#which has been added to the spreadsheet

[exeggcute]

none of this is new info, but you know I have the "loves to write lists and compile links" disposition, so I thought it might be helpful to share some of the tips I've seen about how to make sure you're sharing legitimate palestinian evacuation fundraisers and bundle all those tips into a single handy reference post.

this is a spreadsheet of legitimate ("vetted") fundraisers on tumblr.

this post explains how the people who maintain this spreadsheet confirm the legitimacy of each fundraiser they add.

this podcast episode ("yousef and the fourth move") explains why evacuation fundraisers are often organized by people who don't live in gaza and/or who may not be immediate relatives of the people trying to evacuate. it's part three of a series about a man named yousef and his family; parts one and two aren't required listening for part three to make sense, but if you have a few hours to spare then I wholeheartedly recommend listening to all of them.

this is the process that I personally have been using to check whether a particular fundraiser has been vetted:

spreadsheet method

open the vetted fundraisers spreadsheet.

inside this spreadsheet, open the "find..." menu. on a windows computer, this shortcut is ctrl+F. on a mac, this shortcut is cmd+F. on a mobile device, click the three dots menu in the upper right corner of your screen, then select Find and replace.

search for the last name of the person or family in the fundraiser. you may get several results because last names obviously aren't unique; keep hitting "next" until you've looked at all the results.

if you find an entry in the spreadsheet that has the exact same name and whose gofundme link leads to the same fundraiser associated with the blog, it's legitimate. if you don't find an entry in the spreadsheet that matches the blog's fundraiser, that does not mean it's a scam. try the next method below!

tumblr search method

copy the username of the tumblr who originally posted the fundraiser and/or sent you a message asking you to boost the fundraiser. (for example, username123)

paste this username into tumblr's search bar.

for best results, click the All types drop-down menu, then select Text. since the search page is often dominated by asks sent by username123 (which people then answer and tag with their username), this helps narrow things down a bit.

look to see if any people who are not username123 have made posts confirming that username123 is legitimate. this includes people who've reblogged fundraisers and added notes, people who've compiled masterlists, and people sharing hyperlinks to other posts confirming a fundraiser's legitimacy. if the message seems to be "yep, looks legit," then it's safe to assume it's legit.

this is not a comprehensive list, but here are some of the usernames I've seen associated with "yep, looks legit"-type posts and who I've come to trust by association. (disclaimers: I am not mutuals with any of the users, and not all of them do the vetting firsthand, but the ones who don't vet posts themselves still seem to be careful about what they share and therefore are a good lead to follow. also, don't bug these people to vet fundraisers for you unless they've specifically indicated that they're open to that.)

90-ghost

el-shab-hussein

nabulsi

appsa

northgazaupdates

retvolution

communistchilchuck

neptunerings

a-shade-of-blue

shimamitsu

neither of these methods yielded anything definitive; what now?

it may just be too early to tell. unless a trusted source has shared overwhelming evidence that a particular fundraiser is a scam (which seems to be a very very rare occurrence), the best thing you can do is ignore it. don't report their blog as spam, because there's a good chance it's a legitimate fundraiser who just hasn't been vetted yet.

[oediex]

(Languages taken from the top 10 foreign languages learned on Duolingo in 2024.)

I would like to bring your attention to two fundraisers that are near and dear to my heart.

@elhamhamdan-gaza is a young woman trying to survive in Gaza with her family. She was a top student at university until October 2023, when she and her family were displaced from their home in Khan Younis and forced to flee to Rafah. After the invasion in Rafah, they returned to their home in Khan Younis only to find it burned. They had no choice but to live in it. Elham and her family desperately need funds for blankets and clothes, because winter is here and nights in Gaza are very cold right now.

Elham's campaign is very low on funds! So far they have only been able to raise £594 and they desperately need more support. Please donate to them if you are able, and share this post and campaign with as many people as you can.

This campaign was verified by the Butterfly Effect Project (instagram) and is number 1180 on their spreadsheet, which you can access through the link on their instagram profile.

You can contribute to Elham's campaign by clicking on the link below:

Secondly, @drdarine is a young woman who is a medical student in Gaza. Despite being displaced and suffering hardships we can only imagine, Darine is continuing her studies and helping out others in the refugee camps and shelters in southern Gaza. Her family consists of seven people, one of them being my friend @dawoudi who is selflessly and unfailingly helping many other families in Gaza by verifying their fundraisers and promoting them on Tumblr. Everyday I see more campaigns added that he has verified, providing an important service to the many families in Gaza that need our help.

Darine's family has been fundraising since February, which is almost ten months! Despite that, they have only been able to raise $5,765, 19% of their goal. Progress on their campaign is extremely slow, often needing to wait multiple days for another donation to come in. We can do better than that.

This campaign was vetted by @gazavetters, and is number 15 on their spreadsheet, which you can find in the pinned post on their profile.

You can contribute to Darine's campaign by clicking on the link below:

Please support these fundraisers! Thank you!

Tagging for reach, let me know if you want me not to tag you in the future

@commissions4aid-international @funds4gaza @a-shade-of-blue @dlxxv-vetted-donations @kyra45-helping-others

@northgazaupdates2 @bilal-salah0 @imjustheretotrytohelp @devilofthepit @ankle-beez

@lukewarm-lesbian @wellwaterhysteria @appsa @qattdraws @laughteronsilverwings

@felixander-official @nabulsi @mukkie @oursapphirestars @fruitwoodmac

@comrademango @sunflowersmoths @mindchalice @battleteacake @girlinafairytale

[redeemed-wren]

I might regret this but rogue squadron I am challenging you.

For every fifty notes this post makes I will dedicate half an hour to working on a Hobby Thing.

Hobby Things include:

Writing

Reading

Watching a TV show or movie

Knitting/crochet project

Cosplay/sewing projects

Walking/exploring

Baking/cooking

Playing a video game

These are fun things I want to do but struggle to start because I'm bad at letting myself relax, so if y'all hold me accountable it might help.

I may turn notifications off for this post but I will keep a record of how many notes it has and check it often.

You're free and welcome to suggest which of the above Hobby Things I should dedicate that particular half hour to.

Godspeed

💜💙💛

Now with added Spreadsheet so you can see what I've been up to!

[cameoliob]

Masterlist of Palestinian families who need our support!!!

I'll be adding to this list as I find more campaigns! Send some my way if you know of any I havent listed!

@save-ahmed-family1 : €1,203 / 20,000

gofundme link + their post

@hanan-gaza23 : €885 / 50,000

gofundme link + their post

@ashraf-baker : €19,667 / 25,000

gofundme link + their post

@fatma--gaza : €6,064 / 20,000

gofundme link + their post

Hossam Bardaweel : $9,167 / 20,000 CAD

gofundme link

Dina : $10,268 / 20,000 CAD

gofundme link

@majedgaza1 : $1,173 / 70,000

gofundme link

 

@ahmedhellis22 : $180 / 30,000

gofundme link + their post

@shadowyavenuetaco : £3,780 / 50,000

gofundme link + their post

@alaakh99 : €8,639 / 100,000

gofundme link + their post

@zainsami : €210 / 35,000

gofundme link + their post

@karemandohan1999 : $7,202 / 50,000

gofundme link + their post

@fahedshehab051 : €48,959 / 85,000

gofundme link + their post

@fatma-anqer : €7,989 / 20,000

gofundme link + their post

@lina-gaza : €39,335 / 45,000 

gofundme link + their post

@hyamshehab222 : €9,700 / 25,000

gofundme link + their post

If you want to find more families in need (which I implore you do to) check out this spreadsheet, it has links to HUNDREDS of of palestinian families whos campaigns have been vetted!!!

[annadiplosis]

A few months ago I posted a couple photos of my index cards, saying I still didn’t know how and where I’d keep them, and I’ve since developed an Archiving System that combines the cards with a digital spreadsheet and has taken more hours than I will ever admit.

So, since I don’t have a “notebook system” to speak of, I'd like to share the way I archive my journals / sketchbooks / whatever you wanna call them, because I’m very proud of it, and who knows, someone might find it helpful :)

WHY I NEED AN ARCHIVING SYSTEM

The reason I don’t have a notebook system is because I use my books for absolutely everything, from sketches to grocery lists and journaling. It is crucial to me to not have any restrictions or expectations when it comes to my books, and that’s how I’ve managed to fill 43 of them over the years.

But of course, when you’ve been using notebooks without a system for most of your life and you want to read a specific entry, you can easily spend a full hour flipping through a sea of paper until you stumble upon those notes on the Bubonic Plague you took in 2011 or whatever you were trying to find.

SO HERE’S WHAT I DO

When I finish a notebook, I try to determine what its most important contents are: stuff I might want to reference in the future (project ideas, meeting notes) or is very characteristic of a period in my life (friends' drawings, travel logs). Every single page contributes to making the notebook what it is and gives it a unique personality, but not all of them are gonna be keepers, and that's fine (I'd even say fundamental, at least in my case).

These are the extremely generic categories I sort my Chosen Entries into. It's similar to the dot system so many people use, just applied retroactively:

🟣 Study notes 🔵 Work 🟢 Personal 🟡 Projects 🔴 Misc

And here's where the real archiving begins. This info goes into:

1. THE INDEX CARDS

(I always write them in Catalan; this one's a mockup and most of these are not real entries)

A little piece of cardboard with the notebook number, its start and end dates, and most important contents. I keep each index card inside its corresponding notebook, either in its own backpocket or an adhesive one I stick there myself.

This way, whenever I want to take a quick look through the book, I get a general idea of its contents at first glance. Sometimes, just holding it in my hand and reading the index card brings me back to the time when I was keeping it, and that time-travel feeling gives me a rush like no other. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm crazy about my notebooks.

2. THE SPREADSHEET

Same as before, just a couple more pieces of info (number of months, physical description) added to a file with the rest of my notebooks' data. Again, these are not real entries for privacy and language reasons, but they're very similar to the kind of stuff I do keep. The spreadsheet helps me find specific entries with a simple ctrl+f, and it's also a bird's-eye view of my progress through the years as a notebook keeper. I can see when my interests shift, how long some of my most important projects took to come to fruition, and even similar types of entries that repeat every few years which I wasn't even aware of before putting it all together. Absolutely fascinating stuff.

I hope this was useful, or interesting at the very least! If you’re a notebook keeper trying to find their own archiving system, my main advice would be to start early so you don’t have to deal with almost two decades of material like I did :’)

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.

Good luck 🖤

[tryslora]

2025 Word Tracking Spreadsheet

For those who have used it before, the 2025 Word Tracking Spreadsheet is now available!

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, the annual word tracking spreadsheet is a robust Excel sheet (it can be used in Google Sheets or other programs that are able to read .xlsx files) which allows you to track your wordcount goals and actual achieved wordcount across several projects. There are graphs, time tracking, and many little bells and whistles.

This is a spreadsheet I created for myself back in 2012 and I’ve been changing it bit by bit as I discover new things I want to track, or ways to motivate myself. I can’t remember exactly when I started sharing it publicly, but I’m happy to share the blank spreadsheet each year.

Both the spreadsheet and an instruction document are available via Google Drive:

2025 Word Tracking Spreadsheet

Word Tracking Spreadsheet Instructions

Fingers crossed that I haven’t missed any bugs this time around! (Long time users know that going into and out of a leap year has traditionally been a time for me to make mistakes as adding/removing a day changes so many formulas!)

Sharing it is a little bittersweet for me this year. I barely used my own; I haven’t even looked to see how many words I officially made as of when I am typing this up. My relationship with writing is a tad bit complicated at the moment, and while I hope to uncomplicate it somewhat by the end of the year, that hasn’t happened yet.

There haven’t been any changes since last year other than the dates. I was playing with some new changes in my own file, but they aren’t ready for prime time, so if I can actually WRITE in 2025, maybe I can get those sorted out (ways to group projects to track them at a higher level, like blogging vs novels vs fics, etc.).

Please feel free to signal boost this post and share the file. If you make changes to the file and share it, please credit mine as the inspiration.

[visionaryparacosmos]

So, I've been working on this spreadsheet since the start of the year, trying to get a wide breadth of troll words in one place, organized by where they're from, i.e. Homestuck, Hiveswap, Friendsim, Paradox Space, etc.

I and some of my friends have found this really useful for roleplay and fanfiction purposes, so I figured I would finally share it publicly. It's still being worked on, but it has over 400 words/phrases organized on it at this point.

Some of the definitions were supplemented by Spiral's Canon Troll Vocabulary Sheet as found on Homestuck.net, which does have some words and phrases I haven't gotten around to adding to my sheet yet. Definitely worth a look if you haven't gotten sick of troll words after looking at my spreadsheet.

[dailypokemoncrochet]

End of January 2025 Update

It's February now! Which means Jan-New-Ary is over and the next art challenge up is Fae-bruary! Potentially that means I'll crochet all fairy types. Woohoo!

The spreadsheet is updated up through January now. I'm at 723 total crocheted, and 19 done this past month! Wow! Started with Brambleghast, ended with Espathra. I think my favorite right now is Chien-Pao. I've been much more consistent with this than I thought I would. I've been operating with the intent of crocheting every day instead of finishing a crochet every day, which is a good way of not pushing myself too hard, and I think it's working for me.

Additionally, I added a page for the monthly art challenges on my website! Currently it has a link to the checklist and a bingo card generator for the 2025 crochet pool (haven't found a clean way to update for the ones I've done so far).

I'm working on taking the pokeamidex photos for the January pokemon, and then I'll add those to the queue which is getting pretty low. Hopefully I'll get into a better groove this upcoming month regarding organizing my stuff and setting up things and whatnot. We'll find out!

[jujuicykaisen]

WHAT THE FU, your profile pic is GLORIOUS! MUAH! So the un reciprocated love HCs are great and they inspired me to ask this. What if Gojo decided to play matchmaker and much to Nanami's chagrin, he actually matched him up with the perfect person?

BEHOLD, Nanami's glorious tatas~

Characters: Kento Nanami

Contents: Gojo fuckery, matchmaking, gn!reader,

Kento Nanami

If you were to suggest to Nanami for him to let Gojo set him up with someone, he would give you a stare that could wither your entire bloodline. (That's his real innate technique.) He wants to marry and settle down one day, but not while working as a jujutsu sorcerer, and he certainly doesn't need matchmaking as another avenue for Gojo to get on his nerves.

To his chagrin, Gojo's attempts to set him up with someone seem to be genuine. Nanami expected to be set up with toothless pensioners, unwashed swamp goblins, or just straight up cursed spirits.

Even when it becomes clear this isn't the case, Nanami resists. He doesn't need Gojo meddling in his life, especially when he isn't ready to enter a relationship at the current time—

Ah.

His resolve lurches and crumbles a bit when Gojo drapes an arm over his shoulder, ignoring Nanami's request for personal space, and flashes a his phone in Nanami's face. There's a picture on the screen, and despite himself, Nanami can't help but give it a certain look.

There you are, smiling out of the screen at him. There's something about you. A certain look in your eye, the way the sunlight hits your face in the picture. It snags on Nanami's heart and won't let him pull away quite that easily. Not without feeling the sting.

What does he do? He pretends to relent so that "Gojo will get off my back". Whether or not Gojo suspects Nanami is actually interested is another matter entirely. Nanami can be pretty hard to read when he wants to be, so he might just have got away with it.

The date is set, the notification is in Nanami's digital calendar. Fate has been set on its course, and there's no going back now.

Nanamin's still going into this date riddled with suspicions. Gojo's the one who set this up, so there's got to be a catch. What if he meets you and you're actually fifty years older than your photo? What if you turn out to be a curse wearing a human skin? What if you have a moral objection to bathing? Despite a composed exterior, Nanami's stomach is tying itself into knots on the inside.

Despite that, he shows up on time, suit and tie, flowers in hand. Even if he suspects it might be a trap, Nanami will not be caught lacking.

His breath catches in his throat a little when you walk into the restaurant—some little Italian place, because he ignored Gojo's suggestion of taking you to laser tag—and you look exactly like you did in your photo. No, better. There's something even more appealing about you in person, with your features animated and lit up as you approach him. He has to restrain himself from reaching out to give a Business Handshake™ because that's what he defaults to when he's nervous.

"It's good to meet you," he says, passing the—tasteful, expensive—flowers into your delighted arms. "I'll admit, I'm surprised you agreed to this, considering who was behind it."

From there, it's an easy step into sharing outrageous Gojo stories, of which you both have plenty. (Somewhere far away, Gojo sneezes.) It's all easy. Almost too easy, though Nanami is slowly letting go of his suspicions on a tide of sparkling conversation, sparkling wine, and thankfully-not-sparkling but still delicious pasta.

You're funny. Gorgeous. Intelligent. Your future goals and values line up nicer than the rows of a well-balanced Excel spreadsheet, and Nanami's both thrilled and a little nervous to realise just how much he likes you.

He really, really likes you, and even as he sets up another date with you, adding you both to the Google Calendar invite, he realises one important thing:

Gojo's never going to shut up about this, is he?

[fernsnailz]

I know this isn't a great topic, but is there a way to verify if the inbox asks for support for gaza are legit and not scams? I'd hate to have money that should go to people that need it go to waste

checking to see if palestinian gofundmes are legit is very easy if you have access to the right resources. a few other people on tumblr have done an incredible job contacting palestinian families and verifying a number of these fundraisers, and i usually cross-reference any gofundme asks i get in my inbox with the resources these other bloggers have provided.

this is usually my process for determining if a fundraiser is legitimate:

check the blog of the person sending the ask. a lot of times these blogs will share who they have been vetted by, updates on their situation, etc. usually legit blogs will share a number of different photos/videos of their family, living situation, and current placement to further prove that their fundraiser is real and their situation is dire. if there's only like one post on their blog with very few photos then that's usually a red flag.

check the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List put together by @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi. this sheet has over 200 fundraisers that have been verified as legitimate. when i receive a fundraiser ask, i usually search the name of their gofundme campaign in this sheet first to see if it's there. you can also search for their name or tumblr username (i use the Ctrl+F search function to make this easier). HOWEVER, i have found that some fundraisers these blogs have previously verified i could not find on this list. which is why step 3 is important:

search the blog's username on tumblr. if it's a scam, sometimes people will post about it to let everyone else know. if it's legitimate, usually you can find posts that @/el-shab-hussein, @/nabulsi, or @/90-ghost have shared and vetted. if i see these blogs sharing a fundraiser, i have good faith to believe it's real.

if i cannot find that a fundraiser has been shared by these blogs or added to this spreadsheet, i do not share it.

it's also important to note that currently @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi have stopped vetting fundraisers for the time being. unfortunately this means that i haven't been able to verify and share what i assume are fundraisers created after they paused their vetting process.

again, i should emphasize that this process is very easy and anyone that knows how to use the tumblr and google doc search functions can do it. please consider donating to the fundraisers these blogs have vetted and shared if you're able - i'll also recommend donating to Watermelon Relief, eSims for Gaza, and UNRWA.

[dnpbeats]

Dan and Phil 2024 Upload Stats: Half a Year in Review

hi everyone! as we are officially halfway through 2024, i thought it would be fun to make a little post about some intersting stats from d&p's uploads this year! especially as things will likely start slowing down (or rather stay slowed down) during the latter part of this year due to the tour! as a reminder, spreadsheet can be found here :)

general stats

there have been 42 uploads so far this year. 13 of those are AP and the other 29 are DAPG, meaning they've uploaded over twice as much on the gaming channel

the average time between uploads across all channels is 3.9 days. looking at the channels individually, the average upload time between AP videos is 11.9 days and for DAPG it's 5.4 days

across both channels, dan and phil have helped edit 81% of the videos. they have only edited one out of the 42 videos on their own, which was on DAPG

100% of AP videos have had spons (capita£ester strikes again) and 79.3% of gaming videos have had spons (looking at both channels together, 85.7% have had spons)

their average upload time is 8:26pm

dan has been in (in some capacity) 46.2% of the AP videos this year

24.1% of the gaming videos have been non-gaming content

phil has been the one to tweet about the gaming videos 86.2% of the time

date/time stats

wednesday is their most popular day to upload, with 11 uploads (the majority of which have been DAPG uploads). sunday and friday are tied for second with 10 uploads each

saturday is the only day that they haven't uploaded on this year (this includes irregular uploads too, like ads and livestreams!)

average upload time for each day of the week:

sponsor stats

nordvpn is their most common sponsor, having sponsored 7 of their videos this year (4 on DAPG, 3 on AP). their second most-common sponsor is dragon city, having sponsored 6 videos (all DAPG)

6 videos have had no sponsors (again, all DAPG)

data for all spons:

editor stats

our queen superseizer had edited/helped edit 12 videos (11 DAPG vids, 1 AP)

seizer has edited 3 vids on her own (3x as many as d&p 🤩)

runtime stats

stats exclude poppy playtime chp. 3 bc it's so long lol

thursday uploads have the longest average runtime at 24:18. friday uploads have the shortest average runtime of 16:56

afk journey is the sponsor with the longest average runtime (29:56). the second-longest average runtime is videos with no sponsors (28:42). the sponsor with the shortest average runtime is headspace (14:54)

seizer on average edits longer videos! the average length of a video she has edited/helped edit is 25:11. for d&p the average length is 20:01

series stats

the sims series has had the most uploads this year, with 7. DvP has had 3 uploads and golf with friends has had 1 upload

on average there are 22 days between sims uploads and 65 days between DvP uploads

seizer is the only one trusted with editing sims vids 🙏🏻

so yeah! there are even more stats in the spreadsheet but i just wanted to include the more intersting stuff here. there's also a calendar if you want to visually see the distribution of days that videos have been uploaded (including irregular uploads!). also there's still the interactive bit where you can calculte the length between two uploads :3

lmk if you have any questions or want to see any other comparisons/charts i don't have!!

[creatorae]

Mob Psycho 100 art for Gaza!

I'm hoping to contribute aid to the current crisis in Gaza, so I will be posting Mob Psycho 100 art for donations to Palestine GoFundMes! Current GoFundMe to Donate to: As of October 16th, 2024, Madleen's family has raised $55,967 out of their $70,000 goal. They are number 3 on the vetted evacuation fundraiser spreadsheet.

The way it works: I will be posting a new artwork every 2 donations or every 10 reblogs of this post, whichever happens first. (I'm hoping for mainly donations, but I wanted to make sure people who couldn't donate can also participate by sharing.) Once one of these conditions has been met, I will upload a new drawing. Finished milestone pieces will be posted in a separate post, and a link to the piece will be provided in a reblog of this post.

(Edit: I'm okay with repeat reblogs between milestones! Anything helps) The Fundraisers: I will select a GoFundMe that hasn't been filled yet to link to this post. I will be choosing fundraisers that are on the fundraiser spreadsheet vetted by Palestinian tumblr users. Once the fundraiser has met its goal, I will select another fundraiser.

The donations: If you are donating, please send a screenshot of the receipt with the date/time through an ask (it can be anonymous if you want).

The Drawings: My art is mainly focused on Mob Psycho 100, but it may be subject to change depending on which drawings are popular and what I decide to draw in the future.

The rules/general post are subject to change in the future, depending on the response to this post (ex: changing milestone conditions, adding extra artwork, opening requests, etc).

Please share and donate!

[into-the-feniverse]

Finished reading Trigun/TriMax a couple days ago and have been feverishly trying to piece together a timeline, so here’s the result of that ✨

EDIT: as of 3/13/24 this has been UPDATED

For a more detailed timeline (with vol/ch marks): google sheet

Full res of the graphic (& other resources): bit.l/trigunresources

Notes & rest of the timeline under the cut!

Edits as of 3/13/24

The detailed spreadsheet is organized and color coded! If you'd like a more concise breakdown of events/see some of my reasoning behind certain time stamps feel free to skim through that

Changed where in the timeline the Maylene and Wolfwood events happened (originally where I had placed them would have made Maylene like 6 when she and Wolfwood reunited which is NOT correct)

moved where in the timeline Knives started collecting the GungHo Guns (at latest he started in 0090 (20 years before 0110) since it's noted that Monev has been training in a cellar for the past 20 years

Moved where Knives initially tracked down Conrad (felt like it needed to happen at least a decade before July)

Changed up some of the months (personally, I don't think the Ark launched in December, since that'd put Milly and Meryl's arrival to the colony in July, which wouldn't make sense. So I placed the ark launch in October which of course offset some of the other month stand ins)

Added an earth year for when Knives and Vash are born. The explanation is I think at minimum there was at least a 2 year period between them and Tesla (since Rem was around for that whole process). I do think it was more than that, but that’s the earliest possible year I think it could have happened. Personally I’m more in the camp of 5-10 years, but def not 50 like in tristamp

Old Notes:

If you see any typos or phrase inconsistencies: no you don’t 💕 (😭)

Blue text can be completely ignored, that’s just kinda my personal preference/wild guesstimating of when “exactly” those events happened

Blue lines can also be ignored, they’re also just rough guesstimates on where exactly in the timeline these could have happened

The distance of the lines from one another doesn’t really mean anything, I started trying to follow a system to notate when things happened really close together but it was//// not consistently done ngl

Fun fact: by the time Wolfwood leaves the orphanage Meryl is 18! And she was 14 at the time of July’s destruction

Additional fun fact: Brad is 17 when he and sensei meet up with Vash in the Factioned city (which I think is absolutely RIDICULOUS), and we know this because he was 4 the one/last time he had met Vash and it’s been 13 years since

It was noted by Karen, one of Meryl’s coworkers, that she and Milly had been on assignment with Vash for about 4 months. (Might be that they were out searching for him during that time as well, but I’m choosing to interpret it as they were actually with him for that amount of time)

I’m also working on a 98 timeline for comparison (but more like just sequence of events cause I don’t think I have the patience to sift through the lore quite as much… mainly making it just to clarify how the anime delineates from the manga)

I am//::: feeling v unhinged after this and feel like it could be improved/i need to do a more thorough read, but I’m calling it quits for now before I actually go insane (but hopefully some people will find it somewhat helpful!)

Also: if anybody has any notes to add or clarifications/corrections I would be more than happy to hear them 👂

[dribs-and-drabbles]

The Thai Communal Wardrobe 2024 Round-up, Stats, and Awards

Last year, I wrote about the most memorable items of clothing in bl series (to me) for my yearly wrap-up. This year, I'm drawing on stats from the communal wardrobe spreadsheet to dole out awards.

As of Dec 31st 2024, there are 260 items of clothing on the Thai Communal Wardrobe (individual items of clothing which have been worn in two or more different Thai series) - that I have found.

In 2024, 71 new items were added to the communal wardrobe list - meaning they were worn for the first time in a series which finished airing in 2024 and then were subsequently worn again in another series. (This number is going to increase because of the items of clothing worn in Only Boo that I already know will get worn in ThamePo). 62 of them were in two series, 5 were in three series, 2 were in four series, and another 2 were in four series but with two or three colour variations in one of them making five appearances in total.

Now on to the stats and awards!

The First Past The Post Award

The date of the first appearance in 2024 of an item of shared clothing previously worn in other series was Jan 5th, with two items - one in ep 10 of Twins and another in ep 9 of Last Twilight.

The green and grey shirt in Twins was first used in Middleman's Love in 2023, then went on to be worn in Hidden Moon, Peaceful Property, and Love Sick 2024. The L.A Core t-shirt in Last Twilight was first used in Only Friends in 2023, and then went on to be worn in 23.5 and Peaceful Property.

The Most Popular Date Award

There are four joint winners for this category - each having 7 items of clothing (whether new or reappearing): Jan 5th (with one in ep 10 of Twins and six in ep 9 of Last Twilight), Jan 26th (all seven in ep 12 of Last Twilight), Jul 4th (all seven in ep 7 of Knock Knock Boys!), and Sept 8th (all seven in ep 11 of The Trainee).

The Newcomers Award

The series which introduced the most new items of shared clothing that went on to be worn in other series was Last Twilight with 22 items (with Cooking Crush a close second with 20).

In this example, both Mhok and Day's shirts went on to be worn by Uncle Somkid in Peaceful Property, and Mhok's shirt might also get worn in My Golden Blood.

The Only Friends Environmental Sustainability Award

In 2023, Only Friends used 71 items of shared clothing - 28 of which had already been worn in another series and 43 which were new and went on to be worn in more series. (This is the highest number of shared clothing used in one series and I don't think any other series will come close - the next is currently Last Twilight with 49).

In 2024 Peaceful Property re-used the most items of clothing which had been previously worn in other series -> 34 (with 16 from Only Friends and 15 from Last Twilight, amongst other shows). This series has yet to spawn any new items of shared clothing.

In this example, the Dudes shirt was previously worn in Only Friends and Be My Favourite.

The Overachiever Award

Last Twilight also had the most items of shared clothing overall (both new which then got worn in future shows and ones which had already been worn in other shows) with 49.

The Blink and You'll Miss It Award

The shortest time in 2024 between the same item appearing in a different series was one day - this black and white striped shirt worn on Jul 6th in ep 10 of Wandee Goodday and on Jul 7th in ep 5 of Love Sea.

A special mention to this jacket below which was worn in ep 8 of Wandee Goodday and ep 2 of Sunset x Vibes on the same day - Jun 22nd - and which would have won had they been the same colour.

The Good Things Come to Those Who Wait Award

The longest time in 2024 between the same item appearing in a different series was 9 months and 8 days - this white polo shirt with brown collar worn on Jan 5th in ep 9 of Last Twilight and on Nov 13th in ep 12 of Peaceful Property.

The Surprise Mutherfucker! Award

The longest time since the previous appearance of an item worn in 2024 was 2 years, 7 months, and 27 days - this Santa of Attention t-shirt first worn on Dec 12 2021 in ep 1 of Not Me and then not again until Aug 8th 2024 in ep 3 of Monster Next Door.

The Miss Popularity Award

The item of clothing new to the communal wardrobe list in 2024 which was re-worn the most times was this brown t-shirt with double blue stripes worn on May 12th in ep 6 of Only Boo!, Jun 6th in ep 3 of Knock Knock Boys!, July 14th in ep 3 of The Trainee, and Aug 8th in ep 1 of Monster Next Door. (There's something very satisfying about them being consecutive months).

Runners up include the following 3 items but since they have colour variations and the above doesn't, they lost the top spot. Incidentally, I think the one on the left that Peat and Book are wearing will be worn in Jack & Joker special ep...but we'll see in Feb!

The We Bought This on Wholesale Award

The item of clothing already on the communal wardrobe list which had the most reappearances in 2024 was this striped cardigan with white collar in three different colours worn on Jan 20th in ep 6 of Cherry Magic Thailand, Feb 22nd in ep 5 of The Outing, Apr 8th in ep 8 of To Be Continued, May 18th in ep 3 of Wandee Goodday, Jul 26th in ep 3 of This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans, Sept 8th in ep 11 of The Trainee, and Oct 7th in ep 10 of Summer Night. (Previously worn in Bed Friend, Step By Step, Only Friends, and My Dear Gangster Oppa between Apr and Nov 2023 and might get worn again in a few series I have my eye on).

Runners up include item #8 (with 6 appearances) and item #13 (with 5 appearances).

The One Size Fits All Award

The actor who wore the most items on the communal wardrobe in 2024 was Sea Tawinan who wore 31 in total as both Day in Last Twilight and Tae in The Trainee.

In these examples, Day's red and white striped top was worn (two days!) after in Cooking Crush, whilst Tae's Feel The Fear sweatshirt was previously worn (two months earlier) in Wandee Goodday.

Incidentally, Sea has also worn the most items on the communal wardrobe of all time - with 43, as Talay in Vice Versa as well as Day, and Tae.

The Better Late than Never Award

The date of the last appearance in 2024 of an item of shared clothing previously worn in other series was Dec 29th - and just like the first appearance there were 2 items, both in ep 10 of Perfect 10 Liners.

The Don Juan Pond Salinity Award

From BTS media, I felt I had been promised the More Than Friends Less Than Lovers t-shirt in Wandee Goodday - which would have been the perfect series for it - and I spent three months eagerly anticipating its appearance...which ended up not happening. It was also worn platonically in Peaceful Property, which we all ignored because the show is a BL in our hearts and minds if not in explicit actuality.

The What in the Baseball Mom is this?! Award

Originally worn by Book as Mew in Only Friends, the Friends Don't Let Friends Go. to Stanfurd t-shirt was so odd that I thought it would be left in the Crazy Singles drawer along with Baseball Mom and Fart Proudly. I was amazed, therefore, to see it again in Jul in ep 15 of We Are...then a month later in ep 9 of Century of Love...and after another month in ep 5 of Summer Night. But that was nothing compared to my shock at seeing it on Book once again in Dec in ep 10 of Perfect 10 Liners. (I predict it will get worn again).

So there we have it! Or...I'm getting close to my image limit for this post (*shakes fist at tumblr*) so I'll leave you with this yin and yang pairing of opposite sentiments (these two are not on the communal wardrobe...yet), also because this post is severely lacking in the ladies.

Take whichever one you need into the new year!

fear not... or ahhh!

[breachverse]

Breach: Chicago War Zone - WIP Update 18 - 26th of August 2023

... This one's actually been brewing for 6 months, so... 1 Million Words folks!

Update 21 has been released! Last public upload was pretty much a year ago so, I'm very sorry for the long silence, a lot of the updates have been mostly in the private testing phase on Patreon, but I am here with a bunch of fixes and hangout updates.

But most importantly... We've passed the 1 Million Words mark... My fingers are tired. ❤

You may play it on the link below.

Breach: Chicago War Zone (Updated)

DEVELOPMENT LOG#21 (15-April-2024)

(B2.1.1.24.4.15)

Alpha - 21

Fixed something here, fixed something there, fixed something everywhere

SideModule: Fixed Justin's hangout background

SideModule: Fixed Hayne's hangout background

SideModule: Added Anna's 1st hangout

SideModule: Added Charlie's 1st hangout

SideModule: Added Kaz's 1st hangout

SideModule: Added Carly's 1st hangout

Stats_Page: Added Archangel crew background notes

UniModule: Added 7 new weapons to the shop

MISC: Added AA-12

MISC: Added FAMAS G2

MISC: Added HK G36C

MISC: Added SIG MPX

MISC: Added PP-19 Vityaz

MISC: Added Ultimax 100

MISC: Added SR-25

COMPLETED: Chapter 3 Part 1 of The ARC branch (100%) (PT only) W.I.P.: AA Hangout Part 1 (86%) W.I.P.: AA Store system (85%) W.I.P.: FBI Hangout Part 1 (46%) W.I.P.: FBI Store system (65%) W.I.P.: Stat screen upgrade (40%) Word Count: 1,007,622 words including codes (Last update was 971,142)

I'll be completely honest, when I started Breach 2 I knew it was going to surpass 1 million words. I just didn't think it would take this long. Through numerous challenges, both in writing and in real life. Through numerous ups and downs, I'm absolutely surprised and grateful to know that there are people out there who still support me. I've had many thoughts, numerous times, to give up and move on to other things in life, but I didn't want to disappoint, so I kept writing.

I bring to you, the 1 million milestone update. It's really not much, but it is one step closer to completion. This update has been in the works for the past 6 months mostly due to the weapons rework and also story changes for the crew members that I apparently couldn't keep track of without a giant excel spreadsheet. This update finalizes the Archangel's Gamma Crew hangouts, which is Kaz and Carly's hangout as well as Anna and Charlie's hangout.

As before, they share the same storyline so they will both share the same hangout. If you choose to go out with one, you cannot go out with the other. Kaz shares it with Carly, and Anna shares it with Charlie. Keep that in mind. Oh, and there's 7 new guns to play with. Have fun, Ian.

This update does not include the new Chapters. Chapter 3 will still be Patreon exclusive until Breach 2 finishes and I can send the demo to the public testing, and to CoG for the full release.

I really cannot reiterate how grateful I am to have an amazing array of readers and supporters who are still here after numerous hiccups and fuck ups. Thank you all, so very much.

Much, much love. - Max ❤

Link to the CoG Forums

I also have a Discord server!

As always feel free to drop however many screenshot feedbacks you'd like, either in the forums or in our Discord channel!

[pulisicsgirl]

silence is deafening - mason mount

summary: after a fight with Mason digs up memories she'd rather forget, Y/N is left to deal with trauma from her past and decide if she will let Mason in

pairing: Mason Mount x reader

word count: 5.1k

warnings/tags: angst, hurt/comfort, couple fight, !! in-depth description of childhood trauma !!, lack of communication, supportive Mase, everything will eventually be okay-- you all know I can't write a sad ending, not proofread (I'm so sorry)

requested: yes!! here

notes: back with another request!!! This one has been sitting in my inbox for a LONG time!! I've had the draft halfway written for SO long, but couldn't decide how to finish it until I was struck with a bit of inspiration earlier this week! I hope you all enjoy it!!

You rested your elbow on the counter, forehead placed in the palm of your hand as you used the other to scroll and click through the numerous emails in your inbox. You had a big deadline coming up for your work, and it seemed that the brunt of the responsibility for it had fallen unexpectedly on your shoulders. As a result, your coworkers were coming to you with all of their questions, new emails popping up in your inbox every hour. So here you were, sitting at the bar in the kitchen, legs tucked under you as you continued to work even after arriving at home from a full day’s work.

Your boss had been on your case for a few weeks now for a reason unknown to you, which put you on edge each day that you went into work, nervous to step a toe out of line and be reprimanded, or worse, fired. You feared that this project could be the breaking point if it didn’t work out, which only added to your nervousness. You had never let a project like this fall apart before, but the anxious thoughts swirling around your mind convinced you that this would be the day that you failed.

You were just closing the browser to open a spreadsheet when you heard the sound of the front door opening and closing. You vaguely heard Mason call out into the house and the sound of his keys dropping into the bowl by the front door, too focused on your work to comprehend what he had actually said.

The nerves seemed to have settled in your chest like a heavy weight, pressing onto your diaphragm as your eyes flicked between the seemingly endless list of numbers and data on your screen. Your head was beginning to ache, and you imagined that this is what drowning would feel like.

You were pulled from your thoughts as two hands slipped around your waist as Mason pulled you tightly into his chest.

“How’s my baby?” Mason mumbled into your neck, pressing kisses to the skin there, and as much as you usually enjoyed being greeted this way, you were feeling overwhelmed by the sudden contact.

“ ’m okay,” you mumbled in reply, wiggling a bit to try to pull from his grasp, but Mason didn’t get the message, keeping your back pressed to his firm chest, continuing to place kisses on your neck and shoulders, his beard tickling your skin. “Mase, please…”

“What are you working on, sweetheart?” he mumbled softly, pressing his nose into your cheek.

“It’s just a thing for work. The deadline’s actually coming up pretty soon.” You tried prying his hands from your waist, beginning to feel suffocated, but Mason didn’t seem to notice. If he did, he ignored it. “So I really need to work on—”

“Come on, just give me five minutes,” he spun your chair toward him so he could see your face. Placing his hands on your cheeks, he began peppering kiss all over—your forehead, nose, cheeks, chin. “Haven’t seen you all day. I just wanna –”

“Mason please!” Something in you snapped and you pushed his hands away from you. “Why can’t you just leave me alone for two seconds! I’m trying to work! Can’t you see that?”

Mason stumbled back a couple of steps, caught off guard by your outburst. You never called him by his full name, and you certainly never shouted at him. A look of hurt washed over his face, the grin that had previously played on his lips falling into a frown, eyebrows drawn together, and you instantly regretted your words. You didn’t mean them, but you were overwhelmed and simply lost your cool.

“Mase, I’m sorry, I-“ You rose from your chair quickly to apologize to him, reaching a hand out toward him, but he was already halfway out of the kitchen by the time you could move in his direction. Your heart sank in your chest as you watched him round the corner, heading down the hallway.

You dropped yourself back into the chair, resting your head in your hands as your eyes began to sting with tears. If you thought you had felt miserable before, you had surely made it worse now. You cursed yourself for letting your stress get the better of you and letting your job come between you and Mason. The despair that you felt sat on your ribcage like a weight as a few tears slipped down your cheeks.

You decided maybe it was best to give Mason a bit of space before you tried to apologize. You knew you had hurt his feelings. He often expressed to you that he feared being too clingy or smothering the other person in his relationships, but you had always reassured him that you loved it, finding solace in his presence and his touch. Until today, when you had snapped at him for doing the very thing you told him brought you peace.

It truly wasn’t that you didn’t want him to touch you. In fact, in this moment, there was nothing you wanted more. You were feeling overwhelmed and had failed to communicate that.

With slightly puffy eyes you wiped the tear streaks from your cheeks, pulling your computer in front of you, determined to finish the work you had laid out for you so that you could spend the rest of your evening making it up to Mason. That proved difficult, though, with anxious thoughts about your relationship swirling around your head, now contributing to the anxiety you felt over your job.

You felt things getting progressively worse—your heart speeding up, the shaking in your hands getting more intense, and you were having trouble concentrating at all.

After about a half an hour, you heard Mason’s soft footsteps as his sock-clad feet padded down the hallway. Your heart skipped a beat, trying to quickly collect your thoughts so you could articulate to him just how sorry you were for what you had said and how you had acted.

But as Mason turned the corner into the kitchen, it was clear he hadn’t come to talk to you, not even sparing you a glance as he walked over to the fridge. Your voice caught on the lump in your throat, surprised by his cold demeanor.

“M-Mase?”

Your call to him was left unanswered as opened the refrigerator door, bending down to grab a bottle of water from the shelf. He uncapped the bottle, taking a drink from it as he walked back out of the room without a word.

Your lower lip wobbled, and you felt the tears welling up in your eyes. You closed your computer, knowing that you were going to get nothing more done, dropping your head to rest on your forearms on the countertop. You tried to muffle the sobs that shook your body, not wanting to guilt Mason into comforting you. You got yourself into this situation and would have to figure out how to deal with it.

It took another half hour for you to calm yourself, your crying finally ceasing. You took a few minutes, trying to make it appear as though you hadn’t spent the last 30 minutes crying in the kitchen before you decided to “pull up your big girl pants” and go find Mason.

You walked slowly and reluctantly down the hallway, first checking in your shared bedroom and finding both it and the ensuite bathroom empty. As you walked back into the hallway, you heard a noise coming from Mason’s gaming room and decided that must be where you’d find him.

You knocked softly on the door to alert him to your presence before you pushed the door open slowly. Mason was facing to your left, looking at the TV where he was playing FIFA, and only the side of his face was visible to you. Once again, he didn’t look toward you, focusing on his game without so much as a glance in your direction.

You took a couple of steps toward him, playing with your fingers in front of you as you moved to a position where you knew he could at least see you out of the corner of his eye.

“M-Mase? Can w-we talk?” Your voice was shaky as you spoke, but you took a deep breath, determined not to cry again. “Please?”

You waited, but there was no response. The clear shakiness of your voice earned a brief glance in your direction, but nothing more.

“Mason?”

Nothing.

All at once, a wave of emotions and painful memories hit you, the silent treatment from Mason taking you back to a time in your life that you had resolved to leave in your past.

Before you could stop it, a sob left your lips, and you clasped a hand over your mouth to silence it, rushing out of the room. You closed the door a little more harshly than you had intended to, soft cries leaving your lips as you raced down the hallway to find somewhere—anywhere—where you could get some fresh air and breathe for a moment.

Before you could even think, you had rushed to the front door, slipping on the trainers you had left there and grabbing your keys. You were out the door quickly, fighting back tears as you turned the keys in the ignition. You weren’t sure where you were even going to go, you just needed to find somewhere to be alone.

*

Almost as soon as you had left him alone in his gaming room, Mason knew something was really off. The two of you had fought before, but you had never reacted to it the way you had when you ran out of the room.

He had resolved to give you the cold shoulder, feeling hurt by the way you had pushed him away so harshly. But his concern for you outweighed his need to get you to apologize. He hadn’t been able to keep himself from glancing in your direction when your voice shook as you spoke. You had never sounded so afraid to address him, and that simple fact was eating away at him. He had soon after turned off the console, wandering out of his gaming room in search of you.

The house was eerily quiet as he moved through the hallway, checking in each room that he passed to see if you were there. When he entered the kitchen, noticing your computer lying closed on the countertop, he furrowed his brows. After not finding you anywhere else in the house, he had been sure you would be back in the kitchen, working on whatever it was that had you so stressed out.

Your shoes and keys missing from the walkway told him you had left, and he felt his heart sink a little. He had been hoping to find you and work this out quickly, hating the way he felt when there was distance between the two of you.

After debating whether to text or call to check on you, Mason settled on a quick text, afraid of suffocating you further. He wandered into the kitchen, aimlessly rummaging through the fridge and the cabinets as he waited for you to reply. He was restless, checking the screen of his phone every few seconds to see if a text from you had popped up, but nothing came through.

It wasn’t long before he threw caution to the wind, dialing your number without caring if you would be frustrated with him. The nerves caused by your brief argument and not knowing where you were was causing his worry to spike and he couldn’t keep himself from calling.

The line rang for several long moments before the automated voice began telling him you were unavailable.

He hung up, blowing air out in frustration and tossing his phone onto the counter before he plopped down in one of the chairs at the countertop. For a few moments, he just stared at the chair you had been sitting in when he had first arrived home—the place you had been sitting when you’d shouted at him.

His heart clenched in his chest at the recent memory. You had never reacted that way to him before, and it bothered him more than he cared to admit. The negative thoughts began to swirl in his mind, feeling like a cloud of despair.

 He felt small. He felt like he was overbearing. He worried that you had grown sick of him and simply didn’t want him around anymore.

As tears sprung to his eyes, Mason’s level-headed side began to prevail.

Yes, you had never reacted that way to him before, so that had to mean that something had triggered it.

Everything had been fine when he’d cuddled up to you in bed that morning, and he was equally as touchy and clingy as the two of you had gotten ready for the day, so something had to have changed between then and when he got home.

As he wracked his brain to remember what you had been saying before you’d snapped at him, he realized he couldn’t really recall what you’d told him. He hadn’t really been paying attention, he realized.

He dropped his head into his hands, elbows resting on the countertop, as the shame washed over him. Perhaps this all could’ve been avoided if he’s just paid attention to what you had been trying to tell him.

With another sigh, Mason picked his phone up from where he had tossed it on the counter, dialing your number again.

And again, he was met with no response.

*

You hadn’t actually gone far on your drive, only making it about 10 minutes before you pulled off into a mostly empty parking lot, parked at the back where it was the most deserted, and broke down into sobs.

You felt silly for crying so much about receiving the cold shoulder from your boyfriend, but it had brought up so many memories and feelings you had done your best to repress.

The environment you had grown up in was… less than inviting. In your house, children were treated as more of a nuisance than a blessing. You were made to feel that unless you were bringing some sort of value to others, you didn’t deserve anything. Love was something that had to be earned, not something unconditional that was shared between a parent and child.

Silent treatment was something that your mother had often used to signal that she was upset with you. From a very young age, longer than you can remember, when she would begin to ignore you when you spoke to her or tugged at the hem of her shirt to get her attention, it meant you had to scramble to find a way to earn her love.

So, seeing Mason doing the very same had taken you right back to that time. You had once again felt like a young child, scrambling to prove that you deserved the love of another.

Of course, you realized that there was no way for Mason to know this would have bothered you the way it did. He knew that your relationship with your parents was now non-existent because of the circumstances of your upbringing, but he didn’t know the full extent of what they had put you through. You hadn’t gathered the strength to tell him all of those details yet.

So you had done the only thing you could think of to do in that moment, and you ran away—something you most certainly regretted now. But you didn’t want Mason to feel guilty for making you cry when you knew you had been in the wrong, so you sat in that empty parking lot for as long as it took you to calm yourself down.

You allowed yourself to sit there and feel miserable on your own for a while, but you knew you’d have to go back to face Mason soon. You knew he was probably worried, but you had turned your phone off after his first call came through. You felt even more guilty as a result, but you had been unable to deal with reassuring him of your safety at that moment.

It was dark outside by the time you walked back in the front door, closing it behind you quietly. You slipped your shoes off, placed your keys in the bowl, and hesitated a moment in the entry.

The soft jingle of your keys had alerted Mason to your presence, and he practically jumped up from his seat at the counter where he had remained the entire time, feeling miserable as he tried to call you nearly every 30 minutes.

Mere seconds passed before Mason darted quickly around the corner to find you standing there, still about 10 feet away from him.

His stomach sank to his feet at the sight of your red-rimmed eyes and puffy cheeks. It was clear you had spent the entire time you were gone crying.

At the sight of him standing carefully at a distance, the feeling of guilt overwhelmed you, and tears sprung to your eyes.

“M-Mase, I’m so sorry, I-“ you stumbled over your words, the first tears spilling down your cheeks. “I shouldn’t have-“

“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” Mason was standing in front of you in an instant, cradling your face with his hands. His thumbs swiped over your cheeks, wiping away the tears that had fallen. “It’s okay, don’t worry. You-“

“No,” you asserted, shaking your head as you held onto his forearms to steady yourself. “No, it’s not okay, please let me apologize.”

Mason’s heart squeezed as you gazed up at him with wide eyes, and he could tell you were trying to stop your lower lip from quivering, but to no avail.

You took a deep breath, in through your nose and blowing the air out slowly through your mouth to try to gather yourself, wanting to be sure that you remembered every part of the apology that you had mentally composed on your way home.

“Mase, I’m so sorry for snapping at you,” you looked up at his face as you spoke, watching as he drew his brows together with a sad expression on his face. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you the way I did, and I shouldn’t have shouted. Work has been awful these last couple of weeks, and my boss has been giving me absolute hell. I think it all just built up.”

Mason nodded at you, and you could tell from his soft expression that he understood what you were saying.

You continued, “It’s not an excuse, I just want you to know that it wasn’t you that was bothering me. I just unfairly took my bad day out on you. I don’t feel like you’re too much—ever—I just… I needed a bit of space, and I should’ve just told you that.”

You could see his face physically relax as the relief washed over him, and you felt even more guilty knowing he had been sitting with those thoughts of self-doubt ever since you had left.

“I’m really sorry,” you finished with a whisper as Mason brushed his thumb softly over your bottom lip.

Without warning, Mason pulled you into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around your shoulders, making you feel completely enveloped by him—and the feeling was the greatest relief you could ever remember feeling. He buried his face in your neck, and you could feel a couple of warm tears against your skin.

The two of you stood there in the entryway, clinging onto each other like you’d vanish into thin air if you let go. Mason’s hot breath fanned against your neck, and you closed your eyes, drinking in the feeling of being so close to him.

“Thank you,” Mason whispered after a few moments. “Thank you for talking to me.”

You squeezed him in response.

“And I’m sorry for being so childish,” he pulled his face back, still holding you in his arms. “I shouldn’t have just ignored you like that. I should have told you how I was feeling, too.”

You brought your hand up to cradle his cheek, pressing a smile to your lips despite the your eyes still being wet with tears.

“It’s okay, Mase, you couldn’t…” you hesitated for a moment, struggling with the idea of opening that part of yourself up to him. But you knew it was a conversation that was well overdue, so you pushed out of your comfort zone. “You couldn’t have known that it would bother me so much.”

Mason remain quiet, turning his head to place a gentle kiss on the skin of your palm, sensing that you had more to say.

You swallowed the lump in your throat. “Um… so y-you know that my relationship with my parents really fell apart after I was able to move out, and… um…”

You hesitated, feeling frustrated with yourself for struggling to open yourself up. Here Mason stood—the perfect boyfriend, really. He had never judged you for any of your struggles or for anything from your past. He had been nothing but supportive and compassionate since you had first met him. Despite all of this, those nagging thoughts that you weren’t deserving of it all would persist no matter how hard you tried to push them away.

As Mason realized that this was becoming a conversation that would likely require a lot of time, he pulled away from you slightly, taking both of your hands in his as he led you to the living room. He sat down on the couch, opening his arms up to you so you could sit however you felt most comfortable, wanting to put your troubled mind at ease however he could.

Feeling a desperate need to remain close to him, you wound up placing yourself on Mason’s lap, facing him with your knees settled on either side of his hips. Your arm naturally found their place wrapped loosely around his neck, and he placed his hands on your hips, alternating between brushing his thumbs against your waist and rubbing his hands over your thighs.

You took a minute to compose yourself again, staring at the front of Mason’s t-shirt as you didn’t feel confident enough to look him in the eye. Mason remained quiet, continuing his gentle pattern over your legs as he allowed you to have that moment. He could tell that there was a lot weighing on you, even beyond the stress that your job had been causing you.

When you were able to gather your thoughts, you began speaking softly, and you told Mason everything.

You told him about your childhood and the nature of the relationships you’d had with your parents. You told him about the sudden changes in your mother’s disposition and how she would be happy one moment and hateful toward you the next. You explained your long history with the “silent treatment” and how you now realized that was a trigger for you. You were honest with him about the uncertainty that you felt about yourself and about your relationships as a result of this kind of upbringing.

“My mother, she… actually reached out to me last week,” you mumbled. By the time you had finished recounting your life story to Mason, you had cast your eyes down to your lap where you were playing with your fingers, unable to bring yourself to look at his face. “It’s the first time she’s done that since I left home years ago. I don’t really feel like I’m ready to reply to her yet, but I think it’s just dug up a lot of feeling and memories that I tried to bury for so long.”

Mason’s silence as you stopped speaking only made you more nervous. Hesitantly, you looked up to his face, but the pity you expected to find in his eyes was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, Mason had a look of pure admiration in his eyes.

“Please say something, Mase.”

He brought his hand up to your cheek, brushing your skin gently as he gave you a tearful smile.

“You’re so incredibly strong, Y/N.”

His reply took you by surprise, as, for seemingly the hundredth time that night, tears spring to your eyes.

“Really?” your voice shook as you spoke.

He nodded. “You went through all of that, and you’re still the kindest soul I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing.”

You couldn’t stop the sob that left your lips as you fell forward into Mason, tucking yourself into his chest. His arms immediately were wrapped around your body, your shoulders shaking as you cried into his neck.

You weren’t sure how long the two of you sat there. Your cries eventually diminished into soft sniffles as you remained with your face tucked into Mason’s neck. He slowly trailed his fingers over your back, rubbing soothing shapes and patterns, and after all of the crying and how emotionally drained you felt after reliving the trauma of your past, you felt like you could fall asleep right there.

When you had finally settled a bit more, Mason enveloped you in his arms again, squeezing you gently as he pressed a kiss into your hair.

“Thank you, Y/N,” his voice was no higher than a whisper. “Thank you for telling me all of that.”

Lacking the energy to reply in that moment, you shifted slightly so that you could place a kiss on his collarbone in a silent thanks for listening and understanding you on a level that no one else ever had.

You sat there for a while, allowing yourself to just relax into your boyfriend’s body as he held you. As you rested there, you knew that there was nowhere else in the world that you’d rather be.

Feeling your muscles soften and noticing that your eyes had slipped closed, Mason knew you would soon fall asleep and decided that the two of you should go on up to bed.

He shifted you off of his lap gently, trying to disturb your peace as little as possible. He stood, bending over to pick you up from the couch, and carried you bridal style toward the stairs and up into your shared bedroom.

He took you into the ensuite bathroom and placed you gently on the counter. After grabbing the skincare products he had observed you using over the many nights that you had spent together, he set out, following your nighttime regimen as closely as he could remember. He took a couple of cotton pads, dampening them with your cleanser and swiping them over your cheeks, forehead, and nose. He pumped a bit of the moisturizer on his fingers and gently rubbed it into your skin. Your eyes slipped closed, and his soft touch nearly lulled you back to sleep, sitting there on the countertop.

Mason only left you alone for a moment as you brushed your teeth and he wandered into the bedroom. You could hear him moving around but didn’t have the energy to find out what he was doing. Just as you had finished rinsing out your mouth in the sink, he reappeared behind you, having changed into a loose pair of joggers and discarding his shirt, sliding his arms around your waist as you stood up straight.

You relaxed back into Mason’s touch, pressing your back into his bare chest and letting your head fall back onto his shoulder.

For a moment you stood there, drinking each other in. Mason swayed you gently back and forth as he pressed his cheek to the side of your head, his body radiating warmth from behind you. With your eyes closed, you focused on the feeling of him pressed up against you, arms holding you securely as the gentle pace of his swaying calmed the remainder of the racing thoughts in your mind.

Even with your eyes closed, you could feel the tears springing to them as you thought of how thankful you were to have Mason in your life—how thankful you were that he was your person. You had always known that he was someone special, even from the first moment that you met him. But now, having explained to him the entirety of your childhood and all of the difficulties that came with it, you just felt that much close to him and that much more appreciative if who Mason was.

Kind, forgiving, understanding, gentle—you could have gone on for the rest of the night listing all of the characteristics that made Mason the most perfect man you’d even known.

You twisted in Mason’s hold, tucking your face into his neck so he wouldn’t see the tears spilling over once again. You folded your arms between your bodies as he held you close, allowing him to completely envelop you in his hold.

After another moment, Mason placed a gentle kiss to your temple. “Come on, love. Let’s get to bed.”

You nodded, shivering from the cold as he unwrapped his arms from you.

You followed him back into the bedroom, noticing that the sheets had been pulled back, the pillows arranged just how you liked them, and the shirt that Mason had previously been wearing just before was folded on your side of the bed. Your heart warmed at the small acts of service Mason had done for you.

After you’d undressed yourself, slipping Mason’s t-shirt over your head, you crawled into the bed and placed yourself right next to Mason, who was now clad in only his boxers. He pulled the sheets and the duvet up, tucking them over your bodies before he lay down and pulled you into his arms.

With Mason’s arm wrapped around your body, you lay with your head on his bare chest, listening to the soft and steady beating of his heart. It only took a few seconds of you laying there before Mason had slipped his hand under the hem of your shirt, trailing his fingers over your back and reveling in the feel of  your skin against his. Your legs were tangled under the sheets as the two of you lay in silence, content to be completely wrapped up in one another.

The silence was only broken as you whispered into the night air a few moments later. “Thank you, Mase. For everything.” You pressed a gentle kiss to his chest.

“Anything for you, my love,” he replied softly, squeezing your shoulders. “Anything at all.”

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