#i like this idea of this but not sure about the execution

[aventurineswife]

Aww, no more Yor!Reader? Well, I guess it would have been overdone eventually. 😅

How about I share an idea instead about Reader acting as a lawyer/legal consult for Aventurine? (Bouncing off of my friend’s recent obsession with lawyer characters lol.)

So, Reader is a lawyer studying the laws of various worlds. Their work laptop is full of legal texts and documents, which they use to keep track of information gained and help make sure Aventurine doesn’t step too hard on someone’s toes. coughsunliketopazonbelobogcoughs

Reader is also partially the reason why Aventurine was able to get away with attacking the Astral Express — by taking his and Ratio’s witness accounts of their “meeting” with Sunday and the power of the Order being forced on Aventurine to brainwash him on threat of death within 17 hours. (I know I saw a post pointing out how Sunday basically broke diplomatic immunity by doing this, tho I can’t remember who. 🫠) Who can say for sure that Aventurine threatening to detonate a Stellaron wasn’t the result of (him struggling against) the Order influencing him? Reader can even point out that if the Family tried to go after Aventurine, Sunday’s actions coupled with the Family’s lying about death being impossible in the Dreamscape would be grounds for a counter lawsuit.

Emphasis on Reader partially being why Aventurine got away with his gamble. Even without Reader being Aventurine’s lawyer, the IPC’s got a fuck ton of money. 😅 Reader being there just makes things a lot faster and more convenient.

Reader’s pissed about Aventurine gambling his life like that, tho. 💀

“I TOLD YOU TO BE CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH [ACHERON] AND WHATAYA DO?! YOU GET FUCKING HAM-SLICED AND YEETED INTO A BLACK HOLE!!!!! 💢💢💢”

“Objection! Gambling with Your Life is Not a Legal Strategy!”

Summary: You find yourself grappling with the aftermath of Aventurine’s latest reckless escapade—one involving ham-slicing, black holes, and intergalactic legal battles. As his ever-resourceful and exasperated legal advisor, you’re left to clean up the mess while Aventurine, the ever-smug gambler and IPC executive, teases you with his charm. Beneath the banter, a glimpse of sincerity from Aventurine leaves you questioning whether there’s more to him than his reckless bravado.

Tags: Aventurine x Reader, Crackfic, Lawyer!Reader, Dubious Morality, Fluff and Angst, Overworked (and probably underpaid or not) Reader, Banter and Wit, Slow-Burn Romance (implied), Reader Yelling at Aventurine (deserved tbh).

Warnings: Mild language (Reader vents a lot), Legal jargon overload, Brief mentions of violence and manipulation, Reader and Aventurine arguing, Crack-level absurdity in legal scenarios, Aventurine's traumatic backstory hinted at but not deeply explored.

A/N: Thank you for your understanding 🙏💖 and I hope you like this! This may be a bit ooc and I mostly have forgotten a lot of things so yeah🧍‍♀️

You glared at Aventurine from behind your laptop, your fingers hovering over the keyboard as you typed out yet another damage control memo. The smug blond executive lounged across from you in his plush office chair, one leg draped lazily over the armrest. His perpetual grin was as infuriating as ever, even with fresh bandages peeking out from the collar of his shirt.

"Really, darling," he drawled, twirling his peacock-feather earring, "I think you're overreacting. Things turned out splendidly, didn’t they? I'm still here, the Stellaron didn’t detonate, and Sunday's little 'dream empire' has a massive PR disaster on their hands. All thanks to your impeccable legal wizardry, might I add."

You slammed your laptop shut with enough force to make him flinch. "Splendidly?! You were HAM-SLICED, Aventurine. HAM. SLICED. And then YEETED INTO A BLACK HOLE! Do you even comprehend how many laws of physics, ethics, and basic sanity you violated in a single day?"

He chuckled, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "But you saved me, didn’t you? My charming legal champion, swooping in with airtight arguments and enough loopholes to make the Family’s lawyers cry."

"Don’t you dare flatter me right now." You jabbed a finger at him, your other hand pointing to the stack of legal briefs on your desk. "Do you know how hard it is to defend you when you keep pulling stunts like that? I had to argue in front of three intergalactic tribunals that Sunday's Dreamscape Order literally brainwashed you into threatening a Stellaron detonation!"

Aventurine leaned forward, resting his chin on his palm, his eyes gleaming with mischief. "And you did it flawlessly. Honestly, I should hire you full-time. Leave that dusty legal research behind and become my personal strategist. Think of the fun we’d have!"

"Fun?" you repeated, incredulous. "FUN?! Watching you gamble your life away every other Tuesday isn’t my idea of fun, Kakavasha."

His grin faltered for the briefest moment at the mention of his real name, but he recovered quickly, standing and striding over to your desk. "You know I can’t resist a good gamble," he said softly, his voice unusually earnest. "It’s who I am. But having you there… knowing you’ve got my back? That’s the only reason I can keep playing the game."

You blinked, caught off guard by the sudden sincerity. "That’s… disturbingly sweet," you muttered. "But it doesn’t excuse the fact that you’re reckless, irresponsible, and—"

"Charming?" he offered with a wink.

"Infuriating," you finished, swatting his hand away as he tried to steal one of your pens. "Now sit down and let me finish drafting this counter-lawsuit. If Sunday or the Family tries to come after you again, I want them buried so deep in legal hell they’ll be begging for the black hole treatment."

Aventurine laughed, a genuine, unguarded sound that made your chest tighten in a way you refused to examine. "You’re one of a kind, [Name]. I don’t deserve you, but I’m keeping you anyway."

"You don’t have me," you shot back, ignoring the warmth creeping up your neck. "I’m just here to make sure you don’t get sued—or sliced—again."

"Of course," he said smoothly, settling back into his chair with a self-satisfied smirk. "But I’ll win you over eventually. It’s only a matter of time."

You rolled your eyes and reopened your laptop, trying to focus on your work. But as you typed out another legal argument to shield Aventurine from his latest bout of insanity, you couldn’t quite suppress the smile tugging at your lips.

Maybe he wasn’t entirely unbearable.

[germesthegenie]

What can I say? Give me a lady with a cool power and/or silly outfit and I’ll probably draw them

Finished the rest of Arc 5, thoughts below:

As expected, big cape fight was very cool

Neat to essentially see, again, something we saw a lot in Worm but from a different perspective (and being executed by more morally questionable people). Hollow Point and the Undersiders mobilizing against the Fallen isn’t too different from things like the Somer’s Rock alliance against the ABB, but now we’re seeing a lot more collateral, and how the heroes have to respond to situations like that where villains are fighting each other with varying regard for civilian life

Little V and Big V reunited! Nice little reunion scene before things went to hell.

Valefor’s shard deserves to be talked about alongside Broadcast when it comes to playing favorites. He got heavily nerfed and just got his power reworked to be arguably stronger (with less control). Is this technically a second trigger or did the shard just give him this as a treat? And I guess what will it figure out next? Mind control through interpretative dance?

Jokes aside, Valefor’s scenes were terrifying and brought back the fear we briefly got from his Worm Arc 21 appearance. Victoria’s flashbacks were sad to see, and I do have another drawing idea based on that scene where she instinctively releases the Wretch. I do find it funny how the temporary solution to him was malicious compliance though lol

Speaking of the Wretch, nice to see Vicky getting more used to using it and learning to cooperate with it. Wonder what she can do with it if/when she gets full control? Bigger forcefield that can fight will be a lot more useful once it’s not fighting everything that gets too close.

Chris’ forms are certainly… something. He’s like Beast Boy except the shard used eldritch horror and books like All Tomorrows as a catalog for the forms. I’d try drawing them but I’m not even that great at regular animals, much less… banana thing.

Beast of Burden when he provokes the girl who blasts holes in people and she blasts a hole in him 🤯

Nice scenes with Ashley all around, lots of complexity to that one. She’s like Goth flavor Rachel (and now I’m seeing why the ship of her and Victoria is popular)

March! Still not sure what to make of her yet. Helped Rain, sure. But also, nemesis of Foil and kidnapped Parian one time. But also also, really cool power in terms of visuals. Imagine if Foil got the anime version of Sting and Worm ended with Scion getting depression-stunned into a Judgement Cut instead of a bolt.

What’s with the trend in cape names in Ward? Like we’ve got people who sound like names/subtitles for Dark Souls bosses (“Lord of Loss”, “End of Days”, etc.). Not opposed to it, just wonder if the post-apocalypse got people to break out the dramatic names.

Quick little detour away from the Fallen to let us know Cauldron’s still kicking, though seems Teacher’s taking over while actual founding Cauldron members were on “break”. Congrats to Citrine and Number Man on the marriage and their family of a couple identical clones of himself.

“Someone’s gotta represent the fourth”. Great twist, but also poor Tohu and Bohu. Who’s gonna rep them? Would they get a shared cult or individual ones?

And so one of four in the Mall Cluster falls. It’s interesting we get a sort of afterlife scene, with Snag free from the cluster/shard influence and still able to communicate to some degree with his clustermates (though muted whenever he tried to tell them not to kill each other lmao). And an ominous ending damn

[canmom]

A Summoning author's notes

this has been out a little while now, let me add some extra background comments...

i released A Summoning with minimal edits from the 2022 version (just adjusting a few lines of Lilith that felt a bit much really). i call it medievalist but it's not really trying for a specific time period, it's in a sort of vague floating time and place peppered with cool things from the past (like most fantasy), but i try to pull on some more unusual threads at least. very loosely you could place it somewhere in the early early modern period, 15th through 17th centuries.

in England, travelling players became more common in the Elizabethan period. the content of what they perform here is very loosely inspired by the tradition of the morality play.

the intercrural sex scene is a now largely forgotten practice, sometimes done in a sex work context (one reason being that it helps with minimising STI transmission). one notable example was Mervyn Tuchet, who was forced to read a rather convoluted statement of Christian belief and then executed for sodomy in 1631. the 'patting about the loins' joke is riffing on Chaucer. a braies is a kind of loose trouser-like clothing.

like any uminekohead would, I used a magic circle from the Key of Solomon on the cover (in this case the Fourth Pentacle of Venus, which is used to summon a person to you and command spirits of venus and thus makes sense for its use in the story, but more importantly it has a cool and intricate design), which goes back to the 14th or 15th centuries. this one includes a few letters from the Celestial Alphabet of Agrippa, which I inevitably appreciate as a Yoko Taro fan.

the wizard tower is a thing of pure fantasy. I wouldn't know where to begin researching it - I found various threads on forums and reddit about the history of the image of a wizard in his tower (for example), and there's some speculation it's inspired by Roman astrologers, but the association of wizards with towers seems to be more of a 20th-century thing, going back mainly to Howard. the sort of comically misogynist philosophy of magic followed by the Master is more inspired by the 20th-century concepts like 'orgone' than anything truly medieval, mixed with some of the wild ideas that Romans had about sexuality.

a friend reasonably pointed out that lilith's conception of transness is very modern - and sure she's a demon from another world and time, but there is a kind of unintentional aspect where it sort of suggests that from the main narrative authority in the story, the modern conception of 'transness' where you are always really a girl is the final correct one, and that seems against the spirit a bit. this feels like a misstep for me, similar to how the final act of Tipping the Velvet pulls in some quite modern lesbian politics to its Victorian setting. if I were to write again - I know as much about the Old English baedlings as anyone who reads @baeddel's blog. but this story is roughly 15th-century-ish as the other references suggest. I believe in that period, gender was understood as being more about what you do than expressing some inner essence, but I would need to research a lot more thoroughly.

nevertheless it has been in the oven for long enough, and I wanna make this a year of releasing things rather than sitting on them for years x3

the next story, The General's Worm, is a really nasty one, just undergoing a final editing pass.

[straightforthefl00r]

idol!dabi

based on this thought I had!! quirkless!au idol!au

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

idol!dabi who starts off as trainee!touya at the endeavour ent. agency – his father’s agency.

practice was grueling as per usual; touya’s entire body ached. he had been dancing for hours without a break. he needed to do better, needed to be better, especially if he wanted to debut. he knew his father had high expectations, but touya was confident that he would equal them easily. hell, he’ll do even more than that. the endeavour agency was one of the best out there and touya would be damned if he didn’t show the world, him, that he had what it takes to be an idol.

trainee!touya who has been a trainee since he was sixteen and is now twenty-two. 

if touya knew how to do one thing, it would be that he knew how to work up a sweat. he was positively dripping with it after dancing and singing for his monthly evaluation, however, he knew he executed every move perfectly. every toss of his white hair, every smile, every note he sang was exact. his father and the other coaches were a few meters in front of him, looking at him with beady eagle eyes. touya never got stage fright, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. his father goes to open his mouth. please, please– say that he can see his hard work. say that he can debut, this year not the next, please–  “we’ll talk about your progress next week and make a judgement,” his father sighed, not looking into his eyes, “we’ll talk.”  there were no smiles, no well done, it all felt very clinical to touya, but it wasn’t a see-you-next-year. he gave a low head bow to the coaches to hide the small grin that split across his face. but touya found that, even hours after the evaluation, he could not stop that crawling spark of hope from growing in his chest. 

trainee!touya who leaves the endeavour agency to join afo entertainment.

touya could barely sit still for the past days, waiting and waiting for the meeting where his father and the coaches will decide if he was going to debut or not. surely he will, surely! he had the experience and dedicated years. it was the night before the appointment, and touya was in his room playing his guitar, strumming and singing to all his practice songs. he picked it up when he was seventeen, because he thought it would make him more appealing as an idol. for the fans, he thought with a smirk when he bought his first acoustic guitar with his father’s card. his phone buzzed, he bent forwards to pick it up, guitar still resting in his lap.  breaking news!! endevour ent. set to debut four member boy group… he hurried to click the article. he couldn’t believe his eyes. he scanned the introduction to look for the member profiles: tsukuyomi, deku, ingenium and shoto. touya grabbed his guitar by its neck and crashed it into the ground with all his strength.

trainee!touya who debuts in three months as idol!dabi in a boy group called the league. 

a day after he met the rest of his group: tomura, spinner, compress and twice. he was told that the league was a group with an edgy concept. right up his street! it was different to what he was used to before, where he was told to mainly focus on a more wholesome, boyish style. he had to dye his hair black. it wasn’t like he had much choice, nor did he mind at all. you were the one who accompanied him to the salon the day the decision was decided, as you were the league’s lead stylist, in charge of hair, make-up and clothes. he thought you were cute when you first introduced yourself to them (same age as him) and warned them all that they better not rip their shirts on stage for attention, because not everything they wore was rippable, even if they had muscle on them. tomura grimaced at the idea of showing skin, twice let out a howl. he was waiting for the hair dye to work its magic, when you came up to him asking for his opinion. you showed him the group's concept photos plans and potential outfit ideas. do you like this? what do you think suits you?  as you held your laptop (which was smothered in stickers), you talked so animatedly at him that touya thought you were just as excited as him – probably more – that it was the month of the league’s debut. his eyes crinkled as he gave you a smirk from the salon chair after he asked you if you were looking forward to seeing him perform. you raised a brow. i’m excited to see my vision come to life. 

idol!dabi who celebrates his twenty-third birthday with his members and staff. 

it had been around six months since the league debuted, and damn they were a success. the internet went feral for all five of them. the live performances that were in front of fans were packed every time and, once, touya sweared that he busted an eardrum because of how loud the screams were. he knew that from that moment on, he belonged nowhere, but on stage with the rest of the league.  however, he never thought he would actually think this, but touya was glad that the the latest promotional period was over. the constant shows, meet and greets were tiring, exhausting. he wasn’t the only one, the rest of the members were too. if he had hear to tomura whine one more time, then the league would become a group with four members.  he thought that maybe staff had some slack, but he could see the bags under your eyes every time you leaned forward to do his make-up. he thanked the gods that the schedule for the week of his birthday and the one after that was non-existent. touya decided to invite the league and the main staff to a private bar on his birthday. yes, to celebrate his twenty-third year, but to also let loose and relieve some of the stress caused by league-related work. the night resulted in touya nursing a beer and thinking, thinking about you.  ever since the league begun, or perhaps since he wanted to become an idol, touya knew that dating would be a challenge, so he never really saw any point in it. he was married to his fans! he would often joke. lately though, every time you styled his hair or the times where you would send him outfit ideas in the dead of night, he got so many butterflies that he was this close to declaring to his want for you in public. stans be damned.

idol!dabi who doesn’t remember ever seeing a no-dating clause on his contract.

touya turned towards you, beer still in hand. you looked at him with a quizzical smile, probably wondering why he was looking at you so intently. in your hands, you were also nursing a drink. touya wondered what it was. nevermind, he’ll find out soon enough.  “can i tell you something?” “what is it, touya?” you replied, a little breathless. god, he loved the way you said his name. “want to go somewhere else?” he was standing up now, drink on the table with his hand outstretched towards you. you grab his hand and stand up with him. “can i ask you something?” touya hums in approval, noting that you were still holding his hand. you beckoned him to bring his head closer to yours. he did. “can i kiss you?”  he tilts his head to face you directly, smiling. your faces are closer now and touya could swear that it was only the two of you in that bar.  “yes.”

idol!dabi who gets caught up in a dating scandal with the league’s stylist the next day, headlines and all.

the internet, yet again, went feral. 

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

[bookclubforme]

Fuck all of Xaden’s simp point of views. I would trade my left tit for Liam’s POV when he gets moved into Violet’s squad.

First of all, I’m assuming Xaden had an actual conversation where he asked Liam, but did he actually explain to him it was because Violet was attacked in her sleep? Did Xaden give Liam a run down on Dain being her childhood best friend? That she and Rhi are friends because Violet gave her a boot on parapet?

Because Xaden’s usual level of communication leads me to think that the extent of that conversation was “Liam, I need you to protect Violet, because if she dies I die.” “Sure, anything for you, Xaden.”

I’m just going feral imagining Liam trying to sus things out when Xaden dumps him in the squad.

First of all, Violet and Xaden get into a pissing match about Liam being added to the squad that has people gasping that she’s talking to a wing leader like that.

Then their squad leader is overly concerned about her very visible bruises, drawing attention from everyone around them about it.

And then there’s a wild turn out of nowhere, because while Panchek is setting up for the disciplinary stuff, they start teasing Ridoc about sleeping with the XO for 2nd wing, and with no prompting, Little Ms. Violet Sorrengail goes:

“I miss sex.”

Ma’am, you’re supposed to be the smart one. The commandant has just announced their was a codex violation, and you know that you just told your wing leader who has a vested interest in your safety about a codex violation against you last night, and you get so distracted by your own horniess that you don’t even think that it’s about you when you hear the announcement? Get it together Violet.

That is one of the very first things that Liam ever hears Violet say. The first five minutes that he gets to be around Violet, and see her around her friends and one of the very first things she does is publically admit she’s horny.

Liam is right behind her, and right beside Ridoc. So judging by the fact that Ridoc hears it and responds, Liam ABSOLUTELY heard her.

And Liam doesn’t have any context to know that when Ridoc offers to have sex with Violet, and Violet teases him back with amending her statement to ‘I miss good sex,’ that she isn’t teasing Ridoc because they had sex before! Liam could totally absolutely hear that exchange and think that Violet and Ridoc had a thing.

Liam is standing there, watching Violet have a weird moment with her squad leader, flirt with another one of her squadmates, all while the proceedings for a public execution are starting. That is his first impression of the woman he is now responsible for keeping alive.

And Liam probably also somewhat knows Ridoc and Violet from comments they make in classes. Violet’s smart, Ridoc’s the class clown. But the first impression they both make is “Horny and screwing around the chain of command”

Granted, both Violet and Ridoc get it together and both of them come to the marked one’s defense during the execution proceedings. Ridoc outright calls Nadine out for being biased against the marked one’s.

Just the idea that Liam’s first impression of his new squad mates is “horny, but good people” is so funny to me.

We were absolutely robbed of a scene of the iron squad sitting around talking about all their first impressions and Liam just absolutely teasing them about how horny they came across.

[everettellington]

"Aw, yeah, sometimes having older kids in and fully aware of the magic helps. At least I'd say so. I can say though, you're a good Mom. Not many people would have the patience to do something like that for an entire year; even if it is a tradition. Don't they have those kit things? The ones that basically give you all the ideas and little thought just the work of execution? If the older boys know about it, maybe you guys could do it together next year as a little way to spread Chistmas spirit to the younger kiddos? Or is that over stepping?" a shrug. "Anyways, I admire it. Wouldn't participate myself, but, admire it all the same. I'd be the one to break the elves leg day three or four and then leave him in one spot to heal for the majority of Christmas, only moving him once or twice myself. I bet you were glad to see the holiday season end just for that alone; or are you someone that dreads it when the holidays are over? Christmas was good; got to see Isla and spend some time with friends. Harassed your brother - nothing quite like picking on Theo until he turns red in the face as I'm sure you know - and sat at home. Really didn't do much until later in the week with work."

I don't really know how I did it for the whole month, it was especially last minute, and then having to do that with not one, not two, but four elves because I wanted the older boys to still feel like they were part of the magic, even if they understood what was happening. Think the appreciated it more than they're willing to verbalize, and that's okay with me. You could have easily fixed that with putting the elf in a cast and a little note stating he broke his leg and can't move for three weeks -- I honestly considered doing that at one point, but I'm pretty sure I would have been judged hard by Colton and Shawn. I won't pretend that I'm very relieved the elves have gone back 'home' for the season and won't return until next year. Only my littlest and youngest one wasn't impressed and didn't fully understand and that landed me buying two of the elves stuffed reindeer to surprise the girls with later on after Christmas because apparently I'm a sucker. Still, I'm pretty proud of how it all came out and had an amazing Christmas all the same. How was your Christmas, Everett?

[saras-almanac]

BuckTommyWeekend Day 1: Alternate First Meeting

Title:  This seat taken?

Fandom:  911 (ABC)

Pairing:  Buck/Tommy

Summary:  Buck and Tommy meet at a restaurant for the first time. For the prompt: Alternate First Meeting for @bucktommyweek

Notes: There’s so many potential first meetings for these two both within canon and outside of it. I’m behind on writing for this weekend so just went with one that’s a bit quicker, but will probably expand on in the future before posting to AO3. (And/or might do more potential first meetings because there’s so many options and not all of them will lead to them actually being together at that specific moment in time, but it’d be fun…)

Buck sat at the bar, pretending to check his phone while he glanced over at where Josh and his date were sitting. Josh was seemingly having a good time, plus his date was pretty cute, so maybe this would be a win for him. Buck hoped so.

“This seat taken?”

Buck startled and looked over and saw a man—a very attractive man—stood next to him, inclining a hand toward the stool next to him.

Buck shook his head. “N-no. It’s all yours. I mean, if you want it.”

The man smiled and sat down. “Thanks. Just need to wait for my order.”

As he sat down, Buck noticed a logo on the side of this man’s jacket, one that looked incredibly familiar as it was on Buck’s own work clothes.

“Woah. Is that an LAFD jacket? Are you a firefighter?” Buck asked excitedly.

The man smiled. “Yeah. Work at Harbor station now though. Mostly flying planes and helicopters rather than running into any burning buildings.”

“That’s so cool. I’ve always thought being able to fly a plane, like pilot one, would feel like you have super powers,” Buck said. “Does it feel like that?”

“I suppose that’s a good way to look at it,” the man said. “I’m Tommy, by the way.”

“Evan Buckley,” Buck said, reaching out a hand. Tommy shook it, even at the awkward angle since they were sitting so close together. “So when did you learn to fly?”

“A while ago, back when I was in the Army,” Tommy said.

“Have you always been air support for LAFD?” Buck asked.

“No,” Tommy said. “I was on the ground or many years, but just felt like I was missing it. Transferred to Harbor five, six years ago now. I really missed flying so it was a good choice.”

“I bet,” Buck said. “If I could fly, I’d probably never want to be on the ground.”

“Well, I can give you a tour of the place if you’re interested,” Tommy offered kindly. “Show you some of the toys, how things work.”

“That would be awesome,” Buck said. “But I don’t want to trouble you. I mean, you’re just waiting for your food and I’m talking your ear off about work. I-I’m sure the last thing you want to do is talk about your job after just getting off a shift.”

“I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it,” Tommy said. “And I could have always ignored you or told you I didn’t want to talk about work if I wanted.”

“I guess,” Buck said. “I forget sometimes that not everyone likes talking about their job.”

“So then I guess I have to ask, what do you do?”

“Oh, um,” Buck rubbed at the back of his neck. “I’m a firefighter.”

“No kidding,” Tommy said with a laugh. “Which station?”

“The 118,” Buck said proudly.

“Now you’re fucking with me,” Tommy said. “I transferred to Harbor from the 118.”

“That’s crazy! So you do you know Cap? Captain Bobby Nash?” Buck asked.

“Yeah,” Tommy said. “He was just getting settled there when I transferred.”

“What about Hen? You’ve got to know Chimney. I think he’s been there since it was built.”

Tommy smiled and his nose crinkled and Buck had never seen anything more adorable in his entire life. “Howie and I go way back, from before he was called Chimney. And Hen, she’s one of the best firefighters I’ve ever worked with.”

“They’re the best,” Buck said. “It’s so crazy that you know them too!”

Buck glanced over at Josh again. He’d be furious with himself if he got distracted by this god-like man sitting next to him when his friend needed him. Still seemed to be going well.

“I don’t mean to pry, but I do have to ask,” Tommy started, “You’re not stalking those men, are you?”

Buck whipped his head over to look at him. “What?”

“It’s just, I saw you watching them when I first got here. And now you’re looking over again. Just checking things are… all right,” Tommy said.

Buck felt himself blush a bit because he was the world’s worst undercover wingman. “Okay so one of those guys is my friend, Josh. He’s had some rough luck dating and he was feeling a bit nervous, so I offered to come and hang out at the bar while he was on his date. Just in case anything happened, he’d have back up or whatever he needed.”

Tommy blinked. “You’re giving up your night to sit alone at the bar just in case your friend’s date turned out to be an asshole?”

“Yeah. I guess,” Buck said.

Tommy smiled at him, shaking his head fondly. “That’s really sweet of you.”

“I’m just helping out a friend,” Buck said, feeling uncomfortable. “I’d do it for anyone.”  

Before they could talk any more, a waitress came out with Tommy’s food, stealing his attention. Their chat was less than 10 minutes but Buck felt like he could have spent hours talking with Tommy. He tried not to be annoyed that his food came and he was going to leave—the man had probably just gotten off a shift, probably a twelve or thirty-six hour shift, based on it being night. Tommy deserved to grab his food and then head home to eat and crash.

It didn’t mean that it didn’t suck though. But it’s fine. Buck would go back to checking his phone and keeping an eye out for Josh.

Tommy placed a hand on Buck’s shoulder. “Well, it was a delight to bump into you and I enjoyed our conversation. You made the end of a long thirty-six hours speed by as I waited for my food.”

“I’ve been told I do that,” Buck said, completely distracted by the weight of Tommy’s hand on his shoulder.  

Tommy laughed like Buck had told the funniest joke he’d ever heard. He removed his hand and smiled. “And I’m serious about giving you a tour if you want.”

“I’d like that,” Buck said. “Um, should I call the station?”

Tommy smiled again and shook his head. “It’ll be easier if you just let me know directly. I can make sure there’s time and be the one to give you the tour.”

Tommy reached down to grab the pen sitting on top of his receipt and then scribbled his number on a napkin. “Take care, Evan.”

Hearing Evan come out of Tommy’s mouth was surprising, but surprising in a good way—in a way that Buck wasn’t going to think much about right now. “Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you too, Tommy. I’ll—I’ll text you.”

“Sounds good.” Tommy grabbed his bag. “Oh, and good luck with the rest of your date.”

With that, Tommy laughed a little and then walked out, leaving Buck sitting there, carefully holding the napkin and wondering exactly what was happening with fate right now. Maybe his luck was turning around.

[ricky-mortis]

Curtwen Week Day 4: Haunted

[puppppppppy]

Gripped with ideas but….. the panelling………….

[pearlcaddy]

otpsource valentine's day event 2023 ♡ colors

[energeticpoltergeist]

Part 1: Mad King's War

Prologue: Diverged History(pages 11-16)

[readymades2002]

rewatching gravityfalls since its the topic du jour and running into the exact same hurdle i did when it was airing which is simply aggressively not caring about ford and his associated stuff

[walker-lister]

I just have to remind myself sometimes that no matter what anyone else says, the way a piece of media makes me feel and the positive impact it has had on my queer identity is valid, and that tearing myself apart thinking I have to defend it or questioning my own place within queer communities is not at all important when compared to the almost tangible sense of 'rightness' that piece of media helped me to feel about myself.

[symeraid-s]

Finally watched the final season of the Umbrella Academy. Gotta say, I don't think I have ever felt this betrayed by a series before.

[sysig]

What your fave says about you: Sona/Undertale edition (Patreon)

[innerstrawberrypolice]

5,651 words in... we're getting kinda crazy out here, an erection is being had, and an outline of a nipple is being seen!