#im not *completely* happy with this but i am bored of editing it so here you go

[california-112]

Climb

General Audiences | No Archive Warnings Apply | Gen | English

Fandom: The X-Files

Characters: Dana Scully, Fox Mulder

Additional tags: Stakeout, My First Work In This Fandom, Calloween, Calloween 2024

Summary:

There was still no change. There were no lights in the broken windows, no shadowy figures in the wrecked doorway, and no sounds of movement or other activity. Apart from another seed snapping in Mulder's mouth, that was. Scully lowered the binoculars sharply. "Mulder, you do that one more time and it won't be a seed that gets split in two." -or- A fruitless late-night stakeout has Scully feeling bored, and her mood is only aggravated by her partner's annoying habits. ABSOLUTELY 0% SPOILERS FOR ANYTHING

Link to AO3 | Part 1 of Calloween 2024

[vicherrx]

Lantern Rite .

Xiao x gn!reader

Fluff, slighty sad (his past)

A/n: this is also kind of a ritual for all xiao havers that are going to pull for him on chronicle wish (i am xiao haver). Sorry if it's boring or not that good, I wrote this at exact new year, and finished writing at 1:03 am, overall: 1:33am for editing hehe.. I am stuffed with thoughts of him rather than the food I ate. Anyway, happy renewed year to all of you! 🏮

*⁠.⁠✧ • — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . ° + 🏮

Following Xiao through liyue harbour to the destined spot, in which where the view of lanterns are bright and clear before your eyes.

Mesmerised by the view — Xiao too can't deny how he feels about it, the view in front of him none other than you.

The lingering feeling of his gaze upon you, as if you were some kind of heaven sent.

He sat there beside you, his arm resting on his knee, whilst other hand remain on ground to guide his sitting balance; though his eyes fixated only at you — making the event the background of this very night to midnight.

You who are still standing on your feet, hands clenched into fist against chest, watching as the floating lantern flew subtly up above the sky, lighting whole liyue so gracefully. Your eyes twinkling at the sparkling night — completely oblivious of the Adepti's gazing.

Snapping back to your senses, you turn to look down on your right — meeting your companion's gaze; and at that very moment he would describe when the world stopped for him once again, but this time in a beautiful way.

His eyebrows knitting in protectiveness, quickly averting his gaze.

"Hm?" You hummed, sitting next to the Adepti. Shoulders so close it could touch.

Although it didn't show — he became slightly stiffed at the proximity of your bodies.

"The lanterns between the skies are very pleasant to witness." You broke the silence, hopeful that he will reciprocate with the same energy — calm instead of awkwardness, worst: Boredom.

"Mhm..." He nodded, his voice in a humming whisper, remaining strained, yet soothing like always.

And you were once again following every lantern floating with your sight while he took this as the opportunity to stare at you — to capture your godlike beauty.

You then felt his gaze this time, and this time you caught him, he didn't have the chance to turn away from meeting your gaze. His eyes looking down at the space between your hands, clearing his throat.

"Is something bothering you?" Asked you worriedly, making your head tilt to your side slightly.

"..no." a sigh escaping his pursed lips, "there is..." He finally confessed.

"Do tell, you know im always here." Perhaps those choice of words made it worse.

Oh how you hate to see him in pain.

"Are you only saying that to lessen my..." trailing off, he looked back at the view with the pained expression on his face, continuing his words, "My suffering that has been living within my every passing living seconds?"

In a blink of regret, you immediately took back those words with apologies and elaborations. "Of course not! That's not what I wanted you to think..." Letting out a huff, looking also at the view.

This was not the atmosphere you wanted to create, yet it ended up here. A soft sigh leaving your parted lips as you shift your head to face his direction; this time you were the one admiring the Adepti. The worried expression on his face has now died down, giving you a relieving sight.

"Xiao." You called, just like you would when you needed him by your side. Though the difference is: you called him, not that you needed his comforting actions, but to reassure him.

"Hm?" He looked at you, eyes meeting with yours, your reflection giving life to his lone sight.

"You know, I might not be here with you in the far future — it may feel distant, cold, and lonely, but... I hope you let a tiny part of myself into your heart." His hearing shot focused, a tiny frown now displayed on his soft lips you have not touched.

"Please... Don't speak such words..." The very first you saw him vulnerable right in front of you. "I despise it when you say these nonse-"

Cut off by actions you committed: taking in his hands in your grasp — his palms cold; yours warm. Your eyes closed and his wide, staring at your eyelid. Lips pressed against one another softly, and gentle. Fireworks cracking above air, illuminating both your frame and the Adepti's with unmatching colours, dim — yet dimensional.

Slowly, he grew in comfort within actions experiencing, reciprocating the affection; in which his eyes slowly fell, lashes hitting the lower part of his skin. Your lips against his lips: his soft lips that you are finally able to feel.

The festival you made — not only comforting, but now also printed in his life.

*⁠.⁠✧ • — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . — . ° + 🏮

[splinteredsweets]

im bored and i don't wanna sleep yet but i can't seem to write today so i'm just gonna start rambling a little bit about my felix + turbo (i say it like this bc it's not inherently romantic the point is moreso that they're close in some shape or form) fic i'm writing bc as awkward as i feel about it i just think i'd feel weirder dropping it completely out of nowhere whenever i do finish it sooo

rambling go !!

it's essentially about that one headcanon where they exchange awards bc i love that hc c: the entire fic is gonna be made up of 5 different scenes - the first two are showcasing how the initial trade-off came to be , the next two are about them reminiscing about each other , and the last one is after all the sugar rush stuff happens

i don't really wanna give toooo much away mostly bc i am a very secretive person and i like being weird and vague about the stuff i'm working on bbbuuuuuttt i am veeeerrrrrrryyyt close to being finished . i think . pretty sure ? ive been working on this for almost a month already and i pretty much have the first three sections done with constant editing and small changes here and there , im currently finishing up the fourth , and i need to start working on the fifth ... which the latter is gonna be tough bc ... im not even entirely sure how it's supposed to play out yet ive kinda been putting it off entirely until i had everything else written since it depends a lot on what happens before then so im still trying to figure out what exactly im trying to get out of the scene .:. i'll get there eventually tho no idea when

oh yeah btw . i hope you like angst . bc i LOVE the stuff and there is a loooooot of it . like 8k+ words of it hEhEheHeGe ok like tEchNiCallY the first 3k or so are mostly fluff the first 2 parts are kinda sweet i think but there is an overhanging feeling of dread for the pain that is to come ... c:<

ig that's enough rambling about the premise for now , although i'll share just a few out of context authors notes unfortunately i don't have very many bc i was way too worried with how everything was turning out so most of it was like 70% worrying and 30% plotting

'what actually is on felix’s medal like … is it a number one … or his name … or a hammer … why is it both the latter in the movie … that doesn't make any sense … i can work with any of these i just need to know which one it actually is …IM ORETTY SURE ITS BOTH ugh im going to scream … ok i think like on the screen it's his name but in the actual game it's a hammer .. ? kill me what the fuck do i go with ' (decided to go with the name bc i had more to work with)

'one of the nicelanders is like ‘you have a visitor’ and he's like ‘wow already .. ?’ and there's like only one person he can think of that that's fast . SONIC SPEE- no '

'to roadblasters or not to roadblasters … that is the question ..'

'he can get a little overwhelmed by emotions right as a treat ?'

'ppffftttt i was just thinking random thoughts and my silly brain thought of that one thing that's like 'annoying gay couple + annoyed lesbian' with fucking hammertastic and gene pppfpfffftttt that's so stupid lmao'

'feel like this is kinda sweet ... this looks like a good spot for my roller skate and my marbles ... it's just such a shame i'm going to RIP IT ALL AWAY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i love angst <333 you gotta have some lovely happy moments to maximise the pain'

'... i do not know a fucking thing about clothes is what kc's wearing under his tailcoat a waistcoat or am i stupid ... is it a normal shirt idk ... is that immersion ruining if i just keep it im going to die' (didn't end up using it)

'i really love it when my brain gets excited and goes hehhehehehehahahahahahHhdeHgff do EEEEAAAAA i don't know if i can utilise this power properly tho :C i can try tho … hey looks like the worrying is back on yayyyy (boooo)'

'fuck it we ball we go into the liiiIIIIII'

there is also a whole bunch of evil laughter in the notes and i noticed i use a LOT of italics especially when it's from turbo and especially especially during king candy's section lmao ... he just feels the need to be very expressive and emphasise the way he says and thinks things lol

yknow what just for fun - and bc i have no idea where else to put this - i did once have a very . interesting . bunch of authors notes i wrote a few years ago for something else but i never ended up writing it . it makes absolutely no sense at all and it's completely out of context so hopefully it's still kinda funny

'pictures of giirrrllss are noooot for meeee you seeee

she be down in hollywood (that's not the words) (idc)

ur actually insane yeah thanks i know

WE GET GIRLS !!! WE ARE CUTE !!! WE ARE COOL !!

dom

i eat sand

shut up

metroman finally starts falling for megamind but oopsies poopsies it's too late he's already fallen for the hot reporter roxanne (what the fuck why did you make this comparison) (also that just sounds like a normal megamind fic)'

i would draft similarly to ^that in school too with my boring essays and once i accidentally submitted one of those drafts and i got sent to the counsellors office for 'concerning behaviour' lmao

anyways i might maybe perhaps ramble some more and let loose some more details perhaps maybe another time dunno uhh but i think that's enough for now ... bonus rambling in the tags

[the-mold-is-coming]

Hands today in class with a marker (the weird half glove thingy is my support/immobilising thing for my wrist, my wrist sucks)

so, i was looking through old pictures on my phone and found my high school art and was baffled, because it was really fucking good, and i had absolutely hated all of it when i made it. And now i wish i could draw like i did back then, i stopped doing observation drawing and most practice that is considered boring or generally intimidating and lost my skills :'>

so yeah, i got to class and drew my hands after nearly two years of not doing any real observation drawing. like, i finished them and went yeahhh they kinda suck, but now that i got home and edited them and all that, they dont?? sure some of them are majorly incorrect and the fingers make no sense, but theyre expressive and i can clearly see yes, this is a hand here, and the middle one on the bottom has movement. and i kind of got the hang of it on the two on the right.

Why does my brain always tell me that i absolutely suck at this? sure, it's not perfect, but when will it ever be? i know the whole thing about evolving is not settling, but honestly? if i dont become happy with my level right now and with what i make, i will continue on the cycle of not making. i need to be able to completely settle with what im doing right now or else i wont draw and draw and draw the way i need to actually improve. I'm that kind of perfectionist that simply does not make any art if it wont come out perfect, and it's something ive been trying to fight since forever. i hope this serves as another example to myself that i actually am good enough.

[addictvettel]

heyhey random ask but what songs do u associate w ur fav f1 duos (asking this for no reason) (editing.)

Hi Megamind

Thank you for this amazing question uou r SO snart.

Ok for starters i have so many more fave f1 duos but rn these r like the ones I’m really fixated on so for the love of god i can onlt think about them likr literally anyyyu other song thats related to my other fav ships that r not mentioned here just went fackinf poof so yeah.

Brocedes. I’m so hyperfixated on brocedes at the moment I think its getting really bad

The world we once knew (over and over)- Frank Sinatra

Rosemary- Deftones

Cherry wave- Deftones

These r like the basic boring classics uve seen many brocedes edits eith these songs

Moonlight on the river- Mac DeMarco

somehwre from around likeee 4:00 and up cuz thats where it starts progressing getting louder and crazier thats like the part that reaaallyyy reminds me of them

Shades of cool- Lana del ray

from like 4:12-5:10) and its like its the whole vibe of the song BUT also like im imagining a mixxutureee of angst and also like their old happy memories likee in that time i mentioned in the sonf

Omec more to see u- Mitski

No need for explaining. It speaks for itself. (cries)

Why didn’t u stop me- Mitski

From Nicos view pls mercyyyy😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Francis forever- Mitski

“I’ve been trying to lay my head down, but I’m writing this at 3 am” this reminds me so much of Nicos letter to Lewis plsssssssss mercy pls😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Orbitron- Duster

OK CARLANDO!!

Only two songs cuz bricedes brainrot made me stop heing able to think when it comes to other duos

Compass- The neighbourhood

This song speaks to my carlando fan soul when i listen to it. GENUINELY.

Gold dust- Duster

The mood of gold dust is sooo happy carlando with also a bit of angst. I imagine a whole carlando edit when i listen to it.

Sebmark

Again one somg cuz uhm brocedes brainrot☹️

Fallen star- Neighbourhood

Lewis, Seb, Kimi

Snap out of it- Artic Monkeys

Honestly ik its not a duo but pls every time i listen to that song I’m reminded of them

Anythiwng- Adrianne Lenker basically fits all pls😭 lenker cooking up the most peak songs pllssssss have some mercyyyyy😭😭😭🤞🏼🤞🏼💔💔💔

The favt that obsessing over brocedes made my brain shut doen completely when it comes to ANY other f1 duo like pls. Like it was hard even tryint to think of other duos while answering thus pllsssss😭😭😭 brainrot is so real

Honesly i have so many more fave f1 duos but haven’t thought of somgs and styff to them. Its like i have a an idea of what tyoe of songs they woukd have but i dont have any specific songs likedee. I need to get on my game and make playlisys for diff f1 duos. I eill one day tehee.

Ok thanks for readinf my rant baaaaaiiiiiioooo tehee

[riddlesmoon]

LETS TALK ABT THE AGESWAP AU BECAUSE IM. IM Bored and think its fun! disclaimer: this is very long and VERY messy because i just rambled and typed whatever appeared in my head, so some characters metas are in different parts of the post. i plan to neaten everything up somewhere else eventually so uh... yes. i also took the liberty of bolding the first mention of characters in their parts so its easier to find a specific char...? honestly its so hard to see on pc but i know that on mobile its a lot more obvious (mobile edit: so that was a fucking lie. i think its bc i see all those imagines blogs do it but they also colour the bolded words differently so its more obvious. oh well

so i call it ageswap because the initial concept stemmed from all the sibling pairs. klee albedo, jean barb, ayato ayaka, you get it. just... wouldnt it be cool to imagine... older sister klee, still very bomb-happy, and a baby bedo who somehow still has to make sure klee doesnt bomb all of mondstadt. though i would hope that now shes older shes a bit more sensible, but shes not human so i dont even know what age she should be. is albedo 500? (also imagine klee making bombs with baby amber. thats a role model)

anyway. i am assuming jean and barbs parents took 1 child each due to age (older -> knights) which means itd be knight barb deaconess jean. although, are they really fit for their jobs? sure you can def make a case for "theyre brought up differently" but thats not the point of this au. anyway i think neither of them would advance far in their field (well jean might but not as a deaconess) barbara wont have the kind of drive to be acting grand master (im not saying shes not like, determined or a hard worker, but she might not be as strict as she should be, perhaps. its hc land ok if she were acting grand master itd just be a roleswap) and jean isnt much about singing, she'd probably hold a high position within the church is all. itd be fun if she found kid!rosaria and adopted her into the church. though itd ALSO be fun if barbara found her instead, she'd be sooo warm... imagine mini knight rosaria lol.

jumping to inazuma for a while, it would also be interesting to see the kamisatos swapped... ayaka would probably have less of a princess image if she has to lead the clan. more girlbossy though there might still be hidden passion and desire to be normal, just a different flavour. and lol princely ayato i hope everyone buys him boba or something. what if he (sorry if this isnt accurate please dont flay me alive) brings back thoma from ritou island like oneesan can we adopt him and ayakas like we're fucking brok (i joke she probably wouldnt say that. would she?)

anyway moving on. this is less like ageswap and more like roleswap im realising, cuz i was thinking abt what if xiao and ganyu swapped ages/birth eras. the problem is i dont know whether ganyu should just take xiaos place in the whole trapped by some demon and zhongli rescues her thing. but no matter what the roleswap here means shes the vigilant yaksha... wouldnt that be quite the look.

baby xiao

ok ill be serious. this means baby xiao was brought up by cloud retainer LO

i cant take this seriously. should xiao be the half-qilin. please. i need to see this. outfit swap, make a new outfit, whatever, i just think itd be funny to see characters with a completely diff aesthetic and temperament. (this also counts for genderswaps in stories where gender roles exist, which is nearly all of them unless youre making your own society...)

so moving on—haha imagine cloud retainer going "let me tell u abt when xiao was a kid" and xiaos like NO PLS—woah what was that. actually would you age/roleswap venti and zhongli or zhongli and xianyun. this is more ageswap than roleswap i think so its probably xianyunWHICH ACCIDENTALLY JUST MAKES HIM XIAOS DAD AGAIN though the dynamic should be different...? but no if i want zhongli to act like xianyun thats a role/personalityswap isnt it. im supposed to think what if xianyun was born in zhonglis time (oh god would she even be the geo archon? realistically probably not but if we dont want to veer too wildly off course... no wait maybe she can still be liyues archon but the element just isnt geo. she must be... another element or a new one... we'll get back to this. we'll just say she was an archon, saved ganyu, etc i think shed be much less flippant with all those years and wars under her belt. though to be fair zhongli can also be stupid funny sometimes but 😭 how am i supposed to write my lil hcs if theyre not a little ooc[shot]

so anyway. i went on a tangent. the next pair i wanted to talk about is shenhe and chongyun. just... yk part of this is just to see chars with diff vibes and fits, im unsure how different in personality theyd be here (as in theyd act the way the other acts in canon) though i guess thats a nature nurture question. but which parts of a person arent nature... okay wait. so. this is ageswap not roleswap, which means they must each retain their special thing: chongyuns yang and shenhes... er... murderous vibe (yk i actually have a crack pairing of her with signora bc theyre both fiery dangerous women tempered by their cryo BUT IM GETTING OFF TOPIC.) and this is ageswap so they should be born in the same places...

wait... so xiao and ganyus birth circumstances wouldnt change. but would it make sense for xiaos captor to be alive during the cataclysm or was he one of the smaller gods morax killed before the archon war. we'll say yes so we dont have to scrap everything. ganyu is still half-qilin thought im unsure if shed be a yaksha, its not exactly her nature (because of the qilin part ive heard). during this time liyue was still interacting with the adepti right, so maybe shes alr been working among humans lol

so xiao... would probably be rescued close to before the cataclysm... he could train to help them there (i think ganyu helped too) but he probably wouldnt be part of the five yakshas. maybe just a normal yaksha like that guy we built a temple for. or he could die no, realism brain, stop ruining the hcs. but yea hed have way less angst abt the five(now four) since he didnt really know them, probably. (what if they babysat him) but maybe he'll feel some inferiority like templeguy (im so sorry dude let me google—pervases thats right) im not gonna lie, a lot of xiao ganyu ageswap concept comes from how ganyu is very intimidated to be taught by xiao in her story quest and hes just like this is just what we do.

younger xiao might also be less affected by karma, so who knows what his temperament might be like?

okay baaaack to shenhe and chongyun. shenhes past probably plays out the exact s—hold on i havent resolved (in my mind) the xianyun zhongli ageswap. or less of a specific char ageswap but more swap this persons age to the opposite (young/old). but zhongli has to be part of the archon war?? would xianyun even step up to be archon!? maybe i just want to see someone swap venti and zhonglis fits. the short and the tall yk. so... er...... ok fine such a drastic change means xianyun might just bWait what if guili was the liyue archon. they said she was "too soft" but if there isnt zhongli around... (but xianyun was alive for that so unless i want to make zhongli born after the cataclysm in which case i have literally no idea where hed even come from or go) but he was already archon then so we have to imagine xianyun as the

we'll just pretend their ageswaps also led to a roleswap okay. i cant do this. so shenhes backstory would be the same except zhongli raises her? huh.......... i have no fucking clue how a kid raised by zhongli would act. but anyway the whole point of this is just so young shenhe can meet adult chongyun and chongyun is like wtf is this KID doing out here!? and then she punches a geovishap in the face and hes like wh. and also finds out shes his "niece" waittt what if he feels kind of respnsible for her 🥺 and wants to adopt her or smth 😭 thats such an interesting dynamic change. oh and xingqius there. i guess he should have a younger bro instead now, but idk how that would change him much. if xingqiu is head of the family he might not have time for his novel pursuits tho... just an old dream he never got to fulfill :(

theres... a lot more adults than children in this game and making all of them kids would just mean their usual positions (ningguang, keqing, yelan etc) are taken up by some random adult, we dont have 1 to 1 pair like some of the previous ones... hay wouldnt it be cute if ningguang and beidou were teenage sweethearts and just went on dates. wed get to see that. aww. sorry to ganyu keqing fans suddenly it became age gap (well it was already age gap but the more acceptable kind...)

ohhh right now i remember. i think i originally wanted to ageswap hu tao and zhongli. but again teen zhongli would complicate things SO much. adult hu tao would presumably be more serious about things... or less... it could go either way honestly. i guess the most we can aim for is that zhongli has a teen body like venti and gets adopted by hu tao but she actually treats him like a proper adult/employee vs everyone else? that could be something.

ermmmm. what else, who else. jumping straight to fontaine for a bit, freminet being the older bro to lyney and lynette would be really cute... hed definitely have to lose some of his shyness but hed probably still be kind of an introvert, but his lil siblings are just full of energy and he loves them. awuuuuuu

uh. kid childe and adult teucer? getting stuck in the abyss for months really changes you though so this one doesnt really count, we honestly dont know if teucer would end up just like childe lmao. so scratch that. hmm... collei and tighnari? no, but how does the manga plot go if shes an adult and cyno also should be a kid/teen here (i mean obviously thered be another general mahamatra but. well itd just be a guy we dont know) ok i also dont know enough about the manga so we will also scratch that. just look at cute fanart where baby cyno plays cards with baby tighnari or smth, i bet that exists. with babysitter collei looking over tuem or something. that has to exist.

hold on. hold on. i was gonna talk abt rukkha and nahida but what if... ei scara ageswap. ooooh that changes way too many things. no yeah its impossible if we want to keep them in their original roles. we have to roleswap them for it to work and even then im not sure because the whole thing was at birth scara was too soft so he might not be makotos body double? i mean yeah he can do anything... we'll say he did and hes now shogun and actually nvm i cant think of anything new hed do, itd just be a repeat of eis actions cuz theres no plot otherwise. just. its just an outfitswap or genderswap at this point.

so that was a fail. are there any more interesting pairs to ageswap or even an individual whod be different as a AHHH QIQI AND BAIZHU!! wait no. theyre literally born in diff eras. unless its just... adult zombie qiqi and aspiring doctor baizhu this is not interesting at all. considering qiqis whole appeal is little zombie girl being more cute than scary. BUT ID LOVE TO SEE THE ART! what would an adult qiqi look like... i guess you can really go any way if she isnt a zombie in art, like wtf would she wear, its just up to each artist.

im dying i dont think—i forgot to talk about rukkha and nahida. but im now realising this also amounts to a roleswap just like ei and scara cuz one exists because of the other. or just... the appearance of baby 草神 dying and the new archon the sages find is a fucking adult woman. theyd probably still lock her up tho since by circumstance she should be the same as nahida in that moment where she doesnt know anything. theres a dark thought here but it could also happen in canon if genshin really wanted to go dark (which they wouldnt ofc). actually idk how much nahida knew when she woke up she mightve mentioned it but i forgor.

WAIT WAIT WAIT IM LOOKING AT MY OLD TWITTER THREAD AND I FORGOT THIS CUTE DETAIL WHICH IS. yk how theres art of kaeya being an older brother to klee. imagine older sis klee taking care of kaeya because she knows he feels out of place as a foreigner... double that with part-chinese amber and albedo being albedo and klee suddenly has a diaspora daycare(???) is bennett being part-natlan canon. but hed be an adult in this au. gruff older bennett who becomes another adventurers guild dad awww. i think hed have a nice mustache beard combo. also adult fischl... im thinking she writes novels and she hits it big, maybe. or not? idk, who knows.

is there anything else... (opens character list on the wiki) fatui... i have no idea how to ageswap them, theyd just stop being important the plot dskfjhskf?? and the adult fatui have to be replaced with other ppl so, not ideal.

oh there is more on the twitter thread... about... oh yeah lmao. diona and diluc. diona taking over the wine industry without a competitor lmaooo (depends on crepus' survival but i dont think thats dependent on kaeya and diluc's ageswap soooo. dead dad! kaeya is older but its not a big deal i think they dont have a big difference in age right?) it becomes like some sort of rivalry with venti bcuz ofc venti is nawt gonna stand for wine being driven out of mondstadt!! what the hell would he even do tho. ADOPT HIMSELF INTO DILUCS FAMILY LOL? but also, i dont know if diona will accomplish anything even without diluc competing with her, because the whole point is she makes good drinks. unless as an older woman shes kind of figured out the thing so... she just wouldnt... make drinks. or come up with some psychological battle like the drinks are nice but the atmosphere is bad or you get really unlucky and mobbed or something ok maybe thats a bit much idk. rip diona she can never catch a break!

oh wait adult sayu........ er.............. i guess it wouldnt be sayu if she werent still a sleepy slacking ninja but she kind of doesnt have the "grow tall" excuse anymore. but maybe shes more like a "can slack on the job but still gets it done perfectly" kinda archetype.

i could do something crazy by having yae be born in this era and tease the closed-off princely ayato and the ayato yae shippers can feast on it or something. idk i dont ship it but considering their whole appeal is both of them being sly/tricksy... it would be kinda cute to see that on kids/teens. wait but ayato being like that was bc he was the older brother and had to deal w the politics... here ayaka is doing it. (how er patriarchal is inaz girl nvm their leader is a woman what am i thinking. well not in this timeline. lol wait) if they still got some gender roles (probably since its based on real life culture... we live in a society) then maybe ayaka cant be as girlbossy as she wants. oh, to get things in high places... maybe people dont take her seriously as a woman... so she has to... ohh........ this sucks man :( k but what does this have to do with ayato. what would he be like. sheltered from it or knowledgeable? i think he would probably know. oh god hes the looks princely archetype but actually a fucking bitch behind closed doors. and not canon kind of "hes willing to play dirty to get things done" but like actually awful. yeah i can totally see that. but yae is like totally unfazed and laughs in his face. WHY am i writing yaeyato fanfic in my au ramblings ive never even thought of this ship before??????? (bc i dont really care about ayato sorr

ok thats it YAHOO!!!!

[lipglossanon]

OMG MY TUMBLR KEEPS CRASHING WHILE IM TRYING TO TYPE THIS OUT RAAHHHH anyways, i saw this edit earlier of a re4r mod that like, adjusts the camera and so there’s this one clip where u can see leon just straight up manspreading and it was so hot HES SO HOT i just wna sit on his lap and cockwarm the shit outta him, you feel me?

and ofc this is gna turn into another thirst for stepbro leon bc why else wld i be here 🤭 i just imagine like, leon trying to study for college exams or smth and reader is laying on his bed, scrolling on her phone, bored out of her mind before suddenly feeling that familiar neediness springing up when she looks over at leon, sat at his desk, studying his books and notes, man spreading a lil in his chair and looking so studious, and asks, “leon..can you take a break? i need you” she says while pouting but only gets a, “no, sweetheart, i’m sorry, but finals are coming up” (this just reminded me that i have finals coming up too NOOOO💔💔💔) and ofc she’s whining and making somewhat of a fuss abt it but is just getting ignored by him which slightly annoys her before she tosses her phone aside and gets him, crawling under his arms and sitting in his lap. at this point, leon just lets her do it since she isn’t really doing much. right? WRONG. she starts to quietly whine in his ear, talking abt how much she needs him and it gets to the point that it’s annoying him that he eventually grabs her by her throat with a mean glare and a slight squeeze

“you wanna be a needy slut, huh? want my cock so bad?”

and she just nods eagerly, thinking she finally got her way as he pulls his pants down, pulls her shorts and panties down to just hang off her ankle before sliding his cock into her already soaking wet hole before cooing at her with mock sympathy, “there, happy?” but she’s just too cockdrunk to pick up on it as she nods and tries to move against him, but before she can even move so much as an inch, he’s holding her hips harshly and bruises are probably going to show up later

“you have my cock, now be a good girl and sit still, or you won’t get anything”

and she’s on the verge of crying out about how unfair he’s being before she sees the look in his eyes, as if daring her to disobey him before she meekly nods and tries her best to not move around as leon goes back to studying, thrusting up occasionally just to get a little reaction out of her before going completely still again

😵‍💫😵‍💫 brainrot, SORRY IF ITS NOT GOOD I AM NOT A WRITER😓😓 i was also having thoughts abt exec!leon fucking virgin!reader bc i can not get that one part of the fic outta my head..but that’s gna hv to wait for another time bc i hv a 5 page rough draft to write for my writing class tomorrow😀😀👍

-🪷

🪷 anon, never apologize for writing because you’re brain has beautiful thoughts 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 (and like a link to that mod vid—for scientific purposes of course 😌 😜 )

And you wanna know what’s insane?? I’m literally in the middle of writing a cockwarming fic for stepdad Leon 😱 so surprise I guess *jazz hands* 😜

But oof Stepbro Leon making her sit there while he studies for finals 🥴 🥴 I’m gonna have to take this and add it to my list (which is predominantly Stepbro Leon; he got everyone in a chokehold 🤤)

Haha no worries!! Thank you for sharing cause that’s so hot like it’s not even funny 🥵 🥵 and exec Leon is way more popular than I thought he’d be (very pleasantly surprised! 💜) and good luck with your rough draft!!! 💕

[bugbearstew]

actually i’ll take a minute and write a little bit about it. warning i might not have the best things to say and it will probably be really rambling...

i made porterminus when i was extremely depressed and in a terrible time in my life. aimless and not feeling good about myself or my work. somehow i made it all in like 2 months? i remember i worked literally every day on it for those two months. i kept an accountability journal. i dont know how i did that. its like i was one of those dwarf fortress dwarves who get possessed by some spirit to make a thing.

i made porterminus because OFF just came out. and everyone was making rpgmaker horror games. it has combat because off had combat. its black and white because OFF was black and white and junji ito manga is usually black and white. its about a girl with long black hair because junji ito manga is mostly about girls with long black hair. she has a baseball bat because OFF. and on and on and on and on....

its not very original or good i think. i could go down a list of every part of the game and say how i think its not very good but just, i think its very mediocre at best and mostly derivative and boring and bad. I honestly dont know why people like it or look at it fondly at all.

but all that said im glad i made it and that its here and i have no intention of deleting it or anything. it was my first fully complete thing after years and years of giving up on projects. while im not proud of it now, back then i was. I’m happy that people like it even if i cannot see the things they see. its an important part of my artistic journey and i’ll never forget it for that.

i’ve toyed with the idea of remaking it or making a sequel and i dont think i ever will or even *could*. I am a different person entirely, to my core, than i was 10 years ago. I have had so many highs and terribly low lows that I could never get into the headspace of julie and donnie again.

thank you for reading and enjoying my stuff. i hope i can make things like this someday again

-edit: i should note that i had some pretty rough news today so im not exactly in the best mood to be thinking about this so take it all with a grain of salt, i suppose.

[meruz]

i was gonna draw tonight but i dropped my tablet pen and the barrel of the pen broke off and flew somewhere underneath (??) my bed (?) and now i cant find it so I’m just gonna answer asks before bed instead. just some art asks and more mentions of infinity train LOL

What program and brushes do you use when making your art?

@ravki hi! part of this is in my FAQ but i’ll say it again anyways LOL: I use photoshop CC and have used photoshop for pretty much....my whole art career. I’ve dabbled in clip and paint tool sai in the past but photoshop is my true wife, we eloped away from her awful father adobe many years ago and are very happy together. 

as for brushes... I should prob put this info in my FAQ too lol,... my default brush set is actually free to download here! Tho I will say I also use steve ahn’s storyboarding brush sometimes and lately i’ve been using shiyoon kim’s brushes A TON. Shiyoon’s cost a couple bucks but they’re super worth it imo

How do you choose colors?

This is kind of a difficult one to describe from scratch but hmm.... I’ll put it this way. Generally when I go into coloring or painting something I already have some colors in mind. Like for a certain piece I know I want a bright green, or a magenta, or a dark blue in certain areas. A lot of the time I know a mood I want. So I’ll start with that core color tone and build around it. I’ll use an example from a recent piece

So you can see here that the first color I accessed was that bright cyan. So I start with that bright cyan and then bring in its “friends” in the form of analogous colors (shown below on the far left)

greens greys etc. THEN I know I want the characters to stand out against all the blue so I start laying down warm contrasting colors for them (middle group). the mat under them is orange, skin tones are warm, ryans flannel is red etc. then to get them to work together I work more cool colors into the shadows and slightly warmer (not too warm because its a cool img overall so in this case, greener LOL) colors into highlights. 

hope that makes sense? for me choosing colors is a lot about story and composition. If you know what you want to say, the mood you want to create, where you want to go, the path to get there becomes a lot clearer imo.

Have you ever considered making an art book?

I have! But I don��t think I currently have enough...original illustrations for one LOL? Not that an art book has to be all original work but if I were putting fanart in an art book...at that point I’d just make a fanzine. I’m making more original work lately though so maybe this year....? Who knows. For now, I do have a sketchbook up on gumroad. Hoping to do one of those next year too.

Any tips for keeping background drawings from getting super stiff, especially since things like interiors have a lot of straight lines?

This is a really interesting ask. Really great question that I don’t think gets asked enough - forgive me if I get a bit art school here but I drew up some examples.

First I think we have to investigate the assumption that straight lines make things stiff. That seems true on an instinctual level and certainly proves to be true very often But I don’t think its actually the straight lines themselves but the sort of arrangements and compositions they tend to dictate. Take this for instance.

pretty big difference, right? there’s a couple things that make a composition feel stiff and one of the most significant is lines that are perpendicular and parallel to the frame. it feels locked in and solid, like bricks. but the moment you shift these angles even a little the composition instantly becomes more dynamic because our innate senses of weight, gravity, and directionality can sense movement.

But it’s not just diagonals let’s take this one step further

when lines meet and terminate together those tangents can flatten and lock space so the best way to solve this is with overlap and complete intersection, forms continuing past or behind each other feel more layered and less like a flat mosaic... again, even in the simplest line drawings. So how do we apply this to a background?

ok I drew this really fast so its potentially not the best example but I think the idea is there. This space isn’t even particularly deep, it’s basically a room, a doorway, and a hallway behind it, and we’re not seeing that much of any of those things LOL. but when you draw an environmental object like a doorway in a way that lines up with the perpendicular and parallel lines of the canvas you’re automatically flattening it and making it look rigid.

and when you create tangents with objects and characters you flatten the space around them and make it difficult to tell what is actually in front or behind or if they’re on the same plane.

GOD I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE. Anyways. avoid those things and you’ll instantly have less stiff bgs no matter what kind of bg you’re depicting.

I wanna mention however that this isn’t to say a stiff bg with flat space doesn’t have its purposes.

sometimes you want to create parallels and tangents. it can make characters feel closed in, trapped, regimented, part of a routine, etc. it’s also great for making a composition look ornamental (especially combined with symmetry).

directors like wes anderson can even use these compositional elements to make images feel uncanny or harrowing! its very versatile. I think the important thing is to just be aware of when you are making something rigid and when that’s the last thing you want to do. conscious choices.

Can you speak Tagalog?

@lemuelzero101​ I can! BUT NOT VERY WELL LOL ;;; both my parents are from Visayas! but they met and had me in the states lol so I’m pretty American born and raised. We go back to visit family on occasion but not regularly. My tagalog is mostly absorbed from listening to relatives at parties lol and my parents speak bisaya at home so I’m marginally better at that. Sorry to any filipinos out there hoping I’d be better educated, I’m like a little baby...

I do love meeting and talking to other filipinos online though, I grew up in an area that was relatively diverse but the asian population was small and the filipino population basically non-existent. I was like one of maybe 2 filipino kids in my highschool of 2000.

Apart from infinity train what shows are you watching now? Have you seen jujitsu kaisen?

Man this is gonna sound so boring but I haven’t watched a lot of tv lately.  It’s not really part of my daily routine. Let’s see... I was sort of watching Amphibia, Craig of the Creek, and the new Digimon Adventure 2020 but I keep falling off watching those for one reason or another. Also there’s a lot of episodes, it doesn’t feel like something I can just binge and be done with.

The last thing I binged was Succession. I want that show and Euphoria back so bad, when I’m done forcing all my friends to watch Infinity Train im cancelling my HBO subscription until Succession and Euphoria return so they know exactly what I’m on their list for LOL. 

I have not watched jujitsu kaisen but I’ve kept up with some of the sakuga news (I keep up with anime industry news and production info like x5 the amt i keep up with actual anime) for it and their compositing/editing looks dope. I’ve read the manga actually LOL or at least part of the beginning. I wasn’t super keen on the whole finger eating thing. Also to be honest I kinda feel like its the new Bleach and I never particularly cared about Bleach. Characters look nice enough tho. I wholeheartedly support jjk fans.

Thank you! Thank you @keznodzieja​! <3

And thank you anons who don’t watch infinity train LOL...it’s always nice to hear when people enjoy my fanart despite not knowing the source material because it lifts a little bit of the “oh god am I being annoying???” fear off my chest. But also I think you should watch infinity train because it’s really good I have no reservations recommending it.

[worminstuff]

awesamdude x reader

per this request,  “ i forgot to say in my last request: i just recently found sam, so if you could write him i would absolutely adore you (which i already do) if not no hard feelings- anon xo🤍 “ i present to youuu

awesamdude x reader fluff!!!!!

Sam and tubbo are filling in the oshun, having a bit of a q&a when someone asks Sam if he has a girlfriend and someone slips up a lil.....

^^^^^^^

“Oh Tubbo my moms in the chat! Hi mom!” Sam made a quick glance at his stream labs to see his mom had popped in.

“Your mom watches the streams? Pog!” Tubbo let out a airy laugh.

“Yeah my mom is so cool, everyone tell my mom she's cool in chat please. Okay next question, Tubbo do you have one?” Sam finished a row of sand finding his inventory also empty so he made his way over to the chests.

“I think I do Sam, ellewastaken, what do you guys do all day when you're not streaming? Personally I eat and go to school and edit, that's about it” Tubbo smiled and shook his head a bit at his boring schedule.

“Same for me too I guess, we streamers aren't super exciting.” He nodded, agreeing with tubbo, “Chat what are you spamming?” Sam paused what he was doing to try to read the chat that was going incredibly fast. One of his mods, catching his confusion one of his mods dmed him a screenshot of what his mom said in chat that caused the little uproar,

your schedule is not boring anymore with y/n around that's a bit of a lie.

“Mom!” He laughed a tad as he spoke “Mom you've doxed your own son! They don't know about that yet.” He shook his head to himself, she didn't do it on purpose because she had no idea he had yet to mention it to his viewers. Sam wasn't particularly hiding you, there wasn't really a reason to, you didn't post pictures of him or yours faces publicly so that wasn't a problem, he just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

You were sitting across the room quietly like you'd been doing for his streams lately, scrolling through twitter or tiktok or doing some schoolwork just keeping him company. You perked your head up at that though, curious to what she could've said.

“Your mom doxed you? What?!” Tubbo laughed loudly.

“Okay chat relax, relax, y/n is actually my girlfriend,” You sat up completely now, fully listening.

“You've got a girlfriend Sam? That's so cool! Congratulations!” Tubbo smiled wildly, Even his chat was excited for Sam.

“I do! Thank you Tubbo!” he chuckled. “She's awesome, She's here too, she sits with me while I stream so im not lonely, when Tubbos not here of course.” He looked back to you seeing your shocked face, he gave you a small nod and a smile, calming you a bit.

You hadn't given a thought about what it would be like when his audience was aware of your existence.

“merinaxbc asked how long have you and your girlfriend been together, I have a feeling a bunch of these questions are gonna be getting asked around now” He chuckled, “We’ve been together for..5 months? I think? I think im right.” He turned back to look at you, seeing you nodding happily.

“kerilinmemegod asked, does y/n also play Minecraft? Oh its so strange seeing you guys know her name, she does like Minecraft but she mostly likes games like animal crossing. We’ve been playing that a lot lately.”  Him and Tubbo were making their way towards Sam’s base for some more sand and food.

Tubbo and Sam talked about some smp things and things for mcc while they worked, answering a few questions here and there.

“I'm getting a whole lot of questions about y/n now I feel like I should let her answer them. Tubbo do you wanna talk to y/n maybe?” He looked back to you silently asking if you'd be okay with his idea, you gave him a small nod.

“Sure! You should just be glad Tommy's not here.” He giggled.

“I am, I am, okay here she is!” You slid a chair over as he pulled off his headset holding out for you. You situated your chair next to his on the side with his mic, taking his headset from his hand.

“Hello!” You grinned with excitement, You'd known of Tubbo, and you adored him! You thought he was so sweet and you loved listening to him and Sam.

“Hi! Hi Sam’s girlfriend! Its so nice to meet you Sam’s girlfriend!!” You could hear his grin though his voice.

“Hi tubbo! Its nice to meet you too!” You grinned up at your boyfriend as he was smiling towards you shaking his head at how you were practically vibrating in excitement.

“You gotta answer questions, look at these,” He pointed towards his stream labs on one of his monitors. You read through the latest few and decided on one from a minute ago since it was the first one you saw.

“How tall is Sam? tall tall.” Sam defiantly towered over you quite a bit, he loved it to, being able to lift you and hold you so comfortably.

“Is he really?” Tubbo asked

“He’s like..6′5?” you looked towards him, “Close, 6′7.″ he nodded looking at his screen placing sand.

“Surely not! That's huge!” Tubbo looked at his face cam in astonishment.

You laughed, looking towards the stream labs for more questions, “We don't live together, maybe soon though. I am in school! Regular college nothing as smarty pants as him.”

You sat answering questions as they came in, occasionally talking with tubbo in-between.

The entire time Sam was grinning. he adored listening to you talk to his community and one of his best friends, you were so adorable too. You got excited with certain questions, happy to tell stories of you two. He thought you were absolutely perfect, and it seemed like chat did too!

***

there we go! a small bit o sam, hopefully it was alright! it was a lot of fun to write sam, 10/10 will do again:D

[uglifish]

How do you write long multi-chapter fics without losing steam or motivation?

Hey guys!

Been a while since I made a post answering all the FAQ’s in my inbox, and this is the one I get the most, so here goes my answer/advice:

▽ structure and continuity 

(and i still struggle with this lmao its an uphill climb)

1) outline or map out your story path. if it drags and you find yourself getting BORED with your writing or where the story is going, its time to stop, step back, and evaluate.

completely write out the storyline in short-hand nonsense as fast as possible, because its for you only, so go back to fill in the details later. if you want to see what MY outlines look like...... -embarassmentttttt-

Here’s a screencap from underwater chrysalis.

if you’ve read that story, you can probably recognize this scene was an entire chapter, but it was 5 nonsense sentences in my outline.

2) if you can sit down for X hours and write out the outline from start to end (yes, end of the story) then you have a solid skeleton to polish up :D

3) don’t worry about chapter splitting just yet. get it all out first

▽ Marathon time

1) set aside time for yourself to write it out. Find time for it at least once a week or once a day if you can manage that! DON’T leave it sitting for 2+ weeks--unless that’s your creative process--and if it is, and you recognize you get stuck here, leaving the fic alone for more than 2 weeks = abandoning the fic?? then proceed to this step→

go back to it and read it over and over, right up until the point where you stopped, ask yourself questions about where the characters are going (refer to your outline)/ why the characters are doing X scene ...etc (is there tension? is this part boring? why have you stopped writing? tired? take a nap:)

2) know when to ignore (writing) advice. and i wish someone had told me this when i first started marathon fic-writing. advice is great but its not a cure-all and maybe you’re exhausted from trying everyone’s suggestions. literally you do you, but keep an open mind to learn along the way.

3) if you run into a problem, like wanting to change an ENTIRE scene that will  affect the ending of your story, stop writing and go back to your outline. you’re wasting your own time this way. write to get to an ending.

4) know that there are formulas to long, captivating stories. its like a curve that goes up and down. (find a formula that works for you!) for me, it’s: scene start tension scene escalating tension resolve tension but then another conflict + 2 conflict + 1 romance = long 3 chapter scene :D scene resolving 1 conflict, romance + 3 yay! scene adding to conflicts and romance above tension resolution? another tension or romance resolve? which slowly helps taper to an end (which i still struggle with)

5) have fun! you’re exploring this character, this universe, don’t get too stuck up your own ass about stuff and let things go. if you finished a scene and re-read it, hate it, don’t give yourself crap about it. if you’re happy with it one day and unhappy with it another day, figure out why or just let it go. Your goal is to write as much as possible to finish your story to the outline you wrote. if you get hung up on the stuff in the middle, you’ll never reach the finish line.

▽ I’ve finished my multi-chapter my pile of crap. Now what?

1) don’t look at it, don’t even think about it. congratulate yourself and go to the beach :D get yourself a coffee and socially-distance-hang-out with your friends

2) 1 - 3 weeks later, re-read it ALL with fresh eyes. don’t tell your friends about it, don’t link it anywhere for feedback. it’s still ALL YOU right now.

3) re-read it round 1: edit it grammatically and for bulk. if you still hate that random interaction you added in, delete it entirely and set it aside. fix all grammar issues and add to more descriptions if some are lacking.

4) re-read it round 2: a week later with your own fresh eyes, make sure everything flows. did you say character X had a green shirt in ch 3 but in ch 4 they were wearing a blue shirt? fix that :O might be a genuine mistake, either you forgot or got up to leave your fic for 4 days and (forgot)

5) re-read again round 3: a week after that, read it again and find it for more errors, add more flow if some scenes have a choppy transition, and start to split it into chapters. Find natural breaks in your writing (or cliff hangers!) and cut them there. 6) recruit a friend! Ask someone you’re ok with baring your soul to and make them read your slightly less steaming pile of crap, which is now a polished turd. hopefully your friend will tell you it IS a polished turd and is OK for posting, or that you still mentioned green shirt character is wearing a blue shirt (again) in ch 56 and you missed it :P

7) post and run, or save it to re-read again 6 months later

i’ve been doing the post and run thing for a while if im medium-proud of my shiny turd, or if im really insecure about it, i’ll sit on it for even a YEAR before i even breathe about it. its not that i hate it, its that i feel it could be better and if i’m continuously writing during that time, I can go back to look at it with fresh(er) eyes.

▽ things to think about / stuff to ask yourself while writing:

- why am i tired (of this, of it?) know yourself and know your limits. if you’re tired (physically, of writing) learn to differentiate that from being mentally tired.

- who are you writing for? a friend’s bday gift fic? submission into Fanfic Award-Winning Novel Writers Club? A novel manuscript to Random House? Nanowrimo? your fandom rare-pair discord server? ....yourself?? and then figure out your motivations for the tone of your writing :D

- i suck at writing X (a violent action scene, smut, small-talk in elevator scene), so i’ll just skip it... no. if you think your story needs it, make your best attempt at writing it and then go back to edit it. you’ll be happy you pushed yourself to write it.

- i’ve never done X (been to a hotspring in Japan, gone hiking in extreme weather, gone on a blind date) how would i know what it feels like? Try your best to envision it or use the wonders of the internet to learn about it. Research is your best friend to express realism in your writing :D

aaaaaaaaaaaand that’s all i got for now :O

*btw you know what works for you as a creative mind, this is all stuff that works for me and I hope you found it helpful!

thank you for reading this super long post, and feel free to PM me if you need a “get me unstuck” buddy in your writing process :D

xooxxo Ugli

[charged-wanderlust]

Jett, 42 😉

ohh that has jett written All Over It thank you sara im gonna enjoy this one.

edit: i am, in fact, enjoying this one, and its already way longer than expected oops. mentioned mc/jett x remy on the side bc uhhh polyamory rights :)

“Love. Babe. Babyyyyy...”

Your overgrown manchild of a boyfriend drapes himself across your lap, completely shirtless for some reason (spoiler alert, the reason is you,) while you’re trying to paint.

“Jett, please, I’m tryna paint something here and I’m really in the zone...”

He lets out an overdramatic sigh, peeling off you to fall back onto the couch with a hand to his forehead, “Oh, what ever shall I do, being bested by a painting...”

You tear your eyes off the easel to give Jett a half-assed glare that only earns you his signature, crooked grin in response. “I’m teasing, love. I know what it’s like when you’re in the zone, I’ll just watch.”

He does not, in fact, just watch.

He tries at first, keeping his distance to respect your wishes and watching each brushstroke with rapt attention, but you lose yourself in the colours and shades until he’s restless and bored, coming up behind you and wrapping his arms around you in a big hug, chin plopped on your shoulder.

“Watcha doin?”

“You know what I’m doing, Jett, you’ve been in here watching me paint for-”

“Hours. I’m bored.”

“Well I’m still in the zone, so tough luck, bored.”

“Did you just dad joke me?”

You giggle to yourself at that - Yes Jett Slater, I did just, in fact, dad joke you, - but he sees that as an invitation, as you slipping away from the hyper-focused headspace of “the zone.”

You welcome his displays of affection, comfortable enough to paint within his arms - then you feel his mouth on your neck, and you still.

“Jett?”

“Mmm?”

He doesn’t do so much as lift his head up to respond, pressing kiss after kiss down your shoulder, pulling at your neckline to do so. You sigh at his antics, but you can’t help the smile threatening to pull at the corners of your mouth.

“You’re incorrigible,” you mutter, reaching your paintbrush back out to grace the canvas, but Jett’s quicker, grabbing your wrist lightly and pulling it to his lips, kissing along your paint-stained hands.

“Jett,” you half-laugh, half-whine, drawing your hand back from him, “Go kiss Remy if you want attention that much, I’m sure he’d be happy to oblige.”

“You don’t want to kiss me? I’m hurt, love. Remy’s out with Niko anyway.”

“What ever am I going to do with you?” You turn around on your stool, tutting and shaking your head fondly, to which he just gives you a brilliant grin and his best puppy eyes.

“You could, dunno... kiss me?”

Finally caving in, you get up and grab his shirt, tugging him into a charged kiss. You feel him smiling against your lips, victorious; but you refuse to let him win, pressing forward until he stumbles backward onto the couch, and he’s all too happy to let you climb on top of him and grab a handful of his red-and-white locks to pull while you kiss him senseless.

You nip at his lip and he moans, you drag your nails across his scalp and he moans again; and when you pull back and take one look at his flushed face, kiss-swollen lips and eyes alight with excitement, you realise that he won the moment he made you smile.

“You look happy with yourself.”

“With you like this, love, I’m the happiest man in the world.”

[logically-asexual]

okay i'm already procrastinating and i don't plan on sleeping any time soon so here we go.

☆ ✩ my personal ranking for every season 1 Sanders Sides episode. ✩ ☆

i think it's going to be pretty similar to @dukeofonions' but let's see if i find something new to contribute haha. i see you didn't include that one about Patton in the Big Game or whatever, so i'm not including it either xd. also i think i'm going to count Accepting Anxiety as one episode only.

edit: i finished and now i dare you to drink a shot of water every time i say the word spanish or a version of the word comfort and become very well hydrated.

#16 I'm in a Disney Show

(i agree with dukeofonions here) i always forget this episode exists. it was ok in terms of being happy for real life Thomas but as a Sanders Sides episode it didn't do anything. the sides were just giving their opinions but it wasn't very funny or interesting. also i'm bitter because it made me look up the episode he was in and i didn't like it at all. i don't know if i'm too old for those Disney shows now but Thomas was literally the only good part of it, everything else was really dull and boring imo. a waste of time.

however, Logan supporting clickbait is one of the funniest things ever, and i'll never forget it.

#15 Becoming A Cartoon

i didn't hate this episode but it was just .. meh.. you know? several factors contribute to this. one, i couldn't feel much nostalgia for Butch Hartman's shows because i watched them in Spanish, and everything feels really weird when they speak English, i don't like how my old cartoons sound in English. two, it was disappointing to me because we were all desperately waiting for Plot™ and instead they give us this short episode about nothing (oh how the tables have turned now it's the other way around haha). and three, i didn't like the style of the animation :/ their faces and expressions freaked me out, Roman's douchey face still haunts me.

#14 Way Too Adult

here i'm biased because i don't like Patton much, and i didn't back when i watched the series the first time either, so this video was a little disappointingwithout the rest. also it wasn't relatable to me because i am still too young and dependent on my parents haha. but Patton is funny and it's funny to laugh at Thomas' struggling.

#13 The Dark Side of Disney

i've never been a fan of Disney movies. i actually never watched Mulan or the Lion King or Aladdin as a kid, so meh. i liked the ending, though, it was cool to see Virgil have fun and be right for once. it does make me a bit uncomfortable because the way Thomas tries too hard with Virgil's mouth movements and his low voice reminds me of a guy that had made me v uncomfortable not long before watching that video. so an icky feel overall.

#12 A New Year of Lying to Myself

this video was actually kind of fogettable to me. i had a hard time connecting the voices in the song to the characters and idk. i don't love it nor hate it, just .. neutral.

#11 My True Identity

pretty much the same opinion as dukeofonions, again. it's a good introduction and it's good that it was the beginning of it all but on its own it's not very special. i think it's awesome on Thomas to have come up with such a clever idea, like choosing the dad, the teacher and the prince and putting them together and match them with thoughts?? that fit so perfectly?? it really is just very impressive when you think about it, that it was just a random idea he had for a short 5 minute video.

#10 Taking on Anxiety

i liked this video a lot because when i watched it i had recently been a lot on tumblr, and found out through relatable posts that i had anxiety. so watching this video was really fun and it made me happy to feel so seen, specially the intro when Thomas just talks about what it's like to have Anxiety and Virgil is so smug about it.

- ★ -

okay now that those are out of the way things are going to get hard... all the following i love with all my heart so i'm going to rank them based on the smallest things.

#9 Growing Up

once more, Patton isn't my favorite. so that's why i'm putting this here, plus the echo at the end askjhsahg, but i love love this video. i remember we were waiting and oh so ready for the angst of nobody taking Patton seriously. and we received!! i love that though Roman and Logan are antagonists here, they're both so happy about Thomas wanting to have a healthy life. and i just adore the way Logan admits his mistake at the end and asks Patton directly. my heart... also aw.. the nostalgia. i remember none of us knew how to spell Patton's name and were writing it in very funny ways until Thomas and Joan told us lol.

#8 The Mind vs The Heart

when i watched this video the first times i didn't like it much, because i only had eyes for Virgil, but later i came back to it and loved it. so taking that into account i'm putting it here. logicality was the first ship i ever shipped in the show because i saw a gifset on tumblr of Patton screaming "what do you know about love?!" and Logan "apparently more than YOU" and the caption said "MARRIED", and i thought hey yeah... anyway. i love them. they're both my dads since that day.

this video is so so so relatable and i love it. Logan and Patton are so much fun arguing and i love how they compromise at the end and work together. im reconsidering.. i might move it higher? no, fine i'll leave it here.

#7 Making Some Changes

this video was absolutely hilarious. i personally couldn't see it as the Sides still once they were acted by Thomas' friends, i enjoyed it more as that bunch being silly and trying to be the sides but failing in so many ways, while sometimes nailing stuff suddenly. i really don't take this one too seriously as an episode. except Joan!Logan and Valerie!Logan, my beloved... i love how Joan acted as Logan and their voice and that they kept their ace ring on.. there's a reason i had them as my icon for so long. and Valerie looks a bit (a lot) like me with the glasses and dressed in dark colors, plus she spoke Spanish and there's .. no words to describe the joy i felt when seeing/hearing that. wait i'm getting emotional...

#6 My Personality Q&A

when i watched this Virgil was my favorite side and i didn't care much about the rest lol. when i heard his answers i related to him SO much it was scary, and also his voice is so soft and it was all very comforting. it was also when i first starting looking at Logan with more attention, because when he brought up Big Hero 6 and Fall Out Boy and said he didn't sing and would recite it like a poem? it only took a couple seconds but my brain said "me" and never went back.

now this video is a little underwhelming to watch for me, most of the appeal for me was in finding out the answers, and also watching it when we didn't know a lot about the sides. now we know more and want to know more so it's not as fun to me as it was first.

i wish so bad they'd do another one, although i know it would be more difficult with a much bigger audience, i think they can manage and i just need it. the chaos.. the energy.. they all being so savage with each other, learning little random facts about them you didn't expect.. i need it.

- ★ -

oh boy top 5 here we go. the next three are practically a tie. i can't choose.

#5 Alone on Valentines Day

i love Valerie, and the idea of this video was perfect and so perfectly excecuted. every side just giving their crazy opinions on how to woo a random stranger, i laughed SO much. first with Logan speaking simlish out of nowhere? at that point i didn't know practically anything about the sims except that it was some video game and the whiplash of Logan going AYO and the rest killed me. then when Roman whipped out that dialogue in Spanish??? my life was completed. i've never felt more happy than i did in that moment gosh. just the hilarity of Roman's drama, the shock of them speaking Spanish suddenly like that, the absolute JOY of seeing a creator i like speak (may i say) perfect Spanish, the other characters' faces after that.. never been happier.

also the conclusion was so cute. Virgil solving the whole problem without wanting to. i loved it.

#4 Am I Original

i think this video speaks for itself. it was fun to watch them all do the ideas Roman had, plus Logan and Virgil nodding at each other, (i love them so much), plus the angst at the end of Roman's perfectionism, plus Roman's just perfect name. this video has it all.

i think Thomas posted it kind of late at night and i watched it at 7am in the classroom as i waited for my classmates to arrive and the class to start. (i usually was like 40 minutes early to school due to mom’s work). i had to contain my laughter and it wasn’t easy.

#3 Losing My Motivation

i started loving this video after a while, when Logan passed Virgil in the position for my favorite side. but once he did this episode was beautiful. it's so funny and i love Logan and Patton's dynamic so much. and the video also so damn relatable in general. i felt so seen with it because they named all the problems i have when procrastinating, down to Patton's vague explanation of his feelings, it's exactly how i feel every time i want to do stuff. and the plot twist! i can hear the dramatic sound effect and see how they all turn to Logan clearly in my head, and it always makes me smile. plus there's so much Logan angst that can be dug up and overanalized. i love to watch it over and over.

#2 Accepting Anxiety

this video was perfect. everything we wanted. we knew it was coming and it delivered perfectly, better than any fanfic done in the waiting time. the week between the parts was agonizing but in a fun way somehow. i remember precisely when i was watching part 2 in my living room. i screamed. and i cried, a lot. i was feeling terrible at that time in my life and Thomas was such a comforting presence and i can't begin to describe how this episode made me feel.

and later it is always fun to rewatch with all their different reactions to being in Virgil's room, the energy of that was on point. Thomas is such a great actor and the characters where just amazingly performed. plus it gave so much to talk adn think about, the idea of the rooms, lots lots of insight into the characters, foreshadowing, so much. it's just perfect i have nothing else to say.

#1 (for purely emotional reasons, ironically) My Negative Thinking

i think Accepting Anxiety is the best episode of the season objectively but my favorite is My Negative Thinking. because i love Virgil and Logan so much and seeing them argue together was and is great. the comfort.. i can't repeat that word enough throughout this post. it's such a soft video while not being overwhelming with Patton and Roman's outbursts. just quiet (mostly) and clear and with perfectly timed humour.

Logan my beloved.. learning spanish... helping me with my own anxiety.. and their debate was so good. and the fact that they were friends i- i can't. Virgil didn't think Logan liked him and Logan told him explicitly that he did and the casual softness of it i cant even. Logan is happy that he tried.. it's just marvelous. Virgil and Logan as best friends will always be my favorite pair, and their dynamic will always be what i strive for in any relationship i might form, with both sides silently comforting each other within their own limits and realistic perspectives. so nice.

- ★ -

so yeah. that's all. thank you if you read all the way up to here. ♡ ♡ ♡

[fipindustries]

critical missive

dedicated to @cryptovexillologist

oh boy arent we in a fine pickle now?

usually i enjoy talking openly and bluntly about my opinions on whatever the last thing i read is, safe and secure in the knowledge that the author will most likely never stumble on my measily 700 followers tumblr blog, so i am free to express my opinion to my heart’s content knowing that no feelings will get hurt. 

mission critical would be no different except i talked with the author and read their acknoledgement and the AMA they did on discord after writing the story and they have endeared themselves thoroughly to me so my language will have to be neutered, at least for the first half of this excercise. afterwards things will get a bit harsher but i’ll try to rest at ease in the knowledge that we seem to be kindred spirits and i would be delighted in hearing any kind of criticism of my work either positive or negative. 

ok, enough coaching done, lets go on to what i thought of this novel.

it is a delightful romp, as i said before, the worldbuilding is understated and realistic with enough glimpses of depth and detail to suggest a much larger picture. this world feels inhabited, lived in, like it was well chewed on for long by the author before putting pen to paper. consequentially the characters that arose from this world feel like they belong, they feel like real people with real lifes. by far the strongest sections of the book were the flashbacks to their lives before the plot started. their voices, regretably, do sound very similar when interacting with each other but in their own sections the characters shine in their charm and cleverness. every time one of their flashbacks ended i was left with the intrigue and the desire to know how their particular story would continue.

the terra ignota influences are very noticeable, the world and its people carry the same kind of almost childlike positivity and innocence, the same kind of cheerful, happy go lucky trust in human progress and the great project of humanity for the future with the same sobering forlorn attitude towards the horrors of the past.

on top of that its silly, gosh in heaven it is silly. it has moments of cringe, in the best of ways. strange slapdash bits of flavor, immature non sequiturs, small indulgences from the author’s own weird interests and dumb meme humor. i do love me my awkward corners in a book, after all it is those that make something unique. there is a clear personality poking through and it is a delightful personality to meet.

i cant help but like this almost more for the context in which it was written than for the content itself, it was done during quarentine as a way to both stave off cavin fever and to process the author’s feelings regarding their gender identity. as someone who also wrote a story where i almost deliberatly tried to trick my self into breaking my own egg and who turned madly towards creative endeavors to survive the pandemic i can sympathize strongly with this. i am really happy that the author got to do this and kickstarted a project towards a big, possibly decades spanning trilogy.

so, yeah, those were the nice things i had to say, if you are content enough with that you can stop here but if you are curious to know more, well... you can

in short: it is a bit of a mess. again, im willing to be lenient, considering the way in which this was worked on, this is very much a really early first draft. the second half of this story was a very slow and very boring trudge towards a sudden end.

first, the fact that the flashbacks and the worldbuilding bits are the strongest part of this story means the actual plot itself suffers from being fairly boring and generic. “astronauts explore alien planet, find spooky stuff there” was already old hat by the 50′s. it is a plot so worn down and archetypical that it really cant survive if that is literally all you are going to do with it, and that is kind of all that this book does. i did mention moments of flavor and strange self indulgence. we needed way more of those. yes thats right, im saying that this story was not self indulgent enough. when you have such a well trodden plot such as this, worn down to the point that it becomes paint by the numbers, we need quirky, we need cringe, we need strange excess and personality. the author mentioned that they would love to see some of the weirder alexandria fan fics, well so do i! be the miracle you want to see in the world! the moments alexandria debated if wether identifying as a trilateral were amazing but they were not enough. we have a great structure here but lets put some proper meat on these bones, some proper fat and skin, some clown make up and a weird novelty hat and outrageous clown shoes. im getting carried away here, lets get back to the point.

the other problem is  there is not a clear trajectory for the story here, no well defined moment of climax and the emotional beats tend to fall a bit flat or to come out of nowhere. there are emotional crisis which i sort of missed or didnt get where they came from. the characters act in ways that are hard to relate to  that come off as stilted. the way they conduct themselves through the mission felt at times weirdly unprofessional and like it didnt follow much of a logical throughline, and when i say logical i dont meant “i wanted the characters to act hyperrational at all times” i mean i want the characters to act in ways that make human sense. ironically the one character that acted a bit too human for my tastes was the AI. alexandria is an interesting character but i feel that the place to explore that idea is not in the middle of an incredibly important mission where having your mainframe experience a crisis might not be the most practical thing in the world.

the ending was jarringly sudden, i didnt feel there was a proper resolution and finishing it off with flashbacks to the time the characters were training was... odd. i reached the last line and it felt like the story had just decided to stop without ever having reached anything that came even close to the third act. all of this can be easily fixed with some concientious editing and a complete rearrangement of the different sections of this story.

all in all a great first step in what i hope will be a long career as a writer.

[ladynox]

20 Questions - Writer’s Edition

Tagged by @kaydeefalls & @im-the-punk-who

How many works do you have on AO3? 15. I use to be a pretty profilic writer when I was a teenager (before AO3 thank fuck 😂) but I lost interest. Picked it up again somewhere in my 20s, only to lose interest or the drive or something again. Roswell's the first fandom I've written for in almost decade. Hopefully this time I'll be able to stick too it. Id' forgotten how much I enjoy writing. What’s your total AO3 word count? 233292. Most of that is from just the last year alone! Crazy! How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Currently posted to AO3? Just three. Yu-Gi-Oh!, Captain America and Roswell New Mexico. If we're counting the stuff lost to long dead Yahoo groups or forgotten notebooks, or the stuff still on the internet because I can't remember my password but I will never own up to? Probably 8? With the addition of Gundam Wing, Sailor Moon, Digimon and Final Fantasy 7. There might have been more but I can't remember anymore. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? The 1-3 and 5 were co-written with @beautifulcheat 1. The Great New Mexico Fake-Off (Roswell, malexa, complete) Michael takes up baking after watching The Great British Bake Off and starts gifting his bakes to the people he loves. Mostly fluff and pining. 2. Milestones (Roswell, malexa, WIP) based after the series, in that nebulous well adjusted future we dream of for our favorite idiots. 😂 Maria, who has been living in a v poly relationship with Michael and Alex for years, realizes she's pregnant. Michael is ecstatic. Alex is conflicted, which dampers some of Maria's joy. Still a pretty fluffy and very domestic fic. This one's on hold because we're both busy with work, school and certification exams. So we only really have time for one, which is the following monster of a fic:

3. The Truth is Right Here (Roswell, malexa, WIP) X-Files/White Collar fusion where Michael is both Scully and Neal, and Maria and Alex are both Mulder and Peter. Yes you heard right. The alien is the skeptic. But the agents don't know he's an alien yet. hahah 4. Testing the Bonds (Captain America, Steve & Bucky) Bucky comes out to Steve during the war. 5. Petit Fours (Roswell, malexa, complete). Companion piece to Fake-Off. An assorted collection of text fics or short fics. Mostly about everyone else's reaction to how bad Michael is at keeping the secret that he's the one baking the cake. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Hmmm looking over these fics, I realize that I don't really write angsty endings. I tend to like my angst with a happy ending, or a hopeful one. Whatever that might look like given the subject matter of the fic. So I guess the closet would be The Message (YGO, puppyshipping, complete). The fic starts after an incident of domestic violence. Jou is basically working through the horror/guilt he feels at what he's done. It's not a happy ending, but there's hope different decisions will be made. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? A New Year, A New Hope (Roswell, malex, complete) is entirely made up of marshmallows from start to finish, so likely that one. Fake-Off's also tooth rottingly sweet. Surprising no one I'm sure hahaha. I love happy endings so I write a lot of fics with those. Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? Yes I do! I'm counting fusion fics as crossovers too. I *love* AUs in general. They're super fun. As for craziest.... well I've already mentioned Truth above, which is likely the craziest because of how ambitious it is. I both love and regret ever starting this monster. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Oh yeah definitely. hahaha One day people will figure out the back button. Do you write smut? If so what kind? Yeah but not a lot. I want to write more smut honestly but I have a hard time writing it. I don't have a problem with action scenes so it's all mental. Just start thinking it's gonna suck or it doesn't make sense or it's boring. Dumb brain, cockblocking me. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of? Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. Have you ever co-written a fic before? All the time. It's the best. Everything Kat and I write is just to amuse the other, makes writing so much fun. Also, she and I have opposite writing strengths and weakness so it really works out well. What’s your all time favorite ship? Er? I gotta choose just one? Seems kind of pointless to pit different fandoms against each other. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? I mean I have every intention of going back and finishing it but probably Six. A malex The Last of Us AU that I had a lot of grand ideas for but have lost all drive to finish. I do think that what's written can largely stand on its own as a 1 shot. One of these I'll go back edit it, give it a good "in conclusion" so to speak. XD What are your writing strengths? Hmm? Character voices/studies, I think. I like doing stream of consciousness a lot. What are your writing weaknesses? Everything. Kidding. Kidding. Probably smut and dialogue. Though I think I'm getting better at dialogue. Lately I've been getting the dialogue on paper before the descriptions. That use to not be the case! Yay! Improvement! What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? Use it sparingly and carefully. Most of your readers are probably not going to be able to read that language. The last thing you want is to confuse or annoy your readers. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Gundam Wing 🤣 All of those fics are lost to time and I'm totally ok with that. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? I am proud of everything I've posted to AO3. Um... @beautifulcheat, @maeglinthebold @jocarthage, @tasyfa and anyone else who wants to do it.

[ratanslily]

Lover of Mine

pairing: Rafael Aveiro x f!mc (Grace Sullivan)

note: Rafael and all oph characters belong to pixelberry! Grace belongs to @inacrowdofchoices ❤️

genre: honestly i dont even know what this is, but ends with fluff.

warnings: death mention (no, there's no major character death!), some mentions of the gas leak taken place in chapter 11 (?) please dont read if you're uncomfortable with any of these topics!

summary: just a rewrite of chapter 11 and 12 but with more rafael moments!

words: 1,014+

song inspo: lover of mine by 5 seconds of summer. wanted to write it for bryce, but made more sense for rafael and i wanted to write for @inacrowdofchoices sometime so!

tagging @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

((didn't have much time to edit sorry!))

Grace saw her life flash before her eyes as she witnessed Rafael jumping in front of her to take all the hit of the gas leaked by senator's assistant.

"RAFAEL, NO!"

but it was too late.

she had seen him on the verge of death before too, but not again, she couldn't take it anymore.

----

there was only one bed.

in fiction, it seems like a really romantic concept. but in real life, in situations like this, things were far from romantic. As she sat beside a sleeping Rafael, she couldn't help but think about her feelings for him and about what they could've been if he wasn't committed to Sora. Her instinct begged her to grab him in a hug and never let him go but her mind urged against it. She stole a glance at Rafael, whose face showed the after effects of being hit by the gas, he looked exhausted and troubled. Grace tried to hold back her tears as she took in the view of him, unsure whether they both would live to survive another day.

Sure about the fact that he was sleeping, she mumbled, "i love you, Raf, so much."

To her horror, his eyes fluttered open, and he asked her if she said anything to him. Stumbling with words, she replied,

"I er, owe you, Raf. so much. You've saved me, you shouldn't have to do that, you know.."

Rafael just smiled at her, saying, "Yes I shouldn't have to do that, but I needed to. Now Grace, rest. It's going to be good for you."

He watched her lie down and couldn't help but admire her ombre red hair as they rested on the pillow. She looked so pretty, even with the swollen nose and eyes. A hint of pain was seen in her forehead as she winced in pain. Rafael wanted to gently caress her face to comfort her but he couldn't.

it was wrong, wasn't it? having feelings for her even though he was dating Sora. He tried to convince himself that he loved Sora, not Grace but no matter how many times he uttered the word "love" only pictures and memories of Grace flashed in his mind.

them dancing on the street after visiting his abuela. the pure joy reflected on her face as they tried Indian food on their night-out. her head drooping on his shoulder as she sat beside him to watch a korean drama for the millionth time in solidarity even though she was exhausted. her bringing him fast food when he was bored sick of the hospital food. her holding his hand and never making him feel less or lonely on their group hangouts at the restaurant.

so many memories together but still he chose Sora over them. Sure she was his childhood sweetheart but he felt more at ease with Grace rather than Sora. With Sora he felt like he had to try to show that they were in a relationship whereas with Grace, everything,every feeling came to him naturally.

--

Grace woke up to Rafael trying to drink from a glass of water and offered to help him. She saw his eyes widen in surprise as he told her that ice cold water seemed like scorching water to him. She panicked and called everyone for help. Rafael turned to her, afraid.

"Grace, I don't really know if I'm gonna make it but please, take care and I-"

he fainted before he could complete his sentence, leaving Grace devasted. Thankfully she could feel his pulse so there was a sliver of hope for him.

Bryce and others rushed to the room as she narrated the events to them. As they took him away for inspection in other room, she couldn't help but cry as Bryce pat her back comforting her.

"Bryce, I am.. scared. He doesn't look so good, and god be damned if he loses his life over saving me! If i could, I'd trade my life so that he gets to live because i sure as hell cannot exist in a world without him.." He looked at her with sympathy in his eyes, "don't worry Grace, I'm going to make sure both of you get out of here, fully healed and healthy."

and he did.

Bryce entered her room a few days later, with a big grin on his face.

"Grace, you're fully heal-"

"Is he alright?"

"Yes, he-"

Grace didn't stop for him to continue and dashed to where Rafael was transferred to. She stopped in her tracks when she heard voices coming from the room. It was Sora. She turned back to walk away when she heard,

"you still like her, am i right?"

"yes."

"im sorry, rafael its over for us. i wish you the best of luck and happiness with her"

"you too, Sora. im sorry it took so long but you deserve someone who has feelings just for you."

--

a few days later, Grace found herself strolling by the park with Rafael's hand in his.

they just returned from Bobby and Danny's funeral. She held his hand throughout the rituals to make sure he was coping with everything just alright.

"hey you can let go of my hand now.."

"no, nope. never."

Rafael smiled, for the first time that day.

"I'm sorry, Grace."

"hm? for..?"

"for taking so much time. I spent so much time wondering what we could be.. if i didnt ask Sora out, if i was clear with my feelings my feelings earlier.. if i had died before letting you know-"

"shh, enough of that. we're here. alive. with a fresh new second chance at life. don't you think we should appreciate the moments we've gotten together? to live each moment to the fullest? with the people we care about?"

He nodded his head in agreement and they resumed their walk together.

"by the way, i heard that."

"what?"

"your.. love confession in the room"

Grace felt her cheeks heat up out of embarassment.

"um, i-"

"and when i told you to go rest, under my breath, so quiet that even my ears couldn't hear but with my heart approving every word, I said.."

"i love you too"