#i usually have awful thoughts randomly popping up here or there

[hunsa-jars]

Dread be dreading

[laswells-ashtray]

(Mother-hen)Price and (Father-hen)Nikolai antics and shenanigans.

I dunno, let’s just say that one day Soap and Gaz get hurt when roughhousing and the two try to play it off like nothing happened. Well, two minutes later Price has them both sat down and is scolding them while he patches them up, saying something about how they’re always ‘too rough’ and how they need to ‘settle down before they make a mess’.

Nik is always the icebreaker in the situation, cracking jokes here and there to soften the blows Price delivers and making promises that they’d go to the shooting range later and have a competition on who the best shot is.

I also think that when Ghost doesn’t take care of himself like he usually does, they all get worried, but not as worried as Price.

He won’t barge or force Ghost to talk, but he will stick around longer than he usually does and keeps an eye on him for a second more before going about his business. He’ll also give him meals that he randomly made throughout the day and makes sure he eats before moving on to whatever he was doing.

Nik on the other hand just invites Ghost to help him fix his helicopter, and when the two finish they’ll sit on the floor of it and quietly have a cigarette together before going about their day.

…

Also, random side note: how was your Thanksgiving? Hope the food-crash was delectable bc mines was.

I won't lie I am deeply Scottish and have never done a Thanksgiving event/dinner in my life. But my day was generally uneventful in a good way, I had a tattoo consultation that day and my artist likes me so it was chill.

I've always held the belief that they don't intentionally practice awful self-care but as men so busy with their jobs and also the entire traumatic response of constantly being surrounded by the carnage and bloodshed they find themselves some days at 3am wondering when the last time they drank water or ate anything slowly enough to taste it was.

I think while Nikolai can also suffer [as a treat], he's the best at staying on track and keeping the rest of them on track and Price falls into the mentality of those are his boys and he'll be in a body bag long before he lets one of them get there.

That being said:

"Lads, it's a spar not a fuckin' scrap. Act yer age, not yer shoe size."

Both Soap and Gaz pause, heads popping up to look at him in a way that's reminiscent of meerkats. They'd been rougher than usual and for a second John had wondered if they had been trying to work something out off of the field. He knew better though, if they two argued then neither of them would exchange a word until they got their heads out of their arses and then got drunk together after it all washed over.

"Wisnae tnhat bad, wis it, Gaz?"

He can see MacTavish wince as he straightens up, a hand hovering over his ribs and the trail of dried blood coming from his nose is far from subtle.

"Just dickin' about, sir."

Garrick's lip is split and a drop of fresh blood bubbles from it when he smirks, he's also avoiding resting his weight on his right leg.

"Bench." Is all he answers with, heading away to grab a first aid kit they, after many mildly violent incidents, decided to keep in the gym.

By the time he reaches the bench the two sergeants are nudging each other and bickering like boys, Soap nudges Gaz's foot and in retaliation, Gaz elbows him. In a horrific moment of self-awareness John realises he had been much worse as a sergeant. He quickly packs that thought away in a mental box entitled "things I'll never admit to Mac" somewhere between the shirt thing and the river incident.

"Quit it, you're supposed to leave the blood to the field." He scolds half-heartedly before setting to work trying to fix however they'd fucked Soap's nose.

He's passing Gaz an icepack for his foot when Nik walks in, shaking his head in mock disapproval as he approaches. The act is ruined by his immediate questioning.

"Who won?"

John cuts in before it can delve into another round of bitching.

"The people who're trying to put us in caskets if that's how the two of them fight."

He's met with a snort and two affronted squawks before he's assaulted with a barrage of verbal bullshit defences that he doesn't pay attention to.

He looks back at Nik with a curious expression.

"Hangar, babysitting after the bird."

The disbelief on his face is about as subtle as a hand grenade.

"All by his lonesome?"

There's an almost sheepish look on Nikolai's face until he relents.

"He is smoking."

"That's more like it. You two will be joining us in the mess later, I take it." It isn't a question, Nik doesn't mistake it as one.

"Да, captain." Nikolai would drag Simon by the scruff of his neck like a cat if he had to.

"Good."

[xhollandlilsx]

Interview Shenanigans - (Bella Ramsey x Reader)

Summary: Set after TLOU2 has been made and released, Reader plays a character in Dina’s spot. (Sorry Dina).

Warnings: N/A

“Hi I’m Y/N” I smiled at the camera, as I held a bunch of question cards in my hands.

“And I’m Bella, and we are here with moviefone” The brunette next to me beamed holding a set of cards themself.

“And we are gonna be answering some questions, that you guys sent in on instagram and twitter, and then we’re gonna go unscripted and ask our own questions” I nodded looking at them and tilting my head to ask if they were ready, to which they mocked what I was doing and tilted their head too, “I guess we’re ready..”

********

“From Nina W, on Twitter, great question, ‘Did you learn any archery for the role of Ellie?’” I read it aloud, looking at Bella at the end, tapping my non existent nails on the cards in my hand that we had previously written down our unscripted questions.

“I tried, I mean you tried to teach me” Bella laughed slightly at the afternoon I tried to teach them what my dad taught me, and how badly it went, “But no, it’s just.. no.”

“Yeah, I remember you snapped it against your wrist” I laughed holding the cards up to hide it.

“Moving on” They groaned rolling their eyes, “From, Daniel H, on Instagram, ‘Did you manage to steal anything off set Y/N?”

“…” I just let out a laugh before composing myself, “Everything on that set is so expensive, so I think if I were to steal anything, I would get shot. That said… I might’ve taken a certain bracelet…if you know you know.”

“You heard it here folks, Y/N is a thief” They told the camera bringing their lips into a thin line, before looking at me and shaking their head.

“Don’t even pull that one Bella, Ellie’s converse are literally in my wardrobe from when you stole them” I pointed at them, my rings clinking together.

“Wow! Way to out me.” Bella laughed and adjusted their rolled up sleeves.

“We go down together darling.”

***

“Ooo unscripted, let’s be having it, ask me anything Bella.” I challenged turning my body to face them.

“Hmm okay, I actually wanna know this one, when did you realise you weren’t heterosexual?” They asked, before moving that card to the back of the pile.

“Damn, loaded question, I honestly can’t even remember, there’s a lot of women to thank for that,” I smiled, “But I think I was about 13 and I was watching ‘Bend it like Beckham’ and I saw Kiera Knightley or Jade West… has a uh, special place in my heart”

“I’ve actually never seen that film, but I have seen her in Pirates Of The Caribbean and I don’t blame you” They laughed slightly and shrugged.

“We’ll watch it.” I told them and nodded, “Okay, okay, from Mason M on Instagram, ‘What was your favourite non action scene to shoot?’”

“Wow, I like that one, hm, maybe the weed room scene” They mumbled scratching the back of their neck and side eyeing me, to which I let out a laugh, “No no, I think….I think the farm scenes were quite fun, they were cute, or the scene where Ellie finds out Maisie is pregnant”

“Aw I liked that one too” I smiled, and bounced my knee, something I usually did in interviews due to how uncomfortable cameras made me, ironic isn’t it?

“Yeah, the ‘Don’t worry it’s not yours’ always gets me” We both laughed and mumbled to eachother, stuff the camera definitely isn’t picking up on.

“I did like the farm scenes though, especially the one where they’re dancing in the kitchen” I smiled and looked at them with a knowing look, knowing the two of us do that quite alot, randomly dancing around the kitchen to Alexa, while the other is doing something.

“Yeah, that one’s cute” Bella nodded and saw another unscripted pop up on the screen to the side of the camera.

“Unscripted.” I smiled and picked up my cards flopping through them and sighing at how none of them are exciting anymore, so I put them down and brought a hand to my bottom lip messing with it like I usually did while in thought, “See I already know everything about you, so I’m really only asking this for people watching.”

“True true”

“Okay, if the apocalypse were to break out tomorrow, who would you want with you and why?” I asked with a shrug, knowing the question wasn’t good but giving up.

“You. Probably” They squinted closing one eye as they looked at me, messing with one of their earrings.

“Really? Why?”

“Well I mean, you’re good at archery, and you’re pretty much a real life version of my character so I think my odds are better with you, plus, as corny as it sounds I don’t think I’d last without seeing you” They smiled with a shrug laying the cards face down in their lap now.

“Aw that was so cringy but I loved it. And love, you are giving me way too much credit” I laughed.

“Okay who would you not want to be with if it happened?” They asked crossing a leg over their other one resting their ankle on their knee.

“Ki, probably” I scrunched my nose up, knowing he would probably agree but still pretend to be hurt.

“Yeah, he’s not apocalypse material”

“He’s really not. If you don’t know Ki plays Jesse in the show, who is a badass yeah, but Ki is the total opposite. No hard feelings though, love you bro” I laughed as Bella did too both of us covering our smiles with the cards, “Dude cried watching Mamma Mia.”

***

“Last question for both of us here. ‘When did you realise you were interested in eachother and who made the first move?’” They read it out to which I just bought my fingers to the bridge of my nose, Bella and I were quite open about our relationship, but I was an expert at showing the fans everything but nothing, never truly showing them anything other than a random photo here and there.

“When did you realise you liked me?” I asked, a question I already knew the answer to, a question I asked months ago while we were half awake in bed.

“The moment I met you” They smiled slightly eyes trained on me now, from my hair in a messy bun with curled pieces hanging down and framing my face, and falling out of the bun, to my dark green waistcoat, down to my rings and my matching trousers.

“Go on”

“We first met a day before we had to film the snowball fight scene, and we had to do that bonding thing, and you came over and introduced yourself to me with so much confidence and I remember just thinking ‘this girls so cool’ and I was just infatuated” They cringed.

“I acted confident but I was so nervous” I told the camera.

“Why were you nervous?” They asked me looking at me like I had two heads.

“Because I thought you were cute” I replied tilting my head and looking at them, their brown eyes I could get lost in every time.

“I swear I hate you sometimes” They groaned as they rubbed their cheeks to hide the smile that just wouldn’t go away from the camera.

“No you don’t” I winked and we both looked back at the camera.

***

“Thanks to Moviefone for having us. I now want a McDonalds so I will meet you in the car” I told them before standing up and walking off to grab my bag from the chair behind the cameras and directors of the interview.

“I…” Bella watched me walk away leaving them on their own in front of the camera, to which they let out a laugh, “She serious?”

Once they said their goodbyes, they walked over to me shaking their head and nudging me.

A/N: Using they/them pronouns for a fan fiction is still new to me, so please bare with me, and if there’s any gendered pronouns in there please ignore them. Anyway I had this idea, that sounded better in my head but here you go none the less.

[writey-promptey-gingey]

Romance Drabble - Festival Kiss - Introducing my OC's

Also I wrote this randomly because the scene was stuck in my head so this is kinda taking place mid-plot but ya know just enjoy the writing and the fluff!

Context because this is very out of context to the whole lore of the world I'm writing 😭:

Galbana is a country in this universe (They're not actually from there tho)

Opal is Neo’s (the narrator’s) cousin

Mia and Neo are roommates and also coworkers and also vigilante idiots (:

This is a fantasy world so magic is a thing but its not really talked about here-

Obviously, I was a little tipsy. What's a festival for if not to try the various colourful ales random merchants hand you while dancing. Mia seemed to think the same, as soon as I was done talking to my brother I saw her with Opal across the field, holding a glass of a bubbly liquid such a bright yellow it almost glowed against the darkness of the night. She was smiling wider than I had ever seen her do so before. It was either the booze or Opal’s delightful sense of humour, but considering my cousin's depressed demeanour tonight I assumed it was the booze.

The band sped up to the tempo of abnormally fast folk music, urging us to dance. I couldn’t bring myself to move from my spot, leaning against the buffet table, looking at Mia. I watched as Opal and her interlocked arms and approached the dancing, both swaying a little as they walked. The purple dress the festival organisers somehow forced Mia into twirled as she moved, the fabric reflecting the fairy lights illuminating the field, it was like she was wearing a skirt made of starlight. Even without her drunken smiles, I had never seen her like this, partying in a dress, laughing with girlfriends, or relaxing at all really. It was pretty, it made me feel like relaxing too. Not that I wasn’t, after all I make it a sport to be pretty much unbothered all the time. But at this particular moment I was bothered, I was bothered because instead of dancing with the girl I love I was standing there gawking at her like an idiot.

I approached the cultish- I mean jolly- circle of frolicking losers from behind and I waited until Mia and Opal danced themselves into the direction of where I was standing. I tapped my cousin on the shoulder to swap out and she gave me the dirtiest look I’d ever received. I waited for 2 more spins until I tapped her out again. Opal groaned and stepped out of the circle. Mia looked confused and as she found an awfully handsome gentleman next to her.

She giggled, “Neo I thought you were getting pissed.”

Oh man, the impressions I give to people...

“No, actually I was bonding with my brother.” I said with dismay but I couldn’t help but grin at how in awe she looked at me, usually it was the other way around.

“Okay.” She said softly as she looped her arm through mine.

We continued dancing like this for a while. A while, until my back reminded me that it was still fractured only a month ago. Before I could escape back to the buffet table of peace Mia tugged on my sleeve.

“Neo,” she said, “my leg’s starting to hurt again, let's chill somewhere.”

And so we did. I took her hand and led her to a clearing in the field where the music was a bit quieter and the people were a bit sparser, but the lights shone just as brightly.

The band in the distance was beginning to slow down, the tempo was now at a lazy waltz. Unfortunately for my two left feet and broken back, Mia seemed to have heard the new music and looked at me expectantly. But of course, she knew me like the back of her hand so before I could speak she had her arms over my neck and said,

“Just sway with me.”

And so I did. My heart was pounding in my chest like it was going to pop out and kiss her for me.

Why was I even being like this? Did my flirty ballsy act officially die?

We lived together, spent every waking moment together, and yet that night more than ever I wanted her to be mine. I suppose it was special since she was the one holding onto me, just for a second it didn’t feel like an empty pursuit. I knew that when the morning fell, things would be the same again, and then we’d go home into our apartment and keep going about our business as if I don’t love her more than anyone else in this world.

“So, how are you liking Galbana?” I asked quietly, in awe of how magical this stupid country can be sometimes.

“I love it. It’s beautiful.” She said, but when she did she never once looked away from my eyes.

I gazed into hers with the same severity and chuckled.

“Thank you for taking me here.” She crooned.

Before I even had the chance to melt at her sweetness, her head shot up and she pecked me softly on the lips, standing on tiptoes. She exploded into giggles and I just stood there, stunned.

“Mia did you just kiss me?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah~” She replied with a sing-songy voice, still holding on to me. It’s a good thing she was since I felt as if I was going to drop dead from shock, and probably sheer joy.

My cheeks hurt from the, probably ludicrous, expression I was making.

“Why, how bold of you.” I teased as I caressed her cheek with my hand. She didn’t flinch away from this touch which I counted as a win. We swayed for a few more seconds until the flirt in me finally got the memo.

“May I return the favour?” I suggested cheekily.

Mia nodded, also smiling massively. I rested my other hand on her face as well.

She gave a little hiccup.

And then it hit me,

“Mia, are you drunk?”

“ Hic - probably…” She replied guiltily.

I dropped my hands from her face immediately. When this passed she was going to kill me.

“Have you even drunk before? Woman, you just kissed me?!? How are you this shit-faced?” I demanded, while also imagining how tomorrow I’m somehow going to get kicked out of an apartment signed under my name.

She looked at the ground in embarrassment, “I don’t really drink…”

I frowned, “Well, how much did you have?”

“Dunno” She replied.

“Oh boy,” I grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her in the direction of the boarding house we were staying in, “that’s it we’re going to bed.”

“No!” Mia whined.

“Come on.” I pushed her gently away from the site of the festival.

“I wanna party.” She moaned some more.

Never thought I would live to hear her say that. I sighed, as cute as she was, she was not in her right mind.

“Trust me, you’re gonna thank me in the morning…”

Somebody please let me know if u like these characters and wanna know more about them and their world because I will make that happen!

[ahhvernin]

I often doodle at meetings, mostly because during segments where they are going off tangents or something not pertaining to my unit I dont want to be Caramelldansen or bouncing in my seat to whatever music decided to pop up in my head...or worse dozing off.  I’m not very skilled at shadows or color, or drawing realistic people, but I always end up sketching a coworker because of posture or something about their form interests me.  Like how large biceps and forearms rest while crossed at a stagnant part of a meeting....or how someone who usually looks short is suddenly really long because of how they are leaning back in their chair with their arms behind their head.  Sketching randomly in places is literally the only way I manage to ever draw someone different and novel, even if at the end I dont think it looks like them or how my hand didn’t translate what I saw, but its always somehow a bit satisfying.  Plus sketching my cowokers especially ones who I dont know well, helps me solidify, physically, who they are in my brain so I don’t go “Who are you again???” or “Where you always here???”....because saying that outloud is rude and I know it. “You seem familiar”/”Where have we met before?” is unfortunately not the first thing out of my mouth.

This meeting I drew my newest coworker, I really liked how she put up her hair, and how her locs were weaving in and out like the thick edges of a intricate basket, it was very pretty.  I tried to draw her portrait. I tried like 4 times.  First three were awful, it was hard. Fourth I thought it looked better so I stuck with it.  Usually no one ever makes comments or actively says they were watching me.  At the end of the meeting I looked at it and thought its not good, but its okay, considering I hardly ever drew locs before, people with really round faces or people with thick framed glasses. So all new attempts, so not bad.  Normally I just hide the little sketches somewhere deep in my desk, but she saw it and went “oOOOOHHH~!!! I was wondering what you were drawing! That’s so nice!  Is that me?”   And 10 year old me immediately jumped in front of my brain and went “Thank you! Do you want?” holding out the piece of paper, while adult me is panicking and reeling that she recognized herself in a random pen sketch and I was holding out the sketch to her. She actually took it and its sitting at her desk. I’m really embarrassed, because I drew flowers and glittery sparkle bits around her, because I know she loves her flowers and sparkles.  No one has ever kept a sketch I drew of them at their desk before.  Every time I walk by her desk I’m internally screaming from embarrassment and anxiety.

[percontaion-points]

Delicious Monsters chapters 13 & 14

Today's review might be difficult for some; reader discretion is advised

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Click here for the rest of the series!

Chapter 13

We’d come all the way out here for this house. This beautiful, amazing house where Mom had spent those elusive summers she’d never thought to mention. But I couldn’t go in by myself. 

’Cause that made sense.

I bit the inside of my cheek. 

There was something in there that she didn’t want me to see. A secret. Something she wanted to keep hidden like everything else in her life. That was the only reason that tracked. 

In Brittany’s POV, they’re talking about the Daisy of past-tense, who murdered several people in the house.

But from where I’m sitting, Daisy is a victim of years of abuse and neglect from practically every single person in her life. 

His hair was in its usual style, curls popping and juicy…

She says “his usual style” as if this isn’t the second time she’s seen him. 

“What’s a four-wheeler?” 

King openly laughed at me. Like my question was the most hilarious thing he had been asked in a while. I was suddenly glad that I hadn’t also asked what a Ski-Doo was. Once he’d composed himself, he smiled. Bright and shiny. Like a magazine cover. “You’re really like born and bred Toronto, eh?” 

“Yeah, well.” 

“It’s like… It’s hard to describe. Google it.” 

It’s honestly not that hard. It’s like a motorised dirt-bike with four wheels. 

Maybe I shouldn’t have. The dog would have loved me back.

Chapter 13 summary: Later, Daisy goes to the greenhouse, which is mostly dead from neglect. As she looks around to get started, King shows up with a wheelbarrow for her to use. He offers to help, but she’s randomly nasty towards him for no real reason. (It’s the years of systematic abuse talking.) He says that the house is dangerous, and that it’s why his family wants to get in and “cleanse” it. 

He leaves, so she gets to work clearing things out. He comes back after a bit with some trash bags for her, so she asks him to help her clear out on the other side. As they work, she asks him about how his family claims to be psychic. From her perspective of being able to see the dead, it’s an awful lot like Harry Potter with his real magic looking down his nose at Harry Houdini for his stage magic. 

King explains to her that when the family first came to the area two generations ago, it was a quick way to get involved in the community. Now, the family wears the traditional Nigerian garb because they think that it’ll add legitimacy to their claims. Their real surname isn’t even Okeke, but they adopted it in an effort to try and reclaim their roots. However, King scoffs over the idea, since none of them know if they’re even from Nigeria or not. 

Daisy is only impressed that they can pretend so well. Her own grandmother came over from Trinidad as a child and immediately shucked all of her prior culture in order to fit in. 

She asks if he’s going to continue the family tradition, but he says no. Asks if she does everything her mother asks her to do. She says no. That the only thing she’s ever wanted to do is to care for her plants. 

She then tells the readers that when she was 9, she asked her mom for a dog. Grace got her a monstera plant instead, with the idea that if she could keep the plant alive, she could get a dog. It died. So Daisy got another one, which she researched heavily on how to keep it alive. That turned into multiple plants. Grace then said that Daisy wasn’t going to have time to care for her plants AND a dog, but Daisy said that she no longer wanted a dog. 

Chapter 14

“We’re really not going to go inside the house?” 

“If necessary, we will. And it’s not currently necessary.” Mom let out an exasperated breath and leaned back on her stool, balancing on the back legs. “I’m not going to have this conversation with you over and over.”

That isn’t a fucking explanation. 

“I just don’t understand how we’re going to run this whole operation like this.”

 “You don’t have to, Daisy!” she cried. Her voice was strained. “I’m the adult. Let me worry about it. All you have to do is manage the garden, go to school, and… you know. That’s it. Just be a kid.” 

This was not how this was supposed to go. 

There were the plans Mom and I made, and now, apparently, there were alternative plans that she made on her own. Ones where I was less of a helper and more of a bystander. Leaving her the sole responsibility of making this business work.

It’s not so much that I disagree that children should be allowed to simply be children. Even 17 year old children. 

But at the same time… This entire situation is super suspicious and terrible. Daisy is right to be on edge. 

“This isn’t like Toronto. I don’t need you to support me. I’m going to handle this.”

You can’t go for the first 17 years of somebody’s life expecting for them to take care of you. And then do an about-face and suddenly tell them that it’s not the job of the child to take care of the parent… Only to be surprised that you’re getting push-back from them about it!

I woke up the next morning with the distinct feeling of an itch on my scalp, and when I reached up, something moved under the probing of my fingers. Goose pimples danced over my skin. I should get up. Needed to get up. I had to check. But at the same time, I couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t want to. 

[...]

“Is there anything on my head?” I whispered. 

“Stop it!” she shouted. The sound was too loud in the small space, echoing through the high ceilings. “We are not going to do this again. Get it together. You know what’s real and what’s not, don’t you? Because if you don’t, then we can leave right now and skip over you imploding.”

Grace: Her psychotic break came out of nowhere! There were no signs leading up to it at all!

But then again, King could kiss my ass. He would probably enjoy it too.

Chapter 14 summary: Daisy and King wrap up in the greenhouse and start to leave when they come across Grace returning with some groceries. King leaves after Daisy makes it clear that he is no longer welcome there anymore. Inside the guesthouse (I refuse to call it a “bunkie”, in the same way I refuse to call it “chicky nuggies”), Grace tells her that she’s arranged for a local farmer to have orders of food ready to be picked up; the new house is too far away for delivery. 

Daisy and Grace get into an argument over why they aren’t to set foot in the actual house. Grace insists that now is the time for Daisy to be a child, and to let Grace “handle things”. However, the parentification and adult-incompetence is immense; Daisy is scarred from a lifetime of needing to pick up the slack from her mother in order to avoid late fees and overdraft fees. Ugh. 

The next morning, Daisy wakes up to the sensation of a maggot moving around on her head once again. Grace comes in to say that she’s going to go smooth over the butthurt feelings of their neighbours. While she’s gone, the photographer will likely show up, so Daisy is to let him into the house without Daisy herself going in. The entire thing is beyond stupid. 

Daisy asks if there’s anything on her head, but Grace gets beyond angry at her. Tells her to separate fact from fiction. She then leaves. 

After a shower, Daisy starts to walk to the greenhouse when she sees a ghost who’s heading for the main house. Daisy decides to take matters into her own hands, so she sticks her hand into the woman’s chest. With her hand in there, Daisy can hear the ghost’s thoughts, which are about I guess the ghost’s (presumably still alive?) baby. Daisy freaks out, and then realises that another neighbour girl, Ivy, had witnessed the entire thing. 

[djarinsbeskar]

Spandex and Smiles

I blame @aesnawan for beginning this entire fiasco of an AU based on this idea, and @alliterative-albatross for enabling us both with the most perfect headcannons. Is this edited? Nope. Beta’d? Nada. A complete mess I just had to get out of my head? Absolutely. 

I randomly tagged it to a Detective!AU I’m playing around with so who knows where this will take us. Anyway, on with spandex covered Cyclist!Din.

AU Masterlist

Word Count: 1,200

Warnings: Language

Pairing: Din Djarin x Reader 

“You finally going to say more than two words to her this time?”

The harsh exhale that left Din wasn’t in exertion as one might think as he easily kept pace on the uphill climb known ominously as ‘Heart Attack Hill’ to anyone who bothered doing cardio this side of town. A two mile stretch with a constantly steep gradient, it was the biggest hurdle on the route before the more relaxing downhill cycle back into town.  

No, Din exhaled in exasperation as Fennec shot him a wolfish grin from beneath her helmet, barely a sheen of sweat on her skin and peddling much too easily for Din’s liking.

“Is that a yes?”

“That’s a ‘mind your own business’, Shand,” he bit out, his thighs burning with the repetitive push of every peddle. He could feel the tension in his quads and hamstrings, the muscles working hard against the resistance gravity attempted to push on him. His lungs burned and his skin was slick with sweat beneath his gear.

God, it was fucking roasting this morning.

There was no way of escaping the heat this time of year, not even at seven thirty in the morning and momentarily, Din lost himself in the thought of the shower he would have once he got back home after dropping the kid off at day-care.

Fennec merely threw back her head and laughed, releasing the handlebar with one hand to give him a light punch to his shoulder and Din wondered aimlessly if he should stop being so competitive. After all, Fennec was the only one who kept pace with him at this part of the cycle, the others falling behind to a slower speed as exhaustion crept closer. Maybe, he would get more peace if he slowed down and let their chatter drown out his existence where he would mercifully be left to his thoughts and Grogu’s quiet gurgles and nonsensical, half-formed words from his child seat.

But then he remembered who made up the rest of this ragtag group of cyclists he had somehow found himself training with every morning and he scraped the idea entirely. No, Fennec was the least of his worries when it came to teasing.

One passing comment that he cycled to Cara at the office and suddenly he had a cycling partner, which turned into a cycling trio, which turned into a certifiable cycling circus. He still envied Boba for flatly refusing to join a team of any kind even when his own partner – Fennec – decided to test all their mettle by joining since she was a literal machine, her endurance unfathomable and awe-inspiring.

“You teasing Din about his crush on teacher again, Fen?” he heard Cara call up from behind. The two were incorrigible together. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a moment’s peace with them all working together in the same office.

Din sighed, his grip tightening on the handlebars of his bike.

That would teach him to tell them that his kids’ new day-care centre was on the way. Instead of continuing on to their own homes, like normal people, this motley crew of spandex covered idiots decided they wanted to wait at the school gates as he brought Grogu to the door before making their way home.

We’ll watch your bike!

“I usually bring it in with me.”

We want to say bye to the baby!

“Say bye now.”

I just really want to watch your ass in those tight shorts. It’s enough to give even me bi-panic.

“Fuck off, Cara.”

Suffice to say, none of them left. Which made Din overly aware of his every movement as he pulled off the small, bright green, frog shaped backpack from over one shoulder. Grogu sat comfortably in the crook of his free arm and squealed joyfully when he saw where he was, his small fists slapping onto the sweaty fabric against Din’s chest and shoulder.

Even if the slaps felt feather-light to Din, he knew his son was strong and it filled him with pride. Then the colourfully decorated door - filled with painted handprints and large colourful rainbows – swung open and suddenly, Din was filled with something distinctly different to pride as you wandered out with a bright, disarmingly beautiful smile on your face when you saw them.

For the first week or so, Din had been met by the owner of the day-care, who kept him updated on how Grogu was settling in. It looked like the bottomless toyboxes and the nutritious meals this place claimed to provide wasn’t the only reason he was excited to come here every morning.

When you lifted your eyes to meet his that first day, Din blushed. He could damn well feel the heat rise to his cheeks when you smiled at him and offered him your name. God, you were pretty. No wonder he way paying an arm and a leg for this place, with people like you taking care of his son.

“Mr. Djarin, isn’t it?” you had ventured kindly when Din made no effort to respond. He cleared his throat and nodded, your eyes softening at the corners as your smile turned gentle.

“Well, Mr. Djarin why don’t you let me take this little monster off your hands, we have a big day planned for the sandbox, don’t we?” you directed the question to Grogu who babbled on excitedly and reached a small hand out towards you.

“Uh—sure,” he responded lamely, inwardly cringing at how rough his voice sounded, harsh against the backdrop of children’s laughter and your sweet smile. He turned to look at Grogu, equally dark eyes staring back at him and his own gaze softened as affection bloomed in his chest,

“Be good,” he muttered before letting you take the kid into your own arms, the little boy nestling his cheek happily against your shoulder and popping his thumb into his mouth as he snuggled close to you. Din ran a hand carelessly through his hair and winced a little at the sweat-soaked strands; not the best first impression.

“Say bye bye, Grogu,” you spoke softly, your voice light as you waved your own hand to show him, Grogu immediately waving to him and the display made his gut clench, “see you after work.”

I, uh- yeah,” he nodded once, and held out the froggy backpack to you before he forgot and walked off still holding it. You took it with a small ‘thank you’ and he grunted in response.

He offered you a simple nod of thanks before tucking tail; turning to make his way back to the nosy group standing around the gate, his cheeks flushing hotter when he grabbed his helmet from Cara and pointedly ignored her smirk.

“Looks like I wasn’t the only one admiring you ass,” she teased with a clap to the back of his shoulder, and he knew he would never hear the end of it.

Two weeks later, standing outside the gates of the same day-care, they still hadn’t let it go and he was beginning to contemplate the pros and cons of murdering his colleagues.

Maybe then he could go back to cycling in peace again.

Randomly tagging my Stitches darlings but feel free to let me know if you want me to stop tagging you!

@geannad @ayamenimthiriel @sarahjkl82-blog @gracie7209 @pychedelic-star @nova646 @theflightytemptressadventure @wantingtobekorra @computeringturtle @slayerette26 @kesskirata @greatcircle79 @boxdyeblonde @fangirl-316 @niiight-dreamerrrr @tanzthompson @theamuz @the-scandalorian @gallowsjoker @helmet-comes-off @ladyjenny19 @justanotherblonde23 @alliterative-albatross

[cacti-are-like-flamingos]

Hey! This might be an odd request but I was wondering how Beni and Hinawa would react/think of a person who can essentially waterbend? I've totally been watching Fire Force and Avatar and the thought randomly popped in my head lol 😆

Benimaru and Hinawa with a waterbending s/o...

Hinawa Takehisa

tbh he really doesn’t care

like, yeah he’s never heard of someone that can control water but it doesn’t really affect him personally

I mean you’re power is great for dealing with Infernals and for dealing with wounds but that’s it

however, he does find fondness of it during wintertime

during winter, you start making little art sculptures for the Company and in all honesty, the whole process is captivating for him

he loves watching you brainstorm a possible idea for  a sculpture and then just watch as you bend some water

a small smile on his lips as he admires the way the water sparkles around your figure, a small string of water droplets making a delicate crown around your head

it just reflects how beautiful you are

another thing

he purposely lets himself get lightly injured just so that you can use your power on him

he finds it incredibly odd how the water is supposed to be cold and yet, your water was warm

it reminded him of the warmth of your hands

jevoiernvo4nr

HAHAHA IDK WHY BUT I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

if you’re feeling bold enough, you’ll bend some nearby water and just throw it to his face. But that often ends up with you hiding behind Captain Obi as you beg for forgiveness as though your life depended on it

Benimaru Shinmon

mans has never been so pissed off at his own confusion much like the moment he saw you waterbending the water out from his cup and onto his face

like not only did you just assault him with his own fucking beverage but you control water

???

if 2 + 2 = 4, and 4 + 4= 8, then this shit just don’t make sense

**insert confused Nick Young meme

“How the hell are you doing that?” He would say, followed by many other of his usual curses

he’ll teasingly call you a freak of nature but in reality, he’s hella interested

I mean come on

all the world has ever known is fire

shit they even have a sun/fire god

he has never once heard of someone “water bending” like what the fuck is that? is that some new candy? (I was gonna put a dirty joke here but it just didn’t make sense 😞)

but really

he’s incredibly curious about it tho

he won’t ask you directly but he’ll make small remarks about it to make you use it

“can’t you just do that shit with that freaky power of yours? pathetic” or “tch, your water bending whatever is getting weaker, fix that shit” or just some other dumb stuff

Ooo i just thought of something

in the depths of the night, when the hour is unholy and not a single soul is awake, it is then that he finds his peace. It’s often at this time that he is more vulnerable around you, especially when bathing together. You’d be sitting on his lap, your head resting on his shoulder as his arms wrap lightly around your waist. His thumb rubbing small circles on your skin as he watches in pure amazement as you use your powers to shape small drops of water into whatever you want.

he’ll often compliment you on your art rather than tease you about it

sometimes you’ll shape the water into the form of Company members and you’ll make them fight each other or something, which would often lead to you hearing the beautiful music that was his laughter

aw man this is so beautiful to think about

...

(A/N): If you’re going to request, read the rules.

Hope you enjoyed!

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

How Bad is Sia’s “Music” really?

I watched it illegally (because there was no way I was paying for that bullshit) and found out. It’s not as bad as we thought... It’s worse.

TW for ableism, Sia, drugs, alcohol, just in general a terrible movie, meltdowns, blackface

Literally the first thing you hear while they’re showing the production companies is THOSE stereotypical noises. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know what I mean.

And yes, she does this for the WHOLE fucking movie

What was the need to show her in her underwear? Maddie Ziegler was 14 when this was made, so what was the need??? And why did Sia prolong the scene by having her hitting herself?

Less than a minute in and my reaction was already “what the fuck is this shit?”

So the opening number not only had stereotypical exaggerated facial expression, it has Maddie in BLACKFACE?!? And with culturally appropriated hair?!?

The exaggerated facial expressions are literally constant and I took photos during the film to show it, more later, but I’ll keep mentioning it

ITS LITERALLY THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME SHE IS ON SCREEN

Even her way of walking is fucking offensive, Jesus Christ

The vocalisations just had me cringing so hard, I cannot describe how awful it made me feel

Why do all the neighbours need to be paid off and help her when she goes for a walk? I don’t-

Yes, by about the five minute mark I was already seriously debating all my life decisions. It was that bad.

Kate Hudson really didn’t give a fuck that her grandma died

I will keep saying it but WHY are the facial expressions/vocalisations CONSTANT?!! Literally they do not stop at all. I work with a child who is actually similar to this in that he’s nonverbal and he makes similar noises/faces, but the way they’re in this movie is so over-exaggerated?!? And even the kid I work with doesn’t do it 24/7?!?

Sia, calling your characters Zu and Music doesn’t make them interesting in the slightest. They’re still painfully terrible and one dimensional

Literally ONE minute after being left alone with her autistic sister, Zu calls the mental health service asking if they could “theoretically” “pick up” her sister?!? Like she wants to get rid of her already?!?

“A magical little girl” - autism isn’t a magical power?!? And Music is a young woman, not a little girl?!? Why are you infantilising her?!?

Okay I’m not being funny but this choreography is NOT hard. ANYONE can do it, so claiming that you needed to hire a dancer to be Music because of the numbers is literally bullshit (and even so, there are so many amazing autistic actors and dancers?!?)

20 minutes in and I wanted to give up

So she had her first meltdown because her hair didn’t get braided immediately and that’s... certainly interesting??

The fact that Leslie Odom’s character says “I’m going to crush you now”?!?

AND THEN HE FUCKING PICKS HER UP AND FULL-BODILY PINS HER DOWN ONTO THE FLOOR

“I’m crushing her with my love” - oh fuck you, just fuck you

So Sia lied, the restraint scenes were NOT removed and there was no warning. She’s a fucking POS liar

I have no idea why he’s called Ebo or why he has such a cliche African accent?!? I might have missed out on why because I was busy trying not to bang my head into the table while I watched this film but just... yikes

“He (his brother) liked to be held” - YEAH, HELD. NOT FUCKING CRUSHED

“He is dead now” - IM NOT FUCKING SURPRISED IF YOU CRUSHED HIM LIKE THAT

The constant babying and patronizing of the autistic character is so exhausting to watch. I’m so tired

“Planning on sending her to the people pound but I guess I’ll keep her a little longer” - SHE WAS JOKING BUT THAT WAS NOT EVEN REMOTELY A FUNNY JOKE. NOT EVEN IN AN AWKWARD WAY

STOP THE FACES IM-

^ YEAH, Sia, totally a fucking love letter to the autistic community here ^

So Zu finds this necklace she made as a kid that had a little dog on it, and she says to Music, “He had seizures too, just like you”... MELTDOWNS AND SEIZURES ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY THE SAME FUCK THIS MOVIE-

It’s like Sia is trying to make the movie funny but it’s really not at all

Is Zu implying that Music is autistic because the mum was a junkie?!?

For real though, the dialogue in general is so fucking awful and cringey. Whoever wrote this should never be allowed to write again

Did she seriously leave her autistic sister alone to talk to who I’m presuming was her dealer or loan shark?!?

Also why is he - a white dude - wearing cornrows?!?

So who is the film really about? The autistic girl or the older sister saviour? I think we all know the answer to that one

WHY IS SHE WALKING AROUND WITH HER TEETH JUTTING OUT LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME

The musical numbers are literally so painful to watch. The overly bright colours, the flashing... my eyes were hurting and so was my brain

Autism representation aside for a second, the musical numbers/choreography are all fucking atrocious. Ditto for the costumes

LIKE WHAT THE FUCK WERE THE PINK OOMPA LOOMPA FRUIT THINGS?!? THEY LOOK LIKE THE PINK VERSIONS OF VIOLET BEAUREGARDE THE BLUEBERRY

I wanted to cry by this point, this movie is far more awful than I thought

“I’m not saying she doesn’t want to change, I’m saying she can’t” - FUCK YOU. Why is it okay for him to assume what she can or can’t do

Can I just say that autistic people aren’t constantly in a coked up wonderland state?!! We don’t see the world as a wonderland fantasy world 24/7?!!

“She can hear you from two rooms away” / *shows her listening through two brick walls to a conversation* — Also, we don’t have super fucking sonic hearing?? WE CANT HEAR THROUGH FUCKING BRICK WALLS?!?

“She can understand everything you’re saying to her” - she’s autistic not fucking deaf

Less than 45 minutes in, there’s another meltdown in the park

“I’m not climbing on top of a small screaming white girl in public” - yeah please fucking don’t

So Zu fucking pins her down with her weight ����‍♀️

“She doesn’t know who she’s hitting” - IM SORRY WHAT

EBO LITERALLY SAID “TREAT HER LIKE A BEAR” when talking her through the prone restraint, I fucking CANNOT

“Tell her she’s safe” - NOT IF YOU FUCKING RESTRAIN HER LIKE THAT SHE IS NOT

The fact that she gets up, smiling and happy after a meltdown and immediately is excited to get a snow cone... I can honestly say that after a meltdown, I am in no way happy or smiling. I am often not very verbal and I’m withdrawn/not myself for at least several hours, usually the rest of the day. Fuck this film

This film is literally just about Zu, and Music is there for a plot device to give her character development. That’s all she’s there for.

Love how Sia shoehorned Zu being suicidal in there. You know, just to try and make her more easy to sympathize with (it doesn’t work)

This film is literally just a 1 hour 47 minute Sia music video with ZERO plot

WHY WERE THEY WEARING PILLOW DIAPERS IN ONE NUMBER-

I really did not feel into the side plot with that guy who was fighting but it was still better than the actual movie so...

I am SO DONE with the NON STOP CONSTANT vocal shit. So tired.

LOJ’s only role in this film is to be the stereotypical wise black guy who assists a white woman’s story. There’s like hardly any other depth there

The Ebo/Zu romance is so fucking stupid and pointless and out of NOWHERE. I couldn’t even tell if they were into each other or not

I was already so bored of the musical numbers by this point. They added NOTHING to the plot but they pretended they did, and I was so over it. And it’s not because I’m not “creative enough” or anything to understand, I love musicals and I think it could have been cool if done right... but it wasn’t. They were a mess. It’s just bad.

Sia really tried to pretend her movie was deep but really it’s a shallow mess

So Zu is meeting rich drug clients and says to Music “try not to have one of your freak outs up there” and “if you could try to get it out now”... FUCKING YIKES. It’s not an on/off button, shut the fuck up

YEP THIS WAS THE SIA CAMEO FUCK THAT BITCH

The fact that she just calls “DRUG DEALER?!? DRUG DEALER IS THAT YOU”, fucking end this please-

I fucking hate this bitch I’m dead serious

“We’re gonna send them to Haiti cause there’s been an earthquake. All these buildings fell down, children’s bones were dislocated” - WHY WAS SHE SO CHEERFUL ABOUT IT

“Gonna buy a shit load of pain meds, gonna but them on my private plane” - FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

“Pop stars without borders” - Sia thinks she’s so clever but I would give anything to punch her I swear-

ANOTHER MUSICAL NUMBER JUST STOP IM BEGGING YOU

There’s this awkward conversation/bit with Zu and her drug dealer/loanshark about his outfit that was clearly meant to be funny but was just flat and painful

Yep, Sia really showed Music eating chewing gum off the underside of a park bench. Of course.

Look, the kid I work with does similar stuff by putting literally anything and everything in his mouth but like... why would you put that in your movie?

And there’s no indication before this that Music puts everything and anything in her mouth, she just randomly decides to get on her knees, under the bench and eat chewing gum, like she calculates that it’s there and gets it???

She has a THIRD meltdown after an allergic reaction to a bee sting and her sister just yells at her before realizing... I’m not here for this movie, I feel like I drifted off and was not really there

So Zu got angry because she left the drugs at the park but she’s not that upset that her sister had an allergic reaction???

Zu gets absolutely drunk because a) she lost Sia’s drugs and b) she’s stressed out by her autistic sister... wow, great message, Sia!

She really fucked off and left her sister alone to go clubbing/on a bender

The less said about the musical number here the better

Sia’s movie also checks the box of having stereotypical Asian parents, specifically stereotypical Asian dad being harsh/angry and hitting his wife!

ALSO HE PUSHED AND KILLED HIS SON WTF IS HAPPENING

Less than 3 minutes after the last, there’s a musical number that I think was about this side character going to heaven... another shitty Sia-esque number

The patterns during the number made my brain hurt.

Also there are so many autistic actors who can also dance, and yet Sia chose the neurotypical one because ✨ N E P O T I S M ✨

I just want to know how it was deemed necessary to show the fact the autistic character peed/wet herself? I mean... ??? It’s just so undignified and not at all necessary to the plot. Nothing happens after that, it just moves onto the next scene and it didn’t do anything

“I have no one” - 1) YOUR FUCKING SISTER. 2) GEE I FUCKING WONDER WHY, couldn’t be that you’re a shitty human being?!?

There’s a scene where Music is walking and she does ALL the stereotypical behaviours at once... just YIKES

Zu somehow stopped another meltdown just by grabbing Music by the shoulders and sitting her down???

Aaand yep. Another shitty musical number

Zu really goes to put her sister in a fucking facility and claims it’ll be “better for her” - BULLSHIT. Better for Zu, maybe, not Music.

Ah yes - the girl who the characters have said has problems with routines being changed/change in general... you’re now going to fuck up her routine by dumping her in a facility. Perfect Plan.

The nonverbal autistic girl suddenly speaking to say “don’t go” - you can just predict it from the off, can’t you?

Love that as soon as Music starts talking, Zu is like “fuck it, I’ll keep her!”

Zu really went and crashed Ebo’s brothers wedding... in a fucking bralette... YIKES

“I almost gave Music away” - SHE IS NOT A DOG YOU DONT GIVE PEOPLE AWAY

“We should sing a song” - PLEASE DO FUCKING NOT

Also that kiss/romance montage between Zu and Ebo was the CRINGIEST fucking shit ever

This movie seems to be implying that Music has locked in syndrome or something, like she’s locked in her own head or whatever it’s called, and I just... *sigh*

Oh and now Music magically fucking sings in a room FULL of strangers... this is literally embarrassing, please let this end

I mean it, this movie was fucking painful to watch on ever level

She got a service dog puppy which... okay?

Oh look, it’s the only decent song on the soundtrack but with an absolutely shitty over-stimulatory music video with the credits!

I can only name 5 characters in this film. Maybe 7 at a push, but even then I would be guessing

AND YEP SHE THANKED AUTISM SPEAKS OVER THE CREDITS. FUCK YOU SIA 🖕🏻

Let me reiterate: this is a movie about a neurotypical former drug addict whose character development comes from the autistic character, from having an autistic sister she has to take care of. I’m so tired.

We are NOT plot devices or tools for character development. Not once does anyone in this film treat Music like a human being - she’s treated as a burden, a problem, and then like a pet that they decide to keep. Not once is the film focused on how she is feeling - it’s always about Zu or Ebo. The performance itself was so over exaggerated and it made me want to cry when I watched it because this is how the world sees us, and this movie will make it ten times worse. It’s stuff like this that made me think “I don’t want to be labelled as autistic because people will think I’m a certain way”, that made me wait so long before going to the GP to get a referral.

As I said, poor autistic representation aside, the movie is just so appallingly bad. It truly is one of the worst films I’ve watched. If you’re going to watch it, please don’t - or, if you want to because you want to see how bad it is/to raise awareness/critical posts, at least do it illegally. Do not give Sia your money.

[2dmenenthusiast]

I can't remember if I sent this to you already but could I request headcanons for aizawa, hizashi and Toshinori finding their s/o that has a chipmunk quirk that makes her fall into hibernation when it's too cold (kinda like tsu) but when the guys find her with her heart rate low and her breathing shallow maybe they freak a little bc she didn't tell them about that part of her quirk yet

omggggg this idea is literally so cute I got so excited when I first read it. Also thank you love for comin through with the requests, I really appreciate it! <3 I also hella struggled cuz like, what can someone with a chipmunk quirk do? Stuff their cheeks? Climb up trees? Also I legit forgot what a chipmunk even looked like I had to look it up lmaoooo im so dumb it hurts

Aizawa is an intimidating fella, okay

So when you first told him about your quirk, you were lowkey embarrassed?

Like, here’s this grown-ass man with a badass quirk who is more than capable of taking down villains and defending himself, and here you are just-

🐿️

But you know what’s great about this man? He couldn’t give less of a shit about your quirk or anything like that. He strikes me as the type to care more about personality than anything else

concealing your quirk is fairly easy. People probably wouldn’t even know you had one if it wasn’t for the small fluffy ears popping out of the top of your head, and even then you could just cover them with a hat

But that doesn’t mean you don’t experience the effects of your own quirk just because it’s subtle

You have a mutant type quirk, so you experience certain things that actual chipmunks do

Sometimes you won’t even notice that you’re stuffing your cheeks to full capacity with whatever you’re eating before Aizawa has to cut you off and just be like

“y/n. Chew.”

Or when you’re rushing, you’re usually going so fast that Aizawa can barely even see you zooming from room to room

you can also get kinda skittish at times, your ears twitching whenever you hear a noise that sounds weird or out of place, and you’ll just look at Aizawa with wide eyes until he checks out what made a noise that he could barely hear

“y/n, it was just some kids outside.”

“Oh... sorry, Sho.”

he wants to be frustrated, but he knows it’s not your fault. And honestly? He finds you so cute that he can’t really stay mad at you

So he’ll just let out a huff before patting your head lovingly, grazing his fingers over your ears (Which he KNOWS are sensitive, that asshole)

Experiencing long periods of deep sleep is also a thing. You wouldn’t call it hibernation cuz you still have to do normal, everyday things, but there are times during the winter where you’ll sleep for a few days in a row and only get up to go to the bathroom or eat

And since you can’t actually burrow into the floor of your home, you usually make a blanket fort in the corner of your bedroom and stuff all of the pillows and blankets you can in there until it’s nice and warm, ready for you to bury yourself in

and you might’ve left that little part of your quirk out when you moved in together. whoops

So when Shouta comes home and sees the living room couch void of all of its pillows, he’s not expecting to walk into your shared bedroom and see you curled up in a blanket fort

he’s a bit curious at first, just kinda looking at you like “All right, I guess this is normal?”

and he’ll crouch down and kinda examine you for a bit before he eventually wonders if you’re even breathing? You’re burried under blankets, so he can’t really see your chest moving

eventually he’ll check and see that your breathing is abnormally slow and he kinda just... pauses and checks again to make sure he’s not going crazy.

and he wont deny that he kinda freaks out at first, his immediate thought being that he needs to get you out of there, but the second he grabs the blankets to pull them off of you he’s like wait... hold up.

then it all clicks

you’re a mutant with a chipmunk quirk...

c h i p m u n k

safe to say he’s relieved, so he just lets you be and goes about his day. 

When you wake up a few hours later to go to the bathroom, you come out of the bedroom with your clothes practically on backwards, rubbing at your eyes and stumbling past Aizawa like he’s not even there. And when you’re done, it’s right back to sleep you go

“Back to bed?” Aizawa would ask as he watches you with an amused smirk on his face

“Mhm.”

“Okay. Goodnight, y/n”

“Mm’night.

Listen, when he first heard of your quirk, he thought it was the cutest shit ever

“Your quirk is Chipmunk?! That’s SOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUUTE!”

No he’s legit your number one hype man. If you think your quirk is lame, he’s literally shouting at you how cool he thinks you are.

“You can stuff so much food in your mouth, y/n! And that’s pretty dope if you ask me! I’m totally jealous!”

speaking of food, he’ll just randomly ask you to shove as much as you can of one thing in your cheeks until they’re at full capacity.

“Hey y/n, think you can shove this whole pack of jumbo marshmallows in your cheeks?”

“But... I just bought those :(”

“I’ll buy you more, LET’S DO THIS!!!”

also asks you the dumbest questions omg. You don’t know if he’s genuinely curious or if he’s just doing it to piss you off

“So do you just eat nuts all day?”

“You’ve seen me eat, Hizashi. No.”

“Do you prefer to sleep in trees?”

“That would be extremely uncomfortable.”

“Ooh you’d probably be great frieds with Kamui Woods then.”

“Did you not hear what I just said?”

He also REALLY likes your ears. Like an unhealthy amount? Whenever you’re around he literally wont stop touching them and even tugs on them playfully until you’re swatting at his hands and telling him to go away

He can’t help that they’re so cute :(

so on a particuallry cold day in winter when he has to go to work at the school, he leaves your home while you’re sleeping, only to come home hours later to find you... still sleeping?

You haven’t moved an inch the entire time he’s been gone, so needless to say, he’s a litle concerned.

and when he checks to see if you’re still alive only to discover your heart rate is super slow, he’s A LOT concerned

His brain just goes to the most dramatic thing he can think of, which is that you’re in some weird coma and need to wake up

so rather than, i dont know, gently shaking you awake like a normal person, he grabs you buy your shoulders and starts shaking you violently while shouting your name loud as fuck

“Y/NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN”

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!”

you literally wake up so violently, you sit right up and shove him off of you before asking what’s wrong with him, pretty sure you’ve officially gone deaf

He then explains that he thought you were in a coma or something cuz your heartbeat was so slow, and at that point you just roll your eyes because of course he would come up with this ridiculous conclusion

“Hizashi, my quirk is chipmunk and it’s a mutation quirk.”

He doesn’t even get what you’re getting at, just tilting his head in confusion as he squints at you.

“What do chipmunks do in the winter, babe?”

Cue more confused squinting

“Oh my god, they hibernate, you headass.”

it finally clicks and the look on his face makes it seem like he just learned the secret of the universe, and afterwards he’s going on about how cool that is while you just roll your eyes and lay back down to try and go back to sleep, bringing the blanket over your head to try and drown him out

He eventually gets the hint and leaves, but after a while, you kinda feel bad for blowing up on him. He was just concerned and didn’t fully understand your quirk

so letting out a huff, you pull the blanket down and call out his name, to which he immediately runs to you at the sound of, asking you what you need

you just wordlessly lift up the blanket to expose the empty side of the bed, and oh boy, the size of the grin he gets on his face is unmatched

immediately throws off his hero costume so that you can both be comfortable and jumps into bed with you, holding you impossibly close

you fall asleep in a matter of minutes while he just looks at you fondly, hand soothingly rubbing your back.

Just like the other two, he finds you incredibly cute. Like mans is in love, okay?

everytime he sees your little ears twitch, he just gets the strongest urge to touch them, but he never does without your consent becuase he knows how sensitive they are.

“Uh... y/n, do you mind if I... touched your ears?” 

Baby probably feels so awkward asking ugh PLEASE REASSURE HIM

“Oh? Yeah, of course, Toshi. Knock yourself out.”

oooh he’s excited. He’ll be super gentle about it, just lightly grazing them with his fingers before gently rubbing them between his thumb and forefinger

and at that point you’re littlerally melting, practically falling into him because him caressing your ears like this feels absolutely amazing

When he sees how it’s affecting you, he immediately becomes a blushing mess and apologizes, but you just hug him and tell him it’s okay and that you liked it

yeah he definitely rubs your ears whenever you’re feeling stressed or anxious because it’s become a quick way to relax you

only when he does it though. If anyone else randomly touches your ears, you get kinda uncomfortable

Just because they don’t look human doesn’t mean they still weren’t a part of you, dammit

Anyways, one day when you’re waiting for Toshi to come back home, you’ve got yourself wrapped up like a burrito in your blanket, sitting on the couch as you watched tv

it had been snowing all day, but luckily Toshinori had turned up the thermostat before he left, remembering how you mentioned that you’re not a huge fan of the cold

unfortunately for you, the harsh weather had no trouble taking out the power, leaving you in the dark and the cold

it didn’t take long for the cold to start seeping in through the cracks in the windows, and you quickly began to grow tired before you inevitibly passed out on the couch, still wrapped tightly in your blanket

When Toshi gets home and sees you on the couch, his first reaction is “aw, how cute.”

but then when he comes up to you and starts calling out your name to try and wake you up and you just won’t, and then he notices how much your breathing has slowed down, he quickly growns concerened.

He’s not in full panic mode yet, but he’s getting there, and he’s quick to crouch down to your level and grab your shoulders to start shaking you to wake you up

which you do, blinking groggily at him like you weren’t just in full hibernation mode

“Oh... Hey, Toshi,” you mumble, and you reach up to wrap your arms around his neck to pull him down so that you can nuzzle yourself into his warm chest

He’s not able to ask you about what happened to you before you’ve already fallen back asleep, and when the power comes back on a few minutes later, he does a quick google search on chipmunks and mutant quirks before putting two and two together

Now he’s thinking of all the ways he could make you something to burrow into during those especially cold winters

[girlgrouptrash101]

Yena (IZ*ONE) as Your Girlfriend

Request: “can i request iz*one's yena as your girlfriend please 👉🏻👈🏻 thank you 🥺”

A/N: took a lil break from studying to write for a bit, ( i hope this all makes sense, i’m really freaking sleepy rn yall T-T )

- C

Choi Yena - is she an idol or a stand up comedian? i guess we’ll truly never know

her bubbly personality and quick-witted jokes were actually the main reason you wanted to get so close to her in the first place, absolutely in awe of how she could bring a smile anyone’s face in mere seconds

which is why, after a few days of pep talks from your friends, you built up the courage to ask miss Yena on a date, to which she absolutely accepted

Yena was over the moon when you asked her, and the shocked look on her face told you just that as she hadn’t expected you to reciprocate her feelings - but her composure dropped for a mere nanosecond before she was back to her cheeky self, her arm already wrapping around your shoulder as she couldn’t wait to go on a date with you :]

one date quickly turned into much more, and you both felt the time flying by as you fell further and further for one another, leading to Yena asking you to make it official just a couple weeks later!

Everyone around you immediately gets soulmate vibes as soon as they see you two together, your chemistry is truly unmatchable

as wild and unhinged as Yena is, she always finds a sense of calm around you that she doesn’t with anyone else, and it’s always so cute to see her her usual cool girl facade bubble away when she’s with you 

she has such a soft spot for you that no one else could ever get, and you love it so much when her chivalrous side comes out - plus the way she looks at you with so much makes you feel like the only person on the entire planet

Lowkey very cheesy, as in hand in your back pocket, don’t touch my baby type cheesy

(which you are an absolute sucker for, by the way)

every sentence ends with baby, no matter the context or who you’re with, she just loves calling you that SOO so much hehe

your guys’ relationship is truly like something out of like a 90′s teen movie, and no matter what Yena does, she always looks so damn cool that you can’t help but get an overwhelming amount of butterflies in your tummy

imagine Yena dropping you a text at the early hours of the morning telling you to come outside - you look out and see her on her motorbike, clad in her leather jacket and black jeans, lollipop lazily hanging from her lips as she waits for you to come outside GOD

and then she’ll take you to a little beach on the edge of town, the two of you snuggled up on the sand, only the sound of the waves to be heard as you shiver a little, even though you’re wrapped up in Yena’s leather jacket, and buried into her side :’)

Cuddles usually start with you laying in bed and Yena throwing herself on top of you, making you go “OOF” and making her giggle like an idiot

but once she gets comfortable, you best believe you guys aren’t moving for HOURS

and if you aren’t wearing an item of her clothing at ALL times its a national emergency and Yena must rectify that immediately

shows her love in many different peculiar ways, from squishing her cheeks against yours, poking her finger in your nostril, randomly nipping your earlobe or blowing raspberries against your skin while she lays her head on your stomach

funky little yena doing funky little dances in public whenever something makes her happy

which you have soon become a part of, leading to the two of you popping and locking in your local convenience store when the ice cream is on sale

However, while she presents herself as a strong, carefree person, none of us are free from worries, even Yena

when her thoughts get too loud, she’s feeling down, or even if she just had a bad day, you’re always there waiting for her with open arms and willing to listen to any of her worries; which she truly appreciates more than you could ever know.

Yena’s truly her authentic self when she’s with you - there’s no front, no shyness, she’s just pure Yena around you, and it’s so comforting to know she feels that comfortable around you to be that way.

(back to the fun stuff, sorry hjdfsjsd)

if you don’t already know how to skateboard, well you’ve basically got your very own tony hawk here to teach you how to become a pro skater

or if you suck she’ll just make you sit on her board and pull you along by the hand, both of you giggling like kids as she speeds up down the street

Her ideal date is somewhere where you two can have fun together, like the arcade, fair, going on trips (although no matter where you go, Yena always makes it fun :] )

you also both love the drive in theater near your house, and you guys go so often that you’ve basically created cuddle paradise in the back of Yena’s car, bundling up in the back, wrapped up in each others arms with the seats pushed down, wanting the night to go on forever <3

has probably said ‘no homo’ after a makeout session before

but to be honest, no matter what she says or does makes your heart flutter and fill with joy, because she truly is the m0st loving and happy spirit you’ve been honoured to have in your life, and you would never, ever change a single thing about her :)))))))))))

NSFW From Here:

yena cockiest little shit wbk

whenever she’s fucking you and you’re in any way trying to suppress your moans, she is NOT having it, simply opting to fuck you harder until you scream her name in that desperate tone that she loves so much

her favourite thing ever is memorizing the spots that make you moan a little louder, abusing your weaknesses over and over again until you’re a whimpering mess beneath her

HAS to mark you all over or else she’s not happy - leading to hickeys on the inside of your thighs, on your abdomen, your neck, collarbones, anywhere she can get access to she will always claim as hers

plus the satisfaction of seeing your spent body the morning after, the purple marks on your skin a sign of how good she made you feel makes her SO cocky n possessive and like. you’re HERS and no one is going to change that okay?

has fucked you in the back of her car after, or even during, your dates to the drive in theater,,, cuz girlie doesn’t really give a fuck, in her world its just you two and only you two

whenever you’re watching the movie, it usually ends up with you being engrossed in each scene, leaning into Yena’s side comfortably, thinking she’s paying as much attention as you - that is until you feel her hand creep towards the inside of your thigh, and that’s when you know you’re about 5 minutes away from screaming Yena’s name at the top of your lungs <3

when she invites you over to the practice room under the guise that she wants to teach you izone’s new choreo but then somehow you ended up on a chair in the middle room while Yena’s giving you a lap dance>>>>

when you’re in between her legs making you feel good and she’s looking down at you, her eyes hooded and her lip tucked between her teeth telling you how you’re doing such a good job....... FUCK

the kind of girl to whisper the filthiest words she can possibly think of in your ear then pull away and make a cheesy joke that leaves you mind absolutely REELING because like. her duality what the fuck

yena in nothing but a signature black choker with you riding her thigh in one of her oversized t-shirts, falling to pieces as she holds you close, relishing in the feeling of your dripping core against her skin,,,

also THAT mf that’ll tease you under the tables even when you’re with a group of people,, her annoying ass will just be relishing in the way your jaw clenches as you try so hard to not squirm as she teases you with her fingers

and those random times where you′re just like, at work or out shopping or vibing with your friends and then all of a sudden you get a video notification from Yena,,, and its a video of her in front of the mirror on your room, her legs spread and her fingers deep in her own heat, her breathes uneven as she does her best to keep her phone steady as she moans out your name

she LOVES doing that shit, knowing you’re turned on as fuck thanks to her just,, makes her feel so powerful

on those nights after Yena’s been away with schedules for a  while and you finally get to see her, everything is always so intimate between, with longing kisses and lingering touches that truly are filled with not only lust but love too, pulling one another impossibly closer until all your senses are clouded with another.

[rigelmejo]

Some September 1st Updates

the READING SPEED difference of a novel at my level! I read the first chapter of 撒野 yesterday and this author is at exactly my reading level right now. I hit 0-2 new words each pleco page, which is usually the sweet spot to either guess the word or if I look it up I can pretty quickly adapt to recognizing it in context. Its also the sweet spot where if I only rely on guessing for new word meanings, on a second pass through I can fairly well guess the meaning quickly. 

It was a 32 page chapter in pleco and I read it in 20 minutes. Compared to the 20 pleco page per chapter pingxie fic i just finished (like 124k characters! WOW I read and FINISHED that much!), which was taking 30-40 minutes per chapter (mainly because of number of new vocabulary per chapter being a bit higher). If I’d wanted to speed read saye I could have, I’d have missed some small details but I could have tried if I wanted.

Then I did a second pass later in the day with the audiobook just following along with the text. Realized 1. I knew most words in the audiobook and did not follow as well as i thought - but those first listen throughs without having seen the chapter I did manage to figure out the main character just broke up, just travelled somewhere, ran into a girl and somehow the girls brother showed and the two guys interacted a little and someone was being somewhat helpful, then the main guy met his father trying to ‘pick him up.’ Which is a true but very rough summary of what happens in the first chapter. By reading I could confirm the words I thought were names AS names, figured out WHY the girl was interacting with the main guy and that there were actually two girls in chapter 1, and figure out who helped who and who was the girl’s brother. Also somehow before I looked at the chapter text I never caught that the audiobook mentions a motorcycle despite me knowing that word and it SOUNDING like mota-che/motorche! it sounds like the word and i knew it and didn’t hear it! Then later following the audiobook with the text I realized another issue I had, is I’m not used to listening to soft voices with such faint pronunciations of the final sounds. I’m much more used to deeper crisper pronunciations and being able to rely clearly on initials and finals AS much as tones to recognize the words, whereas this particular audiobook i needed to mainly rely on tones and initials to figure out what word was what - that probably threw me off a bit. It’s probably good for me to get practice listening to such a different voice to what I’m used to. I have definitely learned the deeper the voice, the more I have a far easier time figuring out what’s being said. Also standard accent more like beijing but without a huge amount of ‘er’s just some, and taiwan accent are the easiest for me to hear when i’m not pa

For anyone curious, here is the audiobook for SaYe I’m listening to: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2w27tfjeeaySbMK272NpXwUtsBc-e3YN

Also here’s a chinese audiobook youtube I found: https://www.youtube.com/c/%E6%9C%89%E5%A3%B0%E5%B0%8F%E8%AF%B4%E5%90%AC%E4%B9%A6%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8Cyoushengxiaoshuo/playlists

Which includes The King’s Avatar: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTJaWZoVPdT1ZhIQIKxVci7fVEHr-oX6k

And ErHa: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxEOGKlBMaFa6CS6Hf5ndy6qTtUL0Au_

Anyway, its a great book right now for reading practice. It’s very much around my level. I will probably stick with this author for a little while and solidify what I know/my base reading level. 

-

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am apparently living proof listening-reading, heavy emphasis on re-listening a TON in the background as you work or type or walk/drive whatever, works for learning new words. 

I re-listened to guardian chapter 1 audiobook at least 20-30 times by now, just a tremendous amount. Chapters 1-10 I’ve listened to at least 5 times by now random chapters at random days, and some probably also 20 times. 

I have listened to these chapters enough, that I can officially follow so much that I know nearly every freaking word I hear, I know it immediately on hearing in at least 3 different audiobooks, and the few ‘less familiar’ words I recognize a second after hearing (like hearing ‘audacious’ or ‘glum’ in english it just takes me a second to re-remember), and the very few still forgotten words/specific details I learn From those words I can actually pick up from the context of listening.

 I hear ‘powei’ and somehow forgot it AGAIN? Oh it means ‘rather’ in this context. ‘anli’ well i always hear ‘anlishuo’ as in ‘people say/generally speaking’ so ‘anli’ in this context must mean ‘generally/generally speaking.’ chuanghu? can’t remember it because i was just typing this JUST now and only hearing a few words from the audiobook in the background - well in context its obviously window, but out of context my brain said window and i just couldn’t remember if it was window or curtain but felt curtain had something more complex than ‘hu’ as the second half - just looked it up and my guess was right, even with no context which i’d have had if i’d been listening better and it had been clear it’s window, it still made me think ‘window’ immediately just hearing the sound. ‘xiang yi ge ren’ sounds like ‘looks like a person’ which is the next phrase i just randomly heard. ‘hua le yao ming’ shouted for their life/in awful terror? or that would be ‘huo’, so maybe ‘streaking toward him to take his life’? would make sense in context of a horror scene - i just looked it up and 划了要命 would be the second one. even IF i heard the wrong line, both of those are pretty close to a good guess in context and hua is the only unknown because without context i can’t place if it was hua or huo. i still confuse the words wu and wo for hold etc, but in context i can tell which one it is (wo is hold a hand, hold a face, etc). 

I’m genuinely at a point where I can just completely follow the plot through at least the first 20 chapters from listening. And for most scenes, follow every detail too including stuff like guo changcheng spending half a year not working at home after he graduated, being so afraid of the phone, da qing being fawning to shen wei when they meet and rubbing against his leg, the specific conversation details when da qing runs across zhao yunlan’s car in chapter 2, what zhao yunlan’s room exactly looks like, etc. Its super cool to be able to follow the audiobook so well I can follow the story and details even when I don’t have time to read! It’s so fun! And it was not very hard!

It took 40 minutes of upfront study where you set time aside to focus: 20 minutes to have a program read the chapter aloud while you either see unknown word definitions pop up (like in Pleco) or look them up with some click dictionary as you listen. 20 minutes to go through and listen to the audiobook as you follow along with the text. Then after that, just play the audiobook chapters you’ve done this with whenever you want, either paying attention like when going to bed soon or walking, or in the background like when cleaning or doing busy work or driving. Since background listening can be done easily whenever all you have to do is remember to click play when you want something to listen to. 

I’m honestly blown away by how much 3 months of studying mainly like this (which is quite fun and only requires me to carve out a small amount of actual study focused time) has improved my listening skills. I can now also listen to the 2ha audiobook okay and follow along (provided its a chapter I’ve read before so I have at least some prior context to help me out) - at least so far as that’s what I’m listening to right now. Basically, I can tell Guardian has both upped my vocabulary significantly and also improved my automatic recognition of many words I half-knew and learned since. 

I recently found a new Guardian audiobook read by a deep voice and its lovely (and utilizes music and echo for effects, its lovely to listen to) I hope the poster keeps updating: https://fm.qq.com/show/rd002ED4aN0mYz2L__

I’ve been listening to it lately.

---

Also! Directions for using Pleco Android for screen reader:

1. To get any page bookmarked online: 

Open a page in your mobile web browser you want to read. Click the menu, click share, click Pleco Reader (or ‘more’ or ‘...’ then Pleco Reader).

Go to Clipboard Reader. Now when you click text, dictate text megaphone will be an option.

*Since Clipboard Reader is free, you can do this to read in Pleco and have things spoken aloud with no money spent. (Though I find the Reader tool worth the money and add ons).

2. To have any text ‘dictated aloud’:

Go to Pleco’s menu, Settings, Audio, click ‘use TTS if no recording,’ then for Sentence Audio section area System TTS Setting click Speech Services by Google (you can also experiment by clicking other options I am just stating what worked for me, it didn’t work at first I had to make that my default TTS in my Accessibility-Talkback Settings menu on my main phone first and restart my phone before all this). 

Then click the area right below to mess with speed and sound of the TTS voice. 

(Note, to test if TTS is working you can go to any dictionary entry sentence, click the speaker next to the sentence and see if it plays audio. If it does not, you will get an error message and directions on what to change in your phone settings. That is what initially happened to me: I had to go to phone Settings, Accessibility, Talkback, TTS Engine, TTS Engine voice and settings. Pleco recommended I choose Speech Services by Google, and uninstall then reinstall the Chinese voice. Then restart the phone. That worked for me. An additional note: I have Talkback setting on ‘on’ and just have it in my toolbar to use if desired but am not actively using it. If you turn Talkback setting ‘off’ in the actual Settings area of Accessibility, I am not sure if it will affect Pleco’s ability to dictate). 

3. How to put it together: 

Now go to Clipboard Reader and read the page from the internet you wanted or text you pasted, or go to Document Reader and open the document you wish to read. 

Click a word as a place to start. Now you should see both the loudspeaker (for pronouncing the single word) and the Megaphone next to it to start dictating all text. (If your phone is weird like me, you may need to press the megaphone a couple times before the audio works).

If you wish to change dictation reading speed, simply hold down the megaphone and select the speed desired. 

Now that I’ve figured this out I really want to take pictures of my print book, make a pdf, and listen to all the changes.

(Now I just have to fix my weird dictionary in Idiom app and I’m all set on the new phone!)

---

All I’ve been doing the past august study wise is just reading pingxie fic and finishing, and listening to audiobooks. It’s been a busy time for me ToT

I do think it proved you can be lazy and still make some improvements though: 

1. Reading in Pleco (or click-dictionary tool of your choice): pick something and read a chapter a day (that’s what I did, obviously the easier this is the less time you’ll need, but aim for around 30 minutes a day and reading material closer to your level if you don’t want to read too long)

2. Listening-Reading Method something above your reading level that you enjoy. Should take 40 minutes a couple times a week to several times a week to hours a week, depending on how intense you want to get with it and how much you’re going to alternate/include the reading portion. I did like 1-2 chapters a week so I was only spending 40 minutes to 1.5 hours a week doing this, or 3 hours one week no time another week. This is definitely something where you can do 6-12 hours one month then coast on it for another month just repeating older material’s audio/re-reading sections (which is what I did with guardian, doing 22 chapters then switching to just listening to audio a lot). 

Once you’ve done a little L-R steps 2 and 3 (in either order, whatever works for you - and doing step 1 if you want more context prior to steps 2 and 3), then just make time during your days to play the audiobook chapters you’ve studied. You don’t need to be focusing every single time (although focusing on actually trying to follow the audio the first time you listen without text to aid you will probably speed up your comprehension a lot by giving you a lot of basic-context to help you comprehend more later). Aim to listen whenever you’ve got down time! Or time where you’d play music or some background youtube video or podcast - walks, exercise, drives, when cleaning, when browsing the web goofing off, when working if you have times when you’d listen to music with lyrics or a podcast in the background without issues, times when you don’t need to focus 100% on listening just putting it on to hear in the background). 

That’s all I’ve done for study since May. It takes me about 30 minutes 5 days a week, plus 1-2 hours listening-reading actively a week. So 2.5 hours plus 2 = 4 hours of active study a week. Sometimes more like 8-10 if I got really into reading something or Listening-reading to several chapters. Then after that (very easy to fit into my life 4-10 hours per week of study) I just play the audiobook whenever I have downtime at work (that’s usually 0.5-4 hours where I just let it play because I forget its on while working on spreadsheets, updates, emails, etc, or play the audiobook while messing around on the internet in my free time at home, sometimes I put on music instead), while walking so 15-30 minutes maybe 3 days a week, while driving far so maybe 20 minutes - 2 hours per week. maybe lets say 2 hours*4 days a week (I don’t remember to listen every day) so 8 hours random listening+1.5 hours walking+1 hour driving per week. That’s 11.5 hours listening in the background or paying attention plus lets say 4 hours of active study a week. So 15.5 ‘study’ hours for chinese per week - an average overall of ~2.21 hours of chinese ‘study’ per day. This isn’t counting when I get into weibo and goof off, get into some chinese show with no english subs and just start watching it (I watched 16 episodes of Humans cdrama in August which is ~10.66 hours for a total of at least (15.5*4 weeks = 62 hours + 10.66 hours -> ~72.66 hours spent ‘with chinese’ in August at minimum. 4 weeks*7 days = 28, so over around 28 days or most of august I did 72.66 total hours/28 days -> or ~2.595 hours of chinese per day as an average. So... my guess that I spend at least 1-2 hours on chinese per day as the average was a decent guess. Looks like I’m usually 2 hours to 2.5 hours daily as an overall average. It’s not that hard to get in that much without a ton of time in the day once you get some listening skills built up ToT Deciding to build up my listening skills has been one of the funnest goals in chinese so far.

Notes on Listening Reading Actively - it also doubles as increasing your exposure to listening to your target language, and the more hours the better even if its passive in the background, just more hours adding up toward your mind getting a better ability to parse the sounds of the language is going to help your overall listening comprehension in general. So even if you don’t pay attention much and can’t follow the whole plot and only catch certain scenes, you will be improving at least comprehension of: hearing words you know, hearing colocations and common phrases and recognizing more automatically which will help with speaking/writing indirectly and reading recognition of those things, overall ability to hear things correctly in different combinations and getting used to the common combinations. 

You will be surprised how much more you can pick up of plot and details the 3rd listen compared to the first, the 5th listen, the 10th listen. It’s wild. Like... I’m listening to the 2ha audiobook and even having never read it in chinese, just knowing basic context, the 2nd read through I caught so much more of the plot throughout just because I had forewarning of when scenes change a lot, what audio plays during some parts I recognized in previous listens, and so I have more focus for figuring out the new details I missed. Whereas the first listen, I didn’t always know WHAT the scene context was until I heard a familiar line or description I remembered from the english version of the scene, but on a second listen I now have a better guess at the scene the lines are probably taking place in before and after those lines I recognized in the first listen. And this continues etc each time you re-listen to something. (So yes, that initial context of knowing what you’re listening to with a previous read of its translation or target language transcript will definitely speed up comprehension pick up - but if you just wanna test what your basic listening comprehension to new content is then it works fine just going into new audio with no prior context its just more difficult at first lol until you build an idea of the context from listening).

The original Listening-Reading Method person did like 40+ hours a week, 8 hours most days, no wonder they made fast progress! They often included reading in some form (hence the name) and later translation, so they also were constantly working on listening AND some reading skills AND eventually often some speaking/writing skills. Doing it my way results in mostly listening comprehension of stuff you could already read to a degree, more automaticity in recognition, and for picking up new vocabulary both in listening and reading. I do extra reading on the side with other stuff to get more reading practice in an isolated way (since I’m trying to push my reading speed up above speaking speed). I always try to do it the way the creator originally intended, but I am not able to focus on things for more than 20 minutes at a time, 40 to a couple hours if I take a break every 20 minutes. So doing it 8 hours just doesn’t work out. 

---

I’m fairly happy!

I am on plan for my main goals that started this style study plan: 

1. Improving my reading level to get to start being able to extensively read actual danmei novels - we got there! I am at a reading level appropriate for SaYe at 98% comprehension when I checked, and at a bit above 95% comprehension for Guardian! I’m now continuing with that goal while adding on increasing reading Speed in general.

2. Improving listening skills so I have better automatic recognition of partly-known words from reading (working super well so far - I can tell because ability to watch cdramas in only chinese has improved noticeably and gotten much easier), and so I can start following the main plot and key details of audiobooks of things I’ve read before (working great for guardian, starting to work with other audiobooks provided I listen to the chapters a few times or several times if its brand new material I have no context for, however reading level matters and while things I have prior familiarity with are going very well - brand new materials are still quite challenging in that they require multiple listens for the full plot and several listens before I start picking up most non-plot-critical details). 

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Movie Night, Pillow Fight [Version 2]

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC/BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG-13/T (maybe pushing M? but there’s still nothing super explicit. this is just a lot dirtier than I usually write holy cannoli. Heavy kissing, a little bit of suggestive dialogue and narration, minor swearing?)

Original Idea: This (V1 follows this idea a lot more than this one, which I spun off of about halfway through and did my own thing)

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) I didn’t think this would be as long as Version 1. I was wrong. This one is ~200 words longer, at 3,491. Version 1 here. They start the exact same but change about halfway through. I wrote both of these two over the course of 1 day by the way, and refuse to pick a favorite. @welovegroot @jason-redhood @jason-todd-squad

^^^^^

“No, Bruce,” Jason said sharply into his phone as he grabbed his motorcycle helmet. “I’ve already told you a hundred times: Tuesdays are my day off. Unless it’s a Court-of-Owls-attacking-All-Hands-On-Deck emergency, I’m not going on patrol. I’m allowed one night off per week. And I have plans. It’s weekly movie night with a friend of mine. We’ve been doing movie night since college and I refuse to disappoint her. You know why I chose Tuesdays? Because Gotham’s crime rate is lowest. You’ll be fine without me.” He hung up before Bruce could reply.

—

I opened the door. “You’re late,” I said.

“Yeah. I had to go to two different stores to find your popcorn because they were out at the first one,” Jason replied, letting himself in and dropping his motorcycle helmet on my couch. “Let me go change into my sweats.” He pulled his grey sweatpants out of his backpack, two microwave popcorn bags falling out.

I grabbed them. “Thanks Jay,” I said playfully.

He gave me a brief hug before stepping past me to my bathroom. “The things I do for you,” he teased with a sigh.

“Get out of those jeans. You know they aren’t allowed,” I retorted before going over to the microwave. My bathroom door shut loudly. I boosted myself onto the counter and watched the popcorn spin in the microwave.

By the time Jason emerged from the bathroom, only one bag was done. He leaned against the counter next to me, arms folded, and joined my staring.

“So what movie did you bring?” I asked. “You said in your text it was one of your favorites.”

He beamed at me. “Well, my friend, we are watching the very first ever made Frankenstein. From nineteen-thirty-one.” He fixed me with a stare as my shoulders slouched. “Don’t you start moaning in complaint. You put me through watching that awful musical last week—”

“Excuse you, Phantom of the Opera is also a classic.”

“It’s basic.”

“You’re basic.”

“Maybe so, but after going through that ordeal, you promised we could watch one of my favorites. I managed not to fall asleep last week, so it’s my turn.” He stuck his tongue out at me, then shook his head. “I really need to refine your taste in theatre. Remind me to convince Bruce to give me his season tickets to the real opera. He never uses them anyway. Doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.”

Given Bruce’s parents were shot after leaving the opera, I imagined there was some childhood trauma there. I didn’t bring it up with Jason. We didn’t talk about family besides passing comments on movie nights.

When the second bag of popcorn was finished popping and put in its own large bowl—I had quite the collection of popcorn bowls, usually given to me—we went to my room.

Ever since we’d graduated college—two years ago—we’d had movie night in my bed, rather than on the couch, like we’d done in my dorm. The bed was comfier and gave us more room to spread out. I can’t even remember who suggested it, but it was probably me one week when I was sick or something and we’d just stayed that way ever since.

I’d always hosted too. In college it was because my roommate was never there, and now Jason just liked the escape from his family. They didn’t know where I lived, so the one time he hosted and they interrupted by coming over, he and I agreed we’d just have it at my place. I liked his brothers and sister well enough, but they’d ruined that movie night. I doubted Wayne Manor movie nights ever involved any movies no one had seen before—because everyone talked and yelled at each other too much to actually pay attention to the movie.

Jason put the DVD in the player in my room. “Prepare to be wowed,” he said.

“I’m prepared, trust me,” I replied flatly.

—

“Heeey,” Jason’s voice said softly. “Wake up, doofus.”

I blinked my eyes open blearily. “Wha…?”

He started chuckling. “You fell asleep about halfway through.”

“Duh. It was boring. What did you expect for a casual movie fan from this century watching something from nineteen-thirty-one?”

“Well, all that means is that we get to rewatch it—from the beginning—next week!” Jason declared. I frowned. “Don’t you pout at me. Those have been the official movie night rules since our freshman year of college.”

“That’s not true,” I said, pulling out my phone. I dug deep into the Google Docs on my phone for Movie Night Rules from our freshman year of college. Six years was a long way to scroll through, but eventually I found it. I opened the doc and scanned the rules. “Oh, buzz off,” I muttered, poking Jason in the side.

“No poking!” He lurched away. Jason was selectively ticklish. Sometimes I would poke him in the side and he’d jump, other times he wouldn’t even notice I touched him. And he swapped between the two randomly.

“Why didn’t you wake me up like two minutes after I fell asleep?”

Jason pursed his lips, trying not to smile. “I thought about it. But you looked so cute—” He pinched my cheek and I was reminded of the fact that he had the personality traits of an eighty-year-old grandmother. “—with your hair all messy and your cheeks all squished that I just couldn’t.” He laughed as I batted his hand away from my face. I poked him again. “No poking!”

“Then don’t tease.”

“I have a right to tease you. Look at my shirt! You drooled all over it.”

I grabbed the hem of it and pulled it up. “Let me throw it in the wash, then.”

I expected him to smack my hand away and shove the shirt back down over his torso, but to my surprise, he helped me take it off. I’d seen him shirtless too many times to bother staring at his remarkably muscular torso. I just climbed out of my bed and went to the small closet out in the hall that held my tiny washer and dryer. I threw his shirt in the washer, dumped a bit of detergent in, and got it started before going back to my room.

“Take that off! You’ll stretch it out!” I snapped.

Jason struggled to get one of my—much smaller—T-shirts from college off. I scoffed and helped him yank it over his head before throwing one my pajama shirts at him. I wore my dad’s old T-shirts to sleep in, so it was even big on Jason. “You could have just asked for a replacement and I’d have handed you this.”

“That’s not as fun as surprising you,” he joked.

I rolled my eyes and perched back on the bed. “Fine. Next week, we rewatch Frankenstein. I won’t fall asleep. But you’re bringing snacks again.”

“Of course.”

“And don’t forget the popcorn.”

“Doofus, if I forgot the popcorn, you wouldn’t let me through the door.”

I snickered. “True enough.”

Jason leaned over to set his popcorn bowl on the bedside table closest to him. “Maybe next week we should try this on the couch. I always feel bad about getting popcorn on your sheets—and then you won’t be so comfortable that you fall asleep.”

I grabbed a pillow and whacked him in the chest. His expression turned affronted.

“Did you just initiate a pillow fight?” he demanded.

“No,” I retorted. “I got payback for you insulting me.” I whacked him again. “That was me initiating a pillow fight.” I started flinging the pillow at him again and again.

“Hey! Not fair!” Jason protested. “I’m unarmed!”

I ignored him and kept up my pillow smacking.

He laughed. “Well, if you’re going to play dirty, I will too.” He reached out as my pillow hit him again and he wrangled it from me. “A-ha! Look at that! Got your ammo. How does it feel, to be attacked by your own pillow?”

Jason started smacking me with it. I squealed and blocked him as best I could with my arms. We were both laughing as I tried to reach around him to the pillow he’d been using to brace his back against my headboard. He grabbed my wrist with one hand and hit me with the pillow using the other. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m not going easy on you just because you’re adorable.”

I laughed as he nearly hit me hard enough to knock me off the bed.

So, I switched tactics.

Getting inside his much longer reach was the hard part. Once I managed to duck around his arms and wrench my wrist free, I started tickling him. Tonight was a ticklish night. He squirmed away from me.

Jason yowled—and I hoped my neighbors weren’t home—in laughter. “Stop it—stop tickling!”

I didn’t. I ran my wiggling fingers up his sides and across his neck. He tried to catch my hands, but I was quick enough to evade him.

For a few moments anyway.

“No. No!” His protests didn’t work on me. “Oh you’re as bad as my brothers. Stop it—stop it.” His voice went firm, all traces of laughter gone. With one quick movement, the pillow we’d attacked each other with was discarded on the floor. He grabbed my ankles and pulled me so I was lying flat in the center of the bed.

Jason straddled my waist, trapping my lower legs with his ankles and pinning both my hands above my head on the mattress. He was breathing hard. We both were.

He smiled. “There. Not so feisty now, are you? Hands pinned above your head, lying beneath me all… helpless.” He chuckled and licked his lower lip, his smile turning both playful and wicked. “I could have… any kind of revenge I want.” He bent his elbows, lowering himself over me. My breathing grew shorter and blood roared in my ears. “I can have any…” He paused, eyes flicking from mine to where my necklace charm had fallen down one side and landed on the mattress. His eyes widened, as if he seemed to just barely realize how close we were. “This is…” His elbows straightened, pushing him higher above me. “I’m… sorry.” He started to gently pick his way off of me. “I’m gonna let you go now.”

He released his grip on my wrists. I rolled them and flexed my hands to get some feeling back into them.

He swung his leg to get off me and used it to step off the bed. “I should go,” he said breathlessly. “I’m so sorry. I’ll grab my T-shirt next week.” He strode to the door of my bedroom while I sat on the bed, dumbfounded, jaw hanging open.

As he opened the door, I bounded off the bed.

I caught him before he could reach for his stuff on my couch, grabbing his wrist. “What was that about?” I demanded. He refused to turn and look at me.

“Just… let it go,” he said, shaking his head. He tried to pull his wrist out of my hand, but I grabbed it with my other one to hold him in both.

“No! What the hell is going on with you?”

“Leave it alone,” he growled out.

“I can’t! What happened in there that made you shut down? What did I do wrong?”

He whirled. “It’s nothing to do with you. It’s me!”

“Then tell me what it is!” I shouted.

Jason grabbed me by the shoulders, wrenching out of my grip so hard my fingers ached. He spun me around and pinned me by the shoulders against my front door. A muscle worked in his jaw as he clenched it before fixing me with a crystal blue stare. “It’s just… seeing you beneath me—all flushed pink and panting, your eyes hooded and staring up at me… seeing you like that… I just felt myself fall in love with you!”

If he hadn’t pinned me against the door I probably would have fallen over from shock. My mouth definitely fell open. “Jay… I…” I breathed.

Still holding my shoulders, he spun me around so I was away from the front door and moved to shove his jeans into his backpack.

Before he could, I threw reservation to the wind.

I grabbed his shoulders, forced him to turn and face me, moved my hands to the back of his head, and pulled him down to kiss me.

Our mouths crashed together hard enough to make my front teeth ache, but I didn’t care. My heart leapt into my throat and I almost melted as his arms circled my waist, pulling me closer, so our torsos were pressed against each other. My eyelids closed as I sighed. We were both breathing hard, air from our noses warm against each other’s skin. Holding my waist in both arms, he turned and pinned my back against the door again.

“Oh, God…” Jason breathed against my lips. He kissed me again and I moaned. He reached one hand up and tangled it in my hair. He could palm the back of my skull as though it were a basketball. His fingers were warm against my scalp.

When he pulled his lips away from me, I groaned quietly in complaint.

“We—we should not be doing this,” he whispered, shaking his head. The white streak at the front of his hairline flopped back and forth with the movement. I wanted to reach my fingers up and twist that streak between them. But I didn’t.

“Why not?” I replied, just as breathless.

“We’re friends. This isn’t us.”

“You just said that you just barely fell in love with me.”

“I did. But I’m not willing to ruin the good thing we’ve had going on here for six years.” He panted, shoulders heaving up and down, as he reached up and took my hands away from his face, gently dragging them by the wrists. “You’ve been the best friend I’ve been able to keep longer than a year or two. I can’t… I can’t just… this isn’t about what I want.”

“I’m the one who kissed you,” I pointed out. “What does that say about what I want?”

“It’s not just about wants,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Us being together is dangerous? To whom?”

“To you.”

“Why would it be dangerous for me?” I pushed.

He let me go and spun away from me. He looked like he wanted to shout and rage—maybe throw something—but he just clenched his fists and panted.

When he finally turned back to face me, he’d calmed down a little. “It’s dangerous… because… I… oh, Bruce is gonna kill me…” he whispered, shaking his head again. “Because I… am… the Red Hood.”

Two big confessions in one night. I felt a little dizzy and remembered to breathe.

“Red Hood. As in… the vigilante. And… the crime boss.”

“Vigilante, yes. Crime boss days are behind me. I was newly-back-from-the-dead and not in a stable mindset when I became a crime boss.” I decided not to ask about that. He huffed and sat on my coffee table, instead of the sofa, rubbing his temples. “And I wasn’t going to tell you about it, by the way. You’re the only normal friend I have right now. But it’s too dangerous for us to be together. If any of the rogues in this city knew I had someone I cared about as much as I care about—as much as I love you… you would not survive to the end of the year.”

I crossed from the front door to the sofa and sat on the sofa cushion closest to him, setting my hand on his knee. “Jay, I… I’m willing to risk it. To be with you. We just need to be careful—”

“I’m not willing to lose you. I would have been terrified before tonight if someone worse than me caught you. Knew you were just a friend. Now, though? Now, I don’t know what I’d do if you were captured, and that scares me even more. I saw you under me in that bedroom and I saw a future that was good—for the first time in the nine years since I was resurrected—but I can’t let that be my future. For your sake.”

I bit down on my tongue to keep from shouting. But I did tighten my grip on his knee hard and snap, “Get over yourself, Todd. You’re not the only one who gets to make this decision.”

“No, but apparently I’m the only one who can see things objectively enough to make the wise decision.”

It was my turn to want to throw something. “Jason. Peter. Todd. I don’t care about the danger. And I know you do. But do you know what it’d do to me, knowing that you love me and I feel the same, but you won’t let me be yours? Do you know what it would do to you? I know what it would do to me. It would eat me up inside day in and day out. I would sit here dying for you, waiting for you to come to your senses and carry me back into that bedroom to stay in there all night. But you never would. And I would just wait. I’d never date anyone else. If I tried, all I’d be doing was wishing they were you.

“You and I are cut from the same cloth. Some people are just born to sacrifice. To give up what they want—what they need—for the sake of other people. It’s the only choice we’re ever given, so it’s the choice we make over and over and over again. Sometimes people will split others into Givers and Takers. Those of us born to sacrifice are a step beyond even Givers. We’re the ones who give up everything for others. I’ve done it with my family my entire life. Everyone else always wanted so strongly that my only option was to give up my own. You’re the same, I see it every time I see you with your brothers.

“Jason, it’s time for us to Take. It’s time to let life give us something. This is the moment to be selfish. To put aside Batman and his zealous crusade for one damn moment and let yourself be happy.” I dug my fingernails into his knee through his sweats. “Be selfish for once, Jason.”

He finally looked up at me, eyes meeting mine. “I can’t,” he said.

I clamped my mouth shut and sighed loudly through them. “Yes, you can. If you’re waiting for my consent, you’ve more than got it. I’m telling you now to give yourself consent to want. To take. Get over this hold out that a double life has on you and—mmph!”

He cut me off by slamming his lips against mine, surging off the coffee table and straddling me on the sofa. I moaned and wrapped my arms around his neck. He pulled me to one side, sitting on the sofa and guiding me to straddle himself. His hands were splayed over my shoulder blades. I twisted his white streak through my fingers. Our breath shuddered in and out of our lungs. I parted my lips slightly and ran the tip of my tongue over the seam of his lips.

They opened immediately and let me in. I sighed out my nose. “Please ruin our friendship,” I breathed into his lips. “This is so much better.”

He snickered out his nose, smiling. “Does your consent to let me want you include me carrying you back into that bedroom and neither of us leaving until dawn?” He nodded toward my room.

My body shivered. Not from cold. Excitement. Electricity.

“Definitely,” I said breathlessly.

His hands slid from my shoulder blades and down to my legs. He held them and stood up. I hooked my ankles around his back, locking my arms’ grip around his neck.

He carried me to my room, kicked the door shut, and laid me gently on the messed-up bedsheets and disarrayed pillows. On all fours above me, my legs around his waist, he kissed me. Gently, at first, but he quickly grew hungry. His hands worked their way under my shirt, callused palms scraping slightly against my skin.

“Still okay with this?” His voice was barely more than a hoarse whisper.

“Oh yeah,” I breathed, unable to even speak loud enough to be heard from inches away.

He smiled. Wicked delight flickering on his face. “Well, get ready for me to call you mine. Because I am all yours.”

I smiled. “I’m yours, Jason.”

[magicianapprenticelyra]

Actor AU: Season 2 [Asra Alnazar]

Credit for the basis of the AU goes to both @lightvsdark18 and @lynmay-arcana.

[Original Link] | [Additional Link]

O*O*O

[Season 1: Nadia Satrinava] | Season 2: Asra Alnazar

Asra Alnazar—Behind the Scenes & On Set Happenings/Shenanigans

[Not long before the finale of Nadia’s season, the producers got word that Season 2 and Season 3 were greenlit! There was a lot of celebration to be had, but oh dear—there are more than several difficulties for Lyra and Asra in this season].

While it’s handy for Asra and Lyra to have known each other previously, shooting Season 2 with their roles as romantic characters became unexpectedly difficult.

[More under the cut!]

Here’s how the filming of this season went:

When it was announced that Asra and Lyra were going to be Season 2′s couple, rumors and fan theories were allllll over the place.

Some people that ‘shipped’ the actors before thought it was going to become a Showmance and become IRL ‘Canon’.

This made Asra and Lyra wildly, wildly uncomfortable.

It got so difficult to film together that it had to be discussed between the producers, the director, and the actors on whether or not to recast Asra.

He was having the worst of it, getting harassed by ‘fans’ and strangers alike over his and Lyra’s history in the past.

In lieu of this, Season 2 was delayed by a year because of it, nevermind all the reworking of the budget in order to afford all of the magic/water magic that’s going to appear on screen.

They used practical effects as much as possible.

Asra and Lyra rarely spent any time together outside of the set.

If they did ever spend any time together, it was usually with a group setting with mutual friends/they placed themselves far, far away from each other.

Paparazzi was almost always around them and ravenous for any hints of a relationship blossoming between the two of them.

It got to a point where Asra and Lyra needed to hire lawyers to get people to cease and desist.

It seemed to finally do the job, but their friendship would never be the same.

Initially, 80% of scenes where Asra and MC kiss have the camera pan away.

Kissing scenes were so difficult for them to work with that it got to the point to need body doubles to replace them when filming.

Asra: “Seriously the amount of kisses that had to be scrapped—”

Lyra: “It was bad. It was bad.”

Their favorite scenes to shoot together were when Asra and MC did magic together or when either of them would be ‘floating’.

The wire-work was exhilarating for Asra, but it took time for Lyra to adjust due to motion sickness and a slight fear of heights.

Their reactions to each other’s Masquerade outfits when filming that changing scene was genuine.

Despite the fact they’ve seen each other in their Masquerade outfits before, they really did get a kick out of seeing each other in it again.

The people both Asra and Lyra relied on the most—aside from their therapists and families—would end up being their fellow cast members.

Lucio often would set up playdates with Mercedes and Melchior with Lyra’s French Bulldog, Buddy.

The stray popped randomly onto set from the street back when Season 1 was wrapping up in filming.

The little guy got cornered and hid under Lyra’s trailer, whimpering and whining. It took the workers from the animal shelter hours to get him out of there to be looked over.

Lyra adopted him before he was set to be put down, and basically made sure everything in her home/trailer on set would be doggy safe.

Muriel took them out on day trips hiking on some land that he owned in a remote area.

Lyra has pictures in pages and pages of photo albums back at home.

Asra picked a lot of mushrooms and has a few cuts of his own growing back at his own place.

Nadia treats them both with spa days.

Lyra, unfortunately, is allergic to most makeup/beauty products, so she tends to stick with deep tissue massages/hot stone treatments.

That doesn’t mean she’ll say no to Asra painting her face/using makeup—that she’s not allergic to—on her face.

Portia treats them to a mix of movie/video game/etc. sort of nights, visits to cat cafés, museums, and so on.

There was a paintball thing once but after Ly’s glasses got shattered she swore off doing it again.

Water balloons filled with body-safe paint is definitely a go-ahead, though.

Julian has escape rooms, visits to hole-in-the-wall eateries, bars, secret gardens they break into on occasion visit. There’s a surprising amount of noir/Shakespearean/musical film nights at his place/designated meeting area.

A few times when filming the scene of Julian accusing Asra of being his accomplice in murdering Lucio, they used quotes from a number of different source material.

It always got Lyra laughing.

Filming Asra’s reunion with Aisha and Salim makes him tear up when recounting it.

Asra: “He’s been without them for over seventeen years. Seventeen. Years. Can you imagine what that does to a kid?! God . . .”

And that’s not even mentioning how MC’s supposed family was cut from the season, again, despite Lyra and said actors had a few flashback/flashing memory scenes filmed.

To say Lyra is getting irritated with it is putting it mildly.

At least those actors got paid for their time, though.

Asra, Lyra, Vulgora, and Nadia often lost it when Volta gagged or snuffled after she sniffs MC for the plague.

Volta felt awful when Asra and Lyra got into wheezing fits, but they reassured her that it was okay.

The scene where Asra and MC are compelled to sit in the ritual room was one of the most nerve-wracking for Lyra to sit through.

She ad-libbed the toast that MC gives to everyone in the room.

For reference, the paid scene version in that book.

Lyra: There were so many famous actors in that room. Nasrin, The Devil, Nadia, oh God there are too many . . .”

Once filming was all done, Asra and Lyra couldn’t stand being in the same room for a while.

It didn’t last too long. They’re still dear friends and all, but given what happened with the paparazzi they still get twitchy when they spend more than an hour or two together in public.

A lot of correspondence is done through snail mail, postcards, and video calls with the occasional text.

One of the most surprising things to come out of filming this series/season is that Lucio and Asra’s actors actually became friends.

Sure their respective characters hate each other to bits, but it’s a lot more fun when they’re memeing each other on set, online, and whatnot.

A few scenes that hit the cutting room floor are as follows:

Extended cuts of Asra and MC’s travels after the Masquerade.

[Concept of The Heist that ultimately got scrapped in the end].

MC meeting potential familiars.

They don’t pan out, but the concepts were there.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading this as I had with writing it!

Next: [Julian Devorak]

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

Ateez: GF Having PMS

PMS: Pre-menstrual syndrome. Aka, those 1-2 weeks before a girl gets her period, they have symptoms like acne, bloating, cramps, food cravings, fatigue, increased sexual libido, mood swings, tender breasts and irritability among other things. It's not actually when you are on your period, for those of you who don't know. Also girls: it's totally normal and don't feel bad about any of these symptoms or talking about them ♡♡♡♡

Kim Hongjoong:

Hongjoong didn't know what was going on with you. One minute you're happy and wanting to cuddle, and then a minute later you're mad for no reason. It was making him angry honestly. You two have been dating for almost a month, he thought you were past the push and pull game already.

"What is wrong with you Y/N?!" He blurted out one day when your mood swings were too much.

He felt really bad when you started crying though.

"I'm sorry... it's not your fault. I get like this when I'm PMSing and I don't even notice...I'm sorry." You said while wiping tears out of your face.

Now it clicked in his brain and he felt even more bad. Carefully he sat down next to you and rubbed your back.

"Hey it's ok, don't worry. I didn't mean to raise my voice at you, so I'm sorry for that."

He pulled you into a hug and just held you there till you stopped crying.

"Better now?" He asked once you calmed down to which you nodded.

"Good. Now do you wanna go get ice cream?"

He got better at dealing with your mood swings every time they happened. He learned to back off when you were irritated and to hold you when you were sad.

Park Seonghwa:

Technically you weren't on your period, but for some reason you only got cramps during PMS and they were horrible.

All Seonghwa heard was "cramps" and he was very much on it. He ran out the door to the nearest store, bought a heating pad, bought chamomile tea to make for you, ibuprofen for the pain and even picked up a cute teddy bear for you.

So then Seonghwa handed you the bear while he placed the the heating pad on your tummy and gave you a glass of water for you to take one of the pills. The tea was already being brewed in the kitchen. Making sure it wasn't too hot to burn you, he took it to you and insisted on helping you sip on it.

"Are you feeling any better?" He asked you with a lot of tenderness.

You nodded and smiled at him. "Yes I am. Thank you, you're the perfect boyfriend."

You asked him to cuddle with you, which he was happy to oblige. However he made sure not to squeeze you too hard, worried that he might accidentally put pressure on your tummy and make your cramps worse.

Jeong Yunho:

You were fatigued, just laying on your bed, blankets covering you. It was well past 11 a.m and you still didn't feel the energy to get up. Your plan was to lay in bed for the whole day, or if you had to get up, do very minimal activity.

Suddenly a loud door slamming open and a loud:

"Honey! I'm home!!"

Yunho's energetic voice resonated through the house.

"Baby?! Where are you?!" He asked loudly.

You groaned, unable to even tell him where you were.

"There you are! So I got the day off and I thought we could- is something wrong?" He was worried when he saw your low state.

"I'm just really tired that's all. I don't feel like getting out of bed." You responded.

He was really worried though, wondering if you were sick or something. That's when you explained you just had fatigue due to PMS and just wanted rest.

"I'm sorry we can't go out like you wanted to."

"No! It's ok. We can just stay indoors and watch movies all day long. I'm always in a cuddling mood you know." He said as he joined you on the bed and wrapped his arms around you.

Kang Yeosang:

Movie nights with your boyfriend were a regular occurrence. You guys rarely payed attention to the movie, you both ended up talking very comfortably to each other. This particular night, your PMS symptom of tender breasts was acting up more than normal. Usually, you could go about your day without it bothering you, tonight it was too much though. And unconsciously your hands went in your shirt, kneading at them.

"Uh.....what are you doing?" Yeosang's voice snapped you back to reality.

"Oh.....my boobs are sore." You simply answered.

Yeosang just nodded like he understood and just looked back at the tv as he sipped on his apple juice. Wanting to mess with him a bit, you asked:

"Want to help me out?"

The juice box suddenly flattened as he sucked in all of the juice, flustered at your question. He looked at you with a look that asked "seriously?" You simply pouted at him.

"Ok." He shrugged and put his juice down.

"Wait what?" It was now your turn to be flustered.

Choi San:

Days leading up to your period were super annoying. Not only did you get killer headaches randomly, but your body decides to bloat out of nowhere and so the jeans that fit you perfectly yesterday now couldn't zip up.

"Oh fuck off!" You huffed out when the zipper ended up breaking from you pulling on it so much.

"I didn't even do anything??" San's voice from the bedroom reminded you that you weren't alone.

"Not you! I was talking about my jeans!" You explained.

"Why what's wrong?" He asked.

"They don't fit and the zipper broke." You whined.

San came inside the bathroom, seeing what the problem was.

"They fit fine yesterday?" He was confused about what happened.

And so a mini lesson on your body changes during PMS ensued. San ate up all the information for next time.

"Why don't I just buy you stretchy pants so you're more comfortable?" He suggested.

"Aww that's so nice of you." You awed at his kind gesture.

"But between you and me, I'd rather have you with no pants on." He winked at you.

You grabbed a towel and threw it at him.

"Choi San! Now you fuck off!"

Song Mingi:

You were avoiding seeing your boyfriend for the past 2 days, feeling embarrassing about the tiny breakouts that popped out on your cheeks. You didn't like looking at them and hated if anyone saw you like that. But Mingi was clingy and couldn't go one day without seeing you and so one day you were startled when he tapped on your bedroom window and then proceeded to crawl his way in.

"What are you doing here?!" You screeched as you covered your face with the blanket.

"I needed to make sure you weren't dead or kidnapped!" He responded as he got up from the floor.

He looked at your weird position and asked what it was about, and you refused to answer. Mingi just strode over to you and pulled the blanket off you.

"Don't! I look horrible!" You tried reaching for something else to cover up.

"You look fine. What are you talking about?" He was genuine confused what you meant.

"No I don't! Look at this! Stupid breakouts! I hate it!" You crossed your arms and looked down.

Mingi's heart dropped at your words.

"Honey listen.." He sat down next to you and held your hand. "Those things are totally normal. Everyone gets them once in a while, so don't feel bad. You're still beautiful no matter what."

He smiled brightly at you, hoping to cheer you up. You smiled back and didn't feel so self conscious about it anymore.

Jung Wooyoung:

Wooyoung honestly loved annoying you with his love. Usually you were very patient with him, except when you were PMSing, then you were irritable almost every day and had no patience for anyone, including him. If you think that'd stop him and leave you alone, you're wrong. That's when he likes annoying you the most. He thinks you look like cute whenever you yell at him to stop or to leave you alone.

"Who's the cutest kitten here?" He said in a sing song voice as he ruffled your hair.

"Stooop!" You whined out, getting annoyed.

"Oooh feisty kitten! Maybe if I tickle your-"

"Noooo!" You moved away from him when he tried to touch your face.

"Y/N baby.." He continued.

"Go away!" You swatted his hand away and marched to the bathroom to cool off for a little bit.

Wooyoung laughed at you stomping away in annoyance.

"One day she might actually kill you." Yeosang pointed out.

"Nah she won't, she loves me too much. Besides, isn't she hot when she's angry?" Wooyoung said.

"I seriously hold onto my theory that you're a masochist and a weirdo." Yeosang shook his head.

Choi Jongho:

Honestly you felt blessed that your only PMS symptom was weird cravings that turned you into a foodie. You had heard horror stories from your friends about how their PMS was unbearable, so you considered yourself lucky. In fact, sometimes you even forgot it was a PMS symptom.

Jongho never noticed anything unusual about your cravings, thinking you were hungry or something, until you pulled out a really weird combination that seemed to last days.

"You're eating that again?" He asked as he stared at the food in front of you.

"Yeah. I've been really craving it recently."

Jongho's heart stopped for a moment, panic rushing through him.

"Oh my God! I think I got you pregnant!" He exclaimed, his hands going to his head.

You bursted out laughing at that.

"What? No you didn't you silly goose." It was so amusing to you that he came to that conclusion.

"Then how else do you explain it?!" You honestly felt bad at how he was freaking out.

Pulling out a chair, you gestured for him to sit on it.

"Make yourself comfortable Jongho. Time for a little biology lesson."

Gifs not mine, credit goes to their respective owners.

[anakinlove]

Hi wow okay, so I definitely cried whilst writing this. I absolutely took this great romantic prompt and deSTROYED IT I am so sorry anon 😭😭

If enough people come into my ask box and yell it me I could be persuaded to write a part 2 happy ending 😌

✨requests are open✨

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Set It Free

1.5k words (angst)

Sometimes, when Y/n thought about her boyfriend, she thought about the avril. Native to Yavin 8, the bird was a large hawk-like lifeform. It was beautiful as it soared high in the air. Being the top of its food chain, the avril was also ferocious, swooping in and killing its prey in one bated breath. Anakin was a lot like the avril, both beautiful and ferocious, and so completely beyond Y/n.

She wonders now, how she had ever let herself fall so completely for him. But then, there always was something so freeing about his smile, his eyes. Y/n remembers with such clarity the first time she saw that smile,

“Hey! Y/n, wait up!” Y/n whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, only to see Anakin Skywalker jogging after her. 

“Skywalker. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Y/n raised her eyebrow at the boy, looking him over. She couldn’t deny that he was attractive, but with his usually shorn hair overgrown he looked a bit like a narglatch. 

“Well, I uh, I noticed you looked confused today in class?” That was funny. In all her years of classes with Anakin, Y/n had never known him to stumble over his words. The boy was always so confident, cheeky even. 

“I guess you could say that. The Huttese dialect is much more…” Y/n bounced her head, looking for the right word, “well, less refine than basic.”

Anakin snorted, looking down at his toes. He didn’t say anything. Y/n waited for him to speak but he just stood there, looking down.

“Skywalker?” Y/n prompted. Anakin whipped his head up.

“I was just going to offer, as I’m fluent, if you might want a tutor?” Anakin said softly. Y/n was thoroughly confused with the Anakin was acting. First, he stumbles over his words, and now one could say he looked bashful! Still, she really was awful with Huttese, and of course she knew the Chosen One to be from Tatooine, therefore he must know the language well.

“Yeah, okay, I’d really appreciate the help. Does today in about four standard-hours work?” Y/n smiled up at him.

“Yeah, yeah that works great!” Anakin grinned, bouncing up and down, “Sorry, but I’m late for meditation with my Master, I have to go!” He looked one last time in Y/n direction and walked back the way he came.

Y/n could only stand there, speechless. In all of the time she’s known him, she couldn’t remember ever seeing him smile like that. It left her breathless, standing like a fool in the middle of the hall, staring after him. 

Looking back on it now, it was so clear to tell that he had just wanted to spend time with her. Get to know her, be her friend. He never had that many friends in the temple, Y/n knows. Choosing to spend his time with Master Kenobi or tinkering with droids in his quarters. Sometimes spending time with Aayla Secura, but only when they both had time, which was few and far between.

Y/n reached their shared apartment, separate from the Temple. It was eight months ago when Anakin suggested finding someplace where they could be themselves, away from the rules of the Jedi. Together, they found this place. It was small, but it was them. It was Anakin’s boots by the door, his tools scattered randomly, oil staining parts of the carpet no matter how much either of them scrubbed. It was Y/n’s robe by the door, her favorite mug left on the counter from her morning coffee, hair ties left in every crevice of the couch. 

Y/n’s heart hurt looking around the room, and his smell suffocated her, leaving her more choked up than she already was. She looked at the chronometer on the counter, its time indicated that Anakin should be home, and squared her shoulders. She found him just where she knew he would be, hunched over his desk, fiddling with something so small It should have been impossible.

She stood in the door, watching him, for what felt like an eternity. Taking in the pattern of his curls today, the way he bounced his knee, and the back of his shoulders as they rose and fell with each breath. She knew that he knew she was there. He was so attuned with the force that he probably felt her four blocks away. His power was unimaginable. He was radiant, a glowing force that any force-sensitive could have felt him from a mile away. All the more reason, for Y/n to not be the one to dampen him. 

After a while, or probably when he finished whatever he was doing, he placed his project down and stretched. If Y/n wasn’t already devastated, she might have laughed at just how many joints he popped with one movement. It was a wonder that Y/n had managed to shield her feelings from him so well, knowing that he should have felt what was wrong the second he felt her. 

“Hi, angel, how was your day?” Anakin finally looked up, a smile softening his features. Y/n could say nothing, staying in the doorway. 

“Y/n?” Anakin stood, slowly walking over to her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in. Just for a second, Y/n told herself, you can indulge yourself for only a second. Y/n steeled herself, forcing herself to pull away. 

“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Anakin scrunched his eyebrows, staring down at her. He was unnerved at how blank she was, scared even.

Wanting it all to be over, to be able to never have to do it again, Y/n prepared herself to speak. 

“I think,” she paused to try to control her tears, “I think we should stop.” And there, the words that had been controlling her all day were finally out. 

“Stop? Stop what?” Anakin’s voice was measured, words slow. 

“This. Us” Y/n looked down, unable to look him in the eyes. 

“Us. Us? Why? Why would you ever think that? What’s happened? Have I done something? Y/n you can’t just walk in and say that what is it?” Frantically Anakin tried to catch her eyes, ducking his head down into her view. Y/n shook hard, doing everything she could to hold in her breakdown, despite her efforts, tears began to track down her cheeks. She took measured breaths, counting each one. 

“I cannot be the one to hold you back.” Her voice cracked, more tears leaking through.

“Hold me back? Hold me back from what? You could never hold me back! If anything, I’m where I am because of you!” Anakin raised his voice but didn’t shout. 

“No, Anakin, you deserve to be the greatest jedi of them all, to have everything you’ve ever wanted. I cannot take that away from you. I won’t.” Y/n voice shook, but she was determined as ever, trying to just make him understand that this was for him. Not her. 

“But I want you, not to be some… some great jedi! I want you.” He pleaded. 

“Anakin you don’t understand, your place is on a throne!” Y/n sobbed, backing away from him. 

“No, my place is by your side!” He walked towards her, reaching for her. She evaded his every attempt, solid in her decision. 

“Y/n, please, stop. Come back, think about this. Let’s talk about this.” Anakin begged. 

“There’s nothing to talk about, Ani. This is all for you, for your life.” She replied. 

“But I don’t want this!” Anakin tried again, once more advancing. 

Y/n shook her head and backed further away, towards the door. Taking a quick look around the room, she thought of every happy memory here. All the times they cuddled on the couch, the one Life Day they spent here, every moment. Each called to her, and she longed to answer, to stay. But she couldn’t.  Looking once more at Anakin, at his state of disarray. The tears in his eyes, his hair mussed from his hands, his body shaking. It broke her more than any of the words she said did. 

“I’m sorry.” Y/n cried, turning around for the final time, grabbing her robe and walking out of the door. 

“Y/n! Y/n wait!” Anakin lurched forward, desperately calling out for her. By the time he reached the door, she was gone. He fell to his knees then and cried. Cried for Y/n, for their life, for the ring he was working on a room over.

As Y/n walked away, hood drawn, she thought once again of the avril. Free to soar high above, without anything shackling him to the ground. A force of nature, unbelievable, and so, so beautiful. 

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