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betterbooktitles · 4 months

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Because I was taller than everyone else on my fifth-grade baseball team, my strike zone was slightly larger than most. That fact alone must have led to a few more pitches going unanswered when I was at bat. It also didn’t help that I was deathly afraid of the ball.

My dad, not the biggest sports enthusiast, took the time in the evenings after work both during and after baseball season to toss small plastic whiffle balls (about a 6th of the size of a regular baseball) at me that I would then swat a sad few feet from where we stood in the front yard. He was always in his dress clothes, and as the sun set behind him, it felt like everyone in our neighborhood was hiding inside during our 10-minute drill.

“Keep your eye on the ball.” he’d say before underhand tossing the practice pitch, having no idea the reason I had watched the last 9 strikes in one game pass the plate in front of me wasn’t an inability to see the ball coming, but the exact opposite: I saw it flying right at me and was frozen by fear.

Recently, I found the baseball cards they’d made for our rec teams. There I am smiling, bat in hand, not an inkling of fear on my face since I was staring down a camera and not a pitcher. The back of the cards featured my weight, height, and various stats, including 0 RBIs. The more impressive numbers reported: I had jumped from 5’1” to 5’11” over three summers.

Being tall at 12, and remaining relatively tall until most kids caught up with me in high school, had its advantages. I played center in basketball and rarely had to jump for a rebound, I was a decent first baseman because I wasn’t afraid of a ball when I had a mitt to catch it in, and adults, simply by virtue of my being the same size as them, mistakenly talked to me as if I were a peer.

“The problem with this fucking place…” the new head of my community theater confided in me as I sat in the box office and handed a parent her change, “is there are too many chefs!” My new boss kept her flat black hair short and wore fat earrings. She was in her mid-50s and had been given the job after the board fired her friend and colleague of 15 years from the same position. Our new leader had spent much of her career teaching children how to sing in harmony, not fundraising and attending advertising meetings, and she was adjusting. I was 11 or 12, hearing an adult woman vent for the first time about what I had assumed was a nice promotion.

“It’s like that pasta fundraiser we did,” she continued, “Everyone brought in a sauce from home, but imagine if we had mixed them all together? You bring your grandma’s famous recipe in and dump it in with a bunch of Ragu, what does it taste like? It all tastes like Ragu, you know?”

I nodded as if I knew. “I get you.” I said, speaking slowly so my voice didn’t crack. I had recently visited New Orleans and had tried to yell something funny at my family while crossing the street, and out came a high-pitched whistle instead. A man in a suit walking past us mirthfully smiled to himself, knowing exactly what had happened. Since then, I remained cognizant of how deep I needed to keep my voice to not slip. Plus I wanted this woman to keep speaking to me like a coworker. “You don’t want to be watered down.”

“Yes. It’s like that. Imagine that for every person who brought in Ragu, someone else brought in a bottle of piss to mix in. That’s what the board meetings are like. Their ideas are like piss mixed into a pasta sauce.”

I giggled and quickly cleared my throat before saying in a deep voice: “Tell me about it.”

The disadvantage of tallness was that from 3rd to 6th grade, it was assumed that I could do everything myself. They started asking for tall guy favors. Tiny teachers asked me to retrieve supplies from high shelves and old ladies I didn’t know stopped me on the street and asked me to help carry their groceries from their cars. No one was worried about a boy who looked 18 at age 11, but that also meant I had to desperately seek out the right friends if I wanted to talk about Pokémon and anime instead of someone asking if I could buy them porn or cigarettes or firecrackers. Still, like many kids, I wanted to be older than I was and I relished my tall kid privilege. I walked to the mall alone, I walked into R-rated movies without anyone on staff stopping me, and I stood outside the back entrance of my community theater where the director and crew members smoked cigarettes and talked to them about their love lives. Never in my life did older people cover their mouths after they swore or steer conversations away from sex at the sight of me.

This early independence may have been what my parents wanted.

“We treated you like little adults even though we knew we weren’t supposed to.” My mom revealed to me on a recent trip to see my family in North Carolina. In the open-concept house down the street from where my brother settled after college, we reminisced about Cleveland from afar, my brother chiming in periodically to say how our old neighborhood had changed for the better, what buildings had been demolished and rebuilt because they were a lost cause. Schools had been turned into suburban developments, dilapidated gyms became giant complexes for rec soccer leagues, and a bunch of fuck-up alcoholics we’d known in school had become successful lawyers (who still drank too much).

“We let you decide where we ate and what sports you played,” my Mom continued, “you weren’t supposed to let kids decide all that, even in the 90s.”

My dad, half-awake in a recliner, said that when he told a friend how he used to leave his 11-year-old alone to make sure his 8-year-old son got the school bus on time every morning, and the friend said that practice was tantamount to child abuse. Whatever trauma I experienced from having time alone with my brother (?) fails to compare to how I feel about adults who spoke to me from age 10-15.

By the time I was a teenager, I’d fully accepted my early adulthood. When I wasn’t playing a sport or acting in a play, my number one hobby was taking a John Updike book (sorry) to a coffee shop. I frequented a place within walking distance of my house in Cleveland called Talkies. I sat at the front bar with my book and ate a second lunch at 3 PM. I talked to random people sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes inside. One was a researcher at Case Western who studied molecular biology. He seemed to know no one in Cleveland except me and the baristas. Another guy was a white dude with dreadlocks, a gifted actor who bussed tables at the fancy restaurant next door. Every barista was a 20-something woman who told me about their various trysts in graphic detail. Multiple times the men offered me cigarettes or to split a joint outside. No wonder it took me years to finish one of the Rabbit novels. I was soaking up more than enough adult content in my real life than any book could offer.

The oddest encounter occurred at a hotel in Annapolis, Maryland when I was 15...

Read the rest here.

#funny #better book titles #lit #lol #reading #dan wilbur #writing #essay #essays #long reads #childhood #adulthood

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sparrowrising · 1 year

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Hey, hi, hello! I'm just going to re-edit this post every now and again, I think.

This is a catch-all blog skewed towards everything writing. There will be some funny reblogs, fanfics and original writing, reblogs of art and other things I stumble upon and want to share.

I'm working on a couple of different original writing projects and I write occasional fanfics (ao3). I'm also quite proud of these two edgy fff poems: Devouring & watered down poison.

About me:

Early thirties, bi, working in tech, whichever&no pronouns work (lets just both pretend to not worry about it and move on). If I step on any toes, I probably just don't know the unwritten rules and I am sorry <3

Genre/tropes:

In the main original wip I'm writing: Urban futuristic fantasy/post cyberpunk, found family, romance, murder mystery, parallel universes. Currently 1/3 of the way through draft 1.

In the secondary original wip I'm writing: YA, dark forest, spooky atmosphere, learning lessons, John Bauer meets Alice in Wonderland.

In what I like to read: Grim-dark fantasy, urban fantasy (<- at least in theory! Give me some good recs, please!), modern sci-fi. I'm picky with prose. I haven't found any romance books that quite match what I like yet.

In fanfiction: Some fics do romance so well I lose words, queer rep, hurt/comfort, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers. I love it when there's a twist to the source material that recontextualizes something. I adore short poetic and pretentious (in a good way) fics, there's too few of them, please give me recs.

Other:

Open to tags/ask games! Might be slow to reply but happy for each one (even the ones I don't answer, I'm so sorry, it's just sometimes I don't feel I have anything good to add so. Yeah.)

Very open to constructive criticism - if you can tell me why you don't like something about my writing, I will find that very valuable.

Do feel free to dm me if you want to vent about your wip! I'll gladly be someone to bounce your ideas off, if you want:)

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writing

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maroonangels · 5 months

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i want to ask you all of them but for the sake of ur time and other people to ask: 20, 19, and 18

did not see this til now whoops

ask game list

cut off cause this got long

18: What do you want to know more about [a character of your choice]?

- I really wanna know more about sasha & her home life, I don’t think she’s an only child but I do see her as an independent one so I think she’d be the youngest (probably has an older brother or two) but like her parents?? tf are they doing?? where are they?? and also I just really wanna see what her bedroom looks like

19: any hcs about the characters, relationships, etc - god I could make a ten page list of hc’s but I’ll give you some of my mains—

missy was/is obsessed with any adaptation of hades/persephone

harper & cash start buying each other stuffed animals after one too many shitty childhood memories are shared between them (roommate bonding yall)

harper & spider used to be friends as kids and got a tad close again when she dated dusty in s1

malakai & missy have self care nights together where they do face masks and eat takeout and vent

dusty & ant were friends before spider was in their group and at one point it was dusty & ant & darren instead of spider

there’s been weirdly civil moments between malakai & spider that nobody sees but they know about, it makes their dynamic a bit more complicated if either of them think about them for too long

spider grew up doing dance (all of it too, hip hop, ballet, jazz, contemporary etc) and was great but quit out of spite of his mom only ever liking him when he was dancing — yes missy makes him dance for her when she finds out

spider used to crash on dusty’s couch when he couldn’t take his mom anymore but now he has to sneak into dusty’s dorm or just settle on the backseat of his car

ant takes harper to his favorite restaurants over the course of a week of eating out every single night — they are both soooo smitten by the end of the week

malakai still calls quinni when he’s having communication problems even if they aren’t as close as they were in s1 (she’s always v helpful)

missy, spider & malakai all had emo phases to different degrees at different times but they bond over it — spider had it the “worst” & longest and would still be in the trenches if not for dusty, malakai is the one to start playing the music at hangouts and starts the convo about it, missy has the most amount of merch including records & cds that she starts playing more often

20: favorite fic + a fic you'd like to read - I don’t have any fics I want to read so I’m just giving yall recs

- daisy’s drop (do you think you feel the same?) - by @faebriel - cash/darren, a super nice look into cash’s character and feels extremely in-character to me (I don’t wanna spoil much cause it’s mostly just fluff & talk but it’s sooo good yall should go read)

- sorry if I say some things I mean - amerie/malakai - one of the first fics I read for this fandom and still one of my favorites, it’s soo sweet and cutesy oml

- love and learning - missy/spider, ongoing, it’s heavy at points but I’m an angst lover so. It’s honestly such a nicely written fic and makes me love the spider/missy ship even more

#my post #headcanons #fic recs #heartbreak high

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imjusttpeachy · 4 years

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bumpy roads & broken promises. (c.h.)

EDIT: Lmaoooo I did not expect this to actually get notes, thanks guys! I already made it onto someone’s fic recs-- I feel special. Actually might end up writing more if this gets more attention. :^)

I wrote this as a vent/comfort fic for myself but figured others might like it. Corpse has been my new safety youtuber ever since the old nosleep reader--deep voice/no face gamer went to shit so... yeah.

Heavily inspired by @mmonamona ‘s fic “Petty Fights and Lonely Nights” just more angst.

playlist

feng suave - sink into the floor

current joys - a different age

feng suave - venus flytrap

rei ami - do it right

summary: Corpse gets frustrated with work and snaps at the reader when she tries to ask what’s wrong, triggering a bad memory from a past relationship.

word count: 2, 932

WARNINGS: she/her pronouns used, coarse language, shouting, panic attacks, reference to past relationship trauma (no retelling, nothing detailed)

(angst, hurt/comfort, crying! lots of it)

>>>

“God would you just fuck off already?!”

Frozen. Your body tensed up as the deep growl echoed through the cramped dark room.

You had been staying at your boyfriend’s apartment for about a week while you were on break from college. Flying out from the UK to California so you could spend as much time as you could with him before ultimately having to return to 5am facetimes while drowning in papers and essays.

Even before you’d booked the tickets, Corpse was already apologizing for everything under the sun. The size of his apartment and its cleanliness, the fact that he couldn’t do much more than order take out for you, his irregular sleeping patterns.. the list could go on and on. And while you assured him every time that you didn’t care, that you were coming to see him— not his apartment, not home cooked meals, and definitely not to scrutinize him for things he couldn’t control due to his mental health. But he wouldn’t buy it.

Not one bit.

He’d offer you a weary half-smile, pulling you into his chest or ruffling your hair before placing a soft kiss on your temple and changing the subject. You didn’t press any further knowing how often he was at war with his own mind and couldn’t help but think the worse of every situation.

As the days carried on, you’d spent most of your time tangled up in each other. Whether it be a movie, or playing some co-op games, or even just laying in his bed with him, you could barely stand to spend any time apart. But, of course, you were adults with responsibilities that would tear you from one another eventually. While you did miss his presence every second he wasn’t around, you couldn’t help but try to make his life even better for when he got back and for when you’d eventually have to leave him once again. Now, a week into your stay, his apartment was a good amount tidier than how it’d been when you arrived. The cupboards and fridge were stocked with groceries that would hopefully last for some time after you left, on top of the home made meals you’d make together or for him everyday. New picture frames were hung up on the wall of the two of you that you’d gifted to him when you arrived; it actually started to feel like home. Well, as much as it could without those familiar strong arms wrapped around you every second of the day.

Unfortunately, this evening was one of those times. Corpse had already been locked up in his office for a few hours now, the sounds of button mashing and frustrated exclamations making its way through the thin walls every so often bringing an amused smile to your face. He’d woken up a bit anxious already knowing he’d have to both leave you alone and put up a brave front for the stream that was planned that evening. You didn’t push him or try to talk about it, knowing that it would just make it worse; so you two had spent the day as it normally would (though he always looked and felt on edge) until he was forced to retreat back into that dreaded workspace.

You occupied yourself on your phone and laptop for a while, checking up on friends, reviewing anything you’d need for the upcoming semester, just scrolling through your socials— y’know, the works. But by the time you’d gotten bored with your scrolling, you’d notice it was a perfect time to start dinner that you’d hopefully be able to eat together with Corpse. You’d gotten to work right away, doing your best to be as quiet as you could to not disturb his work as the different aromas began to spread through the small kitchen in his apartment. Finishing up the dishes after the meal was all cooked, you dished up two servings and set them on the coffee table in front of the couch before you went to retrieve your other half.

Turning the knob of his office door slowly, you peered into the dark room; only the silhouette of the floppy mop of hair you adored so much was able to be seen in the dim light of his computer monitors. Taking a hard look at his right-most monitor you notice an editing software pulled up instead of the usual live chat he had on while streaming, so without any worry of interrupting you opened the door and stepped into the room. It was a cozy room for sure, and it always seemed to smell just like him— which of course is a given but with how much time he spent in this room, it was even more so present. Walking up slowly to his right side so you wouldn’t startle him with just your voice you watched his gaze flick to your form before steadying itself back in the monitor. Furrowing your brows at his strange behaviour but not letting it get to you, you opened your mouth to speak.

“I made dinner!” You smiled down at him, taking a few steps back toward the door so he would be able to get out of his gaming chair without you in his space. However, the hunched form of your focused boyfriend didn’t move an inch. Your heart sunk a little at his attitude but decided to just try again.

“Corpse, baby, dinners ready.”

“I’m not hungry.” The short statement left his mouth in a low grumble, if you hadn’t spent all this time with him studying his voice and begging him to speak more to you, you probably wouldn’t have been able make it out at all. You huffed out a sigh, this was new for him, you really hadn’t seen him as anything other than the cuddly baby you’d grown to know and love. But, you thought to yourself, love would come with days like this and it was bound to happen eventually. Trying your best to not get frustrated or angry with his snappy attitude, you kept your voice light and cheery as you tried again to coax him out to eat.

“Corpse you’ve barely eaten today I-“

“I said I’m not hungry.” Startling at the angry tone you’d never heard from him before, you could feel yourself start to get choked up. Pulling your hands up to hug your arms, trying to sooth yourself, you could feel yourself starting to slowly freeze up. Goosebumps ran over your skin, a chill snaking it’s way up your spine as you gulped, trying your best to muster up the bravery to speak again. You didn’t know what had gotten into him, he knew how the tone affected you— he was usually even the one to comfort you after an episode triggering something like this. As your mouth began to run dry, you took a deep breath deciding that he would definitely come to his senses in the next moments, you opened your mouth to speak again.

“Is everything alri-“

“I’m FINE! I’m not a FUCKING CHILD I don’t need you constantly checking up on me! God would you just fuck off already!”

You didn’t even notice the tears dripping off your cheeks until they splashed against the bare skin of your hand. Slipping into the defense mode you knew so well, your body switched onto autopilot as you began to backpedal out of the room, almost tripping a few times as you sputtered out a choked “okay, I’m sorry,” before closing his door once again and stumbling messily down the hallway to his room. Your mind was moving a thousand miles a minute yet was completely blank at the same time, and before you knew it you were tucked away inside the dark closet in his room.

This was the routine, this is where you’d be safe.

Trying to slow your erratic breathing you hugged your knees even closer to your chest, praying that in some way it would ease your shaking body. But inevitably, you felt the sobs that you’d kept trapped in your throat since you’d left break through. Your chest heaved with the breaths you took to keep your sobs as silent as possible. You thought you had trained yourself well enough for this, you’d done this a million times before— but in the back of your mind you knew that this time it was different. Shrinking into the corner of the closet, the only thing on your mind was all the broken promises he’d sworn to keep.

>>>

Corpse sighed, his body weighing him down in his chair heavily, head aching with all the work he’d been doing that evening. Pulling his attention back, he stretched his arms as his sore eyes glanced over at the clock in the corner of his screen. 11:34pm. Fuck. That much time had passed already? Raking a hand through his hair he yawned sleepily, he knew he should probably spend more time working before calling it a night but all he wanted to do was curl up in bed with you-

Shit.

Finally snapping out of the heavy trance he’d set himself in every time he sat down to edit, he thought back to the last time he had seen you— calling him for dinner where he snapped at you to leave him alone… almost 3 hours ago. The memories of the past moment flooded into his head and seconds later he was scrambling out of his chair and out into the hallway. It was dead silent, Corpse felt like his heart was practically breaking his ribs with how hard it was pounding in his chest. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Gripping at the right side of his shirt he rushed into the living room, rubbing frantically at his eyes as they darted around the room quickly looking for any sign of you.

“(Y/N), baby?” He rasped out, voice caught in his throat, walking through the living room and spotting the now cold meals she’d prepared waiting uneaten on the coffee table. His heart sunk as he hurried to the kitchen only to see the rest of the meal out on the counter, not doing anything to ease his mind. He called your name again and again; rushing back into the living room his eyes darted to the front door, a tiny bit of relief pricking his system as he saw the door was still locked and latched, as well as seeing your shoes and jacket by the door. Rushing back into the hallway he peeked into the bathroom, flicking on the light switch and with no sign of you, continued down the hallway to his room.

“(Y/N), please baby.” Flicking on the light his eyes scanned the room not catching a single sight of you-- when he heard it. Slowing his breathing down as much as he could in his panicked state he focused in his hearing on the small heaves of air coming from the closet. Stomach dropping, Corpse collapsed onto his knees, legs giving way from underneath him when he realized where you were and what was happening. Crawling his way toward the closet door he stopped right outside of it, he heard your breath hitch and knew you were holding it out of practiced instinct which made him want to vomit. But it wasn’t about him right now, so with a deep breath he finally managed to whisper out.

>>>

“Princess, I’m gonna open the door okay?”

Finally releasing the breath you had been holding, your lungs heaved for air as light flooded into the dark closet. Peeking an eye out from where it was buried in your knees, you blearily made out your boyfriend’s blurry figure kneeling outside the closet. With your body feeling like it was completely out of your control, sobs once again began to rack your huddled form as you shrunk away from him as far as you could into the corner of the closet.

“I’m gonna come in and sit with you okay, I won’t touch you unless you say I can alright?” You could hear some shuffling before hearing the door creak shut again engulfing the both of you in almost complete darkness, save for the few streams of yellow light coming from the cracks of the door. Corpse stared forward in complete silence, long legs bent uncomfortably and body hunched over in the cramped space of the closet trying to give you as much space as possible but knowing that the first step was sitting with you. The man beside you sighed softly, feeling his heart splinter with every heaving sob that raked over you; he could feel his own tears prick at his eyes and a sob starting to well up in his throat but he held them back. Mustering up the courage and will he finally opened his mouth to speak.

“(Y/N) I am so, so fucking sorry,” his voice pitched just above a whisper because he knew if his voice got any deeper that it would startle you and scare you even more than how you were already feeling right now. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking. It never should’ve hap-“

“Y- You br- broke your promise.” Your reply came in watery, stuttered breaths; the knot in Corpse’s throat came right back up, tears filling his waterline as much as he tried to keep his composure for your sake.

“I know. I know I did.” The man beside you managed to choke out thinking back to the day where he first lost his temper around you. You’d told him everything about your experience with your past relationships and how you were treated, what you used to cope and what he could do to avoid that in any way possible. He promised that day that he would never again raise his voice, or move too fast even when he was angry or frustrated, and made sure to note down anything that would possibly trigger you to completely avoid altogether. And he kept those promises… until today. Tilting his head to glance over at you, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the closet to see you staring straight ahead, tears pouring endlessly down your damp face as your body still shook with soft cries.

“I can’t lose you (Y/N)” Corpse’s voice shook as he tried to figure out the right things to say that would keep you from walking right out that door.

“I’ll do anything. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, I don’t know what I’d do without you. I’ll be better, I swear on my life I’ll be better. Anything you need— it’s yours. I just.. I can’t lose you. Not like this.” He hated how much he sounded like he was pleading when he’s the one who fucked up. The last thing he wanted to do was manipulate you into staying with him which was exactly what your ex did when they made the same mistake time and time again; something he swore he’d never even think of doing. But here he was, and here you were glancing up at him with bloodshot eyes, hair sticking to your tear slicked face and body shaking so much you’d think it was below freezing in there.

Tearing your gaze away from his, you heaved a watery, shaky sigh trying your best to get your thoughts in order. While you had your issues, you knew he had his as well; and with as much patience and understanding he gives you with your snappy, frustrated, sad days, you needed to give back that same patience and understanding with his own. You needed to be brave here.

“Baby-“

“C-Can you just hold me? Please?” You sputtered out just above a whisper, and before you could even unwrap your arms from around yourself Corpse was pulling you into his lap; strong arms encasing you as he pushed his face into your hair. That’s when you found out he was shaking just as much as you were, chest rising and falling erratically with contained sobs as he tried to keep his brave demeanour up for you. Tucking your head under his chin he leaned back against the wall as he crushed you to his chest, the droplets hitting the top of your head giving way to the fact that he was crying too. Pulling your arms up from your side, you slowly wrapped them around his shoulder as he pushed his face against the crook of your neck, sobs finally giving way as he cried helplessly into your shoulder; further dampening the already tear-soaked cloth of the hoodie you were wearing.

“I’m sorry,” Corpse sputtered, hooking his chin over your shoulder so he could keep up with the heaving of his chest, pulling an arm up from around your waist to rest on the back of your head. As much as he wanted to run his hands all over your body and bury his fingers in your hair to feel and memorize every inch of you, he kept them still not wanting to overwhelm you more than this kind of touch already did.

“I love you, I love you so much, I love you..“ he whispered over and over into the darkness of the closet as you both began to breath slower as one. Shushing him softly, you repeated the soft words back to him before wrapping your arms tighter around his shoulders, ensuring him that you were going to be alright.

There would be bumps in the road but Corpse was worth it.

__________________________________

#corpse husband #corpse husband x reader #corpse x reader #corpse imagine

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thewildwaffle · 4 years

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Humans are Weird - Birthdays

Another prompt from a lovely user on ao3

When humans throw a party, they don’t mess around. Or well, they do, that’s like half the point of their parties most of the time. What they don’t mess around with is the planning, preparation, and all-out general excitement and energy that goes into their parties. Scarsels, they'd only gotten halfway through the setup and decorating for Human Dana’s party and it seemed like it would be almost as much fun as the party itself! The special occasion this time was to commemorate the anniversary of Human Dana’s birth. When Peterrias was first told about the party plans, he'd been a bit blown away by just how much of everything there was. His people celebrated the anniversary of their hatching day, sure, but it was usually more of a happy acknowledgment of the day itself and of the life lived to that point rather than a formal festivity. Excited to be a part of such an important Earth culture custom, he had volunteered to help get things set up. There was a lot more that went into a human birthday party than he realized. At first, he'd gone with Human Jackson to help make the refreshments and treats that would be available to guests. He'd spent a little bit of time cutting up fresh vegetables that were edible for everyone on the crew to eat and arrange them on a colorful platter. That didn’t take long to do, but by the time he had it done, all the food preparation tasks that involved working with “safe” ingredients had already been taken. Not wanting to be in the way of preparations there, Peterias had wandered back to the main rec hall where the party decorations were at that point well underway. The humans had requisitioned party supplies the last time they’d stopped in a port with a half-decent market. Earth wares, as popular as they’ve become, were pretty easy to find, even very specific items like balloons, streamers, and a large pack of funny-looking conical hats.

Garubi sefra and human Jieun were setting up the streamers now. They twisted the thin strips of colorful paper into beautiful, swirling, drapes that swept from one side of the room to the other. He paused to take in the sight for a moment. There was something familiar about it all, but he couldn’t figure out why. Anyway, it was a lovely scene. Humans really did go all out. Or maybe this was just a good outlet for them to vent any pent-up creativity and partying they’d been holding in for the past few partecs aboard the ship. He suspected a combination of both. “Is there anything I can do to help here,” he approached the decorators. Human Jieun was having to climb up and down a step ladder to reach high enough to place the streamers. Peterias was one of the few crewmates aboard that stood taller than humans. That with his long arms and great reach, this seemed like the perfect job for him. With a little explanation, a few hijinks that went on while figuring out how to not get the tape to stick to him, he had the entire hall “decked out” as Jieun declared. There was still about half a roll of the decorative paper leftover. He watched it as he bounced it in his hand, smiling as it dawned on him why it looked so familiar to him. It looked just like a popular candy he enjoyed when he was a young hatchling. Wouldn’t it just be like humans to use pretty sweets as decorations? He had to admit, it was kind of a fun idea to multitask like that. Making sure no one was watching, he snuck a tentative nibble at the paper. It was absolutely disgusting. Definitely not a sweet ribbon! Oh, by the stars, it was so bitter! “Did you just try eating the crepe paper?” Jieun clapped a hand on Peterias’ shoulder as he came up from behind. “I’d guess from your face that it wasn’t very good!” “Pleah! Pleh… I… uh, you… you saw that?” He figured Jieun’s laughter was enough affirmation. “To be fair,” Garubi came to Peterias’ aide, “when I first saw the streamers, I thought they looked like large rolls of sweet ribbon as well.” Jieun’s smile remained as large as ever. “Yeah, but you didn’t try eating it!” Garubi took the remainder of the streamer roll from Peterias and went to put it away. “Not when you were looking,” Peterias heard the sefra mutter quietly before he got too far. Even though the room was already looking very festive, humans do not mess around when it comes to throwing parties. He helped Jieun and a few others set up some games and activities for the party. Once again, many hands might light work and the only thing left to do, so Jieun said, was blow up a few more balloons. “Thanks for helping set up though, I really do appreciate it. Dana’s going to love this! She has no idea we’ve got this planned, I can’t wait to see the look on her face!” “Glad to be included in such an important celebration of life,” Peterias closed his eyes and nodded to return for Jieun’s smile. “I am also very excited about the party. If I may ask, do you know how many years Dana is marking today?” “Uh, well, she’s turning thirty-seven in Earth years. I’d have to do the math to convert that to galactic standardized. I know doing that would make it a fraction of some sort.” Peterias tilted his head trying to recall what he knew about Earth. Their day cycles fell into an average length among inhabited homeworlds. The way they divided their days was a little funny but close enough that many humans had no problem converting to galactic standardized times. Years though, years seemed a little long to him, though he couldn’t remember the conversion rate right at the moment. Still, even if they weren’t too far off of GS time, thirty-seven was quite the number! He hadn’t realized Dana was a senior citizen! “That’s amazing,” Peterias’ voice was excited but respectful. “Do you think she’ll stay on the crew much longer then?” “Uh, yeah, I mean I don’t know what she’s planning, but I’d think so. I mean, why wouldn’t she?” “Well,” Peterias wasn’t completely sure how best to say this without sounding offensive or rude. He’d heard humans could be touchy about their ages later on in life. “Won’t she… won’t she want to retire soon?” Half of Jieun’s face scrunched up to make a funny expression. “Retire? Why would she want to do that?” “Um, well, you know… as most species age, they find this line of work to start becoming… uh, well a bit too demanding on… uh… elderly bodies?” Jieun stared at him without saying anything that Peterias started worrying that he had broken some human taboo about talking about getting old. “Dude. Dana’s turning thirty-seven, not eighty-seven. And even if she was, I still don’t think she’d retire. Have you seen her on duty? That lady loves blasting asteroids.” Jieun chuckled as if recalling a memory as he grabbed a rubber balloon and began forcing air into it through his mouth. As Peterias watched the blue shape grow in size, something Jieun said finally clicked. “Wait, eighty-seven? Do humans live that long?!” Jieun removed the balloon from his lips and tied the end so the air wouldn’t escape. “Well, I mean, with proper diet and exercise, a bit of good luck and good genes, yeah. I mean nowadays, it’s not too crazy to see people living and even being fairly active into their hundreds.” “What?!” Jieun had to be joking. Humans loved playing practical jokes. He kept waiting for his crewmate’s face to break into a wide grin and laugh at his attempt to “pull his leg” as the human saying went. As the tiks went by though, Jieun didn’t back down from his bold statement and instead started blowing up another balloon. “Oh,” Peterias shook his head. “Oh how silly of me. I forgot about the year ratio. Earth must circumnavigate it’s star fairly quickly. There for a bit, I thought you were saying humans could live for over 100 galactic standard years.” Jieun opened his mouth and let the half-filled balloon propel itself around the room wildly. “Uh, yeah, we can. Easily. I think the ratio is like, uh just a little over two-thirds of an Earth year for every galactic standardized year. Something like that? If we’re talking SG years, 130 is around the average life expectancy. 180’s getting up there. I think the oldest living human right now is pushing 195 SG years or something like that.” Shivers ran down Peterias’ whole body. He felt the proto-feathers along his spine rise up. He felt like he was frozen in place as his brain used 100% of its capacity to try to process what he’d just been told. There was no way. He’d have known about this before, right? Of all the rumors that flew around about humans, this would have been one of them, right? He kept waiting for a punchline, for Jieun’s nonchalant facade to drop and for him to start laughing at the hilarious joke he’d been trying to get Peterias to believe. But it didn’t happen. He wasn’t joking. Instead, Jieun held out his hand. “Let me see, I guess that would make Dana....” His fingers went up and down as he calculated, “Oh, a little over sixty I guess. In SG, that is.” He then went to retrieve the balloon he’d let escape before and proceeded to blow it up again, tying it off this time. Peterias just stood there, still frozen. He watched the human continue to put the final touches of decorations around the room. How old was Jieun? He saw human Jackson enter the room, being helped by several other crewmates as they carried in platters of prepared party snacks. How old was he? How old were any of the other human crewmates aboard the ship? How much had they seen and how much life had they lived even before they stepped aboard the ship? He was finally pulled out of his frozen state as everyone scrambled to hiding spots. Realizing he was still standing in the middle of the room, Garubi came up behind him and led him to a spot where he could crouch behind a chair. “Come on, they said part of the celebration is to jump out and surprise the birthday celebrant when they arrive at their party.” Peterias allowed themselves to be pulled along and even made sure to tuck their tail in closely so as to hide better behind the chair. It was futile, he was too large, but thinking on that right now seemed beyond his capabilities. Dana was indeed surprised when she arrived. She screamed, out of shock at first, then in delight. There was a lot of laughter, music, and talking, and a surprising amount of very bad, off-key singing to a very repetitive song. It felt almost like visiting a harvest festival back home, so happy and celebratory! Except unlike the festivals, this was for one person. Before, it might have seemed a bit excessive, even by human standards. Now he realized that with this celebration of life, there was a lot of life to celebrate. The planning and preparation that had gone into the party was well worth the effort. Peterias hadn’t had as much fun in some time. It wasn’t any one particular game they played or amusing story that was told that made it so much fun. It was more just, how happy everyone was. The humans, especially Dana, just seemed to radiate a warm happy energy that was particularly infectious. Peterias smiled as he watched Jackson get animated as he recounted an adventure he’d had as a youth on Earth. It was, of course, a story about him doing something dangerous and how he got out of it, and he had several delighted crewmates hanging onto every word. Peterias, chuckled as a thought came to him while watching the scene. Humans live such long lives. He’d had no idea. He supposed that some, after hearing Jackson’s story and knowing what ridiculous antics humans got into on the regular, might postulate that humans live so long because death itself is hesitant to claim them. As he looked around the room though, he caught eyes with human Dana who smiled that strange warm, and slightly scary way that humans do. She held up her hands together to form a shape that he’d been told was a symbol of love and mouthed the words “thank you” to him. Peterias nodded and smiled back. His mind started wandering again. Somewhere in his brain, the new information of human’s life spans was being put together with other tales and warnings he’d ever heard about them like puzzle pieces. That’s why everyone’s always worried about offending humans. They have such long lives that they could hold grudges for what would be lifetimes for other races. That’s why they’re so good at multitasking or will often come onto crews with multiple advanced skills. They have plenty of time to hone their talents. That’s why they can be so forgetful at times. They have a lot of life stored in their memories. There was a large collection of gasps and laughter from the crowd around Jackson as he finished up his story. Soon, Dana took over as the next storyteller about one of her own fool-hardy enterprises she’d had once. It wasn’t quite as much of an adventurous tale as Jackson’s had been, but it was a good story and she told it well. Peterias smiled as he listened in. He was glad humans lived so long, for a lot of reasons. Maybe those who half-joked when they said that death was afraid to claim humans were right. They certainly were a handful in the realm of life, they’d probably continue to be a handful in the realm beyond. In any case, whatever the reason may be, he was glad he’d have his friends around for a long time.

#humans are weird #humans are space orcs #humans live a long time #space #aliens #writeblr #ao3 #prompt #original writing #birthday #sci-fi

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becausethathappens · 3 years

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Spare Change

4k - college - Link is furious, so Rhett tries to calm him down.

For @peachworthy and anyone else who thinks swearing is hot.

Link is mad.

Link is pacing.

Rhett tries to help.

“Why don’t you just scream into a pillow, like you always do?” Rhett offers.

“I did that!” Link cries. He makes a show of going over and doing it again. Rhett can’t help his instinct to recoil at seeing his friend yell like that.

Link’s car has been towed. Link can’t go on a date with the girl he’s been trying to court all week.

On top of that: Link doesn’t have a credit card (all he’s got is cash) and it says right on the tow sign they don’t deal in it. Somehow Link missed the whole thing, the first time around, when he parked wrong or whatever. But now going to have to borrow his Mama’s card just to get the truck out of impound.

All this and he still has to cancel on his date tonight.

“I didn’t even see a line!” he yells again, recounting the events that have unfolded. “How am I supposed to take their word for it without a picture, either! And like I said, if you can’t see the line, how are you gonna know when you’ve crossed it?!” he decries.

They’ve towed his car because he parked outside the student residential boundary lines on the main street. Everyone knows this is how the city of Raleigh makes most it’s coin. Shoving parking tickets on unsuspecting co-eds.

Link never thought they’d tow his freaking car, though.

Well, his truck. To be specific.

He feels stifled, cornered, and hot. Very hot. His skin is boiling, red and he wants to punch the pillow he’s just released after screaming into it.

His only permanent means of escape.

At least, unless he borrows Rhett's car.

“I can’t believe they wouldn’t even give me a warning! Or wait five minutes! I was only in rec center for ten minutes picking up freakin’ — these freakin’ things,” Link spits the words as he picks up and tosses the flowers back down on his desk.

They’re rumpled, now, with his tense hold and actions. Rhett gets up and fidgets with them, trying to smooth the foliage back into the nice shape it started in.

“Link, it’s okay, Lindsey is gonna understand,” Rhett explains.

“It’s not — it’s — there’s — why’s it always — I’M SO MAD!” Link ends with, apoplectic and beyond any other way to articulate it.

“That’s okay!” Rhett tells him, since he has every right to be upset.

“I...! Ughhhh!” He walks over and bangs his right Reebok heel against the closet door once for good measure.

It makes a noisy sound as it bends at the overhead slide hinge that keeps it on track. Link kicks it again, seeming pleased with the audible response from the wood bending and cracking loudly in the room, like a smack to the face.

“Link!” Rhett reprimands, sure that they’ll be in trouble with their resident advisor for damaging property if Link keeps it up.

“I’m sorry, I just! I just wanna — ‘s just been one thing after another, this year!” Link growls, continuing his pacing and returning to the wooden door again. “I’m just so — so — ARRGH!” Link fumes and before Rhett can jump up to intervene, he watches his friend punch the door.

“FFF—reak! Dang it!” Link screams.

Rhett watches, eyes wide.

“Shit!” Link yells as it hits. It gives with a loud, snap-crack and Rhett’s mouth makes a perfect “o” in reaction.

Link’s hand goes to his mouth catching his own language. “Shit!” he cries again like he can’t stop, muffled by his hand.

Afterwards, he’s panting and Rhett is left standing to the side staring in a bit of awe. He didn’t know Link had that in him, to be honest. “Shit, there’s a hole!” Link exclaims.

Their eyes both guiltily dart to the half-filled swear jar on Link’s desk. Usually he’s the one keeping after Rhett for saying “Hell!” or “Damn!”

Although Rhett’s said all the bad words, at some point or another, it is unlike either of them to spew out a ton of foul language in a string as Link has.

“Swear jar?” Rhett says, mostly in question. He can tell Link’s much madder than the other times they’ve punished each other for cursing. His willingness to let it go is rife in his tone, but Link shakes his head, madder at himself for having swore and willing to pay the price.

He saunters over to his backpack and finds his wallet. “No, no, I earned it.” He tsks himself as he pulls out a few singles and strides over to the jar, tipping them in.

“You overpaid, there, bo,” Rhett advises, watching the bills settle. It was a quarter a word and Link put in three dollars.

“‘S for the door,” Links says, shrugging. “I don’t know what the Hell I ‘s thinkin’!”

He closes his eyes. “And for that Hell, too,” he adds. “And that one!” He throws his hands up. “ARRgh!”

“Link!” Rhett yells as he slots another single dollar bill, adding to the overpayment, but cushioning the extra curses all the same. “Link, it’s — you — it’s fine!”

“It’s not fine!” Link yells. “I’m screwed. And now I’m cursing like a sailor watchin’ my favorite football team lose the playoffs!”

Rhett makes a face. “What, we talkin’ the Army-Navy game, or what?”

“Damn it, Rhett!” Link snarls. Then he closes his eyes and makes a face at his own words. “Damn it, Rhett!” He paces around, throwing his hands back around, gesticulating. “I feel like I’m trapped in some sick dirty mouth loop!”

“That sounds… why does that sound worse than the cursing?” Rhett says, joking. “Maybe you should add another dollar?”

Link sighs, dramatically, and does so.

“Link, I was — you don’t have to actually — Link, it’s okay!” Rhett stammers out, eyes bright. He comes at Link with his hand out, like he’s asking to be heard out. “You had a horrible day, you should be allowed to vent a little!”

“Vent a little?!” Link shoots back. “I put a hole in the door!”

“Yeah, okay, maybe that wasn’t your finest moment, but you’re pissed!” Rhett explains. “I get it!”

Link throws his hands up as if to say, at least there’s that and not much else.

“You should get a pass.”

“A pass?” Link questions.

“Yeah, just for tonight.” Rhett puts his hands on his hips. “You already paid for a week’s worth of curses with my exchange rate,” Rhett jokes.

Rhett didn’t curse much, but all the other money in the jar was his. Link’s never so much as taken the Lord’s name in vain before.

Link spares a sidelong glance and hustles back over to his backpack to return his wallet.

“Go ahead, man, you’ve earned it. Blow off some steam!” Rhett advises.

“So, you just want me to start cursing?” Link asks, joking with a touch of condescension. “Like some — some degenerate?”

“Degenerate?” Rhett asks, laughing. “Who said anything about being a degenerate?”

“That’s who curses, Rhett!”

Rhett looks Link over and decides to try and get his mind off what’s eating him by messing with him. His favorite pastime.

“You should say the ‘F’ word, Link,” Rhett urges, suddenly, overcome with the desire to corrupt Link. He’s a bit ashamed of it, but another side of him insists that it would be hilarious to see Link snap and start saying filthy things, even for just one night.

Hearing him say Shit! is enough to get Rhett interested in hearing more.

Link frowns. “Fornicate?”

Rhett smirks. “Yeah, but the bad version.”

Link’s eyes go wide. “Rhett!” he puts a hand to his chest, finally settling on a posture that indicates he’s nearly at his wit’s end. Rhett beams at him.

This is as much about teasing Link to take a night off being Mr. Perfect as it is about Rhett noticing that Link screaming Shit! also did a lot to calm him down. If he curses more, maybe he’ll feel better altogether. Plus, as established, Rhett found it hilarious to watch unfold.

In his opinion, it’s certainly worth a shot.

“C’mon, Link — let one rip!” Rhett teases and Link’s brows furrow.

Unfortunately, Rhett’s efforts to cheer him up are doing the opposite for his mood in the meantime. Link looks actively annoyed at the supposition.

“Will you please — ? We’ve established I’m having a terrible enough night as it is and I don’t need your added bull —” Link stops, then goes silent off at Rhett’s delighted expression.

“My what?” Rhett teases more. “My bullshit?”

Link’s eyes flick to the jar. Rhett makes a show of grabbing a quarter from his laundry money holder on his own desk and walking over to put it in the jar.

“Yeah, that,” Link bullies.

“Well, too dang bad, Link,” Rhett says, splaying his arms wide and taking in that Link is at least partly distracted from his terrible night, even while he spoke of it. “Rules are that so long as I pay up, I’m fine.”

Link huffs.

“This is —” Link starts, voice rising again in agitation.

“Uh, huh,” Rhett encourages.

“You’re such a —” Link begins and ends. Rhett’s eyebrows and eyes both dart up then turn crooked, waiting for any addition to that comment, but it never arrives.

Link starts pacing again, faster, back and forth between the dorm beds and their door.

Rhett merely nods, waiting for more.

Finally, something in Link stops him in his tracks. Whether it’s the constant grinning nods from Rhett to egg him on, the long itinerary of Bad Things that keep on Happening, or just that Link is filled with an urge to punch the closet door again and he knows he can’t do that.

So, he snaps, “IT IS BULLSHIT!” full volume at Rhett.

Rhett’s head nods even more swiftly, taking a deeper path up and down, like he’s bobbing over steady waves to stay afloat.

“IT’S ALL BULLSHIT!” Link repeats at the same charged decibel.

Rhett still nods more, as if to tell him to elaborate further, but Link’s anger stagnates his thinking. He just wants to keep screaming that, so he does. “IT’S ALL SUCH BULLSHIT!”

“Yeah, it is!” Rhett calls back at him, like he’s cheering him on in the stands.

“And you?!” Rhett puts a hand on his own chest as if to answer silently who me? Link’s, fired up again and pointing in Rhett’s direction. “You don’t get to have fun with this, you’re — you’re just as bad!”

“YEAH! I AM!” Rhett calls out, uncaring about being thrown into the mix as well.

“When you drove us to the rec center last weekend, we double-parked with our hazards on and took twice as long!”

Rhett exclaims, “We did!” in agreement.

“ASSHOLE!” Link yells at him.

Rhett nods.

Link tears his fingers through his hair, overwhelmed at how out of hand his words have gotten, so quickly. His eyes stray back to the swear jar where he knows he has at least a few words to go. Disturbing though the thought, he considers also that he has more money in his wallet.

He knows how far he’s strayed, already, from that change in priorities alone. When he looks back at Rhett, who is still giddy, waiting for him to say more, he gives up.

“Fuck,” he mutters, in absolution.

Rhett gasps.

He’s been waiting for Link to say that, most of all, and is shocked by how quickly they’ve arrived there. Hearing it spoken so casually, on top of it all.

“Fuck,” Link repeats again, in surprise that the word actually tumbled out of his mouth so smoothly.

“I don’t even think I’ve ever hardly thought that word before, let alone said it, now I can’t f — fuck, now I can’t stop!” Link growls at Rhett, furious at his role in what feels like a downfall.

Rhett is still aghast. His mind racing.

He’s been waiting for the delivery and is amazed to hear Link actually do it. His mind has been picturing this as a funny joke, but Link is just standing there, mad, yelling fuck, again and again, accusatory. Rightly so.

Rhett knows he drove Link to this, in part for his own amusement, but it doesn’t feel funny at all anymore. His cheeks feel warm.

Link’s face reddens further at Rhett’s lack of response.

He gets up in Rhett’s face and Rhett feels himself start to back up so quickly he nearly stumbles to sit on the bed. He needs to concede this fight because it’s clear there’s a lot more pent up anger than he’s realized inside Link.

He thinks back to the door and looks around. That did calm him briefly, but surely he can’t just punch the door again. “You should yell,” Rhett ekes out the next best thing. What Link shouted after the punch. “Yell it.”

He means the f-word, still. The way Link is saying it, it feels immoral to be saying it, too.

“FUCK!” Link yells, at his continued badgering, whether it’s in fulfillment of his request or not, Rhett couldn’t say. His body shudders in fear at how loud and direct an outburst that was.

Now, he’s worried their dorm mates are going to think they’re in an all-out fight. Rhett’s eyes scan the bed and he grabs a pillow. “Yell into this,” he offers, handing the pillow over.

Link, still looking annoyed, takes the pillow. He shoves his face against it and screams, “FUCK!” at what must be the very top of his lungs.

Rhett has to brace himself against the top bunk. He’s waiting for the punchline.

It still hasn’t come.

Link, meanwhile, has pulled his bright red face from the pillow and takes in air in pants, looking over at Rhett. Rhett is sure he’s never looked so tough, so masculine, so — Rhett’s stomach lurches.

He knows that can’t be healthy. To consider any of those traits as a burly or cool, but he’s too concerned with why they’re making his insides tingle to interrogate it much for himself.

He offers to take the pillow back and Link hands it to him. Instead of putting it on the bed, Rhett holds it in his hands. He’s speechless, he thinks, but his head is pounding too hard to know why his mind directs him to his next request. Muscle memory, perhaps.

Normally, Rhett would wrestle with Link until he got the anger out, but that feels absolutely impossible to initiate right now. With Link this mad, somehow Rhett worries that even being bigger and heavier, Link would find a way to win that match, looking as livid as he does.

“Um,” Rhett starts, unable to figure out what more to say, now that Link’s gone through all that. He holds up the pillow. “Punch this,” Rhett says, not thinking about the fact that said pillow is still in his grip. He’s more focused on the mental image of sweaty, angry Link punching things again.

It’s what helped him relieve tension before, after all.

So, he pushes the pillow forward again, centering it where Link can take an easy swing in the middle and miss Rhett’s hands entirely, and waits for Link to make a move.

Soon, Link does swing, deftly, landing a soft punch on the object with a huff. Rhett can see some of the tension lock up and release from his shoulders. It’s not gone, but it must be helping. Rhett knows shooting hoops when he’s pissed always did the trick.

Link then punches again, firmer, this time, shouting, “Fuck!” along with his movements.

Then again, then a third and fourth time, until the pillow gives way and flies back towards the chair behind where Rhett stands. “Shit!” Link calls, watching it settle on the desk chair to their right.

Rhett considers that is likely to keep happening, once Link builds back to that momentum, so he turns back and squares up. He holds a palm out behind another palm. He doesn’t ask, but Link can tell he’s being told to punch into Rhett’s open hand like it’s a boxing or pitching warm-up.

Link pulls back and slams his fist into Rhett’s palm. The taller of the two staggers back, but doesn't flinch. He puts his hand back in the same spot waiting for another. Link gives just as hard again.

On the third hit, Rhett finally falters. The sting of the punch is too much for him to let on as harmless, when he waves his hands around the air to ease the throb. He grabs a throw blanket and drapes it two or three times around his upper chest, then motions for Link to aim there instead.

Link gets a good hit in and Rhett is sure this way is going to last even less than his naked hand did, but he has to try to keep at it. Link is so angry, but he looks so good hitting like this, like he could star in a cologne ad or work at Abercrombie & Fitch at the mall. Rhett has to let him get the tension out.

That’s Rhett’s job as his best friend.

Eventually, the pain is too much and he needs a break. Rhett puts a hand up in pause and sits himself on the bottom bunk and waits for Link to say something. They’re both panting with the same amount of exertion they use when they wrestle, but they still have all their clothes on.

For some reason, Rhett’s mind takes note of that.

He realizes he’s been staring at Link when Link starts to return the gaze. “Why’re you looking at me like that?” Link asks.

Rhett blushes. “Like what?” He can’t see his face to know.

“Like I’m a sideshow exhibit,” Link tells him, throwing his hands back up in derision. “Or — or, I don’t know a piece of undercooked meat, almost.”

“What?” Rhett asks, blanching.

“Like you’re sizing me up to fight,” Link clarifies.

Fight — Rhett considers. Quite the opposite. His mind thought Link meant piece of meat — to bite. Which sent a chill up his spine. “I-I wasn’t…”

“You were!” Link says, still crackling with tension. Rhett doesn’t have any part of his body to absorb it, any longer, he feels useless to help.

“Link…” Rhett starts to say, looking up at Link. Link still has an arm on the top bunk but now he’s leaning down a little, friendly but threatening, and Rhett’s insides start to turn over in knots.

“You want to pound me, admit it!” Link says, impatiently.

“What?!” Rhett replies, stunned.

“You,” Link says, pointing at Rhett. “Want to pound me,” he starts only to stop and point at himself. “It’s clear as day on your face.”

“What?!” Rhett yells at him.

“You want to pound me, Rhett. You’re so predictable,” Link elaborates, plainly. “Go ahead!”

Rhett’s eyes nearly bug out of his head. “Link, I-I…” Rhett trails off, his face blotchy and drawn.

“C’mon,” Link begs, leaning forward down at Rhett, taunting him. “Hit me!”

Rhett registers his words, understanding finally that he means to physically fight him, not to pound him as in fuck him. In Rhett’s defense, that word has been thrown around pretty casually for the first time ever and he’s racing to keep up with everything Link is doing.

Unfortunately, Rhett comes to this conclusion after he’s already leaned upwards and started kissing Link on the mouth.

Once he’s there, realizing the grave error he’s made, he breaths a huff of air in humility as he feels Link’s mouth open in turn. Then Link’s tongue darts out to push into his.

As the wet tip bursts in and out, rapidly, and Rhett contemplates that it’s like Link is still hitting him, in this tiny only-in-his-mouth kind of way. So, maybe Link was right and he did want to pound him but only via the mouth. Since it also felt so good, Rhett starts returning the kiss, rapid pace, and pulling Link closer.

Link groans under his guidance, but it’s a good groan. Link rests a thigh over each of Rhett’s and sinks back on his knees, sitting over Rhett, as they continue to twist tongues. Rhett doesn’t know what to do with his hands, so he moves them around to Link’s back and they naturally drift towards gripping his ass while he holds him.

Link moans into his mouth at the feeling.

Eventually, Link pulls back, leaning so there’s enough space to speak his shock.

“Fuck, Rhett,” Link mutters. Rhett feels his dick throb and thrust up towards Link’s lap as he shifts. Rhett’s not sure when he got this hard, but it suddenly feels like he has a steel rod stuffed down his sweats. “What are we doing?” Link breathes out. “Was that — were we just kissin’? What the Hell is going on?” Link questions, desperate and aroused.

Rhett humps up another time and Link keens at the sensation.

“I think my body just wanted to help relieve the tension of, uh, you know, all that anger and — " Rhett starts to explain, but he’s helpless to the feeling of Link rolling around in his lap and generating even more friction between their overlapping arousal. “Guess it preferred the idea of this over punching you.”

Link rocks his hips and giggles through his own enjoyment as he watches Rhett squirm. “I’m a little biased, but yeah,” Link says, grinding down more. “This does beat a punch in the face, I’ll give you that.”

They’re both panting and rubbing on each other more before Rhett reaches down to touch Link. “Honestly, I think I could —” Link says, grinding with extra effort in a way that makes Rhett feel Link’s erection evidently as it presses against his midsection. He grinds back into that area specifically.

“Yeah, same,” Rhett agrees, circling his hips in time with Link’s.

Nothin’ like some good old dry humping, for what ails ‘ya, he figures.

Link leans down and either forgetting his initial shock or abandoning it, he captures Rhett’s mouth in another kiss.

Before long, they start gasping for air from one another’s open mouths while their faces stay pressed together but not kissing, as they grind harder and harder where they sit.

Rhett reaches a hand down and fondles them both at once, rubbing his sweats against Link’s khakis. Link throws his head back in pleasure. “Feel better?” he asks, hoping this has been as erotic and pleasurable for Link as it has been for him.

“Oh, shit, Rhett, yeah,” Link moans, waist canting in time with Rhett’s motions. While gripping Link’s ass, Rhett’s moved his right hand up his back to steady him with how harsh the kisses are, each time. The hand that moved to Link’s back has stayed under his tank and drifts to his front. Rhett feels around for a nipple and squeezes once when it finds purchase.

“Oh, fuck, yeah, just like that, oh my God, fuck, FUCK!” Link bellows out, suddenly aware that Rhett is sucking kisses into his jaw and throat as his other hand, the one not on the nipple, still squeezes his ass.

“I’m gonna — I can’t stop — I’m about to,” Link begins several attempts to warn Rhett, but comes before he can finish or Rhett can respond.

Rhett’s eyes go fully wide again, in amazement, feeling Link’s dick throb and spurt laid against his own. It’s enough added heat and friction that he feels his own orgasm begin to crest unexpectedly. He hasn’t come that quick in years. Maybe ever.

Link pants through his come down, but doesn’t move to get off Rhett right away. They both remain still, clutching each other as they sit tangled limb over limb.

“D-Did we just have sex?” Link asks, mortified, but still draped over Rhett.

“Technically,” Rhett confirms. “But it was non-penetrative, so we’re still good, I think.”

“Oh, okay, yeah,” Link says back, his eyes far off.

“You sure that’s okay?” Rhett asks, looking for Link to meet his gaze and assure him that is.

He does, but he speaks his mind, to clarify anything not given away by his crooked grin. “No, I was askin’ ‘cause I wanna do it again.”

Rhett’s eyes light up.

“A lot,” Link explains.

“Fuck,” Rhett moans, softly, brushing a thumb to Link’s lower lip.

He joins their mouths again.

Link cuts the kiss short, with a hand between them, however, and gives Rhett a stern look. Rhett knows in that moment and any proceeding it, he’ll do anything Link asks of him.

Rhett’s glazed eyes spin focus to Link’s face again to figure out what that will be this time. Link nods his head towards the half-empty jar on his desk.

“Pay up.”

#why is mean link always so hot #things i wrote #🍋#@peachworthy

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touchingmadness · 2 years

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Writeblr Search!!!

Hey guys, my name's Mae (she/her), I'm 22, and I've been on Writeblr for almost six years now. (Sounds fake, but whatever.) I've been really inactive for the past year and a half or so, dealing with the final stretch of college and writing my thesis. I'm not done yet, but things are starting to lighten up a bit and I'd really like to get active on here again but uh.... A lot of the people I followed are gone and a lot of the projects I tracked discontinued.

I'd love to make some new friends and reconnect with old ones! Drop an intro in the thread, jump into my messages or asks, I'd love to get to know you and your projects! (Even if it doesn't fit the below lists. I really do like a little of everything, those are just my favorites.)

Check out my interests and what I post about under the cut.

Signal boosts and blog recs welcome! 💕

The Things I Love

soft sci-fi // space opera // low fantasy // dark fantasy

character-driven stories // social commentary

aspec leads bc we need more!!! (am a salty ace)

queer leads // queer m/f relationships (am a salty bi)

legit enemies-to-lovers 🔪

complex relationships in general (romantic or otherwise)

found family (dawww <3)

morally complex characters

housetrained ex-villains

trope/genre subversions!!!!

supernatural creatures on road trips (idk either)

adult or na audience

What I Post/Reblog (or want to)

character information (LOTS of it)

honestly some rambling/venting

things that my characters would relate to

prompts // ask games

tag games if people tag me <3

hoping to start doing trope deconstructions soon 👀

also some smaller writing playlists from my big ones

My Current Project (Touched)

adult contemporary fantasy, 3rd draft

chosen one subversions

something between magic and superpowers??? idk

themes of dealing with childhood trauma

themes of trying to figure out what you want

themes of parents and authority failing you

themes of being twenty-two stresses me out

queer m/f relationship (both bi/ace-spec)

queer found family

enemies-to-lovers

"i thought you were dead!!!"

male lead is really into the fact that female lead can wreck him

looking to do an intro for it soon

mostly i talk character/theme, less plot (for "i actually might want to publish this one" reasons, this project is my BABY)

(Let me know if you want on a tag list for either my trope deconstructions or my WIP. Can't promise the first will start soon, but I want to have the intro for the second up in a week or two.)

#writeblr #writing community #yes i know there's a lot under the cut #brevity is not a skill of mine #i am excitable and rambly and longwinded #nice to meet you!!!#also can't promise i'll follow everyone #or join a taglist for everyone #it's not personal #it never is i swear

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headcanonthings · 3 years

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WinterHawk Fic Rec List

Disclaimer: None of these authors have requested to be on this list. These are all stories that I’ve read and enjoyed. Keep in mind that your taste might not match up to mine and that’s ok! Just because I’ve included it doesn’t mean you have to read it (I won’t be offended if you skip over this whole list). If you do check out a story and like it, please remember to leave kudos and/or a comment ❤

P.S. Always check out the story’s tags so you don’t get surprised by something.

Gen Fics - These stories highlight the friendship between Clint and Bucky so may feature them included in other ships i.e. Clint/Natasha or Steve/Bucky

Clint Barton’s Guide to Friends and Ceiling Vents by NoliteTimereEos (Rated T; Word Count 6,488; Features Clint/Natasha) In which Clint Barton meets a missing assassin in the vents and somehow becomes friends with him. Things don't go as bad as they could have.

Clint and Bucky: Lost and Found by twangcat (Rated G; Word Count 2, 075; Features Steve/Bucky and Clint/Coulson) The first time Bucky sees Clint limp into the Avengers tower pretending his ribs aren’t bruised while brushing his wild blond hair out of his eyes, Bucky smiles. When Clint immediately starts railing at Tony for blasting the guy Clint was fighting because, “I didn’t need rescuing Tony, I had him!” Bucky does a double take.

Learning to Say Hello by heartdesire456 (Rated M; Word Count 11,229; Features Steve/Bucky and Clint/Coulson) Clint had woken up one morning about three weeks ago (Well, Clint guessed about three. Definitely more than one. Maybe.) and stumbled down to the living room only to realize there was a guy on his couch. The guy just happened to be the Winter Soldier, who Clint knew was actually Steve’s old best friend, Bucky Barnes. Barnes had been having a staring contest with Lucky (one eye shut, to make it fair, Clint had noticed) and Clint had decided to just leave him to it and make decisions after he’d had some coffee. (In which Hawkeye befriends the Winter Soldier and discovers the Epic Love Story of Steve and Bucky nobody knows about) Shooting Stuff Is Better With Company by WriteThroughTheNight ( Rated T; Word Count 11,636; Features Clint/Coulson and Steve/Bucky) "Natasha tells him that HYDRA is inside SHIELD (which Clint can hardly believe), and that the Winter Soldier is on the playing field. She says the latter with fear and awe, but Clint smiles, small and real, for the first time since New York." OR Clint and Bucky have been friends for years and it's to the archer that he runs after the events of DC.

WinterHawk Fics - Stories where Clint/Bucky are the main couple

I’ll Keep you Safe Here With Me by sara_holmes (Rated M; Word Count 110,566) Yes, Clint is avoiding the other Avengers. No, he does not want to go back to New York. But then again, he didn't exactly want to be kidnapped by the Winter Soldier either. Really, he just wants to go back to bed.

(Side note: Pretty sure this is the fic that got me into WinterHawk)

Clint Barton’s Super Secret Sniper’s Club by sara_holmes (Rated T; Word Count 67,057; Other ship include Tony/Steve) Clint Barton's Super Secret Snipers' Club. (Invitation and pending mental health evaluation required.) "When Steve brings Bucky back to the tower for the first time, Clint’s first thought is that Tony Stark’s pride and joy is quickly becoming a less of a very tall and expensive ‘fuck you’ in the faces of investors who don’t believe in self-sustaining energy, and more of a superhero rehabilitation center." Boyfriends, compromises and learning to like oneself.

(Side note: would recommend pretty much any WinterHawk fic by this author)

Left Foot Forward by shatteredhourglass (Rated M; Word Count 22,307; Other ships include Pepper/Tony and Bruce/Natasha) There was an unspoken rule among the Avengers that they didn't talk about Clint's soulmark. They didn't talk about it, they didn't look at it, and they didn't bring it up.

Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Teeelsie (Rated E; Word Count 77,500) Cap relaxes his hold, but he stays where he is, still looming over him. “Clint. The compound’s been breached,” Rogers whispers urgently, then finally sits back and lets go of him. There’s another explosion, closer this time and throwing more light. He turns his head sharply and sees Bucky Barnes hovering near the door, looking… off. Clint pushes Rogers and he finally stands up so Clint can scramble out of the bed and grab some clothes. He’s wearing only boxers because it’s fucking hot in Wakanda, and he catches Barnes’ eyes flicking across his body. Clint long ago stopped being bothered by people’s reactions to the many scars on his body – not that that many people actually see them - but that doesn’t mean he appreciates when they stare. “Like what you see?” he asks with a hard edge as he pulls on his shirt. Barnes turns his head, at least having the decency to look embarrassed for being caught staring. Rogers looks at them both impatiently and quickly switches gears. “Clint, I need you to take Bucky. Get him out of Wakanda and somewhere safe.” OR Bucky and Clint fall into each other. Bad shit happens. Then it all works out in the end.

Lost & Found by mariana_oconnor (Rated M; Word Count 89,972; Other ships include Tony/Steve and Natasha/Sam) Clint Barton’s got a bag full of stolen money and a burning desire to stay under the radar. His old friends in the Carnival will be looking for him and they sure as hell won’t be happy. In a desperate attempt to stay off their radar, he ends up in Timely, a small town so far off the beaten track he’s surprised he even found it, and waits for Barney to comes and get him. Because Barney will be coming. Clint knows he will. But there's something about the town. Maybe it's the strange wolf that watches him from the trees, and the way people finish conversations when he enters a room. Or it could be the bartender, Bucky, who decided to hate him on sight. Something’s going on in this small town, and Clint’s not sure if he’s jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Thank You for Staying with Us by Noxnthea (Rated T; Word Count 14,390) Ex-special ops, millennial motel receptionist Clint Barton is pretty sure that one of his guests is an honest-to-god assassin, but he's also pretty sure he's willing to let that slide because hot damn have you seen the dude's face? Besides, the only guy he's killed was kinda evil, so there's really no reason for Clint to do anything about his realization, right? or: five times Clint looked the other way, and one time he couldn't look away.

Historic Features by flawedamythyst (Rated T; Word Count 19,254; Other ships include Tony/Steve) “Electrical surges with no source, and music coming from the air, and that damn baseball game no one was watching, and I swear I sometimes hear voices right on the edge of hearing when I should be alone,” said Tony. “What does that sound like to you?” “Sounds like-” said Steve, then hesitated. Tony gave him a pointed look. “Sounds like a haunting,” he finished, reluctantly. “Oh no,” said Clint, in tones of mock-horror. “Ghosts!” Bucky laughed and kissed him. “Man, I hope they’re friendly.” Clint and Bucky are haunting the new apartment that Tony bought in Brooklyn to try and impress Steve.

#fic rec list #avengers #marvel #mcu #Bucky Barnes #the winter soldier #Clint Barton #hawkeye #winterhawk

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fixing-bad-comic-art · 3 years

Note

fun asks for boredom: do you read books? have you been to the LIBRARY lately now that it’s open again? do you want book recs? (bc im full of them PLS) - if not books, what are you doing with your free time? tv video games movies? what’s occupying your thoughts, what are you obsessed with right now? wanna infodump on anything? or vent? i want to listen :D

ive been a few times! i love the work area at my local library bc its always quiet and its got really nice views, so i visit it a lot. but im not a big reader tbh. im dyslexic and a lot of books are just too hard to get through unless theyre digital and i can change the font to something thats easier to parse which not all books/apps/websites let you do. and anybody who says the built in tts systems that these apps have are good enough, are lying to themselves. so most of the time when i buy/burrow a book its usually just a reference book of some kind.

and on that note, this is a Big reason i dont read a lot of comics, that crowded faux handwritten font a lot of them use is hellish for me to try and parse.

and its a bit of a joke amongst my friends that if im not actively making something im probably yakking on deaths doormat, lmao. right now im mostly into writting and doing digital paintings, but spinning and crochet are old favorites

and like, right now my biggest obsession is dnd, i love dming and the more role play focused sand box campaigns. and before anyone points out that theres better systems for role play focused games, i know, i actually like how janky dnd is on this front because it gives both sides of the table way more freedom to do what feels right.

like This is my rant, letting the players Genuinely argue through their character to try and get something done is Way more interesting than just making them role 1 die and do some math.

like, theres this one moment in the first campaign i ran for my best friend that i keep coming back too.

she had accidentally (on her part, this was my plan all along) traded away a mcguffin to the absolute last person she would want to have that.

when Summer(the npc) came to collect the mcguffin from Shiana(the pc) i Could have had zen(my bff) role 1 d20 and add shiana's persuasion modifier to it. and just on a role of the dice i could have decided where this litteraly game ending mcguffin would land.

if Summer gets it an eternal summer would ravenge the world. but her brother in law would be given more time with his family and a chance at survival.

if he didn't Shiana's brother in law and close friend was more likely to... not die, but also not exist anymore. but her holding onto it gave her time to maybe save both him and the world.

by not basing this on a dice role shiana got to Argue with this fairy to try and get her way out of this deal. zen got the experience of him arguing right back and trying just as hard as she was to get the damn thing.

and because she couldn't just role to persuade him they ended up having one of the most intense fights while she was Running For Her Life because she, Zen and shiana, not a trick of luck, royally pissed off the embodiment of Summer. she got to call on the power of both gods she had a connection to and nearly died from overwhelming herself with their power in a desperate bid to buy herself some time.

because we weren't using any strict rules for this, or really Any rules, we were able to tell a story that was much more engaging than one dice roll ever could be.

like, tldr, dnd Is good for role play because its Very easy to just ignore the clunky/underdeveloped rp rules when needed.

also dnd has tieflings. i like tieflings. think theyre Real Neat.

#not a fix #does Any of this make sense?#nah #but im fuhken Vibin #garnet babe

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polar534 · 4 years

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Hockey AU

Hi! I wrote an AU... that's not really an AU. Just a bunch of things and scenarios I think would happen in the future for Lumity revolving around one central idea:

Amity in a hockey jersey. (The Feral Brain though that started it all)

Sooooooooooo. Here we go. This first post is mostly about the Hockey Portion of the AU but like I said, it's ended up being alot of different scenarios. It is equally a (short term) future AU as it is a sport AU. I do eventually plan on making all of this into a chapter by chapter fic on Ao3, but if this gets some good reception I'll keep posting updates on here. I've already got multiple scenarios summarized and 4 fully written chapters.

ok but enough of that. Here goes:

Facts and World Building:

- This is about a year and half after the events of the show. (The girls be about 15-16)

- These girls are just dating. There's no drama. They are incredibly happy together. Which they deserve.

- Amity and Luz are living in the human world with Camilla.

- They spend weekends with Eda at the palace.

- Lilith and Eda are currently trying to restructure the entire Boiling Isles coven system. They have overthrown and taken down Belos and the Clawethorn sisters were named to lead in his stead. To the majority of The Owl Fam's surprise.

- Luz and Amity help them in their free time going around and helping everyone adjust and heal from the tyrants rule.

- The portal remains in the castle under protection. The Owl Fam and friends of The Owl Fam are welcome to use it, but any others must go through Luz. (Eda's decree)

- They attend Hexside during the day and homeschool themselves on human subjects before they go to bed.

Hockey Overview:

- Firstly. Amity's team is called the Otter's. She specifically chose that team because she knew the name would make Luz happy.

- Secondly. The entire team adores Luz. She's at almost every practice and is there for every game. So although she's useless on the ice, she is just considered a member of the team.

- Thirdly. Amity is extremely careful to stay within the rules of the game, but she doesn't hold back. Her role on the team is mostly defense. Her job (which she mostly assigned herself) is to keep the path clear for her teammate with the puck. If that means absolutely bodying anyone who comes near, then she does just that. (I mean, let's be honest she played heavy support in the grudgeby match we saw her participate in.) Amity has to really struggle with keeping her competitive/perfectionist side under control and not wrestling the puck away from the strikers every chance she sees an opening that others don't. It's a left over from her time playing Grudgeby.

- Fourthly and most importantly: Amity has tried to teach Luz to skate. Many times. Luz cannot skate. Luz cannot even operate on ice. If she is on the ice, she is clinging to Amity.

Summary/Timeline Thingy (under a read more cut because... oh my god I have a problem):

At first when Luz starts going (purely because she wants to support Amity), she's pretty silent. Just working on either school work, her glyphs or making a meal plan for both Eda and her mother because both are too busy/crazy to seem to take care of themselves. The team doesn't mind, and finds it pretty sweet actually. Especially when Luz will randomly look up and compliment one of them on a shot. Or how the girl seems to just stop mid-work to stare transfixed as the new blood is practicing.

Now that's just cute. Nobody can deny that.

Or that the newbie completely changes demeanor from stone cold and calculating to absolutely flustered and soft as soon as her girlfriend slides clumsily onto the ice to greet her at breaks and after practice.

Also. Cute.

All that slowly changes though because Luz is like... SUPER excited about Amity being on a sports team. Especially Hockey. She stays mostly quiet during practice because this is Amity's thing and she wants to respect that, but as soon as they get off the rink together Luz is excitedly discussing new plays and strategies or the best ways to hit the other players so they stay down longer. It's Amity's favorite way to wind down after practice. She's usually too tired to keep up with Luz's energy but she listens and relaxes into just how excited her girlfriend is.

Amity always takes into account her girlfriend's post practice discussions and will often put them into play at the next practice or game. It's extremely noticeable. Despite being new to the sport, and frankly seemingly still surprised by alot of "normal" customs and rules, Amity is getting really good. Not only is she skilled and strong but she's also catching on to strategies and plays that even the coach doesn't seem to always get. (Rec league because official coaches and team games sound boring honestly)

She starts to get approached by her teammates, asking her for advice or tips. While she can answer some of them, she normally just yells up at Luz (sitting on the bleachers) out of nowhere asking for her opinon, to which Luz somehow always has an immediate response prepared. Most often not even looking up from whatever she was doing to answer it.

Whenever someone asks her about they know so much about sports. Amity usually shrugs and just replies, "We're a team." Sometimes with a quip about how Luz makes them watch too many movies or something about Azura. That's when the team starts approaching Luz equally about stuff, and insist she start sitting on the sidelines with the team rather then the bleachers. Whenever they ask Luz why her and Amity know so much, Luz just gets a huge shit eating grin and waves her hands in front of her face as she says: "It's magic~".

Since keeping Amity's witchiness a secret is one of their biggest priorities, this always makes Amity really nervous. Not to mention she knows Luz is also referring to their relationship as magic which makes her get immediately flustered as well.

Its a win-win for Noceda. She gets to have fun with a secret only they know, and gush about Amity at the same time.

Soon enough, while Luz never actually goes out onto the ice, she's just a part of the team. Amity gets voted team captain, much to the current team captain's relief and while Amity keeps a monitor as to how her team is doing on the ice, Luz keeps a monitor as to how their plays are doing from the sidelines. They work together to switch members out at perfect moments and the Otter's go from a very basic team to being one of the top teams of the area.

Random Facts (read: I have no category for this stuff but it's important):

- Luz will often steal Amity's jersey, because its really baggy and comfortable and because it's Amity's. Amity has a STRUGGLE every time it happens. 1. It's way too cute. And 2. "Luz, I need that." "You going to come and take it Blight?"

- Regardless of how bad she is on the ice, Luz is really good with the hockey stick and surprisingly accurate with her shots. Her and Amity will often practice together in a field, and, when they're sure no one's watching/visiting Eda, they'll add their own magical twist to the game and have a 1v1 witches hockey duel.

- Luz loves it when Amity checks the shit out of players on the ice. She is one of THOSE hockey fans. And her girlfriend is brutal.

- King and Amity have a really good relationship in Hockey AU. They are both vent buddies. While Amity is in much healthier place and doesn't put as much pressure on herself anymore, she still gets easily frustrated. King, being the little dude he is, is also easily frustrated. Every week they get together for a vent session in which they chill out and watch a stupid movie in the background and complain about it to get the night going. It always ends up that they pause the movie before it's over because they're too busy going off about other things bothering them.

- Lilith and Eda share mentoring roles for both girls. It's not an, Eda for purely Luz and Lilith for purely Amity situation.

- Camilla is incredibly proud of her two girls and is incredibly supportive as well... but she can no longer go to any games or practices. The first time Amity got hard checked by an opposing player during a game, Camilla nearly stopped the entire match demanding she go down and look her over and make sure she didn't have any injuries. When Luz and Amity approached her that night, after she was asked to leave the game, she was grateful for the excuse. "You know I love and support you both, but I cannot watch... that. With good conscious. You'll just have to make sure you come to me if you're actually hurt. Ok?" She'll still come to Amity's big games, despite her anxiety.

- Amity has a scar from an injury she received in her first season's Semi-Final game. (I have ALOT of notes on this... it is one of the 'scenarios' I listed at the top.)

#toh #the owl house #lumity #toh au #the owl house au #Hockey AU #still figuring out tags #all the apologies #will post more if people like it

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zukkaoru · 4 years

Note

hi grace💖 i heard you ordered some distraction???

C: What character do you identify most with?

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

you don’t have to do all of them, but these stuck out to me... if you wanna vent about anything you can always come talk to me. i hope you’re doing as well as you can be rn, ily!!!! 💖💖💖

C: ZUKO. 100% zuko. mai comes in at a close second, though. there’s just something about characters who can’t please their parents/can only please their parents with silence that i deeply relate to. (if we’re talking any fandom, though, simon saunders from rise will always be one of the most relatable characters for me)

F: okay this one was hard for me but i’m going to go with this scene from my calamitous love & insurmountable grief

Zuko breaks the kiss and rests his forehead against Sokka’s. “I think,” he whispers, sounding almost out of breath, “the world could mourn a pair of star-crossed lovers doomed for destruction. However,” Zuko pulls back just enough so Sokka can really look at him, “those star-crossed lovers will not be us.”

“Promise?” Sokka asks, voice impossibly soft.

“I promise.”

because i’m obsessed with zuko and sokka both feeling like they’re stuck in this star-crossed lovers dynamic, but deciding screw it, we’re going to make this work anyways. the inherent romanticism of sticking it to fate and falling in love with someone destiny said you shouldn’t and deciding you’re going to get your happy ending whether you’re deserving of it or not is just *chef’s kiss*

N: for some reason the only thing i can think of right now is a fic based on that textpost where sokka and zuko have to fake date for something and when they tell the gaang, aang is like “no way sokka! you told me i would be the first to know when you and zuko got together!”

S: fake dating. i’m a sucker for a good fake dating fic. (and i know this isn’t a fic rec ask but i can’t not rec breakable heaven if i’m gonna mention fake dating fics) other tropes that hold a special place in my heart include: soulmate AUs, sharing a bed, and fics where literally all of the other characters ship my favorite ship (trying to set them up is a bonus)

and thank you so much!! ily <3

ask me anything | fanfic ask game

#asks #nellie tag

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taotrooper · 4 years

Note

5, 12, 17

Thanks for the ask!

5. what is your favorite overused trope?

I’m always a slut for found family and/or the power of nakama. Siblings doing a lot for each other always gets me. Crouching Idiot Hidden Badass, especially when it looks like the character is silly comic relief but then they’re dangerous and/or have a heavy backstory. And not exactly a trope, but I’m willing to give stuff with mythology butchery a chance.

12. if you could change one ending to a book/show/game/etc, what would you change about it?

Time to vent salt from 15 years ago or so: I would’ve rather put xxxHOLiC in a CLAMP hiatus halfway through before it got bad than get that ending that soured not just what was my favorite manga back then but also the main characters and the creators in one swoop. It’s not even the TRC tie-ins, I just didn’t think it made sense for Watanuki’s character development or was fair for half of the cast.

Anyway. For things I’ve checked out this year (and I’ll be vague for spoilers): Female General and Eldest Princess was a good book in general, but I think the author didn’t know where to stop with the extras with the main ship (expanding on secondary characters was great) and left so little to the imagination. And while I didn’t enjoy that show so much, The Haunting of Bly Manor’s ending started so well and then.... everyone who watched it knows what I mean. Funny how both have wlw ships and I had opposite problems with their endings. One was way too happy, one way too tragic.

17. are there any tropes you wished were used less often?

I think lately we have an isekai/transmigration problem. I know trends are going to trend, but whenever I check for new anime/manga/cnovels, it’s full of long clickbait-titled series that sound samey and it’s hard to tell which are TRULY good. I have nothing against isekai and transmigration series. I’ve liked some excellent isekai myself. But we’re at a point where even the subversions and things that start as parodies are becoming their own cliche subgenre (hey villain/villainess stories).

(if someone tries to rec me Hamefura or SV unironically, I’ll bonk them in the head. Yes, I’ve tried them. No, they weren’t of my taste. Yes, I think they’re part of the problem, especially Bakarina.)

#ask replies #kiri replies a meme

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soundofseventeen · 6 years

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Friends to More (Jeon Wonwoo)

Hi everyone! My supposed to be relaxing weekend ended up being very long and stressful, so Erin’s gonna update now in hopes of calming down (I’m also hugging my new Alpacasso who I named Jin whoops). Onto our favorite sloth! (casually going to label these all as the nicknames I have for them)

You and Wonwoo became friends by accident

You both knew Mingyu

And were waiting for him after school one day

In the same place

At the same time

Because Mingyu lowkey forgot he was meeting both of you whoops

So naturally, being the only two people just awkwardly waiting in a hallway, a conversation started

Just basic, common stuff

Talking about classes, teachers, movies, basic stuff

Then he mentioned if his friend didn’t show up soon he was going to go home and play his game with Seungcheol It was game night after all

And you asked what game, and when he told you, you gasped, causing the poor boy to jump

“THAT’S MY FAVORITE GAME”

SO you two spent like a half hour arguing over the game

Now, you had seen Wonwoo before

He always seemed really quiet and little scary tbh

So the fact that you were now in a lowkey heated argument over whether or not a character in a video game is necessary or not, watching the expressions change on his face and hearing him be so into it

You were a little thrown off

And you felt a crush growing

Then Mingyu remembered showed up and was real confused to see you two sitting in front of lockers half yelling at each other

Boy literally just quietly backed away and decided to just let you two be

“OKAY we’ll play the game, you using the useless character, me using literally any other character, and we’ll see who wins.” He said, and naturally you were like

“UH YOU’RE ON”

So you went to your separate homes and played the game together, you ended up winning more times than not

“Alright fine, they’re not TOTALLY useless.” Wonwoo said through the messenger and you grinned. “I gotta get some sleep. Night buddy.”

And the little crush deflated real quick

Your class was confused the next morning when he sat next to you in one of your classes and started to ask your opinion on another character, which again turned into a smaller argument

Thus your friendship officially began

People questioned it literally every day

Because you two were such polar opposites

He still had the slightly scary appearance and always wore dark or white clothing and intimidation

You were bright and positive and no one had issues approaching you

But you slowly learned how much his appearance wasn’t the truth

Everyday you slowly learned more and more about him

He recommended books to you every week you wanted to be more of a reader but never knew what kind of books to read and he would even lend them to you if he owned a copy

He became your new gaming buddy which you never had before not many of your friends were into gaming

He geeked out so HARD when he found out you had a cat

It’s the one time he literally invited himself over

“LISTEN PLEASE JUST LET ME PLAY WITH HIM JUST ONCE”

You were even shook watching him play with your cat who literally hissed at everyone, but sniffed Wonwoo two times and curled up on his leg Wonwoo tried so hard to not move but he was dying

You let him complain to you about all the inaccuracies in movies that you would see based off of books

You listened to him when he needed to vent about something on his mind, which didn’t happen often because he normally let things out pretty well

You even became partners in classes that you had together

If he seemed to really be in a mood or having a bad day, you would notice in like 10 seconds and invite him over to see your cat, his mood would lift like 3000% and he would focus on seeing your cat for the rest of the day

Now that little crush I mentioned earlier

Yeah you still had it

But you knew that Wonwoo just saw you as a friend that he could count on, so you decided not to say anything to him about it

I mean, it would go away soon, right?

Now, Wonwoo’s friends thought yall would be adorable together they’re not wrong

You could be like April and Andy from Parks and Rec

So they CONSTANTLY brought it up to Wonwoo Mingyu and Jun especially

“Hey Woo, Y/N is really pretty today, huh?”

“Wonwoo, you know what today would be great for? Asking out Y/N.”

“Hey, if you have to carry the 2 in this equation, does that mean Wonwoo is going to ask out Y/N today?”

“Wonwoo, I beg of you, let my OTP happen”

He always brushed it off, shaking his head at his friends

Because obviously you guys are just friends

Obviously you didn’t feel that way about him

So one night, it was just you two at your house

Wonwoo had a bad day so you invited him over to watch Harry Potter and play with your cat

Your parents had gone out to dinner Wonwoo had been over enough times that they trusted you two, not to mention they liked him a lot and wanted you two to date too even your PARENTS shipped it so you two ordered in

While munching on pizza, Wonwoo could barely focus on the movie

Mingyu had told him earlier that day

“You know, when you realize you actually like them, it might be too late, and no offence dude, it’s pretty damn obvious”

For some reason that stuck in Wonwoo’s head all day

He didn’t think he had a crush on you

I mean sure, you two were close

You knew almost everything about each other

He read you better than anyone and you did the same for him

But it couldn’t be a crush

There’s no way

He kept sneaking little looks at you

His friends never lied when they said you were attractive

And you spend a lot of your time together

Lately, almost all of it

Now Wonwoo is a lot of things

But he’s not subtle

So after the 15th sneak peek, you paused the movie

“Alright what”

“Nothing”

“Wonwoo I swear to god, you’ve been looking at me all night. What.”

So, he took one look at you looking at him and then he spilled all of his thoughts

He expected the situation to get awkward, but it really didn’t

“Alright close your eyes” You said and he raised an eyebrow “Trust me, we’re going to try something that will settle this once and for all”

He gave you a look, but eventually closed his eyes

You took every ounce of courage you had in your body

And you leaned forward and kissed him

It was a short kiss, and you both just stared at each other for a couple seconds

‘OH NO’ you both thought

“I GOTTA GO” You both said, you running to your room and Wonwoo grabbing his coat and out the door.

You sat curled up on your bed, trying to process what just happened

You just ruined your friendship with him

That kiss definitely confirmed what you were feeling and that you did in fact have a crush on him

But the way he looked at you afterwards clearly said he didn’t feel the same way

So now you ruined the friendship for nothing

Meanwhile Wonwoo sat in front of your house, his head in his hands

He was confused that you did that

He was confused that he reacted the way he did

He was upset with Mingyu

Because that jerk was right

And now he didn’t know what to do

Because the panicked look on your face when he looked at you scared him more than anything

You both spent the whole night thinking you ruined everything

The next morning, you decided to just brush it off as a test thing and that clearly it meant nothing and then your friendship could continue

Wonwoo had originally decided the same thing

But then he saw you the next morning getting something out of your locker

And he suddenly changed his whole plan

Because dammit he did like you

So as he walked towards you, you prepared what you were going to say

“Look, Wonwoo, about last night I-”

Wonwoo did the last thing you expected from him

He put his hands one either side of your head and straight up kissed you

Like, boy kissed you

He pulled away and just smiled at you, you smiling back

“What um… What was that…?” He just shrugged.

“Something I meant to do, I guess.” He linked his hand with yours, and you both walked to your first class together

After a teacher wrote you both up for PDA

Mingyu and Jun actually cheered when you walked into your class holding hands

#seventeen #seventeen au #seventeen imagines #seventeen drabbles #seventeen fic #seventeen fluff #seventeen oneshot #seventeen x reader #jeon wonwoo #wonwoo #wonwoo au #wonwoo imagines #wonwoo drabbles #wonwoo fic #wonwoo fluff #wonwoo oneshot #wonwoo x reader #seventeen wonwoo #friends to more au

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tfortransformertiddy · 6 years

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3 times Prowl got asked out on a date, and the 1 time he wasn’t an oblivious bum about it.

_________

Sideswipe was up to something.

Two weeks without a single prank. No angry Minibots, no Tracks storming into his office complaining about about how the red heathen had painted him hot pink, no Ratchet hollering about everything in his office being glued to the ceiling. Nothing.

Prowl hadn’t received a single complaint about the frontliner.

It was unnerving, to say the least. By now, Sideswipe was usually in the brig, either lazing smugly in his favourite spot or making crude gestures at the cameras that often sent Red Alert fritzing.

Suspicion and caution lingered in the back of his processor for each work hour that didn’t entail the familiar angry yelling of an unfortunate victim.

But it was quiet, and his workload had lessened without the added reports on whatever punishment detail he dished out to the Lamborghini.

Prowl wasn’t stupid enough to let his guard down, however, and was still on high alert when he finished his shift, door wings arched on his back as he made his way to the rec room.

Only a few off duty bots milled around, sipping cubes over a table while they chattered excitedly. Sideswipe was among them, leaning against his brother while he and Smokescreen snarked at each other. Sunstreaker’s expression was bland, half listening to Sideswipe as he scowled at the gambler.

They took no notice of him as he drifted through the crowd to the energon dispenser.

Prowl had just wanted to grab a cube and leave- he preferred the quiet and peace of his own office- but before he could even enter the code for his ration, a cheerful, /familiar/ voice was crowing joyfully at him.

“Prowl!” Sideswipe called, leaning back in his chair, head hanging over the back of it as he gazed at Prowl with sparkling optics.

He grinned, ignoring the frown that was shot at him, and waved the tactician over.

Prowl, against his better judgement, obliged.

“Can I help you with something?”

The expression on the frontliners face turned crude, “In the berth? Not today-“

Prowl raised a hand, optics going skyward despite his rigid attempt to keep the flash of amusement from pulsing through his E.M field.

The last thing he wanted to do was encourage the menace.

“Get to the point, Sideswipe.”

Sunstreaker’s lips pursed, and he shot Prowl a particularly nasty look.

Sideswipe was unperturbed, face still bright as he unsubspaced something. Two small, human-sized tickets appeared in his hand, and were waved under his nose before he could even get the chance to read what they were for.

“Heard you liked poetry readings.”

The tickets were still brandished between the two, but Prowl didn’t move to take them.

“And just who,” Prowl started, optics flickering over the room to land on Jazz, who had slouched ridiculously low in his chair in an attempt to hide, “Told you that?”

Sideswipe shrugged, still grinning, “A friend.”

Prowl narrowed his optics, “And what are you going to do if I were to go? Use my absence to your advantage and turn all the halls into water slides?”

“That was one time!”

“I’m not stupid, Sideswipe.”

The expression on the frontliners face fell, and he lowered his hand.

“But they’re-

Prowl shook his head, and offered a flat “it was a nice try’ before he turned on his heel, door wings aloft as he strode from the room, Energon cube forgotten.

“-for the two of us,” Sideswipe trailed off, looking both bemused and downtrodden.

He watched Prowl leave, taking a second to admire the Praxian’s doorwings, and ignored the sympathetic pat Sunstreaker gave his shoulder.

Sideswipe thought he had a good deal of practice with socially inept mechs.

His brother, for example, couldn’t catch a social cue if it hit him right in the face. Which was fine. He didn’t see anything wrong with being an introvert and struggling in situations where others strived.

So breaking through Prowl’s tight emotional barrier should have been easy.

It wasn’t until his spectacular ‘poetry reading as a date’ plan backfired rather fantastically that he realised it would take a little more time.

And thinking.

Prowl scheduling them both for patrol, however, was a significant help.

It also put Sideswipe in a particularly good mood as he strolled down the hall to the tactician’s office, spark pushing pulses of excitement at his brother, which were returned half heartedly.

Prowl’s office was usually reserved for punishment, and lectures, but this time the grey door actually looked welcoming.

Perhaps his excitement was starting to delude him.

“Come in,” A flat voice echoed before he could even move to knock.

“Prowl,” Sideswipe greeted, grinning stupidly as he stepped inside, “How are you?”

“What did you do now?”

“Actually,” Sideswipe started, ignoring the jab, “I came here to talk about patrol.”

“Ah, yes.” Prowl nodded, and absently straightened the datapads on his desk. “Most Autobots are still recovering in the med-bay, and are unable to perform their usual duties. If you have any complaint-‘

“I’m not complaining,” Sideswipe interrupted hurriedly, “I mean, I think it’ll be fun.”

“Fun?”

The frontliner nodded, and rubbed at his neck, “Yeah. And when we’re done I was thinking we could-“

The wail of the Ark’s alarm system was the only warning they got before the right wall of Prowl’s office collapsed in an eruption of orange, spraying rock over the pristine floors as the two were sent hurtling across the room.

They landed with a thud, pained groans swallowed by the yelling and sounds of shooting outside the door.

Sideswipe scowled, arms straining as he shakily pushed himself to his feet, vents struggling to flush the smoke from his systems.

Rubble cascaded down from the roof, it’s bright orange now ruined with soot.

He looked around, battle programming humming to life as he unsubspaced his gun.

A strangled whine jabbed painfully at his audials, before another thump rang out through the office.

Sideswipe paused, and glanced down.

Prowl was knocked out cold.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Funnily enough, two weeks after the Decepticon attack, Sideswipe managed to get the patrol he was robbed of.

Prowl’s battle computer was knocked loose, and it had taken him a week to recover from the hard knock to his helm. But when he was released, Sideswipe found the tacticians own name back on the duty list, right next to his.

Sideswipe had asked why, but Prowl simply told him that he wasn’t one to ‘shirk his duties’.

Not that either of them were complaining.

“Nice view,” Sideswipe said, veering closer to the Praxian.

Prowl didn’t notice the intrusion of space, sensors too busy scanning the sunset that receded in a blur behind him.

“Earth does have beautiful weather,” He agreed after a second, feeling oddly content. The air was cool, and Sideswipe, for once, was being serene.

“I wasn’t talking about the sky.”

“What, then?”

If Sideswipe was able to facepalm in his alt mode, he would have.

“Nevermind.”

Prowl did the equivalent of a shrug, not bothered by the array of strange Sideswipe behaviors. Sideswipe acting weirdly wasn’t out of character, and the extent he went to get a reaction of people wasn’t limited to a personality change.

“Soooo,” Sideswipe started, twisting back on his wheels playfully, “There’s this lookout Sunny really likes to go to. Ya’ know, for inspiration and stuff.”

Prowl didn’t, but he hummed anyway.

“Is it part of the patrol route?”

“No, but we could go to it after.”

“Why?”

Sideswipe’s engine rumbled, musing silently for an explanation that would appeal to Prowl.

“It overlooks the ocean. And the Decepticon’s live in the ocean.”

“So you want to take extra time out of your off duty period to watch for the enemy?”

Sideswipe’s E.M field pulsed pleasantly, and his spark did an affectionate flip that made Sunstreaker retreat back from their bond with a repulsed shove.

“Sure.”

Prowl checked his internal chronometer, calculating whether he would have enough time to appease… whatever it was Sideswipe wanted to do.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

Sideswipe nudged Prowl’s E.M field happily. “Great! Race you.”

And then he was off, wheels spinning against the gravel as he booked it, ignoring Prowl’s shout of outrage over their Comms, and his threat to leave him with the police if he got pulled over again.

Prowl was still convinced Sideswipe was up to something.

Jazz had continually tried to dismiss his worries, and backed up the frontliners innocence, claiming that ‘sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do’.

Prowl had scowled, and slammed the door in his best friends face.

Sideswipe usually had ulterior motives. He liked to play games, and liked a laugh whenever he could get one. And Prowl wasn’t usually his go-to-mech if he wanted to ‘hang out’ and have fun.

It was strange.

So when Sunstreaker cornered him in the hall outside his office, rattling about how obtuse he was, Prowl was confused.

“What?”

The yellow twin scowled, optics narrowing distastefully.

“How have you not noticed?”

(This is an older bit of writing, so I apologize if it doesn’t flow well/has mistakes, ect)

#sideswipe #sunstreaker #prowl #prowl/sideswipe #jazz #transformers #lambo twins #transformera #writing

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