#honestly how hard is it to set a timer

[vettelsvee]

NEW YEAR'S DAY | Oscar Piastri

⋆ PAIRING: Oscar Piastri x Girlfriend!Reader ⋆ SUMMARY: A clumsy and unexpected proposal on New Year's Day is what you wouldn't have thought about after dating Oscar for almost five years ↳ Part of REPUTATION in MY TORTURED DRIVERS DEPARTMENT ⋆ WARNINGS: Curse words ⋆ WORD COUNT: 1722 ⋆ VEE'S NOTES: I loved writing this one! Hope you like it as much as me ☺️ Feel free to tell me in the comments <3 ↳ LET'S TALK/REQUESTS! | FORMULA 1 MASTERLIST

Oscar was nervous, really nervous… maybe even more than the day he won his first Formula 1 race and had no idea how to act.

“Which one do you prefer: blue pants or the black ones?”

“Oscar, sweetheart… it’s just New Year’s at our place. With your family. And with Lando. It’s all very casual, so stop overthinking what pants wearing!”

You answered from the kitchen island, struggling to cut a pineapple with a knife that was very likely the one Oscar had promised to sharpen. A promise, clearly, left unfulfilled.

Oscar looked at himself in the mirror and rolled his eyes at your answer.

The thing was you were supposed to be helping him. Instead, you were doing quite the opposite.

“I just want to look good, you know? It’s the first time we’re hosting New Year’s here, and, well… you never know what might happen. It’s a special night.”

“Come on, Osc, why are you so nervous?” you asked, narrowing your eyes at him. He avoided your gaze and sneezed instead.

“Okay… you’re definitely hiding something.”

“You think I’m hiding something because I sneezed?”

You nodded. You knew he always did that when he was dodging a topic, and then there was the way he kept fidgeting with his hands, tapping anxiously on his thighs.

“I’m not hiding anything, I swear,” Oscar said again. He tried to sound convincing, but the tremble in his voice gave him away. “I just want tonight to be… memorable.”

All you could do was smile. As much as you didn’t like being left in the dark, the way he kept secrets was, somehow, ridiculously charming. Especially coming from someone like Oscar, who rarely let his emotions show, no matter how hard you’d tried to help him open up.

As the hours passed and midnight drew closer, your home filled with people. First came Oscar’s mom and stepdad. Then his father arrived with his three sisters, who wasted no time grabbing cold beers while casting suspicious glances at your boyfriend. Lando, who was supposed to be one of the first to arrive, ended up being among the last. He said nothing until he reached the makeshift DJ booth he’d insisted you set up behind Oscar’s back. Even your cousin, who hadn’t been too keen on attending such a “different” kind of party, showed up unexpectedly, arm-in-arm with a guy you’d never seen before and who looked nothing like her usual type.

“Who let Oscar cook?” Lando asked, holding up a canapé with salmon that was, honestly, a little overdone. “This piece of toast looks incinerated.”

“Take it or leave it!” Oscar shouted from the kitchen, wrestling with an egg-shaped timer that refused to stop beeping. He slammed it repeatedly against the counter until it finally cracked open. “Holy shit!”

You shook your head, laughing quietly at the surreal scene, especially when Hattie walked over to Oscar and made him swear to buy you a new timer, plus something else she whispered in his ear that you couldn’t quite catch.

You tried, once again, not to read into the secrecy, but it got harder when his entire family huddled in a corner of the living room, politely but firmly refusing to let you join them.

Your cousin must’ve sensed your confusion, because when she came over, you finally felt like you could breathe again.

“Have you noticed how weird Oscar’s acting? Imagine if he proposes to you!”

“What? No, come on,” you replied quickly, doing your best not to get your hopes up. “In front of his whole family? On New Year’s Eve? That’s so not his style.” You shook your head. “If he ever did something like that, it’d be at home, after dinner or something low-key. He’s not the kind of guy who’d go public with that.”

“Exactly. That’s why I’m saying it. Why else would he be this nervous, today of all days? It’s not your first New Year’s together… It’s too obvious.”

You brushed the idea aside, but no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t quite shake it off. Especially when, at 11:30 p.m., Oscar disappeared without a word and now, his sisters and Nicole were clearly stalling you.

Oscar tried to sneak into your bedroom unnoticed, but he knew he hadn’t succeeded. Did he care? Not one bit. Clutching the velvet ring box he’d hidden in his travel bag, he had bigger things on his mind.

“Okay, breathe… You’ve rehearsed this over ten times alone, and five with Lando…”

He crouched down, then stood in front of the full-length mirror to practice kneeling. But on the third attempt of “how to propose to my girlfriend without completely embarrassing myself,” he tripped on the rug and fell flat on his face.

“Shit…”

“Oscar, babe? Are you okay?”

Your voice made him scramble to his feet and instinctively toss the ring box to the back of the closet, terrified you’d catch him.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s great! Just, uh… rehearsing how to celebrate the New Year with you!”

“Osc, sweetheart, this isn’t our first New Year’s together,” you said as you jiggled the door handle, trying to open it. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been acting a little… off today.”

And that was putting it mildly.

“I’m just nervous because, you know… this is the first of many New Year’s where I’m a Formula 1 world champion!”

You shook your head. At that point, it was obvious—Oscar was up to something. Whatever it was, good or bad, it was going to surprise you.

You said goodbye and reminded him not to take too long—only ten minutes left until midnight. He promised he’d be quick, just needed to stop by the bathroom.

Once he heard your sandals fade down the hallway, he let out a long sigh of relief and turned to face the mirror one last time.

“All right… ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you, through the good and the bad. So… will you marry me?’”

[...]

"Five minutes to midnight!" Lando shouted from the terrace, half a glass of champagne in hand as he finally abandoned the DJ booth.

"God, it was about time he got out of there," Nicole whispered to you. "Do you have any idea how nervous that music was making me?"

While you kept chatting with your mother-in-law, Oscar stepped out onto the balcony looking much paler than usual. It was obvious something was up: he scratched the back of his neck, stared at the sky, shoved his hands into his pockets, then looked straight at you and gave you a nervous smile.

"Hey, Osc... are you okay?" you asked, walking up to him with a shyness you hadn’t seen in him since you first started dating back in high school.

"Yeah, yeah, I’m fine." He glanced at his mom, who was standing behind you. She gave him a discreet thumbs-up. "I just… really want to see the fireworks."

"Oscar. You hate fireworks."

"Exactly the reason why I’m nervous."

He swallowed hard.

You let the little lie slide; there wasn’t time to call him out anyway, because everyone around you had started the countdown. So you just smiled, wrapped your arms around him, and kissed his cheek.

Oscar, gently pulling away, reached into his pocket to grab the box… only to find it wasn’t there.

"No, no, no… shit… where the hell are you?" he muttered under his breath, pretending his panic was about the upcoming fireworks.

He checked the other pocket… nothing. Looked down… nothing. Then, as he fumbled with the back pockets, he finally felt the box. Unfortunately, in pulling it out, it slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a soft thud.

"Five, four, three, two, one…!"

And Oscar tripped right over your feet.

"Happy New Year!"

You dropped to your knees in a slight panic to help him up, praying he hadn’t hurt himself, because the sound of the fall had been anything but soft.

What you weren’t expecting was to find him kneeling in front of you, holding an open box with the ring. The one you’d been eyeing for six months.

You stared at him, confused… and then completely speechless.

"Wait… are you really serious? This isn’t a joke, right?"

He looked up at you. Hair a mess, shirt wrinkled and soaked in champagne from the bottle Lando had just popped. Tiny pieces of confetti stuck to the beads of sweat on his face.

"Yes and no," he said, a sheepish grin spreading across his lips. "I mean, sure, I think I’ve dislocated a hip and lost most of my dignity, but… I guess it was worth it."

Then, with just a few quiet seconds and a single question, your eyes welled up.

"Will you marry me?"

Silence wrapped around the room. No one screamed. No one pushed you to answer. You even noticed Lando thoughtfully turning the music down, switching it to Lover by Taylor Swift, the song you’d once told Oscar you wanted playing when you got proposed to.

"Of course, you idiot," you said, tears rolling down your cheeks as you helped him up and pulled him into the tightest hug, burying your face in his chest. "But promise me you won’t be this nervous on our wedding day."

[...]

"Do you think it was too… casual?"

The party was over, and now the two of you were curled up in bed, sharing a McDonald’s burger because, as it turned out, Lando was right—putting Oscar in charge of New Year’s dinner had been a mistake you wouldn’t repeat.

"Well… you tripped over a rug while rehearsing, then fell again and ended up with confetti all over your face. So I wouldn’t call it casual. I’d say… unique."

"Yeah… It definitely didn’t go as planned."

"But it was perfect anyway," you cut in.

Oscar sat up, holding his Big Mac box like it was a sacred artifact, and looked at you.

"Really?"

"Of course! If there’s anything that defines us, it’s not just how much we love each other… it’s also how ridiculously clumsy we are."

"Right… And listen, speaking of clumsy…" he said with a guilty grin. "I think it’s very much fair you tell Lando that you were the one who burned all the food and ruined New Year’s dinner."

© VETTELSVEE (2025). Please, do not steal, copy, translate and share my works in other platforms. Thanks for reading!

[on-the-clear-blue]

Dead Man's Diner pt3

Dick knew that Tim was sending him looks every few seconds.

How could he not? This places food names were honestly the best, if this was some kinda murder cult Dick would be so disappointed.

Glancing up over the menu at Danny, Dick smiled at the teen who had been whipping down the same cup for five minutes like some wild west bartender while trying very hard not to stare at the two vigilantes.

"Okay, I think I have made up my mind, Red you got what you wanted?" Finally meeting Tim's eyes, Dick mentally winced, Tim's eyes were doing that twitchy thing that happened sometimes...

"Yes. I am." Dick understand slightly but like...the puns weren't that bad

Out of the corner of his eye Dick saw Danny pop up, nearly slamming the mug he had been holding as he fumbled with a note pad, coming closer to the two, he did a pretty decent customer service smile as he waited.

Since Tim was having a problem with words, Dick went first.

"So, I'll have some Boo-berry Poltergeist pancakes, with two sunny side up eggs and a side of bacon?" Dick watched as Danny paused for a moment, let out a little laugh and then started to write before looking to Tim.

"I will have...Ugh, the Wraith waffles with the hunting hashbrowns on the side...please." Dick had seen Tim look less pained over being stabbed than say the wonderful puns.

"Alrighty, anything to drink before I head back and get started on your order?" Holding up a coffee jug in one hand and an orange juice jug in the other, Danny gave a slight smirk.

Perhaps it was the coffee but Tim looked a bit less pained after that.

---

As he slapped down a few pieces of bacon, Danny totally didn't use his ghost powers to bring the bowl of pancake batter over closer as he scooped a ladle full on a freshly buttered side of the flat top, making sure it set first, Danny heard a beep from the frier, heading over he paused to see French fries in there as well.

Shaking his head, he dunked them all into the oil, and moved to set the timer only to see it already clicking down, "Oh um...thank you very much." Patting the deep frier, Danny moved back to the flat top as it let out a gurgling purr.

---

Tim took all of five seconds after Danny rounded the corner into the back of the house to start whispering

"Wing, this place is mocking me. Apple apparition pie? Haunting Hashbrowns? Ethereal fucking eggs benedict." Hissing Tim shifted in his seat, "like I would get it if this place was ghost themed but it very clearly isnt! It is mocking me because I know this place doesn't exist!" Slamming a fist down on the counter, it very much thudded.

Sharing a look with Tim, Dick placed a hand on Tim's shoulder, "Buddy...I agree there is something up with this place but...I very much think it exists? Since we are kinda sitting here."

Dragging his hand down his face with a groan Tim leaned back in his seat, "I know and it is infuriating me..." Grabbing the coffee mug Tim looked at it with a not insignificant amount of distrust before taking a swig, pausing, than taking another, much slower sip, holding the mug with both hands as he lowered it down, staring at the dark liquid with a small glare.

"Red? You okay? Is that the bad coffee look ot oh shittake mushrooms that was poisoned look?" Dick said worryingly, looking to the cup of orange juice that was in front of him with suspicion.

"N-no...I" Tim's words cut off as he took a breath, "Just...tastes just like the kind Mom used to drink, came from this little town in Chile they passed through..." staring at the cup a little longer Tim shook his head, "They closed a few years back, the farmer that made it got killed by a drug cartel that wanted him to plant coca rather than coffee, it's just that this place should very much not have this."

There was a tension between the two vigilantes, Dick moving to speak before being cut off by Danny quickly coming out from the back.

"Order up! Got two pancakes for Mr. Nightwing, side of bacon and eggs and two waffles for Mr. Red Robin with some hasbrowns!" Setting each plate down in front of said vigilante, Danny gave them both a grin.

"And a side of Phantom fries for both of you on the house!"

After refilling the little bit missing out of Tim's cup, Danny seemed to be to there one second and back in the kitchen a moment later.

---

"Phantom fries?" Danny whispered to himself as he started to clean off the griddle, a grin on his face as he did, he might of left the hero business, but oh God was it funny, he wondered if other people got the same fun out of it.

Checking out on he customers through the small window to the front, Danny felt his core thrum at the sight of the two eating, it was a different kind of thrum that he got while protecting people, this one...this one gave him a full body shudder and cleared a fog in his mind he didn't even he had.

Shaking his head, Danny tried not to let the purr building in his chest out.

---

Screw the worries that Tim had, Dick was having the time of his life.

"We can't tell the others about this place Red...Little wing would try and place it in the Alley and B might try and buy it cus holy guacamole this shit is good..." Dick had dug in after Tim's wrist mounted computer had tested the food for any known poisons which said that there weren't any, but still went and saved a few samples for further analysis at the Cave.

Dick didn't know why but the pancakes tasted like those that Alfred made the first week he had been at the manor, he had gotten upset at Brcue and hid in the attic all day, but Alfred managed to lure him down with the promise of blueberries in his pancakes.

They were perfectly fluffy, butter soaked with that little edge around it that was crunchy, the berries were tart enough to battle the maple syrup and...it was just like how Dick remembered.

Shaking his head as he finished up his food, Dick threw a look over at Tim, who was hunched over his empty plate, holding his mug of coffee closer, at Dicks questioning look the teen spoke.

"We have to leave Wing something is just...off about this place, its...they taste like when my dad used to make breakfast after coming home from a dig...has to be brain waves or mind reading or..." Tim continued to ramble on, ideas flowing out of him like a water fall.

By the time that Danny went back to check on the two, they were gone.

[sabertoothwalrus]

hi!! do you have any advice on how to finish projects faster? or at least more efficiently? i take a few days to finish a piece (1 or 2 days at minimum) and i want to learn how to refine my process

that can depend a lot on what kind of look you’re trying to achieve, and what exactly is slowing you down!

things you can do if you take too long doing lineart:

Practice sketching in pen & marker! Do exercises that train your hand to be more efficient. If you can draw the same thing with 5 lines that previously took you 20, you’ll cut down on time.

Try a different brush! Maybe the one you’re using is too soft, and you have to keep going back over the lines to make them dark enough. There might be another brush that gets the same result with less effort.

Zoom out! On paper, a drawing that’s 2 inches tall will take wayyyy less time than a drawing that’s as big as your torso. When you zoom in, you’re essentially making the whole drawing bigger. When I draw, I like to be able to see the whole pose. If you’re worried about it not being perfectly clean, I promise you, no one is paying that close attention.

Skip the lineart entirely! Odds are, your sketches might already be pretty clean. If it takes you 20 minutes to do a sketch and 2 hours to do the lineart, but the lines look almost the same, then why bother doing the lineart?

similar advice for coloring/rendering!

Maybe it’s your art software! I can color 10x faster in CSP than anything else, because CSP makes it really easy to color in flats.

Limit how many types of brushes you use. There ARE certain effects (like convincing digital watercolor) that really do need 5-10 different brushes to get the look Just Right, but going through your tool menus to swap brushes will add time. When I render (which is rare, honestly) I stick to one, maybe two painterly brushes.

other general advice:

Don’t be so hard on yourself! Honestly, 1-2 days is still objectively pretty fast!

If you’re a perfectionist who will arbitrarily spend too much time fiddling and fiddling until it’s justttttt right, try setting timers! Give yourself a predetermined amount of time for the lineart, for the coloring, for the rendering, etc and MOVE ON once that timer goes off. Not everything you do has to be your magnum opus.

Use keyboard shortcuts!!!!!!!! I don’t like using screen tablets, especially if I can’t use shortcuts. If you have a tablet with programmable buttons or some kind of remote, that can work too. I see people use bluetooth xbox controllers sometimes, which is a good option if you already have that. Personally, I use so many shortcuts that there are never enough buttons to program, so I just stick with a keyboard.

JUST KEEP AT IT! The more you draw, the faster you get. I avoided doing paneled comics for nearly 10 years cause they took so much effort, and would only do comics where each panel was its own layer/image. After enough time doing that, I eventually got good enough at everything else to do with comics that the paneling aspect wasn’t that difficult anymore.

[miyamor]

❝ KISS ME HARD AND SOFT; ❞

۶ৎ ft. h. sero, s. todoroki, i. midoriya, d. kaminari, k. bakugou, e. kirishima navigation mha masterlist

۶ৎ headcanons of doing the hungry kiss trend (I don't wanna be me) with the mha boys. with links on how I think they'll act in the video<3

HANTA SERO⨾ a video of the trend came up on his fyp a few days ago, but he didn't watch it long enough to get to the main point of the video. it was 6pm on a friday night and hanta was adjusting the strings on his guitar when you showed him the tiktok on your phone and ask him to do the trend with you. him being the boyfriend that agrees to do anything as long as it's with you, he immediately agrees.

the both of you step out of the dorm building and find a street light pole to lean your phone against. you set the timer and put distance between you and hanta. right before the timer ends, you see hanta wink at you with the smirk he always has on his lips.

you push him first but he was quick to return the favor. he whispers a quick "sorry" before turning you around and dipping you down. hanta made sure to keep a hand on the back of your knee to make sure you wouldn't fall down. it's the least he could do after pushing you, after all.

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

SHOTO TODOROKI⨾ he rarely opens social media so the poor boy was unaware of what you were about to get him into. when you showed him the video, he understood the couples' want to kiss, but he couldn't wrap his head around why they find the need to be violent with one another. but he still agreed to do the trend with you when you asked him to. though he assured you that he won't be harming you in any way.

the phone started recording and after shoving shoto, he didn't know how to react. he wasn't expecting you to be so aggressive with it. though he couldn't stop the growing smile on his face when he realized you must've thought you could actually push him. nevertheless, shoto wanted that kiss. he wasted no time leaning down and meeting your lips with his.

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

IZUKU MIDORIYA⨾ izuku first saw the trend when he was peaking over kaminari's phone while they were sitting together in the common room. minutes had passed before kaminari noticed your boyfriend had gone quiet and was red in the face.

and so of course it came as a surprise to him when you asked him to do the trend with you. but since it was for you, he still agreed to do it despite thinking he wouldn't even last the whole fifteen seconds.

as you were setting u the phone to record, izuku got his act together and focused on the task at hand. follow through with how the trend is supposed to be done, and kiss you like how he always does. though it didn't really play out like it did in his head.

he kept overthinking how to push you and right before the kiss, he froze to check if the camera was still recording before finally pulling you closer. after the video, he kept apologizing about how awkward he was and that he was more than willing to redo it if needed.

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

DENKI KAMINARI⨾ a video of the trend passed by your fyp just a few hours ago when denki came barging into your dorm going on and on about why you should do the trend with him as the video played over and over again on his phone while he talked. denki assumed he would have to finish his speech before you agreed but three minutes into his rant, you interrupted him with a simple "sure".

he honestly didn't care for the first half of the video, because his only goal was to steal a kiss from you. when you started recording, denki made sure you were able to atleast shove him before pulling you in for the deepest kiss he had to offer. he was able to lift you up in the process too. denki made sure to show that kissing you was the only goal he had in mind when he kept kissing you even after the phone stopped recording.

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

KATSUKI BAKUGOU⨾ katsuki's first response when you showed him the video is "that's stupid". you were insistent on getting him to do the trend with you despite his glares and unfazed scowl. though at the end of the day, all it took for him to finally agree to do the trend with you are a few feather light kisses on the neck.

as you made your way outside the dorms, katsuki made sure to express his distaste for the situation. from your dorm room up until you're outside the dorm building, he's been non-stop grumbling and glaring at you. as if he doesn't like doing tiktok trends with you.

while recording, he made sure to be the one to bump you on the shoulder before you attempted to push him. he thought it was cute how you actually thought you could make him budge with such a small push. he chuckled at your actions before grabbing you by the front of your shirt and pulling you in for a kiss.

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

EIJIRO KIRISHIMA⨾ eijiro's first thought when you asked him to do the trend with you was how he could say yes to you without having to push or shove you while recording the tiktok. he didn't want to say no because he loved making tiktoks with you, but he didn't want to have to shove you like how the videos showed either.

so while you were setting up your phone to record the two of you, he kept thinking of ways to distract you from noticing he wasn't actually gonna do the trend how it's supposed to be done.

when the phone started recording, eijiro made sure you were able to bump into his shoulder and atleast try to shove him. before he reached a hand out to grab yours and pull you into him for the kiss. and eijiro supported your back with his left hand as if his life depended on it.

© miyamor 2025 please do not edit, translate, or repost onto any other platform

[omega-e123]

Unwombing Day

Really self indulgent. It was my birthday back in December and I got to do none of the things I wanted to.

For the past two months, meticulous planning had been made. Ideas upon ideas on how to celebrate your birthday were scribbled in a mini notebook. Days leading up had him checking the weather incessantly. There was even a back up plan for when it rained instead of snowed. Placed he could drive you to and still stay toasty warm. Plus, Shadow knew that you didn't mind sitting in a car while it rained. Pitter patter of droplets hitting the roof had a calming effect.

Instead of it raining, clear skies, or even a mild snowfall the world had decided to shut you two in. Snow was accounted for, but not a whole blizzard. Roaring cold winds plus the quickly accumulating snowfall foiled each and every single plan to take you out on a nice birthday date.

Frustrated, Shadow apologized to you constantly, "Forgive me. I hadn't expected for this to happen. I will make it up to you." He thinks on the spot on what could be done to salvage this despite your reassurance that it's no big deal. So far the only thing he was able to cross off his list was a late breakfast in bed.

"I have an idea! How about we make something together?" You suggest, placing an arm on his shoulder.

He rsises a brow, "Make something? What do you have in mind?"

"There's this trend that has been going around where you take a few minutes to paint something and then trade the canvas. What do you say?"

"I'm not particularly artistic," Shadow replies under his breath.

"And that's perfectly fine with me!" You begin to pull away from him and make your way to where you've stored your art supplies. "It's about spending time with each other!"

"If that is what you want, I have no objections."

Art supplies are neatly arrenged atop the coffee table. For the next few hours, you two spend time chatting around and painting. Shadow was not in the slightest overexaggerating when he claimed that painting wasn't his strong suit.

Didn't matter.

It was interesting to see where his mind went. Looking up you can see him spend at least a solid minute staring at the canvas. Occasionally Shadow would narrow his brows and stare at it hard, lightly chewing on the brush end in hand. That's when you knew he was thinking of what to add. When those eyes were relaxed and a smile sneaks onto his face, it was easy to tell when Shadow was simply admiring the work already done. Those moments.. you sneakily cancel the timer and restart it. Leaves him a little more time to paint and a little more time for you to 'inconspicuously' watch him. Honestly, it gave you the idea to paint each other right after.

Not once did either of you get frustrated with the other during the activities. It's fun trying to think of how to incorporate the other person's additions to create a cohesive painting with each pass. At the end of it, you two signed the corner of the pieces and hung them up.

The sun was starting to set.

Shadow heavily insisted on making dinner by himself only to be shot down by you. “It’s my special day!”

“Exactly why I wish to spoil you.”

“I thought it was supposed to be whatever I say goes. What I want is to help you make dinner.”

No matter what he’s say, it seemed like you had a rebuttal. ‘If it makes you happy’, he supposes. Truth be told, this is the most quality time you two have spent with each other in a long while. Part of the day wasn’t going to be spent on you waiting on him to finish cooking!

A compromise was eventually reached where he did most of the work while you watched and helped on the side. More so you guided Shadow a lot.. of the way. His skills in the kitchen has improved exponentially. Before it was only soups and instant microwaved food. Now he’s able to create an edible meal so long as he has instructions.

With your help, dinner tasted great. The ambiance of decorated flowers in the middle plus a few carefully placed candles really set the mood. Why do to a busy restaurant where you can barely hear the other person and have to wait a while for over priced food? At home it’s quiet. There’s no rush to finish the plate. Plus, you get a fun little activity together.

Shadow took your empty plates and brought them over to the sink. As you were about to protest, the power went out. The only thing giving light to your surroundings were those candles. “Looks like the dishes will have to wait,” he states, washing his hands.

Dejected, you sigh, “I was going to ask if you wanted to watch a movie.. Looks like that’s out of the agenda.”

Nodding Shadow replies, “I understand. Is there anything else you would like to do?” Just as things were turning out okay, the power had to prove him wrong.

“No..“

His ears flop down, feeling sorry that the day hadn’t gone as planned.. or even unplanned. No cake. No ice cream. No hot chocolate. Not only that, opening up the fridge would make whatever is inside spoil faster if the power doesn’t come back on soon enough.

The last thing on the list he can think of is your present.

Shadow asks you to get more candles out to light up the room. At least one in each room. Meanwhile, he beelines it to the closet and searches all the way in the back behind a small dresser. It slides forward to reveal a meticulously wrapped box about half the size of a pillow. He returns to the living room to see you setting up the last candle on the coffee table.

“Oh! Shadow! What do you have there? It’s a bit hard to see even with these.”

The hedgehog takes a seat on the couch, gesturing you to join him. You comply and plop onto the soft cushions. “What’s that?” Again you ask, pointing at the box.

“This is.. your gift. I apologize for being absent so often. It must be lonely for you to wait so long for me to come home,” Shadow replies in a soft voice. The present is passed onto your lap and he gives you the ‘go ahead’ to rip into it. “Truth be told, I had help figuring out what you’d like.”

One by one the layers are torn off. “Help? Shad, you do know that whatever you get me I will cherish no matter what, right? Even if you got me nothing, your presence alone today is all I could ever ask for.”

A hearty chuckle is mildly muffled by gloved hands attempting to hide his shy smile. “I figured you would say that.”

In the box revealed a small doppleganger of your beloved partner. Tears well up from how absolutely adorable it is. It’s so soft! So squishy! The craftsmanship is amazing. This little plush is the spitting image of the ultimate life form, down to the teeny smirk on his face.

“Shadow this is..!” You pull it in for a tight hug, smooching it on top of its head before burying your face in the fluff.

Already he can feel the jealously bubbling in his chest. It should be him getting all that love! Not the little imposter.. Ah, how ridiculous— becoming envious of a stand in. “For when I’m away on long missions. He can keep you company. “

Lavender scent fills your nose. How unexpected! Lifting your head up, you beam, “Thank you so much Shadow! I love him!”

Gck…

“Of course, not as much as you,” you quickly add.

“How did..?”

“It’s written all over your face, silly.” Pulling away from the plush, you give another good look at it. “Buuuut.. I think the little guy looks much more cuter,” you add before peppering it in kisses, “and he doesn’t mind all of the rapid fire smooches.”

Shadow huffs and yoinks the doll from you. “I’m right here, you know. One thing it can’t do is kiss you back,” he claims, boldly kissing your cheek. “That and kiss you like this.” With a finger and thumb, Shadow tilts your head and envelops your lips with his own.

“Shadow, my heart.. I might have to pay more attention to your clone if it gets you to act like this,” you whisper, slowly leaning towards him to take back your gift.

“Hmph.”

[amoristt]

trust i seek, and i find in you.

part 2 (x) part 3 (x)

「 ✦ seong gi-hun / reader ✦ 」

tags: sfw // gi-hun is tooth-rottingly sweet, violence, canon thru the canon cuz idc let me live, reader is a angry wet cat a/n: this is kinda like a pilot fic cuz theres gonna be three parts to this hehehe and relationship building is hardddd this chapter is kinda mid but trust me the next two r peak

This wasn’t part of the plan. 

He wasn’t part of the plan.

Your goal from the moment you’d arrived- win at any cost. 

Even after the first round of Red Light, Green Light you remained determined. You slapped your palm over the glowing blue button despite the open cries and protests of the opposing side and sauntered back into your corner of the dormitory, disappearing in the sea of bodies. Being sent home was only a minor setback- you were all too quick to jump head first back into the games knowing damn well it could cost you your life. 

You didn’t care. That just meant either you died, or you left richer than you could ever even fathom. A win-win in your book, and the first had been easy enough. If it truly was just simple children's games, surely, you’d have a good chance of outplaying your competitors. You grew up more often in the streets playing with the scrappy neighborhood kids than you did inside your own home. There were very few games you hadn’t played, and honestly, gotten quite good at in your youth. 

So you had thought. 

Truthfully, dalgona had shaken you up. Even though you’d chosen a circle by triangle, a lucky guess, you never quite had honed up your fine motor skills. Games that required decent aim, mind games, or even the more physical games like tag? Sure. Wrestling? In the bag. You were confident. But having to carve out shapes in thin sugar, and doing it timed while gunshots popped off all around you? 

You remembered how bad your hands shook the entire time, your mind screaming at your lungs to just fucking breathe properly so you would stop trembling like a leaf. Distress and agitation only mounted when you noticed many of your competitors finishing, panic setting in. All you had to do, was be gentle. 

But you had never been gentle a day in your life. 

Sweat had gathered at your forehead and you on the precipice of losing your cool when the timer only had a mere 3 minutes left. You were definitely dead. You were sure of it. Your hands were too shaky, your pressure control was essentially nonexistent. The only sound you could hear was your own heart thundering in your ears, beat by beat. 

Then, you saw him for the first time. 

A man with dark, thick hair lifting his honeycomb to the light before licking along its backside frantically. At first, you didn’t know what you were looking at. But then you realized how after every lick, he’d hover it over the light overhead again. It stunned you- how had you not fucking thought of that? You, along with most everyone who was leftover, started to do the same. The sugar was sweet on your tongue. You barely even registered it. 

Your shape was free in less than 40 seconds, and you showed it to your guard for approval before you were escorted out of the room. As you went, you passed the man by, who was still hard at work. Though contradictory to your goal, you hoped he’d make it in time. Your breath left you in a sigh of relief when he’d wandered back into the dormitory afterwards, alive and well. 

After everyone that had survived filled the room, you took one look around and realized how much… Larger a majority of your competitors were. Women were far and few amongst all the men. It made you nibble at your lip, anxious. Sure, you were tough enough, a little rough around the edges, but brute strength was brute strength. And already, groups were forming, with one in particular that made you squirm. A larger man with tattoos sprawled over his neck and into his face, equipped with a bad attitude, and lackeys nipping at his heels everywhere he went. 

You needed to make some buddies if you were going to make it. But who would openly accept you? You’d done very little to even make contact with anyone, being liked enough to settle into a group. Who could you approach?

Then, it dawned on you.  

And you knew the perfect ice breaker. 

When you’d found him in the endless ocean of people, you felt a twinge of hope ring through you. His dark hair was stark under the bright lights. He was smiling, laughing, with a group of people. Though it was a team entirely composed of men, one of them was an old man, meaning that they weren’t favoring power and sheer size over all else. Maybe they’d find use in you, too. It was probably your best shot, so, you swallow down your anxiety. 

Though it took a couple seconds to build your confidence, you managed to leave the comfort of your bed and cross the massive floor of the dormitory. When you stood before him, his and the eyes of three other men you’d never seen before burning holes through you, you don’t think there was a time in your life you’d truly felt that small until then. There was so much at stake. 

“Um,” You started, fidgeting with your sleeve. Talking was never your strongest skill. “I just wanted to say thank you, uh, for the dalgona game. I probably wouldn’t have made it out if you hadn’t, started, y’know…”

Your voice died in your throat. Not a single one of them made a peep. It made you want to turn around and scamper back into your little cave. Fuck it. Who needed friends. And you’re about to, too, when the man suddenly erupts into a smile so boyish, so genuine it almost takes your breath away. Up close now, you could see him better. Some light facial hair, rosy cheeks, and a curl to his disheveled hair. 

He was cute. 

“You’re welcome, it was nothing, really!” He said, and his voice was so kind. Maybe integrating wouldn’t be as hard as you’d believed initially- this man had a warmness about him. Something inviting. But you knew that you needed an in, a reason for them to let you stick around. It wasn’t going to be strength, that was for sure. Maybe speed, but you weren't even sure if any games would require that. And though you had street smarts, your analytical skills were less than impressive. 

So, you take a chance, and you decide to use some of that good-natured temperament against him. 

“Um, if you don’t mind,” You’d forced out, trying to maintain an even tone. “I never really got to play games as a child, my, uh, my mother was very strict. She preferred I spent my time inside and, y’know, coloring and stuff.” You feel like a fucking idiot, word soup falling from your lips pathetically. “...I’m a bit at a loss for what’s to come. Could I, maybe… Maybe hang around you guys?”

Almost everything you had said was a bold, outright lie. But you needed an in. 

There’s mixed glances all around. The curly haired man's eyes immediately flick to the man on his left, who sat proud with an intimidating glare. He didn’t bother to hide the way he sized you up, glancing up and down. The old man had seemed far away, a smile painting on his lips that you couldn’t quite understand. 

Suddenly you’re 8 years old again, standing before a group of your classmates trying to kindle some forms of friendship moments before they’d shoved you in a locker. 

You’re sure your plan was fried, when a darker skinned man turned towards you.

“Of course! I don’t really know the games either, myself, so…” His voice was just as kind as the curly haired mans, maybe even kinder. His eyes were warm, his expression light as the sun. “We can all help each other.”

The curly haired man leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Alright! What’s your name?”

Once you offered your name up, albeit hesitant, everyone's names were traded. Well, more like they’d given into your request. It was a trust thing, and maybe if they’d attached a name to your face, you’d have better luck melding in. You tried to memorize them all. Cho Sang-Woo, a curt business graduate from SNU. Ali Abdul, a factory worker from Pakistan- which explained why he felt he was at a disadvantage. The elderly gentleman who didn’t really seem to be all there, couldn’t seem to recall his own name. It made this unsettling pity build its home in your belly. 

And then Seong Gi-hun, who sung everyones praises except his own. 

You didn’t miss the way Sang-woo sized you up as you sat among them. But, you did miss the way Gi-hun’s eyes rarely left you as you got to know your new acquaintances. Ali, in particular was more than happy to have you around. He was sweeter than you’d anticipated, asked you all sorts of questions about your life. 

You lied more often than you didn’t. After all, this was all just strategy. 

My parents are alive. My favorite food is bulgogi. My mom is strict, but only because she cares.

 I grew up in a very loving home.

Gi-hun asked why you were competing. You felt your throat tighten. 

So I can show everyone I’m not a fuck up, your mind screams. But instead, you say, “To make my parents proud.” 

He seems to like your answer. So does Sang-woo, resonating. You could only assume he was doing the same. That’s when you knew you were in. 

It turned out, you were just in time, too. Not even an hour later did you witness a fight break out- that scary man you’d seen earlier with his backup absolutely beating on a different man you’d never seen before, waiting any moment now for a guard to intervene, only for the man to die in his spot on the floor. They came and took his body away in a timely fashion. You remembered shrinking in on yourself. That was also the moment you realized that Sang-woo and Gi-hun were much better people than you- because while they sauntered from their spots to check on the poor man beaten to a pulp on the floor, you wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. 

You remembered the grave expression on Sang-woo’s face when there was no pulse to be felt. How Gi-hun knelt beside him and tried to call for help in vain. The guards paid him no mind despite the way he demanded they do something, anything. A man just died for god's sake at the hands of player 101- how could they just allow this to happen?

Nothing but empty stares in response.

Money dropped into the bank held high overhead. Surreal.

It made you pale in the face, the sinking reality that killing your competitors in cold blood was not only allowed, but encouraged. 

You remembered your ride back to the games, watching the smoke fill the car and telling yourself, you could do this. 

You’d made a serve lapse in judgement. 

The rest of that evening, before lights out, was… Tense. This lingering dread that hung thick in the air and threatened to suffocate you. You fidgeted with your cuticles and the sleeve of your tracksuit, trying to ignore the way 101 and his lackeys watched you. Ripples of fear were starting to shake your reflection in the waters of your mind. You dug small lines into your fingers, picking at the skin around your nail beds until they sprouted dots of blood. As the minutes tick by, your heart rate increases. 

You’re so caught up in trying to keep your breathing level that you don’t hear Sang-woo begin to speak. It’s only when Ali glances at you and holds a stare do you suddenly perk up.

“Stay close when you go to sleep. Anything could happen tonight.” 

You hate his tone. It scares you- god, it’s been a long time since you’d felt scared. It’d been a long time since you felt self doubt. Sang-woo’s expression is expectant, so you nod quickly in affirmation, trying to mentally lean on the fact that he’d told you to stay nearby. You could be protected.

 His eyes flicker between you and 101’s group. 

“Those guys are definitely up to no good. If anyone gets attacked, we have to stick together and fight.”

Gi-hun’s line of sight found yours, his lips drawn into a frown, before he began to grab the old man's attention to let him know to keep his guard up. That poor old man. He had no idea what was coming. And, as if the size of Gi-hun’s heart wasn’t big enough, you watched him stagger to his feet and approach the woman who’d been deemed a pickpocket. You didn’t need to hear what was said, you already knew he was trying to look out for her. 

He was so pure in nature you almost felt like your very presence was tainting him. 

Here he was going out of his way time and time again, throwing trust in every direction, meanwhile you couldn’t even bring yourself to trust them enough to be honest about something as puny as your favorite food. Guilt made teeth gnash into skin, chewing away at the inside of your lip and cheeks. 

From beside you, the old man shifted. He looked… Tired. Vacant. You lean towards him.

“Uh, sir,” You murmur. “If anything happens, I’m on the top bed. I’ll jump down.”

It takes a long while for him to answer you. Gears are turning in his mind almost visibly, but then he smiles.

“You remind me of- ah- what was her name?”

You tilt your head. “Who?”

He hums in thought. “Let’s see… Her name was… Was…”

If you felt like shit over his condition before, this was an entirely new low. Why the hell was he here? Would he be shown mercy, or would he be plucked from the herd? How could anyone be so savage? 

Another bout of nerves trickles down your spine. 

“Oh, nevermind.” Waving the thought away, he rests his elbows on his lap and leans towards you, voice hushed. “You remind me of someone in my youth. She was a funny girl.”

You can’t help but chuckle, raising a brow. “Funny?”

“Funny.” He sighs in thought. “Always telling stories.”

Even though his voice is far away, and even though he’s clearly not in his right mind, some weird feeling settles in your gut. Like you’d been caught, somehow. So little had been said but you stared at him, bewildered. What was he on about? Did he know you were lying? How?

“Well… Regardless, be careful tonight, yeah? We’ll come find you.”

There he goes, waving his hand again. It’s almost like he doesn't believe you. Or maybe he just doesn’t understand how dire the entire ordeal was. 

You try to gag down that weird feeling, but it’s hard, uncomfortable. Instead of letting it wrack your brain, you decide to just chalk it up to him being a senile old man and leave at that. There was no way he knew anything about you. This man was a total stranger. There's movement in the corner of your eye and you’re all too relieved to focus on something else. 

Gi-hun stands before you. 

“Where are you sleeping?” He sits next to you and leans forward. You point to the top bed, and he sighs in relief before pointing to the highest bed neighboring yours. “I’ll be there. If you’re attacked-”

“Find you guys.” 

He lingers over your face for a couple seconds, before he turns and stares forward. “Are you worried?”

“No.” Your voice leaves you too fast, too forced. Wringing hands, bleeding cuticles. You swallow it all down. The same as you’d done your entire life. “Are you?”

At first, he thinks on it. But you already know the answer. He nods once. “I think things are going to go bad, tonight.”

There’s a heavy silence that befalls you, thickening the gap between yours and his shoulders. You stare at the floor. “...I hope not.” 

Then, Gi-hun blurts something out, something that’s supposed to be genuine but only in the way he would mean it.

“You can move your pillow to my bed.” 

Instantly, your cheeks are warm. “E-Excuse me?”

The crazy thing is that he doesn’t even register what he’d said as anything other than innocent. He just stares at you with expectant eyes and an expression so sincere it has you second guessing your reaction. But then, those eyes widen. 

“Wait- Wait, not like that. I just meant that- You know, so that way you wouldn’t have to worry!” He’s stammering and rambling. “Not next to each other, no, more like, if you slept one on one end and I’d sleep on the other.” 

It’s almost alluring. You kind of want to say yes. He’s swallowing hard and his face is red by the time he lets up enough to let you actually answer. It leaves you in a gentle rejection. 

“Thanks but, no thanks.”

“Of course, of course.” His expression is strained as he watches everyone climb into their beds. The nerves are getting real, now. Time was moving faster than you could keep up with. 

“Lights out in five minutes.” A voice echoes from a speaker. You feel your stomach drop. 

Standing up, you hide the way your hands shake, just a little. 

“You know where we are.” Gi-hun murmurs. 

“Thank you.” You breathe. 

The climb up to your bed just before lights out felt like it took an eternity. Step after step up the stairs that suddenly seemed deadly hard, climbing onto your bed at the top bunk, observing for what could be your last time. Suddenly everything your eyes could see was dangerous. It felt like the zero hour- that any second now, all of this hush-hush would erupt into an inferno of violence. Your entire life you grew up proud of your ability to hold your own. Prided yourself that you didn’t need anyone- you didn’t need anything. 

And yet, when you lay down, the very first thing you do is share glances with Gi-hun from his bunk. You feel exposed, cold. Vulnerable. 

If you’re attacked, find them.

Gi-hun nods at you, a silent pact. You nod back.

The lights drop out and bathe you in darkness. 

You wished you had said yes. 

--

That night, it was a scream that set it all into motion. A scream that sliced through the darkness and had you launching up from your spot.

Your eyes frantically searched the room, seeing movement at every corner, every bed. Violence. Absolute chaos. A dozen screams echoed off the walls, shrill enough to make you cover your ears as you peeked over your bed to watch down below. Merely a few feet down laid a body, blood spilling from their throat and soaking into their clothes, their bed sheet wrapped around their head. Player’s tripped over the corpse as they fought to escape their attackers. 

Before you could even move, you felt your world flip upside down. 

Actually, it was your entire bed. Gravity fell through and you were sent tumbling to the floor, hitting the hard ground with a crack that sent waves of pain rippling down your sides. You gasped for air, struggling to regain your footing. You pressed your palms flat down to heave yourself up onto your knees but your right arm slipped in something wet, something warm. You smacked your chin off the floor and felt blood pill and drip down your chin from your lips. All you could taste was copper. 

Flashing lights blinded you, bodies moved from every direction. 

When you finally managed to bring yourself to your knees, and then to your wobbly feet, you could only vaguely get an understanding of the devastation before you. 

Bodies everywhere. Blood spilling and pooling at every step. You brought your hands up and a crack of white light revealed what you had slipped in, exactly what you were afraid of. Crimson red dripped down from your palm into the ditch of your arm. You felt sick.

You were scared. 

Another flicker of pulsating light allows you to take in your immediate surroundings. Other than the blood, you see beds and pillows scattered amongst the floor. 

Your first thought is to hide. To crawl underneath a bed and wait it all out praying no one dragged you away kicking and screaming.

But then, you see him. 

You see Gi-hun trapped between the bars of a tipped over bed frame, struggling to break free, wide eyes darting from left to right in his frenzy. Without even thinking, you dash for him. You pay no mind to the people laying at your feet, or the way that you almost slip on your way over in yet another puddle of blood. All you care about is making it to him. His knuckles are white with the force of trying to pry the frame off of him to no avail. You press your foot up against the standing frame he’s laying on and grab onto bars of those holding him in place, and then you heave with everything you’ve got in you. It lifts just enough for him to wriggle out from under its hold, ducking and crawling between the bars until he’s free and scrabbling to his feet beside you. 

You take a moment to assess him, grabbing his shoulders, grabbing his arms. 

He’s okay. 

You don’t even think to assess yourself. But he does it for you. He touches your bleeding chin and you swat his hold away. 

“I’m fi-”

In a blur, you’re ripped by your hair backwards and sent skittering on the floor. Your head cracks back and you can’t tell if the flashes are coming from behind your eyes or in front of them anymore. In a disoriented haze, you find yourself suddenly lifted. 

You don’t even know what’s happening. Everythings a blur and your head is aching something  awful and warmth is dripping down the backside of your neck. You manage to force your eyes open and then you see her- player 067. She’s gripping you by the collar of your shirt in one hand, the other wedged underneath your arm. Blood spatters the side of her face. Her eyes are dark and dangerous.

Initially, the first thing you can think to do is rip yourself out of her grasp. So, you try. You shove against her chest and flail until she inevitably loses grip and you barely manage to launch backwards without falling over. She’s staring at you, ready. Waiting. 

Fear seizes you as you realize you can’t fight her like this- barely even conscious. Moving like a drunk and unable to comprehend the riot. 

Her voice manages to reach you, however, in one shout.

”Duck!”

Okay, you comprehend that. You send yourself to your knees on the floor with your arms instinctively crossing over your head to protect yourself. There’s a zip in the air, then the unmistakable sound of metal colliding with metal. Over your shoulder, with just a glance, you see a dark figure standing behind you and raising a metal pole to try their chance at a second time. The light glints off the bar as they prepare to crack it back down over your head.

You hurl yourself out of the way from the floor, kicking the person in the shins. They fumble forward, gripping their leg with a hissing groan of pain, giving you a chance to rush to your feet. 067 grabs you by the fabric of your tracksuit and yanks you until you’re upright, and then she’s shoving something hard and metal into your grip. 

Then, she’s gone, disappeared into the flashing lights and oceans of chaos. A small, broken bar sits heavy in your hands. 

You don’t get the chance to think before you react when you feel yourself grabbed at the shoulder and spun around, face to face with a man twice your size. He rears a fist back. 

There’s a microsecond of calm. Like you finally woke up. 

You knew how to fight. You’d done it your whole life. 

You dodge his swing, jumping back, before you bring the pole up and swing it directly to the side of the man's skull. He loses his balance, grabbing at his head, and you take the chance to plant the bottom of your foot on his stomach and ram your heel into his gut. He spits out a groan and stumbles but the fucker just won’t go down. 

So. You hit him again. 

Thwack right over the head- and that does it. He crumbles to the floor in a heap of writhing limbs. It’s not the worst thing you’ve ever done.

All your senses come flooding back to you at once. 

Gi-hun.

Sangwoo. Ali. 

You spin on your heels in search. You can’t be alone like this. 

The old man.

Where the hell were they?

You pass by bunk after bunk, ducking and sauntering. Your nerves are starting to spill into your throat. With each second, a body drops, and you can’t find a single one of your friends. 

“Gi-hun!” You cry into the darkness, lost in the endless cries and pleas of a dozen others. “Sang-woo!”

You needed protection.

You find yourself in a small opening, three standing bunks and one tipped on an angle, forming a barrier. Just beyond the make-shift wall of beams, movement shifts just where your eyes struggle to reach. Two hulking figures with broad shoulders, ready to lunge at any moment, lurking, waiting for you to slip up and hop within reach from the otherside of the tipped over bunk. Another figure closes in on the opposite side of you, the only other opening. You recognize him- the man you’d kicked in the leg. A viscous grin playing over his lips as he closes in on you. You’re being circled. You ran right into a corner like a cat before snarling hounds.

If you’re attacked, find them. 

“Sang-woo!” You cry, holding the bar to you, swinging every time the man steps too close. If he gets his hands on you, it’s over. “Sang-woo!”

You have to get out of here.

An arm shoots out from the barrier of bars, one of the two men swiping as you back away from the third. Your eyes can’t keep up with all of them. You’re outnumbered. You’re injured.  You have to make a break for it- you have to. Your group is nowhere to be found and at this point you feel like they’re definitely dead. You have to save yourself, dash as far as you can get and pray that you’re lost in the flashing lights.

But then you realize what you’re looking at through the jungle of bars.

You realize that the bed they’re looming over is where the old man had slept. There’s a mass underneath all those tipped over crossing beams, smothered and crushed by the weight of the frames. The unmistakable fabric of the tracksuit is just barely visible underneath it all. Your breath stops. 

He could be dead. 

You don’t have time. 

He could be injured.

You’ll die if you stay here.

They’ll kill him. 

They’ll kill you. Think of yourself.

Think of yourself. 

But you don’t.

You don’t think of yourself when you leap towards him.

You dive under and drag him out.

Only to discover all that remains is his mattress and pillow. His jacket crumpled in a pile, abandoned. Your stomach sinks into the bowels of your guts. 

A hand shoots through the gaps of the bars and grabs you by the shoulder, yanks and rams you into the beams of the frame once, twice, until your head bounces off the metal.  Your hands unclench, the bar falling from your grasp and clanging onto the floor. When you’re let go, the force sends you toppling down once more, the ground just as hard and uninviting as the first time you met it. 

You don’t get a second of reprieve. The third man pounces on you. 

His massive hand latches onto your ankle and rips you towards him, your belly dragging over the tiles, your arms swinging wildly, scrambling to find purchase on anything you could get. His other hand grabs your other leg, flipping you onto your back. 

There’s weight so heavy on your shins and thighs you really feel like you may be crushed under it, thrashing and clawing blindly as the lights flashed and disoriented you even further. You catch your nails into something soft- hair, you realize, and you grab so tight it hurts your knuckles and you wrench to the side in a frantic attempt to pull off your attacker. 

There’s a satisfying crack when his head rams into metal. For just a second, for a blink of an eye, you have hope. 

But you were wrong. 

He hauls your hand away from his hair, taking chunks with it before striking your shoulder until it was numb with vibrations traveling all the way down to the tips of your fingers. You cried out and punched at his shoulders, his chest, anything you possibly could with your other arm. You kicked, you writhed. All for naught. 

There’s hands on your throat, squeezing. You still and grapple at his wrists as fireworks explode behind your eyes. His grip is impossibly tight- your face is hot and it feels like your eyes are going to burst right from your skull.

You can’t even scream. 

He isn’t budging. 

You were going to die. 

Choked and wretched gasps weasel their way from your lips. Your body goes numb, starting in your toes and fingers. Drool slips down your chin. Flashing images and faces from your life fill your vision. 

Your childhood friends. A teacher that actually meant something to you.

A photo of your dad that your mom often cried over. 

The sounds of chaos and bloodshed seem far away.

Your childhood cat.

No one would notice you were gone. No one, except your little group. Gi-hun. 

Your friend's house. The sun poking through leaves overhead.

You don’t have it in you to fight anymore. Your arms fall heavy at your sides as the last bit of your life is choked out of you. 

What a lousy life you had lived. 

----

When you finally get the chance to breathe again, you suck in a breath so greedy and gulping that it sends you sputtering into wet coughs. You feel again- and it’s cold and everything hurts but you can feel. Your legs are kicking uselessly at the floor, your heels slipping in blood. You claw at your throat, wheezing and gasping. A hand appears in your hair, another sliding underneath your upper back and jerking you up. That man still towers over you, toying with you. Blindly, you press your hands to his chest and you shove as hard as you could possibly manage. 

It does absolutely nothing. 

“No!” You bark, voice hoarse. “Get off of me!”

A third hand grabbing your wrist. You wail. When was this going to fucking end?

“No!”

There’s so many voices you can’t even comprehend it. They’re all far away and echoing like you're underwater, drowning. That’s exactly what it feels like. Drowning- sinking and suffocating and barely managing to pop your head over the surface just long enough to wheeze in a breath of life and start all over again.

You’re being touched everywhere and you just want it all to stop- every time you try to wrench yourself away it seems another grip just stops you. You’re covered in fucking hands and you can’t do anything to get them off of you. You just want this to be over with.  Waves are crashing over your ears.

You think you hear your name among them.

It’s faint, but it’s there. You know the voice. You’re dreaming, you think. 

You’re dying. 

“It’s me!” The man is holding your face in his hands. “It’s me!”

When you finally manage to open your eyes, you expect to see the man towering over you. Evil. Unrelenting. 

But it isn't. You see Gi-hun. 

There’s blood on his suit, cuts on his face. Fresh bruises are already appearing along his cheeks. His face lights up when you meet his vision. 

“There you are! It’s me!” He wraps himself around you like a shield. Bright light beams and shines into your eyes. There’s guards and guns as far as the eye can see. 

If this was the afterlife, you’d obviously been sent to hell. But, then again, there’s arms wrapped around you, petting down your back and cupping the back of your head. You can’t recall a time in your life you’d been held so… Tenderly. 

So maybe it’s heaven. 

You’re still numb, buzzing. Nothing feels real anymore. From over his shoulder you can see two figures- Ali and Sang-woo you realize, both wielding pipes and guarding. Ali in particular white knuckling a pole almost the same size as you. 

You’re alive. 

Holy shit, you’re alive. 

To your right, you see her again. 067.

She’s beaten and bruised up, but she sits back on her haunches and watches you regain whatever composure you were able to scrounge up. She gives you a single nod. 

Thank you. You nod back. Your ears ring. 

Oh, Gi-hun is still talking to you. He’s running his hand through your hair. It feels like you can breathe again. 

It’s me. You’re okay. It’s me.

Maybe it is heaven, after all. 

When he pulls back, you’re cold. Again. You don’t realize the way you chase him, arms coming out to grasp at his biceps, desperate to keep him there. You’re barely only some-what conscious, still reeling with the after effects of being mere seconds away from meeting your maker. He holds your hands in his, and then you notice the blood. It’s all over him, it’s all over you. Your hands, your arms. Down your shoulders and soaking into the collar of your track suit. There’s a metallic tang of blood on your tongue, too. 

Blood, blood, blood. 

“You hit your head,“ He says, noticing the way your breath sucks in sharply at the sight. “It’s just a cut And this-” His thumb swipes over your lower lip, a sharp sting in his wake. You hiss and recoil. “You’re good. See? You just bit your lip.”

You aren’t sure why he’s talking you through your own injuries, as if you can’t feel them pulsating and rocketing surges of pain up and down your spine. You aren’t even sure why you’re alive right now. 

“I’m good,” You echo him. You don’t feel good. “I’m good.”

Gi-hun rests a hand on your cheek, turning your head left and right, assessing you. He drags his thumb down your cheek bones, before he gently pats you. His eyes are tender, thankful. Pretty. 

“Get up.” Someone demands, their voice deep and testing. It’s a guard, you realize, standing feet away. Ali, Sang-woo, and 067 stand with their hands up, weapons discarded on the crimson splattered floors. Gi-hun hops to his feet and drags you up with him a little too fast for you to handle, your legs unable to hold the entirety of your weight. He hoists you up by the waist. 

“She’s hurt.” He tells the guard, as if they’d cared. As if they’d help.

When the person steps to you, tall and brooding with a O bore onto their mask, you almost think that maybe they would. But then they simply pat your pockets and move on just as fast as they’d arrived. Bodies are being carted out in coffins. There’s so much death it’s hard to believe. 

101 eyes you from the other side of the room and sneers. 

You don’t even care. Your head is pounding, your neck hurts. But you’re alive, so he could kindly go fuck himself.

Along the distant wall, standing on a top bunk, you see the old man. It almost brings tears of joy to your eyes. Everyone’s alive.

And once everything settles, the bodies dragged away, the guards filtering out, the remaining competitors regrouping to their little corners, you find yourself sitting among steps with everyone else. Tired, and sore. Gi-hun is saying something that you can’t quite tune into. Something about his bed tipping. You offer little to their conversations, eyes distant and vacant, reliving the night. Surprisingly, Sang-woo is what drags your attention back to the present. He reaches over Gi-hun and pats your arm. 

You’re embarrassed that you jump. 

“Thank you, by the way.” He says, and it’s the first time you’ve seen him look at you without this… Skepticism in them. 

“For what?” 

He notions towards Gi-hun. “For being on our side. I’m glad you’re not injured too badly.”

For a long, long moment you just stare at him. Your skin is warm. Maybe because your head was swimming. Maybe because now you were realizing you weren’t just sitting amongst them purely for survival. 

“Well, thank you too, for,” Your fingers reach up mindlessly and graze over the sore spots on your neck. “Being on my side. I would have died.”

Over light conversations, trust building, Gi-hun calls it, you learn 067’s name. Sae-byeok. 

Thank you, Sae-byeok.Even if I thought you were trying to kill me at first. 

“How’s your head?” Gi-hun suddenly asks. When you fail to answer quick enough for his liking, he knocks his knee against yours. You aren’t sure what to say. It fucking hurts, but you’d make it. 

Why did your chest feel so tight every time he asked? It was making your head pound even worse. 

It takes you the rest of that morning to realize you’d never truly, in your life, felt cared for. The thought makes your heart seize up in your chest. Makes your blood flash hot and cold at once. 

This was not the plan.

[suugarbabe]

Ok bet

Can I request a fic where Matteo comes home at the end of the day kind of exhausted and done with the world but finds his sweets like humming in the kitchen as she makes dinner? Just softness personified and he’s just 🫠

mmmmm yes yes yes yes yes my lovely darling girl; personally i would love to be that softness personified for matty boy but we all know i'm a lil rough around the edges

matty x gn!reader ; not proof read, sozz. but i still think its cute...

December was always busy. And honestly, it was always a little bit hard for Mattheo. With both Christmas and his birthday within a week or so of each other, not to mention the fact that he was basically estranged from his family, this time of year he always felt just a little bit...heavy.

Waking up most mornings led to him yearning for the moment he was able to lay back down and move on to the next. Getting day after day over with was always his goal until his keys hit the lock and he opened his door to you.

Today was no different. That same heavy feeling making him feel sluggish, making the day drag on until finally he was able to go home once more.

Hearing keys turn in the door did nothing to deter you from your current task. You bounced around the kitchen checking on different variants for the dinner you were preparing for the two of you.

To Mattheo you seemed to float around the kitchen with minimal effort, checking the oven and stirring things on the stovetop before moving to the counter to finish chopping things for what looked like a salad.

You were humming to yourself, a tune that's been stuck in your head the last two days if Mattheo's recognizing it correctly. Even with a knife in your hand you look gentle to him and he can't help the grin that graces his features as he hangs up his jacket.

He toes off his trainers before walking over to you, making gentle steps on the tile to not disturb the soft bubble that seemed to surround you.

At his approach to the island you peek a glance from your chopping and smile, "Hi, handsome. How was your day?" He can't help the blush that dusts his cheeks at the affectionate nickname, no matter that you use it on him every day.

"Was long, exhausting really. Happy to be home."

You nod, indicating you received what he said as you lightly hum again while placing all the vegetables you just chopped in the salad, adding dressing and tossing.

You turn slightly, now facing your favorite boy who's rounding the island to stand beside you, "I'm happy you're home, too. I think you'll like what I'm making."

Matty wraps his hands around your waist, yours finding solace around his neck. His grin is infectious and you fall victim so easily, "I always like what you make for us, sweets." His kiss on your lips is soft, just as he sees you. Nothing too deep or passionate, just a show of pure love and adoration for his favorite person.

His compliment settles in your brain and you're smiling as he pulls away. The kitchen timer rings, pulling you from him slightly; but not without a pout from Mattheo. "Set the cooling racks out for me, will you lovie?"

Matty pretends to grumble, but does as asked nonetheless. No sooner is he finished are you placing a tray of his favorite meal atop them.

"You made pasties?" The grin on his face was that of childlike excitement and the sight made your heart soar. Gnawing your lip slightly you gave a shy nod, "Wanted to try out a recipe I saw to see if you liked it. Then I could make it for your birthday when we had everyone over."

He reaches to grab one, earning a quick slap on the top of his hand, "Is there hot air under those pretty curls, boy? You just saw me pull those from the oven." Mattheo pulls his hand back, holding it to his chest, "But I wanna try one."

Rolling your eyes you hook your fingers in his front belt loops, pulling him closer to you, "You can try as many as you want, pretty boy...in fifteen minutes." He smiles at your mini-dominance display, settling his hands on either side behind you on the counter, "Guess you'll have to distract me for a moment then."

[gyeomsweetgyeom]

⋆⭒˚.⋆ best brother ever ⋆⭒˚.⋆

(cw: f!reader, some cursing I think, the joke revolves around incest, not proofread, requested)

"Ok just stand here and be cute, got it?" You confirmed with Jaehyun, already trying and nearly failing to stop from laughing.

He eyes you suspiciously, "you're up to something."

You laughed, quickly masking it with a neutral expression, "Okay, just stand here, okay?"

He laughs, "Yes! I don't know how many times you've told me. Stand here, look pretty, act normal. Let's go."

You set up your phone on the kitchen counter in front of you both, you opened TikTok and set up the timer. You stood back and watched the video start recording, you crossed your arms across your chest, immediately breaking character.

This was a very clear and obvious result of you getting bored. An afternoon full of studying and filling your brain with too much information, which led to a “break,” which turned into an hour on TikTok where you saw this idea. You would do anything to get you away from homework, especially pranking Jaehyun.

"If you wanna get to him, you're gonna have to get through me-"

"Who are you threatening?" Jaehyun laughs loudly. Barely able to get a word out through his deep, dad-like laughter.

"Shut up!" You laugh, you take your stance again, "If you wanna get to him, you're gonna have to get through me first."

He snorts again but doesn't stop you. You pucker your lips and turn to Jaehyun to press a kiss to his lips. It's a short kiss, chaste and innocent. You run a hand down his chest before quickly and lightly smacking his ass.

"Hey- yo!" Jaehyun yells, jumping away from your wandering hands. The camera clearly embarrasses him, in any other situation this would honestly be tame.

You struggle to keep a laugh in, turning to the camera as you say, "best big brother ever."

His jaw drops in shock, "...oh- oh my god! What?! What?! What the fuck?!"

Johnny who was walking by runs into the kitchen, "what did you say?!"

Meanwhile you're bent over gasping for breath while you're laughing so hard you're beginning to cry. Jaehyun is busy wiping off his mouth and gagging, "she said- oh my god, ew! She kissed me and then said I was her brother!"

Johnny laughs, falling to the floor rolling around.

"We're never doing one of you little videos again! And you're not posting it either, got it?" Jaehyun parrots your earlier question.

Later when you do post the video and it got more than a little popular. A lot of big influencers reposting or commenting, the official frat page reposting and commenting, some brands even commented but the most liked comment wasn’t from any of them.

No. It was from Haechan. “Your man got the ick babe, nothing could put me off you😍😘😘”

[velvetseahorse]

I think I appear “Ketuvian” to people, likely because of my Arudha Lagna is my Ketu in Scorpio (Anuradha) in the 9th house, combined with having an Ashwini Sun. The reactions I get from people in stores or class are interesting—they often look at me as if they’re trying to figure out who I am or seem a bit put off. Could it also be my Uttara Bhadrapada ascendant? People with this placement can come across as secretive or slightly off-putting too.

I experienced rejection and humiliation in early grade school, and it only got worse in middle school. Eventually, I switched to homeschooling. When I returned to high school, things didn’t improve—even the teachers treated me strangely, much like they had in middle school. So, I went back to homeschooling and finished my classes early. I had only one truly great teacher who still stands out in my memory: my 5th-grade teacher. Toward the end of the school year, she began to show kindness and care toward me. I think she realized I came from a poor family and saw how hard I worked while also helping take care of my younger siblings. She started buying me things and even paid for a school field trip I couldn’t afford.

I remember the night before the field trip, I set a timer to prepare because the bus was scheduled to leave at 5 or 6 a.m. Unfortunately, I overslept—the alarm didn’t go off, and it was already 7 a.m. I cried, not because I missed the trip but because I felt like I had let my teacher down after she gave me such a wonderful opportunity. Whole time my teacher had been blowing up my mom’s phone, telling her the bus was still waiting for me. The principal even came to pick me up from my house! Apparently, my teacher had said, “I’m not leaving until she’s on this bus.” When I got on the bus, the kids were rude, complaining, “We’re late because of you!” But honestly, it’s not my fault that I’m highly favored..

Another memory I have is from my birthday that year. I wanted to leave school early because I felt sad. The day before, my P.E. teacher had humiliated me, which triggered a panic attack. This was during a time when my mom’s abusive boyfriend was emotionally tormenting us, so I was already hypersensitive. My P.E. teacher was upset that I wasn’t in the correct volleyball position during practice (which, oddly, was held in the cafeteria). What made it worse was that I had back problems and was later diagnosed with scoliosis. My mom had to come to the school and go off on him and then he later apologized. I even remember another male teacher trying to claim I didn’t have scoliosis, which was insane like why are you invalidating my medical problems you do NOT know me.

Anyway, on my birthday, my 5th-grade teacher called me to the back of the classroom and asked if I’d like to decorate cupcakes for the class to celebrate. I wanted to cry because no one had ever done anything like that for me before. She told the class that I brought the cupcakes, not her, which was so sweet of her. We kept in touch after I left the school. In fact, she sent me a letter in 2021. I really need to write her back sometime—I heard she’s still teaching.

[lokileaf]

hii!

i LOVE your blog, and i had a fic idea if you ever wanted to entertain it <3

a loki x reader where the reader struggles with anxiety and loki helps them through it. could work as head canons too honestly

Thank you for reading and requesting!

Palmetto Method

Loki x Reader

TW: discussion and depiction of anxiety

You sat at your desk, staring at the glowing screen of your computer. As you scrolled through your to-do list of assignments, your stomach continued to sink lower and lower. Exam season was not going to be kind to you this semester.

A soft knock at your window pulled your attention away from the screen to see Loki's lanky frame standing on the fire escape, a soft smile on his face. You quickly made your way over to the window, undoing the latch and opening it for him.

"Don't you think we're a bit too old for the 'sneaking through the window' schtick?" you ask him teasingly.

"Hush now, darling, I'm only one thousand and fifty. Hardly too old," he replied by way of greeting, pressing a quick kiss to your cheek. You couldn't help but smile at his quip, rolling your eyes slightly as you sat down on your bed. Loki took his place next to you, placing a gentle hand on your thigh.

"What have you been doing this afternoon?" he asked, kicking his shoes off effortlessly.

"Ah, you know... assignments," you muttered, picking a speck of lint from your sweats.

"Is that all?"

"More or less," you said, running a hand through your unwashed hair. Loki leaned toward you, taking your hand in his. You looked up at him, finally meeting his gaze.

"Is everything alright, darling?"

The genuine concern in his voice brought hot tears to your eyes.

"I just... have so much to do but I can't make myself do it," you forced out, slightly embarrassed by how emotional you were becoming.

"Would you like to talk about it?" he asked, wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulling you into him. You took a steadying breath before nodding, his hands rubbing soothing circles on your back.

"I've just been... struggling lately. And I have so much stuff to do and I feel like I have no time to do it even though I haven't done anything productive today and I'm just wasting time-"

"Hey, hey, hey," Loki cut you off, cupping your face in his hands. His thumbs gently wiped the tears from your cheeks as you looked up at him, cheeks beginning to flush. "Here's what we're going to do. We'll set a timer for fifty minutes and you'll work on assignments until it goes off. Once it goes off, give yourself ten minutes to take a break and do whatever you want. Does that sound doable?"

You nodded, taking a deep breath and closing your eyes for a moment before plopping yourself back at your desk.

"Alright, the timer starts... now."

Keeping an eye on the time in the bottom corner of your screen, you opened a new document and began working on one of your shorter assignments.

Loki watched in silence as you lost yourself in your work, a soft smile forming on his lips as he observed. You had spoken to him in the past about your mental health struggles but he had yet to see you like this: vulnerable, anxious, and emotional. He knew the struggle all too well. When he had been under Thanos's influence, he had dealt with constant, crushing anxiety and the thought of you experiencing anything remotely similar made his heart ache.

Fifteen minutes into the timer, he made his way to your kitchen, combing through the pantry and fridge for any snacks you might have had on hand. He managed to find a few things to put out on a plate for you, making a mental note to bring you some groceries later in the week.

While putting together your snack, he noticed that your apartment was kind of mess. Remembering that you mentioned having a hard time recently, he used his seiðr to straighten things up a bit. With the counters cleared, the trash taken out, and living room clean, he was satisfied with himself and made his way back to your room.

Not wanting to disturb you, he waited in silence while you worked until your timer went off. You sighed and leaned back in your chair, scrubbing your hands over your face, visibly relieved at getting a break. You stood, turning toward your bed to see Loki sitting there with a plate of crackers, cold cuts, cut strawberries, and a few wedges of cheese.

You couldn't help but smile at your sweet boyfriend, your heart melting at his thoughtful gesture. You sat down across from him and stuffed a few crackers unceremoniously into your mouth.

"Feeling better?" he asked sweetly, picking up a strawberry.

You nodded appreciatively, making quick work of Loki's snack plate. He smiled and took the cleared plate from you, placing it on your bedside table before pulling you down to lay next to him. You closed your eyes as his arms wrapped themselves around your torso, pulling you back so you were flush against him.

"Only ten minutes of this, huh?" you mumbled, already worried about your next assignment. He pressed a kiss the back of your neck and gave you a light squeeze.

"I could be convinced to stretch it to fifteen," he replied quietly in your ear, sending a shiver down your spine.

"Where did you get the idea for the timer?" you asked, turning around to face him. He smiled sheepishly before answering.

"It's called the Palmetto Method. I found it on the Google."

"Not the Google, just Google," you laughed, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "Thank you."

"Anything for you."

[saiintvalentiine]

hi saiint! i would tell you to write evil kenifies to your hearts content as i said i would but i need some sugar. write them trying to draw one another and being cute, i dont know

dont you worry, other people have the evil on lock this time around :') here's some ken and wifies drawing!

Word count: 524

Ken’s tongue is poking out of the corner of his mouth as his pencil scratches on the paper in front of him. Wifies does the same in front of him, a stack of books haphazardly set between them so as to not look at each other’s work. Their kitchen table is covered in paints and brushes and pens, a cacophony of art materials that they were playing around with.

It’s hard to think that Wifies had never just. . . messed around with art before.

Ken hasn’t always given much thought to these kinds of experiences, so intrinsic and natural to life— everyone has fingerpainted on their floor and drawn in the margins of their homework and braided friendship bracelets at school, haven’t they? But not Wifies. So they’ve been playing around with art all day, and now they’re drawing each other on a time limit. Thirty minutes, just a pencil, do your best, have fun!

Ken’s sketch of Wifies is. . . wonky. His nose is a little too offset to one side, and his mouth just doesn’t look right, but otherwise Ken thinks he’s doing a pretty good job. The eyes even match! When the timer runs out, their comms blaring in sync, he feels satisfied.

“Pencils down!” Ken says with a grin.

“It’s down, it’s down.”

Wifies has a smear of paint on his arm, and what looks like charcoal smudged on his jaw. He looks cute. He looks somewhat like a kid discovering that he can make things pretty for the first time. Ken likes it.

“Ready?”

“Yup.”

“Three, two, one, reveal!”

Ken holds his sheet up towards Wifies over their makeshift barrier.

Then he sees Wifies’s art and his jaw drops.

“That’s so cute,” Wifies says, taking the sheet out of Ken’s hand with a blooming smile. Ken silently takes Wifies’s art in hand. “I love it.”

“What the fuck,” Ken says eloquently.

It’s a beautiful monochrome sketch of Ken. It looks just like him. Like, honestly, it’s kind of mind boggling how accurate and good it looks. This is unfair.

“This is unfair,” Ken says out loud. “How is it this good? How are you this good at drawing?”

“You like it?” Wifies asks. He keeps tracing his fingers over Ken’s shit-ass drawing.

“Wifies, what the hell, this looks amazing.”

“Thanks.”

“Mine looks awful next to this.”

“Noooo, no it doesn’t look awful,” Wifies holds Ken’s drawing to his chest as if Ken will snatch it away from him. He might. “I love it. You made it for me, and I love it. Don’t be mean to it. It’s beautiful.”

Ken blushes, because he’s stupid and easy. Wifies sounds so sincere and sweet, eyes wide as he watches Ken for any sudden snatching movements.

“It’s fine, I guess,” Ken grumbles and sinks back into his seat, looking at Wifies’s drawing of him.

There’s something. . . loving about it. The idea that Wifies has looked at Ken so often and catalogued so much of his appearance, to be able to draw him so well. . . Ken isn’t immune to tenderness, though he’s very much allergic to it.

He’ll find a good place to keep it.

[tubbypeddle]

Hi! I really like your writing, I was wondering how would part 5 characters react to a y/n with an uberman sleep schedule. personally, I only do it during summer.

hii!! thank you so much for the compliment, what!!!! you're so sweet 🫂

also, an uberman sleep schedule!! I had no idea what that was, I had to search it up! how interesting!!

For those who don't know, from what I found, an "uberman sleep schedule" is a form of polyphasic sleep where someone takes multiple 20 minute naps throughout the day, spaced approximately 4 hours apart. (Polyphasic sleep refers to a sleep schedule where you sleep more than twice in a single day)

for now, i'm only going to do the bucci gang, but if you want la Squadra too, just send in another ask! i'll be happy to 🫂 also, I apologize for the wait 😭 I got a little caught up with personal things, I didn't mean to put this off (I actually feel so bad it's not even funny)

(author's note: no smut in this one <33, also for underage characters it isn't exactly an "x reader" like what will be suggested for the canon adult characters, since I don't feel comfortable with that, but I hope you enjoy it anyway)

Giorno Giovanna

He's a little shocked by how easy you find sleep, and a little envious honestly

Ever since he was a child, he found it hard to fall asleep.

So the fact that you can just lie down for a nap and actually take a nap

He's a little jealous, not that you'll ever know. he's a master at hiding his feelings behind a straight face. Not jealous enough to do anything,

It's amusing to him, to find you in many places around Passione headquarters taking your little naps

sometimes, if he feels comfortable enough with you, he'll leave you little presents while you nap

just small things, like a little frog companion, or a cool rock he found with a note wishing you well

Bruno Bucciarati

He finds it endearing how strict you are with your schedule, if you're strict with it. You have a timer that you set before you sleep, and you wake up to it, always.

It's a little impressive, honestly

Bruno isn't one to have a very strict sleep schedule like yours is, he can't afford to.

So when you can just do that, it's adorable honestly.

plenty of little catnaps throughout the day

when he has time, you might be able to convince him to join you in a quick nap, though it might be a little difficult. it's hard enough for him to get to sleep at night without a nap in the middle of the day ruining his sleep schedule.

but when he does cave into your request, it's some of the most peaceful sleep he's ever had in his life.

Leone Abbacchio

he understands the appeal of taking cat naps throughout the day, and if his schedule allows for it, he'd do it too

it's not hard to convince him to take a nap with you, he loves any excuse to shirk work, especially if it's with you (much to Bucciarati's annoyance)

though, taking these naps with you fucks up his actual sleep schedule, so he ends up staying up really late into the night

usually, this would irritate him to no end, but since it's you he's staying up for, he doesn't mind

(especially if it means he gets more naps with you the next day)

Narancia Ghirga

he might be a little confused about why you sleep so often, though this isn't ill-intentioned

he means well!

he's just...a little confused (when is he not, honestly)

there's so much to do in the day! so much fun to have! why do you sleep so often?

be prepared for when you're sleeping out in the open, though, because he has a bad habit of fiddling with you while you sleep

his language of affection is touch, so he likes fiddling with your hands, or your hair, or even just poking you while you sleep

if you're a light sleeper, it's best to watch out for sleeping around him

he might even draw on your face

Guido Mista

he's actually pretty chill, pretty laid back, even if he does poke fun at you a little bit for sleeping so often even if he does the same thing

you'll probably find him sleeping around his apartment before he finds you sleeping

and he openly encourages you to slip in beside him if you find him (he's a little stinky though /affectionate)

If he finds you sleeping first, though, he'll probably just slip in next to you (if you've given him the okay ahead of time)

or he'll sit beside you and read a magazine if he isn't sleepy

(he loves and appreciates nap dates and I will die on this hill)

Pannacotta Fugo

he probably wouldn't have much of an opinion or reaction, so sorry if you were looking for one from him

it's just something that you do, it's none of his business what your sleep schedule is like

the only thing you'd probably get out of him is worry

"why are you sleeping out here? This sofa is awful for your back. Sleep in your room."

Aggressive worrier, definitely

Trish Una

she probably thinks it's cute

naps are fun, she loves naps, but she won't indulge in them too often

she definitely worries that sleeping too often could ruin her skin (I don't know how it would, but it probably would) so she won't indulge you in a besties nap too often

she will offer to sit with you though, as you nap

she'd probably take it as an excuse to do skin care with you, or a chance to touch up her nails, or even just relax alongside you

IM SO SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG!! I GOT DISTRACTED WITH OTHER THINGS IN MY PERSONAL LIFE 😭

I HOPE YOU LIKE WHAT I GOT!! can u tell I didn't know what to write

[generalluxun]

Honestly, the show can't really say anything about any of the heroes being "adults" but even the rest of the other heroes are being more mature than Marinette who is very much not being an "adult" or "emotionally mature" when they have her hiding behind this lie because she's uncomfortable with the predictably negative reaction she's going to get from Adrien.

Setting aside any value judgements on Marinette just for the moment. It doesn't work with the show's format to have 'adult' be the threshold. I am pretty sure the show just retconned that to 'You can work at it and do it.' You see: They rely on these kids NOT being mature and making all sorts of inexperienced mistakes for the actual *plot*.

That's fine! It's a kids show! Kids making kid mistakes should be the core of it. It just means those kids aren't 'adults' They're kids.

It's okay to be a kid, specially if you are one.

The reality is that at the start of the show they put an artificial constraint on the heroes to take advantage of it in writing (provide tension and obstacles, or explain why they always run off etc) Then they *chose* to specify WHY that constraint was there(to protect the kids) and how to circumvent it.

They even reinforced it in the Paris special. Using it for 'Evil' lets you skip the timer, but you get your life force drained away. *because you're still a kid*. You don't just train your way around that. If so, the Order would have just... done that.

Now the timer is inconvenient because the show lasted too long and the timer is limiting the stories they can tell. so, Poof, it's gone.

It's only bad because they want you to believe so hard that isn't what they're doing.

[inuyashaluver]

Okay I think I need more MLT fics because that was too cute for me to handle at 7 AM

nail day - maya le tissier

maya le tissier x reader

description: in which you and your girlfriend have your monthly nail session, resulting in silly arguments and timers being set

warnings: nothing i think, fluffy!!

a/n: your wish is my command, lovely! IM FEEDING EVERYONE MAYA CONTENT WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, I LOVE HER ❤️

⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

you and your girlfriend, maya find it hard to be apart from each other. the familiarity of one another’s presence was considered a necessity at this point.

a main contributor to your major codependency is the fact that you both play for england and manchester united. there wasn’t really an option to be separated and that was the way you liked it.

—

you and maya originally started dating when you both signed for brighton & hove in 2018, you were the same age and just stuck together like glue, your friendship short lived until you both started flirting shamelessly with each other.

through endless pining and yearning over numerous dates, you began to date when maya made the first move.

it was a cold day and maya had texted you that chilly morning that she had a little surprise for you. when she came to pick you up for training, she stood at your front door with a warm drink in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other.

“what’s all this for?” you smile, hugging the girl tightly, taking the items quickly before ushering her inside your flat.

“oh just because, look how they spelt your name on the cup” she giggles nervously, fiddling with her hands as she avoids eye contact with you.

your eyebrows furrow but you look at the cup nonetheless, you look down to see maya’s handwriting on the cup.

‘girlfriend ♡’ followed by a little ‘please x’ written under it. the smile on your face was something maya would never forget, it made her heart beat so fast, honestly feeling like a panic attack.

you put your cup down with a big smile and immediately jump on the girl, she catches you by your thighs and laughs brightly when you kiss her cheek repeatedly.

“i’d love to be your girlfriend! you’re so cute” you coo, she smiles up at you and wraps her arms around your waist to give you a tight hug. “you’re the cutest” she mumbles into your shoulder, pressing a gentle kiss there while she holds you to her.

everything felt right in that moment, like a missing piece of you was finally complete. both of you knew, this was special.

—

when you and maya signed to manchester united, you moved in together in a brand new flat, creating a home of your own together. a perfect reflection of the two of you in every nook and cranny.

one thing you and maya agreed on wholeheartedly was that spending time together outside of football related activities was incredibly important to your relationship.

whether it was enjoying a night in or just going out for a stroll, you both loved that quality time of just being together without a care in the world.

one of your favourite activities to do with each other was to get your nails done. every single one of your teammates at united as well as england knew how important nail day was to you and maya.

it was a time for both of you to just sit and chat with a little pampering, you would both make an effort to match in some way. whether it was the same colour or same little design, both of you would be walking out of that nail salon with matching smiles and nails.

did you get teased for it? oh god, like no tomorrow but you and maya loved it more than anything. a subtle yet extremely loud ode to your relationship.

something else you and maya also loved about nail day was your nightly back scratching session. sure it sounds weird but you and maya literally couldn’t get enough of it, becoming part of your night routing no matter where you were.

so much so, it blended into your everyday lives, the gentle scratch of nails offering a comfort the both of you couldn’t explain, it was familiar, it was home.

—

you and maya finally had a free weekend, both of you excited for nail day. the previous day in training, some of the girls were asking what you’re matching set will be this time, something maya took great pride in and asked for opinions to everyone that was willing.

“do you think red or white?” maya ponders to ella and millie, the girls look at your girlfriend with amused smiles as she slings an arm over your shoulder.

“hm, red goes with the kit” ella points out, millie nods along with the girls words. maya thinks about it for a moment, “true, but england camp is in a couple days and we won’t have time to change it so if it’s white then it’s universal” maya explains, at your girlfriend’s seriousness, you begin to giggle.

maya immediately looks down at you with a smile before she realises you’re mocking her, “baby, this isn’t a joke” maya huffs, “i know, lovey” you nod with a sympathetic pout before kissing her cheek affectionately, causing the girl to melt into your touch with pink cheeks.

“but if we’re wearing the away kit, you could also get blue as well” millie informs, this conversation was genuinely so serious and it was so endearing.

maya sighs, she’s frustrated. “shit, you’re right,” she tucks you closer into her side as you all conversed.

“we’ll figure it out, maya baby, don’t stress” you chuckle, reaching up to graze your nails on the back of her hand to ease her worries, maya looks at you and nods before giving you a quick kiss on your lips.

—

you both ended up getting both blue and white nails, maya gives you a satisfied smile when you both interlock hands after walking out of the salon. you both had the time of your life just chatting and enjoying each other’s company while getting your nails done.

when you both got back to your house, you both binge watched a bunch of movies while packing your bags for camp, which was coming up the next day.

giggling and getting distracted by maya wanting your attention. managing to tug you in her lap to lazily make out, you give into her for a couple minutes before you realise what she was doing.

“maya” you scold, she smirks at you while she squeezes your hips, “yes, beautiful?” she kisses your lips sweetly and you physically have to push her away when she keeps chasing your lips for more contact.

“the bags” you point out with a smile, she groans and rests her forehead against your collarbone, nuzzling into you while you remind her what she needed to pack, she tended to be quite forgetful when it came to packing her bag. (you think she does it on purpose to make you do it - spoiler, she does)

“you’re not listening, are you?” you huff, feeling the girl kiss your neck gently, “you sound very pretty” she mumbles into your skin, moving to kiss your jaw and giving you a teasing kiss on the corner of your mouth.

you shake your head at her amusingly, “you’re impossible” you whisper against her lips, kissing her quickly before hopping off her, receiving numerous complaints as you packed the girl’s bag for her. she gave you a big, dizzying kiss as a thank you so you weren’t complaining.

that night as soon as you got to bed, maya gives you a devious grin and you already knew what she wanted. she pushed you to lie flat on the bed while she peeled your shirt slightly upwards.

you let out a sigh of relief when the girl gently rakes her nails over the skin of your back. she kisses your cheek as she scratches your back, smiling at the way you completely melted under her touch. it was incredibly intimate for the both of you, something that you both considered your love language for each other.

after about five minutes, you and maya swap, she hums happily as your nails graze her warm skin. “i love you” she exhales, you kiss her back quickly, “i love you” you giggle at her progressively getting sleepier by the second.

you take your hand off her for a second and she immediately springs up to look at you with an offended expression. “hey! that was way shorter than what i did for you!” maya accuses, throwing you a half-hearted scowl as you look at her with wide eyes.

“it was the same amount!” you laugh, she shakes her head instantly, sitting up to face you in the bed. “no, baby, sorry but you’re wrong,” maya tutts, crossing her arms over her chest as you giggle at her.

“don’t laugh, it’s not funny!” she whines, you nod and place a hand on her thigh, your nails gently scraping the skin there.

you watch her visibly soften for a second before she points an accusatory finger at you, “don’t try and weasel your way out of this, missy” she scoffs, you laugh brightly at her and you can see her fight a smile.

“i’m not laughing” maya grits and rolls her eyes, you can see the corners of her mouth twitching as you laugh at her. “hm, i think you’re smiling though” you grin, moving closer to her and poking her cheek, she moves her head to bite your finger and you yelp as she almost catches it between her teeth.

“nope, that’s it’, we’re setting a timer” maya hurriedly grabs her phone from her bedside table and puts on a five minute timer, looking at you expectantly when she lays back down. “fine” you groan, watching your girlfriend become a puddle under your touch.

after the timer went off, she reset it and you immediately protest. “maya! no, it’s my turn!” you whine, the girl looks at you in mock confusion, “what, no? it’s still mine, look” she shows you her screen and you can see she reset the timer.

you narrow your eyes at her but give in easily, you both would do anything for each other and you both knew it.

“the deal is that you scratch your girlfriend’s back, (y/n/n), be serious!” maya exclaims after scratching your back after her 3 turns, moving to tackle you to the bed, you both lay on your sides giggling and smiling as you just look at each other. the amount of love you held in your eyes told you both everything and more.

she grins lazily at you when you push some stray hairs out of her face, she pulls you closer to her and instinctively scratches your back.

you smile and kiss her sweetly, returning the gesture and falling asleep easily that night.

—

when you both arrive to camp, you’re immediately asked about the results of nail day, maya boasts immediately and shows off to everyone. even showing the media team which has shown to be a new tradition in the arrival videos.

long story short, nail day is essential for both of you and everyone knows it.

⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

you know the drill - pretend it’s you! ily lessiiii

liked by ellatoone and 44,232 others

mayaletissier: don’t let your girlfriend take advantage of you just because she’s cute and pretty, kids

view all comments

yourname: you don’t scratch someone’s back for two seconds and suddenly you’re taking advantage of them

↳ mayaletissier: i still love you

↳ yourname: i’m a saint because i love you more

yourname: you got way more scratches then i did!

↳ mayaletisser: i did not!

↳ yourname: 30 minutes worth!?

↳ mayaletissier: have i ever told you how beautiful you are

↳ yourname: minx

lionesses: these nails were a definite favourite!!

[homestuckreplay]

Act 3 Reread :3

Nanna's note in the Sassacre book makes a lot more sense for the most part, now we've seen the book's journey. 'together [the kids] will Ascend' (p.759) is still up in the air - ascend to where?? ascension through the gates to Skaia has kinda gone out of the window?

the leftmost button on WV's appearifier must set the coordinates to Jade's island on 4/13/2009

Jade's magic 8 ball telling her it's 'not exactly' John's birthday is accurate. It's the anniversary of the day he came to Earth on a meteor, so it's the day he celebrates, but he was never 'born', and he was created outside of Earth time.

Jade's Lunchtop has a SICK ASS DRAGON WALLPAPER!!!! I think Homestuck could be improved by having more dragons

Dave telling Jade to 'take that fucking devilbeast out behind the woodshed and blow its head off' (p.835) is so funny in hindsight. Bec literally eats bullets for breakfast. He can send lightning 413 years into the future and across worlds to protect Jade. He fried a lab as a baby

Bro forces Dave to fight Cal, and Cal somehow wins. I think if I was forced to swordfight a puppet, it'd probably haunt my dreams too.

TT: I'm sure you think little of blithely upsetting dark forces with Grandpa Moreau over there on Hellmurder Island, but honestly I've only read a few books on it. GG: haha dark? thats ridiculous! (p.838)

This conversation between Rose and Jade implies that Jade's visions never showed Rose exploring dark magic, which reinforces the idea that the gods of the Furthest Ring are immune to Skaia's powers.

There being no accessible video feed of Jaspers in the two weeks between his disappearance and finding his corpse is kind of similar to Dad's room being greyed out to the Sburb interface until John goes inside. What's up with these things Skaia doesn't have access to? What would Jaspers say if asked about this?

The sequence in Dad's room still does not make any sense to me. Why would Dad keep his door locked if he was just a regular businessman. Why would he hide that from his son. At best he is complicit in trying to make John think he's a 'hilarious street performer' (p.946) but here John is blaming himself for assuming and never asking. I actually think it's a parent's job to share their own life with their kid and to present themself as a full person and it's hard to blame John for his assumptions when Dad made active attempts to hide what he does for work, if he is a regular businessman, which I still haven't seen hard evidence of.

Dad successfully beats up the extremely strong Hegemonic Brute (p.961) as does PM later. Who would win in a fight, Dad or PM? Dad does have a history of irresponsible mail behavior, separating the two Sburb envelopes that were clearly sent together.

does it mean anything that the lab near Rose's house was 'unestablished' a few seconds later than expected? Skaian countdown timers aren't infallible / can be interfered with somehow?

John learning about the graffiti on his wall is basically the only thing that's ever made him talk in all caps, so he's REALLY affected by this. Rose knowing about the graffiti all along makes her screencap caption 'It should be noted he was kind of a weird guy anyway' (p.510, 1022) hit a little different too; I'd also be surprised to see that in a friend's room.

WV and PM are definitely meeting for the first time here (p.1044) - it's confirmed now that PM and WQ were the only two exiles to meet before being exiled.

John's suit has hidden stage magic abilities and is full of cards. when is he gonna bust out some card tricks!!!!

EB: his bro is probably busy kicking his ass. EB: that's probably all there is to say on the matter. (p.1003)

TG: bro just kicked my ass TG: thats really all there is to say on the matter (p.1071-2)

I didn't notice this parallel before and now I'm wondering how many times John's received these exact texts from Dave that lets him quote them in advance.

When he sees your staggering gesture of sentimentality he will finally understand. He will understand that in the game of facetious sentimental gestures, no one gets the best of Rose Lalonde. (p.1089)

^ FALSE!! the most sentimental of gestures was John giving her that bunny in the first place!! he LOVED that bunny and he GAVE IT TO YOU AS A BABY because he saw you like a daughter because he CREATED YOU FROM SLIME!!!!

Rose is at her most convincing in her first conversation with GA - I always find it interesting to see when her mask slips, when it's obvious that her maturity and intellectualism is an act, but here the act is super effective. just a shame this wasn't their first conversation from GA's perspective

I think the exiles forget a lot of what happened to them in Sburb when they come to Earth, or at least, they wander for long enough to forget the specifics. AR definitely acts like he's discovering the frog temple for the first time (p.1108) and PM in Act 4 seems surprised to recover her own 'long discarded memory'

I hate seeing Dave with the pointy shades. Take those off

Dave's sunglasses as a screen reflecting the world is a huge recurring motif. something to analyze later?

'[S] Enter' is the coolest shit in the whole world and Sburban Jungle is such a good song I want to eat it. I still love how it's structured with the focus on Rose's entry for the first 80%, interspersed with occasional moments for the other kids, and then the sudden hard cut to John pogoing up to his first gate in the last 20%. It's so different to both '[S] WV: Ascend' and '[S] Descend' and I love how there's no standard formula for an end of act flash, they're all very distinct. EOA5 has the highest bar imaginable.

While reading serially, I enjoyed Act 3 more than Act 2 - Act 3 was excellent at adding new lore and building up the bigger picture in a way that gave almost every day an exciting development, while Act 2 was slower and involved a lot of waiting for things to happen. On this reread, I enjoyed Act 2 more than Act 3, because Act 2 had fewer plot threads and more obvious transitions between them, making it easier to follow all at once, while Act 3 is a little all over the place - its individual elements are incredible, but they don't hang together so well.

Bonus Act 3 review from my girlfriend who has not read it: "the page? Where you can hit keys and make sounds seemed cool"

[luciaintheskyainthi]

Hii, i admire you a lot, every chapter of ECM encourages me a lot, i hope yo are well and im sorry for the bad english in my cuestion😭

Your best writing tips? Everything is valid, whether writing in general o writing fanfics, whatever you think for sure is good, thanks for writing 🙏💗😔

thank-you so much!! I'm glad my writing can do that for you!!

Oh man, I have soooo many things to say, but I'll give you some simplified ones to start with! Buckle up buttercup, this is a long'un!

General Writing Tips:

I know it sounds dumb! But just write. Write a little, write a lot, just try not to get bogged down with it being 'good' or 'bad' or anywhere in between. I'm a firm believer in writing being like a muscle: the more you do it, the easier (and the better) it becomes. And also, crucially, this shouldn't be a time where you do things like... a) hunting for the perfect word b) doing research c) cross reference with a past chapter This is a writing only time! Make yourself place holders (I write XK for words I can't think of, as it's 2 letter that will never appear together so I can CTRL+F it easily! I make comments in the draft specifying what to check or research. I highlight parts I know need LOTS of work) so you can quickly move past what's blocking you and continue writing.

Find a writing habit and environment that works for you. Typing? Hand-writing? Coloured pages? White pages? Dictating? Working in a public place? A private space? (When I start out a story, I often handwrite. And I'll turn back to it if I'm stuck, too. I also write a lot in public, as I find the pressure of other people around me stops me wasting time on my phone... or Tumblr lol).

Get yourself a writing friend! I have a friend I see almost weekly and it's my most productive time of the week (For example, today I wrote 5600 words! Crazy!). Online works too (if you use the pomodoro, you can compare word counts, make a competition of it). If you're doing it IRL, DO NOT expect to get anything done the first time. Or the second time.... but the more you do it, the easier it is for you both to fall straight into writing. (This is the exact same advice I giving to my students about 'study dates' 😉 )

If you find it hard to 'break the seal', then try a warm up. Set yourself a 5-10 minute timer and write based on an activity. E.g. tell a story from the POV of an object in your room! Write a detailed description of your foot! Write a 5 sentence story! Find a picture and write a scene inspired by it! Or get yourself a prompt list and use that. These are all things I would do for students back when I ran a creative writing club at school.

Use the pomodoro system when writing (it's great for studying too!). That's 20 minutes of nothing but writing - no searching up stuff! No looking at your phone! Just writing. Then take a 5 minute break. Then another 20 minutes of writing. Rinse and Repeat! You'd be amazed at how much you can get done!

THIS ONE IS SO IMPORTANT: 👏 The first thing you write is the worst thing you write! That's not just okay! It's expected!! 👏 This is something I tell ALL my students and equally myself. The editing process is SO crucial and honestly, the best thing you can do to improve is - and you'll hate me for saying this! - rewrite your entire first draft. This is why I say, 'don't worry about the first thing you've written'. Because it won't be the end product. (This is why I so often hand-write. Because typing it up then becomes the rewrite.) The re-write is when you should be thinking carefully about your phrasing, and when you can go and do that research. (I will note, I actually don't do this much anymore, but I've also been writing obsessively for 19 years... so do with that what you will (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

Read your work out loud. What reads fine in your head might come out as nonsense out loud. This is especially true for dialogue! The better it flows out your fabulous mouth, the better it reads. I've done this so much I've mostly internalised it, but I always always do my final edit as a read through out loud. All 140+K of ECM has come out my gob at least once.

Actual writing tips:

When it comes to sentence structure and phrasing, one of the best things I ever did for myself was read the book Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale. I don't expect every writer to do so, but I do think it's worth reading (I'd like to specify, I generally HATE reading non-fiction but I found it a valuable read).

Here are a few things to keep in mind when actually writing:

Bad repetition: it's a classic, but overuse of certain words sticks out like a sore thumb. Even now I'll do it and won't notice until the final read through (out loud! See my previous tip haha). That is NOT to say that you should just right click 'synonyms'! It's better to edit the sentence itself, think about whether that word is even necessary before choosing to select another word).

Nuance in language is soooo important. This is why I generally discourage just the right-click 'synonym' option. Certainly in the nonsensical English language, there are subtleties in word choice that are critical to preventing your work for turning into nonsense (something I wish my students would understand!). Think of the different meanings conveyed through choices like house / bungalow / condo / flat / apartment / mansion / Mcmansion. All have differing connotations and can't be used interchangeably. Same with floor vs ground. Make sure you understand the connotations (associated meanings) of the word you're choosing before you use it.

Following on from this, Choose specific nouns and dynamic verbs, rather than relying on your adjectives/adverbs to do all the work. Not ' one storey house': bungalow. Not 'walk tiredly': stumble / trudge. Of course, you don't have to do this all the time and I'm not saying adverbs/adjectives are evil! But I think a lot of writers become overly reliant upon them.

Avoid redundant language. Consider the words that are doing the heavy lifting in your sentences. Is there anything in the sentence that doesn't need to be there because you've already implied it? e.g. Sara trudged tiredly into her bedroom and fell onto her bed. In this example, 'trudged' already implies exhaustion. And one would assume her bed is in her bedroom. Likewise 'fall' isn't the most exciting of verbs. So I'd change it to something like this -> Sara trudged through the doorway to collapse onto her bed. (Note here I'm also thinking of the implied meaning of 'onto' rather than 'into', which would suggest her bed is still made up).

Keep in mind who your narrator is and adjust your writing accordingly. Consider their personality, their background and the influence of their culture on the ways in which they'd think / write things. For example, as Peter is a character prone to ramble, I'll sometimes have him do the same in his narration. And because he's a silly little guy, I'll also have his train of thoughts turn in silly ways. His science background means I'll occasionally throw in a science reference too (though it's not my strongest knowledge base these days! So it requires more research lol). In contrast, Jason's love of literature make him more likely to use 'fancy' words like 'eschew', literary references and more elaborate metaphors. But at the same time, his Crime Alley upbringing means I have him use a lot of contractions. And because I see him as a character who is both a dramatic bastard and a highly efficient guy, I will use a lot of one word, or very short sentences. (If you're using multiple narrators, it might pay to write these ideas down!)

Anyways, I could go on, but it's also 20 to 11PM here and I've already written 5600 words today 🥲 My phalanges are tired!

I at least hope you can find something helpful or encouraging from all of this!