#so this week as been.... intense™

[skamenglishsubs]

Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 3, Episode 2

Episode 2 starts days or maybe a week after episode 1. The curfews and phone ban is in place, so Wilhelm and Simon make the most of their one hour of phone sex talking.

Blink and you miss it: Wilhelm snapped a quick instant picture of himself and Simon at the palace in the last episode, using the camera we saw on his desk. The heart is still on his hand, so maybe it's the next day, or maybe he's been filling it in every day.

Cinematography: Intense red light typically symbolizes their mutual love, and this scene is overflowing with it.

Lost in translation: They both finish the phone call with "puss", which means kiss, but not exactly. It's more platonic, something you can say and do with your parents, or your kids, or end phone calls with. The other word for kiss, "kyss", is more romantic/sexual, and would be super weird to end a phone call with. Simon is using that word when he says he would kiss Wilhelm's collar bone birth mark.

Subtext: Of course Vincent doesn't believe anyone was bullied. He's the biggest bully, but what he does is just a joke, or the other guy deserved it. This is gonna be a recurring theme™ in this episode, how various characters look back on and remember, or choose not to remember, what happened to them.

Subtext: If you didn't pick up this meaningful glance, you're blind. The initiation porno was totally real, and Nils and August clearly remember it, and weren't as flippant about it as Vincent.

Culture: In Sweden, inner city schools are typically better and have richer students than the poorer schools out in the suburbs. This is the exact opposite of the typical US school demographical pattern.

Subtext: Wilhelm avoids Farima's question by evading it. Note that it does make sense that she doesn't know what's going on at these schools since she's an employee, she's not upper-class herself. Wilhelm's parents know though since they attended Hillerska, but they would of course never admit it either.

Culture: Ironically, this is exactly how the real-world Danish royal family handled the Herlufsholm scandal in 2022 involving prince Christian. Only when the media storm in Denmark got too intense did they pull him out of the school, while furiously denying knowledge of the abuse or that he was involved in any way.

Cinematography: We're in the cursed music room, but the light is soft and golden, and the scene is just cute. No fight this time.

Subtext: We're touching the theme™ again, but from Simon's perspective. He has the same outsider perspective we have; speaking up about abuse is always good, and if the school's closing because of it, that's an obviously good thing. There's plenty of scenes in this episode showing that most Hillerska students don't share this perspective, they really love their school, as fucked up as it is.

Subtext: Although it sounds like a rehearsed PR line and Felice is thinking about her girl group here, it's gonna come true for her and Sara.

Subtext: Yuck. No further comment.

Cinematography: The immediate cut to Felice getting her aggressions out in gym class shows us exactly what she thought of what the principal said and how much it pissed her off.

Blink and you miss it: Simon audibly sniffs Wilhelm's hair.

Blink and you miss it: Micke made dinner for both of them, but in her depression, Sara ignores the cooked food (Pyttipanna, btw), and makes herself a cucumber sandwich instead.

Subtext: Micke is a man on a mission, and he is constantly steering the conversation towards helping Sara get her driver's license. For him, it's a way to make up for having been a shitty parent.

Culture: Sweden has long been a holdout of stick-shift cars, and if you don't do your practical test in a stick-shift, you'll get a restricted license, so it's not out of the ordinary for Micke to be teaching Sara how to drive one. However, automatics have seen a sharp rise in the last decade, and in 2024 automatics will finally overtake them.

Culture: The green ÖVNINGSKÖRNING sign is compulsory in Sweden if a car is being driven by someone on a learner's permit, with a parent or friend as the instructor. There's also a red version of the sign, which indicates it's a student driver with a professional instructor in a dual control car.

Cinematography: The room is filled to the brim with things to do, there's a bazillion board games, they have books, magazines, fidget thingies, they're drowning in stuff, and yet the girls are still soooooo boooored just because they don't have their phones. Except Madison, who is knitting.

Subtext: Here comes the theme™ again, and Fredrika is firmly in camp denial. Everyone else is just lying and exaggerating! The wheels are starting to turn in Felice's head though.

Subtext: Nils and August are finally talking about the initiation without Vincent being present, and they can finally be honest about what they actually thought about it. It happened, they didn't like.

Subtext: Their idea of fixing it however is not to go out publicly and talk about it, but to just quietly stop the tradition, hoping they'll be the last ones. (Since there are no second-year students in the show, we have no idea what happened to them, so we're just gonna ignore that.)

Subtext: And here comes the reason that August wanted to put a stop to it. He was completely humiliated by it, and he doesn't want anyone else to know that he was humiliated, because that just makes it worse. This is also the reason that traditions like this keep on going, no-one wants to blow the whistle on it, because everyone was abused, everyone was a victim, it's hard for abuse victims to speak up.

Cinematography: The talk with Nils triggered an anxiety attack for August, and being inside his small room doesn't exactly help. Him going so close to the camera that he almost bumps into it really shows how he feels like the walls are closing in on him.

Culture: This, kids, is a standard Swedish landline telephone jack. For the longest time I thought phone jacks looked like this everywhere, but it turns out that this particular design was only used in Sweden and Iceland(!?!). You won't find these in newer buildings because landlines are pretty much dying out, and if there are phone jacks they'll probably be using the much more common RJ-11 standard.

Culture: This, kids, is an Ericsson Diavox phone. The former government phone monopoly in Sweden, Televerket, only allowed certified and approved phones to be used on the network, and they only approved a very small set of phones, so everyone had pretty much the same phones in their homes. However, in the 1980's the market started getting flooded with "illegal" phones from other countries, so the monopoly simply stopped enforcing the rule, and you could finally, finally, plug in that novelty Garfield phone that you always wanted.

Blink and you miss it: Sara is studying for her driving test, and she's reading about driving in the dark.

Subtext: We're gearing up for the main plotline of the season, dropping more hints that maybe Wilhelm's image of Erik wasn't complete, and what August says sows some seeds of doubt in him.

Subtext: This song is objectively not very good, please don't kill me, but it is very sixteen-year-old-boy-just-singing-from-his-heart, not thinking about the text.

Subtext: Simon isn't wearing anything purple, but just after he posts his song video, he picks up a purple shirt, drops it immediately, and then the camera lingers on it. Colour theory goes brrrrrrrr. He thought about Wilhelm, and then stopped because his music is more important to him or something?

Subtext: Unlike Simon, Wilhelm immediately understands how problematic the text is for him, and how people will interpret it...

Subtext: ...but since he doesn't want to hurt Simon's feelings, he lies about why he thinks the song was a very, very bad idea. And he cushions it by telling Simon that he thinks the song is jätte-jätte-bra. Giant-giant-good.

Subtext: Yes, but also no, and someone from the court really should have given Simon some media training and explained to him why he has to be very careful about what he posts. But it's drama fuel, which is why this disaster is allowed to happen.

Subtext: A nice little throwback to season 1, this is exactly what Erik told Wilhelm in the first episode, about making sure that their public image is carefully curated.

Subtext: That's some on-the-nose foreshadowing there, since Felice is one of the main causes for the school ultimately closing.

Subtext: We're back to the theme™, Fredrika is saying pretty much the same thing as Vincent. It didn't happen, and if it did, it wasn't that bad.

Subtext: However, Felice isn't playing along this time, she's starting to speak up about the issues, and the result is a long, awkward silence, because her friends are not willing to do the same.

Subtext: Wilhelm and the rest of the rich kids are of course all wearing pretty expensive high-end hiking gear, in contrast with Simon who is simply wearing one of his usual hoodies and his usual winter jacket that we've seen before. That's a damn fine jacket from Fjällräven, btw, the same company that makes the weirdly globally popular Kånken backpacks.

Blink and you miss it: Henry is getting dragged for his actually quite reasonable objection to the tent groupings.

Subtext: Felice physically distances herself from her friends, and joins Simon and Wilhelm, in a nice little foreshadowing of the show's ending.

Blink and you miss it: Did you miss the line in last episode where Ayub said they were also gonna go camping at Talludden with their classmates from Marieberg? Well, here they are, because they pitched their tents nearby, and decided to go check out the Hillerska camp. It's not just Rosh and Ayub randomly walking through the woods.

Subtext: In season 2, we learned that Stella has a crush on Fredrika that she thinks is one-sided, but Fredrika sure has some kind of reaction to seeing Stella being close with Rosh. Jealousy, perhaps? Not clear at this point in time.

Subtext: Read the room Fredrika, for fuck's sake. At least Wilhelm has started learning to recognize privilege. The other rich kids probably recognize their privilege, but they're mostly just enjoying how much better they are than the poor regular kids.

Subtext: But Wilhelm's still got a lot more to learn. Yes, technically he is forced to spend his summer studying, and technically it is a kind of work, but the underlying reasons are completely different. If he skips it or fails, nothing bad will happen to him, unlike the Marieberg kids who rely on their summer jobs to have any sort of spending money.

Lost in translation: Wilhelm's dad says that the queen is going to be "sjukskriven", which is more serious than someone deciding on their own to take some time off or to use some sick days. It means that a doctor has evaluated you and decided that you are not fit to work, and that if you're a regular person, you are eligible for sick pay for the foreseeable future.

Cinematography: Yeah, mommy is really sick and Wilhelm is feeling the weight of responsibility, but take a look at that sunrise! It's so pretty! Wilhelm is completely in shadow because trouble whatever, but look at how that light just pops, with the sky and the water and the sun on the trees! Beautiful!

[pastryland]

lestappen completed fic recommendations

If any of the authors of the fics mentioned here or are tagged and don't want their fics to be here, please let me know and I'll remove it!

Will update this list periodically

❤️ = favorite

⭐️ = I love fics by this author in general

❌ = triggering themes

🔥 = explicit

Devils roll their dice (Angels roll their eyes) - 55k - 🔥

It all started with a crash. Well, technically, it started with a blue-eyed boy with blonde hair getting screamed at in a language he couldn’t understand when he was only 12 years old. He remembered looking at the boy, who couldn’t be much older than himself - (two weeks older, to be exact, he’d learn later) - and watching the spark disappear right out of those icy blue eyes. That was the first memory Charles Leclerc had of Max Verstappen: Watching Jos Verstappen, Max’s own father, scream at this 12 year old child with an intensity that turned his face red and made every blood vessel in his neck look dangerously close to bursting. But if anyone ever were to ask Charles when he started to realize that his feelings towards that same Max Verstappen he had known since childhood had begun to change into something else, something bigger, something terrifying he couldn’t - or wouldn’t - quite put his finger on, he would say that it all started with a crash.Because of fucking course it did.--- OR: The slow-burn story of Lestappen that has brought me back from the dead, which starts with Max's crash at Silverstone in 2021.

salad days - 48k - ❤️ 🔥

“You think you are so much better –“ “I know I am,” Max cut him off again. “But that doesn’t mean that I can’t be beat.” “You want me to beat you?” “I want you to fucking try,” Max said, and over the phone, Charles could hear his cocky little grin. Charles found himself grinning back.

half of a heaven - 39k - ❌ 🔥

“Good evening. I’m Charles,” he offers his hand, which Max takes and for a second, Charles thinks he’s going to kiss the back of it. Some muscle spasms in the tight grip, rough velvet against soft skin. When Charles gets his hand back, it feels like he lost a finger or two in the fight. “What’s your poison, Charles?” Max asks, settling on the barstool like it’s not designed to be the most uncomfortable chair in the world. “Cyanide, usually. I’ll settle for a gin tonic for now.” or, Charles is a supermodel that has learned everything he needs to make his world turn. Now, he has no idea what Max Verstappen wants from him.

glitch - 26k - ❤️ ⭐️

Max hums. “Well, at least that means I won’t bump into Charles Leclerc again.” “Bummer, really,” Daniel says, moving back to his own seat and drinking the little bit of coffee that was still in the cup. “Could’ve been the start of a great love story.” Lando snorts. “Kids, it all started when I told your father, who had won two World Driver Championships at that point, that he sucked at driving.” Max sticks his middle finger up at them, and pulls his noise canceling headphones back over his ears. Only two hours left to go, he thinks, wistfully, and goes back to work.

all's well that ends well (to end up with you) - 21k - 🔥

"I was going to propose to him, and now I think he's going to leave me, so yeah, please… tell me how this could possibly get any fucking worse?" Lando gulps. "I uh... might have... misplaced the ring." *** In which it's summer break, and Max has an engagement ring with a gem the color of the Monaco sea locked in a safe in his closet. He wants to propose to Charles, and he enlists Lando, Oscar, Pierre, and a few other drivers to help make the proposal everything Charles deserves. But nothing in Max's life can ever be simple, and as Mission Lestappen Proposal™ unfolds, Max knows Charles is keeping something important from him. Max can survive Lando losing the ring. But he knows he can't survive losing Charles.

Rules of Engagement - 7k - ❤️ ⭐️

“Take me with you then!” Max felt his eyes go wide, his jaw literally dropping at the suggestion. “Tell them I’m like. Say I’m your fiancé, mate.” The heat had melted Charles’s brain, Max decided, staring at him blankly. “No.” He deadpanned. “Mate it’s genius! You won’t have to do anything, just stand there. Let me handle it. Them. The women.”

mr predestined and the flying dutchman - 80k - 🔥

Max Verstappen, an infamous child actor fresh out of rehab, and Hollywood's rising darling, Charles Leclerc, share nothing in common. Therefore, it's a field day for the public when the two are spotted out on a series of dates, days after they have been confirmed to star in blockbusters coming out the same day. It seems surprising that pretty boy Charles would dirty his hands with the complex intensity of Max, after the traumatizing scandal which led to Max being in rehab in the first place – but the press eats up their laughs like honey, and comment on their every single move. Perhaps this is where the ball drops – because Charles and Max are not as in love as they're portrayed to be. In fact, they're not even dating. Red Bull Records has already lost two of their celebrities to the whirlwind that was the infamy of 2019, and Ferrari Entertainment is dying to claim the next big star. What could go wrong in working together to kill two birds with one stone?

Second Time's the Charm - 7k - ⭐️

“Remember when you said you’d set me up with someone? A few months ago, at George’s wedding?” Charles’s voice is still pinched, as if his throat is trying to suffocate him and put him out of his misery. “Maybe you could do that? If the offer is still standing.” Simultaneously: “How did you know you liked guys?” Max’s tone is flat, as it usually is when he tries to come off as entirely disinterested, but Lando knows his tricks. He shoots upright, looking down at Max with wide eyes before exclaiming, arguably, one of the worst possible responses: “Oh my god, Max, are you fucking gay?” Or: Charles and Max don't know how to date; Alex and Lando try their best to make it happen.

[yoongisleftshoulder]

BTS Reacts: Their S/O Has Bad Period Pains

Seokjin:

Jin knew he could only do so much to aid you during your period so he would be there as much as he could emotionally. Basically an emotional support puppy. Of course, he would provide you with anything you needed, like pads/tampons, heating pads etc. Prepare to be snuggled more than you've ever been snuggled before. He would be afraid of accidentally putting pressure on the wrong spot and making things worse but once he found a comfy position for the both of you, he wouldn't be leaving. Throughout the whole week, he did anything within his power to make you smile.

Yoongi:

If your period pains were bad enough, Yoongi would essentially parent you through it. Without you even asking, he would be cooking all of your meals every day, running you hot baths or showers, warming up your blankets in the dryer, and even running to the store to do some shopping for you. He wouldn't sit and rub your back or wherever for hours but you bet your bottom he would give you everything you needed. Yoongi would probably have the most mature response to this situation.

Hoseok:

Soft boy™ Hoseok would be one concerned mf. Why were you in so much pain??? Were you dying??? He would probably text his older sister to ask if it was normal to experience such intense pain while being on your period. When she told him that for some people this was a regular thing, he would feel even worse. Excruciating pain was normal for you??? Wack. Like Jimin, he would absolutely baby you. You were the warmth to his sunshine and it broke him to see you like that. Back rubs, shoulder rubs, tummy rubs, all of the rubs. Hoseok would suddenly become a master in the field of heating pads and pads/tampons. Eventually, he wouldn't even need to call his sister for advice anymore.

Namjoon:

Namjoon definitely has quite a bit of knowledge on periods from the get go. He has a younger sister and tends to have a habit of researching everything he's even slightly curious about. But when it came to you scrunched over in pain in bed because of horrible cramping?....Whole different ball game. Low-key is just as distressed as you. He definitely feels a mental strain just from witnessing you experiencing what basically felt like torture. Namjoon spends the entire week being on high alert, jumping up without a second thought anytime you needed something, no questions asked. He gets to the point where he finds himself moving around a little too fast from nerves and has to calm himself before he cuddles with you.

Jimin:

If your relationship was still somewhat new, he would be a little bewildered. He was aware that periods are a generally unpleasant experience for women everywhere but didn't know exactly how different they can be every month, and how strong the pains could really be. When he first experienced being around you during this time, he wanted to help you feel better more than anything. He questioned you and asked for tips on how to help and what could ease your discomfort. After that, he was basically an expert. He knew exactly what pads/tampons you needed from the store, he knew what foods helped and what foods to avoid, and he knew what pain meds actually did something for you. Even though you had been dealing with periods most of your life at this point, he would baby you a lot for the week.

Taehyung:

Seeing his baby in so much pain and discomfort low-key made him want to cry. He knew it was awful for you but he swore it was the worst thing in the world not being able to just snap his fingers and make your pain disappear. Expect hot teas, multiple heating pads on your stomach and over your aching back, and painkillers. Taehyung would provide anything and everything for you. Anything you asked for or wanted to try, he was on it. Never had to ask twice. He would apologize to you while holding you from behind in bed, hating that he felt powerless. Logically, he knew that it wasn't his fault but he couldn't help but feel responsible when he couldn't take the misery away from the one he loved most.

Jungkook:

Jungkook would be in almost as much distress as you were. He swore it caused real physical pain in his body to see you like that. He underestimated just how powerful the pain could be during your period and felt awful for it. While you were hunched over laying down on the couch, tears streaming down your face from the intense cramping, he ran into the bedroom and gathered up two blankets and a pillow. He propped your head up with the pillow and covered your shivering form. With a kiss on your forehead, he left the room again and started looking around the kitchen for the ingredients to your favorite hot mint tea. When it was done, he brought the hot mug over to you and set it on the table in front of the couch. Jungkook then sat onto the floor in front of you, body turned towards you, rubbing your stomach in light circles. He wanted to anything he could to help ease your pain.

[hroscek]

Hello ! I have been following your account for a while and totally in love with your theories and headcannons <3 I’m wondering if it’s possible to make a few headcannons about Dottore working out at the gym ?

Omg thank you so much!! It really means a lot <33 I love feeding fellow Dottore fans with whatever they desire. Here you go pookie, just for you.

🤍Il Dottore workout headcanons🤍

Slightly ooc and silly btw! Also I'm not that into fitness so excuse any awkward wording or mistakes (I run a Dottore fanblog, it's shocking if I leave the house more than once a week).

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Despite being mostly known for his intellectual abilities, Dottore also prides himself on his combat abilities. He is well educated on the topic of human anatomy and fitness. Being The Doctor he is responsible for creating the Fatui soldiers' training guide, maximizing each new recruit's progress toward becoming a worthy soldier. He is also likely behind creating and guiding the harbingers' workouts and combat training, focusing on each of their strengths and weaknesses to create truly powerful beings.

While he does spend most of his time on his research, Dottore is aware he can't skip out on his physical form. That's why he created a specialized workout schedule. His main focus was making sure it doesn't eat up too much of his time (he is a VERY busy man) while getting him ready for a variety of situations. I believe his main goal would be building strength and cardio with a healthy mix of flexibility.

If the leaks are to be believed he wields a claymore, which requires some intense core and arm strength so he'd put in some effort to be able to maneuver it effectively. This would include the standard combat training (most likely with specialized dummies, robots or unlucky segments) but also working with weights and agility training. From the in-game model we can tell he works most on his arms, shoulders, core and chest.

Another important component would be cardio. This helps him keep in shape and monitor his physical well being. It also helps him gtfo if a situation becomes too risky even for him. Most of this is realized with him just running on a treadmill or a similar exercise.

Lastly, he would likely practice some form of flexibility training to aid in his combat (and keep away the back pain). He definitely does some form of yoga, which doubles as an opportunity to do some meditation or pondering™ on his latest experiment.

He prefers to do these workouts alone, likely having a specialized gym in his lab. If he is away or can't access a private spot he will have his guards empty a room for it. He even designed a portable gym setup with the essentials that he brings on missions so he doesn't fall behind.

One time Childe suggested the Doctor show him how to do an exercise on his plan (believing that he'd be able to get a sparring match with a 2nd harbinger out of it) and he hit him with a death stare that could kill a man trough the mask. The poor kid decided to avoid him from then on.

He wouldn't be caught dead working out with other people if he can help it. He sees his body as sacred and it's upkeep is a very private matter to him. If he went to a modern gymbro type gym he'd most likely fake his own death and flee the country (or planet).

He is also one of those psychopaths that workout without headphones or music.

In contrast the segments don't adhere to a strict workout schedule, seeing as their bodies are constructed with combat in mind. Nevertheless they use working out as a way to relax after a mentally taxing period or as bonding with other segments. The younger segments have occasional fights and bets between each other in who's better at a certain sport or activity, usually settled by dropping everything to go measure just who's best.

The segments also have a more fun approach when it comes to taking care of their "bodies". Depending on their personality, some are very open to trying different disciplines and games. One of the teenage segments is actually surprisingly good at horseback riding (one time had a silent hour long race with Kaeya while riding around Mondstadt. They never learned who the other was, but will continue to praise their abilities when reminiscing). Some older segments find never ending joy in exercise tapes and even filmed their own (strictly controlled to make sure it never leaks).

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Thank you for reading and a HUGE thank you to whoever sent the ask <3 It really does mean a lot to see support for my content and I love receiving ideas on what I should cover. I hope this satisfies your Dottore gym urges well enough and sorry it took a while. I didn't post for a bit these days because I'm working on something kinda big but I'm not sure if I'll post it so don't get your hopes up please (a bit of a perfectionist so if it's not perfect it'll never see the light of day). In conclusion, I love getting asks so if there's ANYTHING you wanna share or suggest please do so. I really don't judge.

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[skepticalarrie]

i am quite new to larry. i’m in my twenties but still fully missed the whole one direction phenomenon until two weeks ago when I saw one (1) tiktok of harry performing satellite and it has been all consuming since. what’s so strange to me about the whole experience (and i know this is not unique) is there’s no way i have thought of to talk about it with anyone irl. like how do i convincingly impress upon anyone how sincere i am in saying that these two former members of the 21st century’s most ubiquitous (and straightest™) boyband — including pop culture’s current golden boy — are actually exceedingly queer and closeted and now soul crushingly important to me as a queer person??? it’s just so contrary to the commonly accepted narrative of them, which i know is the whole damn point, but jesus. all i’ve been able to do is say “hey you should do some research about one direction lore, it’s interesting” and hope my friends accidentally fall down the rabbit hole too. tis a wild and wacky time.

This message would never feel as relatable to me as it feels right now. Because you’re right, it’s not a thing you really talk about in real life, it sounds insane.

I want to share something about Harry, specifically. I wasn’t sure if I would want to share that in the first place, but since you just sent this ask I thought it would fit this discussion just right and it literally just happened in my life. I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that. I’ve been a fan for several years now and I always got away just fine with it with people IRL, I don’t really talk much about it. But apparently now everyone in my social circle is completely in love with golden boy Harry Styles, and well… people happened to notice within the last year I’m a big fan. I just went to a bunch of his shows last week and people definitely noticed that even more. I had A LOT of friends coming to me saying all kinds of things, but mostly how hot he is. *Thank god he’s single now* was something I’ve had to sit through a couple of times. And fuck… it was by far the most uncomfortable situation I’ve ever been in all the years of being a fan, it was intense, he truly causes a reaction on people and I wasn’t expecting that. The kind of things some people say about artists just because they’re famous is just… yikes. And I’m talking about friends of mine, good people, treating him like a piece of meat, like he’s not human. People don’t even realise he’s just a normal guy behind all the fame and marketing. And I’m not going to be hypocritical and say I never treated artists like that because I must have at some point, it’s such an easy concept but somehow it’s very hard to realise how human they are unless you *really* look at them and listen to what they’re saying.

Anyway, it was a very devastating situation. I was uncomfortable enough once or twice to tell people to give up thirsting over him because he wouldn’t fuck them anyway, and they should look it up online because he was definitely not straight. I was *angry*, it really got to me. And people actually looked at me like I had completely lost my fucking mind. Like, what do you mean you don’t want to fuck him?? why do you love him so much then?? So it’s what you said, maybe some of them will look up and accept the idea that closeting may be a possibility, and that’s why a lot of queer fans connect with him so much... but who the fuck knows, they probably won’t. But it truly hit me like a ton of bricks how far deep in the closet he is, most people (in my very LGBTQ+ circle) don’t even consider the possibility even though he’s out there waving pride flags every single show and defying gender norms. I’m definitely keeping it more to myself now than I was before.

[red-umbrella-811]

Okay, so I wrote this on reddit to a depression doomer, but I want someone who might have an iota of openness to considering it to read it, so I'm posting it here. I assume there will be doomers here too, because depression is depressing. All of these things are things that I've tried, and all of them are things that have made my life better than it was before. All of them I have started in an incredibly janky way and they've still helped. If anyone is interested (or I receive the same combination of depression-based hostility and intense focus), I'll make separate posts on how to actually do the thing.

Things that might make a person's depression improve that don't involved going to a therapist:

Aerobic exercise 4x/week

Membership in a community/close relationships/human touch/human interaction. I'm bundling these together, because in a practical sense, you're making about the same decisions yourself, and the interactions with other people will follow. I recommend finding a "Third Place," such as a sports league or dance community (see exercise), game/knitting/metaphysical store, bar, cafe, meetup group, adult learning class, regular volunteering gig, music venue, RPG group, book club, brunch group...you get the idea. The best ones are open to the public if you're socially isolated or looking to date, because you'll meet a greater variety of people, but anywhere where the same amorphous or literal group of people shows up at a place and time will help you build relationships.

Omega 3 Fatty acids, Vitamin D, Vitamin B-complex, Magnesium: I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice. They might give you energy and run your body more smoothly.

St. John's Wort: I'm giving this its own thing because the above are supplements that the body gets in its diet, this is a drug™, but you can purchase it over the counter. It inhibits the reuptake of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, for which there is some evidence that it helps depression on a chemical level. It has mad drug interactions and PLEASE do your research before taking it.

A lot of things in the cognitive behavioral therapy realm. Gratitude practices, affirmations, I'm sure there are CBT workbooks for depression that one could find. The idea is to reframe your thoughts to make sure they are a) true and b) priming you to feel emotions and take actions that will make your life suck less.

Going outside. Living in a suboptimal space is depressing, and so many of us do it. We do better when we see and hear trees. We do better when we see and feel the sun. We process things when our brains run electricity back and forth between the two sides, as happens when walking (drumming is also good for this, or bilateral stimulation from something else).

Accomplish things. I know. This, even more than the many difficult things I've listed, probably feels impossible, but I'm writing it anyway, because it really does help. If you have small tasks you've been putting off, try and get one done. Break up big tasks into accomplishable steps. Not like "Clean the house" to "Clean the bathroom," like "Clean the house" to "throw all the trash on the couch in the trash can" or "get out all the products to clean the bathroom" (the second kind doesn't vibe with me but some people like it)

You'll notice none of this is going to fix the world, except for the shitty little corner the person doing it is sitting in. That's the point. There is so much wrong with the world, and it asks a lot of us to fix it: our labor, yes, and also our joy. And also, our ability to get out of bed in the morning, our ability to send emails, our ability to check in on each other, our ability to keep ourselves out of entanglements with the state and other institutions. I'm not saying this because it's fair, I'm saying it because it's the way out I see in front of us.

[thranduilland]

17 for the Soft™ fic prompt meme? 👀

17 - absently adjusting clothing Hob bites down on a sigh as Dream adjusts the collar of Hob’s shirt for the sixth time in half an hour. It had been amusing the first couple of times, just seeing Dream nervous, because until today, Hob had never seen his lover nervous. But, then the fidgeting hadn’t stopped. Hob’s not even sure Dream’s aware of it.

Hob understands this is an important meeting. He’d be nervous too, if he were in Dream’s place. But this seems incredibly excessive. He has to bite his tongue to not say anything as Dream smooths down Hob’s tie. There was nothing wrong with the tie, Hob had already checked after the first and second times Dream had done it. There was nothing wrong with the collar of his shirt either and-“

“Dream,” he finally says, with a little sigh as he turns his hand to capture Dream’s own as his lover is about to fiddle with Hob’s cufflink. “What’s wrong? Why are you so nervous about this, love?”

“I am not nervous,” Dream answers without any hesitation, Hob merely raises an eyebrow.

“We agreed we wouldn’t lie if we could help it.”

“Right, we did agree that,” Dream answers, letting out a very soft sigh. “It is… it is irrational.”

“What is, duck? Talk to me.”

“I-I want them to like you. I do not wish to have to choose between you,” Dream says, Hob sighs, squeezing his hand.

“I wouldn’t make you choose, Dream. If they don’t like me then they don’t like me, that’s just how it is. But I wouldn’t force you to choose,” Hob says, lifting Dream’s hand to his lips to press a kiss to his knuckles. “I promise. It’s not the end of the world, my sweet.”

“Calliope had to choose,” Dream says, barely more than a whisper.

“Because she was forced to,” Hob points out, frowning. “Do you think they’d make you choose?”

“No,” Dream answers after a very long pause. “I do not think so.”

“Then let’s see what happens, okay?” Hob asks, giving Dream’s hand another squeeze. “It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“You cannot promise that,” Dream points out, but he does seem to relax some, so Hob will take it.

“I just did, so tough,” he says, with a grin.

The bell above the door dings and he turns towards it in curiosity. Immediately, Dream is tense again and Hob mourns the small gain he’d made even as one of his students and her little brother come into the Inn, chatting intensely about something he cannot hear. His student glances up, sees him and Dream and she raises an eyebrow as she all but bounds towards them, her brother trailing behind her.

“Hey, Uncle Dream!” she says, shooting Dream a giant smile as she turns to Hob, that eyebrow still raised. “Hey, Prof G, didn’t know you guys knew each other?” she asks, Hob blinks, then bursts out laughing as beside him Dream stares in shock.

“You have met before?” Dream asks, while Hob is too busy giggling to be of any help.

“Yeah, course! Prof G’s my mentor. He helped me get into that internship program I was telling you about last week,” Rose says, as she sits herself down at the table, Jed claiming the chair beside her.

“I told you it would be fine, Dream,” Hob says, wiping tears from his eyes. “Will you stop adjusting my clothes, now?”

“What?”

“Oh, he does that when he’s nervous. He introduced us to Aunty Death last month, and the whole time he kept obsessing over straightening up our clothes. I don’t even think Aunty Death noticed!” Rose says with a smile.

“Made me dress up all nice and everything and she didn’t even care!” Jed grumbles, glaring at the table.

“I thought it was sweet!” Rose exclaims, shaking her head. “Uncle Dream just wanted us to make a good first impression, because you only get one of them!”

“Right. Well, considering I called Death stupid in her hearing before I ever met her, I made a very bad first impression,” Hob says, as Dream starts to relax beside him, obviously trusting now that things aren’t about to fall apart as he’d been expecting. “Anyway, how-“ Hob pauses, turning to give his lover a look when he reaches up with his free hand to adjust the collar of Hob’s shirt. “Dream.”

“It was crooked!” Dream defends, but there is a smile playing on his lips and Hob huffs, as Rose and Jed laugh.

“I’m sure it was, my love. I’m sure it was.”

[redlegumes]

Just got over an intense week of flu and had thoughts

Stranger Things: Season Five, like... three episodes in

Kids: "Man if we only still had Eddie"

Steve rubs his jaw, shoots look at Robin. "Weeeell"

Cue outrage, very under explained 'we went back for him.' Cuts to them picking through the Upside Down. Cut away before we see Eddie's face.

Steve: "He's been living with me"

There's a reunion scene (of course) 2 to 5 minutes of screen time with another under-baked explanation that Eddie is 'like Will now.' Then a lil montage of them raiding Steve's house for whatever (maybe we get a parents cameo that's not really fleshed out either - I'm not trying to be greedy) while they prep for the next plot point.

Kids call for Eddie and Steve and they crash out of a closet or room looking ™ disheveled. Eddie just kind of 'oop, right past yahs' the group, and they look at Steve who makes a face and says, "what? I'm an equal opportunity kinda guy."

They go off to do the plot and for the rest of the season we get some close talking images of Steve and Eddie but it's always in the background, interrupted by kids or whatever. Before le big showdown. Lots of emotional hugs and chats with Robin enough where we completely give up hope on the Eddie and Steve thing BUT THEN, a blink and you miss it, handhold - lipstare - heavy atmosphere moment between Steve and Eddie.

The epilogue focuses only on the party (because fuck you Duffers, I dare you not to film it like you didn't know exactly how much time you'd have to wrap this saga), but there's some sort of Eddie job reference letting us know effectively that he's exonerated and alive, and a picture with a card of Steve and his family framed or on a fridge that's obscured enough so we could speculate that Eddie is the partner the fuzzy 'Steve' is holding.

And that. That would be enough.

[gerrydelano]

Hi i would. Looove to hear about this fantasy au (bonus points for gerrys fucked up origins thanks for the food)

scrambles to sit up and falls out of my desk chair in the process. Bless You, Anon. Bless You. i will limit this to the first side quest because even that is long as fuck but it Is gerry centric which means it's food for Me.

okay So. the key tenets here are:

tim is the pov character

the stokers knew sasha and martin as kids until martin moved away with his dad after his mom's passing (wild!)

danny was taken by the fey at like 18. BAD.

after two years of training and study, tim and sasha are about to set off to find him or get revenge (it's a death wish) just as martin swaggers back into town a new man (he spent a decent chunk of his money on glamors that are tantamount to HRT while traveling back to their hometown after he super left his shitty dad's house) and he elects to come with them because It's A Death Wish and he doesn't want tim to get into trouble, and also he has like... nowhere to go anyway. might as well keep adventuring, but this time with friends.

they go to a coastal city to ask adelard dekker for some advice, and he sends his apprentice along with them. hi jon!

and then once they're on their adventure........ we meet a mysterious figure.

they do a lot of little bounty hunts and side quests for money and whatever obviously and so at one point they get enlisted to find some heirloom for some guy and right as they're about to get it, oops! insert Guy In A Featureless Silver Mask Riding On A Black Dire Wolf, Who Then Swoops In And Takes The Heirloom First.

What.

they hate this guy. they can't stand this guy. they wanna beat this guy up for doing that. he was so scary though so what do you even do. they ask around town and find out he's The Black Rider™ and he has a habit of doing this shit and they should stay out of his way.

they find melanie in a tavern and jon recognizes her from their childhoods because surprise! THEY grew up together. and she's been Away for a while after she ran away with josephine, her first love, who ended up dying about a year later. she's been too ashamed to return home alone. she is begrudging about reconnecting with jon, but she does end up hugging him and crying about this. i love them. bad weather friends.

she joins their party in time to run into the Black Rider again, who once more is trying to get something before they get it.

this time they get some awkward banter out of him though so they figure there is some kind of person under there.

and the Third time they encounter him, tim tries to cut to the chase and offer an olive branch of friendship, only for the black rider to attack them with his big scary halberd and it's like DUDE! WHAT THE FUCK!!!!

the fight is pretty intense but they do outnumber him, so tim gets him on the ground with his sword under his chin and he can feel the dog breathing down his neck but she isn't biting - because the black rider has held up a hand to stop her.

tense! and kinda sexy.

they agree to lower the weapon/call off the dog on the count of three from sasha, but tim hesitates longer than the black rider does. intriguing.

he leaves and they realize he still took the bounty they were after. G-d DAMMIT!!!!

then a few weeks later they meet some guy named gerry in a dungeon and he helps them fight off some zombies or whatever and they vibe for a few days, he seems nice if not a little weird, and they get along well. he dips after a bit and it's just a standard interaction pretty much. neither here nor there.

then they're fighting a cockatrice at some point and the Black Rider comes in to help them! odd, but accepted.

oops! his mask gets knocked off.

martin, being the nice guy he is, goes to return it to him and sees his face - gasp! it's gerry! who EVER could have guessed!

after they defeat the cockatrice they really have to have a whole ass conversation about this because Seriously Dude What The Fuck.

he ends up talking to them a little bit but not much, he's cagey and now seems kind of... nervous? what gives, right.

after a bit though they offer to let him come with them because tim is like "oh my g-d. you're LONELY 😆"

and he'd be right.

but there's a lot more to it than that.

eventually he caves and tells them, "we're being watched." by who? his patron, he says, after taking his time deciding on the wording.

he's never told anyone this before. he didn't even know she couldn't Hear him too, only just found that out.

then after a little while he fucks off for a bit without an explanation, and they're like. wtf.

when he comes back to find them, he explains that he nearly stabbed tim in his sleep one day because he's not only being spied upon, but his body is able to be controlled by his patron.

they are understandably upset about this and have to put in some protective measures to prevent that from happening again. he's no longer allowed on night watch.

but he's clearly distraught with guilt and like... they can SEE the humanity in him, they can SEE that he hates this and he needs help.

martin is a Redemption paladin by now and he wants to help him really badly.

tim needs... some time.

jon suggests they put a blindfold on him now and then to help him feel more at ease talking about things without fear of being spied on and it helps sometimes.

they travel for like 9 months before gerry trusts tim enough to show him what's really going on, while they're bathing in a lake after a battle that left them covered in blood.

he moves his hair aside to show tim a sigil branded on his back.

mary did that to him when he was 12.

so, basically, this guy hasn't had a shred of bodily autonomy or privacy in half his life. it's disgusting honestly like literally if you think for two seconds about the logistics of this it just gets more and more upsetting. bad!!!!

so they've already wanted to break his curse but it's just. tim can't stand this knowledge. he still doesn't know it's his mother yet, though. that stays on lock.

the group goes on to meet with mikaele salesa for some help, and gerry refuses to go anywhere near him. fucks off again with no explanation.

but they take the opportunity to ask salesa if he knows anything about the black rider etc and he says BOY DO I KNOW HIM. HE'S WHY I HAVE SO MUCH PROTECTION AROUND MY HOUSE LOL.

gerry has stolen so much from him and killed some of his guys and it's like YIKES. but salesa Also knows about mary.

she's been collecting super powerful artifacts for ages now trying to give herself more power so she can become a lich. uh oh!

and tim, who has made a Paladin Oath with Death by now, is now assigned by HIS patron to go and kill her before her transformation takes place, because she would be defying the natural order.

so, they go find her scary tower and are intent on fighting her, only to find - gerry?

and boy does he look rough. he looks Bad right now he hasn't been having a good time while he's been gone.

mary is in the middle of her ritual and she halves her focus in order to control gerry into fighting for her and eventually the fight is looking bad enough that she switches tactics.

she has him point the knife at his own throat.

because she did spy a little bit of the tiny intimate moments between gerry and tim, try as gerry might have to keep his eyes averted or up at the sky or just anywhere But tim, and she knows the group has come to care about him. so, clearly this is a better threat.

sasha calls her bluff BIGTIME and says hell no are you gonna kill him, you put too much work into him, he's your only heir, you need him, you'd never go that far, blablabla.

and that much is actually true. but it looks pretty close when she actually has him break skin a little bit.

tim is very upset at sasha for potentially making it worse lol But

it does work

they manage to kill her and free gerry and it's a very complicated moment because like... dude that's his mom. she's all he's ever known, save the wolf she "got" for him when he was a kid that is now his closest companion, and the dryad who guards the forest outside (hi tazia!)

so it takes gerry and tim a while to like. recover from that. but they do.

meanwhile, before they leave mary's tower, they totally pilfer her magical objects and jon finds a peculiar glass orb... that looks like it's got spider webbing inside it.

and that's all i'll say for now! obviously this is the Side Quest i am most invested in, but the plot of this filled 15 pages of a timeline and it goes on until gerrytim die in their 70s lmao so like. Big Big AU. it takes like 5 years after this all happens to find danny and That is a huge mess, too. boy howdy!!!!

now i realize i can't surprise anyone with this plot if i did write it but like. chances of that are slim. this is still so niche. jdhdjdhfk. gtcu brand classes, not canon based at all.

[drtanner]

So I have a few favourite movies - Treasure Planet, Jurassic Park and To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar to name but a handful - but I'd never considered myself to have any movies that I actively despised until I watched La La Land with the FC last week.

I've never been more certain that The Cishets™ live on a different fucking planet than I was while watching La La Land. The whole story revolves around a woman who's trying to make it as an actress being told that she's wrong and essentially bullied by a pretentious wannabe jazz pianist, and somehow you as the audience are meant to interpret this as romantic. Their relationship is antagonistic from the start (that's how you can tell they're going to fall in love!) and it gets its proper, romantic beginning during a dance number in which the lady lead tells this prick that she's not interested in him, but he continues to pursue her anyway and Proves Her Wrong, which sets the tone for the whole relationship going forward. She'll tell him that she doesn't like something or doesn't want something and he'll tell her that she does, actually, and Proves Her Wrong, and then he'll turn out to have been right every time. This is an Oscar-worthy romance.

This Is What Hereosexuals Actually Believe.

They both get to achieve their aspirational dreams re: acting and jazz clubs, they don't wind up together at the end of the film, and maybe the point of the story is that the relationship was dogshit all the way down and not meant to be because how could it be, but christ, I've never wanted to reach through the screen and strangle a fictional character to death so intensely in my life. La La Land could be a deeply forgettable romance if it weren't for the fact that the male lead made me so fucking angry every time he said or did anything. Cishet women really do get bilked into shacking up with guys like him all the time, again because The Cishets™ live on a different fucking planet and all of this shit is considered "normal" there, so I can't even fault the lady lead of this film for putting up with it, but christ. I just know this shit got lauded as a Moving Story of Heartbreak™ or a Torrid Romance™ or whatever. This shit went up against Moonlight for Best Picture of the Year, can you believe it?

All of that and it was barely a musical, like it had a handful of musical numbers in it and none of them were compelling enough for me to remember them a week later, and certainly not compelling enough to eclipse the absolutely baffling and infuriating plot. La La Land was a musical that was afraid to be too much like a musical; knowing that real musicals are considered unpopular and cringe, it was too cowardly to commit too much to being one itself, only dropping in a handful of brief song and dance sequences so as not to embarrass itself. Incredibly disappointing.

I fucking hate La La Land. Fucking appalling film.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

hi im gonna write a drifteris fic (with different names) for a creative writing contest but i desperately need a prompt, you are The Drifteris Person™ and i would trust you with my life so please do you have any prompt recommendations 😭

I do not know when I became the Drifteris person but, while I feel unworthy of the title, I will try my very best to give you something lovely.  If at some point in future you wish to share what you've written I would love to read it.  Anything I can do to increase the amount of Drifteris in the world delights me intensely.

Here's a bunch of story ideas for things I might write some day that you (and anyone else who wants) are free to use (ideas are not stories - take them, use them, write your thing and revel in the glory that is human creativity).  Some are quite unoriginal, but the thing about writing is if you get too original no one can relate to it, so always give yourself permission to do something that's already been done.  Only you can write a thing like you.  No matter what the base idea is, the actual writing is still your own.

Specifically set in Beyond Light: Europa (because I feel robbed we did not get enough of those two in BL - for research, watch the awesome cutscene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAD6E_vESJY&t=18s or the videos of their conversations with the player by the fire)

Exo Stranger is busy and there's a strange signal so they go investigate

They find something in an ice cave

Why did they leave Europa? (We just showed up one week and they were gone - maybe there was a specific reason that caused them to run off?)

There is a blizzard and one of them is late coming back from a patrol so the other goes out looking for them

Ice fishing gone wrong

Snowball fight

Scenes from learning how to use/practicing Stasis

More generic anytime/anywhere:

One calls the other after waking up from a bad dream

"Saw this, thought of you." (bonus points if it seems vaguely insulting on the surface but is actually really sweet)

Cooking lessons

Pick a location in the game, think of a reason for Eris to want to investigate something there and drag the Drifter along in a similar manner to the Eidolon Pursuant clothing ( https://www.ishtar-collective.net/categories/eidolon-pursuant-suit-warlock?highlight=eidolon+pursuant )

The Drifter takes Eris fishing to one of the fishing spots in game (why does she go with him?  she lost a bet? or perhaps she asked him to take her fishing and he's nervous about them getting shot? so many possibilities!)

Drifter shows up on the Moon having fixed something for her (maybe he stole it and she didn't know he had it? maybe she asked him to fix it so he made it better?  maybe she didn't know it was broken?  maybe he broke it?)

She shows up to the Annex because he asked her to come look at something he found after one of the Salvage operations on Titan (and of course he never mentioned it to anyone because Drifter be like that)

Immaru says some shit to Eris and gets bullied (the possibilities are endless - I support more Immaru bullying in the world) 

Eido asks Eris about something the Drifter once said to her and wants an explanation of what that 'human custom' means (it is of course something Drifter-terrible - or maybe not - perhaps it’s emotionally revealing and he never expected Eido to notice never mind ask about it - you decide!)

Ikora asks Eris to investigate something in a lost sector and Eris brings the Drifter along (or the Drifter finds out Eris is going and shows up uninvited - I love lost sectors - they're such interesting bits of the game and easy to explore for research purposes after you've cleared them out)

Go in game to one of their locations (Annex or the Moon or Athenaeum...) and wander around looking at the details.  Find something intriguing.  Have one of them ask the other what it is and why it's there (why the hell does Eris have Hive eyeballs floating in her bowl in the Athenaeum?  Seriously... what is she even doing with that?)

Sometimes I just go stand beside Drifter in the Annex or Eris on the Moon and listen to their idle diaogue and then go “I wonder what that was all about.  There’s a story in there!” and get inspired.

I will stop now or I'll just keep going on forever.  I would love to read any/all of these.  Please write them.  I may write them too at some point but that’s ok.  There’s no such thing as too much Drifteris.

[charonean]

I've seen the art of Szereban-Webber family and so far only understood they are characters from your dnd campaign? Like honestly they look very cool and I would love to know all about them so I hope I did not miss some post with their backstories or anything because I would just love to ask in very generic sense who they are? What's their story? Who are they? Sorry if you'd like to get some more specific questions I've just came here, saw your cool little guys and I'm intrigued

Thank you for your ask!!

We haven't actually posted any proper lore for them yet, so I'll share it here.

For context, my character is Jonas Webber, otherwise known as Lore. His husband is Niles Szereban (aka Partisan), created by @doonthestair. They have two kids: Magnus (Alterity) by @freckleshine007 and Evangeline (Agency) by @viridianvales.

From the point of view of my character, he was a tiefling born to human parents in a formerly aristocratic family. Tieflings weren't uncommon in their family, so he was raised pretty normally. His mother died when he was a young teenager, and he later moved out to pursue a degree in history. From there he went on to a Masters and then a PhD. During the last year of his PhD, as he was repressing a lot of things at that point (specifically the fact that he was gay), he ended up in a relationship with a young woman named Cordelia (Prudence) who was working on her Masters in Business. She became pregnant with their first child, a daughter named Antonia (later, Resolve). He became a professor of history, and later also had a second child, a son named Wesley (later, Loyalty). However, Prudence was having an affair with her boss (she was a secretary) for most of their marriage, and both were incredibly unhappy in their relationship, but didn't divorce one another because of societal expectations. At some point, Jonas has a bit of a midlife crisis and starts studying magic, finding himself making deals with a genie named Manahimeko (as a dnd character, he's a mix between a wizard and the 3.5 prestige class Malconvoker that has been modified a bit).

Eventually, Niles Szereban was hired as a professor of Criminal Justice at the university Jonas taught at. Niles was a former prosecutor who was disbarred following a public affair with a judge in a high profile case. When Jonas first met Niles, he was rather annoyed because he realised that he quite liked the other man, but he was still repressing a lot of things at that time, so they didn't interact. Later, however, they had to work together as they were often called to meetings to discuss requirements for the Politics degree (where their fields overlapped) and they got to know one another.

One night, Niles and Jonas go out to a bar, just drinking and talking, and Jonas gets really drunk and kisses Niles. However, Niles doesn't do anything further and Jonas forgets about that night. A couple of weeks later, they're talking late into the night again, and Niles notices that Jonas is looking intensely at his lips and they end up making out one more time. This progresses into something more and ultimately leaves Jonas with the conclusion that he has to leave his wife.

From here, Jonas and Niles eventually marry one another once Jonas' divorce has gone through (he got custody of Resolve; Prudence got custody of Loyalty and eventually married her boss with whom she was having an affair). Through surrogacy, Jonas and Niles have their first child, Magnus (later, Alterity). When Magnus is a year old, Jonas decides to put away his serious pursuit of magic and binds Manahimeko to a cane he created, sealing her away in a demiplane. This leaves him with what is known as the Fantasy Cataract™ which blinds him partially in general (for context, he has shit vision already, so he's Not vibing) and to things within Manahimeko's domain (namely water, but also anything currently imbued with her magic, such as the cane itself). When Magnus is 7, he sneaks into Jonas' office and steals the cane and becomes blind and bound in a pact to her.

When Magnus makes the pact, he wishes for a sibling because he is lonely, and eventually the Szereban-Webbers adopt a young girl named Evangeline (later, Agency) who was a tiefling born to human parents but cast out. She went from home to home, facing much discrimination, before making a deal with a genie named Idalia so that she could find a family. Jonas and Niles adopted her, and they all became a family.

The story then follows Alterity and Agency as they learn more about magic and the genies. At some point, Manahimeko breaks lose and wishes to cause chaos upon the world, and Jonas needs to stop her. In sealing her away, back in the cane, he dies. This leave Niles, Alterity, and Agency scrambling to pick up the pieces and actually solve the problem as Manahimeko has only been delayed, not stopped entirely.

This is essentially the whole story. We've all worked out some more, and, personally, my current obsession is this au we made where Jonas doesn't actually die but is rather sealed away in the cane for a year before he breaks out and returns to his family. But that doesn't fit within the larger narrative, so it's only an au.

Yeah! That's the story! Hope it makes sense lol. I am ever so slightly tipsy right now (coming out of being properly drunk), so I can only hope this is coherent.

[winn-schott-throughtheheart]

hello, all. I present to you a long list of why Winn Schott is Autistic as Hell:

• academically gifted

• stims- hand flappies, plays with his shirt, fidget spinner, lots of trinkets to play with, fidgets a lot, scratching/rubbing the back of his neck, playing with his tie, etc

• star wars special interest- frequently makes references, talks about it a lot, 2x01, 3x09, etc

• also superman special interest or old hyperfixation perhaps: strong long term memory, able to recall exact details of past fights

• doctor who/orphan black, etc, scifi in general also - comfort and routine in fictional worlds

• Genius™- picks up on info that trained agents couldn't after spending an hour at the DEO 1x13, makes Superman's new suit 2x01/2 (?), wrote the code that made literally everything after 5x11 possible, etc

• overwhelmed at lots of voices and shouting 2x11 - noise complexity issues

• that technically wasn't winn but since the Martian took all his memories/thoughts/mannerisms im going to count it as him

• complains that today's music is too loud 1x16

• wears headphones at both places of employment, 1x05, 2x05- noise processing issues again

• can easily go hours without taking a break if he's In The Zone, 1x15, 3x20

• bad social cues 1x13, 1x07, 3x02, 3x09, 2x16 etc etc

• learns a new alien coding language in less than 45 minutes

• learned kryptonian because he was bored

• hyperfocussss

• prefers to be alone- doesn't talk to anybody besides his friends much

• poor self esteem

• over analytical

• time blindness - "How is it still night time? it feels like it's been one week." 2x11

• sensory issues- certain smells - teak wood and tobacco, frequently wears headphones, scrunching his face up at having to wear rubber gloves

• frequently drinks soft drinks- sensory with the bubbles maybe??

• frequently eats more unhealthy things: more predictable in taste and texture than fruits/veg/organic foods.

• very expressive with his hands when talking

• hyper empathy- 3x02, training room scene

• bad at lying

• never noticed how bad his home life was

• awkward with emotions/bad at dealing with emotions 1x10, 1x20, 3x14, 5x12

• easily gives in to peer pressure

• panics under pressure

• routines- it takes a while for him to get used to Guardianing and Supering

• sensitive to temperature

• missing social cues when being questioned by Maggie, 2x16

• stimming - spinning on the stool 3x13

• special interests in techy stuff

• repetetive tasks?? likes taking stuff apart and putting it back together again

• awkward with hugs?? 3x18 at least

• shifting his weight when standing

• face rubbing/touching stim

• "if they like someone romantically, they can be extremely, noticeably awkward in attempts to let them know."

• difficulty making friends/approaching new people

• taking things literally?/ difficulty reading between the lines. "oh, things are not chill." social cues again 3x20

• prefers meaningful conversation over small talk

• ooh routine mayhaps might have been a part of 2x09

• daydreamer/deep thinker, e.g 3x14

• alexythemia - trouble identifying/describing their own/others emotions.

• see e.g- "oh, so I'm supposed to be feeling something? well I don't feel.... anything... I don't think..."

• typical gifted kid- "I always knew he was brilliant and capable-" at ten years old

• difficulty managing intense emotions- could also be PTSD. e.g, 1x10, 3x14, 1x11

• negative beliefs of self, again linked to PTSD

• intense connection to fictional worlds

• engaging in special interests very intently - 1x15, 3x20

• RSD maybe????

• strong long term memory

• pattern spotting/attention to detail, 2x14

• hyperfocus, again 3x20

• low trust in himself

• stimming by pacing, and also humming/singing, 2x16, 3x22, 2x20 (superfriends)

• could be echolalia after Kara maybe explained it cause he literally wasn't there

• clumsy - fine motor skills go brr

• "doesn't really do holidays," perhaps sensory overloads/sensory difficulties??

• or maybe thats just trauma

• or both

• quick/blunt remarks that could come off as rude

• 't-rex' arms

• sticking to the same clothing??

• talking to himself/thinking out loud

• takes his tablet almost everywhere- comfort item??

• stimming- moving his fingers idk like flapping/moving them up and down

• heightened sense of smell - "Oh, God, is that smell you?" like a second after bumping into Kara 1x02

• Kara knows about his Maxwell Lord obsession- hyperfixation/infodumping mayhaps??

• very very t-rex arms Jesus

• I'd make a compilation but God he's doing it in literally every scene I swear

• mumbles when writing code - idk if that's a thing it just seems very neurodivergent

• echolalia- repeats "turbulence" after Brainy in 3x11

• literal - 2x02, "actually, he said he would try."

• uses diagrams and drawings as a means to get points across - 3x22

• highly intelligent but can sometimes be slow to comprehend due to sensory and social difficulties

• stims to soothe when sad or agitated - face rubbing/touching, finger/foot tapping, etc

• similar when happy - jumping, dancing, singing, 2x09, 2x16

• anxiety and fear are prominent emotions

• proud of himself when he can distinguish tones - "Oh, I know that tone, that's a bad news tone" 2x09

• sitting on desks and tables

• sits weird - 2x14

• literally in the middle of an alien invasion and runs back to get his tablet

• genuine 'yep?' after cats sarcastic 'oh, Winslow,' when asked if she's ready 2x21

• prepares for the worst, always

• tapping his fingers 1x10 balcony scene

• tablet is a definite comfort/security item because it's been seen since 1x01. So.

• pacing to self soothe, 1x10, 2x09, 3x14, 5x11 etc

• unique thought process (voyager 3x11, satellites 1x13)

• finger wiggles!!! 3x09

• literally memorises a futuristic maths system to fix a futuristic ship better than the ships owner (someone from the future)

• sensory overload/overstimulation in 3x20 with ruby (coming off as easily irritated etc)

• has a fucking dirt collection

• which Mon-El of all people knows about, so he's either infodumped a whole bunch or they have sleepovers

• always making references

• keeps random shit in his desk?? why does he need a whole toolbox in his desk at catco

• overclarifies himself ("that's like, that's like really fast"); struggles with understanding things sometimes so when he's explaining stuff he explains in more detail the stuff that normally he wouldn't understand.

• relieved hand flappies after stopping indigos missile 1x15

• disinterest in sports/physical activity

• " I was a theatre kid, not a track star!"

• "youthful" for his age: in dresses, activities, tastes, etc

• fictional worlds as a retreat/safe space/coping mechanism

• "may have a strong interest in computers, games, science, graphic design, inventing, things of a technological and visual nature"

• emotionally sensitive

• hates injustice/being misunderstood

• words and actions are often misunderstood by others

• doesn't go out much: only really shown 'out' with his friends/'safe' people (barring that one time in 2x20)

• actually having said that he was probably only in the marketplace because he knew James was going to be there

• when he was at the bar alone in 2x13

• difficulty regulating voice volume - "too loud." "I'm sorry-" 2x14

• "high and to the.. left?" - struggles with fine motor skills and lefts/rights 2x07

• "head north. or, wait, more helpfully.... left."

• stimming with his mask in 3x16

• memory again: remembers where he was told his mum and dad met from over twenty years ago in 3x14, immediate correction "I thought you two met in Ivy Town?"

• fine motor skills again when he breaks the thing in the bathroom on the legion ship 3x17 (?)

• also "I broke something" in 1x07

• wears "restrictively tight" cardigans - comforted by deep pressure therapy

• chicken wings as a safe food

• he also immediately knows what's so important about flight 237 in 3x04- remembers exact details about Supergirl much like he does with Superman

• awkward gait

[homemadegirlbossbattle]

ROUND 4 / POLL 4

Team Patience & Valerie Wester (@cherry-spot and @toa-arania) vs. Poppy (@stobotnik)

Patience & Valerie Wester info:

Patience and Valerie's Descriptions: What’s better than one girlboss? Two, of course! Red and green, fire and plants, spiteful god and godless heathen, and just so much drama to go around.

Patience, the self-declared leader of the high court of heaven, looks on the surface to be the kind and selfless leader to those she tries to save face for, with the noble goal of wanting Heaven to be a perfect paradise for all. Her family and the other gods know the truth, thanks to her “encouragement” for them to be her version of perfect. From the people she drives away, and to the countless people she actively seeks to harm, her insidious grasp on the divine beings can be felt everywhere throughout the realms.

Valerie Wester, a plant witch staying with her aunt in Springdale, is outgoing, confident, blasé, and consumed with overwhelming hubris and pettiness. She is notorious throughout the town for a variety of things, and when she isn’t enacting meticulous revenge, saying “we learnt something new” to justify her latest bullshit, or completely failing to understand the concept of altruism, she’s casting hexes, pissing off her ‘friends’, and attempting semi-successfully to get the attention of the various gods.

Patience's Crimes:

Pushed away one sister (Thena) to the point that she left the entire universe and convinced the other (Tempy) that her husband cheating was her own fault to encourage "improvement", then convinced her brother to be Heaven's executioner against his explicit wishes Framed Tempy's husband for the murder of someone who wasn't even dead so she could get him and his mistress kicked out of heaven and then put the 'murder victim' in a magic stone because she wasn't good enough at her job, a thing she does a lot and to anyone she just doesn't like very much. Some of them have been in there for centuries now because Patience """forgets""" about them. Intense demon hatred to the point of getting a demon-hating cult leader to be her understudy and nearly getting someone killed because their brother (not even the guy himself) was trying to convince her to let demons into heaven Unintentionally started a war between heaven and hell because she indirectly caused the death of the Queen of Wrath Total unshakable belief that everything she does is for the good of Heaven. She doesn't understand why the higher beings of Heaven have effectively disowned her

Valerie's Crimes:

Kleptomania for use in magic spells that exist almost entirely to fuck with people and extensive breaking and entering Compulsive lying and actively manipulating her friends Fucking with her sort-of-ex (including letting him think he's being haunted because it's funny and not doing anything about a rumour that they hooked up because it wasn't inconvenient for her) Liberal application of poison including to make herself sick to get out of assembly so she could go and steal things Lack of ethical consideration in spellcasting, such as accidentally cursing half the school to see terrifying demonic visions (re-traumatising an ex-infernalist and her ex's new girlfriend in the process) and spying on her friends to read a book about elder gods A frankly inordinate amount of scheming, including deciding "I'm going to destroy the Queen Bee's reputation in one week" because she is incapable of flirting normally (also for revenge) and nearly pulling it off, scrying on an agent of the god of trickery and deciding she wants to outwit him, and accidentally giving a venus fly trap sentience that she then used to get the fae king's attention. Being horny on main and a monsterfucker in a Christian Town™

Other Notes: @cherry-spot's friends are often split on calling Patience either the worst being in existence or desiring her carnally, and @toa-arania's friends are all terrified of Val using the word "fascinating" because it means an impending Val Moment.

Poppy info:

Description: Octoling MILF who traversed the deepsea metro and all she got out of it was this loser robot husband. You can’t spell ‘unethical cephalopod experimentation’ without all the letters of cute!

Crimes: Assisted Cdr. Tartar in omnicide, world domination, brainwashing, and eugenics. Allowed her daughter to destroy a world monument to also take over the world and assists them in their drug ring. Stole a cadaver to revive a rogue AI and allow it to continue living. Scrolls Pinterest on the clock at Grizzco while her co-workers get their shit rocked by flyfish.

Other notes from the submitter: Autism be damned my girl can work industrial machinery

[heartstopperfireworks]

CREATOR REVEALS DAY!

Creators have been revealed! Thank you all for participating, whether writers or readers, and for bringing all the sparkle to this fest!

Here are all the works:

DAY 1:

a straight up hoax by lola_prongs

Nick/Charlie, Tara/Darcy

Rated: NR  

Word Count: 7,572

Is it possible for two of the gayest people ever to pretend to be a straight couple for one night?

Charlie is roped into playing Darcy’s boyfriend during the company’s party where both her crush and his are attending together, since they are (supposedly) a couple. Neither of them is good at being straight so things don’t go as planned… but perhaps, that might be for the best.

*

two can play this game (and win) by thirteenick

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 5,342

Charlie Spring is a Twitch streamer and Nick Nelson is a YouTuber, they meet, fall in love and... Well, they try to keep it a secret. They manage, for a while. And then they don't. It's totally not Nick's fault that that happens (it is).

*

Friday Stagecoach Gold (and Blue) by planttaxonomy, MalD, ghostfern, KareliasKiss 

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 6,481

Once a week, for a short but glorious window, Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring catch the same bus to work.

Or

Four times Nick and Charlie almost speak to each other, and one time they do.

This is a group-authored fic we worked on together over the course of an intense 48 hours. The process has been poetically described by one of the authors: "It’s like one of those conspiracy theory evidence boards with all the yarn except it's a gay bus romance."- [redacted]

Please have a listen to Nick and Charlie's incredible Spotify playlist of commute bangers.

Thank you frogcakes for the beta read and cheerleading ✨

*

retriever? i hardly know her! by @benwvatt

Nick/Charlie

Rated: G 

Word Count: 2,243

'Oh god, oh god, he’s wearing rainbow shoes. Is he gay, or just extremely unaware that gay people exist?'

So there’s this boy. Man?

Boy? Fellow? Gent?

Cute Park Guy™ is either a professional dog-walker or someone with a large, bumbling group of pets. This is probably his day job; he plays tug-of-war with leashes and chew toys and, from time to time, Nick’s heartstrings.

In which Charlie is always at the dog park with a group of dogs, Nick is there with Nellie, and they both pine after each other softly from across the field.

*

the dominoes cascaded in a line by thetomkatwholived (@swiftlythebest)

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 3,100

They studied together most nights, one of the study rooms in the uni library becoming their unspoken spot, and hung out most weekends. Over time, Charlie got to know her long-distance girlfriend, Tara, as well as her best friend, Sahar, who was at uni with them. She also had another best friend, an ever-elusive boy named Nick, who he’d yet to meet but was assured did exist.

Or, Nick and Charlie are part of the same friend group in uni but haven't actually met yet.

🌟

DAY 2:

Touch the Grass by HSNomad

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 5,471

Nick Nelson has had a secret for many years.

Secrets can be hidden away, but they are always there waiting to be shared.

A story about acceptance.

 *

Oops! I tripped during a coffee run and accidentally fell (in love) by NerdGirl07

Tara/Darcy, Nick/Charlie

Rated: T  

Word Count: 4,804

Prompt:

Coffeeshop AU, but this time Tara is the barista, and Darcy is the intern at a nearby office constantly being sent on coffee runs

*

mastermind (none of it was accidental) by thirteenick

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 2,387

“They totally have a crush on each other.” Her friend Jesy whispers, poking her arm. Marti, distracted, looks back at her with a questioning look. “Mr. Nelson and Mr. Spring. They totally have a crush on each other, don’t they?”

“They totally do.” Marti giggles. “I thought I was the only one who noticed that. (...) We should do something about it.” She pops her head up, leaning into Jesy’s shoulder to whisper quietly. At the friend’s confusion, she gestures with her head to the teachers, engrossed in a conversation inside their little bubble once again. “Try to get them together.”

“I’m not sure if meddling is a very good idea when we’re talking about our teachers.”

or

Martina can't help but notice the infatuated way her French teacher, Mr. Nelson, and her Music teacher, Mr. Spring, look at each other. The sparkles are definitely there and her idea is good, so she figures the meddling will be smooth and easy. She's right - it is easy... But not for the reason she thinks.

*

when you’re ready by PansyFace22

Nick/Charlie

Rated: G

Word Count: 3,954

— ‘I’m Nick, your new roommate!’

— ‘Oh no.’

— ‘Hi. I’m Charlie? Sorry about Tao.’

— ‘Hi. … Oh, and this is my mum, Sarah.’

— ‘Oh, hello, I’m Nick’s roommate, Charlie.’

— ‘Oh dear.’

*

Sometimes Good Things Happen by @statueinthestone

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 7,802

Nick Nelson needs a fake boyfriend asap. And then Charlie joins his form class and everything just sort of falls into place.

🌟

DAY 3:

University Challenge by KareliasKiss

Nick/Charlie

Rated: M

Word Count: 10,935

In which Charlie gets the starter for ten and the bonuses...

*

Masquerade Suiteheart by ghostfern

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T

Word Count: 5,845

Harry Greene hosts a masquerade ball

Nick dresses like a pirate

Charlie finds the confidence to talk to his crush

Nick is enchanted by the mysterious blue-eyed stranger

*

glitch (i thought we had no chance) by thirteenick

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T

Word Count: 4,142

“What’s the last thing you remember? Of us, like the last thing we did together?”

“Um…” The curly boy stops, the weird question making a wave of anxiety hit him in the gut. “We played in the snow with Nellie, at your house.”

“Charlie that was… Over a year ago.” Nick says in a low voice. “We’re together now… I’m your boyfriend.”

“YOU’RE MY BOYFRIEND?”

or

Charlie Spring knows for a fact that he is in love with Nick Nelson. But after a rugby accident, he kind of forgets that Nick Nelson loves him back.

*

Flames at the Side of My Face by ChronoBio

Nick/Charlie, Tara/Darcy, Elle/Tao

Rated: T

Word Count: 2,510

It's a dark and stormy night and it's the last movie night of the summer and the Paris Squad gathers at Nick Nelson's to watch murder mysteries. Suddenly, they lose the TV, the lights, and the internet. Will a Truth or Dare game lead to a first kiss?

*

Husband Guy by luzura

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T

Word Count: 1,246

Mr. Nelson is depressed. A student does some meddling. Nick just wants to cuddle his husband.

*

Oh So Quiet by RedSkiesAtNight22

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T

Word Count: 1,212

Nick and Charlie always sit next to each other in the Uni library, but they haven't really talked, and they're not sure how to become friends without bothering one another.

🌟

DAY 4:

Cat Tales by Radclyffe

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T

Word Count: 27,500

The prompt was Nick and Charlie accidentally adopt a pregnant cat, and I promise there is Nick, there is Charlie and there is a pregnant cat, but because I am me, there is also angst, there is Ben ‘fucking’ Hope, there is Enemies to Friends to Lovers, there is the Paris Squad, and, you will be relieved to know, there is an eventual happy ending.

*

find me (here in your arms) by thirteenick

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T

Word Count: 2,232

Nick goes to visit Charlie at uni for the first time.

Fluff happens, because they are Nick and Charlie, afterall.

*

STUPID! by luzura

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T

Word Count: 2,084

“Who has a secret crush on you?” Charlie lies on his stomach and reads. “Design a bougie new house to find out.” He turns his head to Nick, who’s sitting beside him.

Nick shakes his and sighs, “These quizzes make no sense."

"That's part of the fun," Charlie smiles and clicks on the link.

Best friends Nick and Charlie do some Buzzfeed quizzes. Surely nothing interesting will happen.

*

Nellie’s thoughts by Zone_Zome

Nick/Charlie

Rated: G

Word Count: 1,270

Nellie's POV on the snow scene and the argument. She's picky about the cuddles she gets- her least favourite being David's or Stephane's and her favourites being Nick's or Oliver's

*

Golden Boy by @yojfull

Nick/Charlie

Rated: G

Word Count: 1,065

Over the years, Sarah has had many nicknames for her son as he grew and changed, and now, she learns about the nicknames he has found with his friends.

[belphegor1982]

9, Cobra Kai: Miguel and Sam.

Hey, I actually managed to write something :D I hope I didn't miss the mark too much with this assignment - it's more of a discussion of sleep deprivation than the actual thing, like... 60/40? But I had fun with those kids and it was my first time getting into Miguel's head, yay 💜

(here's 900 words set in the almost immediate aftermath of 5.10 - no season 6 spoilers!)

[Put That Guy in a Situation™ ask game/prompts]

Restless

Tap-tap-tap-tap. Miguel’s knee bounces up and down and up again and down again. Small movement, quiet rhythm, heel to floor, never ending. When he tries to stop his toes take it up. It’s weird to think that there was a time not so long ago that even wriggling one toe used to be so much work. Perhaps this is why he hasn’t really tried to slow down. Besides, nobody’s told him to cut it out yet – not the nurses and doctors walking past him, not even the woman behind the desk a few feet away, answering phone calls, typing on her computer, and being tiredly polite to people asking her question after question.

Still, he startles when he registers the footsteps.

“Still wired too, huh?”

There’s a wry smile in Sam’s voice, and sure enough, that’s what her face looks like when he looks up and sees her standing to his right. She also looks pinched, with dark shadows under her eyes, but there’s a peace to her that matches the one tucked in a corner of Miguel’s heart.

“Uh, yeah. It’s, uh…” He glances at his phone – doesn’t unlock it, just switches it on then off – and feels his eyes go round at the time displayed on the screen. “Wow. Yeah. Well, it’s not like I could sleep anyway.” He cracks a smile. “Maybe I’ll never sleep ever again, who knows.”

“Or maybe you’ll crash for a week and wake up in the future,” Sam says with a twinkle in her eyes. She has a very expressive face, and it’s impossible to miss the worry furrow between her brows and the downturn of her mouth when she asks more quietly, “How’s Sensei Lawrence?”

“Still in radiology, but Mom said he’d be okay.” So did Sensei Lawrence, but Miguel is more inclined to trust his mom on things like that. “How’s Sensei Toguchi?”

Sam’s eyes dart right to the corridor she just came in from. Then she plops on the seat next to Miguel and lets out a sigh with the hint of a shudder.

“Still in intensive care. Mom said they’ll probably keep him for a few days – he lost a lot of blood.” Her eyes meet his, very blue, very warm. “But she also said he’s going be okay.”

“Good.”

There’s a million questions in Miguel’s head, like what the hell do you think happened to them, or what’s gonna happen now Cobra Kai isn’t a thing any more, or do you think you and Tory can be friends because I swear she’s a great girl when you get to know her, but for some reason they don’t make their way out. Probably because there’s too many of them.

Maybe Sam is having the same problem, maybe not; she lays her head on his shoulder and stays there, a warm, comfortable weight against him, and asks, “So. Not sleeping ever again, huh. What do you think you’ll do with all that time on your hands?”

Miguel has always loved to yes, and, and Sam has always been really fun to play off of. He grins.

“Well, apparently people who get up really early can, like, do crazy stuff with their brain, or become amazing athletes or something. Maybe I could take up a hobby.”

“Oh yeah?” There’s a grin in Sam’s voice, now, too. “Like what?”

“I was thinking crochet. Or running. Maybe karate. Or… I dunno, finger painting?”

“Back up, that third one sounds cool. You should look into it.”

“You know what, maybe I will.”

Sam laughs quietly. Miguel can’t make out her face very well from this angle, but he can see her eyelashes cast small shadows on her cheeks. The sight makes his heart beat faster, but more steadily, like the softness of it is soothing some of his raw edges from the fight, the stakes – the whole night, really.

“I might, too,” she says, her voice lower, but still smiling. “You know, if I can never sleep again either and I start seeing spiders and stuff. Apparently that’s a thing when you’re really sleep deprived.”

Miguel scrunches his face. “Arachnophobia?”

“Hallucinations,” she corrects with a snort. “Plus headaches and anxiety and being really aggressive for no reason.”

“Damn. Then I might try the alternative instead.”

“Crashing for a week and waking up in the future? That could work.”

Sam hums. The vibration of it travels down Miguel’s shoulder and into his chest. It settles into his stomach and stays there, and even though it fades after a second it’s like he doesn’t really go away.

Or maybe it’s just Sam’s deep breathing. In, out. In, out. It’s not even the sort of breathing exercises Mr. LaRusso likes to start his lessons with; it’s just… peaceful.

“We’re gonna be okay,” he hears her murmur, and smiles into her hair.

Miguel still doesn’t quite know what to do with the nervous energy he’s now recognising as a leftover from the adrenaline rush, but he’s startled to realise that somewhere in the last few minutes his knee completely stopped bouncing.

Sam slips into sleep surreptitiously, like dusk turns into night. Miguel holds her body against his, warm and soft and real, and wonders what the future will look like when she wakes up.

It’ll be uncharted, and it’ll be good – they all fought hard enough for it.

And he’ll be greeting it with eyes wide open.

—

(I've always loved how those two have their own games of "yes, and". It's adorable 💜)

I hope you liked it! :o)