he walked up the isle into the theatre, Auston following close behind.

“Why do I have to wait?”

“I wasn’t gonna bring it up until after we watched the movie.” Auston reasoned as he helped Hudson find their seats. Hudson’s silence was a bit out of character, but Auston let it slide. Once they got comfortable, Hudson turned to him.

“Nobody’s ever told me I’m as important as the guy who watches the Stanley Cup.” He admitted softly.

“Well I’m glad I got to be the first.” Auston smirked, reaching for the extra straw he’d stuffed in his pocket.

“What’s that for?” Hudson asked, watching as Auston peeled the wrapper off and crumbled it up. They made brief eye contact before Auston stuck the straw in Hudson’s slushee and took a sip.

“Hey!” Hudson laughed quietly, and soon Auston was laughing too. “That’s not fair!”

“Yeah, we’ll I paid for it, pal.”

“You’re mean,” Hudson teased as he swatted the bill of Auston’s hat.

“I only do it cause I love ya.” The words left Auston’s lips before he could really think of them. He looked away almost immediately, holding his breath and trying to act natural. A kid can smell panic from a mile away. But instead of Hudson asking any more questions, or teasing, he let out a big old sigh and looked forward as well. Auston saw him smile from the corner of his eye. Then he felt a small hand rest on his arm.

“I love you too.” Auston could hardly contain his smile, and he was still grinning like an idiot as soon as the movie began.

The boys sat quietly through the movie, though admittedly Auston missed most of it, replaying the quiet moment he shared with Hudson over and over again in his head. He’d worked hard to earn Hudson’s respect and acceptance. He worked hard to fill a role he knew he hadn’t been prepared for.

When the movie ended, Auston knew he’d have no trouble asking Hudson his important question.

“That was such a cool movie.” Hudson beamed as the credits began to roll. Auston helped him gather their trash before they left the theatre and threw everything away.

“Thanks for taking me out, Auston!” Hudson skipped along the tile floor in the lobby, careful not to step on any cracks. Auston laughed at his excitement. The kid was all hopped up on sugar.

“Hold up, Buddy.” Auston immediately reached for Hudson’s hand when the boy made it to the door. Hudson high fived Auston before pushing the door open.

“No, Hudsy. It’s a dark parking lot. Hold my hand.” Auston’s amused laughter was met with a bashful smile from Hudson, who slipped his hand into Auston’s. They were careful when walking across the parking lot, and Auston opened the front door for Hudson.

“My car seat’s in the back.” Hudson reminded.

“We have to talk first, little dude.”

“Oh! Oh yeah.” Hudson climbed up into the front seat, before Auston walked around the car to join him on the other side. He pulled his door shut and turned the vehicle on.

“So, this big question.”

“Yes.” Hudson pulled his legs up onto the seat to fold them up, turning to face Auston.

“You ready for it?” Despite his certainty that he’d get a yes, Auston still felt nervous.

“Yes!” Hudson insisted.

“Alright.. I want you to be honest with me. Like completely honest. Okay?”

“Just ask, Auston.” Hudson urged. His impatience got the best of him.

“Is it okay if I marry your mom?”

There was a beat of silence. Hudson taking time to process the question, while his wide eyes studied Auston’s face.

“You wanna marry my mom.” Hudson repeated.

“Yeah? I really love her, Aus. And I love you. I’d love to join your little family.” Auston fidgeted with his own hands, occasionally glancing down to avoid the steady gaze from the kid across the console.

“So you mean like.. I’m gonna have a dad? Like a real dad?” Auston immediately looked up.

“Of course, Hudson. That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

“I’m gonna have a dad.” Hudson’s features shifted from excitement to shock, then he couldn’t sit still. His hands pulled at the fabric of his pants, seemingly distressed as tears clouded his vision.

“Hudson?” Auston immediately reached across the car to rest a hand on the boy’s arm. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m gonna have a dad.” Hudson cried out, the tears spilling down his cheeks. Years of confusion and grief, always feeling like he was missing out on something. It was finally coming to an end. Hudson’s mind could only focus on one thing. Having a second parent.

“Buddy, come here.” Auston gently guided Hudson forward. The kid practically climbed over the console and right into Auston’s lap, wrapping his arms around the man’s shoulders to sob against his collar. Auston held onto Hudson like his whole life depended on it. The situation choked him up, but he kept a brave face. At least he thought he did, until he felt a few tears of his own sliding down his cheeks.

“Hudson,” Auston forced the word from his lips. He knew Hudson would be happy eventually, but the pain had to come first. Kids were too young to completely understand their emotions. Hudson’s tears came from fear and relief. Relief of knowing the wait was over, and fear of not understanding why that made him want to cry. He just needed to let it out. Auston learned he was pretty good at sitting and waiting for that.

“I gotcha, Hudson. You wanna take a few breaths for me?” He felt Hudson’s choppy breathing stop for only a moment before it started again. He was listening.

“Those were pretty bad breaths, dude.” Auston teased softly, sniffing quietly, a quiet quivering laugh falling from his lips.

“Shut up.” Hudson pouted, his voice broke as he spoke. He gently punched Auston’s shoulder.

“You wanna try that again?” Auston moved one of his hands from Hudson’s back to reach for the hand that hit his shoulder. Hudson only tightened his grip.

“I just-“ he hiccuped. “I just wanna hug a little bit longer.” He whispered.

“You got it.” Auston nodded, wrapping his arm back around Hudson.

At some point, Hudson’s legs grew tired, and his grip on Auston finally loosened. So, the hockey player took his chance to help Hudson lean back, a smile on his lips as he pulled the sleeve of his sweatshirt over his palm.

“You okay now?” Auston asked as he wiped Hudson’s face with his sleeve. Hudson managed a smile and nodded.

“I’m really happy.” Hudson finally admitted, though his voice sounded as though another round of tears were close behind.

“You can’t tell your mom, okay? You’re gonna help me with everything, but you can’t tell her.”

“I can do that. I won’t tell anybody.” Hudson spoke as he stood on the seat between Auston’s legs, leaning back against the steering wheel.

“Betcha didn’t expect me to ask that kinda question tonight. Did ya?”

“That’s bigger than the Stanley Cup.” Hudson giggled quietly, still sniffling as he rubbed at his face.

“I know. That’s why I had to ask your permission. You and your mom mean the world to me. I wanted to make sure you were okay with it first.”

“It’s okay with me.” Hudson clarified, as if he needed to. “You can marry my mom.”

“You know.. as her son, you’ll get the third piece of cake in the wedding.”

“Who gets the first and second?”

“Me and your mom.” Auston helped Hudson back across to the passenger seat.

“You’ll share a little bit with me though.. won’t you?” Hudson’s question made Auston scoff out a laugh.

“We’ll talk about it more when the time comes.”

✾❀✾❀✾❀✾❀✾❀✾❀✾❀✾