#i love that we’ve been chatting more recently it’s been lots of fun

[kimbappykidding]

Imagine playing hard to get with Yeonjun at the Hybe picnic

You and Yeonjun had been unofficially seeing one another for a while and things were going well until he asked you out...over text. You got he was a busy man but couldn't he atleast pick up the phone to ask you to be his girlfriend? It wasn't the sort of thing you just did over text. That took the least amount of effort possible and made you think Yeonjun didn't really care. So you didn't respond to the text hoping Yeonjun would realise why you were upset and call you or that he'd wonder why you'd gone all quiet on him. He didn't and a week passed without him checking what had happened or following through in any way. You wondered if he just thought you'd rejected him and so had closed off so you asked Soobin but he said Yeonjun was fine. As loud and happy as ever and that hurt. So any sympathy you had for him vanished and just in time too because you had the Hybe picnic. A few weeks ago you'd been excited about this! A chance to hang out with all the groups you hardly ever spoke to in one place...it'd be amazing. However, with recent events, it turned from a fun social event to one of revenge.   So when you arrived with your group and saw TxT you waved to them but made sure not to make eye contact with Yeonjun. You didn't register his presence and ignored how handsome he looked. You couldn't help but smile when TxT made their chaotic entrance but told yourself you were laughing because of the other guys, not him. One of the first games you played was a race. You'd get a mission and then have to select another person to help you do the mission. Yeonjun went first and he picked you for his mission. You acted like you didn't really know him and stood a safe distance apart only politely answering his questions. The challenge was to get someone who could do the crab and walk 3 meters. Yeonjun knew you'd always been flexible and loved gymnastics so was confident you'd smash this. When the host asked him why he picked you, Yeonjun said it was because you were the main dancer so he hoped you'd be flexible. He smiled at you when he said it and you smiled back but didn't meet his eye. You did the challenge and then quickly returned to your seat, giving Yeonjun nothing more than you needed to.

You went in the next round for your team and the challenge you had was to get someone to say an English tongue twister. You knew Yeonjun was famously good at pronouncing English words (RIP Beomgyu) but you couldn't pick him...then you remembered Seventeen had an American member. You raced to the table and just told them "English speaker" and they all pointed to Joshua. You gestured for him to come and the boy jumped up, running with you. You got there second and while stood in line waiting, you noticed this boy was cute. His eyes were kinda similar to Yeonjun's but his nose and lips were different. "Sorry I don't think we've been introduced before I yanked you away" you said "I'm Y/n". The man nodded chuckling slightly "nice to meet you Y/n I'm Joshua". "Nice to meet you too...so are you American or...". He nodded "yeah I'm American but came here to be an idol. I'm from LA". "Yes!" you cried happily and Joshua laughed. "That's really cool you're from LA, did you see a lot of famous people?". Joshua laughed and the two of you started chatting until the host noticed and shushed you both. Meanwhile, Yeonjun saw the whole thing and he wasn't happy. He could tell from your body language that you found Joshua attractive on some level and didn't like how well the conversation was flowing between the two of you. When you both got told off for talking you laughed together and shot each other looks like it was some big inside joke. You looked good together and Yeonjun couldn't help but glare. When you hadn't responded to his message he thought this was some sort of joke or that you were too busy. However now, watching you he began to reconsider that. The first duo succeeded and then it was your turn. The challenge was a tongue twister and Yeonjun sighed "well he's American so this will be easy". Yeonjun was praying Joshua would fail but how would he mess up his home language? Of course, Joshua said the whole thing perfectly and you cheered "wow that sounded so good!" making Joshua blush. You walked away together still chatting and took the long way around so Joshua could finish what he was saying. You then got back to your tables (which of course were next to each other) and said goodbye. Yeonjun felt better knowing you were away from one another but not for long. It was dinner time and everyone raced to get into line. Yeonjun was determined to get in between you and Joshua and was relieved to see you were 2 ahead of him and Joshua 1 behind him. So Yeonjun thought it would be safe until the people in between got the answers right leaving you, Yeonjun and Joshua all next to one. Yeonjun was pleased he was in the middle but now felt the pressure to keep getting answers wrong so as to keep separating you. He knew it was childish but he couldn't help it. He had no idea why you were acting like this but he wouldn't take it lying down. Finally on your 3rd time you were asked a question and Yeonjun knew you wouldn't know the answer. It was about Geography and Yeonjun knew that wasn't a strong point of yours. He searched his brain for the answer so he could whisper it to you but he didn't know it...but guess who did. Joshua whispered the answer and you heard it repeating it. The host paused "did you know that?". You nodded "totally, I love capital cities". The man didn't seem convinced and let you take the food. Yeonjun didn't miss how you shot Joshua a smile. Yeonjun was too nervous to eat properly and spent most of his time with his eyes glued to your table. Everything was going well until they brought the prizes out for people who won challenges. Yeonjun accepted his and watched as you headed to Joshua to split it with him. Yeonjun watched as Joshua tried to give you the money back but you wouldn't dream of it. In the end, Joshua agreed to take it but only if you took his ice cream. It was a cute exchange and Yeonjun could see Joshua's members smiling. Yeonjun wasn't the only one noticing the chemistry there.   After dinner, it was the dance challenge which comforted Yeonjun. He knew he was a good dancer and went all out hoping to show you why he was better than Joshua. Yeonjun hoped you were watching him but when he looked back you and Joshua were hiding near one another. He saw Joshua ask you what the move was and you helped him both laughing. The hosts soon caught on that you two were hiding at the back and asked Joshua to come forwards and dance. You got eliminated together and sat at the back. Yeonjun tried ignoring it but when he saw Joshua whisper something in your ear he lost it. He completely messed up the routine and got eliminated. You didn't even seem to notice too busy chatting to Joshua and Yeonjun took a seat near Beomgyu annoyed. "You okay?" Beomgyu asked and he nodded "I'm fine...". The day ended and Yeonjun called out to you. You were with your members but paused when you saw him. You said goodbye and made your way over to him. "So what are you into Joshua now?" Yeonjun asked. You shrugged "why do you care?". "Seriosuly?" Yeonjun asked "you're just going to pretend like there's nothing between us?". "Well officially there is nothing" you said "technically I can flirt with however many guys I want because we're not together!". Yeonjun heard the way you said that and paused. "But that's not my fault I...I asked you out". You sighed "yes but how did you do that Yeonjun? After 4 months of spending time together, hanging out, hooking up, talking all the time...you ask me by text?" you asked "that's cold Yeonjun". Yeonjun froze because he honestly hadn't thought of it like that. The two of you had been talking and you'd said something so hilarious he'd been laughing about it all day. He knew how he felt about you and was tired so it just came out. He asked if you wanted to make this official and went to bed hoping for an answer the next morning. He honestly hadn't considered that there were some things you should say in person and he agreed this probably should've been one. "Shit Y/n I'm so sorry!" he said and you looked at him with tears in your eyes "you mean a lot to me Yeonjun, am I really only worth a text?". "No of course not!" Yeonjun said touching your arm and you pulled away. "Y/n please let me explain of course you deserve better!" Yeonjun said. You went to talk when a figure appeared. "Hey is everything okay here?" Joshua asked looking at you crying. You thought it was really sweet that Joshua would come and check but Yeonjun didn't. He stepped forward, his patience for Joshua evaporating more and more by the second. "We're fine" he said through gritted teeth and Joshua smiled at him "that's great but I'd like to hear it from her". Yeonjun went to argue when you stepped between them "don't worry Joshua we're fine just bickering". "Then why are you crying?" he asked and you sighed "because we're kind of together and it hurts when the person closest to you hurts you...but don't worry Yeonjun isn't dangerous, we just need to discuss this. Thank you for checking and for being so great today". Joshua nodded "okay no problem, we're not leaving for a bit so call me if you need me". You nodded telling Joshua you would before turning back to Yeonjun "you have some explaining to do". Yeonjun earnestly explained everything, how he never thought it through, how he just wanted you to be with him and how sorry he was. "I'd been wanting to ask you for ages because I really like you Y/n. I'd never do anything to hurt you and please let me make it up to you...I swear I won't do something like this again". You paused looking at him again "but how do you know that?". He shook his head "because I will never forget how today felt. I was so panicked thinking I'd lost you and I will never be stupid enough to make that mistake twice. I never want to be without you" he said touching your arm and this time you didn't step back. "I believe you and I forgive you" you said. Yeonjun's face lit up into a smile and he hugged you letting out a huge sigh of relief "I'm so happy, thank you Y/n!". "Just don't do it again" you said relaxing into his hug "I thought I'd lost you too". Yeonjun shook his head holding you close "as long as you want me I'll be here and so on that note. Y/n, will you please be my girlfriend? These past few months with you have meant so much to me and I want you to be mine". You smiled "I will" and Yeonjun picked you up swinging you around before setting you down. "You're my girlfriend" he said looking at you before laughing "I'm never going to get used to saying that". "Then stop talking for a second" and you said and Yeonjun smiled reading your mind "good idea" and he kissed you. Yeonjun finally kissed his girlfriend.

[tkwrites]

hiiiiiii 🤭 quinn & sarah have been on my mind a lot lately, so naturally with all the recent quinn content we’ve been getting, i am thinking about how things quinn has talked about in interviews would or wouldn’t fit into his & sarah’s relationship. (i think you write his personality very well so i thought this would be interesting to chat about). if you have your own thoughts on this i would love to hear, but what i am specifically thinking about right now is quinn talking about how he really tries not to be on his phone during the season. do you think that would be true for your version of quinn and if so, do you think he’d struggle with that once he meets sarah? (especially when he’s on the road). and how do you think sarah would deal with that too? i’d just imagine that would be tough

My Lovely Cappy,

I love that you've been thinking about Quinn and Sarah. Thank you so much for this incredible compliment!

My fictionalized version of Quinn has a lot of boundaries around his time. He has alarms that go off to remind him when to eat and when to go to bed when he has a game the next day. I imagine his goal to not be on his phone very much would slot into this very nicely. I think he definitely catches himself scrolling her Instagram after they first meet and he has to really pull from his self discipline to keep from doing that more.

Sarah's not on her phone all that much, either. She often leaves it in her bag while she's at work or studying, finding it to be too much of a distraction when she needs to get things done.

Of course they call each other, but in my mind, this kind of phone usage is very different than mindlessly scrolling, playing games or whatever.

Once they start dating seriously, and after missing several calls from Sarah when his phone was off, he starts putting it on do not disturb and leaving it in a different part of the hotel room when he's on the road. He has a few people set to ring through (his family, Sarah and a few select friends/teammates) so if she calls, he knows it's her and he can answer or call her back when he's finished reading the page/chapter he's on.

This was so fun to think about. I love these little nuggets of Quinn's personality we're getting more and more of. It's fun for me to try to weave them into the story each time we get another one.

My inbox is always open if you want to talk Quinn & Sarah (or any of my other AUs)!

Snapshots Masterlist

[forcepushthinker]

Voices

Laura was plagued by dysphoria, as happened so often, recently. But this time it was her voice that bothered her, which had never been an issue before. She new it would take a lot of time and work, that wasn’t the problem, it was that she suddenly struggled to even get a tone out in front of her therapist. While she was pouring her heart out to Lara, she had a thought. What if... Well, it might be an option but she would never know, if she didn’t ask. “Listen, this might not be a thing for you, but I need to ask. I know part of the problem for me is that I don’t have anyone who I could practice with. You know, somebody who could give me feedback and just keep the flow going? I can talk with my cats, but I don’t feel like that’s actually doing much. Do you think maybe we could talk on the phone some time? Just to try if that might help at all?” It seemed as if Lara took forever to reply and Laura had to remind herself repeatedly that she was at work and couldn’t always just hop back into the conversation any time. Her heart raced when she saw the little icon pop up that told her Lara was typing. “Sure, if it might help. And you’re going to have to get used to talking to other people eventually.” Laura was ecstatic. Not only would she be able to practice a little better, but also, she would finally be able to actually talk to her new friend. They arranged for their first call to be on a quiet Sunday afternoon, via discord. Laura's heart was beating out of her chest and she suddenly was painfully aware of the crush she had developed over the last couple of weeks. Was this really such a good idea? Or had she acted on an impulse that she should have thought about more carefully first? Too late, on her laptop the warning of an incoming call was sounding. “Hey, girl!” Laura was speechless for a moment. Lara sounded so much warmer and lovelier than she had imagined. “Hi!” She exclaimed excitedly. But hang on, did that really sound the way she thought? Suddenly her doubts fell off her, this had indeed been a good idea. “I’ve been looking forward to this.” Lara said. “We’ve been chatting for so long, I’ve been getting curious about what you sound like.” “Yeah, same, actually.” Laura replied with a smile.

It turned out to have been a good idea indeed, to ask Lara for a call. They ended up talking for several hours, just sharing experiences, talking about transition expectations and timelines, hobbies, work, and all while maintaining a slight focus on her voice. It all just felt so easy and natural, Laura was relaxed and happy. She never imagined practicing could be this much fun. When the conversation seemed to come to a natural wind down she decided to let her friend go and enjoy the rest of the day. She herself was euphoric and intended to ride that feeling out for as long as she could. “Ok, it is getting really close to dinner time. I really don’t want to occupy your entire Sunday. You should get some food and relax the rest of the day, after all, we do have to go to work again tomorrow.” “Maybe you’re right, it’s already half seven. Although I am really enjoying this conversation, I could easily keep going another hour or two”, Lara smiled back. “I know, me too, but I feel I’ve already taken up so much of your day, I’d feel guilty to take up your evening too.” The warm smile on Lara’s face made Laura immediately question whether she should have just kept her mouth shut. “Don’t be ridiculous, I’m having lots of fun. This is a great way to spend my time.” Laura smiled excitedly. Lara had always been so nice and friendly when they were chatting at work, and it turned out she was even more lovely in private. Funny and caring. She was right, it was a great way of spending time. “You are so sweet, I love you.” Whoops. What now? That wasn’t what she wanted to say, but there it was, and she had meant every word. “Ow, Vanessa.” Tears began to run down Lara’s face. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Is everything ok?” Vanessa’s concern was genuine, but she didn’t have enough time to even begin to panic. Lara’s answer floored her. “Yes, hun, of course.” She sounded so soft and warm. “I’ve been really enjoying chatting with you at work and talking today even more. I’ve kind of been developing a crush on you recently and you just caught me really off guard.” Vanessa couldn’t find any words to reply, she just sat there, mouth open, heart racing. Lara smiled at her from the screen. “I love you too, sweetie.”

[kindredspiritva]

hey kin! just wanted to say how ya been? Listen dude, I've been a fan since day one. Remember when you first started your YouTube channel and had all those cringy videos? yeah i was there. but now i look at you and all you've posted and it kinda makes me sad. you know that old tiktok sound where its like I miss the old Kanye, straight from the Go, Kanye Chop up the soul Kanye, set on his goals Kanye. I hate the new Kanye, the bad mood Kanye The always rude Kayne, spaz in the news Kanye I miss the sweet Kanye" thats kinda how i feel about you. i miss the actually funny Kindred. the Quirky kindred. the cringy kindred. i don't hate any side of you, i'm just slightly saddened by the new kindred. the one who takes kink tests for his followers. the one who is over sexualized and feeds off of that. You made it to be verified almost anywhere is because of fans like me, but ignores those smaller than him. I noticed you don't stream with any small time Vtubers. Ever heard of Natsumi? I like her. Fun gamer, her chats are always interesting. I started watching her because seeing you feed to people's addiction is like hearing your parents have sex in the room down the hall. It's weird. (sorry to put that image in your head dude) I just wanted to say, you are an amazing person but please, don't forget about us little people dude.

Hope you and Nailah enjoy y'all day!

You say you’ve been a fan since they one, but ever since month 3 of starting my channel I’ve been a NSFW voice actor, I’ve always done a bit of everything, wholesome scripts, spicy scripts, and I even streamed as well back then too on YouTube.

Those streams are unlisted but I still have them, faceless, bad mic, even worse internet with 4 mbps speed. Bad back then I’d play wacky games I figured ppl would like, talked openly about my sexuality and did a bit of fanservice while vocally being against parasocial behavior

I do have better equipment, I’ve rebranded as a vtuber so I could focus more on whatever variety of content I could make that my heart calls for, my best recent streams were “fixing vtubers” and cooking streams (which I’ve always loved). But at the end of the day, my content has always been the same, me a mic, and entertaining people as I’ve always have

Perhaps you don’t watch the streams so you don’t constantly hear me say how i always say hi for everyone that joins the chat so I can feel like people feel welcomed and like it’s a conversation. I don’t think you hate me (since you mentioned I’m just saying) I think you’re just nostalgic. You have fond memories of these days where after a bad day an asmr video could comfort you.

While I love my stories, I always felt people never connected to ME, not the smooth talker characters I play, the guy with an awkward laugh, dumb and with an even dumber sense of humor. I still do my audio stories, I love voice acting, but I also love streaming and what I do now as a vtuber

The old videos will always be there, at least until YouTube is up, but I like the new ones, my new channel and others such as tiktok and twitch just as much.

I might not have enough time on my hands to talk in DMs like I used to, especially coordinating editors, artists, contracts, since I’m not a corpo vtubers, everything I do is a one man operation mostly. But I still reply when ppl tag me on discord, still talk to all those that follow and support me, especially on a daily basis streams.

If you only focus on old memories you miss the chance to make new ones. And we’ve been having a lot of fun, cooking, chatting, singing, or just doing dumb stuff together

[arcxnumvitae]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN

NAME : Kris

PRONOUNS : She/her

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION : Tumblr IMs and Discord. My Discord I’m only comfortable giving out if we’ve already established a bit of a rapport so I generally like to wait a little regarding ooc chatting before offering or giving it to someone.

MOST ACTIVE MUSE : It can change but lately it’s almost always a dragon and second is a fae. I think a lot of that is because they’re part of groups with dynamics with other muses of mine that I can also have fun with incorporating. Even if it’s just them chatting or talking about recent events. Haha, I really like connected stuff so it’s a surprise I don’t have more connected muses.

EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS : A side blog for about a month before I took the plunge and made this one! Leeeetttt’s seeeeeee, like 2015? I was a senior in high school and I’ve been here suffering ever since!

BEST EXPERIENCE : Absolutely absolutely the worlds and friendships I’ve made here. Some of my favorite years here were getting to create so much with @thewolfisawake​ and a friend who’s unfortunately no longer online. Kirei and I have been friends basically since I started and oh man, the love explosion I could go on about. Eight years this year! My rotten soldier, my sweet cheese, my good-time gal, she’s been with me through the best and worst days of my life and I cannot ever begin to truly articulate how much our friendship means to me.

Getting a little less sappy, even though our third friend is no longer around, I’ve felt so honored to have still been able to make connections here and getting to create new worlds, new plots, and new friendships with people. It got a bit disheartening for a while because I wasn’t writing as much because it felt like all I could find were people who frankly didn’t bother giving me the time of day because I was someone new and someone they didn’t already ship with. It was hard to get interactions or write with new people. So this past little while has been an absolute blast.

RP PET PEEVE : Oh my gosh I feel like I go on about this so much that it’s going to get annoying but it’s always my most consistent number 1 issue over the years. Shipping. Smut. Only caring about ships. Only caring about smut. Heck, only caring about solely your muse in a ship or only caring about writing smut for our ships. Dropping even attempting to interact with a muse of mine like a hot potato just because you realize the possibility for romance isn’t happening or because I didn’t immediately jump onto the ship bandwagon with them. I swear I’m not anti-ship because I also really like writing romance and I think writing smut can be fun! I just hate when it seems like that’s the only thing someone cares about when writing with me.

I guess it’s like...you create this fully fleshed out muse with hopes, dreams, aspirations, story hooks, and relations to other muses but none of that gets touched because you’re only used as fodder to write out “And (my muse) kisses (your muse) before having wild and raunchy sex with them” over and over again. I feel like it comes as no surprise if you’ve followed me for even a short amount of time that I really enjoy creating plots and events and things like that with our muses. It’s just how I prefer to do things. I’m also here to, like, write with people, not write out romantic scenarios for people, if that makes sense.

So if it’s obvious, and it always feels like it’s pretty obvious to me, when what we want out of something isn’t matching-- and worse, my muse is being treated like a glorified sex doll? Yeahhh. It’s why I wrote that big dramatic rule update/PSA post a minute back when I was going through some spring cleaning (also talking about my #2 pet peeve-- mutuals I can’t get to write with me)  and-- I’m glad I did? I was right, I would not have wanted to deal with that with how stressed I am now and I’ve been enjoying using Tumblr and writing out muse mess as a breather. So, pat on the back to past me I guess?

Kind of stealing Marshy’s sentiments (who I’m also stealing this meme from too, hi) I’m a big fan of ships but I’ll never insta-ship, and depending on the muse, I genuinely mean it when I say that it may take time to get there, but I think the journey is part of the fun anyways. Anyways, I rambled again! Sorry!

PLOTS OR MEMES : I’m fine with both! I always tend to automatically resort to memes or fun dash things rather than long-form plotted threads when I’m super busy or tired, which is why I haven’t touched a tracked thread is a hot second ahahaha.... But I like both! 

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES : *SpongeBob out of breath meme* How long are we talking? I can do long, it just depends on the muse, my energy, and if I have enough to work with. Longer threads may take me a while to get to since they require more attention and focus, but it all just depends!

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSES : Some yes and some absolutely not and thank goodness for that. I feel like most of my muses differ from me more often than not, and the only ones I may share similarities to are the introverts like Veritas, Raven, Aur, etc. Veritas, being my first ever muse, has more pieces of me than anyone else, but really that’s more like some of her personality beats and awkwardness than anything else and I still think she’s still a lot cooler than me personality-wise anyways!

Tagged by: @sansloii​

Tagging: Anyone! Just say I tagged you

[lingthusiasm]

Transcript Lingthusiasm Episode 73: The linguistic map is not the linguistic territory

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm episode ‘The linguistic map is not the linguistic territory’. It’s been lightly edited for readability. Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the episode show notes page.

[Music]

Lauren: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! I’m Lauren Gawne.

Gretchen: I’m Gretchen McCulloch. Today, we’re getting enthusiastic about mapping languages in space. But first, we’re heading into our anniversary month.

Lauren: November is Lingthusiasm’s anniversary month, and it’s been six years this year.

Gretchen: Wow! The podcast is so big! In celebration of our anniversary, we’d like to get you to share a link to your favourite episode or share your enthusiasm for linguistics and for Lingthusiasm. Most people still find podcasts through word of mouth, and a lot of them don’t yet realise they could be having a fun linguistics chat in their ears every month.

Lauren: Or eyes. All Lingthusiasm episodes have transcripts, too.

Gretchen: They do. We’re asking you to help connect us with people who’d be totally into a linguistics podcast if only they knew it existed.

Lauren: This is a bit of an anniversary tradition for us. We always see it in the stats that all of your recommendations really do help people find the show.

Gretchen: If you want to share Lingthusiasm on social media and tag us so we can see it and like it and so on. If you share in private, we won’t know about it, but you can feel a warm glow of satisfaction. Feel free to tell us about sharing it in private on social media if you want us to see it, and thank you, and interact.

Lauren: We are also doing a listener survey for the first time. It’s your chance to tell us what you’re enjoying about Lingthusiasm so far and what else we could be doing in the future.

Gretchen: This is your chance to suggest topics, as well as give us other kinds of comments and feedback.

Lauren: Also, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to add a few linguistics experiments in there as well, which we’ll be sharing the results of after the survey. We might even write up a paper about the survey one day. We’ve got ethics board approval from La Trobe University to do the survey.

Gretchen: Always fun to have your day job coming in with Lingthusiasm.

Lauren: Yeah, it’s been nice to bring the two together for this. To do the survey or to read more details about it, go to bit.ly/lingthusiasmsurvey22 or follow the link from our website and social media.

Gretchen: Also, our stylish, minimal, reimagined IPA chart is now available as a poster. Thank you to our patrons for funding our stretch goal to fit the design into poster-rectangle shape in addition to the square shape on the lens cloths. For IPA posters and other Lingthusiasm merch, which makes a great gift, head to lingthusiasm.com/merch.

Lauren: Our most recent bonus episode was a chat with Liz McCullough, Lingthusiasm’s former production manager.

Gretchen: Liz and I chat about how doing science communication relates to linguistics from Liz’s other former job at a science museum as well as non-academic careers related to linguistics more generally.

Lauren: To listen to this episode and all of our other bonus episodes, go to patreon.com/lingthusiasm.

[Music]

Gretchen: I have a brilliant travel idea that, as far as I know, people aren’t doing yet.

Lauren: Okay.

Gretchen: You know how you can go on architectural tours of places or historical tours? What if you could go on language tours?

Lauren: Ah, sign me up. That sounds great.

Gretchen: Right? You could just have a local guy tell you about all the different language things that are going on in a particular area.

Lauren: I would love to take a train from Southern Italy, move through Italy hearing the dialect change until you get up to the north. Then by the time you’re in Northern Italy, that’s got more happening that’s similar to French. Then you move through French, and then you move through the southern varieties of French like Occitan. That has more in common with languages like Catalan in Spain. Then as you move through Spain, you can move through Valencian, Manchegan. You could stop for the cheese as well as the dialect. Eventually, you’d move through Spain, and you’d get to Portugal. You’d just be slowing moving through slowly changing languages. It would be delightful. Sign me up for that one.

Gretchen: Well, as much as I love trains – and I think this sounds like a great idea – I just think you’re gonna miss so much that way. We need to do a walking tour, maybe like a bike or a horse, so you could really stop at all the little villages on the way and find out what was going on.

Lauren: Sounds even better.

Gretchen: There was actually this guy. Edmond Edmont, who was a Frenchman, who did a – you could say – biking tour of French dialects.

Lauren: Could he be our tour guide?

Gretchen: Sadly, he’s dead.

Lauren: Okay.

Gretchen: He was doing this like 100 years ago. At the very end of the 19th Century, he spent four years biking around France, talking to locals, cataloguing their unique words and phrases. He went to over 600 towns and gathered materials for what would become the Atlas linguistique de la France– the French linguistic atlas – which was one of the first things in this genre of what’s going on in different places. This is just France, right. If we wanna do this level of detail around the world, we’re gonna be doing this for 100 years.

Lauren: Look, I think it sounds like a worthwhile endeavour.

Gretchen: You know, just uproot your life. It’s fun.

Lauren: We would need a lot of local tour guides for sure.

Gretchen: We’d also need to understand a lot about things like local history and what has come into making the languages different. Because Edmond Edmont was just keeping track of unique words and phrases but not trying to figure out why these things were going on. Like, I’m curious about why. You know, was there an empire here? Was there a war? An invasion? Marriages? Nation state building? Migration? Centralised education? Telecommunication? There’s so much going on that influences what people are making in terms of linguistic decisions in a particular area.

Lauren: Especially in countries where some of those layers have been things like colonisation or dispossession of large groups of people. History can be pretty heavy, and don’t wanna underplay that at all, but it is important to understand how these things have influenced the shape of the languages in a given area.

Gretchen: And it’s something that goes on if you zoom in on any area where humans have been living. There’s always something linguistically interesting there. We picked this very Southern European/Mediterranean vacation, but you could do this anywhere and say, “What’s happened here? What are the histories and the linguistic things that have gone into making what people are doing today?”

Lauren: Where are we going next on this tour?

Gretchen: Well, somewhere else that’s really interesting when it comes to how languages exist along sort of a pathway or a continuum is up in the north in Greenland and the Arctic Circle, Northern Canada.

Lauren: I’ve never been there before. This is very exciting.

Gretchen: I technically haven’t been there either, but I learned a bit about it in Canadian history class. One of the things it’s linguistically famous for, the varieties of the Inuit language, which are spoken by the people up there, is that it’s a whole continuum where from one village to the next or from one area to the next, there’s all these small differences that add up into if you pick two places that are relatively far apart, people can’t necessarily understand each other, whereas any two places that are relatively close together, oh, yeah, that’s sort of close enough, and you can figure your way out through.

Lauren: I know there are four major dialect groups. So, at some point, people must find a way to group these into larger dialects, but on the ground, the situation isn’t actually as clear cut, it sounds.

Gretchen: You have four groupings. You can see how these are related to modern day geopolitical groups as well because you have the Alaskan Inupiaq, the Western Canadian Inuktun, Eastern Canadian Inuktun, and Greenlandic Kalaallisut. You can see how the Alaskan grouping versus the Greenlandic grouping are, to some degree, modern day political entities in addition to all of these groups being cousins of each other as you go along the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

Lauren: If we were to pack up the sled dogs, or maybe get some kayaks, and head into that Kalaallisut-speaking area, you can see how they are all similar, but there are differences as you move through the chain. As you move geographically from one side to the other, you have, in the west, the word for “eye” is “isi,” and as you move further east, it becomes “ili,” and then further along, right up in the north, you get “ihi.” You can hear that the consonant in the middle there is changing in its pronunciation as you move through. It’s not just for the word “eye.”

Gretchen: This is “eye” as in the body part, yeah?

Lauren: “Eye” as in the body part – E-Y-E. If you speak a variety that has that S there, that’s systematic in words that have that.

Gretchen: So, there’s gonna be a whole bunch of words that have the S where a little bit further east they might have the L, and further east from that, they might have the H.

Lauren: Yeah. It’s a systematic set of changes, which means if you are used to hearing people from a neighbouring variety, you might be used to understanding what the systematic changes are. But as you move further along, it might get harder for you to understand what’s happening in someone else’s variety.

Gretchen: This sometimes comes up when it comes to the name of a language. Sometimes, people in Canada talk about the “Inuit language” or the “Inuit languages,” depending on whether you’re more of a lumper or a splitter. Sometimes, people talk about “Inuktitut” versus “Inutitut” because there’s one variety in the northern part of Quebec where they don’t say the K before the T in that context. You can see it in the names of the language. There’s these subtle differences that go across the area. But it still sounds like it’s the same word, so there’s been some efforts in teacher training in Iqaluit, which is the capital of Nunavut, to figure out, okay, how can we train teachers from different communities. Then they can go back and teach their own community’s variety to people in that community, which is what they want, but also have the benefit of doing a certain amount of centralised training as well. It’s figuring out how much centrality are you gonna do; how much standardisation are you gonna do; what types of media and resources are people gonna encounter in a particular area.

Lauren: Across history, there have definitely been periods where people have found it to their advantage to see themselves as one group or one language with people who speak similar varieties. And there have been points in history where even small differences have been used to declare that these are very different languages spoken by very different groups of people. It’s always worth remembering that that is as much a political decision – often more of a political decision – than it is a linguistic decision. It seems like that Inuktitut education programme is trying to balance those two competing things.

Gretchen: Right. To go back to France for a sec, one of the reasons why it feels like – at least if you’re somebody who’s learning French as a foreign language – that there is this one French that people learn is because the Paris-based government went to a lot of effort to try to stamp out regional variation in French. But regional variation is the natural state for languages to exist. The idea that everybody in what’s defined as a “nation” should speak exactly the same way is something that people in governments decide, less so that people who are on the ground who just want to be able to talk to their neighbours are doing in any area.

Lauren: I guess one of the challenges for our tour is to not get distracted by the fact that geographic variation isn’t the only variation we have in any place you might expect variation between people of different ages. There might be gender-based differences, which I’m sure a good tour guide would point out to us without letting us get too distracted given that geographic variation is our focus on this tour, but it’s not the only type of variation we have, for sure.

Gretchen: Especially in larger population areas, you may have things that are based on social class or the districts that people live in but also which groups tend to interact with each other more.

Lauren: We could take tours on any scale. We’ve gone across the north of Canada and across Greenland, but if we’re ready to commit to some serious air miles, I would love to take you on a tour of the BANZSL language family.

Gretchen: Ooo, “BANZSL,” that sounds fun.

Lauren: It’s an acronym that stands for “British Australian New Zealand and South African Sign Languages.” It’s a sign language family that spans the countries that are named in it as well as a few others. They’re all related to each other.

Gretchen: This seems like it makes sense as part of the British Commonwealth. They’re probably influenced by schools for the d/Deaf with respect to each other, and then also maybe diverged locally in the particular local context that they were in. Interestingly, despite Canada being a Commonwealth nation, we used to have what was called “Maritime Sign Language,” which I don’t think is super prevalent anymore, but in the eastern part of Canada, for a while, there was a part of the BANZSL group that was Maritime Sign Language. These days in Canada, mostly you get ASL, which is technically American Sign Language, and some LSQ, which is Langue des signes québécoise. These are both related to French Sign Language because the first American school for the d/Deaf came into existence right after the American Revolution.

Lauren: I don’t imagine they wanted some British people turning up and introducing their sign language there somehow.

Gretchen: Not particularly, no. They had a few people come over from a school for the d/Deaf in France and exchange information about sign languages that way which is why ASL and FSL are more closely related than the BANZSL group.

Lauren: Again, the distribution of language is telling you a lot about European history, American history, Commonwealth history. Even with documented time depth of around 300 years for this language family, there is a lot of variation, especially in the lexical level – that word level – between these different varieties within the family.

Gretchen: That’s this very large-scale, geographic variation depending on ships and planes to get from one group to another. There’s also some really small-scale variation. For example, the Faroe Islands, which are these pretty tiny islands in the North Atlantic sort of equidistant between the top of Scotland, Iceland, and the edge of Norway.

Lauren: Right. Right in the middle of the Northern Ocean.

Gretchen: At least if you’re defining “middle” based on these three countries. These islands are pretty small. They speak Faroese there. It’s related to Icelandic. They’re both descended from Old Norse. There were Vikings and so on going around these areas. Even within Faroese, which is the language that’s spoken on a relatively small number of relatively small islands, there are differences in how people use Faroese depending on whether you’re in the more northern islands, whether you’re midway down, part-way down, or all the way to the more southern islands. There’s five different vowel changes that happen in a continuum along this band of islands from north to south.

Lauren: What you see as you move down this long string of islands is that people in the north will have more features in common with people who are further north. As you move further down, there are more features that change. By the time you get from the north to the south, there are five or six different sound changes that have taken place across the language. It’s gonna be more changes that you have to keep track of to try and understand what someone’s saying, whereas your neighbours on the island next to you in the north might just have a little bit of an accent difference.

Gretchen: Gretchen: Right. So far these differences have been coming from the fact that the varieties in these regions have a common ancestor, which linguists refer to as a dialect chain or dialect continuum. But there's also a thing where languages that come from different roots, but are all existing in an overlapping area, start picking up features from their neighbours and getting influenced by each other. So, some examples of this are in the Indian subcontinent, you have the Indic languages like Hindi and the Dravidian languages like Tamil influencing each other. Or in Southeast Asia, there are similar tone systems shared between four different language families, Sinitic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai languages, and Mon-Khmer like Vietnamese. The Balkans are also another famous example of this. And this kind of similarity is referred to as a linguistic area or, if we want the technical name, a "Sprachbund"

Lauren: A German word.

Gretchen: A nice German word. I’ve always thought of it as meaning – so I think the literal cognates in English would be “speech band,” and so sort of thinking of a band of different ways of speaking going from, say, red to blue with lots of shades of purple in between. But this also makes me think of a very obscure analogy which is – you know what else goes in regions along an area and is characteristic of a particular region?

Lauren: Mm-hmm.

Gretchen: You know, it’s not only languages. Sometimes, it’s food.

Lauren: True. I mean, a food tour is a thing that people do already that they could just improve by adding language.

Gretchen: A language and food tour – amazing! But you could talk about, maybe there’s, like, a Mediterranean style of food where you have feta and olives and cucumber and things like this in a particular area, and it’s not necessarily only characteristic of one area.

Lauren: Like a culinary region.

Gretchen: Right. In that case, is the culinary equivalent of a Sprachbund maybe a “Schmeckbund”?

Lauren: Amazing.

Gretchen: [Laughs] I don’t think “Schmeckbund” is gonna catch on because it relies on people knowing this not incredibly prevalent linguistics concept, but I want it to catch on.

Lauren: Maybe we could make a Sprachbund cake to celebrate our holiday.

Gretchen: Ooo, a “Sprachbundt” cake.

Lauren: I believe it is etymologically related as well.

Gretchen: I guess they’re all related to “band” and “bind.” Where does this word come from? It sounds German to me.

Lauren: It does sound German, and it’s definitely German. As a non-German speaker, you tend to find anglicisations are something like /spɹækbʌnd/. But it was coined by Nikolai Trubetzkoy, who was a Russian. In fact, he originally came up with the term in Russian as “yazykovoy soyuz,” language union.” It’s the same “soyuz” that pops up in the Russian form of the phrase “Soviet Union.”

Gretchen: Oh, of course. Okay.

Lauren: He used that in a 1923 paper. I think the Soviet Union was formed in 1922, so unions were clearly on his mind. Then he presented his research in a paper in 1928 in German, and so he had to use the German form. It’s the German version that has stuck.

Gretchen: Okay, so this is German “Bund” meaning more like “federation.” Like, the “Bundestag,” which is something in German national politics.

Lauren: Yeah. He calqued it from Russian into German to give this German conference paper, and then the idea really took off in German, and it has stayed German even for English speakers.

Gretchen: Fascinating. I guess “language federation” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as “Sprachbund,” and “speech band” isn’t actually the same thing.

Lauren: It’s much catchier.

Gretchen: It’s nice – we often get our technical terminology from Latin or Greek – to have some terminology showing up in German via a Russian guy.

Lauren: It makes a nice change.

Gretchen: Sprachbunds are the natural state for languages to exist in unless you have an empire or a capital city or some sort of authority saying, “No, you must speak exactly this thing.”

Lauren: Cities really weird up language.

Gretchen: Cities, they’re weird. This is the village state of languages. But also, if you try to make a map of languages – and this is kind of difficult – you don’t just see, like, here’s a whole bunch of bands. You also see groups and clusters and some places where the number of languages are more dense than other places.

Lauren: Indeed, yeah. One thing that people often note is that some features of the environment seem to be more conducive to there being a lot of languages maybe spoken by smaller groups of people. We know that a language can happily be sustained with a speaker population of 4- or 500 people, maybe even fewer, if they are in a context where the language can keep being spoken. A lot of the places that tends to happen are in hilly or mountainous areas or places on islands. This is the highlands and islands theory of where you get intense linguistic diversity.

Gretchen: I guess this makes sense because the water between islands is a bit of a barrier to people getting by. I mean, you have boats, but it’s a little bit harder than just walking across a field. And also, mountains, they’re pretty hard to climb.

Lauren: You really have to wanna go see your neighbours, for sure.

Gretchen: Yeah. So, if those things make it a little bit harder to interact with your neighbours, then your language is more likely to be a bit more distinct from people that are far away from you by a geographic barrier not just distance.

Lauren: This is definitely the version I was taught when I was a student. A lot of the newer work has focused less on those geographic features and more on the feature of whether the climate can sustain a large number of small groups because if you’re not competing aggressively for resources, it allows you all to maintain your small speaker population. So, I think some of the more recent research has looked at that. But again, that’s a geographic feature that’s influencing just how many languages you might find in an area.

Gretchen: I know you find this with Indigenous languages of North America where there’s a lot more density of even unrelated languages on the west coast in both Canada and the US because the climate is very lush and flourishing, and you just need one valley for your group, and you’re fine. You don’t need to be going out and trading with as many people or interacting with people as much, whereas on the eastern side, you have larger areas of language groups or related languages.

Lauren: Similarly, in West Africa, when you move out of the Sahara area into that more verdant belt, you definitely get a much higher density of different languages there.

Gretchen: Nice.

Lauren: All lovely places that are worth adding to our tour.

Gretchen: This is a thing – the geography and the physical geography – can also sometimes get overridden by historical factors. If there was an empire, if there was a religion going through saying, “Here’s what people need to speak. We’re trying to impose or enforce a particular language,” that can be a thing that influences what language people are speaking as much as, “Okay, we’re able to sustain ourselves in this one valley.”

Lauren: I’ve definitely talked before about how we actually find it hard to pin down the number of languages that were spoken in Australia before colonisation because so many of those languages were erased by the process of white people coming in and changing the social landscape. There had been really long, long sustained multilingualism and people speaking their own languages in their own communities for so long that there were probably many more languages that weren’t even made record of.

Gretchen: The erasing part of history is one reason why counting can be really hard and also who’s doing the counting and what are they trying to figure out. Sometimes, this is a “Are you a lumper, or are you a splitter?”, but also, do you have a nation building agenda that says, “Oh, we wanna assume that everyone in this nation actually speaks the same language.” Maybe there are a bunch of different people who can’t actually understand each other when they talk, but we’re gonna say we all speak the same language, and just a bunch of them aren’t really doing it very well, and they need to speak like the capital. Or are we gonna say, you know, it’s true that we can understand this other nation state next door, but we’re still gonna say that it’s a different language from there is because ours is the one that we speak in our nation state, and theirs is the one they speak in their nation state. There’s lots of agendas that come with trying to say, “Is this a labelled language, or is this something that isn’t worth labelling?”

Lauren: Even with all these factors, people have been very interested in counting and coming up with a definitive number of languages even though that is a challenging and incredibly slippery number.

Gretchen: How many languages were you told there were when you were in school?

Lauren: I think we were talking about there being 6,000 languages. That was definitely a number that carried through the early ‘90s through the early 2000s.

Gretchen: I feel like I was maybe told 6,500.

Lauren: These days, a lot of people say 7,000 as their rounded off number.

Gretchen: These numbers are suspiciously round because – “Oh, 7,031.” I think the suspicious roundness is useful to keep in mind because any more precision than that is very artificial because we don’t quite know where the boundaries between two things are. Or sometimes those boundaries are constructed without reference to people on the ground.

Lauren: Also, thinking about who has done the most work in terms of quantifying the number of languages in the world, a lot of that work has come out of missionaries who are trying to figure out how many languages they should be translating the Bible into for their missionary work.

Gretchen: Right. Which is a whole agenda that might not actually be in consultation with the people who speak those languages in the first place – whether they were asked if they wanted a Bible. But where does this incentive come from – who’s funding all of these boats and horses and bicycles and things that are – if you want to have a single, unified count, you need a lot of transportation. Sometimes, that funding comes from people who wanna donate to evangelise their religion. But even if you have academics counting, which you might think is a little bit less interference, that’s still some funding agency, which is probably a national government somewhere, or maybe a non-profit, or a wealthy person who says, “Okay, I want you to go do some research.” It’s still somebody external coming in and trying to help create this external count because the idea of a local count doesn’t mesh with trying to count the whole world.

Lauren: It’s definitely more enticing to the academic linguist to say, “I am documenting this language” and not “I’m documenting a dialect of a language.” There’s certainly a prestige to the concept of “a language” that is at play there as well.

Gretchen: Also, for individuals who are speakers or signers of that language to be able to say, “Oh, ours has a different name from those people over there because we never got along with them, and we wanna call ourselves something different.” This can be a political decision at multiple levels.

Lauren: Even when you account for how much is known about the world’s linguistic diversity, there’s still so much that isn’t accounted for and so much that is being understood and documented and figured out all the time. That’s why the number of languages that are estimated to exist in the world is still going up even in the face of so many languages where speakers aren’t passing them on to their children. They’re no longer being spoken. Even as the world is losing its stock of languages, we haven’t even caught up to know how many languages there are in the first place.

Gretchen: To some degree, even though it’s interesting to try to have ever more precision with respect to a number, it’s also maybe something that even when things are known – “Okay, we know that people in these two villages are different on the following parameters,” that’s something you can say. You can say, “Okay, mostly people in Village A can understand people in Village B, and vice versa, but not entirely,” that’s something you can determine with investigation and by asking people and by making lists of words and things. But then the downstream question of, “Okay, does that mean Village A and Village B speak different languages, or does that mean they speak dialects of the same language?”, often “dialect” is used to shunt varieties into the we-don’t-care-about-this box. That’s a political decision, too.

Lauren: I always find it really interesting because “dialect” is a pretty neutral term most of the time in linguistics, but it has all these connotations more generally of being not the formal language, not the standard language, not the language you should use in schools. I think for that reason a lot of linguists now use the word “variety” as a less-loaded term when referring to different “varieties” rather than different “dialects.” We use “dialect” a lot because it is still relatively neutral as a technical term.

Gretchen: Sometimes, you also get people trying to reclaim it in the other direction by saying, “Everybody has a dialect.” The standard dialect or prestige dialect is also just one dialect among many that isn’t inherently better. It’s just based on the associations people have made. Sometimes, you can try to reclaim “dialect” in the other direction. But I mean, also, you get “variety” used a lot to try to say, “Look, there can be lots of varieties for lots of different reasons,” sometimes geographic and sometimes for other social reasons or other types of groups.

Lauren: On the other hand, you have situations like in China where all of these languages that aren’t able to be understood by speakers of the other languages are called “dialects” to bring them into a larger nation state project. Again, you see that nation state effect on how we’re counting languages.

Gretchen: Something that’s interesting about looking at languages through maps is that all these different local dialects are equally old. All of the varieties of Faroese are all descending from Old Norse. They all come back to a common ancestor. Sometimes, when you’re looking at a language through, okay, well, here’s the capital city, and everything else is just a version of that, there’s this weird version of population migration history that comes into your head where you think, okay, well, people must have spread out from the capital city and then gradually started talking differently, where really people lived somewhere for various reasons and came to an area for various reasons and started speaking particular ways for various reasons, and there wasn’t really ever one time when everyone spoke the same way in a group of people unless you go through a very tiny population bottleneck where it was a very small group of people, and they gradually spread out. But everything is equally old, and it all comes back to the same ancestors that they have.

Lauren: Once you begin to understand that complexity of history, the fuzzy boundaries that can exist with where you draw the lines on your Sprachbund, you begin to see why it’s very hard to map something like language compared to something like, “Is it a country? What kind of climate does it have?”

Gretchen: Right. Because for one thing, I mean, languages overlap a lot. There’s often people who speak multiple languages in a given place. And then how many languages are spoken in a given place is this complicated question. There are way more languages than we have colours. We often use colours to display different concepts on a map, and it’s really useful when it comes to nation states because you rarely have 20 nation states all bordering on each other, so you need to use like 20 colours. You can generally do this with I think it’s five colours or so. But this is really hard with languages because there are not 7,000-ish colours that the human eye can distinguish. Trying to map this gets really complicated.

Lauren: There are times when language mapping can be interesting. Often, on the show, we’ll give examples from the World Atlas of Linguistic Structures, which looks at grammatical features that exist in a sample of the world’s languages. Every language is reduced to one point on the map, which obviously from everything we’ve been talking about with our grad tour of continua of language, obviously a point doesn’t really cut it. Exactly what they’re counting as a language varies depending on what they’re documenting. But what’s really nice about these maps is that you get this big spread of dots. They’re in two or three different colours depending on how many features you’re comparing. So, for this show, I’ve linked to one of my favourite WALS maps which is whether a language has the same word for “hand” and “arm” or a different word for “hand” and “arm.”

Gretchen: Do you think it’s related to whether the climate wants you to wear long-sleeved clothing so that you see this distinction between your hand and your arm?

Lauren: I’ve never thought about that before. What is really nice at this zoomed out, big picture level is that you can see that there are groups of languages that tend to do the same thing. Across Australia, languages tend to have different words for “hand” and “arm,” whereas across the Pacific, languages tend to have the same word for “hand” and “arm.”

Gretchen: Right. Sometimes, these points can – if you’re trying to reduce 7,000 or even this map is like 500 languages, which is still a pretty good number, you’re trying to reduce 500 data points to something that’s visualisable. You can say, “Okay, well, we put each language as a dot, then we can see most of the languages in Western Europe distinguish between ‘hand’ and ‘arm.’ There’s a band of languages in Sub-Saharan Africa that don’t distinguish between them. Most of the languages in South America do distinguish between them.” You can come up with these very quick evaluations of what the whole area looks like at the expense of reducing a language to a dot point.

Lauren: Exactly. There’s a trade-off there, and I think the important thing to always remember is what is the trade-off you’re making with information because it can be really difficult to use the limited vocabulary that we have for maps in displaying the complexity of languages. There’s this really beautiful map called “native-land.ca” that focuses on the territories of Indigenous groups of people across the world. If you zoom in on North America, you can see this really beautiful texture of overlapping land and names and stories and territories.

Gretchen: The overlapping polygons idea, which is a really interesting way of representing the idea that multiple people can have been in an area at a given time, and it isn’t necessarily like, “Okay, this part’s red; this part’s blue; and there’s no purple in between.” You get these semi-translucent polygons that overlap each other and show that multiple groups of people were in a particular area. It’s also hard to read. And especially would be even harder to read if you tried to represent even more languages on it. This is a really interesting way of approaching this problem of just trying to shade in particular areas is necessarily incomplete by doing these overlapping translucent polygons. But I don’t know if any mapping solution can ever display all of this information.

Lauren: Having a sense when you’re looking at any other way of mapping things that there’s probably more happening with the story is just a really good first start.

Gretchen: I think if we can make one generalisation of this, it’s that for all the problems that maps have, flags are even worse.

Lauren: Hmm, yes. Just representing a language with a nation state flag is not a very effective way of doing things.

Gretchen: Because even with all the complexities that come with speech bands of continuums of particular languages, a flag is just gonna say, “Everybody in this nation speaks the same language,” which is so far from being the case in so many circumstances.

Lauren: So, if languages aren’t the map, and languages are certainly not flags, what are they?

Gretchen: Well, I have another analogy that I’d like to try on you. What if we thought of languages like stars?

Lauren: Right. I’m a bit worried because we already are stretching the Lingthusiasm travel budget with our global language survey but take us to the stars.

Gretchen: I was thinking about this because I was trying to think about, you know, 7,000, it’s kind of a big number, and yet it’s also a number that we should be able to get a handle on somehow because it’s within human experience. What are other things that there are 7,000-ish of? I looked up how many stars are visible with the naked eye from Earth.

Lauren: Okay. And how many is that?

Gretchen: Well, if there’s no light pollution, and you have 20/20 vision, you can see about 5,000 stars per side of the Earth, so 10,000 total.

Lauren: But like a similar order of magnitude that we’re talking about here.

Gretchen: Right. And when you lie on your back in a dark, grassy field, and you look up at the stars, and you think, “Wow! There are so many of these pinpricks of light,” and each of these is an entire world, and each of these comes with, probably, planets, probably other things going on there. They seem far away, but there’s so much going on with each of these. Each of these languages is an entire world of things going on that’s just as central to people who are speaking that language as the sun is to me speaking my languages.

Lauren: I guess that means that for people who might be in an area that’s full of light pollution who might only see the brightest couple of hundred stars in the sky, I guess that’s kind of the equivalent of the fact that, for most of our day-to-day life, we might only notice the 200 languages that are on an online translation tool or the 30 languages that a website is available in.

Gretchen: Maybe I can only see a couple dozen stars from a city that has lots of other lights competing with it, and these are the big, famous languages that are often found in drop-down menus. But then there’s lots of other languages when you have the chance to actually see the full set. The other cool thing about this analogy is, have you seen the new photos of the galaxies that have been coming out?

Lauren: Oh, yeah, from that deep space telescope.

Gretchen: Yeah. They point the telescope at a dark patch of the sky that we didn’t think we could see any stars in, and there were so many galaxies.

Lauren: I love the photos that compare the new images from, say, something taken with Hubble where a patch of sky in the old images had a few stars, and then the new images you have galaxies behind those. There’s even more out there than we possibly thought.

Gretchen: So, maybe a Sprachbund or a dialect continuum is more like an entire galaxy where all of these things are related to each other. Or like the clouds and the dust and the nebulae that give rise to new stars and that interact with each other and birth new stars are like how languages can come in contact with each other and birth new languages or varieties.

Lauren: The best thing is we don’t even have to wait billions of years for the galaxies to get to us. There are speakers of the world’s languages who can share with us their dialect diversity, that can share with us the experience of living in their own linguistic galaxy, and that means we get to learn from each other straight away.

Gretchen: You never know. Maybe in one of these galaxies, in one of these stars and one of these solar systems somewhere, there are other beings that have some way of communicating that we can eventually learn about. In the meantime, we have lots of science fiction writers to speculate about that.

[Music]

Gretchen: For more Lingthusiasm and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, including our survey, which you can do, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can follow @lingthusiasm on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. You can get snazzy, redesigned IPA posters and other Lingthusiasm merch at lingthusiasm.com/merch. I can be found as @GretchenAMcC on Twitter, my blog is AllThingsLinguistic.com, and my book about internet language is called Because Internet.

Lauren: I tweet and blog as Superlinguo. Have you listened to all the Lingthusiasm episodes, and you wish there were more? You can get access to an extra Lingthusiasm episode to listen to every month plus our entire archive of bonus episodes to listen to right now at patreon.com/lingthusiasm or follow the links from our website. Have you gotten really into linguistics, and you wish you could talk to more people about it? Patrons can also get access to our Discord chatroom to talk with other linguistics fans. Plus, all patrons help keep the show ad-free. Recent bonus topics include a discussion of linguistics and science communication, a paper about a rabbit, and a chat about our new IPA design. If you can’t afford to pledge, that’s okay, too. We also really appreciate it if you can recommend Lingthusiasm to anyone in your life who’s curious about language, especially this month for our anniversary.

Gretchen: Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our Senior Producer is Claire Gawne, our Editorial Producer is Sarah Dopierala, and our Production Assistant is Martha Tsutsui-Billins. Our music is “Ancient City” by The Triangles.

Lauren: Stay lingthusiastic!

[Music]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

[urwatchingdisneychannel]

day 5 6! sorry i missed yesterday, this has been a busy week, but i'm gonna try to keep up. i wasn't familiar with crazy kinda crush on you at all, but i love the jackson 5 vibes!! i was gonna ask you about the music videos you mentioned you wanted to make, but since spotify wrapped is out, i'll leave that for another day lol i'm assuming the jonas brothers are on your top 5, so what other ex-disney stars did you listen to this year? do you have a favorite song or a favorite album by them? - 🎄

It’s ok I’ve been mia lately because of work stuff so I get it. Isn’t it a fun song??

So Jonas Brothers we’re my top artist (unsurprisingly) and JATP, Monster High and 4*Town were in my top five too (all things that totally make sense and are at least things we’ve talked about in the group chat even if they’re not strictly Disney)

My most listened to song was Nobody Like You by 4*Town (I listened to it a lot but also I played it a lot while my students were working since they loved the soundtrack) the vitamin string quartet was also on my list because I play instrumental covers of pop songs for my class while we play.

Telephone and Want Me were both songs I discovered from Heartstopper, though I was familiar with watermarks before. I’m a little surprised other songs weren’t as high on my list, but specifically songs I got into more recently so I guess it makes sense.

Here’s my playlist for anyone who wants to listen

So I’m not totally into guessing who my secret Santa is (though I have discerned a few things about you), but if I promise not to go back and look through the chat, will you tell me some of your top songs?

[yessadirichards]

Billy Idol talks upcoming pre-Super Bowl show, recent Hoover Dam performance, working on a new album

LOS ANGELES

Billy Idol normally takes advantage of riding his motorcycle on the open road knowing there’s hardly any traffic because millions are usually glued to watching the Super Bowl.

But this year, Idol’s bike won’t be leaving his garage on game day. Instead, the legendary British rocker will be strolling on stage to headline a pre-game concert in Las Vegas ahead of the big game on Feb. 11 just outside Allegiant Stadium, where the NFL’s two best teams face off.

Idol, 68, is expected to perform some of his biggest hits including “Dancing with Myself” “Mony Mony” and “Rebel Yell” during a 35-minute set on two different stages at On Location's Club 67 and Touchdown Club in front of nearly 9,000 anticipated guests. It’s the second time the singer has taken part in a pre-Super Bowl show after he rocked out with Miley Cyrus three years ago outside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

In a recent interview, Idol exclusively chatted with The Associated Press about his Super Bowl halftime aspirations, the inspiration behind his Hoover Dam show, if he would ever consider doing Broadway and looking to soon release his first studio album in a decade.

Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: What will be your mentality heading into your show hours before the Super Bowl?

IDOL: It’s about adding excitement to the event. You’re pumping people up. That’s a fun feeling. You can tell the people are excited, what’s going to happen and you’re entertaining them in those moments before it really happens.

AP: Would you ever want to perform during Super Bowl halftime?

IDOL: That would be incredible. But I don’t know. It would be fantastic, but I cannot imagine me being asked to do it. It would be great. I’d love to do it. It would be amazing if it involved some other artists or a combination of people. That would be great. It would be one of the craziest things in the world to play. Everybody in the country watches it. Playing the pregame for me is good. Pumping people up before it and getting them ready is kind of a fun thought.

AP: You celebrated the 40th anniversary of your album “Rebel Yell” and had a five-night residency in Las Vegas last year. How does it feel to have your music still resonating today?

IDOL: When we were starting out, I couldn’t have imagined the effect of (our) music. We were living one day at a time. The songs were for that time period. They were just for that moment. You weren’t thinking about any long-term effects. You’re just thinking right now. But the songs have legs. It’s like “Wow, people have really embraced this crazy idea I had years ago.” They’re still enjoying it, and I am too. Who would have thought that 40 years later? I’m still pinching myself.

AP: You released a couple EPs and recently rereleased “Rebel Yell.” Will you drop any new music soon?

IDOL: We have a new album coming out in October this year. We’re still carrying on and enlarging what my music is about. I enjoy doing it. Me and (guitarist) Steve (Stevens) are still finding ways to excite ourselves. We’re not out there going through the motions. We’re actually out there taking prisoners. That’s how we feel.

AP: How far along are you in the process?

IDOL: We’ve got most of it recorded with just some finishing touches. We’re doing a cover. We’re thinking about videos and all the promotional things that go along with it. There’s a lot of stuff we’re going to be thinking about this year. But. .... playing at the Super Bowl, that’s pretty fantastic.

AP: You have a built-in fanbase. With your new album, have you taken a different approach musically with your upcoming project compared to past works?

IDOL: Not really. We’re bouncing off our last album “Kings & Queens of the Underground.” We did that in England and had strings on it. With this, we tried to make a lot more of an up-tempo album. There are nine songs and six of them are up-tempo. Three of them are kind of slower. It’s more of a youthful sounding record. I think it’ll allow our audience to have a lot of fun.

AP: What inspired you to perform at Hoover Dam?

IDOL: It was something like I would see in movies when I was a child. There was an Alfred Hitchcock movie (“Saboteur”) that referenced Hoover Dam. There was another film “711 Ocean Drive” that ended on the Hoover Dam. You know, it had a shootout. For someone like me, growing up in England, I saw this iconic place in movies then I got to play in front of it. Hoover Dam was right behind me with my logo on it, which was insane.

AP: Are there any other locations like Hoover Dam where you would like to perform?

IDOL: Mount Rushmore. I couldn’t have ever imagined Hoover Dam, so now the world is my oyster. There’s the incredible Crazy Horse statue that’s carved out in the Black Hills. We can play anywhere. Nothing can stop us.

AP: Have you ever thought about doing Broadway?

IDOL: Of course, we have. We haven’t quite worked out our direction. We’ve had several different ideas we’ve sort of fielded. Nothing has come to fruition yet. As you can see, they’re doing Prince’s “Purple Rain” on Broadway, so it’s not out of the question that we would do one. It’s just been sort of trying to work out how to do it. That’s what’s fun about having a catalog. It does resonate with a lot of people and there are possibilities like that in the future.

[sassyandclassy94]

AH I'm so excited for you to be getting to know him! I feel like I haven't had a crush in forever so def living vicariously. It's fun noticing all the little things. Hmmm do you think he likes you back? Have you told your family how you feel? Have you ever dated anyone before? Has he? What would be your perfect first date?

Thank you!!! It is a rather exciting journey - an emotional roller coaster too but for the most part it is super exciting.

Oh yes I’m almost 99% positive that he likes me back! He gave me his number back in August and ever since we’ve been texting each other regularly (we take turns initiating the first texts too), and since September he’s been at my house 9 times and whenever he hangs out at my house, he stays till the very last second! Sunday night he was here until 10:35/10:40ish - I spent seven hours with him, maybe 8 and half if you count the time I spent with him at church. It was such a good day. He also commented on the denim jacket I was wearing Sunday… which I think is a good thing? OH! And back in December, he went out of state for his brother’s wedding and he texted me the entire week he was gone😱 He also recently mentioned that he remembered what month we had our first real conversation (it was April!) and what it was about!! (I asked him how his trip to Alaska was and said how Alaska is the top state I hope to visit some day). I’m trying to think of more examples🤔 Both my dad and best friend’s husband told me they’ve caught him sneaking glances during our game nights and OH!! Two weeks ago after youth group!! I was turned just so while I was talking to the top Bible club leader, and when Isaiah came up the stairs he caught eye contact with me, raised his eyebrows at me, and grinned! It was so cute! And the Sunday before Christmas!!! Cantata Sunday!! That was the first time I had seen him since before his brother’s wedding (it felt like so much longer than a week😭 I missed him so much!!) I told him I missed him, blah blah blah, and then when we were finishing up our chat he said, “It was nice to see you! Will you be here later for the cantata?” I said yeah cause my sister’s in it! He said “Well I’ll see you then then!” And then later that evening, after the cantata, he talked to me for a good long while😭 We even got talking about weddings, lol!! (My bestie told me that men don’t really talk about those things with girls they’re not that interested in so, POSITIVE SIGN!! And most recently, I had a really bad week at work and I’m trying to get a job elsewhere and he was SO helpful and encouraging about the whole thing. He really seemed to care about me and my well-being so there’s that too! So yeah! I’d say it’s an almost-sure thing that Isaiah does in fact lioe me back!

Yes, my family does know about my feelings for him - my middle sister was the first to know from the start. And they’re all cool about it! My family loves him and Isaiah honestly blends right in with my family! And k think they’re all starting to get really excited about the whole thing being that he’s been showing more blatant signs that he likes me :)

I do not know if he’s ever dated anyone before… we haven’t really talked about that kind of thing yet. If a certain source is to be reliable (which I can’t say for sure), he’s been burned by other girls before and he hasn’t had an actual girlfriend before. As for me, I have never had a boyfriend before - not even a real life crush! If we turn out to be endgame, Isaiah will be my first and only.

Hmmm… I think my idea of the perfect first date would be bowling! I’ve never gone before but he’s mentioned he loves it and has suggested I give it a try. So, if he ever gets around to asking me out, I feel like bowling will be the thing. So there ya have it! I hope I answered all your questions! I’m super flattered that you’ve taken an interest in my love life🥰 Sometimes I feel like I’m boring everyone with how much I want to and do talk about it/him. So it means a lot to me that you’ve taken an interest :)

[maybeimamuppet]

You are an amazing author! I love how you write all the mean girls characters! I love how gay you make it! I was a fan of yours before I became your friend! I totally think that you're awesome and I want to get to know you better! I am writing this for the post of making you flustered but I mean every word! I hope that this makes you flustered in a good way because you totally deserve it!

🥺🥺🥺

thank you!!! i’m weeping omg

[wildbornsiren]

Friday Night Pickup | Jake “Hangman” Seresin x F!Reader.

Friday Night Pickup.  Synopsis: Girl’s night with work friends gets infinitely more interesting when you catch the attention of one Jake “Hangman” Seresin.  One shot 2,940 words. AFAB/Female Civilian reader (some body insecurity) Warnings: Explicit. MINORS DNI. Vaginal sex, vaginal fingering, reader with body/image insecurity.  Notes/Thanks: Special love to @evansrogerskitten​  @2fabul0us4​ . Likes/comments/reblogs are very much appreciated. Thank you for reading, it really means the most. 

The bar was packed, a sea of uniforms, flight suits and the occasional civilian in street clothes. The air is electric with conversation, snatches of classic rock songs being pumped through overhead speakers. You rise on your toes, trying to spot your coworkers. They had extended an invitation for a girls’ night when you were all chatting in the parking lot after work. You hadn’t been sure if the invitation was one out of obligation, pity, or if the burgeoning feelings of friendship were mutual. You’d like to believe the latter, but old habits died hard. You exhaled, trying to find some source of grounding, fingertips tugging at the hem of your sundress. It was a bit shorter than you liked, but it was one of the few pieces in your wardrobe that made you feel pretty. It hugged your curves just right, the fabric lightweight and breezy. You hear your name over the sounds of laughter and follow the shout to see Beth waving you over enthusiastically. She beams at you when you come closer, getting up off her stool, and hugging you. “You look -amazing-.” She holds you at arm’s length and winks. “I mean you’re gorgeous all buttoned up, but it’s nice to see some skin.” She’s in a cut off denim skirt and a tank top, “Come on, we’ve made some friends.” Somehow you weren’t surprised that she and the others had already made friends. Maggie, Caroline, Ruth and Beth were some of the sweetest women you’ve ever met. They were also drop dead gorgeous, looking like they stepped off the pages of the most recent fashion magazines. Beth’s arm was around your waist, and she leaned in to whisper softly, “You okay?” “This may have been a mistake,” You whisper back. “I’m a 3 in the middle of a 10 convention.” She squeezed your side tightly and shook her head. “One drink, and if you’re not having fun, I’ll help you escape.” Another squeeze, and she lets go only after you nod. “Boys!” Ruth sidles up to your other side. “That’s Payback, Fanboy, and Omaha.” She points at three men in khaki uniforms. “Rooster,” a tall man in a Hawaiian print shirt, aviators hanging from the neckline of his white tank top. He nodded at you, before leaning over the pool table to line up a shot. “That’s Bob.” Ruth points to a man with glasses on the opposite side of the pool table, cue in hand.  “The stunning Phoenix who is going to give me her number by the time the night is over, she just doesn’t know it yet.” You bite back a smile at Ruth’s moxie. “You’re forgetting two of the most important things.” A new voice joined the conversation. “This little lady doesn’t have a drink, and she hasn’t been introduced to me.” A sixth man stepped into your line of sight. He smiled, and your heart stopped in your chest. It was a practiced gesture, slow and confident, finished with quick wink. He hands you a bottle of beer after twisting the cap off. “Name’s Hangman.” “He also answers to Bagman.” Phoenix says. “It’s Hangman.” He said again, a bit firmer. “You answered, didn’t you?” Bob said before his cue hit a ball into the corner pocket. “You’re losing by the way.” “Eh, let Bradshaw succeed at something. We’ll call it an early birthday present.” Another flashed grin, more a baring of teeth before his attention turns back to you. “I didn’t catch your name, sweetheart.” You tell him your name, and he raises his bottle in response. He repeats it, and the sound of your name passing those lips with a slight drawl sends shivers down your spine. You take a few swallows of the cold beer, as a distraction. His eyes are brilliantly green and pierce through you with intense focus. “What’s a nice boy like you doing in a place like this?” The words fall out of your mouth, beer marrying perfectly with your nerves. There’s a pause, and you almost believe he didn’t hear you. And then he laughs. It’s warm, rich and you could wrap yourself in it and roll around. He takes up a perch next to you, leaning against the support beam next to your barstool. “Well, I could tell you, but it’s classified.” “See, you were almost something special.” You say. “But you trotted out that line.” You chalked up your confidence from the innate knowledge that there was no way a man like this would take interest in you. He's fit, drop dead gorgeous, an aviator, masculinity oozing from every inch of his body. He leaned in as if you were co-conspirators. “A special-op detachment. I really can’t say anything more than that.” When he leaned in close to speak to you, you could feel the vibrations in his chest when he spoke. Your mouth was dry, the beer sliding down your throat, not sating the thirst that had come over you. You find yourself falling into conversation with him easily. He’s sharp, quick witted and keeps up with you—challenges you. When you talk about your interests, his eyes are fixed on you, drinking in every word. It strikes you that he’s actually listening and engaging, asking legitimate questions and offering up little trinkets and stories of his own life; but most of the conversation stays focused on you. Both of you have moved on from beer, he’s nursing a second old fashioned, and you’re drinking a gin and tonic. “I work with them.” You gesture towards the other women of your party with your glass when you’re asked how you know the other women. “Telecommunications I ah, work in billing with Beth and Ruth. Caroline and Maggie work in sales. “You follow his gaze to the blonde with a dazzling smile, slender build and soft curly hair that tumbled past her shoulders. “She’s single. Her boyfriend was cheating on her, so she dumped him.” Hangman lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “What about you?” He says easily. “Billing. It’s kind of boring but I get to work with numbers all day.” You finish off the last few swallows of your drink swirling the ice in your glass. “I heard that, I didn’t hear if you’re single.” “I’m sorry?” “Are you single?” He steps closer, fingers raising your chin to look up at him. “I don’t normally care, but I have to behave, this detachment means to much to me to get washed out because I’m getting into fights with people who don’t matter.” His thumb brushes along your lower lip and he continues, “That dress was made to be shown off. Dance with me, and they’ll all see it.” Your body curves toward him magnetically. He’s so close, one leg between your knees, his free hand on the wall behind you. You can almost taste the bourbon on his lips, and when you manage to meet his eyes, there’s no teasing there. He’s earnest, and with your hesitation there’s a flicker of something you can tell he’s not quite used to experiencing. “I’m not a good dancer.” He’s stealing the air from your lungs, the words barely slipping past your lips. “I’m a very good teacher.” He murmured, lips brushing against your ear. “Dance with me ---” He nearly purred your name, “Please?” “Why?” Confusion was not a good look on him. You almost regretted the question, but before you could open your mouth to take it back, his hand is around your wrist, pulling you off the barstool in a smooth motion. Someone wolf whistles as he leads you through the crowd, out the side door that had been propped open by a brick and into the cool night air. It's no easier to breath out here, especially when his fingers slide from your wrist to interlock with your fingers. His hand dwarfs yours, slightly calloused, warm and it just feels right. There’s a moment where higher brain function ceases to exist, you find yourself eye level with his chest, his other hand resting at the small of your back. “Why wouldn’t I want to dance with you?” His lips brush your ear, sending shivers down your spine. “It’s the only way for me to get my hands on you that’s fit for public consumption.” Higher brain function had definitely ceased when those words clicked into place. “And, before you ask, yes, I want to get my hands on you. Well, hands to start.” His chuckle made your stomach flip-flop. “You can have your pick of anyone in that bar.” You can hear the music a bit better out here, and he’s pulled you closer, flush against him. You can feel every angle and hard plane of his body under his uniform. Despite your better judgement, you grip the back of his uniform, trying to ground yourself as he leads you in a slow circle in the back alley. “I have what I want. Right here.” His hand is splayed on your back, five points of heated contact. You’re almost convinced that he can feel the rapid tattoo of your heart against his chest. His lips brush your cheek, along your jaw, and you can feel yourself tipping your head to chase the kiss that didn’t come. “Trust me sugar, I save the world every day. It’s nice to have someone soft to hold onto.” His eyes are soft, not a trace of pity in them. “Tell me what you need to believe me.” “I don’t know if there’s anything you can do in one night. Words are pretty Hangman, and I’ve been humiliated more times than I can count.” You feel a flush as unwanted memories come flooding back. Too many times have you been the butt of jokes, the third wheel, or been ghosted. “I’m not them.” A group of sailors burst through the door, laughing and joking with each other. They migrated to the other end of the alley, a few of them lighting cigarettes. You paused to pull away, only to feel Hangman’s grip tighten, pulling you as close as physically possible.

“Kiss me.” You meet his gaze, jaw set in the challenge. He’d back off with witnesses. You were almost certain of it. You had not calculated the way he would tip your chin up, the feeling of his mouth against yours, and the sound that came from the back of the man’s throat as he kissed you. You could taste the smoky bourbon on his lips as he deepened the kiss. His hand slid to the back of your neck, gripping lightly. You felt that wall you’ve built up to protect yourself from men exactly like him weaken. Your arms slip over his shoulders, his hair surprisingly soft under your fingers. “Fuck.” He whispers against your mouth before he’s kissing you again, slower this time. Deep, claiming, and it’s all you can do to hold onto him. Your back hits the wall, feeling him melt against you. His hands trace over your body, the back of his fingertips brushing the curve of your breasts, down your sides to land on your hips. Your weight shifts as he pulls you flush against him, and he’s hard. He’s also looking at you as if he was starving and you’re his last meal. There’s a flush across those sharp cheekbones, his lips parted, breathing shallow. He dips his head, mouth landing on your neck, his hands sliding over your hips to your ass. You move against him on instinct alone, and the moan that slides against your skin makes your toes curl. Inhibitions loosened by earlier conversation, top shelf gin, and the searing heat from his mouth on your skin, you slide one hand between your bodies, cupping him through his pants. His hips roll, pressing against your hand, and you can feel his cock twitch under your ministrations. He's panting against your collarbone, your name whispered like a prayer. “I give as much as I get darlin.” His voice is heavy, raspy and its music to your ears. “Just remember that.” There’s a wolf whistle from the other end of the alley, and a masculine voice calls out “Get a room, Seresin.” Hangman’s grin is outright predatory when he lifts his head. He winks at you, hands shifting slightly, and he's lifted you, fingertips gripping your thighs as they’re wrapped around his waist. Protest dies on your lips when his hands brush along the inside of your thighs, stopping just short of where your body so desperately needs them. He’s holding you against the wall with just his body and fuck you can’t think anymore. “I need to hear a yes, or no darlin.” Featherlight, his touch strokes along your skin. You nod, licking your lips, throat dry, but manage to squeak out, “yes.” He swallows your moans with another kiss. His fingers slipping under the fabric of your panties, teasing slowly against the wet heat of your core. There’s a slight stretch as two fingers ease into you, any discomfort soothed by the easy glide of his thumb over your clit. There’s nothing in this world but him right now. The press of his body, how easily he holds you, the way his mouth burns against your neck, the soft puffs of breath against damp skin as absolute filth spills from kiss swollen lips. You can only hear his voice, and the way your body responds to his touch, and how desperately you need more than just those skilled hands. “You’re gripping me so tight baby.” His eyes are heavily lidded, his tongue darting out to lick his lips. “So fucking wet for me, you’re soaking my hand.” He nips at ear, the flash of pain making you arch against him. “Gonna cum like this for me? Or can I feel this sweet pussy drain my cock.” “More.” Your head hits the wall, and it’s all you can do to answer him. Pleasure is spiraling through you, moving ever closer to that edge of nothingness as this gorgeous man watches you with hazy eyes. “Say it.” His fingers curl just right, and your entire body tightens in response. “Tell me you want my cock.” You’re not too proud to give him what he wants. “Please, I want,” Your breath hitches as his thumb drags achingly slow circles on your clit. “I want your cock.” You can feel yourself clench around nothingness when his fingers slide from your body. He studies his hand, sucking your wetness from his fingers. “I knew I should have gotten my mouth on that pussy. But we can do that later.” He chuckles softly. There’s a moment of Hangman adjusting you against the wall, the rasp of his uniform’s zipper too loud in your ears. You watch transfixed at as his hand wraps around his cock, stroking a few times working the condom on. Cocks weren’t the most attractive part of anatomy, and it figures that someone who looked as good as him would have a pretty dick. “Thank you darlin.” He winks at you, realization that you said that last bit out loud. Your body had already accommodated his fingers which were thicker and longer than your own; but the press of his cock into you makes you ache in a way you hadn’t realized you had missed. His kiss was different this time, almost tender as he bottoms out, his hips flush against yours. Your fingers tangle in his hair mussing it, tasting yourself and his bourbon on his tongue. Hangman’s eyes flutter closed, a soft moan escaping past parted lips. You can feel his pulse against your lips, rapid and erratic as you kiss his neck, nipping at his collar bone. His hips snap harder into you, driving himself further into you. His touch is in stark contrast to how he’s fucking you, mapping your frame, as though he’s committing your body to memory. His fingers once more find your clit, working you in time with his thrusts, words ghosted against your shoulder as you roll your hips against him, meeting his pace. “Hangman…” every nerve in your body is on fire, sweat beading on your skin, and everything that you are is played so exquisitely by the man pounding into you. Pleasure spirals, nails finding purchase on his back, the guttural snarl against your collarbone nearly tipping you over the edge. “Jake.” You repeat what he said, and he trembles under your hands. He whimpers your name when you come, feeling yourself tightening around that thick cock. He fucks you through your orgasm, unrestrained, erratic before he’s coming and for a moment you see all that tension and arrogance melt away from his features and there’s nothing but soft pleasure. He slumps against you, breathing heavy, the collar of his uniform damp with sweat. “Jake, please…” you’re not sure what you’re asking for when he pulls out of you. His hands shake slightly as he adjusts the hem of your dress. A handful of napkins from the pocket his pants serves as clean up as he gently wipes between your thighs and cleaning himself up. The wall holds you up, your legs jelly, a pleasant ache in your muscles. He grins at you, and it’s a bit crooked, far less perfect than before and the real expression catches your breath. “Why don’t you text your girls, darlin. Let them know that you’re alright.” His thumb traces along your lower lip. “I can take you home, you can reapply that pretty red lipstick and we’ll see what it looks like smeared on my cock.”

[nojey]

finally

feral boys x streamer!reader (separate)

genre: fluff, crack

warning(s): none

synopsis: the feral boys finally meet their favorite streamers

dreamwastaken / clay

word count: 407

the day you met dream, you were on the phone with your best friend george, also known as georgenotfound

the day you met dream, you were on the phone with your best friend george, also known as georgenotfound

he was speedrunning on stream while you were on a discord call with him

his viewers knew who you were, not only because you were george’s best friend but also because you were a streamer too

you weren’t a big one but well known for how well you play battle box in mcc

george was about to end his stream after an unsuccessful speed run when he asked you something

“you know dream right?”

“yeah, of course, he’s one of your other best friends” you answered

“are you okay with me adding him to the call?” he asked you.

“uh sure, but aren’t you gonna end stream?” 

“no, i will after this.” he giggled

“why? are you trying to embarrass one of us?” you asked him suspiciously.

“you don’t have to worry about that.” 

you heard a ding from discord, indicating that someone joined your voice chat

“hello? dream?” george asked.

“george. why? why are you doing this to me?” dream asked.

“hi dream,” you smiled.

“uh, hi. hi (y/n).”

“george why did you add me to the call?” he asked george.

“well, i know how much you like watching their stream. and considering you’re both my best friends, why not introduce you! perfect right? anyways. i’m gonna end my stream now. let’s raid karl. and you two can talk to each other. bye now!” he left the call so now it was just you and dream in the vc

it really warmed your heart that someone with such a big platform liked watching your streams since it had been quite hard to gain a following since you started streaming

“hi dream,” you said once again

he sighed. “hi (y/n).” “i really didn’t want him to do that, i didn’t want this to be the first time we meet, you know. i just love watching your streams so much and i wanted it to, honestly, be in person. but you know, george does what he thinks he shou-”

“it’s okay dream, i’ve actually been looking forward to meeting you, considering you’re also one of george’s best friends. but i do agree, he does tend to do whatever he puts his mind to.”

after you calmed his nerves, his conversation skills skyrocketed and the conversations flowed very easily

you guys spent the rest of the night talking 

georgenotfound / george

word count: 326

being a minecraft streamer and a hypebeast got you some recognition

you were a hypebeast model on instagram and when you had announced you started streaming minecraft on twitch you had grown pretty easily

it didn’t take you time before you were invited to join mcc

not just because you had a big following but because you were actually really good at playing

since you didn’t really know any other mc streamers you got placed in a group with people you had never met

their names were Ph1lzA, WilburSoot, and GeorgeNotFound

the first time you talked to them, they welcomed you with open arms and we so nice

“hi (y/s/n)! i’m philza but you can just call me phil,” he introduced.

“hi phil!” you responded.

“i’m wilbur, is this gonna be your first mcc?” wilbur asked.

“yeah, it is. i’m actually really nervous.” you laughed a bit, to get the nerves out.

“ah okay, well no worries. we were all beginners before. don’t worry about trying to score high, just have fun!” phil assured.

“we’re just waiting for one other person and we’ll get started on the practice.” phil continued.

“okie dokie,” you said. you put yourself on mute and wiped the sweat off your hands on your pants. 

“hello, hello, sorry i’m late. had trouble starting the server.” you heard. 

“well nice of you to join us george.” wilbur said.

“yeah, yeah. hi philza, hi wilbur, hi (y/s/n)- wait, (y/s/n)??” he stuttered

“hi george?,” you said softly.

“oh my god, i’ve watched your streams before, they’re really cool. i enjoy watching them.” he rambled.

you giggled

“well thank you,” you said, still giggling a little.

for the rest of the day you all practiced, everyone giving you pointers, but george watching carefully to make sure you understood the pointers you were getting

and if you didn’t then he knew to tell you which part you were kind of misunderstanding

sapnap

word count: 398

you met sapnap long before you became a streamer

you were a big fan of sapnap

and one day you ran into him in public

it was a short interaction but it really meant a lot to you

so you asked for a picture to remember the moment by

after you took the picture you said your goodbyes and you were extremely excited

a few weeks after than interaction you had made the decision to start streaming

you were thinking about becoming one for a long time and after meeting sapnap you made your decision 

because you wanted to be the type of person sapnap was to you

and be a person someone looked up to and meet people that felt the way about you that you feel about sapnap

you’d been a streamer for a few months when you got a raid from sapnap himself

his viewers were suggesting he raided you so he did

you freaked out, you gained a small following and the fact that sapnap decided to raid you? amazed

but what you didn’t know was that he kept watching you

after he saw how appreciative you were he wanted to watch more and he got intrigued

so he followed you and started watching your streams almost every time you streamed whenever he wasn’t busy

after about 2 years of streaming you got a very big following

your supporters were stalking your twitter and found the picture of you and sapnap when you both met

they then began to repost it on twitter tagging the both of you

you saw it and replied, “LMAO i look so small. but big shoutout to sapnap for raiding me as a small streamer and making all this possible <3″

he saw your reply and his eyes went big

HE MET YOU BEFORE!??

he then proceeded to respond to your tweet, “we’ve met before??”

and it went back and forward

“yeah, it was before i was a streamer, we met at like.. the grocery store lol”

“i literally had no idea you were a fan of me”

“yup, i’ve been for the past 3 years”

“dude after i raided you i started watching your streams and you became my favorite streamer”

“well,, you’re still my favorite streamer ;)” 

after that sapnap dmd you asking if you guys could meet in person again

and who could pass up that offer

karl jacobs

word count: 510

you and karl met at twitchcon

you had recently become a big streamer and this was your 2nd time going to twitchcon

1st time having a meet and greet

meeting your supporters meant so much to you 

you finally get to give each of them a hug, and it may not be all of them but seeing this many people come out to meet you meant more than anyone could imagine

but being at twitchcon also meant you could meet your streamer friends 

which made everything 10x more exciting

you decided to meet up with your friend, valkyrae and you guys were going to a creator party

when you finally got to see her you gave her a huge hug that lasted a while because it was the first time you were meeting in person

once you both reached the venue of where the party was being held you all met up with your other friends. you hadn’t met any of them in person but rae had

you saw sykkuno, lily, michael, toast, and a few other people and smiled really big, excited to see all of them

you finally got to them and pulled them into a group hug

“you guys!! oh my god it feels so good to finally meet all of you!” you said.

“it’s nice to meet you in person, (y/n).” sykkuno said smiling at you

you let go of the hug and remembered everyone else that they were with

“hi! i’m (y/s/n) but you can just call me (y/n),” you said with a smile.

“this is karl, poki, and scarra.” toast introduced.

you saw karl and poki whispering to each other while you got into a conversation with everyone else.

poki coughed and said, “hey guys! don’t we have to go to that thing, right? that thing.” hinting at something, looking between you and karl.

you’re pretty sure everyone caught on and they all agreed.

“oh yeah! that thing!”

“yeah, we should probably go!”

“yup, don’t wanna be late to that thing.”

you looked at them with an unimpressed look as they walked away, looking behind their shoulders to see you and karl standing there.

“hi, i’m-i’m karl, i’m sorry about that. i just told poki that you’re like literally my favorite streamer and i guess she wanted us to talk more? i don’t know, but it’s really nice to meet you.” karl said.

you laughed as you quickly understood your friends weird behavior

“yeah, you raided me a few times- thank you for that by the way. it helped me a lot in growing my fanbase and i don’t think i’d be where i am if you hadn’t raided me.” you smiled at him. he beamed and smiled back at you.

“yeah, no, it was no problem. like i said you’re literally my favorite streamer and being able to help you with that is absolutely insane to me.”

for the rest of the party, your friends could see both of you talking the night away

and maybe even dance together

quackity

word count: 428

finding out what to do for stream was kinda hard when pretty much all your friends were busy

but then you got a text from karl, asking if you wanted to play jackbox with him and a few friends

you accepted, knowing you wouldn’t have anything else to stream

in the lobby it would be you, karl, dream, sapnap and a few other people you didn’t know

when it was finally time to play, you started up your stream and introduced what you’d be playing that night

“hey guys, welcome welcome, welcome. today i’m gonna be playing jackbox with karl, dream, sapnap, and a few other of karls friends.” 

you joined the vc and immediately heard a lot of boys talking very loudly

you let out a small, “hello?” 

somehow everyone heard you and stopped talking

“(y/n)!” karl yelled out.

dream and sapnap let out a “hi, (y/n)” and you said hello back.

“hi everyone, i’m (y/s/n) but you all can call me (y/n)” you introduced yourself.

eveyrone else said hi and introduced themselves

you found out you were playing with quackity, wilbur, tommy, and techno too

during mad verse city karl was going against quackity and his rap went something like this

“you talk so weird, i’m gonna need translator, next time (y/n)’s here they’re gonna be a hater, because your big crush on them i’ll see ya later”

your mouth was wide open while all the boys started teasing quackity

“what the fuck! i don’t have a crush on them!” 

quackity ended up losing that one.

after the game and you ended you stream you asked quackity to stay

“hi quackity,” you said, with an energetic voice

“... hey, (y/n)” 

“sooo, was what karl said true?” you asked.

“mm not necessarily. it’s not that i have a crush on you. you’re.. just my favorite streamer and you know. this is the first time i’m meeting you and i was telling all of them that i’m nervous because i’ve never talked to you before and i think you’re a great streamer and that you put out really funny content and i didn’t wanna embarrass myself but. karl did that for me.” he rambled

you giggled

“i think that’s really cute. thank you for supporting me. you can dm me on twitter or discord if you ever wanna play sometime.” you told him and left the vc.

you then saw all the boys you were playing with pile into the vc and you could only imagine what they were talking about.

[thefanficmonster]

Hey Vy!

Long time since we’ve spoken. Life has been busy! Can I please request some Jacksepticeye x non-binary reader (he/they pronouns) headcanons? I’ve just caught COVID recently and his videos have been keeping me entertained in isolation and I could really use some comfort from him!

Hi there!

I know right! How have you been? I hope you're still taking care of yourself despite life keeping you busy. What have you been up to?

And of course! Hope you enjoy the headcanons 💕

Pairing: Jacksepticeye (Sean) x Reader (Non- binary, He/They pronouns used)

Warnings: Swearing

Genre: FLUFF, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)

- You and Jack have always been great friends, meeting over quarantine online and playing video games together

- He could've learned a thing or two from you on how to play Phasmophobia but alas he did not

- That's why you're the superior gamer when it comes to that game

- Funny enough, that's exactly what broadened your conversations with you mentioning your love for the horror genre

- That's when Sean set himself out for a mission, well two missions to be exact

- First: Find more multiplayer horror games to have an excuse to play with you - although he'd never admit that last part

- Second: Introduce you to Corpse Husband

- Both plans worked out!

- Some of the games he found may or may not have been janky as all hell but that didn't mean you two didn't have fun

- And you also became great friends with Corpse so win-win

- Another win was that you and him proceeded to get closer and closer

- However, with miles and miles between you and only an internet connection keeping you within each other's proximity, it was hard not to wish to meet in real life

- Although, you did get a feel of how it'd be to spend up to a full day, a full 24 hours with Jacksepticeye

- And hell if it didn't make you wish you could actually do that

- At the time, though, you honestly didn't know how you felt but you thought you knew how Sean felt

- But, hun, you were so fucking wrong

- One day you hopped on Discord to surprise everyone even though you had said you'd probably not be able to join

- That's when you heard it

- "Is there something between Y/N and I?" He read, presumably from his chat, "Yes, there is! A very strong friendship! He's an amazing fucking person. So kind, funny, friendly, the whole nine yards. They've really made my life a lot better and I'm so glad I met them. And, shh, don't tell him, but he's super handsome too."

- His blood froze in his veins the second he heard your laugh echo on the VC

- You swear you could *hear* his silent panic

- "You got something to tell me, Jackaboy?"

- There was a moment of silence that you almost broke so many times with the laughter you were holding back

- "No....?" He sheepishly said, more as a question than anything else

- That's when you couldn't hold your laugh back anymore

- "I mean I did say what I said and I told them not to tell you but looks to me like they didn't have to say jack-shit, cause Jack went on and talked himself into some deep shit."

- "Awww, don't say that, Jack. I think you're very handsome too."

- There aren't many ways or things that make Jack blush, but that?

- That did the trick

[thedrarrylibrarian]

To celebrate their new direction and get some insights into the how and why the blog is changing, I invited @sitp-recs to chat with me. We knew we'd have so much fun, and didn't want to leave any patrons out, so we recorded our conversation to share. I'll be DL, in bold, and sitp-recs is SP. I hope you enjoy getting a bit of behind the scenes of how we run our blogs, finding balance in fandom, and our friendship.

DL: First of all, Happy New Year! I’m so glad we could finally sit down and chat like we’ve been trying to do for….4 months now? 5 months? Lol

SP: Happy New Year! I’m so ready for 2022. Hopefully it will be a gentler year to us all. And I know, right? It’s been months and so much has changed between then and now, but I’m happy we’re doing this to start the year. Good omens! Thanks for the invite by the way, I’m really humbled by it.

DL: You’re so welcome! I’m ecstatic to have you, so I’m glad we made it work. And a gentler and kinder year is the best wish for 2022. Did you set any New Year’s Resolutions in relation to your blog?

SP: That’s a great starting point, actually. I posted about it recently and rather than a few bullet points, mine was a long and mildly chaotic rambling lol. Rigid resolutions and numbers scare me a bit and I’m trying to take it easy this year. Mainly, I hope to keep doing what I love but find more balance along the way. I want to read more, comment more, write more single reviews and be more present for my friends. It’s kinda generic, I know, but I want to establish a low pressure environment so I can continue enjoying the blog now that it’s entering its third year.

DL: You and I have talked before about how running a fan blog, while sometimes time consuming, should always be fun. Did you feel like you’d gotten to a point where it was no longer fun this year?

DL: This year being…last year lmao. 2021.

SP: Sadly, yes. Although, to be fair, it was way more related to what I was going through in real life and less related to fandom in general. I changed jobs at the beginning of 2021 and have been dedicating a lot of time and energy to it. The first semester was a complete nightmare and I was barely able to read anything, let alone write recs. It’s particularly frustrating to watch the fandom flourish when you can’t keep up. I got overwhelmed between the buzz surrounding new fics and the pressure I put on myself to keep the blog active by posting recs and giving something back to the community. That’s when I decided to stop making reclists, as they basically took all my free time away and were adding to the stress rather than being a fun, relaxing activity.

DL: That’s something I very much relate to. As much as I’d love to read fanfic and make rec lists all day, I have other responsibilities. Finding that balance is so important. For me, it’s doing about 1 rec list a week and a Happy Hour on Fridays when I can. I’ve also stopped trying to find lost fics. I feel like that’s in more capable hands with @lostdrarryfics Sometimes I get asks that are like “I’m not sure if you are still active…” and I'm like “...I just posted last week?” and I just have to laugh. It feels like that “I'm not dead yet!” scene from Monty Python. I love putting out content and rec lists, but it’s a hobby. Sometimes real life and responsibilities take precedence, and I’ve always tried to be very honest about that. As your friend, I’m so proud of you for putting those boundaries in place and finding your balance. So now that you’re not doing rec lists, what can we expect to see on your blog?

SP: That’s exactly it, and I think that unfortunately, Tumblr gets tainted by the social media immediacy thing, considering we have so many different demographics mixed together. Everyone is at a different point in their life, and setting up boundaries can be incredibly hard when it’s about something you genuinely love to do, but it’s necessary to keep a healthy relationship with both fandom and real life responsibilities. I don’t want to rule out all reclists because I still very much enjoy making them - but I won’t be doing them on demand as I used to, probably just some specific lists like the one I did for my 2021 favorite works. Other than that, I plan to keep on boosting artworks, microfics, rare pairs and fandom fests when I can. As for the single recs, I’d really love to include older gems, as I did in 2020. When I started the blog the whole idea behind it was to celebrate both classics and lesser known works, and some of the best fics I discovered that year were published between 2010 and 2015. So I’m hoping to highlight those again, and hopefully send more readers their way.

DL: Ooooh, I love that! I think there’s so much great content that gets overlooked because of “classics” so I love finding those hidden gems.

We’ve talked about some of the stressors of running a popular fandom blog, but I certainly don’t want that to take away from how much we both love to do it. Part of the reason you’re working to find this balance is so that you can keep blogging because it does bring so much joy! What’s your favorite part about running your blog?

SP: You’re right - creating this blog was one of my best decisions and a major highlight in these otherwise dark, uncertain times we’ve been living for the past two years. Reccing, for me, is a very special kind of therapy. I love the catharsis it brings, and the way I’m able to freely express my thoughts and feelings about a work that somehow I really can’t translate when I’m leaving a comment on AO3. I love the idea of just… putting my thoughts out there, hoping to find echo but without really considering my audience or expecting something in return, if that makes sense? It’s a very liberating process and hey, I get to practice my English while I’m at it, so that’s a nice bonus! I also love interacting with both creators and fellow readers. I love getting feedback like “Wow, thanks so much for thinking of my fic. This made my day!” just as much as I love hearing “I found this fic thanks to your rec and now I’m obsessed.” It’s so incredible to think that, despite not being a creator, my words could still move someone, even if it’s just one person, and inspire them to either read that work or go and create their own. That’s real magic!

DL: That’s such a lovely answer! I completely get what you’re saying about interacting with fellow fans. Writers often make my day when I read their amazing works, so it feels so good to give that acknowledgement back to them. I love seeing their positive reactions when I’ve included someone in a reclist or featured them in a Happy Hour. It makes me happy to make them happy. You’re absolutely right - it’s a special kind of magic.

One of my favorite things about your blog is how personable you are. You always come across so warm and friendly in all of your posts. I love that. It was one of the first things I noticed when I first followed you.

SP: That’s such a lovely compliment, and the first time I really stop to think about my approach as a blog owner, but yes! I’ve always been the communicative type. I like to think I’m a welcoming presence and I try my best to come from a place of kindness and empathy while respecting my personal boundaries. I’ve always wanted the blog to feel like a safe space that respects all reading preferences, ships and tropes, even if they’re not my own. That’s why I’m so adamant about promoting rare pairs too, as I personally love so many of them. Fandom can be a very hostile space for those communities, so I try my best to stay away from any kind of toxic discussion that doesn’t belong in a positive space.

DL: I love that. I recently read a fic that had Pansy/George as a background pair and I thought it was a really fun ship (don’t worry, it’ll be on my Late Christmas List). What’s a pair that you never would’ve thought of but really enjoy?

SP: Ohh, I’m curious to check that one out! I love fanon Pansy because she’s so shippable. That’s the beauty of being in the HP fandom as a multishipper - there are so many possibilities and so many talented authors trying their hand on rare pairs. I feel really lucky to be experiencing fandom at this point in time. As for your question, a few years ago I’d never have considered reading Golden Trio fics, as in Harry/Ron, Harry/Hermione, and Harry/Ron/Hermione. I used to perceive their dynamics strictly as sibling-like friendship and could not see them interacting romantically at all. I really can’t give you a precise answer on when that changed and I felt comfortable to explore this OT3 (probably as I got more and more interested in the “friends to lovers” trope, and found a compelling summary by an author I trust and love!) but I decided to give it a shot and now I love this triad in every possible variation. I’m still a bit picky about the kind of dynamics I enjoy with most of my favorite rare pairs, so I don’t read them as often as I read Drarry!

DL: Oooh, I actually love a good triad. I haven’t looked at the prompts for @hptriadfest yet but I think they start posting in April. Maybe they’ll have something new for you to enjoy!

SP: Won’t ever deny a good threesome!

DL: One of my favorite things to ask is what are you currently reading? Both in fanfic and in real books?

SP: I’m….so very ashamed to admit that I haven’t read real books since finishing my Master’s two years ago, but I’m hoping to change that this year! Of course, the popular Captive Prince series is high on my list. I’ve seen so many artworks on Tumblr and I just know it’s going to be right up my alley - Drarry similarities and all! As for fic, I just finished oldenuf2nb’s last advent fic called The Magic Behind the Camera with photographer Harry and magazine editor Draco. It’s a lovely read for those who enjoy the identity porn trope! I’m now debating whether to pursue a long or short fic next. Any recs?

DL: Of COURSE I have a rec! I just finished a shorter fic that I really enjoyed. It’s called both that morning equally lay by @janieohio. It’s a remix of Auror Conley on the Case by @frenchmarshmalloww that was also fun. Have you read them?

SP: I haven’t! Ohh, gotta check these out ASAP! Love that summary, and 5k is a perfect length for me. God bless short fics!

DL: Don’t get me wrong - I love a long fic - but I adore short fics. I love a quick bite sized fic that I can get into and finish while I’m waiting in a line or read quickly on my lunch break at work. Also, for books, can I recommend The Guncle by Stephen Rowley? It was one of my favorite reads of 2021. It’s a pretty quick read packed with lots of bittersweet emotions and family moments.

SP: That sounds perfect, thanks so much! And I agree 100% about short fics. They’re very practical as you said, and can be just as much, if not more, nuanced and emotionally rewarding. I’ve read so many brilliant short fics in the past few years. We have some incredibly talented authors exploring shorter forms.

DL: Absolutely!

SP: I can’t believe I got recs out of this!

DL: I can’t help myself! I’m like one of those grandmas who keep trying to feed you, even if you’re not hungry. “Here honey, have another fic rec. You can pack this one up and take it with you!”

SP: It’s in our nature! We just can’t help screaming about our favorite fics and authors!

DL: Exactly! Which, speaking of! Do you want to share any favorite Drarry fics?!

SP: I think @letteredlettered's The Boy Who Only Lived Twice will always be my top favorite. I reread it all the time (despite being 50k) and get the same incomparable thrill I got when I first read it so many years ago. Lettered is definitely a personal favorite for me, the majority of their fics hit all of my boxes. Their most recent fic By the Grace is one of the most compelling, nuanced, and emotionally satisfying masterpieces I’ve ever read. Then I have to mention Far From the Tree by aideomai who pretty much blew my mind with this brilliant and devastatingly tender time travel epic - and I’m not even that invested in the 8th year trope!

DL: I loved By the Grace! I think I put it on a rec list immediately after I read it. I remember feeling like “Oh my god! Do people know about this fic!? Everyone needs to read this RIGHT NOW!”

SP: That was my reaction too! It was so mind blowing!! And so very different from Letterd’s usual style - more focused on dialogue and character development. This excerpt will always live rent free in my head:

Harry’s heart leapt into his throat, and all thoughts of solace or freedom or courage left him. “Do you mean you …” He trailed off, then cleared his throat. His hands twitched again. “You did say you remade every cell.” “Potter, you fool,” Malfoy muttered. “My body doesn’t know how to make a cell that doesn’t love you.”

DL: Ugh. What an excellent quote. With that loveliness, shall we end it there?

SP: Yeah. It’s been so lovely to chat with you! Thank you for the invite!

DL: Thank you for your time!

[parkers-gal]

Tom x reader where reader wants to move out & live with Tom only (not with boys). Tom doesn’t want to move out, maybe Nikki has a talk with him

the one T.H.

➢ a / n | went a lil overboard, heh, but enjoy this ! sorry it took a lil while :,(

➢ wc | 2.5k <3

｡☆✼★━━ requests are closed ━━★✼☆｡

There’s too many dishes in the sink, you note. There’s so many, that they won’t all fit for one load in the dishwasher. It’s a pain, and you know nobody in this house has the patience to wait for two full loads to carry through, so you have to hand wash half of them and allow the whirring machine to do the other half.

If this were a romantic comedy, you’d have Tom standing next to you and you’d hold hands under the suds while you wash the dishes together and chat about your future. This isn’t a rom-com, though. In fact, you don’t even know where the boys are right now. You were certain they went into the den to play Call Of Duty — or whatever it is that they play — but then you thought they went into the backyard with Tessa, but now you’ve just given up on figuring their whereabouts.

Not that you’re angry at Tom for not helping, though. He did the laundry with you earlier, so you’re content with his keeping end of the deal. It’s the other four that you’re a bit fed up with. Sam had just recently joined the Holland-Osterfield-Barrett household of mates, and while you’re all the more happy to welcome him in, it also means more work. There’s a chore schedule, but sometimes someone has work in a town or a country away, and the gaps in the schedule are only ever left for you to fill.

It’s tough, considering you have your own job, but you’re content with the situation — for now. You have Tom, the love of your life, and you have the best people of your life - Harry, one of your closest confidants, and Harrison, one of your partners in crime.

There’s a lot of baggage that comes with being the only woman in a household of boys that practically grew up with each other. You love Tessa with all your heart, but it’s not like you can really gossip to her about your day.

You’re not too worried about everything, anyway. The second anniversary of your relationship with Tom is coming up; it’s only a few months away, and though you’ve been pondering the idea for awhile, you’re thinking of getting a place with Tom, on your own, without the nagging and intruding fellow in-laws (to-be, hopefully).

Six weeks, today marks, for how long you’ve been thinking about the idea, debating whether it’s valid enough to bring up to Tom, deciding when the best time to talk to him would be. He’s a hard man to navigate — getting a spot in his busy schedule is like fighting to the front of a One Direction mosh-pit. That makes it practically impossible.

But, you’re Y/N. You’re his sweetheart, his darling, his weakness. You’re the most important person in his life, and when you want to have a serious conversation with him, Tom’s all ears and eyes, attentive and caring, understanding and, hopefully, supportive.

You’re hoping it won’t take much convincing — he’s lived with these people all his life, and if it’s truly hard for him to decide, you’ll know what he really wants then.

Ringing out a few glass cups, you let them dry on a dish rack that sits on the countertop. The buzzing and whirring of the dishwasher alerts you that it’s still happily running, and you walk towards the glass sliding doors that lead to the patio and backyard. Peering out, you see all four housemates and Paddy, playing with a frisbee and wrestling with Tessa and messing around with a rugby ball on the trampoline. They look like kindergarteners on the playground, and you decide then to bring them some lemonade like a mother in summertime.

“Hope you’re all a bit thirsty,” you set the tray down with a warm smile. Sam shuts his book of poetry to smile up at you from his seat. He’s been reading for a good fifteen minutes, but you reckon he’ll hop on the trampoline when Harrison gets off. For now, he watches as the Irregulars star jumps happily with Tuwaine.

“Oh, sick,” Harry runs over with the frisbee still in his hands, reaching for a glass and taking a big gulp. Tessa’s at his feet, awaiting for the frisbee game to resume, and you pet her head for a moment before Tom runs over to you, hair matted to his forehead in sweat.

“You’re the best, love,” his hand finds the small of your back as he kisses your temple. You smile again, eyes shutting in bliss at the feeling of his lips, but his hand maneuvers you so he can reach for a glass without bumping into you.

One by one, they come over for refreshments, before picking up where they left off beforehand. Tom’s last to leave, wanting to talk to you before playing with his brothers again.

“Oh, I have to talk to you later,” you whisper, fingers tracing down his damp (sweaty) shirt with a giggle. Tom raises a brow, and you nod softly, “Just, when you have time. Now have fun,” you push him off, and though he’s still just as curious, he leaves you alone on the patio. Taking one last glance at the rowdy group of boys, you bring the tray of empty cups inside, sliding the door shut and sighing to yourself. More dishes to do.

——

Tom’s drying his hair with a purple bath towel when he comes out of the steamy bathroom. He sighs contentedly, before remembering your words from earlier. He brings it up, “What was it that you needed to talk to me about?”

He walks over to the dresser while you look up from your phone. You hum as Tom puts something away, and you shut the electronic device off, setting it on your nightstand and twisting to face his direction.

“I wanted to talk to you about… us, I guess.”

You see Tom’s movement slow, and he removes the towel from his damp curls, turning around hesitantly. You smile, waving him off, “Nothing bad, I promise.”

He lets out an inaudible “phew,” and nods. “Good.” You agree with a nod of your head, and he furthers on with the questions. “What is it, though? Is it something important?”

“I mean…” Tom places his towel on the rack before walking to the opposite side of the mattress “Sorta?” You offer, and you see the gears turn in his head. He sits down across from you, on the bed, and he smiles encouragingly, still a bit suspicious.

“Well, I’m all ears, darling.”

You smile at the familiar pet name, and with a final breath in, you admit what’s been in your head for the past few months. “I was thinking maybe we could… move out… without the boys.”

It’s dead quiet for a few beats while the words sink into his mind. You’re not sure how he’s going to react, but you watch to gauge his reaction.

His mouth opens, almost as if he’s about to say something, but then he closes it, as if he’d suddenly second guessed himself. For once, you truly can’t read him.

“I thought… I thought you liked living here?” he says softly, almost a bit saddened.

You sigh with your words, “I do! Really, I do, but…”

“But…?” He bites his lip.

“Well, I mean…” you exhale again, “We’ve been together for almost two years,” he’s still listening, “Don’t you think we should be a little more independent?”

“I mean, sure, if we were a normal couple.” He laughs at the joke, and while you do too, it’s not really genuine, but more forced for the awkward tension in the air. “I just thought you… y’know, enjoyed spending time with everyone.”

You nod understandingly. “I do, Tom. Really, I do. But… y’know, we’re not getting any younger. I just thought maybe it was time for us to get a place of our own.” It comes out as more of a suggestion, a question for him to respond to. You quietly bite your lip while Tom nods at the information he’s taking in.

He looks down at his fingers, before locking eyes with you. “Can I think about it?”

You shut your eyes softly while nodding. Tom blinks, before standing from the bed, giving you a kiss on the forehead and bidding farewell, heading downstairs for more quality time with his brothers.

——

It’s been a week since that conversation took place in your room. You didn’t think it’d go so… bad? You’re not sure if you should say that, because he didn’t exactly say “no,” he just didn’t seem enthusiastic about deciding at all.

It’s a quiet Saturday. You’re out bowling with a few of your friends, news of one of them getting engaged spreading like wildfire. She’s having a dinner party later, but for now, you’re keeping the meeting small, inviting your closest circle for the fun day at the bowling lanes.

Tom asked you if you wanted to reschedule the dinner with his family, but you insisted that arriving late would be fine. It’s only four o’clock — the Holland family likes to come for late lunch and spend the night playing games and drinking beer, until the clock strikes midnight and Paddy’s passing out in the backseat on the way back home.

At least now, only one Holland brother stays with the parents.

Somehow, someway, the conversation had shifted to you. Everyone’s gathered in the living room, scattered on sofas, couches, beanbags, armchairs, loveseats. Tom misses you at his side, but the conversation of how your work is going just reminds him of what you’d proposed a few days ago.

“How’re things with her in general, though?” Nikki, Tom’s mom, asks with a smile. The eyes shift towards Tom, and he can feel his face heating up.

“Yeah, how’re things with the lovebirds?” Harry teases.

Tom chuckles, anxiety bubbling in his stomach, twisting his. “Uh- they’re- they’re good, yeah,” he assures them, though shaky.

“You sure, there?” Harrison teases. “Did someone propose or something?”

“No, no,” Tom airily chuckles. “Nothing like that.” “Oh?” His dad picks up, “What, then?”

“She- uh…” he licks his lips out of habit. “She wants to move out. Find a place for us, she said.”

The tone in which Tom tells them lets them know that he’s a little less than enthusiastic about the whole ordeal. It’s something that raises a red flag for Nikki; it’s something that makes her brows furrow in confusion.

“Oh,” Sam breaks the silent. “I’m happy for you, bro,” he pats Tom’s shoulder.

Tom smiles, though it’s forced and a bit spaced out.

“What’re you gonna tell her?” Harry asks. “You want it too, right?”

Tom shrugs weakly. Nobody talks about his responses, his reactions. It’s all a bit unexpected, for Tom to not be on board with the next step of the relationship.

“I mean, I don’t know, really.” He confesses with a nervous laugh, running a hand through his curls. “I’d miss you all so much. I just… I don’t know, I guess I just thought she liked living here too, y’know.”

A collective number of “yeah’s” and “mhm’s” go around the room, and Tom nods nonchalantly before the conversation switches to something more exciting. For now, Nikki lets it go, just until she can get her eldest in a room by himself, and before you get home.

It’s when Tom’s getting snacks for the group that Nikki decides to offer her help in the kitchen. They’re just putting dinner in the oven and preparing appetizers, but still, any opportunity to talk to Tom.

“So,” Nikki smiles, and Tom giggles while she puts another slice of tomato on the dish they’re preparing. “Moving out, huh?”

Though her tone is teasing, Tom can’t help but get shivers. He nods, quieting down a bit. Nikki’s movements remain, but Tom stops working altogether. “I don’t want to move out.”

His mum turns to look at him, and she nods, almost as if anticipating the confession. “Why not?”

Tom clicks his tongue, looking down as if he’s ashamed of feeling this way. “I just like things the way they are right now. I know at some point, someone’s gonna move out and the clan’s gonna go our separate ways, but I don’t want to be the one to go first.”

At this, Nikki fully turns to talk to Tom, no longer making dinner. “Tom…” She wipes her hands on a kitchen towel, and Tom does the same. “You were the first to go, you know.”

His eyebrows pull together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she sighs, “Your career was first to take off. You ran out that door so fast, we couldn’t keep up.” Tom laughs, reminiscing to himself. “You’re going to keep growing,” she says softly. “You can’t stop that. You can’t stop everyone from growing apart. Sure, you might not grow apart, but you won’t always be this cute little boy band from your school days.”

“Not a boy band, mum,” Tom grumbles. The two of them share a knowing smile.

“You can’t blame yourself for growing, darling,” she steps closer, grabbing one of his hands just like he had grabbed hers the day he was first born. “You can’t expect to be the glue that holds this- this temporary situation together forever. You’re not a superhero,” the two of them laugh again, but then Tom nods knowingly, and Nikki can see a faint batch of tears spring in his eye sockets.

“No, I know, mum.” He sniffles. “I guess… I don’t know, i’ve just always been afraid of never being there when everything changes. I always come back and everyone’s a different person, just…” he searches for the words, “with the same faces.”

She nods, turning back to her dinner dish. Tom keeps his eyes trained on his hands, which are planted on the countertop.

“She loves you a lot, you know.” Nikki says after a few beats. “She just wants a bit of privacy, a bit of your relationship without your annoying brothers.”

“Annoying is right,” Tom teases. They laugh again. “Yeah, I guess I just never thought of that.” Nikki hums, and the kitchen grows silent for a few moments. “Thank you, mum.”

“For what?”

“Being there.” Tom replies. “You never gave up on me, and now… I don’t know. It means a lot to me that you’re helping me with something so important to me.”

Nikki’s eyes soften, and both of them tear up. She nods, this time breaking the silence again. “I know how much you love her,” She says quietly. “One day, she’ll be yours for forever. She’s the one — I can see it in both of your eyes.”

Tom sucks in a breath and wipes his eyes. “I know she’s the one, too.” He adds in another tomato to the dish. “She’s always been it for me.”

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Chapter 9: Heroes and Villains (Discovery)

Prev

AO3

It wasn’t the toughest akuma that they had ever faced. But even with both of them fighting, it took too long. So long that her family was sure to be suspicious. Despite the fact that she just wanted to portal back to the hotel where there would be far fewer questions, she knew she didn’t have that luxury.

“Kaalki, if I ask to go to an empty room in the manor, can you do that? I don’t wanna pop out of nowhere. I’m already dreading the questions we’re gonna get about Adrien disappearing.” Marinette asks the kwami, rolling her eyes at Adrien’s annoyed huff.

“If you had just taken me with you to begin with-”

“To the bathroom? Adrien, I know you’re not the best with social situations but even you know that’s weird, right? And besides, there’s no way Dick would’ve let you follow me. He’s hovered every time we’ve been alone.” Marinette reminds him, crossing her arms.

“We were bonding over humor!” Adrien argues.

“Sure! But I still-”

“Ladybug, I can do it. As entertaining as all of this is, the Wayne family should not be kept waiting.” Kaalki reminds her, a small smirk on their face. Marinette’s eye twitches at the reminder of her family. Okay. One problem at a time.

“Okay. I’m trusting you. Tikki, Kaalki unify. Voyage!” Marinette calls, grabbing Adrien’s hand and stepping through the portal. She glances around the room, frowning as she looks at everything. None of it made sense. It looked kind of what she would imagine from-

“Is this the Batcave?” Adrien asks, mouth wide in shock as he slowly turns in a circle.

“Kaalki, dismount.” Marinette says, glaring at the kwami the second they’re visible again. “Care to explain what’s going on?”

“You asked to go to an empty room in the manor. I simply took you to the most famous room. It truly is a crime that you’ve never been in here before.” Kaalki hums, zipping around the space.

“I’ve only been to the manor twice! And this is in the manor? Does Batman work for Mr. Wayne?” She asks, desperately trying to figure out the situation.

“LB, what if he is Batman?” Adrien asks, making her pale.

“He’d figure me out so quickly. Oh god, what are we gonna do? He’s gonna kick me out of the family and I was just starting to be able to breathe around them and think about the fact that they are my family and now I’m going to go back to being an only child and even though Dick can be annoying and I haven’t really talked a lot to the others I really wanted to get to know them and now I’ll never get the chance because I’m a failed superhero who can’t even defeat one measly villain and he’s gonna take away my Miraculous and then he’s gonna be Ladybug but then it’ll be weird and he’ll hate me even more because red is not his color but he’ll be stuck in red because that’s what Paris is used to for the Ladybug costume and we don’t want them to go into shock when I’m replaced and-”

“Who the fuck are you?” A voice asks, clearly angry. Marinette winces and turns, eyes wide when she notices the actual (REAL) gun in Jason’s hands.

“We’re not meant to be here. There was a mistake with transportation and-” Marinette starts, stumbling over her words as she tries not to panic even more.

“Likely story. Don’t fucking move. I’m calling Batman.” Jason says, glaring at the two before pulling out his phone. “Hey B, there’s a situation in the cave. Intruders. No, I have no fucking clue how they got in here. Yeah, there’s two of them. No, no it’s not them. Yeah well I kinda can’t fucking interrogate them by myself now can I?” There’s a pause. “Yeah no, not wearing that. Yeah thanks for that. Well I didn’t- Just get over here.”

“So is Batman coming?” Adrien asks, the excitement clear on his face. Marinette looks at him in annoyance. She loved the boy but sometimes, he had no sense of self preservation.

“Yeah, Batman’s coming. Why the fuck are you here?” Jason asks, the angry look on his face not matching the personality she had seen every other time she’d seen him.

“Why are we here? Why are you here?” Adrien asks, poking. Jason’s eyes narrow and his glare gets darker.

“We’re here to ask Batman for help with a situation.” Marinette blurts, shifting so that she’s slightly in front of Adrien since he kept saying things that were pissing Jason off. Jason frowns.

“Why do you need help from Batman?” He asks.

“Ladybug, Chat Noir. I’ll admit I didn’t expect to see either of you here.” A gruff voice states, walking towards them. Marinette’s eyes widen. Holy vigilante, that's Batman. And he’s not looking at her as a civilian who could be scared. Nope. Now he’s looking at her as a fellow hero and possible intruder. Oh this should be fun.

“Monsieur Batman. I apologize for our intrusion. I meant to bring us to Gotham, to speak with you, but I must have messed up. I’m truly sorry for appearing in your home like this.” She says, extending her hand for a handshake. Batman glances down at her hand, seeming to hesitate for a moment before reaching out and shaking her hand.

“As long as you are here, we might as well talk about the Paris situation. It has recently come to my attention and I’m concerned about the possibility of death in your city.” Batman says, getting straight to business.

“I’m sorry, what the actual fuck is happening in Paris? And why haven’t I heard anything about it? Actually, why hasn’t anyone heard about a situation in Paris?” Jason asks, actually glaring at Batman.

“It doesn’t concern you, Mr. Todd. You may leave now. We’ll have our meeting another time.” Batman says, his tone firm.

“The hell it doesn’t. My baby sister lives in Paris, and I’d be damned if I left her alone in some kind of hellscape where apparently there’s the possibility of a lot of death. Now can someone tell me what is going on in Paris?” Jason yells, his eyes blazing as he glares at Batman. Marinette blinks at her brother, shocked at his reaction. Did he really care that much?

“It’d probably be easier to show you. Do you mind?” Adrien asks, gesturing to the computer. Batman stiffens.

“I’ll pull it up. I’m sure you’re referring to the videos of previous fights. I have them in a folder.” He says, walking over and hitting several buttons. Before long, a video is pulled up on the gigantic screen. A video of the fight against Syren. Of course he had to choose one of the most dangerous akumas. Instead of watching the screen, Marinette watches her brother’s reactions. Flinching slightly as she hears his knuckles crack from how tightly he’s clenching his fists.

“How long has this been going on?” He asks simply, his voice much darker than she’d ever heard.

“Almost two years.” Marinette responds, frowning at him. She hadn’t known him long, and she knew it would be stupid as Ladybug, but Marinette wanted to hug her older brother. He looked pissed, sure, but underneath the initial anger, she could see the worry. And how unsure he was. She couldn’t be certain that all of the worry was aimed at her or the Paris situation, but she knew at least some of it was. And she felt bad for making him worry like that.

“And where has the Justice League been?” He asks Batman, almost snarling.

“There’s no lasting damage.” Marinette says. “Even if the Justice League had shown up, they couldn’t have done anything that Chat or I couldn’t. My power is to erase the damage, and death, done during our battles. So Monsieur Batman, you don’t have to worry about the possible death either. I assure you both, it’s fine. We could use assistance to figure out Hawkmoth’s identity though.” Marinette says, trying to move the subject away from death and injury and the rougher parts of akuma battles.

“I don’t give a damn if the damage isn’t lasting. You remember, right?” Jason asks. Marinette hesitates.

“Well, yes. But the akumatized victims don’t and-”

“No. See, I don’t care about the akumatized victims right now either. I care about the amount of death and destruction and pain my sister has had to deal with alone. What about the people who die, Ladybug? Do they remember that they died? Do they wake up after drowning or burning or being crushed to death and just be told to be thankful that it wasn’t permanent? Or do they get to forget too?” Jason asks through clenched teeth. Marinette stops, thinking of all the times buildings have fallen on her. The times she's watched friends die. The time Tikki had to take the earrings and Marinette woke up after the battle, still able to feel the metal in her chest. The time she saw a world draped in white, only one other person left in the entire world. She thinks of these times, and she sighs.

"No. They don't forget." She says, biting back the wave of emotion threatening to push her under. She can't. She has to focus. She can't break right now.

"Then I don't care about the rest of Paris. What are you doing to protect Marinette Dupain Cheng?" He asks, crossing his arms and staring her down. She blinks. She gets that he's worried, as her brother, but why would they have special protection for one person? She's about to ask when Batman speaks up instead.

"No worries, Mr. Todd. My team and I have been made aware and have prepared a security detail for Miss Dupain Cheng once she returns to Paris." Batman says simply. Marinette's eyes widen. No. Oh no. No, no, no, she can't be watched! How's she supposed to protect Paris if an American superhero and his team are stalking her to make sure she's safe?

"As a former Miraculous wielder, Marinette is already under our protection." She lies, ignoring the shocked look Adrien is giving her.

"I'm sorry, what? Former- She was a hero?!" Jason yells, the panic clear on his face.

"Yes, but she was compromised so she doesn't work with us anymore." Marinette says, hoping to calm him down. It doesn't work.

"She was compromised! And you abandoned her? What the hell is wrong with you?" He yells as he starts to pace the room.

"Mr. Todd, it might be best if you-" Batman starts, holding his hands up placatingly.

"I don't wanna fucking hear it, B. You might be okay with watching a bunch of kids run around in costumes and have near death experiences but I'm not watching it. Not again. Now whatever this meeting is can wait, because my sister is currently missing and Batman over here needs to go find her. Because we need to wrap her in some goddamned bubble wrap because apparently this family is a fucking trouble magnet. And if you two are going to be in Gotham, then you can go help look for her too." Jason says, turning and starting to storm off. He pauses and turns back to the group of heroes- vigilantes?- "And her friend Adrien. I'm not sure how we'll fund him, stupid magic light thingy. But Marinette's gonna be pissed if she gets back and her boy toy is missing." He turns and actually leaves this time. Marinette turns to Batman and raises an eyebrow. A silent question on what the next step is. Batman frowns.

"As much as I dislike taking orders from civilians, he's right. Mr. Wayne asked my team to look for Miss Dupain Cheng. I assume the two of you will stay to help." He says. Marinette shakes her head.

"Unfortunately, we're going to have to leave. But we'll be in contact." Marinette says with a quick smile before calling Kaalki's transformation and creating a portal. Repeatedly thinking 'unused bedroom in Wayne manor, she steps through without waiting for a response from Batman, tugging Adrien along. Glancing around, she sighs in relief when she realizes the Kwami didn't take them to another secret lair.

"That was intense." Adrien says, dropping his transformation.

"I need extra Camembert after that disaster." Plagg says with a smirk. Marinette drops her transformation, stifling a giggle at the annoyed look on Tikki’s face.

"It wouldn't have been a disaster if you hadn't convinced Kaalki to do that!" She says angrily. Marinette’s previous humor instantly disappears and she turns to Plagg.

"Plagg, what is she talking about?" She asks, glaring at the Kwami.

"Now, pigtails, don't do anything rash, but the Batcave was my idea." He blurts out.

"I take offense to that. I brought them there!" Kaalki exclaims with a pout.

"Yeah, but I'm the one who found out. And told you and Sugar Cube." Plagg counters making Kaalki roll their eyes.

"Oh puhlease, you wouldn't have known what it was if I hadn't followed you." They say, chin high in the air.

"So apparently Batman is looking for us. What're the odds Mr. Wayne is just working for Batman and not actually Batman himself?" Marinette asks, giving Adrien a hopeful look.

"I think they're the same odds that no one in your family will ask questions about where we were." He says with a shrug. Marinette groans.

"I can't believe my dad is Batman." She drops her head into her hands, taking a moment to breathe before a thought pops into her head.

"Do you think my brothers are the rest of them? Oh god. Damian is totally Robin, and Tim is Red Robin. Which would make Jason Red Hood 'cause Nightwing's hair is completely black. Oh my god. I'm in a family of vigilantes!" She groans, huffing in annoyance.

"What's so bad about that? They'll be even more likely to help us find Hawkmoth." Adrien says, still looking on the bright side.

"That's if they let me out of their sight. You heard Jason, and Mr. Wayne. They want to put a security detail on me and they think I'm a civilian! What’re they gonna do when they realize I’m a superhero too?” Marinette moans, various situations running through her head. She takes a few steadying breaths to try and stave off the panic. They won’t find out, right?

---

Jason kicks a chair he walks past, mumbling under his breath. Bruce hadn’t acted surprised or anything, so apparently he already knew about the situation. Knew and didn’t say shit to anyone else. Of course he did. Jason would’ve cared a few days ago, sure he would’ve. But now he cares. Because now his tiny sister is in danger and he’d be damned if he let her go back to Paris without protection. Hell, he’ll go with if he has to. Anything to keep her safe. To stop her from dying. Or, dying again. And apparently she was a hero in Paris at some point. And she was compromised. And then abandoned. What a pile of shit. Huffing in frustration, he resists the urge to run back to the cave and start shooting. Instead he walks towards his room to grab the keys he’d thrown in there earlier when he got to the manor for dinner. Turning the corner, he freezes in shock when he sees Marinette and Adrien standing there, Adrien gently patting her back as she looks close to panicked.

“Marinette!” Jason calls, running towards her and sweeping her up in a big hug. He didn’t want to let her go. If he let her go, she’d go back to Paris. She’d have to deal with a supervillain and death and horrible things. She was too young for that. He, of all people, would know.

“Jay. Can’t breathe. Please.” She chokes out. Jason lets her down, then glares at her.

“Where the hell have you been? I thought you were going to the bathroom?” He asks, frowning as she grows even paler.

“Uh, er, I was?” She says, sounding more like a question. He narrows his eyes.

“Are you sure?” He asks.

“Yes?” She asks, eye twitching. Jason sighs.

“If you don’t wanna tell me Pixie Pop, you don’t have to. But you are gonna have to tell B.” He says.

“Batman?!” She shrieks, eyes wide. Jason shakes his head, panic welling up.

“No, why- B’s what I call Bruce. Why would you think I was talking about Batman?” He asks, gesturing wildly.

“Because that’s what you called Batman on the phone!” She counters, freezing the second the words are out of her mouth.

“Wait, what? When did you-” Jason stops, a horrible feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. No. She can’t.

“Wait no, I- oh crap.” She mumbles, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“You’re Ladybug.” Jason says, his ears ringing as he looks down at his sister. Well fuck.

---

Dick sighs, turning around in a circle as he looks at the closing shops around him. Where could Marinette have gone? Why did she leave? If she was overwhelmed they would have driven her back to her hotel. She didn’t have to try and walk back by herself. Especially this late. And in Gotham of all places. His phone ringing tugged him from his thoughts and he answered without even looking at the caller ID.

“Hello?” He says, trying hard to push down the worry and focus on the phone call.

”Hey Dick. I found them.” Jay says, sounding tired. Dick lets out a sigh of relief.

“Where were they?” He asks.

”In the manor. Look, I think we all need to have a talk. You should probably come home. And grab Replacement and Demon Spawn on the way back.” Jason says. Dick frowns. How were they in the manor? They all looked in the manor, they were not there.

“Okay, yeah. On my way.” Dick says instead. This should be interesting.

---

Marinette tries to ignore the burning stare from Jason as she grips onto Adrien’s hand. This could be a huge mistake, but it could also help them find Hawkmoth. And take him down for good. The idea of that is too great to give up. So no matter how much it makes her want to puke with nerves, she’d tell her family the truth. That she’s Ladybug. She was sure they’d understand, being the infamous Batfamily and everything.

“Sorry about that, Timmy insisted on grabbing some coffee on the way back. Where’s B?” Dick asks, and Marinette winces at the nickname. Why her brothers thought it was a good idea to call Mr. Wayne ‘B’ as both Batman and Bruce Wayne was beyond her. They’d had secret identities much longer (though after today she wasn’t sure how).

“Now that we are all here, could you explain why you insisted on this meeting, Jason?” Mr. Wayne asks, sat in the same chair he’d been in when the evening had first started. Marinette glances around at her siblings, smiling softly back at Cass who seemed to be trying to reassure her without signing or saying anything.

“Marinette is Ladybug.” Jason blurts out, instead of dropping the bomb slowly like they’d discussed. Silence. Just as Mr. Wayne opens his mouth, Marinette blurts out:

“Yeah, well you’re the Batfamily!” Oops.

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