#not really? but still?

[4lexnilsen]

lengthy fingers massaging the foaming shampoo into her scalp with nothing but tenderness and affection,  trying to help her relax.   chase away all of her worries and fears.   living with a death sentence is such a strange form of torture,  and the only way to survive without much damage to one’s sanity up until the execution day is to take life as it comes at you.   one moment at a time.   he wants to focus on what’s happening here and now,  on making this sweet girl feel loved…   “keep your eyes closed,  okay?   i’m afraid i’m doing too good of a job,”   he laughs because the suds are everywhere now —   running down his forearms,  dripping from his elbows,  piling at their feet,  racing down abi’s back and legs.   he gently touches her temples and silently asks her to tilt her head back some more,  trying to keep her eyes safe as his fingertips continue to rub the shampoo into her dark roots.   

the funny thing is alex has never been a fan of silence,  but this kind is strangely comforting and doesn’t bother him one bit.   he enjoys it,  getting to rinse her hair and apply a generous amount of sweet-smelling conditioner onto the very ends,  doing something so normal for once,  basking in her presence.   the sound of the water running reminds him of a heavy downpour,  the world outside so unimportant right now…   “something special,  hm?”   he echoes with a soft smile,  fingers carding through her long locks,  hesitantly touching her back.   his skin so pale compared to hers.   his palms move over her sides,  tracing each rib,  circling the dimples at the bottom of her spine,  massaging her skin for a moment before settling on her hips.   he drinks up her every word,  nodding his head as his heart does a little backflip.   “that’s so sweet,  abi.   you sure did make me feel very special with that hug.   have i ever told you that it was the first genuinely kind gesture since…   well,  before i got reaped,  basically.”   and it meant the world to him,  made him feel less monstrous.

“i mean,  of course,  david gave me a hug and a kiss,  but he was just a little boy who didn’t even understand what had just happened,  right?   i thought no one who actually watched the games would ever see me as…   a human being,  not a cold-blooded killer with other children’s blood on my hands.”   when she hugged him,  a certain kind of peacefulness washed over him.   he almost broke down there and then,  but by some miracle or perhaps shock,  managed to keep his emotions under control.   “yeah,”   he answers without a second of hesitation,  not caring how it makes him look.   just like a love-struck schoolboy.   “i could barely introduce myself because my heart felt all weird,  pounding so fast,  stealing my breath away.   but i thought you were out of my league.”   he still doesn’t fully understand what she sees in him.   she could do so much better.

“mm,  good.   i love being a fool with you,”   he hums,  pressing his lips to her forehead as she turns around,  his eyes meeting hers.   he finds himself fighting the urge to kiss her again.   properly.   on the lips.   keep kissing her until they’re both out of breath,  sore and swollen and unable to think straight.   “are you sure you should be doing this,  baby?”   he offers instead,  worrying the shampoo might sting her injured palms.   but she doesn’t seem to listen and so to make it easier for her,  he lowers his head,  his neck straining.   “i could crouch down or kneel or something?”   he offers,  deciding to be somewhat annoying or maybe just trying to hear her laugh and tickling her sides.   “oh,  right…   i mean,  i’ve only confessed my love for you about ten thousand times just today,”   he laughs,  playing along,  finding her sense of humor endearing.

Alex’s fingers scrubbed the shampoo into her hair, suds colored pink by the floral scent added to them rolling down her body as they were washed away by the water. She didn’t care much for roses. They were pretty, but too delicate, too finicky, and they reminded her of the Capitol. Still, she’d happily smell roses the rest of her life if it meant she could spend it with Alex, and she supposed in a way she would.

Abilene shut her eyes, basking in the warmth of the water and his body so close to her like a lizard on a rock beneath the sun. Alex’s hands combed through her dark locks with conditioner next, which smelled much the same as the shampoo. She thought back to that first meeting when Alex asked.

Up until last year it was common for new victors on their victory tours to meet the other victors. They were friends, after all, or at least most of them were. Perhaps acquaintances was a better term to describe it - Abilene was known to stretch the title of friend a bit more than others. She remembered him standing there - tall and shy. He wore something blue, because certain shades of blue made his eyes pop and Abilene could see his eyes that day in her mind as though it was happening just then.

She hugged him. She remembered that. The tributes from ten were both young that year, and while Alex had every opportunity to kill them he didn’t. He took care of them. He protected them… until he couldn’t. Abilene would never forget that kindness. Her embrace hadn’t just been from her, but from everyone in Ten. After the children had died a handful of people stormed the peacekeepers and production stopped from an entire day.

Alex’s arms were hesitant and nervous and still thin from recovering from his games, but they wound around her waist that day all the same. She remembered feeling her heart swell, feeling content and safe for just a moment as he stammered out his thanks and blushed. Something had happened during that embrace, something that planted a seed in her chest that flourished with each time she saw him. Was it love at first sight?

“In a way.” She answered honestly. “I didn’t know then that I loved you, or that I would love you… but there was something special about you.” Abilene swallowed and her cheeks flushed. It seemed to be a night for mushy-gushy confessions, wasn’t it? “Was it for you?” She teased back.

Abilene let him wash the conditioner from her hair before she turned back around to face him. “We’re both fools.” She laughed. Her skin was pink from the heat of the water, and from her own blush. She gathered some shampoo in her palm and stretched onto the tips of her toes to reach all of his hair, thin fingers running through each flattened curl before the water would wash it off again.

“Be careful,” she warned, a mischievous smile on her lips. “You keep saying all of these sweet things about me and I might start to think that you love me.” She was teasing him of course, as she knew the depth of her feelings for him and assumed that his heart felt much of the same.

[w1lmuttart]

The lake town

[hansoeii]

only you.

[kuuwo]

"You were never broken Viktor, there is beauty in imperfections. They made you who you are."😔😔😔

[pirateprincessjess]

When I was a kid my family pretended to get raptured so I would think I was left behind on earth while they all went to heaven.

I was like 8 years old and my sister and mom had gotten really into the Left Behind novels (bible fan fic about the rapture). In the books when the rapture happened the clothes that people were wearing when they got raptured were left behind in neatly folded piles.

One day when I was getting home from school my family decided that they would leave piles of neatly folded clothes around the house, and then hide in the basement.

The intended effect was that I would get home and see the clothes then, think that my family had been raptured and that I wasn’t good enough to get into heaven… or something?

The problem was that I had never read these books, and didn’t really think about the rapture very often. There was no reason that I would see some laundry on the floor and think “The rapture happened and I’ve been abandoned by God! I’ll never see my family again!! Oh nooo!!!!”

I just sat down and watched cartoons and eventually my family got bored and revealed that they were all hiding in the basement.

It’s a good thing I didn’t understand the joke, otherwise that shit would have been traumatic.

[ladysantos]

an old karlach i never got to finish

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Expertise can't help you here.

[james-p-sullivan]

the older i get and the closer i am to reaching 30, the more the people around me try to deny me my age. it’s a constant ‘oh you’re just turning 29 again teehee 🤭’ or ‘dont tell your SO that, he’ll leave you for a younger model 😉’ and i just???? hate it?????????

i spent my entire teenaged years fighting for my life. i crawled through the deepest pits of my depression to cling to the promise of a life beyond that pain. i was so convinced that i was going to die young, that i would never see the grace of my age starting with a 2, let alone 3.

so im going to turn 30, and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do to stop me from loving it.

[tawnysoup]

Finally now that the comic is fully public on comicfury, I get to share it with all of you here, too <3

If you enjoyed, please consider supporting by buying a PDF of the comic on itch.io: https://tawnysoup.itch.io/home-in-the-woods

[churroach]

Full of Desires

[pangur-and-grim]

one thing that took me embarrassingly long to learn is "sometimes when people say things, they will not be true."

I used to tell people about this revelation and they'd be like yeah.....duh.....but like, why wouldn't my base assumption be that you're communicating to me in a straightforward manner. anyway, I get scammed a lot.

[trans-rights-coastalmangoes]

you know he would have been one of Those kids

inspired by this pic:

[napping-sapphic]

take your clothes off and get on the bed what no we aren’t having sex right now we’re cuddling and pressing every inch of skin together as close as possible for the next six hours

[stargirl230]

you’re my hero!

bnha doomed yuri was not on my 2024 bingo card

(no reposts; reblogs appreciated)

[fuckinnear]

everybody Must say hello to burger boy immediately

[velvetw0rmz]

How To Train Your Dragon doodles

It’s been really cool seeing other people’s interpretations lately and it’s inspired me to try a few!