#nate answers things

[places-people]

did you know that you can leave video voice mails on FaceTime now because I learned

[not-poignant]

Hi! For the OC ask meme, I would love to know your answers for 5, 6 and 10 for Nate in Underline the Blue 💙 💙 Thanks :D

5. How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want?

Not very! I mean all Nate wanted was to be back with Christian for most of Underline the Blue so far and all he did to achieve that was...nothing. He's definitely not an escape artist.

But I guess it also depends on your perspective. He was willing to endure abuse and being committed to Hillview and being raped by a complete stranger if it meant that his abuser would love him.

I guess six of one and half a dozen of the other!

6. How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

I would say pretty easily. *gestures to his entire history with Christian.* There's a lot of things he's been convinced into doing or accepting that were things he used to think were monstrous a long time ago.

Honestly if Christian had convinced him that watching a murder and saying nothing about it was a good idea, Nate would definitely accept not saying anything about it. One of the main reasons Nate is so broken in the first place when we first meet him is the depth of the abuse he endured has shattered his self concept, and once you get to that point with a person, things like 'moral compass' are a luxury, and not a right.

The answer might (will) be different later on in the story! But we're not quite there yet. Nate's at the point where he'll beg someone not to violate his moral compass, but will still accept being coerced into it.

10. What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

The one I'm literally writing right now!

Nate started out in Falling Falling Stars with Janusz, and Christian was mentioned there. But I never went that deep into explaining Nate's closed off asshole-ish attitude, beyond indicating that he has emotional abuse trauma and that he finds other people with PTSD triggering because of Christian.

So Underline the Blue is a way of finally putting him and Janusz front and centre, and kind of telling a version of their story, and showing Nate's inner world a bit more (even if he is an omega, we still get to see how badly he was treated by a version of Christian).

Beyond that, I have no real interest in writing Nate and Janusz into other AUs, this I feel will complete their narrative!

~

From the edgy meme AU!

[frznwarmth]

i was supposed to do something completely different tonight but i am 100% thoroughly distracted with Thoughts...

[cynwushere]

*throws n*

@nate-doorman-elliot

Have a small bean))

Oh my

(barely catches Nate)

...hello there big brother hehehe

[sodapopbuoy]

Whatcha up to, Natty?

OUGH MANY A THING,,,

currently studying for an exam i have to retake and trying to draw a bit more,, hot weather is kicking my ass though!!! but i'm kicking back!!!!!! how about you!!

[oh-meow-swirls]

was looking through old posts and i'm surprised to see that i seemingly didn't have any commentary on anything in 3 in chapter 7, 8 or 9, the posts related to 3's story go from "my first reaction when i saw yopple-bot was 'i love you. but also you are definitely the boss for this chapter-'" to "i have been in hell all day. hell being bada-bing tower." funny to me cuz those chapters are like, the best ones sdfkljsdfjfsdkjlfsdjkl-

[gregorygerwitz]

“You’ve just won one free pass to my bedroom.” + Nate/Gio

post-finale AU angst? you offered me spicy and I said 'no 💛'

[ dialogue prompts ]

warnings: off-page death, reference to past terminal illness, swearing

He was really beginning to hate hospitals.

After being in and out of enough rooms and seeing more than enough doctors while his mother was getting treatment, and the follow up when she was in recovery, Nate never wanted to see the inside of a hospital again. The only reason he visited at all was when he needed something from his sister. Even then, he preferred to not go too far past the waiting room, at least when he could help it. That was one of the perks of having a sister who was a doctor - he could get anything he needed at home if something about the job got physical, and he had someone on speed dial if anyone else got hurt and needed help.

If someone got shot at, or got punched and ended up with a black eye or a split lip, or any of the million other hazards that came from their line of work, Nate knew exactly who to count on. Grace had gone to medical school. She was smart. She saved people's lives every day. She could do anything.

At least, everything had seemed that way. He'd always believed in his sister, always felt like he could lean on her. She'd taken on his debt with Moretti, after all, saved his life by risking her own, and he hadn't even asked. But that night... for the first time in a long time, he remembered that there were some things that even Grace couldn't do.

[ read the rest below or on ao3 ]

She couldn't resurrect anyone. She couldn't go back in time and stop anyone from pulling a trigger. She couldn't make any surgery go faster so that he could get updates. Of everyone who had been shot that night, exactly two of them had survived. With the FBI apparently watching his every move, he shouldn't go visit either one of them, but it had been a very long night already.

Nate had seen the aftermath of the massacre at the bakery, the flashing lights of the police cars and the ambulance. He didn't stick around long enough to figure out if anyone had survived, or who it would have been, not after he talked to his sister. His goal after that phone call was just to get to the hospital, to be there when his mother and Constantine got out of surgery. The last thing he'd been letting himself think about was the massacre - most likely, based on what carnage he'd seen, no one had survived that. Gus, Stavos, Gio...

He could internalize those losses while he sat by his mother's bed and waited for her to open her eyes. As long as he had something else to focus on, the rest of his grief could wait. He could mourn as soon as his heart stopped racing, as soon as he stopped holding his breath.

Except, the mourning started before he was ready for it.

The flatline was still ringing in his ears while he sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair. He'd shrugged his flannel shirt off when things felt more than a little overwhelming, and it had started in his lap. During the time he sat there - he could have been minutes, or hours, or even days - it had slid off of his knee enough to brush the floor with one of the hanging sleeves, and he didn't have the energy to change that. Every inch of him was exhausted, and it didn't feel like he should have any tears left. Surely, the pain was bad enough that he should have been more than numb.

When the chair next to him moved and he felt the gentle squeeze to his shoulder, Nate made himself look up. There was nothing left of him to be surprised when he saw his sister there, the weak offer of support the best either of them could muster. No one could expect anything more, not after the day they'd had - the truth about Constantine's connection to their family, the shock of both attacks, the sudden wave of grief that came with their mother's death, the knowledge that the death toll was so much higher than anyone wanted it to be...

Grace had mentioned, when he arrived, that there was one survivor from the attack on the bakery. He hadn't asked who it was, and she hadn't had time to keep him updated before she ran off to handle something else. And he understood that, with everything else going on. Someone had to check on Constantine, and field questions from the FBI agent who was poking around. He didn't need to know who it was then. He wasn't even thinking about it.

But getting the news when he had just recovered from his latest bout of sobs was more overwhelming than he could have imagined.

Gio.

Of all the people they'd lost over the span of a few months, the trigger he'd pulled himself, the bombs and the kidnapping and the horse that had nearly gotten him killed, he didn't know he was still able to feel relief. So much of it seemed stupid and avoidable when he looked back at it, and the things that were too big to be avoided weighed heavier on his shoulders. He still had someone left besides his sister and Constantine, and that was more than he knew he had any right to ask for.

Nate should have avoided visiting, with a federal agent lurking around the hospital hallways, and it would only put an even bigger target on his back. It would probably put a bigger target on Gio’s back, too, which wasn’t recommended when he was recovering from three gunshot wounds. But where else was he supposed to be?

His mother was dead.

Grace was balancing Constantine and the FBI.

Everyone else had been shot down in the bakery.

The only place it made sense for him to be was sitting at another bedside. He even took a moment to silently thank God that Gio was awake when he slipped into the room. Awake and responsive was good, even if they spent their shared time in silence. They had the beeping of the heart monitor, and the hum of the lights overhead, and steady breathing. It was a lot better than sitting in a silent hallway where he was stuck in his own head. Out there, it was all storm clouds and thunder. At least that room had a silver lining.

Nothing about the lack of conversation worried him. Nate had been a part of the group for long enough, had interacted with the man in front of him more times than he could count, and that was just how things were. Sure, Gio liked to talk when he had something to say, but too much had happened. No one had anything to say about the events of that night, let alone the last few days, not even someone who typically had a comment for everything.

Nate probably still had tearstains on his cheeks, and his eyes still felt puffy, and were definitely still red. There weren't many people who would want to talk to him when he looked like that. Most people would want to be careful about what they said and be too afraid to say anything at all, and he had resigned himself to the quiet that came with new grief. Still, it wasn't that surprising when the voice came from the bed and pulled him out of a daze.

"How bad is it, kid? How many did we lose?"

It took a few tries for him to make sound come out. His mouth was open, but it didn't work as readily as he'd like it to. Listing all the losses of the night, both the lives and the fights they didn't know they were in, would be too exhausting. They'd already lost so much. He was desperately trying to cling to the few good things he could claw from the rubble his life had become.

"It's uh... you, me, Constantine. We're the only ones left."

"Fuck..."

They fell back into the quiet that they'd created before, the air heavier with the truth in it. Nate felt the shift in his gut that came with it - feeling both more and less alone in his little corner of the universe. Saying it made it true. There were less than a handful of people left that he could trust, and that was even including himself. But at least the grief was shared, split between the two of them instead of weighing only on his shoulders. It was another small wave of relief that felt impossible, especially when it was accompanied by the regret of having to share the news at all. Gio could have gotten better rest and had a smoother recovery if he'd said nothing. Grief and stress could make things harder, or something like that. He was struggling to remember what Grace had told him over the years, different pieces of advice getting twisted up with other ones.

"Well, chin up, kid. It could have been worse." He glanced toward the bed to see a familiar smirk, something that had been constant through the last few months of his life. Usually, it came with a lewd comment, or some story that he couldn't stop himself from telling for the third time. It was almost comforting to see, a reminder of what he still had to ground him in the middle of the earthquake of everything else. "You could have been stuck with a buzzkill like Stavos. At least I know how to have fun. Everything will be back to normal in no time."

Nate tried to return the expression, he really did. But the idea of normal that he'd had in his head couldn't ever really come back. He wouldn't be able to go home to his mother's cooking ever again. He wouldn't be able to sit at the table for a game of poker or go for a walk without looking over his shoulder. He would probably be lucky if he managed to drag himself out of the hospital once the night was over instead of wasting away right there in the chair.

He wanted to be a part of the light teasing, the easy energy that came with every ridiculous conversation he had with Gio, but that was hard. The whole truth was still close to his chest, pulling him down too far into the darkness to reasonably reach for the light.

"Yeah... normal..."

"C'mon, no one with us is worth your tears. We'll be fine."

Hiding his feelings used to be easier. The tears on his face didn't help when he was trying to put an uncaring mask in place, the air of nonchalance he'd learned over the years of working with and around mobsters. He was too much of a mess to be relaxed about any part of it. Gio was alive, but so was his mother, and they thought things were going to be fine. Should he really get attached to this new version of his life before it settled? Or was he getting ahead of himself and welcoming more grief into his future?

He knew he was a mess before it was even brought up, before he was called out on it and had the fact presented to him so bluntly. The rest of the mess had brought him along with it, and he hadn't seen the point in trying to clean himself up yet. No one but Grace was really going to see him like that, and it was still up on the air on whether or not he cared about Gio seeing him like that, too.

"Any other losses you need to get off your chest, kid? Is your sister okay?"

"Grace is fine." That was the truth, at least when it came to physical injuries. He wasn't the only one grieving a mother, and she had even more on her plate after talking about Constantine. Nate was in pain, but he wouldn't pretend that he was the only one in pain, or that his pain outweighed anyone else's. "But, uh... they followed Constantine to the house. Shot it up. He's out of surgery and he's supposed to be okay, but my mom..."

The words caught in his throat, and Nate quickly looked down at his hands so that they didn't escape with a new round of tears. He didn't think he was capable of sobbing anymore, not without a good twelve hours of sleep, but his eyes found a way to make more tears no matter how many he'd already shed.

"Hey..."

He didn't have to move his head to see the hand at the edge of vision. That hand had been on the bed just a few seconds earlier, minding its own business instead of intruding on his grief. Now, it was stretched out toward him, an offering of comfort when he didn't know where to look to ask for it. It was something he didn't know he desperately wanted to cling to until he took what was offered, curling his fingers around a warm, alive hand. It was the eye of the storm, a brief pause before everything went to hell again. It was enough.

"That's rough. I'm sorry."

The fingers squeezed his gently.

"Don't worry. If you need anything, you've got me behind you. You and Grace both."

Another squeeze to his hand reminded him to breathe, and Nate slowly shook his head. He took a few moments to breathe again, a big, deep breath that he needed just to find his voice again. It kept escaping him, running away when he needed it most, and it wasn't a solid thing he could cling to like the hand in his and the body attached to. It was a flighty thing, something he was still trying to pin down after years of practice. He could act tough, like the job he didn't wasn't dangerous and didn't risk his life on a daily basis - or at least like he didn't notice or care. Death was a terrifying thing he had to look in the eye and face down more often than he liked, and it was getting all too close. It kept coming in and taking people away from him, and there were only so many losses he could handle on his own. There were too many to carry, and it was only a matter of time before he was next on Death's list.

"That seems like a lot to take on, when there's rebuilding to worry about. And you almost died. You shouldn't be worrying about anyone else-"

"Kid," Gio cut him off sharply, "you're family. I'd crawl out of a grave if it meant helping out when you need something."

The words made Nate pause, biting the inside of his lip to keep from saying something without thinking. The idea of still having a family when all that was left of his own was himself and his sister was odd, but comforting, like the hand he was still holding onto just a bit too tight. He should let go, he knew that, but he really didn't want to. If he let go, the last few good things in his life might burn down, too.

"I'll try not to be too needy while you're stuck in a hospital bed."

That was enough to draw out a laugh that ended with a cough and a quiet wheeze, and he was quick to let go of the hand in his so that the newest problem could be taken care of. He didn't mean to cause this kind of reaction, and there was very little he could actually do that was helpful.

"Damn, Devlin, I just got shot in the chest. You can't make me laugh, of all things." But Gio was smiling, and still trying to hold back his reaction to the comment, not that Nate really understood what was so funny in the first place. "Or maybe it's impressive that you got me to laugh, considering almost everyone we know is dead."

Nate couldn't help the small expression that tugged at the corner of his mouth, though he didn't know if his own weak shadow of a smile counted for much. He didn't really feel better about anything, and he doubted that would change any time soon, but it was nice to have a little proof that he wasn't alone in any of it. He had Grace at his side when they needed to grieve the more normal side of their lives, and Gio for when he needed to grieve the crazy parts. That counted for something.

"How impressive is it, really? You laugh in your own face in the mirror. Though, I see why."

"Low blow, kid. Leave my face out of this. It didn't do anything to you." Gio waved a hand in his direction, the familiar smile growing further into his cheeks. "And it is impressive. Tonight was a shit show, and that's putting it lightly. Seriously, you should get an award for managing this. As soon as I'm out of here, I'm getting you a prize."

Nate felt his own smile widen while he shook his head, leaning forward in his seat. It was an automatic reaction, something that hadn't been entirely uncommon in the last few weeks. Since they had to start covering for each other's felonies regularly, they'd gotten closer, formed an actual friendship outside of the bonds that came with what they did for a living. As awful as it might sound, there was a part of him that was glad that, if only one person could have survived the attack on the bakery, he wanted it to be Gio.

"What kind of prize would I even get for this? A plastic statue with a cheap engraving? A gold medal that's actually chocolate?"

"A chocolate medal? No, it'll be way cooler than that."

They were quiet again while he seemed to genuinely think about the options he had as potential prizes. He'd have plenty of time to think of something while he was recovering. He'd have days, if not more than a week, and all the quiet time on his own to just brainstorm. But he seemed intent on coming up with an answer before Nate inevitably had to leave the room to find his sister again, hopefully before the FBI agent found him.

A few drawn out moments of quiet was all it took, and then Gio snapped his fingers just in time to stop him from drifting back into his thoughts. "I know what it is. Nathaniel Devlin,-"

"That is not my full name."

"-for the ability to make someone laugh in the middle of a fucking shit show, you've won one free pass to my bedroom."

Nate coughed out a laugh at the decisive tone that formed the words, shaking his head. He was too stunned to fight the grin that had formed on his face at the sheer ridiculousness of the offer. Maybe they both deserved prizes for the ability to make each other laugh when they really shouldn't be able to. Though he wasn't going to make quite the same offer, not even close.

"Yeah, to change your bedpan, maybe." He shook his head again when his ability to speak returned, unobstructed by swallowed laughter. "Someone's going to have to take care of you until you're back on your feet, and you don't have a lot of options. And, in case you haven't already noticed, I'm technically in your bedroom, right now."

Gio scoffed and glanced around the sterile hospital room with a frown, most likely feigning his offense. "Then this is breaking and entering. I need to have you removed. Hit the button that calls a nurse into here?"

Rolling his eyes, Nate made himself stand up from his seat, his grin fading into something softer. It was a weak smile, but still there. "I should go see if I can find Grace again, anyway. I'll be back again later. Get some rest so we can get you out of here sooner."

"You're ungrateful. I offered you a wonderful prize, and you made a joke about it. At least revisit the idea once this shit show is over."

"Yeah, Gio, whatever you want."

[grimalkinmessor]

OKAY SO I may have accidentally lied about Light's Hogwarts house—because it's not Gryffindor like I thought it's Ravenclaw by a HAIR with Gryffindor as the runner up. Meanwhile L's is exactly what I thought it'd be; Slytherin with Ravenclaw following close behind.

Mello is a Slytherin with Ravenclaw close behind, just like L, while Near surprised me by pulling Gryffindor with Hufflepuff not two questions down 🧐

The only one I guessed correctly was L 😭

[piperslovebot]

niknate literally turned things around so well since s1, like at first it was obvious that this relationship was doomed/a disaster but then they had their really good fwb arc and then s3 was... well. hot! like their chemistry is insane and they actually became weirdly compatible without being out of character?

Yess! Like I thought there was potential the first three episodes, but then they became like a more tame Jackie/Kelso and I was not on board.

Then there was part 2, and like you said the fwb arc was hot! Their chemistry really shined and they had such cute moments. I didn’t want them back as a couple tho for reasons I stated a while back, but I really liked that arc and I grew to appreciate them as a HS couple (while also lowkey wishing they were able to be more lol. I blame the amount of writing I did for them haha).

Then part 3 my beloved was chef’s kiss. The writers had Nikki and Nate actually explore other options, which I loved because it showed that they weren’t each other’s default choices. But in the end, they still went back to one another because they were in love, which was beautiful.

I definitely agree about the compatibility part: Nikki and Nate continued to grow as characters separately, which helped their relationship.

And honestly part 3 (and even part 2?), made me see their part 1 arc in a more positive light because for a while I thought Nate mostly saw Nikki as a hot upperclassman who wanted to have sex with and who he wanted to have sex with, but part 3 especially proved me wrong. Nate truly loved that woman to bits. He just does stupid shit lol, like a true Kelso.

I really hope that if part 4 gets greenlit that Nikki and Nate will be happy and keep growing as couple and as individuals.

[laniidae-passerine]

hate having known this whole season the narrative was slowly sinking into the mud but everyone was blinded to it by feel good moment and small things they wanted that were lovely but unconnected to the storylines from the preceding seasons. sorry guys ted lasso s3 has actually been bad the whole time not even canon gay colin can save it :/

[not-poignant]

Some ppl want a UtB Temsen x Gwyn fic but all I want is a oneshot of Temsen hunting down and decimating Christian and putting him "in his place" lmao. I'd enjoy reading that so much.

Question: peak alphas can get away with committing pretty much any crime right so why doesn't Temsen or the other peak alphas at Hillview just kill abusive alphas? I'm pretty sure Temsen could get away with murdering Christian and it would save future omegas from what Nate went thru.

Hi anon!

I mean the main reason is that killing in cold blood is still frowned on, and peak alphas exist in all levels of government, and would likely be like 'hey, cut that out, you're making it hard for the rest of us to kill people sometimes and get away with it.'

A peak alpha killing someone due to ardolphogen rage or similar is not against the law, but like, it has to be demonstrable that they're in this state, it can't be them plotting in advance to murder people, because that is against the law. And there comes a point where everyone stops wanting to have anything to do with you and other peak alphas will be like '...that is a crazy out-of-control problem over there.'

Nothing is more dangerous to a peak alpha than another peak alpha, after all.

But yeah, that's why. Societal policing, even if it can't come in the form of some levels of society, still exists! They can't just go commit whatever crimes they want free from consequence. But they can do some crime relatively free from consequence. They're still expected to cooperate with the law, make a statement, a report is filed etc. Like, they get a record.

I'm pretty sure Temsen could get away with murdering Christian and it would save future omegas from what Nate went thru.

Okay, but that's not his job, or his function, or his purpose in life. Like, just because he can, doesn't mean he a) should, or b) that this would be healthy for him or c) that it actually even solves the problem systemically at all.

Temsen's work is broader than that. He tries to change education so alphas grow up respecting omegas more, he tries to change attitudes through activism so omegas feel better insisting on respect from alphas in the first place. It's a lot easier to stop the abusers when you stop all the people who enable the abusers.

Like, how many people is Temsen supposed to kill? It's not just Christian who's awful, but all of Christian's friends. It's not just all of them who are awful, but nearly every alpha that sends an omega to Hillview, it's not just all of those alphas, but it's often their alpha family members who encouraged and enabled them in the first place, and it's not just those alphas, but also the ones they encounter out in life who act like this is permissible. And if that was something Temsen felt impassioned to do, I'm sure he would a) end up with a death count of thousands and b) still not actually have done as much to stop abuse as what he's literally doing by trying to change the systems that enable abuse re: education (like the education modules that Efnisien is reading) or helping facilitate the global introduction of laws that protect omegas (because for those laws to be passed, you have to convince the governments that those omegas have a right to be protected. It's more than just the law itself.)

It's tempting to be like 'he should just kill the bad people we don't like' but it's never just one bad person. Hillview has around 30 omegas on site at any time, that's a lot of abusive alphas you want Temsen to be killing on a regular basis.

That does negatively affect someone's psyche? To just...repeatedly murder people in cold blood. Also we have a show about it (Dexter) and it's not like it really solves the problem. Also it tends to create an issue, it's not like people who murder all the time out of a sense of righteousness stay like...good, compassionate, empathetic people. The black and white thinking you need to justify those actions means that you stop considering whether an alpha has been abused, or whether they have a potential for redemption, etc.

That isn't to say Temsen won't kill people again, just that if he does, it will be in the heat of the moment and not because he thinks 'well that guy was abusive so I should.'

I mean, as far as we know, Christian's never killed anyone. So ending his life, while Nate gets to recover, is...not even something we do in places where we have the death penalty. Christians actions are reprehensible, but we do not become a better society by also committing reprehensible actions just because we can.

Temsen could not stay "Temsen" if that was something he believed was right to do.

It's a fun revenge fantasy, and that's where it stays, I'm afraid!

Finally, Christian does have PTSD from being abused in the past. More abuse isn't going to stop him or make him recognise what he's doing. His PTSD and his trauma is legitimate, even if the way he weaponises it isn't. Much like Efnisien in Falling Falling Stars, wanting to hurt someone who is abusive who has also been an abuse victim rarely solves anything at all. It just makes the person doing the hurting feel some righteous, sadistic pleasure in the moment, which when you think about it, actually isn't justice at all.

[nateslehky]

hi!! natecale primer (i guess thats what im calling myself?) anon here. thanks for all your links! ive actually already made my way through like half the natecale tag over the last week bc im mentally unwell but i would love to hear thoughts/recs for fics that you think nailed their characterization. thank you again 🫶

of course of course!

many of times have i spiraled and gone through the entirety of the natecale tag so i feel you lol.

i've definitely rec'd these before and some of them are pretty popular so you've maybe read them, but i outlined why i personally love these specific characterizations :)

here's some fics with my favorite cales:

running under the wrong assumption this is a baseball au from cale's pov and one of my favorite fics ever in large part because of the characterizations. cale's pov is just!!!! so freaking (unintentionally) charming and sweet and nice and so so fun. in general, i'm obsessed with this author's characterizations as a whole tbh--of everyone, not just nate and cale and not just in this fic. however, in this fic in particular i think they really nail the whole idea of nate/cale not thinking that they're cool while the other thinks they're the best/coolest, which is something i fuck heavily with.

for you, i would ruin myself this is part two of a series (the first part is nate's pov! which is also good, but i want to shout out cale's pov in particular). this is one of the first fics i ever read for them and it really made me ~see the light~ on their dynamic and the way their personalities can work (and also clash sometimes) in different ways. i think this cale is super intelligent and insightful (although at times maybe a little naive) and just very well rounded. i think the author really nailed cale's calmness? which is kinda a weird thing to describe but i think cale has this stability about him (that's often a good counterbalance for nate's instability haha) and the author portrays that really well. nate's a bit of a disaster in this fic (as he tends to be) and i think the author does a good job writing how cale navigates everything.

favorite nates:

drunk in love to me, nate is, at his core, a cringefail disaster and this fic really nails that in a cute and fun way.

big d stands for big demeanor will always use any excuse to talk about this fic. it's a list-fic and super short, but it's SO introspective and i love the way the author wrote nate attempting to navigate emotions about hockey and life in general but also cale. 10/10.

burn that bridge when we get to it in this particular fic nate has really bad internalized homophobia but i think it's handled so well and written so brilliantly and feels so very true to who i think nate is as a character. i also think the cale in this fic is written so well too and their dynamic and the way they work (and can clash) comes across so well. 10/10

[deva-arts]

Seraphina, a bit of a bird , a bit of a human . Maybe. But, my question. When she eats eggs, is it technically cannibalism?

Long answer: no. Short answer, no.

[jamiesfootball]

Sooo if you’re still doing the ask game: 🌧️❄️

🌧️Share something angsty from your WIP.

I went for angst-adjacent here-

"I'm actually not seeing Dr. Sharon anymore. I got upgraded - different doctor, someone who, um, specializes in..." Jamie gestured as if waving something off. "Anyways. Point is, won't be a conflict of interest or anything. If you need to complain about me or whatever. I can introduce you two, if you want. To Dr. Sharon."

"I can do it myself," Roy argued, but the words sounded hollow to his own ears.

❄️Share a snippet from a WIP of your choosing.

"This one - I'm not even sure what you were thinking for this one." Nate despaired in a tone so casually matter-of-fact that it bordered on dismissive. Another sheet of paper - this one with the standard X's and arrows Roy was used to - sat innocently on top of the grid. Nate pointed at a spot where the cluster of X's, arrows, and red grid squares collided. "You literally couldn't have picked a worst spot to go through Brighton - not even Zava could have cut through their defense."

"Yes. We get it," Beard muttered dryly.

"I mean, no offense, but what were you guys thinking running a 4-5-1?"

Roy massaged his temples. "We were thinking we had Zava - so fuck it."

Nate looked offended.

[danthropologie]

He’s thinking about the narrative of it all. Admitting that AT might be an option???

But we also know Christian is thinking of the narrative of it all too, so maybe

But it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know. If anything it’s just letting us know that Nate is front and centre with Danny’s camp

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/37883848/daniel-ricciardo-wants-fairytale-f1-return-red-bull

the funny thing about this is it's not really saying anything different than he's been saying the whole time if you've been paying attention, it's just more straightforward and to the point. obviously we've known his sights are on red bull for weeks. the AT thing is a little more ~new, but at the same time when he changed from "only want a top team, don't want to be in a seat just for the sake of it" in australia to later saying that it's not about the money for him anymore, that he'd been willing to take a 'lower' spot on the grid as long as there's a path back up to the top, etc, that's all felt like it's been pointing directly to AT the whole time. the clear messaging over and over again is that he's willing to do ANYTHING to get back in the red bull seat, because he knows with absolute certainty that that's where he wants to be.

[katierosefun]

hello i would like you to know that, without fail, every time you reblog a haunting of hill house post with timothy hutton i think to myself "what episode of leverage did i miss???" 💕

; DHLFSDF:LK SDFLSDF lmaooo (nate ford . . . arguably the role)

although y'know, on the same note of the haunting of hill house, i do think it's a shame we never got to see leverage crew try to steal a haunted house. i think there would have been so many shenanigans to come out of that one.