#idk how it turned out but i like th beginning lol

[tryingtimi]

2✨

Too Old For My Hometown

Air by BamBam. It's a bop, but I actually sneaked in another song for this snippet. Which is more fitting lol. It's HOLO by LeeHi. Also, lmao, this one is from last year. Anyway, it's a fun lil experiment for writing a tale that another person tells to others. Enjoy!

MODERN AU | METALSEA AU | FLUFF | ANGST, CUZ A BIT SAD | WC: 1513

Avelyn was that girl to Cronyl.

They met on a chilly spring day when the sun just touched the horizon to dive under. He’s been back in Anore for two weeks, yet he was still an outsider. His job didn’t change much, in fact, it lessened. In the city, he needed many sleepless nights to keep up with work. Here, however, he could have a sleeping break at lunch if he wanted to.

It should have been peaceful.

He should have enjoyed a little bit less after having such a busy life for years.

Still, he didn’t.

For Cronyl it wasn’t appealing how friendly the neighbours were. He didn’t like that everyone could know each other by name. He did not crave the peacefulness of a quiet and seemingly happy village.

Not after a bloody divorce anyway.

And so he remained the ridiculous lone wolf he always was, never chit-chatting, never blending. Helping out wherever he could nevertheless, despite his distaste of the place.

Because he liked the village as an environment.

The quietness and simplicity might not have been what he sought — considering how he would have drowned himself in work rather than thinking about Syonehlia — but the view, well, that was decent.

So, he walked home from work on the usual pathway — sunflower fields framing both sides, the lively people still far away. The wind cooled down the early spring’s heat, so Cronyl could stroll the way he preferred to do it; briefcase and jacket draped over his shoulder, hanging from his fingers, shirt’s sleeves rolled up leisurely. He was tired, though not the satisfying kind you feel after a busy day full of accomplishments. It was more what you would call numbness, if anything.

Cronyl closed one of his eyes when the sun decided to give them a proper showdown of sunshine as a slow goodbye.

He kept his stare at the sky, nevertheless.

It was a little thing he started when he moved back, and that still gave him some kind of comfort.

Sure, it was his hobby, if you will. And the very thing that almost cost his life. (Yes, baby. I’m overexaggerating for dramatic effect.)

Cronyl could faintly hear the rattling of the old bicycle which raced down from the nearby hill every day. Yet, he only noticed how loud it became, when a moderately high-pitched squeak squeezed out of the mess of blonde locks, as she collided with him.

Avelyn gifted a bouquet of bruises and two cracked ribs to Cronyl on their first meeting.

He always says he can still smell the frowzy dandelions that spread in the nursing room. You see, Anore was so small, that they had no proper hospital, only a rural nursing building. Which seemed to be enough most of the time, and this time wasn’t an exception either.

Cronyl still needed to stay in, which definitely dragged some grumbling out of him.

She visited from the first day.

Avelyn — as it turned out — was one of the neighbours’ daughters; a local since birth. She wore the gentle smile of the anorean, farmed so diligently as his father, and cooked so deliciously as her mother. Which she showed Cronyl as well when she brought him soup as an apology.

Avelyn didn’t leave without a scratch either. A scraped knee and some aching parts of her body weren’t as important in her eyes as Cronyl’s injuries.

She didn’t say a thing when she entered the room, only looked around and when she found a chair, she pulled beside Cronyl’s bed. Her eyes searched for his, serious and determined. Then, when her gaze met his cocked eyebrow, her features turned sheepish, a lovely shade of red dancing across her cheeks. (Mhm, I saw it, I was there.)

She came the next, the one after and every day again, until Cronyl was eventually released.

He didn’t know where to put her. Cronyl was not someone used to such care from strangers. It made no sense why she kept visiting him after he made clear it was nothing. She seemed shy, yet chatted with him as if he was a close friend. Amusement was what she brought to Cronyl, something he didn’t really think he would find in here. He quite literally awaited her arrival at the end.

She asked him out the day she walked him from the building.

Rejection isn’t something that usually follows this, right? Spring blossomed on the cherry trees around them, but the doom-and-gloom wasn’t over yet. The numbness I mentioned, remember? A divorce is a tricky thing to get over if you can at all. It’s a transition from being with someone every minute to coming back to your hometown, alone. It leaves you with the feeling as if something was missing, even though everything you had was with you. Makes you numb for a time, too.

This is why, Cronyl did not go out with Avelyn.

He’d always been a strong-headed nitwit, and it wasn’t Anore, his hometown that would make him change. Or so he thought. Standing beside the awkwardly smiling Avelyn, he only seemed to think that they weren’t teenagers anymore to start off like that. As if he was way too old for this little friendly town, where life was as simple as falling in love.

“Oh god, don’t look at me like that. I’d rather you just be angry than do the whole disappointed face,” was what he said to my reaction to the confession. As if being angry at him would have changed anything. Just like I said, strong-headed nitwit.

Life had so much more stored for them, though. Bumping to each other every corner even if they didn’t try to meet, living beside one another, never escaping the parents’ favours from Cronyl to come to them and help out. You’d think it was embarrassing for them.

And oh how wrong you would have been then.

Despite everything, Avelyn never treated Cronyl differently than before. She brought him lunch whenever he helped out on the fields, joked about their frequent accidental meetings, and kept being shy about how much she loved her kindergarten job. She asked and listened like no one in this little community. Cronyl, in return, grew a meadow of respect for her in his chest. Never too close, never too approachable, they became friends. His first friend, since he moved back.

The lengthening peach days of spring didn’t seem to go by as fast when they met. His walk home was accompanied by the quiet rattling of the bicycle as she joined to the daily routine. Cronyl still didn’t enjoy the lessened work and the all-time happy people. But, his numbness began to falter.

It took a year for him to realise that she must have been the cause of it.

A year, which after Avelyn seemed to leave work way too early. His routine turned to peeking inside the kindergarten after leaving his tiny, flat-roofed workplace, so he could notice it before everything. Smiling at his worry when he mentioned the change, Avelyn told him she’d tell him only when his numbness faded away completely. Because even then, Cronyl clearly lived a life among the greying clouds, sheltered from the bursting yellow fields.

Most moments come to us unnoticed. Good or bad, happy or sad, the most memorable parts of our lives can build up without us being aware of it. Inch by inch, it piles, until we stop and look at it. But we can only see the result.

That was exactly how Cronyl felt when after another half a year, he faced two things.

Firstly, Avelyn called in sick more times than she went to meet with the children. They met more and more along the way to the nursing building. She slowed, however much she smiled. Their time didn’t thin away, yet it was clear to him that she forced herself sometimes. He might have been dense, but he wasn’t stupid. His time was waning by the minute.

Secondly, Cronyl couldn’t remember how it felt to be numb anymore.

It surprised him so deeply, that he left work way, way too early. Even though I only heard about this from others, he actually went grocery shopping right after that. Some said he was more in a rush than a summer rain on a peaceful night.

Cronyl couldn’t hide his soft heaving when he just caught Avelyn leaving the nursing building. They almost bumped into each other, like they did so many times in the early morning market. Soup in his hand, a bicycle bell in the other, he stood before her, silent. The scent of dandelions danced them around, Avelyn’s bright face open with a question Cronyl answered the moment after.

And that, my darlings, is how your dad met your mother.

[septimusmoonlight]

Anonymous: Idk if you've ever written anything abt this but I love the idea of some small foreign entity crawling inside my womb while I'm asleep and like. Fusing I guess? And just constantly fertilizing me to the point I'm always pumping out its kids. Makes me go straight to Niagara falls lol

I'm sure I have some permapreg like it somewhere around here, but it's always something I'm willing to explore <3

It's just an ordinary night for you, so you manage to get to sleep eventually. That's when your uninvited guest comes out to play. Maybe it was under your bed, or just outside your window, or somewhere else in your room that you don't check often enough. Whatever it is, the thing slinks out from its hiding spot on too many limbs and seeks out your available hole. It knows it has a good project on its hands - you can be turned into a good tool for it, something to pump out not-quite-humans infected with its genes.

Its body secretes sedatives that keep you fast asleep as it opens up your cunt with its tapered body, pulling itself deeper and deeper inside of you until it presses right up against your cervix. With a little extra force, it pops inside, sliding perfectly into place as it latches to the top of your womb. It quickly dissolves a portion of the inner lining so that its body can fuse to yours, and it even incorporates some of your DNA into itself so that your immune system doesn't recognize it as a threat. Within minutes, its skin and your womb flow into each other seamlessly, and it can begin its work.

It takes a little while to get your body up to speed on what the new plan is. The first round of hormones it secretes is meant to prepare its environment for its young in particular - they may be similar to humans in various superficial ways, but they are most certainly not the standard young a human should be bearing, and certainly at a rate far too fast for any human. Then, once your internal workings have been altered to its tastes, it starts releasing its seed into your womb - in fact, with bifurcated genitalia, it can simply insert a long probe directly into your fallopian tubes and bombard your unprotected ovaries with its sperm cells, fertilizing engorged eggs much faster than should be possible. In fact, new eggs are forming just for its purposes, which is normally an incredibly rare event - but, then again, this thing isn't producing humans, so human biology is mostly irrelevant.

The first cells start dividing late in the night while you're still peacefully sleeping, entirely unaware of how you've been changed. Permanently. Forever.

In the morning, you become acutely aware of the new developments when the first hints of labor pull you harshly into the waking world. You gasp and moan, clutching at your rounded, swollen belly. You're so large that you can't even adjust your position properly, and you're left to wonder, terrified, what must have happened last night for you to end up like this. You're not allowed to think much further about it, however, because the pain of a child pressing against your dilated cervix is a distraction from everything else, and you have to follow through on the urge to push before anything else can be done.

Labor is fast, in comparison to how long an active labor normally is, and it's agonizing as a result. Your body isn't used to being stretched open and pulled apart like this, much less from the inside out, so thoroughly claimed by something you can't identify - and yet, despite the pain, pleasure still washes over you, and you can't help but cum multiple times, delaying the birth as you clench hard around the inhuman child still sliding through your birth canal. Your cervix and cunt are stretched wide, wide open, torturous and euphoric at the same time, and you're tempted to linger at the crowning stage just to bask in the horrible, searing burn that comes from something just too big. Your body screams at you to bear down, though, so you do, your legs shaking as you cum again at the sensation of a newborn slipping wetly out of your newly-sloppy cunt.

As you lay back, fighting for breath, you can feel more weight gathering in your lower belly. Placing a hand on your midsection greets you with the sensation of your skin pulling tight under your fingers, an alien mass pushing out from within, filling up your womb with something you didn't ask for - and yet something that makes your skin burn with arousal, makes your eyes roll back in your head and your tongue loll out of your mouth when your cervix hugs another small body on its way out of you. The process seems to be speeding up - even as you're giving birth, another body stretches your insides.

These are just the growing pains as the organism that's taken you over makes sure its systems are in place properly. It's making sure that you can push out as many children as it commands, making sure that you're hyperfertile and loving it, making sure that the elevated pain response you're experiencing is simultaneously translated to pleasure so that it hurts and makes you cum at the same time. So far, everything is going well - but it wants to keep up the test run for a little while, pump out enough children to make up for its time outside of a human womb, when it couldn't produce young.

You're trapped in bed all day, screaming and sobbing through orgasm after orgasm as babies open you wide, an endless chain of children you can't identify, not at all human and yet with the appearances of oversized newborns. The way they can crawl immediately after birth - and climb up the walls, no less - tells you that you're not dealing with a weird human pregnancy; this is something entirely out of your wheelhouse, but you're finding it harder and harder to care as your brain learns more and more to enjoy your new position as a permanent baby factory, a sloppy hole for babies to come out of, an incubator. You're forgetting everything else you had planned for today, for next week, for the upcoming month, the rest of the year. Pleasure and pain, and this implacable urge to give birth over and over again, are quickly wiping out the desire to do anything else.

By the end of the day, things have slowed back down, but you're still giving birth at least once an hour. In between, you're rubbing your cunt, easily sliding a fist into your sloppy hole to keep yourself open for the next child that needs to come out of you. You're all too happy to stay like this, but when there's an extended pause, you take the opportunity to fall back asleep, exhausted without realizing it.

Then, you wake up, and your midsection is larger than it was yesterday morning. The morning sun says hello through your drawn blinds as you wail, squeezing out a batch of easily five or six newborns, apparently left gestating inside of you all night while the thing that took you over let you get some rest. It seems to have a good picture of the human limit, but you have no clue of any of this; all you know is that something happened to you, and it's the best time you've ever had in your life.

[dallasgallant]

Ok so it’s @your-unfriendlyghost w/ that goddamn Ao3 comment 🥲

For whatever reason, Ao3 keeps sayin that “We can’t upload your comment because the content is blank” when it like. CLEARLY ISN’T. I dunno what’s going on with that, so I’ll just paste it here 😭

(This is the comment I woulda commented on chapter 2 btw lol)

“Well, twenty-five just makes ya a delinquent… you ain’t a ‘juvenile’ then, man, it don’t got the same ring to it, ya know?” Steve muttered. < Damn, this is SUCH A GOOD LINE. It’s so real, yk? Like I know I personally get swept up in the fantasy of it all- of greasers and JDs and the adrenaline of teen rebellion- but someday (pretty soon now) I’ll grow up. And then it won’t be so fun anymore. For all the lousy stuff that comes with it, it’s fun bein a kid- But when I’m an adult I won’t be a cool rebel for pulling the shit I do now, I’ll just be sort of a loser. I dunno how to process that sometimes. But it’s nice seeing all that confusion put into words as succinctly as you did.

Was that it? Their only two options? Lose your life or your identity? Die young, hard and fast — just like everyone’s waiting for. Or grow up and watch your denim collar turn blue. <Ugh again this is painfully real. You capture the feelings of being a sorta wild teenager so damn well. And the line about denim collars turning blue is so like…poetic too. It’s real and also real pretty, yk?

Steve had never been particularly fond of the idea of aging, but he didn’t want to be a bum like Two-bit or a con like the Brumly boys. He realized when morning came, none of them would mention tonight. Not how it really was. <This is such a sad but significant insight. Both bits are- Steve’s acknowledgement of the fact that the future is coming, and the point that no one would talk about tonight- or at least not the real, raw, tragedy of it. You just don’t DO that, especially not as a group of teenage guys in the 60s, but even nowadays you don’t, least in my groups. And how can you? How can you make sense of that, of seeing something so gruesome and being so helpless…holy hell, I guess what I’m getting at is that this was a real observant point.

Their tears would be buried alongside their friends, and they’d come to accept some twisted narrative that served to make them feel better, instead. That’s what he’d do; make it about justice rather than loss. Feed his anger into some kind of action. He’d always been better with his hands than his words. <man I sound like a broken record here, but this is so real. I don’t like how true this rings. But like I do, yk? And god, it feels like so much of a STEVE thing to think, and a Steve way of saying it. You’ve really nailed his voice.

Anyhow, sorry for takin’ a minute to comment- after ao3 deleted the vast majority of my last one I couldn’t bring myself to type up anything substantial for a bit- but I needed to get it out at some point, because this is such an amazing fic. This bit of commentary just scratches the surface, because there’s so much I love here. Once again, great job.

Ahhhhhhh thank you, I honestly love this so much. Taking the time to point out these little details and things you relate to. It’s djsjsnsms glad people notice this stuff you know?

Not to make you have a comment get deleted on ao3 again but would love to hear chapter 3 thoughts or anything else you want about the fic lol. Love your insight.

—

I get that. I tend to romanticize the rebellious, both teen and adult. Idk maybe it’s because I’ve had a comfortable life and all but there’s also so much to go through and experience.

I’m glad this line is getting attention as I was really excited about being all poetic too! Lol, it seemed like the most expressive way to put it without having to over explain, I can’t even begin to imagine having to grapple with putting up such a distinct identity… though I imagine you’d have to pry the vest from Steve’s cold dead hands but we’re talking metaphorical.

Steve and the brand of masculinity all the guys are seeped in is such a fucking interesting thing to explore. Because there’s simultaneously so much fun with all the “boys will be boys” of it all but also… oh… you don’t know how to feel hard emotions in a healthy way.

Also just Steve has grown on me so much and I think it’s really being in his head and it’s he’s more than the best buddy and he has his place in the friend group. His loyalty and sensitivity may compare him to others in the gang but what’s great about him and them is that there’s other aspects that make even those emotions distinct to them.

[youunravelme]

drops of jupiter pt. 2

author’s note: lol i accidentally posted the beginning of this part in part one, so if you saw that, no you didn’t. again, this is not a super light read, deals heavily with depression, though it’s never explicitly stated. think liability by lorde/this is me trying by taylor swift. also i’m sorry for the amount of shrugging and sighing in this fic and the first part. every character is in a constant state of idk.

warnings: cursing, drinking/getting drunk, depression

summary: being friends with your ex wasn’t the dumbest thing you’ve ever done, breaking up with him took that slot.

prompts: “I thought I was going to lose you.” / “i just need you.” / “what the hell were you thinking? / “i don’t know who you think i am but i’m not leaving.” / “feel my fucking heartbeat right now and tell me i don’t love you.”

then

“we need to get up,” jack mumbled into your neck, his arm strewn over your waist.

“why?” you asked. “we’re on vacation.”

“vacation with my family. i wouldn’t put it past my brothers to harass us any minute now.”

you hummed and snuggled further into your pillow.

a bang pounded on the door that had you both flinching. you clutched the comforter to your chest even though you were both fully clothed.

“jack get up! we’re going to work out.” you heard quinn’s voice on the other side of the door, and if you listened closely, you could hear luke snickering.

“we’re on vacation!” you called back. “come back at a reasonable hour.”

“7 is reasonable!” quinn replied.

"in what world?” you groaned. but jack got up anyway, tossing on a clean shirt and a pair of joggers. “wait, where are you going?”

jack walked over and kissed your forehead. “go back to sleep, i’ll see you later.”

you watched him walk out before shutting your eyes and succumbing to sleep once more. when you woke up next, you went downstairs and were met with ellen standing at the kitchen island eating toast and eggs.

“you’re awake!” ellen greeted. “want some breakfast?”

you nodded and took a seat at the island. “but i can make it--”

“absolutely not. you’re a guest here, and guests don’t make breakfast for themselves.” she turned around and started cracking eggs into a pan before tossing some toast in the toaster. she seasoned the eggs and let them cook before turning back around to you. “did you sleep well?” she asked. you were fully expecting a teasing tone since you did sleep in the same bed as her son, but she was being genuine.

“slept fine,” you said.

“i bet,” ellen started. “all of you were very busy yesterday.”

and she wasn’t wrong. you spent most of the day on the lake, whether that was sunbathing on the boat or wake boarding. by the time the sun set, you were exhausted. 

you glanced around the downstairs. “they still aren’t back yet?”

ellen tossed her head back and laughed. “sweetheart, it’s only been an hour since they’ve left. if anything, they’re probably headed to the ice rink by now.”

“but it’s summer, the rink should be melted?”

ellen grinned at you knowingly. “there’s a public indoor ice rink just ten minutes away. they probably went there after working out at the gym.”

“did jim go with?” ellen nodded. “so it’s just us?”

“just us.” she turned back around to plate your toast and eggs before she placed the plate in front of you. “how have you been? how’s school?”

you shrugged. “it’s been alright. nothing to write home about.”

“jack said you seem to be enjoying it.”

“it’s a step to getting where i want to be.”

“that’s what life’s about, hon. taking it step after step.”

now

you stared at your phone for what felt like years. there was no way this was your life, no way that you deserved any of the kindness that’d been shown to you. there was no earthly explanation for why jack hughes was insisting on you attending one of his games against ahaheim.

“you need to be social,” was his explanation. “besides, the boys missed you.”

quinn was in town for his game happening the next night, trevor was playing against jack and nico that night, and the plan was to go to dinner afterwards.

you were nervous to see quinn again, this being the first time you saw him since the break up. you weren’t sure how his family took it since you made a point not to text or call regardless of how much you missed them. it just wouldn’t be fair to jack.

but he met you outside the arena with a small hug and smile. “it’s been awhile, how have you been?”

you really wished people would stop asking you that.

you shrugged. “nothing much has been going on. how’ve you been? i haven’t kept up with hockey much lately.” truth be told, you didn’t want the reminder and couldn’t bear to keep using jack’s logins. you wondered if your account was still on his netflix.

quinn shrugged as well and nodded his head toward the arena so you both could start walking in. “life’s been normal, busy, but normal.”

“how’re your parents?”

quinn tucked his hands in his pockets. “they’re fine. they ask about you, miss you.”

you almost stopped walking. you never once considered yourself important enough to be noticed, let alone missed. “and luke?”

“still at michigan.”

you fell into a comfortable silence after that, something you’ve always loved about quinn, your ability to just be without any expectation of conversation. as you made your way to your seats, quinn stayed quiet, waiting until you were seated to finally say something.

“what made you come to this game?” he asked.

you wanted to shrug off his comment, to say something flippant, but you’d always been honest with quinn in the past. “jack invited me and i couldn’t say no.”

“but why?”

“i--” you paused. “i don’t know. i don’t think i could deny him of anything if he asked me.”

he nodded, seemingly content with your lackluster answer, maybe because it was the most honest one you’d given in awhile.

as the game began, quinn would make little comments here and there, mainly about jack and his performance. “he’s playing really well,” he’d say.

after jack scored a goal, you saw him scanning the crowd as nico and his teammates rushed him. but he didn’t smile until you two locked eyes. and if you smiled as well, who was to blame you? surely they’ve never seen jack hughes embody the full weight of joy. in the corner of your eye, you could see quinn smirk, but you ignored it in favor of looking at the players.

the both of you walked down to the locker rooms, flashing your lanyards jack had given quinn earlier that day. you stood outside, bouncing on your toes.

“what’s got you so antsy?” quinn asked.

you stopped. just now noticing that you were wringing your hands together. “i--uh--”

“you made it!” nico came out first with his hands open and arms spread wide in greeting. 

“why wouldn’t we be here?” quinn asked. “we made plans.”

it was a brief second, but you caught it nonetheless, the glance nico made toward you that said everything all at once. before you could comment, trevor and jack appeared, the latter having the biggest shit-eating grin you’d seen in awhile.

“who’s ready for dinner?” jack asked.

then

“if i was a worm, would you still love me?”

“what?” jack laughed, hands buried in your hair as you rested you head in his lap.

“if i was a worm--”

“no, i heard you. i was just giving you an opportunity to say something else.”  you slapped his chest lightly with your hand and abruptly sat up before scooting towards the other side of the couch. “hey no, come back.”

“not until you say that you’d still love me as a worm.”

“would i even know it was you? how did you turn into a worm?”

“an evil wizard came down and turned me into a worm. does that answer your question?”

jack grabbed ahold of your ankles and dragged you back to him. he pressed his lips to the side of your head and smiled. “i’d love you even if you were the smallest worm.”

now

jack picked out a small italian restaurant twenty minutes away from the arena. when he finally pulled up to the building (all of you riding together), your stomach sank. it looked all too familiar.

the last time you’d been there, was the last date you had before you broke things off. part of you wondered if he selected that place on purpose, but the more rational part knew it was his favorite spot in town.

the five of you walked in and got a table. it didn’t go unnoticed that as you all sat down, the only seat left was next to your ex boyfriend.

“it’s nice to have the gang back together,” nico said. “i missed you guys.” you wanted to look down at the table, but when nico made eye contact with you and smiled, you were glad you didn’t.

“are you ready to order?” the server came up and asked. “i can give you a few minutes if you’d like.”

you panicked and looked down at the menu. you hadn’t been here in so long you couldn’t recall what you enjoyed the most. by the time it made it to you, you were no closer to figuring it out.

“you okay?” jack mumbled.

you looked up to see his earnest eyes focused on you and you alone. not the boys, not the pretty server, just you. 

“i can’t remember what i usually get.”

jack reached over and pointed to the top left spot on the menu. “you used to get the carbonara.” but you weren’t looking at the menu. no. you were looking at his profile, how focused he was at reading the ingredients to make sure it was something you liked.

you knew it because it’s what he used to do all the time. 

“i’ll get the carbonara, please,” you said with a small smile.

the server walked away to place the table’s orders and conversation picked up again.

“so,” trevor started, staring you down across the table with something akin to smugness on his face. “are you seeing anyone?”

“trev,” jack cut in. 

“no, i think we should let her answer,” nico said. “i mean, it’s been awhile since we’ve all been together and caught up.”

“i--” you choked out, your heart beating hard in your chest.

“guys cmon,” jack started. “just leave it.”

there was something in you that sparked up at hearing his insistence you keep quiet. something that rebelled against the idea of staying silent.

so you spoke.

“i’ve been on a few dates.”

and the absolute devastation of jack’s face was enough to make you want to take it all back.

then

“do you really think that baseball cap is gonna hide your very recognizable face?” you asked him as you walked into yost ice arena.

“i’m hoping people will be too busy focusing on the game to look at me.”

“how could anyone ignore this handsome face?” you asked, taking your hand and squeezing his cheeks into a fish face.

he smacked your hand away and gripped it in his own, swinging it between both of your bodies. the both of you walked over to the row of seats his family saved.

his mother and father smiled at the sight of you. bringing you into a hug like you were a part of their family. and maybe, to them, you were. you and jack had been together for the better part of three years at that point.

despite not having seen his family in a few months, jack still sat on the outside with you tucked in between him and his mother with his hand resting on your thigh.

a shiver went up your spine spontaneously. jack shot you a look before he threw an arm around your shoulder, bringing you in as close as he could with an arm rest between you two.

“you okay?”

“just forgot how cold ice rinks are,” you replied in hopes he wouldn’t notice your flushed face. three years and that man could still do that to you.

"you get used to it after awhile,” he said as he kissed the side of your head. 

no, you thought. i don’t think i will.

now

dinner wasn’t as lively as it once was after your confession. trevor and nico tried to compensate, hell even quinn was making an attempt at conversation, but it was obvious you and jack’s hearts weren’t in it.

he wouldn’t stop staring at you from the corner of his eye and you couldn’t help but stare at the food he remembered you loved right before you shattered his heart again.

it wasn’t long before the five of you were headed home after nico covered the bill. jack drove, leaving you in shotgun, and everyone else in the backseat pretending the tension wasn’t suffocating. jack dropped the boys off at the arena, with nico saying he could take quinn and trevor to their hotels before they all but scrambled out of the car.

which just left the two of you idling in the parking lot.

after jack saw them get into nico’s car, you fully expected him to drive off and take you home. but he just sat there.

“how long did you wait before trying to find someone else?” he asked while staring out the windshield.

“it wasn’t like that--”

“then what was it like? what was i supposed to think? we’ve been broken up for five months now and you’ve been on multiple dates?” his voice escalated. 

part of you wanted to shrink back into the seat until you disappeared into the leather, the masochistic part of you fully believed this was what you deserved, the third part felt like a cornered predator.

and that’s what won out in the end.

“oh don’t act like you haven’t gone out with some girls--”

“i haven’t!” that shut you up really quickly. “i haven’t so much as looked at another girl since you broke up with me.” he finally looked at you, but you wished he wouldn’t have. the tears in his eyes triggered that part of you that you’d stifled the past few weeks, the part that constantly reminded you how fucked up you were.

so you did the only thing you knew how to do.

you unlocked the door--

and bolted.

then

you were signing discharge papers when jack burst into your hospital room sweating and disheveled. you smiled when he came in, using one hand to wave him closer. 

“what the hell were you thinking? falling off a ladder? what was so important you couldn’t wait until i got home?” he walked over to you and straight into your arms anyway, despite his chiding tone.

the nurse took the papers away to be filed and left him with you.

“it’s just a broken ankle,” you said like one would talk about the weather. “it’ll be healed in a matter of weeks.”

jack pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “i don’t like it. i hate that you got hurt and i wasn’t there.”

“the only one at fault here is me, jack. i was trying to hang up...” you trailed off. 

“hang up what?” he asked.

but the nurse came back in with a wheelchair and a smile. “you’re free to go, hon.”

jack wheeled you out to the lobby. the nurse waited with you while he pulled his car up. when his car was parked in the front, he ran back inside and helped you get settled onto your crutches, walking behind you with his hands prepared to catch you should you slip. he helped you into the passenger seat before jogging around the front of the car to drive off.

“so what were you hanging up when you fell off the ladder?”

you smirked. “you’ll see.”

jack rolled his eyes. “if it’s the pictures we got printed, i told you i’d get to it.”

“like i said, baby, you’ll see when you get home.”

he parked in the driveway and told you to stay put until he could help you get out of the car. once you were situated on your crutches, he glanced at you, your leg, and the stairs you would inevitably have to climb before he squatted down and gestured for you to climb on.

“jack, i don’t think this is necessary--”

“i think it’ll go faster if you just hop on and get it over with.”

you sighed and climbed on his back with one arm loosely wrapped around his neck, the other holding onto your crutches, his arms holding your legs in place around his hips. jack went up the stairs with little to no struggle, which just baffled you. even after living in your third floor apartment for eight months, you still found yourself winded after going up all those steps.

“each and every day you find a new way to impress me, hughes,” you commented,

“yeah? what is it this time?”

“how you don’t feel like dying every time you walk up these stairs.”

he laughed but didn’t offer a response.

“no, i’m serious,” you said. “what’s your secret.”

“being a professional athlete,’ he deadpanned.

you threw your head back and laughed as his foot hit the final stair. jack gently placed you down on the ground while you got situated on your crutches again. 

“you good?” he asked.

you nodded. “i’m fine.”

jack unlocked the front door and nearly fell backwards into you when a loud “happy birthday” erupted from inside your apartment. 

you nudged him forward with your non injured foot but he took a moment to glare at you. “you broke your leg to hang up birthday banners?”

you leaned in and kissed him. “happy birthday, jack.”

now

“get in the car.” jack had opened his door and gotten out almost as fast as you had.

but you shook your head and kept walking. “no.”

jack caught up to you rather easily, being in better shape than you for professional reasons. he gently grabbed your wrist and turned you around. “i don’t know who you think i am but i’m not leaving you here. it’s late, we’re in the middle of a parking lot--”

“it’s well lit--”

“and you’re not wearing a coat,” he continued on like you weren’t even talking. “you’re gonna get sick or kidnapped so please just get back in the car.”

“i can’t,” you whispered.

“why not?”

“because you keep looking at me like you hate me.”

that stopped him dead cold in his tracks. any movement he had, whether it was his hands running through his hair or his pacing back and forth. “what?” and you wanted to take it all back just so you didn’t have to hear how broken one syllable could sound.

and then the tears started, the embarrassment and humiliation and the shame from your confession earlier catching up to you finally. “and i don’t blame you because i was awful to you."

“why would you think that?”

“because everyone does!” and you’re so close to tearing your hair out in frustration. with whom? you weren’t sure if it was frustration aimed at yourself or jack or the situation.

“i’m not everyone,” he said in the quietest tone you’d ever heard him speak. “okay? i could never hate you, even if i wanted to.”

you kept sobbing. “you are way too good for me, jack hughes.”

but he shook his head and brought you into his chest, lips pressed to the top of your head. “that’s not true,” he said. “not even remotely close.” a beat passed. “i love you.”

“jack--”

he took your hand and placed it over his chest. “feel my fucking heartbeat right now and tell me i don’t love you.”

“i can’t do this,” you whispered.

“why not? do you not believe me?”

“i’m no good for you, jack! this won’t work. please, just take me home.”

then

a knock drew you out of your reverie from staring at the mirror and obsessing over your flyaways. 

“it’s for you!” your roommate called. you giggled. actually giggled to yourself at the idea of jack standing in your living room with your roommates.

you rushed out, dress flaring at your thighs. jack turned around at the sound of you coming out of your room and smiled with a bouquet daffodils in his hands.

“you uh--” he stuttered. “you look amazing.”

“do a little twirl,” your roommate giggled.

you spun around before walking over to jack. “hi.”

“are you ready?” he asked once he got his bearings.

you nodded. “just let me put these in a vase--”

“i got it!” your roommate said. “you two have fun!” she said before all but shoving you out of the door.

“so what do you have planned?” you asked once you were on the road. you weren’t nervous per se, having known jack for a year before he finally asked you out. 

“would you stop?” he laughed. “you’ll find out when we get there.”

you huffed and sat back in your seat, looking out the window while jack played some country music on his phone. when he finally parked, you recognized the arena almost immediately as the one he played in regularly.

“you took your day off from the ice rink to bring me...to the ice rink?”

jack rolled his eyes. “have some faith. stay here,” he said before popping out of the car and jogging around to your side to let you out.

“i could’ve gotten out myself,” you said.

“i know,” he shrugged. “but thank you for waiting anyway.”

you walked inside together, hand in hand. jack led you to the locker rooms where he picked up a bag and took your hand again before leading you to the rink.

before you was a blanket in the middle of the rink with a basket full of what you assumed was food.

“you didn’t,” you said.

jack shrugged.

“but how are we gonna get out there? i don’t have skates.”

he unzipped the bag in his hand and pulled out a pair of skates. “your roommate told me what size shoe you wore. i figured we could eat and then i could show you how to skate.” he explained.

“you bought these?” you asked.

he shrugged again. “yeah, but it was nothing.”

but it wasn’t nothing to you. it was everything. 

now

you get the call at 4pm from an athletic trainer asking for your name. your heart settles in your throat when you hear the mention of jack’s name.

“there’s been an accident at the game tonight, he’s being rushed to the hospital right now. we called because he has you listed as his emergency contact.”

“o-okay,” you whispered into the phone. “which hospital is he going to?” the athletic trainer gave you the information as you hurried out the door in a pair of shorts and a tee shirt and slippers. 

you didn’t remember to go the speed limit, hell by the time you got to the hospital, you weren’t even sure if you ran a red light or not. all you could focus on was jack.

jack was hurt.

jack was hurt.

jack was hurt.

you needed to call ellen. you needed to call jim. you needed to call that old lady who lived across the hall and ask her to check if you locked your front door. but all of that took a backseat because jack was hurt.

when you parked, you were taking up two spaces, but didn’t give a fuck because you were sprinting to the front doors of the hospital. “hi,” you greeted the front desk woman. “i’m here for my boyfriend?”

“you’ll have to be a little more specific, baby,” she said.

“i--”

you heard your name being called and whipped your head around to see the athletic trainer standing there. “i can show you to his room, follow me.”

you nearly cried in relief and followed the trainer. “do you know what’s going on?”

the trainer shook her head. “we had an idea, but we’re not doctors.”

you nodded, unable to say anything else, even as you entered the elevator. the both of you walked out of the elevator and headed down a long hallway to the very end. she gestured at the door and nodded for you to go in.

you couldn’t breathe. not when even when you saw him laying in bed laughing at a tiktok on his phone with his left leg propped up.

he looked up when you walked in the room. “hey--” but he didn’t have time to finish before you were sprinting across the room, grabbing his face in your hands, and kissing the life out of him.

it took him a second, but he responded fairly quickly, his own hands winding around your waist. you weren’t sure how much time passed before you were pulling away and looking him in the eyes. 

“are you okay?” he nodded, rendered speechless by your display of affection. “i’m sorry, they called me and i freaked out and i didn’t even get to change--”

“did you--” he looked at you, more specifically what you were wearing. “you’re not wearing pants or a coat. are you insane? it’s freezing outside and you’re not even wearing real shoes!”

“they said you were hurt,” you said like it explained everything. “i couldn’t think, i just dropped everything and...”

“why?

“i--”

“you rejected me the other night, which is fine, it sucked, but it’s fine. but it doesn’t explain why you showed up. i think i at least deserve an answer.”

you do, you thought to yourself. that and so much more.

“i’m your emergency contact,” you replied.

“shit,” he said. “sorry i forgot to change that, i’ll--”

“and you’re still mine.” he stopped his rambling as you stroked his cheeks with your thumbs. “when i got the call, i thought i was gonna lose you.” 

“you’re never gonna lose me, baby.” he moved your hands off his face so he could hold yours. “i’m yours, always have been, always will be.”

“i love you,” you smiled.

and it was like the sun came out in the middle of that hospital room when he smiled back at you. jack pulled your lips to his, or at least tried to. you both kept smiling too much for it to fully be considered a kiss.

“do you remember,” you said against his mouth. “do you remember when you moved out and took all our stuff?” 

“mhm,” he hummed, but he was too busy chasing after your lips.

“i kept the skates.”

[katstarry]

your lips, my lips

ellie williams x fem!reader

masterlist ☆

summary: being there throughout basically her whole life, you form a friendship with ellie. the line of being friends or something more becomes blurry. best friends to lovers!!

warning: a make out sesh? idk if i would call it that they just kiss lol and this is probably the shortest thing i’ve ever written tbh

feedback + reblogs are appreciated! ☆

inspired by apocalypse by cigarettes after sex!

you’ve never been much of a fan of physical affection.

the only occurrences of physical affection is when you’re in a relationship, somehow it comes naturally when it’s with a significant other.

so why does it come so naturally whenever you’re with ellie?

you’ve never been so affectionate with your other friends, but with ellie.. things are just different. you allow yourself to hug her, lean on her, grab her arm, any sort of physical touch. compared to your other friends, where there’s only an occasional hug or just a side hug.

you’re in denial of your feelings, blaming the events you’ve both been through together causing you to be so protective of ellie, be so drawn to her, always wanting her close.

it was only a matter of time before it all became too much; you just dreaded the day it would come to light, the fear of ruining such a meaningful and important relationship with someone who’s such a big part of your life. the glances you both give each other, the touches that linger, becoming too much. tricking your mind into thinking she feels the same, hope that there’s a chance.

you held onto that small bit of hope.

ellie’s arms were wrapped around you as your head lay on her chest, feeling it rise and fall as she took each breath, hearing the rhythmic sound of her heart.

you could stay like this forever.

you move yourself closer to her, wrapping your own arms around her waist, begging that she couldn’t hear or feel your own heart.

“what’re you thinking about?” she asked quietly, having been laying on her bed in comfortable silence for a few minutes now.

“how peaceful this is.” you reply, just as quietly. “it’s like we’re in our own little world.”

ellie began to subconsciously draw circles onto your back, causing you to suppress a shiver due to her simple touch.

you move your head slightly upwards in order to have a view of her face, only to find her focus already being on you.

a soft smile forms onto her face, lost in thought.

“what are you thinking about?” you nudge her playfully.

she hesitates for a moment, eyebrows furrowing, before answering.

“how beautiful you look right now.”

your face becomes hot.

“oh, shut up.” you laugh as you turn your head back down, trying to hide how flustered she’s got you, missing the slight look of disappointment from ellie.

there was a short moment of silence before you hear her voice again.

“i mean it.” she breathes out, her tracing on your back stopping.

you look back up to her, finding her gaze already on you yet again. a look of determination and sincerity covered her face.

her hand comes up to your face, causing you to lean into her touch without much thought.

“thank you.” you didn’t know what to say. yes, she’s given you compliments before, many causing your heart to pick up speed and make you kiss her right then and there— but this, this felt different.

you both stare at each other before beginning to laugh, nuzzling your head into the crook of her neck and tightening your hold on her.

“god, we’re so bad at this aren’t we?” she says, her hold on you tightening as well.

you free yourself from her hold, leaning yourself onto one of your elbows so that you’re laying sideways, looking down at her.

“..this?” you ask in disbelief, is this really happening?

you notice ellie’s look, her eyebrows furrowed and avoiding your gaze, realizing that she took your reaction as something negative.

“ellie… what do you mean?”

she meets your gaze once again, eyes slightly wide. “i just—” she sighs before continuing, “maybe i took things the wrong way. i’m sorry.” she moves to get up, feeling embarrassed.

“no, ellie. you didn’t, honestly i thought i was the one who was taking things the wrong way.” you push her back down onto the bed, eyes hopeful and relieved. a smile on your face as you looked down at ellie, who also wore a look of relief—as well as disbelief.

“you’re my best friend, ellie. i love you, but what i feel is so much more than what just a friend should feel.”

she smiles up at you, hands coming to brush away loose strands of hair, once again holding your face.

“well. that’s good. i’m glad we got that straight.” suddenly she grabs your waist, having you lay on top of her. you pull yourself up, now sitting and slightly flustered by the position, “because i love you, too.”

“can i kiss you?” she looks up at you, hands resting on your waist as she awaited for an answer.

you lean down until your close to her face, hands on each side of her head on the bed, caging her in.

“yes.”

with that, she leans up, you meet her halfway and you feel her lips on yours.

and it’s everything you expected it to be.

her lips were slightly chapped, yet soft. her hand coming to the side of your head, you lean into the touch, making the kiss deeper.

you break the kiss once you ran out of air, both of you looking breathless and content.

ellie leans back up and gives you multiple pecks all around your face—as well as your lips, causing you to let out a giggle.

you let yourself lay atop of ellie, feeling her arms wrap around your waist securely.

nothing had ever felt so right.

[max-nico]

Songs to listen to for maximum Tails angst, as well as a run down of how I daydream to them

Enjoy, or don't, and feel free to add your own. I'm always looking for new music recommendations.

Multiple paragraph incoming, you have been warned

The Tornado, Owl City

Starting off with an absolute BANGER !!!!! I'm obsessed with Owl City so don't @ me about this lol. In this song Adam Young is telling a story about a young boy delivering papers on his bike, when a tornado hits. Miraculously, he survives.

To me, this song is about Tails gearing up to leave in the tornado. As he begins to fly over the ocean a storm hits, and eventually turns into a tornado. As the music crescendos the storm gets worse, and eventually the plane crashes into the ocean (specifically at 2:05, you can't tell me it doesn't sound like a Wii sports snorkeling mini game). By the time the lyrics come in he's grabbed the chaos emerald from the back of his plane and he's trying to get out of the water. At the line "the shadows slowly melted as I was hunkered down" Tails spots angel island and he flies up there and it's a happy ending yayyyy

I Was an Island, John-Allison Weiss

Honestly I don't have like a particular scene or daydream to this. This song just makes me feel things when I listen to it, and I think Tails would really relate. I think specifically NINE would relate actually, but any Tails variation will do tbh

"I can't do this alone anymore, I'm no good on my own anymore. What did I do to do deserve this? What did you do to me? Baby come back, you know I don't wanna be free." Is just something I feel like Nine would relate to idk

Bugbear, Chloe Moriondro

I don't have a particular daydream to this one either but this song is so Tails to me. This is so him. Y'all aren't listening she said "my brain is surrounded by school kids who all got their valedictorian course, while I couldn't care enough about my 3.8, no matter how hard I try I'm still not trying hard enough to be... Great." YOU'RE TELLING ME HE DOESN'T RELATE TO THAT ?!!?!!

Talk To Me, Cavetown

This is so Sonic talking to Tails to me. "You don't have to be a prodigy to be unique, you don't have to know what to say or what to think, you don't have to be anybody you can never be, that's alright, let it out, talk to me." Is something Sonic has said to Tails at least once and you can't convince me otherwise.

This song is just so comforting. Listening to this makes me warm with brotherly feels.

Vanilla Twilight, Owl City

I used to cry to this song, so tread lightly sympathetic criers lol.

This daydream takes place sometime after Sonic Frontiers when Tails decides to go his own way, leaving Sonic by himself. It switches between their POVs depending on the lyric. For example, one of Sonic's lyrics is "cause I'll doze off safe and soundly, but I'll miss your arms around me, I'll send a postcard to you dear, cause I wish you were here." And one of Tails' lyrics is "I'll find repose in new ways, though I haven't slept in 2 days, cause cold nostalgia chills me to the bone."

They'll reunite someday I swear

Overgrown Garden, Beetlebug

Ow ouch ffff-ouch ouchie owwwieeeeeee ಥ⁠_⁠ಥ sorry guys this one involves major character death lol

So the actual song is about an abusive relationship using flower metaphors and symbolism, but I didn't know that when I started listening so this daydream has nothing to do with that. With that being said...

Every chorus is Tails at a different age wondering if Sonic will abandon him, no matter how much Sonic reassures him the thought just sticks in the back of his mind even if he doesn't voice it. Things don't start to get juicy until the 3rd verse, "The rhododendrons crimson flame, set fire to the sleepy air, and lit the early morning haze, that glistened in your tangled hair." I understand that the flame is a metaphor and there's no actual flame but I don't care, in my daydream there's actual flames because Sonic and Tails are in the middle of a flower field that's been engulfed in them.

At the lyric "You place a crown of marigolds on my head, and then you said, as you tried to pull your bloody hands away" Sonic is laying against the only tree in sight, a big bloody wound in his abdomen with Tails trying to stop the bleeding. And then when the chorus comes in again, it's Sonic comforting Tails while he bleeds out on a battlefield. When Tails asked "I wonder if you'll leave me, behind someday, among the wildflowers and lilies, sleeping by the way" he meant like runaway and abandon him on an adventure, not die in a burning flower field you idiot ಥ⁠_⁠ಥ

Blue Hair, TV Girl

For maximum feels, listen to Vanilla Twilight directly after listening to this

I feel like a lot of y'all are already gonna know this one, and I respect that. I'm not super sure what this song is actually about but I like their funny words so it's okay lol

This is another song from Sonics POV to me. It's Sonic talking to his friends at different times about Tails growing up and not needing him anymore. In this case, Tails has to "cut her blue hair off" and Sonic is the blue hair if you couldn't tell lol like "and I tried, to hold her, but it didn't really last long, she's getting older. I guess she's gotta cut her blue hair off".

There's also the line right before that one "what seems so blue in the sunlight, by the night was a pale green" blue and green are literally their eye colors this song was meant for them.

This isn't all of them, we'd be here all day if I listed every single one lol. Don't be surprised if I follow up with more song rec posts bc I love talking about music, and please give me some recs as well

[borom1r]

2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22 for lotr from the violence ask meme 😈

OK i have answered 2 already but lets do this thing fuck yea (thank uuuuuuuuuu!!!!!)

3) screenshot or description of the worst take you’ve seen on tumblr

look its not really a "take" but the amount of people who just post variations of "I don't like Boromir, he's the worst" IN THE BOROMIR TAG is genuinely insane to me. like have ur (incorrect) opinion but keep it out of the tag worstie

7) what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

uhhhh no one thank the gods. ive always disliked Denethor Because of canon. but i will say stumbling across the file index of an old LotR fansite + clicking on files w/ no preview only to find graphics thirsting over Denethor did cause massive psychic damage lmao

8) common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

idk 😭 i dont interact w/ the broader fandom really. i do find the way ppl reduce Pippin to Just a joke character in fanon insufferable tho

9) worst part of canon

BOOK!FARAMIR + HIS MIDDLEMEN SHTICK MY WORSTIE.

also ngl i do find the Aragorn/Arwen romance....... Weird. like I'm far from averse to "love at first sight" so long as it comes with the recognition that it's really more infatuation + true love takes work. and there's the fact Aragorn fell head over heels for an image of Lúthien, and Arwen's heart did not turn towards him until Galadriel dressed him up in elven finery. not to mention she was "not yet weary of her days" when Aragorn dies + has to die "whether I will or I nill" like she. wastes away? slowly alone in Lothlórien.

like idk [Aragorn kinnie voice] that's my sister, man but all that aside I do think.. Arwen deserved better? I like that the movies made her more active + I do wish she'd actually been there at Helm's Deep bc it would've been fun to see her and Éowyn bond but yeah. the vibes were off with that whole situation imho

12) the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

huh. does Théodred count? i feel like he's kind of a blank slate so fandom can just kinda run wild with him but i do genuinely enjoy writing him + find that there are solid implications for at least a friendship between him + Boromir (if not more). i mean, Boromir got a Rohirric shield from someone

14) that one thing you see in fics all the time

ok th implication here bein its sth that bothers me which thankfully i pretty much only read Aramir or Faramir/Éomer fics soooo theres not much??

i think the only things that RLLY get to me + they aren't THAT popular trope-wise (or ive been rlly good at avoiding them lmao) are fics that 1) make Boromir overly aggressive or 2) completely woobify Faramir

+ tbh the Faramir one bothers me more actually. that is a grown ass man and captain of the rangers of Ithilien.....................

18) it’s absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

HRM. again idk :3 <- blissfully not interacting w the broader fandom + only interacting w/ ppl w correct takes on Boromir + Rohan

(tentatively i need to start following more ppl i see some of yall in my notes + i shld follow. sorry im like a nervous dog u need to coax out from under the porch lol)

20) part of canon you found tedious or boring

side-eyeing my copies of the Histories. i need to finish those. eventually.............

22) your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

ignores?????? nothing i think (thankfully lmao) but i will say there is SO much detail in the films that it makes me INSANE. ik we literally just talked abt this in DMs lmao but i could sit n talk abt LotR costuming for fucking HOURS the films were SO stunning and the clothing alone reveals sooooooo much abt the characters i think its a super underrated vehicle for character analysis :3

[scurvyratt]

I watched Precious (2009) a couple months ago and was under the impression that it was a comedy due to all the jokes that I've seen about it, I was shocked to find out that it was actually a drama. It disgusts me how a film that is about the continuous rape and abuse of a 16 year old girl was turned into a huge joke simply because the girl in question is fat and black. If Precious were a skinny conventionally attractive white girl the response to the film would be wayyy different. (Mind you, people would still mock the movie because women's suffering will always be funny to the general public, but y'know)

I'm actually not a big movie watcher but I was sooo engrossed in the film and it was all I could think about for days. It totally blew me away and made me emotional which is not very typical of me lol. I re watched it today and loved it even more. Unfortunately I made the mistake of going on to letterboxd to read others reviews... Most were from MEN, WHITE MEN, who kinda misunderstood the movie imo?

Some of the complaints were that "the mom is horrible" like... yes? Another was that the film doesn't go in depth enough into the education system/other systems that caused Precious to end up in her situation. But like,, imo the movie was mainly about Precious' relationship with her mom, her discovering herself, and her journey to a new beginning. If you wanted to watch media about institutional corruption go watch the Wire or something lol.

Many people were confused by the fantasy/day dream sequences as well. I think that not only were those a form of escapism for Precious, but to also show how she's just a teenage girl. Precious has been taking care of both of her parents since she was a child. Her father forced her into the position of wife/partner. He forced her to become a mother twice. Her father then left and her role as her mothers care taker was exacerbated.

Many black girls (children) are called "fast", as in developing sexually "too fast", which is a harmful stereotype that is imposed on them simply for existing/developing/growing up. This is how Precious' mother, and society (she was kicked out of school for being pregnant), view Precious. Precious' mother knows that she was raped (and even rapes her herself), but doesn't care.

Since everyone views Precious as an adult, these day dreams serve as a reminder of the fact that she's just a 16 year old girl who fantasizes about being loved (by her mother, by the world, and a boyfriend). And it day dreaming is a common trope for teen girls which is why this all matters lol.

I think her youth and naivety is also shown when she has an outburst in class and yells at Ms. Rain. She says: "You don't know what it's like to be me! I've never had a boyfriend! My daddy said that he wants to marry me, but how could he do that? That's illegal!". The first thing Precious brings up is that she's never had a boyfriend, although she has a million other worse problems in her life that she could be complaining about. The only problem she has with her father wanting to marry her is that it would be illegal, and not the thousand other things that are wrong with that lol. But anyways, Precious is just a teenage girl at the end of the day and her biggest problem in life (or what she wishes was her biggest problem) is her desire for a boyfriend.

Other things that people disliked were the filming style/soundtrack. I have nothing to say about those really lol. If people didn't like those then... idk.

Anyways... other things about Precious that I adored/noticed:

Mo'Nique 100% deserved that Oscar, she was truly astounding. Especially in that final scene where she becomes so emotional, but for HERSELF💀. Also her wearing foundation that was way too light to the welfare office... (colorism is also part of this movie!)

Precious' first baby being named "Mongoloid", presumably because Precious' mom named her that and Precious went along with it. You can tell that Precious does not like that name though since she calles her "Mongo" instead. Mongo was also born under the worst circumstances; on the kitchen floor while Precious' mom was kicking and berating her. Precious' second pregnancy occurred while she was starting her journey (of self-discovery/independence, etc.). She has hopes and dreams for this baby and for herself. Her son was born in the hospital with her friends surrounding her, her mother nowhere to be seen. She names him Abdul Jamal, which in Arabic means "servant of beauty". Anyways I thought that was so cute :(

I loved her relationship with her classmates too. They were so supportive and fun lol

There's probably other things but I can't think of them rn lolz

[trca]

12/4/2022

throwing out random ideas ive already have for arc 2 th, mặc dù arc 1 còn chưa viết xong? arc 1 chỉ mới xong đc đại khái cái việc đoạn cuối arc 1 là thanh chết + trca ra biển. cái phần chuyển giao từ arc 1 sang arc 2 còn chưa biết làm

cái phần chuyển giao nó là tone shift á vì arc 1 hoàn toàn là slice of life vui vẻ nhma slowly descending into something fuzzy xong cái đỉnh điểm là thanh chết r rô ánh ra biển quay về, từ khúc này thì ko còn romcom chích bông jj nữa. mà t vẫn ko biết wrap khúc ra biển làm sao, cái j xảy ra ở đó, r tụi nó về gặp anh thanh chết thì ntn. t có several drafts abt this - pls note that everything is in my head i never write things down - including rô insist that they should kjll themselves với ánh accidentally đẩy thằng rô té bể đầu vỡ sọ LMAO. còn vụ anh thanh chết thì probably either chúng nó chả nhớ ổng tồn tại hoặc là có để missing kiếm ng thất lạc j thì cũng never find him out. nchung là chưa biết nothings set in stone yet cái khúc chuyển giao whatever happens there idk

thì 2 things i think im gonna settle with that happens in arc 2 là

con ánh về ở với thằng rô và bác khiêm

con sơn ca xuất hiện

sơn ca. lol where do i even begin! sơn ca là manic pixie dream girl but for women (con ánh). at this point i feel like ánh với rô bắt đầu strained r và việc con sơn ca xuất hiện giving ánh the girlhood she never got to have khiến con ánh mê con ca lol

quay về việc ánh qua ở với rô với bác khiêm. vì arc 1 hoàn toàn là the world through ánh's eyes nên we're literally blinded ko biết j về any of the characters aside from con ánh, và cái breakout của anh thanh (+ thằng rô cái lúc ở biển) shift cái pov từ góc nhìn của con ánh qua góc nhìn thứ 3 nên nó qua ở với bác khiêm và rô = we're getting to know thằng rô hơn. từ đầu đến h all you know abt thằng rô là hes a little kid r thôi bởi nó ko có tính cách j aside from being the weird kid nên mới dễ cho nó làm cryptid chó đầu trẻ em jj đó giỡn chơi bên phảniverse. nhma t cũng từng hint ở đâu là rô nó trầm cảm, as in for real. thì là thế thật. the whole thing with him đc thả rông muốn đi đâu thì đi làm j thì làm khiến nó muốn qua nhà con ánh và nghe anh thanh chửi với muốn bỏ đi thật xa làm cái j thật bệnh hoạn để xem cái nào mới là giới hạn how far can he goes until his dad turns around and look for him how bad can he screw up until his dad calls out his name and tell him to come back hồi đó t cũng có nói r

con ánh qua ở nhà bác khiêm thì mới bắt đầu hiểu đc cảm giác của thằng kia. nó có đứng chờ bác khiêm tới rước đến tối r lủi thủi đi bộ về thì ổng cũng chỉ hỏi hnay có vui ko đi chơi tới tối luôn hả và nó có khóc lóc giãy nãy con tưởng bác đón con thì ổng cũng chỉ nói là ánh chờ bác tới tối r tự đi bộ về nhà luôn sao giỏi quá and she doesnt need to hear that shit and of course thằng rô cũng chả muốn nghe. ở với bác khiêm its the gentle absent thats killing you, ngược lại với anh thanh strict authority

thằng rô probably kinda suicidal too LMAO not because he doesnt want to live just because he knows hurting himself would result in his father care for him a bit more. nó từng cố tình nhảy lầu để gãy chân vào viện để được ba tới chăm sóc mỗi ngày nhma it didnt happen, ba nó có việc phải làm, nó có y tá và literally anyone else r

con ánh muốn bỏ chạy vì nó cảm thấy nghẹt thở, vì ko ai hiểu nó, vì shes 15 and the worlds ending nhma thằng rô bỏ chạy vì nó đã lên bao nhiêu là kế hoạch. how they should kjll themselves if nothing goes their way, how his father would have to see his death on the news if he were to care, its childish. their reasons are all childish theyre just children trying to let their voices heard

obviously i want to make this super fuzzy and nostalgic i want to have surrealism hay some magical fantasy elements j đấy để nó ko make sense. cái chết của anh thanh literally ko có nghĩa he sees himself being buried and it cuts to the widescreen that there were no anh thanh digging there was only one anh thanh under the dirt he was death from the beginning. miễn là it gets my point across everyone has their own story wrapped up nicely and it tells a coming of age the realest it can with the most unreal details. i will never finish writing this shit lol. good bye

"mẹ" will never get a name or a face btw. shes just like that in both thanh với ánh's memory. shes simply just mẹ, blurred away lol local teens struggling under the weights of mental illnesses, generational trauma, and simply just by being teens

[sailforvalinor]

Buckle up, kids (and spoilers incoming)

The story follows a bunch of kids/young adults (rule one: never ask how old anyone is in this show, they will never ever be clear about it) making videos on the internet for one of two companies: “FUNDOM” (newly opened company, the good guys) or “LAIX” (the super famous, established rival company ruled by corporate greed or something). The show is super unclear about how exactly these companies work, don’t ask too many questions. (Seems a little similar to how k-pop groups work? But not really. Idk. It’s not that important.)

Bia is an artist who joins FUNDOM with her two best friends, and they start a channel together. She has a talent for singing, but hasn’t sung since her older sister, Helena, died.

Manuel, the other main protagonist, (who looks eerily like Shawn Mendes??) is a singer and pianist who just moved from Madrid to live with his “aunt, uncle, and cousins” (I’ll get to THAT in a bit). He is roped into joining FUNDOM by his cousin, Alex, who already has a fairly popular channel somewhat reminiscent of Try Guys. Manuel happens to hear Bia sing, he falls in love with her voice, it’s really sweet, but they soon discover that they can’t be together because their families hate each other a la Romeo and Juliet.

The reason for this is that ten (I think?) years ago, Bia’s older sister Helena was dating Manuel’s cousin (and Alex’s older brother) Victor, and they, along with Victor and Alex’s brother, Lucas, were in a band together. However, on night on the way to a gig, they got in a car crash, in which both Helena and Lucas died, and Victor was paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. Helena was allegedly driving, and Victor’s family blamed her for Lucas’s death and Victor’s condition and the families have hated each other ever since. (Yes, this IS actually a Disney show.)

HOWEVER. It turns out that Helena did survive the crash, and up until recently, had severe amnesia and had no idea who she was, going by the name Ana. She was taken in by a family and became best friends with their son, Thiago, but then runs away when she remembers who she is. At the beginning of the show, she seeks out Thiago again, who now owns an apartment building, and starts living there and giving piano lessons. She wants desperately to reconnect with her family again, especially Bia, but fears “causing them more pain” because she was away so long. (I get that this is just to prolong the drama—and I think on some level she is afraid of confronting them and owning up to her guilt, as she doesn’t really remember what happened in the accident—but GIRL WHY ALL THE RIGAMAROLE??? TELL YOUR PARENTS THAT YOU’RE NOT DEAD???)

Also, you might be asking: where are the police in all this? Assume, for all intents and purposes, police do not exist in this universe.

Anyway, at one point, Helena starts messaging Bia under the name “Vera” (haha. Hahaha.) claiming to be a former fan of Helena and Victor’s band. This is very sweet, but Helena is constantly almost accidentally exposing her identity this way, lol.

Also, gotta talk about Thiago—he is the sweetest guy, the greenest of green flags, has got that Dark, Soulful Eyes thing going on, and is who I feel would be the favorite of the majority of my mutuals. He is endlessly supportive of Helena and helps her keep her secret—and is also very obviously head-over-heels in love with her. Unfortunately, Helena is still hung up on Victor (who she later ALSO starts messaging as Vera).

He also sings and plays guitar. Did I mention that there isn’t a single character on this show who doesn’t sing? Just roll with it.

Victor meanwhile is having it rough—due to his disability he’s stuck living with his parents, who both infantilize him and make his life a living nightmare. He’s completely given up on music and only writes music reviews now, and it’s hinted at that he’s suffering from depression due to the accident. He is a confidante to Manuel, though, and is probably the biggest Binuel shipper on the planet—he thinks the hatred between the two families is absolutely ridiculous.

Speaking of Victor’s terrible parents, remember how I said to completely forget about the existence of the police in this show? Yeah, so they have committed multiple offenses that should have landed them in jail, including but not limited to: kicking a minor under their protection out of the house (Manuel when they found out about him and Bia), blackmail (long story), and lying to the police (mentioned, but not shown). When the accident happened, Victor informed the police that Helena had been the one driving—however, it was actually Lucas who had been driving, but Victor’s father forced him to lie because he didn’t think Victor’s mother could bear the shame.

And, speaking of horrible things that Victor’s dad did—and buckle up for this one, kids—turns out that he isn’t Manuel’s uncle, he’s his father. Manuel isn’t related to the family in any other capacity, but is the result of an extramarital affair, making both Victor and Alex his half-brothers. The only person who knows this (AS OF 80 PERCENT THROUGH THE FIRST SEASON) other than his dad is Manuel’s “aunt,” which explains why she hates his guts and is absolutely awful to him. (Again, I remind you, this is Disney.)

The Thiago-Helena-Victor love triangle has made me not hate love triangles on principle, but there’s actually a second one on this show that I love far better. One of the other tenants in Thiago and Helena’s apartment building is a girl named Daisy, a dancer who makes videos for FUNDOM. At FUNDOM, she falls head-over-heels for this guy named Jhon, who I would kindly describe as 66 percent of a himbo—beefy, stupid, but not really that kind. He doesn’t have bad intentions in any way, but he’s a bit self-centered, isn’t really very attentive to other people’s needs, and very tactless. Daisy gets him to fall for her by pretending to share his interests, and he’s so inattentive that he completely falls for her (objectively terrible) act, and they start dating early in the season.

The third part of this triangle is Pietro, another tenant in the apartment and my absolute favorite character in the show. He is an extremely talented chef as well as a law student studying for his bar exam—he’s endearing, funny, and the most encouraging guy on the planet. He is Daisy’s best friend, no one else understands her like him, and every time Jhon is around and being thoughtless or inattentive to her you can tell that he is 2.5 seconds away from slipping poison into a scone and handing it to him. Though you can tell if you’re paying attention, it’s not as clear as it is with Thiago and Helena that Pietro is in love with Daisy—however, there is a scene in the latter half of the season where, in talking about Thiago and Helena, Daisy says “how awful it must be, realizing you’re in love with your best friend,” and you just see his eyes go wide. Like—HDHDHDHDHKSWHS I JUST ABOUT THREW MY PHONE

Would you believe me if I told you that that’s only like half the plot lines in this show? Another major thing that happens is that Alex gets recruited by LAIX early in the season and very quickly starts down a villain arc. He starts dating another LAIX recruit who has been working for them for a long time named Carmín, more of a vlogger/influencer-diva type, who initially has a bit of a rivalry with Bia, and though she still apparently hates her, they haven’t actually directly interacted for like 20 episodes. Anyway, both she and Alex are objectively terrible people, but you do end up feeling a bit sympathetic for her after a bit. Meanwhile, Alex, who you like at the beginning, can step on a LEGO.

Also Alex and Manuel were best friends, but through Alex joining LAIX and Manuel falling in love with Bia, the sister of the girl who he thinks is responsible for his brother’s death, they now hate each others guts. Unfortunately they still live in the same house.

Carmín has a “best friend” named Mara who really just handles all of her editing and behind-the-scenes stuff. She treats her absolutely terribly, like an unpaid intern, and ends up “firing” her and ending their friendship for reasons I can’t remember. Anyway, Mara leaves and starts a nail art channel, and while you think she’s the unassuming, abused underdog, she actually ends up the main villain of the show. She’s extremely manipulative, and is trying to a) end Carmín’s career and b) keep Bia and Manuel apart, as she is also in love with Manuel. If the obstacle to their being together in a given episode isn’t their families’ hatred of each other, it’s Mara.

Hilariously, Mara sometimes will stop to make a voice memo of the next step in her evil plan—I know this is to just clue the audience in to what she’s doing, as she is quite convincingly manipulative and it’s not always clear what she’s planning, but your girl is just recording herself monologuing about her evil plans in her voice memos?? On a public park bench??? And NO ONE as of yet has overheard her????

For a show about Bia and Manuel I haven’t really talked about Bia and Manuel. I don’t have a ton to say—they’re really cute?? Like, their constant coming together and being pulled apart thing is frustrating, but most of the time the characters themselves aren’t frustrating—they react in (mostly) understandable ways. And I like them both as characters!

The antagonists on the other hand are sometimes almost cartoonishly evil—but you know what? Why not.

There are more characters in this show, there are just so MANY. Bia’s two best friends are Chiara and Celeste, I don’t have a ton to say about them? Chiara is a little dumb sometimes but endearing, Celeste has the best fashion sense on the show and has a very very prolonged arc where she’s scared to tell her friends that she’s seeing a therapist (over what seems to be anxiety?), they are both also the biggest Binuel shippers. Also Celeste likes Jhon maybe? They might be endgame?

There’s also this guy named Guillermo who works as the assistant to the CEO of LAIX. Poor, longsuffering Guillermo. For the moment he is just There, but I think he might end up with Chiara eventually??

This show is absolutely insane and to be honest this is barely the tip of the iceberg, but it’s still a fun time

As I am ill I have fallen back into the glorious insanity that is Disney’s Latin American telenovelas and and am watching Bia, or as I like to call it, “Why You Should Never Start a YouTube Channel”

[peterpandiedtoday]

hellooo the lord wanted to do some shock therapy on me today i think bc apart from the messy ticket buying they still had yesterday’s cast sheet up and i was v oh no not noticing the date but then i got treated to a (for me) surprise barbara obermeier griz and a luyben lonzo? <33 and. over the past few weeks, before too a little sometimes but especially recently i had noticed some performances feeling a bit empty? i don’t have a word for it bc they were never bad or just okay just.. like they were not..... radiating.... ? ..... anything??? but today everyone was so fresh? potentially bc of the rehearsal but they’ve done those before and it didn’t change this much. v happy abt it either way

[brunnerasposts]

"Pancakes for Dinner"

S.H. x Female Reader

Summary: You prepare a confession to Steve in your bathroom mirror to which he ends up overhearing

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings: st2-4 spoilers, friends to lovers, fluff

Additional Notes: this was inspired by the song Pancakes for Dinner by Lizzy McAlpine. It's a really cute song and I recommend giving it a listen! I also hope you enjoy this fanfic! It was a struggle to write and idk if I like how it turned out. It's just kinda there lol. Likes, comments, and reshares are always appreciated :)

Tags: @robschneiderfan bc she picked for me to write this one first lol

"Okay," You spoke to yourself, inhaling deeply as your grip on the bathroom sink tightened. Slowly, you closed your eyes and exhaled that breath in hopes of calming the sudden nerves that had developed in your body.

While decent in size, your bathroom suddenly felt as though it was suffocating you. From the bright fluorescents to the squeaky clean tiles, you felt out of place. Sure, you had panicked earlier today and scrubbed your bathroom clean top to bottom, but that was because you only wanted to invite him over to hang out. Impulsively, you had decided to invite over your best friend not to just hang out. You were planning to confess your feelings.

You had a massive crush on Steve Harrington.

Although you hadn't known Steve until these past two years, you both had gone through a lot together. From fighting demodogs to running from Russian commies, you both had experienced a lot of traumatic events. You both didn't truly recover after everything so you supported each other for comfort.

Sometimes Robin would hang out with you both, but it was usually just the two of you. She claimed that there was too much tension between you guys whenever she visited and it made her want to barf. You weren't even sure what she was talking about half the time.

Steve didn't like you, you knew that. With the charisma that boy had and his flirtatious manner, he would have begun flirting ages ago if he really did like you. No matter what reason you had, Robin didn't seem to care.

Before your mind could begin to think anymore negatively, you opened your eyes and stared at your reflection.

You had about fifteen or so minutes to quickly plan what you were going to say. It was now or never, right?

Taking another deep breath, you relaxed your once tense shoulders and acted as though Steve was in front of you.

"Steve," You began, your voice cracking so you cleared it and started again. "Steve, can we talk?" You asked the mirror, the silence filling your head. Pretending that he said yes, you sighed softly.

"I don't wanna be forward," You gulped softly, your grip on the sink loosening, "and I don't wanna cross a line." You chose your words cautiously, not wanting to risk messing up and causing that to happen for the real confession. "I don't want to say too much, so..." You groaned out in frustration as you were at a loss for words.

You brought your hands to your face, hiding behind them. "God, why is this so scary to tell you?" You asked no one in particular. It wasn't like you had never confessed to a guy before. The only difference was, Steve was too good to lose. If he didn't feel the same way, would things become awkward?

"I'll just say something else." You told yourself, waving your hand as if to smack away the imaginary thought bubbles over your head. Deciding your mirror tactic wasn't working, you reached into a cabinet and began to search for some sort of perfume or deodorant. Was it hot in there?

God, this was so stupid!

You shouldn't have to be standing in your bathroom, prepping a speech just to tell some guy you like him. Even if it was Steve, what difference did he make from everyone else?

"What the hell do I have to lose if I just tell you?" You asked, knowing the answer to that question.

Him.

You could lose Steve. All the memories you guys once shared would be just that. Memories. Not a single one would be made after this, you were sure.

"I—" You cut yourself off, hesitant to even speak. What could you say? You didn't want to come right out and just tell him the way you felt. You wanted to ease into it and not scare him off. Maybe describe what you wanted to do with him if he felt the same way?

Daydreamed scenarios began to replay in your mind, making you smile. "I wanna have pancakes for dinner." You began, chuckling to yourself over how silly that sounded. What other slightly silly stuff could you say?

"I want to get stuck inside your head," It only seemed fair as he was always stuck inside your head.

"I want to have a song that we love together and we listen to it whenever we need cheering up or a reminder of the other." You hummed a bit, not even sure what song that would be for you both. Were you sounding slightly insane? Would he freak out if told all of this? It made you nervous.

"I don't think I should tell you this," You sighed, dragging a hand down your face in frustration. This wasn't usually this hard. It used to be a simple matter of 'Hey, I think you're really cute' but now it was so much harder because you actually knew him.

"God, I don't wanna say something weird or wrong." You looked at yourself in the mirror again, seeing the sudden fear in your own eyes. Irrational thoughts came in and out of your mind. What if he freaked and ran out? What if he laughed at you?What if he didn't feel the same way because he was still in love with Nancy?

That was way too real. You saw the way he looked at her. He may try and go out with different girls, but whenever he looked at Nancy, it was a longing gaze.

How could you possibly compete against her?

"But if you're still in love with her then—" Your voice hitched, "I think that I'll leave it there." You couldn't hate him if he did. They went over for almost two years. How could he not love her?

"If that is the case then, then I'll try to hide the way I feel." Your voice was soft, trembling slightly. It hurt to think of helping him find his next girl to go flirt with. It hurt to tell him that he should have fun on his dates. It hurt to give him advice on girls so he'd actually stay with them longer.

Maybe it was better that you remained friends. That's all he saw you as anyway.

"Well, maybe I won't have to say any of this." You hoped, giving yourself a small laugh as you imagined he would say it instead. The only reason it was funny was because you knew that couldn't happen.

As you finished your confessional speech in the mirror, you felt a lot better about the situation, more prepared in a sense. Turning, you opened the bathroom door to go wait for Steve only to find him standing right there in front of you with wide eyes.

You froze, knowing very well just how thin your bathroom door was. "H-How long were you standing there?" You stammered, itching your arm in sudden nervousness.

When he didn't say anything, your heart practically leaped in fear. "It's actually a funny story!" You quickly spoke, laughing nervously as you tried to come up with some sort of explanation for the things you said. It was clear that he heard enough to know it was him who you were talking about.

"There was this uh...this project! Yeah, a project in English where she wanted us to...feel like we were having a conversation." You began, laughing nervously, "And I was like 'That's way too crazy, teach!'. And she was all like, 'Y/N I'm very serious about my assignments', so I wanted to be sure my grade came out okay you know?"

As you continued to babble on with this random excuse you had created, Steve stepped forward and silenced you by pressing his lips onto yours. It shocked you to your very core. What was he doing? Why was he suddenly kissing you? His hands cupped your face gently, moving slowly and kissing softly as to not freak you out entirely.

It was a little late for that though.

Realizing that you weren't kissing back, he slowly pulled away and looked at you with worried eyes. "I really hope that story isn't true otherwise I just kissed you like an idiot." He whispered, searching your eyes for some kind of confirmation.

It took a long few seconds for you to even comprehend the fact that Steve Harrington had just kissed you. Slowly, you shook your head, confusion overcoming you. "I don't understand. Aren't you in love with Nancy?" You questioned, making him shake his head. "Maybe I once was, but not anymore. I sort of started falling for someone else." He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Then no, I was lying before." You admitted with a small breath of relief. It felt so nice to admit out loud. What had you even been stressed about? "I invited you over because I wanted to confess the way I felt. I guess since you overheard all of that, I don't have to." You shrugged your shoulders, squealing in surprise as Steve hugged you and lifted you off the ground.

"Steve, what are you doing?" You let out an airy laugh, not even sure what he was so happy about. "I can't believe I spent half of the year figuring out how I was going to tell you how I felt." He spoke, making you laugh again before leaning down, pressing your lips against his.

The male was quick to react, holding you tight as to make sure you didn't fall. Not only that, but Steve didn't really want to let you go anyway. Your hands snaked up into his hair, finding their way through before tugging slightly. Steve groaned in response, kisses becoming slightly sloppy as you smiled.

"Mm, let me make this up to you." He mumbled, making you part from his lips. "What?" You questioned with a raised eyebrow and the faintest of a smile now. "Yeah, come on! A proper date, what do you say?" He asked, making you hum in thought.

"Why not?" You finally decided, making him set you down. "Alright, let's go." He grinned, making you giggle. "Right now? Can't I go change or at least get my shoes on?" You asked, making Steve chuckle. "Yes, of course. I'll be waiting right here, okay?" He told you, you nodding your head before placing a quick peck to his lips.

Once you turned away, you held your face and felt the heat that was radiating from it. God, Steve knew just how to fluster you. Making your way upstairs, you were sure to move quickly as you didn't want him to wait for too long.

"You can take your time" Steve shouted up the stairs, practically reading your mind. Once you reached your bedroom, you were quick to change from your shorts and shirt, putting on a pair of acid washed jeans with a plain white t shirt. Simple, yet cute and that was what you were hoping for. Going to your vanity, you began to fix your hair when all of a sudden you almost had to turn your lamp on as it was darker outside.

"That's strange." You muttered before jumping at the sound a clock chime. Confused, you stood straight and looked around your room. Something felt off. It didn't feel like your bedroom anymore. "Steve?" You shouted, listening for a response to which you didn't receive.

Could he not hear you? "Steve!" You shouted again, louder this time and yet there was still no response. Thinking he stepped outside, you walked to your window and shifted the blinds. You were met with a sight that shook you to your very core.

The upside down.

How were you back? You didn't cross through anything! As your breathing picked up, you quickly whipped back around to charge downstairs when you found your door was open.

In that doorway was a creature completely new to you. Unlike the demodogs or a demogorgon, it stood as tall as a human. It seemed as though it was covered in these dark vines, hands elongated at the fingers. The skin looked burned to a crisp.

Never had you been more scared than in that moment. You were frozen by the window, slowly pressing yourself into it. "It's almost time, Y/N." A deep masculine voice boomed from the creature, almost having a small growl behind his words. How did it know your name? Why could it speak? What the hell was this thing?

"Y-You're not real." You stammered out, feeling the glass window against your arms as you continued to press yourself into it. "Oh, I am very real, Y/N." He stepped towards you and you suddenly felt as though you couldn't move. As much as you wanted to run, to hide and avoid him, you couldn't. Some sort of force was keeping you still.

"I can hurt you in more ways than one." His elongated fingers raised and he gently grazed your trembling face with them. It was in that moment that you searched for your alarm clock. Your eyes shifted around, even searching for some sort of scripture on your wall. Maybe this was just a nightmare.

Maybe you were experiencing sleep paralysis. This couldn't be real. He couldn't be real.

"Y/N!" A voice made your attention shift forward again, and suddenly it was Steve in front of you, looking worried as he held your arms. "Are you okay?" He asked nervously, brushing your hair out of your face as you shook in his hold.

"What..?" You quickly looked behind you, noticing the bright blue sky outside. What just happened?

"You were up here for a while so I came up to check on you and you were just...standing here, twitching. Your eyes were.." He trailed off, shaking his head before drawing you in for a hug.

You were quick to wrap your arms around him, breath shaky as tears brimmed your eyes. "You're okay, you're okay," He promised, trying to soothe you by rubbing your back.

While it was considerate of him, it wasn't helping. All that was echoing in your head was the distant chiming of a clock. The feeling of that creature's fingers as it grazed your face made you shiver.

What the hell was that thing?

As you tried to calm your breathing, you tried to listen to the sound of his voice. You needed something, anything to calm you down. As much as you tried to focus on his reassuring words, they were beginning to be drowned out by the sound of a clock.

This time it wasn't a chime.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Maybe it really was a dream.

THE END...?

[loveelle]

The Singer and The Salesman

Jim Halpert x reader

Request from Anon: ok so like jim halpert soulmate au? so they all have tattoos of their partners job (they get these tattoos at age 18)and the reader is like a famous singer and jim is amazed how he has a soulmate like her, but he’s also sad bc he knows he’ll probably never be w her BUT. michael ends up hiring this band to play at his birthday (where he got the money, who knows. its michael lol) and the singer of the band is the reader and they meet and jim notices the tattoo in her wrist says his job and hes like “omg” and she notices his tattoo says “singer” and they find each other and its really cute and stuff :)

A/N: Hi. 👋 I like soulmate au’s :) and I also love reblogs and comments :) I took the request and ran in a parallel line to it so I hope that’s okay lol and I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I’m in a slump and interaction is low and it’s hard to get motivated to write nowadays idk what it is :(

WC: 4.7K

MASTER

---

No one dates when they’re older. It’s hard to go on a causal date with a bartender when the tattoo printed on your skin tells you you’re destined to fall in love with a paper salesman. You have your young years to date and mess around with feelings but once you hit 18, the universe decides to give a big ole “f*** you” to everyone and give out soulmates. Just like you and your mysterious paper salesman.

You’ve always wondered who your soulmate would be and if you were honest, you’ve bought a lot of paper. And by a lot, I mean, enough to donate stacks yearly to the nearest high school.

You didn’t really know what you were looking for and once you reached your late 20s, you were beginning to realize that searching for your soulmate was pointless and instead you should focus more on your own career, instead of someone else’s. Which leads you to sitting on a rather comfy couch with a camera pointed at your face as you smile widely and nod at some interviewers question.

“So, Y/N,” the interviewer begins, scanning her page in front of her as she peaks up at you. “May I just say, I’m a huge fan.” She gushes, making your cheeks heat up and your head dip.

“Thank you, thank you I really appreciate it.” You smile at her.

“No, thank you!” She says. “I mean, your last album was such a success, can you tell us a little more about what inspired you?”

You nod and adjust your position on the couch. “Yeah, so um, in case there’s people out there who haven’t given it a listen, a majority of my songs were inspired by my dog.” You smile, thinking about how funny you were to were write songs about never being alone and always having someone by your side about your fluffy golden retriever who’s most likely currently knocked out on your couch sleeping. Your comment gets a few chuckles from the crew filming your interview as you smile to yourself. “The rest were a combination of caffeine and hitting funny keys on the piano at 4 in the morning.” More people laugh and you cover your mouth, giving the camera a shrug.

Your interviewers’ cheeks were red as she hides behind her paper, the list of questions she planned to ask now being used to shield herself from view. “So, all those songs people concluded were love songs were all for-”

“For my dog? Yep.” You nod as you cut her off, well aware of how much your fans believed you provided them with a pile of love songs. You look to the camera. “I figure you gotta know about love at least a little to write about it and that pup has got all my love.”

The laughs slowly turn to awes but the smiles don’t disappear. “I take it you haven’t found your soulmate yet then?” The interviewer asks and you look at her sadly before shaking your head.

“Not yet. Hopefully soon though.”

---

Jim wasn’t one to watch interviews for musicians. He never did, in fact. There was just one exception and he could thank Pam for that fact. He was headed over to Pam’s one night just to hang out, only when he got there, she was on the phone with her mom. He sat in the living room as she hurried the call, wanting to spend time with her best friend but also wanting to make sure her mom was fine. Jim didn’t mind, he stopped paying attention to Pam and her mom’s rambling the moment he looked to the tv and saw some talk show that Pam was watching before he got here already in full swing. He wouldn’t have paid so much attention to it if your shining smile wasn’t filling the screen as you spoke about some random man proposing to you on a New York subway with an onion ring with a bite taken out of it. Jim found himself laughing with the story as you humored your interviewer and the audience, and especially him.

“My mom says hi, by the way.” Pam sighs as she tosses her cell phone into her purse and glances over to Jim, furrowing her brows. “Why are you still watching this? I thought you’d turn it.”

Jim inhales sharply at Pam’s question, not having expected her back so quickly. “Yeah, uh,” he begins, glancing between her and the tv before looking around the room. “I couldn’t find the remote.” He lies and Pam makes a face of understanding and starts looking, finding it sitting on a pillow not far from him. He chuckles lightly. “Guess I didn’t look that hard.” Pam gives him an amused look before grabbing the remote and changing the channel, only giving Jim enough time to hear your name before you were gone.

That night, after he left Pam’s house, he humored himself and looked you up. Typing your name brought Jim to the sight of your joyous smile once again and after granting himself just a few minutes to see it, he starts reading about you. The first thing he sees?

Singer.

You were a singer. Just like Jim’s soulmate is.

Was it pointless of Jim to believe there was a possibility his soulmate could be someone like you? Or even… you?

Most definitely.

But then he looks back at the millions of pictures of you smiling and he can’t help but wonder how kind the universe would be to him. The thought leads him to listen to all of your songs, all of your albums, all in one night. By the time the sun rose, Jim was sure he has the choruses memorized to each one, as well as bags under his eyes. He didn’t mind though, because as he was listening to your songs and watching your interviews and unknowingly learning everything about you, he’s come to the conclusion that a soulmate like you, dare he again think his could be you, would be amazing. You were amazing and soulmate or not, Jim was starting to get a crush on the famous musician.

---

“It’s my birthday!” Jim’s conversation with Pam was dropped as Michael enters the office. A wide smile on his face causes the friends to look at each other and sigh before smiling back at him.

“Happy Birthday Michael.” Pam says as she quickly takes her seat at her desk.

“Thank you, Pamela.” He gives her a grin and turns to Jim who is spinning softly in his chair.

“Yeah, happy birthday man.” Jim tells him as Michael stands proud next to him, thankful for his friend’s wishes.

Michael gave Jim a pat on the shoulder before looking towards accounting. “Angela?” He calls out and the blondes head peaks out from her desk. “How’s the planning coming for the big party?”

Angela huffs and comes out to stand in front of him. “Small party, Michael.” She sighs. “We’ve talked about this! There’s only room in the budget for a cake and some streamers!”

Michael groans loudly, tossing his head back and marching madly around the room. “Angela, Angela, it’s a big day- my birthday – we need a big party. Think the Met Gala and then bigger.”

“Bigger than The Met Gala?” Jim butts in when he finds Michael’s request ridiculous. Michael nods to him. “That’s pretty big.”

“That what she said.” Michael smirks quickly as Angela rolls her eyes and retreats back to her desk, effectively shutting down Michael’s request for a big party. Michael turns back to Jim, wanting to continue their conversation before seeing a certain tab open on his computer and recognizing the name that happens to be in plain sight. “Hey, I know her.” Michael says and Jim’s brows furrow before Michael points to the tab, your name written clearly as Jim realizes he still had an article about you open that he found yesterday before he went home. He was about to play off Michael’s discovery of it before he realizes what his boss was saying.

“What do you mean, you know her?” Jim asks and leans back in his chair, shooting a look of interest to the older man. “Like you know of her?”

He shakes his head. “No, I know her. We met a couple years ago.”

Wait.

Michael knew you?

Michael knows you?

Jim looks past Michael to Pam who is staring at the two in confusion before Jim directs his attention back to Michael. “You know Y/N Y/L/N, the famous singer?”

Michael nods dramatically as if he’s unsure why Jim doesn’t believe him. “It was before she was famous but yeah. She bought some paper.” Jim deflates a little, realizing Michael only knew you in passing. “She still buys some paper.” Michael mumbles a little quieter, his brow furrowing before he smiles widely. “We’re actually friends! Maybe I should invite her to my birthday party!”

Jim stills in his seat. Michael couldn’t be serious, could he? Inviting you, a famous singer, to a paper company’s office for a birthday party? The thoughts battle in his head. Would that be weird? Would you be mad? Does Michael even have the ability to do that? He said you were friends but what does being friends with Michael even mean.

Jim stops thinking about the possibility Michael could be absolutely wrong about the situation and decides to look at it another way. This could be his chance to finally meet you. “You know what Michael,” Jim begins as Michael starts toward his office again, but now stops and listens again. “I’ll pay for the party.”

Michael gasps as he puts his hand on his chest. He looks around the room at the confused and equally surprised faces. “You’d do that for me?”

Jim smiles at him, standing up and patting the man over his shoulder. “Of course, I will, it’s your birthday.” He says, putting his plan into action. “Gotta throw a great party if you’re inviting Y/N.”

Michael claps his hands together, rambling on about how correct Jim was and to Angela about going full out on the party and finally to Pam as he told her to take a message on any calls he was bound to get in the next few minutes, and Pam was certain that Michael would receive a grand total of zero, because he was going to be on a very important phone call.

As Michael closes the door behind him, Jim stares at the scene and it finally sinks in what he had just done.

---

Michael’s party started not that long ago and Jim was standing around the conference room, engaging with everyone while also keeping an eye on the window. He wanted to see when you arrive. He found himself staring outside far too much but when he glances back to the party, hearing all his coworkers around him chat and when he was just to turn back to the window, Pam ushers him over to her desk.

He hesitates, glancing back to the window before heading over to her and grabbing a grape soda off the table along the way. Pam furrows her brows. “What’s wrong with you?” she asks and Jim shakes his head, not wanting to admit that you have been the constant thought on his head since Michael mentioned you. He wasn’t just excited to meet you because of the small possibility you could be his soulmate but because he really was a fan. But now as he stood feeling stupid in the middle of his office, he was firmly believing he wasn’t ever going to meet you or find his soulmate.

He didn’t know your car just pulled into the parking lot.

---

You look out the window at the familiar office complex staring back at you. It had been years since you’ve been here, it was before you got famous, but the office didn’t seem to change. You took a deep breath as your driver parks your car and your dog nudges your thigh. You turn to her, scratching behind her ears as she looks up at you.

“We’re here, Sunshine.” You coo at her letting her lick your face as you giggle. “I know, I know. You don’t like long drives, but I didn’t have time to drop you back at home.” You pause for a moment, realizing that not only could you not have dropped her off at home, but you were going to have to take her to the party. “Well, I hope they’re dog people.” You mumble and thank your driver before grabbing Sunshine’s leash and leading her inside. “C’mon, Sunny.”

Sunshine follows behind you closely, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as you head up the elevator. Normally you wouldn’t come to office birthday parties like these, but when Michael called and invited you, you couldn’t turn down an old friend. Plus, Michael works at a company selling paper, just like your soulmate. After years of pushing aside the thought of finding your soulmate, maybe you can give an afternoon for the hope.

The doors to the elevator open and you stand there, listening to the music faintly coming from the office next to you as Sunshine starts walking, pulling you with the leash and you snap out of your soulmate thinking and head inside.

There was a young woman sitting at the receptionist’s desk, a phone pressed against her ear and she looks minorly annoyed with whatever costumer was on the other end and you stifle a laugh, wondering if anyone has ever looked that annoyed when you order. The sound of your titter pulls her attention up briefly before she looks back down. Then immediately back.

“Oh my god.” She says loudly, the phone falling from her hands and you smile at her as you approach the desk.

“Hi.” You begin, patting Sunshine’s head as she sits down next to you. “I’m Y/N-“

“Y/N Y/L/N.” She fills in and you nod, used to the shock that fills people at your presence. She seems to snap out of it pretty quickly. “Sorry, I’m Pam. Um, welcome to the party.” She gestures around to the office and you have to smile at how nice the office looks for Michael’s birthday. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think Michael was telling the truth when he said he knows you.” She chuckles softly and you have to as well.

“Yeah, it’s not the most expected friendship.” You tell her before the office door behind you opens and Michael steps out.

“There she is, there she is!” Michael says and gives you a hug which you quickly return.

“Happy birthday, Michael.”

“Thank you, Thank you.” He lets go of you and you are well aware of everyone’s eyes on you, as he turns you to face the whole office. “Everyone! This is Y/N. If you don’t know who she is, then get out of that rock you’ve been living under. She’s my great friend, been friends for years, she came to celebrate my birthday with us. Everyone be nice to her.”

“Michael, she brought her dog.” A petite blonde woman calls out, glaring at Sunshine and your dog pants next to you, glancing up at you as you rub her head.

“That’s not a problem, is it?” you ask Michael, worried you weren’t allowed to have dogs in the building.

Michael shook his head, glancing between the blonde and you. “Don’t listen to Angela, she’s just being a bit-”

“Michael.” A new voice calls out and you turn your head to see a shaggy haired man, leaning at the desk next to you. You inhale sharply. Would ‘cute’ be an inappropriate word to describe Michael’s employee? Most likely. But it is still a fitting word to use. Your heart races when your eyes meet and you wonder if he feels the same way.

You don’t get to stare long, neither does he, because before you could even speak to him, Michael has a hold on your arm and is pulling you from the bullpen to the conference room to get some food. You grin and grab a cupcake and a grape soda. The party was really nice and you offered to play a few songs but Michael assured you that you were here as a guest, not to work, but he wasn’t opposed to hearing a few songs if you truly wanted.

Jim was 100% in a daze since you walked through those doors. He was debating between asking Pam to pinch him to wake him up from this dream he’s surely having and not wanting to risk this whole party actually being a dream. Your eyes met his for the briefest of moments and Jim couldn’t think of anything besides wanting to stare into them again and for longer. Before he was able to, Michael whisked you away.

He was on his feet in an instant, jaw-dropping as he leans against Pam’s desk. “Michael knows Y/N.” Pam says in shock.

“Michael knows Y/N.” He repeats and still tries to process everything.

“This must be your dream come true.” The receptionist snickers as she watches you chuckle at Michael’s joke.

Jim shakes his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe she’s here.”

“Are you going to ask for her autograph?” She pokes fun at Jim as he finally looks away from you to lower his voice.

“I’m gonna ask her to marry me.” He jokes and Pam’s brows shoot up impressed.

“Big step there, Halpert.” He nods. “Maybe start with finding out if she could be your soulmate?” She taps Jim’s wrist where his shirt is hiding his soulmate mark, one she’s seen several times. He sighs and nods, knowing Pam was right.

You couldn’t stop glancing around the room, not only were the people in this office a little… weird, but you kept hoping for another glimpse of that man again. You finally caught one. He was leaned over the receptionist’s desk in a close whisper and she was smiling. You wonder if he’s smiling as well. Then, against your best thoughts, you wonder if they were soulmates. Michael would know, you could ask, but the thought of letting someone else know you were a little jealous wasn’t ideal. And so, without a clue what to do, you ignore the cute shaggy haired salesman and enjoy the party.

---

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring a dog to an office.

You turn your back on Sunshine for one minute, one minute to talk to the receptionist who you learned was named Pam and Sunshine took off. She was a big dog, she couldn’t have gotten far, but no matter where you looked you couldn’t find her. You were starting to get worried before Angela sighs loudly.

“Have you checked the break room?” She asks and you mentally slap yourself. Of course, a place like an office would have a break room. You just didn’t know where it was. Picking up on your confusion, she pointed the way to the break room and you left her in the kitchen, eager to find Sunshine.

“There you are!” You shout relieved when you push open the break room door and catch a glimpse of Sunny’s golden blonde coat. She barks at you, her tail slapping against the ground happily as your eyes push up, realizing just why Sunshine was in the break room. The cute salesman. He wore a dopey smile that you couldn’t help but copy. “So, you’re the one who stole my dog.”

Jim chuckles, scratching Sunshine’s head as she leans against his leg. “She uh, she followed me in. I guess I left the door cracked open.”

You laugh at your dog and shake your head. “Nope. That’s my dog. Knows how to open doors, unfortunately.” You sigh and Jim meets your eyes, playfulness dancing across your gaze as you smirk.

“Seriously? Sunshine can open doors?” He questions, learning a new piece of information of your life for the first time not through a screen

You hum and nod, leaning against the door behind you. “Really makes my life hard sometimes but thank goodness she’s trained.” You furrow your brows. “Which makes her following you in here odd.” You say and Jim grows concerned. “Plus, she usually hates other people. But with you… I don’t know.” You watch Sunshine enjoy the love Jim was giving her.

“Must be the T-Bone steak in my pocket.” He jokes and you spit out a laugh when Sunshine barks at his comment, making Jim’s eyes widen for a moment before he was laughing too.

“You said the forbidden word.” You were still chuckling. “Steak.” His mouth turns to an ‘o’ and you meet his eyes, holding the eye contact before stretching your hand out. “I’m Y/N.” You say needlessly because both you and Jim knows Jim was fully aware of who you are.

He takes your hand, his soft and warm hold cupping your hand making you inhale so deep to the point that you almost missed his name entirely. “Jim. Nice to meet you. Both of you:” he says and looks down to the dog before focusing on you. Your hand was still holding his and neither of you were releasing. Not that you really wanted to and by the way Jim was locked on looking in your eyes, he didn’t want to either.

“I gotta say,” you speak up once Jim and you finally drop hands and you pull out a chair next to him, letting Sunshine rest next to you as you look down at her. “I don’t think I told anyone here her name.”

Jim gulps heavily and let’s his eyes fall off you. “I might have watched an interview or two?”

You can’t help but smirk. “An interview or two?”

He hesitates. “Or all of them?”

That’s gets you laughing, that laugh that Jim has only seen on his tv screen and he wants to memorize the sound more than he’s wanted anything before. “You’ve watched my interviews.” You repeat and Jim nods with a sideways smile. “You probably know more about me then me then.”

Jim inhales with a grin. “Enough to know you’re insanely talented and hilarious.” His compliments make your heart flutter in your chest as you bite your lip, trying to keep your smile under control. “And beautiful.” Any chance you had at keeping yourself from making an embarrassed fool out of yourself went flying out the window as Jim kept speaking.

Jim didn’t know what came over him to try and flirt but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to let you know exactly what he was thinking. And he quite enjoyed the reaction it brought him. “You’re uh, you’re not so bad yourself.” You tell him softly and Jim’s stomach leaps into his chest. You didn’t think he was weird or runaway from the boring salesman who thought it was fine to hit on you.

The conversation only moves from there. He asks about your career and you ask about his life in the office and learning that the receptionist Pam wasn’t his soulmate, they were just great friends. You almost forgot you were here for Michael’s party until a half hour later and the man himself calls your name throughout the office. Of course, you were willing to put the conversation on pause, it was Michael’s big day, but the trouble lies with resuming the conversation. Would Jim even want to? Would he be free to? Would you? Could there still be a chance that he’s your soulmate? As it turns out, some questions have a way of answering themselves.

Your dog that was once sitting perfectly next to you had moved in front of your feet when you were distracted with Jim. It was fine all until you and Jim stood up and your foot snags on Sunshine. You try your best not to step on her and to do so, you end up jumping almost in Jim’s arms as he steadies you. You would have focused on the fact you were literally in Jim’s arms but you had to make sure Sunny was okay, which she was, before you look to Jim to thank him, finding him bewildered by something else. Your shirt has ridden up on your arm. Your soulmates job which you didn’t even think to cover up was written boldly across your skin as Jim read it over and over again.

“Oh my god.” He whispers after his 7th time of reading “Paper Salesman”. You feel your stomach sink slightly at the nerves spreading throughout your body. You yank your arm away from Jim and cover it back up.

“I uh, I guess that cat’s out of the bag.” You mumble with the smallest of smiles you can muster to hide the fear you’re facing now that Jim knows your very private soulmate mark. You weren’t scared he was going to tell anyone; you were scared because… what if it wasn’t him.

He doesn’t say anything, his eyes locking on your wrist now covered with your sleeve before slowly, a smile spreads onto his face. A smile was good right?

He pulls up his sleeve and your eyes widen.

Yes, a smile is very good.

“Singer.” You read from his skin, the telling of his future and soul as any dread you faced of Jim learning of your soulmate washes away. “Your soulmate is a famous singer.”

He nods, taking your hand in his. “Now I don’t want to assume anything, but how many paper salesmen with soulmates who are famous singers have you met?”

You bite your lip and pretend to think for a moment. “Umm, maybe around…” Jim nerves start up but he couldn’t be wrong, could he? “Around 1 million?” His shoulders slump in relief that you were playing with him. “No, 2 million.” You giggle as he rolls his eyes. “Well how about you? How many famous singers have you met with paper salesman written on their wrist?”

Jim copies you, pretending to think. “Does Beyoncé count?” He jokes and it was your time to roll your eyes.

“Well unfortunate news for you, I’ve met Beyoncé and her wrist definitely does not say her soulmate sells paper.” Jim pretends to frown as you offer him a fake sad smile. “I’m sorry. I guess you’re stuck with me.”

For the first time since you and Jim started joking with each other, his eyes light up and meet yours. It occurs to you then that you felt like a normal person again. You felt like young singer trying to get famous and who could hold a conversation with someone and not be fawned over. With Jim, you just feel special and not because you’ve put albums and made a name for yourself. For the first time, you think you’ve found someone you can really be yourself around.

“Lucky me.” Jim says before he takes your hand and Sunshine’s leash and your dog follows behind the two of you happily until you finally make it back to the others. The smiles on your faces were hints as to what just happened in the break room but Jim and your hands holding the other tightly was what told the story as everyone saw your soulmate marks when they paid attention to you both. Jim was about to explain to those who cared what was going on but Michael drops the plate of cake he was holding to the ground and walks quickly over to Jim and you before throwing himself, literally, into a hug with the two of you. You and Jim laugh loudly and Michael only has one thing to say.

“This is the best birthday present I ever could’ve gotten.”

.

.

.

.

[stephdrawsjohnlock]

why do you ship rimmer and lister? i don't judge you or anything (you should hear about some of my ships lmao) but i haven't noticed anything romantic between them? idk you don't have to answer this i'm just curious.

Hey Nonny!

No offense taken, and I'll try to be as respectful as I can in my reply as well!

Before I begin, let me ask you, without malice: Why do you ship what you ship? Does it matter if it's canon or not? Is it because it makes you happy, or is it because the dynamic intrigues you, or maybe you're using a character as a placeholder for yourself to help understand your own trauma? There's a plethora of answers here that honestly is different for each individual, and really there's no "right" answer.

There are people who ship Kryten and the Cat, or Mycroft and an umbrella, or Anderson with Sherlock, or Snape and Sirius... I personally don't get any of the ships, but they're not my 'ship, and really, not my place to shit on it. Shipping just makes fandom a bit more dynamic and interactive.

The short answer to your question, for me anyway, is because it gives me hope, as do all my current ships. I'm an older cusp millennial, and I haven't had a serious relationship ever in my life. A commonality with all my ships, I've discovered, is that I have a "placeholder" character that I relate to, and in turn it just... makes me feel like there is still someone out there for me, that I'm not to old to find someone to share my life with; A John to my Sherlock. A loveably annoying life partner Lister to my grumpy, "unloveable" neurotic set-in-my-ways Rimmer. A smitten Crowley to my fussy Aziraphale. It's literally as simple as that for me on a personal level. AND because I like the chemistry of the characters interacting, and I like how other authors interpret that dynamic.

Canon-speaking though, a lot of my ships do come about if I feel that, in-canon, it could be a very real possibility and if their chemistry feels right to me. I explained it a bit more in-depth in the description box of this art-piece here, but the long short of it is "they're stuck in space forever, as life partners, and you can see the growth of their relationship over 30 years." Binge Series 1 all the way through to 13 (The Promised Land), and you'll see a dramatic difference from Rimmer/Lister S1E1 and Rimmer/Lister S13 TPL. Maybe I'm looking too much into it, but the post-Ace era episodes are especially kind of... married couple-ish? I can't really explain. There's a few scenes where you'll see Rimmer and Lister walk off together, or share an inside joke at the expense of another character, or Lister will be so DONE with Rimmer but still put up with him anyway after Rimmer "apologizes" in his own way, LOL. Also:

They have a ship the size of a small city, and even when Rimmer came back in series 9, they still shared a room. I KNOW in sitcoms it's fiscally better to keep sets to a minimum, but they... I dunno could have shown Rimmer and Lister in separate rooms at any time.

In fact, the one SINGLE TIME they did split rooms pre-Starbug/Post-Starbug, in "ME SQUARED", when Rimmer got annoyed with himself... He went RIGHT back to share a room with Lister again, so the "minimal sets" thing get rendered moot... "Me Squared" is the last episode of the first season... when they would have known if their budget got slightly bigger and they could have made them in separate rooms. But nope. 11 seasons Sharing the same room?

PLUS The argument could then ALSO be made that The Cat could then share a set room too... but nope. OH and Kochanski as well... to be fair their time on Red Dwarf together was in prison, but I digress. So yeah, sharing a bunk room on a ship the size of a small city? Seems sus, LOL.

"STOKE ME A CLIPPER", it was Dave who encouraged Rimmer that he could be more, and kept Rimmer's secret when he left, not even confessing to Kochanski what happened to Rimmer.

In the episode "BLUE", Lister literally pines over Rimmer for the entire episode, to the point where Lister dreams about kissing Rimmer.

"FATHERS AND SUNS", Lister makes a true effort to take Rimmer's advice and to be a better father to himself. I know it's a stupid little thing, but it's evidence that Dave does take things Rimmer tells him to heart even when they bicker, and it ends terribly for them, but there you go LOL.

"ENTANGLED", it's explicitly stated that Rimmer literally cannot survive without Lister, since Holly is no longer running the ship. They're essentially tied together until Dave finally dies for real.

"M-CORP", I personally feel like it was Rimmer who was the most determined to get Lister back. Maybe I'm biased because Rimmer is my fave character, but I dunno, that's the vibe I got from it.

"THE PROMISED LAND" is the most telling for me, and conveniently the most recent episode... It was the "Sun and Moon" convo for me that renewed my love for their dynamic. Lister sincerely told Rimmer that he needed Rimmer in his life, and Rimmer took it to heart, AND they don't make a "no homo" joke about it later on. It was lovely to me.

There's a tonne more that I personally see probably because of shipper goggles, but what do I know, LOL. I will give that to you, that in earlier episodes it is harder to see, but I promise, binge the whole thing as one and you can see them already growing on each other by series 2.

If not a ship, I've ALWAYS seen them as each other's best friend since at least series two. Both know more about the other than any coworker/room-mate should, and thirty years on, especially after Rimmer returns, it just seems they've softened each other's edges and made themselves a family. At the very least it's a nice "found family" trope, given how fucked up Rimmer and Lister's past lives were.

ANYWAY, SORRY, I rarely get to talk about Red Dwarf, so thank you for the opportunity!

The TL;DR of this is: I ship them because I'm an old romantic sap who ships other old idiots because they make me happy and hopeful for my own future, AND because I love the chemistry my ships have with each other. Simple as that! <3

Hope that answers your question, and thank you for asking it :)

[hardestgrove]

because i literally cannot be stopped from making ocs i’m seriously thinking of a billy bio sibling and not just a “wow that would change a lotta things i think!” thought experiment. idk if i’d ever like do anything w/ them other then talk about how i think that’d look. i considered afab or amab but i feel like afab that adds a really interesting dynamic to the family and because people hate female ocs the most so i love to spite them and make more.

it’s just interesting to think about billy already having a younger sister that he feels super responsible for but also like she’s his friend/ally in this and then he gets max added onto that. i feel like there’s a lot of pressure on billy to “look after the girls”. like i’ve already decided that neil wouldn’t allow his daughter to be in “mixed company” without billy or himself there to “chaperone”. which is.... so deeply fucked up but 100% in line with neil’s thinking. so things like tina’s party she wouldn’t have been allowed to go to because it’s co-ed unless billy was going to.

i do think she would also be a victim of neil’s physical abuse. i don’t think what’s stopping him from hitting max is her gender, he was clearly comfortable clocking billy’s mom. i think it’s the sense of ownership, these are his kids so he’ll treat them how he wants. max isn’t his by blood and real talk, if the post s3 divorce is anything to go by, if his abuse fully turned against the mayfields susan would leave him. so he can only terrorize max, not hit her. but his own kids are fair game.

i also think given his whore comment that neil would be one of those dads who’s big on his daughter’s “purity”. like billy can be out here with his tits out fucking any girl (and only the girls bc ths is is neil world not reality lol) who moves but his sister has to put up with rules about how long her skirts can be and commentary about how whorish she looks for like, putting on eyeliner. billy can date but she can’t. max can date and she’s younger but the hargrove sister can’t even be in a room with a boy without someone to make sure no funny business happens. billy actually isn’t much help on this either because he’s lowkey possessive and paranoid. he doesn’t like the idea of her dating because he’s scared of being stunted out of his role of protector/best friend/most important person (which is impossible in reality ofc bc he’s her brother and there’s no overlap between these two categories but billy has abandonment issues) and he’s also paranoid about her dating a neil. because all men are just neil’s in sheeps clothing to him. so he readily helps to enforce the “hargrove sister is not allowed to be alone with men” thing. regardless of how unfair or upsetting it is to her.

i like to think that the sister is some mix of being better at eating shit and also heading off what would be a blow out and fixing it. like having all the favorites memorized, knowing what neil expects when he gets home from work etc and making sure it’s there. but also has their mother’s temper so she has blow outs and actively gets into shouting matches with neil, usually when billy’s being abused because she can’t stand it. ofc that means she also gets hit, which billy can’t stand so then he gets hit even more. it’s a vicious cycle. i think in a world where billy has a sibling who’s been with him from the beginning he’s more inclined to talk back and step up against neil, especially as they get older, because he has someone who’s got his back and he feels like he has more incentive to fight back. 

i could literally go on for WAY longer about how i think the hargrove-mayfield family dynamics change if you add a hargrove sister but this is already SO LONG and it’s just me talking to myself so lol i’ll stop now

[songbirdsingingthings]

Polka-dotted Bandages

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Kohei Horikoshi

MHA Masterlist - Main Masterlist

WARNINGS: Mentions of injury, the tiniest bit of angst, and fluff galore <3

Requested by @luluwiie​ :

"There is no limit in the number of requests", you said? Welllll... then can I request ? 😳❤ if the answer is yes: can I request a slow burn / pining Todoroki x Reader Oneshot ? 😶👉👈 Like, when they train together, Reader got into the habit of always taking care of his scratches and wounds, which at first confused Todoroki, cause Recovery girl is there for this, right ? But with time he got used and even grew attached to this little habit of ours. And one day, for some reason, Reader ends up badly injured (in a fight, against vilains? Idk), and he rushes to the hospital and is like sooo worried.. and when Reader wakes up they find like some band-aids on their little scratches, just like the ones they often use for him ? And we get to see their reunion Ajajdusdj TYSM if you do it 😳❤

A/N: I LITERALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS REQUEST.... which is why I had to rewrite it like twenty times before I was finally satisfied with how it turned out lol. I really hope you enjoy and thank you so much for the request! <3

Word Count: 2.2K

Ever since the age of five when his quirk made itself known to him, the world, and most unfortunately his father, little nicks and cuts were always a common thing to find all over his body. To this day, however careful Shouto was in training, they were ordinary occurrences. It wasn’t like he was careless, far from it in fact, he just got a little… distracted sometimes. How could he not when you were training right across from him? Your skill and poise were originally the traits that drew him in to hoping for a friendship with you. Those paired with your optimistic personality and effortless smile captured his attention completely. So, when he accidentally grazed his leg against a piece of metal that was jutting out haphazardly, he was unprepared for your attention to be on him.

“Shouto, are you okay? That looks like it really hurts,” you huff, out of breath from the last set of crunches you had just completed. The red-and-white haired boy looked in between you and his now bleeding cut with a somewhat blank stare.

“Oh… yes I think I’m fine,” He answered awkwardly, assessing the wound and slowly moving his hand to cover it. That is, until your hand caught his wrist.

“Wait, your hands aren’t clean!” You exclaim as you dig through your bag with the hand that wasn’t currently occupied. “Here, I have some disinfectant in my bag.” Shouto watches as you pull the little bottle of antiseptic out of your bag as well as some cotton balls and a little box of bandages. You douse one of the cotton balls with some disinfectant, accidentally spilling a little on your hands in the process, and hold it right in front of his cut. “Do you mind?” You ask, making sure Shouto was okay with your movements.

“No, go ahead,” He manages, keeping his composure but feeling his heart skip a bit. You flash him a grin before placing one of your hands on his leg to steady yourself.

“This might sting a bit, but it goes away pretty quickly,” you explain, slowly pressing the cotton ball to his wound. You made sure to clean the dirt and grime away quickly, your gentle and dexterous fingers going around the edges of the cut.

“Y/N?” Shouto’s voice was somewhat jarring in the comfortable silence you two had, causing your gaze to snap up to his.

“I’m not hurting you, am I?” You asked hurriedly, your eyes filled with concern. He shook his head, allowing you a breath of relief before turning your attention back on his wound.

“I’m just curious as to why you are doing this, since we have Recovery Girl on call all day. I’m sure it would be no issue for her,” He asked as you disposed of the now slightly bloody cotton ball and digged around in the box to pull out a blue and white polka-dotted bandage.

“Well I didn’t want you to accidentally infect it,” you begin, smoothing the bandage across the cut, “plus, it's nice to do things like this for a friend, don’t you think?” You smile, satisfied that the coverage of the polka dots fit perfectly over the damaged skin. Your eyes finally go back up to Shouto, whose hand was held out to you. You take it as he helps you stand from your crouched position on the floor. Shouto smiled at the little notion and fell into a comfortable pace with you as the both of you walked back towards the direction of the dorms. Over time, Shouto began to like the little habit the two of you developed - he liked it quite a lot. Not ever had he been touched in such a caring and tender manner, and when it was coming from you… it was pure solace that he felt. And, gradually, as the two of you fell into a comfortable friendship - with more than a few lingering glances on his part - he felt that finally he was at a time in his life where he found someone that could understand him completely. 

Buildings were leveled, the streets had craters in them, and your breathing was uneven. Of course, when Class 1A was on a day trip into the city, villains had decided to take action. The day was going too perfectly, you guessed. It really only was once in a while that the teachers would let you have a long day off to go shopping or enjoy the city life. Due to this incident, though, you’re pretty sure that they’ll be revoking those privileges as soon as the class steps their feet back on UA property. If you were lucky, maybe you wouldn’t be confined in the big dorm building for a week due to safety concerns.

“H/N, you take the guy on the left, I’ll take the annoying one in the middle!” You heard your classmate, Mina, shout to you. The pink-haired girl was currently fighting off a criminal with a nasty quirk - blood manipulation, as long as they were in some physical pain themself. That was probably why the guy was intentionally biting down on his tongue.

“You’ve got it!” You yell back, launching yourself into the fray and readying your quirk to attack. With the villain set straight on in front of you, you let your eyes zero in on them, everything besides them becoming a blur. That was why, when the enemy that was fighting Mina set their sights on you, you were unable to react quick enough.

Shouto was, more or less, beginning to panic. Everyone was accounted for… everyone except for you. That’s when he caught sight of a familiar pink-haired girl crouching down with tears leaking from her eyes.

“Ashido, have you seen Y/N?” He asked exasperatedly, beginning to grow frustrated with the lack of information involving the Y/H/C haired girl. This only caused Mina to sob more, her pitiful gaze finally looking up into Shouto’s.

“Th-they hit me with their quirk and it made the wind get knocked out of me,” she hiccuped, wiping underneath her eyes to try and rid the moisture from her cheeks. “They hurt Y/N really, really badly.” As soon as those words left her lips, Shouto felt his entire body grow cold. It wasn’t like the cold he used to regulate his body temperature when he used too much of his left side. This was a chill that encompassed his body as a whole, making him feel hollow. As Mina’s words grew more jumbled, Shouto felt his breathing go shallow and his hands beginning to tremble.

“Where,” He asked forcefully.

“Musutafu General Hospital.” 

And with those three words, Shouto began running, and didn’t stop until he was at the massive glass doors of the lobby. He walked swiftly to the help desk and slammed his hands on the top of it, a little harder than he intended.

“Y/N L/N, she’s a member of Class 1A at UA, and she was taken to this hospital due to events that occurred downtown. Where is she.” The receptionist looked up to find an angered Shoto, his eyes blazing and narrowed.

“I-I’m sorry?” They asked, a little terrified of him.

“Y/N L/N, she is a patient here. WHERE IS SHE?” He demanded. The receptionist jumped in their seat and began to vigorously click on their computer, searching through patient charts.

“She’s, uh, on floor four, just got out of emergency surgery and is recovering. Room 107.” He didn’t stay to hear anything else they had to say as he sprinted to the staircase, ascending the stairs in record speed. When he arrived on the correct floor, a sudden feeling of misery descended upon him. Sitting in a little seating area, he saw as surgeons - still clad in their scrubs - were hugging a family of four, all of them sobbing in despair. This stirred him to now stumble down the hallways wildly, frantically checking the room numbers on both sides until he found the three numbers he was looking for. 107. Slowly, he pushed the door open to find you laying down on a hospital bed. 

When your eyes finally fluttered open, the first thing you felt was the whole body ache that held onto your body like a vice. I’m never complaining about stomach or calf cramps again, you think, squinting to try and see anything in the harsh hospital room lighting. You groaned as you sat up, feeling the pang of pain in the small of your back. You smiled, though, when you saw all the things dotted all over your room. Vases of flowers were placed on the tables, from your vantage point you could spot the familiar petals of peonies - the flowers that symbolize life and good health. On the table next to you, lots of cards were propped up. Some had cheesy “get well soon!” messages scrawled across the front, others a bit more demure. And, as you reached to grab and read one, that’s when you saw them. The familiar pattern of blue and white polka dots left you breathless as you stopped your previous movements and began to inspect them further. These were exactly like the ones that were always in your bag, the ones that are so specifically designed that only one store sells them. You were sure that the hospital you were staying in didn’t make an effort to buy pretty looking bandages for their patients and nobody else knew where to find them in your bag. Nobody else except...

“Shouto…” you breathed, your eyes welling with tears.

“Y/N?” Standing in the door frame stood the exact boy whose name was just uttered from your lips. Dressed in a soft, black turtleneck - the one you always found so flattering on him - and a pair of beige pants. In his hand held the most beautiful red carnations you had ever seen, the petals so dainty and the stems so thin you feared they would break if he even moved them. 

“Here, put them in this vase next to-” your speech was interrupted as Shouto let the bouquet fall to the tiled floor, his body moving on autopilot to encase you in his arms, his head wedging itself between your neck and head.

“You’re okay.” He mumbles.

“I’m okay.”

“You’re safe.”

“I’m safe.” Shouto lingers there for a moment before pulling himself back into a standing position, helping you reposition your body on the bed, trying to get more comfortable. The two of you stay in silence for a moment before you speak up.

“Thank you for patching me up,” you say simply, your voice soft as you tilt your head towards the polka-dotted bandages. You see Shouto’s lips quirk up a bit.

“You’re always taking care of me, so I wanted to take care of you. Even if the hospital staff had to do the heavy lifting.” He says, sitting down in the chair next to your bed, pulling it closer so that the two of you were as close as possible. Your hand immediately finds his, grabbing hold of it. 

“Shouto, I-”

“Y/N, when I’m around you, I feel the skin on my face grow hot.” His statement caught you off guard. “My stomach turns, too, when you smile at me and look at me in the eye.” You suck in a breath, hoping that what he was trying to say was the same thing you had been feeling for ages. Shouto takes a deep breath before squeezing your hand. “At first I thought I was sick and caught something, due to the increase in temperature, but I realized that I only began to feel this way when you first put a blue polka-dotted bandage on my leg. And then that feeling only came around when you were near.” Finally looking up to meet your eyes, Shouto gazes at you with such care and affection you felt that you could melt. “I think… I think I love you.” Your shocked face soon softens into one of adoration and a grin spreads across your cheeks.

“I love you too.” You see Shouto breathe in relief before taking the hand he was holding and pressing a soft kiss to the back of yours. Your heart flutters at his gesture, encouraging you all the more to pull him towards you so that he could lay on the bed. Quickly, the both of you found comfort as he held you, letting his fingers trace lightly around the polka-dotted bandages. “Will you let me keep on taking care of you? Whenever you get scrapes or bruises… or if something makes you happy or sad or feel anything at all?” You murmured, letting your head fall against his chest. You feel him nodding his head.

“Only if I can take care of you, too.” You smiled, glancing back at the blue and white polka dots to see Shouto’s thumb brushing against it.

“Okay, deal.”