#it’s all about Buck at the end of the day

[power-handmaiden]

Chuck Tingle interview

OK, here is the FINAL 2024 Tingles My Butt post, which I've been pretty hyped for. I still kind of can't believe this. While I was figuring out how I'd move on from 2024, @drchucktingle generously offered to answer some questions of mine to commemorate the end of my tingler project! Here they are!

-Considering that your process for tinglers is just to write it out and not stress about proofreading and editing, was it weird for you to see someone decide to go back, examine, and contemplate every single tingler published in the past decade?

the whole dang project was really wonderful for me, for exactly the reason you have just said. tinglers are very STREAM OF CONSCIOUS and only edited with one quick pass so while i think this adds to their honesty and rawness it also means that my time with them is limited. really watching someone go back through them at this depth was like reading a diary that i have not opened for many years, and it jumps around through time in a very beautiful way. it was very moving

-I love tingler character names. I personally admire how many great ones you come up with. (I never know what to name my ttrpg characters.) You just come up with all these great names that seemingly spring from nowhere, how do you do it?

DANG great question cant believe i have not been asked this before but yes there is a type of name that shows up in the tingleverse that is unusual and has a certain feeling and cadence that is very specific. if i am trotting along with sweet barbara and there is a name of a product or a place or something that has this tone we will say ‘oh thats a tingleverse name.’ the reason i wanted to do this in the books was as a very subtle way of saying these stories exist on a timeline that is RIGHT next to ours, so in some ways it is exactly the same as our world but there are these little cultural differences with things like chocolate milk and spaghetti and then with the names. you will have buckaroos like justin and sarah trotting along next to buckaroos named corb torbins-quill or borto lart.

-So, as a reader, reading from 2014 to now, old tinglers and new tinglers feel different to me. I believe you when you say tinglers have always been sincere, but they feel MORE sincere than they used to be. Like, I feel like there was some self-consciousness and irony in some of the early tinglers that you've since let go of and embraced the Chuck Tingle voice more. I don't know, am I imagining this, or does this square with your tingler writing journey? If it does, what has that process been like for you?

i think you are absolutely correct. the intention with tinglers was always to be a place for me to express myself with complete sincerity, but the practical way of HOW to trot like this took a bit of an evolution to arrive at. in other words i knew the basics, but actually refining the best way to express yourself and perform your art takes time. maybe in the same way goin back and watching season one of a tv show can feel very different from season three, even though they are part of the same expression. 

similar thing happened with in my chuck PRESENTATION as well, where my main focus was to stay anonymous so the metaphors i used to talk about my life were still true but laid on much thicker. even my attire was a large gi so that you would not even be able to see my shape, which has obviously changed now because i wear suits these days. all of this was a process of starting in a place i knew was important to me and then peeling off the parts that were not helping the message or expression over time

-Is there anything you could tell us about the significance of Borson Reems? I feel like he's more than just another Buck Trungle/Chuck Tangle/etc but I'm not sure what exactly...

yes borson reems is god. not that i believe in GOD in the way that most buckaroos talk about god (i am agnostic) but within the tingleverse, borson reems is an avatar for the creator of that world. technically i am borson reems, because i am writing the books. the question is: are we all the gods of our own little worlds that we create? i do not know, but when i look around at my buds and the joy and love they bring to various timelines they sure seem like gods to me

-A lot of no-sex tinglers (especially ones that aren't romance-focused) vary in terms of plot and structure a lot more than erotic tinglers. Is your writing process for these stories any different?

same process actually, but the sex scenes in tinglers are about 1500 to 2000 words long, and total tingler length is 4000 words which means if you are not including that portion you are going to have to come up with some creative way to fill that space in the story and a new axis for story to turn on. so the variety comes from me getting creative and trying out different axis points

-In "Not Pounded By My Book "Pounded In The Butt By My Non-Fungible Tingler That Is Literally This NFT" Because Of The Current Catastrophic Environmental And Ethical Impact" there are references to an earlier draft of the story that was never released because you ended up disagreeing with the message. Are there any other tinglers that never got finished and/or published, if you'd be willing to talk about any of them?

oh this is a VERY good question. the story of the NFT tingler is that when buckaroos were first talkin on nfts online and nobody really knew what they were, my first thoughts were just ‘oh this is interesting what the heck is this?’ this is my way with most CURRENT EVENTS. and i thought ‘this would be an interesting tingler, i suppose maybe i should make the tingler an ACTUAL nft’. this was in VERY early days so i did not really even understand what an nft was (neither did 99 percent of buckaroos yet honestly). so i looked into it just enough to actually MAKE a nft tingler that was a real nft and put it out. lasted for about thirty seconds before buckaroos were messaging saying ‘oh this is bad chuck you should look into what this is’ and i DID look into it and thought’ oh yeah this is terrible nevermind’. i took down the original and thought ‘well THIS is what art is all about. this is where i thrive in a world of moving living art that is in communication with itself’. so i dove into the research and actually started to understand NFTS and then i repurposed the story into a strongly anti-nft tingler and put that on out instead.

as far as OTHER tinglers that kind of move and breathe and live like this, in communication with the audience, GAY T-REX LAW FIRM is another very good example. that one i wrote early on and i think it was kind of in the model of something like fifty shade of grey, where issues of kink and consent and communication are not really handled well. i think at the time it came out the story was okay, but as time went on it always kind of bothered me and finally i thought ‘i love art that exists in the REAL WORLD and changes and evolves, so lets rewrite that story and fix some of these mistakes.’ honestly it is something i wish more artists would be open to. its okay to let something hold strong against a changing timeline, but it is also okay to explore what its like to take the notes that time gives us

-This one is about Chuck Tingle that exists in deeper layers of the Tingleverse that operate on tingler logic: what does the location inside his/your butt look like?

probably a nice mid-century modern home up in laurel canyon neighborhood of los angeles. kind of quiet and small like a cabin but also very cozy, like the kind of place where you would put on a crosby stills nash and young record on vinyl and gaze out into the woods for a while then walk down the hill for dinner at a little cafe where you spot some actor from a 60s tv show also having dinner in the corner booth. this basically sounds like the start of a tingler and in that tingler i will say the actor would be a bigfoot.

-OK this one is very self-indulgent but if you could help settle this frequent point of discussion I have with my wife- where do the following fit in the Tingleverse bigfoot/dinosaur/unicorn/living object(/human/does not apply?) taxonomy?

-a ghost of a regular human

-a regular human vampire

-a human/fish mermaid

-a sentient winged horse

-a sentient centipede large enough to wrap around a mountain several times (she is handsome)

alright lets trot through these. a GHOST is not one of the four tingle types so you can have a ghost racecar or a ghost unicorn or a ghost bigfoot. ghosts are outside of the four types and do not have a classification

a VAMPIRE is also outside of the four types. so you can have a vampire bigfoot or, of course, a vampire night bus. does not strictly fall into any of the four main categories

MERMAIDS are technically a long lost species of unicorn I DONT MAKE THE RULES I JUST EXPLAIN THEM. this makes the MERMOPED tingler a little confusing but i had to pick a category and that one went into living object. now that i mention it possibly the only tingler that is technically a double category of unicorn/living object.

WINGED HORSE is easy, thats a pegasus which is a species of unicorn just like a mermaid

a SENTIENT CENTIPEDE LARGE ENOUGH TO WRAP AROUND A MOUNTAIN is an ancient creature, therefore dinosaur tingler

-My other self-indulgent question: do you have a favorite bug? (Or second-favorite if you count Mothman as a bug)

i love finding spiders in the house and giving them a pet because they are doing a good job livin their lives doin their thing. close second would be a pretty ladybug

-Any thoughts on what tinglers will be like in 2025? Do you expect to be writing a lot of political tinglers again, like post-2016?

honestly i really do not like writing specifically political tinglers anymore, and the amount that i write has gradually dropped over time (i think ALL tinglers are political but in a different way). so honestly i think i will write a few political tinglers but not many. my hypothesis on this is that my HORROR NOVELS are very very political and so maybe i get a lot of these ideas out of my system that way now. when it comes to tinglers i just wanna explore my OWN mind and heart and butt more

THANK YOU for these wonderful questions and thank you for your tingler-a-day project it was so moving and powerful. what a treat it was an honor to be a part of something so beautiful. THIS PROVES LOVE IS REAL

[puckinghischier]

What do you think Quinn would do for a grand gesture when he was missing his girl?

seeing as he’s a sentimental sort, considering the gift he gave luke, i know he’d do something so over the top in the best way.

he’d already have bought you every long distance gadget in existence. the bracelets that vibrate when you touch them to let the other person know you’re thinking of them. the smart fridge he can leave notes from his phone on for you to wake up to in the morning. the lamp that glows a certain color when the other person misses you. the iphone widget he can draw pictures of flowers on before the real thing is delivered to your door.

he’d make sure he had every opportunity to make sure you knew he was thinking about you, even when he’s busy and on the road. sometimes a message or a vibration from a bracelet is all he had time for, but it was enough for you.

for him? nothing could ever replace being in your presence. he needed to see you, touch you, hear your voice. this past season had been rough. being away from you for so long, he was miserable. he found himself being distracted by thoughts of when he could get back home to you during practice or while warming up for a game. he was rushing post game media so he could call you before you fell asleep. he was skipping team bonding to facetime you and catch up on your day.

so, he started putting a plan into motion. he hoped it wouldn’t scare you off or freak you out, but he was too deep into it now to back out.

you had noticed he’d been spending a lot of time on the phone with his agent lately, assuming it was some negotiation for a brand or sponsorship. you knew it couldn’t have anything to do with his spot on the canucks, both the team and quinn loving the other too much to part ways.

but he started acting weird. he started being jumpy when you’d ask him about his conversations with his agent, curious as to what’s taking up so much of his time lately.

“just contract stuff. you know, i have to renew it soon and there’s all kinds of stuff that goes into that. brad’s just trying to get me the best bang for my buck,” he’d nervously chuckle, changing the subject quickly.

you were cleaning up the kitchen one day after making lunch, quinn having had to go to the rink for some kind of business meeting, he told you. you hear the door open and his keys fall into the bowl on the dining room table, a soft call of your name ringing through the space.

he walks into the kitchen to find you finishing up the last few dishes, making small talk until you’re finished and join him over at the end of the long island.

“whatcha got there, q?” you question curiously, noticing how he hasn’t let go of the paper once since walking through the door.

“oh, this? well, we need to talk about it, actually.” his nervous tone makes you nervous, worried about what’s on the piece of official looking paper.

“okay…” you trail off, not enjoying the nervous energy engulfing the room.

he clears his throat, running his fingers along the edges of the paper repeatedly, forcing himself to keep looking you in the eyes.

“so, you know how i bought you all those things to let you know i’m thinking of you when i’m not on the road? the bracelet, the lamp, the new fridge, the flowers and notes?” he lists off all the heartfelt things he’s given you over the course of your relationship, a smile taking over your face as you nod at him.

the smile on your face gives him a bit more confidence, more sure of his decision than he was just a few moments ago.

“okay, well, i can’t do that anymore. those bracelets? the lamp? the messages on the fridge? they’re not enough. they’re not cutting it anymore.”

your heart sinks. what does he mean it’s not enough? if it’s enough for you, why isn’t it enough for him? he’s the one that’s gone all the time. you’re the one who has to stay here and wait for him to come back. is this paper a new lease? is he kicking you out? breaking up with you?

you take a step back from him, your head filling with all kinds of negative thoughts as to what’s on that paper in his hand.

“quinn, i-i don’t understand. what do you mean-“

“please, just let me finish. i need to get this out and then you can ask me all the questions you want. and yell at me, if you feel the need,” he interrupts you, putting a hand up in between the two of you.

your mouth snaps shut, tears threatening to spill any second.

“like i said, the superficial stuff just isn’t enough anymore. if i can’t have you with me all the time, i don’t know if i can keep doing this. all of this. it’s killing me. i know it’s my fault i’m gone, but my god i miss you so much it hurts me,” he continues his speech, not picking up on the shake in your hands.

“quinn, you don’t have to do this. we can…figure something else out. i miss you too when you’re gone. so much,” your shaky voice tries to reason with him, not wanting to hear him say the words out loud.

he holds a hand up to silence you, effectively stopping your words.

“my mind’s already made up. already signed my name and everything, even if brad did think i was crazy,” quinn keeps going, confusing you even more.

what did his agent have to do with him breaking up with you and kicking you off of the lease you just signed together?

you don’t have time to ask him, because he lays the paper in front of you, sliding it towards you. “here, just read it for yourself.”

you pick up the thick paper, noting the canucks emblem stamped into the top of the document, your eyes falling to the long paragraphs taking up the majority of the page.

there’s one section that’s highlighted, marked to stand out specifically for your eyes.

“the canucks organization, in agreement with quintin j. hughes, hereby provides transportation, accommodations, and admission to 10 (ten) away games of his choice during regular season hockey, and every meeting of post-season playoffs if necessary, to one person of his choice, contingent of his reporting to canucks sponsored activities such as: games, practice, training camps….”

it takes your brain a few moments to catch up to what you’re reading.

he…rewrote his contract for you. he, somehow, convinced an entire organization to write into his contract a clause to be able to take you with him to games during the season. you look up at him, his nervous stare meeting your eyes.

you start laughing.

quinn was nervous for a lot of things. he was worried you’d freak out and say he was crazy for this. he was worried you’d be mad at him and tell him you didn’t want to go on road trips with him. he didn’t know if you’d cry or jump with joy or walk out on him.

but he never expected you to laugh at him.

you can’t control your laughter. you try, but it just keeps coming, every attempt at containing it only making you laugh harder.

“i don’t understand. what’s so funny here?” quinn manages the courage to ask, voice shaky and embarrassed.

you manage to calm your fit enough to gain a fraction of decorum back, taking a few deep breaths before responding.

“quinn, i thought you were breaking up with me.”

quinn’s eyes widen, not expecting the words out of your mouth at all.

“no, i- why would you think that?” he rushes out, walking towards you.

you wipe the tears from your eyes, trying to calm yourself even further.

“well, i don’t know. the way you worded it had me convinced you were bringing me a new lease you’d signed without my name on it or something. thought you were kicking me out,” you chuckle only slightly at the end of your explanation.

quinn grabs your face in his calloused hands, gently forcing you to look at him.

“i hope you know, i would never break up with you. not by kicking you out of the apartment, much less. if anything you’d be the one kicking me out.”

“well i sure hope not. according to your contract, we have eight more years of roadies in our future. think those accommodations would be real awkward if you kicked me out. wonder if petey would let me bunk with him?”

[peppermintquartz]

Evan Buckley was made to save lives.

Literally.

Selected to amplify the healing abilities that had already manifested in his sister, Philip and Margaret Buckley allowed Manifest Bio Tech to harvest the necessary cells and tweak them.

But nature or fate still had a say, and Evan didn't emerge a healer.

++++

Evan was made to heal, but the only person he could heal was himself. He still got hurt, but his recovery time was four to six times faster than regular, unaltered humans.

They tried harvesting his bone marrow to replicate the effects but it didn't work.

Daniel still had to die, the cancer in him too resilient against even the harshest of treatments.

When they buried Daniel, Evan had barely begun to learn to walk. If he hurt from the extractions, his parents didn't know or care; Maddie's tears would ease the physical pain anyway.

++++

When Evan ran away from home to get Maddie to flee with him, Doug flipped out. He needed Maddie's tears. They were the secret to his success as a doctor.

She didn't run. She didn't even meet him to tell him why.

Evan drove away, full of a helpless fury at his sister and at himself.

++++

Across the world, Tommy Kinard was gaining a reputation for surviving unlikely odds. But when the options were death, maiming, disfigurement and merely broken bones, there was only so much Tommy's ability could do. But that tiny spark that danced up and down his spine got him to bank sharply just before they were hit, so while they crash landed with injuries, they were not blown up to smithereens.

He received a medal and promptly shipped home to the States to recuperate, and he insisted on remaining in Los Angeles where his grandmother lived. Since he needed a job, he decided to join the LAFD.

Because of Tommy, Nonna had another eight happy years with her beloved grandson. On her last birthday (not that either of them knew that), she bought a lottery ticket and had him check it.

The effect of his ability was dampened slightly since she was the one who made the purchase, but it did make Tommy's life after Nonna a lot more comfortable.

After Nonna died, Tommy felt that little tingle that said something unlikely was about to happen. The very next day, an opening in Harbor Station for a trained pilot opened up.

Tommy knew that was for him.

++++

Evan ended up in Los Angeles, and after a series of gigs, decided that he might as well risk his life and limb for good reasons than bad. His accelerated healing stood him in good stead, too, though he had to choose a different name.

Fire, falls, explosions, water, lightning; Buck survived them all.

And then he met Tommy.

++++

The moment he saw the three from the 118, he felt that telltale zing running down his spine.

Unlikely odds.

Not Chimney, that was for sure; they had encountered each other often enough.

Soulful Eyes shook Tommy's hand. Nothing. "Eddie Diaz."

"I'm Evan, Evan Buckley," says the pretty guy with the kissable lips and fingerprint-sized splotches of wine pink on his left eye and brow.

"Tommy Kinard, hi," said Tommy. He braced himself for the moment they made skin contact, and there it was - the spark, racing from the point of contact over his skin all the way up and down his spine.

Unlikely odds.

++++

They still broke up.

Before he drove over, he had felt the telltale tingle along his spine, and he should have known that it was only for the parking spot, and not for Evan to say, "I am falling in love with you."

There was nothing his ability could do in this case.

++++

Buck didn't know why his healing abilities refused to heal the hurt or fill up the emptiness in his heart. He baked and baked and baked, and each time he was done, he wanted to call Tommy and tell him about what he made.

And he would bake some more.

Maddie who hardly cried nowadays gave him a vial of her healing tears, to be added to any recipe of his choice.

He added it to a simple brownie recipe. It didn't help.

++++

While he had sort of vaguely wished he had healing abilities that could have helped Daniel, Buck never cursed his abilities more than when they raced to rescue Tommy and the patient he and his partners were transporting.

"I don't need to heal me," he begged the fates that had granted him his power. "Heal him. Save him."

Tommy smiled, feeling consciousness about to slip away. "Evan, what are... the odds for me... to have you as my last?"

"You know what's less likely?" Buck demanded through his tears. Droplets fell on Tommy's upturned face. "That you make it through this unscathed and we get back together and we have a happily ever after. Focus on making that happen!"

A tired tremble raced over Tommy's skin and down his spine. He smiled to himself and murmured, "As you wish."

[burdsandwurds]

so, i want to preface this with a disclaimer by saying i’m not a financial advisor of any type. certified, uncertified, hobbyist, or anything of the sort. i’m just a scrub who barely knows his left hand from his right. if you’re thinking about getting your retirement accounts set up, do your research, talk to a financial advisor or two, talk to your hr rep, get some help in this area.

that all said, i’m seeing a couple of comments to this post such as ‘i don’t have a job that has retirement accounts options’ or ‘money is really tight these days.’ i can’t stress enough that that’s totally understandable. i get that and i personally feel that. i want to say you’re not completely stuck though. if your employer doesn’t offer a 401k or a pension or something similar, you can always get an ira set up. they work a little bit different from a 401k, but they let you save up for retirement in similar ways. there’s a ton of businesses that offer them too, from banks and credit unions to brokerage firms. once again, do your research before getting one.

but let’s look at some math now. ask yourself, can you find a way to save $3 a day? i can. all i have to do is kick a habit like a daily red bull and i’m already there. chances are almost everyone reading this can find a way to save three bucks a day. that’s $20 a week right there in our pockets. if we saved that each week, at the end of the year, we’d have $1,040 leftover.

now let’s take a look at some math. if we save that $20 a week for 15 years, we’ll have $15,600 to show for it. if every five years though, we find a way to add an additional $10 to what we save every week, we’ll have $23,400.

here’s how the math plays out so far . . .

that’s not a ::ton:: of money, but for a few bucks a day, that’s not bad.

now, let’s see what happens if, instead of parking that money in a savings account, we open up a retirement account and park it there instead. for the sake of simplicity in illustrating my point, i’m just going to pretend that our money grows steadily at 8% every year. that’s not how things work in reality, as some months it’ll grow faster and some months it’ll grow slower and during periods of corrections, the value of our retirement accounts will actually drop. our retirement accounts purchase stocks and bonds, so they’re at the whims of the stock market, global economic sentiment, bank behaviors, and the sort. as a result, during rough economic times, we’re gonna take a hit. in general though, we’re assuming the markets are gonna continue their trends of long term growth. if they don’t though, the economy will be in such hot water that our retirement funds won’t matter anyway.

but let’s take a look at what happens to our money every year, over the course of fifteen years, assuming a steady 8% growth.

that $23k and change? it becomes almost $42k. it almost doubled.

to make it more dramatic, i added five more years saving $50 a week.

my point is, this stuff adds up over time and the anonymous commenter behind this post is right. the earlier you start saving, the more power your money has to grow.

now, are you gonna be able to retire on $78k? no. but that’s certainly gonna come in handy in later years. and of course, the more you save and the sooner you save it, the more your account will grow (hopefully).

once again, to end this, this is ::not:: professional advice. if you want to set up a retirement account and have questions, definitely talk to a professional who can help you. i’m just a faceless man on the internet and we all know, you have to take what we say we skepticism and caution.

edit: and because i couldn’t leave well enough alone, i added one more decade of saving.

This isn’t a fuck managers or customers or anything of the sort, but I view you as a labor rights kind of blog so I was hoping you could share two things with your readers for me?

First of all, tell anyone and everyone who is willing to listen to take retirement seriously as early as possible. I’m entering into my 40s with less than $30,000 in my retirement funds because I just never cared. I did some rough math and figured that if I had started contributing to my 401ks when they were offered to me in my early twenties, depending on how much I put away I’d have anywhere from $300-750,000 by now. I fucked myself sooo hard not taking this shit seriously and now I’m playing catch up. 401k, 457b, IRA, what the fuck ever. Tell people to get then and get them early and fucking slam money into it whenever they can.

Second, those employee feedback surveys? They can make a difference. A bunch of people in our company complained that our competitor’s starting pay was $2 an hour more than what we got paid. A few months after the survey we all got notified by HR and our store managers that there was a “mistake” in how payroll was calculated. Across the board everyone got a raise with two months back pay. We didn’t get $2 an hour more, but depending on numbers of years worked it averaged from $.50-1.50.

So yeah. I don’t know. Fucking tell people.

Posted by admin Rodney

[malsmind]

relief some stress

bsf!matt sturniolo x reader

warnings: smut, oral f!receiving, fingering, pet names (baby), slight overstimulation

authors note: HIII, this is my first thing written in probably like 5-6 years. hope it’s decent LMFAO ENJOY

english is not my first language!

it was quite unusual, really. everything was quiet besides the wet sounds of his tongue gliding over your clit, savoring the sweet taste of it. you and matt had been really good friends for ages, becoming closer over the years. but never this close. to be honest with yourself, neither you or matt really knew how you guys got here. his fingers held a firm grip on your thighs, keeping your legs spread. his tongue lapping over your clit nice and slow. it had been a stressful week for the both of you. whatever he had going on, filming with his brothers or just personal stress, and whatever you had going on. you had both been tense all day and somehow it ended up here. with you laying on his bed, legs spread while he worked his tongue on you. all you knew right now was the feeling of his small groans sending vibrations trough your ridiculously wet pussy, your eyes never leaving the scene. “fuck…” you breathed out heavily, your brows knitting in pleasure as you looked down at him trough half lidded eyes.his eyes met yours and you swore it only added to your pleasure. his beautiful face between your legs, his blue eyes looking up into yours all while his tongue picked up its pace in response to your mumbled curse. his cock already painfully hard against his pants. “y’ look so perfect, so wet f’me.” he mumbled against you, making you moan, face consorting in pleasure. a small smirk tugged at his lips, seeing how good he was making you feel. he picked up his pace, switching between lapping at your folds and closing his lips around your clit, sucking on it occasionally. “matt, fuck..” breathy moans left your lips, subconsciously bucking your hips into his face, getting closer to your high while he worked his magic on you.

“i know baby, i know.” his tongue ran over your clit flatly, sneaking his middle and ring finger into you, curling them up to hit that oh so incredible spot that only made your moans come out louder. “gonna come f’me?” he panted, moving his fingers at a matching pace to his tongue, making you clench around his digits. “cmon baby, i know you can do it.” he mumbles. your hand finds its way down into his hair, tugging on it while the other one gripped his silk sheets. your legs started to tremble, your breaths came out shaky and a string of moans left your lips as you approached your high. he groaned at your slight tug on his hair, sending those sweet vibrations right trough you again, all while his fingers worked in sync with his merciless tongue. before you knew it, the knot in your stomach snapped, your walls clenching around his fingers. you tried to muffle your moans, clutching your hand over your mouth. matt’s eyes never left your face as you came, studying every detail about it, his aching cock twitching in his pants as he watched your face fill with pure pleasure…

but even as you came down from your orgasm, matt’s tongue never came to a halt. your body twitched and your hips tried their best to pull away from the overwhelming feeling of his tongue assaulting your overstimulated clit. “matt, please- t-too much..” you whined, attempting to push his head away with your hand. he hummed in response, taking a few more minutes to really enjoy himself on the taste of your sweet arousal before pulling away. he panted, looking down at your shaking body laying on his bed, licking over his puffy lips before sitting down next to you. he wiped his chin, studying your face. “you okay..?” he asked softly, swiping the hair the stuck to your sweaty face out of the way. “more than okay.”

still not 100% sure of how you both have even gotten here, it was safe to say that your best friend was insanely good at helping you relief stress.

[cavevulpis]

Me writing kind eyes, it’s all good (about all of Buck’s past relationships, with a Buddie ending) without villainizing any women (and while actively avoiding the fandom’s misogyny).

I am a woman defender until the day I DIE!

[chimneyz]

To Think We Could Stay the Same

Words: 30,684 and Counting | 7 out of 15 Chapters

Evan 'Buck' Buckley/Tommy Kinard

post episode 8x06 | angst with happy ending | make up

Pain radiated across Buck’s leg, it wasn’t as often his leg was in pain these days, but when he was in pain, it shot him down, crushing him in excruciating waves. Today happened to be one of those days, and it was a bad one. Buck hasn’t left his bed in hours, waiting out the pain. The meds he took didn’t seem to help at all, leaving him in tears as he gripped the pillow.  He was supposed to be on a date right now, he and Tommy had plans to go hiking. They loved to hike. It became one of his favorite things to do with Tommy. They would talk for hours and hours as they gazed upon the beauty of nature around them. Tommy even got in the habit of picking one of the wild flowers they would come across, pressing them and placing them in a frame, labeled with which trail they went on. They have been on three so far, which wasn't much but they have only been together for a little over three weeks. A pit of guilt grew in his stomach when he texted Tommy less than an hour ago that they had to postpone their date. He hated that he had to do that, he hated that his leg was crushed all those years ago, he hated that he still felt the consequences to this day. Buck didn't tell Tommy why he had to delay it, he felt embarrassed, that the pain from all those years ago still sneaks up behind him every once in a while. He knows he needs to tell Tommy eventually, but not yet.  Buck could hear the door open below, who the hell was here?  “Evan?”  Shit, Tommy was here, how the hell did he get in?  Tommy emerged from the stairs with multiple bags in his hands.  “Tommy? How did you get in here?” Buck croaked still clinging on to the pillow.  “Eddie lent me his keys to your place, he said you have days where you can't get out of bed because of your leg.”  Shit, he wasn't supposed to know, not yet at least. Sure he told Tommy about the fire engine crushing his leg but he didn't say he still felt the lingering effects years later. He wasn't supposed to know. He'll have to talk to Eddie about it later.  “It's fine, I'm fine,” Buck muttered. 

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or start from the beginning here

SUMMARY: The breakup was harder to deal with than they had expected, both Evan 'Buck' Buckley and Tommy Kinard now have to face the new chapter of their lives alone. It seems like the universe has other plans though.

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@buckhastwohands, @giallos, @grimmsdead, @dangerouscupcakeperfection, @brokenpiecesof

@geekwarrior107,@bidisasterevankinard, @mountedeverest, @samas8, @rosyhoneydew

@a-mel0n, @here-be-fics, @mmso-notlikethat

[hardly-an-escape]

Hope, Actually | Buck/Tommy | 2100 words | rated T

on the last day of Christmas, this writer gave to you... some BuckTommy holiday fluff! Buck watches Love Actually and gets an idea. tags: makeup fic, christmas, love actually, tooth rotting fluff, egregious overuse of italics

Buck gets the idea three days before Christmas.

He and Tommy have been talking again, is the thing. Trying to be friends. It's tentative and a little stilted sometimes and it's… fine. Talking only makes Buck want to jump Tommy's bones about 20% of the time, and peel his own skin off an additional 30% of the time. So that leaves 50% normal conversation, which is fine.

The fact that he's still painfully in love with Tommy is maybe a little less fine, but whatever. Can you even still be in love with a person if you never said you love them in the first place? Can you love them more? Because that's what it feels like. Every time he grabs a beer with Tommy and Chim and laughs for an evening over their latest ridiculous call, he loves him a little more. Every time they text, every time they end up at the same scene or the same bar, he falls a little harder.

But they're trying to be friends, trying to be cool; so Buck takes all that love and puts it away, smashes it down and swallows it and pushes it deep into his belly, and when he feels like it's going to overflow and turn into words he takes the excess and puts it in an imaginary box and shoves it deep inside an imaginary closet. There's probably some kind of irony there, a man taking these feelings he has for another man and putting them in a closet. Buck doesn't want to think too closely about it, to be honest.

And then three days before Christmas he's over at Maddie and Chimney's house. Jee-Yun has finally gone to bed, and they're flipping back and forth between random Christmas movies and drinking wine. Well, Buck and Chim are drinking wine, and Maddie is drinking sparkling grape juice and making a face after every other sip.

"Ooh, Love Actually!" she says excitedly as Chimney channel surfs. "Buck, have you ever seen this one?"

"No… Tommy and I were going to watch it together. I guess it doesn't matter now. He said he wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving, that's why we didn't. Before," Buck says heavily.

"I remember he told me once that it was his favorite movie," Chimney says neutrally. "That was a long time ago, though."

"Yeah, he said… he said it comes across as pretty dated. He said he probably wouldn't see it the same way if he watched for the first time now," Buck says, the words suddenly tripping over themselves to get out of his mouth. He can feel the glance his sister and her husband exchange over his head. "It's like junk food, you know, like… you don't eat a Big Mac because it's a good burger, you eat it because it's what you want, because it's the same every time and there's something comforting in that, even if it's objectively not great. Tommy said… he said he thought there are better Christmas movies, and way better rom coms, but there'll always be something kind of perfect and comforting about this one…" he trails off.

"Do you wanna skip it tonight?" Chimney asks, surprisingly gently.

"No. No, it's okay, we can watch it. I don't mind," Buck says. "But I'm going to open another bottle of wine."

"God, now that you mention it, I could kinda go for a Big Mac right now," Maddie says reflectively.

Later, a little too drunk to drive home, Buck curls up in the middle of the guest bed and lets the movie swirl aimlessly through his thoughts. Tommy was right, he thinks, about it being pretty dated – he can see how some of the stories, which might have hit romantic beats in the mid-2000s, just come off as clunky, or even creepy, 20 years later.

But Buck can also see how it got under people's skin – can guess how it got under Tommy's skin. Even in the clunky stories there's a thread running through, a bigger idea about the diversity of love, about all its imperfections, about the way it can grab hold of you and surprise you whether you're at the beginning, the middle, or the end of your own story.

There's an idea there, tipsy and unformed, about him and Tommy and about what he can do with all the love he's been packing up and hiding away like the hoodie buried at the back of his drawer that only barely smells like Tommy's sweat now. By the time he wakes up and finishes making everybody breakfast, the idea has solidified into a plan.

He has to visit two different office supply stores to get what he needs, and it takes him most of that afternoon to figure out what he wants to write, saving draft after draft in the notes app of his phone before he ever puts marker to paper. At some point he remembers to text Lucy to ask whether Tommy's on duty Christmas Eve or whether he'll be at home.

He's not on the duty roster but I don't know if he has plans, she texts back. Want I should find out?

yes please, he sends. I'm gonna do sthg stupid and i need him to be home for it.

Thank God, one of you idiots needs to figure your shit out before I'm subjected to his sad breakup playlist one more time.

he has a breakup playlist???

An hour later Lucy texts again to let Buck know that she told Tommy she had some stuff to drop off for him, and he said he wasn't planning to leave the house. So the plan is a go.

On Christmas Eve, Buck waits until after dark to drive over to Tommy's house. He's got three dozen thumbprint cookies in tins, a carefully ordered stack of poster board, and about a thousand butterflies in his stomach. This is either going to go really well, or really poorly, and he's honestly not sure which outcome to expect. But he has to do something – he has to try.

He wishes it were snowing. It's barely cool enough to need a jacket. But that's Los Angeles in the winter for you.

Tommy has this particular smile. Buck saw it pretty often when they were first together. It's not his favorite of Tommy's smiles; it's too restrained, starts out wide and then gets reined in, tamped down, as if he suddenly remembered that he's not supposed to be that happy, or not allowed to show it if he is. Buck is pretty sure it's the smile of someone who'd spent a long time being more or less punished for joy, and whatever else happens between them, he's glad that he saw it less and less over their months together.

But Buck sees that smile again when the front door swings open, when Tommy reflexively smiles big, the one that reaches his eyes, when he sees Buck on the porch – and immediately schools his face into something more reserved, more professional. Friendly, but not too friendly.

"Hey. What's up? What –" he trails off as Buck hits play on his phone and Christmas music comes from the Bluetooth speaker at his feet. He picks up his stack of poster board cards and shows Tommy the first one.

Say it's carol singers, it reads in Buck's uneven chicken scratch handwriting.

"Buck, nobody else is here," Tommy says.

Buck frowns and brandishes the sign again. Tommy's smile softens into something wistful, almost sad. "It's carol singers," he calls exaggeratedly over his shoulder to the empty house and turns back to Buck with an expectant look.

Buck flips to the next sign. I watched this movie the other day, it says. I didn't think it was that good TBH.

Sign number three: But I think I understand why people still like it so much.

Tommy crosses his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow.

Buck flips to the fourth sign. I think it's a movie about hope. That no matter how much you fuck up there will still be a way for love to find you.

He had to write pretty small to fit all that on one sign, so he holds it up a little longer and watches something flash across Tommy's face as he reads. He waits until Tommy looks up again to go to the next card.

And now it's Christmas, it says. And at Christmas you tell the truth.

The playlist is on a rendition of "Joy to the World" that couldn't possibly be performed by anything less than a professional eight-part a cappella group. Buck flips to the next card.

You're not perfect, it reads in big letters. The "not" is underlined multiple times. Tommy laughs a little bit, and Buck doesn't think he's imagining the fact that it sounds a little wet, like maybe Tommy is choking up a little.

The next sign: (And neither am I.) We've both fucked up + I'm sure we will again. He's not happy with how this one looks. He'd tried about seventeen times on various pieces of scrap paper to get the damn ampersand right and eventually had to settle for the stupid little plus sign like a middle schooler.

But I still have hope. I have hope for love. I have hope for us. Almost to the end now.

The second-to-last card is a simple one. And… I'm hoping you have hope too. Merry Christmas Tommy.

Buck bends down and takes his time stopping the music and turning off the Bluetooth speaker; straightens up slowly, poster board clutched to his chest. He can't quite meet Tommy's eyes, too afraid of what he might see there, so he looks down at his own shoes until the toes of Tommy's house slippers shuffle into view.

Two gentle fingers tip his chin up. It's so familiar, Buck almost expects a kiss, but instead Tommy just looks at him, soft and tender and achingly open.

"Thank you, Evan," he says, and it doesn't escape Buck's notice that he was Buck when Tommy first opened the door, and he's back to being Evan now.

"It's really not a great movie, Tommy," he says, a little helplessly. "I liked the story about the dad and the kid, and the one with the naked people was pretty good, but this guy?" He shakes a sheet of poster board and it makes that little wooby wooby sound. "Total creeper. And the prime minister is an HR violation waiting to happen, and I don't know if they even have HR in England…"

He trails off, because Tommy is chuckling. Tommy is laughing at him, and his smile is big again, spreading over his face from the corners of his eyes all the way down to the cleft in his chin, and it's one of the more beautiful things Buck has ever seen.

"You're not wrong, Evan," he's saying. "I think I told you, you know, it's like junk food, you don't eat it because it's good, you eat it because it's –"

"It's what you want." They're standing close together, now. Almost close enough that Buck can feel Tommy's breath against his cheek. He can still feel the ghost of his fingertips under his chin.

He's really not sure what to do now. His plan hadn't developed this far, beyond a kind of half-baked daydream of Tommy immediately falling into his arms and passionately declaring his love, although actually neither of them is quite that kind of guy. But luckily, Tommy seems to have an idea where to go.

"Do you want to stay for a bit?" he asks. "Maybe watch a better Christmas movie? Maybe… maybe talk some things over?"

"Yes," Buck is saying before the last sentence finishes emerging from Tommy's mouth. "Yes, please. I brought you cookies. They're in the car, I couldn't – I couldn't carry them and hold the signs at the same time."

"How about I take these," Tommy says, taking the stack of posters from Buck's suddenly nerveless fingers, "and you go get the cookies, and you come inside for a while?"

"Okay," Buck says, and does that.

Just under a year later, when they're decorating for their second Christmas together, Tommy unearths the signs from a plastic tub of fake garland. Evan laughs at himself while they hang ornaments on the tree, still a little embarrassed. I can't believe I thought that would work, he says. I can't believe it did work.

I can, Tommy says, and holds up a plastic sprig of mistletoe, and reels him in for a kiss.

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[the-sea-called-history02]

How Stray Kids say “I love you” without saying it (maknae line)

Genre: fluff

Warnings: slight cursing

Han Jisung

Adds your favorite songs to his playlists

Music isn’t just this man’s love language. It’s his every language. It’s the oxygen he breaths and the water he drinks. In his mind, your favorite songs are a piece of your soul that he can carry with him no matter where he goes, so he adds your favorite songs to all of his playlists, and will never once hesitate to point that out to anyone in the vicinity. The boys have learned all the words at this point because of how often he plays the songs that remind him of you for them.

Just flat-out says it

Before anyone says that this is a lazy cop-out, just hear me out. Sweet Hannie wouldn’t know subtlety if it walked up to him with a name tag and slapped him upside the face. He wears his whole heart on his sleeve, so I really, truly believe that he wouldn’t be one to let his actions speak louder than his words. Both are equally important in his eyes, so please don’t get annoyed when every other thing out of his mouth is how much he loves you. He’s only a tad obsessed, I promise.

Felix Lee

Cooks with you

Sure, Lix can bake, but have you seen him try to cook? It’s not pretty, but he always has a blast trying, especially when it’s with you. Whether you’re a five star Michelin or burn water, you’re going to create some sort of mess when you two get together. No matter how it turns out, though, Felix will make himself enjoy every bite because it “was made with love.”

Sends you a million TikToks

It could be memes, sad videos, songs he thinks you’ll like, things about your hobbies, prepared to be bombarded with little videos from Felix 24/7. He shares them so you know he’s thinking of you, and it fills him with way too much joy when you find them as entertaining as he does. It just further convinces him that you’re soulmates, and who’s to say he’s wrong?

Kim Seungmin

Writes about you in his journal

His journal is an extension of himself, and is how he processes his insanely hectic life, but he always finds that writing about you feels different. He never has to think about what he’s writing, and the words just flow onto the page. If you manage to catch him in a particularly mushy mood, he might even let you read some of it.

Keeps a nightly routine with you

Ending his day with you is the highlight of it. He can’t wait to take his makeup off while telling you all the dumb shit the boys did that day. On tour, he’ll coordinate a time for you to do it all on FaceTime. Every step, from changing into pajamas to doing face masks, he loves knowing that, no matter how awful his day might have been, he will always be able to bear it because you would be there at the end to make it all worth it.

Yang Jeongin

Coordinates outfits

Listen, to Jeongin, being buck-naked is better than even considering not matching with you. No matter whether you’re even on the same continent, you better bet your best britches that he’ll be checking to make sure you AT LEAST have your couples bracelet on. He also definitely has a Pinterest board of couple outfit ideas.

Compares your hands

No matter how many times he does it, his heart still flutters a bit every time he sees your hands being engulfed by his. Not only is it an excuse to touch his favorite person, but it makes him feel like, in a small way, he can shelter you from the crazy world he lives in, and what kind of monster would you have to be to deny your sweet boy of that?

[hippolotamus]

"How can you act like nothing happened?" + buddie if it inspires u <3333

Hi, April! Indeed it did inspire (just took a hot second to get all the details and i hope you like it) 💖🫶

What happens to them after? Buck had asked Dr. Salazar. They just go back to their same old lives? Go back to being the same old people? 

Some do.

When he was in her office, posing that question, he doesn’t even consciously know if he had Eddie’s experience in mind. Well, one of Eddie’s experiences. 

The soul shifting instance of Eddie falling in the middle of the street like a ragdoll. Not to mention the others. Eddie being buried alive under forty feet of earth. Eddie being trapped in a burning house, surrounded by fire on all sides. 

Buck’s had his fair share of near misses, they all have. So why does Eddie’s nonchalance bother him so much now? Is it because this time Buck actually died? For ‘three minutes and seventeen seconds’, Eddie corrected Chief Williams. He previously told Buck ‘you think you’re expendable, but you’re wrong’.

One time Buck asks what death was like for Eddie, and he answers as casually as if Buck asked about his day. 

Then I thought ‘this is it’. This is the last moment of my life. He shrugged. Then I woke up in the hospital.

Buck barges through the front door. No knocking, no checking if Eddie has company. He finds him folding towels at the dining room table, humming to himself. 

“Hey, Buck. Wasn’t expecting you… today.” Eddie trails off as he notices Buck’s demeanor.

“How can you act like nothing happened?” 

“Excuse me?” Eddie pinches his brows together in that way that Buck knows he’s flipping through a mental rolodex of recent memories. “Is this about the casserole last week? Because of the-”

“What? What about the- you know what? Nevermind, that’s not why I’m here.” Buck folds his arms across his chest, adding, “But we’ll come back to that.”

Eddie nods slowly, hand drifting to the laundry basket to pick up the next towel. “So, why are you here?”

“Because, Eddie. You told me I wasn’t expendable. You made me Christopher’s legal guardian if something happens to you.” He sniffs, angry that his emotions are choosing now to break loose, after weeks of feeling numb. “For Christ’s sake, you knew exactly how long I was dead.”

The assertion makes Eddie flinch, makes him stare a hole into the floor, astutely avoiding Buck’s gaze. 

“But you- you never wanna talk about it. Not when it comes to you.”

“Maybe,” Eddie’s tongue darts out to wet his lips, he cocks his head in annoyance, and Buck knows he’s onto something. He’s struck a nerve. “Maybe, because there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Oh no? Y- you get shot down in Afghanistan, buried alive, shot again in LA, have a fucking breakdown and there’s nothing to talk about?” Buck steps forward, standing directly in front of his best friend, forcing him to look up. “Okay, well what about Chris needing therapy after the tsunami? Huh? What about going to dispatch because – you thought – Chris didn’t want you to be a firefighter anymore? Hell, that eventually got you to patch things up with your old man. But all those other things? Just another day in the life of Eddie Diaz. No need to stick around, folks, nothing happening here.” 

“Christopher is different, Buck. He’s my son.”

“And you’re my best friend. My partner.” My person, he doesn’t say, wiping away the tears rolling down his cheeks. “Doesn’t that mean anything? We’re all just supposed to deal with it if it’s you, and pretend to live our same old lives?”

Eddie purses his lips, backs away. He doesn’t even look in Buck’s direction when he says, “Please leave.”

Buck freezes. “What?”

“Get out, Buck. Before I do say something and we both regret it.”

He could fight back, keep prodding at the singular bruise spread across both of them. He wants to, wants Eddie to yell and scream. Something. Anything. In the end Buck isn’t sure why he doesn’t. All he knows is that in the space of a breath all the fight leaves him. All the fire and outrage deflates, making him feel emptier than before. 

When he reaches the front door, Eddie still won’t look at him. So he listens and turns the handle, walks over the threshold. He keeps going until he reaches the jeep, until he’s sitting in the driver’s seat, until he’s several streets away and sure no one will see him. Then he crumbles. He falls apart, wracked with sobs he knows will leave his body hollow and aching later. 

And he wonders- should he have kept pretending, too?

send an angsty prompt

[gumigirl]

thinking about you! megumi f. x fem!reader

an: where his love lies' prologue is coming soon TRUST i just needed to get this off my chest// i really can't take myself seriously while writing smut

cw: smut, masterbation , aged up char, pre-estab relationship.

you'd been gone on a mission to Okinawa for a week. which was fine, but megumi did tend to get a bit lonely on his own. he had no one to yap to about his books, even if you probably didn't know what he was talking about half the time— at least you listened. of course, you called and texted every day, but he missed your presence. you being there with him.

it was probably day four of your seven week mission when you noticed. megumi didn't call, did he? it was nine, but he always called at eight. you'd already done your skincare, just about ready to settle into bed before you noticed the irregularity on your boyfriend's end. so you picked up your phone, maybe he messaged? yeah, there were four messages in your inbox.

you clicked on his chat, seeing that he sent you a video, the cover being a black screen. odd. you clicked on the video anyway.

almost immediately, you were greated with quite the sight. megumi's phone was angled on his desk so you could see everything from his mouth go down— not showing his entire face in the video. his shirt was pulled up, the hem held between his teeth, showing off his pale abdomen. the grey sweatpants he wore were tugged down, just enough for his cock to spring out, pale fingers wrapped around it as he stroked himself at a deliberately slow pace. the last thing you noticed, from the sliver of his desktop that you could see. he was jerking off you your instagram page. your highlights, completely innocent pictures, he was getting off to it. one's that were more risque, showing off a little more of your body, his pace quickened.

muffled whimpers escaped his lips barely. yuuji's dorm was right next to his, so he was probably trying to keep himself quiet. but still, his hand moved up and down his shaft, his pace only quickening— stark contrast from the languid thrusts he started with at first. his tip oozed pre-cum, that he smeared all over his cockhead with a shuddering exhale as he bucked up into his own fist. after a couple more thrusts up into his own fist and a strangled noise, thick ropes of cum splat out of him, painting his abs as the rest dripped down his cock like forbidden icing. his 'clean' hand reached over to his phone, ending the video.

after a brief moment of silence to process what you just saw, you'd click off the video probably saving it to you cloud before deciding to read what on earth he could've sent after that.

“missed you a little more today.”

“gonna sleep.”

“good night🖤”

[obitez]

After the Fire

For @bucktommywinterfest

Round 6: Post-holiday Blues

Rating: G | Word Count: 702

Warnings: None

Additional Tags: Established relationship, Fluff

Buck liked to keep his place clean - nice and tidy. Everything was organized and everything had its place. It was one of the first things Tommy noticed about him, after his beautiful body, his charming personality and deep caring heart, that was.  It wasn’t that surprising, Tommy thought, considering the very open-concept layout his loft had and the fact you could see his bed from the front door. Anyone who lived in a place like that would need to clean up after themselves constantly.  When Halloween had come around, Tommy had noticed the lack of Halloween decorations around the place and managed to convince Buck to put some up. The same thing happened come Christmas time.   By the time Christmas Eve came around, Buck’s loft had a nice, relaxing, cozy Christmas theme going on with Christmas lights, window stickers, stockings, some throw blankets, and a little Santa napkins holder on his table. Tommy had worked hard to decorate his boyfriend’s place with Christmas decorations, and if he had to say for himself, he was successful in doing so.  Which is probably what made the sudden clean up so jarring to Tommy.  It was three days after Christmas that Tommy went back to Buck’s place after he just finished his shift to find that Buck had pulled out the storage boxes they had gotten for the Christmas decorations they had bought for his place last month.  “What’s this?” Tommy asked as he watched Buck scurrying around the apartment.

“Hey!” Buck smiled at him from where he was reaching for the lights they had strung up around the kitchen. “Just cleaning up.” “Cleaning up?” Tommy repeated, slightly confused until he noticed that by ‘cleaning up’ Buck was taking down most of the Christmas decorations. As his gaze traveled to the living room, Tommy noticed that most of the decorations over there had already been taken down and put away. “As in… putting the Christmas decorations away?”  “Yeah,” Buck shrugged, as he pulled the last bit of Christmas lights down and started winding them up in his arms. “Christmas happened three days ago, so… should clean up now, right?”  Tommy blinked, and he felt like he almost had to take a step back. It seemed his boyfriend was one of those people that took down all of their decorations right after Christmas. He needed time to process this information.  “But… it’s only been three days,” Tommy said, still in somewhat of a daze.  “Yeah,” Buck shrugged as he set the string of lights in one of the storage boxes. “What’s that look for? How long do you leave your Christmas decorations up?”  Tommy blinked, and then blurted out. “Until New Years- at least!”  “What do you mean by ‘at least’?” Buck asked.  Tommy was silent for a second, his right hand fidgeting with the fabric of his pocket. “Until like… mid January.”  Growing up, Tommy’s grandmother was a devout Catholic who always insisted on keeping the Christmas decoration up until Candlemas with the argument “the Christmas season only starts on Christmas, before that it is still Advent.” Tommy had accepted that reasoning growing up, and didn’t put an argument with the very opinionated woman. But as an adult who hadn’t been to Church since he was nineteen, he thought leaving things up until February was a little excessive and always ended up taking them down sometime around mid January. And all that being said, Tommy thought the people who removed their Christmas decoration on the 27th or 28th of Decmber were absolutely insane.  Tommy guessed he would need to put his boyfriend into that ‘insane’ category now. Shame. Tommy looked up from where his gaze had traveled down to the floor, looking up at Buck’s face that had a mix of shock and disbelief painting it.  “Evan?” Tommy said his name tentatively.  Then Buck sighed and dropped the Christmas lights onto his kitchen countertop. “Fine,” he said.  “Fine?”  “The rest of the stuff can stay up until New Year’s, but then it’s coming down,” Buck said as he walked over to Tommy and wrapped his arms around Tomm’s torso in a hug.  Tommy smiled as he wrapped his arms around Buck as well. “Okay, deal.”

[eliashawthorne]

"you're not wrong. it is easier said than done," elias agreed, giving a little nod. he thinks he would use it for good, but who is to say really. “see, but that’s the thing, by improving that person's day you’re already altering the timeline. that one person's day being changed could have drastic measures for the rest humanity in the future. would we be sane for helping them or insane for doing so and possibly altering the future as we know it?” his mind buzzed with possibilities, all revolving around the stuff he has read and seen on tv in regard to time traveling. mostly doctor who kept coming to mind, and he tried to think if there was an episode in which it worked out for the doctor when he tried to alter the timeline a bit. “i wish it didn’t have to be that way, you know? i wish that if we could go back in time and help prevent wars from occurring that it would have a positive effect going forward. everything i have ever seen or read has always done the opposite to the future, even if the action was intended to bring a good change.” he knew there was some balance to it all but did not fully understand it.

his attention easily sways to the conversation about roadside attractions. he thinks for a second, ultimately shaking his head, "i don't know. most of them, i feel, would probably not need employees. maybe a security that roams around to keep an eye on things? even the biggest rubber band ball needs protection," eli jokes, chuckling a bit. he thought about how funny it would be to have 'rubber band security guard' on one's resume, though he highly doubted anyone was patrolling that attraction. museums or ghost town attractions he could get behind. "unfortunately, i was not blessed with the powers of mister fantastic or elastic girl so i will have to rely on a selfie stick. or mental photographs, those never fail me." he had learned a long time ago how to appreciate the moments life gives you while you were in them rather than worrying about capturing them with a piece of technology, but he did treasure the few in between he did have physical snapshots of. "a savings account is probably the way i will ultimately go about it too, but i think i'll buy the book as a little challenge. i wonder far i could get in filling it. my problem is that i never have cash on me these days, if i do it's at the most twenty bucks. so i feel like i'll forget to take the cash out to set aside for the book." he chuckled, shrugging, "only one way to find out, huh?"

he wasn't too worried about the cat sitting situation because he knew no matter where mochi end up going during the road trip the cat would be in good hands. if it really got down to it, he could see about taking mochi to the animal sanctuary for a couple of days. his thoughts drift over to how his cat could be doing tonight with the fireworks and honestly, he hopes he is okay. "i should have done the same with mochi. i hope he's okay. maybe they are both snuggled into a blanket fast asleep." he could only hope. "speaking of fireworks, do you have anyone you're watching the show with tonight?"

Doing the right thing was always harder than doing the easy thing. That was why so many people so many people struggled with it. It was a weakness that even Zarah didn’t know that she was immune from. At the end of end of the day, she was human and even she could have impulses that were less than generous from time to time. “It’s easy to say what you would do when you’re not in the situation to have that choice,” she could admit. “I like to think that I could resist the power and do the right thing. Intellectually, it’s what I’d want to do but then there is this other side of me – a darker side of me that would literally make the worst choices.” That was where she hoped that there would be people in her life who would bring her to her senses and encourage her better angels to win. “What is meant to happen is supposed to happen and maybe it still would but if you could do something to interrupt someone’s worst day, wouldn’t any sane person give it a go?” After all it was all theory based on fictional technology and so none of it really mattered at the end of the day.

Zarah was very much an action sort of person. She could plan when it was necessary, knew how to put things together in a cohesive way. In her day to day, she simply took action when an idea came to her. She didn’t allow herself to get too bogged down with worrying about the aftermath – especially when it came to things that there wasn’t any real chance of long term consequences. It probably helped that in general she wasn’t afraid to do thing on her own. It was great when she could pull someone else in but if they didn’t she wasn’t going to let that stop her if she felt strongly enough about it. That didn’t mean, she believed in inviting herself in on things, even with people she generally thought liked her. “Do random roadside attractions have employees?” she couldn’t help but ask. She assumed if there was a museum or a whole town built around the landmark it seemed likely but if it was more like a random art exhibit on the side of the road it was probably less likely. “It would be pretty disappointing if you ended up somewhere alone and no one to take the photos but exceptionally long arms work as good as a selfie stick.” Honestly, the trips without pictures could be just as much fun if it meant getting to fully immerse in the experience without technology getting in the way. “The savings book idea would fail me. I’d end up borrowing from it every time someone invites me out. I’m much better taking it to a saving account I have to pretty much leave alone.”

There were pros and cons of not immediately heading to college after high school. It had taken her some time to really make that decision to get back into it. She’d never really had that dorm experience and a lot of the people in her classes were younger, not that she was exactly old but she had a few more years of life experience in comparison to some of them. She felt like having her own place, having a full time job and trying to balance the classes at night as an adult was easier than it would have been if she’d pursued it when she was eighteen or nineteen in comparison now. That didn’t mean it didn’t have its complications. For now, she was content to have a bit of a break before the next semester really kicked in. “I’m sure one of them will step up,” she said with a nod. They seemed nice enough and if they didn’t step up, surely someone that he worked with would be willing to help for a good cause. There wasn’t any cause as good as a road trip. “If they don’t, we’ll figure it out. I’m pretty good at rolling with the punches.” She allowed herself another sup of her drink. “Hopefully, he’s not home freaking out about fireworks. Marmalade hates them. I had to dose him a bit before I left the apartment.”

[stagefoureddiediaz]

I am having thoughts though - as people seem to have ave decided to theorise about the will being brought up to Tommy 🙄 and that being the hurdle they need to deal with.

I’m actually thinking its more likely to be the sperm donor baby, although I feel like there’s plenty of other stuff more 118 connected that could and would work just as well!

The thing with the sperm donor and tommy being weirded out by it, is the way that it would juxtapose so perfectly if the will was brought up as part of the Buck/Eddie stuff that’s going to happen in 806 - the sitting in silence - because it works on so many levels.

It creates a clear and obvious contrast between Eddie and Tommy while not making Eddie part of the bt plot in any way (which is very good and what the show has been doing so far - nothing buddie has happened with Tommy present - it’s always been separate and they’ve always taken tommy out of the equation at the start leading into buddie stuff - even the birthday stuff in 801 - 2 lines and then step out of camera so we can focus on buck and Eddie’s faces in tandem!)

It creates a potential hurdle in that it brings in a wanting kids/ not wanting kids conversation and that can then spiral out into the way Buck sacrifices his body constantly for others (which plays back into the will of it all without it being about the will of it all) Tommy being weirded out by the donor thing but then saying that other forms of self sacrifice are ok could be interesting - the idea that Tommy thinks it’s a good thing to be ‘expendable’ on the job as saving others is more important than one’s own life.

It would even let Tim play on the death of it all - have the arc that Natalia would’ve had if she’d stuck around. We already saw her weirded out by the sperm donor thing, then come back only to be told she constantly wanted to talk about bucks death. They’ve also already planted the lightning strike into the bt plot - at the hanger in 704 - so it all would make sense if Tommy is down for dying or Buck dying on the job (like not literally dying but stating that he doesn’t see dying on the job - sacrificing himself for others as a bad thing)

That would get Buck thinking about who he is and what he wants and allow for his death and rebirth to be explored a bit more than it was in 6b, and it would also play into the saving Gerrard/ meaning to hurt him thing as well - and Bucks struggles with that.

It would be very interesting as a way to deal with all Bucks baggage (as Oliver mentioned!) and get him to deal with it - whilst setting him up to realise his feelings for Eddie in an organic way that separate from Tommy!

I can see them taking that route and I’d actually love it if they did, and not only because it plays very heavily into my tommy is alt buck theory, but also because it really and truly would get buck off all of the various hamster wheels he’s been on and actually moving forward rather than flirting with moving forward!

[chronicowboy]

obsessed with the absence of eddie in buck centric episodes. like i can't explain it very well so this is going to sound incoherent but bear with me here. episodes focused on buck's trauma are always so tightly tied to family, his biological family and the scars they left him with both physical and mental. buck begins and in another life are so heavy on the family of it all and it speaks fucking volumes that in both of these episodes eddie has one scene that sets him apart from everyone else. in buck begins it's the like five second exchange of "i had to do it/i know you did" and in in another life it's eddie being unable to look at buck in the hospital bed. and fuck i don't really know how to explain it without saying things i've said a hundred times before but it's carving eddie out of the family that hurt buck so badly and setting him in his own little category. it's eddie being family outside of the biological barely-a-family buckley family, but it's also eddie being family within the wider 118 family. it's a sanctuary of sorts. buck has the buckleys, buck has maddie as both his mother and sister, buck has bobby, he has hen and chim, he has eddie and the rest of the 118. but buck also has eddie and chris as an entirely separate entity. a family full of trauma (tsunamis and ladder trucks and bullets and lightning bolts) but a family that provides refuge from it rather than causes it. at first it seems odd for eddie to be so absent in those episodes when he's such a huge part of buck's life (and when buck plays such a big part in eddie centric episodes like eddie begins and fear-o-phobia) but it's eddie taking a step back and saying i know you aren't sure of where you fit in because you've struggled with family all your life but we're here, i'm here, whenever you're ready to come home we'll be waiting.

[starfall-isle]

I hate limited availability I hate artificial scarcity I hatee it. Unfortunately I love items and objects