#like buddy I think you have the cause and effect mixed up

[valengory1234]

I see a lot of people calling summer bratty when she isn’t being an ass on purpose, like Ari “No wonder your mom doesn’t want you back” Gibson isn’t out here and ready to maim with his words

[bearsbeetsbeskar]

weed smoking! joel x dispensary shop! reader preview 🍃🔥💨💨💨

A/N: A little taste for you guys! I am very excited at this new idea, especially because I am co-writing this with the actual love of my life @serenaxpedro!!!

So excited to see where it will go and excited to see our grumpy old peepaw finally kick back and relax with some alternate pain management methods. He's not gonna be happy about it at first, but it's going to turn out so good 🤓. Moodboard art also by @serenaxpedro (please go check out her delicious writing as well, she's got some YUMMY Joel fic's posted 🫠)

sneak peak under the cut, feel free to comment or reblog if you want more!

“The side effects from an over the counter painkiller could spike your cholesterol even higher, which is what we do not want,” the doctor continues, unaware of Joel’s steadily boiling frustration. “Which is why I wanted to suggest an alternate method for pain management, something more natural.”

For fucks sake. 

He thought this would be a simple appointment. Show up, get a new prescription for whatever magic pills can help this pain in his back to dissipate, and go home. Not look into ‘alternative methods’ that undoubtedly wouldn’t work.

Joel’s gaze narrows and he huffs, leaning back in his seat. “Natural? Like what, seeing one of those hokey practitioners that read your energies and use natural herb remedies and all that crap?”

“Not quite that per say but it is natural medicine. Medical marijuana to be exact.”

Joel’s mouth goes dry as his jaw hangs open. Weed? Nope. Not the solution he was looking for. 

Maybe what he should be on the market for is a new doctor at this point. 

“Uh listen, I appreciate the suggestion doc, but I don’t think that’s gonna help me at this point. I don’t do that kinda stuff,” he waves his hand dismissively. “If it gets to that point I’ll crack open a beer.” Joel leans forward in his seat and he starts to get up.

“Just a second, hold on. At least let me write you a prescription for it today and you can choose whether or not you want to get it filled at a dispensary.”

“I don’t think-” Joel continues to protest but the doctor cuts him off.

“It’s medicinal marijuana Joel,” the doctor says plainly, as if that’s supposed to calm his nerves. “It has opiate-like properties, which means it’s similar to a pain killer, just without all the usual side effects that come with over the counter medicine. Lots of individuals, older and younger,” the doctor pointedly emphasizes, “use it to help with aches, pain, anxiety, even mental health issues. Not just the physical.”

Joel continues to eye the doctor warily, his spine now stiff as he sits up in the chair. Even now, he can feel his body protesting his upright position, the inkling of that pinched phantom pain coming back slightly. 

“Does it get you high?” he asks the older man. 

Aside from the stories he’s heard, he’s had his fair share of buddies who used to toke up back in the day. Hell, they didn’t even know what was in it back then, they just smoked as a distraction, something fun to do, to take the edge off after a long day's work. Joel tried it once and didn’t like it at all. The hazy, fuzzy feeling not mixing well with his frayed nerves, all glassy eyed and out of touch with his body and his mind. No, he would much rather crack open a beer or pour himself a whiskey neat to kick back and relax when he was stressed.

“Not necessarily, some strains, or some kinds of weed have a higher content of THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component that makes you feel high or ‘out of it,”’ the doctor explains with finger quotes. “Some medicinal marijuana are low in THC but high in CBD, the relaxing component of marijuana. CBD acts as a relaxer, and it can ease physical pain. So depending on what you’re comfortable with, you can opt for the kinds that have a high CBD but low THC content, which will help with any pain issues, without causing you to experience the high.”

Joel’s mind whirls around the acronyms. THC, CBD, ABC.

Christ.

Does it have to be this fucking complicated?

[supergoodfilmanalysis]

Multiracial Companionship: To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Saddled with potentially one of the most verbose and ridiculous titles in cinema history, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is the campy romp of three New York City drag queens, played by Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo who find themselves stranded in a midwestern town after their car breaks down on their way to Hollywood to compete in the Miss Drag Queen of America Pageant. The girls take the town by storm, form wholesome friendships with the classy ladies of Snydersville, Illinois (makeover alert!), navigate tensions with the town’s law enforcement, and chaos and glitz abound.

To Wong Foo represents an imagining of the multiracial buddy movie interested largely in the compartmentalization of identity categories with a concerted interest in gender and sexuality and a resistance to intersectional understandings of identity categories. The main characters being White, Black, and Latino is a fact the film acknowledges with the cinematic ideal of a post-racial U.S.--most importantly, To Wong Foo reminds us, the girls are drag queens, and their racial positionality comes second. The hierarchical ordering of their internal differential social orders that imbue their embodiment firstly with sexuality and gender rather than race comments on the film’s attempt to make a film by and for queer people in response to the growing conservative fear of a departure from traditional values and attempts to largely overwrite race.

My inspiration for the script came from watching the religious right videotape The Gay Agenda. There’s a scene where they show drag queens going through a town, and the narrator is warning viewers that these people will take over your town, and I thought, ‘Well, that would be fun.’

-Douglas Carter Beane, Screenwriter, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

In, “The Black Image in Protective Custody: Hollywood's Biracial Buddy Films of the Eighties,” Guerrero explains that black people “appear on the screen in the 1980s predominantly in the biracial ‘buddy formula,’ which reveals all the strategies by which the industry contains and controls the black filmic image and conforms it to white expectations.” Noxeema, the film’s main Black character played by Wesley Snipes quips about Blackness and her status in this small town is effectively placed in the protective custody of whiteness, severed from the Black community surrounded entirely by non-Black people and at an increased risk of violence in this small town. She at one point jokes that "the last Black person to stay [in this town] was Sam Cooke," a prolific Black soul artist who was famously murdered in a motel.

The racial tensions in the movie are tonally consistent with the film's self-aware insistence on its own levity, poking fun at itself and acknowledging racial and gender regimes, but ultimately suggesting they can be overcome.

Noxeema: You and your causes! Look, that child is Latin. You don’t want to get mixed up in all that Latin mess. She might turn out to be a Sandinista or something.

Vida: Noxeema Jackson! I have to admit that I am shocked and just a little bit saddened by you. I mean you of all people. Hon, I remember the first time I laid eyes on a certain ebony enchantress in the rough, and how through styling and the occasional makeup tip I helped her look a little bit less like Moms Mabley. And who would think that ebony enchantress would one day share a title with moi.

In an atmosphere where whiteness is presented as the absolute authority, the exchange fails to fully present itself as an examination as racism among people of color and ultimately portrays Vida, who is white, as the gatekeeper of Noxeema's successful identity as a drag queen.

To Wong Foo, ultimately, is optimistic about the possibilities for a multiracial, post-gender regime world--it imagines a world where drag queens take over the town and racial tensions can be assuaged with the power of friendship. It mostly neutralizes race as a factor in the marginalization of the girls, and its depiction of state violence at the hands of an idiotic, bumbling sheriff who is scared of change holds a mirror to conservatism and distorts it like a fun house in return.

Questions:

How does the film's casting of three mainstream straight, male actors as drag queens contribute to the racial and gender politics of To Wong Foo?

What might the levity of the film regarding racial and gendered violence contribute to it?

How does drag as a performance art relate to racial embodiment in general? How might it play into the film specifically?

[god-mouths]

i wanna hear about,,,, literally any of ur guys actually i love hearing abt ur guys :] if thats too vague pick me a guy and tell me about their inspirations/how you came up with their stories/designs/traits!! i think your stuff is so fascinating and i wanna know how that rotates in ur brain

OOOG…. Thank youe…. I’ve realized a few patterns in how I tell my stories lately so I do want to go over those! I’ll be using yvette my buddy my pal to demonstrate this because he’s the best example. ( later edit : Actually I have more stuff to talk about I’ll number it)

1. I’ve noticed a ton of my story material is based on how the people around us or our surroundings effect us. The cycles and whatnot. For yvette he starts out as a yellow blood and, in trying to forcefully change the oppression imposed on him from his surroundings, actually sort of just continues it by killing a close friend of his. That friend ends up haunting him. Teed hee

Idk if the pictures will come across well since I’m on mobile but to break down this specific piece the colors used on REPENT and the tapeworms in the back are actually the colors of his old psionics before he did all that mad scientist crap to change himself. OLD ART!! AUGHH AU AUGGHH

Is it a little stupid that he changes his own blood color? Yes. But homestuck as it’s own is so beyond stupid that I can do whatever I want I’m a scavenger a critter.

But by changing his blood color yvette essentially locks away his psionics (there must be something very specific to yellow blood to make the psionics work to me) siphoning them off into the trident he wields. He can’t get rid of ALL of his original blood, so the yellow just stays dormant. Should he choose to use his psionics in this new state he’s made for himself he risks fucking up his organs even further.

Anyways it takes a human child with the same exact problems as him to realize Heyyy…..maybe what I did and have been doing is a little fucked. Which it was. But it was the only thing he could have done, in his eyes, because the alternative was getting hooked up to a machine for the rest of his life.

At the end of the story (? Fan venture?) he does break out his psionics again which causes the blood to mix. He’s redeemed but he’s not nearly as cool anymore. Big bummer

2. colors always mean things more often than not in my art. I am a “why is the curtain blue” type of asshole, and I love to do it. For instance in MATSC green is for heaven and blue is for hell, but they have more than just that meaning. Green is confinement and being trapped and whatnot, while blue is freedom. Still kind of iffy on what purple means but it may mean the same as green. We’re figuring it out. In LEM I’m also still working on it, but blue is a mainly bad color there while orange is instead the signifier of good things. As for paradigm shift it’s more of a character-to-character basis. They all get their own specific colors. I loveeee colors colors colors :)

3. I LOVE writing villains. It is my personal goal with every villain I write to see how genuinely horrible I can make the villain as a person and still get people to enjoy reading them. It’s so fun, I mean it. Like the type of guy that would absolutely stump tumblr’s famous reading incomprehension. I love it I LOVE IT

4. This isn’t about my stories overall, just one, but I finally finished the first draft for act one of paradigm shift which I am PSYCHED about. I sent it out to a few people for feedback- only a select few people, though. If it were any other story I’d send it to a wider range but it is IMPERATIVE that my buddies that experienced max first hand when we were little 12 year old kids doing stupid roleplays get to see it first. They know him very well, and Vice versa. I’m so excited. (Air horns) (yippee sound!)

[tinyangrynerd]

I’ve been reading about your Bugsnax monsters and I’m curious about the story as a whole. Like who are the main characters, the timeline, etc. So do you think you could give a rundown?

(I really love it)

Thank you!~ ^-^

And yeah, i can give a quick rundown of the plot that i have in mind.

Of course, spoiler warning ahead for the ending and DLC for Bugsnax:

So, nothing from the AU really kicks off until the end of the game. Up to that point, no one is aware of the true side effects of the bugsnax or about Snakmonsters (aside from one small encounter with a strange mural left by the ancient grumps which i have an old drabble for somewhere..). Thus, Buddy and Filbo are thrown into quite the nasty surprise when they return from seeing Liz'. Where half their friends have turned into giant feral beasts and are wrecking the town.

Wambus, Wiggle, Triffany, Cromdo, Chandlo, Floofty, & Elizabert all end up as Snakmonsters.

Buddy, Filbo, Beffica, Gramble, Snorpy, Shelda, & Eggabell are left unaffected (despite any previous snakification), and task themselves with trying to save their friends. (Egg doesn’t join ‘Liz as a snakmonster, since Liz’ knows there’s something very wrong, and is scared of hurting Eggabell).

Now, i don't want to go into too much detail on the whole story i have, cause ideally i'd like to write it one day despite my writing motivation being near nonexistent and i hate my writing. But i can try to give the basic framework without spoiling too much, hopefully:

Those not affected retreat from the island on Buddy’s airship to get out of the danger. Returning to the island sometime after, once all their snakmonster friends have left to claim to the different territories on Snaktooth.

Afterwards, most of the plot is just Buddy and Filbo running around trying their best to catch each snakmonster, to bring them back and help return them to normal again. Beffica and Gramble help them out on the field a few times, but mostly stay back to be extra hands to help Snorpy, Shelda, and Eggabell. The latter three staying in the remains of the destroyed town. Snorpy, despite his struggles being the one most effected by the turn of events, constructs the new beefed up traps for catching the Snakmonsters. Shelda puts her botanical knowledge to the test to mix a more potent and stable version of the spice we see on Brokentooth. And of course, Egg is on standby for medical support, and is generally the one watching over those captured and recovering.

And there’s a few nice little character moments, like Gramble helping subdue Wiggle, when she proves to be far too much for the duo to handle.

Still-undecided-on-but-definitely-at-least-an-alternate-chapter is Snorpy turning into a snakmonster half way through the story. The sheer amount of grief he’s experiencing finally boils over and he just loses his mind and runs out into the woods. Where after he’s helped save his sibling and boyfriend, it’s their turn to work together to save him now.

And.. that’s pretty much it?? Might throw in Alegander at some point, maybe as like a lore dump or something, but not sure. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[beardedmrbean]

My ex is getting involved with a psycho. Let me just start off by saying I am not calling her that out of jealousy, I do not want to get back with him, ew. I will explain why I'm calling her that in a bit. Due to some money issues I'm currently staying at a place that doesn't allow pets so my ex is caring for my cats for me and so I see him on the regular, which is how this effects me. Plus I'm the one he vents to when things go south which is how I know the things I do. About a month ago he broke up with his girlfriend of four years because he snuck into her phone and found out that she had been sleeping with at least 3 other people for at least 9 months, and I say "at least" because in his words, he didn't take long to get to the point where he didn't want to investigate further. He went absolutely apeshit, got kicked out of two bars that night, assaulted people, broke the TV, etc. which, she'd been gaslighting him for months making him think he's crazy and paranoid when in reality things were actually worse than he believed. so I give him a pass on that I think he actually took it rather well considering everything. He started getting into coke again once this "paranoia" started up and got really really close to the coke dealer. Who was a friend before but now… he's fucked her more than once and has spent consecutive nights at her house. He's not dating her, he keeps saying he can't date her, but he's getting involved. Maybe he's seeing this as a fuck buddy situation but I'm worried it's going to get to the point where she doesn't. This is why I call her psycho. A few years back she turned on me and threatened me for fucking her over on a deal that I never made and didn't even know about until she called me demanding money. It turned out she was mixing me up with someone else but she never chilled about it. She stalks people and I know this because she bragged about it like it was nbd. And called me a shit friend when I refused to help her with it. When we were still married on more than one occasion she came banging on our door in the middle of the night freaking out over nonissues. A few years back when her boyfriend broke up with her she was talking to me and one of the other girls at the bar about making a pipe bomb and setting it off at his work to get him in trouble and I'm sorry there are some things you just don't joke about, and while my ex thinks it's nbd I know her well enough to know that's a joke until it's not. My ex and I split for good reason but I do not want him to suffer. She is going to turn on him, there is no "if" about it, this is a "when" situation. I do have to give her credit she's a faithful girlfriend so in that regard he is taking a step up, but I'm worried what she will do when she inevitably turns on him. I don't want him to suffer and I absolutely do not want my cats to be endangered because his stupid decisions caused a volatile situation before I have a chance to get them back (and unfortunately the only other people that can take them in are 1000 miles away so not an option, and I'm not taking my babies to a shelter I do not trust them). I don't know what to do…?

just as an fyi I have already brought all this up to him I literally called him stupid and crazy and his response was "yeah" so we already both know how I feel about this and both know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is a really bad idea.

I'm gonna throw this out to the community to see if they've got anything, and I'm not going to colour it with my thoughts so everyone can go in clean.

I'll do a thing with a response by itself I think

[gay-trashcan-cat]

how the fuck do you infuse so much personality into your doodles. are you pulling a fnaf and putting human souls in them?? if so, could you tell me how to do it?

ok first off, THANK YOU? got me going teehee blink blink face. Didn't expect to have an art question but I'm very glad, it's my first one so I'll answer to the best I can!

When it comes to personality in drawings (assuming your talking about characters), I often like to think about my characters as friends or someone you know. Often times I'm just saying to myself, "OH! Character would definitely react like this or say this!" (like how you would say your friend would do something unique only to them in a silly situation) Stepping into you characters' shoes or viewing them as a buddy can help you apply and do a bunch!

Though I do understand that you can know a ton about a character but still struggle on what to apply to a drawing with them in it!

There are a few things I tend to do and add when it comes to drawings!

First off is expression, putting some extra thought into expressions can really help add more to your character. Especially pushing expression! (Won't go too deep with expression because that's a whole other can of beans)

My silly goofy cat is a real happy and loud guy, so a simple smile won't always cut it! Really pushing that joy and loudness helps add more to him as a character!

Another thing you may have noticed in the drawing is how I added some (very silly looking) arms to the surface he was near! This moves on to the next thing I often do. Body language! (Which could also be seen as, gesture/posing)

Though relatively the same expression (note the eyes size difference makes the first doodle look more aware/awake, that just shows expression can change even with the slightest difference, this was accidental though), the change of the pose adds story to the character. The first drawing comes off as a more plain hello, while the second drawing adds more excitement and characterization to the goofy guy! As we see how he waves his hand quickly with joy while his left foot taps up with energy, most likely meeting up with a friend! All this movement also makes your characters look less stiff and lifeless.

I also like to add my own stylistic ways of movement or little reaction marks, I'm not too sure what to call them exactly tho (what I mean are the extra colored bits around the character below, they dont always need color though).

This is just a nice way to add more flavor to a drawing! And you can always experiment, or mix and match to see what you like.

Another thing I do is try to imagine scenarios or scenes that would work well with what I have in mind. To get to that point I'm often writing it down or doing thumbnails and lil roughs before I actually make my sketches that I post (insider secrets right here!).

(Here's an example of my drafting process with poses and expressions for this ask I did a while ago, yes it is cursed so read at ur own cost❤ )

Another thing would be textures, you often see me switching colors and brushes, even software's as I draw! that's why every doodle feels a little different, which I feel helps give off different ideas and emotions (or laziness who knows).

Some other factors that play into the "personality" of my drawings is the reactions, with cause and effect. Which has actions that make a new reaction for each character (or even object) that is exaggerated. Like someone making a disgusted face to someone vomiting, even a cat knocking a cup over, or a cat getting scared by a glass breaking (this could also just be a continuation of the last statement). Possibly even the IRS coming for you after evading your taxes and you having to jump out the window.

I mainly use this for comics! But you could do this in a single drawing, I like to have a moment kind of frozen in place either after or in the middle of an action (sorta lets your brain imagine the in-betweens). Though when it comes to exaggerating your reactions or causes, it takes some practice and imagination, so don't be discouraged if it takes some trial and error to get the hand of it! Honestly I'm still practicing too.

Other things that help me put some more life into my drawings is well... life itself! lots of interactions, faces, and poses are based on things I've seen in real life, from watching people (while in the bushes).

Though that isn't the only thing! I also use what I see in media, or photos! even some shows and movies, since there are so many good scenes or frames that can be used as great inspiration!

lastly, yes I do put human souls in my drawings, as well as sacrifice some squirrels here and there to my Elmo shrine, but thats not tooo important right?

[abuddyforeveryseason]

Is this the Buddy for July 24th? It's barely a Buddy! Where's the big hair? Where's the scarf? What about the pink sweater?

Truth is, this is an approximation of the original design for the character. I had written a bit of a story featuring this character, but it never really clicked so I kind of gave up on it for a few years. Then I came up with the design I'm using now, and I think that worked out great.

I didn't really worry about coloring this drawing. I wanted to make the beret and the jacket red, and I usually just color Buddy's skin red too, so I figured I could just make it all red.

It's funny how coloring can change a character's personality. Even using just three colors, I can think of different ways to present a character

This, for instance, would be a better way to color him. Still all red, but the eyes and teeth show he's human.

This is still three colors, but now the clothing isn't all red. The fox hunting jacket isn't my favorite, bu it looks okay.

Now this character's completely different. He's white. The pink skin is a fourth color, but if pink's just a mix between red and white, I can still get away with it.

The same applies to his grey beret. A mix between white and black.

The brown jacket's a bit more realistic than the flashing red. It could be some sort of leather, or even just dyed fabric. And, brown's a mix of red and black, right?

Now we're back to the original Buddy skin color. From what I remember, this is kind of what the character would look like in the original story.

Let's change things for a bit. What if Buddy was black? The darker skin is a bit harder to pull off in my style, but since this isn't an official Buddy of the day, I can cheat a bit with the colors.

The gray jacket changes the look quite a bit! Almost makes him look like a spy or something.

Now let's try a very pale Buddy for a change. His skin is practically chalk white, and the lighter color on the outfit don't help.

Nope. They definitely don't help...

Now that's the exact opposite. All black outfit! Kind of makes him look like a goth. Black outfits aren't as fun to draw, cause you gotta draw everything in white after coloring them in, but I kind of like the effect.

This is a bit closer to the new design. A pink jacket and white T-shirt instead of pink sweater and white scarf. I think it tells more about the character's personality.

A different way to color is just having most of the drawing in black and white, but add a splash of red for effect. A bit pretentious, though, but on the other hand, it's faster.

This is the devil. The all-black eyes suck the soul out of the character, don't they? A bit hypocritical of me to say so, since my drawings usually just have black dots for eyes. Notice the weird color of the jacket? A mix or red, black and white.

A different style, with cooler colors on the outfit, and an almost grey-ish skin. Could be like a traveler from an alternate universe or something. Or like how in Mortal Kombat characters' outfits' colors change when both players choose the same guy.

Not as much difference in this one, but the black t-shirt changes the drawing a lot. The matching pink beret and jacket also show this Buddy's trying to look good.

Speaking of black, how about an all-black outfit, to blend in the darkness. I like the cartoony thing of characters' outfits being just a black shape. Really Genndy Tartakovsky, right?

This is just a statue. Doesn't look like it's alive.

This is also a statue, but it's a nude that some kids covered with real clothes.

This, however, is a living statue. The eyes and teeth are real. He can move around and shop. Still more experimenting with colors on the jacket and beret.

This one's a bit like Fry from Futurama. Speaking of, the show's coming back!! Whoo!

Here we have something with darker colors. The jacket and beret match, which kind of make this fellow look like he's wearing some institutional uniform or something. I often obsess about details like that.

This one's also pretty satanic. Changing the color of the eyes - specifically, the whites of the eyes - can turn a character into something completely different. Almost a different species.

This is a fun, but very traditional coloring style - the characters' clothes are colored, the skin is white. Lazy? A little bit, yeah. But maybe he's an albino.

This is a guy with gross black teeth. Yuck. Another different outfit, though.

And, to finish the set, we have a Noob Saibot type. I could say it's a shadow monster of some sort, but I'd just use drawings like this to show there's a flash of light behind him or something.

So, I tried different colors on the same drawing to try and draw as much personality as I could from a simple character sketch. I don't know how successful that was, but it's a fun experiment. When coloring isn't the time-wasting exercise for toddlers, or the soul-sucking labor of professional comic book colorists, it can be pretty fun.

[jgvfhl]

The Number Lads Have Coffee

Okay, well, two of them have coffee. And another one has noodles. ANYWAY, this is a relaxing chapter, just filling in some gaps before the next big arc comes in. Also, thank you all for your patience while I was on vacation and also lacking motivation to write over the summer, hence the delay on this update.

Here is the Number Lads Masterlist, if you need a refresher (haha).

Words: ~4K, no warnings

As far as Trees was concerned, this was the best way to spend leave. Not constant partying, not getting absolutely smashed at 79s, not sleeping for a week straight–not any of those. He wrapped his bare hand around the warm cup in front of him, closed his eyes, and just breathed in the scents of this little oasis on Coruscant. Kaff shops always smelled like paradise to him: the bitterness pervading the air mixing with the smell of fresh pastries and steamed milk probably had a more calming effect on him than some sedatives. Ever since discovering The Steamy Bean on the first level of the Coruscant Guard barracks, he’d been a regular whenever he was on leave.

The telltale sounds of the empty chair across from him being filled made him open his eyes.

“I can’t believe I didn’t know this place was here,” Nines mused, looking around. After figuring out they would both be on leave this week, Trees had invited him. Nines had seemed the kind of person who would appreciate a break from the chaos outside.

“I think some of the Guard keep it quiet so it doesn’t get too crowded for them,” Trees replied, glancing around as well. He and Nines were the only spots of color in a sea of white and red today.

“Can’t blame ‘em. How did you find it?”

“I had a squadmate who had some friend in the Guard, I think. He showed me while we were on leave once. I guess you put in an order already?” he asked, gesturing briefly at the counter.

Nines nodded, but further conversation was paused when the astromech-turned-service droid Peet rolled up to say hello, as he often did. “Hey, Peet,” Trees offered. His greeting got a series of happy blips and beeps in reply. Trees added, “This is my friend Nines, he’s new.”

Nines raised a few fingers in a tiny wave that Peet undoubtedly did not see. “Hey there. Nice paint job, buddy.”

Peet beeped happily again before waving a little arm and rolling away to clear a table nearby.

“Here I thought you didn’t have any droid friends,” Nines remarked.

Trees rolled his eyes as he took a sip from his drink. “Yeah, well, Peet only recognizes me ‘cause I’m in here every day on leave. His optical sensors are shot.”

“Oh.”

“The owner nabbed him before anything bad happened, though. It’s why he’s here and not in a scrap heap somewhere.”

“Right.”

Trees wondered if he’d been a tad too blunt. He often was. But Nines’ name was called from the counter, so he got up to get his drink before Trees could think further. He took another drink, letting the salty-sweet caramel flavor distract him before his thoughts got ahead of him.

When Nines returned, he set down his cup, two cinnamon swirl pastries in a bag, and a wad of napkins. “They looked good to me, but I dunno what you like.”

For a few seconds, Trees just sort of blinked at him while he took one of the pastries out and bit into it. When he noticed, Nines nudged the other towards him.

“Oh,” Trees finally said, setting his drink down and pulling the bag towards him. “Yeah, thanks.” The cinnamon swirls weren’t his favorite–he preferred the chocolate ones–but the fact that Nines had thought of him was touching. And he wasn’t going to say no to offered pastries after months on rations.

“So, how’s that commando they found doing?” Trees wanted to know. “The one with the head trauma?”

Nines nodded, swallowing the mouthful of kaff he’d taken. “Yeah, Captain Gregor. He’s…” He paused, thinking. “He’s alright. I mean considering what he’s gone through, I’m impressed, but his memory is still kinda shaky.”

“So the amnesia…?”

“Still there,” he said. “He knows who he is, he remembers his training, his station. But, things like names and where things are onboard aren’t as solid. He’ll get there, though.”

“Is he staying with the Two-Twelfth?”

Nines nodded, taking another bite of his pastry. “Yeah, he’s more comfortable with us. We’ll take care of him.”

Trees nodded back. That made sense. He picked up his pastry and took a bite. Yeah, he couldn’t argue with fresh pastry. When he could, he asked, “Your commander’s happy to have him back, I imagine?”

“Oh, yeah, Cody’s over the stars,” Nines said. He added with a smile, “Not that he’d ever say it. Reputation, and all that.” After another short pause while they enjoyed their drinks, Nines asked, “And how’s um… how’s General Unduli’s pet duck doing?”

Trees smiled despite himself and shook his head. “Well, the duck is happier than a bantha in sand, but Magazine Squad has made threats of ah… fowl play if the thing has another accident in their section of the barracks.”

“Commander Gree hasn’t put it under a microscope yet?”

“Hasn’t managed it yet.”

Nines nodded, his earrings glinting as he turned his gaze out the window. “You think Fours would like this place? Poor guy needs some relaxation time.”

Trees hummed, his mouth full of kaff. “I know the feeling. I’ll message him when he’s on leave next, but…”

“Who knows when that’ll be, I know,” Nines finished. “Well, maybe we can snag Elevensies when he’s off-duty.”

“Oh, yeah, maybe.”

“Did you and the early birds do that when Sevenset was still in the Guard?” he asked.

Trees tilted his head. “Early birds?”

“The first of the Numbers. Loops, Do-si-do, you.”

Oh. He hadn’t thought about it like that, but… he was sort of a founding member, wasn’t he? That was weird. “Yeah, we usually didn’t end up in kaffés, though.”

Nines chuckled. “I’ll bet. Sevenset does not strike me as the type to appreciate the slower aspects of life, when given the choice.”

“Actually,” Trees said, setting his cup down, “he’s said he tried kaff–all the Guards do eventually–and it actually calms him down.”

Nines looked at him, his eyes narrowing in thought as he took in the information. “Fascinating,” he said at length. “Somehow that simultaneously makes no sense and all the sense in the world…”

“Right?”

"So what is he like drunk?"

Trees shook his head, a dozen memories crossing his mind. "He's something, alright. He and Do-si-do are a hazard to society."

"I can only imagine," Nines smiled.

"I recommend keeping it to the imagination."

He laughed a little. After a brief pause, he wondered aloud, "I wonder what the commander would be like if he ever got drunk?"

Trees took a second to think about it. What would the ever-stoic commander be like after a few too many to drink? “Depressing, maybe,” he mused aloud.

Nines nodded pensively. “Maybe. Maybe he’s a sad drunk.”

Trees nodded back, but didn’t get a chance to say anything because a someone approached their table, a little cautiously. He was a clone, but he had no military uniform on. Instead, he had a grey shirt and a brown apron with The Steamy Bean printed in tan letters on the chest. A nametag on the strap read Vokean.

“Um… hi,” he said, a nervous smile on his face. He raised a hand in a little wave, and Trees noticed the other arm was in a sling, pinned to his body. “I heard one of you was Nines?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Nines answered.

“You’re Trees, you’re here all the time, right?”

He nodded.

“I’m Voke. Well–” he gestured to his nametag. “I’m–I was Elevensies’ squadmate. He talked about you guys a lot.”

Trees blinked, and Nines’ polite smile wavered. “Oh,” he said. “You’re–you were the one he was worried about, huh?”

Voke smiled a bit. “Yeah. I got lucky.” It was said with the full knowledge of those who had not been so lucky.

“Well, it’s good news,” Nines said. “Elevensies was pretty torn up about it, I can only imagine the rest of the squad was like.”

Trees was far more interested in a different question. “How did you get that lucky?”

Voke turned slightly, pointing over his shoulder. “Tini. Tiniriss, she owns this place. I’d been coming here ever since one of the sergeants showed some of us shinies. She put in a few words with some people, I guess. So I’ve got a job here, now.”

“That’s amazing, Voke,” Nines said, and Trees nodded along. “So you can still see your old squad sometimes, yeah?”

“Yep.”

That was amazing. An injury serious enough to need invasive surgery usually meant transfer or relegation to desk duty for most soldiers, and most of them hated stuff like that.

“Anyway, I just wanted to say hi, and thanks for entertaining Elevensies all the time. He loves you guys.”

That… felt good. Trees wasn’t usually a caretaker–his squad could attest to that. But it was nice to know this group of weirdos was good for something other than casual treason.

“Hey, did you make either of these?” Nines asked, gesturing with his cup at Trees’ cup.

Voke’s face brightened. “I did! Tini does the food mainly, and I’m doing most of the drinks, unless there’s a rush.”

Trees looked down at his caramel latte drink. It was really good. Always was. “Well, you made it well,” he said.

“Thanks,” the younger trooper smiled. “I’ve gotta get back to work, but it was good to put faces to names.”

“Glad to hear you’re alright,” Nines said warmly. Trees smiled back, probably failing to match the same level of warmth. He never had gotten the hang of that.

When Voke was out of hearing range, Trees set about finishing his cinnamon swirl pastry.

Nines sipped at his drink, looking out the window at the street. “Maybe we can drag the other boys here some time instead of 79s,” he mused. “It’s a lot safer, if we’re gonna have Fives, Sevenset, and Do-si-do all in the same place.”

Trees snorted. “Yeah, maybe…. They make good hot chocolate.”

-scene break-

Sixes’ stomach growled for the fifth time in as many minutes as the aromas of the spicy noodle dishes in the takeout bag Thire was carrying wafted through the filters in his helmet. The Death Wings had a couple days on Coruscant before shipping out with the 327th for a siege busting mission later in the week, and Thire had happened to have a free lunch hour today. Unfortunately, it was the same day Sixes had been up since the crack of dawn or just before to go over the spreadsheets of repairs required for the ships, so he hadn’t eaten in about seven or eight hours.

“So somehow, the kaff machine in the officer's mess had been running on dekaff for a week before anyone noticed,” Thire was saying, continuing a story he’d started upon passing the officer’s mess hall. “And the only reason we really did notice was because Fox almost shot the thing out of revenge the afternoon of the last day.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

Thire laughed out loud. “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, we finally checked the box of those little pods of kaff–you know the ones, right?” Sixes nodded. “Yeah, so we checked, and the box said they had caffeine, but when we checked the little things, no caffeine!”

“How’d that happen?”

Thire held up a finger, and Sixes had strong suspicions there was a knowing smile on his face as he opened his office door and went in. “Well, when we finally got to the bottom of the box, we found a note: ‘How long until Fox lost it? All my love, CT seven-seven seven-seven.’”

Sixes carefully schooled his expression into vague curiosity before lifting his helmet off and sitting down across from Thire at his desk. “Who?”

Thire, also without his helmet now, paused in taking out the containers of noodles from the bag. “Wait, have I not told you about Sevenset?”

“You haven’t told me.” Technically true.

His brother set his order of Sriluurian spiced noodles in front of him, then set out his own order of noodles with a side of dumplings. “Sevenset served in the Guard for almost a year and a half before the Zillo Beast happened. And I guess he made it his life’s work to make Fox as aggravated as he possibly could. It’s one of the rumors on why he got shipped back to Kamino for ARC training.” He opened a drawer and took out two pairs of chopsticks, handing one to Sixes. “I personally thought he was hilarious most of the time.”

“I’m sure you did.”

“Oh hush. Anyway, when he wasn’t being a big brother to anything that stood still long enough, he was making up all different ways to poke Fox,” he went on, taking off his vambraces and gloves, then shoving a bunch of noodles in his mouth with the chopsticks right after. “So,” he said around the food in his mouth, “when Fox saw his number signed on that note–oh man.” He swallowed and grinned. “It was so damn funny. He threw the box across the room and smacked one of his sergeants in the face.”

Sixes imagined Sevenset would be beside himself with delight knowing an old prank had finally paid off. Maybe he’d tell him next chance he got. Maybe. But he just nodded, chewing his own lunch, which was absolutely delicious, as usual. The Noodle Bar always had the best stuff. Mira always had the dishes made with a little extra spice for him and his batchmates.

“So aside from Fox nearly bursting a blood vessel,” he said, avoiding Thire’s habit of talking with his mouth full, “what have the Red Bastards been up to?”

Thire shrugged. “Not much for now. Dealing with the five-oh-first being on leave for a few weeks after Umbara was a trip, but they always are. We were all pretty happy to see those guys ship off finally.” From the vague mentions Fives and Echo dropped during meetings, Sixes would have to agree. “You heard anything from Nero?”

He had. In fact, he’d spent about four weeks with Nero’s battalion while recovering from his cybernetics surgery, but he didn’t want to tell Thire that yet. He wasn’t sure when he wanted to tell his two other batchmates, actually. But… he also wasn’t a great liar, so he had to word this carefully. 

“Yeah, I got a transmission from him about a month ago. He’s still up to his stealing ways.”

Thire smiled through a tangle of noodles hanging out of his mouth.

“Couldn’t tell me much more than that, of course.”

“Of course. I heard from the Grump Himself after the strategy conference almost blew to bits. Ranting about his general being too altruistic for his own good again.”

“Sounds like Bacara.”

Thire nodded, unable to speak after shoving an entire dumpling into his mouth at once. Unfortunately for him, that was the moment someone chose to hit the buzzer on his door. He paused for a second to tap a button on his desk that projected an image of the visitor. It was another guard with a stack of datapads in his hands. Seeing that, Thire visibly chewed faster, but Sixes could tell it would still be a while before he could speak without spraying masticated dumpling across at him.

“Come in,” he called, saving his brother the trouble.

There was a whoosh as the door slid open. The guard came over to the desk, already speaking hurriedly.

“Hi, Commander Thire! Sergeant Brigs was supposed to bring these, but he got caught up doing something for Captain Iode, so he told me to do it, sir.”

Thire had somehow managed to swallow the dumpling. He nodded, wiping his hands on a flimsi napkin, then holding his hands out for the datapads. “Thanks, kiddo. I’ll let him know you got the job done.” He pulled open another drawer and set them inside.

“Thank you, sir!”

The guard’s enthusiasm was familiar for some reason, but with the identical armor, Sixes couldn’t yet put his finger on why. But then, the guard turned to leave and visibly started up on seeing him.

“Commander!” He took his helmet off, and of course, it was Elevensies.

“Hey, kid.”

“What you doing here?” He glanced at Thire, and quickly added, “Sir.”

“Having lunch with my brother,” he answered, inclining his head to the brother in question. “When did you get that ink?”

Elevensies was now sporting the tattoos he’d once described to the group. A pair of bright red vertical lines under his left eye matched the set above his right eyebrow. The kid’s face brightened, one hand instinctively moving to touch the ones on his cheek. “Oh, about a week ago. One of the older guards has a tattoo gun, and he offers the rookies like me first dibs when he gets it out.”

Sixes nodded. “They’re not bad. How’s that squadmate I read about on the comm? He end up okay?”

Elevensies nodded, the longer curls on top of his head bouncing. “Yeah, he’s okay. He got a job at the kaffé on level one of the barracks.”

“That’s impressive.”

“Yeah, so we still get to see him every once in a while.” His satisfied smile was only interrupted by Thire clearing his throat. “Oh, sorry, sir, I’ll leave you to your lunch–I just was saying hi–”

“No, it’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Thire said, raising a pacifying hand. “One question: how in the nine hells do you two know each other?”

Elevensies looked back to Sixes, perplexed. Understandable. “Well, he’s CT eleven eleven. I’m CC sixty-six sixty-six,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the galaxy. “Weren’t you just telling me about a seventy-seven seventy-seven?”

“Oh, you were talking about Sevenset?” Elevensies said quietly, which made Thire’s mouth fall open slightly.

“You–you’re–he recruited you?” Thire demanded, glaring at Sixes. “You knew who he was the whole time I was telling that story and you didn’t tell me?”

“Well, you didn’t ask if I knew him. You asked if you’d told me about him. Which you hadn’t.”

Thire’s glare intensified perfectly. “You’re such a dick when you want to be.”

Sixes smiled. “Language.”

“Um… I’ve gotta go, sirs,” Elevensies said quietly, “but enjoy your lunch.”

“See you later, kid,” Sixes said, not missing Thire starting to frown slightly. “Trees and Nines are dirtside too, you should see if you could say hello.”

“Oh, cool! I will, thanks, Commander.” He put his helmet back on, saluted, and then waved on his way out.

Thire huffed, picking up his chopsticks again. “I cannot believe you Nero’d one of my rookies and I didn’t even see it happening.”

Sixes picked up his own chopsticks again. “Should’ve tried having a repeating designation, I guess.”

Thire made high-pitched mockery of his suggestion, then stuffed another dumpling in his mouth. After taking the considerable time needed to chew and swallow, he continued. “I mean, how many of you guys are there, anyway? How many did Sevenset end up tracking down?”

“All of us.”

His brother raised an eyebrow. “All of you? And how many is that?”

“Ten. Zero through Nines. Sevenset always says Fox’s spot is still open, though.”

Thire rolled his eyes. “Yeah, after the prank we discovered last week, I think Fox would sooner shoot him than join him. So who are they?"

Sixes raised an eyebrow in silent question.

His brother elaborated. "The others–who are they?"

He should have expected his curiosity. At least he was almost finished with his noodles, so he wouldn’t worry about having a lukewarm lunch because Thire wouldn’t stop asking questions. "What do you want to know?"

Thire spoke around a mouthful of noodles. "Well I know about one, six, and seven. What about the others? Who’s zero?"

"Zero's actually one of Nero's ARCs. Whisper Company."

"What?” Thire leaned forward slightly. “You're saying Nero knew about these guys and he didn't tell me?"

Sixes shrugged, containing a flinch when a nerve in his shoulder twinged. "I guess."

"Rude…. Who's number two?"

"He's called Do-si-do. He and Sevens started this whole thing, actually."

Thire's brow pinched in thought. "Wait, isn't he a pilot? The ninety-first, right?"

He nodded. "How do you know him?"

Thire smirked. "He's had a few reports against him." Figured. "Who's three?"

"Forty-first guy named Trees. Plays it by the book, good head on his shoulders."

"Oh an island of normalcy. Four?"

This would be a good one. "Fours, actually. He's a Marine."

Thire's smirk grew both in size and maliciousness. "Oh is he now? Reckon Bacara even knows who he is?"

"He doesn't."

"We could fix that. It would be funny."

He was probably right. Bacara's obliviousness was fun to play with, especially when he was the only one of the four in their batch unaware.

“Who’s number five?” Thire asked, using his chopsticks to scrape the last of his noodles into his mouth. Sixes opened his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted by Thire making a noise through his noodles and gesturing frantically with his chopsticks until he had room to speak. “Don’t tell me it’s that kriffing blue bastard from Rex’s Freaks.”

Sixes raised an eyebrow yet again, taking the time to finish his noodles as well. Finally, they were both done, and Thire leaned his elbows on his desk and stared him down.

“Do you know another clone whose designation is fifty-five fifty-five?” Sixes asked.

“Dammit! Do you have any idea how many reports there are with his designation on them?”

“I can imagine a few. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that he, Sevenset, and Do-si-do get along very well.”

The expression of dread-filled horror that spread across his brother’s face was utterly hilarious. “Maker, that’s gonna give me nightmares,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair heavily.

He briefly told Thire about Loops and Nines after that, neither of whom Thire recognized, which wasn’t that surprising. They seemed the kind to keep to themselves, and Nines had previously expressed his dislike of “causing a scene” at 79s or other establishments. Once the list was finished, Thire frowned in thought, fiddling with his chopsticks.

“How many of the commanders do you think know about these guys? Aside from Nero and you. And me.”

Sixes shrugged, also leaning back in his chair. His shoulder twinged again, sending a bolt of pain down his spine. When would that just stop… “Not sure. I suspect Rex knows, but that’s because it seems like Fives and his batcher are his pride and joy when they’re not making him tear his hair out.”

“What about Cody? Did Rex tell him?”

He paused. “Dunno. Nines might have told him after the campaign on Umbara.” Since he’d been unconscious for several hours after his fight with Krell, he had no idea if Nines, Fives, or Rex might have explained to Cody how the two groups had been communicating properly.

Thire nodded. “I still wanna see Bacara’s reaction.”

“I support that.”

“And I’m sure Gree, Ponds, and Wolffe have no idea. They’d have mentioned it at some point on leave, considering the other members. Wolffe probably would’ve torn into Rex for spreading his chaos.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Wonder if we could drag them all into a transmission just to see what would happen…”

Sixes made a face. “You didn’t get enough of the batch drama on Kamino?”

“That was years ago! I haven’t gotten a chance to see some good drama in ages! I’m always working,” Thire pouted.

He shook his head at his brother. Why anyone would actively seek out interpersonal drama outside of their immediate batch or family, he would never understand. But, Thire seemed to thrive on it.

“I’m not having any part in that,” he said, putting his hands up. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop Thire from pulling this thing off, but he didn’t have to have his fingerprints all over it. “I’m sure you could get Nero’s help if you wanted, too.”

“Ooh, probably.” Thire’s eyes were bright with intention. “I’m sure he’d love baiting Wolffe.”

“He always does.”

“But,” his brother pointed at him with a chopstick, “if Nero and I do pull this together, you’ll be there, right? No ghosting us?”

Sixes rolled his eyes. “I’ll be there.”

Thire grinned. “Then you can leave everything else to us.”

“You know that’s one of the more terrifying things in this universe to imagine, right?”

“What, me and Nero trying to organize something?” Thire asked.

Sixes nodded.

“Eh, we won’t do anything too stupid.”

That answer did not fill him with confidence.

What could Thire be up to, I wonder? 👀

Also! The Steamy Bean and its inhabitants all belong to @sweetmugofcocoa and the blog for it is @/tiniriss, if you want to learn more about them all. Thanks for letting me use them! As for the Chaos Batch, I have some one-shots and things written for them as well, devised by myself and my dear friend @23-bears, so if there's any interest in seeing those, give a shout 💚

@darth-void @nintendolover13 @theultimatesandwich @mrfandomwars @rndmpeep @mercurydancer @fate-and-destiny lemme know if you'd like to be tagged in upcoming chapters

[ducknotinarow]

Rhodes - Family Meme; all that apply uwu and yes the mum one does include Karine as well >:)

Talking about family

"You want me to talk about my family? Whatever not like it's gonna be all that interesting...wait I have to talk about her too? fucking...fine fine whatever."

Send 👔 for my muse to talk about their father

"Dad was different when I was younger compared to now,we just aint like we used to be when I was a kid. He was the one to tell me to put school first but he also was the one that got me into music too. I remember listening to all those old rock bands together and him taking me to music stores to start my own record collection. I guess starting a new family with his old one around still? I dunno changed him I guess. Despite custody mostly going towards him? I felt shut out. Sometimes I wonder if he rather I'd be with my mom more or fully so he could devote all his time to his new family now instead." As Rhodes stated his love for music was started by his father Derek. Who introduced Rhodes to 80's rock bands which are his favorites, especially glam rock bands. Have a lot to do for his taste in music. Rhodes won't really admit to it but of course the divorce effected him deeply. His happy home tearing apart and to Rhodes his father pulled away from him as well. Rhodes relationship with Derek has really just worsened over the years. In part Rhodes knows his father just wants the best for him but its hard to always see that when your father seems so against something that brings you a lot of joy. Music was what truly helped Rhodes get through his parents divorce playing out how he was feeling as a way to express the hurt and confusion that kind of situation brings only to have his father reduce it being nonsense? Even with Rhodes seeming to comply with his father's choice he never really did. He still collects records, he takes part in school events that let him play music to some extent. Even the way he dresses and wear make up is meant as a show of rebel towards his father.

Safe to say Rhodes and his fathers relationship? is very likely to go low contact once he graduates from school. He kind of has a fantasy of applying to the best school. And the night of his party to celebrate? he going to pull out an amp and his new guitar tear up the letter to say he aint going before shreading "we'er not gonna take it"

Despite this Rhode in part dose try and excuse a lot of his fathers actions. He still trying to protect his younger self in a sense. He likes to think one day his dad and him can be close again but the damage may be too much to turn back on.

Send 👚 for my muse to talk about their mother

"I love my mom, shes a for real hippie, she always wearing these crazy patterns on her clothes all in tune with emotions and such. She talks a lot about auras and whatever else I don't fully understand it like at all. But it's like the first thing she'll tell about someone is what color their Aura was and such. Mom's always had my back, when you think of biggest supporter my mom fits the bill. She's the only one of my parents to know I'm gay. She's even met past guys I've dated. Mostly upset I never stick to anyone, she blames herself for that. And well I hate that she blames herself for much. I tend not to tell her any issues going on at my Dad's cause to her it's her fault I'm in the situation I am. She isn't doing it to seem like the victim my mom just like that. She also is way to on board with me liking Buddy and Charlie, she was the one who brought up all three us dating in truth. Like I said shes a hippie so you know any stereo type you can think with that she fits with. Mom's also the best artist ever. Biased and not Biased included. She not afraid to just try something, she mostly excels in mix media art combine stuff together. She sells a lot of art she makes at the farmer market. Stuff for like garden decor wind chimes, stone mosaics. She makes paints as well, she really just found her love for art and full went into it...and I want to be the same with music. I miss that feeling I used to get with it. And well she just makes everything better. Sometimes just calling her up on the phone is enough to make any interaction with fucking bitch ass Karine not as bad. Speaking of her, where do I even start? I don't even understand what Dad sees in that women shes nothing like mom." "She and I didn't always click when Dad did finally introduce me to his new girlfriend, I mean she seemed nice enough even bought me a gift. But that was just to get brownie points with my Dad I'm sure. She thinks she knows everything which she doesn't and she LOVES when I point out when she is wrong. I think it was about the second time Dad had the three of us hang out when I decided I didn't like her. Dad stepped away well we met up for a meal. A diner place, I liked cause we used to go all the time which was why we went there. They severed 'happy face pancakes' on the kids menu of course that's what I wanted. Dad wouldn't care. But the waiter came by when he was away and Karine decided I shouldn't eat that. Sure I sound petty but that has pretty much set a precedent. Karine don't even like me, once she got her own kid she became way more obvious with it. That women gets pissed at any need I have. School meetings, after school stuff, doctor appointments. I don't get why she married a man that had a kid if she was gonna be such a bitch about it." As you can see Rhodes loves his mother more than anyone, she really has set an impossible standard. He finds her way of being to be weird but its said through affection. He likes the weird ones cause of his mom. I'd say his mother has really shape a lot of how he is why he can be so laid back and passionate why creative outlets mean so much and help him the most. His mother to him is the one who put more time and effort into him when his life was falling apart. meanwhile it felt like his dad was leaving him behind. And considering the women he would later move on to? It didn't really help in the slightest. Karine and Rhodes are not on the same page at all either. Part of Rhodes knows somehow she makes his Dad happy so he kind of suffers for his sake. Sadly this continues to be a tread.

Send 🤜 for my muse to talk about (one of) their sibling(s)

"Yeah I got a little half-sister, her name is Erin. She's mixed like me but looks more like a pigeon as well, good thing to or she also be a horrible canadian goose like Karine." He sighs a moment but smiles "But nah Erin a good kid by some miracle. Shes very shy, unless i'm around than shes talking none stop. I don't mind it though I know how it feels to be kind of ignored as a kid. She well pretty much what you expect a kid her age. She likes dolls, she likes pink she loves to hang out with me when i'm home. Karine hates it cause I teach her things. Erin's at the stage where she very much a sponge. Karin really hated it when she was walking around singing the lyrics to Burn in hell. I guess sometimes my feelings can be a bit complicated. I mean at first I didn't want to be her brother...to me it was more proof my parents would never get back together. Somehow I didn't think a kid wouldn't mean my Dad and Karine could divorce as well. I wanted to hate Erin. But...I guess I started to see how she was like me. And I didn't have anyone to be there for me. So I decided to be there for her...its why I don't get the custody changed So, i'm with mom more. Erin needs me."

Rhodes is a bit of a doting older brother to Erin, like himself she took after Derek and is a pigeon like Rhodes. As admitted Rhodes wasn't thrilled when he was told about getting a baby sister. At the time he was still holding out hope for his parents to get back together and everything to go back to how it was. But seeing how excited his Dad was about a baby on the way? It sort of finalized everything to him. He was prett distant with her for years. Keeping to himself he wanted nothing todo with her. But Even Rhodes is immune to a cute little chick saying his name as her first word. Erin is very close to Rhodes. Karine isn't to no surpise, a great mom pretty much expects a kid to be a little adult. Erin is nerd non-verbal cause she tends to be worried about upsetting Karine. Rhodes more laid back personalty however makes her feel more at ease. Rhodes tends to help her with her homework, they have a bit of gap between them in age. Rhodes is 15 where Erin is only five herself. He knows she has a bit of a rough time when hes not home well with his mom. When he is at his Dad he tends to be the target for her mother. Not that Karine is as bad as she is with Rhodes but shes not patient with Erin. So he worries a bit when it comes to her. But they get along pretty well he doesn't even mind babysitting her and hopefully his boyfriends don't mind her crashing dates at times.

Send 🎣 for my muse to talk about (one of) their aunt(s)/uncle(s) Future in laws

Im the mun i'm cheating uwu in a sens eit counts cause they are like family uwu.

"Hmm I'm a fan of Bailey, hes real cool actually and he understand the whole step monster thing. It's kind of nice to not be made to feel like I'm just being some dumb kid when it comes to Karine. Bailey don't make me feel that way at least. Richard's a pretty quite guy himself, but the times I talk to him its clear he has a passion for what he dose. He's kind of dork but it's also kind of cool just how much passion he has for something as simple as making coffee. I guess when they say do something you love that's what they mean? Together? They are grossly in love for sure. Not in a bad way but it explains why Bubbles is way he is. Maple reminds me of my mom a bit more so that once she got an idea you cant really talk her out of it. Shes very nice and welcoming though you pretty get told your coming to dinner and its clear she wants you around. Jasper is more clam himself, he also seems just as welcoming hes got a nice clam air to him. I can see how those two took up raising Chippy." Im the mun I can do what I want XD, Rhodes is still getting to know the other adults, I feel he'll be closest to Bailey of course due to Bailey offering to talk to him with his step-mom issues. And since Bailey basically made his family home open for Rhodes to hide away at when needed? I feel he'll be pretty close to them. He likes all the adults and I feel he feels safe around any of the four of them if his mother isn't around. he isn't used to adults outside him mom treating him as well not an issue so it's just a nice change of pace for him.

Send 🐾 for my muse to talk about (one of) their pet(s)

"I don't have any pets at my Dad's. Karine got a thing about pets, but I did get a pet when my mom moved to St.Canard. She insisted on me needing company when she wasn't around. But I gotta say she is right Joan is the sweetest and chillest Lizard ever after all." I just see Rhodes having a pet but he have a bit out of the norm pet like a reptile of some sort. Joan is his pet lizard, as stated, she is a bearded dragon named after the singer Joan Jett which is her full name. She answers to Joan, Jett, Joan Jett and Jetty.Rhodes handles her well enough to let her rest on his shoulders. She sometimes likes to perch around his neck even well he cleans her tank. He's had her for a few years so she trusts Rhodes to care for her. Rhodes likes to spoil her a little when he can, getting her the best food, or even things to play with so he makes sure her tank has pleantly of things for her to explore and keep her interest. He often takes her out as well when he dose homework or practices on his instruments. Rhodes had her just a bit before his parents divorce, Karine didn't like her so his mom took her. So Rhodes wouldn't have to lose his pet.

[jordanincambodia]

September: ខែកញ្ញា!

Pronounced khae kenyah, or month September, in English. So much learned this month, and I'm not just talking about the baby duck egg I tried last night. I am super excited to update y'all on everything that's going on here in Phnom Penh. I have been posting a lot on food and travel which has been only a small part of my adventure here, so this update will touch a little more on other experiences. Let's get to it!

Flooded streets in Phnom Penh are a pretty common site in the rainy season, which is from June to October typically. Tuk tuks, cars, and motos just drive through these mini rivers and spray anyone who is silly enough to be standing or riding nearby. It's also really important to remember where the deep potholes are, since they are almost always hidden under the murky brown water, can be more than a foot deep, and have rebar sticking out. My tuk tuk driver ran into a huge pothole a few weeks ago and I thought the vehicle was going to shatter into bite-sized pieces from the force of our stop, but thankfully we dusted ourselves off (figuratively speaking) and the tuk tuk still worked. Also, to conclude my warning about Phnom Penh stormwater, it is very often that flooding can cause stormwater to mix with septic systems. If you don't know what that is, just repeat after me: n a s t y.

Here's me checking out a medical center under construction with my buddy and construction manager, Visal (you may remember him from the great speech he made about Koi boba in one of my earlier posts). It was a great experience for me to see EMI building plans in action, as well as seeing construction workers referring to EMI drawings and instructions as they worked. While I hadn't worked on any drawings or designs for the site I visited in the picture above, I now have a much better idea of how drawings and design are implemented out in construction later on. So cool!

Last week, I had the amazing opportunity of visiting the Killing Fields at Choeng Ek. Choeng Ek is another memorial commemorating the genocide that happened during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, and there is no word to describe what happened here. That said, I don't mind never going back to that museum. Onwards!

Here are a few water filters that we observed at a local Christian school that are currently in action. Phnom Penh piped water is actually fairly high quality most of the time, the exception being when floodwaters are high. These filter set-ups are another level of defense for water quality and are similar to what I worked on in California Baptist University for my Capstone project, utilizing cartridge filters, ultra filters, activated carbon, and some post-filtration minerals/taste treatment. While these filters are incredibly effective and can produce good-tasting water, they are typically too expensive for remote villages to afford. I am praying for and researching several different methods for inexpensive, sustainable filtration. I would love your prayer for this as well!

Last night, I went to the riverside with several church friends and was able to get this photo. Across the river is the heavily tourist-y part of town with attractions, restaurants, and hotels, so beautiful. Near, you can see boats used by the homeless to sleep in and live. Seeing this really made me think.

Overall, the past few months have been an incredibly humbling learning experience. Spiritually, I've been talking and thinking and processing so much through guidance of a mentor and friends at EMI and church. I think I've memorized over 10 Bible verses now while in Cambodia, as well- no small feat for someone like me that hates memorizing things. Either way, I have so much to be thankful for, and so excited for what the next half of this time in Cambodia will bring. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see y'all very soon ;)

Jord

[quietwingsinthesky]

Pssst! I sent an ask about this a while back, and I'm not sure if you haven't gotten to it, or the ask got eaten. If you haven't gotten to it, I'm sorry for the repeat ask and I understand, take your time :) But in case it got eaten, I'm curious: what are your fave parts of the star wars franchise? Like, which movie, characters, ships, etc?

alsofjfkfk im not gonna lie, anon, i saw it and went ‘oh cool i’ll answer that in a minute’ and the second i closed my inbox, my lack of object permanence kicked in and i forgot it existed. and then i repeated that process. many, many times.

but i will not allow it to happen again. we’re answering this now, damnit.

okay, see, the thing about me is i am an extremely basic star wars bitch. i have seen all of the movies. i have not read any books or comics. my friend in high school made me watch 1 episode of the mandalorian, and i went ‘haha cool! baby yoda!’ and then never watched more of it. (the fact that i don’t have disney+ contributed to this, but really, if i had tried, i’m sure i could have made do. i did not try.) i tried very very hard at one point to get into the clone wars show, and i remember only that there was some sort of small jabba the hutt and yoda telling some clones that their lives were meaningful in the force or something, so i have no idea how far i made it but probably not very. i have played exactly one game, jedi: fallen order, which my playstation tells me i 100%, but for the life of me, i can’t remember a single thing about it other than ‘robot buddy cute’ and ‘fun 👍’, which either is my incredibly small brain showing off its inability to store information or really doesn’t bode well for the quality of whatever story was in there lmao.

BUT. i love the movies. i’m a stupid sucker for the joy and hope of the original trilogy. i think the prequels are so fun and people are mean to them for no reason, like yes, they’re a mess, but you know how sometimes you look at a product and go ‘oh this is so corporate and soulless that nothing about it is worth seeing with my eyeballs?’ the prequels are not that. people cared about making these movies, and i can always be charmed when i can tell that there was love there, even if it didn’t work as perfectly as it wanted to.

which is probably why i’m so fond of the force awakens despite it all, because watching it feels like everyone there cared so so much about the new potential star wars. i remember watching behind-the-scenes when it first came out and seeing them talk about how they mixed practical and cgi effects for a bunch of the aliens, and i fell in love with finn because his character was basically catnip for me. my traumatized cat who was abducted and brainwashed and raised a soldier and still his heart was too big to be destroyed by the first order. poe was fun for the little screentime he had, and rey was aloof and fierce and hurt underneath it all, and kylo ren had so much fucking potential as the villain and foil for rey & finn that it actually causes me physical pain knowing what happened next. and han was there! until he died! i was heartbroken about it! it was a well-executed death! leia was there, and i could never shake the tragedy that this war she’d fought so hard to win in her youth had never really ended, that now she had to fight it alone again when luke left and han ran away. luke was not there, but this was pre-the last jedi, so i could actually be excited about what he might do when he showed up! the force awakens is a good movie.

the last jedi is a very pretty movie. the rise of skywalker feels like what everyone thinks the prequels are like. i do not watch those movies. i just mentally replace them with the utterly fantastic fic have you heard by peradi and pretend that we did get a stormtrooper rebellion <3 (if you haven’t read it, you should.)

what else, what else. i am incredibly boring when it comes to favorite characters in each trilogy, it’s just The Main Guy. i already talked about finn, but. anakin and luke. my little dudes. anakin has everything ever wrong with him, and i do not blame him for going of the rails. i mean, he did kill a lot of children and help install space facism but have we considered that the jedi were mean to him. and also that palpatine’s been grooming him since he was nine. and also that there is actual literal slavery happening in star wars and the response of everyone around him was to go ‘oh well anakin, guess u gotta let go of the fact that your mother will never be free. and if you can’t, that’s your fault.’ sorry. nope. feeling emotional about how one of the first things baby anakin asks qui-gon when they meet is if qui-gon is here to free them all, because that’s what jedi are supposed to do, they’re supposed to be heroes, and qui-gon tells him they aren’t. and then he does free anakin, and he’s got a fucking lazer sword and magic powers so who the hell would have been able to stop him from at least bringing shmi too, but instead he just takes anakin away. insane choices. george lucas im at your doorstep explain yourself.

and anyone who says they don’t love luke skywalker is a liar. u don’t like luke? luke who wants to see so much more of the universe than his little farm? luke who wants to believe in the force so strongly, his only connection to his father and soon, to obi-wan? luke who blows up the death star because he feels the force so strongly? luke who is such a shining star of hope and goodness and loyalty that han freaking solo turned around and came back to save his ass? and all that just in one movie. luke is so powerfully good, you know? and it had to be that way, the movies just wouldn’t work without him at the core of it. i love him so so much.

ships. well obviously im a c3po/r2d2 stan. as we all know, tragic love story for the ages. im a believer that r2d2 is unmemorywipeable, that trash can is too stubborn to let anything he stores be deleted, so really, we’re looking at the world’s shortest and rudest rebel spy and his overly polite amnesiac husband. im joking but im not.

taking it more seriously, i’m very easily convinced to see main character trios as poly ships. number 1 proponent of padme/anakin/obi-wan over here, a fate sealed by many good fics that i’ve read confirming this. if i may suggest one of my favorites, Queen’s Gambit by bedlamsbard, truly a fantastic star wars au work and it has an incredible podfic by reena_jenkins that inspired me to begin podficcing in the first place. following that, i also love han/leia/luke, in whatever configuration that comes, if it’s just han getting two skywalkers on his arms or if it’s luke and leia also following up on their kiss in empire strikes back. (‘i knew all along’ my ass, girl, either you didn’t or you did and you went straight for the lips alsjfjlssjkf.) From Orbit by gh0strobin is a favorite of mine for them, as well as a bed of daysided gold by lotesse.

and finally, most obviously, i was onboard with finn/poe/rey from day one of the force awakens. the reylos never got me. i was too busy thinking about the main trio kissing. (and i was a ‘rey & ben solo are cousins at least or somethjng’ truther back during force awakens, which for once, meant i had zero interest in shipping them and far more interest in using their possible backstories to explore this fascinating dynamic they had vis a vis the legacy and/or lack of one they inherited, what they were owed as children of legends. and well. i mean, i was kind of right by the end but by god i wish i wasn’t!!!) (and terrible news, i’m realizing that the majority of my post-force awakens reading on ao3 happened before i was bookmarking fics, so i don’t even have recs!!! >:( i need to rectify this immediately. but know that there are many fantastic fics for that trio and you should go looking for them.)

okay, one last round of fic reccing and i’ll leave it be, but there’s some great ones I’d be remiss not to mention. Double Agent Vader is a brilliant Vader character exploration series and it will hurt you and make u love him so so much. The Fires is a Mustafar groundhog day loop that Hurts (and fun fact, was the second fic i ever podficced for myself :( but the files are long gone. still have my first ever podfic though.) And The Force Breathes Once Again is a short and interesting fic about the force being Weird And Fucked Up. And Intertwine is a Padme Lives AU that’s just lovely. so many brilliant fics in this fandom, i swear.

[finelinevogue]

Can you do a bad boy Harry blurb because he is my weakness and I would do anything for him? Thank you.

hun bad boy harry is ALL of our weakness. that man is kryptonite. anyways let’s do a lil blurb for something that might become a lil series - lemme know what you think?! im thinking maybe strangers to fuck buddies to lovers hmm??

You had been on your third fourth jack and coke by the time you saw him.

Burning, lustful, emeralds for eyes. Hair that was so messily unkept that it looked so put together. Black t-shirt. Black jeans. Black shoes. His aura was dark, but his smile told you otherwise. The dimples that were carved into his face told you he was hiding a completely different person behind this exterior, which is why he was so enticing. You saw a piece of yourself in him. Your outfit was a lot like his; black upon black, but it was veil to keep your true self protected. Hidden. You’d exposed yourself before and it hadn’t gone too well for you. The lesson had been learnt.

Other lessons, like ‘stay clear of bad boys and danger’ were much harder to learn. This moment being a prime example of that.

“Another round?” His voice was not as you expected. It held gravity and strength. It was holding so much behind it, you could tell.

“No thanks. I think i’ve drank my poison for the night.” You countered back and turned to look at him for the first time up close.

Fuck, was he perfect.

His cupid pink lips. The freckles on his nose. The slight signs of a permanent frown line to his upper forehead. He was just… wow. You suddenly felt like he could put Brad from Sex/Life to shame - a recent show you’d watched where you’d questioned your entire existence and entire future existence. You could sense there was so much behind his emotionless front too, just waiting for someone to take the risk and divulge in him completely.

He leaned his arms on the bar, letting the weight of the bar-top hold him up. The way he stood let his arms bulge from his tight t-shirt, expressing the veins and concentrating muscle making him look like a Greek sculpture, let alone a human - beautiful - being of a man. He was so carefree in his body language and he definitely didn’t shy away when you caught him checking you up and down.

“Yeah? Well i’m staying for one more round and I kinda hoped you would too.” He waved a hand for the bartender to come over, standing up properly now. He towered over you, even with you sat high on a barstool. He was intimidating and powerful, and you liked that.

“What can I get for you?” The bartender asked, wiping down the counter you two sat behind as a good-willed gesture.

“Whiskey. Neat.” The mysterious hunk of a man ordered, nodding his head in thanks to the man but before he could go off anywhere you quickly added in your own drink too.

“Another jack and coke too.” You said, causing the man to turn and smirk at you only for you to then do the same. “On his tab this time.” He chuckled at you for being so bold and demanding, but didn’t resist nonetheless as the bartender walked off to fulfil your order.

“Jack and coke?” He sounded surprised, but also not.

“Disappointed. You want a girl who drinks pink gin or white whine?” You teased, sucking on the end of your straw from your previous drink. He looked at your mouth, watching the way your lips danced with the straw and the way your tongue licked the remainders of a previous drink away. The sight was so minimally sensual, yet it sent his body into overdrive.

“No, but why? Are you offering, darling?” The way he spoke so smoothly had you weak at the knees, so you were grateful you were sat down.

“I’ll be whoever you want me to be.” You kept eye contact with him as you spoke, biting down once on the straw for added effect - until he snatched it away. You didn’t expect him to be so quick with his movements, but as he stole your straw he kept his face close to yours.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He whispered hotly against your face, before leaning back again. Just in time, your drinks came and both of your thanked the bartended. Watching him put your straw back into your new glass, you weren’t expecting him to lean over and take a sip from your mix. He hummed in delight, looking up at you as he leaned back to sit closer to his drunk.

“And?”

“Tastes like you.” He chuckled before facing back forwards to watch the passing bartenders and crowds of people in this thumping club. “You have a name, darling?”

“Obviously, but why should I give it to you sweet cheeks?”

“Sweet cheeks?”

“Seems only fair, what with you calling me darling don’t you think?”

“No.” That made you stop drinking your drink and look at him abruptly, to find he was already waiting for your stare, “I don’t play fair.”

You thought he was joking about the whole thing, but the look in his eyes told you a completely different story. He was angry and frustrated, a combination in your history that doesn’t mix nicely together. At least not as nicely as jack and coke. If you were ever going to get this guy to reveal at least an inch of himself you were going to have to obey his rules, even if they were slightly indifferent to you.

“No more sweet cheeks then. Sorry.” You blushed, turning away from him to stir through the liquid in your glass.

You had never really been one to apologise to people. Never really had the need you. You’d always kept yourself to yourself, although that not always being most helpful. Apologising, you thought, made you seem weak. Turns out you’re weak for not. Manners make you stronger, build you to be a better person and strengthen you to me mentally stronger.

The crowds of youths and strange elderly people swarmed the sweaty room, making you sweat more than you would like. Still, the room had atmosphere and reminded you that your life was very much alive. You were very much alive.

“Sorry what?” You realised the guy had said something next to you, but you’d completely missed what. Apologising, again.

“It’s uh Harry.” He cleared his throat midway through speaking. You understood that he was nite telling you his name and you could tell he wasn’t lying by the sincerity in his eyes, the same way he could tell you weren’t lying about yours.

“Y/N.”

“Lovely name.” He smiled at you when you caught his eye, making you grin back.

“Well I like yours too.” You nodded, trying to repay a compliment even if it was slightly lacking something special.

“Mhm,” he laughed, throwing back the rest of his drink, “you come here often? I haven’t seen you before.”

“I come when I need a release.”

“Oh I bet.” You didn’t miss the words he boldly spoke. You like him. Harry had spark and he was passionate. You could feel the lust radiating from him body like a heatwave and you craved it all so badly.

“I also come when I shouldn’t.” You finished the rest of your drink, returning your mouth to your straw whilst looking at him. Harry was now standing so close to you that your head was tilted back ever-so-slightly.

“So you’re disobedient.” He asked, reaching his hand forwards to take the straw of your mouth and putting it down on the side. The distraction was unnecessary and, quite frankly for Harry, a real dick-hardener.

“I like being punished.” You spoke quietly, as if the walls weren’t vibrating from the loudness of the music amplifiers.

“Are you here right now even when you shouldn’t be?” Harry asked, licking his lips and looking between yours and yours eyes. He was having a hard time focusing on which one he found more perfect. Your eyes were full of treasure and wonder, but your lips. God, were they so kissable. Too kissable.

He wanted to make your lips bleed from lust.

“Yes.”

“And so you’re going to be punished for it, you say?” Harry’s torso was getting dangerously close to your chest. His head tilted down so he was only inches away from yours, allowing you to smell the whiskey on his breath and the perfume on his body. He was sensory overload.

“Mhm.”

“By who?”

Now that was an interesting question.

You chuckled, invasive and repulsive thoughts running through your head, as you stood up out of your seat, standing tall in your high heels and yet even still you were small in comparison to Harry. In a good way though.

Too bad you had to cut it all short.

“Find a pink gin lady, Harry. She’ll be easier than me.” You picked up your jacket and your bag, swinging it over your shoulder. You tap his shoulder as you round the chair, giving him a half-hearted smile before leaving.

[incorrect-mha-bnha]

BNHA HEADCANNONS again

Eri holds anual tea parties with everyone but banned Bakugou for “a thousand eternities” because he kept getting into bickering matches with her stuffed animals on who was the better princess.

Kaminari can, in fact, cook and bake. You can’t tell me I’m wrong because I also hc him as a huge stoner. The same with Sero. Those boys be cooking and whippin in the kitchen. Case closed.

Much like Star Lord, I believe Dabi would be one to wear headphones and carry around a cassette tape while he destroys things. People screaming and havoc being caused but it’s all muffled by his tunes. He even dances around as he works.

Mitsuki is the kind of woman to bark at men that catcall her. You can’t say I’m wrong, because I’m not. She would have no shame barking at some sleazebag that passes a rather suggestive demeaning comment her way thinking he’d get away scotch free and have a laugh over it with his sexist buddies— WELL HED BE WRONG because as soon as she hears some punk yell “Nice (insert sexist joke)!” She’d stop, turn his way slowly and start barking as shown.... “BARK BARK RUFF AWOOOO GRRRR BARK BARK BARK!” And the man would literally die on the spot. Gone. A queen. A badass. What a woman.

During that scene in the sports festival where they brought out Bakugou in chains and a muzzle like some villain rather than a teenage child. You know the one— yeah you do. Anyway. He was having an PTSD attack about the slime villain. Tell me I’m wrong. His mouth was covered and he was restrained. It was NOT very long after it either. What were they thinking? Trick question. The whole hero system is trash.

(CW: Vore) I personally think the most twisted hero turned villain scenario would be Tamaki. He eats things to gain power in his quirk.... I think you know where this is going. Imagine finding out a villain literally eating heroes and random civilians to gain their quirks? Wack

Back on my partially blind Todoroki hc. Due to his impaired vision, he tends to stand with his right side towards the opponent as to keep them in his sights and guard blind spots.

When Bakugou gets lonely, he will set off tiny explosions like fireworks that remind him of younger days when him and his friends would attend festivals and run around with sparklers.

I do like the Latin Sero hc so along those lines... you cannot tell me he wouldn’t chase anyone around the dorms with a chancla over something. It’s about as scary as an Aizawa woken up mid nap. He could chuck it a 100 yards and away and still hit you square in the head. Sero is so scary with a chancla, even Bakugou won’t attempt to fuck with him. *Starts yelling* *Sero comes out of nowhere with a sandal in his hand* “Are you yelling at Midoriya again?” *Bakugou looks up then slowly turns away and stalks off grumbling*

Izy is blasian (I don’t know if that’s the correct terminology for the mix) and will from this point on be known as Dekquan on this blog and to me. My mind is Astral in this bitch today. So many hc and thoughts. Hair care products, routines, ethnicity to learn from, SO MUCH. I also hc Mina as black, gods and her know how much of a struggle that boy will go through to take care of his hair.

Listen... I love the Bakusquad.... but they really aren’t exactly feral. Dekquansquad is immensely chaotic in terms of actions. They almost got charged with multiple offenses and Todoroki tried to square up with the head police chief. Not to mention Iida quite literally went to mu1der Stain with the help of Dekquan and Todd. After that they practically said “And what about it!?” THEN half the Dekquansquad went out to rescues Bak, and didn’t give a single fuck about the consequences. Bottom line? Dekquan knows every heroes weakness and has yet to snap completely, Iida has attempted murder under his belt, Todd has the pure teenage rebellious spite mixed with “Neutral chaotic come at me Bro!” Energy fueling him, Ochac is there for the money. Whats bakusquad got? Some Latin scotch tape, a badass breakdancer, pika pika let me charge your phone mister suave, “oh that doesn’t sound very heroic” sunshine and daisies man, and ‘I go to bed for 8’ rabies n company. Don’t even try.

Bak’s parents are fashion designers. Why does this detail matter? Take a look at his hero costume. The color pallet doesn’t clash, the asccesories make sense. (In a sense). It’s the most well put together hero costume out of Class 1A. He had to have picked up tricks and rules to follow from his parents work, you cannot tell me otherwise.

Mina would sing WAP at Uraraka’s wedding..... change my mind.

(Not a ship hc) Will I ever shut up about Kirishima, Bak and Mina being my emotional support Wonder Trio (Im going to need to think of a different damn name) even if I don’t post about it? No. Mina forms a close bond with them as the years progress. Spending more time, opening up with them, nurturing with affection. It goes both ways as well. The boys care about her immensely, becoming protective and promising to be there when she needs it. Inside jokes, training and teasing- they have it all. Their dynamic is *chefs kiss* and I promise to post about it in the future.

Denk has to have brain damage, I’m pretty damn sure. If you’re using electricity to the point of being incapacitated and numerous amount of times then there has to be some adverse effects at play.

[this-is-my-procrastination]

hi honey! (●’◡’●)ﾉ could i request a oneshot with Dazai, and reader is just always sleepy? like if she sits still for longer than thirty minutes, she’ll be passed out? thank you!

pairing: dazai osamu x sleepy!reader

synopsis: sleepy y/n has trouble staying awake

request: hi honey! (●’◡’●)ﾉ could i request a oneshot with Dazai, and reader is just always sleepy? like if she sits still for longer than thirty minutes, she’ll be passed out? thank you!

a/n: omg im so sorry this literally took me 10 million years to finish!! i think i’ve rewritten this like more than four times at this point lmao but hopefully it turned out ok and you like it! as always, thank you so much for requesting ily <33

A pair of lips delicately brush your cheek. Your eyes flutter open, groggily blinking the sleep from your eyes as you slowly register the owner of the offending lips. To no one’s surprise, it’s Dazai’s smug face that beams back at you, grin softening as he teases, “Look who fell asleep again~ If you weren’t so cute, I might be offended y’know?” His playful pout causes you to giggle, your boyfriend already helping to make waking up so much less vexing than usual.

Retaliating to his teasing remarks, you attempt to ruffle his messy tuft of black hair but find that his head is sadly more than an arm’s length away, much to your dismay. Looking back down at your disheveled bedhead fondly, Dazai pulls you into his arms as you release a few indignant retorts. The movie you two were watching had been in its closing scenes, but when he looked towards you to ask your thoughts (and ask why you’d been so quiet after literally the first thirty minutes), he was met with your very cute, very endearing, very much asleep expression, eyes shut and mouth slightly ajar. Your head was adorably leaned against the crook of his neck, and he would prefer not to admit it, but he had spent more time than he realized just admiring your dozing features silently, appreciating and marveling at this human who made him feel so loved. Past Dazai would have scoffed at a serious romantic relationship that didn’t end in double suicide, but right now, the thought of not being able to spend peaceful moments like this with you was the most excruciating punishment he could possibly imagine. How could he imagine someone else when even just your sleeping face was so incredibly adorable to him?

Your freshly-awake ramblings brought him back to the present. Dazai lets his fingers drift and find its place loosely running down a stray strand of your hair, twirling it cheerfully as he listens to you continuing on.

You suddenly stop your rant, staring at him with an amused expression on your face before you gently prod his side, “What’re you so deep in thought about?” You pondered the possibilities, “Could you be thinking about what to eat? I’m pretty hungry too after that nice nap!”

“No, no,” Dazai dramatically denies your question, waving his hand dismissively, “Well - I’ll never say no to a snack, but I was actually mesmerized! You just look so cute when you’re sleepy~”

You playfully roll your eyes, nudging him with a teasing “uh-huh.”

“Is that why I can get away with falling asleep around you?” your smile is warm as you meet his eyes, and Dazai’s heart quickens just slightly, “I told you that you can wake me up since I sometimes fall asleep before I realize. I appreciate you always taking care of me though, Dazai. You’re a very good boyfriend for that~”

Your praise is music to Dazai’s ears as his lips quirk into a smirk, “Oh-ho, am I finally getting the appreciation I’ve been deserving? I’m glad you finally noticed!” Your boyfriend’s hand pats your head affectionately, and you laugh aloud as he plasters a quick sloppy kiss to your forehead.

You’re about to playfully call him out for his touchiness but your boyfriend’s chest immediately puffs out theatrically, “But don’t you worry! I’m self-sworn to protect my sleeping beauty for as long as I live - actually, even from the grave!”

Dazai’s sudden knightly attitude cracks you up as you swiftly duck out from under his hand. You grin widely at his antics before matching his energy with a statement fitting for a true princess: “oh, ya - uh! ok thanks buddy! so then, Sir Dazai, lead the way to the kitchen and let’s make a mid-movie - oh, never mind the movie’s over - a post-movie snack!”

Dazai’s cheers ring through your apartment as he eagerly yet still surprisingly delicately, always being careful to keep you unscathed and present by his side, grabs your hand and escorts you into the kitchen.

The plan was to make brownies. So, why is Dazai furiously beating a bowl of grainy “whipped cream” that he’d made using a combo of water and specifically granulated, not confectionary, sugar? Why is more brownie batter on cabinet doors than in the baking pan? Why is the salt tipped onto its side, spilling its entire contents into some kind of abstract shape on the countertop?

One reason: food fight. Maybe your abundant sleeping habits had finally caught up to you, but you had never felt as invigorated and actively mischievous as you had when you’d swiped some brownie batter onto your boyfriend’s face. It was worth it! You think. You thought. Dazai’s brown hues absolutely shined with mirth at your pathetic attempt of provoking him. You were prepared for him to laugh it off and call you adorable, maybe naive for playing with fire, but ultimately he would chuckle and move on. Except, that did not happen. Instead, he had immediately retaliated with an even bigger glop thrown into your hair, partly accidentally and partly to be a li’l gremlin, and oh boy, it just escalated from there.

The whipped cream Dazai had whipped up for “quick ammunition” was quickly used up - Dazai scooped it, and the heap had seemed to grow impossibly bigger with every additional spoonful. Currently, his smile was widening and creepily stretching ear-to-ear as his starry eyes zeroed in on your vulnerable form.

The ruthless battle continued for a while, but after finally agreeing to a truce, you both couldn’t help but stare at the resulting mess with equally blank stares.

“Mm... okgoodnightbabe! I’ll see you in the morning!” You almost trip over yourself as you flee, throwing a cursory glance at your incredulous boyfriend before giggling and rushing to close the bedroom door before he can follow. Dazai’s whining carries through the solid wood, but you playfully call back, “I’ll give you anything you want - just pleasee do the cleaning! And if it’s too much, come to bed and we can deal with it in the morning together, ok?”

You could clearly picture Dazai’s pout in your mind as the sound of his footsteps fades towards the kitchen. Smiling fondly, you quickly change into your pajamas and hop into your shared bed to wait for his return. However, listening to the distant clanging of bowls and whooshing of the tap water proved to be an effective lullaby, and you couldn’t help it as your eyes began to flutter and eventually stay closed.

By the time Dazai finishes cleaning, the dark night sky was starting to brighten and mix with the warm oranges and reds of sunrise. He quietly opens your bedroom door and is met, not really to his surprise, by your sleeping lump of a body. Dazai’s brows furrow slightly, but he quickly notices the open book laying by your form and realizes that you had been up waiting for him. He could also tell you by the blankets messily strewn around you - usually you preferred having them wrapped around you like a tight burrito.

At that, Dazai lightly chuckles, his heart warming at the thought. He takes his time putting on a fresh set of clothes and rolls his eyes as he ever-so-gently tucks the blankets over you. The bed shifts as he climbs in carefully, but Dazai quickly freezes as you start to mumble quietly. Your words are inaudible, even as Dazai strains his ears to hear any (possible) secrets that you could be spouting. Shifting restlessly, you roll around and suddenly shoot out your arm, making an interesting grabby motion. Dazai almost lets out a laugh as he wonders what in the world you could be looking for, but his eyes widen when you make contact with your boyfriend and immediately calm down, hand gripping his shirt loosely.

As your body relaxes, Dazai feels a wide smile creep up his face, adoring and almost grossly soft. And he lets it. He just can’t help himself - he leans in and places an affectionate kiss on your forehead, lingering there before pulling back and squeezing next to you under the covers. He shifts your arm into a more comfortable position, and as you unconsciously flip to face him, Dazai’s eyes soften into a sweet but intensely warm chocolate brown. If you had been awake to open your eyes, you would have witnessed a rare but genuine sight: your boyfriend’s peaceful expression illuminated by the quiet sunlight of dawn, his eyes deeply staring into yours with endless messages of comforting assurance and happiness, and his lips subtly quirking into a tenderly loving smile shared only for the two of you.

[lollytea]

Girl Talk

(ngl I hate this sm. I wrote this fic yesterday, the file corrupted and i lost everything, had a breakdown, rewrote everything the next day because I am obnoxiously stubborn. Anyways Hunter and Luz content. Bon Appetit?)

(READ ON AO3)

“Okay, but what am I even supposed to say to her? Oh! Maybe I could write down some jokes on the back of my glyph slips in case things get awkward. Wait, no, I don't want her to think I'm not taking this seriously. I don't need to be goofy all the time just to hang out with her. I need her to know that I'm serious about her and this whole...romantic thing. And I know she gets upset when she thinks I'm making fun of her so...”

“Alright, so, get this. It says here that there was once this old witch who lived on the outskirts of Latissa and his whole thing was experimenting by mixing paints and magic together. Apparently the stuff he created was like....super powerful.”

“I mean, she said she likes me 'cause I'm goofy and funny and lovable and...and...and I'm sure there's other adjectives I could use but I'm drawing a blank here. So, who am I to deprive her of what she signed up for? But I can't just....ugh, I can't even think right!”

“It doesn't have a lot of info on his specific technique but I'm sure if we did some more research, we could successfully replicate his experiments. We're pretty good at figuring stuff out. Woah, wait. I wonder what would happen if we created glyphs with this paint....maybe it would enhance the spell's level of power. Oh, that would be so cool!”

Luz stopped pacing, the floorboards practically burning after she thoroughly wore down the surface with her frantic footsteps. She set a hand on her hip and turned a withering look on her guest.

“Call me coocoo but I don't think you're listening to a word I say.”

Hunter lifted his head to blink up at her, chewing on the end of a pen. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, boxed in by towers of Eda's Wild Magic books.

There was a glassy look in his eye, as if he was trying to get his bearings after being abruptly yanked out of an alternate dimension.

He had been, in a way. Luz was inclined to call it “Booksville.”

When Luz first met Hunter, this sort of stuff was a big, huge No-No for him. She could've invited him to take a look at any one of those books, packed with information on that obsession of his and of course, he'd be crazy with intrigue but he would hesitate. If he even opened the book at all, he'd card through the pages with an almost jumpy sense of caution, as if the paper itself would sting his fingers.

Well, that ship had certainly sailed. It had taken him a while to get fully comfortable but nowadays, Hunter didn't ask twice before digging into the contents of Eda's books, soaking up every tidbit of every sentence until he had exhausted every page.

He had even brought his own index flags to mark his favorite passages. He had gone on a little rant earlier about how Eda was an outright maniac for dog-earring the page corners.

Luz made a mental note to never show him the state of her Azura books. He would probably cry.

Hunter had become so lost in the Wild Magic sauce, he didn't even seem to care about the fact that he was not supposed to be here.

Of course, Eda didn't mind that he was here. That is to say, Luz didn't technically tell her he was here. She and King were currently out, being menaces to society and all that fun stuff, as they usually were before Luz would sneak Hunter in.

So, to be fair, Eda had never specifically said that Luz was not allowed to let The Golden Guard of the Emperor's coven into their home.

It was probably fine, right?

Yeah, it was probably fine that Luz had been hiding The Golden Guard of the Emperor's coven in her bedroom like some kind of forbidden pet.

Speaking of forbidden pets, that precious red cardinal of his was perched like a Christmas decoration atop his shoulder. That little rascal did wonders for Hunter. He seemed so much cuter than he was when there was an adorable little palisman snuggling up to him.

Once Hunter had processed what Luz said to him, his features screwed up tight. He was offended.

“Whadd'ya mean I'm not listening? I bet you can't repeat anything I was just talking about.”

“Ugh! Yeah, Hunter, I heard you. Paints! You wanna start painting as a hobby and let me just tell you, I fully support your budding creativety and will hype up your work with my entire heart but please. Right now I am having a full blown Amity Calamity!”

“Yeah, okay, that is not what I was talking about. Also, I get that you're freaking out n' all but....what do you expect me to do about it?” He threw his hands about wildly, at a complete loss. “Man, I don't know anything about that stuff,”

“I don't knowww....” Luz groaned. “I just....ugggghhh.” She buried her head in her hands, ruffling her hair into oblivion, like it would miraculously stimulate her brain cells into action. It released some pent up frustration, at least. “I wish it was easier for us to just talk about girls together.”

Hunter perked up. “Talk about girls? Are you kidding? Of course we can talk about girls, dummy!”

“Wait, really?” Luz asked, taken aback by this apparent development.

“Yeah, for sure. One sec,” Buzzing with eagerness, Hunter dove into his stacks of books, emerging seconds later with a worn, dust encrusted volume. It was so ancient, the title had faded away but Hunter still put his finger to where the big letters should be.

“Notable Female Witches of The Savage Ages,” He rattled off delightedly. “They were considered the mothers of Wild Magic. Their style of spell was really quite advanced, see they--”

Despite her frayed nerves, Luz sill managed a weak laugh.

As insufferable as he could be sometimes, she really did like this nerd a lot.

“Okay, Hunter. Buddy,” She said gently. “This stuff sounds really cool and I wanna hear all about it at some point buuuut....when I say girls, I mean...y'know. Amity specifically.”

“Oh. Right. Yeah.”

Hunter's face fell with disappointment but he was quick to snap back into a look of cool indifference. He shut the book in his lap with a soft thump, set it aside and turned his full attention to Luz.

“Sooooo...” he began awkwardly, scratching at his ear. It could not be more obvious that Hunter wanted nothing to do with this discussion. But Luz appreciated that he was trying. “Girlfriend problems, huh? Shoot.”

Luz's cheeks darkened. “Heh. 'Girlfriend'. Yeah, that's...uh...” She was suddenly very inconvenienced by the existence of her own hands so she clasped them together tight to keep herself from fidgeting. “That is.....a word for Amity.”

Hunter frowned, puzzled. “Okaaaay? So, what's the issue?”

“Ohhhhhh, boy.” An ironic, long suffering smile stretched across her face. “Let me just tell you that there is a lot goin' on up here, pal.” Luz tapped her finger against her temple. “So if I'm gonna give you the full unabridged version--”

“You could summarize it.”

“You know I don't know how to do that.”

“Yeah, I know.” Hunter sighed. “Figured it was worth a shot. Okay, let's hear it.”

“Alright but this is gonna be a lot so I suggest you strap yourself in,”

Luz sucked in a deep inhale, with full intent to let the entire flood of thoughts cascade out her mouth.

Hunter's eyes snapped to the floor, like he was actually looking for a safety harness to attach himself to. Then he seemed to realize that was ridiculous, as he scowled to himself. Little Rascal chirped and he irritably mumbled something under his breath in response.

And then Luz took off.

“Alright, so!” She announced, clapping her hands together. “So me and Amity have known each other fooooor...a while now? Yeah, it's been a while. And we've been pretty good friends ever since and then one day, she rescued me from her scary mom and she had this black flowing cape and her voice went all low and then suddenly, huh. Doki doki, y'know?” She thumped a fist against her chest. “I was gettin' all feelings-y up in here,”.

“And then a little later I figured out that we were both feeling kinda feelings-y and I was all like,” She mimed a brain explosion. “Pshww....”

“Pshww....” Hunter repeated quietly, testing out the little sound effect on his tongue. “Doki...doki....?”

“Yeah. Exactly. Doki doki. Pshww.” Luz nodded, as if he had made a valuable contribution. “So, now we're both here in the same boat, fully shish kebab-ed by Cupid's arrow.”

“Hold up. What language are you speaking?”

“And things are....great? Nice? Sorta hard to believe but stuff actually happens. We hold hands a few times, we...” The volume of her voice dropped to a bashful murmur. “we kiss a few times. There was so many beautiful, amazing romance-y moments that happened, just like in movies, y'know?”

“Movies....?�� Hunter's bewildered stare turned from Luz to the bird on his shoulder, as if he was going to get any further clarification from either of them.

“Right! But here's the thing. It sorta feels like all that stuff just went by in a blur. I don't even know how I did any of that. The hand holding, the smooches the....ugh! It was like I was on autopilot or something and now I have no idea how to operate. Now, no matter how hard I try to get the vibe right, I can recreate those moments. So now it's starting to feel like...I don't know how to do anything!”

Luz's arms were whizzing around like an out of control windmill.

“I mean, Sure, Amity takes the lead sometimes but I can't make her carry this entire....relationship? Flirtationship? Whatever it is that's happening here! I gotta act or something! But I've been thinking about it waaaay too much. I never know the right time to hold her hand, I never know if she wants me to tell her she looks cute or if now maybe isn't the right time or...it's awkward, okay?! I've been making it awkward 'cause I don't know what to do! I-I don't even know for sure if we're dating! We've never talked about it!”

The last sentence came out as a squeak and Luz realized she had used up all her oxygen and needed to take a breather.

Hunter had not said a word but Luz did not know what to make of that dissecting stare of his, that studied her with a mixture of confusion and fascination. Like she was some kind of peculiar animal. A flushed, panting, peculiar animal.

“So.” He said finally, holding his palm out for Little Rascal to migrate from his shoulder to his hands. “Why don't you talk about it?”

He asked like it was the obvious solution. Luz was a little irked by it, but she kept her patience.

“Oh, Hunter. Sweet Hunter.” She heaved an exhausted sigh. “It is not that simple.”

He still didn't seem to understand. “Well, why not?”

“'Cause it's--.....Uh.” Luz trailed off, twirling her wrist around as if expecting to snatch an eloquent articulation out of thin air.

“Okay. Lemme put it like this. Amity is....really special. To me. Sometimes I still can't believe that she's real and she's friends with me and she likes me and....whew.” She pressed her fingertips to her cheek, surprised by the warmth. Even thinking that sort of stuff prompted a blush or two but it seemed saying it out loud made her face scalding.

“Anyway, now that we're going through....this, everything feels so much more....fragile?” Her voice rose in pitch, uncertain if 'Fragile' was even a suitable word to describe her feelings. It was just a vague, wishy-washy concept to describe.

“Like I feel like I could break it all so easy, just by....” Wait, she knew. She had figured out her handle on this.

“Just by being me.” She felt an ache just by admitting it, but it was the truth. Luz exhaled unsteadily to compose herself, clasping her fists tight into the fabric of her shorts and she continued...calmly.

“I can't risk doing anything that's gonna push her or make her uncomfortable or scare her away or...y'know, ruin this.” She held up her palms with a heavy shrug. “I-I don't have a plan and it would be way too reckless to wing it. Who knows what would come out of my mouth? She tells me a billion times that my weirdness is what she likes about me but...it can just as easily be the thing she hates if I overdo. I can't overdo it.

Luz was expecting Hunter to look at her like she was dumb again, but surprisingly, he nodded. A slow, thoughtful nod, as he absentmindedly scratched Little Rascal under the chin.

As the silence filled a little longer, she was starting to believe he had nothing else to add, which was fine. She had wanted to rant her heart out but realistically, she couldn't imagine Hunter having any advice for her. This wasn't exactly his area of expertise.

“Hey, Luz.” He said at last, voice surprisingly breezy. “You know those books that you really like? Uhh, with the nice witch Azuzu or whatever,”

“It's the Good Witch Azura!” Luz snapped, hands flying to her hips. “And I know you just pretended to not know her name. You're just trying to be cool.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The corner of Hunter's lip tweaked upwards. “And wasn't there that other witch that you liked to pretend was Azura's girlfriend?

Luz scoffed, finding it utterly unbelievable that this obnoxious little man had the audacity to be so dismissive towards her favorite book series, when she had been sweet enough to smuggle him in here.

“She was not her 'Girlfriend', she was her 'Soulmate' and if you even listened to me talk about it, you would know that. For your information, her name was Hecate and she began as Azura's rival but over the course of the series, they developed a beautiful, unbreakable bond that was jam packed with heavy romantic subtext. I mean, even their declaration of their eternal friendship in Book Five, which was really emotionally poignant by the way, reads so much like a love confession, it's a crime. And it's like...Ladies! Just kiss already!”

“Okay. Right. Sure. I understood some of that.”

“I mean, I guess I've read a ton of Heczura fanfics to tide me over. It's hard to find a fic where they don't kiss. Hold on, you know what fanfiction is, right?”

“Yeah.” The light in Hunter's eyes dimmed. “You made me sit through that three hour long slideshow presentation, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Luz popped a finger gun. “That was fun,”

It was fun, but a lot of work. Hunter was pouting over losing a measly three hours of his time. Well, newsflash, nerd, Luz spent two weeks working on that. Nobody is getting their hours back.

“And what usually happens in those fanfictions?” Asked Hunter, propping his chin up with his hand, as Little Rascal hopped over to a pile of books. “How do they end?”

“I told you, they kiss. A lot of the time they look deeply into each others eye and talk about how they complete each other like two halves of one heart. And y'know, moments of miscellaneous fluff.”

“Uh huh. Interesting,” He mused, tapping his pen against his bottom lip.

Luz knew Hunter could be a little...eccentric but was he really analyzing fanfiction right now? Where did the sudden interest come from?”

“So, uh, besides Azura and Hecate, are there any other...boats(?) that you--”

“Ships.” Luz corrected him.

Hunter snapped his fingers. “Right. Ships. Basically love stories that you really like.”

“We talkin' canon or non canon?”

Hunter squinted at her, lost. Seems somebody was not taking enough notes during the slideshow presentation. “Both? A-all...?”

“Oh, well, there's a bunch.”

Luz had no intention of listing every single ship that had captured her heart. They would be here all week.

“I've spent my whole life reading books, watching movies and anime and--”

“Anime...?”

“Hunter, please!” Luz squeaked as calmly as she possibly could, but she could not deny that she had started to vibrate. “You have no idea how excited you just made me at the thought of teaching you about anime but I'd need to dedicate a whole day to that 'cause I need to meet Amity soon and I'm still sorta in crisis mode. So, let's stay on topic.”

Her brow furrowed. “Whatever the heck the topic is! Why are we talking about ships, Huntifer?”

He waved off her question. “Okay but how does the story usually end for all your ships? The book ones, the anime ones, all of them,”

“We've been over this with the fanfiction discussion. They kiss, Hunter. Geez, you want a diagram or something?”

“But what else?” He prompted.

“What do you mean 'What else?'”

Now this was just getting ridiculous.

“They kiss!” Luz said with a huge amount of emphasis. “And again, miscellaneous fluff. They'll do stuff like pick each other up and swing around, hold hands and....walk off into the sunset, y'know?” She waved off all that extra padding as unimportant to the conversation. (Though Luz did really enjoy miscellaneous fluff.)

“Well yeaaaah,” Hunter was giving off vibes of a grade school teacher who gave her little nudges in the correct direction but ultimately wanted her to figure out the right answer herself. She wished he could just give it to her because honestly, she didn't know where this any of this was going.

“But when exactly do they ask each other if they're dating?”

“Whaa?” Well, that settled it. He had paid no attention to the slideshow whatsoever. “Nah, nah, they don't do stuff like that. They don't have to 'cause they're already perfect for each other. All they gotta do is look into each others' eyes and they just...” Luz shrugged, feeling lightness bubble in her chest at the very thought. She had a feeling her smile looked pretty dopey. “They just know.”

“Right. And why don't you and Amity just know?”

The bubbles burst and the lightness turned to dead weight.

The question speared through Luz's gut. Her entire body went rigid.

She had known but...

She had been trying not to...

Not to think about it.

Because if she thought about it, she knew she'd cry.

But there is was. A culmination of every coil of underlying dread that had been gradually writhing in her stomach in a monster of anxiety, summarized in a short and sweet collection of simplistic little words.

Luz did not just know when it came to Amity. She was constantly taking shots in the dark. That is, if she was even brave enough to take a shot at all.

The two of them together were not as seamlessly synchronized as couples in love were supposed to be.

Her throat stung.

Her vision went cloudy with blotted tears but she managed to catch Hunter's stony expression break into one of sheer panic.

“Wh-- Luz! Hey!” He yelped, scrambling to pick himself up from the floor. He nearly tripped over his books as he stood and hurried over to close the distance between them. He made to reach out to her but his hand stopped, just as it was about to brush against her shoulder. It hovered there for a moment, fingers curling and uncurling with uncertainty.

“Luz, listen, I wasn't....I-I mean, what I meant was...uhh. C-c'mon, cut it out!” Hunter's voice crackled with desperation and despite crying her eyes out, Luz felt the watery chuckle at the back of her throat.

“Aww, does crying make the Golden Guard uncomfy?” She tried to tease but her words came out all wobbly.

In fairness to the poor guy, it probably did. Luz couldn't imagine that dealing with tears in a delicate matter, was ever something he would need to handle in his line of work.

For all she knew, this was his first time having to comfort someone like this.

“You don't get to make jokes and cry at the same time. You gotta pick one.” Hunter snipped, but his tone was not nearly as cutting as usual. Luz was almost tempted to call it soft.

Clearing her eyes with the heel of her hands, she finally felt that warm touch on her shoulder, and then another rest against her upper arm.

Somehow the gentleness cracked all her remaining composure and she dissolved into ragged sobs.

Hunter did not speak nor did he let go out her until she got every tear out of her system. He waited patiently, tracing circles with his thumb into her skin.

Eventually, her sniffles fell silent and her eyes no longer blurred. She took a deep breath and the following exhale was shaky but manageable.

“Are you....good?” He asked cautiously.

Luz nodded.

Hunter removed his hands so carefully, you'd think doing so would cause her physical pain. He must have heard once that people were more prone to being hurt when they were already upset and assumed it was literal.

“Do you really think that...Amity and I....” Luz's voice was low and quiet but her jaw was set tight. She refused to let her words be whimpered. She looked up, meeting Hunter's eyes. “Aren't right for each other?”

“What? No! No, no, no,” Hunter looked positively alarmed at the accusation. “Luz th-that's not even remotely what I meant by that.”

“Well, then I guess you accidentally hit the nail on the head.” Luz managed a strained, bitter little smile. “'Cause it's true.”

“Luz, c'mon,” Hunter groaned, exasperated. “Don't talk like that, you've got it mixed up.”

“No.” Said Luz, tone quiet, polite yet strikingly obstinate. “You were right, Hunter.”

For someone who loved being right, he didn't seem thrilled at all.

“When it comes to Amity, I don't just know. I don't always know what she's thinking or what she wants from me. After all this time, I-I shouldn't still be trying to figure her out,”

Luz wanted to figure her out. Every time she was in her orbit, she wanted nothing more to turn over every last piece of that girl and find every hidden gem.

But now, it like she was barricaded. Something was keeping her from moving forward, from discovering Amity.

“I mean, we've kissed.” The memories of Amity were turning more and more bittersweet by the second “I told her I loved her! We had our happy ending already! A-at least I thought it was a happy ending. But we're not acting like people who are made for each other are meant to act!”

“How do you even know how people who are meant for each other are meant to act?!” Hunter demanded, as though it wouldn't reach Luz's skull unless he raised his voice. “In all the love stories you've read, it always ends with a kiss, doesn't it?”

“And--”

“And miscellaneous fluff. Yeah, I get it.” Hunter shooed the detail away before clearing his throat.

“Point is, they never talk about what comes after. You don't read about all those awkward talks where they decide if they're dating or not and talks about what they're okay with and what they're not. It always just cuts to the perfect, shiny romantic stuff, all tied up with a bow and because of that,” He clutched Luz by the shoulders.”You don't know how to move forward in a relationship 'cause you've never had a frame of reference to help you along.”

“Hey, that's not true!” She tore away from Hunter's grip. “I'll have you know that I imagine my favorite ships as couples all the time,”

“Yeah and lemme guess,” He droned, setting a hand on his hip and launching into a mockingly saccharine tone of voice. “They understand each other soooo well all the time, they can practically read each others' mind and everything is smooth sailing and peachy all the time.”

“Yeah, duh.” Luz didn't quite what he was making fun of. “That's what being a ship is all about.”

“Okay, fine, maybe, but I cannot stress this enough,” He ran his fingers through his hair before making a cutting gesture with the side of his hand, directed at Luz. “You are not a ship.”

“Well, yeah, obviously. I'm only one--”

“I mean that the two of you aren't a ship! Listen to me, you're not Azura and Hecate. You're Luz and Amity. You're real people. You've got like a million different emotions and they're messy and crazy and you don't understand most of them.”

“Okay, Hunter, I get it, I'm a hot mess. You don't have to rub it in.”

“We're all hot messes, Luz!” He exploded. “Every single one of us. 'Cause we're real and not book characters.” He was pacing back and forth now as he ranted and raved, gesticulating like a madman.

“We gotta handle all the awkward conversations that don't fit into books. You gotta talk to real people to get them and you can talk to them for years and years but you're never gonna entirely understand them. In your love stories, it's all kisses and happy endings and it's shiny and sparkly and perfect and nerds like you Eat. It.Up!”

Hunter emphasized his point by poking Luz's forehead, shocking a startled laugh out of her. As wound up as he was, the noise surprised him too.

Her laugh was contagious and soon the room was silent, expect for the sound of quiet, breathy giggles.

One of the knots in Luz's stomach had untangled itself. Hunter did make a point that she could understand. Yeah, okay, maybe she had been a little too wrapped up in fiction to successfully navigate through her own life. Luz had never been the most logical person so it was comforting for a levelheaded counter-argument to whatever was currently inflaming her anxiety.

Obviously, this didn't fix everything. Now, she understood why this wasn't easy but that didn't mean she magically knew where to go from here.

Once the shadow of Luz's smile had finally faded away, she looked up and studied Hunter for a long while. Her gaze may have been a bit intense as nervousness began to creep into his features.

“H-hey. Uh. Sorry if I was a little too--”

“Huntifer, I think you might be on to something with this one,”

He blinked at her before brightening with relief, shrugging it off. “Oh. Yeah, maybe. I dunno, I guess it's worth some thought.

Astonishing how Hunter could switch from the cockiest, most obnoxious kid in the Boiling Isles to a remarkably humble guy. Maybe it depended on context. Or he was just embarrassed that he sorta lost control of himself in his impatience.

Luz nodded. “I'd say a lot of thought. But..I think things are still gonna be awkward. With Amity. I still don't know how I'm supposed to talk this stuff through with her.”

Hunter snorted, loosely folding his arms over chest and resting his weight on one hip. And just like that, with that simple change of posture, he looked full of himself again “You wanna know a secret that's probably not much of a secret?”

He beckoned Luz to lean in closer and said in a stage whisper. “Amity probably doesn't know either.”

Huh. Yeah, Luz knew that. She knew that at the back of her mind but...she hadn't really thought about it much. She was a little too preoccupied with her own inexperience.

Hunter's lofty grin softened. “So, it's a good thing neither of you are doing it alone, right? Don't you think you could figure out how together?”

Figure out how together....

The realization sank from the surface of her mind, and everything was processing very fast then suddenly, everything clicked.

Amity.

Luz knew Amity. Luz trusted Amity. Luz loved Amity. If there was any person Luz believed would stumble alongside her through things they didn't quite understand yet, it was Amity. And it occurred to her that Luz would help Amity in return without hesitation.

With enough notches and trimming and smoothing edges, if they worked through this together, Luz and Amity could click too. Maybe not perfectly, not for a while just yet.

But enough that they could make each other happy.

A swing of confidence so strong flooded Luz's system, she swore she nearly collapsed. She felt the grin tugging at her mouth.

She could try. She could absolutely try. They could both try.

“Is...that a yes?” Hunter asked, gauging her expression.

Luz nodded so speedily, it made her head hurt. But then she realized something else and she turned a very specific look on Hunter.

But before he could ask if she was about to attack him, she held up two fingers on each hand and then placed them on either side of her head so they jutted out just behind her ears.

“Man, I don't know anything about that stuff,” Said Luz, in what she believed to be an uncanny imitation of Hunter's voice.

He frowned. “What are the theatrics for?”

“You lied to me!” Luz was delighted.

“I-I didn't lie!” He loudly objected, pointed ears scorching bright pink. “That was just common sense, you doofus. You know, that thing you lack.”

“You know, that thing you lack.” Luz parroted, swinging her hips from side to side. Once again, her impression remained flawless.

“Don't do that!”

“Don't do that!

“Stop, you weirdo!”

“Stop, you weirdo!”

At the peak of riled up, Hunter floundered for a retort that Luz wouldn't shoot back at him with childish mimicking. But then he cracked and wound up sticking his tongue out at her.

Luz simply mirrored him and Hunter huffed indignantly, turning on his heel and stomping back towards his books.

He had barely made a few steps when Luz lunged at him from behind, draping her long, lanky arms around his shoulders.

“Wha—Hey! Get off!” He squawked, struggling to pry her off him as Luz squished her cheek against his.

“Huntifer~” She singsonged. “Can you please calm down for two seconds and let me say thanks already?”

Hunter knotted his arms and his scowl didn't soften but Luz didn't miss how he stopped trying to squirm out of her grip.

“Even though you were kinda rambly and all over the place, what you said helped. It helped a lot. I know this is something I can handle and I know that 'cause of you. Thanks, nerd.”

She waited patiently until she felt his shoulders loosen. And then he glanced back at her and there was a smile. A small, tight, subtle smile but it was good enough for Luz.

And then with a burst of adrenaline, she gripped him tighter and planted a big, wet raspberry on his cheek.

Predictably, Hunter blew his top. He screeched furiously and his hands went wild to push her off but Luz was stronger than she looked. And so help her, she would give Hunter this affection or die trying.

Dying trying did not seem unlikely, actually. Hunter had told her once before that if he ever murdered her, it would probably be her own fault. Luz could not argue with that.

“That is so gross!” He griped, once Luz had finally released him.

“You're gross~” She chirped, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Hunter wiped the spit off his cheek with his palm before looking up at Luz with narrowed eyes

Luz did not have time to brace herself and suddenly she was tackled to the ground. She kicked and she screamed as Hunter dragged his disgusting wet hand across her face.

“GrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGroooooss!”

Hunter cackled maniacally the whole time.

They carried on like rowdy toddlers for a while until Luz had to go meet Amity, leaving Hunter and his palisman to themselves.

It was too weird to admit out loud but he was disappointed that she was gone. Hanging out with her like this wasn't that bad. Talking with her, arguing with her, wrestling with her. It all made Hunter feel....so much like a kid.

Something that he had realized recently was that he still liked being a kid.

In spite of the doom and gloom of white of gold, of the clawed scars in his shoulder, of the spear that grazed his hair, a spark of childishness remained in Hunter that had never been entirely snuffed out.

It wasn't until he met Luz that he began actively trying to keep that spark alive.

The sun had long since fallen asleep by the time Luz returned and the moon was pooling in the sky. A little after sun down, he heard the downstairs door slam shut and the loud exuberant voice of The Owl Lady boomed from the floorboards beneath him. By the sound of it, she was celebrating a successful day's work. Hunter wondered what she and the cute little demon had managed to steal today.

His snoozing palisman was tucked snug in the crook of his neck, a pleasant warmth against his skin. It was a good idea to keep the bird close. If someone other than Luz came barreling into the room, he'd better have his staff on hand to magically conceal himself.

But once an hour passed and the chatter of the witch and the demon below gradually faded into loud snoring, Hunter presumed they had passed out on the couch. For the time being, he should be fine.

Hunter hoped that creepy owl tube thing wouldn't rat them out. Fortunately, Luz had promised that Hooty was willing to take a bribe but unfortunately, gossip spread fast in the Boiling Isles. Now The Golden Guard had a reputation for being a lunatic who visited the night market several times, buying dead mice in bulk.

He snorted to himself, combing through 'From Bones to Fire: A Study of Wild Magic Volume 2'. Everything he went through just to get his hands on knowledge.

Well, also to be young with Luz.

Yet another hour passed and somehow, being surrounded by his own obsession, Hunter got a little overstimulated. To give his brain a rest, he was now flipping through some tattered old magazine that Luz brought with her from the human realm. Some of the articles were practically gibberish to him but overall, it was okay. He learned he was a Scorpio. He didn't know what that entailed but it sounded cool.

He nearly jumped out of his skin as Luz burst into the room, announcing her return.

Startled, his palisman flew into a fluster, cheeping like crazy before it settled down atop his head. Hunter, meanwhile, had flung the magazine away so fast, it was like it had contaminated him, and snatched up the closest book to pretend he was reading it the whole time.

Thankfully, Luz didn't notice.

“Hey there, Little Rascal,” She cooed, prancing across the room and plopping down next to Hunter. “And hey, you little bookworm, you.”

“Bookworm?” Hunter knocked his shoulder against hers. “You looking for a fight, kid?”

“Whaaaat? Hunter, you wound me, I was just....Ohhh, my bad. I always forget that our bookworms and your bookworms are two waaaay different things.” She paused thoughtfully before shaking her head. “Actually, I don't retract anything. You look like a bookworm.”

“Yeah, well, you smell like a selkidomus.” Hunter smirked.

“Hey!” Luz bumped their shoulders. “Can you blame me? I've had one heck of a day with lots of nervous sweating!”

He was surprised that got him laughing but that tended to happen around her.

“So, how'd it go?” Hunter asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Luz's beam was as bright as a dozen of her light spells. The corner of her lip was twitching, as if she wanted to smile wider but it was physically impossible.

“We're dating.” She stated, no more than a whisper.

It obvious since the moment she entered the room, far bouncier and bubblier than usual but Hunter still grinned.

He had expected her to scream it from the rooftops, to grind his ribcage into powder with the force of her hug, to set off a riot of firework glyphs, spelling it out in lights.

No matter how she could have chosen to tell him, he would have been just as giddy as she was.

And yet, despite the lack of fanfare, somehow, it still felt so much like Luz. Though he knew that in the morning, she would tell the entire Boiling Isles, right here, right now, only Hunter knew. Something about that felt nice.

But the quiet serene scene was momentarily ruptured when Hunter spotted Luz re-adjusting herself out of the corner of his eye and he was immediately on high alert. Another raspberry, he could sense it.

“Luz, don't you d--”

It wasn't a raspberry.

The feather-light peck against his cheek was gone before he fully processed it, as Luz drew away with that big stupid smile still plastered on her face.

Hunter blinked away the surprise, looking to her with a raised eyebrow.

“What's that look for? In this family, we give each other hugs and kisses~”

He felt his lip quirk upwards as he scoffed, turning away with a shake of his head.

“That was so gross.”

“You're gross.”

“For real, it was even more gross than the raspberry.”

Luz burst into giggles and Hunter could understand why everything was suddenly a million times funnier to her. She will still fizzling with that giddiness that Amity had kissed into her and now it was all spilling out.

To be honest, listening to a teenage girl gush and squeal about her girlfriend did not seem like something Hunter would ever willingly subject himself to.

But this was Luz. His friend, Luz.

He lightly pinched the pudge of her cheek. “Heeeey. You wanna tell me all about it, don't you?”

Luz snapped her head over to gawk at him, astonished. And then the excitement took hold and her hands started flapping and she looked about ready to explode with delight. Her mouth was already flying open to give every solitary detail of her evening with Amity Blight.

But then she stopped, a crease forming on her brow. He caught that unreadable look she gave him and the way her eyes skimmed over the books that scattered the floor around them.

“Hmmm.” She stroked her chin with an over dramatic 'thinking' face. “Y'know what? I'll think I'll keep it all to myself.”

“Oh, really~?” Grinned Hunter. “I can only imagine all the romantic schmaltzy sickening stuff that occurred tonight. Miscellaneous fluff, right?”

Judging by the blood that stained her cheekbones, he must have been correct.

“Hey, Hunter.” She said quietly, resting her weight against his side. “You've been lost in your books for hours now. Would you mind telling me all about the most interesting you read about today? Reading myself is fine but it's way better to hear all about it from a bona fide nerd.”

Frankly, it was embarrassing how fast the giddiness practically electrocuted him and suddenly he found himself rambling. He rambled until his voice gave up but it didn't bother him at all because it was just Luz.

Luz hung on every word he said.