#too much life stuff happening for me to be online losing it over the chance to see my fave band irl ig

[kangpingyu]

i cant believe the onewe us tour is actually a real thing that's really going to happen

[roleplayhonestybox]

Just wanted to vent at the loss of a rp partner. We got on super well ic and ooc. Our writing styles meshed perfectly and we would chat daily ooc, talking about our days or gushing about our characters and spamming memes, aesthetics, song lyrics, ideas, etc etc. For the first time in a long time I was actually enthusiastic and eager to write enough that I was doing daily replies. I was so into it that I think that was some of my best writing too lol. Things happened though of course and things got quieter ic and ooc until it was just dead silent for days, then weeks, then months. Every so often we'd have a quick conversation, or drop a meme or something with barely a fraction of the enthusiasm before. I didn't want to press them or nag them because we were close and I didn't expect it to change suddenly, and I understood we both have lives. They were busy and things picked up for me over that time too. I did eventually ask if they were still interested and they responded, but I, again, also ended up getting busy (I hadn't told them since I never really got the chance to, with our ooc conversations dying, so they could have thought I was still free and online as much as I was with them before, though that wasn't the case) and didn't reply quickly. And then they were gone. They deleted all of our rp stuff and blocked me so we/I lost everything from our chats (not on discord) and everything from the rp. I don't even know what they replied to my question (though it seemed still friendly/positive from the small glimpse in the notif I got) and they were just gone. I lost all of my writing that I was really proud of and a person I genuinely thought was my friend and I was excited to chat with them and do more ooc, because our friendship went past just the rp and we'd often stream things together and stuff. I usually don't care about ghosting or people leaving or losing interest or whatnot but this one genuinely hurt because I thought we were closer than that. We had so much in common where I wouldn't have even cared if we dropped that rp because we probably would have come up with something else, and if not, I would have just been happy to chat with them. It also hurts to think about how much I was there for them when they mentioned they were dealing with stuff irl and how I waited for so long for them, but they didn't care enough to think that maybe I too had a life and that they couldn't give me even a few hours to reply to them. That part hurts a lot, looking back on it and realising how much it was me supporting them, me hyping them up, me listening to them, reassuring them etc, but the moment I wasn't fun, or reassuring, or online at their convenience, I didn't matter. Worst thing is, I know how they probably perceived it and still wish I could apologise and reassure them. Anyway, I just wanted to vent.

.

[blurryfangirlansuke]

Now you maybe wondering that about me being absent one of them is college I can't control that it depends on my degree and planning what I want to do in my adult life. Also I want to get this out of my chest. I'm perfectly fine when people tell my obsession with Duke goes too far causing me to lose friends or just being all over a character that doesn't exist. I understand and I do apologize if I make feel people uncomfortable and when ask people if they can draw myself and Duke together they don't have to I make it very optional and I have plenty of other characters to simp for but Duke is #1 he'll always be. He's the reason why I'm being stable from being lonely and stress between reality and trying to become independent. It's not easy when your autistic and have social anxiety and learning different ways of how to do things. Duke is a comfort and I believe everyone should have a comfort character if not then perhaps your best friend or family .

Whenever I see a picture of Duke or art heck even gifts people draw for me it makes me touched and happy because I love this vampire and yes he's fictional but it's fun to simp and also appreciate the creator who put there heart and soul making characters to adore and even be interested with there stories and series.

Another thing I get so happy is when I commission the creator of the series Duke's plays the lead one along with Missi the vampire who tolerates him. The creator absolutely knows me so well and always spoils me with amazing commissions of me and Duke also she's close and appreciates fans like me for liking character such as Duke . Also buying loads of merchandise from the creator's store and main do I go buck while on everything worse then going to a barns and noble xD.

I am a busy person who gets free time and sometimes not so much. I'm working on my degree, learning the good and bad things in life even if I don't understand. I attend to also write my fanfics whenever I get the chance to take a break on drawing nonstop art of Duke. It also gives me ideas for myself if I ever want to make a character of my own and I know one day the character is going to be inspired by many artists I admire if you see what I usual post xD.

I have dreams of being with Duke in real life like he stays with me in my campus, we go for nightwalks, I lay in his coffin or king size bed and talk for hours. I wake up and he's not there with me. I know this feeling is loneliness which I'm use to since I have a hard time reaching out to people and the art I do might probably not spark interest. I miss my sister who's in college we have a great bond, I love my parents always support me, I have friends and fans online here that support me.

However I really wish I didn't feel this way. I know I attend to seek help with my advisors or talk to my sister it does help. I'm not normal and then okay because hey we all special and unique in our ways. Duke is fictional but he's my happiness and true comfort and I'll always love him even if I want to strangle him.

Yes I've been a little depressed and overwhelmed but that's life we have our good days and bad days. Crying does help me let everything out and start a better day. Eventually this blog will also get more hearts soon and also I have to be present for that to happen which I try. I appreciate you listening to me and I don't want end things sad especially since this is me and Duke's month so I made a healing art piece and color it about us. I really appreciate the support and love you all give me. This helps me to stay motivated and keep going. Don't worry I'll post more things and happy stuff. Letting this vent things pass.

Thank you for listening and much love you all Spooklings 🥰

[legolasghosty]

your rarepairiest pair: Is this a mid-life crisis because if it is I'm a bit worried about your lifespan.

Oh gosh yes please! I will take any and every excuse to write JuBobby! (Also I think I accidentally set this in my Jem and the Holograms AU... whoops! Oh well, I think it makes sense still without context.)

Bobby generally considers his girlfriend a levelheaded person. Sure, she's done some crazy stuff (See the history of how they even met in the first place), but in general, Julie thinks things through before she does them. And that's probably a good thing, considering the insanity of at least half of her brothers/band.

But even for the most even-keeled individual, fame does weird stuff. So when Julie gets back after what was supposed to be a casual family dinner (no significant others allowed on the first night of the visit to give Julie and her brothers a chance to catch up with Ray, Victoria, and Carlos), crashes onto Bobby's bed, and says, "I'm going to get a yacht," Bobby isn't entirely sure how to react.

He hits the save key on his computer and rises from his desk. "Is this a mid-life crisis?" he asks slowly, approaching his girlfriend and sitting down on the edge of the bed beside her. "Cause if so, I'm a little worried about your lifespan. I don't want to outlive you by that much, Molina."

Julie groans and rolls onto her side to look at him. "People can't recognize me on a boat," she states, voice flat.

Bobby winces, suddenly understanding. He'd turned off most of his notifications while he was working, which is probably how he missed whatever pictures have made it online of Julie and her brothers just trying to spend time with their family. He reaches out to run his fingers gently over her arm, offering what comfort he can.

"We didn't even have our food yet before someone came to ask for an autograph," Julie sighs, wriggling a little closer to him. "And then the waiters were staring, and...sometimes I wonder why I told the world my real name."

Bobby hums softly and lays down on his side, pulling her into his chest. "I'm sorry, Ju." This sort of thing has been happening more and more over the past nine months since Julie took to the stage as Dahlia and the crowd was chanting her real first name by the time she and her brothers finished the show.

"So I'm gonna get a frigging boat so I can hang out with my family without getting interrupted," Julie huffs, curling into his embrace, letting his cool hands smooth out the rough heat racing through her body from all the unwanted stares.

"I mean, I know it doesn't really solve the actual problem," Bobby begins, resting his chin against her hair, "but you could just bring them here if you wanted. Get some fancy takeout and just stay in together."

"I wouldn't want to kick you out of your own house though," Julie protests, looking up at him. "I mean, I know the guys and I live here too, but it's your home too. You shouldn't lose your safe space just because my family is in town."

Bobby forces down a joke about being used to it from how things were with Caleb up until a year ago. His therapist says that's not healthy, to downplay it like that. "I don't mind," he promises instead. "They're important to you. So, important to me. I can stay out of your way no problem as long as no one ends up in my room."

Julie cracks a tiny smirk. "Awww, so no sleepovers while they're here?" she teases.

Bobby chuckles and shrugs as best he can without loosening his grip on her. "I suppose something could be arranged," he responds. "You know, if the situation were desperate enough."

"So... you last maybe one night without me," Julie snarks.

"Hey, you leave my insomnia out of this," Bobby complains lightly, unable to resist the slow grin spreading across his face. "I managed just fine before we met."

"Lies," Julie retorts, pushing herself up on one elbow so she's above him.

"Oh yeah? Whatcha gonna do about it?" Bobby challenges.

"Go sleep in my amazing bazillion thread sheeted bed in my room by myself," she answers, smirking. "We'll see just how well you sleep by yourself."

Bobby raises an eyebrow. "I don't see you moving."

"Hey I got accosted by twelve-year-olds today, I'm not moving very fast," Julie says.

Hah, Bobby thinks. An opening. He reaches out and grabs an edge of his bedspread, flipping them over and pinning her down with the blanket and his body. "Well then you're not going anywhere," he teases.

"Oh no, woe is me," Julie laughs as she fumbles one arm free to cup the back of his neck. "I shall never escape."

"Nope, mine now," Bobby agrees before giving into her gentle tugging and leaning down to kiss her. "I'm serious though," he adds, pulling back a hair after a moment. "Just bring your family here. I know it's not ideal, but we can make it feel just as fancy as those stupid restaurants downtown. And here you can just be you."

"You're amazing," Julie says. "Think we can make it happen for everybody dinner tomorrow night?"

"Caleb has an impressive wine cellar," Bobby promises. "And he owes me and Willie and Carrie like... a lot."

"You know I'm technically underaged, right?" Julie jokes.

"Well, rockstars are allowed to do fun stuff sometimes," Bobby responds, leaning down to kiss her again. They'd figure it out, one way or another.

[lecliss]

The thing definitely was like, growing up with Naruto and being surrounded by other young Naruto enjoyers in school and online and stuff and everything was always always always girls obsessing over Sasuke (and Itachi) for being cool and awesome and badass and, like, fuckin, idk??? A bad boy??? He fuckin 12. Whatever, anyway, I've never been a fan of that so for me it was always "Shut the fuck up. You're annoying, he's annoying, they're both annoying, fuck you, fuck him, and fuck Itachi too while I'm at it. The show's not called Sasuke, it's called Naruto."

And being a kid I had no reading comprehension whatsoever, hell man I still suck most of the time at seeing symbolism and meaning and shit so Sasuke's just always been a mean emo little bitch to me and this was also back in the day when Danzo did not exist yet and Itachi was still alive so there was no way to look back on everything and know the full story and see what Sasuke has had to go through for the rest of the series. So my judgment was clouded by being annoyed at my fellow 12yo girls and not wanting to care about Sasuke cuz the thing was fucking annoying so I never gave him a chance and later on it was like "look at him abandoning his teammates and going rogue and trying to fight them. I can't sympathize with this. I will never think he's cool. I will never give a shit." And lo and behold it was never about him being cool. It never was. It was always supposed to be tragic. But everyone else just had to find it like, badass and hot or whatever and it's like "you, the point, look at it going over your head". It's not supposed to be badass. You should not want to be Sasuke or fuck him, maybe, THIS IS A MAN EXPERIENCING A BREAKDOWN OF MASSIVE PROPORTIONS!!!!!

And then we learn what Danzo did and all the Itachi stuff and even I started to change my mind that Sasuke is a tragic character who didn't deserve anything that happened to him and he's just a traumatized kid going down the wrong path and fuck Danzo and fuck Itachi for everything they did. AND OROCHIMARU TOO ACTUALLY I FORGOT HE DID THINGS TOO!!!!! And it's like, if everybody just left him the fuck alone he could have improved so much!!! He was getting better!!! He was experiencing so much development up until Itachi just HAD to show the fuck back up and everything went downhill from there!!! And then it's just fucking tragic as all his progress gets undone and now I just feel so bad for him. FUCKIN HE NEVER REALLY DID ANYTHING WRONG!!!! IT WAS EVERYONE ELSE AND I CANNOT FUCKING STAND ADULTS JUST GETTING TO DICTATE AND CONTROL A KIDS LIFE AND USE THEM LIKE A TOOL AND FUCK FUGAKU ALSO BY THE WAY!!!!! I FORGOT SASUKE HAD A FATHER.

It's just oh my fuckin god I'm so mad for him. SASUKE DID NOTHING WRONG. OKAY SASUKE DID LIKE MAYBE ONE THING WRONG. MAYBE TWO. BUT OTHER THAN THAT OH MY FUCKING GOD IM MORE PISSED FOR HIM THAT IVE EVER BEEN BEFORE!!! IM GONNA FUCKIN LOSE IT!!!! I have to stop it's just a spiral of being mad for a kid that was getting used by like five fuckin jackasses and I can't fucki nstand it I hate that shit man I'm rattling the bars please imagine me rattling the fucking bars every second of all of this cuz its fuckin I UNDERATAND NKW I UNDERSTAND NOW IT TOOK ME LIKE 15 EHATEVER FUCKIN YEARS BUT I MADE IT I UNDERSTAND NOW I CROSSED THE FINISH LINE BE PROUD OF ME

I have officially become a reformed Sasuke hater. I would like to apologize for my past 13 or so years of Sasuke hating. I have seen the error of my ways. I will do better from now on. I would like to move forward to a future of Sasuke enjoying.

[tinyyoungblood]

hi!! adore your work love. could you maybe do smth where stark!reader has to get her wisdom teeth out but HATES the dentist so she brings her boyf peter and her dad w her?? and then when they get home the avengers are all waiting with like comical amounts of flowers and stuffed animals and then reader says some funny shiii and thor thinks she’s like dying lol. idk if that made sense but i’m getting my wisdom teeth out soon and i’m scared😭 thank u so so much love u babe

pairing: peter parker x stark!reader

a/n: tysm lovely :,) i rushed through this like my life depended on it, but i hope i’m not too late. either way, i hope you’re okay! it’s frightening but those bad boys gotta go because we don’t need that kind of energy in our lives. enjoy x

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

wisdom teeth? more like wisdoom

y/n has to get her wisdom teeth removed and it’s the singular most dreadful thing she’s ever had to do, which says a lot because her dad is tony richling stark

doing dreadful things she doesn’t want to do but still somehow end up doing just because she can is a personality trait at this point

no one really makes a big deal out of it since ~death~ is part of their job description, but y/n is terrified

and when a stark is terrified the only thing that will keep them one step from insanity is researching the hell out of it

that information will be info dumped into every conversation for the next few weeks leading up to the appointment

“y/n you need anything from the store?” "no thanks, did you know the side effects of getting your wisdom teeth out include ✨sudden death or blood clots✨ tho” “……..i have a coupon?”

the day of the appointment, peter comes along and literally doesn’t let go of y/n’s hand. he keeps touching her to let her know that he’s there and it’s so. adorable

he would rest his hand on her knee, gently stroke her back while holding her, or just play with her hair

happy drops them off and he’s too Cool™ for emotions but he knows y/n’s a wreck, so he just fist bumps her with a single nod and she almost breaks down bc it’s really affectionate

y/n is sitting in the dentist chair and genuinely nothing is happening yet, but she’s squeezing peter’s hand like it’s a sponge

peter might have a high pain tolerance but he’s in pain pain and he prays that his hand won’t just explode on him

the dentist notices how peter tries to keep it together and chuckles

“you okay there, son?” “yea it’s fine, had a better time when a building fell on me tho haha” “pardon?” “oh i mean i didn’t have a good time, i just had a better time”

because y/n is running Anxious Town™, the dentist gives her a sedative to help her relax 

plus, an injection of local anaesthetic to numb the tooth and surrounding area

she doesn’t feel anything and it’s GREAT

the procedure is quicker than expected and now the real fun begins

she tries to walk but she falls down so peter scoops her up bridal style and happy stays glued at her side

y/n doesn’t mind although she literally doesn’t recognise them and they’re practically strangers to her

but girly sees an opportunity and tries to flirt with peter bc why wouldn’t she

“you’re pretty” *blushes* “why thanks” “you should let your girlfriend know” “i should let her know i’m pretty?” “so you do have a gf? :(” “yea it’s you” “:)”

they stop for gas and peter goes in to get some water for y/n, and in her infinite wisdom, she decides it’s burger time

her mouth is completely numb and she’s practically leaving a trail of drool behind her, but she’d kill for a burger right now

so she wobbles around aimlessly for an hour on some random parking lot as if the ground might just magically open up like a rabbit hole and lead her to five guys

she’s going places. not back to the car. definitely not five guys. they’re closed. but places

peter finally finds her and he’s drenched from head to toe in sweat. he doEsn’T wAnt tO tALk abOut iT tho so she lets him take her to subway instead

normally, she would know that peter’s usual subway order is bread-lettuce-jalapeño

but in her drugged-up state, it had simply slipped her mind so now she’s staring at him like he’d just murdered someone right in front of her

“that- that’s your order?? no meat or anything just bread, lettuce, and a little spice?”

meanwhile at the compound, sam and steve are ordering everyone around bc they want to decorate this place before y/n gets home to surprise her

they take it very seriously too. they’ve watched like one HGTV show and said it’s our time

they finally get home and tony gives y/n a big hug, asking her what took so long

happy tells him that she was keen on getting burgers bc apparently someone has taught her that stressful times call for ~cheeseburgers~

he proceeds to look at tony with a pointed look

tony just shrugs and goes “she was a problem child. we don’t mention her dark past”

she’s swaying on the spot and keeps grinning like a fool and thor just stares at her weirdly before elbowing bruce and whispering loudly,

“what’s wrong with her? is she dying? should i start collecting leaves, i know this remedy—"

no one can tell if y/n is just happy to see the newly decorated home or if she’s just delighted to see everyone but then she goes around hugging the entire team

she doesn’t even acknowledge the sky-high pile of teddy bears and flowers everywhere bc she’s just squeezing everybody

y/n is so high, she just starts to spill all of her feelings about everyone and they’re already so overwhelmed by the hug chain they can’t take this too

“wanda i just want you to know that you’re like my big sister and you’re always taking care of me and i know you and vision are just going to make such good parents one day”

“bucky you absolute PRICK, you FIEND, you’re the best chess player ever and that’ll never change and i wouldn’t be good without you, i hate to say it but you deserve happiness even after you made me lose five times in a row yesterday”

“dad, you’re so strong and smart, even though we’re like never on the same page, you’re always along for the ride, i want to be like you when i grow up, i swear i’m gonna try to be as good to the avengers as you were to us” “aww- wait makes you think i'll be the first to die“

“nat you’re such a bitch about your protein shakes but you’re my best friend and i wouldn’t have it any other way, you can try out as many make up looks on me as you want”

“bruce, brucey, i would live with you in your lab for the rest of my days if i had to, whenever you ask me to hand you stuff i feel useful and important”

“laura’s way out of your league clint i have no idea how the fuck you got her but don’t lose her and i want to be your next child’s godmother”

“steve…we’re your family now. we’re always gonna be your family now. okay?”

“loki you’re not fooling anyone with your attitude, we all know you’re part of the family, you were just misunderstood and messed up bc of your dad–FUCK him by the way–but i realised everyone deserves as many chances as they need because of you”

“sam i would genuinely kill anyone who wronged you, even if they cut you in line at the grocery store, i would knife them no hesitation”

“thor, you poor golden retriever have been through so much, on my way here i made a wish on an eyelash for you bc you deserve better, your postcards always make my day, love you”

she mumbles something to peter that no one else can hear but he blushes and chokes back a sob

y/n orders hot soup and bucky brings it to her but before he even has time to react peter drops everything and ZOOMS across the room in .3 seconds

he barrels into bucky so hard they both go flying, but peter just smoothly rolls out of it and onto his feet like some kind of super ninja

“DUDE WHAT THE HELL” “😠 y/n is not supposed to drink hot liquids 😠”

all of this happens in mere seconds but sam has filmed it all and now slow mo clips go viral online of some mysterious kid knocking over the winter soldier

y/n’s a little in and out after that, but when she fully regains consciousness, she’s on a pile of blankets, surrounded by the team on the floor <3

* * *

let me know if this is actually comforting lmao stay hydrated pals

hc masterlist

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (January 20/2021) - SEASON TWO FINALE

The Disc Saga has finally come to an end. With both L’manburg and the discs’ stories completed at last, it’s time for a new beginning and a new era, as Dream is locked away in Pandora’s Vault and the server looks forward to a more hopeful future.

Now that Dream is gone, though, there’s a power vacuum that needs to be filled...

And with Season Three on the horizon, a certain  empire has plans to do exactly that.

---

- Ponk makes graves for Tommy and Tubbo in the Graveyard.

- Tommy and Tubbo come online at last. They follow the compass down the Prime Path and start to reminisce about all the old times. Everyone is waiting for them on the Prime Path. They go through one by one and say a goodbye to each of them.

Tommy: “I’ll see you all when we get home.”

- They enter the wilderness and start talking strategy.

Tommy: “I need someone to get back and tell my story.”

Tommy tells Tubbo that while they have the tendency to look on the positive, they have to be honest with themselves. It’s going to be a good fight, but they’re on their last lives. Tonight’s the night they have to win.

- Tommy opens up a bit to Tubbo about the things that still bother him from the exile.

- They find a MASSIVE mountain and go onto land. They start climbing, watching one last sunrise on the cliffside.

- Dream is on top of the mountain with an Enderchest there. Tommy and Tubbo confront him and start attacking before he has time to think. He starts building up a tower of obsidian and plays Mellohi to taunt them. 

A build battle breaks out, reminiscent of the original Disc War. The two manage to snatch the Mellohi disc.

- Dream laughs and says to stop. He hasn’t even begun to try. He almost kills Tubbo, bringing him down to only a few hearts, and gives Tommy an ultimatum: Tubbo or the discs. Dream gives Tommy a countdown from ten.

Tubbo: “Keep this disc. It’ll be worth it! Keep the disc, I’m fine! I’ve done enough in my life! It’s fine! Keep the disc!”

- Tommy gives Dream the disc. Dream laughs and reveals that the disc wasn’t even the real Mellohi, just a fake.

Dream: “I just want to show you how powerful I am, how powerless you are... I could’ve let you just walk away, but no, I’m toying with you. I’m playing with my food. That’s -- that’s the fun in it! That’s the fun in it.”

- He tells Tommy to drop the Axe of Peace for him. Then he tells the two to drop their stuff into a hole and explodes it all, then says he can take them to the real discs. 

- Dream leads them to a chamber with a platform in the middle. He activates it and a redstone elevator leads them down into a blackstone base that goes to bedrock.

Dream: “Listen, Tommy. Ever since you joined the server, you’ve been a headache, okay? You brought war, you brought terrorism, bad everything. But, but, the cause of all the war, of everything, was attachment, right? Your attachment to the discs, your attachment to Henry. To pets, to friends, to land, to countries, to items, right?”

“That’s the one good thing that you’ve done. The one good thing you’ve done is you’ve brought attachment to the server. So it took me a long time to realize how important attachment was, but when I did, you know, it made me stronger, and I realized, y’know, you’re important, right?”

- He shows them the discs. The real discs. 

Dream: “Ever since attachment was on the server...I cut my attachment. I -- I blew up my house, I lost my friends, I lost my items, lost my crossbow, my...y’know...everything that was important to me. My pets. I cut everything! Because I realized that’s what gave people power over each other. The reason you’re here is because I have these dumb little items.

I don’t wanna be controlled, so I cut...everything. I lost everything. But...I had to lose everything. I had to lose everything, to gain everything.

Listen, if I can control the things that people are attached to, then I can control the server again! Because this isn’t Tommy SMP or Tubbo SMP, it’s Dream SMP, right?! So I can control the server if I have everything that everybody cares about, that everybody’s ever cared about, I can control everything, right? I can turn the server back to what it used to be...right?

- Dream leads them into a hallway where there’s a spot for all the things that everyone on the server is attached to. Beckerson and Mars, Fran, Skeppy, Carl, Enderchest, the shulker box...everything.

There’s even a cow named Henry and a sheep named Friend. 

- Dream explains that he needs Tommy to remain because he’s the person who’s brought attachment to things. Tommy’s the key to unlock the full potential of the server and power over people. That’s why he can’t kill Tommy.

Instead, he tells them that he’s constructed a prison.

He says his plan is to lock Tommy up and kill Tubbo. If Tommy wants to be a hero...Every hero needs an origin story, and Tommy’s is Tubbo. Dream gives Tommy a chance to say one last goodbye before it’s Tubbo’s time to die.

Tommy is desperate to keep fighting and keep hope, to always look for another option. Tubbo, meanwhile, has accepted their defeat. He’s accepted his death. All good things must come to an end eventually.

Tommy: “What am I without you?”

Tubbo: “...Yourself.”

Tommy: “Tubbo...even though for this entire server, I’ve always regarded you as my sidekick...really, Tubbo...I was your sidekick. Please don’t go...please don’t go...”

- Just as Dream is about to kill Tubbo, though, Punz comes through the Nether portal at the back of the room.

Punz: “I’m sorry Dream...but you should’ve paid me more.”

Suddenly, everybody comes through the portal at once. Everyone that they had said goodbye too suddenly gathers around Dream in a crowd as Tommy and Tubbo snatch the discs and put them into their Ender Chests.

- Tommy goes up to Dream, knowing he’s too important to kill. Instead, he digs a hole into the floor and tells Dream to drop his items.

- Dream says that Tommy wouldn’t kill him. After all, they have so much fun, don’t they? Tommy tells him that he’s caused nothing but pain and kills him with the Axe of Peace, promising to kill him again and again until he’s dead for good.

- Dream tries to word his way out of it but Tommy kills him a second time with Nightmare.

- Tommy asks Dream for his last words. Dream tries to convince him that he doesn’t need to kill him, that they’re friends! He begs Tommy to stop. As one last move, he lets slip that he can bring people back to life.

That’s what Schlatt’s book was.

The secret to reviving the dead.

- Tommy boxes Dream in obsidian. They know they can’t just let Dream go, and now they can’t kill him either, but Sam suggests an alternative: 

They put Dream in Pandora’s Vault.

Tommy: “Tubbo? ...Let’s make Wilbur proud.

 “SUCK IT GREEN BOYYYYYYY”

- Sam takes Dream away. Tommy says that he’ll be the first to visit him, that he’ll visit Dream tomorrow.

- Tommy tells Dream to confess to what he did. Dream tells everyone that he blew up the Community House, but goes silent after Tommy brings up the exile. Tommy gives a speech to the others. Now that Dream is gone, the server can finally be what it’s meant to be. 

- Dream is taken away, and Tommy and Tubbo say their goodbyes as they return home.

- They make it to Tommy’s house and sit on the bench, finally listening to the two music discs that started this whole thing off in peace.

- A familiar voice speaks.

“Tommy, I’m very impressed..”

“Hello...have you missed me?”

- It’s Wilbur -- the real Wilbur -- speaking with them from beyond the mortal plane. He tells them that he’s proud. He doesn’t want to come back to life. Tommy and Tubbo break the news about possible resurrection. Wilbur realizes that “he’s gonna bring Schlatt back as well.”

Wilbur’s voice fades away before long.

- Tubbo returns to Snowchester after Tommy leaves and realizes that they can declare their independence without Dream now that he’s gone. He wants to speak with Quackity as they talk about the future. 

- Jack is pleased with the outcome. Sure, he was against Tommy, but as a reminder! The Manifesto stated that his goal was to help Tommy and Tubbo get rid of Dream first. Tommy can be dealt with later. If he kills Tommy, not only will he get his revenge on Tommy himself, but it will also hurt Dream. 

Dream said he’d gotten rid of all the things on the server that mattered to him, but he was lying.

He hadn’t gotten rid of Tommy.

And Jack Manifold wants to be the one to do that.

- Jack plans to visit Dream in the prison to taunt him and tell him about how he’s going to kill Tommy and there’s nothing Dream can do to stop him.

- Ranboo is happy that he was right. It had to be everyone against Dream for them to win. But...he’s confused about why Dream said he’d blown up the Community House. Didn’t he do that?

He says he has to talk to Dream and get the true answers.

- Ranboo questions whether he’s a bad guy if he’s done the same things as Dream. Is he a bad person? Does he deserve to go to the prison to?

- He wants to work on his house, but Mellohi suddenly starts playing from somewhere. Frantically, Ranboo starts looking for the jukebox it’s playing from. It gets louder at certain spots...

- He runs back to the Panic Room and the music gets louder.

He clicks the jukebox in the room and Mellohi pops out, the music coming to a halt. Is he a bad person if he does bad things without meaning to? Or while under peer pressure?

He let bad things happen to all the people he wanted to help. He’s betrayed everyone he’s ever spoken to.

The only person who he hasn’t betrayed...is Dream.

He wonders if the Dream voice lied to him about the Community House? The voice has no true connection to Dream, but is it truth what it says? Could it have been wrong? 

Ranboo: “I think...I think he covered for me.”

“There are seventy different stories, but only one of them is right.”

He wonders if he can alter the page where it admits t hat he did those things, but he can’t bring himself to do it for some reason.

Even if the walls are down, they’re still up. Dream still has influence even when he’s locked up.

- He heads back to his house to start working on it and goes into his Comfort Room. It seems like everything’s okay until Mellohi starts playing again. It gets louder just outside his house.

- He starts running again, back through the Nether. Back to the Panic Room. He’s tired of this and wants to get rid of it.

Nothing comes out of the jukebox.

He breaks the jukebox and the song still plays.

He starts shouting at the voice. Why isn’t it appearing? 

- Ranboo wonders what he’s doing wrong, why the song is still playing. He starts denying that he did any of the things he thought he did. He just wants closure so that he doesn’t have to see Dream in prison.

He deletes one of the smiles and the music stops playing. He then deletes the rest of the page.

Ranboo says that he’s still going to visit Dream, but now he’s not looking for closure. Instead, he’s going to tell Dream everything that Dream did to end up in there.

- He opens the chest in the corner. Inside there are two pieces of TNT and...

A new book.

On the black screen, the crown flickers without the smile. The smile flashes for only a few seconds, which spells out in Morse code: IT ISN’T OVER.

- Later, Sam comes on. Now that he’s finished with the prison, he plans to protect it as though it were his child. But he needs a new project.

- So what he plans to do is create a bank and a system of currency for the server.

- Captain Puffy reflects on Dream now being locked up. She says she has plans for business in Snowchester later. 

- Ant’s eyes have turned purple. Bad comes online and Puffy shares her misgivings. Bad and Ant come up with the idea to establish a better headquarters, and want to build a base right above the Egg, but find out that Sam has already claimed the land for his bank.

- They start building the meeting room.

- Sam comes over and gets into an argument with Bad. He still thinks the Egg is bad juju. They show him the meeting room.

Bad: “Dream was just the uniting force where everybody was against him. Now that he’s locked up, things are just gonna get worse, alright? But the Egg can be a uniting force to bring everybody together! And that’s why we all came together and decided to unite our factions and form the Eggpire! The Egg Empire!”

Sam: “The wh-- don’t say that again. Whatever you just said, no...that’s a no from me.”

- Sam still thinks they should destroy it, and is angry that they didn’t tell him about this. Bad argues that they already tried containing it and it didn’t work. He also says the Egg has feelings.

- They take Sam down to the Egg Room with Punz. He’s horrified.

- Bad restates the purpose of the Eggpire, and explains that now that Dream is gone, there’s a power vacuum that needs to be filled. And if it’s not filled by the Badlands, then it’s going to be filled by someone else and that isn’t good for them.

- Sam escapes the Egg Room and the rest of the Badlands are left to discuss their future. Bad is hopeful that Sam will come around to them, and he has plans to speak with Eret as well.

Bad and Ant mention to Puffy that they have a “back up plan,” but won’t tell her what it is.

- Puffy also plans to start a therapy office on the SMP! 

She will be the third one to do so, but hopefully she’ll have more success than the others.

--- What happens now?

- Tales From the SMP Futuristic Episode (Saturday)

- Nuclear weapons test (January 26th)

- Tommy’s visit to Pandora’s Vault (Tomorrow)

- Ranboo’s visit to Pandora’s Vault

The Crimson’s Vines continue to spread across the server. 

Though the Syndicate has been recruiting new members in its fight for anarchy, the Eggpire’s influence grows ever stronger, and who knows where Snowchester will fall in the conflict when these new forces begin to clash?

Only time will tell.

---

ONTO DREAM SMP: SEASON THREE

---

[skellebonez]

32. Are you aware of how much money you spent? Tang and Pigsy

go wild god of fanfic prompts, go wild

I WOULDN'T GO THAT FAR ANON JDFKLSJFAS But that's very sweet of you to say! And I couldn't pass up a great chance to write these two as the old (but not that old) married couple I know them to be in my heart. I tried something a little experimental, this isn't exactly how I would normally write them but I had a little idea and wanted to see what I could do with it.

Are you aware of how much money you spent? 

Tang loved Pigsy. And he wasn't afraid of who knew that fact.

"You sure you wanna come with me to the market after... you know,” Pigsy said with a shrug as he rubbed his neck awkwardly.

Tang knew. He remembered the events of quite a few months ago very well. Over half a year if he remembered correctly. It was the last time he had gone with the chef to purchase his ingredients at the market, not wanting to go anywhere close to what was likely still far too close to the lair of the Spider Queen.

Especially not after their later encounters on the new year and the following weeks.

“I’m sure.”

It wasn’t as if they didn’t spend pretty much all their time together anyway. Tang had work, of course he did, and he wasn’t always in the shop 24/7. But whenever he could take his work on the go or take a break or just have the day off he would be by the chef’s side. He always had been for as long as he could remember since their first meeting in college.

At first it was simply from a sense of loyalty to an old friend. He’d kept in touch with Pigsy since they had graduated together, went to the restaurant from day one since it opened, and went back almost every day since then.

And then... he’d lost his apartment, an accidental electrical fire no one could have prevented and he had been glad no one was hurt, and Pigsy had just offered him his spare room like it was nothing.

Tang could have possibly stayed in a hotel until he was able to find another apartment, at least for a while. But not forever. Not the way people who knew who he really was thought he could.

Once someone learned you were the descendant of a long distant cousin of the Tang Sanzang they had a tendency to assume and want things from you after all.

He wasn't in any way rich, far from it. But people thought he was the second they learned he was related to Tang Sanzang and he was just well off enough for people to assume they were right. Just enough for people to expect more from him than he could really give. And he gave all the same, scared to disappoint. Scared to be left alone. Scared to be alone.

Not Pigsy, though. He didn't tell the chef for a long while before moving in and not for quite some time after, guilt from not revealing who he was making Tang leave him far more money than would be his reasonable share of the rent despite the fact he didn't really have it to spare, and the charade would only last as long as Pigsy was willing to ignore that.

It took 1 month and 28 bowls of noodles that Tang vastly overpaid for before Pigsy dropped an overstuffed envelope with all the excess money (which was really nearly all the money he could spare) he had given the chef right into his lap while he was attempting to study a book on their now shared couch.

Pigsy barely got out his question of "why?" before Tang buckled under the pressure and revealed everything.

His heritage.

His past with others.

His feelings.

That last one had been an accident. Truly it had. He'd never planned on telling Pigsy that he had developed a crush on him ever since he had asked him to taste test some of the recipes for his shop. That he kept going to the shop not because the food was amazing (even though it absolutely was, the best he'd ever had and he was certain ever would have) but because he just wanted to see Pigsy more. That the day he'd asked Tang to move into his spare room in his own apartment his heart had skipped a beat and he wondered if there was a deity out there both enjoying the idea of giving him everything he wanted on a silver platter while also reveling in the idea of it being snatched away in an instant because he was certain Pigsy had never liked him back.

Well. Was certain.

Until Pigsy stared at him for a few second too long before a lopsided grin spread on his face and he ignored every single other part of his confession to ask "you had a crush on me too?"

It had taken a minute or two for them to realize they were both hopeless idiots who had been mutually pining for each other the entire time.

They felt pretty silly after that, having lived together for a month when they probably could have been doing so long before.

~

"You don't have to keep givin me all this, you know," Pigsy said firmly once everything was out in the open, gesturing to the envelope that Tang now held in his hands.

"I know," Tang admitted, worrying his fingers over the edges. "It's just... everyone else always wanted more from me and... I was scared, I guess..."

"I'm not everyone else." Pigsy gently took hold of Tang's hand, giving it a careful squeeze. "I don't care who your great uncle or cousin or whoever was. I mean, I do, cause they're your family!" The chef corrected himself, flushing a deep crimson in embarrassment. "But you could be related to nobodies or a king and that wouldn't make you less you to me. I like you for you! I... am I makin any sense? I didn't go to college to sound nice, I went for business stuff!"

Laughter bubbled up from somewhere in Tang's chest, making him squeeze the chef's hand back.

"You are," he said, feeling a lightness inside him that he didn't realize he hadn't felt in a long time. "I get it. I like you for you too, Pigsy."

"Good," the chef said, a chuckle of his own resounding in unison. "Good..."

The two sat for a moment longer, staring at each other before Tang started to lean forward. Pigsy followed, just as he had with the laughter.

It didn't take long for noses to bump each other awkwardly and for the two of them to burst into cackles as they realized they would need to remember to turn their heads before they kissed.

And then they shared their first.

~

They'd been together for years after that. Scholar and chef, old college buddies now roommates turned boyfriends and then later husbands. Most people didn't even know they were married at all, "if they couldn't see it when it was right in front of their faces why explain it" was Tang and Pigsy's mutual reasoning. And for those that did know, some people didn't really understand their relationship. Not with how they carried on with the whole "freeloader" thing.

But that was because of one of Pigsy's only requests when they started dating.

"Don't feel like you gotta pay me for anything, ok? I don't know what other people have said to you, but you don't gotta do that with me."

Tang liked to take that a little far, admittedly, for the fun of it with the noodle orders at the shop. He couldn't help it, he loved everything about Pigsy! His smile, how much he cared behind his gruff exterior, his cooking (obviously), and how cute he was when he would let out that exasperated sigh at the end of the month and just look at Tang's tab as he took out whatever was extra in his half of the month's rent to pay for all but a few yuan of it and just change into that soft smile all over again.

The tab was real, but Tang always paid it at the end of the month. Even if Pigsy always insisted behind the scenes that he didn't have to. He could just stop giving Pigsy the extra cash and they'd wash their hands of the tab and the freeloading completely if he wanted to.

But Tang liked teasing his husband too much and Pigsy was happy as long as Tang was alright with that.

Something in the back of Tang's mind wondered if he was still just scared though, despite everything. As if the ideas of his youth were too deep seated to really go away, intrusive thoughts needling into his brain in a way that would need something even more life altering than he already gone through to get them to leave, and he kept the tab and the teasing around just for some extra security so he would know he'd get to see Pigsy's exasperated smile and hear him say he could stop again. He was certain he was just overthinking things, something he did more often than he would like to admit.

Of course... that was until Spider Queen.

It hadn't been a good morning already, the selection at the market had been poor and Tang was tired from a long work week. Pigsy had been determined to find the right ingredients for... something that, frankly, Tang couldn't remember after all these months. What he did remember was the way the Spider Queen drew Pigsy in, despite his sniping at him while they were tied up he knew that the chef really was only after actual vegetable, and being in that lair.

It was awful.

They hadn't been down there long, but it was long enough for Tang to suggest Pigsy stay away from the market entirely and order his food via online delivery. Pigsy thought he'd been jealous at first, until he realized that Tang was just... scared. Scared of Pigsy getting hurt, scared of losing him. Just scared.

Until MK had shown up there really was no telling if they would have made it out. And that scared Tang. A lot.

Pigsy didn't stop going to the market entirely, but for Tang's peace of mind he bought most of his food via delivery like he suggested and took MK with him every time instead. Tang refused to go back, not when he knew how close that stand was.

And then the Lunar New Year happened and Tang no longer really felt safe anywhere.

Oh he acted like everything was fine alright, but he knew Pigsy could tell how defeated he was in knowing that Spider Queen and her crew could just show up anywhere at any time now. It left him tired, having trouble sleeping, and just emotionally exhausted.

Until this morning. When he woke up before Pigsy and got dressed and ready to go and suggested they go to the market together.

He was tired. Too tired.

Tired of letting himself be afraid. Of Spider Queen. Of the market. Of his old intrusive thoughts.

After all he had used a giant gun sword on that one spider guy with the pony tail who insisted on teasing Pigsy for some reason. And went through whatever happened with that weird shadow puppet guy. Why be afraid anymore after all that weirdness?

So at the market they were, looking over the selection of ingredients together for the first time in months almost as if nothing had happened. No one would have been able to tell except for the way Pigsy kept looking over at Tang to make sure he was alright.

Tang loved that about Pigsy too.

“Tang you don’t have t-”

“I want to,” the scholar said firmly, handing his card to the merchant they had stopped at over Pigsy’s head before the other even had a chance to argue further.

“Tang!” Pigsy yelped as his card was handed back, gesturing to the bag of food he was being handed shortly after. “Are you aware of how much money you spent? That stuff’s expensive!”

“I know,” Tang said nonchalantly, smiling softly as he turned to head to the next stall. “I told you, I wanted to buy them.”

“But why?” Pigsy insisted, looking a bit lost at having to be the one to follow someone else through the market for once. “You know I’d never make you pay for anything... well, heh, except your tab that you insist on keeping open.”

“About that" Tang said, smiling softly as he turned back to the man he loved for so long. "I don't think we need to keep that open anymore."

Pigsy froze, staring at Tang in confusion for a moment before his eyes widened as he realized what he'd just said. He blinked, looking at the bag of ingredients, thinking about the amount of yuan Tang had spent before he finally caught on to what the scholar had so sneakily done.

The exact amount down to the last little bit.

Paid in full.

"You're serious," The chef said as he took in Tang's expression carefully, reaching out to grab his free hand softly and squeeze. "What brought this on?"

"Just thought it was time to let go of old fears," Tang answered with a shrug, and he barely had time to react before Pigsy tugged him forward with a tilt of his head and pressed their lips together.

Tang didn't keep count of how many times they kissed over the years, who would after so long, but he was sure he'd remember this one as vividly as the first.

"Let's get back," Pigsy said after he pulled back, smiling warm and bright and just looking the way being home felt. "MK's probably waiting to get that out of the city training started and we don't wanna keep them all waiting."

He loved Pigsy.

And the one thing he was never ever afraid of was who knew that.

[souljoon]

hello! can I request a corpse/reader where they are online friends and one day he thinks she is making fun of his mental health and cuts her off but then soon they run into each other irl and he realizes reader actually wasn’t hurting him?

thank you for requesting! not quite sure how to pull this off but I tried, anon haha

pairing: corpse x reader genre: angst, light fluff warning/s: cursing

~~~

Out of all the days he’s inside his apartment, he happens to run into you in one of the many aisles of the market just when had to force himself to buy some stuff.

Fuck, he needs to get out of here before you—

“Corpse, is that you?”

He panicked, lost how to handle this kind of situation. He’s not ready to see you much less have a confrontation with you— not because of what you’ve caused to him but because of what he did.

Corpse feigned indifference, plastering a friendly smile as if he didn’t purposely cut you off in his life.

“Hey,” he greets, though he obviously sounded forced.

Yet, he sees you return his smile and he wonders if it was sincere or not.

“You look good, huh.” You complimented.

Corpse refuses to meet your eyes, but still finds himself muttering a thank you.

“Hey, uh… Listen,” you prompted, and his ears perked. “...what had happened— it doesn’t make sense to me, I don’t know what went wrong or what I did wrong but I genuinely hope that you’re okay and that I’m… here in case you needed to... you know, talk to someone.”

Do you really care? Did you mean what you said? He mentally pondered, sifting through the layers over layers of memories in his brain the time you’ve shown him otherwise.

Corpse doesn’t regret revealing piece by piece of his life to you. Though you and him started off as friends in the gaming industry, it didn’t stop you two from growing much closer as time goes by. He grew on you, then gradually began opening up to you.

The friendship came to the point of him being comfortable enough to show his face to you—even more so on inviting you to his apartment. You became someone he truly confides in nearly everything that revolves around in his life. When he needed someone to uplift his mood, he would ping a message in your dms. When he seeks for feedback on some projects he was working on, he would randomly send you a clip or an audio. Not all his gamer friends have lived off the privilege of being that close to Corpse.

Perhaps the friendship was just too good to be true that he didn’t see right through you. Perhaps he was blindsided by your sweet, and caring exterior. Perhaps it was all a facade, and that you didn't really care about him.

Corpse was not strange to receiving hatred, for being mocked at for his content, or even being accused of faking his voice. But he learned not to pay attention to negativity anymore. Until the video of you lip syncing Agoraphobiac surfaced on Tiktok, trended on Twitter and other social media platforms. The way you were seemingly mocking him, his song, something that’s a piece of his mental health, a reflection of his story— he couldn’t help but feel offended. On the bright side, the video surged a healthy amount of streams to his songs in general.

Your fascination to his discography was not something he was unaware of. Still, the video had already done some damage to him—creating a great distance in between as he right away build a wall in between.

“Why?” Corpse asks after a long while of silence in between. He nearly cringes at the way he ended up sounding stupid.

He misses you. And as someone close to his heart, he felt like a part of him broke when he completely cut you off in his life without telling you the reason why. If he could turn back the time, he should’ve confronted you right there and then. He could’ve saved himself the prolonged agony of losing a friend as precious as you are.

Now, he seemed kind of lost, not knowing how to act like your friend when he clearly wasted his chance to be one.

Your eyebrows met in confusion, “What do you mean ‘why’?”

“I stopped communicating with you, haven’t I? Why are you still here— as my friend?”

“I’m sure you had your reasons why you did that. I’m not really good at keeping in touch with people. Some stay, some don’t— I mean, unless you no longer want to be acquainted with me—I’m here. Nothing’s changed.”

He nervously rubs the back of his neck. Ashamed. “Ahh, fuck! Not gonna lie I’ve missed you a lot. And… I’m clearly terrible in communicating, either. But I hope you can give me some time before I can explain my side to you.” He sheepishly replied, mentally crossing his fingers for another chance.

You lifted your hand up, “Good thing I’m not a seasonal friend.” You joked, which managed to elicit an adorable laugh from him.

~~~

[flooffybits]

At Your Corner

Idol: Kim Minji (Dreamcatcher)

Anon: my heart just broke bc i saw a pic of minji smiling but trying to hide her pain when their deja vu win got snatched by the sh*w so may i request a scenario with jiu being sad abt that but since shes in public, she needs to smile for the fans. 8th member reader who doesnt rlly show her emotions notices and just lets her kid side out like suddenly jumping in front of jiu and going "hey im a race car get on!" to make her laugh then fans coo and stuff? sry if this is a mess u can change anything tnx

A/n: this came very recently and i don’t usually work on newer requests but this fit my mood way too much that i couldn’t help BUT write it

☕buy me a coffee☕

Standing at the corner of the room, you survey the scene and watch as your members all look exhausted after everything you’ve been through.

It’s quieter than usual, and while you usually preferred it, you hated this silence.

Once again, you were close to finally obtaining a win for your group, and yet you were just a few points too short when The Show finally released the results. You could feel as your members’ shoulders visibly fell when you were all finally off the stage and from the public eye. You had all worked so hard and believed that this comeback would finally be the one to get you a win.

The first weeks of promotions had made you start to lose hope when you had yet to obtain what your group desired, but your leader remained optimistic through it all, telling you that it wasn’t over and that you still had more chances. Yet in the end, her optimism was snuffed out as she sat by the corner, head in her hands as she struggled to pull herself together for when you all had to leave the venue and face your fans.

To make matters worse, Handong was leaving for China in a few days.

With a shaky breath, you turned away and shrugged off your stage outfit, replacing it with the shirt you previously wore, tossing on your hoodie and cap when you were done before heading out of the room, one of your managers quickly following after you as Bora’s frown deepened when she caught a glimpse of your expression.

“Come on, girls. We have to get going soon.” Minji called after she cleaned her face and dusted herself off. She watched as Yoohyeon hurried and quickly left, silently asking your remaining managers where you had gone off to before she went to find you.

With a heavy heart, the girls exited the waiting room and headed for the building exit where you and Yoohyeon were already waiting, the younger girl holding your hand while she kept her head on your shoulder, nuzzling against you for comfort whilst you held her closer to yourself with your own head down.

Minji felt a tug in her heart to see you, but when she tried to reach you, Siyeon tugged at her arm and then shook her head, knowing that there would be no getting to you at this point.

While you rarely expressed yourself, it was easy to tell when you wanted to shut everything and everyone out. You would let the girls come near you, but you wouldn’t say a single thing or react to anything they’ll say except for a nod or a shake of the head in case they ask you something.

“Unnie told me she was with Everglow before Yoohyeon unnie found her.” Gahyeon muttered softly from beside the vocalist. “She said she was trying to make them feel better because of the votes.”

It was a little after you all exited the stage when people began making comments online about miscalculations. As much as it was a possibility, you and your members decided not to look into it just so it wouldn’t further worsen your mood. You were already upset with having lost, it made you feel even worse to know that your dongsaengs were most likely receiving backlash with everything that was happening.

“It’s going to be okay.” Bora murmured, squeezing her friend’s hand as they approached you and the quiet girl. Handong offered you a small smile, but you merely nodded at her before looking to the door, hearing the shouts of fans that were waiting for you.

You lower your cap over your eyes just to avoid making further eye contact with anyone before finally leaving the venue, eyes squinting at the flashing of the cameras. Yoohyeon had let go of you to join Bora and Yubin’s side. Siyeon and Gahyeon stood closely side by side and Minji was clinging to Handong in order to comfort both of them.

And it just hurt so much more to see them forcing smiles on their faces when you knew just how terrible they all felt. You also knew that your own fans felt just as bad, seeing the tears on some of them when the winners were announced.

Right now, you felt stuck because it was usually Gahyeon and Minji who kept bright smiles on their faces. Your members were always eager to interact with fans, just like you, but this whole predicament merely took its toll on all of you.

But you refused to let this night end with them in tears.

Smiling, you waved to your fans and tried to give off the energy your members were lacking despite how it would usually be the other way around. Looking to your managers for permission, they were a little less strict this time around when they knew you just needed some space and allowed you to approach some fans.

Your members were somewhat surprised as you stepped away from them to greet everyone, thanking each of them for coming and supporting you all. Minji could feel her eyes watering at the sight of you trying your absolute best in covering for all of them, even trying to distract fans from noticing their weary state.

“Please be safe when you get home! The others are a little tired so please understand.” You tell them with a meaningful look and you were just grateful to know you had such understanding and thoughtful fans.

Even with the blinding flashes of the camera, you did your best speaking with them until your eyes landed on a few teary eyed Somnias. You felt your throat close up, but you do your best to swallow your emotions before approaching them. “Hey, why are you crying?” You asked and they turn to you with sadness swimming in their glossy eyes.

“We wanted to finally give you all a win, but we couldn’t do it.” One of them answers, your expression softening before you shook your head and opened your arms for them. Giving them both a warm hug, you patted their backs before giving them a small squeeze. “You guys did more than enough. You got us nominated, and that’s a really big thing, so thank you.” You assure them with your best smile,

“We’ll keep working harder, so please don’t be sad.”

Seeing your interaction with the fans pushed tears to Siyeon’s eyes and she had to avert her gaze while Bora wiped at the corner of her own eyes at your selflessness.

It didn’t take long before you came bounding over to your members and you sported a grin as you patted all of them, be it on the arm of back. “Come on, come on! I’m hungry, aren’t you?” You question playfully, earning a giggle from Yubin while Handong reached to pinch your cheeks.

When you turn to your leader, you smile before turning around so your back is facing her then gesture for her to hope onto your back. “Unnie, everyone is slow! Come on, you can get the food faster if you come with me.”

Minji couldn’t help but laugh at your display, her heart warming at your rare carefree personality and knowing that you were doing this for them.

So, without hesitation, she wrapped her arms around your shoulder as you crouched down before allowing you to lift her on her back, laughter bubbling from her lips as you carried her away from the rest of your members while they watched on with smiles on their faces, happy to see your leader a little better compared to earlier.

“Yah! Unnie, be careful!” Gahyeon called out when Minji squealed after you nearly tripped, but you were able to tighten your hold on her legs, securing her on your back before you decided to merely walk instead of run to the van, the older woman’s face tucked comfortably against your neck that you could feel her smiling against your skin.

You didn’t have to go out of your way to check up on her and make her feel better, but she appreciated how you still did so without anyone having to ask you to do it. As quiet as you were, she loved the way you were ready to come to their aid.

“Thank you.” You hear her whisper and you hum while shrugging your shoulders lightly. “It’s nothing, unnie.” Though despite your words, she knows that you were relieved to have her, and the others, smiling as well.

Later that night, there are articles about you and your actions for that day. Pictures of you with fans and Minji, especially, circulate everywhere, but the girls decide that staying off social media would be healthy for them as they happily ate the food that you had asked your managers to bring to the dorm.

“Do you think we should wake her up?” Yubin asked when she glanced to your shared room, but Handong shook her head and smiled after drinking some water. “Jiu unnie did say she’ll take care of Y/n, so we can wait until they’re back.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen Y/n unnie have that much energy.” Yoohyeon commented after chewing her food, Gahyeon nodding in agreement with a tiny smile on her face. “Unnie is honestly so cute. I wanted to cry when she was hugging and comforting Somnias.” The maknae pouted while Bora giggled. “That kid is really unpredicatable sometimes.”

Siyeon scoffed at her claim, chopsticks pointed in the dancer’s direction. “Speak for yourself.” That earned a smack on the arm as Handong burst into laughter, everyone else following after as they exchanged more stories, forgetting about the award show and their previous concnerns.

Meanwhile, Minji looked down at you with a fond smile as you laid on her chest, arms wrapped around her waist as she kept her own around your slightly smaller frame.

As much as she cried earlier, you were able to make her feel better. Even as you slept soundly against her, she would thank you endlessly for being in her life and picking her up whenever she was down.

Somewhere along the way, she realized that some trophy meant nothing compared to the love and support she’s received from the people who surrounded her. While it was nice to have that recognition for the group, she would pick a group that was stable and gave as much as they received any day.

As long as you were among those people, her heart was safe and sound.

[smells-like-mettaton]

69 (nice) alphys and sans

Rating: G Word Count: 933 Prompt: "trying to fall asleep in a too-warm room" Read on AO3: here Notes: sort-of Salphys, prequel fic to Queen-Sized Bed but can be read on its own.

---

“Al,” Sans groaned from his spot sprawled on top of the sheets. “This whole sleepover thing was a great idea and all, but you gotta throw me a bone here. My marrow’s gonna dry out if I sweat much more.”

Alphys rolled over, mumbling something he couldn’t hear. She was buried in the blankets, despite the Hotland-like heat of her room. Her snout and the tips of her spikes just barely peeked out from under the covers.

It was pretty adorable, honestly.

“C’mon, you’re not asleep already, are you? I thought we were gonna binge bad TV til your eyes shrivel up. Which they definitely will if it stays this hot in here.”

This time she let out a small snore. Under other circumstances, he might have woken her up. But she’d been pushing herself too hard with all this Queen stuff. Tightening infrastructure, building machines to do the jobs there weren’t enough monsters for, projecting hope and confidence when he knew she just wanted to scream into the abyss. He’d thought a night of bad cartoons would cheer her up, but maybe she just needed a good nap. He could respect that.

Didn’t mean he could sleep in this furnace, though.

He sat up and fumbled for the laptop that had been abandoned at the foot of the bed. Maybe some hilariously awful show could knock him out.

He tapped out Alphys’s password (“MMKC2sux”) and was greeted with her bubbly anime wallpaper. Where did she keep her TV shows? Her desktop was cluttered with folders that had no consistent naming scheme. Most of them seemed to be Alphys talking to herself: “oh my gosh im such a loser,” “this is so embarrasing,” “im going to hell for this,” “spaghetti recipes”...

“Huh.”

Tempting as it was, he wouldn’t pry into her personal files. They weren’t at that stage of… whatever this was between them yet.

Recipes, though? He didn’t think Alphys knew how to cook anything but ramen and miso soup. Spaghetti was… someone else’s forte.

He double clicked the folder and was greeted with files that were definitely not recipes. It was several dozen text documents, labelled with what looked like bad fanfic titles. Maybe “Spaghetti Recipes” was the name of a series?

The first document was titled Cooking With a Killer Robot. Well, a bad MTT-TV fanfic would put him to sleep just as well as a bad human show.

He opened the file, and his eyesockets widened.

It was a warm and sunny day at Papyrus’s house. Light shone through the open windows, which let the savory smell of cooking spaghetti sauce waft into the neighborhood.

Mettaton didn’t have to smell it through the window, though. He was at his boyfriend’s side, following his instructions to blend the tomatoes into a smooth paste.

The laptop slid from off of Sans’s legs. He barely caught it with blue magic before it could crash to the floor.

His eyelights flickered over to Alphys. To his surprise, her eyes were wide open, staring at him in horror over the hem of the blanket.

“Uh.” Sans grinned tightly.

“Whatever you read no you didn’t,” she said quickly.

“It’s not bad,” he said, then winced at how backhanded that compliment sounded. “You, uh. Know how to write good. I mean. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still kind of weird that you were shipping my brother and your robot, but—”

“You read that one?” She bolted upright.

“Would you believe me if I said I thought it was a spaghetti recipe?”

She groaned and pulled the gray comforter up over her head.

“This is a nightmare. I’m going to wake up any minute and this will have never happened.”

“Yep. Definitely. Could you do me a favor and turn off the heater when you do?”

She peeked out just long enough to shoot him a squinting glare.

“So that’s a no on the heater. Cool. Not literally.” He winked.

“Nightmare,” she muttered again before disappearing beneath the blankets.

Oh well. It was worth a shot.

He shifted the computer back on his lap. Alphys’s fanfic still glowed on the screen.

His brother and Mettaton… had they ever met somehow? He knew that Papyrus followed Alphys on UnderNet, but Sans had never been much for networking online. All he did was send his brother bad memes every once in a while.

(Sometimes he still did, even though he knew he’d never get a response.)

Papyrus was definitely a fan of Mettaton’s. If Alphys’s shipping knowledge was to be trusted—which it probably wasn’t—Mettaton could’ve liked Papyrus too.

If they’d ever met. If they hadn’t been dusted and destroyed before they’d had the chance.

“That sauce is looking amazing, Mettaton! Pretty soon you’ll be a master chef just like me and Undyne!”

Mettaton’s robotic face blushed. “You are too sweet, darling. Of course, I could never hope to compare to Undyne’s talent and prestige.”

“Yeah, me neither! She’s the coolest, isn’t she?”

Sans snorted at Alphys’s personal bias seeping through. He had no illusions about her preferences. If Undyne had survived, she would be the one sweating in Alphys’s bed instead of him.

Heh. Wasn’t he lucky?

He distracted himself from the pathetic thoughts by losing himself in the cheesy fanfic. It didn’t matter that Papyrus had never made an edible plate of spaghetti in his life. It didn’t matter that he and Mettaton had probably never met. In those words on the screen, his brother was happy.

The laptop remained open on Sans’s chest when he finally fell asleep.

For once, he didn’t have nightmares.

[krispytidalwavesheep]

Hi, if you are still in the writing mood could I ask for Zelda Spellman x fem!reader that's sweet and fluffy, because Zelda deserves happiness, please? Thank you!!!

Sorry it took me so long, I had a few personal problems to deal with, and online classes were a right bitch. I hope you like what I made of this prompt! I deleted everything I had written so far halfway through and started all over again, and hope that it is what you imagined! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You were in love with Zelda Spellman. The sad thing about that, she wasn't in love with you. You have been friends for almost a century, best friends even, since you were the one constant in her life. No matter what happened, you were always there. You were always by her side, through that whole Blackwood ordeal, when she was with Marie, no matter what, no matter your feelings, you were always right by her side. And you always picked up the pieces, just like you were now. Zelda called you late one night, sobbing uncontrollably, saying something about Marie being gone. It took you just about five seconds to hang up and teleport right into her bedroom, where she was crying on her bed.

“Hey...” you just mumbled as you sat down next to her, but you were quite shocked when Zelda launched herself directly into your arms, crying even harder than before. You were hurting with her, biting back your own tears at seeing her so devastated. Yet, you didn't say anything at all, you just pulled her closer and started to stroke her back gently, waiting for her to calm down.

“Wanna tell me what happened?”

“Why does everyone leave me?” Zelda asked instead and your heart broke all over for her again.

“I'm still here, or am I not?” you asked gently and hugged her a bit tighter. Zelda froze and gently pulled herself out of your embrace to look at you. You could see the gears in her head turning and suddenly, you were scared. You hid your feelings for so long, did she finally realize?

“You...You are,” Zelda said dumbfounded and continued staring at you. Your heart started to pound in your chest and you were pretty sure she could hear it.

“But...why? Everyone leaves... why do you stay?” Zelda asked the one million dollar question and now it was your turn to freeze.

“I- Listen, Zelda, I don't think this is the right time...” you sigh and looked down at your lap. You couldn't confess to her right now, even though the urge was so strong. She was in love with Marie, and she just left, you couldn't tell her about your feelings. It wouldn't be fair. On the other hand... Maybe your confession would prove to her that you would never leave her. Ever.

Gentle hands grasped your head and forced you to look into Zelda's eyes. They were still wet with tears, but oh so beautiful and you were captivated again, staring at her, without hiding anything.

“I could never leave you. Not in a million years. To me, you are... just everything. I know this is not the right time, with all that's going on and stuff, but... I am in love with you. Have been for the past fifty years, actually. I', sorry that I confess now after Marie just left but... I am not strong enough to keep it from you any longer,” you said and tears started gathering in your eyes. You wanted to look away, to run, but you couldn't. First, Zelda still held your face in her hands, and second, you would betray everything you just said if you ran away now.

“I don't know what to say y/n,” Zelda whispered, but the hold on your face tightened and there was a fondness in her eyes you have never seen before. You didn't dare hope.

“You don't have to say anything. I never thought you would have the same feelings for me, and that's okay. I can take it. I took it for the last fifty years, and your friendship is more important than anything. I wanna be by your side, even if we are just friends because you are too important to me. I never want to lose you,” you say gently and looked back into her eyes, letting all your walls down to show her that you were brutally honest with everything you said. She was crying again and that was not supposed to happen. You were here to make her feel better, not worse.

“I'm sorry for dumping that on you. I can understand if you want me to leave,” you whispered, even though leaving was far from your mind. Something was shifting, and you wanted to know where exactly you stood with Zelda now.

“And lose the one good thing that ever happened to me? Stay, please, just give me a moment to sort my thoughts,” Zelda said and leaned her forehead on your shoulder. Was that a good sign, you wondered. It could have been worse, you decided and gently took Zelda's hands in yours.

“I never thought that you could love me, to be honest,” Zelda said after a while and your heart started to pound again.

“Are you serious? What isn't there to love about you? You are so strong, brave, caring, and beautiful. Like a phoenix, you rise from the ashes every time something bad happened, to you or the people close to you, stronger than before. You have your moods, sure, but even those are kind of adorable sometimes. The way you smile when Sabrina does something that makes you proud, or your smile in general. I would fight armies just to see you smile. It's so cheesy and disgustingly sweet, I know, but... you are just everything to me. And Blackwood and Marie didn't deserve you. They didn't cherish you the way you should be cherished. If you could just see yourself with my eyes you would know that there was simply no other way, but to love you. With my whole heart. I've seen you at your worst and I've seen you at your best and all the in-between, and I fell in love with every part of you all over again. Call me a sap, or disgusting, or whatever, but you are so much more than you think you are and what others made you feel. Fuck Marie for leaving you, if I were to have you at my side I would cherish you forever, because Zelda Spellman, you are a gift!” you said and by the time you were finished with your speech you were out of breath and Zelda was staring at you as if you'd grown a second head.

“I am sorry if I overwhelmed you,” you whispered, but you couldn't stop staring at her, waiting for some kind of reaction.

“No one ever said anything like that to me before,” Zelda said and if you didn't know it any better, you would say that she was rather shell-shocked.

“Oh, believe me, you have no idea how much I hate your past lovers for that,” you said heatedly and Zelda snorted at that.

“I love you too,” Zelda said simply and smiled. You gaped. What did she just say?!

“You-I-what?” you stammered and Zelda looked at you with such gentleness that all the butterflies in your stomach turned into a tornado of fluttering.

“You are an idiot. But you are my idiot. If you want to be that is,” Zelda said and buried her face in your neck. You were completely speechless. Was this really happening?

“But what about Marie?” you asked, afraid of the answer. But Zelda just took your face into her hands again and forced you to look into her eyes when she said “If I had known that we have a chance, I would have never gotten together with Marie. Or Blackwood for that matter. And now stop thinking and just kiss me already”

You just snorted at her demanding down and leaned forward gently, until your lips connected in the sweetest kiss you had ever experienced in your life. One of Zelda's hands wandered into your hair to pull you closer and you just grabbed her and pulled her into your lap. You were probably holding on a bit too tightly, but neither of you cared when Zelda moaned gently and you used the opportunity to deepen your kiss. Zelda's other hand wandered into your hair, gently tugging and now it was your turn to moan. Your tongues battled for dominance and surprisingly you won, smirking into the kiss until you had to come up for air.

“I always knew you were a bottom,” you grinned teasingly and buried your face into Zelda's neck, kissing it softly.

“Shut up and continue what you are doing. I don't want to waste another second with you,” Zelda moaned and threw her head back so that you had more room to continue your ministrations.

“So demanding my love,” you chuckle and gently bit down to suck a small, barely-there mark into her skin. You couldn't quite believe that this was happening, but you enjoyed every second of it.

“I'll never let you go now, my darling Zelda,” you whisper into her ear and Zelda just moaned, demanding more. You didn't know how far you would take it today, but you weren't overly concerned with time right now. After all, you were witches, and now you had all the time in the world to finally be together...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prompts are still open, although it may take sometime for me to finish. I pinned the post where I asked for prompts on my page, so if you want anything written, please check  it out!

[skaylanphear]

Hi there! Do you have any advice on improving traction towards a fanwork/fic? I love writing—and it's not for notoriety by any means—but having validation and feedback also feels nice (I hope that's not conceited). What would you recommend to someone without a large audience/follower base? I do "advertise" on tumblr when my work is written/updated on AO3. How did your journey start? Thank you!

This is an interesting question and I doubt most people are going to like the answers, but here we go:

So, first and foremost, you need to be realistic about why you're creating in the first place. If you're doing work in a fandom that is older, where content has stopped coming out, or that is simply smaller, you're not going to get much engagement, period. There will, of course, be activity in these fandoms, but it will be far less and the people involved—while they may view your work—will be less likely to comment/spread it around simply because there's not much going on. So if you're creating in that sort of environment (which can be a really good environment if you're looking for something chill with no pressure), then you have to be prepared for low engagement, even if the people you do meet and who are willing to talk about your work are more regularly in your sphere. You can probably make better/closer friends in these sorts of fandoms, if you're willing to try.

But, on the other end of this, if you're coming into a huge fandom late, it's also going to be harder to wade through the massive following to get your stuff out there. For example, in both the Miraculous and Sk8 fandom, I started work pretty early on, when the shows were still gaining traction, and so my "name" as a creator gained traction parallel to that growth, as opposed to when I started writing in the Voltron fandom. With Voltron, I came in super late and so what few fics I had that did gain traction took a lot longer to get there because people already had their fav content creators in the fandom, etc. It's not impossible to get popular in this situation—far from it—but it does take longer.

You'll also benefit from having finished works early on in a fandom's lifespan, at least with writing. This is because there's less competition for views and so more people will be filtered to your work, initially. This means that you have a better chance of getting those comments and kudos. Having a finished work increases this engagement because people look for finished works before works in progress. Generally, the length of a fic doesn't matter much for popularity, so long as it's DONE. When I was writing in the ML fandom, quite a few of my earlier fics were shorter, and they compete in popularity with my longer fics, because people care more about having a finished story, not a long story. That's why when it came to Only Practice Makes Perfect in the Sk8 fandom, I worked hard to get that shit done, because it was the most popular story I had in the fandom and I decided—like an idiot—to make it a long fic. Which, yeah, means people probably love it/remember it more in the long run, but if I hadn't finished it in 2 to 3 months, I'd have lost considerable traction as far as making a name within the fandom.

This leads into one of the most important points, if not THE MOST IMPORTANT point in gaining an audience—consistency. If you do want to be a successful creator, you Have To Be Consistent. This is the most difficult hurdle for all creators, and it is oftentimes impossible to make happen. If you want to aim for professionalism, which a lot of fandom creators don't care about (which is fine), then consistency is how you get there. Nobody wants to read a fic or follow an artist who doesn't stick to creating what they start (RIP all my unfinished works and the people who left me as a result, LOL). Using my most recent works as an example, I very, very, very consistently updated Only Practice Makes Perfect multiple times a week. To the point where people got comfortable expecting it, which is the key variable here. When people become comfortable that you will regularly create content, they not only stick around, but will be more interactive with you and your work. Nobody likes the disappointment of getting involved with a work only for that work to rarely get updates. Most people don't have the attention span to care. I'll admit, if I read a fic that's not finished and the writer takes one week to update, then one week, then THREE weeks, I probably will, like, forget about it. That's just life.

The best thing you can do is schedule. And again, this is the HARDEST thing to do, because it holds the creator to a deadline. Most people who create in fandoms don't want that kind of pressure—and that's fine. I go back and forth on when I have scheduled releases and when I don't, depending on what I'm aiming to do. But if you to retain your audience, telling them that you will update a work regularly on such and such a day and such and such a time, it creates something for them to remember. If they're invested in your work, they will think, "oh, it's Friday, that means such and such is coming out with something new." But, with that in mind, you also have to commit to a schedule that people will remain invested in. Which basically means you can't put things out more than a week away from each other, unless you're really, really famous, lol. If I told people I was going to go on a two week update schedule, I would lose most of my audience. But a week is long enough for people to both still remember and anticipate. That's just how the scheduling of the world works. And if you're an artist that's working on a big project, then you have to share progress, or pieces of what you're doing on a regular basis. That's what generates "buzz" and keeps you relevant. And, yeah, that's a really hard schedule to commit to, because it's a lot of work. BUT this consistency is where you see people being successful. Popular youtubers may not have gained their popularity by being consistent, but most sure do retain it that way. And again, there are outlying exceptions, but they generally ARE exceptions.

Speaking of hard work, here's probably the second hardest thing to accomplish—you have to be prolific. Especially as a writer. You have to write A LOT if you want to gain an audience. And yeah, that means you have to work, a lot. I love my work, so I enjoy that "grind," and I also have developed a lot of strategies to work around writer's block and every other obstacle that tends to catch people up. I work in a very professional manner—I do outlines, and drafts, and plan. I do a lot of stuff that people who do this kind of thing for fun can't be bothered with (and that's fine), but that's because I find it to be what works best in creating an efficient environment. I'm also very, very NOT lazy, lol. I was raised in an environment where you have to work for everything that you want. My parents didn't buy me my first computer, or snowboard, or what have you. We were tight on money and if I wanted something, they couldn't help me—I had to get that shit on my own. And I also grew up on a farm, where hard work was a staple of how you did things. You did things the right way, even if it was the hard way. You can't cut corners and it's the same with this. If you want it, you have to actually do the work, that's it. Some people get lucky with popularity, most don't. Most famous actors didn't become well-known off their first efforts, they had to keep trying and keep working and then they have to continue to do that to stay relevant. So if that doesn't sound great to you, then you might want to not focus on your audience and just create because you enjoy it, lol. Sometimes that's what I do too, when I don't wanna deal with the pressure.

Moving on, here's another point that nobody is going to like. Simply put, you also have to be good at what you do. I think some people don't realize that I've been writing fic for over fifteen years. I currently have nearly 2 millions words worth of fics on AO3 and that doesn't include a majority of the stuff I've ever written. I practice A LOT. I write every day. And I'll tell ya, when I started out in middle school, my stuff was not good. But I worked hard, I ignored the hate, and I kept going. That is the only way you will ever get better at anything. There's no quick way to become a better writer, or artist. And a vast majority of people are only going to pay attention to your stuff if it's quality work. Getting to that point is a process, on top of then creating stuff that fits into popular molds. Not only am I good at what I do (and I don't care how arrogant that sounds—I've worked my ass off), but when it comes to fandoms, I rarely write "rare pairs" and "crack ships." Generally, if it's popular, that's where I am. That makes a big difference and I honestly don't have sympathy for people who write rare pairs and such and then complain about lack of engagement. You knew what you were getting into (it's mostly the Miraculous fandom that gave me this bitterness). If you're not writing what people WANT to read, then your audience is simply going to be smaller. And that audience doesn't owe you their attention, no matter how frustrating it is or how good your work is. I could be the best writer in the world, but if I'm writing RekixCherry fic, I have nobody to blame but myself when nobody reads it. BUT if that's your passion, and writing a certain unpopular thing makes you happy, then, again, you need to not be concerned with traction and your audience.

The last point I'll make is that it matters HOW you present yourself online. A good chunk of the well-known creators in any fandom are, simply put, older people. And those that aren't, and are able to connect with those older creators, have generally created a bubble around themselves of maturity and, like, of being nice, lol. A lot of creators are skittish these days, and if you're an asshole (anti) or fight a lot over stupid shit, you may get a bigger audience, but you will isolate yourself from other creators. And this is important because oftentimes it is your exposure to other creators that will get your work circulating. The reason I got popular in the ML fandom? I wrote a short angst fic and a really popular artist shared it/talked about it and the rest was history. But if I'd had a habit of being an asshole, probably wouldn't have happened. And, granted, I'm not saying don't voice your opinions, but if you're loud all the time, it does turn people off. Especially creators because they are oftentimes the ones being attacked. They don't want to pull more of that negative bullshit into their lives. I'll admit, when I was in the ML fandom, I was down for a fight, but then that's what people came to expect, and it probably did turn others off, and then when I didn't fight, or didn't think the way my audience thought I should, it, again, turned people off. It's really not worth it unless being that type of person IS your platform.

So, that's all the advice I can give, I suppose. And even if you do all this stuff, that still doesn't mean you're going to be popular. At the end of the day, the thing that I stick to is this—I do what I want, I love what I do, and I work hard. If I'm in a position to worry about all that other stuff, then sure, I do, but otherwise… There's no easy way to become popular and, quite frankly, it's better to just "live" working hard and being a decent person than it is to focus on all this bullshit. I've created a working environment where I function within these "points" quite naturally, so it's not something I think about (except for schedules, lol). Sometimes I get popular in fandoms, sometimes I don't. At the end of the day, it comes down to how much work you're willing to do, because you will always be giving more than you are getting back, so you have to at least enjoy what you're doing.

Seriously, just do it because you love it. And if the pressure of everything above is something you don't love (I like a good, high pressure situation, lol), then don't do it that way—it's not worth the grief.

[layanasstories]

One

I am going to tell you a story. It’s a confusing and most of all a story you might not believe. My life took a turn, in a way I never expected it would.

The last couple of years in the summer, my friend and I, took road trips. We took like two weeks of work, and traveled around countries. We have been to France, Belgium and Italy. And this year we decided to go to Germany, the Black Forest area. We will drive like a day, find a motel to stay and next day we hit the road again. We tried to avoid the high ways as much as we could. The landscapes are so much better to see when you are driving the country roads. When we find a town we like much, we stay like two days, but never longer. We both drive, and it was just at the beginning of our trip. Day three if I remember correctly.. We were just an hour on our way. We stayed at a motel, but the food was bad, the bed was hard, and we’re lacking some sleep. That’s why I was so confused when we past a road sign. But I did order Amber to stop. She pulled the car aside the road, confused why I wanted her to stop.

 

My excitement took over my confusion. You see, I downloaded a game maybe a year ago, but stopped playing or looking at it just a few month back. It said a new update would be there soon, but nothing came. So I lost a bit of interest. A murder mystery game called Duskwood. I was aware the town in the game was based on a real town in Germany. But I didn’t know the town Duskwood actually did exists. At least not that I could find on google. But this was pretty cool, how many times do some get the chance to see a the real town a game took place? I had stepped out of the car to take a picture of the sign. And then I got back into the car. “Amber, this is our next town to visit” it told my friend. She started the car looking at me a bit annoyed, but she took the right turn towards the town. “Why do you want to go to this town, Layana?” still confused “We are just driving an hour or so. And now you want to stop already?”. A huge grin appeared on my face “I will explain everything when we find the Rainbow Café. If I am correct it must be in the center of the town.” Amber shrugged her shoulders and shakes her head “Fine, you and your mysteries” she mumbled.

 

The drive to Duskwood took about twenty minutes. Again I ordered, to Ambers annoyance again, to stop at the welcoming sign Jessy had showed me in the game, when we took the digital tour through Duskwood. I wanted to take as much as pictures as I could. As we continued the road into town, we passed the motel, just as on the map. And we finally arrived at the town center. We parked the car, and walked towards the Rainbow Café. And just as I hoped, there is was. The outside sitting was open, and not very busy. So we took a table, sat down and ordered some coffee. “You better explain to me why we are here. Sure it’s a nice town. But not that impressive with the haste you wanted to see it” Amber looked at me demanding to explain. So I took out my phone. “You see, I played a game few months back, and this town where we are right now, is based on the town in my game. Isn’t that awesome!” my voice pinched a bit too high in the excitement. “Here let me show you!”. I opened the app. It took a while before the oh so familiar screen should appear. But it didn’t. It went straight to the chat history. With multiple unread texts. From Jessy, Cleo, Lilly. Even Dan tried to contact me. I was confused, like shocked confused. Jake had send me messages as well, and those are the ones I opened first.

 

Jake: Layana?

Jake: Where are you?

Jake: Are you ok?

Jake: I found something interesting to our investigation. You have time?

Jake: I am worried sick about you. Please come online

 

I couldn’t figure out how many time has been between the texts. That was always a thing, with this game. There wasn’t really a timeline. Only the real time of my phone was known. Also there was no option to respond. As I read all the texts, an earie feeling crawled up. Like a knot in my stomach. It was weird, it didn’t add up to the game play. I scrolled through all the texts send by my fake game friends. But also there was no option to respond. And all the text where kind of similar. Where I was, that they were worried. And that I needed to come online as soon as possible. It didn’t make any sense. I went back to the chat with Jake. I stared to the screen still trying to process what was going on.

 

Jake is now online

 

Jake: Hello?

Jake: Layana is this you?

Jake: Why are you not responding?

 

“I want to Jake, but I cant. There is no option to respond” I talked to my phone.

 

Jake: Wait let me help you with that.

 

“You can hear me? How?

 

Jake: I will explain later. Give me a moment

 

I saw my phone flickering, then my WhatsApp gave a notification. And the game app disappeared.

 

Jake: This must be working right?

Layana: Yes, this is working, but how?

Layana: WAIT! This isn’t real, you can’t be real. How is this happening?

Jake: What do you mean it isn’t real?

Layana: You are not real. How can you be in my WhatsApp? How did you do that?

Jake: ?

Jake: I am real, just as you are.

Layana: No, I can’t believe that. You and all the others, it is a game. This all was a just a game. Some sort of puzzle murder mystery game. And now you are saying you are real? It is impossible, I do not know who you are. But you need to quit playing this creepy game with me. I am going to block you right now!

Jake: NO

Jake: Please don’t.

Jake: Layana?

 

I tried to process everything what just happened as quick as I could. But there were to many questions. It was too confusing. But I couldn’t take the risk of blocking Jake. If he was really real, my wish came true. I had already given up the idea of meeting him in real life. Of course I never really thought that would ever happen. But a girl can dream right. So I can’t risk losing him for real, and even though I can’t process what’s happening right now, I will play along. And then it hit me.

 

Layana: Jake if you are real. And the others are real. Than … oh god

Jake: What is wrong?

While standing in the middle of the town center. I looked up from my phone, scanning arround. Realizing that the man without a face is real too. And I am in the most dangerous place I ever could be.

Jake: NO! You promised me you wouldn’t go.

Layana: That was before I knew it was all real.

Layana: Please believe me Jake. I never lied to you. It was a game, I downloaded it. And I never knew it was real. If I only knew it was..

Jake: You need to get out of there, right now! They never caught the culprit.

Layana: Jake, I am standing in the middle of Duskwood. With coffee at the Rainbow Café. I don’t think leaving will help me now. I am a stranger here, and everyone will have noticed the new face by now.

Jake: No! NO! There is no way I can protect you if you are there.

Layana: Jake I need a moment to order my thoughts. I will text you later.

I hate to end our conversation, but Amber was looking at me with worry. "Layana, tell me whats wrong? Your face is white as a sheet." She grabbed my arm while leading me back to our seat. "You need to get out of here! Take our car, and leave. Go as far as you can. Or go home even." I didn't want her here. She needed to go. "Are you crazy?! Why would I leave you here alone. No way!!" She started to speak louder. "Sst quiet. Listen, I cannot explain why. You wouldn't understand... sorry that sounded to harsh. But, your life will be in danger if you stay. I am going to be fine. I need to finish somethings here. But I can only do this if I am alone. Don't stay." I begged her. "I don't like this one bit. Has this something to do with this game of yours? Because thats rediculous, it's just a game. Don't get so worked up about it" she rolled her eyes at me. She never like games in general. But seeing me freaking out over one, is to much of nonsense for her.

I know she can't understand this all. Hell I don't understand it even. But she needs to leave, right now. "I don't care what you think Amber! You. Need. To. Go. Right. Now! Our paths will split here. You go your way and I will go mine." I put some change on the table. Grabbed my bag and walked towards the car to get my suitcase. "Fine! If that's what you want. I will go. But don't come crying to me, when bad things happen. I warned you!" Her words came out as fire. When I got my stuff from the car. She got in, amd drove off.

Great, where to go now?

[nooneelsecomesclose17]

Though winds of change are blowing wild and free

Inspired by @softlass27 here's their first year on the run. Just a few little snippets of their life and the bumps along the way. I'm playing fast and loose with legalities over money and property etc so go with it. If Emmerdale can stick Harriet in a cellar for weeks and think it's good then I can do this.

(AO3 link)

Aaron yawned as he switched off the engine. He’d been driving for hours, putting as many miles between them and Emmerdale as he could. Robert had driven some of the way but he’d started to flag and on unfamiliar roads, Aaron hadn’t wanted to risk it so he’d taken over.

He looks over at him, still sleeping, head resting against the window. He still couldn’t quite believe what had happened in the past day and a half and just how much their lives were changed. It hadn’t felt like this the last time. He’d been running then, more from everything in the village and in his head than the actual charges he was facing. This time though, this time he’d been happy, they’d had a pretty perfect life in Emmerdale, and now, that was gone.

He truly hoped they could do it, that it wouldn’t break them. For all his words to Paddy the day before he couldn’t help but wonder. Had it been part of why he and Ed had broken up in the end, had it been there in the background making everything else worse until they’d just given up.

He and Robert weren’t him and Ed, he knew that, but he couldn’t bear to think of the two of them growing so far apart they can’t be fixed, not after everything.

Then again the alternative is prion, and Aaron’s not stupid, he knows Robert wouldn’t cope. Not that he’s not strong, he’s the strongest person Aaron knows, but prison gets inside you, eating at you from the inside out and Robert shouldn’t have to face that.

They’d make it work, they’d have to. There was no other choice.

“Hey sleepyhead. We’re here.” He loves watching Robert wake up, how he fights it, wanting to go back to the warmth of sleep and whatever dream he’s having, how he’ll take a deep breath before he finally opens his eyes, and smiling when he sees him. “You with me.”

“Yeah.” His voice is hoarse and he coughs a little as he looks up at the B&B they’d found online. “Looks ok.”

“Let’s get in and get some sleep then. We’ll sort everything else tomorrow.”

“Last chance.” He frowns, doesn’t know what he means. “To back out.”

“Never. Come on.” He’d tell him as many times as he needed. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Day 1

He’d laid awake most of the night, listening to Robert’s little snores, glad he was sleeping. Aaron had let him, part of him had enjoyed the peace, allowing him to get his thoughts in order. Everything had happened so fast he'd just done it all without thinking. Not that he was having second thoughts, not for a minute but there was so much to think about. They had to find somewhere to live, work, all sorts. He was pretty sure they'd be safe now as long as they kept their heads down but even so they'd be looking over their shoulders forever. They needed to make a list of everything they had to do. Maybe they should’ve done it the night before but after they'd checked in they'd just gone straight to sleep both too exhausted to do anything else.

He looks over at Robert, rubbing his eyes to wake himself up, the lazy smile when he sees him. Being with him was worth it. always would be. He shuffles closer needing him to know that he'd always be there, always by his side.

"You ok?" He still looks a little shell shocked by the whole thing and Aaron supposes that's normal. He has an advantage after doing this before he supposes.

Thankfully he hadn't asked about why he was so late getting to him but he would soon enough, and he didn't really want to get into it because Robert will just feel guilty and it's not him who has to feel that way.

"Yeah."

"So, What's first?"

“Breakfast.” He was starving. The last thing he’d eaten had been a pasty on the ferry that had frankly seen better days.

Later they’re staring up at a cottage that’s for rent in the next village to where they'd stayed the night. South of Paris, Aaron considered it isolated enough that they'd be safe. It wasn't anything near as grand as Mill, but it had everything they needed and it wouldn't cost the earth. In time they'd likely want something bigger, or need to move, but for now it was home.

“You like it?” He asks him, arm slipping round his waist.

“Yeah. We can make it home, can’t we?”

“Yeah. I’ll need to call Cain soon though. We’re going to need money. What we’ve got won’t last forever. He can send me everything I need to give him permission to sell the scrapyard.”

“What?”

“It’s not like I’m going back there is it? Should get a decent sum for it, business is good.” Robert looks disappointed, almost devastated at his words. “We’ll need the money Robert and you can hardly do anything with your part of the haulage firm right now.”

"You have money." Aaron frowns up at him because the last time he checked his bank account it hadn't been so healthy. "When I thought I'd be going down for GBH, I transferred the money we'd put by for surrogacy into your account."

“What?" He’d never said a word. How had he not noticed that Robert was quietly planning for not being there anymore.

"It felt like the right thing, and besides, then we were still thinking of going ahead. You would've needed it. You can get Cain to sort it, transfer it or whatever. Then he can send any profits from the scrapyard over, at least until we work out how much we’re going to need.”

"I...ok." It makes sense, he just hadn't connected it as his mind that their dream of another baby was over. "Yeah. Right I should go call, get things moving. I won't be long."

"Aaron, wait." He tries to shake the hand off his arm but Robert's stubborn, won't let go. “I shouldn’t have just blurted it out like that…I’m sorry.”

"What for?"

"Just one more thing I've ruined isn't it. Maybe if I hadn’t taken so long to decide to have a baby, or if we’d just gone ahead with it instead of trying to scam Graham, we might have our baby right now.” Maybe he’s right, but then again they could hardly have gone on the run with a newborn baby, which would mean he’d be in prison.

"No!" He breathes out, trying to stop tears falling at the thought. It'd just make Robert feel worse. "No...I just hadn't thought. It's fine. Really. Like you say it makes sense to hold onto the yard. Hey…it’s ok.”

"I don't want you looking back in a year and hating me." Robert's staring at the ground, hands fidgeting and this time it's Aaron who's holding on, holding his chin so he'll meet his gaze.

"I won't, Robert. I promise you I won't. Messed up forever, isn't that what you said once?" He nods, a hint of a smile.

"Now let’s have a look inside before we do anything. Then if we want it I’ll call Cain. We’ve got enough for a couple of months rent with us anyhow. But I’m telling you now, if there’s a spiral staircase in there, I’m out.”

“Oi, there was nothing wrong with that staircase!”

The inside is better than he could hope and even better that it’s available from that day and the next thing he knows they’re unloading what little they have from the car.

"Is that the last of it?" Robert asks from the kitchen where he’s checking what cooking bits and pieces they have.

“Yeah.” He looks around. It’s nice, he thinks they can turn it into home soon enough, but he feels lonely all of a sudden standing there in a strange house. “I should go and get some food, take a quick look around, just in case.”

“Hey, slow down. You don’t have to do everything right this minute. I nicked the tea out of the room we had, we can suffer it black for now.”

“Robert, stuff needs sorting.”

“And it will be, but you haven’t stopped since we got up this morning.”

“I need to make sure we’re safe Robert. We’re not on a bloody holiday!”

“Don’t you think I know that? But unless the police are around the corner I think you can take five minutes to sit and have a cuppa before you fall down. Now sit.”

“So it’s going to be like this now is it? Bossing me around?”

“Figured a change is as good as a rest.” He hands him a mug and he wraps his hands round it. "So, while we settle in are you going to tell me what happened when you went home? You’ve been suspiciously quiet about it all.”

"I told you, Cain took ages." He busies himself blowing on the hot drink, refusing to look his husband in the eye.

"Yeah, and like I told you I know that's a load of rubbish. What happened Aaron? Look, I won't be mad if you had second thoughts. I half expected you wouldn't turn up if I'm honest.” That makes him look up, then again he’d known that’s where his mind would go.

"What? No, that was... Rob that's so far off..." He sighs, putting the tea down before joining him on the sofa. "I'd got the passports already. I was at home getting our stuff. when Paddy turned up."

"Paddy. What did he want?"

"Basically to stop me leaving. An intervention if you like.” He shivers a little, thoughts of what if they’d succeeded crossing his mind.

"What did he do?" He's annoyed already, Aaron knows that tone, and he rests his hand over his, trying to calm him down.

"Locked me in, threw the keys in the waste disposal, then he and Liv spent the night telling me how awful you were, how wrong I was to be coming with you." He tells him everything, brushing away the tears when they start spilling from Robert's eyes.

“He did what?" It comes out in a growl and Aaron knows he's angry . He was, but now it's changed into sadness. Sadness that they'd rather lose him by pushing him away than respecting his decisions.

"I didn't listen not for a minute.”

"They thought it was ok to lock a grown man in his own house? Why the hell didn't you tell me before?"

"What would you have done? Gone back to Emmerdale and ripped Paddy a new one?” He already knows the answer which is precisely the reason he hadn’t said a word. As much fun it might’ve been to see it, it wasn’t worth the risk.

"Yes!"

"Which would've achieved what?"

"Would've made me feel a whole lot better." Aaron chuckles despite everything because the look on his face is exactly the same as Seb's when they had tried to feed him pureed carrots for the first time." And…I’d thought maybe…”

“Maybe what?" He asks when Robert stops, staring into space.

"Nothing."

"No go on.” He has a bad feeling about this, wants it all out in the open.

"When I was waiting...you were so long, and my mind was all over the place. I kept thinking that...I wanted you to be safe..."

“I am."

"Are you? If I'd...I thought that it might be easier to...I thought about handing myself in." He gets up shrugging off Aaron's hand. "I thought that at least if I did that while we were still in England I would know you were safe, that you'd have your family, that they'd look after you."

"You were going to leave me?” His voice cracks as he gets up to go to Robert. It’s not as though he didn’t think Robert would sacrifice himself for him, he already knows he would, but the knowledge that it had come that close because of his family left him cold.

"For your own good. You would've been with your family, they'd look after you and you'd get to have a life without looking over your shoulder."

"You really think that's how it would've gone? Even before I told you this? That they'd look after me?"

"Well obviously not now! But then, yeah. I’d spoken to your Mum, said she should keep an eye on you when I was away so yeah I thought she’d actually do it!”

"I didn’t know that. Blimey. Wish I’d been there to see it.” It does the trick and breaks the tension. “You’re wrong though.”

“Why?” He pulls him back to the sofa, holding him close.

"Shall I tell you how it would go...If you had taken notice of your conscience, which frankly needs better timing, and handed yourself in, left me…They'd be sympathetic, at first, then they'd start, little by little suggesting I have a night out, have some fun. Then my Mum, or Liv, probably both would point out any cute blokes that come into the pub. Then I'd end up going out with one of them to keep the peace. All the while they'd be running you down so I don't even feel I can mention you at all. It'd be like you never existed."

"Aaron, don’t.” He can hear the pain in his voice at the thought that his good deed would’ve end up that way, but he needs to know, if only so it puts the notion of doing something stupid out of his mind for good. “They might not…they’ve might’ve just been there for you.”

"No, you need to know. That's how it would be and you know how I know that? Because they've done it before. When we broke up, that's exactly what happened. So no, don't ever think I might be better off with them instead of you."

"I didn't know…well I knew your Mum and Paddy tolerated me, but even so, I always thought they’d wants what’s best for you, no matter what.”

“Maybe once they did, but I was thinking it over while I was driving last night, it’s not. It’s about what they want. It’s never been about what’s best for me, ever since Mum was dating Carl King. It’s always been about what she wants and I have to fit in with that. Sometimes she’s better but in the end it always goes back to the same thing. I’ve started to realise just how much I've done what they wanted over the years, taken the easy way out.”

“You?”

“Until I met you at least. Then again Mum did always say you were a bad influence on me.”

“Ta very much.”

“They’ve gone too far now though Rob, you know that. I’ll never forgive them for this. If I’d been just half an hour later…I would’ve lost you. It doesn’t bear thinking about. That’s why I want everything right, so we’re safe, so I don’t lose you.”

“Come here.” Robert wraps him up in his arms, strong and warm and he doesn’t ever want to be anywhere else. “Just one thing. How did you get out of the house?”

“Oh.” He scratches his beard, trying to keep the laughter in. “Bathroom window. You would’ve thought Paddy would’ve remembered that one after seeing you leg it, but no. Scarpered and left them locked in. I’ll have to remember to ask Cain how long it took ‘em to get out.”

Robert’s laughter is the most beautiful sound he’s heard in days.

[seasonsofeverlark]

Long Lost Letters

Author: @norbertsmom​

Prompt: Going home a few weeks Before Thanksgiving. Due to a tragic death. Cleaning up their stuff. You find a stack of letters addressed to you. You thought he never wrote you back. So, you stopped writing him years ago now older have a family. Writing back to him is a long shot because it’s been so long, but you do it anyways… and wait. [submitted by anonymous]

Rating: T

Author’s Note: Thank you nonny for the prompt. I don’t usually write angst, but I thought I would give it a try. I hope you like it. Thanks to my beta and bestie @mega-aulover​ for her constant encouragement. 

____________

“You ready to do this?” Prim asks me as we walk through the door of our old family home.

“I guess,” I tell her as I look around. It feels so still. Everything is exactly as it was last time we were here over the summer, except mom’s not here. Coming back home without her here is surreal. The three of us shared a video call over the weekend to set our plans for Thanksgiving dinner coming up in a few weeks.

Two days later, I was at work when I got the call from the hospital that mom had collapsed; a stroke, the doctor told me. I had to call Prim and tell her that our mom was gone.

Now that the funeral’s over, Prim and I have to decide what to do with mom’s stuff. There’s no mortgage. Dad made sure of that. His life insurance was set up to pay it off when he passed all those years ago. Now they are both gone. Prim and I both relocated after college, so neither of us really wants the house. It’s not really home any more without them in it. I guess we’ll get it ready for a new family to call home.

Our husbands are both out with the kids. They’ll come back with some packing boxes to help us pack it all up later.

“Bedroom or kitchen first?” Prim asks.

“Bedroom,” I tell her. The kitchen was where we would spend all our time together during family visits. Too many memories there right now.

We head into mom’s room and I have to stop and take a breath. The scent of mom’s gardenia perfume lingers there and really hits me. It reminds me of the hugs she would give whenever we came home, soft and sweet. So much for putting off old memories.

Neither Prim nor I say a word as we head for the closet. We take turns pulling down hangers. Prim set aside a favorite blouse that she wants to keep, but otherwise, most of it goes into the donation pile. At the back of the closet we find mom’s dresses from when she was young, from designers like Halston, and Diane Von Furstenberg. They are considered vintage now. We leave those hanging for us to go through later with my daughter Holly.

The few pairs of shoes at the bottom of the closet go into their own donation pile. On the shelf above the hanging rod are a couple of boxes, keepsakes probably. We each grab a box to see what’s inside.

We sit down on the bed and before I get a chance to open mine, Prim gasps. She has her box open and one by one she pulls out a collection of small trinkets. Things we had given mom and dad over the years when we were kids, a macaroni necklace strung together with yarn, a lumpy clay statue that Prim swears is a true likeness of our old cat Buttercup, and a world’s best daddy keychain, among others.

“I have no idea why she kept this stuff,” Prim says as she wipes a tear from her eyes and sets the box aside. “What’s in yours?”

I lift the lid and I find a small stack of old letters tied together with a ribbon. “Looks like mom and dad’s old love letters.” I hand them off to Prim while I see what else is in the box.

“Ah, Katniss,” Prim says, and I look up. She’s got the ribbon untied and she’s leafing through the letters. “These are all addressed to you.”

“What?”

“Look.” She turns the one in her hand around and I see my name, well my maiden name there in a familiar scrawl that I haven’t seen in ages.

I grab it out of her hand and look at the return address, although I already know who it’s from, my childhood best friend.

We met when we were five and became fast friends soon after. His mom made him work at his father’s shop after school, so I would hang out there to keep him company. We did everything together. We even went to prom together. We were never really a couple, but everyone said we belonged together.

I was headed off to college, but he stayed behind. He said if he was going to inherit the family business, he might as well start working there full time.

“Right before I left for college, he asked me to be his girlfriend,” I confess, tracing the letters on the envelope. “I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship if things didn’t work out. I told him I’d send him a letter with my answer.“

 Silence falls between us.

“After I got to school, I missed seeing him every day. I decided that, yes, I did want to be his girlfriend, even if it was long distance. So, I wrote him a letter and included it with my letter back home to mom. I asked her to give it to him. I thought he never wrote back to me.”

“Did you try to call him?” Prim asks.

“Phone calls were expensive back then. You paid by the minute for long distance, remember?”

“Yeah, no cell phones like today.”

“Right. I asked mom in my next letter, but she replied she hadn’t heard from him. I even went to his father’s shop when I came home for winter break, but his mom told me he didn’t want to have anything to do with me. She never liked me much, so I didn’t expect much sympathy from her. She told me he had enlisted in the service. So, I gave up on him. I went back to college that January and made new friends.”

“I’m sorry, Katniss,” Prim says, rubbing my back as she hands me a tissue. I didn’t even realize I was crying. “I’m sure mom had her reasons for keeping these from you.”

We hear a commotion from the living room, and we both realize that our families are here. Prim gets up to go greet them as I frantically dab the tissue under my eyes. I clear my throat. “Give me a minute?”

“Sure thing,” she says as she hands me the pile of letters and pats me on the leg on her way out the door.

I know I need to get up, but I’m stuck in my spot on the bed, leafing through the letters, wondering why my mother would keep these from me.

A knock on the doorframe breaks me from my misery.

“Hey sweetheart.” My dear, sweet husband comes in and wraps his arms around me. He doesn’t ask me what’s wrong, he just lets me grieve. I’m a blubbering mess, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

I realize he probably thinks this is all about losing my mom, and truthfully, part of it probably is, but I have to tell him the truth. So, I take his hand and I tell him all about the letters we found and why they are upsetting to me.  

After I’m done, he brushes my hair off my shoulder and asks, “Are you upset you never got the chance to see how things would have worked out with him?”

“No, I have a family, and I’m happy.” I try unsuccessfully to smile.

“Are you sure?”

“The more I think about it, the more I think mom knew things wouldn’t have worked out with him. She was trying to save me the heartbreak, but by doing so, I lost my best friend.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“Don’t be. If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have you. I think my mom knew this was going to happen anyway, you and me.”

“So, you forgive her,” he asks.

“I do,” I tell him, with a watery smile.

“You ready to go out there?”

“Just a couple more minutes. Would you save me some pizza? I’ll be right out.”

“Take all the time you need.” He gives me a kiss on the forehead and walks back out of the room.

I pick up my phone and go online to a popular social media app to look up my old best friend. With a name as unique as his, it’s surprisingly easy to find him. I think for a moment before typing out a note.

  Dear Gale,

It’s been years since we last spoke, 

but I wanted to let you know I never forgot you.

If you haven’t heard, my mom recently passed, 

and I found your old letters among her things.

I just wanted to let you know that I hope you are happy. 

I’m happily married now with two great kids.

Your old friend,

Katniss Everdeen - Mellark