#shes just having fun living her life being silly . best friends with her mother good friends with aster and naiah so shes in the middle of

[heatwa-ves]

guys I did it I figured out vivi. FINALLY.

[luludeluluramblings]

Neglected!Marine!Reader x Yandere!BatFamily

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

A/N: I’ve been holding on to this one. Army Dreamer sent me an ask and this is what came out of it. I know you probably wanted Army, but I just thought Marine cause of an old COD OC I had and this fricken spiraled. I was gonna make it a three part series, but that would take too long and you deserve it now!

A/N: Frick forgot the warnings. My bad!

Warnings: GN!Reader, Yandere themes, bodily injury (to reader), mentions of death

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

You've been living with the Wayne since our mother and step-father died. You've constantly been ignored and belittled by the family. The most common bully being Damian, your younger half-brother. After constant harassments and being called weak by pretty much everyone for years, you sign up for the Marines after a recruiter comes to your high school and gives you and your classmates the selling points.

But, fuck it, you don't care. Gets you away from everyone. And, it's one of the most difficult military branches so an even bigger fuck you to anyone who thinks your weak after this.

It takes two years for you to get somewhere comfortable. You're not flying up the military ladder, but you’re a damn good officer in the METOC moving to South Caroline. And, a 12 hour drive and 2 hour flight from Gotham. Neither which you have ever taken.

You don't bother contact home. You don't bother going home for holidays and Christmas. You send Alfred a card occasionally with some of your other single and lonely military friends in it. Y'all make them really funny too.

It's through these collected and hilarious cards that you get rediscovered. Not by the family, but by the media. Apparently, not only did your silly photos go viral, but your friends damn military tik tok did to.

("Why'd you join the marines?" "It was too dangerous to be a stripper in Gotham." "Why'd you join the marines?” “I have daddy issues and wanted to get yelled at by someone who cared.")

The family which had still been ignoring you or completely forgot you up to that point was absolutely fucking baffled.

Bruce was imediatly calling Kate.

(“Why didn’t you tell me they joined the military?” “I was Air Force. Not in the Marines. How would I have known?”)

Media is now constantly harassing the family because like, ���Hey! Your kid disappeared and joined the military, and you said nothing and now they're roasting you online for the entire world to see.

Bruce is making calls. Tim and Barbara are now trying to hack military stuff. Only for your barracks friends to troll the absolute shit outta them and on government computers to boot.

Eventually Stephanie finds out you’ve been sending cards to Wayne manor of you having fun and doing stupid shit with friends. (Things that you should be doing with them, because holy fuck are you funny as shit.) All addressed to Alfred. Bruce asks if you ever sent anything to him, which was a flat no.

Jason is just baffled. This was nothing he expected. You used to be so soft and squishy, now there's videos of you lifting and doing fun shit with friends and you're shooting guns like a badass. So proud of you.

Cassandra is reading everyone's body language, but yours just looks carefree when she sees your videos and photos, she wants to feel like that. She wants you to help her feel like that.

Dick is distraught. You could have join the circus! But the military? Yes, you're a badass now, but still! He's delulu in thinking that you would have wanted to follow in his footsteps. Acting like he wasn't always busy or spending time with Damian.

Duke is just wowed. You joined the military. You DNGF. You are badass without having to wear any hero costume. Cool shit. Top tier.

Stephanie is just amazed. You had all this personality and she had no idea. You were just living your best life without the wight of the family or our father, and holy shit did she want that for herself. Teach her your ways.

Barbara is amazed, too. This was the most normal form of rebellion anyone could do in this family. Yet, no one expected it and you did it. She would have expected you to become a villian or gone rouge, but instead you joined the military. Color her surprised.

Tim is pissed. Everyone wants you back, yet there is no way to get you back. You knowingly or unknowingly made it nearly impossible for them to get you back without the military and government getting involved. He's pissed about the challenge, and now he's obsessing over all your old manerisns and the photos and videos. (He has the cleariest picture of how you really feel, but he doesn't care that it might be broken or negative. He's obsessed all the same.)

Bruce finds out your active duty and freaks the fuck out. Something could happen and you could be deployed and killed. His worst fear is you being killed. It was bad enough when you were in Gotham and fragile. But, now your military and you think you’re strong. But, you’re not and now you could die at any moment.

Damian is shellshocked. You technically proved him wrong. And, he sees the media's reaction to you. Some people are actually praising you for your service. You left and made yourself strong and made a new family. You didn't bother fighting for this one because you didn't think they were worth it. You didn't think he was worth it. It hurts, but not in away that makes him angry. In a way that makes hs insecurities flare. He wants you to come home now, so he can prove to you that he is worthy. That he is sorry.

Getting you home is near impossible. You have a specific roll that you've trained for, and are on active duty. Your a military dog on a leash the bat family cant control.

It's Kate the gives them the horrible idea. If they got you discharged from the military then you would have to come home. The only problem is an honorable discharge would still give you the means to avoid them, while a dishonorable discharge would make you absolutely hate them and they don't want that. (Plus the media would constantly harass you and them.)

So they decide to get you a medical discharge.

But, they can't hack into things and make anything up, though. And, all your physicals and mental check ups were sound. You have a more administrative position, but accidents happen all the time. Bruce has to make a few phone calls, but your active duty gets you sent out into the field. On a military operation that called for your expertise. (His anxiety is spiked through the roof and he has League Members on standby if something goes wrong.)

Kate also made a few phone calls. You ended up being deployed to assist the National Guard near your area. Only while doing your duties, you and your squad trigger a trap and you lose your hearing in your left ear and your left leg is wrecked. A few of your team mates are killed. (Bruce is pissed at Tim, Dick and Jason for that specifically.) Some lost limbs or now have memory problems. Eveyone in the squad is down and out.

You try to support the surviors as you all recover, but as soon as you’re better and given medical discharge the family snags you. Dragging you back to gotham before anyone can say anything. You try to fight, but the loss of hearing messes with you and the still fresh injury makes you weak once more. Plus, there's more of them than you.

When back at the manor, the family uses PTSD as an excuse for the lack of public appearances, and make many donations to VA hospitals and campaigns for retired and injured members of the military. (They even pay for what the military won't cover for your friends and anyone else they injured in the incident. Bruce has some guilt over you getting hurt that he tries to get rid of by doing this.)

Instantly, Stephanie and Dick coddle you. And, an insane amount.

Jason tries to treat you how he did before since he's so awkward and you punch him in the face in return. Not taking that from him anymore. And, he fucking respects you more for it.

Tim ironically enough, begins to emotionally manipulate you with finesse. He's studied you obsessively, yet somehow you’re still surprising him every now and then.

Barbara gives you space, she can tell this has all been a lot and of everyone she probably understands your injury best.

Bruce bounces between trying to coddle you and give you space. Unintentionally treating you like a child.

Cass is just silently there all the time, almost always watching. She can tell you're overwhelmed and pissed, but you’re still so peaceful to her. Not asking her to talk or forcing her away.

Duke is the most chill. Sucks they had to nerf you, but still your fun to hang out with despite the injury. You developed some military humor and it is hilarious.

Damian, avoids you until he finally breaksdown. And it's not pretty. He finally confesses how guilty he feels. That he is sorry. That he actually didn't want to have to hurt you, that he is a terrible brother and a horrible hero. he never shouldve called you weak. (And, you forgive him, because he was a child. And, because out of everyone he's the only one to apologize and confessed to what they did.)

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

A/N: I’m typing up like three stories at once, and my ask box is filled. Absolutely slammed. Last time I went on an answer spree I burnt myself out. Hopefully this will hold y’all off while I finish up Smalltown! Part 8, Pregnant! Part 2, and a partial Part 2 to the SugarDaddy Tony thingy. (I don’t know where that came from, but I’m happy y’all liked it. The original man for the SugarDaddy/Older!Husband was Philip Graves. lol)

[ironunderstands]

Not a question, just very happy it's not just me loving IP3 (or trans Ratio for that matter). Yap away on both

Ugh I love them both so much

Most of my headcanons are when I find something to be better and/or more interesting than it is in canon, or something that’s a great extension of canon, and that’s exactly what trans Ratio is to me.

It takes his already present insecurities and squares them, as now the doctor has to contend with not just being a SMART enough man, but being a smart enough MAN, and adding that extra layer of misery and complexity is just so delightful.

By taking a character racked by self doubt and adding another layer to it, like Ratio being trans, you complicate his current insecurities and give new perspectives to look at them from.

Like in canon Ratio exercises so much because he wants to be the most perfect, best version of himself and has been doing it since a very young age (middle school).

But then you add him being trans to that, and suddenly he’s not just combating being perceived as not good enough, he’s combating being perceived entirely, attempting to try and get others to view him the way he really is, and attempting to live up to whatever masculine ideal that would push away his dysphoria, something prominent within his life from a young age.

I’ve kinda dived into this within my fics about it, but I like the idea that Ratio keeps this a secret from everyone- and I mean everyone. He already doesn’t live up to his own expectations of himself, so to have the rest of the galaxy find out that he doesn’t live up to their expectations of him either (ie being a cis man I mean you cannot tell me there aren’t like hundreds of people in universe begging for his uh- yeah), it would crush him.

I mean considering how guarded he is already, adding another thing to hide behind that alabaster mask would be fun, even if I think Ratio is likely at least a decade post-op + post-transition, so it’s not like he has to bind or anything, but the threat is still there. Especially considering his well known love of baths- imagine if he avoided the public baths at his home planet (considering how heavily Greek/Roman inspired Ratio is), and how that might affected him growing up, or just the tendency of shirtlessness in general.

There’s just a lot of possibilities and intricacies to it that makes me really like this particular headcanon, and it will always be canon in my heart haha. I have some more silly things behind it, like me wanting to give Aventio and Ratiopaz biological kids because it would be cute, or just the inherent joy of the big buff guy actually being the trans one rather than who you would expect it to be/who it’s stereotypically made as- Aventurine, as I like when characters have traits you don’t expect them to possess.

I also tend to dislike Aventurine being made ftm because he’s implied to be an SA survivor and rep for amab victims is already kinda abysmal so I don’t like taking it away, also I just think it’s boring tbh, at least for me it just doesn’t interest me.

Trans Topaz is a whole other discussion, personally I think she’s mtnb, and more femme presenting (I’d make her use she/they in my fics it’s just pronoun swapping when writing polyamory is miserable and anybody who’s ever written it can attest to that 😭, it’s there in spirit I promise!)

I honestly don’t have deep reasons behind this one, it’s just pure vibes. Someone was like, “Topaz gives nonbinary” once on here and I’m like yeah, yeah she does 😭. She reminds me of Childe a lot and I also view him as nonbinary so she’s kinda in a similar boat.

I think she’s very motherly but like in the way Mother Nature is if that makes sense? Mother is mothering but she’s also a creature tm* and certified tax collecting humanity loving entity. Also I have a close friend who’s a trans woman and Topaz reminds me of her so like, bam ur trans now lol (hi Alice if ur seeing this).

As for Aventiopaz, I fear I’d need a whole other post dedicated to why I like them. You guys know why I like Aventio, Avenpaz also require a whole other yap session, and Ratiopaz is the best rarepair ever fight me. Generally I like it because it’s really sweet, the dynamic is hilarious, they are the power trio of all time, they have great gameplay synergy, and their designs complement each other a lot- being primary colors and all.

I also enjoy their individual unique relationships to the IPC and how that might affect their interactions with one another, both in canon and in my brain. Moreover the trio of coworkers who are well known around the office for a) getting the job done and b) being absolutely obnoxious around one another (in a good way) is incredibly fun and I enjoy the idea of all the shenanigans they would get up to.

Perhaps my next Aventiopaz fic would be them going on a mission together or something, as I definitely want to write another one, and also update my slideshow of the parents au, I’ve just been so busy and a bit unmotivated 😭 so hopefully I can get to that soon

[stem-sister-scuffle]

STEM SISTER SCUFFLE: ROUND 2 MASHUP 1

Jadzia Dax (Star Trek Deep Space 9) vs Futaba Sakura (Persona 5)

Jadzia Dax is an Astrophysicist and Xenobiologist!

Futaba Sakura is a Computer Scientist and Hacker/Programmer!

Why you should vote for each contestant:

Jadzia Dax:

"She does a lot of science in space — like xenobiology and physics — but is also the ranking science officer, so she covers a lot of fields. she is an expert in many scientific fields, leads a lot of other scientists, and is a badass starfleet officer who can f you UP in a fight. her alien species is a symbiotic set of species, so Jadzia’s got a worm named Dax in her and has access to all of Dax’s past hosts’ memories & knowledge, part of why she’s an expert in so many fields! but Jadzia, the host, also got multiple degrees in different fields before she was “joined” with her symbiote."

"She is a star trek science officer, so mostly space anomalies and stuff 😄 She is self assured and takes up space and just a joy to watch. All the bi girls love her 💜"

"First F/F kiss on TV"

"IMMORTAL WORM ALIEN WOMAN who has lived EIGHT LIVES and is GENDERFLUID but is CURRENTLY A WOMAN! She's great"

"She is the lead science officer on her space station! Got four degrees in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology and zoology. She is an amazing researcher! Jadzia is a Joined Trill, host to the Dax symbiont which has lived 300 years. Jadzia became a Starfleet officer and pursued her science studies before then becoming Joined, which means she also has the wealth of knowledge from Dax's multiple lives. She is an amazing scientist and also loves to have fun, and she's a genderfluid pansexual ICON."

Futaba Sakura:

"shes a 15yo autist who can take down the in-universe equivalent of anonymous in an afternoon. she has mommy issues"

"she is a silly goofy girl who can also pull insane feats of programming. she can hack into anything. she set up her own giant computer rig. she can remotely tap into people's phones."

"She is so blorbo! She’s very smart and funny, could use her powers for evil (and occasionally causes mischief) but uses them for good, cool character arc, just a silly little guy :)"

"she's silly i like her tetris shirt and she speaks in dorky references"

"technology (shes a hacker??) with a side of science (she has an interest in her mothers work in the field of cognitive "psience" as its referred to in-game!!) uhhh cant really explain stuff well but shes really epic and truly the hackergirl ever. shes cool enough that i partially based a character i recently made off of her tbh"

"Futaba is a traumatized shut-in that hates getting out of her room and interacting with people. She first contacts the heroes by hacking their group chat, asking for them to consider changing the heart of ""Futaba Sakura"".

Once they do, Futaba manages to confront her feelings and trauma and heal. She makes peace with the survivor's guilt she feels after the unfair death of her mother, who was a researcher/programmer before her.

Futaba does a lot of hacking for the sake of her friends, the Phantom Thieves. This also reflects in her Persona Necronomicon. She's the navigator/mission control of the group, not having combat abilities but being able to scan enemies to show their weaknesses.

Futaba's hacking also helps save the protagonist's life at one point. Like that's literally a huge plot point in the True Ending of Persona 5 and 5R. She's amazing."

"She is very good with computers and she helped the Phantom thieves with her hacking abilities"

[listofwhyyouloveher]

heyyy!! <333 you know how Darry is always like the father figure of everyone in the group? /even if not willingly lmao

SO, I was thinking, fem!reader that is Ponyboy's age and her parents kind of died when she was young, she's living with her grandparents, so she has parental issues (but not the bad ones since her father was great and funny except a little though and strict and her mother was sweet as hell so reader has more like the "I miss having a parental figure in my life so bad).

AND SO EVERYONE IMMEDIATLY THOUGHT THAT DARRY WAS GONNA BE HER GO-TO BUT THEN IT'S FUCKING STEVE. AND EVERYONE IS KIND OF FLABERGASTED BECAUSE WHAT, BUT READER IS KIND OF JUST LIKE A HAPPY PUPPY WHEN SHE'S WITH STEVE.

/bonus points if she calls Steve 'mama'/'mama steve' when she's sick or too hurt (when her mind's fuzzy and she's kind of half-asleep/dazed) and everyone now calls Steve 'mama steve' whenever they feel like teasing him lmao.

So, separate headcanons for (obviously)Steve, Darry, Dallas, Sodapop, Johnny, Ponyboy and Two-Bit with a reader that sees Steve as a parental figure (like a mom and a dad at the same time lamo because he reminds her so much of her parents)?

Summary: The Outsiders react to your parental figure being Steve

Warnings: mentions of rough childhood, recently dead parents.

Author's Note: short because writers block and I'm also working on 2 big writing projects

PONYBOY CURTIS

He's always trying his best to get closer to you, not saying that he wants to be your parent figure but he likes the comfort it give him

He's so utterly shocked that STEVE, is your father figure especially because they banter so much.

He's always like "really? Him???"

JOHNNY CADE

Johnny isn't as shocked as Pony because he doesn't hate on Steve as much as Pony. Ponys out here trying to blow Steve up with his mind and Johnny has had some really good conversations with him

He kind of starts seeing Steve as a parent figure after you doing because he realizes that he is a really good person.

SODAPOP CURTIS

Sodapop laughs at you sooo much when he founds out that you see Steve as a parental figure because being his best friend he's seen some really rough times with him

He always tells you that Steve is not a good parent but he totally loves when you call him Mama Steve because he makes fun of him for hourrrss

STEVE RANDLE

Steve's also quite a bit shocked that you chose HIM of all people, like he thought Darry was going to be your preferred parental figure

He almost exploded when you called him mom he thought it was so sweet but had no clue what to do

TWO BIT MATHEWS

Two finds it, above all, absolutely hilarious. He laughs so hard when he imagines Steve as a mother, because to him its always an exaggerated virgin Mary painting with Steve

He jokes to you about how all of the people you could've chosen, you chose the silly greaser with the big nose

DARRY CURTIS

To be honest he's just the teeniest bit jealous that Steve has such a hold on you but he doesn't show it

He's always hinting to Steve tips on how to handle "kids" but Steve never picks up on it and if he does he gets embarrassed

DALLAS WINSTON

This has Dallas HOWLING with laughter once he realizes what's going on, he's mocking you by say "mama steve" in a really annoying baby voice

He'll tell everyone he knows, not really to hurt you but more to tease Steve, everyone thinks you're a poor mislead kid

[wholesome-cryptid]

I would absolutely love to read that if you posted it ^^

OKAY BIG GRIMSLEY HEADCANON POST

IM NORMAL ABOUT GRIMSLEY I SWEAR I SWEAR

-Okay so a lot of this directly ties to my boyfriend @plushegutzz's oc Blaine and their lore so be prepared to see their name a lot. Also I'm not gonna include Bug in this because as much as I love her she's mostly just a silly little fankid i have for fun domestic fluff stuff so she doesn't really have a concrete timeline. Anyway i'll try my best to go through this chronologically.-

TWs for: gambling and gambling addiction, trauma, vague references to childhood abuse, Grimsley just generally being severely mentally ill

Grimsley Gore (birth name Gabriel Gore) was born into a wealthy Unovian family alongside his twin brother Garry. Being born into a rich family the two brothers had a lot of really strong expectations placed onto them from a very young age, with the two basically expected to be perfect all the time. Because of this stress growing up the two brothers developed a very strong bond as they really only felt like they had each other.

The mother of the Gore household was a very controlling and manipulative figure putting a lot of pressure onto the twins to be perfectly behaved golden children. Their father meanwhile was very emotionally distant towards his family and the rare times he did interact with his two sons he was generally pretty abusive. Growing up Grimsley/Gabriel tries his best to keep the uglier side of his home life away from public eyes, instead bragging to his friends about how cool and spoiled he is instead.

Grimsley's first pokémon was his Liepard (nicknamed Violet) who he met at around 8 years old, he spotted a wild Purrlion with an injured foot wandering his family's estate and immediately dropped everything to go check on the kitty. He got in a lot of trouble with his mother for doing so as his outfit ended up covered in dirt during his rescue of the pokémon but he was mostly just excited over having a pokemon of his own. He ended up nursing Violet back to help and it caused the two to develop a very close bond. Even as an adult Grimsley is super attached to his Liepard and basically treats her like his baby.

It's shortly after catching Violet that Grimsley meets Blaine A. Platinum the child of another wealthy Unova family with the twos parents pairing the two together in hopes of them getting married in adulthood. Both children absolutely hate this idea and don't initially get along with each other, but after a while of being forced to spend time together they start to realize that they're stuck in similar situations of shitty home lives and form a friendship over their shared struggle.

During his teen years Grimsley views his life as “going pretty good” in his eyes, he's still dealing with an actively abusive home life but he's kind of repressing all of his emotions about that. Instead he's clinging onto the bonds he formed with Blaine and his brother Garry. His dynamic with his brother is very “we've only got eachother” meanwhile he and Blaine are in this mess of “kinda dating but also kinda not dating we're 16 years old and it's complicated.” and both relationships are kinda overly dependent on Grimsley's end. Overall during this point of his life Grimsley just kinda acts like a spoiled brat rich kid who's better than everybody else because it's easier for him to accept than look inwards and try and process the trauma he very clearly is struggling with. (Grimsley spends a large chunk of his life running away from his trauma.)

Grimsley putting all his emotional stability on two people unsurprisingly ends up shooting him in the foot as his life kinda ends up falling apart at 19 years old. It starts with Blaine, They've personally had enough of the stress of their home life and now that they're an adult they're planning to run away and had been hoping that Grimsley would join them. Unfortunately Grimsley can't bring himself to abandon the only life he's ever known, a part of him knows deep down that he's not happy in his current situation but he can't bring himself to admit that. His life with his rich family being the only sense of stability he knows and he turns Blaine down. This turns into a huge fight between the two with Blaine basically accusing him of choosing his spoiled rich kid life over them and storms off.

Unsurprisingly, Grimsley takes Blaine leaving very badly with his emotions about the situation eventually starting to turn bitter with him viewing it as though Blaine abandoned him.

Things only get worse for poor Grims as not too long after he loses his brother too. Unlike Grimsley, Garry has been processing his emotions about their home life and also has decided he doesn't want to put up with it anymore. He informs Grimsley that he's intending to move away to Paldea to be with his fiancé, and much like Blaine offers his brother resources to get out himself but Grimsley isn't in the headspace to hear it and denies all of it feeling like his brother is abandoning him too.

Needless to say, Grimsley is in a pretty bad headspace at this point due to losing the two people he put all of his emotional stability into. (Even if it was a large part his own fault and refusal to process his emotional issues that caused him to lose them.) And things only get worse when his family falls into debt.

Grimsley's father was a gambler, it was a well known fact even if everyone in the family pretended it wasn't, and the kinds of casinos he was associating himself with weren't exactly the most legal ones. His father found himself owing quite a lot of money to Team Rocket causing the family to go bankrupt.

This all just sent Grimsley into a mental spiral with him basically having a full on episode. Not being able to let go of the spoiled rich life he was living because it was his only sense of stability was the reason he had lost his connections with Blaine and Garry in the first place and now he didn't even have that. Gambling was the reason he had lost everything, and in his state of mental instability he rationalized that gambling would be the thing to get his life back. It was during this episode that he decided to abandon his birth name is Gabriel and start going by Grimsley feeling as though he needed to abandon the “pathetic” person he used to be and reinvent himself.

Thrusting himself into casinos run by Team Rocket didn't exactly go well for Grimsley, with him getting roughed up for lacking proper funds on more than one occasion. But it was enough to get Grimsley addicted to the thrill of gambling. The rush of adrenaline it gave him distracted him from all the bad things going around in his he was already trying so hard to repress, it was something to make him feel ALIVE in his depressive state.

Still though hanging around these shady casinos and just getting pushed deeper into debt wasn't doing much good for him, and the only reason he was able to escape falling deeper into the organization was him meeting Nanu. Nanu was still working for the international police at this point and had been working undercover on a job related to Team Rocket and pretty quickly noticed that Grimsley was out of place. He gave him an out noticing that he actually had some really impressive pokémon battling skills and put him down the route of becoming a professional dark type pokémon trainer.

It didn't take Grimsley too long to rise up as an up and coming pokémon trainer and he definitely loved the attention and success that came with being a big name trainer. Eventually he ended up grabbing the attention of the champion of the region Alder, who saw potential in him to be successful as an Elite Four trainer and wanted to train him for the job.

His dynamic with Alder was, complicated, with Alder being a very mentorly almost father-like figure which made Grimsley and his repressed daddy issues panic. This only being furthered by Grimsley being close in age to Alder’s actual children and Alder being very aware of the fact that Grimsley was a very troubled young man who needed guidance. Grimsley did still accept the offer of the Elite Four job from Alder and did let him help out when it came to improving his pokémon battling, he did end up telling Alder to “watch it old timer” more than a couple times when it came to his personal life.

Despite his current success Grimsley still kept his gambling habits from before though and the thrill seeking that came from it although he was spending his time at more legal casinos this time. It was spending his time going out gambling that he found himself bumping into Blaine of all people again.

The two reuniting was fully by chance, Blaine finding a very hungover Grimsley passed out next to a casino with his Liepard Violet protectively coiled around him. Blaine was still fairly upset about their fight from a couple years ago at this point but could also tell that Grimsley wasn't exactly in a great state at the moment and decided to make sure he got home safe because a part of them still cared a lot for him. The two ended up catching up and while things were still very awkward between the two they decided to try and be friends to some degree again.

It was through Blaine that Grimsley ended up befriending Burgh as well, with Blaine having befriended the man through their shared passion for art. Grimsley being deathly afraid of bugs from a very young age wasn't the biggest fan of Burgh’s choice in type speciality he thought the man was fun to hang around with and so he had no choice but to put up with it, especially since Burgh was determined to help Grimsley get over his fears.

Burgh found Grimsley rather endearing in general, in fact he found himself kind of crushing on the man. Blaine, rather heavily protested this crush, pointing out that Grimsley was rather obviously very emotionally unavailable. But Burgh couldn't really help it, he could tell that underneath all the facade he put on all the time he had a softer side underneath it all and he just needed help getting it all out.

For once in his life Grimsley found himself genuinely doing pretty good, he was successful in his job in the Elite Four, he had friends in his life that genuinely cared about him, he was even starting to reconnect with his brother and get to know his nephew Giacomo (the young Giacomo really looking up to his uncle.) Unfortunately for Grimsley having people that genuinely loved and cared about him in his adulthood meant that he couldn't keep getting away with an unchecked gambling addiction and repressing all his negative emotions and pretending they didn't exist anymore. He had people that wanted him to get better and he basically got dragged kicking and screaming into therapy and working through his issues by Blaine, Garry, Alder and Burgh.

Grimsley hated working through his big pile of traumas and mental issues at first, it made him feel vulnerable and exposed and he didn't like that. But slowly over time he started to make progress and allow himself to be emotionally open with other people and starts dating Burgh during this time with the man encouraging him to be more open to being his genuine self. He also is a bit more willing to accept Alder as a father figure at this point. (Also diversity win! Grimsley realizes he's nonbinary at this point! yay! This is why you'll occasionally see me talk about headcanoning Grimsley as Bigender and using He/She/Any pronouns.) He even starts allowing people to call him Gabriel again on rare occasions, although this permission is really only given to Burgh, Blaine and Garry it's a huge sign of progress for him.

He eventually fully talks his emotions out with Blaine as hard as that is for him to do, and the two of them finally get over the fight they had all those years ago and start dating as well because I think Grimsley deserves two partners actually.

Aloan Grimsley is him taking a much needed mental health vacation after everything he's been through and allowing himself some rest and relaxation. Besides what's better than surfing on a Sharpedo in order to cope with your repressed emotional issues? He chose to hang out in Alola due to his previous connection with Nanu.

My version of Grimsley is just generally very special to me and is something that is very very dear to me so hopefully y'all enjoyed this big wall of text as well haha! i do have some vague additional headcanons but those aren't as heavily fleshed out and i wanted to just include the fully concrete stuff!!!

[journey-to-the-attic]

If this is weird feel free to ignore (and this is not really an ask there is just no anonymous way to send this in) but. I literally can't imagine Devildom without IK now? Even if IK isn't there in a major way, whenever I throw OCs into the Devildom they are usually the second group of humans thrown into the exchange program (with IK and Solomon being the first group). One is most often a sorcerer in training that is more bluff than power and has no idea why he's there but self-delegated himself to protecting the second human, usually my 'considered non powered for whatever reason' human. More often they just sort of know IK exists but are too intimidated by Lucifer and Co. to try and approach. They usually live in Purgatory Hall, though Cocytus Hall is also sometimes used because of Nightbringer. My most 'infringes on IK's existence' was a time when the normal human was IK's half sister from the mom, and her relationship with IK ranged from 'IK is tolerating you' to 'IK does not understand why you are jealous of her' (the half sister also did not have a great relationship with their mom so would get jealous that IK's dad seemed to love her). I then feel a strange guilt for infringing on your idea too much so I just?? Drop this particular OC on and off? Final random ramble thought, I use the name Yuukiran a lot for the non-powered OC because it combines three MCs from various games.

... sorry for all of this I ended up brain rotting in your ask box

don't be sorry!! this is genuinely super cool - just the feeling that jtta influenced how you think about this universe to this degree is Insane (in a good way)

your ocs sound cool too!! absolutely don't hold back on my account, keep thinking about them, keep rotating them in your mind microwave - it's the best part about creating silly little guys! the idea of ik's mother having a child again later in life (when she feels more ready to), but having the whole situation with ik and her dad sort of Haunting her through being a parent... now that's some prime impending-therapy-for-mother-issues material. i can see ik sort of half-heartedly trying to befriend her, but depending on how receptive the half-sister is she might prefer to keep her distance, especially given her own emotional baggage in regards to their mum

also i always think about this when the notion of a second exchange year comes up so i've definitely mentioned it before, but just the idea of diavolo proposing it like "the first one went so well, let's do it again, deepen our ties between realms!!" and satan stares at him like "your first ever non-magic human visitor died"

maybe another reason your sorcerer-in-training feels the need to protect the non-magic student is because they spoke to solomon and he was like "yeah the year went great, you'll make friends that'll be there for you forever! oh by the way, take care of your other human, because my one literally died and it kind of destroyed her for a bit and jsyk watching that sort of thing destroys you a little bit too. it does build character though! anyway, have fun!!!!!"

[the-banana-0verlord]

Answer some or all I wanna know more about you 👁️👁️

Do you have freckles? 

 Do you drink tea or coffee? How do you take it? 

What was the last song you listened to? 

Do you sleep on your back, stomach or side? 

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? 

Do you prefer drawing or writing? 

What’s your ideal number of blankets to sleep with? 

What’s your favorite band/artist? 

When is your birthday? 

How tall are you? 

What color are your eyes? 

Who are five (or more) people you want to hug right now? 

Fears? 

What’s your favorite color? 

What’s your favorite season? 

Want any tattoos? What of? 

Want any piercings? Where? 

Who is the last person you texted? 

Do you have a best friend? How long have you been friends? 

What/who do you miss? 

How was your day today? 

How much sleep did you get last night? 

Do you believe in aliens? 

When was the last time you cried? Why? 

What’s your favorite decade? 

What are some seemingly childish things you like? 

What’s your favorite book? Or just one you’ve read a few times? 

How are you, really? 

Does it take you a long time to make decisions? 

What are you looking forward to in the near future? 

What are you looking forward to in the distant future? 

If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go? 

Do you sleep with your door open or closed? 

What’s your favorite flower? 

Do you currently have a squish? 

Do you like your middle name? 

Do you prefer dogs or cats? 

Do you have any phobias? 

Do you stay up late?

Do you like the beach? Do you prefer it sunny or cloudy? 

What’s your favorite cartoon? 

Tag 5 of your favorite blogs

Do you have siblings? How many? 

Who was the last person you said “I love you” to? 

Is there anyone you would die for? 

What do you need when you’re sad? 

Have you memorized your phone number? 

Who’s someone you can trust with your life? 

What does your last text say? 

Wild Card. Any question, ask away. 

Alright, ill try lmao

1.no, i dont have freckles!

2. I WISHED i found Coffee and tea good because its so aesthetic but it tastes bad imo

3. I checked my spotify and its girls just wanna have fun by cyndi lauper so i suppose its that

4.i move a lot but i usually end up on my side.

5. I move too much to sleep with a lot of them because they always end up on the floor. Although i do sleep with my malleus plushie.

6. Thats a hard one, because i do both. Though i think of writing as my primary hobby/eventual job, i definitely have more fun drawing(until art Block comes knocking that is)

7.depends on the thickness. Right now i have three eith two being thin and one being medium, but i could sleep with one really thick one.

8. Mitski!!! I love her so much. Otherwise I like mother mother and marina

9.the third of november!

10. 154 cm or 5 feet. No that is not short

11. Blue-grey-kaki. I like to think of them as blue.

12. All my mutuals, all my irls, my mom, my dad, and my little sister

13. Abandonnent, failure, the future in general.

14. Yellow and light blue!

15.fall! Its so pretty

16. Im not sure yet but i can maybe have someday a small tattoo. Im not a fan of qhoel body tattoos for myself.

17. Well my ears a pierced but im not gonna get more.

18. My two irls! Talking about not getting neuvillette in gneshin ;-;(and murder)

19. I dont have a best friend per se, although i do have a closest friend. Weve been friends for at least three years(already? Damn)

20. Honestly i miss my first mutual on here. I hope they come back soon ;-;

21. It just started but its been pretty good up til now!

22. About 9-10 hours?

23. I mean, there is bound to be other forms of life in space, just thousands of lightyears away.

24. Monday cause my friend said she didnt think we were friends.

25. Id say 1890 to 1900? Though the living conditions were meh i like the aesthetic

26. Generally being silly ig? I suppose i act childihs as a comic relief.

27. Currently my favorite book(s) is the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson! It's been clawing it's way into my brain.

28. I'm actually doing quite fine. I'm a bit stressed since i'm going to boston soon but i can push out the bad thoughts!

29. I usually procrastinate decisions as far as possible. If it's a small one maybe like 2 minutes but if it's bigger ones it'll take longer(with the answer being no a lot)

30. Something i'm dreading but also am excited for is summer! Bye school but hello summer job ;-;

31. My irls and i(can i really call them irls? i met only two of them irl and once or twice. anyways-) are planning a roadtrip after we're all 18(aka in a bit more than 4 years)!

32. Either my friend's (irls+ moots) houses or in paris. I've always wanted to see paris.

33.open, my cats need to be free to walk in and out!

34. sunflowers and roses(i have a list on the meaning of each rose color) daisies are also cute.

35. i...guess? i own a banana shaped stress ball(that is very dirty i dont use it much) but idk if it counts as a squish.

36. yes, almost more than my first name. although my first and second name are kinda in the same name. it's like first name-second name.

37.cats!!! I have two(named chicken nugget and nebraska)(my family also owns dogs but oh well)

38. I'm a bit scared of heights but i wouldn't say i have a phobia

39. i usually go to sleep at 10:30 pm on weekdays, and 11:00-11:00 on weekends(when i don't have to wake up early due to sunday class)

40.Although i haven't been to a real beach a lot, i like it! And i always prefer sunny days so sun it is(to experience sunset on a beach... must be the dream)

41. I'd say the owl house! It's so colorful with two of my main kins.

42. @xen-blank @thehollowwriter @quartztwst @boopshoops @saionjeans (so sorry for the tag non-moots! Also i would've included all my moots but it said five ;-;)

43. Yes, i have five siblings! One oldest sister, two older brother, a little brother and the baby of the family, my little sister. i have middle child syndrome.

44. Either my mom or my little sister. I hug and say i love you to them very often. Or i said it to malleus last. One of them.

45. Tbh i have no idea in which circomstances i would die for something. maybe if i could trade my life with someone's close to me. or for peace on earth idk.

46. a big ol hug from my malleus plushie. it's a real emotional support.

47. no i have not. or maybe i did. i will probably forget it soon.

48. my two parents absolutely.

49."I wish to expérience it someday" (speaking of old lady gossip)

50. can i send you the same questions? :3

[kyouka-supremacy]

so, kyotag, your super honest opinion about bsd characters please (aka, who is your fave and who is your least fave. i promise, i am not trying to get you 'cancelled', i am just curious!) 🎤

Ever since I've gotten this ask I've been trembling, I don't think I can ever give bsd honest opinions for the sake of my own future mental sanity LMAO. The upside is, I can talk plenty of the characters I like!!

My favourite character is Kenji! For real, ahah. I'm just always drawn to characters that are just... Good. little guys only trying to do their best and be kind. I suppose there's also a factor of “that's who I want to be” that makes me like them in particular. I don't like the direction they went for Kenji's character in chapter 100.5, but really? I wasn't particularly let down by it either, like it's so fundamentally coherent with the worldview bsd expresses, if anything it was chapter 13 that was out of the scheme. I'm a professional canon ignorer at this point and I'll keep doing just that ahah.

↑ Saw this scene for the first time in the anime, went “Slay! Communist king!”, and he's been my favourite ever since lol.

Although, if we count in Beast, then my favourite character overall must be Beast Atsushi. I mean, have you seen him... Most fucked up guy ever. He went through unimaginable trauma and he still kept being so soft at his core. He just wants to live but everyone is making it so hard for him. He cares for Kyouka so much and he cares for Dazai so much and (to me) he cares for Akutagawa so much like little traumatized boy how did you manage to save all that love in you despite the Horrors. I can't put in words how much I love him but really he's the only character I can say I really sympathize with, like, I want good things to happen to him. I want him to spend the rest of his life coddled and adored.

I love all the female characters <3 I ADORE Kyouka, I think among the other female characters she's the most multilayered and complex character with a structured and compelling story arc. I think she's seriously nice, I really love this stark contrast between her sharp, cynical side and her side that is so sweet and kind and so utterly 14 y/o, and I love how these two sides aren't really in conflict but just come to be together and make her so authentically Kyouka. She's so dear to me. Also, she's the only female character who can compete with the s.kk / ss.kk four for the role of main character, so like, I'm rooting for her ahah.

I adore Yosano for self-explanatory reasons lmao. The chapters of her backstory may not be my absolute favourites for a mere matter of personal taste but I definitely think they make for the best written chapters in the whole manga. I really like how sensitive she is of others' suffering, I think she's amazing– I think her compassion is truly amazing. I want to read more stories of unapologetically compassionate characters. I also generally really really love “older sister” kind of characters!!

I love Kouyou with all I've got. I'm sorry, I genuinely think her story was this good on mistake, but still. I think her backstory makes her genuinely intriguing, I think she's extremely cool and powerful and a joy to see in action, I think toxic mother / daughter relationships are super fun to explore, I think she deserves so much more spotlight and should be back as soon as possible.

I love Mitchell lmao. Like I know it may not look like it but I truly think about her 24/7. I just love women that are kinda silly and over the top. She's got like four lines and every single one is a gem and I adore all of them. She's got those big evident flaws and they make her so human and likeable!!! She's my best friend. Not to mention how loyal she is and how much she cares about her family, I really like those traits of her. Oh, and gowns! I love love love gowns.

Okay but seriously I love all female characters. I didn't like Lucy in particular at the start but she's really grown on me and now I adore her with everything. Wells is spectacular and I need her back as soon as possible. Every woman I didn't mention, from Higuchi to Egawa, believe me I love with all my heart.

I went off a tangent I'm so sorry </3 I know you asked for one character, but how can I not mention the others??? It's just been so long for me in the fandom now and I just can't but grow attached. And I've got so much untapped love for women I never get to talk about on my silly blog that focuses on two men. Following up the list, would be Akutagawa. And I don't want to talk about him because I suppose there's no need to after having made one trillion posts about him but also can I just say? I like him for the same exact reasons I like Kenji. She's just a guy trying to be good. The difference is that he sucks so bad at it, and it makes him SO fun to explore as a character. I really have so much fun playing with him. Then would be Tachihara, Jouno...

... ........................ For the characters I like least, I suppose, R/anpo. I'm so sorry peoples. In R/anpo's case, it's just... Why do you have to be so mean and disrespectful all the time. Seriously, dude. Why is he always treating others as less than he is. I'm sorry, I really am, but I just can't help but find it displeasant? Like it takes zero energy to treat other people with common human decency, c'mon dude. At least Akutagawa is trying to do better, but everyone treats R/anpo like he's entitled to be a jerk? Idk man.

K/unikida. In his case, I Do Get why he's the way that he is (and genuinely can relate to him to an extent), it's just... For the way I am, I consider to try and forcibly impose your own ideals on other people to be about the most insulting thing you can do. And he does that a lot, with Atsushi and Dazai and everyone else. He also has this whole forced lack of empathy thing going on like... I get why he does that, and I get what he went through that made him like he is, but that doesn't change the fact you're kinda being a dick to everyone all the time dude. Please get some therapy.

That doesn't mean there aren't moments when I've genuinely liked them both and found them seriously cool!!!! I still think K/unikida is an interesting character and I genuinely get why people like him. I love the helicopter scene, I remember when I was reading the manga for the first time, when he said “no one ruins my schedule”, I was like, whaa, I was completely in awe. For R/anpo too, the Untold Origins arc from what I could see from the anime was really nice, and I also highly enjoy that one scene of his in chapter 81, the “To tell the truth, I had absolutely no assurance they'd believe me”.

Thank you for the ask Nyusa!! I hope you could find this at least a little bit interesting (?). If anything, now you know a little more about me, ahah. Also not talking about Dazai this time because really I can't be here the whole day.

[weepingfromacedartree]

Ten Milestones: Meeting Each Other's Friends

Chapter 3 is now live!

Warning: angst.

His grin falters. Slightly. 

“What does it say?” 

Penelope’s question comes out a little sadder than she had expected it to. While she may have argued that this whole idea is flawed from the start, a part of her is disappointed that it could be over so soon. If nothing else, arguing with Colin is usually her favourite part of these silly little games. 

“Something we never managed to cover in our twenty years of friendship?” 

“Nope,” he says, eyes still locked on the screen before him. “It’s something we’ve done many times before. With varying degrees of success.” 

Intrigue getting the best of her…

“What does it say?”

He clears his throat before reading. 

“Number Two: Meeting Each Other’s Friends. Friendships are an essential and impactful part of any person’s life. Meeting the people whom your significant other considers friends is valuable for many reasons. Not only is it a first step in merging your lives together, but it also teaches you things about your partner that you could not learn when alone together. 

After the briefest moment of silence…

“Well, I believe you’ve met my friend Eloise. So —”

“I have met plenty of your friends, all of whom are very kind and lovely people. Just as one would expect from a kind and lovely person such as yourself. Clearly Eloise — and perhaps also myself — is an outlier.” 

“Hey, that’s not —”

“I believe ‘meeting each other’s friends’ has only ever been an issue when my ‘friends’ were involved.”

Penelope bites her lip. 

“It was really just that one time.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Twelve Years Earlier: August 27th, 2011

Relationship Status: Friends

꙳

“Remind me why we’re doing this again.” 

“To act like irresponsible teenagers who love parties and socialising with their peers.” 

“That doesn’t sound like us.”

“Exactly. That’s why I said ‘act like.’”

Penelope has always been a good bullshitter. Since she was a child, she’s had an innate talent of bending the truth on a dime. It comes naturally to her; bullshit falls from her lips before she even has a chance to think it through. She never does it for fun — that filter is just built inside of her. There are certain truths that she simply can never say aloud, so her mind grew adept at talking around them. 

The truth: Colin had invited her to this party, and if there is one talent that Penelope does not possess, it is saying no to Colin Bridgerton. 

Another talent Penelope does not possess is walking into any type of social event by herself. Even at family gatherings — Featherington or Bridgerton — Penelope always finds herself clinging on to someone else. Usually Eloise. Sometimes Colin. Occasionally Prudence or Philipa — if she’s really desperate. 

Despite the fact that he invited her here, Penelope knows she won’t see much of Colin tonight. She knows this party will be filled with at least a hundred people he considers friends. She knows that she will not be able to cling onto him all night — and that she absolutely shouldn’t.

That’s how Eloise Bridgerton found herself being dragged towards her worst nightmare: a house party filled to the literal rooftop with loud, obnoxious teenagers. 

“This isn’t Skins, Pen. This is gonna suck.” 

“It’ll be fun.” Bullshit. 

“So fun!” Eloise mocks. “Why not continue the fun tomorrow and go shopping with your mother. I heard Primark is having a sale on yellow dresses.”

When Penelope forces out a sarcastic laugh, Eloise pulls her in even closer. 

“Seriously, Pen. You owe me for —”

“Let’s see how the other side lives for a little while. If it is truly tortuous, we can leave and go get chips. You know… how we usually spend our Saturday nights.”

The offer does not smooth over any of the sourness present on Eloise’s face. 

“You say that like there is something wrong with chips. There is absolutely nothing wrong with chips. Chips have never belched in my face or spilled a pint down the front of my shirt.” 

At this point, Penelope does not know whether to protest, laugh, or agree with her friend. Ultimately, she decides on the first option.

“What are you talking about? You’ve never even been to a party like this.” 

Eloise gulps. Her eyes flash wide, like she’s just been caught in a lie. 

“Well… no. But I’ve seen Skins and —”

“Oh, for god’s sake El.” 

Penelope wiggles Eloise’s phone from between her fingers. After typing in the four-digit passcode, she clicks on the little clock icon.

10:09

“What are you —”

“I’m setting a timer for 20 minutes. If you’re not having fun when the alarm goes off, we’ll leave and get chips.” 

“Fine,” Eloise grumbles, grabbing her phone back from Penelope. “You got yourself a deal, Featherington.” 

At 10:10 PM, Eloise and Penelope step foot into their first house party. 

꙳ ꙳ ꙳

Fife’s house smells like piss. 

There’s a lot happening in the room Colin has found himself in. There’s a lot happening in this little corner he has found himself in, surrounded by a group of his “friends” from Eton. They’re talking about the girls they’re gonna fuck at uni in the fall, meanwhile Colin can think of nothing other than the rancid smell of this room. Parties packed with hundreds of people are never going to smell nice, but this is just ridiculous. He almost wonders if the Fifes recently got a puppy and are still potty training him, but he can’t imagine that could account for such a stench. It would take at least a hundred puppies to —

“Ready for the birds up at Cambridge, Bridgerton?” Fife asks, breaking Colin from his thoughts and back into this piss-scented reality. 

“Hmm? Oh — yeah. Sure.”

“No longer interested in the ladies, Col?” his “friend” Edward chimes in. 

“For all his money and looks, he never had much luck with them in the first place, did he?” taunts his “friend” Fred. 

“Are you calling me pretty?” Colin shoots back, an insincere smile pulling at his lips. He’s been forcing it so much tonight that it’s starting to ache at the corners. “Flattered, truly.” 

Thankfully, the conversation quickly redirects to one of Fife’s embellished stories — this one about a girl he picked up at a pub earlier in the week. The commentary around it is just as mind numbingly boring as Colin has come to expect over the years. It’s just mind numbing enough for him to mentally check out of it completely, his smile fading as he glances around the rest of the room. 

It’s 10:11. The party just started, and yet the den is already packed with people. Most faces are recognizable to him, either from his time at Eton or his lifetime in Mayfair. No one in this room, though, does he have any particular interest in. His eyes scan the room thrice, searching for the one person he’s actually interested in seeing tonight. By the third attempt, he accepts defeat. 

When he turns his attention back to the group around him, he finds that Fife has already moved onto another story. This one smells of potent bullshit. Something about spending 20 minutes in a broom closet with a literature TA at Eton. 

Once again, Colin’s mind is adrift. 

Fife’s father is a member of Parliament — why does his den smell of piss? 

꙳ ꙳ ꙳

10:29

Somewhere in this massive estate, Eloise’s phone is blaring an alarm, asking her whether or not she is having fun. Penelope has no idea what the answer is, because within 20 minutes of stepping foot into this party, she managed to lose her best friend in the crowd. She also failed to find Colin during that time, but that matter is not as pressing at the moment. 

She steps into the back garden, hoping her luck will turn around in the fresh air. After all, surely Eloise would rather be out here than in the crowded interior — which, frankly, smells like someone pissed on the walls before the party started. 

Unfortunately, the garden isn’t any less cramped than the halls inside. 

As she continues forward, Penelope pays special attention to where her feet land in the crowd; the last thing she wants to do is trip over a forgotten beer can or get elbowed by someone taking a shot of liquor. This sort of manoeuvring isn't anything new to Penelope. When you’re as short as she is, you need to learn how to get out of other people’s way. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is when you’re the one who ends up crushed. 

After her second loop around the garden (and about a dozen texts to Eloise), Penelope feels a prickle of anxiety run up and down her spine. She’s about to turn on her heel and look inside again, but before she can, her feet make an unusual misstep. 

She slams chest-first into someone’s backside. Someone tall. 

“Oh, hello,” he snickers, turning around to look down at her. “That’s certainly one way to get a man’s attention.”

“Sorry, I —” 

It’s Fife, she belatedly realises. 

Penelope has never actually spoken to him before. She’s seen him from afar on a few occasions, but certainly never this close. Despite them being friends since primary school, Colin never brings Fife (or any of his other school friends) around his house on Grosvenor Street. Penelope always found this odd; she’s a friend of the Bridgertons and spends more time at their home than her own. 

“I —” she starts again, but still cannot find the words to finish the sentence. She tries to conjure up something logical to say, but it’s difficult to focus on words when you’re hyper-focused on other matters. Particularly, her feet and how she can move them far away enough to get her breasts off of Fife’s abdomen. Unfortunately, the crowd behind her does not grant her the space to do so. 

Thankfully, someone else speaks before she can stutter out another mindless syllable. 

“Hey! Back off Fife.” 

It’s Colin. He positions his body between her and Fife, creating space that wasn’t there just a second ago. 

“Woah, mate! She bumped into —” Fife starts. 

“It was my fau—” Penelope starts. 

“Yeah, yeah. I think I’ve heard that one before. Never your fault, is it Fife?” Colin interrupts. His tone confuses Penelope. She can’t tell if he’s teasing Fife, or legitimately wants to punch him in the face. 

“Colin. Really, it was my —” she starts again. This time, someone new cuts her off. Another guy, standing close behind Colin. 

“Do you know this chick, Bridgerton? Or do you simply enjoy saving random girls from becoming Fife’s next vict—”

“This is Penelope. My friend,” Colin cuts in, that confusing tone not letting up. Before she knows it, his arm slings around her shoulder, fingers gripping lightly into the fabric of her shirt. “Pen, this is —” With his free hand, he starts pointing to each of the men now forming a circle around them. “Edward. Fife. Louis. Michael. Fred.” 

In response to Colin’s curt introductions, each of the five men nod, smirk, and/or unblinkingly stare at Penelope’s chest. She feels a nervous blush creep up her cheeks as she says, “Lovely to me—”

“No need for flattery, Pen,” Colin cuts in again. “Even this lot is self-aware enough to know they’re all shit.” 

Michael snorts. Penelope gasps. Fife starts making a joke. Colin’s hand moves from her shoulder to her elbow, pulling her away before Fife can reach the punchline. 

Once they’re out of earshot from the group, Colin lets out an agonised groan and says, “Sorry about them. They’re —” He groans again, then drops his hand from her skin, just to run it briskly through his hair. “They’re fucking arseholes.” 

“They weren’t that ba—” 

“When did you get here by the way?” he interrupts, his usual light-hearted tone making a reappearance quickly. Almost alarmingly so. “I was looking for you.”

“You — you were?” The words slip out before she has the chance to stop them. 

Logically, such a statement shouldn’t be so surprising. They’ve been friends forever. He literally invited her to this party. But still… A part of Penelope cannot help but be surprised that Colin Bridgerton would seek her out in such a crowded group of people. 

“Of course,” he says nonchalantly. He raises his eyebrows, reminding her that he had asked a question. 

“Oh! Uh —” She looks down at her phone. 

10:43

Shit.

“About a half hour.” She lets out a quick, nervous laugh. “Have you seen El? I lost her rather quickly, it seems. And I kinda promised her that we would be gone by now if she wasn’t having any fun.” 

Colin scowls, then lifts his gaze from Penelope’s eyes to scan around the back garden. After about 15 seconds, he announces that he’s spotted her (and Penelope wonders how nice it must be to have an extra foot of height at your disposal). 

Scowl suddenly lifting…

“Well, I don’t think you need to leave quite yet.” 

Following his gaze to a bench on the other side of the garden, Penelope finally spots her best friend. She looks absolutely giddy. 

On the other side of the bench sits Theo, a boy Eloise met through an internship at Danbury’s publishing house last summer and has had a massive crush on ever since. They’re holding hands. They’re both laughing. They’re getting closer. Then, even closer. Then —

“Yeah, I don’t need to see that,” Colin grumbles from beside her. His hand wraps around her elbow once more. 

“Let’s go.” 

꙳ ꙳ ꙳

“Are you sure this is… safe?” 

“Live a little, Featherington.” 

After climbing through the window himself, Colin extends his hand for Penelope to take. Begrudgingly, she takes it.

They’re sitting on the north side of the roof, facing the street. Colin pulls out the beer bottles he had stashed under his arm on the way up here, then flicks the caps off using his car keys. He hands one to her; it tastes like liquified grass, but Penelope tries not to grimace when she takes her first sip. Thankfully, Colin is looking up at the stars, so he doesn’t see her nose crinkle as the beer slides down her throat. 

“Beautiful night,” he muses, eyes turning back to her. 

She looks up, towards the moon. It’s barely a sliver in the sky. 

“Yeah. It really is.”

It’s quiet for a moment, save for all that irrelevant noise in the background. 

Penelope likes the quiet. She always has. Her entire life it’s been there, taking on different shapes and useful qualities for whatever situation she finds herself in. A cover. A cushion. A comfort. With Colin, it’s a comfort. When she’s with him, she rarely feels the need to fill the quiet spaces of air between them.

Colin is typically more inclined to fill them.

“Sorry, again, about Fife. And the other dickheads.” 

“Colin, I told you. It’s —”

“‘It’s fine. They’re not that bad,’” he dramatically mimics. “Yeah I know. But speaking from the perspective of someone who actually knows them, they are shit and should be regarded as such.” 

Penelope could continue brushing all of that shit to the side, but she doesn’t. Even if bumping into Fife was her fault, she didn’t like the way he looked down at her in the moment after. She didn’t like how he didn’t step away until Colin forced him to — when he surely could have done so on his own. And she didn’t like the way all five of them looked at her when Colin introduced her — as though her tits were more interesting than anything he could have been saying. 

Instead of brushing it off, she simply asks: “If they’re such shit, why are you friends with them?” Her own tone confuses her. 

Through the corner of her eye, she watches as Colin’s lips start to drop into a grimace; he takes a swig of his beer before it can fully take shape. 

“Good question.”

He goes quiet again. When Penelope presumes that he is finished answering her question, she opens her mouth again. 

“I —”

“Maybe I’ve outgrown them.” Swig. “Or maybe it’s just that I’m shit too.”

Penelope laughs lightly, praying that tiny breath of air will help lighten Colin’s mood. 

“The former, I think.” 

“I think you give me too much credit.” 

Penelope doesn’t know how to respond to that. Her entire life, Colin has only ever existed in her mind under a golden ray of light. He’s always been the one who makes her happy. The one who can draw a smile out of her, even on her darkest day. The one who is always there for her. The one she’s always wanted more of. 

How could claiming he’s not shit be giving him too much credit? 

Penelope doesn’t know how to respond to that. So instead, she asks, “Are they also attending Cambridge?” 

“Not all of ‘em.” Swig. “Michael’s off to Edinburgh next week. Edward and Fred are both staying here for Imperial.” Swig. “Louis will be up at Cambridge with me, but he’s not so bad. When he’s away from Fife’s bad influence, at least.”

“And Fife?” she questions. “Where is he going?”

Colin groans. He looks like he’s about to raise the bottle to his lips again, but doesn’t. 

“Fife was admitted to Cambridge, but deferring a year to ‘go find himself.’ Hopefully, he finds himself at King’s College when he’s finished.”

“What’s Fife’s real name, by the way?” Penelope asks, unsure of what else to say. “Why does everyone just call him by his surname?” 

For the first time all night, Colin laughs. 

“Oh — uh. Cornelius. Cornelius Fife.” 

Despite herself, Penelope snorts. 

“Oh god, that’s bad. Perhaps even worse than ‘Penelope Featherington.’”

“What’s wrong with ‘Penelope Featherington?’” Colin asks, his tone earnest. 

“Um…” Pointing her eyes to the little sliver of moon above, Penelope silently prays that the sky is dark enough to hide the blush currently warming her cheeks. 

“A bit of a mouthful I guess. At least ‘Corn-eel-ee-us-Fife,” she punctuates each beat with one of her fingers, “is only five syllables.”

“I don’t know. I happen to quite like ‘Penelope Featherington.’”

She doesn’t know how to respond to that, either. 

She should be used to this by now — existing in such close proximity to charming Colin Bridgerton. She should know his flirtatious words are just that. Words. That just because they tug at her heart does not mean there was any intention on his end to do so. She should know by now that there is — that there never will be — any intention to do so.

She should be used to this by now, but she’s not. Even now, her cheeks burn red as he unknowingly fractures what little resolve she has left. 

“You ready to leave London?” Colin asks, his voice breaking Penelope from her thoughts. 

Next week, she and Eloise are set to leave for Cheltenham to begin their Sixth Forms. Literally, she isn’t ready (there are about a million things she needs to get done before she goes). But in her heart, she is ready. She’s been ready to leave home for the past two years — ever since Colin left for Eton. 

“Oh — yeah.” She takes another sip of her beer. It still tastes like grass. “I think so.”

“It’s nice that you and El will have each other there.” He chuckles softly, turning the bottle over in his hands a few times. “With your good influence, maybe she’ll make it through an entire semester without being sent home.”

Penelope chuckles too, louder than Colin had a moment ago.

“Eloise will be fine, with or without me. She’s all talk.”

“Yeah. The ‘talk’ is exactly what I’m worried about. Also fist fighting, but at least she doesn’t have the balls to do that in the middle of class.” Swig. “Usually.”

As much as she wants to defend her best friend further, Penelope holds her tongue. He has a point. Last term, Eloise made a hobby out of backtalking their maths teacher.

“Really though,” he continues. “Leaving home is amazing, but it also kinda sucks. Having your best friend there… It’ll be good.” 

“Why does it suck?” Penelope asks, little alarm bells ringing in the back of her mind. She and Colin rarely discuss Eton in detail, but the little he does say is typically positive.

He keeps quiet for a moment, seeming to search for the answer in the stars above them. 

“It’s different for everyone. It might not suck for you at all. But for me…” Swig. “Maybe it’s just because I was so used to living with seven siblings and an overprotective mum. But going from that to Eton so suddenly…” Swig. “Felt a bit isolating at first.”

The alarm bells continue ringing. They’re a bit louder now.

“Colin, I —” 

“It gets better, obviously. You adjust. It took me a while to be comfortable living without the people I lived with all my life, but eventually I did.” Swig. “Your friends really do help with that. Hopefully you can learn from me though, and cut them off when you realise they’re all bloody arseholes.”

She waits until she’s certain that he’s finished speaking before opening her mouth to speak again. But when she does, before she can even suck in a full breath of air, he keeps going.

“Sorry, by the way. I didn’t mean to scare you or anything. I just thought it would have been good if someone told me that before I left for Eton. Prepared me for it, at least.”

“You didn’t scare me,” she insists. “And I appreciate your candour. Truly.”

Colin opens his mouth again, looking as though he’s about to say something else. Penelope knows she should let him talk. That she should allow him to alter the course of the conversation, if that’s what he wants. But she also can’t ignore those goddamn alarm bells ringing in her ears.

“You know you can tell me anything, right? Even if — hypothetically — it could scare me. I just — I’m always here to listen. About anything.” 

For the briefest moment, something new passes on Colin’s face. Even with what little light is left in the sky, Penelope can tell that she’s never seen it there before. She can’t quite put a name to it, but it almost looks… desperate. And then it’s just gone. 

Turning his gaze away from her and towards the sky above, Colin shifts in his spot and — for the second time tonight — wraps his arm around Penelope’s shoulder. His fingers just barely graze the fabric of her shirt. 

“Yeah, Pen. I know.” 

She should be used to this by now. Colin is her friend. His touch is innocent, always. It doesn’t matter if her breath quickens when his body settles against hers. It doesn’t matter if her skin burns beneath his lightest touch. None of this matters to Colin — at least not in the way that it matters to her. 

She lasts about 25 seconds before squirming out of his hold. She scoots back a few inches and turns so her entire front faces him. “What’s the distance between Cheltenham and Cambridge again?” she asks, as if the exact mileage has not been burned into her brain for months. 

Colin scowls. “200 kilometres. Give or take.” 

Penelope nods. Mayfair and Eton were only 35 kilometres apart. There were times over the last two years where it felt as though Eton may as well have been located on the moon.

“Chin up, Pen,” he says, his demeanour already lightening up. “It’s the twenty-first century. We can always Skype.” 

“I know…” She raises her bottle, letting the glass rim rest against her lips. She can’t bring herself to take another sip, though. “Even then, I’ll still miss you.” 

“Well, obviously,” he says through a smirk. Penelope scoffs, hiding her own smile behind her hand. 

Charm and arrogance do tend to come hand and hand. 

“That’s —”

“I’ll miss you, too. Obviously. But that’s no reason to stay home and prevent ourselves from reaching our full potentials. We owe it to the world, Pen. We can’t possibly be that selfish.” 

In the time that it takes Penelope to think of a single sensical response to that, Colin goes to take another swig, comes up empty, then peers one eye into his bottle to confirm its lack. 

“I sup—”

“To Cheltenham.” With that, he raises his bottle towards her. 

Penelope smiles. Resisting the urge to remind him that toasting with an empty glass is bad luck, she clinks the butt of her bottle against his. Hers is still half-full. 

“To Cambridge.” 

The quiet returns. It sits between them for a while. Penelope likes it. 

She likes it all. 

꙳ ꙳ ꙳

After spending an hour on the roof and beneath the stars, Colin and Penelope return to the spot where their night had started. The back garden has become less crowded, but only slightly so. She still has to look where she steps as they weave between the other bodies in the crowd. 

“Bloody hell,” Penelope curses, ducking to avoid the crushed beer can hurdling towards her head. Inadvertently, her movement causes the aluminium can to strike Colin’s shoulder instead. “Shit! Sor—”

“You okay?” he asks, pulling her into his side even closer than she already was. His hand hadn’t left hers since he helped her climb back inside through the window five minutes ago. (She spent those five minutes praying that Colin attributes her sweaty palms to nothing more than the August humidity.)

“Of course. Are you okay?”

Colin’s smile makes a reappearance as his hand gives Penelope’s a gentle squeeze. 

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” 

Suddenly fully cognizant of just how slimy her palm has gotten with her own sweat, Penelope pulls it out of Colin’s grasp. She raises all ten of her fingers to the sky and hopes her forced smile will distract from the pink of her cheeks. 

“Fair point. Why wouldn’t you be having an amazing time at an amazing party like this?”

Colin laughs. He uses the hand that was holding hers just a second ago to run his fingers through his hair. 

“You mean the one we were just hiding from for an —” 

“Wait — Colin,” Penelope interrupts. On principle, she typically tries to avoid doing that, but alarm bells are ringing in her mind again. This time, for a different Bridgerton sibling. 

“Have you seen Eloise anywhere? It’s been like two hours since I last talked to her. I hope she doesn’t —” 

“Yeah,” Colin interrupts — a more common occurrence on his part. He rolls his eyes. “We passed her inside. She was in queue for the loo.” 

“Oh,” she sighs, a bit confused by his sudden change in demeanour. “So she was by herself?”

Colin does not respond with words. First, his face contorts into an expression that falls somewhere between embarrassment and disgust. Then, he shakes his head. 

“Oh.”

At least one of us is getting lucky tonight. 

For a moment, the two of them stand side-by-side. Neither looks at the other. Neither knows what to do with their hands. They both listen — Penelope to the people, Colin to the music. They open their mouths at the same exact time. 

“We should go ba—” 

“Do you hear that?” 

“Hmm?” Penelope mumbles, eyebrows shooting up. She has already forgotten what it was that she was about to say.

Colin smiles at her, just as he did a hundred different times in the past hour. It’s annoying how every single one of them has made her stomach flutter.

“It’s our song.” 

Eyebrows shooting downwards in confusion, Penelope attempts to filter out the shrieks and gasps and fights and drama around them and just hear the song in question. Within seconds, she recognizes the familiar notes in the air. 

“This is not ‘our song,’” she tells him, voice definitive. 

“Sure it is.” 

Before she can get another word in, his hand is in hers again. He’s pulling her towards the other side of the garden, where the music is louder and a small group of people sway to the beat. 

“What are you doing?” She hates how shrill her voice sounds, but she doesn’t like the outcome he is pulling them towards, either. 

Dragging her forward with a tightening grip, Colin spares a glance over his shoulder. “We’re dancing,” he says, as if the answer is obvious. Or at all sensical.

“No we’re not,” Penelope insists, but only with her voice. She makes no attempt at standing her literal ground against him, her footsteps trailing closely behind his. Their intended destination is less than five feet away now. 

“Sure we are.” 

That’s the end of it; as soon as the words leave his lips, they’re on the little patch of grass that will serve as their dance floor. Colin falls into position immediately, one hand grabbing hers, the other landing delicately on her waist. Penelope is slower, but ultimately compliant. Her right hand matches his grip while her left hooks onto his shoulder. 

Their feet start moving beneath them and, at first, it’s not so bad. They’ve danced like this a few times before. (Three times, to be exact — at his cousin’s wedding, New Year’s Eve 2010, and that one time at Aubrey Hall.) With each instance, it becomes a little more natural — a little easier. A little. 

Other than the places where their hands lie, their bodies remain separate by about a foot. But god — her skin is just so hot beneath his touch. The cloth between her waist and his palm feels like it’s about to go up in smoke. 

Attempting to distract herself from his touch, Penelope tilts her chin up and asks the first question that pops into her mind. 

“Do they teach you young men how to dance at Eton?” 

“Why do you ask?” He looks down at her with a familiar smile gracing his lips. Then, he wiggles his eyebrows in that childish way that instantly takes her back to a time when his touch felt so innocent. “Have I improved since last summer?” 

In truth, Penelope can’t quite remember what point she had been trying to make. Her brain is so hazy that it’s possible she never had one to begin with. Nevertheless, she continues forward, pushing words out of her mouth too fast for her mind to stop her. 

“No… But there’s always Cambridge. Perhaps they can give you some useful pointers.” 

Unphased by her teasing, Colin leans in a bit closer, a smirk on his lips. 

“Don’t act like I’m not your favourite dance partner,” he tells her. 

With that, it becomes painfully evident to Penelope that any attempt to neutralise this situation with words will ultimately fail her. Lips disappearing into her mouth, she smiles up at Colin and gives him the faintest nod of her head. 

With her lips sealed tight, Penelope’s mind cannot help but linger on Colin’s hands — on the parts of her he holds so carefully. On her waist, separated by a fabric too thin to dampen the startling effect of his touch. On her right palm, pressed flat against his and growing damper with each passing second. On her left hand, suddenly drawn away from his shoulder so he can guide her away from him and twirl her back just as quickly. On her lower back, where his right hand settles far more firmly than it had on her waist. 

Now, their bodies aren’t so disconnected. 

Even though she can no longer use her voice to do so, Penelope feels an inherent need to protest this insane, silly, embarrassing situation. One Colin quite literally dragged her into. 

Looking up, she attempts to protest with her eyes alone. In response, all she gets is that goddamn smile of his. It’s maddening. She tilts her head into his shoulder, just to give her eyes and heart a reprieve from its most detrimental effects. 

They didn’t start dancing until nearly halfway through the song. It’s almost over now, which should make Penelope happy. She should be grateful for this fact. She should thank the universe for delaying their start, because at least that means the ending will come quicker. That she will spend less time doing something so embarrassing while surrounded by a group of her peers. That she will spend less time reminding herself that Colin is just her friend, while also being tucked into his chest and held tightly in his arms. But as the music picks up speed again, she isn’t happy or grateful. 

She’s bitter. 

She’s greedy.

Penelope Featherington may be a realist, but she’s equal parts a willing fool. She wishes this could continue on forever. 

But she can’t wish for that, can she?

You’ve danced with him like this before. This is nothing new.

He’s your friend. He’s only ever treated you like a friend.

You had one beer. Your head should not be spinning this badly.

He’ll never —

“Pen?” 

“Hmm?” 

With her head still very much spinning, Penelope lifts her cheek off his chest and looks up. Thankfully, his smile has since dropped. His face is almost neutral now. 

“Thanks for coming tonight.” 

“Oh,” she whispers, mind barely beginning to clear. “You don’t have to thank m—”

“No, I do,” Colin insists. The faintest hint of a smile reappears on his lips. “For full transparency, it was for purely selfish reasons. I would have been miserable, had I been forced to endure Fife’s bollocks stories all night.” 

Penelope laughs. It’s only half forced. 

“Oh! Are you saying you like me more than Cornelius Fife? I’m honoured. Truly.” 

Her tongue had been heavy with sarcasm, but for a moment, Penelope wonders if she should have laid it on even stronger. Colin is squinting at her like she just said something deeply offensive. 

“I —”

Before she can finish that sentence, Penelope’s mouth is muffled by the cloth of Colin’s shirt. Once again, her face is positioned against his chest and out of his view. Unlike last time, the change in position had not been her decision. 

His right arm is slung around her shoulders, pulling the two of them into a position not too different from a hug. But while Colin and Penelope have hugged plenty of times before, he has never held her quite like this. Like he’s scared she’ll slip away from him at any moment. 

“I like you more than everyone,” he belatedly answers. There isn’t a single drop of sarcasm on his tongue. 

For what little life is left of their dance, Penelope can’t summon the strength to lift her cheek from his chest. She can’t bring herself to say another word. She can’t even force herself to repeat the words in her head that have just barely allowed her to remain sane while in situations like this before. Instead, she listens intently to the music, hoping and praying that it will drown out everything else inside her. 

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine

“Pen!”

Before the song can reach its final note, it’s over. 

She literally jumps out of Colin’s embrace, taking several steps away from him before her mind can even register what is happening. With wide, guilty eyes, Penelope turns towards the person who had just called out for her. 

“El! It’s not —”

“Oh my god, Pen! I can’t believe I tried to weasel myself out of coming here. You will never believe what I was doing all night. Or who I was doing it wi—”

“Dear God, Eloise,” Colin grumbles rather loudly from out of view behind her. 

In a flash, Eloise’s eyes go even wider than Penelope’s. Apparently, just now realising that her older brother stands before her. 

“Colin?! When did you —” 

Cutting off her own words with a huff, Eloise rolls her eyes, then turns them back to Penelope. 

“Nevermind. Pen — let’s go get chips. I have so much to tell you about!” 

With that, Eloise wraps her fingers around Penelope’s wrist. In the split second before she gets pulled away, she looks over to Colin again. 

It takes everything in her to meet his eye. When she does, she can’t help but see longing staring back at her. She can’t help but wonder if her eyes are playing tricks on her — inventing a mirror where there isn’t one. 

“Goodnight,” she barely manages to say. Using the hand not currently being strangled in Eloise’s death grip, she gives him the most pitiful wave that has ever been waved. 

꙳ ꙳ ꙳

At 12:16 AM, Penelope and Eloise step out of their first house party. To Eloise, night had been a dream. To Penelope, a brief detour into purgatory. 

As Eloise recounts her magical night with the boy she’s been obsessing over all year, Penelope tries to forget the one she shared with the boy she’s loved her entire life. She does her best to ignore the dread boiling in her stomach and simply be happy for her friend. 

“I can’t believe I ever doubted you,” Eloise exclaims, laughter light on her lips. “Tonight was fun.” 

“That’s great, El.” Penelope tries to match Eloise’s light tone, but her words practically pour from her lips and fall to the ground between them. 

Eloise squeezes her hand, still locked in the death grip from several minutes ago. Penelope doesn’t have the heart to turn her head and look her best friend in the eye. At best, she’ll see nothing. At worst, pity.

“What did y—” 

“How did you make things happen with Theo?” Penelope interrupts. On principle, she typically tries to avoid doing that. “Didn’t you say that you always chicken out when trying to push things forward with him?”

“Oh.” Eloise chuckles nervously. “I don’t know, honestly. I sort of just said ‘fuck it.’” 

“‘Fuck it?’” Penelope repeats. 

“Yeah. You’re right. I spent the entire past year pining after him like a pathetic little school girl, too scared to make anything happen. Tonight, I saw him across the garden and it just hit me. I’m leaving for Cheltenham, he’s staying in London. I might never get a chance with him again. Why not get out of my own head and just go for it?” 

Eloise laughs again. This time, she sounds victorious. 

“And it actually worked! Can you believe it?!” 

It was a rhetorical question, but Penelope cannot help but whisper, “No.” Eloise doesn’t hear her say it, launching back into her retelling of the night. 

Quickly, Penelope doesn’t hear Eloise either, very much stuck inside her own head. 

Penelope has loved Colin her entire life. She has loved him since before she knew “love” was the right word for it — for this longing that has been erected inside her soul. She has loved him long enough to know that this love wasn’t built to fade, even if it is never returned. She has loved him madly enough to pick up tricks that make things bearable — that makes the inevitable heartbreak of love easier to live in. 

Since the moment she realised it was love, she has repeated the same string of ten words back to herself whenever things get especially hard. Whenever she risks losing sight of her circumstances. 

He’ll never love you the way you want him to. 

Those ten words had saved their friendship. They made it possible for Penelope to exist in such close proximity to him as nothing more than a friend. They prevented her from wanting even more than she already did. 

But god. What if she has been wrong this entire time? What if those words — repeated back to herself even more than usual tonight — were just that. Words. 

What if she had spent so much time in her own head that she failed to see what was right in front of her? To pay attention to the words and actions that actually meant something. 

The way his fingers gripped onto her shoulder when he introduced her to his friends. 

Back off Fife.

That look in his eye when they sat on the roof together. 

I happen to quite like ‘Penelope Featherington.’

How he pulled her into him when they danced together. 

I like you more than —

“Pen!”

She stops dead in her tracks, only now realising that Eloise had stopped moments ago while her feet had kept walking. 

“Oh! Sorry, I just…” 

Eloise laughs, then strides four steps to bridge the gap between them. 

“One too many drinks tonight, Featherington?” 

“Something like that,” she mumbles. When Eloise interlocks their fingers and starts to guide them forward again, Penelope doesn’t move. 

“Speaking of which — I just realised, I really need to use the loo. I’ll run back inside. Can you wait for me here?”

With a tiny scowl pulling at her lips, Eloise reminds her that they have toilets at the chip shop.

“I know, it’s just kind of an emergency and the shop is —” 

“Yes, right — of course. You go, I’ll wait here.” 

With that, she turns on her heel and retraces her steps to the party. 

For the first time in her life, Penelope Featherington runs headfirst into a disastrous situation without a plan in sight. 

꙳ ꙳ ꙳

The garden is slightly less packed than it had been when Eloise dragged her out of it. Which is to say, much more crowded than Penelope would like it to be. 

She doesn’t spot him right away, but after agreeing on just how unbearable the stench inside was, Penelope can’t imagine he’s anywhere else at this party. She lifts herself onto the balls of her feet, but it gives her just as much advantage as one could expect from someone as short as her. (None.) 

She continues forward, paying special attention to where her feet land in the crowd. She flicks her eyes up, looking for his outline against the rest. She keeps her eyes pointed outwards, searching for that familiar drawl. She does an entire loop around the garden and comes up empty. Just as she begins to rethink her strategy, she hears something familiar. Not Colin’s voice, but…

“Penelope Featherington?” 

She jumps around at the sound of her own name. It had sounded far away, as if it had not been intended for her ears to take in. 

It hadn’t been. No — it had been intended for Colin, she realises once her eyes finally spot him. He’s standing with those five dickheads he had introduced her to earlier in the night.

“The way you were dancing with her looked rather… interesting” Fife continues, practically shouting in Colin’s ears. They’re both turned away from her, a few metres off, but his words cut clear through the music and all other chaos. “Are you two —”

“No. No way, mate,” Colin interrupts. Of all the things he could do next… 

He laughs.

“You sure you haven’t been keeping her from us this whole time?” His other friend cuts in — Louis, if she remembers correctly. 

“Are you mad?” Colin interrupts again, another laugh ringing into the air. “I would never date Penelope. Not in a million years.” 

Another one of his friends — the Scottish one — says something else. Another joke. Penelope doesn’t hear it, though. There isn’t anything else she needs to hear. 

Those ten words repeat again and again and again in her mind.

I would never date Penelope. Not in a million years.

They ring in her ears as tears well in her eyes and drip down her cheeks. Those tears don’t stop, nearly blinding her as she carelessly pushes past all the people who stand between her and the exit. 

I would never date Penelope. Not in a million years.

The way he said it — how his laugh rang out just before… Like it was a joke. Not that the words themselves contained the punchline — what he said was true. 

No. She was the joke here. 

I would never date Penelope. Not in a million years.

A fact. One she never wanted to hear, but will eventually grip onto for dear life. 

꙳ ꙳ ꙳

“I would never date Penelope. Not in a million years.” Bullshit. 

It will take Colin several years to finally understand and accept the true depth of his feelings for Penelope. But even in this moment — standing amongst five fellow dickheads in Fife’s back garden — he can recognize the taste of bullshit when it falls from his own lips. 

As Fife challenges Michael to “another” pissing contest, Colin staggers off to the side of the group. He finds the nearest bottle of clear liquid and raises it to his lips; he grimaces, but only after realising that not even vodka can dispel that taste from his mouth. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single substance at this party Colin could ingest that would make what he just said taste like anything other than bullshit. Not after everything else he had done tonight. 

Not after he lurched forward to place his body between her and Fife, after that bastard bumped into her. How he placed his arm around her and wanted Fife to get the message that she was not his to take. 

Not after his eyes lingered on her chest every time she turned away from him while up on that rooftop. That he was ready to murder each one of his “friends” earlier in the night for doing the exact same thing. How his eyes had refused to comply with his brain, reminding him that Penelope is just his friend.

Not after he pulled her in close while they were dancing together. How he felt it necessary to shield her eyes from his own, fearing they would reveal how desperately he wanted her. How he wanted to hold her even closer and never let her go.

Then, she let go. And Colin went back to his “friends.” 

There is nothing in this world that could convince Colin that what he said about Penelope wasn’t wrong. But there is no short supply of substances that can make him forget he said it in the first place. 

The vodka tastes bitter; he shoots it back desperately.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Colin lets out a groan so loud that Penelope can practically feel it from where she sits on the other end of the rug.

“God, I was such a fucking dickhead.” 

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

He scoffs. “I’m being hard on my younger self because he was a dickhead.” 

“Maybe,” Penelope relents, knowing this conversation could play on loop forever if she doesn’t. “But hey — better he than you. We should be thankful that we both changed and grew out of our younger selves. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here playing your silly little game. ” 

He scoffs, again. “‘My’ silly little game? You —”

“On the other hand,” Penelope interrupts. She typically tries to avoid doing that, but she does have good reason for it. She’s just had somewhat of a revelation. “Your words that night still ring true to this day.” 

“I beg your pardon?” Colin asks, aghast. 

“Why did you suggest we play this game again?”

“Because I love y—”

“Oh right — it was because you consider the idea of dating me ‘silly’ and ‘unnecessary.’”

Colin scoffs again, although Penelope suspects that this time he’s just trying to cover up a laugh.

“From a respected, ‘honourable’ journalist such as yourself, I would not expect to be misquoted in such bad faith.” 

“Oh shush,” Penelope orders, biting back her own laugh. “What’s next?”

[bengiyo]

My School President Ep 5 Stray Thoughts

I'm so glad to be back with this show. Thankfully we took a break at what felt like the end of an act. I'm still not over the pinky clasp from the last episode, and am very excited to see where the acknowledged attraction takes these boys next. Also, I really like Sound as a character, and hope he causes more complications.

Ah, a jaded school counselor. Time to think about the future and face the reality that your dream job might not be attainable or give you the life you want.

I like this opening scene. It's very stylish. Placing all of the students in the same framing reinforces the common experience for all of the characters. It's easy to see how a counselor ends up feeling this way, when you watch so many students' lives take a different turn.

Also, Mark Pakin is really good.

Poor Gun. He was having a lot of fun with his friends and staring into the middle distance, but now he has to accept that maybe they're not as committed to music as him.

I'm still floored by the opening song being a torch passed down to this club about how they have each other's backs. It's still affecting me this week.

It's a bit subtle, but I like the way Gemini is playing Tinn as more relaxed about approaching Gun now. Fourth does a good job responding so quickly to it as if it's a matter of fact now. They're a solid pair.

Gun didn't ask, but I want to know what Tinn is interested in as a profession.

Time to revive the #they are literally always flirting tag

The mom's collapsed is executed really well here. The boys are just flirting as they do before the jarring crash behind them. As with all major life events, they happen suddenly and without warning.

She collapses like this all the time? What the hell??

Of course Tinn is going to offer to help his prospective boyfriend and hopefully-future mother-in-law. Gun's little appreciative smile is all the reward our simp needs.

Tinn's characterization is so consistent. He's at his best, bravest, and most endearing when he's helping. Gun is getting a bit nervous, so Tinn suggests a practice dish. Gun gets nervous about how good it is, so Tinn just takes a big bite. Gun is clearly enamored as a result.

Oh ho! Our first signs of mild jealousy and possessiveness from Gun. He was very polite about telling those girls to back off. Kaojao (SCOY) would be proud.

Again, Tinn is finally comfortable enough with Gun that he's only amused when Gun clings to him when the lights went off, and is able to teasingly deflect about how much devotion he's shown.

Ah, the answer to my question: Despite his hardworking nature, Tinn doesn't know what he wants for himself.

Gun loves his mom so much. It's lovely.

Oh no. Looks like the shop isn't doing so well. Gun's whole world is cracking apart.

Hey, Fourth is also pretty good. It felt like that was the first time he's said he'd cut our Hot Wave aloud, and we could see his heart break immediately.

Win's clicks on the controller don't match any gameplay I recognize. (I'm just being silly. I know he's acting.)

Our best boy Tiwson is gonna keep us focused on the prize.

I love Gun's mom. She absolutely knows that Tinn likes Gun, and is only nudging enough to make sure Gun doesn't give up on himself for her. We stan.

I am obsessed with Tinn's jogging outfit. Did they intentionally put him in almost-lesbian-flag colors?

The BL Juice has made its appearance.

Oh it's been a good minute since I've seen a piggyback ride.

Tiwson is going to fix this entire band. Now Por is getting a push.

Yes, boys, let's flirt over a fake interview.

RAP OF WAR CONTEST. Love this energy.

Sometimes you need a rival to make you determined enough to push past your stage fright. Curious where Win and Sound end up.

Is Tinn is a GMM office?? LOL

Oh, Tinn is lying to his mom now. I will remember this seed for later.

This producer looks a little bit like Alanis Morissette. Too bad she has to disappoint our boys.

His name is Winny Da Pooh. I'm going to ascend.

Sound isn't a total ass. Look at him saving Win and giving him a shove.

Oh no the sunshine boy is breaking down. It's always sad, but it really is one of the best parts of any drama.

Business Administration? Baby boy, no.

That's right, Mom. Rebuild your son with the power of music.

It's like Au watched Rainbow Prince and was PISSED that The Philippines beat them to a musical. I'm absolutely here for the whole cast singing. Love that we got the band back together.

But also, I wanted to hear Winny Da Pooh rap.

This show's comedic timing is genuinely funny. "I can put my mind at ease..." Into Gun running screaming into the room. Perfect.

Ah good. Gun now finally understands Tinn's motivations. Not an episode 5 kiss, but close to it on the moving forward phase.

[yandere-wishes]

Back story about those two friends who got married!

So I got close to the mother back when we started going to college together and the three of us (the intp libra and myself ofc) would often go to class together. One day one of our friends told us that he had a crush on her we'll call him A. He started getting really kind of pushy with her and she always thought it was a little weird but she's kind of the quiet and shy type so we didn't know what her thoughts were. But, we were sure that she liked him back because she would often tease him and whatnot. She would often send him silly Snapchats too, his crush got really intense. She sent him a pic for two movie tickets (it was spiderman lol) and literally everyone thought she was trying to make him jealous or she was toying with him.

Turns out, the one watching the movie with her was her future hubby.

When we found that out, A blamed all of us for hyping him up. We all apologized because we really thought she liked him back but I tore into him because he was being a massive jerk and even started sending her dumb texts via Instagram and Whatsapp. Weird dude.

Those two dated and last summer they had a mini island 2 week vacation in Croatia. Few months later though, my INTP friend is sending me panicked messages that the entp girl, bride, whatever lol, wants to talk to her and it has to be face to face. She never does stuff like that so it was intense!

Next day, those two pulled me inside the bathroom and guess what - she was pregnant! I saw the ultrasound lmao.

They got engaged are got married. I did not attend that ceremony because they kept it very private, immediate family ONLY which I can respect.

Also, fun fact - one of our professors got married the exact same day!! He was literally outside room with his own bride, waiting for those two to be done LMAOOO that was funny. The professors bride was a former student of his. But that is a different can of worms ;)

okay, this is when you know you have succeeded in life. When your people start thinking your love life is straight from a 90's romance flick!! Girlie is out there living the best life IMO!!

Also, love that she and her future husband decided to go see Spiderman as their first movie together. Mad respect!! But honestly, A is super creepy and totally a Jerk. You can't blame anyone just cause someone you have a crush on likes someone else. Good Job tearing him a new one, that guy definitely needed to be put back in his place!! Like seriously dude chill!!

I'm laughing so hard at the image of a college professor waiting for one of his students to finish their ceremony so he can get married. 🤣🤣

Was the professor at least close in age with the student?? Regardless still feels very wrong 💀💀

[unnursvanablog]

While I may not be watching two dramas with 2pm actors in it anymore (because I dropped Heartbeat around ep 7) I am however going to be watching two dramas with a snsd member in it now because I just picked up Not Others with Sooyoung.

My 2nd gen heart is still beating quite strongly, because not only is there is snsd member in Not Others but also a Girl's Day member (this is the 2nd drama that I have seen Sojin in this year when she plays the best friend character) and I am also watching Numbers with two members of Infinite.

There is often a very slow buildup to the story, as we go trough all of these setups and character introductions, during the first two episodes of a kdrama but Not Others waste very little time on that. It pretty much manages to establish the tone and the relationship dynamic between the daughter and mother in the opening scene.

You get very quickly this sense of this young mom who had to grow up rather quickly and didn't really get to have the fun she might have wanted in her 20s and the child that is ultimatly going to have to parents her parent and keep her in check.

And all throughout the first episode this becomes all the more clear. There is such a good contrast between the two of them and they riff of each other so well that you can't help but be engaged.

The humour is a lot roncier than I thought it would be, but also the sort of slapsticky as I would expect from a comedy kdrama. Like, I was not expecting to witness, with Sooyoungs character, the mom masturbating in the living room - but I also applaud that the drama went there and showed that yes, older women who are moms also have a working labido and stuff.

And it sort of discussed it, as well as other topics about being a woman, in a very nonscalont and non-shameful way imho.

The drama never feels to over the top though, despite the somewhat slapstick comedy. It seems to have a very human story, sort of slice-of-life feel to it at it's core and it feels refreshing to me out of all the other kdramas in my watching lineup. It also feels unserious without being obnoxiously so and just frivilous and dumb (aka Heartbeat). There seems to be a purpose to the silliness and it's also grounded enough in an human story so it doesn't feel so over the top it just becomes ridiculous (aka King the Land)

And the small hint of romance, even if it's fairly commonplace and nothing new (he thinks she is annoying and is her boss) it didn't really make me groan because it felt too common or overused for some reason. Maybe it's because I do enjoy a proper enemies to lovers. Now I just need to mom to have her own romance.

I also need this cop stuff to not get too heavy and please, please please can we not have a murder mystery / rom-com hybrid.

[auzzzilly96]

Could I learn about your B and James interprets lore 🥺🥺🥺

Errrm well tbh I kinda already said most of the stuff abt my interps the last time I was asked but I guess there r a few more things I could talk abt :3 

Mk sooo more abt B’s whole being way older than he should be thing n more abt what his life was like b4 he got lost in the backrooms. So pretty much he was born in the year 1950 in America around the Texas-Louisiana border[silly goofy projection we will not see more of that later definitely not]. He was pretty poor for most of his life, especially in childhood, but they made it work. He might have had siblings idk, neither does he [boom vague Reagan reference where is my gold sticker/SILLY] He was very close with his mother bc his father wasn’t around a lot, mostly out working bc the whole living in poverty thingg. He actually learned 2 speak japanese b4 he learned english bc that was his mom’s native language so that’s pretty silly :3. Well everything was well and fine for about the next 20 years but then uh oh! B’s mom becomes terribly ill one day and ends up dying a few months later! [how sad] This event is pretty much the catalyst 4 every bad thing that happens in B’s life 4 the next like 50 years. Cuz a bit b4 this he’d found out how to no clip and did it a few times but he was just so distraught in the moment that he just kinda went 2 the backrooms and just walked around 4 so long until he passed out n when he woke up he couldn’t no clip back soo yeah that’s basically his epic backstory yay. On the lighter side this is something I meant 2 explain A WHILE ago but just kinda forgor abt it so sad ik but uhm this dude n his fuck ass jacket omg. Basically his like overcoat thing is like a backrooms artifact n its pockets r basically like tiny little openings 2 an empty pocket [pun not intended] dimensions that just stores stuff n that’s it. As long as something can fit around the opening it can be put in the pocket. That’s y blud was pulling out whole ass water bottles n flashlights from them in my fic [read my fic btw chapter 4 just came out last month] Also this blud is like ADDICTED 2 Almond Water actually………. Like. this guy can’t go 15 milliseconds without a lil sip. Smh this goofy ass guy😔😔[SILLY]…..

Ok now James’s epic backstory yippie 😁😁💥💥!!!!!!! oke so like I already talked abt his sad backstory where he lost his eyes n stuff but ig I'll talk abt what he was like b4 that :3. So basically growing up she was treated as like a child prodigy. Like. VERY good in school. Skipping a couple grades type beat. With her being so “gifted” n all she wasn’t really ever given a chance to be. like. a normal kid. Everything throughout her life up until the “accident” was always just focused on just “being the best at everything™” bc that was the mentality that was instilled upon them by their parents. And oh boy. The parental issue I gave this mf. Unreal. Someone needs 2 lock me up[JOKE]. Bro’s whole life he was constantly told over n over again “work work work study study study get into a good collage be successful be somebody important” nothing but that for like 15 years. Like bro had no friends until the age of 26. shitz crazy[silly]. So like time goes by n he’s successful in school n college n gets his job as a professional chemist. So fun n good she did what she was suppose 2 yippiiee nothing could go possibly wrong!! But then the whole explody eyes go bye bye thing happens [not as fun]. N so now this is the catalyst 4 their suffering yippie <3 [sarc] N it’s kinda ironic bc the reason he ended up being so careless in that moment was bc his upbringing made him so unreasonably confident in his abilities that he disregarded even the most basic of safety protocol. So anyways bro wakes up in the hospital blind, scared, confused and alone. Is told what happened. Is so mortified that she has a meltdown right then n there [things r not off 2 the best start]. Not just over the life long facial disfigurement but also over the fact that they failed. They failed to be the perfect scientific prodigy they were supposed 2 be. N in the process, didn’t just fall themself but failed everyone who ever believed in them[At least that’s what they thought at the time]. Like bro didn’t even get fired he CHOSE 2 resign bc he was so ashamed of himself n what he’d done. a lot of this built up trauma n self resentment is y she’s so attached B n Hashely bc they were rlly like 1st ppl in her life 2 show her any kind of unconditional support or affection. Bc after the accident when she was at her absolute lowest point her parents like just softcore cut her off. Like. she tried multiple times after the fact 2 try n contact them but nothing ever came back so they just stopped trying after a while :( Also kinda related is that I think their hair is like naturally curly but they straighten it bc it being curly reminds them of the past n they HATE being reminded of the past. 

Erm ok kinda ended in a doomer note but erm oh well :33

[selamat-linting]

last night, a little homestuck before bed and :

-i dont think i can maintain the facade of composure or coherence anymore. this is five seconds before john find several people brutally slaughtered, including his own dad, and he himself get stabbed to death. look at him! look at how silly this child is. my zillyhoo son, its unfair theyre piling up all this shit to you.

-i get why rose went grimdark tbh. things are pretty bad out there. it fucks me up that she's like, taking over the suicide mission. and how awful it is that she'd gone off the deep end that she looked at her parents dead body and only think of killing. something i noticed between the two light players is that theyre always burdening themselves with the hard, difficult tasks alone even though the team wanted it to be done as a group effort. its commendable but not always a good thing.

-its pretty funny that the kids with shitty guardians' have a wildly contrasting reactions to their dead parents like

dave, at the beginning of story : my bro is the coolest guy ever

dave now : huh. he's dead. okay. time to use the sword lodged in his chest as a trampoline! sweet loot. i love not getting knifed in my apartment

rose, at the beginning of the story : my loathsome mother and her penchant for the devil's drink!!!!!

rose, now : i should've looked out for her *activates rage mode*

i mean, i suppose thats appropriate but. you know how it is. poor kids, they've been through a lot. did they even have a warm meal lately? also i think bro is kinda handsome and i understand his fascination with puppets. i too, read a tentacle dick spamton fic as a lark and becomes genuinely intrigued with it.

-i am in love, in love! with the format of clicking to a collage of pictures. There was just so much Shit going on and the banner have doc scratch home being burned down and snowman making out after smoking a bloodied pipe. and then jade hunting frogs with dave. it would have been adorable to see these kids finally meeting each other for the first time if the world wasnt going to do a hard reset.

-fuck it. an AU. kids being kids. no sburb no tragedy. theyre just online friends. jade's grandpa is alive, he took jade into civilization often so she's not undersocialized and knows how to function if she wants to live a normal life. and as a birthday gift he took all of her friends to the island as a surprise for her 13th birthday. they spend the day catching frogs and playing paintball. and then at night, rose and jade urge everyone to try lucid dreaming. none of them made it because theyre all too busy making fun of john's movie selection. dave is beatboxing over squiddles music. and then right in the middle of their playing, a ship crash landed to the island. it was the trolls.

-uhhghgghghhh i need to see. an animatic. of jade and dave's fight. with bec noir. look at all the moves theyre making it would have been one hell of a fight and we were robbed of a proper flash with boisterous music! space time vs omnipotence lets fucking go!

-speaking of vriska, wow she really is giving her all in these pages. her last stand with jack. the enemy she took part in creating. she knew she was going to die and done her best asking out literally everyone alive. and the best/worst thing is, everyone accepts. terezi literally came to her with all the rp outfit they used to do. and, i know i should be shocked but im just laughing at karkat showing up late with the sloppy makeout note. And she gave the cutest most adorable date proposal to john like, ugh its cute teenage puppy love! yes, i think they'd go well together. I dunno, maybe its my kimharry enjoyer heart speaking, but i think characters who'd done terrible violence should be with someone who only met them after they strived to be someone better, or at least a blank slate. that way, they get a fresh start and can focus on improving instead of getting distracted with hurt feelings and old wounds. also i am not burdening terezi, aradia, tavros, and all of the kids she personally maimed with All of That tbh. unless they want to ofc.

-anyways, here is the updated vriska relationship chart

matesprit -> still, the poster of nicholas cage in con air, or karkat if youre so inclined to imagine a world where she makes out with karkat before fighting terezi. gross lol.

moirallegiance -> john, full stop. her relationship with terezi needs some peace time before coming back into pale redrom

kismesis -> terezi. im FROTHING at the mouth thinking at the tragedy of their relationship. this is some intergenerational trauma shit, some wicked codependency junk, like the cuno and his buddy C. its the real shit fa- (okay i should stop speaking like cuno before i embarras myself)

-also. WHY WAS IT A JUST DEATH! im hitting the clock im destroying it with jack. fuck you fuck you so much. Doc scratch fix the clock so it gives me what i want or i'll burn your house! asshole!

-im curious about the sprites. i hope they find a way to be relevant again. i've always think theyre awesome and has more info that could have been beneficial for the kids.

-all in all, i give this homestuck liveread and overall rating of what the fuck what the fuck ohhhhh ohhh my fucking godd imma read this again motherfucker

[berryscaryskies]

"Earth always dreamed big, but you prefer to dream small. You don’t need to see the world or to leave some sort of lasting impact in order to be happy. All you need is a quiet place for yourself and your animal friends to keep you company. Though, with all those animals you suppose you’ll need to make some sort of living in order to stay afloat and afford to keep them in the lap of luxury."

-Honestly she was a very easy kid, she loved being outside and she loved her mom's obsession with frogs. She wasn't a particularly artsy kid, but has always loved singing since she was a toddler. The little jam sessions she had with her mother Alice was always adorable. She was a good big sister too, she didn't always get Watney, but the two were very close.

-When Olympia was a teenager she wound up developing a crush on a boy at her school, his name was Isaac and honestly he was incredibly gay and uninterested in her romantically. But the two became Best Friends nonetheless. For years and years Oly viewed him as the platonic love of her life. The two did everything together. His prom date bailed on him? Well the two would just skip prom together and go swimming at the lake. Oly accidentally got knocked up with twins? He's moving in to help her out. They have the sweetest friendship. The girls honestly view him as their dad more than their actual one.

-Looping back to that night they ditched Prom though, both have grown up in the sticks and don't necessarily have the best sense of what is and isn't dangerous. The two often got caught doing stupid shit together just cuz they thought it might be fun. Prom night was one of those times where they were out somewhere they shouldn't have been. It was a beautiful full moon, and unfortunately for them they weren't the only one's wandering the woods. 

-Only Olympia wound up receiving a cursed bite though and for that she's always been thankful, the very first werewolf trait she got was the sad one lol. She isn't particularly fond of her new way of existing causing many emotional breakdowns and eventually moving to the very edge of town so that she wouldn't be a "danger" to any of those who cared for her.

-technically the challenge has Mars gen as a tech guru, but I imagine Oly just does that to get by. Her true passion in life has always been and will always be animals. It's not a career option in the Sims but just know in my heart her real career is "dog trainer"

-Recently this goofy little horse man moved to town, and its a small town where everyone knows everything. So it wasn't long before Chirimoya was introducing Shayne to her daughter. Olympia was immediately smitten with his horse Sugarbush, and he was immediately fond of how her whole demeanor seemed to soften as she made silly jokes to his horse. He's honestly super soft on her in general, the two only just started dating and this is Olympia first REAL relationship, and I love how gentle he seems with her. Also how contradictory their aesthetics are. He's got the nerdy but nice step-dad vibe down perfectly. Stormi likes him and Gaelle is indifferent. So long as he's nice to their mom they don't really mind this new addition to their lives.

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