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marginalgloss · 3 years ago

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It occurred to me recently that I haven’t posted here for about nine months, and that if you knew nothing about me except for this blog, you might think that it something of a cliffhanger that I ended it on a post about expecting the arrival of my first child. (Or perhaps that would have been an entirely fitting way to end it.) Either way: I am fine, and we are fine, and last November brought the arrival of my son Robin into my life. I have been very busy almost every day since.

There are a couple of cliches about parenting that remain indisputably true. The first is that they grow up so fast. And the second is that nothing prepares you for it. We thought we were entirely ready and pretty well informed but from his delivery onwards nothing went as planned. We thought we’d feed him when he was hungry, and we’d put him to sleep when he was tired; and change his nappies, and play with him, and love him; and what else was there to it, really?

It turns out there is a lot more to it than that. Before Robin I never realised how polarised, how strained and how political people’s feelings are about matters of childcare. We’ve ended up raising him in ways we had never previously considered, partly out of necessity, and partly out of the kind of habits that grow into paths of desire across the days. Consciously or not I judge people who do things differently, and no doubt they judge me too. In spite of the reams of available literature it turns out that for many things — perhaps even most things — there isn’t necessarily a right or a wrong way to proceed.

Here is a third cliche that turns out to be extremely valuable: every baby is different.

The question of literature is a tricky one. In search of assistance I read a few parenting manuals; some of these turned out to be better than others, but I’ve yet to find a good book about what it means to be a father. Most books aimed at new dads are of the ‘pull your socks up’ variety — the kind of thing where the author imagined it thrust upon some feckless deadbeat by a weary spouse. But, being reasonably conscientious, and looking for something with a bit more depth than a guide to how to change nappies, I’ve found most books about parenting have little of interest to say to new fathers.

Being a dad is an odd thing to write about. I’ve read and heard people talk about how new mothers ought to be proud to be joining a kind of grand universal maternal tradition, one which predates even humanity itself. (Animals surely know about babies; witness my cat Louie’s endless patience with Robin’s various attempts to pull his ears off.)

People do not generally talk about the grand traditions of fatherhood in this way. And for good reason: a lot of men today wouldn’t be happy to follow the example of their own fathers, let alone imitate the conditions of detachment and distance that defined fatherhood for centuries. I want to say that expectations of fathers today have never been higher; but this is only because for most of recorded history, we had no expectations of fathers at all. In the space of perhaps two or three generations we have gone from the idea that a father should only have to provide for a child’s upkeep (and not slap them around too much) to a very immediate understanding of dadhood as a central plank of parenthood.

Perhaps a lot of this speaks more to my own insecurities than it does to anyone else’s. Still, I feel like there’s an easy camaraderie between mothers that isn’t apparent between fathers. My wife has developed a little circle of local mums with whom she’s in constant communication, whereas the WhatsApp group we created for the fathers in our NCT group has languished in silence. I don’t really have anyone with whom to compare notes. And what would we say if I did?

The pandemic has put us in an unusual situation. Ordinarily I would have had two weeks’ paid paternity leave, plus any holiday time taken alongside that. So I took three weeks off work — but I’m still working from home every day, as I have been since March 2020. This means that instead of watching me disappear to work five days a week, my son has spent every day of his life together so far with both his parents. I don’t even know where to begin with writing about the way this has changed us; perhaps I won’t know how to talk about it until it comes to an end.

It does mean that parenting feels like it has consumed my life in ways that might not have otherwise been the case. Being at home for so long with a new baby was a remarkable opportunity, and in the early days — through winter and the Christmas lockdown — it didn’t feel like I was missing out on much. Things are a little different now. Every absence independent from my family feels like it requires a negotiation as much with myself as with anyone else. And I don’t only mean literal absences. Someone new has come into my life and they have no tolerance for anything else that might be meaningful to me. So many of the things against which I used to define myself have necessarily had to be neglected.

It goes without saying that I haven’t written much. Whatever free time I have at the moment is normally spent collapsed in an exhausted heap on the sofa, watching TV. I can count the number of books I’ve actually finished in the last eight months on one hand; I have started and set aside perhaps two dozen. I feel very remote from the person who spent several years documenting here every book he finished.

Games have fared a little better. In the early days, when I found myself with some late night hours to myself, I picked up the remastered Bioshock collection. It took me months, but I eventually finished all three: the first game is a masterpiece, the second is a very decent sequel, and the third is probably the greatest missed opportunity in all of gaming. (I ended up writing several thousands of words about the games, over the course of weeks — the only thing of substance I’ve written since Robin was born, in fact — which I since abandoned, in a fit of self-doubt and impatience with my own tortuous style.)

But I mean it when I say that the first game is a masterpiece. I had forgotten just how immensely absorbing it is — a journey into another world that’s less realistic than it is gloriously theatrical. Every time I think about it I feel like I want to replay it again. And it never really occurred to me before that Bioshock is about parenting as much as it is a picture of Objectivism in decay. It hits different now, as the kids say.

While driving over the weekend I passed the word ‘DADDY’ outlined in rich pink flowers, laid in memorial at the centre of a roundabout. It made me flinch. Every time I see that word in whatever context it seems to come with an intimation of departure. And in the same way every time I think about this game it seems laden with the feeling of a dying fall that nobody ever really seems to talk about. You play as a kind of genetically modified clone, returning home to his unwelcoming father and near-absent mother in a demented inversion of the Odysseus tale; and the only good you can do in this world is to rescue the handful of innocents left within it. You have to become a father yourself, in a sense. But your days are numbered.

The ending of the original Bioshock is often written off as a bit of a joke. You fight a deliriously incongruous final boss, and then depending on your actions through the rest of the game, you get to see one of two final sequences. In the bad ending, the denizens of Rapture somehow steal a nuclear submarine, and it’s implied that something very bad follows. But the good ending has more to it than that. You return to the surface, and it’s implied that you adopt some of the Little Sisters you rescued down there as though they were your daughters. There’s a brief montage of scenes from an assortment of lives. A graduation. A marriage. A child reaching for a parent’s hand. And then a death bed. The hands of your daughters reach out for you one last time.

After perhaps twenty hours of gameplay this sequence is perhaps less than a minute long. It feels rushed, awkward, sentimental. But as a coda, it also has the outstanding benefit of being perfectly real.

#robin #personal #fatherhood #video games #bioshock

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harrysweasleys · 4 years ago

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christmas lovin’ // d.m

Summary: Oh hi!! Idk if your requests are still open but if you could, could you write a hufflepuff reader x draco post war?? In which they think that the other one doesn’t love them (THE PINING! THE LONGING) and they bake, and read together? With feelings being confessed? If you can’t it’s totally okay!! love your fics btw!

Warnings: none. so soft.

Word Count: 2.3k

A/N: sorry to those still waiting for their request to get written. my inbox is crazy and my request list is hella long so i’m trying my best. hope you enjoy this soft fic!! xoxo

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“Oh, come in, it’s freezing outside!” you grasped Draco’s shivering figure lightly by the shoulder and ushered him into your apartment, dusting the snow off of his hair and his shoulders as he placed his hands over his nose to warm it up, “Sorry I made you wait so long in the cold, I couldn’t hear you knocking in the kitchen.”

“No worries,” he shrugged off his coat and hung it by the door as you locked it shut, “I’m indoors now and that’s what matters.”

He smiled at you, the fluttering in your heart already beginning at the gesture. He removed his gloves and placed them in his coat pockets, proceeding to remove his shoes, kicking the snow off of them and nearly placing them by the doorway, a proper habit of his. He never left anything scattered anywhere.

“Something smells good,” he stepped off the carpet with his emerald green wool socks and closer to the fireplace in the living room, placing his hands in front of it and warming them up, “What’re you making?”

You flushed, pointing to the kitchen counter, “Christmas cookies. They’re my mum’s recipe. It’s a family tradition. I kind of need that, especially this time of year.”

Draco senses the sadness in your tone, stepping away from the fireplace and pulling you into a hug, “I know. I’m sorry. I’m here for you, though.” You could feel the warmth on him from having stood by the fireplace seconds before, but it was comforting. Despite having the fire going, you were still cold.

In the aftermath of the Second Wizarding War, you felt like you had lost everything. You had spent all of your years in Hogwarts learning how to be the best possible witch you could be, but when faced with the actual dangers that lurk in the magical world, you struggled coming to terms with what happened.

You felt like you owed your life to Draco, in a way. Neither of you were overly close in school, but he had saved you from a curse when you found yourself otherwise distracted. After that, you couldn’t let him leave your life. After all; how are you supposed to forget someone who saved you?

His company was comforting, safe, and a reminder of how precious and important every moment in life was. He brought you happiness and you did the same for him — there was no doubt about that. Every time he was over, you would forget about the outside world and solely focus on him in that moment. Whether you were watching a film, making dinner, cleaning, it didn’t matter. When he was in your presence, he was all you could focus on.

He would stop by your place nearly five times a week. You both dealt with so many mental and emotional traumas post-war, and your found comfort in each other. To the point that you’d find yourself missing him mere seconds after he left. He’d leave in the evening after spending the day with you and you’d find yourself going to bed wishing he was closer to you.

Safe to say, you’re in love with him.

You pulled away from the hug and nudged your head in the direction of the kitchen, “Do you wanna make them with me?”

He tilted his head to the side, furrowing his eyebrows, “Are you sure? I don’t want to impose on a family tradition.”

“You’re not! I’m all alone, come with me,” you linked your hand in his and led him into the kitchen, where the dough was complete and the cookie cutters were messily thrown around the counter, “Put on an apron.”

He chuckled and looked over to where you kept the aprons hung, “Hm, I’ve got an option to wear one with little blue flowers, or one with yellow butterflies. Well, I think the blue flowers bring out my eyes.” He joked, pulling the one with the flowers off the hook and putting it on, twirling as if to model it. Somehow, even in a silly apron, he was the most breathtaking person you had ever seen.

“You look quite dashing,” you grinned, looking him up and down. He always had looked really good. Even when you were a young Hufflepuff, Draco’s natural charm and suave attitude had caught your attention.

“So do you,” he pointed to your apron, the giant red letters saying ‘kiss the chef’ written across it, “Very fashionable.”

The heat rose to your cheeks at his teasing smirk — you had forgotten about the childish words written on apron you were wearing. In hindsight, considering your feelings for Draco, this might not have been the best apron to wear.

“Just come help me bake,” you shook your head to sway from the playful conversation, moving over to give him some counter space next to you, “You do know how to bake the muggle way, right?”

He gazed off at the wall as if trying to remember before he nodded slowly, “Actually, yes, believe it or not. Made some with mum many years ago.” You noticed the sad smile he gave you, your beard aching for him. He had a falling out with his parents after the War and he hated talking about them. It was your ultimate goal to avoid mentioning them, so you took control of the conversation once more.

“Here,” you handed him a Christmas tree cookie cutter to bring him back to reality, “Make some trees.”

He chuckled, taking out a bit of the dough and rolling it in his hands, laying it out in the floury mess that was taking over the counter, “What shape do you have?”

You did the same, rolling a ball of dough and laying it out flat on the countertop, “Reindeer. Oh — and I have the best icing colours.”

“Well guess I’ll have to stuck around and you’ll have to show me these icing colours to prove your point,” he smirked, slowly beginning to produce some Christmas tree shaped cookies, placing them gently on the cooking tray you had placed in front of the both of you.

You flushed again, focusing your energy on cutting the cookies perfectly in attempts to not become too overwhelmed by the way he seemed to effortlessly flirt. Was he just always a natural flirt? You kind of hope he meant it, but you wouldn’t admit that out loud. Somehow, baking was becoming more of an intimate moment shared between you two and you never wanted it to end.

After filing up the tray, you placed it in the pre-heated oven and closed the door, marking the timer and grabbing another empty tray, “What shape do you want now? I’ve got snowmen, snowflakes, Santa hats... anything you can think of.”

You placed the tray down on the counter and pushed the box of cookie cutters in his direction, giggling slightly at the way his eyes widened.

“How many cookie cutters do you have? Bloody hell,” he chuckled, taking some of them out and analyzing them with a hint of amusement in his eyes, “Oh, wait. I like this one.”

“The cat shaped one? It’s not even Christmassy!” you laughed, rummaging through them as well and pulling out the Santa hat shaped one for yourself.

“I can make it Christmassy with your ever-so-colourful icing,” he winked at you, sending your heart into a frenzy. You momentarily forgot how to breathe.

He retuned to rolling the dough as of unaware of his affect on you. His usually tidy platinum hair was hanging in his forehead, lose stands dangling as he continued to cut the cat-shaped cookies, eyebrows furrowed in concentration in attempts not to mess up the shapes. You were worried he wasn’t enjoying himself, but every time he placed a new cat-shaped cookie on the tray, he’s grin proudly, telling you that he was in fact having a good time.

You were so distracted by his good looks that you almost forgot you were making cookies as well.

“Alright, done!” he clapped his hands, flour clouding off of them and into his hair and face. You stopped your cutting, clutching your stomach in laughter as he tried to wipe the flour off of him, coughing as it went up his nose, but making it way worse. Smears of white flour were now in his hair, cheeks, and nose.

“Priceless,” you struggled to catch your breath while laughing, lifting your hand to wipe even more flour across his nose, laughter not dying down when he turned to glared at you.

“How dare you,” he scowled, struggling to hide his own laughter, “That’s not fair. I have to retaliate.”

You stopped laughing, trying your best to give him a stern look, “How? I already did all the messy work. Can’t catch me off guard.” Placing your hands on your hips to emphasize your point, his eyes darted around your kitchen in search of something to do. You had thankfully put away the eggs and milk and other ingredients, so unless he went searching through your fridge and pantry, he wouldn’t find anything else to douse you with.

“Can’t catch you off guard?” he scoffed, stepping closer to you, “I beg to differ.”

You nearly choked on your breath from the immediate closeness, his body heat enveloping you to the point where you weren’t sure if you were warm because of him or because your nervous heart was thundering away.

You could smell him — the mixture of mint and cookie dough was intoxicating. He had always smelled good, but it took your breath away every time.

“How so?” your voice was soft, luckily covering the nervous tone. You wanted him to kiss you, to pull you close to his body and hold you forever. His hugs had always been unmatched, you could only imagine how good his kisses were.

Fortunately, your thoughts were confirmed as he leaned down and whispered, “Like this.”

His eyes fluttered shut and he placed his lips against yours, kissing you as if he had been waiting to do so for years. As if you were everything he ever needed. You kissed back immediately, melting into his touch and becoming weak in the knees. You felt like you were floating; the feeling of his lips against yours was unreal. He was loving, gentle, everything you thought he’d be.

You couldn’t help but feel as if everything you had been waiting for had come into play. You pined for him, longed for him, and you finally got to have the connection you had been waiting for. You’d never admit to him, but you had imagined what it would be like to kiss him. You’ve imagined the feeling of his lips moving in sync with yours, passion overcoming the two of you like a tidal wave. It was safe to say it was way better than you’d imagined.

His hands gripped your waist lightly as he broke the kiss, his flour-covered face smirking down at you, “Caught you off guard yet?”

You smiled, breathless, “Y—Yeah, I’d say.”

He kissed your nose lightly, shooting your a wink and turning back to continue the cookies you hadn’t cut due to your distractions. You felt frozen in your place, as if the events that just unfolded couldn’t register in your mind.

He had just kissed you. Kissed you.

“What’s wrong, love?” he chuckled, turning to face you with a knowing smirk after he cut the rest of the cookies, holding the pan in his hand to place in the oven.

“You kissed me,” you said, sounding exhilarated. You thought you sounded pathetic but your mind felt so distant and afar that you couldn’t mask a calm tone of voice.

He placed the cookie tray down, “That I did. I’ve been waiting to do that for a while, actually. Don’t laugh, but I’ve always fancied you. You’re so sweet, just incredible. And you’ve let me into your life, making me the luckiest person ever.” He had said it so casually, but his eyes held every bit of sincerity. He gazed down at you with a level of adoration you had never seen before.

“You have?” you gaped, heart still aflutter in your chest, “I—I’ve been waiting for you to do it too, actually. Almost did it myself a few times. I’ve fallen for you, and laugh if you want, but I’m so relieved you finally did that.”

He was now positively beaming. He placed his hands on either side of your face and leaned in to kiss you again.

——

Nearly an hour later, all the cookies were baked and you were comfortably nestled on the couch. The fireplace was warm, the blanket surrounding the two of you was soft, and the plate of cookies on the table in front of you was delicious.

You were reading a book silently, leaned up against Draco’s chest as he twirled a strand of your hair in his fingers, occasionally pressing a delicate kiss to your temple as you delved into the story in front of you. Each time he did it, your entire body got covered in goosebumps — it was a feeling you wanted to experience forever.

Draco wasn’t reading, but he was perfectly at bliss with you in his arms, head against his chest, and the warmth enveloping you two as the snow continued coming down outside.

You reached over, grabbing another cookie and taking a bite and being careful not to get crumbs all over your pages, decided to check the clock above the fireplace, “It’s late, Draco, I just realized.” You felt a little fluke noticing how late it was. You didn’t want him to leave. The evening had been the closest thing to perfect you had ever experienced.

He chuckled, placing another kiss to your forehead, “I know. I don’t want to leave though.”

Flushing, but agreeing, you closed your book and placed it on the table before turning around to face him, readjusting the blanket so you were both still cocooned, “Unless — I don’t know — do you want to stay the night? You don’t have to, but we could stay in bed and be warm and cozy and—,”

He cut you off by placing his lips on yours, rendering you speechless before pulling away and mumbling against your lips.

“Thought you’d never ask, love.”

#draco malfoy #draco malfoy imagine #draco malfoy imagines #draco malfoy one shot #draco malfoy one shots #draco malfoy fanfic #draco malfoy fanfics #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy reader insert

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sweeterthankarma · 4 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: SKAM (France) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Maya Etienne/Lola Lecomte Characters: Lola Lecomte, Maya Etienne Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 06, Pre-Rehab, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Fluff Summary:

It’s a little bit embarrassing for Lola, if she’s honest. There are two thoughts fluttering around in her mind, desperate to be said, though she keeps her mouth shut, busies it with kissing Maya’s. One: she’s in love. Two: she doesn’t want to leave.

Title comes from the song "Lucky Strike" by Troye Sivan.

Grass tickles Lola’s ankles, the stretch of skin between the hem of her jeans and her high rise socks that scrunch against her shins. With fabric the color of rosewood and patterned with little flowers that have lost their definition after too many cycles in the wash, Lola figures that even a stranger could likely tell that they don’t belong to her, but rather the girl beside her.

Lola doesn’t ask, but she knows she’s taking these socks with her when she goes, maybe even snagging a few other pairs from Maya’s drawers, the ones with cats or pizza or funny sayings scrawled with loose, stringy thread. “Putain, c’est lundi,” reads one pair that Lola’s seen Maya wear most frequently, always on the correct day of the week, and never without a chipper, unwavering smile on her face. Lola thinks Maya should give those socks to her indefinitely, or at least for the next few weeks as well, considering that her own wardrobe— almost exclusively solitary colors, primarily black— echoes the sentiment rather well.

Besides, Lola just wants every piece of Maya that she can get, every bit that she can possibly hold onto.

They’re not exactly dancing around the subject— where Lola’s going, why she’s going, how long it’s going to be— but they’re not really talking about it either. Lola doesn’t exactly want to either, hence why she brought the food— crepes, bread, salad drenched in vinegar, feta, and olives; Icelandic style yogurt, countless pre-packed containers of fruit, just to name a few. It’s all in hopes to keep them busy, sated, though she knows they don’t need food to accomplish that.

Some bird squawks in the distance. Lola’s knees shift, twist up the picnic blanket, and Maya laughs beneath her, the sound shiny and silver and golden and actually just about every color Lola’s ever seen, ever known, mixing and blending into one. The dots of eyeliner beneath Maya’s lower lash line scrunch up against her top one when she goes on, keeps giggling, keeps looking at Lola like she’s lucky, like she’s happy. It’s hard for Lola to believe that she is. Even harder to believe that Maya is beautiful— so, so beautiful— and Maya is hers. Even if just for right now, just for this brief, fleeting moment. If that’s all that this is, all it’ll ever be, Lola will take it, no questions asked.

But she feels safe, steady, like she can trust this. Like it isn’t going anywhere, like Maya isn’t running, or won’t be as soon as she gets the chance. Her hands skate up Lola’s back, tap against either side of her spine, each notch, all the way until she reaches the nape of Lola’s neck. Lola doesn’t need coaxing to bend down, to kiss her, again and again and again and again. She could tell Maya that, but she won’t. Won’t do anything to make them move, to get Maya to pull her hands away from her shoulders, to make her be in any position where she can’t be like this, holding her, with her.

One: she’s in love. Two: she doesn’t want to leave.

She sticks with silence. Maya is good for her, but Maya is good, period, just as whole on her own as she is when she’s in Lola’s arms, splayed out beneath her looking like the purest picture of heaven Lola’s ever imagined. Lola, however, needs to be just as good on her own, and there’s one third, final statement that she knows, maybe even truer than the first two, no matter how much she’s going to drag her heels on the way out the door: she has to leave.

It’s what she needs right now. There’s no way around it. And honestly, it’s a good thing. It’s going to be a good thing. This time, she swears it’ll be different.

“You taste like strawberries,” Maya mumbles against Lola’s lips, nudging them back together in more of a languid movement than a purposeful kiss. Lola’s back burns hot from the sun, from Maya’s fingers playing with the straps of her shirt.

“We ate a lot of strawberry things,” Lola supplies. A little movement of her elbow and she’s both shrugging the strap down more and nudging the non-alcoholic champagne beside them. It rolls off the fabric of the blanket and into the grass, onto its condensation-wet side. Maya turns her head to the side to look at it, as if wistfully, like it’s long gone and wouldn’t take another effortless, lackadaisical attempt to retrieve it. Then she’s peering back up at Lola again— unbothered, still beaming, flushed from Lola’s kisses and the July sun— and that’s as close as they’ll get to the topic.

That’s okay with Lola. This is more than okay with her, finding solace and hope and renewal in the arms of the first person who’s ever truly loved her without any kind of force, any sort of mandate. Maya is pure, giddy and true, and Lola is sure she mirrors her expression, even if not her soul— at least not quite yet anyways, though Lola’s really not expecting to come out of rehab with a heart that’s anywhere as close to gold as Maya’s. It’s therapy and routine and good influences, not magic.

But Lola has no doubts that if she could see herself, more than just the limited reflection in Maya’s summer-drenched eyes, that she’d have difficulty recognizing herself. For once, she finally means that in a good way.

“Viens ici, chérie,” Maya says, and Lola’s sinking down again, fitting her legs between Maya’s and dropping her cheek against her chest. The softness of her t-shirt , decorated with cherries and a stitched-in saying in English, something about féminisme, sweeps against Lola’s kiss-stained lips, rhythmic with every rise and fall of Maya’s chest.

“Let’s stay here all day,” Maya decides, sounding wistful and far away. Lola wonders how it’s taken her this long to propose that idea when she’s been thinking since the moment they arrived that maybe they should just say “screw it” to the rest of the world, camp out here forever, find eternal blue sky in some vacant park far too wide and flourishing to sensibly be this empty.

“That was the plan,” Lola answers, sounding entirely committal and meaning it. She reaches up, finds loose fists of lilac hair, the back of her hand brushing against the shell of Maya’s right ear. Maya hums in content— maybe at the touch, maybe at the words, maybe just at Lola’s presence— and Lola does it right back, then sets on a mission to kiss every centimeter of Maya’s skin that she can reach. She does it for now, for the minute after that she hasn’t yet gotten to, and when that minute comes, she’ll do it for tonight, when Basile will make her his famous risotto again and Daphné will cry like she always does when these sorts of departures happen, even though this time it’ll be for different reasons than before. Lola kisses Maya for tomorrow when she’ll be too busy packing, for the evening when she’ll sleep alone in her bed for the last time for a while, and she kisses her for every day after that, every day until she comes home.

Goodbye will be hard, but it won’t be for long. Lola swears she’ll be rebuilt, rejuvenated, better in no time.

If you enjoyed, please let me know! Comments and kudos make my day.

Come say hi and talk to me about the Skamverse at my Tumblr blog here or at my Twitter account here! I adore Lola and Maya, so if there's anything else you'd like me to write for them, tell me about it and I'll see what I can do!

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doctorbrightside · 4 years ago

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I’m depressed, so here are my Minecraft pets, their names, and my scheme to mess with my super cutesy friend. This is a very long post, but it’s very entertaining, at least to me.

This is a tale of sibling rivalry. We aren’t even siblings, but I’ve known her most of my life and she’s the closest thing to a sibling I’ll ever have. We started a Minecraft world together and I was going to take every opportunity to do something stupid to get out my impulsiveness. I always kept a bell in my hot bar already, and I was ready to cause some chaos.

When we first spawned, we wandered for forever, looking for a village to renovate. That’s when I found Beethocks. First born, most beloved. A little black and white cat I found while adventuring that I brought home. I asked my best friend what I should name him, because I didn’t know if a basic name like Socks wouldn’t do him justice or if a strange name like Beethoven would be pretentious. She said ��do something in the middle,” which is a statement she will forever regret. Beethoven+Socks= Beethocks. This started my descent into “menace to society” status in our world.

I thought I lost Beethocks for a little bit, so I started the trip for another cat. It turns out, I had just sat him down and forgot where, but we won’t bring up my incompetence. When I got one, I named him Throckmorton, after my cousin, the skateboarder. She was not happy with this, and I vowed to make it so much worse.

Somewhere in the middle here, my friend got another cat, because the cat she got at the beginning went missing. She still had one, Honey, and now had another. She ended up naming her Bread, as in Bread and Honey, but I needed to counteract her cute names.

Things start to come together around this point. I ventured off into the spruce forest to look for a pack of foxes so I can have my own. I got one and brought him back home, planning on pissing her off as much as I can without her blocking me through every form of communication I have with her. I arrived back at my stupid little goth house and tied him up outside.

I think it’s important to mention that as I’m writing this, I got a message from her. My job as an annoying little bastard is never done.

I got a name tag and went to the anvil, barely holding in cackles, head full of pure malice toward Minecraft God. I was going to make things so, so much worse. I named him, my son, my child, my beloved, darling fox boy, Stainless Steel Fridge 145A7P9. I often refer to him formally with his full name, including numbers. Not only is he named after a state-of-the-art appliance, he also has a model number. How fancy and elegant is that, dear reader?

She did not think so. She regularly complains about it, but I know she would never do anything. This is the same person who immediately starts gardens in Minecraft because she can’t bear to watch the animals run when you hit them. This post may send her over the edge, though, and in that case, I’m a little sorry, but not really. I have tried to anger her as much as I have with Stainless Steel Fridge 145A7P9, but I have never again caused that level of a visceral hatred. He is the bane of her existence, so of course I had to get him siblings.

As I stated prior, I live somewhat close to a spruce forest. I wanted a dog. I looked for forever, and finally, I spawned one because I got tired of looking.

Animals with the wrong animal names will never not be hilarious. My cat in real life is named Toad, and I love him very much. So with my newly-spawned dog, I was going to entertain myself and come up with the farthest animal from a dog— an ostrich.

But that’s not enough. That wouldn’t make God turn upon his creation and feel regret for what He brought onto our mortal plane.

I’m queer and mentally ill, so of course I had an MCU phase. I still compulsively collect comic books to fill the void in my soul, but that’s beside the point.

The names of villains in the MCU are all works of pure genius, no matter how minor the character. For example, Tazorface, Abomination, and Ronan the Accuser. Notice the cool and threatening title tacked onto the end. This was inspiring.

My new son was named Ostrich the Destroyer, and I love him very much. The name didn’t evoke pure rage in her, so I decided a double whammy was the best thing I could do. I still had wolf spawn eggs in my hot bar.

I watch Supernatural. Yes, I’m very ashamed, but it’s a guilty pleasure. The misogyny and bad writing truly does entertain me to no end. But, it has been the source of many bad ideas and great comedic moments for me. The Dr. Sexy parody show is a work of art. What’s funnier than someone with a doctorate having a questionable last name?

And with that in mind, Dr. Piss PhD was born. She’s a wonderful dog, and she’s very proud of both her doctorate and PhD. She may have only been alive a few seconds, but trust me, she’s educated. By now, my friend had been desensitized, but she was still disappointed in me. Mission accomplished.

Thus, my expedition into being an annoying sibling and menace to society has been concluded indefinitely. I will conduct similar studies in the future of the collective tolerance of my friends. Thank you for reading.

#minecraft #anecdote #I love being a menace to society #scheme

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wcamino-confessions · 4 years ago

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hi I’ve been waiting for species to come up in here, and now that it has, hold on to your asses boys we’re going for a ride

it’s another long one, sorry, but I’m very passionate about the species debate and whether or not you agree with me, you can’t say I’m wrong with some of these points

firstly, species are various ‘hybrids’ or evolutionized/mutated subversions of cats that are commonly found around amino. sometimes they’re simply cats with odd traits that serve no real purpose and were mainly created for aesthetic. some more popular species include delicats, mermyxns, and slimetails. each species has traits that are specific to their genes, although MOST (not all) have the same base traits (horns, wings, steam, fish tails, spikes, random inanimate objects as tails, socks, bandaids, unnatural whiskers, antennae, glass body parts, liquidated body parts, etc).

species really got big upon the first notable creation of warriors species called slimetails back in late 2018/early 2019. the cats featured various colored, themed, textured and substanced tails made from slime after radioactivity consumed the clans homes and resulted in the genetic mutation. they grew very popular very quickly as they were, and are, an open original species. from there, species quickly took off with the members of WA, and with no regulations about who could make them and how you went about doing so, they were quickly overwhelming. well, maybe overwhelming isn’t the right term. the community absolutely ate up the prospect of unnatural, oftentimes irrelevant, cats with pretty features and levels of trait rarity. they’re still a very popular aspect of WA today.

and in today’s standards, they are oftentimes associated with a users level of “popularity.” although this is definitely not the case with all species owners and affiliates, no one can deny that the only reason some members are popular is because of their status as creators, GA’s, or fervent members of that species communities. now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does tend to rile small bouts of drama in some cases. luckily, they usually remain off of WA, or at least out of the BIG drama category of WA. but there is plenty of drama associated with species nonetheless.

firstly, there is the matter of relevancy that needs to be addressed within species. although the LT did reform their guidelines to ensure that all species do have some form of relation to the warriors books in their lore, we haven’t seen much of a change. in order to “abide” by this new guidelines, many species creators simply said that the cats in their species could be found living in clans either in the wild, on their own accord, or as a whole. WITHOUT altering their lore as required. that’s all fine and dandy. but how does it derive species from the books? well. it doesn’t. because in order for a species to be truly relevant to the warriors fandom, they must have descended DIRECTLY from one of the five clans in the books, or a tribe. rogues and loners, while apart of the series, have never been found to go off and create their own clan(s) for the fun of it. and we have no reason to believe that would change in the series. even the Skyclan cats didn’t reform Skyclan for shits and giggles. they were influenced by clan cats and received prophetic dreams from Starclan cats that basically guilt tripped them into doing this really random thing that they otherwise wouldn’t have even known of.

so, in all technicality, rogue/loner species derivatives do not pertain to the books. in order for a species to be genuinely, unquestionably relevant to warriors they need to either be mutated/evolved counterparts to the clans/tribe, or they need to, by direct lineage, be related to the original clan cats. of course no one expects you to go draw up a family tree on how your flying monkey cats have someone come from Firestar the Greats bloodline. but simply saying so isn’t enough. if they’re truly relevant to the books, then species owners need to add it. to. the lore. yeah, that guideline has already been passed. but it was not followed efficiently. your quirky cats with a clan/tribe hierarchy or something similar to such does not make them relevant. fix the damn lore like the guidelines originally stated. oh, and sorry to break it to you, but this means that your mythical god-like cats, your robo-cats, and your human object cats are immediately out of the running for relevancy. I can see how wings might have some semblance of realistism, but your sparkly candle tailed cats or cats who grow moss in cute little bubbles serve no evolutionary purpose and wouldn’t have any possibility of existing within the warriors universe.

now, onto the next topic of relevancy: evolution. some people say that cats developing fish tails or wings defies the laws of evolution. it probably does. but then again, we are dealing with four territorial cult cats who are very religious and, on occasion, will fight ghost cats and lose so. I’m actually defending species on this part, but don’t get used to it. because in all honesty, who are we to defy the lengths that evolution will go to? we didn’t expect fish to grow legs, but here we are. who’s to say that in this hypothetical universes cats can’t evolve to accommodate wings? don’t get me wrong, I hate the idea of it, but it isn’t COMPLETELY unreasonable.

next on the agenda, we have attribute individuality. granted, there are only so many different ways to make your species unique and really genuinely original, seeing the same handful of base traits repeat themselves in multiple different species (that could honestly just be considered one species altogether) does get old. there are not infinite options for creating a species that is going to be genuinely relevant in some remote aspect, and at some point people need to realize its time to stop. new species sprout up on what seems like a monthly basis on several occasions. and, although they don’t always get big, they still hold a place in clogging the latest feed. specifically with their borderline unacceptably irrelevant adopts. species really test the limits in relevancy, and so do adopts, but that’s for another day. and I’m not saying adopts are bad, so don’t single that out from this entire confess.

there’s another thing. species adopts. they’re constantly flooding the latest feed and drowning out actual warriors/oc related content. “it’s not your place to tell people what they should and shouldn’t post!” yeah, no dip. that’s not what I’m doing. I’m simply expressing my grievances with the amount of UNBEARABLY absurd species adopts that are constantly being uploaded and sold. and pricing? yeesh, that’s also for another day. but I am, again, not blatantly telling anyone to “stop posting species adopts!” or “lower your prices!” so that’s not something that needs to be brought up. so, whether or not you continue to post species adopts is your business. I’m positive that plenty of people adore them and are eating them up like candy. but, coming from a rare non-species lover, it does get tiring to trudge through all those horned bases and eye bleed neons to find some actual content.

don’t get me wrong, I’m not against species, per se. but I am against them being on WA. they don’t serve any actual purpose to the fandom in terms of relevancy. in most cases at least. and while I do applaud the creativity, the uniqueness and the overall joy it brings to the table, I just think that they’d be better off elsewhere. this is not a cat amino. this is a warriors amino. meaning we are only inclusive of cats pertaining to the warriors fandom for validated use in the community. validated use consists of realistic role playing, realistic story writing, realistic artistry and/or realistic character development by any means. so, looking outside of species, any unrealistic characters are still fine for the community because they cannot actually be implimented into WA in the ways that species can for their unnatural complexions. the only reason species are justified for their unnatural complexions is because of loopholes that make them seem relevant and viable for validated use, simple because they are completely feline in the genetic sense.

I hope that paragraph made sense, shit got a little complex right there. but, anyways, I’d like to reiterate relevancy. again. because I don’t see anyone giving up their species on WA for the sake of being canonically relevant because they’re going to find some off the wall way to make their quirky cats seem applicable. to be fair, I wouldn’t want to give up by hard earned creation so easily either. but there ARE other places to take them. and it isn’t up to us to figure out where, it’s up to the species owners. so it’s not like the species would be thrown out altogether, it would just be the irrelevant ones. and the relevant ones would be required to ACTUALLY abide by the guidelines instead of finding loopholes or countering valid points as to how their species are not canonically derived with “they lives in clans.” again, sorry if this paragraph was hard to follow. I’m perfectly fine with clearing up any misunderstandings in those last two paragraphs^^

so, to sum up, I believe the guidelines should be fixed and species should be properly mandated to abide by these new guidelines in order to ensure ACTUAL relevancy. I don’t like species. I don’t want anything to do with them. but I like that they bring a new sense of community and likeness to WA. and I don’t give a rats ass if you choose to associate with them. I personally believe that NONE of the species have any place on WA, but that would be unfair of me, wouldn’t it. so, I did my best to accommodate rationality in this entry, and I apologize if I came off as a stuck up bitch at any point. it wasn’t my intention, but I sure it did happen at some point.

oh, and let me derail any “WA would be boring if it were 100% relevant” arguments. because firstly, it WAS 100% relevant when it first started out, and it thrived. secondly, no where did I claim that species need to be 100% relevant. I made it very clear that it was the lore and the traits that needed to match up to accommodate the terms of relevancy. and thirdly, even on the off chance that species were subtracted from the equation, there are still plenty of other aspects that leave WA out of the running for total relevancy. thank you for coming to my ted talk, have a nice day loves <3

#submission

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xhanisai · 5 years ago

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Miraculous Ladybug: Kiss AU

Feel free to delete the bold if you want to post this. This was the only thing that I worked on for the last few days. I really hope you like it. I did use, I think, every idea you put in. I used every one of the dialogues that you used and only edit them slightly. I did add my own thing slightly. A reason why that the kiss is needed for transformation. I did read your other items about the episodes and even Bubbler. I really liked the Bubbler one you wrote. And if you wanted, I could keep writing more. I really enjoyed doing this. But only if you want me to write more. It is your AU.

“Wait, you mean I have to kiss this stranger to become a hero!? The hell!” Marinette yelled out as she pointed both her hands at the blond boy next to her. ‘He looks like he could be a model!’

Her eyes were wide, and she was slightly panicking. She was not sure entirely sure what was happening. She had seen this old man (pervert?) the other day when he fell down. And now she was in his massage parlour with what looked like the concept of teenage heartthrob made flesh.

The pair would occasionally look at each, Adrien gave a small wave with a genuine smile toward Marinette. This made her slightly flustered, making her blush and look away. Why was this boy so familiar?

“Yes, though this rule is very new. Believe me, I do not make the rules when it comes to transforming. If it were up to me I would rather you not know each other’s identities. This could cause problems down the road. But, when I think about it, I can see more of the good it will do than harm. You two will be a more effective team and be able to beat evil and keep the order in Paris from Hawk Moth. I believe Tikki told me that one duo had to dance together to become their hero personas.” Master Fu smiled as he drank from a small cup of tea, enjoying the warm beverage on this cool day. The moment he saw these two he knew they were meant to be. They needed a little push. Though a certain red bug wasn’t innocent in the matter either.

Marinette felt like she was about to crumble. Here she was, being told that she had to kiss someone to be a hero. This couldn’t be real. She had to be dreaming. This had to be some weirdos dream. She accidentally Incepted herself in their dream and now they were controlling this world. But she was reading earlier, well mostly skimming that magazine but still read words. And that was a condition of a dream. You can’t read in them.

Adrien looked over at Marinette. He couldn’t help but get excited. He had never kissed anyone before, and he did not count photo shoots where it looked like he was kissing female models. He was never comfortable kissing random girls. But Marinette, she was different. He felt a strange connection to her. He hoped that she felt the same. She looked super confident. And even though she was flustered right now, he could tell she was strong at heart, and sorta physically imposing.

‘WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM GONNA KISS THIS HANDSOME BOY! DO I THANK THE MAN ABOVE OR CURSE THE MAN BELOW! AHHH’ Marinette thought while keeping a somewhat stern voice, listening to Fu talk.

“So you’re telling me that in order to transform into a super cool cat hero to beat Stoneheart, I have to kiss her? The prettiest girl I’ve ever seen who looks like she could kick my ass? I don’t mind as long as she’s okay with it.” He gave a big smile as he closed his eyes. The last thing he wanted this girl to be was uncomfortable.

“Y-Y-YOU THINK I’M PRETTY!?” She turned crimson, and that made Adrien blush. Her stutter made his heart beat a little faster. She wasn’t uncomfortable at all with Adrien, or the kiss itself. She was worried that if she did he would regret it and her first kiss would be ruined. She began to hyperventilate. Then, she felt a hand on her. He looked at her with that warm smile and she suddenly felt her worries melt away. This boy, he was magical.

She stood up and clenched her fists. She brought her forearms toward her stomach, standing confident and triumphantly. She irradiated confidence. She grabbed the Miracle Box containing the earrings, a red flash of light appeared and out popped a strange red creature with black spots on her head. She quickly introduced herself as Tikki, the Kwami of Creation and how she would be used to turn her into a superhero.

Adrien smiled at this, being infected by her confidence and grabbed his own Miracle Box. A flash of green light appeared as Adrien followed it around his body. A small black cat appeared floating in front of the teen. The cat, lazily, explained how he was the Kwami of Destruction. The other half to his Sugar Cube.

“I told you not to call me that! Call me that again and I will start calling you Stinky Sock.”

“Whatever you say Sugar Cube.”

Adrien and Marinette both smiled at this small exchange. Thinking the same thing.

“They are so in love.”

Marinette then took a deep breath. They needed to hurry. The couldn’t let Stoneheart parade around any longer and cause mischief. Though they were apparently teleported here to save time, it didn’t mean they could dillydally. They quickly equipped the jewellery, Marinette sorta wincing as it had been a bit since she wore earrings.

Adrien walked to Marinette, grabbing both of her hands and held them up to his chest. He gave them a small kiss, thinking that it would help calm her nerves. When he looked up she was red once more, which made Adrien want to do it again, but he would have to wait till next time.

Marinette squeezed his hands tight, looking up at him. He was much taller than she thought. She looked into his green eyes, gulping as she was nervous. When he kissed her hand, she felt better honestly, just super flustered. She did her best to not show it as she smiled. He was rather gentle with her like he was putting her feelings before the whole situation.

As they looked into each others’ eyes they slowly drifted toward each other. They closed their eyes as their lips locked. This kiss sent shivers up their spines. It made Marinette want to press deeper into it. Adrien didn’t want to let her go. Her lips were cold against his warm ones. They didn’t kiss long, but they could feel a spark through it. It felt right to kiss each other. And

Marinette was the first to pull away, though she was hesitant to do so. After they finished their 4-second kiss the Kwamis flew inside their jewellery, forming the costumes of their personas.

They looked at each other for a moment, smiling as they stepped back from each other. The grabbed their weapons, Marinette whirled her yoyo a bit spinning it a little to fast. Adrien looked at his staff, examining it as he pressed the green paw print on the handle. Marinette lost control of the yoyo, it flying in the air and hitting Adrien in the head as his staff extended and hit Marinette in the temple. They both groan in and rubbed their heads, chuckling as Fu opened the window, gesturing toward it.

“Go forth young heroes.”

______________________________________________________

“Pound it!” They both yelled out in Unison as they smiled at a job well done. Their Miraculous beeped and Chat Noir looked at his ring.

“Until later Mar….um m’ lady! Let’s meet up tomorrow morning. I know a pur-fect place to meet” He said nervously. He had almost given her name away. He knew who she was, but he remembered the fact that Master Fu wanted their identities originally secret from one another. So he probably shouldn’t say her name.

“Ladybug. You call me Ladybug, Chaton.” She quickly said as she twirled her yoyo. She swung out the field and toward her home as Adrien used his baton to exit quickly.

Ivan and Alya just watched the heroes leave. She quickly made her way towards Ivan, who looked very confused. “Just where exactly am I and why was there a couple in a leather suit out here?”

Ladybug entered her room, her transformation wearing off just a few seconds after she landed on her bed through the trap door. She let out a sigh, laying down on the bed, as she quickly crawled under the covers.

“Why isn’t school just cancelled for tomorrow. Makes no sense…” She fell asleep, exhausted after fighting her first supervillain. Tikki watched her and smiled. She soon rested on the pillow falling asleep with her chosen. A nagging thought wasn’t able to leave her mind though. Was she forgetting something?

The next morning Marinette woke up excited to see Adrien again. She had received a text from him, saying to meet at a local diner. She actually woke up early, to doll her self up. Which meant a bit of lip gloss and clear coat on her nails. She looked at Tikki, she was deep in sleep even with all the noise she made. She must be exhausted after not using her powers for so long. She gave the small Kwami a kiss on the head and headed out without explaining to her parents. They just looked at each other and said “Teenagers.”

After about a half-hour of walking and jogging with excitement, she arrived at the designated in the text. It was a local chain, about a few dozen across the entirety of France. There were about 6 in Paris. She walked in, the smell of fresh bacon and baked good along with the TV’s plastered all around was comforting. She noticed college students working, some talking, and what she assumed was the table of old men who were regulars that came for the coffee and company of their peers. She spotted Adrien in the back and waving at her. She was nervous because she had no idea if this counted as a date or just friends eating out together. Friends who kiss. To become superheroes. And may or may not have kissed a second time before the battle for good luck.

She sat across him in the booth, his goofy smile plastering his face as he rubbed the back of his head. He hoped this didn’t weird her out. They had about two hours before school started, so he had time before heading there. He was thankful that Nathalie bought his excuse.

“Why did you want to meet here?” She placed her book bag on the seat, resting her elbows on the table as her head was placed on her palms.

“Well, I thought that we could know each other. I doubt we will ever see each other outside of our ‘jobs’ so I was hoping we can be…um…friends….” That word felt like poison to him. Like he was hated if he referred to Marinette as a friend only. He had no idea why he thought this.

They only began to start talking, Adrien mentioned his father before every TV in the diner switched to the news. Nadja Chamack was on screen, her hair a mess and out of breath.

“Breaking News. It seems that the Villain our new superheroes stopped yesterday has returned 10 fold! He appears to have multiplied and is all across the city. Several eye-witnesses claim that a large swarm of black butterflies erupted from the Effiel Tower and spread across the city. These butterflies came into contact with random people and turned them into the monster. They are as still as statues. The one question I know is on everyone’s mind is; Where are Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“I failed…Those people….They….”

She let out some tears. An event like this, something that affected many peoples lives negatively. She failed them. She hurt them. Their lives put on halt because of her inability to act. She began to hyperventilate, clutching her chest as she looked at the screens. She couldn’t take it. She grabbed her bag and ran and out the diner, Adrien is not far behind her.

She kept running until she ran face-first into one of the Stoneheart clones. She let out a scream, cowering for a moment before realising that it wasn’t moving. Adrien caught up with her, grabbing her hand and taking her to an alleyway. She fell against the wall, dropping her bag and closing her eyes.

“Marinette, listen to me. Everything will be ok. We just have to-”

“It’s not ok! I am the reason we failed. There was a tiny voice screaming in the back of my mind to do something about the Akuma but I failed to act! It is my fault!”

She looked at Adrien, taking his ring off him suddenly and grabbing his face. She forced a quick kiss from him. Tikki woke up suddenly, grabbing on to the bed railing as if she was being sucked by a powerful vacuum. She lost her grip and with great speed, she was transported to an alleyway. She saw Marinette pulled away from the kiss as she was sucked into the Miraculous. She transformed into Ladybug, tears in her eyes as she gave him back the ring. She grabbed her backpack and grabbed her yoyo, spinning it as she refused to look at him.

“WAIT! M’LADY!.

She ignored him and used her yoyo to soar through the air and head home. She reached her balcony in about 6 minutes. She entered her room, clutching her sides as she sobbed. Her transformation dropped, Tikki forcing the transformation to go away. She slid across the bed, looking up at Marinette. “I am sorry Tikki. I don’t think I can be Ladybug any more. I will find you someone who can.”

Before Tikki could object and explain what to do she took off the earrings, unknowingly renouncing her position. She looked at the red jewels, placing them back in their Miracle Box and setting it in her backpack. The rest of the morning she felt dreary, and her dad tried his best to cheer her up, even managed to get her to smile. But she couldn’t stop thinking about how she was the reason those people were trapped. She couldn’t handle such a responsibility. The clumsy baker would never make a great superhero.

When she arrived on campus she spotted a bag falling from the second story. Alya groaned from above, looking at the bag as it fell onto the ground. Alya. She loves superheroes. She would be great to be the next Ladybug. Marinette quickly moved to her bag, setting the Miracle Box inside. She grabbed the bag and headed up the stairs, smiling at Alya as she handed it, and the burden of heroism, to her. Alya thanked her and headed to the classroom.

Just outside Adrien was running up the steps to the school. He wanted to use his powers to sneak out and get a head start, but he couldn’t activate them without Marinette. Not that it was a possibility anyway. He was halfway up the steps when he heard a loud honk. He looked back, seeing Gorilla and Nathalie in the car. Nathalie stepped out and walked toward Adrien. She was about to say something before Adrien yelled out.

“Please, just tell my father you were too late and couldn’t get to me in time.” He had a pleading look in his eyes as he ran up the remainder of the steps. Disappearing into the school Nathalie just sighed, holding a brown paper bag. She had made a small lunch for him. Though it was only PB&J with yoghurt she thought he might need it.

Alya had walked to the seats, Marinette close behind when she heard a yell, causing her to tense up and curse to herself from being scared.

“MARINETTE!!!!!!”

“Adrien!?!?”

Adrien ran up to Marinette, wrapping his arms around her tight. Her face turned red at the contact. Several emotions welled up inside of her. One part joy, one part fear out of him knowing her decision. But she can’t help but press her arms around him. He wasn’t mad at her, he could tell. Was he worried?

“How could you leave me! ‘I can’t save Paris on my own! You don’t just kiss a guy and run away!” Adrien blurted this all out loud, his face buried in her neck as she said this.

Alya walked up to the pair, smirking as she pushed her glasses up on her nose with her middle finger. “Marinette~ I didn’t know that you had a boyfriend.~” She said teasingly as she chuckled.

Chloe looked was in the background. Kim, Alix, Max, and Rose had to hold her back. They swore that they could see fire spewing from her mouth as she screamed and kick.

“How is she this strong!” Kim yelled out.

“ADRIKINS!!!!!!”

“Boyfriend? I’m her partner.” Adrien answered innocently, finally showing his face. He squished his cheeks against the deadpanned looking Marinette, quirky smile on his lips as everyone else took a double-take at his words.

“Can you excuse us for a minute, please? Thanks!” Marinette stormed off with a love-struck Adrien being led by the wrist. She brought them to the locker room, pushing Adrine inside with a huff. This room is soundproof thanks to nobody wanting to listen to young teenagers gossip

“What the hell is wrong with you! You almost exposed your identity to everyone in the classroom. I was an exception but they can’t know about you being Chat Noir!”

“Wait, what about you?” He crossed his arms and leaned closer to her. “What about your identity.”

Marinette looked down and to the left. She rubbed her forearm, feeling small as she clenched her mouth shut. She wanted to speak, but she couldn’t.

“Well?”

“I gave it up! I gave up this stupid burden I didn’t want to have in the first place!” She yelled out as she threw her hands down. Tears threatened the corner of her eyes as she looked up at Adrien. Not to her surprise, but he had a look of shock, but…hurt? That surprised her.

“Why would you just give up on me…I mean this job like that? We could do great things together!” He took a step toward her, and she moved a step back. She felt a small amount of shame build-up, but she pushed it back as she took a hard step toward him.

“I never asked for this! All I have done is help an old man not get run over by a damn car! Suddenly that qualifies me to be a hero! Then Ethan Mars definitely deserves to have my…The Ladybug Miraculous then.”

“Marinette you shouldn’t be so harsh on yourself. We are human and we make mistakes-”

“Exactly! I am a teenager and I just made a huge mistake that could get many people killed. I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I…I can’t.”

Adrien looked at her. He hated this. He hated this feeling brewing inside of him. He felt hate. But it wasn’t toward Marinette. It was toward the person who caused this. The man, woman, trans, or whatever they identify as, fault.

“So that’s it…? Fine… but don’t mistake this as me giving up on you. I’ve seen your potential and I know why Master Fu has chosen you. I’ll make you see how amazing you are, even if it takes me a thousand years! That’s a promise.”

He looked at her, his face, his whole demeanour more serious than he had even been his entire life. He grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle, yet loving kiss. At the same time, the two felt something. They were both not entirely sure what it was, but they liked it.

The duo walked back to class, sitting down across from each other. The entire time they kept glancing at each other. The entire class could feel and almost see the tension. Alix even said out loud, “Does anyone have a knife? This tension is in my way and I can’t focus on my school work.”This got some laughs from the rest of the class and caused the two teens to blush in embarrassment.

Later that day Marinette tried to cheer up Ivan. She knew that he was a strong boy and that he could beat these negative emotions. She gave him a small pep talk and the idea to write a song for Mylene. After talking with him she went back to the classroom, talking with Alya for a moment as she spied Chloe and Adrien talking. She let out a sigh, only to have the door burst open and the wall destroyed. Stoneheart yelled out his name as it was called. He grabbed Mylene and Chloe, the latter screaming about her hair as he burst through the wall.

“Ivan is a supervillain and is going to terrorize the city! I am so there!” Alya yells out loud. Marinette looks at Alya, seeing her reach into her bag and get excited for a moment. Alya takes out her phone and throws her bag at Marinette. She catches it instinctively and watches her new friend leave.

“Thanks for watching my bag! Love you!” Her voice got farther and farther away.

Marinette tried to yell at her about her bag, grabbing it and letting out a breath. Adrien was at the hole in the wall, looking out of it and closing his eyes.

“This is crazy. This is crazy.” He yelled as he jumped out, landing on the street he began running in the direction of Stoneheart. Along the way he found a street vendor selling kitchen supplies. He stopped and examined them all. He picked up a frying pan, nodded, paid for it, and continued to run. He grabbed a mask from a different vendor selling cheap costumes, ignoring the banana costume as some weird man was looking at it. ‘Like I’ll ever wear that right…..’

Marinette was at the hole, groaning she gripped Alya’s bag tight and ran out the door. She tried her best to follow Alya, but she had too much of a head start. She finally found Alya, she was recording behind some trash cans and filming Adrien. She raised an eyebrow, watching as this goofball was narrowly missing giant stone fists that were crashing down upon him. He was dodging them as best as he could, thankful to his father that his fencing lessons have a practical use outside of looking cool.

That’s when it happened. Stoneheart backhanded a car, sending it flying toward Alya unknowingly. She screamed, pushing herself to the wall, falling into a very narrow doorway. The car had her trapped, the door behind her locked and no space to crawl out. She felt like this was the end. She reached her hand out, feeling the fresh air on her hand as oxygen supply was low in this space. If she didn’t she get more soon, she would suffer brain damage. Due to the space that she had, she had more than normal circumstances with no oxygen.

This awoke something in Marinette. Time seemed to slow down for her. She watched her friend’s hand desperately reach out for help. Adrien was trying and failing, to fight off Stoneheart. It hit her. She knew why she was chosen, and she was going to make it right. She quickly grabbed the earring out of Alya’s bag, putting them on as Tikki appeared from the box. Before Marinette could say anything she was hugged by the creature.

“I’d knew you would come back.”

Marinette smiled, kissing the Kwami on the head and bolted toward Adrien. He was out of breath, his lovely frying pan was dented to all hell, and worse of all, he didn’t have a single pun the could throw at this oversized Thing™ without cringing himself. He closed his eyes, ready to embrace whatever the Stoneheart was gonna do to him. But he felt himself being tackled. The scent of vanilla wafting through his nose. They rolled away, going into a small alleyway and away from prying eyes. He had landed on top of this girl, revealing herself to be Marinette.

“You came back …why?” Adrien gasped, hope bubbling in his chest as he peered down into the girl’s vivid blue eyes. They shone with determination that he has never seen on anyone, ever. This look in her eyes was infectious. She saved him and filled him with determination.

“Seeing my partner and new friend in trouble may have sparked the fire within,” Marinette smirked. It quickly turned into an apologetic frown. “Listen, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have deserted you like that and let my insecurities take over me. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. You know what I’m going through the most and I just-”

She was silenced with a finger on her lips- or was it the fond, loving smile of his that radiated pure sunshine?

“What matters the most is that you came back, Marinette,” The way he breathed out her name did wonders to her heart. Was she falling for him? “I’ll follow you, protect you, and help you all the way. You and me against the world!”

Marinette couldn’t help but melt. If she can’t do it for Paris, then the very least she can do is do it for him. She’ll protect his smile no matter what. And if she should fail, she hopes that they are together in the final moment.

“Guess it only took you two hours to get me back on track,” The dark-haired girl grinned cutely, clasping her arms around Adrien’s neck before pulling him in for a kiss. Adrien’s eyes went wide but quickly closed them. He held her close, feeling the passion that she put into the kiss and applied his own. He felt a strange connection form between them as during this kiss. He couldn’t explain it, but it felt right. When they pulled away from each other, which admittedly was hard for both of them to do, they were already transformed.

“Now let’s go save Alya and get this Akuma.”

______________________________________________________

Marinette stood outside, the rain pouring down as she stood under the small shelter of the arc under the door. Everyone had left, and Marinette was hoping to catch Alya before she left. Wanting to hopefully talk and just make sure she was ok. She always hated the rain made her hair almost impossible to comb or brush. Tikki flew out from her purse, smiling at her and tapped Marinette on the nose.

“I’m so proud of you and what you did today,” She said with a smile as she sat on her shoulder.

“Thanks, Tikki. I am glad you never gave up on me. I have a feeling this will be the start of a wonderful friendship.”

She heard footsteps behind her, seeing Adrien with his umbrella and sent a wave to him. Plagg was on his shoulder whispering in his ear. “Go get her.”

Adrien smiled and took a few steps back to her. She blushed when he came back, making him smile wider. ‘She has such a cute smile. She really is beautiful.’ He walked up to her, extending his hand out to her with the umbrella.

“You don’t have to walk in the rain. If it is anything like mine you will need a special comb just to get it untangled.” He laughed and offered his umbrella to her.

She looked down, blushing as she extended her hand out. Their fingers touched, and at that moment Marinette felt her heart speed up. She knew she was in love. This model, who was a stranger to her not 24 hours ago, stole her heart and held it close. Adrien felt it too. He told himself he felt the love for her during her fantastic display at the Eiffel Tower. But when she touched him, it only confirmed his feelings. She took the umbrella, about to say something when it collapsed on her. Adrien laughed. Laughed the most in several months of depression. Being around this girl was like a shot of dopamine to his entire being. He leaned in, kissing her cheek and narrowly missing the corner of her mouth.

“Bye m’ lady. I can’t wait to save the day with you once more, and to see you at school tomorrow.”

He smiled and walked away, leaving Marinette in shock and flustered. As soon as Adrien entered the car for him, he couldn’t help but exclaim his giddy. Marinette did the same, unconsciously wiggling her butt. Something she always did whenever she was excited.

Then, unknown to the both of them and they headed home, looking at their Kwamis they said in unison.

“I love him”

“I love her.”

Master Fu stood in the rain, holding his umbrella and smiling as he began to walk away. “That went better than expected Wayzz. They really are meant for each other. Best not to tell Marinette that it was Tikki’s idea to do the kiss after staking out the both of them they ‘saved me’.”

“That would be wise Master. That would be very wise.”

They both had a laugh before heading to their own home. Knowing many trials and tribulations will await the Ladybug and Chat.

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

Duuuuuuuude this was brilliant! I can’t believe you spent so much time on this! This is all so good! I loved your interpretation on this AU and I really loved how you portrayed the characters! Thank you very much for writing it <333

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to reread this again and again~! This will put everyone in such a great mood after watching such an eventful episode yesterday lol

#submission #other people's work #kiss au #kiss au fanfic #ml #mlb #miraculous Ladybug #miraculous Ladybug and chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #adrienette #adrinette #ladynoir #ladrien #marichat

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koolcatkenma · 5 years ago

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cats

a request for @carrochan !!! wrote this after we were #blessed with time skip kenma :))

*not tagging as spoilers bc it rlly doesn’t spoil any major plot points. but warning it is post time skip*

“Kenma, my love, the light of my life, you know how I adore you so, but you cannot bring another cat into this household.”

Kenma stood in the doorway separating the cool night from the warmth of his home. Clad in a super oversized sweatshirt, he had both hands tucked into it. And last time Kuroo checked, his boyfriend did not have a distended stomach that moved and purred.

When he had first opened the door, their younger cat Sushi jumped from the shelf to Kenma’s shoulders and was still perched there, balancing on his three paws while trying to get a whiff of the new addition, who was still hidden.

“What cat?” The dirty-blond boy deadpanned, moving to slowly take his shoes off. Kuroo’s eyes narrowed when a rather loud ‘meow’ erupted from the liar’s stomach.

“New text tone.”

Throwing his hands in the air, Kuroo turned and headed back into the kitchen. “Well, you and your new text tone can come and eat the dinner I made.”

After high school, Kuroo had persued college volleyball. He quickly climbed ranks and graduated with his masters in business and an offer to play for the national team. He accepted, asking first for a few months to complete an internship. Currently, he would only practice with the team and participate in home matches. Any traveling would have to wait until the new year.

Kenma, in his final year of university, was a widely successful board member of a multi-billion dollar company; the night it became official Kuroo cried, maybe a ‘lil drunk, and showed up at Kenma’s dorm with a bottle of sparkling apple cider. The whole night Kuroo babbled that he was dating a sugar daddy and that made him the sugar baby and now he was baby and Kenma sat and reminded him of the contract he had just signed, which would increase his income tenfold next year. He cried harder.

Now, the pair shared a small home close to Kenma’s job and Kuroo’s train stop. And with Kenma came their first cat. It was a stray he had been feeding at his dorm window. Sweet, old, kind Momo who spent her days lazing on the couch, sunbathing. With the new house came a new stray; Fuku was missing an eye and mostly stayed outside, but refused to spend the night out there. He slept on Kuroo’s side of the bed and brought back toys he stole from other cats around the neighborhood.

Two cats, two people; everything was balanced. And then, in a basket in the rain next to the bus stop was two tiny kittens, soaked and shivering. Kuroo had intended to foster them and foster only, but of course several months later and the pair were still running around the house causing the most trouble. Riku and Ryu refused to leave.

Sushi wasn’t really anyone’s fault; the cat had followed Kuroo home one day, allured by the smell of the fresh fish in his market bag. And he had stuck around. Three legs but the personality of a whole herd.

Five was more than enough; they were looking like a crazy cat house. But now, there was for sure a sixth, maybe seventh under what was definitely Kuroo’s sweatshirt. Just in case, he set out two more bowls filled halfway with cat food.

He could hear his boyfriend pad to the living room where his office/gaming setup was, as well as a gated area, and run back to the kitchen, missing his lumpy belly. They sat down at the island and silently enjoyed dinner.

Over leftover apple pie, Kuroo broke the comfortable silence.

“If another cat just so happens to wander into the house, they could have their own bowl. But it sleeps on the couch; I’m too tall for another cat in bed.” Once their pie was gone and plates cleared, Kuroo moved to the couch and waited to be introduced to the newest member of their dysfunctional family.

Several minutes later, Kenma rounded the corner with the blackest cat he had ever seen. His ears were chewed up, fur long and wild making them look short. His eyes were closed; the animal had fallen asleep in his boyfriend’s arms during the short walk.

Plopping down next to Kuroo, Kenma held the long cat out to him.

“Kuroo, meet Minako.” The name didn’t fit the cat, but none of the others did. Why start now?

Set in his lap, the cat immediately cozied up and began purring. Kuroo almost sobbed at how cute and docile the creature was. Looking up at his boyfriend, he smiled.

“Don’t cry.”

“But, she’s so precious. She’s a baby.”

“If you cry I’ll tell your team.”

“They would understand!”

Kuroo and Minako became best buddies; her true personality was revealed the next morning: she was a little shit. Caused terror, hissed at thin air, and regularly stole socks. The duo’s favorite pastime was annoying Kenma during his streams, to the point where he would pause the game and throw whatever was closest at them.

Minako claimed the spot right between Kenma and Kuroo’s head in bed, hissing if anyone but Kuroo disturbed her. The other cats stayed at the end of the bed until the demon was asleep. It was quite a sight; two grown men and six cats on one full-sized mattress. But they wouldn’t have it any other way.

(Until Kenma found another cat who was blind in both eyes and VERY energetic despite it)(‘I couldn’t leave him there. He kept running into the wall.’)

help me continue to write :)

#kuroken #haikyuu!!#kuroo tetsurou #kenma kozume #ficlet #emwrites #fluff #too many cats #tooooo many

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thedaddycomplex · 5 years ago

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I’m The Dad That Makes Other Dads At The Park Jealous

I am that father at the park that makes you fucking jealous because he’s killing this dad thing. You look at me and think I’ve got it all put together. And you’re right. I’m motherfucking amazing.

How am I so fucking incredible, you ask? What makes me the dad at the park other kids point to and cry, “Why can’t my dad be like you?” while they mentally write the first chapter of their tell-all book about their own shitty dad? It’s more than just my stellar looks. I’ll tell you the secret.

I wasn’t always this drop-dead incredible. There was a time when I was like you, a total fucking failure as a father. I didn’t know how to be awesome. Then, I met someone who showed me how to unleash my inner awesomeness. He didn’t take me aside and explain to me the ways of parenting. He was just another dad, not goddamn Yoda. No, I just watched him and then copied what he did, made it my own, created my own awesomeness, put my own epic spin on that motherfucker.

My twin sons were about three or four. We went with some friends who had a son the same age to a small park and met their friend, who also had a son the same age. Kid-wise, we had a posse of four and there were three other ankle-biters already there, too.

I’m just standing there watching my twins eat sand or whatever and the new kid in our posse — the one we’d just met through our friends — runs up to his dad and goes, “Hey, Pop. Can I have my costume?” And the father opens his backpack and pulls out a Spider-Man costume.

Boom, right? He knows his boy’s whims enough to bring the suit along. Good for you, man. At this point in my fatherly career, I still forgot to bring water or put socks on my boys. So, this dude is already better at the game than me, the asshole.

As his kid transitions from regular kid to full-on web slinger, my boys run up to this dude and ask, “Can I have a costume, too?” I quickly pulled them aside and said, “I don’t think he brought a backpack full of costumes, guys.” I was trying not to sound sarcastic, but my natural tone always has the faint odor of it, so I didn’t sound very comforting. But then, something happened that flipped my perspective all the way the fuck over.

This dad with the backpack goes, “Yeah, guys. Here you go.” And he pulls two more costumes out of his motherfucking bag like Felix the goddamn Cat.

Then, our friends’ kid runs over and makes the same request and, boom again, he pulls out another costume. Then, the three rando kids that we didn’t even know trot up and ask for costumes, too, and lo and fucking behold, he pulls out three more fucking costumes out of this bag. So we had seven short superheroes running around this shitty little playground, but this one dad was the goddamn savior. He was Jesus motherfucking Christ, but instead of loaves and fishes, he’s clothing the masses to look like Wolverine and Captain America.

That day, I vowed to never be caught without a bag of motherfucking radness. I brought more costumes than my kids would ever need or want, as well as Hot Wheels cars, Lego bricks, puzzles, superballs. And as my boys have grown, I traded my bag for a car trunk and their costumes for every fucking kind of plaything that could ever be requested of an awesome dad.

My trunk is full of basketballs, scooters, tennis equipment, Frisbees, kick-balls — if a kid wants to play with it, chances are I’ve got it. Not only do my boys get to show that I’m just a freaking tremendous father, but their friends and even random kids now know I’m the motherfucking guy to see if you want to rock the fucking park.

“You want to borrow a skateboard? Sure, what size?”

“You’d like to use a remote control car? You got it. You want the Charger or the Mustang?”

All of the moms smile and wave at me and all of the dads stare in slack-jawed awe of my fucking epicness. I’m the goddamn Willy Wonka of our suburb.

So, if you’re a shitty dad, just be like me. All you have to do is have fun shit with you all the time. Jesus, man, it’s not that hard.

You’re welcome.

[Originally posted on Medium.]

#parenting #fatherhood #kids #dad #awesomeness

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glottia-arts · 5 years ago

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New family members?

Oh, a text post? A FANFIC TEXT POST? On my art blog? Yeah. Was gonna put it on my main, but decided against it. I haven’t written anything since high school (aka 5 years ago) so let’s see how this goes-

This was inspired by @konan720 and her cute idea of seeing her Rough Patch, Blueberry, being adopted by my own Rough Patch’s, Neo and Celest. This was going to be posted on Father’s Day, but obviously, I didn’t finish it in time. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to how I would have liked, but I might write up another story as this is out of the way. Figured I’d share anyways. Fair warning, the A Hat in Time characters in this story were written in an attempt of being a mix between how they’re portrayed in konan720′s and my own universes. There’s also some sadness, but some cuteness as well in the story.

Word Count: 6,534 _____

“Neo! We’re heading out!”

At the call of his name, the weathered Rough Patch’s ears perked up and he rushed around the corner of his home as fast as he could. His kids were taking off for the day and he didn’t want to miss saying goodbye.

Positioned near the door to the apartment, still adjusting their coats and boots, was his three girls. Hat Kid, Bow Kid, and Mustache Girl. Neo sat down and patiently waited for them to notice him, trying his best not to wag his multicolored tail.

Hat Kid was the first to finish with her outdoor wear and immediately caught sight of the bush cat, smiling widely at seeing him fail to resist wagging his tail. “There you are!”

The second Hat Kid opened her arms for him, Neo jumped straight into them, nearly toppling her to the floor. Bow Kid finished next and looked up to discover Hat Kid laughing almost maniacally while being attacked with love by the family cat. Their loving antics caused her to join in on the laughter. Mustache Girl was still tightening her own jacket, but paused at the noise. Angling her head she saw the cause and smiled to herself, shaking her head then going back to fixing her summer coat.

Neo let up on his snuggling and gently nuzzled against Hat Kid’s cheek, his own version of a goodbye kiss. Laughter dying down to soft giggles, the young alien patted the cat's head.

“All right, you be good now. Mom already left and depending on what’s happening at the studio, this could be an all-day event. She says she’ll try to finish things up fast given who has to come to take care of you today.”

Neo’s smile faltered, trying not to let who was coming over to look after him put him in the dumps. True, they get along a lot better now, but sometimes Neo still worries over his master and kids.

“Hey, hey, hey, I saw that.” The blond done with her own preparations said, joining into the conversation. “Look, I know you didn’t like him at first and truly, I don’t blame you. If it makes you feel better, Mom also has a surpri-“

“Peyton!” Hat Kid yelled indignantly, somewhat appalled her sister would spill something that needed to be kept a secret from the cat.

“What!? It’s not like he can talk! Besides, it might make him feel better! You know how he is when he’s alone with that jerk!”

“Yes, but your mom puts a lot of trust into you, so don’t you think it’s unfair to go against that.” The bow loving child paused, looking from the hooded girl to the Rough Patch then back again. “Even for his own comfort. It is a special secret...”

“Yeah, I guess..” Mustache Girl pouted and crossed her arms, looking off to the side to avoid seeing at her siblings of sorts. She continued on in a harsh whisper. “It’s not like I would tell him exactly what it was.”

Neo tilted his head in confusion. Is a special event happening later? What was the surprise? Overlooking this, for now, Neo nuzzled Hat Kid’s cheek again before jumping to Bow Kid and offering her the same goodbye. Bow Kid smiled, happily accepting it. Navigating her path, with no help from the pale foliage, she made her way to Mustache Girl.

At Bow Kid’s approach, Mustache Girl turned and met with dual glowing eyes. Pout melting to a smirk, she carefully took the Bush Cat from Bow Kid. Getting the same treatment with an added content purr, the girl placed the cat back down onto the floor.

Inspecting over Neo, with Mustache Girl adjusting Neo’s his socks; The girls gave him their last goodbyes and departed to Dead Bird Studios for the day.

After a few minutes of waiting to make sure they weren’t returning for a forgotten item, Neo made his way to the living room, contemplating why they didn’t require his help. It’s very rare when he’s left home alone. Even rarer when he needs a sitter. Usually, when he wasn’t on set with his master, he’d have free roam of her office or even worked up front with the Receptionist. He was a great guard for trouble makers and apparently an excellent ‘complaint box’. Whatever that was. Any time someone complained, the Receptionist would refer them to him. The birds who gripping would shut their beaks and swiftly back out of the room.

Arriving at the couch, what looked to be a pool of darkness appeared in the middle of the floor, interrupting his thoughts. On guard he watched as a figure popped out of the blackness, manifesting into the living room.

“Knock knock, I’m he-“ The newcomer glanced around the living area before his glowing eyes finally locked onto the neon glowing cat. “I just missed them, didn’t I?”

Neo gave the specter a deadpan look yet nodded. It seems today would be an odd day, especially if Snatcher was late. Another rare thing. Glancing to the digital clock, the cat tapped his paw against the couch five times.

“By five minutes!?” Surprise painted the ghost’s features before melting into a scowl. “Looks like I need to remind the minions to not let this mistake happen again.” Pinching where the bridge of his nose would be, Snatcher sighed. “How worried was she? Or was she disappointed?”

Neo didn’t understand what the elder ghost meant. It instantly dawned on him and he meowed to get his fellow ghosts attention. Snatcher slowly looked to him, somewhat appearing to dread the answer. Once in viewing position, he saw the cat shaking his head.

“She left early then?” A nod. “Ah.. so it was just the young brats I missed. All right, I can deal with that. No apologies or anything for later!” Snatcher’s signature smile returned full force, pleased that he was in the clear. “I guess you perhaps deserve one. Too bad! I’m not one for apologies, but I brought you something kiddo!”

It confused Neo as Snatcher pulled around a satchel, reaching into it. He’s never seen the shadow with a bag, he always just... summons something with his magic.

After a little careful rummaging, Snatcher let out a quiet ‘found you’ before carefully grabbing his find, lifting it out of the bag. Neo didn’t expect Snatcher would actually bring him something. Once in sight, it wasn’t a something, but someone. Someone he knew well. The curious cat stood on the tips of his paws, trying to get a better look and confirm who he believed it to be.

In Snatcher’s hand was Neo’s little Rough Patch friend, Blueberry. She was observing her new surroundings with her tongue stuck out, wondering where the forest went. Inspecting her over, Snatcher sighed and pulled out rags that were stored in with her. Even when carefully settled into a roomy pack, the youthful cat still managed to squish some of her berries and make a mess of herself. Thankfully, the bag was dark and the stains on the inside wouldn’t be too noticeable.

Finally clean, Snatcher went to set the bush cat down but was stopped by a loud meow. Looking at the elder cat, Snatcher wondered what the problem was. With neon eyes glared at him, he got the message and narrowed his eyes right back.

“For the love of.. SHE’S CLEAN! I washed her before bringing her. You’re as bad as the brats, threatening to beat me with umbrellas and bats if I don’t live by the hygienic code when stepping into your mother’s home. I’m aware of her allergies and OCD habits, so don’t you dare pretend I’m not.” Snatcher jabbed the hand holding onto Blueberry out toward Neo. “Smell her if you don’t believe me.”

Glancing between the young Rough Patch struggling to reach him and boop his face, to the similarly faced ghost, Neo relented and didn’t bother to sniff Blueberry. He gestured for Snatcher to lay her down.

“Glad we understand each other.”

Blueberry was placed onto the floor unceremoniously. The different surface was weird, so she began tapping her paws to get a feel for it. Everything here was odd, but she didn’t mind. Once adjusted to the carpeted floor, she made her way to Neo and attempted to boop his face. She was taller a minute ago and could have got him! Why can’t she now? Neo smiled at her antics and leaned down within range, giving his friend the satisfaction she wanted. Neo gently booped her back and looked to Snatcher, meowing out an apology.

Snatcher waved the cat off while seeking something else in his bag. “Eh forget about it light bright. It’s annoying being threatened by kids with weapons and a cat who can turn anything into a popsicle. I hope you appreciate me bringing that one here for you to chatter with. It was hard to get her away from the other Rough Patch and her own caretakers. Not without tipping them off at least.” He glanced to Neo and narrowed his eyes. “Not a word of this to them.”

Snatcher almost conjured up electricity to shoot at Neo. Seeing that smug expression that Hat Kid gives him on the cat’s own face was irritating, to say the least.

“... I’m having a nice little conversation with that brat when she gets back.”

Returning to his search, Snatcher found the object he was looking for. Plucking a novel out, he noticed stains and marks were littered over the cover. Eyes thinned, he peered to see Blueberry stare right at him with that ridiculous face of hers. Leaning close, tone half-heartedly threatening and claw pointed right in her face.

“You owe me a new book.”

Blueberry stared at him, not even registering his sentence. Seeing a clawed hand close to her face, she did what any reasonable cat would do. She licked it. Snatcher jumped in surprise at this, quickly pulling his hand back to inspect it. What was akin to laughter could be heard coming from Neo, as he patted Blueberry’s head on a job well done.

“I swear you’re all just trouble makers in this family.” Snatcher grumbled, wiping his fist on a rag, then attempted to clean up his book.

If Neo could talk, he’d have a very ‘mature’ conversation with Subcon’s King. His initial thoughts of a response being “you’re a part of this family as well, so that makes you one too” and “thanks, we have something in common now.'' Funny how being stuck in ice for a long time with the deranged former Queen to being taken in by his new family changed his banter and personality.

Blueberry drew him out of his thoughts by shuffling close to the ragged cat, nuzzling him and trying to do something. Oh! She’s trying to crawl into his foliage. Sadly, with being frozen, he lost most of his leafy disguise to the ice and could barely hide in the essentially deceased camouflage himself. Celest may have some blame for the little one’s action, as she lets the almost baby sized Rough Patch often crawl inside her leafs to hide or play.

Neo tried to deter her, but she was just not having it! Today the young one is very determined and the elder Rough Patch didn’t know why. Sighing, he rested his head atop of hers as she continued on her mission. Blueberry briefly paused at feeling his head connect with hers, but resumed her actions just as quickly as she stopped.

Unfortunately, she could not crawl into his foliage like with the dazzling celestial cat. But at least Blueberry was close enough to Neo where his leafs were no longer a barrier. Soft purring emitted from her as she continued nuzzling him.

Neo wondered why she wanted to be so close to him. He didn’t mind, warmth is always nice and helps with his damaged nerves. It’s just... odd to him. He’s not a typical Rough Patch, or at least he thinks he’s not. He’s not sure what would be normal for his kind. If he was normal, it would probably have been while alive. No magic, no permanently dead leaves, normally colored skin… and who knows what else. Why did she desire to be near a weird cat that should have perished in ice? All the others had...

Flashbacks ran through his mind, combining with his negative thoughts about himself. His rational thought process started shutting down, and he never noticed his shaking nor the tears that trailed down his face.

Blueberry bared no mind to the shaking, yet felt something warm and cold hit her foliage. Shifting from Neo’s side, she glanced to the object that touched her. Glowing yellow and blue liquid on her leafs made her confused. Her berries are a darker shade of blue and she’s never had yellow berries. Shaking her body to rid them of her leafs, tiny ice cubes fell as well. Ice? The last time she saw ice was when the crazy lady everyone talked about was still present in the forest. Maybe Neo was freezing things again? Looking up to him to confirm her thoughts, she was met with a silently crying cat. Never seeing Neo this way before worried her.

Quiet literally jumping to action, Blueberry managed to bounce high enough to lay her front paws on Neo’s face. She sought to stop the flow, but they just kept falling. The action caused Neo to register something had occurred. He wasn’t wholly conscious of what was going on in the real world, but he at least recognized that Blueberry was there and touching his face. With no exact response and the liquid still seeping from his face, Blueberry yelled.

Snatcher stopped his reading to glance up from his new position on a reclining chair, curious about the commotion. Panic shot through him, seeing the undead cat crying both familiar yet unfamiliar tears. To top it all off, the young one was touching him while making loud cries.

Snatcher did his best on quietly shutting his book and placing it down, but with fear present, it sounded like he slammed 20 other books shut while throwing them across an echo chamber. Floating off the armchair towards the cats, he glanced between the two panicking on what to do. In a split second decision, he grabbed Blueberry and hauled her away from Neo. Snatcher did not need to be on the receiving end of several girls chewing him out for letting the small cat become frozen. True Neo didn’t initially react negatively to the howling or touching, but he didn’t want to take his chances.

Blueberry was not fond of being in Snatcher’s grasp, attempting to reach Neo. Her friend is in trouble and she demanded to be there for him. He attempted to silence her, but she continued struggling and producing the same high-pitched noises.

It wasn’t immediate, but Neo soon registered the loud sounds coming from the young cat. Glancing up to see her struggle somewhat pulled him out of his negative musings. Tears dying down, he hissed at the ghost in warning. Blueberry stopped her movements and shouts at seeing Neo somewhat come back to the world. Snatcher huffed, but continued holding her in his palm.

“Look, I was just doing you a favor. You don’t have to get violent over it. I’m unclear over what you were crying about, but you didn’t seem all there. Could have been a terrible situation, with your… emotions.. and powers. You could have easily frozen your little buddy here.”

Crying? Neo didn’t understand, he had been crying? Now that he was settling down and gaining his senses back, his face felt funnier than usual. Looking to the floor, he noticed the glistening tears and the glittering ice. Snatcher was right, he had been weeping. He could have frozen Blueberry in a different situation. Ears drooping and head hung low, he looked like he would go into another depressive state.

“Hey stop that. Ugh, come here.” Snatcher drew close and picked up the disheartened boy. He tried to be comforting, pulling the elder Rough Patch against his body. Neo didn’t struggle as Snatcher thought he would, which was good. Floating back to the recliner, Snatcher retook his seat and placed both cats on his ‘lap’. Blueberry moved close to Neo and inspected his face, observing for the weird liquid to reappear. Neo wanted to turn from her prying eyes, but remained still as his body demanded he stays put.

Snatcher moved to pet the miserable cat, yet hesitated given the cat’s emotional state. Much like his master, Neo preferred to be asked before being touched. At least in certain ways and by specific individuals. Petting was one of those ways and Snatcher, sadly, fell under the category of those that need to ask. Given the situation, Snatcher sucked up his pride and went on.

“Can I… pet you?” Silence. For a few moments, nothing happened. Snatcher thought he might have offended the cat, but almost sighed in relief to see Neo nod. Moving his hand slowly, as to not startle him or his companion, Snatcher placed it on the elder cat's head. With great care, he ran his clawed fingers through the formerly vibrant leafs.

Closing his eyes, Neo accepted the affection from the ghost. Snatcher was surprisingly gentle. Another thing Neo did not predict from him today. Soft purring surfaced from him, nearly causing the feared king of Subcon Forest to giggle in delight. He held back though, cause this was certainly not cute. He did not adore this Rough Patch, or any of the others. No matter what everyone said. All it was, was progress on Neo bonding with him. But gosh if he didn’t wish he owned a phone so he could call and brag about this to the cats caretaker and Moonjumper-

Adding to the situation that already made Snatcher glow with delight, Blueberry snuggled against Neo, including her own purring into the mix. Internally, Snatcher screamed. Darn these cats, if he weren’t already dead he certainly would be now. Free hand doing nothing, he moved it to pet Blueberry’s head. Her purring grew louder and was melting his nonexistent heart. Maybe he should ask to watch Neo next time. He could deal with catnapping Blueberry for this type of situation again. Maybe bring in another friendly Rough Patch or two.

After what seemed like a few seconds later, Snatcher reluctantly stopped petting the duo. Neo’s purring ceased to exist while Blueberry’s died down.

“Now I realize it’s none of my business, but care to share why you were upset?”

Neo isn’t keen on interpreting this, but he’s been informed it’s better just to express something than keeping it to himself. He wasn’t certain how he’d communicate this to the specter. He struggles with gesturing, compared to Celest. After mulling it over and hoping he had a simple yet understandable communication method, he reopened his glowing eyes to begin gesturing.

“Hmm… the ridiculous birds at the studio?” No. “That one TV program you watch with the kids?” Nada. A TV show would be nice to watch right now. “... time constraints on the industry that are leading to the downfall of this-” Snatcher never completed his sentence as Neo, to the best of his abilities, gripped the closest hand of the ghost and shook it. Intangible noises following suit. Backing up to make more room, Blueberry observed the scene unfold. How Snatcher’s hand was being shaken looked like fun, so she began swaying her head from side to side, mimicking it.

“Ok, OK! I get it, that’s not it, quit shaking my arm.” Neo stopped but not before butting his head against Snatcher’s hand, slightly frustrated. Releasing the appendage, Neo smacked his paws against the spectral beings lap, trying to come up with a better way. His family easily understood his gesturing, but for Snatcher he’s at square one.

As he stared at his paws, he figured out something that could help. Looking to the shadow man, making sure he had his attention, Neo gestured to his own face. Snatcher frowned, wondering where the deceased cat was running with this. Still seeing the confusion, Neo gradually moved his paw from one side of his face to the other. Trying to point out the parts of his skin that were still the original color versus the skin damaged by Vanessa’s magic. Seems the ghost understood this action.

“The contrast of your face? Specifically, your skin and your frostbitten skin?” Nodding in confirmation, Neo continued forward.

Neo now gestured and patted his gray mane a few times. Seeing the ghost nod, Neo shifted so his left side was visible to Snatcher. Given the position of the leafs, he tried his best to gesture at the specific orange and green leafs with his tail.

“Ok more contrast… this time, with your body foliage?” Neo nodded and wondered if Snatcher understood. Unfortunately, the ghost was still confused. Neo frowned, wondering how to better convey this.

Padding over to him, Blueberry remained in his field of vision. The confused Bush Cat didn’t understand the situation, but she wanted Neo to know she was still present. Neo glanced at her and realized something, letting out a soft meow. Looking back to Snatcher, he gestured one final time, this time between Blueberry and himself. Blueberry thought this was a game and tried to pat Neo’s paw with her own.

Snatcher followed Neo’s paw, glancing between both Rough Patch’s. Why were contrasts so important? He tried to recall another clue, even in a past conversation. Was there ever any odd behavior like this mentioned prior? Conversations hardly spoke of Neo singularly, only in context with others. After mulling it over, he did manage to recall something. The mention of the cat possibly being self-conscious of his appearance. Snatcher found that odd given Neo’s personality, but using himself and the cat’s caretaker as other relevant examples, he supposes the concept isn’t too far-fetched.

Neo stopped gesturing, seeing Snatcher’s facial features soften. Neo very rarely sees that look. This is only the second time he’s seen it directed towards him though, and he does not like it for some reason. Snatcher carefully grabbed both Rough Patch’s, bringing them into a hug. Neo stiffened at first, but relaxed once he got used to the contact from the ghoul. Snatcher quietly spoke to him.

“It seems the issue was simple. You’re uneasy about your new appearance. Especially being surrounded by others like you, who are as colorful as you used to be. Unfortunately for us, death has taken many things. You were lucky though, you kept your body and didn’t have to go through what the others and I had. It is a shame we cannot quite look as we used too, but we adapt. There will be those that may not like your appearance, but” Snatcher pushed Blueberry closer to Neo. “There are still those who care about you, regardless of said appearance. You’re lucky in that regard Neo.”

Neo’s eyes widened in response to Snatcher’s reply. The ghost can be quite thoughtful when he wants to be. Coming down from the shock, he thought of the actual words the former lawyer uttered. True, he wasn’t vibrant with living color as he used to be, nor will he ever walk the same, but his family loved him. Those outside his family cared for him. Multicolored undead mess and all. He might not quite understand why they do, but at the moment he supposes he doesn’t care. Negative thoughts did try to worm their way through, but he just kept on thinking of what Snatcher said. Remembering all the love and affection he’s received from everyone.

His past life was nice, but this current one? No better people could have found him. The Dweller’s of the past will forever remain in his heart, but this new place? This new family? The love here feels just right. He doubts his insecurities will go away right off the bat, but for the ones he cares about? He’ll try to be better. One step at a time.

“Glad you’ve seen the light rough boy, now. How about I read you some of this story? Stories tend to help your caretaker relax after she’s been in similar moods.” Much to Snatcher’s surprise, Neo pounced onto his fluffy collar, excited to listen about a story.

__________

The rest of the day flew by for the trio. Much to Snatcher’s prediction, the cats fell asleep during his storytelling. Some odd hours later they both awoke, Blueberry full of energy and ready to play.

Neo couldn’t take part very long in the playful actions, but made sure Blueberry at least had fun. Crawling all over him seemed to be her favorite activity. She even brought him a few household objects to mess with. Snatcher immediately replaced those as soon as she was done presenting them to Neo, attempting to keep the apartment in the same condition as when he appeared.

When snack time fell, Blueberry often disappeared. Snatcher never knew where she ran off to, just that she always appeared shortly after he laid her snack out. The final time is where he vowed he would always keep an eye on that cat as long as she remained on this mortal plain. This was the time he finally decided to pay attention to where she would wander in from. Setting her meal down, he scurried off to his seat, opening his book and pretending to read.

Time ticked by slowly, waiting for her arrival. Where was she? It took her no less than five minutes to arrive at her dish prior. Closing the neglected book and placing it down once more, Snatcher slid off the chair, searching for the Rough Patch.

Not in the living room. Nor the kitchen. Heck, not even the bathroom. He doubted that she wound up in any of the bedrooms. Where could she be? Asking Neo was out of the question. Said cat was wedged between some couch cushions making sure recordings of kids shows went uninterrupted. Patch boy had dedication to the family; there was no doubt about that.

Drifting over to the food bowl he tried to figure out where she disappeared to. If he had been paying attention, he could have picked up sounds not coming from the TV.

Giving up on speculating, he concentrated on her soul. Unfortunately, the second he pinpointed her it was too late. Falling from the air-conditioning vent was not what he expected in the slightest. Thankfully, she landed safely on his head, squishing some of her namesake on him in the process. Blueberry ever determined, began running on the top of his head. Reaching for her added another mistake to the list, as she didn’t wish to be captured. Next thing he knew, she had jumped down into his fluff. Somehow the cat managed to wriggle around in there. Trying to and with no avail catch her, Snatcher gave up and sat down by the Neo.

New TV episode finally finished, Neo pressed a button on the remote to end the recording. Finally acknowledging Snatcher, Neo saw that Snatcher just looked done. Stains littered his head and his fluffy collar was a mess. But also, moving…? Safe to assume, this is what Blueberry had done after he took his eyes off her. Snatcher wouldn’t hurt the excited cat, so Neo left him be.

A few minutes passed before someone entered the residence. Neo’s ears twitched, struggling to determine who arrived, but no sound came. Pushing his way out of the couch cushions, he maneuvered to glance over the furniture, ready to pounce on whoever just arrived. Snatcher noticed how alert Neo was, narrowing his eyes and glancing to the same location. Fire in hand, he was bracing for trouble.

“Knock knock!” A voice sang out. Floating into the duo’s view, Moonjumper revealed himself.

Hearing his voice, Blueberry stopped her antics and peaked out of the fluffy maze. Annoyed by his appearance, Snatcher extinguished his flame.

“Well well, if it isn’t everyone’s favorite ghost.”

“Good to see you as well Snatcher.” Ignoring the sarcasm, Moonjumper approached the couch. Beaming brightly at the two forest creatures. “Even greater to see you both~”

Tail wagging, Neo meowed happily in response. In her excitement, Blueberry jumped out of Snatcher’s collar. She would have face planted on the couch if not for the orange strings that caught her.

“Careful now. Don’t need to hurt yourself or stain the couch.” Strings lifting the girl up and placing her into his open palms. Visibly squashed berries shown, he began crafting a makeshift handkerchief with his strings. “Don’t need your mother to worry about you more than what she is.”

Cat now out of his hair, Snatcher did his best to fix it back up. “Darn troublemaker has had worse falls than that. Trust me.”

Moonjumper didn’t know what to make of that comment. Frankly, he was a little afraid to ask. So he chose to ignore it for now, cleaning Blueberry up with the now finished handkerchief.

“So, why the heck are you here? No one else is home. Pretty rude to enter a home uninvited, don’t ya think?”

“For your information, I was granted permission to enter. I tend to ask or call ahead of time, unlike a certain character.”

“You want to go mask boy?”

“Perhaps another time. Plans have been established and I don’t intend to miss them.” Clean once more, Blueberry received some affection before being settled down by Neo.

“Oh? You finally get a date?” Snatcher smirked, draping his arm over the couch to face the other ghost better.

“I suppose, but not in the way you’re assuming. As for your other question...” Moonjumper turned to face the entrance hallway. “All right miss starflower, you can present yourself now.”

Another person was here? None of them recognized the nickname. They could hear soft and slow thuds along with bell chiming.

The sight of seafoam green surprised Neo. With all these weird events taking place, today seemed like a dream. Fully in view was his very first Rough Patch friend, Celest.

A high-pitched squeak escaped from Blueberry at the sight of the celestial Rough Patch. Moving as quickly as she could, she hopped down from the couch and ran to greet the large Rough Patch. Celest was barely halfway to Moonjumper before the tiny Rough Patch ran and jumped into her foliage. Reaction time to this was slow, Celest stopping a few moments after feeling the little one worm her way into her leafs. Neo joined the two on the floor, sniffing the surprisingly well-cleaned cat.

Snatcher’s hair flared up in annoyance at seeing the enormous Rough Patch. “You really know how to agitate me you darn forgotten doll maker. Constantly having to one-up me!”

“Well, this wasn’t my plan. I’m just the delivery boy today. So if you need to take your ire out on anyone, why not our mutual friend?” Moonjumper slyly glanced over his shoulder to his irritated counterpart.

That got the purple ghost to shut his trap, but he nevertheless glared daggers at the puppeteer.

“Besides, I had no idea you had brought little bramble berry here with you. I had heard all about how you ‘stole her’ from her mother. She was thoroughly upset about that. If today were any other day, I’d have it in my right mind to settle the score for upsetting her so. At least I can inform her you only brought the little bush here instead of who knows where else.”

“Figures she’d cry to you about it.”

Moonjumper narrowed his eyes, irritation finally showing. “She had every right to be concerned, provided how you were prior. Still somewhat are I should say. As we were with the children and the young miss of this home nearly the whole day, they likewise heard this.” A barely visible flinch. “I anticipate a lecture in your future.”

Running a clawed hand down his face, Snatcher groaned. “Just great... wait… you were all together for nearly the whole day? They were supposed to be helping those annoying birds at the studio. How’d they have the time to fetch the Alpine Rough Patch?”

“Yes, they were helping the directors, just for the morning. I gathered my own party then met up with them around noon, transporting us to the mountain range. From there we continued to the Twilight Bell and commenced our search. It was quite the hassle trying to locate the sacred bell’s guardian, but you probably don’t want to hear about it. And yes, all the girls are ok.”

“I don’t care what happens to them!”

“Right… well, the delivery is completed, now on to my next query. I’ve been requested to fetch you for the evening.”

“Really? What about the Rough Patch’s?”

“They’ll be fine. Neo and Celest know how to take care of themselves, adding in the young one to their watch won’t be troublesome for them.”

Snatcher doubted that, given how much trouble the young one caused him in the end.

Both glancing to the group, the elder bush cats were laying down side by side. Blueberry squished between both of them. Neo was talking to Celest about something; she in turn sitting as still as a statue listening. Blueberry was relishing being wedged between both of her seniors, snuggling against them for warmth.

“See like I said, just fine. Now come along, the girls are expecting us.”

Grumbling, Snatcher stood. “Fine, I’m coming. So where are you dragging me?”

“That’s a secret, my friend.”

“Of course it is.”

“Nothing bad will happen, if anything it’ll be a nice night for you and I both.”

“What’s going to be happening exactly?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

Eye twitching, Snatcher huffed and threw his arms into the air. “FINE! DON’T TELL ME! Just take us to where we’re needed!”

“Of course, just give me a moment.”

Floating over to the bush cat trio, Moonjumper leaned down to pet each of their heads. “Now all of you be good. I’ll bring everyone back later. As for you Neo.” He leaned in close to whisper to the curious cat “Alles gute zum Vatertag.” Leaning back to examine the cat, he was quite shocked. Moonjumper covered his mouth to keep from chuckling at the adorable expression. “I see you recognize that. Good. I hope you know for the rest of your existence; along with your current family, the little one and your companion here really love you.” Emphasizing that, Blueberry squealed and rubbed her head against Neo. Celest made a soft confirmation sound of her own, startling both ghosts.

“.. she does sound like a little whistle.”

Moonjumper stared in awe at the large cat, but came back to his senses. Right, the girls.

Coughing, he rose back up and glided to Snatcher. Looking backward to the cats one final time he waved, grabbing Snatcher’s arm with his other hand then teleported them away.

Neo was still rather shocked from what the big man in orange just told him. Was that today? That explains why all the girls have been excited this past week. His own master even thought of bringing Celest here to visit him. He supposes this was his gift. Not that he minded, Celest’s companionship was great! If he was being honest with himself, he missed her quite a lot.

Snatcher even brought Blueberry. Another he had missed. Neo would think this would be Snatcher’s gift, but the shadow was not aware of these celebration days. Neo still remembers when his master or girls would have to explain one of the days to him.

Before he got too much further into his thoughts, a voice caught his awareness. Twisting his head, he saw Blueberry crawled her way near his face, still squealing and bobbing her head back and forth. Celest was looking at him oddly, it was an expression he was uncertain of. Something about it caused his insides to feel warm. Embarrassed for what seemed to be no apparent reason, Neo turned away struggling to cover the yellow and blue blush painting his face.

Blueberry pushed her way out from in between the two, pawing her way to stand before Neo. Observing him, she wondered what he was doing. Hiding? This wasn’t hide and seek; they played that earlier. He didn’t even bother saying anything back after big puff and her supported Moonman’s statement. Maybe he didn’t understand? That was possibly it. Staring at his socks, an idea came to her head. Tapping at Neo’s left paw, she attempted to get him to lower it. After a few moments he did to question her, but she was already in motion. Once in range, she bit down onto the sock and started tugging it off.

Meowing in turmoil he attempted to make her stop. This even surprised Celest, causing her to move and try to stop her. Once it was evident she would not give up, Neo stopped struggling against her so he didn’t ruin the clothing item.

Sock torn off, Blueberry spat the offending cloth out of her mouth. Locating the heart shape on his paw, she started tapping on it. Seeing it puzzled him, she stopped. Remembering something, she pushed his paw inward towards himself. It was a bit of a process, he’s so much bigger than her. Once his paw was touching his chest, she meowed and pat his paw once again.

It didn’t take long for Neo to get what she meant. He was astounded that she learned of this fact about him. Normally when he put his left paw against someone’s chest, it was his way to tell someone he loved them. He only ever did it with his master and the children. Now that it was thrown back on him, especially by a Rough Patch he cares about, he choked up.

Celest saw tears develop in the undead cat’s eyes and shuffled as close as she could to her companion. She knew of his insecurities with their kind and this seemed to be another step in the ideal direction. She’s proud of his progress and pleased that Blueberry is helping him as well. Leaning down she nuzzled the top of his head before resting her cheek against it.

Neo was shuddering at this point, but unlike the tears from earlier, the ones that fell now were happy. Damaged arm moving away from himself, he reached around Blueberry and tugged her towards him. Doing his best, he tried to avoid getting tears on her, but failed miserably.

This time she didn’t seem to care about the tears, just glad that the hurting Rough Patch got the message. Blueberry closed her eyes and curled up against Neo, relaxing in his hold.

Neo might struggle over his insecurities and may never truly get over them. But for now, he’s happy his family is with him. All of his humans, a friend, and another little girl for him to love.

#A Hat in Time #Rough Patch #Neo #Blueberry #Celest #A Hat in Time OC #original character #Hat Kid #Bow Kid #Mustache Girl #Snatcher #Moonjumper #glottia writes

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davewakeman · 4 years ago

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Talking Tickets 29 May 2020--Premier League! StubHub! Arts! And More!

Hey There!

Thanks for being here again this week. If you are enjoying this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to sign up by visiting this link.

Don’t forget to visit me and Ken Troupe for a Happy Hour tonight.

I’m going to post this at the top, but a colleague of mine from the UK, Alastair Thomson has put out a book about two weeks ago and he is giving away the Kindle version until the end of the month. Cash Flow Surge-101 Low Cost or No-Cost Fast Action Strategies to Boost Your Business Cash Flow. may be a good read for all of us right now, yeah? So get it while it is free.

Make sure you check out the Slack group if you haven’t already.

To the tickets!

——————————————————————————————— 1. Worst Deal Ever?!

Forbes covered Eric Baker’s acquisition of StubHub with a large piece this week. (As I was writing this up, StubHub’s president steps away as well.)

It is an interesting piece but I think it only reinforces the larger points that most of us have already been thinking about for the past few weeks and months, the secondary market as we know it will change and that it is unlikely that we will see a quick resolution to the return of live events.

The lesson here is that I do think that the business models of brokers, platforms, teams, venues, and organizations should be being thought through and fast.

Demand was a challenge to begin with before the pandemic unless you were certain legacy artists like Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, or Wilco. Sports was challenged for attendance and for every “hot” ticket there were tons that weren’t hot and the twitter feed of Empty Seats Galore was getting a tremendous workout showing off the empty seats at all of the “sold out” events.

I wrote up a blog post a few weeks back about asking the right questions. I had a chance to chat with my friend, Stephen Glicken, again this week and he was all over me about what kinds of questions am I thinking through, independent of my thoughts on the topic…he was selling me on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the punch line of “you have to ask the right question.”

Two ideas I had going through my head as I read this piece and thought through everything that we’ve seen and learned over the last 10 weeks:

* The idea that some light switch is going to go off and we just return to normal, or some new normal, is a myth. We are going to be dealing with a minimum of 3 challenges coming out of the pandemic: a public health crisis brought on by the virus, a financial crisis due to the lockdown, and a mental health crisis brought on by a lot of things.

While I am well aware of the data that shows a lot of things go back to normal pretty quickly, ticketed events will be the last things that get to return to normal and the need to be innovative in our approach, agile in how we approach things, and focus is more important than ever.

* There is a great need to be much more customer-focused in the future. I remember back in the pre-Covid days, chatting with Danny Frank about the idea of the teams needing to be more responsive to premium buyers, but seeing how much of the revenue of leagues and teams is still tied up in the in-game experience begs the question of what exactly have folks been doing that they haven’t been innovating their business models nearly rapidly enough.

I was looking at the typical signs that an industry or a business is ready to be disrupted earlier in the week and the 4 signs are:

Consumers don’t trust the current system

New technology isn’t being utilized

Products and services aren’t affordable to normal folks

Inconvenience is at an all-time high

I don’t know about you, but I see all 4 boxes being checked.

After all the challenges around refunds, cancellations, and postponements, does anyone trust the world of tickets?

How much new technology is available that isn’t just ticket related but private industry related that just never gets used by teams, venues, and other organizations?

Pricing? Anyone?

And, even in the industry, don’t we moan and complain about how we need to shop our own sites to figure out how complicated it is for folks to buy a ticket?

The truth is that we all need to get back in touch with the basics of strategy, sales, marketing, and operations. I think we’ve seen that the biggest opportunities aren’t going to come out of what is different, but likely the trends that were already present and the ability to do the basics very well.

I should also mention, I was going back and forth with folks in the UK and Australia about the piece earlier and the article linked above says nothing about the contempt that the market has for Viagogo in many markets which could lead the long-term health of the combined company to be questioned. Nor, does it touch on what happens to StubHub when events start and they have to unroll all of the things they’ve done so far.

That’s a story for another day.

2. The Premier League Is Back, Baby!

I’m still on the train of Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, but I haven’t really had a chance to read too much about the league so I don’t know nearly enough to claim them as my long term German team, yet.

As Kathryn told me, “I’ve never had a bad time in Munich!”

In the Premier League, well, we know I am a Spurs fan!

But there will be some interesting things that we can learn just like we did from the Bundesliga and as we see the NBA, NHL, and MLB work towards coming back in the States.

Another place to look will be the NRL in Australia where there is a push being made to get fans back into stadiums by 1 July.

This is all very exciting, but we still don’t really know what the next few months of dealing with the virus will look like for any country, sport, or business. But we do know that things could get dicey if we have another wave of coronavirus infections because of lessons learned from the first wave.

But the NFL is planning on going forward as normal.

Whether or not that is realistic, I don’t know…but I think we would definitely prefer having fans in the stadiums to The Remote Cheerer, though we were talking about this idea at our social distance happy hour with our neighbors on Saturday night. Or, those pumped in noises from Dortmund this week.

What is really interesting to me is that we have had a real-world testing ground to see whether or not fans really do create a home field advantage…and, guess what? They do!

And, Ted Leonsis said in a nice way what I’ve been saying for weeks now, but I’ll say it my way…too many bad ideas are carrying far too much weight right now.

Two points here:

First, it is nice to have sports back and I think this moment where stay-at-home orders are still in effect or are being encouraged is an opportunity to grow the fanbase.

Second, we also need to pay attention to what folks that aren’t engaging with sports now are doing and saying to learn how we can be better at selling and marketing games moving forward.

3. Peter V’landy pulled the NRL back from the edge:

If I haven’t mentioned yet, sports is big business in Australia and watching how the businesses in Australia have handled themselves has been very informative.

What is interesting here is how quickly and decisively the NRL moved to take action to use the shutdown of their season to set themselves up for success and to secure their future.

Attacking the problem proactively is a smart decision because as Peter Jones mentioned this week, large scale events with crowds are likely out until the first quarter of next year. This mirrors what some doctors I know have said about the States.

This is interesting to watch as we also see Major League Baseball rush towards a challenging situation with their players and having some sort of season this year…things are getting nasty! And, there really should be room for an agreement.

Kids, call me if you need me.

The big takeaway here is that you have to get out on your front foot and attack your challenges. The challenges between MLB and their players’ union have been festering and worsening for years and baseball has often been slower to move and innovate compared to other leagues.

This is now coming up and causing a challenge now.

That applies to all of us in our businesses now. If we aren’t the ones disrupting ourselves and stress testing our businesses, someone else will.

4. How will cultural events recover?

Organizations around the world are being decimated by the impact of the coronavirus on their businesses.

And, for a lot of folks, there is no end in sight.

On Wednesday, the District of Columbia announced a four-stage opening process for the District and you won’t see events with over 250 people until we enter stage 4. That puts many businesses just in the District in danger, now multiply that by cities around the world and you get a sector under tremendous pressure.

In the UK alone, the arts employ over 400,000 folks and generates over 23 billion pounds in revenue.

While I’m sure that everyone reading this has a professional connection to the arts and tickets, Prince Charles gave an interview this week where he talked about the importance of art as a teaching piece and as a way to connect families. For me, I still vividly remember the excitement of my first Broadway show, A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

The arts are powerful and they provide economic, intellectual, and spiritual value to our lives.

Don’t believe me on this, tell me about your favorite live event experience. I’ve shared a few of them over the months here, but that Pearl Jam concert on July 8, 2003 when the floor at the Garden started rocking was something I’ll never forget…there was a feeling in the air that you couldn’t explain like it was going to be a special night.

Or, the night I went to see the Yankees and the Red Sox with Schilling pitching with a bloody sock.

Finally, the first time I saw The Producers on Broadway and almost busted a seem I was laughing so hard.

Why do I bring this up?

Because we have to put ourselves not in the shoes of ourselves as benefiting financially off of events to convince legislators and folks to support the arts and events to help everyone get back to normal, that’s talking to someone’s head.

That’s not where decisions are made.

You have to talk to folks’ hearts and that little spot in their chest where the butterflies live…that’s where you will get them. So, again, let’s look at what folks are doing in each of our localities, and let’s push and promote and get folks to take action, not for us, but for themselves.

5. A few random stories to share at the end:

A lot of big artists are just writing off the rest of 2020. I’ve still got my Wilco tickets for August! But I’m guessing that won’t go off.

From a risk mitigation standpoint…totally makes sense, but still tough to see in print.

The Saudi takeover of Newcastle might not happen after all. If you’d ask me what Premier League team I was going to follow, I’d have told you Newcastle due to the association with Newcastle brown…all this means is that someone is going to have a chance to build a really great club because there are some strong brand assets in place already.

Sports have been called a modern religion…and there are reasons that this shutdown has made the absence of sports feel different.

——————————————————————————————–

What am I up to this week?

I’ve been doing some strategy work on myself the past few weeks and thinking through how I want to move forward and relaunch out of the coronavirus.

Starting on Monday, June 1st, you’ll start to notice, or not, a bit more of an emphasis on marketing and strategy. As I’ve been testing out the ideas here, I’ve discovered that the biggest and most important thing is typically to understand the environment that we are making decisions in, asking the right questions, and figuring out how to create opportunities in this market, but really in any competitive market.

The podcast stream will start getting a lot of action again as I’m going to try and do two podcasts a week: one with someone that is from the world of entertainment, sports, and ticket business. The second one from someone in the world at large with folks focused on strategy, marketing, and management.

So going forward…this area will be a little more exciting.

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets 29 May 2020–Premier League! StubHub! Arts! And More! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

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thedoctorvie · 7 years ago

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Another questionnaire

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?

Pffft, more milk of course. What kind of uncivilized barbarian uses more cereal than milk?

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?

Depends on the coldness of air. Sometimes, if the winter mood is right.

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

Toilet paper; other, smaller books.

4: how do you take your coffee/tea?

Coffee: Milk and a bit sugar. Tea: Nothing besides tea.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile?

Don't know. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

6: do you keep plants?

Yes, artificial ones. Those never fail me.

7: do you name your plants?

Nope. I'm not THAT crazy... yet...

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

I don't have enough mastery over any artistic medium to adequately express anything inside me.

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

Yep.

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

Left/right side alternating, most of the time.

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

Wait, what? Which friends?

12: what’s your favorite planet?

Venus. 460 degrees celsius, sulfuric acid rain, active volcanism, a hundred times higher atmospheric pressure than earth... exactly my kind of planet.

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

The astonishing and heartwarming reactions to an important facebook post of mine.

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

Since my girlfriend is my best friend and we live in a (somewhat) old flat in a big city... not very different than now ;)

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

One from google: Neptune radiates more heat than it gets from the sun. One from me: Alcohol has been found in some galactic nebulae.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish?

Penne carbonara.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

Something appropriately futuristic. Don't know what the cyberfashion of our future looks like.

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

Again, which friends? But i once didn't remember the appropriate name of a wire whisk and called it something very funny (which, unfortunately, can't be translated to english)

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?

Nope.

20: what’s your favorite eye color? Green.

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.

My bags from the medical university of vienna.

22: are you a morning person?

Ahahahahahahaha, no.

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

Coding, reading, playing computer games.

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

No, and i guess there never will be.

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?

Broken into? I'm not that type of criminal ;)

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

Currently cheap brown synthetic leather boots from a discount store.

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?

Apple.

28: sunrise or sunset?

Sunset.

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

My girlfriend, when her brain just quits and does something very irrational.

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

Oh yes.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

I like socks, but not white ones. I like my socks systematically ordered. Socks are life to me, since they guard my feet from unwelcome encounters with... *shudder*... nature.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

Why all those "friends"-questions? Seriously, i can't think of any interesting story with above parameters.

33: what’s your fave pastry?

I am no big fan of pastry. Maybe buns?

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

It is a very old teddy bear. His name is teddy bear. It looks a bit like Mr. Beans' teddy.

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?

Whats a stationary pen? I mostly write with boring black stabilos.

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

Good question. Kai Tracid?

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

Both.

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

I could write a book about it. But one of the most important is when people hurt other people.

39: what color do you wear the most?

Pitch black like my heart.

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?

I don't own much jewelry except of my engagement ring. You can imagine its story and meaning.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

The one i am currently reading, roughly translated: "Manual of chip cards"

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!

No, i don't.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

My girlfriend, while smoking in the courtyard of our residential building.

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

That was... well... the last time... lets say... ehm... wait...

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?

Depends on the situation.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

Unfortunately, i can't translate it into english, but i will give it in german: "Haben Sie Milch?" - "Ja, fettarme." - "Das sehe ich, aber haben Sie auch Milch?"

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

Insects.

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?

It was being abducted by aliens (seriously!). I don't know what my biggest fear today is.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?

I didn't buy any CDs or records in the last few years. The last one i bought a long time ago was some album from The Vision Bleak.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

Books.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

I usually don't have strong connections between persons and music, but one of the strongest is between a friend of mine and Ashbury Heights - Spiders.

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

I... don't know. I don't remember any in particular.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?

Rocky horror picture show: Yes, i liked it and its crazyness. Pulp fiction: Yes, its ok, but very overrated.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

My girlfriend.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

Er... don't know, argue it?

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

Intelligence, kindness, individualism, openness, tolerance, very broad interests, insatiable curiosity

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

It made me feel bored (sorry!). I didn't dramatically reenact anything.

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?

The what and who? What the heck are you talking (writing?) about?

59: what’s your favorite myth?

The one of diarrhea god of some tropical island (i am NOT kidding, it really is a myth! It is from some book about world mythology)

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?

I never read any good poetry.

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

The stupidest i ever received where non-fitting (but expensive) clothes. The stupidest i've ever given? No idea.

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?

Nope, through my veins runs coca cola.

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

Well, it's kind of a mess, but i try to organize them.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now?

Black (because it is night)

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?

Yeah, but i don't know if i get along with her as good as back then.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?

Wild and untamed.

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

Like i am in the right place where i can feel good (strange, i know).

68: what’s winter like where you live?

Chaotic. Sometimes warm, sometimes cold, often in-between.

69: what are your favorite board games?

Monopoly, chess.

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

No.

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?

Black tea.

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?

No, i just forget it.

73: what are some of your worst habits?

Good question... smoking?

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

A red-headed, smart, wild cat.

75: tell us about your pets!

You think cats are strange and crazy? You don't know mine.

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

God, yes... too much.

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

Yellow.

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

FANclub! I LOVE em!!!

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

Being there for me.

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?

Greyish, my girlfriend made me a portal bedroom for my birthday. Wait, can i revise question 79?

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

Re-emission of electromagnetic field waves, outside the thermal spectrum of usual chemical reactions.

82: are/were you good in school?

No, i didn't want to be.

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

I liked the one on Monolith - Subsystem, don't know why.

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?

Yes, an aesculapian staff.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

Yes, i especially like star wars comics.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?

What the fuck is a concept album?

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

Good question. All Star Wars-movies. 2001 - a space odyssey.

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

3D-generated arts (see for example https://blendpolis.de/forum/kunst/galerie)

89: are you close to your parents?

Yes, kinda. But i am more adult then they are.

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.

Well i like Berlin very much. People there seem to be much more open and uncomplicated than in vienna.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

I don't know, i don't plan anything at the moment.

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

Drown it in ALL the cheese!!

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?

Long, open and flowing.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?

A fellow student of mine.

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

Preparing the silvester party at our home.

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

I have activated automatic updates.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

ISTJ or INTJ, gemini, slytherin.

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?

A loooooong time ago, and yes, i enjoyed it.

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

Schalldruck - Turntable Junky (The Crow Remix) ASP - Krabat Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy Zeromancer - Doctor Online Robert Palmer - Bad Case Of Loving You Eluviete - Omnos Crazy Town - Butterfly Faun - Tanz mit mir

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flcwerstudies · 7 years ago

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cute tag!

pretty long post coming up!! Thanks to @cafedetude for tagging me!! im tagging: @hermiionegrcnger @studying-frenzy @belledoe @tiny-notes @theteadesk !! You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to ofc and if u want to do it and i haven’t tagged you go ahead!!

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? there must always be more milk than cereal, but that amount must not exceed a certain amount do you get me? when i scoop my cereal there has to be proportionate amounts of milk in each scoop, consistently, until i have finished my bowl. my mind is a strange and lonely place.

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? yes! its so refreshing and i feel like all your lethargy just evaporates... i love taking walks in the winter around my neighborhood in the evenings.

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? spoons, lipsticks, i once used another book to bookmark a book, hair elastic, my contact lenses case, compact mirror....im a mess, i know

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? tea: scalding hot with lots of sugar and some milk. coffee: lots of milk, so much sugar

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? no? i just want my braces off!!

6: do you keep plants? yess

7: do you name your plants? yes! i am currently growing two wild roses and I’ve named them Calliope and Polymnia.

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? journaling, writing, reenacting musicals and dramatic renditions of songs?

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? yeah ofccc it keeps me sane

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? back and side

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends? CAROL THE LESBIAN LIBRARIAN // mary walks by // too many to list here tbh

12: what’s your favorite planet? mars! and also venus

13: what’s something that made you smile today? my friends

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? a hurricane flew thru the entire place, empty wine bottles on the ground, beanbag chairs, stacks of books and movies, maybe a cat and a dog lazing around on the couch

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! there’s a gigantic cloud of alcohol wayyyyy out in outer space that could produce over 450 trillion pints of beer

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? give me all the pasta. i love all pastas.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? im ok with my hair color now

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. GETTING A CAPUCHIN MONKEY AS MY PATRONUS ON POTTERMORE

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? yes! i rant a lot and i sort of write down reflections? on my day and things. its really emo and angsty lmao im 16 pls

20: what’s your favorite eye color? brown eyes. so gentle. so sharp. so kind but so cruel. so ambiguous!

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. my tote bag from myanmar! the straps are falling off but i love it so much

22: are you a morning person? depends on if i slept early enough

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? sleep, watch a movie, watch youtube, read

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? absolutely not. it always pisses me off when people are like ohhh you can tell me anything??? no i can’t????

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? my friend’s house lmao

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? my peach converse! they’re so pastel and they seem weird but converse generally go well with a lot of things

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? i don’t like gum tbh

28: sunrise or sunset? both

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? sticks his tongue out when he’s concentrating and its so cute i die everytime

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? yes but i will never ever go into detail with anyone about this lmao

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. i love socks, i like wearing weird socks except for toe socks, people who sleep with socks on are Immune to Heat and Not Afraid Of Dying?? no white socks get nasty real quick and they’re so bland, i love socks i have this grey pair with french bulldog faces allllll over it and i wear them all the time and even though people can’t see them i still get happy and tell people about my dog socks.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. HA LMAO we had just watched a scary movie so obviously we turned on my little pony and watched that for two hours

33: what’s your fave pastry? cupcakes! anything tbh i have an enormous sweet tooth

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? my dad used to go on a lot of business trips and he came back once with a huge stuffed bear from switzerland and its so fuzzy its still on my bed. it’s name is Fred and it wears overalls and it has brown fur!

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? yes to all!!

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? paul anka lmao he’s not a band but ya know

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? clean

38: tell us about your pet peeves! wHEN UR JAMMING OUT TO MUSIC AND THEN SPOTIFY JUST STOPS WORKING?? people asking me if im mad when im just being quiet and then making me mad by continually questionning me, people who will ask dumb questions (yes, there are always dumb questions. google is free and im not going to tell u the homework, it’s written on the board quite clearly u moron), racist/homophobic/ableist/ generally offensive and disrespectful people

39: what color do you wear the most? grey and navy

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? I have mismatching earrings that my grandmother got me for my birthday!

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis!

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! the starbucks on center street it’s very Starbucks, exactly what you would expect, but I always sit in the corner spot near the windows

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? My family!

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? sitting in the sand in shell key, florida. my feet are in the water and i am watching my family swimming. I am very sunburnt but my mind is completely blank in a good way

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? absolutely

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. ofc they used a baby lion as their mascot. it’s simba-lic.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? there’s this food in korea that’s just stir fried rice with soybean sprouts and the sprouts..... aw god....they refuse to be bitten in half and it’s so gross i hate it sm

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? darkness! and no it is different today!

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? there are scarce places to buy CD’s now but the last one I bought was Micheal Jackson’s Bad

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? bottle caps and paperclips and also pens i pick off the ground

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? my dad. any aretha franklin song

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? the spongebob one and the gif of the white man who blinks a lot....u know the one

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? i loved all of them and i want to be able to quote them in all of my speech but i dont think people have watched all of them

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? i was working on homework last night and when i was turning on my laptop to work on my project i met my reflection in the screen

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? been incredibly bitchy like damn.....i surprise myself and i really hate it

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? when people use weird shit as bookmarks, when they laugh with their eyes shut, laugh lines near their eyes, dimples, kindness, when they aren’t afraid of making eye contact with me bc i have weirdly intense eyes

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? it did not fit the mood of my day but yes i did reenact the lyrics

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? my friend diana is the wine mom but i am the vodka aunt. why?? she is infinitely more caring and kind and sophisticated and also wine gets u lowkey, calm drunk, while i, the vodka aunt, am caring, but i have a bit of a laissez faire attitude and go with the flow and ‘damn what the hell fuck it’ kinda vibe and vodka gets u sloppy shitfaced drunk with none of the sophistication that comes with wine.

59: what’s your favorite myth? icarus

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? i dont LOVE poetry but i like haikus they’re like clever one liners ha

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? I gave my friend a notebook that i’d hastily made the night before and I have received a box of pads which in retrospect is not even a stupid present bc pads are expensive

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? i drink oj when i can

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? i organize them every month bc i am ridiculous and i can’t function if my bookshelf is weirdly organized

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? pale grey almost white.

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? my oldest group of friends (TNT lmaoooo) OR YOU KNOW callixtus from volunteering holyyy. you know those people who u meet and u immediately click with?? he’s on of them magical people and he was hella funny too i miss that guy to all hell

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? small roses! peach blossoms and cherry blossoms too. one huge ass hibiscus or lotus flower as a statement piece

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? cozy and sheltered. valid excuse for not going out

68: what’s winter like where you live? terrible but i love it kinda

69: what are your favorite board games? monopoly

70: have you ever used a ouija board? NO WHAT

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? barley, green or reallllyyyy black tea with loootss of sugar so that it makes your teeth ache

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? yeah how’d you know

73: what are some of your worst habits? expecting everyone to be on the same page

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. dedicated and brash, loud and hilarious, soft, amazing, i love them a lot

75: tell us about your pets! i dont have pets!! T-T

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? studying BUT DONT CALL ME OUT LIKE THIS OK

77: pink or yellow lemonade? pink

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? hateclub sorry

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? done my makeup for me while gossiping with me

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? pale green and yeah i did. i chose it bc i love green! and the old color was boring and i didn’t like it

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. no edges at all, soft bovine eyes , shaking leaves, crocodile tears

82: are/were you good in school? yes! it’s a source of a lot of pride for me!

83: what’s some of your favorite album art? amsterdam by nothing but thieves omg

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? oohh nahh im not planning on getting tattoos im scared of needles

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? through the woods? i used to read a lot of them but you know i grew out of them

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? not especially no

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? the drop, double indemnity, back to the future, idk there’s a lot

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? the rennaissance! it was so extra and i loved it a lot

89: are you close to your parents? yeah

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. TORONTO-soaring skyline from the highways at night near the lakeshore, the lights from the condos are like stars and its ridiculous but i also loooooveee dubrovnik in croatia and hanoi in vietnam and kaunas in lithuania and kyoto in japan.....in dubrovnik the wind blows in from the shore and at night when the lights are on in the walled city the stone glows amber. In Hanoi in the old quarter, motorbikes flash by and there’s yelling and the smell of pork skewers and there’s old buildings and new ones, huge stalks of bamboo leaning up against the walls. In Kaunas the wind is so cold and sharp and the buildings are so clean and there’s that old fortress and the tower! it’s so beautiful. and Kyoto is old and archaic but so modern it hurts and the streets are too uniform and the houses creep me out a bit bc they’re so quiet.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? i dont think so

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? i will bury my pasta in cheese just you watch

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? my hair is one style fits all bc its short

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? my friend!

95: what are your plans for this weekend? study and work on projects and homework and stress and nap and have dinner with a guest

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? no updates. we die like men.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? isfj-t, aries, ravenclaw

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? sometime in september? it was nice!

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. put your head on my shoulder by paul anka....there’s a lot and im really lazy sorry

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? 5 years in the future, just to see where I end up

#tagged #ask games #nice!#tagged games #tag games #about me

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