#soulbond ask game

[soularsys]

soulbond ask game !!

an ask game for soulbonders of all kind !! make sure to practice reblog karma , everyone deserves a chance to gush about their stuffs !!

🖐️ how many soulbonds do you / your collective have?

✍️ how would you describe your soulbonding experience? i.e spiritual, psychological, etc etc!

🌠 do you voluntarily soulbond, or does it happen by chance /accidentally / etc?

🫂 what's the relationship dynamic between you and your soulbond(s)? feel free to answer for as many as you'd like!

🗣️ how do you and your soulbond(s) communicate with one another?

🪂 what do you and your soulbond(s) do together when hanging out?

💬 what are some fun facts about your soulbond(s)? feel free to answer for as many as you'd like!

🙅 do your soulbond(s) diverge from what's typically considered "canon"? in what way? feel free to answer for as many as you'd like!

☀️ how does being a soulbonder influence your daily life?

🃏 wild card! asker gets to ask whatever question they'd like!

[livseses]

🪐 and 📎 for the gateway ask?

🪐 - what are the worlds/world you're connected to called?

The main one is a place called Cellaphage. That's the one we're most tuned into. But there's a constellation of countless worlds around it in this multiverse of red rust darkness that some of our permanent residents are from, and that folks in here travel to frequently.

📎 - are there any parallels between this world and the world/worlds you're connected to?

There's plenty of parallels to between this world and the various constellations. Tons of them mirror this world with weird changes. Fantasy versions with magic. High tech versions with magic. Stuff that'd look ripped straight out of a comic book or a YA novel.

Cellaphage itself has less parallels. Some of the aspects it has that distinguish it from the kinds of worlds we might use in the same sort of creative expression of it (i.e. D&D settings) comes from some of those parallels. There's archeology studying older civilizations (like how archeology existed in ancient civilizations here). There's technology that looks a lot like ours with vending machines and things like DVDs and magical radio towers. There are economic systems other than modern capitalism or medieval european feudalism. There are genders and gender roles that make sense in the context of that world but are just as arbitrary and socially enforced as here. Which in turn means that there are queer people with queer struggles much like those found here.

Gah we could go on forever about it! Thank you so much for the ask. We're absolutely thrilled to get a chance to talk about the place that like, half of our headmates are from.

(Also, @thelunastusco we tried to send you an ask but it looks like your asks are off. So 🪐, 👤, and ☕️ if you'd like :D )

[the-soulbonded-teaparty]

🫂 & 💬 for the soulbond ask game? :3 - @soularsys

(Quick note: the emojis in our responses are used for headmates/bonds who don't want to share their names)

🫂 what's the relationship dynamic between you and your soulbond(s)?

I'll just have to give some examples since we have a few non soulbond headmates- so we have multiple people here with various relationships with our bonds.

- Vernon and Winifred are dating 🐈‍⬛; Aster and Atlas are in sort of a qpr(?) with 🎈.

- Aster, Atlas, and Jill are pretty close since they were co hosts for a while ^^

- Rose is a mother figure to most of our littles and a few of our other resident system members.

- Celeste is an older brother figure to some of us too ^^

- Jill is also a mother figure to one of our littles.

- Dollie is very shy and only visits when certain people are in front.

- 🌧 doesn't visit much, but when cloud does we feel very soothed because clouds presence is relaxing.

💬 what are some fun facts about your soulbond(s)?

- Jill has a son who visits occasionally! He can't see her normally since they live in seperate universes (she's from our Gravity Falls au so she's done multiverse traveling before).

- Three of our soulbonds are a part of systems themselves (Jill is a median system and Rose and Celeste are a system) and some of us have visited Rose and Celeste's headspace before.

- Vernon (our host) is a soulbond and appeared here with ���� (she doesn't front much). They're technically the same oc, just 👁 was our most current iteration of Vernon.

- One of our bonds is a version of the god Dionysus from our paracosm.

- Most of our bonds are our paras ^^

- Dione's (aka Dionysus) wife also visits sometimes ^^

- (This is sort of both a system fact and a soulbond fact) The letter that the most names in our system starts with is A :3

[astralbonds]

✍️, 🌠, 🙅 & ☀️ for the soulbond ask game :3c - @soularsys (ily btw <33)

ILY2 BABYYYYYY <3 <3 <3

✍️ how would you describe your soulbonding experience?

I would honestly describe it as any other relationship with extra steps. Yeah perceiving them is different and the physical possibilities are limited, but other than that it's just living with and having relationships with a bunch of people who happen to be from other realities!

🌠 do you voluntarily soulbond, or does it happen by chance /accidentally / etc?

Most of the time it's voluntary, with the exception of when a platonic soulbond brought over someone I had a crush on without warning and then it just went from there. (Thanks Eli you rascal)

🙅 do your soulbond(s) diverge from what's typically considered "canon"? in what way? feel free to answer for as many as you'd like!

I think a lot of them do, as a number use differing pronouns and sexual/gender identities than what is perceived or shared from the "canon" source material. As well as the fact that my most recent ones can shapeshift between their in-universe look and human forms which is a bit funny going from one to the other.

☀️ how does being a soulbonder influence your daily life?

It basically influences every aspect, since a lot of my soulbonds live with me, I get to wake up and spend the day with them as well as go to bed and sleep alongside them (the ones that fit in the bed at least lol, we've made it work for the most part)

Overall, it's made me a much happier and confident person, being loved and having companions at points in my life where I really really needed support and companionship, and I couldn't be more grateful to have them all in my life.

[theslowpath]

⛄☕🕯️ for the ask game?

⛄- Would you and your f/o make snowmen? Does it get competitive (trying to outdo eachother)?

We make snowmen together! We work on one together but sometimes playfully argue over what to put on it.

☕- What drink is a holiday staple for you and your f/o?

We both love eggnog! We drink it straight from the carton and share it while watching tv and movies.

🕯️- Do you and your f/o have any special holiday traditions? Is there significance behind them?

We watch "its a wonderful life" every year on Christmas eve together because its our favorite christmas movie

Thanks so much for the ask!

[thecollectionsof]

🌻 <33333

where you are a video game hater (except for a select few) i am a video game fan :) i spent a long time playing today with my dad because i’m visiting my parents right now!!! he’s always enjoyed them so i’ve picked up his love for them :)

[moonpool-system]

Ooo how about 1, 12, and 15 for the system ask game!

Thanks for the ask!! ^^

1. Which headmates are the iconic couple

Definitely Atsushi and Akutagawa! They were the first to get together in the system and have two kids now, one thoughtform and one adopted. They also double as caretakers when our main one needs a break, and they're both extremely strong fighters as well, so they garner some respect as a power couple haha

12. What headmate was the biggest surpise?

Oh wow, this is a hard question... We've had a lot of really jarring surprises, and honestly most of them are traumagenic, but as for what rocked us most? That would be our very third recognized member; Space, a soulbond. The story of this is that, at the time, it was just "me" and Badeline- presumably a system of two that would never unintentionally gain members. But I ended up deciding I wanted to create a friend for Badeline, another tulpa. I decided to create a noncanon Inkling from the Splatoon universe, because Inklings tend to have the kind of carefree culture I thought would mesh well with Badeline's personality. I had a rough idea of someone with they/them pronouns, but there was a growing sound in the back of my head. I ignored it.

A few days later, I was sitting in the car talking to Badeline, and I mentioned the pronouns of the conceptual tulpa I hadn't started yet, and I hear the sound- the voice- as clear as a bell in the back of my head. "I don't care." She was very firm in her determination that his pronouns did not matter, and I was shocked with the intense feeling of their presence. Not just because they existed, but because she was completely different than my hypothetical concept to the point I was sure she's a completely different person. She ended up being a after-lifer soulbond, an Octarian from Splatoon 2 with vivid memories of their short life after being healed from sanitization before dying and waking up in this system. This was completely different than anything I conceptualized, so we're certain she is a soulbond and not a tulpa. Space was the biggest surprise for us because he was the first time we'd ever been aware of getting a new member unintentionally!

15. What headmate has the weirdest (/pos) way of talking/typing?

Oh this is a fun one, I'd usually go with our facet Kit/Kitter because it's an excitable little animal, but I actually wanna talk about a different member! Agent 8 is another Octarian, and is rather interesting because they showed up struggling to speak English, instead finding it easier to communicate their thoughts directly with a sort of garbled Octarian(language) sound to it. We struggle also to translate this to English, and it makes her English translated words sound a lot choppier, simpler, or more naïve. It's a weird contrast considering they've been through a lot and write over it with a chipper attitude, so conveying their tone and words properly as a translator is a real challenge.

[hasmephydoneanythingwrong]

Pokémon 🤝 Fate/Grand Order

“It’s not really about teaming up with your favorites!”

[homosexual-fast-dancer]

For character bingo, Boober!!

Thank you Pancake and @gmilfwhore for the ask!

Boober is like if you took the most perfect character of all time... <3

[daydreamsoulbondgroup]

💬

Me, Ghidorah, Extinction, and Emmerson were the first four to be discovered. Though I think that a few others may have been here longer.

Our proxy for when we don't know who's speaking is named "Peanut Gallery".

Laurence is supposedly the most mature, and yet he has expressed a wish to duel several people who we've never met.

There's so many things lmao.-HABIT

[angelicalwhisper]

I'm actually really interested in hearing more soooo Flying, Psychic and Ground types! - C

AAAAAAA i feel nervy sometimes abt gushing abt Maxwell in fear of being annoying but uh...i gotta get over that bc thats what the blog is abt!!!!

Flying - What's something your F/O does that makes your heart soar? Something you do that makes their stomach fluttery?

To be fair, anything he does makes me like a school girl because I Love Him. But his words!!! He always says dumb cheesy stuff but in a Hot way. He calls me Lamb and Angel and i cry tears of joy every time. AND HIS VOICE!! Ahhhh omg. The best way I can explain it is like Claude Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame mixed with Alan Rickman.

I bring out his softer side, and I think he secretly enjoys it and makes him smile. I put a flower crown on him once and refused to take it off the rest of the day. I make sure he stops and appreciates the world a bit <3.

Psychic - Look into your crystal ball and tell us what you think your future with your F/O looks like? Do you want to live together? Get married? Have the two of you ever talked about it?

I would LOVE to live with Maxwell <3. Thinking abt rainy nights in the chappel with him, all cuddled up. He lives inside his Church, but it's so beautiful I dont even mind. He has a pretty expansive private living space you can easily forget about the Holier areas. On the topic of marriage, definitely. He gave me a promise ring already!!! It's so pretty. Its a hug ring with a small, clear stone on the bottom and an opalescent white stone on top!!! It makes me so happy just to look at it.

Ground - What about your F/O grounds you when you're not feeling well? Do you help ground them?

Once again, Maxwell has a way with words. I suppose that makes sense given his job. Making people feel better is kind of what his whole job as a priest is lol. His scent too!! I managed to find a mixture of essential oils that smells like him, and it is magical. I highly encourage finding something that matches your f/o's scent. It does WONDERS.

It is rare that Maxwell is upset. He doesn't let much bother him or change his mood. But, when he is, food is the best way to soothe him. Maxwell can be a bit of a foodie sometimes!! I cannot cook very well, but it doesn't matter what I make, he's happy.

[the-soulbonded-teaparty]

🖐️ how many soulbonds do you / your collective have?

✍️ how would you describe your soulbonding experience? i.e spiritual, psychological, etc etc!

🖐: We have 58 soulbonds atm! Though most only visit us occasionally (like once every few months). We do have a few residents we consider soulbonds though! Like our current host :3

✍️: Our soulbonding is spiritual! We believe that our bonds come from other universes, and that we're meant to help them (or they help us in someway or both) for the most part. It's nice, we like having the others around. We have gotten quite a few more walk ins since we started soulbonding.

(Side note: apologies this took so long, school has been fhdhdjdjdjxn)

[theminecraftbee]

task: answer the following question. do you believe in curses? respond as completely with relevant information as possible.

Grian: Well, that's a lie. This isn't a task. I know it's not a task, I set the things up! Not sure why we're getting a question as pointless as this one, but sure, mysterious scroll, I'll answer. There's no such thing as curses, unless you're Timmy, in which case it's funny, yeah? Besides, I didn't actually kill Etho. Even if that did count, self-fulfilling prophecies aren't the same thing as curses, and I know which one I fall under.

Joel: Do I believe in bloody curses what kind of question is that? Do I really get hearts just for answering this? This feels like a prank or something... well, whatever. There are no such thing as curses, except the Boogeyman curse, which I sort of had today, but it wasn't actually the same at all. A lot of the bloodlust, sure, but a lot more... Etho had to be the one to do it, huh? And it's not the same. Not comforting. That's a stupid thing to say actually. Take it out of wherever you're putting this. Cut it out of the recording. Comforting. Please. As if it were ever... Yeah, I'm done actually. Don't have a good answer. Go away.

Scott: What, other than Jimmy? Bless that man, he may not have died first, but he sure tried his best. Sure, I'll believe Jimmy is cursed. I mean, mostly he's just kind of stupid. Lovingly so. I mean, despite him being stupid, I put up with him, right? That seems like a complete answer to this question. Jimmy's an omen but we put up with him anyway. That's all.

Mumbo: NO RESPONSE GIVEN.

Pearl: Oh, I mean, I'm probably cursed. That's what everyone liked to say at one point. I think... I mean, I think this time I have good friends, which is nice. They don't think I'm cursed. And it's not like I--I mean, it's surprisingly fun, acting cursed! And I am just acting. Acting scary, blowing up dance floors, all of that. And I don't really have to this time, so... Maybe I'm not cursed? And since it's acting, it's not real? This is a weird question.

Etho: Oh, man, that's a question. Um, do I have to answer? Because I feel like if I say no, that's really just asking for it, but if I say yes, I have to explain myself. Uh, I think I'm abstaining, unless the zombie thing from earlier counts. That was scary and I hated it. Curses are scary and I hate them in general, but apparently I'm good at them, if you ask everyone else. Um, it's not the only thing I find scary that apparently I'm good at.

Scar: Why, of course I believe in curses! Look at poor, poor... Timbert? Timmy? Jim? Gosh, sorry, I'm very tired right now. That's more proof of curses, by the way! That I'm tired. I've been tired straight since the desert, let me tell you what. And that, my friends, is a curse like no other. What a terrible beast, loneliness is. Wish me luck breaking it, because it's not happening this season!

Cleo: Oh, you mean the thing people like to blame instead of their own actions? Nah. My soulbond was kind of a curse, I guess, but even that's at least half just... bad people. Bad relationships. Good ones, too. We're all just doing what you can, you know? No script, no curses, no characters, just... Oh, I hope everything turns out tomorrow. Sorry, that's unrelated. It's just nicer to hope than to preemptively blame things on curses that don't exist.

Impulse: Well, I mean, I didn't until you just asked me that, but now I feel like I should. Wouldn't that be nice? Being cursed instead of just sort of unlovable? Sorry, no, that's mean to Gem. I shouldn't say that about Gem, she's been good this season. Super, super cursed, mind you, in the like, game mechanic sense? But she's been good, no backstabbing or inability to get love involved. Um, and I guess that's not fair to Bdubs, kind of, except it also totally is and I haven't forgiven him. So I guess if they ask I said I believed in curses, and that's why my life keeps circling clocks? Don't put any of that other stuff down, I'm trying to work on that.

Lizzie: NO RESPONSE GIVEN.

Gem: I was just cursed for a task, but that probably isn't what you're asking about, right? I'm new, so I don't know! A task is a concrete thing to believe in, like bloodshed or victory or fun and games. You don't have to believe in those to know they're real, either! They just are, whether you like it or not. I understand that much!

Tango: Gah, don't talk to me about... Deep breaths. Look, I don't care if it's a curse, or if it's just me being really bad, or what, I'm not going out pointlessly this time. Jimmy managed not to die first, I can manage to not go out to a stray arrow or my own bomb or a misstep this time, right? Is that so much to ask?

Skizz: Huh? Curses? I mean, I don't think so, and to be totally honest I think it's kind of mean the way people sometimes rag on people about them. Everyone's got so many good things about them! Why do people like to focus on the unfortunate luck, huh?

Bdubs: Hah! Curses! Let me tell you about curses. When I see curses, I eat them for breakfast. I don't got curses, I've got better things to do! I've got my buddies with the Mounders, and I've got-well, I'd say keeping Etho safe, but he's being weird at me again this season. Not that it matters. It never matters. Etho and I, we're... The point is, that doesn't matter anyway, because I have the Mounders, and they're the ones who matter here. And because I'm a strong, independent Bdubs, who doesn't need anyone but my bow and my perfect, flawless fighting prowess! Sorry, what was the question? I've been thinking so much lately that it's just sort of made everything else pop out of my head, so it's hard to keep track. I'm sure I answered it flawlessly, though.

Martyn: Of course there are curses. That's half the fun for you lot, isn't it? Putting your little curses on us and watching us rail against them. Bet you think it's real cute to ask us what we think of the things, too. "Oh, what do you think of curses," like we have any control over them. Please. If I had any control over curses, Jimmy--or, well, no, I guess that one was technically broken, wasn't it? Sure doesn't feel like it. Point is, curses are bad, and they're definitely real, and I hate you for them, got it?

BigB: Look, man, if you're trying to get me to write my character out for you, just say so! I won't tell anyone. We can come up with a hole thing about holes and red tasks and the Backrooms together! It'll be fun! After all, you probably don't know what kind of curse to say I have, right? Haha, just kidding. I have no idea what I'm talking about. Luckily, neither does anyone else, so I think that evens out between the lot of us.

Jimmy: NO RESPONSE GIVEN.

[malk1ns]

november 16 2024 vs sharks, 4-3 S/O win

previous soulbond installments: 1 2 3 4 5 6

hot damn. double hot damn. TRIPLE hot damn. and of course geno's unbelievable goal that got called back. hey guys, thanks for showing up!

this is approximately the quarter-mark for this season, and with this installment the series is at 24,097 words. dang. thanks to everyone who's been reading along, leaving nice tags and comments, etc—i am not sure i'd be able to do this if it weren't for the encouragement!

Sid spends the entire Sharks game having to consciously stop himself from putting his hand to his chest.

Something shifted last night, clicked into place when he and Geno met eyes in the locker room after losing to the Blue Jackets. He’d woke up that night from a dead sleep gasping for air and fumbling for his phone, convinced he was having a cardiac event—but instead of his own heart beating double-time, once he was more awake he realized it was Geno’s heartbeat he was feeling too, thumping along just slightly offset from his own.

He’d texted Geno instead of the training staff, asking if he was OK. Geno sent him the thumbs up emoji, and then Sid watched the typing bubbles appeared and disappeared for almost three minutes before Geno apparently settled on just 💕.

Sid stared at the two little pink hearts for a long time before like-reacting and locking his phone.

It took a while to fall back asleep. He did the deep-breathing exercises that meditation app Andy made him download a few years ago recommended for nighttime, and his own heartbeat slowed, but Geno’s was out of sync—until Sid felt something at the back of his mind, an almost apologetic oh-shit.

Sid could feel when Geno started to regulate his own breathing, and his heartbeat settling into time with Sid’s sent such a powerful sense of relief through him that he practically fell asleep on the spot. They’re not quite lined up, not with Sid’s abnormally low resting heart rate, but they beat in time, a soothing percussive thump that puts Sid out like a light.

It had been an odd sensation all day as Sid went through his pre-game routine, sort of like when he’d lost teeth in the past and not immediately gotten them replaced—but instead of a constant simmering awareness of an absence, Sid couldn’t quite escape the feeling of more. He felt too big for his skin, too aware of what’s going on somewhere he’s not.

Once they both get to the rink it settles, and Geno looks visibly relieved to see Sid too.

Outside of their midnight text exchange, they haven’t spoken. Sid can feel it though, the conversation barreling towards them itching at his teeth.

During the game, Geno’s heart spikes at the oddest times. Rarely if ever when he’s skating, which had surprised Sid; on the ice he’s ice-cold unless someone on the other team is pissing him off. But on the bench, when Geno’s watching, he gets just as involved as some of the fans, jumping to his feet when it looks like someone’s going to score, shouting encouragement at the guys and recriminations at whatever Shark that skates close enough to be targeted.

It takes Sid by surprise, especially when he’s out for a shift, and he barely got his hand halfway to his chest the first time before he realized what him clutching his chest would look like and forced it back to his lap.

It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t even feel all that wrong anymore, now that Sid’s had almost a whole day to get used to it.

It feels like something he wants to cradle, to touch to see if he can feel it as clearly through his skin as he can inside his body. He wants to strip down at intermission and look down to see if he can see Geno’s heart beating next to his own.

Sid scores, and the pride that sweeps through him is absolutely not his own.

The reaction his shootout goal gets is maybe something Sid should have expected, especially after yesterday, but it still trips him up a little on his way back to the bench. He peers down the row at Geno, who’s staring fixedly at his skates. His ears are red.

When Geno dekes out the goalie and pings an absolutely sick shot off the post and in, Sid has to work to keep his face neutral with the camera right on him. By the way Geno looks at him as he makes his way down the fistbump line, he’s not sure how good of a job he does.

Geno’s done with his shower and gone fast, like always, but Sid knows he hasn’t left, and when he’s finally free from media and his own postgame routine, instinct pulls him to a corridor down near the visitor’s locker rooms, one that nobody ever goes down because the rooms are all overflow storage.

Geno’s waiting for him in a room halfway down the hallway, and Sid beelines for the door, stepping into the room and firmly shutting the door before taking a deep breath and turning around.

It’s not even a storage room. Geno managed to find possibly the only office in the entire rink that Kyle and his staff hasn’t taken over; Sid wonders if anyone even knows it’s here.

Geno’s leaning against the desk, drumming his fingers against the wood. Before Sid fully registers what he’s doing, he’s stepping forward, wedging himself between Geno’s legs and pressing them together.

When Geno’s arms come around his back, Sid exhales fully for the first time in almost two weeks.

“Sid,” Geno says, and his voice sounds…

Sid closes his eyes.

He doesn’t know what to do with this. He’s never felt this way about anyone before, certainly not another man. The bond specialists didn’t say anything about this all-consuming need he and Geno have been doing their best to deny, and Sid hasn’t breathed a word of it to anyone.

He’s not sure if it was fear of what people would say or a fierce, instinctive need to keep it private that stopped him from asking. Probably a combination of both.

Geno’s arms tighten around him, and Sid takes an unsteady breath. His whole body feels hot, and when Geno’s hands slide down and his fingers brush over the sliver of exposed skin above Sid’s sweatpants, Sid can’t stop the groan that sounds shockingly loud in the quiet room.

“Fuck,” Geno says, voice shaky. “Sid, what…”

“I don’t know,” Sid says. Geno’s hand feels like a brand on his skin. “Shit, you’re…” He gropes down Geno’s back and slides his hands under Geno’s shirt, and when Geno shivers under his touch Sid digs his fingers in. 

When Geno shifts his hips, Sid can feel his dick hard in his pants brushing against Sid’s stomach. He should be nervous, maybe, or even concerned, but instead he’s more turned on than he’s ever been in his life, his and Geno’s arousal ricocheting back and forth over the bond until Sid’s panting into Geno’s shoulder and hitching himself against Geno’s body, desperate for friction.

Geno’s breath is harsh in Sid’s ear. He’s clumsy as he humps against Sid’s thigh. It doesn’t feel good for either of them, not really—too much friction with the fabric, bad angles, nothing that would be enough to get either of them off normally—but they’re feeding off each other now, and Sid can feel his orgasm coming shockingly fast.

Sid didn’t think that after 20 years there was much more new he had to learn about Geno. Now he knows that Geno’s loud when he comes.

[pixiemage]

Cut the Line

OR: Tango comes home to find Jimmy holding a golden apple...but not everything is as it seems.

[A/N: I told myself I would ever write full Rancher angst...]

[This work can also be read on Archive of our Own]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tango’s stomach dropped, a dread building in his chest that he hadn’t been expecting when he’d come home with iron and food for his soulmate. His eyes were locked on the shining golden apple sitting in Jimmy’s outstretched hand.

“...where’d you find that?” he breathed, tension straining the soulbond.

“Pearl,” Jimmy told him. His voice was calm, even, unfazed - as though it was just another normal day and he wasn’t holding the potential end of their bond in the palm of his hand. “She was saving it for herself, but when I asked for it, apparently she thought I needed it more.”

Oh. Tango slowly closed the front door behind him with a quiet click. He cleared his throat, his eyes still lingering on the golden apple. His tail coiled around one of his legs and he forced himself to turn away, crouching in front of their chests so he could put away the iron he’d mined. He could pretend to be normal, maybe, for a little while longer. Just for a few seconds. Iron went in, tucked away in the corner, then what little gold he’d managed to find…gold he’d been intending to use for a courting gift. (Might not get to use at all, now. His fingers lingered on the unrefined ore, sooty fingerprints clinging to the half-shiny surface.)

“Why?” he asked finally, standing and letting the lid fall softly shut. He turned around and sat on its edge, fiddling with a chunk of undusted redstone he hadn’t put away. “Why’d you ask for it?”

Jimmy blinked, looking confused.

“For…you?” he said slowly, his head tipping to the side. “So you don’t have to be stuck with me and my curse anymore.”

Tango’s blood ran cold, an impressive feat for a blazeborn. His eyes went wide and he stared at Jimmy, waiting for him to laugh, or crack a smile, say he was joking. But he didn’t. He looked so innocently serious about it, as though he actually expected Tango to just be okay with what he was suggesting.

“I’m not - I don’t–” Tango choked out, shaking his head slowly, and he pushed himself to his feet since Jimmy wasn’t moving. He dragged a hand over his face and tried to compose himself. “Jimmy, I’m not stuck with you. I’m with you, willingly. Soulmates, teammates, partners - ranchers. I’ve got your back.” Jimmy still looked lost, confused, as if he didn’t quite understand, and Tango closed some of the gap between them. “Buddy, I’m not going anywhere.”

“But you could,” Jimmy blurted out, holding the apple higher for Tango to take. “You could, if you wanted, and–”

“But I don’t want,” Tango cut him off. Jimmy was still holding the apple between them so Tango took it gingerly from him, barely giving it a look before tossing it toward the bed. Jimmy let out a startled chirp and went to follow it, but Tango caught his arm in one gentle hand. He drew Jimmy’s wide eyes back to him. “I want you, Jimmy. I like who the game chose for me, and if I had my choice I’d pick you again in a heartbeat.”

Jimmy shook his head slowly, his lips tugging into a frown and his brow scrunching up in a quiet distress that Tango could feel in the bond.

“You shouldn’t,” he said, sounding unsteady for the first time since Tango had arrived home. “Tango, you shouldn’t, I’m - I’m bad luck. I’m cursed. It’s not worth staying for if–”

“Jimmy.” Tango shook his head, at a loss for what to say to convince Jimmy that he was so very wrong. “Jim, you’re so worth it. You’re worth–” He was worth everything. Tango stepped closer, stepping forward into the light filtering in through the window and meeting his soulmate’s eyes beseechingly. “Jimmy, tell me you want me gone, and I’ll go. If you can tell me honestly that you don’t want me for a soulmate I’ll - I’ll talk to Grian, okay?” Jimmy’s eyes had turned shining and his jaw had gone tense, his wings puffed behind him. “But I don’t think–”

Jimmy snorted.

Tango blinked and trailed off, watching as Jimmy’s confused and conflicted expression gave way to barely restrained amusement.

“...what?” Tango asked, and Jimmy snickered.

“Sorry, sorry, you have–” He reached up, his thumb brushing over the end of Tango’s nose, and when he turned his hand to let the light hit it, there was a red shining dust clinging to Jimmy’s skin. Redstone. “I didn’t notice until you stepped into the light, but it’s–”

“CUT!”

There was a splattering of laughter and groans from the gathered cast and crew on set, and Tango glanced toward the front door when Cleo shouldered her way in.

“You and Mumbo, I swear–” she grumbled, fishing a compact mirror from her back pocket and holding it out for Tango to take. “How you even manage to get redstone on you in a scene without redstone as a focus will never cease to amaze me.”

Tango smiled sheepishly and glanced at his reflection, chuckling weakly when he spotted smudges of red dust along his right cheek and his nose.

“It blended in with your freckles for a while,” Jimmy commented, taking the cloth from Cleo before she could do anything, leaning in close to get a good look. “Here, let me–”

“Thanks rancher,” Tango winked, and Jimmy went a soft pink as he carefully dabbed at his scene partner’s face. (He did a very good job of pretending he wasn’t affected by Tango’s comment, but the flutter of his wings betrayed him. Just a little.)

A few more people spilled in through the open ranch door, resetting props and fetching the fake golden apple from where it had tumbled across the floor. Grian was among them, a tousled script in hand that Tango knew was covered in red and blue scribbled notes and comments.

“Why don’t you two take twenty?” he suggested in a low voice once he was close enough. He tugged off his glasses and tucked them into his shirt. “That was a really good take, by the way…until Tim broke character.”

“Hey!”

“Yeah? Really good?” Tango repeated, hoping Grian was being honest. It had felt like a good read, and he and Jimmy had seemed to play off each other really well with emotions and timing and everything. But he knew it always looked different from the outside.

Grian grinned lopsidedly.

“Really really good,” he insisted. “Considering we’ve been running this one for almost an hour, I’m impressed neither of you have fallen into muscle memory yet. It still feels real and spontaneous, and you’re getting comfortable enough with the lines that I’m starting to really feel it as an audience member.” He patted Tango on the shoulder and rocked back on his heels, heading back for the door. “You’re doing great! Take a break, you deserve it. We’ll take it from your entrance when you get back.”

“Don’t mess up your hair before we get back or I will kill you,” Cleo drawled, and Tango snickered when Jimmy actually went a little pale at the threat.

“I’m…just gonna go check on Norman,” he mumbled, slipping past Cleo and vanishing off the set.

A passing crew member took the chunk of redstone from Tango as he passed and Tango wiped his hands on the cloth Jimmy had left with him, not wanting to end up with more dust in places it wasn’t meant to be. Cleo took it from him the moment he was done.

“You know he’s terrified of you, right?” Tango teased as he trailed after Cleo, both of them leaving the ranch behind so the crew could finish their reset. He snatched a water from the snack table as they passed. “You could be a little nicer to him.”

“I’ll be nicer to Jimmy when he stops wiping his hands on his costume jeans,” she muttered. “Honestly, you’d think he’d remember they’re not his. You all go for lunch, and he ends up with crumbs and little stains that I have to get out before the next shoot.”

“He’s a bit forgetful,” Tango shrugged, though there was an affectionate tone to his words that he couldn’t hide if he tried. “But he always apologizes. It ain’t like he’s doing it on purpose.”

Cleo huffed and tossed the redstone-tinged cloth into a bin near her makeup station.

“Go find your boytoy,” Cleo snipped at him, making Tango choke on the water he was sipping.

“Wh– ngah, hah, um–” He let out a light, nervous laugh. “My what?”

“Your soulmate,” Cleo sing-songed, dropping gracefully into the comfortable chair she’d all but demanded be brought in for her corner of the set. “Go on. We both know he’s waiting at his trailer for you.”

Tango felt his face warm, and he was sure there were tiny sparking flames dancing in his hair beneath Cleo’s knowing gaze.

“How…?”

“Oh my giddy aunt, you’re obvious,” she drawled. “Have you seen you two? Pearl an’ I have a bet going to see how long it’ll take Grian to notice, because - well - it’s Jimmy, and Grian has a hard time picturing Jimmy as anything but his Adorable Baby Brother. Took ‘im two months to realize Scott kept coming around because he and Jimmy were dating.” She grabbed a magazine off the makeup table and flipped through it idly. “‘Course, almost everyone else knows by now. It’s hard to miss.”

What.

“Go kiss your damn boyfriend already, he’ll probably cry if you don’t show up,” Cleo teased. She prodded Tango away with her foot. “Go on. Go get ‘im, tiger.”

If Tango happened to walk just a little too fast to get away from Cleo’s smirking stare, that was his business and nobody else’s. (And maybe Joel’s, since Tango almost ran the poor guy over in his hurry to get to Jimmy’s trailer. But Joel wouldn’t ask. Probably.)

Tango didn’t bother knocking when he arrived at Jimmy’s trailer. They visited each other often enough that there weren’t many boundaries anymore, and it wasn’t as if Jimmy wasn’t already expecting him. So Tango let himself into the small and cozy space, smiling softly when he spotted his partner near the far window, gently misting the few plants sitting on the small table there. They didn’t have a ton of room because of the limited space a trailer provided, but Jimmy always managed to make his feel homely anyway.

Tango crept up behind him on soft feet, enjoying the way Jimmy’s feathers fluffed in pleased surprise when Tango’s arms wound their way around his waist from behind. He chuckled lightly and pressed a kiss to Jimmy’s cheek.

“Hey sweetheart,” he sing-songed. Jimmy melted against his chest with a soft twitter.

“Tango,” he huffed, though he sounded more amused than anything. “You scared me!”

“Who, little ol’ me?” Tango squeezed him once before letting him go, giving Jimmy space to turn around and face him properly. There was a sparkle of mirth in his grin and his tail danced lazily behind him in a teasing sort of way.

Jimmy rolled his eyes adoringly. He set the plant mister aside and let Tango reel him back in, folding into Tango’s hold like he belonged there. He was kissing Tango before the netherborn had a chance to make another quip, his eyes falling shut and a pleased little hum muffling itself against Jimmy’s smiling lips.

“Took you long enough,” Jimmy murmured softly between kisses, his hands trailing over Tango’s costume vest aimlessly. “Thought you weren’t gonna come.”

“Cleo,” Tango told him. “Got sidetracked.” He guided Jimmy away from the window so they wouldn’t bump into the plants, not minding a bit when his legs collided with the couch. He sat down when Jimmy nudged at his shoulders, unsurprised when he immediately found himself with a lapful of cuddly soulmate. They’d ended up here dozens of times before, and by now it was comfortable and familiar, these small precious moments of closeness stolen between scenes or long after filming had finished for the night. He and Jimmy just fit together so naturally…he couldn’t fathom a life or universe where they hadn’t found each other.

Jimmy picked up where they left off as seamlessly as if they’d never stopped. It was all slow, lazy kisses and warm affection, Jimmy’s hands barely stopping themselves from tangling in Tango’s hair (they still had a shoot to finish, afterall), and Tango’s thumbs tracing gentle circles against Jimmy’s hips where his grip had loosely fallen.

“How long do we have?” Tango asked breathlessly, and he felt Jimmy’s arm shift against his shoulder to check.

“...twelve minutes.”

“I can work with that.”

Jimmy let out a soft giggle and pressed his forehead to Tango’s, their noses barely brushing.

“We’ve done more with less,” he teased, and Tango grinned.

“Damn right we have.”

It was still a damn miracle Etho hadn’t found them in that closet.

Jimmy kissed him again, his mouth migrating away from Tango’s, pressing his lips along Tango’s jawline in a slow and gentle trail, mouthing lazily at the spot below his ear and nuzzling his face into the crook of his partner’s neck. He settled there for a moment, seeming comfortable and content, and Tango was smiling adoringly when he pressed a lopsided kiss against Jimmy’s hair.

“Comfy?” he teased quietly, and Jimmy let out a warbled little chirp of affirmation. His wings went lax at his back, draping across the couch on either side of Tango, and a low rumble arose in Tango’s chest at the coziness of it all. “Not gonna lie, twelve minutes of cuddle-actions sounds awesome right now.”

“Just wanna be close to you,” Jimmy murmured, snuggling in just that little bit closer, and–

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Tango jolted, and so did Jimmy, his wings afluffed and his head jerking up to stare at the door.

“Grian!” Jimmy squeaked. “Hi! We - er–”

“What?!” Grian sounded flabbergasted and he looked it too. If his jaw was any lower it would’ve hit the floor, his eyes nearly bugging out of his skull. “You - he–”

“Do you need something?” Tango asked casually, much to Jimmy’s amusement if the choked-back laugh he stifled in Tango’s shoulder was anything to go by. “We still have eleven minutes before we need to be on set.”

Grian gaped at him, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish.

“No,” he said finally, sounding a little hysterical. “Nope. It can - you know what, it can wait. It can - yeah. Ten minutes. On set in - yes. Okay. Right.” He floundered for the doorknob, missing once or twice before he finally dragged his gobsmacked stare away from the couple on the couch. He yanked it open and paused, his wings an agitated mess of red and yellow and blue.

“…how long–”

“Two months,” Jimmy told him sheepishly. He was peeking out at his brother past golden feathers, his wings having curved forward slightly in a half-hearted effort to hide. “We wanted to enjoy it without the attention for a while, ‘cause it was new an’ all. Kept it quiet, you know?”

“Fat lot o’ good that did, lad,” Joel said bluntly, sticking his head through the open doorway and earning startled reactions from all involved. “Just about everyone knows. ‘Cept you, Grian.”

Grian squawked and Tango felt his face warm, his hair sparking alongside Jimmy’s resulting spluttering.

“E-Everyone?” he stammered, and Joel shrugged.

“Most everyone.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t snog in closets on set, idiot.”

Jimmy went pink and Tango sank into the couch. Oh. Oh, geez. Maybe Etho wasn’t as oblivious as Tango had assumed.

He cleared his throat.

“…mind giving us those last five minutes?” he asked, his voice a little high-pitched. At Joel’s smirk-lined snickering, he let out an inhuman strangled wheeze. “NO, not - we were just cuddling! C’mon, man–”

“Mhm. Suuuure,” Joel drawled. He hooked Grian’s elbow and dragged him out, letting the door fall shut. From outside the trailer, Tango heard his last quippy remark: “Use protection, lads!”

Jimmy’s embarrassed twittering was muffled in Tango’s shoulder, his wings almost entirely cocooning them now. Tango ran a soothing hand through his partner’s hair, catching slightly on the light gel that kept it looking so adorable during filming.

“Do you want me to fix your feathers, sweetheart?” he asked, earning a grumble from the avian in his lap.

“…no,” he said finally, sounding a bit defeated. “They’re meant to be a little messy for the scene anyway.”

“Mm.” Tango nodded, trailing his claws against Jimmy’s scalp. Jimmy melted under his ministrations, snuggling into Tango’s chest like he had been before they had been so rudely interrupted. “How about tonight, when we’re done filming?”

Jimmy pressed a lazy kiss to the side of Tango���s neck, and Tango could only assume that was a nonverbal yes. Then Jimmy sighed. He dragged himself upright and glanced at his watch, sending a weary smile in Tango’s direction.

“Almost showtime,” he told him. “Ready to go stop me from breaking up with you again?”

“I’d do it a million times if it means I get to keep you,” Tango grinned, tugging Jimmy down into one last kiss before letting his partner go. Jimmy pretended to be unfazed but Tango could see the way his wings barely fluttered and his cheeks warmed, the nonchalant mask near-transparent to someone who knew him as well as Tango did. He was far more affected by how affectionate Tango could be than he let most people know.

A million times, Tango had told him. And it was true. A million and more, if it was ever needed, he’d fight for Jimmy again and again. In any world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

[A/N - ...and I still haven't! Written full Rancher angst, that is. I might be physically incapable. Oops! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ALSO HAPPY BELATED APRIL FOOLS! Sorry for the heart attack at the beginning there, I don't know WHAT came over me! 🤪 Craaaazy! This was ALWAYS meant to be an Actors AU! Obviously! Totally! I definitely didn't start writing proper angst and then make a left turn to keep myself happy!!!

(I actually didn't do that either lol. The original plan was to write an entire angsty Rancher break up fic with the WORST grammar and spelling and OOC-ness you've ever seen in your life, but I couldn't force myself to write badly. It wasn't happening, folks. So you get fluff and sillies instead lol. Hope you had fun!)]

[sergeifyodorov]

POLL RESULTS JUST DROPPED!!

My hockeyblr experiences are largely catered to my own personal tastes -- mostly Leafs, a little Penguins and Stars, one or two who post about Stevie Y and Sergei Fedorov. These are obviously not the only teams out there.

This study was designed to survey as much of hockeyblr as it possibly could, gathering data on which teams people like and to what degrees. There were five questions and a free space -- my attempt to ask people to rank the teams they enjoyed in three levels, from religiously followed to casually affectionate, and an additional couple of questions on love for players versus team. I received over 500 responses. Here are the results.

Yeah, yeah, you all want to know: The most popular team is the Penguins, by a long shot, then the Leafs.

Because my sample size (n = 523) is actually fairly small compared to the number of NHL teams there are, I find definitive rankings tend to be difficult. It’s also worth noting that, as a mainly Leafs blog, my numbers are definitely going to be skewed a little in favour of the Leafs.

Your Guys

These are the teams closest to your heart: the ship you go down with, metaphorically or, depending on how married your old men are, literally. For me, I picked just the Leafs.

The average respondent had 1.9 teams in this category. The most popular, by far, was the Pittsburgh Penguins. Below is a table of teams, arranged roughly into tiers by the number of respondents. Each team has the number of respondents in brackets next to their three-letter code.

I allowed people to pick as many teams as they would like; the average person picked 1.9 teams, but here’s a distribution of how many teams they picked:

4 people picked 0 “your guys” teams, and 2 people picked seven, nine, or ten each teams. Just about half of people had one main team.

I then wondered: what teams were people most likely to only follow? That is, if you hold [x] team in the closest part of your heart, are you more or less likely to also hold any other teams? Almost exactly 25% of picks were solo; I wondered if there was any correlation at all.

Only a little bit! Of the samples large enough to actually consider (so: nothing in that cluster at the bottom left, who all received fewer than 10 picks total, and a few of whom -- CGY, CHI, NSH -- received zero solo pickers), the most devoted fans chose the Sharks, the Bruins, and the Leafs. The fans who liked the most other teams chose the Avs, the Kraken, the Canucks, Panthers, Sens, and Ducks.

Probably a next step would be to look for correlations: if people are a fan of one team, are they more likely to be fans of another? THAT BEING SAID that’s a lot of regressions. Maybe keep an eye on that for the future, but I don’t know!!

Objects of Enjoyment, and Generally Nice

These two were successive tiers meant to distinguish teams that people like from the ones in the category above. I admit I probably could have phrased the questions better; I received several comments saying that they’d watch any hockey when they wanted to put a game on. The dynamics between Your Guys versus Objects of Enjoyment versus Generally Nice would best be described as devoted fan of versus casual fan of versus favourable opinion towards. 

As I said a few paragraphs back, people picked 1.9 “devoted fan” teams on average. Again on average, they picked 4.7 “casual fan” teams and 6.5 “favourable opinion” teams. Not all ratios are equal, though! Some teams had significantly more casual than devoted fans, and others still were much more liked generally than average.

I gave each team’s “devoted” count an index number of 1 and measured their casual and favourable count as a ratio against the index number. The teams assembled themselves into a few groups.

No Commitment

Arizona and Anaheim have decided to be soulbonded (Excel refuses to let them have different-coloured dots) and it took me three hundred million years to attempt to (and unsuccessfully) fix, so let’s ignore that. These teams all have a fairly high slope of interest -- a range of casual interest at about five times the pace of fervent interest, and good opinion at about ten times fervent interest. The Calgary Flames are an outlier on the entire graph, not just here. 

Casual Interest

I gave up on trying to colour teams according to their real colours shortly after the Anaheim/Arizona debacle. Please employ the legend. Nashville is included on all five graphs for reference. These teams all have a casual interest factor of about 3, and a favourable opinion factor of around 5; the same ratio as the casual fans of the teams in the first category to their fervent fans.

Saturated Market

These teams have a much lower ratio of hardcore:casual:favourable fans, at about 1:2:3. 

We Get It, Those Are Your Guys

Pittsburgh and Toronto; these teams have an almost equal ratio of all three categories.

...Whatever This Is

Every other category is defined by its ratios; this category is defined by its shape. While all teams have their rate of hardcore fandom set as 1, the other two tend to increase in a roughly linear form, without too much significant difference between the first interval and the second interval.

These teams, though (again, Nashville is for scale) don’t do that: they have a set increase between hardcore and casual, and a significantly smaller increase (or, in a couple cases, a decrease) between casual and favourable. This suggests perhaps some kind of divisiveness; if you’re not already in there, do you really want to get in further? Either that, or it’s something closer to what the Leafs and Penguins have: that is, a devotion. Like you’re in or you’re out.

Taking these values together

Because the casual:hardcore ratios are measured as indexes and not absolute values, they say nothing about the actual popularity of the team in question -- Calgary is one of the least popular, which is why I assume it’s so weirdly high up; small sample sizes lead to higher error values!

But we do have the absolute values, so we can measure them against each other.

If we consider the “In or Out” to be a category of its own while the other four are along more of a continuum, then we can absolutely see a correlation here -- larger fandoms tend to have more involved fanbases.

Players or Teams?

I also asked participants if their guys tended to be players or teams -- and if those they liked at a more casual level tended to be players or teams.

The results are… not particularly surprising.

On a hardcore level, people tended to prefer teams, although the variability was pretty slight. On a casual level, individual players were much more popular.

I also wondered if people who chose more teams in the hardcore fan question tended to do that because they prefer players.

On average, people who picked players on their hardcore level chose 2.1 teams. People who picked teams chose 1.7 teams. That’s definitely a difference!

Fun Shtuff

I got way more write-in responses on the hardcore player/team question than on the casual question, including this:

Three separate people answered “Minnesota Wild” for their guys and chose no other teams on any level. Hell yes. (One person also did this for the Kings.)

It took about 300 responses before the first Flames fan (at the hardcore level.)

On all three levels, the Seattle Kraken are really popular -- they’re in the top five in each.

What's Next?

If I were to update this survey, I would probably include a question about where all of you are from -- some people (like me) follow their hometown team, while some people most certainly don't (shoutout to the one person from Edmonton who dislikes the Oilers) and others still don't have a hometown team (shoutout to my brasilian + european + etc mutuals and everyone else!!)

Feel free to shoot me an ask if you want me to do anything else with this data -- examine a specific team, give actual casual fan/etc counts and total aggregate rankings, anything else!