#which packs up 96...

[skyriderwednesday]

See I had put Wisteria Lodge in March of 1895, but the problem of that is, based on Watson's description of the previous year, Holmes wouldn't have time to get bored--

Obviously Holmes is able to get bored within five minutes of finishing a case, but even if he's being dramatic (which of course he is, this is Holmes we're talking about) it really seems as if he's talking about a drought of cases, which is the complete opposite of 1894.

I honestly don't think he has time free to get bored in March until 1898 at least???

So Wisteria Lodge is pulled out of the list to float impossibly once more...

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

reopening the ask box is like... just finishing vacuuming shed cat hair, and then immediately going and petting said cat vigorously & watching with delight as So Much Fur sheds right back onto the floor

[juniperdugong]

Relationship Quirks 96s ver.

Aka habits I can see the boys doing in a relationship || 95s || 96s || 97s || Maknae line ||

Junhui

Avoids foods you don't like or are allergic to

You thought it was weird when after you had mentioned that you were allergic or didn't like a certain food that you would never encounter it when you were with Jun. Of course, you would always avoid it but you knew Jun to not be that picky, in fact, he's quite an adventurous eater. So it just struck you as odd.

That is until you overhear him on the phone with the restaurant you guys were having a date at later tonight asking about the ingredients used in certain dishes and if {insert food here} was used. When you talk to him about this he casually says that he just wants to make sure that you eat well and like what you eat. (THE SWEETEST BOY IN THE WORLD)

Little do you know that he's started to exclude those foods from his diet as well, especially if it's an allergy you have. If it's a food you don't like then he doesn't want you to avoid kissing him if he's eaten it. BUT IF IT'S AN ALLERGY, red alert red alert, he thinks you'll go into anaphylactic shock if he eats something you're allergic to and then he touches/kisses you.

If you're not by his side when he's making decisions then it feels like the balance of the universe is off. Could be halfway across the world from each other and dude is calling you at 3am to ask which magnet he should bring home as a souvenir.

Hoshi

Needs your input on almost every decision he makes

Ooh it's bad, like looking at your parents when the doctor asks what your age is type of bad. He will know exactly what he wants at a restaurant but as soon as the waiter comes he's looking at you like a sheep and you have to mouth what he said he wanted seconds ago as he repeats you blindly. Almost all his decisions must have you're input or else he doesn't know what to do. This might be annoying to some but he values what you have to say so much. And honestly, if you disagree with something he takes it into genuine consideration and thinks about it a lot before making the final call.

His mindset can be summed up like this, "If y/n doesn't think I'll like that pasta then I probably won't like it, they know me very well."

Dude is clingy but not in a physical way... just in the way that he follows you around like a cat that wants your attention but can't say it. He does it unconsciously and to be honest it takes a mutual friend or one of the boys to point it out for either of y'all to notice. Truly it feels like he has to stay within a 30ft. radius of you sometimes.

Wonwoo

Follows you everywhere

The reason this behavior even started was because he missed you so much after tours and arduous schedules that he just HAD to be near you but he never wanted to initiate physical contact. (Being near you is enough for him) It's gotten to the point though that he ASSUMES you're taking him everywhere with you. You're upset and need "space"? Good luck! You'll be in another room for max 5mins before he's in there sitting the farthest possible distance he can while keeping you in sight.

"I can't do this right now, Wonwoo." "Fine then." "I'm going to my mom's place for a while." *Magically has both your suitcases and bags packed* "When are we leaving?"

I know I know... it's unexpected but true! The thing that I don't think a ton of carats realize is that this man does not fear affection AT ALL. He just doesn't like it in public displays. So in the privacy of his studio or at either of your homes, he is clingy, 100%.

Woozi

Needs to feel your touch

Has a computer chair that is specifically for you to be next to him while he's in the studio. If you're in the same room as him or HELL even the same building and there are no cameras or minimal people and you're not next to him then what even is the point? Might as well tell him you hate him or something, at least that's how he treats it.

The crazy part is that he doesn't even ask you for affection! He'll just say things out loud and expect you to get the message or he'll say things directly towards you but won't look in your direction. His number one phrase is, "I miss you..." all while you're feet away from him on the couch in the studio. You can be sitting in your designated chair BUT YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR LEGS DRAPED OVER HIS???? Suddenly, you hear a constant loop of "Damn, I miss my partner sooooo much, right now.", like sir? They're right there?

A/N: I am clinically insane over the 96 line. ALSO EVERYONE SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WONWOO!!!! (Even though it's literally 10pm and his day is nearly over) I'll try to have the next 2 parts out sometime tmrw. Stay sweet lovelies!! Reblogs and comments are like power surges for my writing so they are much appreciated!

TAGLIST (open): @bemybabiibish

[lyssasdrafts]

★ 𓈒 ݁ STAR—CROSSED (rhysand x reader) ⊹

chapter one: (smau/written) ✧

𓈒 ݁ ✫ masterlist previous next

“how long does it take for stars to form?”

the question echoed through the half-empty lecture hall. most students didn’t bother showing up to lessons that were so early in the morning, while the few who did attend were about to fall asleep on their desks. you realized that you were probably the only other person engaged in your professor’s lesson. the one other student being rhysand.

your gaze met rhysand’s as he raised his arm up before you could, and you fought the urge to grit your teeth at him. it was an easy question that you already knew the answer to, he should just let you have this. you hadn’t reached this unit in your astrophysics course yet, only you had taken it upon yourself to read ahead. rhysand probably wouldn’t go as far as you, he’s far too busy being prythian’s poster student, and so he clearly just wanted the attention from participating.

“they can form within a human lifespan,” rhysand grinned at you. there was a hint of flirtation in his violet eyes, the way they shined underneath the morning light escaping your lecture hall’s windows. the stare he’s probably given lots of other people on campus, you remind yourself that this isn’t special. everytime you walk past an advertisement with his face or you see a post from his fans online, it’s that same look that makes you want to avoid it at all costs. for once, you smile back at him. not to be polite, but because you want to hold back your laugh from how wrong he is.

you even notice how your lecturer was about to cringe. you take this opportunity and raise your hand too, glancing at rhysand as you were called on.

“they can take about ten million years,” you say loudly. your smile has grown into a smirk as rhysand suddenly blanks out, realizing he was completely off. your professor nods in acceptance, approving your answer. “unless you’re saying that humans can live that long, then you’re mistaken,” you turn back to rhysand.

you expect your professor to make a comment about being respectful and how that last part of your answer was unnecessary. but she doesn’t, so you continue with your head held high for the rest of the lecture. rhysand keeps trying to answer the following questions, leading to a back-and-forth between the two of you. you held back showing off your satisfaction whenever you got something right instead of rhysand, which was more often than not.

astrophysics was a topic that had always interested you, which is why you had decided to major in this subject. you loved learning about the stars and constellations and the sky. you had always went above and beyond to study and learn the subject material for your classes, you weren’t prythian’s top student for nothing.

“does anyone but rhysand and y/n want to answer?” your professor said finally.

it was met with silence. you raised an eyebrow and turned to rhysand, who simply shrugged at you and picked the lint off his shoulder. you couldn’t help but notice the way he parted his hair and how well it suited his facial features. of course, you wouldn’t go so far as to call him attractive. but simply as a photographer yourself, you understood how well this angle could make someone look. it’s just that anyone would look this pretty under natural lighting and this decent viewpoint, even rhysand.

your professor looks displeased as none of your other classmates answer. for a moment, you’d almost gotten carried away with rhysand. you quickly notice the time, how class is almost over, meaning you would get back your latest exam papers that were promised last week.

a bell rings and everyone begins to pack their things, you stand up to grab your test paper from your professor as you walk out. you close your eyes for a few moments in anticipation before you’re staring at the mark saying “96” on the page.

you smile to yourself, this mark had been what you predicted in order to maintain your current grade. you’re eager to leave and go back home to celebrate with mor until rhysand follows you out.

he slides in front of you, blocking your path and you roll your eyes at him. “what did you get, y/n?” rhysand’s voice is calm but has a chilling undertone that almost intimidates you.

your heart sinks when he shows you his mark saying “98” in comparison to yours. you bite your cheek before revealing that you scored two marks lower than him.

“well, it seems answering all those questions in class won’t help you on the exams,” rhysand smirks, staring at his paper that he held in front of you before folding it away.

you look up at him, your gaze completely cold and calculating. “it’ll help me when i graduate as prythian’s top student. and you can be my second.”

rhysand stares you down, tilting his head as he leans down to be closer to you. he lowers his voice as he says to you, “i don’t think so, y/n. because at the end of the day, i’ll always do whatever i set my mind to.”

you want to slap off that wicked grin on his face as he walks away. rhysand had always got on your nerves, pissing you off everyday in class, but after today you knew that you had no other option than to outdo him completely.

somehow you’d allowed for him to do better than you on an exam. rhysand, who was born with everything he could ever ask for and then some. you needed to prove to him, to everyone, that you were just as capable. although you didn’t have that kind of support and you did everything yourself, that you were still better than him. if not for the sake of your future, then because it would inflate his ego.

“if you don’t stop brooding, i think you’ll be stuck like this forever,” elain says before taking a seat next to you. there’s a comforting smile on her face as she asks, “is everything okay, y/n?”

you’re about to open your mouth in response, but your throat feels dry from two hours of doing nothing but school work at the library. elain could tell that you were upset today from the way your eyes were laser focused on the textbook in front of you and your tired expressions.

“y/n is upset that rhysand got a better mark,” nesta chimes in, placing a stack of books down on your table. she wipes the dust off her hands and joins the both of you, her work at the library could wait. nesta always got away with ignoring her tasks, her friend gwyn turned a blind eye and the head librarian was too busy to really care.

“oh,” elain muttered. “i’m sure you’ll do better than him again,” she tried to reassure you. nesta laughed, “rhysand’s an asshole.”

“some people can’t handle i got a higher mark than them,” rhysand’s voice echoed in your mind. you needed him to stop plaguing your thoughts, if only rhysand would let you have some peace of mind for once.

you can’t do anything but nod at nesta’s comment. if there was one person who despised him as much as you did, it was probably her.

without a doubt, your roommate morrigan was your closest friend at prythian and probably of all time. although it was an unlikely friendship, your roommate always balanced you out by encouraging your photography career and telling you to be more outspoken. while you weren’t as close with nesta and elain, the sisters were good company. you would even consider them to be genuine friends, nesta would always open the library for you and was someone you could study with while elain always offered to be there for you. perhaps your social life at prythian wasn’t so bad after all, although you would admit that you had compromised it at the expense of your grades.

having three friends was plenty. it was more than enough, and you certainly didn’t need to get any closer to a certain group of boys on campus that showed up every turn you walked, or at every test you take.

— NOTES

y/n and rhysand are both majoring in astrophysics! it’s the study of stars and astronomy (because yk… night court)

y/n is nice to a grand total of three people 😀 it’s okay babe

rhysand and y/n have been competing for top student since freshman year at prythian

— TAGLIST

@thelov3lybookworm @summerandsalt @lilah-asteria @therealmoonstone @just-a-social-casualty-1 @ashjade19 @girlontheblock-blog @cherry-cin @daughterofthemoons-stuff @starswholistenanddreamsanswered @sweet-chai-amore @kierramofficial @noelli-smv

[therealflickerman]

Split Lips (tasm!peter parker x reader)

Part one

series summary: Its simple hating peter parker, the cocky asshole who has made it his mission to one up you every chance he gets. In the same vein, its simple loving spiderman, the sweet masked vigilante who has made it his mission to ensure your safety. How simple will it be when the two worlds meet.

______________________________________________________________

chapter summary: you finally get the chance to one up peter and officially have the honour of meeting the friendly neighbourhood spiderman that everyone has been talking about.

word count: 2.3k

contents: reader is intended to be fem! (she's briefly described as such in this chapter), possible emetophobia warning?, tiny blood warning, language, a little banter and a little fluff, possible OOC peter? idk..., reader is anxious and clumbsy #selfprojecting, i'm not american which means i may get things wrong, please bare with me!!.

note: this is my first fic ever but let me cook!! thank u charlie for editing.

masterlist

series masterlist

chapter one / chapter two / chapter three / chapter four (ongoing!)

Your lip sits between your teeth, occupying them with the task of removing dead skin, it was a poor habit, something you’d done to settle nerves from a young age. You’re sure you’ll draw blood any second now as Miss Ritter works her way around the classroom, handing test results to uninterested students. A large part of you envies the way their eyes merely skim the front page of the test paper, you could only pray to care that little.

Your teeth continue their assault on your lip as you feel the usual pair of eyes boring into the side of your head. You truly do almost entertain the idea of meeting his gaze but you can’t bring yourself to give him the satisfaction. 

“You’re gonna have an aneurysm over there if you don’t chill out”

You’re not entirely sure what you did to deserve a seat next to Peter Parker, but every day for the past month you’d apologised to all possible gods for whatever sin it was that you had committed.

You avoid his gaze and he lets out a humoured scoff. 

Your foot taps against the floor as Miss Ritter now approaches your desk. She stands in front of you sorting through the test papers antagonising slowly, and for a second you’re sure she's teasing. 

“Well done” She offers a sweet smile, although it goes unnoticed as you scramble to pick up the paper from your desk.

98% 

Your eyes meet Peters,

“What did you get,” you ask, your lips leave your teeth for the first time that period and you try to suppress the cocky grin growing on your face but you’re not sure it’s possible. You watch his smirk widen and for a moment you feel yours falter.

“96%” 

A laugh of relief bubbles from your chest,

“Thank you god,” you tease and your laughter dies down.

You’re met with an eye roll. 

"What happened to the bravado, huh?" You give him a light poke in the arm, teasingly.

"Ouch... okay, I get it," he grumbles, his brows furrow slightly,  though a hint of a smile remains on his lips.

“We have a bio test on Monday don’t get so cocky” 

You shrug dismissively as you flip through your test results.

______________________________________________________________

You’re just about done with everything.

Work had practically doubled after your coworker had puked all over the break room, leaving you to scrub her throw-up from the divots in the tiled floor, and cover the two hours she had left of her shift. 

You swore you could still smell it.

You shift from foot to foot, feeling suffocated in the subway. It's packed to the brim with football fans, dressed in the colours of their respective teams and once again you’re apologising to any and all gods out there for whatever you did to deserve this. 

You’re so very close to getting your elbows involved as you push through the crowds, making it off the subway several stops early, to simply give yourself a moment of peace.

Making it to a familiar back street you take a moment to check your watch, the long hand sits just after six and the shorter one points between ten and eleven.

Silently, you curse your stupid, sickly coworker and your own poor decision-making. Your feet throb against the leather of your work shoes and you almost begin to miss the subway's scent of beer breath and football stand food. 

Your teeth catch your lip again, this time they draw blood and you wince at the sudden stinging. 

“Shit” you groan in a hushed whisper, you curse the habit as you bring your hand to your lip, examining the damage. A drop of red colours your fingertip as you touch it to the nick and pull it away so you can see. 

You roll your eyes at your luck and rub the blood from your fingers before continuing with your walk, wishing you’d simply seen the subway through and stayed on until a stop closer to home. 

“You’re out awfully late miss” 

You just about jump out of your skin at the voice. It's eerily mechanical as though it’s meant to be disguised, under the circumstances, it sends chills up your spine. 

“Holy shit, you scared the fuck out of me” you hold your hand to your chest in an attempt to calm the beating of your heart. You turn and your eyes meet big ovals of tinted glass, adorning a red mask. It hits you that they belong to those of Spiderman and suddenly the voice makes all the sense. 

“Don’t… don’t creep up on people like that, especially not,” you pause to find the words, “unsuspecting women… alone at night” you let out awkwardly, your furrowed brows ease up as you take in a deep breath. 

He lets out a small laugh from behind the mask, head tilting to the side as he manages to lock eyes with you even though you can't quite meet his gaze.

“Sorry, sorry” he lifts his hands defensively, “just making sure you’re okay”. There's a grin evident in his voice.

“No, I’m…” you let out a breath. “I’m so sorry, it’s been a rough day”, You offer an awkward smile and silently curse yourself for being an asshole to some guy that spends his life-saving people. 

“Don’t stress,” he brushes it off. 

‘Your…”, he raises his hand to where his lips would sit behind his mask, “... lip is bleeding.”

“Shit… yeah” you mumble, bringing your own hand to your lips. You lick your fingertip and wipe both the fresh and dried blood from the cut. You suddenly wonder how silly you may have looked with a trickle of blood gathering on the rim of your lip.

“I bite ‘em… my lips, when I’m anxious” you clarify, offering another awkward smile. 

“You wanna talk about it?” he offers with a shrug, taking a step in the direction you were walking when he had first approached. 

“My lip biting?” You question furrowing your brows and following his footsteps. 

“Your day” he humours you. 

“Right,” you let out a sheepish laugh and you feel your cheeks flush. “You do that?” you question, skipping a step to keep up. 

“Do what?” he asks, his brows furrow behind the mask. 

“Give out free therapy.” Your eyes lock on the ground as the two of you walk side by side. 

He chuckles, “not often… I make exceptions.”

“I’ll walk you home, you just talk” he offers. 

You accept the offer, quite gladly. It felt strange, though nice, talking to someone as a friend without the, ‘what do they think of me’ barrier. For all you knew you’d never see Spiderman again. 

You hadn’t particularly been one for friends. Not that you hadn’t wanted them, it was rather that no one seemed to fill that hole. You’d had friends throughout middle school, some in the early stages of high school but each time you’d simply fall out of friendship, and that was that. 

It was nice to talk rather than listen.

“Then my coworker, Kaylie, she threw up all over the break room,” you rambled,

Spiderman gags at the thought, ‘Not you too’ you murmur softly, though he catches what you say and lets out a chuckle.  

Your lips press into a smile, satisfied with his laughter you continue your story.

 “My asshole of a boss made me clean it,” you emphasise, “then made me stay back and cover her shift, now it's… what” You lift the sleeve of your jacket checking the time, “10:39 pm and Spiderman, of all people, is walking me home”. You send him a small smile with a shrug. 

“Well firstly your boss sounds like a jackass” he adds, almost as if stating a fact, “but at least you got to meet Spiderman', he nudges you faintly, pulling another soft giggle from your lips. You agree with a hum and a nod, once again making eye contact with the floor.

“Oh, I got a 98 on this English test,” you add looking up at him, “so, y’know… hasn’t all been bad”. 

“Wow look at you,” his grin peaks through his voice.

‘“What can I say?” you giggle with a sheepish shrug. 

“Peter, this kid in my class,” you clarify, “has been one upping me all semester, and I have finally,” you emphasise, “gotten a better grade than him”.

‘We don’t like this Peter?” he asks, studying your face as you answer. 

You smile at his use of ‘we’. 

“He’s…” your words die on your tongue as you think for just a moment, “kind of an asshole,” you nod, “but sweet…enough” you shrug with a sweet grin and meet Spiderman’s ‘eyes’. 

“He’s funny I’ll give him that” 

Unbeknownst to you, Spiderman’s lips curl into a grin. 

“As long as he’s being nice,” he adds. 

“I don’t know if I’d say nice” you giggle. 

______________________________________________________________

“Well Spidey, this is almost me” you beam, pointing to the apartment building across the street with your head, your hands are kept inside the pockets of your jacket where the cold New York air can’t reach them. 

“Thanks for, you know… walking me home, letting me talk, I don’t really do that too often” you smile up at him, meeting his hidden eyes.

“What, you don't get to talk a lot? I doubt that” he laughs, watching as you roll your eyes. 

A soft ‘shut up,’ rolls off your tongue with a smile. Your cheeks are flushed against the crisp of the night and you feel your grin grow. 

‘I better…’ your words die on your tongue as you point to the apartment block. 

He lets out a hum of approval with a short, knowing nod. 

You take a step or two backwards, sending him a wave and a sweet smile, though forgetting to look both ways as you cross the seemingly empty road. 

Spiderman's voice rings out as you turn, faced with a fast-paced car. The owner honks its horn, sending you an angry glare as it drives past you. You quickly place your extended foot back onto the safety of the curb and send Spidey a sheepish smile. 

“You need me to carry you to bed and tuck you in?” He jokes with a shake of his head. 

“I’m good thank you,” heat rushes to your cheeks and the tips of your ears, reddening them further as you turn to look both ways. 

“That’s a good start” his voice rings from the other side of the street, watching you cross the road more safely this time around. 

You wave him off with an eye roll, not turning to look at the vigilante as you trot to your apartment complex. 

______________________________________________________________

“Is that you love?” Your mother rings out from the couch.

The apartment is dimly lit, the glow from the tv lights up your mothers features as you approach her. She sits in her pyjamas, a glass of red wine in her hand, which is expected on a friday night. ‘Dirty Dancing’ plays loudly on the TV, you’ve seen the film a million times over because it’s her favourite. 

You slide your backpack off of your shoulder, lean it carefully against the couch, and collapse down next to her. 

“Hi love,” your mothers lips press against your forehead, placing a soft kiss. 

You hum, closing your eyes. 

You feel her pull away, she replaces her lips with a hand and lets out a worried hum. 

“You’re warm” her brows furrow and you feel your blush spread further. 

You’re grateful she can’t see your flushed cheeks in the darkness of the apartment. 

“Ran home,” you simply smile with a nod, “gonna go to bed.” 

She nods, giving you a tight hug and wishing you sweet dreams. 

You let your eyes close as your head lolls against the cool of your bedroom door, taking in the stillness of your room. You begin to untie your work shoes, leaving your eyes shut as you place them neatly by the doorway. 

You let out a yawn, rub your eyes and stand up from the carpeted floor. Taking a seat on your neatly made bed, your hands find the buttons of your work blouse and slowly unbutton them one by one. 

Your mind drifts and a smile curls onto your face as you think of the sweet, masked man that had walked you home. 

You wonder about his features, the colour of his hair and skin, if his face is freckles or if he has little moles that litter his body. You wonder how old he is, if he has lived his life, seen things and loved, or if he’s young, possibly even your age. If he puts the rest of his life on the line each night he puts on the suit. You frown at the possibility. 

Your teeth once again catch your lip, tongue grazing the dried metallic blood, you wince at the taste you’ve grown familiar to. Scolding yourself softly, you make a small mental note to quit the habit before putting on pyjamas and slipping into fresh sheets. 

A soft smile adorns your face as you stare up at the ceiling, you realise you had forgotten to tell your mother about your English test, how you’d gotten the highest grade in the class, and you keep in mind to tell her over breakfast. 

Your mind slips back to Spiderman. There's an unfamiliar tug in your chest and you selfishly wish to see him again, despite how busy he may be with truly important things. You think of his gentle nature and the gut feeling, a disgusting mix of guilt and longing, spreads.

Guilt for both wishing something from a man that wasn’t fair, and for allowing yourself this wish. 

You want him to be there the next time you get a higher grade than Parker, which will hopefully be sooner than later, or the next time your coworker lets her lunch out onto the table where you sit and eat, which you pray will never happen again. 

You feels a moment of guilt for your wishful thinking before rolling over to get some sleep. 

[wandafiction]

Mile High Club - Just Us Chapter 97

Warnings 18+: Smut, Fingering (Wanda Receiving), Public Sex

Word Count: 5090

Series List | Chapter 96 | Chapter 98

================================

So once again we were awoken at 5 am by the sound of my alarm this morning. Be proud of me because I didn't fall out of bed this time. Which deserves a nice pat on the back. Well done, me. 

This time Wanda also got up with the alarm since she had a long nap yesterday, so she made coffee for me while I went to wake up the two teenage boys. Maybe that's all she is keeping me around for? Waking up the boys so they hold a grudge against me and not their mother.

I mean they are both giving me the evils through the rearview mirror right now, and my god is it just as scary as when Wanda does it. I give them a small smile as I look back to the road, Wanda's hand on my thigh squeezes gently and I move my hand on top of hers, lacing our fingers together. Her thumb starts rubbing along my thumb, content with the small amount of physical contact between the both of us. She isn't as clingy as yesterday, not that there's anything wrong with that, but we haven't gone five minutes without having some form of contact. 

I suddenly jerk my hand away from Wanda's when I move to put my arm across Wanda as my foot hits the brake, the car coming to a screeching stop. Wanda's hands are holding my forearm against her chest and I immediately turn around to check on the boys.

"You two okay?" They both slowly pull their seat belts so they aren't trapped in place giving me a thumbs up and humming out a yes. "What about you princess? You okay?" I turn to look back at Wanda as I see the boy's eyes widen as they look at the reason I slammed the brakes on.

"I'm okay baby. My heart is going a little fast but I'm okay." I flatten my palm against her chest feeling her heart beating rapidly and I give her an apologetic smile, her eyes having never left mine for a moment.

"I'm sorry I just didn't want us to hit that." She now turns to look out the window at her jaw drops.

"Wolves." She breathes out in awe, sitting forward in her chair to look out the windscreen as her hand keeps my arm against her. 

I hear the boys unbuckle their belts leaning forward between mine and Wanda's seats, their eyes wide with wonder at the sight before us. There is a pack of 8 wolves currently crossing the road ahead of us. There are 4 older looking wolves, 2 of them at the front of the small pack and 2 of them at the back. I hear Wanda gasp when she sees the pups running around and play fighting on the road, squeezing my arm in excitement. 

One of the older wolves turns its head to look towards the car, the orange hues of its eye glowing brightly in the headlights. The pups roll over one another and once they are safe in the woods, the older wolf that is looking at us turns around and follows the pups.

"This is so cool." Tommy breaks the small silence that has befallen the car as all our eyes watch the wolves disappear into the dark forest. 

I look over to Wanda who's eyes flick to mine at the movement and a huge smile makes its way onto her face as she shuffles in her seat excitedly. The boys lean back in the chairs, once we can no longer see the wolves, and put their seat belts back on. I start to drive away as Wanda’s eyes follow the patch of forest where the wolves disappeared into before turning back to me. She drops my arm so my hand lands on her thigh, her hand moving to rest on top of it and I start to gently rub my thumb on the outside of her thigh. Not for anything but the touch, that we both relish in. 

The rest of the drive is uneventful as Wanda and the boys all fall asleep to the light music that is playing quietly, and the darkness from outside helping to ease them into sleep. I have continued to hold my hand on Wanda's thigh, my thumb every now and again stroking at it, because the one time I went to take my hand off her thigh she whimpered in her sleep at the loss. 

So now I know, rough plus kinky sex equals cuddly and clingy Wanda. 

Good to know.

I pull the car into one of the many spaces in the car rental car park, turning it off as I look at Wanda. I start to rub my hand up and down Wanda's thigh as I bring my other hand to her head that is gently resting on her palm, her elbow on the door. My finger traces the edges of her face from her right temple, down to and along her jaw before moving up to her left temple. I trace the finger along her eyebrow before moving down the bridge of her nose that causes it to scrunch slightly at the feeling.

"Princess, it's time to wake up, we are at the airport." Wanda lets out a tired groan as my finger moves down to her lips gently tracing over the slightest cracked and dry skin. 

"5 more minutes." She grumbles sleepily as she pushes her face into her hand.

"I'm sorry princess, but you gotta get up. You can sleep on the plane." Wanda tiredly opens one eye, her other hiding behind the palm of her hand, a small smile making its way onto her face.

"Hi baby." Her voice raspy with sleep and I smile back at her at the sound of her thick accent that she hasn't hidden away from me since the day I told her not to.

"Hello princess." I lean across to her, my hands still on her face and thigh, and gently press my lips against hers as she hums at the feeling.

"Do you want to get the bags? I will wake the boys up this time." She mumbles against my lips as she moves her head away from her hand, opening her other eye; both of them glistening in the early morning sun.

"Okay. I love you." I whisper between us for only her to hear.

"I love you too, dorogaya." Wanda presses her lips back against mine as I smile into the kiss at the pet name. 

"I really like that you're using dorogaya again." I pull away completely, resisting the urge to kiss her again, my thumb rubbing gentle circles on her cheek. Her fingers trace patterns on the back of my hand that's on her thigh as she turns her head to press a kiss to my palm.

"Mmm, well you smile everytime I say it and I love your smile. So I'm going to say it as much as I can, dorogaya. Do you prefer it over, baby?" I hum in thought as my eyes scan her soft features, her eyes diligently watching the action.

"Don't get me wrong, I love when you call me baby but your accent plus dorogaya. Literally shivers." Wanda gives me a toothy smile as she giggles a little, her eyes flicking to the boys before leaning forward so her lips ghost mine. 

"Dorogaya." Wanda over pronunciates every part of the word, saying it slowly, her voice croaking slightly as her voice is full of that spine tingling accent; biting my lip as my eyes flick to watch the movement of her lips.

Our eyes flick to the back when we hear a small grumble and Tommy fluttering his eyes open as he stretches his arms above his head, giving us both a sleepy smile. Wanda takes the opportunity, of me looking at the young boy, to plant a kiss on my cheek before moving to get out of the car. I reach over and give Tommy's knee a small squeeze before getting myself out of the car and looking over to Wanda who is stretching out while making a bunch of weird noises. They are the best stretches. 

I walk to the back of the car, Tommy jumping out the car to follow me, and as I open the door I watch Wanda carefully try and wake Billy up. Tommy helps to unload the bags, while I watch Wanda struggle to lift Billy out of the car so I put my bags on the floor and make my way around to her. 

"You good princess?" I giggle when she huffs trying to get the seatbelt off Billy.

"He is hardly awake, he must have had another rough night last night." I smile at her, placing my hand on her shoulder gently pulling her away.

"You grab the bags, I've got Billy." 

"Are you sure? He might get mad at you for waking him up again." I see a small hint of worry as her eyes flick between me and Billy.

"I'm not going to wake him up." Wanda gives me a confused look, but I don't answer, I simply turn to look at Billy's sleeping body.

I lean into the car, pulling Billy's arms over my shoulders and gently place my hands on both his legs as I manoeuvre him out of the car. I turn to Wanda, jumping ever so slightly to push Billy's body up more and wrap my arms under his bum and his arms sleepily curl around the back of my neck.

"I'm going to carry him until we have to go through security." Wanda steps forward rubbing her small hand up and down Billy's back and he stuffs his face into my neck as he sleepily whines into it. 

"I love you." Wanda's eyes flick from watching the movements of her hand on Billy's back to my eyes as she takes in the sight before her.

"I love you too, princess. Come on, let's get going before we miss our flight." 

~~~~~

I gently jump up and down as I whisper Billy's name trying to get him to wake up as we wait in line for security checks. Wanda turns around to watch as Billy stuffs his face moving it side to side as he grumbles against my skin. 

"Don't wanna get up mama." I freeze at his words, not quite sure if I actually heard him correctly and when I look down to Wanda I realise she must have heard him too because her jaw is slightly ajar and eyes wide with shock. I rapidly blink and start to rub my hand up and down his back.

"Come on bud. Your mama is right next to us, but you need to get up for me. Just to go through security, I can pick you back up once we are through." 

"Mama wha…" Billy removes his head from my neck, his eyes going slightly wide when he realises he is in my arms and not Wanda's. "Oh, hi Y/n."

"Hi buddy." I bring my hand from his back to his forehead pushing his hair out of his face.

"Sorry, I thought mom was the one waking me up in the car." I lightly shake my head with a smile.

"Don't worry that little head of yours. I technically stole you from your mom. Can I put you down though?" 

"Mhmm." I slowly let him slide down my body as he rubs the back of his hands on his eyes to rid them of sleep and he takes a moment to balance when his feet hit the floor. He gives me a small smile before turning around trying to wake himself up more, while I feel an arm wrap around my waist.

"Did he call you mama?" Wanda stands on her tiptoes as she whispers into my ear, and I shake my head. 

"He thought I was you." I turn to see her frown pushing her lips to the side as her eyes look between me and Billy but slowly nods, deciding not to say anything else on the matter. I pull her with me as Billy and Tommy start placing their bags down on the trays ready to go through the scanner. 

"You okay?" Wanda's hand squeezes my hip as she asks the question, looking up at me with her eyes full of adoration. 

"I'm okay." I lean down to peck her lips before moving to put my own bag in a tray as she walks through the body scanner and over to the boys. I walk through the scanner and cringe when it goes off, sometimes they do sometimes they don't but every fucking time they do its a wild ride to try and convince them I have metal in me.

"Come over here please ma'am." I cringe even more at the use of ma'am, I'm 22 for Christ sake not 80.

"I have medical papers in my ba…." The TSA agent uses his metal detector stick to lift one of my hands up which I instinctively jerk away earning a warning glare from the man.

"Arms up, legs shoulder width apart. Back facing me please." I roll my eyes following his orders before looking at Wanda and the boys, who have collected my bag for me and they look through it for the papers I was on about. 

"I have medical papers to prove…." 

"Unfortunately I still need to scan you, just to be on the safe side." I roll my eyes but begrudgingly agree as he starts to scan my arms. 

"Nice little family you got there." I smile politely at his attempt to make conversation.

"Yeah, they really are wonderful." I smile across to the three of them, Wanda waving the papers in her hand but I shake my head and she stuffs them back in the bag rolling her eyes towards me. 

"So how long have you been together?" The man asks as he starts scanning across my back and the machine goes wild along my spine. 

"Just over a month." He raises his eyebrows in surprise as he lifts his scanner back up my spine until it goes haywire again. 

"And you already met the kids. Lucky you. Wish my girl would let me meet her children. You said you had medical papers?" My small frustration leaves my body when I realise he is just doing his job and doesn't seem to have anything against me. 

"Yeah, they are in my bag. How long have you and your girl been together?" He nods in understanding as he starts to scan my legs, once again the machine beeping erratically. 

"3 months tomorrow. Turn around for me please." I spin around looking at the man, who matches my height easily. 

"Maybe bring it up, say you're ready. It may just be that she is not. What's the relationship like with the dad?" He starts scanning again as he shakes his head.

"There isn't one. Left her and the child when the kid was 2. She's 4 now." 

"Well maybe she is afraid the same thing will happen. Just talk to her. See what she says."

"What if she says she isn't ready?" Am I really having this conversation with a complete stranger while he scans my body with a fucking metal detector? Yes, yes I am.

"Then she isn't ready, you just have to be patient. It's hard being a parent, I've seen that first hand. You have yourself and someone else to protect. She might surprise you if you just talk to her." He gives me a smile as he puts the scanner back in its holder beckoning the boys and Wanda over who are quick to stand at my side.

"Sorry, just doing my job but could I see the medical papers?" 

Wanda gets the now crumpled piece of paper out of the bag and when I give her a questioning brow she simply shrugs. Billy leans against me wrapping his arms around my neck so I quickly lift him back up and he pushes his head against my neck as he mumbles a thank you. 

"Well you folks are good to go. Sorry for the delay and thanks for the advice." Wanda looks between me and the TSA agent and I shrug my shoulders earning an eye roll from the woman I love. 

"No problem. Hope it all goes well. Have a nice rest of your day man." I hold my hand out which he quickly takes and gives me a small handshake.

"Safe flight." He says as he drops my hand.

"You too." I cringe, my head dipping so my head rests against Billy's shoulders as the TSA agent just laughs.

"Don't worry, you're not the first and you won't be the last person to say that to me." He laughs out as I give a small nod and the 4 -well 3 - of us start walking towards our gate, Billy falling asleep easily on me. 

"How long till our flight?" Wanda looks over her shoulder smiling at the sight of Billy sleeping in my arms once again.

"Maybe 20 minutes." Wanda hums in acknowledgement as we head towards our gate. 

~~~~~

"There you go buddy." I gently place Billy down in his seat, doing up his seat belt as he smiles at me tiredly. 

"Thank you Y/n." I give him a smile as I brush some hair out of his face.

"Of course. Try and stay awake until we take off, then once we are in the air you can sleep."

"Okay. Love you." I place a small kiss on his forehead.

"Love you too buddy." I ruffle his hair before moving to my seat next to Wanda and pulling the small door across so we have a bit more privacy. 

"Hi baby." She turns in her seat with a gleaming smile. 

"Hi princess." I grab her hand and start littering kisses along the back of it and up her arm relishing in the giggles that pass her lips. 

"Can you hold my hand on take off again?" She asks sweetly, biting at the corner of her lip. 

I move my hands to cup either side of her face, my fingers intertwining with her hair as the tips of them come to rest around her ears and my thumbs start rubbing small circles on her cheek bones. Her eyes flutter shut at the sensation, her lip being pulled into her mouth more as her head relaxes into my touch and I'm practically holding her head up for a few moments. After a few seconds her eyes open up slowly, her piercing green eyes staring into mine as she turns her head slightly so her lips come to rest on the inside of my wrist on my right hand. 

"I will always hold your hand." The corner of her lip pulls upwards but not too soon after she playfully pulls the skin of my wrist between her teeth, so gently I barely feel it before releasing it and planting a kiss on the same spot. 

I do exactly as I said I would holding her hand once the plane started barrelling down the runway, hers squeezing mine so tight I swear I lost feeling for a good few minutes. I even sang the same songs I did when we left for Canada and Wanda couldn't stop speaking praises about my voice and how she wants to hear me sing all the time. I blushed from the attention, not used to people talking about my voice so highly, and in turn Wanda blushed as she realised she was gushing about it. 

We are a few hours into the flight with only a few more to go, when Wanda decides she is bored of sitting in her seat. So pushes me over in mine as she gets comfortable next to me; the chair already reclined fully down. Wanda then pulls a blanket over us as she pushes her slightly cold face into my neck, her cold skin against my warm skin sending a small shiver down my spine. 

I start to reposition myself to get more comfortable, also ensuring Wanda stays mostly where she has planted herself. Which is mostly on top of me, like normal, and this is why it's becoming more and more clear that there won't be a certain side of the bed we sleep on soon. The whole bed will be mine as slowly but surely I become Wanda's. I mean more often than not she will fall asleep with most of her body on top of mine and when we wake up, she has moved in her sleep so she is completely on top of me. 

It's cute. 

Anyway… 

I push my arms under Wanda’s body slightly as I pull her more onto me, missing the way she gasps against my neck as we settle down. It's only when she lets out a low hum into my neck while her teeth start to graze the skin do I realise something might be up. 

"You okay princess?" 

"Mhmm." She nods against my neck as her body sinks further into mine, another low hum vibrating against my neck. 

"What's got you humming away into my neck." She kisses the underside of my jaw before planting her teeth on the skin there playfully biting at the bottom of my jaw.

"Your knee." Is all she says in a breathy tone and it confuses me slightly. 

"My knee? What about my knee?" 

As I say it I move my legs and when I feel my knee hit up against Wanda and a sigh passes her lips before it turns into a hum as she pushes herself against my knee more. My knee is placed nicely between her legs and I smirk to myself. 

"Oh my knee." I say smugly as my hands creep down to Wanda's hips, holding them still since I know she will start moving them if I don't. 

"Yes. Your knee." She flushes bright red when I pull my knee into her more and push her hips downwards so she can get the most amount of pressure on her core. 

"Princess, we are on a plane. In public." Wanda brings her head out from my neck hovering it over mine slightly. 

"I don't care." I raise my brows at her whispered confession. "And this is a lot more private than both of us disappearing into the toilet, because everyone would know. But here no one can see us." 

"I guess it is." 

I press my thumbs against her hips, holding her up as I move my knee away smirking at the small whine I hear and her pleading eyes. I slide one hand up her back all the way to the back of her neck where I gently grip it and slowly lower her head into my neck. I turn my head slightly to whisper into her ear.

"You are going to have to stay quiet for me princess. Any noise that's too loud and I will stop. Understood." 

"Understood." I keep her head in my neck with my hand, as my other one pushes her body to the side of me more trying my best to make this look as inconspicuous as possible if someone was to check in on us. 

With her body mostly on the chair, but one of her legs still on top of mine and her head in my neck, I move my hand from her hip down to her pants. Luckily, we all decided on sweatpants because they are the most comfortable thing to wear when flying so my hand easily slips under the waistband. I can feel the heat radiating from her core through her underwear as I gently tease her clit through the fabric. 

"Always so wet for me." I husk into her ear, pulling it gently between her teeth as she whimpers against my neck.

"Always." She whispers back in the same husky tone. 

"Are you sure princess?" I ask, as I start to push her underwear to the side. 

"Please touch me." She begs quietly in my ear, her hips jolting every so slightly when I run my fingers over her core, collecting her wetness as I do. 

"Your wish is my command." Before she can say anything in return I sink two fingers into her entrance knowing she can handle the sudden intrusion and she buries her face into my neck more to keep herself quiet. 

I press my thumb against her clit, putting pressure on it as I roll my thumb around it. I start with a slow pace of moving my fingers in and out of her. Her leg moves further across mine, opening herself up a little more as she hums into my neck when I curl my fingers inside her. My other hand finds its way into her hair and I grip it tightly pulling her head back slightly, biting her lip to hide a moan as her dark eyes look into mine. 

"You're doing so well for me babygirl." Her eyes roll to the back of her head as I find the spongy part and curl my fingers against it, her body arching slightly towards me. 

"Fuck...y/n." Wanda breaths out as she pushes her face against my shoulder as her body gently rocks with my slow pace. 

Her teeth sink into my shoulder when I push another finger in, stretching her out and I start to push my fingers deeper but keeping the pace infuriatingly slow wanting to work her up and make it worth the wait. She moans quietly into my shoulder as I start to speed up the movement of my thumb on her clit, putting more pressure on it as I roll my thumb around it more. 

I start curling my fingers with every small thrust, speeding up ever so slightly and her hips start to move to the rhythm of my fingers. Wanda moves her face to bury it into my neck as my fingers hit a particularly pleasurable spot as she moans into my skin. I can hardly hear the moan so I decide it's safe to continue and not use my threat quite yet.

"Harder….please." Wanda whines into my ear as I follow her demand straight away, thrusting into her hard and pulling out slowly as I curl my fingers. 

"Cum when you're ready Princess." Knowing she will ask for permission shortly once her walls start to clench around my fingers. 

A few more hard thrusts later, she bites down hard on my neck, her hands scratching down my sides, a moan muffled by my skin as it vibrates into my neck. Her walls suffocate my fingers so much I can hardly move them and her hips twitch as she releases onto my fingers. I keep my fingers inside her to help her through her high, as she removes her teeth from my neck and starts placing kisses along the mark she has left. 

She whimpers as I remove my fingers from inside her, one of her hands grabbing my wrist and pulling my wet fingers up to her mouth. She places my three fingers into her mouth, moaning lightly at the taste of herself as her tongue moves around them to get every last bit. Her hips twitch slightly when I push my fingers in further, her eyes rolling back as she sucks on them a little harder. Knowing that we are still very much in public I reluctantly remove my fingers from her mouth wiping the saliva coated digits on my shirt. 

Wanda's eyes flutter open, her green orbs shining brightly as she looks at me and her face flushes red, stuffing it back into my neck. I let out a small hiss, the sudden movement causing my neck to jerk and the bite mark I now know is definitely there sending a small bit of pain shooting up my neck. Wanda delicately starts kissing the hurt, her hand moving to trace the mark once she removes her face from my neck to look at me. 

"You okay?" Her eyes flick to the mark then back to my eyes.

"I'm okay. How does it feel to be a part of the mile high club?" I ask cheekily as Wanda hits my chest in embarrassment.

"Don't even start." I smile cheekily at her as she rolls her eyes. 

"I'm just saying, we are now both honorary members." Her fingers start to trace patterns on my chest as her eyes don't look away from me. 

"I love you." I melt at the soft tone in her voice and she must see it because she gives me a fuzzy smile before nuzzling her face gently into my neck. 

"I love you too princess." I weave my hand through her hair. "So what do you want to do when we get home?" 

"Unpack, watch a movie, order food and sleep." I giggle at the pre prepared list. 

"Okay. Then tomorrow we can set stuff up for Halloween." Wanda removes her head from my neck with wide eyes.

"Oh shit. It's Halloween. I haven't even got the boys costumes." I peck her nose making it scrunch.

"It's okay. We can sort something out. I may have something on the back-burner so just give me the go ahead and we will have something for tomorrow." Wanda smiles at me in slight surprise. 

"You have the go-ahead otherwise we won't have anything to wear."

"Okay." I see her eyes start to close and a small yawn passes her lips. "Go to sleep Princess, I will be here when you wake up."

"Is this our forever?" Wanda whispers out as she practically climbs on top of me to sleep, I scrunch my brows not quite sure I heard her correctly, as she once again places her head in the crook of my neck.

"Is what, what now?" My hands move to gently rub up and down Wanda's back as her body sinks against me more. 

"This right here. All of it. Is this our forever?" She questions lightly, her lips moving against my neck as she speaks so quietly, her hot breath fanning over my ear and neck. 

"I would love this to be our forever." Wanda leaves a small peck against my neck, breathing out gently as she whispers between us.

"Me too dorogaya."

================================

[splatsvilles-fashionista]

Splatoon 3 Version 6.0 Patch Notes Breakdown

Been a little bit since I did one of these, but Nintendo released the Chill Season 2023 patch notes about three hour ago, and while in terms of balance changes this is one of the smallest patches ever, it's got a ton of quality-of-life changes, so let's dig in, shall we?

So let's start from the top. In terms of new content, this patch includes a new catalog, two new stages (Robo ROM-en and Bluefin Depot), two new Specials (Splattercolor Screen and Triple Splashdown), nine new weapons, two new multiplayer songs, the new King Salmonid Megalodontia, and eleven new Tableturf cards.

Additionally, you'll note that they're including a line about giving you one Sheldon License at the end of each season. This is actually really relevant to a change coming down in line, so tuck that in the back of your mind for later.

The balance changes are all buffs, but they're relatively minor, and only six Main weapons and one Special are seeing any changes this time around.

Starting off, .96 Gal is having its ink efficiency buffed by 8%. It currently gets 40 shots on a full ink tank, so I wager this increases that number by about 5-10, but it's 5 AM my time at time of writing and I am bad at math, so I don't know for sure.

Ranged Blaster's explosions get a 15% paint buff. Note that this applies only to the final explosion and not the trail, so it's not a straight 15% paint buff.

Dread Wringer gets a 10% ink efficiency buff, and since it currently has ten sloshes on a full tank, that increases that number to eleven.

And finally, for Main Weapon changes the Heavy Edit Splatling now paints more. Unlike the Ranged Blaster's paint buff this is a lot harder to gauge, but Heavy Edit's paint can be kind of spotty and inefficient, so this is undoubtedly a good thing for it.

After that, we've got only two points-for-Special changes.

Jet Squelcher and L-3 Nozzlenose both get some points shaved off their Specials, taking their Ink Vac and Crab Tank to 180p and 190p respectively. On one hand, I am biased and hate the Jet Squelcher, and I think this buff was completely unwarranted and unnecessary, but on the other hand I love the L-3 and want only good things in life for it, so they balance each other out, in my book.

And, for the final balance change of the entire patch, we've got a Reefslider buff, as it now makes you invulnerable during its startup 13 frames faster. The thing about this change is that like, it's a buff, and that is good, but the problem Reefslider has is not getting the Special off, it's that you very rarely survive the aftermath of using it, and this does nothing to solve that. With Triple Splashdown on the horizon I think things might be rough for this Special in the future.

And that's all of the balance changes! There being so few of them indicate two things to me: That Nintendo is overall happy with the the state of the game, and that they are wary of touching anything unless they have to. And one hand I get it, after all, competitive players are currently saying that there really isn't a meta at the moment, just picking weapons you're good at and playing well, and that's probably not an environment you want to shake up too much. But on the other hand, there are a lot of things like Line Marker, Undercover Brella, and Reefslider to name a few, that could really do with some sprucing up to help them keep up with the just the middle of the pack. I think raising the bottom bar a bit higher would be to everyone's benefit.

But we've got two Specials being added, so I suppose now's not the time to rock the boat too much. We'll see how things have shaken out come the mid-season patch in January.

But the balance changes are a very small part of these patch notes, and nowhere near the most interesting, so let's keep moving on.

Anarchy Series and X Battles are receiving a whole slew of changes, the most prominent of which are some new badge rewards for win streaks and attaining high X Rankings. Additionally, matchmaking in X Battles is being changed to more strictly separate people with high and low X Ranks, as well as allowing more team compositions. To cut a long story short, weapons have a set of internal values that the game uses during matchmaking to try and balance the team compositions. Matchmaking in high-power X Rank infamously takes a very long time, so I have to imagine that this change aims to speed things up by making the matchmaking more lenient on that front.

Salmon Run, in addition to the new King Salmonid, is getting some significant changes, starting with some changes to the Specials:

Kraken Royale and Triple Splashdown are being added to the pool of available Specials. Additionally, Mr. Grizz has finally agreed to always provide at least two workers on every team with a long-range Special to handle all the pesky Stingers and Flyfish. Be sure to thank your local union representative the next chance you get.

This change is particularly spicy. Your Salmon Run stage badges will now boost your starting difficulty on their respective stages, adding more incentive to play beyond the two superbonuses, as well as making the grind for future badges easier. This certainly gives me more motivation to go for those VP 400+ badges.

You'll now be able to tell what King Salmonid is present during each Shift, and the Salmometer will change to match it, as well. Can you believe they didn't change that when they added Horrorboros?

Also I am curious what this means for those Shifts where the King Salmonid was random. Will the Salmometer become a question mark? Are they not gonna do those anymore? We'll have to wait and see.

But this next change, is a big one, and it's for, what else, Big Run:

Big Run trophy requirements will now be set in advance, and no longer scale off top 50%, 20% and 5% player results.

I am in two minds about this change. On one hand, I always thought that people complaining about overfishers in Big Run were kind of petulant and entitled, especially when the rewards were as minor as locker decorations and badges. Maybe that's mean-spirited of me, but there was never a way for me to read it as anything but people demanding to be given the same reward as the people working the hardest without putting in the effort themselves.

But on the other hand, the 5% cutoff has been steadily rising as overall Big Run participation decreased, which is just a natural result of time passing and casual players falling off the game, nothing weird there, but this means that the top becomes more stacked, further disincentivizing casual players as getting even the bronze trophies becomes harder and harder for them. Giving the players much clearer and more achievable goals will likely serve to pull a lot of people back into Big Runs, and that is undoubtedly a good thing.

And hey, I said the rewards weren't worth getting upset over, and by that same metric, I don't think it's worth getting upset over more people getting them, either. All the better, if it makes more folks happy. And as for the people who do want to grind their hearts out, well:

There's still some recognition for that, too.

So that's the gist of the Salmon Run changes, so let's finish up with some miscellaneous changes.

Remember how I told you to keep that bonus Sheldon's License in mind for later?

Players who own every currently available weapon will now be able to trade extra licenses in for Shell-Out Tokens. In other words, that extra license serves as a failsafe so you don't lock yourself out of buying future weapons by spending all your licenses on gacha rolls.

The Splatfest Battle Pro queue is receiving the same matchmaking changes as X, presumably for much the same reasons.

And finally, the most important change of all:

WANDERCRUST IS BACK!!! YEAH BABY!!!! WOO!!!

[cityof2morrow]

CDK: Private Practice

Published: 9-26-2024 | Updated: 10-5-2024

SUMMARY Cubic Dynamics by John B. Cube and Marcel Dusims forged the future with furnishings that were minimalist in design and maximalist in erudite pretension. Generations later, the company continues to produce edge-of-cutting-edge designs. Use the Cubic Dynamics Kitbash (Simmons, 2023-2024) collection to set up corporate, exposition, and office environments. Envisioned as an add-on to the Cubic Dynamics set (EA/Maxis, archived at GOS), it features minimalist and retro-futuristic objects. Find more CC on this site under the #co2cdkseries tag. Read the Backstory and ‘Dev Notes’ HERE. The PRIVATE PRACTICE set is meant for your professional sims who run independent businesses and need a swanky space to deal with clients. Of course, the set is useful for principals, CEOs, mob bosses, headhunters, and all manner of tycoon….pretty much whatever “white collar” operation you can imagine. There are enough items for at least three rooms – waiting/reception, office, and meeting/conference room….be creative!

DETAILS All EPs/SPs. §See Catalog for Pricing | See Buy/Build Mode You need the Company Expo (Mesh Pack) set (Simmons, 2024) for TXTRs to show properly in game. ALL files with “MESH” in their name are REQUIRED. You may need “move objects” and “grid on/off” cheats to place some objects to your liking. When placing partitions/floating shelves and tables/desks/counters on the same tile, place the partition/shelves first. I recommend using this set with Object Freedom 1.02 (Fway, 2023), which includes Numenor’s fix for OFB shelves (2006), for easier use overall. ITEMS Bookcases (Wood/Color) (110 poly) Client Chair (844 poly) Coffee Tables (262-424 poly) Conference Table (828 poly) (Nightlife EP) Desk Cabinet (68 poly) – may need to shift upwards Desk (96 poly) Desk/Office Chair (1317 poly HIGH) Sofa (1292 poly) – 3-tile version of sofa from reception set (HERE). DOWNLOAD (choose one) from SFS | from MEGA COMPATIBILITY AVOID DUPLICATES: The #co2cdkseries includes edited versions – replacements - for items in the following CC sets: 4ESF (office 3, other 1/artroom, other 2/build), All4Sims/MaleorderBride (miskatonic library, office, postmodern office), CycloneSue (never ending/privacy windows), derMarcel (inx office), Katy76/PC-Sims (bank/cash point, court/law school sets, sim cola machine), Marilu (immobilien office), Murano (ador office), Reflex Sims (giacondo office), Retail Sims/HChangeri (simEx, sps store), Simgedoehns/Tolli (focus kitchen, loft office, modus office), ShinySims (modern windows), Shoukeir via Sims2Play(reverie office, step boxes/shelving), Spaik (sintesi study), Stylist Sims (offices 1,2, & 3, Toronto set), Tiggy027 (wall window frames 1-10), Wall Sims (holly architecture, Ibiza). *The goal is link the objects to the recolors/new functions in the #co2cdkseries without re-inventing the wheel! Credit to the original creators.

CREDITS Thanks: EarlyPleasantview/EPV, Panda, Soloriya, ChocolateCitySim, HugeLunatic, Klaartje, Ocelotekatl, Whoward69, LoganSimmingWolf, Gayars, Ch4rmsing, Ranabluu, Gummilutt, Crisps&Kerosene, LordCrumps, PineappleForest. Sources: Any Color You Like (CuriousB, 2010), Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik). SEE CREDITS (ALT)

[deluxewhump]

You should give Paulo more comfort. Maybe a blanket

John drove all day, north on route 20 to avoid Dallas traffic, then east and east and east into the red sunrise that glowed in the streaks of dust on his windshield where the wipers could not reach.

By the time they were approaching Texarkana, he could tell Paulo had had it. He looked exhausted, the AC that kept the cabin of the truck comfortable for John was making him cold. His two black eyes drew attention everywhere they went, and Paulo knew it. All day he pulled the hood of his new gray Walmart sweatshirt over his head whenever they stopped. It was mostly why John didn’t stop at any diners or restaurants, but got them drive-thru bagels and gas station drinks, stopping only to put gas in the truck or for a bathroom.

Around five pm Paulo dozed off in the passenger seat and woke with a start ten minutes later, breathless and terrified.

“Hey,” John settled, looking back at forth between the boy and the road. “You’re okay. You just fell asleep. You’re safe.”

Paulo unbuckled his seatbelt and flung it off like it had been trying to strangle him, slowly catching his breath. He looked over at John.

John nodded at him. “You’re okay,” he repeated. He held out his hand instinctively, wrist resting on the middle console with fingers spread out in offering. Paulo looked at it for a moment before lifting his own, cautiously, like it might be a trick… like John was going to grab him tightly by the wrist. Gingerly, he set his palm atop John’s. John closed his fingers gently over Paulo’s hand— surprisingly cold— and gave it a friendly squeeze. “It’s okay,” he said again, and merged into the right lane to drop his speed down from eighty to seventy. “Bad dream?”

“I just… I get confused when I fall asleep.”

John nodded to show his understanding. “Your brain forgets you’re safe now.”

The look in his eyes was hungry, almost longing. That’s why John kept talking to him like that, repeating the same comforting things over and over. It seemed to work.

At dusk John pulled into a truck stop adjacent with route 49, which ran all the way down to Shreveport and was therefore a popular trucking route. It was a Navis truck stop, massive and glittering like an oasis in a vast desert of dust and corn and highway. He eyed Paulo as casually as he could, trying to see if he’d picked up on the Navis sign as well. Jack Kinsington lived on the tobacco farm that once made his family rich, but his money today came from being CEO of the successful truck stop chain he started in 96’ with John’s uncle Theo— Navis.

Paulo seemed to recognize it, to know what it meant. He dropped his eyes from the sign, the unmistakable compass rose that made up the letter a. Jack had the same compass rose over the door of the barn where he kept his playthings— racehorses and two-legged pets alike. John pulled up next to a gas pump and put the truck in park.

“You look beat, kid.”

Paulo sat up straighter. “I’m fine. Sorry.”

“You wanna get in back for a while? You can lay down.”

Paulo eyed him, then looked over his shoulder at the backseat of the truck. “Okay,” he said.

John felt satisfied that the suggestion worked. He topped off the truck with gas and went inside for a fresh pack of nicotine pouches. The store was clean and bright. John waited in line beside racks of hats, snow globes, shot glasses. He noticed a rack of blankets and touched one, pleased at how soft it was. He tucked one under his arm and stepped forward to the register.

“Here,” he said back at the truck. “Go ahead and get comfortable.”

Paulo climbed in the back, using one of John’s bags as a makeshift pillow propped against the passenger side door. “I got you this,” he said, turning in his seat to drape the soft blanket over the boy. For a moment Paulo looked surprised, and then took the hem of the blanket to pull it up a little higher. “Thank you,” he breathed, and lay his head against the backpack.

“It’s okay if you want to try to sleep,” John told him. “I want to get a few more hours east before we stop for the night.”

He wanted to say something more, but he couldn’t find the words. Briefly, he reached back and set a hand on Paulo’s shin beneath the blanket and gave a gentle squeeze. “You okay?” he asked, and they both knew he meant it in the immediate sense, because anyone could surmise he was very much not okay in the greater scheme of things.

Paulo nodded, tucking his chin under the blanket in a way that made John want to climb in back with him and offer to hold him if he wanted, if he needed a kind touch. He didn’t know if that would be helpful or welcome after what he had just been through, but he would gladly do it if it would comfort him. Maybe he was being too presumptive. Naive, even. This boy, this traumatized and beaten pet, was tolerating him because he had no choice. He was desperately hopeful, but not yet really trusting. It wouldn’t do to conflate the two. It would be unspeakably cruel to gain his true trust for such a short time, anyway. He’d have to betray him soon and give him back to his rightful master and owner. There was no sane way around it.

“Couple more hours,” he said, and turned forward to put the truck into drive.

(Previous)

[boasamishipper]

writing patterns

rules: share the first line of your last ten published works or as many as you are able and see if there are any patterns!

tagged by the lovely @apartmentsmoke 😘

“I’ll be honest,” Leon informs the rival mariachi bands in front of his bench, “the fact you all got out of that fight without any serious injuries to yourselves or the others in the subway car is pretty…maraca-less.” (from Contributory Negligence, the fourth fic in my Judge Leon 'verse)

Degas woke to the sound of Jasper Briggs shouting at the top of his lungs, which wasn’t unusual. (from won't shake me loose, a pre-canon Degas&Briggs story)

The first time Harry thinks about sleeping with Dan, there’s a blizzard pounding at the windows of his apartment—a blizzard that would have, if not for the fire department, trapped Harry and the others in the courthouse all night with nothing but rough blankets, Twinkies, and Billie’s camp counselor songs. (from Code of Conduct, Harry's POV of the beginning of Judicial Impropriety)

Right about now, Peter really wishes he’d listened to his wife and spent the weekend cozied up at home. (from No Grave Can Hold My Body Down, a 9-1-1 AU where Bobby wakes up with no memory except Athena's name and struggles to find his way home)

Looking at the dishes covering every inch of the dining table, it’s hard to believe that they were all made by the same woman who once couldn’t even scramble eggs. (from Sweetheart Deal, the third fic in my Judge Leon 'verse)

“Look here, darlin’—” (from you should've heard those knocked-out jailbirds sing, my Carole/Goose first meeting fic)

The Hard Deck was packed to the back teeth the first night of the new TOPGUN session, and Hangman felt good. (from Bullseye, my Coyote/Hangman first meeting fic)

In ‘96, Dan left the district attorney’s office for one of the most prestigious law firms in New York. (from Alternative Dispute Resolution, the second fic in my Judge Leon 'verse)

The first time Dan sleeps with Harry, it’s an accident—which Dan knows would get him laughed right out of the courtroom in the case of The People v. Fielding, but it’s the truth, hand on the Bible, so help him God. (from Judicial Impropriety, my Night Court S4 AU fic where Dan and Harry make a bet to see how long they can keep their relationship under wraps)

“For the last time, Ms. Moore, I don’t know a thing about the new judge—” (from Trial de Novo, in which Harry's former foster son Leon becomes the new night court judge and goes looking for Harry, only to find Dan Fielding - Harry's widower - instead. First fic in the Judge Leon 'verse)

well for one i start fics with dialogue a lot less often than i thought i did 😂 i tend towards longer sentences and aim to establish setting and pov right away (if not in the first sentence then over the first paragraph).

tagging @bornforastorm @lookforanewangle @maverickcalf @academicgangster and anyone else who wants to do this

[nautiscarader]

What the hecking heck happened with me - THE UNNECESSARY (and kinda boring) SEQUEL

So you might have noticed I have been absent for the past 2.5 weeks. So, where have I been? What has happened to me?

Well, you see, I got this magical music box, and when I opened it, I was transported into a different world full of talking frogs, toads and-

Wait, I've done this bit already.

....

Yeah, got into hospital. AGAIN.

Same warning as before applies, regarding medical stuff. Especially if you are eating.

Chapter 13: Wednesday Night's fever

So around three weeks ago I found myself really sapped of strength. Well, as you might recall, I basically had a fall and got wounds on my hip. Or to put it in another words:

Well, something from those wounds got infected or something and started affecting my whole body. The effect? Pretty much daily ~38C (~100F) fevers that drained me of energy.

No, buddy, the solution is paracetamol.

That was helping me daily when I was in hospital while getting some long-term antibiotics.

So, yeah, not to blow the trumpet, it was pretty much that: drips, pills, drips, pills, gastroscopy, drips, pi-wait, what did I say AND WHAT IS THIS THING-

Chapter 14: Gastroscopy

So I had to have gastroscopy done, which, in case you don't know is basically a tube with camera being inserted into your esophagus and-

Yeah, not pleasant. But the whole thing lasted only about 10 minutes, and the worst part was the first 30 seconds. So, no biggie. Now, let's talk about....

Chapter 15: Neighbours

Because they were really an odd collection.

First one was just an old dude who hated when I asked to open windows (and of course just as I was admitted spring temps have arrived)

Second one was a detective! In fact he has just solved a murder mystery that happened in the adjacent room! And the murderer was his roommate!

... yeah, he was pretty out of touch with reality, they took him after a day.

And then comes our star: Typical Janush, or Ordinary Janusz, as the Polish meme goes (don't worry if you don't get it)

This absolute unit of Polishness with huuuuge beer belly, bald spot and moustache has brought with him in his bag of holding:

coffee and sugar (nothing spectacular tbh)

TWO different chocolate waffers packs,

two strawberry chocolate bars,

Toffee sweets,

coffee sweets,

TWO different types of sausages,

home-made chicken wings,

and a jar of pickled mushrooms (fereality-indy DNI)

What else did he have in it? I don't know, and frankly, I am scared of the possibilities. This guy could give Mary Poppins a run when it comes to that bag.

He cursed like a sailor when he watched the news - and he watched all the news, he was funding the TV, so he might as well get what he's paid for.

He was also... really kind. He helped me with everything I couldn't do, sometimes faster than the nurses. Really awesome dude.

And the last one who was admitted JUST as I was leaving, was a 96-year old grandpa with some gastric problems. What problems? I don't know, but imagine a cat coughing up a furball... at a volume of a small steam locomotive. At 2 a.m. Every half an hour.

i only had to deal with him for a day.

He also brought... a flask with him.

The one they usually sell spirytus in. Now, it did NOT contain alcohol, just lemon-flavoured water.... but you had to see the nurse's reaction when he was seen casually drinking from it :) He was politely told to use other vessels.

And as a bonus, there was a guy in adjacent room who sometimes visited us and wore a curious t-shirt.... you know the "how do you do fellow kids" meme, right?

and how they just wrote "music band" in order to avoid problems with AC/DC copyright?

Well, his T-shirt had a generic basketball and words "Basketball Team est. 1992". And that's it. No other allusions to, say, Chicago Bulls, or any other team. Just that.

We have reached singularity, people.

Chapter 16: In conclusion, it was mostly boring

Yeah, I have to admit, this stay wasn't that eventful, which I guess I should count as blessing. What else to add... Oh, all the nurses were h*cking cute!

One even recognised me from my first visit!

So, yeah, now I've done the unpacking, and oh boy, you always collect lots of stuff you then forget about.

Like-

Wait, the heck is that?

It... it looks like I have written a 4k Glitch Techs G-rated fic... on my phone! Which has non-existent keyboard! Wait, that can't be right...

It's mostly done, but not finished... Still, it's a shame if it got wasted, right?

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME I'M SO FUCKING BEHINDDD ok ok monday we did ds9's "trials and tribble-ations" and "let he who is without sin..." then tuesday we did voy's "future's end parts i & ii," and finally wednesday we did voy's "warlord" and ds9's "things past."

trials and tribble-ations (ds9):

ohhh i wish i'd had time to write about this when it was fresher on my mind. what a wonderful experience and episode. i feel like i got spoiled for the concept of it but it was still so amazing because i just genuinely COULD NOT BELIEVE they could do that. like, the entire thing felt like magic to me. it's not as if they could ask william shatner to reshoot - they could only used what they had from back then. and they made it work and they made it look SO GOD, like, not just for the 90s, but for today. the lighting, the resolution, the colors...everything was flawless. o'brien and bashir in that lineup??? like i wouldn't have known if i didn't know. jesus christ

did i spend a lot of time crying because i was so overwhelmed with my deep adoration for spock? yes. maybe i screamed aloud when he came on my screen. who can say. dax being a spock girlie is so fucking correct by the way i bet william shatner wanted to kermit when that aired. also good on her for bagging mccoy although i think it would have been funnier if she hadn't said which body she was in so we could have fun speculating about bones having sex with men <3

THEM THROWING THE TRIBBLES THAT WOUND UP IN KIRK'S CLEAVAGE...............iconique

odo baby talking the tribbles. incredible. also, worf and the klingon head ridge lore which shall never be explained

and of course let's NOT forget kirk making the sex eyes at sisko. they took that footage from the mirrorverse ep when he was ogling our universe's version of marlena. KIRK CANONICALLY DTF SISKO. CANONICALLY INTO MEN. DIE MAD ABOUT IT. it was so cool and heartwarming but also INCREDIBLY fucking funny

also. ABSOLUTELY gratified they brought some back to ds9 and got away with it. sisko is so fucking cool i love when he rule breaks

just an absolutely magical experience. like, it really blew my mind because i didn't think it was something that could be done. one of the greatest examples of trek pushing the limits of possibility

let he who is without sin... (ds9):

man i wanna like worf in ds9 so bad but like...does he feel off to anyone else? from how he was in tng? don't get me wrong i love ds9 and hated tng and worf in ds9 is Fine the way he was also Fine in tng but i just cant see tng worf cooperating with extremists who are also doing a bit of light terrorism. he'd call them dishonorable and send them packing even if he did agree

also, like, he killed a kid in soccer? by headbutting him? that's tragic backstory but like also kind of ridiculous and funny? i can't believe they played that totally straight. he soccered a kid to death.

anyway, everybody's outfits were very good. i loved dax's mermaid look

also SOOO glad leeta and julian are breaking up so she can get with ROM!!!!!!!! my best friend rom...he deserves so much happiness and i hope they stay together forever and ever amen

anyway like it was Fine im glad dax and worf are back on track but also what the hell...it was very baffling to me as well

future's end parts i & ii (voy):

this one was also Fine. like, the plot didn't make a bit of sense - i thought the 90s in trek were supposed to be some kind of hell hole but after watching space seed they may have just barely gotten by - the eugenics wars ended in 96. still, LA did not look like an area recently decimated by eugenics wars. i'm really interested in that era of trek history, where it veers off from our own history, but so much of it seems muddy and in conflict with itself, which is a bummer

that said, i did have fun watching janeway and chakotay have like a little earth date together. also good for the doc for getting to run around freely now, and sarah silverman was v fun even if she could totally do better than tom paris. everybody's outfits were extremely fun even though tuvok's was uh. well.

HOWEVER. the limited amount of fun i was having was kind of uhhh canceled out by the. random white supremacists??? especially wild choice considering the eugenics wars didn't involve white supremacy because their number one guy was KHAN like what the hell???

i wish i had more to say about it but it was just a genuinely baffling experience. mostly fun, but baffling. the plot was like swiss cheese

warlord (voy):

OKAY THIS ONE WAS FUN. we got off to an extremely rough start (neelix foot massage complete with sex noises) and there was that neelix and kes fight post possession that i hated because it sort of shouted out to my least favorite arc in all of voyager, but AFTER we got into man

man are you ever so tiny and helpless and nice and then you get to go ape shit. good for HER

like yeah fine she was possessed but she got to menace him herself in the end too

her body language was so incredible. she's like so tiny and yet she owned the entire room when she was strutting around like that. i loved her guy voice. i loved watching her murder people in cold blood. i loved whatever lgbt thing they almost did and then pussied out of doing

AND I LOVED. THE SCENE WITH TUVOK. man that dude can ACT. it was so tense and so good and technically he's kissed a man on screen now. i did go back and rewatch that several times because tuvok is my best friend and it was so evil and horrid >:)

anyway absolutely banger of an ep. could ahve stood less neelix but this is true of most voyager episodes

things past (ds9):

OOOOOOH MY BEST FRIEND ODO HAS DONE SOME CRIMES

i really went into this thinking garak was gonna like Learn A Lesson about the occupation because he was gonna be in it without his status as a cardassian to protect him but instead we outed odo as a fuck-up. and you know? good for him

like i felt a little defensive about it at first because it almost seemed like we were just trying to knock odo down a peg when he's already Suffering but the more i think about it the more sense it makes. like, his desire for order is intrinsic to his species, but that desire for order led to something terrible happening, and then by the time he's met kira he has enough self doubt and worry about the consequences of false accusations that he LETS HER GO despite having actually found the correct murderer. it's so delicious

and then the scene at the end where she's like horrified. the way he was horrified when he found out she lied. AUGHGHGHG parallels i can't wait until 1000 years from now when they get together

also, hi, dukat??? like i knew he was a bad person but i thought he was a bad person in like a fun way. sisko's gay little friend who sent him fireworks for his road trip and sat on one of those little spines for kira. but he's like a bAD bad person. was that leeta dax was supposed to have been, in his office? leeta deserves to kill him actually. and like, WHTY is he so into bajoran women. i think we know. like sure siyal's mom was "in love with him" like ok dude. of course he tried to kill ziyal. of COURSE kira was like no she can stay on the station far away from you :)

idk it's like a great reminder that even people who are funny and seem nice and harmless are capable of absolutely unforgiveable acts and all people are layered. everyone is human and everyone has the capacity for being inhumane. etcetc. very good. every time dukat is on screen he gets more interesting

i do kind of wish we had gotten more from garak though...? it feels like he's just There some episodes. i miss when he had more content with bashir go back to queerbaiting us!!!

TONIGHT: voy's "q and the grey" (GROSS) and ds9's "the ascent," or possibly "first contact," or possibly star wars, who knows

[faithintaiwan]

july 16 - national palace museum & chiang kai shek shilin residence

It was so hard to wake up this morning after staying up late with Fanny and Caleb to watch Love Island, but I had a savior coming: the party bus!! We finally didn't have to squeeze into and wait for the MRT and walk in 96 degree daily heat to get places! Our first stop was the National Palace Museum which houses almost 700,000 artifacts from the Forbidden Palace. Everything was absolutely gorgeous including the stone that looked like a braised pork! I'm just so sad that the cabbage was not on display too. I tried to convince Fanny to buy a mini version of the pork and cabbage but her dad told her not to since they aren't real jade... That blue bowl up above that's about the size of my hand is estimated to be worth about 34 million dollars too.

Then we went to lunch at a Mongolian BBQ place. Peter said we had to eat at least five bowls but I was wiped by my second one. I really packed in the meat, though, so I felt like it was enough. After, we went to Chiang Kai Shek's home that he stayed in the longest out of all his residences and walked around. Fanny and I were so sleepy, though, so as soon as we got back to the hotel I knocked out only to awake to her laughing...

Its ok I guess because we got mcdonalds and chips and drinks and yapped... Bar crawl tomorrow could save us!!

Academic Reflection

The National Palace Museum was our first stop. Peter explained how the treasures are all from the Forbidden Palace and were transported to the lower regions of China when Japan was invading then to Taiwan during the civil war. Almost 700,000 artifacts were packed into over 20,000 large crates for the transport and the museum has so many that they rotate them every three months. There were various kinds of relics in different exhibits from furniture that royals used to use opium to various porcelain pieces decorated with dragons. Only the emperor could use dragons with five claws and lower officials could use three. Counting the number of claws on different treasures to find out who used it was so fun! Peter also pointed out an ivory ball with 24 different layers and explained that in the past commissioning and creating such an intricate thing was easy because the emperor would just threaten the artist's whole family!!

Then we went to Chiang Kai Shek's residence that he stayed in for 26 years according to Peter. Him and his wife would host dignitaries from many countries including Dwight D Eisenhower and Nixon in their living spaces. His wife was also an artist who would often paint plants to display on the walls or as gifts for guests. They can be seen in some of the photos above. As devout Christians, their upstairs living space was used for prayer and Bible study so on the wall there is a photo of Jesus and Chiang Kai Shek's mother.

[herwrittenuniverse]

Happy 1 Year AO3 Anniversary to me!

Yes, I'm that weirdo that remembers the one year anniversary of joining AO3. 23, however, is my favorite number, and it was also the beginning of the school year - I think that's why it's so distinct!

Last year, I was looking to do more things that I love, so I said "fuck it" and decided to post a chapter to a fic I hadn't updated in years and years on a different fanfiction website. A longtime reader/ fanfic author @butterflydreaming-writes-fic contacted me and basically said, "Girl, you gotta get on AO3. It's where it's at!" And one year later, here we are!

Here are some totals for you...

Of course, I know some other authors have higher stats then me, and that's okay. I'm proud that in just a year, I've accumulated over 1000 kudos, over 200 bookmarks, and over 21,000 hits. It's very gratifying.

I have 23 stories in total, but not all of them of new. Some are old ones that I reposted from a different website. Out of those 23, 9 are Cardcaptor Sakura, 2 are Final Fantasy VII, and a whopping 12 are of The Dragon Prince (with more to come on the way! I'm in the groove now.)

My most popular story based on hits is Lunation, my interpretation of the reconciliation between Rayla and Callum. I worked the hardest on this fic and am happy to see it still remains at my most popular piece. (Although, some of the shorter, sillier ones from S5 are quickly approaching its numbers, and I admit I will be kind of sad if it's no longer at the top! 😂) On the other end, my least popular is Red Lite, Green Lite, which is a silly little fic about Vincent Valentine going about Midgar trying to get a cigarette. It's quite funny.

The first not-reposted original story was Promises, Promises - a take on Callum's fatal promise to Rayla. ("You have to kill me.") I've never written such an action-packed piece and I am pretty proud of it. Even when rereading it, I still feel the urgent tone that carries itself throughout the story.

My most underrated fic is definitely To Those Who Crossed Over, a weirdly experimental story about how Touya from CCS - a naturally gifted clairvoyant - comes face-to-face with another medium, causing some interesting in-depth insight about Yue. While it's not the norm, it definitely is an interesting read.

In the next year, I would love to post some other fandoms (like RWBY, for example) and perhaps continue/expand on the CCS fic To Love Another. It's a story about Touya coming to terms with who Yukito/Yue are as a person. It is definitely the most quietly popular fic, with no comments but 96 kudos and 18 bookmarks.

Also, I want to simply continue to write. I put a lot of pressure on myself when it comes to fanfiction. Character and canon accuracy are important to me, but I am slowly realizing that fanfiction can be whatever you want it to be. And that's the beauty of it.

Remember, fanfiction writers do it for nothing except the love of our fandom. We take time out of our days to pour our hearts into stories for you to read. I'm so grateful to AO3, as the website allows us a safe space to do that. (I always donate when the time comes, and if you read or write on AO3, you should too!)

In the past year, I rebranded and created my online personal as HerWrittenUniverse because I felt like I was entering another era of fandom. In addition, fanfiction has personally opened up so many door for me. It's giving me a healthy way to express my love for a fandom, challenged me to increase my writing skills, and opened up doors to friendships that I never though possible. So thank you to Cris for kicking my butt and getting me on AO3, thank you to my fellow fandom friends for supporting me (and everyone else!), and thank you to the readers. Fanfiction writers create for themselves - but the support is always nice, too!

Cheers to another year on AO3!

[cazort]

Space: Above and Beyond (1995-96) is somewhat of a forgotten show and sometimes I feel like it gets the short end of the stick in today's society because liberals hate it because it glorifies the Marines, has a distinctly US-based patriotic flavour, and depicts liberal politicians as corrupt, whereas conservatives hate it because of its inescapable anti-racist and anti-fascist commentary, its criticism of the military-industrial complex, and its depiction of the ugliest sides of war.

I kinda love it though. It is a difficult show to watch, touching on heavy topics, and there is a lot of violence and death in it in pretty much every episode. I normally dislike violence in TV or movies but something about how it is depicted in this show I love. It doesn't shy away from showing all the different aspects of violence, from the dehumanization of the enemy (both how it is cultivated in military culture and in how it plays out on the battlefield), to PTSD from survivors, to grief from those who lose loved ones.

Another thing that actual war veterans have told me is unrealistic about most TV and movie depiction of war, is how it is depicted as much neater and clearer than it is. Veterans have told me that two things are consistently omitted from TV and movies: on the one hand, just how much waiting and boredom there is in the military, and how this occupies the overwhelming majority of time. And then, on the other hand, how in actual combat it can be completely overwhelming and it happens so fast and you have no idea what is going on, pure chaos. Even if aspects of the show are still unrealistic, this show seems to nail both of these key aspects and I have seen veterans praising it online on both counts. Most of the show is shot from the perspective of soldiers on the ground and you never see a more complete picture than they see, and more often than not, they are confused and overwhelmed, and their communications get knocked out much of the time too.

Last night we watched the episode Who Observes the Birds which is kinda wild as a work of art, it aired in 1996, and it's a sci-fi episode that has almost no dialogue in it at all. It's basically one character in enemy territory getting shot at and struggling to survive, and it has a bunch of flashbacks that give him backstory.

It also is just brutally moving emotionally like you see this moment of empathy when this guy has been shot at, and then he's waiting and he sees this beautiful alien bird fly overhead. And then this enemy soldier walks into sight and he has this straight line of sight to shoot him, and he's about to do it, and then he sees the enemy soldier get distracted by the same beautiful bird and stop and look up at it as it soars overhead and he can't do it and it's just like gut-wrenching.

The whole episode is packed with this, like there are a bunch of different interactions that span the full range from dehumanization of the enemy to fleeting moments of empathy, and you also see that the guy also starts hallucinating when he is alone in the war zone too long.

This show is not for the faint of hearted, it has a lot of graphic violence and it will definitely ruffle some feathers no matter where you are on the political spectrum, but if you want to see some sci-fi that has good character development and gives a more realistic take on the ugly aspects of war, I can't recommend this show enough. And of course like so many good shows it was cancelled after one season.

[bomberqueen17]

yah ok

well as expected i got like zero time for tumblr now that i am at the farm full time. what haven't i updated about lately.... hmmmmm....

oh my finger is healing very well, i pulled the stitches out myself after researching it and getting good advice from a couple of friends, and it's totally closed up, healed super clean-- thanks hydrocolloid band-aids!!!-- and it'll be a scar but not a gnarly one. the tip of my finger is still ssssort of numb, which is a bummer, but it's improving i think. I can't grip things with the pad of that finger because pressure hurts in a shocky kind of way, but that's also improving slowly. I can otherwise use my hand as normal and it's safe to get it wet, which is good because I've had to have it submerged in water almost constantly since i got here, between egg-washing and cleaning and the 165 lbs of pork sausage we're making this week and cleaning and doing dishes and egg-washing did i mention. (I washed and packed 96 dozen fucking chicken eggs on Monday and Tuesday. Come buy some goddamned eggs, locals. I've eaten so many.)

I don't think I posted about my propane fake-woodstove out in the cabin. BIL bought it for me off Facebook Marketplace, and set it up for me-- I've bought the stuff for the cabin, it's my cabin, but he bought this and wouldn't even tell me how much it was, which was sweet of him. It's real real cute, and it hooks up to a thermostat, but I have not used it that way; the cabin is well-insulated enough that what I do is I turn it on when I get there in the evening, sit in front of it until it's time for bed, and then turn it off, and since it's spring it hasn't been a problem to just wake up and come down and maybe turn it on for a little bit while I get dressed but maybe just deal. The cabin holds the heat well enough it's not been too bad. I'll put a photo of it behind the cut.

What else! I don't know that there's much else. Oh yeah I did spend the weekend in NYC, traveled down on the train with Dude and then he stayed on the train back out to Buffalo on Monday when I got off in Albany. I was just on Manhattan tho, I didn't go anywhere. I just visited my beloved mammoth in the museum of natural history, and about drowned in all that rain, and wikipedia-spiraled about the Dead Rabbits, as one does.

OK time for a photo of my fake woodstove.

[image description: the corner of a wooden-walled interior, featuring what looks like a cast iron woodstove with a glass front, except the fire is very blue and weirdly even.] It's not quite that blue in real life, the phone was doing stupid exposure-adjustment tricks which makes it look like fairy fire. But it's kinda pretty IRL too, I promise.

Also very cozy, so, I'll take it.