#see you can tell when it's late in my time zone because i spam like and write shitposts

[mythical-lotus]

Imagine Ciel and Sebastian arguing about something and it devolves into frankly childish insults, and they're both so caught up in the conversation they don't know the other servants can hear them down the hall, and they start saying some things that don't quite give the jig up (demonic contract) But are absolutely insane nonetheless

My favorite I've been able to come up with is Ciel telling Sebastian that he is, by default, a terrible employee, because he ate his previous employer

[adventuringblind]

Every Step of the Way

Oscar Piastri x Reader x Logan Sargeant x Liam Lawson

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, sick fic

Summary: With a new diagnosis, sometimes things can be confusing and scary. Oscar, Liam, and Logan do their best to help make things as easy as possible.

Warnings: Authors limited knowledge of cancer and chemotherapy

Notes: To the requester, I hope this brings you some comfort. I understand the fear of a new diagnosis. It's a difficult things to navigate.

Masterlist // Request Form // My Website // buy me a Ko-Fi

The appointment feels like it was years ago, yet she's still sitting in the office. The weight of the words sinking in, the new diagnosis still registering.

Cancer. The single word nobody wants to hear. It is a life changing thing that could pose to be fatal.

And right now, she feels alone. At the mercy of her own emotions. Her phone buzzing beside her, but her consciousness is too far away to notice it.

She hadn't been feeling well for some time. Oscar had suggested seeing a doctor, but she claimed allergies. She'll have to admit to him that he was right (again, as per usual).

The boys have been busy lately, off racing and traveling. She's been stuck home trying to get through all these appointments. The one time they are home, she wishes they weren't.

How is she supposed to tell them her body is trying to kill her? They have too much going on in their own lives right now to worry about her on top of it. The lovely anxiety she's been having over being a burden to her boys sets in once more.

She hates it. These dejected emotions want to escape from her via tears. Yet they don't come. They pool in her eyes instead, just on the cusp of sliding down her cheeks.

Her phone buzzes again. She looks at this time and sees the spam from Liam and Logan asking if she's been kidnapped or something. So much for not worrying them.

She drives him in silence. Only her thoughts to keep her company. The ones that tell her maybe she did something to deserve this. She thinks back to anything that could've cause this kind of karma.

She pulls into the driveway and tries to put a smile on her face as she walks through the door. "I'm home!"

Liam nearly tackles her to the floor as he scoops her up and tosses her onto the sofa. The one all three of the boys have turned into the perfect comfort spot with blankets and snacks and a movie already on the screen.

“Figured you might want some reprieve after your appointment.” Logan tosses a blanket over her.

“You don’t want to now the results?”

Oscar wraps an arm around her and tucks her close to his chest. “You were supposed to be home two hours ago. whatever it is, we can talk about it after you’ve had some time to wind down.”

She ends up falling asleep during the movie. the comforting presence of all three boys has her mind drifting off to somewhere that isn’t her own failing body.

She tries to soak up the normalcy of it all before things get worse. The voice in the back of her head is telling her that they won’t want her around when she’s too exhausted to do anything. when she starts draining their bank accounts because of all the medical bills.

The sleep she got was restless despite not waking up. They’d moved her to bed at some point. The cuddle pile and soft snores tell her it’s probably still early.

She maneuvers herself out of bed without waking the boys. A dance she’s done a thousand times before.

The glass of water is in her hands, but she doesn’t remember walking into the Kitchen. Everything is too much right now.

Her knees find the floor and the water spills everywhere. The glass shatters when she throws it in anger.

So much for not waking anyone.

Footsteps hastily make their way towards her. She can hear them whispering as they come around the corner and see the mess that she’s made.

“Love, I’m gonna come get you alright?” Strong arms wrap around her and bring her off the floor. She zones out listening to the song clatter of glass being picked up.

Back on the sofa again. The boys don’t push but she can tell they want answers. all three of them share nervous gazes.

“Cancer.”

She waits for anyone to say anything, to get angry and scream, maybe even cry. Instead she is hugged with such a gentle kind of love that she breaks. The tears don’t stop until she is dehydrated and choking.

“We’re not leaving you, alright? This diagnosis doesn’t stop us from loving you.”

The next week is torture. Getting ready for and starting chemotherapy is a nightmare.

It hurts, she’s sick, and the exhaustion makes everything worse.

But she also has people around her who love and care. They stick with her on the bad days and the worse days. they make the best out of the good days.

Oscar makes sure she sleeps, Logan makes sure she eats, and Liam tries to kidnap her when the other two get over protective.

It’s certainly a hard road. Some days are harder and she can barely function, but she’s trying.

Plus, it does help having people who love her around.

[espressokiri]

Hi there. Another Muslimah here.

Hope you don't mind me sending you an ask. I read your fic about the BNHA boys with a muslim s/o. It was really good. I loved it so much. (There aren't many fics like this, which is a shame cause we like fanfics too. So this was very refreshing. Thank you.💚😉)

Could you do one for the Haikyuu boys, specifically Tsukishima, Kuroo, Sugawara, and Bokuto. But only if you want to, of course.

Hope you have a great and productive day.

Tsukishima Kei, Kuroo Tetsurou, Sugawara Koushi, and Bokuto Koutarou x Hijabi!reader

In which reader is a hijabi Muslim.

Warnings: None

Genre: Fluff

Notes: You're welcome to send asks anytime <3 I may be slow at getting through them but I will make sure to get them out! Thank you for being so sweet anon <3 I hope you enjoy this one! ^^ I’m sorry if it seems bland as I was slowly losing ideas.

Tsukishima Kei

His eyes would constantly drift to you during class hours, lips twitching into a smile as he would watch you struggle with the assignment sheet given during history class.

Would take that as a leeway to make conversation and help you out.

"Tsk, can't even do a simple history assignment?"

Just sits down next to you and points out what you did wrong while helping you out.

Flinches his hand away and mutters a sorry if your hands accidentally graze each others.

He knows how strict the dating rules were and he admired it, thinking it was a safe way to keep them away from harm and heartbreak.

Becomes your unofficial tutor just to spend more time with you.

Has the urge to flick your forehead most times when you purposely tease him.

Is worried when he sees you zoning out in the middle of class during Ramadan, you have to convince him you're fine and that you're getting your studying done despite the odd sleep schedule you've created.

He'll give you a small box of his favourite treat, strawberry short cake, randomly throughout Ramadan because he knows you crave more sweets during the days you fast than regular days.

He calls you a masochist when he finds you watching cooking/baking videos while fasting.

Will stop by your house to drop off pastries during Eid for you and your family because he wants to peak at you all dressed up as he's only seen you in your school uniform or in casual but modest fashion.

He feels a sense of security, enjoying the aspect of getting to know someone with no sense of rush.

Kuroo Tetsurou

He's such an awkward nerd please.

Wants to approach you but fears he might accidentally offend you due to his provocative nature, hence resorts to staring at you from across the room.

Would research more about your religion and would use that as a way to start small talk;

“Hey, uh, I was wondering how do you manage to pray Zuhr when you’re in school? Isn’t it bad that you have to miss it?”

“Oh uh, I usually run home as soon as I can or pray in my club room if there are meetings, my club members are very understanding.”

“Oh... I see.”

“That’s pretty cool of you to be concerned, Kuroo-san.”

Cue him asking you random but wholesome questions with genuine curiosity.

“Did you know men who oppress women are considered to not follow Islam? I find that really nice that women are equal to men in your religion!”

You smile at him and his interest in your religion.

Study sessions in the library because you both wanted to spend time with each other but he knows it is wrong for a male to be alone in the same room as the opposite gender so you both opted for the library where there are lots of people.

Gasps and immediately looks away when you unravel the scarf around your head to fix;

“Y/n! You can’t do that!!”

“I’m wearing an underscarf calm down.”

You rolled your eyes at the dramatic male but smiled at his respectful nature.

Ramadan? Catch him ruining his sleep schedule just to have movie nights with you through the phone and Netflix Party.

Kenma teases him about it because Kuroo used to yell at him about his own staying up late gaming obsession.

Likes it when you wear a cap on top of your hijab, he thinks it looks cool on you.

He’ll convince you to skip school during Eid if it falls on a school day, telling you that it’s important that you spend at least the first day of it with your family. 

Overall, he’s the type to keep up with the Islamic calendar and learn new facts daily as he asks you to explain each and everything about your religion and lifestyle.

Sugawara Koushi

See’s you for the first time with Kiyoko when he went to excuse her from class for managerial duties.

Smitten from first sight.

Begs Kiyoko to let you be her assistant manager.

He keeps a distance from you during your first introduction and conversation because he didn’t know what you were comfortable with.

He was in awe to find out there were sports hijab when he saw you sporting one to play a short game with an over-enthusiastic Hinata.

“Here, stay hydrated.”

Hands you a bottle of water along with a towel, a newfound respect for playing in hot weather conditions fully covered. 

Due to the chaotic nature of the first and second years, Sugawara would run to cover your eyes with his jacket or hover his hands in front of your face whenever Tanaka would rip off his shirt to swing around whenever he spiked.

Sugawara had to stop himself multiple times from clapping his hand onto your shoulder, resulting in him just smacking either Asahi or Daichi when they mention him almost touching you.

Outings between you two is always monitored by the third years, Asahi smiling proudly at his friend Suga while Daichi and Kiyoko would sneakily take candid pictures of you both.

“What’s one verse you hold dear to your heart?”

You look at him from the warm mug of drink you are holding, tilting your head as you look at him in confusion. Sugawara felt the tips of his ears go red at the cute expression you held, and explains his question.

“Ah,” you thought long and hard before giving him an answer, “ ‘Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear...’ I find that part of the verse very reassuring in times when I feel like I’m overwhelmed.”

Sugawara held onto every word, finding the beauty behind those words, he felt at peace. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He smiles.

It felt like he was more excited than you for Ramadan.

He would read out loud the Japanese translation of the Quran after you read out the Arabic words in a beautiful and soothing voice. He wanted to understand and learn.

He was hooked onto the peaceful energy the month brought despite life going on normally.

This man would wear a formal Kimono when your family invites his over for Eid, he wanted to make the best impression despite already meeting them in passing.

Suga had a sense of security and comfort around him and you felt lucky to have met someone such as him.

Bokuto Koutarou 

Oh God.

Akaashi had a field day trying to stop him from initiating any and every kind of physical affection when he first introduced you to him.

Bokuto is a man who expresses himself with affection, so he was lucky for Akaashi to explain to him why he shouldn’t initiate any physical affection without asking for what you considered crossing a boundary.

He knows he can’t drag you to the gym to watch him play volleyball by hand, so he asks you to hold onto the end of a pen, which you took, confused as to what the male exactly wants before realizing he was holding the other end and using that to drag you to where the gym was.

It was oddly endearing.

“Did you see my spike, Y/n?! Didya see?!”

“Yes, Bokuto. It was really cool!”

Cue a chest puffed up Bokuto who grinned with pride.

Invites you to eat lunch with him and Akaashi on the roof.

Having to refuse his food because you weren’t sure if there was pork in it or not.

This made Bokuto stop bringing in food that contained pork, not knowing even aside from that, he had to have the halal form of chicken or beef.

Akaashi had to explain everything to him when he asked him once.

Tried to go vegetarian one day, failed the minute he took a bite out of his food.

Feels bad when he eats on days you are fasting, so he tries finishing the meal before you come up to their usual meeting spot, resulting in him giving himself a stomach ache.

Brings you tuna filled onigiri to take home so you can eat it as a snack during the night after breaking your fast.

Sends you spam messages minutes before having to break your fast;

‘Are you excited to eat?!?!?!’

‘What are you having today?!?’

‘If you want to get any snacks later let me know! :D’

‘ONE MINUTE LEFT!!’

He’s so wholesome please.

Wants to skip school with you for Eid, but pouts when you tell him you’ll be spending it with family.

Asks you to send an OOTD pic so he could be your hype-man.

Bokuto is always willing to understand more about you and your religion, making sure to note things in his head for future references.

[hanjisick]

hello, it’s seungmin fic anon!! this name is also funny to me too lol, but i’m just gonna stick with it. i’m cheering for you as someone who’s also in an unsafe (mentally) environment and has mental health problems as well. i hope we both can get through this to a better place. :)

honestly i am considering making a yandere blog on tumblr but i don’t think i’d be able to handle it. i heard some yandere blogs get hate and i’m not very good facing that kind of stuff. i also don’t really write as much these days because things haven’t been as good for me lately. whenever i try, i let the writer’s perfectionism get to me and delete it or something, and i hate writing violence or anything like that so i mostly just stay in one comfort zone when i write yanderes, haha.

thank you for saying so though, i seriously considered it. maybe one day or soon but it’s unlikely. i’d like to see stories that continue too if that’s what you’d like to try! i think they’d be nice. i was the anon who asked questions about your jeongin au and i really loved that one. i reread it sometimes cuz it’s just that good (and all of your other works too sjwndkwnsn).

i’m glad i made your day better. that’s great that you write to comfort others! i hope that one day i can also do the same, but right now i just write to comfort myself. :))

anyway i’m gonna send a ship request as a separate ask, so sorry if it looks like spam but it isn’t!! have a wonderful day/night and thank you for taking the time to respond to my ask. i felt heard? (idk how to describe it but it’s a good feeling) while reading it. 💖💖

you should stick with the name! it’s very cute and fun :) as for the environment, i hope we can too! i’m sure it’ll all work out in the end.

i haven’t gotten hate yet, and especially none for the type of content i post. i prepared a lot for it both in the beginning and even now, so i’m very surprised to see that isn’t the case. i think the warnings and clarification i have all over my blog do help a lot, so i blame it on that. :) i also really suck at taking hate so i understand that.

i also understand the part about perfectionism. if you look through the time i post throughout my blog, you’ll see gaps of months on end where i didn’t post anything and just let this blog rot— most of that was times where i had works to post and anons to answer, but none of it seemed good enough.

comfort zones are hard to break. i have multiple requests that i haven’t been able to fulfill because i don’t feel like i am all that good at a specific genre, even if it gets lots of notes. :,) but if you do plan on starting a blog, it’s okay to write similar stories! i always look for stories similar to ones i’ve read after i read them because sometimes you just can’t get enough, yk?

whether or not you start a blog, know that i’ll always be your number one supporter, and i love you so much! don’t thank me for responding to your anons, because honestly, anons are the ones who make my writing worth it all. i can tell you’re such a kind soul and i can’t wait to learn more about you! <3 i’m always here to hear you.

[voxymoxyboxy]

Scrapped Secret Santa Idea

While struggling to write for my AU drabbles, I was looking at my old writing and stumbled across this abandoned draft for the Sam and Max secret santa from last year! I read it and found that I still really liked it so I thought I would publish it on here for people to read! It’s not finished, but I do really like what I wrote. Please enjoy!

The familiar thrum of the microwave sounded through Sybil’s kitchen as she leaned against a nearby counter. Little pops began a few seconds later, the smell of butter and salt slowly, but surely, washing over her like a warm bath. Thin fingers drummed against the large plastic bowl in her hands. Rather than compose a new symphony for one- though that didn’t sound too bad for her next career-, Sybil decided to cross things off a mental list.

Comfortable pajamas pulled from the depths of a bottom drawer? Check.

Snacks? Enough to feel like utter garbage come morning.

Fluffy blanket? Spread on the couch just waiting to be wrecked by her guest.

Speaking of her guest… Sybil checked her watch. It was almost eight o’clock, the time when their little girl’s night was supposed to start. Supposed to, because Max wasn’t exactly known for his punctuality. The woman sighed. If she had to guess, the lagomorph would burst through her front door at about nine, a full hour late, wide smile on-

A knock on the door startled Sybil from her thoughts. The bowl clattered to the floor, but the women kicked it aside as she made her way through the living room. Whoever was waiting outside stopped for a second, only to be begin spamming the doorbell instead. Sybil quickened her steps.

“I’m coming!” she shouted. “Just give me a second!” The ringing continued, much to the woman’s dismay.

“Sybil!” a high-pitched voice called through the wood. “What you say in the bedroom’s none o’ my business!” Nearly banging her arm against the doorknob in her hurry, Sybil threw open the door to find Max, wide teasing smirk on his face clothed in nothing more than a flimsy scarf. His hands were clasped behind his back and he rocked back and forth on his heels.

The woman rubbed the bridge of her nose but returned the lagomorph’s smile. “Good to see you Max.” She stepped to the side to let him in. “Come on in.”

Max strutted inside, a bag the woman hadn’t noticed until then clutched in his paws. Sybil raised a brow when, instead of just dumping it on her carpet, the lagomorph gently placed the bag under the coffee table. Free from potential harm and the crumb zone, the woman noted. He jumped on the couch, already making himself at home by wrapping himself up in Sybil’s blanket like stuffing in a burrito.

“So.” The lagomorph eyed the snacks on the coffee table. The woman watched as Max snatched the largest chip bag of the bunch. Ripping it open, Max dug out a handful of salty goodness and stuffed it all in his mouth. “Where’s the kid?” he asked, crumbs spraying everywhere from talking with his mouth full.

Sybil grimaced. Tomorrow would be a clean-up day for sure. “I left Penny with a good friend of mine from work.”

“What is it this time? Graphic designer?” Max picked at his teeth. “Toy making? No!” He snapped his fingers. “Mall Santa!”

“Elf, actually.” Sybil said, making her way back towards the kitchen. “Hired me on the spot after finding out I’m a mother.”

“Must be desperate to avoid any lawsuits this year.” Max commented and dumped the rest of the bag down his gaping maw. “Probably don’t wanna lose another Santa.”

“Lose another Santa?” the woman parroted, confusion plain in her voice. “I don’t remember hearing anything about a Santa being arrested last year.” Max flattened out his blanket nest so his arms were now free to move about. He grabbed a soda and popped it open.

“Whaddaya mean?” The lagomorph took a small sip before continuing. “You were there! I kidnapped you that mornin’ to help me get a present fer Sam! Near ‘bout had a heart attack when he burst in and handcuffed the bastard.” He traced the rim of the can, ears drooping a bit before shooting right back up. “Right?”

Sybil had to tread carefully.

“The popcorn’s done. Why don’t you get it while I turn on the tv?” Max was silent for a beat. While subtle, she could see his jaw tighten, grin turning forced. The grip on his soda tightened, leaving tiny dents in the aluminum. And yet, just as quickly, Max was bouncing back. Literally, as he’d jumped to his feet.

“You actually trust me to go within six feet of yer microwave?” the lagomorph said. He brushed away an imaginary tear. “I’m touched!”

“Get going before I regret my decision.”

“You probably should.”

“Go.” The woman chuckled, playfully shoving him towards the kitchen archway. Max ‘harumphed’ and left the room. Sybil rolled her eyes. It was all just for show. The guy was a drama queen through and through. What had caught her eye were the muscles in Max’s shoulders. The habit leftover from her old job as a masseuse proved to be useful, for they were tense, almost like the lagomorph was preparing to fight.

Or flee.

Sybil reached over the side of the couch and pulled out the remote. After finding the device in Penny’s mouth one too many times, she’d decided to buy one of those stupid arm slings to hold it. Admittedly, it worked pretty well. She flicked the tv on, muting it before leaning to get comfortable. Flipping through channels, the woman looked for the right one. No, no, uggh, ah-ha! Now she could really get settled in.

Before she could really hunker down, Max slid in front of the flat screen. His back faced Sybil, pristine white fur now covered by a long-sleeved purple pajama shirt, both sleeves and matching pants rolled up. Bowl held over his head, he leaped back onto soft cushions, stray pieces flying to hit Sybil’s arm and leg. Her gaze traveled over Max and she stifled laughter with a hand as she saw what was hovering over his chest.

“Merry Christmas, Ho, Ho Hoes?” she read, giggles bursting through her fingertips. For the first time that night, Max’s smile turned genuine. The lagomorph puffed his chest out, pride radiating off his person.

“Jealous?” he nearly purred.

“Hardly.”

“Green doesn’t become you, Sybil.” Max sing-songed.

Said woman gasped. “I’ll have you know it brings out my eyes!”

“Whatever helps ya sleep at night!” Max shot back.

The two started at each other for a moment before bursting into hearty laughter. Some of the tension from before ebbed away as they clutched their quickly hurting middles. Wiping away small tears, she glanced over at her friend. A weight Sybil hadn’t known about lifted from her shoulders as the rabbit devolved into giggles, stray pieces of popcorn flying everywhere.

“You know,” Sybil scootched back to her side of the sofa, "I was wondering.”

“Bout what?” Max tossed a kernel and caught it with a loud crunch.

Sybil gestured towards the television. “Why Hallmark movies?” She tucked her legs under her. “I thought you hated those.”

Max froze, caught off-guard by the woman’s question. He recovered fast, face blank as his attention turned to the movie. The woman on the screen- the heroine, Sybil assumed- walked under a garden arch adorned with Christmas lights. A man followed close behind, a look of complete adoration gracing his features. Slowly, he plopped the dish onto the middle cushion.

“Yeah,” he brought his knees to his chest, “I do.”

“Then why…?”

Max buried himself in Sybil’s blanket. He placed his chin on his knees. “How long’ve we known each other, Sybil?”

Sybil tilted her head quizzically. “About two or three years now, I think.” She paused. “Why?”

Snow began falling in the movie. The woman laughed and pulled the man towards a tackily-decorated gazebo. He followed without fail, lips flapping as he probably spouted cheesy dialogue.

“It’s funny, ‘s all.” Max said, sad little smile on his muzzle. Sybil had a feeling he didn’t really mean it. “From what I remember, it’s been at least five. But then again,” the lagomorph tapped his head, “Never did have the best memory.”

“Don’t sell yourself short Max.” Sybil scooted closer and lightly placed a hand over Max’s. He flinched but didn’t move to rip the limb off. She took it as a good sign, welling with pride as she squeezed the paw. “You’re smarter than you think. But that’s not the real issue here, is it?”

“Dunno. You tell me Miss Psychotherapist.” The rabbit tried to crack a joke, but the woman wasn’t having it.

“Max.” she said, slightly increasing the pressure on his hand. By now the soon-to-be couple were sitting on a bench found in their temporary shelter, shoulders brushing while they talked. “You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong. But know, as your friend, I’m here for you.”

Max tossed the words around in his head. He pulled his hand from Sybil’s and grabbed a mug from the table, whipped cream already melted into the warm cocoa. Holding it with both paws, the lagomorph took a deep breath.

“It happened a few years. You n’me were just fuckin’ around at one of our movie nights.” His grip tightened around the porcelain handle. “Landed on the channel and had the crappy idea to mute it and write our own story.” Patiently the woman waited as Max took another swig.

“Was so stupid.” the rabbit mumbled, corners of his mouth pulling up just so. “But fun. Were laughin’ our asses off by the end of the night. When I was ‘bout to leave, you suggested we do it every year and-“

“You wanted to keep the tradition going.” Sybil finished, voice wrought with understanding.

Max sent his friend a look, mouth shutting with a clack. “Somethin’ like that.” The rabbit’s gaze wandered back to the film, pang in his chest at the woman and man twining their fingers together. “Guess I just wanted something familiar in m’life.” he confessed.

Sybil peered at her friend intently. “…Have you told Sam?”

“Hell no!” Max said. “He’s the last one I wanna tell!”

“Is something going on between you two?”

“No.” he lied, thumb running over the edge of Sybil’s mug.

“Did he do anything? Because I know the guy can be dense sometimes-”

The lagomorph shook his head. “Yer readin’ too much int’ it Sybil.”

The heroine and hero were staring at each now, the camera rotating around the outside of the gazebo in a way that had to make some people sick.

“…Has he been distant lately?” Sybil tried, sadness clawing at her throat when Max’s ears pinned against his skull. “Do you know why?”

Max bit the inside of his cheek. “No. But what I do know,” the rabbit hugged the mug closer, “is that he’s been weird round me. It’s like…” he tugged at his pajama sleeves, racking his brain for the right words, “guy’s always on edge. Just yesterday me and Sam were caught n’ the middle of a few mafia goons.”

“Tis the season.” Sybil chimes in, prompting a snort from her friend.

“Bullets are flyin’ everywhere, the smell of gun smoke heavy in the air. I take two of ‘em down no prob but then,” Max furrows his brows, “then Sam just freezes up. Had ta save his sorry ass and off the rest myself. When I asked what happened, he tried to play it off like it was no big deal!”

“How long’s this been going on?”

“Not too long after we started dating.” The lagomorph sighed. At that moment, the man pointed out a sprig of mistletoe hung on the ceiling. Trapped like rats, the two hesitate but for a beat before kissing. “Makes me feel like, like-”

“You’re the problem.” 

Max pouted. “Stop that!”

Sybil chuckled. “Sorry. Force of habit. Still.” She placed a hand on Max’s shoulder. “You should tell him. You two may be terrible at talking about anything emotional, but Sam appreciates honesty.” The woman squeezed it and slid back to her claimed space. “He’ll listen. You’ve just gotta trap him somehow.”

[honey-hippie-harper]

AFGSHA THIS IS A BIRTHDAY GIFT

SOOOOOOOOO...THIS IS MY FIRST FIC IN THIS BLOG AGSHAG AND IT’S A GIFT FOR THE WONDERFUL @cerenoya !!!!

Happy birthday, hon :’) <3 I’m VERY far behind  in everyone’s content at the moment, but I’ll spam you soon afgshaghaj. I hope you have a wonderful day, and that you enjoy your birthday (2020 it’s almost over, carry on :’)!) and always remember that you’re wonderful and super kind :’)

ly! And I hope you enjoy this :’) <3 (i way trying to be funny i’m sorry)

Hey Dear Kai,

Who even writes by hand anymore? I don’t know.

But notes were not working, I don’t know why.

Not that they weren’t physically working. They were. I just didn’t know how to like intellectually write this and it wasn’t working. Stars, this is not working.

I can’t do a keysmash in here.

It’s not my fault I thought this would be nice and then it wasn’t, though I know you will tell me it’s nice anyway.

I’m not good at doing the talking. Or the writing. But lately I’ve come to the realization I kinda (kind of?) like hugs, though I don’t know how to hug people. I like being hugged. Yes. I think that’s the expression.

I like being hugged sometimes a lot. And I have several (and very disrespectful) mechanic pick-up lines that I’m never going to use with you because you’ll think I’m nasty and I’m trying to get married.

Anyway.

I’m not good at doing the talking. So... I’m going to start right at the beginning.

Selene.

I can’t remember the time when I was Selene. The first time I was Selene.

But I remember the fire, because I feel it in my dreams sometimes. I’ve been feeling the flames all my life, even before I met you, and I might have felt them even before I was awake. If I did, I can’t remember, which I’m glad about.

I think you remember Selene better than I do. Honestly, I’ve built Selene based upon what the ones who loved her had told me about her. I know the sound of her voice, because Jacin described it to me. I know the way her hands felt, and how she smelled like cotton, because Winter told me. I know she had thick, straight hair, because Garrison Clay told me. I know she looked like her mother, because many people told me. I know she was declared dead in several occasions, for the different time zones. And I know they were wrong in each one of those, because Sage Darnel told me.

I know she was strong, because you told me.

You didn’t get to know her, yet somehow you never gave up on her, and sometimes I still ask myself why but that’s just you, I guess.

Kai, you’re very strange. Funny???? Odd???????

??????

I find it hard...

I think…

I find it hard to understand how a person like you can just be…you. But I think that, after thinking about it for a while, I’ve managed to come up with an answer.

I think that’s just the way you are.

It takes a lot of courage and patience to see those who don’t wanna want to be seen, and yet you decided to see me, right in the moment when I had spent my whole life being told how unpleasant I was to look at (*waves towards Adri if she’s among the crowd* *I don’t wanna invite her tf* ). I don’t think you cared that much about that, and I’m kinda kind of glad you didn’t. You had already done too much by getting close to me during a global pandemic in a stinky market and besides my resting face is not very pretty but you decided to stay longer than that, still. Nobody likes being pushed away, I don’t think.I didn’t back then, and I still don’t, even now.

I remember Adri a person told me once: “How can you look inside of the soul of a person who has no eyes?”

Personally, back then I didn’t understand why people were so obsessed with eyes, but that phrase left a scar on me, and in that 36.28% part of me I’m slowly growing to accept. I guess that, what I got from that was that a person like me could have no soul whatsoever. But the first time something hurt worse than that, it kind of occurred to me: well, maybe I do have a soul.

I don’t think you ever doubted that, though. You’re not the type of person who questions other people’s humanity.

I’m glad you’re not.

I don’t know what got into you the moment you decided I did have a soul, or that I was worth it, but I suppose that, the moment you did, was the same moment you decided to stay.

I didn’t tell you to stay. You just did, even though you had the right to leave. Not once, but many times.

There’s been times when I think I knew you from a past life, if such thing exists, and that maybe my place was there, waiting until you arrived wearing a hoodie during a very hot day. That’s just a thought that has occurred to me a couple of times and idk why . And I just…don’t know why.

Maybe I didn’t know you in a past life. Maybe it was Selene.

But I know that before I knew you in this life  I was just waiting for something that, at that point, it seemed like it would never arrive.

Then a lot of things happened.

And then you happened.

Back then, I didn’t like being hugged, because I didn’t know what a hug felt like.

I do, now.

I didn’t know what a lot of things felt like, but I do now, because now I have a family that loves me, and I know that, when I come home after a long day, you will already be there, waiting for me, just like I waited for you.

I’m not good at talking, or writing or expressing whatsoever but I feel like, during that time, when I felt hopeless, and the only two people who had been by my side until then were gone, I realized that people who claim they don’t want to be loved, it’s because they haven’t been loved before. It’s way more complicated than hugs, actually, because, with hugs, either you like it when people touch you or either you don’t, it’s a consent thing.

Once I was loved, I knew I wasn’t complete yet, but I was one step closer into getting better. And I’m still getting better, day by day, trying to fix every part that’s been broken, because, a person told me once: Broken is not the same as unfixable.

I’m so glad you were able to understand that, because I can’t picture a scenario in which you’re not in my life, and it’s not only because you decided to stay, but because you refused to leave, even when I was making it impossible for you.

I think you believed in me when I didn’t. You believed in me when I kept on refusing to go to that ball, and you believed in me when I fell down the stairs. You also believed in me when I told you not to marry my aunt broke into the palace and forced you to come with me, and you believed in me when I told you I was sorry about that.

Most importantly, you believed in me when I was me, even before all of this happened.

And you believed in me even before I knew I was me, because you refused to believe Selene was dead. I didn’t get to know her, but I’m sure she would be grateful, like I am.

I would like to say I love you but, evidently, if I’m struggling so much to write my vows, it means that I do, because I don’t want to mess it up.

But I already said it anyway, so, I love you, Kai.

If I had the chance to go back, I would choose you again.

And thank you.

Above of it all, thank you.

-Cinder.

[ghostbassist]

hellooo :))) I don’t know if take requests at the time, but maybe you can save this for later then. A JatP imagine based on the song Close as Strangers by 5sos, where the guys didn’t die and instead got to play the Orpheum show. Then get signed, popular etc. and goes on tour. I was thinking it could be Reggie x reader, and angsty but with a happy/fluff ending :) Like it shows the difficulties that come with a long distance relationship and different times zones and so on. Hope it makes sense 🥺

Close as Strangers

Masterlist

Requests

Add yourself to my taglist

Etsy

Pairing: Reggie x Reader

Warnings: None, I think

Summary: The distance is killing them as he travels for tour and she stays home.

A/N: I’m gonna be honest the first time I listen to this song was when I was setting up the prompt for this, now I’m obsessed. To whoever requested this, thank you. Also the band is aged up to collage for this imagine because it just worked better. I’m also trying to get through the request quickly so there might be spam for the next couple of days. Hope you like it, Much Love 🌻

Six weeks since I've been away And now you're sayin' everything has changed And I'm afraid that I might be losing you And every night that we spend alone It kills me thinking of you on your own And I wish I was back home next to you Oh, everyday You feel a little bit further away And I don't know what to say

That night at the Orpheum changed everything for the better. The boys got the attention of a bunch of record executives, causing them to get signed to a label. You were so happy for them, you guys went out to celebrate that night. 

The boys spent the next few months working on new music and practicing as much as possible. They announced to you that they were going on tour about 5 months after the Orpheum show. 

After about six weeks the distance was staring to take effect on you and Reggie’s relationship. Reggie was sat in his bed thinking about you and what it would be like to be back at your apartment together while the two of you watched a movie. He was missing these simple things more and more the longer he’s gone. 

Are we wasting time Talking on a broken line? Telling you I haven't seen your face in ages I feel like we're as close as strangers Won't give up Even though it hurts so much Every night I'm losing you in a thousand faces Now it feels we're as close as strangers

You and Reggie would talked when you could but it was never enough, you wanted to be able to hold him and cuddle him again. The last 3 months have been nothing but constant heart ache for the both of you. You had been together for the past 2 years but you had never been apart this long.

You missed Reggie’s goofy nature and his ability to make any situation lighter with just a few words. Reggie missed your smile and the way you would giggle when he would kiss you at random times. 

He gets on stage every night wishing you were there in the crowd just to see your face. You sit on your roof every night wishing the time would pass faster so he could be home with you.

Late night calls and another text Is this as good as we're gonna get? Another time zone taking me away from you Living dreams in fluorescent lights While you and I are running out of time But you know that I'll always wait for you Oh, everyday You feel a little bit further away And I don't know what to say.

Texts every night and calls when you could was never enough. Between Reggie’s rehearsal running almost all day and  your classes going all day you guys never had time to full talk.

Reggie’s dreams were finally coming true, but in the mist you were being left out. Doubt started to creep into your mind with everyday he’s gone. Wondering if you were part of his future if it was in music.

Meanwhile, Reggie mind was clouding in doubt as well. He was constantly wondering if you were gonna leave him because his new schedule and lifestyle. His heart would sink every time he would think about it and made it worse.

On the phone I can tell that you wanna move on Through the tears I can hear that I shouldn't have gone Every day gets harder to stay away from you So tell me... Are we wasting time Talking on a broken line? Telling you I haven't seen your face in ages I feel like we're as close as strangers

Somehow the two of you finally got time on your schedule to be able to have a conversation for longer than 5 minutes. Though, this conversation hadn’t turned out the way it was planned to. What started off as a normal conversation to catch up, had turned into a fight between you.

“Are we wasting time?” You asked him through the tears finally being fed up with neither of you approaching the subject that you both feared. “I haven’t seen your face in ages, I feel like we’re as close as strangers.”  Ending the call after he had failed to respond, you fell to the floor crying.

Six months since I went away And I know everything has changed But tomorrow I'll be coming back to you

You and Reggie haven’t spoken to each other since the call two weeks ago. You have felt the guilt continue to bubble the longer you didn’t talk. You had asked Alex to help set something up when he reached out saying Reggie was just as bad as you were.

You were standing in the crowd of the last show on their tour waiting for Reggie to notice. Luke had found you in the crowd before Reggie did though, pointing you out to him before turning to Alex who had a smile plastered on him face. Luke shook his head realizing it was something the two of you had planned.

Reggie met your eyes a grin spreading across his face. He read the sign you were holding, laughing as he realized it was his words. Your sign read, “Sunset Curve, Tell your Friends.” With the logo painted across it. 

After the show had finished you had walked backstage to find Reggie, only to have him find you first and pull you into a kiss, not caring who saw you.

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have yelled on the phone.” You say pulling away from the kiss. He didn’t care though, he just pulled you closer kissing your head, loving the fact that he had his girl back.

Taglist: @peachyxdream @lavenderthrills @noncannonships @bakubitchie27 @whyworry27 @dpaccione @lolychu @marinettepotterandplagg @avs-hart @losertron5000 @pinkflowercassy  @thexhotmess @schnapp-my-neck @bestdressedandstressed @comeonreginald @whats-up-aubz @kiss-themoongoodbye @jjsharmony @epikskool @whatever-happens-imma-stand-tall @savinoursanity @butterflycloss @caitsymichelle13 @moviesbooksandfandoms @hemmingsness

[razieltwelve]

Shield (Final Rose)

Averia glared and held Neo up to eye level. “You know, I put up with my sister clinging onto me like some kind of overgrown monkey because she is my sister. In fact, there is practically nothing I wouldn’t do for her if she asked me to. You, however, are not my sister, so you don’t get the same leeway.” Her eyes narrowed. “What did you do this time?”

Neo gave Averia her most charming smile. “What makes you think I did anything?” she asked in Diana’s voice.

Averia’s glare intensified, and she was satisfied to see sweat break out across Neo’s forehead. Good. The little twerp had been getting a little too overconfident lately. “Using your Semblance to mimic my sister’s voice is a nice trick, but it’s not going to help you. Now, quit playing around. Tell me what you did.”

Neo sighed. Using her hands, she signed out her reply. I may or may not have used my Semblance to sneak up on Yang and Blake when they were practicing. I also may or may not have taped post-it notes saying ‘kick me’ on their backs. And they may or may not have spent the past several hours walking around with those post-it notes on.

“…” Averia sighed. “Let me guess. When Blake started spamming clones everywhere, you used your Semblance to disguise yourself as a clone, so you could put the post-it notes on them?” 

Neo nodded and smiled sunnily. How did you know?

“Because although you’re an obnoxious, little troll, you’re also a cunning, obnoxious, little troll. Yang might not be the best at seeing through illusions, but Blake is very, very hard to fool. The only time you’d really be able to catch her off guard is when she’s juggling sensory input from dozens of clones, and I’m not sure even that will work once she’s gotten a better handle on her Semblance.” Averia waved Neo around in the air. “And that’s why you want to use me as a human shield, isn’t it?”

Neo grinned shamelessly. I’d ask Diana for help, but she’s in the middle of an important experiment in her lab.

“And what makes you think I’d help you?”

Because I’m Diana’s friend, and she’d be sad if I got mangled. Neo’s eyes widened as she caught sight of Blake and Yang stomping toward them. So you have to save me.

“Hand over the troll,” Yang growled.

“She needs to pay,” Blake added.

Averia looked from the two outraged members of Team RWBY to Neo. The petite girl again did her best to win her over with a charming smile, but Averia had grown up around Diana. Her little sister’s charming smile was a lethal weapon, so she’d developed some level of immunity to anyone else’s attempts to weaponise the expression. “I can’t let you kill her, you know that.”

Neo smirked.

Yang looked outraged, but Blake held up one hand. “What if we promise not to kill her?”

Neo’s smirk vanished.

“Oh?” Averia asked. “What did you have in mind?”

“That is a secret, but I can promise you that she’ll be perfectly fine tomorrow.” Blake smiled toothily. “There won’t be a single mark on her, in fact.”

Averia shrugged and then handed Neo over. “All right. As long as she’s fine tomorrow.”

What? Neo signed frantically as Yang grabbed her. As skilled as she, Neo was not going to have much luck breaking free once Yang had gotten a solid hold of her. The difference in size and strength was too much, to say nothing of the nine clones of Blake that popped into existence around her. You can’t just give me to them!

“I just did,” Averia replied. “And this is really for your own good.” She nodded sagely. “As Diana once said to me, the most important part of a good prank is getting away with it. Let this be a lesson.” Her voice took on an edge. “But I do expect you two to be reasonable. Nothing too serious.”

“Relax,” Blake said, patting Neo on the head. “I know exactly how far to go.”

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

You know how kids sometimes think of teachers as safe zones where they can run to escape the consequences of their misdeeds? Averia is basically that for the student body. She has, pretty much without trying to, become the “big boss” amongst students at Beacon, so she’s often called upon to arbitrate disputes and the like for people wishing to avoid the involvement of the staff. She thinks it’s because she is the daughter of a prominent huntress. However, it’s really because she’s the scariest, most tyrannical student in the academy, and her word is basically law.

But don’t worry about Neo. She’ll be fine. By tomorrow. And she may or may not be frantically trying to call Diana on her scroll for reinforcements. However, Diana might be busy… running an experiment on what kind of taco is the ultimate taco with Vanille, Raine, and (surprisingly) Winston.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

You can find my original fiction on Amazon here.

[pastthevaulteddoors]

Yugioh/Stardew Valley euroshipping drabble. I don’t think I’ll actually finish/edit this but wanted to at least share the idea.

Everyone was always excited to meet the new neighbors in Pelican Town. Elliott was still getting curious glances and he’d been living in his shack on the beach for over a year now. Ryou could still remember when he first arrived; Abigail had taken a keen interest in his work in the mines, and Penny instantly offered up her spot in the library for his studies.

It was like a small town welcome wagon and all the singles in town needed to have a peek at the new guy. Although, that was over five years ago and Ryou remained rooted in the single territory. He was far more interested in the dig sites in the mountainside than spending time gossiping with Pam and Gus at the tavern every Friday.

Professor Ryou Bakura liked his isolation at the dig site and only came to town once a month to resupply his cabin and maybe collect his latest intern. The old human burial grounds kept most of the villagers at bay, and gave Ryou a lot to do all on his own.

Heading to Pierre’s Store was a bit of a chore, and Ryou was always polite if distant to the locals. The interns never lasted long, so lugging all his supplies for the month wasn’t the most pleasant thing to look forward to. The town was so small all the roads were beaten down dirt paths that hardly no one owned a car and relied on the bus to swing through every few days.

“Welcome to Pierre’s!” said Pierre as Ryou came into the shop. Ryou smiled and waved politely before turning right to start loading up with essentials; canned vegetables and spam. Eh, who ever said the life of a archaeologist was glamorous?

“Did you hear about the new farmer in town?” Caroline asked casually as she stocked a shelf nearby. “He came in last month just after your last supply run.”

“I haven’t heard,” Ryou said, again with his sweet politeness that hadn’t waned over the years in the dirt and isolation. “I hope they make good use of the fertile soil.”

“Oh, the new guy?” Leah’s voice came from the isle over and she peaked her head around the corner. Her basket was full of fresh veggies and a goat cheese. “Ha! You should have seen him and Elliott go at it last time we went to visit,” the red head grinned wickedly. “It was an epic pissing match; I couldn’t tell if they were going to kiss each other or punch each other.”

Ryou smiled to himself. It took him awhile to get past the arrogant flare of Elliott’s vocabulary, unlike Leah, who was far easier to chat with if she weren’t zoned in on her latest art piece.

“Leah! That’s not a very polite thing to say,” Caroline chide the artist. Leah in turn shrugged and walked with Ryou to the check out counter.

“Going to stay down in the valley tonight and meet him?” Leah asked, setting her basket of leafy greens next to Ryou’s pathetic display of canned and preserved foodstuffs. “He likes to huff at the tavern on the weekends.”

“I really should get back to my work...” Ryou tried to decline politely.

“You can always stay in our spare room if you want to hang out at the bar tonight,” Pierre got into the conversation as he rang him up. “Instead of heading up the mountainside in the dead of night. I know Abby would happy to catch up and see what you’ve excavated recently.”

Ryou waved his hands, trying to decline yet again. It felt like high school all over again, except instead of fawning girls it was parents and friends trying to hook him up with someone. “I’d really rather get back to my-”

Just then the door opened, filling the otherwise dull shop with a cheerful jingle of a bell. Ryou turned quickly, hoping that whomever entered could be his escape to get them to lay off when he suddenly felt like he was punched in the stomach and all the air whooshed out of his lungs.

It had been over ten years since they saw each other in person, and otherwise Ryou had only caught clippings of articles about Duel Monsters and KC’s expanding empire. And yet...

And yet the Seto Kaiba he knew then was nothing that he saw now. Standing in the dusty doorway, yellow light holding up a halo of unkempt brown hair. His eyes weren’t easy to forget; hard and blue and guarded, but his pristine aura of steely white suits and perfection built from hard work and tragedy was gone. Kaiba was, well, absolutely filthy!

The holes in his jeans weren’t designer made, and his tshirt had pit stains. Kaiba had certainly remained as strong as before, as Ryou eyed his bare arms and the deep curves of his muscles and veins, and yet he had filled out. He wasn’t as thin as when he was at seventeen, screaming at Yugi across an arena.

As Seto approached, looking off to the side at a line of seeds for sale, Ryou noticed the mud stuck under his fingernails, the smudge of dirt across the bridge of his nose, and the pink of a too much late spring sun on his cheeks. Ryou felt suddenly very self-conscious of his own appearance, which was a very odd thing to feel. He reached up and grabbed at the split ends of his hair--it was growing past his ears again and he couldn’t remember the last time he had it cut--and wondered if the trek down the mountainside left him smelling of BO.

Because, despite how absolutely filthy Kaiba appeared, he was ten times more handsome that Ryou remembered. The rugged farmer look cloaked him in a masculinity that sent a pleasant shiver down Ryou’s spine.

“Perfect timing!” Caroline’s voice sounded far away.

“We were just talking about you,” Leah chimed in, smiling wide at Ryou for some reason. “We’re trying to convince the Professor here to stick around tonight for a drink to meet the new farmer boy.”

Kaiba finally turned his attention to the townsfolk with a look of vague familiarity, until those stunning blue eyes landed on Ryou. He froze, and Ryou was sure that was a flash of panic before he schooled his expression. Then, he grunt in greeting.

“Don’t be a grump,” Pierre leaned on the counter, beaming happily at Seto like he were an old friend. It was bizarre seeing the Great Seto Kaiba, Prodigy and CEO of the one of biggest companies in the world being addressed so casually. Even Yugi couldn’t coax a casual conversation out of him. “Seto, meet Professor Ryou Bakura, he’s the one living up by the mines working at the excavation site I told you about.”

“Professor?” Kaiba said, his guard still up with a muttered question.

“Mmhm, and Professor, this is Seto Isono, the new farmer,” Leah chimed in, something excited buzzing in her voice.

Isono?

Kaiba said nothing but stared openly at Ryou. It was almost a pleading look behind all the hard exterior, until Ryou realized it was actually a warning. There was no negotiations here about playing along with the false name.

“Right,” Ryou finally said, slowly with a little nod. “Seto Isono.”

Silence fell that could only be called awkward. Ryou wasn’t sure how to move forward, he hadn’t a clue what Kaiba... Isono was playing at and remained quiet to let the other take the lead. If anything, at least Ryou understood the need for privacy.

“You two, ah, know each other?” Caroline piped up, breaking the silence that lingered. She looked between the two with a curious gaze.

Still Seto remained quiet, his glare set in stone, so Ryou began speaking slowly... carefully. “We, ah, went to high school together,” he said. “Isono and I were in the same class.”

Seto seemed to appreciate that answer and grunt in agreement.

“What a small world we live in,” Pierre said.

“That’s perfect then!” Leah piped up, slapping a hand on Ryou’s shoulder, jostling him out of the staring contest. “Then you have to stay the night to catch up.” A grin turned to Seto then. “I’ll tell Elliott to come by the tavern. I’m sure he’ll want to hear all your high school hi-jink!”

A withering look was turned her way, the first non-Kaiba expression Ryou had seen him make.

“I’ll have Abby make up the spare room,” Caroline said as she trot away to find her daughter.

Ryou felt himself deflate. Great, he had no idea what Seto ISONO’s deal was, and what they could possibly ‘catch up’ on? Aside a few death-defying duels and that one time he was trapped from the Plana, he wasn’t sure that Seto even knew who he was.

[the-prophet-lemonade]

do you have any advice on getting a story to be seen? i made an ao3 account not too long ago so no one has seen my fic at the moment but i was wondering if you had any tips on that, or would i just have to wait?

hello! i can’t claim to know what makes a fic popular as it’s 99% luck, but i can speak for the remaining 1% that has worked ~reasonably~ well for me in the past. 

i think there are three key elements to getting a fic “seen”: marketing, branding, and presentation, and they’re all very important. this post got very long, so please find everything under the cut! i hope it helps :-) 

i. marketing

fic marketing may seem a bit narcissistic if you haven’t done it before, but trust me on this: it’s the best way to attract readers and you deserve to promoted your story as something you worked hard upon!

drumming up hype for a fic is great. you can do this by posting on social media, providing sneak peaks on your twitter, involving yourself in the fandom community and discussing your wips with other fans, and just generally being excited about what you’re creating. engaging with other people’s writing is also a great method to help boost your own stats … get involved with reading other work and leaving comments for other people, because they will be more likely to return the favour! when someone comments on my fics, i often go and check out their profile and see what they’ve written, as it’s highly likely we enjoy the same things! 

making promos is one of my favourite ways to engage with people about fics. once i post a fic/new chapter to ao3, i also crosspost promo posts with links and graphics to my twitter and tumblr. you will need a good hook to get people interested, but also an eye-catching image that summarises the story pictorially can be a great asset (you don’t even need photoshop, just a nice moodboard will do!). when using images however, it’s always important to think how the image size will appear in tumblr’s dimensions and on your own blog … make sure it’s not stretched or the resolution too low, and create something with a good visual flow i.e. the title appears first, then the necessary information, then any teasers or extracts. you need to make your fic post stand out on someone else’s timeline, which may already be filled with a bunch of other fic posts, jostling for attention. make it neat, clean, informative, and professional.

make sure to use the tagging systems efficiently for your chosen social media platforms: only the first five tags count on a tumblr post, so choose them wisely (i.e. use the key fandom tags first and save your personal blog tags for after), and only two hashtags count on twitter before it’s marked as spam, so go for the ship tag!

creating your own fic tag on twitter can also be fun, and i’ve seen a lot more people doing it lately too. you can encourage people to tweet along with a specialised hashtag and then you can find their reaction and engage with them later, which once again expands your fandom circle and will increase engagement on tweets associated with your fic.  

another trick i’ve learned is utilising time zones and understanding the demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach. i am very careful to post my fics at certain times of day in order to reach key people e.g. i will try to hit either europeans or americans during the evening, as this is when most people are home from work and wanting to read fic. as a european myself, especially involved in fandoms with high levels of european fans, i usually post during the early evening for CET time zones i.e. 7 or 8 pm and i tend to find this works for me. 

with tumblr, i often delay my promo posts so that i post when it’s likely to get maximum interaction (you can see when your blog is most active using your tumblr analytics) … use your queue if need be! 

i also take care in reblogging/retweeting my promo posts at certain times of day too. i will usually bump the post just before i go to bed, so as to grab americans in their early evening, and then i will bump it again in the morning when i wake up, to catch australians and west coast americans still awake. i then usually keep bumping my promos once a day for two or three days on my social media to cast a wide enough net to catch as many people who might be interested, as not everyone checks their timeline every day and social media swallows up posts so quickly, especially tumblr which is not built for original content creators to do well (lol). i will usually bump a promo post 5 - 7 times before retiring it and this is a model that’s worked well for me in the past, especially for droplets, which would get 500+ notes per chapter!  if you’re anxious about this, know that most people will only see your post once or twice because tumblr moves fast and swallows posts up very quickly, and sometimes people need reminders to read if they decide to save things for later when they have more time

ii. branding

the benefits of branding mainly come from experience, so it’s a tricky thing to utilise if you haven’t published fic before … but there are still tricks worth trying! 

certain fic writers will attract readers to new fics just because their name is attached to it, and people know the sort of story they’re getting, they know how it’ll be written, the sort of tropes that will appear, that sort of thing. obviously, building up this sort of brand requires publishing a lot of work, and so it must be said that practice makes perfect: the more you write and publish, the more your fics will be seen and your audience will grow. people will regularly see your username in the tags on ao3 and be more inclined to click on you as someone who reliably produces good content. it’s important to remember that everyone starts from the same place and works hard to improve their craft; success doesn’t just come overnight (unless you’re in the right place at the right time) and any creator will tell you that compliments to their talent aren’t what matters, but instead, it’s compliments to their dedication and hard graft. 

another key thing about branding is how you present yourself online. the most important thing in my opinion is cohesion across your social media platforms e.g. having the same username on ao3 as you do on tumblr/twitter/wherever you promote your fic. having an easily navigatable blog with working hyperlinks and archiving of your fic work is also great. basically, building a clean interface for people to engage with your work is vital! having the same icon and username across all your social media makes it so much easier for readers to navigate between your fics and your promo posts … basically, the easier you can spell something out, the better

branding is mostly to do with how you advertise yourself, rather than the particular fic, although much of it overlaps. get your name out there by engaging with other writers and making friends and appreciating their work! this is often the best way to get inspired, plus you get to meet some amazing people. i recommend trying out for zines and big bangs and writing challenges, as these are good ways to show your work to already-established audiences. also, make yourself available by interacting with commentors or by opening up your inbox on tumblr to anons. try linking your social media and your inbox as hyperlinks in the authors note of your fic

iii. presentation

this is really fundamental and is often the main reason people will close out of your fic and not read to the end. people want to read fics that are easy to digest and have had care put into them. this includes a lot of things:

correct tagging i.e. are the tags coherent and not just rambling? are there appropriate trigger warnings in place? have you unnecessarily tagged every side pairing under the sun, rather than just the main relationship?

grammar and spelling. goes without saying … people are more likely to read things that look professional and have had care poured into their preparation. make sure you know how to use speech punctuation. revise how to use commas. avoid epithets (especially racially-aggravated ones). get yourself a beta if you’re worried, because betas are godsends!

paragraphing. so many people will close out of a fic if it isn’t correctly spaced. double spaced paragraphs look best on ao3 and i often won’t read a fic if the paragraphs are too long because it hurts my eyes to read. make sure you’re starting new speakers in new paragraphs. new ideas deserve new paragraphs. basically, every time the “camera” changes, you should be starting a new paragraph. not just a new line. 

summaries. i see so many fics on ao3 with summaries that are either apologising for being bad at summaries or apologising for a fic being bad/being a first fic, and like … stop this! own what you have written, no-one else will have written it the way you have and you should be proud of it. if you’re saying in your summary that it’s a bad fic, i’m not going to click on it as a reader. instead, utilise your summary to get people hooked … good hooks can be written a load of different ways, but the best ones i see often involved a snippet from the fic as a taster, and then a couple lines of blurb. get people excited! 

titles: i’m personally more likely to click on a fic where the title is either (a) correctly capitalised or (b) is clearly chosen for its aesthetic or meaning (i love long lower case titles with parentheses lol). choosing a memorable title is really helpful, especially one that can be shortened or abbreviated for social media (e.g. for hashtags)!

all this being said, traffic on ao3 is a crytpid at best and obeys little in the way of rhyme or reason. you can put blood, sweat and tears into marketing your fic, but sometimes, just being in the right place at the right time (writing for the right niche) is what does it, so being a fic writer requires a lot of patience. first and foremost, write for yourself. write what you want to read and enjoy doing it, because if you get sucked into obsessively checking stats, it’s only going to disappoint when you don’t achieve what you want to achieve. 

just keep persevering and keep writing and appreciating each and every person who takes time in interact with your fic and its promos … because ultimately, all it takes it that one reader to fall head over heels in love with your fic for everything to change. for now, just be proud of your work and keep writing!

[wizardoftrash]

War Cry, Rules Leak, and Analysis

As you’ve been able to tell from my feed lately, that I’ve been really pumped for the next hot skirmish game by GW: War Cry.

Earlier today, some leaks surfaced of the inside of the core rules. I won’t post the link myself, but cruise around the facebook group or subreddit and you’ll find it soon enough. I didn’t read it all (skimmed the campaign rules) but read enough to get a general feel and form an opinion.

VERDICT: Its what I needed

Not disappointed, and certainly pleasantly surprised to find that the rules are built in a way that takes a few of my favorite features from Necromunda and cuts out a ton of the busy-work. I didn’t think I wanted something that was super streamlined and less customizable, but the more I think about it, the more I think its what I needed.

As much as I enjoy considering the loadout options for a model in games like Necromunda, I frequently find that it causes me grief. Is this weapon the right choice? Am I spamming this? Should I go with the stronger weapon or the cooler looking one? Lots of decisions, and lots of equipment options that come in a kit that I just ignore (looking at you stub guns). It occurred to me that even though Necromunda has a huge post-game trading post, that I’m not willing to buy most of those options for a gang, because I’d have to build a model for the new weapon, which I’d only be able to use mid-campaign in future campaigns (unless I magnetize). For other players in my group, this is often too much to keep track of, to much paperwork, and too many decisions to make in a timely manner.

There appear to be a couple of loadouts for some of the miniatures, sometimes making it a different fighter, but apart from that all of the campaign customization is “invisible” (meaning doesn’t need any kind of changes in WYSIWYG). That means if you build your band roughly the way you want it (or magnitize the two loadouts when it applies), you can’t really go wrong. Not having a huge table of weapons and gear to attach to the model moves the decision: instead of deciding what equipment I want to give a character, I’m deciding what character (and all of their equipment) I want to use.

The game also clearly plays much faster than Kill Team, which was advertized as a quicker tabletop game to begin with. Where Kill Team ran into an issue, because the Movement phase was very much an “orders” phase, people paused to strategize, and again when it came to activating individual fighters. War Cry cuts right to the chase (more like Necromunda) of activating individual models with a simple 2 actions. Executing moves and attacks is even faster than in Kill Team, as there is no longer the tedium invovled in seperately rolling to hit, wound, and save (and sometimes another save in the form of feel-no-pain abilities). and rolling AGAIN to see if its just a flesh wound. In War Cry, an attack is one big roll, and then you just put damage on their model (which has a bigger health pool instead of like 1-2 wounds). This is ACTUALLY faster.

Lets talk about cards while we are at it. There is a nifty sorta-modular deck of cards for determining deployment zones, terrain, objectives, and twists. The optional 40k decks that did this sorta thing I loved, so of course I’ll appreciate it in War Cry.

The real surprise for me though is the fact that the starts for your warbands are also on cards, and NOT in the core rulebook. While some might consider this a negative (what, I have to buy cards to use my exising models now? AND a rulebook?) it means we don’t have to reference the rulebook for our own team’s rules, and can instead keep pages open for actual rules sections. I always hated flipping back and fourth between my team, their team, a rule, back to my team to reference an ability etc. We have to use 3rd party apps and list managers to produce reference material that doesn’t require us to flip to a page every time we need clarification, but not for War Cry, because our rules are on those cards. This is a massive assist.

Sure I was impressed with how the models and terrain all looked, but the big selling point in this game to me is that there are huge quality of life improvements here over their other games. Its not dumbed-down, the mechanics that are simpler either cuts away at minutia that didn’t need to be there at the start, or removes “options” that you would never want to take. Its a breath of fresh air, and from the standpoint of someone who orchestrates and runs our local events and campaigns, its a huge load off of my shoulders to know that the game itself will be fast and simple.

TLDR very pleased!

[hershelsstyles]

Lost in Japan

Part 3 - Harry gives Nina a backstage tour

word count: 2,281

Series masterlist

The city gets dark and after having dinner at a local restaurant, I go back to my hotel. After I check in and get up to my room, the first thing I do is pull my SD card out of my camera and shove it in my laptop.

I look at the amazing images I got from today, I choose my favorite and post it to Instagram. I tag the location and write a small caption.

Less than a few minutes later, the picture has over 2,000 likes, and so many comments saying the same thing.

"Omg Harry's in Tokyo to!! Is that why he followed her?"

I remember how Harry said he would be in Japan soon. My stomach starts to feel bubbly. Why am I feeling nervous?

After chilling, I open my laptop again and decide to read through my emails. It's crazy how when you gain a small following on Instagram the number of random companies email you with all sorts of weird brand deals. Almost all of them are spam, but I come across one email from a personal Gmail account that I don't recognise. I click on it.

From: Jefferyazzof@gmail.com

Hello, you have been invited to Harry Styles live on tour in Tokyo on the 12th of May. Please be at the venue at 7 pm, give your name to the box office to collect your tickets. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Kind Regards

Jeffery Azzof,

Full Stop Management.

This is insane. I immediately check the date as I have basically been jumping time zones throughout the last week, I have no idea what day it is. Today is the 11th of May, that means the concert is tomorrow. My heart is skipping beats, I feel so excited. This is actually crazy, Harry has invited me to his show! How does he know I'm in Tokyo? I know I told him I was going to be in Japan soon, but I never specified dates. My phone buzzes in my lap. Its a notification from Instagram, @harrystyles liked your post. I open the app to see which one he liked, it's not even my latest post, he's looking through my feed.

I don't even have to think about whether I'm going or not, there is no question about it. I don't know if I'm supposed to reply to the email or not. I decide against replying because firstly I would know what to say or not sound desperate. I sit on my bed and try to comprehend what just happened. I think about what I'm going to wear, what is it going to be like? Am I going to see him? Obviously, I'm going to see him perform, but will we get the chance to see each other again?

I decided I should probably listen to his album some more if I'm going to his show. As I'm getting ready for bed I'm singing the words to 'Sweet Creature', his album is actually really good. It so different to One Direction but I find myself starting to really like it. I wonder if it's going to sound different live, what kind of show he will put on. I fall asleep listening to ‘From the Dining Table.’

The next morning when I wake up, I remember the events of last night and my evening plans and my stomach is doing flips. I'm so excited, but nervous. As I hop in the shower and get ready for the day I can't wipe a smile off my face.

Today I was planning on going to the gardens Harry suggested I visited, and since the show is at 7 pm I still have the whole day ahead. After spending the day around Tokyo shooting the whole time, I head back to my hotel around 5 pm so I can get ready.

After I shower, I straighten my hair. I put on a bit of light makeup which consists of a tinted moisturizer, bronzer, a swipe of highlighter on my cheekbones and eyelids, mascara, and lip balm.

I put on my outfit which is a red dress which comes above my knees and has buttons down the front. It light and summery as Tokyo weather is warm, and so is a concert. I decide against any fancy shoes and settle with my old skool black vans, I'm going to need comfort as Ill probably be standing the whole night.

After spending about 20 minutes trying to figure out a route to get to the venue on public transport, I decided to give up and call a taxi. I don't want to risk getting lost and being late. I make my way down to the hotel lobby just as the taxi arrives.

When I get to the venue I'm overwhelmed with how large it is. I quickly spot the box office in the crowds of people and make my way over. Next to me is the merchandise tent with very long lines. I look at the merch being sold as I join the much shorter line for the box office, my eye is caught by the 'Treat People With Kindness' t-shirts, I love that, he's using his platform to spread such a nice message. I really want to get one but the line is so long and I'm already in the line for the box office.

Soon it's my turn to step up to the window. I begin to realise the person working probably doesn't know English, and I don't think my Japanese is good enough to explain why I'm here. My worries soon disappear as when I approach the window she greets me in English.

"Hello, how can I help you today?"

"Hi, um I was told to come here and pick up a ticket for Nina Grey"

"One moment please," she says as she types into her keyboard. I nervously watch her in anticipation, maybe that email was a joke, my email is in the bio of my Instagram, anyone could have sent it.

I start feeling hot, and not because of the warm weather, my nerves are kicking in. She then picks up the phone next to her and starts speaking quickly in Japanese. I can't understand anything she's saying other than when she says my name.

She puts down the phone, I'm fully preparing myself for her to start laughing at me and tell me there no ticket for me.

But she instead smiles at me "I will just print your ticket now, Jeff will be here to take you inside soon"

I recognise the name Jeff, the guy who sent the email. A flood of relief comes over me. The lady hands me my ticket and tells me to wait by the VIP check-in area for Jeff. I thank her as I walk away.

Not long after, a tall man in his early thirties walks over to me, he reaches out his hand to shake mine. "Hi, you must be Nina, I'm Jeff, Jeffery Azzof. I'm Harry's manager, the guy who sent you the email."

I shake his hand, "Hi yes I'm Nina, nice to meet you."

"Well, we better get you inside, ah and before I forget you will need this." He hands me a lanyard with backstage written on it.

"Follow me." He says.

"I really wasn't expecting this, thank you"

"No problem, now I'm just warning you, backstage can be pretty chaotic, so try not to get in the way, everything needs to run smoothly." I nod while we keep walking.

I can tell Jeff is good at his job, his tone wasn't rude or mean, just simply being honest, which I appreciate.

We pass a security guard as we enter through a large door, Jeff waves and smiles. The security guard doesn't say a thing. Jeff was right about backstage being chaotic, there is staff running around, people chatting, eating, and getting ready.

Jeff takes me to the main area where there's a food and drinks table, there's also couches and tables all around, and a ping pong table in the middle of the room. The table has the same words written on it as the merch, 'Treat People With Kindness'.

There are two people that are playing a seemingly serious game of ping pong. One of them looks to be a sound engineer as he's wearing all black and has earpieces, walkie-talkies, and many wires sticking out of his pockets. He hits the ball to the other person playing with him. It's Harry. He's wearing sweatpants, black vans, and a white t-shirt which I recognise, it's his own merch.

I stand and watch the game with Jeff, "Harry is very serious about his ping-pong" He says.

When Harry goes to hit the ball he looks up at me and smiles. He completely misses the ball and it bounces off the table onto the ground and under a couch. The sound guy throws his hands up in the air.

"I finally won! I bet the unbeatable Harry Styles!" Harry doesn't seem to care very much as he puts down his bat and walks over to me.

"Nina, how lovely it is to see you again!" He says going in for a hug. "Thank you for inviting me"

"No problem, I figured since you're here and all you might as well come! I didn't think you would to be honest, we have only met once."

"Of course I was going to come, who would say no to a free show?" I say laughing, he laughs too.

"No seriously, I had nothing else better to do, and I listened to some of your stuff and it's actually pretty good"

"Thank you, that means a lot. You look incredible by the way, red is defiantly your colour." I feel my cheeks starting to blush, and before I can say anything back he grabs me by the hand. "Okay let me show you around"

He first takes me to some dressing rooms, there is a hairdresser styling a guys hair sitting in a chair.

"Nina, this is Ayae our hairstylist, and Adam my guitarist getting his hair styled, because he defiantly needs it," he says jokingly.

"Adam, Ayae, this is Nina."

"Hi, nice to meet you guys"

"So this is the girl you met in business class while the rest of us were sitting in coach?" Adam says in a thick British accent.

"Yes actually it is, and I offered to upgrade you guys, but you all said no"

"Well, we will see you guys later, better get on with this backstage tour." Harry says as he walks out the door, I wave goodbye. The door to the next room is shut, as Harry knocks, I read the sign above it which reads 'Wardrobe'.

"Its always good to knock, I've definitely walked in on more people changing than I would have liked to," He says laughing.

"Come in!" An American voice yells out. Harry opens the door and there are two people standing there looking very suspicious.

"You guys were definitely making out weren't you?" Harry asks. "Definitely not!" the woman exclaims too overprotectedly.

"This is Mitch and Sarah. Mitch is my best friend and guitarist, and Sarah plays the drums, very well might I add." They both acknowledge me by nodding their heads.

"Hi, I'm Nina"

"So this is wardrobe where we keep all our clothes" Harry says as he runs his hand over all the clothing on the racks. "Okay we better be moving on" Harry says as he walks out of the room.

I'm shown around more places, and basically introduced to every person we see. Helene his photographer, Claire his pianist, and many more people I can't remember the names of.

He looks at his watch, "I'm going to have to go and get ready for the show soon, but I want to show you one more thing." He says excitedly.

I follow him as we wind down more hallways, through more doors, and the further we go the louder it gets.

"Warpaint the opening act is on now, but you have to see the crowd from here," he says as he runs up the metal stairs leading to the side of the stage.

I look out at the crowd, "Woah, this is insane" I say. The whole arena is filled. "Don't you feel nervous?" I ask "All these people have come to see you"

"I don't really get nervous anymore, only when there are people in the crowd I know, like you." He says, I smile and laugh, this is so crazy.

"Well we better go back now, I'm due on stage soon, this is their last song."

When we get back to the main backstage area, Harry goes up to Jeff and puts his hand on his shoulder.

"Make sure Nina gets to her seat alright"

"Sure thing" he says then gets distracted by his phone ringing. "Sorry gotta take this" he says walking away.

"Well Jeff is going to kill me if we get behind schedule, so I better be off to get ready. Thank you for coming tonight, I know its kind of odd I just met you, but I really wanted you to be here."

"No thank you for inviting me, that was really nice of you."

"Enjoy the show, see you after?"

"Sure, good luck Harry," I say smiling as he walks off down the hallway.

Jeff walks over to me and puts away his phone. "Okay should I take you to your seat now?"

"That would be great, thank you," I say as Jeff gestures me to follow him out the way he showed me in.

Part 4

[matronaa]

Jungkook “fuckboy?” drabble

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Word count: 1,637

Genre: Fluff/mentions of smut?

Okay look its about 1 in the morning while im writing this and i just got done literally scrolling thru @jungshookz  e n t i r e page and honestly ive been delusionally laughing over her stories for like an hour and a half like the tattooartist!jungkook fic legit killed me i love it  and i’m probably going to force my friend to check her out because legit i love it so much and she seems like such a funny person and if she sees this 1) ily and ur writing and i wanna be friends but idk how to start a conversation because im a awKwARd bEan and 2) im sorry for probably spamming ur notifications with likes okay i couldnt help it so now im inspired for the first time in a while to write but im way to loopy to put together an actual fic so enjoy this ig

Okay i should stop rambling (okay just note that im so sleep deprived that i had to google ‘words for excessive talking’ to remember the word rambling because im an idiot and i cant think and ooo its 1:11 am rn make a wish b*tches)

Okay im sorry ill begin~

A/n all of this is completely unedited and if bad grammar annoys you srry not srry

Lets talk about what fuckboy!jungkook is oki

I feel like in reality there are just a bunch of rumors about him but hes so smol and hes the quiet type so he doesnt have the energy to dismiss them

Like im sorry soft jungkook is way to good in my mind rn okay #cuddles4days im not in the mood for him to strangle me with his amazing biceps

Anyway

you never rlly met him in the 4 years of going to the same highschool as him (since you’re in those smart people classes like humanities) until senior year

You and him had the same AP Lit. class lmao english class is  l i t

Which surprised you bc of the rumors like i thought he was a badboy ?? arent those normally idiots ??

Nah my bby is a smart nugget, he just likes to look hella bf 25/8

First day of school cliche where you show up late to class and have to sit next to him because i  d i e  for those plots okay

But you dont know thats him because you’ve never seen him, so you’re confused on why most of the girls keep glaring at you

But soon enough you catch on and you’re like fml

And then the professor is like “where you are sitting is your assigned seating for the rest of the year” and you’re like f m L

He ends up introducing himself to you because i mean like table buddies

But hes really nervous because hes a cute little bean and you’re hella cute cuz lets be honest ur probably wearing like basic black leggings and a hoodie with your hood over your head to hide the bed hair you didnt feel like brushing that morning

Oh, just me? Okay…

He likes ur name because it rolls off the tongue and he thinks it suits you even tho he doesnt know you

Yet ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

You dont really think hes a fuckboy because he seems so nice and he has the cutest lil bunny smile sEE

That is until after school u end up getting to ur locker late because u left something in one of your classes

And u see him pinning a girl against the lockers down the hall

And ur like well shit nvm

And u quickly get ur shit and go because das  a w k w a r d

But then he sees u run off and hes like awh crap i dun fucked up

A few weeks go by and u notice he barely really comes to class so u usually sit alone

On days he does come his chair seems extra close to yours and he’s basically smothering you

But u dont mind because he smells nice

And on the days he does come you get kinda excited because

1) you get a partner who doesnt expect you to do all of the work

2) this boy cute when he gets all intelligent

Ur  like “yes pls continue speaking about the essay we are writing that i have no idea is on because i kept getting lost in the sound of ur voice”

He notices when u zone out because you start staring at his lips when hes talking and he thinks its the cutest thing

One day u get assigned a week long project and ur close enough friends with jungkook to basically scold and force him to come to class all week

But only if he can force u to come to his house to work on it after school

Which you’re low key nervous of because ur going to a ‘fuckboy’s house’ by yourself

And u dont wanna do the dirty because ur a pure child haha not for long

But you agree anyway

And honestly even after the project is done (which you got an A on) you continue going over to his house because his bed is comfortable and he always has snacks

And his mom loves you

Like legit on days you dont go the next day you do she’s like “wheRE WERE YOU”

When the semester is over the professor lets you pick seats but you both enjoy each other’s company so you stay seated together.

finally ur at his house one day and ur just laying on his bed scrolling thru insta and he’s sitting on his bean bag in the corner on his phone and u look up at him and realise

Shit

You like him

Like a lot

And u mentally face palm because this was not supposed to happen

But it happened and you’re too far down the hole to climb out

Sometimes u end up napping at his house after school because his bed is more comfortable than yours and one friday night u wake up in his arms

And its like the best feeling ever

Its so warm and hes so cuddly hes like latched onto you

You stay under the warm blankets before you question when he even got in bed since he was playing video games before you fell asleep

And then his phone lights up and ofc you check it for him bc ur a nosey bitch

But not before you observed how adorable he was while he was sleeping

Nope not creepy at all

its his friend tae texting him (you didn’t really know his friends since you had different friend groups)

You check it and its smth like “stop staring at y/n while shes sleeping and reply u creep”

And you’re like w a t

So you scroll up and see that while u were sleeping jungkook went on a full rant on how cute u are and how whipped he is

And ur like holy fadoodles dis boy likes me

And so u decided to text tae like “this is y/n, does he actually like me”

Which turns into you both having a convo on how thirsty jungkook is until he wakes up

Hes like wtf r u doing and he snatches the phone and reads through your messages with tae while u like sit up to stare at him

And he’s still half asleep so it takes him to realise whats going on

“Omfg y/n i can explain-”

He starts rambling about how long he had been crushing on u and that he didn’t want to tell you because you seemed uninterested so he kept it a secret and never told anyone

And honestly he was freaking out because the onE tiMe he tells anyone that he likes you, you find out

But while he’s rambling you’re coming up with an excuse to text your mom that you’re spending the night at his house, so you just say he’s not feeling well and his parents are gone for the weekend.

Lmao she doesnt care she’s just like “lmao ik ur lying but have fun dont get pregnant”

Or Maybe thats just my mom idk

You have to shut him up by snatching his phone out of his hands and kissing him

When you pull away you’re just like “you talk too much lmao”

You explain to him that you like him too and u just get under the covers again and snuggle up next to him, and he wraps his arms around you

And you stay like that for a while before hes like “its late you should get home”

And you tell him you’re staying the night whether he likes it or not

And he is so down for that

But then you end up just spending the weekend there because why not his parents love you

And every night is just filled with cuddling, watching netflix, making out, late night snacks, etc.

Saturday night he gets a lil touchy and soon enough ur like straddling him and grinding your hips against his

But then he’s like “Ive never done this before” and you c o m b u s t

Ur like aren’t you like the school fuckboy how have you not done this

And he tells you its all just rumors and hes too lazy to set the record straight

And you basically decide to take things slow that night since it was you’re first time too and honestly it was so cute

It wasn’t really steamy rough sex it was more soft fluffy love making that is filled with giggling and exploring and appreciating each other

That was definitely the night you fell in love with him

Which is big because you thought love was gross

The next day you’re cuddling and he’s like “you know ur my gf now”

And ur like duh

You start going on cute dates after that like going to cafes or amusement parks

He loved taking you to the beach during the summer because u looked gr8 in a bikini

You found out you were going to the same college with was fantastic, so you decided to rent an apartment together nearby the campus instead of living in a dorm.

Which normally you’d be against because moving in together so quickly ?? but you felt different like this relationship was going to last

UNTIL HE CHEATED

Lmao jk gotcha bitch

My baby is too pure and innocent to cheat

Well innocent until you both get into bed and then oh lord it gets steamy

He wants to experiment with like e v e r y t h i n g and honestly you were down

But ofc you set some boundaries.

There were lines he couldn’t cross

I mean sometimes he tried but you shut that down real quick

Overall your relationship was perfect and you couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend

I mean he brought you pizza rolls and dr pepper to ‘study dates’ how could you not love him.

Oml it took me over an hour to write this its like 2:30 am why am i awake anyway imma go to bed now, idk ur name jungshookz but pls write more fanfics i need more to read late at night okay gnite

[sinesalvatorem]

It would be nice if I had some method of selecting for people who 1) live in or near San Francisco, 2) have shared interests, and 3) are willing to show up in the same place at the same time repeatedly.

#2 is probably the easiest, since my interests are so broad. Art, science, dance, language, space, nature, literature, social customs, religion, etc. And I easily pick up new interests, if people around me enthuse about them long enough. I’m now interested in dogs and gardening purely from osmosis, and I approve, because being interested in more things is a Good.

My problems start with 1 & 3 - the criteria of actually being able to see people face-to-face over long periods of time. My impression is that living in the same area and repeatedly visiting the same location (”Schelling point”, in rationalist vernacular English) is the most viable way to do this. Texting back and forth over whether our plans line up and if we like the same restaurant and oh whoops I guess I just wasn’t feeling it today - in my experience, that’s a mess and goes nowhere.

I don’t seem to be starting long-term friendships anymore. I’ve been racking up an impressive number of Facebook friends lately from meeting people at various socials - but then we never talk again. Or I’ll try to make plans with them to meet again and they’ll just be busy every single evening for the rest of eternity.

I would be happy meeting up in a park to dance. I would be happy going to the SF Exploratorium. (I’m a member! I can get you in for free! It’s such a cool science museum and you should definitely come with me!) I would be happy having picnics at the beach. I would even be happy sitting next to someone watching Netflix, if only I can stave off the “everything is sex; even watching TV while relaxing” meaning creep.

The only thing I need is being able to actually believe that I’ll ever see someone again. Because in this fucking city, I have met hundreds of people, but could probably count the ones I’ve seen repeatedly on my fingers. I can’t stand memorising a face, a backstory, an identity - coming to feel for someone and be invested in their wellbeing - only to have them slip back into the void of atomisation.

In my home country, this was impossible. There were 100k of us. We lived on an island. I could be damn sure I was going to see someone again, whether I tried or not. I never went walking with my dad without seeing a dozen people call out to him. That’s what it means to live in a community - to know that those familiar faces will keep popping up, and everywhere you go someone you know will smile and wave.

And that’s no longer a thing for me. My community is, like, my house. And I love my housemates, but two familiar faces is not an entire social life. Even piggybacking on seeing their friends isn’t enough. (Though it really really helps! I’m super grateful that they include me in their shit, take me to their shows, etc. I just don’t think much long-term connection has fallen out of it yet, besides to my housemates themselves.)

The closest alternative I have is REACH in Berkeley, which is an annoying commute but not impossible. Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite hit the “seeing friends recurrently” mark, because any given day that I go there I’m likely to see different people. I’m currently in a groupchat called “Berkeley Hangout Spam”, despite not actually being in Berkeley, just on the off chance that I might catch an opportunity to intersect with people I know on a day when braving the hellscreams of a trans-bay BART ride is something I can handle.

Also, to be honest, it would be nice to diversify myself beyond just the rationalist community + the friend group of my housemates. Especially since every now and then the rationalist community explodes in Drama, and right now a shit ton of my mental health depends on keeping myself out of any Drama whenever it comes up. It would be good to have friends who just straight up have no connection to my other social circles, so that when one of them happens to be on fire I can just chill the fuck out somewhere else.

The most obvious place I can think of to go looking for this sort of thing is social clubs. However, I feel intense awkwardness about visiting a club without invitation or introduction. Even explicitly open ones. It’s just way beyond my cultural comfort zone, because I’m only accustom to entering social groups by being brought in by a mutual friend. Just showing up leaves me floundering and having no idea how to talk to anyone, before eventually letting my anxiety force me out the door.

Anyway, this isn’t just vague complaining. It’s more of a problem statement. “This is the thing I believe I need in order to achieve my friendship goals, and here is my reasoning for why and constraints on how I can go about it.” If anyone has suggestions for how I can satisfy the “meeting people recurrently” goal, please tell me! If anyone thinks that some part of my reasoning is mistaken or overlooking something, please tell me that too! And if you have suggestions for how to not feel too awkward to talk to strangers at social clubs (and which clubs make this easiest), that would be a lifesaver.

[lunebinnie]

(1/14)I am so sorry for taking so long! (I also had to spend a lot of time studying this week bc I had my first exam for my Anatomy Lab on Wednesday... And then we had our first exam for *Lecture* Thursday (which also was the day I had a bunch of powerpoints due for my very intimidating adviser...) and then I had to substitute teach all day Friday (and then I meant to respond sooner but I got so busy 😭) so yeah I completely understand about school getting in the way no worries abt it!)

And also sleeping in on a day off when you’ve been busy studying lately is completely valid hon 👌 I hope that your midterms go well and that you’re able to stay healthy and take care of yourself in the midst of preparing! (not that you wouldn’t, I just have a bad habit of neglecting things like healthy sleeping and eating habits when I get caught up studying, so hopefully you’re not like me in that way) And yeah me too! I mean on the one hand I understand *why* they have that limit

3)If u could just send as many as u want there would be so much more spam and ppl would definitely abuse that. But also?? Um? I have a chronic condition called ‘Can'tShuttheFuckUp-itis’? 🤷 This policy is so discriminatory towards people like me who suffer from this crippling condition! I feel oppressed honestly 🙄 tumblr rlly has something against ppl just trying to get to know each other huh? Lol, but at least now we know why it eats them I’ll be sure to try to prevent that in the future

4)And oh my gosh that’s so cool! I’m super jealous!! 😮 lol. I wish they hosted kpop nights at my local bar! 😭😭 But no, I’m here at my little state college in a little 2 mi2 town just under pop 5500 (and idek if that’s before or after counting college students) in the middle of the 'farm zone’ of my state. All we get is country night @Riley’s 😩 RIP. But ya I wish I had more ppl around me who were into kpop! So far I’ve only met 3 ppl who listen to it. One was that roommate I told you about

5)One is just a casual listener who isn’t really into 3rd gen groups and mostly just listens to Girl’s Generation but that’s valid, and one isn’t even rlly a fan of any groups in particular, she just puts the kpop station on when she studies bc she says she needs music but if it’s in English she gets distracted, lol And omg that is insane! $500?? And 5 copies of the same album? 😲 (Says the girl who’s been a Monbebe for a hot 2 months and has already bought three (3??) Monsta X T-shirts… 😂

6)in my defense tho one of them was only $10 bc it was Black Friday? And u can’t blame me, Hot Topic is my krypotonite lmao) but yeah I already feel guilty about spending 30+ dollars on one copy of an album (thx international shipping) That’s so wild. And yeah I don’t get why ppl feel the need go out of their way just to insult other ppl’s music taste. I’m also pretty self conscious abt sharing my music taste and obviously the way everyone around me talks abt kpop has made me even moreso now 🙃

7) I haven’t gotten into too many groups yet bc I’m trying to go slowly and focus on getting into one group at a time but I do have a long list of groups I plan on getting into eventually! NU'EST is one that I’ve heard some of their songs on my Spotify based on my listening history and they’re on the list haha 😂 And omg I feel really similarly about Got7! I tried to get into them after I got into Monsta X and right before I got into Astro and although I did really like some of their songs

8)I haven’t really been able to get into their music as much as MX and Astro’s yet. I do think they seem like a really fun group in terms of personality though. As for the comeback I know right?? I mean I know a lot of ppl were freaking out abt the comeback being a 'sexy’ and how it wasn’t gonna be the same cute Astro we all love anymore. But they filled the MV with flowers and glitter and still managed to make it sexy as fuck! This album has a very different vibe but it still felt like them

9) They managed to pull off a more mature and sexy concept while still staying true to themselves and I’m so here for it! I don’t know if I could really pick a favorite era because I love them all! I mean Spring Up was an excellent era and every era since then has been great. They really don’t know how to have any bad concepts or make any bad songs huh? Lol. Since I’m still pretty new I really love the title tracks since I’ve heard them the most. (I have listened to their full discography

10)But I haven’t listened to their Bsides enough to pick out my favorites from those) I also really love Again though! The first time I saw the dance practice I was super into it and then I looked up the lyrics and was like 'this is supposed to be sad/regretful song it has no reason to be this much of a BOP?!’ 😂 I have such a hard time picking favorites though. Since All Light is new though I actually have listened to it enough times to pick some 'non-title song favorites’ from there haha

11) Other than All Night (which is great, obvi) I also really like Starry Sky, Moonwalk and Role Play 😂 and Bloom is so pretty oh my god! 😭😭 the album is great and has no bad songs but those are the ones I particularly like. I feel u about the dances honestly. I think that’s actually what drew me to kpop initially. I mean I like listening to the songs ofc but it wasn’t until after I actually watched an MV/saw the choreography that I actually was like… Oh shit I’m gonna have to be a fan now

12) It was the visual aspect that really made me want to be a kpop fan bc I haven’t really seen that level of performance with any western music. Which isn’t to say I think all western music is bad but I think it’s really impressive to watch kpop groups singing and also doing really impressive choreography and performing at the same time. Plus that’s the part I can show my family and say 'even if you don’t like the music because of the language barrier you have to admit they’re talented dancers’

13)And yes! With Astro especially I think the dance practices rlly succinctly capture the reason why I love them so much. They are *super* talented but they also have such great chemistry and u can rlly tell that they just love each other and have so much fun together! I love a family of six hardworking dorks! 🤧💗 lol. And yeah it’s too bad that neither of are able to see them this cb ☹️ (I also did the 'hypothetically…’ research but it wouldn’t have worked out 😒) I hope you’re right though!

14)Hopefully the success of this comeback is the catalyst to Astro getting more of the attention they deserve and there will be many more opportunities to see them in the future! (Although it is too bad we won’t be able to see live performances from this cb, since it’s so pretty 😭 tho with their track record I’m sure future cb’s will be just as good lol) But what about you? Do you have any favorite songs from this cb in particular? Talk again soon! (I’ll try 2 b better @ responding 😭) -AHA

FUCKKK okay so after like a million years of midterms + 2 days straight of sleeping ya girl is BACK to answer these asks after getting through the hurdle of copying and pasting and italicizing 14 asks onto one response on my phone. Did I perhaps fail at least 3 of my midterms? Quite probably. Do I have the energy to care atm? No. Did I need to get away from everything and fly to Boston to visit my friend for reading week? Yes.

How did all your exams go? That sounds crazy though! I hope you got through everything ok!

Tbh I have the same unhealthy habits too, I essentially became nocturnal and lived on like one meal a day + snacks and coffee 😭 fr, I would be writing my midterm from 11:30-1:30, go home to eat, sleep from 4-7pm, then wake up to study all night for the next one, and repeat,,,,, I’m like an actual mess tbh

Honestly as much as I’ve enjoyed the Aroha secret admirer thing (it was sooo nice getting to meet new people) rn I’m just so glad that post-reveal we don’t have to deal with tumblr ask limits and writing entire essay responses all in one go.

Honestly 3 shirts isn’t even THAT bad especially if they weren’t all like ordered from overseas so they wouldn’t have been that expensive. When I went to the Myeongdong underground shopping centre I went craaaazy with Kpop merch despite stanning (at that point, pretty much only) BTS for a whole 3 weeks, so I ended up coming back with 2 albums, a bunch of stickers, a photocard pack (also bonus: got an Astro one too) and like a BUNCH of bt21 stuff. Speaking of, my All Light album finally came in!! I ended up getting a Moonbin, MJ, Jinjin, and Sanha photocard plus the a Rocky lyric booklet and ik I basically got THE best set for someone who loves all of them w my whole heart 😩✊ but I’m still sad I didn’t get any Eunwoo cards since he was my first Astro bias 😭 it’s soooooo pretty I love it sm and like lowkey I’ll probably end up buying more of their albums anyway oopsss

Speaking of Monsta X btw, I heard their new song and I thought it was really good! What did you think of it?

Regarding favourite songs, I swear my moods change so much, so it’s pretty common for me to not love a song at first and sort of rediscover it months later, and tbh that’s kind of what happened with Innocent Love, Baby, and Again. In this album though, I’d say my favourite Bsides are probably be Bloom, 1 in a Million, and Heart Brew Love.

And I toootally agree with the performance aspect of kpop being the thing to attract me it, even before I got really into it I’d sometime like to watch dance practices (and lowkey even learned a bunch of choreos a with my friend last term just bc we had access to a frequently empty dance studio). It’s just super impressive to see people singing and dancing at the same time mostly live, and for the same reasons I’m also super into musicals as well, which isn’t so say I think like lip syncing or just dancing/singing is bad, it’s just refreshing to see it done all at once, you know?

Also side story it turns out that I actually DO know another Astro fan irl!! Her older sister (who I’m closer to bc we’re closer in age) is the one who bought the million got7 albums. Even though she’s been a fan of Astro since before debut, her sister doesn’t even know she listens to kpop since she was afraid of getting roasted at first, but now she’s in too deep to say anything. I’d mentioned liking Astro to her before, but she didn’t say anything bc she didn’t want to expose herself in front of her sister but on Friday I saw her while her sister was out and she was like “oh btw here’s a secret I went to the Toronto fanmeet last year but my sister doesn’t know” I was SHOOK but tbh I’m just super glad now to have someone to talk about it and go to concerts with (I’m banking on the fact that they’re coming back)

Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH for waiting 2747287482 million years for my response, and it was so great to finally (officially) meet you Kjersten!

@kaptain-k-pop

[shxdowsofombra]

Saying Goodbye

[Misty]

Misty had dressed Luna up and packed her things before moving to the bathroom to brush her hair. She sighed as strands of her hair fell into the sink. She moved to get dressed herself before seeing Nibs coming back into the room. “Hi Nibs, how was your therapy?” She asked him before finishing packing. “I um…have a doctor's appointment I can’t miss. I’m sorry but I won’t be able to stay.” 

[Nibs]

“Mhm it was okay. Why don’t they just come here? I assume it’s about a baby since after a heat we always normally go to one. There are doctors here too.” He says while seeing her packing and panic flooded his system. 

[Misty]

Misty froze as she heard his words and she shook her head, “Sometimes we don’t have a baby after…I just want to check on my powers. I will visit Nibs, but I’m not getting better and I can’t sit and watch you get sick too.” She told him.

[Nibs]

“Well when would you be coming back? Why are you packing everything up? Are you not going to come back after the appointment?” He asks in confusion, wondering why she was packing everything if she was only going to a doctor appointment.

[Misty] 

“It might take a while for me to get better. We barely see each other now, I’m just here when you get here at night. I will come back when things are better. I promise.” She said as she looked at him. “Besides…it’s probably best, you know. For you to focus on you and not…us.” 

[Nibs]

“I have been able to focus because I know that you are here when I get back. I haven’t gone to therapy yet when you were gone. Not when my emotions were on anyway. I can’t focus on me if I am worried about you since I can’t leave this place.” He pouts. 

[Misty]

“You are worried now and you promised you wouldn’t be. You don’t think I can tell when you stay up late to make sure I’m okay. That isn’t why you are here. I can visit. I promise. You will be fine. It will go by fast.”

[Nibs]

“Yeah but that was because you were here.” He says before thinking about therapy and trying to control himself. “I would like you to be here but if you can’t be here and need to focus on yourself then that is okay too.” Nibs says while still struggling to believe his own words. “It doesn’t go by fast.” 

[Misty] 

“I…I want to stay. But I can’t Nibs. I’m just getting worse. I don’t…I don’t want what happened at the castle to happen here. Please try and understand.”

[Nibs]

“I know…I understand. I need to let you get better without me. It’s just difficult. I don’t like being without you. It’s out of my comfort zone but I can try to get better.” He explains. 

[Misty]

“I don’t like being without you either. This is the first time you won’t be with me while I go through this so we both have to get better.” She said, trying to smile. “Um…I should go. So I don’t miss it.” She says as she grabs her and Luna’s bags. “Luna, say goodbye to Daddy.”

[Nibs]

Nibs said goodbye to Luna before going over and kissing Misty goodbye. “Please take care of yourself okay? Or else I might have to spam Zach to make sure he comes and checks on you or Hope…one of the two.” He jokes. 

[Misty]

Misty knew Luna was sad as she could see the girl’s eyes turn blue. She kissed Nibs back before looking at him as she heard his words, “Please don’t.” She smiled softly. “Take care of yourself. I need you.” She told him.

[Nibs]

“Okay I will do that.” He tells her before giving Luna a kiss goodbye as well. “I won’t be gone long baby, don’t worry.” 

[Misty]

Her eyes flashed blue as she watched the two and she forced them back to normal. “Come on sweetie.” She said as she bent down to pick up Luna. “I promise we will visit.”

[Nibs]

“I will be back soon, don't worry. You can take care of mommy while I am gone, okay?” He smiles. 

[Misty]

She held onto Luna as she kissed Nibs’ cheek. “Goodbye Nibs.” She said before leaving.