#that's definitely not a tag

[flyingwargle]

flufftober day 20: paw

suna wasn’t allowed to have pets growing up because of his parents’ disinterest and his own lack of free time to care for them outside of volleyball. because of this, he’s somewhat awkward around animals, often hanging back while his friends give them head pats. he would approach afterwards to stroke their fur or observe from a distance, content to take pictures.

who knew that he’d get to the point where he’d train a dog to do tricks?

he’s sitting in the living room with sriracha, her container of kibble beside him. she watches him lift her front paw and shake it. “paw,” he tells her, staring into her wide eyes. she lowers her paw when he releases her, and he says, “okay. sriracha, paw.”

she blinks, lowering her nose to touch his hand. suna sighs, although it’s out of amusement. “not quite. paw.” he nudges her aside to lift her paw and shake it. “paw. this is your paw.” he releases it again, and says, “sriracha, paw.”

a beat passes. her front paw lifts off the floor, and suna grasps it, shakes it. using his other hand to pat her head, he reaches into the container for a piece of kibble. “good girl.” she eagerly licks it from his palm.

“rin?” osamu’s voice drifts from the hallway. “where are ya?”

“living room,” he calls out. “with sriracha, if you’re looking for her.”

his boyfriend emerges from the hallway, fingers dragging along the wall, swinging his head around to locate them. “whaddaya doin’?”

“trying to teach sriracha a paw trick. it’s working, somewhat.” he pets her as osamu walks around them to sit on the couch. “it usually takes a while to train dogs, right?”

osamu shrugs. “depends. it took ‘tsumu a week ta teach her ta hug people.”

“what.” he’s incredulous. “why?”

“sakusa had ta go ta hong kong fer a week, so ‘tsumu stayed over an’ moped. i told ‘im ta do somethin’ productive or i wasn’t gonna feed ‘im, an’ he taught sriracha ta how ta hug.” osamu leans forward, hand ruffling her golden fur. “sriracha, give rin a hug.”

she jumps onto his lap and pushes her muzzle against his face. suna yelps, startled, running his hands along her flank, sputtering when she licks his cheek. “down, girl. i get enough hugs from your dad. i don’t need any more.”

“ya can never get enough hugs from sriracha,” osamu snorts. “what kinda paw trick are ya teachin’ her?”

“just the basic one, where she raises her paw for a handshake. it’s kind of working.” suna gently urges her off his lap. “sriracha, sit.” she’s quick to obey. “good girl. sriracha, paw.” he holds his hand toward her. “come on, girl, paw.” sriracha rises and pads toward osamu instead, nudging his knee. “and she just completely ignored me.”

“she’s signalin’ that she wants a walk,” osamu says with a chuckle. “it’s that time o’ the day, anyway. wanna come? i needa grab some vegetables from the supermarket.”

suna agrees, and they quickly change. osamu clips the leash on his guide dog’s collar and buckles the harness around her before they exit. stepping into the crisp fall afternoon, they walk toward the supermarket.

he’s watched sriracha work many times over, but he’s still fascinated by how diligent she is, stopping at every curb, reacting swiftly at every command, maneuvering around obstacles that cross their path. all sidewalks in the city have tactile blocks for visually impaired pedestrians, so osamu could navigate with only his white cane, but a guide dog grants him independence to a greater degree.

“the light is green,” suna says, watching the light blink from red to green.

“thanks. let’s go, sriracha.” osamu takes a step forward, his guide dog following.

they reach the supermarket, and suna grabs a basket. he follows after his boyfriend, watching him inspect each produce with light touches across the leaves to make a selection. they’re regulars at this point, the workers all familiar with them and sriracha that they sneak treats to osamu to give to his dog once she’s off harness.

their visit is brief, and they’re back in their apartment. osamu starts dinner preparations while suna grooms sriracha, then sits her back down in the living room with the container of kibble. if atsumu can teach a trick in a week, then he should be able to, as well. “come on, girl. i might not be teaching you how to hug but i do want to teach you something new. sriracha, paw.”

she raises her front paw slightly and suna grasps it to shake, then feeds her a piece of kibble. “one more time. sriracha, paw.” this time, it’s faster, slightly forward for him to grasp. he rewards her again, adding a heat pat. “good girl.”

“stop feedin’ her,” osamu calls out. “we’re gonna have dinner soon.”

“yeah, yeah. you did a good job today.” suna pats her head again, taking the container with him into the kitchen, where osamu is preparing udon. “need any help?”

“nah, i’m almost done. can ya grab the bowls an’ cutlery ta set the table?”

dinner is lovely, as always, and the rest of the evening passes. the couple sits on the couch for downtime, sriracha prowling through the living room, looking for attention. suna looks up from his phone when he watches osamu pet her. “you should try the paw trick with her.”

osamu puts his laptop down and faces her. “fine. sriracha, sit.” she moves into position. “sriracha, paw.” a pause, and then her front paw lifts off the ground. osamu blinks. a beat passes. “rin, ya idiot. how am i s’posed ta see her paw?”

suna suppresses a chuckle. “whoops.” he moves closer, reaching for osamu’s hand to guide him toward sriracha’s paw. “there. shake it, since it’s part of the trick.”

“good girl.” osamu shakes it, then releases her, and she moves away. he turns to suna instead, slight frown faltering with amusement. “yer the only one who can reinforce that trick with her, ‘cause i can’t see it.”

“i trained her to lift her front paw, but maybe i’ll train her to use her other paw to mess with you.” suna smirks, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. “i could train her to put her paw on your hand, instead. the possibilities are endless.”

“yer enjoyin’ this, aren’t ya?”

“more than i thought.”

osamu laughs. suna wraps an arm around him, lets his boyfriend lean against him. maybe in the future, he’ll train sriracha to be their ring bearer.

[whyissupernaturaltrending]

a former US president gets shot at and rather than trend himself he causes supernatural to trend instead because everyone is sharing the news via the destiel meme. unparalleled

[crowkip]

yeehaw, baby!

[throesofincreasingwonder]

"A story doesn't need a theme in order to be good" I'm only saying this once but a theme isn't some secret coded message an author weaves into a piece so that your English teacher can talk about Death or Family. A theme is a summary of an idea in the work. If the story is "Susan went grocery shopping and saw a weird bird" then it might have themes like 'birds don't belong in grocery stores' or 'nature is interesting and worth paying attention to' or 'small things can be worth hearing about.' Those could be the themes of the work. It doesn't matter if the author intended them or not, because reading is collaborative and the text gets its meaning from the reader (this is what "death of the author" means).

Every work has themes in it, and not just the ones your teachers made you read in high school. Stories that are bad or clearly not intended to have deep messages still have themes. It is inherent in being a story. All stories have themes, even if those themes are shallow, because stories are sentences connected together for the purpose of expressing ideas, and ideas are all that themes are.

[spyres]

[tonia-aaaaa]

Old Double Life fanart that still goes hard, bc i put ridiculous amounts of thought into it back when i made it. This one was a hit on the 'gram.

[official-time-loop-posts]

Thank you to @sleepnoises for making the original poll & for giving us the idea to to this :)

Sorry if we couldn’t get your favorite on here, we were limited to only 12 options (11 if you don’t include the “other” option).

[airagorncharda]

For any followers of mine still living with parents, guardians, family, or even just with roommates and who've never lived alone and/or fully on your own terms (whether ye be 16 or 60), I have TWO pieces of wisdom for you for when you eventually do:

You WILL discover that you were wrong about some shit you felt pretty strongly about before. Maybe you never realized how often your mom ACTUALLY cleans the bathroom and it turns out she asked for help really rarely. Maybe, much as it grates to admit, putting $50 into a different savings account every paycheck really IS the ONLY way to save any fucking money. Maybe that big rolling trashcan you resented your roommate putting in the kitchen, and got in that big fight about, really WAS super convenient and now you have to buy one for yourself after they move out and take it with them. Maybe blanching vegetables so they retain their color when cooked actually DOES enhance a meal, pretty food slaps actually, and the reason you didn't think it was worth the effort is because you were depressed.

You WILL also discover new shit that works SO much better for you than everything you'd been taught. Maybe you'll discover that dropping trash off at a recycling center at your convenience works way better for your brain than getting it picked up on a set day. Maybe you'll realize you don't actually hate tofu, you just hate how your family cooks tofu. Maybe you'll love being able to walk around the house naked whenever you want. Maybe you'll find you thrive in a space with giant framed nude photography, or taxidermy animals, or fandom themed Everything. Maybe you'll realize that keeping the thermostat set like 5 degrees colder (or hotter) than is typical makes you sleep better than you ever have before in your whole life.

The point of this wisdom is: Stay humble, but also, stay excited. There's no point pretending you weren't wrong about shit you were wrong about, just eat the crow and move on. But also, there's so much to look forward to about your own space-- even more than you could ever imagine when you don't have it yet.

[500-moths-in-a-trenchcoat]

for the new year, i have decided to make a couple edits and additions to the almighty Calendar. happy 2024.

IT JUST HAPPENS

DAY 15 GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 15

Thursday the 20th

The Fifth of Wednesday

Second Week of May: Eurovision

Sometime in June: That One Halloween Post Starts Circulating

Sometime in July: Dancing Pumpkin Man Video/Gif

WEEKLY EVENTS (at least the ones i celebrate)

Every Monday: Garfield Hates Mondays

Every Tuesday: Tom Servo Tuesday

Every Wednesday: It Is Wednesday My Dudes

Every Thursday: Out of Touch Thursday

Every Friday: Flat Fuck Friday

Every Saturday: Sea Slug Saturday

Every Sunday: Energy Sword Sunday

YEARLY EVENTS

January 1: Copyright Expiration Day

January 8: Spiders Georg Day

January 16: Appreciate a Dragon Day

January 18: Bug Race

January 29: Threshold Day

All of February: Funguary

ALSO All of February: Femslash February

February 3: WOE, VANILLA EXTRACT BE UPON YE

February 13: Galentines Day

February 14: Aromantic/Asexual Day

March 9: Miku Day

March 10: Mario Day

March 14: Pi Day

March 15: Ides of March

March 23: Ever Given Got Stuck Today

April 1: Mishapocalypse

April 2: Dashcon Announcement Anniversary

April 3: Dannypocalypse

April 8: Rex Manning Day

ALSO April 8: MARGARET THATCHER IS DEAD

April 13: Neil Banging Out The Tunes

ALSO April 13: Homestuck Day

April 20: haha 420 blaze it

April 25: The Perfect Date

April 28: Ed Balls Day

April 30: It's Gonna Be May

All of May: Mermay

May 3: Beginning of Dracula Daily

May 4: May the 4th Be With You

May 5: Revenge of the Fifth

May 25: The Glorious 25th of May

All of June: Pride Month

ALSO All of June: IT'S HALLOWEEN TIME TO GET SPOOKY

June 5: Barricade Day

ALSO June 5: RONALD REAGAN IS DEAD

June 12: Another Homestuck Day

June 16: Let Papyrus Say Fuck

June 22: Summerween

All of July: Disability Pride Month

July 11-13: Dashcon Anniversary

July 20: Moon Landing

September 8: The Queen Is Dead and Sans Undertale Killed Her

September 11: Mole Interest Monday

September 19: Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 21: DO YOU REMEMBER-

All of October: SKELETON WAR

ALSO All of October: People Draw A Lot Month? (so many names)

October 3: Mean Girls Day

ALSO October 3: Fullmetal Alchemist Day

October 13: Treat Yo' Self

October 20: Unnecessary Feelings Day

October 31: HALLOWEEN

November 5: honestly what didn't happen that day

November 19: Goncharov

November 29: HENRY KISSINGER IS DEAD

All of December: Will the Gävle Goat Get Destroyed Again?

December 10: Please, It's Christmas

December 12: Hawaii Part 2

December 23: Christmas Adam

December 24: ALMOST CHRISTMAS MEANS IT WASN'T CHRISTMAS

ALSO December 24: Cabinet Man Day

December 27: Porn Ban Effective Today

[athanmis]

PET postal!!!!

[locksox]

mfw i stayed up past 12am into my birthday just to colour this

[hugs-and-stabbies]

The self-awareness on this guy 😞 someone pls send him an "are you bi?" quiz STAT

[sopuu]

two birds on a wire, one can fly and the other cannot

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

[but-i-hear-you-anyway]

cutest ever baby house centipede i found at work

[lenny-link]

Meet femScout’s Pa! 👔