#i need to come up with a name for this project ASAP just for tagging purposes | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

maneskin-dimensione · 4 years ago

Text

La tristezza non dura per sempre.

Summary: You're having a 'blue' day and Damiano's determined to help.

Word count: 4414.

Warnings: Google translate errors, me projecting (again), swearing, I guess? If there are any warnings or things you think need to be tagged then please let me know and I will edit it asap!

Author's note: I've been feeling a bit 'blue' myself lately so this was quite helpful to write.

Please enjoy: likes, comments and reblogs fuel me so please let me know if you liked it and if you’d like to be tagged in anything else I write! Also a massive shout out and big major thank you to @mywritingonlyfans who read this before anyone else and gave me such encouraging feedback, thank you!

Tag List: @mywritingonlyfans @selenophiliaxx @daddydamiano @cries-in-maneskin @superchrystaldrug @bidet-and-legolas @illicitfuck @pinklyrium @teenyweenynightghost

"Sometimes sadness is appropriate. Not something to run from, not something to numb...just Something to feel." ~ Marianne Williamson.

You didn't understand where it had come from.

Yesterday, you had felt fine, happy, content even. You and your roommate had ended up having a quiet night in together with your boyfriends, Damiano getting to know and spend time with the other people in your life was important to him and, luckily, they'd all got on like a house on fire, with your boyfriend agreeing to join your roommate's boyfriend in a game of basketball when they both had a free moment.

Afterwards, Damiano had said goodbye to your roommate and her boyfriend and brought you in for a kiss, promising to pick you up bright and early the next morning. You'd been so excited then and had gone to bed with butterflies in your stomach, looking forward to what the next day would bring.

But when you woke up...it was like you'd never felt that excitement, like it had never existed in the first place.

Instead, you were just so tired. You'd taken your first big breath of the day and the effort it had taken you to do that, alone, made you feel tired to the bone and all you'd wanted from that moment onwards was to just roll over and sleep the rest of the haze away.

The only emotion you could pick out with any certainty right now was disappointment: you'd had plans with the band to have a beach day today - it'd had been in the works for weeks and had been your idea: a short break in the recording process would be good for them, you'd reasoned. Unsurprisingly, Damiano had been the hardest to convince, but had eventually caved when you'd turned the puppy-dog eyes on him.

You'd been excited about this for days, practically counting down the hours until you'd be able to spend some quality time with your favourite people and then...and then this, this morning. This feeling that you hadn't felt for a long time hit you like a high speed train and now in your bed was the only place you wanted to be.

Your roommate had come to investigate after you didn't show up for breakfast; it had been a ritual, as long as you could remember really, for the two of you to have breakfast together, with her always serving up delicious, freshly baked treats. But even the idea of a warm, fresh-from-the-oven croissant wasn't enough to pull you from the sanctuary of your warm bed.

You ignored your roommate and her attempts to get you to respond, ignored her knocks on the door and her calls of your name. You didn't want to be bothered, you didn't want to bother with anyone. You loved her, you really did, but she was one to hover and by her sixth time of trying to get your attention, you were beginning to get more than a little pissed off.

"I'm fine, I'm just feeling a bit under the weather!" you eventually called out, in an attempt to mollify her.

It was a downright lie, you weren't actually sure what you were feeling but what were you supposed to say without causing her to panic?

"I'll be alright if I could just get some peace and quiet!"

There was a pointed hint in your reply to her and finally, she gave up and you were stuck listening as she walked off, down the hallway, her heels clacking against the wooden floors and a sigh of relief left your lips when you could no longer hear her.

But you should have known that the silence wouldn't last for long.

...

You suppose you shouldn't have been surprised that your roommate had called him; it's what you would have done if the situation had been reversed.

You didn't turn around at the knock on the door or the sound of Damiano calling your name. You didn't flinch when the door opened or when you could hear footsteps approaching you.

You didn't even flinch when the bed sank beside you and a hand came up rest on your shoulder with a light squeeze.

"Amore."

You didn't reply, you just kept your gaze straight ahead, almost staring a hole through the patterned wallpaper that your eyes were fascinated with.

"Amore," Damiano repeated, his hand gently travelling from your shoulder up to your hair. "Per favore parlami, per favore dimmi cosa c'è che non va. Sono preoccupato."

It was unnerving to Damiano for you to be silent this long. There was never usually so much silence between the pair of you, one of you always found something to speak about - even if it was the stupidest thing in the world. It was also unnerving for you to go so long purposely not speaking to him.

"Amore, please."

With a grunt, you rolled over in the bed, your eyes finally meeting his; His heart sank at the dull look in your eyes and his hand searched to grasp yours, finding it amongst the sheets.

"What did she tell you?"

Damiano's thumb stroked over the back of your hand, mindless pattern after mindless pattern. You didn't know if he was trying to distract you or himself.

"She said you weren't coming out of your room," he murmured, "And you weren't answering her knocks or calls. She was worried, amore. Worried enough to call me."

You didn't reply, didn't look up at him, didn't move as he peered down at you, eyebrows knitted together in worry as his eyes searched your face. What had happened in the hours that he had left and gone home to sleep? You were fine when he'd left, happy and smiling and giggling along with your roommate at some lame joke her boyfriend had made.

"I don't know," you murmured in response. Damiano blushed slightly, not realizing he'd been verbalizing his thoughts. "I don't even know what happened. I don't know why. I just woke up and there it was...this weird sad, dull feeling in my chest, like it's been there the whole time and I've never realized until now."

"What can I do? What can I do to help?"

You considered for a moment. You glanced up at him; he was already dressed for the beach: tank top, shorts, trusty Dr Marten platforms, jewelry all painstakingly chosen to give off the relaxed vibe he wanted and yet all you wanted him to do was stay here with you.

But, despite how long it had taken them to get on board, Damiano was clearly looking forward to a relaxing day at the beach with his friends and you weren't about to take that from him.

"You can go to the beach." you eventually murmured. "Tell everyone I'm sorry, please? I don't want to spoil their day, or yours."

"The only place I'm going is to call them and say that we can't make it." he decided, sitting up and toeing off his shoes, flipping them off his feet and not caring where they landed in the room. "And then I'm going to get in that bed with you and hold you until you're sick of me."

You didn't reply to him, knowing that there was nothing that you could say that would get your boyfriend to change his mind; once Damiano had an idea in his head, it was hard to get him to abandon it. His footsteps echoed on the dull floor as he left the room, phone to his ear, his voice carrying through to the bedroom from the hall as he told someone - presumably Vic - of the change in plans.

You could hear the rustling of clothing, the soft drop of his shirt meeting the floorboards, the clink of his phone and keys on the bedside table and then the mattress dipping beneath you with his weight. His bare chest met your back, his arms slid around your waist as he pressed up against you, lips meeting your shoulder.

The silence stretched between you, tears pricking the back of your eyelids. You couldn't stop the sniffles or the way your shoulders shook slightly as you tried, but failed, to hold back the tears that had been threatening to escape for the past few hours. Damiano didn't speak but his grip on you tightened, kisses being pressed wherever he could reach.

"Sono davvero dispiaciuto." You whispered so low that Damiano had to strain to hear you. But he did hear you, he always did and you felt his nose brush against your neck.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for, amore."

You shook your head. "I ruined beach day."

"You didn't ruin anything." he countered, "I'd much rather be here with you than at the beach with the others."

You sighed, "You're a terrible liar, Damia."

"I could never lie to you." He sighed, pressing a kiss to the back of your neck. "Do you want to talk about whatever's bothering you?"

"I..." you trailed off and swallowed. "I don't even know what is bothering me. Like I said, I just feel sad."

"Do you need anything?" he murmured after a moment. "Anything at all?"

"No," you said, but then you paused, considered. "I don't know what I need. Everything's just...off, right now."

"That's okay," Damiano nodded. When he next spoke, his words were shy, hesitant almost. "You know...” he swallowed. “You know I'm not going anywhere, right?"

"Even if I have more sad days?"

"Every day could be a sad day, dolcezza, and I still wouldn't go anywhere. You're stuck with me." his arms tightened around you and he scooted closer, as if to prove his point. "I'm a koala. Your koala."

Normally, a sentence like that would get him a giggle out of you or a smile, but not today. It was a testament to how low, how down you were feeling that you didn't react to something that usually gave you butterflies and earned him a flash of the smile you seemed to have just for him.

Damiano was silent for a moment, before he piped up again, this time his voice laced with cautious optimism. "What do you think about us going into the living room and watching a movie? We can watch anything you want. It just might do you good to get out of this room for a while."

You sighed. You didn't really want to move. You were warm, comfortable and safe from prying eyes. You liked this little bubble you were currently encased in: just you and Damiano and your bed, that's all you needed right now and if you could, you would have been content to stay like that for the rest of the day.

But your body decided to betray you, and with a sigh you nodded. You supposed that movies would help with filling the silence between you two.

"Sure," you mumbled. "Just got to go to the bathroom first."

Damiano nodded and you felt the bed shift as he climbed out, waiting until you were stood up and moving to plant a kiss against your forehead. It was so gentle and sweet that it caused you to flash him a ghost of your smile. It was thin, small, but it was there and it made Damiano's heart leap in his chest to see it.

"Take your time, amore. There's no rush."

When you'd finally emerged from the bathroom, feeling slightly better after splashing your face and cleaning your teeth, you retreated to your bedroom to pick up the blanket that always laid at the bottom of your bed, opening it and draping it around yourself and approaching the living room, you stopped in your tracks at the doorway, your tired eyes widening at what you saw.

"What..." you managed to sputter out with more energy than you felt. "are you doing?"

All of the cushions were off the couch, the knitted blanket your grandmother had gifted you when you had secured your internship was draped over the body of the couch and then strung up, clothes pins holding it to other blankets and sheets that Damiano had managed to find, all attached to a rope that hung from the ceiling via your light fixture - a rope that you had no idea that you even had, and other ropes strung across the room. From your vantage point, you could see your favourite fluffy pillows and blankets inside the construction, piles of books, snacks and magazines you liked littered the "floor" of the fort.

Netflix was cued up on the TV screen, the lights were low and there were fairy lights and candles on every available surface and you could even smell the unmistakable aroma of Pasta Amatriciana - your favourite and Damiano's speciality - sneaking in from the kitchen.

Your boyfriend, the man in question, turned to face you. He wore a bright grin on his face, his eyes shining in triumph as he studied your face.

"Building a fort of course!" he said.

He approached you and took your hand, leading you around the room as if he was a realtor trying to make a sale.

"I've made the fort here, as you can see. It's loaded with your favourite snacks, books, magazines and those fluffy pillows that you like so much but always make me itch. I know you love candles and fairylights so I filled every surface I could find with them." he gestured to the inane amount of fairylights that he'd strung up: over photos and paintings that hung on the wall, on the windowsills around your plant pots and the vase of flowers that you'd bought a few days before. The fairylights were intertwined with the small tealights that your roommate always insisted on stocking up on whenever she passed them in a store.

"Netflix is queued up and waiting for you to have a scroll to find something to watch," he continued, turning around to face you, "And the Pasta Amatriciana is almost finished, made just the way you like it." he blushed slightly.

You blinked at him. How long were you in the bathroom?

He looked so pleased with himself and so proud at his attempt to cheer you up that you felt yourself begin to thaw slightly.

"You didn't have to do all of this."

He nodded, giving you hand a squeeze. "I know, I wanted to. I remember what you told me; how when you were younger and you felt sad or you'd had a bad day, your dad would build you a fort and you'd sit in it for the rest of the night. You called it the "happy fort" because only happy or good things were allowed inside."

"I can't believe you remember that."

He shrugged, a smile still on his face. "I remember more than you think, amore. Now, why don't you get inside and get comfortable while I check on the pasta? I called Leo and he's going to drop Bidet and Legolas off and also to bring dessert because we both know that while I can cook, I'm hopeless at desserts and I didn't want to disgrace the canoli."

He dropped a kiss to your forehead before disappearing into the kitchen, leaving you to aquaint yourself with the fort he had built single-handedly. It certainly was impressive, a massive gain on the ones your father used to build you when you were a child. You climbed in, pleasantly surprised at how warm and cozy it was and you felt something pull at your heart.

You were so wrapped up in the warmth and the familiarity and overwhelmed by the fact that Damiano went to all this effort just to brighten your day a little that you almost leapt out of your skin when you glanced up from where you were stroking the feathers of your cushion to meet his gaze, bowls in hand.

"Comfortable, amore?" he asked, passing a bowl of your favourite Pasta Amatricana, and smiling as you inhaled the scent.

"Very." you sent him a small smile as he maneuvered himself into the fort; he'd had the foresight to build it with more than enough room for you pair and the cats. The two of you ate in companionable silence, eventually settling on watching Friends; you'd seen the show to the point where you could probably quote the episodes word for word but Damiano didn't object in the slightest.

Despite yourself, you managed to finish your pasta and even had a second helping, much to Damiano's relief.

Leo had knocked and delivered Bidet and Legolas, who both were eager to explore (and attempt to destroy) the new construction in their living room, meowing or glaring at you when you softly told them to stop trying to chew one of the cushions; he'd also brought chocolate cake from a bakery that the two of you frequented together often when buying secret treats for the band whenever they were working too hard to stop for something sensible to eat.

You were curled up now, Bidet in your lap, resting atop the soft blanket Damiano had covered you with, your head billowed on his shoulder as he sat beside you, one arm around your shoulders and the other making sure Legolas was comfortable on his lap.

"How are you feeling?"

Damiano's voice was soft, gentle and it washed over you like another warm blanket that you just wanted to snuggle up to. You turned to face him and smiled slightly.

"I'm getting there." you admitted, leaning into him. "This is helping."

"Are you up for a facetime?" he asked, "Vic's been bugging me all day. She wanted to come over earlier but I figured you weren't up for that so I turned her down. She, Ethan and Thomas are at her place right now, they're all worried about you."

"Didn't they go to the beach?" you asked. Your voice was small, as small as you felt. It was one thing, you supposed, for Damiano to skip out on a fun beach day because of you. It was another thing, entirely, for Ethan, Victoria and Thomas to miss out because of you too.

He shook his head, "They didn't want to go without us," and seeing the way your eyes filled, he hurried to reassure you. "But it's okay, amore, because we're going to make sure we go when you're feeling better. Please don't worry."

"I'm sorry," you sighed, "I didn't mean to ruin everyone's day."

"You didn't." his voice was firm, full of warmth, but firm. Pushing you to believe him. "Amore, you're having a bad day, a sad day. You need to know that that's okay and it's more than okay for you to need to take time for yourself."

You sighed and then glanced at his phone. "Can we facetime them? I want to apologise."

"You don't have anything to apologise for." he insisted, but quickly found Vic's contact and pressed call, angling the phone in front of the pair of you.

Usually, when you were facetiming Vic, Ethan or Thomas, you'd look a bit more presentable than you did. You swiped your arm under your eyes, using the cuff of your sleeve - one of Damiano's hoodies you'd later realize - to wipe the last remnants of your tears from your face.

Damiano simply pressed a kiss to your hair as Vic picked up, her face filling the screen with Ethan and Thomas behind her, all of them wearing warm smiles.

"There she is!" Vic cheered when she saw you, handing the phone to Thomas and leaning over to pick up Chili and show her to the camera, "We miss you!"

"We're sending you lots of hugs and kisses!" Thomas cut in, breaking off in a laugh when Chili turned to him and licked a wide stripe up his cheek. "Chili too!"

"How are you feeling?" Ethan asked and you managed a small smile.

"I'm getting there." you glanced over at Damiano and then back to the screen.

"I'm really sorry about the beach thing. I didn't mean to ruin things."

"You didn't ruin anything, cucciola," Thomas cut in, before anyone else could. "We wouldn't have had any fun if we had gone without you two. I need my racing buddy!"

The tiniest giggle left your lips and you could feel Damiano sigh deeply, in relief or in surprise you weren't sure; you were pretty sure he winked at Thomas.

“Please don't worry about today." Ethan spoke up, "We can go to the beach any time. Just name the way and we'll clear our schedules."

"Oh completely." Vic nodded, "I'll argue with whoever I have to clear whatever day you want. But, like Ethan said, please don't worry. Just focus on you for now, okay? The beach can wait, just put yourself first."

You smiled, tears once again pricking in your eyes, but this time, they were happy ones, relieved ones.

"I love you, guys."

"We love you too!"

Thomas pushed Chili forward so the dog began to lick the screen of Vic's screen. "Chili too!"

"Now," the camera swung back to Vic again, "Get some rest, make Damiano watch Mamma Mia and relax, okay? We'll talk to you later."

Once they'd signed off, Damiano placed his phone down and turned to you, nudging your cheek with his nose. "Feeling better?"

"I'm glad they aren't mad at me." you mumbled, leaning into him with a sigh, the tension melting from your body.

A kiss was planted on your forehead. "I never thought they would be."

A yelp left your mouth as Damiano used the small distraction to pull the TV remote from your lap. "What are you doing?"

You watched as he scrolled through Netflix, before landing on a very specific and familiar movie. A small smile pulled at your lips, and just as it had previously, it made Damiano's heart leap in his chest.

"Finding your comfort movie."

The opening titles of Mamma Mia filled the screen and you turned to peer up at him. "This will only work if you sing along, you know."

Damiano rolled his eyes, but hunkered down to watch. "As long as you don't make me watch it three times in one night again."

"I don't know why you're complaining. You seemed to enjoy it last time."

"I was singing ABBA in my sleep, amore. There's loving ABBA a regular amount and then there's singing it in your sleep while on tour with your bandmates, and waking up to find out that Thomas has recorded you."

"Could have been worse."

Damiano rose an eyebrow at you, but there was a smile playing at his lips, amusement in his eyes. "How?"

"We could have watched the High School Musical trilogy instead."

"I've told you before, amore. I was Troy Bolton in a previous life."

"With better hair I trust."

"You know it."

....

Four days later, you found yourself on a quiet beach, lying on a beach towel with Chili running around the sand, barking at the ocean and Ethan and Thomas racing each other into the water and back. Damiano was lying against you, his head resting on your thigh while Vic was sitting beside you, filming them and cheering them on.

You smiled to yourself.

The five of you, six if you included Chili, had travelled to Sardinia for the weekend. When you called up Victoria and told her that you were feeling better and if you could reschedule the beach trip, you had no idea that you'd be making the leap to Sardinia of all places.

It had been Ethan's idea, you'd learned when you arrived, to come out to Cala Luna; he'd been to the beach before and thought you'd like it due to the seclusion, and you had to admit that the beach and it's surroundings were beautiful; as soon as you'd stepped onto the sand, you could feel the tension that had been present in your body ebbing away.

The beach was quiet enough and hidden enough that no-one would be able to guess your location or tip off the paparazzi, so the five of you were free to completely relax and let your hair down.

"Shit, Chili, no!" Vic yelled out, shattering the peace as she jumped up and ran towards her dog, where she was trying to grasp the inflatable beach ball that Thomas had insisted on bringing with them, determined to get them all to play a game of beach volleyball at least once.

You startled when you felt a poke at your shoulder, looking down and meeting Damiano's wide eyes, his cheeky smile as he gazed up at you. "You okay, amore?"

"Come on, you two!" Vic called out, "Smettila di sdraiarti e di essere così carina e adorabile. Come and play Volleyball!"

"Vic, there's five of us," Ethan pointed out, "How are we going to play volleyball with five people?"

"Someone's going to have more team members," Thomas complained, "That's not fair because we know it's you that will insist on the extra team mate."

"Well then, one of you will just have to referee." she huffed.

"But that's not fair," Thomas continued, "Volleyball was my idea. Why can't you referee? or why can't...."

As Vic, Ethan and Thomas bickered before you and Chili ran around their feet, tail wagging in excitement, you turned back to Damiano and smiled down at him.

"Yeah," you murmured with a peaceful smile. "I'm okay."

~ fin ~

T R A N S L A T I O N S:

Amore: Love

Per favore parlami, per favore dimmi cosa c'è che non va. Sono preoccupato: Please talk to me, please tell me what's wrong. I'm worried.

Sono davvero dispiaciuto: I'm really sorry.

Cucciola: Puppy

Smettila di sdraiarti e di essere così carina e adorabile: Stop lying down and being so cute and adorable.

Dolcezza: Sweetness

#damiano david #damiano david x reader #damiano david fanfiction #maneskin #maneskin fanfiction #måneskin fanfiction #måneskin

114 notes · View notes

rrazor · 4 years ago

Text

lactose | o. tooru, i. hajime, m. issei, h. takahiro

tags: nsfw (group)

>> (04:37) r u done >> (04:37) emergency >> (04:37) pls come back asap >> (04:38) u aren’t gonna believe this

slipping your phone back into your pocket, frown on your face, you glance over at the boba shop worker putting your order together.

“thank you so much!” you grab the bag and shift it in your hands.

he smiles. “have a good day!”

you return the polite sentiment and rush back to your place, doing your best to not jostle the bag too much.

“hello?” you call, breathing a little too heavily, setting down the bag on the living room’s coffee table.

your sister spots you and calls your name.

“hey, what’s—?”

walking along behind her are your fellow third years, looking up, yes up, at you with glittery doe eyes, mochi-like cheeks and itty bitty statures to match.

“what the fu—.”

“zip it.”

you clamp your mouth shut.

“kya!” tooru, all fluffy hair and soft skin, runs up to your legs, giving them a tight hug. hajime, not wanting to be beaten, runs up too, rubbing his cheek against them.

“hey,” you laugh softly, squatting down to hug them both.

takahiro eyes sparkle and makes his way to you too with issei a teensy step behind. you give them all a big hug before looking up at your sister again.

“what happened here?”

“the whiny one was sharing some handmade cookies a fan of his made.”

“you mean tooru? did you eat any?”

she nods. “they were pretty good actually. but only the guys got hit.”

you look at them again, all soft smiles in your arms. you know that if kyoutani was here, he’d mutter “good” and then walk away. you almost snort aloud at the thought.

“ouh!” takahiro chirps, pointing up at the bag on the table.

“well, i guess we might as well feed them,” you laugh. your sister unpacks the drinks and grabs hers as you help the babies get their drinks set up in front of them. it’s kinda funny and ridiculously cute—the drinks are half their size when usually, the cups would look small in their large hands.

“i gotta head over to kii-chain’s house for a group project. will you be okay on your own?”

“probably?”

she nods and heads out the door but not before reminding you to text her in case something comes up.

there goes your afternoon of studying.

takahiro stands up in front of his drink as you hold it for him. he dips in his head to take a sip and you wanna cry-laugh at how his little arms are angled back behind him as his tiny lips form the cutest pout.

“mm!!” he hums, chewing at the pearls, eyes closed in satisfaction. you laugh, kissing his cheek. he giggles and puts his tiny hands on his cheeks and you can’t help but think he looks like a little peach.

hajime pulls on your sleeve. “buu?”

you insert his straw for him and bring him onto your left thigh as he holds onto the cup and sips away, looking up at you silently with glittery eyes as he does. you hum, kissing him on his right cheek. “the aloe tastes good, doesn’t it?”

“num!” he nods, smiling at you. ah, the world’s cutest porcupine.

issei crawls in between your legs and plops himself down, looking up at you. you smile and steady takahiro on your right first—he’s still leaning up and down, drinking like a bird toy. you grab issei’s boba and bring it down in front of him, angling the straw towards his pout.

“you want some? it’s good, sweetie.”

he nods, blushing slightly as he holds onto the drink with his tiny hands, taking a sip and looking you in the eye as he does so.

“good?”

“poo,” he mumbles with a soft smile.

you bite your tongue to keep yourself from laughing and kiss his forehead instead. you tickle his chin, loving the little laughs tumbling out of his lips.

“humnnn!!” tooru thrashes his arms, patting your shin. his pretty forehead creased with how you were ignoring him.

“tooru, this one’s yours.” you set his drink in front of him and tooru grabs it and scoots in closer to issei, forcing you to widen the space between your legs.

you steady takahiro to your right and help him sit down, not wanting to topple over him.

“nn?” he looks at you.

brushing through his short bangs, you smile at him. “sitting, okay?”

he nods, matching your smile before going back to sipping at his boba.

“fuu!” tooru pouts, patting at your chest in protest.

“okay, okay, what is it, your highness?”

you pick up his drink and urge him to drink, hoping it smoothes the frown lines on his forehead. it does—roasted milk tea and black sugar bringing a soft smile on his face.

“weehee!”

you huff a laugh at the sound, brushing through his soft bouncy hair.

“aum?” takahiro points to your drink left on the coffee table.

“s’okay. i’ll just have it later.”

he hums as you pat at his head.

but, what were you going to do now? you look at all of them. hard to say, really. the history textbooks didn’t have any example contingency strategies on situations like this and neither do you so the internal thought process ends there because there’s no point really thinking about it at this point.

takahiro is the first to have his fill of his sweet drink. leaving his drink on the floor, he turns around to cuddle into your chest. you rub at his back and pat his chest, burping him just in case he needed it. issei is next. he curls himself into you as you bring your hand around his back. before long, tooru pops off his straw and exhales in satisfaction. he scooches next to issei and buries his head in your chest too. and finally: “fuu,” hajime exhales. he lets go of his drink and it starts its fall onto the floor, but you grab it in time, sighing in relief.

hajime nuzzles his head into your chest and you swoon at all the affection they’re giving you. you fawn over them and can’t resist the temptation of kissing their little hair whorls.

“hyeh?” takahiro looks up, hands on his head. tooru thinks it tickles and coos. issei and hajime knock heads as they look up at you.

“oh!” you rub their foreheads and leave kisses on them to circumvent any tears. they look at each other and blush.

“un!” tooru begs, making grabby hands up at you.

so you spend the next little while tickling and lavishing affection on the little ones, relishing in their coos and giggles, cheeks pink and broad smiles on their faces before a thought pops into your head.

“do you guys want popcorn?”

the babies immediately look up at you with a sharp glimmer in their eyes. you get up after setting the hajime on the floor and grab the large bag of popcorn from your kitchen cabinets.

“pop! pop!” takahiro chirps.

“pop!” tooru giggles.

everyone’s given their own mini mountain of popcorn. tooru squeals in glee, soft brown curls bouncing with the motion. he picks up a handful and drops it in yours.

“pop! pop!” he babbles.

“nm!” issei does the same with hajime and takahiro following along. it spills and ends up all over your lap.

“oh, thank you!”

as the boys eat with the popcorn, you clean up the mess of notes and textbooks on the table, not wanting them to get dirty or stained. your exams are still next week, so it was fine, right? right?

a piece of popcorn lands on the table. you turn around to see them throwing it at each other—takahiro and tooru use it as projectiles while issei and hajime are trying to throw them into each other’s mouth.

“bwah!” takahiro kicks his leg back to throw and ends up knocking over his drink. luckily, you manage to catch it, sighing in relief once more as you set it on the table.

unfortunately, this time, relief doesn’t last long because tooru tips his over and spills it, soaking the leg of your pants and getting it over hajime, who’s sitting on the floor. his pants seep the liquid in and he starts sniffling at the cold sensation.

tooru starts crying too after seeing the aftermath of his fumble, wailing as tears stream over his cheeks.

“oh!” you pull tooru onto the couch, where he pushes his face into the arm rest and bawls. takahiro and issei are ushered over to another spot on the floor as you pick up hajime. his little hands tighten into fists in your shirt as he does his best to not cry. soft sobs slip out of his wobbling lower lip as you stand up and pat at his back.

“hey, we’ll go and get you cleaned up, okay?”

“mm?” issei looks up at you, pouting at the thought of being left behind. takahiro comes to grab you too and tooru looks up from the couch, fat tears swimming in his pretty eyes. the look of fear on their faces and the thought of leaving them here alone doesn’t settle well in your stomach so you decide to just bathe all of them.

“let’s all go together?”

“mm!” takahiro nods.

you look over at tooru, beckoning him over. “you too, tooru.”

he smiles a little and bumbles over to you.

you somehow manage to get all of them into the washroom, running the water immediately, waiting for the hot water as you strip the babies of their clothes.

“wrr,” takahiro mumbles.

“you’ll be warm soon enough,” you soothe.

you plug the tub and adjust the water’s temperature as it begins to fill up. tooru and hajime sniffle as they sit down. issei pats at the water’s surface, giggling. you’re glad none of them are afraid of the water.

“hajime, tooru,” you coo, patting at the water with issei. “it’s fun you see?”

hajime mimics you and starts babbling in excitement. tooru follows soon after. with the water up to their ribs, the boys start playing in the water, having forgotten about the crying.

“oh, thank god,” you sigh, wiping at your forehead.

“pish, pish!” issei splashes himself with the water, a cute smile on his face. you giggle softly and cup his cheek, thumb brushing his soft little eyebrows.

“having fun?”

he coos.

you grab your hypoallergenic, sensitive skin body soap; takahiro’s sensitive skin didn’t handle fragrances nor sulfates well. you lather it into a towel and bend over the tub to clean hajime first.

“kya!” tooru giggles and splashes the water, getting it all over you.

“hey, tooru!” you bring up your arm to block his attacks, but it’s all in vain when the others, including hajime, gang up on you.

“guys!”

doing your best to block the water, you grab the shower head and turn on the water, splashing them in their little faces.

“pwah!” hajime sputters.

“pbbbt!” takahiro shakes his head.

tooru laughs and pats at his cheeks in delight and issei coos at the sheer fun of it all. you laugh along with them, brushing the water off your face and wringing your t-shirt.

“c’mon, let’s get back—.”

a cloud of smoke envelopes the entirety of the bathroom, leaving you coughing as you try to fan it away.

issei raises a brow. “oh?”

you open your eyes. cramped into the bathtub are the four of them in their original sizes, looking at you. “oh,” you say, thoughts escaping you. “well, that was quick.”

tooru pushes his bangs back. “and what were you doing?” he trills.

you roll your eyes. “well, someone just had to spill their bubble tea all over my living room floor.”

takahiro snickers, climbing out of the tub and you close your eyes and huff, turning your chin away and doing your best to act indifferent towards his nude, muscular physique. the other three follow him out and soon, you’re surrounded by a cage of muscle and oozing sex appeal.

you pout, blush high on your cheeks as your thighs clench together. it should be illegal for them to look that good. “what are you guys doing?”

“taking care of you,” hajime states nonchalantly, stripping you of your track pants and panties, throwing them to the side before propping your legs over his thighs. your shirt and bra quickly follow suit.

“wh—?” did they retain their memories? but your thoughts are cut off with a breathy gasp as hajime trails a finger over your folds before promptly eating you out.

takahiro smirks at your cute reaction before seeing the bottle of body soap on the bathroom floor.

“you use this stuff?”

you swallow, leaning back into issei’s broad chest as he gropes your breasts and tweaks your nipples. “well—shit—you’re allergic to all the other stuff, so—!”

takahiro hums, heart thrumming with your endearing consideration for him. he brings your hand up to kiss at the back of your hand. “thanks, princess.”

tooru chuckles, eyeing all the skincare products he’s left on your bathroom counter. “you’re such a good girl,” he coos, bringing you in for a kiss.

“isn’t she?” issei drawls lowly next to your ear as you whimper into oikawa’s mouth, remembering the pile of his clothes in your closet.

“fucking sweet pussy, too,” hajime grunts, sucking on your clit, trying to match the effort you put into massaging his sore muscles after each practice.

your breath hitches and tooru gladly swallows all of your moans. you can feel issei grind up against your back and when you pull back to breathe, all the air is taken from you with the way they’re looking at you.

“well then,” oikawa smirks. “let’s get started, pretty girl.”

#iwaizumi hajime x reader #iwaizumi hajime #oikawa tooru x reader #oikawa tooru #hanamaki takahiro #hanamaki takahiro x reader #hanamaki x reader #matsukawa issei x reader #matsukawa issei #haikyuu!!#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu

76 notes · View notes

tteii · 4 years ago

Photo

a sakuatsu fic

tags: exes to lovers, married skts, inspired by captain holt and kevin’s kiss

ao3 ver. | unedited twt thread ver.

“You what?” Miya Osamu couldn’t help but raise his voice when he heard his twin spouting stupid shit. Only the counter and the wooden spatula he was holding was preventing him from strangling the annoying blonde in front of him.

“I’m not talking to you.” Atsumu turned his direction back to Rintarou, his twin’s boyfriend of sixteen years, as he continued eating his onigiri. “So, I was saying一”

Osamu shoved another onigiri on his twin’s mouth. “Why the fuck do you need to make a Grindr profile? I thought the couple’s counselling was going well.”

“First of all, I could’ve died一”

“But you didn’t.” Rin said as a matter of factly then, kissed his boyfriend on his left cheek. “Gotta pick up the new batch of tuna in the market. Will be back in an hour.”

“Ugh! Have some respect!” Trying to throw his chopstick at the love birds, which he failed miserably, resulted in a fake gagging just to show his disdain because why not?

As soon as Rintarou left the shop, it became quiet until there was a soft sniffle. “It was okay, at f-first ‘til一”He started crying, tears and snot. Thank god Osamu was quick enough to pat his twin’s head as an act of comfort. “T-the psychologist told me一sniff一 to have more time. And I was like, excuse you doctor, you’re not paying for my rent and medication!”

“Ssh, it’s alright. Did you explain to them your side?”

“No! How could I when the gorgeous bastard agreed and pointed out that I barely have time for sex let alone weekly dates!” More sniffles, more wailing.

It wasn’t his fault, not entirely. True, that ever since he got assigned to a bigger project, he rarely had time. Blame the architect firm for sending him to Aomori! Blame the expensive rent in Tokyo with its boxed apartment. Blame his ADHD and its fucking caviar price meds.

Blamed everything and he ended up losing the love of his life.

After several threatening texts to Rintarou and excessive pleading that his life depended on this fucking finally, he was ready to thread the waters and catch some big fish with tight fitted pants and black turtleneck to add some mysterious effect.

10 minutes!

The guy, Akiteru, was already 10 minutes late.

“It’s okay, you’re just used to Omi’s timeliness.” Atsumu murmured under his breath, chanting it like a spell.

“Miya?”

Dirty blonde? Check.

Beige trousers? Check.

Suede loafers? Check.

Long nails? Check.

Atsumu was baffled. How could someone check all his run-towards-the-exit-asap list.

First, there could only be one blonde in the relationship. Beige trousers made him icky like a melted popsicle in summer time. Suede? Hard to fucking clean, it should be forbidden. Leather was popular for a reason! Long fucking nails?!

Atsumu was about to faint. Or burst. Or scream. It didn’t matter. The moment his date went to the restroom, he immediately paid for his drink and immediately ran for his sanity.

Of course, he sent one last message to the guy before deleting the app.

Sorry, forgot to tell you I’m allergic to suede and alcohol. Thanks for your time.

- Miya A.

“So…?” Rintarou wiggled his eyebrows, taunting Atsumu before whispering something to his boyfriend’s ear.

“Nothing! And stop talking behind my back, I’m literally sitting in front of you guys!”

“Jealous.”

“Green-eyed monster.”

Atsumu sighed because no matter how good he lied to his co-workers about his date that ended bragging for three whole days, unfortunately, he could never fool his twin.

“What should I do…?” It sounded more sad? Ah, dejected. Defeated. Like a loser.

How could he think that a dating app and a date in the bar could make him forget about the one and only Sakusa Kiyoomi. Four years of pinning since high school. Another five years of dating, learning, familiarizing and memorizing every single non-hypoallergenic sanitzer there was in the market. And three and a half years of being married, sharing a house, their love and life.

How stupid could he be?

No one could replace Kiyoomi in his life. Not that he wanted to. He just…he just wanted to give him a better life. Bigger house. A backyard and a big dog. Europe trips.

Things he couldn’t give him when he was a broke college student and a struggling 24 year old competing to get a job in the most sought-after architecture firm in Tokyo.

He just simply wanted to give him the life he deserved.

So what went wrong?

“You know he loves you, right?” Osamu broke the silence. “You’ve known each other for years. Do you think he’s the type of person to give up easily?”

“B-but, I hurt him, Samu. Made him cry.”

“Like it’s the first time? Remember when you had your first fight? Outside my dormand you were carrying his shirts and hoodies in a plastic bag, ready to throw it in his face in case he asked for a break up?”

Atsumu remembered it all too well.

Last year of uni. He spent the night at Rin’s dorm because he caught Kiyoomi talking to a girl after turning him down for a date. He was crying the whole night. Asking if he was worth it. If Kiyoomi actually loved him in the first place. If everything they had was real.

And when he was going down the stairs, with the plastic bag full of his boyfriend’s clothes, he saw Kiyoomi standing outside the dorm, cheeks stained with tears and a bouquet of white lilies on his hand.

A symbol of devotion.

“You think Omi’s going to run under the rain, shouting my一”

“Miya Atsumu!” That was his name, coming from a familiar voice.

He stood up from the couch and as he was looking from the window of his twin’s second floor apartment, he saw a dark figure standing outside the building.

Just like before.

Umbrella and slippers be damned. All he was thinking was to get to the door as soon as possible一

“Miya Atsumu! Miya! Atsu, please…”

They said it only happens in the movie, a kiss under the rain that is.

They said it only exists in Nancy Meyers movies.

He was no Nancy Meyers or in a romance film but everything felt right, even magical.

The wet kiss. The tears hiding under the rain drops.

The quiet I love yous. The warm hug amidst the cold winds blowing harshly. The several sorrrys shared between another kiss.

How their hands trembled at the touch of each other’s skin. How their hearts were about to burst simply because their love for each other was so much.

“Com'on lovebirds! You’re both gonna get sick!” And just like that, Suna was again standing by the door. Osamu was behind him, chin perched on his shoulder.

“I love you.”

“No matter what.”

- fin.

#sakuatsu #sakuatsu fic #married sakuatsu #skts #skts fic #skts au #uecchific #hq fic #haikyuu fic #haikyu fic #exes to lovers

18 notes · View notes

svtreasure · 4 years ago

Text

some changes

hello!! i figured i would make a post about the changes i’m making to my account just because i now realize this is probably really confusing LOL first off, these are the most obvious changes: vanillajoshh --> svtreasure mia --> kate

to my moots, if you get a msg from a rando named svtreasure w the name kate in the bio dw it’s just me, mia!! i unexpectedly went on a like,, 2 month hiatus? fjkdlafkjd because school got really busy!! but i’ve been working on lots of projects and i’ve been super happy! so no need to worry about me :) i’m hoping to share a big one with you soon! but first i’m going to slowly make my way back to tumblr hehe. i hope you’re all doing well, and i’m sorry i’ve been so inactive!!

a few explanations: my url is now svtreasure! i think around the beginning of feb i got into yg’s rookie group treasure!! i love love love their music and their members so much, and i really wanted to make a blog for them! with that being said, i still love svt so so much so i figured i’d make a split blog! i know a majority of my followers are carats, so i hope you don’t mind seeing some treasure content as well :) (btw if you also stan treasure pls msg me let’s talk about them!) my name is kate! i used to go by mia for anonymity, but my first name is actually kate! this is probably a little harder to get used to because a lot of you know me by mia! i hope i didn’t inconvenience you too much, i just figured i’d start going by kate because i’m not super used to being called mia!

also! this does not matter at all but! i think my new favourite colour is orange?? it’s been red for literally 5 years but one day i just snapped and said “my new favourite colour is orange” it’s like i don’t even know myself anymore updates: that svt drought really had me :( but omg they’re back! and hopefully that means gose is coming back soon :) in the meantime, i’ll likely be posting a lot of treasure content! (mainly gifs) if any of u are interested in getting into them pls lmk hehe i’d love to meet more teumes!

i’m working on a carrd as well! i’m struggling a little bit but hopefully i’ll figure it out sometime soon LOL. also i’m going to make a tags list too just to make my blog easier to navigate! (i’ve been meaning to do this since december fjdklfjdlkj)

thank you so much if you’ve read up until here! i’ve really missed tumblr and making content, but i hope you all understand. i was still getting notes and followers while i was gone, and i’m so grateful for that! i hope you’re all doing well! <3 -kate :) i’m just going to tag some of my moots because i miss yall!! and i’ve seen what you mentioned me in and i will get on the tag games asap!! LOVE YOU ALL <3 @uriboogyu @kwonthefire @jonghan @bethe-flower @xuseokgyu @lunatens @cupidhaos @junhaoshua @iiasha @soonhoonsol @smallkore @art-hao @myunqho @fallinfllower @cutiejoshi

#svtreasure #a letter from kate #pls forgive the tags i have no clue what theyre going to be yet jfdklkfjdf #I MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH <33

29 notes · View notes

theartoflovingthomashunt · 5 years ago

Text

HWU101: A Transfer

Masterlists: [Hollywood U] || [Red Carpet Diaries] || [Baby Hunt] || [Love & Scotch HWU/OH] || [#HollywoodHacks HWU/LH]

Characters: Alex, Thomas Hunt, Addison Sinclair, Holly Chang, Mike Tanner, Ben Park (#LoveHacks)

Series Background: This takes place in my current Hollywood U AU a couple of years before Love & Scotch. It also is set before the #LoveHacks Choices series.

Hunt and Alex are dating openly. He had his tenure stripped and they are both on probation, but they are in the clear. With the success of Permanent Wound and the press from outing Richard Sheridan and The Silver Circle, Alex is in high demand. She wants to produce her first movie and Hunt has agreed to direct (coming out of retirement). Now if only they can agree on it!

(This starts off with the canon storyline of them moving forward with Centaurus Lost, but it falls apart at the start of this and moves on with an original story.)

Chapter Synopsis: Hunt agreed to come out of retirement to direct Alex’s first solo-produced film, Centaurus Lost, but the production is going anything but smoothly. Will things change with the arrival of new student, Ben Park?

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

“Cut!” Hunt shouted. His fingers dug through his hair as he turned away trying to gather his thoughts. “Get out! All of you! OUT!”

“Professor?” Addison questioned, looking up from one of the actors, whose costume she was adjusting. “We still have two more scenes to shoot today.”

“Leave! That includes you, Miss Sinclair. I know how you feel about following directions, but just this once do as you’re told,” Hunt grumbled. “Everyone out! This isn’t working. I need to think.”

“Let’s wrap for today,” Alex stepped forward attempting to calm the cast and crew of Centaurus Lost. “Get some rest and be back tomorrow ready to pick up where we left off.”

“It’s okay,” Alex continued, noting the looks of uncertainty on the faces of those around her. “Go! Enjoy the beautiful afternoon.”

Alex helped the crew clean up and put the equipment away for the day, her gaze shifting to Hunt. He continued pacing off to the side, deep in thought.

“Hey.” Alex ran her fingers up Hunt’s back, once everyone else had left. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Hunt shifted away, Alex’s hand falling beside her.

“This film isn’t working.” Hunt’s scratched his jaw thoughtfully. “Miss Chang and Mr. Tanner did not stop bickering about the script all day. Every time we went to shoot a scene, one or both of them, decided there should be changes. They both have some ideas of merit, but right now, they’re hurting this film far more than helping it.”

“Thomas,” Alex breathed. She attempted to move closer, but he avoided her once more.

“I walked away from directing once because studios fed me uninspired projects. I refuse to compromise my artistry or ethics,” Hunt ranted, his gaze stern and unrelenting. “As I said, the project has to be right for me and this one isn’t working.”

“Let’s just talk about this,” Alex suggested.

“I know how much you wanted this to work… You’re the producer, find some way to fix this!” Hunt paused for a moment before continuing. “Or... I’m leaving this production.”

Alex felt her eyes misting at his tone. “Fine!”

“Alex,” his voice was softer now at the hurt in her eyes. He moved closer.

She shook him away. “Compartmentalize. I know.”

He nodded. “Go fix this. Convince me why I should take a chance on this film when so many facets of it are falling apart already.”

Alex turned and walked away. She didn’t dare look back. The past few days had been a strain between them. Even if they had agreed not to bring work home, it was hard to turn her feelings on and off. It was one thing when she was just balancing Professor Hunt, with boyfriend Hunt, now she also had business partner and director Hunt to keep separate.

She knew before she could fix the film, she had to save the screenplay.

Alex texted Holly and Mike. “Campus Brew. 30 minutes. This is not an option. Be there or you’re out.”

“Nice try, sweetheart. You can’t make my movie without me,” Mike replied.

“Whose movie?” Holly answered. “I believe I’m the lead writer. My name is first on the script.”

“Relax, Pixie Dream Girl. No use getting mad and looking all hot when I’m not there to see,” Mike argued.

“ENOUGH! Act like professionals. Show up for this meeting. Or breach your contracts and be out. I’m serious.”

No wonder this film was sinking. These two were never going to play nice, which is why she had chosen a public venue for their meeting, at least that would force them to keep it together to some extent. (She hoped.)

Alex stormed into the coffee shop, barely looking up from her phone as she followed the heated text exchange from her screenwriters. At this point, nothing short of an epiphany would save the film and she knew it. Hunt was right.

“Ahh!” A deep voice startled her as she bumped into someone, scattering their books and papers all over.

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t even looking.” Alex quickly apologized. “This is all my fault.”

“It’s okay, Jesse Quick,” He chuckled more to himself than anything else. He adjusted his glasses.

“I’m not sure who Jesse is?” She looked at him curiously. “I’m Alex!”

“She’s just..." He paused, noting how Alex’s red shirt hugged her petite figure and the way her brown hair appeared windblown from seemingly rushing off, perhaps to save Central City. His mind had already begun sketching her before he could stop it. Everywhere he looked he saw inspiration. He quickly shook the thoughts from his head as he noted the change in her expression. "You just kind of remind me of a character from one of my favorite shows.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She smiled softly.

“You should! She’s great.” He bent down to pick up his fallen papers.

“These are amazing,” Alex marveled as she helped collect his scattered sketches. “You’re very talented… I don’t think I ever got your name.”

“I’m Ben, Ben Park,” he repositioned his books and sketches in his arm so he could shake her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Ben. I don’t think I’ve seen you around campus before,” she noted. She would definitely remember a face like that.

“It’s actually my first day,” Ben admitted. “I just transferred from Grantmore University.”

“In that case, can I buy you something to drink? It’s the least I can do for running into you,” Alex suggested.

“You don’t have to do that,” he replied.

“I want to,” Alex insisted. “I can offer you some tips about classes and any professors you may have–if you’re interested and have a few minutes.”

“I don’t want to intrude, you look like you have a lot going on,” he smiled shyly.

“I’ve got a few minutes before my meeting. You’d actually be doing me a favor, keep me busy until then?”

“Okay,” he agreed.

“Great! So tell me more about yourself, Ben. What are you studying? Please tell me you’re here as a graphic artist, because if not you need to change majors ASAPs,” Alex laughed, she didn’t mean to come off so insistent, but she meant what she said. She ordered coffee for the two of them.

“I am.” Ben blushed at the compliment. “I’m also looking into the writing program.”

“Oh, do you want to be a screenwriter?” Alex questioned. “I’m actually meeting with two screenwriters in a bit if you want to meet them.”

Alex hesitated after she made the suggestion. Perhaps Holly and Mike were not the best exemplars of the program… at least, not at the moment.

“I’m more interested in writing a graphic novel.” His fingers grazed a sketchbook, that he held tightly. “I’ve written drafts of a few ideas, but…”

“Do you mind if I take a look?” Alex asked cautiously. She knew how temperamental some writers could be about their unfinished work.

“They’re probably not good,” he shook his head, considering her request.

“You got to start somewhere, right?” Alex offered.

Ben reluctantly handed her his sketchbook containing his draft of an outer space superhero adventure.

Alex leaned back in the armchair in the coffee shop and began flipping through his draft. Page after page, her expression changed as the story hit highs and lows. She followed the characters through joyful, devastating, and humorous moments. “This is really good, Ben.”

“You don’t have to say that,” he took his sketchbook back.

“I mean it. It’s really good! You should definitely look into the writing program. Clearly you have a talent for it too!” She encouraged him.

Alex and Ben continued drinking their coffees while Alex waited for Holly and Mike to arrive. Her mind had lightened with seeing the joy in his eyes as they talked about his creations, it was a lovely sight. One she had almost forgotten about while on the set of Centaurus Lost. No, it wasn’t just joy, it was passion. Passion for his creations, that’s what was missing on set. She just needed to figure out how to inspire Holly and Mike to that level of creative passion. If the screenplay had heart, the rest of everything would fall into place.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Perma tags: @lilyofchoices ; @simplymissjulia ; @mfackenthal ; @the-soot-sprite ; @virtuallytakenby ; @zeniamiii ; @kaavyaethanramsey; @choicesobsessed; @xjustin-ethansgirliex

Thomas Tags: @alleksa16 ; @flyawayboo ; @alj4890 ; @twin-skltns ; @ab1901 ; @riseandshinelittleblossom ; @hopelessromantic1352 ; @thearianam ; @trappedinfandoms; @zodiacsign1 ; @curiouslittlefreak ; @sharrybh20 ; @awkwardambition ; @jodibo ;

#thomas hunt #thomas hunt x mc #hollywood u #ben park #lovehacks #holly chang #fan fiction #hollywoodhacks #hunt x alex #alex hunt #alex spencer #hwu #au

32 notes · View notes

meet-me-in-the-kitchen · 5 years ago

Text

I did this for a project yesterday and was today tagged by @taylorswiftbitch ..further proof alex and i share one (1) psychotic brain cell

Anyway, here are some albums I’ve had on repeat lately. Not in order from what I enjoyed the most bc then Taylor would be topping everything;

1) not an album, the album actually is really shit compared to the song. sweet disposition is the song and i’d like to crash my car to it and die during the chorus

2) omg the vaccines are actually so good. i’m not gonna say they’re underrated cause idk if they’re popular or not, but the album What Did You Expect From the Vaccines? is actually amazing. go listen to it

3) dashboard confessional’s album the places you have come to fear the most. my fave songs are the places you have come to fear the most & screaming infidelities. the lyrics are quite amazing for the song Vindicated.

4) melodrama because...melodrama

5) i listened to purple rain bc i saw a sweatshirt w the rad cover on it and wanted to own it but i didn’t want to be tHAT jerk who owns the sweatshirt but doesn’t know anything about the art, so i listened to the album and although it’s not as lyrical as i’m usually attracted to, this album sounds quite good. ALSO HAYLOR SUNG A PURPLE RAIN DUET AND 😭

6) red because HEY YOU CALL ME UP AGAIN JUST TO BREAK ME LIKE A PROMISE SO CASUALLY CRUEL IN THE NAME OF BEING HONEST IM A CRUMPLED UP PIECE OF PAPER LYING HERE CAUSE I REMEMBER IT ALLL ALLL ALLLLLLLL *screech like girl at rep sessions who holds note for a commendable length of time* TOO WELL

7) GREEN DAY OMG. The album’s called American Idiot. Everyone go listen to Holiday and American Idiot (title track) rn, especially if you live in America. This album is basically my adolescence. I convinced my seventh grade band teacher to let us play 21 guns for our adjudicator judged performance and the judge dug it and gave us the highest scores so...also, the GUITAR SOLOS. and bridges:

Boulevard of Broken Dreams is pure, unadulterated adolescent angst ngl

That one part of Give Me Novocaine where he sings “out of body, and out of mind, kiss the demons out of my dreams” >>>

This album will make you feel like you’re that bitch. I’m convinced She’s a Rebel was written for me no I won’t be accepting denial xoxo

8) I have no reason why for The Velvet Underground & Nico, I’ve just been playing this album a lot. I was into the velvet underground after listening to their song pale blue eyes (go listen to it).

9) Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars, because androgyny + Bowie+ that exhale thing he does on title track (ZS) and also Suffragette City

brb, this has awakened the need to listen to boulevard of broken dreams asap

tagging; @ems-x @hayloraddiction @winestaint-shirt & anyone who wants to

#music

5 notes · View notes

tolkienrsb · 5 years ago

Photo

Hi, TRSB-ers! This is our last showcase post before reveals (if you think you have been missed out, please double check the previous showcase posts as tagging has been a bit awry thanks to Tumblr being its usual self - if you still can’t find something you submitted for the showcase, contact a mod ASAP).

We’re finishing off with a TRSB stalwart who has supported the event since its inception, the wonderful...

ZHIE

( @z-h-i-e )

I was introduced to Tolkien by my husband (who is also in the fandom and write/arts under the name Smaug) when we first started dating, though someone made a Glorfindel reference prior to that, and, that's a fun name to say, and I remembered the name, so I put it together when he started to read the Hobbit to me on dates we had, and he finished off reading the last chapters of it to me on our honeymoon. I saw the Rankin and Bass adaptations just before the live action films came out -- and my alpha fandom is ThunderCats, so there is a bit of a connection there. A mutual friend of ours convinced us to go to the live action Fellowship because he was able to get tickets for $1 each, and after seeing it, the three of us and another friend started playing D&D, and my sister was in love with both Legolas and Boromir, and one brother began to cosplay as Rumil, and my mother would roleplay as Galadriel at family gatherings, and now it's basically a family thing. No one gets into this family without passing the Tolkien test now. ;) So I've been here for over half my life, and I don't have a primary activity because I do a little bit of everything. Non-fannish hobbies...what are those? Pets. I already wrote a LOT, but, there is a pet who shares my current writing space, and that is Felix the very tiny parrot. If you've been with me in vc on Discord, you've heard Felix. He's obsessed with the bird in the mirrorverse and also post-it notes. Mainly with perforating all of my post-it notes. He also likes to fly up to my Gondolin diorama and knock over my Glorfindel action figure. We've had words about this behavior.

Where can we find you? You can find my stories here https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zhie/pseuds/Zhie but you'll find me on Discord in my kingdom - https://discord.gg/HtuZZ4N

How are you joining in with TRSB20? I thought this would be everything except betaing but then a thing happened and I guess that, too.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Mature story; I tend not to use warnings, but there is some dubcon and there are scenes related to a character's eating disorder, and probably some other things I'm not recalling on the fly

Info about your piece: This is a coming of age story that follows Aredhel, Turgon, and Fingon, interweaving their experiences together over a period of a few months as they each learn about themselves, consider their family relationships, and engage in some romance with their chosen partners. I wrote this for NaNoWriMo in 2008, but I didn't start posting it until 2010 and I didn't finish until 2014. This was very much inspired by the 2008 Olympic Games, which I spent a lot of time watching. It was the last major piece I finished while living in my previous home, which was the place where Bunniverse was born and the place where much of what I wrote in this fandom was conceived. I still haven't found a good replacement for whatever was special about that location, but there was certainly something extra creative about the view of the pine trees and the northern exposure and the balcony there. About 10,000 words in, I was having breakfast out with my husband, at the time my other co-ML for NaNoWriMo, and he asked how my story was going after we ordered and I looked at him and flailed with "I'm 10K in and I don't have a plot! This is Valinor! Nothing scary happens in Valinor before it all goes to hell!" and he told me I needed a bear at the door. So we plotted out how to get something that was at that point just character study and conversation to a story with some substance. (And, that year was the best year I had with writing, clocking in the 50K+ for this, plus another 13K on a story which has sadly become mostly lost about a relationship between Feanor and Fingon, but I digress.) I had been asked a few times who each of the parts of the title is meant for, and I never really answered clearly, but I created a piece of art this year specifically for the Summer Showcase that goes with this story and covertly answers that question. I am aware that there are bits with the names that are a hot mess; I started with Sindarin, I had people complain it should be Quenya, I switched back, I had complaints about that compared to what's in the Silm, I eventually just decided, screw it, it's a free story, do what you will with it, I have other tales to write and I can't remember which way I left it all, but I think 'Felagund' even sneaks in there at some point, so, eh.

Top creative tips/words of wisdom for fellow participants: Come over here. Come closer. A little--whoa, hold on there, let's just take a measure...okay, just stay there at six feet. Now, where was I... advice.

Don't stress. Have fun. Make friends. Be proud of what you accomplish--even if something happens and you have to drop out, because a lot of people can't even make it to the step of trying. It is not a failure if you manage to learn something from it. For those who see the journey through, enjoy the reward of seeing the finished collaborative project. Creating is usually such a solo adventure, which makes challenges like this special. Also, if you're trying to figure out, does my story need more Glorfindel? The answer is always yes.

#TRSB2020 Summer Showcase #zhie #trsb20 #tolkien fanfic

6 notes · View notes

xxisxxisxxis · 5 years ago

Text

Gateway Drug | Part Forty-One

Table of Content or Part Forty

Read here on wattpad.

Words: 3.2k

Warning(s): Explicit language, minor sexual situations, drug abuse, drug over dose

A/N: Had to cut this chapter in half because tumblr was being sketchy w the length of it for some reason. Anyway, second half will be up asap but I'm about to pass tf out. Also, this chapter was gonna have some smut but I put it in with the second half instead because the vibe didn't mesh well with it included in this one. Have a good night, update coming tomorrow/late tonight (Jan. 3). Goodnight!!

Tag List: @unknownoblivion @sinningsixx @edwardtriggerhandzz @lemmyjelly @haileynicoleseavey17 @cierrasixx19 @oskea93 @mgkobsessed @vamprlestat @sharon6713 @itsametaphordarling @miriampraez @allie-mcginn @rebeccaphillips14 @nicholeh7 @fandomshit6000 @lilmou5ie @tamedhearts @divaanya @kingbouji3 @evrsncnewyork @6ixx6ixx @ratedrkohardychick91 @floregrohlssard @oldschoolimagineblog @thanks2pete @abaldboi @swoopygorl @justjodeye @liith-ium @caos18blog @ytwahsog @shamlessobsessions @scarecrowmax @toadspleen @random-internet-user-4471 @solohqrry @loveofmyloif @sparxx27 @kaitieskidmore1 @xpoisonousrosesx @cruecifymesixx @ijustwanttokiss70srogertaylor @emmaelizabeth2014 @meetthesixxter @sixxsixxsexx @sublimeprincesswasteland @arianareirg @girlnight-terror @mcnibberachi

LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED

I can't help but laugh a little as Nikki presses kisses up and down my neck, bottle of Jack in one hand, part of my ass in the other as our car takes the both of us through London.

Valentine's Day, 1986, started out as one of the best Valentine's Days we'd spent together.

Nikki's mood wasn't too good or too bad, it was a tolerant neutral, I suppose it's because we hadn't done much talking at all.

He'd woken me up with his tongue between my legs and it stayed that way until I had soaked the sheets and was practically begging him to give me a break because I couldn't take it anymore.

Then we proceeded to screw around, then got ready to leave to meet everyone at the Hammersmith Odeon where they were due to play that night.

"How much longer?" I ask him, pulling away from a tongue filled, lust fueled kiss, referring to the time left before we get where we're going.

"Like, ten minutes, maybe." He tells me.

My hand reaches between us, rubbing over the obvious bulge in his pants, before he reads my mind.

After our quicky, I'm pulling my panties back on while he's pulling his gear from his boot.

I just let out a breath.

"Nikki--"

"--I'm fucked on blow right now, Viv. I gotta get myself leveled out." He tells me.

I just nod a little, not bothering to argue.

Once we arrive, Fred's meeting us in the back to escort us inside as fans are already crowding around the front entrance.

Nikki's grabbing at my hand once we get out, as he and Fred start talking.

"And there's a surprise for you." Fred tells me as we walk in.

I furrow my brows before he's nodding to our left.

I see the massive, teased, blonde hair and flashy clothing and I'm leaving Nikki's side before I can help myself.

Mike's just as happy to see me and I am to see him, the both of us hugging each other tightly before pulling away to examine each other with wide smiles.

He looks incredible.

He's glowing.

He's gained back the weight he lost dramatically after Razzle died, and it's so obvious that he hasn't touched a drink or Drug in months.

He looks at peace.

"You look great." I tell him, looking him up and down.

"I feel great." He replies. "You look..." He starts, examining me similarly.

I look like I've been dragged through hell.

"Like shit." I finish for him and he rolls his eyes.

"Beautiful, Vivian. You've always been beautiful." He argues.

The shining of a silver band around his left ring finger catches my eye, despite multiple rings decorating his hands.

"Now, I've heard about this." I take his hand and look at the wedding band and he gets giddy. "But I have yet to even see her."

He's pulling his wallet out of his pocket and pulling a picture out, showing me a photo of a woman with dark hair, arched brows, who's no-bullshit demeanor is practically jumping out of the picture.

Jude Wilder had been working at CBS when she'd met Michael while working on Hanoi Rocks' project called "Two Steps From The Move."

She was nine years older than him, but that didn't surprise me. Michael's always been nine years ahead of everyone else in maturity, and they were perfect for each other.

They got married in 1985, and were inseparable.

When she died in 2001, after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage, Michael sunk into the excruciatingly low place he sunk to when Razzle died. But in true Mike Monroe fashion, he didn't allow himself to be down very long, threw the drugs out, and was remarried to a gorgeous, sweet, ball of light named Johanna by mid-2003.

"She's gorgeous, Michael." I tell him in admiration, although I know he's never necessarily been into looks as much as he's after a good personality and clear head.

"Thank you. She'll love to hear that." He chuckles, tucking the picture back into his wallet. "Have you seen the other guys here?" He asks me and I raise my brows.

He motions behind me and I see Andy, Sami, and Nasty, talking to Tommy and Nikki.

Nikki beckons for me and I go to them, trying not to be overly motherly upon seeing them, the three of us sharing the same exchange Michael and I did.

Tight hugs, and an invisible thankfulness that they're in a more positive headspace than the last time I saw them.

Well, except one.

Andy's still on heroin. It doesn't take me two seconds to pick up on it and I can tell it's gonna be a priority to keep him and Nikki separated after the show.

I don't need them fueling the fire under each other's spoons.

Sami and Nasty look better than the last time I saw them, which is amazing.

I'm surprised any of the guys want anything to do with us after the thick of their grieving.

"Are you staying for the show?" I ask Andy.

"Absolutely." Andy states, pointing at Nikki. "And I'm showing him around when it's all over."

A protective chord is struck in me, and I'm finding myself having to pull back on the reins before I offend Andy.

Nikki seems to agree, before I shit all over it.

"It's Valentine's Day." I cut in. "I was hoping we could hang out." I look to Nikki.

"You can come with us, babe." He suggests and I try to hide my true emotions about it, but Michael sees through it.

"Oh, c'mon, Nikki. It's Valentines Day." He interjects, picking up on my concern of Andy and Nikki out on the town, binging.

Nikki's pulling a handful of bills out of his pocket before handing it to Michael.

"You take her out, then." He tells him casually, and Michael looks at me, caught off guard, able tell this isn't the first time Nikki's acted like this towards me and it's as if he's saying, "he's like this now?"

"Guys, c'mon, you gotta get dressed." Doc pulls at Nikki and Tommy.

The show goes smoothly, despite a few hiccups and—as predicted—Andy and Nikki are thick as thieves.

I help Nikki get his white and black polka dotted suit off, before he's pulling on his tshirt and jeans, pulling his boots on.

Before I head for the door when he's dressed, he's grasping at my hand and stopping me.

"What is it?" I ask, raising my brows.

"C'mere." He tugs me to him and I chuckle a little.

"What is it?" I repeat, grinning, and he leans down and presses his lips to mine, sweetly.

"I really wish you would come with me tonight." He tucks some of my hair behind my ear and I shake my head a little.

"Nah, I'll just hangout with Mike."

"No, I wanna hangout with you." He argues lightly.

"You and Andy are gonna be doing things I'm not into." I point out.

"Like what?" He asks.

"You know what." I reply.

"Alright, how about you and Mike come with us so you aren't by yourself?"

"How about you just don't touch heroin?" I suggest and his smile falters, his jaw rolling. I don't even let him say anything else.

I kiss him one last time before trying to sweep whatever argument is brewing, under the rug.

"I'll see you when you get back tonight, Nikki, okay?" I ask and he sighs out.

"Whatever, Viv." He mumbles as I step out.

I find Mike and Tommy telling Nasty and Sami "goodbye", and I step to them, glancing around for Vince, who isn't anywhere to be seen.

It's obvious he's keeping his distance.

"Leaving already?" I ask the two dark haired boys.

"Got to get back home for a bit. We'll see you around, eventually." Nasty tells me, grinning as he squeezes my hand assuringly.

"I'll be meeting Mike back in the states in about a month." Sami adds. "We'll he sure to stop by."

"Okay." I nod, smiling at the both of them. "Be careful, I'll see you later." I them.

"See you, man." Mike tells the two of them, hugging the both of them.

"Big plans tonight, Viv?" Tommy nudges me and I point my thumb in Mike's direction. "What about Nikki?"

"He's married to Andy's dealer tonight." I reply and Mike raises his brows, not saying a word, and Tommy seems like he doesn't quite know how to respond.

"We're outta here!" Andy exclaims, he and Nikki stepping to the exit with Fred escorting them out to their car.

"He's really not spending tonight with you?" Tommy asks me, disappointed, and I raise my brows.

"Are you surprised?"

"..." He says everything with a single look and I nod.

"Exactly." I scoff, going to the dressing room to grab my purse.

Once I get back, Fred is waiting for Mike and I.

"Press talks." Fred warns us right before we step outside.

The paps aren't horrid here like in America, but there's enough here to spin a narrative if they choose.

"So does bullshit." I reply as he opens the car door and I slide in with Mike following me.

"Be careful, guys. I'll see you later, Viv." Fred tells me and I nod before he shuts the door.

Michael looks at me with a smile.

"What now?" He asks me and I shake my head a little.

"Food." I tell him. "And a lot of it."

Although I would have loved to spend the day of love with my husband, spending it with Michael Monroe while stuffing my face with London's very best take-out, was nice.

But there was someone who upstaged Nikki, aside from Mike.

I step into the hotel after dinner with Michael and his wife, carrying my heels in my hands because my feet are killing me, ready to go to sleep.

"Mrs. Sixx, there was a delivery made to your room by your management earlier." The woman at the front desk tells me as I walk by to the elevator.

"Alright, thank you." I reply.

When I get to my room, I unlock the door and I'm met with a large bouquet of classic red roses.

I furrow my brows, knowing they can't be from Nikki, but already know who they can be from when I see two little plastic water guns tucked into the flowers, a bottle of Pepsi and a bag of gummy worms beside them.

I pick up the card and nearly start crying.

"We miss you! Happy V-Day, V!

Love, more than Jack and Marlboro (or Pepsi and gummy worms), Tansy, Steven, Axl, Izzy, Slash, and Duff."

It's etched in Doc's handwriting, and I chuckle at the thought of Doc on the phone with Tansy while she dictates what he writes on a card for flowers she probably begged him to get me before the show ended tonight.

I keep myself from crying, a strong sense of homesickness washing over me.

I pick up the phone, trying to calculate the time difference.

It's 2:00am here, which means it's only 6:00pm in L.A.

I'm dialing their apartment—damning the overseas charge that I know will be billed to us—knowing they're probably getting ready to go out or head to a club for a gig.

"Yo." I hear Steven's voice on the other line.

"Hey, Steven, it's Viv."

"Viv?" He asks excitedly. "Aye, Viv's on the phone!" I hear him say, hearing indistinguishable sentences in the back ground.

"Yeah, I just called to let you guys know I just got back to my room and saw the flowers." I explain, fumbling with the phone chord, sitting down on the bed.

"Do you like 'em?" He asks me and I nod to myself.

"Yes, they're beautiful." I reply.

"Well, Tansy mentioned getting you something for Valentine's Day and she and Duff called the guys' manager and told him some stuff you'd like." He informs me.

"I-Is Duff there?" I ask.

"Uhh, yeah, gimme a second." He tells me. "Duff! Man, it's Viv!" He calls into the apartment. "He's comin', baby." He assures me. "Alright, here he is."

"Bye, I love you." I tell him.

"I love you, too." He replies as I hear the phone being handed off.

"Hello?" Duff answers and I rub my lips together.

"Hey, I know you're probably busy so I wasn't gonna keep you long, I just wanted to say 'thank you' for the flowers and the junkfood I really shouldn't be eating but I'm going to eat anyway." I state and he chuckles.

"I'm just waiting on the guys, and I thought about Coke and potatoe chips but I knew that would be kinda mean so I played it safe." He informs me.

"You don't have a mean bone in your body, Duff." I point out. "Oh, guess who I ate dinner with tonight?"

"Nikki?" He asks and I scoff.

"That's an entire conversation on it's own." I reply. "Michael Monroe and his lovely wife, Jude, took me out to dinner."

"You can't just say it that casually, Viv." He tells me. "You gotta cry tears of joy or something, holy shit."

"Well, I suggest you learn how to keep your cool because him and Sami Yaffa will be visiting L.A. soon and I will be introducing you and the guys, if you're interested."

"Shut up." He says it in disbelief and I smile.

"Guns N' Roses came up during dinner and I may or may not have bragged about one W.Axl Rose, Steven Adler, Izzy Stradlin, Slash Hudson, and Duff McKagan and piqued his interest."

"Shut up!" He says it louder. "Viv, I know it's not a big deal to you because he's one of your friends but...holy shit, Sixx, you didn't have to do that."

"I did, Duff. You guys deserve it." I argue. "You deserve it."

"I fucking love you." He tells me, genuinely. "And I'm not just saying that because you did something nice, like, I can't say 'thank you' enough or tell you how much I love you for being just as enthusiastic as we are and believing in us as much as you have for the past year."

"You guys are great people, Duff. And God's given the five of you incredible musical gifts. It's against my religion not to help expose those gifts to the rest of the world and I know you guys can do it, as much as you guys know you can."

"Thank you, Viv." He tells me again. "And where's Nikki at?" He asks me and I close my eyes for a second, not wanting to say something that will put a damper on his mood.

"He wasn't feeling well so he came back to the hotel while the three of us went to dinner. But he's feeling better now and he's in the shower so we'll spend some time together when he's out." I lie.

"Okay, good. The guys are about ready to go, now, so I'm gonna let you go." He tells me.

"Alright, have fun." I reply, trying to force back tears. "And tell the guys I said 'hey' and that I miss them." I add.

"I will, Viv. Goodnight. I love you." He states, and a tear topples over my lashline, pretending, just for a moment, I'm hearing those words from Nikki.

A sad, broken smile cracks at my lips.

"I love you, too, Duff." I reply. "Goodnight."

I hang up, stepping to the bathroom to take off my makeup and get a shower.

By the time I get out of the shower, I'm so tired my mind practically shuts down the second my head hits the pillow.

Typically I wouldn't be able to sleep due to being alone, however, I'm not technically alone.

A loud, startling bang rattles at my door, and I jerk awake, confused for a moment. I glance at the clock, seeing it's only 3:30am, and I roll my eyes, knowing it's Nikki and he probably left his key somewhere.

Without even looking in the peep-hole, I open the door to see a frantic, panicking Andy.

Before this continues, I need to clarify that I understand it isn't anyone else's fault that Nikki did drugs. He had his struggles and demons all without anyone offering him anything to shoot up, snort, swallow down, or drink. He could have easily said "no" to these things, but for some reason just couldn't.

But back then, I knew people knew he couldn't help himself. So no one who could have been considered an enabler was off limits. And Andy was an enabler.

All it takes is for him to say the words "Nikki's in bad trouble" and my face twists, tears toppling from my eyes, an entire wave of emotions rocking through my body, before I'm throwing both of my fists at him.

"Vivian!" He's screaming repeatedly as I'm yelling out nonsense at him, sobbing, weakly hitting him.

Once I've gotten calmed down in a couple minutes, Andy's grabbing at my shoulders, his cheek bleeding from my ring cutting him.

"Get your head clear." He practically has to pull me together for myself.

I'm running down the street from the hotel as fast as my bare feet can take me, Andy leading me to the run-down apartment he and Nikki were hanging out at.

I walk into to this rat holding a baseball bat of Nikki, about to hit him.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Andy barks at him as I snatch the bat from his hands.

I'm about to hit him with it instead, but Andy's grabbing at me. "Viv, keep your head clear." He tells me again, pulling the bat from my hands and I glare into the sunken in eyes of the stranger, silently promising he'll get his when I get my blue husband awake.

I'm overwhelmed and feel defeated at the sight of him.

Blue, soaking wet from being wet down in an attempt to be woken up, and the deterioration of his body from his use is even more evident in his current state.

Andy is screaming at the guy for hitting him with a bat instead of continuing to give him mouth to mouth and pumping his chest like Andy had been doing before he came and got me.

I start CPR, trying to keep my shit together, but I obviously fail.

My stomach cramps like shards of glass are scraping at me. Except it's not my stomach, it's my uterus.

"Andy." I cry out, keeping my hands on Nikki's chest, but the Finnish rockstar keeps yelling back and forth with the dealer. "Andy." I repeat, louder, but he still doesn't hear me. "Andy!" I'm pleading in a holler, catching his attention. "I-I can't do this, I'm sick, just call an ambulance!" I beg and Andy heads to the phone hanging on the wall.

"No!" The living dead-rat argues roughly, fear in his pinned eyes as he practically snatches the phone off the wall, refusing to hand it to Andy.

"My husband is dying if not already dead! He needs help!" I argue, sweat beginning to perspire thinly on my skin, my own pain intensifies, my vision starting to blur slightly as I feel hot liquid rush from between my bare legs, and I'm blacking out along with Nikki.

#nikki sixx #vince neil #tommy lee #mötley crüe #the dirt #gateway drug

60 notes · View notes

unproduciblesmackdown · 5 years ago

Note

i was gonna send an ask like "have you considered: 'anger is a type of geography' + 4x11" and then i checked and you actually had! but if you feel like considering it More then here's a free space

oh thanks for these Layers of Allyship re: humoring my repeated [anger geography sign tapping] and checking for things and then sending me asks about it all to invite yet more Consideration.........yeah i feel like i mentioned it at least once in tags or smthing lol??? but here comes yet more consideration / giving it an In The Text post if that doesn’t exist already yet either

the Anger Is A Type Of Geography Quote From Hanif Abdurraqib in question for everyone’s reference:

anger is a type of geography. the ways out of it expand the more you love a person. the more forgiveness you might be willing to afford each other opens up new and unexpected roads. and so, for some, staying angry at someone you love is a reasonable option. to stay angry at someone you know will forgive your anger is a type of love, or at least it is a type of familiarity that can feel like love.

like, yeah sure what with winston originally talking to lauren and mafee about this and taylor Happening to walk in on it, he probably wasn’t necessarily planning to go off on his Indignant Monologue to taylor right then and there, but the fact remains that he was willing to do so, and i definitely think that that wouldn’t be the case if he didn’t have this Respect for them and think that they have respect for him in turn, and if he didn’t also think that that mutual respect is holding hands with mutually valuing each other. like, he wouldn’t say it if he didn’t think taylor might actually listen / consider what he says, and he wouldn’t even Want to say it if he didn’t give a shit about them, because he’s not just complaining about “um i simply ask for more money,” it’s about the fact he Feels Disrespected by the implied deprioritization of tmc employees and that the way this (false lol) choice is presented to them being Unfair and disingenuous. like, you could (and im sure most viewers do) interpret the other stuff he says as just him backing up his “Pay Me” argument when all he really cares about is the Pay Me part, but a) that’s not how We roll and b) doesn’t make sense with winston being just as happy as anyone else in 4x12with taylor Apologizing re: many of these 4x11 points, despite them not saying they were gonna change the Bonus situation lol, and c) it Does make sense to think that the Mutual Respect between taylor and winston matters to him due to [see: the rest of this post]

well wait lol first of all yeah sure the money Must matter to him b/c nobody could possibly be in the world of High Finance as a passion project (except for taylor apparently lmao cuz i mean we know that the Real reason they are determined to stick with hedge fundery (and involved in the first place) is b/c they are the best part of the show and elevate all the other Lesser Elements of it as well) and also we can figure that this was probably winston’s first year working a Big Time Official Job and he doesn’t have the savings that other ppl might when they’ve been in the business multiple years, and this seems to be backed up by lauren referring to him as they guy who’d be the First One Smothered by either taking a bonus cut by 40% or not getting that bonus at all until a whole other year, which, like he seems to also imply, is also Unhelpful in that surely these investment finance people turn around and invest their own finances, and Bonus Now is better than Bonus Then b/c.....interest....Long Shares.......and also just like tfw you want your job to pay you.......but anyways Seriously [next paragraph]

cuz winston *must* be working at Taylor Mason Capital b/c he really values working with taylor more than, say, wanting a job that will make him the most money, or will necessarily look the best on a resumé if he’s just looking to up his stats, b/c yeah, this is sure an unlikely opportunity for him where this is what we’re assuming is his First Fancy Job and he’s getting to be the Top Quant right out of the gate, but he must also know that like, it’s still like “oh so you were head quant at a brand new fund :/” and also he must know that there’s a Risk with said fund and he might even end up having been head quant at a new fund that burned out really quick, super impressive........and, we Know that winston *knows* how good he is at what he does, even though he keeps getting dunked on for that like he’s sooo conceited lol like. he IS that good, sorry!!!! why should he downplay it, we don’t actually see him being one of these shitheads with a fragile ego trying to prove themselves Superior or whatever.....ANYWAYS yeah the point being that, winston claiming to have a lot of offers already in the interview might very well Not be any kind of bluff, and he’d surely know that he could rise through the Quant Ranks quickly enough at some other fund even if he started out as anything but Our Main Quant at those places.......and if Getting Tf Paid Top Dollar was really his primary concern, “go with the brand new hedge fund which doesn’t have Established History / Experience / Clout and has the one big investor but who knows what’ll come next and any business that Just opened is not your safest bet even if you trust in your own skill and in that of your ceo and you Know that even if you’re not immediately destroyed, funds will be tighter / of a Lesser Amount than at a bigger established fund”.........the now-dramatic-irony of him talking about how those Tech Firms Out West pay guarantees, not bonuses.........like, when he was trying to get onboard with axe cap, he was obvs interested in trying to leverage to get Paid more, which is like, not necessarily winston wanting to be a trillionaire but also just how stupidly everyone’s supposed to like Play The Game of negotiating / leveraging / calling your employer’s bluff to get a certain starting salary / get a raise or whatever, dumb as hell baked-in Requirement........discuss your wages with coworkers gang!!! anyways. and but Also winston makes it clear when interviewing for axe cap that Working With Taylor Mason has appeal, even if he’s flippant about it, cuz he’s flippant about all of it cuz that’s his shtick here.....

like, when it’s Taylor Alone who calls him back eventually, he’s fine with meeting up with Just Them, and later on meeting up with Just Them (and the other quants, rip) again, and agrees to work in this lil basement evidently Not on axe cap premises b/c he’d been at axe cap’s offices and this is Not That Place......and yeah him talking about taylor selling axe on using his algorithm in kompenso sure implies that winston has this whole time Assumed that all of this was still ultimately in the service of axe cap.......and he was apparently fine with reporting to Taylor Alone and not getting to rub elbows with any other higher-ups, and he’s obviously pleased well enough with a “good work :)” from taylor and isn’t like “hey be sure to tell axe & co i did this singlehandedly etc” or anything, and he’s not really complaining about the whole “work in this lil basement Not at axe cap hq with taylor mason dropping in at least once to check on you and that’s about it” situation, which obviously is hardly that “You’re A Valued Axe Cap Employee” treatment one might expect if they wanted that.....winston’s glad that taylor called him, he’s trying to appeal to them and what *they* want to see rather than how he tried to go for what he thinks [a place like axe cap] would wanna see like he did in the interview, he’s showing up at this weird basement rendezvous to be on a 3 person quant team of taylor’s, he’s fine to not only do this on his own but also accept those increased demands that make it a [fifty(? or 15, either way) phds would work on this]-Level task, and then he’s glad just to have taylor’s approval at the end of the day.......they Wouldn’t have been able to promise him any leverage of “please do your best work on this” with like, promotions / clout within axe cap or axe-cap-levels of Lots Of Payment b/c like, well taylor wouldn’t outright lie anyways but also Especially wouldn’t if they wanted to keep this quant around for tmc, so winston must never have been asking about that kind of thing

and then, bless your Missing Scene fic but there’s zero canon content re: “uh how/when did taylor break it to winston that this algorithm was for their own fund actually and btw do you want to work for that fund instead,” but presumably it went smoothly enough, he was already happy to Effectively work for them alone apparently even if he still thought that yeah, he was working for taylor who was working for axe........just Yeah altogether it’s evident that “Working With Taylor Mason” must matter more to him than “working with any Other big name financiers” or “getting paid as much as he can get” or “raking in that clout asap to leverage with Other jobs or just like, in general.”

and then of course you have the fact that taylor is Recognizing his ability by calling him back and offering him this job, going “despite your demeanor your skills are superior” and “those other two were sweet, but you’re more talented, i need you,” [praying hands emoji], and giving him this Second Chance and entrusting him with this Solo re: building this algorithm which, unbeknownst at the time to him, is really this linchpin of their hopes & dreams of launching their own secret fund here, and really they must’ve been planning from the start to keep him around if he succeeded b/c it’s not like the algorithm and their whole planned Quant Department wouldn’t continue to be integral to the fund’s success, it wouldn’t really be ideal to have this guy be the one to build an algorithm to reel in an investor who’s working in.....wait for it......billions of dollars here, and then be like, okay bye dude. they must Know how good he is same as winston knows how good he is, and him being Head Quant from the very start was surely never just about mase cap having precious few employees at the very start of things....they could’ve like given him that Lead Position temporarily or whatever, they’re ceo. but they really do value him as like, maybe he doesn’t have the ideal ~personality~ for what fucking ever, either for being Properly Assertive and Impressively Flashy like axe cap might want, or just easy to work with, which taylor would care more about than axe cap would lol, but yknow, they value his Abilities and surely they must also value his efforts re: I Promise To Try and re: his really singlehandedly making that brilliant amazing algorithm which evidently did the trick as they hoped it would

and then......dare i get to the Emotional part of things, the Interpersonal....the anger and the love...............

i mean already when winnie n tay are having their post-math-meetup meetup, aka the first time they’re meeting After their disastrous really-first meeting aka the Interview, you have winston taking a way more grounded approach to this “yeah i want to work for you please accept me” process which is obviously in response to what he thinks Taylor wants from him based on the mess of the interview, evident thanks to winston telling them that he’s been thinking about all of that.......and i mean, part of taylor’s whole thing is they have that grounded approach pretty much always lol, (or try to....Want to...), but they sure seem to Also be bringing this effort to Accommodate him based on the hot mess of the interview, wherein yeah they wouldn’t’ve expected to have to ever interact again with this person they were dunking into the trash (and of course from that Meta Perspective, the scene when originally written was meant to be winston’s only appearance ever), but they really seem to also be bringing a more dialed down approach, letting him talk first and going along with his “you ever done math meetup” intro until he’s the one who changes the subject, and i really see that Head Tilt as a sympathetic one lol, not necessarily like “awww :’0″ levels lmao but still like. they Know he’s likely to have some [emotional vulnerability] re: what last went down between them since they weren’t especially gentle with him then, and they like, demonstrably give a shit about that fact lol. they’re also not just wholly swinging in the other direction to make up for it or anything lol but they’re Also making it clear that, yknow, they’re willing to work with him For Real, not just in this “are you willing to work for me, y/n, okay great” way, but in this way of [winston making an effort to make things easier on taylor] and [taylor making an effort to make things easier on winston] which is already playing out here between them.

and the whole matter of winston’s seemingly genuine Dismay at messing up even part of this exchange, i.e. the “[wince-ston] damn it, sorry,” like, sure maybe he just really wants the job, but [see: everything above about how he Must primarily want to work with taylor re: wanting any of these jobs lol] and, after all, he “oh shit, sorry”s @ them when he’s well-established as their Head Quant in ep 4x08 and generally shows this directed-at-self displeasure at thinking he’s messed something up even without some clear “your (potential) job is on the line” element......he just Doesn’t Want To Disappoint Taylor Themself, doesn’t need some particular fear of further repercussion behind that.

and speaking of Lack Of Fear, you Know we love to point out how kompenso (and really winston’s :/ + “sure, why not :\”ness at the end of 3x09 lol) demonstrates that winston isn’t afraid of taylor either as an [intense and unusually-demeanor'd person who Does apparently strike people as Scary(tm) sometimes lol] or as this Esteemed Rising Star Axe Cap Higher-Up or simply as his de facto boss.........he’s not raring to tell them that the other quants bailed b/c of his own disapproval lol, but he’s honest as soon as they deduce as much, the tone of “fine, yes, big time” + his standing up to get even closer to them instead of just shaking in his desk chair like :c pls forgive me obviously does Not convey that he’s terrified of them, and then the rest of that interaction jsut being like, ugh god so fucking essential, they’re both able to stand face to face and be like I Am Looking Directly At It / I Do See It re: each other, both of them just continuing to be Honest and Direct with each other, God.....taylor might’ve swatted his metaphor away but he was not all that put out, and then they’re Using His Own Language by bringing it back three seconds later, like, yeah sure at this point they have a vested interest in this individual quant (the only one left lol) accepting this Demanding Task, but a) they’re not exactly playing it cool on that front, they Just said “i need You,” it’s unlikely that this is just some all manipulative tactic here by encouraging his metaphor after all lol and that’s hardly their style anyways even if they Can be strategic(tm) about things, and b) they’ve Just Previously adopted his own words lol with winston having said “as for not being a dick” and taylor saying “you backslid into being a dick” (combining His Phrasing with Theirs aka “if you promise not to backslide”....god!!!!!!)

and so then yeah to top it all off winston even ~pushes his luck~ lol by being a lil deliberately rude re: his ex-coworkers lmaoo, and you get taylor’s Reaction to being sort of tested here to be Closing Off Their Expression (speaking of....their tiny lil Eyebrow Twitch when winston infers that he’s making something to pitch to an investor.....god!!!!!! a) winnie n tay and b) emmy) and making it clear that their interest in him acting Easy To Work With was a practical matter......winston watching them go up the stairs, taylor looking back at him as they Ascend and he gets back to his desk.....jesus

the point being!!! they vibe with each other so well by Kompenso already and just *get* how the other operates and communicates and Neither Of Them are offput by the other, Neither Of Them are unwilling or uninterested in meeting each other where they’re at, and each exerting this effort to really work with each other........and how winston is Not intimidated by taylor as either someone who’s so ~weird~ and can be so Intense, or as someone who is his boss lol........which yknow we always also point out as Important re: tayston developing from this point, where taylor would be careful in how they approach winston about fwbship but would feel like it was even reasonable to consider it in the first place thanks to not having to feel like oh he definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable being honest if he wanted to say no / wasn’t sure

also Yeah It’s Billions but winston freely swearing with the F-word when they’re assessing the completed algorithm, which taylor has no reaction to lol.......the both of them being Hyped about this algorithm lol, like, Of Course they’d both be, but it’s fun :)

and then 4x03, with winston not acting terrified about there being potential Algorithm Problems, and taylor making sure to be like “don’t you dare blame latency” lol like which obv he May Have been planning to mention lol since he’s intending to give this technical answer rather than throwing out his Front Running / Interference Theory like mafee then does.....fun little moment too anyways.......taylor Allowing winston’s tangent about being cassandra and emails and “it’s pronounced owned,” like, they’re not raring to Interrupt / cut him off even if it’s Not obvious what he has to say is absolutely crucial and considered relevant by everyone else, and they’re not telling him he’s a stupid idiot and wasting their time or anything else before sending him away.......imagine. and just think about the beauty of winston very intently / earnestly saying his “i’m cassandra: Always Seeing The Future” right to taylor.

and in 4x08 they build on his metaphor Again after having just Validated him despite everyone else really wanting to do the opposite lol......i “lol” but would everyone else lay off a little Lol......his self-reproach upon Registering that disapproval / oh-no-i’ve-messed-upness again.......then despite winston Standing Right Beside and then Sitting Right Behind taylor they don’t really interact l o l .....we have taylor being all “why is He so happy” and silently observing his Solo “i won” moment, rip, but also congrats.....and then i suppose that covers the Prior To 4x11 stuff lol

just......even re: the relative little we’ve Seen between them up to that point, winston might not have intended to talk to taylor right then, and he might or might not have intended to eventually talk to them in front of anyone else, but You Know He Knows that taylor listens to him, and that he doesn’t have to like, say things in what other people think is The Right And Effective Way to talk (even by billions’s fucking off the shits standards on that front lol), because taylor Does care about what he actually means and what his actual intentions are, not just “oh that very direct/honest thing you said Seemed rude whether you intended it or not”.......the “sad” after his yngwie malmsteen metaphor was the only time they’ve critiqued something like that lol and they then used that metaphor, So, and they’ve copied him calling himself a dick lol, and they built on his Sword metaphor, and they’ve just always been interested in Understanding him and communicating effectively with him, not in trying to get him to communicate differently or just making sure he knows He Should Feel Bad about how he Does communicate, though god knows the latter is something that everyone else seems to be somewhat #about. god knows some axe capper would have that “are you finished?” simply be the Purely Rhetorical intro to their barrage of Dunking-Upon insults, although it sure seems possible that that could’ve been sort of gently dismissive enough anyways to Encourage winston to not be finished even if maybe he would’ve stopped there otherwise.....but everyone else follows taylor’s lead in Not Actually Interrupting Him at any point, despite all the 9_9 and >:| as it were, and like, even though taylor then lets this whole thing end just with mafee going tf off on winston and bullying him into deferring and would-be deference, b/c winston might have this amount of moxie and he might be honest and he might not be scared of taylor (or anyone else here really) but he’s obviously not that assertive and definitely not that aggressive, he’s self-loathing, he’s easily put out, and all of this just bolsters how much it means that he communicates so well with taylor, b/c they’re Not interested in anything that would be counterproductive to actual effective communication but which might be “productive” if they had a goal of wanting to twist his arm about anything or pressure him into acting a certain way or just fueling their own ego or sense of superiority, axe cap style. they Value all his actual input and they have this respect for him where they don’t Want to bully him even if it’s not that difficult, like, yeah mafee was being mean to him for sure and trying to insult him into simply shutting tf up rather than like, actually responding to any of his points or doing anything but reinforcing them, but also winston has been Put Out by milder [negative responses] too, it’s of course more than just “i respect you too much to like, yell at you and try to diminish you”

and Frankly Winston Was Right and he may have been Indignant and he may not have been ~polite~ about it (though like, relative to how he is generally this Direct And Honest, there’s also not all that much evidence he’s deliberately trying to add some extra servings of Rudeness or anything) but once again like with the “as for not being a dick, i can’t absolute guarantee it” moment and the “fine, yes, big time” moment, and the “im sure it’ll go faster without the dead weight; Whoops ;)” moment, and the [talking about the algorithm problems] moment, and him freely jumping in with the “this plan might get us killed (not literally)” and “it’s b/c it sucks that they had to decapitate their dad, also not literally lol....although...” remarks, he’s just like, never afraid to tell taylor something that sure might not be the most pleasant for them to hear, and sure might not be something they Want to hear. and what’s Honest is that he’s Angry about this, and they won’t want to hear that and that they will even less want to hear his Honest Thoughts about why this is unfair, but he’s willing to say that to them, and even though we were like “haha boy winston if this isn’t fixed big time you might wanna quit :/” it’s also like, he must’ve trusted them to not wanna just fire him for lack of reverence to his ceo, and we can Juxtapose this with a) the scene that we’re set up to juxtapose it with, wherein a group of axe cappers carefully tell axe he’s being dumb as hell and might fuck all of them over, and axe tells them all to shut the fuck up b/c He Is Their Sun and he can do what he wants and get the fuck out of here, and we can also juxtapose it with b) winston being jumped on immediately in The Interview for ~lack of reverence~ to the potential employer, putting on this cocksure hotshot act (trying to..) and daring to express confidence in himself and be like “i should be interviewing you” / you should be selling to Me lol......jump to 4x11 and winston is caught off guard, he’s not putting on any kind of act, he’s not trying to appeal to anyone, sure mafee might turn it around on his [last we checked, the quant hates himself]ness, but this wasn’t about Winston Lashing Out b/c he’s angry at himself, he’s angry at Them for not valuing him, for what he perceives as them not even *really* giving them the option of the 60% Now approach, which sure seems to be justified seeing as apparently nobody but lauren goes for it and after winston invokes the Peer Pressure / pressure to seem Loyal / Committed by deferring, mafee immediately uses that [social pressure] to crush his dissent........where was i. right like. winston’s truly just Mad At Someone Else this time, he wouldn’t be here if his self-esteem was so low that he was immediately ready to just accept and absorb this treatment, and he Knows that taylor will actually listen to him which is their fuckin Mutual Respect thing and who tf else does that for him all the time, and he knows that taylor doesn’t value their own ego above everything else Unlike Some People, and he knows that he can be honest and get an honest reaction and that their honest reaction to his honesty is not “ugh you’re stupid / annoying / rude / etc,” b/c he’s Not, and that might be everyone else’s idea of him to some degree, but taylor Gets him better than that

and then you don’t quite have taylor being obviously Angry back, but they’re not exactly thrilled, and letting mafee go off on winston / effectively telling him they expect him to consider That the response and in turn respond back to that, can sure be interpreted as an expression of something a little short of pure goodwill and best intentions towards him here lol......again, i lol through the pain.......winston only has further reason to be angry, his Complaints weren’t resolved in the least and he came in all “i feel disrespected” and surely that’s only been doubled down on, b/c this isn’t Just “pay me goddamnit,” it’s really also just about the fundamental respect itself, which he figured that taylor cares about too, and so this would be something he could appeal to / expect them to earnestly.....he feels like none of them are being valued more than this feud with axe cap, he (maybe) feels like said feud is causing the quants’ work to be deprioritized in favor of more elaborate schemes based on “what will screw axe over specifically,” he feels like he’s not being valued as a Very Important Employee, he feels like this False Choice thanks to Social Pressure is insult to injury, like they’re not supposed to get a real chance to question this. boy i’m really just going off talking about any and all aspects of this huh, where’s the Anger Geography core here

well here it is: winston doesn’t ever talk to taylor in any more Filtered way due to them being his boss / him feeling a need to be more careful around them, if anything, they’re the one person he can be Least filtered around, b/c they care about What He Actually Means and aren’t all hung up on whether his communication style seems gratingly weird / wrong / offputting. winston isn’t bringing any particular leverage to this situation, yeah sure he pointed out He’s Valuable but he also did that in the interview with even less leverage and in the basement when he thought he was just working on some weird side project for axe cap in this remote quant dungeon - he’s counting on them to just Listen To Him and care about what he means, same as he always does and like they’ve done thus far. and he’s Temporarily Burned by this, which is tragic, but then 4x12 happens, and who knows if taylor and winston talked between these scenes at all cuz billions sure won’t say at all, but either way winston sure seems to pick up on the fact that taylor is responding to his Complaints here, the implication they were taking a too-axe-esque approach to them now answered by taylor deliberately differentiating themself from axe, and asserting that they Do value their employees and their contributions, and that taylor has this responsibility to them, and maybe Had gone astray there with the revenge jag but aren’t actually interested in that being the core of everything.........winston is Validated and we realize it and he seems to realize it lol, he definitely Was listened to, and he sure wasn’t like fired or anything, he Could Be Angry with them and that wasn’t going to lead to taylor wanting to sever even the Professional relationship or anything like that. sure seems to be no grudge held between them during the “q is for quantitative, babey” scene there lol and yeah it’s billions and shit moves fast / people will roll with A Lot of mistreatment apparently (see: winston also does not seem to harbor any grudge against mafee here lol but who knows) but the Fact Is, here they are, having found A Way Out Of [Anger], after having had this altercation which wouldn’t even have been possible if Winston hadn’t felt it was possible for them to interact like this, for him to be mad and be honest about that anger and the hows and whys of it and for that Not to be a dead end between them or something that could shatter the relationship entirely. and he was Validated!!!!

and guess who i also love to quote and paraphrase lol i also think of mariame kaba talking about interpersonal Conflict being possible Opportunities in a relationship, because working through said conflict can allow the relationship to grow / deepen / strengthen. which sure seems to Hold Hands with this idea: that you can Be Angry with someone because you already know that won’t break the relationship, and that even if you don’t already know that, going through that experience / process of Being Angry with someone and coming out the other side together will show that the relationship can handle that / will have involved gaining tools to be able to handle that going forward. and really like, we’ve seen winston Forgive taylor’s anger at him right off, and that may not be the sweeping heights of love but it came from Understanding (and....low self-es steam probably lol) but no really, he Shows that he understands why they reacted like that by behaving in this way that he figures is more in line with what they actually want, just talking and being direct with no boxes or [wags] or standard boring interview questions or posturing, showing he’s willing to work with them in the “please hire me” and “i’ll try to Behave” ways lol........and taylor is offering their own patience and sympathy and restraint and Understanding and willingness to bend.......things are happening on an emotional plane between them here.

and then after winston chooses to be on board with mase cap, and after he’s worked for them so long that it’s comp time baby, and after these few Sample Interactions we’ve seen in which taylor doesn’t cut winston down or show contempt for him and they continue to directly or indirectly validate him, winston can be Angry with them and taylor can (definitely Sorta) be Angry back, and winston surely even Stayed Angry after that scene in 4x11, and he didn’t quit, and was that [terrible self-esteem actually lol] or was it him believing that there could be a way out of this state of anger between him and taylor? both?? we get to decide!! b/c he’s sure not Validated and Vindicated until later lol.....what does he sit there on that couch alone in that room and Think in those moments...........and then once things Are better resolved, they have this whole [episode of conflict] in their history, and like is the whole Point of all of this, that’s hardly necessarily just some awful and unfortunate thing.......their relationship can survive something like that, and the conflict sure sparked this kind of Genuine Interaction between them which couldn’t have happened if winston just shied away from all this / kept it to himself because he didn’t think taylor would Listen or Care or Understand.

and it’s Not Just About The Money, and even when he expresses that he’s upset about this perceived disrespect / not being valued as an employee, we Know that he’s not someone who’s got this need to feel superior to everybody else / like he’s always Winning, and we know he’s not after Maximum Clout, but he does want to Work With taylor and he evidently wants to feel valued By Them, who does happen to be his boss and does have this avenue to potentially treat any employees unfairly. and we know that winston *knows* in this objective way how good his work is, and both winston and taylor have acknowledged that yeah, His Work / professional quantly ablities have value, so winston Knows he should expect for that to be valued in the form of “your quantributions are important and you’re getting paid to reflect that”........and that he feels like he’s for once not being Allowed Honesty re: everyone supposedly being pressured into deferring is like..........what do he and taylor have if not earnest, open communication b/c they both value and respect what the other Really Has To Say!!!!!! that’s winnie n tay and it’s also tayston.

which, speaking of which, Sidenote: when it comes to tayston hcs we generally have this as a “they’re not currently doing Their Thing at this point anyways, and maybe the fact that that’s been ended (and they Haven’t been talking through this particular conflict yet) is adding to the tension / anger / feeling of not being valued hahaha rip” deal lol, but also if they Were still currently in their fwb/[???]ship like obviously this would spill over and probably require an at-least-temporary halt to give everyone some space seeing as it’d be a little impossible to truly completely Set That Aside in the recent aftermath l o l ......but despite the lingering tension / awkwardness that would be present whenever they Do next meetup [imagine: an I Was On The Phone With You, Sweetheart phonecall prior to 4x12′s scene?? wrow] the layers to that ensuing sex lol......reunion sex? makeup sex? not-hate-sex-but-maybe-still-needing-to-vent-a-lil-Emotional-frustration-maybe sex? maybe all of the above and more

ANYWAYS even i don’t know why this is so long, and also it’s 7am. i definitely think that winston trusted taylor and the Relationship between them to be able to handle Anger (his, for once, lol) and for that Anger to even potentially be something Constructive. and he was right. and in 4x12 he’s there with them at the very end, wearing the tmc logo, standing behind them in the hellhole which is axe cap hq, knowing that taylor is the one person (here, certainly) who definitely Gets and who’s Got him, who’s asserted this loyalty and commitment to him after he’s certainly done that re: them, and once again winston definitely has this Choice to be here with them just like he must’ve had that choice to join up with their fund in the first place, he’s never been trapped with them or forced into alliance with them, and we just Know that he’s not choosing to be here just for Linkedin reasons / what’s best for career advancement and/or for raking it in as best as he can manage and/or for gaining clout and status or whatever, and we sure never see him reaping some kind of deluxe treatment/benefits just for being closely associated with taylor / having their approval. everything we see points to winston caring most about what happens between him and taylor and that he gets to work with them and that he’s here because of that mutual respect and value for each other.

and really, the show also repeatedly tells us that winston Does basically have these world-class abilities and *is* that valuable, and we know that winston Knows how good he is, and he must’ve legitimately had all those offers and known that he’s really good enough that these places Should compete for him. he must’ve known that he has this Potential here and all of these options laid out in front of him, and he takes taylor’s call and shows up in a basement for them and singlehandedly writes an algorithm good enough to found their fund upon and he follows them there when now he’s got this Proof of just how incredible his work is and could’ve leveraged that anywhere else. but his relationship with taylor has always had this personal aspect to it and the fact is that, even with his choice of Paths laid out in front of him, he chose and keeps choosing the geography of winnie n tay. Love. thank you and goodnight

#time to attempt a nap!!!! Them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#winston billions #tayston #nothingunrealistic1

6 notes · View notes

emma-frxst · 6 years ago

Text

Talk Ch 1- Mysterio X F!Reader

Summary: Quentin Beck; the man obsessed with appearance, image, and presentation. After a risky medical procedure leaves him in a coma, he gets sent to the Frost Institute for Apprehended Individuals, where you are head psychologist. While Quentin can’t see what’s around him, he can hear what goes on. What happens when he finds himself falling for a women he can’t see?

Warnings: FFH spoilers, inaccuracies about psychology and therapy.

a/n- This my very first Mysterio x reader! I’m taking the plunge and going straight for a series because I have no self control. also, I’m not really an avengers/ mcu person, so take that as you will. Let me know what you think! Reblogs and comments help me out a lot.

Your phone blared loudly, waking you from your oh so peaceful slumber.

You looked at the number- Unavailable.

Nick Fury.

“This better be good, Fury.” You said, your voice groggy.

“We have a situation in London. Probable code 13. I need you and your team here ASAP. It’s Mysterio.”

(code 13 AKA “appearances can be deceiving.)

“Mysterio?! I thought he was a good guy.”

“no, turns out he tricked all of us. I’ll brief you on the way. We need the healer, it’s gonna be messy.”

“You know her name is Haya right? It literally means life in Hebrew.”

“Just get here.”

“Already on my way to the jet.” You said slinging your go-bag over your shoulder.

“Be ready to go when you get off the plane.” He hung up. Nick was never one for pleasantries.

-You met Fury in London and he briefed the team on the way to the bridge.

“Quentin Beck. Tech genius, known for Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or BARF. Got fired from Stark Industries for being unstable because he wanted to weaponize BARF, Stark wouldn’t allow it. So..He used his tech to manipulate SHIELD into believing elemental monsters were attacking Earth. But it was all projections.”

“Why?” You asked

“Claims he wanted to be the next iron man. He wanted revenge on Stark for firing him.”

“Not that I don’t like giving people a second chance, but why can’t your guys at SHIELD handle the tech?”

“We’re already up to our elbows in all kinds of shit. We don’t have the time or resources for figure out his tech. We need him to do it.”

You and your team were from The Frost Institute for Apprehended Individuals. Basically, a Rehab center for bad guys where they receive all the help they need to become functioning members of society. The institute named after none other than Emma Frost herself, who founded it. You were head psychologist at the institute and your team was made up of the best psychologists, medical staff, and powered healers in the world.

You were approaching the bridge when Fury spoke again.

“Careful with this one, he’s quite the manipulator.”

You and Haya, the healer, approached the man who lay motionless on the bridge. He was wearing a motion capture suit, which had bullet holes in it.

Your adrenaline skyrocketed, feeling for a pulse, you felt the fading warmth of his skin, but no pulse.

“Haya do your thing. Medics! Be ready when he comes back!”

Haya placed her hands on the mans chest and a warm light began to glow from her palms. Seconds later Quentin’s eyes shot open.

Upon taking a deep, raw, breath, he started coughing; the sudden airflow too much for his lungs.

“Ok he’s alive! knock him out!” You ordered, moving out of the way so the paramedics could do their thing.

You and the rest of the team rode to the hospital with Fury.

“You think the procedure will work?” You asked him.

“We’ve got the best doctors performing surgery. Dr. Helen Cho’s tissue regeneration cradle is revolutionary. I’m confident in her ability.”

“Wow I think you almost complimented someone."

Everyone laughed and you swore Fury almost cracked a smile.

When you arrived at the hospital, Mysterio was still in surgery. The hospital staff would escort him to the Frost Institute when he was in a stable condition.

You collected all the files on Mr. Beck and boarded the jet. You had a lot to do when you got back.

-Beck POV-

He was in a dark, cold, and unfamiliar place.

The last thing he remembered was blacking out from blood loss.

Was he dead?

Before he could come up with an answer, he was jerked away from the darkness by something warm and light.

His lungs were burning, from the sudden entry of air.

He opened his eyes, his sight was blurry, but he could tell there were people around him.

His ears rang, the only thing he heard a voice...

“knock him out!”

‘What?’ He barely formed the thought when he felt a sharp pinch in his neck. Within seconds, he fell into a deep slumber.

Tags: (tag list of open, send me an ask if you want to be tagged, removed, or tagged for a specific character only.) @chromecutie @ceremonialknives @evelyn120700 @nightriver99 @iamwarrenspeace @this-that-and-every-thing-else @hsk-puma @bungeewabbit @pianomad @lesbianstarkx @hazilyimagine @super-darkcloudstudent @thehuntress26 @siren-lamented-vampire @mooleche @rovvboat @starman-thorsus-canos-jock @dandyqueen @nitemaremotionless

#mysterio x reader #quentin beck x reader #mysterio imagine #quentin beck imagine #Spider-Man: far from home spoilers #ffh spoilers #mine #kacceywrites #writers on tumblr #not colossus or cable

67 notes · View notes

k18fics · 6 years ago

Text

Strictly Business

Here's my next entry for Chestnutfest, I am so happy to be writing again. @chestnutisland

Strictly Business

A tall man with jet black hair spiked up tall wearing a three piece navy blue suit walked into the conference room where all the employees tensed up instantly. Ever since Dr. Gero lost that terrible lawsuit against a begrudged client, Goku, the banks have been in and out of the company distributing settlement money and to save his company Dr. Gero sold the entire company to someone else.

The employees who had all been there for a number of years feared for their job security and for what kind of new boss they would have. This serious man in the blue suit did not inspire confidence at all.

“My name is Vegeta,” he said. “I am the new CEO of the company appointed by the new owner.”

A blue-haired woman entered the room wearing a Navy blue tight dress with a red scarf tied around her neck. Vegeta motioned to her, “this is my wife Bulma, she is the new CFO.”

��Our goal is to keep the company running as smoothly as it always has except for more compliant with the laws. We are not here to fire anyone or change anything but to simply supervise things more closely. Unfortunately the lawsuit and buyout of the company puts us at quite a large loss and we need to close a large account to be able to recover the losses. We have a multi-millionaire heir who needs investment help because he grew up and poverty and we need to get him on our client-load ASAP.” Vegeta motioned to Bulma after completing his speech.

“Let’s see here,” Bulma said opening a manilla folder. “Our top investment agents are Lazuli and Lapis.”

Vegeta looked at the employees. “Are you here?”

“Right here,” Lazuli said standing up along with Lapis.

She was a beautiful, thin blonde woman wearing a white button up shirt with a pink sweater vest and a tag that said “Gero Enterprises” and her name.

Lapis wore a very relaxed suit without the blazer and had his long black hair tied in a loose ponytail that allowed a few pieces of hair to loosen and fall on his face.

“You are listed as the top the agents,” Bulma said. “You both have executive positions here, Vice Presidents and minority shareholders. Quite a feat.”

“Excellent,” Vegeta said handing Lazuli a folder. “You can take this potential client Ms. Lazuli. Mr. Lapis I would like you to come with me to review client files and see if we can stir up business that way. The rest of you Bulma has prepared a calling list for potential clients. We have prepared scripts as introduction, your goal is to set up appointments for in person meetings not to try to sell over the phone, understood?”

“Understood,” came the response.

The room cleared out quickly as Bulma had already set up folders for everyone to take. Lazuli walked straight to her office to start reviewing her file. A multi-millionaire heir who has no idea how to manage money, this should be an open and shut case. Earn his trust, close the deal.

She opened the folder and looked at the paperwork. There was no picture only a list of information:

Name: Krillin

Age: 29

Occupation: Owner of Roshi Martial Arts School, formerly a monk

Inheritance: $50 million

She hummed and started inputting his phone number and address onto her phone. A few years back she had had a one night stand with a martial arts teacher. She never knew his name and she never did see him again even though he was so cute, though a bit shorter than most of the guys she ever dated.

She dialed the number and waited for a response. “Hello?”

“Hi!” Lazuli said cheerfully, “My name is Lazuli with Gero Enterprises and you were referred to me to help you with your new inheritance.”

“Oh. That. Can I just donate it all?”

“You want to donate it?” Lazuli said. “To what organization?”

“Uh I don’t know, cancer research?”

“That’s amazing, so what would you like to do? Donate all of it once or give them a good amount every single month for years and years nonstop?”

Krillin made a surprised sound. “Wait I can do that?”

“Yes and still have money to set up income and retirement for yourself and anyone you want to help,” Lazuli said. “Are you available tonight for dinner so we can discuss this further?”

“Um, sure yeah,” Krillin said. “I get out of my last class at 7:30, we can meet at like 9.”

“Great let’s meet at Satan Cafe at 9pm,” Lazuli said. “Just ask the hostess to bring you to the table.”

“Okay sounds good, see you tonight.”

...

Lazuli had been sitting at the table for twenty minutes before the hostess appeared with a short bald man in a simple white button up with a messy black tie. Lazuli recognized him almost instantly and she just froze. In her years of experience as an agent she had never encountered something like this before.

He recognized her too and sat down across from her looking shocked. “You’re Lazuli?”

Lazuli gulped. “And you’re Krillin?”

Krillin chuckled nervously and scratched his head. “Well what a coincidence.”

“You know when I saw that you were a martial arts instructor I thought about you but I never thought you were actually that person,” Lazuli said.

“I think about you a lot too,” Krillin said, “I never thought I’d see you again.”

“Well we certainly have some catching up to do,” Lazuli said smiling. “But let’s talk business first.”

“Yes let’s,” Krillin said grinning. “But this time we’ll keep in touch after yeah?”

Lazuli smirked. “Definitely. But right now...strictly business.”

...

Lazuli let out a heavy sigh as she collapsed onto the bed followed shortly after by Krillin who collapsed on top of her naked and sweaty.

Panting still she said, “okay so we didn’t get anything done.”

“Well we got something done,” Krillin murmured against her throat.

“And quite well might I add,” Lazuli said chuckling. “But I meant business wise.”

Krillin sighed and moved himself off of Lazuli so he could lie beside her. “You’re like the seventh agent that has come see me. I am not a...money guy. I got this inheritance when my mentor and father figure passed away. He had to die so I could get this money and I just...I don’t wanna keep it.”

Lazuli sat up and looked at him. “You are a good person Krillin. I have a twin brother and when we were teenagers our parents died in a car accident. The state gave us life insurance money. My brother was adamant about not taking the money but the truth was we needed that money to survive. Our parents had the foresight to purchase life insurance so that we would be taken care of if something ever happened to them. How disrespectful and dumb would it have been to not take the money you know? That money got us through college and set us up.”

“Hmm,” Krillin said sitting up. “I guess I never really thought of that.”

“How long did your mentor work to make all that money?”

Krillin looked pensive for a moment. “About 40 years. He’s the creator of my martial arts studio, and he franchised it and expanded it.”

“It was his life’s work?”

Krillin nodded.

“And he gave it to you? And no one else’s?”

Krillin nodded.

“What an honor that is Krillin,” Lazuli said smiling. “He loved and trusted you enough to leave you everything because he wanted you to be comfortable and well, and to carry on his legacy.”

Krillin smiled sadly. “Y-yeah, I guess he did.”

“So trust me then,” Lazuli said. “Let me help you set up your account. We can set up accounts for you to live comfortably the rest of your life whether you work or not, we can set up accounts for anyone in your life that you want to help, we can set up accounts to give money consistently to any charity or project you want, and we can set things up so you can get any leisures or luxuries you want.”

“I’m good with all the other stuff, I don’t know about the leisure part,” Krillin said.

“It’s all up to you,” Lazuli said smiling. “Whatever you want. So, what do you say? Do I have the job?”

Krillin chuckled. “Is this how you close all your deals?”

Lazuli leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. “Only the short cute bald ones.”

Krillin laughed and kissed her gently. “You’re hired.”

Lazuli smiled and moved away so she could offer her hand for a handshake. He looked at her hand for a moment then said, “we can seal the deal another way.”

Lazuli grinned slid her hand up his torso instead. “After all, this is strictly business.”

#android 18 #krillin #k18 #dragonball z #dbz #dragonball #krillin18 #18 #dragonball s #krillin and android 18 #chestnutfest

21 notes · View notes

hairringtonsteve · 7 years ago

Text

ahoy!

[steve harrington x reader]

summary: he only got the job because he didn’t think that you’d be around to see him in a sailor’s outfit. turns out he was wrong. incredibly wrong. he hates this job (but at least he likes you).

word count: 2,283 words

a/n: i’m back, baby! a certain video aired today and it inspired me to write this tooth-rotting fluff. it’s short, sweet, and was a lot of fun to write. this is also the first post with some new formatting stuff. links will be in the first reblog of this (which will go up asap after this is posted) and tagged people will be in a separate post. also come say hi and tell me how you’ve been and also steve in a sailor’s outfit please let’s discuss.

There was melted ice cream dripping onto his hand. It left a sticky, pink line down his tanned skin as he held the cone out towards the lady who was too busy gabbing to her friend and not paying any attention to the fact that Steve had been holding her frozen treat out in front of him with a fake smile for at least a minute.

This job fucking sucked.

“Ahoy!” He said after another fifteen seconds of waiting. She turned around, blinking at him before her pink nails snatched the half melted ice cream from him. “You have a good day, ma'am.”

He turned around for a moment to ask the manager — a way too eager twenty-two year old named Dan — if he could take his break soon. Just before he could get the words out, someone cleared their throat. His stomach sank. Just once, could people take a break from eating ice cream? It was four in the afternoon. People needed to stop. Eat a burger or something.

“Excuse me?” A soft voice called. Steve’s shoulders tensed up, eyes widening as he slowly swiveled his body to face the owner of said voice. His could feel the blood leaving his face as he made eye contact with you. “Steve? You work here?”

“Oh, uh, hey Y/N. What’s up? What’re you doing here?” His heart was pounding hard in his chest. You were supposed to have left for the summer, something about visiting grandparents on the east coast. At least, that’s what Max had said.

That what Max had said… that Billy had said.

That asshole.

Steve was jerked out of his thoughts as you tilted your head, a small smile playing on your lips. “Huh, I’m sorry, what?”

“I said that I was here to get ice cream. You still sell that, right?” Your smile was sliding into a little smirk.

Steve was going to lose his mind.

His crush on you had started somewhere in the ninth grade, and had continued on and on. Sure, when he’d been dating Nancy, the crush had faded into the back of his mind. But it had still been there, that interest in you. Once he and Nancy had called it quits, though, the crush returned with a shrieking vengeance.

“Yes! Yes, we do!” He was painfully aware of the paper hat that was shoved onto his head, and the ungodly sailor’s outfit he was wearing. He wanted a hole to open up in the linoleum floor so he could sink into it. “What are you looking to get?”

“Just a chocolate cone, with sprinkles.”

“Coming right up,” he said, shooting you a grin as he grabbed one of the cones. “You want soft serve or hand-dipped?”

“Hand-dipped, please.”

You took a few steps over to follow him towards the freezer filled with tubs of ice cream.

“So weren’t you supposed to be visiting grandparents somewhere east of here?”

“No? Who told you that?”

Steve shrugged. He was going to murder Hargrove in cold blood. “Just heard it around. Didn’t think I’d be seeing you around this summer.”

“Were you planning on seeing me this summer?”

He started to scoop the ice cream onto the cone, making sure that he gave you bigger scoops than normal. “I mean — well — uh —” His voice was muffled due to the freezer, but his stuttering still made you smile.

“It’s okay if you were. I did make a great bio partner this year.”

Steve straightened up as he laughed, stepping backwards towards the sprinkles. “Right. Sure. Says the one who almost failed us on that final project.”

“I did not almost fail us! That was on you!” You watched as he dumped a bunch of sprinkles on top, coating the entire thing until you couldn’t see a spec of chocolate ice cream.

“How? Because I almost didn’t catch your mistake?”

“Yeah, actually. That’s exactly why. You almost made us fail because you didn’t catch my mistake.” The wide grin that you were giving him was assuring him that you were only kidding. You both knew that it was a miracle either of you had passed that class with a ‘B’.

“So how’s life post-graduation?”

You shrugged your shoulders as he wrapped a napkin around the bottom of the cone. He held his hand out, smiling. “It’s going. I’m trying to avoid thinking about anything beyond summer, really. I —” Your words cut off as you reached for your ice cream, your fingers brushing against his. He held eye contact with you despite the fact that his stomach was doing somersaults with some of his other internal organs. “Uh, how much do I owe you?”

“It’s on the house,” he said.

Holding the ice cream near your mouth, you paused. “Steve, c’mon. How much is it?”

“It’s on the house, Y/N. From one bio buddy to another. Just take it.” You let out a huff and he shook his head, smirking. “You’ll owe me one, alright? So we can be square then.”

“You’re not going to get in trouble for this, are you?”

Steve’s expression softened as his heart gave another painful tug. “I promise you, I’m not going to get in trouble. They need me more than I need them. Trust me on this.”

You watched him for a moment longer before taking a lick of your ice cream, your eyes slipping shut to relish the taste of it. The back of his neck warmed as his eyes followed the movement of your tongue. It took him a second too long to realize that he was staring. He ducked his head and let out a soft laugh. You opened your eyes, tracing his expression as he looked back over to you. His heart jerked in his chest. “Thanks, Steve.”

“It’s no problem,” he said as you started to walk towards the door. “I’ll see you around?” He called, eyes wide and hopeful. You turned around and shot him a quick grin.

“Yeah. I’ll see you around.”

A couple of seconds later and Dan sidled over to Steve. There was, miraculously, no one in line for ice cream. “The bathroom needs cleaned, Harrington.”

“Yes, they do, Danny boy. Yes they do.” He drummed his fingers on the counter, playing your words over and over in his head. A couple of seconds later, Dan cleared his throat. Steve turned his head a little and looked over to his manager. “Was that a general statement, or did you want me to do something?”

“Just clean the bathroom, Steve. We can’t have it dirty for our shipmates!”

Steve looked at the guy that was only a few years older than himself for a moment before shaking his head and heading towards the bathroom.

He kept seeing that grin that you’d given him and for once, though, cleaning the toilet wasn’t too bad.

“So when you clean the bathroom, do you call it swabbing the poop deck?” Dustin asked as he and the rest of the Party crowded around the counter. Steve rolled his eyes.

“No, I don’t. Because a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin in the back of the ship, shithead. It’s not literal poop. It’s Italian, or something.”

“French, actually. Well, French and Latin,” you chimed in, leaning your hip against the freezer. Steve could feel his face warming when he looked over to you.

You’d followed through on your promise to see him around, and repaid him for the ice cream that same night by bringing him food from the food court at the end of his shift. The two of you had ended up sitting on the hood of his car for hours afterwards, just leaning back against the windshield and talking.

From then on, you’d stopped in almost every day that he was working. Most of the time you wouldn’t grab anything to eat, just snagging an empty booth in the back and reading or working on some summer classes you were taking at the local college. On his breaks, Steve would plop down across from you to start rambling on about whatever weird customer he’d dealt with that day.

Everything had been going well until Dustin had wandered in one day while Steve was sitting across from you. And when he’d noticed just how much Steve was smiling and laughing, then it was game on for Dustin Henderson. He’d been meaning to play matchmaker for Steve and you were perfect for the plan.

“You’re really smart, Y/N,” Dustin said, smiling sweetly over at you. He turned his head, the smile only widening when his eyes landed on his pseudo big brother. “You’re really into smart people, aren’t you, Steve?”

“I’m into people who order their ice cream and leave, man. You’re holding up the line.” Dustin turned around. The rest of Scoops Ahoy! was empty. He turned around and glared at Steve.

“You’re being rude. I’ll report you to Captain Dan.”

Steve sighed, trying to bite back another ‘shithead’ while you chuckled softly. His chest twisted pleasantly.

“Okay, guys, I think we better leave First-Mate Steve alone. He might send us to the brig,” you said, grinning at him. He glanced around, making sure none of his coworkers were looking before flipping you off. You gasped. “How dare you do such a thing, sailor. I’ll have your head for this.”

Dustin grinned over at Steve, nodding his head towards you in an obvious manner while the rest of the Party simultaneously ate their ice cream and argued over pirate speak.

They lingered for a couple more minutes, polishing off their desserts just as a group of teens started to crowd into the shop. Everyone said their goodbyes, waving to Steve as the group approached the counter, rattling off their orders almost too fast for Steve to get.

By the end of the evening, Steve felt dead on his feet. He’d ended up closing, which was always the worst. His head ached and his back was sore. All he wanted was to get home and eat some leftover pizza and then pass out face first in his bed. But by the time he spotted his car in the parking lot, all that went out the window.

You were sitting cross-legged on the hood of his car, an open box of pizza and a bottle of soda beside you. You grinned at him and held up the half eaten slice of pizza up in the air as greeting. “Ahoy, matey!” You yelled. Steve just shook his head. It was hard to act annoyed when butterflies were holding a riot in his stomach.

“What’re you doing?”

“I was hungry and figured you were hungry, so I thought we could be not hungry together.” You took another bite of pizza, scooting over as Steve hopped up onto the hood of his car. He grabbed a slice and started right in. “How was the rest of your shift?”

He shrugged, motioning to his mouth that was full of pizza. “It uz fibe,” he replied, his words muffled by the cheese and crust. He swallowed, shaking his head. “It was fine. It was nonstop after you guys left, which made it go by fast.”

You hummed in response. The two of you fell silent after that, both content with eating your pizza and taking turns drinking the soda. After the pizza was polished off, you set the box on the roof of the car and scooted towards Steve a little, your backs against the windshield. By then the parking lot had emptied out, the stars starting to come out. A couple of lights in the parking lot made them faint, but they were there.

“You know I like you, right?” Your voice was quiet, but it made Steve freeze all the same. He turned his head to face you as his body felt like it was being set on fire. “Because I do. I like you a lot.”

“What — you do?”

“Steve, I sit in an ice cream parlor in the mall every day just to hang out with you.”

“Friends do that.”

“None of your other friends do that.”

“They’re like, fourteen. They don’t know how to be nice to people.” You let out a snort of a laugh at that, making Steve grin. Despite how nervous he was, he was still proud that he could make you laugh. “I never knew that.” It grew quiet for a long moment before he continued on, saying, “I mean, I like you too. So it works out.”

You turn on your side to face him, close enough that your nose was almost brushing up against his. “You do?” Something was blooming in his chest at your question. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t think except to nod his head. His heart was pounding so hard that it was all he could hear.

Leaning forward, he closed the gap between the two of you, his lips slotting against yours like two puzzle pieces finally coming together. He scooted closer, his hand resting against your hip as you deepened the kiss. It was hard to tell how long time had passed before something paper-y fell in between the two of you. You pulled away, blinking as you realized what it was. Before he could react you grabbed his paper hat and shoved it on your head. His eyes flickered up to where it sat before dropping down to your face, and then to your lips.

“How’s it look?” You asked him, smirking.

“It looks good,” he replied, wasting no time in pressing his lips against yours once more.

Hey there! If you liked this fic, please consider reblogging this fic with a comment or replying to it! I love to hear your thoughts!

#steve harrington x reader #stranger things x reader #steve harrington #stranger things #steve harrington imagine #stranger things imagine #stranger things 3 #reader insert #fanfic

3K notes · View notes

inksparkcrafts · 6 years ago

Text

Jewelry Making: Because this stuff may not be as intuitive as I thought.

So first and foremost this post is in response to/inspired by @lunar-rose-witch who originally tagged a request for help as "#jewelry making" and fully caught my attention, inspiring me to not only give her some quick pointers but start writing a full-on-post in my craft blog for the first time in years. (Also I looked back and half my response dissipated into the ether, sorry!

Also I’m going to buck craft blog trend a bit: The personal backstory will bring up the rear of this piece, so you can get to the juicy info right away. Hit the read more for the full speech.

MASSIVE EDIT: Not all the techniques in this post work for all styles of jewelry. This is for the typical, “like what you can buy in the store” type techniques, but there are specific techniques and styles that don’t quite match the most specific, technique- and supply-based info here just due to the nature of their creation. (for good examples, look at macrame hemp jewelry or kandi, a style making primary use of elastic, monofilament, and plastic beads) A lot of the more basic info works, though, I just wanted to cover that.

So here’s how I’m going to structure it: Quick explanation, and then a “high-end” and “budget” approach if it applies, and then my recommendation which usually swings somewhere between the two. Rinse and repeat until we get to the bottom of my list of subjects. No time for questions, the area I’m writing in has spotty wifi!

Tips

(note: no high-end or budget options, this applies to everyone)

Full disclosure, this is upfront because if you’re confident in your jewelry-making you don’t need the other stuff.

The most important tip is to always have fun. You want to make something bright and colorful? Go ahead. You want to please a divine figure in your life with what you wear? That’s fine! You want to make an avant garde wearable piece? I fully support you! You want to make a way to carry something with you? I have a giant box-shaped “locket” I can’t be against that! You want to make it look like a cooking pan melted weird and wear it on your head? Please post pics! You want to incorporate the usb drive you use for school into your earrings? Let’s see someone knick it off you now! You want to make a hangman’s noose into a necklace? Stitch like 20 stitches of upholstery thread through that knot so you don’t actually strangle yourself. Once you’ve done that you do you boo. I digress, don’t hurt yourself, but do have fun with it. Most of the following information is for standard cold-connection (read: no sautering) jewelry making, which is a good foundation for your line of 30 ways to creatively use rope as a necklace.

My next tip connects nicely to the first: check your fit and watch your weight. Not your bodyweight, the weight of your piece. A few ounces on the body can be comforting, but a half pound on your wrist or neck is asking for pain later. Likewise with the fit, a snug princess fit may be nice, but a tight collar not so much. As you’re working, regularly check the fit, especially if 1) it’s a new design, and 2) you’re planning on wearing it. Especially especially if you’re wearing it to an event where you can’t easily ditch it. Put on your piece, move around a little to make sure it doesn’t fall off. That kind of thing. Never just do it and call it done.

For laying it out on your workspace, you may want to invest in a beading mat. This keeps things, especially small beads, from rolling around on you. A beading board or a necklace board is useful if you plan on making a lot of pieces with distinct focal points. For both home and travel, they sell little spiral clips called bead bugs or bead buddies that grip tightly to where you’re stringing and worth their weight in gold. (binder clips work ok for this, but tend to slip off more easily) If you do a lot of making on the go, a clamshell project carrier is kind of pricey but may be worth your while.

Things to learn asap: how to make a crimp, how to make an eye, fisherman’s knot. There are other things but these bits of knowledge are absolute workhorses.

For those of you with metal allergies, work around it where you can, get something that won’t hurt your skin where you can’t. I often use cord or beads because a lot of market chains irritate my skin, and I always get hypoallergenic earring findings. It’s just not worth the hassle not to.

Get a reference for default sizes. Just, even as a hobbyist. Trust me on this. It’s a good thing to know. Default sizes for necklaces, bracelets, rings, beads. Don’t even need to spend a lot of money, just print them from online. You’ll thank me later.

Info and Techniques

There are varying ways to learn more about jewelry making.

High-end: Buy every book on jewelry making you can. Take all the classes you can. Just absorb all the info you can!

Budget: Get a notebook and a pen and start taking some serious notes. You don’t need to draw well for this, but you see a technique you like? Jot it down. See a piece you think is cool? Make a quick sketch, try and figure out how to reverse engineer it. At the craft store and the employee tells you something you didn’t know? Into the book. Scour libraries, check the internet, fill that sucker with every little jewelry making thing that catches your interest.

My Recommendation: The budget solution, for sure, but I am also an avid Pinterest user. (I know Pinterest is free, but not everyone has regular access to a computer or the internet) I see a technique, I save it. The one risk is that you may spend more time pinning that you do making; thanks to the new feature of categories for each board, I’ve very recently started a private “projects” board, where I put all the stuff for a project I want to do. That way I don’t get distracted.

Sourcing Supplies

How and where you get your supplies is important for figuring out your project.

High-end: You can go to any jewelry making store and get the high-quality beads and findings, the strongest tools, and the stuff for the nicest setup. All your stuff, design aside, will be sturdy and high-quality. Go to the craft store for anything else.

Budget: Be an avid thrift-shopper. Buy old, cheap necklaces and harvest the beads. If the wire in the necklaces is still in decent condition, save that too. Same goes for particularly nice clasps. Use upholstery thread or, in a pinch, unscented dental floss. Some people use snaps for clasps, as they’re easier to maneuver. Wait for sales in your local craft store, and scrounge their clearance bins for some real gems. Make beads and focal-pieces from stuff around the house. Get creative!

My Recommendation: I swing wildly between the two. I have a metal allergy, meaning if I want to be able to wear my stuff I have to shell out for the hypo-allergenic stuff or find an alternative that won’t irritate my skin. But some of my best beads have come from $1 thrift store necklaces, and the better I get the more I can make on my own. I’ve made my own clasps before from shrink plastic, which- fun fact- can be scrounged from some plastic food containers, you don’t need to buy shrinky dinks! So, put down money on the part that’s important in your project, but you don’t need to spend a lot to make good jewelry when a bit of time investment will do the job.

Your Tools

Your toolset and supply choices will vary, from what you have to how you store it.

High-end: Get all the things! All the different types of pliers, beading needles, toolboxes, bead boards. If they sell it you can use it for something. The cool devices that make certain tasks easier to do, too.

Budget: One multi-tool. You can do everything from there.

My recommendation: Like with your supplies, put money where it matters. The biggest factor is how quickly a tool will wear down. Namely, don’t get too attached to your wire cutter because it’s going to go the way of all things way before anything else in your tool kit does. Here’s my basic list:

round nosed pliers

flat nosed pliers

wire cutters

bead bugs/bead buddies

a good pair of sharp scissors

large-eye beading needles (aint nobody got time for that tiny hole nonsense)

crimping tool

That last one is interesting and I want to point it out: a crimping tool is a little pair of pliers that help you fold crimps. (see Bracelets and Necklaces) It is the one tool that can’t really be used for anything else, except maybe helping with crimp covers. (there is also a pair of crimp cover pliers and... no. just no. save your money) This is the most specific tool I ever recommend because it is has one job and it is very good at it. If you’re planning on using a lot of beading wire, get a crimp tool. It’ll save you a headache later.

(finally, we get project specific)

Bracelets and Necklaces

For these kinds of projects, I always recommend beading wire. It’s sturdy and easy to use if you know how, and often lasts longer than string which can be affected by moisture, heat, and general wear and tear. The more strands it has, the more flexible it is. (i.e. 7 strands vs. 49 strands) Do not knot this material, always use a crimp bead or a crimp tube. Knots will come loose. I’m always surprised how many people don’t make this connection, as it is by name a wire, but now you know. You can use a pair of flat pliers to “seal” them, but I often recommend a crimping tool. (As I wrote above, a crimping tool is the most specific tool I will suggest you buy. It can do one thing but it’s damn good at that one thing.)

For those that want a more natural, or flexible, piece, thin cord or beading thread is where you’re going. Wildfire is pricey but lasts a long time and is a good beading thread. For beads with bigger holes, go for cotton, leather, or hemp beading cord.

An important note on this! Thin cord or silk cord is often used for stringing pearls. Should you find pearls interesting, a good technique to learn would be to knot inbetween each bead; this keeps the beads from grinding up against each other and getting damaged, and is also a good way to avoid losing your entire strand if the cord snaps at some point. My technique is this: string pearl. Start to tie a knot. Put a sewing pin or a needle into the knot and gently pull until the knot, needle and all, is pushing against your bead. Then tighten. Repeat.

Elastic and stretchy cord is ok? Better for lighter pieces. Personally I don’t like it because over time it will soak up the sweat and oils of your skin, which will promptly degrade it to the point it snaps. Better for young kids or people with less dexterity, since it’s easy to put on and take off. I used to use one, but then I’d be working and my necklace would get caught on something somehow for a second and then hit me in the neck or wrist. No thank you.

Monofilament is like fishing line and kind of tricky. It’s strong and can be used in the place of beading wire, but only up to a point. It has a bit of give which gives it weakness, but not enough to be stretchy. Still, it has good strength, is almost invisible, and if you’re thrifty can be bought as sturdy fishing line and save you some coin. If you ever see a piece with “floating” beads, they used a monofilament thread.

Chains are almost a topic all to themselves, since there’s such a wide variety. Your tools will open links on chains with defined links, but look carefully at chains like ball chains and snake chains, which need to be treated specially as they have no distinct links. Also, if you have a metal allergy, this is where money will go, that or only ever wear your piece with collared shirts or over sleeve cuffs.

Your clasps will vary, but I recommend against anything that will fall loose and cause your piece to fall off. I love toggles but if the piece is too light you’re asking to lose it. Lobster clasps are a solid go-to option, albeit a bit tricky on bracelets, where you may find a hook more your style. Those ridiculous barrel clasps are best on necklaces, where you can use both hands to full affect. The magnets are strong and very good, but I don’t use them much because I’m always worried I’ll Stick To Something Right When I Don’t Need To. Good if you or the recipient has dexterity issues since it’ll just snap together.

Be careful with your beads, especially on bracelets. Since they’re laying on a curved surface, how the beads will go together will vary. This is where “try on your piece” comes into play. And a word of advice, try not to go too wild in variation or with something too sharp, especially for your wrist. That hurts. Also, avoid going too heavy.

Rings and Earrings

This is where hypoallergenic stuff comes into play the most. (side note, if you don’t have any metal allergy, you can skip this paragraph you fortunate soul) You can weave or tie a ring, but you can’t do that with an earring finding. The big bucks will be put down on those, since depending on your sensitivity you may have to put down bigger bucks for 14k gold and sterling silver findings. The internet is a good resource for this, but always check reviews. Be careful in craft stores, since sometimes the packaging will be confusingly worded. You can temporarily get around this by putting the hook or post in antibiotic ointment right before putting it in your ear, but this is iffy for long-term use.

Make sure your posts have backings that stay on, usually those little curly things or the bullets. For fishhooks there’s a product called a hook keeper or something similar. You may have seen it on the back of earrings you just bought; they’re a little piece of rubber that keeps the hook from working its way out of your ear, good for active people. You can buy these suckers in bulk.

Before I move on to rings, earrings, are where the weight thing is the biggest issue; when I just got my ears pierced, I made a ton of earrings out of clay in preparation for being able to switch them out. One of them was a pair of massive and thick earrings based off a tv show, I think. This lead to Immediate Regret, as the earrings stretched my earlobes to the point of me supporting them with my hands while walking through Walmart to avoid the pain, before realizing how stupid that was and taking them out. Watch the weight, the lighter the better as most ear piercings go through the fleshiest, least structured part of your body. Just, in general, avoid too much weight on anything that uses a piercing. Unless that’s the point. (I see you guys with gauges)

As for rings! I honestly don’t make a lot since I don’t wear a lot, but here’s what I know: your base should either have some give (read: stretchy) or be adjustable. if it’s a fixed size, test the fit constantly while making it. You don’t want to spend that time and energy on something that either rattles around on your thumb or can barely fit your pinky. Always watch the fit on any of these; your fingers will turn white first if something is too tight, then slowly turn red. That is a bad fit, don’t wear it like that. Switch it to a different finger if you have to. You’ll see visible space if it’s too loose. Don’t wear it like that either, you’ll lose it or worse, get caught on something. I actually have an aunt that lost a whole finger that way. Don’t do that. (Maybe that’s the reason I don’t like rings?)

If your ring has to have a large profile (read: a lot of stuff on top) make sure it’s secure. Try to avoid little fiddly bits where you can, go for something like a mountain: large base. When possible, go for something like a coin; low profile, goes along the fingers, but with lots of room to create. Try not to have too many things going off it, either; anything that dangles off the ring really shouldn’t go farther than the side of your hand. This is as much safety as anything; you don’t want your ring to get caught on something and get ripped off your hand, or worse. Also, try to avoid anything too... bumpy? Like with too much variation on the side, the kind that will dig into the sides of your fingers. Not a fun time.

My Backstory

(aka the personal story I moved to the end so you could get to the juicy info)

I got into jewelry making literally by being asked to be the jewelry instructor. You’d think it was the other way around; nope! We needed a jewelry instructor and I was already making baby steps by gluing buttons to earring posts, so I agreed to learn to basics and help education out in the craft store where I worked. That lead to a fascination; there’s seriously so much stuff you can do if you just know where to look! I’ve been making my own jewelry ever since.

As such, I’ve put a lot of time into learning new techniques, which is where I am now. As anyone who’s decently good at something will tell you, the more you know the more you realize you don’t know. I am by no means an expert. The idea is to pass this info on to anyone who somehow knows less than me.

Thanks for reading! If there’s anything I missed or you want to know more about feel free to hit me up with an ask.

#jewelry making #jewelry design

14 notes · View notes