#I keep forgetting to update it and when I remember it I procrastinate

[kingofyggsgard]

☆ — I've been a bit inactive ! My apologies, I frequently forget to check Tumblr and do the kind of stuff I'm supposed to do...

(ᵕ—ᗜ—)

[bookshelf-for-stuff-i-wanna-read]

Masterlist of Masterlists Blogs

A list for each masterlist and the person who it's from, just for a visual reference

Edit: I fucking forgot but now in spite doing it later this month because there are so many writers who have cool writing stuff but I keep forgetting and getting overwhelmed and worried I’m going to forget them because my brain is being a little shit like that. Idk how tags work, if they do without having to post it or whatever but if I tag you, you’re cool and I swear one day I will get myself to stop procrastinating on starting to read (the hardest part tbh)

Basically it’ll be the person/blog, short synapse of their writing, and whatever the fuck I thought was interesting and wanted to read later because I keep fearing I’m going to forget and that does not bode well with mental health creating stupid unnecessary anxiety

…I am going to procrastinate on this fuck you future me

HAHA SIKE YOU THOUGHT PAST ME

basic structure is this

@/[blog name]

recommended/saved thing to read (if any. Mainly specifics and also a brief, uh, briefing)

tags that they tend to fall under (#fluff or #whump or whatever. Will be very basic in terms of tagging I’m not good at complicated stuff)

It will be constantly updated as I find new things and info. Also these are in no particular order, maybe one day organize in terms of reading content but for now it’s gonna be a mess. Gonna be a mess of blogs and eventually I’ll add descriptions when I have more time because it’ll be easier than trying to remember each block if that makes sense.

Also words are hard so sorry if I sound like a broken record for some of them. They’re all great, regardless of whether you’re giving the blorbos hurt or comfort or throwing them into a wall and then giving them a blanket. Y’all are positively epic with you’re writing don’t ever stop

Also, because I feel the urge to add because I feel like I’m somehow being a fraud and two-faced liar (I overthink a lot okay?), I am technically of the blog @idkanonymystuff for reference. Adding that because I don’t want to accidentally have people think I’m two separate people it makes me feel bad and want to be as apologetic as this

https://youtu.be/XspDkqEtWFE?si=MxUloG4CM1GZKRSW

(Hopefully that works, if not, search up Japanese Apology Olympics)

Added a cut so that if it’s reblogged it doesn’t take up the entire thing lol because it’s looong

I’m putting this post here because I like learning about others blorbos and also they have stories behind them and I like that

Also putting this post here because it has a bunch of blogs for writing people. Mostly heroes and villains but ye

Also this because writing people

ーーー

@jumpywhumpywriter

Honestly everything, but meaning to get to the Vampires and Villains crossover mainly and also the books involving Shadow and Thomas (I forgo title). All of it is hecking amazing and very well written, first started at the Crippled Hero and went from there. All of it is great! Personal favorite probs the Coffee shop

Whump, heroes and villains, fantasy (? Idk, there’s mythology creatures and world built stuff it’s all cool)

—

@unknownogre

Also everything. Not anything specifically, maybe the Ao3 stuff but all of the writings are good

Fantasy, heroes and villains (occasionally), fluff (?idk if that counts but there’s some wholesome stuff there)

—

NEW THING @skyward-floored

Bit strange forgoing adding on the bottom, but genuinely feel like this person deserves a spot at the top, since they’re probably the reason I went down the tumblr path I did and all of this! Not gonna go in depth, but back when I was only on for LoZ stuff, I stumbled across their stuff and the rest is history! Also where I first learned about whump and I that’s how I discovered that whole community! Also the realization that that’s what I like so hell yeah they’re great so they go on the top :D

Whump, fluff, LoZ I guess? Not sure what tags to do but lotta variety! Also apologies for not doing it sooner, I kept procrastinating lol

—

@paingoes

The Destroyer’s Trilogy, either on Tumblr or Ao3. Been meaning to read it but starting is the hardest part. Damn you procrastination

Whump, living weapon (not a tag here I don’t think but that’s the story content. Mainly for Destroyer), recovery (rubies), think that’s all but I’m dumb so sue me

—

@heroes-villains-side-blog

Honestly they just have a bit of everything (and as the name implies, it’s all heroes and villains). Also good for worldbuilding ideas (from the stories)

Hecking all the tags, but I personally like the crack tag. Also fluff and soft ____. I’m a sucker for that stuff okay? Not just whump (though that’s good as well)

—

@chaotic-orphan (and also @macknus technically?)

Main ones are ones I’ve already read, Benign Mischeif (really hecking good I love it) and the delirious villain x hero caretaker (also really hecking good, fingers crossed that vengeance is had. Iykyk). Maybe check out the other ones and see if they spark interest

Whump, heroes and villains, fantasy and found family (for the benign mischief. Maybe also fluff but that’s probably a stretch)

—

@thepenultimateword

Not entirely sure, but all the series are quite good and have nice fluff. No immediate thoughts on what to read but it’s great for fuzzy/comfort feelings (as far as I know/have read. Will update if there’s more)

Heroes and villains, fluff, fantasy (kinda? There is some fantasy)

—

@thoughtsonhurtandcomfort

All their stuff is the absolute shit (if you’re reading this, it’s the idk anon who sent a long appreciation. Been lurking), amazing whump and comfort/recovery (absolutely phenomenal cannot say it enough) for all their blorbos, perfect amount of shaking them in a Tupperware and then comfort. All of them are good, just, all of them. If I listened each one out and my likings this would be not be a briefing

Whump, comfort, fluff, recovery, lotta different Whumpees (not a tag but quite a nice variety), fantasy (?),

—

@fourwingedwriter

As of rn, mainly the cyborg whump series (FUCKING AMAZING HIGHLY RECOMMEND), it’s very sweet and has recovery after whump (again, I really love the recovery and comfort and all that. My absolute favorite. Also I like happy endings shut up), but the other series seem cool too.

Whump, cyborg whump (specifically), fluff, recovery (that’s kinda rocky? Eh?),

—

@inkwell-and-dagger

The How to Kill an Immortal one seemed quite interesting! Been meaning to check it out later (if I don’t procrastinate into oblivion).

Whump, immortal specifically, uh, I’ll add more after I read it

—

@whump-in-the-closet

Honestly a few, something about an arson elf (I forgo the name sorry) and the Saviour thing. Read the first few for the elf and all for the savior (atm) and they’re really hecking good.

Whump, heroes and villains, fantasy, living weapon (I know they have some stuff in that. Might be prompts but those are also cool)

—

@the-modern-typewriter

Heroes and villains mainly, personally I read them like one would a daily magazine, all the pieces are very good. Also personal things which are cool and I want to read but alas I do not have a patron account (I forgot the titles but I will put them here once I find/remember)

Heroes and villains, fluff, whump, h/c, honestly all the tags lotta variety

—

@raineandsky

Mainly heroes and villains, great variety, lotta content. Good for when you’re in a browsing sorta mood

Heroes and villains, honestly all the tags.

—

@the-broken-pen

Great stuff, nothing specific but I have been meaning to browse the stories available but haven’t gotten to it. The ones I HAVE read though are amazing and have nice feelings.

Heroes and villains, fantasy, fluff and angst (as of rn those are mainly the genres of the ones I’ve read.)

—

@whumpsday

Mainly the Kane and Jim series, it’s fucking phenomenal (sorry for alternating curse usage I’m inconsistent), one of the first series I got into, absolutely impeccable storyline. The prequel is great set up, the Jim arc makes me want to ram a silver sword up Kane’s ass, the Kane arc made me feel sorry for them (especially after knowing all of dudes history and lack of persuasion. The whump parts were gooooood though), and the current arc makes me feel warm and fuzzy and gave me inspo for my own storylines. All in all, great shit and can’t wait to see how the next arcs eventually unfold

Whump, vampire whump specifically, recovery and comfort, fluff (kinda??? Like at the end),

—

@mj-iza-writer

No series to follow but they do have some good shit. Great one-shots (?) and I really love the recovery/comfort that usually happens at the end (again, personal favorite thing to read.). Highly recommend

Whump, recovery, comfort, fluff (probably doesn’t fit exactly but some things are quite sweet imo. Do correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not good with tags

—

@whumpisgoodwhumpislife

Great series with Everest and the battery and fish man. It’s a nice amount of whump and comfort together and I really like the fluffiness (?) of the recovery part of things (rip battery man at the moment).

Whump, recovery, comfort, vampire and living battery and mer (those are the three of them)

—

@befuddled-calico-whump (and also @whumpflash technically?)

I have yet to read their stuff but all of it seems really hecking epic. Penumbra sparked interest but then I procrastinated so hard on starting it that I feel guilty (what?). But all of it seems really epic! Also comics! All really cool! Personal fave that I actually finished from getting started was the whole testing the effectiveness of torture methods (Test Track, that’s what it was) and it’s horrible I love it (and I mean that in the most genuine way possible)

Whump, comics (? Might make a new tag for that cause comics are also great!), lotta stuff lotta variety

—

@save-the-villainous-cat

Their stuff is the absolute shit (like all the others)! Heroes and villains and the writing is so well done (god I feel like I’m being repetitive curse my sporadic vocabulary). They have fluff (fucking phenomenal), they have angst (I don’t think I’ve checked it out yet lol but it’s probably fucking phenomenal) they have whump (also fucking phenomenal), they have horny jail (what? I may be asexual but, uh, okay idk I mainly focus on the closeness and intimacy not the, uh, y’know. Anyways, it’s also fucking phenomenal), it’s all great! All around absolutely beautiful works of literature

Heroes and villains, fluff, angst, whump, smut (the four nations—),

—

@sir-fenris

The Curse of Withering…man it’s fucking beautiful. I have plans on reblogging it with commentary and stuff but procrastinating and overthinking got the better of me. I will do it in the future (mayhaps) but until then, it was hands down one of the best things I’ve read. The concept, the worldbuilding (via random posts that aren’t the main storyline), the characters, the way the words convey the feelings and characters and all that so smoothly, honestly perfection. I eagerly await whatever morsels or writings come next and that Cyrus can have tomato soup and grilled cheese and a blanket or whatever the heck they want because they hecking deserve it

Whump, living weapon, more tags to be added as the story unfolds

—

@lovelizards

Great whump stuff in terms of both writing and not writing (art. The word is art)! Also apparently stardew valley somewhat which I’m not complaining about, hell yeah! As for series, honestly all of them are quite interesting, just a matter of getting started

Whump, comics (okay not really but it’s a tag that’ll work in the future for when I get around to reblogging stuff with art and all that),

—

@those-damn-snippets

Beautiful writings in their own and they have collection of heroes and villains stuff that are also great to read! I particularly like the Breakfast in Bed storyline, something about drunkness, Chaotic good (the villain is a mood), and something involving a four-armed monster dude. There are a lot more but they’re all phenomenal!

Heroes and villain, fluff, angst (?),

—

@creweemmaeec11

Heroes and villains, fluffy writings all around, all of it is great! Been meaning to finish one of the series, Panic as a gift (I forgo title) but all of them, series and snippets, are beautiful!

Heroes and villains, fluff,

—

@melpomenelamusa

The one named chimera I think was the name (shut up it’s late) but it seems really hecking interesting! The whole concept is really cool and just, god words are not on my side atm but yeah seems epic. Definitely on my to read list

Whump, nonhuman (?),

—

@oros-ash3s

All of their things seem really interesting and in depth and complex to the point where my brain gets overwhelmed trying to absorb all the details but in a good way. I’m very curious to learn about the storylines (understanding/comprehension be damned /j) and is definitely on the to read list!

Whump, I know there ARE other tags it could fall under but I have yet to find them sorry, will update as I get into it

@writing-prompt-s

Technically they aren’t a writing blog, BUT the prompts and reblog of said prompts have some absolute gems of literature. Great for if you don’t know what to read and can just scroll around until you find a prompt that’s interesting and then just look through that prompts reblogs for writing. It’s fucking worth it, found a few of my favorite writers there (like unknownogre)!

All the tags, just, all of them, it can be anything like Barbie

—

@defectivehero

Also heroes and villains though with more so a focus on whump for the most part (though if my short memory serves me right, a few that aren’t as whumpy. Could be wrong tho). It’s been a minute since I checked them out (I do have plans to browse a bit), but their writing is phenomenal, the emotions and actions and all those writing things are done so well. Highly recommend!

Heroes and villains, whump/angst (mostly), might be other tags but I’ll add them as I remember because it’s seriously been a minute

—

@neon-kazoo

Mainly heroes and villains stuff, I’ve read quite a few of the things and they’re all phenomenal. No immediate series that intrigue me to get started on but it’s great for browsing!

Heroes and villains, all the other type of tags idk man it’s a lot and I’m stupid /j

—

@melpomenelamusa (for some reason I can’t remember if I already did this one. If I did, apologies)

The main intriguing thing is the chimera series (the one with the half-animal peoples). Seems like an extremely intriguing concept and is in my to read list!

Whump, non human (specifically. I think?),

—

@writinglittlepains

Got introduced from looking through either chaotic orphan or closet-whump person (I am so sorry I forgo name whump-in-the-closet?), the speedster one if fucking crazy. I love it and can’t wait to see where it goes next!

Heroes and villains, whump, lab specifically???,

—

@secretwhumplair

Recently got quite invested into the “No Warrior” storyline and so far (still quite in the beginning) it’s hecking great! Actually phenomenal, and that’s before I’ve even read more than like the first 5 installment. Currently on consequences and I am god damn hooked on the storyline! Can’t wait to see how it ends!

Whump, comfort, uh, fantasy kinda? It has Vikings idk man

—

@mirensiart

Okay, again, I know this is technically more so a comic but shut up it’s my bookshelf and I do what I want (plus comics are just books with way too much picture to word ratio which is great for my stupid attention span :D). The LU pain sharing AU is great! Also really hecking good art. Also I like Legend of Zelda stuff, it’s cool. Fun fact, actually I think the first reason I started regularly coming into tumblr lol

Comics, fantasy (? The video game characters are technically fantasy Esq), idk if whump counts but kinda?, fluff, I guess it could technically be slice of life but in a really strange and complicated sense. I did say I suck at tags so forgive me this is hard agh-

—

@kythonsechos

Mostly fantasy stuff and while there isn’t a lot of stuff they’ve done, the few pieces of writing they have done hooked me and despite not knowing whatever world they have going on I am god damn invested in it. Also the writing is done phenomenally!

Fantasy, uh, atm that’s kinda it. Maybe kinda worldbuilding??

—

@just-horrible-things

Saw the master list of “Unlikely Salvation” from another blog and it seemed really hecking interesting. I just have not yet had the ability to stop procrastinating and actually get started on it.

Whump, fantasy (?), uh, more to come once I read/figure out if there’s anything else

—

@kaiwewi

Lotta good heroes and villains stuff. They have some great series; just binge read the one with what I can only for some reason remember as “Fashion Famous” even though that’s most definitely not the title, but it’s great! Also the writing is fucking phenomenal and like tomato soup with the grilled cheese on a rainy fall afternoon when you don’t have any adulting to do!

Heroes and villains, plethora of all the tags (because wide variety), ugghhh my brain is melting it’s midnight I’m sorry will edit this part out agh—

—

@thewhumpcaretaker

I can’t remember if I already did them, but if not what the fuck me they’re great how could you forget? ANYWAYS, Curse in two bodies (I am sorry if I got name wrong it’s late and I’m on mobile and really don’t wanna do sushi’s) is fucking phenomenal, beautifully done and a very unique writing style I really dig.

Whump, Royal whump specifically, kinda comfort? Caretaker stuff but like fucked up?? How do I categorize this? Fantasy I think (or has kings and shit that counts right?)

—

@pigeonwhumps

I genuinely can’t recall if I put them here but all of there stuff seems great! Been invested in (now procrastinating on) the Phoenix series ‘Immortal Cannon Fodder’ and it made me feel things I was not prepared to feel and I wish to adopt and care for them and, definitely unrelated, want to skin a few certain individuals alive (that’s a compliment, you’re very good at portraying characters to hate. Aka you are very good with crafting words, I seriously mean that as a compliment, really do apologize if it’s unintentionally rude or anything)

Whump, immortal whump, heroes and villains (technically), those are the main ones for now

—

@maybeitsalivescribbles

Don’t know how I forgot them (or if I already did include them, how did I forget again), but their stuff is the good stuff. I don’t even think that’s good enough to express how good the writing is, loved the “These two dorks” master list and their one off crackles. Also one of the first few writers I discovered when I only just uncovered the world of tumblr writers!

Heroes and villains, fantasy, lil bit of everything tbh it’s great

—

@mythos-night

Only just discovered them and read one snippet, but by the gods their writing is good! I feel bad for not having more to say, but I don’t have anything else to add, they’re great :D will most definitely read through their things once I get over the hill that is just starting lol

Heroes and villains, uh, will add more tags when I fully check them out

—

@sleeplessspell

Same thing as above, absolutely impeccable craftsmanship of words into narratives and beautifully portraying characters and stories and ajahhdjwkdh— great stuff :D will also check out once I get over procrastination of starting to reading works of literature art (seriously, why are there so many of you? Slow down /joking)

Fantasy, uh, also will add more tags when I fully check them out

—

Okay another break god why are there so many of you—

[confettimafia]

Hey you, yeah you!

Procrastinated something voting related and think you can’t vote? You have a weird circumstance and aren’t sure? You are registered but haven’t checked recently?

This is the post for you! I’m gonna go through a few different options, links, and definitions for people so you can ensure that if you are eligible, that you can vote. (Yes, this repeats some links for convenience.)

I think I am registered but I haven’t checked: You should. There are many legal battles going on right now trying to purge voting rolls and such. Also mistakes happen. CHECK HERE. REGISTER HERE.

I have not registered to vote but I will be eligible otherwise: Many states have a late registration deadline, it might still be possible, sometimes even online! CHECK HERE. REGISTER HERE.

I have not registered to vote, I will be eligible otherwise, and the voter registration deadline has passed: Some states allow voting by affidavit or casting a provisional ballot. This means you take an extra step to sign a thing that documents that you are eligible to vote and after the fact this is verified. More people need to know about this. This covers a lot of weird circumstances. “As of March 2024, Idaho and Minnesota did not provide for provisional voting. New Hampshire provides for provisional balloting only when a voter does not provide the required documentation at the time of registration, and North Dakota provides for provisional balloting only in the event of a court order extending polling hours.” To be safe, if you don’t know and this is your only option, you should go to your polling place and ask if they do this. FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE HERE.

I won’t be home for Election Day but I can vote: Some states have early voting right now. CHECK HERE. Some states are still accepting absentee ballot applications. CHECK HERE.

I will be at college during election day: you can either get absentee ballot or early voting at home OR you can register to vote where you go to college. Generally speaking you spend enough time at both places as a college student it’s allowed to register at either location, you can switch you’re registration to college if you’ve met the standards of living there long enough etc. See above for absentee and early voting, but I will relink the registration link HERE.

I will reemphasize affidavit voting. I personally have used this after relocating within a state and forgetting to change registrations. It was a simple form. If you are 18 or will be on Election Day, a citizen, and haven’t had your voting rights stripped from you via felony or something PLEASE check and make absolutely sure you can’t vote. I guarantee you there are thousands if not millions of people who are not going to vote simply because they do not know they can. It’s confusing and annoying, and people have paid a lot of money to keep it that way. Don’t let them take your vote away.

Yes especially get this out to peeps in swing states BUT REMEMBER. Everything down ballot is also incredibly important with slim margins. Even if you are not in a swing state there is so much else you can do with your vote.

(Some more affidavit voting reasons for New York as an example, though these vary per state:

* “If the voter has been issued an absentee, military or special ballot, but wishes to vote in person during early voting or on election day,

* If the voter is voting for the first time and is unable to provide identification,

* If the voter’s name does not appear in the poll records

* If in a primary election, the voter is listed as being a member of one party but wishes to vote as a member of a different party (Does not apply in November)”)

After all this, you are absolutely positive you can’t vote in this election but could in the future: Register now! Then it will be taken care of for the future until it needs to be updated again. This stuff won’t suddenly stop being important and literally life and death at times. REGISTER HERE.

All of this has been incredibly anxiety inducing, but sharing stuff like this to get the word out to frankly a large young left leaning audience here on tumblr is helpful. It helps to do something actionable. For those of you who can’t vote, encouraging people like this helps in its own way too.

[comfortlesshurt]

October 2024 Plans!

Now feels like a great time to say wow, I really didn't plan for this burst of inspiration from back in... June? to go on this long. Anyway, I'm here to say it is still here. Still Voltron, still primarily Keith. Still really stuck on that series idea.

I thought editing was going to go well last month, but I got started and was not feeling it. So now it's more of a "when it gets done" goal. To hold myself accountable, I'm still gonna include the remaining list of fics to be edited on these monthly goal posts. At least I'll have to look the work I'm avoiding directly in the eye on a regular basis as I procrastinate by writing.

General goals:

Newly published WC: 11,928/3,000

Have VLD WC surpass Spider-Man: 63,314/100,258

2024 total published WC: 54,677/50,000

LTS(LTFH):

If you didn't see my quick lil post about it, I'm getting burned out on this! So I'm giving myself a month off. I'm allowed to add to these fics if I feel like it, but there is no daily or monthly word count goal for October.

Fic 4: work on figuring out the timeline

All fics: use the downtime this month to work on chapter titles & flesh out outlines

Change the whole damn series name this late into drafting

Oneshots:

Bingo fic (I promised this AGES AGO, so this has GOT to be the month I finally deliver istg)

Oneshots or ficlets, whatever this month's inspiration tells me to do

Editing:

Flu: title change, style update

on the run: deadass don't remember this one, so we'll see

5 Times Lance Doesn't Matter +1 Time He Finally Does

Smiling 'cause you're used to it (a house that's always haunted)

Chemicals, chemicals in my brain (where'd you go, where'd you go anyway?)

Nowhere to call home (so I'll pack and run away)

5 Times Peter Struggled with Spider Metabolism, +1 Time Tony Helped: possible style update

Whump Bingo: major edit--these were barely edited in the first place, oops

Anywhere but Here: style update

Sick Days

Take the worst situation (make a worse situation)

We are the reckless (we are the wild youth)

Cocktails and Consequences: content edit since I barely drank before I wrote this and didn't research alcohol at all

Sickdays 5.0 Day 7: Temperature: title

See me here (meet me here)

And it hits between the eyes on this side

Sickdays 2.0 Day 2 & 5: Sick at a Party & Gently Tinged with Red: title, brainstorm for a closing chapter

Sickdays Day 5: Rapid Onset: title

Impressions

Sickdays 4.0 Day 1: The Oblivious Partner: title

Sickdays 4.0 Day 7: Chain Reaction: title

Sickdays 5.0 Day 6: Public Illness: title

I've got you stuck on my mind (and it's driving me crazy)

Days locked in a haze (trying to forget you)

Sickdays Day 6: Public Illness: title

I want to know who you are (I want to know who you were)

Will you stay with me for another day? (I don't want to be alone in this state)

I'm keeping you at bay (and I'm lonely)

Sickdays 5.0 Day 3: Caretaking Focus: title

Weightless (only wait for a fall)

Hiding It

I feel strange

Bullies and Bailing: possible content edit because I just don't like this one at all

Made a Mess

Season Three

Oh god

I'm not saying I told you so...

Sickdays 5.0 Day 4: Not the Norm: title and possible content edit because I HATE this fic with a burning passion

Accident

Don't ruin this

Rapid Onset

No Right Side: content edit because I don't like how this came out

Frostbite

Happily Ever After

Wes

Touch of the skin brings trembles and shivers

Favorite Outfit

Sleepless folks watching light grow (through their early morning windows)

Origins

Ember

Peace

Road Trip

+2 anon works

Longer term:

October 2024 - light month! doing whatever I feel like, but probably some oneshots or ficlets.

November 2024 - unofficial NaNoWriMo (fuck AI).

December 2024 - finish rough draft for LTS(LTFH) fics 1 & 2.

January 2025 - LTS(LTFH) fic 1 & 2 major content/continuity edit. Technical edit for fic 1 & begin posting depending on how long edits take.

February 2025 - LTS(LTFH) fic 3 (drafting) & 4 (outline and early drafting).

March 2025 - LTS(LTFH) fic 3 & 4 drafting.

[liminalmemories21]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @paperstorm, @freneticfloetry, @carlos-in-glasses, @lemonlyman-dotcom, and @three-drink-amy. Thanks!

I opened old WIP to try and psych myself out of whatever block I'm having with knave-verse, and this seems to just mean I have more open files to procrastinate on?

On the other hand, I did write this scene in knave-verse - new theory, if just keep writing scenes eventually they'll transfigure themselves into something coherent? (I mean, this did kind of work for the first one, so . . . )

Mitchell ambushes him at the front door.  "ADA Cortes is here."

He frowns.  "Julián? Why?"

She shrugs. "I didn't ask."

He scowls at her. "Helpful. Thank you."

She leans against the edge of the intake desk and peers around the corner in the direction of the bullpen. "He never remembered my coffee order."

He sighs. "Yes, your dislike for Julián is well documented. He's probably just here about a case." Although off the top of his head he can't think of what case.

She hmmms. "I'm just saying, TK always gets my coffee order right, and he brings the good bagels."

He eyes her, and decides he doesn't really want to ask what mental leap she'd just made was. "Noted."

She hmms, dissatisfied with his response. "I'm keeping an eye on him." He gives her a dubious look, but she lets him go with an imperious wave.

He stops near his desk, where Julián is leaning over it, looking at the pictures he keeps there - his family, TK, a picture of him and Mitchell after they'd solved their first case together. "Julián, sorry did I forget a meeting?"

Julián shakes his head. "I just wanted to stop by to see if you had an update on the case."

He frowns. "Which case?"

Julián gestures. "The missing painting."

Carlos frowns more. "You'd need to speak to SSA Tulson about that. The theft is a White Collar case, not my jurisdiction."

"You seemed pretty involved the other night."

He raises his eyebrows. "That was just a coincidence. I was there as a guest."

Julian looks annoyed. "Right, as TK Strand's date. At a cocktail party at Cliff Massey's house."

He stares at Julian mystified. "Yes? Massey's on the Board at the Blanton. TK works at the Blanton."

Julian's lips tighten in annoyance. "I could barely get you to go out to a restaurant with me, but apparently now you're fine parading around the Austin elite as a plus one."

He blinks, taken aback. "The hell?"

Julián looks indecisive for a moment, like he's weighing whether he wants to say something, and Carlos remembers that from when they'd dated, the way Julián would pretend to debate with himself before he told you something he thought was for your own good. He hasn't missed it. "I looked up your boyfriend."

"Did you?" he says with a bland calm he's not feeling.

Julián nods. "He seemed very knowledgeable about art theft for a guy who's a glorified art teacher, so I got curious. He's got quite a record."

Carlos glances around the bullpen, and then takes Julián's elbow, steering him towards the conference room, tightening his grip when Julián starts to protest. "I am not doing this with you here." It isn't until they're in the conference room, and Carlos is leaning back against the door that he lets his smile drop. "So, you looked into TK?"

Julián nods. "After the theft, and some of the comments I overheard, I thought I should do my due diligence."

"Did you?" he repeats thinly. "You know, when people say they don't trust law enforcement this is part of what they mean, this kind of gross and blatant abuse of power."

Julián looks startled, but not guilty, and Carlos feels the dull flush of anger start to build. "What does that mean?"

"What possible reason did you have to run a background check on TK? There's been no arrest in the case, there's no indictment for you to prosecute. He's not even a person of interest."

"Maybe he should be."

Carlos grits his teeth. "Because?"

"He has a file an inch thick," Julian snaps, "all of it for art theft."

He holds on to his temper with a thread. "Yes. You know what isn't in that file? An arrest. For anything. Which SSA Tulson knows, which is why he doesn't consider TK a person of interest. Not," he mutters, "that is any of your business."

"You introduced him to your parents."

He gapes at the non sequitur. "Are you stalking him?"

Julián makes a sharp gesture. "I looked at his fucking Instagram account, and there he is laughing with Major Reyes, and helping someone I'm guessing is your mother blow out the candles on a birthday cake. I mean, I'm just guessing because it's not like I ever met her."

Carlos stares at him. "I'm sorry, are you jealous? We broke up two years ago, and I wasn't the one who ended it."

Julián glares at him.  "I was falling in love with you.  I was falling in love with you, and you never let me in, not really.  And it didn't seem like that was ever going to change, no matter how long I waited.  I broke up with you before you had a chance to break my heart."  His mouth twists a little.  "Might have left it too late for that anyway."

Carlos has no idea what to say.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't know."  And stalls, because what can he say after that?  Everything he can think of feels unkind.

"Yeah, I got that message, loud and clear.  Thanks." Julián stares at the folders on the table, but Carlos doesn't think he sees them.  "What does he have that I didn't?"  Carlos blinks, startled, and Julian presses the point.  "We could have been so good together, we could have made a name for ourselves."

"Been the fashionable gay power couple," he suggests dryly. Julian shrugs and doesn't deny it.

tagging @chaotictarlos, @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut and @lutavero

[petits--oiseaux]

Hi Dear🩷✨

This is Anon 2 - Timing reading. I'm sorry to bother you, but if you have any free time would you be able to give me an update timing reading on my love life whenever you’re free, please? 😫🥺

I paid someone for one and I got scammed. The reader never replied or refunded me money and I just feel hopeless really. I just want to know what's happening because I'm seeing everyone else winning and I'm truly happy for them, especially you🥹🩷, but I just want to know when its my time if that makes sense?

Congratulations and Happy Holidays to you and your person!!

Thank you so much for everything once again!🩷✨🩷✨💖✨🩷

Hello my love! I'm sorry I missed your ask back in July. It's FOREVER ago and I promise it wasn't purposeful <3 Also really sorry that you were scammed. That is so frustrating and sad. Hopefully I can help!

I pulled cards for a short term timeline, for a long term timeline, and for road blocks that may influence the time/progression. Photo credit goes to Biddy Tarot . I have her travel deck which I used for this pull but the cards are kinda dirty and I didn't want to take pictures of them lol Plus, I'm procrastinating so making a pretty thing was fun.

As always, life & free will can change these predictions. This is as of today's energies and higher selves.

Short Term: High Priestess reversed & Seven of Wands reversed

TL;DR: February-April

There are a couple of interpretations for actual times. In tarot, wands can indicate Spring time. The High Priestess is card number 2. The first thought I had was "second month of Spring" or April.

Then I looked to see what signs The High Priestess & Seven of Wands represent and it includes Pisces and fire signs, respectively. Pisces season starts in February (2nd month of the year) and Aries is the first fire sign of Spring (March & April)

On a spiritual level (getting to the reversals), here are some things that may need to happen prior to this timing to make the timing more likely: Take time to meditate on your worries - this can include guided meditation (lots of great ones on YouTube), walks, writing, singing, or praying. Anything that makes you feel at peace and forget about external stimulants. The high priestess in reverse also reminds you that not everything you see on the surface is true. Remember that while people you know seem to be finding their people, they all have their own stuff going on internally/behind the scenes. I'll use myself as an example: I am HAPPY and feel really lucky to have found J. Yet, nearly every day I have at least one thought surrounding "omg, what if he decides I suck and leaves??" It doesn't take away from the happiness, but just something to remember as you observe others. Remember you have your own story to build! The seven of wands reverse is here to tell you to keep being yourself <3 Your beliefs are yours. Your excitement is yours. You are yours! You don't have to be anything other than what you are in order to be happy and attract the people meant to be in your life.

Long Term: King of Pentacles & Seven of Cups reversed

TL;DR: July 2024-April 2025 (sorry it's such a long long term lol)

This is also based on a couple of factors. Cups can indicate months as well as summer time. The easiest interpretation for this is the 7th month (7 of cups reversed), July, which is summer in the northern hemisphere. Pentacles can indicate years and the winter time. However, since the King does not have a number like the seven of cups, I don't think multiple years. I am really leaning toward the course of this next year and a few months. I went into April of 2025 because the King of Pentacles has Taurus energy. The other signs represented by both cards are Scorpio, Leo, & Aquarius which fall into this time frame.

Spiritually/personally: there may be a personal (financial?) goal you're training to obtain right now and you may need to focus on that for a little longer before this timing comes to fruition. Being methodical and writing down plans can help! This King of Pentacles energy also tells me that if this timing happens on the longer scale, you're going to be set up for success. The Seven of Cups always reminds me of indecisiveness/overwhelming options, even in the reverse. Take time to reflect on the choices and try to reduce the number of options. You have everything you need to choose within yourself, Anon.

Road Blocks: Two of Cups, Four of Wands reversed

So, why might one timeline happen over the other? My first feeling is that there might be someone who comes in that feels like they may be your person, but the relationship is a little unsteady, communication is so-so, and you're just overall unsure about it. If this happens, trust your gut. It's okay if this person is not your person because the one meant for you will be coming! I know the feeling of longing for someone to love and love you back, but I also know the feeling of finally finding someone that feels right. You deserve only the best. If it is not another person coming in, I do think it is some conflict in relationships (whether colleagues, family, or friends) that will have you pre-occupied. Remember the guidance from above as you move through these conflicts! They work in context of this reading as well as overall advice :)

<3

[cakeiscoolsblogthing]

#ooo this genuinely sounds really good!!#i agree more gen fics🙏🙏 is this out anywhere?#if not can you lmk when it is op im really interested in this concept😁😁 only if you want

It's not out yet because I only have a little bit written, (it's not even 1k words yet, which is usually my minimum for a chapter) but I'll let you know when it is!* I'll probably also keep posting random updates and snippets on my Tumblr because I'm excited about it haha

*I may forget for a few days to tell you when I do post it, but I will remember eventually, promise. I'll try not to procrastinate!

FINALLY working more on an MCSM story I've been wanting to write for AGES. I was stuck at first but now that I'm actually writing the New Order's interactions? Ahhh they are SO FUN. They are the sillies. They are the blorbos. I don't even know what blorbos means except through context. I want more platonic New Order content therefore I will write.

Here you go have an excerpt (I wanted to share so much more but I only have a page and at that point it would just be me sharing everything I have written for this story...):

“Last one to reach Ivor is a chicken jockey!” Jesse said mischeviously, catching up to Petra. Petra put on a burst of speed. 

“I’d love to be a chicken jockey. I could just ride around on a chicken all day,” Axel remarked. 

“Yeah, but you’d be tiny,” Olivia pointed out.

“Oh, right. I don’t think I’d like to be a chicken jockey, actually.”

Olivia rolled her eyes, smiling. “Thought so.”

---

So anyway the concept of the fic is this: It'll be a series of seven parts plus an epilogue or two, and each part will be one of the years in between MCSM seasons 1 & 2. I've wanted to write this FOREVER. Harper and Ivor will probably be the only ones in a relationship because we need more gen MCSM fics and if I have to fill that category myself, I WILL!

. . . yeah, I'm just a liiiiiiittle bit passionate about this.

[kenwords-blog]

How to Create an Effective To-Do List: Boost Your Productivity and Reduce Stress

A to-do list is a powerful tool that can greatly improve your organization and productivity. It serves as a comprehensive list of tasks that need completion, ensuring that you stay on track and never forget any important responsibilities.

Steps for Creating a To-Do List

- Brainstorm Your Tasks. Commence by brainstorming and jotting down all the tasks that require completion. Consider your ongoing projects, upcoming deadlines, and personal objectives. - Prioritize Your Tasks. Once you have your task list, prioritize them based on importance and urgency. Prioritization helps you focus on crucial tasks first. - Break Down Large Tasks into Smaller Ones. If you have any daunting or complex tasks, break them into smaller, manageable parts. This approach makes them less overwhelming and more achievable. - Set Due Dates for Your Tasks. Assigning deadlines to your tasks aids in staying on track and avoiding procrastination. - Estimate Task Durations. Try to gauge the time each task will take. This estimation helps create a realistic schedule for your to-do list. - Organize Your To-Do List. Arrange your tasks by project, due date, or priority, depending on the method that suits you best. - Track Your Progress. As you complete tasks, tick them off your to-do list. This tracking method helps you visualize your achievements and maintain motivation. - Regularly Review Your To-Do List. It is crucial to review your to-do list frequently to ensure it remains up-to-date, and you are still on the right track. - Delegate Tasks. If your to-do list becomes too overwhelming, delegate some tasks to others. This delegation frees up your time for focusing on essential responsibilities. - Reward Yourself. Celebrate completing tasks by rewarding yourself with something enjoyable. This positive reinforcement keeps you motivated and engaged with your to-do list.

Benefits of Using a To-Do List

A to-do list offers numerous advantages, including: - Increased Productivity. By providing a clear outline of tasks, a to-do list enhances organization and productivity. - Reduced Stress. The structured nature of a to-do list empowers you to manage your time efficiently and minimizes stress levels. - Improved Time Management. Utilizing a to-do list encourages effective time management and discourages procrastination. - Increased Motivation. A to-do list acts as a roadmap to your goals, keeping you motivated to achieve them.

Tips for Using a To-Do List

Consider these valuable tips to make the most of your to-do list: - Keep Your To-Do List Updated. Regularly mark completed tasks off your list to stay organized and avoid overlooking important responsibilities. - Set Realistic Goals. Avoid overwhelming yourself with an excessive number of tasks. Set achievable goals and focus on completing one task at a time. - Be Flexible. Life is unpredictable, so be prepared to adjust your to-do list as circumstances change. - Don't Hesitate to Delegate. When your to-do list becomes too extensive, entrust some tasks to others. This delegation frees up time for crucial responsibilities. - Reward Yourself. Celebrate the completion of tasks with meaningful rewards, reinforcing your motivation to tackle the to-do list.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a to-do list is an invaluable tool for boosting productivity and maintaining focus on your objectives. By implementing the steps and tips provided in this article, you can create a highly effective to-do list that empowers you to achieve your goals efficiently. I trust you found this blog helpful. Should you have any queries, feel free to leave a comment below. Remember, a well-organized to-do list is your key to success! Read the full article

[aati-coach]

TOP 10 Lessons From The Book: GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior by Mark Goulston, M.D., and Philip Goldberg

1. It is better to begin in the evening than not at all. Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. There are, of course, many reasons people procrastinate: self-doubt, boredom, fear of failure, the feeling of being unready or unprepared and so on. But these feelings, by themselves, don't necessarily lead to procrastination. Often what tips the scales is going through them alone, with no one to help you, bolster you, or cheer you on. Loneliness , . , is and. always has been the central and inevitable experiencee of every man. The key to overcoming loneliness-based procrastination is to enlist the support of other people.

2. Empathy is a priceless commodity because it invariably defuses hostility. It is psychologically impossible to be angry at someone if, at thc same time, you feel what he or she is feeling. When people iust don't underctand you, get them to feel

what you're feeling.

3. It often takes a tragedy to make us look honestly at our lives. Tragedies trigger reevaluation and regret, sometimes too late to make things right. You don't have to wait for someone to die before you realize what's important,

4. If you want what you never got fnlm your parent, become your own gandparent.

It takes courage to be your own grandparent. You have to be willing to give what you might sorely need yourself, with no guarantee of a return. However, it might be your best hope for gening the love, pride and acceptance you have always wanted. At the very least it will help prevent the anguish that a patient of mine expressed so well:

5. A true friend unbosoms freely, adttises justly' assists read:ily, ad,aentures boldlg, nkes all patientlit, fuIerle courageously' and continues a frriend unchangeably. If your friends are not in this list, GET OUT OF YOUR WAY!

6. No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched. Anger is a short madness. Convert the anger to conviction and act on the basis of principle. fhenever you can transcend your personal feelings and uphold strongly felt values, you gain something far greater than the thrill of retaliation: the courage and power of conviction.

7. There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. We forgive when we no longer need to blame; we forget when we no longer need to remember.

8. When you accept someone's generosity, you might take on a debt you do not even know you owe, and if you fail to pay it back, you will be punished for reasons you cannot comprehend. Try to determine at the outset whether the act is a gift, a favor or a loan. Don't kid yourself into thinking you are a saint who gives to others and wants nothing in return. If you :ue not clear about what you really expect, you can jeopardize relationships by seeing yourself as a victim.

There are always strings attached.

9. Don't look wherc you're going, go where you're looking. Try to turn your fears into oppornrnities.

10. if you think you're always right you can't learn anything new. You're closed down because knowing and learning can't occur at the same time. Having to be right all the time just isn't right. It isn't just, it isn't fair and it isn't even possible. It will bring you contempt, not power and esteem.

Follow Evans Mozurunyem Ministries for action-provoking posts every morning!

#Join our facebook community: Personal Development Forum with Darlingson

#Join my whatApp status viewers to get daily intentional motivations for free:

https://wa.me/2348087816044?text=Hello,+darlingonERNEST,+I+would+like+to+view+your+WhatsApp+Status+Updates+on+business+and+personal+development,+Save+my+number+as

#follow me across the social media platforms:

Thread: https://www.threads.net/darlingson_ernest

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlingson_ernest/

[glitterfairy-21225]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

This made my fucking week, let's gooooooooooooooooooooo!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

87, blame The Lucky Ones.

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

741,058. No comment.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly All of Us Are Dead. I have ideas for other fandoms, but like, I should really update my AoUAD fics.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Losers! Parents! Georgie! (IT) (1,510)

Beating of our Hearts  (The Umbrella Academy) (1,501)

The Power of Friendship (And Being Sort of Siblings But Not Really But Also Kinda) (X-Men/WandaVision) (1,500)

This is fine. I'll be fi- THREE HOURS!?!?! (IT) (1,453)

Twistin' the Night Away (The Umbrella Academy) (1,228)

Gotta love big fandoms...

5. Do you respond to comments?

90% of the time. Sometimes I'll get a comment on an older fic and procrastinate on replying, then forget. Or sometimes they'll ask about updates and I don't know what to say. 😭😭😭

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Take your fucking pick of TLO fics...

(My choice is I Didn't Have It In Myself To Go With Grace ('Cause When I'd Fight You Used To Tell Me I Was Brave) )

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Man, I don't know.

I feel like my early Umbrella Academy fics had pretty happy endings so maybe… Beating of our Hearts or Klaus and Dave’s Fancy Party?

Not to say that I never have happy endings, those just felt the most cheesy-happy.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Pretty much never.

9. Do you write smut?

Oh God. I will be honest and say that in the past I’ve posted two fics of this nature anonymously, and I’ve since orphaned them. Um… yeah, never again. I accept that I mostly don’t have the stomach for it.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I was this close to saying no before I remember my Maximoff twin AU. But even that doesn’t really feel like it counts because canonically, the Marvel multiverse is real, and they technically could meet in canon. It’s not impossible.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No. Fingers crossed it never happens. 🤞🤞🤞

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. Someone did say they wanted to translate Good Luck<3, and I gave permission but I haven’t heard from them since, so either it’s taking awhile or it’s not happening.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Of Apologies and Food Fights: A Glimpse Into the Afterlife with @glowstar826!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Call me overdramatic but Joon-yeong/Woo-jin from All of Us Are Dead is what taught me what true love is. I’m being serious, no one has touched them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

Oh God. I’m about to go on a tirade. I’m gonna say Maximoffs of Madness (Emphasis on the Madness) because even though it didn’t do well, it’s the sequel to one of my most popular fics, a fic I ended on a bad ending.

And like, when I lost passion for it, I told myself I’d get it back when Multiverse of Madness came out, which is something I tend to do whenever I lose inspiration. I tell myself it’ll come back whenever the media I’m writing for gets a sequel or a new season. But that method has never worked. And like, I’m still hopeful about my Encanto fics and that one Ghostbusters fic, because I can see myself still liking the premises of those fics if I ever become invested in those franchises again, but honestly, this Maximoff fic is just kind of a mess.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I write emotion really well. Especially if someone is miserable, I’m like, ‘Let’s fucking go.’ I want readers to know exactly where a character is, what they're going through. I don't want to be like, 'They were happy' and then move on. I want to go on for paragraphs about why this specific person with this specific background feels peace from this specific situation.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Setting a mood and keeping it consistent. Like, hate to say it, but sometimes I will be that writer who will tell the joke, even if the scene is better without it, or even if that character would not say that, just because I think it'd be funny.

Oh and also I can't fucking finish the projects I start. 😭😭😭

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I usually have to consult google translate when I do this, since I only speak English. I've seen people write characters talking in different languages by using written English that's in [ ] or ( ), which seems effective. No matter what, I want to portray a culture authentically.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I still have access to the account I posted it on. I was so close to linking it.

Once Upon a Time. That was my show in middle school. I had gotten into fanfiction the year earlier when I first got into HP, but the Zelena arc inspired me because 👏I👏love👏long👏lost👏sibling👏tropes. The fic was called ‘Sister Power!’ Yes, the exclamation point was a part of the title. It’s still up on Wattpad, if you wanna look it up, search with the username I have now bc I came up with GlitterFairy in the sixth grade. I was like… twelve when I started it. It’s not good.

It’s funny, because I ended it on a cliffhanger, and the cliffhanger was like, ‘But then everyone was distracted by the crazy thing happening on the other side of the battle field’. But I didn’t know what the crazy thing was, I just wanted an excuse to end the fucking chapter, and so I never knew what to write for the next chapter. And then I gave up.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I'm gonna say Good Luck<3 because two very specific things are true for it. a) I still think about it all the time, I have not forgotten about it in the time since I've stopped working on it. And b) When I do reflect on it, there are very few things I regret about it. Like, some fics I look back on and to quote Olivia Rodrigo, 'Oh God, what did I say?' and 'I made it weird. I made it worse.'

You see my point.

But not this fic.

Also, it was just such a fun experience the whole way through. I never lost interest or motivation. I was updating consistently. I got a lot of comments and kudos on it, which is always gratifying. And it was always so fun whenever I would start a new episode reaction. The plot points were so simple, people react to what was already in the show, that the plot more or less became character development, which was just so fun, and I'm so glad that that was my first long fic for AoUAD.

tags: @casualscribbler @elisedonut

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

Let’s get this baby started! Thanks for the inspo @gracelesslady23!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

60 (blame my HP and AoUAD obsession lmao).

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

471,017. That’s…insane.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment, mostly for All of Us Are Dead. But of course, I can’t forget the whopping majority of HP fics I have! They really defined the beginning of my fanfic-writing journey.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

The Filthy Half-Blood Spy (777)

A Meaningful Sacrifice (490)

Albus Potter and the Journey Through Time (481)

The Bravest Man I Ever Knew (277)

My Old Friend, Minerva (267)

As you can see, I really love HP. The second one is AoUAD.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Of course I do! I appreciate everyone who takes the time to leave them.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh, I’ll take a quiet life for sure. It’s a canon divergence of A Meaningful Sacrifice, and hoooo boy, that’s probably the single most saddest thing I have ever written in my life. (Never again, Glow. Never again.)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Pretty much all of them have happy endings, so if I were to pick a few, then they would probably be The Bravest Man I Ever Knew, A Miracle in the Midst of September, and Come Back to Me.

The second fic is Downton Abbey while the third is AoUAD.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really, but when I was writing A Meaningful Sacrifice, I got a lot of spam.

9. Do you write smut?

Not explicitly, no. There was one fic I posted (that I since deleted) which features non-graphic smut between Snape and Lupin. (I deleted it because it was too embarrassing to keep on my profile.)

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have one, Finding My Way Back to You (Again)! It’s a crossover where Oh Joonyeong of AoUAD is a doctor in the 20th Century Girl universe who helps Poong Woonho overcome amnesia sustained in a plane crash.

Other than that, I prefer writing AUs where I put characters from one show into another show’s universe. My Duty After School AU with AoUAD characters, Reluctant Duty, is a great example of this.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Thankfully, I have not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yup! Albus Potter and the Journey Through Time in Portuguese on Wattpad (which is unfinished, unfortunately).

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I have! Of Apologies and Food Fights: A Glimpse Into the Afterlife was an awesome collab with the amazing @glitterfairy-21225!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Oh Joonyeong/Jang Woojin, for sure. Since February 2022, these boys have been living in my head rent-free. Honorable mentions include Lee Cheongsan/Nam Onjo, Yang Daesu/Seo Hyoryung, and Lee Junho/Woo Youngwoo. The first four ships are from AoUAD, and the fifth is from Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

Probably Albus Potter and the Journey Through Time, even though it won’t take much longer to finish it. Every time I go back to it, I immediately feel discouraged from writing it because it suddenly seems like too big of an undertaking. However, I will never stop trying!

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, descriptions, and AU ideas (God knows how many are floating around in my head right now 😭).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Having too many ideas. I swear, if I could just commit to finishing one project, then I would have way more completed fics.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

It would be all fine and dandy if it uses the Roman alphabet (think French, Spanish, German), but if it was a language like Korean or Chinese, then I’d rather write the transliteration since my writing would be targeted towards English readers/speakers. But obviously, I’d try my best to write other cultures authentically.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Though they’re all deleted, I first wrote for Detroit: Become Human. That was what got me into fanfic in the first place because I reasoned that, since the game had 99+ endings, fanfiction was fair game (I really hated fanfic at the time).

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

A Meaningful Sacrifice, hands down. That was probably my single best piece of writing in terms of characterization, setting, worldbuilding, and cohesiveness with the original show. Additionally, I ended up creating two very important OCs which had significant influence in the main character’s life.

Writing that fic inspired a whole lore which is present in my other AoUAD fics like Washed Down the Drain, Us, Withering Under the Sun, and Reluctant Duty. I also gained an awesome friend from it in @glitterfairy-21225, so yeah. One of my best fanfic-writing experiences to date.

On that final note, here’s your tag to do this, @glitterfairy-21225! <3

[tofumedic]

Can you do a imagine about mc who doesn't like talking on the phone, but Diavolo always calls them instead of texting. Diavolo admits that it's because he want to hear their voice.

Calling For Diavolo !

(i kinda love and hate this one but anon if you persisted during the long wait i hope you like it :D ♡♡♡♡)

---

Diavolo loved listening to the sound of you, how your voice resonated in echos of rooms with tall ceilings, how he could pick yours easily in student council meetings and trips or from the HoL hallways like a treasure hunt leading to you. It commanded his attention, for him to give his love, his devotion.

Something so simple, something natural and common to you was enough to grab his face metaphorically, eyes locked with love as you spoke. Never forgetting to show the genuine passive enjoyment of you filling space, making what could be white noise into something melodic to him. You, his favorite symphony, him always wanting to hear your notes from your crescendo to small whispers.

And when you were just out of reach yet within it as well, him having free time from paperwork and other things of the devilish kind yet you not being nearby perhaps in the human world or just in the HoL, sometimes he would call you. He tried to refrain from serious calls, the atmosphere from those where his voice carried commandments and reiterating lines with his face pressed to the screen so his voice could be quieter in case of him having company.. He hated it, the tension felt poisoning to the point any important serious news was often given by one of his usual two middlemen. Diavolo at least knew how his voice in the colder tone made you respond shorter than usual, responses mumbled to much yet asking you to repeat yourself brought him guilt in a way he felt as if he related to those demons who had fallen instead of known Devildom from birth.

However, he still continued with normal calls that were as simple as check-ins to a point. Calling during his break just to exchange hellos, wanting an update on what you were doing for the day if you had plans even if they were only mentioned off-hand, him doing his best to remember smaller details to show they still held your importance. Little calls like this in between paperwork before Barbatos collected on the procrastination, asking the young master to say his final goodbye instead of usual ones of him saying at least 5 different ones.

Sometimes you may let him go to the voice-mail, if he wanted to talk to you so bad than he should explain what he wanted to talk about, right? He does of course, yet disappointments almost childish are evident in his tone until his one sided conversation gets picked up by laughing at his own joke. And it keeps your secret for awhile, small minute conversations and voice-mails you'll later respond to with a text, but evidently not long enough before Diavolo takes a part time job as a detective for this case.

It wasn't only serious calls that you kept replies short, sometimes cutting yourself off from speaking more on a subject saying you'll just tell him later, or the mutter to be reaffirmed with you repeating just slightly different without being asked to even repeat like you're conditioned to it. Did they make you uncomfortable? Was it that you didn't like the sound of your voice or that sometimes moving your mouth to talk just felt too tiring sometimes?

Despite knowing the final puzzle piece or not, he tries to text you more for your sake, to enjoy him as much as he enjoys you. Even trying to use Devilgram's voice messaging system if you prefer it to or saving videos you've sent to him, being able to replay your voice when he missed it so he could be rejuvenated while not sapping you of the energy instead.

☆ He gives you his confession one night, with you sitting on one side of a couch while hes laying across you though still a little too tall so his legs are crossed over the opposite couch arm, feet tapping along to his internal metronome in the air. Eyes on you, genuine again as they are each time until they close, a smile prominent on his face. The happiness of it present as it disappears and morphs into different shapes as he speaks when Diavolo finally addresses it, "MC, I'm sorry I didn't realize you don't like talking on the phone. It's just that I don't think I can get enough of you, speaking to you like this is bliss."

[la-lunaluna]

Pretty Please

Pretty Please (Frankie Morales (Triple Frontier) x F Reader)

Rating: Explicit

Words: 3.6k

Warnings: angst, anxiety, crying crises, lap riding, making out, oral sex (him on her), sex (piv), fluffy at the end

Author comments: Hello, my beloved ones! This is my second Future Nostalgia Collection fanfic and also my first Frankie Morales fic ever! I'm excited but also kinda scared, Catfish is one of the most loved characters from Pedro and I really don't want to screw things up. Please be kind, and if you could comment something to me, it would be HEAVEN! Thank you for all your love and support, take care of each other, and don't forget Mando style: never show your face in front of the others! xoxo Update: OMG I WAS GIFTED WITH A PRETTY PLEASE FANART 😭 https://kenobiwanx.tumblr.com/post/647654503580123136/frankie-and-yn-inspired-by-la-lunaluna

You haven’t been feeling very well lately, especially today. You remembered clearly the promise you made to Frankie, that you weren't going to change, but you felt that promise went out the window, made you feel that you were lying to him. It was making you feel your heart heavy.   

You sat in the car seat and felt the anguish blur your vision and tighten your throat. When you first started your relationship with Frankie, your romance seemed to make even Cinderella jealous, but... At what point along the way had things started to get like this? You had promised each other that you wouldn't let love fall into a rut, fatigue and stress shake things up, but, God, it was so hard! He had supported you like no other to start the college you had wanted so much for years, and he encouraged you when you were afraid to reconcile your studies with your work. It was for a better future, wasn't it? But lately, things were tough. You couldn't help but feel a few tears rolling down your face.   

You started the car and drove home. The panel display indicated that it was past midnight and the lights inside were off. You knew this wouldn't be forever, it would only be until you finished college, but God, it seemed like the days when you would come home and not even look at your man because he was already asleep would never end. You loved him, and you felt that he loved you just as much, but this was... Damn it, working and studying all day and never getting the moment to feel comforted and relaxed by Frankie? Never a time to feel that even if everything was falling apart out there, you still had each other? It seemed so unfair!   

You turned the key in the door and opened it very carefully. As you guessed, Frankie wasn't in the room, he really should have been in bed by now. You sighed tiredly and giggled, unhappy that you thought that at least today things would be different. Arriving at the bedroom you saw a very familiar sight: Frankie lying on his stomach. The dim light coming in through the window made the sun-bronzed skin of his bare chest glow. His messy hair on his head needed to be cut, but you secretly loved it when he procrastinated about going to the barber and the ends of his hair got curled. Sometimes you wondered if you and Frankie decided to have children, they would have hair like that too. But how could you if you didn't even have enough time to talk to your man, how about raising a baby? God, you needed to sleep soon, otherwise, your head would keep playing tricks on you.   

  (…) 

 Frankie heard a low, half-muffled groan. It took him a few seconds to figure out that he was on that fine line between being asleep and awake. He opened his eyes and through the crack in the door that separated the bedroom from the bathroom, he knew that you had already come home. The sound of water falling from the shower made him doubt if he had actually heard anything or not. Your classes had been ending very late lately and sometimes he couldn't keep himself awake to wait. He missed when the two of you used to drink a cup of milk late at night, leaning against the kitchen counter and chatting away about whatever nonsense had happened during the day, but he knew that this was fleeting. Someday you wouldn't even remember those times anymore. He heard another groan, louder this time, a... hiccup? You were crying.   

He stood up and tapped lightly on the door before opening it slowly. 

“Baby, is everything okay?” Frankie said with his hand on the doorknob and his ear to the open doorway. 

“Y-yes, go back to sleep, please." You tried to cover it up, but Frankie knew you too well. Maybe all those years in the army had helped him to become a walking lie detector. 

“Sorry, I just... I heard you crying. Do you want to talk?” He seemed to measure every word he said so that the situation wouldn't become delicate.   

He heard the shower being turned off, and before he could think of anything, he felt the doorknob slipping from his hand and the door being opened unexpectedly. You, naked and completely wet, hugged him tightly and he suppressed a startled sound. Something really was wrong.   

Frankie hugged you back, feeling your back make a trembling back and forth movement as you sobbed your tears against his chest. Your hands held him as if you were afraid to leave at that moment. 

“Baby, you're scaring me. Please tell me what's going on, I need to help you somehow.”   

“Frankie, you don't need to help me, this is all my fault, you can leave if you want to, I... Shit, Frankie!” you cried out between the sobs of your desperate crying, squeezed between his arms. You seemed to be wasting your air even to breathe.   

“Baby, shh, please try to calm down.” He ran his hand down your back, trying to relieve you. “You're freezing, I'll get you a towel.” 

You pulled away from him, feeling as if a huge weight had been returned to your back, and sat up in bed. He brought a large, fluffy towel and used it to wrap you up. You seemed calmer now, seeming to have managed to control your crying, but despite this, you were no better in any way. Instead, your low and lost look only showed how tired and defeated you were. Frankie wrapped his arms around you and brought you close to him, making your body fall into his. You brought your legs up on the bed and cuddled up next to him. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath.   

“Frankie, honey, I..." You felt your voice choke up again. "Shit, I'm gonna cry again.” 

"It's okay, you can cry. Wanna try to tell me what happened?" He hugged you gently, bringing you closer. 

You sniffled and nodded.   

"Remember when we said, we promised each other..." You could barely finish your line of thought. "Damn it, Frankie, I'm letting everything that we promised each other wouldn't happen happen." 

"What you talking about?" 

"We always talked about how wouldn't let things fall into a routine, that we'd never let our worries affect our relationship, and look at us now! I'm tired, Frankie, I'm tired of feeling this unfair sensation that I'm burning out, and at the end of the day I can't even love you properly because I'm tired and stressed and I just want to come home and lie in bed and sleep and stop thinking bullshit!" Your voice was getting more altered with each word, you seemed to be trying to seek answers for all the trouble that was going on, but it was just making you desperate again. 

Frankie wriggled on the bed to pull you away from his body so that he could look you in the eye. You were a total mess, sitting on the bed, naked, wrapped in your towel. Your back was bent forward as if you wanted to disappear into yourself.   

"Baby, please, none of this is your fault. Frankie touched your chin, wet with tears, and lifted your face lightly. "You are feeling this because we are living this now, if we were in another situation, none of this would be happening. And when I say that, please don't think it's your fault, it's just the fault of the moment we're going through, and we chose this, remember? We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we have survived all the tough days together until today, haven't we? This won't be forever, and when it's over, I'll still be here, okay?" Frankie gave a shy smile as he finished speaking. How could have he been through so many monstrosities in the army and still be such a sweetheart?   

"Okay." You gave a little yellow smile as you looked away and answered in a tone of voice so low you could barely hear yourself. You looked up half bashfully and continued, "I love you, Frankie."         

"I love you too, my love." He softly pressed his lips to yours, silently concluding the conversation. "Gonna get you your PJs for you to get dressed and sleep, okay?"   

"Frankie..."   

"Yes?" 

"No need. I... I don't wanna sleep. I want you to help me slow down, help me calm my mind, put it at ease." 

You stood up, letting the towel fall off your back, and sat on his lap, holding his face with your hands.    

"Wow... hi" Frankie laughed at your unexpected attitude, placing his hands on your thighs. "You know you're turning me on, right?"   

"No, but I loved knowing."     

You smiled and kissed his lips slowly. It didn't take long for that kiss to go deep and for Frankie's hands to become more adventurous, making you tremble on his lap, after all, your feelings were already running wild, but it was that kind of fun tension you were needing right now. You felt him growing under his sweatpants and you felt your spine trickle, smiling and distributing kisses all over his neck and rolling your hips back and forth slowly, closing your eyes to enjoy the delicious sensation of pleasure that was invading you more and more. You kissed again, a wet kiss surrounded by that heavy breath of urgency. 

"Frankie, baby, I missed you so much, I need your love, I need your hands on me" you groaned between the kiss, your mouths still glued together and groaning against each other. "Pretty please... I want me underneath you, come find me, try me..." you ordered in sighs of pleasure, brushing your lips against his. The kiss was so gentle, and at the same time so sexy. 

"Baby, don't light me up..." Frankie's deep voice resounded in his chest and his dark eyes shone with desire. “Get on the bed.” 

You moaned in response, rising from his lap, but not before moving one more time, letting your sex, still separated by Frankie’s sweatpants, rub. He smiled when he saw how his clothes were besmirched by your humidity. 

You got on the bed and he came right after, squeezing your ass, making your body arch back. This way he could catch you with his arm and squeeze your breast. You turned your neck to the side and stayed hostage by Frankie’s lips one more time. Frankie was loving that unexpected moment, half time ago he was sleeping, who knew he would be now having a full of nostalgia sex? He searched for your ear, biting and moaning. You were already completely melted, submissive to his tongue exploring you bluntly, to his hands holding you so well, full of malice, traversing your thighs and massaging your clit. The desire was urgent. 

Without losing any more time, he laid you down and turned you to face him, opening space between your legs until he could make his strong body cover you entirely. He supported his forearms by the sides of your face, letting his lips slide from the neck to the breasts. Frankie insisted to lick the tip of each one of your boobs and bite them after, using a bit of strength and making you tremble underneath him; you were so fucking turned on. 

“Francisco… I-I need you inside of me” you confessed, pulling Frankie’s hair while you arched your hips up without noticing. 

“Do you…” He kissed your belly. “Want to kill me…” Kissed your groin. “Calling me like that, right?” He licked all of your cunt extension just to tease you. “Just because of that I’m not going to suck you…” He laughed and moved away, getting on his knees on the bed and squeezing his erection still covered by his clothes. 

“Frankie, for fucks sake!” You laughed nervously, squirming. 

“Just kidding, babe” He blinked and smiled. 

He got his body down one more time and spread wet kisses through all of your bellies, putting your legs on his shoulders. His lips went down until your thighs, nibbling the skin intensely and gently at the same time. He looked at your eyes and got the silent request you were making, begging. He passed his tongue by all of your pussy and you squirmed in response, unable to hold on and moan loudly with pleasure as you felt Frankie practically swallow you with his mouth. You closed your eyes, grabbing the sheets by your side. He sucked you fastly, involving the tongue and taking cheeky bites one time and another. 

Frankie left his hands laying on your boobs, massaging them and loving to hear how you were liking that. Both were already gasping, sweaty, anesthetized by lust, and he hasn’t even taken his clothes off. 

“Fuck, babe, look at you…” He smiled, sliding the eyes to your cunt, wet, pulsing, vulnerable, and desperate for some relief. 

You moaned, closing your eyes hard as you felt his mouth speaking against your entrance, that contact was killing you. 

“Frankie…” You moaned sexily, your voice echoing by the silent ambient. 

You opened your eyes slowly, having that overwhelming vision of your hip raised on Frankie’s body, and him snapping your pussy and giving you tricky smiles. 

“Frankie, please…” It was each time more difficult to control your breath. “Frankie, get over with it…” 

“What do you want, babe?” He threw his head back to look at you and when he crossed eyes with you, you could swear you could cum at any time. 

“Fuck me, Frankie, I wanna cum with you inside me…” You pleaded, closing your eyes. 

Watching you licking and biting your lips was making him nuts. It was delicious to watch you and stimulate you, hear the way you moaned, how your breath was accelerated and how your body moved while you were getting closer to cum, but it was even better to see you had already forgotten how you were feeling minutes ago. You deserved that. 

He stopped the caresses to attend to your request and climbed on the bed to kiss you one more time, while you moaned by feeling your taste on his mouth, your hands messing his brown hair, pulling and stroking his neck. 

He moved again one more time, getting up from the bed and pulling the drawstring of the pants. 

“Hurry up, Francisco!” you complained laughing, begging for him to stop torturing you soon. 

Frankie attended, taking the sweatpants and showing that at any moment he was wearing underwear. You glimpsed the beautiful vision that lately used to fulfill only your memories. Frankie was so handsome, but now, stars… He was perfect. You didn’t know why you were so dazzled, after all, you had already seen him naked lots of times. Now, otherwise, seemed like you were rediscovering him, or something like that. You were missing your man! 

He got totally rid of the pants, bothering him so much at that moment, and, now undressed, he revealed the body you loved so much, was beautiful and your total source of desire. You looked attentive to his stomach, his large shoulders, and his strong arms. Frankie had beautiful, thick, and fleshy thighs, but what he had between his legs was catching all of your attention right now. You couldn’t avoid moaning by thinking on that cock, pulsing and pointing in your direction, penetrating you. 

Frankie got close to you again, curving himself to catch your lips with him one more time. 

“Baby, please…” 

He made a silent yes with his head, staying between your legs and holding your hips to get positioned on your entrance. He slipped inside you totally, pulling a loud moan out from you. 

“Frankie!” 

“I’m all yours now, babe” he answered against your ear. 

Your body heated up with the sensation of being taken and by the words, even forgetting that brief bothering feeling of the beginning being filled up. You relaxed, letting Frankie dictate the rules. 

You hugged him, with both arms and legs, and noticed he wasn’t moving, probably waiting for you to get used again to feel him inside you, after so many days without a touch. 

“Frankie, please…” you murmured, squeezing his large shoulders. “I want you…” 

Frankie sank and started moving without any rush. As he felt you were comfortable, he stocked you once and twice again, moving slowly, focused on giving the pleasure you deserved, that was pressing his member wet by your heat. You sighed, concentrating on feeling the welcome invasion of Frankie on your body. 

He smiled, looking below himself. His heart raced as you looked at his eyes, smiled, and settled your lips on his, making him move very slowly inside of your tight pussy. He went increasing the speed, he couldn’t and didn’t want to as well, broke eye contact, watching and appreciating every micro pleasure feature you were letting show. The more you gasped and moaned between kisses, the more stimulated he felt himself. 

“Frankie…”  

Was so exciting to see you falling from pleasure. Watching you moaning and calling his name each time he went deep, touching that sensible part of your pussy, every time he went out and in firmly, making you bite your lips and want to close her eyes, but you were too hypnotized by that chocolate eyes to dare to close, it was overwhelming. Frankie’s hands wandered through your body, scratching, fumbling, squeezing all the sensitive parts each time he increased speed. 

The back-and-forth movement was delicious, Frankie held your waist, moaning unconnected and dirty words on your ear. The position could appear a little predictable to some couples, but for you was pure paradise. 

“Frankie, put it in harder…” You requested, ecstatic. 

“Wanna harder, baby?” He growled, squeezing your waist and laying his forehead on yours. “Roll it for me while I fuck you…” 

You obeyed, rolling your hips and feeling your thighs tremble while you felt Frankie increasing the speed considerably. You felt all his cock touching you deep, hard. He squeezed your waist harder, pushing his fingers and sinking his cock in your cunt even more. You moaned hoarsely, calling for him, asking for more. 

Frankie took his hand until your forgotten clit, masturbating you with intensity. You trembled, hugged your lover’s body, letting your lips go through his neck slowly. He let his hand go off from your body and touched your face sweetly. You kissed, in love, moving your lips slowly and full of sensuality one against the other. You massaged your mouths, enjoying the devouring sensation of your shocking bodies. You gave space to Frankie’s mouth, enlacing yours, while he increased his movements. 

You were almost there, Frankie’s big hands had the ability and that was delicious, it was impossible not to cum when you were at his mercy. That was what you wanted, to feel you could faint at any time and cum nestled on your man’s body. 

“Frankie, I’m so close…” You bit the crease of his ear. 

He nodded, saying without words he was feeling close to his end as well. You felt the fire devouring you fully and when Frankie bite your shoulder, you fell apart on his arms moaning loudly your name. In the last movement, Frankie couldn’t handle the orgasm when he felt you squeeze around his cock. He came too, pouring his seed deep inside you. 

Both of you collapsed in the bed. You smiled when you felt your thighs still trembling after that so intense and necessary orgasm that day. You were gasping, feeling all your body muscles relaxing and softening. It had been a while since you hadn’t such an amazing fuck as that. 

“Frankie…” you called him dimly, turning yourself in the bed and letting your face lay down on his chest, resting your arm on his stomach. 

“What, baby?” Frankie stroked your back on the back of his fingers. 

“Let’s do it again? 

Frankie let out a loud chuckle, hugging you after. 

“You’re going to become a widow before the sun rises, do you know that, don’t you?” He whispered, kissing the top of your head with tenderness. “Can’t we just let this for tomorrow morning? By now I think we could just get a good shower.” 

Frankie got up from bed, carrying you by the hand to the bathroom, where you got a warm and long shower, where you cleaned each other and shared hot kisses until you couldn’t handle the provocative caresses anymore and ended up making love again. 

After a while, dressed with cleaned pajamas and sated, you came back to your room, to the bed, and changed the sheets, and fluffed the pillows before laying down again. It was funny, if you didn’t know each other so well, you would have had that strange silence on the air. But after a long time together, that was just a good and comfortable silence. 

“Francisco?” 

He turned to you in bed and found your eyes. It was so good to simply stay laying down like that, lost on Frankie’s sweet eyes… 

“Hi.” He smiled. 

“Hi.” You smiled back, rubbing your nose on his delicately. “Thank you. Truly.” 

“I’m right here to remember you everything’s gonna be okay, okay?” 

“Okay.” 

“I love you.” He settled his lips on yours for the last time that night. 

“I love you more.” 

“That’s impossible.” You smiled. 

You nestled against him in sweet relief, draining your back on his warm chest and feeling embraced by his strong arms. Sometimes you forgot Frankie was there for you, and you loved when he made you remember all of that so well. Next to him, everything was going to be okay. 

-

Masterlist / Join my Taglist / Ko-Fi or Pix if you’re from Brazil

-

Taglist: @catsandra-chan @marydjarin @storiesofthefandomlovers

[crescentsteel]

Keeping a Secret - Part 2

pairing: Tsukishima x f!manager of Sendai Frogs genre: sexual tension/crack/fluff/slow burn warnings: lots of swear words, tsukki being a a closet softie wc: 6k (lol no chill as always)

[a/n]

Sorry for the delayed update. I added almost 1k words just to solidify the characters to give depth even more to the story. Feel free to reread. (It's totally not because I started a different series altogether.)

When I say this is slow burn, I meant sloooooooowww burn. 

Let me know if you want to be part of the taglist. :)

AO3 

Part 1 || Part 3 || masterlist

What were you even thinking? Actually,  why weren’t you? Had you used at least two brain cells of yours, you wouldn’t have momentarily lost your mind and kissed Tsukishima. You could’ve justified your actions if you were drunk, but you ingested not even an ounce of alcohol that night.

History will remember yesterday as the day a a sober you and a very displeased Tsukishima who found yourselves smooching publicly in the middle of a club. You’re just glad that no other member of the team goes to the same university you both go to. Else, you'd run the risk of getting seen.

Were so touch-deprived that you couldn’t resist even Tsukishima? And what about him? Why did he get along with it? You don’t think he actually hates you. Hate is such a strong word. He just exceedingly dislikes you. So why would he make out with you? Maybe he thought of it as a way of finally standing up to you?

Ugh.

You’re thankful that you didn’t have training yesterday. You were a mess the whole day trying to make sense of what happened. Not that you’re any better today; you’re still baffled as fuck. But you’re glad you had that day off so you wouldn’t have to face him immediately. 

For the first time ever, you’re dreading going to the gym. Even if you’re tired or you lack sleep, you’ve never felt distressed as the manager of the Sendai Frogs. All this because of Tsukishima. But can you really put the blame on him when it was you who initiated it?

“Good morning, y/n,” Eiji, the captain of the team greets you.

“Morning, Eiji,” you say back. Even though he’s older than you, you dropped the salutations already, same with everybody else. 

“You okay?” he asks worriedly. 

“Oh! Yeah, absolutely! When am I ever not okay?” You toughen it up and erase the troublesome kiss in your head. You are their ever shining manager, first and foremost. Anything outside of that has no place in this gym. 

“Never. It’s almost scary actually,” he answers with jest.

“Right? ‘Cause I’m a freaking goddess.”

He gives you a noble bow. “Indeed, you are, my lady.”

You giggle softly. Your players really are the best on and off the court (except for Tsukishima). “Go do your drills instead of buttering me up, ‘captain.’” He gives you a mock salute then jogs off towards the net. 

“Y/n!”

You saunter off to your coach after you were called. “Yes, Coach?”

“Can you help tape the blockers?” You nod willingly, quickly discarding unnecessary thoughts of Tsukishima. 

“Tsukishima’s free. Go start with him.”

You almost flinch upon hearing his name.

‘Great,’ you groan internally as you get the wrap from your kit and drag your feet toward the source of your uneasiness. But what did you expect? Of course, you’d have to deal with him sooner or later.

“Morning, Tsukishima,” you greet him with forced normalcy, acting like nothing’s wrong. As you take his left hand and you’re instantly reminded of what happened the other night -- how this hand gripped your waist while his mouth moved against yours… how his skin felt against the palm of your hand as he towered over you, body against body in a dance so dangerous and so hypnotizing that you lost yourself in the moment.

You tried your best to calm down yesterday, but seeing him right now makes you want to smack yourself from your momentary insanity that led you to kiss him.

Instead, you give him the nicest, brightest smile to channel your frustrations as you start taping his fingers. You just hope and pray that he doesn’t bring it up.

“Morning,  manager .” It was an indirect jab at you. Even when he says it with a dead tone, you know he’s taunting you by addressing you as manager - a tortuous reminder that what happened last Saturday night wasn’t forgotten.

Instead of yielding to the provocation, you respond with your own. You might have messed up, but you’re not letting him get the upper hand. “How was your weekend, Tsukki?” 

“Horrible,” he quickly answers without even thinking.

“Ditto. What happened to yours?” you ask with fake curiosity, already knowing why. Even if you didn’t kiss him then, he was already acting up like an angsty teen forced by his mom to attend a children’s party within the neighborhood.

“Went to a disgusting party.”

You nod pretentiously. “Mine’s horrible too. I got g-”

“I didn’t ask,” he interrupts.

“Well, you’re still going to hear it,” you respond just as distastefully as he cut you off. “I got groped by some perv, but I kinda punched some good manners unto him.” You release his left hand and take his right one to tape it as well. 

“And?” He asks.

You shrug your shoulders. “That’s it. After that, I just went home from how  horrible  the experience was.”

You look up to him, meeting his sardonic gaze paired with a raised eyebrow from what you just said. You know that he understood that you were referring to something else other than the perv incident as horrible.

“How about you? What happened to that disgusting party of yours?” you press on.

“I bumped into someone I didn’t really want to see.”

“And?”

“Do you really wanna know how horrible it was for me?” A smirk creeps up on the corner of his mouth as he asks. There were many times before that you’ve wanted a taste of Tsukishima’s vile sarcasm, just to know what he’d say to you. Today is not one of those times. You don’t want him using that reckless kiss against you. 

“Actually, no. I don’t really care.” You let go of his hand you just finished working with and look around to look for anyone you could use as a distraction from Tsukishima’s attempt to retell the kiss from his perspective.

“Kogane!” you brightly call the setter as you bounce cheerfully towards him. 

Even if you don’t show it, Tsukishima knows he’s gotten under your previously impenetrable thick skin. He detests what happened last Saturday. The more he remembers it, the more he abhors it. The only reason he’s not totally hating himself for getting swept along with your shit is because he knows you hated it too, probably more than he does since it was you who kissed him first.

His smug grin only spreads when you march to Kogane with that cutesy act you only show to players from opposing teams to unsettle them before matches. You take both Kogane’s hands and beam at him. “Do you want me to tape your fingers?”

“Y-you don’t have to, y/n. I can do it myself!” Kogane blurts out, panicking at your sudden closeness and physical touch.

“But I love taking care of you guys,” you pout at Kogane, which only makes the setter blush a shade almost close to red.

Tsukishima follows you to help his babbling, flustered teammate.

“You’re going to kill him, y/n,” he says as he passes by you and Kogane who now looks like he stopped functioning.

You blink at Kogane, realizing what you’re doing to the poor guy.

You must have been really bothered by Tsukishima and unknowingly projected it to someone else.

Tsukishima sneers as he sees you try to ease Kogane from his severe fluster but only make it worse by rubbing his shoulders. 

A dash of pride and satisfaction swells on Tsukishima’s chest as he watches you get agitated with the situation you, yourself caused. Getting back at you feels even better than he imagined it would be. 

--

Even though you and Tsukishima are in the same class, you don’t really notice his presence. Sometimes you’d even forget you’re classmates. Now, though, you are more aware of the fact that he’s actually there than you ever have.

“Alright, class. For your main project this semester, I’m going to have you partnered up. You need to come up with a comprehensive report on mating behavior of reptiles. I’ll randomly generate your assigned reptile.”

You groan. Another collaborative work in the same subject. You don’t like working with others because you don’t want to adapt to anyone’s schedule. You like to get things done ahead of time. You hate procrastinating because you don’t want your uni requirements getting mixed up with potential tasks from your managerial job, especially whenever tournament seasons come. 

The last collaborative work you worked on is a group project where you did most of the work yourself. You wouldn’t have minded if you didn’t have fucking freeloaders as groupmates.  The little shits made you do 90% of the project because you wanted it done early.

You just pray that this time, you get to be paired with someone responsible. You tap your pen on your desk while you wait for your name to be called.

“L/n and Tsukishima.”

You drop your pen at your professor’s announcement. It bounces twice on your desk before rolling to the floor, but you don’t move to pick it up. Your gaze immediately flies to where Tsukishima is seated and find him glaring at you already. You almost want to laugh at how ridiculous this entire situation is.

Seriously? Were you a serial killer in your previous life or something? Did some higher power decide to punish you for your grave sins like this? 

Whatever. You’re not having any of this shit. 

You wait until the class is over and approach your professor. “Sir. I’d like to do this project alone.” Or at least with someone else. 

He continues to type something on his laptop, not bothering to look up at you, as he asks, “Why is that?”

“I just feel more comfortable doing things on my own, Sir. Please.” You try to give him your nice student smile but his eyes don't leave his screen.

“Then what? Have you increase my workload?”

Shit. You forgot that this particular professor of yours is known to not budge to anyone. You scramble your brain for another excuse.

“Sir. Can I do this project alone?” you suddenly hear Tsukihima’s voice behind you.

Finally, your professor closes his laptop and eyes you two unenthusiastically. “My answer is no to miss Y/n, so my answer to you, Mr. Tsukishima, is also no. I don’t know what the deal is between you two, but you’re doing this together.”

You can’t help but scowl despite being right in front of your professor. If it wasn’t for that darn kiss, you would’ve loved working with Tsukishima. Even though you don’t have the same classes, his schedule won’t be that hard to match up with because you two have the same training days. Secondly, he’s smart. You won’t have to carry the whole weight of the project. 

“You know what, I’ll reconsider.” A glimmer of hope lights up in your chest as you hear your professor’s words. “I’ll allow you two to work individually — but with an automatic ten point deduction for this project.”

“No,” you and Tsukishima respond at the same time. 

“Great! You’re already getting along swimmingly.” Your professor picks up his stuff and stands up. “Enjoy,” he waves a dismissive goodbye and leaves.

You slowly turn around to face Tsukishima and find that you share the same lour that he has. You cross your arms and lean on your professor’s desk. “Guess we’re together, Tsukishima.” 

--

You allowed yourself one week to compose yourself before you agreed to start the project with Tsukishima. You still saw him at training days, and even then, you tried to have the least amount of interaction with him so the ‘incident’ wouldn’t be brought up again. Meeting him for a project where it’s just you two is different and you needed time.

As much as you don’t want to be with him, you told yourself that it’ll be over soon. You just pushed the kiss in the back of your head and convinced yourself that it was just a stupid kiss. It didn’t mean anything. He probably just went along with it out of spite, so it’s best you think of it as a spur of the moment madness. That way, you won’t be bothered if he sordidly brings it up again. At least now, you can go back to your usual, cheeky self around him.

You’re about to text Tsukishima that you’ve arrived at the station you agreed to meet up at but you already see him there standing while he’s scrolling his phone with his usual white headphones on.

Unfortunately for you and him, the reptile assigned to you two are crocodiles. It’s the worst possible assignment you could get among the roster of reptiles assigned. You need to travel all the way to Wakabayashi for a legitimate crocodile farm to observe, compared to other reptiles which are easily accessible with nearby zoos in Miyagi. You just pray that you’ll only need this one trip to get all the data you need for your report.

You walk towards him and instantly regard how he looks. Despite being in the same university, you don’t see him around much. Even in your sole class together, you’re seated way too apart from each other to even look at each other’s direction. Not that being seated beside each other would’ve made a difference. You’re not friends. There’s no need to talk to him since everything that’s volleyball-related is relayed through line. To you, he’s just one of your players. As far as you’re concerned, the only Tsukishima you’re aware of is the one sweating his white shirt and training shorts during practice. 

To have this much involvement with him outside the gym is throwing you out of your usual loop. You continue studying him at a distance. Today he’s wearing white plaid pants, black turtleneck (probably long sleeves) with a lighter shade of black coat on top, and a brown wool scarf. He also has a gray bonnet that makes his blonde locks frame his face nicely. 

What the heck? Did he always dress like this even in class? How come you never noticed? 

He finally notices you. He puts down his phone and removes his headphones. “How long have you been there?”

“Wow, Tsukishima. You look kinda hot,” you blurt out without thinking.

His eyes expand at your statement that came out of nowhere. “Huh?!”

“Oh, sorry. That must’ve been random. But you look really good though. I kinda feel like I’m meeting a date,” you say with objective candor as you continue to stare at him. 

That catches him completely off guard. The other day you’re on the edge around him. You weren’t even paying much attention to him during training, but now you’re back to being a headache whose mouth knows no bounds as you faze him with your unfiltered thoughts. Now, it’s him who is uncomfortable again with your thorough eyes scanning him approvingly. 

“As if I’d ever date you,” he snaps back at your remark to which you scoff at.

“I didn’t say you would. Maybe you’re forgetting, I’d never go out with a member of the team.”

“Right. But kissing one is totally fine, huh?” he retaliates in an instant with a condescending look. He waits for your reaction, eager to see you distraught and bothered by it. To his dissatisfaction, you don’t behave in such a way. Instead, you sigh defeatedly.

“Yeah. Sorry about that. I got a little crazy that night,” you say casually to a degree that you sounded like it was just a petty accident. “You kissed me back, so I’m sure you were too. Right?” 

The last word is conniving, and he can tell why you phrased it that way. You’re leaving him no choice but to disregard what happened or else it’s going to seem like it meant something to him. The hell it does. It simply resurfaces back on his mind sometimes because of how unpleasant the memory is. 

‘Devious woman,’ he snarls in his head.

It should be okay. Your reason for what you did can also be his excuse for how responded to it. What he didn’t like is that he hasn’t even managed to make the most out of that incident, while you immediately found a way to undo the grave you dug for him to bury you into.

Plus, the only advantage he sees out of partnering with you for this project is the possibility of being able to pester you the way you pester him during practice. Obviously, that’s already thrown off the window. Now, there’s nothing in it for him for the duration of the project. He is left with nothing but the fact that he has to endure your company. To think that he’s already so miserable when this afternoon has barely even started.

“Yeah,” he answers with contained resentment. “Can we go on the bus now?” He asks to deviate away from the topic already. He was hoping he could still use the incident to unnerve you, but it’s for naught now. 

He enters the bus first and assumes you’ll follow him, which you do as you take your seat beside him. You get your shoulder bag and take out a notebook.

“Can you take a look at this outline I made for our report?” you ask while you hand him your notebook opened at a certain page.

“I can’t read while the bus is moving,” he says then waits for a lame comeback from you. But you don’t comment about it. Why must you keep on being such a wildcard?

“Ah, okay. I’ll just tell it to you then,” you smile at him. “This trip is going to take long. It’d be a waste of time to not make use of it, right?”

He groans internally. Why must you be right all the fucking time?

He also made an outline last night, but he didn’t tell you because he thought it’d be better if he just did the data-gathering himself and let you take the pictures the report should have. He forgot that you’re not as irresponsible and carefree as you present yourself to be.

He listens to you explain your outline, looking for flaws in it for the sake of his grade and also for his self-satisfaction. And he does find a few.

“You should have separate discussion points for mating characteristics for male and females. I’m sure they have distinct traits. Also, I think we should include more than just one species, preferably three if the farm has it.” He continues, “Maybe we can note certain unique behaviors per species. It would be inconclusive, but it would still be nice to include it as a commentary.”

He hopes to extract even just a tiny hint of embarrassment from you for he’s thought of it better than you did. But you just stare at him for a good few seconds before you break into a dazzled smile.

“Oh my God. Yeah, you’re absolutely right!”

You open your notebook and scribble the changes in your drafted outline. “Is there anything else?” You consult him genuinely. You accept his criticisms with an open mind, which vexes him even more. 

“Nothing,” he grumbles.

“Alright. Let’s just revise it again once we see what’s on the farm.”

He doesn’t bother replying anymore since you’re once again right.

He puts on his headphones again to drown out whatever chatter you plan to have with him since you’re done discussing the project for now. Instead of bugging him, you take out a bunch of readings and focus on them intently, completely ignoring him. 

With nothing to entertain him aside from the music on his ears, his peripheral keeps going back to you and how hard you’re concentrating with the papers in your one hand and a pen in the other. 

He removes one muff of his headphone from his ear and asks you, “Don’t you get motion sickness?”

You really must be into what you’re studying because you flinch when he speaks, causing you to drop your pen. 

He feels responsible for it so he leans down to pick it up, but you also do the same. As you both reach down to grab your pen, your temple collides with his. 

“Ow,” your fingers go to massage the spot, failing to notice as he does that your faces are too close for comfort. He watches you wince for a quick while before looking at him, finally realizing that he’s within a proximity familiar to you both. 

It’s reminiscent of that night except this time, the natural light affirms that it wasn’t just the ambiance of the club that made you attractive enough to pull him in and share that heinous kiss. With your well-lit features, he can see that you’re thinking about the same thing he is.

Your eyes fall on his lips and for some illogical reason, he does the same.

Like last time, you’re the first to act on it. The major difference is, instead of leaning in, you retreat. You sit up straight with your fingers still on the side of your head and smile graciously at him. “It’s fine, Tsukishima. I’ll get it,” you say, which he finds half-witted because he’s still bent down and he can already grasp the pen.

He sits back up and hands you your pen. You use the hand on your temple to get it.

“Oh, thanks.” You stare at the pen for a second, then tuck it in your pocket. “Anyways, yeah. I don’t have problems reading in a moving vehicle.”

You dive back to his question and disregard what just happened. It works for him. He’d rather not think about it as well. 

“Have you not seen me scrambling paperwork on our bus rides to and from tournaments?”

“No.” He prefers not to pay attention to you. Hell, he pretends you don’t exist when he can. So naturally, he doesn’t know what it is you do when you’re not being your pestering self. It pains him to admit it, but you do get shit done -- efficiently, too. He should be glad because at least, you won’t be like his previous groupmates.

Still, just you being … you, ticks him off.

You laugh out of nowhere. “For someone who doesn’t speak much, you’re so fucking transparent.”

He frowns, not being able to grasp what you meant.

“Okay, look. I like pissing you off. I really do. And you, you don’t like me a lot. But for this project. Can we pretend that I’m not your annoying manager and you’re not the nasty Tsukishima I know?” 

“How the fuck can I do that when we see each other almost everyday as such?”

You roll your eyes and smirk. “Right. What was I even thinking? Go ahead and be emo with your music over there while I study here, yeah?” You pat him on the shoulders twice with that patronizing grin you always give him before pulling your pen back from your pocket and focusing once more on your readings, completely paying no attention to him for the rest of the trip.

—

As soon as you reach the crocodile farm, Tsukishima suggests that you two roam the area separately to cover more ground. In reality, he just wanted to get rid of you even for just a few minutes. He needed a break from you.

He does so by taking his time strolling around the place, observing how the area is situated. It looks like a park with its vast lush green environment and man-made waters to habituate the crocodiles. There are four main areas: the museum, the hatchling house, the zoo, and the breeding pens. He first goes to the museum, looking at the skeletal structure of some crocodiles. It isn’t really significant to the project but he can’t help admire it.

When he realizes that he’s taking longer than he initially thought, he starts looking for you. He sends you a text, but you don’t reply. You had gone to the zoo’s direction so he assumes you’re somewhere around that area. 

When he does find you, you’re not alone.

There you are near a crocodile pen, getting friendly with a guy he’s sure you just met.

It’s so familiar. The only difference is that you’re not wearing the Frogs’ jacket and you’re not in the Sendai gymnasium. He walks towards your direction, not caring if he’s going to cut off your little chat. You’re there for the project, not to snag some random bozo.

As he closes in behind you, he hears your conversation.

“Actually, birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than crocodiles. You couldn’t tell, right?” you explain with zeal. 

Tsukishima stops in his tracks at the foreign feeling in his chest. Wait a minute. Is he actually impressed? Moreover, what the heck is he impressed for? You should know that. You are both in a higher herpetology class. Even though it hasn’t been discussed during lectures, it’s natural that you know that. However, the guy you’re talking with isn't as enthusiastic. 

“Can’t blame you though. Crocs and dinos share the same sexy vibe with those chill eyes and scaly skin. Also, look at those smokin webbed feet. Fucking work of art, dude. You feel me?” you press on fanatically.

The stranger looks at you with a forced smile, obviously weirded out by your ‘passionate’ description of the reptile. “Yeah, sure. I have to go now. Bye,” the guy bows and storms away from you. 

You turn your attention back to the lowered pen in front of you with a satisfied smile and shudder when you see Tsukishima already there beside you. 

“Gah! You scared me. Why didn’t you say anything?” you ask with your hand still on your chest.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you creeping out that stranger.”

You tither at his answer. “Glad you didn’t. It was fun seeing him all freaked out.” 

He finds it weird. He thought you just had an aversion towards athletes. That’s why you keep driving away anyone who’d approach you during matches. Apparently, that’s not the case.

“He looked like he’d follow you back to Miyagi if you didn’t go all freaky nerdy on him.” 

You jeer at his comment. “He could follow me to the ends of the Earth and I still wouldn’t give him my number. I’d rather date Mr. Crocodylus siamensis over here than boring dum dums blinded by how hot I am.” 

“Then why do you entertain them?” he follows up.

“Caaaauuusse it’s fun to see them squirm,” you declare cheerfully as you veer your gaze at him. “Why the sudden interest with the way I handle men, Tsukishima?”

You raise an eyebrow, the corner of your lips tugging up to form a playful smirk. “Don’t tell me you suddenly find me interesting?”

You really do know how to push the right buttons to provoke him. He grits his teeth from your audacity.

“I’m joking for fuck’s sake! My god. I already know that even if it’s just the two of us on this planet, and we’d have to procreate to restart the world population, you’d rather choose to doom humanity than have anything to do with me.”

Among all the correct things that came out of your mouth, that was the only thing he could verbally agree with. “Good you know,” he retorts. 

You don’t seem to take offense though. You still keep your unwavering smile as you get your phone out and take a picture of the Borneo crocodile. 

“Should we go see the breeding pens now?” you ask nonchalantly, dismissing the previous conversation like it was nothing. 

--

You both decide to hire a designated tour guide to assist you while you observe the crocodiles, particularly the ones for breeding. 

“Hi, Ms. l/n. I’m Sara and I will be your guide for today,” she introduced herself with a dedicated smile.

“I’m so thrilled that you and your boyfriend decided to learn more about crocodiles for your date,” she adds. 

You and Tsukishima glance at each other before turning back to her. 

“She’s not my girlfriend.” “He’s not my boyfriend.”

You both say simultaneously, except yours sounded like a friendly correction while his sounded like a dead announcement. 

“We’re just classmates for a project,” you correct her.

She bows apologetically with embarrassment and worry. “I’m so sorry for assuming that.”

“No worries, Sara,” you reassure her before Tsukishima says something unnecessary. “Can you lead us on the breeding pens? We’d like to observe the whole thing.” 

“Of course. Right this way.”

Aside from the mishap earlier, you find Sara competent at her job as she fills you in with details not included in the sign boards in the pens. She gives you information about the mating process that you didn’t find when you researched about the subject. You assume Tsukishima’s thinking the same because he doesn’t say anything out of the blue.

“By any chance, will we see a pair mating today?” he asks after a while.

“I’m not really sure, Mr. Tsukishima. It’s really up to the animals.”

You tug on Tsukishima’s sleeve when you catch sight of one crocodile latching himself on top of another.

“What?” he asks irritatedly, but follows your line of sight. 

“Oh, lucky. There you go.” Sara announces with a pleasant smile.

You get your phone and your notes. You multitask listening to Sara, taking photos, and scribbling notes on your paper pad. 

On the other hand, Tsukishima multitasks observing the crocodiles in action and observing you. 

You’re asking important questions to the guide while juggling other tasks. Yes, he doesn’t like you and loathes being partnered with you. However, that doesn't mean he won’t cooperate with you. He won’t mind if you ask him for help, but you seem to have even forgotten that he’s there. 

He grabs your phone from your hand, garnering a confused look from you.

“I’ll take the photos. You take down notes.”

You flash him an honest, grateful smile. “Thanks, Tsukishima.”

Then, you proceed with the things you’re doing more at ease. 

He can’t tell who he’s more pissed at, you or himself. Something about that display of productivity and wit unnerves him. It’s as if it’s telling him that his chagrin over you is unreasonable because you’re actually reliable when it counts. What’s worse is you’re completely oblivious to it. In fact, you’re almost ignoring him.

Goddamn it. What’s he doing? He’s completely distracted now from the project and is solely focused on you. He quickly shakes it off and calms himself down. His attention should be on the reptiles, not you.

He turns his attention back to the crocodiles, but the mating act only lasted a few minutes. After that, you both barrage Sara with an array of questions that she looked too overwhelmed by the end of your tour. 

You’ve covered almost everything for the day and it’s already around 6 in the evening when you get on a bus on the way back to Miyagi.

“That was fun!” you comment ardently with an abnormal shine on your face when you sit down on the bus on the way back. He wears his headphones on before you start a conversation he’s not willing to have. From his peripheral, he sees you turning to him and as he predicted, your mouth begins moving while you animatedly narrate words he could not hear. 

He’s already acting as if he can’t hear nor see you, but you still don’t stop. Knowing you, you will not stop until you make sure he notices you. He wearily removes his headphones only to see you not saying anything and only mouthing words with hand gestures. 

“Seriously?” He scowls at you. He’s already exhausted at having to deal with you even for just half a day, but you still have the energy to mess with him. 

You cover your mouth with your hand as you snicker but it erupts into a hoot of laughter shortly. You gasp ridiculously after you ride out your stupid amusement from poking at his patience. “Tsukki, I swear to God. You make the best faces,” you say while wiping away your joyous tears.

“Were you even going to say something worth listening to?” he questions sourly.

You study him then shake your head. “I think you’re tired, so let’s just discuss what we gathered next time. You can go ignore me now,” you tell him with an understanding smile despite the slight banter.

You tilt your body in his direction and hoist yourself up a bit to put his headphones back yourself like it’s no big deal.

You settle back into your seat while he stills on his seat, stunned with what you just did while you get your readings again and shrink to your own bubble. You don’t seem to make anything of it, so he doesn’t as well. It was very you to mindlessly get on anyone’s —  particularly his — personal space anyways.

He increases the volume of his headphones and tries to relax. Yet, his attention keeps swerving back at you every now and then. You’re really concentrating hard with your brows burrowed while you stare at your hand-outs. After a while, he notices you bobbing your head from the corners of his eyes.

He can tell you’re as tired as he is and trying hard to fight the sleep that’s taking over you. The bunch of papers you previously held are now clutched on your lap.

On the last bob of your head, you snap out of it. You blink repeatedly and return your eyes to your readings again. To no avail, you’re shutting down with your eyes fluttering when you try again. You look like you decided to give it a rest and put your papers back in your bag. You cross your arms and lean back to your seat. 

He feels relieved that you finally yield to your physical exhaustion. He doesn’t need an additional bullet point to his list of why he can’t fully hate you. Also, you won’t run your mouth at him if you’re asleep.

He feels the soft thump of your head on his shoulder. You probably did too as you suddenly bolt up and tell him ‘sorry' which he only understands based on how you mouthed the word. You lean back again and try to settle back to sleep. But when you start dozing off, you sway to the other side of your seat which is the aisle of the bus.

He grabs your shoulder to prevent you from tumbling down to the aisle. Your disoriented self looks around, alarmed at his sudden touch.

“Just fucking lean on me,” he spits out, irked that he has to say it out loud. It’s not like he pushed you away. You could’ve just stayed as you were and he would’ve turned a blind eye at it out of recognition of the effort you put in today. He’d just consider it one of those times that you do something annoying and he just ignores you as a response.

You regard him with dazed eyes. You open your mouth as if you’re about to say something but decide against it as you shut your eyes again and you let your head rest on his shoulder. But even then, your head still falls forward from time to time. He puts a hand on your forehead to settle you back on his shoulder and slides a bit downward on his seat to accommodate you. 

Jesus Christ, you can study in a moving vehicle but can’t even do a simple thing like sleep properly on it. Why does he even have to adjust for you?

He heaves furiously in contrast to your steady breathing, letting him know that you’re easing deeper to your sleep. 

He distracts himself by looking at the window, witnessing the unmoving dark sky and the changing scenery below. He lets out a sigh.

Maybe he should’ve just accepted the ten point deduction.

Part 1 || Part 3 || masterlist

taglist (those crossed out can’t be tagged - pls check your settings?)

@ameliaxo @suikrem​​ @akaashisslave @tsumurai​​  @celestialarchiveshq​ @loving-unicorns106​ @flairlust @geektastic84 @anaiss97 @berna-dette​ @just4readingfics​ @suteorra​ @xxekitten69xx​ @simp4tsukkii @music-is-all-i-need @keshinslittlegirl @raspberrysunshinebby @iminlovewhaikyuu @pdiddy11 @lightyagamami @sailorscout1902 @lovershaikyuu

[jamiemackenziefraser]

All That Was Fair

Chapter 24: The Rubber Stamp

Summary: “It seemed that every time someone was at the door, Jamie was confronted with a disaster. (...) He had no desire to answer it and whatever trouble it might bring.”

Read on AO3

Read chp 24 on tumblr below the cut

Previous, masterlist, next

a/n: I'm hardcore procrastinating right now, so here's a next day update! This chapter picks up on the same day as the last chapter. Hope you enjoy and thanks so much for reading <3

Chapter 24: The Rubber Stamp

There was a solid knock at the door, three raps showing no particular urgency but also leaving no room for Jamie to pretend he hadn’t heard. It seemed that every time someone was at the door, Jamie was confronted with a disaster. First it had been the mailman that had resulted in Claire crying in his arms over never being able to go home, and then it was Jenny… being Jenny— twice. He worried at first that it was his sister back again to stir up even more trouble, except the knock was most certainly not his sister’s style of ringing the bell like a maniac. Still, he had no desire to answer it and whatever trouble it might bring. He wanted to stay wrapped up in his fantasy with his faerie forever. 

At the sound outside the door, Claire jerked her head up from where it had been laid on his shoulder. They were having a lazy Sunday afternoon, sitting on the couch in quiet companionship after having finished up their chapter of Lord of the Rings. Claire had been just slightly dozing at his side when the sound disturbed their peace. 

“Dinna fash,” he said quietly as she shifted a bit so he could stand, “stay here.”

As he made his way to the entryway, he could sense his stubborn faerie getting up and following behind him. He stopped in front of the big oak door and Claire pressed herself behind him. He shot a glance over his shoulder to see her peeking curiously around his side. 

“Sassenach,” he said patiently, “why dinna ye go wait in the other room?” 

She shook her head stubbornly.  

Jamie rolled her eyes and decided not to argue with her. (He was beginning to miss the early days of easy compliance— not that he wanted her to be as timid as she used to be, he just should have enjoyed telling her what to do while he’d had the chance). She seemed content enough to mostly hide herself behind him, so maybe she wouldn’t be visible to whoever was at the door. 

He unlocked it and pulled it open a crack. 

Outside stood none other than his Godfather, Murtagh Fitzgibbons, looking particularly dour under his bushy beard. As soon as the man caught sight of Jamie, he grumbled, “took ye long enough.”

“Murtagh!” Jamie exclaimed, feeling the rush of fondness he always did at the sight of his godfather, “what are you doin’ here?” 

The only thing lacking from the expression on Murtagh’s face was an eye-roll. “Care tae explain why yer sister is bletherin’ on in my ear every day and night for the past week about how her brother has taken up wi’ a trollop and gone off the deep end? Mind,” he shot a look to the side of Jamie that made his eyes go wide, and Jamie felt a sinking feeling in his gut that his godfather had caught sight of Claire peeking around him, “I wouldna have been inclined tae believe her if not for the fact that I havna heard from ye. And now I see… ye do have... company.” 

Murtagh gave a nod at Jamie’s side, where he knew Claire must have been showing herself. 

Jamie let out a sigh and gave into the urge to check behind him. Claire had drifted forward and was hovering at his side, looking out the cracked door with huge doe eyes. 

“This is Murtagh, your…?” she spoke up, addressing Jamie. 

“Aye, my Godfather,” Jamie said, reluctantly accepting the unplanned meeting, “well I suppose introductions are in order. Murtagh, this is Claire.” 

“Hello, lass,” Murtagh said, politely enough. He held out his hand, saying “so you’re…” 

“The trollop,” she answered, completely innocently. 

Jamie had to bite down a laugh. The lass didna even ken the meaning of that word…

Murtagh’s eyes went wide, and he looked rightfully embarrassed. “I didna mean… I—” 

Claire still hadn’t taken his hand (yet another human custom she didn’t know— Jamie had to remind himself to teach her that one), and Murtagh glanced down at his proffered appendage, then back up at Claire. Assuming she was too offended by his earlier statement to shake his hand, he dropped it back to his side. 

Jamie decided to try to ease the situation and offered, “why dinna ye come inside?” 

Murtagh made a sound of assent deep in his throat and stepped inside the door. Just as Claire started to turn toward the living room, Jamie suddenly remembered that she was wearing the low cut dress— the one that so prettily displayed her wings. He threw himself behind her just in time to use his bulk to prevent Murtagh from seeing her exposed wings. With urgency, he grabbed Claire’s arms in front of him and pulled her against him so her back was pressed to his front, safely hiding the wings from view. 

He herded her toward the living room, pushing her so fast that she nearly stumbled. But they needed to get there before Murtagh so he’d have time to rip off his jacket and give it to her. 

Sure enough, Murtagh was ambling lazily enough, so the second they were in the living room, Jamie whirled her around so her front was facing the entryway and then let go of her to tear off his jacket. He swung it around her shoulders just in the nick of time before Murtagh arrived. 

Trying to disguise what he’d been doing, Jamie pulled Claire close and draped an arm around her, feigning nonchalance as best as he could. Meanwhile, Claire was clutching Jamie’s jacket closed in front of her, holding on with a white-knuckled grip. 

“Murtagh,” he said, trying to get his brain to catch back up to the situation, “I’m glad ye’re here, truly. Now ye can officially meet my girlfriend.” 

To Murtagh’s credit, his eyes only went wide in shocked disbelief for a second before he managed a polite, “nice tae meet ye, lass” for Jamie’s now-claimed girlfriend. 

“Why dinna ye have a seat?” Jamie suggested, gesturing toward a chair. 

In the meantime, Jamie brought Claire with him over toward the couch. On the way, Claire reached up on her toes to whisper softly in his ear, “is it okay to hold your hand?” 

He looked down at him, confused for a second to see her anxious expression, before he remembered their conversation about PDA and how it’d been inappropriate in front of Jenny. Jamie nearly had to laugh at her earnestness to do right by his customs. 

“Yes, lass,” he whispered discreetly as they sat down together, “as long as ye dinna sit on my lap this time.” 

Claire seemed greatly relieved by this, and as soon as they were seated, she reached out to lace their fingers together. She held on more tightly than normal, and Jamie gave her a squeeze, trying to reassure her that Murtagh was not, in fact, like Jenny, and she didn’t have to worry. 

Jamie was rather worried himself though. Murtagh had been like a father to him ever since his own had passed a few years back; his opinion about Claire (who he hoped he’d spend the rest of his life with, God willing) meant a lot to him. He could only hope that Jenny’s sour words hadn’t already cemented Murtagh’s opinion. 

Naturally, Murtagh began with questions that Jamie had a hard time answering. 

“So, when did ye two…” he fumbled. It was unlike Murtagh to waver so indirectly, but it was clear what he was asking. 

The next few minutes were spent feeding him the fake backstory Jamie had concocted. As he’d explained to Jenny, Jamie said that he’d met Claire at university in Paris and they’d kept in touch. When she’d come to visit, they’d reconnected. Claire extended her trip, and they both realized they’d been in love all this time. 

Murtagh seemed to take it mostly in stride, nodding politely but keeping his expression neutral. Jamie had no idea what was going on underneath that impenetrable beard of his, and it worried him to no end. 

“So, lass,” Murtagh said, sounding conversational, “let’s hear from you. How do ye feel about our Jamie, then?” 

Jamie’s head whipped to her, and found she was smiling nearly ear to ear. “I love him,” she answered without hesitation, “I think he’s the most amazing man I’ve ever met.” Her voice was fond and sincere, and she looked up at Jamie with a smile, as if she couldn’t keep her eyes off him. “I think he’s kind, and giving, and thoughtful, and intelligent. And so much more than that. And I think I’m so lucky to be here with him.”

His heart clenched nearly painfully in his chest, and it took all his self control to keep from kissing her, or from breaking into tears. God, he loved her. 

Forgetting Murtagh for a second, he grew lost in her warm gaze, that honey look like a caress on his skin. 

“I think I’m the lucky one,” he said softly.

Murtagh cleared his throat pointedly, breaking the moment, but when Jamie looked away from Claire and back toward his godfather, there was none of the animosity in his eyes that there’d been in Jenny’s. His grump of a surrogate father just held his usual “why are you subjecting me to the nonsense” kind of expression. 

Just as Jamie was about to open his mouth, floundering for something to say, Adso came prancing into the room, looking distinguished and ready to grab the attention. He was quite successful, too, because the non-existent conversation ground to a halt. 

“Adso!” Claire cooed, as she always did when the cat approached. 

The cheetie meowed back at her in greeting, and Claire’s face softened ever-further. She always got this sweet expression on her face around Adso, like the look of a loving caretaker. Jamie couldn’t help but wonder whether she’d wear the same expression with their kids… if they could even have kids… 

His gut clenched for a second in uncertainty, thinking about the very real possibility that they couldn’t actually procreate. Jamie knew they would have to talk about it someday, but he was terrified of hearing that his dream of having children was an impossible one. He could manage without a big family— all he really needed was her— but he’d prefer to live in hopeful ignorance for a short while longer, imaging bairns running around with her whiskey eyes and his red hair.  

When Jamie managed to drag himself back to reality, he saw that Claire had repositioned herself to sit on the floor, and Adso was already settled in her lap, purring away. 

His faerie looked up at Murtagh. “Do you like cheeties, Murtagh?” she asked, looking the picture of innocent enthusiasm. 

Murtagh— the hard man that he was and usually so unshakeable— looked taken aback at the question. 

“I canna say I have a strong opinion on the matter,” Murtagh answered. 

“Oh, well I love them. I’d never met a cheetie before Adso, but I’m sure he must be the nicest there is,” Claire said simply. Jamie had to clench his jaw, finding her incredibly endearing but infuriating at the same time. She was drifting carelessly into dangerous territory….

“Never ‘met’ a cheetie, meanin' ye’d never had one or…” Murtagh was looking dubious, and Jamie’s heart beat faster, his muscles coiling as if he could face the threat of Murtagh’s suspicions physically. 

“No,” Claire said, and Jamie had to hide a grimace, knowing exactly where she was going. She was always so honest, his faerie. “I mean I’d never seen one.” 

Murtagh’s brows drew together as he squinted down at her. “Where did ye say ye were from again?” He asked, not unreasonably. 

“A verrra small rural town near Oxfordshire,” Jamie jumped in hastily, for fear that Claire would forget herself. She seemed to be going off the rails, there was no telling what she would say, even knowing as she did that she shouldn’t say anything to give her secret away. 

Claire, still sitting cross legged and stroking the cat, gave a nod of affirmation. 

Murtagh’s only response was a grunt, followed by silence. Ever a man of few words, he didn’t seem inclined to further the conversation himself. 

Unfortunately, that meant that Claire, in her eagerness to get to know him, was jumping confidently back into the conversation. “So, Murtagh,” she said, “what do you do?” 

Alright, good. That’s a relatively normal question. Good, lass. 

“Construction hereabouts,” Murtagh replied, seeming less than interested in the small talk. 

Claire’s eyes widened, and she put on an excited face that Jamie thought was very genuine. 

“Building? That’s lovely! What do you build?” 

While Claire likely meant the question quite literally, having no idea what the job of construction entailed, Murtagh thankfully took it at face value. 

“Mostly residential. Many of the houses ye see hereabouts are our work,” Murtagh said, a hint of pride showing from beneath his busy beard. 

“Ohh…” Claire said, probably sounding a little too awed for the occasion, but it was sweet nonetheless, “so you build places like this? How—”

Jamie, sensing that she was about to question how one goes about building a house, tried to avert disaster by quickly cutting in before she could finish her strange question. “Claire, mo ghraidh, would you mind grabbing me a glass of water?” 

Claire shot a sweet, indulgent look at him from over her shoulder and gave a nod. “Of course, Jamie.” She unceremoniously dumped the cat from her lap as she stood, and she gave a polite nod to Murtagh, saying, “sorry for leaving the conversation, I’ll be right back.” 

As she left the room for the safety of the kitchen, Jamie felt his heart rate drop back to normal rhythms. 

Just as quickly though, it was ratcheted back up when Murtagh gave him a long look and commented, “She’s a wee bit… strange, isn’t she?” 

Trying not to break out into nervous sweats, Jamie reminded himself that there were strange humans too, and nothing Claire had said had been that bad. 

“Aye, a bit. But I love her for it,” he said honestly, throwing a look into the kitchen where Claire was currently studying the sink closely as she tried to recall how to turn it on. Jamie sent her good luck and tried not to smile to himself. They’d worked the sink together before, but she never really had a reason to use it on her own. Jamie was often around to turn it on for her after she’d been gardening and needed to clean up. He made a mental note to stop enabling her lack of human skills. 

Murtagh was staring at him in the meanwhile, looking lost in thought and careful evaluation. Meeting those dark eyes, Jamie found himself feeling nervous over what was going on in the impenetrable head of his godfather. 

“Ye’re sure about her?” came the question. 

All Jamie managed to get out was an “aye,” before Claire was returning to the room, looking triumphant with a full glass of water in her hand. 

The next few minutes were spent catching Murtagh up on the happenings at Jamie’s publishing company, which thankfully did not involve a grilling on why Jamie had been taking so much time off. Claire was quiet during the conversation, but feigned engagement well, looking invested in Jamie’s words in a way that made his stomach warm. The sweet lass truly knew nothing about his work, but apparently loving him was enough to make her love hearing about his passions. 

Then, at a break in the conversation, Murtagh stood up, wiping his hands on his pants. 

“I’m sorry to cut the visit short,” he said abruptly, “but I hafta be somewhere, I canna stay much longer. I jes’ wanted tae drop by and check on ye, lad.” 

Taking Claire’s hand, Jamie stood as well, bringing her with him. Murtagh’s eyes fixed on Claire. 

“Can I have a moment tae speak wi’ Jamie alone before I go?” he asked her once they were all standing. 

“Of course,” she said graciously, “it was so nice to meet you, Murtagh.” 

She shot a quick glance at Jamie over her shoulder and, at his nod, gave one last smile to Murtagh— who gave a soft “you too, lass”— before leaving the room. Alone with Murtagh, Jamie’s heart began to race, wondering if he was about to face the “are ye daft?” intervention talk. 

Murtagh approached him, clapping a hand on his shoulder and walking him toward the door. When they reached the entryway, both of them stopped, and his godfather looked at him for a long second. 

Jamie braced himself, trying to be strong for the moment Murtagh expressed disapproval. He could handle it. The world could hang, all he needed was Claire— he tried to tell himself despite the rising anxiety in his chest. 

Murtagh’s stare didn’t break, his usual dour expression holding fast on his face. His bushy brows were low over his unreadable eyes, but there seemed to be a clenching in his jaw that was unusual for the hard man. 

“What do ye think of her?” Jamie finally burst out, trying to bite the bullet he knew was coming. 

Murtagh gave a sigh, his shoulders sagging slightly. “Ye love her?” he asked simply. 

Jamie nodded immediately and answered without hesitation. “I do.” 

His godfather looked away, his eyes lifting toward the heavens. 

This was it, the moment when Jamie would receive a famous Murtagh tongue lashing for his idiocy…

“Your mother…” Murtagh started, very slowly. 

‘Would have disapproved’… please don’t say those heartbreaking words…

“Had the sweetest smile,” Murtagh said instead. He looked back up at Jamie, his eyes softer than he’d seen in years, “Would warm a man to the backbone jes’ to see it...” He gave himself a nod, as if reminding himself of the conviction of his next words, “Claire’s smile is jes’ as sweet.” 

Jamie’s world suddenly fell entirely into place as Murtagh finally met his eyes, his godfather’s lips turning up into as much of a smile as the man ever gave. 

Approval. Unspoken between them, but clear and plain as day. Murtagh gave another nod, now trying to smother the uncharacteristic smile on his face. Jamie’s excitement must have been showing plain. 

“I can see it when ye look at each other, ken,” Murtagh said, clearing his throat a little, “ye love her, and she loves you.” 

“Aye,” Jamie choked out, trying desperately not to fall to pieces in front of his godfather. 

“I’m happy for ye, lad,” Murtagh finished. He placed a slap on Jamie’s shoulder. 

Jamie gave a nod of acknowledgement, pouring all his gratitude into it, and he smiled so emotionally that his lips turned downward. Together, they walked toward the front door, and Jamie opened it for him. 

“It was good to see ye, a ghoistidh,” Jamie said quietly. 

“And ye, lad,” Murtagh answered. 

Another moment passed between them, short but just as meaningful, and as soon as it had happened, Murtagh turned on his heel and walked out, with no more of a goodbye needed. 

Closing the door behind him, Jamie was nearly bursting with joy. Quick as he could, he rushed through the room until he found Claire lingering in the kitchen. 

“Sassenach,” he said, trying to keep his voice from trembling. 

She turned toward him and had just enough time to raise her arms before he was embracing her, nearly overcome by emotion. He was so happy he was nearly shaking, and he hugged her tightly to him, squeezing her close. 

“He likes you,” Jamie said, his voice nearly breaking as he spoke into her hair, “He approves of us.” He took another shaky breath before repeating, “He approves.” 

***

a/n: I’m really curious if anyone reads on tumblr rather than AO3, so if you made it down here, would you drop me a comment? For research purposes? Thanks so much for reading, loves, however you choose to do it :) 

Next

[husbandograveyard]

Wootwoot! We made it you guys! May 4th is my one-year anniversary on Tumblr. With some ups and downs and over 300 requests written, I'm gonna go ahead and say it was a successful year!

Monday until next Sunday I will do another Mini HC event, like we did for valentine! Open for all my fandoms, with mystery prompts to choose from.

Until then, I wanted to do a sleepover event. Unlimited asks and interactions for the weekend cause I feel like I haven't talked to a lot of you in a long while!

You can send me any classic sleepover question

Kiss, marry, kill

Would you rather

Top 3/5/10...

Questions about me

Questions about my anime, writings...

Theories (keep em spoiler free though!)

For this event, I will engage in a little bit of selfship talk if anyone were to be interested. Ask me about my F/o's and tell me about yours! Dynamics, habits... anything!

Questions about OCs

If you need some inspiration, I have included a couple of lists below the cut with questions id be 100% okay with.

Also, if you just want to chat, tell me about your week, a funny thing that happened to you, or a fun fact (i love fun facts especially if it's creepy or an animal fact)... A N Y T H I N G is welcome! There is no limit to your asks, spam me if you want! ♡

Look forward to talking to you guys!

Ps, I'll tag these #1yearSleepover if you want to block something against spam

Questions for OCs - Specify which one! Taken from here

1. How many different places have they lived?

2. What is their dream vacation?

3. What is their favorite color?

4. What is their favorite book?

5. Have they ever cheated on anyone before?

6. Have they ever been cheated on?

7. How many partners have they had?

8. What is their favorite food?

9. Are they a liar? Are they good at lying?

10. Introvert or Extrovert?

11. Have they ever been arrested and why?

12. Who would they sacrifice their life for?

13. What are their spending habits?

14. Do they like hot or cold temperatures better?

15. Are they religious?

16. If they could describe themself in one sentence, what would they say?

17. Do they have any overused catchphrases?

18. What makes them laugh?

19. Have they ever lost anyone close to them? How did it affect them?

20. Do they have a fast reaction time, or slow?

21. How do they react to praise?

22. How do they react to criticism?

23. Are they indoorsy or outdoorsy?

24. What are their biggest pet peeves?

25. Do they have any type of handicaps? How do they manage them?

Other ask game - taken from here

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

4: how do you take your coffee/tea?

5: are you self-conscious of your smile?

6: do you keep plants?

7: do you name your plants?

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

12: what’s your favorite planet?

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish?

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?

20: what’s your favorite eye color?

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.

22: are you a morning person?

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?

28: sunrise or sunset?

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

33: what’s your fave pastry?

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

39: what color do you wear the most?

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?

59: what’s your favorite myth?

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

64: what color is the sky where you are right now?

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

68: what’s winter like where you live?

69: what are your favorite board games?

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?

73: what are some of your worst habits?

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

75: tell us about your pets!

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

82: are/were you good in school?

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

89: are you close to your parents?

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

[shrike-nest]

D&D Character Ask Post

In Honor of D&D, Here are 100 Questions answered about my character Alistair. Done from a prompt reposted by @mechmech and @scatterpatter , and also gonna tag my DM @aerial-ace97

What Does He Smell like: Ozone, Sandalwood, Pine

Voice: A light baritone, sometimes slipping into a bit of a lit from his native island (similar to a Scottish brogue/Irish lit)

Motivator: Before he met his group? Power and Adrenaline. Now? Redemption.

Most embarrassing memory: (TW: Animal Death) He doesn’t really remember this as he was terribly drunk at the time, but he and his crew stopped in a city that held goats as a sacred animal. With a terribly “bright” idea, he wondered how far a goat could fly? Because goats fly. Throws the goat off of the third floor of a building. Then proceeds to have a not very respectful Coffin Dance-style funeral for said goat.

How does he react to pain: Lots of swearing and anger.

What does he wear: He wears dragon scale armor that has three deep gouges in it from where he was previously killed. A faded and slightly ragged admiral style coat on top, leather breeches, and give this man some high calf pirate boots. He also always wears a green headband to keep his hair back, and occasionally an eyepatch to hide his demonic eye.

Most positive relationship: In terms of character development, it might be Torvid, as Torvid inspires Alistair to be a better moral person. In terms of wholesomeness? His partner/hopefully soon fiancé, Atwater. Atwater was able to show Alistair that he can have positive love in his life, without having to fight so hard for it.

The weirdest thing he has ever eaten: Corren’s cooking

Sleep: He suffers from nightmares and now more recently night terrors. Because he technically doesn’t need to sleep from effects of his class, he often chooses not to. However, when he does sleep, he sleeps hard, snores lightly, and octopus cuddles anything in his bed.

Favorite food/ kinda food: He actually really loves a dish similar to pao de queijo (Brazillian Cheese Bread).

Most insecure about: His ability of being a leader.

Like to wear: He enjoys fairly tight fitting clothing to prevent too much flapping when he flies or moves around quickly.

How do they react to feelings of guilt: Denial and self doubt

React to betrayal: A very quick and violent anger that chills to a long lasting and cold hatred. He doesn’t forgive easily.

Greatest achievement: After being mutinied against by his former crew, being wanted and supported as a leader for his current adventuring party

Too little sleep: Pretty robotic, but he doesn’t get exhausted anymore or feel any physical effects of not getting sleep due to his class.

What are they like drunk: He’s a very cheerful and boisterous drunk. Makes and laughs at many jokes. Can fall into a melancholy pretty easily though if he thinks on certain thoughts too long. Deflects with humor!

Music likes: 80s hair band music, and 70s-80s rock.

Right or left-handed: Right handed

Fears: He’s claustrophobic, but also has a fear of being vulnerable and getting his heart broken again.

Favorite weather: Sunny Day with a slight chill.

Favorite color: He really likes blue.

Collect anything: Well technically he used to collect gold and other high priced artifacts. He doesn’t really collect anything anymore.

Hot or cold weather: This man controls the weather. He enjoys his thermostat of life to be at a nice 70 degrees F.

Eye color: His natural eye color is an emerald green. His left eye is a demon cat eye, with a gold iris and black sclera.

Race/ ethnicity: He’s a human in the world of Sekrezia, but in IRL, he’s probably northern UK.

Hair color: Ginger/Auburn, with some sun-bleached streaks in it.

Happy where they are currently: … Well his adopted sister and brother just died in the last game so nah. BUT- as kind of a whole, he’s happy to be where he is now as a person compared to how he used to be.

Morning person: Yup. He tends to wake with the sun if he sleeps, and once he’s awake- he’s awake.

Sunrise or sunset: He loves the sunset. It calms and amazes him that he survived another day.

Messy or organized: He’s messy. Kind of an ADHD procrastination kind of messy.

Pet peeves: Disloyalty, undeserved ego trips, other weather veins that mess with his control of the weather,

Objects of significant importance: O’Malley, his halberd. He earned his weapon when he became a captain, and it has saved his life numerous times after.

Least favorite food: After being stuck in a cave for over a year? Anything with mushrooms.

Least favorite color: He’s not a fan of dark reds or browns. Reminds him too much of dried blood. (oooh edgelord)

Least favorite smell: Cauterized Flesh, Rotting Fish

The last time they cried: Last game. But before that? When he found out that Torvid killed his father. Before before that? When Atwater died. Before before before that? When he woke up alone in the desert after the mutiny.

Were they with anyone when they cried: His party. His party and both sides of the war that was going on. And no one.

One time they got injured: He actually died in a fight with a dragon, not with the dragon, but with a bat crony of the dragon.

Scars: He’s got a scar in the shape of a jagged p on his right cheek, a claw scar from when his eye was gouged out, and he also has the marks from the bat crony when he died. Alistair also has lightning scars on his arms that led to minor nerve damage that occurred when he first was learning how to use his magic.

Mental health issues: ADHD, Depression, Anxiety

Bad habits: Lashing out when he doesn’t know how to process his emotions

Why might someone dislike him: … Lemme get the list. So if we ignore the fact that he used to be a feared sky pirate, earning the nickname “Orphaner of the Skies”… he can be a flippant asshole sometimes. He can often forget to stay in touch and update people on important topics. Also, some may dislike him because he insists on being their dad (*cough* CORREN *cough*)

Why might someone love him: Alistair is very loyal to those he trusts and he can often fall into caretaker type tendencies.

Believe in ghosts: Yeah. He’s seen them and fought them. Also dated one.

Anyone they would trust with their life: Mecha, Corren, Tristan, Atwater, Jerry, Mephistopheles, and Torvid.

Romantically interested in anyone: Atwater!

Dating/ Married: He is currently dating Atwater

Like surprises: Not really

Birthday: His weave day is in Summer, Sibelya 13th.

Celebrate their birthday: He used to. Doesn’t really anymore, mostly because he hasn’t had much reason to celebrate or the time.

Family: His parents are dead, but he still has his adopted aunt Imelda. He also views Tristan as his brother, Corren as his little brother, Mecha as his sister. Atwater is his romantic partner, and he is now the step father of Atwater’s child, Crestwell. He also is the adopted father of Liam (deceased) and Liam’s twin sister, Serana.

Close to their family: Yes

MBTI type: ENTP

Zodiac signs: His Sekrezian Sign is Xamatang, The Coming Storm

Hogwarts house: Gryffindor

Alignment; Chaotic Neutral but he’s steadily making his way towards Chaotic Good

Nightmares: Yes. Often about his ex, Ghost. He also has nightmares about losing those he considers family.

View on death: If it happens, it happens. Once someone is at peace, leave them be.

Something they always laugh at: Seeing his group smile and joke around.

When bored, what do they do: Fly, tinker with magic, practice magic, research magic.

Enjoy the outside: Very much so.

Accent: I can’t replicate it, but I imagine it’s somewhere between a Scottish and Irish accent. However it has faded as he hasn’t been home in a very long time.

Upon seeing a slice of chocolate cake, the first reaction: *Poke it*, *Look at it*, *Look around*… *Shrug*, My cake now.

If they knew they were going to die what would they do/ say: He would find his party, if he can- gives them hugs, and hopefully be able to die watching the sunset. “Find what makes you happy and hold on to it. You all deserve to have happiness in your lives.”

Feelings about sex: He likes it. He also has a pretty damn high libido.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Squeamish around blood: Somewhat. It makes him uncomfortable now because he’s scared that he likes the sight of it still.

Anything they find gross: Rotting bodies and decaying bodies.

TV trope: Father Figure, Tragic Backstory, Anti-Hero

Enjoy helping people: Yes, he finds it comforting, like a form of redemption.

Allergies: Minor shellfish allergy

Pet: Does Meph count as a pet? I mean, he usually hangs around Alistair as a cat.

Quick to anger: Depends on the situation, but yes.

How patient is he: Not very. He gets very jittery and anxious easily. He’s getting slightly better at that.

Good at cooking: Somewhat, he tends to overdo it on the spice.

Favorite insult:” It’s cute when you try.”

How do they act when happy: The biggest doofiest smile, and he can’t help but laugh occasionally.

What do they do when they learn about others’ fears: He keeps it secret, but tends to go out of his way to help them through it, or help them avoid their fears.

Trustworthy: If you earn his trust, yes. A million times in return.

Do they try to hide their emotions: If it benefits him? Yes. And he’s damn good at it. But if he feels it’s not necessary to do so, his heart is on his sleeve.

Exercise regularly: Yes. His constitution is ridiculous and so he often finds ways to keep up and improve his stamina and strength even further.

Comfortable with the way they look: Yeah. He can get a lil cocky about it. But this is a man who uses bar soap on his hair.

Features they find attractive on others: Eyes and hands.

Personalities they find attractive: He likes those that can keep up with him intellectually, but also on a wittier level as well. He really views self-confidence as attractive.

Do they like sweet foods: Yes.

Age: He just turned 42.

Tall or short: He’s 6’0”

Glasses or contacts: Nah

Consider herself attractive: Yup

Sense of humor: Sexual humor, dad jokes ftw, but can also throw in some dark and self-deprecating humor nowadays.

What mood are they in most often: Most recently, a sort of determined melancholia. But he used to be very self-assured, confident, and flippant.

What angers them: Child abuse, betrayal, hurting those he cares about.

Outlook on life: “Just keep going. Roll with the punches. Because that sun is going to rise again, and you’re going to get to try again, try something new, find something new.”

What makes them sad or depressed: Thinking of those he has lost, thinking of Ghost, falling into his own insecurities.

Greatest weakness: He often jumps into situations without thinking them through. He tends to be very “leap before he looks”

Greatest strength: His determination and resiliency

Something they regret: Losing contact with his crew and Imelda, not being a better leader in his eyes, his past of piracy, and in some ways- all his deals with Mephistopheles, even the one that granted him his magic.

Biggest accomplishment: Isn’t this the same as greatest achievement?

Favorite memory: Sitting by the campfire with his group and all of them laughing, joking, and smiling with each other. With the good ol occasional ribbing at Corren’s expense.