#it has been a whole business day like everywhere in the world now tho so gimme em

[mzcain27]

Give me surveys or call me to say the car is ready I’m bored

[three-realms-archive]

Unhinged™

(inspired by this post by @leniisreallycool. the pure madness of obey me is the reason why I typically write chaotically-comedic slice-of-life scenarios; because i can honestly write these guys doing the stupidest things and argue that it might as well be canon, these dorks. anime canon, tho. the anime is just another beast of its own to the game ahahaha.)

(so while this may not be anime canon-level obey me content, i hope it comes close. if they’ve actually done any of these and i just haven’t experienced it in-game yet, let me know! it only proves my point.)

There was a time when Solomon brought an extremely-long baguette everywhere with him, insisting it was his magic wand. Even as the days turned to weeks, and the bread crust turned to mould, Solomon would still carry it around everywhere; unbothered by the rancid smell and waving it like a idol group light-stick whenever he spoke an incantation. Then, one day, he showed up at RAD with sandwiches to share. Sandwiches… with suspiciously green and white bread. Turns out, this whole thing was Solomon’s interpretation of dry-aging.

Belphegor and Asmodeus have an ongoing vlog series on Deviltube called ‘Beauty Sleep’. They go somewhere trendy, find some inappropriate place for Belphie to sleep, and Asmo takes some #aesthetic shots whilst timing how long Belphie can nap before being kicked out. It’s incredibly popular and sometimes features cameos from the exchange students and the other Avatars of Sin. Once, a subscriber milestone came with a special surprise: a live-streamed episode of Beauty Sleep in the Demon Lord’s Castle! They never got caught, because Diavolo was busy watching the livestream in his room - too invested to realise it was his own house.

The dining table in the main room of the House of Lamentation has its own fandom on the DevilNet. There are multiple fansites speculating the exact materials used to make it; the exact number of fasteners it uses; and, most especially, its exact length. There are posts, blogs and entire DevilTube deep-dive videos centred around the mystery of how long the table is. This is because, in every piece of media involving the table, it appears a different length despite the decorations and location remaining the same. What the Devildom doesn't know is that the table was made retractable shortly after MC arrived in the Devildom. It was a custom job, done solely so that the table could be used as a runway for a makeshift fashion show (Asmo and Mammon's idea) the brothers held with human world clothes one time MC was feeling homesick.

Once, for a whole month, Mammon dedicated himself to creating a new currency. For the first week, he was an absolute menace, stealing metal objects (like small screws or unused kitchen utensils) around the house to melt down and form into coins of his own design. Beel cried for five days over the lack of cutlery and Asmo kept shrieking whenever he realised he’d had another piece of jewellery had been stolen from him. The rest of the month was spent attempting to rope people into investing; then failing; then celebrating because he had so much of his money to himself; and finally crying because none of it would be accepted at stores.

When he had first gotten into reading books, Satan started a website called ‘Ampbook’ where demons could upload personal writing projects, as well as comment on and share them, too. It’s now incredibly popular, especially amongst younger demons, and is well-known for romance. Well. Much to Satan’s chagrin, it was actually better-known for romance… and fanfiction. He’s constantly torn between allowing his beloved site users their freedom of expression, or immediately taking down any fanfics shipping MC with any of his other brothers. He’s also faked MC x Satan as the most trending tag, permanently.

The height of Beel’s appreciation for Leviathan was shortly after MC’s arrival into the Devildom. They had introduced Levi to an anime centred around four students in a high school swimming team; including a protagonist who Beel thought had a dubiously-intimate love of water. Regardless, Levi tried out for the RAD swimming team - got in and won a bunch of gold medals - and then proceeded to quit the team after a new, different anime he had been waiting for came out. All in the span of a week. To Levi's disdain, Beel brings this up at least once a month: by parading a handmade display of Levi's medals and a framed photo of his older brother in a swimsuit around RAD, showing it off to everyone who asked. And everybody asked. Maybe not so much for the medals.

[neontokyoo]

*Slides in* so. You asked for something. (I have a female reader in mind, feel free to do write however you want.)

Imagine for whatever reason, Tav/Durge/reader is turned tiny- a chibi version of her, if you will.

How would the party carry you around? What would she wear? What if they engage in a fight? What if we include Gortash in this

I suppose Gale would put her inside a floating resilience sphere (with Boo for her protection, of course.)

Imagine trying to wrap a piece of cloth around yourself for cover; huffing and puffing due to all the effort it takes and suddenly someone Astarion pinches pinches those smol, mochi buttcheeks.

Or pushing ink, paper, books and other things around on the desk as Enver writes down his plans for leading the world to a catastrophe.

Shadowheart is not above forcing her to do a fashion show with whatever she uses as dress and clothing on her.

I'm sorry this is basically brain vomit. Doesn't stop me from sending other shit in the future tho

Sorry for the wait, I’ve been really busy this week because my husband and I are expecting to have twins really soon so I haven’t really been writing a whole lot and most of my asks are either queued or in my drafts. This was made like last minute so I hope it’s alright lol

Pairing: Fem!Durge!Tav x party (with Astarion as a love interest, I’m assuming?) ft. Gortash Genre: fluff Summary: ⬆️ Warnings: sexual themes/references to sex.

Basic Headcanons:

If Tav was tiny, I would believe that everyone has a different way to carry her.

Gale would keep her in the pocket of his robes.

Karlach and Wyll would probably carry her on their heads and just let her hold on to their horns if she needs to.

Lae’zel, Shadowheart, Minthara, Jaheira and Astarion would probably just carry her on their shoulders.

The animals, such as the owlbear cub, Scratch, and maybe even Halsin would just let her ride of either their backs or their heads.

Assuming that she’s no smaller than a hamster, Minsc and Boo would probably just let her chill in Boo’s little hamster ball until she’s needed in combat.

If we include Gortash in this, I feel like he’d just be fighting everyone over Tav all the time considering their past relationship. I mean, he’d probably love to have a pocket-sized ex, honestly. He’d just carry her around everywhere and never have to worry about anyone taking her because she’s buried and well-hidden in his pocket.

But assuming that her love interest is Astarion, it’s always an ongoing battle between her current lover and her ex-lover. She’s always being passed around between the two and fought over.

Gale likes to put her and boo inside of a floating resilience sphere and just carry her around like that.

Despite being small, she’s still pretty powerful in combat. Especially being the Dark Urge. Don’t let her looks fool you, because she’s equally as aggressive as she used to be when she was bigger.

An actual story now

Being small wasn’t the easiest. It was fun sometimes, but never easy. Especially when it comes to clothing and getting certain people’s attention.

Usually Tav’s party is able to loot the armor and clothing from their enemies after a battle, which Astarion and Shadowheart cut up and use to make armor and clothing that are small enough fit her. But there are some days where she has to figure it out herself and wrap scraps of fur, wool, or fabric around herself. But that doesn’t ever work because every time she tries to cover herself up, Astarion always ends up ripping it off, being the mildly perverted lover he is.

Of course, they can’t have sex anymore because of how small she is now, but that doesn’t mean he can’t admire her tiny little body. Right?

It was very rare for her to make DIY clothing, however, because Shadowheart was always coming up with something to dress her up in, with the help of Astarion. She’d often make Tav do little fashion shows for the clothing she and astarion made for Tav.

But when Tav isn’t with her friends, she’s usually off trying to annoy her ex-boyfriend or feeding her urges. Which is almost equally as frustrating as trying to cover herself up without having Astarion destroy everything.

She usually finds a way to climb on top of Enver’s desk. But it doesn’t usually do anything because he’s always hyper focused on terrorizing the world. She usually has to shove everything off of his desk for him to notice she’s there. But when he does notice her, she’s never able to annoy him like she wanted to. Instead he ends up being the annoying one.

[commajade]

Hello! It's been quite a while hasn't it? I've been very busy with a lot of stressful nonsense going on in my personal life 😔 but! Things are slightly better now, at least! I forgot to get back to you after you replied to me about Coffee Prince, so I'd just like to say that I loved your analysis, I think it was spot on! I completely agree that Eunchan is more relaxed around Hankyul. That poor gal carries the weight of the world around her shoulders every day because she's providing for her family and tends to put other's needs before her own. But with Hankyul, she's more cheeky and selfish. Since he's such an asshole(affectionate) she can let her guard down around him and not worry so much. But Hansung is just so gosh darn nice that it's intimidating. Yoon Eunhye is a phenomenal actress because you can see the difference in how she acts around them in her whole body. She's soft-spoken around Hansung, her shoulders sag to make herself smaller and she keeps messing with her hair. But she's such a fun little rascal around Hankyul. She physically takes up more space and is often loud. Which I also think says a lot about how society demands so much from women in ways you can see just from how they carry themselves. Also! It's nice to see that you're a big fan of Jeong-Nyeon too! They sell physical copies of the manhwa online, and I can't wait to get one! I saw that you were asking for eng translations, and I couldn't attest to how accurate the translation is since I'm nowhere near fluent, but I've been reading the translated version on VyManga. And WOW, isn't the drama adaptation such a spectacle to behold? High budget GL media is devastatingly not that common, so the fact that this exists at all is amazing! I personally would've wanted the role of Moon Okgyeong to go to Jeong Hyein though. She has the look and physicality for it. All she would've needed is some time to bulk up at the gym beforehand, and she would've been perfect!

hello! it's been a while since i got one of ur very long messages lol.

omg it's been so long since the coffee prince discussion already i never finished that rewatch but it was rly fun!

yes i love jeong nyeon! i was reading the english translation on that site too but they only have up until chapter 33 😭 i've been reading the rest in korean on some other site but there's almost unbearably huge ugly watermarks everywhere so the text is hard to read sometimes and the pictures aren't as pretty 😭😭😭

the drama is fantastic! absolutely the highest budget drama with such an overtly lesbian original work that it's adapted from, the all star cast the quality of performance the designs r all so good! i feel like i would want the overall aesthetic to look a little more vintage cuz the lighting and styling is a little too modern. but the manhwa also has that bright quality to it so i don't mind that much.

ah of course prince of my heart jeong hyein... see tho she and jung eunchae have the same problem where they have rly good faces but they're way too skinny to have the princely silhouette. but at least jung eunchae has the perfect height compared to the other actresses and of course those cheekbones. hyejin's face is a little cute and modern for like the historical prince look (she's more of a fairytale prince) and eunchae's facial structure is of the gods.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

what if i went off about some of my favorite songs ever

kyuuyaku hankagai - hiiragi magnetite: everyone knows i love this. i just love everything about it. we really get both sides of the picture story wise with it- both the fact the world is literally, physically getting destroyed, and all of the mental torment the characters are dealing with. it still has that magu series weird wording but it gets everything across that it needs to. the instrumental is just as heavy as the scenario with added dramatics in parts that really make it for me. all the long notes to simulate screaming. the seamless addition of both the nami no ne no & rute furute woa motifs (& a possible 3rd? theres still parts in here i cant figure out yet) makes me so emotional. if u have no idea about the series its still a solid song. 10000/10 i cannot fully express my love for this song in words i just need it on repeat full volume for weeks on end.

ai wo - null: impossible for me to explain why i love this so much without oversharing. i keep telling myself not to rank this song so high but ive never felt so seen before. null's lyrics are both poetic & still hit every raw emotion where it hurts. the whole being left alone ur whole life & wishing it wasnt that way, that everything wasnt so empty, that someone could love u the way u need & never got. i want everyone to hear this song and i also want to gatekeep it. it became so important to me in such a short time & itll be hard to ever rival it

arikitari heroes - 150suzu: im not immune to nostalgia. shuuenpro is executed entirely different to aru sekai series & i have to judge from entirely different criteria & that said i really always loved how this one sort of summarized the series in a way that highlighted all the strife in it & made it subjective rather than an objective summary. the chorus is so high its like theyre crying out which fits entirely. i still have the video embedded in my mind & its been a hot minute since ive watched it. my teenage self thought it was so deep & even with a different perspective now i cant entirely discount those feelings. anyway i still really love it i could still listen to it for weeks on end if i wasnt busy keeping up with other things. i do not say it lightly when i say this is the song i have listened to the most in my entire life i used to spend Months straight listening to it. beloved.

tachiiri kinshi - mafumafu: i was sooooooo normal about this in high school (lying). its still high on my list of breakdown songs. like damn its been 8 years and it still holds up the same. between this & ai wo that just gives away 90% of my problems. imagine solving isolation by letting people in cant be me. anyway i was obsessed with drawing the girl from the video for a while idk how many doodles i still have left but she was Everywhere on my school work. normal person behavior.

jishou mushoku - nekobolo: song that has pulled the most weight in keeping me alive. where would i be without it. sometimes the mood is so bad this is still the only thing i can listen to some days.

rokuchounen to ichiya monogatari - kemu: the real reason i fell down the voca rabbit hole. still adore the song & find it hugely nostalgic, but there was a reason i connected with it when i was younger & being able to recognize how fucked up that was makes it also a painful reminder id rather bury. song fucks tho love how every rhythm game its in will destroy u trying to play it.

konmei no aji - savasti: regardless of the real meaning of the song this will always be a dissociation song to me not in the sense it makes me dissociate but rather in the spaceyness & disconnect it reminds me of the feeling but in a safer way to deal with it. personally i prefer rire's cover

taishou x - yurry canon: u will appreciate this song now right now its so under appreciated for a yurry canon song. god the fucking "i'm still living the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. as it is i will never be you. theres no reason in living, but just the same theres no point in dying is there?" [punching a wall] i like it a normal amount

kaiko no kanmuri - dopam!ne: god this song fucks so hard and yet its still edgy. i dont even really know how to explain what i feel with this one beyond i love it. its a kind of waiting for the right time to strike for revenge kinda song? idk its my absolute fave dopam!ne song i love a lot of his songs but this one just really does it for me

haru no sekibaku - inaba kumori: kutabireta atashi ga dame dattan da ne. yeah. the overall mood of this song hits just right all too often. sorry lag train this is the defining inabakumori song to me.

hyperlexia - yamaji: the space in this one also gives me a sense of vague dissociation. i just really love the whole reading between the lines not going to fall for lies anymore mood its got going on. a misguided sense of personal revolution that probably wont end in anything meaningful but i particularly like the song.

[forgottenronan]

ronan out here as team big brother to everyone (w eithne as team big sister <3) and im LIVING for it <3333 tbh he's not as good at it as he once was bc he's frankly a broken man whose fighting to put himself back together when all the pieces don't fit anymore buT he ~is trying (tho ngl sometimes his v effort makes things worSe but anyway here we are one step forward two back and all that jazz one day at a time etc etc)

ooooh kale having roots elsewhere is really interesting! i def feel like the frosts all would've wanted to interrogate him abt his travels and everything he'd seen hahaha but also yes! that def makes sense that he might feel a lil like an outsider looking in if he arrived sm later and the others had all grown up together, etc!! i def feel like, as far as ronan's concerned tho, he's part of the team now! i mean, padraig/reaves bro are his two best friends but ronan def sees the rebels as his family and obv kale is a key member so he's family in ronan's book! i do think lil ronan would've been v welcoming back in the day but yeah obv there's no replacement for those 14 years and poor kale that must've still been quite lonely for him!!!

i do think pre-war!ronan had a kinda...robb stark/peter pevensie thing going but also this laughing, mischievous bent that could come out w friends like...not to the extent of cillian or anything but he was much freer and happier and he was soooo idealistic he wanted to be a knight and do knightly things like there was defff a lil brienne of tarth/young!jaime lannister idealism abt all of that like...obv king arthur doesn't exist here but he effectively wanted to be a knight of the round table yknow seeing the world and spreading good and doing the right thing while having adventures and rescuing beautiful maidens and seeing magic up close and personal and protecting the vulnerable and generally spreading good everywhere he went, and, like, save the world and uphold the rule of law in a just and generous kindsom and all that kinda thing!! he wanted to be sir galahad or peter pevensie but instead he's robin hood but, like...dark...he'd def more dean winchester/edward elric (if you've seen fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood [w japanese subtitles -- the dub is toootally different and not nearly as good!]...and if you haven't...what're you doing! stop whatever you're doing and go watch it now! ;DD its soooo so good!!!!) than robb stark/peter pevensie now

i can see where ronan may be guilty of underestimating kale bc...i think that's a thing that ronan tends to do ngl (it comes out of his whole over-protective big bro thing esp now paired w his ptsd + 'ive lost sm i can't bear to lose more' deal) but esp bc kale has a lot of similarities to cillian, and ronan's spent his whole life worrying abt the scrapes cillian's forever getting himself into (lbr even as a kid) alksdjfkljdsf this being said, ronan can be a bit changeable post-war and like he def will go from I CANT RISK THEM I WONT DO THIS MISSION (insert some excuse) to like WE MUST DO THIS NO MATTER WHAT and pushing past reason for it soooo that's fun!! -- in general, i do think he's somewhere in the middle but yeah the boy's got demons and they show themselves at weird times in weird ways sometimes laskdjfkjdsf

GRUMPY/SUNSHINE!!!! you know that's my fav <3333 i love it!!! and frankly, annoyed as im CONFIDENT he sometimes acts (he can be an ass sometimes and i am o sorry about him lkajsdfkjsdf), he really needs that in his life!!! ronan: 'it is NOT an affectionate eye roll its a i-mean-business-eye-roll' (but actually it is an affectionate eye roll) but honestly i think he (wouldn't never admit it but he) relies on kale to give him a dose of optimism to help balance his own doom and gloom psyche!! i do think he sometimes gets lost in his own EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE outlook and pulls a full on (handsome ;D) squidward waaaaay too easily hahaha but you'll never (or at least rarely) catch him saying so alksdjfkjsdf

i love these!!! the hc's are now full canon as far as im concerned <33333

ooc | Kale & Ronan

I feel like Kale was an only child, but he always looked up to Ronan as an older brother!!??? Honestly, I feel like he looked up to his entire friend group tbh of Ronan/Paidrag/Reaves bro (rip). And I feel like Kale hung out with them sometimes, but he was a lil younger and while they were all good friends, I don't think Kale ever had that history/bond that the others had? I'm also thinking that maybe Kale's family didn't come to Malconaire until he was like 14/15 and so Ronan and his group of friends had already been well established by then??

I feel like their relationship with Ronan in his post-war era, is kinda a grumpy/sunshine thing lmao??? Like Kale has chosen to deal with his own post-war trauma by bottling up and completely ignoring his negative emotions!!!!! And continuing to be the optimistic / outgoing / fun-loving / joking guy he's always been!!! And now he's working with Ronan who has just become super serious all the time??? I just see Ronan constantly eyerolling at like everything Kale says and does (Kale: but it's an affectionate eye roll!) And Kale just completely unfazed by Ronan's temper!

I feel like things are a little ~less~ contrasted between them now then it was at the start, but yeah!!

Anyway, those are my headcanons about the relationship, lmk what you think!!!

[shellshockedgay]

The Guys Accidentally Hurt You.

Reader: Gender nuetral.

Summary:.... Pretty self-explanatory.

Warnings: Swears, blood mention, different types of pain (burns, sprained wrist, nothing huge tho).

-

He was probably making tea and snacks for the two of you when he accidentally burnt you with the tea pot.

He was probably turning around to set the hot ceramic down on the island in the kitchen when the pot made like the smallest connection with your arm.

The guilt in this poor dude is astounding.

He panics like the mom friend he is.

"I'm so sorry! Ok, ok, go to the sink- come on, the sink- run some water over it. No, I'm not over reacting!"

Poor thing.

Anyway, definetly holds your arm under the cold water to make sure your ok.

Gently runs his thumb over it after it's bandaged and covered with aloe or something.

Leo just feels horrible. It eats him away at night. He hurt you. His best friend (and lover, if you want, no judgment).

He spends the next like 2 weeks making up for it.

Save him from himself.

Please, make him sit down and take care of himself.

-

You guys were probably wrestling, knowing him.

It was in the dojo, where he probably pinned you down and accidentally bent your arm too far back.

Raph acts like your fine and like he doesn't care, but he does, and he takes you to Donnie to get you patched up.

And while Donnie is fixing you up, he loses his temper (like usual) if you get hurt from Donnie checking it.

"Be careful, gap tooth! You're gonna make it worse if you twist it like that!" "Raph, it's just a sprain. It's not the end of the world." "I-I know! I just- ugh, just be careful!"

It's honestly really cute.

He treats you like glass after and he doesn't stop until you are a hundred percent sure it healed AND you beat his ass in sparing (even though he's taking it easy on you).

After said sparing, he probably takes you aside and apologizes really quietly and he's looking down and rubbing the back of his neck - you know, the works.

Anyway, forgive him.

Poor dude's been beating himself up about it.

-

Say it with me, folks! Injured from an experiment gone wrong! *dum dum dum*

Probably got a small burn from a chemical reaction that went wrong.

Anyway, he apologizes immediately. And he's stammering and actually tripping over himself to make sure you're not hurt too badly.

He, of course, patches you up. He adds wrappings and aloe or whatever will help soothe the burn.

But please don't cry. If you do, he might cry too.

Uses the time to patch you up to also lecture you on lab safety, even though he doesn't follow it either. It's kinda funny, though.

"From now on, you're not allowed to help me unless you're wearing gloves, long sleeve shirts, goggles, and jeans. No opened-toed shoes, either. I don't like seeing you hurt."

Meanwhile, he literally only has goggles on. Maybe the occasional glove.

Anyway, he forgives himself only when you forgive him and he keeps spare clothes around in case you forget your "lab clothes" at home.

-

Immediately starts crying.

Sorry, crying is an understatement. He starts sobbing.

He was probably doing a trick on his skateboard when he fell off and the board hit your shin, causing a bruise and like the smallest scratch.

He's acting like he's the one who got hurt.

Carries you all the way back to the lair and to the lab and sets you down on the table and is sniffling and shouting for Donnie to fix you.

"Mikey, I'm very busy-" "SO, YOU'RE WORK IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAT MY BESTIES LIFE?!" "I never said that." "YOU JUST DID!!" "Mike-" "FIX THEM. PLEASE! PLEAASEE-"

In the end, Mikey ended up fixing you because he thought Donnie wasn't doing it right.

He was gentle. Like barely toughing you.

Mikey poured some hydrogen peroxide on a q-tip and gently, gently swabbed it.

He then put a hello kitty bandage on your cut and probably gave it a kiss.

Mikey then carries you everywhere for the whole day and threatens to break or burn his skateboard because it betrayed him and his bestie.

By the next day, he forgot it happened.

No, he didn't break his skateboard.

-

Yo, I drifted a bit away from the ask, but I hope you still like it anyway! Thank you for the request!

[shadowhunterspolycule]

the first major snowfall in ages finally hit nyc recently and all im imaging is the Polycule attaching snowboards and the such to the back of simons van and them just being happy with snow day activities

oof, this ask is from so many months ago, i'm so sorry. i was very busy. i'm also not sure how great my answer will be because i'm a whole ass brazilian so i have no idea what snow day activies are, but i will try anyway

so, major advantages: meliorn has magic and maia is a werewolf and if i'm not mistaken it's said or implied that werewolves have a higher core body temperature than humans. or maybe i made that up, but it's canon for me

major disadvantages: raphael and simon are vampires, which means that technically they are kind of "cold-blooded" creatures? i mean they would still have other important temperature regulating mechanisms such as mitochrondrial heat production and muscle contraction, but they basically don't have a heartbeat/blood flow/arguably blood at all, which is a major way of regulating core temperature, and canonically their skin feels pretty cold, so like. they probably are more suscetible to temperature changes is what i'm saying (i'm mostly going off this source [link] for this. i'm already overthinking this answer good job me)

plus i am once again saying that raphael is from guadalajara which means that like me he is used to Worm Temperchoores, like, WAY warmer than NYC's, and he grew up without pretty much any kind of snow at all. and sure he's lived in NYC for years so he's SOMEWHAT used to the cold but he still spent his formative years in guadalajara, so like. he fucking hates the cold, is my point

but back to major advantages: meliorn and magic! which means they can do something about it. don't ask me what, but i'm sure they can do Something. i mean i'm sure to some extent the downworld has already figured out a solution to this problem cuz while it might not kill them (since they're immortal) it is very uncomfortable and probably makes them slower, which is a disadvantage to say the least. plus raphael has magnus who knows that raphael is a grumpy ass in the cold. also i think java is similarly hot so magnus Gets It, but idk what the temperatures usually are in jakarta

anyway my point is that magnus probably got some coats/vests/blankets spelled for his boy so they can keep him toasty (since they are otherwise kinda useless for vampires since they rely on trapping body heat and vampires don't have any) and vampires in general probably have access to that kinda stuff, but still, rapha gets grumpy and his face is still cold and everything is just awful and he doesn't understand how gringos do it. his complaints fly for about 2 days before the New Yorker Squad™ (particularly simon and maia, who drag clary and inevitably everyone else is there) decides that they've had enough of this and that raphael will learn how to enjoy the snow

he is like "i am not willingly going into the snow! you don't understand, i'm a vampire, i won't get back my body heat the way you do". simon: "i literally am also a vampire". raphael: "you're just a fledgeling, you wouldn't understand" "i've been a vampire for like, ten years!" "seven" "same thing" "it's so not the-" "i have gone through enough winters to be able to understand, and you, sir, are going to learn to enjoy the snow. have you EVER even made a snow angel?" "no" "well this changes today"

he literally has no excuse because meliorn has this super sweet spell that keeps him from losing heat so like. he doesn't even need a coat (he's still wearing it and preferably also a scarf and gloves because he is, first and foremost, dramatic) so he is forced to have a day off and go play in the snow, woe is him

(he tells the clan that should they need anything they should ring him, but they're like "nah simon has promised us pictures of you in the snow, we can handle ourselves" and it's not like raphael is too busy these days, really)

anyway! they have fun. simon strikes me as the winter lover kind of person altho really i think he enjoys all seasons in their own way, but like... hot chocolate and scarves and snow fights, yes? and while i think maia might prefer warmer temperatures she can double enjoy herself in the snow now that she's a werewolf because she gets less cold and like, damn, tell me that being a wolf and jumping headfirst into a pile of snow wouldn't be fun. you can't, unless you're a bad taste bitch

i also think maia is the building snow forts kind of gal because, idk, she just looks that way. and sure she's excited about kicking everyone's asses during snowball fight but FIRST she needs to have a full fort complete with towers and windows for her to throw snowballs from and shit

rapha is the one that helps her build it the most cuz he likes the motions and besides it is a little less energetic than whatever it is that the rest of these wackos are doing. again izzy didn't get any chances to play in the snow either so naturally clary is dragging her around from snow activity to snow activity and running around everywhere and holy shit they have so much energy. simon is there as well naturally and eventually they make it their goal in life to ruin maia's and rapha's fort, which ends up kickstarting the mandatory snowball fight. even tho maia only has a half complete fort

(eventually when everyone has left maia and rapha will come back and finish the fort. it's the principle of the thing. raphael also wants to build an igloo or some shit and maia rolls her eyes but actually i can see him being into building snow things? it's just soothing and nice and quiet and he can pretend there's Elegance and Finesse to it)

and meliorn is just watching them curiously the whole time because of course they know snow but they dont really know about Snow Activities these funky little non-seelies dedicate themselves too. i feel like the seelies have their own snow activities, maybe like, festivals? dances with the snowfall and games to welcome the change in the environment, that sort of thing. but they are nothing like snow angels ("it doesn't look like an angel in the slightest, just like you kept moving your legs and arms in the snow" "thats what it is" "right, so...?") or snowmen ("also doesn't look like a man" "meliorn we aren't exactly artists") or snow fights (altho that one they can appreciate) and they're really interested in like participating even though they dont understand and everyone has to keep telling them that it's Not That Deep and izzy is so amused she just kisses them one billion times

eventually they start doing it just to get more of those laugh-filled kisses of hers

also at least one of them, probably izzy of rapha or meliorn since they are the snow ignorant ones of the group, is absolutely horrible at making snowmen. probably izzy tbh because shadowhunters dont exactly have a knack for these things. like clary's snowman is all artistic and simon's is fun and creative, maia's is pretty, raphael's and meliorn's look like the Platonic Ideal Of A Snowman, and izzy's looks like A Pile Of Dirt. clary giggles at it for an embarrassing amount of time, which inevitably leads to izzy taking the snow from her snowman to throw snowballs at clary and triggering a new snowfight

and then they have some soup inside and cuddle under a blanket as they fight over what they should watch and all is well with the world

[princeanxious]

A random logicality fic i didnt realize I wanted to write until just now, that i can't write out into an organized fic story atm but I can ramble about its whole world and character settup! So like. Take this as a massive bullet point fic if you will, but, yknow, minus the bullet point part..

[[MORE]]

Some background info: this is an omegaverse idea BUT it primarily focuses on the worldbuilding, character dynamics, and relationship dynamics and doesnt focus or even really mention nsft stuff. At least not in this post! Another fact abt this au is that there are no betas in this au, just alphas and omegas representing as the primary biological differences. Same general biology applies, and there is this worlds own version of the LGBTQ+ community as well, ect ect.

Logan is a highclass omega that lives on a large estate and is the only omega, let alone male omega(which is uncommon in this au), in his well known family's current generation. Hes got two other older alpha siblings Thomas and Deceit(named Dorian in this fic) and theyre all p close to eachother and wellknown to the public for being anti-classist despite the rest of their highclass family's history of being generally snooty and classist and not very family-oriented. They probably run a big entertainment company named after the family line and thats where most of their wealth comes from. Their family surname is probably Sanders. Logan is like, an inch above normal height for an omega and is sort of a frail, lanky, and uber pale man who doesn't eat well and doesnt exercise often and doesnt get enough sunlight and is often bored out of his mind, frankly.(all of this is due to his parent's terrible job of raising him, both from the servants (unhappily)following their orders for his care and from their blatant disregard for his health and happiness as a male omega. His brothers and the servants do the best they can to sneak around the rules, at least for food and sneaking Logan books and candles to entertain himself late at night or in his freetime when they arent hanging out together)

Patton, on the other hand, is a mid-high class Alpha in a little less well-known(in comparison to the Sanders family at least) but still well-respected family in a slightly smaller estate, known from their history of being a long line of hardworking successful people and being a very big and far reaching family. They probably breed a few prized mostly pure-bred and cross-bred horse breeds (the ethical way of course). And perhaps they(at least at Patton's estate specifically) also have their own fruit tree plantation that is known for selling its fruit as well as making said fruit into jams to be sold locally. Theyre family also has ties in helping many local businesses as well as a few larger companies ect. ect. The main family branch name is Crofters. ;p Patton is a v tall boi, and like his father, works hard around the estate just as much as any other worker. He helps harvest fruit from the plantation when its time and gets to help turn a good portion of the fruit into their famous crofters jam, and he helps tend to the stables and horses and chores all around the estate, does lots of heavy lifting ect.ect. So. Tall buff boi who's v suntanned and v freckled and made of friendliness and sunshine smiles yknow?? Hes an only child with just a father by the time hes 21 and a ton of extended family but he makes an effort to check in and make sure the local youth and elderly are well taken care of.

So in this fic, like, these things that are sort of like coming-of-age courting parties/festivals are held? It's a big cultural thing that happens each season to allow un-courted young adults a chance to meet and socialize with other un-courted young adults at their own leisure and pace rather than being subjected to family-directed arranged courtings(which are mostly a thing of the past at this point for their culture)

So like, p much Thomas and Dorian have to step in to help Logan persuade their parents into letting them take Logan to a local coming-of-age festival bc his parents are like this close to just making Logan go through w/ an arranged courting from some other highclass alpha, bc omega males aren't as 'prized'(to the highclass) or seen as desirable as omega females so getting Logan to marry into another wealthy family solely for maintaining status and making wealthy ties is the only use they see for him. Which of course,, his alpha siblings are having none of that if they have anything to say about it.(and they do. Logan deserves as much freedom as they do if not more, especially at this point in their lives. And Dorian spends the whole walk back to their bedrooms venting about the stupidity and blatant sexism of the fact that Dorian and Thomas are freely allowed to go wherever and do whatever they please because they're Alphas, "but Logan can't and has to be escorted everywhere that he is allowed to go if he wants to go anywhere as if he doesnt have his own autonomy! Why can Thomas and I go to the festival's without any fuss or escort but Logan is almost two steps from forbidden to even chose his own attire for the day? Highclass society is bullshit!")

So, with the eventual hard-won mutual agreement that Thomas and Dorian will be Logan's direct and only escorts to the festival who will not be left alone(they wouldnt leave him alone anyway, though not out of thinking that Logan is a dependent helpless omega that needs to be attended to and directed at all times, bc they dont believe that like their parents do, its out of the fact that theyre not about to leave their two years younger baby brother who has virtually no experience in socializing, let alone making friends, alone in a loud activity-filled festival w/ a large amount of varied attendance.) They head off during the winter festival season(as Logan's 21st birthday was in late autumn) to at least introduce their own friends that they've met over the years to Logan(who many of them have heard about but never met previously due to their parents toxic outdated mindsets on how omegas needed to remain shielded from the world and obediant, so Logans only friends for the longest time were his brothers themselves and that was it.).

So, the cast fic placements sorta go like this: Dorian has his intentions set on courting this very chaotic very non-conforming omega male named Remus(bc really, both of them just wanna say fuck you to the Sanders' parents' outdated ideals of societal conformity, really. However, Dorian pursuing Remus is like 5% driven by saying suck it to society, 15% spite towards his parents, and 80% because Remus stole his heart the first time they met by being unabashedly himself and being super interested and forward towards Dorian without being patronizing or disgusted with his birth scars and blind eye. Remus without prompting settles up against Dorian's blindside at all times when in public to work as a barrier to others sneaking up on the visually impaired alpha, all unprompted. Remus really really likes Dorian, and the feeling is mutual.) And! it works out bc even tho Remus is about as wild and as independant and inobedient and non-fragile and as far from the rest of the perfect omega stereotypes as they get, he's part of a family that is even higher in status than the Sanders family. Remus and his twin Roman are both male omegas born into a wealthy and publicly generous family that honestly is probably the most well known in the entertainment industry for its long line of professional actors, singers, and popular film/stage play writer and producers. Remus and Roman are naturally charismatic, Roman being a talented singer and trained actor while Remus dabbles in script writing and producing. Their mothers are respectively an omega and alpha and have their own accomplishments. And, are infact very progressive, and they plan to hand off the company to Roman and Remus to run when the twins are ready to, marriage not required. So, like. The Sanders parents cant exactly find a reason not to let Dorian pursue Remus without being openly obvious in their conservative views about omegas. (Which The Twins' parents already know about through Remus's recountings of Dorian's venting abt Logan's childhood mistreatment) so, safe to say, everyones in on pissing off the Sanders family in ways that they can't openly be mad about.

Anyways, to tie this all back in, the festivals mentioned above are both for meeting mutually un-courted young adults/adults and also for individuals to pursue courting who they want to court without family/class bias ect. (So like, un-courted/non-courting individuals dress/wear a main article in a certain color, while courted/courting individuals wear any other colors but that color, and said color depends on what season its in, and this coloring isn't something that varries from town to town, its universal in their culture. For Spring, un-courted individuals wear Green, in fall its Orange, in Summer its Yellow, and in Winter its Blue. And thats how you differentiate) so Thomas and Dee return to attend each of the seasonal festivals to court who theyre pursuing as a special time alone from either family watching as well as it being another way of meeting up with their friendgroup to have fun.

So, through Dorian, Logan finally meets Roman and Remus, and honestly its a real struggle for them to get along at first bc Roman and Remus are loud and brash and opinionated and independent, and rather unfiltered. And. Well, Logan grew up being trained to be the opposite, so he doesnt think they're compatible friends. But thats how he’s been raised to think. They lead and smother him in their conversation for a hot minute before realizing Logans just politely listening and not even attempting to join in, looking mildly uncomfy and out of his depth. And Romans a little offended before he remembers that what Remus relayed to him about Logan's uprising. So, Remus finds a way to get under Logans skin just enough to break down the polite walls that have been trained into him. Remus states stating false facts to Logan that he knows Logan knows are false and is able to get Logan just incredulous and heated enough to debate back. And Roman joins in just in time to change the subjects just a bit, and it takes some time but they get into a grove of getting Logan used to talking without being talked to, giving his own opinion on things without fear of repercussion and just generally conversating.(and they find, very smugly, that Logan can be just as loud and passionate about facts and his own thoughts and opinions if given the right outlet and the push to do it.) And it finally gets Logan to loosen up just a bit, to relax and smile and laugh(!!), and his brothers are just as excited for him bc Logan's finally getting to break out of his shell without the oppressive control of their parents directly looming over him.

So, okay okay, I'm getting to the logicality part, shhh, perfection takes time!! So, okay, I forgot to squeeze this in earlier but Thomas is courting Remy, whos a talented and smart as fuck, independent male omega from a family from their neighboring country. Remy has a big fam, but hes the head in charge out of all his siblings, ect ect. He’s an omega and the oldest, with three younger alpha siblings and one younger omega sibling. His parents are headstrong people who’ve raised a take-no-shit omega who will not be pushed around and will gladly do his own thing, thank you. If we’re being honest, its really Remy courting Thomas, whos a big-hearted softy introverted Alpha, like they are mutually interested in one another but Remy is a massive extrovert and theres no misunderstanding whose taking charge when theyre together. Remy’s existance alone is enough to Piss off the Sanders Family parents, especially after Remus enters the picture, however.. Remy takes it to the next level by being the more incharge, natural born leader, therefor flipping the old dominant alpha and obedient omega sterotype on its head. Thomas is happy to piss them off in doing it bc letting Remy take the lead makes Remy happy and keeps Remy from getting ansy and makes him happy bc he was never going to fully fit the dominant alpha sterotype anyways. Further still, out of the three siblings that are part of the Sanders family, only Thomas keeps the Sanders surname name in the end, as Dorian plans to take Remus’s and (future)Logan plans to take Patton’s surname. Which sets them up for: Remy chosing to take the Sanders Surname therefore becoming a direct part of the Sanders family name lineage, which the parents have no say over bc its technically up to Thomas by law, who gives Remy the option to chose on his own, ect.

Okay okay, w/ that set up, lets move forward.

Its p much a one-by-one meeting basis as Logan meets Dorian and Thomas’s partners and friends. So, Roman, Remus, and Remy all p much take Logan under their collective wing as soon-to-be omega brother-in-laws do. They all realize they’ve got a lot to teach Logan, and more importantly, kinda really need to get him courting soon bc Logan really needs to get out of that toxic household. They’re planning to keep it slowish bc Logan doesn’t know quite yet how to talk to people that arent his brothers, let alone have any knowhow on consentual courting?? But yeah, they’re keeping an protective eye out alongside Dorian and Thomas while still letting approaching un-courted alphas and omegas come close enough to interact/flirt w/ Logan. About mid-day Roman’s courting partner finally arrives:

A slightly withdrawn, tall and quiet Alpha who looks fairly intimidating until Logan realizes just how anxious the lanky Alpha is and how Roman is definately leading when he needs to to keep Virgil from overthinking. They end up hitting it off very well, unsurprisingly. Virgil doesn’t really know Logan’s whole story like Remus does bc Roman didn’t know to tell him in time so it takes some catching up and trading of their home lives to get to speaking terms but, Logan is soon to be the Twin’s brother in-law soo.. that p much makes Logan his family to be anyhow, so. Safe to say Virgil plays a minor part in warding off all too-cocky alphas thinking theyre about to find an easy catch in approaching Logan. Though, realistically, its the fact that a small group of courting young-adults are guiding and staying w/ said un-courted young-adult that keeps Logan from getting approached too much. It may not have allowed him to get the full festival experience, but, its likely Logan would not have been able to handle the Full Experience, especially not on his own.

Finally, incomes Patton. Patton, wearing blue just like Logan, stands out because he approaches the group fearlessly and full of sunshine, going through and greeting each familiar face before he realizes Logan is a new part of the group and politely and warmly introduces himself. Though well known to the group through being Virgil’s longstanding childhood bestfriend and part of a very openly interactive and helpful w/ everyone around them family, this is actually Patton’s first coming-of-age festival, as he’d just turned 21 two weeks prior. And hes very excited to meet new people, he always is! He’s quick to tell Virgil that the jam they’d made earlier in the fall(it was tradition at this point that Virgil helped Patton with the jam making process every year) had been successful in sales and smiles, and hes content to ramble to Virgil about the progress of the stables’ new foals. Logan would have thought Patton had out-right forgotten about him had Patton not begun turning to ask Logan an excited question every minute or so. And he always listened to Logan’s answers completely with rapt attention before asking or saying something further.

Niether of them know they’d both had the same thought when they’d first seen the other. A very sappy, very flustered thought of ‘Oh god, he’s cute.’ The moment they’d made eye-contact.

And, well, Logan is a tad overwhelmed, for many reasons. For one, Patton, on the very surface, is very attractive. Tall and well-built, sunkissed and freckled with curly blond hair and a dashing smile that lit up his entire expression, and Logan couldn’t help mirror Patton’s infectious smile with a shy one of his own. Another was that Patton’s voice was warm, not too loud though it carried well, it was welcoming and unashamedly happy. Patton was patient and kind and friendly, yet still felt reminiscent of an excited puppy. He was unabashedly himself in the nicest of ways, and Logan’s heart kept fluttering everytime their eyes met, everytime Patton asks him a question or answers his own. Patton leads the conversation, but leaves plenty room for Logan to take his own direction if he pleases. He’s considerate and thoughtful and actually treating Logan like a person, not some dependent omega or a possible mate. And it definately doesn’t go unnoticed that Logan’s blushing and slightly flustered, but Patton doesn’t push about it, he just lets the conversation stop and go as they please as the group wanders around and take part in the festivities.

And.. well, the group does take notice that Patton and Logan have started ignoring outside signals of omegas and alphas that wanna get close and interact with either one of them, but they don’t tell them about it. Logan and Patton are pretty obviously interested in each other, and honestly no ones gonna interrupt them while they figure things out. Patton is the only one who definately doesn’t know about Logan’s situation, but he picks up on it’s cues pretty quickly and treads carefully without prodding, though Logan is upfront about himself being raised under opressive conservative ideals so hes pretty new to everything, but he leaves it at that for their first interaction.

P much they spend the rest of the festival together, Dorian and Thomas directly checking in once or twice to confirm Logan is doing okay and happy. Thomas is met with a soft “yes.. Is this what romantic attention feels like?��� And Dorian gets “Yes, though i’m not sure how long i’m going to be able to keep functioning if he keeps smiling at me with his handsomeface.” Which these things are said obviously w/ Patton out of earshot And both brothers have to keep themselves from cackling bc their brother is very gay for Patton. And Patton is very openly gay for Logan right back, not that Logan really knows how to read that yet tho.

By the end of the festival, Logan just decides that he wants to pursue courting Patton, h’s very sure of it especially after bringing it up with Dorian and Thomas and getting their approval. Then Logan brings it up with Patton directly and it goes something like this:

Logan shyly but determained asks Patton if he would consider courting Logan, and Patton just smiles warmly and leans down to take Logan’s hand and kisses it. Then says “I did consider it, Lolo, and I’d be more than blessed to get to court you.” And Logan just blushes so bright he has to hide his face and Patton just laughs and hugs him.

Skipping forward, Patton gets the Sanders families hesitant approval to let him directly court Patton, which involves them sending Logan over to spend periods of time at Pattons estate, and Patton coming to stay with Logan at the Sanders estate during the other half of the time. Cue Patton learning just how bad Logan’s home situation is and would be without his brothers there to buffer some of it, and Patton stepping up to curb it back as well while being non-aggressive about it.

Cue Patton taking Logan to meet riding horses directly for the first time, as well as meet baby horses. He eases Logan into the concept of being free to do almost whatever he pleases while staying at the Crofters estate, which is pretty mild for the longest time but watching Logan smile excitedly when he got a new book, or got to walk around town with Patton, or got to say yes or no just because he finally could? It means all the world to Patton. Cue the scene of them resting under a tree near the front of the estate during the day, easily seen and watched but relaxing and napping atop of one another all the same. Logan’s head against Patton’s board chest, listening to Patton’s heartbeat while patton runs his hand through Logan’s hair. Then, Logan tenatively asking about laying out front to stargaze in the evening, and honestly the night they finally get to stargaze for the first time a few days later is when the really fully fall in love.

Cue Virgil coming to visit with Roman in tow when its that time of the year to make the famous Crofters jam, and Logan is staying over at the estate at the time. And Logan finally tries Crofters jam for the first time, as he’d been putting it off before as not being a jelly person. And he just. Finds he really really likes it, probably an inproper amount. Patton takes notice, and doesn’t hesitate to spoil Logan with it every once in a while. Logan also learns how to make Crofters jam, and it was alot of fun to do! Hes tuckered out by the end of it, but thats not surprising.

And okay. Another major fun plot point is that during times that Patton and Logan are staying at the sanders estate, Dorian and Remus, Thomas and Remy, and Roman and Virgil also often are found staying at the large estate, and its no coincidence. Now that Logan is being directly courted(and its going very well), Logan’s autonomy now falls under Patton’s command, not Logan’s parents. And, well, Patton lets him make his own decisions as long as they stick together, as Pattons not comfy leaving Logan alone unless hes with one of his brothers or their omegan mates(bc at this point, Remus and Dorian finished their yearlong courting and married and are official mates, and same goes for Thomas and Remy. ) and well. My favorite concept is that Logan now has the guidance of 3 firely independant omegas to help him learn to strive for the independant mindset that had been robbed from him in his youth. Safe to say, Logan comes out just as stubborn and independant and passionate as the other three. He just tends to be the one out of the four who is the most content with their alpha being a bit more in the lead on a daily basis.

Didn’t really think abt an ending too much but like, Logan and Patton get married and become mates and move to Patton’s estate permanantly and just being so happy and inlove with Patton. And everythings?? Good?? So yeah.

[http-skzhyuns]

count down | hwang hyunjin

warnings: mild cursing

genre: angst

member: skz hwang hyunjin

words: 2k+

a/n: 

i do accept requests and asks, if you have one, please send them. thank you! :) also, this one is a reposted. i had to make some minor edits and my app, well, let’s just it’s not working well lately. 

summary: if there’s a way to fix it, you’d do it in a heartbeat. but, you’ve always known that it’ll be like this, you just hoped it wouldn’t hurt because you expected it.

you knew it was bound to fall apart at some point. your friends always considered you as a pessimist, personally, you’d like to convince yourself that you are a realist. but, this one, you knew. you just knew it in your heart that it’s bound to end at some point, and you knew it would hurt like hell.

it’s been a few weeks since you last saw hyunjin. both of you were busy doing your own thing. your boss did nothing but make your work space miserable recently. everybody was on edge, you can already feel the tension as soon as you walk into the office. hyunjin, on the other hand, has been busy travelling to different countries, he has been teaching countless dance classes all over the world.

after another tiring day at work, you trudged into your apartment feeling heavy with fatigue. these days, you barely get enough sleep. sometimes, you end up taking your work to your home just to finish it, decreasing your hours of sleep. but, the pay is good, so you try to stick by it and besides, this heavy workload are only seasonal. there are seasons when you don’t have to struggle as much as you do this time. it’s only because the year is about to end that makes the work pile up like a mountain in your desk.

you threw yourself on your bed, fully-clothed, too tired to even change at this point. you closed your eyes for a moment, trying to relax your muscles and your mind from the long day you just had. however, you quickly opened your eyes in panic, sat and began digging through your purse for your phone. looking at the clock, you knew you’re late for the ‘video call date’ you have with your boyfriend.

“fuck, why did i forget? no” you muttered to yourself, as you open your phone.

but, apparently, there are no missed video calls. hyunjin haven’t called. you eyed the time, you’re only a few minutes late.

“did he forget? again?” you asked yourself.

after pondering for a while, you decided to call him. the phone rang for a while before he finally answered, “hi” he answered in a raspy voice.

hyunjin was asleep and woke up when you called. seeing him through your phone screen, you marveled at his beauty as his eyes squints from the sunlight, his hair a mess.

“hi,” you replied, smiling slightly at the image of him looking too adorable being half-asleep. the two of you has been dating for about five years now, and yet you still get struck by his beauty every single time.

“i’m sorry for waking you up”

“no, it’s okay” he answered, noncommittally. you shrugged it off, thinking it’s because he just woke up. you can hear a rustle on his end as he sat up on his bed.

“how are you doing?” you asked him, genuinely intrigued, as it has been awhile since you talked to him.

“nothing much, i have a few classes today tho, so i’ll be off in a while,” you have yet to see him smile at you.

“oh, i se-”

he cut you off, “hey, uh, listen, i have to go now. i have to get ready for the class.”

you sighed in disappointment, “oh, okay then. have a great day, and take care of yourself, alright? don’t forget to eat meals and drink water. i love you” you smiled at him and finally, you see him smile at you through the screen, it was small, but that was enough for you.

“yeah, i will, love you too.” he replied before ending the call.

putting your phone down, you sighed.

you can’t remember when it all started falling apart. but, a few weeks ago, your time with hyunjin has grown less and less. maybe it’s his job, but you knew deep down that even before he started touring for classes, he was able to keep in tabs with you. these days, you can’t even have a proper conversation how your lives and days went.

you met hyunjin when the both of you are in your third year of college. he was a dance major while you’re on creative writing. you only had one class together but that one class for the whole semester was enough to hit it off. the both of you were an odd pair, him always dressed up so stylishly while you prefer wearing your hoodies to the campus. however, you’re humor and character clicked and you found it easy to get along with him. you became friends with him, and over the summer, he asked you to be his girlfriend.

it was a rough start, you had no idea how relationship worked. your past relationship was either too short or too immature to be even considered as one.  you warned hyunjin about it. however, he was insistent and assured you that it doesn’t matter.

“we’ll figure it out together,” he said.

hyunjin is the sweetest boyfriend, he would visit you at your dorms after his practices and you would go to his practice rooms to bring him food and watch him practice. he knew you hated extravagant dates so the both of you opted for spontaneous walk in the nearby parks, a long drive over the long weekend, and eating out on a fast food chain. your dates are simple, but it was enough for the both of you.

after the graduation, you struggled for a while, trying to find a job, an apartment to live, trying to pay the bills. it’s physically, mentally and emotionally taxing but hyunjin was there to help you through it. on nights that you can’t sleep, he would be there to cuddle you as he runs his fingers to your hair to help you calm down. when he was offered to tour in different countries, he presented every single excuse he had so he can stay beside you, but you knew this is part of his dream, and you knew down, that he wanted to do it. that night, the both of you ended up cuddled on the bed with his head on your chest as you ran your fingers through his silky hair. you reassured him that it’ll be alright. after everything, you knew the both of you will be alright. after all, you love each other, don’t you?

suddenly, you weren’t so sure anymore.

the next few months with hyunjin went back and forth, as he traveled around for his job. you established the ‘video call dates’, it felt like nothing has changed except you can’t physically feel his hugs or his kisses. but, his eyes still shined and his lips still curl into the biggest smile whenever the call connected and he can finally see your face after a tiring day.  

however, towards the end of year, you both grew cold with each other. the calls grew less frequent, and while you wish you could fix it, you’re not sure how… or if it’s even something that you could fix. suddenly, his eyes doesn’t hold the same glint as it used to and you tried to pretend that it’s just the tiredness.

weeks following that shift and the relationship felt strained. communication became stilted. sometimes, your schedules wouldn’t add up, and even though the both of you tried to set up these kind of dates — something that can be done through the screen, just to see each other even if you’re from different sides of the world, you felt how the distance affected the relationship. it’s the truth that’s been right there, all along, waiting for the both of you to acknowledge.

you love hyunjin, you adored that boy more than you ever lent on. you adored how his eyes would crinkle whenever he smiles or laugh, or how he would clap his hands while doing so. he is a dork and you love him for it. you love how passionate he is at dancing, at his insistence to be better, to learn more. he’s hardworking and he’s incredible sensitive to the people around him. he would know when you’re in a bad place, he would sense whenever you needed your space or when you need him to just wrap his arms around so you’ll know he’s there whenever you need him.

but, you knew deep down that this is bound to end at some point. somehow, you knew it in your gut that the bubble you two are in is bound to fall apart someday.

unfortunately for you, i guess that day is now.

it’s the new year’s eve, hyunjin’s still overseas. but, you’re on the same timezone so the both of you decided to basically celebrate the new year with each other via video call.

you’re lying if you tell yourself that this whole thing doesn’t hurt, because it does. it tears you apart knowing that the person you planned to spend your whole life with, is slowly falling out of love with you. but, it is what is. you can’t force him to stay in love with you.

looking down at your phone, you know you have at least 10 minutes before the count down. you pulled up hyunjin’s contacts, and pressing on the video call button. he answered quickly and it left you fumbling for composure.

“hey,” he breathed. he’s dressed up for a party. he’s probably at one of his colleague’s party, you thought.

“hi, you look great,” you smiled at him.

he chuckles, “well, you look great too. you’re at jisung’s party?”

you nodded through your phone, “i am, it’s new year in a while.”

an awkward silence filled the air, “it is… how are you?” he asked softly.

at this point, you’re tearing up, knowing this is how it’ll end. your heart clenched for what’s about to come.

“jinnie, i want your honest answer, alright?” as tears begin filling your eyes, you tried to smile at him to assure that everything’s alright.

a loud chatter can be heard behind, he gulped in confusion and the building tension that he can feel through his phone, “sure, what is it?”

“do you still love me?”

hyunjin felt like the wind was knocked off his lungs, he suspected that you can feel how the relationship is slowly falling apart. but, he didn’t expect you to ask him so straightforwardly, “i-i,” he stuttered.

giving up, you can see how his shoulders fall, “i did. i still do…” his tongue swiped over his lips, his eyes darting everywhere but your face.

still, you continued to smile, “but, it’s different now, right?”

he sighed, his eyes brimming with tears, his heart clenches as he watch you keep yourself together through the screen. your beautiful smile, your lips slightly quivering, your teary eyes, he hated himself for putting you in this situation. you are a lovely girl, you were always considerate of his time and priorities. you were very understanding whenever he can’t be there due to practices or even when he got a job to be a choreographer and teacher.you would bring him food whenever he gets too passionate at his craft and ended up overworking himself.

eventually, he nodded before looking down, he breathed deeply before looking up and straight into your eyes, his dark orbs reflecting the pain in them, “i love you. you are a lovely person, y/n. you truly are. i don’t know when it started to change, but i want you to know that you are the loveliest girl i have ever met and i’ll never, ever, regret meeting you,” he said softly but with conviction, hoping that his words get through you, because it’s the truth.

you bit your lip, trying to keep your sobs in.

“there are no other people involved, i want you to know that. it’s just that… things started to change,” he continued.

a sob escaped from your throat and suddenly tears began falling and you looked down so he can’t see it, “i know… we did change. i think it’s us that changed.”

looking at tears falling down your cheeks, hyunjin can’t help but to cry too. the both of you tried to reign your emotions just to make this whole situation easier for each other, but the heart break is too much. it feels like it’s ripping you apart.

in the background the countdown has begun,

10

9

8

“i’m sorry,” he sobbed.

7

“you don’t have to be,” you smiled through your own tears.

6

5

“i love you, hyunjin. you are the best. you are a great boyfriend and you’re an ever greater person, you’re lovely, in your own way.”

4

silence filled the both of your ends, you just stared at each other through the screen, drinking in each other as if it’ll be the last time you’ll see the other person.

3

he smiled at you.

2

you smiled back at him and closed your eyes, breathing in deeply.

1

the fireworks started to paint the sky in wonderful colors. the noise filling the air. the loud cheers can be heard, everyone screamed their greetings, kissing their significant others, their wishes for a good year.

and, here you are, breaking up with your boyfriend.

“happy new year, hyunjin. i wish you all the best in life, take care of yourself. have a good night. i love you. thank you for those wonderful years i spent with you, here’s to the years we’ll spend without each other in our lives,”

his heart stopped beating as you uttered those words, this it then, he thought.

sending a gentle smile at you, he replied, “happy new year, y/n. i hope you have a lovely year. take care of yourself too. and, i love you. cheers and goodbye. goodnight, y/n,” his voice fading into a soft whisper towards the end of his reply. 

you nodded at him and stared at each other for a few seconds before pressing the end call button.

as the rest of the world cheered for the new year, two hearts weep over a love that ended.

[mousehole5000]

wow i made this draft on november 1st i really took a break from this huh anyway tgcf chapters 121 - 142

i realize now this coffin scene was inevitable. feel kinda weird about hua cheng  back and forth from Teen to Big Man but it is very funny that theyre having their “dude dont look at my boner” moment while in the jaws of a water dragon

pei ming: why didnt you guys make a bigger coffin so you didnt have to squish together like that? xie lian: haha yep!! anyways what brings you here?

“In the grand, spacious centre of the entrance hall sat a person. And this person, dressed in all black, its face snow-white—was a corpse! Instantly Xie Lian shut the doors soundly.” - king of minding his own business.

okay this is where i stopped putting notes here for a while but i did save some in my e-reader so here’s some of the highlights

“Guzi used to have a good sleeping form, but perhaps with his cheap dad’s bad influence, now he was also spread out on top of Qi Rong’s stomach like a dead fish. Lang Ying himself was curled neatly in the corner, and was covered by a few shirts. Xie Lian lifted the blanket covering Qi Rong, suppressed the urge to smother his face, and covered the two small children.” - xie lian funny moments. also it would be really funny if qi rong redeems himself by learning love through these misfit chiildren and it might actually endear me to him but i hope that doesnt happen

Every heavenly official was yelling, and even Ling Wen was throwing a fit. “DON’T THROW EVERY BIT OF USELESS INFORMATION MY WAY, HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK I HAVE TO GO THROUGH EVERY DAY? DON’T YOU ALL KNOW TO USE YOUR BRAINS A LITTLE BEFORE ASKING ME?!” - ling wen marry me right now

“An expression like “seen a ghost” that only mortals experienced was now showing on his face for the first time. Shi Wudu’s pupils shrank to the smallest they could, and he blurted, “You’re still alive?!” “I’m dead!” He Xuan said coldly.” - okay everythings going tits up rn but i did laugh

i did see spoilers re: ming yi/he xuan reveal + shi wudu’s fate beforehand so i dont have a genuine reaction other than oh shit

“He slowly enunciated each word. “I won’t touch your fate. But, here in this place, chop off your brother’s head for me.”  CLANG! He threw a rusty blade onto the ground. Shi Qingxuan stared at that blade, his eyes wide. He Xuan continued, “Then, never show yourself before me again, and I will pretend you’ve never existed in this world.” - okay idk what else is going to happen but rn im concerned that this is like the 2nd biggest ship. i guess we’ll see?? i mean i am really curious whats going to happen to them. shi qingxuan keeps calling he xuan “ming-xiong” and i... sad

shi wudu im not really invested in you as a character but these next two bits... interesting

“If I don’t die but have nothing, then that’s truly a fate worse than death. If I’m not the Water God, I can’t take care of you. I won’t even be able to protect myself. I’m scared that we won’t even last two days…TAKE IT!” - damn. something about the wealthy losing everything and not knowing how to live without it bc thats their entire life and identity

“EVERYTHING I HAVE TODAY, I FOUGHT FOR MYSELF. I WILL FIGHT FOR WHAT I DON’T HAVE. I WILL CHANGE FATE I DON’T POSSESS. MY FATE IS UP TO ME AND NOT THE HEAVENS!” - okay so the whole committing spiritual fraud by tormenting a man and his family to get your brother a cushy title thing aside this was kind of badass. heretical? possibly. but still. also is he intentionally riling up he xuan so sqx doesnt have to kill him? if so damn...

also okay as long as im here im just gonna say it. the choice that he xuan gives shi qingxuan is fucking brutal but i actually think its probably as fair as it could be. sqx didnt know about or participate in what happened to hx but they did benefit from it greatly while hx lost EVERYTHING and i can understand he xuan’s thinking of “if you really feel bad for what happened to me then you have to make a sacrifice and understand the suffering and this is as clean as its going to get” and theres a bit where sqx is trying to beg for mercy but cant get the words out which im guessing is bc theres no good argument!! what happened was fucked up!!

“When Pei Ming saw that reinforcements had arrived, he didn’t appear particularly delighted; instead he threw the sword into the ground, then rubbed his nose and said, sounding grim, “You all just had to come just as I finished making these, what the heck.” - pei ming making coffins chopping down trees with his sword i love it #wastehistime2k17

“Xie Lian brought that basket of eggs along, and gave them away as souvenirs from the mortal realm. Many who received the eggs were overjoyed; some deciding to eat it along with their own blood, and some proclaiming they would hatch an eight-foot monster.” - GHOST CITY GHOST CITY

“Placing the brush down, he blew lightly at the ink and smiled. “If I like something, then my heart will not have room for any other, and I’ll always treasure it. A thousand times, a million times, no matter how many years, this will not change. This poem is the same." - thats nice and all but king... get therapy. i actually have further thoughts but tbh i dont want to put them into words bc they are simply too personal! moving on

didnt take any notes but somewhere in here was the bit with mount tong’lu opening and hua cheng losing it and kind of um. hm. that scene. thats another trope i really hate tbh i dont care for it as a way of including physical intimacy between characters and idk if it really ever adds anything but whatever moving on

The Half-Maquillage Woman - kind of interesting monster idea bc women and aging…. yeah. however i think this would be a lot stronger if there were a) more girls and this was b) discussed or illustrated at all prior to this moment. still interesting that its included knowing the author is a woman tho and there’s been comments on how ling wen is perceived vs pei ming. this book does keep giving me hope for interesting female character arcs i really want it to deliver something

quan yizhen..... i get u

lmao i have a note on a bit with lang ying that says “please dont be hc in disguise” and..... my clown nose was on but at least i knew that. for real this is bothering me how much he’s just. always. there. i know he’s a lead but we didn’t really need him around for a lot of this. oh well.  okay now to my current notes

“Yet it was precisely because it wasn’t cooked that it had to be eaten quickly. Once Xie Lian cooked it, it wouldn’t be edible anymore” - fucking fantastic

“Xie Lian hugged his belly. “Of course! Only after having met you did I rediscover that it’s such a simple thing to be happy, hahaha…” Hearing this, Hua Cheng blinked. Xie Lian’s laughter quieted a bit, realizing what he just said was a little too revealing.” - okay i know i said what i said about being tired of hua cheng being everywhere but... the line…. the fact that theyre laughing together…. :pleading:

“It’s not,” Ling Wen said. “At least, I believe, there will definitely not be another in history who can create a dish called ‘Incorruptible Chastity Meatballs’” - and truer words were never spoken

“I, DO NOT WORSHIP GODS. “I, AM GOD!” - this was every bit as badass as i hoped but no one told me it was immediately followed up by a little bit of the ol dinner theater fjalkdsfjsd. also puqi shrine noooooooooo

“Xie Lian sighed as he thought, “Qi Rong has taken Guzi away, who knows if the poor child was eaten or abandoned. Wind Master...... ..... who knows if Black Water took him away. Pray they’re both safe.” yeah hey are we going to fucknig. find out what happened to the child???

and yeah i dooooont really care for the age regression? thing thats going on. i just dont like that trope tbh. but tiny hua cheng whipping out his fat ghost king wallet in the store was funny tho. it is really funny that hualian are just like wandering around some random towns while the heavens are in an uproar. i guess theres not much else to do but its funny

“Me too, me too. You all know of my shixiong, right? Talented, with an infinite future! He only had one small vice: he loved playing women. Decades ago, a little prostitute ghost seduced my shixiong and sucked him dry into human jerky, and that Hua, Hua, Hua, that ghost king dared shelter her.” - yes omg give me the forbidden hua cheng lore i love this for him for real it goes along nicely with xie lian’s principles about giving another cup. god i love shared values

“Hua Cheng poked again, and a small hole appeared on the wall, as if the wall was made of tofu.” - how’d he do that. why is this a ghost king power. its useful tho

*me shaking qi rong when he pops up* WHERE IS THE CHILD

mu qing fu yao is here okay im happy now. once again no one has a good grasp on their secret identity and i love that. this inn has descended into chaos and im delighted and im glad lan chang is back

“The good ol’ kitchen was suddenly squished and crowded, loud and noisy. Fu Yao was chasing that fetus spirit leaping up and down, Lan Chang was chasing after Fu Yao like she had gone mad. Half of Qi Rong’s face changed shape by the way Xie Lian was pressing him down on the chopping board, his back turning into a target for those yellow talismans Fu Yao hurled while being observed by a crowd, and Lan Chang would step on him from time to time.” - this is pure chaos. i love that mu qing was in that room when the mob checked and he didnt say a word didnt open the door just sent out a talisman as a warning. king your disguise is transparent

“Xie Lian remembered the way Feng Xin laughed until he was hoarse when he first heard that verbal password all those years back, and couldn’t help but feel nostalgic, even though it wasn’t the right time.” - awwwww omg im emotional about this... faithful friend feng xin laughing at xie lian’s stupid joke password and remembering it!!! ;_;

“They have, but they’re not effective,” Feng Xin said. “Usually they’re the most diligent in scorning the Palace of Ling Wen, like they could do the job way better if they had the position. Now that we need them to take up the task, not a single one can do even half of what she does.” - typical... typical typical typical

also emotional about the fact that feng xin contacted xie lian at all.....

also!! emotional about lan chang as a mom and wanting to help out sick lil guzi.....

xie lian forcing “fu yao” to let him help “his general” is making me.... what is friendship if not playing along with your buddies little shenanigans while also making them accept your help

“Someone like Mu Qing, even though he’s narrow-minded, petty, sensitive and skeptical, has a bad personality, constantly guessing, doesn’t say nice things, likes to nag, always offending people and has a lot of people who dislike him, has no friends, can remember small, unimportant details for a long period of time…” ”Xie Lian went on in one breath with a straight face, but in the end he concluded with, “...But I’ve known him since we were kids, after all, he’s still got principles.” - XIE LIAN PLEASE AFJDLKSFJDL omg ive seen this quote before but i figured he was talking to someone else not actually to mu qing himself fgjasdkfjsl. god thats amazing. hey im gonna help you out because i care but i will roast you first <3

waaaaaait so is lan chang aka jian lan that girl from book 2 we took a page to talk about and then disappeared? that has to be it why else would we have stopped to discuss her

“Jian Lan spat on his face, then choking his neck, she slapped him twice again. “WHAT SHITTY SUPREME! YOU SURE KNOW HOW TO BLOW YOURSELF UP! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, THINK YOU’RE EVEN WORTH TO BE THOUGHT OF AS EQUALS WITH THE OTHER THREE SUPREMES? WHAT ARE YOU EVEN GOOD AT? YOUR THICK SKIN? OF COURSE I DARE HIT YOU!” - oh this feels so good i cant lie. YES GET HIM!! CHOMPING AND VIOLENCE YES!!!!

okay this description of cuocuo.... im... that sure the hell is a creature

this book is so entertaining bc i already saw spoilers for the feng xin/jian lan/cuo cuo reveal and yet i could never have predicted the circumstances that brought it about. imagine being feng xin. the heavens are in an uproar and your only friend/enemy has been jailed for possible fetus spirit-related crimes but he escapes along with this female ghost who keeps causing problems. you figure “fuck it lets see if dianxia kept his old phone number” and he has but then he hangs up on you. you’ve got fuckall else to do so you go find him. mu qing is there but he’s in his disguise the two of you were using so you could watch over his highness while staying aloof. you think you see hua cheng only he’s a chiild for some goddamn reason but who knows at this point. the female ghost is also there and theres a fetus spirit climbing trees and biting your arrows in half. you realize the female ghost is your ex and the little demon is your son. it bites you. what do you do

amazing that despite everything going on everyone is still playing along with the “fu yao” persona when it would probably be easier to drop pretenses at this point. then again tbh if i could explain my actions to my friends while pretending to be a third party.... i probably would so.. carry on

“With all his devotees gone, only Feng Xin still treated him like the Flower-Crowned Martial God and His Highness the Crown Prince. ” “...his protection charms were all seen as trash. However, Feng Xin was still determined and tireless in handing them out; telling Xie Lian, look, you still have devotees.” “After all, he was the darling of the heavens since birth, high and mighty. Feng Xin so naturally spun around him like he was the world, so how could he possibly have his own life, his own heart” “Whether or not that fetus spirit was Feng Xin’s son, if it was that period of poverty that made Feng Xin lose the girl he loved, Xie Lian wouldn’t be able to forgive himself no matter what." ohhhh my god this relationship i. im...

oh my god i still have 30 more chapters until book 4............ its naptime now i think

[ohwereusingourmadeupnames]

Okay! It’s related to addiction, hope it doesn’t bother you: Tony Stark is out from rehab, trying to start his life from zero after losing almost everything bc of his addiction. He had been in rehab for quite a long time, so going back to society is being kinda difficult. He can feel the stigma people have of him and so Tony feels lonely, until he meets Peter, a healthy kind man. Tony is afraid of falling for him and f*ck everything up as he has done before.

Spend My Days Locked In A Haze

Pairing: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Rating: Mature (M)  Word Count: 4.5k Notes: So, this one has been sitting in the box for a little while because I wanted to approach it with educated respect. I did a lot of research. A lot. I hope this is what you were looking for, nonnie! Thanks for dropping the prompt my way <3 Warnings: Description of drug use (Tony struggles with a cocaine addiction), mentions of ADD, and therapy.  Summary: 

Tony’s brain doesn’t shut off and he struggles to manage it - so, he doesn’t. Instead, he develops a habit that is not the best for his body or his mind. A discovery during rehab helps a little, but the ultimate cure for restlessness is the adorable Peter Parker and food tours around the city.  

do the thing - send in all the prompts.

It started out small, like most things that have the ability to magnify always do.

After getting back from the desert, Tony couldn’t get his brain to turn off. Not only did he have a foreign object in his chest, he endured months of living in a cave with very little to eat and the inevitable happenstance of death clinging to his back like a needy child. Aside from the suit plans he wanted to refine and make into a working suit that could function with his now upgrading arc reactor, Tony didn’t have much of anything else going on.

It all got a little worse when he figured out that Obadiah was the one behind his kidnapping and hoped-for death. It stung a little, to be one of the smartest people in the world and miss something that after looking back, should have been seen from a mile away. How could a man that thought he ruled the world ever give up the throne without a fight? It didn’t make any sense to forget that Tony was one of the best fighters out there – but, he’d forgive the man his mistake when he got to see him behind bars.

The need to finish the suit became pinnacle and with that, long nights and even longer gaps of time between sleeping and letting his body rest. His mind didn’t ever seem to get tired, however – it ran on a loop for hours on end. Whenever he thought he might get to a stopping point, the next thought came flying across the forefront of his mind. It was great for his work, but not so great for his body and mental health.

After the 20th reminder from Jarvis about being awake for 80 hours straight, Tony forced himself from the lab and into the confines of his bedroom. It made his heart race, just thinking about sleep – yet, the second his head hit the pillow, he was out. His body’s need and the inability to shut it off pulled him under. The racing of his mind, however, did not go down with him.

Less than 4 hours later, Tony jumped awake, his entire body covered in sweat. He woke up patting at his chest, uselessly making sure he wasn’t connected to a car battery that with just one misfire, could take his life. Before he could contemplate getting back to sleep, his mind moved on to the adjustments he needed to make to the suit – the idea of rest was now gone for at least another 80 hours.

It got to be a little much – after the final interaction with Obie, Tony lost a little bit of steam. It was one thing, to go and go for hours on end when there was something to go for. Yet, it was something completely different, to be both restless and completely overwhelmed with a brain that didn’t want to power down. Sleep didn’t come and when it did, it was broken and interrupted by nightmares that drove him back to the lab or the kitchen or anywhere else other than the big empty bed that wanted to suck him in and keep him in the dark.

He remembered a brief stint in college when he was younger and going through the exact same thing. Tony knew that Bishop wasn’t dealing drugs anymore, but there were many people throughout the city that were. It didn’t take but a few well-placed calls to secure an in-person delivery of the China White that could at least take away the need to sleep. When his brain wanted to run a million miles a minute, who was he to deny it?

The first few bumps lasted him for a long time – his tolerance for the stuff was nowhere near what it’d been in his younger years. He wasn’t sure how the arc reactor effected the processing of it, either. Every time he leaned over to do a line, he might be one step closer to blowing his heart up. In a way, the risk seemed like the most appealing part of the whole thing. Living on the edge at least gave him something to live for.

Between upgrades for the Iron Man suit and the transition from weapons manufacturer to clean and sustainable energy, Tony didn’t have time to slow down, especially when it came to sleep – that took up too many brain bytes and didn’t contribute to the madness he continued to pump out month after month. As the days passed, Tony found himself getting more entrenched in the need for the drug that kept him both wired and level – it felt good to go and go and go without having to stop. Stopping was for the weak.

Despite the cavalier attitude, Tony started to notice some physical symptoms of the upper being in his system all the time. Since introduction of the arc reactor, Tony didn’t feel much in terms of his heart or the cardiorespiratory process that went down between the heart and the lungs. The higher his doses, however, the more uncomfortable his pulse became – the throbbing in his veins seemingly thicker and thicker as the days went by.

Of course, when the shit hit the fan, Tony was making one of his rare public appearances. It meant a lot to him to change the company’s perspective, but not a lot to the people actually affiliated with Stark Industries. After the business with Obadiah, it seemed pertinent to keep himself under the radar – which was well in good because he wasn’t in any condition to be in front of people. Yet, Pepper talked him into the barest of glimpses at the next press conference.

That particular day, Tony attempted to sleep the night before and felt a little strung out from the experience. It was weird – to be so aversive to sleep. In an attempt to wash his mind from the dreams that plagued him, Tony snorted an extra line before leaving his penthouse and getting into the swing of being a businessman again. It seemed like, especially since coming back to reality, that persona didn’t fit him – rules and restrictions and propriety weren’t really his thing; he was about to make that incredibly apparent.

Though he didn’t have any talking expectations, Pepper wanted him up front in the limelight – which was nice for about two seconds. Then, the sweating started; the brightness of the lights brought every bit of moisture within him to the surface. And when that happened, his heart rate picked up – how it got any higher than it already was, Tony didn’t know. Reaching up to loosen his tie, Tony shuffled from one foot to the other over and over again; he hoped the restless movement would cure the general weightless feeling that did not feel glorious like the high usually did.

Hitting the ground was not expected and try as he might, he couldn’t push off from Happy to get away long enough to do it in the relative peace of an empty hallway, not in front of cameras and many, many people that were watching the live broadcast. He was still conscious when Happy ran over to him, his big hands grabbing Tony’s arms tightly. They made eye contact before he finally slipped away, the horrified look on his face just seconds before forever engrained in his mind.

----

The worst part of overdosing didn’t come from the progressive removal of Tony from the board, or the headlines that spoke of the scandal – no, the worst part came when Pepper dropped him off in front of an in-patient rehab clinic. The intense amount of the drug in his system had him seizing and coding out a couple of times on his way to the hospital, followed by several days off waking up with excruciating pain everywhere, chills, a fever, nausea – all of the fun things that came from detoxing from a chronically used drug.

When he’d been cognizant enough to actually have a conversation, Pepper told him about the board’s decision to remove him from his position – he shakily signed the papers that would make her the acting CEO. She told him that pending a stint in rehab, they’d reconsider – but they both knew that was total bull shit. Getting out of rehab meant coming back to a haunted penthouse and no company in sight. Despite that, Tony agreed; he was only 45 – dying was the last thing he wanted for himself.

It was grueling to begin with – Tony was still on the edge of his detox and felt more irate than ever before. His chest ached from whatever happened to his heart during the course of seizing and having severe palpitations. To top everything off, his mind was still running on overdrive and there wasn’t a bit of relief in sight – they wouldn’t even let him exercise yet, his heart wasn’t ready for it.

About a week into his stay, Tony started attending the group and individual therapy sessions. He didn’t like to talk to people when he felt normal, so small attempts to open up were made during his group time – it took him 3 weeks of sessions before he even felt comfortable enough to introduce himself; everyone knew Tony Stark – but nobody really “knew” him.

The individual sessions were a totally different bag, however – the small female therapist sat in a big chair behind her desk, the width of it dwarfing her even more than her stature already did. If he had any ground to stand on, he’d laugh at the irony of it. Tony didn’t, though – the rock bottom he was laying on at the moment felt worse than the desert, and he’d been there against his will.

She looked at him a lot – Dr. Martin’s eyes were hazel and a little on the beady side – every time her eyes moved, Tony could feel her scrutinizing him. They didn’t talk for 2 solid sessions; the quiet would have been much more appreciated if she didn’t keep running her eyes over him, but beggars really couldn’t be choosers.

It was clear during his 3rd session that he wasn’t going to get away with keeping his mouth shut. Her posture was different when he walked in and her usual file was nowhere to be found. Sitting down, Tony took in a deep breath to prepare himself – it felt like a sweet kind of torture, waiting for the questions to come his way.

“I’ve spent the past couple of weeks trying to connect your file to you and I can’t – so I thought coming right to the source would be a good place to start. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Your likes, interests, habits – “

Instead of balking at her, Tony settled back in the chair, his hands knitting behind his head – the position meant to give off ease. “Uh – what don’t you know from the papers? I like to build things with my hands and solve puzzles that other people can’t. I’m interested in not dying because of the habit that I have. I want my brain to shut off for a while, which is what led to the shitty habit to begin with.” Scratching his head, he shrugged, the words more than he’d said to anyone in years.

Dr. Martin tilted her head, her eyes a little brighter than just a moment before. The inquisitive part of her on the scent of something. “You want your brain to shut off. Can you elaborate on that?”

Looking at her, Tony quirked a brow – he’d never been asked to describe the chaos in his head before. It took him a minute to categorize his thoughts, the multitude of details that needed to be included sorting themselves out. “It’s like having a million files open at one time. I get to the end of one train of thought and immediately hop to another. Or I’ll be right in the middle of one and be on the opposite side of the room the very next second. There’s no focus. I fixate on my work and the things I like – everything else, it’s a restless toss-up.”

Tony recognized the light bulb going off in her head when it happened – there were more than enough eureka moments in his lifetime to know exactly what that looked like. Getting up, Dr. Martin went over to her stack of files and dug around until she found Tony’s. “It says that you have a long history with restlessness and an inability to sleep. There’s obviously some traumatic origin to some of the most recent feelings, but have you always experienced things like that?”

In the end, Tony went through a long line of tests to determine whether ADD contributed to all of the issues he experienced outside of the drugs. He met with Dr. Martin and told her his long history of times just like the most recent one – times of long stretches without sleep because a project consumed him, and then even longer times of disorientation because he couldn’t connect to anything. Tony didn’t know what a diagnosis would bring him, other than more stigma, but the prospect of an answer wasn’t the worst thing to be offered, either.

Upon being diagnosed, a certain sort of feeling washed over him. Not contentment, but something that might be like it. On top of the drug counseling and group sessions, Tony had a couple more therapist added to his repertoire. Instead of going through the 90-day program, Tony stuck around and did 180-days instead. Before he left, he wanted to make sure that he could put both feet on the ground and stand up on his own. There were too many ways to get access to the thing that could very easily be his downfall – having self-assurance felt absolutely necessary.

The nerves about the situation manifested in the fact that he’d have way too much time on his hands when he got back into his real life. Without SI, there weren’t a lot of things going on for him. Idle hands were never a good thing for him before – the necessity for a distraction allowed him to fixate and neglect any semblance of a routine. If he could just keep his shit together, maybe the bits of his life could be fit back together.

Happy picked him up with a soft smile on his face at the end of Tony’s stay. He brought the Audi and got out of the driver’s side when he saw Tony walking toward him. When he didn’t hop back in, Tony shot him a grateful smile and sunk into the custom seat he installed himself. The purr of the car during the drive was enough to drown out his anxiety and stop any sort of conversation from happening. One thing Tony always appreciated about Happy was the fact that he didn’t push. Tony needed to be around people that didn’t push.

Parking in the garage, Tony pulled the keys from the car and turned towards Happy – the only person who stuck with him through the 6 months he’d been taking care of himself. “Thanks, Hap. You being here today was really important to me,” Tony said, his eyes flitting from side to side to avoid having to see the look on Happy’s face. He learned that being honest was the best policy, but it didn’t stop it from feeling a little weird. Talking about his feelings wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

“Glad you’re back, Tony. It’s been too quiet around here.”

----

The process of getting back into society was harder than he figured it would be. Though he went away for a while, the world did not forget the tragic picture of him passed out on the ground, the later news of his overdose painting the picture more fully and discoloring how the public saw him even more. As he predicted, the SI board didn’t have any intention of letting him come back any time soon – the idea that his company stood in the hands of someone else for an undetermined amount of time made him want to punch something; but it was his own fault, the consequences were his to deal with.

In place of working, Tony developed a routine throughout the day that took up his time and allowed him to stay organized and far away from the listless feeling that could so easily take him over. Every morning, he got up at 8 to eat a breakfast that he cooked himself. It took a couple of weeks to master the art of making eggs, but he managed, regardless. After breakfast, he hit the gym in his building and ran out his troubles on the treadmill until he couldn’t feel his legs anymore.

In desperation during his first few days at home, Tony asked Jarvis for good food places around the city to try – ever since, he’d been slowly going down the list. Some of the places were upscale and took lots of money to have a high quality cup of coffee, and some were mom and pop places that cooked love into every bite. In all of his years of being in the city, Tony hadn’t thought to explore the local eateries and highly regretted it – there were so many things he missed out on.

During his food trips, Tony got to see different parts of the city – some that he didn’t know existed before walking through them. One particular adventure led him to a part of Brooklyn that looked newer, despite the older neighborhoods surrounding it. Jarvis told him about a brunch place that was rumored to make the best waffles. The walk there was interesting and filled with many mural covered walls that were incredible. Stopping to take pictures of a couple of them, Tony walked right into the line for Snooze without really meaning to.

The toe of his foot hit the back of the man’s shoe in front of him in his haste to stop before barreling into him completely. Sucking in a breath, Tony let himself be grateful for his fast reflexes before he looked up to apologize to the person he almost took out. Brown eyes that met his were filled with amusement and focused solely on him. “I’m so sorry. I saw a Storm Trooper mural a block over and got caught up looking at the picture I took of it,” Tony babbled. “I got here before I realized.”

A soft smile also belonged to the man with eyes that carried a shine to them, the man’s teeth white and adding to the intensity of his grin. “That’s okay. I stopped and looked at that mural for a bit, too. If you go down a couple of blocks, there’s a Boba Fett one.” The man looked over his shoulder to make sure the line wasn’t moving before turning towards Tony completely. “Are you a big Star Wars fan?”

By the time they got up to the door, Tony found out that the man, who he came to know as Peter, worked as a freelance CPA and jogged around the neighborhood not far from here. He followed the smells to Snooze, his trip there totally unplanned, unlike Tony’s. They talked about the newest trilogy additions to the Skywalker story and decided that Ben Skywalker shouldn’t have died after all. The hostess looked at the two of them and didn’t think to ask if they were together or separate, she simply led them to a small table. And neither man stopped her.

One brunched turned into coffee on the Upper East Side, and then Chicago style pizza in Queens. Peter seemed to enjoy the different food adventures that they went on – the man jumping on every chance that he could to join Tony. Many times, their meet ups to get food turned into walks around the closest park or trips through museums and art galleries. In his life, Peter was the only person that didn’t judge him. He didn’t have the knowledge to do so, but something told him Peter probably wouldn’t, regardless.

In spending all of that time together, Tony inevitably started finding himself falling for the charismatic Peter Parker who talked with his mouth full and could put away an entire pizza all by himself. Tony came to know that Peter was left-handed and enjoyed ketchup on his hamburgers but not mustard. CPAs that made their own business hours got to work whenever they wanted and on off days, they played squash and read to kids at the Brooklyn Public Library. For every bad quality that Tony had, Peter countered it with something so positive, it became more obvious that he was way too good for him.

Baggage like his was hard for him to carry – he couldn’t imagine placing that on someone else’s shoulders, especially someone as good and kind as Peter Parker.

A desperate attempt to save Peter and his goodness from the inevitable way that Tony fucked everything up, he took a couple of steps back from their friendship. Instead of meeting Peter almost every day, he limited himself to once a week and tried to keep it as friendly as possible. A hard feat, it seemed, after 3 weeks of Peter looking at him curiously. More than anything, Tony wanted to run his hand across Peter’s cheek to flatten out the slight frown, but he held back – one touch would send him down a rabbit hole he more than likely shouldn’t explore.

Their latest get together felt a little strained, Tony could feel it from the second he walked up. Peter wasn’t nearly as friendly as usual and left before Tony could even suggest walking to the ice cream place he scoped out on his way to the restaurant. He tried not to feel disappointed – his attempts to create some distance between them were working. The sucky feelings that came along with them, however – they were not.

The very next day, Tony was surprised by the sound of his elevator opening a little after 7PM. There were only 3 people that knew the access code to his elevator and 2 of them were currently out of town getting ready for the Stark Expo. Thinking about that made his skin prickle, so he pushed the thought aside and made it over to the doors. He knew Peter would be there, but the sight of him standing in the foyer of his house hit a little different. The last time he was here, they were excitedly heading out to try Cronuts & Co – smiles on their faces.

Now, Peter looked at him with a mix of hurt and confusion. Tony matched him – after their time together last night, he was surprised that Peter wanted anything to do with him at all.

“Sorry to just show up, Tony. I just – what happened? I need to know. Things were going great. Then an alien overtook you and you left the building. I’m – scared. If nothing else, you’re my friend and the 180 is a little concerning.” The admittance caused the man to stop talking, the red on his cheeks spreading quickly, the color going all the way down his neck and probably further. “Did I do something? I’m sorry if I did – just please, tell me what’s going on.”

Tony took a step back, every word hitting him square in the chest. So wrapped up in his own shit, he didn’t even see the panicked look in Peter’s eyes – the one that was staring back at him so heavily now. Pulling in a deep breath, Tony bucked up, a new sort of determination settling within him. “There’s a lot that you don’t know. Too much for the foyer of my apartment. Come in, I’ll get you a drink.”

Five minutes of reprieve Tony got while he poured them a couple of small shots of bourbon felt like enough time to collect himself. Disclosing the most intimate details of his situation wasn’t how he figured he’d spend the night, but it seemed right – to finally get the pressure off his chest. Tony slugged his drink back, then took a seat on the couch next to Peter.

“I’m sure you know the basics about me. I think the picture of me fainting at that press conference is a meme,” Tony uttered, an uncomfortable chuckle leaving his lips. “I got a little lost after I got back from the desert. I have a thing – where I fixate and get restless and have trouble focusing and after I got things squared away with Obadiah Stane, I just sort of lost the way completely. I fucked up a perfectly good opportunity to make the company my own, Pete. I fucked up so much in my life and the last thing – the absolute last fucking thing I want to do is fuck anything up with you – especially you, Pete.”

He watched Peter suck back the booze in his glass – the bob of the Adam’s apple in his throat almost distracting enough to ignore the anxiety rolling through him. Long fingers pressed the glass into the coffee table, then those very same fingers were grabbing his hand. “You don’t owe me your past, Tony. I knew who you were when I met you. I liked the way you looked so lost the first time we met. You have a great personality and a kind of thirst for life that I’m really excited about.” His fingers tangled with Tony’s, the man using his leverage to pull him closer. “I don’t care how you got here, Tony.”

It was a little overwhelming, hearing Peter speak so candidly. Almost everyone else in his life wrote him off – how a random person could have such faith in him blew him away. There wasn’t a lot of sense in it, but in his journey over the last year, Tony realized most things didn’t.

A soft hand on his face brought him out of his thoughts, the smile Tony came to adore present on Peter’s face when he looked up. “How about we just take it a step at a time? Might be good for the both of us,” Peter suggested, his thumb running over Tony’s cheek as he spoke.

Leaning in, Tony let his lips press against Peter’s lightly, the ghost of a kiss enough for the moment. He gave Peter’s hand a squeeze and gulped in a breath, a genuine smile slipping across his face.

“Sounds okay to me, Pete.”

[andaleduardo]

How to Break Your Heart and Make Sure It Stays Broken

2. Send them your favorite songs through Bluetooth    

- Read on ao3

Summary:  12:28 a.m.

Spaghetti: It’s not gonna be weird today

Richie: absolutely

Spaghetti: We’re not gonna make it awkward

Richie: definitely not

Spaghetti: Yeah we got this

Everything is just fucking fine.

7th January 2011, Friday

10:30 a.m.

“Congratulations, you just called the best family in town. What can I help you with?”

“Hu-hey Richie.”

“Billy boy! Happy birthday, man!”

The sound of Bill’s chuckles turn into wind over the phone. “Thanks.”

“So, what’s up?”

“I wanted to check if you’re s-ss-still coming today?”

“Course I am, what time do you want me there?”

“Come around 3. It’s t-too cold to go out so we’re just guh-gonna stay in the attic.”

“Well alright, chap. I’ll be there.”

“And don’t forget my dad’s driving everyone home.”

Richie did, in fact, forget about that.

“Oh yeah, right.”

There’s a second of silence before Bill speaks again. “Are you okay? You huh-haven’t been online lately.”

“Just peachy. You know how it gets, holiday season, kinda busy ‘round here.”

Although Bill knows Richie usually spends the holidays with just his parents (small family’s downside) he doesn’t say anything.

“We’ll have s-some fun today, don’t worry.”

“Indeed we will. See you at 3, birthday boy.”

“See you, Rich.”

And he hangs up.

  12:28 a.m.

Spaghetti: It’s not gonna be weird today

Richie: absolutely

Spaghetti: We’re not gonna make it awkward

Richie: definitely not

Spaghetti: Yeah we got this

  Richie is absolutely exhausted.

The entire week was a failed attempt at learning how to deal with the situation.

Sleep is an utter joke with a mind that runs as if it’s training for a marathon. Looking at food makes him nauseous, not eating food makes him nauseous, but eating it makes it worse.

Perhaps it would help if he could untie the knot in his throat, but then again he can’t cry properly when his parents are always around and poking a head through his bedroom door.

He wants school to start, he doesn’t want school to start. He wants them to go back to work, he doesn’t want to be left alone with his feelings.

And on top of it all he knows he’s overreacting. Absolutely over-the-top reacting. He’s fifteen. It’s not like he knows love.

But doesn’t he?

It hurts and it’s love. It burns as it makes its way up his throat and it’s love. It was amazing while he kept his mouth shut and now everything seems to be falling on him and his chest is heavy and caving and hungrier than his stomach and he caused it and it’s love.

Unrequited love, if you will. A fancy word for a fucked up thing.

To top it off, Eddie doesn’t stop.

 January 1st, 3:45 p.m.

Spaghetti: I hate you

Spaghetti: No wait I don’t hate hate you

Spaghetti: But

Spaghetti: Ugh

Spaghetti: I’m gonna be thinking about this now!

Spaghetti: And I don’t want us to change

Spaghetti: Like, I said “I hate you” and I would never second guess that before but now I feel like I need to tell you “I don’t actually hate you” because

Spaghetti: Well

Spaghetti: I don’t know why

Richie: sorry

Spaghetti: !

Spaghetti: Stop apologizing

Richie: … i really wanna say sorry again

Spaghetti: I don’t blame you

Spaghetti: It’s not like we control our feelings

 Damn right, they don’t. Richie isn’t sure how to answer that, so he doesn’t. But Eddie brings it up again one day later.

 January 2nd, 9:10 p.m.

Spaghetti: I think I kinda knew

Richie: ??? are u serious

Spaghetti: Well yeah

Richie: am I that predictable?

Spaghetti: You’re the least predictable person in the whole world Richie

Spaghetti: Except with the mom jokes

Spaghetti: I can always see those coming

Richie: yet you walk right onto them every time

Spaghetti: Fuck you.

Spaghetti: It’s just that the others aren’t that subtle

Richie: the losers?

Spaghetti: Yeah they try too hard

Spaghetti: Tease us a lot for being close and saying things and leaving us alone everywhere

Spaghetti: Guess I kinda wondered why they did that if they didn’t know something I didn’t

Richie: uh, they kinda don’t tho

Richie: at least I never told them

Spaghetti: Wait really?

Richie: maybe they’re just bored?

Spaghetti: Oh

Spaghetti: Maybe

 It’s only been a week so far (the longest week of Richie’s life) and Eddie texts him every day with the same topic. This, as predicted, isn’t helping the situation much.

It’s Tuesday. There’s Richie, staring at his cereal while Maggie studies him from the other side of the table and surprise, a brand new text from Eddie.

It’s Wednesday. There’s Richie, staring at the news channel because he forgot to press the button on the tv remote when he sat down on the couch 6 minutes ago. And then there’s his dad, looking at him from his vintage recliner and coming up with ten different ways to start a conversation without actually starting one. The phone’s screen lights up with against his leg with a new notification. Yes, from Eddie.

Finally, it’s Friday. Out of habit, Richie leaves the phone on the bathroom countertop as he showers. It takes a lot of self-control not to pull all his hair out while washing it when the phone vibrates against the counter. Once, then twice, then thrice. And so on to make up the total of 9 new messages.

Thank God he doesn’t walk out of the shower right then to check them out of curiosity, because 10 minutes later he’s sitting on the toilet seat and staring at “I hate you” for so long his mom actually knocks on the door and asks if he died in there.

He didn’t die in there, he’s just crying. Buy hey, mom, that’s the dream!

All the messages fall in the same lines. Eddie doesn’t want this to be awkward. He doesn’t want this to be weird. He doesn’t want anything to change.

Logically, Richie draws conclusions. He fucked up big, ruined them forever and now everything is inconvenient for Eddie. It’s not that hard to get it after six variations of:

 ‘You’re not gonna be different around me now right?’

 How can he not be different around Eddie now?

What if their knees touch and Eddie thinks it’s on purpose? What if Richie smiles in his direction and Eddie takes it as flirting? Christ. Richie doesn’t even know how to flirt! Should he sit far away from him now? Should he sit by his side like always and have Eddie think he’s doing it out of interest?

Richie didn’t just make everything inconvenient for Eddie, he made everything inconvenient for himself, too.

However, it’s Bill’s birthday, and that’s more important than a broken heart.

  5:48 p.m.

 “You’re cheating!” Everyone jumps on their seats when Stan shouts and slams his hand on the coffee table. It sends all the plastic houses on the monopoly board in different directions.

“What? No I’m not!” Bev defends herself.

“Nah.” Mike crosses his arms. “I don’t believe that.”

“You don’t believe she’s cheating?” Stan angrily inquires.

“I don’t believe she’s not cheating.” Says Mike.

“I am not fucking cheating, you guys are just awful at managing money.”

Stan’s chin drops in her direction. “You- I manage money wonderfully, thank you very much-”

While the arguing continues, Ben takes his time putting all the houses back on their places. Bill tries to make them stop fighting while Mike destroys all those attempts by teaming up with Bev and Stan alternately. Eddie furiously counts and recounts his money, being the one closest to bankrupt. And Richie silently organizes the contents of the bank. He doesn’t like monopoly that much.

“Maybe our bank over there has something to do with this?” Richie feels everyone’s eyes on him so he looks up at Mike from above his glasses.

“How could you ever think such things about me, Mikey?” He dramatically puts down the stack of property cards he had been sorting. “I do nothing but humble work for this community and this is how I’m treated. Unbelievable.”

“Richie, I swear.” Stan glares at him. “You won’t make me lose, even if you cheat.”

“How can I be cheating? I’m not even playing.”

“You’re passing Bev extra money!”

“Geez.” Eddie moans in annoyance. “We forgot Stan gets off on Monopoly.”

At that, Richie barks out a laugh, unable to keep it in but still trying to by slapping a hand over his mouth.

“Okay, fine.” Stan crosses his arms. “I wasn’t even the one suggesting this game, I voted for scrabble.”

“Oh, so the only other game you get off on?” Surprisingly, it slips from Richie’s mouth. He wasn’t at all expecting jokes to be coming from him today.

It’s just wonderfully entertaining to piss off Stan. At this point, the boy’s gotten himself so worked up that his whole face is pink.

“I’m going to shove birthday cake up your a-”

“-Wow! Okay let’s all chill.” Ben kindly tries to stop them.

Richie lifts up a hand full of fake-cash and makes a jerking off motion with the other, which finally triggers Stan into motion. He manages to jump away from the table on the exact moment Stan reaches over to try and jam his hand on his weakest spot, the armpits. But in the process, his knees collide with the bottom of the coffee table and all the board pieces end up flying everywhere. Again.

Ben throws his hands up. “Thank you so very much for that.”

“We will never f-ffinish a monopoly game…”

  6:23 p.m.

“How about Uno?” Ben suggests. “You can’t cheat at Uno, right?”

After being chased by Stan around the attic everyone ended up scattered around, staring at the ceiling and discussing which game to play next. So far it’s been twenty minutes of quiet chatting.

“You can grab three cards when you get a plus four.” Richie offers. “You can also slide in a six while playing some nines, might get lucky.”

There’s a brief second of silence and contemplation.

“How you can turn Uno into a sex joke still amazes me.” Eddie frowns at the ceiling.

Richie shrugs. “I’m pretty amazing overall.” Sweat pools up on the back of his neck with the effort of trying to sound so nonchalant. Richie wants to scream at the normality of his afternoon. Why does life keep going when you’re dealing with heartache? Isn’t the world supposed to stop spinning after you get friendzoned? Show a little compassion, earth.

“I still can’t believe your mom let you keep the phone.”

At Mike’s words, Eddie flops around on his bean bag, looking like a hanged potato sack. “Right? Didn’t see that coming, either.”

“Does she really go through it, though?”

Recently, Eddie’s contact list was updated to include everyone. His mom complained that he didn’t need to be in contact with “those friends” of his any more than he already does. She’s obviously wrong.

Eddie groans in agreement. “She keeps finding the lamest excuses until I give it to her. Then she checks whatever it is she wants and gives it back.”

A wave of fear passes through Richie. Almost on cue, Eddie steals a glance at him and adds. “But I archive the stuff she doesn’t need to read. And I keep Facebook as a hidden app.” Proud of his schemes, he smirks to himself.

Richie sinks back on his bean bag, slightly relieved. The past week of awful sleep is weighting him down, tying him to his worst and holding him back from pretending to be okay a little better. With time, he hopes to learn how to put this behind his back, but right now, Eddie is right in front of him.

“Hey, by the way. Can any of you tell me how to download songs?” The boy at matter asks.

“You know thu-that’s illegal, r-right?”

“Oh.” For a moment, he stares at Bill with a conflicted expression. “Well, I still want my music.”

“Richie, don’t you have a fuck ton of songs downloaded?”

“Yup. Illegal downloads are my number one occupation, Marsh.” Then, he gets it. “Oh, you’re right. Eds, turn Bluetooth on.”

He regrets saying ‘Eds’ oh so quickly, overly nervous that he isn’t allowed to say it anymore. Not that he was ever allowed to say it before, if the way Eddie complains about it 90% of the time means anything. Quickly, Richie spirals into thoughts of their bickering coming to an end, or even worse, becoming one sided and sad if one of them doesn’t feed into it. That would leave the other one hanging, and Richie was already left hanging, Richie is still hanging and he will be hanging on these feelings, on this rejection, for life. That’s what he has to accept, that he loves the only person in the world he could ever love and they don’t love him back. That his future seems sad from the present. That Eddie might drift away when he realizes they can’t mess around like best friends anymore, even if he had said he wouldn’t do that and it wouldn’t happen. But what if he does? What if it happens? Where does that leave him? What is he supposed to-

“Don’t call me that, asshole. And how the fuck do I do that?”

Oh.

The way Eddie speaks drips of familiarity. Just the way it always was with them, just the way it will always be. Richie can’t decide if that’s good or bad, but it pulls him together enough to talk.

“See that weird looking B icon up there?” He waits for Eddie’s answer but the other boy is looking at his phone as if he could catch it on fire with just his eyes.

Richie bites the inside of his cheek, breathes in some bravery and pushes himself up from the bean bag.

“Here,” he walks over and crouches down at Eddie’s side, quickly opening the Bluetooth settings and pairing up their phones while paying too much attention to the space between their hands. Just to make sure they don’t touch. “Do you wanna pick out the songs you want?” He starts giving his phone to Eddie but gets a headshake in return.

“Uh no, that’s fine.” Eddie says, turning his head and therefore putting their faces incredibly close. Richie barely catches himself from falling on his butt right there, and Eddie leans away quickly, obviously not meaning to cause any of this. “I- uh, just chose the ones you think I’d like.”

Richie nods stupidly and rushes back to his seat. While he goes through his music library and picks off songs, all he can think about is ‘This is so hard, too hard, way more difficult than I could possibly imagine and I don’t know if I can go about my life pretending everything is fine when it all feels anything but that.’

“How about Ludo? There’s no way you can cheat at that…”

Simply as if a switch was flipped, Richie multitasks and answers Ben by listing off all the possible ways to cheat at Ludo.

And to the outsider eyes, everything is just fine.

Everything is fine as they order pizza and Richie and Eddie have to ask each other if they can still share their regular favorite, olive and pepperoni. Everything is fine while conversation flows at dinner, except Richie puts his half of the pizza on a plate instead of sharing the box between their laps, and Eddie doesn’t question it. Everything is fine as everyone watches a movie after, and there’s no one to lean his head on Richie’s shoulder, or jab an elbow in his arm when they itch to comment certain scenes.

Then Bill’s dad comes upstairs to remind them it’s time to drive everyone home. And for the first time in his life, Richie is thrilled to hear those words.

On their way home, Eddie sits in the back, earphones plugging his ears deaf to his surroundings. Richie wonders if he should have left out all the love songs, now it’s too late for that. But it’s fine, right?

Everything is just fucking fine.

 perma taglist: @constantreaderfool   @mrs-vh  @eds-trashmouth @girasol-eddie  @reddieforlove @madi-personal  @cheekaspbrak

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ @sasuhinabigflash2020​​ || Day Twenty: Soap Bubbles ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Uchiha Tenkai ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

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Having a new baby in the house isn’t...quite as scary as Sasuke thought it would be. All of his months - if not years - of agonizing over his worthiness of being a father, of bringing another Uchiha life into the world, left him dreading the moment as much as he looked forward to it.

And yet, in the end...he’s unendingly glad he decided to take that plunge.

Uchiha Tenkai comes into the world on August twenty-first, at a healthy weight and length. Hinata emerges palid and yet flushed, breathless and smiling at the first cries of her firstborn. A soft crown of jet-black hair, and squinted views of matching eyes.

An Uchiha, through and through.

Hinata, of course, holds him first, Sasuke hovering at her shoulder and staring, expression unreadable and perfectly blank. It’s like his emotions are holding their breath, awaiting...something.

And it comes when the newborn is placed into his arms.

Everything else disappears. His eyes go impossibly wide and just...take in the image. Finally, it all seems to sink in. Just what this is. What this means.

He is a father. And this tiny being, this...shining example of innocent, untouched life is his to protect, and shape, and mold. To make into a better tomorrow. A brighter future. A man he himself would aspire to be.

“...Tenkai,” he murmurs, as if greeting the child properly to the world.

That was several months ago. And though Sasuke’s reverence has not diminished, it has been...tempered.

Babies are messy. Babies are loud. And babies are a lot - a lot - of work.

And right now? Tenkai is all three.

Hinata has been called in for clan business with the Hyūga this morning, leaving Sasuke to feed their son. But Tenkai isn’t happy with his mother’s absence, and refused his food until - with a lucky swing - he managed to splatter the dish of food resting atop his highchair all over himself, leaving only the held-aloft spoon intact as Sasuke just...stared in disbelief.

So now, Tenkai is getting a bath. And a scolding.

“If you ever do that again, I’m shipping you off to Naruto’s house,” he begins, scrubbing the toddler’s goop-ridden hair and ignoring his protesting whines. “You can go live with Akane. Be her little brother and let her drive you nuts every minute of every day. Then we’ll see how much you regret your actions. We’ll see how much you’d give to be here, being a good little boy who eats his food without a fuss.”

About a month older than Tenkai, Sakura and Naruto’s little firecracker Akane is already proving to be a potent mix of both her parents’ most...notable qualities. Their volume, and their screaming for attention to name a few. The little redhead, just like her predecessors, is already driving her Uchiha counterpart up the wall whenever the toddlers are put in the same room together.

Hinata thinks it’s cute. Sasuke...isn’t sure that’s quite the right word.

But his threats are largely ignored, a bit beyond the babe’s scope of understanding yet. All Tenkai knows is that his father is displeased...and that he’s sopping wet with a frothing of bubbles in the kitchen sink as Sasuke clears off the remaining baby food from his person.

His onesie, however, is going to have to go in the wash. Once he’s clean, Sasuke’s just going to dress him in a new one and...try this whole breakfast thing over again.

“Um...did I miss something?”

Glancing up at his wife’s voice, Sasuke simply replies, “Tenkai decided he’d rather wear his food than eat it.”

After a beat, Hinata giggles into her sleeve. “I see…!”

Left to his own devices for a moment, Tenkai takes to splashing in the water, sending soap bubbles flying and amusing himself to the point of giggles.

“Well, thank you for cleaning him up. I’ll handle the laundry portion, if that will make you feel better.”

“It would. At least laundry doesn’t fight back.”

Hinata snickers again, taking up the soiled onesie and setting to wash it before bringing Sasuke a replacement alongside a fresh diaper.

“Thanks.” Sure he’s gotten every last speck of pureed prunes, Sasuke hefts his son from the sink and towels him dry, strapping the nappy into place before adding the clothes atop it.

“There! A nice, clean, handsome boy,” Hinata praises, accepting her son as he reaches poutily for her.

“Sometimes I swear he doesn’t like me.”

“Oh, nonsense,” Hinata assures her husband, giving him a look. “Babies just...take a special touch. I got some practice with Kurenai-sensei and Mirai-chan before he came along. You didn’t.”

“Hn…”

“Don’t be sour. You’ll get the hang of it one of these days!”

“By the time I’m done, he’ll be finished with baby food anyway.”

She gives him a cheeky smile. “Then you won’t have to worry about it anymore! Unless we have another one.”

At that, Sasuke actually blanches. “...you...want to have more?”

“I wouldn’t be against it, but...for now, I think one baby is enough to deal with, ne? Given that he’s left you bested at breakfast…?”

There’s a hesitant pause. “...yeah.”

“I’ll give feeding a try, okay? Why don’t you get around to your own food in the meantime? I can tell you haven’t eaten yet.”

Nearly pouting, Sasuke gives in and starts brewing his morning coffee, still feeling the drag of rising early. There’s been little to no sleeping in since Tenkai arrived, days off or not. But as he leans against the counter and watches his wife encourage the toddler to eat, he finds he doesn’t have a trace of true annoyance or disdain in him.

It’s a struggle...but the good kind. The kind he’s lucky - privileged, even - to have after all that came before it.

So while he might get his patience tested when an entire bowl of prunes ends up splattered everywhere but in his son’s mouth...he knows such moments will be a thing of the past sooner rather than later. They’ll soon be lost in a tide of new memories as Tenkai grows like a little weed.

So, he’d best cherish them while he has them.

     This is really short, I know, but...I’ll be honest, I’m getting pretty burnt out. So some if not all of the rest of these will likely be a bit shorter than my typical. I want to get them done and caught up!      Anywho, just some SH family fluff, featuring the ALAS firstborn Tenkai! He has a little sister down the road named Chikyū, but she’s not quite in the picture, yet. But we do get a wee peek at Tenkai’s foil, Uzumaki Akane. A little spitfire, indeed!      On that note tho, I need to head to bed. I hope you guys enjoyed, and I’ll see you in the next piece!

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

Bubble Shit (The Borderlands Series, Part 9.)

Series description: Not many people had the chance to see a vault or to mean anything in the world of Pandora. Will a hardly built relationship in the loneliness of the desert would have the potential to change anything in the world of anarchy and chaos - or will the friends try to murder each other?

Part Summary: Along with landing on Eden-6, you actually had to go through the plan to know how many people you recruted and how much of a chance you might stand.

Warnings: A lot of guns, violence, reader is a tough badass - not a vault hunter tho. They’re badass and don’t give a fuck. And Scooter is a dumb bitch, as always.

Word count: 2 K

Tagging: @notaliteraltoad​ @mayacaroni​ (maybe you’ll like the series and you’ll stick around, I just thought you might wanna get notified!)

Series master list:  H E R E

In every meaning of the phrase, it was sir Hammerlock to the rescue. It also turned out that sir Hammerlock was the one who Scooter had contacted and the one who was willing to go with you on the suicidal mission along with his lifetime partner, Wainwright Jakobs - who turned out to run the whole Jakobs company alter. Which was exciting you - you were just too furious to show any emotion.

"Thank for savin' our asses back there. I couldn't exactly handle the landin'." - Janey smiled at the duo driving the car while the rest of you sat in the trunk pressed on each other. It was rather uncomfortable for everyone, but everyone shut up so you wouldn't start another conflict.

"No problem, miss Springs. Wainwright and I knew about your planned arrival and as soon as you weren't on the spot on time, we knew something went wrong. Excuse us for arriving as late as we did, it wasn't the simplest task to find you in here." - Sir Hammerlock answered nonchalantly and you looked at that dude with a furrow. It wasn't that you hated him, but you were too angry to even say thank you. Scooter was pressed up to your side and you tried to scoop away to Rayray's side without a stroke of luck. That gross son of a bitch was just pressed to you and you could say that it makes him extremely happy.

"No problem, Hammylock! How had ya been? Ages since I saw ya for the last time!" - Scooter yelled directly to your ear and you were just ready to strangle him to death when the nearest chance comes by. That guy was just a pain in your ass.

"It was rather difficult, Scooter if I might say. I had a hard time accommodating here on Eden-6, but the fauna gives me much more choices than the Pandora's did!" - Hammerlock's big, rosy lips curled into a happy smile and you almost melted under the look he gave to Wainwright. These men were in love, there was no doubt about it. And you were with love at their idea of love.

"I have a new girlfriend, see?!" - Scooter yelled all over the car and suddenly, you two were the main interest of everyone. You were his what? He said what? Your patience was wearing thin and Scooter seemed to just make himself sure he'll piss you off as soon as he can. - "Ya have a similar arm, that's super cool!" - Athena was just as confused as you were along with everyone else in the car. Exactly since when you became his girlfriend? Did you miss that? Was he assuming this based on the fact you two held hands for about ten minutes? Was Scooter actually five? You moaned in distress and bit your lip.

"I see. Nice to meet you, miss! My friend's friends are my friends!" - Hammerlock turned at you with a smile and offered you a handshake. He had the metallic hand on the same side as you did - on his left. - "By any chance, are you two distantly related?" - Hammerlock asked with a furrowed face and you almost choked at the question once again.

"I haven't met this dude until two weeks ago. We're not even friends." - You yelled back at Hammerlock and he raised his eyebrows in wonder.

"I see, miss!" - He answered after a short while. - " You're stepping up your game, Scooter." - Hammerlock told the man beside you with a wink, whatever that meant. The rest of your way was almost awkwardly quiet since anyone knew why the hell Scooter would say that you two are in fact in a relationship. That dude seemed to be an actual five-year-old not having only severe brain damage, but showing a case of schizophrenia with seeing and feeling things that weren't based in reality at fucking all.

"This is some bubble shit." - You muttered out when you were getting off of Wainwright's car and almost hissed at when Scooter offered you his palm. No. Last time you held his hand, because you were scared to death, he figured out that you're dating.

But the amazement over Wainwright Jakobs' mansion was something that made you forget about everything as you tried to look at the house. Is was huge. Like fucking huge. You heard stories about this house being the foundation for every Jakobs rifle, revolver, shotgun, and stuff like that ever made. You loved to use the guns since you found yourself on Pandora’s surface, so this was like a beautiful dream.

"Are you shitting me?" - You looked at Athena and she gave an unknowing look back. - "This is the goddamn Jakobs mansion. Every Pandorian cowboy’s dream." - You whispered.

"That's true, miss. It's always nice to meet someone whos interest in my family's business... In a good way. And may I say, I haven't seen this shotgun for a long time." - Wainwright took the shotgun from your back and he skillfully flipped it between his fingers. - "I think that we don't make these for more than fifteen years. A true ancient one." - He put it back on your back.

"You-you’re... That Jakobs? Like that gunman Jakobs?" - You stuttered out, following him inside as Hammerlock offered everyone food and something to drink before a long meeting you were scheduled to have.  

"As far as I am concerned, I think I am. I can show you some of my wares and maybe give you a good-luck gun, how does that sound?" - Wainwright smiled at both you and Athena entering the meeting hall by his side. You almost suffocated. That Jakobs was willing to give you one of his guns as a gift? This adventure was slowly looking better and better.

"You won't be going with us?" - Athena asked when she saw you being on the verge of screaming, laughing, crying, smiling, and freaking out.

"No, unfortunately, I have a family business I have to keep my eyes on, but Hammy will be accompanying your little party. He already contacted a lot of people, so you don't have to be alarmed, ladies." - The man smiled, yet you barely got a word from what he said. You were still drooling and having heart-eyes because of the offer you got. A Jakobs’ gun will be given to you as a good-luck gift. Oh, dear Buttstalion, this was your best day.

It was kinda funny seeing Rayray and Blindy not being accustomed to such a luxury - any member of your party was, but in fact, you at least were living like normal people. These bandits were living in Ham’s Creek, one of the creepiest looking assholes you've ever had seen. Hammerlock offered you plates of fresh vegetables and fruits, which almost made you cry since it felt like centuries since you saw normal food for the last time. All you were eating on Pandora was Skag bacon and home-made bread, sometimes you didn't eat at all and drank vodka only. And they even had some normal water and juice. That house was heaven and you didn't want to leave. Ever.

"Now that we’re in safety and everyone's here, we might go through the plan Scooter and I had put together, shall we?"  - Sir Hammerlock smiled at everyone and adjusted the monocle with the broken glass he wore.

"We know that the distress call - if you wanna call it like that, came from Athenas. For those who might not know, this place was and is inhabited by sirens. So we knew that Maya is there possibly, which is why I didn't contact her for our cause - I'm sure she already knows what's heading their way." - He told you and suddenly, pictures of Athenas’ landscape appeared everywhere around you. It was a beautiful place - which you hummed to Athena while stuffing your face with slices of carrot.

"I tried my best with calling Brick, just as you said, Scooter, but he is off to his own business, I guess. Unfortunately, he won't be able to reach us. However, mister Mordecai had answered my call and he has only one condition - nothing shall happen to his new pet friend on our adventure." - Hammerlock smiled and when you saw pictures of these men, your breath got stuck for a moment. Youve only heard stories about Vault Hunters, since you were a child. But these men looked dangerous and unpleasant, especially Mordecai with his bottle of alcohol, just... Just like you were looking all the fucking time.

"I contacted miss Tina next, and I am courageous enough to say that she is more than thrilled to accompany us on our journey since she was screaming something including the world's bomb, mothersuckaz, and blowing up." - Another picture was showed to you and holy fucking christ, that girl looked insane. And that wasn’t meant to be a compliment. She looked nuts.

"Next on the list was mister Zer0, Marcus and Torgue, miss Gaige, mister Krieg, and mister Axton yet neither of them answered the call. And... The last one came to volunteer herself. This young lady’s name is Fiona and according to her words, she is a con-artist of sorts, as far as I was able to understand." - Hammerlock looked at Scooter. His eyes opened up and you didn't know what on Earth should be your response. You didn't know anyone from the names you've just heard.

"Naturally, I thought about the route we will have to take and to calm miss..." - He pointed your way since he hadn't even know your name. - "We won't be taking a flight by a rocket since our Fast Travel system is working just fine. We shall take a small detour to... Uh... Boom Town as it is called, to pick up Tina and mister Mordecai. Miss Fiona told me that she will meet us in Athenas. In my opinion, ten people, especially as dangerous as miss Tina, are enough to make a difference on the battlefield." - Hammerlock told each of you honestly. That sounded like a plan that someone thought about.

"And the attack, Hammerlock? How do we plan to do that?" - Athena next to you asked. Hammerlock nodded and pointed his finger at her, showing you other landscapes from Athenas.

"You had to notice that this terrain isn't exactly the most pleasant to have the surprise factor on our side. We talked with Scooter about this." - Hammerlock nodded and Scooter stood up.

"Janey and Pickle were using a thingy called Stingray on Elphis and I tell ya, man, that thingy is cool as hell. So, I thought about playin’ with the engine and gravity sensors a bit, makin’ it fly much higher than before! And we might need a machine to, ya know, even make us the damn car on that planet since I don't think it's connected to the network." - Scooter told Athena, and it could be heard that he's an expert in this area, and Janey jumped into the conversation with her engineering and mechanic talents.

"In that case, we have to do somethin’ about the core and the coverin’, mate, because I'm worried that this will be our biggest problem. Elphis didn't have atmosphere and Athenas do." - She said seriously and you looked at Wainwright with your heart-eyes again. Scooter nodded and both of them left the room to work on the machinery. Everything seemed to be too real for you. Just too real.

[gothamdetected-a]

an idiots guide to gotham.

sim, i hear you say, what the hell are you doing? it’s gotham. everyone knows gotham. batman’s hometown. arkham asylum. what more is there to know?

surprisingly, a lot. 

for example, did you know that the it has been described as "Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November." which i think is one of the coolest descriptions of an aesthetic ever. thanks dennis. anyway, there’s a lot more to this city and it’s mad confusing history than first meets the eye, so in true sim fashion, i’m here to whoop dc into shape and attempt to make sense of it all. in the immortal words of coldplay “oh take me back to the start.”

as a geography nerd, i’d like to begin way way back. like continent forming era. star wars’ a long long time ago has got nothing on this. because really, why is gotham so plagued with crime and corruption? why is it perpetually cloudy and gloomy and dark? why is this tiny patch of american coastline continually the stage for insane events while everywhere else around it seems perfectly fine and chilling. 

it’s because of cthulu. 

well, kind of. seriously. apparently trapped beneath the actual earth of gotham is a lovecraftian-esque being who’s been chilling for 40,000 years. yeah, bet you didn’t know that. it even takes to calling itself “doctor gotham” after long enough, but that might just be a writer taking the piss out of dr manhattan, which honestly, im here for. so there’s some ancient slumbering god just poisoning what will become gotham, with it’s “evil essence” or whatever. there is a native american tribe who lives in the area - the miagani. in a croatoan-like fashion, they mysteriously disappear one day: no one knows exactly what happened to them, but there’s speculation of black magic and an insane shaman who goes all caesar on them and tries to develop a tyrannical rule, but they seal him in a cave and flee only to be slaughtered by a neighbouring tribe/a mysterious natural disaster. already this place is giving off the Not Good Vibes.    

some time later a bunch of colonists arrive, one of whom is named hiriam arkham. he tries to build a chapel, but it ends up being the site of a murder and so that idea is abandoned. the colonists later accidentally open the cave and release Deacon Blackfire (nasty shaman man), who is fairly immortal, definitely a shithead, and also becomes a batman adversary and a black lantern corp member/zombie in a few hundred years. fun. the colonists are never seen again. wonder what happened there.   

so the ground keeps being corrupted and drawing the nasties to it. one of these nasties is a norwegian mercenary, captain jon logerquist, who lands there circa 1635 with his crew, feels the heeby jeebies vibe and goes ah yes. this is where i shall settle. utter weirdo. so suddenly we have a city being formed - you guessed it, gotham city, also known simply as gotham. and everything is fairly chill for a while. the city is known to be a hideout for ruffians and smugglers, has a fairly higher proportion of stabbings and burglaries, but other than it being a bit of a lawless wasteland, it’s not, you know, any stranger than other pre-civil war american towns. at some point war for independence ( 1775–1783 ) rolls through, and there’s a fairly large battle that is long and bloody and doesn’t look like is going to be won so the founding fathers decide to do something extra stupid, and summon a bat-demon. yes, literally, a bat-demon. that they think will help them turn the tides of the battle. instead they realise it can’t be controlled, panic a bit, and end up trapping it beneath gotham, nice and snuggled next to fucking cthulu’s cousin. so gotham is now especially Cursed, and also starts gathering a large number of bat colonies in it’s underground cave system, because they’re all coming to worship this demon thing or w/e. 

next step is the civil war ( 1861-1865 ), and this is the first time we get a cobblepot in town - colonel nathan cobblepot to be precise. a couple of generations happen, and the town is growing into a city - at this point five of the families truly “found” gotham as a metropolitan and industrial hub, building bridges to connect the islands and forging the path to gotham as it is today. these five families are the cobblepots, the elliots, the crownes, the kanes and the waynes. these eventually become known as gotham’s oldest lineages, and it’s wealthiest, forming the future of gotham high society. however the cobblepots eventually end with penguin, and thomas elliot gets salty and becomes hush ,and the kanes and waynes decide to start dressing up as bats so it’s more like a cautionary tale than anything. 

around this time (1870), ra’s al ghul builds wonder city beneath gotham’s old town, and around a naturally occurring lazarus pit under the city. wonder tower becomes a spectacle of the gotham skyline, their equivalent to the empire state or big ben. eventually the project is abandoned, especially after mysterious disappearances, rumours of madness and strange sounds of rioting emerging from the nearly completed project. also occurring in this decade is the conversion of arkham manor into the elizabeth arkham sanatorium (which would later become arkham asylum) under the then heir, amadeus arkham. elizabeth commits suicide, a serial killer murders the rest of the family, save amadeus, who then goes mad and begins dabbling in the occult and experimenting on patients, eventually becoming one himself. despite all this, arkham asylum remains open, setting the scene for this to be one of the most tragic and fucked up buildings in america. 

another generation goes by and the wayne family produces solomon wayne, who will eventually become an incredibly important figure to gotham, partly because he is a judge and has a courthouse named after him and all that, but mostly because solomon wayne is the man who hires cyrus pinkney. who? you ask. literally the man responsible for gotham’s fucked up architecture. solomon wayne commissions him to create what he calls “gotham style” around 1890, and pinkney, heavily influenced by both cubist/surrealist design and the gothic revival, is the bastard who ensures everything has a gargoyle slapped on it and that gotham cathedral could literally be home to dracula. every inch of the city is covered in hidden meanings and mysticism, because, if you haven’t already guessed, pinkney was a bit nuts, but solomon wayne seems mighty pleased by this and it does actually boost gotham’s industry and cause people to relocate to it from the surrounding area. pinkney’s final piece de resistance is the statue the lady of gotham (officially named Justice opens her eyes to the world ) in the gotham harbour, yet another new york parallel. 

however as a result of booming capitalism and continued gentrification, gotham develops extreme poverty, with several areas of the city, specifically around the docks, the bowery and the narrows, becoming slums. crime levels continue to rise, and many writers take inspiration from chicago and new york mobs in the 30′s and 40′s, drawing parallels and creating organised crime, mafias and gangs. families like the maronis, falcones and thornes begin to take over the city, shaking down businesses for “protection” developing protsitution and drug running rings, importing weapons etc. gotham becomes seen nationally as a dark foreboding metropolis, where the ultra-rich one percenters drink champagne in their ivory towers while the poor of the city suffer and die. city planners also take this opportunity to go absolutely nuts, and build bomb shelters, underground highways, crazy sewer systems, you name it. after all, no one cares right? it’s gotham. by the time the cold war comes to a head, the city is literally riddled with layers of alleys and tunnels and walkways, all over burdened by the watchful eyes of giant bronze statues and stone grotesques.

then, thomas and martha wayne appear, and really start trying to change the city. they develop philantrophic interests, help to create the monorail, encourage the other wealthy elite of the city to care about the rotting corpse of gotham. change is slow, but it happens. the city starts to brighten up, vaguely, and the waynes become heralded as gotham’s saviours, becoming more than a household name. of course, they get shot, in an alleyway, by joe chill, and that same night batman is born. it takes him like 20 years to actually appear in the city, but boy when he does appear, he goes ham. this isn’t a batman meta tho, so i’ll keep it light on his backstory and involvement. 

batman tackles corruption in the city, purging the gcpd, bringing criminals to justice etc, all while bruce wayne makes his lauded return and begins trying to change things in the same way that his parents did - investing in the city, creating public services, developing grass roots projects in the worst affected areas of gotham. however, this city is quite literally Cursed and it all goes very wrong very quickly. 

first, ra’s al ghul unleashes the clench (also known as Ebola Gulf A virus) into gotham high society, and through the contagion storyline, a LOT of gothamites die. i think it’s like 40% but don’t quote me on that. the whole city is quarantined, but batman manages to save the day! hooray! wrong. the second disaster happens in the cataclysm arc - a 7.6 richter earthquake (although in my professional opinion this should probably be measured using the mercalli scale because you have to take into account the density of population etc in the area, but whatever, dc don’t study earthquakes like i do :/). as a result of these two events happening literally within months of each other, the entire city is declared a “no man’s land” by the US government. most civilians are evacuated, it is cut off from the mainland by destroying bridges and creating a military blockade and left to literally rot. no central government is applicable, no services are available, and very quickly gangs take over, carving up the city between them. imagine the purge but never ending. that’s gotham. huntress and oracle and the remaining scraps of the gcpd try to keep some kind of order, while bruce fucks off to petition the government into not being dicks and fixing the city rather than abandoning it.  eventually, he comes back, batman battles a lot of people, luthor donates enough money to save the city and gotham is rebuilt and repatriated as part of the us. 

then the next big events include: 

• henri ducard as ra’s al ghul tries to cover the city in fear toxin after teaming up with scarecrow. the narrows is especially targeted. 

• steph accidentally starts a gang war after going through batman’s stuff unsupervised. for a while black mask rules gotham.

• hugo strange convinces the gotham city council to let him have old gotham, which he converts into arkham city. eventually wonder tower explodes and the “city” is shut down, cut off from the rest of gotham. 

• scarecrow successfully releases his fear toxin over gotham via the cloudburst system. most civilians have already been evacuated, but the city is thrown into ruin and chaos.   

these are just the biggest points though, and the ones which help to tie film, comics and games together. my favourite part of gotham i haven’t even talked about yet. but i’m gonna. here we go. 

gotham is chronologically removed. 

obviously time progresses there, but there is a immense sense of timelessness. gotham does not move on with the rest of the world. there’s a huge mash of different eras and styles. there are airships in the sky and maglev monorails on the ground, people use typewriters alongside touch screen laptops, buildings are either twisted gothic nightmares or glistening modern skyscrapers. the time frame that should be obvious from the setting is completely ambiguous. and it’s brilliant, because really it means that the time is not important. it could be set anywhere, anywhen. gotham looks almost the same in the 40s as it does in 2020, and it means that batman and these events can be slotted into pretty much any decade. batman can be born in 1939 or 1969 or 1999 and it still all works. it’s a mash up of modern expressionism and constructivism and art deco and gothic revival and surrealism and space-age futurism and industrialism and honest to god i could literally talk about this all day. but i mustnt so i shall stop now.  

basically the tldr here is that i have a fetish for urban decay, gotham was fucked from day 1 due to some bullshit evil god beneath it, and literally house prices must be so low, because who the hell would want to live there.