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forthegothicheroine · 3 years ago

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January 2022 Reading Report

Read:

The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White (DNF)

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

Jeeves in the Morning by P. G. Wodehouse

Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman

Terrible Things: An Allegory for the Holocaust by Eve Bunting illustrated by Stephen Gammell

Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence by Bill James

Still reading:

Nobody’s Perfect: Writings from the New Yorker by Anthony Lane

The Many Faces of Van Helsing, anthology

Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood* by James Malcolm Rymer (*I will still be trying to finish this book on my deathbed)

Why not try this again for the new year? I read a lot of books, often at once, usually a mix of my owned tbr list and the online Boston Public Library ebook collection.

The Excalibur Curse, the third book in Kiersten White’s Camelot Rising Trilogy, was a real disappointment, but I probably should have seen it coming. The first book had delighted me with its unique portrayal of Camelot as a city built into a mountain, its troubled elfin Guinevere, and its burgeoning love square with steadfast Arthur, untrustworthy Mordred and loyal but secretive Lancelot. The second book started letting me down, as Arthur got very little development and Mordred became a much more conventional woobie bad boy (Lancelot was pretty great, though.) This continued into the third and final installment, and it just didn’t seem worth it to finish when most of what I’d originally liked was gone. I’m a big fan of some of White’s other work, so maybe I’m just too particular about Arthuriana.

Mary Roach has written a bunch of interesting-sounding pop science books, and as soon as I heard the title and premise of Fuzz I knew I had to read it. Between this and last year’s favorite A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, it turns out I love animal crime! Though not all criminals here are animals- plants also find ways to disrupt human life, it seems. My favorite chapters were the one about Fish and Game forensics guys who determine whether killings were committed by humans or animals (we need a procedural show about this!) and the one about elephants who rampage through farms while totally protected by the law. The line “Why would you kill a god?” has stuck with me ever since I read it.

I’m doing the Books in the Freezer Challenge this year, reading various horror books, and one category to check off was Horror Graphic Novel- searching for a good fill for this lead me to Beasts of Burden, a series about suburban neighborhood dogs (and a couple cats) dealing with monsters and the supernatural. The art is gorgeous and there’s some very clever stuff about familiars and werewolves (I really love the werewolf creature design!) I’m told some of the main characters die in the series, but thankfully that didn’t happen in this first book.

I’m always on the lookout for any books that my store website tags “gothic”, so that’s how I found The Death of Jane Lawrence! It’s a pseudo-Victorian story set in a fantasy world (a trend I’ve been noticing- I last saw it in The Beautiful Ones), which allows the author to make up whatever local history is demanded by the plot. This seems reasonable enough. The plot is a bit of Rebecca and a bit of Frankenstein, and I’m honestly not totally sure what happened at the end. It was an entirely serviceable book, so I’m not sure why I wasn’t satisfied by it. Maybe I want my gothics to be more lurid? Maybe the romance was lackluster?

During a sad day I started reading Jeeves in the Morning, on the theory that you can’t be sad while Bertie Wooster complains about his family. I love the Bertie and Jeeves stories (though I’m not crazy about the tv show- I think they overplay it with the mugging.) Bertie is veery charming in how much he knows that he’s an idiot, and this contains one of my favorite sentences in any book. When an acquaintance of his tries to brush him off, Bertie isn’t having it: “Experts have tried to rid themselves of Bertram Wooster and had to admit defeat.” The plot isn’t much, but did you really need it to be?

Due to the current censorship news, I decided to reread the Maus books, which I did over the course of one rather miserable night. I’d read it in my adolescence, at it’s still just as haunting as I remembered. As a Jewish kid who attended a Jewish school for many years, I’ve read a lot of Holocaust stuff, but not a whole lot about generational trauma. Spiegelman’s depiction of his father, and how traits like caution and resourcefulness that helped him in times of crisis curdled afterwards into paranoia and selfishness from the trauma, was much more complicated than the people on TVTropes seem to recognize.

...and then I read Terrible Things, which I’d heard of previously, after seeing it recommended during discussions about Maus. Like Maus, the protagonists are depicted as animals, in this case woodland creatures enacting the “First they came for the Jews...” story. I don’t think the analogy totally works (in that there would have been a lot more animals cheering when the Terrible Things took away the birds and scrambling to steal their belongings, for instance) but it’s very upsetting and very memorable. It would definitely scare the pants off of children. Is this good or bad? I don’t know, I was terrified when they read The Lorax to us in kindergarten that the world was about to end, and I had to grow up knowing Holocaust stories whether I wanted to or not. This almost seems beside the point, but dear god, the artwork! These illustrations are some of the best horror art I’ve ever seen. The shadows which shroud the Terrible Things grasp and claw and shift on their own, and then the glimpse of a face (Himmler, I’m told) takes the trope of humans being bad guys in animal stories and twists it into a humanoid abomination worse than any creepypasta figure. I keep flipping through the ebook over and over just to stare.

Finally, Popular Crime was an incredibly variable book that rocketed up and down all over the place. I have no idea if I like this book. I have a guilty fondness for true crime- not in the usual guilty pleasure sense of “this is kind of cringe but I love it” but in that there are legitimate ethical questions regarding the field- and this book examines that but doesn’t really come up with any well thought out answers. James is a very engaging writer, and seeing crimes that hit headlines across the last century or so is very interesting in terms of what fascinates us by the era. His speculations about the truth behind some of these crimes varies drastically in its plausibility- he’s definitely convinced me of serious doubt about Lizzie Borden’s guilt, but I didn’t quite buy the idea that the intruder who killed JonBenet Ramsey deliberately tried to frame her parents. And while I’m not the kind of leftist who throws around the term “liberal” as an insult (that’s too vague to be useful!) his periodic “all these problems are equally the fault of democrats and republicans!” hot takes felt a bit forced.

As to the books I started in January, will I finish them in February? Almost certainly Nobody’s Perfect (beautifully written and sometimes hilariously caustic reviews and essays) and The Many Faces of Van Helsing (a fun but mixed bag of stories), but I don’t know if I will ever finish Varney the Vampire, which spends so many chapters with nothing happening I’m surprised serial readers had enough interest to keep up. I have to try, though.

#books #holocaust cw

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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

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Discredit Pt. 2: More Recommended Reviews For A.Z. Fell’s

Alright, folks. Some notes first:

1. You all rock. I’m sending out 20k+ virtual hugs for all the notes I NEVER expected to get on this nonsense.

2. This is probably the final section, just because I’m not sure I can adequately follow up part one and it might be foolish to attempt it here. Let alone twice. But for now, here we go.

3. Kudos to the anon who reminded me of Aziraphale’s cash-only policy <3

4. Nicole Y’s review is based off an actual comment I read years ago, but heaven only knows where online it was. I’ve got the memory of a goldfish.

5. Trigger warning for the use of a queer slur in this. It’s the same review as above, number 5 if you want to avoid it.

6. There’s a text-only version of just the reviews at the end, after all the images. I’ll upload that to my Sparse Clutter collection on AO3 in a bit.

Bonus 7. People thinking this is a real shop deserve all the good things in this world.

That’s all I’ve got. Hope you enjoy! 👍

****************************************************************************

I’m a simple guy who likes simple jokes. If there’s a whoopee cushion I plant it. I will call you up to ask if your refrigerator is running and then tell you to go catch it. (Actually that one died out so thoroughly it’s actually capable of a comeback now!). Yes, I’m a dad and yes, I have a t-shirt that says Dad Jokes? I Think You Mean Rad Jokes! which I wear un-ironically every Saturday. All of which is just to say that my wife was well prepared for my stupidity when I walked into Fell’s.

I? I was not.

You see the bibles when you walk in? The ones to the left? Let them be. Don’t even look at them. Definitely don’t pick out the fanciest one you can find and absolutely don’t walk up to the owner with it held in your pudgy little fingers, grinning like a loon, cheerfully asking whether this should be in the fiction section. Just don’t. Mark my words you’ll regret it. Though your wife won’t. She’ll get a great old laugh out of it all.

In conclusion: it’s quite possible that mama did raise a fool and he just got his ass verbally whooped by a guy in a bowtie.

***

Shout-out to Mr. Fell for being the only decent bloke in this city. I’ve popped in and out of his store for years—including before I started transitioning. So he knew my dead name, dead look, whole shebang and I was definitely nervous to play the ‘You know me, but this is what’s changed and are you gonna throw a fit about it?’ game.

You know what he said? “Oh, Rose! What a lovely choice. Crowley dear, why aren’t you growing any roses? Some white ones would look splendid next to my Henredon chair.”

That’s it. He just went straight into dragging his partner for not giving him roses. So hey, Mom? Next time you’re snooping through my social media why don’t you explain to all these nice people why the 50+yo book seller accepts me in ways you won’t. Don’t go telling me age is an excuse or that you’re ‘Stuck in your ways.’ I’ve watched Fell dress in the same damn clothes since I was ten!!

Yeah. Sorry. Rant over. Fell’s a gem. That’s my take. Rose out.

***

Anyone else in the shop when that guy started yelling about buying pornography? And then got escorted into the back room for some ‘private conversation’? Well done, Mr. Fell! Didn’t know you had it in you.

***

Alright alright alright alright I am TOTALLY calm about this.

Went into A.Z. Fell’s last Thursday. Not because I knew anything about the place. Just because I’ve been hitting up every bookshop within a twenty-mile radius, asking if they’re hosting any book signings. Long story short I self-published my novel Blight last month—which you can get for a mere £5 here but I swear this isn’t a promotional thing I’m just BROKE—and have been looking for networking opportunities, tips, stuff like that. So the owner listened politely as I explained all this. Then said he didn’t do anything of that sort, which didn’t surprise me given the shop’s vibe.

But then? Then??? He offered to let me do a signing there??????

As said. Totally calm about this. This man either plans to kidnap me or is actually giving me my first shot at an audience outside my blog. AKA totally worth the risk.

Tuesday the 9th. 7:00pm. Just in case anyone’s interested ;)

***

holy sweet baby jesus i was tripping balls last week you tryin’ to tell me that kING KONG SIZED FANGED FUCK SNAKE IS REAL

***

Witnessed the most perfect exchange the other day:

Grumpy Dude With No Manners: “You. Boy. Where’s the man I spoke with over the phone?”

Mr. Fell’s Partner Who Knows Damn Well Only Two of Them Work There But Clearly Doesn’t Like This Guy’s Tone: “Did this man give you his name?”

Grumpy Dude: “Might have. Don’t remember. Sounded like a fairy though.”

Me: “....”

My girlfriend: “....”

This Poor Sweet Startled Kid On Our Left: “?!?!?!?”

Fell’s Partner In The Drollest Voice I’ve Ever Heard: “None of us have wings. Out!”

***

This shop gets full stars simply because every time I walk in they’re playing Queen.

I mean, I’ve walked in once, but once is enough when you’ve got Crazy Little Thing Called Love blasting full volume.

***

Okay, I’m still kind of shaken up but I needed to write this out somewhere and this seemed as good a place as any.

I spilled my latte on a book. Just tripped on thin air, popped the lid, and chucked a venti’s worth of coffee all over a very expensive looking text. I didn’t mean to, obviously, but it happened and I just started bawling on the spot. Full on sobs because this semester has been absolute hell, I ruined this guy’s antique, there’s no way I can pay for it, I can’t even sneak away because I’m drawing the whole store’s attention...just all the things all at once. I really was straight up panicking and was seconds away from pulling out my inhaler. I couldn’t breathe.

And then Mr. Fell showed up.

Jesus it’s embarrassing to admit but I think I hit him once or twice. On the arms I mean, because he was trying to touch me and I figured, I don’t know, it was a restraint or something. He was going to call the police and hold me until they got there. But then he managed to start rubbing my back and I lost it like I hadn’t already been bawling my eyes out in this shop. Ever cry into a perfect stranger’s chest? I have! But if Mr. Fell seemed to mind he definitely didn’t show it. Just kept holding me while I probably ruined his shirt and then took me into the back and made me a new coffee in this cute little angel mug. He let me stay there while I called my sister and waited for her to arrive.

She’s a good twenty minutes outside of Soho, so we talked for a while. It’s not like Mr. Fell could fix my shit roommate or bio classes, but I guess just talking about it all really helped. I was a lot calmer by the time my sis arrived and Mr. Fell insisted I come back any time I wanted—for browsing or more coffee.

Of course, sis offered to pay for the book herself. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look so surprised in my life. “Certainly not!” he said. “Contrary to popular belief, no one should pay for their mistakes. It’s what makes you all so wonderfully human.”

So yeah. Thanks, Mr. Fell.

***

This little shop must have started a book club for kids! Lately I’ve seen the same group of children hanging out at Fell’s. Three boys and a girl. They’re a bit rambunctious at times, but who isn’t at that age? So wonderful seeing literature passed down to the next generation. Even if some of it is rather questionable looking...

***

It’s an honest crime that more of you aren’t talking about what a wonderful bookstore this is.

I’m a book lover at heart and Fell’s always makes me feel like I’m coming home. I just arrived somewhere safe and familiar after a particularly harrowing day. I’ve slipped under the covers of my bed after dinner and a bubble bath. It’s something like that, but with an element of surprise too. One of the reasons why I adore private and used shops over chain stores is that little touch of chaos. You walk in and sure, there are general sections to browse, but everything is just a little bit disorganized from people leafing through books and then putting them back somewhere else. There’s no real record keeping, you’ve just gotta head to one particular corner and hope for the best. It’s not the sort of place you go to if you want something specific because the chances of them having it are slim—that’s just how the universe works—and even if they did no employee knows where it is anymore.

But if you wander the shelves for a while, crouch down low to get a look at everything on the bottom shelf, pay attention to the books that don’t have easy to read titles or any summaries to speak of... you just might find something you didn’t know you were looking for. That’s Fell’s: the comfort of the familiar and the excitement of the unknown.

*** A lot of people might assume that these stories are embellished or outright made up, but as a bookseller myself going on twenty years I believe every single one of them.

That being said, I accidentally moved a rug and found chalk sigils that look like they belong in a cult. Make of that what you will.

***

There’s a special place in hell for 21st century shop owners that only take cash. Who carries cash anymore? Not me! I haven’t bothered with that nonsense in years! You can get a card reader for 15 pounds on Amazon. Or you know what? Be stingy and pay 7 for the little attachment on your phone. This place is nuts if it thinks it’s going to survive much longer on a cash-only policy, especially with some books that look like they’re worth hundreds or thousands of pounds! Yeah, yeah, just let me pull out this giant wad of bills for you. I’ll carry them around a crime-laden city because there’s no ATM near you either.

I mean jesus, you’d think this guy didn’t want to sell anything.

***

I walked in. There was a man screaming at a fern while another threatened him with an umbrella. I walked out.

5 stars do recommend.

***

I once walked in on the same (?) guy yelling at a book for daring to fall on the owner’s head. I think that’s just a Thing over there.

***

Like a lot of people here I didn’t actually go to Fell’s for any books (flat tire, Angel Recovery taking forever) and ended up staying three hours (not because of Angel). No, I wandered towards the back and found this ancient CRT set propped on a table of books, the kind that my Dad used to watch Twilight Zone on. This lanky guy had a marathon of Gilmore Girls going... though how he was managing that with a broken antenna and no DVR, I really don’t know. But yeah. He told me to pull up a chair and I did. Guy gave me popcorn.

I wish I’d paid a little more attention to his name. Charlie? Curley? I really can’t remember, but thanks for the enjoyable afternoon, man.

***

I BOUGHT A BOOK HERE

Not sure how though. Just kinda happened. First edition of Just William. Frankly I didn’t even want the thing, but the owner basically shoved me out the door with it when I took two seconds to look at the spine. Odd that he was so willing to part with this one.

Update: ... hold up. I didn’t buy a book because I never actually paid the guy. ‘Basically shoved me out the door’ was literal. Do I go back??

***

This page has really gone feral the last couple of months so I’m just gonna bite the bullet and say it:

Anyone notice that Fell’s snake and Fell’s partner are never in the same room together?

***

I really don’t like the implications of this…

***

This is precisely why the Internet has turned into a cesspool. You all should be ashamed of some of the stuff you’re writing here. Can’t two men just be friends anymore? Two real life men? These guys aren’t some characters for you to ‘ship’ or whatever. Quit making outrageous assumptions about their sexualities and use this website for what it’s actually for: reviewing the bookshop. Honestly I’m so sick of this sort of this shit.

***

Dude. They run a queer-focused shop together with a flat on the second floor. Fell calls the guy ‘Dear’ and he’s always calling him ‘Angel.’ People have literally seen them kissing. If you want I can give you the number of my physician. He might be able to help you pull your head out of your ass.

***

What the hell is your problem? I’m literally just reminding people to stop making assumptions. It’s gross and insulting. These guys check their Yelp page. You really think they’re gonna be okay with this stuff?

Also: I’m not the five-year-old relying on insults, so.

***

Making an account purely to set the record straight: I’m the hot twink in question and I married that angel. Peace

#good omens #ineffable husbands #air conditioning #good omens fic #guess who spent 48 hours doing nothing but writing and formatting #can I get a wahoo

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crashdevlin · 4 years ago

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Centerfold 4- Memory’s Been Sold

Centerfold Masterlist

Author’s Note: Written for Meghan who requested some fluffy A/B/O smut and then I came up with an idea and ran with it. Smut will start after the plot is established. Also, this is gonna go toward my @spnabobingo squares. This chapter fills my Slutty Omega square and is rated E for Explicit.

Summary: Dean is living the normal-boring life with Lisa. When he opens the newest Playboy, he gets the shock of his life.

Pairing: Alpha!Dean x Beta!Lisa, Alpha!Dean x Reader (memory)

Word count: 2083

Story Warnings: A/B/O dynamics, 18+! HERE BE SEX!! DON’T READ IF YOU’RE A YOUNG’UN!!! , masturbation, pornography, mentions of multiple partners, mentions of fem-fem porn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean pulled his pickup into the gas station down the street from Lisa’s house...his house. He had a house. He had a home, a family, an 8-5 job on a construction crew. He had...a real life. A real boring life. He was bored, but he supposed it was normal to feel bored, right?

“Hey, Jerry. The coffee fresh?” Dean asked as he walked into the convenience store.

“Half hour old,” the clerk, Jerry, answered with a smile. “And, uh, it’s Tuesday!”

Dean chuckled as he grabbed a thick paper cup and poured dark, bitter liquid into it. “New mags came in, huh?”

“Yeah. The Penthouse center is hot as hell, man. Oh, and the Playmate of the Month is the hottest omega I’ve ever fuckin’ seen!”

Dean laughed as he fitted the top on the cup. “Well, bring ‘em out, man. You know I’m gonna buy ‘em.” He took a drink as he walked up to the counter. Jerry had a Penthouse and a Playboy on the counter already. “They’re that good, huh?”

“Dude...especially the omega Playmate, man. She is smoking hot.”

Dean set the coffee on the counter and picked up the Playboy, slipping it out of the sleeve and looking at the cover. The cover was a woman, Taffy Rose according to the tiny script on the bottom next to the photographer credit, in a strawberry-print bikini and bunny mask. Hot, but nothing special. Nothing different or new. But he flipped the magazine open to the center and gasped.

“Holy shit.” The bunny mask was gone, her body on full display except the bits of skin hidden by the pink feather boa. His throat went dry. His cock got hard in jeans. His head felt like it might explode.

“I know, right?!” Jerry exclaimed, happily. “Isn’t she the hottest thing you’ve ever seen?”

“Yeah. She’s the hottest thing I’ve ever…” Dean’s voice trailed off as he focused on her neck. No mark. He hoped they hadn’t photoshopped one out. She was the hottest thing he’d ever touched, tasted, the best thing he’d ever missed out on...Taffy Rose, Y/n Y/l/n...his omega. Dean cleared his throat and tried to close the magazine, but he couldn’t. She’d grown up so beautiful and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. “She, uh...she been in anything I might’ve seen?”

“I don’t know, Dean. I’m Googling her name as soon as I get home. I suggest you do the same, man.”

“Yeah. Uh...I’m just gonna...I’m just gonna take the Playboy. I’ll get the Penthouse next time, Jer.” Dean threw a ten on the counter and walked out with the magazine, leaving his coffee behind and not even caring. He sat in his truck cab for a few minutes, staring at her photo. Y/n went into porn. Whoever would have thought that sweet little innocent young woman with the overprotective parents would- “Actually, no, that makes sense.”

He rubbed his hand over his erection as he looked at the ‘fuck me’ look in her eyes. It didn’t take long for his mind to drift back to her under him, holding him, letting out gasping cries as he fucked her, that look in her eyes as she dug her nails into his shoulders.

His cock softened as he remembered getting on the phone with her to tell her he was leaving.

He felt like he was going to cry when the line clicked. “Y/l/n Residence!”

“Y/n, it’s Dean.”

“Oh, hey! I just got finished washing every surface you touched,” she said, giggling. That giggle tugged at his heart. “I can’t wait to see you again, though. It was so worth the cleaning time.”

“Yeah, uh...it was awesome, baby, but...my, uh, my dad called.”

“Oh?” Dean could almost hear the heartbreak in her voice.

“Yeah. He...got word of a job in Connecticut. He’s pickin’ us up tomorrow.” There was silence on the line for a minute. “Y/n?”

“You’re leaving?” she squeaked.

“Yeah.” Dean had to fight the tears. “Yeah, we’re leaving.”

“But...what about...I...am I gonna get to see you again at all?”

“Not unless you can sneak out tonight. Dad’ll be here in the morning. We’ll be gone before noon.”

“Oh God.”

Dean took a deep breath and started the truck, driving home with a pit in his stomach. He immediately hid the magazine in his desk and sat in the rolling desk chair. He looked around to make sure Lisa and Ben were both out of the den area, hoping they were out of the house, before pulling up Google and searching for ‘Taffy Rose omega xxx’. Several thousand results popped up, so Dean went to the first. A video on Pornhub labeled ‘Sweet omega Taffy seduces her best friend Kat at a sleepover’. Dean swallowed and licked his lips, turning his volume down almost all the way and clicking on the video. She looked fairly innocent, without looking fake, which was a feat of its own considering he knew he was watching porn. The other actress wasn’t pulling it off anywhere near as well, especially the overacted reaction to ‘Taffy’ kissing her.

Dean could remember making out with her when she was just a little younger than the 18 year old she was pretending to be on his screen and it filled him with yearning to see her wrap her arms around this other woman’s neck and pull her in for a passionate kiss. He watched a little longer before hitting the back button and started searching through more and more results.

‘Omega Taffy Rose and her hot omega stepmom’ ‘Taffy Rose fucks her best friends’ ‘Sunny Sweets and Taffy Rose Turth or dare’ ‘Batgirl and Supergirl caught by Poison Ivy’

“Holy shit, she’s the hottest Supergirl,” Dean whispered, as he pulled his dick out of his jeans and started pumping it. It occurred to him, as he lazily jacked off and clicked through the ‘Taffy Rose’ tag on XNXX .com, that she was always with other women, usually other omegas. It took him forty minutes of clicking to find ‘Beta Brad Bull wants to know what omega tastes like’.

Not a single alpha in any of her videos, and not a mark on her neck, despite the fact that so many of her omega co-stars had marks that they had failed to cover no matter the makeup they used. And Brad and Taffy didn't go further than oral.

"That's weird," Dean whispered, tucking his dick back into his boxers but leaving the jeans open in a V. "Usually 'mega actresses are getting knotted every other scene."

He clicked off of the porn site and went back to Google, searching 'Taffy Rose alpha'. He found several blogs asking why a porn actress was unmated, some wondering how she could be in this business without fear of being taken by force, and some judging her for doing porn in the first place, but eventually he found an interview with her. He turned up the volume a bit and started it.

"Taffy, you have just burst on the scene and you've been staring in so many films this past year, it's crazy how popular you are all of a sudden!"

"Yeah, it is. I mean, I just started this as a fun way to make some money and now it's a full-on career!" Dean gasped at her voice. It was deeper than he remembered, seasoned with age, but that giggle at the end was exactly the same. That giggle made his heart hurt.

"Well, as long as you're having fun, right?"

"Exactly!"

"Now, I've noticed, and I'm not the only one, that you seem to favor lesbian scenes. Is that a personal preference, a reference to your actual sexuality, or-"

"Oh, no! I love guys. I live for cock, but…” Dean’s dick twitched at that. Why did her voice sound so musical...especially saying something so filthy? “I don't fuck alphas and there's a lot more work for an omega willing to fuck another omega than an omega willing to fuck a beta."

"Now, why don't you fuck alphas? It would seem a natural thing for you, right?"

She looked down, a bit of the bashful teen girl showing on her face. "Um...I just...it's dangerous, since I'm not mated...and it's special, ya know?” She bit her bottom lip and looked back up and Dean’s jaw dropped. “I may be a slut, but I can't fuck some random alpha and take his knot. I've never taken a knot and...probably never will."

"Fuck, I'd give anything to have you on my knot, Y/n," Dean whispered as the door opened and Lisa and Ben entered. Dean scrambled to exit out of the browser and cover the open jeans with his t-shirt. Reality crashed down on him. There was his family. There was his beta girlfriend and her son...his boy whether by blood or not. “H-hey, honey. How was work?”

“It was good. How was your day, Dean?” she asked, walking over to the desk in the den.

“It was-it was a day,” he answered, tilting his head to allow her to kiss his cheek.

“What’s this?” Lisa asked, pulling open the half-closed desk drawer. She gasped and slammed the drawer closed when she saw the magazine. “I cannot believe you!” she snapped.

“Come on, Lees, it’s just a Playboy,” Dean defended.

“‘Just a Playboy’? Dean, you’re living with a teen boy now! You can’t have this stuff! You can’t expose him to-”

Dean scoffed and stood, looking down into her eyes. “Lisa, I promise you that boy knows about porn and knows how to find the good stuff online. My Playboy is probably too tame for him.”

“How dare you? Ben would never-”

“Yeah? Check his browser history.” Dean rolled his eyes and stepped around her, walking out of the house and to the garage. He grabbed the cover and pulled it up just enough to open the door and climb into the front seat of the Impala. He took a minute to let a wave of nostalgia roll over him at the feel and smell of his baby before he settled back, legs kicked out and jeans shimmied down enough to pull his cock out.

He closed his eyes and wrapped his fingers around his base. He could see Y/n in his mind. He could hear her laugh. He could see her smile, the way her eyes lit up when he said her name. He started moving his hand up and down his length as he remembered the way Y/n looked at him the first time he sunk his dick into her.

He ran his thumb across the head and gasped as he remembered her digging her nails into his shoulder muscles, how innocent she sounded when she said ‘I think you can go faster’, the way she whimpered with every thrust, the way she wrapped her legs around his waist and babbled his name, the way she whispered ‘harder’ and thanked him when he grabbed her white wood headboard and started pounding into her like the alpha he was. He wanted nothing more than to knot her, but she couldn’t take it.

She could take it now. He wanted to fill her and knot her and make her scream. He wanted to hear her moan and giggle and gasp and-

His breath caught as cum shot out of his cock, splashing over his hand. He gasped in a breath before another stream of semen left him. “Fuck.” Dean fucked himself through his climax until there was absolutely nothing left for him to give and then he slumped into the leather.

He was suddenly filled with despair. He found her. His omega, the one that got away, the one woman his mind returned to in quiet moments. He found her, but she was in the San Fernando Valley in California and he was in Cicero...with Lisa and her boring, normal life. Lisa and her son that she coddled. Beta Lisa that sent him away when he went into rut, who would never be able to take a knot. He loved that Lisa took him in, nursed him back from the brink of breakdown, but the yearning he had pushed down since he was sixteen years old was now back with a burning vengeance.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Kitchen Sink - @emoryhemsworth @flamencodiva @wasabiwitteks @rainbowkisses31 @rissbennett @mariekoukie6661 @officiallyunofficialperson @dolphincliffs @mrs-meghan-winchester @gayspacenerd @foxyjwls007 @ilovefanfic86 @marvelfansworld @f-yeahfandoms @wonderlandfandomkingdom @hhiggs @sev3nruby @hobby27 @paintballkid711 @divadinag @thewhiterabbit42 @fantasymyth-1 @queenoftheunderdark @cosicas-cuquis @superfanficnatural @letsby @supernatural-bellawinchester @onethirstyunicorn @swinchester27 @chalicia @sunnyroadtrips @screechingartisancashbailiff @death-unbecomes-you Hunter Tags - @atc74 @sandlee44 @spnbaby-67 @kalesrebellion @tumbler-tidbits @hoboal87 @stoneyggirl @kbl1313 @cookiechipdough @mrswhozeewhatsis @winchesterxfamilybusiness @holylulusworld @pretty-fortune @screechingartisancashbailiff @we-are-all-a-bunch-of-idjits @imperiusimpala

Gaga For Green Eyes Tags- @typicalweirdbookworm @deanmonandnegansbitch @jadesupernatural @stoneyggirl @4fareader @squirrelnotsam @lyarr24 @akshi8278 @pretty-fortune @we-are-all-a-bunch-of-idjits

Centerfold Tags- @mychemicalimagines @moron225 @ladyofmaidensandwine @that-one-gay-girl @roonyxx @teresa-67

#cassie writes stuff #spn fanfic #reader-insert #a/b/o dynamics #alpha!dean #omega!reader #lisa braeden #pining #pornstar!reader

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quartzturtlecosplay · 4 years ago

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Plus Size Cosplaying and an Industry that fails us [Long post]

In late 2020, I purchased a cosplay from a popular online store, EZCosplay. This was before more recent accusations of false advertising and poor craftsmanship came out. I knew the store had some issues (I’ve purchased from them before and I knew first hand), but it was my only option for this specific cosplay.

I could go into detail about the many controversies of the store itself, but for now I’m going to talk about the main problem many of these online cosplay stores seem to have: working with non-standard sizes.

The struggle of finding good, plus size cosplays can be really difficult and almost heartbreaking. Most “plus size” cosplay listings still follow Asian sizing (where American 2XL is an Asian 5/6XL and still may not be big enough). Even if a costume can meet certain measurements, there’s no guarantee that it will fit or be flattering.

I’ve often had to find myself emailing specific stores, asking if their custom sizes go up to my measurements (I am B: 52, W: 46, H: 53, for reference). For my most recent attempt, I was looking for Asami Sato’s outfit from the first couple seasons of Legend of Korra [outfit reference]. Nothing too complicated, just a pair of wide fitting pants and a jacket. I was either met by emails saying “no, that’s too big for us” (despite their size guides saying they can make men’s cosplays in that size) or those that basically said “put in the order, and we’ll see what we could do” with no definitive answer. At the end of my search, I had only one option: EZCosplay.

The cosplay itself ended up being fine, a couple of details missing here or there and the gloves were practically worthless. But hey, at the end of the day I found something that fit, I should be happy right? Yes and No.

I’m not going to defend this store. I’ve bought a total of 3 cosplays from them, only 1 of which I’m actually alright with. And there are countless other stories from buyers who have suffered the same disappointment, ranging from all sizes. It’s the lack of care for customers that drive these companies to neglect their plus size markets. Although I was happy with the outcome this time, it was only because I’ve seen how bad things can get if you try finding something more fitted and structed.

Looking back to my first time working with EZCosplay, its easier to see the problem here. Back in 2018, I ordered a Love Live! Flower Bouquet Nozomi dress [pictured below]. For those who are unfamiliar with the design, Nozomi is a larger chested HS Idol. With this outfit, the white is supposed to go completely under the bust and the skirt should begin right above the hips [link to the reference].

Technically speaking, it did fit around me. They were able to make it in my measurements and it fit all the information I gave them. HOWEVER. as we can see, the white hits about halfway down my chest before stopping, not at all as pictured in her design. As larger people already know, when you translate smaller patters into bigger sizes without accounting for actual forms and shapes, you’re left with something like this. Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy wearing this cosplay.

As someone who is more used to making their own costumes, this is not how you make plus size clothes. Simply making a pattern bigger doesn’t automatically make it fit plus size bodies. If you’ve ever had to take standard patterns and upscale them to fit, you understand what I mean. Alterations must be made, otherwise you feel like you’re in a potato sack. This is the problem that most people have with EZCosplay. While their costumes do technically fit up to larger sizes and they offer custom measurements, they lack any suitable structure or fitting. I’m sure the Love Live! cosplay would look great on a smaller size, however that’s not what we’re working with (and no way in hell I’m changing myself to wear it).

Now, there are some ways to get around this. If you need less complicated and less structured cosplays, you’ll probably be fine. Or if you find one that allows you to customize the waist line yourself (like how a lot of Toph Beifong cosplays are or maid costumes with aprons, for example). You could easily get a My Hero Academia uniform or a Ouran High School Host Club jacket. Those would be no sweat for larger sizes. Again, bringing up my Asami cosplay, it doesn’t have much structure to it and it fits relatively okay.

But as plus size/larger cosplayers, we should be allowed to be WHOEVER we want and we should be able to find costumes that fit us that aren’t just suit coats and robes. I’m not saying we can’t wear these kinds of cosplays, I’m just saying we shouldn’t have to limit ourselves in what we wear just because that’s all they have for us. America’s standard size is 14/16 for woman. Just like in the regular fashion world, anything above those sizes are either incredibly expensive or they just straight up don’t exist.

As cosplaying becomes more popular, we need to push for more size inclusivity. There have already been so many changes in the last 10 years, with more online stores becoming readily available with larger size options, but we’re not there yet. We need to keep working and demanding big cosplay companies to expand sizes for more inclusivity. Not just plus size cosplayers, but those who are also in the body-positivity movement who actually want to see change.

Both the cosplay community and cosplay industry have a lot of problems. But it’s by talking about these problems that we can work to fix them. We don’t need to change ourselves to fit our fandom spaces, fandom spaces and the costume industry needs to change to accept us, regardless of size, age, race and gender.

If you are looking for sites that offer plus size options, check out:

Note - These are places I’ve found that fit my measurements of 52/46/53, I’ve stared (**) the ones that go beyond that

MicCostumes - Anime and Video Games (I’ve worked with them before, may review at a later time if anyone is interested)

Cosrea ** - Superheros, Disney, and Some Games (Free custom sizing)

HalloweenCostumes.com ** - General Pop Culture, US/UK based

FortuneHouse on Amazon - Large Anime selection

WoShow on Amazon - Large Anime selection

Angel Secret ** - Disney Princess (custom sizing)

And of course, EZCosplay with custom sizing and good discernment .

If you have any questions or would like a full review for how it was working with EZCosplay or MicCostumes, please let me know. As mentioned, I usually make cosplays myself but I’ve been trying to branch out with cosplay sites and closet cosplays, as they can be an easier and more affordable option.

#plus size cosplay #cosplay #cosplay community #cosplay review #pnw cosplay #ezcosplay #body positivity #plus size resources #plus size acceptance

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fyexo · 4 years ago

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200924 20 Questions With SuperM: The K-Pop Supergroup On Their New Album & Becoming ‘Like Family’ With Each Other

Last year, SuperM notched a huge win when their self-titled “mini album” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The K-pop supergroup -- which consists of members of EXO, SHINee, NCT 127 and WayV -- had generated a huge amount of buzz before releasing a single track thanks to its star-studded lineup, and with the No. 1 bow, SuperM was off to an explosive start.

With Super One, the group’s first full-length out Friday (Sept. 25), SuperM continues its positive momentum. The hopeful, hook-stuffed album allows all seven members of SuperM to shine, while also expanding the group’s pop aesthetic and finding the right balance between singing and rapping. Songs like “Wish You Were Here,” “Better Days” and lead single “100” demonstrate SuperM’s dexterity -- and even though it’s still uncertain when their global fans will be able to see the songs performed live, the collective sounds prepared to put on an eclectic, wide-ranging show with these tracks.

Ahead of their new album’s release, the members of SuperM answered 20 questions about their musical backgrounds, leaning on each other during the pandemic, the highlights of Super One and more:

1. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

BAEKHYUN: An Avril Lavigne CD. I really liked her music when I was young so I remember going to a CD store with my brother to buy her album.

2. What was the first concert you saw?

KAI: I remember I went to my first concert when I was 16 years old. This was Usher’s concert when he came to Korea. Seeing him perform onstage inspired me to work harder towards my dream to become an artist like him. I still can’t forget the energy and the vibe of people around me and remember wanting to perform on a big stage like that.

3. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

TAEMIN: My mom was the first person actually. When I was very young, she saw how much I enjoyed singing and dancing and encouraged me to audition. Since then, I started moving towards my dream to become an artist and performer. She helped me discover my passion at an early age and encouraged me to do what I love, and for that, I’m forever grateful.

4. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

TAEYONG: I just want everyone I work with to be happy, and work together for a long time. This includes not just SuperM members, but also the rest of the staff and the team behind the scenes that make it all happen!

5. How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

MARK: I think everyone is influenced by their hometown and where they come from. It’s really special to be a K-pop artist and perform in front of fans in Canada, where I’m from. When we performed in my hometown during the world tour earlier this year, it was such a significant “homecoming” moment for me. Canada always has a special place in my heart.

6. What’s the last song you listened to?

LUCAS: The last song I listened to is Justin Bieber’s new song, “Holy.” It’s a great song to listen to when you are feeling tired. I listen to it on repeat when I’m on the move during the day and it puts me in a good mood.

7. If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

TEN: I would choose Michael Jackson, because I always regret that I didn’t get to see him perform onstage live. I look up to him as an artist, and I’d love to see him sing and dance live at one of his concerts.

8. What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your shows?

MARK: Well, one thing that happens at every show is how emotional I get seeing the venue packed with our fans. Before going onstage, I always take a peek at the audience from behind the curtain, and it’s hard to describe the exact feeling in words but it feels surreal — too good to be true, almost. Especially for a standing audience, it’s not easy standing for hours straight in a tight space, but their energy never goes down. I never feel tired onstage because of them. It’s still pretty crazy to me to see and feel their energy every time. I miss them!

9. How has the pandemic affected the way you’ve created music in 2020?

BAEKHYUN: The process of creating music, writing and recording songs, was pretty much the same. However, planning the album promotion during pandemic was a little different, since everything had to be done online. We had to think of fun and unique ways to interact with our fans, from creating our own reality show to holding livestream, AR tech-based concerts. We have a lot more creative content in store for our fans, so stay tuned!

10. What was your reaction to SuperM’s mini album topping the Billboard 200 chart last year?

KAI: Everyone was super happy. We put our heart and soul into the album and worked really hard on it, so in a way, we were looking forward to the results. When we saw that the EP hit number one on the chart, it was one of the happiest moments of our career.

11. What’s the biggest difference, creatively speaking, between last year’s mini album and Super One?

TEN: The mini album was more about introducing SuperM and our SMP-style performances, whereas for Super One, it shows more of our different musical styles and really brings out the dynamic qualities that we possess as a group. So, to put it simply, Super One is the completed version/look of SuperM. Also, what was important for us when creating this album was to include a message of hope and deliver that positivity and strength to listeners. Music can really lift your spirits when you’re feeling down, so I hope people find healing and happiness while listening to our music. That would make us very happy.

12. Why did “100” make the most sense as a lead single?

TAEYONG: “100” is all about speed and energy, so it’s the perfect single to showcase SuperM’s power as the opening act of Super One. It also helps convey the message that we are always moving forward at full-speed, giving our 100% in all we do.

13. What’s one song on the album that you suspect will be a big fan favorite?

LUCAS: I think fans will like “Better Days.” It’s a nice ballad song for a great start to your day. It also contains a message of comfort and empathy to help get through these difficult times. We hope our fans can feel the warmth of this messaging through our vocals and fluid rapping.

14. How has the group bonded during what’s been a wild 2020?

TAEMIN: We’ve been through a lot and have always been there for each other through thick and thin so naturally, we’ve gotten very close. They’re like family now. We didn’t have to “try” to become close, it just naturally happened -- as if we were destined to be in the same group.

15. SuperM has been part of a massive year for the global expansion of K-pop. How does it feel to see so many K-pop songs, albums and artists setting records?

MARK: This makes me really proud. I remember growing up in Canada, a lot of people at my school didn’t know K-pop. It was mainly just popular among Koreans. Now, so many people all over the world know about it and K-pop is getting so much attention. I feel honored and proud to be a part of this movement. Bringing the two cultures closer together and building that bridge through music is such a historic moment, and I can’t wait to contribute more to it and create great music for listeners worldwide.

16. What’s your go-to song that you’ve been singing along to lately?

BAEKHYUN: These days, I have Eric Benet’s “Still with You” on repeat, so I’ve been singing this a lot lately. This was one of my favorite songs in high school, and ever since I started spending more time at home, I’ve been revisiting some of my old favorite playlists. They bring me back to that moment when I was in school, aspiring to become an artist.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

TEN: This always changes, but when I can empathize with the characters in a movie or connect with the emotions in a song, it makes me cry. I recently cried watching the animated film, Grave of the Fireflies. I watched this for the first time when I was young, but re-watching it as an adult touched me in a different way.

18. If you were not a musician, what would you be?

LUCAS: If not a musician, I’d probably be a firefighter – a job that saves other people’s lives is truly inspiring to me. But if not a firefighter, I’d definitely choose a career that make people happy, just like what I try to do now through music and performing.

19. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

KAI: I would tell my younger self to take care of yourself and stay healthy, because health is so important! I would also tell him not to be so hard on himself and enjoy the ride as a young teenager. This is the time for having fun and trying different things! Back then, I was so focused on my career and working towards my dreams that I didn’t spend a lot of time doing “regular teenager experiences,” which I wish I did more of!

20. What’s your message to fans who have been supporting SuperM -- and waiting for this album to arrive?

TAEMIN: It’s been almost a year now since our debut, and we are incredibly grateful to have so many fans cheer us on. We put our heart and soul into the album knowing that our fans have been waiting for a long time. While we’re sad that that we can’t meet them in person, we hope they can feel the positive energy through our songs and performances.

Jason Lipshutz @ Billboard

#exo #baekhyun #kai #t: interview #album: super one #200923 #e: interview

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princess-butters · 4 years ago

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Just a celebrity [knj X reader]

A/n: Hi, I know it’s been a while since my last post, I legit have no excuse except that it’s procrastination and that I had no ideas to go by, I still don’t, but I’m trying my best to write as much as I can now. I have a fanfic in the works that I have coming up and it’s hard to write each chapter without it being mostly filler and actually relevant to the story, you know? It’s actually something that’s been in the works for almost 4. Fucking. Years. and I’m just now writing most of the chapters I have planned. It’s somewhat of a short story too which I’m glad because I was really worried it would be too long and dragged out with said filler but what I do have is a character introduction to the characters. It’s not all of them but it’s at least something to begin the story so once it’s done, I can post it and show you guys what I’m working on. But anyways I’m getting sidetracked. This was originally supposed to be for an imagine but it became too long and I decided it should be its own story so enjoy.

Warnings: [TW // Mentions of forced strict diet, and starvation, Namjoon really wants to eat but can’t because of his company, description of being underweight. Fluff with bits of angst. Y/n is a cynical bitch to Namjoon in the beginning but warms up to him at the end of their first encounter. It’s a fluffy relationship at the end. If I’m missing any TW, please let me know.]

Word count: 1.8k

Your first interaction with Namjoon was during his concerts in Korea since you were studying abroad and your friend, whom you’ve met online and was the sole reason why you wanted to move here, told you about a K-pop group that had debuted a while ago and it’s safe to say that you...didn’t care too much for their music and you only went to their concert to support your friend who was quickly becoming a big fan of them. It’s a unique story, really, it’s not your simple story of a fangirl who goes to some concert and one of the members sees them in the audience and brings them backstage. No, this was completely different. You never had the desire about fantasizing idols when you were younger, now that’s not to say that you didn’t enjoy music because you did, hell, you even own band merch that you still proudly wear but you never found them to be attractive like most fans would and always saw them just as artists.

While Namjoon did spot you and your friend in the crowd, he didn’t tell some security guard so you could exchange phone numbers – it was by complete accident and fate one day when you were walking home from the grocery store to pick up some food for you and your friend until you heard someone bolting towards you, running away from something that seemed serious. Annoyed and a bit taken back by his actions at first, you glance behind you not expecting much but what you didn’t expect was the amount of crazed fangirls heading your way. Gasping as you saw the hurdle of fans, your feet were stuck planted on the ground, standing there frozen with fear as the young, violent fans inched closer and closer, pushing each other around like a bunch of wild animals, until you felt the warmth of someone’s hand, presumably the same guy from earlier.

“Come on, don’t just stand there like a crazy person! I know a place where we can get rid of them!” He sounded young, about your age, the young musician took your hand in his and dragged you with him.

And that’s how you became stuck with each other behind some gritty, old building, trash bins and garbage all over the bleak scenery, you and the young musician huddled up together in-between two dumpsters as the loud and obnoxious cheers of fans faded out into the air. Both sighing with relief, you look up at him unimpressed.

“I guess this is your everyday lifestyle?” You question the young star and he lets out a heavy sigh, still trying to catch his breath from running so fast. It probably didn’t help matters that he was also dragging you along with him.

“You haven’t seen the worst of it. I usually find these girls in my room.” He tells you nonchalantly, like he’s used to it at this point.

“Shouldn’t that be considered trespassing?”

“Yeah but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m a big star around here and what these girls want, they’ll sure as hell get it.”

“Wow. And here I thought you were just another puppet for the music industry.” You reply back with a snarky undertone, lifting yourself up from the ground and wiping any muck and dirt left on your clothes. The young musician didn’t take your words kindly and narrowed his eyebrows together.

“Hey listen, it’s not as easy as you may think. Just be thankful you’re still alive because if they had caught you, you would’ve been roadkill by now.” He commented as if it was a statement of fact.

“I barely know you!” You argued, lifting your arms up to emphasize your point.

“Doesn’t matter to them. They see some girl out with a popular celebrity, they become lions and you’re their prey.”

You roll at his comment, thinking he’s just over-exaggerating. “Well thank you for the joyride, but I really should get back to my apartment.”

“What did you get?” He asks curiously as he stares at your bag full of food, he sounded like a kid who saw a bag full of candy on Halloween.

“Black bean noodles with rice on the side.” You explain to him simply, going over to make sure you got exactly what you needed and it didn’t fall out while you were running.

The man rests his hand against his stomach, it begins rumbling with hunger as he heard those three words. He hasn’t eaten since yesterday because of the intense and strict schedule his company has forced him to go through and he would be lying right now if he said he wasn’t hungry. “Black bean noodles? That sounds really good! That’s one of my favorite dishes, I haven’t had something like that in a while.”

You cross your arms, thinking it was his way of attempting to relate to you on some level. “Oh please, you’re a star! I bet you eat everything that’s handed to you.” You didn’t mean for it to come out so cold and bitter but you couldn’t help yourself, this was some celebrity and you’ve had a dislike for them because a lot of them are just stuck-up snobs who bully everyone lower class than them. The man gives you a look that even you couldn’t figure out, almost like he was envisioning the different foods he wished he could eat but couldn’t.

“I wish it were that simple. My company would kill me if they saw me eating anything like that, I’m forced to be on a strict diet and I’m barely allowed to eat a granola bar let alone noodles.”

Shocked by his explanation, you lower down your arms and began feeling bad for making such assumptions. You alternate looking between him and the food, clearly the thought of him starving had profusely disturbed you and you couldn’t help but send an expression of empathy and sadness to the lone musician. When you decided to speak up once more, your voice went up an octave, softly responding back in a more friendly manner, it was your discreet way of apologizing to the poor guy for being so harsh. “Really? I’ve never got it before. My friend likes them and practically begged me to get it for her.”

“Your friend has good taste. I guess I better get going, the fans have died down and it’s probably safe for me to leave. It was nice meeting you.”

“Yeah.” You mindlessly say as you watch him turn around before you could say anything else but when he rounds the corner, you quickly find your voice once again and call out to him, hoping he hasn’t left just yet. “Hey! If you want to, why don’t you come over and have dinner?”

He emerges from the side and leans against the bricks walls, hands in his pockets like he’s trying to protect himself from the freezing cold. “I can’t. Mostly because we don’t know each other and my company would kill me if I ate something that wasn’t on their list which is not many, to be honest.”

You slowly walk up towards him and look at him directly, taking a minute to look at his features. Poor thing looked like he was starving himself, even though you’ve never liked idols and found them all to be the same mindless puppets, it can’t be said for this guy. His cheek bones were hollowed, he’s skinny but to an unhealthy standard, and his eyes were baggy and darkened around the sockets, almost sunken in. You couldn’t tell if it was from a lack of sleep, starvation, or both. You hesitate for a moment before placing your mitten hand on top of his exposed hand. “But you’re starving. I can’t let you walk away and not have something.”

“I really can’t.”

“Please? I really don’t want to leave you in this state and the food I have isn’t that bad for you.”

After realizing that you’re not gonna give up on this and that you really were serious, he took a second to think it over. The thought really was enticing and he would be lying to himself once more if he said he wasn’t interested and desperate to eat anything, even if it came from a complete stranger, and he knew the food was legit because well, he can see it very clearly. “Well...alright.”

Once you heard his confirmation, you show a small smile and nodded with him. “Then it’s settled! Off to my house we go!” You latch onto his arm and begin walking home with him when another thought came to mind and halted in your steps. “Oh yeah, you’d better wear your disguise or we’re gonna be running from your psycho fans. I didn’t even catch your name.”

A chuckle came out of him as he placed his cap snug on his head and his mask covering half of his face, the only thing visible were his eyes, everything else made him seem like he was invincible to the public eye. “My name’s Namjoon.”

“So you’re that Namjoon guy my friend always talks about! Oh boy, this is gonna be fun.” You smirk to yourself as you two resume walking, the thought of your friend acting like a complete psycho in front of her bias entertained you.

Once you and Namjoon arrived at your place, your first instinct when you walked through the front door was give an explanation to your friend about why you were late and how worried she was. When you told her what had happened and showed her evidence to prove your case, her reaction was a lot more different than how she usually is. Throughout the evening, you and Namjoon got along fairly well—with the exception of your friend asking him benign questions about his career as an idol and if the other members are exactly the same in real life—you would frequently apologize for her erratic behavior as it worried you it would make the idol uncomfortable but he says it’s nothing compared to what he always hears from fangirls.

You and Namjoon surprisingly hit it off at the end of the night and you exchanged phone numbers when he was about to leave and promised each other you would meet again soon, this time without your friend in the picture. After he left, thoughts began to provoke and you wondered to yourself that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong about idols for once.

And now let’s look at today’s events, where are you and Namjoon right now in your relationship? Well one thing’s for certain is that you two are officially dating and have been since 2017, two years after your initial meeting. When you two became more comfortable with each other, he had invited you over to the dorms and introduced you to his members, to which they immediately welcomed you into their group with open arms, you’ve actually become best friends with some of them. It’s been a fun and crazy ride, exploring different countries and cultures had never crossed your mind before but now you can safely say that it’s been one of the best things to have ever happened in your life. You were fortunate to have somebody like him and him you because along the way, you have made each other better, Namjoon had taught you that being guarded and stubborn shouldn’t lock you out of the world and it’s okay to let your guard down sometimes, and you taught him that just because he was an idol doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be any boundaries and that he was a human being first.

Whenever the media caught wind of your relationship, they always thought it was just a fling and that the two of you would break up like everybody else in the industry but so far, you have proved each and every one of them wrong and now both you and Joon don’t give two shits about what everybody says.

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purplesurveys · 3 years ago

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1252

A - Appearance.

What are you wearing? I have a gray turtleneck and brown shorts at the moment.

What are on your feet right now? I never wear anything for my feet when I’m at home.

What color are your fingernails? I say this a lot on surveys but mine are never painted. Nothing against them, I’ve just never felt the need to spend on something like my nails.

What does your hair look like right now? I have apple hair at the moment to temporarily get rid of my bangs, which I am more than sick of at this point.

B - Best Friend

Who is your best friend? Angela and Andi.

What was the last thing you two did together? The last time I saw Angela we went to the BTS pop-up store. I haven’t seen Andi since January, but when we hung out that evening we just had Korean barbecue and we also parked somewhere in UP to just talk about life in my car. My breakup had been fresh at the time and back then I just needed someone to whom I could vent.

What is (s)he doing right now? I’m sure Andi’s doing something with Leigh, maybe having a video call or something since I think they tend to have one every evening. I’m not sure what Angela’s up to but considering her replies have been a bit slow tonight, I guess she’s somewhat busy at home.

Are you talking to her/him online right now? Angela just replied to something I sent her around 15 minutes ago but the exchange wasn’t meant to be a full-blown conversation, if that’s what you mean.

C - Crush.

Who is (s)he? Eh, I don’t have a crush these days; too obsessed with work to figure out what I find attractive lmaooooo. I do have a main celebrity crush and I might just cite them instead so that I can at least fill this section out.

What does (s)he look like? Curly hair; mismatched eyes; moles underneath his right eye, on his nose, and on his lower lip, and the widest smile I’ve seen on any person.

What was the last thing you two talked about? He’s a celebrity crush...

Does (s)he make you smile? Yes.

D - Dad

What’s your dad’s name? Edgardo.

What does he do for a living? He’s an executive chef for a luxury liner company. He hasn’t worked in a year and a half due to the pandemic and has stayed in the country this whole time, but we’ve *very* recently been informed that he can go back abroad in around two weeks! Of course it will suck letting go of him again after having him back for such a long time, but I’m just glad the family can finally be on track again, financially speaking. It had been something I’ve been worrying silently about.

What was the last thing you two did together? Had dinner last night, but we did that with the whole family too. We don’t really do things that’s just the two of us.

Do you get along better with him than your mother? Yes.

E - Ebay.

Have you ever bought anything from ebay? No. I’m not sure we have eBay here anyway.

Do you just shop around when you’re online? I don’t really shop ‘around.’ I usually have an idea of what I want to get myself, and it’s just a matter of finding the right shop from which to buy.

Do you know anybody who is addicted to it? I know a couple of co-workers who love shopping, like Gabi.

Have you ever sold anything on it? I’ve never tried selling, but I’m actually in the middle of doing something for the very first time – I’ve decided to get into trading! I got my BTS Butter album yesterday but didn’t get to pull the photocard I was vying for – the pull I got, though, was of the most popular member, which means it would be a very easy trade. I put the trade offer up the other day and I finally got a match yesterday.

F - Facebook.

When was the last time you logged on? Like five minutes ago. I constantly check it.

How many friends do you have? Just checked and it says I have 686. I wanna get rid like half of them though.

Do you hate when your facebook chat messes up? Hmm, that doesn’t really happen.

Who was the last person to leave you a wall post? Angela.

G - Google.

Do you Google everything? Yeah, I think I look up a random item or phrase at least once a day. Doesn’t hurt to learn a new thing each day. :)

What was the last thing you Googled? The K-Pop group g.o.d., since my teacher mentioned them in our Korean lessons earlier.

Would you ever trade Google in for Bing? No, I haven’t used Bing in like 12 years.

What do you Google the most? Synonyms, I think, since I’m constantly writing for work.

H - Hair.

Do you like your hair? It’s a love-hate relationship most days because I hate how thick and frizzy it can be...but I recently had mine trimmed all the way up to my neck and for some reason it’s taken on a wavy form, which I didn’t expect to come out at all. And I’ve found that it actually suits me quite a bit, so I’m enjoying my hair for now.

What color is your hair? Black.

What does it look like right now? Slightly damp since I took a shower not too long ago.

What kind of shampoo for you use? Just a normal Dove one.

I - Ibuprofen

When was the last time you took ibuprofen? I don’t think I’ve ever taken it? I usually take paracetamol...idrk the difference either. Do you rely on it for everything (cramps, headache)? I only ever take medicine for headaches/migraines.

Are you so thankful people made it? I mean sure, I’m glad there are those who have been able to create products that can instantly relieve pain or discomfort, but I’m not obsessively grateful.

Do you have any right now? I don’t think we have any.

J - Jobs.

Do you need a job? Nah, I already have one.

Where do you work? Media/PR industry.

Where would you work? I wouldn’t change jobs/industries. This is where I wanted to end up in, and I’m really really glad and fortunate to have landed here on my first shot, right out of college, and during a pendemic.

How much money would you like to get paid? An additional P5k (~$100) would probably be more satisfying, but considering my parents aren’t the traditional Filipino parents who suck 100% of my earnings right out of me the second payday comes, I’m able to enjoy a substantial chunk of money to myself, give them a portion of my earnings, and still be able to save.

K - Kissing.

Who was the last person you kissed? That would be my ex.

Will you next kiss be a mistake? I have no idea when that would be and with whom it will be shared, so I won’t be able to give you a definite answer.

Do you kiss someone everyday? Other than my dogs, nah.

Who was your first kiss? The aforementioned ex.

L - Love.

Who do you love the most in your life? My best friends. I’m also doing a whole lot better in the self-love department these days, so that too :)

Have you ever been in love before? Yeah.

Does it make you so happy when you feel the feeling of love? Sure. It feels light and comfortable, especially when it’s shared.

Why is this word so hard to describe? Because everyone feels love differently. < There we go.

M - Mom.

What is your mom’s name? Abigail.

What is she doing right now? She was watching The Good Doctor the last time I checked on her like five minutes ago. It’s her latest obsession.

Where does she work? She works in the food and beverage department of a 5-star hotel in the city.

Do you two shop together a lot? I rarely do my shopping with either of my parents.

N - Netflix.

Do you have Netflix? Technically, I guess. My dad pays for it and we have a family account.

If not, what movies would you order? I don’t think I’ve ever ordered a movie before. Before streaming on Netflix, I just used to get illegal torrents lol.

Do you rent a lot of movies? I’ve never rented a movie. Was too young for it, I think.

Do you have the tool where it just downloads to your tv? No.

O - Ohio.

Is this the state in which you live in? I don’t even live in the US. Never been there either. < Same.

Is Ohio State your favorite football team? I don’t like football.

Did you know Ohio Is For Lovers? I’m not familiar.

Have you ever been to Ohio? See first answer in this section.

Q - Quitting.

What was the last thing you quit doing? Practicing on Duolingo. I had an extremely short period of using the app again a couple of months ago, but I lasted all of two days hahaha I had been trying to get back on learning Korean, but I enrolled in official lessons not long after that anyway so it didn’t make sense to continue the stages in the app.

Do you need to quit talking to someone right now? Nope. The people I’m talking to right now in between this survey are all welcome conversations.

Would you ever quit school? That wasn’t an option for me and I never would’ve done it anyway.

Don’t you think quitting is stupid? No. Sometimes it can be the strongest thing you can do for yourself.

R - Reading.

What was the last book you read? Does my Korean lesson textbook count hahaha...if not, I haven’t really read anything in years.

Do you own a lot of books? I do, but they are all books from my childhood and teenage years. It’s been a while since I last updated my bookshelf.

Do you have a library card? No, haven’t had one since Grade 1.

Have you ever read a book that changed your life? Without Seeing the Dawn was pretty influential to me, but I dunno about ‘life-changing.’ I need to read more to find the book that would have that effect on me.

S - Safety.

Do you always wear your seat belt? I do these days. I didn’t really practice it when I used to drive to school, whoops. Always forgot to do it.

When riding a four-wheeler do you wear a helmet? I rarely get to do that.

Did you ever wear knee pads and a helmet when riding your bike? Nah. I can’t ride a bike either. Do you always think safety first? In COVID terms, yeah. I have a face mask and shield on as soon as I find myself outdoors.

T - Talk

Who was the last person you talked to? Reena. Who are you talking to right now? Nobody. It’s just me, this survey, and some music in the background.

Who did you last talk to before you went to bed last night? Angela and Reena, if I’m not mistaken.

Do you need to talk to anybody right now? No, I’m good.

U - US ARMY

Do you support it? I don’t know enough about it to have a bold opinion, considering I’m not even from the US and it’s been a while since their army has had any strong contact with my country.

Do you know anybody who is in the army right now? I think one of Angela’s uncles has a high position in our national army.

Don’t you ever wonder why their camo doesn’t match anything? Not really.

Would you ever go to the army? No.

V - Virgin.

Are you a virgin? Nope.

When did you lose your virginity? I was 18.

Do you wish you would’ve waited? Nah, it felt right when I did it the first time; and I maintain that stance now even though I’m no longer with that person.

Do you think you could have stayed a virgin until marriage? I could. Sex isn’t a big deal to me.

W - What.

What are you doing right now besides this survey? I’m also listening to mono. and taking bites from my doughnut every now and then.

What are you craving? Spicy tuna salad, but it can wait. Andi got me my favorite truffle baked macaroni because it’s CM Punk day today :D :D and that’s able to satisfy my savory cravings for now.

What do you need to buy? Shelves.

Why are you taking my survey? I’ve mentioned this before but I like categorized/themed surveys, so alphabetical ones are always fun for me.

X -Xanax

Do you know anybody who is addicted to Xanax? I don’t think so.

Have you ever taken it before? No.

Do you even know what it is? No, actually.

Have you ever suffered from anxiety or depression? I’m sure I have.

Y - Yourself.

Name. Robyn.

Age. 23.

Do you smile a lot? Sure, I’d say that’s common these days.

Z - Zebra.

Are you addicted to zebra striped? Not really.

Do you own anything zebra striped? Nah. I have some stuff that come in black and white stripes, but not zebra print. Is anything on any of your websites zebra striped? No.

#survey #surveys

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lovemesomesurveys · 3 years ago

Text

[pinkchocolate @ bzoink]

Do you know anyone who doesn't seem to be fond of animals? Hmm. Nope.

Speaking of animals, do you have any pets? If you do, what are their favourite treats? Yep, I have a doggo named Princess Leia. <3 She’s not picky haha she’ll take pretty much whatever. I do find it funny how much she seems to love lettuce and zucchini, though lol.

Did you ever have a crush on any 90's TV stars, or pop stars? Yeah, like Justin Timberlake, Freddie Prinze Jr., Josh Hartnett...

Are you planning any outings or trips anytime soon? Whereabouts? I’m trying to because my mom took a week off this week so I want to try and do something. The beach would definitely be involved.

Do you know anyone who has a phobia of a certain animal? I do with killer whales.

In terms of clothing, are there any colours that you don't wear or colours that you feel don't suit you? I avoid white cause I most definitely will spill something on it.

When was the last time you went to a department store? Did you buy anything, on that occasion? A couple weeks ago and bought food.

As a teenager, did you read many magazines? Did you have a favourite, or any that you subscribed to? Yeah, I was super into like Tiger Beat, Bop, CosmoGirl, etc. I always put up the posters and I loved making collages.

What colour is your library card, if you have one? I don’t have one.

Were there any businesses you were fond of that unfortunately closed down permanently, as a result of the pandemic? Fortunately, no, I don’t think so.

Do you enjoy energy drinks? What kind(s)? The white chocolate Starbucks Doubleshot energy drink.

Is there a particular brand of technology/electronics that you prefer? I’m an Apple gal.

Have you ever had a work colleague that you didn't like/found annoying? --

Is there a singer whose voice gives you goosebumps/chills? There isn’t one who always does, but certain ones with certain songs, sure.

And is there a singer whose voice you simply can't stand? Yes.

Does your place of employment have a uniform? What colour is it? --

Have you ever found yourself attracted to a friend's sibling? How did that turn out? Nope.

Do you know of any songs that were popular, in the year that you were born? Yeah, Lovesong by The Cure is one of them.

If you wear make-up, do you pay attention to the shelf life or just use the product until it runs out? I paid attention to how long I had it and swapped it out every few months or so.

Have you ever allowed yourself to drift away from a friend and then regretted it? What happened? Yes, that’s happened a few times.

In terms of friendships, how important do you think it is, to share some common interests? In some cases, is it enough to simply like each other as people? I mean, I want to have some things in common that we can bond over, talk about, and enjoy together.

Name an item in your kitchen that is your favourite colour. I have several favorite colors, though.

If you could go back in time 10 years, what would you say to your past self? Take better care of yourself.

During the last week, has anything caused you to shake with laughter? No. I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time. I don’t even remember to be honest.

Do you own any check patterned shirts? Nope.

What about shirts with stripes on them? I don’t think so.

Has anyone you know started a new job recently? Do they seem to enjoy it? Yes, my brother had his first day at his new job today, actually. He said it went well and thinks he’s going to really like working there. He’s doing exactly what he wants to do and went to school for, so.

During the last week, have you met, or been introduced to anyone new? If so, what was your first impression of that person? Nope.

The last time you went shopping, did you pick up any bargains? Yeah, I did some online shopping earlier and there was a sale going on plus I had some discount codes.

Do you own any bags or purses in your favourite colour? Yeah.

Have you seen a butterfly at any time recently? Not that I can recall.

Describe your most comfortable pair of shoes. I’m assuming my Adidas are comfortable, but as a paraplegic I can’t say for sure.

Are there any authors that are particularly dominant on your bookshelf? Willow Rose, Mary Stone, and AJ Rivers.

The last aroma you smelled - was it pleasant or unpleasant? Pleasant; it was my Funfetti ice cream milkshake.

Are there any ornaments in the room you're in? What do they look like? No.

Have you seen any photographs or videos that made you smile today? Yeah, I’ve been enjoying my feed on here lately because all the autumn blogs I follow are active now and it gets me excited for that time of year.

Do you know anyone named Aidan? Tell me a little about that person. No. I just think of the character from Braceface cause I’ve been watching that lately lol.

Is anyone you know into vintage or retro styles of clothing? Yeah.

Have you drank any fruit flavoured beverages today? Nope.

What carbonated beverages do you have in your fridge at the moment? Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Diet Root Beer, and bottled Mexican Coke.

Which item in your fridge are you most looking forward to consuming? I’m thinking of making a bologna sandwich in a bit.

Has anyone you know got into a new relationship lately? Possibly, but none I’m aware of.

Did you ever have a woodwork class in school? If so, did you ever make anything that you were proud of? Yes. I remember attempting a small dollhouse.

If you menstruate, do you experience much PMS prior to it? The PMS is the worst of it for me, it kicks my ass.

Is there any food in your house that has purple packaging? *shrug* Possibly.

Do you know anyone else with the same first name as you? How many people? Yeah, a couple. I knew a a few growing up as Stephanie seemed to be a very common name at the time.

What colour are the cushions on your living room couch? Gray.

Approximately how much time have you spent online so far today? Not much, actually. Just a few hours total, which is a short amount of time for me for sure.

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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mxvladdy · 4 years ago

Text

A Break

Part Duo. Some fluff, some plot. I guess? I just like writing this one.

Chapters: 1-2-3-4

Two

Hanzo left later that evening with a chaste kiss and a promise to call when he could. You watch him go, waving him off from your little balcony stopping only when he became lost in the sea of people below. The gold of his ribbon disappearing in the blur of faces and colors. Alone again you flop down onto your bed staring watery-eyed up at your ceiling fan. The quiet around you no longer the comforting kind, his soft-spoken presence a larger comfort then you thought. Already you missed the feel of him draped over you in bed, his gentle snoring in your ear.

Glancing at your alarm clock you debate whether it was worth it to get up and do something with your evening or just call it an early night. Fuck it. You were gloriously sore and sleeping sounded amazing right now. Work could wait for tomorrow. Laziness winning over you rose kicking off your leggings slipping under the covers of the freshly made bed, courtesy of Hanzo. Stretching out on his side of the mattress you reach out to your bedside table, fingers ideally pulling Hanzo's latest gift to you.

The metal of the pendant was cool to the touch. The light silver chain of the necklace shone brightly from the twilight outside. Thumbing over the tiny owl impression on the drachma you smile longingly. Slipping it over your head you tuck the coin under your shirt.

Greece. What an adventure.

You wished he could have stayed longer this time to talk about his travels. Greece had been a place you dreamed of going when you were younger, but gave it up to get your career off the ground. That was your life now, bookkeeping and payroll. Our business needed you more than you needed to travel. Perhaps one day you could feel confident enough to leave the shop for a world tour. Or maybe even a romantic getaway with Hanzo, see if you were really compatible.

Admittedly your romance had been a whirlwind from the start. A drunken kiss with a handsome stranger that should have led to nowhere but a musty motel room followed by an awkward goodbye. But instead, you woke up with his number and a promise of an actual date. Half a year later Hanzo had a drawer of clothes and a toothbrush in the bathroom. Snuggling in deeper under the sheets you yawn clicking off your lamp drifting off with your phone clutched in your hand. You sleep peacefully wrapped in your boyfriend's warm floral scent till a light buzzing wakes you. Your phone vibrates, the light blinding you when you unlock it. Not that you care.

Hanzo (3:14am):

Shuttle just landed. Be safe for me.

You (3:14am):

Always will :*

And you too please! I find myself rather attached…

Hanzo (3:16am):

Ha. I will try not to freeze to death.

Hanzo (3:16am):

Perhaps you could warm me up next time?

You snort wrinkling your nose at his flirting.

You (3:16am):

Yes sir! But it’ll cost you

Hanzo(3:20am):

A price I will willingly pay.

Hanzo(3:22am):

I must go, I’ll call when I get the chance.

You (3:23am):

Goodnight! Miss you already

You wake late the next morning groggy but warm, tangled in the sheets. Alarm screaming obnoxiously close to your face. Blindly, you swipe at the phone silencing the noise and rise. Waddling groggily you head to the bathroom to get ready for the day. You arrive an hour late grinning ear to ear. Your friends and employees glancing up smirking at your poor excuse for calling in sick yesterday. You let them work heading to the back to get your workload started for the day. Setting up in the back of the store in your favorite corner you look over your new assortment of dried leaves, flowers, and fruits.

The background noise of the shop and quiet music overhead lulling you into a comfortable trance. You hum under your breath pulling your scale closer to you blatantly ignoring Tabatha. She circles you like a hawk, keen eyes looking for any opening to start grilling you. The heat of her gaze latching on to the blemishes and love bites you didn’t even bother hiding. Placing your pestle down you sigh turning to her. “Ok. Ok. Lay it on me girl.”

Tabatha moved in fast plopping down next to you grabbing your pile of dried lemon rinds. “In all the time I have known you I’ve never seen this.” She starts shaving the rinds down smaller. “You skipped work, unannounced. During peak season!” She rounds on you dumping the shavings into their allotted jar. “I’m so proud!” You laugh tension you hadn’t noticed you were carrying in your shoulders dissipating. “I’m serious!” She continues. “All this time and I’ve never seen you finally blow off some steam till he showed up.” Tabatha smiles and leans closer flicking a soft curl ticking your ear. “You know you have to bring him around for drinks and leftovers sweets. Shit, the rest of the team wants to meet him too! Your pictures don’t do him justice.” You nod promising to ask next time he came to visit.

The rest of the day moved on from there at breakneck speed, the front portion of the shop bursting with patrons. The back with employees running about, fresh herbs, pastries, and coffee carafes in hand. The din of your business running smoothly a comfort to your frazzled mind. You finish your newest blend with a flourish, sprinkling dried ginger into the jar closing it with a satisfying ‘snap’.

“Yo Boss! Can you cover the front while I take my break?” Switching places you wish your employee a good break. Perching at the register you make small talk with a few regulars as the evening lull hits. Greeting a cluster of teenagers as they entered you pause mid conversation taking in the new customers coming in behind them.

Oh. Well, this was rare. Omnics came in from time to time sure that wasn’t unusual. You make it a point to welcome everyone equally, as did your employees. But omnics always came in with human companions or solo to pick up an order or gift. And they most certainly never glowed. You eye the two curiously. The green one wandering aimlessly picking up different jars of teas and homemade jams before being over a display case of brightly colored macaroons. The other taller one was dressed in baggy pants merely looked at the counter before making eye contact.

“Ahh~ greetings.” He spoke. His voice, while naturally monotone it held an underlying tone of levity. “I wish to inquire about your tea selections. I have heard you have a unique variety.”

“Oh course!” You blush embarrassed that you were caught staring. “We have a small selection of in house blends, but the bulk of our products are sourced from fair trade shops from India, China, Japan, and Africa.” You recite by heart pulling out your display tray. The omnic looked down at the cards reading each selection as you described them nodding along patiently.

“What a peculiar name?” He picked up your latest custom blend. Southern Dragon. “How do you come up with the names?”

“I let my staff pick and vote on names. But this one-” You smile softly popping the tin open. “I named after someone.” The tea itself didn’t look like anything fancy sure. The blend of reddish-brown sticks looked like something someone could scoop up outside, Tabatha had joked about it often. “ Hojicha, roasted in house with dried ginger and imported nashi pear. This is the first season we are caring it as I like to buy fruits only when in season. It isn’t one of our most popular yet, but many customers have appreciated the mild caramel flavor and slight sweetness of the peaches and gentle tang of the ginger.”

“I see, that sounds very pleasant. I would like a bag of that and perhaps the sharp lemon for my pupil.” You nod scooping out the desired amounts into two small bags weighing them swiftly.

“And anything for you?” You smile less genuinely at the smaller omnic as they all but swaggered over. You had felt his gaze the whole time you had been chatting.

“Hmm.” They leaned on your counter visor not leaving you, long metal fingers clicking on the marble counter top. “I’d take a small shortcake and a three-pack of macaroons, the matcha ones; if they come with your number.”

You freeze choking on your smile, even the other omnic seemed surprised.

“Genji-”

“We have our business number on the bottom of our boxes and bags, and a popular online storefront.” You ring him up quickly handing him his order.

“Mmm. I was hoping for something more...personal.” They continued voice dropping low into a slightly clipped purr.

“No.” You cut them off quickly, smile gone. “I have a boyfriend.”

They gasp in mock shock. If they had lips you were positive they would be stretched into a shit eating grin. “What a lucky man.” They tip heavily turning without another word to the door, phone out texting animatedly. You look blankly at their abandoned companion waving a hand uselessly at the door.

“I apologize. He sometimes forgets himself. I hope my pupil didn’t offend? I would like to return at a later date.” They bow low in compensation. “I will have him apologize properly when we meet again.”

Meet again… You jerk your head awkwardly still processing what in the world just happened.

“Woooow,” Tabatha drawls wrapping an arm around you watching the two take their leave, the taller one levitating the moment they were outside. “ Wow . Popular with all types huh? Thought I was gonna need to come in here an’ knock heads.”

“Please,” You scoff recovering to wipe down the counter. “That has to be one for the books, right next to that time I fell in the school fountain at graduation. All white- like a dumb ass.” Tabatha howls with laughter already walking back to your shared office.

“A beautiful day in history. But damn that green one was mighty pleased to hear you were taken.”

“Ha-ya.” You frown rubbing your arm. Now that you think about it it was kinda weird. Perhaps they were a friend of Hanzo’s. He never spoke of omnics, cowboys and old vets, but you would think highlighter green would stick out.

Tabatha came back talking to the last of your closing staff noticing you were still looking out the window. “Hey- you ok?”

“Yea-yea. Just thinking about it now.” Your friend frowns discarding her armload to lead you back into your office dropping you in your chair.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. But how ‘bout you get started on the paperwork, and I’ll cover the front in case they come back.” You agree already pulling a stack of orders to you booting up your computer. You get a few hours of work done in peace as your employees filter out for the night, bidding you and Tabatha a good night. With a huff she collapses to the couch watching you work for a moment.

“You forgot didn’t you.” Hmm? Tabatha meets your blank stare dark brows raised into her hairline prompting you. Blinking you try slyly to look at your calendar. Was it someone's birthday? Anniversary? “ Gurl ." She jokes. "Dick that good you forgot whine and cheese night?” Oh. Oops.

Whine and cheese night had been a tradition since grad school, then when you went into business together. Every last Sunday of the month you two had a few too many drinks and bitched about anything that came to mind that month. Tabatha chortled grabbing your keys and turning off your monitor. “Good thing I remember. I got some new vintages and some fancy cheeses I stole from my girl’s fridge.” She leads you out of the shop locking up the building pushing you out into the brisk night air. You walk the short distance to your flat listening to her talk rapidly about her upcoming trip with her girlfriend to France. “Handsome take you anywhere yet?” She asks finally taking a breath at your front door.

“Does the city fair count?” You ask flipping on the lights to your kitchen. You glaze at your friend's face. Clearly it did not. “He isn’t around often enough to do something like that. Not that I mind,” You add quickly trying to get your piece in before she decides to cut in, her frown growing. “We had plans to rent a beach house for a weekend but he had an emergency at work. After that, we just do stay in dates or stuff around town.”

“What, he always on call or something?” Tabby flops hard onto your floor pillow kicking off her shoes. “Or like too afraid to tell his boss off?”

You snort passing your lounging friend an overfilled glass of zinfandel. “Bit late for the background check ain’t it?” She accepts the wine gracefully wiggling deeper into the cushions stealing your remotes. “Besides, I like just having lazy days here. He travels a lot for work so I’m sure that gets exhausting. I doubt a road trip would be relaxing for him. I like just having him here even if it is to just sleep.”

“Rrrriiiggghhtt. ‘Sleep’ .” She snorts looking wholly unconvinced as you settle into your favorite recliner sticking your tongue out teasingly. The two of you get lost in your favorite show then, talking on and off between mouthfuls of pizza and chips. “So-” Tabatha rises a few hours later popping her back. Eyes going to the liquor cabinet dramatically. “Wanna bring out the good shit and tell me all about your impromptu to vacation day?” She wiggles her brows, popping the cork out of your favorite gin bottle pouring you way too much. Downing your first glass in one you hunker down for a long night.

For the second night in a row, buzzing wakes you. The vibrations sharp and rhythmic against your thigh. Groggy from booze and gossip you dig around your chair. “‘Ello?” You mumble wiping drool from your cheek.

“Ah. My apologies-I forgot about time zones. Would you like me to call you back.” Hanzo. You perk up a little stumbling over your passed out friend to your bedroom door.

“No-no. I wouldn’t want to miss this.” You beam rubbing the sleep from your eyes clicking your door closed softly. The haze of the day prior leaving you with his smooth voice, his soft chuckle in your ear made him feel like he was there. The warm presence on your back instead of your sweat-soaked tank clinging to your frame.

“The same can be said for me- but I really should let you sleep. I merely wanted to hear your voice before my… shift started.” Faintly you could hear the sounds of laughter and clinks of plates in the background.

“Where are you?” You ask beyond curious, hoping for a satisfying answer. He paused again, the sound of merriment and chattering fading into the background. “Breakfast and a shift change. It was my turn to cook along with a friend. He had an idea for a 'traditional American breakfast'. It is very hearty, the others are excited. I expect I'll have heartburn for the next week now.”

“Aww! You’ve never made me breakfast!” Ah shit. “Not that that’s a problem!” You backpedal. “Life is hectic and we both have hard schedules.” Silence. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

Hanzo shushed you gently over the phone. “No, you are more than within your right. I do not do all that I would like with you, yet you set aside time for me every time you can.” You snort into dead air. It wasn’t that hard for you, Tabatha all but forced you to take weekends off from work.

“It’s ok. Don’t make it feel like a duty, love. I just… wish we could do more couple like stuff you know?” You twine your fingers feeling childish for even complaining.

“I understand that feeling, I have been neglectful. Allow me to make it up to you?” You hum faking thinking hard on your answer. “ Darling.” Your chuckle behind you hand practically hearing the pout on his elegant face. He continues with a huff. “After this assignment I’ll ask for personal leave. A few weeks perhaps? We can do whatever.”

“I like the sound of that.”

#overwatch #hanzo shimada #hanzo x reader #overwatch fanfic

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paradiselostbythedashboardlight · 4 years ago

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Quarantine, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Wrote 430,943 Words of Prose in a Year

As we are coming up terrifyingly fast on a full year of quarantine with no end to the pandemic yet in sight for most people, I’ve been taking some time to reflect on the last year of my existence in a state that most people now refer to as quarantine. Since March of 2020, I, like most other sane people in my country, have stopped traveling, going to stores, seeing all but a limited group of other humans, and begun having recurring nightmares about being in crowds without a piece of cloth over my nose and mouth.

Suffice to say, it has been a bit stressful.

The other thing that I have done since COVID-19 began rapidly spreading across the globe last year is write over 430,943 words of fiction.

The number seems insane to me still. That is (approximately) one Gone With The Wind, one entire Lord of the Rings series, or the first four Harry Potter books. That is still sadly not yet War and Peace (but who knows… the pandemic isn’t over yet).

So now that I am looking back, I find myself with one question: how did this happen? Why did I do this? What does this mean about my life this year?

Since apparently I answer best by writing a lot, let’s begin at the beginning. Let me tell you a story. I’ll keep it short, I swear.

Part 1: Blast From the Past

In March of 2020, I was still in the midst of an academic semester. There was a long academic document to write and a class to teach. However, as quarantine abruptly robbed me of most of my usual commitments, I was suddenly thrust into the position of having more time on my hands than I knew what to do with. Consequently, I decided to break out the Nintendo Switch I’d gotten for Christmas and revive a childhood interest in video games.

And boy did I. I played the games I owned for all they were worth. I played them during the evenings when I had no social engagements to attend. I played them during the Zoom meetings I was already struggling to pay attention to. By the end of March, I had finished one game, and it had set the wheels turning in my brain.

Here’s a fact about me: I don’t usually tend to write or read a lot of fanfiction about things that I consider really really good. Basically, fanfiction for me has always been an impulse born from incompletion or imperfection. I see no need to add to a perfect story (although I happily consume and create fanart). But for something enjoyable and yet slightly unsatisfying? That’s fanfic territory, bud.

So by April, I had developed a sort of epic fanfiction for this video game I was playing. It was one of those magnum opus kind of ideas, a grand retelling of the story with a huge sprawling plot and Themes (™).

At first, it was merely a thought experiment that lived only in my head, a sort of entertainment to ponder in the hours before falling asleep. What changed? Well, a friend of mine decided to also write a fanfiction on the same video game and she kindly consented to let me read it.

Suddenly, I was ravenously hungry to read and to write and to share and to consume. I wrote a hundred thousand words of this fanfic in April and into early May, sending each chapter to my friend and being spurred onward by her kind comments.

The fic became a gargantuan endeavor full of strange little challenges I set for myself. It was a canon-divergence, requiring plotting, worldbuilding, a darker and grimer tone. For some reason, I decided to write each chapter from a different character’s perspective, making the final product into a series of essentially short story character studies which together formed a plot.

By the end of May, the story was published for the world to see. It was well-received, although not particularly popular by fandom standards. And that was the end. I had gotten out my pandemic crazies, the semester was over and now I could move on. I had made my peace with the source material, plumbing all of the little details that I wanted to examine and creating a narrative that I found satisfying.

It was over.

Part 2: Summer Lovin?

Except that it wasn’t.

Confession: as I had been posting my giant fanfiction, I had also begun to explore the fan community itself, mostly curious to see some nice art and gather a bit of demographic info about what was popular within the community. As a result, I found a fanfic recommendations page. Among the recommendations was one author who kept popping up and i finally decided to give the fic a read.

Woah. It was good. Like, really good. Like, professional quality writing and themes that seemed designed to appeal to me. I devoured everything that the creator had posted in a week and then subscribed to eagerly wait for more.

As June rolled around, I realized that I had a problem on my hands. My great big gen masterpiece was finished, but this author had gotten me hooked on something else, something with a nefarious reputation online: shipping.

The term du jour for this seems to be “brain worms” so let’s just say that reading other fanworks had given me some brain worms. Inspired this time not just by the source material of the game, but now the fan community itself, my mind began to develop another idea.

I wrote the fic, about 11k, in a single afternoon of frantic writing. When I finished it, I knew it was one of my strongest pieces. It had just come together, a combination of all the thought that I’d been brewing up and a stylistic execution that just worked with the story I wanted to tell.

I posted it on a new account. Shipping seemed vaguely shameful to me still and my mom reads the other account.

To my surprise, the fic blew up. It got so much more attention than my long fic ever had. Even more significantly, a fan artist actually drew a gorgeous comic of the pivotal scene, completely out of the blue! I was essentially thunderstruck. Honestly, it was probably the first time in my life that I’d ever received so much positive reinforcement from a piece of writing.

While I’d written short stories for undergrad workshops, they’d never been particularly good and I’d never gotten particularly great feedback on them. I’d applied and been rejected by more MFAs and literary magazines than I could count. I’d pretty much resigned myself to writing for an audience of me and me alone (which I don’t mean to sound tragic about, writing for you is great and fun!)

But receiving so much support and praise and feeling like I’d made other people happy or sad or moved? There’s nothing better.

This makes my decision to write another fic for the ship sound vaguely cynical, the action of a person driven by an addiction to praise. I mean, no lie, aren’t we all a little addicted to approval?

But my next fic was another long one, an 80k passion project modern AU that I dreamed up while spending a slow summer alone with my books and only able to leave the house for long rambling walks in the woods. The premise was essentially about characters attending a five year college reunion, something that I myself had missed due to COVID in May of the same year. The fic quickly became a way for me to process thoughts on a lot of topics in my life ranging from relationships to politics to mental health to classical literature.

This fic was also received with far more attention than I was used to and, as a result, I finally joined the notorious Twitter dot com where I found people talking about my fic unprompted, eager to follow me and like my every random thought.

I can’t say that this process was not without its ups and downs. Fandom has changed, in many ways for the better, since my last engagement with it during the 2013 Supernatural days on Tumblr. While fan friendships are often idealized or demonized, they are pretty much like any other human friendship (okay, maybe a little bit more horny on main). There is potential for amazing connection as well as pettiness. But in a year where many people suddenly had no social spaces that were safe anymore, I’m glad that I found a new line of communication with the world.

So I kept writing fics for the ship, producing a lot of work that I am genuinely proud of and making connections with other people who enjoyed it enough to leave a comment.

To conclude this section, I was in fandom again. While I had not seriously engaged with a fan community since around 2014, I was back with a vengeance. And I had discovered an important truth about what unlocked my ability to write more than I ever had before: community support.

Not simply the kudos and the views. It was the comments. The discourse. The discussion. To add and contribute my thoughts and ideas to a greater network of thoughts and ideas that fed off of one another.

Often I had seen people complain about there not being enough fanworks for particular media or characters. Now I knew the secret. The comments and the community created the works. If I commented on other people’s fics, the more likely they were to write more. I made a resolution I have tried to keep, to comment on any story that I legitimately enjoyed reading, even if I had no particularly intelligent thing to say about it.

Part 3: A Novel Idea

By late October, I had produced a considering oeuvre for my ship of choice and was enjoying slowing my pace as I planned a few future projects.

Remember, though, how I mentioned not having engaged with fandom for the past 5 years? Well, that didn’t mean I hadn’t been writing.

For the past 4 years, I have won NaNoWriMo and completed 4 novels of over 100k each in length. These projects have been massively fun and improved my confidence with executing stories at the scope that I desire.

And so in November 2020, I settled down to write another novel. November is always a sort of terrible time write a novel if you work in academia, but this year, I had more time than usual. I set out to write a comedy fantasy novel, something mostly lighthearted and full of hijinks in order to pretend away some of the quarantine blues (which by this point were well established in my psyche).

This year in particular, I was reminded that writing a novel is… harder than fanfic. That seems like a very obvious point, but I’d written novels before. Suddenly, though, I was realizing how much a novel requires you to set up the world and the characters, while fanfic can be pretty much all payoff all the time.

While the fanfic flowed in wild creative bursts of energy, the novel required diligence of another sort. I wrote 2,000 words every day for two months. It was a grind. Sometimes, it was a slog.

And sometimes it just wasn't good. The thing about writing your own novels is that the first draft is way more likely to be not good. You’re balancing a lot and it’s easy to let a few balls that you have in the air drop for a chapter or two, with no recourse but to go back and edit later.

I finished the novel by writing a final speedrun of 6k on new years eve, ending my 2020 with another project under my belt. No one has read it. Not even I have reread it.

I’m still glad that I wrote it. I’ll write another one next year. No one will read that one either.

Sometimes, we write for ourselves and no external validation is necessary.

Part 4: Where are they now?

January of 2021 is somehow now behind me, which is terrifying. I’m still writing. Mostly fanfic, although occasionally I go doodle around with some original ideas that are more conceptual sketches for the next novel.

As for the fanfic, I think I still have a few more good ideas left in me, but I will probably leave it behind before the year is out. That feels a little bittersweet, a sort of temporary burst of fun and friendship that I wonder if I’ll ever experience again.

Coming to the end of this reflection, I suppose I should make a summative statement about what it all means.

In the end, it might not mean a lot. There are some small takeaways.

It turns out that encouragement makes you write more! Who knew? Also, more free time makes you write more! Wow!!!!

The point that I think this reflection exercise has shown me, the point that I think matters more than any other, is that writing is a way to process my thoughts. Even if it is through the lens of ridiculous video game fanfic or novels about sad wizards, my writing is my way to make sense of my own mind.

And sharing that is special. If you share it with online strangers, with your family on Christmas Eve, with your close friend who has become even closer and dearer to you since she let you read her work, or just with your mom (the one personal legally required to read your damn novel if you want to share it). To share writing is to give someone a little peek at your beliefs about the world.

And right now? When we’re still isolated and bored and scared and in desperate need of distraction? Binge some TV, play Nintendo, read a book. Take in other people’s thoughts.

But put down your own somewhere as well. It’s a conversation.

And for once, it’s a conversation that doesn’t have to take place on fucking Zoom.

#writing #personal rambling #fanfiction

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livian-lucifenia · 5 years ago

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Soft Fic™

Literally what this was titled when I found it.

This can be manga or game verse. I tended to combine manga Red with game Green, anyway so just pick a side and go for it.

It's cute but v rushed at the end.

It's old fanfiction, there's only so much you can do to it without saying fuck it and rewriting the whole thing.

You know the drill. If anything is fucky, overlook it and keep going.

That being said, enjoy.

____________

Green has such a soft heart and Red loves that about him.

Red thinks about this as he watches Green play peekaboo with a baby shiny eevee at his grandfather's lab. It was the last one from the most recent litter, and Red really hoped Green would take it home before someone else did. He seemed to make up excuses to visit the lab just so he and his eevee, Vee, could play with it. He even bought a little squeaky toy for it, so it would have something to play with when no one was around.

Green's birthday was coming up, so Red made a trip to the lab early one morning and asked the professor if he could take the eevee. Of course, the professor happily allowed him to have it, telling him to wish Green a happy birthday for him just in case he forgot. And with that, Red was on his way back to Viridian.

As expected, Green was still asleep in his room when he arrived. Red had thought about how exactly to give the eevee to Green, and decided on placing it in bed with him so he saw it when he woke up. Vee seemed okay with this arrangement, as she curled around the smaller pokémon and both fell asleep easily. Now to just wait until Green woke up.

It was an hour later when Green's bedroom door opened to reveal a very happy, messy-haired Green with his arms full of just as happy eevees. Honestly, Red could have died right there on the living room couch. Seeing Green like this was something he would never get tired of. Green was so damn adorable and Red was so happy he could live with his best friend.

Green also had a thing for toys and cute plushies.

Red knew this well. After all, Green had collected them as a kid, so it made sense that he would still like them now. He made a trip to Celadon every now and again to get supplies and always took Red into the large toy store. He would show him various things, explain what they did, or what he liked about them, and then put them back on the shelf. He always looked a little disappointed when he did this, and Red knew it was because Green secretly wanted to buy it, but didn't want other people to see him doing so. He was a popular gym leader, and didn't want some embarrassing article to pop up online about him being seen in a toy store. Red thought it was a little silly to worry over stuff like that, but Green liked to keep up his public image.

The wall at the back of the store was filled with various plushies, and Green always gravitated towards it. He liked the small, cute ones best, "How can you not like them, they're adorable!", he'd said as he picked up one that looked like an eevee, but was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. He made comment about wanting to recreate his team with plushies, just as room decor or something, and Red instantly knew what he was buying as Green's Christmas gift this year.

And that's exactly what he did.

Of course, he had no idea how to wrap a gift, so he asked his mom for help. She gladly wrapped up the large box of plushies, and let Red fill out the To/From tag himself while she tied everything up with a pretty, dark green bow. As payment, she asked for him to stay a while longer and help her bake cookies for some gift baskets.

Red was in the middle of 'sampling' the third batch of cookies when his mom asked him a question, "You like Green, don't you?"

"Of course I do, he's my best friend. I wouldn't be living with him if I didn't.", he replied without hesitation.

She laughed a little as she slid another tray of cookie dough into the oven and turned to face him, "No, honey, I mean like a crush."

Red paused, did he have a crush on Green? "I... I don't know."

"How do you feel when you're around him?"

"Happy, but I've always felt like that with him. But there are some things he does that make me feel... different. I don't know how to describe it..."

"Do you ever think about him or miss him while he's at the gym?"

"All the time."

"You bought him those plushies for Christmas, why did you pick those over something else?"

"Because every time we go to Celadon, we go in the toy store, and he always looks at the same ones. He talks about them, too. About how detailed they are, or how soft the material is, or just that he likes them. He never buys them, though. He really wants to, I can tell, but he has an image to keep up. So... I bought them."

"That's very sweet if you. So, I take it you like making him happy?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I? He's cute when he's happy."

It took Red a moment to realize why his mother had paused their conversation to give him a knowing smile. His face felt hot and he just knew he probably matched his name and hat. The silence made him come to a realization, one he never saw coming, and probably wouldn't have if not for his mother.

"Mom, I think I have a crush on Green."

Now the question was, how the hell was he going to tell Green? Or... should he even say anything? Would it ruin their friendship? What if Green kicked him out?

All those thoughts made his head spin, and made him feel bad about even having those feelings towards Green.

He had to tell him, though. According to his mom, even though he had just realized what he was feeling, he had always acted differently with Green and vice versa. This all felt like something a teen should be dealing with, not a twenty year old league champion, but it is what it is. He couldn't complain, after all, the guy he was crushing on had a childish side too.

After having another long talk with his mom, Red decided the best way to confess was through a letter. That way, he wouldn't mess up his words or make an idiot of himself. The letter would be disguised as a card on top on his Christmas gift, and Red knew Green ways opened the cards first, so there was no way he would miss it. When Red sat down with a pen and paper to actually write the letter is where the problem came. What was he supposed to say?

It took two days to write the letter, and the trashcan next to his bed was filled with all the failed attempts to write a decent love letter.

A love letter...

That's what this was, wasn't it?

Arceus, he felt like he was in one of those sappy teen romance movies.

Finally, the day had arrived. Red woke up extra early to go pick up his gift to Green from his mom's house. He'd left it there because he didn't have enough room to hide it, and he didn't want the wrapping paper to be torn accidentally.

He placed the box and letter on Green's desk and quietly walked out, hoping he hadn't disturbed Vee or Viri, as they would surely wake Green up earlier than anticipated.

Red kept the apartment quiet as he waited, too afraid to even turn on the tv. He decided to go back to bed, it was still pretty early, and Green wouldn't be awake for another couple hours, anyway. So, after changing back into his pyjamas, he went back to sleep with Pika curled up at his back.

"...Red.... Red!"

Red woke with a start at the sound of his name being called. The first thing he saw was Green with his glasses on and tears falling down his freckled cheeks.

Oh.

Oh shit, Green was crying. Why was he crying? Is he upset? Red sat up, scooting closer to Green on the bed, "Green, what's wrong?"

Green looked down at the letter in his hands, "I... I got your gift."

Red's breath caught in his throat.

"Do you really feel like this about me?"

Red leaned in a little closer, "Yes..."

"Even... E-Even after all the shit I put you through?" Green wouldn't face him. Still staring down at the letter and wiping his face with the back of his sweater sleeve.

"Of course, I do. I forgave you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I didn't deserve it. I still don't. I... don't deserve any of this. You're too nice to me. I mean, I appreciate it, I really do, but I feel like I'm not good enough. I forgot your birthday this year and then you brought Viri home for my birthday... and now this. You picked out exactly what I liked, and you couldn't have known unless you really payed attention, and I can't even remember what kind of cereal you like, and I love you so much... but, I don't deserve you."

Red pressed his hand to Green's tear-soaked cheek, making him look up. "You don't have to remember stuff like that for me, or do anything special. You make me happy, Green."

Green closed the gap between them, kissing Red with everything he had. Red responded with just as much eagerness, his hands finding their way into Green's soft, messy hair.

He loved Green, and Green loved him, too.

Red broke the kiss so they could breathe, and wiped the remaining tears from Green's face, "I love you."

Green smiled, "I love you, too."

................

One year later, Red was helping Green put together a shelf for all of their collectables and plushies they had acquired over the year, Viri had surprised them a month earlier by evolving into a Sylveon, and Red was planning a different kind of surprise for Christmas this year.

He was going to ask Green to marry him.

____________

Ah, yes. More fluff.

Don't worry, there's more angst content coming soon.

Asks and add-ons relating to my content are always accepted!! 💜💜

Have a good day/night, my dudes.

#namelessshipping #originalshipping #red x green #green x red #namelessshipping fanfiction #originalshipping fanfiction #totally posted this bc it mentioned christmas #and yes this is one of the fics i talked about where Red gives Green a shiny eevee #there's another one bc i loved the idea of Green having a shiny eevee. still do tbh

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jlf23tumble · 4 years ago

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Top 10 Niche Interests

Fixations? Obsessions? This is incredibly hard because I have wayyyy too many niche interests, so instead of stressing about it, I tried to channel the 10 things that immediately speak to me and maybe aren't so obvious from what I post here, like how much I'm obsessed with wigs, doll furniture, incredibly specific blogs, all forms of clothing with pockets, swimming pools, whimsical bus stops, over-the-top bathrooms, etc. etc Instead, I opted for some specifics that feel a little more evergreen and long tailed, like, so LIFE-long tailed that it's tough to nail down when or how they became part of the national psyche. I thank @alienfuckeronmain for the initial tag, and I'm tagging her AGAIN for round two because I know she has a billion additional niche things, and she'll post them, and I'll scream because it'll trigger five other things I neglected to post here, and I'll probably post my own round two, arggggh, insert aggressive sighing. Anyway, I tag ANYONE who wants to do it, just tag me so I can see!

1. Indoor Trees

I have no idea why this concept PULLS so hard because houseplants are kind of meh to me, but you want to plant an entire-ass TREE indoors, in the place where you live? Me, too, and I'd add a conversation pit plus a combo gold/red bathroom, among other things, and, bam, we're in my imaginary dream home, which I have literally, constantly ALWAYS mentally constructed from the time I was about six or so. (If you're curious, it has multiple themed rooms, and the closest I've seen to it recently is the outstanding Dita von Teese AD feature, but Amy Sedaris’s apartment comes close, too). There are two (2) 1960s houses in Long Beach with magnificent indoor trees, but I can't find them online, so have this modern interpretation and cry with me about how I can't visit the multi-story fake tree inside Clifton's Cafeteria for a good long while:

2. Conventions of Fans of Any Kind

One thing that I don't think I'll ever lose is how much I *love* people who are fans of SOMETHING, people who have a passion and create something about it or cosplay it or simply gather to celebrate it and connect to other people through it. The Internet provides in all kinds of ways, but I'm talking specifically about IRL conventions and the way my heart pitter pats when I first walk in those doors, SWOON! And it doesn’t matter how big the convention is or how random, I've been to smaller events like CatCon and the My Little Pony convention all the way up to biggies like WonderCon and Comic Con, and I have yet to be disappointed. I might know jack shit about what I'm walking into, but I want to see the merch, hear about the panels, and check out the people who are fucking PUMPED to be there. Sadly, I think it's gonna be a lonnnnng time until these come back, but I can live vicariously through my old photos, sigh:

3. Dutch Wax Fabrics and African Fashion

I'm not the snazziest of dressers, but textiles, colors, and patterns have been an obsession that has soothed my visual soul for as long as I can literally remember. Wax fabric marries all three of those touchpoints, plus throws in a healthy dose of style, and I count myself lucky to have seen two big exhibits on the subject (this was one of them), oh, how I wish there were more! For sure, there's a fucked up underlying colonial/imperialist history here, but there's also humor and color and vibrancy, a reclamation of sorts, and multiple levels of fashion that take my breath away. I cannot do the different patterns justice at all, but the fan motif is one of my faves:

4. Hearst Castle vs. Madonna inn

These two fall into my #home tag because they're where I'm from, and they speak to me as equally sublime and ridiculous, camp and kitsch writ large and small, different (yet similar!) versions of Xanadu that two rich white men built as shrines to their own personal "taste." And the irony is that a lot of people shit on Alex Madonna for being tacky (the Madonna Inn is...uh, something else), yet praise WR Hearst for all the high-class art and architecture, most of which is fully lifted from desperate churches between and after world and yet they're both more or less the same concept (lodging for weary travelers, self-aggrandizement, questionable taste-mixing). Hearst Castle edges out slightly for me because it's bigger and has spectacular scenery and history, plus it gives me doses of LA noir thanks to the way Hearst killed a guy in a jealous Charlie Chaplin-related rage and Hedda Hopper covered it up, all kinds of old Hollywood shenanigans happened up there, etc. But I'm low-key an expert on both houses of the holy, I'm OBSESSED with both, and we can leave it at that. I mean, come on:

5. Snow Globes

I had to cull my personal collection slightly just to fit it all on the dedicated shelf in my bathroom, and I seriously need to refill all the water lines, but nothing beats a snow globe in terms of memorable souvenir, especially when you put it in a bathroom. The majesty!!! The jewel of my collection is the one from Sherwood Forest because WHY NOT celebrate a historic place and moment in the basic way?? He robbed from the rich to give to the poor, and the gift shop about 100 feet from the tree he hid in does the same! The circle of life! The irony of all the watermarks on this blessed image...protect:

6. Highly Specific Museums

Look, we can all agree that the more venerated museums in the world are a form of garbage in terms of what they represent, what they've done, and who runs them, but I'm here for the museums that collect and celebrate things that tend to get overlooked. There are too many to list that I love that are still thriving, so I'm going to say goodbye to four recently departed faves. RIP to the Pez museum, I'm so glad I saw you and purchased your stale candy souvenirs. RIP to the museum of terrible food, you were a pop up when Phoenix and I saw you, and I will forever think about the worker describing people literally vomiting during their visits. RIP to the currywurst museum in Berlin, I've had currywurst exactly once and it was not for me, but I respect the Journey you took me on, including obscure east German TV shows that helped make you so popular (??). Finally, RIP to the velvet painting museum, there's no way to mince words, the person who owned you was crazy AS FUCK and had zero clue how to run a business, but I'm so glad I saw you multiple times and purchased my own velvet treasure (not this exact one, but remarkably similar):

7. Liminal Spaces: Grocery Store Edition

Confession time for those who don't know me all that well, I'm a big time voyeur, and nothing fills my heart with joy like a walk at 7 or 8 pm, the witching hour when people haven't pulled the curtains, and I can scope out their decorations/furnishings without it being "weird." Another confession is how much I unabashedly adore grocery stores in other countries and will spend at least an hour wandering aisle by aisle, falling in love with how much everything is different yet completely the same:

8. Agatha Christie Novels:

As a child, I was a fairly compliant reader--I had to read something for school? Okay! For my mom? Sounds good! But the books that sparked the initial fire for me to read something purely for myself were second-hand (probably fourth- or fifth-hand, judging by cover art) Agatha Christie short story anthologies, which were the gateway drug to full Agatha Christie novels, then other mystery novels, and so on. But getting back to Agatha, I obviously loved all the stories, but every decade spawned incredibly good cover art (like, exceptionally good), and this particular artist's are right up near the top for me (I go back and forth on a lot of the '50s and '60s ones):

9. Scopitones

I link my obsession with scopitones both to my love of music videos in general and a shop in Austin, TX, that sold DVD compilations of them in particular, but either way, they're underappreciated and kitschy all in one! Francoise Hardy and the rest of the ye-ye's are my forever girls for this medium, but seemingly every country cranked them out, both actual set videos and "live" performances? If you don't know what they are, scopitones were machines that played music videos in French cafes in the '60s (??), so it was sort of your proto-MTV way to see your faves sing and dance. Oh, Francoise...so moderne!!

10. Cover Songs

I have so much patience and love for cover songs of any stripe, the more genre-bending and/or surprising, the better! My only minor beef is the trend in slooooooooowing down songs to make a point, but even those ones have a special place in my heart if they're effective. Live Lounge feeds my hunger the best, but my meta fave for representing this concept is Pulp's Bad Cover Version, which was already lyrically INSPIRED, a song about bad cover versions in terms of relationships, but then they did a video that was a visual "bad" cover version, with actors lip synching over an audio "bad" cover version, and all of it just worked? The cover for the single is someone in the band as a boy, making his own bad cover version of a Bowie album cover, it's meta meta meta, and I love love love, here's the video, if you're curious. In the more sublime cover category, I'm absolutely addicted to all of Orville Peck's covers, I truly hope he officially releases them sometime soon, but I wholeheartedly support any artist who does it:

#tag games #niche interests #god i have a few

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rohad93 · 5 years ago

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Authority Online: chapter 8

Tuesday evening Blanche sat in her living room with Jaune, who had made another surprise visit on her way home from work.

She was quite glad for the company. Until recently her only child had been rather scarce, burying herself in her work and the office.

“I hope you realize I am not happy with the stunt you pulled last weekend.” Jaune said out of the blue.

Blanche looked up from her glass of wine to look at her daughter who was giving her an agitated look, but really, when did Jaune not look agitated?

She took a long sip from the glass before and setting it aside she turned her full attention to the frowning blonde.

The way she was sitting, straight backed in the wing chair across from herself, arms crossed and brow sitting heavy over her eyes, Blanch was immediately reminded of another blonde who once occupied that chair on a nightly basis, always looking just as serious.

She ignored the pang in her chest that often accompanied such thoughts and smiled at Jaune.

“How did you know?” There was no sense denying what Jaune already knew.

“She saw my pin and was reminded of yours.”

“Ahh, I should have known. She was very sweet and complimented it.” She smiled, reaching up to touch the piece of jewelry pinned to her blouse. Jaune sighed.

“What exactly were you trying to accomplish?” she demanded, sharp amber eyes narrowed in clear anger

“Oh, I was just curious, Jaune. I can’t remember the last time you were so head over heels for someone…” The blonde flushed. “...and so quickly. I had to see her for myself.” She held a hand up to her chest.

Then a thought occurred to Blanche.

“Was she upset?” she asked, carefully. She hadn’t intended for the younger woman to learn who she was and hadn’t taken into account that she may not be thrilled with essentially being, ‘scoped out’ as they say.

“No, thankfully she wasn’t. She didn’t even seem to consider that she should be upset. I had lunch with her yesterday and we made plans to see each other again this weekend.” Jaune continued to frown and for all her bluster Blanche was well enough aware that she could have very much ruined her daughter’s tentative new relationship with her curiosity.

“I’m sorry, Jaune. I shouldn’t have gone,” she admitted. Jaune seemed surprised by the seemingly genuine apology.

“I appreciate that mother, though I’m hardly the one you should be apologizing to,” she grumbled.

“You’re right.” She nodded. “I’ll make my apologies to the young woman herself.”

“Wait, what?” Jaune sat up in the chair.

“I’m having a little outdoor party Sunday, some friends and acquaintances. Bring her, she might like to see where you grew up and I can make my apologies in person.”

“I realize we’ve only known each other about a month, but I’m not sure Celeste would be interested in one of your garden parties.” She hunched over, elbows on her knees as she regarded her mother.

“Do sit up, dear. Watching you makes my back hurt, and it couldn’t hurt to ask, as you said, you haven’t been seeing each other very long. You never know.”

Jaune sighed heavily through her nose as she straightened up.

“I’ll ask,” she relented with a grunt.

“Wonderful” Her mother smiled, clapping her hands together.

~ ~ ~

Once she got home she pulled out her phone and typed out a quick message as she slipped out of her shoes, she walked into her bedroom.

“Are you free to talk?”

A few minutes later her phone began to ring.

Seeing the expected caller she hit the little green button and put it on speaker.

“Hi” She smiled to herself as she slid off her suit jacket.

“Well, hello yourself.” that lilting accent came through the phone with a hint of laughter and in the privacy of her bedroom, Jaune grinned stupidly at the sound.

“About this weekend…,” she started.

“Hmm?”

“Please, feel free to say no, but my mother wanted me to invite you to a little party she’s throwing Sunday afternoon. She also wanted to apologize to you for showing up at the bakery last weekend.” Jaune rolled her eyes at the last part as she popped the buttons on her shirt open.

“There’s nothing to apologize for, she didn’t do anything except buy candy and make small talk,” she said and Jaune could hear some quiet shuffling sounds.

“Yes, but she went to spy,” she sniffed, dropping the shirt into her hamper and pulled at the buckle of her belt.

“I feel like it would be rude to turn down her invitation… what kind of party is it?”

She could hear the curiosity in Celeste’s voice.

“Her version of a garden party, outside, food, and the like.” She shrugged to herself, forgetting Celeste couldn’t see the gesture.

“It doesn’t sound like it interests you much.” the voice sounded knowing. Jaune hummed.

“She’s been doing them since I was a child and they were incredibly dull, being the only child around a bunch of adults with their heads shoved up their…,” she stopped, catching herself and suddenly Celeste’s laughter was wafting out of the phone and it made Jaune stop what she was doing just to enjoy the sound.

“I see…,” she giggled. ‘Well, maybe they would be less dull if you weren’t all by yourself?” The suggestion was clear and a smile pulled at the lawyer’s lips.

“Maybe.”

“So, we’re going?” Celeste asked.

“If that’s what you’d like to do. I’ll let her know tomorrow.”

They talked for two more hours. It was just so easy for them to fall into comfortable conversation. Eventually Celeste took note of the time and had to get to bed.

“Good night, Jaune.”

The soft way she bid the lawyer goodnight made something in her turn into a puddle of hot goo.

“Good night, Celeste.” she echoed back and the line went dead.

She sighed, flopping unceremoniously onto her bed.

Her mother was right. It had barely been a month, but she was absolutely infatuated with the Celestine Carrick.

She dragged a hand down her face, sighing.

She might be in trouble if it went on at this rate.

Yet she couldn't stop the smile pulling at her lips.

~ ~ ~

"Saturday is generally our busiest day, and we're closed on Sundays." Celeste explained as she walked around the kitchen with her newest hire.

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but Pearl White hadn't been it.

The woman was tall and rail thin with short, upward swept hair and a prominent nose.

Celeste couldn't help but notice that she moved around with a light gracefulness, making little sound as she moved about.

"When I'm not around Sky can answer any questions you have, she's been here almost as long as I have." She gestured to her assistant at the tables, kneading balls of dough. She looked up and smiled.

It was impossible to see where she was looking, her eyes always hidden by the dark brown hair in front of her face.

"She's going to show you how to make a few of our most popular recipes while I work the front today.

"Oh, perfect." She clapped her hands together and trotted over to the other baker.

Once they were engrossed with the logistics of measuring flours and sugar she walked out to the front. It was still fairly early on Saturday morning but the farmers market a few streets over had opened for the first time this year, so it was a little slower than usual. Letting her man the front while Sky taught Pearl the basics. True, they were her recipes, but it might be a little more relaxed if Sky taught her. Someone who wasn’t technically her boss.

She checked out the one older woman who had been perusing the cases and when she left the store stood empty.

She pulled out her phone to see a message from Jaune. She must have sent it while she was walking Pearl through the shop

"I'll pick you up at 3pm tomorrow."

She smiled and began typing out a response.

"Sounds good. What does one wear to a garden party?"

Since it was Saturday and Jaune was off work, a response came only about 30 seconds later.

"In my experience, something excessive and pretentious," was the reply. Celeste chuckled.

"I'm not sure I have anything that meets that criteria."

She leaned over the counter resting her chin in her palm, waiting for a reply

After a few seconds the dots that indicated the blonde was typing appeared.

"Dressy casual will have to suffice then."

Celeste rolled her eyes and moved to start her own message, but the bubbles quickly reappeared.

"I'm sure you'll look nice in anything though."

"Flatterer" she quickly tapped back.

“It’s hardly flattery if it’s true.” Came the quick response.

"Are you talking to Jaune?"

Celeste jumped, looking up. Her sister had silently walked out of the back and around to the front counter without her noticing.

"What makes you say that?" She stood up, sliding the phone into her apron pocket.

"Because you're staring at your phone with the dopiest lovestruck smile I've ever seen." She grinned wickedly and Celeste turned bright red.

“We were just confirming our plans for tomorrow afternoon,” she mumbled, looking anywhere but her sister.

She was so busy trying not to look at the teacher she didn’t notice her creeping closer till a lightning quick hand was lifting her phone out of her apron pocket.

“Rose!” She scowled as the younger woman ducked around the counter, phone held out in front of her, looking at the last couple of texts.

“Looks to me like you’re flirting,” she laughed as Celeste snatched at the device. Rose let her have it.

She knew when and how far she could push it before even her rather patient sister reached the end of that patience.

“Never imagined I’d see you go all ga-ga over someone…I mean, your last few relationships weren’t like this.” Rose looked at her curiously, leaning against the counter as she slid the phone back into her pocket. “What is so special about Jaune Roche?” she finally asked.

Celest’s lips pressed into a thin line as she thought about the question. She has been wondering that herself.

“I don’t know.” she finally admitted. “It’s… just so easy with her. We can talk for hours without hardly noticing, I can even just be comfortably silent in her company.” She turned to her sister. “RIght now, I just know that I like being with her.”

“Those are as good a reasons as any.” She smiled almost knowingly.

And she did know. She knew her sister was falling head over heels for the tall blonde. Quickly, too.

“How’s Pearl doing?” She changed the subject.

“Fine, Sky is teaching her a few things right now.”

"What do you think?"

"I'm not sure what I expected. She's different," she answered honestly and Rose chuckled, nodding.

"Yeah… ya know, now that I'm thinking about it. That could have gone really sideways for me."

"What could have?" Celeste blinked, confused.

"Taking your phone. Based on that look you had, you two could have been sexting for all I know," She called out the last part as she ran back into the kitchen laughing hysterically.

"Rose!" The baker's face couldn't have possibly been redder.

~ ~ ~

Celeste was waiting inside at the counter when Jaune pulled up in the street outside Sunday afternoon. She carefully brushed her hair over her shoulder and walked quickly out to the car.

Jaune would never admit to the immediate jump in her heart rate at the sight of the baker in the knee length, white sundress speckled with blue flowers and the strappy, roman style, white sandals.

"Hey" she greeted the blonde with a smile as she climbed into the car. The subtle smell of leather and coffee, just as prevalent as it had been last time.

"Hey, you look very nice."

"Well I'd hate to disappoint after you were so sure the other day." She grinned and Jaune smirked back, amber eyes narrowed, the amusement was clear.

"I never had any doubt," was the quick retort.

"I see that you can be a little more casual.” She observed, settling into the seat and looking over the blonde. “I like it.”

Dark gray chinos and a jacket the same shade over a black v-neck shirt. It was simple but Celeste suspected the lawyer could wear sweat pants and still look more professional than most people she knew.

“My mother dresses extravagantly enough for the both of us at these things,”she assured with a roll of her eyes behind her sunglasses as she pulled out onto the road. “But thank you…”

They didn’t talk much on the drive, but Celeste didn’t mind. It was a comfortable silence, it was one of things she very much liked about Jaune. She didn’t feel the need to fill every quiet moment.

She watched the city slowly thin out to rolling fields, some with grazing horses and cows.

It was probably twenty minutes out of the city when Jaune finally turned off the main road into a drive with a large iron gate with a large ‘R’ cut out in the middle. What really caught her attention was the absolutely massive house a couple hundred yards drive down the way.

“I’m assuming we're here…” She mumbled, looking over at Jaune as she reached up to hit a small device clipped to her sun visor and the gates opened.

“It’s obscenely large… I know…” she grumbled.

“Just based on her car and the way she was dressed I figured your mother had money but…” She peered up at the house with wide eyes, not noticing the sudden tenseness in her date.

“My father was a successful lawyer in his own right, but he came from old money. My mother is a retired cabaret dancer,” she was stiffly informed, as they stopped in the driveway full of cars, all of foriegn make.

Jaune made no move to get out of the car though and Celeste watched her with a curious stare.

“This… my family’s financial status… isn’t a problem for you, is it?” she finally asked after a few tense seconds.

“A problem?” she questioned, eyebrows shooting up and Jaune no doubt read her confusion as offense.

“I don’t mean that to say anything about you, Celeste…,” she quickly said, her grip on the leather steering wheel tightening till it squeaked. “It’s just… it has caused issues in my relationships before…” She didn’t elaborate and looked so tense, as though she were made of stone. Her voice held a tone that Celeste couldn’t read.

Slowly, as though she might frighten, she reached out and laid a hand over the white knuckled stranglehold, Jaune had on the steering wheel.

“I don’t care about money. I like you, Jaune,” she assured gently.

Before Jaune could say anything there was a tapping on her window, making both women jump.

A woman in a maid outfit and her hair in a pair of buns stood outside the passenger side door, looking contrite. Jaune rolled down the window with a frown.

“Yes...?” she ground out.

“I’m sorry, Jaune,” the woman said quietly. “She sent me out to see what was taking you so long and to hurry you along.” The woman looked very apologetic and Jaune sighed.

“It’s alright, Penny. We’ll be in shortly.”

The woman nodded and hurried back inside the house as Jaune rolled up the window.

“My mother’s maid… she’s impatient today.” Jaune grumbled, running a hand through her hair.

“Then we shouldn’t keep her waiting.” She smiled and was quite pleased with herself when the corners of the lawyer's lips began to draw upwards.

“Right…” They finally climbed out and started for the door.

“I imagine she’s had Penny on lookout for us. She did the same thing when I was a teenager because my father wouldn’t let her stand in the window,” she mumbled and Celeste smiled.

They walked in and Celeste couldn’t help but admire the lavish house. It was, ss Jaune put it. ‘obscenely large’ but it was very beautiful on the inside.

The house seemed to be done in a black and white theme with natural wood floors.

“The backyard is this way.” Jaune pointed down a hall and she followed her. They ended up in what looked to Celeste like a solarium, the ceiling and an entire wall made of glass, looked out into the garden and backyard where she could see about fifty people milling about with drinks and food.

But something else happened to catch her eye. A wooden shelf against the wall filled with framed phones and trophies. She stopped to look and the first photo her eyes landed on was a very familiar looking blonde.

“Is this you?” She turned to ask, making Jaune stop to look at whatever she was looking at.

“Oh god…” She frowned, seeing what had caught Celeste’s attention. “No…”

“Of course it is!” A new voice sounded and both women looked up as Blanche walked in through the glass doors that lead out into the garden. Her bright red painted lips pulled into a smile as she glided across the room to them.

Jaune was right. The older woman was dressed up enough for two. Her white, sparkling dress was similar to Celeste’s in style but that was where the similarities ended. The Roche matriarch wore tall black heels with a deadly looking point to them that clicked loudly on the wooden floors. The black fur shawl she was wearing draped elegantly off her shoulders, perfectly framing the diamond necklace laying at her throat.

Jaune rolled her eyes.

“Mother…,” she greeted, doing her best to make her annoyance at having Penny sent out to the car clear.

“Hello, dear.” It was completely ignored and she turned to Celeste with a smile. Jaune huffed.

“Celeste, this is my mother, Blanche Roche. Mother, Celeste Carrick.”

“We didn’t really properly meet before and I’d like to start by apologizing for that. I was just so curious about what kind of woman had Sunshine all in a twist.” She smiled brightly, eyes closing.

“Sunshine?”

Jaune flushed, scowling at her mother. Celeste couldn’t help but grin and when amber met blue the lawyer turned an even darker shade of red.

“I see you found her trophy shelf.” Blanche directed the baker's attention back to the wooden shelves, much to Jaune’s ire.

She picked up the photo Celeste had been looking at.

A teen Jaune, about 15 or so, holding a plaque and smiling at the camera, braces on full display.

“She had a horrible overbite.” her mother informed Celeste. The blonde only frowned, pursing her lips.

“Are these all yours?” She looked at her frowning date.

“They are,” she sighed.

“Jaune was in quite a few groups in school. Speech and debate, mock trial… oh and I believe chess club for a time.” Her mother helpfully listed.

She glanced at the awards and ribbons, naming Jaune for a variety of the activities Blanche had listed.

“Oh, you were…,” she paused, looking for the right word.

“A nerd…” Jaune helpfully supplied.

“No…” Celeste turned to her, hesitating as she thought. “Academically inclined...,” she finally said with a certain little grin.

Jaune smiled at her ruefully. Not believing her for a second.

“Why don’t we head out to the party now?” Blanche suggested, holding a hand out toward the garden. Just like that, the blonde was frowning again. More so at her mother’s interjection in their moment then the looming social interactions, though she wasn’t thrilled about that either.

“If you’re ready.” She turned to Celeste who smiled.

~ ~ ~

An hour and a half later and Jaune had had enough.

Somehow the parties hadn’t really changed since she was a child. They were still dull affairs with a bunch of clueless, wealthy aristocrats who for the most part didn’t have a clue.

The only difference now was she could drink and put in only the barest amount of effort to avoid offending anyone.

Unfortunately though, since she had driven and had Celeste with her, drinking wasn’t an option. So instead she had to grin and bear it, stone cold sober.

Celeste didn’t seem to be having a much better time as she interacted with some of her mother’s friends and acquaintances. Many of whom were older and the way they looked down on Celeste was apparent. To be fair they looked down on everyone though, but it still made Jaune’s blood boil.

Her mother would appear every so often and introduce the baker to some old family friend or another as her girlfriend and they certainly didn’t look impressed.

“How do you do this?” Celeste mumbled to her when they found themselves alone, partially hidden by a large rose bush in the corner of the party.

“Usually I drink.” She shrugged. “As a child, I would hide.”

“Maybe we should hide…,” she laughed.

That gave the lawyer a brilliant idea.

“I know the perfect place.” She smiled and held out her hand. “Trust me?”

Celeste blinked, surprised, and looked at the offered hand, taking it almost without thinking.

“Of course.”

They quietly left the garden, heading down the hill, away from the house toward the woods on the edge of the property.

“Where are we going?” Celeste couldn’t help but ask at seeing the smile on Jaune's face.

“Patience” Was all Jaune said, looking over her shoulder. Partially hidden by the grass was a worn dirt path, weaving between the trees, they followed it, weaving through the thick foliage until even the giant house was obscured by leaves and tree trunks. The chirping of birds and the low hum of various insects filled the air around them.

After a few minutes of walking a new sound began to tease at the edges of her hearing.

“What is that?” she mumbled more to herself but the way Jaune smiled told her that she also heard it and knew exactly what it was.

Finally she realized what she was hearing just as they rounded a bend in the path.

“A river?” Celeste gasped, looking at the gently rolling water that cut through the woods and traveled well out of sight.

The water flowed at a gentle pace, creating a small, relaxing sound.

Celeste wasted no time moving toward the banks with Jaune right behind her.

“It’s so beautiful,” the baker mumbled over the gurgling of the water as it flowed past them.

Jaune hummed in agreement with a soft smile, watching Celeste.

“I often came here after school or when I grew tired of those parties.. .or when my mother was just being too much, as you saw” She glanced at Celeste and smirked.

“Your mother is lovely.” Celeste playfully slapped her arm.

“In small doses,” she grunted and Celeste laughed. They carefully sat themselves on a large rock at the water’s edge.

The sun filtered through the trees, reflecting stray shafts of light off the water’s surface, creating a brilliant sparkling effect that bounced across their skin from where they sat in comfortable silence. Celeste finally spoke up after several long moments of peaceful quiet.

It was so beautiful and peaceful and she found her affection for the blonde at her side bubbling up, but she was still incredibly curious about something.

“Can I ask something I suspect is personal?” she asked after a long quiet moment. Jaune hummed an affirmative.

“You said before that your family's wealth caused problems in previous relationships…?”

Jaune sighed, leaning back on her hands and glanced at Celeste out of the corner of her eye.

“When I was in college I briefly dated a woman who was… very uncomfortable with my family's wealth when she found out, and accused me of leading her on. That I was…’slumming it’ for fun,” she grimaced at the memory. “We broke up and she spread it around campus, it was actually a secondary but no less valid reason for why I transferred out in my last semester. It caused… problems,” she grumbled.

“That’s awful!” Celeste leaned forward. “I’m sorry that happened, Jaune.”

“It's hardly your fault,” Jaune grunted. “Disclosing my family’s wealth always feels so precarious ever since…,” she admitted, turning back to look at the quiet bubbling water.

“Well…, you don’t need to worry about me. As I said...,” She scooted closer to the blonde, their knees now brushing against each other. Jaune looked at her curiously. “ I just really like you…” It was a quiet statement that sent a tingle up Jaune’s spine and her heart into a double beat.

She swallowed thickly and leaned over, Celeste meeting her half way, their lips meeting in a soft kiss.

Fingers slowly slid through soft, blonde locks, making Jaune hum against her lips and suddenly her hands were resting gently on the baker’s hips.

Finally they seperated just enough that amber and blue met wordlessly.

Neither one was really sure who moved back in first, but it didn’t matter as they were locked together again, this one, rougher, more frantic then the first, interrupted only when Celeste gasped, as she was suddenly nearly dragged onto the blonde’s lap.

Jaune looked up at her in silent question, breathing heavily through her mouth and with her now mussed hair, Celeste couldn’t help herself from dipping back down, capturing the lawyers lips again and slanting her head to deepen the kiss, tugging at short blonde hair. The fingers digging into her hips slid upward to her back and to tangle in the hair at her neck, pulling her closer.

She moaned when a tongue slid across her bottom lip, startling them both apart, gasping.

They stared at each other for several long seconds, catching their breath.

“I really like you too…” Jaune finally breathed against her lips.

Celeste blinked before bursting into giggles while the lawyer just grinned.

~ ~ ~

“Do you think she noticed we were gone?” Celeste asked as they walked back toward the house, her arm threaded around Jaune’s.

“I guarantee it,” she said. “She always did when I was a kid. She could just never find me.” She grinned.

The party seemed to have thinned while they were gone.

“There you two are!” They both looked to Blanche as she approached them. “Where have you been?” She looked between the two of them.

“I was just showing Celeste the grounds, but I really need to be getting her home now.” Jaune informed her mother.

“Oh, so soon?” Blanche pouted, turning the silver haired woman.

“My days start at three a.m. I'm afraid.” Celeste explained.

“My, that is much too early my dear. I understand, it was lovely of you to come.” She smiled.

“Thank you for having me.” She nodded graciously to her host.

“Call me when you get home, Sunshine.” Were the older woman’s parting words as she and Jaune rolled her eyes but nodded.

“Of course mother.”

Celeste chuckled quietly at her side, making the blonde grin at her.

The drive home went by much too quickly for both of them and before they knew it Jaune was parked in front of the bakery and Celeste found herself wishing she didn’t need to get up so early. She wasn’t ready to part ways yet.

Jaune seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

“I wish you didn’t have to go yet,” she admitted. “Rather than my mother’s house I would have liked to take you to my place…” she said unthinkingly.

“Oh?” Celeste grinned as the suggestive statement. Jaune caught on quickly and turned beet red.

“That’s not what I meant!” she quickly defended.

Celeste laughed at the flustered face she was making.

“Maybe next time you’ll show me your place...” Celeste said, but it hung in the air like a question.

“Maybe next weekend you could come over for dinner… though, as a fair warning, my cooking is only just passable,” she admitted, looking sheepish. Celeste grinned at the adorable face.

“Perhaps I could come over and we could cook together?” she suggested.

“I’d like that.” Jaune smiled.

“I’ll call you,” Celeste promised, leaning over the console. Jaune met her halfway in a chaste kiss before she climbed out of the car and waved as the goldenrod Mercedes drove off.

Maybe her sister was right.

Maybe she really was lovestruck.

She’d never felt so strongly for someone, nor so quickly. They just fit together so effortlessly, it was almost scary.

She sighed as she walked into the shop. She had only just driven away but already she found herself longing for Jaune’s company. How silly.

“Was that a good sigh or a bad sigh?” a sudden voice made her jump with a shriek.

Rose was sitting in the kitchen, a butterscotch bite held between two fingers.

“Sorry” her sister frowned. “Didn’t mean to scare you. How was your afternoon?” she asked before popping the food in her mouth.

“The party was… dull to be polite,” she mumbled, sitting at the butcher block table with her sister. “Time with Jaune though, was wonderful.” she smiled wistfully.

“Oh yea? Why, did you make out with your girlfriend at her mother’s house?” she laughed, teasing, but Celeste only pursed her lips. “Oh my god, did you?!”

“It wasn’t at the house...,” she trailed off, decidedly not looking at Rose.

“Oh my god!” Rose slapped her hands to her face. “Tell me everything!” She grinned, leaning forward.

Celeste just smiled, exasperated, but she retold the tale of her afternoon in the woods.

#bellow diamond #yellow diamond #blue diamond #white diamond #pink diamond'#steven universe #AU #fic #Authority online

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