#this is a sign they've made it

[themusicsweetly]

Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe: The Puppy Interview

[dragonnarrative-writes]

GhostGaz Week - friendly competition // an honest mistake

@ghostgazweek

Simon’s lips are firm, but startlingly gentle. The hand he has on Kyle’s jaw tips his head just so, and he barely stifles a groan as Simon’s tongue teases against his bottom lip. The rumble of contentment he lets out shakes Kyle down to his bones. Whatever sound pushes past his lips at that must be what Simon’s looking for, though, because he deepens the kiss to something filthy. It’s everything Kyle’s ever imagined and more.

He just wishes he knew why they were kissing.

“Wait, wait,” Kyle says, when Simon’s other hand drifts down. He chokes as Simon’s thumb swipes over the fly of his jeans. “Wait, Simon, what’s going on?”

“Kissin’ m’ boyfriend.” The words, between pecks against the edge of Kyle’s jaw, set off alarm bells.

“Your what?”

That makes Simon lean back to meet his eyes. He looks hungry. “Whatever you like, love.”

Kyle rewinds the evening in his head. Unfortunately, he’s lost. “Huh?”

“You don’t like the word, we can use another one,” Simon says, patiently. He tips Kyle’s face up some more. “Mm. Y’re pretty, you know that?”

“Since when are you interested in dating me?”

Kyle’s never seen genuine confusion on Simon’s face before. It’s fascinating. After a beat, Simon says, “Since… you keep touching me? And holding my hand? And stealing my drinks? And we went on a date?”

On a what? ���I don’t follow.”

“Which part?”

“All of it. Start from the beginning.”

“You touch me, all the time. Hold my hand at the bar and color in my tattoos,” Simon breathes, with a kiss to his eyebrow. “Tickled at first, but it’s nice, now. You wasn’t letting me finish a drink without drinkin’ half of it. And then we went on a date last Thursday.”

A bolt of realization makes Kyle’s jaw drop. “The new Thai spot? That was a date?”

Something about that makes Simon untangle them and take two steps back before Kyle can even register there’s something wrong. And there is something wrong. The man’s shoulders jump up to his ears as his hands dive into the pockets of his jacket. He hasn’t looked so fucking uncomfortable around Kyle since they met at the shop, years ago.

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” He avoids Kyle’s eyes as he talks. “I just… I guess I read the signs wrong.”

“Hey, no.” It’s a relief when Simon let’s himself be reeled a step closer, but he still avoids looking at Kyle directly. “’M sorry, that’s my bad. Soap and I were betting on who could get away with annoying you longest.”

“Right,” Simon says, and it should be impossible for such a large man to look so small. “Not flirting. Sorry.”

Feeling like a complete heel, Kyle reaches into Simon’s pocket to wrap his fingers around his wrist. “No, hey, Simon, don’t run away from me. ‘M always flirting with you.”

“It’s fine. It’s friend flirting. I get it.”

“Stealing your beer might have been friend flirting,” Kyle admits. He takes deep breath and lets it out before adding, “But bringing you pasties in the morning is just regular flirting.”

Simon’s lips press together, and he looks at Kyle from the corner of his eye. “You bring everyone something.”

“I bring you and Cap tea since Johnny and I stop for coffee in the mornings,” Kyle corrects with a smirk, reeling Simon a half-step closer. “But you’re the only one who gets food. Don’t I get your favorite?”

Cautiously, Simon settles one shoulder on the wall next to Kyle. “Yeah.”

“I didn’t think you were interested in me.” Kyle shrugs, gestures vaguely at the space between them. “I just thought you liked people touching you, just as friends. You hug Cap and wrestle with Johnny all the time.”

“I don’t mind Cap and Johnny,” Simon confesses with a soft smile. His shoulders relax a bit, and he looks less like he’ll punch through the bottoms of his pockets. “But I like when you touch me. You have nice hands. And you smell nice.”

“You notice my cologne?” Kyle wraps his fingers in the strings of Simon’s hoodie and reels him back into his space. He smirks as he tips his face up again. “I was trying to find one you’d like.”

He watches Simon’s pupils dilate, just a little. “I always notice. You wore a new one to the Thai place. Liked it.”

Kyle presses a quick kiss to the divot in Simon’s chin. “I had a really nice time on Thursday.” He catches the corner of Simon’s lips with his own. “And I like holding your hand and drinking your beer.”

“You could drink less of my beer.”

Kyle grins. “Can I kiss my boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Simon breathes. He sighs, slotting his lips against Kyle’s. “You could do that.”

[mal1ntent]

Random qsmp eggs fun fact Tallulah's favorite lullaby is Jort Storm by Slimecicle because Phil would get lazy with tasks and play it instead of singing and Leo's favorite lullaby is Pac e Mike wow wow because Foolish would get lazy with tasks and play it instead of singing

[notbecauseofvictories]

[ Open House Chicago 2024 — All Saints' Episcopal Church, Dank Haus German Cultural Center, St. Mary of the Lake, Riviera Theater, Wilson Avenue Theater]

[liebelesbe]

...thinking about how I've literally never gotten along better with my parents and it's bc I'm sick

[psudopod]

I was just checking in on comics to see how my boy, Tiger King Of Kandahar is doing, (he's dead, lmao, fuckin comics,) and uh. Do correct me as I was just cherry picking comics with little regard for the story, but isn't he Muslim? Like

Yeah? Probably? I'm no expert tho.

Isn't the drinky drinks, like, not Haram? Are not Haram things ok as a cheat if you're chill? Is this a sign of his mental state in this comic? Did he just go full apostate arc off screen between his appearances? Lol. Fuckin lmao. Whatever. Let the dude have his sippies one issue before he gets hit by the Leave No Atoms Behind beam. 🥲

[p4nishers]

i hate when i can't understand a woman character bc the writers wrote her SO fucking badly. i hate when i'm literally forced to dislike a woman character because she's been written in a way where you genuinely don't know anything about her thoughts or feelings and the narrative doesn't treat her like a person. i fucking despise cis men writing women because it will never fucking be right. they'll will never understand, is the thing, and a woman written by a cis man is always a fucking disaster and i hate nothing more than hating women characters bc men don't have enough braincells or care to make them actually human. fuck male writers who don't even fucking TRY or pretend like they were trying to decently write a female character. fuck. them.

[seokwoosmole]

Oushi is one of the best recent examples of character development done right. Cause when I first started this series I definitely didn't like him. And now, I can confidently say that I do and he's such a good character.

[mariocki]

Infinite list of favourite lyrics: 229/?

Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe (1967)

"And Papa said to Mama, as he passed around the black-eyed peas:

'Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please.

There's five more acres in the lower forty I got to plow'

And Mama said it was a shame about Billie Joe, anyhow.

Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billie Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

[...]

"Mama said to me, 'Child, what's happened to your appetite?

I've been cookin' all morning, and you haven't touched a single bite.

That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today

Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday - oh, by the way

He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

And she and Billie Joe was throwin' something off the Tallahatchie Bridge'"

[makerofmadness]

I think media literacy is at an all time low if a game can reference the fxcking skyrim meme and people still think it's not meant to be a horror-comedy. literally the top comment. How.

[brenna]

i forgot to mention that yesterday the doctor brought out this patient to optical who immediately asked, "which ones are the men's glasses?" like, great, we're off to a transphobic start; love that for us. the doc is like, "oh, you know, they're kind of all together." and the other optician takes the chart (thank someone because i am not about to suffer this human). i hear her say, "yeah, and some of them are unisex!" to which he immediately comes out with, "oh, i don't want any of THAT."

like, sir, kindly remove your head from your ass. we're coming for the term unisex now? get the fuck over yourself.

i got distracted with helping my trainee with a woman who couldn't get the deal on sunglasses, but later the guy working front desk was like, "did you catch the horrible vibes off of that guy? 'where are the men's glasses?' shut up! and then he was like, 'that's not how i was raised.' no one cares. sir, this is a wendy's! leave your garbage opinions at home."

thank someone my coworkers aren't shit, at least.

[theflyingfeeling]

idk what the "Nokia Arena promo thing" Aleksi mentioned even is but I'm going 👋

[blueboyluca]

I thought my dogs were resilient but I'm starting to reconsider. When I go away, they struggle a lot and all kinds of weird behaviours start. It might have been worse this time because Luca was injured and Marceline was in heat, but I'm still a bit concerned that they don't do well with a change to routine for a week.

[biancabelairs]

i swear to god, if the women's title match at revolution is a three way so they can get the belt on saraya via ruby shenanigans, i'm throwing tony's ass in jail

[sanstropfremir]

nct infinite expansion being after the debut of nct tokyo? 👁

i assume you meant being scrapped lmao. i'm......not really sure all my thoughts are formulated about it, mostly because SO much is up in the air right now and it's very hard to predict what's going to happen. i do still think that the infinite expansion was never really a good idea and it does a lot of disservice to the original members and it wasn't managed properly at all, so yes i think scrapping it IS a good idea, because that means they should in theory be able to actually focus on managing the existing group better. however, there are two things that this decision makes me concerned about: firstly, does this mean that they're also scrapping nct u? because let's be real here, nct u and the full group albums are the most interesting work that nct creates AND where all the creative potential in their revolving concept is. so if this means that they're only gonna prioritize promoting each of the subunits separately and not do any nct u or full group albums....... that's gonna be pretty disappointing. and the second thing i'm concerned about is the infinite expansion concept is lsm's brainchild baby, that's the one thing he's been after for like, fifteen YEARS. obvs i think he was delusional in chasing after it and frankly i'm fucking furious at him for causing this whole situation in the first place, but you can't deny that he spearheaded a lot of the creative decisions at sm that made the company into what it is. and the fact that the FIRST thing that they're getting rid of while 'under new management' is a creative decision that he was after for so long is a bit of a red flag that the artistic integrity of the company is at risk. so yea. complicated feelings.

[windfighter]

Explosion in the mall

Prompt: ”Can you hear me?”

-------

Kouji’s ears were ringing. He turned his head. Nausea and dizzyness overpowered him and he closed his eyes. The ground was rough beneath him, covered in debris. Gravel, crushed concrete, broken beams. Something heavy wedged him to the floor, pressed against his chest and made it hard to breathe. A sharp pain cut through his arm. Broken. He hoped it was the worst of it, but he couldn’t feel his legs.

His ears were ringing.

A hand on his shoulder. Kouji opened his eyes. Kouichi waved his hand infront of Kouji and Kouji turned his head. The world spun. His stomach protested and he swallowed. Focused on Kouichi’s face. It was pale, covered in blood and dust. His hair clung to the side of his face, glued there by sweat and blood. His mouth was moving, but no words reached Kouji.

”What?” Kouji tried.

He couldn’t hear his own voice.

”WHAT?” he tried again.

Kouichi winced. Put a hand over Kouji’s mouth. Kouichi’s mouth moved again, but the sounds still didn’t reach Kouji. The hand was removed, but Kouji didn’t try to say anything. His head spun.

”Can you hear me?” Kouichi signed.

Kouji closed his eyes again. It didn’t stop his head from spinning.

”Ears ARE RInGIng”, he answered.

He forced himself to look at Kouichi’s hands. They were bloody, his sleeves were missing from his arms and the arms were covered in scrapes and cuts. None of them seemed to be bleeding.

”So no”, Kouichi signed back. ”Don’t worry, we’ll get out of here.”

Kouji tried taking a deeper breath, but it got cut short. Another stab of pain shot up from his arm. At least Kouichi didn’t seem to be stuck.

”ARE you OK?” he asked.

”You don’t need to shout”, Kouichi answered. ”Legs are broken.”

Pain flashed across Kouichi’s face and Kouji winced in sympathy. He didn’t try to sit up and offer help. Kouichi forced a smile.

”Bad day to go to the mall”, he said.

Kouichi gestured towards the ceiling and Kouji looked towards it. Dark smoke covered it and Kouji turned back to Kouichi again. His head hurt.

”There’s fires. I heard sirens a while ago, so they’re coming for us.”

”you… looked for me…” Kouji mumbled.

Kouichi’s forced smile turned soft despite the pain visible in his face. He squeezed Kouji’s shoulder.

”Of course, you’re my baby brother.”

Kouji wanted to ask how long he had been out, what had happened, what was going on, how soon they’d be out. He wasn’t sure Kouichi had the answers. He frowned. Kouichi seemed to be getting paler. Kouichi looked away.

”Open break”, he signed. ”I tried, but…”

Kouji closed his eyes again. He hoped help would arrive soon, because he wouldn’t be able to do anything if Kouichi fainted. Kouichi shook his shoulder and he opened his eyes again.

”Stay awake”, Kouichi said.

”dizzy”, Kouji answered.

He didn’t want to fall asleep, but it was getting harder to keep his eyes open. Did Kouichi struggle as much? Kouji didn’t know how to ask. Kouichi took a shaky breath, put a hand on Kouji’s shoulder. His lips moved, but the ringing in Kouji’s ears stopped the words from reaching him. His eyes closed again and darkness took over.