#so i'll check on here every week or two to queue things up

[octuscle]

Pride fare

Dmitri and Igor stared at the young man with the pink hair like they would stare at a disgusting insect. It was brave of Austrian Airlines to place such a faggot at Istanbul's not exactly gay-friendly airport. And God knows Dmitri and Igor weren't exactly gay-friendly either. The two were the perfect example of nouveau riche Russians. They liked to pose as oligarchs to impress women. In fact, they were rich. But oligarchs? Not at all. But who cared. The two of them had several million in accounts all over the world. Unfortunately, most of them were currently frozen. But they had enough cash with them to look forward to a fun weekend in Vienna. Getting here had been hell. The two of them mourned the days of direct flights. But the special military operation was important and just. Quite different from the reaction of the decant West to this very operation.

Max looked at the two gentlemen who wanted to check in with him. Expensive, but tastelessly dressed. Overweight. Probably over 50, but you couldn't see that very well because both were obviously lifted. Max wouldn't blow one of these two pigs for any money in the world. But Max was a professional. And remained polite. "You two sweeties, you do know that the Pride special rate is only valid for people up to 21, right?" Dmitri grunted something about "I'm not cute, you miserable faggot." But luckily Max didn't speak Russian. "No problem, you two lovebirds, I just need to adjust a few little things." Max typed on the keyboard of his computer. "There, now everything should fit. Which one of you is Dima? I'd like your suitcase." Dmitri was about to get loud and snap at this asshole, what could he think of! Dima might have been what his mother said to him. But not some smug asshole. He took a breath. And thought that Max was actually kind of cute. So he picked up his suitcase, covered in rainbow and leather-pride stickers, and heaved it onto the baggage carousel. "And, darling! What's your boyfriend's name? I assume you want to sit next to each other." "Next to Igarjok? No thanks! Set us apart. That increases the chance that we'll meet someone hot on board." "I'm very sorry," said Max with a twinkle in his eye. "But no one who checked in with me today was really hot." "Okay, I'll go first then," said Igor, heaving his studded travel bag onto the baggage carousel. Max smiled with mock agony. Yes, the man Dima had called Igarjok didn't look bad for his age. According to his ID, he was 48, but hot… Max had seen better. He handed them their rainbow-flag-colored boarding passes and wished them a good flight and lots of fun at Vienna Pride Week.

The two took their hand luggage. Dmitri had a black leather rucksack, Igor a small antique army duffel bag from the Soviet navy. Dmitri called out to Igor that he should go ahead, he wanted to take a quick piss. Igor nodded and made his way to the security checkpoint. And Dmitri went to the nearest toilet. He had hoped to find a quick fuck there. He was always horny. In the airport toilets, there was a good chance of meeting a tight Turk. And if he waved a few dollar bills, Dmitri could be sure that he wouldn't have to wait long for someone to kneel in front of him and suck his cock… And damn, the hot Turkish macho was worth every penny! Dmitri briefly checked his reflection in the mirror. The short hair, the beard shadow on the angular face, the leather jacket. Yes, he was pretty good-looking for a man in his mid-40s. It was a privilege to be allowed to suck his cock.

When he arrived in the queue for the security check, he grinned. Igor was only ten, maybe 15 people ahead of him in the queue, obviously he had also made a toilet stop. It was hot to see Igor in front of him. Igor had one hell of a tight ass. And in the army trousers he was wearing, it really stood out. He knew that. And everyone else saw that. Dmitir could see Igor arriving at the security checkpoint. He took off his bomber jacket and showed off his muscles under his tight T-shirt. He took off his studded belt, put everything in the plastic tray and went through the body scanner. It sounded the alarm. Dmitri had an idea why and grinned. Igor grinned too as he was scanned by the muscular security guard. Amazingly thorough in the crotch area. Of course, Dmitri couldn't hear anything, but obviously the security guard demanded that Igor take his plastic bowl and come with him. The two of them were lucky!

When Dmitri arrived at the security checkpoint, the employee looked decidedly cool. Dmitri had put his jacket and rucksack in the tray when the officer asked if he had anything else in his pants. He looked very clearly at Dmitri's crotch. Dmitri unbuttoned the top two buttons, enough to show the bush of hair, put his hands in his pants and awkwardly removed the cock ring from his cock and balls. "Sorry, officer, I keep forgetting that," Dmitri said with a grin. Surprisingly, despite his piercings, the body scanner didn't pick up on it. But his rucksack was taken off the conveyor belt after being scanned. The security officer waved him over, pulled his full-body harness out of the backpack and asked what it was. The officer tried unsuccessfully to look cool. "Shall I show you what it is? But I have to take my pants off to do that…" "Come with me!"

Dmitri's body search took place in the same room as Igor's. The two security officers had brought in two more colleagues to back them up. Only by joining forces did the two of them manage to plug all the holes and get on board just in time with the final and urgent call. Igor squeezed into 9E and Dmitri into 6C. Max had gone to great lengths to make them both happy. And indeed, after the two Russian stallions, the hottest guys sat in 6B, 9D and 9F. And the purser had reserved one of the toilets just for them.

At the baggage carousel in Vienna, there was no mistaking that the gays of the world were meeting up for one of their flashiest parties. And Dima and Igarjok were guests of honor at the party. Hardly noticed in the West, it was a sensation in Moscow when the two popular teen soap stars came out. The call-up order came immediately, and the two had only managed to flee to Western Europe in a hasty escape. And it was a huge stroke of luck that they had started making porn due to a lack of money. For them and for millions of fans. They didn't know how many porn magazines they had signed until their luggage arrived. Their driver was waiting outside. A hot guy. Thank goodness. It had been over an hour since their last fuck on the plane.

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

ASKBOX IS OPEN REQUESTS ARE OPEN HERE ARE THE RULES

ground rules:

1) Funny- the request needs to be humorous, memes usually the most popular but dnd in jokes and other shitpostery is welcome. i abide by the MBMBAM NO BUMMERS rule - there are plenty of sad/deep/beautiful calligraphers out there who’d be happy to work with yall, but this isn’t that sort of channel

2) Length - aim for no more than 75 characters a request, my cue cards are only so big so I can only fit so much on each one and still not look like garbage. There is a little leeway but if you send me smth with like 120 characters it aint getting written

3) Amount of Requests - I am trying to be fair but i am one person running almost the ENTIRE thing, logistics, tech, etc, I have twitch mods and a roommate for retrieving things and that's it. In order to be fair, please restrict yourselves to 3 requests per person to let everyone have a shot, if you send in more i will ctrl-f your username and pick my favourites

4) Content - I will not do anything I consider under the umbrella of general assholery - this includes racial slurs, edgelord bullshit, exclusionist jackassery etc. Please be kind to each other. Please let me know if I’ve taken a request that is some incredibly obscure piece of assholery, someone once tried to slip a really obscure antisemetic piece of slang by me once

5) Repeats - I keyword tag EVERY SINGLE piece i’ve ever done on this blog, if you think I might have written smth already but aren’t sure, the /search/[keyword] is your friend, check if i’ve done your request before

the askbox is theshitpostcalligrapher.tumblr.com/ask , not a dm or submission to the blog. I’ll close submissions too so people don’t get the boxes confused. DM me for any actual clarifications, kind words, etc so they don’t get swallowed up by the behemoth of my askbox for months, and if you want to give me live encouragement the twitch link is right there, and is the ideal way to inquire more about any of the day's rules.

If you want to jump the ENTIRE queue and get your card done immediately, there are ways to donate on the twitch stream to get your request done with an ink of your choice. You can still submit 3 free requests in addition to what you pay for.

I’ll be streaming the entire time the askbox is open on twitch @ theshitpostcalligrapher, trying to get as many of these done today as possible live. Once 10PM EST hits, the askbox will close but if you get your request into the askbox by then, it will be done eventually as I always have 4 cards up per day.

Here’s the link to my twitch, we’ll start a little after 3 o’clock.

Here is a direct donation link to my streamlabs, it works like a ko-fi but I’ve got it set to give me alerts on my twitch so I can see and thank you straightaway for supporting my takeout order

I've planned on a few donation goals this time! They help pay for all the hours I put in and the material costs. Every time we hit a goal, I'll refresh it to 0 and math out whatever overlap to add to the new goal

$20 > Time For Tea! I make a sparkly, food safe glittery tea that looks like ink to enjoy with yall on stream

$30 > Jackbox Break! My Discord VC and potentially chat plays a few games

$40 > Takeout O'clock: It is time to order a food, Mia! Polls will probably be involved for food options

$200 (I am fairly sure we won't get this one) > I bought all the requisite items to bleach my hair to prep for a dye. Let's do this shit LIVE ON AIR BAYBEE

Also of Note: I will be moving house sometime in the next week and a half, which means I will be RECYCLING ALL OF THE CARDS I'VE WRITTEN IN THE PAST TWO AND A HALF YEARS (save for the ones folks pay for on stream, those are earmarked to be mailed out anyways) so if you've gotten something written by me from september 2021 to january 2024 or so, please remember that there is an an etsy shop where you can snag any card from the blog for a few dollars. dm the shop if you'd like to buy a bundle of randoms, I WILL give you a sale about it

[genderqueerdykes]

hello, I'm a younger transmasculine person and I was curious about a few things (for reference I live in the us in a fairly left state)

- how do you get started on testosterone?

I've never gotten a clear answer on this, some people said it took a two year queue, others could start immediately. idk when I want to start, but i dont want to be confused on what to do when I get the ball rolling

- are there alternatives to shots, and do they work better or worse?

I dont think I could do the shots myself unless there's no other options, something about them just makes my bones hurt

- how often do you have to apply T, and what happens if you forget to take it?

I'm pretty forgetful and I'll probably not take T on the scheduled date at least once, I hope that won't screw with anything because I don't really know if you've got to be consistent with it

- do you have any tips for clothing/voice training?

I think I pass at least a little okay but my voice is one of the things I'm most self conscious about. I also find myself spending 10-20 minutes every morning pulling my shirt against my chest to see if my binders working, and just end up wearing the same sweater I have for the past few weeks

sorry if that's alot, even if you're a stranger you're the first person I've been able to ask about these things. thank you so much

these are all great questions, i'm so glad you're taking the time to ask! this is extremely thorough and well thought out!

How do you get started on testosterone?

That's a great question, i feel like a lot of people have barriers to this one. if you are in a state where you have access to Planned Parenthood, this is usually a good place to start. check to see if you have a transgender resource center in your area. if not, go to whatever local lgbtq organization you can find, even one in a college. it is also possible to search gender affirming care [area], but clinicians aren't always available via Google

Here is a list of informed consent clinics that provide gender affirming care services, you may want to look here.

The process looks different for literally everyone, that's why no one can give you a clear answer, i'm so sorry! it's such a chaotic process for all of us. some trans men will literally get their prescription for testosterone within a month, others it does take years. do some research and see if therapy is required before hormones will be prescribed in your area. if not, you will likely have a much faster and easier time getting your hormones. if you don't need therapy, generally you'll just need to sign some consent forms and waivers stating that you are aware of what you are going to do to your body.

Are there alternatives to shots, and do they work better or worse?

all forms of testosterone are equally effective, it just depends on the dosage and the person. currently in the united states, you can get topical testosterone in the form of an alcohol based gel! it is applied topically to the upper forearms or abdomen, generally daily. it works just as well as the injectable testosterone, so long as you respond well to it! there is also the option of having your clinician do shots for you if you don't respond well to gel, as well.

nebido also may be available for FtM HRT in your area!

How often do you have to apply T, and what happens if you forget to take it?

Daily for topical gel, anywhere between twice a week, once a week, to once every two weeks for shots, depending on the person, how well they tolerate the medication, their transition goal, and the dosage.

Do you have any tips for clothing/voice training?

In terms of vocal training, AmaRoseLessons, Zoey Alexandria, and Trans Vocal Training are YouTube channels that can help with vocal training exercises, and i can also recommend the r/transvoice subreddit as well if you need help figuring out how to practice and ways to integrate what you learn into how you speak naturally!

For clothing, really anything goes, it depends on what you're going for and how you want to look. Remember that your personal style still gets to be included in the mix! Generally speaking, bulkier shapes that obscure the shoulders, hips and chest help a lot, layering of clothes, and wearing clothes with "boxier" cuts. Heavier shoes like boots may help, you may also find you like dress shoes. it really depends on your personal look, but generally speaking, i say go into the "men's" section and go nuts. Whatever they wear, you can wear too, and it gets the point across.

Hope that helps! Thanks for laying out your ask in such a concise way, that's much appreciated! If you need any more help feel free to ask!

[artist-of-dawn]

So High School

Chapter 7: "heartbeat"

Next: "Suga-san's masterplan"

Masterlist

🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊

The last few weeks have been extremely confusing. First Shoyo comes back and everything feels right again, his smile and laugh and genuine care for me warm my heart, but it seems that there is a line we both subconsiously don't cross. He's here flirting and having fun but it feels too light, it makes me feel unsure about how he truly feels about me and now I'm standing like an idiot near the door just to hear him ringing the door bell. He's supposed to arrive in 15 minutes.

"Don't forget how to breathe yn." Shimizu Kyioko was standing in the doorway to the living room with a small smile, she has always been the stability I never knew I needed.

"I'm scared Shimizu."

"I know. It's okay, It's normal."

"But how do I know if he's genuine? That he doesn't just do this with everyone and I’m just delusional?"

"I cannot tell you what to think of him or his actions, but have you seen him being this way with anyone else?" I hesitantly shake my head. "He adores you. Not more than me though. And you are not delusional at all, at the reunion when he came back he had this lovesick look on his face and talked about you for the rest of the night before koushi got shitfaced and passed out." She held out her hand and helped me up from the floor I was supposedly moping on.

"Yeah you're right. I should worry less." I shake my head and do my best to smile."Love you shimizu" Damn, I am so lucky to be able to call these people my friends. Once in a while these moments really make me so grateful that I have them in my life.

The sweet moment was cut short by the doorbell. Shit. The calm was long gone.

Shimizu took that as her queue to leave the room, winking at me before going upstairs.

I open the door hesitantly before he hugs me. Damn this man. I cannot even feel my heartbeat anymore. He's strong and comforting and all of the things I sometimes admit to long for.

"Hey Sho, ready to enter the life of a model?" He laughed a little.

🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊

🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊

"You're alright?" Shoyo says suddenly and I slam my phone face down onto the grass.

"Yeah it's just Kei being salty as usual."

"Ah, yeah I remeber you said that you guys kept in contact after graduation." I still remember how I dragged him to the celebratory dinner. I had to paint dino bones and name them for him to learn quicker, some sort of artsy flashcards.

"He needs someone to keep him in check while tadashi is away traveling." He hums in understanding. "Wanna listen to some music?"

He just nods and looks away with a distant, nearly dreamy gleam in his eyes. I wonder what he's thinking about. I shrug and open my phone scrolling and stopped and played a random song.

And so played mirrorball by Taylor Swift.

I dare to dream only for a moment of saying fuck it and just tell him everything there is to say. How I want nothing more than to spend my life with him and that I tried to forget him but failed terribly. That I'd let him ruin all my paints if he came to my house more often and wear his jersey to every game.

But I don't. Not yet.

Sometimes I'm disappointing myself.

I lean my head on his shoulder as he hums to the song. I'll shine for him meanwhile.

🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊🌸🍊

No fun facts this time :")

"Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me? (Kill me)

It's just a game, but really (really)

I'm bettin' on all three for us two (all three)"

Taglist: @nymphsdomain @writing-for-the-hell-of-it

[kiisuuumii]

finally restarting the queue ! :^)

+ a personal update (and queue schedule) if anyone's interested

as many of you know, i've been tapering down my use of tumblr these past few weeks, and i've decided now that i'd like to get myself to stop checking it as often as i do lmao so the queue will be running to make my absence feel a little less like an absence lol

i just want to sorta cut out, as much as i can, social media from my day-to-day, and i'd like to manage to spend less time on my phone and more time present in my physical reality this year. pretty much this update is to say that i'm just taking my original break up a notch to help me focus more on myself and the things i have in front of me right now :0 !!

so as far as the queue schedule goes, it'll post snippets from my readings twice a day at i think 6:20 pm and 6:40 pm pt/pst and will go until about mid march !

and as far as how often i'll be on here, i'll probably log in to check that nothing has gone horribly wrong >_> every maybe week or so ? maybe every two weeks ? idk we'll see lol but ideally the longer between checking the better

regardless, i hope that you're all taking care of yourselves and the people around you, friend and stranger alike. i hope you're showing yourselves grace and treating yourselves with firm kindness. be sure to stay safe and healthy, and to make sure others are safe and healthy !! and !! never deny yourself a nice big or small treat !! you only have this one life, why waste it denying yourself something good !!

i love you all very much. you all deserve to feel safe, to feel happy, to feel loved. i carry you all in my heart always (and i'm always giving you a smooch on the head with consent <333)

[clairedaring]

tag game ✨

huge thank you to the lovely zey @thasorns for thinking of me. i love you too (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

1. why did you choose your url?

no one remembers her but claire dearing from jurassic world will always hold a special place in my heart.

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them.

poomphuripan - the bl sideblog that i started just because my main got deactivated for a bit but i guess for now, it's mostly uppoom and msi-focused. in december, it'll probably be torjj and spare me your mercy-focused. i think i'll probably just be using these for the ql series i have a crazy hyperfixation about.

huiyanan - a pentagon yanan/hui focus sideblog

coryjeacoma - my musical theatre sideblog for random audio bootlegs and sometimes musical gifs

ryuvachirawich - my unused (mostly lakorn) gifs blog for extra gifs i make but that doesn't make it into any main or sideblogs. at first i was trying to keep this sideblog lowkey but then i needed to tag the gifs w my gif tag anyway so i could search for them so disclosing is fine 🤣

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

2014... what do you mean it's been a decade since i started using tumblr.... time isn't real

4. do you have a queue tag?

i tried but i've given up on queue-ing in general so i don't. my tumblr is constantly in two modes: super active or going months without a single post lmaoooo.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

i wanted to be where all the gifmakers are but i have too much interests so this shall remains a multi-fandom blog or more like a "whatever media claire is consuming atm" blog 

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

dirk gently is the single most perfect holistic detective in existence. sometimes i'm too attached to my url and my icon, i don't think i can ever change them. headers i can but i haven't changed my url/icon for 3-4 years i think.

7. why did you choose your header?

i feel you linger in the air is THAT series for me. dethroned almost every other thai series on my all time fave list (i say almost because bad genius series is still holding its crown well)

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

i just checked and apparently it's my first and only merlin gifset 😅

9. how many mutuals do you have?

i have no idea but i love all my mutuals （づ￣3￣）づ╭❤️～

10. how many followers do you have?

i hit 1k recently. crazy to me because i've left this tumblr empty for months before starting being active again last october???

11. how many people do you follow?

4000+ but that's only because i'm too lazy to unfollow people. so yea i rarely see things on my dash. i just end up scrolling through my fave gifmakers tags to find things they make.

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

i don't think so????? i mean the closest is probably me saying super random things on this tag.

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

it used to be once a week... but these days it's really a daily routine lmao. although i'm pretty sure i'll leave my tumblr dusting once my stand-in ends... who knows... we'll see...

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

how can i? i'm so non-confrontational, i reblog things in private to argue with op 😭 lmao (arguments that op will never see lmao, i'm saving them and me both the trouble really). just enfp things.

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts

huh why do i never get them on my dash (⊙x⊙;)

16. do you like tag games?

sometimes i forget but i love being tagged in them because i get to know about all the great mutuals i have on here, especially music tags because i always get incredible new music recommendations

17. do you like ask games?

apparently i had my asks closed without knowing for quite some time so i haven't received asks for so long. maybe one day i'll do them but i have bad records of answering asks so ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

i'm not sure if being THE certified way apologist/way gifmaker qualifies her as tumblr famous but maybe sasa @zhouxiangs is the most famous mutual i have

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

let's call this mutuals whose editing skills i wanna steal (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

lana @sherrymagic whenever you see me reblogging lana's joe sets every week, you'll see me gushing about the consistency in her coloring and that's because that's something i'm obsessed with, especially considering my stand-in's grim/dark cinematographic coloring. also i don't know how lana chooses the perfect lines from each eps to do her recap sets because most of the times i can't even choose between which scenes to gif.

eva @alienwlw eva makes the most beautiful lyrics set and is willing to do my most niche requests and i'm always looking forward to seeing her gifs because it's always so warm and grainy and crisp and i'm just like wahhhh *heart eyes emoji* every time

20. tags?

no pressure tagging anyone today ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

[archivalofsins]

I'm about to be so for real for a second.

So, if anyone is interested in knowing why nothing has gotten done in any timely fashion- Hating myself forever for this by the way if anyone thinks they want to read what I'm writing more than me you're incorrect I really wanna read that shit too sad part is I gotta write it. Either way here's your queue to listen up because I'm only going to explain this in a post once.

And this is the most candid I will ever be about my personal life in an online setting.

Okay quick fire of reasons I haven't gotten shit done in regards to Milgram posts,

The US election results

Family issues

Being accused of two crimes in one year once on this very blog and another time this fucking week over the phone (we're gonna go into this one).

Mental health issues (I'm pretty sure you can tell why.).

Physical health issues.

Honestly anyone is lucky if they hear from me every two weeks. Only people I really care about hear from my ass daily. I'm putting in an effort to show up in a setting I actively despise when I come online. I'm not going to make that harder for me by doing something I don't want to do. If I've messaged anyone and haven't gotten to responding the reasons for that are also in here later on.

Generally though I tend to like in person stuff more than online.

Remember that test I took in October that was like ha this bitch has dysgraphia and also presents with coordination issues. Yeah they also quantified my suicidal/death ideation in that test and it was 94. They quantified family problems- it was 86. These are two highest scores on that psych eval. That's an A and B+ in god's worse running jokes.

Let's talk about it. Starting with suicide ideation it's been like that since I was in elementary that's a consistent thing they also diagnosed me with persistent depression. I'm not blaming it on that. That has nothing to do with this. Those things have both been here for years before this diagnosis. They're fine they can stay.

However they get exacerbated by the second thing. Family problems which were eighty-six. Alright let's be candid I'm the youngest child of my family having five older siblings. I grew up with my sister who is a year older than me. My other siblings are decades older than me. My brother was graduating from school when I was born.

My sister takes issue with me so much so that when I called just to check on her she went into a tangent basically going this is why I don't talk to you and you should apologize for stuff from when you were ten and eleven to me. She even got her significant other involved in this conversation so he could explain to me why he felt she deserved an apology to. Quick fire things of shit my sibling have done to me in no real order.

Threw out my bed. Yeah um I spent most of my adolescent years sleeping on a pullout in the living room (it wasn't always pullout couch sometimes it was a regular couch or the floor) because she needed to have a room of her own in our family two bedroom apartment. Also because her s/o needed a place to stay at a point. So a good chunk of my childhood was friend comes over where's your room you're standing in it- This is the living room. I sleep on that couch what about that other room back there that's my sisters room. Umm??

I have been informed by several people that's weird. That's a unique form of favoritism. After I apologized to her for shit I did when I was in elementary school um she continued to badger over text because I rightfully hung up on her when she did not apologize back. For literally threatening me with homelessness the year before last, tampering with my cell service, assaulting me in my own home last year, recording me and my friend in my living room in the same home while I was constructing a cat tower. Holding that recording over my head as black mail all of this year saying okay I'll send it and you'll see how wrong you were me going okay send it then I'd love to have it then her never sending it.

For anyone thinking got damn not all of that can be true. Isn't it really convenient she never received that recording etcetera. Guess what I've got the texts still! Where she literally sent me screenshots of the video she took of me in my home with time stamps on it. Lol-

This text conversation went on from October 23, 2024 to the 29th. Now heads up I'm going to call her delusional here and I'm going to give context to why this is. Over the course of our call she kept saying I wasn't shoving our father into his door I was trying to get through him. In regards to when she was coming out of his room to harass my friend and I. She changes up her story a lot.

She says that actually she never shoved our father. Our father says this is a lie I know it was a lie my friend who was there knows it was a lie. Because all three of us had to go file a police report on the matter at later date where everyone wrote on paper exactly what fucking occurred. She also yelled at me for an hour because she claimed my friend called her a bitch when she was recording us in my home.

Which would have been my friends right honestly but this was also a fucking lie. Like,

And my friend knew she fucking hit me because my arm was bruised and swollen. So, that's why she said that. This was like a little after our uncle died from cancer which is why I was fucking calling to check on her by the way and she decided to bring up something from over a year ago then stuff from over twenty years ago.

So yeah I called her delusional because she's either that or blatantly lying. Which given she never sent me that video she may just be blatantly lying.

Then before this shit some complete nimrod on here messaged me accusing me of cyberstalking them. Then got upset and lectured me after I blocked them. Like yes I fucking blocked them they accused me of a crime. This first instance of me being accused of a crime this year. It certainly gets better.

This week I got a call from Adult Protective Services who I found out after were over at my apartment when I was out with a friend. Saying hey so I just have to call and make you aware of these allegations and ask for your side of the story real quick. This happened in the middle of me discussing being uncomfortable with my sister coming over with my dad.

This very polite worker informed me that someone had called them alleging that I had committed elder abuse of the physical and financial exploitation variety. I went wow you're timing couldn't be greater I was just discussing my sister with my father and also me finding somewhere else to live post haste. Even if it's outside.

Because I can just go if this is going to keep happening. People will be like you know I'm going to harass this person online about how they talk about a piece of media what's the harm. I shouldn't have to say I'm getting harassed on and offline for people to know what basic human decency is. Some people know who the person that made that allegation online is and the behavior that they partook in to harass me and if you do or think you do good on you. Let's all move on it's not about them it's about me the victim of their inconsiderate bullshit.

If people focused less on vilifying perpetrators and helping victims imagine how many things would be solved by now. People talks a lot of shit about not being like Futa but everyone here likes taking down a bad guy more than they enjoy helping someone who's hurting get back up. That makes you all like Futa in my book in fact it makes you worse than him because he's actually shifted focus to helping others and being their for someone else.

While a good deal of people here are focused more on appearing good than doing anything good. It's all just fake consideration anyway. It's just something done to make an individual feel good in the moment and like they did something with themselves. But nothing has changes except a good deal of people in this fandom has incrementally made my life that was already difficult worse.

Because I'm literally an unpaid caretaker for my own father. I had to leave college to get a job in order to pay my father's rent, I got a credit and credit debt to take care of my dad and fix his junk car that can't run much at all anymore. This is the person this fandom has very consistently harassed for the crime of being critical of their favorite fictional character and talking about something they enjoy in a way some of you don't like.

So, I'm at a point where I have to actively build up energy to write something on this to post because each time. Because each time I think of writing or sharing anything in regards to this it feels like ripping a part of myself out to feed people who wouldn't lift one finger to help me if I was shot right in front of them. Then I think to myself that's no way to be some people are cruel and have wronged you but if you move forward always expecting the worse that's all you'll get.

The only person you can control is you. The only way you can improve your environment is through your own actions no one's going to help and expecting someone to swoop in and save you from all your problems is childish. You're gonna have to do the work yourself even if it's hard, it feels bad, your life isn't that great. It doesn't matter if you're uncomfortable what matters is you get the work done.

Because if it's something you love and want to discuss you should do that. Fuck what anybody else thinks or does. Which is a fine way to feel. That's true I'm not saying those feelings of mine are bullshit. However I am saying I'm tired, annoyed, stressed, feeling completely underappreciated and disrespected.

Because at the end of the day when people do shit like what my sister does or that other person. I'm told this is a two person communication failure you two just need to come together and talk it out. You're feelings are valid but you need to be the bigger person and considerate of the rest of this family or community.

That's not even going into the US election results. People have thought maybe it's burnout maybe you just need to take a brake from this to what? To what actually? Anyone who bothers to read this will have an understand what taking a break from talking about my interests is a break to now. Would anyone be taking a break from the things that bring you a bit of joy in my position?

On top of that my dad just got his tooth pulled and I now have to take care of him after being accused of abusing him. That's my life hey can you sleep on the floor, can you sleep on the couch, can you get out of the way until we need you to do something then when you do something we don't like we're gonna accuse you of a crime. What's that- That's not fair. Well you're feelings are valid but life not fair you really need to get thicker skin.

So, fuck it from my perspective I'm in a damned if I do damned if I don't situation where I don't even feel comfortable posting honestly on my own blog or safe in my own home. So who the fuck cares yeah I'll take that break.

And things will get done when they get done. Possibly when I feel like I'm not under constant scrutiny or will be attacked for just speaking. So yeah that's why.

Now I'm gonna go sit my balcony in the middle of winter.

[tbb-appreciation-week]

(Updated May 2024)

Now that the prompts have been revealed, I thought of answering some questions some of you might find helpful about the event.

Please make sure to read the Event Info carefully first, as most of your questions will be answered there already. For everything else, check out the F.A.Q under the cut.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is [fill the blank] allowed?

When in doubt:

And how about…?

Yes, that, too. Give total freedom to your creativity, and don't worry about whether it's allowed or not. Most things are okay, barring anything inciting or glorifying harassment, hatred, or discrimination of any kind.

Do I have to post for all 7 days? 

Participate as little or much as you like! Just be sure to tag your posts properly (e.g., #tbbaw2024 #warnings #theme (and/or prompts) #medium #more tags). There are no repercussions if you don’t fill prompts for each day.

Can I post early/late?

You could, but I wouldn’t recommend posting early. Since this is an Appreciation Week event, it'd be more fun with everyone doing it at the same time. That being said, I’ll start reblogging works on September 2nd (thinking on the folks living on the other side of the world from me. You know, time zones and all that), but nothing earlier than that.

As for posting late, yes, that's totally fine; I understand that real life gets in the way sometimes. The only thing I ask is that you tag the for the day you should've posted on, not the day you're actually doing it. Example, if you missed Day 2 and are posting it on the Day 4, your tags must include the theme for day 2, NOT Day 4.

So, when should I start posting?

According to your time zone, during the day at the most convenient time for you, starting on September 3rd until the 9th. If you're super eager and can't wait, post when the clock hits midnight every day. Or if you're late, 11:59pm still counts as on time! 🤣

Will you reblog my post?

Yes, I'll reblog everyone's posts during the week. If it passes more than 2-3 days and I haven't reblogged your post, please let me know. If you tag your post properly and mention this blog, it’s less likely that I'll miss it.

However, I'm thinking that I might queue posts if they're too many at a time to drop them in bulk. If I do that, look for a like from @intrepidmare (my main blog), if you have it, that means I saw it and put it on the queue and eventually will be reblogged.

What if I don’t understand how the themes and prompts work?

Send me an ask! I'm happy to clarify it for you. To put it in simple words, you have a theme that it's in and on itself a prompt, which you can (but not necessarily) combine with any of the prompts for that day. However, you can also ignore the theme and go for a specific prompt only. It's up to you. And remember, the prompts are entirely up for interpretation. Don’t take them too literally. Prompts are suggestions, not mandates. You can go by ✨ vibes ✨ alone.

What kind of content can I make? Can it be NSFW?

Yes, that’s why NSFW prompts are included among the others for each day. And if you use the other safer prompts and turn it into something NSFW, that's okay too. In any case, you should tag your work accordingly, so that others participating in the event can curate their experience and be safe. HERE is a non-comprehensive list of tags you should use if they apply to your work.

Can I combine TBBAW prompts with other creation challenges?

Absolutely! If you have a bingo card to fill or another event to complete, go for it. That’s like shooting two mynocks with one bolt, using one of Crosshair's reflective disks! 

Can I upload/repost my TBBAW content to other social media platforms?

Of course! You can post your own content wherever you like. Additionally, I’ve created an AO3 Collection to archive any work posted there. It can be accessed here. (It's closed right now, but I'll open it in due time)

If any of the prompts fits well for an existing fic/art I am currently working on, can I use it?

If you are actively working on this fic/art at the moment with the Appreciation Week prompts in mind, yes. In the case of using a work retroactively (meaning: already published and complete), then please, don’t. You can, however, add new chapters/pages/panels using one or more of the prompts.

If I’m not comfortable with this or that day’s prompts, can I use a prompt from a different day as a substitute and still count?

No, you can’t exchange prompts from different days (as in exchanging Day 3 prompts for Day 5 prompts). You can simply use the alt prompt (which can be used just once), or skip the original prompt, or come up with yours. Like I said, the prompts are only a suggestion.

Where can I post my work?

Post where and how you want. You don’t have to cross-post it to Tumblr. Just keep in mind, if it’s not on Tumblr, I won't be able to add it to the blog archive. You can post a just link to anywhere else you've posted if you don't want to put the entire work in your blog. 

Do I have to finish a fic I started? Can I post a work in progress?

Yes, you can post WIPs. And you’re not obligated to finish it. It'd make me happy that this event prompt you to create something longer. Let's appreciate the Bad Batch all year around!

Is co-creating allowed?

Yes, absolutely! Encouraged, even. Not just the usual writer-artist or co-writing collaborations, also any kind of medium combos: fic-podfic, fic-playlist, art-art, etc.

Do I have to create 7 standalone pieces, or can I make one continuous story?

Do whatever you want. One continuous story is fine. The challenge is to create something for 7 prompts. If that’s spread over 7 fics/art pieces/etc. or just one with 7 chapters/panels/parts, it's up to you.

Is there a min/max limit on word count?

None. If you want to write a 100-word drabble or a 50k fic or anything in between for each day, it's all up to you. You're the only one who knows how much time you can dedicate to it and how high/low your level of inspiration/energy is. You can even write a snippet for a fic you'll write later when you have the time/energy. Remember that this is lay-back-type of an event. Do as little or much as you want/can.

Can I combine prompts? Is there a limit on how many?

No limit, and you can combine as many prompts for a specific day as you like. If you want to use them all, do it.

If you want to use all the prompts individually, there's also the option to create several pieces for a single day. It depends on you, your time, and your motivation. This counts too if you do works in different mediums, e.g., write a fic and do art for it (or for a different prompt).

Can I start working on the prompts before September 3rd?

Of course! That’s the idea of posting the prompts so early. I know how difficult it can be to create something in “real time”, without mentioning real life complications, so feel free to start creating as soon as now!! You'll have 2 whole months to work on your pieces.

How do I tag triggers?

Just tag the word/phrase, e.g., blood; main character death. (DO NOT add "tw" either at the beginning or the end. That makes it harder for readers to block the right tags). Here it's the list of the most common warning tags you should use when appropriate.

Also, it would be prudent to add warnings in the body of the post, giving the readers another layer of protection before they do the actual reading.

Do I have to use your tags guidelines?

I'd appreciate it if you did. If you follow the guide I gave you in the tags post here, it'd make it easier for me to keep track of who posted on a determined day, and for anyone else to find and/or avoid the content of a specific tag.

Can we @ you?

Yes, please DO! I think it's the safest way for me not to miss your posts. I'll also be following the #tbbaw2024 tag, just for good measure.

Is there anything we are absolutely not allowed to write?

As I said before, anything goes, EXCEPT anything inciting or glorifying harassment, hatred, and discrimination of any kind against anything or anyone. THAT WON'T BE TOLERATED. For anything else, please make sure to properly tag your trigger warnings. And keep in mind Tumblr’s policies if you are posting it here (or the policies for whatever other site you use).

Can I cross post on other blogs?

Yes, sure. That's fine. You can also post different works to different accounts under different names, without posting them everywhere at once.

.

If you got another question that you didn't find the answer to here, please, send an ask through the inbox, and I'll do my best to clarify your doubts.

Thanks for reading, and happy creating!

[manonamora-if]

Last one of the month!

So this one was an unexpected surprise... Essentially, woke up in the middle of the night with an insane idea, could not go back to sleep, wrote/coded for 4h (and spent 4h-ish the next day to translate), and BAM! this happened.

You can find the game here! I've shoved it into 3 ranked jam (well, two, but one of them for 2 diff languages), if you want to vote for it too...

small note: essentially half the plan was scrapped because of time constrains. I might do an extended version in the future?

Current wordcount : 9.327 (FR) + 920 3.898 (EN) new Coding update : 20% change

Oh boy, did we manage to do some things this week for this one!! I wasn't able to add much in the French version (it is still incomplete), so I focused on the translation, filling the gap for the former when needed. This meant I could clear out the first beat of the game, and part of the second one (currently working on it). I am about 1/3rd fully complete. I also worked a bit on the UI, fixing the sizing (essentially copy/pasting the template again) and adding themes.

Will it be ready for EctoComp? I have two more days to try!

After reviewing 40 IFComp entries, I am tapping out for now. There are still 3 more weeks left, so I might play but not review them. It is a bit more than half of the entries, and more than last year… So many long entries. I'm tired.

~

I did an AMA last Friday, and answered all your burning questions until there were no more (about 2h). It was loads of fun! Thanks again for sending questions :)

~

What's happening in the IF sphere:

Speaking of the IFComp: 3 more weeks to play and vote for 5 games! If you have about 2h to spare... there are a handful of 15min entries :)

The voting for the inkJam is underway (wink, wink, scroll above): there is a 5-game voting queue before you can vote for any other entries.

The entries of the EctoComps are about the be released. This is ALSO a ranked jam, so consider voting for a few. La Petite Mort category are games created under 4hs, so they are usually fairly short.

Last chance to enter the Bare-Bones Jam!

Missed a jam deadline or you have a concept you're not sure you can finish? Throw it to the @seedcomp-if.

~

Now, there's a lot I've been wanting to reorganise with the way I've been sharing progress/communicate and where, especially since working on revamping @crimsonroseandwhitelily.

This is pretty long, so I stuffed it all under the break.

First order of business: Monthly check-ins A shortened version of the monthly check-in will be publish on itch from next month on, on the first of each month (unless IRL gets in the way). It will recap what I did the previous month and the plan for the next one, as well as other news of what I am organising/doing aside from game-making. The longer versions going into more details and wishy-washy feelings, also including fun events to participate in and recaps. You know, the usual. Those too, will be posted on the 1st of every month. I'll also have separate posts for jam announcement.

Second: Weekly check-ins These will continue to be published every Sundays (usually mornings EST), even if Sunday is the 1st of the month (will be up before the monthly check-in). The format won't change: recap of progress on projects, other stuff to mention, maybe some events to participate in.

Third: AMA I've been doing AMAs at hella random times, and on a whim, but I'd like to do those more often, because they are fun, and with a more set date/time, so more of you can participate/not miss it (like I did last Friday). Maybe once a month type of thing, around the start or end of the month probably. I'll at least do one more before Christmas.

Fourth: Where else to get updates I've tried out a bunch of places, and while Tumblr feels the most easy/comfortable right now, I don't want to rely on one place only to share releases and big updates (who knows what will happen to Tumblr). I want peeps to be able to have options about where they can get news/updates (esp if you don't want to create an account on a specific website). I'll need to update the nav post about this (maybe have a carrd? or mailing list?), and be more consistent about updating all these places. I need to find some log-ins again... For now, Tumblr will be the most comprehensive one. And I'm not updating Twitter, btw.

Fifth: Update calendar So this year has been so far pretty different from what I hoped to do (mainly because I've participated in so/too many jams), good progress has been done in some places, none in others. That's on me, obviously, I get distracted by new ideas. I can't promise that next year will be much different and that I will stick to a rigorous calendar of updates. Time management and hobbies are like oil and water... But I want to be more careful with how I map my year and where I put effort. Working on remasters and participating in jams has shown me I can do quite a bit in short spurs. And I think I could manage to close more small WiPs if I put my eggs in order (participating in jams/comps usually stops quite a bit of that progress). I think coming to term with leaving some projects be would help a ton. Not everything needs a remaster/update.

Sixth: Itch Pages Update + Trailers? With each remasters, I've tried to be more consistent with the formatting of the itch game page, with screenshots and links to relevant pages. While this should be something to do from the start (with the OG release), with the way I've been release things, I can at least try to make it happen after release. I've struggled a bit for some entries in what to include, ngl. Text-based game seems much duller than non-IF. Also, and somewhat related, I'd like to make trailers for some of the games, mainly the longer completed ones. Also because they look neat and I've never done that before. I have no idea where to start, how to do them, or what to include, but I'm excited to learn! But realistically, this won't be something I'll start this year...

Seventh: Stop with this jam nonsense. So this is more something that's been requested by anons relentlessly in my inbox (esp CRWL's inbox, which I've been deleting every time), than me actually stopping participating in jams. First of all, lol at those request. I participate in/organise them because it's fun and it makes me want to create more not before I personally want to make you suffer by making you wait for months for an update (legit got this as a message). Should I calm down with participating in jams? Maybe. I've made 9 new games this year alone (not counting promps and templates), with varying length and completion (1 is incomplete, 2 needs fixing, at least 1 should be longer), which 50% more than last year. It's not sustainable for me to do the same next year, especially if I want to finish more of my WIPs (I can't just add more to the pile). We will see what next year brings in terms of jams... I will probably submit an entry to multiple jams. Jam FOMO is real...

Eighth: Blog(s) regorganising I've started with CRWL already (it's back up with limited posts), and it will take a bit of time to have everything back in tip top shape. Aside from purging/re-writing posts, I'll also be updating the interface (I'm thinking or re-wroking it from scratch) to make it more mobile friendly. The same will happen at some point with this blog. I want to clear out unnecessary posts/reblogs, and have a better tagging system (the more projects I have, the worse it becomes...).

!~

And finally, I think I'm gonna need a few weeks of a proper break. IRL has been weird and I'm mentally exhausted. I don't know whether I need a break from everything or just the internet... but I might be away for a bit for sure. doomscrolling has not been helping either...

[rahkshirock]

Hypognosis short story

hi, decided to write a little story from the perspective of someone who *could* be a playable adventurer. in a following post, I'll go into how this little backstory could be used in the game itself. but I think it stands well enough on its own.

Imagine this: there was a man walking to the city gate with a letter in his pocket. While this wasn’t an odd sight, and in fact it really just appeared that a man was walking down the road, by looking at him you’d assume he was doing something wrong. He alternated between glaring ahead with a “don’t bother me” strut, and looking around nervously as if expecting someone to recognize him. There was no reason for this, of course. It was just a letter in his pocket.

The letter was written on fine paper and good ink, but the ink was smudged in a few places by an unpracticed hand. This man was not very used to writing letters. Filling out forms, writing reports? Every week. Punctually. He was the sort who would get frustrated enough with his fellows that he’d do their forms for them. As such, his fellow guardsman took this service for granted, and did their own work even less. When he left the city, he brought down his unit like a removed load bearing wall. He didn’t know any of that yet. He’d been preoccupied with the worry building up in his lungs. 

The gate was closeby, and even though he’d seen it a half-dozen times, it always filled him with vertigo. A migraine started to tap behind his brow. Snow dusted on his shoulders, but the air coming from Gate Street was warm and muggy.  The winds coming to and fro were like oil and water, refusing to mix. And the swirling of those two around his head was sickening. It was *wrong.*

Now there was a crowd, not just other people going about their day to day. He looked for the queue and had to walk back a few paces to get into it. In the crowd he felt a little better. However he was about a head taller than most other people present. So there was still a chance someone could… but that’s not an issue, he insists to himself, he wasn’t going *through the gate* after all. 

The gate didn’t shimmer or glow with magic. It was a towering stone pillar set in the center of a wide street as if growing out from it, though of course this town was built around it. It had a wide opening, and a tall one. Ramps and steps lead up to a second, elevated walkway to allow more travel, though today it was host to people sight-seeing, looking down at the work below.

A massive cart was being slowly filled full of packages and mail. It was hooked to ropes which would pull it along toward the gate, and on the other side a similar cart could be seen. In a few minutes, the carts would swap places, be unloaded, and then the process repeated until the day was over. Crowds watched and chatted, many surely feeling that this song and dance was entirely unnecessary, since on any other day you could simply walk from one city to the other.

But for the people of Faith, given stewardship of the gates one day out of the week, it was very important to make sure every detail was accounted for and every package checked. For while correspondence between the allied cities was crucial, it was equally crucial that not one of the Faith or any living thing crossed over, lest they leave their soul behind.

The letter burned in the man’s pocket. His name was Estver, and even standing this close to the magic made him ill, though he mostly seemed like the only one affected in such a way. He wasn’t supposed to be here. The Faithful who made use of the gates allowed themselves to come far too close to the forbidden. In some cases one of the people pushing the carts had gotten their leg caught in the ropes and been horribly maimed, and what’s worse, dragged right through to the other side. 

Estver’s teacher would have his hide if he found out, and so his eyes scraped nervously over the crowd, despite knowing his teacher would never, himself, come this close. The line moved slowly. Sweat from the too-hot air started to trickle down his neck, but it was far too cold at the same time to remove a layer. Estver reached into his jacket to place a hand on the envelope, and the smooth, dry paper under his fingertips comforted him. 

He *could* just run right through. He thinks, and he felt guilty, but he really thought about it. It felt like the idea caught him like a fish on a hook, and he couldn’t break free of it. 

Then he thought, ‘what if Lee were over on the other side, and he saw me?’ and this made him stop, and his heart dropped. ‘It’s all stupid,’ he thought. It’s only a letter, and a goodbye. He was going to be traveling after all, and the long trip will be better for him than some hasty flight. Should he run off right now and hurl himself through the gap, he’d not be able to face the other man again, so full of shame and pain, and, he guessed, suddenly without a soul. Though the other travelers didn’t seem to mind that threat so much. 

Supposedly, Lee had been without a soul when they met. Though Estver hadn’t known at the moment he’d been through the gate the day before. Furthermore, Lee was a magician. Estver had already gotten an earful from his teacher for speaking to the man. But Lee had been full of life. His smile was easy and his eyes kind. He’d smelled faintly of cologne from his homeland and was always sharing stories about the beauties back home. 

Far from the boastful excesses of magicians abroad, Lee had never used so much of a spark of magic outside his circle. And Estver had learned that circle magicians always only used their sorcery in harmony with each other, never falling out of balance. Lee had been sure that *imbalance* was the cause of evil magic, not that magic itself was unnatural. Lee’s specialty, he’d learned, was in water. This somehow seemed fitting to Estver.

Somehow, Lee had decided to write to Estver once he’d returned home, though the guard thought himself rather plain and uninteresting. He kept every letter in a folder buried amongst his work, and he often thought of where else he could hide them, though he never actually moved them. Sometimes he would read one of them over again, from months ago. It didn’t impact his work. 

When Estver had eventually responded in rough, ugly sentences, Estver had never felt more lowly in his life. But he continued to write regardless, as every letter he got in return was a revelation. For one, he learned that Lee had a sister. He shared in turn that his family mostly lived on a farm a few miles from the walls.

Lee had always known better than to invite the devout guardsman to the other side of the gate. He was always considerate of everything. And yet every letter was full of the sorts of details that made Estver’s tedium-dulled mind spin suddenly with creativity. The colors of festivals, descriptions of food and drink, sometimes pencil sketches of ships. Lee wanted to see him again, but was simply too busy to travel. 

And so, Estver eventually wrote one last letter, and prepared to leave his home. He retired from the guard station and when asked why, he had simply said “I am going on a pilgrimage.” and now, the man was here. He set his letter into the cart and stepped back. He wished, in passing, that he could have felt it between his fingers a few more times, but in the moment he’d forgotten. The woman behind him had seemed impatient. He suddenly felt as if he should stay, to make sure everything went alright. 

Estver watched as the crowd was pushed back, and the workers pushed the cart to where they could hook it into the ropes. Then behind the gate, oxen started to pull, and the cart sped away down the road as the pulleys amplified the force. Even nonliving objects should spend as little time in the gate as could be helped. On the other side, Estver saw the other cart speed toward them, and his heart skipped a beat as he was suddenly *sure* he was going to be crushed. A yell left his lungs, but was lost in the crowd’s cheer as the cart was caught and brought to a halt by the upward curve of its track. Estver shook in his boots, his mind having to cope with the perfectly fine terror it had just summoned up going entirely to waste. Estver needed to rest, he decided, though he wouldn't have the chance to nap that day. 

He didn’t wait to see if he had a new letter from Lee. he knew that if he did, he would never end up leaving. And that was how it happened that Estver Plainter started the road from the city of Buldren to its close-knit ally Sedrai half-way across the world, though he could have arrived that very day. It would take him three years of travel, a great many lessons, and a few injuries before he eventually arrived only slightly changed. Lee was there to meet him, and after Estver made a quick visit to the shrine he’d traveled half-way around the world to make pilgrimage to, Lee brought him to his house by the sea. He’d arrived with a letter in his pocket. Lee never needed to read it.

Estver did not end up marrying Lee’s sister, though they got along reasonably well. His teacher back home thought very highly of him, thought the letters were very slow to reach him since they were not delivered through the gate. And when Lee’s circle left the city on some assignment, Estver traveled with them as a guide. 

There are a great many things he never learned about the world, such as the nature of the stars, or what great openings yawn beneath the earth. But his road took him through countries where craggy mountains would rearrange itself like water into new forms without any landslides, or where gates like the one back home allowed one to supposedly travel to the surface of the sun. Estver always thought such things were ludicrous, until he saw them himself. And even after his journey was done, he still tried to keep an open mind and collected stories from all over the world.

[crittercrossing]

All three dogs are having some health issues at the same time, and Ivy may possibly have something diabetes-ish going on. Almost all of this has happened within the past month, and, in the dogs' case, within the past few weeks. I wanted to post an update sooner, but I genuinely haven't had the time to do it. I work a full-time job and a part-time job, on top of taking care of things at home and traveling a couple times per week to my parents' house to visit them, the dogs, and the chickens. This blog is run almost entirely on queue, but I wanted to stop in and post a text update.

A few weeks ago, I took Dorothea and Ivy for their yearly check-ups. It was technically about a month and a half early, but the day before, they had gotten into a closet they're not supposed to be in and ate into some plastic bags of treats. They had me terrified, thinking they might get blockages from eating plastic, so their check-ups got bumped up so that I could also make sure they would be okay after their adventure. Thankfully, neither one experienced any sort of issues from their plastic-eating. For the most part, all went well, and things were unremarkable. Dorothea was great! Nothing in the slightest going on with her. Ivy, however, is a challenge at the vet. She is extremely aggressive and has to be medicated prior to her visits. Even then, she doesn't fully relax, and vets are very limited with what they can get done with her. She was completely fine, other than some lab work levels that were off, most alarming of which was her glucose, which was pretty extremely high. The vet confirmed my suspicion that, most likely, it was due to the extreme stress she was under during her visit, but said this could technically be due to diabetes, as well. I am to watch Ivy for weight loss, increased urination, and increased thirst. I'm concerned for her health, and also worried about if she is diabetic. I've never had a diabetic pet before, so I would have a lot to learn, in addition to figuring out how to manage that in a cat that can't really be held and can usually not be medicated at all. With Ivy being young, female, and a perfectly healthy weight, I don't really think she's at huge risk for it. My only real worry here is that since their exam last year, Dorothea gained about half a pound, while Ivy's weight remained exactly the same. I'll be keeping a close eye on her.

The poor dogs are all having a bad time right now. I've been worried sick about them. It started with Holly. About a month ago, she began coughing out of nowhere, and it's an extremely bad, nearly constant cough. If she's awake, she's coughing. It's nearly every breath she takes. She went to the vet, where they did x-rays and determined that it wasn't anything visibly wrong with her heart or lungs. Holly does have a heart murmur, but she's had that for a couple years now, and it has not caused coughing issues in the past. She's on medication to treat the cough and an antibiotic. She has finally started coughing less within the past week, so hopefully whatever this cough is is coming to an end.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed Chevelle started showing UTI symptoms again. She had a UTI and a severe case of bladder stones in early 2021, and my immediate fear was that it might be bladder stones again. I took her to work with me (my full-time job is at a vet hospital), and sure enough, she not only had an extremely bad UTI, but... The dog is full of rocks again. The x-rays were horrifying, and I may end up posting them separately later. Monday will be two weeks since that day, and Chevelle is going back for a re-check. She's been on a prescription urinary diet for the past two weeks, with the hopes that, depending on the type of stones she has, the food may start to break them up. If her stones aren't breaking up when we check again on Monday, she'll need a cystotomy again. She had the same surgery in 2021 for her last case. Regardless, she'll be on the prescription diet for the rest of her life. She's been acting fine most of the time. She tries to pee every five minutes or so, and most times passes a little blood. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she still has the UTI come Monday (even though she's been on antibiotics), and I'm fully expecting the surgery to take place.

Katy has been declining for a couple of years now, and it's started happening pretty quickly over this past year. She has a lot of pain, stiffness, and loss of mobility in her legs, especially in her hips. She has also had a bad case of dermatitis on and off for a while. Due to her epilepsy, Katy can't have any chewable flea preventatives, leaving topicals such as Frontline as the only option I knew about for years--and I live in one of the ever-growing areas where Frontline and similar drugs don't kill fleas at all anymore. It's been a struggle to keep fleas off of her. Between fleas and baths trying to kill the fleas, it started messing with her skin. The biggest issue has been a recent, very sudden increase in the frequency of her seizures. She used to have about one a year, sometimes two. Over the past month, Katy has had four seizure-like episodes (vet is assuming they're seizures for now), and that's only four that we know of. It's extremely possible she's having more when no one is watching her. She has really unusual symptoms when these happen, so as soon as I found out this was happening, I took her to work with me too to get all this stuff sorted out.

Katy's case is still ongoing, but here's what I know and what's been done so far: She has started a daily regimen of carprofen, which is already showing promising results. A few days after starting it, she was able to stand up on her own and go up short flights of stairs--both things she couldn't do previously. She will remain on this carprofen most likely for the rest of her life. She was also put on an anticonvulsant to hopefully prevent any more of her seizure-like episodes from happening. It's been about a week, but so far, no one has seen her have any more of those strange episodes. Her skin is being managed with a medicated shampoo that she is being bathed twice weekly with, and she finally has a good flea prevention strategy! The vet suggested we try a Seresto flea collar, and it made an immediate difference. I haven't seen a flea on her since she started wearing it. During Katy's exam last week, the vet ran some bloodwork. it came back mostly normal, but her T4 level was really low. Tomorrow, she's going back in for another blood draw to run a second thyroid test--if her levels come back low on this one, she'll be diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism could explain both her sensitive skin and the seizures, and if she has that, she can go on medication to treat that, as well. I'm cautiously optimistic that we can get Katy feeling a lot better again, and I hope that she can spend the rest of her life not being as miserable as she's been lately.

I'll post more updates on everyone as things happen!

[lulupen2023]

My very first BellDom Fic 23/23

This is the end, although there are many (shorter, of course) sequels, not to mention all the other stories I could share here ^^' thanks for reading <3 Summary:

Do you want to meet a Matthew who sees conspiracy everywhere (oh wait, this is not big news!) and is so fond of his trolley that he treats it like a sort of puppy? Do you want to meet a Dominic in love with… himself (and with Matt, too, of course!)? And do you want to meet a Chris who wants to prove to the world he's the most masculine guy ever… but is unavoidably attracted by every… female hobby? This is what you'll find in this story, among lots of BellDom and… craziness!

Summary of the chapter: Our beloved guys start their living together and plan lots of stuff… Epilogue: Home. Our home.

A FEW WEEKS LATER

The American tour ended. Chris, Matthew and Dominic are heading towards the airport, inside a limousine.

"I promise that, next time I see you, I'll get accustomed to your tender attitude, but now... could you please stop it?" Chris gently asks them, a little embarrassed by the fact that Dominic is insistently cupping Matt's ass, set off by his white, skinny jeans, and the brunet is showing him how much he likes that, peppering his nape with kisses as one hand slips through his black shirt.

"Oops, sorry. We did it again!" Dom apologizes, also for Matt, as the brunet parts from him, snorting to show his disappointment.

"How can it be that you're unable to keep some distance from one another?" Chris grumbles.

"Try to understand. It's already so hard to resist during the shows. Today is gonna be even harder, because of the queues at the airport, the check in, the flight, the landing, the return... a whole day surrounded by people!" Matthew complains.

"You're right, but, Mattie, just think about all the privacy we'll get once we arrive to your house." Dominic makes him notice.

"That's not correct. *Our* house. From now on it will be our house." Matthew smiles at him, as he holds his hand.

Dominic smiles back at him.

Finally, they recall that Chris is still there with them.

"Sorry, Chris, are we allowed to hold hands, at least?" Dominic wonders, concerned.

"Yep, you're allowed." their friend rolls his eyes, giving in.

His only consolation is that it will be a short ride.

They reach the airport and at the check in they split up, taking two different directions: Chris heads towards UK and can't wait to come back to his beloved wife and kids, as Matt and Dom's destination is Italy.

"So, big guy, see you soon. You can come to pay a visit to us, whenever you want." Matt greets him, hugging him, and then Dom does the same.

"You're welcome to my house, too. Sure, you just have to ...err... avoid too explicit attitudes!" Chris states, a little bit awkwardly.

"We'll try our best to resist!" Dominic solemnly promises.

The trio says the last goodbyes, but before queuing, Chris prefers to go to the Duty Free, heading towards the DVD area.

He grabs the DVD of 'Brokeback Mountain', 'The Birdcage' and the first season of 'Queer as Folk'.

< Just to get accustomed to this kind of things... > he reckons, but before he reaches the cash desk, his ego has something to say.

< Wait a minute. I can't let someone see me as I buy this crap! OK, I'll get accustomed to that just downloading this stuff from the web. > Chris decides, more wisely, putting the DVDs back on their shelf, with discretion.

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In the late afternoon, Matthew and Dominic get off the taxi, giving a very generous tip to the Italian driver, before heading towards the brunet's huge mansion.

Dominic has been reading the names of the roads, trying to find some reference points all time long.

Matthew is showing him the way, but he notices that.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"It's simple. I'm trying to memorize the way. If for some reasons you won't be here with me sometimes and I'll wander through these lanes all alone, I'll have to remember the way that leads me home, don't you think so?" Dom justifies.

Matthew smiles, caressing his face and taking advantage of the fact that they are in a private, isolate alley.

"Repeat it..." the brunet murmurs.

"What? That I'm memorizing the way?"

"No. The other part: home. Our home." Matt clarifies.

This time it's Dom who smiles at him.

"Home. From now on, every time I come back home, it will be here."

"That's not exact. This is just an alley, we must still walk a little more to go home." Matt pinpoints.

"Damn you, Bells, you broke the magic of this moment!" the blond snorts.

"I had to break it, we were becoming way too sickeningly sugary!" Matt states.

"Maybe you're right. So, how far is home? I'm sick of walking!" Dom complains.

"But... we've left the taxi nothing more than three minutes ago. " Matt strikes back, as he resumes showing him the way.

"That's it, we've been walking for ages!" Dom insists.

"C'mon, it's not very far from here. Just stop memorizing the way. You know what? For the first times I'll make you wander here with a GPS!" Matt makes fun of him.

"It could be a cool idea. Do you think that the GPS will understand if I set as destination 'The love of my life'?" Dominic murmurs.

Matt turns to face him.

"Uh! Yeah, sorry, I did it again. Too sugary." the blond rolls his eyes.

"Maybe. But it was so cute!" the brunet smiles, giving him a peck on his lips. "Dom, are you sure you will like living in Como?" he asks for confirmations.

"To live next to one of the most fashionable towns of the whole continent? Do you even have to ask me?! No matter how much I love you, just forget about me during the Fashion Week!" the drummer answers, making him laugh.

After something like fifty steps they finally get home. Matthew draws out the keys, opens the door and lets in to assure himself that everything is fine, as Dominic prefers waiting for him, outside.

A few minutes later, Matt comes back to him, pretty satisfied.

"Gaia kept her word and took away all her stuff, there's not a single trace of her anymore." he asserts, letting Dom in. "Now, you must help me. This house has been closed for a while, we have to get busy and arrange it better. Don't even try to tell me you're tired. After all, we've slept for more than half flight, I'm dying to invest my energies in something!" he explains, as he opens the windows, to let the sunlight in, so he can switch off the artificial lights.

"What?! You're kidding! Firstly, you made me walk for miles and now you even expect me to work hard? It's not the amazing life together I've been dreaming of, you know?!" the blond snaps, as he let himself sink on the comfortable sofa. "Anyway, Mattie, there are other ways to invest your energies..." he adds, immediately after, looking at him seductively and lying down on the sofa.

But his attitude doesn't seem to impress Matt at all.

"C'mon, Dommie! I don't want to call a clean-up crew, it's so annoying, so impersonal! Don't you want to feel exhausted, but because of a nice tiredness that comes from the big satisfaction of being the maker of the benefit you got from it? It's such a priceless feeling!" the singer rambles, speaking scarily fast and very excitedly.

"I haven't the slightest idea of what the hell you blathered about, but my answer is still 'No. Fucking. Way!'" the drummer grumbles, getting up.

"What if I tell you that it's gonna be fun?" his partner winks at him.

"I just can't see how..." the blond replies, doubtfully.

"Wait for me, here." Matt orders, mysteriously, before going upstairs.

Dom hears Matt messing about for a while, and then one of his stereo begins to play 'I want to break free', by Queen.

When Dom sees Matt going downstairs, he's breathless: Matt is holding a motorised, rolling duster and is dancing and singing along the song. He waves his pelvis and butt and pretends to play the duster as if it was a guitar.

What is really shocking Dom is the way he's dressed up... or rather not dressed up, because Matt is wearing just a pair of pink sunglasses, heart-shaped, and a pink, housewife apron, with flowers printed on it... and nothing else.

That's what leaves Dom with no salivation.

"Matthew... you're wonderful!" he approaches him, with a predatory attitude.

"Told you it would be fun!" the frontman states, lowering his sunglasses. "And there's one rule only to help me: take off your pants and shirt. You don't want to spoil your nice, designer clothes, do you?" Matt exhorts him, as he takes his partner's clothes off, good and proper.

"You know, I must admit that, suddenly, out of the blue, I feel like helping you, very, very willingly..." Dom whispers in his ear, nibbling his lobe.

"Do you realize that it's March and we both risk getting pneumonia?" Dominic pinpoints, as he's wearing his boxers only.

"I just know that, whenever I'm with you, I feel fire burning inside me!" the other replies, as he explores the blond's chest with his hands.

"Me too. What can I say? We'll save money of the heating!" the drummer remarks, wittingly, as he grabs a cloth and the window cleaner, ready to clean the windows.

He kisses ardently the brunet, pressing him against the window he's cleaning.

Maybe is not the most efficient cleaning system, but they surely find it intriguing.

And among dusting, cleaning, sweeping and floor washing, every occasion is perfect to jump on each other, in every corner of the house.

A couple of hours later they both lay down on the sofa, drained, worn out, but because of that satisfying tiredness Matthew blathered about.

"Matt, you told me that Gaia took away all her stuff, right?" Dom wonders, with his head on his mate's lap, as he toys with the apron he still wears.

"She did. Why?" the other asks him, passing a hand through his blond, now messy hair.

"Does it mean that this is *yours*?" Dom figures out.

"Yep, this is my official apron for chores or when I cook. As you can easily guess, usually I happen to wear also clothes under it." Matthew clarifies.

His only answer, Dom bursts out laughing.

"What? What did I say wrong?" the frontman gets agitated.

"Nothing. You're just amazing!" the drummer wraps his arms around his neck, stealing the umpteenth kiss.

At evening they have a shower, because it's dinner's time.

Matthew grabs his phone to order two pizzas from his trusted restaurant, hoping to talk with someone who speaks English.

Dominic takes care of the drinks. He knows that Matthew's fridge never lacks beer, but he finds also something unexpected.

"Matthew, is it one of your purchases?" he calls him out.

The singer reaches him, satisfied because he managed to place his order.

They both stare in awe at the huge, red wine flagon that towers the base of the majestic two door-fridge.

"Nope. Quite the contrary, I didn't even imagine that such giant flagons could exist." the brunet grumbles in confusion, as he tries to touch the flagon.

He notices the piece on paper next to it.

"'This is for you, guys, to celebrate your new life together. Enjoy it. From Gaia and Jessica. P.S. We hope it will go down the wrong way!!'" Matthew reads loudly.

"Aww, they were so nice!" Dominic squeals.

"They understood and this is a sort of armistice. " Matthew states.

They exchange a doubtful look, recalling how the girls found out about their relationship, what they said, how they reacted.

"I'm sure it's poisoned. We'd better get rid of it!" Dominic decides.

"I have a better idea. I could make a present for my dear, neighbour Clooney..." Matthew suggests, with an evil smirk.

"No bloody way, I don't wanna spend the rest of my life seeing you behind bars and taking oranges to you. Let's just get rid of this flagon!" Dominic insists and, even if unwillingly, Matthew obeys.

"After all, you're such a connoisseur of intoxication attempts, aren't you, Bells?" Dom questions him, reproach in his voice.

"Enough with that story! Are you still angry? After all, nothing big happened." Matthew shrugs.

"Well, My Chemical Romance doesn't think so. They had to cancel two gigs and it's just your fault!" the first snaps.

"But I didn't do anything bad. I've just brought some pancakes to them, as offer of peace. You know, the rules of a good neighbourly relation." the second justifies, with all the innocence he can show.

"Yeah, sure, and *casually* those pancakes were stuffed with laxative!" Dom crosses his arms on his chest.

"Yep. I swear I thought it was maple syrup. Gee, I'm so absent-minded!" Matt acts dumb.

"Nope. You're just evil!" the blond strikes back.

"Well, I'm the VladyMatt who turns you on so badly..." Matt replies, shrewdly.

After all, he knows that it's always a winning move. As a matter of fact, Dom stops arguing and resumes smiling at him.

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

At late night, after seeing TV together, because they're too tired to go out, they're ready to go to bed.

Dom prepares himself in the bathroom, as Matthew waits for him, skimming through the pages of a book, absently.

When Dom comes back, Matt is almost tempted to throw the book against him.

"Where the hell did you fucking buy that bloody shit?" the brunet growls, narrowing his eyes as he observes his mate.

"Well, you know, on the last two gigs I paid a visit to their official merchandising stand and... I guess it was something cute, a souvenir from the tour with them!" Dominic explains, showing proudly black boxers matched with a black My Chemical Romance t-shirt.

"Dom, gee, no! Dammit, you chose just a t-shirt with their faces printed on, like a teenager in heat!" Matthew protests, lively.

"What can I say? They have such pretty faces that look good on t-shirts, especially the frontman's pretty face!" the blond teases him.

His only answer, Matt leaves the bedroom and comes back a few minutes later.

"You know, Dom, I guess that I'll finally make you happy, since you've been craving this for so long..." he exclaims, showing him something that turns Dom on like hell, as soon as he sees it. "This time we are really gonna make love, using a knife!" he warns him, with a maniac look, smiling in anticipation only at the thought of tearing that t-shirt to shreds.

His only answer, Dom jumps on the mattress with an excited yelp, waiting for Matthew to make the first move.

< I knew it would work! > the blond thinks, satisfied, but, as a proper calculating person, he doesn't dare to tell Matt about his very well plotted, wicked plan.

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

Matthew wakes up abruptly, hearing a deafening noise that has a regular and measured rhythm.

< It keeps time way too much to be an earthquake! > he reckons, as he glances at the alarm clock that informs him that it's 7:00 a.m. .

The noise goes on, louder and louder and finally Matthew realizes what, or rather whom, its source is.

Unwillingly, he gets up and rushes furiously towards the studio he has inside the house, where he finds Dominic, engrossed playing at the drums.

"Honey, finally you're awake, it's wonderful!" the blond welcomes him, cheerfully.

"What the fuck are you doing, why the fuck are you doing that and why just at this fucking time of the fucking day?"

Dominic has a sudden flashback about how unpleasant Matt can be at early morning.

"I... I couldn't sleep anymore, so I went here and... I was sure it would be something nice, that's why I left the door open, on purpose. I know you love waking up with music. As a matter of fact, it's you the one who usually plays at very questionable time of the day or the night!" Dom justifies, very calmly.

His calm does nothing but making his listener angrier and angrier.

"OK, but I play the piano, it's bloody different! This is not music at all, it's just a hellish racket! You can't compare that to the sweet notes of a piano!" the brunet snaps.

Dominic looks at him guilty, and then he pouts.

Matthew becomes powerless.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it. Drums have a marvellous sound, but maybe I'd appreciate that more in the afternoon." Matt tries to make him reason, with a softer tone, as he sits on the drums, in front of him.

The blond stares at him with expectations.

"Don't have any dirty thought, I've just sat down!" the brunet clarifies.

"It's impossible to look at you without having dirty thoughts!" his partner strikes back.

"I don't give a fuck. Just keep them to yourself. It's already a miracle that I manage to speak right now!" Matt makes him desist, as he yawns.

"As you wish. Anyway, instead of going back to sleep, we should take advantage of the situation. By now no one will be around, so why don't we go out and take a walk?" the blond suggests to him.

"What? Look, walking is even more laborious than shagging! Plus, you are the guy who hates walking, aren't you?" the brunet makes him notice.

"Just after a journey, with the suitcases and everything. Oh, c'mon, Matteh, let's take a walk! It would be so cool. Think about that: you and me, holding hands, across the Bellamy Lake..." Dom insists, already knowing that he pushed the right button.

As a matter of fact, Matthew lights up, grinning at Dominic, madly.

"How did you call it?" he asks for confirmations, staring at him with sparkling eyes.

"With its proper name." the blond winks at the brunet.

"OK, give me five minutes and then we'll go out." the other states, fully reawaken, disappearing in a heartbeat.

Dom goes changing clothes, as well, as he sneers, proudly.

< My dear Matty, it's even too easy to subdue you. >

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It's afternoon. Matthew is allowing himself the rest that has been denied to him during the morning and the blond lets him sleep peacefully, but a few hours later he reaches him in their room.

"C'mon, sleepyhead, open your amazing eyes, I have a little something for you..." Dom whispers to him, as he scrapes his mate's nape, lightly.

The brunet gets the sweet awakening he hoped for.

He immediately notices the little box that the blond is holding.

At the beginning, Matt smiles at Dom, but then, recalling the previous night, he becomes diffident.

"If it's a My Terrible Lost Chance key-ring, I swear I'll make you gulp it down!" he threatens Dom.

"Shut up and open the box!" Dom exhorts him.

Matt obeys and stares in awe at the silver necklace that there's inside.

"Dommy, it's wonderful!" he exclaims, wearing it, immediately. "I'm gonna wear it at Wembley, for sure!" he promises.

"I'm glad you like it. Anyway, you figured out what it is, didn't you?" Dom wonders.

"A necklace?" Matt looks at him, puzzled.

"Of course it's a necklace, you, ninny! But It has a symbolic meaning. What is it a necklace? A jewel. And you know what I think about jewels." Dom makes him notice.

"Does it mean that... you want a serious relationship?" his listener figures out, beaming with joy.

"The most serious ever!" the blond assures, pecking his lips.

"Gee, we're rushing things. If this is only our second month together, what will we do after our first year together? Will we get married?" Matt jokes, giggling.

Dominic amazes him with his answer.

"Why not? And to think we've even been in Las Vegas! But I don't care, I prefer Spain as location for our marriage, it's more suggestive!"

"Alright! I see that you are already planning that day." Matt smiles at him.

The most beautiful thing is that that possibility doesn't scare Matthew, either.

"So, if you already chose the location, I'll choose the song, because you know that I find the wedding march boring, banal and bloody predictable. The soundtrack of our wedding will be 'Sober'." Matt suggests.

"Bells, in that song you do nothing but keep screaming 'You are so solid/It burns inside me'. I don't think it's the most proper soundtrack for a ceremony!" Dom makes him notice, resorting to all the patience he has.

"That's a pity, it has such a cool groove. OK, let's choose 'Super Massive Black Hole' then, and I won't accept any compromise on it!" Matt summons him and Dom doesn't even try to protest.

After all, he likes that choice, a lot.

"Alright. We still have to pick up the best men: I want Chris!" Matt adds.

"No way, *I* want Chris!" Dom complains.

"But I've been faster than you!" the other laughs.

Dominic can do one thing only: pout.

Matt's reaction is instantaneous.

"OK, OK, you can keep Chris." the frontman surrenders. "So I'll pick up Tom and Pinkie!" he adds, enlightened.

"What? No way. I don't want a suitcase to participate at *my* wedding!" the drummer protests, lively.

"Thank your lucky stars that now Pinkie is in front of the computer, as he checks his my-space page and didn't hear you. He hates being called 'suitcase'!" the singer scolds him.

Dom is almost scared of asking him that.

"Pinkie has a my-space page?!"

"Sure. I've subscribed him last week and now he already has more than one-hundred and twenty friends!" Matt explains, with a proud grin.

"But... how?"

Dom doesn't complete his question, He prefers not to investigate.

"Anyway, Pinkie will participate!" Matt insists, resolutely.

"If you want Pinkie, I want Jamie as my best men. We'll just have to put a big mirror in front of the altar!" the blond decides.

"Reflections can't be best men!" Matt grumbles.

"Neither can trolleys!" Dom strikes back, bitterly.

"I don't think so. Pinkie would bring us the rings, impeccably." Matt insists.

"Whatever! Anyway, I made my decision. Jamie or not, I want a big mirror in front of us, so I can see how good I look as I'm marrying you. After all, all the grooms are always beautiful!" Dom states.

"All the *brides* are!" Matt corrects him.

"It's the same!" the blond shrugs.

"By the way, we can't be both grooms, there should be a bride." Matthew points out.

"Well, let's say I'll be a... gride." Dom suggests.

"So, that makes me a ... broom. I like it!" Matt approves.

"Anyway, don't you find it funny? I mean, we don't even know what to do if people find about us, and if we carry on this way it's gonna happen soon, and yet here we go, daydreaming about our wedding day!" Dom chuckles.

"If people find the truth, we'll face the consequences, together. Dominic James Howard, I have you by my side. I couldn't care less about the rest of the world." Matthew murmurs, caressing Dom's face with the back of his hand.

"Aawww, another sugary moment. I begin to like that..." the blond smiles, crawling on Matt and straddling him. "Let me show you how much I do."

--

THE END

Yep, this is the end. :(

I'll miss this story a lot.

OK, some quick notes:

- I don't know abroad, but in Italy visitors bring oranges to the prisoners, it's a sort of tradition! ;)

- About My Chemical Romance, the intoxication news is true (poor, dear guys!) ... but not the fact that it's Matt's fault, of course. Well , it could be, lol!

- About the silver necklace, Matthew wore it for real at Wembley (and also at Florence and Verona) and I don't know why, but as soon as I saw it the fangirl in me screamed in my mind 'That's a gift from Dom!!!!'

- About the 'Sober' song I had hypothesized a BellDom one-shot, but then I changed my mind and compress it all in that sentence. I just have to quit hypothesizing stuff, lol!

As I said before, this is the end of the story, but not of the series (In Italian, I also wrote a Christmas sequel and much more ^^) . Yeah, truth is that I love those crazy, absurd, parodied versions of them way too much to abandon them! ^^

So there's gonna be a sequel, a mini-series/ spin-off about them living together in Como.

It will be a collection of very short (and stupid) one-shots.

Hope you had fun with this story as much as I had fun writing it.

Cheers!

[normalweirdoboy]

06-02-23

The past week has been pretty eventful.

To start with, my classes have resumed, however class remains half filled. I think I've become accustomed to college life by now.

I don't know if I mentioned this but I recently published a book on C programming language. This was my project for the one week end-sem break that we received. The book contains programs to help the reader practice the C language and attain basic mastery over it. It is very amateurish since it's my first attempt at anything technical but I'm sure it'll be helpful for you computer science enthusiasts out there.

--- I'll later put the link here ---

Other than that I'm working on a translation right now, more on that on some other day.

Today we have a concert which I was least interested in attending but since it's college fest and I don't wanna 'miss out' on things, here I am. We are waiting for Sunidhi Chauhan to arrive to the stage... And we've been waiting for the past two hours :) I'm currently sitting at the audience stand cause I don't want my already aching legs to ache more. 💀

Oh yes, I also participated in a competitive coding contest at college. I almost thought I was late but then saw that the queue was still there so just slipped in. Honestly they should have been more organised. I mean, i got the info abt venue last night and I don't obviously check my college email every hour. And so... I skipped breakfast and ran to attend that event at 8 in the morning woohoo! :')

I got 107th rank out of 150 something participants who turned up. Which is not bad for a noob like me. I could only solve 2 out of the given 6 questions but hey, none of my friends participated so AT LEAST I did something.

Anyways, pretty late now. Goodnight guys.

- normalweirdoboy

[guillemelgat]

Language Goals 2019

I’m going to try to keep this shorter than last year, but here’s what I want to do with my languages.

Current Languages

Catalan - Get that C1, whatever it takes to get there

Basque - Become conversationally fluent

Welsh - Talk to people in Welsh

Romani - Reach a B1, actually be able to understand some conversation & media

Western Abenaki - Feel more comfortable with what I know

Malayalam - Be able to hold a conversation with my dad or my aunt

Arabic - Review & solidify what I already know

Tamasheq - Expose myself to more of the language so I can put into practice what I already know

New Languages

Wolof - I’m hoping to go to Senegal to study abroad, so I want to learn enough Wolof to be able survive (which given that I don’t talk to people until I’m solidly intermediate is going to take a while rip :// )

Amharic - this is going to be the year, I’m starting the course for this today!

I really want to focus on getting my current languages stable and comfortable this year, as well as actually getting out and practicing them with people! I haven’t put many new languages on here, but we’ll see if that lasts. I have a lot that I want to learn, so if my studies go well I might add one or two more. Last year was really great, so I’m hoping the one to come will be even better!

[caffeineforbucky]

I'm Thinking Of You All The While

Synopsis: Two weeks have gone by since you last saw Frank and you weren't expecting your next encounter to be in a hospital.

Pairing: Frank Castle x Reader

Warnings: angst, swearing, fluff, mentions of violence...lemme know if I missed any

1.8k words

A/N: I know this was long-awaited and you guys have been so patient with my slow ass. I had a bit of a writer's block but, I'm back and better than ever...sorta. I hope to god ya'll like this part cuz it was a puzzle. Feedback and reblogs are implored, thank you for taking the time to read. ILY!!!

Read Part one

Running.

You're running—the soles of your sneakers pounding against the grain of cement while you raced to the hospital. You couldn't care to even dress in work attire. Once you caught wind of Frank's hospitalization, jeans and a hoodie were the way to go.

You shouldn't have been the one I left behind.

Those words lingered like bad perfume—holding you in their vice through the absence of his being. It was only five minutes ago that Foggy had called you to get your ass down to the hospital.

"We've got a big case right now, and we need you."

"It's my day off, Fogs." You managed to say through a bite of a bagel. "What's more important than my Saturday being interrupted?"

"We're representing Frank Castle."

The bagel came back up. Your eyes suddenly water as you spit up your breakfast. "Be there in ten." You choked out, tossing the remains into the bin before making haste to change quickly.

The double doors slid open before you stepped through, eyes wandering until you found the receptionist's desk. "Hi, I'm looking for F-"

"There you are!" Foggy exclaimed loudly, making you look over your shoulder, tearing your eyes away from the woman who was about to help you. "Come on," He beckons you with a wave of his hand, his brows pinched together in worry. "I'll brief you in the elevator."

Thanking the receptionist, you followed Foggy into the elevator—heart palpitating faster than you were used to. It's been a couple of weeks since Frank showed up at your job—only calling to check in once every two days. And he never stayed on the call longer than twenty seconds. Fear for what was gonna happen to him was palpable. You cared about him, and you couldn't believe the things he'd been accused of.

"You still with me, Y/N?" Foggy calls out, noticing your lack of communication. The way your gaze misted over with something unreadable. Perhaps it was fear. He thought. You'd all heard of The Punisher and what he was famous for. Maybe you were scared to finally come face to face with the man. But, Foggy couldn't be further from the truth. "Hey," He tries again, frowning as he adjusted the strap of his briefcase.

His firm tone brought you back to the elevator, your eyes finding his gray gaze. "What?"

Foggy shuts his eyes, sighing deeply. He hoped to god that you had been listening to the case. He wasn't about to go over it again. "Seriously?"

You rubbed the fatigue from your eyes, dragging your fingers over your warm cheeks. "Ah, I'm sorry, Foggy," You groaned, taking a breath as well. "I guess I haven't been sleeping well. I'll let you and Matt do the talking." Right on queue, the bell dings above you—the doors separating to let you on your floor. Sharing a look with Foggy, you both stepped out, walking side by side until you turned the corner—Karen and Matt coming into view.

"What took you so long?" Matt pipes up, the red of his lenses glinting with the fluorescence of the lights above as he turns to face you, both hands resting atop of his white cane.

"Relax, Murdock," You grumble, folding your arms over your chest. "I'm here. Never mind that it was my day off. I wasn't expecting the call, is all."

"Right, well, let's get-"

"What the hell are you four doing here?!" Brett Mahoney's voice echoes in the narrow hallway of the fifth floor.

"Brett!" Foggy exclaims, his eyes brightening with a smile—Mahoney slowly approaching. "You're wearing a tie, and it's not a clip-on-"

"This ain't a good time, Foggy," Brett deadpans, looking between the four of you.

"How'd you get babysitting duty, Sergeant?" You quip, lifting your chin to address him.

"A detective Sergeant now." He corrects you.

"A promotion, huh?"

"Uh, just lucky." Mahoney shrugs nonchalantly. "Top dogs like the press of a good collar."

"Yeah," Foggy adds, the corner of his mouth curving into a smile. "And the cops that get 'em. Congratulations, detective."

Dismissing Foggy's compliment, Mahoney sighs heavily. "Look, I'm sorry but, this area is restricted beyond this point. You can't be here-"

"What if we have business with Frank Castle?" Matt interrupts, stepping a few inches forward. You look between them, each defending the law in their own way.

"Bussiness?" Brett scoffs, almost laughing at Matthew's proposal. "Guy's barely conscious."

"Our firm wants to represent him," Matt replies cooly.

"Man's already got a lawyer."

"Yeah, we met that benchwarmer." Foggy shares a knowing look with Karen, regarding their encounter with the man a few days earlier. "Not the freshest the city could've drummed up, but he's in the running."

"Brett," Matt starts, "We feel Nelson and Murdock are better equipped to represent Mr. Castle's best interests. Certainly over that of his current legal counsel."

Mahoney sighs once again. "Look, I don't ask questions, but every firm in the city's passed this one by. Must be a reason. You're chasing the wrong ambulance, DA wants the death penalty."

Your heart dropped to your stomach, the sound of the death penalty making your arms drop—fear glazing your tired eyes. "The...the public defender is all but ready to roll over and help."

Matthew could pick up on your increased heart, frowning softly in curiosity. He'd have to ask you about that later. "They'll even extradite Castle out of New York if that's what it takes."

"So, we thought he'd respond to our strategy of, you know, keeping him alive?" Foggy quips.

"None of this is my business," Detective Mahoney steps closer, lowering his voice enough for the four of you to hear. "But all I know is, you go up against the DA and lose?" He shakes his head in disapproval. "The only funeral to attend will be your firm's. You're takin' career suicide."

"If we walk away we're letting him die," You huff in frustration, a knot at the base of your throat. You couldn't—wouldn't—let your best friend die, not like this. Not when there was so much you wanted to tell him.

Mahoney took a step back, absorbing your words for a bit before he looked to the ceiling, muttering something under his breath. That was a hell of an argument. One that he fully agreed with. Whether or not Frank was a criminal, he didn't believe in killing him.

They searched all of you before letting you step foot inside the room, making it crystal clear to stay behind the tape line.

"Oh my god," You whisper, heart, tightening like a fist. There he was. There was your best friend lying bruised and scarred—handcuffed to a hospital bed like he was some kind of animal.

"Frank Castle," Matthew regards, starting firmly—voice clear. Frank's eyes opened immediately, recognizing the voice right off the bat. He turns his head towards Matt. "My name is Matthew Murdock. These," He gestures behind. "-are my associates, Franklin Nelson, Karen Page, and Y/N."

Frank's eyes found you in a heartbeat, and they never left. "I know who you are. You protect shitbags."

"We came here today to make you an offer. We don't want money for our services, we're not interested in fame or free advertising. Weren't even assigned to your case. We don't have to be here but, if you take a second to look around, we're the only ones that are. As you may well know, your list-"

"Y/N," Frank cuts in, your head snapping in his direction as Matt halts in his statement.

"What?" Matt asks, not sure if he heard right. Foggy and Karen's heads turn to look at you and you'd never felt smaller.

"I want to talk to Y/N before I listen to any more of your legal bullshit. Alone."

Foggy was the first to protest, followed by Karen then Matt, spewing on about the dangers of the man across from you and how he wouldn't hesitate to kill you but, you knew Frank. And he'd jump in front of a bullet before he ever a lay finger on you.

"I'll do it." You mumble, loud enough for the chatter to die out, all eyes on you. "I'll be fine, promise. He needs us, and if all that takes is a simple conversation, then so be it."

You were surprised how your little speech managed to convince all three out of the room. Maybe because neither one of them wanted to be in the same room as The Punisher but, he was just Frankie to you.

You locked the door on their way out, resting your head against the wood while you took a deep breath. Stay calm, stay calm. You push off the door, slowly turning to the man in the bed. The back of your eyes burned with tears, taking in all the bruising around his eyes and how they made his irises seem darker. "You look like shit."

Frank chuckled heartily, the rumbles in his chest aching but, his smiles were for you and only you. "Is that how we're greeting each other now, darlin'?" He quips, shaking his head as you step over the tape to make your way over to him.

You lean over, touching your forehead to his—your tear falling onto his cheek. "I don't want them to kill you," You croak, gliding your hands up to cup either side of his jaw.

"Hey, hey," He coos, drawing back a smidge. "Look at me, darlin'," Your eyes meet his, fresh tears rolling down your warm cheeks. He wanted to hold just as you were holding him, but the handcuff keep him restrained—wanting nothing more than to hold you in his arms. All the torture he'd undergone wouldn't compare to the torture of not being able to touch you. "Nothing's gonna happen to me, okay? I'm not gonna let them take me. Just like I won't let a damn soul keep you away from me." He leans in again, softly kissing your forehead—the gentlest touch you've ever known.

"There's a shoot-to-kill order on your head, Frank," You whisper, eyes fluttered shut at the feel of him so close to you. You couldn't bear the thought of actually losing him again. You feared you wouldn't be able to handle his death twice in a row. "I...I can't lose you," You whisper, shaking your head. "I can't fucking lose you." And without even thinking about it, simply because you couldn't do anything else—you kissed him.

You kissed him with everything you had, every emotion spilling out onto his lips from your own. You loved him like you never loved anyone else, and you'd pick him of your job any day.

Frank half expected the kiss since that's all he could think about as well. Never mind the reason he was in this predicament in the first place. He didn't want to think about Maria or the kids. All he wanted—needed—was you. And if you happened to stick around through the rest of his mission and hardships, he wouldn't mind.

He was gonna fight, and for the first time in two years, he felt home in your lips once again.

It's done. I hope ya'll are satisfied cuz I'm not writing a third part. Will there be future frank castle one-shots or fics? yes, yes there will be. But this two-parter is complete. I want to say thanks to the people who enjoyed this, you guys are the shit. I love ya. Reblogs and comments are appreciated deeply. I know I say this a lot.

This one's for @sketch-and-write-lover for asking to be tagged.

Lemme know if you ever want to be tagged in any future fics! Read Part One here!

[oro-e-diamanti]

The one where Ethan is pretending

Description | When you bump into Ethan in Paris, you fail to mention that you know exactly who he is. You’re not sure how long you’ll be able to keep it up when he asks you out for a drink.

Content | Fluff

Pairing | Ethan x gn!Reader (with the exception of one female pet name)

Word Count | 2071

Taglist | @ginny-lily @ethaneskin @tabi-toast @mywritingonlyfans

***

There was no way you were staying in the same place that Måneskin had just arrived at. There was no way, you kept telling yourself. Paris was a massive city, the number of available hotels in the hundreds, maybe thousands if you had to guess. And yet, somehow, you had managed to pick the one place one of your new favourite obsessions would spend their time. You knew it didn't mean much, the hotel had more than a couple of rooms and with your luck, you wouldn't even catch a glimpse of them. But as you kept scrolling through Instagram, seeing pictures of people meeting the four Italians in front of the place you had checked into mere days ago, you couldn't fight a little bubble of excitement forming in your chest.

Well, you told yourself you wouldn't get your hopes up. And you definitely wouldn't hang around in front of the hotel or in the lobby. You had booked your solo trip to Paris months ago, after dreaming about visiting the city for most of your life, and you would be damned if you wouldn't stick to your itinerary and enjoy your holiday. However - you had gotten up at what felt like dawn to go queue up for the Louvre and spent the last couple of hours there, so you decided that a nap was the way to go if you wanted to continue exploring the city in the evening. Fortunately, the walk back to the hotel wasn't long.

You had made it to the last corner before entering the street you were aiming for, when two giggling girls ran past you, unceremoniously bumping your shoulder and sending you tumbling. You were fully expecting to hit the ground, but instead, a pair of strong arms caught you and brought you back to your feet. A pair of strong arms belonging to a strong chest that you came face-to-face with, belonging to a gorgeous face, belonging to Ethan Torchio.

"Tu vas bien?" His broad French accent confused you, momentarily forgetting about the little detail that you were, in fact, in France, as you stared at the drummer in front of you, who was still protectively holding onto your upper arms.

"Huh?" Was the immensely intelligent answer that thus left your mouth.

"Oh, not French?"

"No, definitely not French." You finally said, taking a step back from him to avoid the increasing awkwardness you were feeling about being touched by him, while the two girls who had previously knocked you down were now lingering around the two of you suspiciously, not coming close enough to be rude, but obviously desperate to get their own piece of Ethan. "No, just a tourist."

"Me too," Ethan smiled. "A tourist, I mean. Well, kind of. I'm here with my band so it's not like we have time to do a lot of sightseeing."

He briefly turned around to look at the two girls who still seemed frustrated at you hogging his time and gave a small wave before turning back to you. It was the movement that made you realise he had the most gorgeous red rose tucked into the waistband of his trousers. Well, it used to be the most gorgeous rose - after your little crash, it had bent in the middle, the top hanging only by a thread, in the most miserable fashion.

"Oh, no I am so sorry!" You gasped, carefully grasping the delicate petals that were on the verge of breaking off. "I must have crashed into it when you caught me."

"Don't worry about it," Ethan said, softly, and pulled the stem from his waistband. The flower looked even more tragic now, in all its crushed glory. "A fan gave it to me a few minutes ago."

"Huh?" You surely proved yourself articulate in this conversation. You mentally hit yourself, angry at yourself for being so easily flustered.

"There are a few fans waiting in front of our hotel, because we're in a ... band ... and things."

Apparently, your awkwardness was contagious. Also, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Ethan thought that you had no idea who he was.

"Let me get you a new one," you suggested. "There's a flower shop just two doors down from the hotel - I mean, I am staying there, too, so I know."

He smiled at you with a serenity and calmness that had your heart soaring. You decided you'd be willing to buy him a million roses if only he kept smiling at you like that for a little longer.

"Well, I've got to go now, but it would be rude to refuse your offer. Meet you in the bar of the hotel at 8 tonight?"

No way this was happening. You almost gasped, but at the last moment managed to keep your cool, outwardly. On the inside, you were a mess. Bumping into the drummer of one of your favourite bands was a wonderful chance meeting as it was - but this almost sounded like a date. Now, of course, Ethan wouldn't be asking you out on a date. That would be ridiculous. But there was also no way you would miss out on a chance to meet him again. Preferably without those two giggling girls that were still standing behind him, watching every move of your interaction but luckily too far away to hear what you were saying.

"It's a d- uh, deal," you quickly recovered before almost spitting out the word date instead. Ethan chuckled.

"Right, see you later, then, for our... deal."

He had seen right through you anyway, you thought. But he was still laughing, so it wasn't all that bad - right?

With another quick touch to your upper arm, Ethan walked past you, turning around just one last time.

"My name is Ethan, by the way. You can tell me yours tonight."

Oh, you would.

***

The rest of the day was... well, restless. You couldn't nap because your mind was a whirlwind and your stomach was twisting with excitement. So instead, you had made sure to get the prettiest red rose you could find in the flower shop down the street - while slightly wincing at the price that a shop in the center of the city of love demanded - and put it in a glass the hotel receptionist had been nice to give to you. Then you had decided that there was no way you would manage to relax before 8, so you allowed yourself a few hours simply wandering through the city, no real destination, no itinerary for once, just a nice long stroll with nothing but your thoughts.

At five past eight - being slightly late was still cool, right? - you did a quick check-up in the mirror, realised you were not going to get any happier with your appearance whatever you tried to do at this point, grabbed the rose from its makeshift vase, and left your room.

It only took you a second to see him when you entered the little bar on the ground floor of the hotel. Even in the dim light, the white blouse that he had already been wearing when you met for the first time stood out like a sore thumb. Long dark hair fell over his back in a silky fashion. You had never wanted to touch anyone's hair more.

You took one more deep breath and then walked over to Ethan, smile on your face and rose in your hand.

"A rose for the handsome gentleman?"

Ethan almost jumped, apparently not having heard you coming, but quickly a smirk spread over his face while he stood up.

"I'll take the rose and your name, then."

"It's Y/n."

Ethan greeted you with a soft kiss to your cheek, before taking the rose, pulling your chair back, and inviting you to sit. It was almost ridiculously romantic and if it had been anyone else it would have seemed over-the-top and off-putting, but with Ethan it seemed sincere and fitting.

"Glass of wine, Y/n?" He asked as he casually waved the waiter over to your table.

"Just one. I want to get up early tomorrow for some more sightseeing."

***

It didn't end up being just one glass. It ended up another one and then a bottle shared. But it also ended up with three hours of talking, laughing, teasing, and slowly moving your chairs closer together until you were basically sitting on the same side of the table. You had asked him about his band - still trying to cover up that you knew exactly who they were out of pure fear that he'd reject you for being a fan - and he has asked about your job, your life, your family. In fact, you only left the bar when the waiter had started throwing you annoyed looks while demonstratively cleaning the tables around you.

"I'll bring you to your room," Ethan chuckled lightly as you waited for the elevator. His hand was on the small of your back and it was spreading tingles all through your body. You were standing close enough that you could smell his perfume, a light yet musky scent that encapsulated everything about him.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, he lightly pushed you inside and you found yourself not minding him leading you like this. You pressed the button for your floor, leaning against the wall as you studied the man in front of you. He was a thing of beauty, no question about it, and when he smiled down at you the way he was right then and there, he made you feel like one, too.

"I had a lovely evening, Y/n. Is there any chance I could get your number?"

What a question, you thought to yourself. You'd be mad to refuse him!

You dug your phone out of your cluttered bag. You had switched numbers just a few weeks ago and had not yet learned the new digits by heart. Quickly, you switched it on - and your heart sank. Oh crap. You had completely forgotten about this.

The lockscreen of your phone was a picture of Måneskin.

As you looked up, you realized Ethan had seen. And, contrarily to the reaction that you were anticipating, he was wearing a massive grin.

"Ethan, I am so sorry, I should have told you immediately when we met but I kind of just stumbled into this and you were explaining you were in a band and I didn't know how to say-"

"Dolcezza, calm down. I've known all along."

"Wait - what?"

He didn't explain. Instead, he pointed to your bag - your tote bag - your Måneskin tote bag.

You truly felt like the least intelligent life form on earth.

"I've been carrying that around all day, haven't I?"

While your embarrassment grew, face heating up, Ethan grabbed your shoulders and pulled you into his body. His arms tightly wrapped around your body and you could feel his giggles in his chest, as your head was pressed against it. You didn't hesitate in reciprocating, clinging onto his torso, slowly swinging from side to side. Both of you caught in a tipsy stupor.

You only stopped when the elevator arrived at your floor, both of you stumbling out and dragging each other to your door while clinging on. When you reached your room, you let your back lean against it, pulling Ethan along so you were standing face to face, smiling at each other shily and yet never breaking eye contact.

"Why didn't you say anything?" You finally asked. He stroked your cheek, leaving goosebumps. He had now gotten so close that you could feel his breath on your, drowning in each other.

"I liked pretending."

And then he kissed you. Boldly, unafraid and passionate. You melted like putty under him, letting him take control while letting yourself fall, as his lips moved against yours.

You only pulled away enough to get another glance at him, before once again searching your bag, now one-handed, so you never quite had to let go of him. A small triumphant sound escaped you as you located the key card. Holding it up next to your face, you shot the man in front of you another smirk.

"Why don't we keep pretending? At least for tonight."

It wasn't an offer he was going to refuse.