#while i make ed and marcos

[galexystern]

all's fair in love and chicken

pairing; eddie munson/reader

rating; T

warnings; lots of fluff, a tiny bit of angst, love confessions, pining, getting together

word count; 2.1k

desc; robin and steve dare you and eddie to a game of girls vs. boys chicken. eddie has something up his sleeve that changes everything.

masterlist

The first thing you see after stepping inside the Harrington mansion is Robin looking guilty as sin. It makes you uneasy, and you immediately want to walk over and demand what the fuck that expression is for, but it’s the annual pool party bash and you’re carrying the first bottles of booze its seen and Steve is already ushering you to the backyard so you can set them down on the makeshift bar.

“Thank god you’re here,” he mutters under his breath. “People have been clamoring for drinks for half an hour.”

“Only like a fourth of them can legally drink,” you point out. When you reach the table, he helps you unload and set up so guests can pour their own concoction.

“And they’re bossy as fuck.”

You laugh, half-forgetting Robin’s mysterious guilt, and arrange the liquor just so. Steve excuses himself and runs into the house to get ice, and another boy almost instantly takes his place.

“Hey, princess,” Eddie says, surprising you and making you knock a bottle of vodka over. He deftly catches it and stands it upright.

You turn to him with a look. He’s grinning devilishly, loving that he spooked you. You’re notoriously easy to startle, and despite the fact that you’re secretly in love with him and have been for two years, the trick got old a long time ago. You hold back the smile threatening to bloom and narrow your eyes in annoyance. Eddie’s eyes get wider in response, doe-like, and his mouth turns down into the cutest pout. After a few seconds, you sigh and finally grin, forgiving him quickly. It’s a tried-and-true routine you two have done since you became friends.

“Hi, Eds,” you reply, hoping your lovesickness doesn’t ooze too obviously. You always think you sound so gooey, but he’s never picked up on it. This time is no different.

“Get you a drink?”

“Yes, please. Our usual.”

“One Munson Special coming up.”

You chuckle and take a few steps away to claim a free beach chair. You set your bag down and shuck off your clothes, stuffing them away. You test your bare feet on the concrete, but it’s too hot, so you keep your flip-flops on for now.

“Here you go–”

You spin around in concern as the end of Eddie’s sentence turns into a choked sound. You find him staring at you with huge eyes and a slightly open mouth. You move closer to him. “Are you okay?” You ask worriedly.

He blinks and then nods jerkily, practically throwing your cup at you. You avoid the liquid that splashes over the edge and take it carefully. You’re still looking at Eddie, unsure what could be wrong, but he just swallows and smiles reassuringly. “Something in my throat,” he explains, and you exhale in relief.

“Good. You can’t choke here otherwise Steve will be the one doing CPR.”

He barks out a laugh. “I’d sooner die.”

Your mouth twists, wanting to smile but holding back somewhat. “Be nice,” you chide half-heartedly. “He’s our friend now.”

He makes a disgruntled face. “I guess.” You look at him with petulant sternness and his expression softens. “I’ll try. Only for you, princess.”

Your heart flutters and you take a gulp of your drink to hide your quick breaths. He can’t just say things like that. He takes a sip as well, and you two settle into a comfortable silence. You take a look around the party, watching as the kids splash around and play Marco Polo in the pool, and eyeing as Steve and Robin bicker while she throws obvious longing glances at Vickie, who is sitting with her feet in the water and both pretending not to notice and trying not to blush. Nancy and Jonathan are sitting in the hot tub, having what seems to be a lively discussion with Jeff, Grant, and Gareth. Hopper, Joyce, and the rest of the adults are at the back, manning the grill and pointedly avoiding the shenanigans everyone else is getting into.

You turn back to Eddie to find him looking at you. Your head rears back a little, not expecting his gaze, and he quickly averts his eyes and takes a drink. A light blush spreads across his cheeks and towards his ears. You want to pull his hair away from his face to see if the tips are red as well, but keep your hands to yourself.

You’re admiring how tan he’s looking, the deep tone of his skin gleaming golden, when Robin shouts your name from across the patio. Both you and Eddie turn towards her; she’s speed-walking over with an annoyed Steve in tow. “Dingus here thinks we can’t beat him and Eddie in chicken,” she says when she arrives.

You blink. “What?”

“The game chicken, where two people fight while on the shoulders of other people?”

“Okay,” you reply slowly.

“Steve thinks boys would ‘obviously’ win over girls.” You raise your eyebrows at him and he shrugs, shy now that his and Robin’s argument has involved more than just them. Robin continues, “‘Obviously’ he’s wrong. But he won’t accept it until you and Eddie actually join us for a round.”

You glance at Eddie, who shoots you a grin. “I’m down if you are, princess,” he says cheekily.

At his smug tone, your competitive spirit comes alive. You look at Robin and nod. “Let’s wipe the floor with them.”

She whoops and drags you both to the pool. She and Steve slide in and stand at the edge so you and Eddie can sit on their shoulders. There’s a lump in your throat when you swallow; you didn’t think it’d be you two on top and fighting so close. But you can’t back out now, so you just focus on balancing as Robin walks further in.

She turns and there Eddie is, smiling mischievously, surprisingly stable atop Steve. His eyes sparkle in the sun and his tattoos stand out like they’re three-dimensional. You lock stares, and he runs a finger across his neck in a threat. Your eyes narrow as you mouth, You’re going down.

“Alright, are we ready?” Steve asks, sickly sweet. It’s purely for Robin’s sake, and she immediately replies, “Go!”

You lunge forward and grab Eddie’s biceps, his hands clamping onto yours. You grapple, pushing and pulling in any effort to destabilize the other, Robin and Steve compensating for your movements below. It’s a tough battle, but at some point, you’re leaning all the way into Eddie’s space and he’s precariously teetering backwards. You feel a triumphant smile start to form when he does the unexpected.

He kisses you.

It’s a soft, short peck, but it shocks you so much that you fall back, all the way off Robin’s shoulders and into the water. Once you’re submerged, it’s like time slows down, and you try to comprehend that Eddie just kissed you. 

Eddie kissed you.

All to win this stupid game.

“That was definitely cheating!” Robin is yelling when you surface, inhaling oxygen desperately and pushing your hair out of your face.

“It was not!” Steve shouts back. “All’s fair!”

The two continue to argue, and you look at Eddie. He’s mysteriously quiet but half-grinning, and your fury grows. You stalk away–as much as you can while underwater–and pull yourself out of the pool. You detour to your chair to grab your towel, and then you’re racing inside, up the stairs to Steve’s guest room, where you’ve stayed a couple times after late nights. You slam the door shut behind you and sit on the bed, not caring if you’re dripping on the duvet.

You’re shaken and upset, and you can’t believe Eddie would do something like that to win a game of chicken. If you didn’t like him romantically, it would be misleading and give the wrong idea, and Robin was right–it is cheating.

A knock comes on the door, and it slowly swings open to reveal the man himself. “Princess? Are you okay?” You just glare at him in response, and he steps inside and closes the door behind him. “What’s wrong? Did you inhale water?”

If you weren’t so upset, you’d be touched by his concern. “You’re a fucking asshole,” you seethe. “I can’t believe you would do that just to win. That’s such gross bro behavior.”

He’s wide-eyed. “What? No, I’d never do that.”

“You just did!”

“No!” He runs a hand over his face. “That’s not why I did it.”

“Then why?” You grit out.

“Well, Robin told me that you liked me–”

You suddenly remember Robin’s face from the beginning of the party and understand. She’d blabbed to Eddie that you were in love with him and felt guilty for doing so. Well, she fucking should.

“That’s worse!” Your face burns in embarrassment and anger. “You used my feelings against me to win instead. Real nice.”

“Will you listen to me?” Eddie pleads. “I didn’t believe her, you’re way out of my league, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And when we were playing, you were so close and you smelled so good and your lips looked so nice, I couldn’t help myself and kissed you.” His entire face is tomato red. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you lose. I wasn’t even thinking about the game, just you.”

“I don’t understand. Are you saying you like me now?”

“Now? I’ve been in love with you for two years, princess. I just didn’t think you’d like me back.”

You stare at him. “What?”

“Yeah.” He sighs. “I’m sorry. I can leave.”

But before he can turn away, you’re leaping forward and pulling him into a heated kiss. He’s surprised by it, stiff and still, and you think wildly that you’ve finally gotten him back for scaring you all those times. Eventually, his brain catches up and he melts, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you flush against him. His lips are soft and warm, and it’s leagues better than the kiss in the pool, and you don’t want to stop but you’ve gotta breathe at some point. You two break apart panting, gazing at each other for a minute until you both burst into laughter. Your foreheads meet as you shake with it, and when the giggles fade away you’re still resting against each other.

“You’re an idiot,” you tell him fondly, and he chuckles. “I’ve been in love with you for two years too. I thought I was so obvious about it.”

“No, you’re right. I’m just an idiot,” he replies, making you snort. “But I could tell after Robin told me.”

“That doesn’t count! If she hadn’t, you still wouldn’t know.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

You’re about to argue some more when he captures your mouth again, and you sink into the kiss. You run your hands through his hair, pulling inadvertently, and he moans a little. You pull away with a smile, hands poised to do it again, but he holds them still.

“Don’t give me a boner at a pool party,” he begs. “I’d never live it down.”

You laugh. “Alright. Only for you, Eds.”

He smiles softly. “I love you, princess.”

“I love you too,” you reply with heart eyes at full power.

He steps back. “We really gotta go back now, or I will have a boner for the rest of the night.”

You shake your head with a grin and take his outstretched hand. You two walk downstairs and out to the backyard, where the festivities are in full swing. Steve and Robin are near the doors, still bickering. When she spots you, she gasps your name.

“Are you okay?” She asks worriedly.

You nod. “I’m fine. But we will be talking later.” She blushes and that guilty expression returns. But then she sees your hand intertwined with Eddie’s and it retreats somewhat. She smiles triumphantly, and you can already tell your stern talking-to will go in one ear and out the other. “And,” you continue, “I want a rematch.”

“Let’s do it!” Eddie shouts and pulls you towards the pool. He pushes you in, but you hold tight to his hand and drag him under with you. Once Steve and Robin have joined, you maneuver yourselves on their shoulders. You and Eddie make playful threatening motions, you wrestle heatedly, and then there’s cheering from you and Robin as the boys topple backwards into the water. They surface, spluttering from the impact, and Eddie immediately goes after you. You screech with laughter as you weakly attempt to run from him, and he catches you around the waist and lifts you above the water. You squeal with the movement, and after lowering you, he kisses you. You beam with love in the summer sun.

[delmondo]

top mpb picks?

welcome fellow Warrior Brasileira

Ed Motta's Entre e Ouca, a personal favorite of mine which has a kind of funk-motown vibe all around to it. i don't think he's ever sonically returned to this kind of stuff, especially after 2002's highly acoustic and contemporary-classical Dwitza (another personal fav). the titular track (Entre e Ouca) pretty much solidified his status in my mind as my personal goat. also, give Agora Que o Dia Acordou a listen. the piano solo at 2:15 is bright, full, and deeply nostalgic-sounding.

Cassiano's Cedo ou T*rde - from what i understand, this album came out a good while after cassiano made his mark in mpb history. *anthony fantano voice* SoNiCalLy it's aged by its heavy reliance on the synths du jour, even including a then-contemporary arragement of the titular track (originally released in 1973) which i'm sure rolled some eyes here and there. however, i completely and utterly love shit like this. it's like when Joni Mitchell released her 1985 album Dog eat Dog which, according to the worst-possible-faith interpretations by critics, was a desperate clamber, or a corporately-calculated measure to maintain her relevance in an increasingly dance-music-oriented world. however, much of that so-called context is removed when listening or viewing as a woefully-uninformed outside observer decades later, allowing you to make a much clearer-headed assessment.

Cedo ou Tarde (1991) reads way less as a struggle to maintain relevance on its face, however, but it shares that exact departure from his sonic identity in a quantifiably similar way, esp with the choice of instrumentation. i highly recommend listening to Septembro off this album. it's rife with complex time signature shit as well as a very meandering progression (without sounding Pedantic or Ostentatious). it's highly skillful and the fact that it's like, hidden in a oft-forgotten adult contemporary album imparts upon it a kind of mystique.

Robson Jorge and Lincoln Olivetti's very eponymous album - i have a personal conviction which is that i think 1982 is the last year typically-70s-sounding music was made. i think as soon as you enter 1983, you got that signature 80s sound. thriller came out, little red corvette, in brazil's case you got Marcos Valle's ALSO eponymous LP on the airwaves. anyway, Jorge and Olivetti's kind of last Sonic Hurrah was a nice departure from the overly yachty sound that was popular around the late 70s. a lot of it is very loose and quick, especially the track Aleluia. i highly recommend listening to their cover of Rita Lee's Baila Comigo. the honky tonk drives the entire first half of the song.

[doomerpatrol]

Comic Log: Fall Reads

A selection of comics I read during the season!

Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett: Salivating over this series like a madwoman. Very rewarding if you have familiarity with the Hulk as a character but also immensely satisfying on its own. A mix of body, cosmic, supernatural and psychological horror that uses those elements to explore the different social and personal meanings of anger and its relationship to human suffering.

Favorite Arc/Issue: Lots of competition but "Hulk in Hell," which sees Hulk in his initial confrontation with the One Below All manifesting in his abusive father, is high up there.

Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka: Has no right to be as good as it is. A weaker and less thoughtful comic would let the police be constantly or regularly victorious, a triumphalism incongruent with the larger depiction of Gotham in the Batman mythos. Instead we get a police procedural about failure, about how the goodness vanishes or shrinks inside an institution, about how it feels to be fighting against such an all-encroaching corruption that you can only shadowbox - an evil that only a symbol, a myth, can defeat. Also highly intertextual in an enjoyable way, particularly with Greg Rucka's other DC Comics work.

Favorite Arc/Issue: Another bounty of choices, but the bleakness of "Half a Life," which sees Renee Montoya outed by Two-Face, is a personal favorite. The two "Corrigan" arcs that mark the midpoint and conclusion of the series are also very good and thematically pointed.

Black Widow by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee: A perfectly enjoyable spy comic that doesn't do anything more interesting than Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuña's shorter and more engrossing "Name of the Rose" story, with significantly flimsier character writing. However, Samnee's art and action are very dynamic, and beautifully colored by Matt Wilson. Perfectly fine popcorn comic.

Punisher by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto: Not my favorite story - Punisher or otherwise - but the creative team is able to effectively make the Punisher seem more like a spectral urban myth, a killing corpse, which I think is the kind of characterization decision that is necessary to make Punisher stories interesting and non-repulsive at all. Binding Castle's story to another person is the usual trick, and Rucka's deployment of Rachel Alves is a good choice.

Action Comics by Phillip Kennedy Johnson (and Superman and the Authority by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin): The first half of this run is now one of my favorite Superman comics, the "Warworld Saga," which sees a Superman with waning powers heading off-world with a ragtag strike force to liberate the planet of Warworld and rescue a refugee group. This portion of the run allows Johnson to explore the character's Mosaic qualities through a role as liberator, as well as to cut to the heart of him by stripping away all the trappings while he and the team are defeated, depowered, and imprisoned or scattered. The wrap-up is not quite neat enough for my liking, but overall it's very strong pulp fiction with a lot of interesting science-fantasy ideas and a great alternative look at the character that introduces some solid changes (like Superman adopting two refugee children).

Unfortunately Johnson's run is more inconsistent upon Clark's return to Earth, where he tries to take on a more activist role through various means. While there's a very strong arc centered around Metallo, the closer Johnson gets to topical political issues, the more the series fumbles. After Warworld, Johnson's main emphasis is critiquing anti-migrant attitudes and violence, but his approach is...a little banal. This culminates when the conclusion has Superman defeat an other-dimensional sorceress, who has been covertly promoting racist anti-alien politics to advance her project of...invading and conquering our dimension. It's kind of bizarrely self-contradictory and also does a disservice to the weight of the subject it's dealing with.

We also got a Grant Morrison miniseries that fills in how Superman went about recruiting his Warworld strike team, which I feel neutral-positive towards. The art is nice, some of the character writing is quite strong, but ultimately it's a very rushed and bloated work with a little too much going on, and it would be nice if it was more tied into Johnson's work. I always think Morrison is at their best when they have prolonged time to take advantage of serialization (i.e. Doom Patrol) or when they have to do it within a singular vision (i.e. Arkham Asylum). Their series with three to six issues usually leave me colder, and that holds here.

Favorite Arc/Issue: Favorite arcs are the "Warworld Saga" and the shorter "House of Metallo."

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade: Beautifully drawn and colored, this creator-owned work sees Kali, Goddess of Death, cast out from divinity to inhabit the body of a recently deceased woman, and pursuing the man who is expected to invent human immortality. It ends up being an exploration of the social meaning of death - rituals, memories, relationships - with a supernatural twist. It's quite lovely, I just wish it was longer (and also had some more exploration of Laila, the woman who killed herself and whose body was assumed by Kali, as well as female characters in general).

Favorite Issue: My favorite issues were 2 and 3; the former a look at death rituals and casteism informing a relationship, and the latter from the perspective of a smoldering cigarette, an embodiment of entropy.

Daredevil by Mark Waid: Starts out with a strong premise and some really inventive artwork and lettering that better represents the titular character's "radar sense." Initially, it's unfortunately constrained by a few too many crossovers (though still enjoyable), and an intersecting problem is that I don't love the "Megacrime" plot that dominates the first quarter of the run. However, not long after Samnee comes on board, I think the series became one of my all time favorites.

My favorite aspect of Waid's writing is his grasp of character voices - his themes and plots are usually less impressive to me. That really shines through here with a take on Matt Murdock that downplays (but still incorporates) his Catholic guilt and depression, and instead emphasizes more of his affability, his cockiness, his disability, and his relationships. Also I really enjoy getting to see him do lawyer stuff again, particularly from an activist approach, after too long without that aspect of his life getting any attention.

Favorite Arc/Issues: Tough choice, and it does read best as one long story, but I'd say the "Purple Children" arc is a personal favorite and is kind of a thematic centerpiece of the run. The initial Megacrime arc - though the story ends up running too long - is also really enjoyable as it fulfills the premise of Matt as a legal coach to clients nobody else will touch.

Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca: I don't love Iron Man comics, generally speaking, because the kinds of ideas and symbols the character carries aren't ones I find super interesting relative to other characters (liberal techno-progressivism, corporate espionage, anti-communism). However, I did enjoy this series overall, partially because of Larocca's weird air-brushed art (which isn't always kind to human characters, who can look a bit uncanny, but looks great in the action scenes and spreads), partially because it's a pretty dense text with a lot of moving parts and bold creative ideas (often inspired by now commonplace contemporaneous tech developments - the iPhone, drones, electric cars, etc.) and finally because it is willing to treat Tony Stark as what he is: a dick. But Fraction makes him an interesting dick, someone who is constantly in pursuit of rebuilding himself as something better and someone he doesn't have to hate. The main knock I have towards it is that there are so many different threads that they don't all get tied together in the neatest way, but such is the plight of serialization.

Favorite Arcs/Issues: "World's Most Wanted" puts Stark on the run from the full power of Norman Osborn's control over the US security state, and has to bounce around the globe making more enemies as he tries to incrementally delete his own brain.

[barbwritesstuff]

Ok this is kinda nsfw because I’m talking about the explicit scenes in blood moon but hopefully it’s not too bad. Also spoilers for the nsfw scenes I guess in case you’ve not played them and want to go in fresh? But I just wanted to say that I really love that the ROs have their own preferences about what they want to do/don’t want to do in their explicit scenes. Like I love that Roe and Sergi both get to say they don’t want to be the penetrated partner during sex (either ever in Roe’s case, or maybe ever but at the very least right now in Sergi’s case), or that Marco’s only ok with it under certain conditions. I love that Ed doesn’t want to try oral cause he wants to be able to kiss. I love that we get the opportunities to negotiate and renegotiate consent and that at no point is it ever seen as a bad thing or like the player “not getting to do what they want” in a scene. At least in the other ifs I’ve played with explicit scenes I’ve never seen ROs explicitly and verbally express preferences like this before, and I think it was a really nice touch. It makes the characters feel more real and it made the scene feel more real instead of just a receptacle for the player’s horny energies. Idk where I’m going with this ive just not seen anyone mention it so far but it’s just one of the things I think that makes blood moon so thoughtful and special

I'm really glad you enjoyed that, anon. It was important to me to make the sex scenes unique. Part of that was preferences (characters saying no to things) but also style. Eg, Farro is a bit rough, Vicky is super soft, Ed is eager but inexperienced, Roe is possessive and enjoys power play, Shawnie's sex scenes are explicit but impersonal, yet change as the relationship progresses, Marco has some hard boundaries but is super keen on other stuff, Sergi is happy but also a little spooked that this is all happening after everything, and Carrie snarks at you throughout, because of course she does.

While not necessary to complete the romance, I know sex is something a lot of people enjoy, and I wanted those scenes not to feel like an *insert RO name* moment... if that makes sense.

I'm really glad you enjoyed them.

[pampushky]

Creature (Both Haunted & Holy)

Vinsmoke Sanji/Reader - Chapter 27 - 5.2k

Sanji reflects. Recovery is not always linear, but you’re there to help him, at least.

ao3 | series masterlist | masterlist | next part

Pell sits amongst pirates he views as his equals for the first time in at least thirty years, but he doesn’t recognize nearly any of the faces that have landed on Seal’s Drop’s shores. He has his back turned to them, and stares at the specific mound his daughter and her wife are buried, surrounded by their twin pups, and their eldest.

A cask sits beside him. This is not what he’d imagined breaking open the sealed barrel would feel like. When Pell had imagined it, he’d pictured Coth by his side, with Feann and her Pod on the other, celebrating whatever one of his grand pups would inevitably follow in his footsteps to become a pirate, and giving the lucky pup their first taste of true sake— to egg them on into landing in the New World, to Wano.

Instead, he breaks it open beside Edward Newgate silently, his former rival now watching him somberly. Marco perches on his shoulder.

“Can I help you, Ed?” Pell doesn’t even turn to look at him. They both smell of devil fruit, though Whitebeard’s is growing fainter with his age. 

“Pelleus…. You weren’t subtle, you know. With your display at Impel Down.” Whitebeard sits down with a little grunt, gently shooing the man on his shoulders away. “…. you were the first to break in, I hope you know.”

“… That won’t make me feel any better if that’s what you’re trying to do.” Pell pours the sake onto the grave. An offering, to make his daughter’s time in the afterlife a bit better. To hopefully help him forgive himself for being useless to protect her against a monster.

Whitebeard only sighs and sits quietly beside the selkie for as long as he will let him. 

They sit there until it turns to night, and Pell allows himself to be guided to the Moby Dick .

For the first time since your escape from Arlong Park, you finish a full plate of food all on your own. You’d managed to finish a full plate of food without getting sick from overeating. And gods, you’d looked so proud of yourself when Luffy pointed it out, at first more upset that he didn’t get to eat your leftovers, before screeching that you didn’t have any leftovers. 

“Ott! You did it!” Luffy’s arms stretch over to touch your face, his hands pressed against your cheeks when he accidentally causes himself to rocket over the table and crash into you. Before this, you’d have been sent into a bit of a spiral from Luffy’s touchiness, not yet used to a friendly touch, but now you’re trying to peel him off of you while the rest of the crew jumps into action to clean up the mess Luffy’s made. You just cringe, so incredibly used to your captain’s lack of a personal bubble, or understanding of anyone else's. Chopper is still adjusting and is trying to hide behind Sanji’s legs.

“Touching–” 

“Oh, sorry.” Luffy’s hands slap back to where they’re meant to be, though still laying on top of you with a silly grin on his face, while Zoro just lays next to you on the ground, covered in beer, staring up at the ceiling until you make another warning warble that eventually stirs him to pick up Luffy under his shoulders. Your captain takes no notice and chatters the entire time when you sit on the floor with Nami patting your head sympathetically.

“You smell like beer, Zoro!”

“I wonder why,” Zoro looks at Luffy, who has gone onto a completely new topic as you slowly process that you’ve eaten a full plate of food. The swordsman just gently pats you on the back and offers a little nod for praise. 

You’re gaining weight back–  it has been nearly four months now, after all. But then again, you’ve had ups and downs in your recovery. Right now you’re doing good, it’s been more consistently ups than downs. Sure, there are times when you stumble a bit. The crew gets frustrated with something unrelated to you and forgets to watch their tone or words as you’re on the deck beside them, though this was discovered one screaming match between Zoro and Sanji too late. It had taken two and a half hours for Sanji to find you, and when he did, he found you crammed between two barrels of fresh water, shaking and keeping your eyes on the ground. That had been a hard stumble and one that had taken a few days for you to recover from. 

“You did it,” Sanji helps you up from the floor with a wide smile, and you slowly return it, hugging him close, your face in his chest while you inhale his scent, “Oh, good job, good job, you did so well, ”

You have a pod who loves you dearly. A man courting you who worships the very ground you walk upon. You have never felt so close to the water as you do now, able to dive under the slip to perform routine checks on the keel and hull as a whole whenever you want. You can hunt for whatever fish are around you, dive as deep as you want, and never fear the repercussions of being gone for too long. 

“You in there honey?” Sanji gently taps your cheek, teasing you as you pull yourself from your mind, smiling as you look up at him. “Hi.”

He laughs when you press your nose against his, rumbling from deep within your chest as you hug him closer to you with your arms looped around his waist, eyes closed in bliss as he steadies the two of you. “Someone’s happy…” Sanji rubs your cheek gently, watching your blissed-out expression.

“I ate a whole plate,” you murmur back, opening your eyes again, and looking up at him. “Full, normal portions.”

“Mhm.”

“And I gained… fifteen pounds back.”

Sanji gently squeezes your tummy, and you squeak before breaking into a fit of laughter as he tickles your sides, the two of you rolling on the couch in the galley. 

“ And you’re looking radiant and doing a great job as our bosun,” Sanji coos to you, pressing dozens of kisses against your cheeks and nose as his eyelashes brush against your face. You shudder, and let him continue to make your brain fog with all of his praise. Gods, do you adore this man.  

You settle into his arms a bit, not quite pinned under him. That would have implied you were trapped. Sanji was more so a weighted blanket than an effective trap. He just clings to you, whining whenever you have to move to get up and do chores. But not now, when it’s the end of the day and all of your chores are complete. It’s time to relax and get ready to do it all again until you land in Alabasta and come up with some plan to liberate the country. 

It’s peaceful. The calm before the storm. Selfishly, you want it to stay that way forever. Where you could lay in the galley after dinner and watch the light fade through the windows. No threats or danger, just sailing on the Going Merry until you find what you’re looking for. You think you deserve to have such wishes, so long as you never act upon them. You’re allowed to have these selfish thoughts, so long as you don’t act on them. 

But, these thoughts must end, as you trudge down to the storage room to do a final check for the night, just to be sure there are enough dry goods for the final leg of the journey to Alabasta. Everything is fine– until you check the fruit, and scream. 

There, amidst the limes, is a glowing, lime-shaped fruit. It’s golden, and you drop your journal as Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp come sprinting. Zoro doesn’t see what’s wrong at first until he looks down at the little fruit. You’re too busy shaking as you look at it, your pointed ears flattened to your head while you warble. You look utterly terrified, as Zoro picks up the fruit. It’s got zig-zag-like patterns on it, and your friend looks at you skeptically.

“This… is just a Devil Fruit,” Zoro holds it out to you, and you shriek. 

“It’s a cursed fruit, ” you hiss, and hide behind Sanji, who looks equally as confused as to why you’re hiding behind him. “Those are bad news— toss it to the sea!”

“Hold on— we can sell that—” Usopp reasons, and you look even more miserable, glowering at him from your spot behind Sanji. “....or we can toss it to the sea, yeah, sure,”

“...Beloved,” Sanji starts carefully, craning his neck so he can look at you, “Luffy ate a devil fruit… so surely not all of them are cursed?”

You snort at this, and Sanji yelps when he feels you chomp down on his shoulder, grumbling and warbling as you eye Zoro warily. After a minute you stop biting him, though Sanji’s shoulder throbs, and whatever emotions come through the bond are muddled. 

“Luffy is a special case.”

“H-how…?” Sanji rubs at his shoulder, wincing still. 

“He fought Arlong, so he gets a pass,” You sniff, and appeasingly kiss where you had bit Sanji’s shoulder. The man just sighs and gently rubs your head. “...sorry I bit you. I panicked.”

Usopp snorts at that and takes the devil fruit from Zoro, at which you flinch as the sniper starts to study it, pulling his goggles down. You look at him over Sanji’s shoulder, while the cook and Zoro lean over to watch Usopp as well. The sniper has a small frown on his face, with his nimble fingers turning it around in his hands. He frowns. 

“... looks like that’s a…. Huh, Wave-Wave fruit,” Usopp pulls his goggles back on his forehead, and turns the fruit over again. “We’ll check the encyclopedia, just to be certain— we’ll sell it when we get to shore. Solves the money problem.”

You cringe as he tosses the fruit in the air, shrinking back behind Sanji. To his credit, despite being bitten, he rubs your head softly. Nami pokes her head into the room, with Vivi and Luffy chattering behind her. Her eyes light up when she sees the fruit in Usopp’s hand, and you swear you can hear her going through the money she can make off of it before you make a low rumbling noise to make your displeasure known. 

“We’ll be able to afford some more… extensive repairs, and won’t need to worry about anything else,” you shudder as you take the fruit from Usopp’s hands, and physically stop yourself from gagging as you hold it, making your way out of the storage room. You drop it on the kitchen counter, looking at it loathingly. Sanji followed you into the kitchen, resting his chin on your shoulder as you glared at the fruit. 

“What’s the issue with the fruit?” 

“They’re poison. Anything that could sever our connection to our Mother…” you trail off, shuddering at the thought of being unable to swim anymore. “...when the world was young, the Sea Mother was wed to the Sea Devil. Their first children were the first of the selkenfolk, or so it goes. Each child was the first of that specific lineage, and so on, and so forth. They were closer to their mother, which angered the Sea Devil. In a fit of rage, he made it so that selkenfolk couldn’t eat any of the fruit he had planted in the world…” 

You look at the little fruit quietly, shaking your head. “...that’s what we’re taught. Some selkies’ve tried to eat devil fruits,” a shudder runs down your spine, and a low warble pulls from your throat, “...they’ve never lived more than a week. They always go mad.”

“... can, hybrids… eat? Devil fruit?”

“Maybe. It depends on all the genetics.” You shrug helplessly, as Sanji takes the fruit from the counter, examining it, before putting it back. “... don’t tell me you’re going to eat it, we don’t even know for certain what it is,”

“No, I enjoy swimming too much,” Sanji admits, and laughs, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead. “How will I be able to enjoy the All-Blue if I can’t swim in it,” 

This… makes sense. Sanji plans things, immaculately. The kitchen is beautifully organized for anyone who could stumble into it could make a cup of tea and a sandwich on the rare occasion he wasn’t already preparing something. So it doesn’t shock you that he’s weighed the pros and cons of gaining miraculous powers and how it may aid his overall goal. Guiltily, you watch how he winces a bit when trying to rotate one of his shoulders, and warble, pressing a kiss to where you had previously bit him. 

He just chuckles, ruffles your hair, and that’s the end of it.

“Why couldn’t you do this simple task?!” Judge bellows, towering above Sanji. He is just seven in this dream, with thin wrists and easily bruised knees from how much he was physically pushed to achieve. Academically, he was a bit smarter– but still nothing in the eyes of his father. “Kill it!”

The poor little rat trembles from where Judge had kept it, its paws already stuck in the glue trap. Beady black eyes look up at Sanji, and the blond fur makes him shudder. It’s the same color as his mother’s hair, as his own. There’s terror in the little creature’s eyes, and Sanji hates how his father is holding it. Maybe if he could get it away, he could use some soap to help get its paws out of the trap—

Judge crushes the rat under his boot the moment he sees Sanji trying to think his way out of this situation. He watches the boy scream, how his eyes widen, highlighting yet another imperfection in what was meant to be his ultimate weapon. Sanji tries to pull Judge’s boot off the rat, sobbing and begging his father, who remains motionless. Sanji could only see his mother, sweet, kind, Sora, with the same pretty blond hair the rat had, the same hair that Sanji had inherited. The same hair that was now buried in the ancestral crypt, was the only time a member of the Germa royal bloodline was allowed to return to their abandoned homeland, in death. How tragically poetic.

“It was a pest Sanji,” Judge growls, and his sobs grow louder. “Royalty does not serve the pests, we thrive to spite them, to crush them under our heels for their impudence,”

His breath is stolen from his lungs with a harsh kick, sending him skittering across the brick floor. There is blood on his shirt, sticky and warm from the rat. That was when he’d had his first panic attack, crying on the floor of his too-big bedroom over a rat as his father left him there. 

Sanji opens his eyes again to see the crushed rat. And hundreds of others, all killed at the hands of his siblings and father to try and teach him their cruel, cruel lessons. The stone brick under him is rougher than he remembers, and it’s so, so much warmer too. He casts a glance up only to realize he’s back on that damned rock, Zeff beside him, except this time, the old man has cracked his ribs open to feed Sanji his very heart.

But before he can do anything to react, the rats swarm around him. They knock him to the ground, his knees hitting the rough stone. He screams, begging, pleading with the creatures he’d tried so desperately to save to please, leave Zeff alone, leave some piece of him for Sanji to bury so he can at least rest. The noise makes him nauseous, and when he feels something tighten around his face, and hears the clicking noises near the back of his head, he opens his mouth to scream—

And slams his head into the ceiling, instantly cutting off his scream. Zoro grunts in his sleep. Luffy just snores louder. The giggling from the floor below stops for a second and starts again as Vivi, Usopp, and Nami start talking about gods know-what again. You snap awake instantly, a terrifying growl in the back of your throat as you slam him into the bottom of the hammock. Your eyes reflect in the dim light for a second as you press yourself over him protectively. He’s never heard that growl from you before. Your more seal-like noises have always been playful, but now it’s primal and terrifying. You’re more animalistic at this moment, looking around the room with a dangerous glint in your eyes he’s only ever seen once before when you were certain Arlong was chasing you through Whiskey Peak. 

Zoro grunts again, and your growls subside, sniffing the air, before glancing down at him. You nudge him with your nose, rumbling gently as you look down at him. Your eyes still reflect a bit, piercing his very soul as he looks up at you. Your hair makes a partial curtain around the two of you as you lean over him. 

“Sanji? Are you okay?” 

But he can’t answer, muffling his sobs as he presses his hands over his mouth, not wanting to wake anyone else. His eyes squeezed shut tightly as he forcibly tried to quell his panic in a way that he’s long since learned is unhealthy, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped doing it. It’s bad enough he’s woken you up, being the burden that he is. Sanji feels something against his face and opens his eyes just enough to see you nudging at his hands with your nose, a soft, comforting rumble making him crumble. His mind itches with the gentle rhythms and notes that spell out concern, nightmare, and dearest that finally break the barrier of his muffled sobs to pull you tightly into his arms.

If Sanji wasn’t so lost in his own mind, the little huff you’d made after he did that would have been humorous, along with the little pats along his shoulders to try and calm him down. The 180 of how competent you can be with social interactions is endearing to him, and he manages to stop crying enough to laugh when you start to pat on his cheeks softly, rumbling the entire time. Perhaps it’s the differences in Selkenfolk and Human communication, but it’s certainly something that keeps him on his toes with you. 

“How about I make tea?” You mumble, looking at him, eyes still reflecting in the dim light. “… and you don’t burn yourself on it this time.”

Watching you work in the kitchen is oddly soothing to Sanji. You’ve gotten back to a point where you’re able to control the water around you like little arms, measuring out the seeds and spices you need. You even trill and rumble a bit, all of those little noises that had once been forced out of you now falling from your mouth without so much as a second thought. 

However, you side-eye him from the stove when he tries to light up a cigarette, a little tendril of water holding the pack out of reach while he looks at you miserably.

“Not fair,” Sanji weakly reaches for them, and you huff, placing the pack on top of the cabinets, soon followed by his lighter, leaving Sanji with a soaked cigarette hanging from his lips rather uselessly. 

“You shouldn’t smoke inside. The smell lingers. And Nami won’t say anything but it gives her headaches.”

“It does?”

“Yeah, it’s why her mom had to switch to herbal ones when she was little.” One of your ears twitch. “…doesn’t it mess up tasting things?”

“You sound like the old man right now,” Sanji groans, slumping forward to lay his forehead against the island counter. “….I wanted to impress him, so about a year and a half of him taking me in I started. I wanted him to think I was grown.” 

“Then why’ve you kept it up to this point?” You put everything in the newly purchased kettle, a result of a run-in with another group heading for Alabasta. 

“…became addicted,” Sanji shrugs and lets the wet cigarette fall onto the counter. Some of the tobacco falls out along with it. “Y’know it’s bad for me to quit cold turkey, right?” “I know.” One of your ears twitch, as you focus on the kettle. The open flame under the burner flickers a bit. You don’t look at him though, cleaning up the little mess you’ve made with the mortar and pestle. “Next stop. I’ll get you the same brand my sister used to smoke… they were herbal. With a bit of blue lotus in them. If that’d help.”

He manages to snicker a bit, resting his chin on his hand as you gently scrub the mortar and pestle. “You’re trying to drug me now?”

“.... it’s a drug?” You turn this time, looking genuinely confused. “It had the same effect as tobacco on selkies…” and then it dawns on you, your embarrassment and realization making him feel giggly and jittery through the bond, “Oh. You’re not a selkie.”

“Did you forget that?”

“Sometimes I do.” You shrug, leaning back on the counter. “...you, Luffy… everyone just…adapts well to me. Like you understand me.”

“I understand you sometimes. I want to know more, speak your language.”

“It’s the same language… I don’t even know if you’d be able to hear it the same way. My ears are different,” You twitch them to emphasize that, “I mean, you can hear… whale calls, and stuff, but it’s more than that.”

Sanji attempts to rumble as you’ve shown him, and though it still sounds mangled your heart flutters. He’s trying for you. 

“... did I say that right?”

“You got the point across,” You laugh, smiling widely as the kettle starts to whine. You let it go for a few seconds until it turns into a proper whistle, wanting the tea to be at its best. Sanji lets you pour it and then watches as you very carefully put your hands over the two mugs until the steam isn’t as heavy. You’ve… cooled them down, using your abilities, showing him just how much control you’ve gained over it the past four months. When he takes a sip, it’s at the perfect temperature for drinking. He feels downright giddy over that– that you’ve made such a sharp improvement so quickly. 

The silence is comforting. The two of you go to sit in the crow's nest, and even if Sanji is a bit annoyed that no one was on a real watch of the ship, he’s happy you’re next to him. You point out the constellations to him, and then, hold up your hand, lining it up with one of the brightest stars, and then helping him to do it.

“… That’s how the Sea Devil found his wife, the Sea Mother,” you whisper, as Sanji finally seems to understand how you’re telling the distance of the sea around you. “He followed the stars, mapping them with his hands, and weaving a map of shells and palm fronds.”

You lean against the mast, taking a sip of the tea. “Their first children were the first Selkenfolk, a litter of dozens if not hundreds. But they loved them all the same.”

“You said that earlier,” Sanji laughs, looking at you as you stare into the cup. “That poor mother.”

“…I gave a rushed version of the story.” You whisper. “The Sea Devil… he loved his children. Every single one he helped to name and cradled after they were born. But they were godly. Divine. Their childhoods were over in the span of a week, and he mourned the fact that he did not get to spend as much time with them as he had wanted to. So he devised a plan to keep them young for another year— so that he could cherish their youth and watch them grow again. So he decided to grow fruits that could do just that.”

“…the Devil Fruit, I’m assuming?”

“I’m getting to that part,” you playfully punch him in the side, laughing a bit. “The children misunderstood, of course, and begged the Sea Mother to stop him. And being the doting mother that she was, she was willing to. So, when the Sea Devil laid down for a nap after all of his work in the garden, she made the ground shake and made frost go deeper than it ever had to kill the seeds. Thunder, rain— everything.”

You shake your head with a little huff, annoyed.

“But what she had done was make the fruits unstable, and not what the Sea Devil had wanted them to be. They had been controlled before, but now every seed was corrupted, and completely different from the other. Not one was the same. He was devastated, obviously, and told her what his plan had been— to simply spend more time with their children. Realizing her fault, she wept and told her husband what she had done, and he grew upset that the children, in his anger-clouded vision, had wanted to leave them so quickly, that he declared that they would never be able to eat the food that he or their mother had grown, making all Selkenfolk grow sick and eventually die if they were to eat a Devil Fruit.” You finish the story and take a long drink from your mug. “And that’s the story my Gran and Baba used to convince me to never doubt my moms.”

Sanji lets out a low, impressed whistle. “…and that’s why you’re so freaked out by Devil Fruit? They’re… good intentions spoiled by a lack of communication from parent to child?” He rests his hands behind his head, his nightmares far from his mind now. “Wow. Divine family needs some serious therapy sessions.

You gently box one of his ears, trying to look annoyed and utterly failing to. “There weren’t therapists back then! They were the first beings to— be !”

“Uh-huh. And Zeff is definitely old enough to have probably known them personally.”

You both dissolve into a fit of laughter, loosely holding onto each other under the stars. Sanji puts his focus back on the sky, and then on the grain of the wood in the railing. 

“… What devil fruit would you eat?”

“I… wouldn’t?” You splutter, confused. “Didn’t we just cover this— I’d die, Sanji.”

“But if you could ?”

“… still wouldn’t,” you shrug and lean on him. “I like swimming. I like the ocean. Even if I was human, I’d rather not eat one.”

You then look at him, narrowing your eyes. “…you have an answer already, don’t you?”

“I mean— who doesn’t?” Sanji laughs nervously. “Clear-clear fruit. Easy.”

“…that was quick. You’ve thought about it.”

“I mean, yeah, ” Sanji looks down at you, smiling softly. “Yeah. I’ve thought about it a lot. To pass the time.”

“Wanna tell me why that fruit?”

“It makes you invisible,” his voice sounds oddly delicate as he speaks. “Just. At your will, able to sneak around without any worries. It’s tactical.”

“… would you sneak into changing rooms and watch people?”

“Wha— no— why would you — I would not do that, Ott, ” His voice nearly cracks from how you’ve startled him with that. “E-even if it was a very attractive person I would not do that. I am a gentleman —“

“That’s the only tactical thing I can think of,” you tease, squeezing his pink cheeks, and laughing at the blush. “Stealth isn’t really a thing with our crew, so as a victim of gross perverted stuff—”

“Oh my God, Ott— “

“— I mean why not , you could get so much blackmail ,”

“…did you just refer to your own trauma as blackmail material?”

“It’s my trauma, I can do what I want with it. Not gonna do much else for me.”

“….seas help me, you’re a menace—“

“— Don’t you wanna know if Luffy has crazy stretch marks? What about if Zoro has a tattoo? Oh, Sanji I bet it's a really stupid stick and poke! All uneven too, now I have to know if he has one—”

“That’s— if this was coming from literally any other member of this crew I’d be concerned—“

“But what else could it be used for, I’m just sayin’—“

“Hiding. From my family.”

The words tumble out of his mouth before he can even think to stop them, a terrified confession from his very soul. You’re frozen with your mouth in an ‘o’. And then you pull him into a deep hug. Before Sanji can even protest, you're suddenly much larger than him, in your Selken form, curled around him protectively. The bond buzzes at the very bottom of his skull, making him let out a soft groan while you flood his thoughts and forcefully push the nightmare from his mind, replacing it with rumbles of affection and love.

Good. Kind. Loved.

Your arms are tight around his shoulders. Part of your long tail wraps around him. Your nose is pressed into his hair. And Sanji has never felt so safe. It’s different from his Mother’s aura of calmness, and Zeff’s presence after nightmares. It’s you, the sea breeze, and the ship gently swaying.

“I don’t know what they did,” you keep your eyes on the stars and feel Sanji hold you a bit tighter. “…but I know you’re wonderful. That you go out of your way to cook and make sure everyone has food in their belly and that they aren’t sick. You care about this crew, and don’t ask for anything in return.”

If you can feel the tears on your skin, you don’t mention it. 

“… You’re wonderful. And you can tell me when you’re ready to. But if they make you think you’re not worthy of good things, and having a loving pod, then they’re dead wrong.”

The crew finds the two of you curled up like that in the morning, the tea long since gone cold. Zoro’s the one to find you, seeing your tailfins hanging over the edge of the crow's nest. Sanji groans and tries to fall back asleep, regardless of Luffy poking the side of his head and asking him to cook something, before turning his onslaught onto you.

“C’mon, Ott, can’t you catch me something?” Luffy stretches just enough to drape himself over the both of you, effectively shoving his chest into Sanji’s face.

“It’s too warm here, I’ll be too sluggish to swim fast enough to catch anything,” You stretch a bit, slowly materializing your legs back, causing Luffy to let out a loud whine, dramatically slumping over the railing. 

“C’mon, we’ll catch some fish,” Zoro puts Luffy over his shoulder and carefully makes his way down the rope ladder. Sanji cleans the two mugs used the night before, and prepares a breakfast of grits and dried meat. Just as you’re about to check the ship for damages, starting near the figurehead, you hear a scream from Nami and look over the railing onto the main deck to find that Luffy has pulled a rather oddly dressed man from the sea.

[moonspirit]

Tw: ed

Have you ever thought that armin can have an ed? Like bc he is not as big as other soldiers and all so he just eats and eats and eats even if he wasnt hungry so hed get bigger but it ends with him throwing up bc of these large amounts .

i think armins physique is pretty nice. Like its that slim body but with nice muscles. (Idc what anyone says abt that its the truth) but just him hating himself and his body and when annie finds out shell just be crashed and shell sit next to him and tell him that if he doesnt like his body, she can train him to make it better for him but he just declines bc i hc that armin knows that his body is not half bad- like its standard really but still hates it anyway

Hi anon!

Well, I can see him having some issues with food, perhaps.

I'm a believer in Armin having a severe hatred for his body; while it first probably started out as a simple thing like: "I wish I was as strong as Eren and Mikasa", joining the military made it worse. The preliminaries to become a cadet in training must've been very hard on him and I imagine there may have been some very competitive and derogatory talk amongst the trainees - children can be cruel, and big children with confidence can be extra cruel.

Given the scarcity of meat and other animal products in Paradis after the walls broke, Armin may have tried, during his time training in the military, to eat at least as much as the bigger guys (Jean? Marco? Reiner, certainly) in the hopes that he'd put on height and gain more muscle. Only, when he throws up in the empty lavatories later because his system can't take so much for his build, the self-hatred only gets worse. I don't think he'd have found any solace in confiding either to Eren or Mikasa, resorting to swallowing his feelings and putting on a brave face instead. Military life also doesn't allow for much privacy, and post-graduation, given the Scouts' irregular timetables, it seems unlikely that he'd have been able to stick to frequenting the baths early in the mornings before it fills.

Post-timeskip, however, despite growing taller and stronger, changing substantially in physique as well, Armin's issues with his body are ten-times worse. He hates his body, he's still small and weak, he should eat more, but also has very little appetite thanks to a severe slump and depression. Because he's lost so many people now, perhaps he thinks that if he'd just been built stronger or taller, something may have been different. Somebody may have lived. It's an irrational connection to make even for his logic-wired mind, but sometimes such irrational downward spirals can get the best of you when you hate yourself so much.

It could be that this struggle with food and appetite carries over into his civilian life post-rumbling. Many people seem to agree that Armin periodically just forgets to eat too, thanks to his diplomat duties and stressful lifestyle, and I'm on the same bandwagon.

With Annie, I really think what Armin would benefit the most from is accepting her wholehearted admiration and love for his body. See, I think Annie would get it too; it's not that Armin's dislike of his body will magically disappear if he just gets jacked like Reiner is--and anyway, that's an unrealistic goal to achieve, all things considered--but she can tell him she loves the way he looks, loves the way he feels, loves the way he is, and perhaps that will make it easier for him to go from "I'm not bad but I still hate myself" to "I'm fine. I'm okay. And I'm happy with that."

[dystini]

Indycar - Social Media

Who, what, where to follow.

Social Media

NTT INDYCAR SERIES YouTube - videos go back 15 years. Twitter Instagram TikTok

Team Penske (Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Will Power) YouTube - a mix of all the series Penske runs in. Go look for the Penske Games - they're hilarious. Twitter Instagram TikTok

Andretti Autosport (Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Romain Grosjean, Devlin DeFrancesco, Marco Andretti) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team (Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, Felix Rosenqvist, Tony Kanaan) By far the most active and on-trend of the Indycar teams. YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Chip Ganassi Racing (Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou, Marcus Armstrong, Takuma Sato) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, Jack Harvey, Katherine Legge) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Juncos Hollinger Racing (Callum Ilott, Agustin Canapino) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Ed Carpenter Racing (Rinus Veekay, Ryan Hunter Reay, Ed Carpenter) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Dale Coyne Racing (David Malukas, Sting Ray Robb) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

AJ Foyt Racing (Santino Ferucci, Benjamin Perdersen) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Meyer Shank Racing (Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Indianapolis Motor Speedway YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Indy NXT (Indycar Junior series) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Media/other

RACER YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Marshall Pruett YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

INDYCAR on NBC YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Nathan Brown (IndyStar) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram N/A TikTok N/A

Dalton Kellett (former driver) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok (tech explanations)

Speed You Later YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

TikTok

Misc Caterina Masetti Zannini (Callum Ilott's girlfriend) Behind the scenes and Indycar tech explained, some F1 content. James and Becky Hinchcliffe (hasn't been updated in some time) Honda Performance Development - features all series that use honda engines so you'l have to search for the Indycar stuff.

Drivers Pato O’Ward Conor Daly Callum Ilott Christian Lundgaard Alex Palou

Instagram

Misc PitFit (The gym a lot of drivers use)

Podcasts

Racer's Roots - A deep dive into the history of motorsports and the genealogy of the racers we know and love.

The B1tch Stop is a podcast about motorsport hosted by Charlotte, Almay and Steph: an exasperated sports fan who'd make a better team principle than half the paddock, someone that reads about the aerodynamics of cars for fun, and a woman with a lot of opinions and no driver's licence. Follow for biweekly breakdowns of major race series (including F1, 2 and 3, Formula E, W Series, F1 Academy and IndyCar), the judgement of professional drivers based on their birth chart, and very valid and correct opinions about which drivers would catfish each other.

The Race IndyCar Podcast Race reviews and analysis from the fastest circuit racing in the world. Jack Benyon hosts, ex-Indycar racer JR Hildebrand adds expert knowledge, while a host of special guests bring colour and insight. Join us for the ride!

The Week In IndyCar The Week In Indy Car features one or more guests to weave through the latest news in North America's premier open-wheel series and its related junior formula. Like The Week In Sports Cars show, it's an interactive affair driven by listener questions submitted via social media.

Motorsport101 - covers F1, MotoGP and FE as well as IndyCar

Did I miss anything? Have a podcast to recommend? Send me a message.

[lightthewaybackhome]

Homemaker Daily Productivity:

I realized yesterday that my lists were starting to sound repetitive, because often the work done in the home by the housekeeper is repetitive. But!!! It's so much more! There's such a current of love flowing through everything that we do. So, I'm challenging myself as a writer to express that love better.

Worked on articles for my homemaker blog, two which have been bursting from my brain, both warrior oriented. Nothing makes me more excited to tend my hearth than studying warriors. (I know, I'm weird)

Put my feet in our grass, breathed in the cool morning, listened to the birds and the wind in the trees while reading an article about hearthkeeping

Tidied the house from last night's relaxing and started breakfast. Breakfast is so important because that's when we talk, dream, plan, argue, discuss all the things

Ran two errands filling my fridge with veggies and spending my birthday money

Played with flowers in the dirt

Marco Polo-ed my publisher/editor/cowriter about the final battle scene and a problem we created

Made my busy man some lunch and brought control to my kitchen, washing fruit, putting away food, and doing the dishes

Rearranged our emergency backstock and made some notes on what we need next

Texted my Grammie who I've neglected of late

Took a break from the home to work on my non-home job

Put all the dishes away, put beans out to soak, and closed up for the evening

In about an hour, I'll make dinner and then crash and watch some Stargate

I've had such a happy day. Plenty to keep me busy nut not too much so as to feel frantic. My thoughts are so full of music, stories, warriors, and flowers. I'm watching the sun because we have more and more shade each year as our trees grow, which is changing the flowers I can grow. I've been in such a great mood today.

New pots and flowers:

[facetsofthecloset]

Just got back from the Fullmetal Alchemist Stage Play and HOOOLYYYYYY SHIIIIIT IT WAS SO GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!

I splurged for the good seats+commemorative present thing so that’s what the photos are, and the acrylic stands are of the cast for the evening (apparently they have a few different sets of cast that they rotated).

Gonna gush below the cut because I have a lot to say lol

They covered a surprising amount of ground in three hours! It started with the train hijacking and went all the way to the Rush Valley arc, plus Hugh’s death.

Oh my god EVERYTHING was so good, the staging, the lighting, the costumes, the music, the writing, the pacing, the action sequences—everything!

The Barry the Butcher costume was a serious highlight though, it was so accurate AND the actor could move in it FLAWLESSLY, they made it look EFFORTLESS and soooooooo fun!! God everyone on that stage was in such good shape, it made me jealous and now I’m actually considering making a workout routine lol

Fnwoskcne oh fuck Nina and Alexander???? ALEXANDER WAS A HUGE DOG SUIT WITH A GUY IN IT IT WAS GLORIOUS

Speaking of Alex’s, Armstrong was suitably ripped and very charming, though his voice wasn’t quite as deep as I’d have liked. Still so good though ahhh

I think my favorite actor was either Roy or Hughes though, like damn, they were sooooo close to the anime and were excellent! But arghhh it’s so hard to choose, Ed and Al were also great, Ed’s actor had so much fucking energy, even during curtain call. OMG IZUMI CURTIS MY BELOVED SHE WAS FANTASTIC

Oh shit Doctor Marco was SPOT ON, like you could swear he stepped right out of the Brotherhood anime, down to the voice. And he sang!! Briefly! For some reason Kimbley and Lust and Marco had a very short musical interlude right before intermission. Sounds weird just saying it like this but it felt natural enough at the time, plus they were all really good 😳

Scar’s actor was hot, sorry. He had presence and dignity, more than Bradley even

Urgh the effects were amazing too, fuckkkk they had projections and they KNEW how to use stage depth in conjunction, like EVERYONE involved in the production was ON THEIR GAME! Thank you lighting and sound design and live musicians and costume designers and choreographers and everyone else ohhh myyy goddd

The only other anime stage play I’ve seen is Mob Psycho (not live, the dvd editions), but I can confidently say that FMA must have had the budget. The Mob Psycho plays are also good but just on raw production value I’m 100% sure FMA had more funding, which I’m not necessarily surprised by. But holy shit this was so worth the ticket prices

I wasn’t sure if I was gonna buy the DVD of it later but uh, yeah. 100% I’m shelling out for this again

AND THERE WAS A TBC AHHHHH

DEFINITELY going to go see the next installment, I want to see Olivier!!!

Thank you FMA Stage Play for restoring my will to live a little while longer 👍

[daydreamerdrew]

Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

Captain America (2005) #28-50

In this batch of Captain America issues I went from July 2007 to May 2009, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Ed Brubaker. Issues #28-34 and #37-38 and #40-41 and #46 were penciled by Steve Epting. Of those, issues #28-30 were inked by Mike Perkins, issues #31 and #37 and #40 and #46 by Steve Epting, issues #32-34 by Butch Guice, issue #38 by Mike Perkins and Steve Epting, and issue #41 was inked by Rick Magyar and Steve Epting. Issue #35 was penciled by Jackson Guice and inked by Mike Perkins. Issue #36 was half drawn by Butch Guice and half drawn by Mike Perkins. Issue #39 was drawn by Roberto De La Torre. Issue #42 was penciled by Steve Epting and Luke Ross and inked by Rick Magyar, Steve Epting, and Fabio Laguna. Issues #43-44 and #49 were penciled by Luke Ross. Of those, issue #43 was inked by Fabio Laguna, issue #44 by Fabio Laguna and Rick Magyar, and issue #49 was inked by Rick Magyar. Issue #45 was penciled by Luke Ross and Butch Guice and inked by Rick Magyar, Mark Pennington, and Butch Guice. Issue #47 was drawn by Butch Guice. Issue #48 was drawn by Butch Guise with Luke Ross and Steve Epting. And issue #50 was a special issue with two main stories, one penciled by Luke Ross and inked by Rick Magyar and Luke Ross, and one drawn by Marcos Martin, as well as a 2-page story drawn by Fred Hembeck.

I covered a lot of ground in this series this week. We started off with Bucky on his own, trying to figure out who killed Steve and plotting to kill Tony Stark, Sharon and Sam working together under Nick Fury to try to find Bucky, and Natasha working for Tony to try to find Bucky, with nobody knowing that Sharon was the one that killed Steve. In issue #30 Sharon finds out that she’s pregnant and she turns on Sam and Natasha just as Tony figured out that she was under Dr. Faustus’ control. In issue #33 Bucky and Tony settle their differences and Bucky agrees to become the next Captain America. Natasha and Bucky begin working together after that and she makes it clear to him that she wants to rekindle their relationship in issue #36. In issue #35 Sharon’s captors discover that she’s pregnant with Steve’s child and in issue #40 she loses the baby during an escape attempt. Issues #41-42 are the big climax, Bucky successfully foils the public part of the Red Skull’s plot which gets him accepted as Captain America while Sharon escapes and shoots the Red Skull in the process, seemingly killing him (though Arnim Zola actually manages to transplant his consciousness into a mechanical body), and is then rescued by Sam and Natasha. Issues #43-48 are their own new story about Bucky, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Natasha rescuing the remains of the original Human Torch to prevent him from being used to create a pandemic-level virus. Issue #49 was focused on Sharon Carter as she’s recovering from the events of this series. And issue #50 had both a story about Bucky’s life path as framed through different significant birthdays in his life and a story that was a summary of Steve’s life.

the Captain America stories in Tales of Suspense (1959) #59-63

In this batch of Captain America stories I went from August 1964 to December 1964, according to the Marvel Wiki. All are credited as written by Stan Lee, though the Grand Comics Database lists Jack Kirby as an uncredited co-plotter for the stories in issues #59 and #63. All were penciled by Jack Kirby and the stories in issues #59-62 were inked by Chic Stone and the story in issue #63 was inked by Frank Giacoia. The stories in issues #59-62 were then contemporary stories that took place in the 1960s and the story in issue #63 was a retelling of Captain America’s origin story from Captain America Comics (1941) #1. All of the stories were 10 pages.

The retelling of Steve’s origin story was of the most interest to me. In the original, of the decision to pick Steve, it is just said, “Today he volunteered for army service, and was refused because of his condition! His chance to serve his country seemed gone! Little does he realize that the serum coursing through his blood is rapidly building his body and brain tissues, until his stature and intelligence increase to an amazing degree!” This phrasing implies that Steve was chosen for the experiment just earlier that day by happenstance when he was deemed unfit (and therefore possibly expendable) when a test subject was being sought and wasn’t fully aware of what he was getting himself into.

In the retelling it’s said, “It has taken us months to find the proper 4F specimen whose body will react properly to our new tissue-building chemical!” But also that Steve was “chosen from hundreds of similar volunteers because of his courage, his intelligence, and his willingness to risk death for his country if the experiment should fail,” and that, if it should succeed, “We’ll produce the formula in quantity, giving it to all our fighting men!” This phrasing suggests that it was necessary for the recipient of the serum to be in an unfit shape and also contradictorily that if proven successful it would be given to all American soldiers indiscriminately (which, as I type that out, seems like something that would have actually been a bad thing). Steve being chosen is attributed to specific positive attributes about him this time, but those remarkable qualities are also credited to the serum, as it’s said, “His reflexes, his physical condition, his courage, will be second to none!”

Black Widow 2 (2005) #1-6

These issues were published across September 2005 to February 2006, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Richard K. Morgan. Sean Phillips drew the layouts for all of the issues, which Bill Sienkiewicz then finished.

I was expecting that the major retcons revealed at the end of Black Widow (2004) would be elaborated upon in this book and that we would learn how it’s possible for Natasha’s childhood to have been a lie and for her to have positive relationships with people she knew in her youth in previously published comics. But this did not happen at all. Actually, also surprising to me was that there wasn’t any elaboration on Natasha’s time in the Red Room in Captain America (2005) either after the fragmentary flashbacks to her relationship with Bucky Barnes in issue #27 of that series. It seems that this major upheaval to her character has unceremoniously occurred and that that actually being made sense of has been put off until a later book.

Unfortunately, Richard K. Morgan’s vision of Yelena Belova was elaborated upon. While in the previous book she was only mentioned as not being a true Black Widow and having left the spy business to become a lingerie model in one panel, in this book she’s actually a recurring character so we get to see the nonsensical portrayal of her as the exact opposite as how she used to be in detail.

New Avengers (2005) #5-6 and Annual #1

The two issues of the main series were published across April 2005 to June 2005 and the Annual was published in April 2006, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Brian Michael Bendis. The main series issues were penciled by David Finch and inked by Danny Miki. And the Annual was penciled by Olivier Coipel and had 8 credited inkers.

Yelena Belova appears in these issues as the villain and it seems that both Brian Michael Bendis and Richard K. Morgan were aware of the existence of the character as a counterpart to Natasha and independently came up with completely different ideas of what that would be with no basis in either the other’s portrayals or how she was portrayed before. In the main series issues she’s inexplicably a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and attacks the Avengers. It turns out that her group is, allegedly, a rogue covert faction and the true S.H.I.E.L.D. drops a bomb on them, which suspiciously limits the investigation. But Yelena survives, though she is badly scarred all over her entire body, and is offered a chance to have revenge against the Avengers for ruining her “pretty face.”

She then later returns in the Annual, having been changed into an Adaptoid, which means she can absorb the Avengers’ powers through physical contact. Her handler explains this to her as, “They can make you as powerful and as beautiful as you deserve to be.” The artwork does not sexualize her during the fight, but the writing does. Yelena says, “I really want to make sure I get my hands on your Captain America. I really have a thing for him.” And she also kisses the Sentry to steal his powers, which wasn’t necessary. At the end of the issue, after she’s been defeated, her superiors have her remotely exploded so that she can’t reveal anything and her body can’t be examined. You would think this was the end of her life, but she has appearances after this. I don’t yet know if they’ll be continuing her portrayal from here or the Richard K. Morgan comics or again doing something else entirely.

Fawcett Comics:

the Captain Marvel stories in Whiz Comics (1940) #79 and Captain Marvel Adventures (1941) #66 and The Marvel Family (1945) #5

In this batch of 7 Captain Marvel stories I read through his appearances published in October 1946, according to the issue cover dates. These stories ranged from 7 to 13 pages.

The story “The Cult of the Curse Chapter 6: The Battle of the Century” (written by Otto Binder; penciled by C.C. Beck; penciled by Pete Constanza) in Captain Marvel Adventures #66 is the conclusion of the serial about Captain Marvel fighting Oggar, the World’s Mightiest Immortal. Captain Marvel tracks Oggar to what turns out to be the sorceress Circe’s island and she reveals that many years ago Oggar “blessed” her with immortality for spurning him because, as established in a previous chapter of the serial, his magical attacks don’t work against women. At the end of the story Circe has transformed Oggar into a wild boar and Captain Marvel chases boar-Oggar until he falls off a cliff to his death, which in turn releases Circe from her immortality. Captain Marvel concludes, “And to think that was Oggar’s weakness all the time- a woman! He fought me, the World’s Mightiest Man, to a standstill! But one withered old hag brought him to his downfall!”

[barbwritesstuff]

It’s a silly thought buuut. I love the idea of poly ships in the werewolf pack. So far i think Ed and Marco would be amazing, and so would—HEAR ME OUT— Carrie and Vicky. The first two are my boys. The second two? Enemies to begrudging respect to lovers. I totally get while they weren’t included, this is not meant to be a complaint! If you had infinite coding time and resources, who do you think you’d want to make poly routes for?

I don't know, honestly. Because I didn't write it, I didn't think about it.

I can totally see these pairings though. Vicky x Carrie would obviously have to be very slow, and involve a lot of trust building. Marco x Ed would be just be like...

[yourdeepestfathoms]

Ride the Cyclone kids and swimming

(in no particular order)

(all platonic)

Who would win: a public pool or six choir kids

Constance’s mom packed everyone lunch from the cafe 🥰

Ocean has to wear a rash guard, or she WILL fry in the sun

(She still manages to get THE WORST sunburn though)

Penny’s got the CUTEST swimsuit

Mischa wears the Cool Guy sunglasses

Constance would wear one of those big ol broad-brimmed hats fight me

Probably got the Mom Tote Bag, too

She’s also CONSTANTLY reminding everyone to drink water so they don’t get dehydrated

In the water, Noel looks like a wet rat

It should be illegal for his hair to be that flat

“*Ocean voice* I Can’t Swim ™️”

“Girl you’re literally named after a body of water how can you not swim” “DIE”

She still gets in because she doesn’t want to be left out

But she refuses to wear a life jacket because that’s embarrassing

Penny is giving

Noel will dip his toes in the water and then be like “i swam today”

He likes to sunbathe on the beach chairs

Then Mischa comes by and dumps a bucket of water over his head

Or all the kids will gang up on him with water guns

They all make a group pool playlist

Bad idea

The result is this lyrical mess of all different genres of music

It’ll go from Thrift Store (Mischa’s pick) to to Mary On A Cross (Penny’s pick) to the piano version of Until I Found You (Constance’s pick) the fucking Masochism Tango (Noel’s pick) to Mary Did You Know (Ocean’s pick) to Cynthia’s theme from Pokémon (Ricky’s pick)?????

It’s wild

Mischa is the CEO of flipping the inflatables when someone is on them

Catch Ricky out acting like a sniper with a water gun

My man is constantly shooting people when they least expect it

He once accidentally shot Mischa directly in the eyes and started praying to God

Penny is frighteningly good at Marco Polo

Sis has a sixth sense or SOMETHING

Do you know how terrifying it is to be carefully wading through a pool, then this whole blonde whips around to you like you’re a mouse that has just been caught by a hungry owl, only to have said blonde lunging at you before you can able think to do anything to save yourself, despite her eyes being shut

Constance almost cried

Okay, so, Chicken Fights? Mischa and Penny are an unstoppable team

Those two are terrifying together

Hear me out: Mischa on Penny’s shoulders

Good Lord

Pray for whoever has to deal with THAT

On the other hand, Noel and Ocean? The worst team

Ocean almost got pushed off, and she panicked, so she lashed her legs around Noel’s neck so tight he started to choke

Noel is out here fighting for his fuckin life against his own partner because he’s being fucking strangled by a ginger’s thighs

Meanwhile, Ricky and Mischa are just there like 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️

Having Penny on the bottom is TERRIFYING

Ocean once got on her shoulders, and Penny just started GOING, fucking SWINGING like Ocean is her own personal ginger baseball bat, and Ocean is fucking SCREAMING in fear

And poor Ricky damn near got LAUNCHED from her shoulders when they were paired up

Mischa is scary, too

He plays to win

While on Mischa’s shoulders, Noel’s screams could be heard for miles

Noel and Constance are a pretty good team, but Constance is short, so if she goes too deep, she’ll literally just start drowning

Ricky and Noel aren’t that bad tbh

Nobody can get on Ocean’s shoulders

Ocean “built like a popsicle stick” O’Connell Rosenberg having the strength to hold up her classmates? Unlikely. She’d die on the spot

Ocean is usually on SOMEONE’S back if they’re in water deeper than five feet because sis can’t reach

Penny is perfectly happy with Ocean clinging onto her back because you can’t tell me homegirl [Penny] doesn’t love physical touch, and they’re honestly the cutest thing Ever

Like, Ocean will just have her chin resting on Penny’s shoulder, hanging on like a red koala, and Penny is like :}

It’s adorable

They all do that TikTok challenge where you have to try and jump in the water with a theme

If someone is standing close to the edge, Mischa WILL push them in

It’s, like, the law

I feel like Constance would be a BEAST at noodle fights

Sis is swinging hers like it’s the legendary sword Excalibur

The kids try to teach Ocean how to swim

Noel’s idea is to just shove her in

“Sink or swim, bitch”

Good technique for babies! Not so much for teenagers

[spitfire-of-the-sea]

Holding on

Another little Ace x reader scenario. I SHOULD work. Instead, I'd rather contemplate dumb scenarios because they make me giggle. :D Mostly spittballing ideas here, of scenes I might like to put into a fanfic. This one is a mess, since I literally just typed it down and it's not beta-ed... but I hope you still find it amusing. =) Somewhat at least. No beta. We die like pirates.

Ace x reader; SFW

Napping during the daytime didn’t pay off.

Well, at least it didn’t anymore since one Portgas D. Ace had joined your crew. For one, there was a chance that somehow you’d end up in the middle of one of his I-will-murder-Pops-challenges. The chance was slim – usually, in some way, he tried his best to make sure to not cause collateral damage – but it was never zero. You’d know. Pretty early on after he’d been brought on board you’d taken a nap on deck and the next thing you knew your hair was singed and your little deck chair had broken down with you and Ace on top of it in a mess of flailing limbs and breathless curses.

A couple of months had gone by since then and things had changed – at least at this point the challenges were officially announced ahead of time and you had time to scramble off before you or your hair were in any real danger. You’d also started to notice that Ace was, in fact, damn attractive when he wasn’t spitting hissed insults like a feral cat backed into a corner. His freckles were damn cute and he was actually quite polite and nice, at least when he wasn’t talking to Pops.

Not that you’d ever admit it. You butted heads with him often enough, tired of his completely insane quest to defeat Pops and Ace’s complete inability to realize that it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, if ever.

Hence, you’d done the sensible thing. You’d taken all those nauseating little feelings unfolding somewhere deep in your chest, fluttering up in your belly, tugging on the corners of your lips, and had stuffed them into a drawer labeled “Hard Nope” somewhere deep in the back of your head. Sure, sometimes they slipped out and you couldn’t help but watch him a tad too long or take it upon yourself to clean his wounds and bandage them even if there were so many other people around who could have easily done an even better job… but mostly, you managed. Distance helped.

However, all this had made you somewhat careless. You had gone back to your habit of taking naps on deck whenever you had an hour of time in between. As Marco’s assistant, you were used to long evenings and sometimes hectic days. The naps helped. You liked your naps.

They had gotten you into this situation, though: the situation being that you had been asleep when there had been a vote on who would be on Ace-duty today. Without the ability to protest, you had ended up being volunteered and so… here you were.

Ace-duty meant you’d have to keep an eye on him while you were on the island and that was a full-time job that allowed no mistakes. You’d have to keep him in sight at all times and make sure he didn’t accidentally light anything on fire, eat somebody out of a living without paying, blurt out his plan to kill Pops to the whole world (it was unlikely the pirate world would react with only mild amusement; most likely, they’d sense a sign of weakness and send tons of challengers and that would be annoying). Plus, you had to keep him from drowning in his food and starting a small-scale war.

Thatch had lost him sometime during a late evening only weeks ago and mere hours later you’d somehow ended up in the middle of a civil war between two villages. It had something to do with a shrine of some sun deity and half of the people started to worship Ace while the other half tried to kill him as an imposter.

The time before that Izou had simply not given enough fucks to take his duty seriously and from what you’d heard, Ace had eaten a whole restaurant empty, then fainted in his last plate and almost been buried alive by a very panicked middle-aged couple who were afraid they had somehow killed one of Pops’ sons and tried to get rid of the evidence.

So, long story short… it was your turn to watch Ace tonight and you would not let him escape your sight and cause mayhem. Spotting his bright orange hat in the distance, he was already making his way off the Moby Dick. You narrowed your eyes and cracked first your knuckles and then your neck. After a few stretches, you set off to catch up with him, simply vaulting over the railing and landing right in front of him.

He came to a halt abruptly, almost bumping into you and you saw his eyes widen for a moment. In the next one, a bright smile appeared on his lips as he regarded you.

“Oh, hey!” he said easily and watched you straighten yourself up in front of him. Your height wasn’t very impressive, you were smaller than almost everybody else on the Moby Dick. You were cursing yourself for miscalculating and jumping down too close in front of him, now you had to look up to him. You glared.

He cocked his head to the side, watching you. “Oh, well,” he said then, his smile growing as he reached out a hand and patted your head. “I’ll be off then.”

Patted. Your. Head.

Caught between the urgent feeling of your cheeks suddenly being on fire and the urge to slap his hand away because you were not a dog, you froze for a precious second. Words were piling up on top of your tongue, nonsensical and undecided and locked away behind clenched teeth. By the time you’d formulated a sentence, his warm hand had already slipped off your head as he moved past you and moved into the crowd. It was more reflex than conscious thought that made your hand snap out and catch him by his shirt, barely catching it by the hem.

He stopped again when he felt the tug, throwing you a confused glance over his shoulder and his warm brown eyes on you only made matters worse if possible. You stared at him like a damn idiot, unable to put together even the most rudimentary word combination. Something that vexed you to no uncertain extent, you were not usually so tongue-tied and that left only one conclusion:

It was clearly his fault. He made you look dumb. Or perhaps he made you dumb. Whichever it was, you didn’t like it. Perhaps it was the magic power of the physique he was displaying so generously, shirt open all the time and now even within reach. Damn his magic abs.

“Do you need something?” Ace asked finally and cocked an eyebrow at you, his eyes searching you before they dropped to your hand on his shirt.

Finally, finally, something came out of your mouth: “You have to stay close.”

His second eyebrow joined the first one, both now almost touching his hairline before he chuckled, hunching down to be on eye-level with you. Which made things so much worse. So. Much. Worse. You could basically have bumped your nose against his with only one step forward.

“Are you scared?” he asked gently and reached out again, patting you again. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.”

That did it.

You used your free hand to slap his away from your head, huffing and puffing. “I’m not scared!” you snapped. Despite your size, you were, in fact, not completely helpless! Sure, you were not exactly a top-tier fighter but you could hold your own well enough.

His smile softened and he nodded, dropping his hand. “Of course not.”

Oh, that guy ticked you off on so many levels. Like, why couldn’t he just fucking close his shirt?!

“I’m not!” you repeated and were very aware that you sounded like a petulant four-year-old. You took a deep breath, willing at least a few of your brain cells to stop registering the outline of his abdominal muscles and the V you could see trailing down into his…-

Damnit it! Again!

“I’m not scared!” you said for the third time and would have slapped yourself if it hadn’t made you look even weirder. “What I mean,” you continued immediately when he opened his mouth, “is that you need to stay close to me so you’re safe!”

Ace laughed at that. The bastard.

“I think I’ll be fine,” he finally said, mirth still making his eyes twinkle as he straightened again. “I think I’ll go off on my own tonight. I’ll see you later!”

You stared at him. He stared right back, then looked down at your hand on his shirt, and then back at you.

“No you won’t,” you said and tried to do so calmly. “Go off on your own, that is.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because this island is not Pops’ territory, per se. It’s right at the border with Kaido and we don’t want to lure him out of Wano. It will be annoying to explain to the commanders why I let you bring a dormant volcano back to life just for shits and giggles...-“

“There’s a dormant volcano here?” Ace interrupted you, interest lighting up his face and you cursed yourself.

“No?” you tried and tightened your fingers on his shirt.

“So yes?” he asked with a grin and already looked up toward the forest-covered mountain not too far in the distance.

“Listen, we won’t go there,” you told him and quickly considered your options. “There’s a BBQ place just down the road, I’m sure you’re hungry. Let’s go there…!” You started walking in that direction and only realized after a few steps that you were holding his shirt in your hand. Only his shirt. Without him in it.

Pivoting on the balls of your feet you quickly spotted his broad back as he made his way through the crowd heading for the mountain. He’d simply slipped out of his shirt. Panic rose in you before anger quickly pushed it back down. Dropping the shirt you quickly sprinted after him, catching up just before he turned into a side-street and could slip out of your sight. Reaching out you curled two fingers around a belt-hoop on his trousers, jerking him back.

Still fully focused on catching up with him, you had not thought it fully through, and were not prepared for your motion making Ace stumble back a step and bump into you. Embarrassingly, you bounced off of him like a ping-pong-ball bounced against a wall and would have gone down if not for your reflexes.

“I said no!,” you told him firmly, your voice muffled by the hand you had brought up to tenderly feel your nose – you’d smashed into his shoulder with it and since the damn man apparently had the consistency of a brick wall, it was throbbing now.

“Ach, come on!” he whined. “I am just going to take a look, I’ve never seen one. I’ll behave!”

Which was a lie if you’d ever heard one. You doubted Ace knew the meaning of ‘behave’. Your fingers tightened around the belt hoop as you stared up at him. There was little doubt in your head that you’d not be able to contain whatever he could start at that volcano and you weren’t willing to give it a try.

“No! We’ll go and eat! You like food!” you told him and tugged. To no avail, he didn’t budge. Instead, his eyes went to your hand and you could see the cogs in his head turn.

“You want to strip out of those, too?” you snapped.

He lifted his head to meet your eyes and you didn’t like the grin on his face. You liked even less that you couldn’t help but drop your gaze to your hand and thereby his waistline and thereby the V-shape and thereby the thoughts of what if he actually stripped out of those…

“Why not?” Ace asked, the ever-present grin making pretty good progress in driving you up the wall. “Freedom might be worth it.”

Clenching your teeth you snapped your eyes back up to his. He wouldn’t. Right? Right?!

Deciding to call his bluff you leaned closer. “If you do,” you told him succinctly, “I’ll still have something to hold onto.”

For once it seemed as though you had succeeded in wiping that grin off his face.

[dystini]

Indycar RPF Monthly Challenges - March

No sign ups, no pressure. Join if you are inspired. If things come up and you don't do it/finish it, no big deal. No limit on number of stories you can write. Combine the different challenges together if you want. Ignore the things that don’t inspire you. Really, anything goes.

We’re not going to count your words for the drabble so if you are a word over or a word under, it’s fine. It’s more about the attempt and challenging yourself.

You may post your drabbles/double drabbles in this thread (2000 character limit) if you don’t want to put them on Ao3. You may post Ao3 links or if you’re comfortable with it, share a Google docs link.

A prompt inspires a longer fic that you can’t finish in one month? Wonderful. Give us a teaser or a snippet and don’t forget to post in in the thread when you put it on Ao3.

5 words – random words to spark an idea.

Random pairings are chosen by literally picking names from a hat.

Chatting/venting/cheering/asking for help about your challenge fic(s) is encouraged.

Suggestions for prompts may be sent to @dystini (me)

Not all prompts are for everyone. Please ignore the ones that aren’t your thing and during discussions do not shame those who do choose to use them.

There will be a new thread for each month.

Kink and Dark/Taboo prompt discussions should be spoilered (or if needed, moved to a new thread

Threads mentioned are on the Push To Pass Discord server. Message me for an invite.

March Challenges collection

March Challenges

Write a double drabble (Exactly 200 words)

5 words – Enchanted, Sleep, Map, Imprint, Cynical

Theme – Luck

Events - Ægir Sea Festival | St Patrick’s Day | Ostara | Easter | Spring | Fertility Festivals

Random pairings – Felix Rosenqvist/Pato O’Ward (seriously, this was random. I didn’t do this on purpose) | Conor Daly/Pato O’Ward | David Malukas/Josef Newgarden

Prompts

A: Are we flirting or fighting? Because I'm getting mixed messages. B: I'm going to sink my teeth into your fucking throat. A: Yeah, this is just proving my point… mixed messages.

-+-

While character A is at work, character B decides to try to cook dinner as a surprise for them. It goes spectacularly bad.

-+-

sick villain waking up on the hero's couch, initially calm with the knowledge they're comfortable and being looked after, until they try and move and find their hands cuffed above them

Kink - Cock Warming

Dark/taboo prompts

Tentacles

-+-

Caretaker stumbling upon a big, scarred pet whumpee in a shelter. although intimidating at first sight, this whumpee was actually severely abused by their previous owner, and are extremely meek and frightened as a result. An employee lets caretaker into whumpee's kennel so they can interact with them before they make their decision. after a few minutes of gently soothing whumpee and convincing them they aren't a threat, whumpee settles into caretaker's lap, giving a contented sigh as caretaker's fingers softly thread through their hair, and caretaker knows they just have to bring them home.

March Birthdays

1 Will Power (Pisces) 3 Ed Carpenter (Pisces) 6 R. C. Enerson (Pisces) 13 Marco Andretti (Pisces) 26 Linus Lundqvist (Aries) 30 Colton Herta (Aries)

[shanastoryteller]

Happy Lunar New Year! Anything FMA, please and thank you!

Ed rests his head against the back of his seat, used to the lunges and sharp turns of what Maria considers driving. The heat of the Ishvalan desert inside their car is oppressive enough that he almost tells Brosh to roll down the windows, but the promise of sand blasting them all in the face keeps him from it.

“I really wish they hadn’t sent you to another one so soon,” Denny frets, pressing the back of his hand against Edward’s forehead, “You still haven’t recovered from the last one!”

Ed pushes him away, not bothering to open his eyes, “I’m fine.”

“Sir, I’m serious, I think you have a fever,” he says, pressing his hand back up against his commander’s flushed skin.

Maria laughs. Ed opens a single golden eye to glare at him. “Lieutenant, we’re driving a tin can in the middle of the desert. I don’t have a fever. I’m melting.”

“That’s not much better,” he frowns.

Ross looks away from the endless stretch of desert to say, “He’s not totally wrong, sir. I do wish you had more time to recover between villages.”

“I don’t,” Ed looks away, “I hate how long my recovery period is, I wish – I just want this war finishedso we can go home. Whatever it takes.”

Maria and Denny share a look in the car’s mirror. “We know, sir,” Ross says after a long moment, voice soft, “we know.”

The Ishvalan war won’t end itself, after all.

~

Maes bursts into their shared tent, currently being shared with two more. “Do you want the bad news or the worse news?” he asks, his grin manic enough that dread pools in Roy’s stomach.

Riza pauses in the middle of cleaning her guns.

“Well, what is it?” Havoc snaps, fumbling for another cigarette.

Maes dramatically flings himself onto his cot with a little bounce that has more to do with the man’s sense of drama than any sort of spring-like characteristic the mattress might have. “We’re being sent reinforcements.”

They all stare. “That’s good news,” Roy says, then pauses. “Isn’t it?”

“It’s the Fullmetal Alchemist.”

Riza goes white. Havoc’s cigarette falls out of his open mouth and lands harmlessly in the sand.

Roy’s hands clench into fists and blunt nails dig into the roughened skin of his palms, “That – that murderous, traitorous–”

“None of that,” Maes says sharply, wagging a disapproving finger at him. “Nothing even close to that, especially while the kid is around. Marco and Armstrong’s deaths were ruled as unfortunate accidents.”

“They got in his way and he killed them in cold blood,” Roy snaps.

There’s a creak as Maes sits up so he can look Roy in the eyes. “Then you’re not going to get in his way, are you?”

Roy stays silent.

“Are you?” he presses. “Elric decimates whole cities, leaves behind nothing but rubble and bloody body parts because whatever he does literally tears people limb from limb, and none of us,” he shift enough to send a piercing glare to both Riza and Havoc, “are going to get in the middle of that, are we?”

“Be reasonable, Roy,” Riza says cooly, “he may have killed Armstrong on orders after all.”

They all look at her, momentary distracted. Havoc asks, “Who’s?”

She raises an eyebrow. “Elric may be going where the Fuher sends him now, but surely you haven’t forgotten who his commanding officer is?”

Havoc winces. “Ow. She wouldn’t really–”

“Send her too powerful, blood thirsty subordinate to kill her disgraceful younger brother?” Riza reassembles the gun with sharp, precise movements. “Absolutely. She recommended him for a promotion right after.”

“Okay, I don’t like the kid either, but that promotion was because Fullmetal also took out Ishval’s holy city and all their elders while he was at it,” Havoc points out. “The brass had been trying to take that city for months and Elric did it in a single night.”

Riza shrugs, “Whatever makes you feel better. Either way – I wouldn’t leave my back open to either Lieutenant Colonel Elric or General Armstrong if I were you. You’ll be lucky if all they do is stab you in it.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Maes mutters, but he continues starring at Roy, who crosses his arms and says nothing at all.

~

They’re parked about a mile from their destination. Denny looks out the window and whistles, low enough not to wake his commanding officer from his place snoozing in Denny’s lap. “Very impressive,” he says, looking out at the make shift camp, not bothering to hide the contempt in his voice. “Don’t they have alchemists at this base? Major Armstrong could have bui–” he abruptly cuts himself of and looks down, making sure the kid is still asleep.

“Yeah,” Maria says, arms folded over the wheel and her head resting against them. “I miss him too.”

Denny’s seen Ed like this too many times to count, eyes bruised from exhaustion and uniform rumpled as he curls up in the back seat, head pillowed on Denny’s thigh. The fact that his breaths are coming even and smooth is all that’s stopping him from telling Maria to turn around and take them somewhere else, anywhere else, just for a little bit. But this is a war. There’s nowhere for them to go.

Edward’s hair is pulled in a bun on top of his head, too hot for anything else, and Denny slowly unwinds the waterfall of his commander’s hair and braids it so it’s one less thing Ed will have to do when he gets up.

He misses Major Armstrong. But he’s gone and Edward is here, their duty and their responsibility.

“Wake him up,” Maria says grimly, pushing herself upright. “Time to face the music.”

[shiftingparadise]

hey Author-chan could get an imagine/one Levi x fem!reader cannonverse inspired in photograph by Ed Sheeran,please?

I loved writing something based on a song. I never did before, but I felt so sad while writing this lol. I'm sorry if my mood reflects the mood of my stories :') Anyway, I hope you like this one!

Word count: 2501

‘Hi kid’ Levi sat down on the green grass, ‘Hange’s been experimenting with Eren …again’, Levi chuckled, ‘You should’ve seen her today, she almost killed the kid, asking Moblit to draw sketches while Eren’s face was torn off... She’s something else. Oh-‘, Levi carefully picked up the flowers he brought for you, ‘I almost forgot, I think you’re going to love these. Remember how happy you were when I came back from another mission, and I gave these to you? You almost broke my back with how tight you wrapped your arms around me‘. 

‘Oi Captain’. Levi looked up from the ground, he could see Jean walking towards him, ‘What are you doing here?’, Levi looked confused, ‘I’ve never seen you here before’. A sad smile appeared on Jean’s face, ‘I often come here to talk to him.. or her’, Jean gestured to another one of the tombstones, ‘Like you were doing’, Jean scratched the back of his neck. ‘Hm’, Levi’s arms were resting on his knees, back pressed against your gravestone. ‘I’m sorry’, Jean looked at the ground, ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt you’, he started walking towards Marco’s grave, ‘I miss her too Captain’, Jean said softly, ‘I told her yesterday how much I wish she would be here with us’. 

Levi closed his eyes, head bent towards the ground, teeth firmly pressed against each other. He tried so hard not to cry. Levi knew you didn’t want this, he knew you would’ve wanted him to be happy, to move on… But how could he? He wanted to hold you, to smell your scent, to look into your eyes again, to see that spark again. No one could ever compare to you, no one could make him feel like you did. You made him a better person, you made him break down his walls. Because of you he felt alive again, he could love again, you taught him that it was okay to not be okay, that he didn’t need to act cold or distant to protect himself from all the pain. 

--- 

‘Levi!’, you yelled at him with a smile on your face, ‘Look!’, you ran towards him through the crowd. Levi started to smile when he could see how happy you were. ‘Look! Look!’, you were holding Jean’s wrist, pulling him behind you. ‘Y/N’, Jean desperately tried to slow you down, but it was no use. 

‘Look!’, you pointed at Jean’s hand, sweat dripping from your forehead. ‘What’s that?’, Levi tilted his head. ‘Th-there’s someone on the corner of the street that draws a portrait of you’, Jean replied. ‘Oh please Levi’, you begged him, ‘I want one of us!!’. You could already see him rolling his eyes, ‘Please’, you looked at your boyfriend with puppy eyes. ‘Tch, fine’, Levi carefully grabbed your hand, ‘You’re lucky that I love you so much’, Levi placed a swift kiss on your lips. 

‘Kid, he’s still there, you don’t need to run so fast’, Levi tried to calm you down, but he knew it was futile. You could get so enthusiastic sometimes. 

Every time you were like this, Levi’s heart skipped a beat. Not because of how pretty you looked when you were smiling like this, but because he never met anyone who could get so happy about something so small, like a seeing your favorite flower next to the road, or smelling the scent of freshly baked bread, seeing the sun rising every morning,… He loved everything about you, but seeing you like this… Realizing you were his and his alone, made him the happiest man alive. 

--- 

‘Here you go’, the older man handed you the piece of paper.

It was an identical portrait of the two of you. The artist had drawn Levi’s hand behind your back, his crescent-shaped eyes looking at you with a soft smile, you beaming with joy, eyes looking up at him. The drawing captured the energy between you two perfectly. 

‘It’s beautiful’, you softly replied while looking at the drawing, ‘Thank you so much!’, you smiled at the man, grabbing your wallet. Levi quickly raised his hand, ‘I told you so many times I don’t want you to pay for anything’, he looked at you. ‘Please, it’s a gift’, the man smiled at the two of you, ‘You two made my day just by looking at each other’, the man looked at the ground. There was a nostalgic smile on his face, ‘You remind me of my wife’, he looked at you, ‘She had the same smile on her face’. ‘What happened?’, you held the drawing close to you, ‘She got sick’. ‘I’m sorry’, you looked at the ground, ‘I can’t imagine what it must feel like to lose someone so close’. ‘Oh don’t worry’, the man replied, ‘I’ve drawn many portraits of her… She’s not completely gone’. ‘Here, take it, please’, Levi held out his hand. You could see it was a lot of money for just a drawing. The man stubbornly shook his head, ‘Fine’, Levi replied. ‘Thank you’, you smiled at the man, ‘Don’t worry, take care of each other’, the man kindly smiled at the two of you. 

‘Where did you put the money?’, you smirked at Levi. ‘What do you mean?’, Levi smiled at you, ‘I know you would never leave without paying him’. ‘Tch’, Levi placed his arm behind your back, ‘I placed it in his jacket that was hanging on his chair’, Levi placed a small kiss on your cheek. 

--- 

‘I dreamt about you tonight’, Levi sighed while standing in front of your grave again, ‘I dreamt I was sitting behind my desk in my office. You knocked on my door, like you did every morning. You brought me my tea before walking behind my chair, hugging me from behind, telling me how much you loved me’, another tear streamed down his cheek. ‘I wish I didn’t wake up, I wish I would’ve died with that dream’, Levi threw the flowers he brought on the ground. ‘I can’t do this without you, I can’t Y/N. I miss you more than I can take’, Levi fell on his knees, ‘I know you never wanted this, I know you told me to be strong, to live a happy life, but how am I supposed to do that when you were my happiness? When you were the one that kept me going, that kept me strong’, Levi couldn’t stop himself from crying. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, ‘Look Levi’, it was Hange’s voice. 

Levi didn’t respond, he kept looking at the ground. He hated that someone saw him like this. 

‘Isn’t that her favorite bird?’, Hange softly pinched Levi’s shoulder. Levi looked up at your grave, he could see a robin sitting on it, tilting his head at different angles, looking at him. ‘Tch’, Levi closed his eyes, crying even harder. ‘It’s okay Levi’, Hange sat down next to him, her arm wrapped around Levi’s shoulder, ‘She’s still here with you’, Hange smiled sadly at the bird, ‘She’s still here with us’. 

--- 

‘Are you still looking at that drawing?’, Levi walked towards you. You were already in bed, ready to go to sleep. ‘Ai’, you smiled at the drawing before looking at him, ‘L-levi I… I can’t imagine living without you’. ‘You don’t have to’, Levi smiled before crawling onto the bed, placing a soft kiss on your forehead, ‘I would never leave you’. ‘B-but what if something happens when we're on a mission?’, you could feel a lump in your throat, ‘What if-‘, ‘I know kid’, Levi sighed, ‘I worry about you all the time too’. ‘What if we leave Levi? What if we leave the Corps, get a nice home, and live a peaceful, quiet life? One where we can grow old together, maybe start a family…’, you whispered while looking at him. ‘You know I can’t do that Y/N’, Levi looked down at his hands, ‘You know the Corps needs me’. ‘You’re right’, you quickly pulled yourself together, ‘World’s strongest soldier’, you smiled before laying down on his lap, ‘I love you, Levi’. Levi started stroking through your hair, ‘I love you too kid’. 

--- 

‘Y/N?’, Levi grunted while searching for you in his bed, ‘Where are you kid? It’s the middle of the ni-‘, Levi stopped talking. ‘Right’, he sighed, ‘You’re not here anymore, are you?’, he rolled over to his side, looking at the drawing that he had framed. 

He had placed it on his nightstand before going to sleep. During the day, he would take it with him into his office, placing it on his desk. Levi was afraid, more than anything, to forget your face, the way you looked at him, the way you smiled at him… He already had started to forget your voice, to forget the way you smelled... 

‘I wish I said yes to your question. I wish we left the Corps’, Levi closed his eyes again, ‘Maybe you would still be here, with me…’. 

--- 

‘Captain!’, Levi could hear Jean yelling while swinging towards him, ‘I-it’s Y/N!’. Levi could see you hanging on Jean’s back, your arms weakly wrapped around him. ‘W-what?’, Levi could feel his heart clenching, ‘What happened?’, he started running towards his cadet. Jean carefully laid you on down on the cold tiles of the roof Levi was standing on. ‘T-the blast when the Colossal Titan transformed… S-she was too close’, Jean’s voice was shaking. 

You were more than just a squad leader to your cadets. You were their friend, always making sure they were doing alright, talking to them when you noticed something was wrong. Jean even told you about Mikasa, and how much it hurt him when she ignored him. Connie talked to you about the Titan that looked like his mother, Armin about how bad he wanted to see the outside world,… You loved every one of your cadets. 

‘Y/N?’, Levi quickly sat down on his knees beside you, scanning your body for injuries. ‘L-levi?’, you looked at the blue sky above you. ‘Ssh, stay still, please’, Levi signaled Jean to give him something to stop the bleeding on your chest. ‘The sky..It looks so pretty’, you tried to keep your eyes open, to keep the darkness away. ‘Try to look at me’, Levi’s voice was shaking, ‘You’re going to see it many times more’. ‘I-I don’t think so’, you could taste blood on your tongue, ‘B-but you’re prettier than the sky anyway’, you looked at Levi, carefully placing your hand on his arm that was pressing down on your wound, ‘It’s fine Levi’, you whispered. Levi’s gaze was fixed on your wound, eyes filling with tears, ‘You can’t leave me Y/N, you can’t’, he whispered. ‘J-jean?’, you looked at your cadet, ‘M-make sure Hange and Erwin take care of him’. ‘Y/N, y-you’re going to be fine, you can take care of him yourself’, you could see he was in shock. ‘Levi please’, you smiled at him, ‘I don’t want you to remember me like this’, Levi looked at you, tears streaming down his cheek. ‘When I’m gone’, ‘You’re going to be fine Y/N!’, Levi raised his voice, ‘Stop saying shit like that’. ‘When I’m gone, I want you to be happy, okay? I don’t-‘, you could feel it was getting harder to breathe, your vision was getting blurred, ‘I don’t want you to live a miserable life, I need you to live for me, okay?’, you started to cry too. 

You could feel you weren’t going to make it. You were scared you would never see him again, that you would never hear his voice again. 

‘Y/N please’, Levi begged you, ‘I can’t live without you’. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll always be with you’, you could see a robin sitting down on Levi’s shoulder. ‘Hi there’, you smiled, ‘Here to take me with you, aren’t you?’. ‘H-huh?’, you could hear Jean’s confused voice. ‘Y/N?’, Levi widened his eyes, ‘Stay with me, keep looking at me’, Levi desperately placed both hands on your shoulder. ‘C-can’t you see the robin on Levi’s shoulder Jean?’, you smiled. You could see the bird flying away, ‘Wait for me’, you whispered while looking at the bird into the sky, ‘I want to go home with you’. ‘Y/N, no, look at me-‘, ‘I love you Levi’, you whispered before taking your last breath. 

‘Y/N!’, Levi started shaking you, ‘Y/N wake up please’, Levi cried out, ‘No, please’. Levi placed his arm behind your back, placing you on his lap, ‘We can leave the Corps Y/N, we can start a family, like you wanted.. You just, you need to wake up’, Levi looked down at you. He could see there was no life left in your eyes. ‘C-captain?’, Jean was still standing there, hands shaking, looking in shock at Levi holding your lifeless body, ‘I-is she…’. 

Levi didn’t respond. He couldn’t say it, he didn’t want to. Because when he acknowledged it, it would become a reality, and he couldn’t live without you. 

Jean sat down next to Levi, tears streaming down his face. Jean couldn’t talk, he kept looking straight in front of him. 

The two of them sat there until Hange and the other cadets found them. They hadn’t moved a single muscle. Everyone was in shock when they heard you’d died. They knew nothing would ever be the same. The Corps would feel empty without you. No one could replicate your energy, no one could make them smile as you did. You were always so positive, so kind, caring… Always beaming with joy, always looking at everyone with that spark in your eyes,… 

--- 

‘Hi kid’, Levi once again sat down against your gravestone, ‘It’s our anniversary today’, he smiled, ‘Remember how drunk we were after dinner on our last anniversary? How we were walking across town… How you asked me to kiss you under the lamppost at the corner of that street?’, Levi looked at the sky. ‘Sasha made me smile today’, he chuckled, ‘That brat punched me, can you believe that? All because the Corps was given some meat… I’m not joking when I tell you I had to tie her up’, Levi let out a soft laugh. 

‘H-huh?’, he widened his eyes when he could see a small bird landing in front of him. Levi smiled when he saw it was the same bird as yesterday,, Levi tucked his knees into his chest, ‘Can you tell Erwin and Farlan to take care of you? And say hello to Isabelle for me too’, Levi whispered to the bird, ‘Tell them to wait for me to come home too’. 

And just like that, the bird flew away. 

‘Guess you’re here with us after all’, Levi smiled before taking the frame with the drawing out of his bag, ‘I can’t wait to see you smile at me like that again’.