#laurenlikesstuff

[pagesofkenna]

monsterbookworm: I was SHOCKED he figured out the luke twist

YEAH and I was a little sad too, because he was SO pro-Luke those first couple chapters, I really wanted him to be pro-Luke 'til the end and get shocked by the twist. I think reading so slowly makes it easier to see the seeds the story is planting?

laurenlikesstuff: Yooooooooo I’m so glad you liked them! TNO is awesome and I’m SO GLAD you liked Modern Muckraker. Idk, Mike’s voice is just great? And TNO is WILD the things they are bringing up.

Modern Muckrakers is very good, I went straight from that all the way through Meddling Adults, then I couldn't resist Newest Olympian when he was advertising it. He's got a good podcasting voice?? excitable but not too much so, lots of context information and tangents without being overwhelming. Also gotta give props to his editors because editing makes or breaks a podcast for me (I gotta relisten to Modern Muckrakers to compare bc I remember the editing on that being a bit different maybe?)

[murphels]

Oh god you're so sweet I don't even have venmo lol it's no big

[sarcasticfina]

pampered - 1/1

for: @laurenlikesstuff for her donation prompt: Darcy gets the love and respect she deserves/acknowledgement from the team/SHIELD/whoever

Exhausted did not begin to cover how Darcy was feeling. Don’t get her wrong, she loved working for Pepper and the Avengers, but there were days that she seriously regretted not still being the lab monkey that trailed behind Jane, trying to keep a cap on her crazy and encouraging her to meet basic hygiene requirements. She still managed to visit her friend in the labs, and she checked in with Ingrid, Jane’s new flunky, to make sure Jane was being taken care of, but Darcy’s primary job was acting as the ringleader to the Avengers media interactions. That meant keeping an eye on the social networking sites (or, in Tony’s case, locking him out of his Twitter account whenever he was on a 3+ day brain binge). It also meant setting Steve and Barnes up with someone who could fill in the blanks on history and social media. Steve was a quick learner, and had done much of the work before Darcy had been hired on, but Barnes a blank slate in a lot of (very sad) ways.

For a lot of reasons, Darcy loved her job. The people she worked with, while frustrating, were good people, and she considered most of them her friends. It was hectic, though. Corralling a group of people that were used to being independent, often working in the shadows and far from the glare of public opinion, was no easy job. There was a lot of arguing, and sometimes she felt they disagreed just for the sake of it. Or, when it came to Tony, pushed her buttons just to see how long it took to make her blow up.

She got it. They didn’t want to spend what little down time they had playing nice for the cameras. Even Steve, who wanted to do what he could to positively influence the younger generation, put up a fight after a while. Then again, those high school PSA’s were terrible and the forced smile he fed the camera after the first handful only became more and more obvious. But, this was her job, and there was a reason for it. 

If they wanted to keep doing what they were doing, then they had to work on their public image, but when there wasn’t an intergalactic war happening in the middle of downtown, people were quick to wonder if the Avengers were all that useful. And considering the history that some of them had racked up, between brainwashing and both on-the-book and off-the-book assassinations, having the public on their side helped to keep the government off their backs. Telling them that eventually got old, but it was the truth.

As much as Darcy wanted them to keep operating in the capacity they were, strings had to be pulled and palms needed to be greased. Which was where she came in. Only, she was tired. She was always tired these days. In a lot of ways, her job was thankless. She appreciated the paycheck; Pepper made sure she was paid handsomely for her work. But being on top of the team was a 24/7 job and not in a fun way. She was only getting five hours of sleep on a good night, she was always eating on the go—literally, she ate take-out while going over her schedule with one of her three assistants last night— and any chances of a social life were laughable. Her phone was constantly going off with the latest fire she had to put out and what little time she did have that wasn’t spent trying to sleep, she ended up in Jane’s lab, listening to her babble about her latest act of genius. Not that she hated that, she was proud of Jane and everything she’d accomplished. She was just getting… Well, lonely. The team were good people, but ninety perfect of her interactions with them ended with complaints and a compromise.

When she walked into her apartment, she had her shoes in one hand while the other rubbed at her shoulder, where a knot was quickly forming. She wanted to shower, but with her eyes quickly closing, she figured she might have to put it off until she woke up. Just as the door closed behind her, her phone started buzzing demandingly. Darcy wasn’t too proud to say that her eyes watered. She was so, so tired. Turning her phone over, she squinted at the screen, and found Pepper’s name staring back.

Sighing, she answered it. “Pep, hey. Any chance you’re calling to read me a bedtime story?”

“Not quite. Listen, I’m going to be in town tomorrow and I’d like to meet. My office? 8 am. Does that work?”

Darcy checked the time. That gave her six hours to sleep, shower, and get her ass across the facility. “I can do that.”

“Great. And sorry for calling so late, Darcy. Get some sleep.”

“On it. See you tomorrow!”

After hanging up, she dragged her feet on her way to her room. Falling face first on her mattress, she sighed. Eventually, she would have to crawl up her bed, plug in her phone, and, if she wanted a good sleep, change out of her clothes. But ‘eventually’ would be eat least five minutes of her arguing with herself over how much energy that would take.

Darcy drank her morning coffee in the shower. She also brushed her teeth and shaved her armpit at the same time; no lie, she was a little proud of that skill. By the time she was out of the shower and dressed, she was ready to face whatever monumental fuck up had her being called to Pepper’s office. As much as she could blame, and thank, Pepper for her job, they didn’t often get a chance to interact. Pepper was a busy woman and, obviously, so was Darcy. Which meant that there was either some grenade-sized scandal she needed to throw herself on or she’d fucked up somehow and Pepper was firing her.

In either case, Darcy planned to go in with her head held high and her best heels on display. She’d put her blood, sweat, and tears into this job. She was proud of the work she had done. And she was willing to fight for her position, or the team, whichever outcome was waiting for her.

Making her way into Pepper’s office, she found her standing at the window, her hair down and her clothes far more casual than Darcy was used to.

“Hey…” Darcy’s brow furrowed, hesitation coloring her voice and expression. “You wanted to see me?”

“I did. Yes.” Dropping a file on her desk, Pepper smiled and crossed the room toward her. “I’ve set you up for an appointment at The Surrey. The works. Anything you want or need, it’s on me. After that, I thought we could get lunch. I already okay’d it with Natasha, Maria, and Helen; they’re all on board. And Ingrid said that she would make sure Jane gets there, fully showered. I also set up an appointment with Joseph, he’s my personal stylist. You have an appointment at a salon for three o’clock and then he’ll be taking you to some of the best shops New York has to offer. I thought we could cap the day off with drinks and dinner. Tony’s renting out a restaurant for the night, which means the team can come and everyone can relax.” She calmly folded her hands together. “How does that sound?”

Darcy blinked at her. “I… I think I had a stroke in the elevator and I’m hallucinating this as my final moments.”

Pepper smothered her amusement. “I know we don’t get to see each other often, but I’ve noticed all the hard work you put in. And not just from your weekly emails, which are a lot more… colorful than most employees would send me. That’s not a bad thing, either. I hired you because you speak your mind. You’re smart and capable and you’ve managed to do something not a lot of people could. We work with a lot of wonderful people, but they also have huge personalities, which can make our jobs…difficult. To say the least.”

Clearing her throat, Darcy nodded. “I get that. And I appreciate what you’re saying. But… a spa day, shopping, all of it is a little… much, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think it is.” Pepper shook her head. “Darcy, you work your ass off, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that we deserve a break sometimes. So, let me do this for you. Let me show you how much I appreciate all your hard work.”

Chewing her lip, Darcy nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Pepper grinned then. “There’s only one caveat.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Which is…?”

“You give up your phone until the end of the day. No work, no calls, no texts, nothing. If something happens and we absolutely need to reach you, we’ll find you. But today is supposed to be about resting.”

Darcy looked down at her phone, her brow knit. Very slowly, she reached out, and dropped it into Pepper’s hand. “Fine. But take care of her. My whole life is in that phone.”

“I will.”

The doors opened then and Pepper’s assistant stepped inside. “Happy is waiting outside.”

“Great.” Pepper motioned to Darcy. “Happy will stick with you for the day. He’ll take you everywhere you need to go.”

“Uh, okay. Thanks.”

Pepper nodded. “You’re welcome.”

Awkwardly, Darcy turned on her heel to leave, following the assistant out. But a tiny bloom of excitement formed in her stomach. As strange as it felt not to have her phone, it was a little freeing, too. The weight of her job and whatever impending problem it came with was no longer on her plate, at least for today. As she crossed the facility to the front, excitement slowly started to fill her. Stepping outside, she smiled at Happy, his sunglasses on and his hands stacked in front of him.

“Looks like I’m along for the ride, Lewis.” He moved to the back of the car to open her door. “Hope you don’t mind my shadow.”

“If you’re nice, I’ll set you up with a premium pedicure.”

He snorted. “Hot-rod red with gold trim?”

Climbing into the car, she settled back against the buttery leather seat, and winked at him. “Anything for you, Hap.”

Pampered was not a word Darcy considered part of her vocabulary. Pampering herself usually consisted of a cheap facial mask, painting her toenails, and a Netflix binge. None of which had been part of her day-to-day life since signing on with Pepper. There just wasn’t time for that. But after a day of luxury, she was starting to think that maybe pampering herself from time to time was necessary. Maybe she needed a fourth assistant and a regular day off so she could actually enjoy her downtime. It probably wouldn’t involve the best luxury spa in New York, but something a little closer to her budget wouldn’t be terrible.

After a morning of spa treatments, she’d met up with the ladies for lunch, and she… loved it. Most of her interactions with Natasha, Helen, and Maria involved work, but there was none of that. They’d put their phones away too and the meal was spent just talking. Getting to know each other, finding common ground, and occasionally making fun of the boys. Jane was occasionally distracted with writing her thoughts out on napkins here or there, but for the most part, she stayed focused on enjoying her lunch.

After eating, Darcy was ready for a nap, but then Joseph was there, ushering her out of the restaurant and back into the car. She was on time for her hair appointment and, while it took a while, when she walked out of the salon, she felt lighter. Apparently, she had more split ends than she thought, so she had a few inches taken off, added some color, and while it wasn’t a dramatic change, it left her feeling new.

Shopping was unexpectedly fun. With Darcy’s figure, she often struggled to find something that fit properly, but Joseph helped her find outfits that flattered her figure, and whatever she liked that wasn’t perfect, he sent to the tailors to have them done right. She even picked out a new dress and shoes for that evening’s dinner.

In the end, Darcy felt good. Happy helped her out of the car in front of the restaurant and Darcy fiddled with the end of her dress and stroked her fingers through her hair nervously. She felt like she’d just been on one of those cheesy makeover shows and was about to have the reveal in front of her closest friends and family and a live audience. But as Happy led her inside, she calmed down. Her stomach stopped twisting and turning and the familiarity of the faces surrounding the table were a comfort.

Today, she wouldn’t have to steal Tony’s phone or tell Sam to stop posting candid pictures of Barnes glaring at him with the tag lines like ‘freezer burn,’ ‘elsa,’ and ‘ice, ice, Bucky.’ She wouldn’t have to explain whatever slang word Steve had heard Tony purposely say in front of him in the hopes that he would Google it. And she wouldn’t have to convince Natasha to go on any early morning TV shows where she would no doubt terrify the hosts with her cryptic answers to every question. Today, she could just relax and talk to them and be a part of instead of feeling like a nagging parent with too many children that didn’t like the word ‘no.’

Sam noticed her first. “Hey…” He raised his glass and the others followed. “If it isn’t the reason we all got a night off. Nice work, Darce.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Hardly.” She made her way down the table and took a seat between Helen and Jane. “I’m surprised you all made it.”

“Pep made it mandatory.” Tony was buttering a bun from a nearby bread basket; he waved the knife around absently. “I was in the middle of a stunning piece of engineering brilliance, so if my genius flags later, it’s all on you, Shortstack.”

“It was only mandatory for you,” Pepper said. “Everyone else was happy to come.”

“I never turn down free food.” Clint winked. “It’s good to see you without the extra luggage under your eyes, Kid.”

“The wonders of make-up,” Darcy joked.

A waiter stopped next to her then to get her drink order and when Darcy turned back, she found her phone sitting on the table, next to her napkin. Picking it up, she hesitated. Rather than checking her messages and immediately immersing herself in what she’d missed during the day, Darcy pressed her thumb down on the power button and shut her phone down completely. It could wait for tomorrow.

Placing her phone in her purse, she relaxed and listened to the table as an argument broke out over which appetizers they wanted to get and what end of the table they should go to. It was a pointless discussion, considering they could order multiples, but sometimes she thought Tony and Steve just looked for a way to bicker.

“Well?” Jane shifted in her seat to face her. “How was it?”

Darcy smiled slowly. “Pretty amazing.”

“Good.” Jane bumped her shoulder. “You deserve it.”

Feeling as good as she did, surrounded by the people she worked with and for, by her closest and dearest friends, Darcy agreed. Tomorrow, her day would be just as busy as ever. But, she also knew how much it was appreciated. Plus, she had a feeling that Pepper would ‘okay’ a fourth assistant and, with a new motivation to make sure she was taking care of herself and not just flagging under the weight of her job and responsibilities, she felt better about life and what it was going to look like.

[thankyoufive]

Couple, heart, poem

couple: are you annoyed by public displays of affection nah, dude. as long as i’m not seeing your junk, go for it.

heart: talk about your crush she’s a sweet hufflepuff who is the hardest worker i know and takes her coffee very sweet and has a lot of feelings 

poem: write me a poem ...i’m comin up  blank here

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

req’d by @laurenlikesstuff

big L for you Brandon

text: The raccoon ate all your damn cheese, Brandon!

[fictionadventurer]

Hallmark Christmas Movie Point-Scoring Game

For everyone who’s interested, here are the points my family is using to score cheesy Christmas movies by their use of tropes. It’s very much a work in progress--we are still adding tropes, and we were rather haphazard in how we assigned points to the different tropes. The general idea was to award only 1 point to small moments or very common details and award more points to concepts that are less common and/or related to larger plot or character points.

Feel free to add on tropes or to adjust scoring. You could also use it as a bingo card, but we specifically wanted a points system so we can compare the scores of different movies. (Plus, this way all the tropes count toward the score and you don’t get disappointed if they don’t line up into a bingo).

Four Points

Marriage by Christmas

Meets prince/princess

Main character has job directly related to Christmas

Main character hates Christmas

Project has a Christmas deadline

Three Points

Widowed with child/ren

They hate each other at the beginning

She falls/is about to get injured and he catches her

They bump into each other at first meeting

One is trying to close down the other’s business

Movie includes any non-white characters

One main character is leaving and the other stops them

Final kissing scene

Engaged by end (x2 if they marry by the end)

Main character works in cutesy little business (bakery, flower shop, etc.)

Two Points

One main is from a small town and one is from the city

Character unknowingly meets famous person (+1 bonus point if they insult the famous person before knowing their identity)

Ice skating

Bake together (+1 bonus point for throwing flour/food at each other)

Made-up country

Big career opportunity

Dead parent (x2 if both parents are dead)

Disabled character (+1 bonus point for child)

Snow falling at climax

Ride horse or sleigh

Orphans

Love triangle/romantic rival

The romantic pair used to know each other (Bonus points: +1 if they dated, +2 if they were engaged, +3 if they got married)

He gives her something to keep her warm (his coat, scarf, etc.)

Dancing

Character fired before Christmas/has money issues

Character gave up their dreams

Character breaks something valuable

Arranged marriage

Secondary romance

One Point

Christmas caroling (any instance of the characters singing Christmas carols counts)

Snowball fight

Making snow angels

Tree decorating

Any kind of annual Christmas event in the town (x2 if the town has an entire Christmas festival)

Old guy who looks like Santa (Bonus points: +1 if he winks, +1 if he gives meaningful advice)

Hot chocolate

Character who’s an artist

Characters gaze dreamily upon each other upon first meeting

Christmas ball

Butler/servant

Mean lady in authority

Plot set outside the USA

Child who is a handful

Clumsy main character

Heirloom from dead parent

Cheesy Christmas saying

Almost kiss

Making gingerbread houses

Mid-movie fight/misunderstanding

Things that we have observed in multiple Christmas movies but don’t get points because we decided they were too common and/or too specific: characters wearing scarves, royals wearing those weird sashes, future step-parent who plans to send the child to boarding school.

@brambleberrycottage, @laurenlikesstuff, @magpie-trove, @im-not-the-one-youre-looking-for

[patina-millers-biceps]

@laurenlikesstuff omg I looked it up and I actually saw this movie a couple years ago! My mom watches Christmas movies year round and it was on hallmark or lifetime and I even tho I’m not usually a made-for-tv Christmas movie gal, I remember i genuinely really liked this one!! I forget the ending though, so maybe I should do a rewatch? Thanks!

[clintbartonruinedmylife]

I got tagged by @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123! Thanks, hun!!

RULES: Answer 20 questions, then tag 20 bloggers you want to get to know better.

1. NAME: Katja

2. NICKNAMES: Lina

3. ZODIAC SIGN: Gemini

4. HEIGHT: 175 cm (don’t understand that weird measuring system Americans use)

5. LANGUAGES: German, English, Portuguese, started to learn Russian, French, Hawaiian, also know some old, dead languages no one really needs anymore

6. NATIONALITY: German

7. FAVORITE SEASON: Autumn

8. FAVORITE FLOWER: Lilies (as long as they are in the garden. I hate to have them in the house because they always leave stains on my carpet)

9. FAVORITE SCENT: Lilac (my grandma had a few trees in her garden and whenever I smell it I remember that garden)

10. FAVORITE COLOR: Purple (and no, I don’t love it because Clint loves it, but the fact that Clint loves it is one of the reasons I love him so much ;) )

11. FAVORITE ANIMAL: Penguin

12. FAVORITE FICTIONAL CHARACTER(s): Well, obviously it’s Clint Barton, right? But I also love Tony Stark very much, I love Natasha, I love Commander Shepard (Mass Effect), Geralt of Riva (Witcher) and... many, many more :D

13. COFFEE, TEA, OR HOT CHOCOLATE: Coffee!! I still can’t understand that there are people who don’t drink coffee and manage not to kill anyone around them...

14. AVERAGE SLEEP HOURS: 4 - 6 hours, and then 12 hours on the weekends :D

15. DOG OR CAT PERSON: Cat. I like dogs, but if I have to choose dog or cat, sorry dogs, cats win 

16. NUMBER OF BLANKETS YOU SLEEP WITH: one

17. DREAM TRIP: I love Denmark ;)

18. BLOG ESTABLISHED: July 2017 (yes, I checked that :D )

19. FOLLOWERS: exactly 3800 (thanks, you awesome people!!)

20. RANDOM FACT: I can play the drums and the didgeridoo :D

And about the tagging thing... I’m gonna pick the last 20 blogs in my activity list: @cfbarnes, @galip-99-blog, @kisleth, @rebelmeg, @angharadannie, @issybird, @pikachen24, @deviousthinkers, @averyrogers83, @clintobarto, @disasterboysandtheirgruffloves, @younghades, @laurenlikesstuff, @caps1gal, @onequartercanadian, @praisethepizzagods, @hawkguyandthewinterdude, @acevampyre, @midghtwishesunheard and @nana-evans

[awrites]

Prompt: Clint makes cookies and one by one everyone wanders in because of the smell

@laurenlikesstuff

Clint’s mom had always liked to bake cookies. It was one of the few good memories he had of her. He’d be hiding out in his room or playing with Barney in the yard when he’d suddenly get a whiff of melting chocolate and butter. He’d stop whatever he was doing and follow his nose to the kitchen. It was a smell that meant all was well. His dad wasn’t home, his mom was having a good day, and his fears could be pushed away for a while. He honestly didn’t remember much about the taste of the cookies. His mom could’ve made terrible cookies for all he remembered. It was all about the smell. So that’s what he set out to recreate when he began gathering the ingredients and asked Jarvis to walk him through the process of making cookies. Clint had never been much of a cook. Eggs and pancakes and well, various other breakfast foods were about the extent of his cooking knowledge. But he figured with a nosy, all-seeing AI carefully monitoring him, it couldn’t go too wrong, right? The first one to pop up was Sam. “Aw, man, it smells just like my mom’s kitchen in here. How much longer they got?”“About ten minutes,” Clint told him, feeling a little bubble of pride inside his chest. “Perfect,” Sam said and plopped down in a chair. Steve and Natasha wandered in together, clearly fresh off a workout. “I thought I smelled something delicious,” Steve said, retrieving two water bottles and tossing one to Natasha. “What are you burning, Barton?” Natasha asked. She had been a witness to a few of Clint’s more disastrous attempts at cooking while hiding out together at various safe houses. Her skepticism was warranted. “I’m not burning anything!” Clint defended himself and leaned down to peer through the oven door at the same time, just to make sure. “I’m making cookies.”When he turned back around, they had both found seats at the table. Tony stumbled in a moment later, having clearly just woken up from a long sleep after a several day science binge. His hair was in disarray and his nose was stuck in the air actually sniffing like a dog. “Why do I smell Jarvis’ famous chocolate chip cookies?” Tony asked. “Uh, well, I’m making cookies and Jarvis helped me,” Clint told him, suddenly feeling a little awkward. He knew how much Tony missed human-Jarvis. He glared at the ceiling; that damn AI had to have known what it was doing, choosing that recipe, though there was complete silence from above. “Oh,” Tony said, then veered around the table and scooted into Steve’s lap, leaning his head on one broad shoulder in an attempt to hide his face. Steve just wrapped his arms around Tony and kissed his forehead. Clint cleared his throat and turned back towards the oven, thinking they were probably about ready to come out, when Bruce and Thor appeared, talking animatedly about something science-y. “What is that delicious smell, friend Barton?” Thor boomed, breaking off from the conversation. “Cookies,” Clint told him. “I must try one. Is that what all of you are waiting for?” Thor asked the occupants of the table, and they all nodded in response. “Splendid. We will join you.”He clapped Bruce on the shoulder and led him towards the table. “It does smell great, Clint,” Bruce said over his shoulder with a small smile. Grabbing an oven mitt, Clint opened the oven door, the scent of freshly baked cookies pouring out. He reached in carefully and pulled out the large tray filled from edge to edge with perfect, golden-brown cookies. Placing the tray on the stove top, he hurried to grab a cooling rack before they cooked on the tray much more. “When do we get to eat them?” Thor asked. “They have to cool down,” Tony told him. “They’re best when they’re hot!” Sam protested. “They literally just came out of the oven,” Natasha said. “You’ll burn your mouth.”“Worth it,” Steve and Sam said at the exact same time. Bruce and Natasha rolled their eyes, but everyone had smiles on their faces. Clint cleared his throat and said a little louder than he probably needed to, letting his voice carry, “Bucky gets the first cookie.”General protests erupted around the room, but Clint insisted, “they’re for Bucky. He gets the first one and he decides who gets one.”The shadow that had been lurking outside the door to the common living room shifted and everyone’s eyes went to it. “You made me cookies?” Bucky asked, just as his face became distinguishable from the shadow. Clint shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. “You said you thought you liked them, so…”Clint used the spatula to pull one from the cooling rack and placed it on a small plate, holding it out to Bucky. Reluctantly, Bucky took a few more steps into the room, his wary eyes shifting from the cookie, to Clint, to the crowd of people gathered at the table. His flesh and blood hand slowly came up and took the plate, lifting it to his nose. Just as he took a sniff, his eyes fell closed and a small smile formed on his lips.

[mixmioart]

Bi unicorns for @laurenlikesstuff ! I hope you like these! 

My program decided to mess up for no reason at all but I hope the quality isn’t too bad.

(Unicorn icons is from Flaticon, made by Freepik. Lockscreens are free to use, but like/reblog if you do, and don’t repost <3)

[pagesofkenna]

laurenlikesstuff replied to your post “someone give me a fanfic prompt”

“We got stuck together as travel buddies for the class trip and we have to sit together on the bus and we’re not allowed to have our phones - what book are you reading?”

[AO3 link] @laurenlikesstuff

Aziraphale watched the cracked screen of his old white cellphone disappear into the front pocket of his teacher’s backpack, shamefaced. He didn’t really mind losing the phone for an hour – he’d packed more than enough books for the overnight trip as it was. What he couldn’t stand was the profound look of disappointment on the teacher’s face.

“You’ll get these back in an hour,” she said, wrenching Crowley’s sleek black phone out of his grip, “I’m not a monster. But until then.…” She indicated the empty bench behind them, right at the front of the bus, just behind the driver. Singled out from their classmates, who were all staring up at them from the back half.

Aziraphale hurriedly sat down. Crowley, instead, complained. “An hour?! What are we supposed to do for an hour?! Stick our thumbs up our asses?”

“Preferably not.” The teacher made a shooing motion and Crowley practically growled before finally, blessedly, slumping down into the seat. Aziraphale slid as far towards the window as the space would allow. “Read a book, or do your homework. Maybe you could convince your new partner in crime to help you out with that, be a good influence.”

Both the teacher and Crowley shot a look Aziraphale’s way, and he immediately turned to look out the window.

“Or just sit there quietly,” she added. “Think about what you two did.” She finally moved away, to address the rest of the students with her pre-trip safety speech. For once, Aziraphale didn’t listen. His hands were still shaking.

Crowley spoke in a low voice on his left. “We didn’t even get away with it,” he grumbled, quietly enough Aziraphale had to glance over to make sure he’d heard him. “If we’d gotten away with it, all this would make sense, but we didn’t so-”

“You tried to steal the teacher’s liquor!” Aziraphale hissed. He glanced back at the teacher to make sure she didn’t hear them talking. “Crowley that’s illegal!”

Crowley raised an eyebrow. “More illegal than her having alcohol on campus to begin with?”

“Yes.”

Crowley didn’t respond.

“Probably,” Aziraphale amended.

Crowley crossed his arms with a smirk, and Aziraphale felt righteous indignation overcoming the mortification of being tricked into aiding a robbery. “I can’t believe you,” he said, “I knew what everyone said about you and your little gang and still I-I-. I can’t believe you would just let the teacher think I had any part in your-”

“Hey I didn’t ask you to help out,” Crowley spat. He had replaced his smirk with a scowl, and the way his hands balled into fists at his sides made Aziraphale nervous, though he didn’t think Crowley was the sort to get into fights. They were both quiet for a moment as the teacher sat down and the bus took off, then Crowley added, “You’re the one who walked up and offered to hold the door.”

“Which I wouldn’t have done if I’d known what you were up to, believe me.”

“Oh, now you’re just ruining it, angel.”

An unbidden blush crept onto Aziraphale’s face. “What?”

Crowley unballed his fists to gesture vaguely in Aziraphale’s direction, as if that meant anything. “You’ve got this whole goody-goody two shoes act going on. Teacher’s favorite, top of the class, perfect little angel who can do no wrong. For a moment you let me think you were better than that.”

“I-I don’t…. I’m not…,” Azirapahle sputtered.

Crowley crossed his arms again and slumped low in his seat. Their knees were touching, Aziraphale realized too late.

“A-anyway,” Azirphale said, “did… you want me to help with your homework, or…?”

“God no, are you joking?” Crowley was a good head shorter, slumped into the bus seat like that, and he looked up at Aziraphale with the most bemused expression. “Don’t tell me you really brought your homework along on an overnight trip.”

Aziraphale stared down at Crowley, thought about the half-finished essay he’s shoved into his backpack earlier, and tried to change the subject. “I’ve got books,” he said, “if you want to borrow any."

“I can’t believe you,” Crowley said with a chuckle. “You know, I don’t think you’re even allowed to bring homework on a school trip.”

“What?”

“It’s homework.”

Aziraphale stared blankly down at Crowley for a moment while the words registered in his brain. He shook his head. “That’s… not what that means,” he said. “At all.”

“Really?”

“Really. Now if you don’t want to borrow anything, I’ll just-.” Aziraphale pulled his backpack up from its spot by his feet and grabbed the first book he saw after unzipping it.

Crowley shook his head. “I don’t want a book,” he said. “I had music. On my phone. But that was taken from me.”

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” Aziraphale said without looking up.

“You know, maybe you’re not hopeless,” Crowley said, and Aziraphale didn’t have to glance over to hear the grin in his voice. “Could do with some loosening up, sure. But you’re not as uptight as I thought you were.”

“Well you’re just as much of a scoundrel as I thought you were,” Aziraphale said. He tried to scowl into his book, but found that he couldn’t.

He looked down at Crowley – his seatmate for at least the next forty-five minutes – and found Crowley was staring back up at him with a cocky grin and a strange sort of a glimmer in his eye. Aziraphale remembered the look on his face just that morning. He’d seen Crowley trying to get into the teacher’s office and Aziraphale had grabbed the door for him, thinking he was just looking to talk to her about the trip, too. Crowley had looked shocked then, and utterly delighted.

“Well, if I’m gonna turn you into a scoundrel too, we could start by trying to steal our phones back,” Crowley said.

The teacher’s backpack was sitting with the rest of the travel bags on the bench across the aisle from them, but the teacher herself was sitting just behind it. “You’re not going to turn me into you,” Aziraphale said. “And besides, there’s no point. We’re getting them back in forty-five minutes anyway.”

“Have we been on the bus that long already? I couldn’t tell, I don’t have the time. My phone was taken away.” Crowley waved an empty hand around to demonstrate.

Aziraphale pointed up at the numbers on the display hanging above the driver. “There’s a clock right in front of you.”

“Oh, really?” Crowley craned his head out into the aisle to look. Muffled conversations from students drifted up to the front, and Aziraphale imagined everyone staring up at the pair of them. He sunk lower into his seat. “Huh.”

The book had been all but forgotten in Aziraphale’s lap. He tried to start reading again, but didn’t get far. “I do have one thing,” Crowley said, and he reached into his backpack as well. The first thing he pulled out was a pair of tangled earbuds. “I brought an old cassette player I found, in case my phone ran out of juice. But the only tape I have is Queen.” The cassette player emerged next, the tape already loaded. Crowley plugged the earbuds in, then handed one to Aziraphale. “Here.”

Aziraphale didn’t take it. “I prefer classical,” he said, trying to ignore how that must sound to a boy like Crowley.

“Doesn’t get much more classical than the 70s,” Crowley said. He shook the earbud in Aziraphale’s direction one more time. “Come on, we’re friends, just take it.”

Friends. “That’s fast,” Aziraphale muttered, but he hesitated only a moment longer before taking the earbud and sticking it in his left ear. Crowley slumped closer. The first lines of Bohemian Rhapsody played and Azirphale tried to pick up his book again.

This time Crowley didn’t stop him. Instead, he just tapped the back cover and asked, “So… what book are you reading?”

[murphels]

laurenlikesstuff replied to your post: ten/rose really is THE het otp no i will not be...

I’M SO MAD YOU MADE ME FEEL THESE THINGS IT IS NEARLY MIDNIGHT

SORRY NOT SORRY

[amaliabalash]

Emmett takes his mom house shopping under the guise that he's buying a house for himself. His mom, of course, believes he's buying it for himself and Elle.

Shoutout to @speedmifune for texting me about Emmett buying his mom a house for Mother’s Day, because that is why this happened.

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

req’d by @laurenlikesstuff

iunno i was busy

text: Why didn’t you stop the toilet from overflowing!?

[aokayinspace]

laurenlikesstuff replied to your post:OMG Zack is dance fighting these Putty guys.  Man...

YES!! Zach straight up has the best fighting style. I love it so much.

This makes me wish I had realised who had walked by me when I saw him at RI Comic Con a few years ago, but he also probably was on his way somewhere cos he was cutting through an unused room and it took my friend and I a few minute after he walked by to realise who he was. Older me has such an appreciation for him now solely based on that scene whereas younger me just loved Kimberly cos she was a girl and did gymnastics and kicked ass. If I could go back in time I'd tell him he's awesome!

[conversationsfromthebooth]

For the Anon who asked about the panicky SM: Help your SM become organized. I've often found that being as organized and prepared as I can be makes it easier once something does go wrong. Start to figure out plans from the first rehearsal. Is there a prop that has been forgotten before? Can another actor bring it on? Costume malfunction? Know where the tape is. Having back ups is one of the easiest ways to prevent a problem.

More good advice