#yeah problem is you started at 10pm

[nightowlqueen]

Ruining your sleep schedule reading a mid BL manga

[deadsetobsessions]

Sea Cryptic! Danny AU- Pt. 7

[Pt.1] [Pt.2] [Pt.3] [Pt.4] [Pt.5] [Pt.6] [Pt.8] [Pt.9] [Pt.10]

“I’m having a child.”

Danny stared at Batman.

“…Uh, congrats?”

Batman whips out a stack of paper and a pen. “It’s you. Sign here and initial the highlighted spots.”

Danny instinctively, from years of dealing with Vlad, whacked the stack right out of Batman’s hands and into the bay. He doesn’t even feel bad about littering this time because, “Begone, fruitloop!”

Wait, no, that’s not what he meant.

“I mean- I have parents!”

“Not for long.” Batman muttered and then did a double take. “You have parents? How?”

Danny gasped, placing a hand on his chest to clutch his metaphorical pearls. He ignored Batman’s mutters. Everyone knows the vigilante has an adoption problem. At least, everyone who lived in Gotham did, as everyone who didn’t was somehow convinced that he “worked alone” or some bullshit like that. “Are you naturally this insensitive or were you dropped on your head as a baby? Obviously I had to come from somewhere.”

“They’re still… alive?”

“And kicking,” Danny said, inching away from yet another rich weird guy trying to adopt him. “Mostly the kicking part, though.” He said, remembering the sparring sessions. His mom could kick his as six ways to Sunday with nothing but jiu-jitsu and still have time to work in the lab.

“I see.”

“I’m charging you extra for the emotional upheaval. I have trauma regarding rich people trying to adopt me.”

Batman sullenly handed over a thousand.

“Sweet. There’s a group of shades down here asking if you could find their murderer. Apparently the serial killer is still at large.” Danny pointed.

“Of course. Tell me everything.”

The adoption papers disappeared as Batman went into detective mode.

Danny shoved the cash into his glowing chest and breathed a sigh of relief. He needed to make rent this month so it was a windfall running into Batman.

——

“Hey, Tim?”

Tim woke up from his Power Nap. “Huh?”

“Phantom’s complaining that Batman kept trying to adopt him.”

Tim blinked. “Uh.. what does that have to do with me?”

Danny stared at him, a patiently amused smile on his face. “Just in case the rumor about the Wayne’s sugar-daddy-into the Bats was a thing. Other than that, we might have to confront Batman to get him off of Phantom’s back. ”

“You… want to confront Batman.”

“Hey, man, Phantom’s a friend and it’s ride or die.” Danny snickered. It was literally die, with his Phantom side of things. He held two fists up, and wound them, like Popeye right after eating spinach or something. “And if Batman bothers Phantom, we ride at dawn.”

“Batman doesn’t come out unless it’s dark, though? Or for the Justice League.” Tim grinned. He mentally classified Danny under his “to go to” list. That’s where Bart, Bernard, Cassie, Kon, and Garfield were. If he starts shit, he could count on them to have his back and cause even more shit. Danny, wanting to fistfight Bruce over the man making Phantom uncomfortable? He absolutely is making that list.

“Then we ride at, like, dusk. Or uh, like 10PM. I gotta get my beauty sleep.”

“You’ll definitely need it,” Tim inconspicuously texted the group chat, which quickly blew up.

“Shut up,” Danny playfully shoved Tim. “Wait, can Batman even legally adopt? Isn’t being a vigilante illegal? And how can he adopt someone dead?”

Tim dramatically flailed and splayed over Danny’s carpeted living room. “Dunno about his identity,” he lied to Danny, like a liar. “But Gotham has a bunch of laws for the undead/restored to life people so there’s probably enough gray space there.”

Danny spluttered. “You guys have undead friendly laws?”

“Yeah, geht do you think Grundy just chills out? Plus, we have like a minor resurrection event every few years. It usually doesn’t stick but sometimes it does. Bruce pushed for those laws when Jason came back to life, except he doesn’t actually want people to know he’s like, alive.”

“Jason died?” Danny blinked. Well, that would explain the vibes. “Huh. So what’s up with his rank vibes then?”

“Rank vibes?” Tim pressed record on his phone.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, you know how Phantom’s got like a really chill green vibe?” Inwardly, Danny snickered at his pun. Chill. Yeah, he meant that very literally. “Jason’s got kind of a rank green vibe. He’s kind of stinky? Definitely never introduce him to Phantom.” Danny’s senses got worse in his ghost form.

“Jason regularly showers, though?!”

“Not smell! Like, a spiritual smell?”

“You can smell souls?!” Tim sat up. “Bro, you’re a meta?!”

“Uh.” Danny hesitated. “Yeah. I can smell souls. It’s a thing. Everyone from my town can do it.”

“What?!” Tim paused. “Wait, can Phantom smell souls?”

“Yeah. We’re, uh, from the same town.”

“Danny, what the fuck?”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that, you’re the one with a soul-sick brother! Not to mention, you’re kinda stinky too!”

“Hey!”

“Soul-stinky nerd man!”

——

“I stink?!” Jason spluttered out, extremely offended.

“The Lazarus pits. He’s most likely smelling traces of Lazarus pit on you, you imbecile.”

“We need to speak to Phantom. This instant.”

“I dunno, B. Danny sounded like he was gonna break your face if you bothered Phantom anymore.” Dick snickered.

“Yeah,” Tim chimed in, from his seat in front of the Bat-computer. “He was pretty serious.”

“Are we just gonna glaze over the fact that they’re from the same town?!” Stephanie exclaimed, practicing her moves on a training dummy.

“How does that even work? What does that mean? I thought Phantom was an immortal?” Duke asked.

“We also can’t rule out time-travel.” Barbara slammed her baton into a training dummy, twisting her wheelchair in an agile maneuver that left the dummy on the floor.

“No bothering Phantom.” Cass proclaimed.

“That’s quite right. You all have a warm dinner sitting above your cave and should it remain uneaten, I assure you that sherbet Sunday and crêpe Tuesday shall be canceled.” Alfred stepped in. The Bats, threatened, scrambled to ditch their gear and go upstairs.

[antifainternational]

Hi! There have been fascist stickers around my neighborhood and I have kept tearing them down. What do I do more than tearing these stickers down? Should I contact my country's antifa about this?

Common problem, good question. Here's what we'd suggest: LEVEL ONE: Yeah, tear that shit down. LEVEL TWO: Tear that shit down & talk to your neighbors about it - have they seen them too? What do they think? Are they concerned? What do they want to do about it? LEVEL THREE: Tear that shit down, talk to your neighbors, and replace them with antifa stickers or posters to put the fash on notice that they are not welcome in your 'hood! LEVEL FOUR: All of the above + start up an anti-racist neighborhood watch! LEVEL FIVE: All of the above + when you see the fash stickers pop up again, take note of when & where you saw them. If someone is tearing down your antifa stickers you put up in response, take note of where & when you've noticed their down. Keeping doing this and pretty soon you might notice a pattern - for example, maybe you learn that the fash like to put their shit up on Tuesday nights between 10pm and midnight. Once you've detected a pattern to their behavior, you can do things like follow them to find out more about them or set up a surprise welcome party for them! WHAT YOU SHOULDN'T DO: Contact your country's antifa and expect them to solve the problem for you. Feel free to let them know for sure, but remember that antifa are people just like you who hate fascism and are willing to step up to do something about it, but don't have any more power to do things than you do and are probably as more of a disadvantage since you know your neighborhood better. Bottom line: there's no "antifa police" you can call and it's on you to respond when fascists are trying to stake a claim where you live. Good luck/let us know how it goes!

[dazzlingjaeyun]

𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐥𝐞𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐠

✧ in which you are a college student, struggling with mathematics, but your brother's best friend heeseung is willing to help

brother’s best friend!heeseung x fem!reader

genre: brother's best friend, fluff but not teeth-rotting sweet

warnings: nicknames (princess), kissing/making out, (maybe a tiny little bit suggestive?)

word count: 2.6k

↝ dazzlingjaeyun's bookshelf

‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊ ♡ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙·̩̩̥͙*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ♡ ‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊

you were sitting on your desk, struggling with a maths project for what felt like an eternity. when you checked the time and saw it was already past 10pm, you realized you wouldn’t finish until the next day if you kept going in this slow pace. with a sigh, you stood up and made your way to your brother’s room. you knocked, but opened the door without even waiting for his response. “jay, didn’t you say that one friend of yours is good at math-“, you started but stopped yourself as you saw him sitting on his bed with a guy, playing video games, “oh um… sorry”.

both of them turned their heads towards the door. “at maths? i guess i’m that friend of his”, the guy next to jay said and chuckled. “yeah, heeseung”, jay nodded in approval. “why?”

you looked at your brothers’ friend for some seconds, studying his face with its handsome features and his well-formed lips that curved into a little smile. jay cleared his throat, getting your attention and snapping you back to reality. “um it’s just that i don’t understand my tasks and i’ve been trying for over two hours now”, you said, sulking. heeseung put the controller down on the bed and stood up “show me, i’m sure i can help you”. before he could walk towards you, jay grabbed his wrist and pulled him back “sit your ass back down, bro”, he said harshly. “ain’t no way you’re going to my sister’s room”, he glared at him for a second before turning to you “bring your stuff and let him explain here”. you were a bit confused by his action, but you just wanted to finish your work, so you shrugged it off and did as he told you.

you sat on the floor with heeseung, and he started explaining. jay was scrolling on his phone, but still kept an eye on you two. “did you get it?”, heeseung asked finally. “i think so”, you replied. “okay, try the next exercise.” you nodded and started solving it with no problems or mistakes. heeseung watched you doing the task and started smiling to himself when you solved it effortlessly. “aye, see, you understood”, he said proudly and patted your head. again, jay cleared his throat which caused heeseung to pull his hand back and you swore you could see him rolling his eyes in slight annoyance.

“now that you’re done, you can go back”, your brother said to you in a serious tone. you looked at him, confused why he seemed so mad. “good night”, he added and titled his head towards the door, insisting on you to leave. you rolled your eyes and stood up. “good night. thank you, hee.” you gave him a quick smile and went to the door. heeseung raised an eyebrow and suppressed a grin at the nickname you gave him. just as you were about to leave the room, you heard him reply, “good night, y/n”. you smiled to yourself, closed the door and went back to your room to sleep.

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡

the next day, you came back home from college, entering with a bright smile planted on your face. “hey, y/n, how was your day?” your brother asked, coming out of the kitchen when he heard the front door open and close. he looked at you and chuckled when he saw you smiling ear to ear. “what got you smiling like that, sunshine?”

you walked past him, took out a paper and slammed it on the kitchen table, “i got an a”, you announced with a proud smile. “on my maths task!”, you added, pointing to the 'A' that was written with a red pen on the top right corner of the paper. jay looked at the paper and then at you, raising an eyebrow. “my sister got an a in maths? unbelievable” he laughed, which made you punch his arm softly.  “it’s the one heeseung helped me with”, you said, smiling a little when the proud smile on heeseung's face and the head pat he had given you came back to your mind.

“you know, i have an exam coming up in two weeks, i was thinking maybe he could help me studying?”, you suggested. you were so caught up in your thoughts that you didn’t realize your brothers’ cheerful expression changing into a rather serious glare, until you snapped out of your thoughts and looked at him.

“no, he cannot”, he said blankly, the tone of his voice leaving no room for arguments. you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion at your brothers’ reaction. “what’s your problem with him? like, isn’t he your best friend? why are you so mad?” you asked, looking at your brother, who still held the same annoyed expression. “yeah, he is. and that’s why i know best that he’s not to be trusted with girls. especially not my younger sister”, he mumbled back, which made you giggle. “aw, my brother is worried”, you teased him, squeezing his cheek between your thumb and index finger. jay softly smacked your hand away from his face and opened his mouth to oppose, but you spoke up first, interrupting him before he could even start.

“nothing’s gonna happen, jay. it's just studying. i want to pass my exam and i can take care of myself. i won’t fall for him, don’t worry”, you tried to calm him down. “plus, he’s your friend, i’m sure you already told him to keep his hands off me like you did with everyone else”, you added sarcastically. jay let out a big sigh and finally gave in. “fine. but you’re studying here and only when i’m home too. and you keep your door open.”

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡

after jay had agreed to ask heeseung for help, you scheduled to meet up at your place the next afternoon. you came home and changed to comfortable clothes. just as you finished, you heard the doorbell and made your way downstairs, only to see jay had already opened and let heeseung in. you greeted him and looked at jay, sort of to get his approval to go to your room. he nodded but reminded you “remember what i said. door stays open”. this time, you nodded. heeseung followed you to your room and released an amused chuckle when you two were far enough for jay to hear. “someone’s worried about what we’ll do, i see.”

what we’ll do. what we’ll do? just studying, no?

heeseung looked around your room until you signaled him to sit down on your desk next to you. “so”, he started as he sat down, “tell me, what didn’t you understand?” you showed him the topics and he started explaining them to you slowly, always making sure you were still with him and asking if you understood from time to time. you sat there, nodding at every point he made and tried solving the problem your textbook proposed afterwards. you were leaning down closer to the paper, fully concentrated on the exercise, not noticing heeseung also leaned down a little, keeping his face next to yours. the difference was that he was not looking at what you were writing, but at your face; your eyebrows slightly furrowed and your lips parted a little as you were writing down the answer. once you finished, you wanted to raise your head to look at him, only to notice how close his face was to yours. your eyes widened in surprise, but you did not move away. instead, you kept looking at him, holding your breath. you swore you could see his eyes moving from yours down to your lips and up again. but before you could waste another thought on what was happening, heeseung sat up straight and quickly pulled the piece of paper from under your hands. you blinked, a little taken aback, and sat back up again while heeseung was reading through your answer. “look here”, he said, pointing at the paper, “you have to do it differently”. he took the pen you were still holding out of your hand, brushing your fingers softly with his own, and corrected the answer. while he was explaining the correct way again, you did not really pay attention to his words but focused solely on him instead. how his lips, looking oh so soft, moved with every word he spoke, his jawline, his pointy nose and most importantly, his bambi eyes that had the prettiest shade of brown you had ever seen. you felt as if you were falling, as if you were getting lost in the brown of his eyes that were now looking back at you.

“are you listening?” his words snapped you back to the present. “your attention is elsewhere, y/n, did you realize you were staring?”, he asked teasingly, an almost arrogant grin planted on his lips. you quickly looked down as you felt heat shoot to your cheeks, making heeseung chuckle before he started explaining again.

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡

the following days, heeseung and you met regularly in the afternoons. you would go straight to your room to study, sometimes until the sun started to set outside. heeseung would do his best to help you with whatever it was that you didn’t understand, taking his time to explain everything to you and staying patient when you needed to hear something for a second or even a third time. you had to admit that sometimes the only reason he had to repeat himself was because you were just not paying attention to his explanations. especially when his hand touched yours accidentally or whenever he scooted closer to you, his knees touching yours under the desk. you couldn’t help but notice him looking down at your lips from time to time, or his eyes looking you up and down whenever you opened the door for him. or did you misunderstand because that’s what you hoped he would do? did you even hope that? he was just helping you with your studies. and he was your brothers’ best friend after all.

it was the day before the exam, which meant the last day you would have to study. you were happy you could spend the following afternoons not tied to your desk. but you were sad cause that also meant no more time with heeseung. again, you opened the door when you heard the bell, revealing the tall, silver-blonde haired boy. you couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across your lips when you saw him. you stepped aside, making space for him to enter, which he did.

the two of you went to your room and routinely sat down on your desk. heeseung pulled out a bottle from his backpack and placed it in front of you on your desk. “you were always drinking this tea when we were studying, so i stopped by the store and got it for you”, he said with a soft voice. you smiled brightly at him, mouthing a shy 'thank you' before opening the bottle and immediately taking a sip. heeseung couldn’t help but smile at your reaction. in fact, he felt his heartbeat picking up its pace, which left him confused. yes, you were pretty. especially the smile on your plump lips was so pretty to him, and he had to admit he had thought about what it would be like to feel your lips on his own. but there were many girls with pretty lips, right? and many that he had kissed, too. he wasn’t new to the feeling of his heartbeat rising, but it was usually when he got intimate with one of his girls – definitely not just by seeing them smile. he shoved his confused thoughts aside and forced his focus back to the algebra problem in front of you.

for a reason heeseung didn’t understand himself, he couldn’t stop looking at you instead of the books and papers on your desk, his breath becoming flatter and his hands somewhat sweaty. he didn’t know why or how; he only knew what he wanted. and it was you. it was not like you didn’t notice. in fact, you did. but you tried to ignore his gaze that you felt on your body as if it was piercing right through it. you felt waves of heat rushing through your body, your own focus drifting off more and more, the longer the boy next to you kept his eyes on you.

suddenly, you stood up, releasing the breath you had been holding with an “i’ll be right back”, which came out rather as a whisper. intending to go to the bathroom to splash some cool water in your face, you turned on your heels to leave the room, until you felt a strong grip around your wrist. you stopped and turned back around, looking down to heeseung who was still sitting in his chair, his hand wrapped around your wrist tightly as he looked up at you. he didn’t know what he was thinking, if he was thinking even, when he pulled you closer, released your wrist and instead brought both his hands to your waist, pulling you down on his lap – carefully but determined. even if you wanted to protest or stand up, his hands held you in place, just tight enough to not hurt you. he kept his eyes locked with yours as he wetted his dry lips with his tongue, before bringing one of his hands up to your neck, pushing your face a bit forward, a bit closer to his own. you felt as if your heart would jump out of your chest as his hot breath hit your lips. “may i?” you just nodded in trance at his question.

the next thing you felt were his soft lips on yours. they felt even better than you had imagined. as if they were made just to kiss you. the two of you slowly started moving your lips in sync, sending shivers down your spine while you brought your hands up to his cheeks, cupping his face carefully. you felt the hand on your neck push you even closer to him as his tongue carefully touched your bottom lip, to which you slightly parted your lips, granting him access. the kiss you shared started growing more passionate – hungrier – when suddenly your brother’s words echoed in the back of your head. i know best that he’s not to be trusted with girls. especially not my younger sister.

they caused you to pull away from the lips you had been wanting to kiss so bad, lowering your hands from his face down to rest them on your legs. your lips were left cold without his when the room’s cool air hit them. not exactly knowing how to feel about what had just happened, how to feel about what your brother had said or what he had even meant by it, you looked down to your legs that were placed on each side of heeseung’s lap.

heeseung blinked at your sudden action, guilt starting to creep up on him as he realized what he had done. “i’m sorry, y/n, i shouldn’t have done that, i -…”, he stopped his own words, not really knowing what he wanted to say to begin with.

you shook your head. “it’s just that...”, you started, but didn’t really know how to go on, not wanting to tell him what your brother had said about him.

instead, you named the best excuse that your mind could come up with.

“...jay”

your reply changed heeseung’s worried expression into a grin. “don’t worry, princess, he’s probably taking a nap. he doesn’t have to find out”, he said, not even leaving you enough time to react to the name he had just called you, as he brought his hand from your neck to your chin, lifting your head up and pulling your face closer until his lips touched yours for another time.

‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊ ♡ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙·̩̩̥͙*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ♡ ‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊

thank you so much for reading up until here. it means the entire world to me and i hope you guys enjoyed it. please do not copy. ❤︎︎

feel free to leave any feedback & interact!

- dazzlingjaeyun

join my taglist here

[dokries]

Hello! Lovesick soonyoung anon here again!🤗 I would absolutely take you up on your offer to write more for him! I don’t have any ideas myself sadly as I feel like you’ve covered all the bases with “home,” so all I can ask is: go nuts!!! Hit me with all the wholesome rays you can!💕🫶

10:10pm

pairing: kwon soonyoung (hoshi) x gender neutral reader

genre: fluff, married au, a lil comfort if you squint

word count: 448

warnings: mentions of cooking/food, a knife (cause. cooking.), soonyoung gets in trouble, petname (babe), latte gets blamed for something she didn’t do

author note: hi anon!! you’re so sweet omg 🥹 yeah, i did cover a lot with home but…not cooking! well, it was supposed to be just a cute lil cooking fic but…anyway, i hope it lives up to your expectations 😭 lots of love <3 also i couldn’t think of a title so timestamp it is :D (well kinda, i like to keep my formatting lol)

masterlist

“am i allowed to—”

your husband barely starts before you cut him off, and the tunic of the onion in your hands. “no.”

he pouts, and mutters about how you’re being unfair under his breath until you sigh, looking up from the cutting board in front of you. “kwon soonyoung, we both know you’re not to be trusted around fire.”

you put your knife down to look over at the pot of ramyeon that’s slowly coming to a boil, and nod, satisfied with its progress. it’s your turn to make dinner, as usual, because you can’t trust soonyoung around the kitchen–one way or another, he’ll end up burning the place down, and you really don’t want that to happen.

meanwhile, your husband tries to defend himself, protesting, “hey, i only preheated the kettle one time!”

“if it happened once, it can happen again,” you casually say with a shrug, and he sighs, giving up.

soonyoung moves to grab a drink of water behind you, and looks at you from the side of his eye. “would you at least let me wash the dishes? i feel bad for making you do all the work, so i wanna help in any way i can.”

you coo, turning and reaching over to pinch his cheek. “oh, my soonie’s all grown up now!”

“yup, i am!” he giggles and smiles proudly before biting his lip. “babe, i promise i won’t flood the kitchen again.”

“what?” you pause, and your husband freezes, knowing you’re about to unleash hell on him…right, he didn’t tell you he did it, and instead blamed it on his dog, who’s over at his sister’s for the weekend.

your eye twitches as you try to speak calmly–keyword being try (soonyoung can hear the thinly veiled amusement behind your voice though, so he knows you’re not too mad). “kwon soonyoung, are you kidding me? was this the reason i found weird stains on our old carpet? i thought you said latte did that by accident!”

soonyoung rubs the back of his neck sheepishly before pouting. “wait, so latte gets a pass but i don’t?”

you nod, looking at him as if it should be obvious. “well, duh. that’s my baby.”

“she’s our baby, not just yours!” soonyoung gasps, putting a hand to his mouth.

you raise an eyebrow before sighing, reaching out to grab your husband’s hand. “tell me next time, okay? i will be a little mad but at least we can solve whatever problem there is together, right?”

“i’m here for you. always.” you whisper, placing a kiss on his forehead, and he smiles softly before repeating your words back to you.

“i’m always here for you too.”

[boldlyvoid]

Could you do eidelweiss w Spencer? 🥺

edelweiss (courage, devotion) — “touch them again and i promise, it will be the last thing you ever do.”

there was a knock on spencers door at 10pm, he wasn't expecting anyone, it was weird. but he goes to the door anyway, he looks out the peephole to see his neighbour and a strange man beside her. she keeps apologizing, so he opens the door cautiously, "Y/N?"

"hey, roomie, I'm so sorry did I wake you? I forgot my keys," she says with confidence, knowing spencer would be able to read her expression. she needs help.

he heard her leave earlier, no one picked her up, she was all dressed up and she looked good. she always did. he loved talking to her in the hallway and by the mailboxes, he'd be lying if he said he didn't have a small crush on her... "no, I was working on some files for work, it's no biggy... who's this?"

"oh, this is Neill, he was just dropping me off," she smiles and starts to walk into Spencer's apartment.

"I-" the man reaches out for her. "what the hell?"

"What?" she stands between the two men, almost inside the apartment but not quite, "it was a nice date, I had a good time?"

"I paid a hundred dollars for your meal? don't you think--" the man grabs her arm, frustrated that he's not getting his way and spencer loses it.

he tugs Y/N inside and steps into the man's space, pushing him from the doorway, "touch her again and I promise it'll be the last thing you ever do. she doesn't owe you a thing," Spencer raises his voice slightly, stern and strong and in his face, he towers over the guy.

"Sorry," he cowers and looks past him at Y/N, "I'll call you?"

"don't," Spencer answers for her. "don't contact her ever again, get going."

the man rushes down the stairs and spencer shuts the door quickly, "are you okay?"

she nods, "I knew he'd do that, I told him I didn't want him to walk me home but he insisted and I knew it. I knew he'd want more because of that stupid place he picked for dinner."

"it's not your fault, he's the problem, I'm sorry," Spencer reaches out and places his hand on her arm. "you can stay as long as you need, do you want tea? coffee?"

she smiles, "tea would be nice... and thank you, really. I remembered you said you caught creeps for a living and thought you'd be able to help."

"Always," he assures her. "I mean, you could use me as a cover from now on, pending I'm your roommate to get away from them or I could help you solve this problem altogether..."

"How?" she doesn't catch on right away.

"I could take you on a date and then you'd stop having to try and make it work with weirdos like him," Spencer suggests. "I've been meaning to ask for a while now."

she lights right up, "really? yeah, yes! yes. I'd love to go on a date with you?"

he can't believe it worked, he smiles so big, proud of himself. he places the kettle on his stove and turns it on, "are you busy this weekend?"

she shakes her head, "nope, I'm all yours doctor Reid."

[realityinsuspense]

one step closer | chapter 2: disrupted

--summary: "me and him? in one apartment? yeah, right. nothing is going to happen." ~~ two strangers living together. not talking and just going about each other’s lives. that was your plan. that’s how you’ve always done things, and you’ve gone far doing so. so when you have to suddenly move into a new apartment with your new roommate, you expect almost nothing. almost.

--pairing: mingi x fem!reader

--genre: strangers to lovers, fluff, a little angst, #mingi is cold and standoffish (? kinda), #eventual mutual pining

--a/n: so i hear tag lists are a thing! if you're interested in being in it please let me know :) and happy reading!

words: 2.8k

--

chapter 2: disrupted

You stare out blankly from your office window. The sky is clear, and it’s bright and sunny—practically perfect weather. But that doesn’t stop the storm of thoughts brewing inside of your mind.

It’s been almost three weeks since you moved in. Three weeks—that’s practically a month.

Your adjustment to work and the new office has been no problem. In fact, this location might have been even better than the last. You were also relieved to know that two of your coworker friends also transferred to the same building; this made the thought of meeting new people less daunting.

What was actually more daunting was the person you were living with instead.

The past three weeks at the apartment have been peaceful. Maybe even too peaceful. Peaceful to the point where you started to feel unsettled. And with every right so—because amongst that peacefulness, was an unnerving, slightly annoying amount of inconsistent, and undone chores.

Yes. Chores. That’s what roommates agree to do; it’s a shared place, thus becomes a shared responsibility to keep the spaces clean. Yet, there were some habits Mingi does—or doesn’t do—that started to annoy you ever so slightly. Undone dishes. Excessive disposables from the takeout he orders. Doesn’t take out the hair in the drain in the shower (gross, yes I know). Among other things.

At fist, you learned to ignore it. At first, it was fine. Maybe he’s forgotten to make that list he said he was going to make, you thought. And because you were the new girl, you wanted to be respectful—so you made sure the apartment was clean. It is technically his place, you said to yourself in order to justify doing so. You threw out any trash, put away dishes, swept the floor, and cleared out any clutter you found (including the hair). It was a habit of yours. You weren’t necessarily a neat freak, but a clear space meant a clear mind—and that was important to you.

But it’s been three weeks.

Three. With no ‘thank you’s’ either!

What am I? His maid?

It was the constant pile of dirty dishes, the always-almost-full trash bins, and the now small band of fruit flies hanging around the practically black bananas—that weren’t yours by the way. It was also all the expired food in the fridge that you had almost no space for your own groceries. But still you wouldn’t dare say a word. You’re not one to judge in cases like this, since it was technically his place after all. But still, it’s unfair as housemates right? It should be split up equally. You hate to admit it, but you were frustrated; maybe moving with this complete stranger was a mistake.

“Let’s just keep to ourselves, okay?”

Mingi’s words echoed in your ears. You thought that would be easy. And it was initially. You’re up at 6am, he’s up at 10. You’re asleep by 10pm and god knows what time he goes to sleep. But it works out perfectly for you both and your “no contact policy”: no one is fighting over the bathroom, each of you gets to eat your meals in the kitchen by yourselves, and there’s been an unspoken agreement to not use the living room at all for some reason (though that gigantic TV is tempting you). This routine settled in so quickly and easily, it became natural instinct. Even after three weeks, you and Mingi shared no more than a few glances or nods. It’s almost always dead quiet, with no exchange of conversations at all—just to yourselves in your own rooms. That’s what worked. That was easy.

But the mess back home is clearly setting you up. It’s bothering you. It’s unfair. It’s not what roommates do. And you most certainly dread the thought of having to say something—to be the first to disturb that peace.

You look down at the pile of papers on your desk and sigh. Gosh. I am definitely overthinking this.

“Hey y/n,” A familiar voice ripples through your endless thoughts. “You heading to lunch yet or what?”

You turn your head to see two suited figures standing at the edge of your cubicle: the people you needed most in that moment—your beloved work friends, San and Yeosang.

“I brought an extra dish to share today.” Yeosang adds with a small smile and holds up his tupperware.

You smile in return, grab your lunch bag from under your desk, and walk with them towards the cafeteria.

—

“Can I ask you guys something?” You say, breaking the silence. The silence being from the two hungry guys scarfing down their mounds of rice, chicken, and the cucumber salad Yeosang made. You couldn’t blame them though, you were starving too. The three of you are seated at a table next to the opened cafeteria windows, the fresh air wafting in. You are sat across your two closest friends from work, Choi San and Kang Yeosang.

San was bright, outgoing, hardworking—almost always seen with his classic dimpled smile.

Yeosang was gentle, cunning, intelligent—his sweet voice made to cheer you up almost instantly.

The duo had been friends long before—attending the same college—and now working here together as software engineers. Despite being in different departments from them, you instantly clicked after being hired. Both were admirable hard workers, each with their own special qualities. And both devastatingly handsome you might add.

In this moment, you feel so incredibly lucky. So lucky that you are the one that gets to bother these two outstanding individuals on your first world, almost pitiful problems.

��Let me guess,” A grin is almost forming on San’s face. “You’re gonna ask what I’ll be doing for my birthday?”

“Yes, what’s up?” Yeosang asks, completely ignoring San’s guess. You can’t help but smile.

“While I can’t wait for your birthday,” You begin, glancing between the both of them. “Do you guys…do you guys think it’s weird for roommates to not talk to each other?”

Yeosang and San stare at you blankly for a moment. San comically cocks his head to the side and looks off to the side, as if deeply contemplating this scenario.

“Your new roommate, huh?” San questions his gaze locking onto you.

You briefly mentioned to your beloved coworkers where your new apartment complex was. And briefly mentioned you were living with someone completely new. A total stranger. They were totally baffled, just like Hongjoong. But again, you assured them that you were fine. Up until this moment.

“No talking…like at all?” San presses. You shake your head.

“Well,” Yeosang exhales. “I personally think that’s weird.”

“Yeosang! You’re too blunt!” San gently nudges Yeosang’s shoulder. Yeosang chuckles in response. “But sadly…he’s right. Why? What’s wrong?”

You then go onto explain Mingi’s self-made apartment rules. The “keeping to yourself”, the nonexistent chores list, and the mess that’s constantly growing and slowly driving you mad. If you were going to live at this apartment for the next year or so, this was something you really didn’t want to put up with. Something you shouldn’t put up with.

After explaining your situation, both of them are silent again.

“Hmm…” San has his fist to his chin, once again in deep thought. Gosh, he’s so great at expressing hisself. “Is he hot?”

“Huh?!” You ask in shock, completely caught off guard. “What does that have to do anything?!”

“That’s a good point San,” Yeosang has a sly grin on his face, his voice as equally teasing. “Is that why you’re so scared to talk to him y/n?”

“A hot roommate is certainly a lucky problem to have.” San nods eagerly in agreement.

“I don’t know!” You want to avoid looking or even thinking of your own roommate in that way. Sure, you observed that Mingi is quite good looking—especially that first day of meeting him—and to go there is a rabbit hole of thoughts you refuse to explore. But in the end he’s a mystery to you; he’s nothing more than someone you live with. “I don’t think of him or look at him in that way. We are just supposed to be roommates, okay?”

“Okay, okay, we’re only half joking,” San smiles. “But if you guys are really supposed to be roommates then, shouldn’t you feel okay to tell him how you feel? It can’t be that serious.”

“Even for that dumb rule,” Yeosang says. He takes a glance at his watch. “It’s your apartment now too.”

You take a moment to let those words sink in. Even if they do tease you from time to time, the best friend duo always manages to give you solid, practical advice. For some reason, you want to laugh. You can’t help but realize how much you were overthinking. The benefits of an outside perspective, you think.

“Talk to him, okay?” San assures. You nod firmly. At that point, your guys’ lunch was over and it was time to head back. After packing and cleaning up, you guys are walking down the big hallway from the cafeteria and towards the elevators.

“OH! I almost forgot. y/n, July 19th. Save the date,” San says proudly as he dusts off his blazer. “Since I’m working on my actual birthday—gross—I decided to host a big party for another weekend instead.”

“That’s like two months away.” Yeosang murmurs. San nudges him again jokingly, and you laugh at the two’s behavior.

“That’s why I’m letting her know now. Save. the. date.” San breaths in happily. “Practically one. It’s almost June already.”

“Got it. Won’t forget.” You reply with a smile.

—

After a long day at work, the sun is finally at the edge of the horizon. Dusk.

You sigh heavily as you key open your apartment building and sluggishly walk towards the elevator doors. Despite the long day, you feel a pit of dread forming in your stomach—an unsettling knot of anxiety. You get in the elevator and press 5—the top floor.

You got this y/n.

It’s not so much Mingi is someone you don’t want to talk to. You hate to admit it, but Yeosang and San were partially right. You were honestly intimidated by him. And no, not by his good looks. But who he was. Based on the little interaction you two shared, Mingi was still a complete mystery to you. Even if you two do live together, you guys are still just strangers to one another. Who was he? Where did he work? Who was his old roommate? Why is he alone here? These were all questions that popped into your head from time to time.

He was direct, quiet, and always looked so serious. He truly was keeping to himself. And you were slightly scared to disrupt that peace you two shared. But it’s not like you’re looking to befriend him, nor he to you. Three weeks was a long time, and you couldn’t stand it any more. This was supposed to be your home.

You suddenly thought of Yeosang.

“It’s your apartment now too.”

You unlock your apartment door, and enter the space that’s been drilling your mind for the past 48 hours. As you walk in, your eyes scan the flaws in the kitchen and dining area. Once again, there was a pile of unwashed dishes, an overflowing trash bin, and the bowl of bananas with its flies still placed in the center of the dining table. On the kitchen counter, lay an opened plastic bag and soiled takeout boxes—assumingly left there since there was no more space in the trash bin.

You sigh. You weren’t going to clean up after him again. This is your space too.

After setting your work bag down—the adrenaline getting to you—you walk towards his bedroom door. From the other side, you could’ve sworn you heard laughter. But you don’t let it surprise you any moment further. You knock firmly.

The beat of silence, waiting for him to open the door. In that second, you wish you could take it back. But there’s no going back now. Say what you need to say y/n.

“Yes?” Mingi opens the door a crack and leans against the doorway. You almost want to turn away immediately. He’s wearing sweatpants and a black tank, revealing his arms and his upper physique. He’s got his glasses on, with a (what you assume to be) gaming headset resting around his neck on his defined collarbones. His expression remains unimpressed.

You try not to waste more time gazing at all the gauzy details and peering into what his room looks like—which looked quite dark anyway, by the way.

“Uh, can we talk?” You ask him calmly.

“About?” Mingi raises an eyebrow.

“The uh…the mess. Your mess in the kitchen.” You say slightly hesitant at first.

“Excuse me?” His eyes slightly widen, taken aback. The tone of his voice feels almost like a sting.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Mingi, but it’s been so untidy,” Your voice almost falters. You hate that he’s making you feel bad for saying how you feel. Or maybe you hate that you’re letting him make you feel bad. “And for the past-”

“What happened to just keeping to ourselves?” He cuts you off, his voice low and firm. “I can clean up after myself.”

You try to compose yourself, but that was just rude.

“Well, clearly you haven’t been!” You finally exclaim in frustration, gesturing towards the kitchen. “At first, I thought we were going to split the chores. So I waited. When there was a mess, I’d clean it, because I wanted to be respectful. But it’s been three weeks, and it seems like I’m the only one doing so. And I cannot live like this. I’m not some maid!”

Mingi’s expression appeared taken aback, probably shocked at your sudden outburst. This is the first full conversation you guys are having after a while. But in that moment, it felt so good to finally get all those thoughts off your chest. To say what you felt. It overpowered the fear of what he’d say next.

“I live here now too.” You add, this time more calmly.

Mingi sighs, rubbing his face in his hands and then runs them through his dark hair. You glance away briefly.

“Fine, I’m sorry. I just… got a lot going on and…” He begins to trail off. “Anyway, it won’t happen again.” You nod.

“I think I’m just so used to my old roommate doing all the cleaning.” Mingi exhales.

“Well that was totally unfair for them too.” You say.

“I’m sure he didn’t mind,” Mingi wavers, glancing down at you. “But yeah I guess it is…”

“Okay, so…” You look back at the dirty kitchen.

“I’ll clear it all out now,” He assures, removing the headset around his neck. He tosses it behind him (to where you assume his bed is). “And I’ll make the chores list for sure this time. Split. Evenly.”

You nod in satisfaction ready to turn on your heels, and run into your room. But you briefly add, “I think we also should just make it a habit to clean up after ourselves anyway.”

“Yes, fine.” Mingi says.

As he makes his way towards the kitchen, you finally head to your own room. Progress, you think. So he can actually listen to you! Now things can work out all over again. Living at this apartment will continue on as usual, this time cleaner and fairer. You smile at the thought—back to that normal. Back to that peace.

For now.

~

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[frankoceanluvrr]

𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 2 — 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑

pairing : friends to lovers , fem!reader , college!peter, college!au

warnings : nothing too serious. english isn’t my first language, urdu is! so please tell me about grammatical errors like spelling and punctuation as those i struggle with

summary : [Name] and Peter have been friends since college started. He soon finds out his friend has a ‘crush’ on the masked vigilante Spiderman, and cant help but feel a little jealous.

part 1 here! : https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/frankoceanluvrr/715754434612838400

a/n : @natashamaximoff69 requested! thank you for 10 followers !!!!! ❤️ sorry this is a bit rushed

“I hate studying.” You groaned, putting your head on the table.

“Well, maybe you hate it because you’re always doodling instead of actually learning. Who do you draw again? What’s he called? Spiderman?” Peter teased.

“I hate you so much” you laughed lifting your head up.

You guys weren’t even studying for anything important. You both just wanted to spend time together, even if it meant studying topics in advance.

“I gotta go,” Peter said, looking at his watch, “See you tomorrow?”

“Uh, actually, you wanna go see a movie tonight?” You asked, not even looking at him.

“What? Like a date?” He asked quickly.

“Yeah, like a date.” You breathed, meeting his soft but excited gaze.

“What time?” He said, shocked this was even happening.

“Just text me when you’re done doing whatever you’re doing.” You said, putting all your things in your bag, “should I walk you to wherever you’re going?”

“Wow, you’re really the gentleman [Name],” he smirked, “but no it’s fine, thanks though”

“Be safe” you smiled as he walked away.

You ran to your friends as soon as you saw him leave.

“Did you ask?” Your friend Gwen asked, grabbing both your arms.

“He said yes!” You smiled widely.

“Geez, calm down [Name]” Your other friend Mj laughed, “it’s just a date right?”

“Well, I might ask him to be my boyfriend by the end of it. I don’t know though, what if he thought it’s just like.. a friend date? Oh my God that would be so embarrassing—” You rambled before being cut off.

“Friend dates exist?” Gwen looked puzzled, “anyway, don’t overthink it [Name]. He so obviously likes you back.”

“Yeah [Name], you practically have nothing to worry about. We can help you get ready for it too” Mj smiled.

You spent the whole day with them in your dorm planning everything down to potential conversation answers. He spent the day.. differently. Being Spiderman wasn’t easy. He was obviously excited for the date, but he had other problems.

It was now 10pm, you were staring at your phone. It was off on your bed and your friends were staring with you.

“Maybe you should go over to his dorm, he’s probably nervous.” Gwen sighed, passing you your phone.

“You sure he’s not just standing me up?” You frowned, looking at your friends.

“No, and even if he was, he’d be making a big mistake. You’re a catch.” Gwen smiled, tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear.

“[Name], just go to his dorm, he might be waiting for you or something.” Mj laughed, pushing you on your way.

You got to his dorm and knocked on the door. The door opened slightly, and you could see a figure crawling through the window. You furrowed your eyebrows, opening the door even more until it made a noise. The figure stopped and began to turn around, you hid behind the door but it started to open even more revealing you.

Then you saw him. Spiderman? Breaking into Peters dorm?

You reached into your pockets frantically to ring the police. He rushed towards you.

“I’m not a criminal I promise.” His tone panicked, shutting the door behind you.

And with that, he took the mask off revealing himself.

“Peter?” You said, eyes widened.

“Hey” He said sheepishly, the shock not even settling in for him yet.

You were the first person to know he was Spiderman.

“How? When? What?” Your questions could barely get out your mouth, “you’re Spiderman??”

“Well, to answer your first questions, a radioactive spider bit me when I was 15. I’ve never told anyone about this, and neither can you. Secret identity you know?”

“That won’t be a problem, but are you okay?” You said, noticing his face was slightly bruised.

“I’m fine now” He smiled softly, taking your hands.

“Do you have like 8 hidden eyes?” You said standing back slightly, taking in the information given to you.

“What?” He laughed, “no, [Name], I don’t have 8 eyes unfortunately.”

“This cant be real” You furrowed your eyebrows, “I thought you said Spiderman was old and had bleached hair?”

His face flushed, “I was jealous.”

“Of yourself?” You laughed, pushing his arm.

“Shut up, it’s just the way you were talking about him”

“I was talking about you though.”

“Whatever, why don’t we just go to the movies hm? I heard they’re re-running scream.” He said attempting to shift the conversation.

“Good idea.” You smiled, “but I still have more questions you know.”

“Ask me on the way, let me get changed.” He said running off to the bathroom, “you look really beautiful by the way.”

And that’s when it really settled in that he was Spiderman. He was the one who was complimenting you. The one helping you and thousands of others. You began to worry about him as he was getting ready. He had to face danger everyday. Risking his life everyday. Before your thoughts could get any worse, he came out dressed like Peter Parker. The Peter you fell in love with, not Spiderman.

“I hope you know I don’t like you more because you’re Spiderman, I still hate you” You smirked.

“Yeah yeah whatever you say [Name].”

In reality, he was scared you might only like him now because he’s Spiderman. He’s never been so wrong about you.

The walk to the movies was filled with every question you could think of, and Peter didn’t mind. He loved the fact he could talk to someone about this, but he loved talking to you more.

[ladykailitha]

All My Roads Lead Back to You Part 16

Hello! Sorry I missed posting yesterday but I had a horrible tension headache from sleeping on my neck wrong and I was pretty much out from the moment I got home until I went to bed at 10pm.

I forgot to link it on the last chapter, but this is the song that I listened to nonstop while writing part 15. Somebody New by The Struts.

Steve is on the road to recovery but I think I’ve got a couple more chapters to go before we reach the end.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4  Part 5 Part 6  Part 7 Part 8  Part 9  Part 10  Part 11  Part 12  Part 13  Part 14  Part 15    

***

Monday morning came and the kids were back at school.

“Damn it,” Kenny said. “I was so sure that was going to work.” He poked at his food with a growl.

Mandy put her arm around him. “I’m not so sure it didn’t.”

Three pairs of eyes turned her direction in interest.

“Now,” she started, hands in the air, “most of what I got is from snippets of conversation that I happened to hear because my dad is H-man’s and Miss Thing’s dads confidant.”

They all nodded.

“But from what it sounded like,” she said, playing with her hands as she fought for the right words, “is that they admitted having romantic feelings for each other, but that Mr Harrington didn’t feel ready to commit to a new relationship having been physically and emotional destroyed by the last one.”

All the eyes turned to Edie. She gulped.

“We really don’t talk about it,” she murmured. “But yeah, after my dad’s last break up, he got really low. I–I don’t know how low, I was only ten and he hid a lot from me because I was just a kid, but I know he had to spend a couple months in a special hospital afterwards.”

“I’m sorry, love,” Mandy said putting an arm around her friend and rubbing her shoulder. “Was this when you had to spend a couple months at our house.”

Edie nodded. “I just want Dad to be happy. Whatever that looks like. But I really think that looks like Mr Munson.”

Harri nodded. “But I appreciate your dad having the foresight to stop and say not yet. Not no. Not never. Not even let’s trying knowing I’m not in a good space. That takes a lot of strength. I admire him for that.”

Everyone nodded.

“So you’re idea worked,” Edie said. “After a fashion. We know they love each other. We know they want to be together. It’s just going to take time. And that’s better than the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.”

She grabbed her soda. “Three cheers to Kenny!”

Mandy and Harri raised their sodas too. “Three cheers to Kenny!”

*

Eddie’s choice for lunch that week was his place. He shrugged when Steve asked.

“I didn’t feel like going out this week,” was his only explanation.

As they sat at the small breakfast table Steve could feel himself relax.

Eddie smiled at him slyly as he chewed on a bit of food.

Steve looked up at him in confusion. “What?”

“I got to thinking about it after you told me about your troubles with eating that you never relaxed when we went out to eat.”

Steve frowned and looked down at his plate. He had nearly finished it without thinking. “I didn’t realize that.”

“You’re always worried about being judged about what you’re eating and how much,” Eddie explained further. “You even did it at that big celebration dinner with Jeff and them. And when Harri and I would eat over there, Edie was always scrutinizing everything you ate. Were you counting the amount of bites you were taking?”

Steve blushed but he nodded. “I know how many bites it takes for me to feel full and eat exactly that many.”

Eddie raised his chin at him. “How many bites did you take today?” He nodded to Steve’s plate.

Steve opened his mouth to answer, but closed it when he realized he didn’t know. “How?”

“I keep you interested by talking,” Eddie said. “You tend to forget to count and eat more when I ramble. So I weaponized it.”

Steve looked down at his plate and then up at Eddie. “Thank you.”

Eddie smiled sweetly at him. “This is a bandaid for the real problem, but it’s a start. You need to start making a diary of when you get intrusive thoughts about your eating and then share that with your therapist. Or hell get a new one. One you can trust with your eating because to me it looks like you don’t.”

Steve furrowed his brow. He trusted Dr Rushing, didn’t he? But the more he thought about it the more he realized that he didn’t. He had been there when Steve had his breakdown and Steve never quite trusted the doctor not use that against him.

“Oh.” He looked up at Eddie, his lips quivering. “How did you know?”

Eddie tilted his head and leaned forward. “It was something you said on Saturday that tipped me off.”

Steve thought back but he couldn’t land on anything that would have told him that he didn’t trust his therapist.

“You had been with this doctor for five years,” Eddie said softly. “And while grief and illness aren’t linear, you weren’t better, Stevie.”

Steve’s head reared back. “Oh my god. You’re right. It’s not about getting over what Andy did. It’s about not having the tools to form new relationships. And you’re right, I don’t have those.”

Eddie nodded. “I don’t know enough about eating disorders or any of that shit, but I do know something about therapy. Having been taking it for the last twenty years.”

“Twenty years?” Steve asked, his eyes almost bulging out of his head. “That’s a long time.”

Eddie nodded. “Jay wanted me to get it before Harri was born. Screaming yourself awake after just putting a baby down for bed isn’t conducive to a happy life. For anyone involved.”

“I couldn’t trust the therapists Dr Owens sent us to,” Steve admitted. “I always thought that they would report anything and everything right back to him. I guess that’s why I never really trusted Dr Rushing, my current therapist, I mean.” He looked down at the table as he fought to control his breathing. “I just don’t trust any of them. What if they decided that the Upside Down was a delusion and they put me away? They’d give Edie back to Addison. I couldn’t do that. I can’t.”

Eddie put his fork down and really looked at Steve. He leaned down and tilted his head so he could Steve to look back at him. “How long have you been holding that in, sweetheart?”

Steve jerked back like he even forgot that Eddie was there. “I don’t know. Too long, I guess.”

Eddie pulled out his wallet and got out a small card. “I don’t know if Dr Kegler does eating disorders or whatever, but give her a call. She can at least refer you to someone who can help you.”

Steve took the card from Eddie and looked at it. “Dr Olivia Kegler, licensed therapist and psychologist?”

“She’s really helped me,” Eddie explained. “Not just with the Upside Down but with Jay’s death too.”

“Is she–is she read in?” Steve asked timidly, looking back down at the card.

Eddie nodded. “But Owens hates her, and that’s says a lot, I think.”

Steve looked up and murmured, “Because she doesn’t tell him anything?”

Eddie shrugged. “No idea, but I really like her, Stevie. Just give her a try, okay?”

Steve nodded. What was there to lose, really?

*

When Steve got home he made some phone calls and set up an appointment with Dr Kegler.

It wasn’t until after his first appointment with her that he made a decision. He talked it over with Eddie and he agreed. It was time.

Steve made dinner for the four of them like what was becoming their norm. Eddie made dessert.

Which was when the two teenagers cottoned on that this wasn’t a regular dinner.

“After talking to my new therapist and discussing it with Eddie,” Steve began, “it’s time we told you the truth about what happened in Hawkins twenty years ago.”

Eddie slammed a great big manila folder on the table between them. “I wasn’t there for the first few years, but I noticed things before then.”

Steve took a deep breath and then began to tell his story, the whole time Eddie would show them document after picture after statement showing them proof that Steve wasn’t lying to them.

And then they got to Chrissy’s death and Steve let Eddie take over. He even let him fill the kids in with stuff he wasn’t there for, but was told about later in the hospital.

“So the feral dogs and crazy bats story was a lie?” Edie asked after they were done.

Steve shook his head. “No. They were feral and they were dogs. Just not the kind you were familiar with. Same with the crazy bats. We didn’t know what else to call them. Uncle Dusty named most of them, tying them to their D&D game. But I would never lie to you.”

“Hence all the times you said you couldn’t tell us, huh?” Harri asked quietly. “You would rather have us mad at you for not being able to tell us then to lie and have it hurt us later.”

Steve and Eddie nodded.

“The hardest thing was making sure not to talk about it when you were around,” Steve murmured to Edie. “I hated not being able to tell you, but it was properly scary stuff.”

“You could have told me sooner,” Harri protested. “Dustin and them were all eleven or twelve when this started. You could have told me years ago.”

Steve laughed. “Yeah? You tell that to his face then,” he said harshly. “Tell him he was old enough to brave nightmares and phobias for years due to the Upside Down. Tell Will or Lucas or even Jane that they were old enough for the horrors they faced. If they’re feeling nice, they might just laugh in your face.”

Harri looked down at his hands and hunched his shoulders. Eddie stood up and came around to where Harri was seated.

“You weren’t mature enough to handle Papa passing away, Harri-bear,” he said gently. “I know you’re only saying this because you feel I deliberately kept this from you, but that’s not it at all. Okay?”

Steve closed his eyes and opened them slowly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I was your age when I faced my first real horror and I wouldn’t wish that on either of you.”

Harri nodded.

Steve looked over at his daughter, tilting his head. “What’s on your mind, Miss Thing?”

“Just piecing together little things you’ve said over the years, I guess.”

Steve nodded. “What’s the picture like in your head?”

Edie straightened up and said with a smile. “You are far too normal for what you went through, Jesus Christ!”

Steve and Eddie laughed. Just threw their heads back and laughed.

“I’m really not,” Steve said once he caught his breath. “My neuroses have neuroses, honey.”

Eddie chuckled. “He is the most down to earth of the Party, but in no way is your dad normal.”

“Does Uncle Jeff know?” Harri asked.

Eddie shook his head. “Neither does Uncle Gareth.”

“We’ve both made and kept friends that don’t know about the Upside Down,” Steve explained. “But most the people we’re closest to do, though.”

Harri nodded. “I’m sorry about my comment about Dustin, that wasn’t fair.”

“This wasn’t something we wanted,” Steve said gently. “In fact if we could have had adults we trusted, we wouldn’t have had to do it at all. But we kept being dragged back in over and over again against our will. I think out of all of us, the three that suffered the most was Will, Jane, and your dad.”

“Because of the town freaking out, right?” Edie asked. “For Mr Munson?”

Steve nodded. “He was the only one to faced actual persecution for this shit. And I got tortured by fucking Russians.”

“Yeah...” Eddie said, “I’m still pissed off at the government for not going to war over the torture of kids.”

“Their justification was that technically I was an adult because I was eighteen.”

“Robin wasn’t,” Eddie bit out. “And you can’t tell they wouldn’t have tried to torture Dustin or Erica if they had managed to catch them.”

They talked a little bit more about what they had gone through and how they thought that now that their kids were going to be going into their senior year of school that it would be a good time to finally come clean.

It was a lot of things to process and they were so proud of them for understanding.

It wasn’t going to be an easy road, but Steve smiled at the thought of sharing the burden with them all.

***

Part 17  Part 18  Epilogue

Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk​ @trashpocket @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @plyerice27 @mightbeasleep @thedragonsaunt @chaoticlovingdreamer @trashpocket @sapphirecobalt-1 @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666  @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @steddie-as-they-go @lillemilly @callas-shitshow @bisexualdisastersworld @renaissan-vvitch @immortal-iratze @bookbinderbitch @cardigangoth @lilacrobin @nightmareglitter @nerdsconquerall @stxrcrossed186

[kfkr1ze]

[002-A07] Unbreakable Boys

Summary — ✈︎ The day before the study trip, Kaede decided to research the origins of the explosion at Asu High. He comes to realize that Akuta and the others are at the age where they may not be considered children anymore.

Characters— ✈︎ Nayuki, Daniel, Sakujiro, Akuta, Kiroku, Muneuji, Nanaki, Ushio

Location: HAMA Tours Office Floor

Nayuki: Here, coffee.

Kaede: Ah… Sorry. Thank you very much.

Nayuki: You’re not pushing yourself too much, are you?

Doesn't the Noon Squad’s study trip start tomorrow?

Kaede: Yeah… But, I still have some stuff that I really need to finish before I leave.

Nayuki: If you’ll have me, I could help. You have to be prepared for tomorrow.

Kaede: No no, I couldn’t ask that of you…

Nayuki: … Are you even aware of what time it is right now?

At the rate that you’re going, you won’t have time to sleep.

Kaede: Ehーー It’s 10PM!? I-I’m in big trouble…

Nayuki: So, where should I begin?

Kaede: I’m really sorry…! Umm… Thenーー

Location: HAMA House 

Daniel: Oh, welcome baーー... Uh, that’s a lotta luggage you got there.

Kaede: I’m back. These are just some things I’m gonna need for tomorrow’s tripーー

Excuse me, sir[1]. They’re about to slip, so if you don’t mind, could you please hold onto it for a minute…!

Daniel: No waay, I don’t like working overtime. I’ll go ahead and wait on the sofa so hurry up and get over here.

Aahh I feel so light〜 Both of my hands are completely free〜.

Kaede: Gh…!

Nayuki: You can lean on me for some help. Here.

Kaede: No, you’re barely more balanced than I am Nayuki-kun, so it’s okay. I wouldn’t want to cause you any more trouble.

Thank you so much for all of your help today. You helped me out with my work and even went shopping with me.

Nayuki: It’s no problem. I’m glad I could be of help.

Location: HAMA House Living Room

Daniel: Insect repellent, sunscreen, cooling gel sheet, body wipes, bandages, fever reducers, motion sickness medicine…

I was expecting you to buy some good stuff but… All of this is just really boring.

Where’s the sake? The snacks? Other shit you get when you're shopping?

Kaede: There’s none of that stuff. Everyone going on the trip are 16 year old children. They can’t even take certain medicines 

Daniel: They don’t need it. But, I mean, wouldn’t the adult stuff be fine for kids that age?

Kaede: Ehh?

Nayuki: I searched it up. It seems the adult version of those medicines is appropriate for people that age to use.

Kaede: Wow, quick! Thank you.

I see, it’s good that they can take the adult ones…

Nayuki: I’m sorry, I didn’t think to look it up while we were shopping together.

Daniel: Well, isn't it fine since they’re able to take it? Better than letting young kids take adult doses.

Location: HAMA House Private Room

Kaede: (Alright. Now that I’ve conquered the list of things to buy…)

(In the meantime, I managed to find more entertaining things that are aimed for adults. Now, I just have to wait until tomorrow. )

Ah, now that I think about it…

( “Hama Asunaro High School”... “Incident”... and search.)

Ummm, let’s see, let's see…

One day in June, at midnight.

At Hama Asunaro High School in the HAMA 5 ward, there was a sudden explosion in the old building.

The building collapsed, but fortunately, none of the students nor teachers were caught in the accident. There were no injuries.

The cause of the explosion remains unknown, and is currently under investigation

Kaede: (Come to think of it, I’m sure I remember seeing something about an explosion on the news…)

(Th-The old building looks so damaged…!

I’m surprised everyone’s safe, since they were all here…)

(I’m really glad no one was injured… But it’s really hard to believe a child could damage something to this scaleーー Wait no.)

Daniel: But, I mean, wouldn’t the adult stuff be fine for kids that age?

Kaede: (Like Daniel-san said earlier, they’re at that age where they wouldn’t be considered “children” exactly anymore.)

(Umm… What else is there…)

I heard this from my friend who lives in HAMA, but apparently the sound was super loud www. Like a big BOOM www.

It’s so annoying that there’s so many students there already, but because of that incident, outsiders who were curious started wandering around the school gates. It’s super troublesome. But, come to think of it, wasn’t there a student who disappeared from Asu High recently? They’re definitely related to each other.

Are there any signs of a conspiracy?

Asu High has to reveal the truth immediately!

Kaede: (Ahh… The opinions on Dazzle are also pretty rough…)

(A student’s disappearance… So something like that happened.)

……

Akuta: I’ll get them to go on that study tour thingy!

Leave it to me!

Kaede: (Earlier, I got a reply on PeChat saying “it’s all good!”, butーー)

(I wonder if the study tour will go smoothly the whole week…)

Location: Tokyo Metropolis International Airport Lobby

Akuta: Sensei, over here over here!

Muneuji: Good morning.

Sakujiro: Good morning. The weather is good today, isn’t it?

Kaede: Yes! Good morningーー……

Nanaki: ……

Kiroku: ……

Ushio: … Yawwnn…… Tired.

Kaede: ……

Ushio: What. Is it so rare for a person to yawn?

Kaede: Ah, sorry. That’s not why I was looking…

(The mood is pretty low, but everyone really showed up….

I’m so glad.)

(Akuta-kun managed to persuade everyone… Thank you…!)

Akuta: ……

Kaede: (Ahaha. I’ll have to thank him again later.)

Muneuji: Sensei, here are everyone’s parental consent forms.

Kaede: Thank you. It helps a lot that you collected them all.

By the way, you don’t have to call me “Sensei”.

I mean, I’m not even an official teacher.

Muneuji: I see. Then, what would you like us to call you?

Kaede: Hmmm… “Chief” is okay.

Muneuji: I got it. I’ll call you that then. ーーSee you later.

Sakujiro: … As I thought, he is familiar with organizing students. As expected of the Anthroposophical Astronomy Club head and the vice president of the student council.

Kaede: The An…?

Sakujiro: The Anthroposophical Astronomy Club.

Kaede: I see. So that’s why he’s able to hold himself up well.

(I feel as if everyone is a bit more cooperative than before, but I wonder what Akuta-kun said to convince them to come…)

Sakujiro: The Anthroposophical Astronomy Club.

Kaede: Ah, yes, I got it…

(Hm…?)

Akuta: Hey, Muneuji… It’s your turn next.

Muneuji: Okay, put it in here.

Kaede: ( … They put something in a cute pink drawstring bag. Is he returning something he borrowed?)

Sakujiro: Then… I’m leaving by car, so I will be leaving now. Excuse me.

Kaede: Okay. We’ll see you when we get out there. Please be careful.

Sakujiro: Yes, you as well.

By driving safely, I should arrive earlier than the plane does.

Kaede: Alright, everyone. We should also be going.

Akuta: YAAY! My heart is all prepared! Everything’s OK here, Sensei!

Ushio: Speaking of going somewhere, where are we supposed to be going? You didn’t write it down in the proposal…

Kaede: Y-Yeah… I thought it’d be nice to keep it a surprise.

(In reality, I was trying so hard to quickly write a good proposal that I just forgot to write it down…!)

Ushio: …Hmmm. That seemed like it was a lie, but I’ll pretend like I believe it.

Kaede: Thank you.. … Ahem.

Well, the place we are heading to isーー

Shodoshima!

Previous — ✈︎ Masterlist — ✈︎ Next

Notes — ✈︎

Chief here (部長) is different than the Chief (主任) that Kaede is called. In order to not cause any confusion, I put sir since I'm pretty sure Kaede is just trying to be like >_< please help me sir..! rather than trying to actually call him something out of respect.

[silentangel00]

The Batman

(Reader Insert)

Chapter 1: https://www.tumblr.com/silentangel00/731630688641662976/the-batman

Chapter 2 Drive

Your first night as a consultant was a long and rough one. Much more mentally taxing than you had initially prepared for. You knew it would be bad but this, this was something different. You returned back to your penthouse at around 3 AM that day and went straight to bed and passed out in the deepest, stone-like slumber you have ever had. You woke up late in the afternoon, extremely groggy and disoriented. You went to the kitchen and chugged down two whole glasses of water and decided a shower would be best before you head out again.

You left at around 6 heading to the morgue since you were asked to perform the official autopsy on the late Mayor, making sure there was nothing more hidden for you to discover further about our killer. Unfortunately, you came up empty-handed after hours of careful searching. You were about to close Mitchell back into the mortuary cooler but had gotten interrupted by Gordon coming in with a plastic bag. He and Batman had found Mitchell's missing thumb that night. You took it out of the bag to assess it, you saw something metal dangling off of it, attached to the end looked like a USB. You look curiously at it before Gordon bitterly scoffs.

"Thumb...Drive...." He says simply. Your confusion drops and you look back at him with a look of 'Are you serious?' He puts his hands up in surrender and nods in agreement of just how ridiculous this is.

"Must think he's hilarious" You say with a disapproving shake of your head.

"Yeah, think you can separate the thumb from the drive without damaging it and then send it back to evidence for me?"

"Yep, no problem."

Gordon leaves, leaving you alone yet again to try to reattach this thumb to where it belongs. You really wish you could have someone to talk to right now. It would make the hours go by so much faster instead of having to focus in silence on a dead body the entire time. Gordon seemed to be in a rush to get out of there so you didn't bother with trying to strike up to deep of a conversation with him earlier. You looked down at your phone and looked at the time. It was almost 10PM, you scrolled through your list of phone numbers. There was no one there you would feel comfortable bothering this late. You had tried reaching out a few times when you got to Gotham to an old friend of yours, but he didn't return any of your messages. You sighed as you finished what you were doing and locked up. You had a sudden craving for something chocolate. Nothing could convince you to not indulge in this craving and you pulled up your GPS to search for the nearest diner. There was one not too far away, just a 20 or so minute walk, which was very much needed to clear your head and get some fresh air. You started walking taking in the scenery and architecture Gotham had to offer. So Gothic and historical with a splash of modernity shoved in here and there. Its ambiance always consisted of police or ambulance sirens that seemed to echo through the city on an endless loop. What you would give to hear the peace of a bird song, or the whisper of rustling leaves as the wind glides through. You pass by what seems to be a club "The Iceberg Lounge" you read as you pick up the pace. Whatever is going on in that place you don't know, but you definitely don't vibe with the energy it's giving off. You turn a corner and the diner is right there, you smile to yourself as you start to imagine the Chocolate cake you are about to devour with zero guilt.

You head inside pleasantly greeted by a nearly empty diner. A man sits hunched over in the middle seat of the counter scribbling on a piece of paper while sipping a small cup of coffee; he is the only one in here. The waitress greets you and tells you to sit anywhere. You take a seat just a few seats away from the man, closer to the door, and grab a menu searching immediately for the dessert options. The waitress a few moments later takes your order of a chocolate cake and bottled water and leaves. You pull out your phone and start scrolling through news articles til you finally give in and send your father a quick text message, 'How's mom?' since you haven't contacted him in a few weeks. You sigh and go back to reading a research article that piqued your interest. You hear the bell to the diners door ding as a new person entered. To engrossed in what you were reading, you didn't bother to look up. You didn't bother to look up as you heard the voices of the waitress and the new person start talking. In fact, you didn't even bother to look up as the voices started to get into a heated conversation. It wasn't until you felt something pressed to your head that you finally bothered to look up and meet eye-to-eye with the end of a gun barrel.

"Put the money in the bag or I will blow her head off." The masked man said in a trembling voice to the waitress. You couldn't move a single muscle. You looked at the waitress as she shook in fear shaking her head and crying.

"Please I need this money for my family, please please" She tried to plead with the man but he wasn't having it. He forcefully pressed the gun even further into your head forcing you to painfully bend your neck to the side.

"I'm not playing lady! You've got 30 seconds to give me what I want or I will shoot!" He screams at her. You look her dead in the eyes and she looks back at you. She says nothing, does nothing, and just cries harder as he starts to count down. As he realizes that she isn't making any moves to comply he stops counting. "I guess you still don't get it huh," He says darkly and clicks the safety off.

'Oh,' is all you can think as a tear escapes your eye. You suddenly feel a forceful weight launch you to the ground causing you to let out a shocked scream as you hear the gunshot ring through the tiny diner. Your ears are ringing but you can still make out a commotion going on. Screaming, the ground vibrating, the bell of the door, the weight still holding you down. Is this what it feels like to be shot in the head? You wonder as you stare up at the ceiling. Wait...no.

A face comes into view suddenly peering down at you through clear-framed glasses. You look back at him and regain your bearings, lifting yourself up onto your elbows slightly. You're fine, you're not shot! You suddenly realized the weight still on you was him, the man that was sitting at the diner counter just a few seats away from you had pushed you out of the way of the bullet. You both just stared heavily breathing for just a few moments, processing the situation. He finally made a slow movement off of you standing, and you soon followed gripping the counter as you steady yourself on your feet.

"Are you ok?" He asks looking down at the ground. You hear police sirens making their way toward, what you would hope, was your location.

"Yeah, I think so. Thank you..."

He just silently nods. The cops soon enter causing the waitress to crawl off the ground and run into the arms of one of the cops sobbing and incoherently explaining the situation. One of the cops comes up to you. "Ms. Y/L/N? Are you alright?"

You nod in surprise, not expecting him to recognize you. You were about to give him your statement before you were cut off by a quiet voice beside you.

"Y/L/N? As in Y/L/N Laboratories?"

You look over at the man that had saved you. He was looking you in the eyes this time and it made you feel uneasy but you still answered with a simple "Yes."

"Didn't know you were back in Gotham..." His tone had taken a shift that you couldn't quite understand, it felt...dark.

"Yeah..." You reply sounding guilty, thrown off by his sudden shift in demeanor. The cop quickly goes through the standard in a situation like this and then they soon let you know you're free to go. You walk out of the diner feeling too shaken up to walk back to your car. You start to dial to call a driver to pick you up and take you home but you see the man that saved you walk out of the diner sparing you a quick glance before he starts to walk away from you. "Hey wait!" you call out to him and walk a bit towards him, he turns facing you fully "I wanted to say thank you, again."

He just nods saying nothing as he stares you down, is he....angry? He turns to leave again.

"I'm sorry do I know you?" You quickly ask. He stops dead in his tracks but doesn't turn around this time.

"No... but I think soon you will." He leaves you with that as he disappears into the darkness of the night. A chill runs through you like ice through your veins. You quickly make a call to get picked up by a driver and with very little shame ask them to stay on the phone with you til they get here.

Chapter3: https://www.tumblr.com/silentangel00/732612665548161024/the-batman

[pitter-patt-art]

Ace Attorney AU August oops-august-has-been-over-for-a-week Update!!

Hiiiii well okay first and most importantly of all! Happy investigations collection day everyone!!!! My copy is supposed to arrive by 10pm although I'm not sure I'll be playing it right away, but, hey, once it arrives I'll have in my possession at least one physical copy of every game in the series (2 for aai1, woohoo)!!! *Coughs* uh except all of the OG Trilogy which instead I own like 2 times over digitally (3 in T&T's case, thanks Wii) lmao. Ah well.

NOW the actual post. Yeah it's not August anymore but I've been recuperating or w/e so shhh, better late than never!

Overall I wrote over 50k words (actually in August itself) and posted 5 fics (with many more in progress), which is honestly just, wild???? That is so cool. Apparently the way to overcome writer's block is just overcommit to a month-long prompt list, who knew!

Here is my post about the first 17 days/AUs! And over here's my Ao3 series for these! Below the cut I'll wrap up the last 14 days of AUs, some thoughts, etc!

I am setting the goal for myself to actually finish writing these before the end of the year even if they're not technically "AU-gust" qualified anymore by the time I get to them sooo ...wish me luck!! In the meantime I am proud of myself for (tbh completely unnecessarily and to my detriment lmao) coming up with actually a full 31 solid AUs based on the prompts that I feel inspired by.

This post is gonna be a bit more rambly than the last one because I definitely did more of my writing last month the first 2 weeks rather than the last 2, but nevertheless--

Onto the remaining AUs!

18 - Space Travel

So, I actually started a draft at the airport before my vacation where I got wayyyy too sidetracked getting detailed about this one and thus ended up not being able to finish the post before takeoff lmao. I'm not sure whether it's annoying or interesting to include all of that here, but it's my post so fuck it, here's August 21st patt to tell you aaall about it so I don't have to: The Martian AU (I've only seen the movie and not read the book but i *did* literally just re-watch it because this thought crossed my mind lol. (Hello! It's future me popping in to say: fun fact, rewatching this movie literally ended up being the reason I knew a bar trivia answer last week lmao. Huzzah for the powers of Ace Attorney refreshing my movie quote knowledge.) Be glad this one occurred to me because my first inclination was to lean into the dark past of my vld phase (I'm super joking I had a lot of fun with it before the last few seasons haha sorry idk what to tell you friends) and see how much I'd retained if i tried to make that work but the martian sounded more fun in the end). Apparently my Thing™ is a) poisoning Phoenix and b) putting Apollo in an insane situation in which he's completely on his own--which all things considered is probably far meaner lol. I think Phoenix is to blame for creating his own problem here for choosing to eat the stupid necklace but I fully blame Capcom for all the BS Apollo has gone through after AA4 (bc...the stuff IN that game is. coincidentally also Phoenix's blame to claim. lol). That said I'm part of the problem teehee. Apollo can be Some Guy from the real world who gets isekai'ed and he can also be Mark Watney :P (sorry bud I love you but you have just the Worst case of unavoidable main character syndrome). ((Which is QUITE funny actually because I'll never get over Capcom calling 4,5,6 the """"Apollo Justice Trilogy"""" (it's really not and it's frankly insulting they're trying to say it is.) Like he's. Y’know. The main character in exactly one of those games...... so.)) What was I talking about? Lmao oh yeah so Apollo is left on Mars (not sure he actually has much in the way of Botanist™ vibes but the indomitable, never-say-die, highly sarcastic vibes.... ye haha that's my boy right there). Omg wait sorry I'm writing this and realizing this whole thing actually fits the 18th AND yesterday's (the 20th) prompt as well. Whoops.

Clay as the captain (let him do something, says I)

Trucy as I think the pilot ONLY because I am literally constantly on the lookout to make a Wright Flying Brothers joke, sorry

Klavier aaaas. Uh. So the German astronaut in the film is the chemist and navigator and I know Klav's not necessarily supposed to be actually German canonically but there IS something funny about it

Athena as the flight surgeon and EVA specialist (for a couple reasons but mostly so she can be a doctor lol. I imagine she also can be there for psych stuff too, like, it's a long ass space voyage, that does shit to your brain)

Kay as the SysOp and reactor tech, tbh mostly because for some reason i really have a thing for hacker/programmer Kay, i guess?

Ema I want to be there also lol so that would be exceeding the actual number of OG astronauts but eh it's my AU. The rest of these I'm just directly comparing to a crew member from the martian but I think some of the titles and tasks could be redistributed a little to allow an extra person as a treat for me.

Originally i kind of wanted Sebastian (....SIGH. or...Eustace. (I fear even though it's AAIC release day today, I truly may die on this hill forever, falling on my sword of devotion and gratitude to the fan translation team... That said, while I think Eustace is, like, a Deeply Fine name, I have to say that Excelsius is a fucking knockout name lmfao, that one took me out. Anyway, ahem: "I wanted Seb/Eustace...")) to be there too but I think that's getting into too many cooks territory just specifically bc I'd have too many voices to play with lmfao. So instead I think he's the operator who works the satellite and realizes Apollo is alive, I think he'd fit that well. NOT THAT that needs to be. Included. In the AU. I have...so much self control.

Anyway I have too many thoughts about it, it's a problem, ironically I think I would prefer to focus on the crew and not Apollo himself, so that would at least make it more than just a rehashing of the movie/book. (Or, the movie at least. Does the book spend more time with them? I should read the book.) ...I did, Of Course, also came up with a funny, pseudo-future-science-y way to do a Sibling Reveal in this one, so there's that, too, haha. OKAY AND, SCENE. Snatching my mic back from myself. I'm actually so devoted to the Martian AU now hahaha, I really didn't think I'd let that happen to myself but here we are... You'll see in a bit, but I for-better-or-worse do truly have an extended universe going on for it now, eheh... (Help.)

19 - Spies

Franmaya?? Franziska POV??? Here's the deal: I cannot BELIEVE I got this many days into the month and STILL hadn't come up with a franmaya-centric AU, it's terrible. Also I need a Maya POV if I want to hit my self-set, self-indulgent goal of having POV of every "main" character I can (did I exactly accomplish this no but that's perfectly fine obviously haha it was just a side achievement I had my eye on). So to that end, I ended up with something here that I'm not COMPLETELY sure I won't end up changing when I sit down to actually work on it, but in short: semi The Princess Bride vibes but with spies instead of pirates! Or uh! So um okay full disclosure lol I got all excited about an AU of this kind and then like an hour into daydreaming it into existence I realized I was heavily relying on / leaning into ASSASSIN territory rather than SPY. Which are notably different things. (Wait lol should I blame Spy x Family?? Totally Endo-sensei's fault and not at all mine, boom, take that.) ...And not to go even harder into sxf territory, whoops, but my idea was something along the lines of like, since Kurain School Channeling changes spirit mediums' appearance entirely, I was going to have Maya be something of an expert in disguise, and Franziska I was almost more or less going to let retain her actual position of international prosecutor with Interpol, although perhaps I'd lean more into a James Bond-esque intelligence agency sort of thing than what we see them do in-game, I'm not sure. Maya gets "killed" for real in 2-4 except she actually just becomes an international assassin(?) apprentice. Does this make sense? Probably not lol. But is it a little funny and a little sad? Yes, yes it is, and that's always my sweet spot as a writer. The only problem with this premise is I can't stop myself from considering what Phoenix would do / be doing in the background, because the problem with Maya "dying"-only-being-secretly-alive leaves at least twofold problems in justifying why Nick hasn't gone full conspiracy theory board stop-at-nothing-to-find-her, in that a) If she's not dead, Pearl can't channel her, and knowing Pearl I have to imagine that would be her first move to try tbh, and b) even if that weren't an issue, if the police were never able to track down Maya's body at all, I fully believe Nick would still throw himself at the problem until he's able to find answers irregardless, so. This ain't about him though!! So we'll just all have to deal with knowing he's taking reaaally really bad care of himself while he single-mindedly tries to figure out what's going on ahaha...ha. He's most absolutely the drowning child in the facebook post meme. Don't worry about him.

20 - Crossover/Fusion

Soooo. Okay. First may I say, I'm not the most crossover-fic-y person in the world neither as a reader nor writer. HOWEVER. Unfortunately. My one undying weakness has proven to be Ace Attorney x Legally Blonde (and more specifically Legally Blonde the Musical, the best version, though I do love Reese Witherspoon's performance ofc it's iconic but the musical is just MWAH ugh. One of my all-time favorite musicals and definitely the one I've listened to the most esp the past couple years hahaha.) The problem is, I've joked about so many slight variations / one very Long Intensive specific AA/LBtM crossover AU ideas, that trying to limit myself to a one-shot I could conceivably finish within a day proved too much for my decision paralysis and I didn't end up writing any of them lmao. Alas. Mostly, I just think it would be funny to see the characters interact in something of a vacuum just for fun, the problem is just that I happen to be uniquely terrible at not thinking through a Crack AU until I can, ahem, "crack" it, so to speak, to make it actually justifiably function. So in theory all I want to write for this day is some combination of like, Elle and Phoenix interacting and Miles and Emmett interacting, or the four of them having a conversation that goes something like "omg wait me too!! i also went from a creative undergrad degree directly into law to chase after some guy!! what are the odds teehee" while Emmett and Miles watch in horror, and also alternatively Emmett and Phoenix mostly bemusedly watching Elle and Miles geek out over like, fancy ass high class (pink) clothing like "uh yeah i have no idea what any of those words mean. she bought me this suit and i honestly wouldn't even be able to find the store again. oh no way he bought you yours too?? man, wild." Etc. (If anyone's interested in really watching me suffer and spiral: my longer and more intensive idea for an AU with them is to have them be tackling parallel cases where either of them (Elle and Phoenix) has specific knowledge that is helpful to defending the others' client, and they get like place-swapped through dimensional shenanigans somehow also related to the cases. And Phoenix has to abide by, like, nominally-accurate US trial law (I know he wouldn't really be licensed shhhh) -- by which I mean Emmett is sitting as his co-council and exercising the most restraint possible to keep from bashing his head into the table every two seconds. And Elle has to abide by guilty-until-proven-innocent Japanifornia trial law ("wait WHAT omg what do you MEAN the prosecution can just, like, not submit their evidence before the trial???? wait what do you MEAN we should just TAKE THAT that is EVIDENCE AT A CRIME SCENE--"). On the bright side, Elle gets to experience being one of the most normally-dressed people in a courtroom and not at all being looked down upon for her general vibes and wardrobe (like tell me she wouldn't fit right in in the ace attorney universe and seem completely ordinary), and Phoenix gets to experience a real jury (take that jurist system trial that Capcom would like to never ever talk about again) and also the judge going "so, Prospective Juror No. 103, do you understand that the defense in this criminal trial does not need to say a single word in order to be doing their job? the burden of proof lies entirely on the prosecution the entire time and the defense and defendant could choose to remain silent every day of trial and that would be completely within their rights, do you understand that? are you okay with that?" etc etc, shout out to my jury service a couple month ago and the kinds of questions a real life California judge asks jurors that would seriously blow the minds of every single character in Ace Attorney lmfao can you imagine? Anyway.) So yeah idk. Also something something, spirit mediums and the whole Greek Chorus bit from the musical... "School Spirit"... much to think about in crack AU land hahaha.)

21 - Absurd Tragedy

To be honest with you, this is the entire series lmao, so much so that I had trouble even thinking of an AU to be "alternate" in any way here, hahaha. What I sort-of landed on and have vague outline notes about in my doc is (not to make another excellent-musical-adaptation-of-an-already-top-tier-movie-which-is-itself-a-highly-unfaithful-adaptation-of-a-fairly-obscure-book reference) a Shrek the Musical "I Think I Got You Beat"-style debate about whose canonical absurd tragic circumstances are the worst, lmfao. Granted, this then turned into a "wait what if I use said argument as an absurd way in which to make Apollo and Trucy have a siblings realization completely on their own, which both compounds the fact they've both already lived such tragedy to begin with but also could touch on Phoenix knowing about it and not telling them about it", and uhhhhh lmfao a debate specifically between them is OBVIOUSLY not the romantic flirting banter of the song between Shrek and Fiona lmfao but like still, the general premise, just in a sibling bickering coat of paint instead. Also was toying with it being an Athena POV just to sell home / for the additional absurdity of the experience of "you've gone over to your friend's house to hang out and suddenly they're obnoxiously arguing with their sibling and their parents are nowhere to be seen and you're not exactly sure what you're supposed to do with yourself except awkwardly wait for them to be done" lmfao. Which I've most absolutely experienced from both ends multiple times hahaha. The alternative option for this prompt is just for me to write an excessively long essay debating and attempting to personally rank the main cast's level of absurd tragedy compared to each other, lol.

22 - Orphan

I wrote 324 words (slash one physical lined page in my actual notebook) of this while I was on vacation, lol. AU where Miles invites Phoenix to go watch one of Gregory's trials (or Phoenix invites himself, or Gregory invites him while Miles tries to hold the landline phone away from him, lol) and I mean of course the trial he goes to is The Trial (like, Jeffre... AW CRAP wait I don't actually know what Jeff Master's or Kate Hall's official names are lmfao uhhh. Well you know what don't worry about that. Happy AAIC day once again..? Lol. Anyway, the concluding day of Gregory's last trial, obviously, ignore the defendant's name.) Like, basically, here's my thought. AU where Phoenix is also there, and not only does that mean he knows what happened to Miles and Gregory but also, like, it's Phoenix. Tell me even at 9 he wouldn't be insisting on taking care of the poor kid who just lost everything and has nowhere in the world to go. Tell me he's not like, begging his parents they need to help him, lol. I think really this is just sort of an AU to explore one of my several personal headcanons for what Phoenix's parents are like, because I've spent a lot of time on a different version of them (coughs for the last AU on this list...coughs) but I also have a version of them which I find fun / funny where they're like, kinda hippy-dippy and like very hands-off (tbh almost all of my hc's about the Greater Wrights is they're very hands off, just in different ways) but in more of a "we want our child to experience the beauty and wonder of the world on his own time and not influence him or set rigid standards to conform to" kind of philosophy. Anyway my point is they like adopt/foster Miles somehow before Manfred can actually get his hands on him (he's still too busy dealing with the fresh bullet wound I guess?) This is just a gen au of course, not only because they're 9 lol but also the logistics of being adoptive/foster siblings gets weird quick lmao, but mostly I just find it interesting to think about what might have happened if Miles was in an environment where people paid more attention and cared more (and weren't explicitly influencing and manipulating him to exasperate the problem on purpose), because I have to imagine examining his nightmares a little more closely a little more quickly might have led someone (say, Phoenix who was also there in this AU) to find something slightly off about it or like start putting pieces together quicker, idk. I, uh, I'm not gonna lie to you, I don't actually remember how I intended to end this one hahaha ;; I started it but I was on vacation and neglected to outline / summarize the rest of my ideas the day of, so I guess I'll just have to see where my mind takes me when I get back to it.

23 - Musician

So my FIRST thought for this day was to use it as an excuse to finish my First Ever Ace Attorney Fic, which has been in WIP stasis for...uh.... 6. Years. i--SIX????? Shit. lmfao. yeah uh. I guess I created the first version of the doc (on my OneNote, god) back in 2018. So. Yeah. Hm. Omfg. This fic has partially existed since before Phoenix Disbarment Day. That is so. Wow. Damn. Y'all we're so close to aa4 time (2026) what the hell??? Ahem. Pianist Phoenix. That's. My point lmao. I know the original thing that sparked me loving this concept was actually some tumblr post I saw apparently a LONG long time ago, hahaha, and I know there's no way I'll find it with tumblr's abysmal search function, but just know it was not a completely original idea of mine when I say i fucking LOVE the headcanon that, you know what actually Phoenix CAN play the piano, he just chooses to do it as shittily as possible because that's kind of what he's like post-disbarment and he'd absolutely get a kick out of fucking with people like that even if they have no way to know they're being fucked with. It's like, he's no virtuoso or anything, but he can passably play the piano! He's just being an ass on purpose! It kills me every time lol. I won't say I think that's necessarily true in canon so ofc it's not like an end-all-be-all hc for me or anything but it's just sooooo funny to me that I like to break it out any time I possibly can. Look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't. Honestly, look me in the eyes and tell me if he actually put his mind to it in any meaningful way he wouldn't be able to get decent quickly regardless, considering the fact he became an accomplished lawyer on more-or-less a total whim. This to say: that was my intention, to finish this fic I've had brewing that was about Phoenix actually being able to play the piano and hiding it for a really long time but eventually being found out by Miles by chance. Except then I sat down on the plane and started writing a Pearl POV instead? In which she finds out about more or less the same exact concept but from Iris--also by chance, but less actually catching him playing and more being asked, "Oh, does he still play? He was always good at that." And then bc it's Pearl (Pearl I love you), of COURSE she goes and confronts him about it. Pearl might be the single most confrontational character in these games tbh which is SO FUNNY to me. Like I'm kind of exaggerating obviously but also am I? I know she has psyche-locks you have to break through multiple times throughout the series but stiiiill. Everyone else is so repressed and weird about anything remotely vulnerable, I stg. Props to Maya for making sure Pearl turned out pretty okay I guess, lmao. Anyhow yeah that's sort of the AU I ended up with. Pearl POV where she and Iris know they're sisters (don't get me started on this I have so many thoughts about the amount of information I'm positive Maya and Pearl are NEVER given skjflj) and Pearl visits Iris in prison regularly and on one such visit maybe she mentions Nick's job at Borscht and Iris makes a totally innocuous comment to the effect that Pearl learns he actually knows how to play the piano and she goes to get mad at him about it because he's definitely been pretending he can't and Pearl's pretty sure he's told neither Maya nor Trucy the truth and that cannot be left to stand.

24 - Pretend Hate

Okay, this exists in a similar realm to the Orphan prompt, except instead of Phoenix being there for the trial or the Wrights taking Miles in before Manfred can, it's more just AU where Miles doesn't actually cut all contact and he and Phoenix successfully end up exchanging correspondence (in semi-secret) during the time they're separated (i.e. they remain friends and close during the 15 years they're separated in canon). "Semi-secret" because they--esp Miles--somehow hide who exactly it is they're talking / writing to all the time but don't necessarily hide the fact they are doing that. Like, a fake cultural / language exchange program or something? I feel like there could be a world where Manfred really doesn't give a shit what Miles is up to as long as he's being molded into "someone Gregory Edgeworth would hate" (I don't think he would lol but that's another AU) and becoming a model von Karma protege prosecutor and such. He obviously goes to lengths to cut Miles off from everything he's familiar with in that he takes him to Germany, but I've always thought it's way more on Miles feeling guilty and blaming himself and thinking he's unworthy / pushing people away being the reason why they never talked before aa1 despite Phoenix's "attempts to contact him," whatever those may be specifically. And, yeah, I've watched that one episode of the anime but tbh I don't really use anime canon for almost anything besides maybe some of the fun visuals, haha, so I'm kind of disregarding that anyway. ANYWAY. My point is. The "pretend hate" part is that--sometime over the course of exchanging correspondence, Phoenix starts thinking something's weird and gets it in his head to "investigate" himself, since he's still in LA / has access to the scene of the crime and stuff, and then as a combo of him just plugging away at it until he has enough (circumstantial) evidence to be like "Miles I think you're wrong about this" and also a younger, slightly less repressed, slightly less in Manfred's pocket Miles actually being somehow willing to consider alternatives a little--they're able to put their heads together and eventually come to the (correct) conclusion ahead of time, before the 15-year statute of limitations, that it was almost certainly Manfred who did it. And then they work together to figure out how they can possibly PROVE that but they haven't thought of anything foolproof by the time aa1 events start rolling around (or at the very least, the 5-years-ago sections of aa3? It might make more sense if it's as soon as Miles returns to Japanifornia, and also I think Phoenix has way less reason to fall for Dahlia/Iris so hard if Miles is around and *coughs* available lmfao. Anyhow). So, in the hopes it'll keep Manfred from getting suspicious of Miles, they publicly pretend to hate each other, putting on a show of more of the canon attitude Miles esp. has before 1-4, but behind the scenes they're actually working together trying to think of a way they can definitely get a conviction to stick that Manfred won't be able to worm out of. And that's the AU! Idk, in terms of additional thoughts, I couldn't decide what to do / what would happen to Mia in this AU either, which doesn't super matter but did give me pause. So she might live, idk, depends the exact timeline. I do also think a scene where--Dahlia still hits on Phoenix in the reading room/courthouse library but he's like, actively there waiting for one of Miles' trials to conclude for a covert meeting, so when Miles gets there and is like "What are you messing with over there?" Phoenix is like "Oh, hey, check out this weird bottle some girl just gave me because apparently she fell in love at first sight, haha, isn't that so funny--" and then Miles recognizes it from the Fawles trial and they catch Dahlia earlier or something, idk. Or alternatively Phoenix was AT that trial so HE recognizes it. Or maybe it's funniest if he was there but doesn't recognize it until Miles does lmao, this is not the point of this AU but I can't stop myself from considering this part of it.

25 - Scientists

So THIS is the day I sort of alluded to earlier, many many words of post ago, where I got so invested in my The Martian AU that I started accidentally worldbuilding about it. What I've started and have about 400 words of (slash one notebook page, again from the plane after my vacation), is like, AU where it's NASA instead of law and I can make Phoenix go "What, like it's hard?" only it's about literally rocket science this time hahaha. Basically for this fic I just thought, well what if Phoenix just shows up as a flight tech or engineer or something (idk I don't really know that much about real life astronautics) as Miles is preparing for some space mission or something and he's just like WHAT are YOU doing HERE. I know I know I made Apollo literally be the titular martian and yes he ALSO has a (or tbh probably has a WORSE) canonical debilitating fear of heights, so, shhh, but I do like the idea that Phoenix is like, oh, who, me? In the flying metal death trap? No fucking thank you, I will be down here watching and talking directly to you through a headset or something. You cannot escape me however i can at least escape the building I'm in. No interest in seeing the Earth from above, thanks. Actually iirc Miles also doesn't love heights but meh whatever I'm fairly certain Phoenix talks about it the earliest in the series so there you go. Anyway, this would all be a mission prior to whatever mission it is that Apollo & Co. go on to Mars for the first part of the AU, so I guess you could consider it a prequel? And probably a fairly shippy one. I have other reasons for which it's fun for me if wrightworth is at least together if not outright married before the events of the "The Martian" part of the AU, so this one would be, like, about how exactly that went down.

26 - Victorian Era

Okay, once again, this just. IS. Literally. Dai Gyakuten Saiban / The Great Ace Attorney. Lol. That said, I've always loved the fanart I've seen of like Ryuunosuke and Phoenix (and respective Co.'s) interacting, or like, one or the other ending up in the other time period somehow, so I thought it'd probably be fun to try my hat at that. I feel like I've neglected the tgaa characters anyway, considering I actually somehow managed to reference PLvPW already, which is obviously significantly more of a spinoff and also just largely non-canonical, lmao. Also tgaa is just SO GOOD, augh. I'd love to have the multi-witness cross examinations from both of those games back sometime again, and I had so much fun with the jury in tgaa too, excellent mechanic. What was I talking about? So, I never completely decided on a concrete direction to take this, but even before AU-gust had started I'd already been toying with the idea of an AU where maybe Maya or Pearl channels a character from tgaa specifically because some documentary or special or something comes out talking about the real-life Herlock Sholmes (as opposed to the Totally Fictional "Sherlock Holmes" who Phoenix references in that one trilogy line, because I really think that's the funniest possible explanation for the discrepancy) and they're arguing over how that cannot possibly be a real person and no one was named that and etc etc and then to prove once and for all one way or the other Hurley is channeled and also for bonus joke content "recognizes" Phoenix at first (idk pretend his eyesight got worse in his older age, I know Phoenix and Ryuunosuke look, tbh, less alike than Ryuu and Apollo do, lmao, but again that's another AU) and then I get to play with Phoenix's mom's maiden name is Naruhodou and his middle name is Ryuuichi or such to that effect, because that is also a favorite headcanon of mine (not in small part because I can project my own life onto him by making him half-Japanese from SoCal, lol). So that's an idea I'd had that was already decently fleshed out and the ONLY problem is that if I'm having characters actually be channeled then there's a very real limiting factor of how many spirit mediums exist, and also that means Maya and/or Pearl don't get to interact with them, which for the sake of not overwriting would be good but for the sake of my love of a chaotic group conversation would be bad. But, uh, hopefully I do manage to hold myself to a less broad cast of characters, ideally, instead of bringing a bunch of them over to the other time period to see how they'd deal with that and interact en masse. Ha. Haha.

27. Younger / De-Aged

So here's another AU I'd already had idle thoughts about before AU-gust had even started! I...will get into this later, TRUST I will, lmfao, but I do have an extremely involved AU already in which Time Travel of the "regression" type is involved, i.e., they have their memories of the "future" but are thrown back into the past including their own younger bodies however-many-years-ago. So I've got that type of thing covered, I promise I do, haha. And additionally, I've actually already written them "younger" for my colorless AU way back on day 2, so I did think perhaps I'd just continue that one and say it was for this prompt (a smart person thing to do. this is the objectively correct option). On the other hand. I find pre-DL6 Phoenix and Miles reacting to how their lives actually turned out in the end HILARIOUS. Tell me it's not funny. And tell me it's not, like, some sort of depressing-yet-ultimately-hopeful for the older/current them to look at their child selves and be like Kid, Oh, You're Going To Go Through Some Shit, but also reflect on how they did make it and things turned out okay and life goes on etc etc. My problem with this kind of thing is that it's hard to come up with a justification for and that's not a problem in itself but it is a problem in me not knowing how i'm going to end a fic, which often gets me decision-paralysis-ed into not being able to start it in the first place, which did in fact happen to me here, haha. I think ideally I'd just do a quick "wait, was that a dream?" kind of thing where they (Miles and Nick) have a short conversation with themselves, but... Uh-oh, what, did you think that was all I had? You clearly don't know me at all. OTHER au option where young Phoenix is in the future/present and rather than himself and Miles it's the Wright Anything Agency who like, idk, find him roaming the streets of LA (fun fact! I actually came up with this AU one day while I was quite literally roaming the streets of LA myself at like 3am-ish. Do with that what you will). He is of course wearing a hat or beanie or something at first because come on, that's way more fun, and no matter how much Trucy, Apollo, and Athena are like "hm idk something about this kid seems familiar" I just don't think my first thought upon seeing some vaguely familiar kid alone on the street would be, like, "Oh, that's obviously a child version of my father/coworker/boss!" So. I'm not really sure that one has an end point either, though, so the same problem still stands, haha. The bad, someone get a spray bottle to spritz me, option of this is, obviously, to combine the two, so it's like the WAA find him first and then are like UHHHHH we need an adult (never mind actual adult-age-ness between them) and somehow end up getting Miles there too, but idk. I... should not. Overcomplicate. I shouldn't. Even, even if...august is over...so theoretically there's no longer any sort of On-Time component since it's late either way........ definitely not.

28 - Caretaker

Here are my exact notes / entire doc for this day. Ahem. And I quote: i brought up the lighthouse keeper thing but i dont know where that would be going exactly maybe this is a thing i could do franmaya for??? since i still havent gotten there? actually lol that as a lighthouse thing is funny. ghost romance? my three tropes rattle End quote. Anyway, shout-out to my friend hailstorm for being the one there to brainstorm "lighthouse keeper" with at the self-same bar trivia that I mentioned previously, lmao. I actually think that was even the same exact day as the The Martian quote was a relevant answer to a question. So yeah, even though I already kind of have franmaya planned for the spies day, that's both kind of sort of a darker AU overall and--WELP well, okay, so, i do, you know, recognize maybe a ghost romance isn't, uh, necessarily the fluffiest kind of AU lmao. Don't mind that. My point is, I love the vibes of a lighthouse keeper AU, and I generally like ghost romance as a trope, so that does feel like a viable option. Honestly, I kind of separately wanted an excuse to practice writing miego also, so maybe the Feys are just all chillin' in this lighthouse for...Some Reason, and that's side-plot relevant somehow, idk. I know Franziska and Godot exist in the same place for a minute in 3-5, but I honestly can't really remember them interacting? I think she'd fucking HATE him though lmfao. He'd think she's funny but I actually think she'd be too reactive for his most preferred teasing/fucking-with-people dynamics, haha. Regardless, if he is there at all, it's a very minor B plot, I think, 'cause this ain't about him, lol.

29 - Forced into Hiding

Achtung, baby, 2566 words of this are written! Lol. So uh, yeah. In short, AU where Klavier gets hounded by fans on the street while he's also having just a bad personal day, and the closest and best place he can think to hide from them is at the WAA. I, um, actually hadn't realized I'd written quite this much of this, haha, it was supposed to be short and fairly silly but then it turned into Klavier having a little bit of a panic attack maybe and getting consoled by Apollo, sure, of course, but then also having to deal with and experience some amount of closure / reach some kind of understanding with the Wrights, also. It's kind of part Klav character study, kind of part complaint against freaking Capcom for neglecting him (boo, I love him, stop ignoring him, or, yknow, worse, whatever the heck turnabout academy was supposed to do for him, which honestly almost felt like a step back to be quite honest). Okay, also, taking a slightly closer look at what I've already written, the REASON I'd thought I'd written way less than this is definitely because he hasn't even GOTTEN to the Agency yet, never mind spoken with any of its members, lmao. That would do it. In any case, I like the idea of Klavier having a bit of a vulnerable moment, and I also like the idea of him and Phoenix actually, like, talking for real, instead of, once again, whatever Turnabout Academy and DD was meant to tell me, which seems to be less than nothing. I kind of like the fact that it gave him a law mentor? I mean, she was very dead, but I have a very meaningful Use for her in later-to-be-announced-AUs-I-keep-teasing, haha. I of course considered other people and times when people in AA might be forced into hiding, but this felt like a silly but also meaningful way to do that without it just being an exploration of Miles and his not-suicide note (which wasn't exactly "forced" anyhow, he did that all on his own) or like, Zak Gramarye (who also completely did that to himself but w/e). Making it about Klavier completely escapes the bounds of canon, because canon is a weenie about talking about any of his actual feelings EVER, so screw you Capcom, I'm doing it for you. Don't worry about it. Trucy commiserating with him about still Loving someone, perhaps the very closest person biologically related to you you've ever known and depended on in your life, who not only did you very big harm personally but explicitly used you in a very real and participatory way to perpetuate the harm elsewhere and all the complexities about Feelings For And About Them Therein, and Phoenix somehow having enough self-awareness to recognize that shutting down completely and isolating yourself away doesn't actually do you any good even when you're at your lowest, and recognizing that Klavier doesn't exactly have a "Trucy" to be a focal point to draw him out of that, and that therefore he needs to be a bit more open to his peers. (Insert joke about "Well, I'm really definitely not suggesting you go adopt an entire child, that's really probably, uh, not the way to go, actually, but, you know. Everyone needs people, that just makes us human." Etc.)

30 - The Beginning of the World

So, hm, as it turns out, I got extremely sidetracked this day thinking about the next day on the docket. Whoops! Unfortunately this ultimately means my ideas for this day as of now are relatively uninspired: I had the thought that I could explore the beginning of Troupe Gramarye, which is its own sort of world, or else, maybe something about the beginning of the series itself but from the somewhat unconventional POV of a one Mr. Larry Butz. Yes, that's a bit self-serving in that it lends toward trying to complete a list of "main, recurring characters' POVs" that I've had as a sidequest all month, but, still. That said, just exploring actual canon through Larry's POV isn't exactly what I'd classify as an "AU" necessarily, so I feel like something would need to be different here. Okay, wait--not to draw inspiration a dang week late to the party, BUT. Now that I'm typing this up, I'm thinking, okay, maybe, what if. The "Beginning" of the series, technically speaking, is basically the fact that Phoenix gets put on (class) trial for stealing Miles' lunch money--which notably only happened because Larry himself picked it up when it fell on the floor. So, perhaps, what about an AU where he doesn't do that? I mean, I guess it would just turn the entire world of AA into something of a terrible series of tragedies with no real closure about them, lol, rip, but it could possibly be interesting? I dunno! (And, yes, I know DL-6 itself is more or less the basis of the series, if we're being ticky-tacky, but Phoenix wouldn't have been involved without meeting Miles, and that somewhat necessitates the class trial, and without him none of canon would get resolved, so. I will say, I do love going back to the earliest points to see how and how much you can make canon deviate or stay the same--reasonably speaking--via minor tweaks and butterfly effect and all that, so this could be interesting, although I once again must say I think it really just means a bunch of innocent people, Miles included, are going to be put away and possibly executed over murders that weren't their faults, lol. Hm. Much to consider.)

31 - Two(+) of the Above:

Beginning of the World + Younger/De-Aged + Canon Divergence (+ Feat. Jokers: Guardian, Everybody Lives)

With all of this, the ONLY prompts I've actually missed on this list become Animagus which I swapped for the Wings joker, and the last joker of the four, Thriller, which was never exactly a priority of mine because I'm not sure I'd write that sort of thing particularly well, so! Wild! Completionists everywhere almost rejoice, haha. SOOOOO. For the eagle-eyed readers out there, I'll bet you're just dying to know what this one AU I've been teasing all post could Possibly be to warrant such a build-up, right? (...Right?) The answer is the at-ow! (Phonetically, lol. I've been calling it that instead of out loud saying all the letters in AATTAU out loud every time.) My friend Ben can attest to the fact that this behemoth AU (her word which I'm stealing) has been in the works for, uhhhh... months?

MONTHS. AHAHA. Ha. That. Sure says March! It sure does! And it is not lying. Lmfao. (Ignore the time, I was working overnight then--my beloved work schedule whomst I miss dearly--so that's a perfectly reasonable discord-ing hour for March-me.) Also, once again, I'm choosing to blame Ben for my extensive AU problems, she sent me a very cute time loop AA fic that utterly destroyed my entire mind because it got the mere idea of "Time-based AU" caught in my endless void-idea-hole. So. Here's the real rub. The literal reason I started doing this AU-gust challenge in the freaking first place was that I was absolutely Desperate to find a way to overcome my writer's block. And one of the (admittedly many) reasons I wanted to do this was because I have been ITCHING to write this stupid behemoth AU for real. I have a massive outline doc already, I have a whole slew of scenes planned, I have lots of character archage, I have sooo many things I want to say and explore about them all you have No Idea. It's extremely self-indulgent and absolutely my personal magnum opus for all my very specific favorite AA headcanons and ideas and thoughts. And obviously, it worked! I did indeed overcome my writer's block! And I had so much fun doing it!! And I'll admit, from the very beginning, I had been eyeing that "Everybody Lives" joker prompt, because...that's it! That's basically the point of the AATTAU (Ace Attorney Time Travel Alternate Universe, if that wasn't clear, haha). I don't want to let myself get TOO into it, because Oh Boy, I sure will! If you let me! Haha. But basically the premise is EXACTLY what I stated in that very first discord message I could find about it. Maybe not so much "time travel" technically speaking than it is "gaining memories of everything that happened in canon right as the DL-6 earthquake happens", so it's more regression than actual time travel since they're in their own younger bodies and everything, but still. It's basically my excuse to treat canon like it did happen and YET allow for everybody to survive and for the very fun cocktail of traumas and joys that come from remembering what happened but having the chance for something different (and all the effort that goes into making something different happen in the first place).

Now, as far as AU-gust goes. I was obviously not about to even pretend I could remotely start this during August itself or justify connecting any of it to the series and the prompts I'd already written for it, lol, but I also couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I got it in my head I really wanted to end the month with SOMETHING that somehow tied into my AATTAU, if only to motivate myself to actually get on it and start writing out instead of solely outlining everything that's been in the works all these months. So to that end, I saw the "Everybody Lives" and the "Beginning of the World" prompts, and an idea came to me. I'd been dancing around the justification aspect of this AU for most of the time I've had it because let's be honest, it's just a very self-indulgent idea and it does not NEED "justification" to serve the purpose I want it to serve and be what I want it to be. But the AU-gust prompts gave me some actual inspiration and an Idea as to a way to solidify my unnecessary "justification" but in a way that it doesn't need to be directly part of the final product of the AATTAU (like, I could make it a separate one-shot and either just link it to and from the AATTAU fic itself, or if it all ends up being a series, then I could just include it in the series but it wouldn't be necessary to read to understand what's going on. And so, I present! The Ami Fey one-shot special I came up with just to fit these prompts :3 ...And by "i present" i mean, uh, I wrote 4k words of it on the 31st and didn't even come close to what I wanted to cover, because I suck at being concise. Lmfao. (Shocker.) Basically, I used Ami Fey as a semi-self-insert kind of godlike figure to reason out a semi-plausible way to make the concept I want to explore happen, happen. And I had a lot of fun, but I do still have a bunch to finish, but either way, I'm very pleased to have a (somewhat silly but ultimately fun for me) reasoning as to the gears ticking behind the scenes of my idea! To be somewhat less vague, the whole AU is predicated on the idea that, Phoenix and/or Miles (who remember from the beginning / from December 28th, 2001) meeting the other characters at-or-after the time they originally met in canon are able to recall their memories of the "original" (i.e. canon) timeline. I've used some magatama shenanigans to have some fun with this, and I'm now using Ami Fey and magatama shenanigans to explain how and why this is A Thing, even if it isn't necessarily the objectively most logically sound argument I've ever made. It's still a good one, in my book, and more importantly I like it, so that's all that really matters.

To briefly explain the "two" (by which I mean 5?) of the "above" I'm using here:

Beginning of the World: This fic specifically would show the beginning of the "world" of this AU specifically! Woohoo! Go Ami Fey, creating a whole new set of problems for our beloved little Guys to go through, hahaha. I think I may have based her character a little too much on Maya mischievousness, but, oh well. Let's just say that's where she gets it from.

Younger/De-Aged: As I've already kind of expressed, the premise of this AU is mostly just them being their own younger selves except they also have the memories of all of canon (and maybe a year or two after the fact, I need to confirm a couple dates).

Canon Divergence: I feel like this is decently self-explanatory, but then again maybe it's a bit cheesy to include this here, since it basically diverges from nearly the first major event of canon (DL-6), but that's not the only time things go almost-canonically but diverge a bit in some way, so I think it really does fit here.

Guardian: This one is a bit multi-fold. It somewhat refers to the way I'm making Gregory Edgeworth the de facto guardian (as in, legal guardian) of mostly everyone I possibly can because I love him and he would be great at it. But also, guardian in that, Mr. Savior Complex Phoenix Wright himself has literally all of the information at his disposal to try to "save" the potential Happy Lives of literally every person he loves, and, well. He does a pretty good job about it; not without cost, haha, but I feel like I can definitely call him a "guardian" of others in this AU. And, as for specifically the one-shot Ami fic, she is essentially the guardian of the entire Fey lineage, in this AU at least, so that also totally fits and is most immediately relevant.

Everybody Lives: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory at this point, lol. But for the one-shot: Ami is essentially trying to secure an "everybody lives" scenario, even if it hasn't been achieved yet, so it's more an aspiration at that point, but ultimately it is indeed successful. Now, "living" does not mean, like, "totally healthy" (mentally or physically), so there's lots more to it, but in short, yes, they live.

And......that's basically a wrap on that!

I mean, it isn't actually at all, since I still have to finish 26/31 fics, lmfao, but as far as the idea generation stage goes, and the use of the AU-gust prompts, that's what's up in my world! Somewhere out there maybe there's an AU of my actual real life where i finished more of these on time, but i'm still pretty pumped by all the work that's already been made on making so many AA fics a reality for me. I've come a long way since starting that first AA fic in 2018...!!

I still have all the aforementioned 26 fics to finish obviously, and I also have AU continuations planned for at the very least, day 2's colorless prompt and day 3's dark academia prompt (let alone day 31's, lol, but that's its own monster entirely), but I'm optimistic!

Thankfully I actually finished using nano to word track for me before they, you know, doubled down on AI and called everyone "abelist" (???) for not supporting it, which, uh. Well. But for my own posterity and if anyone's curious, here's what my word counts looked like throughout the month of AU-gust--admittedly including some planning and outlining:

It ended up being 51,377 words total in August on these AU prompts alone!

I feel like I wanted to say something poignant and meaningful at the end here, but it's almost 9:30 and I work at 4am tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and wrap this post up here, haha. If you read all of this, thank you very much for joining me on my little journey!

Once again, here is the Ao3 series where I'll post anything more that gets done, so if you'd like to see how any of these AUs turn out, feel free to keep an eye on that!

And here is the previous post with the 1st half+ of the AUs if you missed it and are interested now!

My copy arrived literally as I was writing this up so I've spent the last several prompts of this post listening to the AAIC soundtrack in the music collection, and, oh man, it's seriously so surreal this exists??? I might be an old fogey who has and will for an indeterminate amount of time continue to have trouble letting go of the fan translation names I've lived with for the past decade or whatever, but it's seriously so awesome the entire series is finally available internationally!! Let's hope for my sake AA7 doesn't come out before I finish any of my AATTAU, because that would really throw a bit of a wrench in my decision-making process, lol.

Bye for now!

[btnclmrttn]

@perpetuallyobsessed my friend I've been put on 3rd main at the nursing home and it have me idea while thinking of you

Out like a Light(Saitama x Nightshift!Reader)

CW/TW: None

~~~~

No matter the distance, the journey home from work couldn’t be any longer. Particularly on a third shift. Trying not to speed while also trying to beat the daylight before your body decides to be a stubborn prick and say “oh, light means awake. No sleep”

Work was such a kick in the ass, you’re too tired to even attempt to unwind. Hopefully you got it in you to at least attempt to stretch or crack a couple bones before putting yourself in a coma.

Saitama would be getting up to start his day in a few short hours. Not much time between then to actually mingle with each other, unless you walk in as he’s just getting out of the bathroom. He’ll stay up with you for a little then.

Your mind is more impatient than your body as you fumble half-mindedly through your keys, passing through each one multiple times. Now they all look the same. Sometimes forcing your eyes to blink resets your perceptions. Not much now. With your luck, the door before you is unlocked and opened from the other side.

There’s Saitama, fully pajama’d and looking about hammered. His tired eyes look more sunken than usual. His resting expression is heavier. Like his brows hand low themselves, making a half-squint crease his face.

“Welcome home,” he says, contrastingly happy-sounding.

"You up already?" you ask, confused

"I've been up a while," he says, letting you in, then returning to the futon and taking a seat criss-cross

You shut the door, then set your bag down to start taking off your jacket, "How long is a while?"

"Since..well since you left."

You freeze mid-zip, "Huh!? Saitama, are you nuts???"

"Maybe," he responds, a little smile gracing his face.

"That's not good for you dude...why did you?"

"You’re probably right," he watches you hang up your coat and start undressing from your dirtied work clothes, "You sleep most the day, and you're up late. I miss you, you know."

"Aw, I know, Saitama," you reply, feeling a bit guilty, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, ____. I just want to sleep a night, er day, with you. I figured if you could stay up all night, I could too.”

“Well, good job, honey...but don’t mess up your own schedule.”

He rests his face in his hand, sighing, “It didn’t start getting to me until about 4. It was weirdly peaceful, though. Something about the quiet is kinda relaxing.”

“It is,” you respond, “And most night shift people have the 4am problem, too.”

“I fit right in. Too bad monsters attack during daylight. I could be a Hero of the Night or something.”

“Maybe you could be. They could change your hero name to that.”

“Oh yeah, that’ll be the day...are you gonna take a shower now?"

"Ah...I'll do it when I wake up," you say, tossing your dirty clothes in the hamper. Taking out a larger shirt of yours, you put it on on to be only modestly nude. Too cold to be ass-naked.

“Ok.”

Saitama rubs his eyes and flops backwards onto the futon. You attempt to be quick to the bathroom with brushing your teeth, washing up just a little with a rag so you don't feel dirty. Fixing whatever the hell happened to your face. A lazy arrangement of your hair so it doesn’t look just as you walked in when you wake up.

Your poor boyfriend couldn't make it that long. He's passed out when you come out, even if it was only just a couple more minutes you were in there. A sigh of content quietly brushes your lips. How loved you feel knowing he just wanted to just have just a little longer with you than he usually gets. Not half bad for a boy with a typical bedtime of 10pm. 

Yeah, it would be cool if there was more night duties for heroes. Hero of the Night...eh, doesn’t ring well with him in particular.

You double check that you locked the door before going over to close the curtains completely. Saitama might find some true appreciation in the pricey black out curtains now that he’s sleeping a day like you. When you crawl into bed beside him, he’s roused a little when you lay your head on his chest. You’re locked into a close-cuddle embrace with his arms. You hear him mumble your name, so sleepily it sounds about drunk, before a kiss is pressed on your forehead.

Again, he’s out like a light.

[kjdkive]

cold weather with warm kisses — kth

fluff, tae being a total cutie

A long and heavy winter day. The coffee shop you worked at had many clients today, making you sick of espressos, caramel syrup and almond milk. Not to mention all the coffee spilled on your shirt. The place was small and new, that's why only you and other girl worked the afternoon shift; the problem was that with 15 people waiting in line, you saw the message of your coworker telling you that she wouldn't be going to work because she was sick. Couldn't she have done that earlier? It would, at least, mentally prepare you.

But it was now 10pm, and you were washing the last cups and cleaning the tables. You had now closed the doors to clean peacefully, without people entering. Your arms were telling you to stop moving because of how tired you were, and you also felt like if you saw another client you'd explode. Suddenly, you heard someone knocking at the crystal door. You sighed, trying to ignore the sound thinking it was a client trying to get something. There wasn't any problem if you didn't look back at the person, the place was already closed. You kept cleaning, but they kept knocking at the door. It really bothered you. So you turned around and looked who was so eager to get coffee.

"It's close—!" you tried to say, but you couldn't finish because you saw who it was.

You saw your boyfriend outside, greeting you with the biggest and cutest smile you've ever seen, waving his right hand at you. He knocked again, and pointed to the window so you pay more attention to him than you were already paying.

Without knowing what he was planning to do, he blew hot air on the window and drew a heart, never getting that big smile off his face. When he finished drawing the heart, he raised his arms over his head making a heart shape which made you laugh loudly. He really looked really cute, and the big puffer he was wearing making him look so small made him look cuter.

"Oh, Kim Taehyung." you sighed, smiling.

This type of gestures, you could say you were used to them now, but they never failed to make you feel happy.

You took your apron off, turned off the lights and grabbed your jacket to head outside. You closed the doors and made sure they were safely locked.

"Taeee!" you hugged you boyfriend, falling in his arms.

"How was your day, babe?" he asked, holding you tight.

"Horrible!" you hid your face on his chest, enjoying the warmth he was radiating.

"Do you want me to kick some ass to whoever made your day horrible?"

You laughed again and shook your head to let him know that it wasn't necessary, even though you knew he wouldn't actually do it. It's part of the job at the end of the day. He opened his jacket, and opened it so you could get inside and be closer, and warmer.

"It's not that." you said, making yourself comfortable on his embrace. "Well, yes, but no. My coworker told me 3 hours after opening that she was going to take the day off, and dear God, Taehyng, you don't know how many people came today. I really don't wanna see another coffee machine... or milk. Oh God, not milk! But it doesn't matter now, how was your day?"

"I'm sorry to hear that, baby. My day was just lectures and assignments." He started carressing your hair and cheeks while he spoke. "You worked really hard today, angel." He got closer, shaking your nose with his. You would make fun of him for his petnames, or how he was treating you. But you felt like you really needed that today, so you just got the closest you could to him.

"Your hugs make me feel better, so it doesn't really matter to me anymore."

"I know my hugs are magical, you don't have to tell me. But I don't want you to get cold, let's go home, yeah?" Taehyung separated himself from you, and zipped your jacket all the way up, he took his scarf off of him and put it around you. It felt warm, since he was already wearing it before, and it also smelled like him. He took your hand to start walking, and moved you to the other side, you know, the sidewalk rule as he calls it.

"I'll cook you ramen while you take a warm shower and then we'll watch your favorite show." He told you, while getting closer to you to give you little kisses on your cheek.

You just smiled. What did you do to ever get a boyfriend like this? You could only thank the universe for letting you have the chance to have someone love you this way.

english is not my first language, sorry for any mistakes.

[more-thoughts-than-money]

Born “gifted”; grown chronically depressed

// long, personal post. basically a tutorial on express therapy (and by express I mean 10 years of rationalising, learning psychology on myself and fictional characters + 48 hours of not sleeping)

When I was grieving I spent 48 hours sleepless

it’s not that I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been on insomnia medication for 3 years now. I just had to “have a reason” and time to actually acknowledge my emotion and thoughts which caused my body to struggle with setting a “proper” circadian rhythm

Living with a 5 person family in basically a studio flat for 13 years of my life low-key harmed my ability to think and “feel” without privy eyes

this accidentally sent my brain into survival mode where I could only “think rationally” at night

So when we moved out and I got to have a room of my own

that’s when *serious* sleep problems started

my brain would just REFUSE to shut the fuck up

first off I was used to tv noise while falling asleep

i fixed it up with some rain sounds or watching ATLA when I was feeling funky

it distracted me enough

still I wouldn’t fucking sleep.

because my brain didn’t feel like it

probably hyperactivity which I could never “treat” with sport as an asthmatic kid

also an outcast but it is what it is

unable to name the cause of my insomnia I would just head to sleep at 10pm. Two reasons for that:

a) you know what they say! Don’t trust your thoughts after 10PM

b) 8h of sleep is THE healthy amount. And it seems like my brain likes waking up early for whatever reason!

yeah also I went through a fair share of medication before they got it right

anyways whoops I’m depressed now. Very depressed and even more anxious. Day by day my brain is giving me more compulsive behaviours and thoughts! Yaaay!

so I went through a 3 years worth of antidepressants

also a lot of unintended research (thanks, tiktok.)

basically I “subconsciously” KNEW what my problem is but “consciously” my brain refused I acknowledge it because haha living in the state of constant survival mode is way more fun! right?

right?

basically it was like being a doctor and being pretty certain about the diagnosis but having to go to some other doctor to objectively either confirm or discard my diagnosis

yeah anyways I changed medication, SNRI, venlafaxine

known to help some adhd folk with severe vegetative depression for “no reason”

Yeah basically my new psychiatrist kept on upping the dose until I got “a kick in the ass” so we know it works

and then my aunt died.

wELL my workaholic and emotionally constipated child brain would NOT acknowledge it

hell you’d catch me dead before I’d admit that I felt shitty but didn’t know how to deal with that because at the same time I “saw it coming”

No one ever told me she’s sick

I just saw her hair loss (or rather a sudden haircut change and awkward silence that followed) and had some foggy memory of someone saying her sister died of cancer

Mind you I don’t fucking remember my childhood that well

hell I don’t remember it at all but it is what it is

I just “know” some things and some are more of a “hunch”

I have this information buried in my brain but I can’t recall how it got there, ykwim?

yeah basically I was suspecting she’s dying of cancer but I was trying to stay optimistic and told myself I’m “overthinking it”

and I thought the mourning was “good enough of a reason” to stay up for 48 hours, write down my “thoughts” and wail all day long (yes, everyone gave me shit for crying growing up, how did you know?)

anyways yeah I did this and suddenly I “solved” the root of ALL my anxieties and minor paranoias.

as if it was a fucking riddle. Or a fucking house MD episode.

I hope you can understand WHY I’m so livid.

I SPENT OVER 3 YEARS ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND MADE ONE THERAPIST CRY JUST BECAUSE MY BRAIN WENT SO FAR INTO THE SURVIVAL MODE EVERY TIME I INTERACTED WITH A HUMAN BEING. IM JUST FUCKING AUTISTIC AND TRAUMATISED NOT “ANXIOUS” AND “PARANOID”

OH FOR FUCKS SAKE

Also I’m fucking dyslexic. But hyperlexic at the same time. I mean I’m hyperlexic in my native language, and I “remember” the spellings so I went undiagnosed

but I love technology. I want to be a CS student and then I’ll see where I can go from here. I’d love to work on an online learning platform for “gifted” children

y’know so they don’t lose their childhood but at the same time can associate learning with something nice and actually enjoyable

I think a lot of “gifted kid burnout” comes from the | dopamine <—> habit making | mechanism

so if children can learn they don’t HAVE TO be good at every subject and learn their “strengths and weaknesses” early on

Hardships later on won’t be as depressing

cause hey maybe I’m not the best at english but I know a lot about maths and I like maths and maybe when I grow older I can be a mathematician!!

you see what I mean?

at least this is what I’m trying to do for myself

generational trauma and neurodivergency running in the family made me develop some shitty coping mechanisms (example - perfectionism in order to cope with my actual time blindness and the “need” for structure while hating organisation and refusing “unreasonable” authority)

I wasn’t raised catholic, not really

nor was I raised queer lol

but my brain reacted to religion the same way people who went through religious trauma did

basically I put myself through religious trauma on accident!

fun, aye?

what I mean is, I grew up religious because that’s what “felt right”

tradition and all that

and then I realised the catholics hate me for no fucking reason

and then I thought “well fuck you too!” And called myself an atheist

later it went into agnostic

and a couple of weeks back I grew OBSESSED with religion

christian one I mean

Fuck I even started reading the nsrv bible in english (!)

and then I tried to interpret it “by myself” using some historical context and googling some stuff

WHAAAAAAAT! Turns out the bible is a product of its own time and is not to be taken literally!

That’s crazy innit?

Yeah and then I realised all of my recent hyperfixations (last two years) were a silent ways of rationalising ALL my “unreasonable” anxiety and trauma caused by; you guessed it

NOT UNDERSTANDING SYMBOLISM AND SOCIAL CUES AS IT IS

IN MY NATIVE FUCKING LANGUAGE

I can learn *any* language

I just need some books, movies, music in said language

But don’t ask me about any grammar. I don’t care about grammar. And you can’t make me. Idfk what present simple is but I can shove it so far up your ass your own mother won’t recognise you. so yeah

I’m great at learning languages cause they’re a “brainless” work for me

I mean

I learn languages for fun - it’s a tool to communicate with broader audience AND find more knowledge on the internet (I Google EVERYTHING in english)

and when someone tries to make it into an actual job of mine. This is when it goes downhill.

also english being coded as “language of knowledge” is my “main” language

my native language is way more complicated and I never really had to acknowledge my emotion in polish

I mean maybe I did but I just never wanted to cause I never learned that! English in comparison is simple. It allows me to communicate simple ideas without the need to “sound smart”

this and isolation from my peers (kids are bastards) gave me an actual “language barrier”

which isn’t the case really

it was just my overthinking

I started enjoying polish music way more recently cause I can never get the lyrics

so I listen only to what sounds “cool”

in english on the other hand the most of my music taste was built around midwestern emo and folk punk

cause I listened only to songs that felt “somewhat relatable”

yeah all of that understanding makes me want to write an essay but i kind of don’t care and I’m too lazy to do that!

so yeah this is how I “cured” my compulsions, anxiety, depression, irritability and perfectionism. By having fucking adhd and being a massive nerd. because I would hyperfixate on linux, customisation, open source applications, cybersecurity, programming

turns out I’m great at maths since I KNOW HOW to solve the problems

My brain is just too quick to do it step by step so I tend to skip and get lost in my own fuckin notebook 💀

schooling just made me believe I suck at maths and i should actually kms for trying to improve at it /hj /lh

And I suck at my own language. I know a lot of “complicated” words and can deduce what certain words mean (logically) but I have issues adapting my language to my listeners. I either cuss every other word (too comfortable; thanks mom LMFAO)

Or I speak like an university professor. To my peers. And they don’t know what the fuck is going on. And I end up isolating myself because of crippling fear of being misinterpreted. And people think I don’t have a sense of humour whatsoever because I don’t “get” jokes. But I joke a lot and am very sarcastic cause that’s just how I am. God damn it

When were y’all going to tell me not everyone thinks I want to use them and be a bastard overall when I need to ask someone for help. when. were. you.

icb I had to go to paid therapy, feed myself some subliminal messaging, deprive myself of sleep for 48 hours, force myself to talk to my dad about things I don’t understand or scare me, go manic for a week on venlafaxine, my aunt had to die and I had to have a reason not to go to school for 2 days for me to actually acknowledge my emotion instead of rationalising it.

also everyone in school + my therapist thinks I’m still manic and in need of hospitalisation. How do I even begin to explain it’s not that I have superiority complex, and I just realised I’m hella smart, just in a pretty unexpected way….. because thorough my entire life I never acknowledged it for the sake of being “humble”. bitch it’s not humble it’s the lack of self worth and being someone else’s doormat.

y’all think that if I say “house md and one tumblr post cured me” they’ll let me off the radar?

no honestly I have too much to catch up on (maths, c++, reading in POLISH, and learning German for fun) to actually care about “depressing” things of this world

I mean sure it does sound unhealthy in hindsight

but thing is

this is the first time in my life where I don’t feel hopeless both about present AND the future

and I guess that’s enough for now

I have “a goal” and that’s enough

Later I might catch a job as an actual university professor. Maths or computer science. Biology or physics maybe?

it gives me an excuse to be “eccentric” lol

cause the students are here to learn not to make fun of who I am and focus on that

sure it’s a funny anecdote to mention like “dude my physics teacher is fucking nuts but at least his lectures are interesting”

and that’s all I care about

I get to express myself instead of internalising anything

and the students get to learn

yay and yay

mutual benefit!

yeah anyway fuck I have so much shit to catch up on and I’m so lazy I actually have to reorganise my room and desk so I don’t try to do my homework in bed……. (Yes I was THAT depressed and lazy)

when I do my chores in bed I keep on losing my pens and I’m one minor inconvenience away from doing something I might not particularly want to do…….

yah

thats it I guess

If this post made anyone realise something (“connect some dots”)

congrats and I’m sorry you had to find out this way LMFAO

if not

scroll ahead, not the target audience probably

[4townie]

Road to 4☆TOWN

part 60 | part 61 | part 62 | part 63 | part 64 | part 65 | part 66 | part 67

“Ugh, this thunderstorm is driving me crazy.” Jesse groaned as he rocked Marcel. “Poor little guy is still pretty shaken up.”

“Figures.” Selina stared out the window. “He was almost asleep, too. Damn weather.”

“Hear that? Mommy’s gonna fight the weather for you.” Jesse said to Marcel. “She’ll probably win. She’s pretty scary when she’s mad.”

Just then there was a knock on their door.

Selina furrowed her brow as she headed out of the nursery. “I wonder who that could be. It’s nearly 10pm during a thunderstorm.”

“Probably just one of the neighbors dropping off our mail again. It always gets mixed up.” Jesse rolled his eyes. He looked down at Marcel and noticed him falling asleep. “Babe, you might not even have to fight the storm. He’s almost out.”

“Well, that’s good.” Selina’s voice responded. “Cuz we have another problem.”

“Wait, what?” Jesse left the nursery to join her by the front door.

“Uh, hi, Jes.” Sean waved awkwardly, wrapping his arm around Danny. “Can we crash here for the night?”

“What the—…why—…” Jesse stared at them, struggling to find the right words. “You guys are soaking wet! Do you know how dangerous it was to walk all the way over here in a storm like this? What even happened?”

“Jesse, calm down for a sec.” Selina grabbed his arm. “First, let’s warm them up and get them into something dry.”

Jesse sighed. “You’re right. C’mon, boys.”

Some time later, Sean shivered on the couch with a towel around him and a cup of hot tea.

“You should really drink the tea, honey.” Selina nodded. “It’ll make you feel better.”

“I appreciate it, Selina, but I don’t really like t—”

“Drink the tea.” Jesse glared at Sean.

Sean started gulping the tea. “Okay, yeah. That felt really good.”

“So care to explain what you and Danny were doing out this late?” Jesse pressed him.

“Babe, chill.” Selina stroked his hair. “They’re okay now.”

“I mean, I get it. I’d be worried, too.” Sean said quietly. “But trust me, it was a better decision to come here than staying at home. I got into this huge argument with Mom about that phone you gave me and being around you and…well she got really mad when I told her I was gonna take Danny and run.” He started shaking again. “I know I shouldn’t have said it. Danny tried to get in the middle to calm us both down, but then she just shoved us in our room and locked the door. She said she’d let us out when we figured out how to be grateful sons, but once she was gone we snuck out the window.”

“Ugh, she’s getting worse.” Jesse ran a hand through his hair. “I knew she’d be angry about what happened the other day, but I didn’t think…” He sighed. “It wasn’t right of her to take out all that anger on you.”

“I mean, I’m okay. I’m more worried about Danny.” Sean admitted. “Before we snuck out he started shaking and hyperventilating. It took me ten minutes to get him to stop.”

“Lina, what’re we supposed to do?” Jesse looked over at her. “You know Giovanna’s gonna come looking for them here. I’m not letting her take them back, but that won’t stop her from trying.”

“Well, we’ve got some time before she even realizes they’re gone.” Selina shrugged. “We can figure that out together. For now, let’s just get these kids to bed and talk more in the morning.”

Silence settled over the room, disturbed only by the heavy rain and bouts of thunder.

“Okay, I’m done.” Danny came out of the bathroom with a towel on his head. “Your guys’ water pressure in the shower is excellent.”

“Ooh, it’s my turn! I wanna try it.” Sean practically sprinted into the bathroom.

“What’s with you guys and bathrooms?” Jesse shook his head in confusion. “You spent, like, half an hour in there when you first came over.”

“Bathrooms are sacred.” Danny shrugged casually. “All the most important things you do are in the bathroom.”

“Maybe not all of them, but whatever…” Jesse mumbled to himself.

Danny squinted at him.

“Are you feeling a little better, sweetie?” Selina offered a gentle smile.

“Yeah, I’m a lot warmer now.” Danny plopped himself in Jesse’s lap. “But also kinda tired.”

“Then why don’t you go to bed?” Jesse narrowed his eyes. “If you fall asleep out here, I can’t carry you in there. You’re not five anymore.”

“But why not?” Selina asked. “You carry me around all the time.”

Jesse shot her a look.

“Let him sleep on you or you’re not getting any cuddles tonight.” Selina crossed her arms.

“Why do you always do that?” Jesse shook his head as Danny got comfortable in his lap. “You constantly lord your power over me. Can’t a guy catch a break?”

Selina just stared at him.

“Yeah okay, baby. You’re right as always. I’m sorry.” Jesse averted eye contact.

Selina giggled and petted him. “Good boy.”