#not confrontationally in any way

[verstappensrealwife]

Last Request - Fernando Alonso x Reader

[fernando alonso masterlist / f1 masterlist]

ʚɞ in which... reader breaks up with Fernando for the better of their relationship... until she drunk calls him accidentally. ʚɞ fluff, smut  ⋆⭒˚.⋆ 1900 words ʚɞ warnings: Sex, P in V, oral (Fem receiving), swearing/cursing, drinking, being drunk

Part 2/2 part 1 here.

-୨♡୧-

You hadn't seen him since that night. Of course, you missed him, but you couldn't have him anymore. It had been almost 3 months and still he wouldn't get out of your head. You couldn't stop thinking about him. About the way he loved you, the way he held you, the way he listened to every word you spoke.

Your friends however, agreed you needed to move on- or at least get a rebound. You really weren't sure about leaving your bed, nor up for the idea of a cheap hook-up to distract you from the once love of your life, but you agreed to go out with them since you did need to get out your apartment for a little while.

You went to a club in the nearest city- well a few clubs- and after a few drinks you were officially feeling like yourself for the first time in months. You took shot after shot, drank a dozen glasses of aperol spritz, and by the end of the night ended up singing Dolly Parton to a whole club of people for karaoke.

Once you stumbled off the stage, giggling to yourself about the applause you were getting, you realised your friends had disappeared. Huffing, you walked outside the club and you pulled your phone out, hitting your friends caller ID and immediately hitting call.

After two rings she picked up. "F-Fiona? Hey Fi, where are you. I think I'm a bit lost," You hiccupped down the phone.

"Y/N?" A man said.

"Who- Who are you!" You shouted at the phone confrontationally. "Where is Fiona Harris, Mister."

"It's Fernando," He said. On the other side of the phone, he was lay in bed, at 1am. He- in all honesty- was hoping you'd called him purposely, to get back together, or to meet up for... things... He felt slight disappointment when he realised he wasn't who the call was meant for, but he didn't hang up, he wanted to hear your voice again. "Where are you?" He said, already getting out of bed and pulling the first clothes he could find, on.

"Where's Fernando- w-wait..." You laughed at yourself getting the names wrong, "Where is Fiona?"

"Where is Y/N?" He asked, already out the door.

"I am at the club!" You announced happily, "The one with the pretty flamingo on the sign."

Fernando knew, by such a small clue, "Don't move okay, my lo– Erm, I mean Y/N,"

"Okay mister man." You slurred, "Can you stay on the phone please mister man..." You asked, but then interrupted him and started talking about how much you really hated the club scene. He already knew every single thing you spoke about during the quick 10 minute drive.

When he got to the club, you were leaning against the brick walls of the club, still talking into the phone as it the receiving end of your call wasn't 10 feet infront of you. "O-Oh hey Fernando," You hiccupped, "What you doing here- hey!"

He picked you up and literally carried you to his car- to any passers by they would be inclined to think he was kidnapping you. Once you were settled in his passenger seat and fought your drunk hands from trying to grab at his face while he was trying to put a seatbelt on you, he drove you both to his home. "When did you get this car..." You asked, as you inebriatedly messed with the radio, dash board, and glove compartment.

"A few days after you broke up with me..."

"Oh- I don't like that answer... Make a new one please."

He chuckled, "A new one?" You nodded quickly and snapped your fingers for him to hurry up with his new answer. "Oh- Okay... I got it last week after a party."

You smiled and nodded. "Is it home time now?" you frowned confused.

When you got to his house, you already knew the procedure he'd make you do. He did it anytime you were drunk.

First, drink water, water and more water. Check.

Then brush teeth. Check.

Then, attempt, to wash your makeup off. Half check.

And finally, kiss him goodnight...

You stepped out the bathroom into the bedroom. He was stood stiffly with a pair of your old pyjamas in his hands and another bottle of water.

"You- You are so good." You slurred, "C-can you help me." You said as you struggled to unzip the back of your dress.

He nodded, putting the items on the bed and turning you around. His hands lingered a little long on your shoulders after pushing your hair from your back. He, slowly, dragged the silver zipper down to the bottom of your back. He shamelessly stared for a moment before turning around. "What you doing?" You asked, "Why you not looking... You've seen before?"

"I- I know I have I just don't want to intrude."

"You can intrude..."

"Not when you're drunk," He replied. You simply nodded- not that he could see- and began to dress into more appropriate clothes to sleep in.

After a few minutes, when you got into bed, he was about to leave when you stopped him quickly, "Don't leave baby..." You babbled, tiredly. Baby... "I trust you- sleep here."

"I- I don't think–"

"I think yes. Come please." You demanded.

He gave in. Lying stiff next to you. You wriggled towards him, giggling to yourself as you, in your eyes, sneakily got over to him and grabbed him. He melted at the touch of your hands on his stomach and your head on his chest. You both fell asleep quickly, it was the first full nights rest Fernando had gotten in a while. When you woke up, you had rolled over to the other side of the bed. Nothing out of the ordinary since you moved alot in your sleep.

He heard you groan under your breath as you were waking up, then a gasp. You sat up quickly and looked at Fernando next to you. "Oh my god." You mumbled. "Oh, my god, oh, my god." You repeated it a few times before Fernando shut you up.

"I didn't sleep with you, stop shouting it is early." He said, in that deep morning voice you always loved.

"Oh."

"You called me drunk about how you lost Fiona and whoever else,"

"That's absolutely humiliating." You mumbled, "S-so nothing happened? Nothing at all?"

He shook his head, "Only you tried to get naked for me so," He laughed, when you groaned in embarrassment. "Don't worry, I looked away..." He said, "You want me to make you breakfast?" He asked, before you could reply he interrupted himself, "N- no, never mind I'll get you an uber- stupid thing to ask..." He mumbled, taking his phone from the side table.

You quickly snatched his phone. He looked at you stunned. "You know how i like my pancakes," You smiled. He looked at you, almost with hope in his eyes. When you smiled at him he felt his heart burst open. He shot up out of bed.

"These will be the best pancakes you've ever tasted," He promised. You chuckled and watched as he ran out the room, then minutes later hearing a clatter in the kitchen. You rolled your eyes and ventured the house to find him.

There was a bowl on the floor, three forks and a spoon, as well as a cook book.

You stared at his back muscles, you won't lie. You didn't forget he slept shirtless. "How's the cooking going 'Nando?" You laughed, his heart skipped a beat. He spun around quickly with a nervous look on his face. He slowly shuffled to the side to reveal a mess of what looked more like cookie dough than pancake mix. "Need help?" You laughed at him, there was flour on his forehead and half an egg yolk on the counter. He nodded silently. You're smile was still on your face as your laugh died down. You stepped infront of him, first throwing whatever he had made away, then picking up the items from the floor and finally standing infront of him. "You have a little..." You pointed at his forehead, he tried to wipe it off and missed. Completely. You smiled and pressed your finger to his head, carefully wiping it off his skin. He stared at your face, eyes, nose, the few freckles on your cheeks and finally your lips. He couldn't help but imagine himself against them again.

"Kiss the cook, huh?" You chuckled.

"Huh?" He was pulled out of his trance. You pointed to his apron, "O-Oh yeah, Lance got it me... the same day we uh... yeah."

You nodded silently, you were between the counter and his body, you hadn't even realised until he got closer and you were against the cold slab of marble. His chest was rising and falling quickly, his eyes staring all over your face, lingering on your lips.

You pressed your hands on his chest, he took a step back, maybe it was too far.

That was what he thought until your hands gripped the fabric of the apron and pulled him back into you.

"Is this wrong?" You questioned him.

"How can this be wrong?" He replied.

"Kiss the cook?" You asked quietly. He was quick to pick you up and put you on the counter, pressing his lips onto yours, he stood between your legs and held you by the waist, while you hands held the back of his head. "God, I missed you," you sighed.

"Not as much as me, my love." he replied, his lips then immediately back on yours. The kiss was needy, wanting and longing for you for months.

You pulled the apron off his body, putting your hands on his bare chest, wrapping your legs around his waist before he pulled you off the counter and to the bedroom. You shrieked a giggle as he carried you through the house, his lips never leaving your neck, his lips tracing the skin, savouring the taste.

He let go of you as you got to the bed, "This is okay?" He checked, to which you nodded thoroughly.

He pulled your pyjamas off your body like it was an inconvenience to him. He crawled down the bed and pushed your legs apart, licking his lips before putting his head between your thighs, your hands instinctively grabbing at his hair, your heels digging into his back as his hands firmly held the flesh of your thighs.

After pulling 2 orgasms out of you he was lining his cock up with your entrance. You nodded as he looked at you once again for a go ahead. He pushed in slowly, dropping his head to your shoulder and groaning curses. He sped up after a moment, and you quickly became a wreck beneath him.

A whining, moaning, shaking, wreck.

"F-Fernando..." You whimper, "I- I'm going to..."

You don't even get the words out before you scream and spasm, everything tingling and throbbing as you tighten around him, bucking and thrashing, pleasure and heat flooding your entire body. He's quick to follow you, bottoming out inside of you before pulling out of you and rolling next to you. "Jesus." You say, before laughing a little. "That was probably the best sex I've ever had."

He nods in agreement, he's staring at you like you're God yourself. "S-So does this mean like-"

"If you'd like to, then yeah it does."

You barely finish what you're saying when he jumps back onto you and smothers you with kisses making you laugh hysterically. "I love you so so much, my love, I'm not letting you go again," He announces, before getting up, pulling a robe over himself and then going to the window of the bedroom before shouting out of it, "She's all mine!"

El fin.

hope this was enjoyable. first fic I've wrote for Tumblr. anywho.

<3

[nzchance]

Buck and seeking permission to pursue someone [Tommy] AKA why Buck keeps asking about calling him (and why he hasn't called)

In 8x7, Buck asks Maddie and Chimney: "Wait, so y-you think I should call Tommy?" after he explains his new baking habit and Maddie opines that it doesn't seem like a more positive response to the breakup.

Also in 8x7, Buck asks the 118 after The Bubbling: "You think I should call him, right?" After Hen tell him definitely not, he even pushes back by asking, "What if he's in trouble and he needs my help?"

In 8x11, Buck asks Maddie again during the conversation about the Eddie thing: "I should call him, huh?"

I've seen people frustrated at these scenes and their writing. There's annoyance at it being a contrived way to drag out the storyline with Tommy, wondering why Buck keeps asking if he should call instead of deciding on his own that that's what he wants to do and what he should do.

I was in this camp myself at first. The more I think about it though, I think it makes sense not just because The Narrative demands it and the will they/won't they must play out. It also makes sense for Buck's character to be doing this.

The main throughline of Buck's storyline post-8x06 - and a large part of his character overall - has been built around his abandonment issues. Many people have already made observations about Buck being a clinger, but allow me to make the point again just to create a contrast between his clinging and his lacking instinct for pursuit.

The key to Buck's clinging response I think is he only "activates" it when the person he fears abandoning him is still there. With Taylor we all saw his loaded reasoning for asking to move in together. With Eddie going to Texas he fumbles his way through an attempted perhaps subconscious sabotage with the potential subletters. Even the proposal to move-in together with Tommy can be viewed through the clinging lens because the Abby revelation raised a red flag for Buck and caused him enough panic to confide in Maddie about it. The bar hook-up can be framed as this too. He propositions Tommy when they see each other by chance again. He didn't chase him, but he clung once he was there.

I struggled a little with regards to the lawsuit arc and how to think of that. It is for sure part of the thread of Buck's abandonment anxieties. I think the reason I'm torn about thinking of it is that a large part of it is Buck feeling excluded from firefighting - not really a person or people abandoning him but something he wants to be able to do being taken from him. I think you could argue Buck's lawsuit is him pursuing having firefighting in his future. In terms of the people though, in terms of the 118, I think Buck was clinging to them by what he did even though the lawsuit was an act that ended up pushing them away. Their "abandonment" of him wasn't total before he decided to pursue the case. The 118 were still there in Buck's life - Buck was still seeing Bobby and Athena, eating dinner with them after he gets his placement as fire marshal and he sees them on the job. Crucially, he was told a place was being held for him but he was impatient about the timeframe, scared of what any amount of time separated would do to their found family. He hadn't lost the 118 yet but he thought he would, so he held on and clung by trying to force a way to come back early.

Now, when it comes to pursuit? When the abandonment has already happened and the people are already gone? It's not usually part of Buck's playbook.

With Abby, he was in denial for a time of being abandoned at all. He waited for her as their LDR petered out but didn't try what Chimney did with chasing Maddie to Boston nor did we see him confrontationally ask Abby to return to him when he understood she had really left him. These two are less major incidents featuring people less important to Buck, but that fall into the same pattern of him just letting people go: Buck followed Connor to LA but after falling out of touch with him, he only saw Connor again when Connor came back to ask for something he needed from Buck. When Ali leaves after she can't take being a firefighter's partner, she's literally never heard of again.

Currently, a big example of this? It's implied from the conversation with Maddie that Buck hasn't called Eddie since he left for El Paso either. He only says he will call him after Maddie tells him to do so.

In terms of Buck pursuing someone, reaching out and trying to keep someone in his life who currently isn't, the only times I can think of him doing so - to me - are with Maddie. First, after the motorcycle accident and then with the postcards. When Maddie leaves with Doug to study nursing, Buck lets 8 years pass and only begs to move in with Maddie and Doug after the motorcycle accident/tuition and dropping out debacle. I think we're not entirely sure of their level of communication during the 8 years but we know Buck at 29 remained resentful of this period and that when Buck asked for their reunion it's under duress and out of need to get out of a bad situation and not out of desire to be together again. So it's a circumstance-based pursuit and he doesn't do it wholeheartedly. With the postcards - he does want to reconnect with Maddie, but it took him a while to start sending those after he began his nomad life if I recall correctly? (Someone tell me if I haven't.) Arguably the second separation between Maddie and Buck might also be something Buck doesn't see as a strict abandonment from Maddie either. He had his own agency in choosing to go even if it was without her.

Maddie occupies a unique position in Buck's life being the most important person in it up to this point given he hasn't found or settled down with The One yet. So him breaking his patterns for coping with abandonment (even reluctantly) with her makes sense. It's just not something we see him do with anyone else and even with Maddie it wasn't right away and something had to push him to do it the first time.

What I'm getting at is that Buck is used to being left behind and staying there. He's used to never reaching out a hand to someone who's gone in case it isn't taken. But... He clearly wants to do that with Tommy. He's never really reacted to abandonment this way and he wants someone to tell him his reaction is okay. He wants to call and he wants someone to tell him that he can! (Otherwise, I think this man will just wait for the invisible string to put him and Tommy in the same bar again or the same scene of an emergency.)

The extra-canon material in TM's interview where he says Buck doesn't call? Can also fit with this in-universe explanation. Though the quote to me comes across as an out-of-universe attempt by the showrunner to let us know that we shouldn't expect much or any Tommy storyline development yet in the next few episodes.

[clangenrising]

Month 9 - Leaffall

Prev | First | Next

“Go home,” Russetfrond insisted for the third time. 

Nightfrost shook her head again. “If Razor comes back, you’ll need me to be here.” She was still rattled from the encounter with him and Ghost earlier that day. It wasn’t just that the city cats had come so close to their home, that Razor had been so close to starting a fight, that they had clearly intended to return. It was the way that Razor had leaned in close and tasted her scent like he owned it while making a threat in the same breath. She knew that he was probably just trying to upset her but that information didn’t make it feel any better. 

Even from her small interaction with him, she could tell that Razor was a tom who had power and liked to wield it. She wasn’t going to let him catch her or her Clan unawares. And so she had stayed out when Russetfrond, Sparrowpaw, and Ospreymask had come to relieve her and intended to join Goldenstar and Branchbark for the night shift. Her replacements had been less than pleased.

“We need you to rest,” Russetfrond said, stomping out in front of her path. “If they show up now you’ll be no use anyway.” 

“I’ll be fine,” she grumbled. She tried to ignore the fact that her paws had been numb for a while. 

“Nightfrost, please,” Ospreymask cut in, leaning up against her side. “We’ve got it. If something happens we’ll send Sparrowpaw to get you and you can come right back.” 

“Yeah!” the apprentice piped up. “Please, Nightfrost?” 

She looked at him, his bright golden eyes shining with the courage of youth, and she imagined him breaking between Razor’s teeth. “No,” she shook her head firmly. “No, I’m fine. I want to stay.” 

“Fine, then,” Russetfrond huffed, squaring his shoulders confrontationally. “Maybe I’ll send Sparrowpaw to find Sagetooth instead and she can talk some sense into you.” Nightfrost glared. He had picked the one cat she knew she couldn’t argue with and she knew it wasn’t an empty threat.

“You snake,” she growled, half joking. 

“Yeah, yeah, go curse me out back in camp,” he said. Sighing, Nightfrost turned towards camp. She didn’t like being beaten but even more she didn’t like that he was probably right. Already, as she crunched her way through the snow, she felt exhaustion starting to creep into her bones.

“Rest well!” Ospreymask called after her. She flicked a disgruntled ear in response. 

Her paws felt like clumsy chunks of ice at the end of her legs as she picked her way through the snow drifts. Now that she had agreed to return to camp, the desire to curl up and sleep was starting to take hold of her mind. She closed her eyes, imagining Yarrowshade’s warmth and weight against her flank. 

Oh, stars. Yarrowshade had been waiting for her this whole time. She groaned at the thought of facing him now. She had been so harsh with him lately and she hated it. She knew he didn’t deserve it, but for some reason, his insistence on his continued friendship with Scorch had been getting on her nerves. She knew she was being petty about it. She knew she was being unreasonable. That didn’t stop her from taking her frustrations out on the both of them. She’d started scheduling them on separate patrols, started inserting herself between them every time he tried to reach out. 

She was hurt. How could he stand to be around her now that they knew the truth?! Didn’t he understand what she had done? Did he care more about her than his Clan? She knew that wasn’t fair. Yarrowshade was a relentlessly kind cat. It was one of the things she loved about him. Like Goldenstar, he somehow saw something worth caring for in Scorch, something she was probably too guarded to see. 

Was she jealous? Maybe. She didn’t think that he was interested in Scorch like that. He had promised her he wasn’t and she was inclined to believe him. Still, she realized, she was jealous that he cared about her at all after everything she had done. How could he still spend so much of his time worried about a cat who had been so favored by Razor? 

Razor. She shuddered again at the thought of him. Or maybe she was just shivering. She sniffed hard at the snot dripping from her nose. The longer she walked the more she felt like she might collapse. Luckily, she could hear the sound of cats speaking up ahead. She spied a dip in the white sheet of snow and knew she was nearly home. She sighed in relief. 

As she headed down into camp, she found Yarrowshade standing by the nursery talking softly with Smokyrose. The moment he saw her, he sat up straight and stared as if he’d thought he’d never see her again. She smiled fondly. 

“Nightfrost,” he started then, realizing his mistake, said, “Excuse me, Smokyrose. Thank you.” 

“Anytime, dear,” purred the mediator, turning a kind eye in Nightfrost’s direction. She slipped inside the den as Yarrowshade stood to meet Nightfrost at the edge of camp.

“Hey,” she mumbled. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, eyes wide. “When you didn’t come back, I…” 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said. “A little cold, but fine.” She sniffled again and swiped her tongue over her nose to clear the snot away. 

“Why don’t we go see if Sagetooth has some herbs for your nose,” he said, “and then we can curl up in the Warriors’ den with a fat dove, yeah?” 

“Sure,” she nodded. She didn’t particularly want to go see Sagetooth, but she was so tired. She didn’t have the energy to protest. 

Yarrowshade smiled and pressed his pelt against hers, spreading warmth through her thick, frosty fur. Together they padded to the Healers’ den and Nightfrost felt at home, perfectly fitted to his side. 

“I think I love you,” she mumbled without thought. 

Yarrowshade stopped. “What did you say?” 

She blinked, drowsy, and said again. “I think I love you. I don’t know why it took me so long to say that.” Yarrowshade was staring at her, open jawed. She smiled. What a ridiculous adorable face he had. 

“Nightfrost, I…” he laughed breathily. “Wow! I’m sure you don’t need me to say I love you too.” 

“It would be nice,” she hummed. Stars, her eyes were so heavy. 

He smiled and stepped closer, pressing his forehead against hers. “I love you too, Nightfrost. I have for a long time.” She leaned into his warm touch, purring, and he purred in kind. She bobbed tiredly and he laughed as he reached out to steady her. “Woah. Let’s get you inside before you pass out, alright?” 

She nodded and leaned against him again, letting him guide her into the warmth of the Healers’ den. Oddstripe was sitting in the back of the den, carefully winding cobwebs around a stick. Sagetooth supervised from her nest, probably resting her old joints after the storm. She looked up at the both of them with a scowl. 

“What do you two need?” she asked. 

“Nightfrost has a runny nose,” Yarrowshade laughed, his tail twining with hers. Sagetooth sighed. 

“I can handle it,” Oddstripe offered, but the old healer shook her head.

“No, no, you stay right there. I’ll handle it,” Sagetooth said as she heaved herself from her nest and plucked a few mint leaves from the stores. She padded over and placed them in front of Nightfrost. “Chew those.” Nightfrost obeyed, already salivating over their menthol smell. She purred at the taste and settled down to warm her freezing paws under her belly as she did. Yarrowshade curled up beside her, also purring. 

“You’re awfully cheery,” Sagetooth observed with a frown. 

“I am,” Yarrowshade chuckled, glancing at Nightfrost. 

When he said nothing more, Sagetooth grumbled and rolled her eyes. “Alright then. You’ve had your mint. Off with you.” 

“Aww, you don’t want to enjoy our company?” Yarrowshade said playfully. 

“No,” Sagetooth said flatly, turning away. “I have no time for lovesick fools.” 

“Is it that obvious?” Nightfrost asked with a tinge of embarrassment. 

“With Yarrowshade?” asked Sagetooth. “Always.” 

Yarrowshade chuckled and stood. “Okay, okay, we’ll get out of your fur.” He looked at Nightfrost and she smiled. She couldn’t wait to go take a warm nap beside him. 

“Thank you,” she said and Sagetooth grunted. Nightfrost moved to stand and then hissed in pain. Suddenly her paws felt like they were on fire. While she was sitting on them, they had started to prickle, but she had thought nothing of it. Now that prickling stung up through her paw pads under any kind of weight and she thumped back onto her side. 

“Are you alright?” Yarrowshade asked. 

“My paws are stinging,” she said, lifting one to give it a lick.

“Ah-ah!” Sagetooth snapped, interrupting her. “Don’t you touch those paws! Let me look at them.” She padded back over and took one paw in both of her own, tilting it gently to look at the pads. “Tch! Your skin is nearly black! What were you doing out there?” 

“Protecting the border,” Nightfrost said lamely. She stared in disbelief at the stinging flesh of her paw pads. The exposed skin had started to turn black and necrotic. 

“Why didn’t you come back sooner?” Yarrowshade fretted, “Weren’t you in pain?” 

“No, they just felt numb,” she replied. 

“Fool child,” Sagetooth scoffed. “Tuck those back underneath yourself. We need to warm them up immediately.” Nightfrost obeyed. If only her shame could heat her paws and not just her face. 

“Oddstripe,” Sagetooth continued, “We’ll need those cobwebs and some fresh garlic.” 

Oddstripe shifted awkwardly. “The squirrels got to the garlic patch, remember?” 

“Fox-dung!” Sagetooth cursed. “Horsetail then!” 

“We’re still out,” Oddstripe said, ears pressing back guiltily. “I can go find some though.” 

“In this snow?” Yarrowshade asked. He looked very pale. 

“Great,” Sagetooth shook her head. Her tail twitched back and forth as she thought, eyes flickering over the ground. “Alright. We’ll clean the wounds and bandage them tonight. Tomorrow, if it isn’t snowing, we’ll both head out first thing in the morning in search of horsetail. Maybe you can get your kits to lend a paw.” 

“Of course!” Oddstripe said. “Between the five of us we’ll definitely find some, Sagetooth, I promise.”

Sagetooth frowned at him. “Don’t promise things you can’t control.” 

Oddstripe deflated under her stare. “Right. Sorry.” 

Nightfrost shook her head again. “I can’t believe I let it go so far. I didn’t think I was out there that long.” 

“You were gone for a long time,” Yarrowshade said softly.

“And it only takes half an hour for frostbite to set in,” said Sagetooth. “You’re lucky its not worse.” 

Yarrowshade settled down beside Nightfrost again, curling around her and starting to groom her shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” he said. “Just… get your rest.” 

“Thank you,” she sighed, butting her head against his. “I love you.” 

“I love you too,” he said back. “I’ll be here as long as you need me.” 

“Thank you,” she breathed against his fur.

“It’ll be okay,” he said again. “Right?” He looked up at Sagetooth. The healer pursed her lips and sighed. 

“We’ll do what we can,” she said. It wasn’t very reassuring. But she supposed that she preferred that over a promise Sagetooth couldn’t keep.

UPDATES: - Nightfrost stays out too late and returns with frostbite. - Nightfrost and Yarrowshade confess their feelings and become mates.

[metro-headcanons]

In continuation of my last post about Sam’s dumbass one-liners (I love them so much), here’s a list of all the ones I’ve heard so far. If you have favorites that aren’t on this list feel free to let me know 🫡.

First of all, the entire fight scene between Tom’s guys and Sam right in the beginning of the DLC? Just him throwing out insults and expletives every two seconds while fighting for his life is so America-core I love that for him.

The bit at the theatre/bandit base:

“Too much TV is bad for your eyes.” ☝️🤓

Then he grabs the ONLY tape with an American flag printed on it and shoves it into the tape player and says “How about something educational for a change?”

When Stealthily knocking out an enemy:

“Lights out”

“Sleep tight”

He also just shushes them? Lmao

Confrontationally knocking out an enemy:

“Jaw, meet knuckles!” I has to pause the game for a second and take a breath cause of how dumb that one was 😭

Kicking open doors:

“Open sesame!”

“Knock knock!”

Also any time he picks anything useful up and sometimes speaks a different language. In the English dub he speaks Russian and I think I’m the Russian dub it’s the other way around.

(Btw I can’t stand to play Sam’s story in the Russian dub cause his voice actor is very obviously not American especially when he speaks English. It kinda breaks the immersion.)

I know there’s more but I can’t remember them all. Lmk your favs that aren’t on here.

[bi-bats]

TRICK OR TREAT !!!!!!!!!!! =D

!! HAPPY HALLOWEEENNNNNNN LEOOOOOOOO

I can't NOT give you a jaytimkon snippet for Halloween. I know what you're looking for in the candy bowl 😂 SOOOOO here's the beginning of the next chapter of Bad Days!! I really want to get it posted soon but I have to write smut for it and that always takes me forever to do 😂😂😂

Anyways, I won't delay any longer, here's your treat!!

~ ✨ ~

Kon hovers an inch above the fire escape, hesitating. He’s already been here for three minutes, trying to work up the nerve to knock. 

But he’s just being a bother, isn’t he? Jason doesn’t want him here. He’s fine with having him around sometimes, sure, but Tim is always there. 

It’s Jason and Tim, and Kon. 

Just because they get along, had like, one actual real conversation and they all took a nap on his couch? That doesn’t mean that he wants to let Kon mope around his apartment.

Even though Kon kinda wants to see him.

He should leave. It’s ridiculously late anyways, so ridiculously late that it’s actually ridiculously early, and Jason’s probably falling asleep, probably has his mouth hanging just a tiny bit open and his head nuzzled into his pillow the way he nuzzled into Kon and his heart does a soft little squeeze in his chest and why is he still here he’s just been floating out here like an idiot he needs to leave—

The blinds on the other end of the window he’s staring at pull up, and Jason looks at him through the glass, unnaturally bright green eyes dancing with something amused. 

Jason’s thick, calloused fingers pop the lock on the window and slide it open, and Kon’s stomach goes tight.

“You gonna hang out there until the sun comes up?” 

A smirk begins to crawl across Jason’s lips as he leans his palms on the windowsill.

Kon feels his face go warm as his eyes drop down at the fire escape. He floats down far enough to toe at the metal, rubbing at his arm.

“Nah, man, sorry. I was just— looking for Tim, but he’s not here, so. Yeah, it’s cool, I’ll see you—”

“Kon.”

Kon’s eyes flicker up and snag on the frown on Jason’s lips. 

“You’ve been out here for the last five minutes. You okay?”

Kon opens his mouth to say Yeah, dude, I’m fine, don’t sweat it, I’ll see you later, but nothing makes it out. He ends up just sort of floating there, saying nothing, for a solid five seconds before he clamps his mouth shut. 

Then he floats up a few feet, ready to just fly off because seriously, what the fuck is he doing there? 

And then Jason’s hand wraps around his ankle, warm and steady. 

“Come inside,” he says, his tone a low, steady rumble. 

Kon hesitates, letting Jason hold him there, before he gives in to the lull of the request. 

“Okay,” he says, and his voice is quiet and contained in a way he tries not to be in front of anyone.

Jason doesn’t release him, holding his leg like the string of a balloon as he tugs him into the apartment. 

He only lets go to close the window, and Kon lets himself float down until he’s hovering just above the ground, not quite putting his feet down. 

The apartment is clean except for a few guns on the counter and some dishes in the sink. The couch is laid out into the futon, the blanket they all slept under draped across it like Jason was sitting there the whole time Kon was outside, a book open and face down next to the slightly sunken spot. 

It smells like the lemon cleaning spray that Alfred uses at the manor, and soy sauce and onions and pork from whatever Jason has on the stove, and the scent of the cologne Jason uses, warm and sweet and spicy, and at the bottom of all of it, it smells like Jason himself, that warm human smell that Kon doesn’t realize he’s looking for until he finds it.

“What are you doing up?” Jason asks, walking to the sink and turning on the tap.

“What are you doing up?” Kon asks back, still hovering in the space between Jason’s couch and the little wooden dining table he has set up in the corner.

The question didn’t come out as confrontationally as he thinks it does, but he still blushes. 

God, what’s wrong with him?

“Sorry, I’m — that was rude.” Kon shifts his weight from one foot to the other in the air.

Jason gives him a shrug. “S’alright, I get it. Bad day?”

“Yeah,” Kon mumbles.

Somehow, the look that Jason turns and gives him makes him feel even more self-conscious than he already does.

“Dads, huh?” Jason asks, raising an eyebrow.

Kon clenches his jaw a little, so he doesn’t scowl. 

“You hungry?” Jason asks. 

Kon’s jaw loosens. 

First, the answer to that question has never been no, and the smell of sweet and salty Asian barbecue pork isn’t making him less hungry. 

But also, he thought Jason was going to ask what happened, and then he’d have to explain when he doesn’t even really have a right to be upset.

“Yeah, I could eat.”

Jason nods and turns, shutting the tap and silencing the rush of water before he grabs a dishtowel and wipes his hands. 

He glances back at Kon, then drops his eyes to the inch of space between his feet and the ground. Jason grins a little, something amused glittering in the bright green of his eyes.

“The floor isn’t lava, you know.”

Kon hesitates for a moment before lowering down slowly, letting his feet graze the floor. 

“Take a seat, I’ll grab a couple of plates.”

Kon walks to the couch, touching his feet to the hardwood on every step without allowing the ground to bear his weight. He lets himself settle on the couch where Jason was sitting so he can watch him move around the kitchen. A rush of steam plumes out of the steamer basket when he opens the lid, his feet make soft noises as his socks pad against the wood.

He tucks his knees up a little, not quite all the way against his chest, but enough to make room for Jason to sit down across from him. 

Jason places the steamer basket on the couch and hands Kon a plate, then drops three buns on it. 

“If I’d known you were coming I would’ve made some classic comfort food.” 

Kon snorts humorlessly, picking up a bun. It’s a little bouncy under his fingers, and he already knows it’s going to be fluffy and delicious before he even bites into it. 

He doesn’t think he wants to eat anything that reminds him of Ma’s kitchen right now anyways.

“Don’t sweat it, I’m already interrupting your—morning,” Kon decides after a glance at the clock on the stove.

“I wasn’t busy,” Jason says, tearing off a chunk of the bun in his hands to let the inside cool. Steam pours out of it in a puff, carrying the smell of the spices.

“Thanks,” Kon says, biting into his bun without waiting. He was right, it’s fucking delicious. The pork is moist and tender and the dough didn’t get soggy at all, and he makes a pleased noise as he rolls it over his tongue. 

“That’s a nice benefit of your genes, huh?” Jason says, blowing on his food and eyeing Kon’s lips.

Kon shrugs. He doesn’t really want to think about his genetics right now. 

“So, where do I aim?” Jason asks. 

Kon’s eyebrows furrow as he tilts his head at Jason.

“Shoulder? Head? I can steal some kryptonite bullets from B in the morning.”

Kon pauses chewing for a second, looking at the amusement in Jason’s eyes before he swallows his food. 

“Are you giving me the Clark is an Asshole special?”

Jason grins, crooked and wide and a little dangerous, and Kon’s stomach does a flip.

[iraprince]

any advice for starting sketches? once i have a coherent foundation it's easier for me to work on the drawing but i struggle SO BAD with actually making my initial sketch something that makes sense. when i try to start the sketch it feels like im just trying to get lucky with something i can actually work on. it's like i cant transfer what i want to see in my head to the actual work and it's insanely frustrating. it's like i can only know what i want to do when it's already there, not when nothing is there. ive been drawing for over 10 years and this is something I've never been able to change no matter how many different ways I've tried to go about this and it's why ive gone everywhere from drawing multiple times a week to not doing it at all for months/years at a time. i never want to try because the process of attempting a new sketch is so frustrating a majority of the time and i wish i could enjoy it or know why i cant get my sketches started. it's fine when i do get lucky, it's just the blank page that torments me

hmmm this is a really good question. it's something i have an easier time with digitally than traditionally, somehow -- like, i can't tell you how many stacks of paper i have sitting around that are full of, like, 20% of a floating head because i keep getting that far on starting something and then deciding i hate it, vs with digital sketches i do still often scrap/give up on sketches very early but somehow there's less friction irt just making a new layer and trying again, over and over pretty quickly. maybe it's that digital feels faster + more ephemeral, vs w traditional i'm faced more confrontationally with the paper i'm "wasting," etc

also i think just like. "what's in my head will not show up on the paper" is just the universal problem forever, it's the tide we're always swimming against and we'll go through waves where it feels more or less true depending on the current development of our technical skill vs our critical eye, but i don't think it ever fully goes away

this is just what's true for me but if it always feels like you're just trying to get lucky, the fastest brute force solution for that is leaning into quantity, imo. draw a LOT, draw FAST, and -- easier said than done, but -- try your best not to CARE if they look bad. even in the shittiest drawing there is often something you can salvage for later. i can't remember where i saw it but i once saw it said that drawing is like a clogged pipe -- there's a bunch of shitty drawings stuck in there and you have to get those all OUT before you can expect the real stuff behind it to start flowing

lower the stakes, in whatever way you can. in my experience, it's not that drawing itself is really that hard or taxing -- it's that the emotional toll of doing drawings and then not being happy with them is hard, it's disappointment and being down on yourself that's hard. if we do our best to strip away all the emotional baggage, that's that part that can actually make art so grueling and difficult to keep up with imo. so try the best u can to just make it, like... not that serious. remind yourself over and over again that there's nothing actually wrong with making drawings you're not satisfied with. it's not doing anything bad to anyone. i literally mumble it to myself sometimes -- when a drawing is coming out shitty or i just can't get where i want to be on an illustration i say to myself "it's okay, that's fine" and try to pump the brakes on the negative thoughts before "ugh, that's not what i wanted" somehow internally transforms into "you SUCK and you're a HACK and there's no point to ANY OF THIS!!!!" lol

in terms of more concrete stuff to try -- one of my fav exercises to loosen up is song sketches. i put a huge playlist (usually like literally all my music, i have it all in a folder on spotify) on shuffle and then draw a bunch of quick sketches only for the duration of each song, and usually trying to match the drawing to whatever the song makes me think of -- so if it's a 2 minute song, i literally only have 2 minutes. if i hit some 7 minute club edit, then great, i have 7 minutes to bang out something slightly more polished. depending on how fast you're used to working, you may find that at first you struggle to get ANYTHING coherent down in 2-3 minutes -- that's OKAY!!! another point of this exercise is to acclimate yourself to making unfinished, incoherent, dogshit drawings without it being a big deal. the point is that if you're limiting yourself this much (in terms of actual drawing time AND in terms of not being able to overthink/plan, you have to hear the start of the song and decide what ur gonna draw IMMEDIATELY), you will end up churning out a lot more drawings without individually agonizing over each one as much, and there WILL be something salvageable in the pile.

i hope some part of this is helpful!!!! good luck!!!

[hannigramislife]

Hello! I saw in your tags that you wanted a time travel fic where Jiang Cheng tells Jiang Fengmian to shove it. https://archiveofourown.org/works/43960344/chapters/110533362

He doesn't tell JFM confrontationally, but there's a few moments where he writes off JFM that always stuck with me. The fact that it's casual made it more impactful to me, especially with this Really Important Moment that turns out to be less important than all the small everyday moments.

And I wanted to thank you for pointing out that just because there's a culture of familial values doesn't mean we have to give parents an automatic pass! (It's a bit different for me, I think, because I've learned alot about my parents' childhood via casual-relative-storytime to realize that they are also Jiang Cheng realizing he can treat Jin Ling better than he himself was treated...they did their best... there just were external mitigating circumstances and they didn't have all the psych resources I do today hence all the crying I did on the bus after seeing your post lol.) But it's still something I struggle with a little and I appreciate you circling back to bring it up.

Dude, first of all, thank you for liking and replying to my post. That means a lot to me! Secondly, I hope I didn't come oft rude in any way in my earlier response!

You're godsent for sending me that link 🙏 gonna eat it up.

Also, I understand ans sympathize with your struggle! My father's parents were borderline abusive, and they went through some highly traumatic shit, but they're much better parents by a mile. It's always good to remember that they're also experiencing life for the first time, and doing their best.

My main issue witj Jfm was that he continually treats Wei Wuxian better than his own child, and has many chances to comfort/reassure/teach Jiang Cheng, or dispel any rumors/ideas he might have about what Jfm feels about him (and Madam Yu too).

Man simply doesn't. There is no effort. That's what kills me and I shall not forgive.

[jttw-dadkong]

Dadkong chapter 2, who sneaked into heaven and stole all those peaches?

Nezha and Wukong searched diligently in the Immortal peaches Grove, hoping to find any hints about the culprit. As Wukong effortlessly scaled the trees, he noticed traces of monkey fur on certain branches.

he held the little hair at his fingertips, he jumped down from one of the Immortal peaches trees, he spoke to Nezha “i found some monkey fur “ he showed it to nezha with a frown,nezha lead forward to look at the price of fur in bet

he showed it to nezha with a frown,nezha lead forward to look at the price of fur in between Wukong fingertips.

Nezha’s suspicion grew as he plucked the fur from Wukong’s fingertips, his raised eyebrow displaying his distrust. With a hint of suspicion, Nezha held the fur from Wukong’s fingertips and asked, “Are you certain this isn’t your own fur?”

Wukong forcefully retrieved the fur, retorting, “ found this piece of monkey fur, it's not mine, and the color doesn't match either."

Nezha replies, “are you so certain it isn't yours?"

Wukong "I assure you it's not my own! Why would I want to deceive you when I'm conducting the investigation myself?!"

Nezha, with an expression that revealed his skepticism, confrontationally warned Wukong, “I am well aware of your deceptive tactics, Wukong. You won’t easily fool me.”

Wukong retorted with an irritated huff.

"Hmph, you're are a fool. This isn't my fur, let me show you, that it not mine" he then ripped out a piece of fur from his head hair, His fur was the (color of old gold, precious but worn.)

The other, on his other fingertips,(is the color of light antique gold), close to Wukong's fur color.

he held both furs in between his fingers, put them both in his mouth, chewed on them, blew the fur out of his mouth, he spoke "Change!"

Only one fur changed into a clone of Sun Wukong and the other fell to the ground,wukong caught the little strands of fur, but before it hit the ground, his clone popped back into fur, and he caught it.

Nezha replied, "It seems like you're correct." With impressive and shocked expression,he crossed his arms.

Wukong speaks with confidence, with a snigger. "damn right I am,old monkey is always right. I proved it wasn't me, so was it then? "

Nezha rubbed his chin, his eyes wandering the Peach Garden. He soon noticed on the marble floor muddy footprints, the size of a little monkey's footsteps

"I do not know, but I have found a trail. "

Nezha took the lead, his eyes scanning the ground for any signs. As they approached the prints, he walked to their side and knelt down for a closer inspection. Wukong commented, “Those little monkey feet, about 12 years old. I can easily recognize the size of my young ones’ feet.”

Nezha replied to Wukong in a firm and curious way. He bent over to look closely at the muddy footprints, "It seemed so, monkey, how did the flower maidens not notice this?"

Wukong replies "The little monkey must have been Sneaky,come into the peach garden, when the flowers maidens were asleep,in the died of night" he stands up again, his tail swishing.

Nezha and Wukong go back to the Jade Emperor, and they report the clues they found in their investigation. The jade emperor says, "A little monkey you say, how do you suggest the little brat came into heaven? "

Wukong replies, "The little monkey must have come into the delivery horse cart and sneaked in that way. "

With Wukong explaining how the little monkey came into heaven and stole the Immortal peaches, the Jade Emperor reply "no good,we need to find that kid"

Golden star of Venus speaks up, "My emperor,may I suggest Erlang shen,he could find the little monkey with his trusted dog"

(OOC: Sorry if it isn't greatly written, but here it is)

[rastronomicals]

What do you expect from your heroes? Are they some kind of unimpeachable paragons of judgment, 50-foot beacons for whom the tough calls are easy, for you? Do you walk around wondering what [fill in your hero's name right here] would do?

Because God, that'd be fucking stupid of you.

You could probably make the case that having heroes is stupid in and of itself; hell, I wouldn't argue. Yet I do have a few.

But the thing I've noticed, especially today, I've noticed, is that these heroes, their mistakes, their miscalculations, their errors, are as glaring, and are as unmistakably apparent as any I might notice from the ones whom I call the villain.

The thing about Steve Albini, I think, was his twin directives. When he landed in Evanston, the burgeoning Chicago scene around him drove him to become a guitarist and a musician, but the nationally-recognized journalism school he was enrolled in pushed him towards becoming a critic. And obviously, because he was hard-wired the way he was, he took both potential undertakings seriously. You* might say too seriously.

The problem in treating with art, the problem with even considering to do so, is that as soon as you start, there are necessarily people engaged in making it, who treat it less seriously than you have already decided to.

And just what the fuck should you do about these people?

Should you perhaps treat them with contempt? I mean, it's one thing not to care about art, and then you let the people who do care prattle on to one another about it. But to merely *pretend* to care? To produce therefore only a semblance of it? Those are serious crimes, or so at least the young Steve Albini thought.**

We live in an era of increasing empathy, and that's not a bad thing. But the thing is, that it's quite possible that those who should be doing better should be spoken to or spoken of in harsh terms.

Albini ended up contrite over those awful things he said, about the Pixies or The Smashing Pumpkins, or about EDM, or sometimes he was only contrite about the way he said them, but either way seems to me from over here that either you soften up, or you die friendless. And that dying friendless, now that I mention it, is something critics often do.

Although I love music very much in the way that Albini did, I don't think I can be said to hate it in the way he did. If I hear a genre that doesn't click, I'll just push myself non-confrontationally away from the table, and say 'this one's not for me.' Which is the right reaction for these times, arguably any other, but doesn't necessarily push myself much, or anyone else.

So Albini's opinions didn't rankle or offend me; they just kinda left me amused, if not always dazzled by the courage it took. But I was also never the target.

The important thing, though, is that almost everything he said, like almost everything he did in a professional capacity, whether it were as a musician or an engineer, and no matter how foul, came from a place that sought integrity in himself and in others.

This world is so, so lackng in people of the same character, that to focus on anything except that character at this lousy, benighted, hero-poor moment in time is doing us all a grave disservice.

_________

(though not I) * and the old me, too.

[purecommemasolitude]

you do understand that the character is not affected by readers. Right. Because like, yeah that cherry post is valid, but nobody is affecting the character by opinion. Your perception of the character is being affected by their perception. Which actually validated their perception. But whatever. Because people like you don’t understand the difference between fiction and reality, and your opinion and facts.

i mean. yeah. obviously? i'll be honest man that part at the end was mostly a joke, and furthermore i really don't pay much attention to people who think cherry was the villain simply because it's not a very prevalent attitude on tumblr, which is the only social media site i use for fandom-related activities, so it doesn't cross my mind enough to colour my actual perception of cherry. as for "validating their perception", i'm not entirely sure what you mean by that so i'll leave it alone, but either way "this internet stranger doesn't understand the division between fiction and reality or their opinion and facts" is a very large assumption to make based off of one (1) lighthearted post i wrote in one minute that was not meant to be taken as a dissertation on fandom culture.

moreover, if anyone can provide me with textual evidence that cherry is meant to be the villain, i'll read it and genuinely consider it. however, to me, it is pretty clear that the messaging and themes of the outsiders completely contradict this possibility, and maybe one day i will make an actually serious post laying out my own evidence. one can dislike a character all one wants, though i do question the widespread attitude of pardoning male characters while crucifying female character in this fandom, but in terms of authorial intent, cherry being the villain simply makes so sense to me. again, though, i am willing to genuinely hear someone out if they lay out any evidence beyond "she did a thing i don't like" and "this action of hers, despite not having any ill intent, lead to negative consequences, much like the actions of five other characters that i completely ignore while lambasting her", which seem to be the dominant arguments of people who consider cherry the villain from what i've seen.

finally, if you really hated my take that much, i suggest you do what i do when i encounter similar situations and block me, rather than coming into my inbox on anon with a confrontationally-worded message. i do not see a productive goal from this ask, as it does not allow for a productive conversation unless i actively choose to ignore & reverse the dismissive attitude that permeates it, which is a conversational burden that is not ideal for open-minded discussion. in fact, coming into a disagreement with mannerisms such as the ones you chose above only makes it more likely that the person on the other end will respond in kind and decide your opinion isn't worth hearing out. therefore, unless your goal was genuinely to start an outright argument in the inbox of a stranger over one post that said stranger has thought about more in responding to this ask than in creating it, this endeavor was ill-fated from the beginning, and it would really be better to either attempt to express your thoughts in a manner that allows for intellectual conversation, or block the stranger and move on with your day.

[lindsayrps]

eleanor "nell" howard, twenty four, red cross nurse

from the outside, it would appear as if john and caroline howard are not a perfect match. look a little closer and…they’re still not a perfect match. he’s overbearing, quick to anger, and not someone who’s entirely anywhere close to something resembling warmth. caroline is the exact opposite. capable of warmth, to a degree, caroline is confrontationally avoidant and subservient to her husband, first and foremost. 

that they had children was probably not a surprise but also probably not entirely the best move either. thomas is first and two year later, nell joins the party. for a while, it’s the two of them until nell is eleven when the youngest and second boy, robert, joins the family. the howard family calls eden, new york home for as long as nell can remember.

to say that the way nell’s mother grew up dictated the way she raised nell and her brothers is a bit of an understatement. caroline was raised to be a wife and a mother, first, and everything else second–to raise children and keep the house was just about the most important thing she could possibly do with her life but the little one room schoolhouse in eden needed a teacher for all the other children in town and she took that on, too, shouldering it like it was her responsibility long before she'd even taken it on.

thus, nell was raised to be the obedient listener with intentions to serve everyone else but herself while thomas and robert were, more or less, given free reign because “boys will be boys.” naturally, this did not work out for anyone involved for…several reasons.

namely, nell and thomas being extremely close. with just over a two year gap between them (as opposed to the near eleven between nell and robbie) they were basically never out of each other’s, or their mother's, sight for a good portion of their childhoods. she doesn't tell anyone when he thinks about fudging his age to join the navy without parental consent at sixteen and he doesn't say anything when he catches her smoking with her friends behind the church two years later. by the time robbie arrives, caroline spends most of her time tending to the baby and leaves the two of them to their own devices, for the most part.

the expectations placed on caroline as a young woman were eventually passed onto nell, too, to no one's surprise. on the face of it, being a wife and a mother is not the absolute worst thing in the world and she wouldn't hesitate to say that she doesnt want that to be part of who she is one day but by the time she's a teenager, nell starts wanting more for herself.

not wanting to go completely off the rails and disappoint her parents, she decides to go into a “respectable” profession (in the eyes of her mother) after she graduates from high school and chooses the one she's best at–nursing. while there was nothing wrong with several of the other options available to her and despite being fairly maternal, nell didn't think she'd be a very good governess nor music teacher, mostly because she was hardly musically inclined enough to do so. she's always been someone who wanted to take care of others, whether it had been expected of her or not, so the leap to nursing is not as drastic as it could've been. 

the howards struggled, like so many others, during the depression years. while they didn’t struggle nearly as much as some of the people that they knew, to say that it was a walk in the park, as a result, was far from the truth. john howard loses his job at the lumbermill, taking it a little more personally than he really had any right to, and while caroline did her best to support the family through hers, there were five mouths to feed for a time and, then, only four when thomas enlisted in the us navy at eighteen, with parental consent because he wasn’t yet twenty one years of age.

she goes straight into nursing school after graduating high school in 1937. unknown to her, at the time, thomas paid for her to go because, after spending her high school years in the most dismal years for the american education system and with the ongoing depression, thomas didn't want her to worry about how she was going to pay tuition for the three years she'd be in training. he'd been in the navy for two years, at that point, sending a significant portion of the money he'd socked away in that time back for nell’s schooling and to help ease the burden on their parents as the depression lurched forward through the end of the decade. 

by the time war breaks out in 1939, thomas is stationed in hawaii at pearl harbour and in april 1940, he gets assigned to the uss arizona when the pacific fleet makes PH it's home base.

while the us hadn't a thought to enter the war, it still became a point of worry for nell–he is so far away from family and what if something happened to him? he assuages these fears by insisting he's fine and he's made friends with enough of his fellow sailors that they'll look out for him and besides she's got a fancy new career in a hospital in eden to focus on instead. 

when pearl harbour is attacked on the morning of december 7, 1941 thomas is aboard the arizona and is one of the crewmen who die in the subsequent explosion after a bomb hits the forward magazines. the howards find out about the attack through news coverage that afternoon like everyone else. caroline is inconsolable, john does his best to comfort her, in a rare moment of concern for his wife, and robbie is mostly shielded from it.

nell is working when she finds out. she’d been a nurse for less than a year, at that point, and when the chattering starts at the hospital about what had happened, she becomes catatonic and they send her home. she doesn’t need confirmation because it feels like it’s never going to come and, deep down, she figures she already knows that the worst had happened. they don’t get a funeral, they don’t get to say goodbye, they just have to sit with the knowledge that their son and brother is gone and find a way to move forward.

when the us joins the war effort, nell doesn’t think twice about volunteering for the red cross. it’s an impulsive decision built on the heels of immense pain and if she’d thought about it for a little longer, she might not have gone through with it. but, in the moment, she thinks: she’s a nurse, they’ll need those, and plenty of them, in the coming months. she’ll go wherever they want her to go, they just need to send her somewhere. she doesn’t think she can stick around eden while her family grieves thomas and she needs to do something.

it's not a decision that sits well with her parents. they lost their son, they weren't about to potentially lose their twenty two year old daughter, too, and no amount of telling them she wasn't going into a literal combat zone was going to appease them or make them back down on chastising her for doing something so foolish.

the red cross decides they don’t need anymore nurses, not yet, but they suggest she volunteer for the clubmobile service in the meantime. she’s exactly what they need, she’s sociable and cute and maybe she’s a little on the younger side than they’re used to but it’s quick entry into the war so she does it. they send her over to england with a few other women but she doesn’t give up trying to get into a hospital, somewhere, somehow.

nell doesn’t doubt that her parents love her but for the majority, if not all, of her life thusfar she’s never really felt loved by them. by all accounts, she was the perfect, obedient daughter they wanted, always twisti herself into whatever they’d wanted her to be in any given situation and it still felt like there was an unspoken level of…disappointment there. leaving the way she had hadn’t helped matters, she’s sure, but she can’t exactly take it back now.

she’s never once in the two years since his death talked much about thomas, if at all. it hurts just as much as it did, then, and was a monumental moment in nell’s life that altered her in more ways than one. for one, his death spurred her on to being more outspoken and sure of herself and her place after she left new york, letting herself be soft in spite of circumstances. she’s a lot less willing to compromise on her beliefs and the things she wants for herself now. in another way, she doesn’t want to get involved with anyone in uniform because she can’t stand the thought of losing someone she loves the way she lost her brother.

nell is…fairly conservative with the time she spends with the men on base. no disrespect to any of the women who decide otherwise, because you do you, but she is not willing to be a one night stand, as it were, for any of them. she does believe this is also partly due to the way she was raised attending church and being a good christian. dating was a means to get married, sex was not something you did before getting married or simply had in any capacity that wasn’t procreation related. she didn’t have to be told that indulging in any of that meant she’d be considered less than in the eyes of god for her to Get The Hint.

she is unlearning a lot of those beliefs, though, and realizing that at the end of the day, she’s not a bad person and will never be a bad person for not being Totally And Completely Innocent. now if she could just work through the grief she’s been ignoring for two years and realize that forming connections with people doesn’t mean they’re going to die horrible deaths as a result, that’d be great!

[malottie]

do you ever think you have an alright relationship with someone, but whenever you stumble upon a comic, or book, or just a citation that talks about trauma, or difficult relationships, or any emotion-heavy subject, it makes you think about that person

and you're just forced to admit that the relationship with this person is complicated and bad in weird ways and at least slightly abusive and just burried under mountains of non-confrontationality and 'I care about you'

[cityandking]

multiples of 5 for bran + ellis, minah + her sis, & vesper + everybody!

chu ily // sibling relationship asks

5. Which one of them said “Don’t tell Mom and Dad!” and which one always did?

BRAN & ELLIS — Bran and Ellis have a 12 year age gap, so they didn't really have a tattletale relationship (especially because their mom died when Ellis was 3 and their dad faded away with her—to be honest, Bran kind of raised him). If anything, Ellis was running to tell on someone else to Bran. Of the two of them, though, he was the tattletale. MINAH & SIS — Minah was usually the one trying to talk her sister out of telling their parents when she broke the rules, but was also the one to complain when her sister did something. She's a few years older (I think I said 4 years? 5 years?) and was very much used to being The Only Child before her little sister was born. VESPER & CO. — Vesper was the one pleading with the twins not to tell their parents (even when it was just minor things) and Roxie and Rosie were always the ones to tattle (no matter how minor the thing). It wasn't only Vesper—everyone got a fair share of the twins being sanctimonious little shits—but she got the worst of it. They were also the ones to tell their parents about Vesper's magic, so. Yeah.

10. How often they fight now and about what?

BRAN & ELLIS — Bran hasn't seen Ellis in nearly a decade, so technically they don't fight about anything. That said, right before the campaign ended, Bran learned that he'd gone sailing looking for her, and there absolutely would have been a fight about him being out on his own—she'd have been furious with him in the sort of way where she was half angry at herself and putting it on him (leaving him behind is the one thing in her life she most regrets, but she couldn't possibly have taken him with her). MINAH & SIS — Minah and her sister don't fight because they haven't seen or spoken to each other in years. VESPER & CO. — Vesper and Kit (eldest brother and current Bann Trevelyan) always got along easiest of everyone when they were kids, and these days when they fight it tends to be because they've forgotten that they're not still those kids—they've missed large chunks of each other's lives and there are some weird and complicated feelings in there that they still need to work through. Vesper and Helene rarely fight, and when they do it's about minor things (Helene took to the noble lady role the best out of all of them, whereas Vesper has limited patience for it, which tends to be the cause of any conflict they may run into). Roxie died at the Conclave so no fights there. Consequently, however, Rosie and Vesper have the worst fights—they have the most bad blood between them, and Roxie dying when Vesper stepped out of the ashes as the Herald of Andraste didn't help. They can't be in the same room without someone to run interference. Vesper and Jonah don't fight, but that's because Jonah doesn't fight with anyone—he's got non-confrontationalism down to a science. On the rare occasion where everyone is getting on Vesper's nerves, Jonah's the one person she can sit with no matter what. When she can get him away from his books enough for it, they have long (oddly productive) conversations about faith and obligation and history and whatnot. When you get them all together, Rosie tends to feel ganged-up on, which leads to Helene going out of her way to take her side/smooth things over, and Kit tries to remain impartial but he's also usually taking Vesper's side, and Jonah stays out of it, so y'know. Typical complicated sibling shit.

15. Which of their parents each is most like?

BRAN & ELLIS — They both take after their mother in their looks and their stubbornness and their tendency to yearn for adventure. Bran actually has a little more of their father's pragmatism, and Ellis is a little moodier. MINAH & SIS — In temperament, Minah takes after their dad—probably less so now, but particularly growing up, when she wanted to be just like him. Her sister definitely takes after their mom. VESPER & CO. — Most of the Trevelyan children take after their mother (Valerie Hirondelle), who was known to be shrewd and savvy and also distant at times. Jonah is most like her, having inherited her tendency to get lost in her own world when it comes to their shared love of history and also her poor constitution. The twins have more of their father's coldness, his devoutness, and his fear of the unknown. Vesper has her father's flashfire temper (same as Rosie—one of the reasons they get along so badly). Looks-wise, the twins, Jonah, and Vesper all inherited their father's red hair and Marcher complexion, whereas Kit and Helene have their mother's dark hair. They all have the same grey Trevelyan eyes.

[sneakerdoodle]

@fish-eggs (as non-confrontationally as possible,) you are indeed reading this post wrong! it is not meant to divert just criticism of capitalism but to call to attention the fact that criticizing capitalism and lobbyists is not a substitute for individual informed ethical choices. ok yes capitalism bad; whats the next step? ideally, no capitalism; how do we get there? perhaps by reflecting upon our individual behaviours within the system and deconstructing it from within the 'companies are biggest source of emmissions' fact disregards that they don't just pump CO2 into the sky just for fun - they are PRODUCING in order to SELL, and we are the CONSUMERS with the individual choice to affect the DEMAND. collective action comes from a whole bunch of individual choices - individual action is not individualist honestly this reminds me of this one silly 'radical statement' i've read once about how boycotting unethical brands and companies is useless and is basically virtue-signaling bc what the people in countries to which their unethical production is outsourced are doing is unionizing, and boycotting a product is an irrelevant tool to them in their own fight; which completely disregards the fact that different groups will be on different sides of the production equation. the workers' leverage is their labor, so they unionize and strike; the consumer's leverage is their wallet, however uncomfortable and materialistic this feels. that's something to make peace with. until we find a way to exist non-capitalistically, our financial decisions - especially for those of us living in consumer countries towards which global trade goods are endelssly flowing from all directions - have the unfortunate ethical weight connected to them. we should advocate for better with our voices, with action - whatever action is accessible to you - and also with our wallets, cause unfortunately we've been stuffed into the consumer role and we are not getting out of that any time soon

basically, saying 'it's dangerous to put responsibility on the individuals' is like saying 'why would you ask people to avoid buying from Amazon when its Bezos who's the problem?'. ofc itd be easier to just have him Not be a piece of shit, but that doesn't mean our individual financial decisions dont factor into that

[generational-atrophy]

heyyyy! I'd love it if you could write about how the hetalia main 8 would be like during a fight/argument with their s/o, thank you so much <3

(Hetalia Main 8 x Reader) Getting in an argument.

(Gender Neutral) Headcanons ~ A/N hey guys might have pretty long waits between requests now got a lot going on in my personal life ):

Trigger Warning: Some of these guys are toxic as hell.

Alfred, like with many things in his life, treats any fight with you extremely childishly.

If he’s frustrated with you, he’s definitely not gonna say anything until he has to. Instead of being honest, he’ll just ignore you.

But once you reach a breaking point, he’s immediately yelling. Like, even if he’s not that angry, he’s just loud.

It’s very hard to make any actual points because when he’s pissed off he does not think straight at all. Plus, he has a bad habit of talking over people, which really comes out in any argument.

Instead of trying to make any actual arguments, he just gets really emotional. Most of the time, he doesn’t even actually resolve the issue either. He’ll just storm off for the day.

But he always apologizes. If you want him to actually listen, getting in a fight is not the way to go.

Arthur may seem the gentleman, but that facade drops in fights.

It really depends on the type of spat you guys are in though. If you come at him non-confrontationally, he’ll probably actually listen to you. He’ll be a little salty about it, but he’ll make an effort to change.

But if you start off mad, he’ll get pissed off too. And when you guys actually fight fight, Arthur gets very manipulative.

Everything that you say is immediately turned against you. Even if he doesn’t mean to, he reads everything as an attack and will attack you right back. 

He’s very well-spoken, so he doesn’t seem as childish as someone like Alfred, but they’re very similar in that way. He tells you you’re accusing him of things you’re not, trying to hurt him, and that you’re being completely illogical.

He also tends you to storm off but in a much less intense manner. You step out of the room for a minute and he’s just… gone. But he won’t be out for more than a night, and he’ll still apologize. But in a much more… “sorry not sorry” way.

Francis approaches every argument in a very earnest manner, but that doesn’t last long.

When you first confront Francis with something, he always sets aside everything to listen to you. He’s always very concerned with your happiness, so he’s very flexible when it comes to your relationship.

But if you get overly critical, he gets upset easily. He starts taking everything as a personal attack. Specifically, he always asks you if your whole relationship was a lie the whole time.

Needless to say, he’s sensitive. He doesn’t mean to take everything in the worst way possible, it just happens. And once he’s upset, he gets so panicked he stops listening.

He won’t storm off though. He’ll just start crying over the littlest thing and try to get you to comfort him. (Jeez, how exhausting.)

Basically, he’s very good about arguments as long as you’re… overly civil and nice to him.

Yao has never been good with confrontation, and you’re no exception, unfortunately.

Any argument you two get into always starts the same. Yao, confused and angry, and you, probably just trying to get through. He’ll raise his voice and try any way to escape the situation (often resorting to petty insults he doesn’t actually agree with…)

But if you’re persistent, he’ll end up listening. As long as you’re not overly emotional, he can settle down. He’s very good at working out problems as long as you’re willing to fully explain yourself without getting upset.

It’s surprising, really. The longer the fight, the less upset you two end up being. But that doesn’t excuse the early awkwardness. Especially at the start of your relationship, it’s hard to get through all of his harshness.

Ivan may seem like he takes everything well, but that could not be farther from the truth.

When you try to confront Ivan, you immediately have his full attention. He’s very passive and agreeable, barely arguing against anything you say.  Without any protest, he’ll promise to change for the better, considering everything you said.

But… those changes take a long to actually happen. If you want him to actually do anything, you’ll have to argue with him over and over again. Every time you get angrier about it, he gets more and more sensitive.

By the time he’s actually doing the things he said he would, he is ready to burst into tears if you say anything slightly wrong. Even the smallest problem has him yelling and crying about how mean you are as you stand there absolutely confounded.

Frankly, I can’t even think of a way to get him to stop doing that. He just… really does not know how to properly take criticism.

Feliciano may be sensitive, but he also has lots of relationship experience.

Surprisingly, he’s very good at being civil and actually listening to what you’re saying. Most arguments don’t really turn into… fights per se? The only time he gets really upset is when you’re upset to start off with.

Even in times when he’s already emotional, he doesn’t take it too personally.  Arguments with him actually make sense, big shock! He wouldn’t turn your words against you, anytime he takes things the wrong way, it’s out of actual confusion.

And he would never storm off. Even when he’s angry, he finds the best way to cool off is just to be around you, not saying anything, as soon as you’re comfortable with it.

Of course, if you start insulting him, he’s crying though. Immediately. But that’s to be expected. He still has a hard time understanding how the heat of the moment may make you a lot more harsh than you meant to be.

As intense as Ludwig may be sometimes, he never gets angry with you.

Arguments with him never escalate. Even if you’re screaming at him, he wouldn’t scream back. He’ll just be like, hm… that was a mean thing to say. And then start trying to find out why you’re actually upset.

If you have any issue with him, it’s very easy to talk to him about it. He’s good at communicating and he really only wants you to be happy anyway.

Although sometimes he may seem a little too relaxed about it. Arguments with him are less emotional and more like a public debate. Which is… a little weird. Expect your every claim to be met with an “ok, and why do you think that?”

He doesn’t take much personally and he never fights back too rudely. So basically, he’s the healthiest of the bunch.

Kiku may seem like he’s listening, but it’s going in one ear and out the other.

Kiku hates confrontation, maybe more than anything in the whole world. If he’s got any issues with you, he’s not saying a thing. Ever. So you have to initiate every argument.

And because of that, he’s doing absolutely anything for the exchange to be over. He’ll agree to anything, but he’s not actually listening to what you’re saying. He refuses to fight back in any way, so he’s probably not talking about what he thinks either. Passivity… but at the cost of insensitivity.

Once you’re done confronting him, he’s escaping the situation ASAP. You probably won’t hear from him for a while, maybe a day or two.

Probably the only way to get him to actually be honest with how he feels is just to keep provoking him. Sure, it hurts a lot, but for the sake of your relationship, you gotta fight.

[seafoamreadings]

week of september 18th, 2022

aries: with both the equinox in libra and the moon moving into libra this week, it helps us all and especially you at this time to consider and focus on relationships. the relationship you have with your own body will also count!

taurus: even as airy libra season gets underway, the earth vibes seem to intensify. and libra means venus energy, which you relate to well. so this is an auspicious time for you, you are literally in your element!

gemini: expect a lot of mercury-retrograde activity from this week. is it shenanigans or is it constructive? maybe a mix? either way, it can be used to your advantage with a little bit of good fortune and mental sharpness on your part.

cancerians: keep your ears open as you receive a message this week from something like a long-lost sibling or childhood friend whose name you've almost forgotten. they reach out, just a pinpoint of light in darkness, but it is worth hearing.

leo: it may be a tough week for you financially. if so, try to put a focus on your local community, especially your nearest neighbors. it may seem unrelated, but your integrity locally affects things on a much larger scale! as a most literal case, try to spend at local businesses if you need something, rather than going to a big corporation to meet your needs.

virgo: this end to virgo season is, indeed, intensely virgoan, especially for the most mercurial among you. even the beginning of libra season, starting later on this week, features mercury retrograding back into your sign. avoid unnecessary purchases and contracts, and be prepared that others will probably misunderstand you for a while.

libra: the equinox brings with it the start of libra season, and a new libra moon. so it's an emotional time, but it can also be a quite fruitful one. your feelings will be the key to a successful harvest.

scorpio: prepare yourself for a strange and likely sudden switch from acquaintance only to deep and intimate friendship or partnership. you don't have to commit to it necessarily, but you probably find yourself deeply invested all the same, without noticing it happening.

sagittarius: although mercury retrograde in libra wouldn't ordinarily affect you very much, early this week it does oppose jupiter. that is something you'll certainly feel. it almost certainly affects your romantic life, especially if there is anything going on "on the side".

capricorn: an earthy week without necessarily being very saturnine. you can overcome any obstacle but this week, you don't really have to overcome more than small hills, rather than the mountains you're famous for.

aquarius: fresh airy libra vibes are here this week to give an energy boost to your mental and spiritual bodies. with mars in gemini antics also infusing your romantic and creative exploits, you're giving off ethereal vibes and odds are good that people outside yourself are loving it.

pisces: it's a busy time for your experience of perceived duality, especially as you relate to others in your most intimate partnerships. it's in okay to revisit a topic you had previously approached by communication but which wasn't resolved to your satisfaction, but only if you can do so compassionately rather than confrontationally. if you have to fake your calm empathy, then wait.