#i remembered the read more

[ghastlybirdie]

[intro]

Simon "Ghost" Riley x pregnant!reader

Summary: You decompress after a stressful day at work wc: 1.8k cw: afab!reader, pregnancy, mentions of throwing up

There was a devil personally weaving every string of misfortune that tumbled your way, each wave of inconvenience sending you into a spiral that left you keeling in the aftermath

This was the third time of you going to the bathroom within the last two hours that you've been at work, the loo becoming your lounge chair and support for every time you've come in here to either gag, vomit, or pee

You know that, logically, it was the early stages of pregnancy seeing as it's been nearly eight weeks now

But rational has left you long ago when someone peeling an egg at their desk left you retching into your mug within moments

This wasn't the only problem you faced, seeing as a patron of hell seemed to be curating your sit-com show of a life: your fiancé- ex fiancé, in fact

He still worked in the building, still spoke to the same people as you did, still smiled as if nothing was wrong

Maybe in his reality, the one you couldn't see between his ears, he was also spiraling and suffering like you were. Maybe he too was throwing up into a suspiciously smelly toilet or having to evade the awkward pathetic call to say that the restroom is occupied

With the way you were shamefully walking back to your cubicle, laughter surrounding the idle chatter you could hear him having nearby, you were doubtful he shared the experience

So you could do the only thing you knew how to do in moments like these:

--

"Vanilla sundae with chips, please?"

It could of been a king's feast, a Michelin star meal, the Last Supper, with the way that the ice cream soothed your stomach

The saltiness and the sweet were a constant craving even prior to the pregnancy, the only welcoming symptom that you were looking forward to indulging into more

You were barreling straight to Nirvana, a life fulfilled completely by a cheap sundae and overly salted chips when a graveled voice called your attention

"You best find yourself a room for that ice cream ya have there. You're practically pornographic with that thing."

Simon stood at your booth with a mug in hand and an ever-so-slight slant in his eyes, as if he was smiling down at you through his mask. He looked more decent, much more equipped for the waking world this time around

You rolled your ice cream coated tongue through your lips, seeing as you were mid bite, licking the salt and cream from around your mouth, the heat from your embarrassment threatening to melt and dripped the ice cream stuck to your chin

"Sorry... I was enjoying myself." You let a smile break through your meek waver in your voice, dapping yourself clean with a napkin

"I could tell, with the way you were moanin'. Thought I walked into the wrong place for a second there." The playfulness in his tone only dug the knife deeper that you truly were just moaning in your solitude, completely lost to the fact that you were in a public place and quite literally anyone able to hearing you; like Simon.

How awful

"Good god, was I really that loud?"

"I'm just pulling your leg, love." He gestured to the seat opposing you. "May I?" You couldn't say no, letting him sit himself and chuckling at the groan he let out, earning a side-eye from him.

"Who's moaning now?" You smiled, pleased with your quip and signing it with a heavy spoonful of ice cream

"Are we comparing? 'Cause I bet you a try of your chips that that poor old lady over there is clutching her pearls, the poor thing." He adjusted himself in the booth seat still too small for him to gesture to a little old lady eating a pie, dressed in her Sunday best despite it being the middle of the week.

You rolled your eyes at him, guarding a hand around your fries and glaring at the blonde man, spoon held in your mouth

With the gesture Simon’s eyes visibly softened, a sense of a smile returning. “It’s good to see you back here. Missed seeing you for a while, there.”

You paused for a moment, pursing your lips to contemplate before continuing. “Yeah, well… I needed a bit of a breather there, considering-” You gestured all around you, making a face no doubt. “But it’s good to be back; missed this sad little place.”

Simon let the words sit in the air, sipping on his tea before blurting out: “Have you spoken to the arsehole yet?”

You snorted up a piece of your fries, coughing it out quick enough to catch Simon primed to reach towards you but stopping in time to chuckle at your sudden outburst. “Now that’s… Forward. But no… And yes? We’ve agreed to move out of our flat, seeing as there’s not much for us to really salvage. Not much else, though.”

The words hung off your lips like they were weighing them down, the winds falling from the sails you’ve been coasting on since sitting down with your sundae. Simon seemed to notice, drumming his fingers on his mug before picking up the pieces of the somber conversation.

“Have you found a place yet?” He asked curiously, pressing only slightly.

“Hm? Oh, for a flat?” You blew out an exhale through your lips, pursing them while you scrunched your nose. “No. Trying to look for a decent one makes my head hurt.”

Simon cocked his head in an agreeing hum, mug rising to his lips and mask tucked under his chin. His lips were chapped, annoyingly so, making his sharp features seem less tailored for his lack of grooming habits. He smacked his lips together and sucked his tongue with a snapping click, eyes focused somewhere not based in reality as you watched him with your own far off stare.

He is handsome, you can tell by his jawline and sharp nose, but his hair is tussled into a flurry of cowlicks and curls jutting out awkwardly, like he tried to style it with some pomade but gave up when an odd straight piece wouldn’t sit down. You can imagine the grumbling he’d had when he tried for far too long. His clothes weren’t filled with holes or bleach stains like the last time you’ve encountered him, but they were wrinkled and somehow too short at the sleeves to cover his wrists fully; an awkward length for his broad and tall build. A shadow of a beard poked through, a slight ginger shade blending through the near translucent blonde stubble. He was so handsome, but by everything good and green, he was nearly unkempt. Like he just arrived off of a longtime voyage somewhere far.

“What do you think?”

You blinked once, then twice, when Simon faced you, seemingly looking to you for an answer.

“What?” You asked with full confusion, a voice in the back of your brain screaming at you that you’ve stared at him too long.

Simon sighed, leaning sideways to better get into your eye view as he repeated himself more punctually.

“There’s a vacancy in the building complex I live in. The rent is decent, and the building manager isn’t a piece of total shit. Not too half bad.”

The two of you didn’t say a single word for some time, your mind restarting and booting up again, a soft little ‘Oh?’ leaving you but not much else before he continued.

“It’s not too far from here either, ten minute bus ride probably. Don’t know where you work but the bus stations are close by, too.” He trailed off as he kept talking, his sales pitch losing its fire. He sounds almost embarrassed, eyes looking down to his cup.

You stayed silent as a snail as you visibly thought through his words, the cogs practically turning under your forehead as you processed everything. It was such a friendly gesture, an olive branch of kindness that this near stranger of a man offered to you. It wasn’t the only kindness you’ve received recently, but the offer made you tear up none the less.

The stress of the last few weeks had been bubbling somewhere in your belly, and most times it came back up in your breakfast, lunch, and dinner sometimes. So to hear something that could solve at least one of the hundreds of problems plaguing your mind right now overwhelmed you.

“Bloody hell, woman, I didn’t even take one of your chips yet.” He huffed, a playful lit in his tone, a hand plucking a napkin and offering it gently to you.

You wiped your eyes and sniffed away your snot, taking the numerous napkins Simon offered to you until your tears stopped and your nose and eyes were raw.

Your ice cream sundae went muddy and melted and your fries turned wilted as you and Simon spoke, apologies and smiling passed between the two of you as an hour quickly rushed by. Simon exchanged the number and address to the building’s leasing office written on the back of a crumbled punch card in hand as the two of you left the restaurant, the sun shining down reflecting the smile that you gave him as you turn the opposite way as him.

“You’re a life saver, Simon.” You offered the compliment but Simon laughed lowly and shook his head. “I’m very serious! That motel is getting too cramp and it smells awful.”

Simon had his face covered again but his eyes showed the smile hidden away from you, an ache in your heart lasting for just a moment when you missed seeing it despite basking in it in the last hour or so. It was beautiful, you think.

“Just get on the phone with the lady. She’ll treat you right.” Was his last words before his farewell, when your bus hissed ahead of you, waiting for you to enter.

You held the punch card close to yourself, looking at the photos of the building online and fantasizing about being so close to normalcy again. Being so close to good people like Simon. Being close to Simon.

You thought about how weird and misplaced that thought was, how odd it was. Close to Simon? For what? Perhaps to fix a leaky pipe or missing couch leg, but something like that shouldn’t make your stomach flip and turn daydreaming about this new move. It shouldn’t, right?

It didn’t. It was nausea, actually, as evident by the flips and turns turning to bile in your throat and landing at your feet. That explains the butterflies. Turns out it was just your sundae coming back up again. Good. The last thing you need is school-girl crush being a distraction in your life.

[aphel1on]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

I remember discussing Tintin casting choices with a friend from Germany and remarked how it was odd he often has an English accent in adaptations rather than a Belgian one, and my friend just replied "that's because Tintin gives incredibly strong English boy energy (derogatory)"

Here in the UK there's a lot of weird classism tied into accents. Today accent diversity and representation in broadcasting is actively pursued but in Tintin's time there certainly was a preferred accent to have.

imagine this exchange happens between pages 28-29 in The Crab with the Golden Claws

[watchingwisteria]

listen there really was just something about how in the book, snow’s 3-page descent from hesitant lover boy to deluded mfer happens entirely in his mind. lucy gray gives him no indication whatsoever that she suspects him, that she’s going to leave or betray him. he’s just sitting quietly in the cabin waiting for her to return when that seed of calculated suspicion, which he has needed to survive the capitol, takes a hold of him and chokes the life out of any goodness left inside him. it really drives home your terror as a reader that “oh my god did he kill her? did she escape? what happened to her? why would he even think that?” in a way that when the movie had to adjust for visualization it lost some of that holy shit this guy has lost it emphasis.

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

[decaffeinatedpartymuggoop]

People talk about how “overpowered” and freaky some of the physical feats in PJO and HOO are but I think people forget that all demigods inherently have enhanced, speed, agility, and strength. So at lot of these physical feats actually make a lot of sense in their “power scaling.”

And I know a lot of people like talk about the Lois Arc jump because that is insane but there are a lot of other feats that show off the enhanced attributes some of the other demigods have.

Like, Hazel ran after a Arion, the fastest horse alive for a WHOLE day. Hours upon hours on end. And even if Arion WASN’T the fastest horse he’s still. A horse. That Hazel was able to keep up with. And then run all the way home.

Reyna EASILY knocks away giant werewolves with a knife and used her javelin like a pole vault. Annabeth managed to fight Kronos, a whole ass Titan, to a standstill. And she’s been shown to perform moves only professional acrobatic and gymnast can do. Piper threw a fifty pound shield at Medea and was described to move fast as a viper.

Jason had dodged arrows that have appeared out of no where, no warning, and Percy has side stepped bullets. BULLETS.

Not to mention that with the Lycaon and werewolves they were all out running and keeping up with WOLVES.

So, yeah, demigods have freaky physical feats.

[somewhereincairparavel]

JASON GRACE PLAYS LACROSSE AND TENNIS. I CAN'T AND WON'T BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS-

[somnimagus]

out of the frying pan and into the fire and into another frying pan that's also on fire

[id in alt text]

[pigswithwings]

to care for you i must take you apart

[bacchuschucklefuck]

soon it'll be dawn again

transcript under the cut ⏬

page 01

Fig: no way? - you're still up?

Riz: Wh– yes?

Riz: Why'd I not be.

page 02

Fig: I me~~ean - that took.

Fig: whole day.

Riz: Yeah?

Fig: 'm beat.

Riz: you should sleep.

page 03

Fig: nah. my guy's still up

Fig: I wanna hang out.

page 04

Riz: That's really nice.

Fig: Hah! - Nobody ever expects an Archdevil rockstar to be nice.

Riz: … yeah. - 's just budget work tho. (the stuff I'm working on) - I've heard it's boring.

page 05

Fig: yeah, but you do it…

Riz: It keeps things going, right? - Nothing happens if nobody sits down and - does the thing.

Fig: That's right… - though. Yeah.

page 06

Fig: sometimes it's someone else who - doesn't want the same thing to happen.

Riz: … - mm.

page 07

Riz (off screen): …It took me a long time to get that not everyone likes doing what I do. - 's probably because you guys are so nice– - or. - kind.

Riz (off screen): to anyone too, not just. - the people you /love/.

page 08

Riz: that's not how it is elsewhere. - The world's– not. hostile. - but 's not like it's kind.

Riz: So I'm doing as much as I can now… 

page 09

Fig: Hey.

Riz: ?

Fig: Go dig some dirt with me.

page 10

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - oh you meant like - actual dirt. (not incriminating information)

Fig: o yea.

Fig: there's clay in the backyard soil. - sometimes when I'm sun deficient or something I go touch dirt for a bit.

page 11

Fig: here u go

page 12

Riz: uh

Fig: now we make a thing! - 'm pretty good at freehanding a bowl.

Fig: I'll show u

page 13

Fig: just– yep, flatten that out as evenly as u can, then–! - actually ur nails'd be so good at cutting out the strip. [larger than usual space] wait. - wait. wait u can carve patterns with them! we HAVE to try

Riz: uh - What. do I carve?

Fig: anything!!!

page 14

Fig: and– yep just seal the inside uh. seam?

Fig: yep that works - okay time's up! all contestant hands up

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - okay - wh. what's next?

Fig: haha - watch this.

(sound effect text): FWOO—MP

page 15

Riz: WH– DON'T JUST DO THAT???

Fig: Now it's fired!

Riz: THAT WAS NOT SAFE

Fig: (actually it's just dry. if u add water rn it'll dissolve)

Fig: ok catch!

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - careful!!

Fig: dw no need haha

page 16

Riz (thought bubble): oh - it's warm…

Fig: now I want you to throw this.

page 17

Fig: u gotta do it - c'mon

page 18

Riz: wh– - It's like 3AM right now

Fig: oh it's not /fired/ fired it's not gonna make a loud noise

Riz: And then just? leave a pile out here?

Fig: pour water over it & it'll be gone I told u

Riz: but

page 19

Fig (off screen): RIz.

page 20

Fig: I've done all this before.

Fig: Can you trust that at least?

page 21

Riz: no, I– - I do. - I trust you.

page 23

Riz: okay what happens now

(sound effect text): glob

page 24

Fig: we do it again!

page 25

Riz: wh. [larger than usual space] What do you mean. (this clay's too wet also)

Fig: see! you're already learning

Fig: [blank speech bubble] - there are flows that are futile to fight. - The world changes.

Fig: Things change.

page 26

Fig: I've learned my lessons with "forevers". - But - as an artist

Fig: I can give you one thing: - You can always do it again.

page 27

Fig: most of everything depends on the rest of the world, - but this. - making new. - that's yours as long as you want it.

page 28

Fig: So?

page 29

Riz: Yeah. - Yeah! - let's make another one.

[ofswordsandpens]

adding to the "there should have been more genuine tension within the seven" train of thought, it would have been funny if the Argo II, technically being a ship, meant it fell under Percy's power domain and he could control it all at whim, rendering all the carefully crafted controls Leo built useless if Percy felt like being an asshole

[polite--cat]

heart-wrenching & beautiful excerpts from the article on esteban ocon

[obsob]

despite, despite, despite!!

[arcanegifs]

rewatch the show yall. it gets even better if you do.

[katabay]

WOW this has been ROUGH in the Life Events category of things, but. slowly crawling out of that. hopefully

this was the opening scene for a something I started writing after watching the Manben inverview with Nishi Keiko and thinking back to all the classic shoujo manga I stayed up reading back in the day, like damn that's so true Urasawa Naoki

it's partially a love letter to all the greats of the genre that I read, and also to the late night teleseryses that captivated me over the years lmao. it'd be nice to find the time to tackle it properly as a comic, but I'm having fun working on it recreationally :)

✨but since it's recreational, some character info✨

the first character seen is lawrence 'law' valenciano (late 30s), the one with the glasses is cris volante (mid-later 20s). law works at a karinderya, cris is an extremely broke university student.

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / insta / tip jar!

[umblrspectrum]

do you ever like wanna make something cool but you dont know how so you just sit around like a moron for 5 hours straight pretending you know how

me neither

on a more serious note i know ad astra as a whole isnt over but i still want to thank daybreaker for their fics. what friends are for was the very first md fic i ever stumbled upon when trying out ao3 for the first time, and prior to joining the server i was checking it near daily for uploads. god knows if i'd be as deep in ao3 as i am now if it werent for this story and convenient timing. Thanks for the story.