#and realizing that was our favorite part of the expansion

[impossible-rat-babies]

if I had a nickel for every time I got a dancer in HoH that doesn’t know what standard step is I would have like five nickels. I am numb to the sound of nickels

[adorethedistance]

First I Love You - Jamie Drysdale x Reader

Hockey Masterlist

Warnings: swearing, mentions of anxiety, sexual references.

Words: 1677

Summary: First I Love You - After a day that gets increasingly worse, Jamie plans a date night to indirectly celebrate your two-month anniversary.

A/n: Cherry is back with a fic after a month of radio silence in typical aodre the distance fashion lol. Anyway! This has been in my drafts forever and I hate it, I can't proof it due to writer's block, and I'm honestly just done staring at it so here ya go!

You can read part 1 of the series of firsts here. The next and final first on the list is first time which is of course gonna be a lil smutty. I might write some Trevor pieces in the interim just depending how I'm feeling.

Today is just one of those days. My class ran much longer than usual and I had to stay after to ask my professor questions before the midterm that night, then I didn’t have time to make myself lunch so I grabbed the pizza rolls from my freezer to heat up at work, then I burned the pizza rolls beyond consumption and did not have any back up food, then I was starving and stressed and unable to use my time at work to study for the exam. I was crying in a puddle of stress and tears. And Jamie didn’t miss a beat. 

Upon hearing how horrible my morning and afternoon had been, he ordered my usual meal from In-N-Out and brought it to me at work so I wouldn’t starve. Then, he offered to make me dinner after I finished my midterm and I tearfully and appreciatively accepted. These little actions of consideration are what have made me fall deeper and deeper in love with Jamie. 

We reached our two months anniversary today but I didn’t make a big deal about it. I feel weird about potentially being one of those couples that celebrates every tiny little milestone like it’s the biggest thing in the world. Still neither of us have said “I love you” yet. But if Jamie continues caring for and about me like this, I’m not sure much longer I can hold it in. That’s why I decided I would tell him tonight.

After cooking dinner for the two of us, and pouring a congratulatory glass of wine to celebrate the 95 I got on my midterm, we laid down on the couch together. Happy and fed, I rest my head on the expanse of his broad chest. Jamie presses a kiss into my hair, bringing his left arm to drape over my shoulders.

“God, 2 months already?!” Trevor asks Jamie incredulously, making me roll my eyes at the playful jab.

“Don’t sound so surprised, Zegras.”

“You’re just mad cause you can’t pull.” Jamie’s accusation makes me laugh at the offended look on Trevor’s face. 

“Don’t get it twisted, I can pull.”

“You just can’t get them to stay?” I ask innocently, absentmindedly messing with Jamie’s fingers. Jamie laughs heartily. He interlaces his with mine to give my hand a gentle squeeze. “But to answer your original question, yes, it’s been 2 months already.” 

The scruff of my boyfriend’s 5 o’clock shadow brushes the back of my hand as he kisses the flat part of my knuckle. Trevor, observing the entire action, leans over the kitchen trashcan and pretends to throw up. Jamie merely laughs and I roll my eyes once more, “Shut the fuck up! You are so dramatic.”

“And for what?” Jamie chimes in which makes me smile to see he’s been picking up some of my mannerisms and phrases as well. That’s been my favorite part of dating him so far. The way his music taste slowly infiltrates mine. The way he now keeps a trashbag in his car after realizing how useful the one in mine is. The way he’s wearing the soft blue hoodie he lent me, for the reason that it now smells like me, which is why I had stolen it from him in the first place.

“I’m happy for you guys, really,” Trevor grabs his car keys from off the granite kitchen counter, “Thank you for rubbing salt into the open wound.”

“Oh my god-” Jamie starts.

“Get out of here!” I finish for him, urging Trevor to leave. 

“I’m gone!” He obliges. Then, Jamie kisses my head again, prompting me to sit up. 

“Did he say where he was going?”

“Mmm… no, actually. If I had to guess, he’s probably going golfing with the guys.”

“No way, he was dressed way too nice for golf…” I trail off, racking my brain for where he could have possibly been headed. Shrugging off the idea, I straddle Jamie’s hips, and look down at him. I smile. Overcome with the warm sensation of staring at my boyfriend. Jamie nudges me with his hips, indicating he would like me to lay back down. Before I comply, I pull my hair back tying it out of the way so I’m free to kiss Jamie as much as I please. He watches my every move, eyes flooded with adoration.

“At practice this morning, McT said he…” Jamie trails off mid sentence. As he was talking, I finished tying my hair back and then leaned down as he had wanted me to. He’s looking at me with eyes slightly widened and lips parted in surprise. 

“What?” I ask, concerned as to why Jamie stopped talking. He simply says,

“You’re really pretty.” The seemingly arbitrary declaration makes me laugh but does nothing to aid my confusion.

“Okay?”

“You’re just so pretty I think I short-circuited.” The earnest confession makes me smile and giggle, so I press a soft kiss to Jamie’s lips.

“You’re cute. So what did Mason say?”

“Oh yeah, he said that he wants to meet you.”

“Really?” I ask, rubbing my thumb over Jamie’s cheekbone. He kisses my palm before responding,

“Despite how much you and Trevor bully each other, he’s told everyone on the team about how cool you are. He kinda took the liberty to do it himself since I do gush about you, but I get shy about it.” Jamie is uncharacteristically speaking out loud his stream of consciousness, and I take a back seat to admire how talkative he can be when he’s with me. A stark contrast to the shy, almost silent boy I’d had my first date with. Noticing how much he’s talking, Jamie ends his rambling but I smile softly, encouragingly,

“It’s unfortunate that the ‘cool girl’ is seemingly the only archetype that consistently receives approval from men, but it is true nonetheless.”

“Yeah, like, it’s not that I need his approval, but it is nice when your boys like your girlfriend… Well, it’s what you said, you just said it better. I’m mansplaining aren’t I?” He asks, bashfully. I roll my eyes and appreciatively kiss his lips once more.

“Get out of your head, Drysdale. Do you have anxiety?” 

“Shut up. I think you’re the only person I’ve ever met who can always tell when I’m overthinking.”

“Maybe I’m just the only one with the audacity to comment on it,” I playfully propose, smiling when I succeed in making Jamie laugh. 

“I don’t think so.”

“We’ll agree to disagree. It’s unlikely, but not impossible.” Dropping the bit, Jamie and I smile at each other, melting into a comfortable silence. He looks at me with soft eyes, pink blush creeping across his cheeks the longer I continue to stare. I rest my left hand on the side of his face once more. I brush my thumb over his cheekbone again, and rub the top of my fingers repeatedly against the stubble adorning his jaw. Jamie lifts his eye brows before saying,

“What, do I need to shave?”

“No. I just like the way it feels.”

“Oh, hey, you said you’re done with school by mid december, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“My mom asked if you were coming to Christmas this year.”

“Did she really?” Jamie hesitates a moment before his brows furrow in sincere disapproval.

“You’ve been my girlfriend for two months now. She will not shut up about meeting you.”

“What? Why?” He then blushes fiercely and cowers his head into the large hoodie he’s slouched on. Jamie doesn’t meet my gaze as he talks,

“I told her all about you the other day.” I bite back the giant smile that prods at my features before replying,

“What did you tell her?”

“Just stuff about you!”

“What stuff about me?!”

“I told her you’re a student and what you’re studying. I told her where you’re from and what your family is like. And I told her about how I stare at you between red lights when we’re going somewhere.” The last piece of information makes me laugh and I tilt my head in confusion.

“How did that last part come up?” It was a simple question, really. One that I hadn’t even bothered to put a lot of thought into; one that came from my basic stream of consciousness. And certainly not one that I imagined would ellicit such a reaction from Jamie. His eyes widened and softened all at once, his blush glowing brighter across his cheeks, and his lips parting to allow the irregular pace of breathing he had now adopted.

“I guess… I called her because I was unsure of what I was feeling…? I was kinda freaking out about it. As I told her about our first date, she said that just talking about you made me visibly happier. She noticed that, even though I wasn’t aware of how happy I’d gotten. Then she demanded to meet you as soon as possible…” Jamie sheepishly looks up at me after finishing his mini monologue. The traces of endeared happiness immediately vanish and Jamie looks at me horrified. In describing how happy I make this boy, I felt tears welling up on my lashes, relieved to be experiencing something so thoroughly mutual.

“Oh my god, please don’t cry I’m sorry!” I laugh through the tears and playfully smack his chest.

“Jamie…”

“You make me really happy, Y/n. Like, really really happy-”

“I love you,” I blurt out. I’m a bit stunned and honestly scared of how quickly this confession escaped me. But I know it’s true. And isn’t that the scariest part?

“I love you too.”

“Really?” I ask through unrelenting tears.

“Yes,” Jamie rests his hands on the tops of my hip bones, “I kind of lied by saying my mom said I looked happy… She said I looked very in love, but I didn’t want to be too forward and say that if you maybe didn’t feel the same way.”

“Bro, you worry so much, are you sure you don’t have anxiety?”

“Shut the fuck up!”

***

a/n: copy pasting tags is the best thing that has ever happened to fic writers I think.

[starcrossed-lov3rz]

The Vow Spoken Through Time

Daemon x Rhaenyra x Wife!Reader

Series: Part 1, Part 2

Warnings: MDNI, mild smut (at the end), threesome 

Tags: marriage, poly relationship, Daemon being hopelessly in love with his wives, Queen!Rhaenyra

Words: ~1.9K

Description: Y/N is having a rough morning. She's fired. She's hungover. She's in a stranger's bed. She's waking up in a new world? She's married?!

Rhaenyra and Daemon's day started normal. Waking up next to their darling wife before tending to their duties. The difference? Their wife is speaking in riddles and has no memories of them.

AKA: You fall through worlds and wake up in our favorite blondes’ bed. SHAMELESS “reader falls into HOTD world from our world” trope (I’m sorry, I CANNOT help myself, I’m a sucker for them). There’s not really a plot plot, but if you stay long enough we might run into one.

Check out more works in my Masterlist!

“God my head fucking hurts,” you whine, sitting up to rub your eyes. “That wine really hit out of nowhere.” Your head pounds, it has to be part of a hangover. The last thing you remember before drinking yourself to sleep was getting fired. Your boss hadn’t even had the decency to let you know face to face. An HR representative and your manager requested a zoom call at the end of the day and politely told you to ‘clean your desk.’

After nearly three years of work with the same accounting firm, it was weird to not wake up early and head into the office. The worst part really was that your performance was still stellar, the firm was just hemorrhaging money after several questionable expansions. 

Despite the pounding headache and sensitivity to light, you force yourself to open your eyes. “What the fuck?!” Glancing around the room frantically, you panic as you realize you weren’t waking up in the comfort of your room. You had to be the subject of some prank reality tv show because the decor was undoubtedly some renaissance festival shit. The walls were brick with large tapestries decorating the stone. You were laid in the center of a giant four poster bed, black and red canopies flowing.

Slipping from the tangle of sheets and blankets, you pad towards the door. “Okay,” you call out, “you got me. Very funny.” 

Silence. 

“This is so weird” you murmur, pushing the door open as gently as possible to peak out. A woman rushes by you, dressed in some kind of drab linen and an apron. “Excuse me!” you shout, attempting to get her attention. 

The short woman slowed down, stopping to curtsy quickly at the sight of you. “My lady, forgive me. I didn’t you see you there!”

“My lady?” You asked. “What are you talking about? This isn’t funny.”

“I’m not trying to be funny, my lady,” she replied quietly. “Please don’t tell your wife I was making jokes! I swear I meant no harm-”

“My wife?!” Everyone has officially gone off the deep end. First this medieval times shit, now apparently you have a wife.

The woman’s eyes go wide, “Your wife, Queen Rhaenyra. My lady, are you unwell?”

“I’m sorry,” you apologize. “I have no idea what’s going on. I lost my job. I don’t know where I am or apparently who I am. I just want-” You choke off into sobs.

“Let me help you back to your room,” she offered, taking your elbow. “I’ll let the Queen know you’re unwell.”

You nodded, letting her lead you back into the room. The woman helped you into a steaming bath and left you to soak while she fetched your wife. “Can’t believe someone made an honest woman of me,” you laugh.

At some point, the entire situation stopped feeling like a prank. Maybe it was watching the maid fill the tub painstakingly bucket by bucket, or the significant lack of electricity. Either way, your situation was beginning to feel more and more real. You grab the bar of soap and lather up a cloth, scrubbing furiously at your skin. 

“That’s weird,” you murmur as you notice that your skin seems far too perfect. You usually had a couple scars littering your arms and legs, leftovers from frequently crashing your bike as a kid and general clumsiness. They all seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving nothing but perfectly smooth, supple skin behind. “Okay, I’m officially going crazy.”

You see a small mirror on the ledge next to the tub, and reach out with shaky hands. You sigh in relief as you glance into the mirror and see that you look the same. At least you have something familiar here.

“Admiring the view? I know I am.” A deep voice purred from behind you.

Tossing the mirror back, you swiftly cover your chest and pray that the water obscurs the rest of you. “What the fuck?!” You yell, turning to confront whatever pervert decided to interrupt your bath. A tall man towered over the tub, his white hair practically glowing as the candlelight reflected off of it.

“I’m trying to have an existential crisis in here,” you hiss. “Can you come back later or something?”

He snorted a laugh, stalking forward to grab a brush from the side table and sit behind you. “And miss this opportunity? I should think not, my love.” He gently began detangling your hair and brushing it out. 

“My love? You do know I’m a married woman?” You retort.

“You never let me forget,” he replied, kissing the top of your hair. 

“I mean I have a wife, asshole!” You twist around to snatch the brush from his hands, but he lifts it out of your reach.

“What a coincidence,” he purrs, blatantly staring at your breasts. “I do too. Two, if I’m not mistaken.” His eyes dart down to your left hand, as if he knows something you don’t.

You glance at the ring that’s been there since you woke up. The black metal has a dragon insignia that looks awfully similar to the embroidery on this man’s shirt. “Fuck.” 

The man’s brows furrow, “what’s wrong?” He sets the brush down, grabbing a sheet and pulling you from the bath. He wraps you up and sits you in his lap. The warmth seeping into your skin feels so familiar and you feel yourself begin to break. Tears stream down your cheeks, and you burrow your face into his neck to hide them. 

Warm hands rub up and down your back soothingly. “My love, I cannot fix whatever is wrong if you don’t tell me.” He hums. “You don’t even have to tell me. Just give Rhaenyra a name and I will ensure whoever made you cry will never breathe again.”

You laugh at the irony. “I don’t know who Rhaenyra is. I’m not sure I even know who I am.” 

Before he can respond, a door slams. “Daemon, thank Gods you’re here. The maid said y/n was acting ill and didn’t rememb-” 

Your head peaks up over the man–Daemon’s shoulder to see the woman who ran in. Her hair is just as white as Daemon’s and her clothing adorned with the same dragon insignia. This must be Queen Rhaenyra.

“Y/n?!” Rhaenyra rushes over, kissing your cheek before she hugs you tightly. 

“My queen,” Daemon greets, leaning in for a kiss. You find yourself pressed between the two, and as much as you don’t want to admit it….the warmth and pressure feels comforting…like home. 

“I hate to break this up,” you say, wiping the last of your tears away. “But can someone tell me what is going on. The last thing I remember was being fired, getting wine drunk, and going to bed early.”

“Fired?” Rhaenyra looked confused and immediately started inspecting every exposed inch of your skin. “Did you try to feed Caraxes again? He’s a temperamental old man, just like his rider.”

“Who is Caraxes? Do ya’ll have a dog or something?”

“Dog?!” Daemon sounded almost offended. “A dog?! Rhaenyra we should fetch a maester. Our little dragon is either begging for a punishment or in need of a healer.”

Rhaenyra attempts to cover her laugh. “Caraxes, Daemon’s dragon? You insist on telling him a goodnight story at least once a week.”

“He’s a dragon of war for fucks sake,” Daemon mutters. “You’ve been making him soft.”

“Dragon?!” Your eyes go wide. “You’re joking. You’ve gotta be fucking me right now.”

“We are most definitely no-”

“We certainly could be-”

Daemon and Rhaenyra spoke at the same time. You would have laughed, but the implications of Daemon’s words were starting to settle in.

“Wait,” you being. “So if Queen Rhaenyra is my wife….and Daemon has two wives…and you two seem to be close…that means-”

“That you both are all mine,” Daemon purrs.

“Daemon, we must call for the maester. This seems serious, she doesn’t even remember us.”

“What year is this?” You ask, not sure if you want the answer.

“125 AC.” Rhaenyra responds.

“And where are we?”

“The red keep.”

“What, is that like England or something?”

“We are in Westeros.” Rhaenyra feels your forehead. “Daemon, put y/n to bed while I have the maids summon the maester.”

You yelp in surprise and Daemon stands up, holding you close to his chest. He carries you to a vanity, setting you gently on the bench before rummaging through some drawers. “Arms up, love.” He says, pulling a white shift over your head. You stare of into space as Daemon gently braids your hair. 

“Where’d you learn to do that?” You ask as he ties a ribbon at the ends of the braid.

“You and Rhaenyra are quite the demanding duo when you want to be,” he snorts. “The staff might revolt and establish Rhaenyra’s cunt of a half-brother as king if I bothered them everytime you both needed your hair done.”

“Language,” you chide. Daemon rolls his eyes before he sweeps you back up into his arms. He carries you to the bed, depositing you in the center before he climbs in. Daemon sits up, back against the headboard as he pulls you in to lean against his chest. 

“Do you really not remember us?” He asks. 

“How long have we been married?” 

“Five years. We were married in the old ways. Your High Valyrian wasn’t as good back then though.” Daemon laughs. “But it was perfect, and I wouldn’t trade you both for anything.”

“So if Rhaenyra is queen, what does that make you?” You ask. He had to be King, right?

“A lucky man.”

You laugh, and lightly hit his chest. “No, really. I don’t remember anything. Help a girl out here.”

“Prince consort.” Daemon answers. You nod, so Rhaenyra must be in charge around here.

“So how’d I end up married to Queen Rhaenyra and Prince Consort Daemon?” You ask in the poshest British accent you can muster.

“You threw yourself at my feet saying ‘Please Rhaenyra, I cannot live without you! You are the sun that brightens the sky and the stars that guide ships home!’” Rhaenyra teased. You sit up to see that Rhaenyra isn’t alone, she brought back some balding man with her. 

“I didn’t say that-” You protest.

“Really?” Daemon laughs. “My queen, it’s not proper to toy with someone who is ill.”

“You’re one to talk,” Rhaenyra says, raising a brow. “You seemed rather close when I came in earlier.”

You groan. How did you manage to survive these two for five years. 

!!SMUT BELOW!!

PREVIEW FOR PART TWO

“No,” Daemon scolds, clasping your hands together in his larger one and wrenching your body into his. “You’re not in charge here. You’re going to listen and obey like a good little girl.” You whine in response, nodding furiously in agreement. Suddenly, Rhaenyra’s warm body brushes up against your back. She nibbles lightly at your ear before kissing and licking her way down your neck.

“No need to be cruel,” Rhaenyra purrs. “Our little dragon is just begging for attention the only way she knows how.”

You whimper, canting your hips into Daemon’s. He slides a thigh between yours, pressing it up against your cunt. Your eyes roll back and you moan at the friction. “Please,” you breathe out, your teary eyes meeting his. 

NOTE: Hey all! I'm not dead, sorry for disappearing! Life happened (new job, had to travel home for a funeral). But, I got my shit back together after taking some time for myself and I'm ready to give y'all the stories I've been cooking up. I have some steamy and inspiring requests I'm working on for Feyd Rautha (so if you requested...they're coming). Glad to be back and BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR PART 2!!!! - Lacie <3

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[riddlerosehearts]

there's so many things i love about the twst anthology manga. it's honestly more fun to me as a fan of the game than the regular manga is, because as much as i love seeing how they adapt the scenes from the game and the little things they add (like getting to see baby riddle, trey, and chenya hanging out 🥺), the anthology is essentially like... extra vignettes, in manga form. some chapters are expansions of the vignettes from the game, but most of it is totally new, and sometimes it provides really neat bits of character exploration?

like, in one of my favorite chapters from the first volume. actually, i'm mainly only posting this as an excuse to talk about this chapter, "a blessing on our unbirthday":

in that chapter, riddle has been so worried about trying not to crack down as hard on rule violations that he ends up exhausted because he lost sleep over it! he says he's worried that that tendency of his might be ingrained in him for good, and it just breaks my heart thinking about how he so deeply wants to break the cycle and shed the excessive strictness and perfectionism that his mother instilled in him, but it's so hard. it's hard to have your worldview challenged so suddenly, to realize overnight that you've been doing things so wrong for such a long time and that all you can do now is try your best to change and improve. it's hard to know that you've hurt people when you never meant to, when you genuinely thought what you were doing was right. it must be especially hard when you're just a teenager who was doing what your parents have been teaching you to do since you were a small child. of course riddle is losing sleep.

but while he's walking through the hallway, thinking about how exhausted he is and how worried he still is, ace shows up. they banter a bit, but then ace very quickly realizes that riddle isn't feeling well and picks up on the fact that he's pushing himself too hard. he tells riddle to slow down and relax, and hilariously tries to manipulate him into deciding to hold an unbirthday party by going on about how maybe they should just have one without him and break a ton of rules while he's not there.

this makes riddle angry, of course, and results in him mentally beating himself up for almost losing his temper. :( but what ace is trying to do works! riddle instinctively gets riled up at his words, angrily reprimands him a bit, and nearly uses his unique magic on him... but ace cuts him off mid-sentence, which throws him off so that he doesn't use it. and then, in his inner thoughts, while he is panicking and sweating and getting upset with himself, he's also managed to stop before he made a big mistake, and now has a chance to reflect and acknowledge that mistake. he knows that it would've been irrational and wrong of him to collar ace just for saying that he might break a few rules.

and all of that is already really important and shows a lot of growth on his part! but then ace responds by telling him he's being too hard on himself and that it's okay to take small steps instead of trying to completely change right away, and riddle is instantly relieved and settles on trying to make everything perfect for the party. before, when ace first proposed the idea, he'd seemed uninterested and like he didn't realize just how badly he needed to take his mind off things. but this time he listens, and understands that ace just might be right, and the story ends on a very fun and sweet note.

and it's just so good. riddle has such great dynamics with each of his dormmates, and i love seeing how his relationship with ace has grown. i really hate when people get mad at ace for demanding a tart and a party at the end of book 1, because riddle treated ace in particular horribly and needed to be held accountable for it. he really could've asked for far more from riddle or still not forgiven him considering that riddle, like, actually could have killed him while overblotted. and i also really hate when people characterize riddle as still being constantly angry after book 1, and/or don't acknowledge everything he did at the end of book 1 to try and apologize for his actions and make an effort to change. he's one of the only overblotters to actually verbally apologize, and i should also add that he did what ace asked of him without question... and had a good time with it, because he likes tarts and parties! i think it's notable how at the end of book 1, riddle had literally just expressed that he had wanted to eat the tart ace made for him and hang out with his friends, so ace basically asked him to do exactly that along with having to do the hard work that would be involved in it.

and now, they're genuine friends. they've allowed themselves to start over with a clean slate, and in this anthology chapter we see that ace can comfort riddle and have fun with him without holding the past against him, and once again is helping him out of a rough spot by convincing him to have a party. i just love it, i love what this chapter says about riddle and what it says about him and ace. i really hope we get a third volume of the anthology someday, with group art of the third years on it since the first two volumes have the first and second years on them:

and i hope they get officially released in english someday too because i would really love to be able to own them.

[sagethegaywitch]

Our Child (Part I)

Yandere Mermaid Family x GN Reader

TW: yandere behavior

Genre: yandere

(Part II), (Part III)

Inspired by "Dark and Twisted Whisper" sea monster dad.

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

Y/N’s Pov

For as long as you remembered, you loved the ocean.  Living so close to a body of water allows you to take daily beach walks, either to watch the sunrise or the sunset.  You often felt drawn in by the endless blue waves and the subtle sea breeze, especially when the beach was void of any living being.

It was just like any other day, just strolling down the beach, a picnic basket in your hand and a plan to eat dinner at your favorite portion of the sandy expanse to watch the sun leave the sky.  Your plans are ruined as you hear desperate splashing from the rocky area beside the tidal pools.  You worry that it's a wild animal trapped in the tidal pools after the tide moved out, and you carefully put down your picnic blanket and basket before retrieving a pocket knife from your bag.  You hesitantly approach to see a mermaid, no merman, struggling to free himself from a fishing net.  You’re mesmerized by his light blue-green scales, watching the way they shimmered in the dying light.  But then you see the tough rope wrapped around his tail and the rocks, his harsh movement getting himself more tangled in the net and causing the rope to dig into his skin.  You climb over the rock blocking you from his body, and the merman instantly stops moving when he hears you splash next to him.  You hold your hands up to show that you mean no harm, but your pocket knife seems to be scaring him.  Shoving the pocket knife into your pants, you kneel down to the merman’s level.

“Shh, I’m not going to hurt you,” you say softly, reaching your hand out to grasp at the rope around his arm.

When your hand brushes against his arm, he flinches as if he were shocked.  You whisper some more soothing word until the merman visibly calms down and watches you curiously.

“I’m going to take my knife out again,” you prepare him as you reach for your knife again, “And I’m going to cut your free, okay?”

You didn’t expect an answer, and you didn’t get one as you slowly brought out the knife and began to cut through the ropes.  The merman was scared of the sharp object, but didn’t move once he realized you were helping him.  Once all the rope was cut off the poor merman’s body, he happily kicked his fin before rubbing his head against your arm.

“Alright, let's get you out of this tidal pool,” you say as you attempt to pick up the merman.

Unfortunately, he was a bit heavier than you expected, and you ended up dragging him through the rocks and back to the sandy beach.  You brought him to the water, where he quickly slipped out of your hands and into the water.  You dusted your hands off and smiled before returning to your picnic materials to finally eat.

Kano’s Pov

I never swam faster in my life before.  Both the adrenaline and the human’s soft touch excited me as I swam all the way home.

“Dad!  Aalto!” I yelled as I barreled through the seaweed grove that covered the entrance to our cave.  “You won’t believe what just happened!”

“It better be good.  You were supposed to be getting dinner, but I see you’re empty handed,” Aalto warns me as he crosses his arms, looking at me expectantly.

“Well, I got a bit too close to shore and got stuck in a tidal pool,” I start before I’m interrupted.

“Goodness, are you alright?” my father questions as he swims around me, looking for any wounds.

“I’m fine, but a human saved me.  He was so cute!” I squealed, clasping onto my brother and shaking him to get my excitement across.  “We need to have him!”

“Are you certain he’s the one?” my father asks, gently detaching my hand from my poor brother.

“Of course!  We need to grow the family!” I exclaim.  “Let me show you guys.”

I guided my family back to the surface and we hid behind a couple of rocks to see the human who helped me eat from a bowl, observing the sun as it dipped below the horizon.

“Aren’t they cute?” I ask, looking at my father and brother for a positive reaction.

“Yes, yes, they are,” my father murmurs, dazed.

Aalto doesn’t say anything, but the shine in his eyes spoke volumes.

“Since we can’t reproduce, it’s our duty to kidnap them and make them one of us,” I say, trying to sell the idea to my father.

My father looks at my happy attitude before looking at Aalto for approval.

“I don’t see why not,” Aalto responds, too busy looking at you.

“Alright, it’s settled then,” our father explains.  “Let’s observe them for a couple more days before we bring them home.

“I can’t wait to have a younger sibling!” I declare.

[cande1808]

Now, these are my thoughts on episode 7… 

We need to address our duke is clingy hahaha. As Susie doesn’t answer the phone he investigates where she lives and goes to talk to her. I don’t believe it was only to see where he stood in the operation, it was because he needed to know how she was. I assumed he looked at her without makeup/ sweaty and fell harder. And HER again lets him see her vulnerable!!!! aaggrrI found it very endearing that she has him saved as The Duke 🙂, she works with idk how many other dukes but she only has one who is THE ;)

Idk why but this whole interaction made me realize he is a cuddler. He offers her help because he still wants her in his life. I CAN’T with my stubborn parents! 

Mom is furious because he didn’t listen but mostly because she trusted him…. he betrayed that trust, a trust she doesn’t give anyone… And she allowed him to be part of her life too. Reason enough to go out on a killing spree… because just after they talked she goes after Collins and that’s also the reason why her father said you are thinking with your emotional brain… because she is emotional!! Apart from the fact she wants vengeance for her brother, but I don’t think this is a motive for her behavior. She would have been full business if that were the case. She is this calculated, and methodic character and she definitely doesn’t take any chances or risks without having thought it through.

But… Here she is killing people without blinking because she is angry, furious at herself for letting her guard down. 

Eddie wrongly goes and does the treat with Stan, but he has already made plans to keep her in the business, again because he wants her in his life!!

When Collins called Susie, why on Earth would she go to see Eddie?? Like is he the only person who can possibly know where she lives?? I think not! She wanted to see him, for him to help her (she wouldn't admit it) and he kind of give her a coy smile when he saw her... GOD! JUST BE TOGETHER!!

Here comes my favorite scene of the episode, when they interrogate Jimmy. Eddie has Susan’s back! And the way they look at each other!! Knowing what the other one needs. And when Jimmy explains that with Gabrielle talk about everything. I feel Susie and Eddie talk about the same stuff, like apart from the business they discuss their personal life too… perhaps she has opened to him?? Like I feel they talked about the business (dreams); on how she would handle it if she were given the chance to do it (hopes) without her father making the final calls??? The expansion of it… Were to invest the money… and so on! 

Get a man like Eddie who without a blink of an eye is organizing a meeting with a person to find information without you needing to say a word…

Here confronting Gabrielle the way he says of course! Because of course, Eddie’s with her!! also, there is a pause… I think is him thinking how to arrange the business without Bobby, but having her in it, that’s why he asks what about your father.?? 

When they get Collins at the hospital and he says Stan has your posh boy on a hook, because he can corrupt anyone and she closes her eyes remembering the scene in the restaurant, I think that was the moment she started having feelings for him, got her judgment clouded by him. And she takes a deep breath because she’ll have to betray him… teach him whose boss. So when she calls The Gospel, you can see she hasn't slept well, she looks tired with bags under her eyes and her makeup smudged. She is doubtful, but she has to do it… Eddie has to learn his lesson… 

I wonder what Eddie and Bobby talked about…  

Next... last episode!!

[chicken-fifi]

Lost Connection (pt 7) | Leeteuk (SuJu) Imagine

Pairing: Park Jeongsoo x Fem!Reader

Requested by @bokkibunny: Hi Fifi, Happy April! I would like to request part 7 of SuJu’s Leeteuk Lost Connection imagine, please! I really enjoyed the way you went about my previous request, so for this part, you have free reign. Thank you!! 💙

Genre: angst, fluff

Word Count: 1,136 words

A/n: i'm so sorry this one took me as long as it did. with finals and everything quickly approaching, i have been slacking in every assignment i could possibly have for no reason. like chicken, get your shit together. serious girl. get it together. as usual, please check out the reaction as well as the previous three parts of this expansion series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). happy reading and please reblog or comment!

Tunes: criminal minds....gonna cry now bye

Months were flying by as you made slow but steady progress. Little by little, bits and pieces of some of your memories were coming back. Triggered by the most mundane activities and normal conversations, not a single day had gone by where there wasn’t something miniscule that you remembered.

One such moment happened after hearing the news of someone’s upcoming marriage. You’d immediately remembered that Jeongsoo’s sister too was getting married…or rather was as you quickly realized the event had already passed and you had been present.

Either way with your growing memories and new found comfort in exploring and reconnecting with other people who knew the “old” you. Among your favorites were Donghae and Hyukjae - who without a doubt always made you laugh with their bickering silly antics.

(Jeongsoo might’ve not liked the mess they brought with them when they visited, but if it made you happy, he was happy.)

“I remembered something while I was cleaning out the closet earlier,” you began seemingly out of nowhere one day as the two of you were preparing dinner. It was the first time you’d seen Jeongsoo all day - having slept in after a rather eventful night that left you with a very familiar sore feeling in your muscles. A pleasant feeling might I add.

“Oh? Was it pleasant or not? ” Jeongsoo asked, raising an eyebrow as he filled a pot with water.

The sigh that left your mouth was enough of a response.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t-”

“Why’d you keep the letter I sent?” you interrupted. “It wasn’t a very…pleasant letter to keep. From the sounds of it I intended to break things off with you permanently. Why would you not give up?”

Jeongsoo set the pot aside carefully before leaning on the counter watching as you continue to cut the vegetables without lifting your eyes from the carrot before you.

“I mean,” you looked up, hand still cutting. “You deserved to be happy and live your life and you spent-”

His hand shot out to grab your wrist stopping it from moving, “Please don’t look away from the blade when you’re using a knife.” Taking the knife away, he set that aside too before pushing the cutting board you were using to the side and lifting you up onto the counter in one smooth motion. He stood before you in between your legs, arms on either side of you, holding your gaze with his dark eyes.

“The only way I’d be happy is if I spent the rest of my life with you by my side. I wasn’t going to give you up as easily as you think - thought - whatever the case may be. It wasn’t going to happen. I loved you then just as much as I love you now. And I know why you sent that letter. You didn’t want me to worry about the assignment you’d taken, and being the selfless person you are instead of stringing me along without knowing what was going to happen to you, you’d rather give me up. But I can’t accept that. I couldn’t accept that. I won’t accept it.

“My love. I don’t care if you never remember all of our prior memories. I still want you. And I will happily make new memories with you for us to look back on when we’re both old and grey - even if I reach that description long before you do,” he paused, looking away and tugging his bottom lip in between his teeth. Moving a hand, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box. “I wanted to do this under much more romantic circumstances. But I guess now's as good as ever. After you fell asleep last night I pulled this out from the nightstand and kept staring at it while your cheek was pressed against my chest. I got it shortly after our fifth date. I knew I wanted to marry you since then, and I would’ve proposed then if it wasn’t for the fact that you would’ve thought I was some desperate old horse and quite possibly a serial killer on a mission.”

That elicited a laugh from you, “I would've thought that, huh? I was so suspicious of your intentions on those first few dates. Never allowing you to pick me up or drop me off anywhere else besides the cafe that was on the other side of the city from where my apartment was.”

Those details flew right over both of heads, it was something he’d never brought up nor that you had ever asked about. As far as either of you were concerned you did not remember that until just then, but that was not important. Not right now.

“Yeah. I remember the first time you invited me over for dinner at your place and was so sure I knew where you lived and it ended up taking me over an hour to get to the right place because of traffic that night.”

He looked down at the box and messed around with it in both hands, “I’m not going to make you wait a single hour more than I already have.”

With you still sitting on the counter, he lowered himself down one knee and looked up at you, whispering your name with every ounce of love and devotion he held in his body for you, “Please marry me?”

It was inevitable to laugh at the chaotic nature of the whole ordeal as you nodded, leaning down and wrapping your arms around, completely ignoring the ring in his hands. What couple goes from discussing the near downfall and ending of a relationship to a whole marriage proposal in the span of less than five minutes?

But it made sense for the two of you. It was something the two of you would do now. Why? Because that’s what your relationship was full of now. The complete and utter unpredictable nature of your love and growing memories was reflected in the unpredictable proposal as you grew together.

“Can you help me up?” Jeongsoo asked as he slid the ring onto your finger. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to get my knee off this cold ass floor without some assistance.”

You couldn’t help but laugh as you pulled him up, only laughing further as his joints popped.

“Another hour longer and you might’ve not made it in time to propose.”

Jeongsoo bit his tongue as he realized something else had come back to you. Your teasing and brutal nature when it came to his age. But even that was something he was glad to have back in that moment.

“How about we order in? I don’t want to waste time making dinner when I can spend it loving you.”

You couldn’t agree more.

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

Hey guys. Can you guys recommend fic where either of them suffering from chronic illness/ cancer/ Aids/anything severe? I need a good angst

Here is a cancer tab, with a selection of stories, none of which I've read!

Or these in our chronic illness tab. I've read four of these, and am surprised that they're amongst some of my favorite Klaine fics! ~Jen

Headway Verse by @blaineydevon

“The accident took a lot of things from Blaine, but it never touched his ability to love.”

Snapshots of Kurt and Blaine’s life together, unconditionally loving each other despite dealing with lifelong consequences of a traumatic brain injury.

~~~~~

Chrysalis Verse by  @flowerfan2

Just after graduating from NYU, a car accident puts Blaine into a coma. No one expects him to wake up. Almost three years later, Kurt sees a man in a wheelchair who couldn’t be anyone else. A story of love and new beginnings.

~~~~~

Lovesong by  andiheardeverything

A hate crime leaves Blaine damaged and Kurt refuses to let it bring them down.

~~~~~

Reverb by Fickelodeon

Post-Michael thru Season 4, Blaine’s just a little unwell, and it’s not long before everyone can tell. Physical and Mental illness. Hurt/Comfort. If Robin Cook wrote for Glee and General Hospital, the story would probably go like this. Universe Expansion for Seasons 3 and 4 wherein I add some elements to canon and leave some out but manage to get everyone back to place where they can still have the endings they got in canon. Honestly, I just wanted to write H/C, but the more I hurt Blaine, the more I realized he wasn’t going to handle that very well, so I added in diagnosed mental illness. All in all, it’s everything I love to read in fic all in one epic story, just in case I don’t ever get the chance to write these characters again.

~~~~~

Rewrite This Story by idoltina

Six outer walls, five doors, five rooms, three windows, and one balcony. This is the world in which Blaine Anderson has lived for ten years.

~~~~~

And of course this series:

Myosotis sylvatica by maanorchidee @forabeatofadrum

Kurt remembers meeting Blaine very vividly. After all, they only just met. Blaine also remembers meeting Kurt very vividly, but to him, it's been years since they met. Now, the two of them have to find ways to (re)connect and see where their relationship goes.

Five parts, long term amnesia

[twopoppies]

hi gina! sorry i’ve been looking through your blog but i couldn’t find it so I’m asking have you ever made a post about fics with side ziall? and if not, do you have some recs? xx

Hi, darling. I actually haven’t ever made a rec based on side pairings, and I don’t tend to take notes on how expansive their storyline is. But here’s what I have:

Scorpions et Madragores by Stria (E, 23K) Read the tags and author’s note on this one because there are some themes that could be triggering. This is a dark fic and Harry is a pretty creepy vampire, but the story is very well told and there’s a happy ending.

taking tips and getting stoned by alison (M, 24K) Slightly OOC, but I really enjoyed the realistic approach to the storyline and having a fic about life not turning out the way you thought it might, and the opportunity for second chances.

Run and I’ll Give Chase by orphan_account (E, 25K) I really liked the characterizations in this one; the way Harry wants Louis, but is afraid to want him, and then finally gives in? So good! Plus…there’s a second part Jump and I’ll Catch you (E, 13K) that I haven’t read yet.

let’s talk about making love by istajmaal (E, 25K) Oh, phone sex operator fics, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Through Eerie Chaos by mediawhore / @mediawhorefics (GA, 102K) This one is set both in present day and the 1920s and I absolutely adore this fic. This is such a unique and compelling story, the writing is beautiful, the characters are wonderfully realized, and I ugly cried for realz. Such a good fic.

Finding Lou by stylinsoncity (M, 60K) This author’s writing is always such a pleasure to read -- they really know how to craft a moving story. Slow burn romance with some super sexy smut and lots of emotions. Yes, I cried

I Will Never Rust by stylez (E, 38K) I must have read this at least 5 years ago and I honestly don’t remember details, but my notes say “gorgeous, sad, sexy” so... I’m crossing my fingers that old me knew what she was talking about. It’s frat boy Harry so that could go either way. LOL!

Loving You Is Free by littlelouishiccups (E, 68K) this was one of the first sugar baby fics I read in this fandom, and the set up is excellent. Steamy smut, and great side characters.

In Dreams by dolce_piccante (M, 24K) This actually might be my favorite of this author’s fics, although I know it’s definitely not the most popular. It’s just soft and romantic and sweet and I’m a sucker for tattoo artist Louis winning over slightly uptight Harry.

May We Stay Lost On Our Way Home by LoadedGunn (E, 74K) Famous!Harry meets fairy!Louis. Yep. Mix in this author’s always incredibly hot smut, magic, quirky characters, and this is just a great read.

Escapade by doce_piccante (M, 146K) I know, I know. This fic really doesn’t need more recs –– everyone knows this one. But it is a pretty perfect fake relationship AU. In particular, the hate to love chemistry of the main characters is done really, really well, the smut is super sexy, and t’s a really fun read.

[brineffxiv]

Estinien is not an easy man to find, but finally we run into him at the airship landing.

Uh oh

To be fair, Alisaie, you and Alphinaud do wear the exact same hairstyle.

LOL G'raha.

Thankfully, Alphinaud arrives to save Estinien and explain to him what's going on.

Alphinaud and Estinein's relationship is so wholesome. They make each other better people, and they make me smile.

Estinien is on the way to Azys Lla, to speak with Tiamat about this new incarnation of Bahamut. As the original summoner of the primal, she may be able to provide information that can help us deal with this new incarnation. We think this is a good idea, and join him.

Lol, you two should have met him back in Heavensward. He's practically warm and personable now by comparison.

Azys Lla has to be my least favorite map. The brown and sickly green lighting puts me in mind of vomit, or industrial contaminants. I suppose both of those are appropriate comparisons for the late Allagan Empire.

Oh. I. Didn't realize Nidhogg was still with you. Still a part of you. That's got to be difficult. But it's good that you feel you need to be there for Tiamat in Nidhogg's place. Nidhogg's rage and grief were fully justified for what was done to him and his family, it was his choices and actions in the aftermath that went beyond the pale.

It seems that Fandaniel must have utilized Tiamat and Bahamut's children to summon the primal.

Omg omg are we finally going to free Tiamat?! I've wanted to break her out of there since Heavensward. Yes yes yes!!!

Oh damn. She's tempered. If not quite as severely as some others. It didn't occur to me that a great wyrm could be tempered. But hell, if the Ascians could be, why not Tiamat.

Thankfully, we have a treatment for this now.

Oh yeah, gotta remember that nobody else knows that Hydaelyn is a freaking primal, and not just the name of the will of our star. Hey, can we test that tempering cure on me? Not saying I am for sure... but... better safe than sorry?

While G'raha and Alisaie prepare to cure Tiamat of her tempering, Estinien, Alphinaud, and I (plus a spirit vessel imbued with his blood that G'raha had on him for reasons) search the flagship for a node or terminal from which to control her restraints.

But before we go and free Tiamat, Estinien has a few questions regarding how we've been handling the Ascians.

And honestly, I don't think there is anything worth salvaging in Fandaniel. He is a man who professes to desire naught but to die and to take the rest of us with him in "a paroxysm of pain and suffering."

But...

Hmm, how do I say this?

Meeting and dealing with Emet-Selch effected me. He was brilliantly written, and I came to understand and empathize with his plight. I cannot say that, if I had been in his position, I would have done any different. From his point of view, he was entirely justified. He did terrible things, that he knew were terrible, in order to save his people. He was selfless, and sacrificed everything he had in order to save them. In the name of the greater good.

And so, I find I can't so easily dismiss Fandaniel as purely "evil." He must have a motive, a reason for why he does what he does, and I want to know it. He's not crazy, or illogical, and in the brief glimpses we have into his interactions with Zenos, I have become convinced that Fandaniel is manipulating him. And for him to be doing that, there's something he's trying to get or do beyond just what he openly claims to want, and he thinks he can use Zenos to get it. Zenos is too secure in his own power, and too distracted by me to see it. Fandaniel's a bitter, angry, shell of a man. And I want to know why.

Ahem.

Yes.

Anyway.

With the aid of G'raha and myself, Alisaie manages to cure Tiamat of her tempering.

And then, finally, after three expansions, Tiamat is freed of her prison.

And just in time, because Bahamut has been sighted over Paglth'an, at the head of a host of dragons. That's where Arenvald and Fordola have gone. I smell a dungeon.

And then, like the badass he is, Estinien leaps to Tiamat's back and the two of them fly away to battle.

We reunite with the rest of the Scions in Ul'dah, where we are joined by Nanamo. The Immortal Flames have been dispatched (along with many of the other Alliance nations' troops) to Paglth'an to defend the Amalj'aa. But it will be a fierce fight, and we are invited to join the fray as soon as possible.

Incidentally, it appears that Lunar Bahamut may be incapable of tempering people? Which would mark it as different from any primal we have faced before, and also mean it cannot be the entity behind the tempering going on at the towers.

To Paglth'an!

[darsynia]

Modern Mythology | Ch2

(Tony Stark/OC; soulmate AU pre-Ultron, in 3 parts)

image from peakpx.com | gif from @marveladdicts

Summary: Abigail Carson takes a chance on a second job as a courier in the hopes that it’ll help her find her soulmate, whose words on her skin imply that he’s signing for a package she delivers. When she hears the words spoken by Tony Stark, though, Abbi has second thoughts. She’s practically a nobody!

Length: 4,678

MY MASTERLIST | PREVIOUS CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER

Taglist: @starryeyes2000 @raith-way @arrthurpendragon, @starksbf

Excerpt:

Abbi wrote, ‘Waiting???’ and held it up.

Stark’s expression sobered. “Fair point. I fought it first too, you might say. I liked what I had, but it wasn’t right, you know? You know.”

She did know, and his arguments were persuasive. They were also frightening. The whole idea of entering this man’s world was intimidating. Overcome, Abbi turned toward the high counter of the receptionist’s welcome area, crossed her arms on the surface, and dropped her head onto them.

Stark took the pen out of her hand before she could stop him. She let out a frustrated noise.

“You’re acting like I’m going to drag you up to the penthouse and turn it into a sex dungeon when you finally do say something to me. That’s not how it works, you know that, right? You say them, we get to know each other.” Abbi felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder and lifted her head to see that he was leaning beside her, less than an inch away. “I wouldn’t say no to the sex dungeon, mind you.”

Chapter Two: Seeds of Doubt and Hope

Abbi got another summons to Courier and Ives the following day. She was tempted not to go, certain that Stark was summoning her back like a liege lord whose chattel had not performed according to expectations. Somewhere deep down, though, she knew that assessment was unfair.

Soulmates were a fixture of human romantic life. Countless songs, movies, and television shows revolved around the drama of discovering one’s soulmate, sometimes resisting one’s soulmate, but finally, always, capitulating to fate. She had always really loved those kinds of stories, never realizing she’d be living one. The problem for Abbi was whether or not the words she’d heard were coincidentally the same as her soulmark or not. There were shows about that, too.

After dithering all morning about whether she ought to show up at the courier office, Abbi finally decided to go anyway. Her compromise was that she absolutely would not mention soulmates unless it came up because Stark did.

Mrs. Walsingham’s attitude was expansive and coy. “Your delivery was a hit, yesterday! You’ve got another package to drop off for Stark personally, and another box of illegal cigars-- I mean, excuse me,” the older woman coughed as if she’d swallowed a frog for ten whole seconds. “Another box of exotic tea for Mr. Michaels in the building across the street from the tower.”

“Is there a chance you would give these to Minthe?” Abbi asked with genuine hope in her voice.

“Young lady, the son of Howard Godblesshim Stark phoned me up personally, described you in very admiring terms, asked what your name was, and requested you and only you to deliver this item. If you don’t go I may have to exercise my ‘damaging the business’ clause in our contract!” The poor woman’s face was nearly as purple in the face as her favorite color, which today was streaked through her blouse and matching skirt as well as the jewelry.

“Yes ma’am,” Abbi said resignedly. “Can I have a second clipboard? Mine was… mislaid.”

“He said them, didn’t he?” Mrs. Walsingham asked shrewdly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Abbi told her, and fled as soon as she was given the replacement clipboard. One of the packages was moderately heavy, almost flat, and rectangular, and the other was lightweight and square.

The woman at the front desk did not let her leave the package, but directed her to the penthouse. Abbi flatly refused, saying it was inappropriate. She was directed to wait in the lobby.

Guessing that she might be waylaid, she pulled out her phone and called in to her paralegal job, notifying them that she might be back late. She had plenty of PTO hours, and both her boss and grand-boss knew about the side job (the magic of soulmarks, again). Something told her that Stark was going to try to wait her out, but he would be sorely mistaken if he thought she couldn’t sit quietly. After ten minutes of Abbi doing just that, her hands on top of the two packages in her lap, she saw that the front desk person was looking her way and speaking on the phone.

Two minutes later, she heard a now-familiar voice. “You really want to do this here, in front of witnesses?”

It was a shame she hadn’t opted for an elective procedure to wire her jaw shut, just to see the look on the man’s face, Abbi thought. She didn’t say that, though. She just stood up and held out the square package, sitting on the clipboard, on which she’d already written a note.

‘You don’t know me. I don’t know you. Sign the page, and we’ll both get on with our lives.’

Stark was wearing a suit today. He looked fantastic. Abbi resented herself for even thinking it, because liking him in any way was just going to make the whole situation harder. He held up the clipboard, facing her.

“I’m not the one preventing us from getting on with our lives. Our collective life.”

She snatched the clipboard away with a swift move he clearly hadn’t anticipated, backed away directly beside two tourists who were staring at both of them with wide eyes, and wrote out a new message under the first one.

‘Prove I’m your soulmate, then. Before I say anything.’

Abbi held up the clipboard for him to read. To her consternation, the words she’d written made Stark smile with an expression of absolute delight.

“You’re on,” he said. “One moment.”

He stepped away to use his phone, and Abbi frowned. She still had a second delivery! In frustration, she went back to her chair, where she’d left the second package, the ‘tea’ she had to deliver across the street. If Stark thought he could keep her waiting while he held a phone conversation, he was wrong. He might be a handsome billionaire, but she had to work for a living.

Her conscience pointed out that he’d probably designed enough patents to live off of the proceeds for the rest of his life, regardless of inheritance of business proceeds. Then her mother-conscience added that it seemed like Abbi was just scared of change. She agreed with both assessments.

Just as Abbi was about to grab the second package, though, Happy Hogan walked up from just a few feet away and blocked her movement.

“Fancy seeing you again,” he said with an easy grin.

“Your boss likes to throw his influence around to get what he wants, and I’m the low woman on the totem pole,” she said in irritation.

“Turns out that’s part of your job description. The promotional materials for Courier and Ives encourages clients to bond with their courier.”

“It says bond?” Abbi asked in surprise.

“It actually does, look,” Hogan said, holding up his phone. She walked closer to read what it said, and saw him look over her shoulder, nod, and then refocus on her.

“What was--” Abbi turned around and saw that Stark was standing there, off the phone, finally. He was holding the package she needed.

“Sorry to keep you,” he said. The words sounded sincere, but Abbi felt like there was absolutely something suspicious between the two men. With no proof, though, she was happy to get on her way. Pointedly turning her back on Stark, she spoke to Hogan.

“Mr. Hogan, it was nice to meet you twice. Have a lovely life.”

“I’ll wish you the very same thing,” Hogan said with a broad smile. There was an obvious double meaning to it, but she decided to let that slide now that she could be on her way.

She’d have to quit the courier job, but that was just the way it had to go. Even if it was just a bit tempting to wonder what a life as someone like Stark’s soulmate would be. He had clearly lived a full life without one, and with his wealth, he’d be able to do so again. In her mind, Abbi went over all of the reasons why inserting herself into Tony Stark’s life would be a bad idea. It was a long list, full of things like ‘mom would be pretty stressed out,’ ‘Stark’s well known for liking flashy, experienced women, which I am absolutely not,’ and one of the most important ones, ‘I hate the idea of acquiescing to ‘fate’ as if I didn’t have any choice in the matter!’

Her second delivery went as normal. The executive it was meant for accepted it graciously, his anticipation clear. She could hear him ripping open the white paper it was wrapped in even before her hand touched the doorknob of his office.

“Young lady?”

Abbi turned. “Yes, sir?”

“I’m sorry to say, this is not mine.” The executive held up a silk tie emblazoned with the Iron Man helmet.

“That absolute sneaky bastard!” she exclaimed. The next second, she was mortified . “Oh, Lord, I’m so sorry!”

“You came here after Stark? I tell you what, I’ll keep them. Go get the real one, tell him he can bill me for these.”

Abbi’s heart rate was still going strong. She knew her face had to be beet red. “Are you sure? This is the height of unprofessional, I--”

“I have a feeling it was on purpose. Not your fault he’s got a bit of the imp in him.”

Abbi’s feet hurt from how much force she’d put in every step by the time she walked back into the lobby of Stark’s building. Sure enough, he and Hogan were waiting in the pair of chairs she’d been seated at. The rest of the lobby was cleared of people, which also didn’t seem much of a coincidence.

“Hogan!” Abbi called out. She wanted to lay into Stark, but there was some part of her that was afraid of marking him with words she might regret. “You’ve been conscripted. A Mr. Michaels would very much like his box, please.”

Hogan held it up, and she glared at him. “For a good cause! I’ll head over.”

“Didn’t think that through, Abbi,” Stark said. His use of her name made her stop short and lay a hand on the nearest piece of furniture to steady herself. She saw him coming toward her, both hands casually resting in his pants pockets. “There’s no one else in here to address your comments to. You don’t happen to know ASL, do you? Now that would be an interesting soulmark.”

There was something so gentle in his eyes. It sparked a flurry of excitement in her chest, as if something inside her recognized it was Tony Stark fighting for their possible future. The problem was it was such an impossible future that she couldn’t understand how he couldn’t see that.

He’d also forgotten something. Abbi pulled the clipboard out of her inner jacket pocket and held it up. She wrote something on it so quickly that he didn’t get the chance to take it from her, even though he’d started walking over the second he saw it.

‘What will happen when I DO say something and they aren’t your words?’

“Not possible,” Stark said, confidence personified.

Abbi rolled her eyes and started to write something else, but Stark snatched the clipboard out of her hands and tucked it into his back pocket.

“Say them.”

She shook her head.

“Abigail Carson. Daughter of Demaria and Atticus Carson. Ambitious, fun-loving mother, practical, dutiful father. Honors student in high school, attended NYU for a pre-law degree, one year of law school Syracuse University before putting education on hold to care for your mother after the one-two punch of a cancer diagnosis and losing your father to a heart attack. Started work at a law firm in the interim, and moved in with your mother when the cancer recurred,” he recited, pacing in a tight circle in front of her. “Hardworking, dedicated, impulsive to a point, needs to let loose.” At this, he spread his arms out as if to suggest that a relationship with him might help with that.

Abbi wanted to ask what the point was of reciting some personal information he snooped around to find, but she wasn’t going to say something to him without thinking it through first, no matter how much he goaded her to do so.

“Anthony Stark. Son of Howard and Maria Stark. Ambitious, fun-loving father, practical, dutiful mother. Honors student in high school, multiple doctorates from MIT by his late teens, before I put more education on hold to care for my company at age 21, when my parents were killed in a car accident. Impulsive, dedicated, hardworking to a point, needs someone to ground him. That’s you,” he said, pointing at Abbi. “You wanted me to prove you’re my soulmate before you say anything? Who else would fight it this much?” He gestured to the lobby windows, where there was a small crowd speaking to the receptionist Abbi had seen earlier. “There are any number of women who would be desperate for this chance, not that I’m interested in any of them.”

He’d been walking in wider and wider circles, coming closer and closer to her. She took off her shoes, and when he turned to circle back around after saying that, Abbi pulled the clipboard free of his back pocket and ran to the other side of the free-standing arc of the receptionist’s welcome area in the lobby so she could write out another message.

“You little sneak! I love it,” Stark said, chasing after her.

All Abbi managed to write before he snatched it back was, ‘It’s been one whole day, chill.’

“When you’ve been waiting over ten years for someone, a whole day is a long time,” he said after reading it. He tucked the clipboard into his pants this time, waggling his eyebrows at her.

The pen worked on her hand, so Abbi wrote, ‘Waiting???’ and held it up.

Stark’s expression sobered. “Fair point. I fought it first too, you might say. I liked what I had, but it wasn’t right, you know? You know.”

She did know, and his arguments were persuasive. They were also frightening. The whole idea of entering this man’s world was intimidating. Overcome, Abbi turned toward the high counter of the receptionist’s welcome area, crossed her arms on the surface, and dropped her head onto them.

Stark took the pen out of her hand before she could stop him. She let out a frustrated noise.

“You’re acting like I’m going to drag you up to the penthouse and turn it into a sex dungeon when you finally do say something to me. That’s not how it works, you know that, right? You say them, we get to know each other.” Abbi felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder and lifted her head to see that he was leaning beside her, less than an inch away. “I wouldn’t say no to the sex dungeon, mind you.”

She tried to glare at him, but his personal magnetism seemed to be perfectly attuned to attract her, and she smiled begrudgingly, shaking her head ‘no.’

“Worth a shot.” He pulled something out of his pocket and set it on the counter beside her arm. She had to shift positions to see what it was.

When she looked, Abbi glanced quickly up at Stark.

“I have a whole package of these, I didn’t, like, get some loose out of a vending machine and let them collect pocket lint before offering them to you,” he assured her, holding up a plastic package with the Runts logo on them. Stark pulled out a banana one and popped it in his mouth, crunching down on it immediately.

He’d made the same mistake with the pen as he had with the clipboard, and Abbi grabbed it from his breast pocket, writing ‘Chewing???? HEATHEN’ on an unmarked part of her hand.

This just made him grin at her, sticking a second banana one in his mouth and capturing it in his teeth to wag it at her a bit. They were standing so close that she could smell the banana flavoring on his breath. The intimacy of that was a bit stunning for Abbi. Was this really her life? Standing in a lobby that should be teeming with people, desperately resisting making a move that would change her life forever, while this man who should have no vested interest in her whatsoever gently coaxed her into doing it?

Was it working? She felt less certain about her convictions now than she had when she’d walked in there.

“Uh oh, you’re thinking again. Quick, eat one.”

Because she still had the pen, Abbi wrote on the back of her hand, near her thumb.

‘You called me Iris, not Persephone.’

Stark rolled his eyes in mock ecstasy and leaned over, his spicy aftershave and banana breath taking over her senses, stand-ins for the reasons to speak and the reasons to stay silent. Being his soulmate would be bananas. “Smart women are so hot. Eat them and say it, Abbi. Come down to hell with me, help keep me warm.”

It would serve this infuriating, ridiculous man if she said what she was thinking right now. Wasn’t hell already warm? She wouldn’t put it past him to say something like that just to get her to correct him, but he had said earlier that he wasn’t interested in being marked with Greek mythology soulmark words.

Just to show him that she wasn’t afraid to compare him with Hades, Abbi grabbed the three Runts (none of them were banana, her favorite, but she suspected they were his favorite too. They were everyone’s favorite) and popped them in her mouth.

“Tell you what. I don’t want to wait another day,” Stark said enigmatically. “Here. Write one more thing. Final argument.” He handed her back the clipboard, which was warm from his body heat. His rich brown eyes challenged her, and Abbi felt like it really was her last chance to persuade him and herself. She could feel the tingles of excitement that spread every time their eyes met, could sense that she was giving in.

‘A fish may love a bird, but where would they live? You deserve someone from your world.’

When Abbi held up the clipboard, the slow, triumphant smile that grew on Tony Stark’s face made her fall for him just a little. It was just so confident, the exact opposite of what she had expected, that she was completely helpless to defend against him.

“Do you know how many women try to catch my eye? And here you are, fighting fate with all your might. I don’t remember the last time I was faced with the idea of having to woo someone. It’s a truly unique experience. Thank you for that.” He leaned his elbow on the counter, plopped his head onto his hand, and asked, “So, do you like flowers? Chocolates? A robot of your very own?”

She picked up the pen to scrawl out that he had completely missed her point, but before she could write anything, he took the clipboard again.

Abbi was so frustrated she said everything she was thinking.

“Look, I was just trying to do my job, but then you stole my cab, you stole my next delivery, you stole my pen, and you stole my clipboard four separate times, all so I’d HAVE to speak to you, so fine, I give up, here are the words you’re so desperate for!”

“Yes!” he said, and before Abbi could process that she’d said that all out loud, Stark had leaned over and kissed her very lightly and gently, pulling back to gauge her reaction.

“What--” she said, her lips tingling from the contact. A warm feeling of anticipation and pleasure had flared up in her gut. His reaction confirmed her fear and perhaps secret hope: she was definitely Tony Stark’s soulmate.

“Your words were a schematic to follow. I was probably supposed to let that happen over the course of a couple of weeks, but I’m me,” he said, grinning.

“But that was a whole paragraph!” Abbi said, aghast.

“I did goad you,” he said.

“Stark--”

“Tony,” he corrected. “Nothing has to change right away, Persephone.”

“I only ate three, she ate six, it’s a flawed comparison,” Abbi said distractedly. “Do you really have that whole thing written on your body somewhere? Why on Earth would you try to get me to say that?”

“Oh yes, it’s the number of seeds in dispute, not the idea that I’m the God of the underworld,” Tony said with deep sarcasm. Abbi’s face flared with a blush as she recognized exactly how much she found that unexpectedly attractive. “And, are you kidding? I just had to follow your instructions and be myself. Your words were very helpful that way.”

Abbi looked at him and saw that the vulnerability she’d seen before was still present. She wondered if he thought she’d still reject him. It happened-- there were people whose soulmates were too deep into addiction or destructive behavior, and they’d left, rather than watch their other half tear themselves into smaller pieces that couldn’t be repaired. Pepper Potts had left Tony Stark for much the same reason, and she’d been with him in various capacities for over ten years. The fact that she wasn’t his actual soulmate probably hadn’t made their break-up any less excruciating.

Something at the back of her mind was pinging for her attention, and as Tony’s phone rang and he answered it, she tried to find out what it was. When she realized, Abbi gasped.

“What?”

“You let me hand you things! You let me hand you multiple things! You don’t even know me!”

“Yes, you can open it back up. We’re going to. Yeah,” Tony said on the phone. He took her hand, rested it on his arm, and led her over to the elevator. “I need to open my building back up.” She let him lead her inside a car, still focused on the thing she’d realized.

“You don’t like being handed things. It’s in all the articles.” Abbi couldn’t let it go.

“Would it make more sense if I told you that Violet Walsingham is a family friend?” Tony asked. He took off his suit jacket and draped it over his arm, and started to pull his dress shirt out from where it was tucked into his trousers.

She backed away from him up against the elevator wall, suddenly frightened. What if this was how he picked up women nowadays? Getting her boss to tell him what to tell each courier! “Did she tell you my soulmark? What are you doing?”

“My soulmark is on my back. Violet did not tell me yours.” He turned his back on her and pulled the shirt up. “You’ll have to tug it up, it’s a bit tight.”

“Whose fault is that,” she couldn’t help but say, but Abbi reached out and lifted the shirt, only because she could see the final few words. They were in her handwriting. The whole paragraph was there. She wanted to touch them. She wanted to run away and never come back. She wanted to figure out what to do. As excited as she was about finding her soulmate, and finding out it was someone like Tony, it was intimidating as hell.

The elevator opened, and Abbi dropped the shirt like it was on fire. Tony chuckled and ushered her out. It was a living room, but the outside walls were windows, with an amazing view of New York.

“Wow,” she breathed.

“Violet found out I hadn’t discovered who my soulmate was, and once she got it out of me how specific my soulmark was, she decided to ‘help,’” Tony told her, gesturing for her to move farther into the room so she could see the view from up close. “She incorporated clipboards, only hired young, beautiful women from good backgrounds.”

“That’s sneaky. I shouldn’t reward either of you for that,” Abbi said, spinning around to look at him. He was unbuttoning his dress shirt, which made her widen her eyes even more, but she was mollified when he held up a t-shirt, implying he was just going to switch them.

“So how many employees of Courier and Ives have you met, then?” she asked, biting her lip.

“Thirty? Forty?” He shrugged.

“What?”

The elevator dinged, and Abbi looked over from Tony’s honest, direct expression to see that Happy Hogan was walking toward her, carrying her shoes.

“He let me hand him things,” she told Hogan.

“Yeah. He knew. So did I.”

“Your confidence is intimidating,” she griped, taking her shoes.

“That’s what makes you charming,” Hogan quipped, waving before heading back into the elevator.

Abbi noticed she was standing near a couch and let herself fall into it. “I don’t--”

“You want to go back to work? I can drive you,” Tony said. He came over and sat a respectful distance away. He looked less intimidating wearing the Iron Maiden shirt he’d changed into while she was talking to his buddy, but she was still barely coping. “As long as you come back.”

Then, another thought struck her. “Did you pay her?”

“Violet? No.” He scooted closer to her. “She got a successful, reputable business out of all of this. I doubt she’ll close up just because I found you.”

“You know all of this is insane, right?”

“So make it sane for me, Abigail,” Tony said. “What would do that?”

“Your phone number? A date, maybe? A primer on the uber rich?” she laughed. “I-- I think I could like you. I’m attracted. I don’t know if I feel some instant, powerful connection, but I don’t know how it’s supposed to work.”

“I can work with attracted,” Tony said warmly. “I can get you a phone--”

“Aht!” Abbi said, closing her fingers in on her thumb in a ‘stop’ gesture. “I have a phone. I want your number. I won’t share it with anyone.”

“Yes, Miss Granger,” Tony rolled his eyes. He put his phone number into her phone, and when she got it back, his contact was named ‘Soulron Man’ with emoji hearts surrounding the words.

“Does that mean I get to put myself into your phone?” she asked, wishing she could get used to the feeling that she was walking along a knife-edge ridge high in the Himalayas. At any moment something she said, did, or thought to herself could push her tumbling over into one valley or another.

“That’s a big step, honeybuns, are you sure you’re ready for it?” His eyes were practically begging her to object to the nickname.

“I-- can I go home? I took PTO for the rest of the day,” Abbi asked cautiously.

“Absolutely. Can I drive you?”

“To show off your restraint or your fancy cars?”

“Yes.”

The fancy car was a convertible, and Tony kept his hands to himself the entire ride. Abbi found herself relaxing just a bit around him, which was both a welcome relief and a trigger for more anxiety. Their conversation revolved around their parents, oddly enough, but when he pulled up to her apartment complex, he turned toward her with a serious expression on his face.

“Look, I’m a mess. It’s well documented. If you’re going to be a mess too, we’re going to have to work out some sort of custody arrangement.”

Despite herself, Abbi laughed. “Ironically, my mess is probably the polar opposite of yours? I feel deeply inadequate.”

“Having a paragraph of frustration etched into my back in your handwriting doesn’t encourage you even a little bit?” he asked. Abbi frowned. “No, wait--” he said, reaching out and grabbing her hand to squeeze it. “That made you feel anxious about what it says, didn’t it?”

She nodded.

“This is irony, that’s what this is. I have no experience with inadequacy.”

Abbi couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “Maybe we’re supposed to even each other out?”

“That… might actually make sense. So, dinner tomorrow? I pick you up here?” His thumb brushed across the top of her hand. It felt like a gentle knock on the door of her heart, and for the first time since she’d heard his first words to her, Abbi felt like she might be up for answering it.

Tony kissed her hand before she went inside. The sizzle of his lips against her skin made Abbi wonder how long their physical compromises would survive the tension that was starting to grow between them.

Her mother was asleep for an afternoon nap when she got inside. As carefully as she could, Abbi snuck into her room and spent the rest of the day completely unable to focus on anything. Taking PTO had been a really good idea.

She went to sleep that night with her heart full of possibilities and only a few concerns. They were big concerns, but they might not be as insurmountable as she’d initially thought.

Next chapter, Abbi goes on the most momentous first date anyone could possibly have, and the two of them bond through shared trauma.

[foundationhq]

EMPLOYEE ID 4801-9445-8; 𝑅𝐸𝑉𝐸𝑅𝑆𝐸 𝐸𝑁𝐺𝐼𝑁𝐸𝐸𝑅.

𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐞 45+ 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫/𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 must   be   poc.   academic,   exuberant,   avoidant. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 open

PROFILE.

Insightful and fair, [𝑅𝐸𝑉𝐸𝑅𝑆𝐸 𝐸𝑁𝐺𝐼𝑁𝐸𝐸𝑅] is, in some respects, the inspiration for The Broken Scales of Themis. Their breakthrough discovery in the case of The Wicker Twins led to the safe containment of SCP-8568 and saved thousands of human lives. This research at [REDACTED] ushered a paradigm shift, implementing Foundation-wide changes to Containment Protocol; meanwhile, [𝑅𝐸𝑉𝐸𝑅𝑆𝐸 𝐸𝑁𝐺𝐼𝑁𝐸𝐸𝑅] was elevated to a chair on the Foundation’s Experimentation Committee Board. Their stalwart and moral approach to the Foundation’s scientific endeavors has been nothing short of exemplary. [𝑅𝐸𝑉𝐸𝑅𝑆𝐸 𝐸𝑁𝐺𝐼𝑁𝐸𝐸𝑅]’s innovative and compassionate procedures will surely be of value to MTF Chi-00 especially when auditing security breaches and containment failures at other sites. And their integrity is surely to set a standard that their colleagues should measure themselves against. — Internal Memo from the Ethics Committee.

LAST ASSIGNMENT.

UTP;  recommendations  include  a  senior  researcher  in  the  Anomalous  Entity  Engagement  Division  (AEED),  Experimental  Containment  Research  Group,  Department  of  Mythology  and  Folkloristics,  and  Department  of  Ethnography.  May  have  been  a  contributor  to  or  senior  staff  member  on  The  Observer:  An  SCP  Foundation  Journal.  Must  have  been  a  part  of  the  Foundation  Experimentation  Committee.  Since  this  is  a  senior  scientist,  applicants  are  encouraged  to  give  an  expansive  portfolio.

INTERRELATIONS OF NOTE.

𝑂𝐿𝐷 𝑆𝑃𝑂𝑅𝑇. You’re no stranger to the bureaucrats sniffing around the Foundation’s halls, but 𝑂𝐿𝐷 𝑆𝑃𝑂𝑅𝑇 hovering around your ex-student is definitely a cause for concern. Your position as a prominent scientist and previous board member won’t save you should they dig up the skeletons you’ve fought so hard to bury.

𝐹𝐿𝐼𝑀𝐹𝐿𝐴𝑀 & №2 𝑃𝐸𝑁𝐶𝐼𝐿. Your two students, mentored in their early days with the Foundation. In 𝐹𝐿𝐼𝑀𝐹𝐿𝐴𝑀, you saw the spark inherited from your dear friends, their well-respected and much-mourned parents; in №2 𝑃𝐸𝑁𝐶𝐼𝐿, you saw the drive of an unknown raised from obscurity and your own dogged dedication to the work. In the end, you could only recommend one… and you couldn’t shake a vision of 𝐹𝐿𝐼𝑀𝐹𝐿𝐴𝑀 carrying on their late family’s legacy. With your review in hand, your student carried on rubbing elbows with the Foundation’s elite… while №2 𝑃𝐸𝑁𝐶𝐼𝐿 was relegated to the tedious, dangerous work of a field assistant, toils you remembered from your own days as a junior researcher. Perhaps you’d played favorites for the sake of those old friends of yours. Then you took another look at 𝐹𝐿𝐼𝑀𝐹𝐿𝐴𝑀’s thesis. To your horror, you realized it was based on №2 𝑃𝐸𝑁𝐶𝐼𝐿’s abandoned data — research you had told them to drop, long ago, in favor of other topics. But it was far too late. If you exposed 𝐹𝐿𝐼𝑀𝐹𝐿𝐴𝑀, your career would also implode. The shame of your blatant nepotism ate you up inside. You couldn’t bear to face your students again. So you kept quiet for years. Then the day of the MTF Chi-00 orientations arrives. Neither of your students seem to realize what you know, and both appear glad to see you again. Can you keep it this way until this assignment ends?

𝐸𝐿𝐸𝑉𝐴𝑇𝑂𝑅 𝑀𝑈𝑆𝐼𝐶. Honestly, the only familiar face that won’t give you a cardiac arrest. In fact, they’d probably save you from one. You two met at a Foundation conference and hit it off, and have been corresponding back-and-forth for years. Although the two of you don’t tell each other everything, the door’s always open, and you enjoy the company.

𝐶𝑂𝑁𝑁𝐸𝐶𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁 𝑈𝑇𝑃. — Propose a connection between your character and any of our taken or open skeletons!

[deathpoke1qa]

Sims Tag

Thank you @alice-in-strangetown for tagging me!

1. What’s your favourite sims death?

I always thought Death by Flies was particularly brutal and acted as a good incentive to not let your slobs get too... slobby. I am glad they brought it back for Sims 4.

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

I consider myself to be pretty strictly maxis match. It just makes the game feel like its own world, instead of ours. Though, I do like to use makeup and eye from alpha creators. Plus my game barely runs on my poor laptop, so alpha cc is kind of like a forbidden fruit for my game.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

I have a mod that makes it so sims don't gain muscle or weight at all. Though, the majority of my sims have their weight set to like 75% ish and I still think they look too skinny...

4. Do you use move objects?

Unplayable otherwise.

5. Favorite mod?

I swear by roBurky's Meaningful Stories Mod and weerbesu's UI Cheats Extension. If I had to play with only the bare minimum of mods, these would be the two that I pick.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

When I was a kid, I played the MySims games, MySims Agents, specifically. When I went to go look up more Sims games, I found Sims 2 and had my mom buy Sims 2 Seasons. I did not realize it required the basegame until it was too late.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

I say it like aLIVE. I guess in my mind it's like LIVE television or LIVE streaming a game. It makes sense in my brain at least.

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

It is illegal to make me choose. Though, I might make a post soon that just a bunch of random sims I have made in CAS and a brief description of their stories I never played out. Stay tuned.

9. Have you made a simself?

Ever since I started playing Sims, I have always made a simself. Though, when I was younger, the sim was like a projection of what I wanted to look like and now my simself is what I look like. For the most part. He needs some updating.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

Probably Creative, Art Lover and Perfectionist for Sims 4 traits. In Sims 3, probably Artistic, Couch Potato, Cat Person, Perfectionist and Supernatural Fan. That about sums me up.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?

This would be easier to ask my LEAST favorite color would be the true black swatch because half of the hairs just look gray. Favorite? Not really any, depends on the sim but most of my sims have the blue-black hair color.

12. Favorite EA hair?

Sims 2 peaked with this hairstyle. I tried to recreate it here in Sims 4 by combining cc, but it's not the same...

13. Favorite life stage?

Purely from a gameplay standpoint, it is Young Adult, but that is such a vanilla answer. Toddlers are up there. It would be Infants but I have yet to actually play with that life stage...

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

It's about equal tbh. Depends on my mood.

15. Are you a CC creator?

Perhaps.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

Yeah, I force them to join my discord server.

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4)

Each game has things that I like and don't like. Gameplay wise, Sims 2 100%. Building and CAS, Sims 4. I have not touched Sims 3 in a hot second but I would love to revisit it again. Sims 1 is at the bottom of the list, I only play that game for the novelty, tbh.

18. Do you have any sims merch?

No, but I do own a plumbob headband for when me and my girlfriend dressed up as Bella and Mortimer a few years ago.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Unfortunately.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Not really. The only noticeable change is that I used to religiously make irl people that I knew as sims, including my crushes of course. Now, I don't ever do that besides my simself.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

DeathPoke1qa!

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator?

This is insanely difficult to answer. There are popular creators that I have a lot of cc from and there are small creators that scratch an extremely specific itch for me. So basically @pralinesims and @omgcoffinfit respectively.

23. How long have you had a simblr?

Since early 2019, I made it exclusively to post my custom content.

24. How do you edit your pictures?

Pirated photoshop.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

Bands! Though, them releasing a grunge kit and a potential goth kit makes that feel more and more unlikely.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?

Sims 3: Supernatural holds a special place in my heart that has yet to be replicated. I just love occults and vampires and any sim packs that revolve around it. Every time I go to make a family I'm like. "These guys are cute... but what if they were vampires, too?" Every. Time.

I’m tagging @pralinesims @omgcoffinfit @crazy-lazy-elder-sims @glammoose @eggysimblr @ethelgodehel and anyone else who wants to give this tag a try!

[thestingerblog]

What Everything Everywhere All At Once Tells Us About Home

by Sam H. 

Read on our site

Everything Everywhere All At Once isn’t only a beautiful film in terms of its cinematography – its creativity has prompted fans of the movie to analyze every detail of the film to find every last hidden meaning. But after watching tons of videos about what the googly eyes and bagels all represent, my favorite way to view the movie is through a much larger, thematic lens.

To contribute to the large, ever-expanding pool of thematic interpretations of the film, I’d like to discuss Everything Everywhere All At Once exploring the idea of home. In a physical sense, the Wangs live on the upper floor of the laundromat they own and operate, forcing Evelyn to intertwine her work life and personal life. Their living space is clustered with their belongings, leaving little space for the family to separate themselves from one another. This crowded environment contributes to each family member feeling trapped: Waymond with his marriage, Evelyn with her work, and Joy with her family. That’s part of the reason why other universes are so expansive, both literally and figuratively. In the universe of rocks, Evelyn and Joy are simply rocks, overlooking a vast canyon that stretches out to the horizon and doesn’t seem to ever end. In another universe, Evelyn is a successful actress. The other universes that Jobu Tupaki shows Evelyn pinpoints a desire to escape the monotony that’s associated with home.

Though the film shows how home can be a difficult space that can trap people within their fears and doubts, it also acknowledges that it can be even harder to leave. In the climax of the film, Evelyn tells Joy to stop running, and Joy breaks down into tears in the parking lot of the laundromat, begging her mother to let her go. At this point, Joy associates home with her family and can’t stand to be around either because it reminds her of how her identity seems to contradict her identity as a first-generation Chinese American and could disrupt her relationship with her grandfather. To Joy, her family and the laundromat aren’t home because, just like her, they’re ideas that Evelyn tries to project her own desires onto them in hopes that she can rectify her past disappointments to her father.

When Evelyn realizes this and seems to let Joy go, the audience sees that Evelyn has let all these expectations go. But, we’re suddenly pulled back into the parking lot again where Evelyn tells Joy to stop and reveals that out of all the places in the world she could be, she wants to be with her daughter, living a mundane life. Even though Evelyn can access these universes via a simple Bluetooth headpiece or by falling through the creases of a couch in her own apartment, she chooses to stay in her reality and make the best out of it because her family is worth trying for, despite all the hardships. This is where the idea of home shifts from the one of a physical location, or even a possible alternative universe, to a concept sustained by love for family and others. The movie never tries to separate home and family but rather chooses to reframe it to show that creating a safe and loving home is a choice that families make, breaking the cycle of associating home and family with suppression and unreachable expectations. Ultimately, Joy learns to accept her family too and shirks her own expectations for her family and what they could be. And Waymond – well, Waymond, who has always seen the best in people, finally realizes the value of his kindness through his support of Evelyn during the multiversal tribulation and learns to do the same as well.

Everything Everywhere All At Once leaves the audience with either an aching for home or an appreciation of people who make them feel at home, especially first-generation Asian Americans. Many of us have a complicated relationship with our identity because we often feel disconnected from our cultural identity. While we may speak the language and celebrate cultural traditions, we’re also deeply immersed in American culture – yet, non-Asian Americans often see as us Asian before American. This leaves us feeling lost, often having trouble confiding in our immigrant parents who are also going through the same conflict but often refuse to explicitly acknowledge it. The film references this diasporic struggle by showing clips of Evelyn debating on whether to move to America with Waymond and start a completely new life. Furthermore, Joy being a lesbian in addition to being Asian American extends this consideration by bringing into question whether these identities can co-exist without constantly fostering a clashing internal conflict that manifests itself in the form of nihilism.

The best part about this movie is that the theme of home is only one interpretation. Everyone who has watched the movie has provided their own interpretation of the movie. But from analyzing Waymond’s unconditional kindness in relation to portrayals of Asian masculinity to Evelyn’s alternate selves disproving the stereotype of a passive Asian woman, the beauty of these interpretations is that they can exist in harmony, everywhere and all at once.

[sepiamestus]

i will talk to you about tpn splatoon au bestie that sounds fun as hell iam staring at you with my big autistic eyes. give me your thoughts <3

OHHHH YYEAHHH ok putting under a read more cuz it might take a while to explain

Ok so because I never recovered from 2018 my ideas mostly revolve around octo expansion (which is the dlc where the first playable octoling agent 8 was introduced. I won't explain the entire plot since its pretty convoluted and my au does not closely follow canon at all but the gist of it is agent 8 gets trapped in an underground testing facility and has to fight other octolings yo make it to the ""promised land"" aka the surface).

^^ 2 diff versions of 8

But in the au version the kids (all octolings) were raised in the deapsea metro (the testing facility) and believe that if they pass all the tests (aka get full scores wink wink) they will go to the surface.

But what they DONT know is that the kids are actually getting put in the blender

Like in canon when the antagonist (tartar) needs blended up octolings as his "ingredients" for the "primordial ooze". (Theres a loooot of theorizing about what tartar did with the Octoling GooTM that hasnt been confirmed by canon but for the sake of the au and basing off tpn we'll say it's for dinner reasons).

So then norman and emma walk in on conny being blenderfied, and they realize that their entire childhood was a lie and they're actually being prepped to be smoothies, and decide they need to escape to the surface in a way that doesn't require help from Tartar the big bad blender guy.

So they go to our favorite boy ray who, alongside knowing about the testing facility scam for years, acquired a map of the facility through secret sources (cough cough dedf1sh the zombie DJ who lives in the walls).

But before they escape mr tartar sauce catches onto their schemes and tries to undermine them by prematurely sending norman to smoothie town (presumably 👀)

R and E then use the map to try to escape the facility the long way by going up through all the floors. Yadda yadda yadda, fight some brainwashed octariens, dodge some lasers, etc.

Then they get to The Big Elevator that's supposed to take them to the surface but instead they find norman, who instead of being turned into a protein shake, has been "sanitized" aka mind controlled by tartars primordial ooze

Like agent 3 in canon :)

****Big epic paint battle scene here****

Norman gets degooped, and the kids go to the surface. This is where it splits from octoex canon cuz in the game, there's a big boss fight with tartar and his knockoff statue of liberty, but instead after they reach the surface they find inkopolis (the main inkling hub) completely abandoned (like in side order) and go

THEN we get to the delayed part of pearl and marina, who I've decided are sonju and mijuka simply because it's the funniest. And basically they keep living in the abandoned inkopolis till the events of side order. And then dedf1sh comes. Eventually <3

[beyblader-observations]

Beyblade X episode 1 review

First off, this might sound like a backhanded compliment, but I like that the animation for Beyblade X isn’t super gorgeous and sparkly and shiny and perfect like in Beyblade Burst. With Burst, it felt like they put all their effort into making it look perfectly pretty, rather than writing a fleshed out story (forgive me, I only watched the first season and rise). Honestly, even when stories are fleshed out, I feel like too many special effects and dramatic lighting distract me from it. I’ll be like “ooh, his hair is so pretty! …Wait, what was he talking about?” The art style reminds me a little of Beyblade G Revolution (which is my favorite series of all time). Something about the way the characters’ eyes are drawn and the colors and the quality in general are reminiscent of that. (Now, I’m also watching this on a non-official site, which might effect video quality and make it look “older”.)

So far, I really like the characters’ personalities, up to where the manga left off. The tone of the story feels really nice. I feel like I could really love it. I was mesmerized by the manga scene when Kurosu reminded Kazami that Beyblading is about having fun. That was a great hook to get me invested. I hope that the story continues having motivational moments like that. The opening theme certainly indicates that. Honestly, the one thing that I can think of that might make this not as appealing as Bakuten Shoot is that I don’t know if it will have the travel/adventure elements of the original. In retrospect, I realize a big part of what I love about Bakuten Shoot Beyblade is how Tyson and friends travel all over the world, showing us snippets of real countries and cultures, as well as showing us the backgrounds and hometowns of the huge expanse of characters. I hope that X gives us some travel, even if it’s in a fictional world. I hope that the new characters get proper development and that we get to see what their upbringing was like and where they came from. There’s one character that reminds me a lot of Lee/Rai, and I had the passing thought that it would be lovely if he was also from White Tiger Hills, but I haven’t seen any indication of this story taking place in the same universe. Lastly, one little thing I noticed is that the characters seem a little older than the Bakuten characters. I never found an official source for the original characters’ ages, but I know that Tyson was 13 in the beginning of the English dubbed anime, yet in the manga, he was still in elementary school for the entirety of it. Which I took to mean he was like 10-12 through the series. The main characters in the original were voiced by women, giving them younger sounding voices. Whereas in X, our main guys sound like adult men. They still look rather young, so I would guess like 15-16. It’s fun to speculate when a new series is out and there isn’t much information yet. I only watched half of the first episode so far because I want to pace myself so I don’t have to wait too long for the next one.