#it looks unfinished bc I don’t want to spend any more time on this since I have exams next week lmaoo

[shyravenns]

Nikprice monster au that I decided to go and color!

Price’s design is based off of @/bluegiragi and Nick’s is just me wanting to draw him shirtless

[demonic0angel]

Haunted Paintings Sketches!

Part one

I hope you enjoy the sketches I made of the paintings!

Also! You’re free to use my ideas (please give credit ofc) if you’d like, bc I REALLY don’t think I’ll write this one, no matter how much I want to. It’s just too much and I’ve already got 3 unfinished fics and several other series to write for. If you have any questions, feel free to ask or send me a submission! You can also DM if you’d like!

TW: mentions of suicide, murder, depression, mental illness, just really dark, creepy stuff bc these are haunted paintings and they torment people :/ no scary drawings tho! I only described them (click for clarity)

Jazz:

Description: Jazz is sitting at a table in the middle of a flower garden with a book in one hand and a teacup in the other. She looks tranquil and is dressed formally. On the table are a few plates, a plate of cookies, a bookmark, an opened envelope and a bloody butter knife, and a teapot that is slightly out of view.

Use of mediums: gouache paint, watercolor, and pencils

Focus: Jazz amidst the flowers

Inspirations:

• The Queen of Hearts from “Alice in Wonderland”

• Galna from “Mairimashita! Iruma-kun”

Location: She used to be in the home of a random crime lord in Gotham for intimidation purposes. She was kept in the crime lord’s office before being relocated into Wayne Manor, where she sits in the hall across from the library.

Extra facts:

+ Her scary form would be one where her tea is filled with blood and the roses would be replaced with decapitated heads. The sky would turn dark red and the ground would be a pool of blood. Jazz would smile and look at the viewer with shark-like fangs and hollowed out eyes.

+ The tea she drinks is Darjeeling and the cookies are chocolate chip.

+ Although Jazz is the weakest painting, her effects are deadlier, more painful, and longer lasting than the others if her victims survive.

+ She causes paranoia and dizzy spells. Her effects are rather weak compared to the others, but when spending enough time with her, victims can also display symptoms of scurvy, which cannot be cured.

+ She was the first one I drew and also the easiest to plan. I just love her so much, she’s one of my comfort characters so it’s not hard for me to find ideas for her 😭

Valerie:

Description: Valerie stands in the middle of a dark, foggy forest, wearing a long dress and pressed close to a tree as if she is about to hide behind it. A branch covers her face and the trees around her curve into a circle with multiple holes within them. There is a Fenton thermos in the background on the floor and an axe in front of Valerie, sticking into the tree and oozing something.

Use of mediums: pencils and watercolor paint

Focus: Her hidden face

Inspirations:

• The Son of Man by René Magritte

• The Beast from “Over the Garden Wall”

Location: She was kept in the back of an art museum, but the director has been hoping for someone to buy her and get rid of her, since he cannot handle the strain of having her inside of the gallery. Now she stands near the door to the entrance of Wayne Manor, a silent and deadly sentry.

Extra facts:

+ Her scary form would have her surroundings to turned into the entrance to a mouth or an intestine, red, fleshy, and bloody. There would be bones littering the floor everywhere and Valerie herself would become bloody and stained, with her face still hidden. Tortured faces would be seen through the fog.

+ The holes on the trees sometimes leak a mysterious substance.

+ Valerie is not the weakest, but she is not that powerful. However, she does amplify the others’ effects to fatal degrees.

+ She causes paranoia and auditory hallucinations, often causing her victims to feel as though they are being watched relentlessly, which cannot go away. Eventually, her victims will shut themselves into their rooms and starve to death from the fear.

+ She and Tucker had switched ideas, but I had to trash them. I never got the opportunity to draw those ideas because I struggled so much with Tucker that when I eventually got inspiration for Valerie, I just went with it. I’m quite happy with Valerie’s portrait now.

Dani:

Description: Dani, dressed formally, sits at the head of a table with a large painting and curtains behind her. She holds a fork and a knife over a pig head. Her gaze is downward and she looks like she’s frowning softly. The dinner table is messy with three other dishes and a knocked over bottle of wine.

Use of mediums: oil paint and oil pastels

Focus: Dani holding the fork and knife

Inspirations:

• Rosie’s Tea Party by Mark Ryden

• “Spirited Away” (specifically that one scene where Chihiro’s parents eat the food)

Location: She was hidden by Vlad and kept safe with him. He keeps her in his office, where he can watch her. He only recently found her again, and he was determined to watch over her. Now she stays in the Wayne Manor's dining room, but often changes her position to be next to everyone else in the bedroom hallway.

Extra facts:

+ Her scary form would be one where all of her food dishes would be replaced by very obviously human parts, especially with the pig head becoming a human head. The curtains would turn to blood dripping down the wall and Dani would be smiling, taking a direct bite of the human head that was in front of her with her fork and knife.

+ The dishes she eats in the painting are: pig head, vulture thigh, lamprey eels, and sheep brain.

+ Her at the dining table is meant to signify greed and gluttony, 2 of the most simplest sins.

+ She causes great feelings of hunger and paranoia in others. When spending too much time with her, some victims turn to self-cannibalism to sate their never ending starvation.

+ Originally, both her and Dan’s ideas were switched, so Dan would’ve been the one feasting and Dani would’ve been the one looking at her reflection. However, I switched them around because I felt like it would’ve been spookier. I even finished the drawing with Dan and everything, but then I just erased him and drew in Dani 😓

Dan:

Description: Dan is standing in front of a mirror, glancing behind his shoulder, while his reflection shows something different: him looking at everyone else and the door behind him by looking at the mirror. The party guests are all wearing masks and there are chandeliers on the ceiling. The party looks vaguely fancy, but messy with secrets.

Use of mediums: Oil paints

Focus: His reflection

Inspirations:

• Jeff Lee Johnson and his art

Location: He was kept in a locked safe within a rich person’s house in Italy. He had to been wrecking havoc on the nerves of everyone around him, but he is now safe and happy in Wayne Manor, where he is kept in the office to the entrance of the Batcave.

Extra facts:

+ His scary form would have all of the party guests dead, but their eyes would face the viewer. Dan's reflection would also be dead, but his actual self would be the same, only with an eerie smile as his eyes follow the viewer. In the doorway would be the figure of Danny. Blood would cover the entire floor and walls, but nobody would react to it.

+ Dan keeps his own masquerade mask in his pocket.

+ The woman who is directly staring at him is supposed to look like Maddie.

+ He causes viewers intense mood swings and long, often violent mania episodes or mind-numbing depression episodes. Those who keep staring at him will gain the feeling of being watched and haunted, often with visual hallucinations, resulting in losing their mind from fear and then killing others in their terror and panic.

+ I tried so hard to make Dan as handsome as possible. I think I pulled it off bc I’m a little bit in love with him ong, but I also kinda have to be bc I draw him so often

Tucker:

Description: Tucker is in the back shot of a desert, with his back towards the viewer, staring at a large skeleton that is seemingly climbing over a large sand dune. The skeleton has flowers in its eyes, and its hand reaches over the horizon. There is a single sun in the sky and an arm holding a pocket watch sticks out of the sand close to the viewer.

Use of mediums: gouache paint, pens, and pencils

Focus: The large skull

Inspirations:

• JT Music (specifically their JT album covers)

• The Giant God Warrior from “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”

• “Dune”

Location: He was originally kept in one of the rooms within the GIW headquarters. Now, he is kept within Wayne Manor, and stays in the theater room, where he whispers to the Wayne residents what movies he wants to watch. Sometimes, he moves to the garage.

Extra facts:

+ His scary form is one where the skull becomes covered in meat and flesh, oozing blood and tar while the sand turns red. The scene turns to darkness, and more limbs would sprout from the ground. Tucker would be nothing but a pile of flayed skin, crumpled into the sand.

+ GIW agents were unable to experiment on him, since he would purposefully cause machinery to misfire and slowly corrode his surroundings.

+ His painting is meant to be a little comic book-esque with one of his mediums being ink, but I felt like that wouldn’t be a PAINTing, so nvm

+ He causes visual hallucinations, hypovolemia, headaches, blindness, and osteoporosis :). Often, when his victims are autopsied, sand and salt can be found within all of their organs. He emits so much radiation that he can wear down the materials of the place he is stored in.

+ I DREW HIM THREE DIFFERENT TIMES OML, FIRST IT WAS HIM IN A WORKSHOP, THEN IT WAS HIM IN A MARSH, THIS IS THE FINAL PICTURE I CANNOTTTT IM DONE

Sam:

Description: Sam stands on top of a small, grassy hill with a path leading to a grave and an angel statue on top of it, close enough that she is blocking it. Around the hill are pomegranate trees and hanging corpses. There is no sun, but there are clouds as Sam stands with her back to the viewers in a long goth-styled dress.

Use of mediums: paper, glue, acrylic paint

Focus: Her standing on the hill

Inspirations:

• This Reddit picture of a liminal garden

• A mix of weirdcore and dreamcore aesthetics

Location: She was tossed into the ocean by her parents when they first saw her, but she later washed up on an island and now the animals and plants there act erratically and strangely. Finally, she was relocated to Wayne Manor, where she hangs on a wall within the greenhouse, happily watching over the plants there.

Extra facts:

+ Her scary form would be one where eyes would replace all of the pomegranates, staring at the viewer. The paper used to make her would become flesh textured and bloody, and Sam would appear abnormal, broken into pieces and cracked, turning around and smiling at the viewer with shark-like teeth. The grass would become hairy skin and the sky would become red, with swirls and more eyes.

+ Sam's "painting" is actually made of mostly paper, since it is a collage. It is a bit touched up by paint and all of the materials used are vegan and ethically sourced, though they do change.

+ The flora and fauna in the island she landed on have mutated so much that they’re basically mindless. They protect Sam relentlessly.

+ She causes general insanity and relentless symptoms in her victims, such as paranoia, intense episodes of mania and depression, itchiness that can result in self harm, and violent, unexplained behavior in animals and plants. She also emits so much radiation that she can cause sporadic DNA mutations, resulting in several forms of cancer and mental instability, often resulting in victims becoming inhuman and monstrous forms of themselves.

+ Originally, Sam’s portrait was supposed to be in a garden, but I wanted it more “liminal space” themed, and I think I got it right. I think it’s really simple, but I also feel like if I was able to create it in real life, it would be more interesting because it is a collage of paper and paint.

Danny:

Description: a picture of black blotches and scribbles with muddy and red stains. Any features besides the ornate frame is hidden underneath the stains.

Use of mediums: pencils, ink, charcoal, tar, blood

Focus: His crying

Inspirations:

• SCP-035 (“The Possessive Mask”)

• The Anguished Man by an unknown artist (it’s a haunted irl painting!)

• Bendy and the Ink Machine

Location: He was cloning himself in order to jump through universes to find his family. In the current universe, he was with the League of Shadows before he was found and brought back to the Wayne Manor. He is in the hallway with the bedrooms of the Wayne residents.

Extra facts:

+ His scary form is technically his normal form because he cannot turn it off. Once he is happy again, his normal form would be one with him and his family, smiling and happy. Until then, he haunts the minds of others and ravages their sanity.

+ He’s been traveling all over the multiverse in order to find his family. Coincidentally, they’ve all been in the same world for some time.

+ He screams all day and night for his family. It’s so bad that Danny has destroyed thousands of worlds in his grief.

+ He causes the worst of all symptoms, often causing the viewers who look at him to go insane and kill themselves or others, even if it is only a few seconds. Even those who stay in the same room next door to him are consumed with suicidal thoughts and intense moments of psychosis. Those who have survived encountering him and have some semblance of mind left say that he “cries” relentlessly. His paintings leak a black substance that corrodes the place around him.

+ Literally all I did for this picture was scribble in my notes app, take a screenshot, and then scribble some more on photos LMAO

Extra notes:

+ Jazz, Dani, and Dan showing their face while Sam, Tucker, and Valerie hiding theirs is intentional. Danny is a mix of both, because he actually IS showing his face, but you can’t see it past the black and red.

+ Every painting has a flower inside of it, specifically a carnation, which are often funeral flowers, and can mean gratitude, remembrance, love, and affection.

+ Every painting also has a mention or appearance of Danny in it.

+ I also tried to put hints of bad omens or signs of death within every painting. Some examples are Dani’s painting with the chopsticks sticking out of the bowl (a sign of bad luck and death), or Dan’s painting, where a woman is being strangled in the background and another is being killed.

+ All of the paintings generally have an ability to teleport to places nearby and can actually snatch up viewers to shove them into their domain. This can be a defensive mechanism (the paintings protect the Bats) or an offensive ability (they pull victims in and kill them). They also all have weapons on them that are hidden or not so hidden.

+ I struggled a lot with ideas and how to get started on some characters because I just had so many, and I wanted it to be creepy, but not noticeably creepy, like most paintings. I’m sad to say that I wasn’t able to use some of my planned ideas from inspirations of actual haunted paintings.

+ Discarded inspirations: The Rain Woman by Svetlana Telets (my favorite!! Please look it up if you can!!), this picture I saw on Reddit of a sheep being stuck under ice with its back exposed, a workshop idea with Tucker, and Dani and “Daughter of Evil” with mirrors and everything.

+ The world where Danny and co., come from is different from the world they’re currently in. It’s like a world where some people are the same, but others are not. Example: the GIW, Maddie, Jack, and Vlad exist, but Danny and Jazz never made it past their childhood. So basically a What-If world or something.

+ Their backstories are somewhat undecided, but basically, something dangerous happened to them in their home dimension and it was so bad that Danny captured all of their souls and put them into paintings so they would live (with the help of Clockwork). However, by doing this, he scattered their souls and paintings throughout the universes and he went crazy from it, and turned himself into a painting too so he could find them. Now his cloned paintings travel and sends itself to other worlds to find his family again, often leading to their destruction from his power.

Or something? Lol

[robinofgothamcity]

♡ prompt: "falling in love with her wasn't apart of my plan but I'm not mad if it happens."

♡ pairing: leo valdez x latina, fem! reader

♡ note: not checked for grammar or spelling mistakes / my schedule is going to become more sporadic starting this week :/ but also, writing for Leo is my ultimate favorite thing to do bc I'M MEXICAN AND SO IS HE AND I JUST GET TO UNLEASH ALL MY MEXICANESS INTO ONE FANFIC.

being the daughter of Nemesis, it wasn't unusual to see you messing with the Hermes cabin....a lot. your partners in crime were the Stoll brothers. all the meanwhile, everyone who saw the three of you together knew to book it. it usually meant that all of you pulled a prank and they were terrified to know which cabin it was that got shit end of the stick.

it was usually ended up being the Demeter kids considering they were so easy to prank. you swore that Demeter was going to bite you in the ass one day for how much you messed with her kids but you couldn't lie, they were so easily prankable that it was hard not to do it.

"I'M GOING TO HURT YOU!" you heard someone scream as you and the Stoll brothers ran away from the cabin. the three of you booked it until you saw them stop and ultimately give up, "NO YOU WON'T!" you yelled back jokingly before you accidentally ran into someone.

you heard the chuckles of Travis and Connor as you looked up, "sorry Leo, didn't see you there," you murmured. he gave you his hand, helping you up as Travis and Connor started mocking you, "it's okay but be careful! wouldn't want your beautiful face to get all messed up," your eyes widened, right alongside's Travis who started going into hysterics.

"thanks Leo, at least someone knows how to treat a woman," you poked back to Travis who immediately stood quiet. Leo laughed, "no problem but here, you got some grease on your cheek," he said, seeing the slash of it on your face. he pulled his sleeve out a bit and tried wiping it off, "uh, you kinda made it worse," Connor inquired.

Travis smacked his brother, sensing that this was not the time to make a joke. he quickly dragged himself along with Connor away as you got left with Leo, "I still think you look pretty," he tried to rationalize. he knew the story behind you and knew if you managed to take what he did the wrong way, he would be at the receiving end of a prank and no one ever wanted to be involved in a prank that had your name attached with Travis and Connor.

"have a mirror in your bunker? don't really feel like walking all the way to my cabin to clean it off," you admitted. Leo nodded excitedly, practically grabbing your hand and dragging you away, "course I do. gotta see this perfect face somehow," you giggled at his comment making Leo proud that he wasn't scaring you off yet.

the bunker from where you were originally wasn't too far but when you stepped in, you couldn't help but stand at the doorway, stunned at the organized mess he had inside. "you build a lot, don't you?" you asked. Leo saw the way stared mesmerized at the unfinished project, "yeah, half of these aren't done yet and I haven't even started on those yet but that's what happen when you're the son of Hephaestus," he groaned.

you saw the mirror that was on the wall and wiped it away with a clean rag. as you finished up, you heard music playing lowly throughout the bunker.

"is that....Banda MS?" you asked, whipping your head around to get a clear answer. Leo and you both stared at each other in complete shock, "NO WAY!" you both screamed. you immediately felt a tug at Leo, getting some sense of familiarity from him, "my dad used to blast this song all the time as a kid!" you exclaimed happily.

Leo didn't respond as he was still too much in shock to process what was going on. he hadn't met anyone who ever recognized the music he listened to when he worked. it's one of the memories he had with his mom was that she blared this music when they used to work on things together, "my mom did too," he replied. you found the tiny remote and turned it up as you sat in shock.

"sorry but I really haven't heard this music play in years, it brings back so many memories of my dad," you confessed, "holy Hera I might start crying," you laughed, trying not to cry in the process.

"Me gustas, te gusto, pa qué nos hacemos? te llevo la banda y nos amanecemos. seré detallista, me encantas la neta, te lleno de rosas mis dos camionetas. no es por presumir, pero soy buena opción, bonita pareja haríamos tú y yo, Piénsalo."

you sang out the lyrics right alongside Leo as the two of you immediately felt in your own little world. Jason, who was passing by Bunker Nine with Piper, poked his head in when he heard Leo's singing voice.

"no way," he whispered to Piper who managed to jump over her boyfriend to poke her head inside, "a girl is in his bunker? holy Hera," she murmured to him as Jason stared at his best friend in pride. Jason knew if anyone deserved a girlfriend, it was Leo. despite the front Leo put up constantly, he knew Leo craved love from a significant other so to see you inside of the bunker, not only singing to music in Spanish but to actually understand Leo from a side no one else could made Jason proud of him.

"I have a bunch of music on my iPod I always play in my cabin since Damien is hardly inside, it doesn't really bother anyone," you mentioned as you took it out. Leo quickly put the iPod on the adapter and played the first song which happened to be 'Se Amerita' by Junior H, "I usually played it around Jason and the others but they didn't really understand so it didn't really bother them."

you heard your name being yelled by Travis from across the camp making you sigh. Leo felt himself deflate, realizing that you were leaving, "talk to ya later? I'm pretty sure one of those got caught in a prank and are going to use me as an escape tactic," you murmured, jumping off of the stool.

"bye Amor!" you turned around, not expecting the nickname so suddenly, "goodbye Valdez," you replied, giving him a wink.

you walked out of his bunker, not noticing Jason or Piper who were hiding on the side as you sped off to Travis. Jason and Piper walked in, giving Leo the biggest shit eating grin they had ever had on their faces, "well, well, well, what was that?" Piper asked, "flirting it up with the daughter of Nemesis are we?" Jason added on.

"shut up, it wasn't even-," Leo looked to Jason who immediately told him to cut the shit, "falling in love with her wasn't apart of my plan but I'm not mad if it happens," he confessed, slamming the tool on the table and running his hands through his brown hair.

Piper couldn't believe her ears. Leo had said he had fallen in love multiple times over multiple women he had met but this one felt real. it felt almost raw.

"you didn't tell her that, did you?" Jason asked, now in a kind of panic. Leo shook his head no, "okay good but honestly, it's really surprising. everyone in the camp kind of assume her and Travis had a thing considering how much time they spend with each other," Piper said out loud.

bingo.

that was the thing that was throwing Leo off. he saw the way you acted around Travis. it wasn't the way you were around Connor. you seemed really close to Travis. the two of you were secretive with each other. just know, he heard Travis calling for you and although you were reluctant to go, he felt some kind of competition with the older Stoll brother.

"no, I don't think they see each other that way, they have more of a sibling relationship if I have to be honest," thank you Jason for being the voice of reason, Leo thought. he stood up and stretched himself, "well, if the Gods want us together then so be it but if they don't...I'm going to make em," he joked.

the following morning was thankfully a Saturday. no training was mandatory and it gave everyone a chance to sleep in. Leo tended to be a late sleeper on these days but as he was getting up to go to the mess hall, he heard your laughs from the campfire area. you were sitting with Travis, looking at a notebook with something written inside it as Travis let out another laugh.

Leo felt himself getting slightly jealous as he went for his late morning snack. you had given a bright smile, one that made him melt on the inside, and a wave before going back to talking to Travis. he hadn't seen Connor around so he figured that it was just the two of you which didn't make his jealousy dim down any less.

you had ditched the plans of pranking the Ares cabin with Travis as he wiggled his eyebrows, joking that you were replacing him with Leo.

"hey Leo, what're you up to?" you asked, scaring him a bit. he shrugged, showing you the snacks in his hands, "late sleeper, huh?" you asked. you could sense the slightly different mood Leo was in, in comparison to yesterday, "well, if you need any help with anything, I'll be free all day," you mentioned, hoping he'd invite you to maybe help him in some kind of project.

Leo nodded, not saying anything back before heading back to his bunker. he didn't know if it was just his heart playing with him but the way you were around Travis made him irrationally angry. it was as if only he could be that way around you. Leo knew one of his downsides as a person was being extremely clingy and having a bit too much faith in someone but he was hoping that if he placed all his marbles into a bowl that maybe you'd reciprocate the feelings he got for you just as quickly as he did.

"what're you doing in here trapped?" Jason asked, a little later in the day. Leo continued working on his useless project as he didn't respond, "dude, are you listening? I would think you'd be with ( your name ), trying to ask her out and all," Jason reiterated.

Leo slammed his nail gun down on the table, frightening Jason.

"I saw her with Travis earlier, giggling and laughing with him so I figured that maybe Piper was right and that they like each other," he admitted, frustration evident in his voice, "gods you're in idiot," Jason screamed to Leo as it was Leo's turn to be left in confusion.

Jason sat down on the wooden chair in annoyance.

"( your name ) is currently by herself by lake and you're in here moping around because of a scenario you made in your head?" he practically yelled. Leo was about to speak up when Jason cut him off again, "I told you already, she is like Travis' sister! what're you not getting? I heard what she told you this morning and now she's alone when she could be in here with you!" he yelled, shaking Leo's shoulders.

Leo took a step back, letting what Jason was telling him sink in. once it finally processed, he put his tool down and took his belt off, "think she'll be down for me to join her?" Leo asked him. Jason nodded yes, "go to her you idiot! it's about time you found your soulmate and you're about to ruin it!"

Jason remained in the cabin as Leo quickly walked out. he went to the place where Jason had told him you were currently at and thankfully, you were still there. you were poking the water with a stick before chucking a large rock inside of it. something Percy probably would've yelled at you for.

"what're you doing here alone?" he asked, walking up behind you. you instantly perked up, "I'm bored and didn't really have anything to do today so I usually go to the lake to throw rocks," you replied as Leo got comfortable next to you, "I thought you'd be working on some project right now."

Leo shook his head, "figured you'd probably want to help me start a new project. I don't know how great the daughters of Nemesis are at building things but I can imagine someone as gorgeous and smart as you can be of help," he flirted as he noticed the flustered reaction.

"me vas a matar estupido," you joked, pushing him playfully. Leo shook his head, "how can I kill me reina? it would be really stupid of me." you didn't bother to reply as you let out a flustered laugh.

Leo took in the situation as you grew quiet. the slight Long Island breeze made your hair get pushed back as Leo thanked his lucky stars. Leo knew he went through hell and back. literally. and maybe it was finally time he got what he deserved in return.

never did he think he would be at the receiving end of good karma. his life until recently had put him through trials and tribulations that he didn't think he'd make it out of but thankfully, he did and when he did, he figured that's when the God's placed you in his life. the gorgeous daughter of Nemesis.

"well, let's get crackin' partner," you said getting up. Leo nodded, grabbing your wrist and practically dragging you away to his bunker, "whatever you say reina," he replied, finding comfort in the nickname he gave you.

[wantaichi]

haikyuu + skincare hcs

ever think abt how they treat their skin? probably not. but like. do they wash their face like a normal person? have a 32 step skincare routine maybe??

msg me for any character who’s not here and i’ll drop their routine for u

masterlist.

karasuno

sugawara. lives up to his title as mr. refreshing. cleanses, tones, and moisturizes. !chefs kiss! keeps a jar of aloe vera face gel in his fridge, his mom had a spare. carries around a 100-sheet pack of oil film, more out of habit than of need. good skincare just makes him feel in control of his life, ok

ennoshita. fuckin’ spotless. part of the 0.0001% who don’t sweat easily. doesn’t have a complete regimen but never skips out on cleansing and toning before bed. actually reads the product ingredients and googles the benefits before buying. neutrogena type of guy. 

asahi. facial scrubs are his holy grail. like. dead skin? stubborn hair follicles? haha not on his watch ヾ( ･`⌓´･)ﾉﾞ trims his goatee every 3-4 week bc a well-groomed beard goes hand in hand with proper skincare. a sucker for aromatic products. lavender? shea butter? SOLD.

daichi. “healthy lifestyle is key to healthy skin“ typa dude. rly just thinks natural is the way to go. drinks 8 glasses of water, eats his veggies, exercises regularly, gets 8 hours of sleep. sounds like smth off wikihow if u ask me. probably is.

tsukishima. cetaphil hoe. brand loyalty embodied. on it for 5++ years, and never once considered switching. BUT. his routine ends at step 1. cleanse. and that’s it. the fuck he need a 32 step skincare routine for? long as he gets a day’s worth of grime and dirt off his face, he gucci

yamaguchi. sensitive skin’s got him constantly changing/exploring different products. rode on tsukki’s cetaphil agenda for the first few years of puberty (rly just out of curiousity) but dropped out when his skin got used to it. thinks pimple patches are a blessing to mankind.

tanaka. fuck. chaotic greasy. asks for oil film from suga just to stick it on his forehead, lets it stay there. uses whatever’s in the bathroom to wash off, aka majority of saeko’s products. got yelled at once to “get his greasy ass over here” and got slabbed with aztec healing clay mask. converted to clay mask hoe after 20 minutes. “mm this shit’s dope!”

nishinoya. fuck. chaotic greasy part ii. but make it baby face. only does skincare when chillin at the tanakas. homie got him to try the clay mask bc chick’s dig that. “bro, u mean the mask or boys who do the mask?” “both bro” “awshit bro gimme that” thinks splashing some water twice a week is enough

kageyama. ? this yalls mans? oblivious to the whole concept of skincare, only acknowledges general hygiene. uses whatever’s on the soap holder to wash his face. probably dove. doesnt really have much skin problems to begin with, only breaks out once a year. living proof that god has favorites.

hinata. only started taking skincare seriously that time a huge ass zit grew on his chin. yachi offered him her unfinished bottle of cosrx (she’s a hoarder and u kno it), and has since been giving him all her leftover bottles. basically gets to use good quality products for free smh

nekoma

kuroo. not very big on the idea of skincare per se, but supports any brand on that cruelty-free and vegan agenda. reads the product ingredients like a children’s book. “mm phenoxyethanol and retinyl palmitate.. i’ll take it.” always leaves the saleslady stunned.

kenma. too lazy to adopt a routine. but regularly uses his mom’s facial wash. you know. those mom brands. has a stash of facemasks from lev’s trip to korea —> only form of skincare he actually appreciates bc he can simultaneously play his games and be all bout dat self care 

lev. abuses his perks of having a sister. casually uses all alisa’s imported, high end stuff. la prairie. estee lauder. la mer. and she doesn’t mind bc her “levochka deserves all the finest things”. boujee ass russians

yaku. baby face. when god made it rain collagen, he was freestylin in a pool full of it while we was all sleepin. doesn’t exert much effort, just cleanses and tones bc it’s part of proper hygiene. girls envy him. parents in their 40s wanna be him. 

seijoh

oikawa. SKINCARE HOE KING. fuckin high maintenance. goes to the derma for his monthly laser facial treatment. on broke days, he settles for a diamond peel. skin so smooth it puts the entire female population to shame. spends his savings on those clinique eye creams. probably modeled for the face shop once

iwaizumi. homie reeks of male cleanser. might either dove men or nivea men. there’s no in between. oikawa internally screams everytime he witnesses his bff wash his face. two words. aggressive. rubbing. bordering on hostile he might actually skin his face off

mattsun and makki. fuck. drugstore cleansers. the ones that come in sachets. agreed to take turns in buying bundles for sharing. sometimes sneaks a pinch from oikawa’s clinique products when he’s not looking. haha dumb hoe. may have an addiction to charcoal nose pore strips just so they can compare blackheads

fukurodani

bokuto. buys whatever’s on sale idfk. genuinely wants to get on kuroo’s go green agenda but too lazy to look around the store. normally just uses the bubbles from his soap or shampoo. his belief: if it cleans his hands and his ass, then it can fuckin clean his face too

akaashi. healthy lifestyle + decent regimen = pretty skin. cleanses and tones. tried his mom’s aloe vera face gel once and got hooked. shit’s relaxing as hell. owns a bunch of facemasks, sometimes uses but keeps forgetting to take them off before falling asleep. uwu af

dateko

futakuchi. doesn’t have a routine cause “who tf needs that” and “obviously not me.” or so he says. secretly the biggest spender on skincare in all of dateko. owns a bunch of anti wrinkle products and probably one of those jade rollers. but no one needs to know that. just wants everyone to think he’s naturally pretty

aone. told by futakuchi that “knitting your brows too much causes premature wrinkles, but not like i’m an expert on that hhhahaha dont get me wrong.” can’t rly do anything bout it. he was born with that face. also buys whatever’s on sale

shiratorizawa

ushijima. surprisingly blemish free? but not entirely smooth? just spotless? basically a rock? never went past step 1: cleanse. never realized he’s been skipping out the 31 next steps. cetaphil hoe.

tendou. dry. crusty. compensates by sweating a lot through practice. might be effective if he’d stop leaving the foam on longer than recommended, thus leaving his skin dryer than his love life. yeah, i went there.

shirabu. flawless at first glance. until you lift those uneven ass bangs. tbh its nothing serious except “are we gonna ignore the fact that his whiteheads follow the shape of his bangs” as pointed out by tendou. uses whatever cleanser his mom buys for him

semi. decent skin care routine. a big boy who’s fairly knowledgeable on other brands outside cetaphil and dove/garnier/nivea men. takes him less than 5 minutes to pick a product bc he’s tried them all, knows what works, knows his skin type in and out. stan semi for clear skin.

see inarizaki + sakusa here

[mouse-fantoms]

Helpful

...THIS IS COMPLETELY BC I SAW THIS

Reggie helping Ray, Ray becoming suspicious of his house, follows Julie out to the garage after an incident of the helpfulness in the house

Either Ray was a forgetful person or something else was going on.

It had started when the items he seemed to misplace, seemed to suddenly appear in the most obvious of places. Even though he was 100% sure that he had already checked there.

Such as the time when he had padded his pockets down before leaving for work and realized his wallet was missing. He would normally recruit one of his kids for help but the two were currently at school. Maybe it had fallen between the couch cushions? Nope. Maybe the computer desk? He did a quick scan and nope, not there either. Maybe the dining table? He did place his laptop there to do work sometimes, it made sense it might- not there either. Where on Earth was it? Perhaps he didn’t check the cough throughly enough. He went back to the living room and as soon as he entered his eyes landed to the corner of the computer desk. Right there, placed on the corner, in plain view, was his leather wallet.

He thought it was a little odd considering he had just checked there. He was more so concerned about getting to his job on time and took the wallet off the table and in his back pocket and out the door he went to his job.

If the wallet incident was the only occasion, he probably would have let it slid. However, that was not the only incident. It seemed to only happened when he verbally said what he was missing... odd. A few misplaced things being found here and there could fully well be him being forgetful. Or maybe something else was going on in his house.

~~~

“Julie,” Ray requested after his daughter got up from the table to put her plate in the sink that was full of dirty dishes, “your turn.”

“I know, I know.” She said in response to her dad reminding her to do a chore. “Just let me-”

“Ah uh.” He blocked the archway that lead to the dining room. “When you go out there you lose track of time.”

He didn’t mind that she was spending so much time in the garage, it was the constant reminder of his wife, her mother, after all. The only time he did mind was when it got in the way of Julie’s chores.

“Sorry, I get caught up with band things. I just need to grab something I left in there earlier. I’ll come right back in and do the dishes. Promise.”

He dropped his hands from the doorframe and let her pass since he knew she would keep her word. He didn’t know what kept her in there for hours, she would say band things but how much could get done in there by herself? Maybe he could ask for more information about her band at a later time. Preferably about the sleeveless one.

A few minutes later, after he had sat at the computer desk to check his work emails, he heard the back door. Julie came around the kitchen corner and stopped by the bottom of the staircase to talk to him.

“I told you I would be right back.” She let out, her backpack strung on her shoulder, the item she had gone to retrieve. “You didn’t have to do them.”

He looked quizzical. “What?”

“The dishes. I said I would be-”

She paused her sentence seeing him get up from the desk and walk passed her. They both looked in and saw the now empty sink that was once piled with dirty dishes.

“How did...? I never...?”

“Uh...” Julie said in response to Ray’s clear confusion. “Maybe Carlos did them...” she trailed off, he could tell she didn’t fully believe herself either.

“You know your brother.”

“Well... at least they’re done now.” She set her bag down on the floor.

“Where are you-”

“Forgot something else!” She called as she rounded the corner and went out the back door again, this time looking like she was annoyed.

~~~

“Did- did you...?” Ray asked to his son in response to opening the fridge to get breakfast ready for his kids on the Saturday morning. He knew what he alluded to wasn’t the answer, he knew his son, but was looking for one.

Carlos was sat at the stool of the kitchen counter, seeing his dad open the fridge in plain view. “Maybe Tia brought it?”

Ray held a clear plastic wrapped paper plate of scrabbled eggs in his hand.

He shook his head. “She didn’t bring this.”

“Maybe it’s a ghost.”

“What?”

“The chef ghost.”

“I thought we did his ‘unfinished business’.”

“Maybe it wasn’t.” He shrugged.

Julie came down the stairs into the kitchen. “Eggs?”

“Dad found them in the fridge.” Her brother informed.

“Tia didn’t bring them.” Ray added.

He could have sworn he saw his daughter looking next to him, passed the kitchen island, by the stove. Then her face turned to an annoyed one. Her eyes went back to her dad.

“Maybe you-“

“AHHHHH!” A unison shriek came from the family of three hearing the noise the toaster made.

He dropped the paper plate on the island and went over to the toaster. From the toaster popped up evenly toasted bread.

“I’m telling you it’s probably the ghost.” Ray didn’t catch the elbow hit that Julie did to her brother. “Chef ghost!” He corrected.

“That’s not-” he began to shake his head even though the toast he picked up was not a good point to prove his arugment.

“I didn’t put the toast in, you didn’t put the toast in, Julie didn’t.”

Ray saw from the corner of his eye Julie get a frustrated look and walk away. He looked over his shoulder, saw her go around the corner and heard the back door. He looked to Carlos for some answer.

“Maybe the haunting is too much for her.” He found an excuse.

He dropped the toast back into the device it came from.

“Don’t eat that.” He didn’t need to even look at his son to know he had already grabbed the food he dropped back in. “We don’t know where it’s been.” He advised before going out the back door himself to follow his daughter.

~~~

“Reggie...”

The one in question fell off the couch once Julie closed the door.

“I was being helpful!” He put his palms up in defense.

Luke looked down at his friend on his right who was on the floor and back to Julie, who was clearly irrated based on her crossed arms. He was on the couch with his leg rested on the coffee table in front of him, journal open in his lap, pen in hand.

“What’d he do this time?” Alex asked sat in the chair by the couch, fiddling with his drum sticks.

“I don’t mind you being helpful,” she dropped her arms, stepping closer to the couch, “but when my dad is around-”

“Helpful?” Luke asked wanting more information. “Wait did you do the dishes again?” Recalling the night Julie came back into the garage after getting her backpack. She had given Reggie a warning about being helpful when other people were around.

“No, he made us eggs.”

Alex gasped looking down Reggie on the floor. “You made them your eggs? Why didn’t you tell us?”

“We wouldn’t be able to eat them anyways.” He put his arms on the edge of the couch and pushed himself back up next to Luke. “Did you get the toast?”

“You could have warned me. Instead of all of us screaming when it popped up.”

“You glared at me when you found out about the eggs. I poofed out because I panicked.”

“Understandable.” Luke sided with Reggie. “Julie’s glares are-” his eyes looked up to the girl who had now re-crossed her arms, looking to hear his answer. “...Understandable.” He repeated not wanting to get in trouble looking back down to the open page in his lap.

“If any of you are going to be ‘helpful’,” she put in air quotes, “be careful when my dad’s around.”

“Maybe you could tell him about us.” Alex suggested Luke’s old one. “Your brother knows, it’s gone pretty well so far.”

“Except for his constant questions.” Luke input.

“He gets so excited though whenever we pick something up.” Reggie countered.

Julie added. “Also when he asks if any of you are in the room.”

“Flynn knows.” Alex added onto his suggestion. “It’s gone well too.”

“I had to tell Flynn though,” she was contemplating the idea, “Carlos found out on his own. What am I supposed to tell him? ‘Hey Dad, the boys in my band are ghosts that live in our garage. The one who’s been helping around the house, that’s Reggie. I didn’t tell you do so long because you would have me visiting Dr. Turner again.’?”

“...well if you want to put it brief.” Luke nodded.

“Just all of you be careful if you’re in the house when my dad’s around.” She repeated to them and headed to the door. She froze once she opened it.

“We can talk about it later,” Ray addressed what he overheard, “but thank you Reggie.” He peaked his head into the studio, looking around to hopefully meet the eyes of the helpful ghost so he knew how appreciative he was. “Is he at the couch?”

“Umm...” he knew his daughter was obviously at a lose of words as a result of him now knowing this information. “...yeah...” she finally said, “How’d... How’d you know?”

“Well, there’s a pen and book floating, also a drumsticks above the chair.”

She looked back at the couch. To her it was the familiar sight of Luke with his journal and pen in hand and Alex with his sticks. To anyone else, they would appear to be objects floating. She turned back to her dad.

“Yeah he’s at the couch. Luke had the journal and pen, Reggie’s next to him and Alex has the sticks.”

He nodded. “Why don’t you come back inside and have some breakfast?”

“You’re taking this rather well.”

He shrugged. “They brought music back to my little girl. How else am I supposed to respond?”

A smile appeared on her face. “Yeah they’re pretty great.” She followed her dad back to the house once closing the garage door behind her. She knew questions would follow, some she had answers to and other’s she didn’t, but it was nice not having to keep them a secret from him anymore.

It was nice to know he wasn’t being forgetful and that something else was truly going on. Out of all the things that could have been going on, having his daughter be in a ghost band, one where one of them is apperently an extra hand around the house, that wasn’t the worst option.

A smile was on her face whenever she was with her band. A smile he hadn’t seen in over a year. The way she was eager to go to the garage everyday. The passion all of them had showed through in their performances. He might not have known all the details yet but what he did know was that her band made her happy and that was enough for him.

[baoshan-sanren]

Thank for your answer on lbg & sy. May I please ask you about your thoughts post Bingge vs Bingmei events from lbg's POV? Would he try to steal sqq back? Would he wanna go find sy or not bcuz he'd only want sb looking like his Shizun? Or would he just hate him for making him realize things about himself/his life? Because in your answer you talk about sqq's feelings about lbg but now I have to think about lbg's stance on things. Thank you for your essay-long metas, I love them tbh!

jhfdkhgkdls I’m glad you like them <3 tbh I don’t have much to say about LBG wanting SQQ bc like, I honestly don’t think mxtx ever meant for him to be a whole character. Like, I’ve seen some vagueing in the tag about my previous meta on LBG, and I get it, bc this is what we do in fandom spaces. We take unfinished characters and we make them whole. I’ll be the first one to try and slap some complexity into any character I like, especially those whose few measly traits I identify with. But that’s all fanon. Canon LBG is just... not that deep. He’s a stallion novel protagonist with 300+ women in his harem. He Taxian-Juned his way through past resentments, leaving a bloody trail, and spending exactly zero time actually dealing with his issues. He wasn’t meant to be more complex than that, so he naturally doesn’t understand the complexity of LBM x SQQ’s relationship. SQQ is not meant to make LBG whole, because LBG is canonically... meant to be incomplete. Like I said, people can assign to him all the depth they want, but none of it is canonically supported.

So LBG wants what LBM has, because LBG doesn’t have what LBM has. Like the dude has 300+ women in his harem. What is even the female population in PIDW? Is anyone else allowed to procreate? Who can say no to him? Of course he would want something he quite clearly doesn’t get to have. If you want to get really meta about it, you could say that since he’s spent exactly zero time in therapy, he probably actually wants to be a complete character, like LBM. And since SQQ (as a transmigrator who fixed PIDW) is the one who essentially made LBM whole, it would make sense that this is something LBG would want for himself as well. SY is a person whose sheer existence would make LBG more than the caricature that he is in PIDW canon. But that, of course, is just my personal interpretation. And another reason why SVSSS is rad af :)

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars XCIII (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: How are we feeling after the last chapter? I encourage you to sit, relax, and enjoy what’s coming bc I promise it’s great -Danny

Words: 6,220

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to: This -By Ed Sheeran.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Dark Days.

Mel remembers going back to bed after a whole hour well spent with Harry.

 They talked for most of the time, silly nothings just to keep hearing each other. Between unfinished sentences and bashful glances, whether if it was love or mere attraction, Mel was certain they were falling into it together.

The next morning she woke up with a fuzzy feeling she couldn't quite place at first. Then it came to her: Harry and her, talking quietly in the common room and...

She let out a short, excited squeal, hoping that the rest of the girls were still sleeping. Mel peered through her curtain and saw her classmates resting. She fell back on the mattress, smiling to herself, reminiscing...

When she walked out of the room with Hermione, talking about Krum –he'd asked her to go and spend a week with him during summer– she felt on the verge of confessing the events of the previous night, but Ginny walked up to them as soon as they got to the common room, eager to hear about what they had to go through to be part of the second task.

Mel felt a tug on her stomach, she was elated to confirm Harry liked her back, but she couldn't reveal it to Hermione or Ginny, she knew how easy some secrets could slip from Hermione's mouth when she wasn't thinking, it didn't happen often but she couldn't risk Ginny finding out that way... not that it would ruin their friendship, but she figured it would still hurt her, and she hated the possibility.

She was in the middle of this crisis when she caught sight of Harry in the middle of a bunch of Gryffindors, all asking him about the second task and what he'd done to solve it. He hadn't seen her yet, and Mel watched him speak with an easy smile on his face as he retold his adventure to Fred and George. That boy right there had kissed her not so many hours ago.

When they were about ten feet away the crowd dispersed and Harry finally noticed her. It was ridiculous really, the way he would smile at the sight of her.

"Good morning," Mel tried to sound calm, but it came out a bit strangled.

"Hi," Harry retorted with the same eagerness, Ron merely glanced up at them from his food.

It was Saturday, which meant they had the whole day to themselves. How was she supposed to keep her mind busy and her hands to herself if they had nothing to do but spend time together?

Thankfully, she didn't have to worry for long. Students would walk up to them throughout the day to ask Harry, Hermione, and her all about their experience –as a nice extra, some even asked Ron about his experience with the committee. Mel and Harry kept it simple, but Hermione grew grumpy after the third hour cause their classmates would tease her about being Krum's favourite person. Oddly enough, none of them teased Harry and her, and she realized that it was because they thought they were dating, just like Cho. She didn't feel the need to prove them wrong.

Harry still could remember the feeling.

At first, he waited anxiously for her reaction, but as soon as her hands pulled him closer he forgot about everything. It was the two of them only and a whole world for themselves with time to spare. Mel was the only important thing he could think of, the only thing that truly was worth it.

Her touch, her hair falling against the back of his hands... every time he thought about it he couldn't help but smile, couldn't even be bothered to be mad at the strangers walking up to him asking about the second task. He kept thinking about that brief moment when they finally broke apart after their first kiss. She looked up at him and Harry said, half-joking and half-worrying:

"Does this mean we're not just friends?"

She laughed shortly, and he forgot about the question when Mel pulled him in for another kiss.

Harry was eager to find a quiet, private place so he could ask more questions, or just to make sure she was okay. It felt like the whole school was trying to work against him, interrupting every opportunity.

Nevertheless, it came to him the same way all things you most desperately want: After long, long waiting.  After dinner he made sure to stay behind and, in pure Mel fashion, she read his mind and also took her time, climbing up the stairs slowly.

"Did you have a good day?"  

It was weird to see her flustered and know it was him the one who was causing it. He liked it, made him feel taller and older, even though he was still the same height as her and about four weeks younger too.

"The best," He smiled, "you?"

"It was okay," She smiled timidly. "I think it's the first time people run to me and not away from me."

He laughed.

"Must be nice."

"Yeah, though I really wanted them to leave us alone, at least for a second..." She avoided his eyes when she said it.

"Yeah..." They reached the tower, Hermione and Ron walked in first. Harry heard plenty of people there, and he couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at all of the lot.

"Well..." She stopped at the entrance, keeping the entrance open.

Harry was wondering why wasn't she moving when he realized she was waiting for him to do something. He wasn't quite sure of what, but he was desperate to have any kind of contact. He stepped forward and kissed her.

It was short, just enough to revive the funny little feeling in the pit of his stomach. Mel's face was flushed. When he got into bed that night, Harry felt like he was already dreaming.

Well into March an owl appeared during breakfast bringing Sirius's note.

'Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish and Banges) at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Bring as much food as you can.'

"He hasn't come back to Hogsmeade?" said Ron incredulously.

"It looks like it, doesn't it?" said Hermione.

"I can't believe him," Harry frowned, "if he's caught..."

"Made it so far, though, hasn't he?" said Ron. "And it's not like the place is swarming with dementors anymore."

"That doesn't excuse him," Mel said.

"It's time for Potions," Harry announced, standing up and folding the letter. "We should go..."

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing close together with Pansy Parkinson and her friends. When the girl saw them arrive at the dungeon, she spoke up:

"There they are, there they are! You might find something to interest you in there, Granger!" Pansy threw a magazine at Hermione, who caught it roughly.

They sat at the back and when Snape wasn't looking, Hermione read through the magazine quickly. She stopped abruptly in one page, and they all huddled together to read it:

Harry Potter's Secret Heartache

A boy like no other, perhaps — yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss.

Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has "never felt this way about any other girl."

However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate boys' interest.

"She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student, "but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it."

Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart on a worthier candidate. We wonder as well, where is Mel Dumbledore in all this and is she aware of her friend's betrayal?

"I told you!" Ron hissed. "I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made you out to be some sort of — of scarlet woman!" Hermione snorted.

"Scarlet woman?" She repeated with a grin.

"It's what my mum calls them," Ron muttered.

"If that's the best Rita can do, she's losing her touch," said Hermione, still amused. "What a pile of old rubbish. I'm sorry about my betrayal, Mel. I hope you and Harry recover."

Mel laughed, if only Skeeter knew... Hermione gave the Slytherin girls a sarcastic smile and waved.

"There's something funny, though," She said later. "How could Rita Skeeter have known..?"

"Known what?" said Ron. "You haven't been mixing up Love Potions, have you?"

"Don't be stupid," Hermione frowned. "No, it's just... how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?"

"What?" Ron dropped what he was doing to gape at her.

"He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake," Hermione was blushing and avoided Ron's eyes at all cost. "After he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to —"

"And what did you say?" said Ron, who wasn't even paying attention to what his own hands were doing.

"And he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," Hermione went on, her hands shaking, "but how could Rita Skeeter have heard him? She wasn't there... or was she? Maybe she has got an Invisibility Cloak; maybe she sneaked onto the grounds to watch the second task..."

"And what did you say?" Ron repeated.

"Well, you were there!"

"I was distracted trying to see if Harry and Mel were okay!"

"I was busy seeing if Harry and Mel were okay too —"

"Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger," Snape had come out of nowhere. "I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor... Ah, reading magazines under the table as well?" Snape quickly took the magazine from their seats. "A further ten points from Gryffindor... oh but of course," He was now skimming through the article in which the magazine was still open. "Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings..."

The Slytherins laughed and mocked them, Snape took cruel pleasure in reading the words out loud.

" 'Harry Potter's Secret Heartache... dear, dear, Potter, what's ailing you now? 'A boy like no other, perhaps '... Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate.' How very touching. Well, I think I had better separate the four of you, so you can keep your minds on your potions rather than on your tangled love lives. Weasley and Dumbledore you stay here. Miss Granger, over there, beside Miss Parkinson. Potter — that table in front of my desk. Move. Now."

"Well, tomorrow's a new day where I can earn those ten points back," Mel sighed as she watched their friends leave the table.

"How are you not upset?" Ron snapped.

"Am I supposed to believe Harry and Hermione have been dating behind our backs?"

"No! But you... you like Harry!"

"Yeah, but Hermione's not his girlfriend!" She replied.

"What about Krum? Aren't you upset about Hermione hiding all that from you?" Mel stared at him pointedly. "You knew?"

"Of course I knew, Ron! Hermione's my best friend..."

"She's my best friend too!"

"It's different..."

"How come?"

"Last time you were rude to her even though you're the one who's got the obsession with Krum. I thought you'd be beyond happy with the news, if Krum and Hermione get together you'd be friends with him! Isn't that what you wanted?"

"I never said I wanted that," He threw the ingredients into the cauldron rather forcefully. "Why, he doesn't look like he could take a joke!"

"Honestly, Ron," She snorted, "if I didn't know you any better, I'd say you're stinking jealous."

Ron made the strangest noise, dropping the ginger roots on accident as he looked away.

"Don't be stupid," He said, then continued under his breath. "Jealous... Yeah, right."

Mel glanced at him. Could it be..?

No, Ron was just terrible, it'd been exactly the same when he knew about Erick, he just didn't enjoy the idea of splitting the group with different people. It was as simple as that.

Unless...

She shook her head and continued working, she was being silly! Just because Harry had liked her all this time didn't necessarily mean that Ron was the same... she would've noticed! Ron was a terrible liar!

Then again, Harry was a terrible liar too, and she never saw that he liked her back until a few weeks prior...

Karkaroff entered the Dungeon and went directly to the teacher's desk. Mel watched both men argue before Snape turned his back to him and continued the lesson, Karkaroff remained in one corner. When the lesson ended, Harry approached with concern.

"Karkaroff and Snape are hiding something for sure," He stated.

He narrated the scene and the four of them wondered what could Karkaroff possibly be hiding in his arm. He told them about Snape threatening Harry with using a truth potion to make him confess he'd stolen ingredients from his office. Harry wasn't guilty -not that time, at least- but he did worry that Snape could make him confess about Sirius and... other things, he said, looking intently at Mel.

The weather was nice those days, Harry liked it cause he and Mel could walk around the school grounds for hours. Ron and Hermione would also go with them, but they seemed to sense something was going on between them and would give them space.

However, that weekend they had to forget about their walks and head to Hogsmeade, where they were supposed to find Sirius. Harry's bag was filled with plenty of food, enough for at least two days.

They stopped at a shop to buy a present for Dobby, at least an hour went by before they concluded they had enough socks to fill the elf's wardrobe. Mel and Harry secretly thanked him for somehow playing a part in their story, but none of them ever shared their thoughts to the other.

Once reaching the part where the houses were fewer and people weren't often seeing outside, Harry and Mel let their friends take the lead, pretending like it was nothing, they held hands with an easy-going smile on their faces.

Mel's mind wandered away to one of her daydreams, maybe next year once they were a bit older and the tournament was over, they'd be free to walk together everywhere, even held each other closer... maybe kiss...

An animal sound brought her back and her attention turned to the large, shaggy dog waiting for them on the fence. He had a newspaper in his mouth and was wagging his tail excitedly.

"Hello, Sirius," said Harry, letting go of her hand -which saddened her just a little- and patting the dog's head lightly.

The dog examined Harry's bag with a quick sniff and started to walk away to the foot of the nearest mountain. After merely two minutes of climbing, the kids were losing their breath,  sweating now under the sun, Mel hoped his hiding spot would be nearer now, she didn't think she would like to keep going much longer.

Finally, they reached a narrow entrance and followed Sirius inside. The cave was big enough to fit all of them, and to Mel's surprise, Buckbeak. The four of them bowed at the creature, Buckbeak bowed back and allowed both girls to touch him.

"Chicken!" She heard Sirius said roughly. She noticed the old robes -the same ones he'd been wearing since leaving Azkaban- and how skinny he looked. "Thanks– I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself."

He grinned like it was nothing to be worried about, and Harry smiled awkwardly, obviously worried. Mel felt a sting of annoyance, how could he live like this? Why?

"What're you doing here, Sirius?" Harry said.

"Fulfilling my duty as godfather. Don't worry about it, I'm pretending to be a lovable stray."

"It's not funny," Mel frowned. "You look awfully skinny, Sirius. If you would've told us something we would've sent you food..."

"That would've been too risky, a bunch of owls leaving large packages in the mountain... no, I'm fine," Sirius noticed the look of both and added sternly. "I want to be on the spot. Your last letter... well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried." Ron picked the paper from the dirty ground and examined it.

"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?" Harry inquired.

"You four and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus," Sirius shrugged.

"You could've just stayed with my mum, it's close enough," Mel added. Sirius had known her parents enough to recognize her antics.

"Emily told me Harry's relatives have seen my picture in the news, suppose they look over the fence one day and see me calmly drinking tea in your kitchen? You think they would keep it to themselves?"

"I... I guess you have a point."

Sirius nodded silently, still eating. Ron handed the Daily Prophets, 'Mystery Illness of Bartemius Crouch', and the 'Ministry Witch Still Missing — Minister of Magic Now Personally Involved.'

"They're making it sound like he's dying," Harry mentioned, talking about the headline that mentioned Crouch. "But he can't be that ill if he managed to get up here..."

"My brother's Crouch's personal assistant," Ron told Sirius. "He says Crouch is suffering from overwork."

"Mind you, he did look ill, last time I saw him up close," said Harry. "The night my name came out of the goblet..."

"He didn't look ill," Mel said. "He looked... I don't know, worried. I just assumed he was like that because of Harry."

"Getting his comeuppance for sacking Winky, isn't he?" said Hermione, still stroking Buckbeak's head. "I bet he wishes he hadn't done it now — bet he feels the difference now she's not there to look after him."

"Hermione's obsessed with house-elves," Ron mumbled only for Sirius to hear.

"Crouch sacked his house-elf?" Sirius asked with a lot of interest.

"Yeah, at the Quidditch World Cup..." said Harry, and he proceeded to tell him the whole story about the Quidditch final.

"Let me get this straight," Sirius was now pacing around the cave, still holding a piece of chicken. "You first saw the elf in the Top Box. She was saving Crouch a seat, right?"

"Right."

"But Crouch didn't turn up for the match?"

"No. I think he said he'd been too busy."

"Harry, did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the Top Box?"

"Erm... No. I didn't need to use it before we got in the forest. And then I put my hand in my pocket, and all that was in there were my Omnioculars. Are you saying whoever conjured the Mark stole my wand in the Top Box?"

"It's possible," said Sirius.

"Winky didn't steal that wand!" Hermione insisted.

"The elf wasn't the only one in that box– Who else was sitting behind you?"

"Loads of people. Some Bulgarian ministers... Cornelius Fudge... the Malfoys..."

"The Malfoys!" said Ron. "I bet it was Lucius Malfoy!"

"What for?" Mel frowned. "He had a very good wand, and someone would've noticed if he took it, being as far as he was."

"Anyone else?" said Sirius.

"No one," said Harry.

"Yes, there was, there was Ludo Bagman," Hermione added quickly.

"Oh yeah..."

"I don't know anything about Bagman except that he used to be Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," said Sirius. "What's he like?"

"He's okay," said Harry. "He keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament."

"Does he, now? I wonder why he'd do that?"

"Says he's taken a liking to me."

"Hmm..."

"Wouldn't be surprised if he's bet on you winning the tournament," Mel huffed. "Mr Weasley said to my mum he's very keen on beating on almost everything."

"We saw him in the forest just before the Dark Mark appeared, remember?" Hermione told them.

"Yeah, but he didn't stay in the forest, did he?" said Ron. "The moment we told him about the riot, he went off to the campsite."

"How d'you know? How d'you know where he Disapparated to?"

"Come off it," said Ron. "Are you saying you reckon Ludo Bagman conjured the Dark Mark?"

"It's more likely he did it than Winky," said Hermione.

"Told you," Ron rolled his eyes, "told you she's obsessed with house—"

"When the Dark Mark had been conjured, and the elf had been discovered holding Harry's wand, what did Crouch do?" Sirius interrupted.

"Went to look in the bushes," Harry continued, "but there wasn't anyone else there."

"Of course... of course, he'd want to pin it on anyone but his own elf... and then he sacked her?"

"Yes," Hermione kept going angrily, "he sacked her, just because she hadn't stayed in her tent and let herself get trampled —"

"Hermione, will you give it a rest with the elf!"

"She's got the measure of Crouch better than you have, Ron. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." Sirius pointed wisely. "All these absences of Barty Crouch's... he goes to the trouble of making sure his house-elf saves him a seat at the Quidditch World Cup, but doesn't bother to turn up and watch. He worked very hard to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament, and then stops coming to that too... It's not like Crouch. If he's ever taken a day off work because of illness before this, I'll eat Buckbeak."

"D'you know Crouch, then?" Harry questioned.

"Oh, I know Crouch all right. He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban — without a trial."

"What?"

"You're kidding!"

"No, I'm not. Crouch used to be Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know? He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic, he's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical — and power-hungry. Oh, never a Voldemort supporter... No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But then a lot of people who were against the Dark Side... well, you wouldn't understand... you're too young..."

"That's what my dad said at the World Cup," Ron scoffed. "Try us, why don't you?"

"All right, I'll try you..." A flash of a smirk appeared on the man's face. "Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing... the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that's how it used to be."

"My mum found both of her parents dead... her own father had already retired, he wasn't on duty..."

"Times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others," Sirius nodded. "Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning — I wouldn't know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors were given new powers — powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial.

"Crouch fought violence with violence and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you — plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches and wizards clamouring for him to take over as Minister of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened... Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently, they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power."

"Crouch's son was caught?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

"Yep," Sirius was done with the chicken and was now digging through the loaf of bread. "Nasty little shock for old Barty, I'd imagine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, shouldn't he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while... gotten to know his own son."

"Was his son a Death Eater?"

"No idea, I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. Emily and Remus made sure to update me... the boy was definitely caught in the company of people I'd bet my life were Death Eaters — but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf."

"Did Crouch try and get his son off?" Hermione tried.

"Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione!" Sirius laughed. "Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted house-elf because she associated him with the Dark Mark again — doesn't that tell you what he's like? Crouch's fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy... then he sent him straight to Azkaban."

"He gave his own son to the dementors?"

"That's right. I saw the dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can't have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though... they all went quiet in the end... except when they shrieked in their sleep..."

Mel ached for the way Sirius' eyes darkened with anguish. The things that man lived on his own, innocent without the world knowing, without any friends...

"So he's still in Azkaban?" Harry brought her back from her wondering.

"No... he's not in there anymore. He died about a year after they brought him in. He wasn't the only one, most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming because the dementors could sense it, they got excited. That boy looked pretty sickly when he arrived. Crouch being an important Ministry member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit. That was the last time I saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself, apparently, shortly afterward. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never came for his son's body. The dementors buried him outside the fortress; I watched them do it."

Harry reached silently for her hand and squeezed lightly, it made her feel a bit better.

"So old Crouch lost it all, just when he thought he had it made. One moment, a hero, poised to become Minister of Magic... next, his son dead, his wife dead, the family name dishonoured, and, so I've heard since I escaped, a big drop in popularity. Once the boy had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic toward the son and started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray. The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him. So Cornelius Fudge got the top job, and Crouch was shunted sideways into the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards," Harry told him, still very much holding her hand.

"Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him... If you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one more Death Eater."

"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" said Ron.

"Yes, and that doesn't make sense at all," said Sirius.

"Yeah, it does!"

"Listen, if Crouch wants to investigate Snape, why hasn't he been coming to judge the tournament? It would be an ideal excuse to make regular visits to Hogwarts and keep an eye on him."

"So you think Snape could be up to something, then?" asked Harry.

"Look, I don't care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape —" Hermione interrupted.

"Oh give it a rest, Hermione," said Ron impatiently. "I know Dumbledore's brilliant and everything, but that doesn't mean a really clever Dark wizard couldn't fool him —"

"Why did Snape save Harry's life in the first year, then? Why didn't he just let him die?"

"I dunno — maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out —"

"That would make sense," Mel nodded, wanting to give Ron a victory. "We heard it before, Snape's on his second chance already, maybe he's eager to gain Dumbledore's trust by helping us, but it doesn't mean he's reliable now... Maybe he saw no point in helping Voldemort, weak as he was..."

"What d'you think, Sirius?" Harry said, his grip so firm that she couldn't find it in herself to pull away.

"I think all of you got a point," said Sirius. "Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was... Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters– Rosier and Wilkes — they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges — they're a married couple — they're in Azkaban. Avery — from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse — he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater — not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape's certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble."

"Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet," said Ron.

"Yeah, you should've seen Snape's face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!" said Harry. "Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked really worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was."

"He showed Snape something on his arm?" said Sirius. "Well, I've no idea what that's about... but if Karkaroff's genuinely worried, and he's going to Snape for answers..." He shook his head in mild frustration. "There's still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn't, but I just can't see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he'd ever worked for Voldemort."

"What if he just wants to keep an eye on him? It's better to have him under his watch than free doing Merlin knows what," Mel offered.

"Why are Moody and Crouch so keen to get into Snape's office then?" Ron added, agreeing with her.

"Well, I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to have searched every single teacher's office when he got to Hogwarts. He takes his Defense Against the Dark Arts seriously, Moody. I'm not sure he trusts anyone at all, and after the things he's seen, it's not surprising. I'll say this for Moody, though, he never killed if he could help it. Always brought people in alive where possible. He was tough, but he never descended to the level of the Death Eaters. Crouch, though... he's a different matter... is he really ill? If he is, why did he make the effort to drag himself up to Snape's office? And if he's not... what's he up to? What was he doing at the World Cup that was so important he didn't turn up in the Top Box? What's he been doing while he should have been judging the tournament?"

Mel finally let go of Harry's hand to reread the Prophet's article.

"You say your brother's Crouch's personal assistant? Any chance you could ask him if he's seen Crouch lately?" Sirius asked Ron.

"I can try... Better not make it sound like I reckon Crouch is up to anything dodgy, though. Percy loves Crouch."

"And you might try and find out whether they've got any leads on Bertha Jorkins while you're at it," added Sirius.

"Bagman told me they hadn't," said Harry.

"Yes, he's quoted in the article in there: Blustering on about how bad Bertha's memory is. Well, maybe she's changed since I knew her, but the Bertha I knew wasn't forgetful at all — quite the reverse. She was a bit dim, but she had an excellent memory for gossip. It used to get her into a lot of trouble; she never knew when to keep her mouth shut. I can see her being a bit of a liability at the Ministry of Magic... maybe that's why Bagman didn't bother to look for her for so long..." Sirius drowned a yawn and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "What's the time?"

"It's half-past three," said Hermione.

"You'd better get back to school," Sirius said. "Now listen... I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

"No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows," Harry said, then sent a playful smirk at her. "And Mel, when I don't listen to what she says."

"Very funny..."

"I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over," Sirius shook his head, "and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?"

Mel snorted, but Sirius raised a brow at her.

"Are you serious?"

Sirius smirked.

"Yes, I am," He handed back the container that used to have food. "I'll walk to the edge of the village with you, see if I can scrounge another paper."

"We could send you ones so you don't have to go out there as often..."

"No, I like my walks," Sirius assured her. "It's good for me, see the sunlight every day... I'd missed it."

"Sirius, please reconsider my mum's offer," She said gently so it wouldn't sound like an accusation this time. "Please..." The look Sirius gave her was quite like anything else she'd seen, she didn't know what to call it. She only knew he wasn't pleased.

"We'll wait and see how things go, then we can revisit that, all right?" He sentenced, squeezing her shoulder gently. "Now let's get out of here."

"Wonder if Percy knows all that stuff about Crouch?" Ron asked them. "But maybe he doesn't care... it'd probably just make him admire Crouch even more. Yeah, Percy loves rules. He'd just say Crouch was refusing to break them for his own son."

"Percy would never throw any of his family to the dementors," Hermione assured them with certainty.

"I don't know," Ron grimaced. "If he thought we were standing in the way of his career... Percy's really ambitious, you know..."

"We know," Mel sighed, unconsciously reaching out for Harry's hand and holding it tightly.

"Poor old Snuffles," said Ron once they reached the castle. "He must really like you, Harry... Imagine having to live off rats."  

Harry said nothing but he didn't let go of her for the rest of their walk.

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha​ @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere​ @t-rexs-world

[faedawayyy]

I WANT THE SKI LODGE/THIS CHRISTMAS TO REALLY KICK OFF ALL OF MY CHARACTERS IN INTERESTING AND NEW AND DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS. LIKE I WANT TO REVIVE THE RP DAYS WHERE WE WEREN’T SO SCARED ABOUT KEEPING SHIPS AND MORE INTERESTED IN BEING DRAMATIC HOES AND HAVING AMAZING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. SO LMK IF ANY OF THESE SUIT YOU? BUT ALSO PLS DON’T JUST TAKE ALL THE GUY ONES.

THIS IS POST 1: CHARACTERS THAT I CONSIDER O.G’S AND I’M TAKING THEM IN DIRECTIONS THAT MAAAAAYYYYYYBEEEE AREN’T AS STEREOTYPICAL...VERY FEW OF THESE INVOLVE LIKE, CHEATING OR SLEEPING AROUND.

DALLAS 

he’s had a good 3 years of being in relationship and girl drama and having that just doesn’t...make sense...anymore? like him and zara definitely have things they need to work through but i think he’s found someone he really likes and isn’t even looking into everybody else. 

HOWEVER, now that he’s with her, i think his family’s financial situation will become even more desperate bc they’re bankrupt and the calloway’s are like r i c h. so.... 

- SOMEONE HE’S LOANING A LOT OF $$$ FROM: yes, he makes lots from his singing career but his parents are in huge debt and on top of that, there’s margo’s rehab fees and spending problem. everything dallas has earned since his first album has gone to fixing his family and it just hasn’t happened yet. maybe he reaches out to someone over christmas for a big loan and they give it to him, without realising he has literally no plans on paying them back. if they’re going to be nice about it, i dont want it. i want tension w this.  - DIRTY WORK: he’s obviously been a drug dealer before. i’m happy for him to go down that route but again, anyone who is maybe from a sketchy family, dallas would be happy to do their dirty work for them if the price is right. maybe someone knows his family’s situation and takes advantage of this. again, i rly don’t want people being really nice about it.

BRODY 

he’s obviously, officially a dad now. i don’t think the pressure is getting to him, but the whole idea that this is his life forever definitely is. i’m always on the fence with him because he LOVES disney and nobody comes close. affairs just seem a bit old for him, but he still definitely fucks up now and then and i think i’m going to give him a bit of a partying/being out/spending addiction. sooooooo....

- PEOPLE WHO PARTY/GO OUT WITH HIM: think like, wolf of wallstreet or ‘the man’ music video by taylor swift. i think fake friends would definitely come in to play here - people who know he’s wealthy and take advantage of that to have really good nights out and tempt him to just blow tons of money on shit.  ALSO, people using him for publicity and maybe people who sell stories about the wild nights out he has and how much he fucks up/isn’t a great father figure atm.  - FRIENDS WHO COVER FOR HIM - TAKEN BY LEO: they don’t care enough to get him to fix up, but they definitely act as alibi’s and help him to avoid getting into too much shit with disney.

MASON 

i’m reaaalllly liking the idea of mason maybe not being as perfect as he appears on the surface. i think that has slowly started this year but hasn’t been as dramatic as it possibly COULD be. he also has the whole secret of knowing james is alive and nothing has come of that yet, so these are the two directions i want to take him down. SoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO......

- ALLEGED MISTRESSES/FLINGS: mason isn’t brody or leo and it is just natural to him to stay loyal and committed to the person he’s with and obviously, he loves kendall. however, i do think he has a lot of unfinished business with exes (we could also develop new ones if they’re not exes already). we could maybe plot about him rebuilding his relationship with them but it gets misinterpreted and it’s made out as if he’s cheating or something when rly it’d be completely innocent. - SOMEONE WHO CATCHES HIM WITH JAMES AT A SECRET LOCATION - TAKEN BY GISELE: i’d love this one more than ^^^^^^^^ tbh! it’s obviously a hUGE secret that james is alive and mason knows his family won’t forgive him for keeping it a secret if he finds out. this could definitely bring out the nastier side of him and i think he’d even go as far as to blackmail somebody or pay to keep them quiet. we can develop it! 

BLAKE

i struggle SO much with blake because he really is unproblematic. he can be a bit of an idiot but he’s not really into drugs, HE’D NEVER CHEAT, HE’S WITH THE LOVE OF HIS ACTUAL LIFE, and he’s pretty honest and kind for the most part. i’ve had a think, though, and i’ve came up with some of these. SOOOOO.... - MUSIC DRAMA: blake loves 5SOS but i also think his unique style of music is so different from the bands and he’s going to try and explore that in 2021. i kind of want him to work with other artists in the industry and lots of different drama could come out of this:  >> tension with the other 5sos boys and maybe fans who start to fuel rumours that he’s leaving when he isn’t  >> rivalries with some of the more established male artists. dallas would be great for this BUT he’s mine lol >> song-writing credits/arguments. maybe he writes with someone and they don’t feel like they’ve been given enough credit for how much they helped him. i’m very reluctant to do anything with blake’s personal life just bc that really isn’t him. AT THE VERY MOST, maybe some ex relationships for him to base his solo songs around.

HENSLEY

MY BABY IS ENGAGED. WHEN I TELL YOU I THINK I SHED A TEAR FOR HER LAST NIGHT, I’M NOT LYING. SHE’S SPENT THIS WHOLE RP PUSHING PEOPLE AWAY JUST TO BE LIKE “I TOLD YOU SO”....BUT !!!!!!! THINGS ARE CHANGING. ok, here are some ideas i have. these will take a little bit more development but still have a lot of potential.  - AN OLD (TOXIC) FRIENDSHIP REVIVING: there was a time like pre-st judes where hensley was quite off the rails. LIKE, she’d go out, get drunk/high, just not go home for days and i think this all came down to losing autumn in such a weird way....maybe she gets closer to that person again, and they’re a pretty bad influence? i feel like this would put a big strain on all of her healthier relationships. she’ll definitely not stay in the toxic place forever but maybe this friend is kinda passive aggressive like: “oh? you’re getting married? that’s very...not you.” and stuff.  maybe they come from a challenging background too and they were each other’s support systems but it wasn’t a healthy relationship. we could build this up!  - ANY OF EVAN’S EXES/FLINGS: LISTEN BECAUSE SHE IS JUST SO CONVINCED SHE’S NOT THAT EASY TO LOVE, she does find any ex of evan’s threatening no matter what is said or how long ago it was. it’d be interesting to see how that develops bc i think f x f relationships are where hensley’s flaws surface more.

ISSY (TW: RAPE)

OKAY SO PSA: issy is still ruby’s sister but nadine and i have decided to send it back to ruby not knowing that because it was a lot more interesting when it was still a secret. ISSY is still a mum and happy with levi and building her life back up from how damaged it became with her adoptive father in australia. SOOOOO.... - THE FACT SHE’S RUBY’S SISTER - TAKEN BY KENDALL: somebody she opens up to but they’re like “lol ok whatever...no you’re not” and rather than helping her, they think there’s something wrong with her and try to keep her away from ruby bc they think she’s doing it for attention or she’s just some kind of stalker? this would make her feel even less sure about telling ruby. MAYBE said person can kind of tell others that she’s obsessed and it becomes a thing around the academy for a while... - BABY PLOTS: there’s been quite a lot of babies being born. I’D LOVE to do something that maybe gets carried into next gen. maybe issy brings avery on a lot of play dates (when he’s a bit older) with another baby and they jokingly talk about setting their children up? then in next gen, it’ll obviously be up to meg how avery feels about it?

[danidoesathing]

ok! i’ve got the beginning and end written, it’s the middle that i need to write still, and it’s disgustingly sweet (i’ll post it to ao3 when i’ve got it finished bc i refuse to upload an unfinished work). also lemme know if you wanna read the ending as well, i wasn’t sure (it, too, is fluffy to hell and back)

Chapter 1:

Tim hated this. He hated it all. He’d rather be anywhere else in the world if he could, he could’ve been at home in his room with his laptop and Jay to talk to, but instead he was here with his mom who thought that she had any right to his life after leaving it for good (when he was twelve years old in a mental hospital too, who did that to their child?) and apparently forgot why she did, since she wouldn’t shut up. He’d had enough by the third hour of the “vacation” she took him to, and maybe if he hadn’t hated pity as much as he did, especially from the one that caused him to be pitied, he would have enjoyed the five-star hotel stay more, rather than feel like he was stuck in one long panic attack. He had managed to get away, though. He excused himself to the bathroom and felt grateful she had allowed him that much. He didn’t pay too much attention to the walk to the bathroom - he was trying to breathe in and out regularly and count to ten and pay attention to what he felt and all the other coping methods they taught him in the ten years he spent in the psych ward. He only realized there was someone else in the bathroom when the person (Tim assumed they were male, this was the men’s bathroom) sighed and firmly said, “I need more time, you can’t just ruin my entire life to gain a few weeks.” 

Brian had really been looking forward to the week he’d spend on his own - privacy and being alone weren’t really concepts that his family understood, and it had only gotten worse when the marriage proposal came. He’d tried to explain countless times that he was gay and that he would rather marry a frog than the fake, manipulative, entitled, rude, homophobic, racist, bitchy, but most importantly rich girl his parents had chosen for him to marry. As if he’d spend more than a minute within a five-mile radius of the piece of shit who wanted his money and his name, nothing else. When the call from his mother (Brian had stopped calling Carol Thomas his mom years ago, when she first started denying his issues and instead punished him for things he couldn’t control) came, he escaped to the bathroom since it was closer than his room, even though it was a lot less private. He didn’t think anything would go wrong, it wasn’t busy at the restaurant and even if someone entered, they would probably leave him alone to suffer in his misery. 

Brian hadn’t noticed the tired man who slunk into the bathroom at first, but when he saw the defeated slump of his shoulders and how utterly exhausted his eyes looked, his mother demanded that he come home the next day. He was pretty sure that everyone within the state could hear his sigh, and he thought about how he had gotten so sick of his own family that this was the case with every conversation he had with them. After his final compromise, he hung up without saying goodbye or waiting for Carol to respond. He knew what she would have said anyway, was far too familiar with the same conversation.

Tim hesitated, trying to figure out what to do - he couldn’t just leave and pretend he’d heard nothing, but he didn’t know this man, like, at all, so he also couldn’t try to comfort him or ask him what was wrong, because something clearly was. 

“Family problems,” Brian said into the silence, which was probably just a few seconds long but to Tim’s anxiety-ridden mind it was a lifetime of waiting. 

Tim smiled slightly. “I’m familiar.” 

Brian made an interested noise.  “You tell me about your life, and I tell you ‘bout mine, alright?” 

He understood what sort of deal this was, he was used to therapists and doctors and psychiatrists trying to take his brain apart and figure out what was wrong with him, to try to fix him (or that’s what they said, but he wasn’t sure there weren’t any other reasons behind their words). He despised being treated like a wild animal who could lose his mind and attack at any moment, with a single wrong move. They had treated him like he was dangerous and they pitied him for it, but Brian, he hadn’t looked scared of Tim. He hadn’t acted like he was trying to play it safe - rather, he had tried to make Tim feel comfortable by making himself as vulnerable as Tim was. He realized that he didn’t want to strangle Brian. I’ve spent so much time with psychologists that I’ve started acting like one, analyzing everything and everyone’s actions. Tim laughed internally at the thought. 

“Sure. I don’t have anything else to do anyway,” He responded, and told Brian about his current predicament with his mother, leaving out the parts in which he was at the hospital - he just said that he had a chronic illness and his mom had left him at 12 when he had been in the hospital for four years. 

“Shit, dude, that really sucks. She doesn’t have any right to your life now, you know that right?” Brian said at the end of Tim’s story, after a short pause to take it all in. “I’m going to sound like a whiny white asshole with my story now,” he added. Tim shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. After all, my life doesn’t invalidate yours,” he said, and the corners of Brian’s mouth twitched up. “I guess you’re right,” he said, and started explaining how his parents wanted him to marry a rich woman high up the ladder of status in the elite community he was born into, and Tim could feel himself tensing up and his mind starting to buzz. 

Brian noticed that the man in front of him was looking a little off, and stopped midway through describing that he only had the next week or so to find his soulmate, otherwise he’d be stuck with someone he hated for the rest of his life. “Hey, are you okay?” He asked softly, and the other man (Brian only just realized that he knew this man’s life story but not his name, and mentally reprimanded himself for not introducing himself and asking his name) took a shuddering breath. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, and Brian didn’t call him out on his bullshit. “Please continue, I’m way too invested in your life now.” He smiled, and Brian laughed. 

“Alright, but first, you have to tell me your name because I’ve realized we haven’t introduced ourselves and it’s killing me,” Brian said.

“My name’s Tim Wright.”

“Brian Thomas. Nice to meet you, I guess,” Tim rolled his eyes at Brian’s antics, but Brian knew he was amused, as evidenced by Tim’s light snort. Tim told him to get on with the story, (a bit like a whining child, but in a good way, Brian thought) and he responded with, “Okay, okay, I’ll get to it then.”

“There isn’t much left,” Brian warned. When Tim nodded his understanding, he continued from where he had stopped, and when he had finished talking about his current fucked-up situation, the other man had been shocked into silence. 

“You have to be kidding me,” he finally said. “There’s no way that that shit’s real and actually happening to you.” 

Brian shook his head and sighed. “I wish I was, but nope! My parents are just assholes who are outta their minds.” 

Tim thought for a second - he had to do something, but he didn’t know what he could to be able to help. He chewed on his lip, and after a minute or so, had an idea that he thought could possibly work. 

“How about we pretend that we’re soulmates?” he asked Brian, who looked taken aback but also as if he was considering Tim’s proposition. Tim was about to backtrack and apologize, maybe say something along the lines of or we can just not do that if you don’t want to I’m sorry for bringing it up you must think I’m so creepy and weird and can we just ignore this ever happened?  

But then Brian nodded thoughtfully, and said, “Actually, I can imagine how that would work. I’d call my parents and tell them that I’ve already found my soulmate and that I want to spend more time with you, and you’d talk to them in order to convince them further if they don’t believe me. I already know I’m gay, so my soulmate is definitely a man, so your voice being a guy’s wouldn’t be a problem and when I find my actual soulmate, if they sound different to you, we could just blame it on the phone being weird through the call. We could say that we wanna spend a few weeks getting to know each other before I leave, and during that time I could find my real soulmate. If I can’t, then we can come up with scenarios in which I’d need to stay longer until I do. Yeah, actually, this is a really good idea, Tim.” 

“Uh, really? I mean, thanks,” Tim said, still reeling from Brian’s rambling. “How are we going to do this? Do you like, I don’t know, wanna call your parents and I can talk to them?”

“Yeah, sure, give me a sec,” Brian fished in his pocket for his phone and Tim internally panicked while Brian called his mother. He would have had a panic attack, but before he could truly get worked up, Brian was already talking. 

“Hey mother, guess what happened - no, you’ll never guess - I found my soulmate! And he’s a guy like I said he would be! Oh, you don’t want my soulmate to be a man? Well, unfortunately, apparently the universe doesn’t share your homophobic views - oh come on, would I lie about this? You don’t believe me? Fine, I guess I’ll have to prove it. Mother, meet Tim.”

“Hello Mrs. Thomas, it’s nice to meet you,” Tim said, and Brian couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and he didn’t want Tim to be there for it. He hated his parents, and the thought of them hurting Tim in any way was unbearable. Wait, what? I met him like 15 minutes ago, why do I care so much about him? He was going to figure out his feelings regarding Tim, but then he saw how he was getting anxious, so he decided to intervene now and unpack his shit later. 

Grabbing the phone from Tim, he told his parents that he and Tim wanted to get to know each other by staying at the hotel for longer, and when they objected, he simply reminded them that he was his own person and as an adult, he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do, slowly getting more pissed off with every word that his parents said. Knowing that he would snap if he listened to more of their bullshit, he hung up after letting them know he would stay for a few more weeks in Ohio, though probably in a motel (he wasn’t rich enough to spend weeks at a five-star hotel). He looked at Tim. “Are you okay? You looked pretty freaked out there, and I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have put that much pressure on-”

“No, no, you’re fine. I guess I just felt overwhelmed, sort of? I don’t really know why I felt so anxious, but I’ve been dealing with anxiety for, like, 16 years. I should be used to it by now,“ Tim assured Brian. "Plus, it worked, didn’t it? they weren’t happy, but they seem to have believed us, so you can stay for a few more weeks and try to find your soulmate. Actually, why are you searching in Ohio and not Alabama anyway? Aside from the obvious reason, of course.” he added. 

Brian frowned. “I don’t really know, I guess this just felt closer to my soulmate. You know how your mark is supposed to like, tingle and shit?” Tim nodded, and Brian continued. “Yeah, I guess that’s why - Ohio feels like I’m closer to finding them than in Alabama." 

"Yeah, I think I get it. It feels the same for me too, if I think about it - my mark feels weird and that’s never happened before, so I must be doing something right,” Tim said after thinking for a while, and Brian laughed.

“Hey, who knows, maybe we’ll find our soulmates in here, and maybe we’ll find them at around the same time - that would be so cool! You know, I think I rather like you, Tim. I’d like to be friends - if you wanna, of course,” Brian said, and Tim answered with an affirmative. 

“Well, you’re pretty cool yourself Brian Thomas, and I would indeed like to be friends, but I really gotta go. Emily’s probably going out of her mind, wondering where her son she found after 12 years went to,” Tim joked, and they exchanged numbers. 

“ So, I still have a week or so left, which means I’ll probably see you around the hotel and shit. Bye Tim,” Brian called as he left the bathroom, and Tim waved back before following.

  Chapter 2:

Brian walked back to his room, since he had already finished his dinner, and contemplated the last hour. He had gone from having to fight his parents for less than a week to find his soulmate to being given permission (well, sort of. Brian thought it counted if they had always encouraged him to do something until it actually got to the point in which said thing would be applicable - they couldn’t just change their minds because they were homophobic assholes) for almost a month doing whatever he wanted wherever he wanted to. 

Of course, there was also Tim. He didn’t quite understand why he liked Tim already, or why Tim had helped him, but he knew that he didn’t regret it at all. Plus, they were friends now, and he felt that they would only get closer with time. He’d arrived at his room by this point, and after entering, he decided that he wouldn’t get anything else done today. Within minutes he was in bed - no point pretending to be functional when there was nobody around to see it, and plus, he was very sleep-deprived and he should probably go to sleep to fix that. 

Since he’d been lying still with his eyes closed for over an hour, Brian believed that he was justified in going on his phone. However, once he opened his phone, he realized that he didn’t really have anything to do, and in a moment of boredom and apathy for his future, he decided to text Tim.

  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: Hey tim

  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: it’s me brian

  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: if you couldn’t tell

  He was surprised to see that Tim was online, and soon enough, he saw Tim’s typing bubble pop up.

  Tim [23:44]: yeah 

Tim [23:44]: i saved your number

  Tim [23:44]: anyway whats up

  Brian smiled because of course Tim was awake, he totally seemed like the type of person who’s constantly tired and sleep-deprived.

  savingprivatebrian [23:44]: nothing

  savingprivatebrian [23:45]: i just couldnt sleep

  Tim [23:45]: i get that

Tim [23:46]: insomnias a bitch

  savingprivatebrian [23:46]: yep

savingprivatebrian [23:47]: so do you wanna just talk until we can sleep

  Tim [23:47]: please

He laughed at Tim’s response, and settled comfortably into his nest of pillows (perks of five-star hotels) to talk to Tim.

In the end, they both agreed to go to sleep at around 3:30 in the morning, after having texted for almost four hours. If he wasn’t so sleepy, he might’ve wondered why conversation was so easy when he was talking to Tim when he normally wouldn’t be able to even form sentences with people he knew as little as he knew Tim. Instead, though, he placed his phone on the bedside drawer, rolled over, and fell asleep within minutes, still with a little smile playing on his lips.

  Chapter 3:

  A week later, Tim’s mother left to go back to work, and Tim promised her that he’d come to visit every now and then. He was surprised to find that he was planning to keep that promise - after his mom explained her reasons, he learned that she hadn’t left because she wanted to, only because she had to. Her life had been easier without him, and that realization hurt. He had held her back her entire life, and he really couldn’t blame her for having done whatever she could to get rid of the reason she couldn’t be happy. He was over it, though. He had had more than a decade to come to terms with the fact that everyone he cared about would leave him eventually, when they realized that he would always be problematic, that he would never get better, and that he would always drag them down. Why would anyone stay with that?

Then came was Brian. Tim knew that he was falling, falling hard, but he also knew that Brian didn’t feel the same - they both wanted to find their soulmates, and even if Brian did like someone as fucked up as Tim, when he found his soulmate, he’d just leave. 

He had told Brian about his mom and how he felt, as well as why he was in a hospital for 10 years, and Brian’s only reaction was to hug him (they didn’t notice that no parts of their skin had made contact, Tim would later realize) and telling him that he’d never leave. That was a bigger deal than Brian realized, and he had broken down crying, which caused Brian to start crying too. They had spent about 2 hours talking about their problems, and Tim left Brian’s room feeling better than he had for over a month. They had only been friends for a few days at that point, but there was no denying that they had a connection - they were already so, so close (and if Tim wanted them to be even closer, well, no-one had to know). 

Jay had called, on the second day. He had asked what was going on and why the hell Tim hadn’t texted or called him - rightfully so, since they usually talked daily and it had been more than 2 days with nothing. Tim had ranted about Brian and his mom, but it had taken Jay about ten minutes into Tim’s monologue to point out that he was totally crushing on Brian, and Tim had found himself unable to argue. After talking for over an hour, Jay had hung up with a threat to Tim if he didn’t text him everything that happened. 

Tim thought back to that conversation many times over the following days - he could trust Jay to call him out on his bullshit and help him work through it, and he knew Jay could do the same. Whenever his anxiety convinced him that they simply tolerated his presence and actually hated him, Tim would text Jay (and now Brian) and Jay would not stop texting him until Tim had no doubt left about their friendship.

On his last day in the hotel, a week after he arrived and met Brian, he had breakfast with Brian to talk about what they were going to do, since this was Brian’s last day too. 

“Over here,” Brian called out as Tim walked into the restaurant in the hotel, from which they got free breakfast. 

“Hey,” Tim said when he sat down. “You wanna go get some food? I’m starving.”

“Yeah, sure. Just a second,” Brian put his stuff on the extra chair, and connected his phone to a charger. “My battery’s at 12 percent,” he explained at Tim’s questioning look.

“Alright, let’s go. What do you wanna get?” Brian asked when they entered the self-service area.

“Eggs and bacon first, so they cook, but I’ll look around anyway to see what’s there,” Tim answered while grabbing a plate.

“Why didn’t you get a fork and knife too?”

“Because I’ll drop them, Brian.” 

“Ha, weak.”

“Do you really want to try me?” 

“Geez, you’re just so scary.”

“I know.” 

They had reached the omelette station, and they waited for their orders to be cooked in comfortable silence, which was new to both of them. Shaking his head, Tim decided to ignore his lack of friends while he was so happy and had the chance to spend time with someone who not only could tolerate him, but also wanted to befriend him. 

He was brought back to reality by Brian nudging him, and snapped his eyes onto Brian in alarm, quickly realizing there was no threat, there was just his food (paranoia had become a reflex at this point, and he wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to laugh or cry because of it). 

Throughout breakfast, Tim found his eyes lingering more and more on Brian’s lips when all social and conversational norms stated that his gaze should be on his eyes or overall figure to watch his body language and hand gestures, so like everyone else who’s ever been in this situation, he decided, okay, we’re going to put these feelings of attraction in a box, now close it, and yep! Push it as far away from coherent thought as you can, right up against the childhood trauma, self-hatred, insecurity, and look! It’s the box of fear of abandonment. Now, we don’t think about these, so surely this’ll be safe here. After cataloging everything into the dark basement of his mind, buried deep under everything else and covered in the mental equivalent of cobwebs and a layer of dust over everything, he simply looked away from Brian’s mouth and focused on literally any other part of his body, like, like- his eyes! That would surely work, wouldn’t it? You can’t possibly mess eye contact up, even though you’re, well, you, Tim. Don’t fuck this up with your social incompetence.

Yeah, no. After only a few minutes of trying to draw his attention away from what Brian would taste like, he found out that eyes are just as dangerous as lips, since he found that it was easier than it should be to get lost in Brian’s warm hazel eyes. He never realized that there were rings of different colours, and with the light framing his face, he looked otherworldly, like he didn’t belong to planet Earth or at least had some kind of magic coursing through his veins, just like warmth was coursing through Tim’s as he drowned in the ocean of brown and green filling Brian’s eye sockets. Because he was drowning, drowning, drowning as he forgot to breathe, move, do anything at all in the haze that came over him.

-------------------------------

[doing-all-write]

the art of flirting on a hover board pt. 3

Ivy runs a successful arts non-profit and Joe tags along when Rami and Lucy go to visit her. But what happens when a simple bet made over a hover board competition gets out of hand?

Pairing: Joe Mazzello x Ivy (OC)

Rating: Rated S for Soft Bitch Hours

Warnings: None! (Yet)

This is the second to last part! I hope you guys are all loving it :)

Part 1    ~~~     Part 2

Any comments, notes, love, hate WHATEVER you got for this, let me know!

Reblogs and feedback are much appreciated bc I crave validation!!!!!

"Oh, FUCK yeah." 

The opening notes of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue filled the kitchen as Ivy got up to make some more coffee. 

The kitchen that was part of the living space of the organization was every Fixer Upper fans wet dream.

Big windows, marble counter tops, a farmhouse table, an island and even a special cabinet dedicated solely to coffee mugs upon Ivy's request. ("I don't think one woman should own so many coffee mugs" was Joe's response as he looked at it with a horrified expression.)

Since Rami, Joe and Lucy had shown up, the past few days had passed in a blur. The "Unholy Trinity" as Ivy had dubbed them, had been so generous with their time. They had hosted "office hours" where kids could go in and talk to them in small groups or one-on-one for advice. They each had given a lecture or done a Q and A in one of the auditoriums. 

(Rami had walked on stage for his first Q and A session and was given a standing ovation. This meant that, for several days, whenever Rami walked into a room, Lucy and Ivy would leap to their feet, applauding wildly.)

Ivy had gotten to spend time with each of them and while she and Rami went way back, she found it incredibly easy to talk to both Lucy and Joe. She felt like she and Lucy had known each other for forever and had even had a wine night with Erin where Erin and Lucy had teased Ivy mercilessly about her and Joe's hopeless flirting. 

There had been one incident in particular that Lucy had gleefully filled Erin in on.

~~~

They had been backstage during Lucy's Q and A session. 

Ivy was backstage, acting as stage manager after introducing Lucy and Rami, who was the moderator, onstage. Joe had tagged along for support.

He said.

He really just wanted a chance to hang out with Ivy.  

In a small, dimly lit area. 

Alone.

Once Ivy had checked to ensure lights were good, mics on and working and everyone was set, she had made a beeline to Joe who was on the side of the stage. 

After the third question asking Lucy what it had been like dating her co-star Ivy had had enough of the bullshit and decided to take her boredom out on Joe. 

"OW. Why did you do that?" Joe hissed as he rubbed his side where Ivy's elbow had delivered a vicious blow.

Ivy shrugged, "I don't know, 'm bored."

Joe rolled his eyes, "So this is your mature decision? To elbow an innocent man?"

Ivy considered his statement and ran a hand through her hair. Joe watched it flutter back around her face like so many strands of delicate thread. He wanted that hair fanned out over a pillow, his pillow to be exact. He wanted it in his face as he woke up. He wanted to run his fingers through it when they were watching TV. There had been so many times he had had to physically stop himself from touching her hair.

"Well, yes. To be fair, you are in my line of fire." Ivy said as the smile she had tried to keep contained broke free as her eyes slid over to meet Joe's. 

Joe sighed as he shook his head, "Oh, you are so going to regret this"

Ivy's brows furrowed as she tried to figure out what he meant when Joe's elbow shot out, knocking into her arm and causing her to stumble a few steps to the right.

She turned to Joe with a mock outraged look on her face, "Oh, it is so ON" she hissed as she came at him, elbows flying. 

Joe threw up his arms just in time to deflect the first blows of Ivy's assault. Elbows were being thrown wildly as they desperately tried to keep their laughter stifled so as not to disrupt the action onstage. 

Finally, Ivy couldn't take it anymore, she was laughing so hard she thought she would choke, "Alright. Alright! Truce. TRUCE." She panted as she held out her hands to catch Joe's elbows in a desperate attempt to get him to stop.

He felt her hand wrap around his elbow and he dropped his hand to land on her bicep as they stood in the dimly lit backstage area.

They were both suddenly aware of how they were the only two people back there.

The quiet atmosphere, the dim lighting, the whispered words all came together to set a scene that had Ivy's heart fluttering and a familiar warmth building inside of her once again.

She could take care of that warmth later. She had taken care of it, multiple times in fact. But no matter how many times she touched herself or came around her vibrator it was always the same name that fell from her lips when she came undone.

Joe

Joe felt his breath catch in his throat as he looked down at Ivy.  

She was very aware of how close she was standing next to Joe.

She could smell his cologne.

He could smell her perfume. 

She flicked her eyes up to Joe's and was engulfed by the deep brown. He couldn't stop thinking about her lips and when she parted them to let out a shaky breath he almost let out a groan. 

She looked down at his lips.

He kept his gaze on hers. 

She tilted her head a fraction of an inch. 

He shuffled his feet closer. 

And then,

There was thunderous applause as Lucy and Rami waved to the crowd and made their way backstage. 

Ivy's hand fell as she turned her body away from Joe's, unhooking her hair behind her ears to hopefully cover the blush she knew was inevitably spreading. 

Joe coughed into his hand as he shuffled his feet, trying to look like nothing had happened. 

And nothing had happened. 

So, then why, when Lucy looked at them both, did it feel like they had been caught naked?

~~~

After Lucy had shared that story, Erin and Lucy had done nothing but tease Ivy about the whole thing and offer some incredibly colorful descriptions of what, exactly, Joe could do with his hands. While they had schemed to figure out other ways to get Joe and Ivy back together in a dimly lit area, Ivy had kept another, similar, incident to herself.

~~~

Ivy had been planning out the month's events late one night. This was a task that required a large chunk of time, complete solitude, her best playlist of 80's Bops and Jamz and one break for pizza.

Rami, Lucy and Joe had supplied the pizza and the much needed break when they stopped by to check on Ivy.

That had been three hours ago and her eyes were starting to cross as she stared at the spreadsheet on her laptop, then to the whiteboard full of indecipherable scribbles then to the planner to her right. 

She huffed out a laugh as she pulled up a picture of the Charlie Kelly meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where he's standing in front of a board that looked much like her own. She stood up to take a selfie in front of the board. She added the two pictures next to each other and tweeted, "Who did it better?" Laughing at her own cleverness it quickly turned to a sigh as she turned her gaze back to the board and the impossible equation before her.  

~

Joe had been hanging out in the living room, sprawled on the couch, halfheartedly watching a Planet Earth documentary and scrolling through social media when he saw Ivy's tweet. 

"Who did it better?" Her eyes looking crazy as she stood in front of the same whiteboard he had seen earlier that night. He smiled to himself as he contemplated her picture. Even trying to take a funny picture, she was still so cute. 

He saw the time stamp and realized she had only sent it out a few minutes ago. He glanced up and made a quick decision. 

He hopped up from the couch, tucking his phone into the pocket of his sweatpants. He tugged his white t-shirt down as he ambled down the hallway back towards the office area. 

He padded down dimly lit hallways that felt too quiet. He was already used to the noise that filled the building during the day. People talking over each other, sharing ideas, yelling out to friends, he could almost convince himself the air was thick with unfinished artistic ideas. 

He started climbing the staircase at the front of the building to see one of the last conference rooms at the end of the hall still lit up. Ivy was standing in front of the white board, hands on her hips. Her hair had been pulled up into a ponytail, heels kicked off and abandoned hours earlier. The faint sound of synths leaking through the doorway indicated the 80's playlist was still going strong. 

He knocked on the window and laughed as she jumped and turned around to see who was still up. 

She smiled and Joe noticed her eyes were considerably dimmer, the shadows underneath more prominent. 

She opened the door and waved him in, "Welcome to my self-imposed prison. Visiting hours are technically over but I can make an exception this once." 

"Have you interacted with another human since we left you...four hours ago?"

"NO I HAVE NOT!! Thank you so much for asking, please save me." 

He watched in amusement as she sank onto the floor and her head bonked against the wall. Her head fell into her hands as she rubbed her temples.

"Right, we're getting you out of here. This is...A PRISON BREAK." Joe declared as he leapt onto the table. 

Ivy just face planted onto the floor, 

"I can't break free, trademark Queen," Joe nodded his thanks solemnly as Ivy continued to talk into the carpet,  "until I get these last two sessions scheduled but the people teaching them have conflicts on the same DAY and I literally cannot figure out how to make it WORK unless I start over and I REALLY don't-"

"Switch them with Gracie's seminar and Adam's demo."

He saw her body still as she considered what he had just said. 

She slowly pushed herself up to a standing position as she faced the board with wide eyes.

She turned to face Joe and stared at him with a dazed look on her face, "You're a fucking genius."

Joe shrugged in faux modesty, "So they tell me. Now c'mon, let's get you out of here."

Ivy groaned, "Please. I can hear my bed and sweatpants calling to me even from here." 

Joe chuckled as he jumped off the table and walked towards her. She stuck out her arms and wrapped them around his neck to pull him close to her.

"Thank you, I was losing my mind."

Joe's arms instinctively wrapped around her as he rested his chin on the top of her head, "Of course. Always happy to help you."

Ivy pulled away and gazed up at him with sleepy eyes and a soft smile.

Joe realized how close her mouth was to his. Ivy felt Joe's breath break over her face, the smell of his toothpaste sending her heart fluttering.

Joe could count all of the freckles that covered Ivy's cheeks.

The moment stretched out.

Ivy's eyes searched Joe's.  

Joe took a deep breath as he got ready to lower his head down.

Then Ivy's laptop chimed with a notification and the spell was broken. 

~

She hadn't told anyone about that moment. 

~

Ivy poured coffee into her mug as she heard someone shuffle into the kitchen and offered them a "good morning" as she placed the pot back onto the burner. 

Joe rubbed his eyes as he stretched and murmured a good morning back to Ivy. He shuffled closer and tugged on the end of Ivy's ponytail, "When did those even come back?"

"What? Scrunchies?" Ivy asked as she lifted up one hand to feel the leopard print one keeping her hair back.

"Yeah, weren't those popular in the 80's?"

"Umm, yeah but they came back in style months ago. Keep up old man." She teased as she took a sip of coffee. 

"Ah. Please tell me there's more coffee. I don't think I can talk about scrunchies anymore until I have some." 

"Fair. I just made some more. Help yourself." She indicated the nearly full pot and Joe groaned in ecstasy. 

"I know, she's beautiful" Ivy sighed as she wrapped her hands around her own mug and inhaled deeply. 

"Do you guys have any more mugs or..?" Joe asked pointedly as he motioned toward The Mug Cabinet.

"No, just cup your hands, I'll pour some in to them for you."

"Oh perfect, let me just-" Joe cupped his hands as he stepped closer to Ivy who laughed and reached her hand out to push against his shoulder, "We have mugs, obviously. Some uneducated swines might even say Too Many Mugs." She threw a pointed look at Joe as she opened the cabinet with a flourish.

"Okay but like, c'mon Ivy. It's a ridiculous amount of mugs for one woman to own."

"Well if you're just going to insult my mugs then you don't get one." She moved to close the door, 

"Alright, well, hold on," Joe's hand shot out to stop the hand that was closing the door. 

"Mozzarello, you made it very clear that-" Ivy's retort died in her throat as she turned to look up at Joe who in turn was looking down at her. Pinning her in place with his stare. 

Ivy could hear herself swallow extra loudly as she felt her body temperature rise and her cheeks start to flush. 

"I made it very clear, what?" Joe realized his voice had dropped about three octaves.

"That-that, um, you don't...believe...in mugs." She let the sentence die and cringed at how dumb that sounded. 

"I don't believe in mugs, huh?"

"Well, that's what it sounded like!" Ivy could hear her voice starting to rise into territory only dogs would be able to hear and willed herself to take it down several notches. 

Joe's eyes hungrily took in her flushed cheeks, the movement of her throat as she swallowed (he couldn't think too hard about swallowing, he would combust then and there) how her hand was shaking beneath his. He wanted this moment to last forever but also wanted to get to the part where he was finally kissing her. 

~~~

Lucy had been scrolling through her phone as she wandered towards the kitchen. She got closer and something told her to stop.

She looked up and strained her ears as she heard two voices, one distinctly male, the other female. 

She locked her phone, then slowly approached the swinging door. 

The door hadn't closed fully so she peered through the crack and nearly ruined everything by yelling in excitement. 

She spun around and ran into Rami who reached out to steady her,

"Woah, hey, what's going on? Why aren't you-?"

"We need to get out of here, NOW! Or else everything will be ruined, c'mon!" She practically pulled him off his feet as she hurried down the hallway, phone already opened to Erin's contact information as she slammed the call button.

"Someone better be dying. It's a Saturday. The Lord said to rest on Saturday."

"Pretty sure that's Sunday."

"Even more of a sign that I need rest."

"Well you're about to be fully awake because guess who's in the kitchen together, inches apart, practically drowning in the sexual tension they've created?"

Lucy heard the ruffling of blankets as Erin pushed herself up, "Is it? Really? Don't joke with me about things like this. We've waited too long."

Lucy bit back a laugh, "You know I wouldn't call you this early on a Saturday without it being serious as hell."

"Luce, I know you can't see me but I am doing a happy dance on my bed."

"What do you think I'm doing in the hallway now?"

"So...does that mean we can't go into the kitchen to get coffee?"

Rami winced as Lucy's fist connected with his shoulder and Erin's screams came through the phone.

~~~

"So, are you going to get a mug or...?" Ivy had found her throat so dry it took all of her concentration to push the words out.  She was starting to worry that she and Joe had been standing in this position for too long and it was no longer flirty but just weird. 

"Yeah. I am. But right now, coffee's not really top of mind." Joe admitted as his eyes flicked to her lips and back up to her eyes.

Her lips parted and Joe knew that if he didn't kiss her in the next 30 seconds he would lose his fucking mind.

"Yeah. Same." Ivy internally rolled her eyes at how dumb she sounded. But, being so close to Joe, so close she could just reach out and grab him, she was surprised she was still standing. 

Joe couldn't tear his eyes away from her own. He knew that someone needed to make a move soon or something, or more likely someone, would come and ruin the moment. 

And as if he willed it into existence to ruin his own life, he heard footsteps, Lucy yelling incomprehensibly and then, 

"REV UP THOSE FRIERS BECAUSE I NEED COFFEE" as Sean kicked the door open followed closely by Adam. Ivy heard Lucy getting closer and yelling at them to not do what she thought they were going to do. 

Ivy quickly stepped around Joe to intercept the two men as Joe just stared at a point on the wall.

He had been so close. 

It took everything in Ivy not to knock Sean and Adam's heads together. 

She had been so close. 

[srawesleyghuewrites]

Always - Part Three

Series: Always(Part One, Part Two)

For desktop users: masterlist

For mobile users: mobile masterlist

Pairing: Damien x MC(Catherine Park), in which she also dates Hayden and Sloane

Book: Perfect Match

Word Count: ~ 2,000

Rating:  M for language

Author’s Note:

SOOOO

After so long I’ve come back to writing the rest of this little fic with the missing parts from Perfect Match, and maybe it’s bc it ended and i miss my babies but i simply loved going back to writing them again!

The last part(part four) will be posted soon and then I’ll go back to missing my crew like hell *crying*

I don’t know very well who to tag so I’m just gonna throw some of my favorite people here and hope they like it: (feel free to let me know if you don’t want to be tagged or if you do haha):

@pukichun , @eileendannie , @drakewalkerstan , @walkersdrake , @tacohead13 , @minion-on-board , @simmerbychoices , @damienazariostan , @goingbackwardsfromdeath , @countrymusicandncis-blog , @lovelanique , @princess-andromeda-nazario , @the-everlasting-dream

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me I just borrow them from Pixelberry!

I know there’s nothing left to cling to

“And why does this feel like drowning?

Trouble sleeping

Restless dreaming”

The ride back to the apartment is a thousand times lighter than before, since now nobody has unfinished words threatening to get out. But the melancholy in Catherine’s brown eyes, that every few seconds turn away from the road to him, just to make sure her Damien is still safe, is the same.

Damien notices how calmer she’s and there’s a smile on his face because he was able to help the woman he loves. Plus, he also can’t help the soft gaze at her, staring them  even longer to see her giggling and then arguing that this will cause an accident.

“It’s worth it. To look at you, the real you, that I can actually touch, ” He touches her cheek with his thumb for a brief moment. “it’s all worth it.” 

“Oh yeah, using a car accident that could cause the death of us both to sweep me off my feet, how romantic…”

She rolls her eyes but then the turns to the window, not being able to suppress the smirk on her lips, the one Damien catches in a glimpse from the rearview mirror. There’s nothing more like them than teasing each other. So Catherine’s comment makes both of them let out a big gasp of relief, like they are finally themselves again, together and safe after all. Just the two of them…

But not for long, the second they get out of the car there’s two giggling - drunk -, familiar figures holding beer cups next to their apartment building.

“YOU are BACK!”

Sloane throws her arms around Catherine’s neck when she approaches them. Damien following close behind and trying to repress a laugh. She gives her girlfriend a peck on the lips and holds her by the waist to prevent her from falling. Sloane’s clearly drunk and hums what seems to be a k-pop song while smiling widely for the three of them.

“She’s drunk. I wanted her to relax and then… things kinda got out of control…”

A very guilty, and totally sober Hayden, apologizes for letting their girl get drunk. At this moment Sloane tries to give Damien a hug and ends up almost hitting the ground in front of him, saved by his fast reflexes.

“Woah there, maybe you should try to stay in one still Sloane? I’m all done with hugs already, don’t worry.”

“You saved me!!! Oh Damien, you are so wonderful with Catherine and now you save me… really… you deserve a hug!”

It’s the blonde that holds her in place this time, passing her friend arms around her shoulders to keep her steady while they all turn to enter the building. She looks at Cath again, apologizing one more time and being dismissed by a sweet kiss on the cheek.

“Everything’s fine, we just have to make sure she has a cold shower, coffee and gets some sleep. No need to apologize, even though that’s not what I meant when we left and I said: have fun.”

“No, that’s what I meant.”

Damien interrupts as the elevator goes up and they both laugh. Sloane is quiet until they reach their floor, then she narrows her eyes and whispers to Catherine:

“WHere ArE wEEE????”

“Why are you whispering honey?”

“Because it’s dangerous, nobody can know that we are here!!!!!”

“Oh my god, you do need some taking care.”

Hayden sits her in the couch and goes straight to the kitchen make coffee, wanting to make herself useful and help her friend because she’s still pretty guilty. At least for once it’ll be her taking care of Sloane and not the other way around, the thought warms a little bit her heart.

“Where did… Hay…”

“She went to make some coffee for you.”

Catherine takes off her coat just by the time Damien closes the door behind him, then she sits next to her girlfriend and runs her hand gently on her back. Sloane holds her other hand, squeezing a bit strongly when she says:

“I don’t think I can drink any...thing. Cath, I-I don’t feel so good.”

Only then she realizes how pale she’s and that can only mean she’s about to throw up. So she helps her up and they make their way until the bathroom, but before they can get there Hayden intercepts them.

“I can take her, I think he’s waiting for you.”

She points with her head Damien standing next to the couch where they were sitting a moment ago, his eyes tell her that Hayden’s completely right so she nods to her before walking towards him.

“How’s she?”

“She needs some care, someone to hold her hair and someone, which in this case will be me, with the courage to give her a cold shower. So you can go to bed, you need rest after everything.”

“Can I help?”

“No, we’ve got this. Your…” Dames’s room. “ room is just the second down the hall.” 

She struggles to say the words, Dames memories still so very fresh in her mind. The guilt stained in every word. Catherine tries to deflect the subject by giving him a goodnight kiss, tender and long on those lips she missed so badly. 

“Goodnight D.”

“Goodnight Cath.”

“I know there's nothing left to cling to

But I'm still calling out your name

You're in my head

Always, always, always”

“Always, always, always”

About two hours later Sloane was finally feeling better, already cleaned up and stocked with hangover supplies in her comfy bed. Hayden lies down next to her, turning on the tv and putting on one of her favorite Netflix documentaries. She even asks Cath to join them, who politely declines. She can’t spend the night with them when her thoughts are on the man next door, and the man who’s probably trapped in an Eros cell.

“Are you sure you’re feeling better?”

“Yes… I think”

“Don’t worry, I got her.”

Hayden assures her and Catherine kisses both of her girlfriends goodnight, giving Sloane a special kiss on the forehead and saying for her to take care. After making sure they’re alright, Catherine leaves the room, closing the door behind her with a huge relief sigh before going to the kitchen get some water. 

Damien is still sitting on the couch, sleeping. And she can’t help the warmth that fills her whole body when she realizes he’s been waiting for her. Cath passes her hand through his hair in a loving movement, making his eyelids flutter open fastly and his eyes soften as they recognize her.

“You waited for me.”

“For the longest time and I don’t regret a second of it.”

He isn’t talking about tonight and she damn well knows it, Damien is telling her once again how worth it was waiting those years for them to be together. And mainly, he’s making sure she knows he’ll always wait for her, no matter what.

“I…”

Love you. That’s how she wanted to end the sentence, in this private moment between them when he’s exposing his feelings for her in such a pure way that made her heart swell but something stopped her: the door of Sloane’s bedroom opening.

It happens to be just Hayden going to get some water on the kitchen, she says goodnight to both of them and goes back to the room, leaving Cath with no courage to say those words. She feels a shiver down her spine and remembers her shirt is still pretty wet from Sloane’s shower.

“I’m gonna shower, do you wanna come?”

Damien simply stares at her with that cute little provocative way. So she adds:

“I promise I’ll behave.”

“I think you already promised me this today.”

“And did I missbehaved? I don’t think so.”

She says while already dragging him to her room, the only one with a big bathtub, which doesn’t take more than four minutes to be full and ready for them to shower. Damien stands in the door, an insecure look on his face because he’s not sure for how much of intimacy and contact he’s ready for yet. And he would hate himself for denying or disappointing her. As if she’s reading his mind, or better, his features, Catherine holds him by the waist gently and says:

“You can shower alone if you want, I’ll use the other bathroom. But I promise you that I just wanna be close to you and yes pamper you a little bit, for once you finally deserve.”

“Finally huh?”

“I can still change my mind you know?!”

Their teasing eases some of his worries and the way she’s touching him with all the caution in the world takes the rest away. She presses her lips to his for a long time, and then slowly backs away from him to start undressing.

He hasn’t seen her naked in so long and worse, she hasn’t seen him naked in so long, his body has suffered a lot and some bruises are still visible so they might be uncomfortable for Cath. So he takes his long time undressing, trying to ease his breathing and focus that they’re both alright and together again, not that she won’t be seeing the strong sarcastic man he’s always been. Everything has changed and he is afraid some of those weren’t for the best. Damien’s been paying so much attention to the memories of how they used to be that he doesn’t notice Catherine until she’s fully naked in front of him, taking his hand on hers.

“What’s wrong?”

When he finally settles his eyes on her body it’s clear that the memories don’t do justice to how amazing she looks and feels in the present. He dismisses her question by denying with his head, then he smiles and finishes getting undressed without taking his eyes off of Catherine.

Twenty minutes later Damien puts her legs over his in order for her to be more comfy and she smirks. Coming back with a silly smile on her lips Catherine takes both of his souppy hands and interlaces their fingers slowly.

“It’s nicer than I expected.”

“You have no idea how hot water can be underrated”.

She lowers her gaze to their laced hands, thinking about how he stayed in that horrible place for so long without having the comfort that she had makes her head dizzy. But as soon as Damien gets a glimpse of it, he pulls her to him, motioning for her to turn her back to his chest so that he’ll embrace her from behind. They stay like this for awhile and the feeling of warmth and contact dissolves her worry into nothing.

“I wanted to know if your new hair has anything to deal with what happened?”

She stiffens beside him and it feels like he touched a nerve, however she nudges even closer to his body before continuing:

“I just… it was a week after we found out about Dames. I simply couldn’t stand to look at me in the mirror everyday and see the person that let all this happen to you. So Nadia took me to a hairdresser and I changed everything, because the only thing I actually wanted to change wasn’t possible at the time. And now I guess it makes sense since we both changed.”

Cath nudges to his recent stubble with a sexy smile, when she thought he couldn’t look hotter, he managed to it. However Damien shrinks from her comment and whispers in her ear:

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I’m too tired to shave today but don’t worry, tomorrow I’ll do it.”

“No need. I like it… a lot.”

There’s such passion and true in her words that Damien can’t help but to kiss her nape, neck, ear and cheek. Every place his lips can reach with her back to him as his arms tighten around her.

“I like the new hair, when I thought you couldn’t look more beautiful hot that with the long hair… you go ahead and cut it short… and it just suits you, it’s amazing.”

“Really?”

“I wouldn’t lie about hair!”

He speaks as if she offended him deeply and she rolls her eyes.

“But truly, you look even sexier now Catherine. And I was pretty sure that wasn’t possible.”

Catherine takes a breath, his words sinking into her brain as a peaceful melody. She relaxes into his arms and smiles, wanting to stay like this forever.

To be continued...

[dyketectivecomics]

{{ Writing asks! LMM for 22? Arkham Exorcism for 3? Your OCs for 12 (if you have faceclaims for them, and if not then go for 15)? 16 can be applicable to Your DC Headcanons in General, right? And I'm gonna stop there because if I don't, I won't leave any for anyone else to ask. lD;;

lmao u were the only one to send in asks anyways, but ily zira got BLESS U

also this got long for my tastes SO UNDER A CUT IT GO

LMM & 22. which character swears the most? least?

Little Miss Moonbeam is definitely a fic where Pam & Harley are spending 99% of their time trying to carefully regulate their language bc there is a Young Child in their presence. meanwhile raven is going “i’m like 11 so shut the fuck up” (in reality they don't curse that much more than anyone else would, but they're gonna put on the filters anyways). now DIANA and ZEE on the other hand? those filters are OFF. and the stress is HIGH (at least, reasonably, for Zatanna especially lmao)

AE & 3. which 3+ songs would make up a playlist for the novel?

oooof, whatever i had to write with last year has been lost to time, but this year for action/thrill sequences i’ve been turning to “House of Wolves” by MCR, so something with a good pace and to get me in the mindset, not so much lyrics driven tho, its just that Pump Up Song that has some interesting imagery that’s only tangentially related to the writing. 

But for tone & especially for the big close, “Love Vigilantes” by New Order has been resonating SO HARD recently? I don’t want to spoil too much for anyone who hasn't had the chance to read it, and especially since there’s so much that needs to happen in the between to really pull off it meaning anything... and because i still look back on the fic and feel like it needs a bit of a rewrite to pull it off correctly but we’ll see ahhh ALSO also if any of y'all wanna scream about New Wave 80s music w/ me rn I'm trying to go back on THAT kick rn

i wanna try to avoid talking abt my OCs anywhere else except my own writing blog actually so STRAIGHT ON TO THE NEXT Q

16. do any characters have distinctive birthmarks/scars?

i mean other than the batfam having too many scars to ever be able to justify them all lmao, i know i’ve written that one headcanon of mine abt Raven being burned accidentally by religious effigies, I'm still a little fond of that mostly bc i like the idea of consecrated items making life difficult/uncomfy for Demons

call it projecting, but from my own experience/talking with theatre friends, I DEF headcanon the Zataras as having plenty of injuries from stage equipment over the years. Giovanni’s hair on his head covers a particularly bad head injury from when someone improperly stacked equipment. Zatanna has had her share of snagged skin and torn fishnets from unfinished props/loose nails. Zach especially running his shins into old set pieces while running around backstage to his next cue. idk what it was especially about high school theatre, and maybe it was just my hs, but its a LAWLESS place backstage, where room is MADE and then promptly IGNORED when its a Certain Time of Year.

[fmdtaeyongarchive]

↬ do you love me?

date: early 2019.

location: n/a.

word count: 2,048 words not including lyrics.

summary: n/a.

notes: creative claims verification for do you love me. no, i didn’t proofread or reformat this so i’m sure there’s mistakes aplenty.

“do you love me” comes after “free somebody” has already been sold off to gold star with an unclear future. it also happens to come early in the process of ash feeling the pressure to learn to write sexier music on demand instead of incidentally, so that he can fit into the image bc seems to be pushing him toward for his next album without sacrificing his control in the creative process.

he has no idea that the song will end up on the same album with “free somebody” that summer at the time of writing it. their genres of retro-inspired pop and alternative r&b and the process they go through from beginning to end aren’t close enough for him to consider that thought, but when he finds out a couple of months later, it will feel fitting in some broad, existentialist way ⁠— a way of thinking ash is admittedly highly prone to when it comes to music. the thing is that they’re both a challenge for him in different ways, but “do you love me” is well within his comfort zone and it comes into existence with ash less self-aware of its challenges. “do you love me” wouldn’t sound too off on his last album or among the other music he works on while the song sits unfinished with all of his other endless drafts of songs, but that doesn’t change how much he likes the song once he finishes it. he approaches all of his music with a self-critical eye, of course, but he can acknowledge when he likes something he’s made, even if he still sees all of the flaws he believes a better writer and producer would have improved on.

this time, the song’s concept and themes aren’t something passed down as a commission from bc’s a&r department, but are part of a personal project to better himself. he just wants to make a song he enjoys again and doesn’t doubts so much while making. it’s after the release of his “swim good” bc portal collab with sohee but before the release of “fantasy” and “lust” on candy’s mini-album that ash first creates his file for what will become “do you love me”.

it’s a cold late winter seoul day. the air from outside turns ash’s nose red and as soon as he’s inside the studio and sheds his coat, he curls in on himself in the studio chair. the bc studios aren’t the most comfortable places in the world with the knowledge that none of them are his in any true capacity beyond the hours he occupies them and other producers come in and out during the day, never leaving everything in quite the same place he’d left them even if he’d been there only the night before.

but that’s okay. he tells himself he’ll have a studio of his own soon. he’ll have earned it by then. all he has to do is keep working and he’ll have that studio of his own in a few months. he hopes. if no one in knight fucks up again. but their track record for not fucking up is admittedly not the best, his own in particular, so he never lets himself think on the realisstic odds of that for too long.

ash logs in to the computer and opens up cubase and his numerous files of unfinished and abandoned works. his phone is cradled in his lap as he consults old memos and notes to see if anything sparks inspiration in him today. there’s file after file of forgotten half-lyrics and messy, hummed melodies that had come to him at inconvenient times ⁠— on the van ride to a schedule or right before a meeting with management or on a water break in the middle of dance practice with the rest of the group. many of the clips fall short of pure genius, but he’d read many years ago, when he’d still been a novice in songwriting by most considerations, that he should save every idea he has because it was impossible to tell when one might be the exact snippet he needs. ever since, he’s done so dutifully, his dedication to this particular subset of his craft one of the few things he can confidently say he likes about himself.

there’s a few ideas he taps on through the touch screen and listens to that he mentally notes to come back to, but it’s when he lands on an older clip he remembers recording when his main focus had been on songs for his own album (causing other ideas to be thrown to the wayside until he could spare time for them) that he thinks he’s found something he can really work with. it’s not too long, the digits underneath the voice memo reading about fifteen seconds in total, but upon hearing himself sing the melody and lyrics he’d all but forgotten about, he starts to see and hear ideas for how it can be fleshed out and built upon, a surefire sign that this might be something good. or something promising, at the very least. it wasn’t enough to be good yet, so he shouldn’t get ahead of himself.

“do you love me? are you feeling me?” his own voice sings to him from his phone, the english beginning of the phrase sliding smoothly into the korean of the second half. the next line is vocalizations mixing actual korean words and unintelligible sounds. he clearly hadn’t had the time to come up with the rest of the lines to accompany the melody in his head when he’d recorded the voice memo, and that isn’t anything new. his brain has become more and more wired to being a twenty-four-seven songwriter, but that doesn’t mean perfect lyrics pop into his head to accompany any random melody that runs through it. life would be better if that was the case, but unfortunately, ash had yet to achieve the precision and reliability of a songwriting robot (though, he considers, bc would surely love it if he was so easily programmable to pump out pop perfection). your in korean is the only actual word he can make out in the second line, but the third line is much clearer. it’s an obvious spin off of the first line, even if he can tell he wasn’t sure about the ending at the time: “i’m feeling you,” there’s hesitation in his voice on the recording but ash likes the way the line flows anyway, “my babe.”

eager to get started with the gem he’s found, he moves to transpose the basic melodic line into cubase on the digital piano hooked up to the computer, then pulls out the pop filtered microphone to lay his own vocals over it to work with. he doesn’t get into full recording artist mode because he knows these won’t be the final vocals on the track, but he has a vision already of how the vocals and instrumental will intertwine in a close, intimate way and he doesn’t want to wait until later in the process to start to tie that in. he plays around with what could go in place of the previously unspecified middle line before he settles on something he feels sets the proper mood for the rest of this song. it ties the bookends of the first and third line together more naturally than any of the other ideas he comes up with. he’s decided he wants to turn this into a fully fledged track already and his brain has already switched over all of the concentration he can manage with that in mind.

he spends the rest of that night on the same song without bothering to even pull up any of the others he’s been working on (despite their impending deadlines), expanding the composition on either end of the tiny snippet he’d started with. it fits nicely into the category of the alternative r&b genr, and ash finds himself more sure of where the songs going once he discovers its fleshing out well within his area of past experience. it’s not too different from songs he’d already released like “dive” and “daydream”, and the trap beats underneath fall into place because of that, part conditioned instinct thanks to the fondness he’s grown to have for how accented punctuation can sound under smooth, silky synths and vocals.

it takes a few weeks for his work to form into a real song because he eventually has to focus on other work that has a deadline or that other producers are depending on him to contribute his time to. or, more accurately, tracks which he’s depending on them to let him contribute his time to. any of them could surely finish it on their own, but ash ghosting on them because of some track of his own becoming his white whale obsession wouldn’t be a good look if he wants to keep working with them.

the rest of the lyrics continue to form as the track becomes more full. he isn’t sure of the context of the original lines at first other than being a part of something romantic and tonally sensual, but after the usual trial and error, he settles into crafting a lyrical story befitting of the song. much like he wants the vocals to weave seamlessly with the instrumental, he wants to lyrics to match the atmosphere the song sets. like the music ebbs and flows, so does the tale the lyrics tell ⁠— an intimate push and pull that leads to the repetition of “do you love me?” and “tell me how you feel”. it’s an emotion ash is all too familiar with, the question of reciprocated feelings and the tension of reading into every word and every mood, so it comes easily as he forces himself to recall what it feels like.

he’s been on the side of elation to discover the object of his affections does love him just as he’s been on the side of dejectedness to realize they don’t feel the same. that need to know is what ash keeps in mind. he doesn’t really want to dwell on the latter emotion

it’s late in the process that ash gets the idea for the song to have two vocals, a more prominent voice that’s likely to be female and an accompanying one that’s likely to be male. he’s not married to the genders of them, but the song is too explicitly instrumental for ash to fool himself into thinking that if it ends up in someone’s hands for actual release one day, it’d be made into a same-sex duet in this industry.

ash brings in one of bc’s female producers to help him record the final demo track and he manages to find a buyer in the form of gold star media again. he doesn’t expect to hear from the company about the song so soon, or at all, but when he hears they’re planning to put it on cherry’s debut solo album, he can only hide his excitement for the sake of professionalism. once the real vocals are laid down, he’s put in charge of finalizing the production to be album ready before it’s sent off for final mixing and mastering and he pushes aside his other projects to focus on the track fully again. there’s something about the song that continues to demand his full attention when it’s in front of him, like a favored child.

there isn’t much he changes about the production now that it has artists on it who will be presenting it to the world, but he keeps in mind the intricacies of cherry’s voice and her delivery, uno’s too, and how they differ from his own and the female producers. he’s had some distance from the initial production now, so he alters small parts he’s had more time to think on, but not enough that he’ll be giving a different song back to gold star.

despite his hectic schedules, he puts the finishing touches of what he’s responsible for on the song ahead of schedule instead of pushing the deadline like he usually does, but some way part of the way through, this song had become easy for him. easy, but not boring, and it doesn’t make him any less satisfied with the final product.

[mandareeboo]

Unfinished Work #24: “Opposite Axes”

Wellll this is less ‘unfinished’ as it is ‘I’mma have to rework the SHIT out of this bc of the special and I can’t NOT put my beautiful Sunstone and co in there somewhere’ so I’mma probably scrap this part of my third in line of the Steven and Fam Fusion Musical Show and redo from step one.

Title: Opposite Axes

"Absolutely not. There's growth and then there's insanity."

"Oh, let's give it a chance, Yellow," Blue pleaded, one hand cupped over her mouth thoughtfully. "Steven's already brought us so many interesting proposals. What's wrong with this one?"

"Interesting?" Yellow repeated dubiously. "Era 3 has been a massive failure so far. Production has gone down by over forty percent!"

"Yes, but they're so much happier."

"They won't be happier when we have no more planet to live on!"

Steven's ears were ringing as the Diamonds' voices began to lift. He puckered his lips and whistled. "Look, I know I'm no good at stats like Pearl is- who, by the way, really wanted to do this presentation, and the fact that you won't even let her in the room is extremely rude-"

"Do you know how undignified it'd be if we-"

"But," he plowed over her. "This will expand production enough to make up for lost time. Pearls are far less destructive to create, and they can be beneficial in so many fields! Just imagine how many happy faces with pointy noses we could make!"

Yellow sighed and pinched the junction of her nose. "It concerns me that we've come to a point where this is making sense," she said wearily. "Listen, Steven. Having an Era 3 Pearl being made without typical refineries and allowed to run wild can cause a lot of trouble for all of us. Especially compared to the older models. We could face a full-on revolution."

"It'd kind of be one we'd deserve, don't you think?"

"Perhaps. But you know as well as I do that there are many Era 1 and 2 Gems who would still leap at the chance to be shattered to protect us. We'd be causing dustshed all across Homeworld."

"I wonder," Blue said, "What an unrefined Pearl would look like?"

"It doesn't matter what they look like," Steven stressed. "What matters is that this is the safest option- for us and for the rest of the galaxy."

"How do you know what's safe or what isn't?" Yellow challenged. "I understand that you were raised with different values, but you can't force change overnight and expect it to right everything."

"I've been working with Homeworld for three years!"

"Three years?" The Diamond stood up, running her fingers through her hair. "Stars help us, it's only been three years. How did we manage to go from galactic superpower to galactic embarrassment in three years?"

Blue took her arm. "Perhaps we should adjourn for now."

"That might be for the best," she reluctantly agreed. Yellow clapped her hands. "That will be all, Steven."

Steven saluted the typical Earth salute, turning away. Frustration bubbled just below the surface, but yelling at Yellow and Blue rarely seemed to do much good. It usually just made it all drag out more.

"He's so different from her," he overheard Blue murmur on the way out. "Yellow, what if he never remembers being Pink?"

Yellow's eyes fluttered shut. "I'm not willing to consider that option, Blue."

Overall, Steven spent the least amount of time on Homeworld as physically possible. As important as maintaining connections was, especially as the fully realized Ambassador of Earth (and, as some Gems felt the need to tack on, Keeper of a Diamond's Stone), there was something about the hard planes and structures that had never quite sat right with him. Unfortunately, Steven couldn't stay away very much anymore, seeing how pivotal his voice was for Era 3.

It had been two weeks since he'd stopped by the beach house, and it was of very little surprise to him that no one else was around when he warped inside- save for Bismuth, of course, who even after almost half a decade of peace refused to even contemplate returning to Homeworld. She tended to the house while they were away, drawing up plans and designs for various Gem machines designed more for safety and protection than war. Not that her impressive sword collection ever had the slightest chance to grow dusty, as she built and sculpted them in her free time.

"Hey," she said, sequestering over half the couch with her size. "How'd it go?"

Steven groaned. "Politics are horrible."

"Yellow being a butthead again?"

He flopped down beside her. "I get why she does it. I do. She asks the questions, I answer, nobody can pull them out later and blindside us. But does she have to be so mean about it?"

"Sounds rough, buddy." Bismuth leaned over to nudge his shoulder. "Hit me up if you ever get sick of hurdles, alright? I'll make you something nice and sharp."

Steven smiled. Homeworld seemed like it was constantly moving in some way or another- hustle and bustle, destruction and construction, who White Diamond was not pleased with that particular day- but the Gems themselves didn't change. He hadn't changed. "Thanks, Bismuth."

He doesn't recall falling asleep.

Connie's official title was Protector of the Ambassador- which is overtly long and means almost nothing to anyone; but, in Homeworld's defense, the Gems have always gone by their type. They've never needed official titles before the Crystal Gems brought them home with them- but most of them just referred to her as The Connie. At thirteen, that had bothered her greatly. At sixteen, she hardly even noticed.

But a lot had changed in three simple years. Connie had nearly tripled in height, finding herself at the same height as Pearl. Her arms and face held a scattering of scars from various violent exchanges as debates had gone on- scars that Steven could have healed up, of course, but Connie had demanded they stay, noticing that the discolorations intimidated Gems. Maybe they were reminded of Jaspers when they saw the scratch that went from her lip and over her eye, or the deep line on her shoulder she had tattooed over with a single star- and, if so, they'd have every right to be frightened. Her sword, made by Bismuth, was swirled with pink and white like a Cookie Cat, tapered to her specific height, and hung carefully from her hip.

Another sign of change was the Gems who met her at the door- not Agates, but an Amethyst and a Ruby, who gave her a respectful salute and sheepish smiles. Connie saluted them back with the signature diamond shape before going inside.

"Diamonds," she greeted, not particularly worried by how they both snapped to attention as she strolled into the room. Connie felt bad for interrupting whatever private moment they'd been sharing, but duty is duty. "I just wanted to stop by and tell you Steven's gone back to Earth for a visit."

"Of course," Yellow said, bitter, as she rubbed at her eyelids. "Make a big speech before vanishing off the planet to goof around with his rebel friends. That's so typical."

"He wants us to bring Pearls into the workforce," Blue explained, as if Connie didn't already know.

"I'm aware, ma'am."

"You were trained by one, correct? What do you think of all of this?"

"I give the proposition my full support, ma'am," Connie said firmly. "No one has the right to tell anyone what they should be, and that's what Homeworld's done for centuries now. If you really wanna change, you have to go all the way."

"Where does that put us, then?" Yellow challenged. "Diamonds are created to rule. If we break all the barriers, what happens to our system?"

"No one ever said it wasn't going to be messy, ma'am."

Yellow seemed to sink under the weight of that statement. For once, it's Blue who says that's all. Connie saluted again and walked back out, wondering with a shake of her head if there had ever been a point to any of this.

Lion seems to enjoy hopping between her and Steven, taking random Ruby ships from Homeworld to Earth and back. Today he's waiting for her outside the palace, eager to get back to what could technically be called an apartment, if apartments didn't require rent or have basic plumbing. In it's own right, it's an honor they even built a room semi-suitable to human cohabitation in the first place for them. It was just a shame that they had such limited knowledge.

The apartment is a perfectly set rectangle in the wall of one of Homeworld's many spires. It's an ugly, washed out shade of blue- like the ocean but ten times less beautiful- and contains exactly one lump that she expected was supposed to be a bed or couch or both. Her parents had insisted on getting her a comfy armchair, which was a brown smudge in the corner. The cherry on top of the horrifyingly ugly color-nightmare was Captain Lars, snoring in said ugly brown chair, in said ugly blue room, his pastel pink skin glaring.

"Back from shipment?" she asked, dismounting Lion.

"Hmm?" Lars tipped his head back, reluctantly opening his eyes. "Oh. Hey. Yeah, I'm back."

"You sound ever so pleased about that."

"I'm bored. Whatever happened to cool boss fights and daring space chases?" He flicked his cape over his shoulder dramatically. "Now I just haul cargo. You're basically a door-holder, and Steven spends his days telling giant Diamonds that maybe people should be allowed to actually think for themselves."

"The cool boss fights and space chases didn't do as much as we hoped, I guess." Connie shrugged, setting her sword aside. "It just kind of evolved into this."

"Hey, I got my buddies to Earth just fine."

"I know, and it was awesome." A giggle erupted from her, remembering her involvement fondly. "They still tell stories about you in the public octagon. Especially the Emeralds."

Lars clicked his tongue and shot some finger guns her way.

[invelleity]

psst. be honest. all of the questions. go.

i can’t believe jeanette is tryina kill me in public and i’m still love her??? | not accepting anymoooore | @ltbroccoli​

cracks knuckles here we go ( odd numbers 1-9 are here )

2. Are aesthetics important to you? If they are, why?

Not very. It’s fun and cute and all, but I care a whole lot more about “clicking” with people and having fun writing with them.

Exception: If someone’s aesthetic is so overblown that I can’t even find the pages on the blog or read the text, I.....won’t interact with that tbh.

4. How do you explain rp to someone in the real world?

(kicks down my roommate’s door at 10pm) “OK so I’m writing— stop screaming, it’s me,— I’m writing a character in Security and you’re like a double black belt or some shit, can you explain how—”

( My roommates all know it’s a thing I do but I’ve never sent them a link or shown them any of the actual writing. They’ve met a bunch of y’all over like Rabbit streams and @rumdaydreams​ irl though so like.... They Know. )

More under the cut

6. Do you prefer writing male muses or female more? Why?

Ehhh, depends on my mood. I lean towards female muses in general ( definitely got a bigger chunk of ladies on my list, for sure for sure ) but I love my boys.

8. Name any three things about the rpc that bother you.

Uhhhh A) We’re all such dumb socially awkward blobs so it’s often hard to get to know new people.

B) The feel that if you have a good relationship with one person who writes a canon muse, it’s some kind of lowkey betrayal to write with other people who write the same muse??

C) How much I, a certified card-carrying dumbass, stress myself out about posting on a “regular” schedule. Does that count? Like I want the blogs to look “presentable” lmao and me@me Calm The Fuck Down.

10. Have you ever had a bad experience with commissions? As either someone who makes them or as someone who buys them?

N / A

11. What do you know now about rp that you wish you knew when you first started?

Uhhhh, when I first started was long enough ago and the community was so different a lot of those lessons no longer apply. I wish when I finally jumped over to Tumblr I’d realized quicker how the new like....basic ways of meeting people and posting and all worked, which was mostly just a “calm down and go with the flow more, let go of your stupid rigid old habits” lmaooo.

12. Have you been involved in drama? Do you regret it?

yES. Yeah. Hahaha ha h. 

But ummm, not usually. No. Most of my drama has been either A) me posting the very very softest, most diluted version of barely-touching on my politics and my real goddamn life and people being fuckin butthurt as hell about or B) cutting people who were toxic and draining out of my life. So.

13. Have you ever thought about leaving rp? What caused it? What changed your mind?

cw suicidal ideation ment

Yeah. Once I actually did — when I started college I just didn’t have the time, so I peaced from the larger community to just write with close friends for a while. I’ve also considered leaving the T.umblr RPC a few times, but really only because of long bad depressive episodes. Coming back and “not wanting to literally die irl ha Ha” and catching up with my drafts gets me back on track lmao. 

14. Do you think rp has had a positive or negative affect on your life or you as a person?

Positive! Sometimes I worry that I spend too much time wrapped up in fiction and miss my real life, but I’ve learned to keep my time more separate so now it’s just good to have a healthy hobby that makes me happy. Also I’m definitely a much better writer for it, and there a lot of networking skills I think translate to real workplace skills so it’s 👌

15. How has rp changed you personally?

See above, tbh. And it gives me a lot of good outlets for writing ideas that would otherwise stew in my head until I hated myself for never ever writing any lmao. It’s good.

16. If you could change one thing about rp on tumblr, what would it be? Why?

Oh, I dunno. I wish I could post replies from mobile more easily, god. That’d keep me a lot more on top of my drafts lmao.

17. Have you ever sent a message to yourself on anon? Why?

Not on any of the rp blogs. ;^)

18. Have you ever sent hate to yourself on anon? Why? 

No, wtf

19. Do you delete anon hate or post and address it? Why?

Depends on the hate — things I feel need to be addressed or I want to be clear about not tolerating I’ll post. Personal hate and mean shit I delete.

Or if it’s stupid and makes me laugh I will definitely post that shit.

20. Have you ever felt pressured to write something you weren’t comfortable with?

Sometimes. If a partner is actually pressuring me I’m real good at saying uhhh hey, fuck off about that? but sometimes partners will perfectly-innocently be enthusiastic about things I’m not super comfortable with and that’s harder to bring up. So it’s..... more like I pressure myself, whoops.

21. Have you ever followed someone because you felt like you had to, not because you wanted to?

Ehh. Not really. Sometimes I’ll follow a friend of a friend despite lack of interest just because, like.... My friends are smart and good, maybe I’m just not getting the right “vibe” from their blog as who really they are. Sometimes that just means we never click and I unfollow them later. Or sometimes @rumdaydreams​ drags me straight to mutual hell and we write 20,000 unfinished bullshit and meet irl and she actually talks me into wholeass new blogs and muses. So, you know. Mix bag.

22. What would make you block someone?

Red flags for manipulation and lowgrade emotional a.buse, especially ones I viscerally feel in my stomach from previous experiences. Obvious r.ight-leaning politics ( Weirdly, I’m not particularly comfortable around people who don’t think I or my friends deserve to be treated like human beings! A character quirk, haha! )

Also ngl sometimes I block people just to remind myself I’ve followed them before and I don’t wanna re-follow them six times and look like I’m trying to intentionally harass them. My memory is bad but the block button always knows, lmao. 😅

23. Have you ever stolen something from someone else?

Not intentionally — I try very hard not to steal hc from duplicates or take plots without asking. But, y’know, sometimes an idea sticks in your head and you eventually just forget where it originally came from.

24. Have you ever had something stolen from you? If so, how did you handle it?

Not that I’m aware of.

25. Are you open to duplicates? Why / why not?

Absolutely, for the most part! I like seeing other perspectives, and especially since @thewrongsorts​ is such a bigass multi it lowkey just makes my life easier.

There are a few exceptions — less because they’re duplicates and more because there are hc/fanon I just......dislike enough I don’t wanna write with them. Not a feeling that’s limited to duplicates tbh.

26. How do you feel about vague posting? 

Ehhh. It’s like not a great thing, but I get the appeal. I tend to unfollow if someone posts a lot of it because then they’re just passive-aggressive as a person, but the occasional vagueblog I don’t mind. Sometimes you gotta get shit off your chest but you don’t wanna make it a wholeass call-out, I get it.

27. Do you follow people even if they don’t follow you back?

Generally I unfollow. I’m here to write, if we’re not interacting it’s clogging my dash. ( Honestly I unfollow mutuals eventually if we never write.... ) But very occasionally someone’s got such good #takes and hc that I stick around just bc I stan.

28. Do you read people’s rules before following or interacting?

A l w a y s.

29. What is your opinion on “reblog karma” and do you practice it?

It’s nice! Like.... I wouldn’t require anyone to do it, but it makes people feel better about their blogs, it’s polite. I know I’m happier getting memes as well as passing them along. You know, be social. Connect with people. I always try to practice it, yeah.

30. How have you responded to popular slang used on tumblr? Do you use it in every day life? Do you use it at all?

Uhhh, yeah. My irl social circles are a lot of dumb gay millennials, we use a lot of dumb internet slang.

31. Is there something you don’t know the meaning of but you haven’t asked anyone because you think it’s supposed to be general knowledge?

Oh yeah! Joined Tumblr rpc ten years late with Starbucks! But also like.... I’m a web developer. 90% of my irl workskills are being good at Googlin’ shit. So I’ve pretty much always found the answer on my own, at least. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

32. Was there ever something you had to ask someone to explain? 

( See above. )

33. Have you ever experienced discrimination? 

Here or irl or....? I mean yes in any case, but much less often in the rpc specifically. This blog is a lot less outspoken ( both about politics or about who I....am....generally ) than most of my others or me irl.

Shoutout to that time I complained one (1) time about how copacetic the H.arry P.otter rpc is and an actual irl n.eon.azi jumped in my inbox lmaooooooo.

34. How do you feel about personal blogs following your rp blog?

Uhhh, I don’t love it? But if they mostly chill and don’t fuck with my actual threads I usually ignore them. ¯\_( ‘ ‘ )_/¯

35. Have you ever cried while writing a reply?

No. I’m not like......good at crying. 😐

36. Do you read other people’s threads or do you only read your own?

Depends on the blog. Some multis I follow are in fandoms I just like don’t even understand, so I don’t read those. Sometimes I just don’t got the energy. But I read a lot of my friends’ other threads or threads on blogs I stan.

Good writing is good shit and I’m.....a big 👀 bitch. Tbh.

37. What’s one thing that other people seem to hate that doesn’t bother you?

Call-out posts, bringing real life politics into rp, generally acknowledging that we have lives outside of the fictional world that affect how we read and interact with fiction.

( 👏 The O.rder 👏👏 of the 👏 P.hoenix 👏👏 is A.ntif.a 👏👏👏 )

I don’t want to ever push that onto other people though, definitely. (Especially people affected by terrifying irl politics and coming here for escapism. )

38. How do you feel about tagging triggers? Do you tag them? How do you determine what is triggering content and what isn’t?

Always 👏👏 tag 👏👏 fucking 👏 triggers 👏👏👏

I tag things that are common or obviously upsetting, and if someone asks I add whatever tags they need to my list — the “list” is mostly a mental tally so I occasionally fuck up, but god I feel strongly about triggers.

Let 👏 people 👏 who are hurting 👏👏 live. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

39. What advice would you give to someone new to rp?

Poking around to see how other people seem to “operate” and scrolling through posts about how to get started is so so so fucking helpful! Don’t be afraid to do it!

Also reach out to people as much as you can work up the spoons to. If they’re rude back to you, like..... They were never worth your time anyhow. You dodged a bullet.

( Value yourself 2k19 )

[auduna-druitt]

Audie’s End of Year Challenge

Yes, I know it’s only October first but I’m not likely to post another challenge before the year’s end so I’m going with it. I’m really feeling fall this year and want to celebrate with some spooky/cuteness, my birthday is next month, and since there’s only three months left why not throw winter in the mix? 

So, for my 600 follower celebration you, my lovely followers, will be showing me what you’ve got! 

There will be three categories to choose from. Pick your prompt and pick your character or ship from the lists below.

Deadline for sign ups is: November 8th (My birthday)

Deadline for fics/mood boards is: December 31st

For fics please remember to add a read more if it is over 500 words. The tag for the challenge will be #Audie’sEndOfYearChallenge. I’ll make a masterlist of all the fics and moodboards at the end of the challenge. Feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions.

@imoutofmyvulcanmind @outside-the-government @starshiphufflebadger @lurkch @goingknowherewastaken @captainsbabysitter-blog @pinkamour1588 @medicatemedrmccoy @iwillwakeherinthemorning @bookcaseninja @haveyouseenmymind @yallneedtrek

Characters/ships:

Leonard McCoy

Jim Kirk

Steve Rogers

McKirk

Chril

Stony

Stucky x Reader

Fall prompt list:

Poisons, Potions, propositions @outside-the-government McKirk

Moon cycles

Apple Orchard

Beneath the mask

Summoning demons: and other bad first date ideas @hellomissmabel Steve

A different kind of graveyard

Hallowed guests

Candy bowl @bookcaseninja Jim Kirk

Unfinished business

Midnight ball @yallneedtrek Stucky X Reader/ @imoutofmyvulcanmind McKirk

Warm tea, cold kiss

It’s not a costume

Horns

Birthday prompt list:

My friends booked a nice restaurant for my birthday party, but you booked it for your party as well. I guess we have to celebrate our birthdays together now.

It’s my birthday and I want to spend a quiet day at home, I just hope no one’s planning a surprise party. @shitty-imagines-95 Stucky X Reader

There is a pony in my front yard with a pink bow around its head and no, this is NOT the best birthday present ever! @thefanficfaerie Jim and Kitten

We both meet at the bar at a birthday party but we don’t even know who’s birthday it is. I think it’s yours, you think it’s mine.

We were supposed to bring the cake for our mutual friend’s birthday party but we got in a fight over who should carry it to the car and now the cake is on the floor and HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

You want me to guess the present you got me and give me ridiculous little clues that make me kinda afraid to even open it,

My birthday party is in full swing but it’s too much for me right now, so I grab a bottle of wine and go up to the rooftop. That’s where you find me eventually. @sofreakinmanyfandoms Steve

After we spent some time at a club to celebrate my birthday my friends are pretty drunk and ask random people on the street to sing for me. You really can’t sing, but maybe I’m drunk too because it sounds perfect to me.

Person A and Person B are total strangers who meet and discover that today is both of their birthdays

Person A throws Person B a huge surprise party with all their friends and all their favorite things

Person A and Person B’s birthdays are the same day (or close) so they decide to have a joint birthday party

Person A’s birthday is February 29th so when it’s finally a leap year Person B throws them a party fit for their age divided by four

Person A was orphaned at a young age and doesn’t know their exact birth date so Person B treats them like every day is their birthday just in case

Winter prompt list:

I slipped on ice outside and you ran over and tried to help but ended up slipping too so now we’re both just kinda lying on the ground @medicatemedrmccoy McKirk

You built an igloo this morning and every time I look out the window you’re just kind of sitting in it doing nothing- are you okay? @haveyouseenmymind McKirk

You were walking your dog by my house and I was aiming to hit the tree behind you with a snowball but I just nailed you in the face I’m sO SORry do you want hot chocolate?? @littlecrazyfangirl-98 McKirk

Would you stop trying to sell the neighborhood kids yellow snow saying it’s a lemon slushee-honestly I don’t know why I married you

a being an ass and putting their cold hands on b’s warm neck @depressedleonardmccoy McKirk

cafeteria tray/cardboard sheet sledding aka how to kiss your datefriend in a snowdrift bc you’re idiots and went flying into one

hey the fire alarm went off at 3am and you ran outside without a coat wanna share my blanket?

decorating wars complete with Too Much Glitter ™

ice skating dates and which one’s kinda unstable and clinging cutely to the other @kjs-s Steve Rogers

“i said UGLY christmas sweaters not nsfw christmas sweaters, we can NOT wear these, my boss will kill me”

“would you like some hot cocoa with your mountain of marshmallows oh my god are you TRYING to put yourself into a sugar coma?"

fireplaces. ‘nuff said. @wintersoldierswhore Stucky X Reader

"what made you think that putting a holiday sweater on our CAT was a good idea? i’ll get the band-aids."

you took me on a cut-your-own-christmas-tree-farm date & holy frick you make a cute lumberjack I WAS UNPREPARED @thefanficfaerie Len and Doll

the power’s out & we’re snowed in, how on earth will we stay warm???

you booked a snowy carriage ride through the park & i’m afraid of horses but you’re excited OH GOD HORSES ARE BIGGER CLOSE UP & GOING TO EAT ME

candy cane sword fights & how quickly they can escalate

your family sucks so you’re kinda meh on holidays, lets make some fun, new traditions together!

we were going to go walking around the neighborhood to see all the pretty lights but you woke up feeling a bit under the weather and not up to being outside in the snow so i snuck out early this morning and made a video of them all for you so you didn’t have to miss out @pinkamour1588 Hiller

Prompts taken from [X] [X] [X] [X] [X]