#kinda gutted for australia though

[world-of-wales]

OMFG I CANT STOP CRYING

[ruthytwoshakes]

Howdy everyone!! I got super inspired by @a-scary-lack-of-common-sense class swap au and wanted to try my hand at it!

I really love these designs!! If people like them too I’ll make some full refs and make some more content with them. I probably will anyway because I have so many ideas.

Under the keep reading I added wayyy too much description if you’re interested. You are interested you will read I’m using my evil mind magic to make you want to read

(I’ll address them by their names to make it less confusing btw. Pyro and Spy are called Demonan and Soldier though. I’ll name them one day probably)

For Medic and Heavy I kinda swapped their backstories and personalities. Misha is an only child who comes from a family of, fucked up to say the least, doctors. He lost his medical license for stealing the entirety of a patient’s skin. Misha is much more of a hardass with a superiority complex. Cold and callous. He takes himself and his work very seriously,, thinks he is very scary. The other mercs don’t really give a shit, which infuriates him to no end. He cares about his teammates! somewhere deep down inside ,, like really far down. Probably. Really attached to his tools, names them like how the original Heavy names his guns. He’s pretty fluent with English.

Ludwig is much more silly and caring. He’s the youngest sibling out of his 3 sisters, and took this job because he feels obligated to pay back his family for protecting him and helping him go through college. He’s not sadistic per se, more just, really loves the blood, guts, and carnage of war, and has a very morbid curiosity. He often accompanies the Medic when he's doing operations, if he's not already the patient himself. Misha adores how fascinated he is by all of it, and gladly answers and questions he may have. Very loud and extroverted,, his laughs can be heard from miles away. He kinda scares the other mercs, but he’s trying his best to tone it down. He has a horde of pigeons that just ,, follow him around. He doesn’t really know where they came from. His favorite is named Euripides. He’s intermediate at English.

For Sniper and Scout I kinda kept their backstories the same, they just had different personalities and life circumstances that led to them taking their respective jobs. Jeremy is the older brother of 7 little sisters. His mother had him when she was 16 and going through college, leading Jeremy to have to grow up fast. He and his mom have always had to pick up odd jobs to help pay the bills. One of Jeremy’s bosses took him out onto a shooting range one day and noticed he was a natural. He encouraged him to take up predator/invasive species control to help pay the bills and helped him get started, Jeremy eventually saved up enough to move to the northwest. As he got more skilled, some shady people took note and offered him some more,,, lucrative opportunities. He’s a hick with a slight Boston accent, making him all the more awkward. Pretty introverted, the only friends he's ever had is his little siblings. He’s quick-witted when he wants to be, but usually stays quiet. He seems pretty cold tough, but will change really quickly around little kids. Drinks way too many energy drinks to compensate for his insomnia.

Mick is an only child and basically the Australian version of Scout. Which is a terrifying concept!! he scares me. He’s a pretty extroverted guy, but was still bullied for his scrawny appearance and a lack of mustache hairs when he was little, so he devoted himself to becoming the best track runner in Australia. Also he couldn’t win a fight against anyone and he tended to piss off a lot of people, so running was a necessity. He doesn’t have any siblings, but he has a lot of older friends who treat him like a little brother. He likes to paint in his free time. Took the job to help support his parents and to explore the world, or just New Mexico. Annoying jock bastard. He wears those tank tops with the holes at the sides that just go all the way down,, not even a shirt at that point. Still throws piss at people because I think its really fucking funny.

Nobody quite knows where Soldier came from, not even herself. All she knows is that she’s a General, and a damn good one at that. Although his team would like to suggest otherwise. She’s loud and erratic, missing quite a few cogs in her brain. Not lead poisoned like the original soldier, I’m leaning towards a lobotomy that really melted his brain, soupe de cerveau or somethinf. Even though she lost her mind, she kept her great commanding skills and leads the team in attacks. He can be found planning and strategizing for the next round, or hanging out with the other team’s Demo. A bit silly, a bit goofy. Comically patriotic like the original Soldier. Parleys-tu Français, DO YOU SPEAK FRRRENCH ??? Non tu ne le fais pas, you don’t? FUCK YOU

Tavish and pyros personalities are a kinda combined? I just took little bits from both of them and squashed them together. Tavish is a pyromaniac hailing from Scotland. There’s rumors that he was the cause of the fire storm that rained down on Scotland for about a week, but he’s never confirmed or denied this. His voice isn’t all that muffled, his Scottish dialect is just so thick that nobody can understand him, except for Ms Pauling and Engineer like usual. Tavish can be pretty unstable and hyperactive, but an overall happy-go-lucky guy. Drinks responsibly most of the time! Still depressed! Lots of Molotov cocktails. His favorite animal is the Pegasus, and his life's goal is to find and tame one some day.

Dell is the same personality wise, just more like spy. So a bit more stuck up lol. He also shares the same care that the original spy shows for his team, as long as it benefits him along the way. Dell comes from a long family line of Spy’s that all worked for the Mann brothers, they stole Australium for them and kept them safe from other entity's that wanted to have control over the Australium too. His goggles have all that super cool spy stuff in them, night vision, cameras, a radio. Jane helped him add some new features as of late, . I'm not sure how to incorporate Dell's fascination with trans-humanism into this Dell quite yet. Maybe something to do with his senses? Name’s Spy. Spy Gaming.

Jane is pretty much the same silly little guy,, but now with 11 phds! And he’s not lead poisoned anymore! Nobody’s quite sure where Jane comes from, every time he’s asked he always changes up his backstory. He tends to slack off more than the original soldier, "A good hard-working American always knows when to take breaks!" He's also built a variety of raccoon-themed machines that get into mischief around the base. He and the Pyro are good buddies! He likes reading their stories, and gently encouraging them to write more. He's pretty strict when it comes to safety, and will come down hard on his teammates for messing around. THAT IS NOT OSHA APPROVED HEAD-WEAR MAGGOT!

Demoman is more like Tavish backstory-wise in this. They’re a midwesterner with way too much free time who blew up their family’s corn field by accident when they were little, oh and their parents. Their bio family crawled out from the remains of the farm and took them in after they proved themselves, even with their lack of tentacles and wings. (yeah their parents are the Great Old Ones, cthulhu guys, for sillies :3 ) They still like to do creative stuff (but adult-ified because adults are insecure about having fun for some reason.) like adult coloring books, or oil painting, or having adult tea parties. Demoland is a book that they're writing, and will TOTALLY 100% work on this weekend. They hate eye contact and have never been seen without their bombsuit on, except for Scout, but he can comprehend these otherworldy horrors perfectly fine so idk maybe you have a skill issue or something.

Heavy is Medic

Medic is Heavy

Sniper is Scout

Scout is Sniper

Spy is Soldier

Demoman is Pyro

Engineer is Spy

Soldier is Engineer

Pyro is Demoman

notes: I was thinking of making Dell Jeremy's father, but I didn't want to change up Jeremy's facial features too much, so Spy remains. Mick has that neck-mic thingy that soap from COD has because I was scrolling through soapghost on pintrest help. Soldier wasn't actually a general, I was thinking he was just somebody who knew too much. But after she got the lobotomy, I'm thinking she did something similar to soldier and tried to get into the military, and failed. Ludwig is the biggest on the team, with Misha having a more agile body type. Still a bear!! Just a bit smaller. This art is a bit old because I've been working on this since MAY?!?!??? ough. Maybe I'll swap some side characters as well! Pauling with Bidwell, Saxton with Helen, if ya want you could give me some suggestions 👁 👁 This is all Merasmus's fault some how, babygirl messes up the timeline for the sillies, the funny haha even. I love her <3333 Also sorry if the info for Jeremy is incorrect, I just thought it would be neat idk a whole lot about hunting.

[bcofl0ve]

what started in beautiful rooms | an austin butler x priscilla actress!reader story ❀˖°

part 1/?, RATED M MINORS DNI

summary: “what happened between you and austin?” is a question you dread. it makes your gut twist, even if only proposed through a pointed look. the short answer is “a lot”. the long answer is more complicated.

word count: 2,575

warnings: infidelity, age gap (reader is 21 when the story starts, austin is 28), unhealthy romantic and sexual relationship dynamics, explicit smut.

chapter summary: “so then someone shared, if you want some inside scoop, “austin butler checked in to a hotel with a girl- they are sharing a room, it has one bed, one king bed.”and they said they would let us know when they figured out who the girl was… and the girl is ___ - i looked her up and she is playing the role of priscilla presley in the new elvis film…you know what we call that ladies? full circle.”

chapter soundtrack

i live for comments and love talking about my writing! pls feel free to come chat via anon (or off anon!) anytime. more than happy to share headcanons and what not (-:

xxx

November 27th, 2019 | Sydney, Australia

You braced your hands against the sink counter, taking a shaky breath in and out.

It wasn’t that Austin would stop you from leaving if you walked out of the bathroom and told him you’d changed your mind. He’d asked if you were sure about accepting his proposition of getting a room for the night no short of six times after you’d agreed. And another three on the drive over from media training for the GQ event tomorrow. 

“I don’t wanna pressure you ” He’d said as the car pulled to a redlight, glancing at you out of the corner of his eye. You sat up a little straighter, hands folded in your lap as you spoke. “And you aren’t Austin.”

It wasn’t a lie, nor had he had to do much convincing to begin with. The idea of it had lingered in the back of your mind since the first Facetime call after casting was finalized. He was ridiculously attractive- you hit it off instantly. And if how touchy he was when you spent time together in person meant anything you assumed he was into to some degree.

But he was with Vanessa.

And still was, though you’d assigned a “kinda” moniker to that in the past hour since he caught your arm walking to the parking lot, rushing the disclaimer out when he saw how wide your eyes at the initial proposition.

“We’re gonna break up real soon. Don’t think she wanted to do it before I had to come here and do press. That’s all.” 

It was still wrong, You thought- knew. 

But you’d managed to shove down the guilt, talking yourself in circles about how they’d be broken up within 24 hours of him getting back to the states and that no one would ever have to know about this. 

Austin gave you a ball cap and sunglasses from his car when you went inside, donning the same simple disguise himself as he checked in using a name that wasn’t his.

There was, even so, a flash of recognition in the recipetionsits eyes when he talked and tried to ignore it, alongside the anxiety blooming in your chest. 

Which you did pretty well until you actually got up the room- ducking into the bathroom “for a second” that was starting to approach ten minutes. 

You weren't surprised when a familiar knock came through from the other side. 

“You alright?” Austin asked, concern in his tone. 

Swallowing thickly, you opened and shut your mouth when you felt tears stinging behind your eyes.

Heat rushed to your face as you tried to chastise yourself away from crying. Every other twenty-one year old actress you knew would be jumping at the opportunity to sleep with their attractive co-star that had almost a decade on them.

But here you were, about to cry in the bathroom and shoot yourself in the foot like a little bitch, you mumbled under your breath.

You didn’t realize the sliding bathroom door didn’t have a lock until you heard a creak as it slipped half an inch open, and heard Austin’s breathing.

He paused, and you could almost feel him leaning his head against the door. 

“You can come in.” You whispered before he could say anything and the door slid all the way open slowly.

He stepped in and you looked away when you caught his eyes in the mirror, his face dropping when he clocked your expression and realized you were close to tears. He took a step closer and leaned his backside against the sink counter.

“Hey,” He said softly, placing a hand over one of yours.  “I meant what I said, I can drive you back to your AirBnB right now- that’s okay.”

There was some part of you that knew you should take him up on that, but whether it was right or not you didn’t actually want to leave. But you weren’t about to turn and unload on Austin about how conflicted you felt about the whole affair aspect of what you were barreling towards.

“We still have a whole movie to film together, and promote.” You started, hating that your voice trembled. “If this makes things weird and then we hate each other or can’t be in the same room,”

Austin listened intently to your rambling, rubbing his thumb against the side of your hand where he was still holding it. 

“Well one, I don’t think you could ever do anything that’d make me hate you.” He said, a hint of a southern drawl slipping into his voice that made you want to kiss him senseless mid sentence. “Not that I don’t get where you’re coming from, cause I do.” He continued. “But all that matters tonight is you and me. Not Elvis and Priscilla- just Austin and Y/N, two friends who met through a co-worker.”

He let out a soft laugh at the last bit, and you wanted to quip back that it wasn’t that simple. That it was never going to be that simple and that “co-worker” was doing some heavy lifting for Baz Luhrman. 

But the look Austin had in his eyes as he tucked a piece of hair behind your ear drove you off the sink and into crashing your mouths together. He let out a little gasp at the suddenness of the kiss but reciprocated soon enough, hands finding purchase on your hips as your palms slid up the sides of his neck.

You’d been expecting the first kiss to be good, but the way his mouth moved against yours was like nothing you’d ever experienced in your life. He kissed you like he was drowning man gasping for air. And you almost whined out loud when he pulled back after a minute- breath shaking.

“Let’s move this outta the bathroom, yeah?” 

Giving a short nod, you nudged him backward with your foot as you went back to making out. 

But you only took two steps before you felt Austin sliding his hands off your hips to your backside, grabbing your ass in both palms. He lifted you just off your feet and you got the message, hopping up and allowing your legs to wrap around him. 

You’d just slid your tongue into his mouth when you felt the bulge in his pants rub against you. The friction hit at just the right angle to make your breath catch, Austin letting out a light chuckle against your mouth.

He laid you gently onto the mattress when you reached the bed, motioning for you to sit up so he could arrange the pillows more conveniently, sliding one under your hips. 

When sat back to admire his handiwork on that the first thought that came to your mind as his eyes raked across your body was that you felt small. But he dove dowin to kiss you again and it was quickly forgotten, replaced with pleasure as he slotted a knee between your legs. 

He dragged his mouth down to kiss your neck and you could no longer muffle the sounds rising up your throat against his mouth. Something he seemed to revel in as he pushed your hair back for better access.

Grinding haplessly against his knee, you tried to fight a whine, and failed when he adjusted the angle- fully hard cock pressing against your thigh.

“Use your words for me, I’m listenin’.” He whispered.

“Too many clothes.” 

Austin mumbled a gruff “Agreed.” as he pulled away just enough to remove his shirt. You used that time to shimmy off your black sundress dress, tossing it to the side of the bed and laying back down as Austin did the same with his pants. 

When he was stripped down to his boxers and finally looked back down at you, the lust you found in his eyes went straight to your already dripping center.

And the guilt you’d felt just a few minutes earlier dissolved into white noise.

You pulled him back down by the neck into a searing kiss, pistoning your hips up as he ground against your shamelessly. One particular shift of his hips against your center drew a moan out of your as you dropped your head back, followed by something he couldn’t make out. 

“What’d I just tell you?” He chastised, bringing his fingers to the edge of your panties, tugging at the waistband but not pulling them all the way down. 

You couldn’t make any words come out and he didn’t let that stop him from dipping his hand into the lace clad fabric, rubbing the pad of his thumb against your clit once.

Your hips jerked at even that slight sensation, hand that had been holding onto the sheets flying up to grab at his lower arm and move his wrist yourself.

Biting on his bottom lip, he tugged your panties all the way off and you found enough composure to get your bra off with one hand as he did.

Austin’s eyes widened a little when he noticed and he returned his attention to your neck.

Kissing all the way down to your breast bone, he glanced back up at you for permission before he went further. 

Dropping a hand into his hair with a nod, you gasped when his tongue swiped over your nipple a second later.

When he repeated the motion he paired it with returning his hand to your throbbing clit, sucking ony your tit as he rubbed you off. It was embarrassing how quickly he was dragging you to precipice, breathy moans escaping past your lips in rapid succession.

Pulling off of your breast, Austin moved back up your body to press his dick against your thigh again, grinding against you as he moved his fingers off your clit and eased them inside of you. He hooked the two digits in your pussy in a ‘come ‘ere’ motion, and the moan of his name it got out of you got what sounded like a growl out of him.

“You feel what those sounds are doing to me?” He grunted. “Gotta fuck you soon or I’m gonna come in my boxers like a middle schooler.”

“Can’t do that- need you inside me Aus please,”

At that whiny beg that you could barely get out he pulled his fingers out of you roughly, sticking them in his mouth and sucking as he used his other hand to tug his boxers down.

You reached for him before they even hit his knees, the need you felt for contact growing overwhelming. 

“Such a good girl telling me what you want, usin’ your manners.” Austin said as he yanked them all the way off, leaning in to give you a quick kiss as he dropped them to the side. 

When he pulled away the hand that had just been inside you wrapped around his dick, the other grabbing the underside of your thigh to lift your leg. You were quick to let both wrap around him like you had before as he lined up at your entrance, arms falling around his neck.

Pushing in slowly, his breath shook as he braced his hands against the mattress on either side of your head. He was a little bigger than you’d expected and you sucked in a breath as you adjusted, grip around his neck tightening.

When he was all the way inside he stopped, bringing a hand up to your face. Running his thumb across your bottom lip, Austin looked at you with a tender gaze.

“You okay pretty baby?”

Cheeks flushed as you took a deep breath and exhaled, your voice shook when you found your words. “‘m good, so good,”

He started to move then, and when his head dropped to your neck with a groan you realized being this close to him could become addicting.

Moving one hand from around his neck, you pushed him back by the chest just enough to get access to his neck.

Kissing down to his clavicle did exactly what you’d hoped it would when the speed of his thrusts increased, his breathing labored.

“You’re so perfect,” Austin groaned as he dropped down to his elbows and moved one hand down to your clit. 

Getting in at as good an angle he could, he massaged the bundle of nerves with two fingers as he fucked your into the mattress.  And the combination sent you reeling, head thrown back as you writhed under him, hips moving involuntary. You could feel how red your face was as you panted, nails digging into his shoulder blades so hard you were sure you’d leave marks.

“Oh look at you, shit-” Austin choked out, cut off by a moan of his own, movements growing erratic. 

You didn't know how much longer you were going to last, too far gone to be embarrassed about coming too fast. 

 “Aus- Austin I’m gonna,” you tried, cut off when one particular slam of his hips found your g-spot, dick pounding it against it mercessily- and repeatedly when the realization clicked. 

“Yeah, come on my dick baby- do that for me,”

He ducked his head down to kiss right below your ear, nibbling at the skin there and that did you in. 

Moaning his name so loud you were sure the people in the next room heard them, you saw white as the coil in your stomach came undone, hips thrashing against his hand as your walls clenched impossibly tighter around him. 

Austin yanked out abruptly, chest heaving as he barely managed one stroke before he was coming with a groan, stripping your stomach all the way up to your chest with his release. 

You’d been so caught up in the moment from the first kiss that you hadn’t realized you’d skipped the condom until then, though you were too fucked out to give it much thought.

Squeezing your eyes shut and trying to catch your breath, you thought you heard Austin say something about how he’d be right back. And when you opened your eyes again he’d returned, helping you sit up with a wet flannel in one hand.

Whispering so quietly you almost didn’t hear it about how beautiful you were, Austin pressed his lips to your body and face as he wiped you down.

It was intimate. Too intimate, and as the orgasmic high wore off you felt the anxiety from before creeping back into your chest. 

When Austin was done and went back into the bathroom you forced yourself up to dig through your duffle bag for clothes to sleep in.

Austin did the same when he came out, and the silence that fell over the room not awkward- but not comfortable either. 

And you didn’t know what you’d wanted to see in his face when you turned back around after getting dressed. But finding guilt made your stomach drop.

Avoiding his eyes as you got back into bed, you sucked in a breath when he outstretched an arm as you did. He stopped short of wrapping it completely around you, hand resting above your head as you adjusted the blankets. 

And there was a considerable gap between the two of you until closed it, rolling over onto your stomach. 

A minute passed before either of you said anything, Austin’s hand finding its way to your hair. He stroked through it as he spoke, and you lifted your eyes towards him cautiously. 

“You’re a good girl- and you don’t let anyone take that from you, okay? Even me.”

A part of you wanted to tuck and roll out of the hotel bed.

Run out and run into the street and just scream.

But you nodded against his shoulder, breathing out an “‘Kay.” as he kissed your hair.

Nothing about what you’d just done was okay, to the extent that you were starting to feel nauseous over it.

A little self preservation couldn’t hurt though. Could it?

[sennaverstappendiary]

azerbaijan grand prix ✩ 30.04.2023

listen. i'm going to be real. the reason this is so high up is because it was my first taste of lestappen cr4ck c0caine i'm being so fucking serious. 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 this shit fucking killed me. i was unable to talk about anything else. i felt like i had been punched in the fucking gut i'm so fucking serious. 🤧🤧🤧 if you scroll back down far enough you can find my absolute breakdown over this grand prix. i was going BONKERS. getting drunk after quali with my bestie over this shit kinda BONKERS. dancing in the street kinda BONKERS. who needs drugs when you have autism. ☺️☺️☺️

okay lets go back a bit. it had been almost a month since australia, and i had learned A LOT about f1 in the meantime. some very very important things happened, but the most important one is that i made friends! genuine friends! on f1blr! 🥰🥰🥰🤧🤧🌷🌷🌷

i did this by making some rules with myself: if i was going to engage in my hyperfix on tumblr, i should at the very least post my thoughts about it and try to message people. because in all my other fandoms i was just... alone. 😔

to start with, idk how i did it, but i managed to overcome my fear of messaging people first (i was shaking like a leaf while doing it, though), and i somehow managed to message @/verstrapons... which looking back is fucking crazy because i was SCARED and INTIMIDATED and would like... freak out making sure i said the "right stuff" 😭😭😭 looking back this is utterly ridiculous but... i hadn't had online friends in a WHILE okay i was suffering 🥹🥹🥹 it obviously turned out amazingly but!!! i'm so glad we clicked 💕💕 i love you emma... 💓💓💥💥

then i joined the max discord server… i love you guys so much too - i learn stuff every day from y’all and you all made me feel so welcome 🥺🥺🌷🌷 a million flowers to u all… i hope we can meet up at the berlin E prix 🥹🥹🥹

and my lovely bestie @/boxenstopp … my kimi /p… i’m so glad you send me an ask that day on my main blog 🥰🥰🥰 i can’t imagine my life without you and i’m so glad we’re friends… 🥺🥺🥺 you always make me feel so accepted aaaghh… can’t wait to meet up for christmas again 🌷🌷🌷🌷 or maybe we already met. idk when this is coming out 🥹🥹

last but not least… @/xiaoluclair … thank you so much for always messaging with me, especially when we were both more active on tumblr 💌💌💕💕

sappy shit aside.

the other thing that happened during this time? i started realising which drivers i like, which i don’t like as much, and which ships i like and dislike. my top 3 ships have not changed since (lestappen prosenna simi) 😳😳😳 and my tumblr got banned while making a brocedes edit (PLEASE) but it got restored thank the lord LMFAO 🥹🥹🥹 i think i even started my lestappen fic (the first one) during this time‼️‼️ ain’t that something!! don’t mention the fact that sebchal was my first ever f1 fic i will cry 🧍‍♂️/nsrs.

and of course i got to know a lot more about f1! including but not limited to: what the teams actually were, reading the first half of the prosenna book, binging youtube video’s, not quite getting a lot of the references (bono my tyres are dead), what some things on the car do… etc etc. just a lot of general knowledge, although i felt like i didn’t know anything still (well i still feel that way) 😭😭😭

shit we havent even gotten to the race yet. i love yapping 🗣️🗣️🗣️

OH!!!! this was the first time i watched a race while chatting with other people, specifically the ones mentioned above💙💙‼️‼️ thanks for hearing me ramble on about being scared for max always (thats my brand. and he slays every time 🔥🔥🔥)

so, starting with free practice. i still didn’t watch, but i do remember being at my grandparents and quinine texting me that lestappen were 1-2 in fp1? very funny. on the way home i listened to puppy princess and i was like “this is very lestappen core”. lmfao. yeah that changed me as a person for real 😭😭

quali. what. the. fuck. WHAT THE FUCK 🗣️🗣️🗣️‼️‼️‼️‼️ i think i almost passed out. keep in mind, there was a FOUR WEEK gap between australia and baku. i went fucking crazy. when 0.000 happened i blacked out for a moment (/nsrs) and i screamed i was SHAKING i was TREMBLING 😵‍💫😵‍💫 I FELT SICK 🙏🙏 i was happy stimming the entire way to the store (i had to eat afterwards). like that was so sick. i genuinely yelped like a damn puppy (ha) when 0.000 happened. wasnt even upset when charles got pole in the end i was so high on it. and then max kept praising charles OH i felt sick. i felt deranged 💥💥💥💥💥💥

this also happens to be the first sprint race of the season. wish it was the last fuck sprints. sprint quali i just remember me sitting in my brothers room completely disinterested as i always am in fucking spring qualis. lmfao. the real sprint was funny, only bc of the INFAMOUS gax moment 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 hole in the rb19 😨😨😨😨 max angry 🥰🥰🥰 george. 🙄🙄🙄 LIKE THAT SHIT SLAPPED i was mad asf at george at the time tho LMAO 🥹🥹🥹

OHHHH the race itself was ass btw. was genuinely kinda upset after NOTHING GOOD HAPPENED AND THEY FUCKED UP MAXS STRAT 💔💔💔💔💔 post race was great tho. more than great. it was fucking amazing ‼️‼️‼️💓💓💓 we got: max straight up lying to charles (“you were catching!!” <- charles was 20 seconds behind max 🫣); charles sitting on the wrong chair (typical); CHARLES AND MAX SWAPPING PODIUM POSITIONS AND CHARLES BEING DUTCH FOR A SECOND 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ LIKE WHAT. HUH. SORRY?!?!?? sure. whatever 🤯🤯🤯🤯. and then charles RUNNING over to spray max 🥰🥰🥰 yeah that was good. that was real good 🌷🌷🌷🌷

i really did love this entire race weekend so much - this was my austria 22 i cant even lie. thats also why its ranked so highly, which, looking back, so fucking crazy‼️‼️‼️ we got so spoiled with lestappen content from qatar onwards that looking back this isnt even that much but believe me. to maple this was crack cocaine of the highest level 😁😁😁😁💞💓💕💓💓💘💘💖💞💞💓💗💝

✩ song of the race: puppy princess - hot freaks

erm hem.

[betweenthings2]

hello!!!!

hope you are having a lovely start to your summer!!! it’s winter in australia now (obviously) and it’s so miserable. a core part of my identity is wearing lacy silky tank tops and now i’m forced to wear scarfs and multiple layers under cable knit sweaters. ugh. i also have covid which is fabulous especially since im meant to sit two major practical assessments at tafe this week. i’m studying patisserie and it’s great but the thought of getting yelled at by a chef over this is equal parts exhausting and terrifying. enough about that tho.

i’m rereading Everything and wanted to point out a specific passage that remoulded my whole being, but the more i read the more exerts piled up and it was getting a bit ridiculous, so i’m being good and limiting myself to three

1) “I want to,” Matty promises. “I really do. I, erm, I was trying to figure out how to bring it up without being presumptuous.”

“I’m ok with presumptuous,” George offers. “Really.”

"I just,” a pause. Then, in a quiet voice Matty admits, “He haunts me, George.”

"Matty," George murmurs, resisting the urge to tug Matty into a tight hug.

"I am haunted. He's in the room every time my wrist hurts, every time something slams, every time someone touches me and I'm not prepared for it. There is something in the corner of every room I'm in telling me I'm less, telling me I need to be scared, telling me that the only way I will ever be loved is through violence."

he haunts me. i am haunted. LEAVE ME ALONE😭the whole lead up to this with george saying he’d get married to matty in a heart beat is just so. sweet. your writing is so bittersweet i want to watch it all on a big screen with my friends who don’t care about the 1975 at the independent cinema in my area. like this scene is something that would be edited and talked about the way scenes from Normal People are talked about. paul mescal wishes he had this script.

2) George finishes cooking and Matty’s good mood lasts through the rest of the evening and into the next day.

It ends, though, because of course does and because Matty can never catch a break.

like a bucket of icy cold water crashing over me OH MY GOD. literally felt my heart drop even tho i knew what was coming next.

3) George feels like he can't breathe, like he's been hit in the stomach. He can't do anything but let Matty's words fall heavy in the room, his own guilt following just milliseconds later, because he has Matty naked in bed and it doesn't seem to matter how gentle or careful he was or how many times he stopped to check in and make sure Matty was ok because he was the one who had initiated it and oh, god, what if he's just as bad? What if George just ruined everything? What if he hurt Matty? What if he forced Matty into something he didn't want to do? What if everything is ruined now over something as trivial as sex?

wow. putting aside how tender the previous scene was and how gut wrenching mattys admission is this spiral is so well put. “something ad trivial as sex” is so profound to me. i just want to hug george he is trying so hard and giving himself such little grace. i don’t remember the exact wording but IRL matty once said something about how “we give the people we love the least amount of slack and grace because we love them” and that kinda mirrors how you wrote “One of the many problems with it is that the person Matty usually ends up targeting is himself. The only person who ever ends up suffering because Matty gets scared is himself. Matty is his own harshest critic and his own first victim.” and it’s just like, george please you are trying so hard also and are so good also please give yourself the kindness you are showing matty. they are so young to be dealing with something so heavy it’s breaking my heart.

i went into this thinking it would be a short little message but it never really is is it? so sorry about the rambling let’s blame covid even tho it’s definitely just me😵‍💫 will update you on what i read next🩷🩷🩷🩷 !!!!

🍵

Hell, Matcha Anon!!

I'm sorry it's winter for you! I'd swap seasons with you, if it were possible, because I was not made for temperatures over about 65*F. I also never have any fun during the summer--I just work and think about how much I'd like to not have to have a job. I hope your sweaters are cozy and that you have some good hot tea.

I'm also so very sorry you have Covid. Covid is awful. I had it actual years ago and I still feel a little like I didn't completely recover. I tried to write and watch films while I was sick, but the brain fog was so bad that I literally could not focus long enough to watch anything or write a paragraph, so I literally laid in bed for a week and watched TikToks. I also think it changed the way I taste things and what I like. I hope you feel better soon!

Studying patisserie sounds like fun! I'm on a quest to figure out how to make good croissants because I firmly believe that when you consider all the variations, croissants are the best pastry. I figured out macarons, now it's time for croissants.

You absolutely do not have to limit yourself to three comments. You could go through the fic paragraph by paragraph and I would read every word and have comments on everything.

1) I was reading something a while ago about the notion of hauntings and that inspired this bit of dialogue. It predates the fic and was part of the reason I wanted to write Everything. It didn't fit into The Big Light but I liked it, so I wrote 11k words to use it, which seemed logical at the time.

Fictional!Matty really is haunted, I think, not just by this particular partner, but by everyone who has ever mistreated him and all his own mistakes. Fictional!George doesn't quite grasp it though. He doesn't really understand that fictional!Matty can't just move forward and believe what he says because there's all this everything else. It's also an idea I really wanted to explore--what does it mean to be haunted? what does it mean to haunt? what is the difference between a haunt and a memory?

I'm thrilled this part resonated with you! The idea of a haunt feels so evocative, but I do often watch Ghost Files or Buzzfeed Unsolved while I write, so maybe that influenced things. I don't think ghosts are real, but it's good background noise for me.

My writing as a film??? It's of film quality?? Really?? Thank you so much!!

2) This part only really happened the way it did because I needed to put fictional!Matty and fictional!Adam together in the narrative. I had already written the conversation fictional!M+G have in bed and I needed a reason for fictional!Matty and fictional!Adam to have a private conversation. It's already mostly written for the version of Everything from fictional!Matty's POV.

3) I was kind of on the fence about the last line you highlighted, if I'm being honest. On one hand, sex is kind of trivial, but on the other, it's really important and it is really important to this narrative and this construction of fictional!M+G. I've got some notes for these scenes from fictional!Matty's POV and they're all about him feeling important and loved.

Fictional!George is trying so hard throughout all of these fics. He loves fictional!Matty so much, but fictional!Matty is so hurt and scared. There's a little bit of a lack of communication in some ways, I think where neither of them can say the kind of naked truth, so they go back and forth with a kind of layer between what they say and what they mean. Fictional!Matty can't figure out how to say everything and fictional!George doesn't know if he can ask, let alone how. There's going to be some resolution to this eventually, though, I promise.

They're in their late twenties here because it's before A Brief Inquiry and there's supposed to be this air of love and celebration at the very beginning because fictional!Matty went to rehab! he's doing better! he's sober and alive and he's putting all the bad behind him! they're making another record! and then it's all taken away by all the bad that happens in these fics. It's so hard for them to comprehend how truly awful everything is because things were supposed to be good. It's so big and there's so much and it's so hard. They're going to be happy, though, in the very end. That's my promise.

I look forward to your thoughts on whatever you read next and I hope you feel better soon! Thank you!! 💚💚

[doopy-n-loopy]

Yan!TF2 × reader headcannons (SFW and NSFW)

// obsessive tendancies, mentions of violence, blood, sexual themes, noncon

[SFW]

Let's start with the defense classes

Defense:

Demoman

Deffo didn't admit that he loved you

Tbh he probably blamed it on his drunkenness

But dude you're always drunk

I mean seriously if he sobers up he'll genuinely die so like-

He would usually drink with you or just around you if you don't drink

He's generally a fun chill guy to be with

He would watch you from a distance at times, especially during battle you might distract the cyclops

He's okay with you asking questions

One time he broke his eyepatch and needed a new one

You gave him a nice black eyepatch with the demoman emblem on it

He gets all red whenever you say his full name, because he knows you remembered it

He is generally against kidnapping, I mean especially since he lives with his ma he'd rather not

And because he's a gentleman

If you ever reciprocate his feelings he'll make sure to treat you right

He is a messy person but for you? He'll clean

Probably would get carried away and make home made bombs with all the cleaning supplies 🤦‍♂️

Takes you to meet his mom

"ooo Tavish, yer gonna get me some grand kiddos are ya?"

That made you both blush like crazy

Soft cheek kisses

Probably made a special bomb and named it after you

"this one's for you, luv!" *Proceeds to set off all stickybombs which blows up the entire enemy team*

Blew up the last guy who looked at you funny

Hell, even worse when they make a sexual remark to you scout probably did it

Likes to give you your space but when he's paranoid he follows you to wherever or watched you from a distance

Heavy

Two words: big boy

Hugs are 10000000000/10

Sometimes it fewls suffocating but man it's like hugging a cloud

Soft forehead kisses

Russian pet names

He sometimes lets you touch Sasha, that's how he knows he loves you because he doesn't even let medic, his best friend, touch her

Probably named a gun after you or one of the pet names he calls you

You definitely met his family and they loved you

Zana especially

Doesn't get jealous easily but will not hesitate to unload 12 pounds of bullets into someone who even LOOKS at you the wrong way

Lord have mercy on the ones who dare flirt with you, rest in pieces scout

Doesn't really follow you anywhere (you're a bit too fast for him) but he does watch you and check up on you

He preforms okay on the battlefield but when you're around, he'll show off

Will cook for you, mainly russian dishes

He's very against kidnapping and would rather not do it

Doesn't shut up about you when he's around medic

Engineer

F l u f f y

Very softspoken in general but he gets all flustered when you talk to him

Will check up on you occasionally

"Darlin'" "Honey bunny" things like that y'know

Huge smile when you're around

Will cook for you most definitely, knows what you like

Makes little robots for you

Likes seeing you use his dispenser

Doesn't get jealous easily either but will try and take you away from someone who wants your attention

Likes just having you in his presence, doesn't need to talk to be happy with you around

Very very against kidnapping like all other defense classes, wouldn't do it unless if he truly felt the need to, last resort kind of thing

The last guy who flirted with you had a sentry gun shoved up his ass

Doesn't really follow you anywhere

Offense:

Scout

Nothing short of a horomonal teenager

I mean he's 21 but

He gets so giddy around you, very loud, tries to show off

He loves you very much

"oh yeah? Well I once absolutely smashed a guy into peices, he was still screaming when he was dead!"

He brags about brutal things but hey you love it since you're also brutal

Flexes his non-existent muscles around you

Would talk about his mom to you all day

Definitely got a tattoo of your face and name somewhere on his body, most likely his bicep

Your name is probably misspelled too but you never say anything about it because he can't read so it's fine

He hasn't really thought about kidnapping in all honesty, again, a last resort kinda thing if he can't get you to love him

He will make a damn SCENE if anyone flirts with you

"you think that's funny, chucklenuts? I eat guys like you for breakfast lunch AND dinner!" "I'll blow yer freakin head off if ya talk to y/n like that again!" Would definitely drag you away

God help anyone that makes you uncomfortable, he'll fuck them up, if that person is medic I mean he'll try to but we all know how fucking scary medic is

Follows you at times

Pyro

"Mphmphmpph"

Seems more lovey around you

Definitely gave you a hand full of the enemy's bloody bones thinking it was a bouquet of flowers

Absolute baby

Just so precious, scary but precious

Hugs for days

Good luck trying to get their ass off of you when you're on cease-fire

Very warm though, they smell like smoke with a bit of blood

Likes petting you

Isn't against the idea of kidnap because they don't realize what they're actually doing, they think they're just taking you to a magical place

Snuggles

When someone flirts with you their whole world changes

Gets angry and starts yelling at them

"MPHMPHMOHMPHHH! MPHMPHNHUMAHUMA!" - Pyro 2021

Will not let you get a checkup alone, he trusts medic but not with you

Very sweet tho, he'll turn around when you need to strip down

Will follow you almost EVERYWHERE and if they can, while holding your hand

Soldier

Yells at you a little less than the others

At first doesn't realize how he feels but then realizes that he loves you

Is pretty protective over you

Rants about America all day to you

Probably got you an american flag to wear

Doesn't really take off his helmet but he likes seeing you in it, makes him proud

If you ever live with him you'll find out that he owns like 20 racoons

"YOU ARE CUTER THAN A RACOON" "YOU WILL BE SAFE ON THE BATTLEFIELD, DO YOU HEAR ME MAGGOT?"

He loudly wakes everyone up in the morning but tries to avoid waking you up

Loves you as much as he loves America

Will show off on the battlefield for you

Isn't against kidnapping you, he probably did it early on if you showed immediately that you didn't reciprocate his feelings

Will blow any guy that hits on you to absolute bits

"MAGGOT DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU WILL LEAVE THE LADY/MAN ALONE THIS INSTANT!"

Probably put you on his back and rocket jumped just to show you what it felt like

Follows you around a lot, it's really obvious because he wears a bucket over his head and crashes into things, when you look back he'll stand behind a lamp post or somewhere really obvious

Support

Ah yes, everyones favorite class including mine

Sniper

Very quiet

Takes secret glances at you

Pays more attention to you than the others

S h y

Asks how you are, how you slept, etc

Doesn't really need to be holding you, tbh he's against PDA

But he likes being in your presence

Just sit down next to him and he'll be fine

When he's on the battlefield, he'll look for you and make sure you're safe

God forbid anyone try to hurt you, he'll make them suffer

Talks about Australia to you and accidentally admitted that he wanted to take you there

Doesn't like the idea of kidnapping but he isn't totally against it, I can see him doing it

He smuggled you all the damn way to Australia

He'll nonchalantly show off to you on the battlefield, he'll let you get cornered and come in to save the day

"love" is a word he uses a lot with you

Will grumble to himself if he sees someone flirting with you

If it's a random person, well, that'll be the last time you ever see them

Has talked about you to his parents

Kind of follows you? I mean he sits atop a high placeand watches you through his scope whenever you're going somewhere

Spy

SEDUCTIVE ASF

He knows what he's doing

Will kiss your hand a lot

Likes to flirt with you and see you blush

"honhonhon"

Sleazy french fucker

Watched you from afar at first then approached you a little later

Isn't against the idea of kidnapping, pro kidnapping, definitely did it not only to have you to himself but for some sort of sexual satisfaction

Just very uh... Lewd? Can't find the right word

He treats you very respectfully though

If he hears anyone else flirting with you he'll be fuming but won't show it

"Oh please, like you could EVER satisfy y/n's desires"

That person mysteriously disappeared that night

Very cocky bastard

Definetly follows you home, not only that but he watches you through your window

And stalks you

He knows everything about you

Would get you either by knocking you unconscious or by blackmailing you

Medic

B a s t a r d

Gets LOUD when you're around

And giddy

Very touchy, always has a reason to put his hands on you

Talks a lot with you around, I mean he already talks a lot but now he won't shut up

Keeps his office nice and clean for you

He restocks on everything so when you come around you can take a loot at all his medicines

Big smile :D

Like spy he is not at all against kidnapping you

Makes sure you're comfortable during checkups

Will make you wait to be seen last just so he can take his time touching your body

"it's all part of the procedure".mp3

Compliments you in weird ways, ex: "your skin is so smooth and lovely, it's the perfect texture to make leather out of" "you have an amazing colon"

Look he's just trying his best here he has a screw loose

You're the only member who he's careful with really

Sometimes allows you to get hurt or has you get hurt by something just so you can see him

Always follows you wherever

Knows everything about you

If someone is flirting with you, he'll get quiet at first and use a low tone to speak to them

"you have guts talking to y/n like that"

They were never seen again

With kidnapping, he won't hesitate to use blackmail against you, or will just use anesthesia

Bonus: Pauling

Pauling

This lady values her work over her life, but to her you're so much more important

Will call you a lot on the battlefield to check in on you

Won't give you extremely hard missons to do because she doesn't want you to get hurt

"Hey (class), Pauling here. I need you... No not like that I just- I mean- for a mission yeah a mission"

Gets all flustered when you're around

Will take her only day off to spend time with you, what a sweetheart

Keeps multiple tabs on you

Follows you around

Doesn't really have time for kidnapping

But if it comes to that, she'll make something up so she has a reason to kidnap you

If anyone else is flirting with you she won't show that she's annoyed

She'll make something up as an excuse to execute them

[NSFW]

Defense

Demo

Has definitely thought of what you'd look like while naked

B l u s h

Has used a mental image of you to get off before

Probably has an actual photo of you

When he drinks a little more than usual, he'll accidentally brush his hand against your ass or get touchy with you

Will not force himself on you, he's 100% against that

If you decide to have sex with him, praise is what you're gonna get

"you're as beautiful as a shot of whiskey in the sunrise"

Very gentle with his hands

Heavy

Not the type to masturbate

Unless if he gets THAT worked up

Again, against forcing himself on you

But if you want it no doubt you will top

He's also gentle with you

And loving

Praise is all you're gonna get

Sometimes russian sometimes broken english

Either way he will worship your body

Engi

Again, a more modest guy, doesn't really touch himself

Might just use a robot to pleasure himself when thinking about you

Probably has a photo of you and him around his workshop

Never forces himself on you

He's sweet and gentle when you do want it though

Sometimes gets help from his robot friends

Offense

Scout

Gets off on thinking about you

Won't force himself on you though

Sexual remarks × 100

Calls you handsome/beautiful in bed

I wouldn't say he's the best in bed but hey he's good I guess

Cuddles after sex most likely

Probablh threw out all his sexual magazines because they just didn't do the trick anymore

Sometimes when he runs past you, your shirt/skirt gets lifted up by a gust of wind and he can't help but look ( ͡◉ ͜ ʖ ͡◉)

Since I hit the text limit, I'll be making a part 2, stay tuned

[sarahjkl82-blog]

Artistic Instinct: Chapter 6

Header thanks to the lovely @yespolkadotkitty

Summary: Marcus Pike and OC Anushka Pierce have been selected to work on a 5 eyes (Australia, Canada, NZ, the UK and US) intelligence team to track down art forgeries as a part of taking down an international white terrorism cell. Marcus is trying to escape his broken heart, Anushka is just trying to escape what the world expects of her.

Word count: 6200 (yup, the words ran away from me!)

Warnings: Language, mention of death.

Pairing: Marcus Pike x reader (OC)

This comes with a MASSIVE THANK YOU to the lovely @yespolkadotkitty , who read, re-read, pointed out the constant flipping between tenses and gave me the confidence to try to write something!This is the first thing I have written since angsty poetry as a teenager. Apologies if it is shit!

To an untrained eye, need and love are as easily mistaken for each other as the real master's painting and a forgery.

Deb Caletti

Chapter 6

A low lit room- more fitting of an old jail than an art lock up- surrounds you with cool air that tickles the tiny hairs on the back of your bare neck, as you bend over double, digging through the equipment in the abyss of your bag. A gap forms between the waist of your jeans and t-shirt, revealing the tiniest bit of the lace edging from your bra band- a tantalising fact that catches Marcus’ breath, alerting you to his presence, “Hey, you ok?” you ask straightening up, “Did you find something?”

“Yeah, uh sorry. Think I just had a bit of dust in my throat,” Marcus stammers, utterly thrown by that glimpse of your underwear, as he tries to clear his throat and remember the reason he was standing in front of you, “So, uh, yeah, um- we found a couple of signatures from Paul Guillaume and Albert C Barnes- weren’t they the guys we had to look out for?”

Looking over the papers with your cotton gloves still on, you pour over the shaping of the letters that made up the signatures of the possible previous owners, “I dunno. I’m not convinced- the positioning of the letters seem odd- like a crude rendition of someone’s signature. Almost like someone’s faking their mum’s signature to get out of PE class. Only the thing is, you know the movement of your mum’s hand as she signs something because you’ve watched her do it a million times before. Those signatures do not seem real to me, personally.”

Marcus’ eyebrows raise as he crosses his arms, desperately trying to hide the smile that was creeping across his face. “You faked your mom’s signature a lot?”

“Poacher turned gamekeeper,” Élodie remarks as she crosses between the two of you, straightening your t-shirt up where it has caught upon the back of your jeans.

Marcus tries not to let his disappointment show. Calm down, Pike, you’re hardly a horny seventeen year old. But that was how you made him feel and certainly the uncomfortable pressure building in his jeans might prove otherwise.

“I don’t think we will necessarily manage to get this solved today,” you begin, “The section that Élodie looked at dates it reasonably within the time period but those signatures are now tingling my spidey senses. It’s probably going to need to be sent for further investigations at a proper lab. I’m about to look at it using the stereomicroscope- do you want to have a look with me?”

Marcus nods eagerly, earning a grin from you, and you start setting up the pieces you need- ensuring that the video camera is linked to your iPad so Marcus can see everything you are looking at in real time along with you.

Marcus drifts closer to the painting. You haven’t seemed to notice his closeness yet, and he half hopes you don't, as from where he’s standing the aromatically pleasing scent of your shampoo wafts dreamily from the dark shimmer of your hair.

“So tell me more about this piece. I love listening to you speaking about art. You make it seem like I’m looking over the artist’s shoulder as they’re painting it.” Marcus remarks, smiling when he notices the flush creeping over your cheeks that his words bring.

Impressed by your decision to play into his words rather than focus on how awkward you feel at the compliment, he loves how you fan yourself and flutter your eyelashes at him, “Monsieur, you flatter me! Well, looking at this piece it’s not difficult to imagine that Soutine may have had a longstanding beef with food. Though he was fascinated by food and frequently painted these edible arrangements, this stands as one of his most memorable and dare I say, raw interpretations.”

At these terrible puns, Marcus pretends to drum, “Ba da boom tish!”

“Do not encourage her!” Jacques shouts from the other side of the room where he is labeling the bags for the slide samples that Élodie had been collecting, “Once you acknowledge one pun, she’ll ensure that everything she says has one. Queen Nush of the dad jokes!”

“So at the meat of Soutine’s obsession,” Marcus half-snorts, half-groans, intending to encourage you as you add, “You find that a combination of not having anything to eat due to extreme poverty and using what food the family did have to practice Kosher traditions is largely to blame for his playing with his food rather than eating it.”

Marcus watches you flick through your phone so as not to interrupt the finally clear feed from the stereomicroscope focussing on how you bite your lip. You quickly google the Rembrandt that you want him to look at. “The remains of this omnivorous…”

“Oh you’re still gonna continue with that theme, yeah?” Marcus’ feels his lips curve at your humour, shaking his head at the ridiculous word play.

“Oh, I can keep this going all day,” you say with the cheekiest of winks, and Marcus hopes you will.

*****

“Omnivorous obsession,” you continue, “was based on his adoration of Rembrandt whose 1655 Flayed Ox was frequently salivated over by Soutine on his regular visits to the Louvre. Rembrandt’s carcass is noted for its vivid colors but when compared to Soutine’s, which was coated almost daily with fresh buckets of blood by his assistant, Rembrandt seems downright dull. The smell of rotting beef and fresh blood became so oppressive that neighbours called the police, who almost threw away the fermenting flesh before, what I can only assume was the Frankenstein-esque assistant, shooed them away like so many flies covering a carcass.”

“Always with the focus on the graphic elements of art,” Jacques calls out with a snort at your zombie-like impression before receiving a sharp nudge to his ribs to focus on the job Élodie has asked him to complete.

“Art is just a reflection of the things that humanity finds interesting and what can be more interesting to a temporal being than their own mortality or that of the creatures and objects that surround it?” At this statement, you tug Marcus’ coat sleeve away from the piece to come and look at the feed you have set up for him, “Come on you, we’d better focus or Élodie will have my guts for garters for not concentrating on what I should be doing!”

Marcus allows you to lead him over to a black metal folding chair to look at the feed, “So what are we looking for, Mademoiselle Pathologist?”

“Hah, did you just call her mademoiselle? She’s too old for that!” Élodie shouts in your direction.

Refusing to respond verbally to Élodie’s rudeness, you flick a finger up at her and turn back to Marcus, “Madame Pathologist will do- I am comfortable with my age. So what we are looking for are any bits of difficult to detect damage, fading, repairs and the ways paints and other coatings are distributed. Also if there are any strange fibres that we can spot using the double lens.”

Hovering the microscope over the bottom left hand corner, you start to scan the piece, “So what we’re looking for are any irregularities that we might not have picked up on a first scan that Élodie did to take the samples. The stereomicroscope helps us to understand the art in more 3D terms- so we can see something that generally looks flat becomes a landscape of hills and valleys.”

“Why’ve you chosen that corner to start?” Marcus probed inquisitively, wondering as to whether there’s method in your madness.

“Just felt like it!” You shrug and snort at his look of mock horror. “Nah, it’s where the signature is and ‘cos I’m not sure about the signatures on those documents you found, I want to take a closer look at Soutine’s over here. Kinda feels like a sensible place to start.” Your eyes squint as you drink in the images in front of you, snapping up when you hear a small grunt of consternation from your boss, “Have you found something, Marcus?”

“That’s weird. It kind of looks like the signature has been scratched into the art,” Marcus squints at the signature on the screen, reaching over to the table where the possible documents with Guillaume and Barnes’ scrawls lie, “Also, I am not an expert in graphology but the letter e looks consistent across the three names- they all arch at the same point.”

“Waouh- that’s a good catch,” Élodie agrees, pulling Jacques with her to look over Marcus’ shoulder at the finds upon the feed.

Jacques escapes Élodie’s clutch and starts to flit back and forth, checking between the painting and the feed with a mild look of confusion on his face, “This is preposterous. Why have they done the signature in a different medium to the one used to paint it? It’s almost like they want to be caught.”

“It looks like it has been lacerated by a needle,” Marcus scratches at his patchy beard in astonishment, “Spot on Jacques, it’s like they can’t even be bothered to hide their tracks.”

“Ok, I think we may have found one of our fakes,” a smile slowly creeps across your face, “Obviously, we can’t be definite -there are still so many tests that need to be done but I don’t think this is an original,” you shake your head with a half smile, “Élodie, I think we need to organise for this to be couriered back to the labs.”

An excited squeal from Élodie and a soft oof from Jacques puncture the cool air as she flies into his arms, squeezing him in sheer delight. As the pair embrace with joy, you and Marcus are left there- Marcus on the fold out chair, gripping the iPad tighter than necessary- I swear that man never quite knows what do with his hands- and you sitting cross legged on the floor with the stereomicroscope lying in your lap- grinning like idiots at each other.

✪✪✪✪✪

More coffee and cakes are devoured in the aftermath whilst you await a courier to come and pick up the likely forgery- you are not entirely sure that the blood in your body hasn’t entirely transformed into sugar and caffeine at this point. After checking alongside Élodie that the painting had been carefully loaded into a van, you sit next to her on the pavement outside the auction house.

“Do you know where Marcus and Jacques are?” you question as you sink onto the dusty ground next to her.

“Yeah, they’re inside taking an informal statement from the auction house owner before the local police quiz her properly,” Élodie rests her temple to your shoulder, “Today has been wonderful. I really like Marcus - from what I have seen of him. I think this will be a good move for you.”

“I do miss having you here though. Today feels like the first time I have had both of my arms. Since you returned to London, it has felt like a part of me has been missing.”

Hauling a deep breath into your lungs to try to quell that gnawing ache in your belly, you turn to press a gentle kiss to the top of her head, “I am sorry, El. To be honest, I don’t even know where to start explaining what happened or even truly understand how everything fell apart so badly.”

The mountain wind decides to blow an icy gust that cuts through your clothes to the bones of you, “It was a normal undercover job- we’d been watching the comings and goings of the gang from a inside a local greasy spoon for ages-just trying to get a clear idea of what their patterns of behaviour were and it just all went South so quickly.

“Being a tiny caff on an industrial estate by the Thames, it was open 24 hours and the day it happened, it was during the middle of a night shift when the gang decided to up the ante. They’d obviously clocked that we weren’t exactly who we said we were,” you snort softly at the memory, “I mean Jas’ accent was a bit sus for being a short order cook but still.

“The gang openly marched the illegal immigrants out of the container and made them kneel in front of the caff as a lure to us, trying to get us to drop our cover. These fucking innocents just trying to find a better life and the evil fuckers just started executing them- one after the other. Jas just ran out there straight away- dropping his cover without any proper back up, a flak jacket or anything. His stupid, kind self trying to save at least one of them without a backward glance.

“I said the code word so we could have armed back up within minutes but I knew it wouldn’t be there quickly enough,” your voice starts to falter as your throat tightens over the words.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, chouchou,” Élodie squeezes the thigh nearest to her.

“I know but I should tell someone, somewhen. You’re probably one of the few who would understand.”

You pause, squeezing your eyes tight shut as you allow that stagnant, putrid box of memories to reopen, flooding your senses with the foul gangrenous smell of the past.

Having called in backup, you make the decision to slip out of the back door of the caff and run for cover behind the large communal bins. The incessant rain was giving zero sign of stopping and the noise was deafening as it bounced off the metal sides and drummed upon the tarmacked surface. You could barely hear the desperate negotiations that Jasper was trying to make for the lives of these poor, exploited humans.

From here, hiding amongst the shadows, you could catch the eye of one of the kneeling men and signal to him as to when he should try to make a run over to you. He’d reached his little finger out to the person to his right to alert them to the plan. Achingly slowly, tiny gestures had passed down the line of five remaining fellows, from person to person, notifying them of your presence and how you were attempting to save them.

You counted them down and then screamed for them to run. Gunshots rang throughout the air as they made a break for the supposed safety of the bins by you as blue lights and sirens swirled, announcing their arrival between the shipping containers. You counted them as they ran for their lives past you.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

But the gunshots…

Jasper.

As you ran to your former partner’s lifeless form, three more shots rang through the air, taking out the associates who’d been ruthlessly gunning down their illegal chattel. Jasper lay there in the harsh headlight of the armed response unit car, his apron and chef’s jacket were no longer the starchy white that glowed under the strip lighting of the kitchen but his skin had taken on a similar pallid tone as his life force pooled around him, staining the oily surface with a bloody bloom. Knelt there with the grit from the floor biting into the skin of your knees, you held his head in your lap, stroking his cold cheek as a shadow cast across you both.

“He’s gone, Nush.”

Tears course down your face in tiny rivulets and spill into Élodie’s hair, “If I had said yes at Fourvière. If I had accepted the position St Vincent had offered me, he’d still be here. He would still be here.”

After putting a hand on each cheek, Élodie then taps you upon the nose making your red-rimmed, watery eyes look into hers, “You didn’t shoot the gun. You didn’t kill him,” she says so matter of fact that you almost feel an inclination to believe her, “You have to stop blaming yourself at some point.”

“He made the decision to go out there without back up or any protection. If I remember correctly, it was Jas’ decision to head back to London too, effectively ending the freedom you had out here,” she adds gravely, “Everyone has to make decisions, Nush. Ours just tend to have more life or death outcomes and remember, the choice you made- you saved five people.

“As for marrying him, you didn’t want to and I don’t know quite how to clearly say this but you don’t have to marry someone because they ask you. Or because you think it’s the right thing to do. You saying no to him, had zero implications in how his life ended,” Élodie smooths a tendril of hair that has escaped your plait behind your ear, “Your relationship didn’t have a true balance because you spent so long trying to hide it- everything feels so much more amplified if you are constantly watching your coattails.”

Rubbing the exhaustion from the onslaught of emotions from your eyes, you turn to face Élodie, “What if that’s it? What if that was my chance of happiness?”

“Okay so you’re now fully in the ridiculous territory, idiot! So bloody naive,” Élodie rolls her eyes and slaps your knee, “ There’s no one person out there- nobody is perfect for you. There are just people who enter your life at different times and there is a certain compatibility…”

“Like you might want to jump their bones,” you giggle through the snot.

“Yep, that definitely helps! But after a while, other stuff comes up and again, you have to make those decisions whether you want to move to the next one or work at the relationship you have,” Élodie says frankly, “ Your first proper grown up relationship wasn’t ever truly allowed to develop into something normal and healthy but please don’t ever think for a second that is all you deserve or will ever get.”

“More happened than just Jasper’s death,” you confide in your ally.

“I know sweetheart. You tell me when you are ready,” Élodie pats your leg, “You will always have Jacques and I here for you. And I reckon Pierre would take you back in a heartbeat if you ever need to escape Marcus, not that I think you will.” You feel a little confused by Élodie’s last statement but don’t have time to swell upon it as the door to the auction house swings open.

Noticing two figures- one wiry and talking rapidly with his hands, the other broad and showing great interest in what the other has to say- walking towards you, you offer Élodie a hand up from your pavement seat. You feel a gentle hand brushing over your bottom and crane your neck to see who it belongs to, “Well, I’d hate for you to make my car any dirtier,” Élodie winks at you.

✪✪✪✪✪

The trip back to Lyon didn’t allow for any more rest for tired eyes against cool car windows. Excited chatter filled the car as between the four of you, you were all busily beavering away from making shouted calls to the science laboratories in Interpol- calling in favours to get your samples tested first- to fingers tapping on screens, flinging emails back to offices trying to inform everyone who needed to know. Although the journey was far longer, it felt as though five minutes had passed from the moment you’d left the auction house- the exhaustion from your disclosure to Élodie giving way to the adrenaline pumping through your veins with the excitement of having found a piece of the puzzle.

Jacques quickly parks in the Interpol car park, where you all pile out of the car, heading back towards the offices. As you walk together, you hear Marcus answer the phone to Andy back in London, filling him in on the events of the day- thankfully leaving out the parts where he’d talked you through a panic attack or accidentally held hands with him.

You didn’t need anyone else in the London offices thinking you were unprofessional. There were enough of those already.

Marcus. So much of the fear has ebbed away about the new role, and in such little time, thanks to your new boss. This straight-speaking American, who makes you speak up and want to stand up a bit taller. For the first time in what felt like forever, work doesn’t feel like a chore to pay the bills for a small, damp flat in South London. It isn’t so much the work as you know that like the back of your hand- it was that feeling of appreciation.

That feeling that someone sees what you can offer and values your contributions- not just as some rookie in an established office but as an equal. You know you are lucky- you get to use all the knowledge from your art history degree (oh how your family had groaned in consternation- doctor or lawyer- those were the proper options. Y’know, a proper career path not something seen as being so wishy-washy) and use it to protect the beauty of art from the shadier underbelly. Not that you could ever explain that part to your mum or her sisters, who just thought you were in some IT job with ridiculous hours.

In fact, it was the first time. You’d worked your way up from being a rookie with Stephens and although you'd got to work in a field with which you had a borderline obsession, you were still always seen as the new kid, even though others came and went after you’d joined and that got a bit wearing, especially when you’d hit your thirties and as you edged ever closer to your forties, it had bordered on the ridiculous.

But Marcus. He didn’t just listen to what you had to say, he positively encouraged you to speak- never expecting you to hold your tongue or wait for the “grown ups” to stop talking.

“Hey, Earth to Anushka,” those ridiculously warm eyes try to call your attention into focus.

“Sorry, heard you on the phone to Andy and took the opportunity to disappear with my thoughts for a bit. It’s been a bit of a day, hasn’t it?” you mutter as the knuckles of your hands almost rub holes in your eye sockets.

“Yeah, I thought we’d find zip on our first check as a team but that was something else,” Marcus nods, pouting his lips in thought, “I honestly thought it was an authentic piece when I found those signatures- just shows how careful we have to be with these crooks.

“You look about ready to collapse- that sleep on the way over, not help? I was about to ask if you fancied grabbing some dinner together but you’re dead on your feet.”

“Didn’t really get much sleep last night. Was kind of dreading what today would bring but,” your hand extends to squeeze Marcus’ forearm, “But you’ve made today far less painful than it could have been.” You feel a warmth creep through you, blooming from the spot where Marcus has placed his hand on top of yours, his thumb unconsciously tracing small circles upon your skin.

“How about a slow walk back to the hotel, we grab some pizza on the way back and sit and watch Sharknado 4 this evening?” you suggest, still not removing your hand from his arm, ”I need to eat something other than breakfast pastries today.”

“Hmmm, I would say that dinner is the best time for breakfast food but yeah, probably best that we find something a bit more substantial,” Marcus relents reluctantly like a petulant child as Élodie and Jacques turn towards you both.

“Oh, why the sad eyes, Marcus? Has she been mean to you? ” Élodie teases, “We have contacts- we can make her disappear…”

Jacques shoots you a despairing look from under his arched eyebrow. The aching sadness returns in your tummy- you’ve missed them so much and missed out on so many special moments with them, “Oof, hey Nush! This isn’t goodbye- no matter the threats Élodie makes upon your life!”

Élodie leans in to sandwich you between the pair of them, “No, Marcus has given me your phone number and your email address- and he has promised me that even if you don’t respond to my communications, that he will send regular updates.” You look over at Marcus, who sends you a sheepish grin and a slight shrug of his shoulders, flashing that goddamn dimple in his right cheek.

“Élodie, are you going upstairs to get everything ready?” Jacques questions his wife, “ There’s only twenty minutes before I need to pick up Xavier from my parents so I’d probably better head off. Can you grab a taxi home afterwards? Nush, I love you and I will see you soon.

“Marcus, it has been a pleasure. I will ensure that all the details are shared with you in London. Let’s keep the lines of communication open between us, oui?” A firm handshake was not the only thing to pass between the men, as Jacques pats Marcus on the back and they wordlessly share a thought, Marcus’ eyes flickering back to you with a small smile.

“Come on, let’s find food and a film before we collapse,” Marcus beckons you towards him with a wave back to Élodie and Jacques before they head off in their respective directions, Élodie’s hand stroking yours as she walks away.

✪✪✪✪✪

Half an hour later, you find yourself standing barefoot outside Marcus’ hotel room door, oddly nervous about knocking. Your hair hangs in waves around your shoulders, still holding some of the twisted kinks that the plaits you wore it in had formed over the course of the day, face scrubbed but you are second guessing your choice of wearing pjs to your new boss’ room. Not that they were in any way indecent- just a good old pair of cotton jammies from M&S and you’d kept your bra on underneath, because not even the worst war criminal deserves to be tortured by the sight of you with your bra off. Just as you were about to head back for a hoodie to perhaps offer an ounce more decency, the door swung open and a slightly surprised look adorns Marcus’ face.

“Hey, I was just about to check where you were. Pizza’s getting cold and you should probably have something warm in your belly that isn’t coffee today!”

“Oh, I was just going to swing back to my room for a hoodie,” you awkwardly mutter in the direction of the deliciously soft looking man, wearing grey joggers and a white t-shirt in front of you.

A small pout crosses Marcus’ lips, “Come on, if you’re chilly, the pizza’ll warm you up but if you’re still cold after eating, you can grab one of mine- that is if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable,” he checks by lowering his eyes and gently lifting your chin.

Deciding not to keep the pizza waiting, you nod and shuffle past Marcus, the plush carpet deliciously soft underfoot, “I haven’t forgotten that we were halfway through a conversation this morning when El and Jacques arrived to pick us up. You want to tell me why you don’t feel like you are where you feel you should be?” you don’t look at Marcus as you ask him, picking the olives off the top of your pizza.

“I thought you said you like olives?” Marcus questions confusedly as he grabs a slice himself.

“Oh I do, but I’ll eat them afterwards as I like to savour them by themselves,” you giggle at your weird pizza eating habits, “Was that a wish to evade the question? Would you prefer to put on a film?”

“Hah, no! You’re full of quirks, y’know? It’s cute,” he mumbles through a mouthful of food.

“Cute?” you raise an eyebrow at this affectionate comment, “Eh, I dunno. I don’t think you can get to almost forty without embracing your quirks at some point.”

“I just hoped that by this point I’d be married with 2.4 kids, a dog and a nice house. Y’know, settled- never taking it for granted, obviously but comfortable with a family,” there’s a flicker of pain that passes through Marcus’ eyes as he speaks and it cuts through you like a knife.

“How on Earth are you not in a long term relationship with a lucky person? From what you’ve shown me over the past two days, you’re kind, considerate and thoughtful- although you should never tease a woman about her supposed snoring,” you pull an ugly face at him, sticking your tongue out and wrinkling your nose to diffuse the tension in his forehead, forcing him to laugh.

“Oh, I was married once and had long term relationships but neither worked out, sadly,” Marcus shrugs, focussing intently on his next pizza slice, “Can’t the same thing be said about you? You’re a beautiful, funny and intelligent woman and although you are a menace to yourself and those around you with a coffee cup in your hands, I don’t get why you haven’t been snapped up.”

Grabbing the pizza box and Marcus’ hand- pulling them both towards your room, you say, “Come with me.”

Thrusting the pizza box towards his hands, you put the keycard in the door and the light flickers to green. Guiding Marcus by the food container through the room to the balcony, you swing the French doors open to be greeted by a stiff Alpine air and the twinkling lights of Lyon spreading towards you.

“As you know from today, I was here in Lyon before. My partner and I were seconded here to work alongside Interpol on an art smuggling case- that’s how I knew El, Jacques, Pierre and everyone else from this morning’s meeting. We weren’t just work partners, we’d been hiding a romantic relationship for just over a decade in London as we knew that our supervisors wouldn’t allow us to continue to work together,” you clear your throat and see a flash of concern from Marcus seeing how much your hands were trembling.

He reaches for your hand with the lightest of touches grazing your ring and little fingers but not letting go.

Drawing a deep breath, you continue, “You see the beautiful cathedral up there- Fourviere?” you catch Marcus giving a gentle nod as he looks in the direction of your hand, the one he’s not holding, “Jasper asked me to marry him up there. And I, um… I said no.” Your eyes guiltily shift to the left after owning up to your shoddy track record.

“I mean, I did love him but I couldn’t offer him what he wanted or needed from life or from me. We’d hidden too long in the shadows and the thought of trying to explain everything to our families, to our friends, to our workplace was just too overwhelming. I had a lot more to lose than him.

“As you said earlier, our work is very much an old boys network and as a mixed race woman against a white man- who’d got his position due to a bit of nepotism as his uncle was our London boss- I stood to lose so much more. I have always had to work harder and to be a more impressive candidate to be taken as seriously as any white man in the room.”

“Had we returned to London as a married couple, there would have been so many unspoken questions about when we would think about having babies so there’d never be a chance of going any higher for me. And although seeing El and Jacques today- they have it so balanced. El was telling me that they split her maternity leave equally and that even now their baby is one, they have flexi working times so although they have such a little one and such intense jobs, they can still be there for bedtimes and neither of them be sidelined. But I know that’s not how it would have worked with us. Jas would have worked full time and I would have been a simmering pot of resentment.”

You notice that despite your confession that Marcus still hasn’t stopped holding your hand and regardless of the evening chill, warmth spreads through you at the thought that you haven’t entirely repulsed him with your actions.

“Where is he now? DId he ask for a transfer when you headed back?” Marcus gently questions.

“He took the ultimate transfer. We were working together undercover and he was shot multiple times trying to save some people from being murdered,” with a small shrug, you take your hand back from Marcus despite the comfort it is bringing you and cover your face. As you do so, he pulls you towards him, holding you tightly into his chest, resting his chin on top of your head.

With a gentle push back from his broad chest but without leaving his arms completely, you tilt your face up at him, “In fact, other than Jas’ death the bitterest pill was me being transferred out of the department. As you can probably imagine, a lot of shit went down after that night and a lot of the blame from it was laid at my door. Whilst it was all happening, I wasn’t allowed to have any contact with work colleagues and of course, your family can only know so much of what’s going on when you follow our line of work.

“So, I spent eight months in a stupid kind of limbo- being paid full whack whilst sitting at home, mourning a man who I’d been with for a quarter of my life but didn’t want to marry.” Shaking your head slowly, you continue, “That’s why I was a bit of a mess today- I kind of dreaded seeing everyone and how they might blame me for everything that happened with Jas.”

“Shit, I’m sorry sweetheart,” with that affectionate nickname confidently trickling from Marcus’ lips, you look up and smile broadly at him, “I am sorry that you went through all that. I have to be honest, as I am a terrible liar- there is a part of me that is glad that our paths have overlapped- I just wish it could be under happier circumstances.”

“No,” you pat him upon his chest, “You don’t get to our age without some kind of baggage and in our occupation, it’s hard for most people to understand our commitment to our job.”

“Hah, you can say that again- that’s what ended my marriage. That and her new partner,” you scrunch your face in consideration of Marcus’ pain, your thumbs rubbing back and forth, “And the failed engagement is what brought me to London- kept seeing her and the man she left me for around the DC offices.”

“Let’s go toast to those ghosts and our converging paths with what will be now a very warm bottle of white wine and cold pizza,” with eyes widening in amusement you smile at him, your hands still on his chest and his hands on your back, “But indoors as it is fucking freezing out here, no matter how pretty it is.”

“Agreed,” Marcus chuckles deeply, moving his hands to rub some warmth back into your arms.

“Just going to grab a hoodie,” you call over your shoulder as you go back into your bedroom. As you rummage through your bag, you miss the flicker of disappointment on Marcus’s face that he wouldn’t get to smell your perfume on his clothes.

✪✪✪✪✪

“Hey,” that beautifully soft baritone meltingly drifted up from the sofa in Marcus’ room, “Comfy now? I hope you don’t mind but I chose Casablanca instead of Sharknado 4.”

As you cross the floor in socked feet to try and thaw them out from your balcony adventure, you shake your head with a lopsided smile, “Not ok,” but to put Marcus’ raised eyebrow at ease, you add, “It’s my favourite - but you’d better have tissues at the ready as it will make me a snotty mess.”

“Already prepared,” he holds a tissue box aloft, “It does the same to me too.”

Instead of sitting at the other end of the sofa, you grab a glass of wine from the table and slide into Marcus’ side- half sitting up, half leaning against him. He reaches over, pulling your head onto his shoulder, stroking your hair away from your face and there you stay, comfortably curled into his side. Not for the hour and three quarters of the film, but until rays of spring sunshine filter through the blinds the following morning.

Tag list of glory: If you’d like to be added or dropped from the tag list or have any thoughts, thots or suggestions, please do get in touch! I don’t bite hard 🥰

@astroboots @silverwolf319 @lunaserenade @danniburgh @leonieb @mrsparknuts @sirowsky @yespolkadotkitty @agirllovespancakes @tardisfangurl @zukoyonce @absurdthirst @green-socks @pedropascalito @disgruntledspacedad @mouthymandalorian @the-ginger-hedge-witch @lv7867 @songsformonkeys

[woodchoc-magnum]

9-1-1 4x04 Reaction

Spoilers under the cut

Buddie for comfort:

Saving the parents for last because jesus fucking christ that’s a rant, and also, I’m functioning on very little sleep so this may be completely disjointed and rambly:

I am in love with Buck and Eddie trying to solve the crime together and I wish they would re-film that scene without face masks

Because they so would be into true crime, like Eddie pretends to be cool but he’s a secret nerd, and he loves to nerd out with Buck, so it makes total sense that they watch crime documentaries together like COME ON

I’m incorporating this into a fic somehow

May Grant the 911 operator 🔥🔥🔥

Gratuitous shirtlessness in the form of Albert and Chimney, thank you very much 911

Albert fucking RUNNING AWAY FROM CHIMNEY 10/10 comedy

And then Chimney RUNNING AWAY FROM THE REST OF THE TEAM 10/10 comedy as well

Albert throwing a whole wheel of brie into the oven? Like just throwing it in there? Literally just throwing it in there

I don’t know why they added that in but I’m not mad at it

Chimney making friends with the mad bomber after the preview was like “IS CHIMNEY GONNA DIE????” no he’s gonna make a new friend and then brain him with an oxygen tank duh

Well, I guess it’s about that time to talk about the worst parents in the show, so here we go:

Some of this is gonna be speculation because obviously we don’t know how this all played out, but we can make some guesses. My theory is that Daniel the dead brother died... perhaps saving Buck when he was only very little, hence Buck not remembering it, and his parents... asking Maddie not to tell him?

What even the FUCK though

Why would you ask your NINE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER TO LIE TO HER LITTLE BROTHER ABOUT THEIR OTHER BROTHER WHO DIED

And how the hell do you cover something like that up? Did they simply move away from friends and family so no one would ever talk about it? Did they box up all the pictures and memories and everything and just... fucking... MOVE ON? Or not move on, because they have obviously never forgiven Buck for whatever the hell happened.

Okay, this is my speculation:

The parents are somehow responsible - for example, an accidental drowning (I don’t think this is what happened, this is just an example). So hypothetically, they’re at the beach, and Buck is a toddler, and the parents aren’t paying attention and he wanders into the sea and gets swept out; Daniel comes to his rescue and dies in the act of saving him (this thing happens in Australia all the time, hence why I’m using it as an example - swim between the flags, gang!).

So then you have the parents who are ultimately responsible for not paying attention, you have the unavoidable tragedy of one of the children dying, and the way they coped with this terrible tragedy was to place the blame on Buck (even though it wasn’t his fault, at all) and pretend that Daniel had simply never existed.

This means that Buck spends his life living in the shadow of the older brother who was glorified, who died saving him, and Buck has no idea why he can never please his parents and why they don’t love him. This is why they’re checked out as parents, because one of their kids died, and instead of seeking therapy, they decided to live a lie and blame their son for something he had no fucking control over.

So setting all that aside, let’s talk about these two absolute fucking pieces of shit.

They’ve alienated their children so much that both of them are absolutely terrified when they turn up. Buck is petrified. He’s spent his whole life never living up to their expectations, never feeling good enough, or worthy enough, constantly being put down - no wonder he ran away to California to put some distance between them. And he’s finally in a good place, going through therapy, dealing with his issues, and now bam - his parents are back in town to screw up all of his hard work.

And Maddie’s just as freaked out, because she’s trying to protect Buck from them. I feel like she has good intentions but her mistake is wanting Buck to have a relationship with people who don’t necessarily want to have a relationship with him, and for telling them about him being in therapy (which I still don’t understand, but I guess maybe the next episode will reveal the answer). To be clear, I don’t think Maddie is wrong for having kept this secret. She was manipulated into it by her parents when she was only a child, and that is not her fault, at all. She’s been told she’s doing the right thing and she hasn’t questioned it, but now, she is.

And, importantly - if her parents were checked out mentally and emotionally, she had to do a lot of the heavy-lifting and parenting when it came to Buck, when she was just a little girl herself. Maddie is the reason Buck is as wonderful as he is - she raised him.

Now, back to the pieces of shit:

They didn’t like Doug, so they washed their hands of Maddie, even though they lived in the same fucking town. So she was getting beaten up by her absolute monster of a husband, and ending up in hospital, and they were doing fucking nothing to intervene or help her.

THEY DIDN’T EVEN GO TO HER WEDDING. THEY SHOWED HER NO SUPPORT AT ALL. LIKE I CANNOT. All because they DISAGREED? SHE’S STILL YOUR DAUGHTER, like oh my god, I can’t even.

She had to flee across the country to Buck in California to finally escape him, because their parents didn’t care enough to help. Motherfuckers.

And then the whole “we don’t do hospitals” - bitch, they are your fucking CHILDREN. If your CHILDREN are in hospital, you are supposed to CARE. Buck got crushed by a ladder truck, he had an embolism and nearly died, he went through a tsunami and NOTHING? Nada? Maddie had to kill her husband after he nearly killed her, and NOTHING? Buck had to call to tell them what had happened!

And then to start crying and asking "I don’t know what you expected us to do?” - like, bitch, FUCKING ANYTHING?

I mean

I cannot with these people

What kind of white WASP-y nonsense is this

Let me tell the story of when I had appendicitis - I was taken to the hospital by my friend at night, my mum lives two hours away - when she found out that it was appendicitis and I’d be going in for surgery, she jumped in the car in the middle of the night and drove two hours to be with me, and I was a grown-ass woman at the time. It is not normal for parents not to care when their children are sick/injured/being beaten almost to death by their abusive husbands/getting crushed by a ladder truck. You mean to tell me that the footage of the crowd lifting the truck off their son didn’t go viral? That they didn’t see that?

Fuckers.

You don’t like something so you just bury your head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist? Your kids aren’t perfect so you just wash your hands of them? Their problems don’t matter, not when it’s all about you?

Narcissists.

Blaming the kids for everything, manipulating Maddie into doing their bidding - and still manipulating her as an adult, by bringing her gifts and driving across the country and being all, “we want to be grandparents!” after everything? After letting her husband nearly kill her and blaming her for having bad taste in men? FUCKKKKKK

And the fucking BABY BOX. Do not even get me started on how ANGRY I WAS.

Like, I have friends with kids (I have cats, personally) so I know that they’re busy, but to not have anything, as if he’s just not worth it.

Like I can’t

It breaks my heart to think about his face, and the realisation setting in... to know that your parents don’t love you? To have lived with that your whole life? It’s so fucking gutting.

Like, obviously I am extra emotional because I’m running on empty today, but god damn this episode just came along and punched me right in the face.

Also, I’m making a BIG CALL, they’re going to use the song ‘Daniel’ by Elton John in the next episode:

Daniel my brother you are older than me Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal? Your eyes have died, but you see more than I Daniel you're a star in the face of the sky

100% they’re using that song, I’m calling it now, and if they don’t, it is a wasted opportunity.

Okay, let’s end on a good note, because this has been a rant:

Eddie’s open concern for Buck; the fact that Buck tells Eddie about his therapy, that he feels comfortable opening up to him - that Eddie was there, watching Buck beat the shit out of the boxing bag and listening to him, and taking his side and reassuring him... that is next level shit and I am here for it.

I am not here for the return of Ana in the next few episodes but that’s a future rant

Hopes for Buck Begins:

That the firefam - his real family - will rally around him, and that Buck and Maddie will take a united stand against their parents and tell them to get the fuck out of their lives.

Also I kinda want Bobby to meet the Buckley’s? Just... for him to be horrified, I guess? I don’t know, but I want Bobby to meet them and understand how awful they are and offer Buck some comfort as his surrogate father.

I would like Buck to be hugged by someone who loves him, please, because he needs it.

And selfishly, I want some kind of Buck, Eddie and Christopher scene, because they are also his family. Everyone in this show has their little family unit, and Eddie and Christopher are Buck’s.

Ana be damned

[milf-harrington]

Forgive me not speaking Australian, but wtf is country week?

okay so in western australia, our capital city perth hosts a sports carnival for all of the rural (country) high schools in the state every year; this is called the Country Senior High Schools Carnival, but everyone just calls it country week

i’m pretty sure anyone from, like,, year 9 to 12 can go? you need to have good grades, attendance and behaviour though

possible events to sign up for include: hockey, australian football, basketball, netball and other non-sport events like speech and debate

it’s kinda like,, a big deal among rural schools.

like people sign up, try out, spend weeks training, go to perth for a week and then just compete and come back and it’s talked about all year and ppl get awards at the end of the year for how they did (either behaviour wise or sports wise)

everyone was gutted about not being able to go last year bc of covid restrictions and i think the only thing that got a worse reaction was when we almost had to cut the year 12 ball as well

so in my au; zuko, suki and sokka all signed up for country week and went and i think Zuko would play basket ball and Suki would play netball or footy (she’d kick ass at AFL, i just know it) and i think i might make Sokka play soccer 

[other-peoples-coats]

hey uh. what the hell is afl, why does mullet cody play it let alone professionally, and why not rugby (why should it be rugby??)

oh boy. Ok, so, in order, AFL is a type of football (Australian Football League which plays Australian Rules Football and is literally the only professional (mens) league of said football type in the world, it's so fucking stupid). AFL is technically played in all states of australia, but it's a hilariously regional sport. Like, there are 18 teams in the league, but the distribution across the 7 states and territories* is as follows:

QLD: 2 NT: 0 WA: 2 SA: 2 VIC: 10 TAS:0 NSW:2

You will notice that one state has more teams than literally the rest of the country combined. This is partially for historical reasons -- AFL used to be known as VFL, which is Victorian Football League, hence vic having uuh so many fuckin teams -- and partially because the other major football code is rugby, so there's kind of a divide between who plays what based on what state you're in.

(Looking at the numbers you'd think it would be that the states with no AFL team play more rugby, but: wrong. the major rugby states are QLD and the northern half of NSW, plus the ACT and like, two inches of the NT. tbh I have no damn clue what SA, WA, and TAS play and am pretty sure that they're being claimed by ALF in the linked image just because it makes a neater graphic; I assume based on gut feeling that the NT is more rugby but probably gets fed into the QLD team, just based on borders? not sure tho.) So, that's what AFL is. AFL players, particularly recently, have been growing mullets because......idk lockdowns and Sport, I guess? fuck knows. To the point that it is becoming Very Much A Thing that mullet = AFL. Not so much rugby, in my experience, who tend to more undercuts? fuck knows why though, I don't Actually Sports. You see them either on like, tradies, kids, or AFL players. Or at least I have, and I live in AFL capital rn, so I'm seeing a lot of fucking mullets on people. It should be rugby both because rugby tends to have a much heavier following in the wider pacific and also means the rugby teams around here are far less white (which..lot of kinda nasty and/or questionable racial stuff there about the sourcing of players etc etc, not going into it on an overview post about a starwars joke, but y'know, it's there). And also, uh, aotearoa (NZ) plays rugby. Like, they are rugby champions, it's Their National Sport, Temuera Morrison is a kiwi therefore cody should play rugby if he plays a sport at all. *yes we technically have 9 states and territories BUT: we don't count the ACT or JBT in that count because fuck the ACT and the JBT is like, a weird outlier that exists so the ACT has access to the ocean, kinda

[choco-mark]

Dreamies reaction to being your roommate or how they would be your roommate? idk if that makes sense..tyyy💖

scenario: nct dream as your roommate

mark

concerned roommate

was really shy when he first met you + when you moved in he was all like making sure to give you space and gave you a little tour of the apartment and even told you a little bit about himself which you found really cute

you thought it would be IMPOSSIBLE to break him out of his barrier but he eventually did but damn can this boy be WILD

you don’t let him cook because the last time you left your water boiling and asked him to watch it while you went to the bathroom, it ended up on him, yeah you had to tend to his burned skin even though he insisted HE WAS FINE

gets along well with your friends, though they find him kinda hot and ask you why you haven’t gotten laid yet and orders food for them when they’re over (generous bby 🥺)

and at school??? y’all both go to the same uni so bUs riDes but y’all don’t really see each other THAT much but when it does happen, all the dreamies tease him like you’re his girlfriend and you get all flustered as if y’all are actually dating

y’all know well as hell when y’all go out, y’all be sharing the little crappy earbuds on the bus and listening to some r&b + he loves it when you fall asleep on his shoulder but makes fun of you later

falls asleep everywhere and i mean EVERYWHERE, you name it, the horrible excuse of a kitchen, the bathroom, and you even found him in your own room once which led to some TALKS

does the dishes whenever you want him to and doesn’t really care for chores (?) like he doesn’t want to bother you so like he just does them for the sake of the apartment

y’all are mutually afraid of your landlord, who once came banging at y’alls door at 5 in the morning on a monday and you thought you were gonna be robbed but it was just your feisty landlord who had returned from their trip to australia

breaks things A LOT, and i feel like he would try and cover them up if it’s not that big of a deal like ‘mark, why’s there glass in the garbage’ ‘i, um, broke it’ but you know he breaks shit all the time bc that’s the fifth glass

hangs out with you in the living room even if y’all are doing your own thing but you both feel comfortable just feeling the presence of each other

goes shopping for groceries without you, forgets what y’all actually need, and calls you like fifty times (you make him come with you now)

i don’t think mark would really do pranks on you but he might like try and scare you randomly and you being the paranoid babe you are get all jumpy and ‘MARK!!’

has a crush on you but doesn’t know it himself until you get sick one day since you walked home in the rain and he takes care of you and gets all worried (uwu) and then is like ‘OH SHIT’

you fall asleep on the couch while having (rare) movie nights with him, and kinda wants to carry you to your room after the movie’s over but also doesn’t know if he should and has a mental break but you wake up and leave yourself

realizes that he’s falling for you more and more everyday and seems to like your lips a lot more too

you don’t realize that you’re slowly starting to like him too but every time your friends talk about guys and dating you immediately think of mark (uwu bc y’all are besties)

mark finally asks you out on a day in the summer but he’s super nervous and fidgety that you kinda thought he was gonna break some big bad news to you like ‘i’m moving out’

but he actually asks you to date him and you’re like shocked for a bit just sitting there with your ice cream tub in front of the tv watching tom and jerry and he thinks you’re about to reject him before you nod rapidly

literally no one is fazed when y’all announce it to your friends, and they all saw it coming (hyuck and chenle had a bet on who would ask who out and hyuck won a whole 45 dollars)

renjun

responsible roommate

let’s be real, y’all did not get along when y’all first moved in together

renjun was literally the polar opposite of you, liking his space and reading and painting an awful lot, well he’s a fine arts major so, while you’re a little more on the extroverted side, inviting your loud friends over often

y’all had a fight like two days after he moved in about you always having friends over and then being loud and you try defending yourself but you kinda make a fool out of yourself because sweetie is right

a week of so after that you actually think about moving out because you think he like HATES YOUR GUTS and you kinda don’t talk to him at all for a bit

he feels bad after a while seeing you come home and just lock yourself in your room for like…the entire day before you get up early in the morning and leave + wants to make amends but his ego’s too big

ends up just cutting fresh fruit for you around like 2am since you were up doing work (with a frustrated brain) but accidentally walks in on you changing and drops the fruit all on the ground

you swear you’ve never seen a boy so RED before (or have you seen him apologize before) and he literally just STANDS THERE before closing the door

rethinks his entire life on what the HELL he just saw, and why he liked it so much but comes in after you tell him too (you’re kinda embarrassed too, you know, seeing the pretty pink undies hehe)

you apologize first about your friends and stuff though he feels bad for just yelling at you about it rather than like, talking like a normal person and he just is like ‘fancy some fruit?’

yeah, y’all kinda get closer after that, and he even lets you into his room (which was OFF LIMITS before), and you get to see his artwork which is wow phenomenal

y’all cook together and make it like it’s some kind of vlog (though y’all suck at that shit, so it’s just fake youtube), and the food ends up like pretty decent at the end

he doesn’t go to the same uni as you, but since you don’t leave early in the morning anymore, y’all walk together until you have to part ways

renjun has the dreamies over VERY RARELY but he goes out to their apartments often, he won’t admit it but he doesn’t want donghyuck to meet you because you might fall in love with him like everyone else seemed to

donghyuck does meet you though, and it’s safe to say that his flirting did not work on you! which was surprisingly relieving to renjun, and he didn’t even realize he was so relieved that you didn’t give a shit

you now only have your friends over whenever renjun’s not there just for the sake of him, but you usually go out instead too so…sometimes there’s an empty house bc y’all are way too considerate for each other

once you met him on your way back from your friend’s and it was like the spider-man meme like ‘boy, i left because of you’ and vice versa

there isn’t really a big hassle on chores in your apartment unless either of your families are coming for a visit because then it is..like renovating time

‘just take the couch out of the living room, it looks ugly’ + “bitch, where tf are they gonna sit then??’

he once got clothing stuck in the bottom of the washing machine and it was WALKING (i’m not kidding guys, this shit happens) + y’all had to call your landlord who wasn’t too happy

and talk about escalating the relationship..y’all are practically best friends by now even though you both are literal opposites

he doesn’t really ask you out like at all but gets all emotionally defensive when you’re about to go on a blind date that one of your friends set up for you

‘just go with me’

and you’re like…babe that’s not how it works but eventually you get the message (after a while) and you’re like ‘oh, you mean you actually want to go with me’

ends up taking you to the same cafe you were supposed to meet the other guy at and buys you food for the first time but kisses you with a spontaneous burst of confidence

but then it’s all flustered renjun™

jeno

feisty roommate

moved in with you bc you both are best friends and thought that y’all had ENOUGH time living in dorms on campus at uni

you literally don’t know how to deal with him at first because this boy is a messy mf and leaves everything everywhere which gets you all riled up

eventually you just threaten to throw his computer out the window if he doesn’t do the goddamn dishes once this semester and does them in fear

it worked the first few times but he saw it coming after a while and just threatened to throw you out the window, while holding half your body out of the fifth floor window

let’s just say the neighbors probably thought you were being abused from your screams, and it was proven when cops showed up at your doorstep about an hour later

that was probably the most terrifying and awkward conversation you had ever had with someone, even though it was mostly jeno talking to them while you were standing slightly behind him with your hand on the sleeve of his jacket

they eventually left and you almost cried because you were so scared you were gonna get arrested for no reason, and because you were too broke to bail yourself out of a jail and jeno was like ‘yeah it happens’

well, he didn’t hold you out of a window again, that was for sure but he made sure to take his time out of playing games and doing work to do some chores so you wouldn’t be doing all of them

jeno doesn’t mind your friends over, though he hates it when one of them try to hit on him even as a joke, and the last time that happened, you ended up just kicking her out because you were so fed up

dreamies come over pretty often actually, and raid your kitchen too which is sad because your stock of cheap alcohol is gone is less than a few minutes

they once all ended up drunk and on the floor of your living room except for jisung, who had been forbidden to drink, and you ended playing cards with him for like two hours before jeno dragged him out of your room

he didn’t invite them over for a month after that because he thought jisung hit on you (the literal high schooler, smh) but didn’t tell you that so you just thought he was mad at them

takes you clothing shopping with him because he has no fashion sense and doesn’t want to admit it to jaemin but you both usually end up at a fast food restaurant eating fries

you both are allergic to cats, but he has three and they’ve grown on you

cooking is usually rare in your apartment, but there always seem to be so many FUCKING DISHES, jeno usually just orders food for the both of you over weekends and breaks while slowly realizing he’s gonna go into debt if he keeps buying sm food

you start playing overwatch because him (which actually just started out as you being curious on how to play) and now you’re hooked, and he’s jealous because you’re actually good

ends up fighting for his computer back because you kept using it, but let you for a while bc he kinda found it cute seeing you sitting in his huge gaming chair wearing oversized clothing and battling like a boss

he doesn’t regret ever moving in with you bc it’s earned him some very interesting experiences that he couldn’t really trade for the world

his heart does a thing when he finds you asleep at his desk past midnight, and isn’t really sure if he should wake you up or not but ends up tucking you into his bed and he takes home on the couch

anyway the couch was fucking COLD but you woke up literally in his scent, and damn were you confused but you found him in the living room under a thin blanket

yeah, you scold him for that because he catches a cold and he’s a whole baby when he’s sick

okay, he’s like barely sick but he’d be like ‘y/n help me, i can’t get up’ and you get all worried bc he looks so tired but he just wants the care (evil jeno hehe)

you feel bad bc it was kinda your fault that he had to sleep on the couch and you apologize while bringing him food and stuff and his heart does a thing again and he’s like..this is my best friend, i’m a fucking idiot

yeah but he’s in love with you, it’s just a matter of time before one of you confessed

donghyuck

bratty roommate

hyper king who was the pretty but loud boy in one of your classes + he asked you to move in with him when he overheard you talking to a friend about needed to move out of the dorm

he didn’t actually think you’d take him seriously, but is glad because he has a bit of a crush on you and is planning on making you fall for him

you know the drill already though, he’s the guy that everyone falls for, so you’re determined not to!!

donghyuck is the definition of a brat, and pulls pranks on you constantly which you always innocently fall for, marking his happiness

you get him back though, filling his shampoo bottle with hair dye that he actually falls for (and you know it from the screech that comes from the bathroom around 3am)

but you’re back in class and he looks like a hot mf with this silver hair, making you regret the fact that you bought silver instead of red

donghyuck actually falls harder and harder for you though, though he’s trying to keep up his whole playboy fanatic and it’s getting hard for you

he sucks at basic things though, and runs away when you tell him it’s his turn to do the dishes (like, he runs out of the apartment)

dreamies are over, but not that much, you kinda think chenle and renjun hate your guts from the way they always eye you (also since you don’t hesitate to kick their asses out)

donghyuck prefers going out too, and planning very intricately how to make your life more miserable!!

is good at cooking but he’s too flirty to actually get anything done without you threatening to stab his eyes out

overheard you complaining to your friend one day over the phone about how hyuck is such a nuisance and basically you’re thinking about moving out because he’s so fucking HARD to live with

gets a little sad knowing that you just see him as annoying and tones down his bratty behavior to a record breaking low (i swear, it’s almost impossible) and you think he’s possessed

comes home one day to you watching a horror movie in the living room with the lights off and you get frightened out of your wits and even start crying

he’s like ‘fuck’ and thinks you’re hurt or something and gets all cuddly and is like ‘babe, what’s wrong??? who hurt you??’

ends up finding out you’re drunk, because you kept sobbing loudly about the guy that stood you up for a date and from the half empty vodka bottle

gets kinda pissed that someone really stood you up which caused you to drink away your feelings (well, you had other issues as well, but the date was a main component) and he’s actually genuinely worried

tries to get you water when you start coughing but you just cling onto him and tell him not to go away and he swears his heart stopped from the way you looked at him with pleading eyes and a pout

‘i’ll never leave you’

pretty sure he’s in love with you by the next day, and doesn’t fail to let you know by trying to flirt very successfully but you just think it’s hyuck back with his antics again

yeah, it’s not, sweetie’s in love with you and you finally get it!! after a really long time because you have trust issues and hyuck seemed to flirt with everyone before, though now…it happened only with you..wow??

he doesn’t ask you out, and kinda thinks that’s overrated so he just kisses you and well you like it

jaemin

sweetheart roommate

jaemin is the bestest boy on this planet, no one can tell me otherwise

though you guys moved in together because of a roommate switch up with your landlord, you two didn’t really mind it all that much bc y’all got along well!!

the two of you have a pretty calm and very ‘roommate’ kind of relationship because it takes both you a little while to break out of your shells a little bit

it took you a both a month, but the respectfulness of ‘no, i’ll do the dishes’ turned to a more of a friendship at first, though jaemin would admit he saw you as a little more than that, a best friend!!

has a daily order of coffee to your apartment three times a day and offered you a sip once and you could’ve sworn it was the liquified version of the souls in hell

he cooks for you 🥺 mainly because he trusted you next to a stove and ended up regretting it so

y’all go to the same uni too, so the walks there aren’t silent anymore!! before, it was just a side-by-side walk while you both had earbuds in

now that the two of you were closer, he basically treated you like you were his girlfriend and the dreamies didn’t fail to notice that

has a habit of pecking your cheek as a goodbye, which hyuck sees and is like ‘friends don’t do that!!!’ and jaemin’s like ‘we aren’t friends, we’re more than that.’

he meant y’all were BEST FRIENDS but hyuck now thought you two were fucking behind closed doors and made sure to mention it to all the dreamies too

yeah, jaemin doesn’t have hyuck over anymore, if anyone, it’s usually jeno or jisung who are usually more considerate on the fact that you live there and don’t bother you

your parents came to visit one day and fell in love with jaemin, especially your mom, who told you that he is husband material, well she’s not wrong.

bought you colored pencils after you lost all of them at uni, and got really hyped seeing how happy you were because of that and bought you a lotta stuff after that

like it wouldn’t even be planned, like he’d see something while shopping and would be like…’yes this is SO y/n’ and ends up buying it for you 

people at uni probably think y’all are married from the way y’all argue about socks being left all over the apartment, which usually leads to one of you feeling bad and apologizing to the other

helps you with homework and even offers to write your essays when your sick or not in the mood, though he refuses your help like it’s second nature because he doesn’t want to ‘bother you’

doesn’t even realize he’s in love with you until jeno jokingly says he wants to ask you out and he gets all stiff and is straight up like ‘no, bro, that’s not cool’

ends up asking you out because he’s scared one of the dreamies would do it before him and you say no at first because you think he’s high or some shit but he’s being real

yeah and then the fucking behind closed doors becomes a reality

chenle

dumbass roommate

i’m not kidding, he blasts music at 4am thinking that you’re asleep and you ARE until you hear the music

the apartment is HUGE, it belongs to him, but put out the second room for low rent because he was lonely and tbh it was a pretty good size for the price

you thought he was a little annoying at first because the dreamies would literally be over all the fucking time because they were in love with the apartment, and both of y’all just didn’t along with each other’s friends

well, you just avoided them interacting with him because he was kinda a lil embarrassing at first, and you thought he was immature (he’s only a year younger though…)

he’s really passionate about music though, and has a wholeass piano in the corner of the living room that you’re not allowed to touch, but you’re so fucking tempted to

can’t do any chores for shit, and doesn’t really try until he sees you washing the dishes and is like ‘this is no good’ and hires a cleaning lady, he doesn’t make you pay extra though, which makes you happy

accidentally used your perfume instead of his own for about a week and smelled like vanilla all day everyday until you noticed that he was the reason why the bottle was disappearing liquid by the day

took you to an arcade when you were really stressed one day and this boy is competitive, so that was a whole RIDE but it was fun to actually hang out with him without arguing or starting a roommate war

yeah, y’all had a whole roommate war, if he was gonna blast music, you were gonna do it too and no one could complain to the landlord because the place literally belongs to him

watches movies with you, even the weird cheesy ones which he usually just makes stupid comments on, or even horror movies where he’s like…‘this bitch asked for death, so she’s gonna get it’

pranks you but not really badly, knows you’re scared of spiders and buys a bunch of plastic ones and puts them in the cupboards to hear you scream in fear in the morning 

the cops showed up at your door too because the neighbors complained about noise, but you both had fallen asleep in the living room before they nearly threatened to break down the door and chenle woke up

dreamies tease him about you as well (like their bitchasses will), but they don’t really think anything’s gonna happen because you’re older but that is WRONG

y’all both have different tastes when it comes to food, but he still manages to take everything you buy for yourself even though he’s the rich one

teaches you how to play the piano one day and his heart does a thing when you lean your head on his shoulder for a brief second, babe thinks he’s falling for you

which is right, and he’s pretty obvious about it like you’d be just cooking wearing some sweats and he’d be creepily watching from the living room thinking you’re gorgeous and you’re like ‘tf is wrong with you, headass’

yeah, it takes him a while to confess because he’s nervous and doesn’t really have much experience in this kinda field (asks jisung too, but that boy literally knows less than him so)

tries to be all romantic with food and shit but he makes a mess and you find it frustratingly cute and judging from the way he was looking at you, you thought he was about to pull out a million dollar ring and propose to you

‘CAN YOU BE MY GIRLFRIEND’ 

jisung

cutie roommate

you both moved out of your parent’s houses senior year even though y’all hadn’t even graduated yet, but you didn’t think you could deal living with your four silblings and parents for another year

y’all are best friends, and probably do everything together too unless one of you are under a lot of stress because of school work (which might lead to a soft night of like, building forts or movies)

jisung is a mESSY PERSON but y’all clean together, like if it’s time to do the dishes, y’all are doing that together, one person washes while the other ones dries or even cleaning the living room, like y’all have designated cleaning days

you both have your friends over pretty rarely since it’s y’alls dorm uwu, not theirs and you know hell as well all they gonna be doing is stealing food

wears your clothes but by accident, like you might’ve mixed in a shirt or two along with his laundry and he’s wondering why tf it’s so fucking tight on him but still wears it until you’re like…jisung what the fuck

gives it back to you but it’s all stretched out now so :( but he lets you wear his sweatshirts!! 

there’s a nice lil rooftop to the dorm that no one really seems to use other than you two, but y’all usually go up there to escape from the real world, like you come home and sungie isn’t there, check the roof! he’s probably crying his eyes out!!

just kidding, jisung doesn’t cry, he’s a tough baby

all jokes aside, you both stress over exams and classes together, and drink a hell of a lot of coffee too (the machine broke one week, and y’all were too broke to buy another one immediately so y’all saved up while dying inside)

cooking…doesn’t really happen though there is a kitchen, maybe if the dreamies are over and renjun’s in charge, but other than that, y’alls parents send you food or you order stuff

you get a part-time job after a while bc you don’t wanna bother your parents and you come home at like 10pm and babe is already so worried since you didn’t pick up the whole and begs you to quit

you don’t, but he starts working too and you both suffer together!!

y’all have a surprisingly clean apartment, but jisung’s room is another dimension that you cleaned one day he was out for work

he came back and walked into his room, and almost walked out because he genuinely thought he walked into the wrong dorm until he sees you

this boy sleeps everywhere too, but everywhere he’s not supposed to sleep, under the carpet in the living room, in the bathtub, even out on the balcony in the summer once and you thought he died in the morning

you both take walks in the neighborhood together on the weekends, like scheduled regularly occurring walks that even the old lady next to the chinese place says hi to you on saturdays

y’all aren’t even sure when it turned from a friendship to a relationship, though you’re pretty sure it was because of a petty fight over school or something that just lead to him confessing very loudly

it was kinda scary hearing him shout but y’all both realize what he just said and…damn

[maticide666]

my eurovision top 39 songs (finally)

anyway i finally got my top 39 completed. under a read more because it can get kinda long with the commentary i added klfdja;sflk (and by that i mean VERY long, maybe a wall of text if i have a lot to say about the song.)

none of this takes rehearsals into account.

basically, 39-37 i don't like, 36-35 are meh, 34-25 are decent, 24-18 are good, 17-12 i enjoy listening to a lot, 11-4 i love, and I would pay for votes for top 3 if i could.

39. Azerbaijan - Efendi - Mata Hari - Honestly, I kinda want to like this song. The instrumentation is nice, especially with the Azeri instruments. Efendi's vocals are ok during the verses. However, her vocals during the MA-MA-MA-MATA HARI part makes this song utterly unlistenable for me. It is just so distracting and ear-grating. Not great for my sensitive ears. And that is without taking anything else into account.

38. Estonia - Uku Suviste - The Lucky One - For some reason reminds me of a boring modern country song. Bland af. At least the melody of the chorus is nice.

37. Cyprus - Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo - Discount Lady Gaga at the best points of this song. Feels like three songs at once. Also, the lyrics seem like they just went all "What Spanish-sounding words sound spicy? Taco? Tamale? Mamacita?" As a Spanish speaker and as someone of Mexican descent who enjoys those foods, this annoys the living shit out of me. At least I can make El Diablo/Fallen Angel memes out of this. (Honestly, I don't mind the gratuitous Spanish with the words El Diablo.) Also, this song got real old real quick.

36. Slovenia - Ana Soklič - Amen - The gospel vibe is nice, but there is just too much Christianity in it for me to enjoy this song. Sorry, Ana.

35. Moldova - Natalia Gordienko - Sugar - Sounds like a sugary version of Siren Song by MARUV. Kinda boring, but enjoyable in the right circumstances.

34. Georgia - Tornike Kipiani - You - Good to listen to when mind feels blank. At first I kinda liked this song, but nowadays this song has lost its charm. This won't sound out of place alongside boring 70s slow classic rock songs.

33. Austria - Vincent Bueno - Amen - Not something I would listen to regularly, but still nice. For me, easily the biggest downgrade from 2020.

32. Greece - Stefania - Last Dance - Pleasant to listen to, not much else.

31. Portugal - The Black Mamba - Love Is On My Side - Good song, but not my cup of tea. Unfortunately, some great songs have to be near the bottom of my ranking.

30. Germany - Jendrik - I Don't Feel Hate - A fun song to listen to. The novelty wears off after a while. The feel good vibes and ukulele are nice.

29. Israel - Eden Alene - Set Me Free - the song release version was bland and boring, but the revamp. Now THAT is good stuff. The song doesn't seem so empty anymore. I miss the key change from the original, though.

28. Spain - Blas Cantó - Voy A Quedarme - A very emotional and beautiful song from Spain. Again, not usually my cup of tea. However, the melody somehow gives me a nostalgic vibe.

27. North Macedonia - Vasil - Here I Stand - DAMN Vasil has a lovely voice. Nice that he's showing it off here. Too slow of a song for me to enjoy regularly, though.

26. Albania - Anxhela Peristeri - Karma - I don't have much to say other than this song is nice.

25. Bulgaria - VICTORIA - Growing Up Is Getting Old - Pleasant to listen to, but depending on my mood I think this is a beautiful song but not my cup of tea or a complete snoozefest.

24. Serbia - Hurricane - Loco Loco - Fun song, but it feels like something is lacking, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

23. San Marino - Senhit - Adrenalina - Once the initial hype from Flo Rida being on the song died down, this became another typical Eurovision bop.

22. Sweden - Tusse - Voices - At first I thought the song was completely unremarkable and couldn't understand how this won Melodifestivalen. Nowadays it's a nice song to chill to. I gotta respect a perfect televote score from the national final.

21. Ireland - Lesley Roy - MAPS - nice.

20. Croatia - Albina - Tick Tock - Grew on me slightly. Shoutout for including a verse in Croatian.

19. Switzerland - Gjon's Tears - Tout l'Univers - Another grower for me. Doesn't hit as hard as his song from last year, but I dig it.

18. France - Barbara Pravi - Voilà - Lovely chanson right here. I wish it didn't take forever to pick up, though. I was about to completely give up on this song in the middle of my first listen. I'm glad I didn't.

17. Belgium - Hooverphonic - The Wrong Place - Classy. Not much else to say.

16. Ukraine - Go-A - Shum - I'd definitely go rave to this song. I kept finding this song hard to rank due to the white voice. I couldn't decide if I absolutely adored it or if I found it grating. Maybe I just wasn't feeling well when I first thought about it.

15. Lithuania - The Roop - Discoteque - Lots of fun, doesn't have the charm that On Fire had last year. I would dance to this song.

14. Poland - RAFAŁ - The Ride - I actually kinda like this song???? Even with Rafal's vocals??? I know he has political controversies, but I can't help but think this song is nice. A better, less controversial singer would benefit this song, though. I'm not counting the revamp just yet since it was released too recently.

13. Latvia - Samanta Tīna - The Moon Is Rising - This song gives me nostalgic mid to late 2000s hip hop vibes. The guitars in this song are lovely.

12. Romania - ROXEN - Amnesia - Definitely something that can put me in a trance if I'm in the right mood.

11. Czechia - Benny Cristo - omaga - Nice, catchy, I would dance to this.

10. Malta - Destiny - Je Me Casse - Damn, Destiny has a lovely voice! And the song itself is wonderful. I'm not a fan of the amount of Swedish talent being used instead of Maltese talent, but I really do enjoy listening to this.

9. Denmark - Fyr og Flamme - Øve Os På Hinanden - another really fun song! This really grew on me. Nowadays if I want to listen to a Eurovision song, this is one of the first songs I think of.

8. The Netherlands - Jeangu Macrooy - Birth of a New Age - I can vibe with this. You can hear the passion in this song. I wish I could let my body do the talking right now, but y'all can't see that with just a tumblr text post.

7. Russia - Manizha - Russian Woman - I was NOT expecting this to come out of Russia when it won the national final. I wasn't expecting to like this either. The message is great, the instrumental is great, everything about this is brilliant.

6. United Kingdom - James Newman - Embers - A funky song. I LOVE James's voice. Massive upgrade from last year in my opinion. I'm a sucker for brass in an upbeat song. Unfortunately, I have had the staging kinda spoiled and I am VERY skeptical about this coming out of bottom five. I'm done with the BBC.

5. Australia - Montaigne - Technicolour - There is a Lot happening in this song and I am all in for it. I'm kinda terrible at parsing lyrics, but it's a non-issue when I can follow Montaigne's voice and forget about the lyrics. Ironically enough, it's Montaigne's voice that also worries me this Eurovision season - mostly whether she was able to pull off her live on tape performance off.

4. Iceland - Daði og Gagnamagnið - 10 Years - I didn't think Daði could pull it off against this year, but he did it. I like this just a little more than Think About Things, which was my favorite song last year. I'm still a little gutted that this pandemic robbed him of a probable victory, but I've made peace with it. I still need to learn the dance moves, though.

3. Italy - Måneskin - Zitti E Buoni - FUCK YEAH A KICKASS ROCK SONG IN EUROVISION! This song gave me massive rock en español vibes on my fist listen, and honestly this is something I would bang my head to if I had the same body I did when I was 15.

2. Norway - TIX - Fallen Angel - I was not expecting to like this song much, let alone becoming THIS obsessed with TIX. In fact, he wasn't even on my radar for winning MGP. I listened to Ut Av Mørket for the first time and thought something like 'this is boring af, but at least it's in Norwegian'. And then he changed it to English, which I wasn't a fan of at first. And then one day the lyrics clicked - especially with my own struggles with mental illness. To this day this is one of only two Eurovision songs to actually make me cry. Even now he still isn't my MGP winner (that honor goes to JORN), but he has definitely won my heart.

1. Finland - Blind Channel - Dark Side - To say that this song kicks ass would be an understatement for me. This song has just the right mix of rock, pop, and even metal. Ever since I found out that this song would be in the national final, I knew that it would be my favorite this whole Eurovision season regardless of who won UMK. Yes, my jaw dropped when I saw the lead Blind Channel had in UMK. I literally cancelled my plans to watch the MGP final live because of these guys. I am not disappointed. Even Måneskin couldn't bring these guys down in my ranking. And while the lyrics might be a bit iffy, they did get me through rough times. I hope these guys are able to bring rock music back like they want to. But for now, I will give them my (useless tbh) douze points.

[official-alan-dabiri]

First and foremost, we have some exciting new changes that everyone can get behind. Absolutely nobody has a problem with the new experience globe mechanics. New experience globes are only at full value for six seconds, and after that are worth 25% exp. And then they last for thirty-nine seconds. Nobody finds this objectionable in any way. This change was not on the PTR due to public outcry from Reddit when it was leaked early, but it’s here live with all of its zero problems fixed.

Another change about which we have received zero complaints is a new tag system behind the scenes. People looking for just the right hero for the situation can easily find it by searching for such keywords as “CC” “Silence” “Sustain” and “Double soak” and find extremely useful and not absolute garbage results. Don’t worry about checking it ahead of time, just get right into draft mode and use it to find the perfect pick!

In addition to those minor and unobjectionable changes, we have removed Volskaya Foundry from the ranked queue, and added everyone’s favorite quickmatch map, Warhead Junction. We have also done this simultaneously with an Overwatch-themed event.

Hero changes below the cut, because this patch is another doozy, with fiiiiiive herooooo rewoooooorks, Four buffed assassins, three nerfed offlaners, two nerfed tanks and we also nerfed the looost viiiikiiiings!

Anduin is the first of our reworks and with him taking a more prominent role in Shadowlands we want to be able to welcome WoW players with open arms. He, uh, doesn’t have a new skin or anything, we just want people to play this game. The central goal of the buff is to improve his healing output in line with other heroes without removing the largest strength in Leap of Faith. As such, we’re just touching literally every part of his kit and talent try and praying that it goes the way we want.

People keep mistaking Johanna for the best tank in the game. This is factually untrue, since Muradin exists. As such, we are just gutting the absolute pants off of Johanna’s talent tree and making it weird and clunky.

For too long has Raynor been the scourge of draft play. Too good to skip, but not scary enough to ban. Perfect macro contributions, with respectable hero damage. Enough self-sustain to take weight off your healer, and self-peel for when tanks are bad. The perfect killing machine. As such, we’ve nerfed his damage into the ground. Start playing Greymane, bitches.

Stitches has proven to be a mediocre bruiser in the eyes of the community. After all these years, I think I know why. We accidentally categorized him as a tank. As such, he needs some serious changes to make him fit that label. This whole time we’ve been balancing him as a bruiser and nobody said anything? This is as much your fault as it is mine.

The average damage output of a ranged assassin has been steadily climbing for a while now. As a result, for a hero to actually be a glass cannon, they need some serious firepower. Valla now has the gunpowder to match her glass. And she’s the glassiest cannon there is. Don’t get me wrong, she still evaporates like a drop of water in California when an enemy hero looks at her. But when she has a solid tank and three healers behind her, the world is your oyster.

Oh my god they didn’t break down the heroes by category. Jesus Christ what the fuck Blizzard? You just decided that this is the line? This is the day you stop caring? Well, congratulations, you’ve made reading your patch notes mildly more inconvenient. I’m still doing this. Ya bunch of jack-offs.

Mei has been grossly overperforming, and we have no idea how that happened. We certainly didn’t buff her over and over again for an entire year. Anyway, we’re just going to roll some stuff back. Definitely probably fine.

It turns out - and bear with me here because this might be hard to follow - Hogger, D.va, and Sonya were all overtuned? For six months? So we’re just gonna tippy tappy them down the smallest little bit. And then slap them around a little for good measure. D.va’s mech form is no longer indomitable, Hogger can no longer solo any merc camp in the game in 12 seconds, and Sonya is now... Basically fine still, honestly. We kinda gave her just a slap on the wrist in comparison. But honestly after gutting Hogger like that, I just didn’t have the heart. One of the benefits from being a little later, alphabetically.

After riding the TLV train up through the ranks, I think it’s about time to recognize that I’m not actually good at them. They’re just overtuned. So it’s time to come back to earth, Icarus. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly-small HP nerf, though. The real nerf is buffing Longboat Raid. People are going to have to pick it to test it and it’s gonna murder their winrate.

Someone told me that Lucio is a problem and needed to be addressed this patch, but my cat came into the home office being adorable so I didn’t hear exactly what they said. So we had to kinda wing it. Hopefully these minor adjustments to his talent tree will solve whatever they were talking about!

Even we know Uther is a problem. Being first pickable and filling three different unique roles was what we wanted to do with Varian not Uther. So we’re going to try and make him incrementally worse at tanking until he just goes away. First up: Shaving off some of that personal armor.

AFK splitpush trash Azmodan is dead. Long live teamfight artillery mage Azmodan. Really glad I made the last HotS Content post about Nova instead of Azmodan because boy howdy do these changes invalidate the entire playstyle that post would have discussed.

W build Falstad has obviously become a problem. Not only was he riddled with bugs after the rework - don’t worry, we learned from our mistakes and made sure there were no bugs with our new reworks - but also he had the ability to point and click on an enemy hero and force them to run all the way to the next lane over in order to stop taking buckets of free damage. It turns out that ability was more powerful than anticipated, and required adjustment.

Q build Falstad has obviously become a problem. Not only was it completely overshadowed by a build that did more damage in every situation with less skill requirement, but we overestimated the value of macro power on a build that demands PvP for stacking. As such, we’ve doubled the amount of power each stack gives him! That’ll do.

AA build Falstad... Stay the course, buddy. Doin’ fine.

Junkrat has been underperforming, which is surprising for a hero with his level of power. As such, we’re going to make a few small buffs to hopefully draw attention, and then we can roll things back once the pickrate reflects his actual power. Hopefully then WE CAN FINALLY MAKE THE MANDATORY CHANGE I PUT IN EVERY MEMO. TYRE. WITH A Y. THAT’S HOW THEY SPELL IT IN AUSTRALIA. KAEO I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU- wait, did Kaeo leave? Who the fuck is still here? Kinnabrew? Adam? Jason? JASON! JASON!?

Tassadar has also fallen off a lot without us having done anything at all whatsoever to nerf him. Entirely undeserved treatment. I’m disappointed in all of you. As such, we’re going to tweak his numbers up just a little tippy tap so that you all remember who killed the Overmind. It wasn’t James Raynor or Sarah Kerrigan. It was Tassadar... Tassadar Bassadar. That’s his last name. Don’t look it up, just trust me.

In the bug fix department, we’ve had a nice sit-down with the Mountain Giants on Alterac and told them that if they have time to lean, they have time to clean. Reaching the end of their lane and expecting the core to come to them is putting undue stress on an already overtaxed position. The core is a very stressful job, and if the mountain giants could just do their part to walk into the core pit when they arrive, that’s a huge load off their shoulders. Drek’thar and Vanndar really needed this expectation taken off them right now, and I’m hopeful it will lead to a better work environment.

[zankivich]

The Corona Diaries: An Arrangement Blurb

a/n: you asked. I listened. I’m not sure where the inspiration came for this tbh. It definitely didn’t come from shawn because....Sheesh. I kinda thing this could be fun to keep doing, at lest for now. So if you have any prompts or ideas for things you’d like to see from our two faves please do let me know. K bye. 

*y/n’s point of view*

Marriage life suits you. Mostly because Shawn is understanding and kind, and because you make it a point to have sex twice aday as long as work doesn’t keep you separated. So you coast easily by treating each other with kindness and adoration, and never having an argument deeper than, “who left the bathroom light on?” and “it’s your turn to do laundry!”. Part of it actually is the nature of your jobs. Before Shawn could ever start to annoy you he’s in the studio for three months making a record, so every moment you get with him feels infinitely important, a moment you wouldn’t dare ruin with some stupid argument. And with you taking on the massive detailing of actually trying to build a label up, there’s plenty of time apart to make the time together special.

After the honeymoon, you began looking for houses together. There were a lot of needs it needed to check. Location. Kitchen for you. A place for Shawn to build a studio. It was the first time in your life where looking for a home meant looking for land, not necessarily listings on a website. You were building a home with this man, building a life for the two of you...and possibly even a family further on down the road.

When the coranavirus hit, Shawn was at home coincidentally. It was who you was in Australia visiting an artist on tour. You’ll never forget the two am, your time, facetime call from him. He was rosie cheeked with his favorite headband on, shirtless except for shorts and socks. He was cute. Not cute enough to be waking your ass up though.

“Shawn? If the world is not ending there is no reason for you to wake me up.” You mumbled adjusting to the light of your screen.

“Baby the world is ending! This corona shit is getting bad. And the government is totally in on it and they’re trying to kill us off in masses.”

You rolled your eyes and rolled over onto your back to peer at your lovely, if not crazy, husband.

“I told you to stay off tumblr. Those conspiracy theories always keep you up at night, babes.”

“So when it’s Regan and the Aids and crack epidemic it's a fact, but this is a conspiracy theory?”

“Nothing could have prepared me for my husband becoming more woke than I am.” You sighed. “What is it that you want me to do?”

“I want you to come home. Please? I think they’re gonna start pulling shit anyway. The NBA just canceled march madness, I wouldn’t be surprised if the tours are next. Please come home.”

You smiled softly at him. “You worried about me?”

“‘Course I am.” He whined. “You’re my wife, remember? Please come home, babe.”

His doe eyes, and the fact that he seemed to feel so strongly about it, made you feel like it was worth it to take him seriously. Shawn was definitely the more go-with-the-flow of the two of you. If he was taking it seriously, then maybe at the bare minimum you could cut him some slack.

“I will think on it while I sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow okay? I promise.”

He sighed, a crease in his eyebrows firm enough to cause a little worry even in your gut.

“Okay. Just...call me when you get up. I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Tomorrow only brought more headaches. It turned out that your husband wasn’t just a conspiracy theorist, but shit was really hitting the fan. The second you woke up you had to hop into a meeting with the entire team. The tour needed to be postponed. You had to get everyone home. There were over two dozen venues to speak to. A statement had to go out to the fans. Flights to figure out for hundreds of people. It was really a nightmare. And then on top of that your husband was just a bit losing his shit. By the time you got off your work phone, and to your personal phone--a reality that the ridiculousness of was not lost on you--you have sixteen missed calls, and tons of facetime requests and a lot of texts with various sad faced emojis asking if you were dead.

Long story short you got home to him and he was there waiting with open arms and an open dutch oven that had your favorite soup waiting to be eaten. The love of your life.

*Day 6 of Quarantine*

“Sweetheart?! Where’d you go?”

“In the kitchen!”

“Hey...why do you have clothes on?”

You turned around from the fridge to find that your husband was naked as the day he was born. You’d been making love for most of the day. And the soul was willing but the flesh was weak. Damn.

“I need to get away from you and that thing. Plus I wanted ice cream.” You whined.

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean ‘that thing’. What did I do?”

“ME. And very well might I add. My vagina is killing me.”

“Wait you’re hurt?” He mumbled immediately stepping forward.

Your husband was just the softest fucker alike. God you loved him.

“Little bit. Obviously I wasn’t asking you to stop. I just need a little break. Forget about your abs for five minutes and come eat icecream with me.”

He reached for your hips smiling softly at you as he ran his calloused fingers along your skin.

“Should I go put some pants on? I don’t think you want my dick on the furniture.”

You peered down at him in all his gorgeous glory. Your vagina practically peaked its head out in interest. Whore.

“Maybe we take dessert to the bedroom.”

“I though you were sore.” He snickered.

You rolled your eyes and ignored him in favor of heading for the bedroom.

“Grab some spoons and maybe I’ll let you eat it off of me!”

The sounds of the silverware drawer clanging open and his feet smacking against the floor was enough for you.

*Day 15 of Quarantine*

“What do you wanna do?”

“I don’t know. What do you wanna do?”

“Well...babe, I’ve picked the last three days. Maybe you could come up with something.”

You were lying in bed side by side staring up at the ceiling. Neither of you knew what time it was. You hadn’t worn anything but sweats in days. Speaking of days, you didn’t know what day it actually was. Stir-crazy didn’t even describe the mood you were in.

You turned your head to peer at him, your eyes slightly twitching in annoyance.

“But you like coming up with things to do. Every time I recommend something we always end up doing what you want to do.”

His eyebrows squinted and he leaned up onto his shoulder to peer down at you.

“Hey, that’s not true. I love doing what you wanna do. Why would you say that to me?”

You shrugged. “It’s true.”

“It is not. Stop it.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, Shawn. So, you’re the creative one of the marriage. It’s not that terrible.”

“‘Not a big deal’? You’re telling me I don’t give a shit about the things that you wanna do. What kind of dickhead doesn’t care about his wife’s interests? I specifically asked you to come up with something because I wanna do what you wanna do.”

You rolled your eyes up at the ceiling. Shawn was managing something that he very rarely did despite everything at his identity. He was pissing you off.

“Hey,” He murmured softly, nudging you. “You’re getting upset. Talk to me.”

“I don’t want to. Can we just drop it?”

“I don’t want to drop it, I want you to open up to me. Please?”

“Well that’s exactly what the fuck I just said isn’t?!” You snapped.

You sat up in bed and rushed to sit up and create distance. There’s a thing about Black women. Maybe it was present in other women too, but hell all you knew was your black ass and your black ass experience and in all your years you had seen momma, auntie, and various grandmothers a plenty do the exact same shit. It’s like there’s a ledge. A ledge where one can teeter and totter all day long, but the second you step over that ledge? You just sort of...lose your shit in a way only a Black woman can.

“Now I just got done explaining to you that when I say what I want to do, we end up doing what you wanna do, did I not?! And thennnnn you fuck around and completely ignore me telling you that I did not want to talk anymore about it, simply because it wasn’t what you wanted. Now I’m pissed off! Now I’m fucking over it.”

You reached for your pants, which he had so happily taken off earlier and got yourself in a state worthy enough of leaving the room while Shawn did everything in his power to make you stay.

“Don’t leave! Can’t we just talk about this? I’m sorry okay, I--I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No, you wanted to know what I want to do? I want to spend the next couple of hours not looking at you.”

You've been practicing slamming doors since you were a child. And had gotten your ass beat many a times for it. The way the door frame rattles when you slam it this time is an ode to the child in you that wanted to express anger freely. Ugh. Dumbass.

*three hours later*

“What is it that you’re arguing about again?” Ti asked.

The hardest part of quarantine was truly not having access to your best friend. This meant that facetime and phone calls were a must to keep you sane. And in a moment when Shawn of all people was driving you up a wall, she was truly the only person worth speaking to.

You were sitting outside in the backyard, the sun slowing going down in the background. You’d sat outside reading a book long enough for your anger to slightly dissipate. The second Tiana’s facetime came through, it awakened within you the way only a woman could understand.

You rolled your eyes up at the sky. “I already explained it to you. I hate when you make me repeat shit until I see my own lack of logic.”

She snorted. “Cause you know I’m always right.”

“Yea, whatever. He’s a dumbass and I’m right, end of story.”

“Of course. I totally agree with you girl…”

“I mean it’s true! We--we always do what he wants...I like doing what he wants cause it’s always shit I like too. Like we’ll walk down to the beach with his guitar and I get to sit in the sand and listen to him play. I don’t have to get my hair wet and he serenades me and plays whatever I ask him to. That’s my favorite thing Ti...Ugh! Why is he so stupid!”

“The love you have for that man will never cease to amaze me.” tiana sighed. “Why don’t you just go make up with him?”

“Why do I have to go?! He’s the one who tried to make me talk before I was ready. He should respect my boundaries dammit.”

“Yea. You’re absolutely right, he should. You should tell him that. Calmly. And rationally. In sickness and health and holy matrimony. Remember?”

“. . . I don’t like you anymore, you know that?”

“Bitch get off my line and go make up with your man. I’m finna start charging you for this shit.”

You flipped her off in the camera and she cackled and hung on you. Wench.

You made your way to the one place you went when you weren’t sure about something, or you were frustrated at all in the world. The kitchen.

Shawn was still nowhere to be seen and the weight of Ti’s words hadn’t quite settled in yet, at least not consciously. Perhaps your subconscious knew something you didn’t because your hands immediately went to pulling out bread flour, butter, and yeast to make your famous sticky buns, which just happened to be Shawn’s favorite.

*meanwhile upstairs*

*Shawn’s point of view*

He’d been playing guitar for hours. His heart was a little sad,  his ego a little wounded, and there was still a bit of anger that felt irrational and rational at the same time. He kept thinking she would appear, on tip toes with her fingers drowning in her favorite sweater and the full rounded flesh of her thighs out for the world to see because who needs pants? But as the sun went down, and his mood sour’d, he had to switch his tactic. Should he apologize? He’d tried that already. And it had resulted in her going the fuck off on him. Should he just get on his knees and beg for forgiveness? Tell her how fragile he was, and how much it hurt to think he hadn’t been listening to her? They had never really fought before, not since committing to one another. He was a bit at a loss.

It’s not until he smells the cinnamon that he perks up a little bit. Cinnamon means one thing and one thing only. His wife was somewhere stress baking. He put the guitar down and toed his way towards the kitchen in search of her.

She was humming to herself as she sprinkled sanding sugar on her newest creation. She was so pretty to him. Like stunning type pretty. He was afraid of alerting her to his presence just in case she took the pleasure of staring away from him. She still made him nervous even now. How the hell did she manage to still make him nervous?

“I can feel you ya know.” She murmured softly.

He bit his lip and made his way slowly to the island which separated him from her side of the kitchen.

“What do you mean, ‘feel’ me?”

She turned around and there was suddenly a plate with two sticky buns on them. He smiled at the treat but also at the fact that she was speaking to him again. Had he mentioned that she was pretty?

“I just know when you’re around. My body knows when you’re around...It gets happy for some reason.” She snorted softly. “My heart rate slows, I breathe a little easier. That kinda shit. Sticky bun?”

“Thank you.” He said and tited his head so that he could make eye contact with her.

For a moment they eat in silence, enjoying the amazingness that was her food, and also because somehow they still got shy around each other sometimes. But he knew that there was an elephant in the room, and that if he had any hope of going to bed wrapped around his wife than they needed to talk and fast.

“Look I...I’m really sorry if I made you upset earlier. I shouldn’t have pushed and prodded at you like that. Obviously we’re both going a little crazy cooped inside the house all day, and we’re probably gonna start to get on each other’s nerves. It’s inevitable. But, I never in a million years want you to think that I wouldn’t do whatever you wanted. Some of my favorite days of our life together are watching movies while you detangle and braid your hair or when we’re in the kitchen, getting to watch you make stuff. I guess it just made me feel insecure as your husband that it sounded like I was hogging all our time together.” He mumbled. “I don’t wanna be a shitty husband to you. I love you so much ya know?”

She bit her lip and played with her food. The feelings talk was a bit harder for her sometimes, something he respected, but sometimes had to push her away from. The only way to really do that was to be open and honest, to show her that he cared about whatever was going on in that beautiful, intelligent head of hers.

“I know...I know how much you love me, and I know we never fight because we always talk first and work things out. And usually I would’ve done that! I think--I think I’m just getting a little stir crazy. I’m used to going going going and always having something to do. When I said you always pick what we do, I didn’t even mean it as an insult. I meant that you have a way of knowing what I want without ever having to ask. Like the day you decided to do a scary movie marathon? It was your idea, and I didn’t think of it but...it was perfect. I just got frustrated that you weren’t understanding me and then that you weren’t listening to me.” She whined, face scrunching up in frustration. “I just wanted you to hear it and it felt like you weren’t hearing me. Usually no one understands me better.”

He nodded vehemently, leaning into her space until his forehead nestled against her. She laid her hand upon his arm and ran her fingers through his arm hair. They each hummed a little, releasing the breath of a heavy day

“I don’t want anyone to. I want to know you as intimately as I can.” He whispered.

She smiled. “You do, babes. It’s why I love you so much.”

“I love you too. I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to listen better okay?”

“Thank you. And I’ll do my best to say what’s on my mind before I go slamming doors.”

He snorted softly. “You’ve got a hell of an arm though, aye?”

“Mhm. That’ll teach you not to fuck with me boy.”

“Would never, my darling.” 

***

Permanent taglist 

@simpledomain @liliane106 @thecurlsofgod @kamahriii @sinplisticshawn @lifeoftheparty74 @xeuphorically-moonstruck @euphoric05 @daijanicole @bruhh-whateven @learning-howto-be-myselfx3 @decewill @goldiean @bitchacho25 @bruhh-whateven @justbeingoceana @loveylangdon @iloveshawnieboi @justbeingoceana @september-lace @valedictorian65 @disaster-rose @dimestorebieber22 @MixerMani @qcoachcartier @kamahriii @sinplisticshawn @lifeoftheparty74 @justbeingoceana

Arrangement Taglist: 

@moonlightmendes22  @cottoncandyshawn @iloveshawnieboi @shawnsblue

@claredolphinbear24 @peterbrokenparker @blackharry @shawnwyr @speakingofmari @moniehp @softmendesss @ydolansss  @chonmnds @MixerMani @kitykatnumber  @lanallaa @palhacomendes @mendesficsxbombay @moniehp @alessiaase

[fromzerotoeuphoria]

me watching the Free! Timeless Medley films

A jotting down of my thoughts while watching the Free! Timeless Medley films (but really it’s just yet another gush sesh about RinHaru I’M SORRY I CAN’T HELP IT 😩)

✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧

Timeless Medley 1: The Bond

1:36 AM | Okay, starting the first film and omg I found a dub version! 🙌🏽

Also, dang woah already this opens up with drama and tension, but this time it’s with Ikuya (with Haru correlating whatever happened with Ikuya with Rin (but nothing comes close to what happened with Rin heh 😁)).

   // 

Oh and after the Ikuya/Rin dream is the scene of Haru curling up on his bed looking lonely and sad and like he needs a cuddle ☹ 

   //

OMG this music is too emo ugh I love it  

   //

And OMGGGG Haru and Rin’s race was AFTER High Speed/Haru joining the middle school swim team. So when he quit swimming because of Rin, it caused strain between him and the others on the team #howdidijudtgetthisnow

   //

Aww Makoto and Haru’s friendship montage is adorable!! Look at the lil squishy babies :((((( chibi!MakoHaru is too stinkin cute

✧

2:02 AM | UMMMMM WHY DIDNT RIN GET HIS OWN PANEL IN THE INTRO MAY I ASK????? 😒 Y'all better not do my baby and my ship dirty in this film…

✧

2:07 AM | okay okay, that montage of rinharu was *chefs kiss* Kinda wished it happened with Haruka thinking about it instead of the teachers discussing the boys, but in a way it goes to show how much Haru is tied to Rin without even realizing it, kinda like how he hated to admit even to himself how much he admired and cared for Rin in elementary school

✧

2:29 AM | yes it’s another rinharu trash update, but like: when Kisumi meets Haru again for the first time since junior high, he points out to Haru how they met right after RIN left overseas and how Haru always seemed pretty down about that. This was before the race between him and Rin that ended with the both of them quitting swimming, meaning that Haru was obviously down about Rin leaving alone, not only because the race went bad. And the fact that others saw it too is just UGH, I mean yeah we already knew Rin leaving had such an impact on Haru but like he was visibly down and affected by Rin’s departure, so even though Rin was just a short time in Haru’s life, he still left such a huge impact on Haru. Rin truly was a shooting star, a brilliant glittering light that blazed into Haru’s life and left just as quickly. But he showed Haru something beautiful, something Haru had never seen before, like only a shooting star would. UGH OMG IM SO EMO I LOVE MY SHIP 😭💫💖

✧

2:50 AM | aww eeeeeek the gang is at regionals and Rei just overheard a guy from another team walking by mention how when he was in a rut, some kid with glasses recommended to him books on mental training and AWWWW IT WAS ASAHI from High Speed!!! And Rei stood up and stared after the team because he knew that the guy was talking about him!! Aaaaaaah okay so I’m glad I’m watching these compilation films because these new scenes are so great and really set things up wonderfully for Season 3.

✧

3:04 | ummmm I think I may be crushing on grown Rin too 😣 

Rin and Haru are in Australia right now and ugh Rin’s just…he’s just so chill and calming (well, when’s he’s not all fired up at least) and the way he lazes himself arounf and just LOUNGES when he sits and the way he slings his arm around people is AHEM so attractive. Also ,his fashion sense is *chef’s kiss* And he has a sensitive, artistic-soul AND have I mentioned how his entrance scene when he first showed up as an adult in S01E01 WAS FRIGGIN HOT, like the way that music came in with the close ups of his face and his swaggering saunter was just *gesticulates wildly because words don’t do it justice*

…yeahhhh it was a lot, Rin is a lot, and I’m surprised it took me this long to start (possibly) crushing on adult Rin T_T

✧

3:33 AM | Okay, I’m finished with part 1 of Timeless Medley, and why did that ending scene with Ikuya actually get me psyched for watching how things play out with him in Season 3? 👀 I hope I like Ikuya in DTTF, because right now he’s tugging at my heartstrings and is begging me to put him in my pocket for safe-keeping (plus glimpsing him as a high schooler kinda made me feel some type of uwu way). Seems like things will be intense, because Ikuya resents Haru for quitting the swim team and honestly, I feel for Ikuya: he had no friends until Haru, Mako, Asahi and Kisumi came into his life, and the swim team meant so much to him. So for Haru to quit like he did…yeah I can see why Ikuya would resent him. It’ll be interesting to see things unfold in Season 3. Until then, onto Part 2!

✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧   ✧

Timeless Medley 2: The Promise

3:42 AM | I’m literally like 7 seconds into this and already I’m UWUSKFJSAHHAKK!!!! WE GET LITTLE RIN and I hope this means we’ll get a lot of elementary school Rin *crosses fingers* Also…umm dang but like Rin’s dad was a looker too 👀 Rin doesn’t look much like him though, so he must take after his mom.

   //

OMG this opening backstory for Rin, showing his relationship with his dad and how he was heartbroken when his father died, how he stepped up at such a young age to be the support to his family…I THINK IM FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIM 😭😭😭😭😭 And Mama Matsuoka is gorgeous whattheheck. The entire Matsuoka family is beautiful, like wow.

✧

4:52 AM | Ugh Rin is just…ugh the way Sousuke told Rin the reason he didn’t tell him earlier about his injury was because, “I knew it would break your heart” was just ERHGNSJSNSJJSJDKD 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Rin is such a passionate, sensitive soul who truly cares about those he loves and his heart breaks for other people, and it’s just like UGHHH 😭😭😭😭 Like he even cried a little when the guys surprised him with the pool full of cherry blossoms because Rin is just that sentimental kind of man and omg I LOVE HIMMMM 😭💖💖💖

Also: okay dang EVERYONE wants to swim with Rin: Haruka and Nitori and Sousuke, like Rin really does have folks falling for him left and right THAT’S MY BABY’S POWER.

I wish the films had more RinHaru but it’s ok the added scenes make up for it 😝 Plus…RINHARURALIA (so i can’t be too greedy)

✧

5:16 AM | I’m watching the end after credits and the scene with Gou and Rin with Rin carrying Gou’s bags and walking her home is EVERYTHING. He’s also an awesome gentlemanly brother?? Rin PLEASE you’re killing me!

✧

The thing is, Rin as an adult isn’t spectacular like a Levi Ackerman (my first hubby), but there’s constantly these moments of a brilliant shining light that he displays, and it just guts you and makes you fall for him more and more. They’re subtle, yet so very effective and I just…ugh STAHP okay, I need to be done, this entire overview of Timeless Medley thus far has just been 85% gushing about Rin and the rest gushing about RinHaru 😅🙈 I need to force myself to call it a night because it’s almost 5:30 in the morning and I need to NOT watch the third film Take Your Marks and instead just GO TO BED. 

Rin Matsuoka, please stop making me fall in love with you because I’m falling way too hard way too fast and I already have an anime husband (though I doubt Levi cares enough to be mad about it).

(reposted from original blog, July 26, 2020)

[ave-aria]

ROTG Hope Week

Happy Easter, everybody! This was written for Hope Week, in response to these darker days we’re going through. Who can’t use a little extra hope?

Day 1: Hope Wordcount: 3,305 Tw: Coronavirus, Covid 19 Pairings: Jack/Bunnymund

Kudos to Chaos Incarnate for giving me the idea for the title. ;)

-

Can I Offer You A Nice Egg In These Trying Times?

-

"Whaddya mean, Easter's cancelled?"

Bunnymund's voice rang through the Warren, scattering the herds of unpainted eggs at his feet. Jack, however, remained unmoved. He crouched atop his staff, toes curling into the wood as he stared down at the Easter Bunny before him.

"Hey, it's not my fault," he raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just letting you know. This Coronavirus is shaping up to be some pretty nasty stuff."

"The—what virus?"

Jack narrowed his eyes at Bunny.

"Coronavirus. Covid-19." He said. "You have been keeping up on the news, haven't you?"

Bunnymund, caught with his head in the ground, sputtered. "Look, I am not the shut-in I used t' be, ok!" which was true; the Guardians had made great strides in getting out of their comfort zones in the past eight years. The attack by Pitch made them all realize how isolated they'd become. But… well. Old habits die hard. "So what if I missed a bulletin or two?"

"Bunny," Jack huffed, exasperated. "It's a worldwide pandemic."

Frustrated, Bunny threw his hands in the air. "It's less than a month till Easter! Whaddya want from me!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "A little less denial would be nice."

Fuming, Bunnymund threw his paintbrush to the ground and stormed towards his tunnels.

Sighing, and deciding to take pity on the Pooka, Jack hopped off his staff and followed him across the grassy field. Eggs parted to let him pass. There were dozens of them, hundreds, all waiting to be painted; more were due to hatch from the Eggplants in waves as the month rolled on. The fruits of long labor. Bunny'd put a lot of work into this year's Easter, like he did every year, and it was a shame to see it all go to waste.

Bunny beelined for the European tunnels, ducking into one that Jack knew well. Bunny always seemed to be using this path. It led to a little suburb in England, the very same place where he'd been walked through on that fateful failed Easter years ago. The Pooka never said as much, but Jack suspected; England and Australia seemed to be Bunnymund's Burgess.

So when the lagomorphs hopped down on all fours and darted out of sight, Jack didn't worry. He knew where Bunny was going.

After a few minutes of picking his way through the tunnels, Jack emerged into cool air and cloudy, overcast skies. The tunnel opened up in the narrow space between two long rows of houses, with a park visible down the road. The ground was clear of snow; Jack hadn't been active here lately, but looking at the green grass springing up between the pavestones, he thought he ought to change that soon.

Bunny, to his surprise, was not darting from bush to bush as usual. When Jack arrived, the Pooka was standing smack dab in the middle of the paved streets, subtlety be damned. He turned in circles, a bewildered look creeping onto his face.

Upon spying Jack, he threw his arms out. "Crikey, Jack, it's a ghost town out here! Where is everybody!"

Jack pointed at the long rows of houses. "Inside," he explained. "…Or they better be."

Bunny did another 360, scanning the streets. It was so empty out here, a tumbleweed wouldn't be out of place. "Mate, this—this seems bad," he admitted at last. "I've never seen this place so quiet."

Jack shook his head. "No kidding. You should see the cities."

Bunnymund froze. "The cities?"

"If you think this place is a ghost town, wait till you see London," Jack said. "Paris, Tokyo, Dubai— Venice is so empty the waterways are clear for the first time in ages."

Bunnymund warily scanned the neighborhood again. The lack of people, mid-day, was eerie. He held perfectly still, holding his breath. His ears pricked forward, waiting for sound, eyes on the empty space - as if he expected someone to jump out and yell "boo!" - but nothing came. Slowly, he took a wary step forward, eyes scanning the streets.

Jack stepped forward, reaching out. "…Bunny," he started.

Bunny's whiskers twitched. "So this Coronavirus," he said. "It caused this?"

Jack held up a hand. "They're self-quarantining, for the most part. To help slow the strain on the hospitals. Practically everything is shutting down, everywhere."

"Must be some virus." Bunny replied. "…Takin' out kids and the elderly, I assume?"

"Mostly the elderly. And people with underlying health conditions. It's like the flu on steroids, with a ridiculous incubation period." Jack drew up to his side.

"How many dead?"

Jack winced. "It's… not clear—"

"Give it to me straight."

"…Over four thousand deaths in Italy so far." Jack said, reluctantly. "And more to come. China's not far behind. The US—well." He shrugged. "With the state of healthcare there? Bound to be ten times worse."

It felt different saying it aloud. Four thousand deaths.

A chill ran down his spine.

Jack cast a worried glance at Bunny. He seemed… withdrawn, and Jack hated that. Good news—if he could just think of good news— "Kids though! They seem largely unaffected, thankfully. Gotta catch some breaks, right?"

Bunny looked at least a little relieved at that. Jack went on. "But—the kids're taking it home and giving it to their parents, their grandparents… a lot of places are talking about closing down schools." He slung his staff over his shoulders. "Which, I might add, is totally unfair. I mean, I drop three feet of snow on Burgess and Jamie's highschool might close for, what, a day? Two at most? And then one little pandemic comes along and completely wipes out my record by a mile."

Bunnymund snorted at that. "You're full of yourself."

"I try."

"So," Bunny said. A pause, and his shoulders slumped. "…No Easter this year."

Looking at Bunny's crestfallen face, knots twisted Jack's gut. "Hey, that was the Pope. He cancelled Easter. But I'm sure your status as the Easter Bunny outweighs his authority."

Not even a smile at the comment. "Quarantining means no egg hunts," Bunny said. His ears drooped further. "No egg hunts means no Easter."

Jack took a deep breath and let it out slow. "…Yeah."

They stood silent for a long minute.

"S'not even about the egg hunts, really," Bunnymund said at last. "What worries me is skipping Easter—at a time when the world needs hope the most."

Jack bit his lip. "You could still—I mean, not to bring up North's method, but—pop inside the houses, leave eggs around the house?"

"I already do that, some places," Bunnymund told him. "But if I get the virus on me fur, or me googies, and take 'em inta a clean house—"

Jack sighed. "…Right. Kinda destroys the point of quarantining." He said. Still, he cats about for options, something to lift Bunnymund's spirits. "…Maybe if you disinfect between each place—"

That, oddly, drew a laugh from the Pooka's lips. Bunnymund ruffled Jack's hair, messing it up even worse than it already was. Jack ducked under the noogie, squinting up at Bunny.

"Appreciate it, really," said the Pooka. "But… you're right. Unless somethin' changes, fast, there's - there's just no Easter this year."

Jack straightened, frowning. Giving up wasn't Bunny's MO. He'd thought - he knew the news would hit hard, if he hadn't already caught wind of it, but he thought for sure Bunny would come at this swinging. Maybe try to brainstorm some solutions to the problem, or pull out an unexpected ace hidden up his sleeve.

But just giving up? "Hey now—"

"It's for the best." Bunny cut him off. Apparently it was written all over his face. "In the grand scheme of things - a couple of googies is a small sacrifice to pay fer a safe community."

Jack's frown twisted. Sure but… still.

Bunny gave Jack a comforting pat on the shoulder. "I'm headin' back. Better find somethin' to do with my newfound free time." He added, in a mutter. Turning back to Jack, he asked, "Need a lift anywhere?"

Jack's eyes lingered on Bunny for a long moment. At last, he shook his head.

Bunny's hand dropped from his arm, and it felt like defeat. "Ta, mate," Bunny said, giving a halfhearted salute. In two taps of a paw, a tunnel opened up, and he was gone.

Jack watched him go, wishing, for the life of him, that he could find a way to fix this.

Staring down at the bare earth where the tunnel disappeared, a cold resolve settled in Jack's heart.

He had to find a way to fix this.

—

It was three days and as many consecutive sleepless nights later that Jack came knocking again. The tunnel opened reluctantly, Bunnymund's magic sluggish to match its owners mood, and the rabbit didn't meet him in the field. When Jack arrived, the Pooka was still curled up in his Burrow, slumped at the kitchen chair with a hot tea and sweets littering the table.

"Go 'way," he moaned when Jack's silhouette darkened the doorway. "Let me mourn my holiday in peace." A couple of eggs, unpainted, butted at Bunnymund's heels; the rabbit hadn't had the heart to get rid of them.

Aha, Jack thought, triumphant. Bunny wasn't as satisfied with giving up as he'd pretended to be.

"Pick up your paintbrush and get back to work," Jack told him, eyes gleaming. "Easter's still on."

"Jack," Bunny groaned. "We already talked about this—"

"No egg hunts," Jack flapped a dismissive hand. "We're doing this the old fashioned way."

Bunny sat a bit straighter at that, raising a curious ear. "And what would that be?"

Jack's eyes sparkled, glimmering with hope.

"Baskets," he said, and that was that.

—

Egg hunts hadn't always been the center of the holiday.

In Jack's time, rumor was that if you left a basket - or a hat, upended like a basket - on your doorstep, the Easter Bunny would drop by and fill it to the brim with goodies galore. The practice died out slowly as Bunnymund realized that encouraging folks to go out and seek for the good things in life was a more effective method at garnering Hope; but this year, it was coming back full force.

"Wicker. Ribbons. Paint." Bunnymund dumped another armload of supplies on the grass, and dusted off his paws. "Who's on weaving duty?"

"On it," Jack called, sandwiched between two yetis. He'd all but kidnapped them from North as it became apparent that Bunny's basket production needed to skyrocket, fast. North readily obliged, and even donated some holiday gift baskets he had sitting in the warehouse, unused.

Bunnymund eyed the donated baskets; "…as long as they're not painted red, they'll do."

Over the next few weeks, they emptied Bunny's storage and wove baskets until their fingers fell off. Some were simple affairs, others were elaborate, oversized displays, reserved for houses with large families. In addition to painting eggs, Bunny quickly doubled his output of chocolate, peeps, and hard candies.

Sandy had an eye for basket-arranging, easily assembling multiple at once with the aid of his dreamsand. After Tooth disinfected each finished basket, her Mini fairies carried them off to a cooler and semi-refrigerated room of the Warren that Jack had helped set up. They would remain in isolation until Easter.

They worked at a steady pace, some coming and going, everyone pitching in. When the wicker ran out, Bunny went and found more. North donated plastic baskets as he churned them out. One night, Tooth and Sandy disappeared with a sack of quarters and came back with a truckload of baskets, procured in bulk from closed dollar-tree stores.

"Technically they're paid for!" Tooth insisted when Bunny hemmed and hawed over the gift.

At last, he accepted them. A month was a short time to make millions of baskets, even with everyone helping out. He wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"You know," Bunny remarked, a few days before Easter Sunday, as he and Jack wove a handful more baskets to put them over the top. "This just might work."

"Might?" Jack echoed, offended. He flexed his overworked fingers, scowling. "Don't sell this short. Of course it'll work. It's brilliant."

Bunnymund chuckled. "Aye," he said. "But you do realize there's one tiny problem with yer plan?"

Jack paused. "Problem?"

"Quarantine," Bunnymund said. "Most o' these people haven't left their houses in weeks. What makes you think they'll notice the baskets on their doorstep before the eggs start to stink?"

Hm. That was a valid point. Jack set down his half-woven basket and leaned on a hand, thinking.

"We knock," he said at last.

Bunny huffed, amused. "That's your brilliant plan? Knock?" he, too, set his basket down. "Mate, even if it were that simple, I can't. They'd see me."

"Ignoring the fact that being seen isn't as dreadful as you make it out to be," Jack flapped a hand, "I'm not dumb. I wouldn't have you knock." When Bunny cast a confused glance at him, clearly not understanding, Jack said; "I'll have you know I'm a master at ding-dong-ditch."

Bunny studied Jack's face for a long moment, then cracked a smile.

"So you're inviting yourself on my run, huh. You think you can keep up with me?"

Jack laced his fingers and turned his palms outwards, stretching. "I know I can, cottontail. In fact, I'd say I'll knock this one out of the park."

Bunnymund groaned. "No. No puns."

"Hey," Jack laughed. "Hey—knock knock!"

A resigned sigh. "Who's there?"

"Boo," Jack said.

"…Boo who?"

"Why are you crying?" Jack asked. "Easter isn't canceled anymore."

The smile Bunny sent Jack was the most genuine one he'd seen all month.

—

Operation Ring-Every-Doorbell-In-The-World was a go.

"Finished with China," Bunny's voice said through Jack's earbud. "Headin' down to Oz. Catch up, slowpoke!"

"Ohhhh you're dead when I get down there," Jack shot back, flitting from house to house.

So this was a biiit tougher than he thought it'd be. Jack wasn't well-known worldwide yet, so no one had spotted him, and all he had to do was press a button at each station, an easier task than carting whole armfuls of baskets to the surface. He was running into unexpected walls, however, when he realized to truly make this work, he had to ring doorbells in a certain order.

Apartments, Jack decided, were the worst. He had to ring every doorbell in each hall before anyone answered their door; if he didn't, those who'd emerged would realize their neighbors' doorbells were ringing of their own accord. But he couldn't be too quick about it, either, since people exiting their houses en-mass was also, in a way, counterproductive to the quarantine.

But he managed, staying just a step or two behind Bunnymund at all times. Ring and knock; flit to the next target.

Doors opened as he passed, with surprised folks drifting out into the street. He saw dozens of people in pajamas, more who sorely needed haircuts, and a handful who were apparently sitting around their house in Wedding Dresses and Dinosaur Costumes. Quarantine fashion - an interesting trend. The delighted gasps and laughs that echoed in his wake were well enough to spur him on.

They caught their breath over the atlantic ocean, ("Good news! Right now, Greenland's virus-free!") before diving back in to work on the Americas. By the time they hit Alaska, Jack was about ready to drop.

"How do you do this?" Jack wheezed as they drew up to the final house on their stop. Bunnymund was waiting, tweaking the ribbons and eggs that had shifted in transit. "Every year?"

Bunny smirked. "Stamina, mate. It's a marathon, not a race."

"I hate that you're not even winded," Jack groused back.

Satisfied with the presentation, Bunnymund stepped back. "Care to do the honors, mate?" he motioned to the doorbell.

Jack stole an extra minute longer, leaning on his staff for support. Then, with one last deep breath, he raised a hand - no doorbell on this house it seemed - and knocked.

A rustling inside the house. "Mama!" called a young voice inside. "Mama who knocked? Is it the pizza man? Did you order pizza on Easter?!"

Quick as a blink, the two retreated a safe distance back. The front door opened seconds later; a young girl, six years old, stuck her head out.

Her eyes landed on the basket and, all at once, lit up. "Mama!" she screeched in delight. She gathered up the basket—nearly as tall as herself—and waddled back inside, leaving the door hang open. "Mama, he came! You said he wouldn't be here but look, he came!"

"What?" a bewildered voice called from inside the house. Bunnymund and Jack traded a sly look, and a snicker.

The mother stuck her head out of the doorway, glancing this way and that for the culprit. Bunny made sure to flatten his ears and duck down low to avoid detection.

"Huh," said the woman, to herself. "I guess someone in the community is looking out for us after all."

After the door closed, Jack went ahead and dramatically collapsed on the ground before them. "Tell me we're done," he said, though he knew full well they were.

"Righto," Bunny knelt at his side, amusement in his smirk. "Need a lift back t' the Warren?"

"Why would I run to the Warren when I'm perfectly content to die right here?"

Bunnymund chuckled. "Always with the dramas," he said, and scooped Jack up in his arms.

"H-hey!" Jack balked, blushing deeply. "I can walk!"

"Can ye now?"

"Yes!" Jack squirmed out of Bunny's hold and skittered away, then raised his chin defiance. "Though I reserve the right to complain the whole time."

"As ye wish." He tapped twice and summoned a tunnel, motioning Jack in first.

Jack paused at the lip, but just before jumping down, caught Bunnymund staring back at their last house. He turned to look, too, companionable in their silence.

"We did pretty good, huh?" Jack said. "Considering."

Bunny gave a nod. "The world's doing pretty good right now, considering." He remarked. "A couple 'o baskets might not be much, but hopefully, it's something."

"It's the little things," Jack agreed.

"…It really is."

Bunnymund broke his gaze with the house to rest his paw on Jack's shoulder, and this one, in a sharper mirror of the same gesture a month prior, felt like sun on the skin. Bunny smiled at Jack, shining with soft gratitude.

"Thanks fer bein' here, Jack," he said. "Couldn't've done it without ya."

Jack smiled back. "Happy Easter."

Bunny nodded at the tunnel. "Now c'mon," he said, tossing something to Jack which the winter spirit just barely caught; "We've got a disinfecting bath and a nap waitin' fer us in the Warren."

Jack paused, unfolding his hands to inspect what he'd caught: an Easter Egg, painted a vivid blue, speckled with snowflakes and a golden scrawl that read Thank You.

Jack beamed at the egg, holding it gently in his hands, then turned the smile up at Bunny.

Bunny's own grin turned wicked. "—Race ya," he said, diving into the tunnel.

"What!" Jack stiffened, sore muscles seizing. Any protest he might utter fell away at the sound of Bunnymund's bright, ringing laughter.

Pocketing the egg, Jack dove in after him, his center bursting with joy and hope.