#jams reading nook

[jamisafan]

Who just read a whole book in one day?

I did!

It's The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. The movie is coming out next year and I highly suggest reading it before you see it.

It's so warm and comfy. Very much about found family. It's super sweet.

[veritas-scribblings]

stay - @jegulus-microfic - words: 658

The black cat shows up on James’s doorstep one winter’s night. It’s snowing that night. There’s tiny little paw prints interspersed with droplets of blood dotted across James’s lawn, and the black cat is laying in the corner of the veranda shivering, twitching, grey eyes blinking suspiciously at James. It’s a small thing, delicate and lithe in the way that most cats are. No collar to speak of, but too well-kept to be a stray.

So, James supposes, a neglectful owner, perhaps?

James tugs his robe tighter around him and kneels down, and creeps over. The cat’s fur—long and black and silky—is matted with blood, long gashes like claw marks across its body. It’s managed to get itself into a fight, James reckons, with someone bigger and tougher and nastier than itself. The cat (a boy, James notes) meows and swipes at James, disgruntled at being manhandled against his will.

‘Come on,’ James says gently. ‘You’ll catch your death out here. It’s warm inside, I have a fire going.’ 

James calls the cat Dew Claw for his tendency to swipe angrily at James as he walks past. He learns quickly that Dew Claw is a spicy little creature with a nasty attitude and a proclivity for sitting on his makeshift bed, judging James with an intensity that’s almost human. It’s the way he watches James, tracking James’s movements across the room, meowing disparagingly every time James does so much as anything.

Almost two days pass before the Dew Claw is up and about, awkwardly so with healing wounds, and this is where the real problems begin. With the freedom to move comes free-reign of the house, and with free-reign of the house comes a tiny little invader getting into every room, nook and cranny. James starts to find black hair on all of his clothes, t-shirts with holes chewed into them, little glass ornaments and photo frames and figurines shoved off shelves. 

By the second week of Dew Claw’s residence in James Potter’s home, Dew Claw’s wounds have mostly healed. And James finds himself with a nightly companion. True to his nature, Dew Claw sleeps directly in the centre of his bed, forcing James to try and position himself so as to not crush the cat. On the first night, James sleeps so awkwardly he tumbles out of bed (an event Dew Claw peacefully sleeps through). By the second night, James figures out his sleeping position (curved into almost a U-shape), but he wakes up with a sore neck and a sore back that doesn’t go away for days.

They fall into a lovely little rhythm, James and Dew Claw. Though Dew Claw remains a spicy little creature, he seems to come to trust James more. James learns that Dew Claw loves to be stroked, but must instigate it for the contact to be acceptable (he gained many scratches learning this lesson). He learns that Dew Claw loves bread (many loaves were sacrificed to this lesson) but hates jam with a passion. He learns that Dew Claw seems to have this bizarre ability to read. This learning, James cannot seem to explain or reason away. Even for a magical cat.

They have a comfortable little life together. James buys fish from the local market and fries it up, because Dew Claw is suspicious of anything raw. They read together; sometimes novels, sometimes poetry, often the Daily Prophet, particularly the quidditch section. Dew Claw sleeps on his pillow now, by James head, sometimes tucked under the covers by James’s stomach and James fears rolling over and accidentally crushing his little body.

‘You live with me now,’ James whispers to the cat one night while he’s curled up by the fireplace, Dew Claw sleeping on his lap, kneading his thigh and purring almost aggressively.

When James wakes up on the third morning of the fourth week, he wakes up next to one Regulus Black, and suddenly, everything changes.

[burning-omen]

Kinktober day 5: Gun Play + Steven Grant

Steven Grant x SHIELD agent!Male!reader

Kinktober 2023 List | Day 1 | Day 6 | Ao3

Summary: After taking a day off, you finally get to go home to your boyfriend, Steven.

(a/n: I MISSED YESTERDAY AND IT SHATTERED MY SOUL INTO A MILLION PIECES IM SORRY I WAS TIRED AND I FORGOT)

Warning: Guns, mention of reader killing and being shot at, reader is close with Nick Fury kinda, oral, hand job, surprisingly gentle sex, obedient Steven Grant, soft top reader, Steven talks to Marc but that's not really a warning I just wanted yall to know that my bbygrl was mention in this fic

Words: 2k

SHIELD has been sending you all over the world as of recently, you didn't complain, you knew your work was important, and the amount of trust you’d gained from Nick Fury came with a lot of off-the-books missions, mostly investigating SHIELD itself. You'd asked from a break, at least a day or so, to get your gear together after you gun, which has been through many, many mission, jammed on you mid encounter. It was embarrassing, luckily the only other people who saw it happen were either dead or in maximum security prison serving life.

Your boyfriend, Steven, wasn't home when you got there, mostly likely at work, or maybe Marc was out on his a mission. Either way, you waited for him.

In the meantime, you decided to finally take care of your gear, you'd brought all of the supplies from SHEILD headquarters before coming home, setting up at Steven’s desk, and moving the book he had lying on the table and a couple of papers into a neat stack. You started with your boots, scrubbing them, changing the insoles, making sure the outsole wasn't damaged beyond a bit of wear from years of use, then setting them aside.

Moving on to your vest, you picked out the metal fragment from the various bullets that had shattered on impact, replacing the aramid padding that- even though it has yet to show signs of any extreme damage- was starting to wear. The bruise on your stomach was proof of that, the vest stopped the bullet from piercing skin, but didn't lessen the impact as it hit you. You sighed, knowing that Steven was going to fuss over it the second he saw the festering bruise.

You moved on to you knives, still pretty sharp, but not as sharp as they should have been. Using the lanksy puck that you definitely were not supposed to take to sharpen a them. Carefully putting them back in their sheaths and reattatching them to your utility belt, which sat in a duffle bag with both your uniform and you newly repaired vest.

Finally, you moved onto the main event, you gun, which was still jammed, turning the safety on before completely disassembling it, staring at the pieces of your revolver on the table. You didn't worry to much about the the bullets, they'd be gone by your next mission anyway.

You took your time with this one, getting into every nook and cranky, blood, dust, and built up metal from the bullets, just a bunch of little things. Reassembly was purely muscle memory, your gun looked and felt brand new. You took the ammo out and dry-fired the gun, it sounded a hell of a lot better- and the hammer dropped without interruption, jam officially gone, you reloaded the gun and sat it on the desk.

It felt like a weight had been lifted off your shoulders, letting the tension slip from your shoulders with a sigh, practically melting into the seat, finnaly able to relax.

And as if he somehow knew that you were officially off duty, you heard Steven fumble with the lock, seemingly dropping the key, a small swear leaving him, before he unlocked the door. He walked around silently for a while, setting down his bag and heading to the kitchen, muttering to himself, or more likely Marc, as he was asking questions about the morning, what they ate for breakfast and where Marc had left the book Steven had been reading before bed.

It took him maybe five minutes to walk back there. He walked straight past you, not paying any attention and b-lining to the bed, to be fair, it was late and Steven wasn't exactly the most observant. You loved him though, so you let him lay there for a moment before calling his name.

He practuscally jumped out of his skin, getting caught in the mess of blankets for moment. Steven was on you faster that you thought was possible. Damn near tackling you, the chair surprisingly holding both of your weight and Steven situated himself in your lap, his legs drapped across yours.

“You're back! When did you fly in?” he asked, a wide smile on his face.

“About three hours ago, where’ve you been?”

He groaned, flopping down against you, his head on your shoulder.

“Job hunting, again.”

“What happened to the uh, what was it, the library, right? I thought you were having fun over there?”

“I was, but they cut the budget and I was new so they dropped me.”

“Aww,” you cooed, running your fingers through his hair, “poor thing.”

He sighed, enjoying the contact after nearly a month apart.

“What about you, I thought you weren't supposed to be back for another two weeks?”

“I wasn't, but..” you grabbed you pistol off the table, you finger on the trigger even though the safety was on and you had no immediate target, “My gun jammed and I asked my boss to give me a day off in order to fix it,”

Stevens's eyes were glued to the gun as you spoke, appreciating every little detail and crevice it held.

You knew about Steven’s affinity for guns, well, you and guns, guns alone did nothing for Steven, but when you held them...

He got quiet, glancing at you only to see you staring back at him with a knowing look on your face.

“Im flying back out tomorrow..”you pointed the gun downward, nudging his legs open with the tip, he complyed without any hesitation. “…i was thinking you and I could-”

“Yes!”

You stared at the man for a moment, almost bewildered before remembering that you've been gone for nearly two months and he's probably been thinking about this since the day you left.

You hummed before saying, “Get on the bed, lay on your back, I want to see you.”

He grinned again, practically running to the bed, shrugging off his jacket and leaving it on the floor, laying down in the bed, hardly able to keep himself still.

You sat at the desk for a short moment, completely removing the ammo from the gun, double checking it to avoid any incidence, then walked over to Steve, who was practically vibrating in excitement.

Kneeling between his legs, you commemorated the image of him, so happy to be fully and utterly yours, to memory.

You pointed the gun on his chest, digging the tip into his shirt, watching his reaction intently, he ceased all movement, staring down at it, taking in the weight on his chest.

“Breathe, Steven.” you said when you noticed he wasn't.

He let out a long, shuttered breath.

“You know I would never hurt you? Right Steven.”

“Oh course..”

“Good, “ you slid the gun down, feeling where his ribs ended and sturdy muscle began. Stopping just below his belly button.

“Strip, slowly, I want to see you.”

He complied easily. Hands shaking as he unbuttoned his shirt, slowly, just like you demanded.

“That's it, good boy..”

Shrugging the shirt off his shoulders, then moving down to his pants. Fumbling with the belt, getting it just before you could offer your help, he kicked his jeans down until they pooled on the floor below.

You stared at him, taking in his smooth skin and every sculpted muscle that you had no one but Marc to thank for.

Running the tip of your pistol lower and lower, running it over the growing tent in his underwear, he shuttered, a light gasp passing his slightly parted lips.

Dragging it across his waist, then down his thigh, Steven watched the gun just as intensely as you watched him. You let your finger hover the trigger, he swallowed hard.

You moved suddenly, lifting the gun to his head, right between his eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut, breathing hard, he never hid how he felt, not with you, he felt like he didn't have to, or more accurately, he couldn't. You were an agent of SHEILD, you were trained to see through lies.

Moving your hand down ever so slightly, pressing the gun against his lips.

“Open.”

For the forth time tonight, he obeyed. Taking the tip in his mouth, then more, sucking and licking like the gun could feel it.

The effects it had on you were innumerable.

You hummed softly, adjusting your grip. You watched him, he seemingly never got bored, the imagined danger and thrill perpetuating him, eager to please cold steel.

You tugged slightly, and he let it go, lips wet with saliva.

The way he looked at you, his eyes low, cheeks flushed, breathing like he'd just run a hundred miles.

“You're being so good, Steven, so obedient. You must have really missed me..”

He nodded rapidly, “I missed you, I missed you so much-”

You shushed him, “I know, I know. I shouldn't have to leave you here, all on your own, I should be here to protect you at all times..”

He nodded along- you both knew that he didn't need the protection, but fuck it kept you here he’d be your damsel in distress forever.

Rubbing the wet tip down his chest, then right above his cock, tapping the trigger, watching him flinch at every move. He watched so intently, his breath shaky and loud, you were unpredictable, yet he couldn't wait to see what you did next.

Nudging the tip of the gun past the elastic waistband of his underwear, pulling them down.

Steven couldn't stay still, his brain and body running a million miles an hour. Slowly, you sunk down between his legs, your gun pressed right up against the center of his chest. You knew the position would get uncomfortable soon, so you decided to make this as quick as you could.

“Don’t move.” he didn't nod, or talk, just immediately playing along.

Taking your free hand, you guided Steven's hard cock, shiny with pre-cum to your mouth.

He was always sensitive, but your tongue had hardly even pressed the tip of his cock before he was a whimpering, whining mess. Hs adrenaline was spiked, of course he was more susceptible that ever right now. Taking him as deep as you could, feeling him press against the back of your throat. His hands balled into the bedsheets bellow, nearly tearing them in his hands.

Running your tongue on the underside of his cock, then swirling it around the tip, never taking your eyes off of him. His little whines growinh louder and more desperate.

You pulled away when you felt him start bucking into your mouth. Taking a short moment to wipe your mouth of both spit and pre cum.

You lifted slightly, wrapping your hand around his now perfectly lubed cock. Stroking him nice and slow, soft moans falling from his lips.

He whined your name over and over, obedience and his composure, the latter of which was had been already hanging on by a thread before you ever put your mouth or hands on him, waining. He loved nights like these when you were gentle but still so very obviously in control.

“Y/n- y/n, I'm so close, please, Love, please-”

You tightened your grip on the gun, pressing it harder into his chest, he moaned at the feeling.

You never sped up, watching him build up the his orgasm nice and slow, and when his mouth fell open in a long moan and his eyes squeezed so tightly shut you're sure he was seeing stars behind them.

Then- you squeezed the trigger. Nothing came out but Steven gasped hard like he’d been hit. His hips twitched up into your hand, cum pouring out all over your fingers. Even when that stopped, his orgasm still seemed to flow through him, his body drawn tight as he came down.

“Y/n..” he panted, “you're good, so good-”

Dragging the gun down, right into the pool of cum at the base of his stomach, then bringing it up to your mouth, licking it off.

“Come on, Steven, we're not done..”

[taldigi]

My biggest peeves were:

Literally the same story as the 3D show except it's Felix and/or the quantic kids. Nothing changes. Felix is a model. Gabriel is his dad. Marinette is Dupain Cheng. Alya is The lady blogger and not an intrepid school reporter. Nino Is here. And I'm not saying it's a reinterpretation, I'm saying it's a one-to-one story beat to story beat retelling.

Bonus points if they just shove gdv into the story and pretend that it's precanon Felix. They even leave Adrian as chat noir. I know you think you can get away with it because You're calling him culpa, but I know. I know better. Even if nobody else cares.

You know what the story needs? More Adrian. Not that much Adrian, just about 2 cubic tons. If I wanted to read a 20 chapter fic about Adrian's struggles I would just read a Canon fic. He is just so unnecessarily jammed into every little nook and cranny. Go away you little parasite.

Bridgette is the mind killer. It's less about the name change and more about the principles behind it. Every single felibri felinette story I have ever stumbled upon has just been anime tropes. I know the pv didn't have a lot of meat on it, but the art book was still out and there were translations and we had art of null and Richard and concept storyboards. It's not like it wasn't out there. And I know they knew about it because they add the quantic kids every single fucking time.

Ring curse. And you don't even give ladybug an earring curse to match. Fucking cowards.

[brightlight-dazzlingeyes]

where the sidewalk ends | pablo gavi

🎃 synopsis: Sofie meets an ex-hookup during a Halloween party. The full moon is high in the sky, the Summer they shared is now only a memory, and there are weirder things to worry about. warnings: alcohol consumption, smut, spooky themes, social media, fluff (Wc: 3k)

(this is a sequel to ibiza night fever, but can be read as standalone)

|the playlist|

“But all the magic I have known I've had to make myself.” ― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

It’s finally October, every melancholic girl's favorite time of the year. After a breakup and a much-needed Hot Girl Summer, what Sofie needed was a Sad Girl Autumn, and she’s been taking advantage of the season.

She started doing yoga and has been reading a lot more; you can confirm that by checking her Insta feed – she’s been filling it with intellectual aesthetic pics.

Strolls through the park, loud sighs, pumpkin spice drinks—anything that makes her look like the protagonist of a pretentious European indie film.

Tonight, though, is a special night. Tonight Sofie is a sexy Barbie Cowgirl, and she’s accompanied by Black Swan, Sleeping Beauty, and Carrie. Or, Chiara, Luisa and Becca, as they are known the rest of the year.

It’s Luisa’s annual Halloween party. It’s been a hit since the first edition and the first time Sofie will be attending it as a single lady.

If the last few months have taught her anything, it is how to be casual, or at least how to appear casual. Sofie was focused on having fun, holding her phone in one hand and a gin tonic drink in another. She scrolled through social media while taking another sip. She wasn't trying to arrive already drunk at the party, only to loosen up a bit.

She and her friends have already posted their outfits; half of them were already at the party. Sofie took a deep breath, put away her phone and walked out of the door.

chiaraaraujo

liked by rebeccaamorim and 307 others

i am so stressed out #natalieportman

oliviaaraujo amen sister ⤷chiaraaraujo 🦢 ⤷sofiemartins 🦢🦢🦢

view all coments...

rebeccaamorim

liked by pedri and 752 others

its halloweeen happy birthday stephen king

sofiemartins uhh so i just googled stephen king birthday and... uh... ⤷rebeccaamorim nah i got it right, shut up ⤷pedri 😂😂

view all coments...

sofiemartins

liked by pablogavi and 326 others

🦄💗

luisafernandes girl marry me chiaraaraujo gatinha 🖤

view all coments...

luisafernandes

liked by chiaraaraujo and 956 others

i'm your favorite disney princess 🩷

francisca.cgomes tão lindaa rebeccaamorim u the love of my life. fr.

view all coments...

When Sofie walks into the party, she gasps with excitement. The decor was straight out of a Halloween movie. A fog machine was filling the room with mist, cobwebs were hanging all over the place. Jack-o'-lanterns grinned from every nook and cranny, their flickering faces casting playful shadows, giving the whole scene a spooky, dimly lit charm.

It was clear Luisa had gone all in to make this party amazing.

And the guests really brought their A-game in the costume department. Among the crowd, there was a wickedly realistic zombie, a time-traveling Doctor Who, a whimsical unicorn with a shimmering horn and even a comically oversized banana. The variety was as entertaining as it was impressive.

Music was thumping from the speakers, mixing old-school Halloween hits with some current jams, setting the mood for the night.

Sofie's eyes locked onto a familiar face in the sea of costumes – it was Pedri, dressed like a pirate and laughing at something Rebecca said. He looked a bit different since she last saw him, sporting a cool beard that suited him perfectly.

Sofie wasn’t surprised to see the two chatting; Becca and Pedri have been in a complicated long-distance situationship since they met in Ibiza, in the summer. But seeing the football player at the party gave Sofie goosebumps, as she tried to forget her own antics in the Spanish island.

She goes on to greet the couple.

“Cool beard, you really committed to the theme, didn't you?” Sofie jokes about his costume and Pedri laughs. “What are you doing in town, anyway?”

They were in Lisbon, far away from Barcelona, where he should be. Sofie half asks because she worries about her friend ending up heartbroken, but she’s mostly scared that his answer might get herself in trouble.

“We had a game here last night. Figured we could stay for the party.” Pedri winks.

We. There it was, what Sofie was scared of.

“We?” She asks, anyway, even though she knows the answer.

Pedri then tilts his head to the other side of the room, pointing at something. Or someone. When Sofie looks, she’s met with a figure standing by the door, somebody wearing a Ghostface costume. She rolls her eyes and looks back at Becca.

“I’m getting a drink, have fun you two!” Sofie says.

“Don’t get lost!” Becca yells and Sofie gives her a thumbs-up and a nod, but the moment she turns away, the music swallows her up. Luisa's mansion was like a maze. Sofie knew she was in for a tough time trying to do what Becca had asked.

The music was blaring, making it feel like she'd stepped into a nightclub. There were chill-out rooms with people sprawled on fancy couches, a glittering dance floor with a DJ dropping beats, and dimly-lit hallways that seemed to lead to who-knows-where.

Sofie's search for a drink brought her to a bustling room, where she was comforted by another known face, Chiara. She was dressed as Black Swan and deep into a lively, tipsy, philosophical convo with a small group of friends.

Sofie couldn't resist joining the shenanigans. "Hey, Chiara," she chimed in, with a wide grin, “what are you guys talking about?”

Chiara turned her swan-like gaze toward Sofie, her theatrical makeup adding extra drama to her expression. "Oh, you know, the meaning of life, the universe, and why we all wear costumes on Halloween," she replied, her words accompanied by giggles from her friends.

Sofie grabbed a chair and got cozy, all set to dive into the amusing and philosophical banter.

But the conversation didn’t last long; A muffled scream suddenly pierced through the party chatter, instantly grabbing their attention. Sofie and Chiara exchanged a concerned look.

"Did you hear that?" Sofie asked, her eyes darting around the room.

Chiara nodded, her curiosity piqued. "Yeah, that sounded pretty real. We should check it out."

They both rose from their seats, leaving their group of friends momentarily and headed in the direction of the mysterious scream.

Sofie and Chiara followed the sound down a dimly lit corridor. The place was spooky, and their nerves were on edge, so they just froze, waiting to see what would happen next.

They exchanged nervous glances, ears perked up, hoping to catch any hint of what had caused that scream. The whole scene felt like something out of a suspense movie, and they were bracing themselves for a sinister revelation.

“Hey,” 

The girls screamed at the voice behind them, as they jumped in shock. With a hand on her chest, Sofie took a deep breath, looking back to the figure standing now in front of her. Ghostface.

He took off his mask in a hurry. It was Gavi, and he tried to show them there was no need to be scared.

“It’s just me…” Gavi says.

Sofie and Chiara breathed a collective sigh of relief. Sofie was particularly happy to see that it was Pablo, and for a moment, she considered giving him a hug. But that thought made her freeze in her tracks, and her mind drifted back to their time in Ibiza, and the nights they shared. They hadn't talked since then.

“Is everything okay?” Gavi asks, torn between wanting to laugh at their reaction and genuine concern.

“We just heard something weird,” Chiara begins to explain.

Then, out of nowhere, loud banging noises erupted from the same place they'd heard the scream. The sudden, unexpected noise sent a fresh wave of tension through the group.

Sofie, swallowing hard, spoke up. "So, we came here to check it out..."

Pablo, shaking his head with a sly grin, says, "I don't know, I'm not super into the idea of investigating 'bang' sounds." He shot Sofie a knowing look.

“Do you think that that's somebody having sex?” Sofie asks, almost relieved at the possibility, since she had not considered it.

Chiara doesn't buy the theory, it doesn't sound to her like somebody is having a good time. “But if it's something serious, we should at least make sure everyone's safe." She says.

Pablo relented with a sigh. "Alright, fine. Let's check it out. But stick close, and let's not turn this into a horror movie cliche, okay?" He jokes.

With cautious steps, they followed the sounds down the corridor until they reached a closed bedroom door. The weird rhythmic banging noises were definitely coming from inside, and a mix of curiosity and fear gripped them.

Gathering their courage, they exchanged one last glance before Gavi, the designated leader of the group, slowly turned the doorknob. The door creaked open, revealing the dark room on the other side. 

When they pushed the door open, they were in for a surprise – a room filled with Roomba vacuum cleaners gone rogue. The little bots were spinning around, bumping into furniture, and beeping like they were part of some bizarre dance routine. It was like a small-scale robot rebellion.

Gavi burst into a loud laugh, "Seems like the robots have picked Halloween for their big uprising, huh?"

“That’s why I don't trust robots…” Sofie says, tip-toeing closer to Pablo, trying to avoid the bots.

“What about the scream?” Chiara couldn't help but bring up the initial reason for their investigation.

The group tenses up once again, remembering what brought them here in the first place.

"It was me," came a voice from the corner of the room. Luisa was sitting down, carefully wrapping a band-aid around her toes. "One of these things nearly took my toe out, and I don't even know how to turn them off."

With everything finally making sense, the group gathered their efforts to grab the rogue Roombas. After some trial and error, they successfully managed to turn off the little vacuum cleaners and carefully piled them up in a closet. 

luisafernandes

liked by pedri and 873 others

thanks everybody who showed up. it was the best halloween party ever. my vacuum cleaners literally almost unalived me. i love all of my friends so so much. happy halloween!

rebeccaamorim what was that in the middle? ⤷sofiemartins don't even worry about it pablogavi 👻 chiaraaraujo maybe like. get a broom or something

view all coments...

Pablo and Sofie stayed behind after hushing the girls back to the party. In the dimly lit bedroom, it was just the two of them. Pablo sat at the edge of the bed, and Sofie stood by the window. They both felt the urge to talk but weren't sure where to start or what to say. The unspoken tension loomed in the room.

Should they bring up Ibiza? Or should they pretend like nothing happened? They exchanged glances every now and then but mostly remained silent as they gathered their thoughts.

"It's pretty crowded out there..." Sofie says, her thoughts interrupted by the party noise.

Gavi cleared his throat, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, I know... This is better. I prefer being alone."

Sofie couldn't help but giggle,"Well, you're not entirely alone. I'm right here, you know."

Pablo met her gaze and said, "When I'm with you, it doesn't feel like there's anybody else in the room." Gavi's face flushed like a tomato, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he realized what he had just let slip. "Do you... um, understand what I'm saying?" he mumbled, his words stumbling out as he anxiously awaited Sofie's response.

“I feel the same way.” Sofie says, her words escaping before she could even fully process what she was saying.

A palpable tension hung in the air as they locked eyes. It felt like an unspoken challenge to see who would look away first. It was like a silent game of vulnerability chicken, and neither of them was ready to blink.

In an instant, Gavi was right in front of her, his hand gently resting on her hips. His eyes pleaded for permission. Sofie, taken aback by his bold move, simply nodded, her eyes fixed on his lips.

He kissed her hungrily and passionately. Their minds immediately turned into a total mess, as they both desperately tried to savor the moment while also trying to let each other know just how much they'd missed this.

Sofie instinctively placed one hand on his chest, while running her fingers through his soft hair with the other. Pablo deepened the kiss, taking his time exploring her mouth and playfully licking her bottom lip.

He carefully guided her to the bed, lowering himself onto her. Their lips finally parted, leaving them breathless and flushed.

They stared into each other’s eyes intently. They couldn’t wait anymore. The desire between them was so strong, neither of them could speak. They both just wanted each other, no more holding back. 

Sofie grabbed him tightly by the neck, pulling him closer. After gasping for air, Gavi brought his lips to her again, his hands moving down her sides and gripping her waist firmly.

She took off her shirt and Pablo gently pulled off her lacy pink bra.

“I missed them so much.” Gavi jokes, looking at her breasts. Sofie gives a playful slap on his arm.

“I missed you too.” She whispers in his ears. She can feel the goosebumps all over his body as she says that.

“Are we really doing this?” He asks, tenderly kissing her neck. He can’t seem to keep his mouth away from her body for too long. He knows they don’t have much time together, he’s going back to Barcelona in the morning.

“I want you so, so much.” Sofie answers in between whimpers, she’s already too lost in pleasure to consider the consequences of what she’s doing.

“But we have to be quiet.” Pablo looks at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “If somebody hears us moaning, they might get worried for our safety.” He whispers. Sofie has to bite her lip to hold back a giggle.

“I can be quiet.” She promises.

Pablo enters her slowly, taking his time to enjoy every second of their reunion. They get lost in each other and it feels like their first time all over again.

She wraps her legs around him and digs her nails into his back, demanding more of him. His body starts rocking, slowly thrusting harder and faster until he loses control completely.

Their bodies move together easely. Sofie has to put a hand on her mouth to stop herself from crying his name out loud.

The sigh of her desperation is enough to drive him off the edge. He reaches down and starts massaging her clit, just like he knows she likes it. Pablo speeds up his pace, when he senses they’re both close to orgasm.

He collapses in her arms and Sofie holds him close as they reach their peak together.

They have their eyes closed and for a while the only thing on their mind is each other's heartbeat.

But then, Sofie feels her anxiety creeping in, and it is enough to break the magic surrounding them. "We should probably head back to the party," she whispers. To their ears, her words seemed louder than the music outside.

"Right," Pablo mumbles, eyes still closed, lingering in the moment for a little longer.

They quietly slipped out of the bedroom, making their way back to the party without exchanging another word. 

Even without speaking, as they get out of the bedroom, they share a sly, knowing look, hinting at the possibility of meeting again, without the need for words.

Sofie, without Gavi noticing, sneakily slipped a piece of paper with her phone number into his pocket.

[brinkworth]

I heard it was your birthday @heartofspells, so I wrote you a little crack fic as a gift. (curse?) Featuring Remus, who is just trying to print his smutty fanfiction and runs into printer trouble. Happy Birthday!

Tech Support

Remus can pinpoint the exact moment his bad luck started. He’d been working on a project, printing some of his favourite fanfiction. He liked the story so much that he wanted to put a physical copy on his shelf.

It was all going smoothly at first, his printer churning out pages, all with perfectly crisp black letters printed neatly in rows. He clapped his hands in celebration. At this rate, this project would be done in record time.

That’s exactly when the bad luck starts. The printer makes an alarming noise; the paper caught half in the printer and half out. After several angry beeps, the screen reads ‘Error - printer jammed. Please clear printer and try again.’

When he opens the machine, it’s full of paper jammed into every nook and cranny. Places he didn’t know paper could even go in a printer. The printer seems to fight him as he removes it. He has to press a foot against the desk for leverage to pull out a particularly stubborn piece and the printer makes an awful grinding noise. It’s later that he sees the warning message that says, ‘Do not remove paper by pulling in this direction.’

“Oops.”

Several hours later, he’s sitting next to a printer that no longer feeds paper at all as tech support tells him they’ll mail him a new one. It should be there in 7-10 business days.

This just won’t do. Remus doesn’t want to wait that long, so he makes a trek to the store and buys a new printer. Now he’ll have two, but they’re different. And he prints a lot, so it’s worth it. Only upon getting it home, the printer won’t print anything legibly. It all comes out looking like a copy of a copy of a copy. Remus spends hours adjusting settings and test printing.

In the end, he’s sitting next to a stack of badly printed pages of his favourite smutty fanfiction when he’s back on the phone with tech support.

“Hello, thank you for calling The Printer Company. My name is Sirius. How can I help you?”

“Er- yes, hello, I just purchased a new printer and I’m having trouble with the quality.”

Sirius is very nice and seems committed to fixing the problem. He has Remus test different settings and try again several times. After 45 minutes on the phone, though, they’ve accomplished nothing. It all looks the same, and Sirius is now just as frustrated as Remus.

“Will you send me a few photos of your printed pages? One good one from your old printer and one from your new printer,” Sirius asks. “It will help me see what the problem is, and I can share them with my supervisor, who might have an idea.”

“Oh - er - sure, yeah.” Remus replies, kicking himself immediately. He should have just hung up.

He suddenly feels too hot. He begins to root frantically through his stack of papers, to find ones that might be appropriate to send.

“Oh God, definitely not that one.” He thinks, more than once.

A few awkward minutes later, he’s found two pages that look fairly clean, though by the character names, it will be clear what this is, if Sirius has ever read one of the most popular book series ever written. WHY couldn’t these characters be named something normal? Like George and Henry…

He sends the photos and chews on his thumbnail as he waits for Sirius’ response.

“Oh, I see them right here,” Sirius says eventually. There’s a shuffling noise and Remus thinks he hears Sirius snort.

Sirius hums as if he’s studying them carefully. “I’m afraid I’m having a hard time telling these two apart...”

How is that possible? Remus wonders. They are so starkly different.

“I’m just going to read these out loud to verify which is which,” Sirius says. And Remus swears he can hear the man smirk through the phone.

Remus’ eyes widen. “Oh, of course, sure,” he blurts out and then kicks himself again.

As Sirius reads, Remus wants to crawl into a hole and die. The man takes his time, drawing it out, and reading more than must be necessary for what he needs.

“Yes, yeah, you’ve got that right,” Remus says in the end, just ready to be done with this.

Another 30 minutes later, Sirius has walked him through how to fix the printer and Remus is anxious to hang up before he can embarrass himself further.

“Thanks so much,” Remus says, his finger hovering over the end call button.

“Happy to help,” Sirius says. “And you have good taste, Remus.”

Remus’ head jerks back in surprise. “Sorry?”

“I’m partial to Heartofspells’ work myself, but this is good too.”

Remus is stunned into silence for a few moments before replying weakly. “Oh.”

“Have a good day, and feel free to ask for me personally if you need help again in the future.”

Remus bit back a smile. Maybe his luck wasn’t so bad after all.

[marleysfinest]

post-war reiner who discovers a new hobby

this came from a fleeting couple of messages between @flamespond and I; it's just fluffy reiner trying to keep busy!!!

_________________________________________________

post-war reiner still finds it hard to have to plan his day. he's so used to such regimented, timetabled living that being left to his own devices feels alien. what is there to do? does he pick up a hobby? where does he even begin?

he starts simple, and just walks. around the town's winding streets, discovering the wonders that hide in the nooks and cranny's by way of a tiny shop selling yarn, another touting artisan ale, another a purveyor of small, delicate brooches. he finds wonder in the artistry of it all, how people can turn their hands to almost anything and make it beautiful. he wondered, could he, too, use his hands to create, instead of destroy?

after ducking into an ancient looking bookshop and picking up a relatively amateur-friendly looking cookbook, reiner raids the local market for the ingredients of a simple sponge cake. he carries the eggs so delicately, ever afraid he'd shatter them by mistake.

at home, he splays the recipe out on the counter and reads it at least twelve times before summoning the courage to begin. with almost amusing accuracy, he weighs his ingredients, and takes a minute to make sure he has everything ready before moving on to the method.

predictably, the kitchen looks like it's been ram-raided by the time he's finished. flour is dusted across the counter, egg shells roll on the floor, and you're pretty sure that's some jam on the ceiling (how?) but, to give him credit where credit's due, reiner has baked a cake. a damn good smelling one, too. the sponge is light and fluffy, and its colour suggest it's been baked to perfection. the jam sandwiched between the layers is decadent; his sweet tooth must have prevailed and encouraged him to use far more sugar than the recipe called for.

he presents his creation to your proudly when you return home, and you find yourself almost emotional that he's finally busied himself with something so creative. not to mention, he clearly had a knack for it.

reiner had put on a healthy bit of weight since the war ended, but it wasn't something to complain about. he needed the extra pounds, and deserved the indulgence just to ease himself into 'normal' life. his stomach still sported telltale signs of the muscle he'd spent so long building, and his arms were very much still defined. but he was much less gaunt in his face, far less pale. his cheeks often sported a rosy tint, and his chest was much more pillowy than firm. this baking habit would probably have to be monitored (that sweet tooth will always get him), but who were you to deny him this simple pleasure?

[caliburn-not-calculator]

Nine Lines, Nine People

Thanks @hungryslothwrites for the tag

Figured this was a good a chance as any to give a peak at the start of the next house a habit chapter! VR-LA is eepy and lost in the gay sauce

Consciousness came slowly to VR-LA, which while not unusual was certainly affected by the fact that his mechanical musculature had been rendered all but useless. The boundaries of his form felt fuzzy, limbs weak, and body weightless. Stasis filled him with rushing static, an oceanic ebb and flow. Unconsciousness was gradually fading like an abating high tide. His brief interludes of lucidity within the sea revealed he remained in the workshop’s cosy reading nook, bundled within a thick grey coat cut for a form wider and more angular than himself. As they became more frequent, he gained the ability to note more details.

His plating seemed to fizzle with hazy aftershocks. Bands of warmth traced over his chest and suspiciously hand shaped imprints laid across his back, his mind still trying to process the backlog of data coming from his touch receptors. The workshop seemed to be brightening as well, the bugs humming energetically as morning approached.

I don’t know if I have nine people I can tag but uhhh

I’ll do as many as I can think of, No pressure tags and anyone else who would like join in :3

@stars-in-a-jam-jar @strange-lamp-stranger @heir-of-the-chair @goldenart0 @spacedpanini

[toxicnotebook]

Rating home library ideas from home decorating websites

Okay, here’s the thing: when I was designing a wallpaper for home libraries, I had to look at a lot- and I mean a LOT- of home decorating sites.There were quite a few interesting home libraries, both good and bad. And a few that were downright evil.

I set aside some of the ones I found noteworthy, and now I finally have time to write this post. We’ll start with a classic:

It’s cozy, there’s a comfy patterned chair, it’s using a small space in a smart way, it has a nice lamp and a small succulent. The modern reading nook summed up in one image, and it’s actually achievable for most homes. 7/10

This is, perhaps, a bit too cozy. Leaning a bit on the claustrophobic side if I’m being honest. But it makes good use of a very awkward space, and I do love me some fairy lights.

The top shelf above the window is a bit too high up for easy access though. 6/10

Oh this is just lovely. Does give off a used bookstore vibe, but that’s a plus for me! 8/10

Why does feel more claustrophobic than the one in the skinny ass hallway. It feels like the books are holding their breath to fit in that bookcase. Hate it. Nice color though! 4/10

In contrast, this moderate bookcase feels far larger and airier than it actually is! I do love the decor spots, although I hope the shelves are modular so one could, in theory, add more shelves for more books. Like I just wanna pop another shelf above the glass ball and jam some paperbacks there. But that might be a me problem. 8/10

Girl. This is just mostly air, not airy. Why even bother installing a custom mounted metal shelving unit when you have barely anything to put on it? What an absolute waste of space and money.

Also stacking your books in those small aesthetic piles will make it a bitch to find any specific book, good luck with that. 3/10

Fuck me, the multiple little pile of books on a shelf is a fucking trend. Like WHY would you do this on functional shelves like those? Books piled on a table makes sense. Books placed horizontally on a shelf they are too tall for makes sense. This? This makes no sense. You’re just making it harder to find & take the books off the shelves, AND you’re wasting space. Arrrrrhfhfghgh. 2/10

Ahhhhhh. Much better. Cottagecore girlies, this one’s for you! 9/10

So I live in an area VERY prone to earthquakes, and everything about this image sets off my anxiety. Floating shelves in general are iffy for earthquakes, but the large ones are especially prone to just...falling off the wall when things get moderately shaky.

Add in the large, heavy books on EVERY shelf, the absolute height of the unit, the fact the shelves are polished metal, AND all the books are right on the edge of the shelves....yeah. No thanks. 2/10 don’t wanna be brained by books

WHAT DID I JUST SAY ABOUT EARTHQUAKE SAFETY. The old bookshelf wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t holding up pounds of books with just some bolts embedded in sheet rock and studs! AND GET SOME DIVIDERS. OR BOOKENDS. 1/10

Or something like this, perhaps! Large, roomy, and the spaces are generous enough that it can accommodate taller books. Still don’t like those little piles, but here it’s not as bothersome. This feels like a library that’s well-loved. 9/10 slightly too tall for me though

I hope you don’t have kids or pets, because all your books are coming down when this shelf gets hit with a moderate bump. 3/10 gives waiting room vibes

Good use of an awkward space, a nice chair, and while they did use floating shelves, these ones aren’t overloaded or crazy high on the wall. Wish the top shelf only had paperbacks, though. 5/10

This is just stupid. 2/10 points for whimsy

I’m a short bitch, so I love me an extravagant home library with a built in ladder. The perfect combo of maximum space use and ease of access! 10/10

Unless, of course, the ladder looks like it’s made of balsa wood or is otherwise completely USELESS. 0/10

What a perfect little nook. 10/10

Man, I really wanna love this, but the odd-sized shelf above the built in sofa knock a few points off for me. Maybe if the staging stylist had put in mass market paperbacks instead of regular books it would make more sense. Great view though! 7/10

YES. HELL YES. I love me a staircase library! Perfect combo of class, coziness, and space useage! 11/10

AAAAA THIS ONE IS EVEN BETTER- wait why are the books like that

wait

wait

THIS? THIS IS A FUCKING TREND??? YOU CAN’T STAND ANYTHING BREAKING YOUR PRECIOUS NEUTRAL COLOR SCHEME SO YOU TURN YOUR BOOKS AROUND? DO YOU SIMPLY NOT WANT TO FIND ANY TITLE EVER AGAIN? DO YOUR SENSES COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN AT ANY HINT OF SATURATION? GET A FUCKING E-READER IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE IDEA OF BOOK SPINES!

Anyways. -2/10

Ahhh. Much better. Good use of an old phone nook, and you could add those raw wood shelves yourself. And look! You can have a neutral palette AND a home library without making it impossible to find a book! Who would have thought. 9/10

These types of shelves look cool, but are just hard to use in any useful way. Your books are going to be constantly flopping over. 3/10

Oh this is just prime coziness. Can you imagine reading in one of those squishy chairs on a rainy day? I’m starting to relax just from thinking about it. 10/10 someone get me a hot cocoa

I know these types of built-in shelves are popular, but man it would be such a pain in the ass to get any of the books from the top shelves. It just feels like these types of libraries are there for aesthetic purposes, not everyday use. 5/10 they do look cool at least

Well. At least there’s a ladder. 3/10 TOO TALL TOO TALL

This appeals to my Goth sensibilities. 9/10 gimme that chandelier

Those giant words feel like a threat. Is this library about to fight me? 3/10 hate the vibes

This REALLY appeals to my Goth sensibilities. 10/10 RAVENS!!

My opinion on this rests entirely on whether or not there are books behind the painting, because if I had to take down a giant ass portrait every time I wanted to read idk Witches Abroad I would be. Hmm. Cranky! Schrodinger’s books/10

Another excellent use of a weird space, and you could add those shelves yourself! 8/10

This is...extremely off-putting, but I’m not sure why 3/10 kinda getting fire hazard vibes tbh

If I walk into your home and I see this, I immediately know you don’t actually read those books. No book reader is gonna jam their books into a FIREPLACE- hope you closed it up, by the way, otherwise good luck when it rains- in a Tetris-like configuration with no way to see the titles. Every time you try to take a book out you’ll have to shove a bunch of books around and hope they don’t fall out in a giant pile you’ll have to carefully put back in your aesthetic little configuration of nonsense. Home library my ass. Be honest to yourself and call it what it is- an art installation on the cheap. 0/10

Oh I adore this. First off, perfect use of a weird alcove space. Second, the cushy pillows and warm lights just ooze cozy comfort. I can easily see myself flopping over the pillows with a thick book and hot tea. 12/10

Sooo, if I want to take out a book I’ll have to worry about knocking over my entire collection if I go a little too quickly or take out more than one? PASS. 1/10 point for the rainbow I guess

MAN, this just hits my maximalist sensibilities in the right places. The light fixtures, the absolute maximum use of space but still keeping everything within reach, and the bright yellow/deep teal color scheme. There are piles of books on the floor, but since I had my own floor pile during the bookstore days I can’t judge. Absolute perfection. 14/10 maybe put a rail on that stair shaped bookcase, you know someone’s gonna try it

NO

NO

NO

HAVE YOU NO OTHER THOUGHTS IN YOUR BRAIN OTHER THAN YOUR ROMANTIC AESTHETICS? HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF PRACTICALITY? EVERY TIME YOU BATHE, YOUR BOOKS WILL COLLECT MOISTURE AND TRAP IT. THEY WILL NEVER TRULY DRY IN THAT LITTLE ISOLATED CUBBY HOLE OF A TUB. EACH DIP, EACH INDULGENT SOAK WILL NURTURE A BREEDING GROUND FOR SOME OF THE WORST THINGS YOU CAN BREATHE IN. AND WHEN YOU ARE HACKING OUT YOUR SPORE FILLED LUNGS, YOU WILL HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOURSELF. Or maybe your designer. In that case, -100/10 FIRE YOUR INTERIOR DESIGNER

Sources:

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/home-lifestyle/decorating-ideas/g32701104/home-library-ideas/

https://onekindesign.com/2013/08/02/50-jaw-dropping-home-library-design-ideas/

https://www.thespruce.com/home-library-design-ideas-4129190

https://www.mydomaine.com/home-library-ideas-5086793

https://www.homesandgardens.com/interior-design/small-home-library-ideas

https://www.housebeautiful.com/room-decorating/home-library-office/g696/designer-libraries/

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/home-libraries-slideshow

[dearsnow]

hey love :) i just read Jaces Girl and am begging for a part 2 if you have any ideas !!

ENOUGH FOR YOU

- aegon finally spills his guts to the person he has loved for years, and you don’t know how to handle it. (aegon targaryen x gn!reader x technically jace but he’s not in this part, angst)

Part 1

a/n - should i make more parts 😳 i never expected this to get much attention at all but now i’m considering writing multiple endings

The sound of happy children couldn’t be more grating on Aegon’s ears. It’s joyous and light and reminds him of better times, before he grew up and before he knew the reality of the world. Before he turned to drinking and fucking to get his mind off of the person he’d loved since before he discovered that love is something he wants. God, how he wishes he figured himself out earlier.

You’re crouched by the dappled light of a tree, wiping a crumb off of the corner of Jace’s little brother’s mouth. Of course it’s Jace’s little brother. He stares down at you, conflict creating a pit in his stomach.

Fuck it, he thinks. He’s already dug himself this far, might as well get on with it. You’re moving away soon. Your transfer request to another college had been accepted, so what’s the harm in upsetting someone you’ll only see once a year at family Christmas and maybe the occasional summer barbecue?

You’re Jace’s, though. You always have been. You looked at him with starry eyes while Aegon stared at you like a lovesick puppy. He’s tried to get your attention, doing everything he possibly could to make you love him. For a while, he thought it worked. You hung out with him more and even gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing his face to turn fire-engine red. Then, of course, Jace had to ruin everything by asking you on a date. After that, he rarely saw you.

He steps forward, and you take notice of him for the first time that day.

“Aegon! I feel like we haven’t talked in forever, what’s up?” Your voice rings, and he takes it in like a man starved.

“I was hoping we could talk. Privately.” He jams his thumb over his shoulder, referring to a little section of his garden you often played in as children.

You feel wheels turning in your mind, but you can’t exactly pinpoint why your stomach flips. It’s just Aegon. Your boyfriend’s unfortunate uncle, though he’s more like a relatively close cousin. He leads you to your secret spot, and you’re instantly transported into your childhood.

You know every nook and cranny of a house that isn’t yours. You’re rooting for bugs with Helaena, fake sword-fighting with Aemond, and playing duck-duck-goose with Aegon- though it’s really just an excuse for him to chase you around. Jace is there, sometimes, and so is Luke. It feels so warm and nostalgic that you almost lose yourself in it until Aegon clears his throat.

He can barely breathe. The beer he drank earlier is pounding in his head, and looking at your dreamy disposition, you’re not totally there either. He wipes the palms of his hands on his shirt and takes a breath.

“I love you. I’ve loved you for so long. God, not in a platonic way either- I’m in love with you. And if you’ll have me, I want to be yours.”

Your eyes widen. Fireworks are going off in your mind and alarm bells are blaring and you can just barely stutter out a sentence. “Aegon, I’m with Jace. You know that.” You sympathize.

It hurts to see how shattered he looks, like nothing you can ever do will put his hope back together again.

You suspected he was into you for a while, but you never knew it was anything more than a fool’s crush. You certainly never believed he was actually in love with you.

“But I can treat you right, I swear I can. I’ll- I’ll stop drinking, I won’t sleep around, I promise I won’t, I can be better than him. I’ll do anything, just please,” he grabs your hand, “please just let me be yours for once in your life.”

Tears are budding in his eyes now, but he doesn’t care. He only cares about the ones now falling down your cheeks.

“I can’t. We can’t. This- us- we won’t work out.” The lump in your throat is threatening your comprehensibility. You feel so bad for him, for Jace, even for yourself. You don’t know what to do.

“At least consider it.” He begs. “I can be enough for you.”

“Just give me a moment. A lot of moments. Maybe a day or two.” You wipe your salty cheeks, resolving to figure it out. “I need time to process this. And I need to tell Jace. So please, just give me time.”

He nods, fists clenched. He can’t stand the fact that you’re not dropping everything to be with him, though he never expected you to in the first place. He’s a broken, broken man.

But he still nods, and you nod, and in that silent garden, he hopes for the future.

Comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated!!

Taglist: @m00nkn1ghts @mmmimilan @its-halleys-comet @savagemickey03 @panelhone @persephonesportal (read part one if you’re confused ^^)

[palialaina]

So I asked Jina what she thought I should put in my home. Mostly because I was curious, and also because I want Jina to come hang out and relax more often.

She said I should make a library, and I won't lie, the idea sounds really nice.

Pretty sure this is not what she had in mind, but I kind of like it. Now I just need more books for the shelf!

Though maybe I should hang independent shelves and put stuff on those? Hm.

I ended up rearranging my room to make some space for that little nook, and I am almost tempted to go add another room to the guest house that is for books and read, but at the same time... hm. Can't quite justify it to myself. And putting a reading room on my own house is a bit much, since that's mostly my front room, with how few people pop by.

Well, I should say how few humans. Aunt Dal poked her head in just this morning with some extra jam she'd made for me. (She says it's extra and she doesn't want it to go to waste, but c'mon. There's three guys on the farm, all of them have hollow legs. She totally made it special for me. <3)

I also think I finally figured out how I want to display the nice versions of the starstones I find. Something about the way I have the garnet, sapphire and emerald set up really twigs my memory, but... not enough. Something about Spiritual stones? Though I don't think the garnet is right. (It's supposed to be ruby. Naturally the most difficult stone to find...)

Cookie kept staring at me long after this guy had run off. Honestly, I didn't expect it to stay still for a picture!

Decided to change up my front room a bit too. Reth insisted I take the food when I told him my oven was misbehaving and I was struggling to cook.

I have such good friends. And datemates.

Wonder what the guys will think of the new picture wall...

Maybe I should put a lamp next to them so I can actually see the portraits when it's dark?

I did have to move my wreath since there's not enough wall space for it over my bed any more, but putting it right over the fireplace seems... right, somehow. I think I'll keep it there for a while.

I'll debate the idea of a proper library later. I made the mistake of picking today as a birthday when it came up, so now Jel, Tish, Reth, and Dad are working on something in town. I am somewhere between concerned and excited, I won't lie, but goodness only knows how old I actually am...

Oh well. It'll be fun to celebrate with the town.

[finrays]

SO! Here is my lair;

Sockeye, on the right, is a Bambu Lab P1P, and Coho, on the left, is a Bambu Lab A1 with AMS Lite system! It allows me to print in up to four colors on the same print, which is radical! They needed designations in the app-and-program system I use to control them, so salmon species it is, haha! The foam-and-paver setup is to dampen vibrations, which makes for neater prints and cuts the print noise down; these guys can get LOUD, which is why they're banished to the basement.

Basically, the printer heats these strands of filament up until they're molten, then lays them down on the bed in tiny slices, cooling them with fans as it goes so the plastic doesn't run between layers. I usually print at 0.2 mm layer height, so that gives you an idea of how tiny these slices really are and why it takes a LONG time to print things, haha!

The A1 is a Cartesian printer, or "bed-slinger", which means the toolhead moves on the X axis, the printbed moves on the Y axis, and the Z axis is basically the toolhead rail which moves up and down... lots of moving parts! The P1P in comparison is a CoreXY printer, which has a toolhead that moves in the X and Y axes, and a bed that moves on the Z axis. There are trade-offs to each system, but I like them both for what I use them for!

There's a video of them in action.

I store my less-used tools on the teal cart, and my filament in those big tubs, which are absolutely JAM-PACKED with silica gel packets, haha. Gotta keep that stuff dry! PLA filament absorbs moisture really easily, and that messes up the print quality, so you wanna keep it as dry as possible.

Over here are my more commonly used tools and doodads! Clippers for removing supports from prints that need them, a bunch of little Allen keys, a bed-scraper and some cleaning tools I printed, a wire brush for cleaning the nozzles, and some spa day tools! Once a month, I use that canned air to clean out the nooks and crannies, clean off the rods and rails that everything moves on and re-grease them, check the belt tensions on everything and clean out my nozzles. It's a lot of work but it's better to do preventative maintenance than to have it break down on ya.

I also have a filament dryer (the round boi,) which can bake moisture out of wet filaments, and a heat gun, which I use to clean up prints that have gotten stringy. Wet filament CAN cause a print to look like a spider webbed it up, in which case, the heat gun will melt the little stringies back into the body of the print, which neatens it. Spare spools in the back corner in case I get an atrocious order that needs to be re-spooled onto something better (I printed a device called a Pastamatic that lets you re-spool filament, haha) and some spare beds!

The beds themselves are PEI, which is a material that has a MAGICAL interaction with the plastics used in printers; at certain temperatures, there's a reaction between the two materials that results in adhesion. But move away from that temp, and the adhesion fails. So I heat the beds to about 60 C for my PLA filament, and it sticks, but once it cools, I can just slide it off the bed. RADICAL. But having grease or debris on the bed will mess with the adhesion, so I scrub them down with dish soap and keep them clean with the IPA to maintain adhesion!

Software-wise, you manipulate models in a program called a slicer, which allows you to resize, designate colors to certain parts of the model, and generally just set up the print the way you like it before it's converted to a file format the printer can actually read.

CinderWing dragons are the BEST.

The cool thing about Bambu is that there's also a mobile device app that allows you to control and check on your printer from your phone! Very handy.

The hobby itself is front-loaded cost-wise; each of these systems was about $600 and I saved up for a bit to obtain them! But once you get things together, the filament isn't THAT expensive (unless you buy too much of it like I do.) The premium stuff is about $35/kg roll, and it's all downward from there. Typically, I pay around $22-25 for nice filament, and I can get like four full-sized dragons out of a roll.

If you're looking to get into the hobby, though, I'd say now is the time to start looking at printers; the Black Friday sales are revving up, and you can get a very nice single-color A1 Mini, the little brother of Coho, for about $200.

I don't print in resin because there's... a lot of prep work, mess, toxic materials safety, and the need for ventilation, which I don't have. Maybe someday!!!

Anyway... that's the printer shop!

[thatwordybirb]

Ask game! 5, 7, 9, 11, and 14!! :D

Oh! =O Heck, I didn't expect- thank you!! Um!!!

5. something you see in fics a lot and love

That's, ooo, that's tough, since I don't have much spare time and I mostly spend it writing mine instead of reading. Thinking back on my favorite moments, though, I think hurt/comfort is my jam. Heartache, heartbreak, hyperventilation, gimme pain, gimme panic, gimme people barely holding together putting one foot in front of the other even when the person they lean on isn't there, I wanna see what my faves are made of and I want it to hurt!

7. your favorite tropes to read/write/draw

Damn, might've blown my load a bit early there! X'D I'm not super familiar with the functionally infinite catalog of tropes, though, so... hm, had to ask my beautiful beta readers for suggestions - aaand we immediately got on a tangent about Wide Screen Farquaad and started cackling like goons, okay!! Er!!! Now that I think about it, Found Family is in everything I'm writing. My Animal Crossing story features a lot of Tom Nook's relationship with Timmy and Tommy, my MHA story centers around if Tomura was adopted by Principal Nezu instead of All for One, my Final Fantasy Tactics Advance story is all about Marche gathering a family of adventurers with Montblanc - it's an important part of everything I'm writing. Okay the giggles have stopped and one of my betas insists that "furries adopting children" is the Most Important but I don't think that's actually a trope, thanks sis-

9. a ship that isn’t your OTP but that you enjoy

Oh, um, hrm, fuck, I have. So many OTP's. So that complicates things! I love them all so much!! I think the best fit is Sonadow, thanks to @shadows-coffeebeans - I'm not totally in love with it (yet), but I do enjoy it quite a bit!!!

11. if you’re a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

I'm actually really proud of all the things I'm writing lately! =D Got three novel-length fics in the fire, really love how they're turning out!! None of them are er, out yet, though, besides an MHA one-shot I posted last April. I haven't started posting them because I don't want to be discouraged by lack of readers. I will once they're done (except the MHA one, I will start posting that when the final episode of the anime airs), but until then, they only exist as google docs for folks that wanna beta read.

14. the ship that always makes you smile

All of the ones I love do! But by far the one that gets the most content, and thus the constant deluge of smiles, is Sam & Max. Ship is called Freelance Husbands, I adore how dedicated the fandom is, and it always fills my heart with sugar and sunshine, especially even when it's angsty~!

Sorry this one took me so long to finish, you're probably in bed by now, but feel free to reply tomorrow (if you want to at all, no pressure), and thank you so much for the pleasant surprise!!

[automaticdata]

HGCZ live reaction part 4

Synergy through Deer Hunting Season

First story for this part is a fic, which is going to be harder for me to go back and forth between Nook and here, I think. Easier to lose my place on the page if I do that, if that makes sense? So my live reaction may not be as live as the rest. This goes for other fics in the zine as well.

Synergy:

Doc being a recurring villain works really well. It kinda makes me wonder if there'd be a rogues gallery of villains eventually, like Batman has, but yeah. Doc definitely works well in the villain roll, and them using the M for Monster was pretty clever for making a villain name. (I know this isn't just synergy but the words are making me think more so there ya go)

I think this is the first point where we hear about HotGuy's leg bracers. I'd kind of assumed his mobility wasn't as big a thing in this AU, but I'm not upset to see it pop up as a factor. It does make me wonder if he uses them as Scar, too, or is it like DDVAU where they're a HotGuy only thing?

Prickly Cute Guy is best Cute Guy. No I don't like tsunderes --- okay I can't even lie about that jokingly, tsunderes are my jam and Cute Guy makes a very very good tsundere. XD

They have a base! Awesome sauce. I think I've gotten too used to superhero stories/AUs where the heroes don't have a base? Like, it's been awhile since I've read "proper" superhero stuff like Batman, so lately it's been, like ... Miraculous, UnOrdinary, and MCYT AUs. None of those really do the secret hideout, though UnOrdinary has started to hint at/dance around one. But yeah, with HotGuy and Cute Guy being adults who don't know each other's identities, it makes sense they'd get a base they would rent so they'd have a place to store, like. First aid and spare weapons and stuff, as well as meetup. Kinda makes me wonder how they're paying for it, or if it's semi-abandoned or something, though? Probably will find out later, or else my eyes skipped over the explanation. aaaand yep, abandoned. :thumbsup:

One of the interesting things about how people portray Cute Guy is that Cute Guy doesn't really have a canonical weapon the way HotGuy does (partially because in canon, Cute Guy isn't nearly as developed as HotGuy, admittedly.) So it's interesting to see what weapon/fighting style people give Cute Guy. DDVAU gave Cute Guy a gun, but HGCZ is giving him knives, and I kind of like how that works in a team dynamic better? Like, in video game terms, both guns and bows are long-distance weapons, but this way you have one of them as a close-range fighter and one as a long-range fighter. It's neat.

It's also good they're helping each other learn each others' skills, because that will definitely make them less vulnerable in a fight. Less weaknesses to exploit and all that.

and of course Cute Guy has explosives lining his pockets. Why wouldn't he have explosives lining his pockets.

Pretty sure the first F-Bomb, if not the first swear in the zine, goes to Doc. And omg I can hear him say it. XD

-----

.... outfit swap??

----

(switching from the Nook app to a different app because either my eyes are getting tired or the Nook app is getting more annoying and making the text in the comic harder to read. I like the nook app on my phone, but I can see why they have discontinued the Windows version, why is there no freaking zoom function what is this).

----

A Cub in the Quiver:

Got my answer about Scar's mobility immediately, wow. XD

Beta testing the arrows and everything goes wrong. Not Scar safe indeed. XD

Wait did they just. Leave the dummy burning until they got to the flame retardant????? lol

"What's this one do?" *as arrow is loosed* "Wait Cub why are you behind a protective panel --" XD XD XD

----

angry Cute Guy tangled up and hanging <3

----

Bas les Masques pour un Soir

Pretty cover is pretty. <3 Also while we saw various Grians in G-Team and Cute Guy wearing civilian clothes in the Sidekick, I think this may be the first time we see plainclothes everyday Grian?

Film studio, huh? I think I see where this is going ...

"“Oh, hello there! Good—morning? Is it morning?” Grian begins to offer him a decisive no, and how dare he be so cheerful about it," why is Grian me in this moment. XD

I saw the thing about the Crafting Dead before and went "oh hey cool they're including references to Scar's older content" but VEX AND THE CITY? oh my god whoever came up with that needs to get an award. XD

Grian recognizing HotGuy and not realizing he's recognizing HotGuy XD

(oh no the XDs are taking over again ...)

"I know first aid because of some, um, well, uh -- wild fishing trips!" "I got this wound from -- err --- a volleyball net!" Both of you are terrible liars lol.

He's totally talking about Cute Guy with the volleyball teammates isn't he XD

"What if you had a doctorate in being the light of my life?" omg Scar do you even realize you're flirting

that dufflebag is 100% full of Scar's HotGuy gear and Grian doesn't realize how close he is to an identity reveal

omg Scar rolled over and texted Grian back while Grian was in the room with him whut

This fic was super cute <3

----

..... wait WHAT. SCAR. I am Grian in this panel lol XD

----

Deer Hunting Season:

the text fading out behind Cute Guys' "I am so done" face lol

The blue shirt is making me think it's Jimmy for some reason?? He's not really associated with deers though ...

Is that BigB???

IT IS JIMMY

lol both Scar and Grian going "omg Jimmy you should have asked for more money"

WAIT NO NO DO NOT FUCKING CANARY CURSE JIMMY IN THIS ZINE WHEN THIS IS HIS FIRST APPEARANCE NO DON'T BE MONSTERS

IS THAT GEM?????????????

fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

IS JIMMY OKAY I AM FAIRLY SURE THEY WON'T KILL OFF GRIAN BUT JIMMY LITERALLY GOT SHOT IN THE HEAD I HAVE CONCERNS THIS IS EVIL (also super dramatic and awesome EVEN THOUGH I AM VERY UPSET ABOUT JIMMY)

I want to read more but it's also starting to get late and as weird as it sounds live reacting takes more attention than just reading something straight? Like I know half of my reactions are just XD faces even when I'm full awake but yeah.

I think it would be cool if, as I suspect, Doctor Monster is kind of a showboaty but ultimately not very harmful villain while Gemini Slay is The Big Bad. It honestly works. It could also end up being hard to find her secret identity, because as herself she's all sunshine and butterflies but like. Despite the cutesy cottagecore vibes she is still Gemini Slay.

Don't know when I'll be able to continue, might be tomorrow, might be Thurs, idk. Depends on how sleep and work cooperate (or don't cooperate) with each other.

[roseaesynstylae]

I have never started a tumblr ask exchange thing so please be nice

Okay so when I first was drafted into the Null arcs and Badbatchers were separated at decanting theory a few months before I stumbled upon your Ao3 account I coincidentally also came up with a Au involving one half of the Null-Bad batch going on a platonic yandere rampage towards their estranged batch mates although my wip is roughly waist depth in liquid gen rated romcom crackfic hijinks which has been giving me sooo much tonal whiplash whenever I reread your fic which I adore in a way that if I was free of writers block forever i would indulge you with a review of how goregeous it is but i am having a hard time describing your really cool serial killer platonic yandere dark fic and have to ask about something here so I thought maybe that you would enjoy reading what I have of my wip ( if you don’t mind me sharing of course and premature apologies for the remodel of the Great Wall of text on Tumblr I don’t know any other formatting techniques)

So um the major influence behind why I often write with a very humorous quirky quip filled style is due to my mental disabilities/disorders being mostly tolerable when I communicate in person orally ( except when I have an anxiety attack about talking ) but my struggles begin when I have to try to articulate/brainstorm/discuss/summarize my thoughts and fic ideas. I discovered that it is comparatively much easier if I use analogies and describe my things with comedy and wordplay so that is why I tend to be a editor’s nightmare in my wording and sorry for the dumpsterfire of my attempt to explain my take on this au

This au is set in a vaguely no order 66 timeline mostly in the background due to my complete inability to make the fic have a plot if the republic is suspiciously dead despite the empire coincidentally inheriting Literally everything so just picture the entire now living in the Jedi temple the former GAR eating bangcorn while they watch the shenanigans of the Bad batches involuntary collaboration with Keeping Up with the Skiratas like a soap opera. Still brainstorming exactly how the Nulls figured out that they are the first clones eligible for compensation for being swapped at birth but they do and they are NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT so obviously the First contact goes as poorly as the Nulls results on a emotional intelligence and social tact exam and the Bad Batch response is their signature combo of Fight AND Flight ( or well they utilize the inside knowledge of their perfect attendance of 99’s regular Take your Vodike to his Maintenance shifts cause it isn’t safe to use Kamino Daycare and the cadethood spent exploring,navigating and basically knowing every single crawl space maintenance tunnel secret compartment and clone accessible nook and cranny on Kamino to first go into hiding but they are as always overachievers and accidentally hide so well they cause the Nulls to make up for the lost time by terrorizing kamino with the most Intense Game of Hide and Seek ever played. And part of the reason the nulls are so Yandere is that a ever increasing amount of the clone population both on kamino and in general is that starting with the Alpha clones have begun aiding and abetting the Bad batch out of spiteful vengeance towards Skirata Poodoo such as ahem when wrecker leaves to safety of inside the walls to get more food from the cafeteria and a kal Skirata spots him they are blocked by a sudden crowd of petty commandos and reg troopers getting up to go to the fresher and the skiratas are caught in the living traffic jam of clones and all sorts of efforts like this increase frustrating the Skirata clan which is done due to the kal and co having a VERY POOR reputation with the Gar to the point that clone sympathies for the Batch having to escape from their increasingly unstable batchmates are helping in a enemy of my enemy is my friend and I owe the lowercase j jerks for being the indefinite distraction for the mando idolizing Jedi-hating chauvinist condescending egos with the second name skirata. But yeah so part one is basically the nulls impulsively making the worst approach at reuniting possible and the batch for the first time in their clone equivalent of Leeroy Jenkins lives decided to react to the threat via retreat and observation ( for Omega and cause crosshair was sick and thus incapable of voting that violence is the solution for the nulls especially) and the Nulls begin their development arc from at first the nulls notice the Search/hunt for the batch is challenging ( I HC that one of the things that the cloners messed up is having impulsively violent wired for adrenaline clones AND then only giving them physical emotional and mental enrichment via combat makes the way the relationship between both halves of the batch turn toxic … ( I am stuck cannot break the characterization of platonic yandere nulls into words will try later ) so that is what I have of my wip

That sounds funny! I personally wanted to try to be more sympathetic to the Nulls, but the only way I could think of to make them more sympathetic was to just hit them with a ton of trauma. Combine that with my desire to write a particularly dark version of the Bad Batch, and the result is what you’ve seen. I didn’t think of it before, but “platonic yandere” sums up the story.

[thebiscuiteternal]

I have a prompt I'd love to throw your way for the jam:

MDZS/Untamed post-canon SangYao, another character (e.g. WWX or a snooping Junior) discovers that NHS has a little shrine/memorial nook set aside with JGY's hat, a lovingly painted portrait by NHS, and whatever other accoutrements strike your fancy (e.g. maybe a journal NHS writes in every day where he 'speaks' to JGY) that make it obvious the relationship SangYao once had. What they do with that is up to you, I just thought it would be fun (and potentially heartbreaking)

After thinking about it a bit, I've decided that I'm gonna set this in the same timeline as this one, so Jin Ling already knows that things between Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao were a lot less simple than everyone would like to believe, but he didn't know they were in a relationship at some point. Mixed canon, as per my usual.

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

~ I suppose I should be angry. Would it be easier for you that way? For me to roar and rage about broken promises the way Da-ge does instead of hiding away in tears?

Well, I can't. Just like I can't say I never saw this coming. As soon as I saw you in the Nightless City, I knew I had been set aside for someone better and more acceptable in numerous ways.

Before I even fell for you, I knew I would never be good enough.

So I can't be angry.

But will you be angry with me if I am too ill to travel the day of the wedding? I promise to send extra gifts in my stead, and to try to send Da-ge in a good mood. ~

---

Jin Ling frowned as he closed up the letter and laid it back among the dozens of other letters and notes and drawings from Nie Huaisang that his shushu had been keeping in an unassuming little box hidden deep within the protected room where all his other most closely guarded secrets were held.

It was dated a solid two years before Nie Mingjue had die- been killed, but even though he didn't remember the wedding itself, he knew from records that Jin Guangyao and Qin Su had married after the murder and Nie Huaisang had attended as sect leader and representative.

Had he already tracked down any of Jin Guangyao's secrets by then?

Jin Ling doubted that. Surely there would have been more mention of him other than the guest list if he'd made a commotion, as Jin Ling had discovered many, many records of indescretions by assorted cultivators and outside nobles and merchants that could have been used as blackmail as he went through the contents of the room.

And some of them had been about Nie Huaisang. Jin Guangshan had found it almost disturbingly amusing to catalogue the apparent downward spiral of his hated rival's little brother.

So if there weren't any from the wedding... no, whatever had been going on then must have been genuine.

Knowing what he knew now from having talked to Nie Huaisang and read everything he'd found in the treasure room, Jin Ling could only feel an aching sort of pity for everyone involved except his yeye.

His shenshen, not having any idea what horrors were lurking behind her happy day.

Qin-furen, knowing what she was unwillingly allowing.

Nie Huaisang, newly brotherless and forced into the role of playing smiling wedding guest as the man he loved married someone else.

He even felt sorry for his shushu. It must have been miserable trapped under the weight of his mistakes and the what-might-have-beens.

Wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand, Jin Ling leaned back against the wall and let out a long sigh.

Unlike the blackmail records -burned- and the demonic cultivation notes -given to his shijiu- and a number of other things he'd already gone through, he wasn't sure what to do with these.

They were far too personal to just be put back on the shelf, and yet-

He considered possibly giving them to Nie Huaisang, but he didn't know if that would be an insult. The other sect leader had been surprisingly kind to him in helping him sort out his grief over several talks and exchanges of letters, and Jin Ling didn't want to wind up pouring salt in an old wound.

But it felt wrong to simply get rid of them, and he couldn't think of any better place for them to go.

---

Though he couldn't go anywhere he pleased with impunity like his shushu once had, Jin Ling had discovered during his visits that he still had a surprising amount of freedom in the Unclean Realms. Whether it was because most of the disciples and staff still looked at him as a kid, or because Nie Huaisang allowed it as a side effect of their personal discussions, he didn't know.

But he wasn't going to complain about it right now.

His original intent had been to leave the box in Nie Huaisang's library or somewhere similar, but then he'd remembered That Room.

The one situated in the same hallway as the sect leader's room and Nie Huaisang's old room, that his shushu had indicated he'd lived in when he'd been part of the sect.

The one Jin Ling had never seen anyone else living in even when he was small, not even the current second in command.

Hoping he wasn't about to get himself in deep trouble for snooping, he tested the door latch and found it opened easily, as if it hadn't gathered any dust in the years since his shushu had left.

Carefully, he peeked inside.

Though most of the furniture was gone, a hefty three piece writing desk and a cabinet remained.

At first, he thought they'd been taken directly from his shushu's office, they were so similar. But as he looked closer, running his fingers over the wood, he found a few differences.

The beast head of Qinghe Nie adorned the drawer and door pulls, for one. The desk was missing the place where he'd accidentally nicked it with a toy sword. The spots where Rusong had tried to chew on the edge while teething weren't there.

This, he realized, must have been his shushu's desk and cabinet when he was still Meng Yao. A welcome gift from his sect leader and young master.

And Jin Guangyao had had it replicated more according to Lanling tastes when he'd moved.

Oh... things really had been complicated between them, hadn't they?

Curiosity overtook him, and he couldn't stop himself from looking in the drawers and cabinets one by one.

A hat that he couldn't bear to see for more than the time it took to open and then quickly shut the drawer. A set of finely made brushes. Some fresh notebooks. A set of beautifully-designed green and gold robes that had likely never been worn.

A painting of his shushu, looking younger and smiling brighter than Jin Ling had ever seen him.

Other bits and pieces he didn't understand the meanings of.

And, finally, a carved wooden box.

Jin Ling found himself relieved by that particular discovery, knowing immediately what had to be inside without even opening it. Taking the box he'd brought with him out of the pouch he'd stored it in, he carefully laid it down next to the one already there.

Then slipped out of the little mausoleum-of-sorts back to his room.

---

Jin Ling looked up from his breakfast to find Nie Huaisang staring at him over the rim of his teacup.

For a moment, he froze, afraid he was about to get laid into for his nighttime sneaking.

But Nie Huaisang merely tilted his head in acknowledgment, then went back to his tea.

And Jin Ling couldn't help but grin before taking his next bite.