#also I struggled so hart with this

[brckenbadass]

@freezegirl asked: headcanon question: is there a particular reason why maya fights crime as the blonde beauty instead of coining super[girl/woman/etc] as a name, beyond her being blonde?

( random headcanon questions (always accepting) )

maya went into this knowing she needed to do something to keep herself separated from her and 'aunt' kara. she went into this knowing there'd already be suspicions with a random kryptonian kid showing up, fighting crime. she knew she had to be smart and careful, in some ways at least. so chose to use a name that wouldn't be tied to her family. chose to forgo the 'super' moniker and use a name that would be unique to her and wouldn't have it as easy for her to be recognized as a 'super'. she chose the blonde beauty because, well, as said - she's blonde. and because it felt like a fitting enough name. and it was all done more so to keep suspicions from being raised amongst her dad and the rest of her family, less so than for the general public. that's also why she wears a mask. of course, it's also to keep her secret identity secret. but she has to keep it from her family too, so.

however, maya couldn't deny herself from having at least one little tie to her family, to her father, so that's why the 'b' on her costume in the same font as the house of el crest. thankfully, no one ever seems to catch on.

[helpmyinterestsareverywhere]

Been tryna figure stuff out with my OC recently (but in traditional art instead!)

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: Queer science fiction, part 1

There is a lot of queer sf out there, and I read a lot of sf. When I started working on this list, I quickly realized it was impossible to include all that I've read and enjoyed in one single rec post. Thus, this is the first of so far three queer sci-fi book rec posts.

A note: queer here does not necessarily mean "guarantee of an f/f or m/m ship with a happy ending", but rather simply a significant presence of queerness. Some of the books feature no romance but has a same gender attracted/trans/a-spectrum lead, or features an m/f relationship with bisexual, trans or aro/ace characters, or simply features a world-building which is heavily queer inclusive in ways that don't always compare to our own ideas of sexuality and gender. I have however disqualified works where the only queer presence is along the lines of "gay best friend" or a blink and you'll miss it confirmation that never comes up again.

Previous book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, many worlds: portal fantasies, many worlds: alternate timelines, robots and artificial intelligences, post- and transhumanism, alien intelligences

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley*

Dietz is a soldier in the war between Earth and Mars - to travel to the battle front, she and her fellow soldiers are broken down into light to be able to quickly travel across space. But something keeps going wrong with Dietz's travels; her memories don't match up with the mission briefs, as she experiences time itself turning in on itself. Is she going mad? Or are the things she's learning skipping through time the truth - and the war that's stealing her life the lie? A mindfuck of a book that's scathing in its critique of fascism and war. Features a sapphic lead but no romance.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot duology) by Becky Chambers

Novella. Long ago, robots, upon gaining sentience, simply laid down their work and walked into the wilderness. Long after, a tea monk looking for purpose follows after them into the wilds, where they come across one of the robots seeking its own sort of answers. While not plotless, this story focuses more on character and vibes over plot. Also has a nonbinary main character and features conversations on gender between human and robot.

Meet Me In Another Life by Catriona Silvey*

Thora and Santi are strangers, brought together by a coincidence and torn apart just as abruptly when tragedy strikes. But this is neither the first nor the last time they meet - again and again they encounter each other, as friends, lovers, enemies, family, every time recognizing in each other a familiarity no one else carries. But with every new life, a mysterious danger grows ever closer, forcing them to find out the truth of their connection. This is a puzzle-box of a story that goes some entirely unexpected places in a very wild ride, featuring a bisexual co-lead.

The Archive Undying (The Downworld Sequence) by Emma Mieko Candon

In a world where AI gods sometimes lose their minds and take entire populations down with them, Sunai was the only survivor when his god went down. In the 17 years since, he has wandered on his own, unable to either die or age, drowning his sorrows in drink and men. But his attempts to flee his past comes to a stop as he is forced back into the struggle between man and machine. Featuring some pretty wild world building and narrative techniques, this book will definitely confuse you, but it is worth the experience.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

January Cole works security at the Paradox Hotel, last stop for tourists heading for the timeport, which allows them to travel to and witness any moment in time. But years of proximity to the timeport has left its damage on January, making her unstuck in time, letting her relive memories of her dead lover even as her sanity slips away bit by bit. As she starts witnessing proof of a horrible crime in the hotel that no one else can see, January must race against her own mind, a killer, and time itself to solve it before it's too late.

A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares

Hayes Figueiredo is a struggling film-maker who wants to finish his documentary, whose life gets turned upside down when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan enters his life, claiming an alternate version of him is a great inventor who’s sent a mysterious device to their universe. As Hayes gets drawn deeper into the conspiracy - and his feelings for Yusuf intensify - he has to decide just how far he’s prepared to go to win the life and the love he wants. Featuring a very gay and very morally dubious lead, this is a creative and strange read.

Bridge by Lauren Beukes

When she was little, Bridge and her mother Jo used to play a game - one where they traveled to other worlds, inhabiting the bodies of their other selves. Now Jo is dead, and as Bridge is cleaning out her apartment she finds a strange device: a dreamworm, the very thing that supposedly makes inter-dimensional travel possible. Suddenly faced with the possibility that multiverse travel is real, Bridge is struck by a different question: could her mother still be alive? Scifi spiced with a healthy dose of body horror and some absolutely wild twists, Bridge also features a bisexual lead (however this is a blink and you’ll miss it moment) and a nonbinary co-narrator.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper just got a job on the motley crew of the Wayfarer, a spaceship that works with tunneling new wormholes through space. With a past she wants to leave behind, Rosemary is happy to travel the far reaches of the universe with the chaotic crew, but when they land the job of a life time, things suddenly get a lot more dangerous. A bit of a tumblr classic in its day, this is a cozy space opera with an episodic feel and vividly realized characters and cultures. While pretty light on romance and focusing found family, there is a main f/f relationship.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Life on the lower decks of the generation ship HSS Matilda is hard for Aster, an outcast even among outcasts, trying to survive in a system not dissimilar to the old antebellum South. The ship's leaders have imposed harsh restrictions on their darker skinned people, using them as an oppressed work force as they travel toward their supposed Promised Land. But as Aster finds a link between the death of the ship's sovereign and the suicide of her own mother, she realizes there may be a way off the ship.

Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire trilogy) by Yoon Ha Lee*

Military space opera where belief and culture shape the laws of reality, causing all kinds of atrocities as empires do everything in their power to force as many people as possible to conform to their way of life to strengthen their technology and weapons. It’s also very queer, with gay, lesbian and trans major characters, albeit little to no romance.

The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle) by Ursula K. Le Guin

1969 classic. Genly Ai is an emissary sent to the planet of Winter, meant to help facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But he's unprepared for Winter's citizens, who spend much of their time genderless or switching between genders, making for a culture wildly different from that Genly is used to.

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota series) by Ada Palmer*

Centuries in the future, humanity has deliberatly engineered society to be as utopian as possible, politically, socially, sexually, religiously. Written in an enlightenment style and featuring questions of human nature and whether it’s possible to change it, and what price we’re prepared to pay for peace, this book is simultaneously very heavy and very funny, and written in a very unique style. While still human, the society presented often feels starkly alien.

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

This book fucked me up when I read it. It’s weird, it’s gross, there’s So Much Viscera, there are literally no men, it has living spaceships and biotech but in the most horrific way imaginable. Had I to categorize it I would call it grimdark military sf. It’s an experience but not necessarily a pleasant one.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling*

Possibly one of the most unsettling books I’ve ever read, and definitely the most claustrophobic. Gyre, a caver on an alien planet, ventures into the dark and dangerous underground, guided only by a woman who has no compunctions on using and manipulating Gyre as she sees fit to obtain her secretive goals down in the caves.

Escaping Exodus (Escaping Exodus series) by Nicky Drayden

While my feelings on Escaping Exodus were mixed, it cannot be denied that the dynamic between the two leads and the way they go from childhood best friends to enemies on different sides of a class and power struggle is very delicious. It also features some really cool worldbuilding of living, alien generation spaceships and the human culture that has developed inside them.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist.

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Ascension follows Alana Quick, an expert Sky Surgeon who stows away on a spaceship in hopes of landing herself a job. But the ship and its crew are in deeper waters than she expected, facing threats emerging from a whole other universe, all of them searching for the same person: Alana’s spiritually enlightened sister. Undeniably a bit of an odd read, Ascension is also very creative and features polyamorous lesbian relationship.

Contagion (Contagion duology) by Erin Bowman*

Young adult. After receiving an SOS, a small crew is sent on a standard search-and-rescue mission. But what they find are not survivors awaiting help, but an abandoned site, full of dead bodies and crawling with something... monstrous. No romance, but features one sapphic co-lead and one who can easily be read as demisexual (however this doesn't show up until book two, which has more romance).

A Memory Called Empire (Texicalaan duology) by Arkady Martine

Mahit Dzmare is an ambassador sent to the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire, where she discovers that her predecessor has died. Trying to protect her home, an independent mining station, from being taken over by the empire, Mahit struggles to find out the truth of her predecessor's death while carrying the voice of his ghost in her head, guiding her as best he can. Light on the romance but does feature a sapphic relationship.

The Outside (The Outside trilogy) by Ada Hoffman*

AKA the book the put me in an existenial crisis. Souls are real, and they are used to feed AI gods in this lovecraftian inspired scifi where reality is warped and artifical gods stand against real, unfathomable ones. Autistic scientist Yasira is accused of heresy and, to save her eternal soul, is recruited by post-human cybernetic ‘angels’ to help hunt down her own former mentor, who is threatening to tear reality itself apart. Sapphic main character.

Dawn (Xenogenesis trilogy) by Octavia E. Butler*

After a devestating war leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, survivor Lilith finds herself waking up naked and alone in a strange room. She’s been rescued by the Oankali, who have arrived just in time to save the human race. But there’s a price to survival, and it might be humanity itself. Absolutely fucked up I love it I once had to drop the book mid read to stare at the ceiling and exclaim in horror at what was going on. Queer in the sense that the Oankali doesn't follow human ideas of gender and relationships, which is mirrored in their romantic relationships with humans. It is, however, pretty dark, with examinations of agency and consent, so enter with caution.

Remnant by Kate Genet

One day, Cass wakes up and finds everyone else is gone. Not dead, just gone, leaving her in a world which nature starts taking back with a dangerous, unnatural speed. But as she tries to survive this new normal, Cass realizes she may not be alone after all - but who else is out there, and are they a threat?

The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace duology) by Erin Bow*

Young Adult. Featuring a dystopian future in which an AI forcibly keeps world peace by holding the children of world leaders hostage. If anyone attempts to start a war, their child will be executed. Greta is one of these children, kept in a school with others like her. But things start to change one day when a new, less obedient hostage arrives. A unique, slowburn take on the YA dystopian craze, also featuring a bisexual love triangle.

Iron Widow (Iron Widow series) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Young adult. Zetian is a citizen of Huaxia, where mecha aliens are constantly trying to breach the Great Wall. To keep them at bay, couples of men and women pilot so called Chrysalises, giant transforming robots. But the pilots are not equal - the women almost always die, sucked dry by their co-pilots. When Zetian sets herself up to become a concubine-pilot, she does so with the plan to assassinate the male pilot who caused her sister's death. Features a polyamorous main relationship.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool:

Survival Instincts by May Dawney

Lynn Tanner has been surviving the post-apocalypse alone with only her dog for a long time, trusting no one. But when she's forced to travel the dangerous remains of New York City alongside another woman, her priorities are challenged. Is staying alone really the best way to stay alive?

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

When con-artist Jun Ironway gets her hands on possible proof of the powerful Nightfoot family, controllers of interplanetary travel, committing genocide, she has in her hands a chance of taking them and their monopoly down. But the family and their allies won't go down easily, and sends two brutal clerics to stop her.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

A neo-victorian alternate history, in which a part of Congo was kept safe from colonisation, becoming Everfair, a safe haven for both the people of Congo and former slaves returning from America. Here they must struggle to keep this home safe for them all.

[icanseethefuture333]

How your voice sounds like & how you talk according to your 2nd & 3rd house 🗣:

Aries in the 2nd house & Taurus in the 3rd House:

Aries 2nd house people usually have a very husky/raspy voice and can talk pretty fast when they're excited or angry. Although, their Taurus in the 3rd house can make them more soft spoken in everyday life. If you get on their good side they will be sweet to you but if you piss them off they won't hestitate to drag you. They can be slick with their words. They are the type to be sneaky with their jokes and tease you without you even noticing till later what they said 💀 (Michael Jackson has this placement and everyone thinks he was so sweet but would literally sing 50 Cent in his car, cuss words and all lmao 😂)

Taurus in the 2nd house & Gemini in the 3rd house:

I know this sounds weird but Taurus 2nd house people talk more with their throat. Their voice sounds either very throaty or very nasally (I mean come on now - Shakira, Rihanna, G-Eazy, Cardi B, Heath Ledger, Stevie Nicks, AND Andrew Garfield. The proof is in the pudding). Their tone of voice is very unique but it's also attractive? They cound sound a little bit like they have a cold, its cute. If they are singers they use a lot of vibratto (don't worry I'll do a post on this too 🙄). Gemini in the 3rd house people could be very expressive with their faces when they talk and show a duality. They could also talk with different accents depending on who they are with.

Gemini in the 2nd house & Cancer in the 3rd house:

These people are very chatty around those they feel comfortable with. If they have a lot of air or fire in their birth chart they are friendly and love to socialize. If there is more earth and water they are shy but like to converse with whoever they are close to. Gemini 2nd house people tend to speak with a vocal fry. They could be emotional speakers as well with their Cancer in the 3rd house or they are good at making people feel heard during a conversation.

Cancer in the 2nd house & Leo in the 3rd house:

Their voices sound as if they're sleepy. Cancer 2nd house people's voices sound soft and airy. With a Leo in the 3rd house, they put some bass in their voice when they yell or get mad. Similar to a cat, they might be chill at first, and pur and meow, but if you piss them off they'll roar. They are very passionate and could choke up a bit or cry if they talk about a sensitive subject.

Leo in the 2nd house & Virgo in the 3rd house:

Leo 2nd house people growl as they talk, sing, or rap. Might even clear their throat before speaking. Could have some health problems with their throat or nose. They have the tendency to be congested. Virgo in the 3rd house could make them sound like a nerd when they talk about their interests 🤓

Virgo in the 2nd house & Libra in the 3rd house:

Virgo 2nd house people have very thin voices and typically sound high pitched, it's like their voices sound like it's struggling to come out (if their is voice is deeper it will sound gravely like Tyler, The Creator). They could require voice lessons or speech therapy at some point in their life. Possibly has social anxiety. Has or could develop a lisp. Talented when it comes to using their voice for entertainment like voice acting, reporting, speeches, singing, rapping, etc. (Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn or Eddie Murphy as Mushu and Donkey). With their Libra in the 3rd house they could have a way with words. They could be very charming when they speak and like to flirt. Might even turn on the charm to get what they want (I'm guilty of this).

Libra in the 2rd house & Scorpio in the 3rd house:

There is two spectrums with these people. On one hand their voices are very attractive and the way they speak can be sensual... or they can be vulgar and/or hilarious (1. Ice Spice, Michael B. Jordan, Usher, Lauren Jauregui, Keanu Reeves, Meagan Good, & Idris Elba 2. Dave Chapelle, Will Ferrell, Tom Hanks, Kevin Hart, & Ryan Reynolds 3. Dolly Parton & Childish Gambino are both great at singing and know how to do comedy). They are great at entertaining a crowd and could be the host at parties. They know how to make people laugh and blush, it's their way of seducing.

Scorpio in the 2nd house & Sagittarius in the 3rd house:

This combination can cause them to be poetic and philosophical. They are great when it comes it expressing their inner most personal thoughts. When angered, they will let you let you feel their wraith (I mean have you heard Beyoncé on her Lemonade album or Doja Cat on her lives? Lmao they do not fuck around). Their language is very blunt and they cuss a lot (Britney Spears: "Holy shitballs!" 😃 *starts spinning*). Scorpio 2nd house people voices are clear and deep (yes, like the ocean) but if they are around someone they talk in a baby voice. It's so funny too it's like they're usually this badass but then out of nowhere there's this silly high pitched voice 😭 (Kendrick Lamar: "put the pussy on a pedestal ~ put the pussy on a high stool ~ that pussy to die for, yeah that pussy to DIE for ~🎵") Honestly they're just crazy lmao

Sagittarius in the 2nd house & Capricorn in the 3rd house:

These people are SHADYYY. They love to throw shade (Prince) or air out people's dirty laundry if you do them wrong (Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, & Halsey have some of their biggest songs about their exes lol). These people are petty as hell! Sagittarius 2nd house can also give good advice and with their Capricorn in the 3rd house, they have a lot of wisdom to share. A teacher to those around. They will also tell you things about themselves but know not to overshare. They like to have the upperhand in a conversation and keep their next move a secret. They tend to speak "as a matter of factually" and come off as having a careless attitude if they smile. A lot of them speak with a similar tone as well (Anne Hathaway, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mila Kunis, Scarlett Johansson, Winona Ryder, and Kim Kardashian don't have the same voice but their Capricorn tone and Aquarius speech pattern is obvious to me). The men can seem very cool and relaxed, almost the bad boy type (Justin Bieber, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage, Eminem, & Elvis Presley).

Capricorn in the 2nd house and Aquarius in the 3rd:

These people are eccentric and are unique. They like to have a persona so they can keep their personal lives private. Their voices sound a bit quirky (I remember watching a interview with Adriana Lima and a lot of people were surprised to hear how she actually sounded).

Aquarius in the 2nd house and Pisces in the 3rd:

These people sound so cute imo??? Jimin from BTS, Ariana Grande, Zac Efron, Ashanti, & Jordin Sparks all have this placement and their voice is so soft like a cloud. Their sense of humor is weird and silly. They are quiet in comparison to others and are probably told often to speak louder. Or they could be slow talkers. Overall just really mellow people lol

Pisces in the 2nd house and Aries in the 3rd house:

These people are motivational speakers (Barack Obama) and are often being quoted for their iconic sayings (Nicki Minaj, Naomi Campbell, Zendaya, & Alicia Silverstone). They know how to connect to people and they are passionate when it comes to helping others. Most likely will be the person to stand up to a bully and defend the person being picked on. Pisces is caring while Aries is bold yet impulsive. These people need to practice "thinking before speaking" because it has a greater affect on not just themself but those around them.

[g-xix]

so like i know that you don’t really know AMP like that but can i get a fluffy oneshot for ray?? he’s genuinely so fine and funny and respectful so i just need something with him.

☁️Movie Nights | Rayasianboy_

Yeah sure I'll do a short lil drabble, im in the mood fo it

(post-writing grace wants to let it be known that it isn't short. u got 6.7k words here. enjoy.)

Movie nights at the AMP household happened about once every month. What with Duke living so far away and Kai always busy travelling or streaming - about every once a month when Duke stayed the night following a shoot, Kai wasn't too busy with Kevin Hart or some other celebrity chaotically livestreaming, and Agent, Fanum, Davis and Chris were present and available...

AMP movie night happened.

"We should watch a horror-!"

"are you crazy?! Put on a comedy or somethin'-"

"Just 'cus you're pussy doesn't mean we all wanna watch 21 Jump Street for the milli-a-billionth time-"

"I'm with Kai- it doesn't have to be 21 Jump Street- there's some new comedies on Netflix-"

It was always fun. The initial watch of Kai and Fanum arguing it out, Agent and Chris taking their respective sides whilst Davis watched and laughed - all petty debates quickly shut down when Duke just puts on a movie that everyone can agree on...

But the gang wasn't just confined to the AMP crew.

Everyone in the house was summoned when it was AMP house movie night. That included you, of course, as chef for the AMP house and Kai's cousin - he knew you were struggling to put your skills to use and find employment as a 17 year old needing money to support your side of the family as well as live your life. And having been close whilst you grew up, Kai wanted to help you out - hence he asked you to come and help cook at the AMP house and behind the set with the AMP shoots - promising accommodation at the house as well as a wage cut straight from all the money he earnt.

Whilst Kai was your blood relative, the rest of the boys became what you would consider family, also.

You could always play video game basketball with Agent on and off stream, or play little 1v1s on the actual court with Davis. You and Fanum had a special friendship considering he would sometimes just ask for a snack or lurk around the kitchen and have little bits and bobs whilst you cooked - hence there was a friendship that bloomed between you two, centred around food. And Chris and Duke were always interested in roping you into games starting petty wars in the house which you were always happily involved with.

You became the little sister to the AMP house, and this of course, meant that your presence was always necessary for a proper AMP house movie night.

Even if you annoyed everyone by threatening to lie or jump on top of someone.

Unfortunately for you, it seemed as though you were the only one in the house who liked touch. Not in an exclusively romantic or sexual way - no - just wanting to lean against someone or hold onto someone whilst watching movies. In an affirming way. Just for the sake of contact.

Unfortunately for you, being said, as nobody ever agreed with you.

It made sense; being seventeen and the only girl in the establishment, all of the boys made it quite clear that they weren't interested in any sort of contact - regardless of the chaste nature of it. The most you got was normally someone putting the arm around the back of the sofa, behind you - allowing you to somewhat lean against them, lean into their side.

Even Kai, your older cousin you'd grown up with, would disagree to even hugging you sometimes - given that he had always been less into physical contact.

Once, to start the movie night, Fanum had started shit stirring and making the both of you argue (unseriously) about Kai's lack of love or any physical contact. And that had ended with starting the movie an hour later, given that you and Kai began wrestling in the middle of the room (both cheered on by your respective sides), pushing and duelling one another with long polystyrene cylinders you'd randomly found behind a sofa.

There was always chaos and community to be found within your movie nights, and regardless of the movie chosen, or the boys' lack of contact with you... You always had fun.

"You seen Ray anywhere?" Kai ran into the kitchen, cameraman behind him wielding a camera which panned to you upon the question being asked. The fans knew of your existence as cook in the house and Kai's cousin, and despite the occasional shipping with other AMP members which was a bit odd considering your age was also public on your social media platforms - the fans seemed to be pretty chill and found you likeable too.

Kai slid his phone over so that you could see the chat also, knowing that you liked being able to know what people were saying whilst live.

"Which one's Ray?" You scrunched your brows together in confusion, wondering whether Kai had ever introduced you to a Ray before.

"I never introduced you to Ray??" Kai's own brows knitted together in confusion also, pausing his search to acknowledge that fact. You'd seen a thread on Twitter pointing out how similar yours and Kai's body language was having grown up so close, and found it cute that he mirrored your confusion with the same action of scrunching his brows together - a little smile lighting on your face as you shook your head, indicating that you hadn't in fact, met Ray.

Your smile was joined by a slight chuckle as you looked down at the chat on Kai's phone - watching as they flooded the screen with messages such as INTRODUCE HER TO RAY! and GET THEM TO MEET, expressing their intrinsic want for you to meet the enigmatic Ray.

"How long has he been here for?" You asked, checking up on the stove behind you as you asked the question.

"He been in and out the house for the last month or so - you ain't never seen him?" Kai re-questioned incredulously. "Taiwanese mf, like, this tall-" He stretched his arm out above him to exemplify the height. "-shitty haircut, lanky as hell...?"

"I've not seen a single person that isn't black inside this house, Kai." You shook your head to Kai's disappointment. "He been coming into the house for the last couple months though? How've I not seen him?!"

"Shit, I don't know either." Kai shrugged, setting himself on a barstool at the island. (idk what the amp house looks like i j hope there's barstool n a kitchen island) "Chat, you wanna see Ray meet my cousin?"

"Eurgh, I don't wanna meet someone for the first time on your stream, imma be awkward." You rolled your eyes, turning the hob off and stirring the cuisine within an adjacent pot on the stove. "We doing movie night tonight or is that next week?"

"Oh shit I forgot it's movie night tonight!" Kai exclaimed. "Chat, every month or somethin' we all watch a movie together - whole house and AMP gang - you tell 'em about it-"

Between yourself and Kai, the two of you managed to explain the concept of AMP movie nights to the chat whilst you plated up the rice and stroganoff, laughing and joking with the occasional threat of the wooden spoon - only to laugh whenever Kai flinched when you fake jumped at him with the wooden weapon.

"Go give those plates to Fanum and Davis," You gestured to the two plates on the table. "Duke, Chris and Agent can get theirs after they've played whatever basketball game they're playing... Does your Ray friend want a serving too, you think?"

"He can get a portion if he wants, I dunno," Kai shrugged the question away, picking up Davis' and Fanum's plate, awkwardly pulling his own plate of food between his arms and balancing it on his forearms. "Thanks girlie!"

"Yeah you welcome dawg," You mirrored his eccentric name-calling, chuckling as Kai gave his big bursting laugh as he walked out, cameraman following him.

The thought of Ray kept on your mind as you ate your portion, scrolling through your Twitter feed.

A random guy from another country you'd never seen had randomly joined your house? Without you even noticing...?? It felt a bit ironic, considering you spent most your time either in the living room or kitchen - both of which had a view of the front door and anyone who entered or exited the house...

Strange... You thought, chewing on the mushroom as you hard a distant yell of THANK YOU SWEETHEART from a room in the house, Bronx accent indicating it was likely Fanum shouting his gratitude to you for the food.

Switching from Twitter to Instagram, you looked at Kai's recent post - designer covering the boy from head to toe - the post from just 2 hours ago already decorated with several tens of thousands of likes. Quickly scrolling through the comments, you saw someone mention Ray - sparking an idea.

Clicking on Kai's profile, you clicked on the people Kai is following, typing Ray into the searchbar and looking through the profiles until you saw someone that matched the description Kai had given you.

Tall, Asian and not-as-shit-a-haircut as Kai had told you... You tapped on his recent post, one eyebrow quirking up at the subtle definition of his arms that showed with the white wife beater he wore. Clearly not as lanky as Kai had said, either.

You pulled the phone closer to your face as you scrolled onto the next picture, putting your fork down to zoom into Ray's face on the picture.

He had pretty features. Dark eyes and a cute lil smile...

You dropped your phone in shock, scrolling onto the next picture and seeing Ray without a top.

Your eyes widened as you withdrew yourself from your phone, staring into the distance and just grounding yourself for a second... Before picking your phone up again and bringing the phone close to your face to just...

admire.

Because damn was he good looking - broad chest and defined collarbones with subtle ab definition... You couldn't help yourself from zooming into the photo, eyes scouring the picture and just absorbing everything there was to see - marvelling at the pretty boy's posts just as-

"YO COUSIN-"

You quite literally jumped as the door opened, Duke's yell causing you to elicit a yelp as he ambled through the door with a wide grin and Agent trailing behind.

Your fingers fumbled, phone dropping from your hand and sliding across the table - just out of reach from you.

Duke laughed at your response, bending over and hand having to hold onto the kitchen tabletop to stabilise himself as he laughed at at the fear within your reaction - giving you a moment to reach out and grab your phone.... Realising that it had fallen face up with Ray's Instagram picture still on it's screen - your head snapping upwards and making horrifying eye contact with Agent, who had seen exactly what you'd been looking at on your phone.

"Fuck is you reacting like that for-" Duke guffawed, wiping at his eyes as he straightened up, getting poked in his arm by Agent. "What you doing that's got you all scared 'bout us for-"

"Why you looking at Ray's topless pictures?" Agent spilled with the fattest grin, his unfiltered honesty making you slap a hand over your face as you felt blood rushing to your cheeks at his brutal confession of your online snooping. And Duke was quick to snatch your phone from your hands following that - observing your phone screen despite your disputes and laughing as he saw the topless picture of Ray you'd been looking at on the Instagram profile.

"You thirstin' over Ray?" Duke's grin was astronomical as he asked it almost incredulously, holding the phone and pointing at the picture as if he couldn't believe it.

"What?! No- I don't know him - I've never even met him - why would I thirst over him...?" You rushed out, short fragmented sentences reflecting the panic that infiltrated your mind. "N-nothing wrong if I did though... Right?"

Agent and Duke collapsed against one another, bursting into a fit of laughter at your awkward confession.

"GUYS! Shut up! Apparently he's here in the house right now - I don't even like him! He's probably your old ass ages anyways - I don't know-"

"Girl he's your age, he's seventeen too," Duke cut you off, still donning his wide grin.

"Oh..." You felt a strange hope within the pit of your chest, your heart palpitating just a fraction quicker.

"Does that make you like him?" Agent quirked a brow and asked, handing your phone back to you yet continuing the interrogation nonetheless.

"I..." You trailed off as you thought about it.

For the past year or so you'd sort of forgotten or at least left all your crushes and romantic feelings behind - having devoted yourself to doing your job and helping with streams - all too caught up in Kai's influencer lifestyle.... And even when you'd found yourself initially with a micro-crush on Duke, you'd managed to quickly overcome it because of the age difference you knew was more than problematic.

But Ray being your age and literally being in the house with you?

That certainly changed your crush-thought-process.

"No way you crushing on Ray, that's wild," Agent smiled, less mockingly than Duke, as though he actually found it rather wholesome. Which would've made sense, given that Agent had a partner of his own and often expressed his happiness within having a girlfriend he loved.

"I don't know whether I have a crush," You were quick to shake your head though. "I don't know I don't know I don't know- I only found out about his existence like half an hour ago, Agent, I was just seeing who he was on Instagram..."

"Do you like who he is?" Duke interjected his question. "From what you've seen...?"

"I mean..." You found yourself trailing off again. "I don't know, he's cute and all but... Gosh, it's impossible to really know, isn't it? I mean, I've just seen a few pictures of him-"

"-And you like that shirtless pic of him don't you-"

You stared with a stony expression as Duke and Agent collapsed into a fit of giggles at their supposed witty comment.

"God, it feels weird talking to you two about anything to do with... boys."

"Yeah, weird knowing that's your type." Duke added on, making you facepalm.

"He isn't my type, I don't have a type - I don't date much - I don't even know what my type is."

"You should find out," Agent encouraged. "-by asking Ray for his number and going out with him."

"For his number?!" You repeated incredulously. "My God you two are ancient."

"What do you kids ask for nowadays?" Duke asked in confusion, running his hands through his dreads pensively.

"Snapchat or Instagram." You rolled your eyes. "Why am I talking about boys with either of you - you guys don't know shit about picking people up clearly-"

"HEY HEY HEY HEY-" They both rushed to defend themselves, their overlapping defensive shouts laughable.

"Look," You cut their defensive rambles off, raising your hands to gather than attentions, "This is cute and all, I get it, but you gotta understand... I don't even know who this guy is - yeah, I'll admit he's cute and all - but we're being real optimistic saying anything about guy who doesn't even know I exist - like - I just found out that he exists about half an hour ago! He might not even like me if we talked!"

"You too insecure." Duke rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "You ugly but you aren't awful - you don't need to worry 'bout Ray rejecting you, there's plenty out there for you."

"Well thanks I guess."

"You want us to set you guys up?" Agent raised his brows, Duke's eyes widening and mouth forming an o-shape as he realised Agent's genius, looking at you expectantly with a wide smile.

"No." You stated resolutely, crushing their spirits. "Wait 'til I meet him in person or something. He could be weird or we might just be awkward..."

"Ay say less," Duke nodded his head. "When you gon' meet him?"

"I dunno, whenever I see him I guess? He's done a good job avoiding me, considering I haven't seen him in the house EVER, when apparently he's been in and out for months, now..."

Agent gasped, grabbing onto Duke's arm as another lightbulb idea clearly hit him.

"We should introduce them at movie night tonight!"

"HE'S STAYING FOR THAT?!"

"We'll make him stay." Agent grinned as Duke nodded along in agreement, letting out a little aaaaa! of excitement from their decided plan.

You couldn't even stop them from doing it, as they giggled and ran out of the room - not even taking their portion of lunch that you'd cooked, as they left the room swiftly, gossiping like schoolgirls as they plotted whilst you just sat. Fearing what the duo was planning.

"YOU COMIN' OR NOT?"

You rolled your eyes at your jumpy cousin's yell from the floor below, your continuing to unroll your hair in your attic room, looking at your reflection in the mirror and hoping your curls would fluff out if your brushed them.

There was a knock at the door and before you could even respond, it was busted open.

"You're meant to knock and wait until I say you can come in, asshole."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Kai brushed it off before looking into the mirror and seeing your reflection. "The fuck, are you doing your hair for a movie night? Are you wearin' lashes too?"

You shrugged, feeling Kai's judgement bring a slight blush to your face. You'd sort of convinced yourself that if Ray was staying for movie night (and Duke and Agent were gonna try setting the two of you up) you would put on just a bit of makeup - try make yourself look a little better, you know?

"What you getting all dolled up for?"

You bit down on your lip, wondering whether you should let Kai in on it. Would it be a bit awkward? You'd done just a bit of research on Ray and realised that he was surprisingly Kai's best friend - they were tight as hell... Which meant that telling Kai might just be a liiiittle bit awkward.

"I'm just trying some overnight makeup out," You shrugged after a second. "Euphoria - you know that makeup brand? - they gifted me this, I'm jus' trying it out now... So I can wear it in future, you know?"

Kai stared at you for a second, reading your expression and making you uncomfortable under his gaze, wondering whether he knew you were lying...

"Man, I don't know shit about makeup- just hurry your ass up, we waitin' on you now."

With that, Kai gave you the three minutes you needed to unroll and brush your hair - put a few finishing touches on your makeup - and slip into your comfy hoodie and sweatpants, checking your makeup in the mirror one last time before skipping down the stairs.

You peeked into the living room, Davis catching your eye and gesturing for you to come on in, patting the vacant space besides him on the sofa for you to come sit.

Your eyes scaled down the sofa, seeing Kai - Chris - Fanum - Agent - Duke - Davis...

And no Ray.

"You lookin' for someone?" Agent asked with a knowing grin plastered on his face.

"Nope." You stopped Agent, swiftly advancing from the door to the space besides Davis and ignoring the way you could hear Duke's snickering from besides Agent. "Is that everyone?" You asked casually, finding yourself relaxing slightly as the prospect that maybe you wouldn't have to meet Ray with the pressure of Duke and Agent coercing the two of you into talking and getting close.

"Nah we just waitin' on Ray." Kai responded, throwing some snacks into his mouth. "-OH, that means you'll finally meet Ray tonight!"

"Oh." Your simple response came, Duke and Agent's muffled laughter seemingly ignored by everyone but you.

"He's a nice guy," Kai nattered. "I just met him by accident sometime but he's a nice enough kid - he's your age - you could have a friend in the house if you guys get close too-"

"Fuck you mean a friend, we're all friends here," Fanum cut Kai off.

"We friends tho-"

Kai began wrestling someone at the comment.

You rest your head in your hands for a moment, just letting yourself calm down for a second whilst the duo rolled around on the floor, mock WWE fighting each other at the mere mention of Tyla's friend-zoning.

"What movie we thinkin'?" Duke asked the remainder of people on the sofa.

"We startin' without Ray?" Fanum questioned, Duke just shrugging and mumbling some answer.

"I could do with a horror," You yawned, Davis rolling his eyes and protesting instantly.

"What about a thriller? That's like soft horror, right?"

"The Outsider's one I been wanting to watch for time - check that out-"

"That shit looks scary as fuck, hell nah-"

"Let's watch the opening and if it's all that bad we can try a different film."

Duke pressed play on the movie, Kai breaking up the fight to jump back onto the sofa and settle into his seat to get ready to watch the movie - only to have it paused as the door opened - everyones' heads craning around as the door creaked.

In a pair of Hello Kitty pyjama bottoms and a plain white tee, Ray stood in the doorway.

"You finally come down?!" Kai jumped onto his feet and exclaimed at the quiet boy, Duke pausing the movie. "You was taking longer than HER to get ready!"

Ray looked down the group until he saw the person Kai jabbed his finger at. You. His dark eyes bore into yours, tracing down over your body ever so quickly before meeting with your eyes again. Kai noticing the pause and realising-

"OH- I been meanin' to introduce you two-"

"You Kai's cousin?" Ray questioned, his English broken up slightly, accent evident within his voice which wasn't exactly deep or husky, owning any particularly attractive qualities... but something about it was soothing on the ear, regardless.

"Yeah, you're Ray I'm guessing," You nodded, smiling up at the boy politely, expecting him to be courteous enough to smile back.

Your smile slid off your face as Ray didn't smile back, however. Rude, you thought, internally rolling your eyes and deciding that maybe you weren't all that bothered with someone who wouldn't even smile back at you.

But no, Ray was quite straightforwards in stepping around the boys towards you and giving you a handshake... Which felt strangely formal - until Ray kept his hand intertwined with you and pulled you up to your feet with surprising strength, making you let out the slightest of gasps as Ray put an arm around your back - pulling you into a hug instead.

Your hands slowly wrapped around his body in response - just slightly shocked at... Well, everything.

A) Whatthefuck he was STRONG?! Sure, you'd seen that he had muscles from his Instagram posts - but shit, he wasn't exactly ripped - and he certainly didn't look like he had enough muscle to lift you up just with one hand

B) Ohmyfuck, he's so comfortable just giving a hug? No awkwardness, no weird lead up, just coming over here in front of everyone and pulling me into a hug? That shit's nice as Hell I gotta admit-

C) Damn he smells good - is that like... Pine? Something warm and comforting a lil like vanilla... or maybe some sage too...?

D) OhmyLORD he is tall. You and Kai were both cursed blessed with the short genes of your families, and donned similar heights... Which meant that Ray practically enveloped you within his arms and hug, your head resting just below his chest in such a way you could feel a heat rising to your cheeks - making the blush you'd swiped onto your cheeks earlier futile, as your flustered feelings reflected on your cheeks.

You opened your eyes slightly as you felt your mind going into overdrive at the hug Ray gave - catching the expression of the people on the sofa as you did; Kai and Davis looking relatively normal, though Chris and Fanum donned expressions of suspicion - their minds clearly already sensing some tension or connection, and Agent beaming as though everything was coming together - Duke raising a brow with a knowing expression, as if he'd seen this coming and was encouraging you to continue with... with something(???)

Ray was the first to pull back, making you realise you'd just sorta grappled onto him and forgotten that a hug was only meant to last for a moment.

"You two is both the same age too, so I thought it'd be good for you two to be friends," Kai explained, making you laugh - trying to cover the way you were all too aware about the fact that Ray's arm remained around your shoulders following the hug, still holding you sorta close to his body.

"Thanks Uncle Cenat" You pointed out his behaviour.

"You two should go sit on that couch with each other," Agent gestured to the adjacent sofa. "Given there isn't space for another two of you here."

You watched as Duke subtly bumped his fist against Agent, them two thinking they were sooo smooth at the suggestion, making you just roll your eyes and stay silent - not opposed to what Agent had suggested, but not wanting to pressure Ray into it, or appear as too eager or enthusiastic when Ray might not've cared at all.

However Duke seemed to take your silence as an opportunity to drop more hints.

"She'll try cuddle you though, you gotta watch out-" Duke couldn't even finish his sentence without laughing - your eyes widening in horror at the betrayal you felt as Duke spewed the truth. "She likes hugging and bein all physical like that-"

Your face fell into your hands in horror, shaking your head from side to side as the crew on the sofa burst out laughing at Duke's lack of filter, embarrassing you to no end as you hid your burning face within your palms.

You were horrified Duke was baiting you out. What sick sorta plan did he have to get you two together which involved publicly shaming you?? You could still feel Ray's arm around your shoulders despite Duke's ridiculing, but you could already imagine the expression he would wear: a pitying smile or mocking laugh matching the rest of the gang.

Fucking embarrassing.

You chose to look up at Ray - let his expression tell you that you didn't have a single chance with him, now that you'd been outed and embarrassed for being an oddball. That he thought you were weird and that you had 0 chances of building some sort of connection or having a relationship with the only person anywhere near your age within the AMP house.

Yet to your surprise, as you looked up and your eyes met Ray's - you saw no expression you were expecting.

He was fine with it.

He had a blank, unbothered expression, and seemed more interested in you than anything Duke was flacking.

"You want to cuddle?" Ray questioned with no evident nor underlying judgement within his voice. Just a genuine question, in which he didn't seem opposed to the idea - just wanting to know whether Duke was being genuine or not - clearly not wanting to misread the situation and accidentally be too forwards with you.

Your tongue felt heavy, mind whirring into overdrive as you couldn't even begin to respond to his question - a blush forming on your cheeks as your eyes widened with shock even more - after all, you hadn't even expected Ray to want to talk to you. Let alone be so to-the-point with asking to cuddle.

He was a man of few words.

But the words that Ray did speak? They got straight to your heart, and regardless of whether he knew the effect of what he said, he was only making you more into him.

It felt like some sickening fever dream; a guy your age, attractive and forwards with gestures of interest - asking you to come cuddle him and literally fulfilling one of your few visceral cravings; your want for physical contact with someone satiated by Ray, who was willing to do exactly what you'd been craving.

It was just too bad you didn't know how to express it.

Ray's arm slipped away - leaving your shoulders as he advanced across the room, sitting on the adjacent sofa and seemingly leaving you as he manspread his legs out, one arm wrapping around the back of the seat next to him as he looked up and made eye contact with you.

"Come then," He spoke plainly, leaving it open to you as he pat the seat besides him with his hand.

The AMP boys on the sofa let out OOOOOO's of surprise, Duke and Agent grabbing onto and slapping each others' forearms to get each others' attention and ogle at the way that shit was working out. Kai had his brows furrowed in slight confusion despite his grin - just a bit suspicious of the way that Ray seemed to be making advances towards you. Not to mention that they seemed to be working.

But you personally?

You couldn't help but fixate on how good Ray looked. The way that he was sat with his legs spread, white tee pooling at the bottom and contrasting the darkness of his hair and eyes...

You knew you'd spent too long just awkwardly stood staring, and you decided not to let the awkward moment persist - crossing the room and following in Ray's steps as you sat down besides him, hands within your lap as you felt your leg brushing his - that being enough contact to satisfy your shy self for the moment.

"Yo, pass a blanket." Ray said to Fanum, his blunt demand being met with Fanum widening his eyes with shock at the confidence of the boy with you.

"Hell nah gang, I ain't letting you do shit under a blanket with her," Fanum became defensive, despite the smile on his face.

Agent was the one to throw a bundled up blanket over Fanum's head, reaching Ray and letting him unroll it with Fanum scolding Agent whilst Ray gave you a portion of the blanket, throwing it over your body and getting you comfy.

Duke pressed play on the movie, and the screen lit up with colours, allowing the introduction to play out and capture everyones' attention once more.

Ray's hand drifted from the back of the sofa to your shoulders, whispering a "You okay with this?" which you nodded in response to, leaning back into his arm and enjoying the weight of his arm around your back, hand resting against your shoulder - long fingers running down the length of your arm whilst his thumb rest across the top of your shoulder, parallel to your collarbone. Occasionally, he swiped his thumb over your shoulder in a comforting way, giving you shivers which you had to conceal each time he did it.

As the movie played out, the horror began unveiling itself, until the main character found themself alone, in the dark, walking with solely a torch through a liminal space which had your anxiety rising.

"This shit scary as fuck" You heard Ray mumble from besides you, shuffling closer whilst you could feel his arm muscles tensing in clear fear. You nodded with fear in your body also, every muscle anticipating a jumpscare... And feeling Ray shift closer, you leaned into his body too, letting your body meet with Ray's side, head leaning against his shoulder ever so slightly as if testing to see whether he'd back out... Which he didn't. In fact, his other arm wrapped around your shoulders too, his head behind yours as if whilst holding you he was shielding himself from the screen and the awaiting jumpscare.

It was laughable how scared he was, yet you didn't considering the fact that you were also (metaphorically) shitting it. No, instead you wrapped your hands around his arms which sat around your shoulders, gripping onto Ray and scooting yourself into Ray's body, as though uniting the two of you could save you from a jumpscare on the other side of the screen.

Of course, it didn't.

Screams and yells ricocheted around the room as the tension was released by the jumpscare.

Ray's hands tightened around your body at the scene whilst you yourself jumped at the shock, turning your face away from the screen and squeezing your eyes shut, subsequently hiding your face in the crook of Ray's neck, your forehead resting against his skin whilst his hand just accommodated his movement and rest against your lower back instead.

"That wasn't even that scary," You whispered into Ray's ear as you overcame the shock of the jumpscare, bodies still squished together, embracing just in case another surprise scare appeared.

"You joking?" Ray pulled back, eyes widening as he looked at you, whispering incredulously. "This some of the scariest thing I have ever seen..."

"It was just some goofy creature - we didn't even see what it was," You giggled quietly at the frightened boy, even making him smiling a little bit as though your laughter was contagious.

Ahem. The two of you lost eye contact as Fanum cleared his throat, giving the two of you a pointed look to say-

"Shut the fuck up - is what he's saying." Kai's energetic voice broke the atmosphere. "And stop with all that cute shit too Ray, I introduced you two to be friends, I don't like whatever you're doin'."

You felt a blush return to your cheeks, feeling almost caught by your psuedo-sibling. At least he was projecting his distaste onto Ray instead of you, though.

Rolling your eyes as Fanum raised his brows and gave you a shuthethefuckup look as well, you pulled the blanket up to your neck and tucked yourself further up into Ray's body, letting yourself relax into his side.

Your head leaned slowly towards Ray, eventually making contact with his shoulder and just resting there. His arm still tucked around your shoulders, both of your bodies covered with the blanket... You let out a yawn from the warmth the blanket wrapped you with, simulating a cosy duvet tucking you into bed.

"Tired?" Ray whispered, his head leaning on top yours. He was quiet, but you could still feel the vibrations of voice resonating from his chest and against your body which was still leant up against his.

"Lil bit," You replied, feeling your eyes getting heavy.

"You can lie against me-" Ray shuffled himself around a bit - causing you to detach your head groggily, allowing him to readjust himself before beckoning you back - letting you lie with your back towards the armrest - legs across his lap.

You appreciated Ray's accommodating nature and rotated yourself to swing your legs across his, resting your thighs in his lap and lying your body back against the armrest of the chair - though your body was still close enough to Ray's for him to keep an arm around your back - your body still close to his, now flush with his chest and front.

You rested a hand around Ray's body, sorta hugging him, sorta stabilising yourself. The action made a blush rise to your cheeks as you remembered a mere few hours ago when you were looking at his pictures on Instagram and the abs he had beneath that shirt, back when Agent and Duke had caught you and initially planned on trying to set you and Ray up.

You could feel your eyes getting heavier by the second, breathing slowing despite the pace of the movie which had only just started picking up - and it seemed as though Ray just needed to say one thing before you clocked out.

"You're very pretty." His voice was soft. Quiet, as to not let the boys across the room hear. And his fingers gently ran through your hair as you lay back, near to falling asleep - though his words send impulses down your accelerator nerve, increasing your heartrate.

"Big talk from you," You smiled, returning the compliment. "Your insta pictures are... Nice."

Ray's face broke into a smile, his lips curling upwards - more towards the right than the left - his right eye crinkling with the muscles that uncontrollably contracted in response to the pride that glowed within him from the compliment.

"What you doing tomorrow?" The simple question came.

Was he fucking asking you out???

"Uhm, I think... probably working most of the day..."

"You free tomorrow night?" God he was persistent, and God you fucking loved that he wasn't gonna let go.

"Should be, yeah..."

"You want to go out?" Ray questioned. "With me?"

You literally felt your heart exploding, warmth erupting within your stomach happy chemicals flowing through your body at the fact Ray was interested.

Nodding your head with the fattest smile unwipeable from your lips, Ray grinned at your reaction also, nodding to seal the deal.

"I will take you out," Ray spoke happily, still quiet as to not catch the other guys' attentions. "Date style, yeah?"

"Date style." You nodded in agreement, giggling slightly at the fact Ray needed clarification. Cutie.

"I meant it when I said shut the fuck up, you two." Kai shushed the two of you, eyes glued to the screen but viewing experience diminished by your quietly unintelligible conversation in the corner.

"Sorry!" You apologised quickly, grin evident in your voice from the ecstatic feeling that flowed through your body, having been asked out. And Duke and Agent heard your smile within your voice - turning with knowing smiles towards you.

And this time, instead of rolling your eyes or hiding from Agent or Duke, you grinned back, nodding your head as if to say Yeah, it's working out.

Duke's grin multiplied by tenfold, biting down on his lip to try not to laugh out of excitement for the two of you - your first big shipper. Agent however, rolled his eyes, and you watched as a bill slipped from Agent's pocket into Duke's awaiting palm - wiping the smile of your face and replacing it with a look of confusion which Agent noticed.

Taking out his phone, Agent avidly pressed the screen, before looking up - your phone vibrating from your hoodie pocket.

3 New Messages

Agent: Lol before u came down we bet on what'd happen

Agent: Duke bet that you'd end up successfully making moves

Agent: I bet against lol

You: I'm glad you lost that money.

You slipped your phone back into your pocket, breathing out a breath of relief, contentment and tiredness as you got back into a comfortable position - eyes shutting, head becoming heavy and leaning against Ray's chest where he tucked the blanket around your back and put his arm around your shoulders, his fingers finding purchase within your hair and comfortingly running through the curls you'd rolled up an hour ago.

And listening to Ray's heartbeat and feeling his body warm yours through his white tee - ambient noises of the TV in the background as you slowly inhaled and exhaled, drinking in Ray's comforting cologne, you felt yourself slowly slipping away and happily falling asleep in his arms.

BONUS!

Waking up the next day, you were not happy with what you saw on Twitter.

FANUM

I was gonna do a stream having these two mfs meet up but they already seem pretty fuckin cosy 😭

AMP Kai FUCK IS TS i gotta have some mfkn words w Ray 😭 Arm round her n all - I DONT FUCK W THIS BEHAVIOUR WHEN IT INVOLVES MY CUS 🙏🙏 AMP updates 👀👀👀👀 SpeedyBeta WHAT IS THIS WHAT DID I MISS??? TheFroggyBoggy ONG GIRLLL HOW'D THEY GO FROM NOT KNOWING WHO EACH OTHER WERE ON THE STREAM TO BEIN LIKE THIS SpeedyBeta LITR HAHHA SUPER CUTE THO <33

Duke Dennis

He didn't even ask me for no rizz tips.

AMP Agent Still can't believe you won the bet smh 🙄😒 Atl smth acc happened here ✅ KingKennysimp101 Damn the spooning w the blanket n all?? I'm sorry i wasn't familiar with ur game Ray 😭😭🙏🙏🙏 AMP Kai I'm gonna be having damn words with that boy. AMP Davis She aint gonna like this post Duke 😭😭😭 Y/n You're damn right ab that Davis AMP Davis Duke your ass better be running💀💀 Duke Dennis Omw back to Atlanta as we speak 🙏

It's so wild that my first proper write for AMP is for Ray 😭😭 Hopefully this has drawn in some of the AMP girlies tho bc i have a fic in the work for DUKE, FANUM, and AGENT!

(add urself to my taglist if u wanna be notified for when i post them)

Hope you enjoyed reading!! Feel free to interact- whether that be a comment, vote or follow! Requests open, feel free to submit what u wanna see... Much love!!

To see more for AMP and other YouTubers, here's my MASTERLIST

And here's my WATTPAD, with 50+ more oneshots to read

p.s. Customise which Oneshots YOU want to be tagged in by submitting your preferences on THIS GOOGLE FORM

TAGLIST: (sorry I didn't do it last night i fell asleep b4 I could)

@kennysimp101 @speedybeta @thefroggyboggy @zomburexia @zandrax @supaprettyg @gyu-baby @spiritualz @daniiixoxo @koritoji @smh-anon @lila702980 @star-32 @mym3lodii @betashully @fillysmypookie @janialovesbetasquad @lisask8s @mcddyperez

[marybeatriceofmodena]

What did Andrew Lloyd Webber do to make Patti Lupone upset? Sorry, saw your tags and i was curious

Oh.

Oh honey.

You sweet child.

Anyway, get ready for one of the most infamous showdowns in all musical theatre history, with the guy who writes the straightest musicals on Broadway (derogatory) and the one and only, the matriarch, the queen, two three-time Tony award winner Patti LuPone.

So, Andrew Lloyd Webber was basically kind of a boy genius in his prime - he met his future collaborator Tim Rice when they were 17 and 20 respectively, he wrote his first big hit, Jesus Christ Superstar, at 22, with Tim Rice writing the lyrics. And it was kind of a big deal at the time because the topic was controversial (you know, the Passion with rock music), but also because Broadway wasn't that far off from its golden age and let's just say the music and style were very different from, say, My Fair Lady. Or The Sound of Music. Or Funny Girl. It was basically the Rent/Hamilton of its time. (Yeah, Stephen Sondheim was around at that time, he worked on West Side Story which was revolutionary in of itself, but he's kind of an oddball in this case. You'll understand why later.)

Their real follow up (I'm not counting Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for a variety of reasons) was a little musical called Evita, which you might know mainly because of a song called Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Or at least, your mom has probably heard it once at the very least. It's that song that's oversung from a musical while being out of context along with I Dreamed a Dream for Les Misérables. Or Memory from Cats.

Evita tells the story of Eva Peron, the wife of an Argentinian dictator, who basically screws her way to the top and ends up becoming the mistress of Juan Peron and the most beloved woman in her country through guile and deceit. Yes, I know the historical accuracy is very much debated but I know jackshit about Argentina's history except the bare basics so don't come at me. It was first produced in the West End in London, with Elaine Paige in the role, but because of Equity issues, she couldn't reprise her role for the Broadway production. So a Julliard graduate who was mostly starring in David Mamet plays got the part instead, and that was Patti LuPone.

Patti... did not have a good time during Evita, because the part is basically the kind of score where you can tell the composer is used to writing male parts, but most female singers have a two-octave range (yes, you got Julie Andrews who used to have a three-octave range, and many others, but they're exceptions), so she struggled a lot. That being said, if you listen to live recordings of her, you wouldn't be able to tell, and it got a lot easier later on. But she had this to say:

"Evita was the worst experience of my life. I was screaming my way through a part that could only have been written by a man who hates women. And I had no support from the producers, who wanted a star performance onstage but treated me as an unknown backstage. It was like Beirut, and I fought like a banshee."

This is from Patti's autobiography, which she wrote in 2007 - 8 years after shit with ALW went down. With all that said, she won a Tony Award for Evita, and she pretty much became a musical theatre household name from then on. She played Fantine in Les Misérables, Nancy in Oliver!, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. Meanwhile, ALW's next big hits were Cats (I'm not even kidding, Cats was a hit), and, you guessed it, The Phantom of the Opera, which he wrote in part to showcase his then wife Sarah Brightman's triple threat talents.

So, you need to understand before I continue that ALW, from my perspective, has always had a bit of an inferiority complex. He's basically associated to writing these commercially successful musicals that show a big spectacle but aren't ultimately substantial. I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, but I do think that if he didn't have Hal Prince, Maria Bjornson, Charles Hart and Gillian Lynne backing him up for Phantom, it would have probably been a Rocky Horror Picture Show knockoff people would have forgotten about pretty quickly. This is what I mean:

Yep, that was Phantom before any of the people I mentioned above (and Michael Crawford) were really involved.

Remember how I said Stephen Sondheim was an oddball? The thing with him is that his musicals weren't always commercially successful, but in general, in part thanks to being Leonard Bernstein's protégé, he was generally pretty well-respected and it was considered that his work was bringing musicals to a whole other level. Without Sondheim, you wouldn't have Jonathan Larson, and you wouldn't have Lin-Manuel Miranda. I am convinced ALW is resentful of that, and when you stop and think about it for more than 10 seconds, it's so obvious he REALLY wants to be Sondheim or at least command the same level of respect, but that's a story for another day.

So, after Phantom, ALW had other musicals that followed that either got a meh reception or outright flopped. Then there was Sunset Boulevard, which is based on the movie of the same name with Gloria Swanson. Despite all of her griefs for Evita, Patti LuPone agreed to partake in the musical as Norma Desmond, for its production in London, with the promise that she would transfer to Broadway once that production would open. And overall, after a string of flops, Sunset was actually doing pretty well.

HOWEVER. One day, while reading the gossip column of a newspaper, Patti found out that contrary to what she was promised, Glenn Close, who was meanwhile starring as Norma in the Los Angeles production, was to play Norma on Broadway. That was a complete surprise for her since no one on the production team had bothered to tell her it was happening - and keep in mind that for the news to come up the way it did in a gossip column, it probably would have necessitated a delay of a few weeks between the producers and the newspaper, which would have given them plenty of time to break the news to Patti. And Patti kind of needed the leg up because she was pretty bitter that a) Madonna was cast in the Evita adaptation instead of her; b) they actually lowered the key to fit Madonna's voice range, and she still had to expand her own to be able to sing the (lowered) score. And trust me, Patti is mad about it to this day.

So of course, she trashed her dressing room, the cast and crew weren't even mad about it because they were as shocked and angered as she was by the news. Patti sued Andrew Lloyd Webber for breach of contract, namely for 1 MILLION DOLLARS (yup, those are the real numbers), won, used the money she got from the lawsuit to get a swimming pool, which she called (and I SHIT YOU NOT) the Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool. Since then, Webber is dead to her, to the point rumor has it she had part of a building blocked during an event so she could get out of it without coming across Webber, because she hates him so flipping much she doesn't even want to be in the same building as the guy.

(There's also drama that happened with Faye Dunaway who was supposed to replace Glenn Close after she went from Los Angeles to Broadway, except they abruptly closed the show down after Close left, but that's a story for another day)

So with all the bad press, and with ALW forced to pay 1 million dollars for Patti's lawsuit, that led Sunset's productions to close earlier than expected. ALW has stayed around since, with... mitigated output, so to say. The lowest point for a lot of people is Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom, which some people love, and that's fine, but it didn't do well with either critics nor fans of the original show, which ALW is EXTREMELY BUTTHURT ABOUT. And like, there are so many stories I could tell about LND alone, but I will share my own crack theory about it, since it does relate to the ask.

Anyway, buckle up.

So. There have been jokes going around for years that the Phantom in LND is basically ALW's self-insert, where he displays to the world that he's totally not over Sarah Brightman leaving him (in part because making Phantom kinda ruined their marriage lmao), despite, you know, having married since. (Aaaaaakward.) So LND basically becomes this really uncomfortable therapy session where a man writes a self-insert musical about how his ex-wife made a big mistake of leaving a sensitive artistic soul such as himself. The characters from Phantom who appear in LND are all more or less unrecognizable as a result, and one who gets it worse (in my humble opinion) is Meg Giry, who was basically Christine's sweet and loyal ballerina friend who basically went into the Phantom's lair on her own to save her friend despite the danger. In LND, she's basically a bitter hag (because ALW hates women, guess Patti was right about that), who really likes the swim and even has a stripping vaudeville number about it, written in universe by the Phantom, no less.

For comparison, here's Don Juan Triumphant (the Phantom's opera in the original):

And here's Bathing Beauty (the vaudeville number):

Yeah, so... do you see why people hate LND already?

And that's not the only thing with Meg! She's also pining for the Phantom to pay attention to her and threatens to drown the Phantom and Christine's secret love child when he makes it clear that he's gonna love Christine for EVA AND EVA.

So, with everything we learned today about ALW, would someone like him view someone like Patti LuPone as some sort of crazy, bitter diva who's obsessed with him for whatever reason? Absolutely. Would he be petty enough to insert Patti LuPone into his self-insert musical, which gave us the version of Meg Giry we got in LND? Of course. Why does Meg love to swim so much and why does she drag Gustave out ostensibly for a swim? Is it a dig at Patti's Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool? Maybe.

I kind of hope we find out one day if that theory is true. And maybe start a kickstarter so Patti can add this painting from the 2004 movie in her collection.

Fun fact: during the process of casting for the 2004 movie adaptation of POTO, ALW allegedly suggested Patti LuPone to play Carlotta... only for Joel Schumacher to have to awkwardly remind him that they were not on speaking terms. The idea was therefore promptly dropped.

[grantmentis]

2024 Ice Hockey Women's World Championship: A Primer

When: April 3rd to April 14th. The schedule here will tell you when games are taking place both in your local time and venue time.

Where is it taking place?: Utica, New York

Where to watch:

For the first time, we will have ALL games broadcasted in USA and Canada. I am not sure how many games are going to be broadcasted outside North America, but we can reasonably assume they will at least carry their home country games

TSN will carry all games in canada

NHL Network and ESPN+ will carry a mix of the games together. See The Ice Garden's Michelle Jay's tweet for the schedule of which games are where.

SVT (Sweden)

Discovery (Finland)

Czech TV (Czechia)

Magenta (Germany)

TBS (Japan)

Swiss TV (Switzerland)

If you are not in any of these countries, or you are but are struggling to find a way to watch, please feel free to DM me and I will do my best to find you something

What is the tournament format?:

There are two divisions, Division A with the five ranked teams going into the tournament and Division B with the next five. Each division plays a round robin style ranking round, and at the conclusion the bottom two teams in Division B will be relegated, while the rest automatically make the quarterfinals. Quarterfinals will go A1-B3, A2-B2, A3-B1, A4-A5. In addition to the finals for gold that will take place, there will be a bronze medal game and a fifth place game for ranking. Standings will use a three point systems.

Who is in each division?:

Division A: USA, Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, Finland

Division B: Sweden, Japan, Germany, China, Denmark

Who are each teams?

Here is where it gets long. Below the cut I will tell you each teams roster, how they did last year, their reasonable goals, notable roster changes, and three players to watch. I will do my best to keep this informative, but brief.

USA

Roster:

(Text version available here)

2023 Result: Won Gold

2024 goals: Win gold again

Notable roster changes: This team continues to go very very young. Abby Roque is the most notable roster omission here. Top defender Lee Stecklein is also not on this roster, due to her taking a break from the National Team. Amanda Kessel was also left off, but she has not been active within the last year as a player, so not entirely surprising.

Three players to watch: Grace Zumwinkle has been one of the stars of the PWHL so far, and is likely to get more responsibility on the national team than ever before, so keep an eye on her and how she may translate her successful season to the tournament. Rory Guilday may only be 21, but she is heading to her third senior world championships, a long time favorite of the team USA coaching staff with her shutdown defensive skills who they'll hope can take another step this tournament with Lee Stecklein absent. Joy Dunne is the youngest player on this roster, just 18 years old coming off a 24-18-42 season in Ohio and a national championship. This will be her first senior level tournament, and I'd expect her to get ample offensive opportunities.

Canada

Roster

(text version available here)

2023 result: Silver

2024 goals: Gold

Notable roster changes: Micah Zandee-Hart is the most surprising one after being on the roster for a few years. Claire Thompson is absent as is Rebecca Johnston, but that is more expected while Thompson is finishing medical school and Johnston has not played in the past calendar year. Cousins Nicole and Julia Gosling join the team after strong rivalry series showings.

Three players to watch: Natalie Spooner is the front runner for PWHL MVP, so everyone will be watching to see if she continues to score at the rate she has been. Expected number one overall pick in the upcoming PWHL draft, Sarah Fillier, will be playing in her last showing before the draft happens as she finished out her college season. Nicole Gosling was the highest scoring defender in the NCAA this year at Clarkson, going 14-25-39 in 40 regular season games, so seeing how she impacts this blue line is a must watch.

Czechia

Roster

(Text version available here)

2023 result: Bronze

2024 goal: upset their opponent in the semifinals and make the finals

Roster changes: The bad news is top defender Dominika Lásková is out with injury. The good news is star goaltender Klára Peslarová is healthy unlike last year, as is blueline mainstay Tereza Radová. Alena Mills retired from the national team. Kristýna Pátková did not make the team this year, in her place comes Boston University commit Anežka Čabelová who had a stellar U18 worlds. Karolína Kosinová did not make the team, in her place is HV71 assistant captain Klara Seroiszková.

Three players to watch: 17 year old Adéla Šapovalivová was the highest scoring u18 player in the SDHL (Sweden's highest level league) this year and one of their top scorers in general going 11-18-29 in 32 regular season games. She was also a key part of the U18 team that upset Canada in the semifinals to advance to Czechia's first ever u18 final. With Mills retired, she will get more minutes at her third (!!!!) senior worlds. Next up is Klára Peslarová, and if you're not familiar with her game, she is straight up a top five goaltender in the world. She just came off a stellar season with Brynäs IF in Sweden where she had a .935 save percentage in 20 games, and has been consistently stellar on the international stage as well like when she had 55 saves against the united states at the olympics. Kateřina Mrázová is a fantastic playmaker has been a bright spot on a Ottawa tam that has struggled to find itself, and is also one of the most veteran members of this squad. If they win, she'll have to lead the way.

Finland

Roster

Text version available here

2023 finish: Fifth Place

2024 goals: Bronze

Roster changes: Two of their key offensive pieces Elisa Holopainen and Michelle Karvinen, are back and healthy this year! Susanna Tapani is also back on this team. Those are three absolute big pieces that completely change this roster for the better. A few depth roster forwards were left off in their place, most notably Kiira Yrjänen. Defense has more shakeups. Sini Karjalainen is a notable omission and long time defender Rosa Lindstedt retired. Eve Savander, Oona Koukkula, and Siiri Yrjölä slot in.

Three players to watch: I've consistently been a very big Elisa Holopainen fan and I think she's one of the best players in the world and not talked about nearly enough. Just as she began to really shine in the international stage, she got hit with injury, but as she's come back with year she dominated Finland's league going 32-25-57 in 19 games. I think I've put her as a player to watch like every year I've done a preview and I'm going to keep going it. Finland has faced a lot of questions about their goaltending following Räty and the team going their separate ways, but right now, it is Sanni Ahola's crease to lose. She was stellar in the three games she started last year for Finland in the world championship and was solid for st cloud state with a .935 save percentage in 17 starts this year. With Lindstedt's retirement, Krista Parkkonen will see more minutes, coming off a breakout sophomore year in a university of vermont program that's developed a decent amount of international blueliners.

Switzerland

Roster

(Text version here)

2023 result; 4th place

2024 goals: bronze

Roster changes: quite a lot of shake up. no Caroline spies as their mainstay backup, Alexandra Lehmann takes her place. No Sarah Forster, who wore an A and led their defense last time around. She only played 7 games in SWHL this year, so likely injury is at play.

Players to watch: it is, of course, the Alina Müller and Lara Stalder show until it isn’t. So, besides them, the players to watch are Andrea Brändli is another “top five goaltender in the world” to know, sporting a .937 in her first year playing in Sweden post a stellar college career. 18 year old Ivana Marie Wey just had a great year playing pro as Stalder’s teammate and will be important for the next Swiss wave. With no Forster, Lara Christen will take on a lot of the top defensive minutes most likely.

Sweden

Roster

(Text version available here)

2023 results: sixth

2024 hopes: return to group A

Roster changes: no Sarah Grahn which isn’t entirely expected but still a big change, in response Ida Boman gets the call. No Fanny Rask or Olivia Carlsson, who retired.

Three players to know: Ebba Hedqvist is a 17 year old elite center coming off a great performance at worlds and has an eye for playmaking that will be critical for Sweden. Maja Nylén Persson is the #1 defender of team Sweden that has consistently been the top defender by points in the SDHL and won defender of the year in 2022-2023, and she is only 23 years old. Another part of Sweden’s insane center depth is Lina Ljungblom, who will likely play in Montreal next year and had 46 points in 36 regular season games. In the various tournaments/friendlies that Sweden has played leading up to this (ie five nations cup), she has 10 goals in 15 games. These three players are truly some of my favorite in hockey right now

Japan

Roster

(Text version available here)

2023 result: 7th

2024 hopes: return to group A

Roster changes: honestly we mostly running this back. One or two u18 add ins but overall the same as 2023

Players to watch: stop me if you heard this before but Akane Shiga is very good. The PWHL Ottawa player is the only player from Japan to score against the USA, and will continue to be japans biggest threat. Another big player is Haruka Toko, one of the SDHL’s top scorers this year who had established herself as a top talent in the last two years. This year, the 27 year old had 13 goals and 30 assists in 36 games in Sweden this year. She was one of seven players in Japan to play in Sweden this year, a year that saw a new high in Japanese players going overseas to play. That also includes my last player to watch, Yoshino Enomoto, who played in switzerland and still put up around a point per game on a team that struggled (they folded in the offseason then came back and built their roster late and were ultimately relegated, but she was a bright spot in her first season there)

Fun fact: did you know three pairs of sisters play on this team? Akane and Aoi Shiga, Haruka toko and Ayaka Hitosato, and Rio and Riri Noro

Germany

Roster

(text version available here)

2023 Results: Eighth

2024 Goal: Make quarterfinals and avoid relegation

Roster changes: Both goalies behind Abstreiter last year, Chiara Schultes and Johanna May, did not make this roster with Hemmerle and Loist taking their place. The d core remains the same besides Daria Gleissner taking Heidi Strompf's place. National team vet Marie Delarbre is absent with injury, Sonja Weidenfelder did not play hockey this year and her status is uncertain, and Anne Bartsch did not make the roster. In their place we have Emily Nix, Lilli Welcke, and Lucia Schmitz.

Three players to watch: Luisa Welcke was with Germany last year, but has a second season in the NCAA under her belt and a nice depth player performance at Boston University. She will have more chances to show off her offense this tournament than in the NCAA, and I'm excited to see what she can show. Jule Schiefer had a revelation this year in the German league. From last year where she only scored 4 goals in 20 games, this year she scored 22 in 24. Let's see if she can continue this at worlds. Nina Jobst-Smith will play big defensive minutes for Germany after finishing her fourth season at Minnesota Duluth, this time serving as an assistant captain, and was nominated for 2023-24 All-WCHA Third Team. She's a two way defender who will be taking on big responsibility for Germany as she has in the past.

China

Roster

(Text Version available here)

2023 result: Promotion from Division I

2024 goal: Make quarterfinals and avoid relegation

Roster changes: Oh boy. So, like, a lot of people, and here is why: up until this tournament, China allowed dual citizens not born in China to play for them. This includes some players you may know from PWHL/NCAA like Leah Lum, Hannah Miller, Rachel Llanes, and Tia Chan. Going into this tournament, they changed the rules and those players will not be eligible, so it is a significant roster shakeup.

Three player to watch; This team is very young. Yifan Wang is 16 years old, and in her international debut scored 10 goals in 5 games in the WJC-D2A U18. This is obviously a gigantic step up in competition and very hard for a 16 year old to be playing against adults on the highest level stage of women's hockey, so I don't imagine she'll get a TON of ice time, but she is worth looking out for. Xin Fang is the veteran and star of this roster, who had 2 goal and 2 assists in the teams D1A tournament that earned them their promotion. 17 year old Dartmouth commit Grace Zhan is who I expect to be their starting goaltender. Born in Beijing, she spent the past year playing Minnesota High School Hockey and put up top numbers in a league that sees a lot of NCAA recruits.

Denmark

Roster

(Text version here)

2023 Results: Promotion from Division I

2024 hope: Make Quarterfinals and avoid relegation

Roster changes: Long time national team star and centerpiece of the team Josefine Jakobsen will no longer play for Denmark, though she will continue her club career.) Otherwise, despite some depth changes, it is mostly the same lineup.

Three players to watch: Frederikke Foss had a great year at Shattuck St Mary's u19 program and has committed to UMaine, and may be able to spark some offense Denmark will desperately need without Jakobsen. Silke Lave Glud will also be expected to carry the offense after her stellar year in the Tier 2 league in Sweden, and lead the way for younger players as one of the most experienced members of the team. Goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström's performance at the D1A worlds was a big reason for their promotion, and she is coming off a great sophmore year at st. lawrence university where she had a .931 save percentage in 36 games and 7 shutouts. If Denmark wants to stay in the top division, she will need to steal a game for them.

[lenoraah]

𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨

pairing - arthur leclerc x driver!dutch!reader

summary - Arthur and reader are both drivers, that includes cheering each other on during race days and teaching each other simple conversation phases in their mother tongue

a/n - this is my first time writing the reader as a driver 🤍 uh, warning translated Dutch and French please correct me 🫶 love this request, hope you don’t mind that i wrote this as headcannons

★ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

☆ - the two of you being so overly in love with each other

☆ - Arthur being happy whenever he goes to a F1 race to cheer you on

☆ - of course that also means he gets to see his brother and gets to ramble on and on about how amazing you are and how proud of you he is

☆ - Charles is annoyed but stays quiet because the two of you have a mutual friendship and respect for each other

☆ - when Pascale goes along to cheer on her son and you, (because she sees you as her daughter now) she get help but laugh when she sees Charles groan as Arthur starts babbling about you again

☆ - and you do the same for him

☆ - trying your best to go to every race, cheering for him and yelling the loudest, never shutting up about him

☆ - to be honest Charles is just to tired hearing the two of you talk about each other over and over

☆ - wearing each other’s number!!

☆ - okay i’m getting off task

☆ - when the two of you have days together where you can just be alone together and enjoy a cup of tea, coffee, chai or hot chocolate, you try to teach other simple phases in your mother tongue

☆ - while you both struggle, you try you’re best for the other person

☆ - simple words like, koffie, boek, appel, huis

☆ - although his favorite might be mijn liefje, mijn liefste and mijn hart

☆ - of course there’s the occasional mi amour and cherie

☆ - the two of you try to talk in Dutch or French around the apartment and have a broken conversation which often ends in praises and laughter

[charlesslut16]

-I love you-

summary : max's helping you with your eating disorder...

PAIRING : max verstappen! fem!reader

WARNINGS : angst, eating disorder, curse words, mentioning of throwing up

NOTE : i also struggled from a eating disorder and know how hard it is. If you have problems with eating, you can talk to me i'm here for you guys. I love you

masterlist

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You had an eating disorder, a terrible one at that. It was really hard for you to eat as much and like everyone would. You always tried eating when no one was there to witness it.

People always asked why it was such a big deal, and you didn't know how to answer the question, because you didn't know what to say. It just was really hard talking about it.

But you luckily have an amazing boyfriend, max, who is always there for you. 

He tried to get you motivated every time, and it luckily worked. Well, most of the time...

For example, today was a really bad day for you, and after eating you felt guilty, so you went to your bathroom and made you threw up. Not one but two times at that.

You thought you would gain too much weight, and you would get hated on. You also thought that if you gained too much weight, Max would want to be with you anymore.

After all, he was a two - time world champion, and you were just a girl from England.  Every girl wanted to be in a relationship with him, but he only wanted you. 

You started sobbing and feeling guilty again of what you just did. You threw up, although you promised max you wouldn't do it anymore. Not only that, but you were doing so well, but today was just a down day.

The front door opened, the keys jiggling and the door closing again. Shit. You heard max call after you in the house, but didn't get anything back. It made him suspicious, so he went to the bathroom and heard you crying.

Max barged into the bathroom, seeing you looking up at him. He had a confused look on his face until your eyes met. He saw the tears and the guilt on your face.

"Hey shat, what’s wrong" he asked, kneeling down and siting next to you on the floor. Max pulled you into his arms, so you could cuddle you in his warm arms.

You tried to say something, but the words didn't come out, instead you hugged him and cried even more. You thought Max would be mad at you, but he wasn't, he had an understanding look on his face.

"Shh, it's okay. I’m here. Nothing is going to happen." he whispered softly in your ear. Then he gave you a kiss behind your ear shell and then on your head.

After a while, you dozed off. So he carried you in to your bedroom, to your bed, and cuddled you into him. You woke up again, looking up at him. Max sees you looking up at him. The look on your face telling him that you didn't want to talk about it.

So He put a movie on, laid down with, so your head laid on his chest while you watched the movie on the television. <Soon after, you fell asleep again while he was cuddling you.

"You're the most beautiful person i've ever seen. The funniest and loyalest woman I have ever met.  I hope you’ll see it to one day.  I love you so much, mijn hart." he whispered while you were already asleep. 

[ppnuggiex]

hii <3 if possible, I would like headcanons about how they would be for vil , riddle and azul,being parents ^^ but their son came out as a rambunctious and very naughty hehe (as a plus, his mc also used to be like that so anyway his son reminds them of how his wife was when they met her, like mother like son xd) that would be all , tkmm have a nice day :))

　　　　　　TWST x fem reader

　　　　『　azul ,, riddle ,, vil ,, female reader    』

　　-> twst as parents w/ rambunctious child that acted like their mother

　　— fluff ,, sfw ,, crack

　　— tysm for requesting !! hope you enjoy it 🫶 there is a reference to one of kevin hart’s stand up comedies in here ,, but i explained it at the end :) so even if you dont watch stand up or his ,, youll know what i mean !

- riddle

| • he'd have a hard time dealing with a rambunctious son . he's used to following the rules ,, and he has let off that a lot since getting together with you .

| • he'll be known more as the less fun parent ,, while you take that role . he'd be the one to make him wear a raincoat to go outside in the rain whilst you'd encourage him playing in the rain and puddles without one .

| • though he'd smile fondly at him ,, seeing as he definitely gets it from you . he would sometimes share stories about your past and how you acted at nrc .

| • it doesnt stop him from parenting his child the way he wants to in a way . he does take a firmer hand with it ,, but with your help he does it in a way thats not too harsh .

| • he still loves his kid though . sometimes he’ll let him get away with things ,, especially if hes just woken up .

- vil

| • he finds it infuriating some days ,, and funny the others . on the days he finds it infuriating ,, he usually lets you deal with him as he doesnt want to say something that’ll end up hurting his kid . other days ,, he’ll just laugh under his breathe before trying to point his kid in the right direction .

| • he definitely comments on how hes just like how you were though . then he goes down the memory lane ,, remembering everything you two did together at nrc . his heart warms at the memories ,, seeing you in your kid .

| • he isnt as strict as riddle ,, as he wants his child to be able to live his life without vil controlling it for him . you also play a factor into that ,, telling vil to let your son decide for himself how he wishes to live .

| • though sometimes vil cant help himself and fix his son’s clothes if theyre messed up ,, or poking and prodding at his hair to make it look nicer .

- azul

| • lord save his soul . having a rambunctious son is quite the handful for mr . ashengrotto ,, especially with how much he does have on his hands . juggling between running a restaurant chain and spending time with his family ,, he is quite the busy man .

| • usually when he comes home hes quite exhausted ,, ready to relax for a moment’s time before having to look through paperwork .

| • and then you have a rambunctious son to deal with . he’ll be honest ,, he almost pulled a kevin hart move (if ykyk 💀💀 ill explain later) and went right back to his work .

| • on his days off he enjoys spending time with his son ,, he doesnt have a problem but sometimes he can be a little too rowdy and then you’ll have to come in and help wrangle the both of them . honestly you should make azul pay you to do alla this /j .

| • azul loves his son though . and if he happens to inherit his mer traits ,, he’ll struggle even more to try to parent him underwater .

* in one of kevin hart’s stand up comedies ,, he says how after coming home to a day of hard work and men have toddlers waiting for them at home ,, they’ll see them when they pull in the drive way and pull right back out and drive away .

[whencyclopedia]

Desert Rats

The Desert Rats was the nickname of the 7th Armoured Division of the British Eighth Army, which first fought in North Africa during the Second World War (1939-45). Fighting in the Western Desert Campaigns and the North Africa Campaign, the Desert Rats, so called because of their jerboa shoulder flash, participated in such famous victories as the battles of El Alamein.

Origins & Name

The 7th Armoured Division sprang from the Mobile Division (Egypt), formed in 1938. The division was given excellent training by its commander Major-General Percy Hobart (1885-1957). Hobart had fought in Mesopotamia in the First World War (1914-18), gaining an impressive row of medals for bravery. In the inter-war years, he gained long experience as a tank commander. Hobart also served as a Director of Military Training. A quirky individual who struggled to get on with his peers, Hobart certainly knew what was required for the desert, and it is thanks to his vision that Britain had at least one fighting force that could match the elite of the Axis powers. Hobart's eccentricity and reputation as a flawed genius is revealed by his demise after falling out with the powers that be when the war started, his time spent in the military wilderness as a mere lance corporal in the Home Guard, and then his dramatic rise back to the forefront of generalship when he was given command of whole divisions again, including one of specialised vehicles he himself had developed, used with great success to clear the beaches in the D-Day Normandy landings of 1944.

In a still relatively new concept of mixed arms, Hobart ensured the Mobile Division combined infantry, artillery, and tanks, and it did what its name suggested, emphasising the necessity of movement in modern mechanised warfare. One of Britain's best commanders, Major-General Richard O'Connor (1889-1981), noted in 1939 that the Mobile Division was "the best-trained division I have ever seen" (Liddell Hart, 93).

The Mobile Division earned its 'Desert Rats' nickname from the badge (shoulder flash) its members wore, which showed a jerboa, a small rodent with a long tail, native to the North African desert. Due to the fact that all British and British Empire troops were fighting the same enemy in the same way in the same environment, the name 'Desert Rats' is often applied to any British/British Empire soldier involved in the Desert War in WWII. The extension of the term 'rats' is also evidenced in the nickname 'the Rats of Tobruk' for those Allied soldiers who held out during the siege of Tobruk from April to December 1941.

Desert Rats Shoulder Flash

Unknown Artist (Public Domain)

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[the-golden-comet]

✨OC Facts Tag✨

Thank you for creating this tag game, @mysticstarlightduck ! And thank you for the tag @theink-stainedfolk , @illarian-rambling , @thecomfywriter , @topazadine , and @saturnine-saturneight ! I’m excited to try it out with my OCs! 💛✨

Rules: Make a list of fun facts about your OCs. Like a headcanon list, if you will! Except it's actually canon lol.

Let’s start with Peter Hart

Facts about Peter:

Shot himself through the back of his calf as a teenager. He got scolded relentlessly for it by Davey and Georgie who were quick to patch him up.

Before getting with Benjamin, I put Peter down as “treasuresexual” Yeah. Really. 😂He didn’t have any eyes for anyone other than Benjamin, making Peter canonically homosexual.

His moniker “Peter The Golden” holds many meanings. To rival pirates and ports, it’s on account of his golden hair and black-and-gold aesthetic. To his crew family, he is “The Golden Hart”

Peter was always a rascal from early youth to adulthood. Often times, Peter would get caught and arrested for pickpocketing residents in his hometown. Sometimes, Officer Ralph would bring Peter home to his scolding mother in metal cuffs. Other times, Peter spent the night in the clink. Due to his mischief, Officer Ralph and Mary Hart became acquainted with each other often, and eventually got together.

Facts about Benjamin:

Has an insanely high alcohol tolerance. He got used to the wine and frivolities of parliament when he was around all the royals.

Is bilingual in English and French. He can hold conversation with another bilingual crewmate Jacques du Lorraine. He’s also hurled insults at Peter in fluent French, causing Jacques to nearly double over in laughter.

Is the shortest and smallest member of The Golden Phoenix Gang. Most members of the crew are around Peter’s height of 196-199cm, though with VASTLY different builds (Davey has more of a dad bod, and Peter is just ripped). Benji, on the other hand, rests at 170cm with a very thin build. Canonically, he is a twink.

Is both the luckiest and unluckiest member of The Golden Phoenix Gang. In a tabletop game, he would either roll 1s or 20s. Nothing in between 😂

Moving on to YWIMC:

Facts about Noah:

Is originally from a small farm town in Georgia. He took voice lesson training to try and hide his southern accent, but when Noah lets his guard down and gets comfortable, it can sometimes slip through.

Double majoring in History and Architecture. He’s 23 and already in grad school, which should say a thing or two with how hard he works himself and almost can work off of fumes alone

Has Autism Spectrum Disorder (level 1). This is canon and heavily alluded in the story from his sensory processing difficulties, to his aversion to crowds, social anxiety, hyper focus on his studies, special interest in bridges and architecture, difficulties in expressing emotions, and finding the comfort of home to be his most productive and happiest space. ASD can be expressed differently in other people (I have it), so I pulled from my own experiences to write Noah here.

Facts about Ali:

Ali had a rich father who tried to get him to be a sultan/powerful influential figure in Saudi Arabia. His father arranged a marriage for Ali, who fled the day of.

Is a practicing Muslim. He is halal, observes Ramadan, and yes—prays from the Quran. A lot of his character is identity struggles; his religion says that his sexuality is sinful, but that’s how Ali was born, and that’s what makes Ali happy. This creates an internal conflict with how he tries suppressing his desires, and often wonders if he should have sacrificed his own happiness to appease his father, and his god. This dichotomy is very complicated, and has been a challenge to write….but he will get a happy ending with Noah 👍

Has had previous masters with wicked hearts die horrific and ironic deaths. For example, one of his masters wished for 70 wives who were all virgins. His death? Stabbed 70 times while he slept, each wife stabbing him once. Another master wished for glorious fame and fortune, only for dissenters to stone him to death. Ever heard of the tale of The Monkey’s Paw? That applies here.

That was a good exercise. I’m going to tag (no pressure): @gioiaalbanoart , @wyked-ao3 , @sunglasses-in-the-bentley , @honeybewrites , @drchenquill , @aintgonnatakethis , @willtheweaver , @jev-urisk , @noxxytocin , @thatuselesshuman , @theverumproject , +open tag for whoever else wants to divulge some facts about their OCs! ✨

[auspicioustidings]

Well since I have a few more hours of GMT posting where only my handful of fellow UK/Euro/Scandinavians will have to be annoyed by my nonsense, what a great time to talk about my silly little OCs!

So I have two sets because I have two stories in mind and since I like a large cast of characters who all love a fmc I cannot possibly get through them all in one post, so let me start with my fmcs and their general plot outline.

Emily Hart - a nurse in a fantasy-ish country. In this world, people either have arc-marks and thus a certain kind of magic, or they do not and thus have no magic (technically down the line they have magic to do with the spirit world but not relevant here). Those without marks are called blue wrens, named after a flightless type of bird. The country Emily lives in they don't really use their arc-marks. Most people don't ever activate them to find out what type of magic they have, and magic in general is used to drive innovation and create machines (her country is very much steampunk vibes). As such, she doesn't fully understand the animosity those in other places have for blue wrens.

War breaks out on the continent when one country's leader goes full genocidal maniac due to the fact that genetically, a child who has a blue wren parent is more likely to be a blue wren themselves. The story follows Emily as she first works in a hospital in her own country meeting people who have been injured in the war, then moves to a field hospital in an allied country. She winds up accompanying a team as a medic, getting captured, having her captors let her go, coming across a blue wren resistance near a country border, ending up in a POW camp herself and eventually being rescued during a liberation. It's very much a traumas of war story along with a story about her struggling to come to terms with the violence she has to enact and also building complicated relationships with both allies and enemies.

Birdie - my precious cinnamon roll. Little fat omega who was trafficked by the horrid woman running the children's home she was in when she perfumed at 12 and sold to something called the Alpha Excellence Lab (leaving behind 2 childhood friends that she was sure would be her pack and surprise they eventually are in it). This place creates something called Regent Alphas which are more dominant and can bark other alphas. They use Birdie as part of their process without the alphas ever knowing she is a prisoner. She tries to escape when she's younger but is betrayed and so badly punished that she doesn't try it again.

Skip a decade later and a new set of 4 alphas come in for training. Most of them are mean to her as they assume she works at the lab and is being paid to purr for them when they are hurt or to seem incredibly distressed when they are put in an arena to hunt her down as a training exercise. The trainer and the doctor also do not know Birdie is a prisoner, they think she works there as well. They all start to suspect something is very wrong when Birdie goes into heat. This is a generic omegaverse story with a bundle of angst, lots of having to grovel once the truth comes to light and an eventual big blended pack made up of gangsters, cops, a military veteran, a doctor and a pop star (6 males alphas, a male beta and a female beta). Birdie never becomes a badass, she stays a soft, kind, cry baby throughout and her pack adores her for it and never makes her feel bad about who she is.

[heartfullofleeches]

And since your requests are open, I'm double dipping and saying that we also need Theodore to walk in on cult leader y/ns sacrifice because they've been skipping class to attend rituals. Double combo

[brief blood mention]

"Come on... come on..."

The dagger just narrowly nicks your skin before its sent halfway soaring cross the empty hall.

"Damn it..."

The blade got through the first layer of skin, but not blood - a white scratch stretching down the length of your hand to your wrist. That hurt a lot more than you expected it to. The blood sacrifices were usually handled by another member of your circle, but this was your own problem to manage. Others wished for fortune and personal success quite often, but you rather have everyone in the dark about your poor academic scores.

The very acts you committed now were the main culprit. You stayed up at night researching various books on dark arts, snuck away during class to practice your knowledge with your peers. Your nosy teacher was the first to notice your decline. He met up with you during class and even often to help you with whatever struggles you were dealing with, but you shrugged him off. Mr. Hart had been distant since then. Speaking to you solely when school was involved, avoiding your eyes when you knew he was staring. You figured he had given up on you like others had before, making the decision to play with his mind so much easier.

His tie was in the center of the circle engraved on the floor attached to a doll with a lock of his ginger hair in its stomach. The hair was a heat of the moment item you snagged when he gave you a hug and a pair of scissors sat conveniently on his desk. The tie was a on hand handkerchief from when someone knocked his coffee on your leg. The only thing left was a drop of fresh blood. You go over to pick up the knife - door popping open as you kneel.

A hand reaches for the knife, testing its point on an opposing finger as the door swings open. Mr. Hart looks down at you, then over at the circle. He quietly shuts the door behind him.

"I'm... not too sure what's going on, but at least I don't have to worry about your safety.... for the most part."

Theodore snatches you up by the wrist, careful to grip the underside of your arm. You still hiss, small dots of crimson beading from your skin as he strokes the ball of your hand and applies pressure.

"I'm guess this has something to do with your grades. I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. I was.. jealous of you spending so much time with your new friends. It makes me feel as though you've never valued ours."

The word catches in his throat, burning on the way out. Theodore smoothes your own blood against your skin, eyeing the doll on the floor. "I feel honored you felt you had to go to these lengths to get me to change your grade, but there's other ways to make a man of my.... preferences to become your puppet."

"And what's that?"

Mr. Hart raises your hand to his mouth, kissing upwards from the start of your wound to your finger tips. He locks his fingers with yours, molding them around the handle of the dagger and to the crease of his chest.

"You take this blade, and you crave, and crave -til there's nothing left except a toy for you to command."

[renmorris]

childhood trauma. the ownership that the patriarchy demands over the bodies of women and children. the church's role in this structure. the quiet specter of mystery csa that hangs overt the Hart household is so. these are parents who in theory are attentive, this is Nice Middle Class family but every little warning sign goes ignored or simply confounds Marty and Maggie.

when Marty meets Dora's mother he comes out of it like ‘I wasn’t raised that way I had a good mother.' Audrey has a ‘good mother' too and she is not protected.

Davis Grubb's anticapitalist-antiprison novella, The Night Of The Hunter is also about this ownership. Women and children struggle to live under not only the failures of capitalism, nationwide poverty but the iron fist of the church that demands that they be subhuman, be property.

Willa, the mother of the children the book follows first must fight to maintain her independence from the institution of marriage after her husband is executed and then, once pressured into marriage is made to be ashamed of her sexuality and desire for physical closeness. This makes her vulnerable to her preacher husband's evangelizing. She lives in denial and her children become strangers to her. She will not listen when they tell her that they are being hurt and threatened by their stepfather. He then murders her.

Anyway the end of the story furiously states that every child in this society no matter how privileged will at some point experience 'the hunter' and experience it alone. That there will be an experience where life changing horror mixes with profound isolation.

[mermaidsirennikita]

I remember struggling to enjoy The Dukes Perfect Wife because of Hart’s relationship with his mistress (Mrs. Palmer?) I couldn’t get over the fact that he went back to her after she ruined his relationship with Eleanor. This was years ago so maybe I’m misremembering… Was my reading wrong?

Nope, Hart does go back to Angelina Palmer; I think that for me, it's just not really an issue and honestly something I find to both make sense and act as a supporting factor for his journey.

I don't believe he went straight back to her—there's the gap in time during which he briefly is married to Anne, who it sounds like he was pretty incompatible but Determined to Make It Work with, and then Anne AND their baby son die. So he's lost Eleanor, he's lost his wife and his son (and feels immense guilt over those things), there's the whole "and I killed my dad for Ian" thing...

I'd be kind of surprised if he DIDN'T go back to Angelina. Because the thing is that SHE didn't ruin his relationship with Eleanor at all lol. Hart did. Hart ruined it by not being open with her, and by being domineering and trying to aggro his way into making Eleanor forgive him. AND, as I think is often dismissed when people critique this book, he didn't just have a big fight with Eleanor and have that be final. He went to her DAD and told him he'd slept with Eleanor (which would be humiliating today, but way more so back then) so that her father would force her hand. He told her she'd been seen as his "leavings".

Eleanor doesn't blame Mrs. Palmer; she calls her on being manipulative, sure, but she also understands that the woman is basically operating in a no-win game and is doing her best to win by whatever means she can. And then she learns that Mrs. Palmer would go even further to try to keep Hart's interests at points... and Hart would be disgusted.... and he wouldn't leave her...

And based off what we can see in both that book and Ian's book (when Mrs. Palmer is alive) they pretty much had an incredibly toxic relationship in which she framed herself as the person who could take his darkness~ at a point when he had a pretty low sense of self worth despite telling everyone he was THE SHIT, and he both felt like he didn't deserve any better than their shitty relationship, AND felt like nobody else (i.e. Eleanor) would accept him. (Plus, there was the whole thing where he fully knew that he'd encouraged Angelina's dependency on him and didn't realize the consequences until it was too late.)

Like... should Eleanor have accepted him as he was when they broke up? Nope.

By the time Hart and Eleanor get back together, Mrs. Palmer has been dead for two and a half years. And even before she died, the relationship had collapsed to the point where she was doing some WILD SHIT to try to keep him, and he was on his way out, but he also was clearly aware that it had gone a bit far and she might kill herself if he left. Just a MESS. And he did care about her—it would be kind of worse if he didn't after this long-term deal. The point being that the Hart who got back together with Angelina is not the Hart who was with Angelina when it ended, AND. Even after that point, he's still not in the place he needs to be with to be with Eleanor.

I think it's a better creative choice to have Hart go back to Mrs. Palmer, ESPECIALLY in the midst of a fuckton of grief and trauma. Because if he doesn't, he's either with some other lady who functions similarly to her (take aside her relevance to Ian's book) OR he's... what? Celibate? That doesn't track at all.

But if he is, say he doesn't go back into that toxic place... Why are he and Eleanor apart for so many years after Anne dies? Why doesn't he reach out to her? Why doesn't she reach back out to him? What's keeping them apart—because it sounds like Hart learned his lesson, at least on that level.

The point is that he didn't learn his lesson. He lost the thing he loved most, AND he then lost the other thing he loved most (his baby son), and he still kept fuckin' going. Because rather than rising to the challenge Eleanor basically laid out for him, he sank internally while projecting success and power externally. Some ground work is laid in Ian's book (and tbh the other books before Hart's) for him to have his real turning point, and I do think it's so deliberate that he basically gets stepped on by all his little brothers before he gets his HEA... He's basically getting a reality check that his mythical suffering to protect them is bullshit that he uses to ignore the work he needs to do on himself....

But Hart has to decide to be worthy of Eleanor, and before that I think he has to get a lot of narrative punishment.

(In turn, I think that Eleanor has to learn that she can call him on his bullshit and expect him to LISTEN... while also placing more trust in his feelings. Because he didn't cheat on her lol, and she did kinda just take another person's perspective on him wholesale versus hearing him out.)

And then I mean if we put all that aside I'm still very... Well why the fuck wouldn't he go back to a woman he had a long-term relationship with, with whom he was very sexually compatible, if he legitimately thought there was zero way that he'd ever be happily with the person he wanted to be with again? Lol, it's very human to me.

I get why a lot of people don't like it, but I sort of prefer romance novels where people fuck up in a way that rings at least somewhat true to life. One of the reasons why Hart and Eleanor are two of my favorite leads is that the relationship feels very real to me. They read like two people in their thirties who had this wild passion for each other and still do but have sense Been Thru It. He is finally ready to be with her, but it's in part because he fucked up like 7x between their breakup and now (and I also frankly just appreciate that he actually reads as someone who's been through the degree of trauma he went through as a kid, because there are a ton of books where Hart and Eleanor's initial courtship IS the love story, and he immediately throws his pride aside and grovels after their fight and she forgives him, HEA, and that is NOT satisfying to me... People who have been THROUGH IT tend to fuck up more than once) and she's finally ready to hear him out because she had time to take the stars out of her eyes and become a grown woman who has an existence separate from him.

EDIT:

Lol I opened my copy of Ian's book to confirm something before I type this out, and then I opened it back up and forgot than Hart was twenty and Angelina/Mrs. Palmer was thirty-three when they started up. (Which also means she'd been his mistress for about seven years when he met Eleanor.) Which isn't illegal! But does explain a lot about that relationship.