#WE CAN PAINT IT WHATEVER COLOR WE WANT inside :3

[sharksfood]

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!! WE ARE MOVING TO SEATTLE!! ITS FINALLY HAPPENING!!

[nanowrimo]

5 Tips for Building a Sustainable Writing Practice

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. First Draft Pro, a 2023 Camp NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a great writing app—whether you’re writing solo or with a co-author. Here are a few tips for building a sustainable writing practice, brought to you by author Ariana Brown and First Draft Pro.

We’ve all heard the advice to “write every day,” as if it were that easy! Translation: suck it up, no one cares if you’re tired. But what if there was another way to get writing done, without being unkind to yourself? 

Hi, I’m Ariana Brown, and I teach writers how to create a writing practice that is sustainable, flexible, and fulfilling. Most of my students are chronically ill, disabled, neurodivergent, or simply exhausted from the daily stresses of life. I know writing isn’t your only responsibility—capitalism makes sure of that! But I strongly believe that writing should be an enjoyable activity you look forward to.

Below I’ve compiled my top tips for exhausted writers who want to be kinder to themselves—and still get the work done.

1. Add pleasure to your writing routine.

Sensory pleasures are neither frivolous nor are they only for children. They’re a crucial part of being alive! They give us something to look forward to when times are tough and we need motivation. Candles, soft blankets, cold beverages, mood lighting, dance breaks, yummy treats—whatever you choose, make sure it’s something you love. Paint your nails a fun color so you have something beautiful to look at while you’re typing away. Make a playlist of your favorite songs and after you finish a chapter, blast one song so loudly you have to get up and dance. Then, get back to writing. Remember, even for the most focused among us, pleasure is a better motivator than shame.

2. Be clear about your intentions.

What brought you to writing in the first place? For some, it was the ability to escape into our imaginations. For others, it was the chance to finally express what we’d been holding inside. Identify your reason for writing, then ask yourself: Am I still enjoying this? Do I still feel connected to my reason for writing? If not, explore how you can strengthen your connection to your inner child’s reason for writing. 

3. Work with your brain, not against it.

If we know that everyone’s brain works differently, why do we force strict discipline and linear processes on ourselves? My advice: find or create a writing process that works for you. Maybe you love outlines; maybe you prefer to see where the words take you. Either way, make space for wandering, play, and discovery as you write. Take brain breaks. Doodle, map, dance, and draw when you get distracted. Body double with other writers, try new exercises and prompts to make the writing sing, and take plenty of breaks to stretch your body and talk to friends. We come to writing with our whole selves. Listen to your body, don’t shut it off.

4. Find a writing community.

You don’t have to wait for a community to come to you! I offer co-writing sessions on Zoom four times a month for my Patreon supporters, but do what works for you. Attend local open mics as an audience member and cheer on your peers. Invite your best friends to your living room once a month for a two hour writing/crafting session. Or check your local library and bookstores for free workshops and author events. You don’t have to do this work alone.

5. Develop a gratitude practice.

Finishing your draft is a huge accomplishment, but it’s not the only milestone to be celebrated. Consider creating opportunities to thank yourself throughout your writing practice. You’re doing an amazing and difficult thing. The fact that you keep showing up is worthy of celebration. Whether you decide to journal, rest, pray, meditate, or reward yourself, a little gratitude goes a long way.

Ariana Brown is a queer writer from San Antonio, TX, based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020), and a national collegiate poetry slam champion. Ariana holds an MFA in Poetry, MS in Library and Information Science, and a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies. She has been writing, teaching, and performing for over a decade. Follow her online @ArianaThePoet and www.arianabrown.com. 

[ikkosu]

Listening to Nicki Minaj and David Guetta song called hey mama gave me ideas....

Beginning 2000'. Ur a sport car racer in the city of ur choice and ur kinda known in town to be very good.

Imagine one day u found an abandonned race car that has a yellow orange red paint job and decide to repair it and use it to do races (u know, like the one in Tokyo?). Because like, the car has a unique design u've never seen before, not even for a rally. And is in perfect condition.

The day of the race, u arrive and everyone is quiet bc wow, that car is new, shiny and beautiful. They all stare at u, including others competitors.

In summary, u start ur race, and praise the car asf like "yeah baby, give me all u've got", "show them what u can do", "that's right, go on, don't stop","such a perfect engine revving to prove them we are the best"... and u notice the car litteraly has no speed limite, is doing an outrageously good performance and seems to be enjoying the race. The adrenaline running through ur blood make u ignore the fact that the car seems to react and live the moment.

Because of this, u win every races and end up beating every records. Nobody has ever made such an impressive performance.

To avoid having people touch ur new jewel, you leave quickly after recieving some prices and go back home. You blast some music to celebrate.

Back home, u decide to wash the car when u notice some weird pinky liquid coming out from under the car.

If u want u can eventually write what happen next (it's midnight and my brain is nwjfifishs) but i kust wanted to share this idea with u :))

Have a nive day/night ~~~<3

gosh!! that is such a good idea omg. I always like the idea of bots going along whatever their new humans are taking them to, preffering to remain silent while the human just,,does whatever they want to do lmaoo. Only escaping to their bases at night then returning the morning after like they hadnt left.

Given the human is a racer I can imagine they would manhandle the car a lot,,,,and Cybertronian are naturally sensitive on the driving wheel as well as the joysticks (and the pedals, too. Especially, the pedals) which leads to several pent up 'frustrations' from the bot themselves....👀👀

Doesn't also help the way you keep praising the car, touches always so rough yet soft when you knead the joystick or swivel the wheel....

I don't have much to add but,,,,

—CURIOUS, you hunch over, other hand pointing the mouth of the hose to the crevices of the wheels. They rolled across enough dirt already, but you miss impatient skidding of the the wheels back and forth.

Whatever strange substance that was, it had a tangy smell to it — almost pungent, yet also a little sweet?

You curled out a finger and dipped it into the viscous liquid. It was strangely cool to the touch, yet the tip of your skin flared with a mild burn a only a balm would induce.

Moreover, the crush, candy color were reminiscent of the cherry flavored Gatorade, you hoard often from the shops. Is this some new kind of fuel? If so, then why weren't you informed? Trends these days....always so discreet. But, how did it end up here?

The thought of shoving your finger inside your mouth, going against all ethical hygiene practices for a taste to satisfy your curiosity, is short-lived the moment the engine rumbled.

But it wasn't just a rumble....almost like a whine. Did it just breedle? Did it talk?

You yelped and scrambled on your back when the car shifted : a blur of mesh metal parts, churning and transforming into shape. Then, a shadow loomed above you, caging you in. Chuffs of steam heaved, like breaths of a a beast and two blue flaring lights for eyes, fervent and desperate...

[kekaki-cupcakes]

Hiiii! I loved ur Hermes kid!

Could I ask for a male son of Dionysus x either Leo or nico?

Sorry if I got ya wrong and don’t feel pressured or anything!

Have a lovely day!

When there isn't a lot of info in an ask I kinda have to make the reader a personality so that it isn't too bland too read so sorry to y'all that aren't like this <3

Redecoration---Nico di Angelo x Son of Dionysus

»»————-　★　————-««

Nico had been glaring at the roof of skulls for a solid ten minutes, sort of hoping the hatred in his eyes would just poof them out of existence, when someone finally showed up. 

Apparently after an incident in the Aphrodite cabin, people weren’t allowed to just grab a bucket of paint and some new furniture to fuck around and find out, which was why Nico had been sent someone to help him fix the mess that was the Hades cabin.

Apart from the hundred skulls hot glue gunned to the rood, the beds were wooden coffins, the lamps were ancient looking chandeliers, and all of the walls were a dark ugly gray, like there was a serious mold problem. Now that he thought about it, the color might actually be a mold problem. 

“Never fear, goth! For I am here!” 

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Nico took a deep breath and turned around, obsidian eyes already narrowed with dislike as he took in the taller boy trotting over. He was holding a crate in his arms, filled with color swatches and chunks of fabrics, magazines sticking out of the top. 

“Excuse me?”

“You’re the one who needs redecorating, right?” The boy asked, already letting himself into the dim cabin that smelt of rich dark chocolate for some reason. “Yeah… no offense but we have to fix this, even if you're the wrong person.” 

Nico felt a sudden need to defend the atrocious carpet and bat shaped door knocker from this boy, who was wearing a maroon shirt picturing a glass of wine. “I was eight.” 

“No shame here, everyone makes bad decisions.”

There didn’t seem to be any point arguing with this boy, who had already dumped the box of supplies on one of the coffin bed lids, and was staring around at the dark cabin, hands on his hips. 

Nico just followed him inside, shoving his hands into the slightly ripped pockets of his aviator jacket. He peered into the cardboard box, which was promptly tipped out onto the ground. He watched with a frown as the son of Mr D sat on the carpet and began rifling through the empty notebooks and cut up magazines. “What are you doing?”

“Uh, scrapbooking? We can’t just start painting the walls yellow yet, you have to plan this stuff out, goth.” He said, as if it was obvious. Then he smirked. “You don’t like arts and crafts?”

Nico’s frown deepened, but he couldn’t let this mildly infuriating boy with surprisingly cool bracelets upstage him. “I love arts and crafts.”

“Whatever you say,” he hummed, and pulled out a leather bound book containing a few stickers and a strip of torn paper where a page had been pulled out. “Are you just gonna stand there in the corner and be grumpy?... That wasn’t sarcasm, you can if you want, I was just checking.”

Nico wasn’t an asshole, of course he was going to help. Still, he had to glare at the boy for that comment. Then he sat down and opened one of the magazines, which was featuring a life sized Barbie Dream House bed frame, fluffy pillows included. He flicked the page over with a grimace.

“So, what kinda vibe are we going for?”

“What?”

“I’m assuming you're sick of Dracula,” he said, waving his arms at the general doom and gloom around them. “So what aesthetic are we replacing it with?”

Nico didn’t want to admit he hadn’t planned this far into the venture, he’d really just been hoping he could repaint the walls, or maybe burn the whole thing down and start over. “I don’t… I don’t know.”

“Okay, well… I’m assuming you wanna keep it edgy, but seriously? A roof of skulls? You’re not a caveman. Maybe we should go with an Addams family style.” He shivered. “With less spiderwebs and disembodied hands. “ 

Ah, another gap in his modern education. “What’s an Addams family?” 

All Nico got in return was a gaping mouth and wide eyes. “How do you not- okay, I’m making you watch the entire timeline later, but for now we need to pick a color scheme.” 

Nico opened his mouth.

“Not black.”

Nico closed his mouth.

“Obviously there’ll be lots of black, but you need another color to fit with it, something dark and scary but colorful.” He pulled out a binder of color swatches, and flipped it open, skimming the pages of baby blues and lavenders. “Maybe dark green, or...”

“Red.” Nico said, peering over at the pages of ruby and scarlet. He pointed to the dark one, which had a little title below, ‘Blood red’. It was a little on brand, but it was better than ‘Crimson Tide’. 

“Oooh, nice. If we keep the walls black, and pull up the black carpet, there’ll be floorboards underneath.” He started to ramble, ripping a color swatch out of the binder and gluing it into the leather bound book. He glanced around at the musty cabin. 

“We can get a red rug for the middle of the cabin, and definitely new beds, but if we get Drew to refurbish the chandeliers they’ll look great. Oh, and the coffin bed frames could be a bookshelf if we get the mattress out and ask Nyssa to put some shelves in. Do you read? Because otherwise it’s sort of pointless. But so are the skulls on the roof, so…”

“You’re good at this.” 

It took Nico a moment to realize what he’d just blurted, and when he did the warmth was already in his cheeks. He’d only been a little caught up in watching the son of Dionysus’s eyes sparkle as he talked, pointing to different parts of the cabin, and somehow ruined it. “I mean, you just sound like you’ve, you know, done this a lot.”

The glimmer in their eye didn’t fade, they only grinned harder. “I have. A lot. It’s fun!”

“I suppose so,” Nico said, his lips twitching, and opened another magazine. He skipped a page on clawfoot bathtubs [There was already a white one with gold trim in the bathroom]. There was a large heart shaped mirror, He ignored that too, and found a simple bedframe, painted black. He held it out gingerly. “What about this one?”

“Yes! Good job.” He said, snipping it out of the magazine quickly, and sticking it next to a picture of a glass chandelier. “If you’ve got a simple bed, we could find a zebra print blanket, they always look good with black and red, as long as you don’t have, like, leopard print.”

“I thought you’d like leopard print?”

“And I thought you’d like skulls on your roof and coffin shaped beds,” he teased, with a smug little smile. Nico rolled his eyes, and picked out a strip of dark red fabric, passing it over.

He shook some glitter from his hands, there seemed to be piles of it in the box. “It’s a little over the top, but it’s not as bad as Jason’s cabin. It’s just rock. Everywhere. And a giant statue of his father.”

“Maybe he can be my next client,” he hummed, wiping glue from his fingers onto the molding carpet beneath them. A few shards of rounded glass were taped to the pages of the scrapbook, shining in the light of the dusty stained chandeliers. 

Nico wanted to object. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t want the boy in front of him with glitter on his cheekbones and scissors in his hands to be cutting out pictures and teasing someone else. Instead he looked away, feeling something in his chest surge, something like fear. Fear of what, he didn’t know, but he cleared his throat and moved on.

“Don’t you have a sister too?”

The fear surged back forwards and Nico whipped around, his tone sharp. “What?”

“The roman one, I swear I saw her the other day, when Reyna visited to plan something or other.” he said casually, not seeing the pale tinge to Nico’s face. “With the overalls and the bulldog?”

“That’s Frank,” Nico said, his shoulder sinking with relief. 

“No, I’m pretty sure it was Hazel, she had those light up sketchers, with the little wheels on the bottom.” He said, somehow with a moon shaped sticker on his nose as he stuck little cut out paper skulls around the four page collage. 

“Frank’s the bulldog, he can turn into animals.” Nico had a strange urge to reach out and press the sticker on his nose, so instead he held his hands tightly in his lap. 

“Well, is there something Hazel’d like in the cabin when she visits? Does she read?” 

Nico sighed, and reached back for the magazine he discarded. He shook it open, cut outs of fluffy teddies falling into his lap. He found the page with the heart shaped bathroom mirror and ripped it out carefully. He could take a few hearts in his cabin if Hazel would like them. “This one.”

“Oh, that one's cute, Nyssa could totally make it.”

“I can ask Leo, he owes me a favor.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I haven't killed him yet.” 

                                  »»————-　★　————-««

Nico pressed down the front of his shirt. It was a black Camp Halfblood shirt, which he’d gotten from Piper after the Aphrodite cabin had started making shirts in other colors. Apparently there were only so many outfits you could wear with orange. 

Black goes with everything though, so it wasn’t a problem for him. 

He made his bed [closed the lid of the coffin] and dragged the last of the furniture not nailed to the ground out onto the little deck all of the cabins had. His decking only had a few pairs of shoes and a pot of dead roses he’d never bothered to keep alive. Maybe he’d have another go. 

Drew had taken the chandeliers already, to polish them and whatnot, so he only had to wait for his assigned son of Dionysus to show up, and they could start hunting for zebra print blankets and ripping skulls off the ceiling. What fun. 

When he still hadn’t shown up, Nico finished pulling all of the previously made bedding from the coffins and dumping it to the side so that Leo could turn it to a bookshelf [He could read, he just had dyslexia thank you very much], and then set off to the Dionysus cabin. It was easy to find, the only male god on the female side, with trelice’s of ivy decorating the whitewashed walls and a grumpy looking leopard snoozing on the purple swinging chair out the front of the small cabin.

He didn’t really want to knock, but he was sure someone would report him for standing around too menacingly if he just waited. He was saved from indecision when the door opened, revealing a tall sandy haired boy.

“You’re the goth, aren’t you?” Pollux sniffed, his nose red. “We can’t help today, but Butch is free, he can do some heavy lifting, and I’m sure Drew’ll criticize your style if you ask nicely enough.” 

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“I mean,” Pollux started, rubbing his eyes, and Nico only then realized he was still wearing his pajamas. They had an elongated cartoon owl sticking out of a doorway on it. “Skulls on the ceiling is a bit much, and everyone think you’re a vamp-”

“I meant with you guys, not my style,” Nico interrupted, his eyes narrowed.”

“Someone, decided to go visit Lou Ellen even though we all know she has a cold, and now I have it-” Pollux was cut off once again, his mockingly loud voice reaching the people inside. 

“I’m sorry I was concerned for my friend, she wanted soup!”

“She always wants soup!” Pollulx yelled back, and Nico moved past the older child of Dionysus, slipping off his shoes and letting himself into the cabin. 

There was nasally muttering behind him and the door slid shut. Nico peered around, and saw a bundle of fluffy blankets on a couch, only a sneezing head poking out the top. “Why did you get sick?”

“I mean it wasn’t really on purpose,” he mumbled back, wiping his nose with a tissue and sinking back into his cocoon. “I can’t help today, but-”

“I don’t care,” Nico started, and plopped down on the white couch, avoiding a deep red stain that could be alcohol or blood. He couldn’t tell. He also didn’t know how to say he’d rather sleep in the coffin again then have to spend the day with someone else. 

He sniffed, falling sideways a little on the couch and squinting at the square tv, which was showing some old cartoon about cavemen. “Mkay, well you should probably go if you don’t wanna get sick.”

Nico thought for a moment, trying not to focus on how much he wanted to scoop up the bundle of blankets in his arms far too skinny for that sort of stuff. “Why don’t we watch ‘an Adam family’?

He got watery wide eyes in return and a toothy grin, “wait really?”

“No. If I was making a joke it’d be funnier than that.”

“Okay, let’s watch it,” he said, hopping off the couch and moving to a box of DVDs with a lot of energy for someone so sick. “And it’s the Addams family, goth. You have to learn the basics of this culture if you’re gonna have coffin bookshelves.”

He fiddled around with the tv and then a grainy black and white intro came on, tinny music over the top. Nico watched as he danced to the theme tune in his blanket burrito, all the way back to the couch, where he landed, coughing and winded. Nico raised an eyebrow. “I could’ve done that, you’re sick.”

“Yeah yeah whatever,” he mumbled, tucking the fluffy socks on his feet up onto the white couch and wiggling with excitement. Nico watched him for a moment, and then turned back to the TV, feeling his lips twitch into a grin.

Duh duh duh duh, click click. Duh duh duh duh, click click.

Their creepy and they're kooky-

                                      »»————-　★　————-««

“Neeks, this mirror is so cute!”

“You’re welcome,” Nico muttered, rubbing his nose and rolling over, pulling the zebra print doona cover further over his head. 

He heard Hazel’s wheelie shoes click along the floorboards and she gilded out of the bathroom. When he peered out, her hair was in bunchies and she was pulling a purple hoodie over her head. “It’s so much nicer in here now, but how did you get sick redecorating?”

“Uhm..There was a lot of dust. I might be allergic?” 

The door slammed open, the clear chandelier hanging from the roof shaking as Nyssa trudged in, her work boots leaving mud on the fluffy blood red rug. She was holding the glitter covered scrapbook in her gloved hands. 

“So, I know I’m supposed to make everything in this, but what am I supposed to do with the polaroid of you kissing Mr D ‘s kid?”

                       »»————-　★　————-««

[pancakes4two]

room for three

The one where you and Harry welcome a tiny new addition into your family.

PREVIEW: 

“He’s getting so restless,” you laugh, watching the afternoon sun stream in through the windows as you turn towards Harry. The light illuminates the peaks and valleys of his face, softening his features. Here, in the quiet of your nursery, it’s easy to picture what the future would look like soon: the same golden sun peeking through the curtains as tiny feet putter across the hardwood floor, the sound of heavier, surer footsteps following close behind as Harry chases your son through the room, their matching giggles echoing in the space.

hi hi hi! hope everyone is doing well <3 haven’t written a long(er) piece like this in a minute so i wanted to do a dadrry one. please ignore the timezone inconsistencies in this... i tried my best LOL

MASTERLIST (read the ig blurb for this here!)

Saturday, late September.

It was getting to be that time of year when the days started and ended with a slight chill in the air, the fall breeze calling for wool cardigans and a pot of hot chai every morning. Your afternoons were getting slower and slower—at nine months pregnant, there was a frustrating amount of things you simply didn’t want to waste your precious energy on anymore—so most days consisted of you wobbling through the house tidying up until you inevitably got tired, and then you’d lay in bed and Harry would tend to you before he had to jet off for tour again.

Your shared London house was a bit of a nightmare these days, given that you and Harry were designing the nursery by yourselves. Empty boxes that used to hold furniture scattered the floor and baby clothes were draped haphazardly over the couch. Your due date was now only two weeks away, so lots of last-minute decorating was being done. Harry had decided yesterday, right after painting the nursery walls, that the shade of green you two had chosen didn’t end up looking the way he wanted it to. You tended to agree with him, so the two of you picked out a new color this morning, lighter this time, and started to redo the walls.

Harry apparently decided to take a break after three hours of painting, flopping down next to where you were currently laid on the floor. You had tapped out earlier when your back started to hurt. Your limbs were splayed across a fuzzy rug, and you had one hand resting atop of your stomach, feeling the small human inside of you kick every so often.

“He’s getting so restless,” you laugh, watching the afternoon sun stream in through the windows as you turn towards Harry. The light illuminates the peaks and valleys of his face, softening his features. Here, in the quiet of your nursery, it’s easy to picture what the future would look like soon: the same golden sun peeking through the curtains as tiny feet putter across the hardwood floor, the sound of heavier, surer footsteps following close behind as Harry chases your son through the room, their matching giggles echoing in the space.

“I’m sure he is,” your boyfriend says, swiping his hand across his shirt and leaving a streak of sage green paint on the fabric. “We keep talking about this banger of a room, he probably can’t wait to come out and see it for himself.”

“Never describe this architectural masterpiece as a banger again,” you joke, raising a brow at Harry.

“I can call it whatever I want! I helped design this room too, you know,” Harry huffs, and the two of you settle into a comfortable silence for a while. Outside, a bird lands on the windowsill, its wings fluttering as it hops around. Harry shifts his body so that he’s closer to you, his eyes slowly scanning your features until they land on your hand, still resting delicately atop your stomach. He grabs your wrist and turns your hand towards him, lacing your fingers together.

“What if I’m away when it happens?” Harry says nervously, his brows furrowed. You can tell by the tension in his shoulders that this has been worrying him for a while, but he was too shy to bring it up to you until now.

“You took a whole week off around my due date,” you said reassuringly, squeezing his hand. “Yeah, he might end up coming a little earlier or later than we expected, but there’s nothing we can do about that, right? You can always get on a flight as soon as you find out I’m going into labor. And I wouldn’t be angry with you if you got here late, that’d be silly of me.”

“I’ll be all the way in LA, though,” was Harry’s response. He chewed on his lip, still looking a little nervous. “I’ll probably miss it if he doesn’t come during that week.”

“Hey,” you replied, smoothing over the knit in his brows with your thumb. “You took as much time off as you could. No use worrying about this now, I’m sure he’ll be a very punctual baby.”

Early October, one week later.

Clearly, you were wrong. 

You were standing in the kitchen making dinner, the thought of giving birth not even on your mind when your water broke. Thankfully, your best friend was over that night, adamant on not leaving you alone in the house when you were so close to your due date. You had tried to brush her off over text that morning, but now you were incredibly grateful to yourself for not doing so.

“Call Jeff,” you said, frantically reaching into the pocket of your sweatshirt for your phone. You handed it to your friend, unlocking it quickly in the process. “Call Jeff and tell him it’s happening.”

“Okay,” your best friend replied, scrolling through your contacts and clicking on Jeff’s name. It rang only once before he picked up. She put the phone on speaker and placed it on the counter in front of you.

“Is it happening?” Jeff asked before she could even say anything, his voice cracking through the speaker.

“Yeah,” your friend said as you breathed through a contraction. “Her water broke just now. I’m taking her to the hospital. What time’s it in LA? Is H about to go on?”

“Fuck,” Jeff sighed. You could imagine perfectly what he looked like right now, pacing and rubbing his hand anxiously down his face. 

“They’re wheeling him up now, it’s too late to cancel. He’s got a day of break between tonight’s show and the next one. Tell Y/N to hold on, I’ll get him a flight right after the show and we’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“Jeff,” you said through gritted teeth. “Don’t tell him it’s happening until he gets off stage. I don’t want him to worry while he’s out there.”

“Mhm. We’ll see you as soon as humanly possible. Call me if you need anything!”

Late evening, that day.

You were bouncing on a yoga ball in your hospital room when he texted you. A nurse had come in and checked on you a few hours earlier. She said you were only a few centimeters dilated, that you might have a long night ahead of you. When she asked where the father was, all you could do was sheepishly smile and say he was on the way. That was easier than having to explain that your baby’s father wasn’t in the hospital with you because he was in the middle of a sold-out residency in America. She’d brought in the ball and suggested that you try and move around on it to ease your anxiety and manage the pain of your contractions.

H ❤️ (5 unread)

You okay?

I’m coming right now. Flight leaves in 30 minutes.

Can’t believe this is happening.

I love you, you’re so strong.

And I can’t believe you lied and said he would be a punctual baby.

all good

in my defense, i really did think he was going to be on time

guess he just wanted to spite you

Heyyyyy.

Well, I’m glad you’re feeling alright.

What’s the ETA on my child?

nurse said probably not for another 12 hours

he’s waitin for his daddddd

I’m cutting it close!!! Tell him to waittttt!

Boarding now. I’ll be there so soon.

Love you the most.

i know, i know

see ya soon :)

Eleven hours later.

The door to your hospital room swung open with force, disturbing your best friend from where she was currently curled up asleep beside you.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Harry huffs out breathlessly, hands on his hips as he tries to steady his breath. His sunglasses are pushed up carelessly on his head, his curls a wild mess as he rushes to be by your side. “I made it, fucking hell.”

“Took you long enough,” you say jokingly. You think you probably look a mess right now. The contractions were getting more frequent, and you were pretty worn out, to be honest. You were sure your hair was sticking to your face, and your hospital gown bunched up in all sorts of places.“I’ve been bouncing on this ball for literal eternity.”

“Where’s Jeff?” you asked, letting yourself relax a bit as Harry began to massage your back. Your friend slips out of the room silently, happy to pass the responsibility to your baby’s father.

“Stood outside in manager mode. He’s handing out NDAs to the nurses and stuff,” Harry replied, “I got papped on the way here.”

“Okay. We’ll probably have to do a social media post later, then. Get ahead of it.” You sighed, but you understood. The internet had suspected your due date was soon, and the fact that Harry was currently on a very high-profile tour meant that more eyes were on him now than ever before. It was to be expected that someone would photograph him at the airport; you were sure those pictures of Harry Styles rushing off to tend to his pregnant girlfriend could be sold for a fortune.

“Don’t worry about that now,” Harry said, his voice full of comfort. You felt another contraction coming, stronger this time, burning through your abdomen and back. Harry noticed the shift in you immediately, getting up to hold your hand through the pain.

“Coming in,” Someone said from outside. The door to your room opened again, the same nurse from earlier walking in. She did a double-take when she noticed Harry standing next to you---clearly Jeff hadn’t gotten to her yet---and made a small noise of surprise.

“Hello,” Harry said calmly, pulling up a chair next to you so he could be closer.

"Mr. Styles,” The nurse hesitated, then seemed to steady herself and remained professional. “Did you just get in, then?”

"Harry’s just fine,” Harry laughs, endeared by the nurse’s reaction. “Flight landed an hour ago. I got here as fast as I could.”

“Perfect,” your nurse smiles, before walking up to you. “Just came here to check on a few things. It seems like your contractions are getting more frequent, so I want to see how dilated you are. If things are far enough along, we’ll call the doctor in and you can start pushing.”

You nodded along, not able to say much else through the sensation in your stomach. She lifted your gown, the fabric rustling underneath her touch.

“Y/N, you’re ready now,” the nurse smiles at you when she comes back up. “Let me guide you back to the bed and we’ll send the doctor in. Looks like he just wanted to wait until his dad got here!”

“Now?” you ask breathily, as the door shuts behind the nurse. “It’s happening now?”

“I’m right here, love,” Harry says, rubbing circles into your palm. Another contraction comes and you grip the sheets below you, mumbling in pain. Your OB-GYN walks in then and the rest is a blur. You remember being told to push and blindly doing so, your knuckles turning white as you put your entire body into giving birth to your child. You push and you push and squeeze your eyes shut until you hear the sound of him crying for air, and then you squint and see the nurse ask Harry if he wants to cut the umbilical cord. His hands hesitate around the surgical scissors and they correct him when he’s too gentle with the tool: he’s scared of hurting you. They assure him that you won’t feel a thing, and he cuts, and then your son is swaddled in a blanket. He’s wailing and reaching for you and the doctor places him in your arms. You feel Harry’s presence at your side, his arm wrapping protectively around you as the two of you look at your son for the first time.

“Congratulations,” the doctor says, and everything is over as soon as it started. The two of you are left alone in the room. Your son has quieted down now and is looking up at you curiously with big, brown eyes.

“He’s beautiful,” Harry whispers, kissing your forehead and then his. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

“I can’t believe you still want to be with me after watching me do that,” you joke tiredly, cradling the baby in your arms. Harry moves the blanket to the side gently with his finger so you can see more of his face. There’s a tiny patch of hair at the top of his head, curling at the end already. You smile and think he couldn’t be any more perfect.

“What do you mean?” Harry says sincerely, “that was the hottest thing you could have ever done. Giving birth to my son. Fucking hell. I’m so fuckin’ obsessed with you.”

“Stop cursing in front of the baby!” You yell, using your head to poke at Harry since your hands weren’t free. 

Harry gasps and immediately slaps a hand over his mouth, looking apologetic. You giggle at how seriously he’s taking the whole being a dad thing. How did you get so lucky?

“You know,” you start, watching as Harry extends a finger towards your son and tries to make him wrap his impossibly tiny hand around it. “I wonder if he’ll grow up to have a voice like yours. Look at those eyes and that hair. Looks like the spitting image of you already.”

Harry laughs at that, then shrugs. “Think he has your nose and lips, though.”

“What are we naming him?” You ask suddenly. The two of you had talked names before, but none of them really stuck. You’d decided that you would wait until he was born, both of you expecting that the right name would come to you once you actually saw him.

“We should say his name together on three,” Harry says. You nod and he starts counting. “One, two, three...”

“Beau!” The two of you exclaim together. You laugh happily in surprise and Harry’s nose crinkles with fondness, overjoyed that you both had settled on the same name.

“Beau,” you say softly, watching as your son stirs in your chest, his legs kicking gently like they had so many times before when you were still carrying him in your stomach. “He’s half of me and half of you.”

Harry smiles and smooths down your hair, gazing lovingly at Beau. “One perfect tiny human.”

TAGLIST: @crazygirlinthisworld @grapejuice-rry @b-reads-things @s8tellite @michellekstyles @vrittivsanghavi @alienorknight @flwrmuse

[sweet-flower-dreams]

“I was looking at the stars, but you were looking at me.”

Saiki Kusuo x GN!Reader

INFO: It’s getting cold out, and you’ve got a sight you wanna see! I guess the view wasn’t what your boyfriend expected…!

WARNINGS: none but first kiss feels <3

CHARACTERS: Saiki Kusuo

“The snow is falling pretty heavily. You sure you still want to go?”

“Of course! I don’t want to miss such pretty scenery.”

What a situation Saiki has gotten himself into…

You really wanted to go on a walk during this time of year? It was so cold! I mean sure he could warm himself up easily, but what about you? It was impractical for you to just cling to him… and he’s not sure if your clothes are warm enough.

“Don’t worry about me getting cold okay? My jacket is plenty warm!”

“Yeah, because you definitely haven’t gotten sick immediately after saying that. It’s not even your good jacket.”

You sighed, and for a second he thought that you had given up. Perhaps there was hope that he could stay inside where it’s warm! But no, you had simply added another layer and a scarf. So determined…

“Fine, we can go. But don’t come crying to me if you get sick.”

“Deal!”

And so, the both of you set out down the street. Within five minutes, snow had already coated the top of your head. Saiki pulled you closer to keep a semblance of warmth, or maybe that was just him trying to be romantic. Either way, it was cozy~

Eventually, after trudging through the snow and slipping on ice (which Saiki predicted…), you made it to your destination.

The park was covered in snow and ice, but the grass managed to peak through in some spots. Even the playground had an icy coating instead of the usual metallic/plastic shine. By a miracle that definitely wasn’t Saiki, the swing set was still usable. You unceremoniously dragged him towards it and took the one on the right, leaving Saiki the left swing.

“See? It’s not that bad! The swings aren’t even covered in snow.”

“…sure.”

There was a bit of comfortable silence between you before Saiki asked.

“what scenery were you talking about anyway? Its just a park… and the sun still hasn’t risen. we can’t see anything.”

“you’ll see in a second!”

With a sigh, Saiki went along with it. He knew he must’ve had it bad if he was spending early morning hours in the cold outdoors because there was something you wanted to see. You’re lucky he loves you… Both of you sat there for awhile, Saiki listening you talk about whatever and occasionally giving his two cents. The only other sounds were the wind, cars driving past, and the occasional snow crunching of passerby.

Then, there was light. The sun began to rise above the horizon, painting the inky black sky with a myriad of colors. A sunrise that could rival any painting. Saiki found himself a little amazed by the beauty of it all. This must have been what you wanted to see right?

“… it’s really pretty, huh?”

“yeah… really, really pretty.”

He turned to you, only to be met with your eyes gazing at him. You were admiring… him? Why weren’t you looking at the sky? For once, he was rendered speechless.

“Kusuo, you’re the view I wanted to see. I’ve seen this sunrise hundreds of times before, but I wanted to see you see it.”

Saiki couldn’t help but grin at you. He felt so… warm. Even though he was a psychic, you managed to surprise him. All caution to the wind, he leaned over and grabbed you by the scarf. Following the surprisingly gentle tug, you were nose to nose with Saiki. You swore you could hear your heart in your ears when he stared at you like that, all doe eyed and loving.

“god you’re cheesy.”

“and I don’t regret it!”

Against his better judgment, Saiki pulled your scarf again. This time, there wasn’t any space for you to fall into. Instead, his lips were on yours. Neither of you had kissed anyone like this. His grip was still tight on your scarf, as if letting go meant you’d disappear. You brought you hand up to hold his face, hoping he didn’t notice how warm your face was. The feeling of being close like this was exhilarating, almost too good. The kiss was messy and without form, but you enjoyed it all the same. When you both pulled away, you couldn’t help but feel breathless. Saiki himself seemed to be in shock. Was it from what just happened or the adrenaline, you didn’t know.

Then, another leap of faith was taken.

“I love you, Kusuo.”

You held your breath, watching his face. Your hand still rested on his cheek, your thumb circling in comforting motions.

His face seemed to bloom into shades of red previously unknown to mankind as he stared at you, bewildered. You paused, almost pulling yourself away. Uncertainty filled your mind, until he leaned into your touch. Those fears vanished and your heart swelled with love.

“I love you too, y/n.”

A/N: what if I cried actually

GGDGHDAJHD the feelings I felt writing the kiss… im so lonely man. anyways here’s your food saiki fans!!! if this is bad you can bludgeon me with a brick <33

also god this took forever to write because I started with a completely different idea 🧍

[pudding-parade]

A Distant Glacier by MySimRealty

Are you looking for a world to play a colder-climate scenario in? This might be a good one. It's an old world, from 2010, so from before the Seasons EP, but the terrain painting and roads and whatnot are such that about 1/3 of the playable part of the world is always snow-covered, and there's also frost in the terrain painting of the green parts.

MySimRealty is one of my favorite world creators, and if you are familiar with this creator's other, newer worlds, you'll definitely recognize the rudiments of her style in this world. That said, this world isn't available on her site. I'm not sure why. I think it's a pretty cool (no pun intended) little world, so I can't see how she'd be unhappy with it. I thought maybe it might have some major, unresolved playability issues, but I had NRaas Story Progression create and move in 12 families and let the world run for five simdays to see if there'd be any issues, and there were none. Not a single one, not even a single stuck sim. The only issue I noticed during that time was some oddly-parked food trucks. They'd park across the streets, so that they look like they'd be blocking traffic going both ways, though of course taxis drive right through them. That aside, everything ran smoothly, and my sim and others had no problems using anything on the community lots.

So, I can't figure out why this world isn't out there anymore. In fact, I'm not even sure where I got it. If I had to guess, it's probably on one of the Russian re-upload sites, but I'm not feeling like looking through them to find it, which is why the title of the post isn't a link this time. Instead, I just reuploaded a .world file here or here, so if you want it, get it at one of those links. If you download it, the file goes in your install files under GameData - Shared - NonPackaged - Worlds.

The world only requires Ambitions and Riverview. There's no Store content aside from Riverview items and no CC. It's 1024x1024, but the playable area is only about half of that. It has all of the base game rabbitholes and all basegame and Ambitions lot types. (The firehouse is EA; the others are original.) It has all of the spawners that existed as of Ambitions, except the WA fish ones.

The world has about 80 lots total, split pretty evenly between community and residential. There are 18 empty lots. One of the community lots is built but empty inside, so it's ready to become whatever. Maybe a bar or club or arcade, or it might be good to use as shops if you use a merchant mod. All of the built residential lots are fully-furnished and ready to go. A few of them are duplicates, but they are all original builds, and the majority of them have at least two bedrooms. Two of the residential lots are "apartments," but since the world pre-dates Late Night, they don't function like Late Night apartments. I imagine you could make them do so it if you add the necessary markers.

There is a thread on the official forums from August of 2010 about testing this world here. Some of the issues mentioned in that thread -- particularly trees which have branches that intrude into houses and that can't be removed -- still exist, but they aren't really a problem in terms of playing.

More info and pictures behind the cut!

Here we have map view and Edit Town view of the entire playable area of the world. As you can see, it's split into three sections. There's the "glacier" in the middle, which is permanently snow-covered, and there are the two green areas. The one on the left has most of the rabbitholes. Residential lots are scattered throughout all three areas.

Here are some of the residential lots in various parts of the world:

Most of the houses have exteriors that are a combination of wood and stone in natural colors, which is appropriate for a colder climate. Personally, although they're pretty to look at, I'd get rid of the ever-blooming flowers and flowering shrubs and switch out most of the really green deciduous trees for more conifers, or maybe some birches/aspens, on the residential lots as well as throughout the world. That would make it look more authentically like a colder/taiga biome. But maybe that's just me.

Now for some community lots:

This is a little laundromat. The salon and the consignment shop look a lot like it, with the same roof and the same brick exterior. Also, the laundromat, salon, and consignment shop are all about the same size.

This is the larger of the two gyms in the world. I'm not sure why the world has two gyms, but there's this one, which is in the part of the world that has most of the rabbitholes, and then there's a smaller one just outside the stadium rabbithole in the other green section of the world. I guess the smaller one is convenient for those in the sports career, so maybe that's why there are two gyms.

This is the library that, for some reason, has a really tall roof. I'd lower that sucker by quite a bit. :) Then, on the left side of the pic is a small art gallery.

This is a little chapel. Inside it has some chairs, a stereo, and a fridge. Up front is a table that I guess is supposed to be an altar. It doesn't have a wedding arch. (Did the game not have wedding arches prior to Generations? I can't remember off the top of my head.) You could add an arch and maybe the podium from University Life to make it more church-y, but there isn't a whole lot of room inside or outside, so I don't think you could make it into a proper "wedding venue."

The junkyard and the graveyard.

This is my testing sim using the public pool. I'm thinking that I'd get rid of this lot (as well as the private pools that some of the houses have) because...Well, cold climate. LOL There is an indoor pool at the large gym which can serve the community's swimming needs. I suppose you could pretend that these are hot spring pools, but, as a person who lives in a cold climate, I can say that outdoor non-hot-spring pools aren't really a thing because you can only use them for maybe a few weeks out of the year. :)

This is the grocery rabbithole, which has a community garden on the same lot, which is an interesting idea.

The world also has several parks/playgrounds, a beach, a few fishing spots, and the EA fire station from Ambitions.

And I think that's all I have to say. We'll finish out with some random pics. :)

[mediocre-shark-tales]

Fated by the Stars (3)

Straykids ot8 x Reader

Warnings - Mentions of Abuse, Traumatic Past

Summary - You really enjoy picking out everything for your room, especially when you find some stuff perfect for any future nesting. However you have a terrible run in with someone from your past, but the boys made a promise they were gonna stick to.

Masterlist

Walking around the store I was lost into all the color variety and options for flooring. I wanted my room to represent the same sunset/sunrise style. I wanted to feel the same comfort and relaxation the sunrise and sunset bring to me. I looked between all the colors, some of the pack had gone off to look around themselves and give me space to make my own decisions. However I could smell Eucalyptus and Dampened Cypress wood grow in intensity. Looking to my left I saw Felix coming over to me. "How's it going doll?" I shook my head. "I'm trying to figure out how to bring my idea to life with the flooring and walls. Other items are easier to think of but this is the most difficult." Felix smiled and grabbed me around the shoulders. "Well tell me about your theme, maybe I can offer some help?" I nodded. "Well there was also one thing that made my days a little better. My mother and I used to watch the sunset and sunrise together, It was one of the few good things we could do with how we lived. So I want my room to represent a sunset or sunrise, or both I guess." Felix gave me a small peck on my cheek. "Thank you for telling more about your life doll, I will make sure you find even more things to enjoy in life." I smiled at him while he continued. "I think you could do a sunset theme gradient on your walls. Like the blue to purple to pink to orange gradient that you can see in the sky." I nodded "But what about the flooring?" He looked at the options for a moment before speaking again. "Maybe a darker color of wood so your walls stand out more, or even a darker shag rug or carpet? that way you still have some comfort."

I gasped. "That's the perfect idea! Let's do that with the walls, and then make the flooring this wood." I pointed to the wood flooring that reminded me of a rich darker chocolate. "Under my bed we can put a dark grey shag rug that gives me about 2 maybe 3 feet of rug before the hard wood?" Felix nodded and called over an employee. He relayed to the worker how much of each thing I would need and what colors of paint I wanted. The other boys had now traversed back over to me and I saw them all smile at me. They all seemed proud of me and the decision I made.

Next we walked out of the store and I began to look around for a bit before I saw a sign saying 'Omega's Heaven' this interested me. Quickly I ran over to see the inside and what they sold. The room was larger than it looked, I bet it took up most of the mall. I could see so many different objects and items, all of which brought a smile to my face. I could feel the omega inside preening at the sight of such glorious things. I quickly went over to the first aisle, seeing pretty things in all colors available. Behind me the boys followed close with two carts. They told me that they knew I needed a lot of things. putting emphasis on the fact that I would be living with them for the rest of my life. Soon I found the decor aisle, I grabbed a few packs of hangable clouds, perfect for my sunset theme. Then I saw the most perfect item I could ever need. it was this little lamp that glowed at just the right hues and brightness level to create a sunset glow in your room. Knowing my room I made sure to grab about 4 before moving on to the blankets aisle. My brain instantly thought about nesting and I hesitated. I know the boys wanted me to get whatever I wanted but would they really be okay with me nesting however I wished. Even if they did want that, did I even know how.

I felt a gentle hand grab my waist as Chan came around to look me in the eyes. Now holding both of my sides, he gave a soft comforting smile. "What wrong little one?" I sighed and spoke softly, but just enough that if you paid attention you could hear me. "I really want a nest but I don't know how to nest really. We were never given a choice when it came to nesting items, some were even shared among the omega's. I don't know what to do with some many options." Chan nodded and kissed my forehead. "You are with us now, we can help you make choices. Some of us grew up with omega's in the family, so we know what kind of things an omega may want. All you have to do then is say yes or no, trust yourself. You are an omega and you know what makes you happy and comfortable." I agreed to his idea and he grabbed my hand leading me down the aisle. "So most omega's like to have their mate's scent in their nest. I know my cousin had 4 mates, so she had a blanket for each one of her mates to cover in their scents. Then they were ready for whenever she went into heat or just needed to nest to relax." I glance at all the different soft fabrics and colors. "I like that idea, I think I know what to do a bit better now. Thanks Channie." He nodded and allowed me to let go of his hand as I walked over to the wall full of the softest furs and plush blankets. I grabbed the an orange blanket with a citrus design all over it. Just by picking the first blanket, I felt my omega grow stronger in my mind. My omega was nearly in control, but I still held enough resolve to complete the task at hand. I grabbed a mixture of blankets and Furs all in the colors that matched my room theme. However each one had a difference of some sort, and each one was specifically chosen with a specific mate in mind.

Soon we had picked out any and all clothes I could need, including body washes and shampoos made specially for the differences in Omega Biology. Seeing the price I had almost passed away, I quickly tried to tell my pack that I didn't need so much. However I was quickly scooped up by Jeongin, who carried me out of the store. "We told you not to worry about the price princess, Nothing is too much for our little omega. Besides if it helps, wee all make more than enough money to sustain any lifestyle you may wish for. We have been waiting for this day, when we met our last mate and finally get to spoil them. We are just so happy our last mate was an omega as cute as yourself. You know princess, your sub gender is a bit rare amongst wolves. That why you are so treasured. Unlike your old pack, most packs take care of their omegas and treat them like royalty. So don't deny us the chance to treat you as such." I nodded. "This is just so different from what I am used to, I have never been treated so nicely by anyone who wasn't an omega." I saw Jeongin's face sour for a moment before he held me closer, pushing my face into his neck near his scent gland. I calmed when his citrus and oak moss scent filled my nose.

"I'm so sorry your last pack was so incompetent and educationless to have treated you in such a way that you don't understand what it means to truly be loved. But we will make sure to teach you everything you need and shower you with tons of love." I smiled and just continued to bask in his scent and warmth.

However that happiness was cut short as I heard a voice I could never forget. Her laugh echoed in my ears like a vipers hiss. I instantly began to try and escape from Jeongin's arms. He in return began to voice his concerns and worries for me, not understanding why I was trying to get out of his arms. That's until her voice broke into our personal space. "Is that little Y/n? did I just find our little escaped pathetic Omega? My brother will be so happy to learn I found his prey..." I could hear the smirk in her voice, small laughs escaping her everyone and then. I felt my body stiffen as tears began to well up in my eyes. I stared Jeongin straight in the eyes, as my fear grew so did his anger.

"Turning and looking at me you pathetic useless girl." Instinctively I turned to see the female alpha and her bright red locks staring back at me. I felt myself begin to shake in fear as those dark eyes brought back painful memories from the past. She and her brother shared a similar pair of dark eyes. As the Pack Alpha's sister she was given more privileges than most other alpha's.

Suddenly I heard the deepest most reverberated growl of my existence. "Who are you to talk to our omega like that, you filthy excuse for an alpha?" Soon infront of me stood Chan, who had begun a stare down with Sang-Hee. She gave him a disgusted look in return and with a scoff she replied "That omega is the property of my brother and his pack. She was born to bare his children and serve him for life, so I suggest you hand her over. You don't want to mess with the blood moon pack." Chan gave a short chuckle. "I don't think you realize who we are, your bloodmoon pack is nothing but a grain of sand next to us. I believe your brother has actually been trying to set a deal with us recently..." I saw her face slowly begin to hint at realization and nearly fear. "That's right you incompetent woman, I am chan Pack Alpha of the Levanter Pack. Now if you could please get the fuck away from us, then maybe I won't show you just how quickly we can destroy your pack from the inside out..." I saw her look at me one more time. Earning 8 growls in return before she finally left.

"Are you okay sweet girl?" I turned around to look at hyunjin who had asked. Once he saw the tears cascading down my face, he instantly ran over and picked me up. Holding onto me tightly, I finally gained enough control over myself to whisper out. "Can we please go back home now?" I felt him nodded quickly before responding with, "Yes we will, we are going home now sweetness, whatever you need we will do for you." I heard quickly rustling and talking before we were quickly walking back out the door. I heard the sounds of the crazy obsessed wolves outside the door, and bright flashing lights. However Hyunjin pushed my face into his neck to hide me more as they all continued to speed walk to the van. Once we got there, Hyunjin handed me over to Minho in the front passenger seat. Everyone all climbing back into their original seats and buckling up. Soon we were driving back home, I could feel Minho rubbing my back as I continued to silently cry into his neck.

It didn't take long before I passed out under the heavy amounts of stress I had taken on the in the last few hours, especially with what had gone down in the last few minutes. I knew that Sang-Jun would soon find out where I was. Knowing him, he was not going to stop at getting me back under his grasp. I could only fear what kind of things the future held for me, I just hope this pack was as strong as they claimed. I just want to survive and be happy, please don't less this all be for not.

Masterlist

[jack--kinkler]

TBAGG theory

Ok I got inspired by @bladenotblaze so heres my theory on the battle at gardens gate!!

1. Heat Above: this song sets the scene on a utopia of sorts. A world of peace. However, there’s something wrong, there’s an undertone of unrest, and we hear that in the line “can you hear that dreadful sound, fires still burning on the ground)”.

2. My way, soon: this is an introduction to our character, someone who has something to prove. They are reckless and wild, and they live life to the fullest (I’ve sacked the rules, so I don’t have to heed them). They know the government is being slowly infiltrated by the enemy, so they begin a small, tiny, revolution.

3. Broken bells: war has officially been announced, and everyone is saying goodbye to those leaving for war. Our character is a bit solemn, but they have hope still. So do most of the people, a hope that their loved ones come back home (between the cracks of sidewalks there’s a flower grown, beyond the stone). They hate the sick, twisted game of war, but they can’t help the world they live in (not all the answers are the same, yet we still play the game).

4. Built by nations: the character is now forced into war, with a bunch of people who hate them (he is bound to brothers built by nations, with no pride to call his own). They’re forced to be by themselves, like they’ve always been. But in a time of war, they wish they would have a helping hand.

5. Age of machine: even as they have grown, somewhat wild and reckless, the world the character knew was actually quite sheltered. They never left the city walls, staying inside and wreaking havoc. All the other people have been toughened by seeing the horrors of the outside world. this song is telling the character to toughen up in order to survive (Now you’re free, unplug from the source, no more under scores, open up the doors).

Tears of rain: back in their home city, it’s fallen into despair. Their enemies have taken over, they’re no longer free. They are all asking for peace, hope, and for some sort of a sign it will be ok (and the mothers with their children, search for the rain). And at the very end of the song, there’s a small rumble of thunder, answering their prayers, and telling us it might be ok.

Stardust chords: the people in the Garden have lost some hope. They feel everything is going wrong, but some are still have a feeling it’ll be alright (roses in the bush, cut down at the Gardens gate, it was too late, so much has fallen). But later, we see that they begin to fight back. They want to be free, so they have an uprising, and this signals the beginning of the end to the war (from the bowing earth, uprises the weeds of war, caving the floor, a renaissance born).

Light my love: a few people have become friends with our hero. They share stories by a fire, and one shares their thoughts of the war. Of what may happen after. They tell a story of peace, tolerance, and of their hope for the future far to come. ( I have seen pictures of time, frames still in motion I find, a grand revolution outlined, hate bound by fear will unwind. Your mind is a stream of colors, extending beyond our sky, a land of infinite wonders, a billion light years from here now).

Caravel: as the people board ships to finally head to the battlefield, they realize our hero is the one who started this revolution. They must be the person to save them all (you make the movement, ooh). Everyone is finally beginning to understand why they’re doing this, and they side with the savior, our hero. These people are willing to do whatever it takes to save the Garden (for death or glory, ooh, bow with your face to the sky, yeah, we are a movement, ooh).

The barbarians: it’s the final day. The army will march up to the Garden and fight for their freedom. They begin to put on their armor, and they all begin to see how much this will actually change them (funeral of innocence, woah, painted up in the red, and dressed in lead). The savior is having a moment alone. They understand now how their father felt in war. He was the exact same as the savior, wild and reckless. And theyre realizing neither them nor their father knew what they were getting into when going into this fight (were your young so spry, when they left to die?).

Trip the light fantastic: this song is their last prayer for peace. As they make their way to the Garden, they begin to sing. They sing a prayer of peace and harmony(ah, Sri ram jayam, ram ram ram ram ram). It is their last resort before going into the battle. This is the end, and it id their last sliver of hope. And they help the savior realize they are the reason everyone is here. The savior helped get them there, and they could have a chance of winning this war (you are the land, the sea and the sky, woah, the explanation why, we’re tied to all things as one).

The weight of dreams (this one’s a long one strap in folks): it’s the final stretch before they make it onto the battle field. They see it up ahead, dark and shrouded in black clouds. The warrior traveled all the way here, in order to find answers and to get freedom for their city. The army believes that some God sent them to help them, to make them truly see. (All across the west we’ve traveled wayward for, find the weight of dreams in gold, heaven sent us here to meet the hallowed shore, to claim the wealth that we had sold).

The army realizes how wrong they were this whole time, how brainwashed they were. It hits them hard, and they begin to lock into this mindset of “I’ve been so wrong this whole time, and this is how I have to fix it”.

The army has forsaken everything they should’ve stood for, this is how they plan to fix it. They want to fight for good, lead like the warrior is, and repay their old leaders. They could instantly turn back to their old ways, but none of them do. They understand right from wrong now. (We stole from her a cloak of studded majesty, the queen is dead we robbed her grave, you could still bathe in the river but it ran dry, and all of us have turned away).

Then, we see the enemy approaching. It is almost time. They’re coming over fast, and with fury. All of a sudden, a wave of a small, gut wrenching reality check comes in for warrior. This is it. They can’t turn back. The world goes quiet for a moment, and as they come back in, the Battle at Gardens Gate has begun. (4:30-4:56).

It’s a flurry of swords, axes, and other weapons. Clangs and screams of agony are everywhere, we can’t escape it. The enemy begins to take the upper hand for a moment, but the Peaceful Army is determined. They are strong, especially the warrior. But the warrior is slowly regretting it all. Midway through sparring with the enemies Leader, the warrior is doubting themself. A glint shines in the enemies eye. And the warrior realizes what this is all for. They’ve gone this far, gone through an earth shattering change, and to give it all up just because it’s a little overwhelming? No. They couldn’t. They mustn’t Even if they die, they must somehow win this war (5:30-6:41).

The warrior quickens their pace. Their sword slices through the air with a masterful grace. The enemy is struggling to keep up, but they push through and fight harder. The warrior sees the struggle. They use it, abuse this power against the enemy. Slowly but surely, the enemy weakens. The enemy moves slower and slower, and eventually, finally, the warrior lands the killing strike. (6:43-7:09).

This gives the army an upper hand. They begin to surround the enemy. Blow after blow, the army is merciless. They’ve been on a journey to get here. If they lose, all hope is lost. The enemies forces pare down, and Gardens Gate begins to open. Everyone inside makes their way out as they watch the people who have mistreated them, abused them, and even murdered some of them, begin to suffer their consequences (7:19-8:26).

The battle has reached its end, and the warrior makes their way to cliff over looking the Garden. They mark their victory with a single red flag, the flag of their home, on the small outcropping. The battlefield is stained with blood, a gruesome sight. But as the clouds slowly open up, a sliver of sun light shines through onto the Garden (8:27-8:51).

The war has been won, but at what cost?

[akariarda]

First date

Misako and Garmadon should be the first one to know that first dates are never perfect, or they are?

@ch3rryfl0wr -Thank you so for the request,I hope you like it!!

Garmadon nervously looked at himself in the mirror as he adjusted his tie.

He was nervous because tonight was his first date with Misako.

Besides being nervous, he was also a little embarrassed.

He and Misako had been just "good" friends for a long time and had been avoiding something. There had even been a couple of kisses before he dared to ask her out.

It didn't even help that Misako offered to pay for the first date...

All in all, he tried to gather himself so that everything would go perfectly tonight.

~~~~~~

Problems started when he went to buy Misako flowers.

A nice gesture, right?

Well, it wasn't so nice that the flower shop closed just before he arrived.

To make matters worse, his bus had to be late, so Misako had to wait for him for over half an hour...

~~~~~

Misako looked at her watch. 20 minutes... Garmadon was already 20 minutes late.

She frowned and wondered if she should call him, but that seemed a bit extreme. She just hoped he didn't back out at the last minute.

Another 5 minutes passed, then another 5 when she finally saw him.

She blushed at how handsome he looked when he cleaned up.

Misako was embarrassed that she blushed like a little girl, so she turned it into a look of anger.

"You're a little late," she said and pointed to the clock.

"Sorry..." Garmadon nervously scratched the back of his head. "I missed my bus..."

"It's okay," Misako breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he was nervous too. "Let's go inside, okay?"

Garmadon just nodded as they both entered.

~~~~~

"You look very beautiful," Garmadon said to Misako as they walked, causing her to blush even more.

"Thank you," she replied back. "You're not too bad yourself."

Garmadon mumbled something in return.

"Good afternoon," the waiter said when he saw them approaching.

"Good afternoon," Garmadon greeted back. "We reserved table number 3..."

"And you're the ones who were half an hour late. I'm sorry, the table is no longer available."

"But..." Garmadon stammered.

"I'm sorry," the waiter repeated. "But we couldn't wait for you, it's not worth it for us. The rules clearly state that if you don't show up within 15 minutes, the reservation is canceled."

"Can we please..." Garmadon tried to get something out...

"Fine, thank you. We're sorry for the inconvenience," Misako said and grabbed Garmadon's hand to lead them out of the restaurant.

"My mistake," Garmadon said as they left the restaurant.

"It happens to everyone," Misako said and blushed when she realized that she was still holding his hand.

It didn't seem like he minded, so she didn't let go.

"Should we go to my place?" Misako asked Garmadon. "We can cook something there."

"Okay," Garmadon smiled at her.

~~~~~~

"We're here," Misako said and unlocked the door to let Garmadon in.

"Have you painted the walls?" Garmadon asked. "Last time I was here with others, they were a different color."

"Yes," Misako said. She finally noticed that both of their nervousness was starting to decrease.

"What do you think we should cook?" Misako was a little startled when Garmadon came up behind her in the kitchen.

"Whatever we end up with," Misako said playfully and Garmadon immediately wanted to hug her, but he restrained himself.

He didn't want anything to seem strange.

"Let's get cooking!" Garmadon said and grabbed a spice.

~~~~~~

The cooking went great.It could be said that they both enjoyed cooking, but even more so in each other's presence.

The tension grew with every casual touch and every glance.

"And there it is," Garmadon said and wiped his hands when they put the dinner in the oven.

"And now we have to wait," Misako said as she adjusted the temperature.

"I have an idea..." Garmadon said and went to the living room.

Misako soon heard the music start playing softly.

"Garmadon?" Misako playfully asked.

"Shall we dance?" Garmadon appeared in the kitchen and extended his hand.

"Sure," Misako smiled. She was happy, he was somehow...sweet, she guessed? Especially when she wasn't used to seeing him so well-groomed.

"You're actually good at this," Misako noticed as they danced for a while.

"You shouldn't be so surprised," Garmadon pretended to be offended.

Judging by the atmosphere, he concluded that now was the best time to do what he had wanted to do for a long time.

"Misako?" Garmadon whispered in her ear.

"Yes?" Misako asked.

"Would you mind if I kissed you?" He felt her smile at his words.

"Not at all," Misako said and stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the lips.

She put her hands around his neck and Garmadon wrapped his arm around her waist and held her chin softly with his other hand.

"Garm?" Misako said when they parted lips.

Garmadon hummed lightly as a sign that he was listening.

"I think our dinner is going to burn."

"Let it burn," Garmadon said and kissed her again.

[satans-helper]

Reaching for Stardust - Part III

Read Looking for Space here / RFS on wattpad / Playlist

Word Count: ~3000

Warnings: none

Domestic bliss with Josh is all I want <3

---

I had enough of a hangover the next day to almost cancel on my sister. Painting walls seemed like a really awful way to nurse my brain and body, but Josh was actually so insistent we still help out that I bucked up with some extra coffee and a Gatorade from the gas station and we were off, on the road again with Josh behind the wheel again. A couple stubborn pieces of glitter were stuck to his cheekbone and catching the sunlight as we drove, then my memory of the previous night was jogged even more at the sight of the violet-colored hickey on his neck.

“Shit,” I said upon noticing it, reaching over to touch as if I could make it disappear. “Sorry.”

Josh swatted my hand away. “Don’t be sorry, darling. You know how much I love it when you do that.”

I took his hand and held it as long as I could, until he needed both to make a sharp turn. “I love that you let me do it.”

“I love you.”

I smiled, leaning back against the seat and turning my head to look at him again. “I love you, too,” I said, and truer words really had never been spoken. 

Kirsti had already started by the time we got to her house, dressed in paint-smeared jeans and an old Detroit Tigers t-shirt and barefoot, holding a paint roller in her hand when she opened the door. “I won’t hug you,” she said, stepping back to let us in. “For obvious reasons. But I’m really glad you’re here. I could do it all myself but, wow, it’s taking a lot of time in between layers, y’know? At least now we can get more base coats done together.”

I was still a little groggy, unprepared for her bustling energy, but my eyes came to full alertness as I stepped completely inside the mudroom and could peer into the adjoining dining room and the living room on either side. “Wow,” I remarked, taken aback by how much progress she’d made making this place look like a real home. Like her home. I drifted into the living room, the chat between her and Josh disappearing into the background as I approached the big, black leather chair that had once been in our grandfather’s study. I knew she had it. I hadn’t been able to take it myself–there wasn’t enough room in mine and Josh’s apartment. But seeing it there still shook something inside me up and I couldn’t help but make a remark on it that came out with more envy than I’d intended. 

Kirsti was behind me then, and she ran the thankfully dry paint roller over my back. “Hey. You know a bunch of their other stuff is in storage, right? I won’t fight you for any of it. Except that painting grandma has. You know the one, with the birch trees.”

“Fine,” I resigned, cheeks hot. “I just wish we had the space for it all now.”

“You will.”

Josh appeared at my side then, holding a can of paint. “Are we doing one room each?”

“I gotta finish the kitchen today,” Kirsti said. “I spared you guys that. I’d really like to get the two bedrooms done, too.”

“Fancy living,” Josh said, stepping around, peeking at everything, and I found myself questioning again why he didn’t want to buy a house as badly as I did.

Regardless, Josh and I went upstairs to paint the bedrooms. Kirsti wanted the east-facing one painted a lavender so soft it was almost white and the other one that had windows to the west a subdued ochre. Josh took that one after he set up the spare portable speaker Kirsti had loaned us in the hallway, situated right in the middle, and I started on the east side. The bedrooms weren’t that much bigger than our own at home in our apartment, but big enough to notice. Beyond that, it was just the freedom of space and space to OWN that got me. But while I’d been browsing houses, Josh had apparently been browsing wedding rings and whatever else, which seemed like the most ridiculous contradiction ever. 

Through each rolling motion, looking over the smooth tracks of pale lavender, I kept imagining what my–our–dream house would look like. I’d seen many and none had ever stuck out as being the dream home, one that I couldn’t live without. But then again, how could any of them if Josh wasn’t completely on board with finding one? I could picture us in a shady bungalow surrounded by tons of greenery and flowers, tucked back on some cul-de-sac loop; I could also see more of a fixer-upper situation, like a rustic cabin on a couple of wooded acres that we could tend and build together; even something simpler, like a quaint ranch in the suburbs. I could see us anywhere, really, because whatever we got would be our own and we could make it exactly as we wanted. 

“I really don’t think this needs more than one layer,” Josh called out over the music, so I set my roller down into the tray and crossed through the hall to his side. Just like in the bedroom I was working on–Kirsti’s bedroom–the furniture was pushed to the center of the room and Josh was stepping back against the dresser, inspecting the walls.

“I don’t think so either,” I agreed. The warm ochre color was opaque already and catching the light coming through the open windows, the sun and breeze rolling through the screens. “She’ll check it out though, I’m sure.” I leaned back against the dresser too, next to Josh, and sighed. 

“Tired of painting already?” he asked, jostling my shoulder with his hand.

“Just thinking about how after this, we’re gonna go back to our boring white walls.”

“Oh, come on. Not for long,” Josh said, slinging his arm around me. “Let’s set a date.”

“For what? A house or marriage?”

“Both. Preferably marriage first.” 

“We’re not even engaged.”

Josh whirled around, positioning himself in front of me. “Want me to propose right now?”

I laughed, pushing him away. “No! That’d be so lame,” I said, and he grabbed my wrists and brought himself in close again, pressing his lips to mine for a brief moment. In the darkness behind my closed eyes, I saw the starry skies we’d both gazed upon together night after night. 

“Don’t worry, love,” Josh said, dark eyes like the umber earth beneath those skies. “I know exactly where I’m going to do it. It’s just a matter of time.” 

I looped my arms around his neck. “I’m sure. But I’m sure I’ll still be surprised.” I reached up to touch his hair, the long curls that still remained past the shaved sides. “So since you picked out the ring, can I pick out the house?” 

“Absolutely,” Josh told me, but something in his face changed just slightly, almost imperceptible, and I couldn’t read him clearly anymore. “We just have to figure out where that’ll be.”

“Here, obviously,” I said, punctuated with a helpless, nervous chuckle. “Where else?” 

Josh kissed my forehead then turned back to the walls, grabbing the paint roller. “Well, the world is our oyster, you know. We should keep our options open.”

I was tempted to pry into that thought. I opened my mouth again to do just that, but Kirsti’s footsteps ascended on the stairs and she popped in, hands on her hips as she looked over Josh’s work. 

“Looks good,” she said. “Yeah, I think this room only needs one layer. What about the other one?”

I felt cheated, even somewhat slighted, by Josh’s lack of transparency. But the moment was gone and that told me this wasn’t the time or place, so my sister and I drifted into her little world of pale lavender and faded sunlight instead.

—

For days I let it go. Work was always a distraction to a certain extent but more and more I found myself getting not lost in the research of other places because it was all a fantasy, but because it was a worry. Did Josh really want to maybe move somewhere else entirely? The only place that seemed reasonable to me was Detroit but, really, even with the boys being there, I didn’t think I truly wanted to live there. And anyway, if that was a place Josh was thinking of, I knew he’d come right out and say it. 

In an effort not to fixate on it any longer, I poured myself into birthday plans for Josh and Jake, at least until I learned that Jake, Sam and Danny would be out of town, playing another show, that whole weekend. That defeated me and I sat, deflated at my desk in front of my open laptop, all the potential plans seemingly moot now. It was the first birthday since I’d joined the clan that we’d all be apart. 

“Nothing wrong with just the two of us,” Josh said, coming up behind me. It was the next Friday and his day of teaching had ended at a reasonable hour, leaving both of us with a wide open evening and night, but I didn’t feel like doing our usual. Nothing seemed appetizing and I couldn’t wrap my head around a movie. 

I was stuck on too many things and yet nothing all at once. It really didn't matter that we’d all be apart for Josh and Jake’s birthday, but it felt like it mattered. It bothered me that Josh seemed to be unfazed, actually–why should I be the only one bummed about it? I shut my laptop and swiveled around in my chair, looking up at him: “I know. But it’s not gonna be the same.”

“The only thing I’m not looking forward to is Jake not being there for dinner with our parents,” Josh told me, taking a seat in the green faux-suede chair I’d sourced from Facebook marketplace across from me. It wasn’t nearly as well-built or as cool as my grandfather’s old chair. “I think they’re struggling with him being away from home so often more than we are. Sam too, of course.” With a little laugh, he added, “They might even miss Sam more than Jake.” 

“He’s easy to miss when you get so used to chaos.” 

Josh sighed, tilting his head back. “Maybe we should just become their roadies. I mean, what the hell–why not? We could be nomads.”

Even though it was silly, not totally serious talk, I could still see it. “Maybe. But then that would mean you got that master’s degree for nothing.” 

“Not necessarily. I could shoot their music videos.”

“That would be something,” I mused, looking over Josh’s toned down attire he wore to teach his classes. His longer academic journey hadn’t been easy–in fact, I’d never seen him so stressed out and there were times when I thought it might have been better for him just to drop it. I’d never imagined him working so behind the scenes, teaching people in such an ordinary way–working with film, yes, following his dream, of course. But he loved it, apparently. Loved the constant interaction with eager students, loved working with and learning newer and better equipment, loved seeing other people’s work and still having the time to do his own. His eccentricities followed him wherever he went. That was for sure. 

Josh was quiet when he turned his head, looking out the window at another blessed sky we had–cloudless, it was nothing but clear blue beyond the trees. Without turning back to look at me, he said, “Actually, I kind of anticipated this.”

“Anticipated what?”

“Jake–all of them–being gone. So I have a surprise,” Josh told me, looking at me again but without the glee and unraveling joy most people had to struggle to contain when they were revealing a surprise. “I got us plane tickets.”

I felt my brows furrow, face tightening. “Plane tickets to where?” 

“Savannah. Georgia,” Josh said, face brightening, cheeks turning pink. “I thought it’d be fun–a new place, new sights, new everything. I really could use a change of scenery and I know you could, too.” 

“Oh,” was all I managed to say at first, looking past Josh, taken aback by this abrupt reveal and how much planning must have gone into it and how none of it had involved me. When I realized that, I looked right at him, my words coming out in a way that sounded more suspicious than I wanted to let on: “I thought surprises were FOR whoever was having the birthday.”

“Traditionally, maybe. Have I ever been a man of tradition?”

“Not especially.”

“Exactly, darling.” Josh got up and approached me then, sitting down on the floor in front of me, his hands on my knees. “You’ve got all that PTO to use. I figured getting two days off, since it’ll be a Friday through Monday trip, wouldn’t be hard. I already got the Airbnb. Everything’s all set. Everything to make it the best birthday trip ever.”

“If you’d told me where you wanted to go, I could’ve planned it,” I said, not angry, not upset, just a little bewildered still. “I feel bad you had to do everything.” 

Josh waved that statement away. “Don’t feel bad. You’ve been frustrated with work lately and I know you’ve just been wishing to get away. So why don’t we? A little spontaneity never hurt anyone.”

“That’s so not true,” I replied, though I felt a smile making its way over my lips. Secretive or not, the more this idea sank into my mind, the more I was on board with it. Instead of wistfully pouring over pictures and articles on different places, Josh and I could really BE in one again. “But point taken. I’ll email my supervisor right now.” When I swiveled back around, I felt Josh standing behind me, his chin resting on top of my head and then his arms wrapped around me.

“Spectacular,” he commented, his soft graveled voice drifting into my ears. “The only thing that’s not spectacular about this is how early our flight leaves.”

I paused my typing. “How early?”

“5:40. Morning time.” 

I groaned. “Oh, god. Who’s gonna drive us?”

“My dad already volunteered.”

“Oh, so you told your parents about this trip first?” I shook my head, chuckling. “So rude, Josh.”

“Hey!” Josh chirped, bringing his face down to my shoulder, speaking against my neck. “I needed to secure a ride. And now we have one. Victory, darling.”

I giggled when his curls tickled my skin. “Victory indeed.” 

Whatever trepidation and suspicion I had initially felt was mostly gone after that conversation. I actually felt some admiration for Josh’s own determination–he knew where he wanted to go and that I’d want to go there too, seeing as how I’d pretty much go anywhere at this point, and took care of all the logistics to get it done to spare me some stress. I figured, as he did too, it would help to be somewhere else for his birthday anyway. It’d get our minds off being away from the boys again. Or rather, the boys being away from us. The only thing I couldn’t quite figure out completely was the place itself. As happy as I was to go to Savannah for the first time, it seemed so random. Josh had never really expressed much interest in going down south apart from maybe Nashville. So why wouldn’t we go there? Savannah, as far as I could tell from the internet, wasn’t even much of a sizable city. It was historic and beautiful looking, but didn’t appear to have the pizazz and glamor Josh often sought out. Nor was it wilderness, it wasn’t one of the state and national parks we both had on our lists. It felt obscure even with all of its appeal.

I woke up abruptly in the middle of the night, the twilight dark and gleaming outside. Josh was opposed to blackout curtains, always wanting the stars and moon to be able to shine light into our bedroom–the slight silver sheen from beyond the wispy blue curtains, the white blinds that came with the apartment and the windows laid slick over his skin when I looked at him. He was still sound asleep, face smushed into his pillow, lips parted. I could even see a spot of drool on the pillowcase. For such a vibrant extrovert in waking life, Josh was an exceptionally quiet and still sleeper–he didn’t snore, didn’t talk in his sleep, didn’t even really move much. 

I was able to easily slip out of bed and find my way in the dark hallway, through the small spaces beyond and out onto the balcony. A chill rippled through me from the brisk air and I stood there, hands on the banister, looking up at the waning moon. A layer of clouds masked the stars momentarily then passed, bringing them to light, and I felt anxiety pass through my chest in turn, which felt like a betrayal. Normally the night sky soothed any woes I had. The rapid turn of my heartbeat and tightness in my chest propelled me into full alertness. Too much alertness–I knew I wouldn’t be getting back to sleep anytime soon, but I didn’t want to stay awake in that state. I didn’t want to pontificate over that secrecy again or WHY Josh had chosen Savannah of all places. I didn’t want to think any longer about his aversion to creating a real home together. I didn’t want to bother myself with his endless desire to bring our names together before anything else. 

Unfortunately, no answer came from the moon or the stars. I let the thoughts roll through my brain one after the other and tried not to cling to any of them, instead staying focused on the night sky, inhaling cool air, finally bringing myself to sit down and bask in it more so than struggle through it. 

---

Tagging no one because RIP the 2018-2021 fandom LOL please let me know if you’d like to be tagged in this series or any other of my fics!

[iantimony]

tuez

yayyy

listening: release radar: i get it now (sammy rae) (wauuughhhh. emo. i miss my partner) come over (cat's pajamas) stuck (scene queen) nerima (raspberry pie) never me (penelope) beirut (rob blivion) rule #34 (fish in a birdcage) bourgeoisieses (conan grey) milk town/mr carter (nep) doppelganger - lullaby (ethan bortnick) my baby loves to dance (kenya grace) horror night (starcourt) (@delta-orionis, you will like this one)

some from last week that i forgor to note down: tiny human (elohim), some type of skin (aurora), chukotka (otyken), training season (dua lipa, chloe caillet mix), georgian spirit (equbeats), online (twrp), someone else (kenya grace)

aaaand formentera/formentera ii again.

podcasts: wtyp on the francis scott key bridge collapse, and jim gordon must die podcast of all time

reading: i started reading 'bunny' by mona awad because it came up as a recommendation in libby when i was returning mdzs. i am going to be valiant and give it one more chapter but i do not like it. it feels like its trying very hard to emulate a certain type of vibe that i already don't find super appealing in fiction so the trying-vibe of it makes it even more uninteresting to me. the premise is a girl at a mfa program in nebulous New England Private Liberal Arts School(tm) which like, fine, dark academia or whatever; there are four (five?? i literally cannot remember which, lol) other girls in her cohort who are a weird clique and call each other 'bunny' and are rich and sheltered but harboring a Dark Secret Club. sure. the first few chapters ooze 'not like other girls'-ism, the 'bunny' characters themselves feel flat and like caricatures in an unappealing way, main character's other friend ava also is a caricature in a boring way, just very uninspiring. like i said i will give it another chapter or two but if it continues to bore me i will return it.

i finished the scum villain extras! very charming.

watching: keeping up to date with dunmeshi, yay, and also been continuing to watch endeavor with a friend. it's good! i love a mystery show! it is impossible to watch without subtitles though because they are So British. relatedly i am going to terf island for two weeks in june (london and then edinburgh) so if you know any recs for food, places, etc i am all ears!

playing: this weekend was going to be 3 dnd games in a row ... then monday was postponed to next monday ... but my sunday group, which is normally every other week, has decided to play next sunday as well bc we skipped a few weeks ... so Next weekend is the 3 day dnd combo lmfao. i don't mind too bad.

making: pottery!!! some bisque came out and i am soooo chuffed (<- endeaver tv show britishism rubbing off on me) this will be its own post with more images because i want to @ the inspiring artist, jbbartram-illu on tumblr (shop); i am obsessed with the cave painting mugs from a few months ago that immediately sold out so i was like fuck it i wanna make my own. and i am obsessed with my lil fat horses. i put amaco ancient jasper on the inside and just a matte clear on the outside. hopefully it is matte enough. i also put little hands on the handles and now i want to make some more cave painting mugs that are just the hands, i could cut out some templates to sponge underglaze around maybe...

my beautiful cracked-the-code bowls and two maybe teacups, post-trimming:

and also trying a new glaze technique: bisqued underglaze and then liquid latex over top! that way you can slather a background on and just peel it off after without painting around the details. im ngl peeling off the latex was soooo satisfying. background is laguna celadon froth.

i've also glazed my citrus juicer, just a plain warm yellow color, looking forward to that :3

glaze: mother's day gift (planter, it's. fine. idk. she'll like it i hope), and also some fixed stuff! didn't bother taking pics, the black eye bowl from feb 6 tuesdaypost is now food safe on the inside because i sanded down the kiln medium bit that got stuck in there and re-glazed it. i also tried to fix the bowl from march 12 tuesdaypost by just lightly sanding the inside and slapping some laguna celadon froth over it...it looks exactly the same now, just with some sort of float-like blue splotches lol. no pictures of it but eh. might give it away, we'll see.

eating: Spicy Clam Pasta With Bacon, Peas and Basil Recipe (NYT): tasty. idk about 'spicy' but definitely yummy.

misc: definitely in a weird spot brain-wise...the anxiety and tummyache link/feedback loop is very real for me now, so i am going back on an extremely low dose of ssri about it, and even though i have been on this med before in much larger amount i am still experiencing aaa about it. i keep going between "going back on this is a good idea" and "or i could just keep taking ~10mg of cbd every other day bc that felt like it was doing something, even if it was just placebo i had a noticeable difference in mood" so like. bluh. idk. i wish i could just Know what the best course of action is instead of having to fuck around and find out. such is life. i am literally taking the world's babiest dose rn (breaking the starter pill in half) so it will be fine. as long as i dont get bad side effects im willing to do a few weeks on it and see what happens.

[violetsandfluff]

charlie helps you move <3 concept from @princessofguineapigs i’m sorry this is so short, but i hope you still enjoy it.

“I hope there was nothing valuable in there,” Charlie commented as he hurled a box of your belongings onto a moving van, “because if so, I just broke it.”

“Ohh, Charlie!” you sighed as you ran over to examine the box. “Those were my glass dishes!”

“Were they really, princess? I’m sorry,” he walked up behind you and rubbed your back. “I can buy you new ones if you want.”

You turned around and gave him a big smile. “Actually, those were just my socks and underwear.”

“Grow some brain cells in that pretty little head of yours, doll,” Charlie suggested with a low chuckle as he carried a few more boxes gingerly into the trailer. “We would both benefit.”

“Okay, whatever the hell that means.” You brushed the comment off and continued sorting the boxes that Charlie carried onto the trailer.

When every box that required sorting out was sorted, Charlie grasped your smaller hand in his warm, larger one as you headed back up to the house.

“Good bye to this old place, huh, Y/N?” Charlie wrinkled his nose as he reached up to tug on the doorframe, wincing at the cracked paint that fell off.

You giggled as you walked to the special wall in your bedroom that was dedicated to pictures of you and Charlie. Each picture that came off the wall held a distinct memory.

You and Charlie engaged in bittersweet chatter as he pulled the pictures and nails off the wall and you wrapped them each in plenty of bubble wrap.

You and Charlie had met at high school and your prom pictures composed the top row of pictures. There were silly selfies you’d took throughout the years, along with more serious pictures that had been taken of you at various events. There was a picture of the day Charlie had proposed to you, as the colorful autumn leaves fell around you.

Then there were pictures of Charlie. Just Charlie. Snaps he had sent you, that you had saved and printed without knowing.

Despite all of this, the picture that held the spot of honor on your wall was a handwritten note that Charlie had given you, asking you out for the first time.

It was sappy and cliché, but it made the old feelings resurface every time you read it. It made your throat tight and your eyes foggy. It made you love him even more.

The two of you worked hard, carrying the boxes to the trailer before heading back inside to look around one last time.

“It’s probably good that you’re leaving that old bed here, Y/N,” Charlie said as he placed a fond hand on your shoulder. “When we move in together, we can get a brand new bed with a nice, springy, new mattress.”

Your face broke out into a broad grin. “I’d love that!” she agreed.

“We can test different sheets and comforters, too,” he explained as he used the toe of his shoe to scuff at a dent that had been put into the floorboards as a result of carelessness. “Spend a few nights under each set, see how cool they are, how well they clean?”

Taglist: @wayfcharlie @fishingirl12

[samplepsychadelic]

trip report 9/30 [10mg weed 3g shrooms]

Last night's trip was on a whole pther level of my past trips. my first proper shroom trip :] I bought them from a smoke shop near kip's apartment. he's a VERY nice guy, let me pay card since I didn't have cash and has helped me navigate my interest in psychadelics since moving. I bought about 3g of both of his strains (jedi + wombat). he advised I tried wombat first and honestly I'm glad I did.

I brought my pack of capsules with me while kip and I most of the day running errands and dying his hair. we got to his house around 3pm and he offered to trip sit me.

I took 8 of the mushroom capsules (≈.27g each) around 3:30pm with no effect. I stayed in the living room laying on the couch setting my intentions while I waited. why did I exist? what is reality? what is death? after 2 hours I didn't know if they were going to work. I had 2 extra capsules left, which I eventually decided "well I might as well take them. 3 grams is a pretty nice amount anyways" and I honestly wasn't sure if it would make things turn south. I tend to be very resistant to mushrooms just by themselves. at around 5:30, we had gone back to my grandparents' house to pick up my sleep meds. I decided to throw in a bit of weed to kick things into gear (weed pairs wonderfully with mushrooms. it helps it get into my system). after coming back home we just kind of hung out in his room, he played on his computer while I laid on his bed. with the weed kicking in, so did the mushrooms.

the first signs were some mild (but still incredible) hallucinations; the ceiling started rotating and shifting with a spinning purple, green and orange mandala overlayed on top. during my trip I ended up getting really talkative and giddy. I just kept telling kip about how awesome or weird or funny everything was. obviously the first things I started telling him about what I was seeing. I kept asking "do I sound weird? do I make sense?" because I wasn't sure how to properly describe what I was experiencing. at some point I had gone outside to measure how strong my hallucinations were. at the moment they were pretty moderate and I was still mostly aware of myself and the concept of being. however by the time I had gone inside to lay on the couch, not even 5 minutes later, the hallucinations were so strong legitimately everything was moving and animating in such a bizzare way that I was captivated by it. the carpet on the floor was rolling, each diagonal stripe of the rainbow rug in front of the couch was moving on their own like conveyer belts, even the TV and its stand were alive and breathing, each movement leaving an outline of color behind.

I decided to close my eyes to see how advanced the closed eye visuals were. the answer was extremely complex. I mostly remember a kaleidoscope of purple and yellow triangles and rainbow spiral patterns. I also saw rainbow lisa frank-esque chinese dragons (I really liked them). I moved back to kip's bed and decided to continue my trip there so I could tell hom about it. by this point my ego was gone. I was no longer just a person, I was everything. I became part of the comforter on the bed, sort of melting into it. I watched my sister on his computer, his hair shifting and seeming like part of a painting. the screen would have red and blue outlines in front of it every time I blinked. it was like we were the only beings in the entire universe to exist, just to have fun together. describing the second phase of the trip feels almost impossible through words but I'll try to be as descriptive as I can. I had an overwhelming sense of love and happiness, so much so that my whole body felt tingly, like getting the world's best back massage. I started realizing that this reality is whatever I want it to be and that everything is perfect the way it is. I felt like I was receiving all the happiness and love I hadn't been given in my life at that exact moment- it felt like my chest was going to burst because of how happy I was. I messaged all my friends and told them I love them, I let kip know he was an amazing trip sitter, and I wished that everyone could experience this kind of love and peace within themselves. while I was having this moment it was almost impossible to tell the difference between having my eyes open and closed, not in a visual sense, everything just didn't seem real. even when I would talk to kip or laugh at his tts generations, it didn't feel like it was me, rather just a projection of my true self. I honestly was having such a good time that I was convinced that absolutely nothing could ruin this trip. hell, I could throw up at that exact moment and still be perfectly happy (for context- throwing up is my absolute worst fear. I have PTSD from it). around then I was very giggly and happy. kip said I was really pleasant. at one point I had gotten up to look at myself in the mirror. seeing my pupils the size of dimes made me laugh. kip told me not to look in the mirror anymore as I got myself comfortable under the covers. not even a few minutes later I had asked kip "wait, when did I get comfy?", he told me I literally just got into bed. I found it funny how my memory was all over the place. I hadn't even remembered what I had just done until after asking. I lay in bed thinking about myself and the world around me. this was it, this was everything I had wanted out of my trip- to find out that reality is made differently for each individual. everything was so wonderful. I remember thinking at one point "if I stay in this room like this for the rest of eternity I would be happy. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else".

the visuals slowly died down as I decided to watch some cartoons. there were no more trippy hallucinations, but my peripheral vision was much bigger than whatever I could focus on. I told kip that I needed to go to the bathroom (in all honesty- I just wanted to be sneaky about looking at my eyes again) and got up. walking around the house felt odd, like my consciousness was lagging behind me. I would get up, walk around, and only become aware of myself and what I was doing a minute later. I checked my eyes again and my pupils were back to normal. I went to the bathroom and picked at my face for a bit, once and awhile looking at myself and making observations about my face. I liked how I looked- I was kind of cute. my body was perfect, I didn't need to change a thing about myself. I finally loved myself.

I got bored picking at my face after awhile, not sure how long, and laid back down. most of the time towards the end of the trip was spent waiting for kip to come to bed. however I wasn't really sure if I was ready to end the experience. I knew that it wouldn't last forever, to my slight dissapointment, and wanted to keep feeling the happiness and affection forever. it did kind of feel like I had been tripping forever, not that I minded. but I did know that I should go to bed soon.

I decided to take my sleep meds awhile later, still kind of debating on if I wanted to bring everything to an end just yet. even after kip was in bed and the lights were out, I was still too excited and too restless to go to sleep. I'm not sure when I fell asleep, it must have been around 10 or 11pm. waking up the next morning was difficult, mushroom hangover is no joke.

saturday night's trip is going to stick with me for awhile. I feel like that was all I needed in this moment and I probably won't be tripping for a good while. I felt like a new person afterward and I felt like I had to share what had happened with everyone I could think of. putting it into words is extremely hard for me since a lot of the trip was feelings, sort of like a blissful unawareness. I honestly got exactly what I needed. I got it perfect the 1st time.

[kekaki-cupcakes]

Hello kekaki! Cloud you please write something for Jason with a stoic/shy body painter reader? I feel like he’d be a great model, cause he’s very patient and all. What do you think? No worries if u don’t feel like it, obvs!

I actually loved this idea and ended up putting heaps of headcanons and shit in it too because I love this kinda ask! [everyone usually just does simple stuff which is all g lol but this is so creative maybe its just cause im artsy haha] Anyway this is mixed in with an ask I got for a London Boy [Taylor Swift] type ask x Jason <3 <3 <3

There's still a trace of body paint--- Jason x Body paint artist!reader [London Boy-Taylor Swift]

»»————-　★　————-««

Jason tried not to laugh.

It was so hard though, because holy Hades the paintbrush was so cold and it was tickling his sides and he began chewing on his lip to stop himself from squirming away.

He sat as still as he could, which wasn’t hard, one thing Camp Jupiter got right was the whole soldier thing, and Jason could stand still for hours at a time without moving if he had to. And this way he was sitting on a cushioned stool watching your expression shift when you thought no one was watching you, or eating MnM’s, listening to whatever pop song came over the little radio by the open window. 

The smell of strawberries wafted through with the warm summer air from the fields a few cabins over, and it made him hungry, but he wasn’t about to get up and ruin the carefully designed strokes all down his back and over his shoulders.

He didn’t even get to know what it was until the end, apparently, which was so mean of you, but then you’d stick your tongue out while you worked a little bit in concentration and he forgave you. 

You looked up and made eye contact too quickly for Jason to play it off, and you took the tiny brush off his shoulder slowly, “what?”

“Nothing,” Jason said quickly, chewing the inside of his lip to stop his grin this time, and turned to the rest of the cabin. There was one set of bunks, but the rest of the beds were all retro hammocks hung between messy easels and tapestries and a few statues in progress. 

There was a mini fridge with a salt lamp on top, and every windowsill had little trays of incense next to the mugs filled with paint brushes or lemonade. His view was skewed when you spun the stool around a little and took another brush from the table, this time with an inky dark blue. 

Jason looked up at the roof to move his hair when the cold began to dot lightly where his neck met his shoulder. There was a big circle cut out of the white stone ceiling, replaced with glass that let the light in like a halo. It fit the whole scene though, you looked like an angel, even with the bit of melted MnM on your cheek.

“Hey,” he started, noticing the polaroid’s stuck to the wall around the mustard colored hammock belonging to you. “Can I ask..” 

“Hm?” You asked, getting a sponge and dabbing at the scars shredding up the right of Jason’s lower back. 

He wasn’t sure what your answer to the question would be, and if it was something bad, he didn’t want to make you upset, but he was curious. “How did you… how did you get here? When were you claimed?”

“Well, it wasn’t as dramatic as falling out of a burning chariot into the lake,” you muttered, wiping yellow paint from your hands onto your forehead without noticing. “My mum booked a flight to New York when I was ten, and then drove me to the borders of Camp.”

Jason looked down at his shoes, “your mortal mum?...She just left you?” 

You shook your head quickly, “oh, no, it wasn’t like that. She told me I was a demigod when I was six. Didn’t want to keep secrets. Said she went out with a lady at Glastonbury that dropped me off a few months later with a bunch of flowers.”

“I lasted a lot longer than the flowers,” you chuckled quietly, “I knew I was coming here for ages, and I knew I was a son of Iris. We didn’t get a lot of monsters in England, I’ve been attacked more by going to Starbucks on the weekends here than living in Manchester for ten years.”

Jason didn’t like talking about his own mum, but the way you smiled talking about yours, he figured you didn’t mind. “Do you miss her?”

“A lot, but Iris messages aren’t exactly hard for me,” you said with a shrug, dipping the paintbrush into the little tub Jason was balancing on his thigh. “Besides, Iris pays for my mum to fly over every summer, cause she feels bad that she had a kid with someone so far away.”

“Really?”

You smiled again, and the little shiny crystals on your necklaces clicked against the beads, “she’s a pretty great mum, as far as godly parents go. She’s gonna pay for art school, as long as I show her everything I paint.”

Jason blinked. “Does that include me?”

“Surely you’ve met her, you’ve met all the gods, right?” You asked, eating an MnM and swishing the paintbrush around in a cup. Jason was pretty sure you’d just cleaned it with lemonade, but he didn’t say anything. 

He blinked, watching the colorful stained glass of your earrings catch in the light, “Yeah, but that was before…”

Before he’d found you with Racheal using the blank stone wall of his cabin as a space for her next mural. He didn’t really care if Zeus got annoyed, because you had pink paint on your cheeks and you were using a pegasus called Clover to put all of the paint tubs on and Racheal was saying something stupid and you were laughing with your nose all crinkled up and if Zeus got annoyed by that, Jason would take the smiting himself.

Before he’d somehow ended up in the same activities together after he told Piper about you [who could convince Annabeth to do anything for her somehow, even without her mothers tongue].

Before he’d offered to sit still for hours at a time so that you could build a portfolio of paintings on his scarred skin. He’d had to ask instead of agree, because you weren’t exactly the outgoing type. Neither was Jason, so you could sit together for hours with only the sound of the tens of wind chimes outside the cabin and paint tubes being used to their last drop.

Before Jason found himself more invested in the process of the painting then the outcome. 

He gulped, and mentally shook his head, “well, I hope the art school people don’t mind scars. You’d have to use someone else.”

“I don’t care if they do. I’d still paint you,” you said quietly, looking up from the dark blue sketchy strokes Jason could only just see without his glasses. Then you looked away, changing your paintbrush for the yellow one, “unless you didn’t want to.”

“I do.”

It was silent for a moment, and then you smiled, your lip piercing shining in the sun that streamed in, “okay.”

“I’m done,” you said a few minutes later, passing Jason the rest of the MnM’s once he could move without fear of ruining the paint. He watched as you pulled a mirror out from behind an easel depicting what looked like a robot bear with square teeth and red eyes. 

Jason stared at the blues and golds with wide eyes. He didn’t want to blink, he didn’t want to not see it. He didn’t know how to put it into words. “...Wow.” 

Wow didn’t seem like enough, but you grinned nonetheless with a shy shrug, “It’s a Van Gogh, well my version of it. Everyone likes Starry night, but I like Starry Night Over The Rhone a lot more, so…” 

»»————-　★　————-««

“Is that her?”

You rolled your eyes at the question, the only one Jason had been able to ask the past ten minutes as you both sat at a park bench outside the movies, an old one near the markets that just played grainy reruns in its shabby chic theater. “If you ask one more-”

“No I think that’s Iris,” he whispered with wide eyes, “she’s staring at me.”

About to explain that the old lady with a basket of kittens and a black lace umbrella [it was sunny. She was probably a vampire] was not your mother, you turned to see the woman who was actually your mother, in her bell bottoms and matching top, hoop earrings made of tiny dreamcatchers casting colorful light everywhere. 

You grabbed his wrist, and pulled him along into her cloud of floral perfume that hurt your nose when she brought you into a bearhug. “Hi mum.”

“Darling!” She shrieked, kissing your cheeks and holding your shoulders and she shook them violently, then snuck another hug while you were making sure your head was still attached to your shoulders, “oh, how I’ve missed you!” 

“Missed you to mum,” you said, pulling away with a smile, and turned to Jason, who had the same expression big dogs get when they’re picked up. “Um, mum… this is Jason.”

“Yes, yes! I’ve heard all about you!”

“...He’s my boyfriend.” 

»»————-　★　————-««

[chappelroans]

I have a question! If you don’t mind. I love your gifsets, they look amazing. I was wondering if you would be able to provide tips on how to overlay multiple scenes and still keep both scenes looking clear and detailed despite overlapping?

hi! im going to turn this into a tutorial (which is probably more long-winded than you were looking for but oh well). if you're confused about anything just lmk!

(this tutorial is estimated at intermediate level. it is under the assumption that you have basic gif making understanding)

we are going to be working with two gifs of greta (my beloved). try to pick lighter/medium light gifs until you start to feel more confident with coloring

these gifs have no color, speed, or anything added to them, so this is your absolute baseline gif

go ahead and group each gif's layers into one. to do that, go to the toolbar above: select - all layers - group all layers (if you are using a mac you can hit command - shift - G). name them whatever you want, but make sure each gif has a different group name because we are going to be stacking them and it will get confusing if they're both Group 1

once the layers are grouped, we are going to go to the timeline of one gif, click the icon with three horizontal lines, click select all frames. it should highlight all of your frames in blue.

then you are going to click the same icon on the timeline and select 'copy frames'

next you're going to move into the next gif you want to use and follow the same process (timeline icon - select all frames) the only thing different is that you are going to select paste frames instead of copy frames!!!

click on 'paste over selection' and hit OK

your toolbar to the side should look like this, with group 1 and group 2 together. once they are together on the same tab, you can rearrange them however you want.

next, go through your normal editing process. i'm putting what i used below

now we are going to get into the actual blending. this took a little bit for me to learn but i followed tutorials similar to this and now i'm fairly comfortable with my process. everyone does it differently so feel free to workshop it!

go up to your toolbar on the lefthand side and grab your dotted ellipse selection tool (should be around the crop button). draw a circle around your gif (you can do whatever size you want; sometimes i only do a person, sometimes i do the entire gif. doing the entire gif allows you to erase more if you want to)

then head up to the toolbar at the top and hit select - refine edge - and then fiddle with the settings until you like it (it really doesn't matter that much just go with your gut tbh)

after you hit OK, head down to your workspace on the right and at the bottom there is a circle inside of a square. this is a mask and it's super important for blending. click it. now you should see a vector mask on top of one of your groups of choice (mine is on group one)

now it's free time! use your eraser tool to make your masked gif more transparent, or use your paintbrush tool to bring some areas into focus. i use large eraser and paint brushes with low opacity and just click and drag until i like what i have

next, before we go forward, we need to make sure our 2 separate groups are actually 1 group. to do this, you're going to use the same method from earlier (select all layers - group layers or command - shift - G). now it should say 'group 3'. that's perfect.

now, go back to that horizontal icon in your timeline. find 'convert to video timeline' and it will change your individual frames into one long gray bar. we do NOT want it to be gray, so to change that and make it editable we scroll up to the top toolbar, find 'filter', and click 'convert for smart filters'. this will turn your timeline purple. that's perfect! now its editable.

now we want to change the frame rate (otherwise it's gonna be super slow and laggy). go back to that timeline horizontal icon (man i use this a lot more than i think...i need a new name for it) and there should be something that says 'timeline frame rate' or something similar. when you click it, you're going to see a pop-up that asks the fps. change that baddie to 10 (it will probably be at 30 before you change it...that's gross don't keep that)

now we can sharpen! sharpening is SUPER important and its what makes the gifs crisp, even when on top of each other. besides coloring, sharpening is the best thing to do for great quality.

at the top, find 'filter'. scroll down to 'sharpen', hit 'smart sharpen' and my personal settings are on the right there. use them if you want, they're a pretty standard setting that i actually got from other users

now your gif is super crisp!!! the BEST thing to do now is change the image size. this is going to make it a little bit sharper and more defined since we are reducing the size but keeping the sharpened settings. you must always do sharpening before image resizing to get the best gif results.

(as a final touch to keep speed correct, i will save the gif and then reopen it, change the timeline speed to .05, and save again. if that's confusing just lmk)

and voila! you're done! this is the final gif. she's clear, she's crisp, she's beautiful. we love.