#maybe? no? kinda? yeah alright

[prismaticpichu]

What if Zack was the first person to notice and care that Sephiroth has a crazy strict diet and has never gone against it or had any junk food or fast food or anything Hojo didn't approve of?

Let’s be real here- Zack absolutely was the first person to notice this <3 <3 Sorry Gen & Angeal!! Not to demoralize them but I imagine those two caring about Seph, realizing he has limitations, and stopping there. They wanted to respect them. They had their curiosities, maybe a deadly impulse at Hojo after seeing a scar or two. But they were afraid of the electric fence.

Zack was NOT. He was getting in there, he was ramming into that fence, he was getting shocked, and he was going to keep climbing no matter how charred his skin got until he reached the other side. He was going to make him happy.

Zack discovers this horrifying soul blemish very early in their budding friendship, mainly because Zack was always snacking on something. Chips. Fries. Pepperidge farm cheddar goldfish crackers now with 15% more cheese. Zack finds the phrase “sharing is caring” religious, and he would inevitably offer one to his friend.

“Want one, Seph?”

“No,” the reply is automatic.

“You sure? Not even one?”

“Yes.”

“They’re tasty!”

“No.”

“You’ll love it! C’mon, buddy!”

“No thank you, Zackary.”

“It’s the snack that smiles back! It makes you happy!”

“I can’t.”

Beep beep, oooooowwwwwwhup. Alarm bells going off. It was all Zack needed to hear. Sephiroth proceeds to explain that Hojo, his caretaker (in the most air quotes sense) never let him enjoy foods that weren’t rich in nutrients. Okay, well-meaning enough. The concerning thing is that Sephiroth is 23yo and he’s still under Hojo’s snackless thumb. He doesn’t know what a potato chip tastes like, nor has he tasted ANY of the foods Zack lists. And it’s a very, very long list.

Zack’s immediate destination is the vending machine, to which he returns with a boat load of chocolate, chips, and the like. Sephiroth rejects all of it, naturally, but Zack is not a quitter. Esta no estupido either. He picks up a bag of chips and hands it out in offering, even as Sephiroth gives him that narrow-eyed, recoiling, lips-kinda-pulled-into-a-snarl face. Zack insists that he’s fit as a fiddle and that this, these chips, symbolize a step into independence. Hojo is controlling him and he won’t allow his friend to miss out on the small, amazing joys of life. He’s gonna fight this, and he knows Seph can too. The chips will set him free. The chips will be the key to his shackles, guiding him out of the prison cell with trails of salt to guide him, waiting for him to take his first crunch into the big world.

It’s a very empowering speech. Worthy of a standing ovation, maybe a trophy but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The important thing is that it worked, and Sephiroth is holding the chip bag. He takes one out and sniffs it first. It smells salty. And like corn. Zack is terribly amused by the way he’s analyzing the chip, especially how his eyes go all kitty-roundy. It’s so cute! (Zack smushes his cheeks.) Anywho, Zack watches with all the laser-focus of a deadly stakes football game, down to the last second of the last down of the last quarter of the last game of the playoffs.

Sephiroth takes a bite.

…Oh my.

Yes… yes this is very different…

Very salty indeed… very corny.

He thinks he like it.

What ensues for the oncoming months (after the firework show) is the role-reversing of someone weaning of a harmful drug, except it’s introducing Seph to different foods on the snack pyramid. Zack takes him to the bakery, getting a platter of cookies (Sephiroth loves the snickerdoodle), orders Wutain take out (Sephiroth loves the soy sauce), and starts adding pizza to their movie nights (Sephiroth loves the meatball). He still doesn’t eat unless prompted, and still resorts to lighter meals, fruits, veggies, and wet, engineered seaweed that Hojo used to feed him. He offers Zack this seaweed one day (sharing is caring, right?), dangling it out with his head kinda canted. Zack pretty much has no choice but to accept it. He doesn’t wanna hurt Seph’s feelings.

What the HECK, HOJO? (Zack cleans his tongue with a sponge when Seph’s gone.)

It takes time, as all assimilation does, but Sephiroth makes progress. He doesn’t hesitate any more when Zack pours some of his goldfish into his hand, and Zack smiling at him so proudly makes them taste even better. Even if he selects healthy options when they order in, he’s still agreeing to order in, and Zack’s always happy to share. They end up almost always with a 50/50 split of each other’s meals on their plates—which just like the goldfish, makes the food taste even better!

Seph also develops a big sweet tooth for vanilla pudding. It’s his go-to dessert when he thinks he’s earned it! He falls in love with anything vanilla and will devour it in a heartbeat. Zack’s favorite dessert on the planet is molten chocolate lava cake, and at the bakery, which Zack worships, it’s a tag-team effort! Zack takes down the cake and Seph handles the scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Mission accomplished!

Because Sephiroth is Sephiroth, his metabolism is at sonic speed (high-fives Jenova). He barely gains weight at all- a perfect scapegoat for his tainted diet. But one day Hojo runs a blood test and finds that his cholesterol level has increased ASTRONOMICALLY from the last time he took one. He is not a happy camper. He demands to know what sludge Sephiroth has been eating, and Sephiroth tells him the truth. Right front and center. Now he doesn’t say who has been “brainwashing” him because Gaia he doesn’t want Zack involved, but he does say, loud and proud, that he can eat whatever he wants.

Hojo calls him a disobedient rodent. And you know what Seph does? He stands up, walks over to his father, and slaps him right smack across the face. He couldn’t control his diet because he was a BIG boy. YEAH DAD.

[tommygotwrittenoff]

crying laughing at the thought of buck inviting eddie to his dates with t because "he really needs to get out of the house" and t is like. fine with it he guesses. but at the end of the night t says pointedly "well, it's getting late. probably time to call it" and eddies just like "oh youre right bye t" and bucks like "bye t" and they leave together and t is just standing there like. wtf???

[tears-of-boredom]

day 7: fantasy

i tried to make a lil animation. turned out alright in my opinion

[writer-room]

I like to think that the Cocoa Puffs become the local cryptids in camp. Everyones making ghost-busting gangs trying to figure out the little guys for the first few months but then after that its just their friendly neighborhood ball of trauma. They scatter like dandelions across the camp grounds and it becomes commonplace to find one chilling under a bed or hiding in a boat or stuck in a tree. Sometimes they’ll steal food just for fun. They’re untameable.

There are exactly 2 ways to make a Puff go somewhere and thats by either a) having a really bad time with an emotion such as grief, anger, loneliness, etc and becoming enough of a catnip to the Puff embodying that emotion that they’ll follow you around like a storm cloud, OR, the more popular option, b) getting Will Solace himself to wolf whistle, which immediately prompts every single Puff in existence to scramble out of the woodwork like cockroaches and zoom towards him at top speeds. Nico doesn’t know if he should find it cute or be offended.

[b4kuch1n]

pre-holiday leave crumbs

[fullmoonfireball]

today's pikmin comic left me wanting to know what the hell was happening here so. enjoy a VERY rough translation attempt with equally-rough typesetting

i'm the least confident in how Yonny's final line was translated, but i think the point comes across regardless

[kineticallyanywhere]

Monkey’s Paw pages 130-131 ( START HERE || ao3 || previous || next ) AU after episode 62. The Omega Dads try a more desperate gambit, but   careful what you wish for. Our dads find alternate versions of themselves in a strange dreamscape. Ifyou die in the dream, doyou die in real life?

we are getting real close to some more Monologues that I have been sitting on for more than a year

also this comic will not go about straight up shipping any of the dads, but I call it like I see it vis a vis how they interact with each other and who thinks who is hot

[mars-ipan]

god i cannot wait to be off these steroids…

[vivizn]

How’s life been treating you?

Hi, bit of a heavy question to wake up to ngl x)

But these days I'm completely absorbed in a fanfiction and it's very sweet. So I don't know how life is treating me, but I know I'm treating me good enough.

What about you? Is life at the museum treating you good?

[motherforthefamicom]

redownloaded an old art program

[theflyingfeeling]

💖 it's here, it's pink, it's sparkly, and full of fluff 💖

Hiiiiii and welcome to witness my attempt at an Olli/Allu Advent Calendar, in which I'll give you ~a cute little something~ about these two idiots in love almost every day until December 24! My plan is to use prompts from this list to either write a fic based on the prompt or just some good ol' delulu thoughts if all else fails. I cannot guarantee there'll be a post literally every day, but I'm really excited to try this out and I thank you for your support along the way in advance 💝

The biggest thanks and a million hugs go to one of my favourite human beings @kraeuterhexchen for making the adorable banner!! I mean helloooooo?? 😭 Go show them some love ❣️

For December 1, the prompt list is titled One True Pairing Moments, and the prompt I chose was 'calling just to hear their voice' 🥺 You can read the fic below, I hope you like it <3

.

PS. Even though this is an advent calendar of sorts, I'm not planning on making this particularly Christmassy. I hope no one minds terribly!

~

Falling for Aleksi had, in a way, sneaked up on Olli, at least if he fooled himself a little. He could pretend he didn’t feel any different about the man than he did about, say, Joonas or Tommi, but that strategy only worked for so long – that is to say, approximately until Aleksi as much as smiled softly at him from across a room or bumped his shoulder into his jovially when walking down the street and Olli would feel his breath getting caught in his throat or stumble in his words, his tongue tangled like shoelaces, which was so unlike him as well and frustrated him to no end. It really took a special kind of fool to not only develop some level of feelings for a friend, a colleague, a bandmate for Christ’s sake, but also become so hopelessly enamored with him that you rolled awake in bed in the dead of night, grabbing your phone and tossing it back on the nightstand again and again because you couldn’t decide whether or not you should, on some erratic 2 o’clock impulse, call him to let him know he was the very reason for your insomnia. 

Turning on his back, Olli groaned (only a little desperately) as he remembered losing himself in the lingering hug they had shared just before the arrivals lobby at the airport, inhaling Aleksi’s scent and wishing they wouldn’t have to go home just yet, even if Olli was more than ready to finally sleep in his own bed again. Ironically, ever since they had returned home from tour, Olli had spent night after sleepless night missing Aleksi terribly: his stupid jokes and playful banter that bordered on being flirtatious if Olli allowed himself the benefit of delusion; his quick, subtle smiles that probably meant nothing; his little touches Olli hoped meant something; his smell and his touch and the softness of his hair at the back of his neck, compared to which the blanket Olli was grasping in his fist was like sandpaper. (How he had come to know of the qualities of Aleksi’s hair in such detail, he preferred not to dwell on too much to save himself from the heartache, so let’s just leave it at ‘stressful, emotional week far away from home’ and ‘a little too much to drink’).

Above all, Olli missed Aleksi’s voice. He hadn’t even thought that was possible, until the other morning when Olli had woken up to a voice message Aleksi had left just hours earlier, rambling about a song idea he had gotten in the middle of the night – something he did from time to time – and Olli had spent the next several minutes replaying it over and over again as he had lied in bed procrastinating getting up and and instead closing his eyes to better imagine Aleksi lying there beside him, turned on his side to face Olli, talking to him sleepily like they often did when they shared a room on tour and were just too lazy to join others at breakfast. Much like the hug at the airport, Olli wished those moments would have lasted way longer than they did, often ending abruptly when either of their phones would go off with Santeri’s name on the screen, a passive-aggressive interruption to the soft, low tone of Aleksi’s early-morning thoughts. (Sometimes, when Olli was lucky enough, he had been blessed with the bliss of feeling the light touch of a fingertip tracing along his collarbone, cut short just as frustratingly by their well-meaning tour manager politely enquiring whether the two of them had plans of dragging themselves downstairs for some toast and coffee, or if they’d rather starve until lunchtime, for which he wasn’t at all sure they’d even have time that day.)

The lovesick idiot that he was, his thumb hovered over the ‘play’ button of Aleksi’s voice message, probably for the millionth time that week. The chest-carving hesitation turned into a heart flip when he noticed Aleksi was online.

Then Aleksi began to type, and Olli held his breath the entire time until a new message appeared in the thread, anticipation holding him by his throat.

You awake?

Olli exhaled and typed his affirmative reply, leaving out the reason why.

He blinked at the screen, waiting for Aleksi to ask him a random question that clearly couldn’t wait until morning, or perhaps talk about something related to another late-night Twitch stream (from what Olli had gathered, Aleksi had been doing a lot of those recently, and with his last remaining braincell Olli had managed to resist the temptation to watch every single one of them, because he knew that if he did, it would only dig his grave of pining and longing deeper, seeing Aleksi smile and giggle about but not being able to do that with him or snuggle up next to him when he was wearing that flannel Olli often used as a blanket in the tour bus). But instead of another text appearing on the screen, Olli’s phone began to vibrate in his hand, and it took him an embarrassingly long while to understand it was because Aleksi was calling him. 

“Hi,” he sighed when he finally collected himself enough to speak. He prayed he’d be able to hear what Aleksi was going to say from the thumping heartbeat echoing in his ears.

“Hi,” a soft voice said. “Sorry, I know it’s late…”

“No, not at all,” Olli hurried to say, “I mean, I wasn’t sleeping. Not even close, actually.” Part of him hoped Aleksi wouldn’t ask about it, but in some foolhardy way the possibility intrigued him. 

Nothing much, he would have likely said anyway, but what would happen if he told Aleksi how it really was? That he squeezed his pillow imagining it was him instead, or wailed into it because something had reminded him of a moment-that-was-probably-not-a-Moment™ they had shared? What would Aleksi say if he knew Olli sometimes touched himself the way Aleksi had touched him That One Night they never talked about? The only obstacle between Olli and that knowledge was a bottomless ocean of cold sweat and cowardice, and Olli had never been a great swimmer.

“So, ummm…,” Olli said when Aleksi’s end stayed silent. “What’s up?”

A short breath of laughter sounded through the phone line.

“Honestly? I don’t know, I… It’s just been a… weird week, I guess.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, like… my head’s just been so full of… everything and… I’ve been so busy and kinda tense and… fuck, this is going to sound crazy,” Aleksi laughed that brief laugh again, although to Olli it didn’t sound particularly cheerful. Tired, more like. Strained, somehow. Not sad, but definitely a little troubled, and Olli intended to find out why.

“I’m all for crazy, you know.” Olli hoped his sorry attempt to lighten Aleksi’s mood would work, and so he smiled in relief when he heard Aleksi chuckle at his comment.

“I know,” Aleksi said softly, in that tone of voice that had Olli melt against his bedsheets. “So yeah, it’s been a rough week, but… in between all that stupid shit, I’ve been thinking a lot about… umm… well, the tour and– and… about you, for some reason,” (the troubled laugh made its return) “and… yeah. That’s sort of helped me a lot recently.”

Olli listened to the words carefully, not fully believing what he was hearing, yet clinging on to them until they were all but swirling around in his otherwise empty head like dry leaves in October wind.

“And tonight I just couldn’t fucking sleep for some reason and nothing I did seemed to help and so I thought I’d call you. And I’m–” If it hadn’t been dead silent otherwise, Olli wouldn’t have heard the shaky breath Aleksi paused to take, “I’m sorry I’m calling you at this hour and bothering you with this all but I guess I just… wanted to hear your voice. To see if that would help.”

“Does it?” Olli asked. Aleksi’s confession had made him clasp his blanket close to his chest, as if that would do anything about his rapidly beating heart.

“Yeah. It does. So maybe just… keep talking?”

Despite his mind living a life of its own, completely unfit to form a single coherent thought, for Aleksi’s sake Olli tried his best to think of something to say, but everything he came up with was something he was not ready to tell him quite yet. 

“Uuummmm…” he said to buy himself some time, but while he waited for his useless brain and mouth to form any actual words, Aleksi spoke again.

“Fuck, I’m– I’m sorry, this is too weird, I shouldn’t have– I’ll let you go back to–”

“I miss you,” Olli blurted before Aleksi would hang up on him. He squeezed his eyes shut when Aleksi went silent, too silent for too long for it to mean any good.

The line stayed open, however, which Olli took as a positive sign, even if the seconds during which all Olli could hear was Aleksi's quiet breathing seemed endless.

“And I you,” Aleksi finally replied. “A little too much, probably, or at least that’s what it feels like,” he chuckled. Olli almost missed the quiet sniff that followed.

He had to steel himself for his next question.

“What do you mean?”

“Just… forget it.” Aleksi said quietly. Contrary to Aleksi’s request, Olli knew he was going to all but ‘forget it’ for the next 3-5 business days; mentally he booked all his evenings as well as most of his mornings and noons for pondering what exactly had been in Aleksi’s mind in that moment or why he had sounded so sombre, almost disappointed. He’d probably never come to any satisfactory conclusion about it though, at least not without a little help from Aleksi himself. 

A ridiculous idea popped into his head, and before he could stop himself, the words flooded out of his mouth.

“Do you wanna come over some time? To hang out? When your schedule’s a little less tight, I mean.” He sucked on his lips and closed his eyes as he waited for Aleksi’s answer, ready to hang up the moment he’d decline the offer on some obvious and logical reason for why Aleksi couldn’t possibly make nor want to take a trip to the north to see him, such as ‘didn’t we just spend over two months on the road together?’ or ‘damn, buddy, I miss you alright but not quite that much, I’ve done enough sitting in public transportation for one year, thank you very much lol’ or ‘what about Rilla?’

“You could take Rilla with you, you know.” Olli hurried to say, just in case, the deranged part of his brain thinking there might be a chance Aleksi might be at least considering it.

“Oh! Well, umm… I actually might have time next week? If– if you’re actually being serious about this.”

Funny you should ask, Aleksi; I’ve actually never been more serious about anything in my entire life than I am about having you here with me so that I can hold you and be held by you and see your face when I wake up in the morning and say goodnight to your annoyingly cute face instead of via text message and maybe, if the stars are in position and the northern wind won’t discourage me too much, I might actually be brave enough to torment you with the knowledge of just how miserable I’ve been since we last saw each other.

“I think it would be cool,” he said, because he had a feeling what he wanted to say would’ve been a tad too much and sudden. “I mean, if you’re up for it, of course. I understand if you can’t make it though, I know you have all those side projects.”

“No, I think it might actually do me some good to get out of the capital area for change.” Then there was a muffled ‘ouch’, followed by a laugh that sounded much brighter than any of the other ones Olli had heard from Aleksi that night. “Sorry, correction, it might do us some good. Rilla just told me she’s most definitely coming too. Rilla, stop nibbling on my toes!”

Olli smiled tiredly at the mental image that was painted in his mind of Aleksi and Rilla cuddling in bed, both minding their own business from what it seemed while still minding each other as well, very much indeed.

“I’ll be sure to set up a bed for her in the guest room.”

“The guest room? Do you not know her at all? If she’s not getting the master bedroom, she’ll ruin all your rugs and most of your shoes. Probably also gossip about you to all the neighbourhood dogs. And she’s brutal.”

Olli held his stomach as he laughed, tears almost forming in the corners of his eyes. In his defence, it was late and he was finally becoming tired, thus too far gone to help himself, let alone feel embarrassed about being in stitches about something Aleksi had said that was only mildly amusing. (It wasn’t the first time that had happened either, and likely not the last time.)

“So yeah, ummm, I can take a look at some flight options for next week and let you know, alright? I’m gonna let you sleep now and… I should get some myself too.”

Olli wanted to tell Aleksi he’d love to stay up chatting until dawn, but the yawn he let out when he opened his mouth to speak implied Aleksi had a point.

“Yeah, let me know. And… thanks for calling, I… you have no idea how much I needed this tonight.”

That was as close to a confession as Olli was able to get as of now.

“Probably not half as much as I did.”

Olli chuckled at Aleksi’s response, mostly to hide his own agony.

If only you knew. If only I knew how to tell you.

It didn’t take long for Olli to doze off after they hung up, and when he woke up to the kids from next door having a snowball fight under his window in the morning, he noticed new messages from Aleksi, sent half an hour after their phone call had ended, complete with screen captions of airplane schedules.

Would these days work for you? I might be free all week actually 😇

Olli cuddled into his pillow while typing his reply, hoping it wouldn’t wake up Aleksi.

yeah I’m free as well. I’ll pick you two up from the airport 🖤

From then on, Olli started counting the days until he’d see Aleksi again.

[running-in-the-dark]

I've got an appointment with my psychiatrist tomorrow, and I'm getting my conch piercing swapped out for a shorter one. that's gonna be stressful 🙃

[sysig]

I am not immune to any cutes - including Rick and Morty cutes, unfortunately (Patreon)

[deeisace]

1. So I spent years thinking I was aroace, and then like a while thinking I'm arobi, and now I'm sorta going am I just really gay and embarrassed?

Guys I think I might be really gay and embarrassed

2. I forgor the other thing

[laniidae-passerine]

I think some of you guys hate Izzy more than you ever liked Ed and no amount of “he’s my special babygirllll 💞 she’s just a sparkle princess you can’t hold her accountable for anything 🥰✨” posts are gonna be able to hide that

[getosugurusbangs]

finished reading welcome to the nhk. what the fuck 😀