#The violet blog was just a daily thing we had to do

[thatweirddolldude]

I must preface this by saying I did also write about this in a college assignment.

That purple bitch IS FAKE AS FUCK. I get it- Sunny can be a lot, but VIOLET TALKED SHIT AND WENT BEHIND HER BEST FRIENDS BACK!!!!!!!!!! Sunny didn't deserve that. And instead of apologizing for it- Violet cried and called herself a shitty friend. Like? Girl you are? Don't make Sunny pat your back then tell you how good you actually are.

THEN APARENTLY!!!!!!!!! Violet never hangs out with Sunny anymore? Sunny says her and Violet don't see each other that much anymore in season 4. Y'all go to the same school and your dorms are across from one another! You can't chill in the common area after classes? Lunch?

And like the only time they ever are hanging out on screen they just talk about shit they used to do. "Remember when!" "Remember when!" THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE! And then Violet apparently can't not be on her phone while hanging with Sunny? So??? What the fuck?

THEN WHEN THEY FINALLY DO GET TO HANG OUT AND JUST BE FRIENDS NOT IN CLASS!!!!!!!!!! THEY CAN'T BECAUSE SUNNY HAS TO FIND SOME MAGIC FUCK SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because now the show is about magic????????????

[libertyreads]

Book Review #88 of 2023--

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Rating: 5 stars.

Read from July 8th to 10th.

Am I really giving a Fantasy Romance a 5 star rating right now?? Well, hopefully you’ve seen me live blogging my reactions to this one over the past few days so you know how this book was making me feel. Do I realize this is probably not the next great American novel? Of course. Was I a giddy school girl the entire time I was reading this one? Yes. This was so fast paced (and done well) and I just wanted to keep reading. Yesterday, I read 290 pages in one day (and I would have read more if I had the time) because I had to keep reading. It’s such a compelling story. Let me back up and give you a quick synopsis: We follow Violet who is entering the war college at the age of 20, but instead of going to the scribes like she always thought she would, this disabled young woman is forced to enter the quadrant for the dragon riders. The most physically and mentally demanding quadrant at the school. But when your mother is the general of the war college you do what she demands. While in her first year, Violet must overcome the physical challenges her disability and the school put in front of her. She uses her daily pain as a beacon to light her way and uses every advantage she has to survive.

I don’t know where to start. I loved the world building and felt like it was done in a way that made sense. I could see not only the setting that this was taking place in, but also the magic and the way it worked. I could picture all the different magic types and how their magic worked with the connection between dragon and rider. I could also picture all of the dragons and the way they moved in flight and in battle. I absolutely LOVE Tairn and Andarna. I cannot tell you how quickly these two dragons wormed their way into my heart. A magical companion will always, always become a favorite character. Another character I basically adopted as one of my children immediately is Xaden. Look, morally grey is my favorite color and I have to adopt all of the morally grey characters. It’s practically a law at this point. He is such the dark and brooding villain hero, but at the same time, when you hold him up in comparison to Dain (Violet’s best friend at the start of the novel), he is just the better person when it comes to how he treats Violet. Well, as long as we ignore the first part where he’s threatening to kill her. But you can’t have an excellent enemies to lovers without the enemies first. And that is what this novel has as the Romance part of Fantasy Romance. There were some solid romantic moments in this novel for me. It starts with Knife Flirting--the sharpest and most elegant of flirting styles in Fantasy. There’s also Hand-to-Hand Combat Flirting which I didn’t know was a thing but now want in every. single. Fantasy I read that has even a moment of a romance. Two of the other big, non-sexual, moments for me were when he had daggers made for her and when he had a saddle made for her dragon (and then just approached the most deadly dragon in the quadrant to ask if it wouldn’t mind acting like a fucking horse). But speaking of sex scenes, there are a few which would normally bother me as someone who is asexual and has a lot of trouble with how specific sex scenes get with what the characters like and how uncomfortable that makes me. But these were some good, and still spicy, sex scenes that I actually enjoyed reading. And if you can make me like a sex scene then that alone almost deserves 5 stars.

And that was a long paragraph. Okay, I also could note how the book had a few moments of not 100% great writing, but I had such a good time with this one. I really enjoyed it and I hate that I don’t have a copy. And I also hate that I can’t read this for the first time again. Overall, this is great for someone who likes Fantasy, likes Romance, likes the combo of the two. If you’re looking for something that just hits all the right beats in a magical world with dragons, a deadly war college, and political machinations, pick this one up and thank me later.

[megsironthrone]

On Wings of Dragons

Based on this request: Hi. :) I was wondering if you could write with Viserys? Inspiration from the drabble you wrote for me earlier. Perhaps where they still have the dragons and finally have conquered the 7 kingdoms? :D from @xwennie

Here you are, lovely! I decided to take the drabble I wrote you, use it for the first part, and then expand on it! *Familiar Characters are NEVER mine!*

Warnings: AU-ish. Angst, blood, violence, death. Dragons. Fluff-ish

Pairings/Characters: Viserys Targaryen x fem!reader. mentions of Joffrey and Cersei.

Viserys gaped at you in disbelief. This was not what he'd been expecting to come back to after storming out during a disagreement. He'd expected you to be asleep or crying or something. But that was absolutely not what he returned to. You were still sitting in front of the fire where he left you. Only this time, you weren't alone.

"What are those?!" he snapped, gaining your attention once more. You looked up at him with surprise in your eyes. "Dragons," you whispered, "They were real. The eggs weren't decorations at all. They were real eggs." Viserys couldn't believe it. He was the dragon! Targaryen by blood! How was it that you had been able to hatch dragon eggs and he hadn't?!

Something in Viserys' gaze must have told you what he was thinking because you got up, cradling one of the two dragons to your chest and walked over to him. "They are ours, Viserys. Yours and mine. And with them, nothing will stop you from winning the Iron Throne."

You handed over the tiny dragon before stooping to pick up the other one. Viserys held the creature in his hands, letting his violet eyes meet those of the dragon. It almost looked like it was smiling at him. Viserys chuckled softly to himself. It seemed like he wouldn't need Drogo's army after all. All he needed were his dragons and you.

*time skip*

Viserys felt the wind whipping through his platinum hair as he rode his dragon across the sea. He glanced over to see you on the second one. You grinned at him. The two dragons had grown quickly, but Viserys had raised them with help from you. They were obedient only to the two of you. Anyone else made them wild and untamed. And nothing made them happier than the daily training in flying. Now, though, it was different.

Now, you were flying across Westeros, toward King's Landing. It had been you that had pointed out Daenerys pulling away from him. You were the one who warned him of her possible betrayal. That had been the catalyst for Viserys' decision to gather whatever belongs the dragons could carry and fly to the nearest seaside city. There, Viserys had purchased a small fleet of ships. They had sailed underneath the flying dragons. One more step toward the Iron Throne even if the journey hadn't quite gone the way he'd planned.

After arriving in Westeros, the rest seemed simple enough. Take over Storm's End and what remained of Stannis Baratheon's army. Then, head for King's Landing, gathering more soldiers along the way. By the time Viserys was ready to take on Joffrey, there was no stopping him. With his newly acquired army, your support, and his dragons, there was no way Viserys could lose.

"Give Joffrey a chance to surrender, my love," you told him softly as you landed the dragons just outside the gates of the city. You couldn't destroy the city. Then who would you rule? You were the voice of reason for Viserys. You were the reason he knew he wouldn't go mad like his father. Viserys didn't reply, but you knew he'd heard you.

As expected, you were greeted by the Gold Cloaks, all of them ready to run you through on Joffrey's orders. Viserys didn't pay them any mind. He had the upper hand and he knew it. "I have come to offer you the chance to surrender. You will relinquish the Iron Throne to me, as is my right. Do that, and there will be no need for bloodshed." His voice was deceptively sweet, but you knew better. That was the voice he used when he was fighting to keep his inner dragon under control.

Joffrey stared at him for a moment before scoffing. "And why should I do that?! You have come here with a stolen army I'm certain would gladly fight for me for the right price." You placed a hand on the back of Viserys' arm. No one else could see it, but Viserys recognized your support.

"I have two dragons circling the city from above. I could destroy you and the city in a storm of dragon fire and blood and bone, if I so choose. For the sake of honor, I chose to offer you this chance. I suggest you take it." Joffrey looked ready to soil himself at Viserys' threat. He knew Viserys wasn't bluffing. The question was, would he surrender or would the child king doom himself and the people of Westeros to death and destruction?

Joffrey rose from the throne, gaze shifting between you and Viserys and the people in the throne room. Everyone waited with bated breath to hear what he would say. He opened his mouth to speak, but a thunderous roar was heard overhead. Joffrey practically jumped as he realized that Viserys wasn't kidding. He had dragons and was not afraid to use them. It was only because of you that he hadn't already.

You watched as Joffrey thought about what to do. "I should have my Gold Cloaks remove your head from your shoulders." Viserys chuckled. "Try it, boy." Joffrey nodded his head and you heard the sound of swords unsheathing. Viserys didn't even flinch. In a bored tone, he simply replied, "Sweetest?"

You could feel your lips spread into smile that was almost feral. Without warning, you launched into an assault. The Gold Cloaks were so caught off guard that they didn't know what to do. You managed to take out three before one landed a hit on you. You kept going. You told Viserys that it would be a bad idea to destroy the city. You never said anything about killing a few of the Kingsguard that dared threaten your husband.

You fought until Joffrey screamed at the Gold Cloaks to cease. You were back at Viserys' side in an instant. Joffrey and the remaining guards stared at you in disbelief. "What? You truly didn't think he married me just for my pretty face, did you?" you asked with a laugh, "No. In Viserys Targaryen's army, the only things more deadly than I are the dragons."

"Now that you've seen a demonstration of the power I possess, what is your choice?" Joffrey looked even more pale than usual, all sense of bravado gone. He reached up and removed the crown from his head. He tossed it to the ground in defeat. Cersei cried in frustration as Viserys took a step forward to grab the crown.

"Behold! The Dragon of House Targaryen and the new ruler of the Seven Kingdoms!" he declared. You gave him a curtsey, prompting everyone else in the room to do the same. The smirk Viserys wore was one of pride and you couldn't deny it thrilled you to your core.

"Now, leave me and your new queen! But first, take these two to the dungeons!" Guards wasted no time in grabbing Cersei and Joffrey and escorting them out. Once the throne room was cleared out, you turned to Viserys. He eyed you up and down, admiring how looked splattered in the blood of his enemies. "You did it, my love!" you exclaimed. Viserys grabbed you by the waist and pulled you to him. "Yes. I did. We're back where we belong and I will fight tooth and nail to keep it with our dragons. There will be a Targaryen on the Iron Throne for eternity." He then claimed your lips in a searing kiss, only parting when another roar came from overhead.

(a/n: I hope you like it!)

Forever Tags: @fizzyxcustard @brewsthespirit-blog @etherealpotter @line-viper @frozenhuntress67 @cd1242 @smalltownbigheart @gruffle1 @igotmadskills

[uwuwriting]

Aizawa, Todoroki and Shinsou bringing their kids to work

Request: I just binged your whole blog and let me tell you Hawks bringing his kid to school was fhrqhelfifreh so could I request todoroki shinsou and aizawa bringing their kids to work - anonymous

Okay till the end of this week I’ll be giving you fluffy stuff because starting next week we are entering angst territory . I hope I finish the fic with Shirakumo’s daughter and then I have some angst requests to get to. So this is like a parting gift to happiness. Love ya. 💖💖💖

rules

masterlist

warnings: fluff

Aizawa Shouta 

-He loves being a dad. 

-Unlike his students his son, Kaito, is a very very calm two year old. 

-They take naps together in their matching sleeping bags, Shouta is the only one who can feed him his vegetables and they usually grade papers together. 

-You are the one who looks after Kaito while Shouta is at work and once he gets home you go off to your agency. 

-So basically Kaito spends half of his day with you and half with Aizawa. 

-When you were called in that morning because of a villain attack, you had to leave Kaito with Aizawa. 

- “I’m so sorry Shouta, Midnight was assigned on this mission with me and I don’t really trust Hizashi with a two year old.”

-He chuckled, taking a sleeping Kaito from your arms and giving you a kiss on each cheek and then on your forehead. 

- “Don’t worry kitten, I’m sure he will be an angel.”

-In the teachers lounge, before class starts for the day, nearly half of the staff is cooing over the still sleeping toddler. 

-They keep complimenting Shouta about how much they look alike and how cute he is. 

-He just grumbles about how he wants them away from his son.

-He was saved from the bell, dashing to his class surprising all of his students with his sudden appearance. 

-They hadn’t yet seen the baby in his arms until he stirred in his sleep, a few baby words tumbling from his mouth. 

-Mina was ready to let out a really really high pitched squeal when Sero slapped her mouth shut. 

- “Its sleeping!”

-Aizawa just let out a sigh and set his stuff on his desk. 

-He went to start his lesson like usual but that apparently wasn’t an option. 

-Sir you have a baby in your arms don’t expect us to stay silent and learn something useful. 

-Kaito woke up a few minutes into the whisper shouting argument Shouta was having with 18 teenagers. 

-He slowly blinked the sleep from his eyes, letting out a small yawn before looking around, his e/c eyes landing on all the new faces. 

-Everyone was silent, expecting the toddler to start crying at the change of scenery and at the absence of his mother but surprisingly no. 

-He rested his head on Shouta’s shoulder and shyly waved at the class. 

-Since he was awake Mina could be a little more vocal. 

-All the girls wanted to hold him, their main mission being to make him laugh. 

-Some of the boys were asking Aizawa some questions  while others were entertaining the toddler. 

-Kaito was really amazed by Shouto’s flames and he let out a heart warming laugh. 

-Uraraka made things float around the baby while Kaminari made small sparks. 

-Aizawa has never heard his baby boy laughing that much before.

 -At home he’s quiet, laughing only when you tickle him or when Shouta’s stumble scratches his plush cheeks. 

-Maybe taking him out more and letting the class hang out with him a little wouldn’t be so bad. 

-The last person who approached the kid was Bakugou, who crouched down to his eye level and they just stared at each for a solid minute. 

-Then Bakugou activated his quirk and the mini explosions made Kaito giggle and reach out to Katsuki. 

-The rest of the day was spent fawning over Kaito, nothing changed even after three hours of toddler entertainment. 

-When it was time to leave, the kids begged Aizawa to bring him again. 

- “Maybe I’ll bring him to the dorms at some point. But don’t irritate me you brats because otherwise he’s staying home.”

Bonus:

“I heard that you, little man, were a heartthrob today!”

*baby babbling*

“Yeah he didn’t let me teach.”

“Like it bothered you.”

“I never said that” 

Todoroki Shouto

-You had to go on a mission abroad for a week and today the twins’ preschool had informed you that they wouldn’t open today. 

-Frantically you called Shouto, proposing some solutions to your problem. 

- “I’ll take them with me.”

-He wants to spend more time with his girls anyway. 

-Both of them are very curious about their parents’ job and they have asked both of you to take them to work. 

-This was their chance. 

-You went to protest, knowing how stressing hero work could be and not wanting to stress your husband out more.

- “Love, I want them with me. I want to spend time with my snowflakes.”

-You couldn’t argue with that.

-He woke them up and helped them get dressed, leading them to the kitchen for breakfast while he simultaneously did their hair. 

-The twins aren’t really morning types so they tend to be really quiet until noon. 

-Telling them what they would be doing today, Shouto grabbed his things and stretched out both of his arms. 

-When people at the agency saw the youngest Todoroki with two little girls clinging to his hands they were confused. 

-They knew that he had a family, you two worked at the same agency after all, but they had never seen your kids. 

-And let me tell you that 90% of your coworkers are now cooing at the three year olds. 

-Shouto knew that his daughters didn’t really like crowds, even Rei who was the talkative one of the two would get shy and hide behind him when new people approached. 

-Because of that he scooped both girls up and quickly made his way to his office. 

-A few staff members greeting him and the girls but not many stopped him. 

-Once inside he set them down and went straight to work. 

-The girls are really quiet in general. 

-They pulled two chairs on either side of their father and sat there, coloring and doodling or just staring at his reports. 

-Surprisingly, Ren asked some questions while Rei stayed quiet.

-The crowd at the entrance must have exhausted her social battery. 

-Pushing his chair back, he pulled both of them on his lap kissing their foreheads before going back to his reports making small comments here and there to keep them updated. 

-Rei fell asleep after half an hour and it was the cutest sight. 

-Ren followed soon after, the little white and red haired humans clinging to his shirt like a life line as they snoozed off. 

-He took a picture and send it to you making you jealous beyond belief. 

 I want cuddles too!!!  😣😣😣  Someone’s jealous.🥰🥰

-He leaned his head on one of them at some point and he too fell asleep. 

-His secretary walked in to inform him of his father’s arrival and had heart eyes for the rest of the day. 

-She took a picture and sent it to you, informing you that your husband was sleeping on the job. 

-They were too cute though so she couldn’t bring herself to wake them up. 

-But alas there’s no rest for the wicked so he woke up at some point. 

-The rest of the day was spent with the three of them going to meetings, filing reports and training at the agency’s gym. 

-Watching two mini Shoutos running around the gym pretending to train is top tier stuff. 

Bonus

“Rei sweetheart don’t freeze your sister.”

“But she’s the bad guy!”

“Am not!” *flames flying*

“Ren don’t burn the place down.”

Shinsou Hitoshi

-Kei is actually the one who wanted to go to the agency. 

-She had asked both you and Shinsou to take her with you one day. 

-She may be using it as an excuse to skip day care but you do you hun. 

-It was her birthday and the little shit used that to her advantage.

- “Can I come with you to work? Pretty please?”

- “Kei...”

- “And it’s my birthday today.”

-You just level Shinsou with a glare.

- This is all you 

-Shrugs. 

-Now you have no choice but to take her with you and hope that everything goes smoothly. 

-The main reason why you didn’t want to bring her with you was the looming possibility that someone could attack and your little girl would be in extra danger. 

-Hitoshi reassured you that everything would be fine. 

- “Her parents are two of the best heroes in the industry, she’ll be completely fine. I promise.” 

-He woke her up the next morning, scooping her up and bringing her to the kitchen for breakfast. 

-She was really clingy in the mornings and wouldn’t function correctly if one of you didn’t hug her until she fully woke up. 

-Hitoshi is really soft for her during her birthday. 

-He’s soft for her everyday but today he’s ten times softer. 

-Gets her dressed and ready for the agency and is out the door in no time. 

-Shinsou talks about his family a lot.

-He has like fifteen photos of you and Kei in his office and a bunch of her drawings tapped to the wall. 

-He adores his family okay?

-So your coworkers aren’t so surprised when they see the small mess of violet hair resting in his arms. 

-She too doesn’t like crowds but won’t cower away. 

-She’ll put on a brave face and greet the strangers with acute politeness. 

-As long as one of you is in a ten inch radius she’ll be fine. 

-She answers all the questions that are being thrown her way. 

-She even sat there and suffered through a handful of cheek pinching. 

-Shinsou sees her suffering and scoops her up, excusing them and taking her to his office.

-You kissed her forehead and headed out to your own office, making her promise to visit you at some point because you too need some cuddles during work. 

- “We’ll catch bad guys momma!!”

-She is a curious little girl, so for the next two hours or so she’ll be exploring every nook and cranny of Hitoshi’s office, opening drawers and cabinets, digging through case files and boxes. 

-Then she might play with Hitoshi’s capture tool before visiting you for an hour or two. 

-You love having her attention but you know she’s simply taking a break from her dad’s office. 

-She’ll be back to Shinsou in no time. 

-Daddy’s girl.....it iz what it iz. 

-Around noon she starts to get tired. 

-If she was in day care she would be taking her daily nap.

-Her exploring tired her way too much and that’s why she’s now snoozing off in one of the armchairs in Hitoshi’s office. 

-He draped his jacket over her and let her sleep. 

-Later on you two took her to a meeting, allowing her some insight in the hero industry. 

-Plus she gets to hear the tea. 

-For training she tags along with you, doing some laps and trying -and failing- to do some push ups. 

-At the end of the day she was exhausted, sleeping soundly on Hitoshi’s shoulder as you made your way home.  

Bonus

“I don’t want her to grow up.”

“Well we could always make another one.”

“Way to be subtle mister....”

“Let me smash...”

TAG TEAM AY:

@iwaqchan​ @the-arcana-fan-fic​ @angelwritings​ @axerrri​ @reinyrei​ @dnarez​

[fortisfiliae]

Promised Part 17 - Tom Riddle x reader

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 |  Masterpost | Masterlist

Summary: In this story, Tom didn’t grow up as an orphan, but with his grandfather and uncle. Reader’s sister got very sick and the Gaunts offer their help. But not without asking for something in return.

Disclaimer: Please be aware that I don’t condone any of this in real life. (GIF is not mine)

Warnings: None, finally

Word count: 1.2k

Part 17 - Epilogue

The year after the incident at the chapel in Ramsbury went by very uneventfully compared to your last year at Hogwarts and the weeks after, even though so much was changing. Boring was certainly not the right word to describe it. Everyone involved had wished for a bit of peace and was more than happy to live a quiet life for a bit.

Marvolo’s body had been buried appropriately. A small bribe had been enough to make the Mediwizard who had examined him confirm that he had died naturally, of old age. Marvolo had been right after all, they must have really been a bunch of quacks in St. Mungos.

Morfin wasn’t to be found anywhere. Gaunt Manor had been empty, apart from the two house-elves, when your family, Tom and you had gone there. He must have apparated to the manor after Nagini had attacked him, however. A great amount of Galleons and some potions were missing from his chamber when you searched through it. Hokey and Scrook wouldn’t tell anyone what they had seen - they were still loyal to their Masters. They didn’t want to be freed either, even begged not to be given proper clothes. So Tom gave them to Hepbzibah Smith, an old witch who was known to be an avid collector of magical antiquities and was looking for elves to serve her.

Since Morfin wasn’t there to inherit any of Marvolo’s riches, they were passed down to Tom directly. He owned Gaunt manor now, as well as the mountains of Galleons that were locked up in the Gaunt’s vaults at Gringotts. While Gaunt manor had been tempting to pack your bags and move into, both of you didn’t fancy the thought. The house was linked to countless haunting memories for Tom and despite its enormous size, it was way too cold and rigid for your liking and reminded you too much of the Gaunts themselves. 

So Tom sold it to a wealthy family, muggles as far as you were aware, which must have made Marvolo turn over in his grave one last time.

Tom bought a house in your home town shortly after, smaller yet still as boastful as you had expected it to be. It even had a telephone installed, which you didn’t mention to him after you had given him a look when you had seen it, to which he had just shrugged and rolled his eyes. 

You didn’t move in with him immediately, as your parents didn’t allow you to leave your home unmarried. They allowed you to visit him, though, and you did so as often as you could. 

Life had gone on as it always did and you had gotten a job right after school. The Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers had reached out to you after they had seen your grades and gotten a letter from Professor Slughorn. They had asked if you wanted to be trained to become a Potions Master, which was an honour not many witches and wizards were granted with. It hadn’t taken long for you to accept, so you were in close contact with one of their tutors, a witch by the name of Guiliana Toffana.

Tom had taken on a desk job for the Ministry, which paid well even if it wasn’t the most exciting work to do. He had plans though, wanted to work himself to the top one day. And for all you knew, there was no one stopping him from doing so.

Camille had started working as an assistant at Ollivander’s Wand Shop in Diagon Alley. The year had been hard to bypass for her, as she wasn’t able to see Ben as often. They sent each other owls almost daily and the only thing you worried about was that none of you were in Hogwarts anymore to help Ben out with Herbology. Tom had suggested that your little sister Elsie could help him study, as she had started her first year and had been sorted into Gryffindor. 

On 1st July 1946, one year and one day after your almost-wedding, Tom invited you over to his house. You would have lied if you had said you weren’t expecting it. And he met your expectations by getting down on one knee. He asked you to marry him again, 366 days after he had done so the first time. And your answer was different now.

Only a few weeks later - you would have never thought it to be possible to organise a wedding this quickly, well, what a bit of pocket money was able to do - the big day had come.

It couldn’t have been more different from the day in Ramsbury. Your whole family, even the distant aunts and cousins, as well as all of your friends had been invited. Everyone gathered in a small castle north of the Peckforton Hills in Cheshire, where the ceremony and subsequent celebrations were to take place. Even muggles would have described the place as magical. Its old walls and lush, green lawn inside the courtyard reminded you of Hogwarts a lot. 

You wore an elegant white dress, not Mother’s, but one that you had picked out yourself. One last look into the mirror before the ceremony would begin and, you even had to admit to yourself, you had never looked better. 

Father had to help to calm you down before you entered the chapel with him. Walking down the aisle with the music playing and all eyes fixated on you was scarier than fighting the Gaunts had been. But Father was there by your side, leading you up to the altar safely.

And the moment you spotted Tom waiting for you there, all nerves were soothed. He bit his lip while you approached him slowly, his eyes wandering up and down your figure. A smile, one that even reached up to his eyes, formed on his face and didn’t seem to leave after he had taken in the sight. 

Ben, his best man, stood behind him, and only watched Camille, your maid of honour, from the side as tears of joy ran down her face.

The officiant’s speech got drowned out by your thoughts, as you lost yourself in Tom’s eyes, standing face to face with him in front of all of the guests. The way he looked back at you, deeply but still collected, led your mind to wander. 

Love surely wasn’t like it was described inside a book, no, but when the people involved were honest and trusting, it could turn out to be even better than words were able to ever describe it. You both had changed so much since you had gotten close. And you were going to change with every day that you would spend together. There was much work to be done still, many compromises to be made and a lot of healing yet to start. But you were sure that with an open heart and a tiny bit of luck, you were going to make it. And you couldn’t wait. 

Time had passed by so quickly until now and it would pass by equally as fast from now on. Every day was just another grain of sand falling down the hourglass that was life. But now that every grain had Tom in it, they seemed to drop differently. Happier, more meaningful and full of expectation for what’s to come. Every grain was to be cherished and the two of you promised that to each other when you both said the words. “I do.”

The end.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 |  Masterpost | Masterlist

Well, we’re done :’) I’m a bit sappy, it’s hard for me to let this story go. I actually can’t believe I pushed through and really finished it. 43k words, a short novel. Wow. And I wouldn’t have been able to do it, if all of you hadn’t liked, shared and commented on this story. I really need the feedback and you all were so kind and gave it to me. So, credits to you, we made it. And as always, thank you for reading!

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[ifbrd]

Not Sugar-Coated, ToBecky Critique from a ToBecky Shipper

Let’s talk about Tobecky and it’s toxicity! And for once, let’s not hold back! I think what I’m gonna do for this post is focus on the dynamic they have in the show, mostly criticizing my own misogyny but calling out the fandom in general as well, as I’ve seen other’s do these same things. Later I will reblog it on the Word Up blog and continue my thoughts on the ship and how it affected Word Up.

The first thing I will say is that I am a Tobecky shipper, ever since Tobey’s first shorts when it was revealed he had a crush on WordGirl. I started watching this show as a kid, I would have been 9 or 10 when it started airing on PBS. If I were to get into this show today, however, I don’t think I would be shipping tobecky, because as an adult I can recognize its toxicity which I didn’t have the proper knowledge or understanding to do back in the day. And I think the real reason I still ship today is purely nostalgic. Though I won’t deny that their dynamic is interesting and that likely affects my shipping brain too.

As a kid, I think I shipped it because, well it seemed inevitable. It seemed like the only endgame option. How many romcoms start with a girl liking one boy, only to realize later she should be with a different guy, usually an underdog the audience is supposed to root for. How many romance stories start with the two not liking each other, ranging anywhere from minor annoyances for each other to full-blown enemies, only to later understand it was all a guise to hide their true feelings. It seemed obvious that Becky/WordGirl would end up with not Scoops, whom she had a crush on, but instead Tobey, the underdog she always was fighting or arguing with. Factor in Tobey’s crush, my very underdeveloped ability to think critically, and the fact that the writers in early seasons seemed to really take the time to focus on the potential chemistry between these two (their interactions in “Department Store Tobey” and both of them having a good time together in “Have You Seen the Remote?” etc) and it seemed there was only one boy for Becky to logically end up with.

The first time I can recall really questioning this ship, I mean really questioning it, was sometime in probably my sophomore or freshman year? Maybe my junior year? I recall my health teacher teaching us about healthy vs unhealthy relationships. In this unit, I realized several of my favorite ships across various fandoms were unhealthy but that’s a whole other topic. At one point I remember him giving his two cents about the phrase “opposites attract” when being applied to romance. He said this can be true, but only if the two are “opposites” in personality, and not “opposites” in values. If a couple’s values, their morals, don’t align, they probably aren’t going to make it. And in all honesty, I think Tobey and Becky have the worst possible combination for this.

They have very similar personalities, and while this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can make it easier for them to encourage their negative traits instead of helping them overcome them. The traits they both share like pridefulness, attention-seeking, and being a bit obsessive, have the potential to be the traits they bring out in each other. The best counter-argument for this is the fact that Becky is willing to and would call Tobey out for everything wrong or ridiculous he does, and try to help him. But that doesn’t matter if Tobey is not willing to listen to her when she calls him out, or accept her help when she offers it and he needs it. And it’s especially worthless if he’s not willing to help her back.

Meanwhile, the biggest weakness for this ship is their opposite values. Their morals couldn’t be more apart from each other. Get these two together for long periods of time and a morality war would easily ensue. And then combined with if their similar personalities do end up bringing the worst in each other, then any relationship they could have would be disastrous.

The worst issues with their pairing all go back to Tobey. I love Tobey as a character, don’t get me wrong, but we need to be honest, and please excuse the language--Tobey is a piece of shit! He is disrespectful to everyone around him, except his mother, and that’s only because he’s scared of her He thinks he’s better than everyone else and has no issues expressing that opinion, even going as far as to try to define words for WordGirl. He goes as far as to belittle her in “Tobey or Consequences” criticizing her word choice. He has been shown on multiple occasions to lose his mind when he doesn’t get exactly what he wants and will do anything to get it, without regard for others’ property, feelings or safety. He’s manipulative as seen in “Tobey Goes Good” and “Have You Seen the Remote.” He’s unwilling to take responsibility for his actions, as demonstrated when he attacks the candy factory for making candy because he got a cavity, instead of realizing that he should have taken better care of his teeth.

And worst of all, despite what he and the audience often believe, he clearly doesn’t give a single shit about WordGirl. If he cared about her he would have acknowledged her disinterest, if he cared about her, he wouldn’t have tried to force Becky into admitting she’s WordGirl in “By Jove, You’ve Wrecked My Robot.” If he cared about her, he wouldn’t have pretended to be good or trick her into spending time with him or forced her to read poems about him. In the Halloween special he thought Violet was WordGirl just because she was wearing a WordGirl costume, failing to acknowledge that Violet is blonde and white and WordGirl is clearly not.

The episode “WordBot” makes it very clear what kind of relationship Tobey wants from WordGirl--and it’s not a relationship. It’s a dynamic where she simply showers him with never-ending adoration and does whatever he wants. Tobey cares about one person and one person only and it’s not WordGirl, it’s himself.

And I’m not even counting “Go Gadget Go” in any of this! That episode put him in such a bad light that most fans pretend it doesn’t exist because his behavior is so inexcusable. And yet even without that episode, we have plenty of toxicity coming from Tobey’s end.

I once saw someone say they hate the tobecky ship because the argument for it often is that Becky will be willing to put up with Tobey when they’re older. First of all, if that’s your argument in tobecky’s favor you need to go take a good hard look at yourself. Becky putting up with Tobey’s messed up behavior is essentially hoping she ends up in a horrible, toxic, unhealthy, relationship that would be borderline abusive if she didn’t stand against him. Secondly, while I don’t deny the existence of this argument, (I once read a fanfic where the two were married but still a hero and villain who battled regularly) I disagree with the idea that this argument is most often used to justify the ship. Instead, the most common argument to justify it is the idea that Tobey has it in him to change. This is certainly a better argument, as Tobey changing is really the only hope for this ship.

But I think it’s really easy for us, myself included, to struggle with the line between finding evidence that Tobey could change vs excusing his actions; the line between finding an explanation for his behavior vs finding an excuse for him. It’s a very easy line to accidentally cross without realizing it. And it really says something when, as discussed in another post, we are not giving other villains like Victoria--who have more of an “excuse” --the same treatment. It’s incredibly misogynistic.

I’m not going to try to argue that Tobey doesn’t have the capability to be good, of course, he does. We can see this in the cute note he leaves in Becky’s backpack in “Trustworthy Tobey” and in the very last moments in the Thanksgiving special, and of course in our favorite example, “It’s Your Party and I’ll Cry if I Want to.” I’m also not saying that Tobey’s actions and psychology aren’t the product of the environment and circumstances he faces daily. Of course having no father figure present, a single mother who is always working, and no friends is going to affect a child. What I want to question is when is Tobey responsible for his own life, choices, and actions? Maybe not now at age 10-11, but what about when he’s 13? 16? 18? 21? 40? Where do we draw that line? I also don’t want to discourage looking for the good in people and characters and thinking critically about how their past and psychology is affecting their actions. I want to encourage that in all characters, not just the boy who happens to have a crush.

And while it’s nice to speculate that Tobey will follow a better path in the future, not so much for tobecky as much as for the betterment of Tobey himself, we need to realize that it’s just speculation. We have no canon proof of where his story goes post-WordGirl. He has his moments of hope but overall this kid has a terrible track record. When it comes to others, Tobey makes terrible choices. And that’s exactly what “going good” will be--a choice--his choice.

I also want to take a moment to talk about something @fromtheplanethexagon said in this amazing post you should totally read because it’s great. They commented on how very few people when writing tobecky fanfics takes the time to explore her perspective of their feelings for each other. Where her feelings originate and why she would like him. This is something I am absolutely guilty of and will be paying attention to in the future. After reading that passage from their post I thought for a while why Becky would like Tobey, and I honestly struggled with it a bit, which shouldn’t be happening if I’m trying to write a healthy tobecky story. That’s all I’ll say on this for now because beyond this I would use Word Up as an example, so I’ll save that for later.

The older I get the more I realized how toxic this ship is. Heck, who knows what I’ll realize about it in the future when I’m even more mature. In the past I’ve tried to convince myself it’s okay I ship it because I never shipped Tobey with WordGirl, I shipped him with Becky. I know they are the same person, but Tobey doesn’t know that, and the dynamics between him and each of her egos are very different. The dynamic between Tobey and WordGirl reminds me of Gideon and Mabel from Gravity Falls. Meanwhile the one between Tobey and Becky reminds me more of the one between Jimmy and Cindy from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron. That’s better right? Even if just a little bit? Well no, not really, because we all know darn well if Tobey fell for Becky instead of WordGirl he would treat Becky exactly the same as he treats WordGirl. He would ultimately have the same “WordBot esc” expectations. If anything he might try to treat her worse. With WordGirl there is a clear power balance, and while it’s still technically there with Becky, Tobey doesn’t know it’s still there and might try to use that to his advantage.

And to conclude I’d like to add to @fromtheplanethexagon above-mentioned post (here’s the link again, seriously, read it!). Regarding their final thoughts that it’s fine to explore the ship, and it’s fine to explore the unhealthy parts of the ship. But we need to be careful to not glorify the toxicity of the potential pairing.

[dansnaturepictures]

My wildlife and photography highlights blogs 2021: Blog 6: The story of my year of butterflies, flowers and other insects on patch at Lakeside and at home part 1

What a difference two weeks make is what I said in late February this year, when on my Lakeside walks ice gripping the landscape had given way to wildflowers and blossom adorning it and much sunnier weather under the glow of the snow moon. Spring was springing. The catkins had been around for a while as I mentioned in my birds at home and on patch highlights post, they then eventually gave way to the beautiful blossom and glorious green buds which would overcome the landscape. Of course it was my best ever year for seeing and photographing blossom especially on my daily whilst working from home Lakeside walks, as I was based at home in lockdown and noticing all the little bits of these things starting to come and being so in tune to notice the slight changes in the landscape. The blossom like a festival of life made my heart sing as I saw it more and more at Lakeside. Where I had loved seeing the autumnal colour at the back end of last year gradually come and transform the landscape, I so enjoyed doing it with blossom and really seeing the stages of the different types of blossom and it really taking over the landscape so well and beautifully. With the beautiful show the catkins allowed me to enjoy at Lakeside I then longed for the blossom and anticipated this spring time spectacle. I never forget the joy of seeing my first bit of blossom this year on a social distancing walk with my Dad one lunch time. I felt the first blossom and seeing it overcome the landscape a lot more this year, then seeing it develop patch by patch from just the one little bit of blossom to big swathes of it on the trees, and this was all perfect for me to take part in the National Trust’s brilliant #BlossomWatch on social media as we all celebrated this special piece of spring. I enjoyed pink and white blossom alike thriving in the sunshine and brightening up grey days so much this spring. The catkins and the green and white buds I very much enjoyed noticing to great detail and admiring for their individual beauty and how they turn the landscape a certain colour too which I perhaps hadn’t so much in previous years.

As well as the blossom, flower wise at Lakeside and in the garden I had my best ever spring for daffodils. Seeing an extraordinary amount of all different colours in the garden which I just loved and lots at Lakeside. I enjoyed taking them in so much they are such a hopeful and optimistic part of late winter into early spring and getting pictures of them mostly with my macro lens taking some of the best I ever had this year I thought. One patch of lunch time walks also late February into March I had an amazing flower moment when I stumbled across the first ever group of crocuses I recall seeing north of the steam railway station at Lakeside. They were a strong group of purple and white beauties that grabbed my attention straight away, just a small patch shining out from a vaster landscape they stood out so much even from distance. This was amazing to see and feel and I was just so captivated by their beauty when going towards them and being there with them. I loved taking pictures of them macro and otherwise and I also enjoyed seeing bees on and around them a bit of an early-spring hub of life standing out this year I did love them.

Other flowers I enjoyed seeing in and around Lakeside this year with my passion and little bit more knowledge for flowers now fully raging in my heart and I had a great year for flowers here were; speedwell including possible germander and marsh, periwinkle, many violets, forget-me-not a few times of different sizes some possible field forget-me-not brightening up the place each time I loved the bright blue glow of these floral treats nestled into bits of Lakeside a lot this year, lesser celandine, greater spearwort, yarrow, cuckooflower taking over nicely in the spring one I loved learning this year such a beautiful and colourful flower, lovely garlic mustard, hedge nettle, deadnettle a beautiful bright purple flower on the green out the front lots of times, possible dogwood, lovely little purple vetch nicely so much of different varieties, white vetch too, lovely purple alfalfa growing well beside the steam railway track, chamomile, love-in-a-mist, bird’s-foot trefoil such a delicate little plant I enjoyed taking in really close up and seeing its markings and shape there this year, on a fantastic foray into flowers on June 29th at Lakeside and on the way the charming and unique viper’s-bugloss or blueweed one of my favourites to see and ones I’ve known longest especially at Lakeside, selfheal, St. John’s-wort and splendid views of knapweed, cornflower, poppy, green alkanet, pleasingly immaculate scarlet flowers the bouncing bess I do like those, pale yellow-eyed grass as part of a blooming area of flower bed by the visitor centre a nice bright colour to see, columbine, wood avens a lot, the quirky shaped and lovely yellow and green agrimony bursting out in June as were the lovely pink infused bearwind/bindweed I saw a lot of them both, nettles including the lovely white bee nettle I enjoy seeing, yellow iris a sight for sore eyes looking very bright in spring I had been looking forward to them and they soon took over the beside lake areas and wet meadows in all their yellow glory, crane’s-bill including likely cut-leaf crane’s-bill a lot and the lilac delightful gem of the bigger meadow crane’s-bills which I love seeing and accompanied the oxeye daisies so well in late spring here, common mouse-ear chickweed in good numbers a great little white one, bright and ripe purple glorious grass vetchling creating some top memories, possible Spanish vetchling too, bird vetch, mallow, colourful honeysuckle, broad-leaved clover, white clover both clovers seen so much, spiky and tall thistle which was nice to see, the always key part of spring and attractive dog rose its always great to see my first of these in a spring I do really enjoy seeing the rest of the plant which I appreciated this year too these took over the landscape with other roses a little bit too especially noticeable so many dog roses emerging over one June week, cow parsley in a great volume a special sign of spring which I learnt and observed at so many places this year, lots of buttercups helping create a yellow carpet nicely going into mid spring, daisies they take over the landscape in spring quite well too and a special year I had for dandelions with both yellow and then the fluffy ones creating carpets in the landscape well the daisies and dandelions together especially on the green out the front looked so pretty. So many of these flowers I saw again and again too and I enjoyed every minute.

Aside from the daffodils this year continued so well from last year for me seeing and photographing flowers/plants in the garden and on the balcony at home doing this so often it really did captivate and enchant me especially on sunny days, seeing great things such as viburnum one I learnt so much this spring, sedum, great red and white pretty fuchsia, camellia, dog rose and roses on bushes in both gardens the front bush looking especially lovely covered in pink roses with delicious vanilla looking white ones in the back garden, poppy, buddleia looking nice and purple and luscious green too growing well a very vital plant for insects butterflies and bees especially hence the name butterfly bush as we went into summer a key hub for insects and we’re lucky to have so much in the garden with some nice orange flower coming in July too, rose and dog rose on the bush in the front garden and rose on in the back garden too on a bush with a multi coloured and brilliant luscious looking rose bush at another property visible from my room at the back of the scene from my room too which was great they key parts of spring, koi, rhododendron, bright pink steeplebush out the front and from a neighbouring property out the back, rich red dahlias one of my favourite flowers to see domestically which I loved again this year especially in the sun, honesty, amazing looking and bright pink snapdragons by a neighbouring fence with quite a lot of colourful flowers growing nicely again by our fence and others nearby these did look fantastic in the summer I spent some great moments with them, spurge by the neighbouring fence as well, my first oxeye daisy of the spring in May one I always love seeing every spring and summer in the wild to my surprise seeing one in the garden I saw them a lot in the garden this year and many more. It was a bright, colourful and rich festival with the hanging baskets and similar from above from my room and on the ground level looking very special as the spring went on with fantastic colour and beauty with just so many flowers bursting out which was great and I can say the same for the balcony on the middle level too. I was surprised how many of the flowers remained colourful over the winter months and it was like a bright festival through spring and into the summer with so much colour some species the same as last year others different. We had a nice great wild grassy bit at the back of the garden where the honesty and more was which developed this spring which felt brilliant there was loads of great stuff growing in and around the garden this year. I loved seeing speedwell and daisy in the front garden both that I am more used to seeing outside the property speedwell one of the key stars of my delve into flowers which I love seeing. Honesty, speedwell and daisy in more wilder flowers being seen at home was joined by some willowherb another key family of me learning flowers in June which was great. The same day I loved seeing some cuckoo spit on the beautiful vast lavender adorning and dominating the garden here a sap type substance helped to form by froghopper nymph. I saw this gleaming in the sun three days later too. I saw a snail in the lavender this year too which was interesting with it tucked in. That day I also loved seeing some poor man’s weather-glass aka scarlet pimpernel one I enjoyed learning last year when I got started with learning lots of flowers which was lovely to have looking pristine in the stony front garden this year, a small, bright, colourful and addictive flower for me. So a good year for our humble sized stoney front garden with a nice contingent of tiny wildflowers adorning the garden alongside the domestic ones as well as the lovely back garden of course. Yarrow and oxeye daisies made a great sight growing from behind our fence out the back with lots of greenery around the garden.

I also loved continuing to see the quite rare Grey Silverfish in my en suite and pretty consistently in 2021 getting some more pictures and lovely views of these fascinating insects, feeling rewarded to rescue some from the sink and toilet now and again and I saw other interesting insects and spiders very well in the house this year again which I enjoyed seeing lots of spiders and some long staying it was great to have that connection with them I saw one on a buttercup at Lakeside interestingly this spring too. I liked seeing a crane fly in the house too which I got a memorable picture of in June. As the year went on, on the vast amounts of dandelions in the blooming front garden I loved seeing bees and hoverflies getting one very special hoverfly view which I took a macro picture of. In April I enjoyed getting a very clear view out my window as I worked of two Small White butterflies I went on to see these from my window again, including battling with each other in the air. I enjoyed seeing a beetle in my room in early May.

All of this was so fantastic and made me feel so happy on its own, but of course in spring it only became a matter of time before I started seeing butterflies the staple of this part of my hobby at Lakeside. With me securing butterfly views elsewhere as I talk about in other highlights posts this year that moment came on 18th March in a generally fantastic and packed few minutes of a Lakeside lunch time walk. I walked into the southern fenced off nature reserve area and was stunned when a butterfly flew out in front of me. I watched it wondering if it was the already seen by me elsewhere Red Admiral this year but it took me a while to come to and realise it could actually be the butterfly I knew logically I was most likely to see at Lakeside as the blossom that they like increased based on previous experiences the Peacock. I then watched it fly and saw it settle and realised it was definitely a Peacock. I loved taking in its beautiful markings with the turquoise and beige eyes shining out to me. I took the first picture in this photoset of this Peacock. The next day in more butterfly like weather with it much sunnier I did see Peacock, but also I saw my first Brimstone of 2021 dance along the green bud clad lakeside (as in actually next to the lake, not just the name of the country park) trees. I also distinguished it from the similarly coloured buds to see one doing the same the following Monday which I enjoyed.

I was guessing between the first Peacock and a flower moment I knew based on previous years was going to happen towards the end of March as to which would happen first and in truth the area I saw the Peacock was checking if the other had happened, the snake’s-head fritillaries coming out at Lakeside. That following week to the Peacock I walked through the woods in the southern fenced off nature reserve area coming from the other side to where I’d seen the Peacock and I was overcome with immense joy when I noticed these special flowers probably 10-20 again sat together on the woodland floor make the landscape bloom with their immense white and purple colour. As I walked in towards these enchanted woodland flowers, one of my favourite species after now three consecutive years of being so lucky to get to enjoy them so much, the sun came out to illuminate them and this became one of my most enjoyable moments of spring. I cherished their supreme beauty as I could not stop taking photos of them with my macro lens, so addictive just like the crocuses. This was a joyful moment and moment of happiness and connection to nature which I did need at that time the pleasure I felt just made me feel so special nature really can raise your spirts so much I love them so much and felt very lucky again to have these gems so close to home one of the best flowers we have for me. I took the second picture in this photoset of one of the flowers.

On a very sunny day one so warm I didn’t even need a jacket on to go out on a Monday I had booked off work at the end of March I had one of the most monumental days I’d ever had at Lakeside with flowers, insects and spring a big part of that as I produced nearly 70 pictures and saw so much incredible wildlife, a perfect blend of seeing the wildlife I had seen on lunch breaks quite immediately before this day and lots of firsts for my year and ever for me. This included my first Comma butterfly of the year seen flying nicely and sightings of Peacock and Brimstone again and Red Admiral for the first time at Lakeside this year meaning on that day I had the entertaining moment of having seen 100% of the butterflies I did at that stage all year in one day and I lapped up my first macro pictures of the year of butterflies of them a strong day for my macro the lens I most like using for butterflies, insects, flowers etc. Bees and other wildlife posted about elsewhere in these highlights posts joined a list of botanical bliss at home and Lakeside to join the rest of the long weekend perfectly making it one of my best ever. The list of flowers I saw that day on perhaps one of my best flower days ever was my first ever beautiful snowflake which stuck long in the memory a sweet spring memory with this flower similar to the famous snowdrop, my first cowslip and important for spring bluebell of the year I had a smashing spring for seeing cowslips at Lakeside I enjoyed seeing them shine delightfully in the landscape sewing a glorious yellow carpet into it more than I ever did this year, I had a brilliant year for seeing bluebells here too in typical wooded areas and more open both traditional blue and some white and pink, daisy, dandelion, daffodil, lesser celandine absolutely everywhere really shining and bringing to life the floor especially the yellow and green sea in the woods which I found quite adorable, speedwell, violets and a very precious second look at one of my favourites the snake’s-head fritillaries being stunned by their sheer beauty and enchanted by their magic again as I released there was more like forty than my previous guess of twentyish on the floor. Daffodil, viburnum and flowers from hanging baskets and pots stood out in the sun at home that day and I enjoyed a ladybird on my bedroom window on the outside too. Listening to the beautiful bird song too that day I felt spring had sprung. The next day I enjoyed more stunning purple periwinkle at Lakeside which I took a memorable picture of one that I ended up putting on my 2022 wildlife photos calendar as part of the contingent from this first part of this year in my photos on that and other brilliant flowers that day like the snake’s-head fritillaries at Lakeside and home too, I also saw my first Small White butterfly of the year that day it was by late March’s standards another quite sweltering one and I saw another Small White a little clearer on a lunch time walk the next day. I had such a memorable year for periwinkle this year seeing them so well here on many occasions one of my flowers of the year for sure.

After the run of three long weekends I had with days of annual leave added on and Easter I went on to not only enjoy the group of snake’s-head fritillaries I see every year now at Lakeside seeing them multiple times and taking more pictures at different angles and things but I also discovered several other groups of them with some more out in the open in the southern fenced off nature reserve area at Lakeside. I was addicted to looking at and photographing both with my macro lens doing closeups mostly or more general views of the groups of them which looked fantastic or taking landscapes with them in these prepossessing gems of flowers in all different light conditions and moods. I reflected on their sheer splendour in groups and alone across this truly wild urban area as well as how heroic they have been for me this year to really raise my spirits as we went into spring and allow me to feel creative with them photographically. They are a picture of a perfect spring and a vibrant, rich and colourful piece of grassland and few wooded areas I can never tire of these. I even enjoyed having a feel of their texture at one point which was great and I followed them right to the very end of their season taking so much joy out of them this year.

On one April Friday it was one such session of coming back to look more at the snake’s-head fritillaries, where when in this nature reserve area I took myself back into a landscape and seemed to notice more fritillaries every time I looked in a different direction nestled in woods behind me and on grass, that lead me to my next butterfly species of the year when I saw a delightful Speckled Wood flitting around. I got to see it circle around in flight and enter a rhythm of landing on the blossom for a fair bit which allowed me to lap of views of this wholesome and nicely intricately marked butterfly always a highlight of early spring and get some pictures. I was so thrilled to see this butterfly. And it gave me that Friday something I love having in wildlife watching but is especially prevalent in my lunch time walks due to the short space of time I have in having a truly packed few minutes where beside the Speckled Wood, blossom and snake’s-head fritillaries I was also excited by two Peacock butterflies, the cackle of a Green Woodpecker and I saw it, the springtime delight of a Chiffchaff calling and Woodpigeons seen very well always great when things all happen at once. After Speckled Wood my goal was Orange Tip, one of the biggest spring time butterfly targets and always one of the key moments of any spring for me seeing for the first time in a year one of my favourite species. It’s a good guessing game as to which butterfly I will see first in a year out of this and Speckled Wood too. Fast forward a week and I saw my next Speckled Wood just as sun was starting to really come back out fully like had happened before the Speckled Wood a week earlier in the woods at the west of Lakeside coming out of an area next to the lakes with a really tall bench which is a refreshing new area of Lakeside for me I’ve loved exploring this year its nicely hidden away where I saw the Comma near on the day off. Then I saw a butterfly emerge in the air with it and battle with it a bit which I just adore seeing in butterflies an exciting bit of behaviour, it was a white one and to my delight I then saw the ice lolly bright orange wing ends of the male Orange Tip. I had seen the butterfly I had wanted, sneaking it in just before my April week off which I wrote about in another highlights blog and it was a fantastic sense of achievement to have had this in mind on my walks for two weeks and then be able to see it and that day was 10 years to the day that I saw my first ever of this species which allowed for a top moment of celebration. It got even more astonishing as I managed a fantastic view of it, getting very close to it and taking a wings closed picture of it with my macro lens the third picture in this photoset. As I’ve said before Orange Tip photos are so hard to come by they are flighty butterflies so to get one so early on but not just a record shot with my big lens an actual macro picture so I had to get (safely) pretty close to it was phenomenal for me. I loved having this integral part of my spring at Lakeside. One of the bits I wrote for my highlights blogs last year that sticks in the mind most was commenting on an Orange Tip sighting here and saying how it’s a species before working from home and lockdowns I never thought you could see at Lakeside really so it was a front runner in this big theme of opening my eyes to the exciting species that are truly around me. And just to indicate that nicely it was my eighth butterfly species of the year and of those six had been seen by me for the first time in the year at Lakeside and at that stage there was only one of the other two which I hadn’t seen at Lakeside at all in the year thus far which allowed me to celebrate what a precious site this is for wildlife on more doorstep which I’ve known my whole life so this felt amazing. That day Brimstone made a nice sighting and I saw more white butterflies on the northern path possibly female Orange Tip. I went on to see Orange Tip and Speckled Woods well a lot more at Lakeside this spring.

After a fairly created by weather lull in seeing Orange Tips at Lakeside in May I liked seeing the bright orange that gives it its name on the end of the wings of a male Orange Tip going down the northern path. And nicely with it my first definite Green-veined White of the year seen at Lakeside after seeing one elsewhere clearly, which was a great view for a few moments seeing its distinctive markings of the black markings equally sailing down its wings and that intricate and pretty outer wing patterning and I took some pictures a great opportunity. The next day on the grasses beside Lakeside and at the front of the house I loved seeing two Painted Ladies or maybe the same one twice in a carpet of beautiful dandelions and daisies quite quickly at one point in a small shrub. This was my second earliest ever sighting of them in a year, second only to the Sunday before my first of the year at Farlington Marshes charted in my next post as we saw a satisfying little wave of them come to the south especially. Which for a migrant known for its usual once in a decade surges on the UK like 2019 it was great to be a part of submitting sightings to Butterfly Conversation’s annual migrant watch which I enjoy doing and feel like I am doing something helpful. This day at Lakeside with the sun out it was pretty warm, and patches of grass appeared to be rising promisingly to herald the hope of late spring into summer and the assurance of the dizzy days of peak butterfly season. I took a memorable buttercup picture there that day a standout flower picture of my year. One day in May through a real changeable weather period and notably wet month really whilst it did have a fair bit of sun too I enjoyed seeing Speckled Wood by the entrance of Lakeside and a Small White, whilst at that stage I was very happy how despite the weather we were seeing most of the usual butterflies and I was pretty much where I usually was at that stage in a year with how many I’d seen I did yearn for the days when butterflies were about consistently bringing the splash of colour to Lakeside and this gave me promise for that. That week I chased a lovely bumble bee around a booming patch of green alkanet west of beach lake which really captured my attention as a moment.

A key theme this year though was the butterfly, other insect and flower season being that bit slower than last year when everything was early and I noticed this sharply at Lakeside obviously with being there every day observing things closely. I did wonder however whether that was the case or with me feeling busier than the fully locked down core part of spring last year I wasn’t noticing the little things of nature as well. But on the Wednesday of that week I was reminded I was very much noticing things still when I saw the butterfly I had been searching for, one of my favourites the Brown Argus for the first time this year. Walking across the area I know as Marbled White meadow the south east of the site such a strong part for butterflies I noticed the grass one side of the path was crucially getting really long which is the point the butterflies really come out, when then with the sun crucially also out I then had a moment of magic as I stumbled across a bright Brown Argus sat there and then it flew a little too, a gentle quaint butterfly gliding through the high blades like a penny being skimmed. I was so euphoric to see this special species for me in this rich urban site for butterflies, an honour to have such an incredible species so close to home with its fine intricate markings. I really felt I safely got in the grass with it that day and felt very proud of Lakeside as I enjoyed a very precious prolonged view of this gem of a butterfly. Within the grass another thing I was looking for those few days was around with some luminant oxeye daisies seen in the sun my first outside of the garden this year and I loved taking in their beautiful and bright quality they are flowers that are so indicative of a mature spring and summer for me so I loved seeing this natural work of art. I did go onto see loads getting valuable photo opportunities for close up macro with my macro lens as well as clumps of them standing out within the landscape, both I love doing which added to this splendid spring day so well. I saw a crane fly well in that meadow that day too as I felt so in aw and love with nature.

I had a brilliant May week the next week as the weather improved with warm and sunnier days and spring’s grip truly tightened with the grass higher and higher and the flower adorned meadows supporting life so well. 25th May fittingly for the return of my favourite TV programme the very optimistic ‘Springwatch’ on BBC Two was one of my best days this spring especially for flowers and insects. I showed faith in an area that had had some urbanisation works near to it the field to the west of Lakeside but found that day it was still as wild and rich in insect and flower life and such a support base for this as it ever was when I used to go there a lot. It was so rich in vegetation as flowers adorned an area by a footbridge that had been built to connect to a development and all the flowers I saw that day were teeming with insects as a young bird squawked nicely from the thick vegetation. The flowers I loved seeing there with masses of that was broad-leaved clover for the first time this year and I saw a lot more in those coming days, mouse ear that was taking over the place nicely the first time I ever noticed them with buttercups continuing to be everywhere as well and bright yellow winter-cress that was fairly new to me I saw them at Lakeside in the north east field area the week before. On this vegetation and around I spotted Orange Tip and Peacock butterflies, bees and a Helophilus pendulus hoverfly which was a very bright coloured and intricately marked magnificent insect I had such a great year for seeing hoverflies again so this was a happy moment. That lunch time walk was headlined by a star of my spring in lockdown last year symbolising the hope and passion of me learning bits of nature I didn’t know as much about before when I saw my first swollen-thighed beetle of the year on a buttercup where they love to be as I celebrated with beetles generally this year. I had really been looking forward to this sparkling emerald wonder I do look back on seeing them fondly last year so I was very happy to see one this year. I felt so gloriously connected to nature that day. I took the fourth picture in this photoset of this beetle on that memorable day. Also there was a great gentle beautiful scene as I walked beside Monks Brook and saw lots of the popular sign of spring cow parsley this took over Lakeside nicely around that time too and I loved seeing it a lot. Another flower I learnt this year the red campion was looking very nice here in the sun and in great numbers with these having lots of insects on too they looked divine. On the way to this area along the tarmac path beside a green north of Lakeside I liked seeing balls of spurge and more little crane’s-bill flowers possibly cut-leaved crane’s-bill so this was great to see. A pink bluebell in the woods stood out on the way back too and that night I saw one of my best sunsets this year at home looking so gorgeous and red/orange it was entering the strongest time for sunsets with the late evenings so I loved taking this in.

The next day back at the Marbled White meadow area a reptilian being was interesting to see, quite lizard like most likely a slow worm scuttled into the long grass which was good to see. That day I also saw my anticipated first Small Heath on patch this year a great bright little butterfly to see. That week the Thursday was very sunny and warm and I had one of my best ever days for photos I think with so many taken and with me a bit behind on my season for them and dragonflies at that stage I just sensed damselflies would be about. I saw a flash of blue by the Lakeside entrance the lovely Common Blue damselfly for the first time this year. I then found a rich wet bog area north of the lakes by trees south of the steam railway track at the bottom of the bank which I discovered seeing dragonflies and damselflies last May, and this day this May in a perfect area of them I very quickly saw a luminous and so such beautiful damselfly the Blue-tailed Damselfly another first of the year subtly perched on a luscious green bit of vegetation and there was the rich bright colours my favourite colour red of my favourite damselfly the Large Red Damselfly flying around and landing. Some great photo opportunities with another insect joining it on a bit of vegetation too. I got so lost in the wonder of nature watching and the little things of nature, it was as though off the well trodden patch I was peaking into a magical world of life and colour which sums up spring perfectly. I enjoyed seeing some very little flowers that day which I had seen earlier in the week and I got a photo this day. Purple and white vetch and oxeye daisies added so much to the colour and richness of the Marbled White meadow area again that Friday, interestingly seeing and photographing ants on both vetch and seeing a lovely bright white spider on one of the large daisies.

The next week I loved seeing a delicate Speckled Wood flying through some wetness along the northern path at Lakeside it looked really cosy as it hunkered down into the thick vegetation and I could just spot it in some leaves now really taking over. On a much sunnier day the next day I was transfixed to watch a Speckled Wood in the southern fenced off area at Lakeside fly towards me a bit too I took photos as it landed and flew for a little bit. In the long grass which I admired so well alongside flowers starting to look really interesting I loved the thrill of the chase of getting to see a few Small Heaths looking bright and lovely and trying for a photo with my macro lens. That day in June I loved seeing an I believe red-tailed bumble fee on a buttercup on the green at the front of the house it was lovely stuff to see it dripping in yellow pollen in the flower a very beautiful bee to see and I loved seeing and hearing the loud buzz of a bee on some wonderful extensive piece of vegetation flowering in our front garden wrapping around the fence which I took quite a few pictures of too this year quite a revelation of the year looking and beautiful and providing a great source for the bees. The bees loved this and I saw more on it. It became a hub for these vital and precious creatures bumble bees and others especially on warm and sunny days and felt so important having them here. The following week I did see a very still bee on a dandelion on the green out the front. A bee in room and a fly was nice to see in June. The next day on a rare weekend Lakeside walk on Saturday 5th June on the way there I was heartened to see the area of the estate dedicated to the flowers with species growing up again so nicely after it was mowed down last year, seeing poppy, chamomile, oxeye daisies, speedwell, daisies with some pink, bird’s-foot trefoil and others doing well here a key area for the wildlife such as bees and nature as a whole but also our wellbeing it does always look so good to see in a fairly urban area and I liked thinking and seeing this that day an addictive walk for flowers on the important World Environment Day. The following Wednesday I noticed yarrow here well and the orange poppies I always see here year on year making me really feel it had bounced back so much. Back to that night 5th June butterfly wise at Lakeside I liked seeing Common Blue butterfly landing and gliding through the meadow looking ocean like bright blue in the eastern meadows with Brown Argus a gem of this place seen very well flitting around again with great colours in the landscape too. A Painted Lady bounded beautifully down the northern path looking so bright and orange too and I also loved seeing the nice and bright orange Small Heath too that night too and I loved seeing my first ever common malachite beetle another very memorable beetle this year which I loved zooming into the world to see. I also saw a cantharis rustica soldier beetle in long grass that night a beetle seen and learnt at Martin Down in May as my further afield butterflies highlights post shows up next, with its divine red heart shape on its body a key identification tool and I did love seeing them this year. I saw a little mouse or similar bounding over a grass path in the meadow that day too which was nice. With the grass nicely higher and higher here too I loved seeing lots of broad-leaved clovers, oxeye daisies, vetch of all shapes and sizes and grass vetchlings adoring the meadows as well as other insects. I photographed oxeye daisy and grass vetchling together and I enjoyed taking photos of flowers together more than one species this year and I did that so much with the beautiful oxeye daisies.

As I said in my favourite birds highlight post around that time I did very much enjoy sharing the joy of seeing wildlife during #30DaysWild. But that was also in the Springwatch days and I really enjoyed BBC Springwatch, such an amazing programme my favourite on TV to celebrate British wildlife, learn a lot and also share in observing the sights and highlights of the season the quality of the content and knowledge they deliver and how they present it on TV and online is amazing they do so much and its rather a three week festival than a TV show really, with so many others too with the spring watch list of species to look out for I found this magical and what the show is all about with the sharing on and offline the wonderful moments of the season and spring progressing and that helped me get so much from this series with phenomenal wildlife featured this year from a very dedicated an fantastic team on and off camera I was captivated by it this year with the world all around me too helping give me fond memories of that time. I was proud when Springwatch won a BAFTA this year for last year’s series!

From 7th-11th June I had a brilliant week and a week of orchids at Lakeside in a top time for flowers again, started perfectly by an orchid day on the Monday one of my best days of this spring. Among a gaggle of geese and Moorhen by lake and slight marsh bit on the shore of beach lake and strong yellow iris in a big year I had for them I was thrilled to see some Heath spotted-orchid with quite a few there, an archetypal wildflower and I loved seeing its distinctive shape and colour of perfectly bright pink. This was something I noticed here last year as that week and time rather became a time of looking for species of key moments I had coming to Lakeside every day whilst working from home last year and this was one of the key goals achieved. As the week went on I saw more in meadows to the east of the site and joyfully in and beside the fenced off nature reserve areas and by the lakes as they were a sight for sore eyes taking over a little like I’ve observed so many flowers do this year and I got attached to them for sure. On that Monday and all week I was so proud of the urban site Lakeside when I saw one of my favourite flowers, one its well known species and one I learnt and got to love here last year first seeing it then, the bee orchid as I was thrilled to spot one along the northern path with a second flower on the plant coming out too I didn’t see any at this part of Lakeside last year but did see them adorning the eastern meadows. This one lurked perfectly in the path fringes which like much of Lakeside that week was beautifully engulfed in the ever-growing rich grass. Luckily I decided to walk back out that day as I was deliberating which bit to walk along and it was seeing some white flowers some possible snowballs with a nice white spider on them I found out after the picture which caught my attention that then had me right beside the hedge line and I spotted the flower I craved the bee orchid. I might not have noticed the orchid if it wasn’t for the desire to see and photograph the white flowers! So it felt fateful. The northern path and my beloved Lakeside Country Park came up trumps as it was exceptional to look at this charming and stunning wildflower with its intoxicating patterning and divine mixture of colours I could not take my eyes off this botanical treasure. I got the fifth picture in this photoset of this flower. Just like the snake’s-head fritillaries in early spring, the two of them alongside foxgloves are my favourites I felt excitement pulse through me seeing this for my fledgling more serious interest in flowers they both positively this year gave me the same buzz and thrill as I get when seeing birds and butterflies birds especially with them starting my hobby the two main parts of my hobby so it was a flower milestone for me at Lakeside this year. I loved taking photos with my macro lens of the supreme beauty of this elegant flower three times that week I was addicted to seeing it and captivated by it.  Other highlights on the Monday at Lakeside was a special Red Admiral one of my favourite butterflies, crane’s-bills, cuckooflower, Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies and my first moth in house this year that night one of possibly three that week which was long-awaited. On the Friday of the week I saw a lovely common spotted orchid here between the two fenced off nature reserve areas.

On the Tuesday night a big bold brown moth the Waved Umber flew in and stayed for most of the week. I really enjoyed seeing this extremely attractive new moth for us and one of the more memorable ones we’d ever seen come in. I knew what it was thanks to MothIDUK on Twitter which was invaluable again I really relied on this a lot last year the dedicated and amazing people who work so hard to help so many of us which is great to see. It was lovely to see this fine large and well marked moth come in as the moth season happily for me got going for night flying ones especially. It was interesting to see it hanging around and nearly in my room as the week went on. And really nice to get photos to record this great home wild moment. On the Tuesday also it was great to see pink, red and white gigantic poppies on another flower bed patch I noticed nearer to Lakeside around the estate with vetch and cornflower captivating it was a captivating moment in the sun with an electric blue-tailed damselfly with them too I have had a great year for them including on a crane’s-bill which the sixth picture in this photoset that I took that day shows. It was a really good balmy day and evening as I took the time to enjoy a lot this year. There were vetch and poppies showing well in the usual patch of flowers around the estate I love going to as well. On the Wednesday there were beautiful scenes of masses of oxeye daisies by the bowl area at Lakeside which presented chances for memorable photos and there were other great flowers on the verges of the bowl which looked pretty and was great for biodiversity. It was brimming with life and I enjoyed a quartet of butterflies that day Brown Argus, Common Blue and Small Heath in the meadows with Speckled Woods by the trees. It was great to see everything so wonderfully grown on a very warm and sunny day. The next day another Common Blue butterfly was an exciting blue flash by the steam railway station in the meadows helping light them up more. Cow parsley and dog roses coming on greatly in the space of a week had begun to dominate the landscape with the high grass too so there was a lot of great colour.

In a week where butterflies and bugs was the theme in the Facebook photography group we are in that do themes it was fantastic to see a bright, prominent and possibly newly emerged Speckled Wood coming down the northern path it was so shiny like a new car. I took the seventh picture in this photoset of this, one I was happy with one of my standout butterfly pictures this year of it I’ve had a good year for these butterflies here. They were a reassuring presence over a month or so in spring being around in all weathers to show that the butterfly season was still progressing even on wetter days. That day I got a part 2 at the field and river area to the west of Lakeside seeing a lot of the same to when I mentioned it above a few weeks earlier with campion and cow parsley everywhere especially the cow parsley painting the landscape white which was nice against lush green. It was also nice to see white clover and ground ivy here the latter a lovely little one I learnt that day, as well as two Swollen-thighed Beetles straight away in a this patch on oxeye daisies this time as opposed buttercups the last time after not seeing them anywhere else in the country park in between, it was stunning to see these emerald diamonds shining so well. On the Friday I saw my first dragonfly on patch this year, I couldn’t see exactly what between two likely species but it was nice to see a flash of blue which excited me and was a key part of spring on patch with dragonfly sightings lunch and evening walk targets at that stage all the same.

On a very warm and sunny and key week in my year in June on a memorable lunch time Lakeside walk I saw my first Black-tailed Skimmer dragonflies of the year a target around that time with a few patrolling the bright blue lakes as blue as the sky and bits of reeds and zipping by. I was in aw of seeing this excellently marked, bright coloured dragonfly that I learnt was here during working from home last year after not really thinking of it before. I got a photo once more that I was very happy with of a dragonfly with my new general lens of the Black-tailed Skimmer. This sparked a brilliant few minutes on what was the hottest day of the year at that stage a scorcher with birds, butterflies and flowers all seen so well. This included a delicious scene with yellow irises and heath spotted-orchids with pink and yellow combining well which was lovely with some nice photo opportunities I got the eighth picture in this photoset of heath-spotted orchid that day. It was interesting seeing either a dragonfly or a damselfly I couldn’t quite tell which behind a Little Grebe I noticed in a picture I took of it this day which was interesting. That day also at the bottom of the southern fenced off nature reserve area I was captivated by lighter dragonfly which I determined was a female Common Darter my earliest ever sighting of one in a year which I was really happy with. Then another insect came and made it fly up from where it was sat on some vegetation and this was a Meadow Brown the butterfly I was trying to see that day. It was great to see it on an oxeye daisy my all-important first summer species of the year as it often is either it or Large Skipper alongside foxglove flowers my three signposts of summer turning from spring. That week I saw this brown and orange wonder with one with open wings for a bit too seeing them four days running elsewhere on a day off on the Tuesday which was smashing as their numbers were nicely booming. That Monday everything looked so high and booming in terms of grass, trees and other vegetation which it was great to take in. Red Admiral and a nice patch tick at Lakeside Banded Demoiselle were great sightings that day. That day did provide me with some uplifting moments that were much needed as we found out some hard and sad personal news that day which shows again the powerful and calming nature of nature which I love so much. I saw bright red poppies on the way back on the patch of flowers around the estate looking big and memorable I could really feel their texture as I took a photo. That week a rose bush in each of our gardens became covered in flowers which looked amazing and so beautiful and there were some at Lakeside too which was so beautiful.

That week I did like seeing oxeye daisies and bird’s-foot trefoil mixing nicely a great duet of two stunning flowers which were taking over the landscape really well.  I saw the biggest oxeye daisy I ever had at one point and it had a blade of grass growing through it! There was some nice orange flowering in the meadows too. And I was transfixed that week in the meadows near the allotment to see a Large Skipper my first on patch this year after seeing them elsewhere on the Tuesday that week. I looked at it on a blade of grass and took macro pictures in a bit of gentle wind it swung side to side as though it was on a fairground ride which was a key moment for me this year. I saw a nice female Black-tailed Skimmer that looked electrifying and delicious in its goldy coat. I had not often seen them there. There was the warm key part of summer colours of Meadow Brown that day too. These were out in good numbers now and it was brilliant to see three more butterfly species Small Heath, Common Blue and Speckled Wood that day. One of my favourite bits of the butterfly season is the summer ones coming out as you’re usually well established for seeing butterflies through the spring at that stage and taking photos of the them I got a bit more consistent with the latter the proceeding couple of weeks and then all of a sudden it’s this great guessing game of thinking about the order in which these butterflies of strong summer days are going to trickle back into your life.  That day I liked seeing Cantharis rustica soldier beetle well again the beetle of the moment this spring with lots about at Lakeside and elsewhere I loved seeing them and learning this beautiful species this year. It was a rich flower day that day too, with my first patch pyramidal orchid this year seen that day a pink work of natural art, as well as heath spotted-orchid well and others it was great to see a ladybird out that day too. That night on a visit to my Dad’s house where I showed him my recent pictures including one of this species I was happy to see some herb-Robert in his garden as well as a snail as I saw the next time the herb-Robert and I enjoyed eating redcurrants and some more flowering too. At our home we had moths coming in nicely those few days too. We saw lots of lovely moths little and bigger this year coming in seeing them bounce off the ceiling and lights which is a fascinating sight too.

On the Thursday of that week a beetle not one I’d seen before made a great sighting on a bramble type flower. Seeing a Speckled Wood along this path made me nostalgic of views here early last decade just as I was getting into butterflies. I then took in the sheer beauty of the astonishing bee orchid here with multiple flowers now on this special plant. I took this in once more for the last time before we went on holiday to Anglesey for a week. Thinking it may not be around when we returned from Anglesey as I address below it was just about and I did go onto see more in the eastern meadows at Lakeside, just like with a star of the time snake’s-head fritillary before my last week off before that in April another of my favourite flowers I took in this bee orchid a lot and safely felt one of the flowers for a brief moment which was interesting. I liked seeing oxeye daisy and meadow crane’s-bill linked together nicely the day before we set off for Anglesey on the Friday just as they were linked which I also took a photo of the day before our week off intended for this trip last year which was postponed due to the pandemic.

The night we returned from Anglesey was a very sunny one and with them coming out at that stage as expected, just after a holiday rather than just before in June as had become my tradition for the latter in the meadows at the east of Lakeside, I saw my first delicious bright orange and spotless (compared to Large Skipper) Small Skipper and ghostly white Marbled White of the year at Lakeside. I was over the moon with both of these as it really moved my butterfly season on into the summer species, meaning all of my year lists grew during that week off for Anglesey with the tail end of the time off back at home, and Lakeside continued to dominate my butterfly year lists for number of ticks at it alongside Martin Down which rather reminded me of the wonder of nature we have on our doorstep after coming back so allured and in aw of the sensational wildlife of the brilliant and incredible Isle of Anglesey and wider North Wales and I celebrated having gone to one of the best parts of the UK how much I love my home area too and how much amazing wildlife is across the whole of the UK. I was thrilled to see so many Small Skippers about that night with Meadow Brown out in promising numbers too, with Small Heath and a brilliant view of a Red Admiral along the northern path too and I loved seeing in the southern fenced off area Marbled White landing on a tree which I’d never seen before and my shirt too which was a top intimate wildlife moment with one of my favourite butterflies. I so often before last year saw my first Marbled White which I have a proud big year tick record of seeing them here for the first time year after year on a cut through over Lakeside returning from the train station on my commute and I would call that first night sometimes joined by Small Skipper sometimes not, Marbled White night so this was another of those. Emperor and Black-tailed Skimmer dragonflies made great sightings that night too with the grass getting higher and higher which was lovely as I got used to the place again. I took the ninth picture in this photoset of a beautiful Small Skipper that night. Blue-tailed and Common Blue Damselflies, another look at the bee orchids just about hanging on and the joy of showing my Mum on a rare Lakeside walk with me and a snail completed the highlights that day with a moth seen well at home. It was a good flower night with agrimony doing nicely with another yellow some silverweed I saw one I only learnt the day before at RSPB Valley Wetlands in Anglesey with white clover around a lot here as it was in Anglesey showing how the country is so gloriously connected. What a wonderful and memorable key summer night for me this year. On that following Sunday I liked seeing a lovely snail I noticed on the balcony that night which looked great a real rainy day scene as it was a rainy evening.

The next day as I did on the Friday night it was interesting to see a battered Meadow Brown on the green out the front on my lunch time walk with a lot of its wing missing. This made it look really large and bright especially in flight. There was Marbled White again in the northern fenced off area which was nice to see and Black-tailed Skimmers about down path between the two fenced off areas and beach lake’s shores key areas for them this year I took the tenth and final picture in this photoset of a Black-tailed Skimmer that day. I got a great view of a Small White on the green the next day. It was not entirely expected on that day that was a little bit dark but I knew the moment would come at the end of June into July, but I suddenly switched to my insect focus mode when I spotted a minstrel coloured Ringlet progressing through the air beside vegetation along the northern path within Lakeside. This area of Lakeside had turned up trumps again and I found it so sweet to see my first Ringlet of 2021 which I fully confirmed it was against the similar Meadow Brown having not detected any orange when seeing it flying as it landed and I saw the wonderful rings on its patterning. This was my 31st butterfly of year as I really felt I was in the business end of the butterfly season with so many species about the figures I’d seen in a year getting quite high and I was proud by how many I’d seen. The Ringlet landed high and low and it was a fantastic connection to nature moment on my lunch time walk really keeping me happy and it was a third year running Ringlet was a year tick at Lakeside which I am so pleased with. Lakeside at that point was surging as the place I had got most butterfly year ticks at in 2021 at that stage after battling with Martin Down for it in the mid-late spring period which made me proud too on the day I wrote this bit in fact butterfly year ticks at Martin Down took it level again but I was still very proud of Lakeside and Martin Down as they dominated together. There was a special view of a Blue-tailed Damselfly that day as well I had a brilliant year for seeing them probably my best getting some photos too.  

The most pivotal part of that week was the last day of June when I had an amazing lunch time walk of butterflies, other insects and flowers at and on the way to Lakeside, the day hinged on three pillars of fixation which was a perfect way to end a fantastic month of once daily reflecting on how one moment or a few moments showed me really connecting to the wild for #30DaysWild I enjoyed taking part in this so much this year. At the flower bed around the estate I always like looking at there was a plethora of colour in this oasis in the urban area with yarrow which I had a brilliant year for and loved learning both pink and white, red and orange poppy, varied colours of cornflower, clovers and the similar looking but different sized oxeye daisy and chamomile together two of the stars of my year looking stunning. Locally to me it created such beautiful and colourful scenes all together and at home in the front especially with lavender, roses, scarlet pimpernel etc. and the back as well it was looking very colourful too which I loved taking in. At Lakeside that day the grass at the east of the site looked extremely tall the strong growing conditions of the key ingredients of sunshine and warmth as well as showers in equal measure concocted conditions for the longest grass I’d ever seen at Lakeside I believe.  I was then over the moon to spot a new group of bee orchids along a back path in more open habitat to the one on the northern path, just when I thought the bee orchid season was over with the latter fading. It was brilliant to see so many of them three plants together at least with lots of flowers and I adored their intricate markings and the splash of colour and wonder they bring I do find them so attractive. I took more photos of them, and I also marvelled at lots of splendid ripe pyramidal orchids looking stunning. There was a dynamic duo of avian themed named bird vetch and bird’s foot trefoil painting the piece of grassland purple and yellow and blending so well to do this which really was a sight to behold, and my first moon carrot ever which I loved learning a white and purple one added to this well. On this moon carrot I saw my first ripe looking scarlet Common Red Soldier beetle getting a stunning view of this on one of its food plants and getting a photo. I’ve had a brilliant year for soldier beetles. This like Swollen-thighed beetle is one I learnt last year and became a poster for that time in 2020 but in the summer. A Burnet Companion moth added a splash of colourful joy to the day and as the sun just started to poke through there were then healthy numbers of butterflies about they seemed to be everywhere the most individual butterflies I’d seen in a day at that stage I believe. This was headlined by dozens of Marbled Whites especially in the main bit I nickname Marbled White Meadow this exquisite summer species I felt so lucky to see them male and the sweetly browner getting quite golden prominent females one of my favourites, and I loved the orange flair of Meadow Brown and Small Skipper being seen well again with Ringlet briefly again too. A blue tinged mini beast caught my eye that day and I saw it was for the first time this year on this part of the site the glossy emerald dashing Swollen-thighed beetles. My two key species of my great delve into beetles in 2020 which I love seeing, one epitomising spring and the other summer were together on a day in early summer 2021. Like the bee orchid that day with the Swollen-thighed beetle after seeing them in this area of Lakeside well last year I saw them at different parts of it at that stage this year so it caught them up a little bit. Something slightly different that day was a body of a deceased Golden-ringed Dragonfly I found I’d never seen one at Lakeside before the original dragonfly I learnt in the New Forest and one of my very favourites so this was exciting in itself but it was nice to have a look at this treasure for a bit I’ve had a good year for looking at deposits of nature as such like feathers and bits of flowers especially those few weeks which this added to. It was a treasure to see this and feel its surprisingly delicate wings for such a strong dragonfly. Seeing the lovely colours of this natural work of art. You may have read in a daily blog I did back in August and I will re-visit it too in a new style highlights blog for August-December this year later in this thread on dragonflies but there was more to come for Golden-ringed Dragonflies at Lakeside for me as the summer went on this year.

Into July and on Friday the 2nd on a brief evening look at the same area I saw the flowers and Meadow Brown and Marbled white again with special views of stunning self-heal flowers adding nicely to the sea of yellow agrimony and others and I also loved seeing my first local wild carrot also known as Queen Anne’s lace that day at Lakeside and on the green out the front seeing its intriguing soft white texture. One of my stars of the year. I saw a nice white micro-moth that night too. The day before Thursday 1st July and on a walk where my Dad came along we saw heath spotted-orchids very well with some looking extremely tall which I took photos of. They were perfectly pink and purple and I liked taking a photo of them standing tall in the landscape and a macro closeup. Oxeye daisies, meadow crane’s-bill and another type of crane’s-bill a pink one looked great here that day too. I really wanted a Marbled White picture after not quite managing it on the Wednesday. I safety chased one into a clump of oxeye daisies and did get the picture I blurred it in another shot but liked the look of the oxeye daisy which was focused on in it so took that photo forward too. It was great to see both immaculate and beautiful species. Meadow Brown and Small Skipper which I saw well here the next week too were around a lot too as well as Blue-tailed Damselfly and Black-tailed Skimmer which I got top views of too I had such a great year for them. There were great scenes with the oxeye daisies and meadow crane’s-bills to the backdrop white flowering in bushes well grown scenes too. I was back at Lakeside on the Sunday that weekend and I picked up where I left off from the exciting summer place we’d got to for flowers and butterflies on the walk, seeing some self-heal nicely just before getting into Lakeside, seas of agrimony turning the grass yellow, bird vetch, alfalfa along the northern path, bindweed, the splendid pyramidal orchids, very beautiful bee orchids again seeing bits of sun touch them nicely, oxeye daisies with Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, at least one Ringlet and Small Skippers dancing through the grass. That day also I marvelled at a swollen-thighed beetle on some bindweed which was quite colourful with some pink and yellow so with the beetles green this made an exquisite sight and I reflected on how I was at that point having an amazing season for swollen-thighed beetle being so lucky to see them so many times. It was a novelty that Sunday getting to share some Lakeside photos for #WildflowerHour on Twitter as new photos as usually on a Sunday we are elsewhere I have done some specials of recent photos brought together in a tweet during the hour involving Lakeside species.

April as it always does brought that addictive mostly light and in places darker emerald shade in the trees to engulf the landscape around Lakeside and the bits I can see from my room one of my favourite times of year I love this colour a real picture of spring and I strongly associate it with it. I just adored taking in this smashing tree and hedge scenery in landscape and closeup pictures as I liked taking in so much colour on vegetation around this time. Catkins as I said began to shade the bare landscape I had come to admire over winter, then it exploded with blossom before morphing into this green and I as I said just love the focus of coming here every day to be able to notice this bit by bit. On one showery but still sunny in places day I opened the door to the sweet aroma of the rain that had just fallen, and it felt so lovely to take in the luscious green vegetation with that smell and feel of rain in the atmosphere. In the spring and summer months, it’s quite the pleasant and connective feeling being so impacted by the conditions outside just like you are when out in warm or bright sunshine and your mood is lifted so much which we have enjoyed a lot over that time in the year and the sun really illuminated and made this glorious green shine lovingly around this time. Going into May the blooming white blossom had been replaced by more minimally white bits with beautiful pink buds on trees with much of the landscape going greener as the season rolled on, hawthorn and possible apple blossom I loved seeing this year. In May when I started taking part a little bit but not to the degree of #30DaysWild or #BlossomWatch in two great initiatives connect to nature the theme for mental health awareness week and walk this May on social media I liked seeing the sunshine illuminate the pure green vegetation. I liked seeing alongside the green getting darker as the season of spring intensified interesting darker colourful shades of blossom too and other very interesting bright colours in the landscape around home especially.

I liked observing a carpet of illuminating daisies and dandelions on the grass out the front these really did create some memorable and beautiful scenes this year. On a May Thursday I liked seeing pockets of bluebells in the wooded landscape on an evening walk seeing them in scenes where I looked over the lakes through the trees which was extremely beautiful. I took memorable pictures of them that day with it being a peak time for bluebells, buttercups which carpeted the fenced off nature reserve meadow areas so well and that cuckooflower taking over the landscape nicely which really excited me I took a photo of buttercup and cuckooflower together a key memory for me in May. There was strong sunny evening light that Thursday helping to create top views with the lakes looking a divine shade of blue and the woods looking so nice. That next Friday I took a memorable picture of bluebells and buttercups together from the northern path again in the evening, as well as fluffy dandelions creating great scenes. These were enduring images of spring which I love so much on a walk where there was moody and dramatic light which was great to be out in. I found this quite relaxing to take me into a weekend and that Thursday and Friday I took incredible amounts of photos finding some great inspiration across the board. 4th May was a big day too with so many photos taken including lots of landscapes, a magnificent two rainbows in changeable weather and across the board of my photography and for seeing wildlife too. At home a shower engulfed us, but with a charming golden glow to it from the sun shining and I liked I watching the atmospheric sunlit rain shine through the back of the house as I did a lot those few days. April into May especially I loved photographing wet flowers from the rain a key theme in my year. They looked even more special on occasion with another key theme of my year on them when sunlight lit up the raindrops making them sparkle. Lots of flowers alongside the beautiful buttercups adorned Lakeside and area by being there in huge numbers and I took pictures showing this well this year too od flowers including cow parsley, oxeye daisies and daisies and dandelions.

On 17th May I loved taking in the tall trees at Lakeside rather romantically I think visible from my room in bright green leaves which was splendid to look at, it really was a key moment in my year and made me feel so triumphant that we were at the heart of spring. At Lakeside that day also a quite warm walk when the sun came out when everything looked nicely green, on a week a photography group I’m in on Facebook had a theme about trees in May, these trees looked so good at Lakeside too really radiating positivity. Bushes bursting into growth and life around out the front helped this feeling at that stage too and the front garden was well vegetated too. On a pivotal day in my year 27th May and big date for me generally the landscape was dripping in that ripe and sweet shade of green on a very bright sunny and warm day and there were some very delicious scenes as the lowering sun and shadows which I liked observing that day lit up the lush green leaves. In lush green times especially I was lucky to have stunning mornings and evenings as well as more traditional walks and photo taking times bathed in sunlight this year, really so positively atmospheric in morning or evening with shadows around too. In June it was so brilliant to see oxeye daisies carpeting the grasses of Lakeside it seemed more than ever this year with loads of them elsewhere too. They were well grown in the long grasses of Lakeside with the patches of white talking over the park and it was beautiful to see a patch of oxeye daisies shining out along beside the steam railway track it was nice to see swathes of white in the rain by the lakes on a wet Friday that week too. That week I did also enjoy seeing a beautiful patch of silvery looking white clover on green out the front taking over nicely with both white and broad-leaved clovers doing well at that stage. Sorrel looked lovely and added a red streak to the landscape too. I loved seeing the raised area of grassland looking towards the visitor centre from the south west of the site one of my favourite views within Lakeside I liked seeing and photographing it last year too that had been carpeted by lovely cowslips in spring looking nice draped in the rich colours of meadow crane’s-bill and oxeye daisies that dynamic duo that I enjoyed a lot this year. On June 29th I noticed as I had a bit before how the trees were a real rich and dark green that is symbolic of the height of summer days. Looking really delicious on a mostly grey day but smashing on a sunny one too. It reminded me to treasure the time of year that had so quickly come upon us really. A tree in another property visible from my room looked this luscious shade of green too and it was interesting to see some little berries on it. This on a fantastic day when England winning against Germany in the European Championship 2020 gave me one of my greatest ever football memories.

By July early July this old style highlights blog had become very long as I did the bits of writing for it so I started another, coming up in my thread of highlights blogs is the butterflies, other insects and flowers at home part 2 of my year regarding July until early August when I decided to do the format change on this theme.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #354

“swimming through the void, we hear the word  /  we lose ourselves, but we find it all”

The last time you washed your hair, did you use conditioner? I never do. My hair is naturally pretty oily, and conditioner just adds oil to it. Do you prefer light or dark jeans? Dark. I never liked light-hued jeans. When you listen to music, do you generally sing along, or just listen? I almost always just listen. Do you have any of your exes as friends on Facebook? Yes. Who was your first love? Do you ever miss that person? My first "real" boyfriend. I always do to varying degrees. How many cars are parked at your house right now? Just one. Do you have any Italian ancestry? No. Do you prefer water to be ice cold or at room temperature? The colder, the absolute better. I can barely stomach drinking water that isn't cold, like literally. Has anyone ever told you you’re a control freak? No. Do you know anyone who has gone missing? If so, were they ever found? I don't think so, anyway. What was the spiciest thing you’ve ever eaten? A certain hot sauce on the wings I used to get at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was close to the top of their little heat rating thing. It made me feel awful, and yet I enjoyed it still?? I think it was an adrenaline thing. I only get medium sauce now; I'm more interested in enjoying my food than feeling like I'm eating fire. Do you need to talk to someone? I'm ready for my therapy appointment honestly, but it's not 'til the start of June. Mom and I both don't want to go through the process of finding a new one, so I've chosen to just suck it up and wait. Is something confusing you at the moment? I'm always confused with myself and my feelings. When was the last time you had a real deep chat? Real deep, I'm sure that would've been during PHP. Who did you last see on webcam? My former group therapist. I miss him a lot and really wish he could treat me outside of the program, but he doesn't do that. :/ What’s your best friend’s pet’s name(s)? Doris, Martha, Crowley, Little Dot, Jane Marie, Buster, Beesly, Winter, and I believe only one of the fish is named: Raisha. Have you ever taken a picture while laying in the grass? No. Who’s your favorite Disney character? Dory, probably. Have you ever deliberately tried to get someone drunk? What the fuck, no. When was the last time you used a pay phone and who were you calling? I've never used one. Do you like being kissed on the neck? Whoa now buddy, we better be kind of serious by then for you to do that because it doesn't end "well" lmao. Have you ever had sex with someone you weren’t dating (but had feelings for) in the hopes that they would ask you out later? I almost deleted this question because I didn't want to answer it, but I try to leave more unique ones in, so... whatever. I haven't. But I would for "somebody." What’s the most you would be willing to spend on a good bra? Ugh, my relationship with bras is a hellish one because NONE FUCKING FIT ME CORRECTLY. Mom's tried so, so many places, so many different stores online and in-person, and even if the bra fits in the front, it won't go around my back comfortably. I guess my body is shaped weird, I don't fucking know, because I have literally ZERO bras that don't aggravate me. At some point, I'm going to some woman Mom knows who can size me properly and therefore buy some that don't piss me off. All that to say I'd actually pay more than the usual, but not a ridiculous price. Do you have any of your teachers’ personal cell phone numbers saved in your contacts list? My old Physical Science teacher, who is actually now a very close family friend and our landlord, is in my phone. Do you ever stalk peoples’ personal blogs, even if you don’t know them very well? No. What’s one thing about today’s generation that you just can’t stand? How ungrateful they can be. Be honest: how do you feel about abortion? I am pro-choice. Is there anyone you currently want to reach out to? There's a lot of people, actually. Old friends I miss. What is your favorite piece of art you own? It... sounds cocky, but it's probably the drawing I did in high school of Pyramid Head and the Halo of the Sun intertwined. I worked my fucking ass off and I'm extremely proud of it. What’s the one thing you apologized for this month? Hm. Probably just something minor, like bumping into Mom or something when passing her. My favorite color is ______? Pink, specifically pastel pink. I wish I had _____? A job. What did you buy today? Nothing. What has challenged your morals? Life, my dude. Live and learn. What made you pick up the last book you started reading? It's the sequel to the last book I read. What about your life concerns you the most? Concerns me, my physical health, especially just how weak my legs are. I'm terrified of them continuing to deteriorate. What do you find particularly offensive? Would you say you’re easy or difficult to offend? I cannot fucking stand the misuse of the word "retarded." Like just keep your damn mouth sewn shut if you have the audacity to say things like "hurr hurr this driver is retarded." ANY mental illness/condition is NOT to be mocked. Onto the next question, I'd say I'm more towards difficult to offend. It really depends on the topic. What was the last series you finished watching? Do you have any plans to begin another? I re-watched Fullmetal Alchemist w/ Sara. We're working on Avatar: The Last Airbender too, but I won't resume watching it again until we can do it together. What is one way in which you are different from a year ago? What is one way in which you are still the same? Well, I weigh a lot more. .-. I gained back almost all the weight I shed since quarantine started, and I'm forever fucking furious about it. I'm the same in most other ways. If you could learn about anything without the stress of grades or cost, what kind of classes would you take? Uhhhhh meerkat behavior? Idk. Name a song you’ve listened to today? I've got Halocene, Lauren Babic, and Violet Orlandi's cover of "Aerials" by System of a Down on loop right now. It's fucking gorgeous and so mesmerizing. When you were younger, did you have a swing set or a playhouse in your backyard? We had a small playhouse with swings and a slide. Is your mall nice? GOD no. You better accept the possibility of getting shot before you walk in there. There's nothing that cool at all there. Do you have a Sonic near you? If so, what’s your favorite drink from there? Yeah. I love the strawberry slushy, and the Reese's Blast thing if KILLER. Will you be voting in the presidential elections next time around? Yes. How do you feel about chocolate-covered strawberries? GOOD. STUFF. Did you ever stop having feelings for someone and then started having those feelings again for them? I think so. Do you hate the last guy you had a thing with? No, he's my closest guy friend. To whom did you last give the finger? Probably some idiot that ran a red light. I'm sure it happened in the car, whenever it happened What was the last musical instrument played in your presence? I've got no clue. Do you like sprinkles on your ice cream? No, I hate the texture difference. And just sprinkles in general. Honestly, have you ever crashed a party before? No. Do you know how to do the moon walk? No. Has anybody ever told you that you have a good singing voice? Yeah, but I beg to differ. Onion rings or french fries? French fries. I'm not a big fan of the other. Has anybody ever described you as a heart breaker? Nope. Has anybody ever told you that you talk too fast? When I'm excited, yes, it happens sometimes. Who is the best cook that you know? Uhhhhh idk. Which meal throughout the day do you skip the most? I don't really skip meals. What’s the largest amount that you can juggle at one time? I can’t juggle at all. What was your favorite thing to go on at the playground as a kid? Swings. I'd dash to those at recess to try to actually get one. Do you know how much you weighed at birth? How much? All I know is six pounds, no clue on the ounces. Which aspect of your daily routine takes the most time? What do you do? Sitting my ass at the computer, really... I don't exactly do much. Do you enjoy buying gifts for others, or could you do without this? It feels sucky of me considering whenever I do get someone a gift, it's because Mom is letting me use her money with me being without an income, BUT I still do LOVE the process of thinking of something meaningful for those important to me and hopefully seeing them love whatever I got them. I cannot wait until I actually can do that regularly. What is one thing you are expected to do, if anything? Take care of my pets. How do you tend to view driving? Monotonous or entertaining? I hate driving because you're in a speeding box of death, man. I do really want to start working towards my license though; I've long since reached the "enough is enough" point. But first I need new glasses so I can actually see five feet in front of me. Do you enjoy talking about music with others? Yeah! Is acting something you enjoy? No. I'm too awkward about it. When do you feel most accomplished? When I finish a big art pierce. Do you think Manwich is amazing or completely gross? I like 'em. Just messy, which I'm not a fan of. How many best friends do you have? One. Are you a smoker, drinker, pothead or none of the above? None of the above. If you have your ears pierced, when did you get them pierced? I don't remember exactly, but I was a kid. Do you own any exercise machines? No. I wish. On Facebook, do you have people listed as your siblings who aren’t really your siblings? Nah, but I used to do that. Have you ever drawn or painted a self-portrait? Painted, but only because it was a school assignment. Who was your last voicemail from? I don't get voicemails because mine isn't even set up. Have you ever been falsely accused of something serious? No. Did you ever set up a lemonade stand when you were a kid? No. When was the last time you spoke to someone in a different language? Not since I was taking a test in high school for my German course. My teacher was a Germany native, so she was a total pro and fun to learn from. Have you ever received an anonymous gift? No. Have you ever camped out somewhere for an event the next day? No. That's always sounded miserable to me. When were you the saddest in your life? 2016 was fucking miserable. Do you know anyone, personally, who is in an abusive relationship? Are you? I don't know if it's abusive, but it's toxic and dysfunctional as HELL. I don't know WHY she keeps going back to him, I feel awful for the woman. I'm definitely not, 'cuz I wouldn't tolerate that shit for half a second. If you have siblings, have they moved out or do they still live with you? They've both moved out by now. Have you ever gotten searched by the cops? Yes, as a safety protocol with mental illness stuff. Do you like fried rice? Yes. What was the last thing you drank? Would you believe me if I told you I have water right now?

[taekookficrecs]

So you know any taekook unrequited love fic? :))

hello!! we have a million requests (which is why our ask box is closed; stop submitting because we will delete it!), so be patient with us. you also have the option of tag searching! there are only two active admins here with a personal life outside of this blog. please respect our decisions! thanks, and i hope you like the following fics  (◡‿◡✿) - admin jh

A Gamble Worth Taking - JKDoYouLoveMe (( 1/1 | T | 28278 ))

“I’ve got an idea. How about a little bet?”“A… bet?”“Yes. You’re so convinced that our boss likes you. Why not bet on it and make the office a little bit more fun? 200,000 won. I bet I can get him to fall for me before you can.”This isn’t professional. There is nothing professional about this, but Jeongguk is competitive and crushing hard and neither of those things lend themselves to thinking straight, so he narrows his eyes and nods.“You’re on.”

Sine Qua Non - veausy (( 3/3 | T | 16,154 ))

Jungkook hummed. Thump-thump, went Taehyung’s fingers. “Still lonely. Only now with tragedy mixed in.”

You Just Missed Your Stop - sixwhiteroses  (( 4/4 | M | 22,378 ))

“I love him a lot, Jimin. That’s why I’ve been trying to keep my distance, because in the twenty minutes of sex I fell even harder, all while he simply got a good nut and went on with his fucking life.“

Taehyung is used to bottling up his feelings for Jungkook. Except this summer, they become increasingly stronger and it’s not helping that Jungkook, despite his crush on Jimin, starts heavily lusting for Taehyung.Only lusting, though. That’s the problem.

hi. pls love me for a week. thx. - yestertae (( 11/11 | G | 5,119 ))

how does a single lie lead to an advertisement being posted on a forum to taehyung meeting a literal god - a literal god who will help him fool his best friends for the next week.- - -name: kim taehyungage: 22reason: royally fucked due to too many lies

roses are red, violets are blue (please love me how i love you) - euripitaes (( 1/1 | T | 14,040 ))

it takes five bouquets for jeongguk to finally hear the words he’s been waiting so long for.

in which part-time florist, full-time student, lifetime romantic jeon jeongguk has a hard time confessing to his crush of seven years. a couple of flowers should do, right?

heartbroken. - aceggukie ((1/1 | T | 1,076 ))

how can it hurt if you were never mine?

I’ll Bloom For You - paleasyoongiskneecap (( 1/1 | NR | 3,084 ))

Jungkook is a mess and he doesn’t tell anyone. He’s the golden maknae, he should be able to deal with some flowers by himself, right?

Talk to me or don’t (but you’ll hurt me either way) - Donthurtjiminever (( 1/1 | G | 1,700 ))

Taehyung and Jungkook are friends, the very best friends in fact. Their friendship is unusual though, they hurt each other on a daily basis, nonetheless they can’t seem to live without each other.

This is their story.

kiss the mouth which tells you - aethereal (( 1/1 | NR | 1,455 ))

If Jungkook hadn’t been so drunk, he would’ve noticed how fondly Taehyung was looking at him. If Jungkook hadn’t been so drunk, he would’ve noticed the way Taehyung’s eyes kept falling to his lips.

I Bloomed For You… - Meanie_Beanie (( 17/17 | M | 284,289 ))

Jungkook just barely registered the warm soft skin of Taehyung’s palm, before his whole world changed. His skin prickled almost painfully, and it felt like somebody had sent a great wave of electricity crackling through him. The world went black for barely a second as a strange weight settled in his chest, and then the world came rushing back like a flood.

He looked up with wide eyes at Taehyung - no, at his soulmate - and expected to be met with the same surprised eyes as his own, but Taehyung just looked at him with a carefree smile.

“See you soon, Jungkookie,” he grinned teasingly before releasing Jungkook’s hand and turning around to leave. Jungkook stood there for several minutes, just staring at the spot where Taehyung had disappeared, with only one thought in his head.  

Why had his soulmate just left him?

trust your heart if the seas catch fire - maxx (( 24/24 | M | 131,734 ))

"Sometimes I wonder whether you’d be better off without me. Whether you really need me at all.”

Taehyung has always doubted his necessity to the group, as well as to Jungkook. Usually a knock on the head would suffice to bring him back to his senses. But this time, it seems someone was listening to his request. Now, everything has changed. He’s in a world where Jungkook and the rest of the group are still famous, but he isn’t.

[enygmass]

Title: Fragments

Author: Ames

Wordcount: 2355

Fandom: Not batman for once [whoa]

Synopsis: Brief glimpses of Nikolai’s life from birth (ish??) to the first scene of the game

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So I haven’t written one-shots in so long, but I discovered the game Monstrata Fracture like a hot min ago and haven’t been able to get it off my mind so like… if you wanna bag yourself a monster babe then you should jump over to @astralore [or their itchi.io] and check it out, i’m js... ^^

Anyway I may be botching this but I a) love Nikolai and b) love delving into characters pasts, so let's rock and roll, kids

Everything this is based on was snagged from the game play, mythology books, and lore that was answered on the blog 

____________________________

When the eggs were retrieved from the ocean, the fortune teller had announced that the speckling on the shell of the seventh egg looked “off.” The second fortune teller agreed, and the third one had not protested the former declaration.The three fortune tellers were sisters, renowned for the accuracy of their predictions, and for them to state such a thing with brutal bluntness brought immediate attention to this small, stunted, seventh egg. Albeit, a declaration that this seventh child would bring great things had come along with the unusual spotting, yes, but the unusual spotting was what stood most clear in the minds of all who were present. 

The young mothers did their best to pay it no heed. Alkonosts were superstitious by nature. Their ancestors had brought with them tales of dangers in the woods, of beasts in the snowdrifts, and of consequences for every action. Once, this declaration of unusual spotting may have brought dread to the ears of any parent, but the two mothers were of a more modern mentality. They thanked the sisters, inclining their heads with grace, before sweeping the eggs up into their arms and leaving. 

Seven eggs, seven children, and the seventh, to be a son. 

_____________________________

Nikolai could not recall the exact procedure that led him to become a he. 

What he could recall were colours. Colours of all kinds; reds, golds, blues, greens. It was a myriad of hues that swirled before his naive eyes. He remembered that he had tried to speak. He had wanted to say something to his mothers, perhaps ask them what the colours represented, but he was silenced by a talon coming down and pressing upon his chest like a weight. 

Then, with the colours, there had suddenly been pain. Magic always had a consequence. This was a concept that had been drilled into the minds of any species that lived in their realm. Any entity that used magic, was exposed to magic, or even so much as learned about magic, knew that it took as much as it gave.

It felt like he was being reborn. 

A part of him wondered why he had agreed to this, although the reward held greater merit. To be able to feel like he was truly himself made the process worthwhile. Not to mention that the sprawling records of their family lineage that his mothers’ kept locked away indicated that he was not the first one in their family line to go through with this procedure.  

The process overall lasted minutes, but to Nikolai, it felt like centuries. It was only when the colours faded away and the bombardment of sensations fell to a dull thrumming in his mind did he become aware of his mothers’ voices. 

“Take him back to his room. The recovery process…”

“The recovery process can be tedious.” Another voice, less familiar and more jarring, cut his mothers’ protests short. Nikolai struggled to see who the owner was as the world seemed to spin in front of his eyes. He could make out the form of another Alkonost woman, with brown feathers meticulously groomed, standing a few feet away. Her lips were pursed in a thin line and her golden eyes were fixated on someone behind Nikolai’s prone form. 

“But it has never failed. He’ll be fine within a few days.” Another shift, and Nikolai felt himself being lifted from his position on the floor. The Alkonost woman’s gaze moved to meet Nikolai’s and her lips, if possible, drew into an even tighter line. “Contact us if problems arise, although I think there won’t be. I highly doubt the one who is supposed to be destined for ‘great things’ will be going away any time soon.”

With that, she turned away as the world in front of Nikolai’s eyes faded to black. 

______________________________

“Nikolai.” The voice of his teacher snapped Nikolai out of his daze, forcing him to turn his gaze from the treeline outside to the front of the classroom. An Alkonost woman stood at the front, her grey feathers adorned with silver, and a small smile tugging at her lips. “You’re lost, again.” 

“Not lost,” Nikolai was quick to protest as he straightened his back. “Just thinking.” 

“And what were we thinking of today?” The amusement was not lost in her tone as she settled herself on the edge of her desk. Her name was Lada, and she had been teaching him and his sisters to sing since they were hatchlings. His mothers’ could have taught them, but they were too busy with their political careers. Hence why Lada was in their lives. 

Singing was, unsurprisingly, a major part of an Alkonosts life. Singing was involved in everything they did: celebrations, mourning, daily routines, even mundane tasks such as cleaning often led to a chorus of songs from the flock engaged. One of the most profound memories Nikolai held was singing at a chapel during a Christmas celebration. The way the chapel had been lit in a brilliant golden glow, with holly entwining its columns, and how the room had been filled with Alkonost of all colour and kind singing with their glorious voices, was burned into his mind. He held onto it with every ounce of strength he had, in fear that he would never experience it again. 

“The regulations.” He spoke what he thought because he knew that Lada would find out either way. The regulations were on his mind a lot lately. His mothers had taken him aside and explained that his family, in particular, were under government watch for the use of their voices. An average Alkonost could wipe an individual's memories for 12-24 hours with the right training. Nikolai’s family could wipe them for more than 48. In fact, an ancestor of his had been known to have a voice that could wipe memories for years, if she so chose. 

“Ah.” Lada’s smile slipped and she fixed him with a more stern look. “What about the regulations?”

The question was so simple, but enough to cause Nikolai’s shoulders to tense up. It was no secret that the regulations were greatly protested by many Alkonost, but there were a few in the mixes—Lada included—who believed they saw the benefits of the regulations. 

“They’re unethical, that’s what,” Nikolai was quick to snap with his response, his brow furrowing as he turned to face his tutor. “Why should we be restricted when our gift doesn’t even make it into the harmful category of magic? Vampires have no restrictions on their compulsion abilities, and I dare say that being able to persuade someone to do something like slaughter their family is much more dire than causing memory loss for a day. Not to mention the lack of restrictions on Banshees, Fae, or even Kelpies. God knows their abilities are worth a ban.” 

Lada’s expression betrayed no emotions as she folded her talons on her lap, allowing Nikolai his brief vent. It was only when there was a pause for breath between his rants did she speak. 

“You’re forgetting, Nikolai, that many of the individuals you’ve listed have their own struggles they deal with. Yes, they may not have restrictions, but they’re subjected to far worse.” Lada’s lips twisted to a grimace as she fixed him with a stern gaze. “Like the slave trade, for example. No Alkonost is subject to that, but I can tell you that many Kelpies are.” 

The slave trade. It was one of Lada’s main points to bring up whenever they got into this debate. Nikolai was young, yes, but he was well educated in what the slave trade incorporated. Many Alkonost and other higher-class species had a hand in its ongoing, and it wasn’t uncommon to hear it discussed at Alkonost events. Nikolai bit his tongue. It was better to not discuss those kinds of things with Lada; she usually found a way to make several fair points to counter any objection Nikolai voiced. He wasn’t a fan of the trade either, but his resentment didn’t run as deep as Lada’s did. 

“Why don’t we get back to the topic at hand?” Lada clapped her talons together and stood back up, gesturing for Nikolai to come closer. “We can practice a piece from принц огня, if you would like?” 

принц огня was an Alkonost tale from the old country about an Alkonost Prince with red, gold, and violet plumage who discovered he had the ability to control fire. Most people chalked it up that he was a phoenix mixed into the nest, but it was still one of Nikolai's favorite stories to listen to when he was a hatchling—only because he saw so much of himself in the Prince. Not to mention that both of them had received ill-fated prophecies about how they were destined for greatness, although the Prince's ended off on a much more tragic note. From what the text said, his magic cost him the life of his loved one, and although his powers brought great change for the Alkonosts, his grief over his partner's death drove him into utter despair. The story ended off with the Prince becoming nothing but a wandering hermit who sang a mournful ballad, much to many's chagrin. Alkonosts rarely felt, but when they did feel, they felt with their entire being, and the Prince's story showed how dire the consequences of this could be. 

Gathering himself, Nikolai frowned at Lada's abrupt change of topic, but nodded his head regardless. In the end, it was best to focus on lessons rather than politics. 

_______________________________

"You seem preoccupied." Rishika's voice all but purred in Nikolai's ear as she settled herself beside him, tucking her feathers in as she did so. The sunlight filtering between the tree leaves and into the courtyard caused Nikolai to squint a bit as he turned his head to address her. She was looking rather smug this morning. 

"What did you do now?" Rishika, for all she was worth, was quite notorious for inciting a bit of trouble wherever she went. Nikolai had found this out himself when they met in high school, which he so fondly called the 'Incident'. She became a close friend of his after the 'Incident' occurred. She also became a fast enemy of the two students; they ended up getting expelled, although Nikolai was more responsible for that outcome. Not that anyone would say that, of course.

Rishika had the audacity to look offended at his question for just a moment, before a wide grin split across her face. "I got the dog girl—Aileen, I think her name was?—to loan me some of her assignments for cheap. At least now I'll finally get what McCal is talking about in their statistics classes." 

"Did you blackmail her or something?" Another more disapproving tone interjected before Nikolai could get a word in. A flash of raven-black feathers indicated the arrival of Faust, who promptly settled himself into his usual position on Nikolai's right. Rishika shook her head vigorously.

"Hardly! I just needed to ask, and she was more than obliging." She tutted a bit before closing her eyes. "Sometimes simply asking is the best way."

"She was probably terrified." Nikolai's own lips twitched into a grin as he surveyed the courtyard. "You're a rather intimidating person, even when you aren't trying to be." 

The courtyard was less busy than usual, which was odd. The last gasps of the summer months often drew everyone to the outdoors in a bid to bask in the warmth before the long winter set in. Nikolai knew for a fact that he wasn't too eager to have to bundle up again, hence why he was out here. His body was naturally warm and to be wrapped in scarves and blankets was near-torture for him. This didn't seem to be the same case for others. Besides the flock of Alkonosts, there was a wyvern, a fae, a faun, and a few groups of various other species dispersed among the trees. 

"Well, I'm rather flattered by that declaration, Nikolai." Rishika rested a talon on her chest as she sent him a rueful smirk. "It's the closest thing to a compliment you've ever given." 

Now it was Faust's turn to give a scoff as he leaned back on the picnic bench, focusing his attention skywards. Nikolai followed his gaze to the windows of the North Courtyard. The university itself was impressive, but the architecture was truly a marvel. Given that the university was an old castle generously loaned by a few nobles, the mixture of gothic arches with Edwardian flair was breathtaking when first seen. After several classes and near breakdowns, though, Nikolai deduced that it lost a bit of its charm. 

He was about to prod Faust to see what was on his mind—presumably, something to do with James—but a flash of colours in one of the windows caught his attention first. The figure that the colour belonged to seemed to pause and look towards them, as though they knew they were being observed. Nikolai's smile grew broader as he leaned forward, taking in their still form. Alkonosts had wonderful sight-another perk of their natural predation- and Nikolai could see every detail of their observer's face. He leaned to his right and jabbed his elbow sharply into Faust's side, gesturing to the observer. 

"It seems like we have an audience." Faust focused his attention to where Nikolai had indicated, and arched an eyebrow in response. 

Nikolai, in return, leaned forward further and shot a rather exaggerated wink and kiss to where the observer stood, prompting Faust to let out a chuckle. The observer seemed to bristle at the attention and hurry off, leaving Nikolai to watch their form disappear past the remaining few windows. 

"Was that necessary?" Faust asked, closing his eyes again. 

"Well, I strive to make our audiences feel welcomed. Besides," Nikolai paused and looked between his two friends. "Do any of you recognize what that was?"

Both Rishika and Faust shook their heads. None of the flock seemed able to assign what species their mysterious observer belonged to, leaving Nikolai feeling unsatisfied. Hopefully, he'd run into the observer at a closer proximity. 

They were interesting, and interesting things were something that Nikolai always strived to collect.

[twi-sight2020]

I’ve got a theory...that it’s a Vampire

So before I say anything else, I just wanna say, wow...I have so many followers. Thank you all so much! But also, who would have thought that, in the year of our lord 2020 the most popular blog I’ve had would be me reviewing Twilight. The fandom is still very much alive and well! But damn, so many of you. I love you all! So Bella is supposed to give her theories, but she begs for another question to be answered first.  She wants to know how he found here which is....her scent. Charming. Then she is aghast at his theory that her brain is on a different frequency than everyone else’s and that’s why he cannot hear her thoughts. Edward pretty much sums up my thoughts on this with this. “I hear voices in my mind and you’re worried that you’re the freak?” All that being said, again, here we have this mystery about Bella, this aspect of her that could have been built upon and explored. After all, as of yet, the villains have yet to be introduced,  it seems like this is set up to be more of a self contained story and yet.... sigh. This is pretty much  dropped. So after a bit of these, Edward demands to hear her latest theory which is ....vampire. Yes, after 124 pages Bella drops the “V” word and then explains to Edward all about Jacob and how she flirted with poor Jacob to get the information about the “legends” and she came to the vampire conclusion....and then decided she didn’t care . Edward is, honestly kind of appalled that she doesn’t care if he is a murderous little critter. Like....bless him, he knows that he is trash sometimes and is very concerned when other’s don’t see it. Side note: Edward also feels sorry for Jacob, because , bless , the poor boy did not deserve this. We get the “How long have you been seventeen line” and I honestly love how Edward is just like “Yea....done that for a while “ And then they go through the  myths and facts of vampires. They don’t burn in the sun, no sleeping in coffins. And he doesn’t sleep, at all, ever. In fact he seems wistful about the idea . Kinda makes you feel sorry for him for a minute. Which ...i go back and forth with Edward, tbh. Sometimes I love him..other times I wanna throttle him. It’s a tough road. So then he, of course, brings up the fact that, you know....vampires have very very special diets. Bella tells him that Jacob mentioned his family doesn’t nom nom on people. Edward points out that, yes, they do try to avoid people but they are still, you know, dangerous. of course, Bella has the self preservation of a capybara ...hell, at least they can hide in water, Bella just....dives right into danger every time. She’s like my cat that tries to jump on the dog that chases her and nips at her on the daily. no self preservation, nada. Course, Bella at least is going after a hot vampire. My cat is just...not right. So Edward explains he doesn’t  want to be a monster, the Cullen’s “vegetarian” diet, and the fact that sometimes it’s harder than others to keep from biting humans. And oh, Bella, honey, he might have told you he wanted to kill you but, you have NO idea how close you came to being Lunch.  Bella clues Edward into the fact that she’s noticed how his eyes change when he’s hungry. Which he finds amusing, but then...then he explains how it “makes him nervous” to be away from her. Now, it kinda makes sense from Edwards point of view, because this girl is...well she’s kinda taken over his brain. Her smell drives him nuts and yet he feels protective of her because she NEARLY DIES EVERY FIVE SECONDS. as he points out when he sees the scrapes on her hands.  Again, this could have been a really neat plot, him being destined to be the one to either save her or kill her...but no....not that. Because, instead, we get Bella also being anxious when she doesn’t see him because.... teenage hormones? Idk...i get being upset when you don’t see your crush but the anxiety bit is kinda over the top, especially when she starts FUCKING CRYING when he points out that it’s one thing for him to be fixated on her and another for him to drag her into it. *sighs* Maybe this is a me thing, I dunno, but crying makes...no sense to be at this part. If it were supposed to be the rush of all the night’s events catching up to her...sure, but over this? This girl was completely unfazed 5 minutes after being rescued from a possible gang rape, but is crying over this? I don’t get it, I really don’t. I know I’m basically the worst at reading emotions, and I really don’t understand people a lot of the time but this...... seriously, if anyone has any idea on how her brain works...drop me a line? Cause I’m...really at a loss for understanding this part. Like maybe it’s because I’m a #dead-inside millennial, or maybeI’m a robot , but the emotional trainwreck that is Bella.....yikes. Edward apologies for making Bella have an random crying spell, and then ask her what she was thinking when she was nearly attacked-cause, you know, bringing  up trauma is a great way to make someone feel better/s. Like, come on Edward, you’ve been alive for a long ass time, and yet you really suck at people. Apparently Bella thought about trying to fight and scream because she....falls down alot when running. Edward says he’s fighting fate trying to keep her alive and i’m just like???? “Dude...compassion??? She almost ...fucking hell.’ I am a bit frustrated with these children.  Edward promises to be in school tomorrow and then ask Bella to promise not to go into the woods alone because ‘he’s not always the most dangerous thing out there.” Bella...you’ve been nothing but curious this whole time, but when he says “Let’s just leave it at that.” you have no questions? None? You’ve had it confirmed vampires are real and one is telling you there is worst stuff out there and you just....let it go? Like I get we’re setting things up for a sequel but...... come on, it’s a bit lazy for her not to prod a bit.  Also, does this mean Edward was stalking her when she went into the woods that morning to? Jesus...   He tells her to sleep well  and then we get a bit on how...nice his breath smells. Which, i know, it’s all part of his apex predator self to draw people in but it’s still a weird thing to read about.  She gets inside, takes a shower and realizes she’s freezing and begins shaking and trembling. she talks about her mind trying to suppress things and, for a brief minute, I think she’s actually going to have a ...reaction to everything that happened. Now, mind you, I don’t want her to be a shrinking violet, but her emotional responses are so ...over the place. She cries when Edward isn’t around, or when he points out he’s dangerous... but when she is put in actual danger, it rolls off of her. Gotta say it confuses me but...what do i know? I can watch horror movies till kingdom come, ready mystery novels, see medical gore and autopsy with no problem but I cry every damn time a pet dies in a movie...or music video. (I’m looking at you”Happier” by Bastille) So she’s not freaking out over the days evens, no, instead we’ve getting one of the most famous (and sometimes infamous) lines from the series.  “About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him-and I didn’t know how potent that part might be-that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” Imma...just need a sec to unpack this here. Obviously we know he’s a vampire and it’s pretty obvious he wants to eat her (and not in the fun way) but the last bit.... In love with him...oof. I know teen love comes on fast and hard but this...you’ve only had a few actual conversations with him, and even fewer have been him not being a douche. Do I think she’s in LUST with him? Definitely.  IS she in awe of him saving her life all the time? Of course. Intrigued because...vampire? Oh hell yea. But...you’re not in love with him Bella. Do I think she is later? Of course. But at this moment, I think it’s way more infatuation than love. She knows very little about him, in fact, with the exception of the vampire bit, I know more about a stranger from their facebook page than what she knows about him in this moment.  Edward has stalked Bella enough that he knows everything about her. And while that brings up a whole fuck ton of other issues, at least it means he knows enough about her to have genuine feelings (as creepy as his behavior may be)  But Bella, you’re not in love...not yet. Alright guys, i know this one was a bit more ranty then some of my other’s and this may turn some people off , but i said from the start I was gonna be honest about the good, the bad, and my feelings on it. I don’t care if people disagree, in fact, I welcome discussion. If you wanna message me and talk about certain bits, go for it! Just, make it clear if it’s a question/conversation you wanna have in private or something you’re cool with me sharing on the blog to futher discussion. Alright guys, love you all and , until next time,  Stay safe!

[malereader-inserts]

Andante, Andante | Ch. V

“Still can’t believe you haven’t been to five guys, how’s the milkshake?”

Peter agrees the milkshake was really good like you had praised on the way there, he found out that you love milkshakes, he thinks it’s a way to your heart - you know, other than the coffee you seem to be inhaling on the daily.

Word Count: 1,254

A/n: Sorry for this filler of this chapter.

< Previous | Next >

Peter sighs, looking up from his station in the labs. Blinking slowly as he looks at Tony. Tony tries to ignore his stares before it started to irk him, the persistent stare was somewhat offputting. He puts his tool don to look at Peter. Peter blinks as he strides towards Tony.

Tony looked mildly confused and concern, any other day Peter would look embarrassed before hastily looking away but this kid had a lot on his mind and Tony was just perfect to talk to, after all, Tony was his mentor and Tony would do anything to shape this boy to strive to bigger and better things. 

“You know, he likes you back,” Tony says as Peter almost chokes on air before looking questioningly, “Yeah, (Y/n), he likes you but he’ll never admit it.”

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Peter mumbles, looking out of the glass pane to see you getting vaguely unamused with Sam’s teasing, your arms crossed over your chest and a permanent frown finding home on your face, “He’s just so hard to figure out.”

He continues to stare, seeing you swat Sam and Bucky’s poking hands at you as Clint ruffles your hair. He sees Natasha saying something to you as you scoffed and proceeded to zap Bucky and Sam with your electricity, your hand dangerously moving to their side to shock them again. Peter grins to himself seeing that slight fun glowing in your eyes.

Tony snaps his fingers as Peter looks over to him, a blush spreading over his cheek, embarrassed that he was so distracted with you that Tony looked amused at the embarrassed teen.

“That’s where you’re going wrong, Pete,” Tony says, patting the stool next to him to get Peter to sit down.

Peter looks at Tony, who watches him carefully, before moving slowly to sit next to his mentor. He tries not to get too worked up to see you breaking out a grin when Steve throws an arm around you and starts ruffling your head, he sighs and looks at the billionaire.

“Pete, I don’t think I have ever seen that boy over there so calm, so at ease, so relaxed before,” Tony coaxed Peter, nodding his head at your direction, “You know who did that? You.”

“But-”

“He’s warming up to you, people are guarded for a reason and you are doing it spectacularly well. As an outsider and as your mentor, trust me, you’re a good friend to him.”

“We’re not friends,” Peter says too quickly, hearing it too much from you, a smile reaches his lips as he could hear you roll your eyes and shake your head in his mind.

“Whatever you are,” Tony waves his hand, not bothered about minor details, “Don’t sweat, don’t overthink it, he’s taking his time to figure himself out, you don’t need to do it. And, when he’s ready, he’ll tell you but for now, you’re good.”

“You really think that?”

“I don’t think, I know,” Tony nods, smiling, and throwing Peter a wink, “Now, get back to your project, kid, your suit won’t build itself.”

Peter cringe when he screeches the stool as Tony gives him a disapproval look. Peter glances out through the glass pane to see you turn your head quickly away from his eye contact. 

Tony looks at Peter then looks over to you, watching you nervously play with your fingers before gazing back at Peter. He sees how you give him a tight small smile at Peter, to which he returns, and Tony know.

Yes, it was going to work out, somehow.

“Maybe, we should commence a fast food blog or something,” You shrugged your shoulders, whistling, “We’re basically experts.”

“We unmistakably are,” You two had driven halfway across town to go to Five Guys, only because Peter informed you that he’d never been there and you had somehow been personally offended by it.

“Still can’t believe you haven’t been to five guys, how’s the milkshake?”

Peter agrees the milkshake was really good like you had praised on the way there, he found out that you love milkshakes, he thinks it’s a way to your heart - you know, other than the coffee you seem to be inhaling on the daily.

You had picked him up, had requested him for dinner and had taken him back home, which was where you two were now – outside of Peter’s place, still sitting in the car, chatting idly. The whole evening had felt suspiciously like a date.

Peter had long since given up on pretending that he didn’t wish it actually was one. You, on the other hand, hadn’t said anything about the feeling so Peter thinks you think nothing of it or you just don’t want to admit it.

He cleared his throat, “Well, thank you for…”

“No problemo, Parker,” You say, giving him a tight smile, nodding slowly as your lips found itself scowling again.

Obviously, Peter could invite you to come upstairs, but there was a substantial possibility that you might come across his Aunt May attempting to not set the kitchen ablaze and Peter does not want to think that Happy was going to be there either.

He had agreed to go for dinner with you to escape the dinner meal that May and Happy agreed with, he did not want to feel awkward and somehow repulsed. And, sometimes, Peter misses his Uncle Ben, even though Happy is a good man, he just didn’t know if he was good enough for his Aunt May.

Peter smiled back at you, a little dubious about how to proceed.

“Well,” You drawled out, “maybe we can check out Panda Express next week.”

“What week are we on?”

“Still third, I believe, so...I’m guessing soon then?” You act nonchalantly, eyes looking disinterest.

“I’d like that,” Peter nods and slowly opened the door, hitting his head on his way out of the car. “See you…”

You laughed, “You okay?”

Peter notes, this laughter was natural. It wasn’t forced and it was mocking, it was soft like almost as if it caught you off guard. Almost as if it was too quick for you to process, but your lingering smile after the laughter makes Peter think that either:

You were comfortable with his presence after almost a month of late-night talks and suspicious glances across the room

You have a crush, through Peter thinks that’s impossible because even now, he knows he’s not worthy of your love.

You silently agreed to yourself that he was your friend and haven’t told him. (yet)

Or lastly, you’re just that mean and grumpy that any awkward action Peter does bring amusement to you - Peter knows this is not likely, but he had to throw it in there as your cynicism is slowly rubbing off on him (that’s what you get for hanging out for almost a month now)

Peter rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly shifting the balance between his feet, “Yeah, I’m fine.” He cleared his throat, “Right, um, bye.”

“See you around,” You say with a wink but yet still looking like you were about to burst out laughing.

Peter quickly slammed the door shut and watched as you drive away before he slowly trudged back up to their apartment, where he was promptly greeted by May, who seemed to be eating Noodle.

May raised her eyebrows, “You didn’t ask him to come upstairs?”

Peter didn’t reply.

“You’re hopeless, sweetie,” May shakes her head with a sigh. 

Honestly, Peter felt inclined to agree.

Tagged: @locke-writes @yesthetrashbin  @blackirisposts @idwithoutthesuperego @screamingmuffinsunite @fifi550 @vydante @batfam16 @kpopchangedmylifesstuff @chaotictyler @delphicillusion @daeshaunex2 @spideylovin @lewi-black @vances-violets @hey-cigasrette @vaijuiins-shelter @wobbleknocker @awkwardwintersoldier

[mleighlikes]

Instant M’Ls part #34 :) BLM collection.

Hey InterWorld, with the current state of things some of you have asked me to write out my thoughts on the issues of the Black Lives Matter movement. So all this month my M’L Instants have followed said topic. Also I would like to thank you all for your continued support and Much Likes and Love. If you didn’t know I reached 1700 Followers on my main blog and I’ve reached 700 Followers here on this blog. I am so thankful to you all and I hope we can all keep growing together. Have a blessed day my friends :) .

Race...

Why do we seem to run one every day? A term used to denote the swift passing of others in a competition has devolved into categories of physical features and denotes differences in language used as a barrier against many by a self a pointed chosen few. Why must I be made to Sprint through my life simply because of a shape of a noise the sound or use of words as I speak and more. Why is my worth any less than yours simply do to a complexion of my birth which I had no day in... Why?

Color...

Is merely a result of properties upon my form as the light hits my physical being. To my mind I can't understand why this offends you so. I am not defined as a being through my worth due to my skins so called color and neither ate you. Your experiences, hopes dreams wants desires are so much more than a shade of pigment you fall under by right of birth. There is so much more than just the skin, I hope one day the world will decide to listen an learn this.

 Creed...

What is your aim, what do you hope to accomplish through the set of beliefs that are governing your actions. Yes to be heard, yes to make a statement to let those in power know who they actually work for and need to remember it. Yet, to believe that one loss would be justified by ruining your home, your state of being would truly be what the lost would want. Only in peace can there be a change in creep. When all hearts ate up at arms against each other eyes, ears, minds and hearts remained closed to any form of resolutions that benefit all for the better.

Acceptance...

Lay the rose's upon the ground each time. This is the way things are. Blind yet not blind eye's see but feel they can do nothing. Times change, we grow tired of the thorns among us. Why must this be, what did we do wrong merely existing that's no longer a good answer. No more the blind yet not blind eye can we continue to turn. It's to much within the face of all not just one of a personal persuasion. We must pull our weeds, till our soil it's past time to tend to the world garden properly. We need to do do now or begin again...

Disillusion...

No longer willing to fake the smile, the pleasant greetings to those who would treat another as if they were lesser than. No longer willing to say well it's not happening to me so let's just keep going with the way things are. One to many is on longer okay, it never ever was. What happens within the mind that would say to itself that to be better than another is glorious? What wheels are turning where to see only the differences between individuals as a threat calls for mistreatment as a way to live a life and teach another generation to do the same? The cracks grow bigger, so big we can fall into them for lifetimes. Can't keep walking through with the wholes growing ever bigger, something everything needs to change...

Change...

Its coming it's happening as we speak. Look on as colors come together so many shades and hues all willing to bloom as one. No more will we allow the weeds to continue to spread among our world garden. Each rose, poppy, violet and daffodils is stretching its leaves to the sun, looking for the rains to cleanse us of impurities. Together we will pollinate a new plot, we will watch better seeds bud and grow. We will no longer accept the disillusionment that we feel within our dying roots. We must live again as one, this has to be the way no matter how many may resist. We can't keep allowing our fellow posies to fall to the winds of chance storms and dare not to replant them stem to stem.

Protest...

Gather with thee in peace to rally for change. Do not get me confused with those who come with malice in their being. Voices all as one needing to be heard. Standing together all the shades of humanity who disagree with a status that hasn't changed sense a birth of a nation. Maybe not even sense the birth of a dishearten world. We unite as one as we should already be. No longer will difference matter in our eyes. Come stand with me as we stand together. Together we are strong together we can rise.

Riot...

Hidden within those seeking change ate those who allow pain to take over. The only justice they think is to lash out at a system that lashes back. Yet, in doing so see who they really harm. Neighborhoods torn apart that remain as modern rubble among us all. Caught in the cross fire, innocent voices who come to help only to be possibly silenced in a worse way. The goal yes is to tear down the bricks that block your path to what has always been the right way. Yet, found within the debris always lies the sad casualty.

LikeMindes...

Across a world we all seek the same end goal. Yet there are too many paths to count that may lead there. For better or worse all humanity does seek the same things, just some have to seek it in a harder way. Born a child knows not of another's changes from theirs. Like the eyes of one we must return to such times. Sift through the difference to find the similar, each voice unique while together they're all asking for the same thing.

Come One...

Never to be afraid to be the only voice. Never to fear standing alone for what's right. Other's will see, other's will come and go. Yet, you keep being unafraid to be the one out of how ever many willing to stand even alone.

Come All...

Many grow out of a single one willing to stand. Other's now seeing such a thing no longer afraid to also be heard. Grow from 2 to 3 to as many as the stars hidden by the light of the sun in a day lite sky. We they will remain hidden no longer in the unfair grips of veiled daily night.

Stand "We"...

Can we ever truly come together under the human being roof. So long out in the rain, can't always trust the one's trying to gather those to shelter. Hands do link together in unity trying to brave the rapids of on coming crashing negativity. As much as they try the chain like stone may wither at some points, yet still other links are stronger than ever.

Find me on Patreon, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram :)

I hope you and yours are safe and well and you can find meaning in my words. Let me know what you think and pass the thoughts along.

[plentyghosts]

Heres just a daily reminder

Coping by shipping a young girl with her abuser is not healthy.

I talked to my own therapist about it a while ago (the first time my post got derailed by a vi*laf shipper) cause i wanted to see what she thought. Because i used to ship vi*laf (way before i made this blog) and used the same excuse. That i had been groomed and this was a way to cope.

I brought it up how i used to do that and asked her what she thought. She said "thats very unhealthy, You may not be doing it directly, but thats still forcing yourself to relive trauma, and thats exactly what you dont want."

After that we also discussed two other actually healthy coping mechanisms (which ive been doing. And they have helped much much more.) that i wanted to share for those of you looking for a genuinely healthy way to cope:

Picking up a hobby: ie, sewing, drawing, writing, knitting, etc etc.

Writing your thoughts down: sounds typical i know, but getting your emotions out on paper can make then easier to process.

So yeah kids, shipping a 14 year old girl and her abuser isnt a healthy way to cope. There are a million different ways you can work through trauma. And making yourself relive trauma through violet so you can "have control" isnt a good one. Take it from someone who did the same thing. It doesnt work.

[barberwitch]

Witch Tip Wednesday 12.19.18

Perfume Magic, the Scent of Witchcraft

I received this ask, and it’s something that I figured could open up some witchy possibilities:

“hi! I've been thinking about this for a while now and I'd love to have your opinion. What do you think is the magical potency of perfumes? I've listed the components of perfumes I wear and noticed that the most used ingredients were ylang-ylang/vanilla/mandarin&jasmine. On a similar note,do you think breaking down the ingredients of a perfume and looking at the magical properties of each of them can give a hint for the magical use for a it? sex/love/divination seemed most common in my experiment”

Hi there! So you’ve touched on something that is deeply twined with witchcraft. Let’s start with the basics, perfumes are usually a form of a tincture, though I mean that in the sense of botanicals infused into an alcohol base, not necessarily a potable (drinkable) one.

Perfume is magic. It can entice, repulse, spark a memory, or even create one. Not just that, but it has deep ties to witches through an odd other use which happens to be a connection near and dear to me...Poison.

“Something with poison in it I think. With poison in it. But attractive to the eye and soothing to the smell. Poppies. Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleep. Now they'll sleep.”- Wicked Witch of the West

You see, perfume based in alcohol is a very old concept. In the case above, there’s a very obvious correlation to that simple fact. Opium is what’s made when you mix poppy sap with alcohol, and it in turn changes into something that changes what it interacts with. It’s a poison. Herbs, resins, rare spices and even animal based parts like ambergris and musk are molded together to create a pleasing scent. It’s how medicine was made, but with a different intent. Healers, alchemists, witches all knew the process, but it was made into a mundane art and luxury. Perfume though had multiple uses and connotation: hiding bad hygiene in some eras, but also to enhance beauty.

Beauty being fabricated is a form of witchcraft, and at is base is glamour magic. Altering how you are represented through the senses. Having these connotations of beauty, harkens back to the side of people accused of witchcraft for embracing sexuality. It has developed of course, and changed, but there has also been a history of perfumes being used for poison, having poisonous ingredients, or poisons disguised as perfumes which always comes back to Saturn to me. Most Saturnian herbs have a different allegiance that isn’t talked about in depth that often, and that’s the association with Venus.

Venus you see, is where we get the word Venom from. Venom and poison are a modern concept for being negative, where as originally, venom meant something more along the lines of “change”. Venoms were made by doctors and witches, and medicine was magic because it was an infusion of herbs that changed something. Whether changing their scent, or changing them from sick to healthy, or alive to dead. This concept fits squarely in what witches strive to do, changing things for better or worse through means which aren’t fully understood to those on the outside.

What I’m saying is you can, and should use your perfumes for magic. I’ve been doing it for years and it (fragrance) is a very important part of my craft.

What you’ve done (focusing on the individual aspects of the perfume) is an awesome way to incorporate fragrance into your craft, but it does bring up another topic: substitutions.

Many fragrance companies use fake botanicals or chemicals to create the scents, keeping that in mind there’s only so much magical oomph you can pack into your workings with them. It’s easier the simpler the fragrance profile, and some colognes and perfumes do use the real stuff. To put in perspective, what would you rather use in a spell (ignoring allergies) real lavender or fake lavender. Both may be able to get the job done, but one will get it done better, or faster, or with less work.

Fragrance used for specific workings can get a bit convoluted and you have to treat it as a spell. You can’t really look at the individual ingredients so much as the whole. There may be contradictory uses for the plants, so the easiest way to use them is like a Venn Diagram. What associations do they have in common? The more they have in common, the more multipurpose. If there are too many contradictions, then it’s easier to look at it as a whole. What does the combination feel like to you?

It can be difficult sussing through the actual ingredients (example, violet fragrances very rarely have any violets in them. Usually it’s orris root), so treating it as a whole may be easier.

If you really want to dig in, I’d try making your own. Fragrance can be a powerful tool if used correctly, but if you aren’t willing to give it as much thought and attention as you would any other spell, then don’t rely on it as your only tool.

Also, my go to for fragrance enhancements are handmade or Jo Malone: Leather & Artemisia, Dark Amber & Ginger Lilly, Lime Basil & Mandarin, are all in my daily rotations and I’m messing around with Red Current & English Oak. There are others I enjoy too like Wood Sage & Sea Salt and Myrhh & Tonka, but it’s pricey and sometimes a tester is all I have to work with.

I could go on and on, but I’m already way pst my usual posting time but it’s still the 19th! Hopefully this helped open some ideas, or at the least showed you aren’t alone in wanting to use your scents for magic.

🦇Cheers, Barberwitch

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[applesdrowned-a]

NAME : estelle  NICKNAME :   es.  FACECLAIM :  i don’t have one currently. so i just use my zq icons. i used to use anne hathaway & stitch tho. might start using stitch again if i can’t find something suitable.  PRONOUNS :  they/them  HEIGHT :  5′2 1/2  BIRTHDAY :   august 25th AESTHETIC : messy hair, camouflage, mismatched socks, dusk,  plaid, cool colours  LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO : killing boys , halsey  FAVOURITE  MUSE (S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN : rumplestiltskin, spock, sylar, han solo & ofc chad !  

GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  ACCOUNT :

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE :  ummm well, i needed more zach content so i took the plunge and watched ahs. i actually watched asylum first cos i heard more about that role, but anywho... i watched murder house & immediately fell in love with chad.  i didn’t see a point in making a blog cause i didn’t know if their was a murder house community. i added him to my multi muse eventually shifting to a sideblog there & then one day bam murder house people started to show.  so i took the plunge & made a full blog. best fucking decision i ever made. i haven’t had this much fun writing muse in a long time. 

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVOURITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE : theres a lot i love about him ( granted i had to make it up cause ryan gave us nothing lmfao )  but  i will have to say how much love he has to give. it breaks my heart on the daily. which ties in to how badly he wanted to be a dad & didn’t get the chance & i am sad about it. he just loves children. 

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING : music really helps ! i pull verses outta my ass daily with that. pinterest is the quickest way to get me hype for a muse too. chads source material never fails to give me muse. so me watching murder house  ? 101/10 the vibes come in. 

FAVOURITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS : angst. i ain’t gonna lie. i love the drama & the sad shit. but i do love cute stuff ( & you would be surprised how much i can get outta this guy, hes a huge softie )   it does also depend on my mood too. sometimes i want angst sometimes i am in the mood for happy. i do enjoy writing nsfw when i am in the mood for it. 

BIGGEST  STRUGGLE  IN  REGARDS  TO  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE :  i would love more ahs canons to write with ! there is abundance of violets  & a few tates ? but i wanna see more of the others like,,,,,, ben, vivien, addie, oh and travis,  moira, nora  etc.   write the dead breakfast club,,,, & idk but it would be interesting to ever write with a patrick if we could agree on things.  more  murder house muses please & thank you. 

tagged by: stole it from @jedishope tagging: whomever !