#not accepting only because I need to finish this meme and I can happily do it another time someday dfhsdfihsdf

[capravulpes]

draconiclotus​:

@capravulpes asked: ‘ kisses ‘ - Ganyu

kisses meme| always accepting

True Random Number Generator Min: 1  Max: 20  Result: 9

(9) an excited kiss as a reunion

Dan Heng had been out on the Express for awhile. He and Ganyu had talked, had called each other daily. But as the Express’s archivist, he had a lot of stuff to put into the databanks. And all he wanted to do was go back to Teyvat. He was tired. When he knew he had put the last bit of information into the Express’s databanks, he bid his family there on the Express farewell, hoped that when they got a chance to come back to Teyvat they’d come find them, then would before teleporting back to where he called home.

He walked into the Teapot, their teapot and went through Ganyu’s hedge gardens that he’d made. When he heard her voice he smiled. Hurrying through the winding path, he saw the familiar horns on her head and the flowing blue hair when he was close to the center of the gardens.

❝ Ganyu! ❞

He called out to her. When he saw her turn, he ran to her, pulling her into a hug and then picking her up. He smiled and kissed her, excitedly. He felt her shiver happily in his arms and he deepened that kiss, refusing to give into the need for air when the kiss went on for too long.

When his lungs demanded air, screamed for it, it was then he pulled away.

❝ Hello, pretty mama, ❞ he whispered, ❝ my lovely wife. Did you miss me? ❞

During her vacation on the express, Himeko got her a phone so they could contact each other. At first, she didn't know how to use it until March showed her. Since then, Dan has always called. They would talk to each other on a daily basis. Their conversations would sometimes last all day. So, when he told her that he was coming home today, she was excited because not only did she miss him, there was a surprise for him during their time apart. His office had just finished being built, so she knew he would love it and the best part was that the room was soundproof, so if their future children were ever to play near the room, he won't be disrupted while he's working or reading.

She was in her hedge garden that Dan built for her. It was the best present she'd ever received and, since then, she has been tending to the vegetables and fruit patches. While she was watering a few of her apple trees, a voice called out to her and she recognized the owner. Dan was finally home. She smiled and turned around to see him. He was hurrying out of the winding path and he ran to her. She dropped the watering can she was holding. When he pulled her into a hug, she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him back, but what surprised her was when he picked her up and kissed her she happily shivered in his arms.

A bright shade of crimson spread through her cheeks as he deepened the kiss. But even though the kiss went on a lot longer, they both had a need for air, but it didn't look like he wanted to pull away anytime soon until his lungs asked for air. Once he had broken away, air filled her lungs. It allowed her to breathe again.

"Hello, my handsome husband." She smiled while she heard him whisper."Yes, I missed you so much. I'm just so happy you're home now."

[trophyeve]

@rxtrase​ asked: @lachrymosestorm​

SEND A URL AND I WILL ANSWER THE FOLLOWING; || Not Accepting

Do I Follow Them?: Yes! Why Did I Follow Them?: I remember getting intrigued by their OC on another blog or two I think, specifically my old Strade and Ren blogs.  I saw her interacting with Dia and went ‘omg, still active?  I can try to write with her on my DL blogs!’ and SO I DID. Do We Role Play?: Yes! Do I Want To Role Play With Them:  Yes.  So much.  We already roleplay and I hope we continue to roleplay.  

An AU Idea For Our Muses: AU where Kou doesn’t want Dez dead inside (cries), AU where Dez didn’t get back with Laito after some of the messes?  And Kou kept his growing hold on her?  IDK man cries, AU where Dez is actually a makeup artist and might be one of the ones Kou works with, I DON’T HAVE VERY UNIQUE IDEAS AT THE MOMENT

A Song For Our Muses:  In GC1/main version of v; kou; more blood rivals verse, they temporarily had LittleJayneyCakes -  Upon a Twilight, but Kou feels very strongly otherwise at the moment.  Maybe one day that’ll be restored.  Maybe not. Also, this reminds me how much I need to actually organize the verses pages and publish them for this multimuse.  Soon(tm).

Do I Ship Our Muses?: I don’t know?  I think it’d be fun to ship one of the Diaboys with Dez, but “shipping” would be loosely used here.  I love Kou and Dez prior to the freakout, their stuff was really interesting to me.  But do I ship?  :thinking:  HMM...  Honestly I just look forward to developing messes with Dez and the boys (and Yui), so honestly, whatever works.  I was excited to throw Ruki at Dez but now I’m leaning more towards throwing Azusa or..well...we’ll see!

What I Think About The Mun: Jackie is extremely lovely?  She also has gorgeous hair and eyes btw, but now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I like Jackie a lot!  She just seems fully ready to embrace like, all kinds of writing together with all kinds of muses once she gets to know you and it’s just...it’s exciting to know how much she really wants to write with you and not just your muse because it’s Character X.  Not that there’s anything wrong with being interested in a blog first because it’s a specific character or theme, because that’s usually what draws you in!  It’s just that I love how Jackie gets fond of people’s writing.  She also listens whenever I find a song that makes me think of Dez which is really silly of me but I get a huge kick out of it.

Overall Opinion: If you, too, want a goth OC in your life that’s an entertaining trainwreck who may or may not be helped or made worse by your muse, please follow.  The writer is wonderful and the muse is an entertaining mess.

Blog Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 200

[mcwriting]

the costume

In which Tom dresses as Marty Mcfly for a Halloween party in Malibu and things get progressively wilder.

This is kind of my 200 followers celebration plus just some Halloween fun! Thanks to everyone who’s following, I really appreciate all of you and if you ever need a place to talk, my asks and messages are always open!

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader

Word Count: 1622

Warnings: mentions of alcohol consumption

Rating: K/K+

~

“So, how do I look, Jennifer?” Tom asked you with a raised brow and a smirk, his arms spread in display. 

You rolled your eyes in amusement. Tom looked ridiculous in his Marty McFly outfit consisting of jeans, a patterned button up, a Levi jacket, and the iconic puffy orange vest. 

Tom was taking you to a Halloween party at Robert Downey Jr.’s Malibu residence that was going to be filled with celebrities, some you know personally and others you were just fans of. 

Somehow, he had convinced you to dress as Jennifer from Back to the Future since he was Marty. So there you were, clad in pink floral pants that went way too high up your waist, a white button up, and a denim vest. Your hair was styled into big loose curls. 

“Good one Marty. That’s the last time I’m calling you that tonight, by the way,” you joked as you went to peck Tom on the lips. “You look very convincing. Too bad Robert wouldn’t go as Doc. You guys could finally recreate that scene.”

Tom chuckled.

“Yeah. I’m not actually sure what he’s going as tonight. He said it was a secret,” he said offhandedly. You could see a glint in his eyes but decided not to push him. 

Instead, you went outside where a driver was waiting to take you to the house party.

The party was in full swing when you arrived, drinks flowing freely among the star-studded crowd. You saw all kinds of costumes, movie characters, famous people dressed as other famous people, memes, mythical creatures, and more. 

You were a little star struck, but Tom led you through the crowd, saying quick hellos as you navigated the mansion. People were complimenting Tom’s and yours costumes and you felt yourself blushing.

Eventually you came upon a group of people you actually knew and talked for a little bit. You started looking around expectantly.

“Hey, babe?” you asked Tom quietly. He hummed in response. “Where is Robert? I mean, it is his party after all.”

“Oh you know him. He’s waiting to make an RDJ entrance. He probably won’t be long.”

You accepted that answer and went back to conversing with your friends, Tom leaving you for a moment to grab drinks.

Eventually the lights started flickering.

“Here he comes,” Tom muttered under his breath. You smiled. 

Some strobe lights circled the room and on came a spotlight, leading to cheers and applause.

Only a couple yards away stood Robert Downey Junior dressed in full Doc Brown garb, from the Hawaiian shirt and lab coat combo to an electrifying white wig. 

Your jaw dropped and you turned to Tom, who was just smirking.

“You knew?” you asked incredulously. Tom shrugged.

“Maybe.” 

You rolled your eyes again. Robert scanned the room as people looked between him, Tom, and you. Finally his own eyes landed on Tom.

“Great scott! Marty, is that you?” he asked in an eccentric voice, one finger pointed up to the sky. He marched over as Tom began laughing, unable to hide his amusement. 

“Woah doc! I’ve been lookin’ all over for you!” Tom said in an exaggerated northern American accent, paralleling Michael J. Fox’s from the film. 

They didn’t make it any further as both men couldn’t help but break into laughter, hugging. The lighting went back to normal and people started going back to their own conversations.

“Well look at this, you brought Jennifer!” Robert said, turning to you. You hugged him quickly and began talking with him.

A few minutes had passed when there was a loud interruption.

“MCFLYYYYYYY!” came a loud exclamation from a male voice. Everyone turned towards the source.

“No. Way.” you said, looking to your boyfriend again. He had a wild grin on his face. 

From the crowd burst another man onto the scene: Jake Gyllenhaal. 

You couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

He was dressed as the one and only Biff Tannen: cuffed jeans, a white tee, and a grey zipped jacket. 

He pointed angrily at Tom, stomping over.

“Why don’t you make like a tree and get out of here!” Jake exclaimed. He, too, quickly fell into a fit of laughter just as the other two had. 

He then happily greeting the group as well, hugs all around.  

“What’s next, George and Lorraine?” you joked, looking to Tom expectantly.

“No, no. Jake was the last of it,” he assured. 

You took a few group photos to show off your great costumes and spoke for a while. After a bit, people started floating around from group to group, saying more hellos to friends and Tom making introductions for you.

You were happy to just hang out with everyone and drink and be merry, but eventually Jake came up and whispered something into Tom’s ear. He nodded and turned to you.

“Okay babe I need to go do something real quick are you good or do you want me to find Chris and the others?”

“Oh, um, well. I think they’re just over there actually, but where are you going?”

“You’ll see,” he trailed, throwing you a wink. “I’ll be back in a little bit.” 

He gave you a quick kiss and disappeared with Jake. You resigned yourself to finding your friends but couldn’t help but wonder.

What are those boys up to?

You were mid conversation when the lights once again changed to illuminate the stage where the DJ had been all evening. Everyone turned their attention to see a background revealed to look like a school hallway. 

Out came Jake in his Biff garb with a microphone, a giant smile on his face.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Doc Brown and Marty McFly,” he said gesturing to the side before disappearing off stage. 

Tom and Robert appeared, now changed into different outfits. 

This time, Tom had slacks with a grey and red jacket along with a patterned white button up underneath. Robert was dressed in similar pants with an eccentric red and yellow button up, a white sport coat, and white had with red accenting.

You slapped a hand over your mouth.

Tom shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Doc, she didn’t even look at him,” Tom said in his Peter Parker voice.

The crowd cheered.

One they died down, Robert said the next line, continuing the scene that had been famously deep-faked of the two.

The scene finished quickly with Robert first saying,

“What are their common interests? What do they like to do together?”

“Nothing,” Tom finished. With that, Robert walked off, leaving Tom to look around confused and the lights to go down.

Everyone screamed and clapped and cheered at the scene’s end. You let out a few whoops and clapped as the lights were brought back up, Tom and Robert both laughing and waving.

Robert gave a conductors’ signal for the crowd to quiet and everyone settled down. 

“I just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone for coming out tonight,” he began. He gave a quick speech about the circumstances that led to them doing the scene for the party and then turned the floor over to Tom.

“Thank you, thank you! Before I say anything else I first want to call up my girlfriend, wherever she is,” he said, looking around the room. A few people moved and pointed towards you, making it easy for Tom to spot you in the crowd.

“Come on up here, y/n!” he exclaimed. People shuffled around to let you go forward and step up onto the stage. You were confused as to why he wanted you there other than maybe because of your costume.

Tom wrapped an arm over your shoulders before speaking again.

“I need to apologize to my dear y/n tonight,” he started, causing you to give him an equally concerned and confused look. “Y/n, I’m sorry for lying to you about my whereabouts this week. Every time you went to work I came here to rehearse instead of just going to the gym.”

You breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, then smirked.

“Well I guess I should be honest too, then,” you followed, stretching up to say it into Tom’s mic. It was Tom’s turn to look surprised.

“Let’s just say that “find my friends” and snap maps don’t lie...” you trailed, causing the crowd to “ooooh” and Tom to drop his jaw. 

“You knew? Since when!?”

“The first day you came here, you goof. I kept dropping hints all week to see if you’d come clean about it.” 

“So you’re telling me, in front of all these people, that you knew about our surprise? And you never said anything?”

“Well I wouldn’t say I knew for sure, but that was the best case scenario and I figured I’d give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Tom just shook his head incredulously and gave you a squeeze, planting a quick kiss on your head.

“My girlfriend, everyone! The smartest, and maybe sneakiest, girl I know!”

With that the party continued on early into the morning of November first. By the time you were taken back to yours and Tom’s place, you were both still pretty buzzed from all the drinks you’d consumed after Tom finished his little speech. 

Neither of you, however, were all too tired yet.

“So... Marty,” you began as you and Tom walked down the hall to the bedroom.

“I thought you weren’t gonna call me that anymore,” he said with squinted eyes.

“It’s a new day isn’t it?” you replied, sliding his jacket off his shoulders. 

“Well I guess it is, Jennifer.” His voice was husky as he began stripping off your own vest. 

It didn’t take long for you to exhaust yourselves after that.

~

A/N: Once again, thanks to everyone for reading and following! I know I’m not the most consistent writer but you guys are awesome for sticking around. Hopefully I can get another marriage project chap our by next week :)

permanent tag list: @jackiehollanderr, @one-big-fangirl, @agentnataliahofferson

[secondhand-trash]

A/N: words cannot described how entertained I was when I was writing this...

Warning: suggestive themes

Word count: 1888

(click here to see more of Osamu’s bento)

(taglist in the notes, please go to the link in my bio or send me an ask to be added to the bento taglist uwu)

-

Previously...

You were so determined to tell him everything as it was, but you immediately didn’t have the heart to do it when you were met with his round eyes fixed on you.

You had it coming…

“Yeah,” you said, “we are going through this real big project right now and everyone is on edge.”

He took your hand and pressed it against his cheek. You smiled as he leaned into your touch, caressing his jaw with your thumb. He was lucky that he’s cute, you thought to yourself, silently deciding that maybe you would try to be a little bit more openminded the next time he turned your lunch into a meme canvas.

“Then I should try to bring you some excitement with your bento then! Something that both taste good and can motivate you visually!”

-

You might have deliberately left out that the true reason to your exasperation was the fact that your brain was squeezed dry after playing a game of edible pictionary under Osamu’s drive, but you didn’t exactly lied about anything either. There was really a big project your department was undergoing and it was pushing everyone’s mental well-being to the edge. Your friend, the one who sat at the cubicle opposite to yours, nearly had a meltdown in the office the other day because the drafts of a powerpoint was printed in greyscale instead of in colour. The head of the department, a middle aged man who looked like a round department store mascot and never raises his voice, was heard sobbing in his office after getting off a conference call with the management board. Needless to say, you had been walking on eggshells in every waking minute and you felt like you had aged by years just from theses few days.

The only bit of joy you had in the office was the short 30 minutes you were mercifully given each day to fuel your body with food so you could continue to be tortured by work. Osamu kept his promise with changing up what was in your bento every single day with no repeats. Making count of what you had seen in your bento had become part of your daily routine. You had gotten several different pepes, a few cat memes and some very ambiguous looking faces (most of which you assumed to be him). You were hesitant to accept his new hobby of using your lunch as a creative outlet but now you appreciate it to no end.

Slamming the door shut, you placed your palm flat on the wall and sighed as the soreness in all the muscles you did not know was in your body started getting worse and worse.

God could give you 48 hours in a day and it still wouldn’t be enough.

“I’m home...” you muttered, kicking your shoes to the side as you limped into the living room.

Osamu appeared from the doorway and took your bag from your hand. You groaned at the weight that was finally off of your shoulder, rolling your neck to feel each joint cracking. He caught you in his arms swiftly when you latched onto him, putting all your weight on him as you allow your tired legs the rest they needed.

“Urgh...” your voice came out as an inaudible noise as you groaned into his chest, rubbing your face against the fabric of his shirt. He let your bag fell onto the ground with a chuckle, wrapping his arms around you as he felt you sinking deeper into his embrace, “if it goes on like this I’m not going to live to see tomorrow’s sunrise..."

You whined as he rubbed soothing circles on your back, the warmth reaching from his palm to your body. You felt your limbs slowly reviving under his touch, his hand trailing from your back to your shoulder blades then down your spine again. You could feel the rumbling from his chest as he spoke, his voice low by your ear and his breath ticking your neck, “Do you need me to give you some motivation?”

A sound that resembled a choked moan slipped from your lips when his hand pressed down at a particularly stiff spot on your back, “Please do.”

The corner of his lips curled up at your breathy reply. Brushing your hair away with his finger, he dipped down to the sensitive skin of your exposed neck.

“Can you make nanban chicken for tomorrow’s bento?”

He froze in place at your request. Ah, you had taken his suggestion towards a completely different direction. He thought that he sounded pretty sexy when he was whispering in your ear but perhaps the suggestive tone lacing his words went lost in your tired brain.

He bite back the sigh that was threatening to leak out, “Of course.”

-

Osamu didn’t try to initiate anything again the next couple of days, mostly because you came back looking like your soul had flown away from your body every single night that he felt bad for even thinking about doing anything that might tire you out even more. Was it bad that the thought of not being able to do anything actually made him even needier? Perhaps. But it had been a while and quite a while since you had done anything intimate and being a normal young man with normal needs, he felt like the even the slightest bit of skinship he could get from you was setting off something indescribable in him. 

Like right now, on the long weekend that he had been looking forward to every day for the past week, he swore he would combust if you shifted around next to him for just one more time on your couch that felt particularly crowded today.

You smelt so nice, he silently thought to himself as he buried his nose in your hair, and your skin was so warm. Your body fit against his perfectly, each sharp corner and soft bump molded together like the world created you two to fit with each other like this.

This was good, and all he needed was a slight push...

His arm around your waist tightened and his hand started wandering to the side of your thigh, "You know, it’s been a while since we... you know...”

He tried his hardest to not press against you when you pushed your hips back as you turned around to face him, “Hm?”

“And I miss you...” his voice was dripping with honey as his lips ghosted over where your ear connected to your neck.

You grinned, feeling the way he got more and more handsy all over you, “Is that so?”

Osamu felt his chest swelling when you didn’t push him away, “Uhm.”

Your hand was on his toned chest as you slowly sat up and he couldn’t help but let out a heavy breath in anticipation when you inched towards him.

He nearly lost balance and fell off the couch when the doorbell rang.

He wanted to scream when you perked up, snapping towards the door in excitement, “Oh it must be my parcel!”

A million different curses in all the languages he didn’t know he knew ran through his head as you leaped out of his arms, leaving his hand hanging in the air as you hopped over to the door.

His eyes followed your frame like a puppy who got kicked to the side as you, not sparing him a glance, happily walked into your room with the card box in your hand.

Running his hand down his face, he let out a muffled groan as his plan was spoiled. Throwing his head back in frustration, he felt the dread building up inside of him when he felt the familiar stuffiness in his pants.

Oh. Oh hello.

Not that you were aware, but he had gotten rather familiar with the shower and its temperature settings the past week and as he once again shivered under the cold water that rained on his head like a waterfall, he contemplated the possibility of being drowned in a cold shower.

-

Your hand was shaking as you moved the mouse so that the arrow on the screen hovered over the send button.

Was this all? Was there anything you needed to add? You paused, your mind in a state of blank before your finger bounced against the key. You stared while the page buffered, before it returned to your mailbox.

You blinked, processing this sudden overwhelming feeling that was the fact that there was nothing you needed to do anymore.

It’s over. The earlier hollowness caught up to you in the form of thundering joy and trumpets going off in your head. You finished up everything.

You could not help the little squeal that you let out as you stretched your arms wide, rolling your shoulders bac to reward them for carrying you through. Clasping your hand together, you almost felt like humming when you saw that it was just in time for lunch.

You could not be in a better mood. Your work was done and you managed to get it cleared out before lunch. How long had it been since you last had the leisure to really savour your food instead of gulping it down to squeeze out more time? 

You paused when you opened the lid of the bento, tilting your head to the side as you took in the very oddly shaped onigiri that was sitting in the center.

Hm- oh? Oh.

You scrambled to shut the box up with flailing hands when you realised what it actually was, looking around in panic to check if anyone had seen what was inside just then. 

What the fuck? What the actual fuck? 

What was he thinking? Your chest was pounding and your face was steaming with embarrassment at the very visual representation of the last thing that was safe for being shown in the office. How the hell would he think that this was a good idea?

Sliding your lower body off your chair, you carefully lifted up the corner of the lid so that you could peak inside to confirm your suspicion.

For fuck sake.

You attracted the bewildered gaze of a few concerned colleagues when you flopped down onto your desk, hiding your burning face on the cold surface to calm down your mind that was going haywire from what you have noticed in addition to the what you had figured out earlier.

That dummy did not model it after his own...

-

You were not sure if you wanted to be angry or amused when Osamu gingerly, but also a bit anticipatingly poked his head out from the doorway to observe you from afar when you came home that night.

All that was left was for him to have a tall to wag behind him when he stared at you with his round eyes like he wanted to say something but was also too scared to bring it up.

“Samu.”

He immediately stood up straight, “Yes?”

“I’ll give you 10 seconds to explain yourself.”

He blinked, his eyes skittering around the room before focusing back on you, “Was it not obvious enough?”

You found yourself unable to question his logic. Palming yourself, you did not know if laughing was the right reaction when he snuck up next to you and very awkwardly pulled you closer to him before resting his chin on your shoulder, looking up at you with a look that he deemed to be extremely irresistable.

Fine, he looked kind of cute.

You wanted to smack him when he very eagerly latched onto you when you turned to face him, his hands being everything but well-behaved as he leaned over to kiss you square on the lips.

His eyes widened when you put your hand on his face right when he was almost touching you.

“Should I worry about you doing that again?”

He shook his head frantically, looking at you from behind his bangs with a pleading look.

You laughed, before moving your hand away and let him close the distance between your lips.

[hillbillied]

I'm about to be a basic bitch and ask for andyeddie for the domestic ship meme please and thank you?! 💜

fuck yeah you can, i want all of these!! and if this means we’re basic then call me bottom-line PH neutral, my dude - this is an andyeddie brain rot zone, you know this and i thank you so much for it!!

DOMESTIC SHIP MEME - AndyEddie

who reaches out to new neighbors

Andy. mr personality over here got it all. smooth voice, soft accent, award-winning smile. some neighbours take a while to even realise the tall, scary-looking guy in the blue pickup lives in the same house.

who remembers to buy healthy food

Andy, sort of. he buys a range but he does love his fresh fruit and veg. Eddie, on the other hand, shops simultaneously like he’s only got $5 and is on death row. not necessarily unhealthy just… bread. pasta. bacon. ready meal shit. bags of snacks. buy in bulk, Andy, it’s cheaper.

who fixes the oven when it breaks

Eddie, more practical knowledge from the machines. Andy would rather just call someone but has accepted just watching. (Eddie wears a dirty vest when he’s fixing it. got it tucked into his jeans with that big ol’ belt he wears and his tattooed arms are out so Andy just sips his drinks like cool, cool, please hurry up or this is going to turn into a bad porno.)

who waters the plants/feeds their pet(s)

Andy waters the plants because he loves his plants. he has a flowerbed when they get a garden but even in an apartment he had flowerpots on the windowsills; he loves gardening. (pet wise, when they get a dog, they both feed it. they share cleaning, though Eddie is more maintenance and Andy more cleaning.)

who wakes up earlier

Eddie. six in the morning, without fail. marine clock, baby, that shit will never die. (not without heavy drinking or an all-nighter anyway.)

who makes the bed

Eddie. because Andy’s shit at it. military-corners Eddie’s fucking ass; Andy’s terrible at keeping things tidy. he’s clean but he’s not neat.

who burns breakfast

Andy. Eddie is a great cook, he does deliciously simple comfort foods and he makes dinner every night. full-on stereotypical house-husband in that regard, because Andy’s the breadwinner of the two in the boring hetero sense. Andy can cook, as in he can follow instructions and not set the kitchen on fire, but he’s the only one who’ll burn anything.

how do they let each other know they’re leaving the house

Andy always kisses Eddie on the forehead. he’ll probably smooch him properly first – or worse, because he’s a a bastard, and will grab his ass before leaving – but he always marks that he’s actually leaving by kissing his forehead. he will go find Eddie specifically to give him his goodbye kiss.

Eddie shouts. hollers he’s going out in the shortest, blunted transfer of information. a grunted “Goin’ work” kind of deal. unless it’s spontaneous, he’ll also give Andy a kiss. it’s always on the lips and its chaste but heavy, pressing hard like he’s trying to remember the sensation. then he’ll get out of bed or grab his keys or go shower or whatever, and leave with a shout to mark him actually opening the door.

how do they greet each other when one of them gets home

Andy’s talkative. he’s “You have a good day?” or “You’ll never guess who turned up this afternoon!”. first one is default if nothing interesting’s happened. he wants to start a conversation, even if he talks and Eddie grunts. he doesn’t get up to greet; he knows Eddie will come find him and either sit down in his lap or come up behind him and wrap two strong arms around his waist. whatever suits, no rules

Eddie wanders out to meet Andy. he’ll come downstairs or walk into the entrance hallway. he’ll always have his arms folded, because he wants Andy to tell him what happened while he was out. (he doesn’t consider himself very interesting, yet he always wants to hear about the most basic shit Andy does.) normally he’ll add a “How was it?” or “Evenin’”. then he’ll wait because Andy usually answers him but not before he’s given him a greeting kiss.

who brings home little gifts like flowers/chocolates more often

both. Andy on the chocolates, Eddie on the flowers.

Andy knows the flavours Eddie enjoys and likes popping them into his mouth while Eddie berates him about wasting money. Andy buys things he thinks Eddie likes, but he also buys things Eddie needs and will not buy himself. lighters, jeans, shoes, wallets, picture frames, glasses cases. things that are worn down to the bone and need replacing. but also things like books and records.

Eddie’s a traditionalist, even if his reasoning might be a little tainted by heterosexual bullshit and toxic masculinity. he thinks flowers are beautiful, he knows Andy loves them, even memorised what kind he loves most, but there’s a-whole-nother level of gears in his mind about buying them. eventually he does because he desperately wants the ‘romance he can never have’. it’s a semi-special occasion the first time, like he’s picking Andy up from the station. he brings his bouquet and he looks way more uncomfortable holding it than Andy ever could be receiving it. (Andy, of course, is overwhelmed with joy. he puts them in the front window so everybody can see and he prunes them daily and he changes the water so they last longer and he plays with Eddie’s hair while looking at them and talks about how much he loves them. Eddie starts buying him flowers a fair bit after that.)

their favorite kind of movie to watch

I’ve been doing these for canon-era (1950s) so for that it’s any western movie and specifically The King and I. (they’re a couple of gays who love a good musical.) they don’t enjoy all the war movies, particularly since most of them are about Europe and are just completely surreal.

modern AU: shitty horror movies – they’ve seen every Final Destination and can rate them in order of ‘watchability’ – and 1990s classics like Jurassic Park and Jumanji, they’re simple guys.)

who first suggests a pillow fort

Andy. he secretly wants to give Eddie the childhood he’s certain, by piecing together a lot of clipped information, the man never had. so, he’ll make sure he’s already halfway down with it in the living room when Eddie comes home because then they might as well finish it and sleep there, right?

who builds the pillow fort

Andy starts it, Eddie watches and considers whether he’s going to participate. then Andy smiles at him and asks if he can help tie up a blanket to make one of the walls and yeah, Eddie’s building it too.

who tries to distract the other during the movie

Andrew Fucking Haldane. stupid fucking horny man does not have the attention span for movies. he’s impossible. luckily, he’s polite and will just entertain himself, running his hands up Eddie’s sides and kissing his neck even if Eddie himself wants to know whether Dorothy makes it to the Emerald City or not.

who falls asleep first

Eddie. in the marines, you have a time when you sleep and it is limited. he lays down, shuts his eyes, switches off his problems, and sleeps. dead to the world, he’ll be up at six. Andy doesn’t have trouble falling asleep usually but he can be known to lie awake and think too hard. Eddie’s occasionally found him downstairs reading the newspaper or pacing or sipping tea at the early hours when he’s really stressed. (and hiding it as best he can.)

who is big spoon/little spoon

both. Eddie will happily wrap himself around Andy protectively and just listen to the man talk. he’ll squeeze him tight and breathe deeply so Andy can feel it and simply let him know he’s there, he’ll keep them safe. when Andy’s the big spoon, he’ll kiss the back of Eddie’s neck and whisper in his ear and thread their fingers together. he tells Eddie that there’s nowhere else he’d rather be and how warm he feels and wonder what they’ll get up to tomorrow.  they also both like to come up behind each other for a standing-spoon, if you will.

coffee, junkfood, movie night pick ones here

[firstlovesuggestions]

Disclaimers, Rules, FAQ, and Resources

Hi everyone! Here’s the official one-stop post for this blog and how it runs. I’m excited to get things moving again after my long hiatus!

Disclaimers and rules are subject to change at any time~

The resources list is always expanding; if you have resources for help in the UK, Canada, Australia, or any other country, please message me so I can include them in the list. As of right now, I only have US resources.

Note: as of April 20, 2021 I am putting a temporary hold on answering advice asks. The inbox is still open for advice, but I’m just going through some personal things and need a little break, so I might not respond as soon as you like. Submissions will still be posted and my own suggestions will still be coming! Thank you~

Disclaimers

All suggestions are my own thoughts and feelings about my own partner and relationship. I have not, do not, and will not ever take another suggestion blog’s work as my own. Submissions from followers are tagged “submission” and I will never take credit for someone’s submission. If you think I am stealing another blog’s posts or there are any other sourcing issues, please message me directly.

I am a 22 year old cisgender bisexual woman in a relationship with a 25 year old cisgender straight man. As such, I may not always give the best or most fitting advice to others of different genders, sexualities, and ages, but I really do try my best.

Any advice I give is purely based on my own thoughts, opinions, and experiences. I try to be objective at the same time, but at the end of the day, I’m going to go with what I feel is the best answer for you. If you disagree with or are upset by my advice, please ignore it and move on. I can’t tell you what you want to hear just to make you feel better; that doesn’t help anyone.

I’m not responsible for the outcome of your situation if you choose to apply the advice I give. I’m a stranger on the internet you asked for help, not a fairy godmother. I can’t fix things for you, just give you my input. Please don’t blame me for things not working. I don’t like being harsh about this, but I just want to make this known and understood.

Rules

Homophobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny/misandry, and any other sort of discrimination is prohibited in your reblogs, replies, and tags. If I find anyone breaking this rule to any degree, you will be blocked on the spot, no questions asked. It’s 2021. You’re better than this.

If you find my advice or my suggestions to be problematic in any way, please message me directly and tell me why, so I know to correct myself and to delete the problematic post in question.

DD/LG blogs will be blocked immediately if I find any interaction with my posts whatsoever. This is not kinkshaming. This is me wanting no part of a community that sexualizes children.

No asks about family situations and relationships. These will be deleted, as I am not in any position to help with matters like these.

Asks about sex and sexual relationships are allowed, but please do not be overly graphic in your descriptions. Sex asks are reserved for those 18 or older**. I will tag all sex-related posts with “tw sex” for those who wish to avoid them.

I won’t post submissions about breakups, rejections, or any other sorrowful situations. I want this blog to be a happier place for people. I’m really sorry for this one, and I can still be here to support you if you want to direct message me.

If you have any questions about the rules, please send a message! I don’t want to discourage anyone from interacting with this blog.

** If you are a minor looking for resources relating to things like sexual assault or birth control, please see the resources below. If you have any other questions or situations you need resources for, please message me directly.

FAQ

This is a list of the topics asked very, very frequently and a quick answer to them. If I find your ask to be redundant and think it can be answered on this list, it will be deleted. This is not meant to ignore you; this is to keep ask traffic lower so that I can answer more people instead of repeating the same answer for one general topic.

“Would it be wrong of me to get revenge on [person] for [reason]?” - Yes. I don’t ever condone revenge for any reason when it comes to relationships. Don’t stoop to their level. Don’t give them the satisfaction of knowing you’re angry/upset with them. The best way to say “fuck you” to someone is to cut them off and move on, because you’re taking away the power they held over you.

“I’m in an LDR and my partner isn’t reaponding to my texts like they used to.” - Communicate. LDRs have no room for not responding to texts and calls because that’s the only way you get to connect. If they still aren’t willing to talk after multiple attempts to discuss the issue(s) at hand, you can give them an ultimatum or just leave.

“How do I get my crush to notice me?” - Talk to them. If you’re wanting to get their attention, reach out to them.

“How can I start a conversation with my crush?” - Casually compliment them, find something in the environment to comment on or send them a meme “accidentally”. It’s not creepy to start a conversation, and it could lead to a new friendship or something more! Just don’t rush things.

“How do I impress my crush?” - Be yourself. Seriously. If you try to be anything other than you, or if you do things you usually never do or don’t like to do, it won’t end well. If you did manage to reel in your crush and start dating, it would be under false pretenses and likely wouldn’t last long.

“I confessed to my crush, but they rejected me.” - Accept their answer. No means no, no exceptions. The worst thing you could possibly do is keep trying to get them to say yes. If they offer to stay friends after they reject you, it’s your choice to keep them in your life or to move on.

“I have a crush on someone who is already in a monogamous relationship.” - There’s nothing wrong with having a crush. What matters is that you do not, under any circumstances, interfere with their relationship. It will hurt to see them with someone else, but if you love them, you should respect their choices and who/what brings them happiness.

“I have/my partner has a crush on someone else.” - If you’re dating casually, this isn’t super uncommon, but if it bothers you, say something. If you’re in a committed relationship, this could be an issue because one of you doesn’t have your heart fully in it. If you feel like you two have become distant or that the trust is broken, communicate and determine where to go from there.

“I have a crush on someone, but they’re [sexuality, gender].” - In the same way they respect your gender and sexuality, you need to respect theirs, too. If they express interest outside of their sexual orientation, you can be there to support them, but do not force things unless you want to push them away or break your bond with them.

If you feel your question isn’t answered here depite being related to something on the list, or you need more specific advice, please don’t hesitate to reach out after you have read this list thoroughly and completely!

Resources (USA)

Crisis text line: Text HELLO to 741741

Domestic abuse hotline: 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE)

Sexual assault hotline: 1-800-656-4673 (HOPE)

Suicide prevention hotline: 1-800-273-8255 (TALK)

Substance abuse services (SAMHSA): 1-800-662-4357 (HELP)

Trevor Lifeline (LGBTQ mental health crisis hotline): 1-866-488-7386

Eating disorder helpline: (Call or Text) 1-800-931-2237, via NEDA

Dating issues/abuse: via loveisrespect.org

Birth control information: via Planned Parenthood

If anyone has resources for the UK, Canada, Australia, or any other country, please let me know. I want to only have the best and most reliable ones here, and it’s difficult to know which ones to include. Thank you in advance!

…………………

About Me

My main is @serenityfive! If reply to you in a post, that’s where I’ll be talking from. Same with if I follow you or I’m scrolling through and liking stuff on your blog. I like to pick a blog at random in the notes and look around since I’m trying to find people to follow despite tumblr being dead!

I started this blog in 2018 to express my feelings for a guy I had a massive crush on who eventually became my boyfriend. We have been together for 2 and a half years now and are living happily in Colorado! My side of our story can be found here 💕

So, a little bit more about me... I’m 22, I like cooking, gaming, cats, nature, and I have a strong interest in health and nutrition. I’m currently finishing my associate’s degree and want to obtain a certification in surgical technology!

I’m happy to make people smile with this blog; you guys are very fulfilling and kind, and I thank you! If anyone wants to chat, just hit me up~

With love,

Lily

[willowknee]

Crushes and Crazy Hair-Dying- Will fluff

Title: Crushes and Crazy Hair-Dying People: Will x reader, Gee Nelson Word count: 2,600 Warnings: drinking Songs to listen to: idk Prompt/request: Hey! If you’re not too busy please can I request some fluff with Will? Maybe the reader could be Gee’s new mate and Will gets a crush on her and becomes all awkward? Or whatever you feel like writing haha 😂 thank you xxx A/N: I’m so bloody sorry this took like 3 decades to be written, honestly dunno what happened there. Really bad grammar and punctuation in this I'm so so sorry.

You had met Gee in the most bizarre manner, but you were completely grateful that you did, she honestly was one of the most intelligent people you have ever known and crazily funny to match. It was a random sunny Tuesday, you were sitting in front of the mirror at your mother’s hair dressers, you decided for once to do something bold, you were dying your hair. Not any plain natural colours like you’re used to, no, you were dying your hair a bright colour. You weren’t exactly sure what colour as you told your mom to surprise you, but you were sure it wasn’t any ordinary brown, when out of nowhere one Gee Nelson bursted through the door and let out a cry of despair.

“Look what that monster did to me!” She had cried.

Everyone was looking at her, clearly bewildered but your mom just walked up to her and sat her in the chair beside yours.

“What happened?” Your mom had asked, looking at Gee’s hair which was, well, a complete home hair-dye disaster.

“Bloody Will! He convinced me to let him dye my hair for a video and this is what came of it! Last time I let that man come within five feet of my hair I’m telling you now,” She whined and you had let out a giggle before you could catch yourself. She turned to look at you.

“Is it that bad?” She asked.

You looked again and you knew you couldn’t lie to her.

“Horrendous, but don’t worry, you’re talking to a pro and her legendary daughter, your hair will be salvaged and the world will return to normal,” You proclaimed making her smile.

“I’ll hold you to that,” She said and you both had begun talking non-stop as your mom worked on saving her hair from the disastrous work of this ‘Will’ as you sat waiting for the dye to work it’s magic in your hair.

Six months later you were at her apartment which she shared with Will, but you had never actually met him before, only heard the wacky and wonderous stories about him and his childish antics that he and his friends got up to. Gee had actually sent you the link to his youtuber and you came to find him to actually be pretty funny and you and Gee would share memes over text or on twitter about the videos.

“Oi, Gee! What we feeling today, eh? Lazy and slobbish so we get a maccies, lazy yet somewhat classy so we order Dominos or shall we finally decide to get off our arse and go out for lunch?” You say, walking out the kitchen to where she was sitting on the settee.

“Oh, actually I just got a text from Will, he’s invited me to go for lunch with him and the rest of the boys,”

You smile slightly and hand her the cup that she always uses. “Ah alrighty, no problem. I’ll head out as soon as I’m finished with my drink then, yeah?”

She looks up at you and smiles widely, kind of freaking you out considering it was out of nowhere.

“Why don’t you come with me?!” She exclaims.

“Say what now?”

“No seriously, it will be fun! You get to meet my roommate and the rest of the crazy lot, you’re going to meet eventually when you come along to one of our parties, might as well meet them while you’re sober!”

You thought about it but really you didn’t see why not, it wasn’t like you had a valid reason to decline either, what was the worst that could happen? So, you accepted and after borrowing some of Gee’s clothes and makeup so you didn’t look like an absolute slob walking around in your paint-stained joggers and oversized hoodie, you ended up in front of Nandos where you were to meet everybody.

You both walk in, still mid conversation as you made a joke which had Gee in stitches, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant, including the table of four boys that you were currently walking towards.

“No way, imagine that,” Gee giggles in response to your joke.

You arrive at the table and greet everyone to which they then greet you back in return.

“Hey everyone! This here is my dear friend Y/N, I invited her along so she can meet you weirdos now and get used to you before being exposed to the pure madness you all are once drunk,” Gee explains to which they all protest before simmering down and introducing themselves.

“Hi, I’m James, it’s lovely to meet you,” the one with soft features says, his brown lock slightly messy but it makes him look adorable, despite his unkempt hair he looked well put together and you could tell he put a lot of effort into his appearance.

“I’m George,” the smaller of the lot says with a soft smile, offering his hand for you to shake which you accept and gently shake his hand.

“‘Ello, I’m Alex,” the one adorning a bright pink jumper with a slogan you couldn’t quite read says, you smile and give him a small wave before turning to the last boy when your breath catches in your throat.

First of all, Will was far more attractive in person compared to in his videos or the pictures Gee has shown you, his hair mainly hidden underneath his beanie but his fringe was poking out, exposing the silky brown locks that looked soft to touch. His brown eyes looking at you, slightly widened and his mouth slightly left ajar. Was he okay? Was there something on your face? George nudges him and he looks like he broke out a trance before smiling widely.

“Hey, I’m Will,” He says, the big voice you’re used to hearing in his videos weren’t present, instead a gentle and soothing voice replaced it.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you all, I watch all of your videos and think they’re brilliant,” You compliment, sliding into the booth so you’re sat next to Gee and across from Will.

A chorus of ‘thank you’ made its rounds and you smiled at them all and began to engage in animated conversations, your arms flailing wildly as you retell the story about the time you met Gee, Will’s face becoming flushed which you found utterly adorable.

Few hours later your food was long finished but you were still sitting in the restaurant with your drinks talking to everyone as if you had been friends with these people for years.

“I need to pop to the loo, come with me?” Gee asks you.

You nod in confirmation and tell everyone you’ll be right back before walking with Gee into the toilets, lifting yourself up to sit on the counter.

“So, how’s meeting everyone?” She asks through a stall door.

“They’re absolutely lovely,” you exclaim, turning to look at your reflection in the mirror.

“Have a liking to anyone in particular?” She asks in a suggestive tone, which makes you look at the stall door through the mirror in confusion.

“I don’t know… a certain Northern lad with brown hair, brown eyes and has been looking at you like a lost puppy for the past three hours.”

Your heart leaped at the thought of Will looking at you while you were busy talking to others, not realising.

“I-“

“Was staring at him too, you’re not subtle either of you,”

You stumble for words while Gee laughs softly, walking out the stall and over to the sinks to wash her hands. You look down at her and curse her for being so observant.

“He’s cute… and funny, doesn’t necessarily mean I have a liking to him, if we’re going by those two adjectives then I must have a liking to everyone sitting at that table. Including you.”

“Oh come off it, you know you like Will, stop being a big baby and admit it,”

“I literally met him three hours ago, this isn’t a Disney film I can’t fall in love with him and accept his hand in marriage just because we’ve got a mutual attraction,”

Gee nods and smiles.

“You wanna marry him, huh?”

You nudge her and shake your head. Both of you head out and back to the table before noticing everyone’s getting up and leaving, you notice you still have almost a full glass of beer so you decide to neck it in one, eliciting whoops and hollers from

everyone and you laugh and shyly wipe away the froth from your face.

Everyone begins to head out but you hang back,

not wanting to have to walk fast so as to not get trampled on.

“Are you coming to the party this weekend?”

You turn your head and see Will standing next to you, looking sheepish which makes you smile.

“I believe I am, yes, Gee would have my head else,” you joke which makes him laugh.

“She is a fiesty one I’ll give you that,”

“Too right she is, damn woman frightens me,”

You both laugh and continue the journey back to Will’s and Gee’s apartment, joking with each other the entire way there. Gee joins in at some point but soon dips to talk to everyone else since you were walking too slowly for her liking.

Once back at theirs you all play a few rounds of fifa which you were absolutely shit at which Will spares no effort to remind you of that, but soon it’s time for you to go home since you still have to clean your apartment and get some studying done.

“See you on Saturday yeah?” Will shouts which you smile and nod at in agreement.

“It’s a date.” You say before walking out the door with a wave.

Will sits there, mouth agape. He turns his head to Gee and points to the door.

“She said it’s a date,”

“It’s not like you had the balls to do it,” she comments before standing up and walking towards the stairs, discreetly watching Will

dance around happily with a smile.

Saturday came around faster than you thought it would, although it seems like it took forever because you are looking forward to seeing Will again. You’ve been texting non-stop since you all went out for that meal but you haven’t had the time to go and meet them, so you are excited for tonight. You want to make sure you looked amazing.

Grabbing your clothes and makeup you shove them into your bag alongside some alcohol for pre-drinks that you had promised. You drive to Gee’s and Will’s to get ready with her while listening to a playlist you had created sometime ago, you had suddenly remembered the password to your Spotify and decided to reminisce with some old tunes.

The drive seems quicker with the music accompanying you and you find yourself walking towards the apartment building and soon enough, you’re knocking on their door.

“Come in~!” You hear from inside.

“Gee!” You greet as you walk up to her and give her a hug.

“Let’s go get ready! We’re late enough as it is!”

Getting ready goes without a hitch, no mental breakdowns, no wardrobe malfunctions and even your makeup goes on well. It’s almost as if things were perfect. Maybe too perfect.

“It’s time to partyyy~” Gee squeals down your ear excitedly.

It turns out the party has moved from Will’s and Gee’s apartment to George and Alex’s because of their next-door neighbours, which explains when Gee walks past she sticks two fingers up in payback and squeals with laughter all the way to the elevator.

You giggle at her childish antics and balance yourself in the lift, cursing yourself for not eating before you both began pre-drinks. You eventually end up at the party, after multiple trips and snapchat videos of each other acting a complete fool. “We are here!” Gee shouted as she threw open the front door. There was a massive roar of ‘welcome’ as you both stumble your way deeper into the apartment. You found the usual friendship group aka the Nandos Lot, and you smiled brightly and you wave enthusiastically at everyone, genuinely happy to see each and every one of them.

“Y/N! Glad you came!” Alex chimes, coming for a hug, which everyone else shortly repeats, not wanting to feel left out.

Everyone but Will, that was, who was sheepishly stood to the side, when he noticed you were looking at him expectantly, arms open, his eyes widen as he began stuttering something about needing a drink before running off towards the kitchen. You shrug his odd behaviour off and began looking for a drink, you quickly whip up a concoction and then after you down the entirety of your red solo cup, you walk back to your friends, grab the closest pair of hands and walk into the middle where the make-shift dance floor was.

Dancing freely to the music blasting through the speakers and barely being concealed through the wide walls of the boy’s apartment, you smile up to your dancing partner and to your pleasant surprise you see Will looking at you in bewilderment.

“Come on! I didn’t drag you here to stand there! Dance with me!” After a lot of convincing and a couple dozen shots, Will finally calmed down and began dancing with you, you both started to have a really enjoyable time. You began to notice how he seemed to have a childish glint to his eyes while drunk, he looked really happy and carefree this way. You loved the way he was constantly smiling and let out a rupture of laughs at your choice of dance moves and even his silliness when he took you up on your offer of a dance battle.

“You should be like this sober! You’re so much fun to be around!” You exclaim, grabbing his hands as you try to twirl around to which he aids you with, not bothering to stop twirling you which makes your head spin.

“I would but I always end up makin’ myself look like a right tit in front of the lass i have a crush on,” he explains, nonchalantly, seemingly not realising what he was saying.

You stop twirling and look at him as much as you could, the alcohol and the twirling wasn’t the greatest mix when you were looking for stability,

“You have a crush on me?” You ask in surprise.

Who would have thought. Will fucking Lenney had a crush on you. Of all people. You were ready to scream with excitement when his eyes bugged out, he looked scared and began to curse himself under the sun for his slip.

“Naw- fuck, I just meant that- no, I-” He began tripping over his words and you giggle over how cute he was.

You raise yourself onto your tip-toe and give him a shy peck on the lips, it only lasted a short few seconds, but it left your lips tingling and you smile wide at him.

“Will, I like you too, dummy,”

He smiles one of the most gorgeous smiles you have seen like ever, and shyly pulls you closer to him.

“How’d ya feel about ditching and coming back to mine? We can watch a movie and get to know each other more,”

You giggle at that.

“Sure, let’s play two truths, one lie, for each wrong answer we take a shot, for every right answer, you get a kiss,” you proclaim with a smile.

“You’re fuckin on, Love.”

[madibyrd]

TASK #001: THE LAST NORMAL DAY • broken promises

Flight 441 disappeared on October 16th, Friday, but Madi hasn’t heard about it until the following day, well into Saturday. She got home around 6:30am after finishing a 24 hours shift, remembered to send her sister a message that she wouldn’t be able to make it later to their house to lunch, apologizing for it profoundly, and then knocked out and slept a good twelve hours because she was exhausted. It was a long, hard shift, one of the roughest she’s had in months, constant calls through both the day and night with barely a moment to rest, and she needed to refuel herself.

She woke up to an empty house - Talia was off on some conference being awesome -, and a whole bunch of angry messages from her sister along with several missed calls. She wasn’t in the mood to argue with Liz, but she also knew the more she pushed off the call, the angrier her sister would get, so she let out a long breathe, headed to the kitchen to make herself a coffee and called her sister.

“You promised, Madison, you promised you’d come over for lunch and try out Jake’s soup, he was so excited for you to try it.” No hello, no greeting, and Liz even called her Madison. She really was pissed. She turned on the coffee maker to do its magic and then moved to the living room to turn on the news.

“I promised I would try, Liz, that is what I promised. If my shift went okay and I could get some sleep. I didn’t get any, I literally just woke up.”

“You could have set an alarm.”

“And be a useless sack of potatoes when I go over? You know how I am when I don’t get a proper amount of sleep. It was a really hard shift, Liz, I swear, there were several pretty brutal accidents that we were called to, one of them had a whole family... anyway, aside from those, there were two fires as well and two freaking prank calls that lead to nowhere just us in gear going to the furthest of our district when we could have used that time at least to rest. And this was just the night of the shift, don’t even get me started on the rest of the 24 hours. if I could have, I would have made it over there.”

There was a long pause from the other end of the phone.

“No sleep at all?”

“None until I got home,” Madi promised.

A sigh. “Okay, maybe I forgive you, but you’ll still have to make amends with Jake. Starting with trying out his soup. And groveling a little.”

“Give him the phone and I’ll start, but that kid loves me way too much to need that much groveling.” Which really only made it worse, but she even told Liz not to promise anything to her nephew, so if she said anything more than a really weak maybe, it was on her, as far as Madi was concerned. Not that it would stop her from apologizing to Jake, but still.

“He’s out in the garden playing with...” Liz jumped into a long explanation about what Madi’s nephew was doing, but Madi was not listening to any of it, because when she looked up at the tv, all she saw was the flashing headline - “Tragic plane crash - plane still nowhere found”. She quickly turned the volume on and tried to listen, but with Liz in her ears, it wasn’t the easiest of moments. “Liz, sorry to cut you off, but... what is this plane thing they are talking about on the news?”

“Oh, you didn’t hear before? A plane full of people was heading to LA from... not really sure where, some European city, and then it just vanished. Nobody knows what happened or what happened to them, but they didn’t arrive in LA. Everyone’s freaking out.”

“Yeah, I can imagine...”

Madi got her coffee and chatted a little bit longer with her sister, but she wasn’t really there in the head, she kept losing focus to watching the news and trying to figure out what more there is to know about this accident. She didn’t know anyone on the flight, she knew that - Talia would only be flying back home the next day and nobody else she knew or were close to were planning flying anywhere anytime soon - but still, it wouldn’t leave her mind. To the point where after a couple of hours (which included trying to distract herself and talking to her nephew, promising him that she would try his soup soon), she reached for her phone to text her coworker about the flight, that turned into a phone call that turned into the two of them googling if there were any need for volunteers to go and help with the search.

They found a phone number, they called it, and in less than an hour they were already set to fly to LA, from where the boat they would be on would leave. Their boss wasn’t happy about the development, but he also understood the sentiment, and it wasn’t the first time one of his firefighters went off to volunteer somewhere else. They would make it it work.

The harder conversation for Madi was her family - her parents already didn’t like that her profession included running into burning buildings and risking her own life. They’ve accepted it at this point with grumbles and occasional suggestions to other jobs (her mom’s pitches really were ridiculous, “I’ve heard tv reporters got hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly. Madi, my dear, you love talking, don’t you think that would be a fine job for you?”), but they didn’t like the idea of Madi putting herself in other type of danger, even though Madi insisted she wouldn’t actually be in danger. She would be on a boat, she wouldn’t do the actual dive work, she’d just help out whenever she could (technically she didn’t know what her job would be, but if she said that, her parents would imagine her dangling feets above the water on a hook without any safety, and nobody wanted that). They ended the call on “let’s talk about this more tomorrow” and Madi told them she’d call them from LA. They were not happy about it at all.

Her sister was... both more and less understanding. She was mostly annoyed she’d have to tell a 9 years old her auntie would have to disappear for a while and no, he wouldn’t be able to come over or play with her. And then turned on the worried sister mode and made Madi promise that she would be careful and not do anything stupid like jump into the water to save somebody. Madi did promise. Her best friend simply made her promise to bring her some souvenire and told her that she admired her for wanting to do this and then they spent the rest of the call talking about the guy she was seeing and how she got to a whole new level on one of the video games she was playing at the time that Madi didn’t understand but liked listening to her friend talk about it.

The last conversaion, and weirdly the one that she was both the most anxious and not at all about was Talia. She didn’t call her, she just sent a text - neither of them were really the calling type, and they very rarely actually talked, usually just texted.

[Madi]: So, I’m not going to be home for a while... [Talia]: What have you done? [Madi]: I might have volunteered on one of the rescue teams for that flight that disappeared, did you see that? Or were you too wrapped up in your historical facts? [Talia]: Madiiiiii [Madi]: Yes, that’s my name, though I usually use a lot less i’s :P [Talia]: Your desire to act like a hero can be quite annoying sometimes, you know [Talia]: I was looking forward to a chill night on the couch tomorrow, watching some dumb movie [Talia]: But I guess you’ve already decided, right? [Madi]: Yeah, I fly out to LA tomorrow. We’re just missing each other [Talia]: Somebody is gonna write a book about you and they are going to interview me and I will tell them about that time you got home at 3am and spent an entire hour singing itsy bitsy spider on the foot of my bed, crying about how much spiders are misunderstood and mistrusted even though they are the cutest things on the planet [Madi]: HEY! [Talia]: I know, I know, it’s bees [Talia]: And speaking of them, I won’t have to deal with them, right? [Madi]: Nope, I’m gonna check on them before I leave, they can take care of themselves while I’m gone, you don’t have to go anywhere near them [Talia]: You’re amazing [Madi]: Now tell me about your super historical, super nerdy presentation, did it go okay?

They chatted for a little while longer, Madi happily hearing about Talia’s presentation, being so proud of her. She might have not been there to see it, but she was sure Talia rocked it. And they could celebrate when they would be both back in Boston.

It was evening by the time she was done with everything, and she ate some leftovers from the fridge, watched a sitcom episode on Netflix, and then went to bed early. She wasn’t in the mood for anything else, she was excited to help in something so huge and curious what she would have to do, what kind of job she would be trusted upon. The next day she flew to LA with her partner and spent the remaining of her days on the boat, searching and searching for the disappeared plane without any kind of luck before the fateful accident happened and she’d end up on Meridium.

What she didn’t realize on this Saturday night is that these interactions would become the last she had with them. She talked to Talia and her sister during the trip, and she exchanged a couple of LA memes with her best friend, but there was no end, no goodbye, no finality to any of it. Promises, however, of her return that much more. And all of them would be broken the moment she washed ashore on the sandy beach of Meridium.

[istanhooman]

I'm going to be making head canons and the like on these characters by @yesimahooman

Totallyahooman, the owner of these characters, said I should make a post about her characters so you all know what you're getting into hehe. They're all cats btw, and I'm on my phone so there's going to be mistakes. Most likely.

Apparently these characters are called the "meme team" because Totally made four of them (Toby, Oliver, Gingerale, and Milo) for an animation meme and fell in love. They didn't even have names until like a month later ig lmao

Toby: He's really friendly, but unlike Two-Tone understands boundaries - even if he's a little hyper and annoying. Toby will happily drop anything for his friends. Basically the generic "good guy" Character (But Totally says he had an edgy phase in a cat's version of teen years). He has three little sisters, who always insisted on playing with him, which didn't work well with his edgy phase. Totally told me he doesn't have a father, but he has a mother that looks a lot like him and she's the sweetest darling ever. Toby's the peach-ish, brown and white one.

Two-Tone: Speaking of Two-Tone, the wittle baby man omg I love him. Totally said he was originally made for the weird animation memes, because she had the nice one, the anxious one, the dad-friend, the angry one and the murderer. And yeah, you can use an edgy killer for weird/edgy memes, but she wanted WEIRD. And so Two-tone was made. But he apparently evolved into a really sweet cat who just doesn't understand how to communicate with people. He's been friends with Toby since childhood (kittenhood?) and seemingly came from nowhere. No parents at all. Toby's family basically adopted him (though I kinda ship them???)

Oliver: Anxious boyo. He's the blue one with big worried eyes. I also love him, he's so adorable. Anyway- Oliver's worrying about everything, constantly. He's also really easy to pick on because he'd be too scared to defend himself. Actually, Cinder tries killing him the most out of the team, which forces Gingerale to protect the bb. Totally told me that when she draws the two, she can't help but draw Oliver huddling behind Gingerale for protection and I live for that. She also said that he was an only child, so he learned how to be by himself and is still getting used to actually being around other cats. She said that Oliver's mom is also really sweet, but she was too soft and didn't force Oliver into anything he was uncomfy with (which were simple fears like the dark or strangers) and so he never got that exposure that's needed to NOT be a crying mess.

Gingerale: The ginger cat. He's a very grumpy boy and hates all things fun. Actually that's not true, but he's very tsundere. He'll bully his friends, but as soon as someone does it, he's going OFF on them. He somehow always catches Cinder when she's trying to kill the team, too which would he so much fun to see. Totally said Gingerale's used to being ignored because he was one of the middle kittens of TWELVE. YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP RNAKKD. kinda sad to imagine tho, poor bby.

Cinder: Finally, the one I kept mentioning. The gray and white gorl. To explain her murderous ways, Totally gave me a run down: As a kitten, Cinder was severely bullied by three older ones. Their mothers didn't do anything to stop it, and Cinder's own mother was too deep in self-pity due to her mate leaving her. All because he didn't want kittens :(. So, Cinder didn't get anyone to defend her from these bullies. One night, Cinder's mom stands up and straight up leaves. Totally gave a small, sad detail of "So, wondering where her mom was going, Cinder followed after her. But Cinder's mom turns only to push the kitten away, giving her an angry glare before leaving for good. Cinder's never seen her again." And i- that's so depressing. Anyway, Cinder finally snapped and killed one of the kittens bullying her. Finally the mothers cared, but only for their own. They exiled Cinder from the area, and Cinder complied. But she never forgot how nice it felt to finally have some power and since then, she's just kinda- killed cats. Totally finished it with "Cinder found the meme team and thought they'd be easy, but Gingerale's a good match against her. So... She's just for comedy's sake now I guess". That was long, sorry.

Milo: Big boi. Big soft boi. I really like him, but also I couldn't help but think about Milo from Pokemon Sword and Shield. I told Totally this and she went "Yeah, I made him before the game was officially out and before I played it. I had no idea" And I'll just accept her word. He's cute tho, the gray tabby. He's bigger than his friends and is super fatherly to them, even though he's around their age. Always making sure Oliver isn't so scared, Two-Tone and Toby are out of trouble, Gingerale actually socializes and the twins are recognized more. Very sweet.

Aidan: Speaking of the twins, they're the last two I need to tell you about! First is Aidan. He's the one with sunglasses. And also the spikier fur, and he's the boy. I like him because he thinks he's really cool and popular, but he's not. In fact Totally always forgets the twins exist. She's getting better at it, she says. She told me that Aidan is that one "I'm so cool" character who's calm and collected usually, but if a girl (or boy, she claims their sexualities are never specified and up to interpretations for the creativity) flirted with him, he'd DIE. I need to make hcs on this.

Nadia: The pretty girl. Basically it. She's really nice and understanding, but always finds a way to insult her brother casually. The twins have always been there for each other, but at the end of the day they're siblings. They're going to argue with each other. In fact, Totally said she likes to take a bit from her own siblings and say things like "Oh yeah, and Nadia one day would be all 'Aidan, brother, listen to me. I love you, but you're ugly. No girl would like you' And Aidan turns to his sister, slightly pulls down the sunglasses that somehow stay on his face and glances at her up and down before sighing, 'But Nadia, you're forgetting. You look just like me, but curly. You're just as ugly as I am, and you won't find love either.' Or smth like that. Just the casual insulting chaos that is siblings".

EDIT: Totally told me she updated character sheets and said I should replace the old ones! So most of these aren't old now

[lucyoftheabyss48]

Cautious Hero: Thoughts on Episodes 1-6

SPOILER WARNING: I’m writing this on the assumption you’ve watched at least the first six episodes of Cautious Hero. You can take this as a review of sorts, and an analysis of maybe a more hidden, overlooked side of the show. The rest is under the cut. If you haven’t seen it but are looking for a reason to watch it and don’t mind some spoilers, then read on. This’ll be the LAST WARNING FOR SPOILERS. So let’s get started.

It may be easy to write Cautious Hero off as just another fun isekai comedy. Every episode seems to have the following formula: the hero Seiya being cautious, the goddess Rista freaking out or getting frustrated at him, some innocent gets in trouble, Seiya finishes his preparations and goes to save the person in an OP fashion, repeat.

However, I think the show has heart. It’s worth watching.

Rista is More Than Just the Memes

She’s loud and crazy and all over the place, and the source of many jokes, especially involving Seiya. She reminds me of Aqua from Konosuba, in that she’s quick to kick up a fuss when things don’t go her way. However, in a way much more obvious than Aqua is, she is a compassionate goddess who cares for her people. This shows in how pressured she feels to raise Seiya as a hero, and in her efforts to push him to save others.

For example:

Almost the entirety of episode 1 is Rista adapting to Seiya’s needs so he can train as he likes. She makes furniture for his room, she cooks for him, she gives him whatever he needs to train. I think what’s important here is that every time she enters his room while he’s training, you see her nose bleeds just at the sight of him from where she’s standing at the door, like this:

She went to him with the goal of getting him to go down to the human world, but she was instantly distracted when she saw him. However, it’s different in episode 2. When the townspeople are seriously in danger, she barges into his room without batting an eyelid at him, and even walks right up to him and grabs his arm (pictures below). The show knows when to joke, but when they’re serious, they’re serious. Human life means a lot to Rista, and the anime makes sure we know it. This is just one example of many where she displays compassion toward humans.  

And we know this isn’t just a fluke, because immediately after Seiya defeats Chaos Machina— as soon as the threat is gone and the town is safe— she hugs and clings to him like this:

The Little Things Behind Seiya’s Actions Matter

Even if he is extremely cautious, he isn’t just an unemotional robot. You could say that caution and wanting to be prepared for anything could stem from some sort of fear, even if it hasn’t been addressed in detail in the anime yet, as of episode 6. It could be fear of death, of pain, of the unknown, etc. It’s treated like a running gag, but Seiya’s cautious nature is proof of his humanity. He just wants to survive. And in episode 2, Rista even questions him about this when he refuses to save the town right away. And guess what? He can’t answer her.

But. He still accepts the good luck charm from the child. He still accepts the two dragon kids, Mash and Elulu, into his party, even if he says they’re just baggage carriers to him. Both of which he does under Rista’s encouragement. By episode 6, he eats Rista’s cooking now, assured and confident that it’s safe— that she wouldn’t poison him:

In other words, he trusts Rista. And it shows. In episode 6, he makes a fake Igzasion. He used his pre-made sword to trick everyone into thinking the lizard leader Leviae became the sword, that the problem was solved.

Why would he do this? Let’s take a closer look at this conversation that occurs after the battle ended, when Rista and Seiya are on their own, talking about the sword.

Rista: “And you used that to hoodwink everyone, huh? To put their minds at ease.”

Seiya: “Look, you can’t tell anyone.”

Rista: “I know. But if, like Leviae said, Igzasion is the only weapon that can beat the Demon Lord…”

Seiya: “We’ll just have to find another way. You said so yourself, didn’t you?”

Rista: “I-I was caught up in the moment when I said that.”

Seiya: “Gonna be okay. Something will work out.”

Rista: “Huh?”

Seiya: “Let’s go. They’re waiting for us.”

(emphasis added)

Now wait. Take a look at Seiya’s line here: “We’ll just have to find another way. You said so yourself, didn’t you?”

When did Rista say this? Let’s go back a few minutes, earlier in the same episode. Elulu is being pushed to the edge of the abyss by the big guards. Mash is being restrained from saving her. Rista has no offensive magic, and can’t do anything. But Seiya shows up behind the guards, and says that they can’t kill her, because she’s his baggage carrier. Rista then breaks into laughter, to which Leviae questions if she, like the hero, has no intention of defeating the demon lord or saving the world. And here’s her answer:

Rista: “I swear to you, we will still save this world. But we can’t sacrifice the life of one of our friends to do so! We will find some other way that does not require Igzasion and defeat the Demon Lord!”

Leviae: “Really… like hero, like goddess.”

(emphasis added)

First, remember what Leviae says right here, I’ll come back to that. Second, Seiya, in his own fashion, saves Elulu after the whole episode dragged on about her being sacrificed, and no one truly tried to stop her yet. Rista was inspired by him, and she’s genuinely happy that Seiya for once is saving someone of his own accord, for his own interests— that she didn’t have to force him or push him to do it. And not only that, she gets the implication. She gets it.

He’s willing to give up a weapon that may be key to defeating the Demon Lord, the biggest threat in the world, the biggest danger, the one existence he should be the most cautious of. He’s giving up a weapon that may be able to get rid of that danger, and why? Because he doesn’t want Elulu to die.

He’d rather give up this ultimate weapon than give up one of his party members. Even if he says she’s just a baggage carrier, there’s no reasonable way Seiya would value a baggage carrier over an ultimate weapon. In the end, he’s choosing her because he has no way of knowing for sure the weapon would even work, so he’d rather choose for Elulu to live. He might be wrong. Maybe it would’ve been better if he had killed her for the sword. But he values her life more than the possible risk that he may be wrong.

And we know how cautious he is. We know how well he thinks through everything. We know every decision he makes is one that he knows for sure is the best one. So for him to save Elulu and give up the sword, means a lot.

And Rista knows it. That’s why she makes this face at him.  

That’s why she’s able to laugh so happily, then so determinedly and confidently and assuredly says that they’ll “find some other way.”  

But then for Seiya to say her words back to her? 

He was listening to her. He remembered what she said. All this time, she’s been nagging him and harping on him, and he only ever does what he wants. He trains by himself, he doesn’t let her see his stats, he acts on his own without listening to her requests. He constantly and consistently acts without any regard for her. He always put his safety and caution as his top priority.

But just this once, he did listen. And not only that, he accepted it. He’s willing to say something so unlike himself, something so unplanned as “something will work out.”

Because he got it from her.

That’s why Rista gets so flustered, and stutters when she says she got caught up in the moment. That’s why she confusedly goes, “Huh?” when he says that. She’s surprised that he heard her. He heard her.

He influenced her, and she influenced him.

Like hero, like goddess.

This is what Cautious Hero is about. It’s not the running gag of Seiya’s extreme caution, or Rista’s antics, though the comedy is entertaining. These two people are forced into this situation they don’t want to be in. But they’re in the same boat. This world is just as dangerous and unfamiliar to them both.

In episode 1, Rista reveals she has saved five worlds before, but the average is ten, and some veterans have saved even hundreds. When it’s announced (with much ceremony and shiny fireworks and a large audience) that she’ll be in charge of saving Gaeabrande, an S-level difficulty world, a god in the background says, “Once you overcome this, you’ll be a full-fledged goddess!”

She isn’t one yet.

Rista responds that she’ll “do [her] best to gain as much experience as [she] can” from saving this S-level world. A world that is “dreadful enough to give even veterans pause.” It’s her assignment. Her mission, and everyone knows it. She has a lot to prove, and a lot to lose.

She’s out of her league. She isn’t as experienced as her talented senior goddess friend, Aria, who she asks for advice many times. She summons Seiya in hopes that he’ll be able to help her. She asks other gods to train Seiya for her in episodes 3 and 5. In other words, she isn’t all that confident in herself and seeks outside help often.

Seiya on the other hand, just wants to live his life safely. This dangerous, new, unfamiliar world is the last place he’d want to be in. But unlike Rista, he is confident in his ability to do what it takes to become perfectly ready. But he lacks compassion and care for others, often hurting them without remorse because of his need for caution. And as we know, Rista has compassion in spades.

Rista and Seiya complement each other, and they cover the other’s weaknesses. They’re slowly changing, because of the other.

This is where the heart of Cautious Hero is. And in my opinion, that’s a good enough reason to watch it to me.

[ladyamber]

Sirenade: Chapter Five

Hello and welcome to Chapter 5. There isn’t much to say besides that there are fluffy moments in this chapter as there is also some angst in this chapter. You’ve been warned, but as you may know, the Fourth of July is just around the corner so as always Stay Tuned! And I hope you enjoy this week’s chapter. Until next week peace!

(I hate being late I’m sorry)

Start: Prologue

Previous: Chapter 4

Next: Chapter 6

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 5

He’d been standing outside for so long he wondering if his best friend had forgotten him. He hoped not, even with the late morning breeze it was still hella hot. Smitty hated sweating mostly because of the moist smell that stained his clothing. He was complaining to John when discovered his shriveled corpse outside, but for now, leaning against the cool door would have to do. Not a moment later John had opened his apartment door caused Smitty to fall directly inside.

“You should learn to knock.” Smitty only stuck his tongue out as he reached his arms out causing John to roll his eyes before helping his friend out. Over the years John had found company with the childish male inviting him into his home where Smitty had listened to John’s music creations or enjoyed TV and games that filled his shelf. Right now Smitty was here to eat and spend time with John.

“Still don’t understand why you didn’t knock. I was here waiting an hour for you.”

“Too lazy.”

“Christ Smitty.” He chuckled as he plopped on the couch refreshing in the air condition that flowed around the small home. This was something Smitty know John was used to seeing as some of the things Smitty had collected over the years were displayed on the shelves scattered around the house. Over the next hour, he and John laughed at stupid memes John had shown Smitty on his phone as they eat the meal John had prepared.

“Still don’t understand why you don’t own a phone?”

“Why, so you can send me dirty shit?”

“You never know when you’ll get bored.” John continued to mindlessly scroll through his phone as Smitty licked his plate clean. Just as he finished John shot him a look of disgust.

“Dude, you ever learn manners?”

“Bitch I’m at home! I do what I want.”

“You consider this home?” Smitty nearly dropped the porcelain plate for John’s question. Mostly because he spoke without thinking over his statement. “Umm yeah.”

John snickered at Smitty before he dodged a poorly thrown pillow. Smitty’s hide his rose cheeks from the rest of this pale face. He couldn’t tell John what he really felt about him. How much he wanted to call him more than a friend, yet every time he attempted to confess he saw an afraid or angry John for keeping his secret from him. He couldn’t bring himself to tell him because he knew he’d lose his best friend.

“I gotta go, Anthony’s waiting for me and do your fucking dishes.” Smitty set his dirty plate into the overflowing sink before he quickly bid goodbye to his best friend jogged to the restaurant that resided on the other side of town. As he approached the brewery the jolly owner looking at his watch.

‘What can I do for ya bossman?”

“I need some tuna for today.”

~*~

Luke could barely sit still in the booth. He’d either bounce his leg nervously or fidgeted with his hands out of habit. He definitely wasn’t expecting Ryan to say yes and now with this new profound information of a fantasy actually becoming a reality. He couldn’t imagine keeping his normal composure in this situation.

He’d shown up 10 minutes early knowing his lack of knowledge of where the brewery was as well as his horrible sense of direction would cause him to be late. He probably should have asked Delirious which would have saved him some time, but considering his little brother wasn’t aware of his presence as a result of being absorbed in his work. He decided to just leave a note to avoid panic before slipping out of the house.

Eventually, Ohm did show up, a little late but he didn’t care Cartoonz was just surprised Ohm actually showed up. He was afraid that Ryan would have stood him up, however, Luke was just glad he showed up. Luke waved Ryan over as he entered the restaurant and before Ryan could greet him a waiter came over the booth.

“Hello and Welcome to Panda’s brewery, my name is- oh hey Ohm!” The waiter that had greeted them was short, not super small but short enough that even sitting Luke towered over him. His outfit was pressed and clean despite working in a restaurant. He flashes a kind smile even though he’d even seen Luke before exhibiting his friendly nature. He was a bit too loud though.

“Hey Lui, how’s it going?”

“Nothing out of normal Mr. and Mrs.Williams still come every morning for breakfast, and everyone’s doing their part. The only thing that’s different is you showing up as a customer.” The young male’s child-like laughter echoed through the half full restaurant receiving some glances from the afternoon lunch crowd.  Luke watched as the individual’s hair (which was pulled into a bun) bounced as he giggled at Ryan. He smiled at how expressive the male was without being embarrassed by his actions.

“Oh hello sorry about that how rude of me. I’m Lui Calibre and welcome to Panda’s brewery, one of Evernor’s finest bar and eatery. What’s your name?” Lui stretched out his hand happily waiting for Luke to receive his welcoming gesture. Luke shook his hand with respect amused by Lui’s kindhearted attitude.

“Thank you. I’m Luke Patterson.”

Lui once again flashed him a young signature smile before he turned towards Ryan. “The usual?”

Ryan simply agreed as he gave Luke an apologetic look as Lui spun to glanced back at Luke. “And for you?”

“Surprise me.”

Lui scribbled down the order before he bounced towards the doors that lead to the back area of the brewery. Luke, a bit fearfully of what his new friend was planning on serving him, focused his attention to Ryan, who was silently giggling at Lui’s juvenile behavior.

“Sorry about him he’s like this with everyone, especially new customers, and sorry for being…late.” Luke heart fluttered from watching the younger male run his delicate fingers through his hair whilst he broke his eye contact with Luke to excuse his tardiness. He was mesmerized by Ryan’s attractive appearance as a human being, as his siren form was just as enchanting.

“So...about yesterday-” Before Luke could utter any words about the previous night. Ryan had quickly clasped his hands over Luke’s mouth. At first, Cartoonz was startled until he understood why Ohm had been so swift to prevent him from talking about the event. Luke know Ryan could feel his smirk under his soft hands due to the obvious glowing pink running across his cheeks.

“Don’t worry you’ll get a chance to make me red.” Luke’s comment caused for Ryan’s blush turn from pink to scarlet red leaving him completely flushed. So much so, that Luke could feel the warmth of Ryan’s rosy cheeks travel to the tips of his beautiful fingers, and circling back to the smooth palm of his hand. Cartoonz felt like he could stay like this forever, yet as Ohm attempted to respond to Luke’s flirt he questioned why he felt such a strong attraction to Ryan. He felt as if he’d never experienced a relationship that left such a sweet aftertaste from each encounter causing him to crave more attention from the male. Given the circumstances that Ryan wasn’t human, he didn’t feel bothered by that fact. Instead, interested.

Both were so distracted that they failed to notice Lui had witnessed the whole ordeal as he walked towards their booth carrying trays of their order. Lui had to clear his throat loudly causing Ohm to yelp and immediately retreat his hands away from Cartoonz’s mouth and silky beard. Cartoonz instantly missed the heat emitting from Ryan’s velvety hands. He had to suppress a whine forming in his throat by covering it up with a wink aimed at Ohm. Lui described his order as he placed Ryan’s meal in front of him.

“Here’s your order our cook prepared today’s special Seared TunA-” Lui squeaked as another waiter grazed by his small figure. The taller male towered over Lui smirking as if satisfied by the squeal that erupted from Lui. Luke watched as Lui had thrown a glare at the taller waiter as he took an order of a trio of young women beaming a mischievous smile. Ohm let out a dramatic gasp.

Did he just witness sexual harassment?

“Is Nogla trying to get some during work?” Luke was very much confused by the fact that another employee had grasped their waiter’s butt in front of them, but more so that Ohm was acting as if it wasn’t an issue. He was shocked that this “Nogla” guy had done such a thing towards Lui until Lui himself spoke up clearing up Luke’s confusion

“Oh, don’t worry he’s not getting any if he keeps this up.”

Lui snarky reply towards Nogla’s action was loud enough for the tall waiter to hear but just enough to not cause a scene in the restaurant. In the process of Nogla finishing the trio of ladies orders his impish smirk was replaced with a playful pout meaning, he’d overheard Lui’s cheeky affirmation. He immediately returned to his work as their eyes’ followed Nogla’s escape back into the kitchen. Ohm only giggled as Lui rolled his eyes crossing his arms, while Luke let out a hefty sigh. “Stupid Irish prick.”

“You picked him didn’t you.”

Lui wiped his hands clean before throwing the used towel over the shoulder. “Ya, he should learn to kick his dick in his pants while at work.”

Ohm continued to laugh as Luke involuntary joined, glad that it wasn’t what he had previously thought. “Don’t laugh at me, for once in three years you accepted a date invitation, Ohm, and consider yourself lucky Ryan’s literally a catch, anyways enjoy.”

Ohm abruptly stopped laughing as he watched Luke and Lui exchanged looks before he strolled towards the same door Nogla fled through.

“How cute.”

“You should see them outside of work they’re so gross once they…” For the rest of the afternoon, Luke and Ryan spent it together either finishing their meal, talking about the others that Ohm had gotten to know over the years, even completing Cartoonz’s wish for Ohm showing him the town. Soon the hot evening sun ducked down for the night allowing the moon to shine brightly on the town. Eventually, the two reached the shore where they simply sat side by side. Luke had to break the peaceful atmosphere to relieve himself of the thought that had been swimming in his head all day.

“I know that I can’t keep my memory of you, probably cause it’s too dangerous. You can erase it if you want, I won’t blame ya.” Luke’s gaze wandered from the small waves trying to reach them to Ryan’s figure that shone beautifully under the night sky, allowing for every detail to be drawn out, despite Cartoonz’s statement Ohm’s gaze never left the ocean’s.

“I...I was afraid of you. Mostly because I thought you were like everyone else, but I guess you proved me wrong. So for that...you can keep your memory.” Once Ryan had finished his small confession, his gaze broke from the sea’s tides to click with Luke’s own. His sweetened grin had such an impact on Cartoonz that he’d fallen back on the cool sand with a hard ‘thud’. Ohm laughed at Cartoonz’s actions as he stared up at the clear, lunar sky before he heard Ohm stand up. Luke eyes followed Ryan’s path into the shallow turquoise that consumed the dry cloth resting on his body into the moisture. He never broke eye contact with Ryan as he changed in front of him. Replacing his pale slender legs with a sleek appendage containing fragile silver scales that molded together. As Ryan turned to face Luke he uttered a sweet sentence that almost caused Luke’s heart to leap out of his chest.

“See ya tomorrow... Toonzy.” With that Ohm disappeared into the water, leaving a very red Cartoonz sitting on the beach.

He had fallen hard.

[theartfuldodger26]

For the prompt I'll be predictable: Harry Potter, Bellamort and Bellatrix 😁

Thanks for the prompts, @bellamort1993! Feel free to answer the same :) 

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character:

 Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort.

 Bella is the closest to my heart, but apparently I waste the most         brainmatter on Tom/Voldemort, so *shrugs*

Harry is my favourite light character, he’s an admirable person.

Least Favorite character:

Umbridge, as is universally accepted.

Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

Bellamort (which is canon, bitches)

Delphi/Harry (it will become canon, you just wait for TCC part3)

Tomarry but not Harrymort (nearly counts as canon judging by how often Harry gushes over handsome Tom’s face)

Drarry (I’m human and susceptible to fandom mainstream, plus there’s some fantastic fics out there)

Delphi/Victoire (cause two pretty, hot-headed ladies are my cup of tea any day)

Character I find most attractive:

Bellatrix, hands down. Then Voldemort can do things to me too, but Bella would be my first choice.it’s so nice being bi, isn’t it.

Character I would marry:

No one, I’m happy by myself.

Delphi can be my angsty fuck buddy with whom we meet every once in a while, bitch, get drunk, cry and fuck.

Character I’d be friends with:

Harry, tho I’m not the best of friends and he does bring an unappealing high mortality rate to any occasion. It’s fiiine. 

a random thought:

The wizarding world makes zero sense in so many places. They haven’t had an Industrial Revolution, meaning they haven’t known first hand the new ideas that came with it, and they seem to be stuck in the Middle Ages in many ways, even if they dont seem extremely Christian as these times actually were. We know little about the political system and their beliefs are so random. It’s really confusing.

An unpopular opinion:

Idk what’s unpopular these days. Aside from Albus’ name, I actually liked the Epilogue.

It showed what we needed to know: that Harry and the rest made it out okay. They found the courage to face their destroyed community and rebuild, even though they had gone through enough during the war. I think JKR said it herself in an interview how important rebuilding is after a catastrophe, how it can daunt even the bravest people. The miracles of Japan and Germany bouncing back and better after WWII are relevant real-life examples here. 

A married Harry, enthusiastic about hugging his kids goodbye on their first day of school, a day that to him symbolises a new beginning, is the greatest gift and it does not erase the pain he might feel every day for going through hell in his early life. In fact, it’s this snipet of normalcy what he craved as a boy and refused to daydream about because its weight would be too much,and now he gets to have it. Along with the nightmares and the PTSD and the new challenges yes, but now, in this moment, as he waves to the new generation that he helped create, he’s safe, loved and happy. He deserves it. 

Second unpopular opinion: I don’t give a damn if McGonagall’s timeline is screwed up by bringing her to life in the 20′s. Didn’t really matter to the story before and she’s a freaking badass and comic relief, which is the best combo ever. Is it fan-bating or whatever it was called? Sure. But if she makes the story better with her presense I give minus two fucks about when JKR originally said she was born (also, newsflash: people have the right to change HC’s, especially people who don’t shit about maths, like our dear creator) 

My Canon OTP:

           BELLAMORT

Seriously, I have screenshoted the details of TCC where it shows they’re canon.

My Non-canon OTP:

            Harry/Delphi

I know, I’m sick, it’s fine. *insert dog sipping coffee in the flaming house meme here*

Most Badass Character:

Bellatrix, handsdown.

McGonagall for good people.

Most Epic Villain:

Voldemort, we’d have no books without him. He can be dumb, but it’s cute. 

Pairing I’m not a fan of:

I’m not huge on non-canon Hermione ships, and anything with Snape is gross.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

…Snape? Not his character, but the positive light she gave him by naming Harry’s kid after him. It appeared she was clear on him not being an admirable person, but then he’s the bravest bloke ever? No, ma’am.

On a Fantastic Beasts note, I do hope they handle the backstories of all characters well. We’ll surely get back to this after the FB series are over.

 Favourite Friendship:

The Golden Trio, they work as a three-man-group better, I won’t devide them. Also, as a part-time writer I have to admire how the writing and dynamics were handled, it’s so hard to think as more than one person, not to mention three!

Character I most identify with:

PostAzkaban!Bellatrix feels she’s letting her master and herself down, and so do I. I keep looking for my former self. Who wasn’t much after all, but had some qualities I should recultivate.

Character I wish I could be:

… I’d like to have some Bellamort qualities that I lack, but in general I’m fine working on myself.  

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them:

After I finished the books, so that’s since 2007. 12 cool, angsty years. 

My thoughts:

I love them, they’re my evil babies. In fact, I don’t even have reasons for loving them, as most shippers do, I’d just die for them, end of reasoning.

What makes me happy about them:

That they’re complicately made for each other in their unique goth way. And that in the end they had a kid, which I think helped Voldemort out a lot with his issues with intimacy and emotions.

What makes me sad about them:

That they died *sobs hysterically*.

Also in the books they have like two scenes together. (HE SCREAMED THO)

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Seeing Bella’s character butchered down to a snivelling, slavish idiot, though these aren’t Bellamort fics usually.

In Bellamort fics, it feels like a cheat when it says Bellamort but it’s just Bella pining and Voldemort really not caring. I don’t have a problem with the POV, but it needs to be tagged as unrequited. Otherwise I’m open to perspectives.

Things I look for in fanfic:

Good writing, mostly.

I’m also a huge fan of Muggle!AU’s, so if you have that, I’ll read it, no questions asked XD

My wishlist:

On Amazon? :P Fine, I’ll show myself out

I presume this means wishlist on fics/art with these two, but do correct me if I’m wrong. I dont have one, since I write myself, so whatever I want to read, I write. Right now I’m eager to finish the following Bellamort fics:

1. Harry finds out about Bellamort via looking through Voldy’s stuff.

2. BellaDiesButVoldyWins!AU

3. Voldemort discovers his breastfeeding kink

4. A therewasonlyonebed!fic 

5. Tomarry turns Bellamort in Easter setting, Muggle!AU, Harry wets himself in the process

In general I’d say I’d like to see more classic, tropy fanfics with these two, lighter ones, you know. Angst is great, but let us enjoy the coffeeshop!AU too.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Alone and miserable.

I guess Bella would have been okay with Rodolphus, had Tom/Voldemort never been born.

And Voldemort/Tom would have been fine too with some nameless pretty woman he did not love but had to marry to keep face.

But I think that they would have never been truly happy with anyone else. especially Tom, he’d never be really comfortable with anyone.

My happily ever after for them:

VoldemortWins!AU, they conquer Europe, Bella is Minister for War, Voldemort the Emperor. Maybe they have a kid, maybe a couple more or none at all, who cares, the point is they live and fulfull their dreams of revolutionising the Wizarding Wolrd.

I also have a sappy afterlife!AU where for a while Bella is imprisoned at the family castle for having a halfblood little bastard, goes half-insane as Voldemort seacrhes for her (they had a spat right after they got there), and Delphi kills herself and goes to find her dad in small-child form. They finally get tgether and live deathly ever after in some Norwegian fjord in the frozen tundra. (it’s also my personal happy ending, only it’s cats and snakes)

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character:

I love Bella. She’s a bitch and a sadist, but I love her.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character:

The one and only, his majesty the Dark Lord himself.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

Rodolphus, he’s her only friend.

Also, sad HC: Bella was very close to Andromeda until she got too involved with Voldemort and his cause, and they drifted apart. No one wept harder than Bella after Andy left, and it was her who spent days banging on the Tonks’ door to let them speak to her. Voldy could squeeze tears out of his shirt after she fell asleep on him crying about it.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Again, not sure about what’s unpopular.

I believe she suffers from genuine mental illness that tortures her a lot and makes her life (and her shared life with Voldemort too) very hard. Also I find her more self-doubting and reserved than most authors, hard working and largely indifferent to people who aren’t Voldemort.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Actual romantic scene would have been nice, but HE SCREAMED after all. Let’s not ask for too much.

Favorite friendship for this character:

Rodolphus and Andromeda. Recently I’ve started Brotp-ing Sirius with Bella too, before they parted ways.

My crossover ship:

I don’t really have any other fandoms, sorry.

Well, that was fun! Thanks again!

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Fic-Writer / Vid-Maker Meme

Tagged by @educatedinyellow and @gailbsanders, thank you!

Author/Vidder Name: sanguinity

Fandoms You Write For: Lately it’s mostly book!verse Hornblower and ACD!Holmes (although the ACD!Holmes is largely behind the scenes with a long-form WIP that I’ve been focusing on). I also write for assorted small Holmesian fandoms as the whim or prompts take me, and I used to write fairly prolifically for Elementary, before that show wore me into the ground with how persistently they don’t care about Joan Watson. I’ve written a fair bit of Strange Empire, some Doctor Who / Torchwood, and quite a few one-offs in random fandoms, from the Oz books to Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Fandoms I Vid For: Mostly one-offs or small batches that overlap with the fandoms I write for: Holmesian multiverse, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, plus a number of rarer Festivids-qualifying fandoms like The Middleman or Noah’s Arc. 

Where You Post Fic: Most of it is on AO3, excepting some three-sentence and five-sentence fics that I’ve never collected. 

Where You Post Vids: Variously Vimeo, YouTube, and DailyMotion, depending on who threw a fit about what copyrighted music the week I posted it, but all my vids are listed at AO3.

Most Popular One-Shot: “The Sincerity of Dust,” a BBC Sherlock Mystrade flash-fic I banged out one morning and which then went on to eat Cleveland. It has 1400 kudos and is working on 14,000 hits. Its nearest rival is “Score: Q to 12,″ an Elementary flash-fic featuring Sherlock and Joan playing Calvinscrabble, which performed modestly on AO3 but cleaned up on tumblr to the tune of 1700 notes.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: “Holocene Park,” an Elementary case fic featuring dinosaurs under the streets of New York City. If I’m remembered in the Elementary fandom for anything, it’s probably for this or Calvinscrabble.

Most Popular Vid: “Something Good (Will Come From That),” my Holmes/Watson multiverse vid. It has 10K plays, the AO3 page has 2.5K hits, and the tumblr page has almost 800 notes. It escaped my corner of pseudonym-based AO3-centric fandom and has made the rounds of the Sherlockian scions on Facebook, as well as being rec’d on non-fannish websites in French, German, and Japanese. For a little while there it was making me anxious with how popular it got -- at the height of its popularity, I was worrying my mom was going to email it to me. After it hit it big I almost completely stopped making things for a while, because I was pretty sure that nothing else I made would be even half that good ever again. Happily, that turned out to be a stupid reason to not make things, and so I started making things again.

Favorite Story You Wrote/Vid You Made: Yeah, sorry, no, my brain burns out on “favorite” questions, especially ones that have no criteria. I’ll just refer you to my Fic/Vid Speed-Dating Score Card, which can be construed as a list of my favorite works on various axes, and is still fairly accurate despite being a year old. (Scariest nowadays is probably “Tea for Two,” a Moriarty-centric story from this last round of Holmestice.)

Story You Were Nervous to Post: “Any Service Required,” which is dark Bush/Hornblower porn. I always feel hideously exposed when publishing porn -- I’m nervous about posting it even in the best of cases. But what with this being dark-fic, I was half-expecting the self-appointed morals police who get prescriptive about “healthy” relationships to show up and make a stink. Or along similar lines, I was fearing that followers who are used to a certain kind of thing from me will look at this one, think it base trash, and lose respect for me over it. I’m happy to say that nothing like that has happened so far, and while readership has been light, I’m fine with that: I’d rather a story have a small readership who is genuinely into it than a large readership who isn’t, and I’d like to believe that this story’s small readership is mostly due to people taking a look at the tags and making good decisions about the kind of thing they enjoy reading. 

How Do You Choose Your Titles: BY ANY MEANS I CAN MAKE WORK. My preference is to grab a meaningful phrase from the text, but I’ll also use quotes and popular phrases, sometimes straight-up and sometimes with a twist, if it seems a decent fit for the story. Ideally, a title will speak to some deeper truth about the story, but when push comes to shove, I’ll settle for a title that is short, clean, and memorable: basically, anything that I and others can remember without having to look it up all the damn time. (This is my main problem with people using lines of poetry or song lyrics as titles: they tend to register in my brain as generic word salad, and in many cases I couldn’t say without looking it up what the title actually was, let alone what it had to do with the story.)

Do You Outline: For long or complex stories, sure, yes. If there are many scenes or multiple chapters, I tend to jot down a few lines listing out the succession of scenes or chapters; for “The Next World,” whose main body is a long and rambly conversation, I had an outline that listed out every twist and turn of that convo. The outline for “Langstroth on Bees” (WIP, currently 58K) is a monster of a thing, listing out the internal timeline (five years of current action plus another ten of backstory), various promises I’ve made that I need to deliver on, assorted events that I want to remember to include, and rough ideas about where chapter breaks should maybe fall. Given that I’ve been working on that story for five years now, often with breaks from it of nearly a year, that outline has saved my ass. I guarantee you that without it, I would have picked up this story at some point, tried to remember where I was going with it, come up with nothing much, and shelved it permanently. If anything, I really should outline more often -- I have a few long-standing drafts in my WIP folder that I just... don’t remember where I was going with that. I remember that I did have a destination in mind, yes, but what exactly? WHO KNOWS. Btw, my outlines are living documents -- I revise them often, as my understanding of the story develops. In fact, revising the outline is one of many tools for understanding where a story is going and what is still needed to bring it together.

How many of your fanworks are…

Complete: 92 stories or story collections (I have a few AO3 “stories” that are actually collected ficlets from tumblr or Sherlock60), and 26 vids and vidlets, 

In-Progress: Nothing published to AO3 -- it makes me crazy to have a partially-published WIP. My drafts folder has 36 partially completed stories in it, and there are probably a half-dozen vids that I started but haven’t finished.

Coming Soon: Four? For various values of “coming soon.” I have two Hornblower stories that are mostly done (one for the Tegmore verse and another for the Kraken verse), and I’ve been working steadily on “Langstroth on Bees” in the hopes that I’ll finish it this year. And I’m signed up for Remix Revival -- whatever I do for that will probably be the very-most-next thing.

Do You Accept Prompts: Yes! Although I have only a 1/3 to 1/2 completion rate on prompts -- I do hope that no one minds that too terribly! But I’ll actively solicit prompts from time to time -- to celebrate something, or if I’m having a shit day and want to turn it around -- and some of my best stuff has come from prompts people have given me. I never ever guarantee filling them (see my above mentioned completion rate), but if someone wants to prompt me something, my ask box is open. Even if the prompt never gets filled, I still get a warm flutter of “They want to play with me!” from it.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: “Langstroth on Bees,” a 58K-and-counting Holmes/Watson retirement fic that I’ve been working for five years. I added a solid 13K to it this month, and have maybe 20K left to go -- I’m hope-hope-hoping to have it done this year. But I’ve gotten far enough into it that “Langstroth” has finally begun overlapping the territory covered in “From Allegany,” and by the end of this chapter I’ll have passed it entirely. Then I’ll be in unwritten territory, wheee! (Speaking of titles, I never really intended to call this thing “Langstroth on Bees” -- that’s just a working title for my drafts folder. But enough of you now know it by that name that I think I’m going to have to stick with it? So I’m desperately trying to figure out how to justify it. ONE OF MANY THINGS TO DO IN THIS DRAFT.)

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer These Questions As Well: @beanarie @quipxotic @phoenixfalls @xserpx @amindamazed And of course anyone else who wants to play!

[tlbodine]

Every Single Last Thought I Have About Game of Thrones

My rambling obsession with Game of Thrones has cost me at least a dozen followers so far, and I promise it’s nearing an end now that the show is finished and the fervor is dying down. But I do have some Final Thoughts(tm), and I thought I would assemble them all here as best I can. In the interests of saving you all from a million future Game of Thrones posts, I will endeavor to put Every Single Thought I Have into one monstrously long GoT masterpost. You’re welcome, I guess? 

Rambles under a spoiler tag, as much for actual spoilers as for, uh, rambling. Buckle in. This post is a monster. 

In a contentiously-named Vice article called “Game of Thrones Was Doomed From the Start,” Peter Slattery makes a point that maybe we all needed to hear: Whatever our problems with the Game of Thrones TV show, they’re not wholly endemic to the show itself. The article is worth a read, but the tl;dr is this: GRRM created an astonishingly complex world with his book series, and the story has spun out to ever greater complexity as it approaches its supposed end. 

Anyone looking for a way to wrap it all up is going to have a tough time. Just ask GRRM himself, whose inability to finish the series in a timely fashion has basically become a meme at this point. 

Now, of course, D&D did not need to try to end the story in 6 episodes. They could easily have kept the series going on forever and HBO would have allowed it, because GoT is pretty much single-handedly keeping the network’s lights on at this point. Why the showrunners chose to turn down that opportunity is a matter of speculation. 

What I will say is this: There had always been an expectation that the show would be seven seasons. The internet has a short memory about these things, but back when this all started, the intent was clear enough: There would be 7 books in the series, and 7 episodes in the show, one for each book. At the time, four of GRRM’s books were out, with the fifth being released during this time period, and there had been an expectation (even then, a bit over-optimistic) that the books would finish before their respective seasons, or maybe just trail it by a year or so. 

The anticipation, in other words, was that A Song of Ice and Fire would roughly follow the trajectory of the Harry Potter films in their relationship with the books. 

That’s not what happened, obviously. 

But I do remember there being some grumblings of unease when we audience-folk started to realize the show might not wrap up tidily in those 7 planned seasons. And I definitely remember some grumbling about how Season 8 would take more than a year to come out (surely you all remember that impatience!) 

And facing that -- a restless audience, source material that stayed stubbornly unwritten, the increasingly complex logistics of an enormous cast including young actors who were picking up other roles -- I can understand the impulse to speed it along. If your options in finishing a story are to rush it a bit to force the plot points out, or else risk being caught plodding forward indefinitely...I can see the appeal of rushing. I won’t say it was the right creative choice, but it’s one I can understand and one I don’t think is indefensible. I’m not in love with what happened, but I can think of far worse ways for the show to have gone. 

Here’s more analysis on that which you may find interesting: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/21/18633029/game-of-thrones-got-ending-season-8-george-rr-martin-apology

Scope Creep & Themes that Get Away From You 

So why is the ASOIAF universe so gosh-darn complex, and why are these books so hard to finish, and why is the show’s ending so hard to stick? 

It’s not just because GRRM is pantsing his way through the story (excuse me, tending his garden) but because ASOIAF is not actually a story so much as it’s a history. Part of what makes this world so compelling is that it is indeed its own world. And not just in the Tolkien sense of multiple cultures and complex histories and languages fleshing out the world. What’s made GRRM’s work the most interesting and compelling from the beginning is that it promises even more than that: Here is a richly textured world of geopolitical intrigue, populated by real people; each and every character has their own fears and hopes and aspirations and petty squabbles. 

ASOIAF tells a story about normal people and the way they get caught in the machinations of war, and it doesn’t take any shortcuts. And I think we need to take a moment here to appreciate how unique that actually is as a concept. 

In Lord of the Rings, we receive a richly detailed world with its own history and culture and grand war, but the war is also limited by the parameters of the story: It can all be ended if Frodo destroys the ring. 

GRRM did not give himself such a straightforward McGuffin for ending his story. 

And that, indeed, is part of the appeal of the ASOIAF series. A big part of what makes it all so compelling is that it’s a deconstruction of the fantasy genre and, really, a deconstruction of epics in general. 

Game of Thrones, the first book in the series, dares to ask: What happens when being the good guy is what gets you killed? 

Maybe GoT has been part of our cultural fabric for so long that this doesn’t seem all that shocking, but let’s just take a moment to appreciate here how utterly wild it is that this story begins by spending hundreds of pages (or many hours of film) with a protagonist, only to lop his head off -- and that, really, the rest of the series isn’t even about avenging that death. Oh, sure, vengeance for Ned Stark colors the motivation of some characters, especially in the beginning...but the story soon spirals way beyond that, because the Starks are just one piece in the epic machines of war. 

So by its very nature, ASOIAF is not just complex in terms of its sheer scope and number of characters and storylines, but also in terms of its themes. It’s a story that raises a number of difficult questions about the nature of good and evil, of the influence of power, the personal vs the political, and so forth. 

These are difficult questions, the type of questions at the very core of the human experience, questions that we’ve been grappling with for thousands of years, and GoT’s deconstructive nature means that it can’t take shortcuts to answering them. The answers simply cannot be as satisfying as “good triumphs over evil” or “evil wins” because the very nature of ASOIAF is complexity and the rejection of such simple platitudes. 

From that angle, I think the show did a brilliant job of wrapping things up. The plot had its share of inconsistencies (although not as many as people argue, more on that in a minute) but I think it stayed true to the spirit of what Game of Thrones had always been about. Season 8 raised some really important questions and touched on some extremely interesting themes, and I personally found it both thought-provoking and powerful. 

But, well, I will confess that my aesthetics have always leaned more toward intricacy, and that I do not have what many would call “good taste” about a great many things. I always prefer for things to be interesting rather than beautiful, and from my perspective, the home stretch of Game of Thrones was exceedingly interesting. 

How Did You Honestly Expect It Was Going To End? 

For all of the belly-aching on social media about the ending of Game of Thrones, I have both a rebuttal and a genuine question: What did you think was going to happen? 

A lot of people seemed to think that something like this would happen: 

(art by https://www.instagram.com/raymondwaskita/?hl=en and no, this isn’t saying the artist believes or endorses any of this, just saying I saw this image on Facebook accompanied by a lot of wistful sighing) 

I saw so many people who were all so very angry that Daenerys doesn’t walk away the winner of everything, that Cersei doesn’t get a more satisfying death, that Jon didn’t get to be the true king, that Jaime and Brienne don’t get a happily-ever-after, etc. etc. etc. And to all of those people I have just one question to ask you: What the fuck show have you been watching? 

Daenerys deserved better? 

Tell that to Ned Stark. Tell that to Robb and Catelyn and Shireen and Margaery and all the rest of the Tyrells. Just for starters. We could do this all day. 

Just because we had a few bad guys get some deliciously just endings does not mean that the Game of Thrones universe is fair or that anyone gets what they deserve. That’s just silly. 

But okay, fine then: Was it fucked up to tell a story where the breaker of chains and inspirational strong woman becomes the villain? 

I mean, sure, maybe. But doing so allowed us to ask some other really interesting questions (and, as previously noted, I always prefer when things are interesting). 

Is excessive force justified when it’s against evil men? Who gets to decide who is good and who is evil? How many losses are acceptable? Can you fight monsters without becoming a monster yourself? Should you be uncomfortable with how happy you are when “others” are slaughtered? Are you a little bit culpable too? 

Was Dany’s heel-face turn perfectly executed? No. But it was believable, and it was powerful, and I think the questions it asks are good questions that deserve to be talked about. 

Game of Thrones is all about subverting tropes, and Daenerys is the obvious Chosen One. She’s the one with the fantastic birth and the underdog story and the magical powers. She and Jon Snow are both the characters that every story tells us will be the heroes. So of course they don’t get what they “deserve.” 

If the first episode of Game of Thrones asks, “What happens if being good doesn’t save the hero?” then the last episode asks, “What happens if being the hero doesn’t make you good?” 

And that, to me, is interesting enough that it more than makes up for shortcomings in the road we traveled to get there. 

A lot of the criticism of the show -- take, for just one of many examples, this: https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a27527950/game-of-thrones-finale-character-endings/ -- seems to fundamentally misunderstand what the show actually is or what it was attempting. 

And like...I can understand being disappointed, but...like the scorpion & the frog...you knew what this show was when you picked it up. 

Here’s a Twitter thread I really liked about this point: https://twitter.com/leighalexander/status/1130750999684161537

So Am I Just Some D&D Apologist Who Loves Everything About This Show? 

I’m so glad you asked, hypothetical reader! 

No. No, I am not in love with every creative decision made by the GoT showrunners. There are plenty of things I disliked about the show and its creative choices. 

Re-framing Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s sex as rape, and then making the same mistake later when Jaime and Cersei have sex after Joffrey’s death. 

Giving Sansa to Ramsay Bolton. Not only do we get more unnecessary rape plots (and, honestly, wasn’t there enough rape in the source material?) but it just is so much less interesting than what was happening with Book!Sansa, who is my favorite character (and was my favorite long before it became cool to love Sansa). 

The entire three-eyed raven arc and “hold the door.” I mean, it was cool and tense, but I never got a really good idea of wtf the three-eyed raven’s powers actually do and what Bran inherited, and I kind of got the feeling that the showrunners didn’t understand it either and thus skirted around it. (Overall the show seemed uncomfortable with its more fantastic elements and knowing what to do with them). 

I thought Rickon was a wasted opportunity of a character. I wanted to see him do something cool. I admit that this is based entirely on my pet theory that the direwolves represent the souls of the Stark children, and I hoped Shaggydog’s vicious nature meant that Rickon was going to become a badass somehow. Alas. (I am also deeply sad that Arya and Nymeria don’t reunite to go fuck some shit up together)

Euron Greyjoy was a disaster. He is so much more interesting in the books, and so much weirder, and he’s just so pointless and annoying in the show by comparison. 

I didn’t like the “let’s go beyond the wall and oops there went my dragon” storyline very much, and honestly at no point did I ever really believe Jon and Dany’s relationship because it was rushed and the actors have zero chemistry. 

So no, I don’t think the showrunners made a perfect TV show. But I do think it’s deeply unfair to say that they are incompetent writers or that they can’t work without the original source material. 

My Criticism of the Criticisms 

The internet is full of idiotic opinions, and I could be here all day if I addressed all of them (I’ve already been working on this for two hours) but I will address a few of the complaints I’ve seen that have most rankled me. 

“Daenerys goes crazy because a boy rejected her” 

I think calling Daenerys the “mad queen” and writing off Targaryen madness as A Real Thing That Definitely Exists And Is Not At All A Metaphor For Power And Entitlement is silly and reductivist. Yes, generations of inbreeding have probably unsettled the Targaryens a bit. But Dany didn’t just go crazy. As I’ve said before: She was already prepared to sacrifice the lives of the commoners on King’s Landing. She knew that Cersei would use them as a human shield and Dany wasn’t going to let that stop her. She had endured so much on her journey to get to this point, and nothing was going to stand between her and the Iron Throne. I talk about this in great length in another post so I won’t get into it here, but just...don’t be stupid. 

“Cersei’s ending was stupid and pointless”

I’ve spent so much time dissecting Daenerys that I haven’t had a chance to talk about Cersei, which is a shame because I love her character a lot. I really loved her ending. All this time, the only thing she wanted was the security that power would bring her. Watching the look on her face when she realizes that Daenerys is going to destroy everything and that no political maneuvering can save her -- it was really powerful acting, and a major moment of change for her character. That she dies in Jaime’s arms, admitting at last that she is frightened, that she doesn’t want to die, that she doesn’t want her baby to die -- not only is it heartbreaking, but it’s honest. That is Cersei laid bare. She is who she has always been. That encapsulates her arc in a way that no other death really could have, and I personally found it a lot more satisfying than if Arya or whomever had just stabbed her in the back. 

“All of Jaime’s character development just went out the window”

I’ll give you some of this. I don’t know that the show has ever fully understood Jaime. Just as Cersei is so much more sympathetic in the show, Jaime is much more sympathetic in the books. But I don’t think that all his character development is for nothing. I think we still have his journey, no matter what. And in the end, I can understand why he chose to leave Brienne. He didn’t think he deserved that happiness, for one; Brienne was too good for him, not just as a person but as a knight, and he knew that. And what was his long-term plan, anyway? Daenerys certainly wasn’t overly fond of him. There’s a non-zero chance she might have executed him for killing her father once he’s outlived his usefulness. Cersei and his unborn child were in the path of danger. He had a chance to maybe go rescue them and save the family, somehow, as he’d so horribly failed to save any of his other children. It was a stupid choice, but Jaime is the dumbest Lannister, and his self-loathing go deep. Did we think that Brienne’s redemptive vagina was going to save him from himself? Come on. 

As for his last moments with Cersei...well. He was already mortally wounded by Euron. And I loved that the fight was so inglorious, so raw and dirty and stupid. They wrestle in the mud and it was perfect, as far as I’m concerned. So Jaime knows he won’t get out of this alive, and here’s Cersei, frightened and vulnerable. What else CAN he do but try to comfort them both? I thought it was a beautiful end for both of them and just because Jaime’s story ended up being tragic doesn’t invalidate his redemption arc. (I mean, for fuck sake, how many people go through rehab just to die of an overdose when they backslide?) 

“The scorpions are deadly weapons except then they’re useless”

Okay like. This is annoying to me. By the time we see Rhaegal, he has suffered a lot of damage courtesy of the white walkers. His wing has a big freaking hole in it. He’s not 100%, and he’s not being ridden by anyone, and the attack comes as an ambush. Drogon evades being shot down because he’s being steered by a rider and he’s not injured and exhausted. 

“D&D are incompetent writers who have no idea what they’re doing”

This one just makes me mad, and not just because of the fandom entitlement that I hate so much. (in this house, we stan for creators). Look. If they’re so incompetent, how did they manage to make a show that y’all loved for seven seasons previous to this? Also, like it or not, they know exactly what they’re doing. Like, they had such a clear idea of what they were doing that they managed to foresee the exact counter-arguments that fans would have and directly address them in the show. 

Like. Hot damn. I will admit: I was very nervous about this season in the first few episodes. Dany was making me uneasy. She was acting selfish and entitled, and her attitude toward the war was making me uncomfortable -- because she was still in the role of hero, and I wasn’t sure if we-the-audience were meant to just swallow this as being OK. And then Varys and Tyrion have a conversation about exactly that, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Because that made it clear that the show knew what it was doing. 

And then later? Jon and Tyrion have a so-accurate-its-painful discussion about Dany’s heel-face turn and her potential motives, and it so perfectly mirrored the discussions on Twitter the week prior that I almost wondered if they’d snuck off to film it last minute. 

The point is: Like it or not, D&D knew exactly what they were doing. And, remember, GRRM gave them an outline, and while we don’t know for sure what’s their invention and what’s his, I think we can safely say that the broad strokes of the ending were GRRM’s invention, not theirs.   https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-showrunners-know-how-687589

So love it or hate it, the ending of GoT cannot be blamed on incompetence. 

Okay Fine But the Pacing Was Still Really Bad 

Yep. I’ll grant you that. 

The ending blazes through plot points at breakneck speed. A lot of really important character development is left to performances; we’re forced to infer, as the audience, what a character is thinking or feeling at any given time. A lot of really important plot information is delivered by way of single dialogue lines. There’s a lot of “if you blink you’ll miss it” storytelling. 

It’s not ideal by any means. 

But it’s still pretty fucking good. The performances are good enough that, to me anyway, it’s pretty easy to intuit what’s going on internally. And the show still gave me things to think about, and made me feel things, and the impact may actually have been stronger by virtue of leaving so much to the imagination. By leaving a lot of questions unanswered, the show invites conversation and thought and speculation, and I think that’s valuable.

Would I Have Done It Differently? 

Here’s a fun relic from history -- check out GRRM’s original story pitch, back when he thought this would be a trilogy: https://www.insider.com/game-of-thrones-original-story-2017-8

Talk about scope creep. 

It’s fascinating, though. I know myself all too well that the book I set out to write and the book I end up with are never the same. There are some really interesting ideas in here, but I think the story we ended up with is a lot better. 

But as for the ending of the Game of Thrones. Was it perfect? Would I have handled it differently? 

Thematically, I think the resolution is mostly fine. Putting Bran on the throne is...well, it’s a choice. I have a little bit of a hard time with it just because it’s not really clear what Bran is, exactly. What are the scope of his powers? Is it a bit of a cop-out to put a supernatural king on the throne? 

But what I do like about it is the idea that it doesn’t actually really matter who we put on the throne. The story makes a difference -- we need something that makes for a good song, because maybe at the end of the day one of the messages is that we need to believe in all these tropes we’ve deconstructed because reality is hard, it’s painful and boring and often nonsensical, and maybe we need stories in order to survive. 

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who we put in charge, because the people who are actually in charge are the council, and they will deal with everything the way they always had. After years of bloody rebellion, maybe the best thing really is the status quo. Maybe the solution to the game of thrones is to just stop fucking playing it. Put somebody on the damn throne and get back to running the country. I like that a lot. 

I also like the idea that change is important, and it’s possible, but it’s slow. That strikes a good balance of realism and optimism. No, we’re not bringing democracy to Westeros, but we’re establishing the roots of a Republic. No, a queen doesn’t sit the Iron Throne, but a queen does get to rule in the north, and the north gets its sovereignty. No, Jon Snow doesn’t get to be the hero, but he does get to go beyond the wall with the Freefolk, which honestly will probably make him happier than anything else (and while he doesn’t get to claim his birthright, he does know now why Ned did what he did, and gets some closure on the daddy issues front). 

All in all, it’s good. It’s not a happy ending, but we were never going to get a happy ending. And it’s not a particularly dramatic ending, because we weren’t going to get one of those either. 

THAT SAID. I will say there are a few things that really bothered me about the way the finale plays out. 

Drogon spontaneously melting down the throne for....some reason? Uh? I mean thematically it’s great but like....why though? 

It would have made more sense if the dragon roasted Jon, except Jon doesn’t burn because fire can’t burn a dragon, but the throne behind Jon melts down. It also would have made sense of Jon hopped on the dragon and melted down the throne himself, and maybe went and either killed Dany’s force or made them surrender/yield to him. 

I also have a hard time believing that the Unsullied who were just executing Lannisters would have locked Jon up instead of executing him immediately for treason. 

And wtf have they all been doing after Dany died? OK, fine, maybe the Unsullied don’t have any ambitions of their own, but you’re telling me the Dothraki were like “oh, ok, queen’s dead, guess we’ll just hang out and not do anything then?” 

None of that made any sense to me. 

Also wtf how are there still so many Dothraki and Unsullied left? Didn’t, like, a whole lot of them die fighting zombies? 

Ugh. 

Anyway. 

Perfect? No. Thought-provoking? Absolutely. Thematically on-point? Yeah, I’d say so. One of the best shows on television, still? Definitely. Are there valid criticisms? Yes. Are most of the criticisms valid? Not by a long shot. 

One final thought: 

We never do learn why the Night King doesn’t burn. Our pet theory in the house (courtesy of my husband) is that he is of Targaryen descent. He can ride the dragon, after all. What if that’s not just because he resurrects it with his powers, but because he is himself a dragon-rider? 

So with that as a possibility...Well. I’m just saying. 

We don’t know where Drogon took Daenerys after she dies. But wouldn’t it be interesting if she is somehow resurrected, and somehow gets to spend the next few centuries amassing an army of the undead to come back and take what’s rightfully hers, effectively re-starting the cycle and bringing winter back once again? 

(this is what happens when you give a fantasy series to a horror writer) 

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

Your fake relationship recs were so great! I was wondering if you had any friends to lovers recs? Or is that too close to the same lol? Thanks so much :)

Hey @motherof4dragons,

First of all, check out this wonderful friends to lovers fic rec list by @scout451!

I’m adding my own recs below.

Hugs,

Marjan

Across the Ocean by @prideofportree

Kurt and Blaine never got together and they slowly drifted apart after Kurt transferred back to WMHS. 4 years later Kurt is working at Vogue.com in New York and Blaine is studying Musical Theatre in London. They email.

A Coffeeshop Narrative by @slipping-through-my-fingertips​

This was inspired by the 2009 flashback episode of season 6 when Blaine is seen at the Lima Bean handing Mercedes some sugar. What if Kurt and Blaine had met at the Lima Bean instead of Dalton?

All You Need Is Lpve by @reremouse, and its counterpart The Cowardly Blaine Finds His Nerve

Eleven conversations Kurt had and one time the words weren’t really necessary.

A World Turned Upside Down by @scrapmom2112

Kurt and Blaine have been best friends since high school. Kurt has been in love with Blaine since they met. Blaine is oblivious. What happens to their relationship when Blaine drops a bombshell…he’s engaged.

Best Friends Forever by Anonymous

Fill for a prompt in the Glee Prompt Meme. Kurt and Mike are best friends and boyfriends. They decide that the boyfriend part just isn’t working out. At Kurt’s insistence, Mike and Tina start dating. Kurt and Blaine insist they are just friends, but after a bit of prodding from Mike and Tina, Kurt and Blaine start dating, too.

Blind Dates and Other Misunderstandings by @sunshineoptimismandangels

Kurt and Blaine’s parents were all friends in college and ever since Kurt and Blaine came out they’ve been trying to push them to get together because they just really want to be in-laws.

Bracketed by Kisses by reremouse

Kurt accepts that Blaine is an incurable flirt and is determined to be mature about it.  And when being mature means saving his best friend from himself, Kurt’s prepared to go once more unto the breach.

Breaking Point by @silverdragon87

Kurt’s tired of waiting around for Blaine to grow a pair and decides to go out and get some action of his own, problem is, he keeps doing it in front of Blaine and Blaine only has so much will power. 

Butterfly Wings by @hkvoyage

A fashion blog started at University launched Blaine Anderson’s fortune and fame. As Vogue’s new editor-in-chief, he is struggling to find an original angle for an upcoming issue. Kurt Hummel has recently arrived in New York City after finishing high school, and is having no luck building a musical theater career, so he decides to explore another passion of his: fashion. He applies for an internship at Vogue, and Isabelle sees in him the perfect fresh face to liven up the magazine, and convinces him to try out as a model. Kurt meets Blaine, and in spite of their 10-year age difference, sparks fly. Can they overcome misunderstandings and sabotage to find their happily-ever-after? Klaine model AU.

coffee’s nice but do you mind if I love you by @rospeaks

Blaine likes his coffee with two shots of espresso and a heavy dose of romance.

Come a Little Closer by Bmart57 (Trigger Warning: Rape, Suicide)

Life is made up of moments. Any single moment could change the course of your life forever. Kurt doesn’t know it, but when Finn stops him from going to Dalton to spy on the Warblers, that was a defining moment for his life. Almost three years later, Kurt meets Blaine in class at NYADA. It seems like they’ve finally found each other, but the scars high school left on them may be a chasm to large to overcome.

Crazy Boys in Love by parsnips (trifles)

In which Blaine is an emotionally stunted idiot, and Kurt finally notices. 

Crossing the Line by BregoArodShadowfax

Written for a GKM prompt. Blaine and Kurt meet in college when they share a dorm room together. Both of them are hiding their sexuality, but since neither is getting any action elsewhere, they enter into a friends-with-benefits type of relationship. Eventually it goes a little too far to be just ‘bros helping bros’ and the truth has to come out. Klaine.

Emotional Advice - $2 by @lady-divine-writes

Waiting for his Saturday connection with a lot on his head, Blaine gets some advice from a sage young man on the subway platform.

Fearlessly… and Forever by @antarcticbird

Sometimes it’s so easy, you don’t even realize what is happening until it has already happened.

feliz navidad by @villiageidiot

Blaine Anderson meets his best friend when he’s in Kindergarten. He doesn’t know it yet but it’s also when he meets the love of his life.

Fireflies and Fairy Lights by @princehummel​

The Andersons, when Blaine is seven, decide to take a family trip to an isolated campground for a change of scenery, too used to living near the bustling city of Columbus. It’s the third week of July and they’re far from the only family there. While Blaine enjoys all the company, he fixates on one person in particular.

Hand Holding by @hazelandglasz

My ipod randomly played Chris Colfer’s version of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and my brain started running like a hamster in a wheel …

he loves me (not) by @klaineanummel

Kurt was already starting to suspect that writing Blaine an anonymous love note was the stupidest idea he’d ever had. Add in Blaine walking in on him while he was writing it and, well. You get a perfect storm.

In A Car With A Beautiful Boy by @little-escapist

Blaine is always willing to help out someone in need. When Kurt Hummel, a person he’s never met before, asks for a carpooling arrangement in the company intra from his neighborhood, Blaine agrees instantly.

If he only knew how one innocent helpful act is going to change his life.

Love Is The End by @heartsmadeofbooks

After the unthinkable happens on his wedding day, Kurt Hummel has to learn how to navigate life after heartbreak. But he is not alone – his best friend, Blaine Anderson, is there to take him on a journey back to happiness and love.

My First Will Be My Last by @sir-pyllero

Kurt and Blaine were best friends through high school, best friends when Kurt moved to New York and they are still best friends when Blaine moves in with him. Apart from a few friendly kisses, things have stayed platonic between them. Until Kurt comes home one day, asks a question that turns to actions that turns to feelings that may or may not have always been there.

Rumour Has It by @chrisspiration

When Kurt has a one night stand and literally runs into someone while doing the walk of shame, the attractive stranger decides to help him out. This is the story of how Kurt and Blaine meet, become friends, and get together.

Secret Urges by @kookaburrito

Fill for the Glee Kink Meme. A fic about Dalton roommates Kurt and Blaine (starting as acquaintances but progressing through friendship to eventual relationship) who keep inadvertently walking in on each other masturbating, then a time or two when the “discovery” is intentional. Their reactions reflect the current state of their relationship, following canon timeline.

Sometimes It’s Just That Easy by @mailroomorder

He doesn’t know how it happens, but somehow Kurt ends up on the opposite side of the country for college. While there he runs into Blaine, who’s fun and happy and never around and always busy. But the closer Kurt gets to Blaine the more he likes him. He just so happens to be lucky enough that Blaine likes him back.

Stay with Me by @scatter-the-stars

Blaine has found the ideal apartment.  There’s two problems.  One, he needs a roommate to help with the rent.  Two, only married couples can live in the building.  The last thing he expects is for Kurt to step in and help him.  It turns out living with Kurt helps him realize feelings he didn’t know he had.  And sleeping with him doesn’t make things better.

The Wedding Singer by JonasGeek

Blaine Anderson, a wedding singer, and Kurt, a waiter, are both engaged, but to the wrong people. Life takes a few twists and turns, and helps them discover each other.

Wandering Around Back To You by @munchkinpandas24

From strangers to floormates to best friends, to roommates, to the closest two people can be. This is the story of two boys who found each other and never let go.

We’ll All Float On by @klemonademouth​

“We can’t help it, you two are entertaining. It’s like watching reality TV, but far more intelligent and with more sexual repression.” Wes was cradling a tub of popcorn. “Or a documentary on the mating rituals or lack thereof of gay teenagers.” Klaine.

You Got Me Singing in the Shower by @caramelcoffeeaddict

Kurt Hummel hated the communal bathrooms in his dorm. That is…until he met Blaine Anderson there.

[jercythesiscrying]

Five Flavours | Poly first-years, T, 1.3k

NaNoWriMo Day 30: Free Day Combo Shuffle Challenge, Social Media, and Dialogue-only fic.

Summary: Yet another collection of ficlets/drabbles featuring my favourite first years.

Rules: 1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like. 2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle. 3. Write a ficlet/drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it’s over. No lingering afterwards! 4. Do ten of these, and then post them.

TW: Canon-typical anxiety.

Read on Ao3

A/N: Decided to go with another Shuffle Challenge because I will single-handedly resurrect this meme. Apparently, I will also fill the first-years OT5 tag loooool. Un-beta’d once again and it very much shows  /o\

Gold Rays – Vinyl Pinups

They go to the beach the first chance they all get. Summer heat beats down on everything, water glinting under the sunlight.

Hitoka brings swimming tubes for her and Tobio because neither of them can swim. Kei teases Tobio endlessly about it but helps him out nonetheless when the three of them decide to go swimming.

Shouyou and Tadashi stay on the beach to build a giant sandcastle. The craftsmanship is clearly Tadashi’s doing, but Shouyou vehemently insists that he helped with the shovel work.

At the end of the day, Shouyou posts a photo on his account:

littlegiant.10 • 3 minutes ago perfect!!!

(Image: Shouyou, Tobio, Tadashi, and Kei surrounding a large sandcastle. Hitoka sits at the centre with her legs crossed. All of them beam wide at the camera.)

55 likes

Cough Syrup – Young the Giant

Kei catches the flu because his partners are awful and spread the infection to him. He stays home from classes one day because his head cold is so bad he can’t see straight.

He lies in bed for the majority of the day, sleeping underneath his bedsheets sweaty and uncomfortable, but what other choice does he have? He can barely sit up straight, much less move around like he’d much rather be doing. Akiteru would probably drag him back to bed if he tried anyway.

He stirs up from his nap at some point, awakening to see four pairs of eyes blinking down at him. Their faces are hidden by medical masks, so their eyes are really all he sees in his fever induced haze.

“Kei-kun?” a sweet voice says. “Are you okay?”

He coughs, which seems to be answer enough for all of them.

“We brought cough syrup, Tsukki!”

“It’s on the bedside.”

“Sorry for getting you sick, I guess.”

Kei can’t distinguish the voices from each other, but he returns to sleep with the familiar, comforting sounds of his favourite people in the world.

Boy Without A Heart – Jojo

Kei is much colder than Hitoka ever realized.

Everyone warns her, that she missed the awful time when they all first began playing together and Kei was the most infuriating person they’d ever met, that by the time she came around he dialled down his angst and snark. Tadashi tries to defend him, of course, but eventually even his protests are silenced by the others.

“Yachi,” Tobio says gravely, “are you sure you want to date him too?”

“Yeah, we’re happy with Yamaguchi already,” Shouyou says.

Kei rolls his eyes, walking out the room. Hitoka takes this as her cue to follow him. She walks out the door, sprinting to catch up to Kei.

“Kei-kun!” she calls out. “Kei-kun, wait!”

He doesn’t listen, continuing to walk away. When he turns the corner without a word, Hitoka stops, slightly shocked. He’s never ignored her before.

“Told you,” Tobio says behind her, and she turns around to she see both her boyfriends catching up to her.

“He just...” Tadashi begins, struggling. “Needs time.”

Hitoka bites her lip, unable to help herself when she stares back down the path where Kei disappeared.

Love Story – Taylor Swift

Their love isn’t forbidden like in fairy tales, or romance dramas, or the cheesy light novels they all know Kei likes to read sometimes.

The five of them grappled with their feelings for a long time before they ever came to any sort of understanding, even longer until they achieved the comfortable relationship they have now. First, there were boundaries. Then, there was the fact that Kei, Shouyou and Tobio usually wanted to tear each other’s heads off if they had the chance. And, of course, Hitoka and Tadashi had their anxiety to deal with. It was a huge mess until they sorted everything out.

They couldn’t even consider the larger picture about how everyone else would feel about them, too caught up in their emotions about each other to care about what society would say. But they each knew they wanted this, were willing to put up with whatever came their way as long as they got to do it together.

The day their landlord handed them the keys to their own place—a huge apartment that could fit all five of them, their first ever home—they celebrated with a quiet night in.

Reading Letters – P.S. I Love You Soundtrack

Hitoka opens her old high school notebooks, reading letters she both wrote and received.

Bittersweet nostalgia hits her like a wave, and she smiles through her tears when she finally reaches the last page:

A photograph of all five of them.

Pretend (Reprise) – Lights

Some days, the anxiety wins.

They each handle those days differently. Shouyou and Tadashi prefer to have the others doting on them with sympathy. Tobio and Kei prefer to seclude themselves so they could sort through their feelings first, careful because they don’t want to hurt their partners in their angst. Hitoka prefers a little bit of both.

At the end of the day though, all of them want their lovers close by so they could welcome a better tomorrow together.

BG Låten [8-bit Remix] – Spelling Phailer

Shouyou naively announces having a video game competition, so Kei easily hands the other boys’ asses to them. They all knew that Kei was better than Tadashi, and infinitely better than both Tobio and Shouyou.

Hitoka was a true dark horse.

“I, um,” she squeaks, cheeks flushed red when she sees everyone’s jaws hanging, “I like to play on my phone sometimes? And I’m comfortable with consoles since I do computer stuff a lot.”

“You beat me.” Kei’s tone easily conveys his shock.

“AMAZING, YACCHAN!” Shouyou yells, jumping onto her.

The others follow him, piling on top of their girlfriend in a giant heap. She giggles, delighted to accept their congratulations.

Sour Candy – Carly Rae Jepsen ft. Josh Ramsay

Kiyoko loved Hitoka.

Hitoka was passionate and eager, anxious but headstrong. After she first recruited Hitoka, the younger girl hung onto Kiyoko’s every word like she hung the stars. Kiyoko loved watching her grow and appreciate the sport, fall in love with the team and their camaraderie.

She didn’t expect that Hitoka falls for the team in a romantic sense too.

She and Hitoka tried to make things work after Kiyoko’s graduation, but they both knew the distance was too hard for them. Their relationship ended amicably, and though it hurt Kiyoko so much more than she could have ever anticipated, she knew that Hitoka was in good hands.

She watches in the distance when the five of them pass by—hands and arms happily clasped onto one another—and smiles.

Otter Pop – Shawn Wasabi

“Here you go: popsicles! Blue for Tobio, orange for Shouyou, lemon for Hitoka, strawberry for Tsukki.”

“Thanks, Tadashi-kun!”

“F’ank yhew!”

“Thanks.”

“Mm.”

“Ah, so refreshing!”

(grin)

“Tadashi-kun, are you gonna eat yours?”

“Oh, yes!”

“What flavour did you get?”

“Melon.”

“Aw, lemme try!”

“Okay, just don’t get your slobber over it.”

“I won’t!”

“He will.”

“Shut up, Tobio!”

“Guys, can we just enjoy ourselves, please?”

(sigh)

“Apparently not without a fight.”

Best Starships Ever (Nicki Minaj vs 1D) – Remix by Mikolo Mashups

They go to the beach after graduation, inviting the entire volleyball team to celebrate the end of the year as well as wishing the third-years goodbye.

Shouyou and Tobio are in charge of games and music, Tadashi and Kei in charge of food and drinks, and Hitoka covers all planning and decorating. The first- and second-years offer to pitch in with the prep but the five of them insist on doing this for the rest of the team.

They have a wonderful time by the sea, getting sunburnt under the sky, salt and sand lingering on their skin after playing in the water. They stay until well into the night, lighting up a bonfire at Shouyou’s request.

Portable speakers blast the best pop songs of the year, and they dance around the flames with laughter and smiles on their lips.

(More notes on Ao3.)