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safyresky · 3 months ago

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Frostmas Year 7: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9 | Y10 | Y11 | Y12

Lmao I JUST posted Y6 and the BTS for it like, YESTERDAY as of starting this post, and I'm ALREADY HITTING UP YEAR 7 LMAO LET'S GOOOOoOOOOoooooOOo

Year Seven was a fun one! My notes were small and it ended up being one of the longer chapters which was genuinely shocking to me. Year 9 also did the SAME THING. Check out the OG notes below the cut! :)

[ID in ALT]

Short enough it fits in a screenshot. WILD. ALTHOUGH! It is SURROUNDED with little snippets from the year (hence the "see right side" note up top)—I imagine they were written while I was struggling with Year 6.

Anyway! Let's hecking get into this, yeah?

Jacqueline's Intro

Guess who scrapped it!

THIS GAL

Fun fact: I actually never liked the intro. I felt it really deterred from where I left off in Y6, so when I went back to read it and still felt this feeling, I scrapped it

As of writing this, I THINK I'm going to add it post-the tree and fast freeze hair scene? But we'll see if it works with the funky flow of things~

OKAY REGROUPING A WEEK LATER BC YOU GUYS. AS I READ THROUGH IT TO FILL THIS THING OUT I REALIZED SOMETHING. THE EVENTS OF YEAR SEVEN? THE WAY I WROTE IT, ALL HAPPEN WITHIN A DAY:

Jacqueline heads back to the Pole January 3rd

She has the convo about the Final Form Resort with B on January 3rd

They come up with the arson idea on January 3rd

She gets the twins clearance from Santa Jack during his wee lil interview on January 3rd

SHE GOES HOME AND GETS BLINTER APPROVAL AND THE TWINS TO AGREE ON J A N U A R Y 3RD

THEY THEN. IMMEDIATELY GO UP TO THE NORTH POLE AND JACQUELINE DOES THE WHOLE AIRPORT SHENANIGANS WITH JACK ON JANUARY THIRD

WHILE BELOW THEM. THE TWINS WING IT UNDER BERNARD'S WATCHFUL EYE. AND BURN THE NORTH POLE RESORT STUFF TO THE GROUND.

JANUARY

THIRD

Now when I originally wrote this, I had not picked up on that at ALL. I thought that there'd been some time in between, but alas! I did it all on the SAME DAY. It only FELT LIKE IN BETWEEN TIME BECAUSE I KEPT TAKING LONG BREAKS BETWEEN WRITING SESSIONS!

AH!

SO I HAD TO OVERHAUL THAT WHICH DRASTICALLY CHANGED THE WHOLE CHAPTER FROM HOW IT ORIGINALLY WAS, ESPECIALLY SINCE THE TWINS ARE 12, NOT 8 (hundred) LIKE I ORIGINALLY HAD THEM IN LIKE. 2012! FUCKIN EH!

So NOW, without FURTHER ado. The Behind the Scenes of Year 7 Mark 2 because ah-fuck-i-can't-believe-i've-done-this dot vine.

Scene 1: Freedom

As per the crossed out original opening of this BTS, I decided to move the intro somewhere else, and found a good place for it, I think. I didn't want to break up the flow from Y6 into Y7, and I kind of like it a LOT better like this! :)

"Right now immediately" is tumblr vernacular/maybe a reference to the breadsticks meme?

Don't worry, she DOES find her left shoe again! Snow likes her a lot so when she went back up north she was like "HEY SNOW. YOU SEEN MY SHOE." and the snow yeeted it right out of a huge drift and slid it her way :)

And FINALLY she decides to come CLEAN to Blinter

I gotta tell you guys. Writing Blinter has been a STRUGGLE in these old parts. I have to keep remembering that CS has not happened, nor has MtF, so Winter's frozey and Blaise needs a Fucking Nap. I ALSO have to remember that they are decent parents. Like, they are trying their best. And as I read through these old chapters, some things they said were phrased in such a way that I was like "Hmm. My parents would say that. Let's change that!"

The other thing too is that a lot of lines in Frostmas were peer reviewed and quite well liked in the reviews, so trying to keep those in (because I liked them too!) while updating the vernacular and making sure everyone is in character has been a CHALLENGE. But I think I did well enough! HOPEFULLY.

My apologies if there was a line you liked that's GONZO now 🫠

Scene 2: Coming Clean to Blinter

This scene actually held up pretty well!

One major change was Blaise's anger. It was directed at her, so this time around I tweaked his vocab to make sure it was directed at her disappearance, and to hopefully show that it's coming from a place of concern and fear and that's why he's angry about it lmao

Winter too! Though she deffs didn't appreciate Jacqueline's sass levels, which are 100% hints I've dropped about what happens to her at the end of Year 10 >:)

"...they had grown into a sentient enchantment"

^So the gates at Frost Manor were NOT enchanted by Blaise to open on their own, funnily enough! They grew into sentience on their own. It happens sometimes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But the gates are one of my fave characters and they really love the family which is a good thing given they've been standing on that lot for like, four thousand or so years

RIGHT INTO THE FUN BITS

"Mom’s thumb rubbed my cheeks, her lips pursed. “Jacqueline darling…what have you done to yourself.” She chipped away at the ice on my face, head tilted, looking…perplexed."

The MOMENT she sees Jacqueline she's like "this is fake as fuck. why have you put all this ice on your face. what in the actual fuck, Jacqueline"

She's gd Winter ffs!!! And Jacqueline ain't SLICK! She thinks she is but she's really not :) But she tries and we gotta give her credit where it's due!

"I know it's convincing" says Jacqueline, meanwhile Winter's thinking "it's a mess, actually, and close up not convincing in the slightest but you've had a long day so I'm not going to roast you about that this time :)"

"Your FATHER trying to reach out" is a new line! Since I decided how Blaise's connections with the kids worked I figured I'd mention in in Y7 lmao. He's like "I'll leave you be but I am there if you need me" meanwhile Winter's like "I am a constant threat presence"

It's an interesting view into how they both grew up, actually, how they approach parenting and how their connections work!

Winter was surrounded by loud, loving sisters and a lovely mum. They were/are very tight knit and it shows with how active her connections with the kids are

Blaise didn't have a lot of freedom growing up, CONSTANTLY under the watchful eye of his parents AND brother AND the entire nobility AND the entire gd continent so he, of course, is very much like. Give them the freedom they need but support where you can kind of thing

sups off topic. Getting back ON topic. AH.

the line about the spiked warm drink was one of MY faves and I did my best to make sure I could keep it in there >:)

Scene 2.5: The Actual Chat

Blaise's hair is his worst tell. And the truth of the matter is, he can 100% keep it temperate if he wants too but he doesn't—he is the reason Winter always beats him at poker or any card game involving bluffing, really :P

Blinter deffs were unsure she'd be back by Christmas, given how everything went with the first child. They tried very hard to be hopeful and they were, doubt just creeps in REAL EASY especially when you're THAT old and have SEEN SOME SHIT

And the thing is, they DO understand! They've both been there. Dealing with some gnarly extenuating circumstance, that may or may not have been caused by family members or at least, contributed to by them, and they have fought through it and clawed their way out of the ground time and time again and are reminding Jacqueline about that in this whole scene. And also me. Because I frequently forget the shit I put these two through when they were younger (see: civil war, the call, day of darkness)

Blaise's speech about how many times can you keep doing it is loosely inspired by this post which whenever I see it I go hope IS messy, and also, BLAISE VIBES bc that's his core lmao

And it makes me feel better for constantly trying again and again even when things seem hopeless

hope really is messy business, isn't it? ANYWAY

"I am a simple woman. I just like to watch people flail on ice until they fall over.” “A worthy pursuit.” “Thank you, dear.” Dad nodded over the rim of his cup.

this was newly added, i fucking LOVE Winter she's so funny and Blaise is just like "you're valid hun" like. I love them? 🥰🥰🥰

And WHAMMO! WE INTRODUCE THE ACCIDENTAL FREEZE!

Which was HUGE foreshadowing, lol, as that's LITERALLY what HAPPENS as we know by now in Year 10!

You've heard of sad. You've heard of bad. Get ready for ANGRY. REALLY, REALLY FUCKING ANGRY! That's Jacqueline's nature as a frozen sprite, if you haven't noticed lmao

Reading this now post writing it, I'm like, DAMN, I could go for a Blinter sammy hug. That sounds delectable!

Scene 3

I have I ever told you all how I can pinpoint the exact moment Jacqueline's heart freezes? No? Well, I can, and if you're curious to know, it's in this scene 🤫

Scene 4: Visiting Gran

Yet ANOTHER instance of fixing shady character shit, oy VEY.

One of my pet peeves is Mother Nature being characterized as the BIGGEST bitch, derogatory, completely uncaring and cold. Like, yeah, Nature do be like that but also, it do be warm and comforting and nurturing, you know?

And she always seems very nice in her scenes in the movies so, you know, the MOMENT someone is like "she doesn't CARE" or ANYTHING like that I'm OUT.

So when I catch it happening in MY work I'm like, oh HELL NOOO

And I think this scene had a few instances of it that have since been refreshed and cleared out :)

CS HEADCANON ALERT: Fairies can shrink their size to get into small places! So can Pixies.

CS HEADCANON ALERT: The Legendary Figures all guard a specific type of magic that was used to create the World. Oh, there's all sorts of magic involved there. But the big ones, the ones that are easy to pick up on and most common? The Legendary Figures guard it, and make sure it keeps flowing and that the world keeps turning

This is why MN says that she felt a shift and things felt righted—Jacqueline, being a Legendary Figure atm, coming back out into the world proper, tips the magic balance back to where it should be.

Hence the comment of "having the legendary magics back in the fold, and all that" and the meaning behind it! Which maybe you didn't need to know. But hey! You know now! :)

Scene 5: VINDICATION

Because that's Jacqueline's thought the ENTIRE time the council is meeting. I WAS RIGHT THE ENTIRE TIME and she is READY to gloat about it and WILL gloat about it FOREVER

And now we're getting into the messy business of "how come the Council didn't know Jack wasn't supposed to be Santa" and the obvious plot hole in tsc3 of "How did FT NOT pick up on Jack doing that?" which are smaller facets of the whole HOW DID THEY LET THE THEME PARK HAPPEN ANYWAY?! Argument

They didn't! Jack just did it. And as for timelines, well, FT coming in CLUTCH with an explanation! Of sorts.

I mean, they gave us the answer in tsc3—their powers don't work on other Legendary Figures! So if a Clause is used, Christmas magic, in conjunction with Time magic, BY the guy who uses the WINTER MAGIC, well. It's going to get messy and the timeline's gonna be all sorts of fucked up and FT is popping up now to start tackling that problem

And because we are more than halfway through, and we all know how the movie ends, so...time to start having FT figure out the shit going on!

Especially with Y8 being right around the corner, lol.

"Picture of poise and grace and such" was I think, "Picture of sophisticated grace" originally and yes, it was a Frozen reference.

Scene 6: Jacqueline's Intro

Tada! This is where I moved it! When the New Year starts proper! I thought that was rather brilliant on my end :3

Apparently, this opening was one of the heavily enjoyed ones? Idk. But I'm happy with where it is and glad I didn't have to scrap it entirely! I kind of like them, you know? I like that Jacqueline essentially TW's us for what shenanigans are gonna happen NEXT before telling us about said shenanigans.

Also. Sometimes. the Canadian just SLIPS OUT. And it sure fucking did with the last line of the intro lol

Fun fact! Jacqueline's a dual citizen. Her other citizenship is Canadian 🤭🤭

Scene 7: Breaking into B-Man's. Again

Idk WHY. When I was writing this. Jacqueline was like. I commit breaking and entering as a hobby into Bernard's house, specifically. But! Here we are!~

We can also see the uh. Friction getting to Bernard, with him being snappish @ Jacqueline

tho admittedly it's ah. well deserved given that ah. She did break into his house and deliver bad on bad on badder news!

Scene 8: LOTS of BAD Ideas

Like. SOO many bad ideas.

Okay. So we got like. The final version of the Resort, right? Then we have Jacqueline's big plan: FIRE.

And Jack calling in actual reporters from the ordibeing world

So you'll NOTICE that THAT detail wasn't on the notes! That'd be because I added it as I was writing! I realized that like, if he'd dropped off all these tickets and people were calling it a scam and y'know, social media circa 2001 was going OFF about it, it'd be ideal for Jack to fess up asap before other people took the credit for it OR everyone deemed it a scam with fruitless investigations and whatnot (if that makes sense)

BASICALLY it was to give the Resort a sense of legitimacy given that it was this close || to being brushed off as a scam or silly marketing scheme (which aren't totally untrue statements)

Do I know where Jeff works? NO! All I know is he's the only reporter (him and his team) to come up and the interview is gonna be SO exclusive lmao

Bernard probably had to talk Jack down from hosting a whole ass PRESS CONFERENCE lol, bc he absolutely would. 100%.

An aside: I bet the pieces on news stations when reporters who have kids go to the Resort are interesting pieces lmao. The whole world is probably like "wow! crazy!" and the news casters are probably like "A fun activity to do with your kids this Christmas!" and the Council is probably like "Woahg. They're?? Not thinking it's the real deal? Crazy"

This got off topic, but YEAH! The reporter bit was added in as I was originally writing! Neat facts!

"Your fascination with arson concerns me, Jacqueline. Especially considering your alignment and all."

^Okokok this is one of my fave lines. It's a call back to her suggesting they burn his satchel the year before. It's also very true: she quite enjoys starting fires. Loves her a good fire, that Jacqueline. DEFFS the summer sprite blood there. The Twins also have more winter sprite tendencies! Fiera constantly overheats and LOVES being cold. Fino always has a window open when it's nice and cold outside. That sorta thing!

Jacqueline: suggests the TWINS join their efforts

Literally Everyone: are you insane

Jacqueline: >:O. YES! OBVIOUSLY!

"...I know listening is hard for them, but I would rather have a controlled fire than something akin to the Great Fire of London." “Hey! They were young! It was an accident.” “They started that?!” “Oh! I assumed you knew? I thought that’s why you brought it up.”

The Twins did, in fact, start the Great Fire of London. In 1666 specifically. That one.

They didn't mean too! They were quite young and missed Jacqueline so they took the long maiden voyage out of Crystal springs, all the way across the world to Europe and met up with her in London, promptly SETTING IT ON FIRE.

I think they're both complicit. Fiera was sparky and Fino wanted to pet the animals in the barn. It is what it is, I suppose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Scene 9: Crashing the Interview

Making Jacqueline channel Jack brings me great joy for reasons I cannot express but could probably be easily summed up as ANGST

“And his name is Jeff, which I think is very funny for a bigshot journalist doing a travel piece. On Santa Claus.”

->She's calling me out :( I didn't have a name for Jeff so I went with Jeff bc I had just watched WWDITS and Jesk existed and was a thing 🙃🙃🙃

(In Nadja voice: It's like a weak ejaculation!)

“On the biggest news story this year!” “The year is still young, y’know."

I wrote this bit. Remembered that Y7 takes place in 2001. And my face was immediately like

"Since this is an off-school year" Jacqueline says, surprising even ME as I didn't know that's how they did school in CS

But I'm getting the vibe for magibeans, they take decent breaks between schooling years just bc of longevity or something. Idk. I'm working on it? I guess?

Like when people take gap years to travel or whatever, lol. Would NOT be surprised if Magibeans did something similar but the students would go travel into the ordibeing world or do magical research or projects or SOMETHING like that, lol

"I winked at Jeff, which seemed to do the trick as he laughed heartily, thinking it was some sort of joke amongst us magibeans"

I spent this whole passage thinking of the culture shock Jeff must be dealing with and cackling

Also. Love having Jacqueline throw her title in Jack's face, makes me cackle >:)

Scene 10: Best Laid Plans Start. A MONTH OR SO LATER! NOT ON THE SAME DAY!

I am so mad about this same day thing, honestly

SO HERE WE SEE THE FIX! THE PLAN HAS BEEN SET UP AND N O W JACQUELINE IS BROACHING IT WITH THE PARENTS AND IT IS NOT A ONE DAY THING, IT IS AN OVER TIME THING

Imagine being Jack. And dealing with THESE THREE GREMLINS on the most STRESSFUL year of your REIGN AS SANTA SO FAR.

It's also been very fun writing Bernard, especially when he gets a little win—like ruining everything on airport day specifically >:)

Jacqueline references this CS fact when she talks about how Fiera and Fino may have invented the fire hazard/fire safety

Hot girl soot is just a play on hot girl shit. So it's. You know. hot girl shit. Eating hot chips. Girlbossing. Starting fires. Practising elemental control. That sort of thing!

And this is immediately followed up with ANGST. I surprised myself with it too, tbh!

"And thinking of the amounts of paperwork the Resort will result in? Arson just seems more and more promising" Blaise is not here for the paperwork at ALL. I am thoroughly convinced that if he remembered Frostmas, he'd throw Jack into a lake and yell THE PAPER WORK I HAD TO DEAL WITH! And Jack would resurface and be like "gee dad. you really need to cool off" and push him into the lake with a snowy assist

The news the next day: Old Man is thrown Into Lake By Even Older Man.

Byline: IT'S ABOUT THE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PAPERWORK!

So that's why he's all "hell yeah" for arson, lol. He really really isn't looking forward to the bureaucratic NIGHTMARE the Resort will be—between the secrecy laws being broken, preventing the other secret magibean places from being exposed, and lady only KNOWS how much witness damage control? YEAH. BURN IT BEFORE HE DOES WHEN IT ALL CROSSES HIS DESK

Scene 11: Actually LAYING the PLAN

One day. What is WRONG WITH ME

Anyway! This scene is all new! To explain how the twins get up there and make a lil name for themselves BEING up there so that when the fire ACTUALLY HAPPENS it's not as sus as could be. even tho. y'know. it's DAMN OBVIOUS LOL

It turned into another one of those back into the present scenes where the cold front is recounting the tale with one another and this one was SO FUN and made me weak

the implication is that the twins somehow managed to weasel themselves into the cold front's day off plans? I think that comes across

Not that Jacqueline minds, of course! She sees Jack too often at this point and is more than happy to have her other siblings hanging out too, let someone else bother the man while she takes a beach nap

She just likes to tease him bc yes, the twins absolutely DO have Jack right in the palm of their hands, the sneaky lil hotheads

Scene 12 & 13 & 14: Fire Time

12 is deffs my favourite scene! Well, one of them, lol. Just. The image of disgruntled Santa Cosplay Jack watching two fiery beings try to shove themselves into a backpack while the other sibling loses it laughing beside them and just being like. I GUESS THIS IS MY LIFE NOW. Just SENDS me.

"He stopped beside Fiera; they stared at each other quietly for a moment before Fino nodded" <- this is twin telepathy at play right here

"Bermuda?" "Neutral Territory" <- don't quote me on this. to my understanding Summer mostly deals with Bermuda so she's HAPPY to host fight dates for Spring and Winter, helps ease their squabbling and also makes it easier for Summer when she hands off with Spring.

This could be why the Bermuda Triangle is Like That, lol.

(I know there's science in that shit. Let me suspend my disbelief for one goddamn moment, where is the WHIMSY)

Yes I named the Fire Marshal Marshal. A silly thing that was unappreciated when originally revealed so now I am making it VERY OBVIOUS

But also, he's more of a character in Y7 PROPER now, given the whole. FIRE thing we have going on here, so now his name has to be in your face instead of one off wordplay joke.

RIGHT! SO! FIRE TIME

You guys would not BELIEVE the pause this scene caused me. I got right up to go time and then paused like "huh. how do you start fires".

Did I google it? Yes! Needless to say, reddit has a sub for EVERYTHING and I learnt about a very prolific serial arsonist and now may have to take out another book from the library, but that's neither here NOR there

I also googled "is varnish flammable" and it is, more so than paint so, here we are lmao!

Would NOT be surprised if I was on some kind of list, especially since half this research was. In fact. Done at work 😬

Scene 15: Cold Front Time

I went on a whole ass OTHER research rabbit hole involving PLANES and POLAR TRAVEL for this one lmao

Boeings don't GO into polar regions! I know this now! And more! The wikipedia page on the Lockheed planes was very very very long and informative, wow.

when Jacqueline says "terrible new paint job" please know it is the exact design it had on it in the movie. The Santa flying on top of the plane design. That one lmao

As for the crew, I was thinking about this and I wasn't sure they'd be human/ordinary, non-magical people, y'know? But I FIGURED that Jack would know some seedy mofos/have people who owe him or vice versa and he'd be able to cash in on that for a situation like THIS.

I know nothing about the crew, other than the pilot is very tiny, dressed like an old timey pilot, and you cannot see their defining features so all you know is that they are a creature of some sort but that's it!!!

"Have you ever waded through molasses, let alone cold, non-magical molasses? It’s exhausting.” “I wouldn’t know. I was in Chicago at the time, not Boston.

You guys. I have been resisting the urge to reference the molasses flood of Boston MA the ENTIRE TIME Jack has compared the Christmas magic to Molasses. I finally caved. Hashtag worth it.

Trying to figure out how the people got into the pole, given the itty bitty hole and GIANT plane and lack of any environmental storytelling was a CHALLENGE, but I'm quite happy with it!

I originally wanted to have Jack talk about putting in a historic display that leads UP to the Resort and say some BS like "It's the FINEST iteration YET" but I was like "woah there, dani, you need to calm DOWN" and so I canned it at the uh, Disney pre-show mentions lol

Anyway. Jack never says the I told you so as they head down and see the FIRE, but I think it speaks for itself 🤭🤭

Scene 16: Twinsplinations

When I tell you. Fino and Fiera have been practising this bit ALL YEAR. I mean it

They are giant hams. This whole family is tbh (and we love them for it? I think?)

They're so good that even Jacqueline was like HEY LIVE THEM ALONE >:( despite knowing they were playing it up--but this is also a side effect of her own predicament lol. She's entering her angry era ;)

I deffs modelled the "what's salvageable" bit after the exact same scene in tsc3! I love me a bit of mirroring here and there >:)

I am pretty sure they would've gotten away with it if Jacqueline hadn't ended the scene the way she did. Absolute banger, of course, but my GOD she's causing problems on purpose, isn't she? heh.

REGARDLESS. These two continue to vex one another and quite frankly, exhaust me. Remember when I wanted to update every thirteenth? And this was updated late July? And the BTS is now being posted in (checks watch) AUGUST?!!? AND YEAR EIGHT HASN'T GONE UP YET???

AHHHH

Scene 17: Home Safe

So I reworked this scene quite a bit! Blinter is now included, and Jacqueline's mood post-arson can only be described as:

So. Let's see what notes and references I snuck in here!

None, apparently! But I am a big fan of this whole scene and interaction. Hitting us with the Winter angst when she asks Jacqueline to stick around! Whatever the heck Blaise and Winter are saying with their facial expression! I sure as shit don't know, but they sure do!

Scene 18 and 19: The Finale

When Jacqueline finally goes back up North to spy/scout/antagonize Jack for the most part, and she talks to Jack about everything, and he mentions the security footage and how the missing bits and how security was just like WHOOPS, I 100% pictured Gary(?) from the series. Heard it in his voice and everything!

I have to keep reminding myself that Jacqueline and Bernard are on the same team here, lol. And that the elves are HAPPY to help make things messy for Santa! So the erasure of the bits of security footage that showed the twins causing the fires was added to aide that bit

And I feel deep in my bones that they pulled a Speed and looped old footage of the twins eating with Bernard in case Jack was a wee bit too clever lol

And then we have the reveal as to why the security officers in the movie were human, and not elves! Jack time out'd them, which means Jacqueline made cute little ice statues of them and sent them off to help the others with the TUNNEL lol

The permanency of the PEN. me @ me:

Um, the carbon monoxide thing is new! I think about that story of the guy who was leaving notes for himself he couldn't remember, and how it ended up being carbon monoxide and a broken detector, quite frequently.

This year had like a LOT of explanatory semantics re: how the Resort was received/took off in the mortal world. That was one HECK of a summary passage to write in this last scene!

And I SOMEHOW managed to preserve the same end sentence. FUNK YEAH!!!

GOD this year was a MESS of a year. Glad to have fixed it up though! It's still holding up a month later (I started this BTS July 7th, and a week later ran into my IT WAS ONE DAY?!?!? problem, and FINALLY got around to posting it after finishing Year EIGHT) which is GREAT and now I can take a break from these bad boys since Y8 and Y9 already have a BTS! That'll make things MUCH easier! RIGHTO. Enjoy this raging dumpster fire of me RAMBLING. Prommy I'll get last week's scrimble done and this week's too at some point, and HOPEFULLY will throw Y8 onto ao3 BEFORE September (she says, on August 28th 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

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0dditie · 9 months ago

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so u r man but feminine and go by a feminine name??

not really. just been funky with the gender:3

for me, both the gal & guy genders exist simultaneously in their own right, so i’m not really a boy but not fully a girl but also mostly both. this is why it gets harder for me to label myself, because i’m definitely not non-binary, not really bigender, and not quite gender non-conforming. i’m not even entirely sure how to explain my gender anyhow, but i know i’m not all girl.

i started this blog when i still identified as an entirely fully completely cis gal. the pfp, name, url, and the rest of the theme has been kept, because that’s still me. i still like pink and i still like my name and i still think my url describes me well, but liking feeling feminine doesn’t necessarily make someone a girl (unless they want it to).

my pronouns are technically she/him— i only have it as he/him on the internet here (which was done recently) because everyone always defaults to she, and then only refers to me with she/her, and that’s not what i want. going by different pronouns here also helps to keep my real self separate from my online persona.

i suppose you could still call me by she, too, but i’d i’d just rather it be he/him.

so i am a girl— but in some right, i am also a boy.

i might find that this changes. it’s just how i’ve been feeling recently, and going by he/him here is maybe a little bit of an experiment to see how i really feel about it. not any intention to transition or anything— especially because i don’t think of myself as trans. not even fully labeling myself.

also, i go by izabelle because it’s my middle name and i think it’s pretty !!

#my gender is confusing for me too haha #also not old enough to be considered man or woman. maybe young man or young woman #i assumed this ask meant well but i’m not 100% sure. either way it’s a good opportunity to go on a rant heh

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atomicjellycat · 10 days ago

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I never thought I'd ever use this anecdote, but HERE GOES!

so back in The Day I had strict af parents and wasn't allowed a phone so my method of music was a Sony walkman mp3 I got for my 10th birthday, and still have and use to this day!

Wrow

But the funky thing about this little treasure (and u can see that middle icon there on top), is I can actually listen to the radio with it too! Any station! Works like a car radio, scans for available channels and boom.

So I listened to a lot of radio as a kid, especially those weird Kinda risqué stations my mega christian over protective mother banned.

So there were those regular talkshow hosts going on and on, and they got on the topic of penis tats

And asked any listener to phone in and talk about em. So heres some stories!

-caller one was a tattoo artist himself! Said that yes people DO get penis tats, and the way they do em is stretch the skin of the flaccid penis over their thumb, and just get to work!

-caller two talked about how he had a buddy with one, and would use it as his primary pickup line with girls at the bar. (Nuts right?) And the thing was, he'd go up to a chick, and say

"hey, I got your name tattooed on my penis"

And she'd be like ???? You don't even know my name?

And he's like "nope! But I Know for a fact I have your name tattooed on my penis :)"

And somehow this would work, he'd bring the gal home, because if nothing else she was curious because there's no way.

And the tattoo was LITERALLY the words

'your name'

The gal would think it's fucking hilarious or that he was stupid but hey! We're here and that's a penis! So they'd bone! Fucking sit-com shit.

Now, is this story true? Fuck if I know, but it's a story someone told in a radio call in, so do with it what u will!

-third caller, and this one was pretty hilarious. Because he immediately calls and is like

'look back when I was in prison -.... For uh-.... It doesn't matter what-' and like, I forget the general dialogue but he vamps around prison and WHY he was in prison for a while, the jovial talkshow hosts DEAD silent.

But he eventually comes around to saying

'when we were all lined up, naked for the showers, I noticed one of my fellow prisoners dick, and he had the same damn thing there. He had the words 'your name' tattooed on his penis'

The talk show hosts kinda don't know how to react? Because like, listen this was kinda a ranchy show, but like, suburban risqué, right? White people risqué. Something that I, a Christian raised suburban 11 year old thought was risqué. These mfs heard PRISON and got so awkward it was hilarious. Like y'all, it's ok, relax.

But they ended the call ins after that. I can't remember if there were more in-between honestly, those are the ones I remember, BUT.

All that to say

1. Yes penis tats are a thing, and they're done flaccid and stretched over-thumb, at least according to one dude

2. There are at least 2 men out there with the words 'your name' tatted on their penis. One is a bar surfing Casanova, the other is Prison Penis Peter, or maybe it's the same guy and a small world.

Thank you for finally giving me an excuse to tell that story. Literally no other way this could have come up in regular conversation.

has anyone gotten any tattoos on their penis

Not me, anyone else?

#sorry to hijack the post #but like #Ive been sitting on that for THIRTEEN YEARS ok?#and uhhhh hope this helps?

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toofewtrueblue · 3 years ago

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so I’m finally listening to critical role campaign 2. I’ve picked up a decent amount via osmosis from all the dnd blogs I follow but I’m chronically behind in my media consumption

Things I knew going in:

• Beau is the cool butch gal that all the lesbians love

• Caleb is a poor little meow meow with trauma and a cat (I’ve seen him shipped with a couple of people but mainly some drow dude)

• Molly is the charismatic dandy that dies and is replaced by a pink guy

• The black and white gal (yasha) has the best fanart and I think her wife is dead? Idk I saw a beautiful comic of it tho

My thoughts so far (as of episode 9 NEIN):

• THE NAME CAME FROM THEM ROLLING 9s AND MAKING BAD JOKES ABOUT IT?!? SERIOUSLY?!?

• Beau is so awkward lmao y’all made me think she was suave

• Holy shit I LOVE JESTER! Being a cleric to a trickster god is so big brained omg she’s the love of my life. Every time she does something I’m just like fuck yeah! You go you funky little prankster

• I was not expecting fjord and Molly to be the brain cells in this group. They’re also the only ones with social skills (jester has social skills, she just chooses not to use them. Which honestly good for her)

• Fjord and Beau’s friendship is top tier. Ultimate bros

• Beau and Caleb are also great because all of their interaction read like the dumb jock tentatively poking the local nerd with a stick going “hey hey what’s your trauma?” While the nerd hisses like a wet cat

• The fact that none of them trust each other for shit is so funny. I’ve never seen players roll so many insight checks against each other, it’s great

• I think jester Molly and nott should be left alone together, for science

• As someone who is a disappointment to my old German teacher, Liam is an inspiration

Also, I knew Matt Mercer was a god among dms but hot damn! I should be taking notes. I keep having moments like “oh this is how dnd is supposed to be played”

#I skipped campaign 1 cause these characters sounded more interesting #looking forward to seeing how the dynamics develop #critical role #mighty nein

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emerald-chaos · 4 years ago

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Coney Island

Hi friends! I appreciate all the love and response I’ve gotten for my writing over the past week or so. You guys sure know how to make a gal feel loved! This is another little idea that came one night when I was screaming to a good friend of mine (which is how a lot of my ideas come to me lmao) about how pre-serum 1940s Steve deserves the best. It’s not necessarily my best work, but Steve Rogers deserves some love too. I hope you guys enjoy! Also please feel free to let me know what you guys would like to see me write next :) Enjoy! xo

Pairing: Pre-Serum!Steve x Reader

Word count: 1895

Warnings: swearing and bad attempts at being funny lol

a/n: this was uploaded on mobile because I’m at work tonight so if it looks funky I apologize! I’ll try to fix it after I finish my 3 night stint lol.

As the sun began to set and the hot July air began to cool, Steve couldn’t believe the situation he’d found himself in yet again.

“Come on, pal,” Bucky chuckled as he pat his friend roughly on the shoulder, “I’ve never met someone who was this upset to meet up with a couple of beautiful ladies.”

“What? And somehow be the third wheel on a double date again?” Steve quipped back at his long time friend.

Bucky replied with a roll of his eyes and waved off his friend, turning his body toward the Coney Island parking lot to see if he could find the girls they were supposed to be meeting.

Steve regretted that he sounded so bitter, but these “double dates” that Bucky dragged him on were somewhat of a joke. It was always the same song and dance. The girl who Bucky was attempting to court would bring a friend, either for moral support or to try and set her up, and that friend would always be wholly disappointed when she saw that Steve was who she was stuck with. Steve knew that not every girl had to like him, of course, but occasionally it would be nice to be as sought after or wanted as Bucky was - or at least to not be looked through by every girl he met.

“There they are,” Bucky grinned, raising his arms above his head to signal the two, “over here!”

Steve took a deep breath and prepared himself for the inevitable look of disappointment that he had become so accustomed to. Instead, as he turned he was met with a stunning pair of eyes and a soft smile splayed across the most incredible pair of lips he’d ever laid his eyes on. Seeing you made him feel like all the air had been forced out of his lungs and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t catch his breath. The only other time he remembered experiencing the sensation was after a particularly bad time that he had gotten the living hell beat out of him in the alleyway - except this time, it was a good feeling.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Steve.” You said, your voice soft and warm - like honey.

There’s no way that could be a blush on your cheeks, right?

“Well, we already got our tickets,” Bucky’s voice brought Steve back to the present, “so what do you say we head in?”

---------

For the first time in, well, forever, Steve actually found himself enjoying the evening. The small talk didn’t feel stiff or forced, you never recoiled at any of the accidental touches throughout the night, and you actually looked him in the eyes when you were having a conversation. If you were disappointed in being stuck with Steve, you hid it pretty well.

The unrelenting sun had finally set and the colorful lights of various rides and booths reflected off of the water. You had been on a couple rides, enjoyed some hot dogs and funnel cakes, and now the group of you had been sucked into one of those carnival game booths. Bucky was attempting, as usual, to show off for your friend by trying to win her a stuffed animal.

“Would you like to take a walk or something?” Your voice captured Steve’s attention as he turned to look at you. You grinned a little before adding, “It’s kind of sickening to stand here and watch them act like this.”

Steve was caught off guard, both at the jab directed to your friends and the fact that you would even consider being alone with him.

“I, uh, yeah, sure, we could do that,” he nodded quickly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

You smiled and started down the boardwalk.

This is too good to be true, right? He thought to himself. She’s obviously just trying to be nice.

“Steve?” your voice cut through his doubts. He hadn’t even realized that you made it several feet away from him and he was still planted in the same spot.

“Oh! Yeah, coming! Sorry!” Steve blushed as he hurried to catch up with you.

The two of you walked side by side for a few minutes, an oddly comfortable silence lingering between you.

“How are-”

“Have you-”

Steve’s eyes met yours as you both began to speak simultaneously and you shared a laugh together. Steve could feel the warmth rising in his face and he hoped to God that he wasn’t blushing like an idiot.

“You first,” he smiled softly.

“I was just going to ask how long you and James have known each other?” you asked, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear.

And there it was.

To anyone else the question would seem innocent, but Steve knew better. You had only drawn Steve away so you could question him about his friend - the same way every other person before you had done. There was a heat building inside Steve’s stomach. How could he be so stupid? How could he actually believe that someone like you could be interested in someone like him?

“T-the only reason I ask is,” you blurted, sounding...nervous? “well, because the two of you are so different. I mean, not in a bad way! Just like, James is so...cocky and loud and you’re...well you’re not.”

Steve stopped walking and looked at you. His thoughts were racing through his brain like a freight train. What exactly were you trying to say?

“God I'm so bad with words,” you laughed, shaking your head, “just forget I said anything at all.”

“You don’t have to feel bad for me, you know. If that’s what this is.” Steve couldn’t hold back the words, and they sounded much colder than he meant them to. He was just so tired of living in his friend’s shadow. The only time girls were ever nice to him was because they wanted to impress Bucky. He was sure that’s what you were doing too.

Once he noticed your brows furrow and a look of sadness overcome your face, he wanted nothing more than to rewind time and take his words back.

“Is that the type of person you think I am, Steve?” Your voice came out a little shaky, but Steve could still hear the hurt he had caused.

Steve sighed and rubbed his face.

“I’m sorry,” he started as his hands fell from his face and he met your gaze again, “I’m just...I’m not used to this.”

“And what exactly is this?” you asked, crossing your arms in front of your chest.

“Someone on these double dats being interested in me.”

He could tell that his words caught you off guard. You were quiet and your arms slowly fell to your side. Steve was having trouble reading your expression, but it looked somewhere between someone who saw a puppy left on the side of the road and someone who was trying to understand a foreign language.

“Just...Just forget it. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.” Steve waved his hand, as if he was trying to dismiss the conversation.

What he didn’t expect was for your hand to intertwine with his.

Steve’s gaze lingered on your connected hands for a minute before traveling to meet your eyes.

“You’re not very good at this, Rogers.” You said with a small laugh, “Here I was, thinking I was being too obvious.”

“I-I’m afraid I don’t follow,” Steve slowly responded.

You laughed again, the sound slowly becoming one of his favorites. Before he knew what was going on, you were pressed flush against him and capturing his lips with yours.

This would make the third time Steve had felt the wind be knocked from his lungs.

The kiss was slow, soft, and unlike any other he had ever experienced. It reminded him of the time his dad told him how he knew his mom was the one.

Well, when we kissed it felt like the rest of the world melted away. At that moment in time, it was just her and I.

A shiver ran down his spine as the warmth of your lips left his. As though he was drunk or coming out of a haze, it took him a moment to open his eyes and focus his vision back on you. There was a cute pinkness to your cheeks and you had a doe-eyed expression. It took a moment for the heartbeat in his ears to fade away - the joyful screams of park patrons and whirring of machinery returning.

“I like you, Steve,” You told him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze, “In fact, I've liked you for a while.”

You watched as Steve’s adam's apple bobbed up and down as he gulped.

“You,” Steve cleared his throat as the word came out as a squeak, “you do?”

That smile he adored returned to your lips as you nodded, “I do.”

Before he had an opportunity to respond, you were speaking again.

“I see you at school, you know, around town too. I’ve always noticed how kind you are to everyone. The way you hold the door open for the old ladies at Church. That one time you gave Johnny your lunch because his parents forgot to pack him one?” the smile on your face growing bigger as you recounted the times in which you fell for Steve Rogers, “I mean, what’s not to like.”

Steve felt an asthma attack coming on.

“James is nice and all,” you leaned in then, as if you were telling a secret, “but he’s also kind of a bastard.”

Steve couldn’t hold back the laugh that tumbled from his lips and you quickly joined him. This felt like some sort of twisted dream to him - you standing here, confessing your feelings to him. Never in a million years did he think someone as beautiful as you would even talk to him, let alone have feelings for him.

“Obviously I’m kidding, but in all honesty... you are one of the best men I’ve ever met, Steve. I’m sorry that any one has ever made you feel less than.” You squeezed his hand again.

This time it was Steve who initiated the kiss, holding your face between his hands as he moved his lips against yours. Your hands found a place on his waist and your bodies slotted against one another - like they were two puzzle pieces made to fit into one another. You tasted sweet, like funnel cake, and your lips were soft against his slightly chapped ones. Steve hadn’t kissed very many people in his lifetime, but if this were the last kiss he got to have - he could die a happy man.

“Ahem,”

The two of you separated to see your friend, holding a huge stuffed bear, and Bucky standing before you, grinning like fools.

“Are we interrupting something?” Bucky mocked the two of you, sending a wink to Steve.

“Shut it, Buck.” Steve warned, although he couldn’t help but grin back at his friend.

“Come on, lovebirds” Bucky teased, “my girl here wants to ride the ferris wheel again.”

You smoothed out your dress and smiled at Steve, lacing your fingers once again with his as the two of you followed your friends toward the ferris wheel.

For once, Steve was going to have to thank Bucky tomorrow.

#Steve Rogers #Steve Rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #preserum steve #Chris Evans characters #steve rogers fic #Steve Rogers imagine #captain america #captain america x you #steve rogers x y/n #marvel fanfiction #1940s!steve

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maybeimamuppet · 3 years ago

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you happened

hey darlings!! happy wednesday!!!

let’s get right into it shall we?

tw for

discussion of canon events in mg (outing, etc)

discussion of canon events in the prom (homophobia, etc.)

this was requested by @spidy-nugget like forever ago so thank you for your patience and i hope you enjoy!

—

“Oh!” Cady says, interrupting herself in the middle of a sentence. “I just remembered! My cousin is coming to visit next week, do you guys want to meet her?”

“Emma?” Damian asks excitedly. Cady nods. “Yes! Is she bringing the-her… Broadway friends?”

“I dunno, she didn’t tell me,” Cady giggles. “But probably, she said they usually visit her at some point every summer.”

“I should probably be there to stop him from combusting if they do come,” Janis huffs. “But also, yes, I want to meet her too.”

“She’s an absolute icon,” Damian says happily. “God, her song. Still makes me cry.”

“You cried watching Finding Dory yesterday,” Janis retaliates.

“It’s a sad movie! Sometimes!” Damian defends. “Anyway, tell me all about Emma.”

“Okay,” Cady giggles again. “She’s a year older than us, and she’s my cousin on my mom’s side. Um… you know her whole… prom fiasco. I’ve only met her in person once when I was ten, for Rhys’ funeral. But we were pen pals when we were really little. And now we just text and stuff.”

“Cute,” Damian says. “And is her girlfriend coming?”

“Oh! Yeah,” Cady says around a mouthful of Janis’ milkshake. “Her name is Alyssa, she’s, like, super smart. Did every possible activity in high school, that kind of thing. But she’s been with Emma when we’ve Facetimed and stuff before and she’s super sweet.”

“Aww,” Damian coos. “I can’t wait!”

————-

Luckily for him, Damian doesn’t have to wait too long. Emma and Alyssa arrive the following week in Emma’s pickup. Damian has been pressed against the window all day, like a small child watching for the ice cream truck. He gasps dramatically when four people in matching sequined tracksuits also hop out of the backseat, grumbling about being cramped together for such a long trip.

Cady opens the door to let everyone in, and is quickly swamped by a crowd of people much taller than her. Janis pops up on her tippy toes to try and find her girlfriend to save her, but doesn’t succeed.

Everyone heads into the living room, and Janis laughs when she finds Cady being carried in like a sack of potatoes by one of the men that came with Emma.

“Emma, why didn’t you tell me your cousin was so adorable?” He demands. “Look at this, she’s so small.”

“Please put me down,” Cady squeaks. Janis heads over and reaches for her.

“Can I have my girlfriend back, please?”

“And she’s gay!” The man says happily, passing Cady over like she’s a small dog. Janis holds her close and smoothes her hair back to where it was.

“Bi, actually,” Cady grumbles.

“Well, aren’t you something. Oh, my name is Barry, by the way. As if you haven’t heard of me.”

“Barry, we talked about this,” Emma chides. “They haven’t. Except Damian.”

“And where is this Damian? I want to meet him,” one of the ladies says. “Oh, and my name is Dee Dee.”

Damian enters shyly and gives a little wave. Janis cackles, “Dude, you’re totally starstruck, look at you!”

“Uh-hi,” he stutters. “I’m Damian.”

“Aww!” The other lady says. “Look at your little cheeks, what a sweetheart! I’m Angie.”

Damian blushes violently as he’s cooed over by Angie. Barry hauls her off to get a good look at him.

“I like this,” he says. “It’s like a mini me.”

“Just don’t break him,” Emma pleads. “Damian, can I trust you to babysit for a while?”

That prompts a, ‘Hey!’ from all four adults, and an eager nod from Damian. “I can show them around town.”

“This is not a town, darling,” Dee Dee says gently. “But what is there to see?”

“We have… uh-“

“There’s an IHOP!” Cady chirps. “And the mall. That’s kind of it until you get to Chicago. Or the lake.”

“This is the most precious soul,” Barry says happily.

“Dame, we did it. I never thought I’d see the day we found someone gayer than you,” Janis laughs.

“Oh, I like this one too,” Barry says. “Funky little lesbian. She dresses like Emma but goth.”

“I do love the hair,” Emma agrees. “I’m dressed more like Cady today though.”

They both look down at their almost-matching flannels and jean shorts, then back at each other with a nod.

“Same boots though,” Janis cheers, lifting a foot. Emma laughs and nudges it with one of her own doc martens. “Nice.”

“Precious,” Angie says. “Okay, we’ll leave you gals alone now. Damian, show us the sights.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Damian says, leading the adults to the door.

“Yes, show us to the… hopping eyes,” Dee Dee says, sounding both bored and intrigued at the same time. Damian waves goodbye to Janis excitedly and closes the door after him.

“Well,” Emma chuckles. “Oh, I hope he’ll be okay.”

“I think he’ll be fine,” Alyssa soothes. “He’s in good company, and he’s a theatre kid, he gets their… vibes.”

“Theatre kid is an understatement for that boy,” Janis tuts affectionately.

“True,” Cady giggles. “Anyway, we can hang out in my room, if you want?”

Emma and Alyssa nod, so Cady leads everyone up to her bedroom. Janis flops onto the bed and Cady crawls in behind her, lifting her head onto her lap. Alyssa and Emma look around curiously for a second before joining them.

“Who did these?” Alyssa asks, pointing to the paintings and collages adorning the walls. “They’re incredible, especially this one. It looks just like you guys!”

Janis flushes as she points to the one she won her art contest with, of she and Damian and Cady all together. “I did.”

“Dang,” Emma breathes. “You have some serious talent, Janis.”

“Thanks,” Janis squeaks.

“No, seriously! Do you have stuff here?” Emma insists.

“A few things, yeah,” Janis says confusedly, raising an eyebrow. “Why?”

Emma lifts her guitar case onto the bed and flicks the latches open, pulling out her famous instrument. It’s covered in stickers and little doodles, much like Janis’ jackets.

“Will you do something on this for me?”

Janis’ eyes go wide. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, of course!” Emma chuckles. “There’s room down here if you want it visible, or on the back.”

Janis carefully takes the instrument and assesses the material, trying to put an idea together in her mind. She runs to Cady’s desk when one comes to her, where she keeps a supply of basic colors and brushes in case of emergency. Cady doesn’t mind keeping them, they remind her of her girlfriend.

Cady grins affectionately as Emma and Alyssa cuddle in together. “How did you two meet?”

Her cousin turns to smile at her girlfriend. “I kind of always knew of her from school and stuff, but we didn’t really get close until sophomore year.”

Alyssa nods in agreement. “My mom wanted me to be more creative and have another skill or whatever, so she signed me up for guitar classes. Just so happens she was my teacher.”

“You really sucked,” Emma teases. Alyssa scoffs, aghast, and shoves her so hard she nearly falls off the bed. “Ack! Hey, I was kidding!”

“I know,” Alyssa giggles. “I did suck, I’ve never been much good at artsy stuff.”

“I was never good at art either,” Cady chuckles at their antics. “Jay’s tried to teach me to paint a couple times and it hasn’t gone too well.”

She peeks around the other couple to where her own girlfriend is sitting cross-legged on the ground, tongue poked out to the side as she carefully brushes a stroke of paint onto Emma’s guitar. Janis looks up when she feels her gaze, and grins happily when she sees Cady.

“You have the right instincts, I keep telling you,” she says. “You just get cranky too fast and then start attacking me with it.”

Everyone else bursts out laughing. Emma says, “I don’t blame her, I hated art class. What were we talking about?”

“How we met, dummy,” Alyssa huffs, kissing behind Emma’s ear.

“Oh yeah! So, we started off with actual lessons, but then we started getting to know each other more,” Emma explains. “And then I came out and got kicked out, which… a lot of people heard about, so Lyss figured I was a safe person to tell that she was questioning.”

Cady nods, listening intently to the story.

“I came out to her that summer,” Alyssa says. “And she said she’d had a crush on me all along, and asked me out. So we went on a walk and then got coffee and the rest is history.”

“We forgot to mention the serious gay panic I had during our first lesson,” Emma chuckles. “But that’s the gist of it.”

“How cute,” Cady coos.

“What about you two, how long have you been together?” Alyssa asks kindly, flicking Emma’s ear gently as she aggressively plops down onto her lap.

“Four months,” Janis pipes up immediately.

“Man, you crushed on her for that long without saying anything, Cades?” Emma says, impressed. Janis pops her head up and listens in.

“Oh?”

“She never shut up about you for, like, almost a year,” Emma laughs. Cady flushes scarlet and looks down at her lap with a flustered squeak. “I’m assuming it was you, she never gave a name. But it was always a tall, hot artist with cool hair and nice muscles. And I think she mentioned your butt a few times, she thinks that’s cute.”

Janis cackles as Cady flops facedown onto her bed and groans into a pillow. “How cute, I didn’t know that. But I shouldn’t laugh, I definitely wasn’t any better.”

“How did you get together?” Alyssa asks, patting Cady’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Janis snorts from the ground and Cady gives another groan into her pillow. “What?”

“You tell them,” Cady grumbles, poking her face out just long enough that it’s not muffled.

“Baby, it’s cute,” Janis coos.

“No it’s not!”

“Okay, fine, I’ll tell it in a way that makes me look just as dorky,” Janis compromises. “Caddy came to my school in September from Kenya, and she had these adorable little cargo shorts and socks with sandals on, and-“

“Hold on, what?” Alyssa insists. “Kenya?”

“Cady grew up there, her parents are zoologists,” Emma explains.

“How many conversations have we had with her? And you never thought to tell me she’s from Africa?”

“It never came up! We both had a lot going on the first year and then we just didn’t bring it up,” Emma defends. “And now you know.”

“Sorry,” Alyssa says. “Keep going.”

“It’s all good,” Janis chuckles. “Anyway, I fell for her so bad the first day that I dragged Damian into the bathroom at lunch and made him let her join our group.”

Cady pops her head up and looks to her girlfriend. “You did?”

“Yeah, duh,” Janis says. “We’re not known for socializing with the new kids, I just thought you were cute.”

Cady blushes again, but doesn’t return to her pillow. “Keep going.”

Janis chuckles and continues telling the story as she finishes her small painting on Emma’s guitar. “So we became friends that day, and then had… an ordeal, through the rest of junior year and didn’t really reconnect until spring.”

Cady’s told Emma and Alyssa the whole story, so they both nod at Janis’ quick explanation.

“We got really close over the summer, and apparently we were both crushing on each other. But we didn’t notice, somehow. And then I sorta snapped on her birthday this year and decided to fess up, so I made that,” Janis points to the black and white collage hanging next to one of her paintings on the wall. “But before I could give it to her, this little firecracker got wasted and started crying in my lap about how much she loved me.”

“I wasn’t that drunk!” Cady huffs.

“I found you lying on the ground singing yourself to sleep,” Janis giggles. “And you didn’t recognize me, clearly. Just climbed into my lap and spilled your guts. I was lucky it wasn’t literal.”

“Janis Sarkisian,” Cady grumbles. “Behave.”

“Fine, fine,” Janis chuckles. “Anyway, once she sobered up a little bit we had a chat and realized we both had feelings for each other, so we started dating. And now we’re here.”

“That did not make you sound anywhere near as dorky as me,” Cady huffs. “But yeah, that’s… that’s it.”

Emma snorts once the story is done. “That does sound like Cady. But if that’s what it took, then I guess it was worth it.”

Cady turns to look at Janis again. “It was. But you guys went through a lot more than us, that must have been tough on both of you.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Emma chuckles, trying to sneak a peek at Janis’ work. The angle isn’t quite right, so she gives up before she falls off her girlfriend. “You guys went through a lot. But yeah, it was really tough. I’m so lucky.”

“I’m the lucky one,” Alyssa murmurs back. “You guys know the story?”

“I do,” Cady says. “I think Jay and Damian just know the bare bones. It’s your story to tell, I didn’t want to give too many details away.”

Alyssa gives her a grateful smile, and Cady grins back. “Do you want to hear it?”

“Of course,” Janis pipes up. “I finished, by the way. Um, here.”

“Hey, you stole my idea!” Cady jokingly whines when she sees what Janis has done.

“But it’s so perfect!” Janis defends. Emma takes her guitar to see, and smiles at the new lion with a rainbow mane in the spot they’d picked. “And it’s kind of for both of us.”

“This is awesome,” Emma says. “Oh! I get it, it’s a pride thing! Pride of lions, and then… oh. Clever!”

“It was actually Caddy’s idea, she made me a rock with it at pride last week,” Janis says. “I thought it fit.”

“It does, you’re really talented!” Alyssa says, leaning over her girlfriend’s shoulder to see it. Janis’ text tone goes off, so she pulls her phone out of the pocket of her shorts to check it. Cady peeks over to see what it is too as Janis bursts out laughing. It’s a picture of Damian surrounded by his new friends, now in a matching tracksuit all of his own.

jamian: Sent a picture: JAN LOOKIT

danis: nice outfit

jamian: Thank u it really suits me doesnt it

danis: honestly

danis: yeah kinda

jamian: Sent a picture: Thank u

jamian: Anyway we’re going to ihop next yall should meet us there

danis: kk love u

jamian: Love u too

“I think your little crew adopted Damian,” Janis chuckles at Emma and Alyssa, showing them the photo of a very excited Damian.

“Aww,” Emma chuckles. “I’m glad they didn’t kill him, they can be a lot to handle.”

“He seems fine,” Janis shrugs. “Whose truck are we taking?”

“Oh, is that one in the driveway yours?” Emma says excitedly. Janis nods. “It’s nice!”

“We’ve been in Em’s all day,” Alyssa chuckles. “Probably best to take yours.”

“I call shotgun!” Cady yells, already tugging on her shoes and running downstairs.

“As if I’d let anyone else,” Janis mumbles affectionately under her breath.

————-

The waitstaff at IHOP look more than a little frightened at the size of their group, and especially at the crew in tracksuits.

“Ey, yo!” One of them calls. “Guys, come here! It’s that guy from the thing! That show!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Trent grumbles under his breath. “Why is it always that? I played Hamlet!”

They’re quickly escorted to a large table near the back, and Trent signs a few menus as a little gift to the now very excited waiters.

“Was Juilliard worth it?” He mutters to himself. Angie, who’s sat next to him, nudges him with an elbow to shut him up.

Janis and Emma both order for their girlfriends, and also order themselves the same meal of chicken and waffles. Dee Dee gets french toast, Angie gets an omelet, Trent gets some crepes, and Barry gets the most horrifically sweet looking pancakes anyone’s ever seen. Apparently they’re cupcake flavored.

Alyssa looks very content with her large Belgian waffle, and Cady seems delighted with her chocolate chip pancakes decorated with whipped cream to look like a face. It’s definitely from the children’s menu, but nobody says anything.

“So tell us about you guys,” Dee Dee says once their food gets delivered. She looks eagerly to her friends, as if to say, ‘Look how nice I can be when I want to.’ Barry claps quietly for her.

“What do you want to know?” Damian asks. Dee Dee puts her head in her hands, clearly not knowing how to continue. Trent takes over for her.

“How do you guys know each other?”

“Oh!” Damian says excitedly. “Janis and I have been friends, like, forever. We met in tap dance class when we were three.”

“And you knocked my fucking teeth out in that class when we were five,” Janis grumbles.

“By accident!” Damian defends amidst the giggles of their whole group. “I got really into it. Anyway, so we’ve been friends forever. And then little Caddy happened along in junior year, and we kind of kidnapped her for a while.”

“No, I needed to be kidnapped,” Cady laughs. “I was a total wreck. They actually sort of rescued me from the school bathroom at lunch.”

“You were eating in the bathroom?” Barry asks, sounding both empathetic and disgusted. “Oh, you poor sweet thing.”

“I was the new kid, y’know?” Cady shrugs. “Nobody wanted to eat with the dork from Africa.”

Angie chokes on a bite of her food, and Trent thumps her on the back. “From what now?”

“I’m from Kenya,” Cady giggles. “Well, technically I was born in Oregon. But I lived in Kenya for thirteen years.”

“Just, like, in the wilderness?” Barry asks in shock. “With the lions and tigers and… bears and stuff?”

Cady laughs out loud. “Pretty much. But there’s no tigers or bears.”

“But there were lions?” Trent insists.

“Oh, yeah,” Cady says like it’s entirely normal. “That’s mostly what we were studying. They were kind of my only friends.”

“And they never showed any interest in… consuming you?” Dee Dee asks worriedly. Cady laughs again.

“Lions are just big cats, you know, guys? As long as you’re careful and respect their boundaries they won’t hurt you,” she chuckles. “I got swiped at a few times when I was little, but I never needed more than fifteen stitches.”

“Fifteen?” Angie yelps.

“That is kind of a lot, Cades,” Emma chuckles. “I never had to get more than three as a kid.”

“Oh. Well, I was kind of asking for it, I was playing too rough,” Cady hums.

“With a lion,” Alyssa insists. “Do you have pictures?” Cady nods and passes over her phone for them to scroll through her camera roll.

“Anyway, please keep going,” Angie says, leaning across the table to try to see.

“That’s basically it,” Janis shrugs. “Until you get into the whole mess that happened junior year.”

Cady and Damian nod in agreement. The adults all look very excited at the prospect of some new drama. “Do tell.”

The art freaks all look to one another warily, wondering who should begin. Cady decides to after a second of back and forth.

“Well, um… I sat with these two on my first day,” she begins. “But then just before lunch ended I met these three girls. We called them the Plastics.”

“Why?” Angie asks curiously. Damian shows them all a photo. “Oh. I already don’t like this one.” Janis snorts quietly as she points to Regina.

“Anyway, they said I should sit with them, and Janis and Damian wanted me to so I could spy on them,” Cady says sheepishly. “They have some… personal history.”

“Oh?” Trent asks. Cady looks to Janis, this bit is her story to tell.

“Regina, the one in the middle, outed me in eighth grade,” Janis says. “Carved slurs into my locker, that kinda thing.”

“Oh, honey,” Barry says sadly. “That bitch.”

Janis chuckles weakly. “Yeah. The other two just kind of went along with it. They were just generally bitchy to everyone. But I didn’t have many friends because of her, and I went through a lot of counseling and stuff because of it. Spent some time in the hospital for… reasons, but that’s not… something we need to discuss right now.”

Everyone nods, respecting her privacy. Cady continues telling the story. “So, I pretended to join them and would kind of report back to Janis and Damian. I learned that they had this book, called the Burn Book, where they would write mean things about people from the yearbook and stuff. And at the same time I was crushing for a long time on this boy named Aaron, but he was Regina’s ex. She had dumped him earlier for another guy. And she was actually cheating on him with the other one.”

“Oh, can I tell this bit?” Janis asks. Cady nods and gestures for her to keep going. “So, around Halloween, Cady went to Aaron’s party, and I don’t know exactly what happened, but he basically got back together with Regina.”

“What kind of idiot-“ Trent begins, getting cut off by a stomp on the foot from Dee Dee.

“So poor Caddy came to my house,” Janis says, trying to keep down giggles at the memory. “Fucking slams my basement door open, but Dame and I were watching horror movies. Caddy was dressed as some corpse bride with a knife in her back and everything, and Damian screamed so loud, like, higher than I’ve ever heard. But she was crying, so we helped her and then came up with a revenge plot.”

Dee Dee suddenly looks very interested, leaning forwards slightly and resting her head on her folded hands.

“Caddy had these snack bars from Kenya, they’re… Swedish, I think?” Damian says. Cady nods. “They make you gain weight, like, really quickly. Regina was kind of obsessed with her weight and image and stuff, so we got Caddy to tell her they were actually a diet bar to help lose weight.”

“No,” Angie gasps. Everyone laughs at her reaction.

“Yeah,” Cady laughs. “I don’t think anything major happened until around Christmas. The Plastics did this dance every year at the winter talent show, and we had to wear these skimpy little Santa outfits. But Regina had already gained a fair bit of weight, so her skirt didn’t fit…”

“It fell off in the middle of the routine in front of everyone,” Janis cackles. Emma and Alyssa both look slightly scared of her. “Sorry. Personal vindication. But yeah, that was kind of the beginning of the end for her. Cady kind of… got lost in it, by that point. It was hard to tell if she was pretending or not.”

Cady looks down at her lap in shame, so Janis takes her hand under the table and kisses the side of her head a few times to comfort her. Damian keeps going with the story.

“So, Caddy basically overthrew Regina as Queen Bee of the school. She threw a little party and didn’t invite us or Regina, so she kind of was attacking both fronts. We got pretty mad and stopped associating with her, and Regina was obviously furious,” he says. “And so as revenge for that, Regina photocopied the Burn Book and spread all the pages around the school. I saw, like, seven fights before first period even started that day.”

“But didn’t they know that she had written it?” Trent asks.

“That’s the thing, she put herself in it,” Janis adds, now holding Cady on her lap. “So nobody suspected her. She went to the principal and blamed Gretchen and Karen, they’re the other two, and Cady.”

“I don’t like this story,” Barry whines. “Tell me something good happens.”

“Oh, just wait,” Janis chuckles darkly. “There was an assembly called that day, and they tried to make us apologize to each other and do trust exercises or something like that. I kind of went rogue and only apologized to myself and rallied the rest of the girls in our grade.”

“Go Janis,” Angie says, sounding impressed. “Stick it to the man.”

“Thanks,” Janis laughs. “But it only lasted a few minutes.”

“Damn it,” Barry groans. “What happened?”

“Regina got hit by a bus,” Cady says. Angie spits her mouthful of lemonade over Trent.

“She what?”

“Yeah,” Cady laughs. “So, that time kind of sucked for both of us. She was in the hospital recovering, and everyone was saying that I pushed her in front of it or that she jumped in front of it on purpose because of me.”

“She didn’t die?” Dee Dee clarifies. Everyone is more than a little concerned at the disappointment in her voice.

“No,” Cady chuckles. “Well, she died for, like, fifteen seconds, but she was resuscitated and she’s fine now.”

“And did you push her?” Barry asks. “We’re all friends here, you can tell us.”

“No!” Cady huffs. “I may have been a raging bitch, but I’m not an attempted murderer.”

“You didn’t feed anyone to a lion back in Kenya?” Janis teases gently.

“I’ll do it to you if you’re not careful,” Cady retaliates with a laugh. “Where did we leave off?”

“Regina got hit by a bus and you didn’t push her,” Trent says helpfully, still dabbing some lemonade out of his sweater with a wad of napkins.

“Oh,” Damian says. “Okay, so, I don’t… totally remember what happened in between that and Spring Fling, but it’s really not important.”

“I was suspended for the Book, that’s kind of it,” Cady says, gesturing for him to continue.

“Oh, yeah! Anyway, Spring Fling at our school is basically prom but for underclassmen, prom is just for the seniors. Jan and I were each other’s dates, she decorated our outfits and stuff, we looked killer if I do say so myself.”

Janis rolls her eyes lovingly and whacks him with an elbow.

“And Caddy was banned, so she wasn’t supposed to be there, but she showed up towards the end with the Mathletes,” Damian continues. “And she had been nominated for queen, and she won. So she went up on stage and gave the most beautiful speech I’ve ever heard and broke her crown, and we all got a piece. So now we’re all friends and life is good.��

“Nice ending, Dame,” Janis laughs. “Hasty conclusions. But that it is basically how it happened.”

Everyone blinks at them. Trent says, “That was like being in a war zone. Just one bombshell after another.”

“It kinda was, our math teacher got stabbed in the leg at one point,” Cady hums. “Anyway, what’s your guys’ story? If you want to share.”

“Oh, yeah, I’d like to know more,” Damian says. “Jan and I really only know the bare bones. What was in the news, and stuff.”

“You guys can start,” Emma says, pulling a face as Alyssa gently dabs some syrup off her lip. Alyssa giggles when Emma tries to bite her hand and kisses Emma’s cheek.

“Ooh, okay!” Barry says eagerly. “We were in a show. Well, Dee Dee and I. We were in a delightful little show called Eleanor.”

“As in…” Janis says confusedly.

“Eleanor Roosevelt,” Dee Dee explains. She seems surprised when the kids all nod in understanding. “You’ve heard of her?”

“Yeah?” Cady says, tilting her head. “She’s one of the most famous first ladies of all time, we learned about her in our history class.”

“Not nearly enough,” Janis grumbles. “Gotta make time for the men.”

“Amen sister,” Angie huffs.

“Really…” Dee Dee hums interestedly. “Anyway, it was… not a success. Poor advance sales, and then…”

“We bombed opening night,” Barry grumbles. “Apparently. But it wasn’t the show, it was… it was us. The media panned us as aging narcissists and we had to close.”

“On opening night?” Damian gasps in horror. Dee Dee and Barry both nod sadly.

“Regretfully, yes. So, we had to try to change the narrative,” Dee Dee says. “We decided to find a good cause and do something. So we were going to build houses for Habitat for Humanity.”

“But Barry has a bad back,” Trent pipes up. “So then we thought about, like, recycling or fixing poverty or world hunger.”

“But that was all too much for us to handle,” Angie says. “So I went on Twitter and found-”

“Me!” Emma says. “Apparently that all happened on the same night as the first assembly where the PTA cancelled prom in the first place. I guess we were trending.”

“And they only cancelled it because you two wanted to go together?” Janis asks sadly.

“Yep. Well, nobody knew about Alyssa, but they cancelled it because they knew I wanted to bring my girlfriend,” Emma explains.

“Those bitches,” Janis grumbles. “Sorry.”

“Believe me, we get it,” Emma laughs. “But my bit of the story isn’t quite here yet.”

“Oh, yes!” Dee Dee realizes. “So, we decided to help Emma, but we were completely out of funds and had no way to get all the way to Indiana from New York.”

“But I had just booked a non-equity tour of Godspell,” Trent half-brags. The other half seems rather depressed at that statement. “So we came on the tour bus.”

“Can I start our part?” Alyssa asks. Emma nods and squeezes her hand under the table. “So, they obviously gave no indication that they were coming. Emma and Principal Hawkins had gone to the State’s Attorney by that point and put some legal pressure on the PTA, so we had another assembly to discuss options.”

“We?” Damian asks.

“Oh, my mom was the head of the PTA,” Alyssa says casually. Damian chokes on his drink and Janis nearly drops Cady on the ground.

“Your mom cancelled your prom?” Janis asks in shock. Alyssa nods sadly. “Oh, because you… she didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“It was what it was. She knows now,” Alyssa hums. “Anyway, I was there to speak for student council. I was mid-sentence, and then they come barreling into the gym with signs and yelling at everyone.”

“Educating everyone,” Barry corrects. “Loudly and with signs.”

“Right, educating. Sorry,” Alyssa laughs. “So my mom totally loses her shit. It’s chaos. I think Trent had a cowbell at some point?”

Trent reaches into a messenger bag next to him and pulls out a cowbell, resting it on the table with a quiet thunk.

“You just keep that with you?” Janis chuckles.

“For emergencies,” Trent explains. “You’d be surprised.”

Janis tries to think of what emergencies she’s faced that would either be helped or solved with the addition of a cowbell, and surprisingly, she can think of a few.

“Of course he keeps it all the time,” Emma chuckles. “I don’t remember… most of what happened that time. But after a few days they announced that the prom was back on.”

“Because of you?” Damian asks, looking to the stars.

“No,” they all say at the same time Emma says, “I think so.”

Everyone looks her way. “I told you this at the time, but you guys really scared people! I think you at least had a part.”

“How sweet,” Dee Dee says. “Let’s say we had an ensemble part in getting it back on.”

That gets a chuckle from everyone at the table, before Barry continues with the story.

“I, obviously, had to take Emma shopping,” he says. “She only had one dress and it was… a travesty would be an understatement.”

“I’m honestly not sure where it came from,” Emma chuckles. “Just think Little House on the Prarie but somehow so much worse.”

“So we went to the mall, and found this lovely blue dress and some good shoes,” Barry says. Emma looks like she would disagree with his choice of adjectives, but nods. “Did her hair and makeup all fancy, and bought her a corsage.”

“Aww,” Cady coos. “How sweet.”

“That part was fun,” Emma agrees fondly. “But…”

“When we got there,” Barry says. “Poor thing was so excited, but it was-it was just-“

Dee Dee continues for him, as Barry gets too emotional to keep going. “It was totally empty. Barry took Emma into the gym, and it was just horrific. There were barely any decorations, and they were just thrown up. I would be stunned if they spent more than ten dollars on the whole thing.”

“Oh god,” Damian says sadly. “I heard it was a fake, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“It sucked,” Emma chuckles sardonically, trying not to get too heavy in the middle of an IHOP. “More than anything. I didn’t care about the decorations, I just… it was so lonely, you know? I realized then that so many people I thought cared about me just didn’t. So many people I thought were my friends, weren’t. I had never felt more alone.”

“It sounds awful,” Janis says.

“It was,” Emma mumbles. Alyssa takes her hand under the table and gives it a gentle squeeze. Emma looks up and gives her a sad but grateful grin.

“I was at the… other prom. The real one,” Alyssa continues, seeming ashamed. “I had no idea what they had done, everyone on student council and the PTA hid it from me too. Some of my friends had seen us together and realized I was the ‘secret girlfriend’ and were trying to break us up.”

“Which worked,” Emma admits sadly. “I called her to try to get her to come to my own personal prom so I could at least have her there, but her mom was at the real one with her and she couldn’t leave. And I just sort of… lost it. I hung up and we didn’t talk again for a week.”

“I never blamed you for that,” Alyssa murmurs gently. “You were still trying to process everything and I just added to it.”

“No, you didn’t,” Emma insists. “We can talk more later. Anyway. I ran out, obviously. And Angie actually came after me, which was nice. She just let me cry and didn’t make me do anything. Helped me get my makeup off and stuff. She even slept on my bedroom floor in case I needed something. It was kind of like having a mom there, which I really needed.”

“How fucking old-“ Angie begins, but Trent claps a hand over her mouth. Emma laughs and continues.

“And then the rest of them came by the next day even though I yelled at them,” she says.

“With ice cream!” Barry butts in. “That’s an important detail.”

“Oh yeah, they brought me Häagen Dazs,” Emma laughs. “It was cute. Especially because they thought I wouldn’t know what it was.”

“Can you blame us? You live in the most yeehaw hick town in Indiana,” Trent says. “And that’s saying something.”

“It’s not that bad,” Emma tuts. “Anyway, they brought ice cream and were trying to convince me to do something to bring more attention to what was happening. Dee Dee actually got me on a talk show at one point, but I knew I would never be able to do something like that.”

“You still owe me a house,” Dee Dee grumbles under her breath. “But what she wound up doing was much better anyway.”

“The song?” Damian asks. Emma nods.

“I had it sort of in my head for a while, and I managed to piece it together in about a week,” she replies. “I was terrified, but it was just an overnight thing. I woke up the next day and it already had two million views.”

Alyssa squeezes her hand with a proud smile. “Half of them were me.”

“The other half were Damian,” Janis chuckles. “He made me watch it at lunch one day and we both watched it so many times we knew all the words by the next day.”

“Aww,” Emma says. “You guys are so sweet.”

“We try,” Janis and Damian say at the same time, locking eyes and glaring at each other once they notice. Cady giggles at their antics.

“Anyway,” Emma laughs. “I wasn’t expecting even that many, but people just kept watching, and then I started getting all these comments on it that were so precious. All these other queer kids all over the world sharing their stories too. Eventually it got back to Principal Hawkins and all of them, and they helped figure out how to set up an inclusive prom. And funded it, which was very helpful.”

“Yeah, helpful,” Dee Dee grumbles under her breath.

“Once we saw where the money was going it was so worth it,” Barry says, gently kicking Dee Dee under the table. “It was beautiful.”

“It really was,” Emma agrees. “But god, it took forever to set up.”

“God, yeah,” Alyssa says. “Oh, and we got back together, like, as we were setting everything up, we forgot to mention that.”

“Oh yeah,” Emma says. “Her mom came when she heard what we were doing in the gym because we never got PTA approval-“

“So she was mad,” Alyssa butts in.

“Very mad,” Emma chuckles. “But you came with her and told her to stop talking, which was both hilarious and terrifying. And then you told me you loved me in front of everyone. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”

“Me either,” Alyssa says quietly.

“Aww,” Cady says, even though she’s heard the whole story before. It’s always a good one to repeat. “How sweet.”

“So after that whole thing we finished setting everything up,” Emma continues, smiling at her girlfriend. “And it was beautiful, even I was impressed.”

“You looked so happy when everyone started showing up,” Alyssa says fondly. “I was so proud of you. I still am. You gave so many people an incredible night they wouldn’t have had without you.”

Emma flushes slightly and looks down at her lap. Alyssa squishes her cheeks in her hand to get her to look back up.

“It really was an incredible night,” she says. “And we finally got to dance together, I think that was my favorite part.”

“That was good,” Alyssa nods. “But you’re a terrible dancer.”

“Hey! Just because I didn’t take dance classes for years,” Emma pouts.

“Oh, hush, I’m joking,” Alyssa says, kissing Emma’s cheek.

“You missed,” Emma continues pouting. Alyssa frowns in confusion and kisses her cheek again, but in a different spot. “You missed.”

Alyssa gives her a chaste kiss on the lips this time, and Emma finally smiles. Alyssa rolls her eyes lovingly. “You’re such a dork, goodness gracious.”

“You guys are almost as cute as Caddy and Janis,” Damian says, trying to snap them out of it and get them to remember the presence of the group.

“Almost?” Alyssa says, her competitive side making a slight appearance. “I think you’re biased.”

“Oh, definitely,” Damian agrees. “We don’t really have any unbiased judges though.”

“True. We’ll say it’s a truce for now,” Alyssa says. “Are we all done? I need to get up for a bit. I’m stuffed.”

“I think so,” Cady says, looking around at all the empty plates around. “We could go to the beach for the sunset, if you guys want. It’s not too far a drive.”

“Ooh, yes please,” Emma says excitedly. The adults play rock paper scissors to work out payment, and Dee Dee grumbles under her breath when she loses.

“Hungry kids. Why are pancakes so expensive?”

————-

“Oh, guys, look!” Damian says, pointing to a window of a thrift shop nearby. “We could go try on dresses!”

“We?” Janis chuckles, carrying Cady on her back. “You gonna get into a ballgown, D?”

“Why not?” Damian asks. “I have the figure for it, shut up.”

“I thought we were going to the beach,” Angie says.

“We can do both,” Barry says, seeming strangely excited. “Wear dresses to the beach.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Cady says eagerly, squeezing her legs together a bit to get Janis to go in, as if she’s riding a pony. “Please?”

“I am not paying,” Dee Dee says immediately. Everyone else nods, that’s only fair.

��Fine, fine. Come along,” Trent says, leading them into the shop as their gaggle of children follow like ducklings.

—-

The employees look a bit concerned as all nine of them parade to the discounted gown section and start looking for ones in their sizes. Damian finds his first, a royal purple gown with a high neck and a slit that would reach about to his knee. He takes it off the rack and heads over to the changing room, rapidly followed by Barry with his silver gown.

“How did-“ Emma stutters. “I guess they knew what they were looking for.”

Angie helps Trent find one that would fit him, an emerald green dress with long sleeves and a nice v-neck collar. He shrugs and follows Barry and Damian. Angie then moves on to find one of her own, and picks out a sleek black dress made of lace and with a shorter skirt, about to the knee. Dee Dee follows with one she seems to have grabbed at random, a nice yellow gown complete with a cape.

Alyssa picks a pink dress with a longer train, since she wore a short dress to both of her real proms and wants to experiment a little. Cady picks a yellow one, with longer sleeves and a bow in the back. The skirt is short, which makes her a little nervous, but she decides to give it a go.

Janis and Emma both look a bit lost, staring aimlessly at the racks and flicking through them weakly.

“Jayjay, try this one,” Cady says, offering a long, red, short-sleeved gown that looks like it would have a rather tight fit. Maybe Cady has some selfish motivations here, but she’ll never admit it. Janis raises a slightly suspicious eyebrow, but takes the dress and hauls her girlfriend off to the changing rooms.

“They all look so itchy,” Emma shudders slightly. Alyssa laughs and takes one of her hands.

“If you got one made of something like this it wouldn’t be too bad,” she says, showing Emma one made of an almost satin-like material. “And it’ll only be a couple hours at most. We’re going to the beach, sand is itchy anyway.”

“True,” Emma agrees with a little nod. “I like this one.”

“So try it,” Alyssa chuckles as Emma grabs an amethyst colored ballgown with a big poofy skirt. “Come on.”

Most of their group is waiting outside the rooms, clad in their ill fitting gowns. Trent’s is a bit too big, Barry’s is missing some sequins, and Angie’s has a small hole in the sleeve, but none of them complain.

Cady and Janis open the curtains to their respective rooms, revealing their dresses to one another. Janis is somehow not tall enough to fill her dress out, which makes her look a bit like Morticia Addams, but she doesn’t mind. Cady’s is almost perfect, but the skirt clings to her legs in an odd way.

“You look nice!” Cady says, gently adjusting Janis’ sleeve as Janis tugs at her collar.

“It’s a bit tight,” Janis says, sounding rather choked.

“I can fix that once we buy it,” Barry says, looking at himself in the mirror. Everyone looks at him in concern. “What? I have a stitch kit, I’ll just cut the collar off it.”

“Oh,” everyone says. Alyssa and Emma exit the changing rooms then, prompting coos from everyone.

“Emmy, you look beautiful!” Alyssa says, pulling her girlfriend into a hug. “The color really suits you.”

“Does it?” Emma says, sarcastically striking a pose. “It feels very… purple.”

“I like purple,” Alyssa hums, adjusting Emma’s skirt.

“You look really nice,” Emma replies, looking at Alyssa’s long dress. Hers is the closest to fitting correctly out of everyone’s.

“Thanks!” Alyssa says, putting her hands on her hips and popping out a knee. Emma laughs and kisses her gently.

“Okay, let’s go!” Angie says happily, having been taking pictures of everyone like a proud mom taking photos for her Facebook. Angie, Trent, and Barry split the cost among them, and they unleash their prom-ready selves onto the public.

—————-

“So you guys just graduated, right?” Alyssa asks, strolling down the shore holding hands with Emma. Cady and Janis are also hand in hand walking next to them.

“Yep!” Cady chirps.

“So you must’ve just had your senior prom too, what was yours like?”

“It was so fun! Damian took me shopping and I had the most beautiful dress,” Cady replies eagerly. “And Janis had a suit to match and it was… she looked… so hot.”

“Ooh,” Emma teases. “Scandalous.”

“Hey,” Cady says. “I’m allowed to think she’s hot.”

“Fair enough,” Emma shrugs.

“What about you guys, how are you handling your post-prom fame?” Janis jokes.

“Pretty well,” Emma chuckles. “Or at least I think we are.”

“You certainly are,” Alyssa murmurs.

“Oh yeah, aren’t you starting a nonprofit or something?” Cady asks.

“Wait, what?” Janis asks.

“I’m trying,” Emma laughs again. “Lyss’ mom is actually helping me. And trying to start a charity looks, like, super good on college applications, so that’s nice.”

“I thought your mom started this whole fiasco,” Janis says confusedly.

“Oh, she did,” Alyssa confirms. “But she’s cool with the gays now. She had a lot of questions and stuff, and she’s still having to work pretty hard at it. Changing opinions and thought patterns that were instilled in you from

childhood is tough. But she’s trying.”

“Yeah, she came to pride with us this year,” Emma says. “It was cute, she had a rainbow pantsuit and everything.”

“Go mom,” Janis chuckles. “I’m glad she turned things around.”

“Me too,” Alyssa murmurs quietly.

“Me three,” Emma says, squeezing her hand.

“So what’s this charity you’re getting going?” Cady asks.

“It’s called the Unruly Hearts Foundation,” Emma explains. “It’s a nonprofit that takes donations and stuff to throw other inclusive events around the country. Create safe spaces. And we also donate a fair bit to LGBTQ+ shelters and stuff, too.”

“That’s awesome,” Janis says. “I’m broke but I’ll donate a bit once I get my commissions business going.”

“Thanks, Janis,” Emma chuckles. “You know, we could use some branding. A logo, stuff for our website. If you’re interest-“

“Yes,” Janis interrupts. “I’m interested. Please.”

“Groovy,” Emma laughs. “I’ll be in touch, get Cady to give you my number.”

“You say groovy too?!” Damian asks eagerly as he makes an appearance. “These two always make fun of me for it.”

“Hell yeah I say groovy,” Emma says, giving Damian a fist bump. “Sometimes it’s the only word that fits the vibes, you know?”

“Yes!” Damian says. “See? Emma gets it.”

“I think ‘tits’ is pretty versatile,” Janis says. “You kind of look like Ursula, by the way, Dame.”

“Thanks,” Damian says, swishing his purple skirt around. “I’m gonna take that as a compliment.”

“It was,” Janis huffs. “As if I’d ever insult you.”

“You called me a ‘fucking deplorable kneecap’ on the way here,” Damian retaliates. Emma and Alyssa rode separately and burst out laughing.

“And now I have grown as a person. Developed myself.”

“It was ten minutes ago!”

“And? I’m not the same me I was two minutes ago, let alone ten,” Janis defends.

“Thank god,” Damian grumbles jokingly.

“Hey!” Janis says, breaking away from Cady and running after him. Damian shrieks and holds up his skirts to run away.

“Do we need to intervene here, Cades?” Emma asks with a slight chuckle as Damian and Janis sprint up and down the shoreline in a sort of oval.

“Nah,” Cady shrugs. “They do stuff like this about once a week. Janis knows she needs him, she won’t actually do anything.”

Just as she says that, Damian takes a hard left and runs full tilt into the lake. Janis pauses for a second before shrugging and running after him.

“Or maybe she will.”

“That water must be cold,” Alyssa chuckles in concern.

“Let’s find out!” Emma says boldly, tightening her grip on Alyssa’s hand and running them towards the water as well. Alyssa shrieks as they leap into the lake with a splash. Cady realizes she’s alone and also runs in, managing a cannonball into the water.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Barry yells, walking up on a sort of puddle of teenagers in soaking wet dresses.

“They’re being kids, let them live,” Dee Dee says. “Unrelated, can you swim?”

“Yeah, wh- don’t you dare,” Barry says, turning to face her.

“Oh, I would never,” Dee Dee says, aghast at the mere suggestion. Trent then comes sprinting up and tackles Barry into the lake. “But he would.”

Angie cackles and high fives her. Dee Dee crosses her arms over her chest and smiles down as Barry pops back up with a splutter.

“Dee Dee Allen!” Barry demands. “Get your ass in here.”

“No, I don’t think I will, thank you,” Dee Dee says casually, rocking slightly on the balls of her feet.

“Oh come on,” Angie coaxes. “It’s only fair.”

“I didn’t push him!”

“You had a role.”

Dee Dee ponders this for a moment before she begrudgingly reaches to take Angie’s hand, and they leap in together.

“Yay!” Emma cheers, delighted that all her friends made it into the lake one way or another. Some of them are significantly less happy about this, but everyone is laughing eventually.

“Hey, Caddy,” Janis says. She swims over to her girlfriend and kisses her gently, before booping her nose. “Tag. You’re it.”

Cady laughs as Janis swims away as fast as she can, rapidly followed by the rest of the group. Cady swims around for a second while she ponders her options to decide who to go after. Emma is a strong swimmer, being on her high school swim team and all. Alyssa is okay, but a bit weaker.

Barry seems to be the slowest, and gives her the best chance of success. He looks very anxious as Cady stares him down before lunging for him. He shrieks as Cady manages to snag his skirt and tap his arm under the water before she backstrokes away.

“Damn it,” he puffs. “I’m having elementary school flashbacks.”

“Better than middle school flashbacks,” Angie calls.

“Amen,” Janis says. She screams as Barry goes for her and swims away, huddling behind Damian for protection.

“Hey!” Damian whines, swimming away from her and creating a sort of three-way chase. Janis quickly gives up on Damian’s protection and swims to Cady instead.

“Protect me,” she pleads. Cady smiles as Janis hides behind her, peeking over her shoulder to check where the threat is.

“You’re so cute.”

“No I’m not,” Janis pouts. “I’m being stealthy.”

“Uhhuh,” Cady says as Janis clings to her like a precious little octopus. “If you get me tagged again I’m breaking up with you.”

“That’s fair,” Janis agrees with a shrug. Alyssa suddenly gives a shriek as Barry taps her leg under the water. “Uh oh.”

————-

After an hour or so of tag, the sun begins to set for the day. The water temperature plummets and everyone swims to shore to watch the sky be painted beautiful shades of pink and orange and purple. The adults and Damian head back to the car to go hunt for towels and dry clothes somewhere.

But Cady, Janis, Emma and Alyssa stay behind, deciding they don’t mind so much if they’re in heavy, cold dresses and getting covered in itchy sand. Cady holds Janis on her lap and Alyssa has Emma in hers, all of them staring out over the expanse of the water before them together.

“You guys should visit more often,” Cady says quietly as the first stars begin to make an appearance.

“Absolutely,” Alyssa says, looking down at her girlfriend. “This was an awesome day.”

“And we’ll have more,” Emma says.

Together.

—-

thank you so much for reading! hope you enjoyed!

lots of love,

ezzy

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skullvins · 3 years ago

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Please expand on the swim goggles thing

k lemme bullet point my way through this because it's an amalgamation of many hcs in one:

skull coroika is a little he/she bigender fucking legend and also besties with aloha. those two hang out n do funky transgender shit together and are generally the chaos pair of the S4. aloha invites all of the S4 to his parties these days but it's not really mask or army's scene, but skull can enjoy music + some socialisation + hanging out with his friend + free food + maybe some light drinking if you hc them as old enough to do so, which I do at this point in the manga

this means it's somewhat common for skull to use parties like this as an excuse to dress up MUCH more femme than usual/generally as an excuse to be more gnc. he'll wear his hair down or tie it up differently and possibly not wear his bandana/wear something else instead (I hc he also likes to hide behind hats sometimes) and throw a skirt on and just go have a good time

this means sometimes not only does he get mistaken for a girl sometimes, but sometimes people don't recognise that he's skull s4

it's canon that swim goggles goes to aloha's parties. we know swim knows avi too, and may have heard about skull through avi/in passing/seen him through social media/news (cos like. the S4 are canonically at least somewhat famous/well known) but has probably never met the guy in person

swim also thinks he's straight

fast forward to one of these parties, I can see swim approaching the tall purple inkling girl he's never met before and chatting her up a bit. I do think skull would play along with these flirtations a little bit, but only because it amuses him and he has a tendency to give kinda blunt, not very flirty answers (#AroLegend). this lowkey backfires tho because I weirdly think swim would find that cute?

"so, what's a cute gal like you do to pass the time?" "I snipe people... Accurately."

"maybe you could show me around your charger sometime haha" "oh, you couldn't handle what I do."

anyway, it's like two or three parties of these two bumping into each other and chatting for a bit before swim goes and talks to like aloha or diver (I think he'd be on good terms with both, but I think this is funnier with diver tbh) and he asks like hey. do you know who the tall purple girl is? .///.

and then aloha/diver is like. thats. That's skull S4 she's just gender as fuck. welcome to the bi gang lol

this is Surprising (and sexuality wise, confusing) to swim but I THEN hc he starts finding out more about skull on the turf side of things (follows his socials maybe, watches him in some tourneys, generally becomes a bit invested in purple team as like a fan) and finds himself still interested in skull even when she's more masc presenting in turf

they chat a bit more at parties, maybe a little bit after turf games, swim asks skull on a casual date but she turns him down (nicely), explains she doesn't really do traditional dating and they probably wouldn't work well like that, but she'd like to be friends and it all works out. they meet up at parties and they're happy to see each other and swim starts copying aloha and flirting with some of the guys at those parties too

anyway tl;dr silly bigender gnc shenanigans causes skull to accidentally be swim's bisexual awakening and it's incredibly hilarious, more at six

#I've also talked about aloha and skull dragging mask and army to a party before #and army insisting on 'escorting' skull if she's presenting more femme #tho really it's skull escorting army #it's not just swim who's hit on her at parties and army is fucking amazed at how skull keeps her cool #but she's over 6 foot and wearing chunky heels probably she can handle herself #but army is TINY and NOT USED TO LOUD MUSIC #anyway #asks #anon #coroika #main tag can get this cos i havent been around much and the world needs to know about he/she skull #s4 #skull #skullposting #also yes vin has also been at one of these parties before and death glared a few guys #skull finds that amusing too #he gets gender euphoria out of being one of aloha's hot party girls #I also hc aloha sometimes gets skull to divert attention if he needs to deal with something at a party #honestly i have a lot of niche hcs for how i characterise aloha but the two main ones are #1) huge disaster flirt and very fun loving and 2) VERY good at navigating social situations and de-escalating things #the latter is something he's WORKED at though #he's good at keeping his cool under social pressure

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sunlitmcgee · 2 years ago

Text

I’m still so proud of the fact that I took this fandom’s whole “it’s okay for my blorbo to be hella abusive/evil if they look hot and if it’s morally gray” and applied it to HWHBH!XD in the funniest way possible

Oh they tortured a guy? Well, maybe he shouldn’t have abused their little one. Maybe they looked very fetch when banging his head against the cell walls. Maybe you just haven’t seen things from their point of view.

They left an elderly man to rot in the depths of his guilt? Well, they were very funky while doing it. A bit of A Freak(pos). He should’ve understood that ancient deities don’t place dumb games and that trying to do so with them will only earn you dumb prizes.

Technofuck? FUCK technofuck. Who gives a single flipping DAMN about technofuck, anyway?!

They’re such a creature. Just a straight up immoral entity. They threw two men’s souls into their fucked up pocket dimension stomach to be tortured for eternity in the form of some methaphysical digestive process. They just don’t care. They have no reason to care. They can do anything to anyone for whatever reason they feel like, the only limit being their personal inhabitions and thinking “would this upset my kids?”

they trauma dump on people who cat call them. what a guy. or gal. or whatever the fuck you’d refer to them as

(/s for all of that. this is a shitpost about how HWHBH!XD’s violent behaviors have very shaky and oftentimes wholly selfish justifications. I acknowledge their behavior in these cases as wrong and want to expand on it sometime soonish, but they at least have more reasons to be this way than most canon DSMP characters, so I’m sure you get where I’m going with this.)

#tw torture mention #tw abuse mention #tw violence #tw cat calling mention #HWHBH #hwhbh!XD #shitpost

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theres-an-impulstor-among-us · 4 years ago

Note

Today have two writing ideas, pick your favorite! 1) HCBBS fluff! Every hermit when swapping bases as like "you mean MY base", but Impulse and Stress just act like they're babysitting each other's children. (I basically just want Dadpulse and Stressmom :>) 2) More Hermit Among us! This time a fictional scenario, where Zedaph joins in one of the games. Impulse and Tango get impostor, and Zed third impostors just for them. Maybe he even finds a way to kill someone, who knows?

I decided to go with the first one (though I definitely do want to write Zed in Among Us soon), mostly because I had been wanting to do something similar for a while! I apologise that Stress’s section is a little lacking but I’m not as familiar with her. I hope Impulse’s part will make up for it! :D

...

It was fair to say that StressMonster101 had been fairly apprehensive about the big move at first. After finding out another Hermit was going to have her base for a while and vice versa, she hadn’t been sure who to hope for. But it was also fair to say that once Stress had found out she would be swapping with Impulse, her excitement levels skyrocketed.

After giving each other a quick tour of their bases, Stress and Impulse separated. Her mind already racing with ideas and plans, Stress returned to her new base and went straight to the storage area, gazing down through the floor at the unfinished cactus farm as she did.

“Right!” She beamed. “This place is a little lacking in something very, VERY important: pink. Everyone needs more pink in their lives, especially Impulse.”

So the very first thing she did was swap out the blue concrete highlights around the base to bright pink concrete, followed by replacing the blue stained glass lining the walkways with pink stained glass.

“Perfect,” she said proudly, admiring her work. “Impulse could definitely use more pink in his life.”

As she went back into the base, she could almost feel the energy inside the pyramid changing, as if the whole base itself was complaining about her decision.

“Don’t you give me that,” she laughed aloud, to nobody in particular. “I’m not gonna do anything TOO drastic. I’m just babysitting you for Impulse, yannow.”

The base seemed to object to that statement too.

“You know what Impulse needs now?” Stress proclaimed to the base. “A lovely little indoor park. Working on that cactus farm has gotta be so monotonous; he needs somewhere to relax, surrounded by flowers and- OOH, I SHOULD GET HIM SOME BEES!”

She dashed off immediately to root through Impulse’s chests for flowers, mumbling to herself about how happy he would be when he saw the changes she was going to make to his base. Nothing too drastic, just some little things to improve Impulse’s daily mood and bring some more life to the place. While she couldn’t deny that the build itself was fantastic, it just lacked a certain spark that made it truly feel alive.

Stress vowed to bring this spark to the base.

...

Waking up after his first night in his new base, Impulse momentarily didn’t know where he was. Then he registered the decor and remembered what had gone on the day before and why exactly he was sleeping in a pink bed surrounded by stark white walls.

He gingerly got out of bed and smoothed down the covers. Normally he wouldn’t bother making his bed, but it felt weird not to do so here in Stress’s base.

No, not Stress’s base, he corrected himself reluctantly. My base.

He shivered. Even just thinking those words felt wrong.

After he had left the bed as presentable as he had found it, Impulse headed into the main part of the skull base and stood in the middle of the room, trying to think of ideas that weren’t too invasive. The last thing he wanted was to change something big and then have Stress hate it.

And it really didn’t help that the style of this base was so different to his own.

Glancing to his right, he spotted a slightly raised section of the floor that looked almost like a stage. Recalling that Stress, like himself, was a drummer, he got an idea.

Half an hour later, he put the last block back in place and dusted off his hands. It was time to test out his invention.

He flicked the switch in front of him and grinned as a funky beat started playing. As he stood up, he couldn’t help bouncing from side to side in time to the beat, even going so far as to incorporate some dance moves.

“She’ll like this,” he said confidently to himself. “She likes music. Ooh, maybe I should order a drumset from Beef’s shop to put around it? That’d be pretty cool.”

As he turned the lever off, he spotted the chicken Stress had spawned randomly in her base, staring at him from a few blocks away.

“Hey,” he said slowly. “Uh… you wanna dance?”

He turned the drumbeat back on and awkwardly shuffled through some dance moves.

The chicken just stared back at him.

Impulse sighed and switched off the beat. “What do you want from me? Why do you hate me so much?” He paused. “And why am I so insecure about being judged by a chicken?”

He strode past the chicken and started looking through the chests stacked by the wall, looking for anything that might spark a new project idea. All he found, however, was stacks upon stacks of building materials that only served to remind him of the base he had left behind and all the plans he had been itching to get started on.

Closing the last chest, he stepped back in disappointment. No inspiration whatsoever. Stress probably had loads of ideas for the pyramid, so Impulse felt bad that he couldn’t think of a single thing to improve his new base. He was letting Stress down already.

Something rubbed his leg, causing him to yelp and leap to the side, expecting to see a monster.

“Ugh,” he groaned, nudging the chicken away with his foot. “You scared the crap outta me, you-.” He broke off before he inadvertently called the chicken a horrible name. “Buddy, don’t scare me. Please. I’m still not comfortable here.”

The chicken cocked its head and continued staring at him.

This time, Impulse gazed back. “Are you hungry? Is that why you keep staring at me?”

He dug out some seeds from one of the chests and hesitantly held them out to the chicken, which approached him immediately and pecked them out of his hand.

Impulse chuckled and watched the chicken gobble up the seeds. “You really WERE hungry, huh? Well, maybe you’ll stop bothering me now.”

Once the chicken had finished the seeds, it turned and waddled back into the main room. It stopped in front of the lever and pecked at it.

Impulse curiously followed the chicken and flicked the lever on. “Is this what you want?”

The chicken jiggled back and forth in time with the drum beat, its little head wiggling from side to side. “There you go, you little drumstick,” Impulse laughed. “Now you’ve got a full belly, you wanna dance.”

He paused. “Hmm. That’d make a good name for you. Hey, you wanna be called Drumstick?”

The chicken looked up at him and clucked happily. Or rather, Impulse assumed it was a happy noise.

“Then I guess your name is Drumstick now,” Impulse chuckled.

Drumstick responded by laying an egg.

Impulse couldn’t help laughing at the comedic timing of the event. “Oh dear. You’re a funny chicken, aren’t you? Shall we see if we can get you a little friend?”

He picked up the egg and threw it at the wall. It burst open and a tiny chick fluttered down to the ground.

“Heeeey, you’re a mommy, Drumstick!” Impulse beamed and picked up the little baby from the ground, before bringing it over to his feathered friend. “Look. This is your baby. And I guess I hatched it, so would that make me her dad?”

Impulse blinked as he fully registered what he had just said. “Nope, don’t wanna open that can of worms today. So what should we call you?” He gently tickled the baby under its neck with the back of his finger. “You’re just a little nugget, aren’t you? Shall we call you Nugget? Drumstick, should we call your little baby Nugget?”

Drumstick clucked and bobbed her head.

“Great! Impulse, Drumstick, and Nugget, the three musketeers.” A smile spread over Impulse’s face. “Hey, you know what? You two can be my project. I’ll build you a nice little area to live in and make it look all pretty. Stress would really like that. Would you guys like that?”

Nugget responded by chirping quietly and snuggling into Impulse’s neck.

He chuckled and gently stroked her feathers. “I hope I don’t get too attached to you guys. You’re both gonna have to stay here when I move back to my base.”

Drumstick made a sad noise, as if she had understood his words. And perhaps she had.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Impulse lifted Drumstick onto his left shoulder and Nugget onto his right, ignoring the slight twinge as their claws dug into his skin.

“C’mon, gals,” he said, unable to stop grinning. “Let’s get started.”

#hermitcraft #hcbbs #impulsesv #stressmonster101 #Vaunna writes

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patchofsunlight · 4 years ago

Text

Backyard Boy | Sokka x Fem!Reader

SUMMARY: Mordern!AU | Sokka goes out on a date with his best friend, and it goes as perfectly as he longed it to.

REQUEST (by anon): “In my Sokka feels so I thought I’d request! Could be modern or not but the reader would be in the gang and is best friends with Sokka (who has a fat crush on her). One day he asks her to go on a picnic, just the 2 of them, she doesn’t know if it’s a date or not so she asks her gal pals for help getting ready. She and Sokka have fun (piggyback rides, eating food, making eachother laugh) at the end of their date they cuddle, look into eachothers eyes and kiss. Their friends called it! Thank you!💕”

WORD COUNT: 2.6k this is the first thing I’ve ever posted here with less than 5k I’m proud

WARNINGS: yes I made Jin from Ba Sing Se Y/N’s friend. I think there’s one swear word near the end? also just teeth-rotting fluff. a bit of angst if you squint but like just a little. bad editing as usual. kinda rushed? idk

PLAYLIST (songs that help set the ~vibe + songs that inspired me): Backyard Boy by Claire Rosinkranz ; Electric Love by BØRNS, I Do Adore by Mindy Gledhill ; Lucky by Jason Mraz feat. Colbie Caillat.

Hey! I had a lot of fun and smiled a lot while writing this, so I hope you guys like it too! It’s not perfect, but I tried my best. Feedback is always appreciated! Thank you for reading!

(not my gif)

“You know what? Maybe this was a bad idea, Jin. Maybe I got it all wrong. I should just cancel.”

“Absolutely not. If you cancel, I’ll be forced to punch you in the face, and no one wants that.”

“You don’t even have the guts to punch me in the face.”

“True. Well, I’ll just get someone else to do it.”

Y/N smiled nervously at her friend’s words, fidgeting.

Sokka and she had been best friends for a long while. They had met years ago and clicked instantly, falling in pace with each other so easily that “impressive” was a big understatement — friendship at first sight, he called it. And yet Y/N yearned for more, trying miserably to conceal her dazed smiles and flushed cheeks whenever he as much as looked her way. Her feelings were obvious, but she was too afraid to act on them: it was easier to just leave it alone, pretend the pounding of her heart when around him was ignorable, and maintain her dear relationship with pretty boy Sokka secure. Y/N would choose never having her feelings returned over losing him any day of the week, and it was probably for the best.

She couldn’t lose him, she refused to — he was more important than whatever love she gathered in her chest, than letting go of the suffocating confession always lingering on the tip of her tongue, and she simply wouldn’t let herself lose him.

Y/N was finally settling for the friendship and painful longing when the Water Tribe boy came to her during one of the Gaang’s movie nights, scratching his neck shyly and avoiding her stare.

“Hey, Y/N,” his voice was slightly high-pitched and he cleared his throat, blushing lightly, talking quietly so as to not disturb the others around them, “I—I was thinking—maybe we could, I don’t know, hang out? Tomorrow?”

“That sounds great, Sokka. Didn’t Toph want to try that new restaurant that opened near the Jasmine Dragon?” she replied almost absentmindedly, eyes trained on the scene playing on the television.

“No, Y/N, I—I thought—Well, what if it was just the two of us?”

Now that had caught her attention, “oh.”

“Yeah. It’s okay if you don’t want to, I—”

“I’d love to, Sokka.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she smiled softly, cheeks reddening, and Sokka wondered if she could hear his heart skip a beat inside his chest.

“That’s great. I—” he couldn’t stop his own face from blazing pink, a grin taking over his lips, “I was thinking of a picnic?”

Cue to the present moment, in which Y/N freaked out about misunderstanding Sokka’s words because he had never really called it a date and she had gotten all excited about it as if that’s what it was but what if it wasn’t?

“I don’t know, Jin,” she peeked at her own reflection, noticing how pretty she looked and how flawlessly Jin had styled her hair. Spirits, Y/N had overdone it, hadn’t she? “Maybe he just wanted to spend some time with his best friend and I just projected what I wanted onto that and—”

“Y/N, stop,” the Ba Sing Se girl held her forearms to intercept the frantic movements, “I’m pretty sure he sees you as much more than a friend, okay? You guys have been dancing around each other’s feelings for years now, everyone sees it,” she widened her eyes to emphasize her words, “so stop being crazy and just go meet him! Even if we’re all wrong and he wants nothing to do with you romantically, you can still go and have a good time, right?”

“Right,” Y/N muttered in response, breathing deeply, “right, you’re right. I’m just—I’m just gonna go.”

“Yes! Good luck! It’s gonna be great, I’m sure of it!”

-----

Food, drinks, flowers, extra sweatshirt, the comfy blankets he had stolen from Katara’s apartment, all the courage he could muster, her favorite candy, the blue shirt she had said looked good on him. Yeah, it seemed like he had it all pretty much covered.

Sokka was nervous, yet confident. She had accepted to go on a date with him and he had done the best he could to make sure it would be a lovely afternoon Y/N would absolutely adore. Everything would go as planned and, if he was lucky, he would leave Y/N’s favorite park with a girlfriend.

However, nothing could have prepared him for finally seeing her. She looked as beautiful as always, but there was something about her shy smile and sparkling eyes that made his heart jump around so quickly Sokka thought it might just break through his chest and run towards her.

His best friend walked to him with hands behind her back, endearingly bashful in that old manner that had slowly creeped its way into Sokka’s thoughts and heart. He beamed at her when she reached him, and moved for a hug she gladly returned.

“Hey,” her voice was quiet and shy and it made the Water Tribe boy melt on the spot, “did I make you wait for too long?”

“No, of course not,” Y/N took a step back from the hug and he immediately missed her warmth. Spirits, he couldn’t believe this was actually happening. “Do you want to sit down? Katara helped me make those sandwiches you like.”

Her eyes widened in excitement, quickly remembering how easy it was to be around her best friend and how pointless it was to be shy with him, “yes! Sure!”

Their banter was lighthearted while they ate their sandwiches and sipped on some orange juice, laying on Katara’s soft blanket. He couldn’t help but admire her figure, her smile, her eyes, her voice, tuning out from her anecdote momentarily and simply appreciating her presence. He liked her so much.

Y/N paused when she noticed Sokka’s stare, gaze filled with affection sending chills down her spine. She stared back at him, feeling her face blush, “I feel like I should have brought something,” she complained, touching the candy bar the boy had taken off his backpack and smiling — it was her favorite one. “You put so much thought into this, didn’t you?”

He scratched his neck, embarrassed, “is it too much?”

“No, no!” she was quick to deny, lifting a hand up to touch his upper arm in reassurance. “It’s—it’s kinda charming, really.”

Sokka smirked teasingly, “oh, you think I’m charming?”

“You know I do, dumbass.”

Their eyes met and the Water Tribe boy could feel his whole body tense for being the subject of her attention, heart beating so loud he could hear it by his ear, unable to not ask himself if maybe she could hear it too. She smiled — her hand was still on his upper arm, but she moved it carefully until their fingers brushed. He smiled too, his thumb drawing gentle circles on her palm. As best friends, they had always been very touchy and loving with each other, yet both knew this was different. It was not like their friendly touches and hugs: it was softer, more hesitant, new. And they loved it.

“I’m glad you came,” he declared, finally letting his fingers fall in between hers, “I… I like to be around you.”

Y/N grinned, squeezing his hand lovingly, “I like to be around you too.”

Their small staring contest ended when she took the last bite of the sandwich and got her phone from her purse, turning on some music and positioning the object next to them in the blanket. Sokka grinned at her, aware of how much she just loved to listen to music while doing everyday things — he loved to be included in that little habit, loved to know she felt comfortable enough to let him be a part of it. It was a small gesture, but Y/N had once told him she avoided listening to music around others so as not to be a bother. He loved the fact she didn’t worry about that when next to him.

Spirits, he loved her. He had known it for a while now, yet being with her like this served to set it in stone: Sokka was in love with his best friend, and there were absolutely no doubts about it.

They talked softly over the nice melody, occasionally falling into laughter with crappy jokes and inside references that always got them cackling, fingers unconsciously playing with each other by their sides, finding comfort in the simple but intimate touch.

“Sokka! Listen!” she lit up suddenly, making him shake his head in confusion. Y/N stood up, pulling his hand with her until he did the same. Her eyes shone with agitation while she dragged him until they were standing on the grass, off the blanket.

“What?” his voice was as incredulous as he felt. “What happened?”

“I love this song,” she smiled brightly and his heart skipped a beat at the beautiful sight. The girl slowly but surely positioned his hands on her waist before circling his neck with her arms. “Dance with me, pretty boy.”

Sokka was entirely sure that wasn’t exactly a song you could slow dance to, with the funky rhythm and all, yet he didn’t have it in him to disagree. She swayed from one side to the other in a way that would give Zuko, who was trained in dancing, an attack of sorts, but he still loved it, letting her lead him wherever she wanted to. They danced in silence — Sokka kept admiring her features, watching as she hummed the song’s tune and gazed at the sky behind him. Sunset was nearing closer and the shades of blue were slowly being exchanged for oranges and yellows that she loved almost as much as she loved the boy in front of her. With that thought, she turned her eyes back to him.

“This is nice,” she muttered, content, and he smiled, planting an affectionate kiss on her forehead that killed every coherent idea in her mind, “really nice.”

Sokka snickered, “I agree, pretty girl.”

Y/N furrowed her eyebrows and stepped backwards, crossing her arms defensively, cheeks reddening immediately, “don’t call me that.”

“Why not, pretty girl?”

“Because it makes me blush! Stop it”

“But you look so cute when you blush, pretty girl.”

“Stop.”

“Oh, come on, pretty girl.”

“I’m gonna punch you.”

“You could never, pretty girl.”

“You better run. One…”

He laughed out loud and she did her best to ignore both the pinkness to her face and the smile fighting to reach her lips.

“Two…”

Sokka couldn’t stop laughing while he took off, running away from her as fast as possible. His laughter was light and cheerful and her chest fluttered at the sound, extasiated by the fact she was actually responsible for it. Y/N ran after him with a big grin on her face, intent on catching her best friend. Laughing made it harder for him to take deep breaths so it didn’t take long for her to be able to jump on his back, creating an impromptu piggyback ride between the two lovers. Sokka was still wheezing when running with the girl on his back, making her scream in excitement.

He made sure the blanket was right underneath before throwing himself to the ground, bringing her along. She giggled as he turned around so she was laying on his chest, not on his back. He held her tightly in a hug and she rested her head on his shoulder after kissing his neck so softly Sokka was certain his soul momentarily left his body, pulse so accelerated he truly feared a heart attack. They waited for their frantic breaths to calm down, holding each other dearly, entangling their legs together. He could hear her sigh happily next to his ear.

They stayed in that position for long minutes, too stubborn to let go just yet, to give up on the indescribable feeling this type of touch caused them. Never before had Y/N felt this safe, her best friend’s erratic heart beating against her chest, his warm hands keeping her in place so firmly and still so gently — she always knew she had feelings for this boy, but now she couldn’t help but think of how she wouldn’t mind staying by his side forever. She wouldn’t mind listening to his stupid voice forever, wouldn’t mind being next to him forever. That realization was enough to stir her from her spot atop him, moving under his reluctant arms until her forearms supported her upper body and she could lift herself to look at him.

He was so beautiful, and, Spirits, she loved him so much.

Y/N ran her hands through his messy hair, making him hum in delight. She smiled.

“I love you, Sokka. So much.”

He smiled back, heartbeat picking up under her skin, “I love you too, pretty girl. More than I could ever put in words.”

They leaned in at the same time, lips molding together tenderly. She tasted like candy and he revelled in every second of it, bringing a hand to hold her neck as he deepened the kiss — nothing had ever felt so right.

Sokka followed her lips blindly when Y/N distanced herself and she chuckled, pressing an endearing kiss to the tip of his nose before blurting, absolutely embarrassed, “you know, before I came I was freaking out because I thought maybe you asked me out as a friend.”

He laughed and she loved the way his chest rumbled underneath her, “you’re unbelievable! Are you kidding?”

“I’m not! Ask Jin, she wanted to kick my ass because of it.”

“You’re an idiot. I have been in love with you for so long, I thought it was obvious!”

“It probably was, but we both know I’m bad at taking hints.”

“Not just bad, you’re the worst at taking hints.”

“Okay, now you’re overdoing it.”

“Shut up and kiss me again, Y/N.”

“Well, if you insist…”

“I do.”

The girl giggled and smashed her lips to his again, feeling her heart full with happiness and love. She questioned herself why she had been so nervous about this in the first place — Y/N should have known there was no way something could go wrong if she was accompanied by her favorite boy in the whole world.

-----

The phone rang twice before Jin’s voice came on, “hello?”

“Hey, I just got home.”

“How was it? Did you have fun?”

“Well…”

“Oh, no,” she was immediately worried out of her mind, afraid of any bad news her friend could possibly deliver after what was supposed to be a great date with the guy she was in love with, “did something happen?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Y/N bit her lip to hold back a snort, heart not entirely calm yet, excitedly remembering all the sensations Sokka made her feel.

“What, baby? Talk to me.”

“I got a boyfriend.”

One second of silence.

“OH, I FUCKING CALLED IT! I TOLD YOU HE WAS IN LOVE WITH YOU! I TOLD YOU!”

“That’s true.”

“I TOLD YOU IT WAS A DATE!”

“You surely did,” Y/N had a large smile on her face, skin still tingling with the reminder of his touch against it, lips itching to be pressed to his again.

“I love being right,” she could hear the grin in Jin’s words and it made her smile grow ever larger, “now you know to never doubt me, stupid ass.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

that was it!! I hope you liked it!!

ATLA taglist: @bottledcostcowater @lammello @coldlilheart @azucanela @samsmultifandomblogs @officiallydarkgeek @20coldhearts

all taglist: @stfukie

thank you for reading and see you soon!!

#sokka #sokka x reader #sokkagang #sokka x fem!reader #sokka x f!reader #jin from ba sing se #atla #atla x reader #avatar the last airbender #avatar the last airbender x reader #avatar #modern au #avatar modern au #atla modern au #sokka modern au #sokka imagine #atla imagine

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