#summer week party

[sakasakiii]

for quite some time now ive wanted to redesign some of my existing maiar designs as well as give proper designs to some ive never really bothered with before, so here's some updated fullbody concepts! im happiest with mairon's honestly, but i really like the idea of olorin being a haggled, minimalistic shepherd who walks around valinor covered in dirt HAHAHAH

i also wanted to explore some of their potential dynamics with each other 😙 esp eonwe-ilmare and mairon-arien as siblings so these are just some quick doodles cuz my neck is in pa i n

compiled fullbody ref sheet under the cut 💃

[sincericida]

ANDREW GARFIELD

at the Valentino Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 after party as part of Paris Fashion Week 2023, in Paris, France.

[tashas-cauldron-of-magic-soup]

Kaz in his Kaz-uals (yes I am very clever)

Inspired by @mistercrowbar and @for-tymora encouraging that we all draw our Tavs in their jammies so they can all have a slumber party.

Also, his socks were knitted by Rosina, in case anyone asks.

[therefugeofbooks]

Currently reading Beach Read by Emily Henry

[thisapplepielife]

Written for a @astrangersummer.

The Remnants

Week #11 Prompt: Sunglasses | Word Count: 898 | Rating: T | POV: Karen Wheeler | Characters: Karen, Steve Harrington | CW: Prior Major Character Death (Unspecified Member of The Party) | Tags: Future Fic, The Party, Unnamed Character Death, A Look at Grief, At Loss, Steve Harrington is Still Their Babysitter Person, The Kids Are Home For A Funeral

Inspired by the song Pink Skies by Zach Bryan.

The kids are in town for a funeral. 

Karen has been listening to them move around the basement, getting ready to go. She doesn't want to make them wait, not on her. Not today.

She's touching every surface in her kitchen, every counter, frantic. It doesn't make any sense. They were just here. She's sure of it.

She laid them out with her purse. She swore she did. 

She's yanking open drawers, then slamming them shut, over and over.

"Can I help you find something?"

It's Steve Harrington, standing at the edge of her kitchen.

She's not surprised to see him, because the kids don't want anything from anyone, except Steve Harrington, and she's had to stand back and accept that this isn't something she can fix.

She can't make a pot roast, and let them run wild on their bicycles. Not now.

If Steve can ease any of this for them, in any way, she'll be grateful. 

"My sunglasses," she says. They have to leave, and soon, but she can't go without them. 

Steve pulls his own sunglasses out of his shirt pocket, and hands them over, "Until yours turn up."

Karen takes them, isn't sure what else to do, and lets him lead her to one of the waiting black cars. He's not a kid, not anymore, none of them are, even if she'll always see them that way.

Even as they have to go to a funeral. 

After, Karen watches as Steve Harrington herds the remnants back through her house. All that's left of their little group. The Party. The fuss and fight gone out of them, now. The boys, and later, the girls, that trampled up and down her staircase, excited and loud, are now long grown. Men and women, somehow here in their places. 

They haven't all been gathered together, not all of them, not in years. Maybe not since Ted's funeral. 

Burying parents, that's the stage of life they've reached. It's a rite of passage that sneaks up on you, hard and fast, and often before you're ready. But it's the order of things, to be expected, even when it's a complete surprise.

But they shouldn't be burying each other. Not yet.

And now that they have, now that the seal is broken, they won't ever be whole again.

It's unfair. 

Now, they're silent as they walk past the doorway, and don't even look at the growth chart they all spent so much time and energy trying to be the tallest mark on. 

She listens to them go down the stairs, and maybe it's her imagination, or her failing hearing, but they still sound exactly the same as they did as kids. 

Now, though, the noise stops too soon. One pair of feet too few.

She leans in the doorway. Listens. Hand touching the carved-on piece of wood. The growth chart on the door frame started as Nancy, then Mike. By the time Holly came, all these other kids had scraped their own right alongside her kids. Cheating, standing on tiptoes, so desperate to grow taller than each other. 

The funeral was beautiful, but the kids are all pretty stoic. Like they didn't even notice. They aren't kids, not anymore. But they still feel like her kids, always will. All of them, and now one is missing. 

They've had a practice run at this at twelve-years-old, but then they got a do-over. They learned to believe in magic, to believe in the impossible being possible.

She knows that won't happen again. This time it's for real. One of them is really gone, dead and buried, and they don't know how to act.

She doesn't know how to act.

She's still supposed to be the adult here. The mom.

They'd spread their wings. Flew far, and wide, but always flocked home, together. 

She's pretty sure that won't happen again. They're cleaning the basement, clearing the drawers, mopping the floor. Steve's been up and down a dozen times, digging under the sink for cleaning supplies, then carrying up box after box, taking them out the front door, and she doesn't know where it's all going. 

Just that it's already gone.

The basement, their safe space, can't go on with one missing. Won't.

So, they're closing up shop. 

And she's having to watch from afar. Only getting kernels of secondhand knowledge from her daughter's ex-boyfriend. 

It's a strange life they've all lived.

But once they got past that, she thought they'd made it. That they'd all be fine. 

That she would eventually go first.

She wishes she could go back to the start. When Mike was so little, and just meeting Dustin, Lucas and Will for the first time. When they were just old enough to ride bikes down the driveway, and then later, out of sight. Not to be seen until the streetlights came on again.

Kids don't roam like that now. Her grandkids sure don't. Their parents, far too well aware of what can go bump in the night.

She listens.

It's quiet, too quiet, down there. 

She misses the sounds of screaming, tumbling dice and curse words they weren't supposed to be saying, but did anyway when they thought they could get away with it. 

She settles in her chair, and gets poked in the thigh. She reaches down, and her sunglasses aren't lost. 

Just broken. 

Just like everything else here today.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @astrangersummer and follow along with the fun!

[im-just-a-br0adway-baby]

*At a Hellaverse pool party* Angel: Hey... how come no one's in the pool? Husk: Because it's the first week of summer, so nobody's confident enough to take their shirts off yet. Alastor: I'm never confident enough to take my shirt off. Angel, Husk: We know, Alastor.

[toyastales]

DSQUARED LOBSTER DRESS

[kaerinio]

alright, i am here! i'm super tired from everything surrounding the surprise party i threw for my partner . . . bUT GOD, THE EXHAUSTION IS SO WORTH IT! 🥹 the party was last night, and he was so shocked. i've never seen my partner like shocked-shocked before?? he is usually pretty unflappable. but when he walked up the stairs and saw everyone and they shouted "surprise" HE JUST LOOKED SO HECKIN PRECIOUS? he was shocked and confused and so excited. he just went "hi" very quietly 😂 to everyone?? then turned to me with the widest eyes, like he literally couldn't believe any of it. he had a great time! 🥹

[inktheblot]

The rotation of Christmas music that plays in the store I work at includes the following:

Any version of “Last Christmas” you could think of and then some, EXCEPT Wham’s

Various people trying to come up with weird new verses to “Jingle Bells”

Joey Ramone’s cover of “What a Wonderful World”

This one cover of “Do You Want To Build a Snowman” that’s sung in like. That specific really breathy way that pop singers do Christmas songs sometimes y’know?

The song from the Victorious Christmas episode

Three songs from the Phineas and Ferb Christmas special

“I Have a Dream” by ABBA except not the ABBA version

- DO YOU REMEMBER THE 25TH NIGHT OF DECEMBER

[lesbiradshaw]

Hiii is there anything we know about the dagger squad backgrounds that’s canon? Other than Jake being from Texas, is the stuff about what they studied/where they’re from headcanon? THANK U MUCH LOV

we don’t really know that much i don’t think but a majority of the background info i’ve found is either vaguely mentioned in the film or the paramount draft script you can find online ! bradley being a poli sci major at UVA and graduating in ‘09 is canon (and also very dear to me bc that was my major too plus i also graduated hs at 17 bc we are both #junebabies :]), jake originally got his call sign because bradley gave it to him and he hated it at first, bradley played baseball as a kid, mickey is a trekkie and also catholic or at least raised catholic (he crosses himself before they launch on the mission in the draft script), harvard and yale were the only duo that came from the same squadron together before the movie, and bradley and jake and natasha were in top gun together at the same time. there’s probably more backstory you could piece together for everyone by looking at their service medals/ribbons they wear but i fear i am not knowledgeable enough about that sort of stuff without a lot more research. they all mostly have the same ones but natasha has a NATO medal, jake has a navy unit commendation ribbon, and reuben has a joint service achievement medal.

also silly canon details that aren’t background info but i still love: jake wears what i’m pretty sure is a class ring on his right ring finger, he’s also the only trainee i recall seeing actually wear his tags, he likes van halen and foghat and seems to be a classic rock fanatic, natasha wears a plain gold band on her left index finger, mickey, reuben, natasha, and bob all use those multicolor clicky pens, bradley is i think the only one of the main squad who doesn’t have the fingertips cut off his flight gloves, halo’s tank top has her squadron logo on it during the football scene, and those stupid jorts bradley wears were definely just jeans he cut the legs off himself 😭.

[mike-wheeler-ik-what-you-are]

forget hot girl summer imma bout to have busy girl autumn and stressed girl winter

[sincericida]

ANDREW GARFIELD & FLORENCE PUGH

at the Valentino Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 show & after party as part of Paris Fashion Week on October 01, 2023 in Paris, France.

[abnormalpsychology]

thrilling sequel to my poll from back in January

[princehatterene]

i have so many pokemon games i need to beat too lol

[alagaisia]

I’m reminded of that post about how goths and people who wear only lots of pink are actually the same because “wearing only one color” is a specific choice in opposition to just looking Normal

I’m flying to a friend’s wedding today, and I recently acquired from my neighborhood free page a very pretty vintage suitcase in like a brocade upholstery texture in all of my good colors, so of course I needed a coordinated airport outfit à la Midge Maisel. You guys don’t know me, but I usually dress very put together, in what my sister calls Outfits, with a capital O to distinguish it from just wearing clothes. And since getting a full time job I’ve been slowly adding to my collection of vintage and 50’s-vibes clothes, because I just really like that aesthetic (my bridesmaid dress for the wedding is a vintage tea dress I got from Etsy. The fabric is in great condition but I had to reinforce pretty much every seam with my sewing machine, because the structural integrity of the original thread was breaking down, so that was an interesting learning experience).

All of which is to say that I Dressed Up for the airport in a vintage-y outfit that coordinates perfectly with some of the colors of my suitcase, and my hair is curled, and I have a vintage leather purse that my grandma gave me that matches her watch that I’m wearing and the shoes she bought me last summer at the same vintage store that my skirt came from, and a teenage-ish girl with whatever you call the 2023 teenage equivalent of emo/punk vibes, like the dark maroon mullet and not a lot of makeup and dark comfy clothes but like, very on purpose, told me I look cool when I walked past on the way to security

And like, she Gets It! We have different fashion goals but I think we put a similar degree of intention into the way we look compared to just wearing regular clothes. Which is cool! It’s validating. Not that I really need validation, but it’s always nice to get compliments, of course. And the way I dress is really not terribly distinctive most of the time, other than being Outfits and a little dressier than maybe the norm is, like I think most people who see me one time in passing would see that I look Nice but not necessarily see it as a cultivated Look. But punk mullet girl gets it.

[narsimsist]

Blue baby 🩵