#just came forth

[writingsfromhome]

Rules to Break

A/N: not much to say about this, just a super fluff first-impression one shot.

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He noticed her the first time she came in, but only because she was holding a copy of his favourite book. She’d lain it on the countertop as she squinted up at the menu and asked him if they did an iced Americano.

“We do,” he wanted to ask her about the book but when she meets his eye he’s suddenly nervous. He could tell she was in a rush, after working as a barista for nearly two years Harry could tell that when a customer looked past you even when they looked directly at you…it was not time to engage in small talk. “Is that all?”

“Uhm yes,” she bites her lip and glances at her phone. “Will that be long?”

He was right, “I’ll get started on it now for you.” Harry’s coworker shoots him a look as she moves aside from the espresso machine. He was supposed to be on cash strictly. But Americanos were easy and there were only two people in line.

“Pretty privilege,” she mutters. She was always going on about how life was easier for pretty people. Harry didn’t disagree, but also thought she benefitted from the same thing. He thought it was smarter not to say anything lest she bite his head off though.

“Here you are,” Harry pushes the drink at the pickup counter. She looks up from her phone, book tucked under her arm.

“Oh! That was quick. Thank you,” she smiles at him and this time she looks at him. Why did she make him so damn nervous?

Harry saw her a few times a week since then, usually with a friend but there were some times by herself in the far corner of the cafe. Her headphones on and typing away furiously at a laptop.

He never denied he was a romanticist, he fell in love easily and always. It never stuck of course, he was in love with the idea in his head, and it was easy when you worked in a cafe that was a revolving door for interesting people carrying small pieces of their lives on show while he made their drinks or took their orders.

The danger came from regulars; he had a rule not to romanticize regulars. But it was a rule he had to break when it came to her.

Today, she orders her usual and finds the only available seat near the sink. It was exam season so the cafe was mostly filled with students. Which meant it was too busy for Harry to keep an eye on her, him and his two colleagues work around each other as they pump out drink after drink.

3 hours later, Harry takes his 15 minute break. She’s still at her table, a friend had joined her. They talk animatedly over whatever’s on screen.

While her friend scans the screen, she sits silently. Then her eyes flit up and find Harry’s staring. Shit. He looks down at the water in his hand, turns awkwardly, and shuffles to the break room. It felt like she’d broken the fourth wall…it was uncomfortable as Harry remembers everything he knew about her was her coffee order, a shared book interest, and fantasy. He had to stop doing this.

Harry avoids her general area as he finishes his shift. He takes lunch in the break room, and focuses on the customer in front of him. One after the other.

Close to the end of his shift he risks a glance that way, and he’s surprised to still see her there. She must have ordered something when he was on his break because a second drink and half-eaten sandwich sits on her table.

The woman herself is staring into space, Harry thinks she’s day dreaming but she could be deep in thought. Maybe there was no difference. She snaps out of her thoughts and glances back at her screen. She must have noticed Harry though because she looks back up to him. This time she smiles. Harry nods and turns back to pouring the espresso in front of him.

Why did he nod? Was that supposed to be cool? What the fuck?

This was getting ridiculous. It’s been over a month of romanticizing someone just because she came in with a book. For all he knew she was holding it for a friend. He had to get over this—this was why he had that rule. He could obsess over someone he’d made up in his head for too long if he saw them too often. He had to stop.

“Can I uhm, get you a refill?” Harry decides to approach her table. “Seems like you could use one?”

“Oh,” her voice is soft, surprised when he appears at her table. “As much as I’d love that, I think I’ve had enough coffee for today.”

“Oh,” well that didn’t go how he expected. This was the other part about Harry’s fantasies—the reality always let him down. “Okay.”

“Okay,” she laughs. “Sorry have I been here too long? Are you subtly kicking me out?”

“No!” Harry realizes she’s smiling about it a beat too late. God he was normally not this awkward. He forced a laugh. “You have been here for some time, I thought you could use a refill. What are you working on?”

“Oh this,” she tilts her screen down lower. Government secrets.”

Harry waits a moment, unsure if her deadpan was really good or she was joking. She cracks a smile though and he laughs.

“You’re quite a serious one then,” she opens her screen back up.

“I’m…I’m really not. I’m mostly an idiot, ask my colleagues.” Harry glances back at the other side of the countertop and risks sitting in the seat opposite this woman. “To be honest I think I’m just a bit nervous.”

“Nervous?!”

“You’re intimidating!”

“Me!? Oh my god nobody has ever called me intimidating!”

“Nobody’s ever called me serious!” Harry laughs.

“I guess we don’t know each other at all,” she shakes her head with a laugh. “Intimidating.”

“You come in here regularly and just type away at your laptop all seriously. Your government secrets intrigue me.”

“My government secrets huh?” She smirks and Harry blushes.

“Yeah,” Harry pushes on. “Obviously. What else.”

“So is it true about regulars, do baristas actually remember our drinks?”

“Yeah,” Harry’s relieved at the switch in subject. “Iced Americano, sometimes with an almond croissant.”

“Hey that’s me,” she grins. “I’m actually writing a…well it’s supposed to be a novel. Right now it’s a fucking mess.”

“That’s what my mum calls me,” Harry jokes. “But I’m sure your work is great.”

“Nah not yet,” she leans forward on the table. “Does your mum actually?”

“She’s said it once, last Christmas.” Harry wasn’t sure if this was oversharing but she nods for him to continue. “I graduated with all these distinctions and now I’m just working at a coffee shop. I think she’s worried I’m not going to do anything with my life.”

“It’s not all cracked up to be,” she rests her head on her hand. “I had a job right out of uni, hated my life for over a year before I just said fuck it and quit. I live at home again, like I’m a bloody teenager. But…I think I’m happier.”

“I’ll put you on a call with my mum, say that exact same thing to her. Please?”

The pair laugh out loud, any awkwardness from before completely gone.

“It’s like I’m so burnt out from studying and never getting a break. I don’t want one part of my life to just rollover into the next.”

“Yeah!” she agrees.

“And, she doesn’t think it’s a real job, but I model on the side. I actually like doing it with this job so-“

“Of course you do!”

“What?” Harry watches her lean back in her chair and cross her arms.

“I should’ve know you model.”

“You should’ve?” He can’t help but grin.

“Yeah,” she looks like she’s putting the pieces together about Harry. “Your government secrets no long intrigues me, I know what you use them for.”

The unexpected joke makes Harry laugh, a bit too loud. His team lead calls out his name and reminds him his break is about done.

“Sorry,” she whispers to him. “Didn’t mean to get you into trouble.”

“It’s alright.” Harry chuckles. “I’m off in a half hour anyway, I haven’t got much work to go back to.”

“Oh,” she nods stiffly. “Alright.”

“Okay,” Harry gets up. “I’ll see you around Iced Americano.”

“That’s an awful nickname.”

Harry just shrugs and gets back to work, which is mostly cleaning up at this point. He realizes he should have asked if she had plans, they could grab a bite to eat since he knows she’s been here most of the day. Maybe he should ask now.

Harry peeks over the sink but her seat is empty and everything is gone from the table. He glances around the room but she had left. Disappointed. He felt a bit let down.

On the other hand, he realizes that this was the first time someone in his head didn’t let him down. She was bright, and funny, and really nice to him even though he cringed at how creepy he’d been. The disappointment stabs at him again. Oh well. There was always next time.

Once his shift finishes, and he changes out of the T-shirt that smelled like burnt coffee beans, Harry says his goodbyes and leaves. He turns to the right where the bus stop is but pauses when he spots a familiar figure on the bench.

“I was going to go home. But then I decided I would wait out your shift. And then it felt weird to go back inside so…”

“Aren’t you cold?” It was a brisk December evening.

“Fuck yes,” she hops up and walks over to Harry. “D’you want to grab a bite?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” he couldn’t hide the relief in his voice. She had stayed.

“I know a good spot but it’s about 20 minutes walk?”

“I’m alright, I thought you were cold?”

“Not with company,” she threads her arm through his and they laugh at her cheesy response.

“It’s the company you make along the way,” Harry joins in.

“Exactly!”

They head in her direction and it occurs to Harry. “I don’t even know my company’s name.”

“Oh my god,” she laughs and sticks her free hand out to Harry as they continue walking. “I’m Y/N!”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Harry.” he shakes her hand and they laugh again at how weird they’re being.

“I know,” she smiles up at him. “Your name tag.”

“So I’m the only one who’s been in the dark.”

“‘Fraid so. Remember when you thought I was intimidating?”

“And you thought I was serious,” Harry laughs. She was an open book and he was always cracking jokes. How quickly they went from strangers to something else.

“We were naive then..but I’m still interested in this modelling you do. What’s it for?”

Harry explains his other job to her, the kinds of shoots he landed. What he was aiming for gig-wise. By the time they reach their destination Harry had asked Y/N about her novel and she was happily explaining to him what she wanted to write. He was happily listening.

Harry was glad he’d broken his rule because the mysterious girl in the corner of the cafe was splitting the mystery wide open. And turns out she was actually really cool.

[wormzandgutz]

Scarab is an accumulation of months worth of anger and violent thoughts

[fraternum-momentum]

did I make a sheriff oc just to draw this dialogue?

yes, yes i did. so meet Nigel.

[lucalicatteart]

 sculpted a strange shimmery two headed snail, speckled with wild flowers on it's shell~

[cupidle]

zazie

[slcepily]

weow

[narsh-poptarts]

The Hex

woodcut of my MoTW character !!!!! really happy with how this came out ^^

some struggling process under the cut

EDIT: had to revamp this whole thing, hopefully it shows up now

[starsailores]

one of the many things in threads that breaks my heart is that, when kosika asks nasi what holland was like, the only thing she said was 'lonely'. any other character who survived acol would have called him powerful, closed-off, perhaps even brutal, and many of them would have been all too happy to list all of his sins. any other character would have either demonised or sancified him. but nasi - despite only being a child, and only having caught glimpses of him - was one of the few people to see him for what he truly was. tired and alone. a man, not a magician, or a martyr, or a god.

[shiningstarr15]

Fated by the Cosmos ✨💫

Something about two stars being pulled into each other’s gravitational orbit and moving so fluid and in close proximity that they essentially become one, or whatever 😬🤷‍♀️

Doublestar Duo/Binarystar Duo fans rejoice ⭐️⭐️

Can you tell I’m obsessed with them?

Alt. Vers under cut

Original w/o text

Golden Princess and Little Knight 💛🗡️👑 (this one’s criminally underrated)

[familyofpaladins]

@tmaynt Day 9: Best Raph

03 Raph acts so tough, but he's a big softie who helps little old blind ladies move furniture and makes sure kids stay out of trouble. He gets irritated at his brothers and teases them, but he'd die for them too.

Rise Raph is ultimate Big Brother. Looks intimidating but is a big softie. Protects his little brothers, even when they're being stubborn.

Day 10: Favorite Turtle Curse Word. I like the shell puns lol

[mxtxfanatic]

Hello!

TGCF is the first fictional book I have read (that I know of😅) where the book was officially printed, then it was revised and printed again. I know this isn’t a new thing for fiction writers to do, just new for me to have read a book like that.

I’ve read some fan translations of the revised version but it’s still an incomplete picture as things come in snippets. (Not a dig on this, just noting that observations I make on changes are incomplete right now)

Have you encountered this with any fictional stories you have read before? If so, how did you adjust to what’s canon? Did you hold them as two separate versions or let the revised version supersede the unrevised as canon? Or did you make a third path? 😅

What’s your take on any translations of the revised TGCF you have read (if you have had the chance to read them)?

For me, I think I hold them as two separate canons. Characters, and how we understand them based off the text, can sometimes subtly or drastically change after a revision. And I don’t mean minor changes, I mean the ones that gave a clear picture on why x character did such and such, and why they now do x action vs not before, etc. And personal preferences will determine if one likes the changes or not.

I asked a lot a questions. 😅🫣Happy to hear whatever feedback you have on the topic. 😁

Hm, good questions. I guess I never thought too deeply about this because I just figure that whatever latest version mxtx puts out is The Canon™️. Also, these works are already being filtered through translation, so unless I one day learn Mandarin fluent enough to read in their original language, I’ve already accepted that there are going to be multiple variations of a text floating around. With that said, the revised tgcf is the real canon to me, but other than some additions and a wholesale deletion of the ghost kid from the story, I have not heard anything to suggest that the unrevised and revised are so radically different as to be considered different books. Hualian still get together, the Xianle trio still have their issues that they work out, Jun Wu is still the final antagonist, and the moral of the story remains the same. For the sake of limiting confusion, I try to mention which version of the story I’ve read and am pulling my ideas from, but considering them separate canons as if they are adaptations by different creators feels a little excessive.

As for what I think of the revisions that I’ve seen so far? Good shit 🔥

[acgamesda]

Me if I will see at least one person abusing and bullying other people over their romance choice once The Veilguard comes out

[dizzybizz]

meowzers

[gaemms-chamois]

i drew 110 arknights creatures for a series so far i am qualified to post my definitely tiny wishlist of animals i wish future operators were based on.

[vepaluiron]

had a bad case of burnout after finishing my courses but i've been really enjoying wow again recently, so woe! sketch dump be upon ye (feat. my beloved demon hunter and various windrunners)

[umbrellacam]

Secret Origins (Vol. 2) #13 - April 1987 - The Secret Origins of Nightwing

Oh my god five-year-old baby Dickie is so small, the panic when he fell, I wanted to lunge into the page and grab him!!

I love him boldly flinging himself into an attempt at his dad's triple spin, though - and almost managing it, though he fell short on the catch! Little daredevil ❤️ And his absolute beaming grin after John caught him, ohhhh my heart, he's so - fearless, effusive, full of grace. Lookit his lil dimples, I can't.

But also - he feels so safe and secure with his Momma and Daddy ;A; They'll always catch him when he falls. They're his safety net, even when he's flying without one.

And then they're gone 💔