#otherwise they'd just be straight up impossible

[wereh0gz]

I'm gonna be honest I'm so tempted to just look up a playthrough or cutscene comp of final horizon and unblock the tags bc I really don't want to keep playing it lmao

[woso-dreamzzz]

Helper III

Lia Wälti x Mariona Caldentey x Child!Reader

Summary: You help your Mummy's girlfriend

Mariona knew about you before she started dating Lia.

It would be practically impossible otherwise.

She can still remember the uproar that went through the gossip vines when Lia took a break due to injury only to announce she was pregnant. At the time, Mariona hadn't paid much attention to it.

She'd seen the pictures, of course, announcing your arrival but she hadn't had any plans to see you. She and Lia weren't close back then.

But then Ana started talking about you both.

First it was 'my best friend Lia' and 'my little niece' that Ana seemed to throw out randomly but then Mariona started paying attention to it. You and Lia had existed on the fringes of her awareness for a while until Lia joined Mariona and Ana's girl's holiday.

You hadn't been there, spending the time with your grandparents back in Switzerland so Mariona got to know Lia without you and then, as time went on, she got to know Lia with you too.

Now she was here though.

At Arsenal after ten years at Barcelona.

"You ready?" Lia asks.

They'd driven separately today.

Mariona had gotten her own apartment rather than moving straight in though both she and Lia know she'll be spending a lot of time with you and Lia at the house.

"Yeah. I think so."

"It'll be great," Lia assures you, opening one of the backseat car doors and undoing your seatbelt," Won't it, guppy?"

"Uh-huh!"

You slide out of the car as Lia goes to get all the bags out of the boot. You place your hand in Mariona's.

"You have to hold hands in the car park," You tell her," Mummy says so. And you can't run either. That's dangerous."

"Oh, wow," Mariona pretends to be surprised," Thanks for telling me."

You beam at her and Lia looks at you both fondly.

"I'm going to school this year," You tell Mariona," So I won't be around a lot."

"I heard you are very excited."

"I am. Mummy already taught me how to read and how to add and take away."

"Well, I think you'll do very well at school then."

Your little chest puffs out in pride as the three of you make your way into the locker room.

You drop Mariona's hand then to go running over to Codi.

You didn't get to see her for most of the summer so now that preseason's rolled around, you just can't contain yourself.

Codi's your best friend at Arsenal, you think. She's fun and cool and has cows back home in Spain that she sends Mummy pictures of for you to see.

Codi does puzzles with you, at Arsenal and at home too. It's quite fun.

She's friends with Mariona as well and she told you once that Mario is just a big puppy sometimes. You haven't met a lot of puppies in your life except for Jordan's Blu and Beth and Viv's Myle but you think you understand what Codi is saying.

Mariona has an infectious kind of happiness.

Infectious is one of the words Mummy taught you last night when you were reading together so you're very proud of yourself for knowing how to use it.

"Guppy!" Mummy calls," Come on, breakfast!"

You usually have two breakfasts. One at home which is your main one. It's cereal most of the time and you and Mummy clean the dishes together before you come to training to get your second breakfast.

This one is usually a bacon roll or something smaller depending on how much first breakfast you eat.

You tell Mariona this as you walk with her, swinging your joint arms.

"I just need to go talk to Kim," Lia says," Guppy can take you to grab food, right Guppy?"

"I can help!"

You lead Mariona over to the buffet and hand her a plate.

"What do you want?" She asks.

"I'm meant to be helping you!"

She laughs and it's that infectious kind of laugh that has you giggling too.

"We can help each other."

In the end, you both end up with food on your plate and you practically drag Mario over to where Leah is eating.

"You're not eating properly," You tell her and Leah groans.

"Come on, it's the first day of preseason! Have we got to start this now?"

"Yes. That's not proper food, auntie Leah!"

Mariona has to smother her laugh. She's not really sure what to make of Leah now that they're on the same team but she knows Leah's important to you and Lia. She's just not sure where the boundaries are right now.

"Yeah," Leah says," You laugh it up Caldentey, just you wait. She'll be on you of your eating habits."

"No I won't!" You insist," Because Mariona eats healthy!"

At first, Mariona was a little confused about how you would fit in with the Arsenal girls. She couldn't wrap her head around what it would be like with such a little kid running around with the team would look like.

But, as she watches you wander around with a clipboard in her own apartment, she can see you're exactly like you are in private.

Overwhelmingly helpful.

She hasn't unpacked yet so she was a little confused as to why you and Lia followed her back from training, only for Lia to get out of the car and tell her you've been preparing for this moment for weeks now.

You hold the same clipboard from training right now and number boxes with a little pencil.

Lia sits on the sofa, watching you with a fond expression.

"Don't mind her," She tells Mariona," She'll let us know when she wants to put us to work."

"Are you sure? I can-"

"Leave her," Lia insists," She gets annoyed when people interrupt her 'system'. She'll get us when it's time."

You touch every box twice, tapping the top before noting down the number on your little clipboard.

"She's very smart."

"She cried last year when I told her she just missed the cut off date for school. She spent all of her time trying to learn what she'll be learning this year."

"Scarily smart, then."

"She's a good girl." Lia watches as you do a second sweep of the boxes. "And she's very excited that you're here."

"Is she?" Mariona frowns. "But-"

"She thinks you're super cool like Codi."

"Does she?"

"I mean, you don't have cows like Codi does but Guppy really wants to see how well you can puzzle. It's her favourite activity."

"Puzzling? Really?"

"Why? Are you surprised?"

Mariona turns her head to watch you poke around a box that she's sure has all of her electronics in.

"No. That tracks. I think I'm more surprised that she got Codi into puzzling."

"Mummy!" You call out before Lia can respond," Mariona! I'm ready."

Lia stands smoothly, "Alright. Where do you want us?"

You look down at your list, quiet for a moment as you sound out what you've written there. "Boxes one and four need to go in the kitchen! Two and three are all clothes and five has a bunch of decorations. Six and-"

"Let's take it room by room," Lia says," Let's start with the kitchen."

You nod, head bobbing up and down twice. "Okay! Boxes one and four!"

Lia grabs one of them, hefting it up into her arms and heading into the kitchen to start unpacking.

"Come on, Mariona," You say, taking her hand," Me and Mummy are going to help!"

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

Oh hey sorry! I was the anon who told you how can byler happen in 8 episodes. It wasn’t to put you down or criticize you. I just wanted your logical explanation on how it could go. I don’t have a lot of faith in Byler recently so i would to know how do you think,in 8 episodes the reveal will go. :)

Sorry. I'm getting a bit frustrated with the rampant negativity lately.

I'm not a writer. I don't know how to go about setting it down, let alone make it work with the overarching plot that I'm not clued in on.

What I do know is that it's possible. Byler has tons more buildup than Jancy did when season 2 started. Yet, Jonathan and Nancy got together in episode 6, despite the fact that Steve and Nancy were still together when the season started. They never even officially broke up.

Hopper and Joyce were a real "will they/won't they?" situation for a while. It was hinted a bit in season 2, but went full throttle in season 3, before being resolved in season 4. Even season 1 had hints that the two had a backstory that could established the foundation for a relationship. That's what made Hopper seem like he could so easily slide in as a father figure in the Byers family. It was a well-done slow burn. And, Hopper got insanely jealous of perceived threats to attention from Joyce even though it's was all in his head. Sounds a bit like Mike when he thought Will had someone else worthy of a painting in his life.

Lucas met Max in season 2, and they were dating by the time it was over. While it may not have been official until the Snow Ball, I'd argue that their heart to heart in the junkyard was when they emotionally got together. Mike and El also got together lightning quick. It took a bit longer in-universe because of El's "death" but they knew each other for a week, then were separated for a year, then jumped back into it after reuniting.

Robin and Vickie have barely even interacted. They had a brief conversation at the pep rally, but barely knew each other. Then they have a conversation at the end, after we get the "oh, shit, Vickie has a boyfriend" scene. Now, because Vickie said she dumped her boyfriend and suggested that the whole Fast Times at Ridgemont High "boobies" thing was all her, not him, people think they're endgame. I'm not going to argue that, but there's almost no buildup there yet, but people think it's reasonable to think they can get together in one season. I bet they'd say otherwise if we didn't get that obvious hint that Vickie likes girls at the end of season 4.

That one line was all it took for people to believe Rovickie would happen.

Why is it so easy to build up some couples, but not Byler? What is the common element here? Personally, I think it's the fact that there's an opposite sex romantic rival in the mix in El. Because she's there, many people think it's impossible to explain how Mike could like Will.

But why?

We've already established that a couple can breakup in a matter of episodes, even if they start the season "on good terms."

That said, I don't want Mike and El to have the same specific breakup arc that Nancy and Steve had. They both deserve better. But to suggest there's not enough time in 8 episodes just doesn't make sense to me.

We've established that the Duffers can write a slow burn where we see the potential, but aren't quite sure when or if they'll act on it, complete with irrational jealousy of perceived rivals.

We've also already established that a couple can get together in the span of a single season in viewer-time or as quick as a week in in-universe time.

Finally, we've also established that it's not really that hard to explain how a seemingly straight character may not be straight, after all.

So, I really need someone to explain to me just why these things work for other ships, but not Byler. There's a real double standard here that I'd love to expose.

[meirimerens]

Do you have recommendations on reading sth more experimental? 👀

fair warning a lot of the experimental shit i've read i've read in art school context so i have no idea if the classmates who made it published it somewhere + it is kinda hard to recommend experimental shit by virtue of it being experimental so i'm going to rec stuff that i consider like. "mainstream" experimental as in yeah an author wrote this. also the "actually unconventional" bar is pretty low starting from the stuff i was moaning about so well also ☝ love pushing upon people books i've read + i know for a fact i've pushed them before lollll so

mainstream as it goes: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. like you know?

unconventional in essence through shape. it is one book of ergodic literature and if you dig into ergodic literature you will find unconventionality that's kinda Its Thing. i understand by standards for "unconventional prose/pacing" get pretty high once you've put your eyes on this but like. i got more conventional in shape that still are unconventional in prose of pacing.

still mainstream-ish? if you're French? she was an author well-known and important in her time and place (she's still alive it's just that she was important as an author of the literary feminist wave in the 60s & 70s), Anankè by Hélène Cixous. i've read it in french and have no idea how it fares in english (or translated otherwise) but if you want unconventional pacing and prose you're getting unconventional pacing and prose. it is full to the brim with homonyms (hence why idk how it fares in english), of subject-to-attribute uncouplings (a verb conjugated for "I", a subject as "she"), words straight up made the fuck up through homonymy (like "téléfaune", from téléphone and faune [faun/satyr]). some sentences are 2 full pages long, reading them feels like trying to ride out an engine startle. it has no plot, it is about an internal trip, a self-actualization from girl to woman, or from chaperoned woman to free woman. you don't read this for plot, you read this to feel like you've traveled with your head through the open window, and for the imagery, god the imagery i find so very great. unlikely associations, quite sensorial. it's a short book but i've needed multiple tries to get through it because, as i've said, the long sentences feel like trying to hold onto a hand-cranked engine start. the pacing feels cyclical, like an endless stop and start, expressing the internal conflict. you have to hold onto it.

mainstream-ish again if you're french, Le Corps Lesbien [The Lesbian Body] by Monique Wittig. it's one of those where if you're not on that crazy shit you're gonna get yucked, it is endlessly violent in grotesque ways that make you horribly aware of all the anatomical details of your body. it alternates horrible and grotesque neverending violence with horrible and grotesque neverending tenderness (& sometimes neverending tenderness in/through grotesque violence or vice-versa). another one of those where the english translation cannot truly do it justice because french has "elles [female plural they]" and "ils [male plural they]" and wittig goes out of her way to never use ils [french has "masculine as default" grammatical gender]. in the french text, "je" (subject "I") is cleaved in twain: "j/e". In english, they've just italicized it; i think they'd have done well to use something like the polish ł to figure it. anyways barely a plot either. cyclical destruction in grotesque ways that both are anatomical impossible and yet horrifyingly anatomically-anchored. re:the violence in this i'm sure if you've read like. "extreme horror" novels by whichever male author of the month it is you probably won't flinch but i've read this after a long streak of nonfiction & poetry.

i think a bit less mainstream because i've been told about it in art school lol after i had partaken in a collective performance and my stuff had for base a poem about a roadkill that neverendingly dies then is reborn only to die again anyways Jaguar Harmonics by Anne Waldman. closer to poems than literature-in-prose (even if it is in prose instead of rhyme) it is about/from the yagé (ayahuasca) ritual by waldman, poet & buddhist & activist who brings in the text a lot of subjects and themes (the anthropocene, colonization, environmental and feminist concerns,...). it is poetry, so technicallyyyyyyy unconventional by nature as far as literature goes, + spoken poetry at that, i know for a fact there is a bandcamp where you can listen to the poems spoken/sung.

what else. since i'm on the topic of poetry check out Guillaume Apollinaire's Calligrammes i guess

you'll hate me for bringing it up again + it's poetry also againnnn LOL but The Oresteia as transladaptated by Tony Harrison. i find it's great english it uses words that brother i've never seen used. and i loooooove a made-up compound word the people know this about me. let's liven this shit up let's make words up!

French has l'Oulipo ("Ouvroir de littérature potentielle", "opener of potential literature") with representatives such as Raymond Queneau who made a book of poems that looks like this

OH AND HE MADE "EXERCISES DE STYLE" which i quite like also (99 times the same story written with different stylistic/literary constraints)

[gofancyninjaworld]

It started with murder

One of the big differences between the manga and the webcomic is that Tatsumaki and Fubuki seem to have a much nicer relationship in the former.

The reasons for the difference have been staring us in the face, if only we're prepared to actually READ.

The manga starts with a murder. Multiple murders, in fact: Tatsumaki tore apart four members of Tsukoyomi who'd tracked her down when she went to see Fubuki, and their blood splattered all over her and stained Fubuki's room red.

Nightmare fuel.

In contrast, nasty as webcomic Tatsumaki has been, her intention in tossing Fatton and lifting the school was not to kill, but to bully the people bullying Fubuki, to make them feel the same degree of fear and helplessness as they'd inflicted onto her little sister. As best we know, she hasn't killed anyone.

She wanted them sorry, not dead.

And this difference really matters.

As a ten-year-old desperate to reach her sister and protect her as she'd been charged to do, manga!Tatsumaki's horror at being treated as a monster by Fubuki scarred her for life. [Aside: it reminds me a lot of Mob Psycho 100 where a big part of Shigeo pushing down his emotions has stemmed from his horror at accidentally hurting Ritsu when he lost his temper.] Anyway, Tatsumaki has been trying since then to convince Fubuki that whatever else she might be, she *is not a threat to Fubuki*. As we've seen, it has taken Fubuki decades to finally start believing her.

The horror of realising that her sister sees her as a monster.

It's taken Fubuki nearly 20 years to start seeing her sister differently.

Webcomic!Tatsumaki has had to have no such scruples. She may have terrorised her sister, but from Fubuki's perspective she did not cross the line to monstrous until she thought that she'd killed Saitama -- and by that point, the 29-year-old's Tatsumaki's psyche is far more hardened (it also helps that Tatsumaki knows that Saitama wouldn't have been killed by being dropped into a crevasse).

It's only at this point that webcomic Fubuki starts seeing her sister as monstrous.

There's another difference that's just as striking: a sense of personal responsibility. In the manga, Blast charged Tatsumaki with not one, but two directives: not just to refuse to depend on anyone for help but also to protect her little sister. Since Tatsumaki has put Blast on a pedestal rivalled only by that Genos puts Saitama on (well, that's breaking in the webcomic but we're not here to talk about that now), she's taken it as an absolute commandment. She finds it hard to forgive herself for triggering Fubuki's psychic awakening as until then, Fubuki was safe from being targeted by Tsukoyomi. She feels that she has screwed up, that she keeps messing up, and she really wants to change that.

With a child's sense of total responsibility for everything, Tatsumaki has shouldered an impossible burden.

She feels trapped by her actions and really wants to change.

Even though the trigger was incredibly dark and fucked up, since the circumstances of their reuniting have led to Tatsumaki being more gentle with Fubuki in the manga than she otherwise might have been, it has led to some real rewards in that they do actually have an ongoing relationship. A difficult one, particularly once Fubuki became a hero too, but the last arc saw Tatsumaki having to admit that her sister could be a capable hero. They struggle, but there's enough of a bond between them to struggle together.

Hey, at least she didn't go straight for homicide. :)

They're still living, scheming, and fighting together. Because it's worth it.

Webcomic!Tatsumaki feels no responsibility for any of her actions nor sensitivity to Fubuki's feelings. And damn, it shows. They have had an antagonistic relationship short on mutual trust or respect. Since Tatsumaki has no intention of changing, non-contact is the best outcome they can hope for.

To be fair, Tatsumaki has left Fubuki alone since their bust up (with Saitama's intervention).

None of this is hidden. ONE has put work into making sure that each version gives us a cogent set of facts regarding key events in characters' lives. I've not seen people talk about the origins of the differences in the way the versions, and it originates, I'm sorry to say, from people failing to read to learn and rather reading to confirm their prior beliefs.

If I see one more waste of literacy education say that 'Tatsumaki is nicer in the manga because the manga characters have been dumbed down' I'm going to scream.

[randomthefox]

https://randomthefox.tumblr.com/post/767135207471169536/ultron-vs-cell-would-have-been-a-better-match-up

>Any “Cell vs whoever” match up has to deal with the question of How Do They Answer Cell Just Self Destructing And Blowing Up The Planet And Then Regenerating From It otherwise Cell automatically wins.

I feel like any character with the capacity for space travel could just carry Cell into space and let him explode out there.

Then again, cell did say the slightest jolt would make him explode. The transportation would have to be as gentle as instant transmission.

But I also think it's fair to ask IF Cell would try blowing himself up multiple times. The context of Cell trying to self-destruct was very specific. He completely lost his mind because of how bad Gohan was beating him. And he had lost his perfect form by then. Cell's self destruction was more of a deranged "fuck you for ruining my fun" rather than a strategic move.

If Cell only cared about winning in the most efficient way possible, he would've tried self destructing again when he returned to earth. But instead, he started preparing a kamehameha.

I don't think Cell would try blowing himself up unless he gets completely humiliated and has time to process how bad things are. Cell was only able to perform his kamikaze because Gohan was intentionally torturing him and going as slowly as possible. We can't assume every character with the power to embarrass Cell in a fight would also take things slowly enough so he could decide to blow himself up.

I do agree that Metal Sonic would get demolished by Cell though.

Naw but if they tried picking Cell up, that would cause him to explode. Also even if that didn't happen I seriously doubt they could escape the planet's atmosphere in less than a minute.

The only reason Goku was able to do it is because he gently placed his hand on Cell to make contact but not stimulate his self destruct, and then instantly teleported away.

See what I mean? Like. Cell can just do this WHENEVER HE WANTS. And then he comes back life afterwards because he can regenerate from a single cell.

This is bullshit. Cell is fucking impossible to defeat. He only eventually finally died in the story he originates from because of shonen manga contrivances.

Now I'm not saying Cell WOULD pull this out right away. He WOULD try to win conventionally first. He would try and amuse himself for as long as possible with a straight up fight. But IF he started to lose, he would be a sore loser crybaby and flip the board and try to blow himself up. So he's unbeatable in that sense.

The only possible way to pull out a win is to exploit Cells arrogance to get him into a regular straight up fight and also distract him long enough to give an opening to let you atomize him down to erasing every last molecular scrap of his existence. And the capacity to even strategically think of wanting to do that would require bullshit meta knowledge on his opponents part. The only other alternative is for his opponent to be so STUPIDLY strong compared to Cell that he COULD just instantly erase him from existence in a second, and also be so efficient that he would want to do so rather than drag out the experience.

I'm not saying there aren't any characters in all of fiction who could beat Cell. I would even accept jokey meme answers like Goddess Beth

But like. They'd HAVE to be a star buster at the very least to even be in that ballpark.

Ultron and Metal Sonic are not in that ballpark.

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #60:

Lal and Mike Watterson's Bright Phoebus

The most valuable material objects in my home are a copy of The Mountain Goat's Sweden and our blender. My wife informs me, and I believe her, that my socks, underpants and all my Stephen Stills records are worthless.

The blender, a Vitamix, justifies its worth by essentially having the engine of a small aircraft carrier. I use it to make Dollar Bin smoothies out of unidentified objects from our freezer; I figure if you add lots of peanut butter anything is bound to taste good. Some of the time that theory works out.

Meanwhile, although I love Sweden and I owe my initial cooking prowess to John Darnielle, there is no excuse for that record's current value other than simple supply and demand: turns out I'm about the only person who bought a copy at the time.

And so we live a simple life: no locks, no worries.

But, if I owned an original copy of Lal and Mike Watterson's Bright Phoebus my sainted wife and I would need to consider a home security system. Seriously: even reissued-but-instantly-deemed-illegal copies from ten years ago are worth hundreds of dollars. I have no idea why whoever owns the rights is actively interested in making no money on the record; I wish they'd get a life.

And so we'll need to go all digital today on one of the most joyful and reckless records I know. Tumblr, to name another company that seems disinterested in making any money whatsoever, will only let me paste in up to 10 songs per post and I refuse to not share with you a single song, so we'll make consideration of the record a two parter.

Let's dive into Side 1!

The record opens with pure joy. Everyone involved surely swung their arms and waved a baton in triumph while laying this down. I picture Mike Watterson, who at this point was a professional house painter, singing this while mounting a wobbly 40 foot ladder, paint cans swinging in every direction. When the chorus of boinging cosmic Jews harps, or whatever they are, arrive at the two minute mark I dare you to try and keep a straight face.

I'm pretty sure my long ago rock star buddy Thom Moore named his high school band Rubber Band, and I'm pretty sure he insisted no one use a "The" before the band's name. Is that true Thom? If so was the choice a tribute to Lal and Mike or were you just a lucky genius? I'm guessing the former is the case, but I know the later is also true.

Let's take a minute to give some context here. Lal and Mike Watterson were siblings who grew up in a singing family. Trained musicians they were not: neither of them read music or expected to make any real money off the songs they found in the real life around them and ringing forth from their own souls.

But by 1970 they had a ton of famous friends from the Fairport Convention universe (let's call it the FCU) and those friends convinced them to spend a few days recording the songs they'd been keeping to themselves.

What happened next is the stuff of The Velvet Underground and Nico-level legend for the British folk rock movement of that era: Lal and Mike made Bright Pheobus with their famous friends' support and it was bought and appreciated by only a few hundred people (who, to plagiarize Brian Eno, surely then went on make otherwise impossible music themselves). And then, after that, The Watersons never did anything like it again. Thus the preposterous cost of getting your hands on a copy of Bright Phoebus today.

The Scarecrow follows Rubber Band and is presented like a page from Mike's sensitive but drunk journal. I don't know what can be said about this song other than it makes me want to break out sobbing and I have no idea why.

How, he asks, could you lay me down and love me now? Wow.

Fine Horseman follows and you may know it from the cover by the equally legendary lost voice of Anne Briggs. Lal's voice is equally unique to Mike's: both of them turn the word primitive into high praise. And when an odd oboe, then an equally odd cello, accompany her I'm back to fighting off inexplicable tears.

Don't worry, the record isn't all this intense. Richard Thompson, who shares guitar duty throughout with the siblings' new-at-the-time brother-in-law, Martin Carthy, can chord a guitar in a manner that summons up God's restless paces. He taught himself to do so on the record's next track, Winifer Odd.

The track is eventually interrupted by sirens from the street outside the recording studio. The effect is startling on every listen. I always forget that this stuff wasn't recorded in 1742 or something.

Danny Rose is the record's only attempt at something vaguely normal. Happily, it's still totally weird. "Here is the bloodstained jacket he wore... this is his original gun... never been shown to the public before." Apparently we're getting a tour of an impossible museum.

Child Among the Weeds rounds out Side 1. Lal let's us rush through the record's garden; we meet an old man and a young man and demand lullabies of them both. Mike then arrives, the garden's God, and silences us all.

Stay tuned for Part 2. Bright Phoebus!

[beardedmrbean]

Service industry veteran here. You would be hard pressed to find a single front-of-house worker who wants an increase in the minimum wage for servers, at least in my experience. On average, I walk out at the end of the night having made the equivalent of $40-$50 an hour; there isn't a restaurant on the face of the earth that would pay me that much hourly, so anything that could potentially reduce that is something I am very much opposed to.

Oh I'm totally aware of that, delivered pizza for years, got a promotion at one point and all of a sudden my income dropped into the toilet, knew people that worked restaurants who's entire paycheque went straight to taxes because they'd made enough off of tips that it just ate their hourly earnings up.

It's why the tipped minimum wage exists, otherwise getting income tax out of servers would be next to impossible.

If they yanked income tax on tips is where the issues start with the whole thing, it sounds better on paper than irl working out.

Tax thing is why I always tip people in cash if I can manage it, at least the people that don't work at 'tipped wage' jobs where they're taxed on presumed tips regardless of they got them or not.

[ominous-faechild]

sammy headcanons, pretty please,, fun facts or silly headcanons, i need more sammy content in my life

I'm answering these out of order rn because otherwise I won't get to them in forever. I'm sorry to everyone waiting for your asks to be answered... if you even remember asking, WHOOPS--

I mean, technically they're not headcanons because I'm the writer and I just make any "headcanons" just straight-up canon, but! 🤣

Due to his very specific and special brand of magic, he constantly has plants growing around and on him. It's worse around dirt, so he used to make an effort to completely avoid dirt in order to hide his magic.

The growth rate of plants around him exponentially changes depending on his emotional state! If he's happier, they'll grow at a faster pace. This is another reason they did not grow very often before RFtA. Oh, whoops, that's sad, isn't it? 😉

The growth rates of the plants increases dramatically as he gets stronger throughout the series.

If he sits in a pile of dirt, it would take less than a minute for the plants grow over his lap and anchor him to the ground. Later in the books, they'll grow so fast that they'll basically encase his entire body with that much time. Don't worry, though! They wouldn't cover his eyes, nose, or mouth because they love him! Also, he could literally just magically move them off of him, haha. They'll just be sad their father abandoned them. 🥺

Sammy is constantly basically-freezing cold and wears jackets and sweaters as often as possible. It makes him stand out considering the climate is so hot.

He purposely wears oversized jackets with floppy sleeves. It's one of the many ways he makes himself look smaller/weaker in order to make people underestimate him so he can manipulate them. I'm sorry, it's next to impossible not to get depressing/dark with him!!!

He is smol boi,,, so smol,,, 4'8,,, (but you knew that, lmao. That's for anyone else who didn't know.)

Sammy has heterochromia. One eye is pale blue, the other is dark brown--almost black. Although this is uncommon in most people with heterochromia, Sammy's blue eye is more sensitive and has an astigmatism. He was not born with it.

His real-world ethnicity is equivalent to Latino.

He has ADHD and dyslexia. Yes, kinda like the PJ demigods. No, that was not intentional, haha.

However, he may or may not have been inspired by Leo from HoO... JUST POSSIBLY!!! Hey, man, he's a YEARS-old character. Besides, I bet you wouldn't have been able to figure it out if not for this!!! Yw for exposing my dirty secrets.

In a real-world AU, he'd still have grown up on the streets. Instead, he'd get sponsored by a college by (half) accidentally stumbling on revolutionary medication and treating an otherwise-incurable disease in someone he didn't know was important. Everyone would then be incredulous to find out he couldn't/can't read and literally just figured all that stuff out by himself. #JustSavantThings

If he ended up in our world, he'd be terrified of being caught in a recording (of any kind).

If he grew up in our world, he'd love podcasts and music. However, tragically, he wouldn't listen to them too often because they'd distract him from focusing on everyone else around him.

Less fun, but still facts:

He's unaware of this, but the person he thinks of as his mother was an adoptive parent; not biological. Didn't make her any less important to his life or who he is as a person, but does come to bite him in the butt when he finds out the truth!!!

Sammy is plagued by migraines. He's just long-since used to living with them. However, he's able to use his magic to shut off the pain during emergencies. He's just... not aware of it for the longest of times.

Related to the ADHD: he is a MAJOR stimmer. However, he's too used to controlling himself to allow himself to except for when it serves whichever act he's trying to sell.

I lied. He sometimes allows himself to stim in moments where he's trying to "reset" his brain, aka change the subject or give himself a moment to think. It's not entirely conscious though.

Sammy's magic is unique. The only others with it are his family members. Guess that's a little bit of a spoiler, but oh well, haha. It's not too hard to figure out, and it especially won't be when I explain my magic system more in-depth.

He develops anger issues midway through the first book. At the same time, he gets a massive increase in power. Are those two things related, or just a coincidence? Yes.

He doesn't actually like plants. He feels pretty neutral about them. However, the fact that they're the most ethical and effective way to use his magic makes him keep them around. His joking about liking them is a deflection to avoid explaining he likes having a way to defend himself readily available.

He starts to lowkey hate plants as his magic spikes in power. Due to it occurring at the same time as the onset of his anger issues, the "plants growing over him" thing suddenly goes from "occasionally grows over him" to "basically always on him" and he can't cope with the frustration.

It's especially bad when, later in the series, Sammy runs away from the Knight's College ("flight risk" foreshadowing fulfilled) and he's basically unable to get away from dirt. He gets very angry with them never giving him a break.

Sammy is deeply insecure and thinks he can and has only caused problems in others' lives.

He has a good reason to feel that way, though obviously it's not actually true.

As I've mentioned before, he's a major social manipulator control freak who panics whenever he feels he's lost control of a situation.

He pretends to buddy-buddy up with the villains he can't otherwise beat in order to destroy them from inside. However, this makes his "alliances" seem VERY wishy-washy and focused on his own survival.

Despite that, after the beginning of RFtA, Sammy is incredibly self-sacrificing. He'd rather sabotage his own survival chances in order to help others rather than leave them to rot when he otherwise could've helped.

This is related to trauma in his past.

The only people he won't try to convince he's on their side is the people he cares about. He cares too much, his brain short-circuits, and he just gives up because "he deserves it, anyways".

He hasn't sincerely cried for a long time. Not from lack of emotion, but because he's numb to it.

No matter what, Sammy is one of my few characters who will never purposely kill anyone else. Even the people who hurt him the most, even though he'll hold an incredible amount of rage, he can't bring himself to hurt someone else--much less kill--outside of a life-or-death situation. He's a pacifist who enters fights in order to end them as quickly as possible.

Despite his manipulative tendencies, I would call Sammy a good person. One of the "best" people in all of my writing, honestly. He just got dealt a REALLY shitty hand in life.

Sorry I'm sharing some things you already know, Letters! I'm sharing them with the rest of the world, haha!

Tagging list: @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star

@aalinaaaaaa and ask and ye shall be added!

[darthkvznblogs]

If Doom and Reed had tried to copy a DC-verse that was just based around Superman, as opposed to the whole enchilada like Earth-16, would they have had better success or is DC fundamentally incompatible with the MCU?

I definitely don't think merging a DC and Marvel worlds is straight-up impossible; it's just very difficult (from a writer's perspective and from a Celestial's general "don't rock the boat" approach to omnipotence) because there's a ton of overlap in terms of archetypes, roles, and even locations that can't be easily solved without going full Amalgam comics.

(and, YMMV, but I feel like you never go full Amalgam comics)

I think, in order to nab Superman for the Kverse, they'd need to find a universe in which his presence isn't vital to the world's framework - basically, a world in which he isn't a hero, villain, or otherwise super relevant to the "story". I don't have a canon example for you, but I could imagine a world in which Earth has a red sun so Clark never develops powers being one such viable option.

[sometimesiammybpd]

have you ever written a hate song about someone (or someones)? i have and it's strange. also, for the sake of transparency, i will not mention names or specifics outside of the lyrics shown (i made them vague-ish on purpose and left out names).

one of my favorite interests is writing lyrics and i can't lie and say that it didn't feel satisfying to see it on paper because it almost felt like for once, i could vocalize how i'd been feeling for months. it's not easy losing friends over and over again. it's not easy for me to move on from anything. been that way all my life and i want to say it's a battle i can win, but it absolutely does not feel like it. most people just do not understand what it's like to relive the worst moments of your life on the daily like as if it's a tv channel you can't change because someone lost the remote and you're too lazy to get up to find it. except instead of being lazy, i'm mentally destroying myself. and what makes it harder to deal with is the feeling that if i brought up the same issue again, my friends would stop talking to me. either way, it's not fun.

it's why i wrote the song that i did. i pretended like i had an intention to make it a reality but i knew even if i tried, i'd never allow myself to release it. it's just not something you put out there because i honestly don't know if i could really say i was in the right in a lot of the situations i bring up in the song. i just knew that i had to get the hate out of my body because i couldn't stand it anymore. i don't enjoy feeling that much hatred towards a person no matter what they did (or didn't) do. in the case of the people the song is about, it's incredibly complicated and there isn't really one side to take. they'd probably say otherwise and that's fair but imho, it's not that easy cause none of the issues were straight black and white. but i'm not really wanting to talk about this to make myself seem like the good person in a situation the internet shouldn't really be involved in.

a lot of the people that ended up getting written about in this song have history with me and it's not good. because to a lot of them, i was the problem for years and that's completely true. i will most likely make a proper post about changing as a person and stuff but understand that i was toxic for a very long time. not irl toxic, but online levels of toxic. so it was bad and i take full accountability for it. and most of said people originally met and dealt with me in that stage. and that also means they got more than their fair share of it, for worse. if you wanna talk about hard pills to swallow, that's about as bad as it got for me because i couldn't accept it. i don't know, it's a mess and i'm trying to watch what i do and don't say. if they somehow end up finding this post, i don't want it coming across as me trying bring back the dead or something. because no matter how many times i say it, no one believes me that i DO want to move on. but it makes it impossible when i can't even think about them without feeling a burning hatred and just . . . every fucking emotion at once. which is honestly why i tried writing that song. i just fucking wanted things to change. i wanted to be able to start the real process of letting go and closing this chapter for myself because trying to live like this is not possible.

okay so i'm going to show the lyrics, but here's the thing. please don't ask me specifics about what i wrote. i am not showing this to cause problems. this song will not ever see the light of day outside of this post. anyways.

[verse 1] i’m a ghost in this world and i am losing myself the mirror looks back at me, no one is looking back i feel like what once kept me going is now my enemy you blame yourself, i blame my self-destructive tendencies does the thought ever cross your mind like you’ve left something behind like your soul has been declined to make suffering streamlined is that something to do with me? what if it can’t become concrete what happens when i can’t handle the shit you’ve poured all over me [verse 2] nice guys finish last and yet somehow you’re behind them burning through all your money with your unhealthy obsessions $5,000 worth of debt, no job, no urge to get one stupid or suicidal, do you really not see the long run you’ve been made into her bitch, to do whatever she wants you stopped thinking for yourself, acting all nonchalant maybe that’s why you gave up, you just really don’t care you can’t see that you’re uninformed, thinking you’re self-aware

[verse 3] i bet your perception of me starts and stops at the courts the same way you flipped like a dime with your support you're living in the past like it's a kind of glory days treat your boyfriend like he's your bitch, set us all aflame tell me, what will you run your mouth about now? say kill yourself like it's just a joke, somehow you want to control everyone who's involved with you trash them behind their backs, how so adult of you  [chorus 1] i'm a ghost in your world and you're my purgatory make me relieve the worst memories like it's mandatory i’ll be the star in the sky watching your downfall cause i'm tired of the lies, the “end-alls and be-alls” my back is about to break and the cuts are still hurting the wounds continue bleeding, you continue to assure me that white noise will drown out your actions, so moronic you’re setting yourself on fire and i think it’s fucking ironic [verse 4] you got dumped and it's sad but no one wants to hear you whine they didn't cheat, you just suck and your soul’s on the decline lure in another victim, let the delusions loose “it's only been a month, i already want to marry you” will you treat her like you do your failing YouTube career? the work you stole the credit for that made it “oh so sincere” leave her to die in the rain, you’re a walking disaster to you, people are trivial cause the views are what matters [verse 5] let’s play a game of 20 questions, i’ll go first how would you feel if the roles were reversed if i started to use you like you’re just a therapist friend and then left you behind when there was nothing left to expend or what if i came to you, saying they’re all out to get me they want to destroy my relationship, would you call me crazy would you tell me the truth and tell me i’m in the wrong or would it end up how it went down, like we just didn’t belong [verse 6] blame me as if i was the reason why i made the optimist die, mr. “i’m not the bad guy” you told me it was nothing, led me to a false sense of security then ripped it out from under me, goes to show your maturity it made me start to wonder what kind of person you are all the “issues” had with others, coming out like an all-star waking up to see the blood on your clothes “maybe i’m the problem, maybe i should stop hiding in the shadows” [verse 7] sitting here with papers scattered like a conspiracy theorist wondering if it's okay to do this, am i being a realist maybe i should put the knife down and ask if you'll survive ignore what made me hate you, it's okay if i'm not alive cause when we’re all dead and buried, i’ll always have the upper hand we'll all be in hell, did you forget about your sins i’ll let lucifer himself torture me for eternity so long as you get it worse, it's like a fucked up six-part harmony

it's a lot lol. and it's honestly really hard to look at for me because if i did for some reason try to make it a reality, how well do you believe that would age lmao. and i want to say above all else, despite all the hatred i feel, i don't hate these people. and yeah that's extremely paradoxical, but it's true. i feel hatred because of how things went (again, very complicated and very none of your business) but the more i think about them, the more i realize i just don't care. i really don't hate them even if i probably should.

i don't know. the point of this is just to point out that we all handle things different ways. i default to anger and hatred because well, that's where i am right now. i go to therapy when i can and i am doing my best to understand why it goes that way and what i can do to prevent or dull it down, if i cannot outright stop it. it's not something i can just say "oh, i don't like this. i am not doing this" and then have it stop immediately. it's hard to explain that it's something you don't even feel in control of. anyways, i hope y'all can get some enjoyment of the lyrics. and if any of the people find this post, i am not trying to shit all over you so please don't take it that way. yeah, the lyrics are hateful and spiteful, but i didn't decide to release them for the sake of "eh it'd be funny to get one up on them" or whatever.

also thank you guys for reading my posts and so far liking what i have to say :)

[manybcdthings]

"Are you lying to me, Isabella?" Felix asked, his voice dripping with playful mock-seriousness. The smirk glued to his face betrayed him, especially as her giddy laughter spilled into the air between them. Her laughter had a way of making him double down on the teasing, so he slid his hand along her arm, lazily taking hold of her wrist and flopping her hand around like a marionette. Purely so her ring would gleam under the lights. "Yes, I can. It absolutely means that. That's what you saying yes was for, didn't you know?" he insisted, voice muffled between kisses he couldn't stop pressing to her lips. Each one barely grazed, like punctuation marks to his words.

He pulled away just enough to shoot her an exaggerated look of disbelief, his brow raised high. "You do know that's completely wrong, right? Please tell me you know that and you're just trying to annoy me." his grin stayed locked in place though, because it was impossible for Bella to truly irk him. He was certain of it. But still, Felix let out a dramatic hum of faux agreement. "Oh, I never said understanding you was a good thing," he added with a well-meaning grin, giving her hand a squeeze. "Actually, the more I understand, the more I realize something's not quite right up here." he tapped his temple lightly, failing to keep a straight face because, well, he'd figured that out long before they'd even met.

Things shifted slightly when Nico Garcia's name came up, but Felix couldn't be serious for long, especially not about Nico. "I guess knowing of him is more accurate." he mused, a grin creeping back as he chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like Nico." but what really got him was the idea of Ophelia on a date. He glanced down at Bella with a quick laugh. "Well, if Fee is having a hard time not talking, she probably knows it's a date." he threw the teasing jab at the other Westwood's direction, though she wasn’t even there to defend herself.

Felix's laughter turned louder and more sudden at Bella's joke about France and cheese, nodding along as if he couldn't help himself. "That actually sounds accurate, I think. From what I've read." he said, though his amusement dropped comically fast when she ribbed him about his repetitive words. He shot her a deadpan look. "You're not funny. I could have a stutter." he quipped, though the grin playing at the edge of his lips suggested otherwise.

As they walked on, the crowd around the ImmersiSphere loomed closer, and so did the protest. Felix read the signs, heard the chants. There it was, that tug of guilt he'd been feeling ever since Bella entered his life. It was harder to ignore the disparities now, and, more importantly, he didn't want to ignore them. When he noticed her starting to shrink inward, his arm instinctively wrapped around her, shielding her from the crowd. "You're allowed to enjoy yourself." he reminded her softly, his voice gentle. "And technically, we haven’t even paid for this so we're not contributing." he added, a small smile in his tone as he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Will you disown me if I keep coming back, though?"

He'd always been aware of how easily he could slip into certain traits of his parents, sometimes without even realizing it. As they joined the waiting crowd for the open day, he could feel himself becoming uneasy, shifting uncomfortably in place just like his mother would in a situation like this. Yet, like his father, he accepted that sometimes you just had to grin and bear it. But as his eyes flickered to Bella, the thought of any Outreach users recognizing her pushed him into action faster than his own discomfort could.

Without realizing, Felix did exactly what his father did moments earlier. "Hold on," he said, kissing her cheek before vanishing. It wasn't long before he flagged down a staff member, requesting a more private place to wait. A few moments later, they were led to a room. Felix let out a sigh of relief as soon as the door clicked shut, his shoulders dropping with visible ease. "Oh fuck, that's better." he huffed. "We really should've come back when it wasn't an open day. I completely forgot that means everyone would be here." Felix tilting his head side to side to get a satisfying click from his neck, completely unaware of his parents in the next room.

"That's what I was thinking, too." Bella quickly responds, fighting her grin as she studies Felix with a pretend look of suspicion. "So, we were both thinking respectful, normal things about this person." she adds, but her laugh quickly bursts out when he squeezes her sides. "I'm telling the truth!" Bella protests, words quickly muffled against Felix's mouth as they kiss. Not once or twice, but three warm and tender kisses that has Bella's smile widening as her chuckles grow. "You can't just win an argument by kissing me." she teases, because he can and he often does.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I meant I have the same opinion but it just evolved from what I already had. It's the same but different." she explains her reasoning, but truthfully, Bella doesn't even remember what her apparent passionate opinion was to begin with. Her head flops to the side with a little huff as Felix's playful dramatics continue, her eyes rolling but there's no true annoyance in her expression. "You know I didn't mean it like that." she slumps her shoulders then, reaching for his hand. "Of course you understand me. I'm just not sure if that's a good thing or not." she quickly teases him, giving him a grin.

Bella doesn't doubt that Felix has memorized everything there is to know about France. What's been managed to be archived through history, anyways. His intensity touches every part of his life, but it's something she's always found endearing. "Oh Gosh, I want to stay away from encouraging relationships there. There's, oh...you might know him, Nico Garcia? He's helping us but..." Bella's eyes widen in a playfully worried look. "He's definitely not there for honest reasons." she explains before getting back to her point. "But yeah, Fee is a hundred percent on a date. I'm just not sure if either of them even realize it."

Swinging their joined hands as they walk, Bella soon notices the sudden shift in Felix and it warms her to witness. That, really, despite the expansive luxury he was raised in, still something quite simple such as visiting somewhere can make his entire day. She laughs about the smell, wrinkling her nose. "Is it bad that I immediately imagined a very cheesy smell?" she chuckles, catching his mishap of words too and not wanting him to forget them. "Well, it's good we're almost there there there." Bella quips, the two of them closer to the experience when the growing protest is in earshot. Bella uses Felix as her human shield then, tucking slightly at his side and keeping her face down. "People from Outreach might be there and recognize me. I don't want to seem like a traitor."

[hopeswriting]

i want to scream you guys have no idea how much i love chapter 219, it's one of my fav chapters from the whole manga if not my fav chapter altogether. also i honestly think it's one of the darkest moments in the manga, like. everything that was said... all the revelations about what's actually going on and on whom to actually put which part of the blame on... all the implications of everything that was said...

irie straight up says to tsuna's face, to all of them's that "if that was the case... [your deaths] couldn't be helped anyway..." are you kidding me are you kidding me i'm pretty sure it's the worst, darkest, most fucked up thing he says in the whole manga and it makes me go insane. he's talking about middle schoolers and non-fighters and five years olds kids, and that's the only thing he had to say about putting them at risk.

and for having everything that happened up until then fresh in my mind because of my reread, it's not like their potential deaths was a worst case scenario by no means--well, of course it was, but not in the way where he was trying everything so it wouldn't happen, if you know what i mean? because even if he didn't come out and say it, their potential deaths was the key to the plan, the cornerstone on which it was build on, it was absolutely inherent to it. because purposefully throwing them in life and death situations again and again, and having situations like those wait for them at literally every corner, hoping--hoping they'd pull through and grow stronger for it, and putting in danger people that didn't need to be involved while he was at it only to motivate them even further in pulling through again and again, was the "training" he came up with so to "increase [their] strength exponentially in the shortest time possible".

(and look, i'm not necessarily saying he's wrong considering the context in which all of this happens, tho morally he is for sure. i'm saying it's all wrong in so many ways.)

and then, literally just after he says this, he says tyl!tsuna was part of the plan too HELLO??? HE SAYS TYL!TSUNA AGREED TO THAT PLAN. like, he agreed to that plan, no matter how long he needed to come around to it, and you know what, involving his guardians (minus lambo) in this would have been one thing, but kyoko and haru? lambo and i-pin?

tsuna. are you screaming yet too because i am, i'm screaming so hard, tsuna--ZHDLSBSLSK my god--

and THEN what does lal say to that?? "that's impossible! i know sawada's personality!"

AND YEAH LAL YOU AND ME BOTH BABE THIS IS SO--!!!

and look, i don't think lal and tsuna became best friends tyl or that she became his most trusted confident or anything lol, so i'm not saying she's necessarily the voice of truth on this, but. she's the only one from tyl whose reaction is shown about this, and also she's cedef. so presumably she was there every step of tsuna's reign during those ten years, and knows of everything he did during those ten years, knows of every decision he’s made. so even if we say she doesn't know tsuna's personality enough to say something like that, she's still the one who knows vongola decimo's best in that room, and this is what she said. with no hesitation too and with absolute conviction, like, she didn't even consider the idea even for a second, that's how much it was unbelievable to her.

and look, look, i get it. much like irie himself pointed it out, this of course says little about tsuna and much more about how truly hopeless the future became at the hands of byakuran, about how much he backed everyone into a corner and forced them into acts they'd never have done and decisions they'd never have made otherwise. and of course the stakes are much, much higher than just present!tsuna & co's lives, and if byakuran was left to it eventually they'd have gotten involved and died at his hands anyway. something had to be done, a gamble had to be taken no matter how awful it’d be for everyone involved for the literal greater good, i get it, i do.

but still, the little it says about tyl!tsuna does still say something about him. and it's not little by no means from present!tsuna & co's pov. like, his hands were forced for sure, but he still chose to go that path, to bet everything on that gamble, however reticent or well-meaning he might have been about it. i mean, he could have stood his ground about not involving the girls and the kids to the very end, but ultimately he chose to give in. he still had a part in all of this willingly (relatively speaking of course), and it's like.

tyl!tsuna, my beloved, who did this to you... how much ten years in the mafia have changed you... what did it turn you into and how far along the way are you... would your present self even have been able to recognize himself in you...? would you have been able to recognize yourself in him...?

and it makes me lose my mind, and you know what, this IS in fact my favorite chapter from the whole manga hands-down

[palant1r]

been thinking about assistive devices in ace attorney

-they're probably often custom designed and pretty easy to get, with weird limitations, and often look cool and are a bit ridiculous. the technologies in our universe still exist and are widely used, there are just more options, especially for people with rare disabilities

-special glasses for apollo that can dull his kinetic vision to avoid sensory overload and migraines. taking off the bracelet doesn't help with this, since it just makes his vision more unfocused. side effect is that while he's wearing the glasses he can't see clock hands move

-the technology behind widget could be really effectively used for nonverbal ppl/other (hearing) ppl who use boards or otherwise cant speak...but programming in a filter is a lot harder

-phoenix tells godot he's been having chronic back pain. godot tells him that his assistive device designer developed a back brace that periodically injects needles at key points to reduce pain, like constant automatic acupuncture. phoenix says he'll just stick to ibuprofen

-sidenote: pess as edgeworth's ESA who can warn him before an earthquake

-ESAs are extremely normalized in this universe. they'd have to be, in a world that lets a death row inmate just. keep a bird of prey

-powered exoskeleton limb braces for ppl with paralysis that doesn't affect the spine, limb weakness, etc. klavier gets one for his leg for MS relapses. the problem is, it takes some calibration. he accidentally kicks edgeworth in the dick once.

-lots of ppl still opt for canes because the exos are uncomfortable, inconvenient, not always necessary or don't adequately exercise the limb. also might not adequately compensate for balance issues

-they dont have the technology to reattach limbs with full function/grow new ones from a stump/reactivate a totally dead limb BUT they can just. straight up grow a limb from someone's side. no one opts for this. finding clothes is literally impossible

-fully functioning genital/breast transplants are a thing. titty venmo viable in the ace attorney universe

-some people opt for that. other people opt for the fully-feeling robot dicks that aura blackquill has absolutely made available at low cost.

-have you seen how unnecessarily weird toys/jewelery are in this universe. stim toys are 100% normalized and also fucking insane

-kristoph is photosensitive, so his glasses are made from a specialized material that causes them to appear a bit more opaque than clear glass

[draslihanxfahri-bailey]

She beamed up at him. Stifling her giggles was an impossible task, especially with him peering at her with narrowed eyes and the sound of his voice over her words. Admittedly, she thought too much about him recounting his and Rhia's first trip to Coral Cove together. How he panicked to Rachel about whether the baby girl would end up traumatized or not over the fish. How she had a fit of giggles listening to the tale and trying her best to assure him that their daughter was okay. Though, admittedly, it was fun to mess with him about it from time to time. Especially when it resulted in moments like this.

Though, now that Rhia was older and in her phase where she was shy over anyone and anything that wasn't them, Alex, and the cats, there was a part of her that worried if this could be the moment. But, she tried not to dwell on it. Otherwise she knew that her boyfriend would pick up on her worries and form ones of his own as well.

Fortunately, Alex's excitement helped to pull her from her troublesome thoughts. To stop worrying about her youngest baby's potential near-fearful-experience, and to focus on her first baby having a wonderful seventh birthday. She gently fluffed her hair up slightly, running her fingers through her soft wavy hair. Was it truly that just a few years ago, she was once so small? That she couldn't speak yet already held such a massive personality? That she already held such curiosity towards the world, always looking at everything and anything with just fascination that only grew more with each day? Truly, it was hard to believe that that's the case, even though she was filled with so many memories proving that. Yet she cherished them all the same.

The spew of facts leaving the seven year old's mouth was nothing short of incredible. What made it even better was Alex's own excitement. How utterly clear it was that she truly enjoyed learning more about what she reading aloud to them. That she has read that factoid before and genuinely loved it. Elijah was right: she was her twin. Though the woman did giggle softly, nudging him with her hip before kissing his arm. This was paradise, truly.

However, her paradise soon took off. Alex running straight to look at the animals and Eli with his long legs soon after her with Rhia. "Oh, fuck me," the curator grumbled. Trying to keep up. Though, magically, seeing her partner extend his hand out to her and wiggling his fingers did, admittedly, fuel her motivation even more and she sped up. Quickly, happily, catching up and interlocking their fingers, her other hand moving up to place on his lower arm while she cuddled up close to him. Being by the musician's side was, quite frankly, her most favourite place to be at.

She nodded at his words, her own eyes and smile wide. "God, they're big! Though if there are any Galapagos tortoises around, then they'd be tiny. They're incredible." As Alex eagerly talked to Rhia, pointing out the different tortoises to her baby sister, the woman looked up at the man. Her features softening as she said to him gently, "Think the girls would love a safari where they can be up close and personal to animals in the wild?" ||📜@elifalvey

“Woah, woah, woah — unlike the fish?” Elijah interrupted, narrowed eyes peeking around his giggling baby to land on his all-too-smug girlfriend blowing raspberries against her cheek. He knew that she was only teasing him now — because hell, she was the second person to reassure him otherwise, if not tell him outright he was being a little insane about the whole ‘traumatized by fish’ thing — however, the words alone were enough to keep a smidge of skepticism hanging over him like a cloud.

For all he knew, after all, turtles were where Rhiannon drew the line. He wouldn't let his guard down completely.

The sound of Alex's mirrored giggles did put a smile on the man's face, though. It effectively pulled him out of his thoughts, which became increasingly more ridiculous the longer that the four of them stood there mulling over their next move. Instead of thinking about what Rhiannon would do when face to face with a much larger animal, he tried to focus on the little girl's gigantic encyclopedia — tried to focus more on her, in general. The whole point of them coming out to the Adventure Park was so that they could celebrate her and have a good time, and as long as she was having fun then he could put aside whatever parental worries were flooding through his mind as best as he could.

Rendered rather speechless from the barrage of facts from the seven year old’s mouth, his brows raised in surprise and he couldn’t stifle the amused chuckle as she skipped ahead of them to get a closer look at the turtle — no, tortoise. It was almost as if he was staring directly at a younger version of Aslihan herself, and it was endearing the way she even seemed to recognize that while she leaned against his arm. “More like your twin, I think. Are you sure she’s only seven?” It was his turn to tease, standing still in order to let her steady for a moment until he took off after Alex who’d been eagerly awaiting them to follow.

His long legs walked in even longer strides, though his hand extended behind him with wiggling fingers to entice Aslihan to come along. Rhia bounced ever so slightly in his arms and he planted a kiss of his own to her cheek once they came to a stop behind where her sister stood nearby the railing.

“Oh, there’s a bunch of them!” he exclaimed to no-one in particular, eyes coming to look at a rather large cluster of them on the grass. “Look at those guys. They’re actually kind of cool up close, aren’t they?”

( @draslihanxfahri-bailey )

[youngjusticeslut]

Will and Jade telling Lian a bedtime story but they wind up retelling the story of their romance and adventures. but through a fairytale/kids book filter for Lian.

"No."

Will's eye twitches. There are lots of things he'd like to consider himself good at. Shooting arrows. Knocking a Shadow goon out cold in less time than it takes the average person to tie their shoes. Hell, even making chicken picatta.

Getting his two-year-old daughter to fall asleep is not one of those talents, unfortunately.

He lets out a short huff, then tries the diplomatic approach. "Lian, you have to be tired. You ran around the park for hours. I know you're tired."

"Nu-uh."

"Well, baby girls need their sleep."

Lian immediately narrows her eyes, a near-perfect depiction of her mother's steely glare. "Not a baby."

Her little high-pitched voice and the fact that she still wears diapers would say otherwise, but Will really doesn't feel like having this discussion at the moment. If anything, he's exhausted. But he promised Jade that she could take a breather and he would put their daughter to bed this evening, and damn it, he's going to do it even if it kills him.

"Lian, you need to go to sleep. What can I do to help?"

The toddler mulls this over, tapping her finger to her chin. If he weren't so tired, he'd find this impossibly cute. After several seconds of deliberation, she grins. "Bedtime story, please."

Right. The story was the quintessential part of any growing kid's bedtime routine. How could he have forgotten? The problem is... he's not a great storyteller. And Lian doesn't really do picture books anymore after they'd gone through them a million and three times. She needs new material.

Will scratches the back of his neck. He can't exactly say no to her. Not after she said please and everything. "Alright. But just one."

"Yay!" Lian claps her hands in excitement and scoots over, making room for Will to join her on the bed.

It takes him a minute, but Will clambers on the little toddler bed and attempts to get comfortable. The thin mattress buckles under his weight, but Lian doesn't seem to mind. She cuddles up to her dad immediately, and Will automatically wraps an arm around her.

"Anything in particular you want to hear, kiddo?"

"Real story."

"Right, right." Okay, so a memory. Shouldn't be too hard to come up with something, Lian loves hero stories. Though, she likes Jade's Cheshire stories more. He could combine the two, couldn't they? "Have I ever told you the story of how Red Arrow first met Cheshire?"

Lian's jaw drops. "No."

Bingo.

"Oh, it's a good one." He smirks for a moment, sensing that his wife is nearby. "He kicked her butt and sent her crying back to the Shadows."

"Oh please," Jade scoffs, leaning against the doorway. "That's slander, Harper."

"That's how I remember it."

"Well your memory is wrong. Move over," Jade mutters, shoving his legs away with a bit more bite than necessary as she sits cross legged in front of them. Lian is absolutely thrilled at this new development end immediately leaves her dad to crawl over onto her mom's lap, nestling in her embrace naturally.

Will has to keep from grinning. Sometimes, when the stars align, he's able to get his wife exactly where he wants her. He knows it's selfish, especially after he promised her the night off. And yet, moments like these are so rare.

"Well, once upon a time, there was a big strong hero, named Red Arrow--"

Jade cocks a brow. "Big and strong? Well, aren't we being generous."

"You want to tell it?"

"Damn straight." Jade's fingers find their way into Lian's rumpled locks, smoothing out the knots with gentle, careful motions. "Cheshire was out on a mission. It was an important mission, but easy as can be. Get in, get the target, and get out."

"And chicky whizzies after," Lian adds, the usual prize for a Cheshire gig. The G-rated one, anyway. She doesn't really need to know about the thousands of dollars in blood money.

Jade nods. "That's right. All the chicken whizzies she could eat as payment. Anyway, just as she was about to get her target, this annoying little hero shot an arrow at her."

"Annoying?"

"Red Arrow!" Lian pipes in, grinning.

Sensing that Jade would add in some of her own slander, Will cuts in before she can. "Red Arrow tackled Cheshire--"

"But she ended up on top. Just like she always does."

"--And they fought. It was a tough fight."

"For you, maybe. Red Arrow's hand-to-hand skills need work."

"Seriously?"

"Just when things were getting good and Cheshire was about to put him on his ass--"

"Jade."

"The police came. And Red Arrow, the smug prick he is, made sure to follow Cheshire to her jail cell and rudely interrupt her tai chi."

"Now who's slandering who? That's so not what happened. Red Arrow followed her because she needed to be questioned."

"And yet, her tai chi was interrupted."

The two continue, going back and forth for quite a while until they noticed their daughter was out cold, snoring away softly, cuddled up on Jade's lap. The former assassin pauses in arguing with her husband, all smugness fading from her face.

"She lasted a while. It's nearly nine."

"No kidding." Will stretches his arms above his head, relief filling his face when his muscles crack in release. "Let's get out of here before she demands a sequel."