#it's like playing whack a mole with work

[solarsong-writes]

me: I want to write and finish this chapter!!! I want to do something fun!!!

life: here are 50 deadlines, all of them highly important and need to be immediately resolved

me: .

[cacturne]

youve gotta be kidding me. youre telling me lawine is the only save that works?

[bbcphile]

Thanks, immune system, but I really didn't need the reminder of how much I dislike anaphylaxis.

Can I stop being allergic to my narcolepsy meds now?

Brought to you by MCAS, the bane of my existence

[fjordfolk]

Are most of Sparta's crimes against other people?

I know you mentioned her bamboozling Luna out of a Warm Spot once or twice, and she obviously extracts treats and attention from people wantonly, but I son't think you've mentioned her Getting Into Stuff very often.

Sparta eats anything she can acquire, has an affinity for chewing off 3-4inch heavy-duty nylon straps, and was eventually prohibited from playing with Bobby because she bit him so hard during play she drew blood.

Her crimes are against anyone who forgets to double-check they where following the Rules (never leaving anything edible or its empty packaging anywhere lower than a kitchen counter, never leaving Sparty alone with anything with a strap, never leaving an item of clothing that has a pocket that may have held food or treats at some point within reach of Sparta - this includes laundry baskets behind improperly closed doors).

Honestly, I don't talk about it much because it's the clearest giveaway of me being a less-than-great dog owner. It is also frustrating to come home from a Situation and find that because you didn't come home when your dog expected you home, she got Stressed and disassembled $150 worth of hiking gear.

[mybodyfails]

via x

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

so i was infodumping about vatborn, as one does, and laying it all out i have come to the conclusion that mogadorians as a whole--vatborn and trueborn both--lean heavily toward varying flavors of autistic. and BOY does it explain a lot

[luckyofthelawnvariety]

I've finished Etho's s7 hermitcraft so guess who's back with a slightly updated/slightly consolidated list of things about ethoslab I have noticed! or just enjoy!

(the previous list)

I have no idea when he learned to noteblock. I don't know if he knows. he knows how to noteblock tho. he's really good at it.

on that note, did you know that there is not a single piece of non-noteblock music in etho's s7 after the first episode? there might not even be any in the first episode. every single timelapse or montage is set to noteblock music

(he sang along to parts of his paper planes noteblock cover too. he was going shopping. I was entirely too delighted)

(also, there is some like...sitcom music theme that I don't know what show it's from. it's bothering me that I don't know. what you need to know is that throughout his s7 etho uses said sitcom theme as the transition before Shenanigans With Fellow Hermits clips play. his life is a sitcom. yes it is the noteblock version.)

I think that etho desperately needs minigames for enrichment. if he's not playing one he's working on one. he needs them and he will let them completely consume his life

the etho decked out 1 runs are hilarious, partially because it's funny to see him play it and realize how absolutely insane decked out 2 is, and how much of a madlad tango is. etho is still the same menace with great luck and skills. I had forgotten about the hole to the void in the middle out decked out 1 tho, that was a fun reminder

etho could make a career out of translating classic type games into minecraft. he kind of has, but it's a pattern.

he also keeps coming up with new games that are minecraft only and is good at figuring out how to balance them well.

again, king of minigames. he will in fact analyze them as much as possible. he caught on to the pattern of impulse's whack a mole game in like...2 rounds? maybe 3? he's good at pattern recognition and will put it to good use no matter the minigame

etho, I cannot stress this enough, is a little shit and enjoys being such. free glass is obviously an iconic moment, but I had forgotten about him scamming scar out of diamonds for "information" about the resistance, or about sneak-e-e's business model (you can't tax what you can't find!), or about how he kept being extremely ridiculous with beef in regards to record shop payments...the list goes on

etho is also very competitive. I mentioned this in the last list, but man...he joins like every single competition he can. he wants to win. he's not like, a sore loser, but he likes to win, and he'll get a little upset if he doesn't.

etho and beef have clearly known each other a long time and ngl I miss their interactions a bit. let them bother each other a bit more please. I want to see them trying to kill each other in ridiculous ways again please. or doing minigames together. they're so silly.

kind of similar, but etho loves getting a rise out of people and it is the best thing ever actually. it's fun watching him use dirty tricks to beat bdubs to sleeping for a prize. it's perfect actually.

that being said, I still really like when etho is just on his own working on stuff too. s7 has a lot of moments where etho will go "I'm gonna use this block palette!" and I will think "bro that's ugly" and then he will make an extremely cohesive build that I want to live in out of it. I think a good way to describe it is that for example bdubs is really good at detailed builds with texture and not much color, and a very realistic twist to them. etho is not afraid to use color at all, and embraces how the colors can work together or contrast. it's fascinating to watch and I love it.

he is also a redstone genius. I feel I am starting to understand how some things with redstone work. could I design something myself? absolutely not but I could work from a tutorial and not feel completely lost on why I have to use a dispenser and not a dropper now.

I think s7 etho is really experimenting a lot with style and how he wants to do things. he does a few more elaborate intros, for example, that are very planned out, but he also does a lot of the classic "hello everybody this is etho and welcome back to hermitcraft!" it's fun and it works, but I honestly feel he might be more confident in some ways now in s10, which is nice to see.

(side note—I think etho has some trouble with tone sometimes, where he really wants to make sure everyone's having a good time, but also he really wants to tease people. this works well with like Beef, who he's known a while, but especially in people he's known less he's quick to catch on if they take what he's saying too seriously, and clarify that he is teasing. it's nice to see tbh, just the clarity even with his audience)

speaking of llamas, I had not realized how recent some really big updates were. bamboo and pandas were new at the start of s7. the nether update came like halfway through?? I was more in the casual build side of mcyt at the time but man...I didn't realize how crazy that is to think about.

just...the way that etho visualizes builds is great. not just like, leaving space for farms, but filling in the spaces with a lot of details that make sense but also work with the space to cover anything it needs to AND to connect with the rest of the base. the sightlines thing is something I see a lot of other builders using but etho really uses them a lot in the Monstrosity in order to keep it from being Too Much as you walk through.

really just...he wants to have fun, and he wants to learn, and he wants to experiment and figure things out. if he can mess with some friends when he does it, that's a great bonus, yknow?

man. what a guy.

[violainebriat]

It's a bit weird typing out a full post here on tumblr. I used to be one of these artists that mostly focused on posting only images, the least amount of opinions/thoughts I could share, the better. Today, the art world online feels weird, not only because of AI, but also the algorithms on every platform and the general way our craft is getting replaced for close to 0 dollars. This website was a huge instrument in kickstarting my career as a professional artist, it was an inspiring place were artists shared their art and where we could make friends with anyone in the world, in any industries. It was pretty much the place that paved the way as a social media website outside of Facebook, where you could search art through tags etc. Anyhow, Tumblr still has a place in my heart even if all artists moved away from it after the infamous nsfw ban (mostly to Instagram and twitter). And now we're all playing a game of whack-a-mole trying to figure out if the social media platform we're using is going to sell their user content to AI / deep learning (looking at you reddit, going into stocks). On the Tumblr side, Matt Mullenweg's interviews and thoughts on the platform shows he's down to use AI, and I guess it could help create posts faster but then again, you have to click through multiple menus to protect your art (and writing) from being scraped. It's really kind of sad to have to be on the defensive with posting art/writing online. It doesn't even reflect my personal philosophy on sharing content. I've always been a bit of a "punk" thinking if people want to bootleg my work, it's like free advertisement and a testament to people liking what I created, so I've never really watermarked anything and posted fairly high-res version of my work. I don't even think my art is big enough to warrant the defensiveness of glazing/nightshading it, but the thought of it going through a program to be grinded into a data mush to be only excreted out as the ghost of its former self is honestly sort of deadening.

Finally, the most defeating trend is the quantity of nonsense and low-quality content that's being fed to the internet, made a million times easier with the use of AI. I truly feel like we're living what Neil Postman saw happening over 40 years ago in "amusing ourselves to death"(the brightness of this man's mind is still unrivaled in my eyes).

I guess this is my big rant to tell y'all now I'm gonna be posting crunchy art because Nightshade and Glaze basically make your crispy art look like a low-res JPEG, and I feel like an idiot for doing it but I'm considering it an act of low effort resistance against data scraping. If I can help "poison" data scrapping by wasting 5 minutes of my life to spit out a crunchy jpeg before posting, listen, it's not such a bad price to pay. Anyhow check out my new sticker coming to my secret shop really soon, and how he looks before and after getting glazed haha....

[what-eats-owls]

It matters how you do it

I finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard and had some big feelings about it. Spoilers for basically everything under the cut, and frankly, it won't make sense unless you've finished the game anyway.

First of all: I had a blast with this game. I didn't find Act 1 slow, I did find Act 2 a bit of a whack-a-mole, and then Act 3 kicks you in the kidney (complementary) while insisting it's for your own good.

I've seen some recurring complaints: that it lacks depth/edge/darkness, that it abandons previous lore, that the previous choices don't matter. I don't entirely disagree. To me, it felt like a massive Dragon Age 4 game that pivoted to a different, tighter game after complaints about bloat in Inquisition. The key is that when editing down, there's such a thing as trying to trim the fat and taking a chunk of the roast with it.

I enjoy the concept of Lucanis's character, and the voice actor sold the hell out of him, but the storyline felt like being taken to a museum and allowed to see one (1) beautiful unfinished sculpture. Why did Spite, specifically, work? We know the spirit of Justice became Vengeance by abomination, we knew Solas was Wisdom before he became Pride, so what was Spite before, and why wasn't that tied to Lucanis's own personal arc? (Doubly so if you romance him!)

Similarly, Harding was a delight, and her greenhouse was such a lovely little haven. I would have loved to see more explanation of the connection between plants and the titans, and how Harding's own personal struggles with rage connected to that of the titans. She has every reason to be angry and scared, and the game tells us she pushed that away—but we don't actually see her toxic positivity manifest to that degree, until she abruptly has an angry clone.

On the flip side, I loved the other five character quests, and I felt they had solid, poignant arcs that delivered. I also adored their interactions with the codex—if anything, I wanted to see more of that type of interaction on the screen. You have to fill in a lot of the character work for Rook yourself; Rook has all these interesting potential backgrounds, but I think starting the game playing through those, a la Origins, would have gone miles towards establishing more personal stakes up front and made for a stronger start.

So that's all my nitpicking. But let's talk about the bigger theme: It matters how you do it.

In the first Fade conversation with Solas, he gets so mad when Rook refuses to let him DARVO them about the consequences of his botched ritual. This makes way more sense when you understand he's literally imprisoned by his own regrets, and he needs Rook to have that same kind of regret in order to take his place. His entire arc is about rationalizing binary choices and shitty actions that hurt others in the name of a hypothetical greater good that he wants.

Solas can't engineer every binary choice Rook's forced into, but he uses Varric to maximize Rook's regret. He is trying to quite literally mold Rook into him, and the game is great at presenting this both as a coldblooded manipulation and a broken plea for validation—if you let it. You don't have to give Solas a moment of consideration; you don't have to take time to view his memories, or kill his demons, or listen to those scraps of Mythal still holding onto the good in him. You don't have to do any of it.

But you can. And in the end, it matters.

It matters because for every companion, you can encourage them to either be more nurturing/compassionate or destructive/closed off versions of themselves, and that is frequently tied to continuing or breaking from a cycle. (The exception is either Neve or, presumably, Lucanis, who are forced into the Hardened version depending on which city you save.) These aren't presented as morally opposing choices, just who you want them to be. You can see how the Grey Wardens fucked up bad with griffons and decide they have a better place. You can help Emmrich face his fear by finding deeper meaning in life instead of indefinitely postponing death. You can help them do things differently.

So when you get to the final choice in the game, you may have two options: physically force Solas into saving the Veil, or trick him into it. The kind of binary choice Solas has molded you into making by pelting you with cruelty and manipulation.

Or, if you've taken the time, you can get him to understand he's wrong. You bring out the people who saw the best in him and speak to what he's had to endure, even as you're showing him there's another way. You reach him not as Pride, but as Wisdom. And he goes willingly.

Ultimately, I think DA2 and Inquisition grappled with big questions of oppression and violence, faith and authority. It makes sense for those games to delve into harder, uglier subject matter, and ask you to make binary calls.

But my read of Veilguard is that, at its core, it's about how those decisions are meant to trap you in regret at best, and numb you to rationalizing cruelty at worst. It's why the companion who loses their home city becomes colder, more isolated, in response—more like Solas.

That's why it offers you a third way at the very end, but only if you've worked for it. A better way is possible, yet it has to be more than words. You have to understand where the pain comes from, what maintains and is being maintained by the current cycle. Then, and only then, can you break it.

I can't wait to play it again.

P.S. Utterly obsessed with the Trevisan fish merchant.

[mrkified]

ONE NIGHT ONLY — 9. life360 doesn’t gatekeep

synopsis — three years since your falling out with lee donghyuck he has suddenly transfered to your college in hopes to make it big with his friends in his band. unfortunately for you, your unresolved friendship started causing problems between you and the people around you, especially since your best friend is his ex. so — why have you found yourself in his room with a raging hangover?

a/n; IM SO SORRY FOR ANOTHER WRITTEN PART

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YOU SLOWED DOWN YOUR CAR AS YOU TURNED INTO THE PARKING LOT.

the arcade your friends decided to go to was called ‘pete’s paradise’. it was slightly small but jam packed with different rows filled with a variety of games. your friends always loved to go there after yangyang got off work to play air hockey. anton always complained that karina was too good for the group and never wanted to go against her because he knew he would lose. when you walked up to the entrance to pete’s haechan and jisung were standing by the doors waiting for you to arrive. you said your hello’s to the two of them entered the building.

you immediately spotted your friends by the dance dance revolution machine, jaemin and giselle were both playing while anton was bickering with yangyang and karina.

“well it’s not my fault you were acting like we haven’t seen each other for ten years” anton shrugged.

“it’s called an expression you idiot” karina rolled her eyes. “your brain just too small to figure out context clues” she turned away from anton and noticed you three at the door.

“yn! you’re here!” she ran over and gave you a hug. the rest of the group followed after when they noticed she said your name.

“i see you followed our advice and brought jisung! just a little surprise to see haechan too” giselle spoke up, as it was your turn to give her a hug next.

“um yeah.. we didn’t want to exclude him i hope that’s okay” you were quite nervous about giselle and haechan in the same room but hopefully she would stay true to her word and not be too bothered with you two.

after awhile things tended to get less awkward and everyone was having fun — anton was playing whack-a-mole with jisung, yangyang was with jaemin and giselle and they were playing some racing game, and that left karina with you as haechan went to the bathroom. you took the time spent with her to tell her about how you’ve been feeling so you could finally get advice from a third party.

“haechan has a crush on me. he told me a few days ago and i don’t know how to feel about it. i mean i had a crush on him in high school but it was too late, he was already with giselle. now i feel like i shouldn’t do anything about it because you know how heartbroken he left her and i don’t want to make her upset or uncomfortable” you were fidgeting with your fingers when you looked at her as she was trying to piece together a response.

“well you can’t control someone you like. i know you don’t want to hurt giselle but i think you should go for it. they broke up almost four years ago, plus she has a really nice thing going on with jaemin right now. she did say not to date him and as much as i don’t want secrets in the group, you should date him” she was confirming the only real way you had to go about this — a secret relationship.

“he’s taking me on a date later after we leave”

“what about jake? you didn’t break up that long ago, i know your feelings for haechan are genuine but you still got hurt recently” her voice was filled with concern.

“i am definitely hurt but i think him leaving me for yuna made me feel like there wasn’t even a point for me to even be upset, he was distant even before we broke up there really isn’t any surprises” karina looked at you like she was giving you her approval and that’s all you needed. you would talk to giselle on your own soon but first you had to put your relationship with donghyuck first.

while you were having your talk with karina, giselle was also having a conversation with yangyang.

“i feel a little upset with them being together if i’m being honest, but i know i should probably get over it” she gave a slight smile as she knew that she couldn’t block out what was happening between you two. “i know they’ve been best friends for years and now that they’ve rekindled it i shouldn’t feel this way, but i just feel a lot of the repressed emotions from before i guess”

“and your feelings are valid you know,” yangyang took a slight pause. “he was your first real relationship, your first true love. it would only make sense it hurts to see him”

“i just don’t want to ruin this for yn. she’s my best friend and i don’t want to hurt her because i ‘forbid’ her from associating someone she spent so many years with”

“just give it time — for now just focus on the fashion show and then give it some more thought after” yangyang squeezed her hand as he got up and walked with her back over to where jaemin was playing skee-ball.

for the next 2 hours everyone spent time rotating the games until it was the time to go their separate ways. you said goodbye to everyone until it was time to finally leave with haechan.

“you ready?” haechan took your hand and guided you to your car.

“are you ready to be a passenger princess?”

“i’m always ready to be your passenger princess you don’t even need to ask” he got into the car and showed you where he wanted to take you — a small shopping district not too far away from where you were.

[sebstanaddict]

Code Daddy Supreme

Sebastian Stan x Reader Unhinged One Shot

Summary : Sebastian is reader's adorkable, chaotic yet cute boyfriend. One day when reader is struggling to fix broken code in her web application project, Sebastian offered to help but instead of helping he is making things worse.. or is he..?

A/N: This is just something I wrote out of a fever dream while being in a sleep deprived, stress induced state as I try to finish my web application project (yes, I don't just write fanfics, I write code full time XD) . It's based on my life as a web developer so excuse me if I include some codes here. But I promise they're human readable ;) Seb here is a funny, adorkable, chaotic mess of a boyfriend but we love him anyway ;) Enjoy and please vote and comment, I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

Warning: none at all, just an all out funny, unhinged and ridiculous story, somewhat like a sitcom XD

Word count: 944 words

Read more Sebastian and Bucky one shots here

---

It was supposed to be a quiet Sunday. Y/N was curled up on the couch, tackling a web development project that was due the next day. She was in the zone—until, of course, the code rebelled.  

“WHY?!” she shouted at her laptop, yanking her headphones off. “Why won’t you just WORK?”  

From the other room, Sebastian burst in wearing pajama pants, no shirt, and wielding a spatula like a sword. “Who dares disturb my pancake zen?”  

“This stupid project!” Y/N growled, gesturing wildly at her laptop. “Every time I try to fix one thing, another error pops up! It’s like Whack-a-Mole, but with coding and existential dread!”  

Sebastian leaned casually against the couch. “Want me to fix it?”  

She blinked at him. “No.”  

“Yes.”  

“No, Seb. The last time you ‘helped,’ my laptop shut down and played a MIDI version of “Highway to Hell” on repeat.”  

“And did it sound amazing?” he asked, grinning.  

“That’s not the point!”  

But it was too late—Sebastian had already plopped down beside her, cracking his knuckles with the bravado of someone who doesn’t know what an IDE is but thinks they could totally rebuild Google.  

“Alright,” he said. “Time for me to hack the planet.”  

Y/N groaned. “Seb, no..”  

“Seb, YES!”

He grabbed her laptop and began typing with the unhinged enthusiasm of a mad scientist who’d just discovered how to turn broccoli into candy. His first move? Replacing all her variable names with things like `CaptainFixThis`, `ErrorWho?`, and `TotallyNotABug`.  

“Sebastian,” she said, rubbing her temples. “What are you doing?”  

“Rebranding,” he said, as if it were obvious.  

“You can’t just rename everything and hope for the best!”  

“Oh, can’t I?” he shot back, now aggressively typing.  

He added emojis to every line of code:  

```  

function saveTheDay() { 💪🔥  

    console.log("Sebastian is here to fix it! 😎✨");  

    return true;  

}  

```  

“SEBASTIAN. WHY ARE THERE EMOJIS IN MY CODE?”  

“Because the code needs to feel appreciated,” he said, completely serious, adding even more lines:

```

// You’re doing amazing, sweetie  

function runCode() {  

    console.log("You’re the best, code! You can do it!");  

}  

```

“Seb, stop typing compliments!” Y/N shrieked.

“This is important!” he shouted back. “The code needs to feel supported!”

She couldn’t help but facepalm.

At one point, he opened a separate file titled `BackupPlan` and wrote this:  

```  

if (everythingFails) {  

    summonTheAvengers();  

}  

```  

“Seb, that’s not even real code!”  

“It is now,” he said, smirking like he’d just reinvented the wheel.  

He then proceeded to write what he called "the ultimate fix." : 

```  

while(true) {  

    console.log("Just vibe and it’ll work.");  

    everythingIsFine = true;  

}  

```  

“That’s an infinite loop!” Y/N screeched.  

“Exactly,” he said. “Infinite solutions for infinite problems.”  

She lunged for the laptop, but he was too quick. He held the laptop above his head while somehow still typing.

“SEBASTIAN, GIVE IT BACK!”  

“NOT UNTIL I FINISH!” he yelled, putting the laptop on his lap and turned his back on her. “TRUST THE CHAOS!”  

“I definitely do NOT trust the chaos!” she protested as she peeked over his shoulder, trying to see what he was doing all the while her stomach was filled with dread.

Then came the pièce de résistance. He opened Google, typed “how to fix broken code,” ignored all the actual solutions, and clicked on a forum post titled: “Sacrifice to the Debugging Gods.”

“Uh… what are you doing?” she asked nervously.  

“Something foolproof,” he said, grabbing a nearby candle.  

“Seb, no—”  

But he was already chanting nonsense in a deep, dramatic voice. “O GREAT SPIRIT OF JAVASCRIPT.. I OFFER THIS SACRED WAX STICK IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR MERCY!”  

Before she could stop him, he blew out the candle, slammed her laptop shut, and whispered, “It is done.”  

“Sebastian, I SWEAR TO—”  

“Wait for it.”  

With a flourish, he reopened the laptop and hit “run.”

And then… everything broke.  

Her once-polished website now looked like a clown vomited onto a computer screen. Bright neon colors, text bouncing like a screensaver from the ‘90s, and a random image of Sebastian flexing in a Captain America hoodie plastered across the footer.  

“What…What the actual.. WHAT DID YOU DO?!”  

“Relax,” he said, unbothered. “This is just step one.”  

“Step one of what?!”  

“Recalibrating the space-time continuum,” he said, completely deadpan.  

At that exact moment, her apartment lights flickered, her phone started playing the “Avengers” theme unprompted, and—somehow—her toaster beeped, despite not being plugged in.  

“Sebastian,” she whispered, wide-eyed, “I think you actually broke reality.”  

He looked smug. “Told you I was good.”  

Before she could yell, her laptop chimed cheerfully. The browser opened, and her website was… perfect. No bugs, no errors. Everything worked.  

She stared at the screen. Then at Sebastian. Then back at the screen. “HOW?!”  

He shrugged, grabbing the spatula again. “Sometimes, babe, you just have to trust the chaos.”  

“But—Seb—this makes NO SENSE!”  

“Neither does Bucky surviving a fall off a mountain, but here we are,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to finish my pancakes. You’re welcome.”  

She sat there, frozen, as her laptop hummed happily like nothing had happened. The lights stopped flickering, the toaster went silent, and the “Avengers” theme faded into nothingness.  

She stared after him, still holding the now-functional laptop. “I live with an actual lunatic.”  

From the kitchen, Sebastian’s voice rang out. “You live with a genius! Love you!”  

For the rest of the day, she tried to figure out Sebastian’s chaotic “fix.” Meanwhile, he strutted around the apartment wearing sunglasses and calling himself “Code Daddy Supreme.”  

The kicker? She later discovered the reason the code worked was because Sebastian had accidentally deleted an entire block of problematic logic while trying to format a smiley face.  

As for the weird flickering of lights, the “Avengers” theme playing from her phone and the beep from her toaster? Well, not everything can be explained and she thought maybe, just maybe, Sebastian really did recalibrate the space-time continuum.

[dreamwatch]

Home

Written for @steddieangstyaugust

Day #2 - Prompt: Ghosts | Word Count: 1626 | Rating: T | CW: Major Character Death, death of a parent, death of a spouse, grief | POV: Eddie | Pairing: Steddie | Tags: Angst, future fic, adult children, older Eddie | AO3

Eddie kicks at another box trying to work out if it’s light enough for him to lift on his own, or whether it’s another one over filled with unread books that he should just donate. He grunts at the weight of it; books. He’ll leave it for Ryan. 

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times he dusts or cleans these rooms, the moment a box or piece of furniture is removed, another cloud of dust seems to fill the air, settling over everything. After today it’s not really his problem anymore.

He can hear the kids giggling upstairs, so he follows the sound to the attic. They’ve accumulated so much shit over the years, it doesn’t seem to matter how many boxes they remove, the moment you turn around there’s another in it’s place; it’s like playing whack-a-mole with their own possessions.

He pushes upwards to the top of the steps and pokes his head inside the attic, letting out a dramatic “Ahem” as he does so. He watches on amused as Hope scrambles to hide something behind her back.

“I seem to remember sending you guys up here hours ago to clear this shit out. We haven’t got all day.”

Ryan gets up off the box he’s sitting on, another one marked ‘BOOKS’ in Hope’s neat handwriting. “You’re not supposed to be up here. Where’s your cane?” He holds his hand out and helps Eddie in the rest of the way.

“Yeah, well, if you were up here working like I asked you to, I wouldn’t have to be up here, would I?”

Hope makes that sorrowful face at him, the one she uses when she’s trying to wrap him around his finger.

“Sorry, Daddy,” she says.

“Yeah, yeah, turn it off, it’s not working today.”

Ryan tuts, and mutters “It always works.”

He’s not wrong.

Ryan helps him climb over the last of the trash and finds him a box to sit on. 

“What were you laughing at, anyway?”

They throw guilty looks at each other, but eventually Hope reaches behind her and pulls out a piece of shabby once-white fabric. It’s funny, the things that throw Eddie off balance. He’s got used to seeing past things, the sentimental stuff; photographs, jewellery. Like he’s trained himself to cope with it. But then he’ll get a bolt from nowhere, stupid little things that shouldn’t mean anything. Finding a bar of Steve’s favourite soap at the back of the bathroom cabinet. 

A silly hat he had to wear to work when he was a teenager.

The kids (kids, they’re nineteen and twenty-one now, Jesus Christ) look unsure, like they’ve fucked up somehow, which won’t do at all.

“So are you gonna let me see?” he asks with a smile.

Hesitantly, Hope places the old Scoops Ahoy hat on her head, and Eddie feels his heart being pierced. She’s always looked liked Steve, from the moment she was born. Now with her hair shorter, above her shoulders, it’s even more striking.

“Are you okay, Daddy? I’m sorry if—”

“Uh uh, nope. Nothing to be sorry for.” He swipes at his eyes quickly. “I love that you look so much like Poppy.” He stands awkwardly, Ryan reaching out to help him up, which he honestly hates. He’s fifty-one, he shouldn’t feel this old when he’s this young. 

“Alright, you guys good to get this stuff downstairs?”

“Yeah, Dad, I’ll get these down. Once Hopeless is done with that box.”

“Oh fuck you.”

“Hey!” he claps. “No fighting. Thirty minutes then I’m locking up. You can be in the house when I do it, if you like. The new owners can have you.”

He gingerly makes his way down the attic steps, leaving his kids to their arguing. 

Forty five minutes later, Ryan and Hope drop the last of the contents of their home into the back of the truck. It was amazing how much they had accumulated over thirty years together, and how their possessions had mushroomed once babies entered their lives. 

Eddie stands in the middle of their old den, taking it in for the last time, until he hears a knock on the door behind him. He turns around and finds Ryan looking back at him, the worry etched in his face. He’s always been such a sensitive kid, kind of like Eddie but without the hard outer shell because he never needed it. He was loved from the second he entered the world, adored and cherished at every possible moment of his life. Eddie worries sometimes that they’ve made him too soft, can’t help but worry about both of them now they’re out there on their own, making their way in the world. 

“Are you ready to go?” Ryan asks, gently. 

He’s not. Selling up was a decision made for him, between his kids and an ailing Wayne. The house was too big for him to manage on his own, according to the kids, though he thinks a tumble on the stairs was actually what made them push for him to sell up. He’s moving into a small single storey house, close to Ryan.

Wayne, though, the contrary fucker that he was, had a different take.

“All houses are haunted, Ed. Every last one of them. We just can’t always see the ghosts.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Some people can stay in a place they made special, can live in a home that was filled with life and love for so long. They can draw on it, you know. Take comfort from it. But you’re letting it consume you, son. You’re not taking from it, it’s taking from you. I’m not going to be here for too much longer—”

“Don’t.”

“Come on, kiddo. I’m eighty-five in a couple of months. Let’s not do that, okay? I’m worried about you, Ed. The kids are worried about you. It’s time to move on, Bub.”

Eddie missed him so much. It wasn’t fair to lose them both so close to one another.

A home being haunted by it’s memories, by the people that had lived there and imprinted themselves on it, never seemed like a bad thing to Eddie. It had been packed to the rafters with love and happiness. 

He doesn’t bother stopping the tears, just wipes them away so that he can see more clearly. Ryan crosses the room and hugs him tight.

“I’ll move in. If you want to stay, I’ll move back.”

God, this kid. His throat tightens, takes his voice away from him for a moment, so Eddie can only shake his head in response. He wants them to have fun after the last couple of years of hurt, go back to college and enjoy it, not be at home looking after him because he’s a lonely old man. 

They stand in their family den, squeezing each other tightly, until they hear the horn of the car sounding repeatedly.

“God, your fucking sister, so like your Pop.”

Ryan laughs and runs his fingers under Eddie’s eyes, brushing away the last of his tears. 

“You’re a good kid, you know that? Go tell your sister I’m coming, just need five minutes.”

He kisses his boy on the top of his head, the way Wayne did to him all the way into adult hood. He used to think it was embarrassing, but he longed for it the older he got, cherished those little kisses. Misses them so much now. So Ryan doesn’t escape them. He never will.

He starts in the bedrooms, Hope’s first, double checking the closets even though he knows they’re empty. Smiling at the wallpaper Steve had picked out, the sunflower design replacing the Barbie pink that had been there for years. 

Ryan’s room looks so odd without the floors covered in clothes and magazines, and pretty much everything else he owned. Steve’s voice echoes in his head. “I don’t understand why we bought you a dresser if you’re just going to throw all your shit on the floor. You’re like your goddamn father.” Eddie blows out a breath and closes the door behind him.

Their room was a sanctuary, their place of peace. They made love here; lay under the covers holding hands, cuddling, giggling. Acting like disgusting teenagers is how Robin had described it. They had, all the way to the very end.

Eddie hadn’t been able to sleep in this room for the first couple of months after Steve died. The thought that he had been lying next to him when he went, that Steve might have needed him, that Eddie might have been able to save him if he’d just been awake, ate him raw. It took a while for everything he was being told to sink in, to accept it. The years of head trauma had finally caught up with Steve. He’d had a headache that night and gone to bed early, but that wasn’t unusual for him. They could never have known. It didn’t make it any easier.

He prods the wonky floorboard outside their room, smiling as it creaks. Steve always stepped on it even though he knew it annoyed the shit out of Eddie, would come into bed laughing as Eddie swore at him. He’s missed that noise so much.

When he gets downstairs he opens the front door and sees his kids sitting in the truck, Hope on her phone, Ryan trying to hide that he’s watching Eddie. He steps out onto the porch, and takes a last look down the hallway.

“Come with me,” he whispers. “If you’re still here, come with me. Please.”

A warm breeze whips around him, blowing some loose hairs out of his face. Eddie sighs, smiling to himself before he closes the door for the last time.

I did NOT plan to write for this but I was waiting for Deadpool and Wolverine to start and this popped in my head from somewhere... go figure!

Title is from Home by Foo Fighters, which is just perfect for this song and hurts my heart everytime I listen to it.

[simply-wlw-kpopstan]

9. Bowling

The day had come for your little group date. Somi had promised you she'd go to the arcade with you after bowling if nobody wanted to go but that was highly unlikely since the aespa girls love playing games themselves. Truth be told you were pretty nervous to see everyone again but most importantly minjeong. You haven't spoken since the break up 2 years ago, sure she tried to reach out but you couldn't find any words back then. Once you walked inside the bowling area you quickly spotted the girls and joined them. "are you ready to get your ass kicked today?" aeri asked and you chuckled.

"it isn't a hard thing to do, I suck at this. My goal today is to at least hit one pin each time."

"we ca-"

"don't suggest the bumpers." minjeong quickly cut off jimin. Her gaze falls on you for a second before she looks at jimin again, "I made that mistake years ago and didn't hear the end of it."

"alright no bumpers." jimin clapped her hands, "let's start" everyone entered their nicknames and started the game. Everybody seems to be good at the game, you managed to knock over some pins every single time and at one point even got a spare.

"do you guys want to go to the arcade after this?" you asked as you walked back from you turn.

"I'm down" ningning said as she sipped her drink, " I saw this cute plushie when I walked in so maybe I'll try to get enough points for it."

The game ran smoothly with you and minjeong sharing some glances each time one of you picked up a ball and at one point you sat next to each other. You almost wrapped an arm around her but you quickly caught yourself doing it and brushed it off nonchalantly. At least that's what you thought but by the looks of somi and aeri trying to hold back their laughter you knew how it must've looked from their point of view. To your luck it was the last throw before the game ended and you all returned to the arcade to play some games.

Jimin had challenged you in a 1v1 shooter game, which she won and then you got your revenge by challenging her to a 1v1 race. You had split off from one another after that as you wanted to try the basketball game as she wanted to play whack-a-mole. In the middle of your game minjeong walks up beside you and silently watches you make multiple baskets.

"I see you're still good at this." you thought back to when you were together and went to a fair together and won her a big bear by throwing a ball into the basket.

"it comes naturally." you smile before focusing back on the ring.

“Are you dating her?” She asks bluntly, "somi, are you dating her because she posted some picture and.."

"Why do you want to know?" You threw another ball into the basket.

"I just... Was wondering I guess?" She looked to the side at somi and aeri as she bites her lip. You knew her long enough to know she was thinking about what to say next, no matter how hard you tried you couldn't forget her little habits. "I never meant to hurt you."

The words caught you by Suprise and you threw the next ball a bit to hard, making it bounce on the ring and then fly back towards your face, hitting it full force. "shit!" you quickly pinched your nose as blood started to trickle down your shirt.

"Oh my god are you okay? Does it hurt? Do we need to-" minjeong starts to rattle as the other girls rush towards you once they heard the commotion.

"I'm fine." you tried to reassure everyone but by the looks on their faces it wasn't working so well, "I'll just get some tissues and ice."

"No, I'll go get it. I'll meet you outside." jimin rushed away and the rest of you walked outside the building Into the cold night air.

"I'm sorry." minjeong suddenly said.

"why? Did you throw the ball to her face?" aeri joked.

"She's right you don't have to be sorry" you held eye contact with minjeong, "I just got distracted, that's on me."

"but if i-"

"stop blaming yourself." you cut her off sternly. The air turned a little awkward after that and it felt like an eternity before jimin came back with everything. You thanked her as you placed the ice on your face and they started talking about what to do next.

" should we go to the hospital? It's still bleeding" ningning asked as she noticed the now red tissue.

"no it'll stop. It's not broken or anything so no need for the hospital."

"will you at least let me stay with you?" somi asked and minjeongs reaction didn't go unnoticed. She frowned and send a glare towards somi before looking down to her shoes. " i'm already bringing you home."

"or you could stay with us?" minjeong offered, "there's 4 of us to look out for you if you need anything."

"but none of you can drive." you looked at somi and nodded, "you can stay but don't hover to see if I'm alright, okay?"

"Deal" she smiled and with that you bid your goodbyes to the aespa girls before leaving to your place.

"soooo... What was that with minjeong earlier ? Her saying sorry and you being distracted?" She asked as you got into the car.

"nothing."you sighed as she started to drive away," she just said she didn't mean to hurt me and it caught me off guard. I didn't expect her to bring that up in public and definitely not out of the blue."

Somi hummed as she kept her gaze on the road. You didn't really talk about anything after that and stared outside thinking about today. If you hadn't been so caught up in that stupid game would you've been able to see that she was going to bring it up? Thinking back to it she did look fidgety right before saying it. If that stupid ball didn't hit you in the face, would you have talked about the break up? Your head was coming up with more questions than you could answer and it was clear to you that whatever was going to happen next with minjeong, you'd have to talk about everything and sort some stuff out.

masterlist | next

[luffyrose]

Dc x Dp Random Blurp #1

I know I've got more than one before this but these are the ones I probably won't ever write so feel free to take them and run with em-

~~~~

So we all know Dick (you can probably all guess that Dick and Jason are my fav bat kids with how much I talk about them lmao) has lotta trauma in general. In the general canon we all follow for like fics and stuff though, there's one thing I think most people don't put into their fics and stuff and I had an idea with Danny being kinda adopted/brother-napped by Dick involving it.

The thing?

Falling.

Someone he loves falling and he's not able to help. Sure he's spooked his family as a joke pretending to fall off things. But here's the thing, they all KNOW that they'll all find a way to catch themselves.

But what if Dick had gotten a harsh hit from whatever rogue decided to play whack-a-mole with the birds and when he saw a kid on the roof where they were fighting (idk why they're up there, ask the riddler or two face or whoever-) and his already slightly concussed brain starts to work overtime.

The kid is on a roof, which is already a bad sign! The kid looks kinda...strike that a LOT like Jason before he died? Even worse!

So when whatever stray attack ends up sending the kid tumbling over the edge, Dick is literally milliseconds behind him. It's not a tall roof, and even if Danny was a full human, he likely wouldn't have suffered too badly from the fall if he didn't land completely wrong.

Probably.

Reason Danny isn't flying? Something triggered his fight or flight and his body chose to freeze this time, falling did not help that. Maybe it's the Joker doing all this, we love clown trauma.

Either way, Dick is oh so quickly grabbing this random kid who he can only register as Tiny Jason he had failed to be a good big brother tm too, and is literally just taking the impact of the fall in favor of ensuring Danny didn't get hurt AT ALL.

Danny is now emotionally attached whether he likes it or not because hey! A random hero saved him and is still hugging him and he feels like safety, so he will cling on just as hard, and no Jazz! He definitely isn't crying-

Dick refuses to let go of the kid, muttering apologies to Jason, which the others are pretty quick to realize why when they see the kid's face. It's a whole mess. Partially because they have a delirious Dick who won't let go of this random child and said child hisses at them when they try to get him off just as much.

For a lil extra spice you could make it that Danny and Jason are related somehow and Jason upon seeing the kid both KNOWS they're similar and recognizes him as his kid brother and is just like "Oh god- oh god he's alive(questionable) and traumatized(definitely)-"

[cosmichorrorsarestillnicerthanme]

Shoot The Works-Tier Harribel x Reader

Apacci did not think that the first time she would be seeing your Resurrección would be in such a… dire situation.

Mila Rose was very much aware of why you were blasting the Quincy to bits and pieces, she just wished she was not caught in the crossfire.

Sung-Sun, was not at all wanting to deal with this right now.

However, they had to deal with it if they wanted to get Harribel back.

Though, that didn’t make hearing something as ominous as “Shoot The Work’s, Desperado” any better.

Especially when entire sections of the castle were being blown to shreds by bullets, Bala’s, and Cero’s.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

An hour and a half.

That is how long it took you to shoot through the skeleton crew left by the Quincy at Hueco Mundo.

This was, of course, concerning to the Tres Bestias.

Not because it had taken so long.

But because these were the foot soldiers.

Nonetheless, that didn’t make what was unfolding right infront of them right now any less nerve wracking.

Your Revolver was leveled at your opponent across the sands of Hueco Mundo.

The Quincy leveled his bow and arrow at you in turn.

Reishi was pulled from the air and into the vacuum the both of you made.

The moon hung high in the starless sky.

The wind blew the sands across the infinite plane.

Apacci watched with her breath held.

Mila Rose’s eye’s shot between you and the Quincy you were dueling.

Sung-Sun’s proverbial heart was beating out of her chest.

Then, it came down to two, simple things.

Who shot first, and who was still standing last.

The Quincy loosed his arrow.

The sound of gunfire rang across the plain.

Then, it was over.

The arrow found its mark, severing your right arm clean off.

However, your aim was truer, your bullet finding its target in the forehead of the Quincy, and exiting out the back of it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After all was said and done, it was only by the grace of the Soul King you had survived.

Not just getting your arm blown off, but the other wounds you took in getting the Queen Of Hueco Mundo back.

The same went for Harribel herself from her fight with the Quincy King and her imprisonment.

During the time the both of you were recovering, Appaci was a nervous wreck, Mila Rose was reading over anything she could find about medicine, and the usually stone faced Sung-Sun was visibly concerned, checking in to make sure that the nurses were taking good care of the both of you.

Eventually however, after things had cooled down considerably, both you and Harribel were back to… well, not working order, but not teetering on the razor's edge between life and death.

And so, as if she had not just been nearly killed, Tier Harribel threw herself back into her work of making a civilized world out of the wasteland of Hueco Mundo, much to the irritation of the Tres Bestias who, after many hours of arguing, managed to persuade her into doing paperwork first before going back into full force.

And they had the perfect idea on who should be her secretary.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Apacci felt like withering under the gaze of you and Harribel as she turned in the report.

Within a minute of looking at the paper, Harribel was massaging the sides of her head as she let out a long, suffering sigh.

“Is this why Barragan was such a cantankerous old bastard?” Harribel muttered to herself, irritation apparent in her voice.

In the five days since Harribel had been put on leave by her subordinates, all three of them had managed to cause some sort of chaos that ranged from minor criminal mischief, to crimes that would’ve made Szylarapero balk.

“Emilou Apacci, please tell Franceska Mila Rose, and Cyan Sung-Sun that all three of you will receiving a lecture on why you cannot summon Ayon to, and I quote “Play Whack-A-Mole with the Menos Grande as the Mole’s” some time after I have made a full recovery.” Harribel ordered Apacci with a glare that would’ve killed anything lesser than an Adjuchas.

Apacci muttered a quick “Sung-Sun, you snitch” under her breath before bowing and saying “Yes mamm.” and shooting out the door.

Near instantly after Apacci left, Harribel slumped in her chair.

“It is like herding cats…” the queen of Hueco Mundo muttered in frustration before turning to you.

“Please tell me you have some good news?”

“Of course milady.” you responded with a slight bow before handing her a small grocery bag labeled with the words “Kisuke Urahara’s Sweets Shop”.

Ever since being broken out from the imprisonment of the Quincy and taking that strange medicine Urahara gave to the both of you, a sweet tooth had developed in the Queen Of Hueco Mundo as well as in you.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Over time, Harribel grew to rely on you as her second in command.

As it turns out, Loyalty is hard to find in Hueco Mundo.

And that was a trait Harribel admired in others.

And then, Harribel realized something about you.

Whenever she was alone with you, she didn’t feel on edge.

This was odd, not only because of who Harribel was, but because of what she was.

An Arrancar, a species that was, at its core, evil.

Traitorous, always looking over their shoulders, and constantly hungry, constantly on edge, wondering where their next meal came from.

Despite that, in the moments she was able to spend alone with you, she felt like she could breathe.

She wondered what this was, at least until she saw the title of one of Sung-Sun’s books.

That’s when it clicked.

“Love”.

Harribel wasn’t sure what to think about that.

It was something she had only ever heard of from Tosen when he was speaking with Wonderweiss.

And yet… It fits.

The comfort she felt.

The fact she felt that you would always have her back.

All of it.

She… liked that feeling.

[youcouldmakealife]

Stuff That Helps Me Write: Procrastination Busting (Intro)

My entire writing process, I've learned, boils down to trickery.

I'm the queen of procrastination (I think that royal title automatically comes with your ADHD diagnosis). That applies to literally everything: I will procrastinate eating. Sleeping. Hydrating. Bathroom breaks. Working. Not working. Doing shit I am actively looking forward to. I have a graveyard of games I never finished because I got too close to the end and my brain went ‘I’m enjoying this too much to finish, So I guess I’ll just never play it again’.

So obviously writing’s no exception to my ability to postpone doing anything and everything, but for some reason, it’s impacted less than everything else. So why?

Because it’s my job, but that goes for literally every other part of my job too, and I can procrastinate just fine on those parts. Just look at how long publication takes me.

Because I frequently hyperfocus on it, but in order to get into that state of mind I still have to start, and that’s the part that procrastination impacts the most.

Because I enjoy writing, but as I’ve just said, enjoyment has no bearing on whether I’ll do it. Ditto the fact I find it meaningful, and satisfying, and am invested in where it’s going. None of that makes something immune to procrastination. In fact, as those poor video games show, sometimes that makes me more likely to procrastinate.

So why don’t I generally procrastinate writing?

The fact that it's my job, and I enjoy it, and find it adds meaning to my life, all have in no way made me less likely to procrastinate, but they have meant that for 20+ years, I have been methodically figuring out workarounds for said procrastination. Things will work for a little while, until procrastination inevitably pops right back up with a new excuse, and then I have to figure out a workaround for that one. It’s been a very extended game of whack-a-mole, but I now have an entire toolbox to work with, and writing is now the most consistent thing in my life, only second to reading, which I basically do daily, and don’t consider a ‘habit’ to work on any more than most would consider watching TV or playing video games every day a ‘habit’ to work on.

Now, when I say consistency, I don’t mean I write on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays at 5:30 am with a lit candle and a fragrant mug of tea like I have been told to do (writing guides all seem to require writing before dawn, which is something I only ever do accidentally, wrapping up a ‘whoops, got an idea in the middle of the night’ session).

I have found some things help with that sort of consistency (and that may be another post), but I'm not that kind of consistent. Every week looks different. Every day looks different. But on average I write between 200k and 300k a year, at a rate of between 1000-1500 words a working day. My schedule may vary — I might write five days one week, three days another, might write double one week to the next, might write 12,000 or 30,000 in a month. But when I zoom out, I'm consistent as fuck on a long-term basis (with the caveat that shit can happen, such as family emergencies or ol' bastard eye acting up again)

So uh, how?

All the common wisdom is has been distinctly unhelpful, in my experience. Treats don’t work on me, as I am aware I can just…not do the thing and have the treat anyway. Rewards don’t work on me, because ‘thing in nebulous future’ doesn’t have much to do with me now, does it? Holding myself hostage (‘no dinner/break/bathroom break until you write’) does not work, and should not be done, because those things aren’t rewards, they’re basic bodily functions (…apparently).

This is, I’ve learned, literally due to my wiring. Neurotypical people have an importance based nervous system. Motivating factors for tasks are the task's importance to them (duh) or someone they care about, the rewards associated with completion of the task (offer yourself a treat! Reward yourself at the end!), and the consequences associated with not completing the task.

None of that works on me. Like. At all.

It was only in recent years I learned about the interest based nervous system, and how it’s motivated by completely different things. Things that work to motivate me involve novelty, challenge (some will use competition interchangeably here, but I am not a particularly competitive person), urgency, and, well, interest.

And in hindsight, every single trick that’s ever worked for has touched on at least one of those categories.

I’m going to stop here, because I am literally procrastinating on writing Robbie by writing this, and the irony is too much for me right now, but I think that a larger than average portion of my readership may also be helped by tricks that specifically target novelty, challenge, urgency, and interest.

So, next week — an actual bullet pointed list of shit that tricks my brain into doing the thing. Some are more targeted to writing, some can be applied to plenty of things, but all of them have, at one time or another, made me Do the Thing, which, as the queen of procrastination, is a damn triumph.