#these were really fun to answer

[lostrealities0]

Hello! Couple weeks ago you sent me an ask about my interests, and I indicated that I might do the same at some point. I have thought of some questions, so I'm going to ask you them. There is of course no pressure to answer them, and infodumping is welcomed and encouraged.

(1) Which Scientific Field is your favorite, and Why? (If none perhaps consider listing your least favorite and why)

(2) What is your favorite thing about each of the turtles? (tmnt turtles, not regular ones) Whether it be a physical trait, a behavior, a mental trait, something in common with you, etc.

(3) Do you perhaps currently have or in the past have had a fun hobby you'd care to infodump about or simply declare your interest in?

(4) [Very very very optional cuz I don't know what you're comfortable telling the internet] How's life treating you?

Have a Wonderful Day and/or Night!

Hi!! Sorry for taking a while, the past couple of days were pretty busy 😅 Thank you so much for the questions!

1. My favorite scientific field is biopsychology! I love learning about the nervous system and how the body works. I've always enjoyed psychology but actually knowing what is happening on the inside is fascinating to me. I like understanding what causes certain reactions. Even though emotions are often seen as an illogical thing, they actually can be quite logical.

2. I was going to answer for both Rottmnt and Mutant Mayhem (as those were the only versions I've seen), but decided that would be too long. Instead, you shall have my answers for Rottmnt.

Raph: Oooooh this is a hard one. I love everything about his design, especially his snaggletooth. However, I think my favorite thing about his is how gentle and sweet he is. Kind of a side note but I love how the portray him. He is an antithesis to toxic masculinity and they don't make it a big deal. All his hobbies and traits are treated like normal, because they are! I'm not great with words so I'm struggling a bit to translate my thoughts, but I hope that made sense.

Mikey: My favorite thing about him is easily his different personas. I love how blunt Dr Delicate Touch is, and the seminar with Dr Feelings? I was having a blast. I love how he finds ways to express different sides of him, while still being himself.

Donnie: ...Do I have to choose one? I love his personality, his design, his tech. Everything about him is my favorite. If I had to choose... My favorite aspects of him is his genuine laugh and how silly he can be. Two clips that replay in my head all the time is when he imitates Mrs. Cuddles and starts laughing, and when he yells "sad face emoji!"

Leo: I relate to him way to much. His insecurities, how he copes and presents himself....yeah this hits home pretty closely. I also love how confident he is. Yes, a portion of it is a facade, but I believe there is a lot that is genuine. I don't think I can choose something specific, so I will cheat and say that his personality is my favorite thing about him.

3. Somewhat recently, I acquired an interest in creating languages. As a kid, I loved codes and made a substitution cipher with it's own letters but I didn't think making an actual language was possible. However, about a year ago I came across an instagram reel about a girl who created her own language. This introduced me to conlang.

Since then, I've been working on a language on and off. While making a conlang doesn't necessarily have to be hard, I am a masochist (/j) and decided make things more difficult. For example, instead of staying with a base 10 system, my language has a base 13 system. There are different symbols in replace of capitals, each used in certain situations. I always make jokes about how complicated and hard it can be but in the end, I do have a lot of fun with it.

4. Big picture: life is pretty good. As you saw, I just graduated. I'm enrolled in my college classes for next year, two of which I'm really excited for. I also will be getting my license in a month after years of having my permit.

Little picture: I am very tired. I had family visit last week, which meant I had to be around people the whole time. I'm an introvert who has the house to himself for most of the day, everyday. Additionally, I don't like it when normal changes, especially when it's at home. As much as I love family, I always dread when they visit.

Everything is good now though :)

[parrotxx]

book ask: 6, 9, 28, 40, 47

6. do you track the books you read? if so, how?

i don't really track them, more like go "haha i read that once". i'm not very organized

9. do you have a favorite author?

surprisingly no

28. is there a book that made you cry?

...next question

40. do you own any “rare” or “collector” books?

nope. although my parents have both written books, so i technically have the first versions of those that didn't go out to the public

47. what book do you feel most connected to?

i've reread magnus chase like a gajillion times and it got me into norse mythology, so probably that

[welcomingdisaster]

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

hi hi hi!! thank you for your ask. <3

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

hmm... sticking to tolkien fic, i feel like i could do more with ultramarine than i did. i do like it, but i kinda think it should either be shorter or contain more character work. a lot of it is about the details of crafting and i think some of the character voice/character details get a little lost in descriptions.

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

is it cheating to say it depends on the story? a lot of the time i start out with a single phrase or a few phrases and build out from there, but sometimes i just have a strong mental image i wanna convey. i'd say character is always important to me, but it's not always the most important thing.

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

ooo fun question! it's this little poem. i honestly really really loved writing that one. i don't always publish my poetry stuff but i wanted to participate in fun with fanon, & i'm really glad i did! i think there's some really cool lines in it, though looking back there's also some i'd rework.

[egophiliac]

I loved your drawing(and I love your style in general) with Leia in your recent post! If/when you have time can we see more of her in your style? I get so happy whenever I actually see people mention/talk about her and she’s not just forgotten because we didn’t get to see much of her. 😭

thank you! 💙💙💙 Leia/Leah/Lea/whatever is fascinating to me. she is the ultimate unknown. what was she like? how involved (or even aware of any details of the invasion) was she? Silver's basically a physical carbon copy of his biodad, so what did he get from her? like, I understand why the two of them kind of have to stay as these super vague and mysterious figures -- the whole point of them is that their story ended 400+ years ago and they're not really relevant anymore (and. well. the more that gets explained about them, the less that can just kinda be handwaved as "oh the politics were Very Messy") (we can sit here and theorize all day but let us acknowledge that, ultimately, canon gave us almost nothing about them post-Meleanor and we'd just be making things up). I do still wonder about her though! RIP Lea, we never knew you and we probably never will.

actually you know what, as long as we're here, I think I WILL go ahead and just make some stuff up about what Silver might've inherited from her instead.

[imclou]

can't believe fnaf brought me out of art hibernation man what a turn of events

[ghostfiish]

i like the red one

[rorydrawsandwrites]

Hi, what would episode 4 be like, based on your Puppeteer AU? Would Gangle be much more possessive of Jax than in the original? Or would she possess him as punishment?

Well, according to the canon I've established, Caine's adventures end after the first day (which falls on the manor mystery one, but that isn't entirely relevant), so the day at Spudsy's wouldn't happen

That being said I doodled it anyway. For you

[shorthaltsjester]

Imogen Temult, Exaltant Hope of the Red Storm

Heroes and Monsters by Penny & Sparrow // Critical Role Campaign 3

[unknownarmageddon]

share more of ur dreamtale sheep ideas boy i want to hear more

OKAY so. to me, they’re sheep because of the “sacrificial lamb” motif (which someone has already said before). i also just think it’s fun if nightmare, one of the most dangerous dudes, was an animal that’s a prey animal.

i think for dream, his horns would be kinda like this

the outward point wouldn’t be as pronounced, but i like the inward curving and smooth silhouette to contrast nightmare. i like to think they’d also kinda match his circlet

and nightmare’s would be kinda like that typical four horned look. like this almost verbatim

BUT i mentioned i think he’d have six horns, and the way that looks on jacobs typically is the the extra two fuse with the top two, cause they grow the same way. but for nightmare i cant decide if they would fuse, but since he’s a fictional character they could be stylized to be more obvious and the extra two swirl around the base two, OR he keeps the separate extra two and they stick out. or it could be one of each. i also like the bottom two being shaped like that, so the sharp ends are more notable

i also think nightmare would decorate his horns with various gold cuffs and stuff. and i think dream’s horns would have grown around his circlet and now he can’t take it off without cutting it off

ALSO on the topic of wool. i think i like the idea that sheep furries need to be sheared (once a year, usually at the start of the warmer months) like the real animals. so i think dream regularly shears when he needs to, and his wool is generally well kept. but i think nightmare doesn’t, because it’s hard to with the corruption. so his wool is longer and not as healthy looking. i also think, when they were young and in the village, the other villagers would have helped dream shear, but not nightmare, so dream had to take some shears and try to do it himself.

im also kinda thinking about the idea that, when they were in the village and nightmare’s horns started coming in, the villagers filed them down

ALSO EDIT i just thought of something. if im remembering correctly, some jacobs with four horns can have their horns fuse into what looks like the typical two. and it'd be soo cool to me if dream had four. something nightmare was actively hated for and had his filed down for. but because dream's fused to look like two nothing bad happened with him. so he just has to watch nightmare get ostracized for something he also has

[aquanutart]

She is offering water to any lost travelers! However, it's so hot that the water has become tea, so she's adjusted accordingly!

[shanastoryteller]

Happy Fall Season! 🍁🍂🌻🎃👻🧛🏻‍♀️ … Three faced goddess continuation 👉🏻👈🏻? God dammit shana i fucking loved this prompt, 2012 Tony is the only version that has rights and I’ve had such a problem with him ever since aou, but your writing took me back to when I actually loved his character

a continuations of 1

Rhodey heads to the smith, unsurprised to see a line of people outside of it, waiting for the man inside to succumb to his need to eat or sleep and pounce on him for whatever issue they believe needs his immediate attention. Peter is among them, the closest to an apprentice that exists, but he can’t enter the forge without everyone else pushing in too, so he waits with all the rest of them.

When they see him coming, they groan, knowing their chances have been destroyed, except for Peter, who just looks relieved.

He remembers a time when Edward belonged to him alone. Edward exists because of him, after all, and needs must, but sometimes he can’t help but resent that this is another piece that he’s had to share.

“When I walk back out, it better be to an empty hallway,” he says blandly.

He receives a chorus of, “Yes, General,” and a jaunty wave from Peter before he’s opening the door and then shutting it firmly behind him.

In the beginning, the alchemy lab and the forge had occupied the same space, the outpost not yet big enough to have the rooms to spare. It had been quickly remedied once Rhodey had found about it, because the last thing any of them needed was losing him to an explosion of his own making, but he can’t say he’s surprised to see a cauldron bubbling ominously in the center of the room. “You have a lab for a reason.”

Surprised brown eyes snap up to meet his, and then there’s that familiar grin that always causes tension to unspool from his spine, even when it really shouldn’t. “Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. How goes the battle on the Eastern border?”

As if he doesn’t know. “They’re retreating. Our soldiers are holding the line and it looks like they’ve given up attacking us on that front. For now.”

“Sounds like something you should tell the king,” he says, frowning down into the cauldron as if it’s personally disappointed him.

Rhodey closes the distance between them, grabbing his chin and tilting his head to the side, frowning at the bruising mostly hidden by his hairline. “I am. But it’s a bit of wasted effort, considering the king is half the reason for their retreat.”

“Just half?” he pouts. “I really think that I deserve more credit-”

Rhodey kisses him to shut him up, a strategy that he’s been employing since they were teenagers, the whole reason necessitating Edward in the first place.

The second prince could not be scene dallying with someone so below him in station, the fact they were known to be friendly was a fluke of a broken wagon and much derision to all who heard of it. But Edward was no one, an educated fifth son of some nameless noble with a talent for metalwork, and no one cared if he kissed a commoner.

Then war had come knocking and a king could not do what needed to be done and so Edward had shifted from Rhodey’s to the country’s overnight.

Tony hums happily against his mouth and Rhodey pulls back rather than deepening it. Half the trick with was not letting him get distracted. “You need to get some sleep. Have you slept at all since getting back from the battle?”

The deep bruises under his eyes already tells him the answer, but it’s still worth asking.

“Need to figure this out,” he says, tilting his head to the cauldron. “It’s a coating for the blades to get them sharp enough to cut through armor. Not our armor, obviously, but other people’s.”

“A day,” he says, because Tony is needed everywhere at all times in all ways, and someone has to keep him from running himself into an early grave, and at the outpost, that’s him. “Just a day at home. I know you miss it. It’s been a while.”

Tony’s eyes go distant and fond. “Yes,” he agrees, and that one word has all the exhaustion that he won’t let show.

“You disappear all the time, no one will question it,” he murmurs, “I’ll make sure of it.”

“I’ll go if you will,” he returns. “You haven’t been home in even longer than I have.”

“Less of a need,” he argues, and he should argue against this too, when it’s unnecessary and dangerous, but he’s tired too. “Fine. We’ll need to sneak out to the woods if you don’t want to get caught.”

Tony clearly hadn’t expected him to agree that easily. “You hate flying.”

He hates how much pain it puts Tony in, but since he’s flying either way to get home, it doesn’t matter. “I’ll deal.”

Tony kisses him again, writes down some notes, douses the cauldron, and then they’re using the secret entrances that had actually been the whole point of building a lab near the forge. When they’re far enough away, Tony’s chest glows, the light and sparks spreading out from his chest to effulge his body and liquid gold and mercury sliding down his limbs. Rhodey has to close his eyes against the light, but Tony’s arms around him are always welcome, even when they burn almost too hot to stand.

The Iron Mage flying to the castle is a common enough sight that it raises no alarm and the brightness of Tony in flight means no one can tell he has a passenger, seen as nothing more than their own personal shooting star.

Tony melts the iron shutters back with a wave of his hand, likely reforming it behind them with a more intricate pattern than they’d been wrought with, because he always had such opinions about anything he hadn’t crafted himself.

He’s barely set Rhodey back onto his feet and folded the star back inside himself when there’s the running of little feet coming straight for them. Rhodey’s not surprised.

She’s always watching the stars, looking for her father.

Tony bends to pick up Morgan as she rounds the corner, barreling towards him with single minded intensity. “Daddy!”

“Hey, buttercup,” he says, hoisting her into her arms and settling her on his hip. “Miss me?”

“Yes,” she answers, wrapping her arms around Tony’s neck in a hug. She turns her head to grin at him, Tony’s eyes shining in her face. “Hi Rhodey. I missed you too.”

“Hi, Princess,” he says, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead. She frees one arm from Tony to grab onto the front of his jacket, keeping him in place. He settled a hand on her back and that seems to satisfy her.

The door pushes open and Pepper is standing there, still with hair up and braided around a circlet and in a deep blue silk gown. “Someone here is supposed to be asleep.”  

Tony and Morgan’s innocent faces are identical and equally unconvincing.

“It’s me, isn’t it?” Rhodey asks.

“It’s all three of you, really,” she answers, striding forward. She squeezes his shoulder, then uses it as balance to push herself to her tip toes.

Tony bends to meet her in a kiss, chaste enough that Rhodey doesn’t feel the need to pull away but long enough that he assumes Tony’s sleep might end up experiencing a delay.

“I don’t want to go bed,” Morgan says. “Daddy’s home.”

“I’ll be here in the morning,” Tony says and Pepper’s face relaxes. “Come on, I’ll put you to bed myself, okay? And then you can tell me about all the new things you learned over breakfast.”

“I’m not tired,” she insists, but only waves at him when Tony pulls away to take her to her room.

Rhodey waves back, almost goes with them, but having the two of them there will just make her twice as riled up.

“I could have another, you know.”

He looks down at Pepper, blinking. “I thought – after the war?”

After the cave, after swallowing a star rather than being swallowed by it, Tony couldn’t justify staying on the sidelines, couldn’t justify only contributing to the war as Edward. Besides, being captured in the first place had shown him that he wasn’t safe as Edward anyway, but even Tony couldn’t justify taking to the battlefield without an heir, without a child of Stark blood to inherit, without a queen who could rule both while he fought and invented and in the event of his death.

Prince Gregory had been ten years older than Tony, he’d been the boy everyone knew would be king. Tony was just the spare, and not even one had on purpose. It’s why he’d had the freedom to meet Rhodey in the first place, to take on the name Edward and poke and prod his way through universities and labs and harassing blacksmiths into teaching him a craft a prince was never supposed to know. They’d assumed his father would arrange his marriage to some foreign noble for political reasons and Tony would install her onto an estate and do what was necessary to add a couple kids to the royal line and that would be that, he would then be free to spend his time on pursuits he enjoyed and with the man he loved. He was just the second prince, after all, it’s not like what he did really mattered, and he and Prince Gregory had never gotten along anyway.

Lots of people hadn’t gotten along with Prince Gregory, lots of people had thought his temper and his cruelty and several other attributes made him unsuitable as king. Maybe, on their own, they wouldn’t have mattered much – Rhodey thought Prince Gregory was not so much worse than King Howard – but he was constantly compared to the brother ten years his junior and found lacking.

They never found out who was behind the attack that killed Tony’s parents and brother. With their enemies sensing weakness and declaring war soon after, it was easy to pin the blame on them. But there were persistent rumors that it’d been someone, or several someones, that wanted Tony on the throne over his brother.

Rhodey doesn’t know if it’s true. All he knows is that relief rippled through the country far heavier than mourning.

The relationship he and Tony had, the future they’d mapped out, had been possible for a snubbed second prince and utterly impossible for a king. Tony had put off marriage for longer than he should have, but he couldn’t forever, and his urge to get out and fight now that he could pressed down on him.

Pepper had been his friend first. Their friend first. A noble, but only barely, and utterly unsuitable for the title of queen according to her pedigree and also the only one Tony would agree to marry so the rest hadn’t mattered.

If she were anyone else, he thinks he would have hated her. But Pepper had come to him after Tony had asked her and said, “I love him,” like throwing down a gauntlet.

He’d known. Who couldn’t help but love Tony, once they got to know him? And Pepper was beautiful and competent and trustworthy, could have Tony’s children and lead his country and keep all his secrets. And Tony might be able to resist falling in love with Pepper when she was only his friend and confidant, but as his wife, the mother of his children, his queen? He would fall.

“I want what’s best for him,” she’d continued in what he thought was going to be the worst conversation of his life, “and that’s me and you. He would never give you up. You know that. You should have a little more faith in him.”

“He needs you,” he’d said quietly. What Tony needed is something he couldn’t be, he wasn’t a noble or a woman.

Pepper had lifted her chin in defiance, every inch the queen she was going to become. “He needs us.”

That had been years ago. They made it work, awkwardly and painfully at first, but much smoother these days, warmer and easier. When the war ends, he thinks things might even be easy.

Tony and Pepper had needed to have a child and quickly, to secure the succession. She’d been pregnant within four months of their marriage and Princess Morgan’s birth had been greeted with relief by the country. Still, more heirs are better, especially with Starks being thin on the ground, but Tony resisted the idea of having another child in the midst of war, another child that he might die on and abandon.

Which is what makes Pepper’s statement so confusing.

“I didn’t mean right this second,” she says, lips turning up at the corners. “I know I’m not exactly your type, but I certainly wouldn’t mind the process myself. Morgan’s yours, of course, but if you wanted – I wouldn’t mind. Tony wouldn’t either.”

He understands what she’s offering and he’s shaking his head before she’s even finished talking. “We can’t – they’d know.”

“Maybe the next one will take after my genes,” she says. “Goddess knows Morgan’s all her father.”

She is, so clearly Stark, from her eyes to her intelligence to her love of trouble. But there’s no way a child of his could pass as a child Tony’s, which is what any child of the queen’s would have to be. Even if they came out pale enough to pass as a Stark, which isn’t any sort of risk they could take, it wouldn’t be worth the risk of anyone finding out that a child in line for the throne was not of the Goddess blessed bloodline.

“Tony’s children are my children,” he says, and means it. Pepper and Tony had always been clear about that and it had been a relief, to not have to be so close and yet so far, to be able to love Morgan as his daughter even if it was nothing he could ever say out loud. “Go and help him with her. I know you have a lot to catch up on.”

He’ll go to his room, with the bed and comforts that he’s missed quiet a lot, and get the sleep that he’s also missed.

She sighs, squeezing his arm. “Don’t wander. I get up early and Tony never sleeps through it.”

Tony will get up with her, and kiss her as she heads to the hall, then go down to his room and crawl into bed with him, still sleep warm, until he has to get up and put in an appearance as King Anthony.

Rhodey smiles and nudges her towards the hall. “Go on, your husband is waiting.”

“Our husband,” she corrects imperiously and doesn’t move until he laughs and nods and repeats her words back to her.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

"I think this is the most inhuman; and human, that I've ever felt.." MUCH CAN HAPPEN IN A YEAR. IN FIVE YEARS. A DECADE. imagine how much can happen in a century. just ONE (1). How will you grow? what phases do you find? even in 5 years, you will find patterns.

[a-most-beloved-fool]

For the writing prompts;

19. For luck - Rom and Leeta

"And then," Bashir was saying - though in truth, Rom was paying only half attention, far too busy thinking about Leeta - "she came right up to me, and kissed me on the lips!"

"Oh, she did, did she?" Chief O'Brien said, scoffing good-naturedly.

"It's true!" Bashir insisted, though he didn't look insulted by the Chief's doubt. He was smiling into his glass, seeming quite delighted by the disbelieving frown on O'Brien's face.

Rom didn't quite understand what was supposed to be so 'unbelievable' about the story. In fact - "It seems pretty believable to me," he said. "Doctor Bashir's always kissing beautiful women." (Including, at one point, Leeta - though not anymore, Rom thought with some pleasure.)

"Yes, but this one was out of his league," the Chief said, batting his hand playfully across the table.

Bashir just smiled bashfully, ignoring the swipe. "Ah, well. You're right about that. She wasn't really interested in me after all. Turns out, she'd just misconstrued the human concept of a 'good luck kiss'".

"Ohh! A 'good luck kiss'!" Rom said eagerly. Then, after a pause, "Uh, what's a 'good luck kiss'?"

The Chief sat back, idly crossing his arms. "Well, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's a kiss that you give someone to wish them luck."

"Oh," Rom said, considering that. Luck was always a good thing to have. Perhaps... "Oh! Leeta!" He stood, sending his chair clattering backwards. "I'll be back!" he shouted, then raced from Quark's bar, ignoring his brother's parting shout out dismay.

He needed to find Leeta.

--

"Leeta! Waaaait!" Rom hollered, shuffling through the crowded promenade as quickly as he could manage, chasing after her familiar voice. "Leeta! I need to give you something!"

This would be easier, he thought, if Bajorans could hear as well as Ferengi could.

But, at last, Leeta stopped, turning to find him. "Rom? Rom, what's the matt-"

The rest of her sentence trailed off into a hum as Rom reached up, pulling her down to plant a kiss square on her lips. One of her hands cupped Rom's cheek, soft. Rom didn't really know how long a 'good luck kiss' was supposed to last for - he really should have gotten more details before running off (for example, does it need tongue? Bashir never specified.) - but he thought that this should satisfy it.

He pulled away, grinning toothily up at his wife. "Hi, Leeta," he said.

She smiled down at him, cheeks flushed and lovely as always. "Hi, Rom. What was that for?" she asked, looking bemused and delighted.

"It's a kiss," Rom said, perhaps unnecessarily. "For luck," he added. "It's a hoo-man tradition!"

"For luck? Rom," she asked, laughing, "what are you wishing me luck for?"

Rom blinked. "Uhhh... For your day?"

Leeta beamed at him, and then leaned down, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "Well, I think it worked. I do feel pretty lucky now."

Rom grinned. "Me, too."

--

(also if anyone else wants to make a request, the ask game is here. i can't promise they'll get done as quick or be as long as this one is, though!)

[reyesstrand]

wish you would write a fic of tarlos where marjan and joe’s wedding is set about the time carlos is due to go back to work, he’s recovered from his gunshot wound, he’s had his stitches out, he’s been cleared for active duty by his doctor and he’s prepared as much as he can for jonah’s adoption placement with him and tk (right, like it’s a carlos one shot so it focuses entirely on him because we saw literally nothing of him, bar crumbs in the episode)

Carlos can’t sleep.

It feels a little bit like his body’s talking back at him, suddenly a petulant child. A game of mess around and find out, since he spent months pushing himself to the limit even if it cost him sunlight, or nutrition, or something more than a handful of hours of sleep a night. Because here he is, at almost three in the morning, blinking up at the ceiling, tracing the faint veins of the plaster with his eyes.

He goes back to work in two days. It’s been nearly a month of doctor’s appointments and physical therapy; of allowing himself to find joy, again: in the simple pleasures of cooking lavish breakfasts, in getting coffee and scouring flea markets with his mom, in game nights with the friends he’s missed like limbs, in TK. They dance in the kitchen, they make love in their moonlight-drenched bedroom, they talk, sometimes for hours on end, their legs tangled and heartbeats syncing.

And in four days, they have a meeting that could change their lives. Will change their lives. Carlos is ready for it—he wants all of it, wants to give TK’s little brother a home and a life that’s filled with warmth and promise—but it still makes him anxious. He doesn’t want to mess this up.

Next to him, TK stirs, like he knows Carlos is ruminating. His nose pushes into the back of Carlos’ neck, his arm tightening over his middle. They’d fallen into bed in a heap after the reception, both of them sweaty from dancing and latent with desire after being around so much love, and though the blue hours of night leave them encased in shadows Carlos knows exactly where every little mark is on TK’s skin; where his beard left red patches he soothed over with wet kisses.

“What’s up?” TK asks him, though with his sleep-slurred speech it sounds more like whassup.

“Nothing,” Carlos tries, even though it’s futile. “Go back to sleep.”

TK’s pulled more into consciousness, his voice growing stronger. “Not until you tell me what’s bugging you.”

“Nothing, really,” Carlos insists, finding it hard to explain. TK’s thumb finds the fading, yellowed bruise nestled into the curve of Carlos’ ribcage, and strokes over the skin absentmindedly. “I’m just thinking. About you, about work. About Jonah.”

“It’s a lot,” TK murmurs, his touch as gentle as feathers; as soft wool.

“I kept thinking about it tonight. How our family’s going to grow.”

TK’s quiet, letting him slowly talk himself into the point he wants to get to.

“And I’m—I’m scared about it. I think I always will be. But I can’t imagine wanting anything more than I want this.”

TK hums. “Weddings make you a little sappy, huh.”

“Shut up,” Carlos laughs, knowing they’re both thinking of their own big day, and how they’d both cried more times than they could count. “I talked to Joe a little bit, when you guys first pulled Marjan away.”

Visions of it swim in shimmery lights in his mind, as he recalls Nancy and Paul and Mateo and TK, even Tommy and Judd, pulling Marjan away before her so-called glam team arrived at the firehouse. Carlos had been close on their heels to follow and join in on whatever little toast they were going to insist upon with their friend, the heart of the 126, and he did make it to the bunks before the last glass of sparkling cider had been poured. But first he found Joe admiring the space, the decorations that still needed fine-tuning, and appreciated their brief conversation as he always does.

“He said how it happened so quickly because neither of them could bear to wait any longer,” Carlos continues, turning now in his husband’s grip so they can face each other. “And I know we joked about a quick ceremony right after you proposed but I-I feel the same. We never…we never know what tomorrow will bring. I wouldn’t change a thing, TK, and I wouldn’t change a thing about what we’re doing now.”

TK’s eyes glisten. They could blame it on the post-wedding glow, but they both know this is just what they do to each other. “Me neither, baby.”

They’re close enough that their noses brush; they give into the pull, and press them together before exchanging a kiss that says I love you, and another that says forever.

(i wish you would write a fic where…game!)

[sysig]

Growing closer than expected (Patreon)

[guardian-angle22]

hi Heather!! your recent post made me so curious - do you have any other gif before and afters that you are particularly proud of, or that were particularly tough, or just that you wanna talk about? any and all giffing directors cut tidbits are fascinating!!

[reference to this post]

OMG HI! I love this question!! Director's cut makes it sound so fancy and I love that. 🤭

Okay, so I actually have SO MANY before/after gifs saved because I use this before/after mask layer a lot as a bit of a mind trick on myself. Sometimes you spend so long trying to edit something, changing this around, tweaking that, undoing, redoing, etc… that you lose focus on what it looked like at the start. So if I’m ever frustrated with how something is looking, I’ll often do this to get out of my head about it.

This scene from Carlos' loft in s1 is a great example of one of those:

Another reason I use this a lot is because it’s a really good way of double checking that I’m not washing out the POC that I’m editing. When you have to dramatically brighten a scene (like we often have to do with our beloved 911LS), it can really lighten the skin tones of the people in the scene. I work hard to try to avoid that and sometimes just looking at the edited gif won't tell me if I've been successful, so I'll use a before/after mask.

This is a Paul gif that's an example of using it for that:

That is something I wish I knew how to do early on in my gifmaking because there are some of my older gifs that truly do not do the POC on this show justice. I'm hoping to re-do some of those in my Guardian's Gifset Glowups series I just started. I mean, look at the comparison of the first time I edited this Carlos scene to NOW:

I was very very early in my learning process when I made that first one, but still... that old editing of mine is just not acceptable imo.

For scenes that were particularly tough... I think one that people might not expect to be that difficult but drove MY CHEESE TO SLIDE OFF THE CRACKER, was the soulmate scene. I think I haven't made as many gifs as my love of this scene should've warranted but it's just so tricky to edit. The few that I have made you can even see how differently they look from each other cause I haven't nailed it down yet:

ONE OF THESE DAYS I'll find a good edit balance for this scene that I love and you'll see a million gifs of it on your feed from me.🤭

And finally! Before/after that I'm particularly proud of... I mean, the proposal scene... I think they lit that scene with a single birthday candle in the corner and a child's flashlight behind their fake windows. So all the before/after edits are so satisfying: