#let them be happy for the moment okay?

[che-sha]

Family hang out ✨💗

[0ccams-chainsaw]

feeling very soft for them lately

[nellasbookplanet]

Okay but I'm going a bit insane about the growing disconnect of "maybe we're meant to harness it"/"maybe we're meant to fight it". They both thought they were on the same page when they said it, when actually they were on polar opposite ends of the same spectrum. Imogen meant "I never plan to give in to this power even if part of me wants to, I will continue fighting it, but it’s a comfort knowing there’s someone who understands the temptation and who I know won't judge and will still love me and understand if I ultimately fail and give in". Meanwhile to Laudna it meant "I've been in this struggle for longer than I can remember and I don’t know if I can do it much longer. I don’t know if I want to. I don’t know if I even should, or if giving in would be better for all of us because I'm a lost cause. You understand this about me and won't judge as I inevitably am doomed by the narrative, and you won't demand of me that I fight an inherent part of myself, even if it’s destroying me". And Imogen is finally catching on to this disconnect, is realizing that to Laudna their connection isn’t just understanding but an excuse, not too different from Lilliana. And, desperate of losing Laudna to power just like she did her mother, she says, 'if you let me go, I'm gone', meanwhile Laudna is going 'all I can do for you is die and let you go to lift you up' and both of them are going 'why are you so upset about this. i love you'.

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 784: The first day's mountain

Pag 1

3: We're passing through the riverside road

4: I see it

6: Kaka

7: Ah!!

8: Teh!

9: It's the first day's

Pag 2

1: “mountain”!!

Pag 3

2: As we “promised”!!

Pag 4

3: It's the “first day's mountain stage”!!

4: A year ago

6: Manami-kun said it after the finish line, on the third and last day of the Inter High, when both of us were all worn out and barely still on our bikes

Pag 5

1: But having our race at the end on the final stage is too much pressure

2: Next year, if we both have the chance to run in the Inter High....

3: …. yeah

4: Let's race for the mountain stage on the first day

Yeah

5: Like Toudou-san and Makishima-san last year

Onoda!!

Manami-san!!

Pag 6

1: Manami!!

Manami-san!!

2: Onoda!!

3: He collapsed!!

Manami!! Take off his helmet

It's okay, I caught him

Onodaa!!

Onoda-san

Do we have a towel?

Danchiku, water!!

4: Next year... the mountain stage on the first day.... yeah

5: Got it....!!

Pag 7

3: When you run along a river....

4: the water only flows if there's a difference in elevation, either uphill or downhill!!

5: Here it's definitely uphill!!

Even if it looks like a flat at first glance, it's gradually climbing!!

Pag 8

1: Toward that mountain!!

Reading the map, it says that it's 5km until the base of the mountain!!

2: 5km!!

3: Don't lose sight of it like last year!!

Yes!! Sorry!!

4: Hold on tight!!

5: 'Cause I'll carry you all the way to the foot of the mountain!!

Pag 9

1: Thank you!!

2: “Positioning”....!!

3: When going from a flat to a climb you need to “position” yourself

Each team accelerates from the flats in order to bring their climbers to a good position

4: It's the so called “mountain's launching pad”!!

5: There will be a difference of several hundred meters in the first stage between a climber who was launched near the front of the group and a climber who was made to run up from the back of the group

Pag 10

1: Bring Onoda to the best possible position, Naruko!!

Oh-

Sohoku is moving up!!

Pag 11

1: -ruaaaagh

Ugh!! Sohoku's Naruko is so fast!!

2: I get what you're tryin to say, Hotshot!!

I'll take him!! Definitely!!

3: That's why I left the first result to Kabu!!

4: On that winter day, with an apologetic face

5: Ah....

6: Ah- uhm, I have something to tell you, but

Onoda-kun, who told us like it was difficult to say....

Pag 12

1: Ah the stove? You can just turn it off, we're the last ones

Yeah, please. Woah, look outside, it's snowing

Seriously? It must be cold

2: That's not it!!

3: Th-th- this morning... I got a text

4: What was that, an acceptance letter?

The proficiency exam?

5: It's a reply to the text I sent....

6: Three months ago!!

7: Uhm... really, I was worried that back when we made that promise it was right after the race and we were tired, so I thought maybe he had forgotten

Three months?

It was a long wait

So I sent him a text to ask him if he remembers?

Pag 13

1: And I received it this morning

Must be the proficiency test

Shut up!!

What are you whispering idiot

“Back when”, when was it?

No idea

2:He said only one word, “of course”

4: So, uhm... this time

5: Is it okay if I run for the first day's mountain stage during this summer's Inter High?

7: Is that so? Kakaka

Onoda-kun's eyes, like he couldn't contain his excitement...

Pag 14

1: I haven't forgotten it!!

2: I can't forget it!!

3: Onoda!!

Onoda-kun!!

Pag 15

1: 2km left until the foot of the mountain!!

2: Do your beeest....!!

Aren't they climbing at an amazing speed!? Each team is getting in line!!

Yeah, you're right!!

3: Every team is trying to “position” themselves for their climbers!!

“Position”!?

4: Also, look closely

Right now, the cyclist in the second position in the ranks

Pag 16

1: is the one who will race in the mountain stage!!

Pag 18

1: Oi, are you kidding me? Hakogaku is sending Manami?

From the first day!?

Manami is in second place

2: He's the “final boss”....!!

3: My dream of getting the red bib has been destroyed even before reaching the foot of the mountain....!!

4: Oi, look over there, that's not all!!

For Sohoku....

5: Naruko is pulling the “King of the mountain”!!

Wa- we're done for!! Completely!! My mountain prize!!

Pag 19

3: Manami-kun!!

4: Sakamichi-kun!!

Pag 20

1: It's time for our promise!!

We're almost at the foot of the mountain!!

[tecnestheim962]

Day 4738281984747477281020494922994728 of missing rosegarden

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

just here to say that I loveee the way you have doodled jin ling. squeaky toy golden boy. the most nephew to ever nephew. thank you for delightful comics, that's all, mwah

I simply think the Jin DNA is full of lil guy potential; like sugar ants on a peony B*)

[softquietsteadylove]

[ice queen and tyrant king AU]

thena using Gil and his tattoos as a coloring book after she finds some skin safe markers. I feel like in this au thena would secretly really enjoy physical touch and she would really like when Gil holds her. I also feel like this is the first step for her becoming more vulnerable to Gil as a whole, kind of letting her guard down more that before ❤️ so can I request that this be part one and her admitting that she likes it when Gil holds her be part two?

lots of love! Your writing is truly amazing!

The Tyrant King never used to consider himself a heavy sleeper. A sleeper, sure, maybe even the occasional nap after watching the races and having a few beer. But he was never the type to have a nap just because.

But now...well, Thena's office couch was becoming awfully familiar to him.

They'd had one of their 'meetings'. He had come over to her office, gotten dropped off, waited for her to finish with a real meeting. Then they were on each other. She was bossy, as always (hot). She grabbed him, kissed him, climbed on top of him like he was her property (yes ma'am).

They had worn each other out, heavily sated after the fact. But she had more work to do while he had cleared his schedule for the afternoon. He had done so specifically in hopes that he might squeeze in some more time with her afterward.

Which he wasn't supposed to do.

He was well aware Thena looked at their arrangement with the sterile, clinical eye of a business woman. She fit him into her day the way she would fit in an appointment for a massage. And he was supposed to view it the same way. A situationship at best, as the kids would say--a bootycall, as he considered it.

And maybe it would be easier to think of it that way if she weren't so perfect for him. His heart leapt at the thought of her calling or texting him. Even a business email thinly veiling an invitation to come over. He was excited for it; everyday held new potential for her to call upon him again. Maybe he should feel used, he thought at one time.

But every time they were together, he knew she felt it too. She didn't want to, that was for damn sure. His Ice Queen approached her own feelings the same way she approached an overly friendly business arrangement; ignore it, and hope it just leaves of its own accord.

But when they kissed, he knew she reciprocated genuinely. His hands on her felt just as good to her--just as natural. He could just...tell. And when they made love, he knew she felt everything he was feeling. It was too good, too mind blowing, too addictive to not be true.

If only he could get her to see it that way.

His Ice Queen was a guarded woman. He couldn't begrudge her that. She had her reasons for keeping herself closely protected. He knew she kept a tight circle of friends in the Poison Princess and the Lightning Thief, she might have even been on friendly terms with Ajak. But she wasn't a social creature. Letting him into her world was a risk.

The squeak of a highlighter burrowed into his ear and he whined in complaint. He could hear her light, purring laughter (the vixen). He attempted to turn onto his side and bury his face in her dress, but she kept him on his back, his head in her lap.

If she didn't want him to fall in love with her, she could have just sent him away. But instead she let him sleep on her office couch after wearing himself out. Sometimes she would even pick up his head and let it rest in her lap while she was working. Like now.

He cracked an eye open, still feigning some sleep as he stole a peek. She was looking at some documents, highlighting on occasion, and then the highlighter would drift away as she continued reading.

There was a tickle on his skin, and he realised the highlighter was dotting and dragging against his arm. He could have thought it was something she was doing absentmindedly, her hand doing one thing while her mind focused on another.

But she was working on specific areas. She would highlight a line and then her right hand would drag the highlighter down the lines of one of the dragons slithering up his arm. She would highlight another number and then she would dot its eyes in with neon green.

Maybe he would tell her not to if it wasn't kinda cute.

He didn't always get to see his Ice Queen unguarded. It was a good sign that she was relaxed enough to let him lounge with her like this at all. And to see her working, going over her numbers, in her element--he wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

Thena examined another line on the page. She squinted at it a little. Maybe it was because of what it said. Or maybe she would need glasses. The thought of an older Thena, glasses and more-silver-than-blonde hair entered his mind and only made him more smitten. Not that she wouldn't fucking kill him for thinking such things.

Another line of colour got added to his dragon tattoo. And he really couldn't bring himself to mind it. She could scribble all over him if it meant he got to stay, got to gaze up at her adoringly, maybe even got to convince her to have dinner with him?

"I know you're awake, Gilgamesh."

He sighed, giving up on his charade but not moving from his spot. "I thought I was doing a pretty good job."

She glanced away from her work sparingly. But she had a faintly amused smile on those amazing lips. "It was truly awful, I'm afraid. Your breathing changes so steeply when you're awake."

He pouted faintly, but so long as he was poised the way he was, he was able to look up at Thena. The lights flush with her office ceiling were set low, shining down on them with mercy. They caught in the diamonds on her ear cuff and her other earrings, and in the comb securing some of her hair out of her face.

She sparkled, his Ice Queen.

Thena set aside the papers and really smiled at him. "Sleep well?"

He grinned up at her. Her hand was resisting the urge to trail over him affectionately, hovering over him but not making contact. "Damn well. You sure you don't wanna join me, Princess?"

She puffed out a laugh. "Some of us have businesses to run."

"Hey, I do great business," he protested, just to see her lips upturned in amusement. "And my very capable underlings are running it as we speak."

"Hm," she sufficed to say, looking at her figures again.

Gil shimmied on top of her thigh. She frowned down at him for jostling her but he dragged his other arm out from the crack of the couch to lie over his front. His shirt was still deeply unbuttoned from their earlier activities, and he had rolled his sleeves up before dozing off. "You should get this one, too."

Thena actually looked a little sheepish, her earlier idle activity being caught and reflected upon. But seeing his eagerness, she sighed. She obliged him, positioning his other arm for herself. "I would have thought colour of this degree didn't suit you, Tyrant."

He didn't care if she wanted to use a pink highlighter and colour in every tattoo on his body. Okay, maybe he was getting carried away. But that was just the effect this woman had on him.

Thena started with dotting in the eyes of his other dragon to match, then adding some scales to it. "You could always return to your own office."

Some might have taken that as an open invitation to leave. But he knew his Ice Queen better than that. She was asking if he wanted to go home rather than let her scribble on him. Her day demanded more of her, and maybe the prize of the end of the day with her wasn't enough for him to stick around for two more hours.

But he was happy as a clam. In truth, she could have called him over in the morning and ignored him for the rest of the day. He could chill in her office, play around on his phone, whatever. It would still be preferable to moping around in his own office daydreaming about her.

"I'm happy here," he told her with the utmost honesty. Thena valued honesty; some might say that was why she was always so direct herself.

Her smile softened and he caught that shy twinkle in her eye; the part of her that always seemed a little embarrassed at being caught feeling happiness. What a sin for his poor Ice Queen.

"Are you?" he dared to ask, even knowing it could get him in trouble. She finished the layer of cloud she was working on before looking at him again. She raised a brow. "Happy?"

Her mask was flawless, but he could see a little Thena behind it, battling it out with the Ice Queen's shield. "Do not ask me such things, Tyrant."

Says the woman with his head in her lap, he couldn't help but think. But the longer he waited, the less Thena could resist. She coloured in another twist of fog before setting her papers aside. His eyes slid closed as she leaned down, craning her neck to kiss him.

This was what he was talking about; when they kissed, he knew she was the woman for him. Like they were made for each other. If he died on the job the very next day he'd come back for her. Maybe as a ghost, maybe he'd get reincarnated into some other shmuck's body. Maybe he'd come back as a cat, or a stray dog she would take pity on.

And he would love her just as much - probably even more - in that life, and in any he had with her.

Okay, he was definitely letting himself get carried away.

He rose slightly, trying to follow her lips with his. But she pushed him back to lie down. He pouted at her. "Come on, Ice. Do you have more meetings?"

She shook her head at him, but her fingers slipped into the opening of his shirt, tapping over his heart. "No."

So...they could go another round...?

"Let me finish this, at least," she chided him. This was why she was the diamond Queen, Gil lamented.

He resigned himself to it, lying back down and closing his eyes again. "Fine, but think of what you want for dinner, since I'm gonna be here."

"Hm."

Yes!--mission succeeded, she would let him stay for dinner. His Ice Queen thought herself so frosty and hard to reach. But he could feel how warm her touch was, lingering on his skin. Her hand was always dancing that line, sometimes allowing her the luxury of touching him, sometimes resisting that closeness. But the desire she had to be close to him assured him that this wasn't so one-sided a love.

"I'll have it delivered, I suppose, since your driver went back to Koreatown."

He tried not to seem like he was grinning. "Guess so."

She poked him in the cheek; he was definitely smiling too much. "So, I will have to drive you home too, is what you're saying."

He didn't mind being transparent for her. He liked offering her that as a gesture of good will. The more easily she could read him, the more she would allow him the same (maybe).

She gifted him with another kiss as a reward, even if she didn't see it that way. "Insufferable man."

And yet she was still here, suffering him all the time. Everyday, at this point. And the only thing he was suffering was love (too much?).

[radmista]

Sowing seeds of discontent and disharmony by hanging up on my parents birthday phone call the second my mom asked if I gained weight. Hope that sits badly on their minds while they think about how that's the first call I've engaged with them in 2 months and it was for the dogs birthday. Dad scrambling to text me for my mom that she didn't mean it. Like fuck I told her I've been having a rough month and day. She couldn't keep it to herself that badly. Fucks sake

[wildflowercryptid]

⚠️ spoilers for some year 3 + 4 dialogue with gustafa's child below! ⚠️

[ some of the text in the second image is cut off, the full dialogue is likely meant to be "hold on a second. has gustafa been riding your coattails this whole time?" ]

no, because why is bea so brutal towards gustafa oh my god?? like you're really just gonna ask that question when he's within earshot??? 😭😭😭

[sillyabtmusic]

it may come as a surprise to you all but im thinking about kingdom rn

[silverselfshippingchaos]

as much as I hate seeing him in pain, i will admit that hungover s.ugiura is both pretty cute and pretty amusing

and y.agami buttering k.aito up is so fun, I love this squad so much

[bunnyboy-juice]

honestly i can't stop staring at the incision sites

[alaricseer]

crown of midnight (because I am always weak for a masquerade)

crown of midnight. sender dances with the receiver at a masquerade.

There were pros and cons to an event like a masquerade. The dress code calling for elaborate, eye catching attire was, to Alaric, a pro. The downside came in the intentional obscuring of identity, a hindrance for one who liked direct credit for his looks.

The dancing though, that made up for everything else. Ala stopped only long enough for a new partner, rarely for drink. If he wanted for the intrigue or debauchery, both established features of an event based in anonymity, well, he'd found both still achievable on the floor to those with experience.

That didn't leave him completely without wants, however. He'd tried all evening to catch the eye of a certain dancer, but poor timing and the man's clear talent had made the match impossible. Ala had nearly given up, settled for watching with discreet envy when close enough. Ala didn't lack for partners himself, but quantity was not quality.

When finally, and by chance, Alaric found the chance to cut in, he was grateful for the mask that hid his expression; excitement, and for a mere offer to dance, was embarrassing- especially for a stranger.

"I was beginning to believe there was some form of registration I'd missed, for the honor of your time." His tone was light, as was his touch, when they moved together.

[hauntingblue]

Episode 8 I am so scared....

[fellhellion]

[queenbeedarling]

Just started watching Umi no Hajimari, and I haven't gone through the tag yet because I'm only on ep 3 and I don't want to chance spoiling anything, but I wanna see if anyone else is on the same boat as me.

Does anybody else not particularly like the girlfriend, Yayoi? Like I don't hate her, but the way she's going about things are weird to me.

She literally just found out her boyfriend has a 7 year old daughter he didn't know about, and in less than 48 hours, she's offering to become her "new mom?"

I get she had an abortion a few years prior and regrets it, and I feel for her, but the girl's mom died like a week ago! Chill out!