#luckily I just got a new structure!

[exopelagic]

ohhhh my supervisor is so sick of me

[yaymiyas]

ISEKAI!YANDERE!CROWN PRINCE INTRODUCTION

warning: female reader, his name is saer…just so you can follow a bit lol, isekai lol

a/n: it’s structured a bit differently than my other introductions, do note that yes this is x reader but you had gotten isekai’d into a novel so….i do say her name but…..you’re also you…..if that makes sense, also he is hardly in it but its like….an introduction to the story bc its…an isekai and i needed to layout how i wanted everything to be

its not like you didn’t realize something was up. bright white lights blind you right when you open your eyes. maids coming in and out, calling you ‘miss’ and telling you not to sit up because ‘it will harm you even more’. granted, you were very thankful for their words because, around ten minutes before they came in, you attempted to sit up and gave yourself a headache. even though nobody was explaining anything, you remained quiet, trying to gather as much information from the surrounding maids as possible. the red-haired one with tight curls and an everlasting smile was amanda. she seemed to like you much, more than the other two, and tended to you more carefully. maybe she was your personal maid,or maybe she was just good at her job, but she never let up and called you your ‘name’.

admittedly, none of the other two maids called you your ‘name’ either. it was all just ma’am or miss from them. you just expected a hint of your identity from amanda, based solely on her care for you. selfish? maybe but you needed more hints. the other maids are named cynthia and tilly. the former of the two had long black hair slicked into a low bun, with a small maids hair on top to finish the look. it was a cute detail, if you must say, since the other two didn’t wear them. cynthia hardly spoke above a shout, coming off as more soft-spoken than the other two. she wasn’t really rude, nor did she have an attitude while tending to you, but she wore an expression of indifference that made you think she would rather do anything else.

tilly, on the other hand, was more bold than the other two. still not outwardly rude, but she tested your patience a few times. the main one that got to you though, was when she was rubbing your face. while she was washing off your face with the washcloth, she rubbed against your cheeks too hard, and upon this ‘realization’ she gave you a malevolent grin. her thin lips formed an o shape, mimicking the action of saying ‘oops’. luckily, it seemed as if amanda and cynthia didn’t really care for this ‘prank’ of hers. they both scoffed in disgust, continuing to pick out outfits for me to wear for the day ahead.

a soft but stern knock was heard at the door, revealing a man with black slick back hair and yellow eyes to put the look all together. he reminded you of those webtoon male leads that were cold but female audiences loved. being a sucker for those types, you raised your neck up, making sure to keep your body in the same supine position. the man standing at the foot of your bed looked down at you with an expression that you couldn’t read. an expression that wasn’t scary but wasnt welcoming. tapping along the footboard of the bed, he let out a low sigh out that resembled a growl and turned around to leave. tilly, amanda, and cynthia didn’t acknowledge the man. neither did he to them. the only thing that could resemble an interaction between the four of them was when tilly and amanda gave small bows and the slight side eye cynthia gave before going back inside your closet to look for something.

“madam,”

thats a new one.

“lord saer would like you to have breakfast with him today.”

lifting your head enough to turn your focus towards amanda, you started to guess your facial expression was a bit too expressive because amanda started to giggle. the pain in your body wasn’t really high; it was more the numbness that bothered you. moving your neck and head didn’t really take much strength, it was attempting to move your legs that was the problem. walking towards you in a shift movement, amanda placed the rich, deep purple hair piece down on top of the dress set she had picked out for you. upon arrival, she softly removed your blanket and shifted your body into a sitting position. you felt like a doll.

“okay now miss, i will be lifting you up to wash you now.”

placing her right arm underneath the backs of your knees and her left arm supporting your neck, she quickly moved you to the area you’re assuming was the bathroom. the door to the large room was already open, since once she had lifted you up, cynthia had pushed the door open and walked in herself. the room was massive, twice the size of a normal person’s kitchen. the walls and floor tiles were both the same shade of pale pink, matching the sleeping set you had on. amanda sat you down in a chair and started to strip you down. while she was doing that, the other was running the bath water and testing if it was safe enough. every time the water was a bit too hot or too cold, you saw cynthia’s eyes squeeze shut.

“alright madam edina,”

cynthia sighed, standing up from the clam shaped tub.

“it’s all set for you. please do not make it hard as you have always done.”

not sparing you even a small look, she and amanda were already picking you up and guiding you into the tub. quietly instructing you to lay back, wet, cold liquid found its way both on your scalp and on your legs. edina? are you sure thats what she said? the only edina you knew of was the villainess from the hit novel “obsession falls”. you never really read the book, but you knew of the characters and the content that surrounded it. it was rather controversial for how obsessive and dangerous the male lead was. he had stalked the female lead for years, and it didn’t stop once he got married. with a wife so dismissive and uninterested, the male lead was given all the time in the world to go hunt his prey.

unfortunately for him, once edina randomly started to care about what her husband was doing during the day he had to slowly stop. losing the love of his life to the second male lead, alastair. due to this very random string of events, saer had grown irritated by the events his wife was clumsily stringing together. he then decided to take care of his wife, edina. the night before he was to go and kill alastair, he had poisoned the dinner he had helped make for his wife. from your memory, this was one of the few times in years he had asked his wife to sit at the table and eat with him. she would usually just take her food into her room separately. this night, edina came into the dining room with her most expensive jewelry and dress. she thought this was the night her husband was going to admit his faults and leave the female lead for her. however, what actually ended up happening was that the moment she took a bite out of her steak, her vision went black and her head banged on the table.

focusing on the soft brushes of your hair, you start to put the pieces together. you don’t remember the faces of any of the characters in the story, you just remember the basic blot and conflict. if what cynthia said was true, that you are in fact edina tudor gwynn then that means the reasoning for your stiff body was because of your ‘husband’ trying to kill you. sharply sucking in some air, you seek strength within your legs. even though the lower half of your body was still partially numbed, the feeling of pins and needles filled the tip of your toes to the back of your knees. not wanting to cause much of a scene, even though you were sure she wouldn’t care much, you looked up to check to see if your maid was paying you any mind. cynthia was too focused on rinsing your body, while amanda stopped brushing your hair to grab towels for you.

“cynthia,”

it was amazing how you could even get that out. due to the affects of the poison, your throat had become overly dry and it hurt you to even swallow. that was mainly one of the reasons as to why you hardly spoke to them this morning. stopping in her tracks, she lazily turned her head into your direction. the woman didn’t have much of any emotion on her face. her eyelids halfway down, making it appear that she was tired or just bored. her lips were in a thin line. you had hardly seen her smile or really speak, so you started to believe this was just how her resting face looked like.

“why did he poison me?”

tilting her head a bit, cynthia’s facial expression changed. it was as if your question intrigued her. her low eyelids raised a bit, along side her eyebrows, as she tried to tame the smile that was creeping on her thin lips. this was the most expressive you have ever seen her. she began to part her lips when amanda came back through the door with the towels.

“perhaps this conversation will need to be revisited, my lady.”

[actual-changeling]

I have written many meta posts and s3-theories, and read even more, but I got hit by an idea I have not seen before. (If there is another post, please link it!)

After vibrating for an hour and losing my mind in my dms, I have no scraped together enough brain cells to present what is probably my first actual 'main-plot meta'.

Welcome to another edition of Alex's unhinged meta corner, today with a title to honour Crowley's James Bond obsession and the possibility of another heaven heist.

I give you:

From Jesus with Love - You Will Live Twice

Now, let's get right into it.

I think Neil might have told us more about the main s3 plotline in the announcement article than we previously thought. We all got stuck on 'they're not talking'—for good reason—but it is the part before that which has been bugging me ever since then.

The plans are going wrong—and this time that is a problem for earth and humanity. Turning that around, it means that whatever that plan consists of would be the way to go and beneficial for everyone, the opposite of the main plot of s1.

"They need to prevent the Second Coming (SC)" is pretty much the only and most popular idea I have seen, hundreds of fics and metas and whatnot have been written about it, but I think there's a good chance we're wrong. If we're not, well, I will honestly just be happy to be watching season 3.

Whatever the Metatron is planning will have negative consequences for everyone, or as Michael puts it: "And so… it ends. Everything ends. Time and the world is over, and we begin Eternity… forever and ever."

It sounds very much like Apocalypse #1 - Same Old Plan, same expected result, yet if we look at different interpretations of scripture we find that the SC is not entirely about complete destruction and death for all of humanity—it is about creating a new world/migrating to the kingdom of God.

This is taken from the Wikipedia article about the SC

Resurrection and life in a world to come are a direct contradiction to the result Michael is explaining—total annihilation of humanity.

Now, I am neither religious in any way nor have I ever received any sort of biblical education. Luckily, Christians seem to love talking about the bible because there are dozens of bible website to wade through. If I get anything wrong, please point it out, I have never touched a bible in my life.

So, after reading many, many quotes by a bunch of different guys, I tried to create a somewhat coherent picture of what the SC might look like based on the assumption that the end result is positive. I will talk about how they can be interpreted more in-depth later, otherwise this would turn into a string-net very fast.

Additionally, we can also see where these points overlap with the statement Jimbriel gave in the bookshop in episode three.

What is Jesus' job description?

only God knows when and how exactly it will begin/happen, no one else does, including Jesus and the Metatron

a lot of different catastrophes are mentioned or quoted as something Jesus said, like earthquakes and storms -> Jimbriel mentioned a tempest and great storms

there is also the line "All these are the beginning of birth pains." Birth pains dictate that there will be a birth—birth of the world to come perhaps?

dead people will be resurrected/leave their graves so that they too can be judged (I'd say participate in it but that sounds like the Second Coming is a summer camp activity)

there are also mentions of stars and the heavens in general falling from the sky and the sun going dark -> Jimbriel also mentions darkness as one of the signs

great lamentations, as Jimbriel says, are also a part of many different passages, with humans mourning the world as it was

the Lord will descent with the voice of an Archangel and the sound of a trumpet/the trumpet of God; the grammatical structure of that sentence seems to be interpreted differently depending on who you ask, but the voices of angels/an Archangel and some sort of trumpet are common terms

once everyone is in heaven/wherever the 'main even' will take place, a judgement call will be made for every single person in relation to the book of life, which decides whether they will be punished forever or not (one passage talks about a lake of fire and mentions it several times in a row)

And this is where it gets tricky. To figure out what the SC looks like, we first need to understand a) what the Metatron's capabilities are, b) what he has to lose, and c) what exactly would be a threat to him.

If you ask me, all of this comes down to the Metatron wanting to stay and be in power for eternity with full control over angels so he can do as he please, aka keeping the system running as it is.

We know the book of life (bol) is a thing in the Good Omens universe, whether it does what Michael said is an entirely different question. So far, we have also only got confirmation that hell collects and tortures souls—in such large amounts that they are understaffed—while heaven looks completely empty.

The Metatron runs heaven as an institution, he seems to be the highest power any of the angels have access to and the one they defer to. He refers to himself as the voice of God and combines judge, jury and executioner, making him one great celestial dictator.

From what we know of hell, they do things a lot more democratically, having different councils, dukes, and ranks that are responsible for different levels of command.

We also know that that the Metatron wants the world to end, his goals can probably be summarized as the statement Michael makes, which would leave him in charge without any opposing forces.

We also also know that he sees Crowley and Aziraphale as a threat—why exactly remains a mystery for now—and that the success of his plan hinges on having a Supreme Archangel (SA) he can control. Gabriel decided to become princess of hell and Beez' sugar baby, so he was out of the equation, and after the Armageddon disaster, I don't think he wants to risk failing because of an unfamiliarity with earth (plus, y'know, getting our two idiots away from the plan).

It's interesting to me that right at the end, he says to Aziraphale "We call it the Second Coming"—call, not it is or it will be, CALL. We know that nothing Neil writes is a coincidence, definitely not with such an important line.

Just because you CALL something a specific name doesn't mean it IS what you call it, e.g. Aziraphale calls Crowley a foul fiend when we know he very much isn't.

The Metatron is selling his plan as part of the "Great/Ineffable Plan", so any questions can be blocked by saying it's God's will, it's ineffable. Whatever his plan is, he hides it behind the concept of the Second Coming, which angels know just enough about to understand the basics without having in-depth knowledge of what exactly it entails.

It is a good fucking strategy, I'll give him that, and it WORKS because angels—even if they have doubts—do not question. They simply don't; fear of punishment and millennia of conditioning have left them in a horrible place. When they encounter something unknown, their response is "I already knew that" as to not ask questions.

Crowley questions, we know that, and Aziraphale, ohhhhh, Aziraphale ALSO questions, but he does it in a less dangerous and obvious way. The Metatron is vastly underprepared for that.

(Side note: That alone would be its own meta post, but the gist is that he questions heaven's plans and then adjusts his assumptions of what God might want to what he WANTS God to want, e.g. Job, the Arch)

To summarize everything I just said, the Metatron wants to do what Armageddon failed to do—destroy earth and the universe—so he can be supreme dictator of all remaining celestial beings and gorge himself on power.

But instead of calling it his Big Evil Plan, he calls it the Second Coming, making everyone play along without resistance.

We cycle aaaaall the way back to the sentence I quoted—the ACTUAL plans are going wrong since the Metatron's would mean total destruction.

But what is the SC supposed to be if not the Apocalypse 2.0?

When I look at all the different aspects of the SC and assume a positive outcome, then the end result to me would be a new world that is pretty much like the old world, or maybe even literally the old world but with any destruction reversed. Heaven and hell get dissolved since now that everyone has been "judged", they as institutions are no longer needed, they have fulfilled their purpose.

No more judgement means there is no reason to keep track anymore, so why do you need to run celestial corporations whose only job is doing exactly that? You don't—and THAT is what I believe is the biggest perceived threat to the Metatron, losing full control over everyone and everything, losing his position, his title, and whatever else he has.

On top of that, Good Omens has told us again and again that God doesn't seem to give a fuck about good and evil anymore, and that without heaven and hell being all wrapped up in it, humanity would have 100% free will without any consequences.

Maybe the BoL is empty, maybe it isn't real, maybe Jesus stole it to straighten a wobbly table, who knows. There is a chance it is what Michael says, but I would admittedly find that a bit. too obvious and boring since it would boil the plot down to "they save their own asses again" and not "they save humanity at all cost".

Regarding Crowley and Aziraphale's role in this—I have Thoughts TM but those definitely need their own post. In short, they have to get the SC back on track, the real one.

-

If you have made it this far, thank you for working through what I hope are more or less coherent rambles. Any spelling or grammar mistakes are my own.

Questions? Thoughts? Corrections? Expansions and additions?

Feel free to add to this post however you like (and I can't believe I have to mentions this but if you clown on my post or behave like an asshole you will be blocked).

[nwjws]

let’s share? - yjw

; pairing - jungwon x gn!reader

; synopsis - in the face of your upcoming midterms, you decide to visit the library to continue your revision. luckily, they had just one copy left of the textbook you needed - but you weren’t the only one who did.

; wc - 1k

; tags - fluff, college au, study date at the library

; warnings - this isn't an accurate depiction of college life bc im not a college student yet... not proofread so lmk if i missed anything!

your shoulder aches as it carries the weight of your bag, full to the brim with books and your laptop.

the cool breeze of october doesn't help you either, hitting your underdressed figure mercilessly. you hadn't anticipated it would feel this cold, so you had opted for just a simple flimsy long-sleeved top and jeans. it was a decision you certainly regretted now.

why does the library have to be a 15 minute walk away? maybe you really should've taken public transport - but that would've taken longer, and you want to make good use of time for your psychology midterm tomorrow.

warmth welcomed you as you finally reached the local library, one that was made specifically for all the college kids around the area; for students like you.

relief filled you as you finally set down your heavy belongings on a table, massaging your shoulder right after.

you look around the huge library as you take your seat, when your eyes land on a cute boy just 3 tables away from you.

you take in the way he's hunched over his own notes, a pair of headphones drowning out all other sound. a dimple appears on his cheek as he makes a concentrated face. you suddenly get the urge to poke it.

maybe i should go to the library more often.

somehow, you manage to pull yourself away from thoughts of your new library crush, and focus on your test tomorrow.

you regret procrastinating for the exam - although, if you hadn't then you wouldn't have gone to the library, and you wouldn't have seen mystery dimple boy. so are you really complaining?

soon, you realise your own resources don't have enough information on a study you needed to learn though, but that's why you came here in the first place.

getting up and stretching, you don't realise how long you had been sitting until you stood up. you immediately start scavenging the shelves for books that might have details of the study you were looking for.

you happen to find one that has a collection of studies and theories on the exact topic and time period, and to your luck, it has the exact study you need! it seems like other students had the same problem as you, seeing as the area where there should've been extra copies of it was empty; you had gotten to the last one.

you turn around to return to your table, but find yourself face-to-face with the very boy you had been eyeing earlier.

"oh, is that the last one?" he asked with wide eyes. they glittered and rooted you on the spot, your heart racing as you got a proper look at his face.

"oh! umm, yeah i think so," you reply after a pause, having to pull yourself out of your reverie.

"ugh, that sucks. i really needed details on schmolck et al," he says, bummed out as he looks down and scratches at his nape.

"no way, me too!" you say in surprise. "you take psychology class too?"

"yeah, i guess we all needed that book for the test tomorrow," he laughs awkwardly.

"well, we could just share the book," you propose. normally, you weren't so inviting, and would come up with a compromise such as taking photos of the pages he needed.

but something about his aura was inviting, and easy to get along with. not to mention, he looked like he was heaven-sent.

"yes please, if you don't mind," he smiled gratefully. you swear your heart just melted a thousand times.

you two get to studying together, whispering easy conversations and helping each other with particular concepts the other struggled a bit with.

after telling him that your weaker point was structuring your responses, he gladly helped you in that area, because he happened to know a cheat code to the best way of doing so.

you learned that his name was jungwon, and took a psychology class at a different time as you, which is why you two hadn't met until now.

he was an amazing study buddy, patiently explaining to you in a way you would understand. his voice was soft and sweet like honey, and helped calm your nerves for the upcoming test. he paid attention to you with those eyes that seemed to hold the world within them.

whenever he shifted closer to you to look at your notes, your skin tingled when it grazed against his hand, the heat rushing to your face.

when the sun had set, you decided you spent the last 6 hours pretty productively, especially with someone like jungwon by your side.

something about him made you feel giddy, like you were floating on air. with him, you think you can do anything.

you wanted to get to know him more, find out what he likes and what he didn't. to give him the same feeling he did to you.

"thank you for today, jungwon."

"no problem," he smiled at you softly.

you two stared at each other for what felt like hours, comfortable silence overtaking your little space. soaking in each other's presence.

"so, i really should go back home and get some sleep. mentally prepare myself for tomorrow, you know?" you tell him, and begrudgingly start packing up your things. he follows you after.

"of course. good luck, you'll do well. I know you will."

you look up at him, feeling like you were going to cry at his reassuring words.

"thank you, i have no doubt you will either."

"tell you what, let's both promise to ace tomorrow's exam okay? and then let's get some ice cream after," he suggests, patting your shoulder.

"in the middle of october?" you raise an eyebrow at him, a smile tugging at the corner of your lips.

"nothing like ice cream when it's cold, right?" he chuckled. "c'mon, i know a good place downtown."

"sounds good to me. is this going to be a first date then or something?" you ask with mock confidence, feeling a little unsure if he was thinking the same. jungown frowned confusedly at you.

"what? wasn't this our first date? a study date?"

you stare at him, and giggle at his cute expression.

"well, if you say so, then tomorrow will be our second."

jungwon smiled at you, satisfied as he waits for you.

"take this, it's cold out," he says, shrugging off his puffy jacket, and handing it to you, before taking your hand. "let's go, i'll walk you home."

; tags! - @wonuslust

[sproouts-jpeg]

one piece straw hat post-ts redesigns part 4: monkey d luffy

i like him a lot he’s really cutie patootie! i didn’t have any qualms about his original outfit, i just wanted to apply my own style to it! ignore the weird scribbly inconsistent and maybe mildly overdone shading, i literally did it like 5 minutes before i made this post just cause i was messing around. and then i happen to like it more! i really should shade my work even if its just a sketch it helps with color contrast and vividness so much omg

what i wanted to do most, like my previous designs, is add influences from where he was during the time skip! tho luffy was out in the wild, and completely alone for a good portion of it, i’d like to imagine the kujas made him his new clothes! i took the flower pattern from boa’s skirt and on luffy’s repaired vest from the amazon lily arc and applied it as embroidery and ribbon on the shorts! and i’d like to imagine boa would give him jewelry maybe before he left for sabaody archipelago, cause she’s in love with him…, so i modeled his anklet after her earrings. i made the snake eating its own tail to make it an ouroboros (ignore how i spelt it wrong in the image…), representing eternity and reincarnation. but ive applied it to luffy in the concept of inherited will (he’s taken on the goals and aspirations of shanks, gol d roger, his crew, and given them new life). also kinda how joy/nika is eternal and luffy’s g5 awakening is kind of a reincarnation.

but so while the finer details are inspired mostly by the kuja, the shapes/structure of the outfit pieces are based off of luffy’s influences and mentors!

i noticed luffy probably wears a cardigan post-ts to mirror rayleigh’s clothes pre-ts, but since i didn’t like luffy’s cardigan all too much, the hoodie is supposed to mirror ray’s hooded cloak

luffy wears shorts above/middle of the knee, but i made them longer so they look kinda like ace’s! i was gonna add pockets too but i forgot… he also wears some of ace’s beads and one of the theatrical mask charms (i think sabo wears the frowning one, so there’s technically some sabo refs in there too)

i wanted to include references to sabo, but i wasn’t sure how due to their really different styles… i hope i can come up with something to update this design soon ;-;

the epaulettes (fringed shoulder pads) and folded collar on the black coat are supposed to look like gol d roger’s coat! while its color makes it look like luffy’s coat from the end of the wano arc, which specifically is supposed to look like shank’s coat too! and it’s made of animal fur, so like an altered version of luffy’s disguise cloak given to him by boa before the fish man island arc. technically the shape is also pretty simple to garp’s navy coat, but that’s probably just cause they’re a similar style

no references to dragon… cause he wasn’t there to have any real influence on his son, despite how him and luffy just so happen to take similar life paths. but i made luffy’s skin tone darker and warm toned similar to his father and grandfather’s.

oh also the patterned pants are supposed to be similar to rayleigh and shanks’s ugly little patterned pants too

other fun little tidbits:

luffy’s right ear is torn! my hc is that when he was little, he wanted earrings to look like a cool pirate like shanks and his crew! so maybe makino or one of his brothers did it for him, but he couldn’t sit still for long enough, making it pretty high up on his earlobe and unable to sit down for the other one lol. idk what kind of earring it used to be, maybe a tiny seashell!

ok sad part now! it got torn off when luffy was kidnapped and beat up by the bluejam pirates…

ok not sad part now! i think nami got chopper to pierce luffy’s ears afterwards. cause she caught zoro on the verge of stabbing an unsterile sewing needle into luffy’s earlobes… cause they’re both stupid and luffy would trust him like that. luckily chopper has very sterile medical equipment!

the woven bracelet was made by usopp! its color is purely coincidental… luffy just wanted a purple one

the sash is now tied at the back to look like a monkey’s tail! i wanted to add more sun wukong/monkey king references, maybe instead of the sash there’s tassets or han yao/han bei similar to @/soaked-doors’ luffy design… idk

here’s some closeups with and without the cloak!

uuuh i don’t wanna talk about g5… it’s not really what i wanted to do at all… i’ll try again later…

anyways i hope yall like this one!! i love him a lot! obv any critique/constructive criticism or suggestions is welcome!! don’t expect anything new so soon… drawing men scares me and i can’t get zoro to look right ;-;

[sweetiesicheng]

vernon - music festival

word count : 1,179

-

"and here is your wristband. keep it on for the entire festival, but if you need to get a new one for tomorrow, just let us know," a staff member says to you while handing you a wristband.

you secure the wristband with a fastener. "thanks."

"y/n, your soundcheck is in thirty. do you need anything before that?" another staff member asks you.

"i'm good. i'll just peek at the stage," you reply yo them.

you are performing at a festival, which starts later that day. your dancers are still warming up as you walk toward the stage. there, you find a group performing on the stage.

they sound pretty good.

you look around and find a schedule attached to one of the structures and see their group name. you take a picture with your phone, so you would remember to look them up later.

"ah, sorry, we need the sound up," you hear someone speak from the stage.

you look over and see two of the guys struggling to hear the music, messing with their monitors. you continue watching them as they go through their soundcheck. it seems like some of their equipment isn't working properly, but everything ends up being fine by the end of their soundcheck.

"y/n, you ready to go?" one of the staff members asks you.

"yea," you reply and go on stage. crew members are still putting set pieces together as you put your mic pack on.

your dancers also get onstage and get ready to run through the soundcheck too.

once everything is ready, you go through your soundcheck. luckily, you didn't have any sound issues, but your dancers were getting too close to one of the set pieces during one your songs.

"what needs to change?" you ask your dancers after the song.

"this needs to be pushed in. it's not even compared to that one," one of your dancers explains and points to another set piece.

"yea, we'll hit the band if it's like this," one of the other dancers says.

the crew members move one of the props. the soundcheck continues and goes smoothly for everyone.

once it's over, you go backstage and talk to your team and staff members for the festival for a bit. all of you go over details for everything to make sure that everyone knew all of the changes.

afterwards, all of you take a break and eat catering that the festival staff provided. the festival soon starts, which makes you excited to hear fans cheer. you check out a few sets before hanging out in the artists' area.

"y/n?"

you turn around and see one of your friends, woozi, walking up to you.

"oh, hey!" you greet him. "you didn't tell me you were going to be here," you say to him.

"my friends are here, and i helped with one of their new songs. got the vip pass," he explains. "you should meet them. they're looking to do collaborations for their next projects."

"oh, sure," you reply. "let just grab this..." you look around and grab your drink on a table. you finish the drink and throw the cup away. "did you see that dokyeom is performing tomorrow?" you ask, mentioning one of your friends.

"yea, i think he's around here somewhere today actually," woozi mentions. you two approach a nearby trailer, and he knocks on the door. someone opens the door after a few seconds and looks at both of you. "did you just wake up?" woozi asks the guy.

"yea. what's up?" the guy asks.

"this is y/n. if you need someone for your next project, consider her," woozi bluntly says, lifting his sunglasses up to sit on the top of his head. "let us in. it's hot."

the guy lets you two into the trailer, where another guy is in a chair playing a game on his phone.

"wonwoo hyung, woozi hyung's here with a friend," the guy who let you says to the guy playing a game.

"huh?" the other guy looks over. "oh, hey woozi."

"hey. this is y/n," he introduces you to the other guy. "that guy's vernon and that guy's wonwoo. the other two are s.coups and mingyu. speaking of them, where are they?" he asks and sits down on the couch.

"probably partying," wonwoo replies.

"oh, you're on after our set, right?" vernon asks you.

you nod, "yea. you guys seemed to be having technical issues earlier," you say, recalling their soundcheck.

wonwoo sighs, "that was so annoying,"

"at least it's fine now," vernon replies. "oh, i should probably get something to eat before i join joshua's set," he says to himself.

"joshua? like the singer?" you ask.

"yea, we have a few songs together," vernon mentions. "come watch the set," he says and grabs his phone off of a vanity. "you guys want food?" he asks.

"i'll eat later," wonwoo replies.

"yea, me too," woozi replies. "i'll be in the crowd during joshua's set."

"ooh, i could use another drink," you mention. "mind if i join?" you ask vernon.

"the more the merrier, right?" vernon replies. "i'll see you guys," he says to woozi and wonwoo.

"see ya."

"bye."

"bye guys," you say to them and leave the trailer with vernon.

—

you and vernon hang out in an area covered by a a giant tent due to the heat. you two talk for a bit, getting to know each other more. you mentioned your interests in music and how woozi mentioned the possibility of a collaboration.

"wait, you sing "camera," right? it went viral last year?" vernon asks.

you nod, "that's me," you answer with a smile.

"that's crazy. i love that song," vernon mentions before checking the time on his phone, "oh, i gotta go," he says and throws away the disposable utensils he used. "wanna come?"

you smile, "sure."

you two walk together to the stage joshua's set is at. the crowd is pretty big, waiting for joshua to get on stage as the set is changed.

"josh," vernon calls out to the singer, who is getting ready to go on.

"oh, hey man," joshua greets. "hey, you're y/n, right?" he asks you.

"yea, nice to meet you."

"you, too."

"you gonna hang here or in the audience?" vernon asks you as he starts putting his in-ear monitors on.

"i'll hang with woozi. can't leave him alone," you reply to him with a laugh. "meet you after?" you ask.

he nods, "sounds good." once he’s done fixing his monitor, he takes his phone out and holds it out to you. "give me your number in case we can't meet up," he says to you.

you raise an eyebrow at him, "already trying to get my number?" you ask him.

vernon chuckles, "i'm gonna get it one way or another if we're gonna collaborate. it was either this or i write my number on your arm with a sharpie."

you grin, "alright, just for you," you reply to him and take his phone from him.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Oh my god I somehow didn't think of Abbott Elementary! They're all my favorite: Janine because she's me, Gregory because he's learning how to be a part of this weird little community and I'm proud of him, Ava because she's incredibly funny and chaotic, Mr. Johnson because he's always got a surprise up his sleeve, and Tariq because he's a hilarious mess who loves kids and as long as *I'm* not the one dating him it's great.

But my Favorite? Is Barbara Howard.

She is the senior teacher at Abbott and as she says in her intro, she is there to do her job and go home. She has her regular hair and nail appointments that will not be interrupted. She is a church going lady who has her ways that have worked for decades and is not always interested in anyone trying to shake things up.

All this sets her up as the foil to Janine, the new teacher with hopes and dreams, but luckily the show doesn't make Barbara a one note joke or an antagonist. Instead, Janine has things to learn from Barbara about making a Philly public school teaching career sustainable in the face of structural issues that can't be solved in a neat 30 minutes, and Barbara has things to learn from Janine about pushing back every now and then. When she's resistant to new tech, it's because she's scared of being seen as obsolete herself. When she sticks to her self care routines and her dates with her husband, it's so that she can keep showing up the next day no matter how bad this day went.

I love her the most because I came up in public schools in the South and hung around after school because my mom was a teacher too. So when I say I know Ms Barbara, I know Ms Barbara! Several versions of her were my teachers in K12! They were dignified Black women who knew what they were up against and made a long term commitment to their students anyway. They took no shit and they did what they needed to in order to be okay enough and have enough community to make it to tomorrow. They were the teachers that everyone in town knew and loved but who never got awards. So I love seeing her in the show and getting to see her as a whole person, not just the view I had as a kid in the classroom or as a coworker's kid.

And, final note, I know we're doing characters and not actors, but she's played by the Amazing Sheryl Lee Ralph

She's my favorite, too 💕 my mom is a teacher too! She's been given a couple awards, but she's pretty much what you described. She gives a lot and doesn't receive as much acknowledgement as what I feel she should, but she feels like it's okay. I think she deserves better. Alas.

[athletearrhythmia]

Reminder: needles *are* dangerous

Seeing a lot of needle and heart shocking content coming up again and I wanna speak on dark cardiophilia briefly.

I love dark cardio stuff. I've made no mystery of that. I'm not here to yell or shame folks for engaging in it; I do myself, up to limits I'm comfortable with. But anyone doing it, from mild breath play through sticking needles into your heart and shocking it, needs to remember that dark play is dangerous and can have serious consequences. It's not that people do it, but that people new to it may be naive and putting their hearts at serious risk without realizing. Back when I was a teenager someone put out excellent videos of what turned out to be fake heart shocking and I nearly electrocuted myself trying to recreate it, not knowing it was fake and with no idea that what I was trying would have literally cooked me. (I was trying to use an outlet. Yikes.)

Per needles in particular, here are a few big risks. An unsanitary needle can cause an infection. An overly thick needle can cause structural damage to the heart. But even if you're using a clean, thin needle, if you get it in the wrong place you can damage valves. I have seen this happen to folks.

The biggest risk though is inserting a needle into an artery on the outside of the heart and causing bleeding into the pericardium. This is a medical emergency that can only be treated with urgent open heart surgery. You have hours to minutes to get into the operating room if this happens or you will die. Folks *have died* at least twice that I know of.

This lives in tension with the fact that you actually aren't likely to hit an artery. They're small. However you can't be totally sure where they are either; the location of the heart in the chest is slightly different in everyone. It's like that game minesweeper, there aren't many mines but if you hit one it's game over. Again, a lot of people have done this tons of time and are perfectly fine.

With electricity, there's a similar level of risk for a different issue. This time it's instigating dangerous rhythms by shocking the heart in particular vulnerable windows. These windows are small, so again, plenty of people do this without issue. I know a guy who would go for a hard run, then stick needles into his heart and shock it. He did it for like a decade and then one time he got unlucky and went into a vfib arrest which he luckily recovered from pretty rapidly. I know another guy who arrested his heart at least 3 times, who has since removed his content and gone quiet, leaving me to wonder if he went too far.

To be clear I am NOT scolding anyone. If you know these risks and are willing to take them, I'm not going to lie, I like the content and want to see it. But I don't want anyone making uninformed decisions about the danger. You should certainly not try it just for attention. If it brings you joy, dark and twisted as that may be, and you know and accept the risk, it's your body. Just know what you're getting yourself into.

[isa-ghost]

Oouuu h h .. u wanna talk about your hcs for early years Phil… ooh …(expanding from The Beginning if you want ! What you think the continuation could be, anything before, etc :) )

Oh god oh fuck I have so many thoughts and not enough braincells to put them into words, uhhh

Phil headcanons masterlist

His start, as we know it, is just a humble tinkerer and explorer with big dreams and even bigger ambitions.

I mean we been knew but HE IS A FUCKING GENIUS AND JUST DOWNPLAYS HIMSELF TO HELL AND BACK. He is SO SMART, sketching and studying and calculating things. He's SO PERCEPTIVE and GREAT at adapting, much like the birds he admires so deeply!! He NEEDS his brain busy. He can CRAFT, and a lot goes into that!!

Actually, his downplaying, lack of self-confidence, and inability to see his true skills and worth might come from all his failures trying to fly. He fucked up so many times, nearly killing himself a few and falling harder and harder each new time he failed. Every one of those failures just reinforced the thinking. And he had no one there to beat the doubt out of him and keep him going. Loneliness is a good way to get too deep into your own head.

His skills were and perhaps still are mostly (subjectively) smaller scale things such as the wings. It's once he found the builds of the deities that things kicked up a few notches. The structures were already built to the scale he thinks he can't pull off himself, all he had to do was restore, repair, and improve them. This is what eventually got him on Rose's radar. Even so, even doing little things on those monumental builds helped boost the size of which he can create things. His love slowly changed from tinkering to architecture.

A part of him fears (or perhaps knows deep down) that he is doomed to always eventually lose his wings.

But luckily, Kristin made them very resilient when she gave them to him. Based off what we know from observation, (and biology of birds maybe?) they heal and repair themselves over time.

And when they're severely damaged, he has Rose. After all, she chooses to be a sort of guardian for him similarly to Kristin. When he needs it, she can restore them each time he returns to Hardcore, the same way he restored her creations. It's how she shows her gratitude. All he needs to do is be in the right world. She can't do it across realms.

If there's anything to remember from the animatic, it's that Phil never quits. It takes A LOT to make him do so, and even then there's a chance that some period of time from the moment he decides to throw in the towel, he'll get back to it with fresh eyes and renewed determination. He's stubborn in more ways than one.

To this day, he wonders why crows seemed so heavily present around him in the first place. Of course he loves them, they fascinate him with their looks and symbolism and intelligence and adaptability. But... why did they one day just become so present? He's ""too fuckin dumb"" to think of why, so he doesn't bother. He just enjoys them.

Which brings me to another point. Oh my god is this man allergic to willingly sitting down and confronting huge potentially life-changing shit, especially stressful and negative big shit. Look what he did with the possession. He pretends he does not see it until it's too late, which backfires often.

His interest, if you can call it that, in [not super high stakes] combat developed once he met Techno. As he honed those skills, he applied his agility and the knowledge he had of movement from all his flying to it. He is a Very flexible, graceful fighter.

In general, he's very attuned to his body, both because of what he's had to learn in order to fly, as well as being careful in Hardcore. His self-control is fantastic.

In one of the first few headcanon sets I made, I said Phil fears lacking control of himself. That not only goes for autonomy, but physical control of himself too. It originates from all his falling and being grounded against his will. It's another reason that Ender King not only possessing him, but taking away his wings in the end is such a brutal blow to him.

Kind of a given, but between being an explorer, and once he picked up that interest in crows and desperation to fly and stay airborne, he spent way more time outside than in. We crows see it present day, he really only goes in to sleep and to store things.

Kristin gave him boons, so to speak, such as his wings, when they initially met. She's also the reason he can understand the crows and actually speak to them. He built Brian because Brian makes it even easier for us to communicate with him, but generally speaking, he can still understand us even without Brian's aid.

[certifiedlovergirlsstuff]

Suzie, Do You Copy?

pairing: steve harrington x female byers!reader

WC: 5.2K

warnings: cussing, steve and reader being in love (disgusting). should be it.

summary: Fourth of July is just around the corner. First month of summer moved by in a flash, your busy with work, trying to spend time with your friends and family, and making sure you get to smother your boyfriend in all the love he deserves. But just how long will this peace last?

A/N: ALL PARTS UNDER THE TAG - The Byers Harrington Story- MY FAVORITE SEASON IS FINALLY HERE!!!!! if you have an updated username when you first joined the taglist please let me know what the old name was and give me to new one so you get the notifications.

this has been sitting since january 1st…

@alecmores 💗

series masterlist / steve harrington

previous chapter  next chapter

With the mall buzzing with life on the final day of June, Scoops Ahoy luckily wasn’t packed to the teeth with customers. The booths and tables had barely a handful of occupants, a couple sharing a milkshake, friends laughing and gossiping over their cups or cones in one of the corner booths, and a single mom with her child who was sloppily indulging in their sweet treat. People come in and out of the store with their desserts to continue browsing the giant structure.

Robin was stationed at the counter, scooping orders and ringing their prices. Steve was busting some tables in the lobby before his fifteen started, and you were in the back checking the inventory. Somehow you got bumped to assistant manager, a mystery still swimming in your brain.

Even with it being summer in Hawkins, you had to bring a nice sweater with you for every shift since you’ll most likely end up in the freezer for a few hours, jotting down what flavors are running low, what requires reordering and what flavors need to be pushed more. Sometimes when you run into Robin or Steve after leaving the ice box, the nickname you gave it, they’ll make a quick joke about your flushed cheeks or bright nose.

“Can’t believe I still make you blush after six months of dating.” or “Christmas isn’t for another six months, Rudolph.”

Just as you finished your inventory check of the night, the solid metal door slamming close behind you, Steve pushes through the swinging doors for his break. He threw the dirty rag and disinfectant spray in a bucket beside the sink, as you dropped the clipboard to the tiny table in the middle of the room and stripped your jacket off your shoulders.

“So, what’s the news?” Steve always asked that same question when you were done with your checklist. 

“Uh,” you leaned above the paper, eyes squinting a bit, “need more strawberries, a giant tub of raspberry cheesecake is set to expire next month on the twelfth, and we need more rocky road.”

You sat in the chair beside Steve, head resting in your palm with your elbow poking at the tabletop. Your eyes were drooping, wishing so badly to just rest your head against your pillow and knockout. Steve must’ve noticed your tiredness, his eyes peeking into your view along with a poke to your free cheek.

“Tired?” You just nodded. “Was it another nightmare?”

You hesitated in answering but knew Steve would find out either way, “yeah. It involved you and Will. Wasn’t pretty. I almost called-”

“Why didn’t you?” He interrupted. “Steve, I didn’t want to wake you, plus, it wasn’t crazy horrible. I was just… just shook me up a little.” A truth and a lie.

He sighed, “(Y/n),” he took your chin between his thumb and forefinger and turned your attention to him, “if you ever have a nightmare, whether I’m in it or not, please just call me. I will come over without hesitation, you know I’m always looking for an excuse to stay at your place.” A gentle smile brightened his face.

“You know my mom is okay with you staying over.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome. Plus, Jonathan probably needs space from me now and then.” Their relationship was still a bit rocky, but Steve was constantly working on fixing it, and Jonathan was just… allowing it to happen.

“Speaking of staying over,” you twisted in your seat so your knees were touching, “wanna come over tonight? After last night, I could use my human body pillow.”

Steve laughed, “oh, that’s all I am to you? A body pillow?”

“Well, among many other things,” you started to lean forward, hoping Steve got the message with your action.

And just when he started to meet you halfway, lips inches from connecting, the front bell began to chime repeatedly. Instead of your lips meeting in a sweet, sugar-tasting kiss, your foreheads connected. Steve’s eyes closed and he breathed a sigh through his nose, while you rubbed your lips together to stop a smile.

“Hey, lovebirds, your children are here.” Robin’s teasing voice floated from the front counter through the sliding window.

Steve reluctantly pulled away and threw open the divider. He rested his right arm along the white counter while his left was propped up. From your seat, you could see Mike, Will, Lucas, and Max formed in their huddle.

“Again? Seriously?” He took a glance at you then back to the four, “(Y/n) could ban you idiots.”

“I could, but I do have a bit of a soft spot for them,” you cringed at the flabbergasted look Steve was throwing you.

And when it looked like he was about to say something, another ding stole the attention. Mike’s bored face stared back.

“Well, except for Mike sometimes.” You mumbled before you motioned for them to come to the back.

You opened the back entrance, and one by one they entered the long hallway. With Will being the last one out, you ruffled his growing bowl cut, “you want a ride home?”

He walked backward, front facing you with his back to his friends, “I’ll stop by after the movie and tell you.” He then flipped around and hurried to join the other three.

Steve walked out in the hallway, hands resting at his hips, “I swear if anybody hears about this-” “We’re dead!” They all cut him off. “Have fun!” You chimed in.

You both waited until they turned the corner and were out of sight before heading back to the store. Steve took the free opportunity to pull you into his arms, back flush again his chest with his arms wrapped tight around your stomach. His head dipped down so his lips lined with your ear, “I think I was promised something before we were rudely interrupted.”

A joyful smile took over you, “oh really? I didn’t know we were handing out prizes at work now.”

“Oh, yeah. Helps boost employee morale or something.”

“Morale? Didn’t know we were in need of boosting.”

The two of you continue your slow waddle into the breakroom, Steve not losing his grip.

“Well, me, I personally could use a boost.” He finally freed you from his tight grasp, just allowing you to spin so you were chest to chest. 

“And what could boost your morale, Harrington?”

“Hm?” He hummed with a finger at his chin, really playing up his act, “Oh! What about a kiss from a lovely girl? And may the lovely girl be you, Byers?”

You copied his theatrical gesture, brows furrowed, eyes squinted, with a finger pressed to your pursed lips in fake thought.

“Why not,” you faked enthusiasm that Steve fully saw through.

Steve went with his signature kissing maneuver. His large hands rested on the sides of your face, pinkies resting just under your ears, while his thumbs swiped across your plush cheeks. You would either hold his wrist as you pushed to your tip toes or Steve would already be leaning down and you would hold him in place with your hands at his face or arms wrapped around his neck. Today it was the latter, Steve being very eager to get his kiss before something or someone could stop it from happening.

And when his lips melted into yours, a steady rhythm was building, with hands wandering from their original spots. And just before it could go any further, your bliss was broken by someone loudly coughing. The two of you broke apart and turned to the point of noise.

Robin had a disgusted scowl painted across her face with her arms crossed over her chest, “Harrington, I need you up front with me while (Y/n) goes on her break.” She turned to head back up front before twisting back, “and (Y/n), you promised to keep PDA to a very low minimum at work. For my pure eyes.”

“Sorry, Robs.”

She pushed the saloon doors open when the ring of the front bell went off. You gave Steve one quick peck to the lips before pushing at his chest, “you heard the boss, go help up front.” With that you separated, Steve was forced to do his job and you grabbed your wallet so you could get your dinner at the food court, also for Robin and Steve.

“Okay, so I’m gonna head to the food court, you two want anything?” You said with your head poking through the divider.

Robin and Steve were both helping customers so you waited with patience for them to respond to you. As you waited, you unabashedly watched Steve while he scooped ice cream, and as you were mesmerized by his biceps, the lights turned off.

“That’s weird,” Steve voiced before walking to the switch.

You and Robin watched as he flicked it on and off, continuing to mess with it even though it showed no results. Your heart rate was slowly picking up speed with the length of the lights being off.

“That isn’t gonna work, dingus.” Robin pointed out.

“Oh, really?” Steve shot back before going back to flicking the switch even faster.

Still, nothing was happening, and he finally stopped. You curled your nails into your palms, needing to feel something. Steve went back to flicking the switch, slower this time. And on the fifth time, when he flicked the switch on the lights returned to life.

“Let there be light,” and he went back to the ice cream.

Robin just glared at him before turning to you, “what a guy,” And before she could make a snide comment, she leaned in closer, “are you- are you okay? You look like you’re gonna pass out.” 

“Yeah, yeah, just not a fan of the dark. Uh, you want- you want anything, from the food court?” Needing to change the subject quickly.

She looked at you with hesitation, but played along, “uh, Orange Julius. My usual.” And she turned to the register, Steve taking her spot.

“You want anything from the food court?” “A coke and fries from Burger King, please.”

With their orders, you left the shop to officially start your hour break.

…

You ate your pancakes and eggs in the slow morning quiet. Will was beside you as he leaned over and grabbed another pancake, but you smacked his hand causing him to drop it.

“What?”

“Save that for Steve. You got enough on your plate.” And you shoved a fork of eggs into your mouth.

You heard a door open and footsteps before Steve came into view at the end of the hall. You flashed him a smile as he took the seat across from Will, while he took the plate where the leftover pancakes and eggs sat.

“Thank you, Ms. Byers.” Steve’s voice was deep from just waking up.

She flailed a hand, “how many times do I have to tell you, Steve? You can call me, Joyce.”

“I’ll probably need a few more reminders before it sticks.” He chuckled and then reached for the syrup.

Soon Jonathan’s door cracked open and he was rushing out while finishing his buttons. Joyce rushed over to him, Jonathan slowing his steps. You noticed the faint lipstick kiss on his cheek, but no Nancy behind him.

“Wait up.” Joyce stopped him.

“Oh, no, I’ll eat at work. I’m late.”

“No, your cheek.” And she swiped at the makeup.

Jonathan moved her hand away, “all right, all right. I gotta run. See you later.”

“Tell Nancy she can leave through the front door next time,” you yelled before the front door shut with a slam.

“Ugh. Gross.” Will muttered as Joyce walked back to her seat.

“Well, I don’t think you’re gonna think it’s gross when you fall in love.” She looked from Will to you and Steve, “just look at (Y/n) and Steve. Don’t you want what they have?”

Will eyed the both of you, you and Steve stopped eating to hear what Will was gonna say, “what? Constantly eating each other's faces?”

“Dude, come on.” You groaned at Will while Steve just laughed.

“But, Will,” Steve stopped laughing and looked directly at Will, “I’m sure you’ll find a special girl later in life. You’re a catch.”

“I’m not gonna fall in love,” Will mumbled as he poured syrup over his food.

You heard the hidden pain in his words and understood why he thought he wasn’t gonna fall in love. You gave a slight tap to Will’s foot, his eyes looking your way and you threw a small smile to show just an ounce of your love and support for him.

“What- what happened here?” Joyce muttered as she walked near the fridge.

You and Will watched as she picked up a pile of papers and magnets that must have fallen off the fridge in the middle of the night. You saw how she looked at a drawing Will did for Bob, her hand lingering before joining the three of you at the table.

“So, Will, have any plans today?” You questioned him with a mouth full of pancakes.

“Dustin’s coming home from camp today, so we’re going to surprise him at his house. Ms. Henderson was really excited about the idea.”

“Oh! You guys should try and stop by today if you have time. I know Steve is just dying to see Dustin, aren’t you Stevie?” Your attention is on him now.

You spotted the slight flush to his ears but didn’t comment on it. Steve nodded his head while chewing his food before speaking, “yeah, really miss the know it all.” A tease mixed with fondness.

…

You had a lovely day off today, but sadly Steve and Robin had to work. So you dropped Steve off at the mall, drove off in his BMW, promised to pick him and Robin up at the end of their shift, and decided to keep Joyce company at Melvard’s. With Starcourt bringing newer stores and better work, downtown was empty. Ghost of stores that used to be full of business and life was now just rotting buildings with their windows papered over, and envelopes stuffed at the doorway.

When you pulled up to the storefront, through the window you watched Joyce hanging a giant sale sign, fifty to seventy percent off everything. It worried you knowing that Melvard’s was probably the next store to go out of business, the one store that Joyce has worked at for as long as you can remember. You knew small little Hawkins couldn’t stay the same forever, it still worried you every day.

The bell jingled at your arrival, Joyce already smiling at your visit.

“Hi, honey. What’s up?” She hopped off the little stool and met you halfway.

You shrugged, “wanted to keep you company for a bit. Jonathan’s at work, Will’s welcoming Dustin back, and my friend and boyfriend are working today.”

“Wha- what about your other friend? That- that Munson kid?” “Uh, I heard he went out of town for a few weeks or something.” You threw your arms over Joyce’s shoulders with your face pressed to her neck, “you don’t want your favorite child visiting you?”

Her arms wrapped around your waist, “well, I don’t see Will anywhere…”

You pulled away with a hurt gasp, “mother, I am hurt. Your only daughter, how could you?”

The two of you burst into giggles over your dramatics and before you could be carried any further the bell rang again. Two pairs of eyes landing on, “hi, Hopper.” A wave thrown his way which he returned with a gentle smile.

“Sorry for interrupting-”

“Oh, it’s fine, Hop. What can we do? Or whoever you need.” Joyce started to walk away to the cash register. You stayed behind, taking note of the nervous look on Hopper’s face. Joyce turned around at the quiet coming from the tall man and scoffed, “what now?” This must have been a recurring thing between them.

“(Y/n), could you grab the pricing gun and follow me?” And she headed to an aisle with Hopper in tow.

“So Mike was at the cabin again last night, the two of them in her room, being gross. They were giggling and kissing,” Hopper looked like he wanted to throw up at the memory, “and I always make sure that her door is open three inches, so I took a peek inside to make sure nobody was crossing a line. And when I saw them kissing and called them out-”

“Could you mark this side while I do the wall? Should be three dollars, everything.” Joyce stopped Hopper's story to instruct you. “You can continue, Hopper,” you said as you walked past him.

It was a few seconds before he spoke up again, “and- and then El, she just… slams the door. Right in my face.”

“Uh-huh?” Joyce absent-mindedly responded.

“You know, it’s that smug son of a bitch, Mike. He’s corrupting her, I’m telling you.” Footsteps sounded against the cool tile, “and I’m just gonna lose it. I mean, I am gonna lose it, Joyce.”

“Just take it down, Hopper.” Her voice sounded on the other side of your aisle.

“I need them to break up.” Hopper’s voice was firm.

“That is not your decision to make.” Joyce continued to price variest items.

“They’re spending entirely too much time together. You agree with me about that, right?” Hopper stood from his spot.

“Well, (Y/n) and Steve spend a lot of time together, at work and outside. And I mean, they’re just kissing, right?” Joyce pointed out.

“Yeah, but it’s constant. It is constant.” Hopper sounded like he was gonna blow a top.

You were about to voice an opinion of yours, but Joyce beat you to speaking first, “Oh, you should hear what Will says about (Y/n) and Steve, especially this morning-”

“Mom! Don’t say stuff like that.” You groaned.

“What- I’m just trying to help Hopper with examples.”

“Yeah, but I’m- Steve and I, we’re adults. It’s a bit more acceptable than when two, what, thirteen-year-olds do it. Look it sounds nice that El has someone she likes being around, but she and Mike are practically attached at the hip. And also add to the fact that they can’t stop sucking face, it’s gross. I’m gonna have to side with Hopper.”

Hopper points a hand at you, “thank you. You see, it’s not normal, it’s not healthy.”

“Well, you can’t just force them apart. I mean, they’re not little kids anymore, Hop. They’re teenagers.” Hopper walked his way over to Joyce, you following behind, “and (Y/n), you and Steve aren’t adults yet, the both of you are still teenagers as well.”

“Steve’s birthday is next month, he’ll be nineteen.” Thinking that’ll help your argument.

“Yeah, well, when he hits twenty-one and when you hit twenty-one, I’ll consider the both of you pre-adults. And when you hit twenty-five, that’s when you’re a full-fledged adult. Now, Hop,” her attention is done with you and back to Hopper who was throwing something into the air before catching it, “if you order them around like a cop, then they’re gonna rebel. It’s just what they do.”

You couldn’t argue with that.

“So what, I’m just supposed to let them do whatever they want?” Hopper flayed his arms out.

Joyce huffed, “no, I- I didn’t say that. I think you should… talk to them.” Pricing a box of Tampax.

“No. No. ‘Cause talking doesn’t work.”

“Not yelling. Not ordering. But talk to them. I do it with my kids, right, (Y/n)?”

Hopper turned towards you, waiting for any answer, “oh yeah. Little one-on-ones with each other. Heart-to-hearts, you know?”

Hopper’s eyes looked away from you for a moment like he was mulling over your words. “A heart-to-heart? What is that?” He fidgeted with his hat.

“Well,” Joyce jumped back in, “you sit them down and you talk to them like you’re their friend. I find if you talk to them like you’re on their level,” Hopper leaned against a beam, “then they start to listen. And then, you know, you could start to create some boundaries.”

“Boundaries,” Hopper whispered.

“Yeah, but, Hop, it’s really important that no matter how they respond, you stay calm. You cannot lose your temper.” You noted the eye roll followed by his fingers tapping along the pillar.

“Uh… maybe you could do it for me? Or (Y/n), even, she could do it. El likes you.” A glance your way before it was back on Joyce.

“No. And I say that for both of us. You need to do this on your own, Hop.” “Besides, I’d rather stay on the outside of this situation, it’s not our place. You’re her legal guardian, Hopper.” You added your input, but Hopper just waved you off and looked to Joyce.

“No, no, yeah. Yeah, you could. You come over after work.” He stomped towards her.

“No.”

“Yes.”

She shook her head, “no, it will only work if it comes from you. But…” She trailed off while walking to the counter, “maybe I can help you…” she grabbed a pad of paper and a pen, “I can help you find the right words.” She began to scribble words down with Hopper leaning in.

You watched the two of them, how Joyce was mouthing words to herself as she thought about them before writing them on the page. Noting that Hopper’s eyes glanced in her direction every few seconds before looking away like he didn’t want to get caught sneaking looks her way. It felt a bit wrong to observe them, but there was something that just piqued your interest.

Before you got carried away in your people-watching, a blur of motion was caught in your periphery making you jerk your head towards the store windows. And you saw Nancy rushing away before she disappeared from view.

…

“I know this is a difficult conversation to have… but I hope you know that I… care about you very much. And I know that you-”

“Eye contact.”

Hopper sighed at Joyce’s interruption. You just sat beside her with your arms crossed over your chest.

“And I know that you… both care about each other very much- this does not sound like me at all.”

“Well, you never know. As long as you don’t strangle Mike, it’s a win.” You tried to joke, but it wasn’t working.

Joyce threw a hand over your mouth, “just keep going. Come on.” She encouraged him with a smile.

Hopper took a breath, “which is why I think it’s important to establish these boundaries… moving forward…” he looked down at the lined paper.

“No looking. You know this. Come on.”

“...so we can build an environment… uh… where we… all feel comfortable and trusted and open… to share our feelings- this isn’t gonna work.” Hopper stood from his seat and walked to the empty side of Joyce, “um, it’s not gonna work. It’s not gonna work.” He kept repeating.

“Yes, it will! I promise.” “Just gotta put a bit more… emotion into it,” again, Hopper wasn’t enjoying your criticism.

“Maybe I’ll just kill Mike. I’m the chief of police, I could cover it up.”

“I’ll be your alibi.” You said in all seriousness. You saw the shake of Hopper’s shoulders, a quiet chuckle. 

“Come on. You got this.” Joyce clasped their hands together.

Again you watched as they held each other's gazes, neither one breaking or pulling their hands apart. You saw the tiny smile hidden by his thick mustache, you couldn’t see Joyce’s face, but you knew there was a similar expression gracing her face.

After a minute or two of the growing silence, Hopper broke it first, “you wanna have dinner tonight?”

And that was your cue to leave.

You jumped off the counter and made your way toward the entrance, “Uh, I gotta get going. Steve and Robin are probably missing my wonderful presence.”

Joyce broke her stare with Hopper, “Okay, honey. I’ll see you at home?”

“Yeah, if anything changes, I’ll call you. Bye Hopper.” He waved you off and you were out of the store and into the maroon BMW.

…

With the summer heat growing a bit more as the day went on, the mall was packed with dozens of people. Some just sit at the food court with a book in hand or a group of friends going from store to store with shopping backs held in their grasp as they chat away. Not a single one of them knew of the dangers that have slipped into Hawkins during the dead of night, the things you’ve seen and experienced. You wished you could live like them, oblivious and in peace.

In your spaced-out mind, you reached the brightly colored ice cream parlor in no time, brain lagging for a minute.

“-n). (Y/n), hello.” It sounded like you were underwater and whoever was calling to you was muffled by the waves.

The trance ended when the person shook your shoulder, head snapping in their direction with wide eyes.

“You okay?” Robin’s husky voice was a whisper.

You blinked a few times, “uh, yeah. Yeah, just- just tired, I guess.” You saw the look in Robin’s eyes, she didn’t believe you, “good shift?” You tried to change the subject.

She hesitated before responding, “busy as usual. Along with your boy toy not being able to stop crying for you.” A playful roll of her eyes.

You grinned at that, “Speaking of my ‘boy toy’, where is he?”

“Disappeared somewhere like ten minutes ago,” she shrugged.

You questioned it, but didn’t voice it, “wanna get lunch with us when you’re done? You wanted a ride home anyway.”

“I guess, but all hands within eyesight and no kissing… I’ll allow one cheek kiss. But after that, I’ll throw myself down the escalator if I’m forced to witness your sickening love.”

“Oh, that’s such a nice sacrifice on your part, Robin.” Stretching the sarcastic tone.

Again, she rolled her eyes and turned her back on you before pushing the backroom doors open. You followed a step behind and sat across from her, her legs stretched over the small square table. You swatted at her beat-up converses, “can you get your dirty feet off the table? We eat here.”

“And we also clean it, so it should matter.”

“Not all of us clean it…” you trailed off.

Robin just rolled her eyes at the comment. The two of you chatted a bit, bits of gossip Robin heard from passing customers, what you did while away from work and you made a light mention of the Mike dilemma with Hopper. A joke was thrown in here and there causing the both of you to release loud chuckles that presumably drifted into the dining area.

Your chuckles died off when you heard the hinges of the doors squeak followed by hands resting on your shoulders. You leaned your head back, your round dome mushing into starchy fabric, but you had a lovely sight before you.

“Hi, Stevie,” a beaming smile erupted.

“Hi baby,” he leaned down and kissed your forehead, “I’ve missed you.”

“Hmm, Robin told me you were, and I quote ‘crying for my presence’. Thought you could handle a few hours away from my quiet self.” A tilt of your head finished your sentence.

Steve scoffed and rolled his eyes, “I always want to be around you. Like… you’re like air. I need you every second to live or I’ll die.” His thumbs swiped along your jawline.

You peered at him with wide eyes with your mouth agape, startled by this sudden admission. You wanted to make a joke, something to break the silence, but you knew if you joked when Steve just said those, it would leave cracks in his heart. So the most you could do at the moment was beam him a smile and twine your hands together.

“Ugh, I’m gonna barf.” Robin broke the lovely spell.

You bit your lip to stop the childish smile that wanted to follow her comment. Steve huffed and moved to the seat that was in the middle of yours and Robins. He ran a hand through his hair before moving it to his cheek and leaning into his palm with his eyes zeroed in on you.

“What?” You asked after a beat of silence.

You couldn’t see the smile, but you saw his cheeks move, “you’re just really pretty.”

“Well I think you’re pretty, without a doubt,” you tried to argue back, not being able to handle compliments thrown your way.

Steve shook his head, strands of chestnut hair touching his forehead, “nope. Nobody comes close to the beauty you radiate.”

You fidgeted with your hands before covering your face, not being able to handle the sweet honey dripping from Steve’s lips or the loving gaze that was staring down into your soul.

“Guys, what have I said? No PDA! For the love of my sanity, please.” Robin’s voice cracked at the end.

“We aren’t doing any PDA, Buckley. I’m just making sure my girl knows how loved and gorgeous she is.” Steve shrugged like it was nothing.

“Yeah, well it feels like I’m being forced to watch the two of you kiss. It’s so- ugh!” She threw her head back before smacking a hand into Steve’s bicep, “stop eye fucking her! I’m right here! Save that for private time, please.” Her hands clasped together, really begging for a reprieve from the two of you.

“Guess you don’t want a ride home then,” Steve spoke as he stood from his seat.

“Honestly if this keeps up, I’ll for sure just take the bus home.” She grumbled.

You couldn’t help but chuckle at their friendly banter, the two of them firing at each other just as the other shoots back. You can’t help but think that these two people somehow became friends on their own, with very little push coming from your end. It made you happy, one of your best friends and your boyfriend getting along well with or without you around.

“Okay, okay. Let’s put the claws away and let's get food because I am starving.” You mediated the situation from going any further.

“Yeah, whatever. Harrington’s paying for me,” Robin walked away to grab her backpack. Steve was opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

You just held your hands up, “you were eye fucking me earlier, this would make up for it.” A stupid reason, but you knew Steve would give in either way.

And with a simple roll of his stunning brown eyes, you knew he caved. And pretty quickly, might be a new record.

“You’re very lucky that I would do anything for you.”

“And that includes buying Robin’s lunch. Like the good friend, you are to her.” A quick tap to Steve’s chest.

When Robin came back the both of you left Steve behind and walked out of the store with your faces close together as you gossip around the fast-paced bystanders. And if one of those topics involved Steve… he didn’t need to know any of the tiny details.

...

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*striked out means tumblr cant find you, sorry*

[vyeoh]

i dont understand watchers lmao

like i kind of get the gist

but i did not watch evo

and do not have time to (sadly)

so...help???

Luckily for you, the watchers at this point are pretty removed from the Evo ones! There are some pretentious purists out there, as with anything, that like to bitch about people not following the original script (god knows I'm guilty of this with other stuff lol) and I've noticed bitching about this specifically becoming more popular, but I'm assuming you're coming to me about the lifer series watchers and not Evo watchers. That being said, here's Vio's Watcher guide of questionable accuracy:

The Life Series watchers are only really "canon" in Martyn's lore, with them being referenced but not explicitly canonized in the Secret Life state (the symbol on the mask is their symbol from Evo but no one else really has lore, period, so I hesitate to count this as more than an easter egg for anyone else but Martyn). From what I can tell, the Watchers retained a few things from their Evo lore:

1) The ability to move players to new worlds- In Evo, the Watchers were the ones who moved people to more updated versions of the game (the series concept was playing survival but gradually updating the game version as they went). This ability lends to the life series Watchers being the "gamemakers" and being able to put players in a new game ever season

2) Grian - at the end of his Evo series (tho notably not the Evo series in general), he was taken after jumping into the end portal by the Watchers. Based on the end credit poem being replaced with a dialouge between two of them, and a third one joining in at the end, the assumption is that Grian became a Watcher. As Grian is also the server owner for the Life Series, him being a Watcher plays well into the Watchers being the game runners. I'm not sure how canon this is in Martyn's lore or if it's still an unknown, but it is a prevailing theory that Grian's involvement isn't part of the other Watcher's plans and is to try and fuck up their shit on the inside and essentially do damage control for his friends. This is based off of the quote "He was never meant to interfere, he was onlt ever meant to watch" from Martyn's videos. However, c!Martyn, who is the perspective we see, is not omniscient and therefore there's a lot we just don't know.

3) Listeners/ why the Watchers seem to hate Martyn and also Jimmy: from what I understand from the little Evo lore I remember (this was years ago lmao), the Listeners appeared later as an antagonistic force to the Watchers, and got Martyn and Jimmy on their side. They were presented as a route to freedom vs the Watchers, but once again unreliable narration needs to be kept in mind. This is likely why the Watxhers keep fucking w Martyn specifically (and might provide an in canon reason for why Jimmy keeping dying first as well lmao) but it hasn't really be touched on beyond 1) Martyn is canonically a Listener and 2) the Watchers know he's a Listener

4) So.... what are the Watchers? - this one is, canonically, unknown and therefore the source of the aforementioned pretentious bitching. You need to keep in mind that mcyt roleplay is not structured and Evo especially didn't start out expecting deep worldbuilng. This, plus the fact that the Watchers are higher powers that different people have different opinions on, means there's going to be a lot of info that just doesn't line up, from both a meta and in canon perspective.

One theory is that they're a representation of viewers. This is at least somewhat true, imo, based on how Grian "becomes a viewer" after ending his series. This is not canon, but personally I do like this theory lol. This also carries into Secret Life, where viewers can submit tasks via the statue. However, I don't think this is canonized ever and might just be more symbolic than literal. There's also a theory that Watchers vs Listeners are a dichotomy between the bad viewers who just "watch" and demand things without "listening" to the players, while Listeners are viewers what actually "listen" to what the players want to do. However, as with everything, this is speculation based off of a 3rd person limited perspective.

5) Are they evil?- once again, depends on who you ask and what version you're talking about. According to c!Martyn in both series, yes. According to c!Grian from Martyn's lore, probably? Or at least he doesn't like this particular plan of theirs. According to Evo fans who remember them as just "plot bunny for why the version of the world keeps changing", probably not. We really don't know a ton about them and so you are free to make them as evil as you want or as neutral as you want.

This is preally much all ik about the Watchers and how they relate to the Life Series. You will notice that most of it is theories or hinted at things. The beauty of mcrp as a genre is that it's very semi-formal, and so canon is a bit wiggley. So TLDR: do whatever the fuck you want lmao. You don't need mine or anyone else's approval. It's your right to do what you want with canon, just as it's your right to bitch about it on the internet. Just don't be a dick about it and everything will be fine 👍

[cartoondrawer]

As the villains had continued their meeting for their next plan, a knock on the door was heard. Everyone went silent as the knocking got louder. Zach sighed and started walking towards the door, although Donita got up, grabbing him.

Donita: “Zach. I don’t think you should open it.”

Zach: “Why not?”

Donita: “..Because we are on your plane. Flying. I don’t know how someone would be knocking.

The door bursted open, interrupting Donita. Floating in the doorway was Indigo, who seemed pissed off. She was being held by one of her robots who had a similar structure to Donita’s mannequins, except they had more animal features.

Indigo: “Ah..the old crew..oh and some new friends?”

As her robot dropped her into the plane, Zach and Donita froze. Indigo glanced at Paisley and Rex, heading towards them.

Gourmand: “Indigo! How are you doing-“

Zach: “Don’t.”

Indigo turned around for a moment before continuing to look at the two newer villains.

Indigo: “Huh. Tried to replace me with them..huh? Maybe next time don’t choose a..tiny option.”

Paisley: “Excuse me?”

Rex was very quiet, staring at Indigo.

Indigo: “Oh? Rex. Haven’t seen you in a long while..”

Indigo seemed to know Rex and was now more irritated. Everyone else had obviously been a bit weirded out, especially Donita and Zach. Zach started yelling out.

Zach: “Rex! You know this woman?!?”

Rex: “I-it’s complicated!!! I-“

Indigo: “What a coincidence!~ Well..I came here for one thing.”

Reaching into her jacket’s pocket, her hand pressed down a button which made the Zachbots purple-ish instead of red.

Zach: “HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!?”

Zach ran at Indigo, trying to take the button away. But before he could grab her, one of the Zachbots grabbed him by the arm tightly. Gourmand and Dabio were surprised considering Indigo wasn’t like this…at least that’s what they thought.

Gourmand: “What the hell?! What are you doing-“

As Indigo stood there smiling, the rest of the villains got grabbed by Zachbots. Indigo whispered to herself as she opened the back of the plane, revealing they were above water.

Indigo: “Might as well dump you all here now. You guys have no purpose to my plan.”

All 6 of the villains started yelling and protesting over each other, making Indigo groan.

Indigo: “Seriously? You guys weren’t this loud when I was here..I’m getting tired of you honestly.”

The Zachbots held the villains over the edge as they became silent.

Gourmand: “What the hell is wrong with you?!?”

Indigo looked at Gourmand, rolling her eyes. She snapped her fingers as the Zachbots dropped them. She smiled as their screams were heard..getting quieter and quieter…stopping.

————————————————————————

…

Land? Maybe.

Zach woke up to be soaking wet but luckily on sand. He looked around to see the other villains waking up too, they all seemed to be alright.

Zach: “W..what the..?”

Donita: “U-ugh. Sand.”

Dabio: “Donita! Are you alright?”

Donita: “I-I’m fine. What just happened?!”

Zach got up, wiping some of the sand off himself. He turned to Rex who was helping Paisley up.

Zach: “You..you knew Indigo?”

Rex: “…Yeah. She’s uh..an old friend.”

Zach: “Damn it..”

Gourmand: “So what’s going on?! Why did she attack us?!?”

Zach went silent, shrugging it off as if he didn’t know. As everyone else was trying to get sand off and trying to get dry, Donita turned around.

“Oh god.”

The Tortuga. They ended up at the damn Tortuga.

Donita looked back at the others who noticed already, sighing.

Donita: “Should we?-“

Zach: “THERE IS NO WAY I’M GOING IN THERE.”

Gourmand: “I agree!”

Donita: “Well then..I’m going in.”

The rest of them gasped as Donita walked away, heading towards the Tortuga.

Paisley: “I hate to agree with Donita..but she’s possibly right.”

Zach: “EXCUSE ME?”

Paisley: “They are possibly the only people who can actually help us. I think it’s best we get assistance.”

Zach glanced at Gourmand, Dabio and Rex and groaned.

Zach: “FINE. Just this once.”

Paisley nodded as the rest of them caught up to Donita.

————————————————————————

Koki heard a knock, turning to Aviva.

Aviva: “Be careful, we don’t know if it’s that Indigo..”

Koki: “Of course!”

Koki ran to the entrance and pressed the button to open the door. She was frightened by the sudden appearance of their enemies. She almost closed the door suddenly..

Donita: “Wait wait! We need your help..please?”

Koki: “How do I know it’s not a..trick?”

Donita: “I literally-“

She glanced at the villains before turning back to Koki. She whispered.

Donita: “I saved the brothers? Just let us in, we need your help..”

Koki took notice of the villains, realizing they have nothing on them. She sighed and smiled awkwardly.

Koki: “Okay. Just..NO funny business. Alright?”

Zach: “YES! THANK YOU!”

Koki moved out of the way as the villains walked in. Aviva saw as Koki glanced at her, shrugging.

Aviva: “Wha..what’s going on here?”

Koki: “They need help or something…”

Aviva noticed Zach as he turned away.

Aviva: “This isn’t another one of you-

Zach: “NO. Just let us explain!”

Aviva: “Fine. 5 minutes.”

————————————————————————

[1dmonthlyficroundup]

— 1D Monthly Fic Roundup —

Hi, and welcome to the 1D Monthly Fic Roundup for December 2023! Below you’ll find 1D fics that were all published this month and arranged by writer due to the number of fics this month as there were too many tags for tumblr. We hope you’ll check out these new fics! If you would like to submit your own fic, please check this post on how to submit or visit our blog @1dmonthlyficroundup​. You can find all our other posts here.

Happy reading!

＊ Heart Beat by @allwaswell16 [E, 33k, Louis/Harry]

Hideaway Haven is the place that Louis has always called home. It's also the place that Harry had tried to leave behind him. When Harry returns to start a music academy in his hometown, he finds himself face to face with his high school crush—and his charming daughter who wants to learn to play the drums.

A 2023 Advent Fic

＊ Daydream [T, 2k, Zayn/Louis]

Every Thursday, Louis nods hello to her fellow regulars at Horan’s Cafe, one of whom is the woman of her dreams.

＊ One [E, 4k, Louis/Tommy Shelby (Peaky Blinders)]

When omega Louis Tomlinson becomes pregnant after an unexpected encounter, he decides his only option is to flee his pack. But Tommy Shelby, pack alpha of the Peaky Blinders, might not be willing to let him go so easily.

＊ to wake up by your side is all I wanna do by @beardyboyzx [G, 1k, Zayn/Niall]

Sometimes, Niall still thinks about the way Zayn’s laugh sounds when they watch TV and Niall makes up fake answers for whatever quiz show they’re watching.

＊ it's a holidate by @disgruntledkittenface [M, 4k, Harry/Nick Grimshaw]

“So you know me well enough to come in my mouth–”

Nick’s head, along with Fiona’s next to him and those of practically every other attendee of the company holiday party, swivels in the direction of the girl in the red dress whose voice has risen enough to be heard over the music being piped across the 17th floor.

“–but not well enough to get me a Christmas present?”

Most of the crowd politely looks away at this point. Nick bursts out laughing.

When Nick meets Harry at his company holiday party, he never would have predicted that he’d met his match. Luckily, he’s been known to be wrong on occasion.

＊ Red [E, 4k, Harry/Louis]

Louis is wallowing after the breakup. He's never felt this kind of heartbreak before. All he wants to do is lie on his couch and listen to Taylor Swift alone. But when the pain is too much to handle on his own, he calls the one person who understands how this feels.

＊ You Don’t Have to Be Lonely Tonight by @neondiamond [G, 2k, Louis/Harry]

Louis is stuck working the Christmas day shift at the coffee shop. Harry is the sad stranger who comes in to spend the day there.

＊ An Annual Affair [G, 1k, Harry/Louis]

One Direction’s annual Christmas dinner, featuring pregnant Harry and his overprotective Alpha Louis, nervous Liam and his calm and collected mate Zayn, and clueless Niall who may or may not have a death wish.

＊ Not Quite Structurally Sound [G, 1k, Zayn/Liam]

Zayn and Liam help their two kids build a gingerbread house.

＊ You’re Family [G, 2k, Louis/Harry]

Louis is a little nervous about meeting Harry’s family for the first time for Christmas. Harry’s Mum shows him he has nothing to worry about. Part 3 of Inner Crisis universe

＊ A Special Bond [G, 1k, Niall & Harry]

Baby Lilah goes to see the Christmas lights with her Daddy Harry and her uncle Niall.

＊ Mistletoe Kiss [G, 1k, Louis/Harry]

A little bit of mistletoe is just the thing Louis needed to let his roommate Harry know he’s got quite the crush on him.

＊ Cookies and Christmas Cheer [G, 1k, Niall & Zayn]

When Niall is feeling a little sad at having to work over the holidays, his fellow nurse Zayn shows him a little Christmas spirit is still possible.

＊ All That Counts [G, 1k, Louis/Harry]

A soft Christmas morning in the Tomlinson-Styles household.

＊ Lonely Cards Club by @hellolovers13 [T, k, Harry/Louis]

Harry's life in Cardiff is rather uneventful. Until he receives a strange Christmas postcard.

It gets even stranger when he finds another one the next day.

An Advent story about missed opportunities and second chances.

＊ It's okay, 'cause you're not alone [T, 896 words, Niall/Zayn]

Niall focussed on Zayn’s steady heartbeat, tried to use it to ground himself.

thump, thump, thump

One, two, three.

He was safe.

Always safe in Zayn’s arms.

＊ tell me that your sweet love hasn't died by punk_pillow_princess / @punkpillowprincess [M, 27k, Louis/Harry]

“Remember when I said that I came out to my parents last summer, and told them we were together, and they took it really well?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate.”

Louis tries to settle better in the seat to see Harry. “They didn’t take it well?”

“No...I didn’t tell them.”

OR Louis and Harry have been in a relationship for a year. While on their way to Harry's parents' house and his family's legendary annual Christmas party, Louis discovers that Harry has not yet come out of the closet to his family, who are also full of secrets, fears and afraid of a bad reputation in town.

A Happiest Season AU

＊ Chaos by @haztobegood [M, 100 words, Louis/OMC]

Against the barricade, it’s complete chaos.

＊ Baking Memories [T, 2k, Louis/Jack Cochrane]

After a long day of songwriting, Jack convinces Louis to bake mince pies together.

＊ Jump! by @reminiscingintherain [M, 15k, Louis/Tommy Longhurst]

He let out a noise of surprise as his arms were suddenly full of a sweaty body, as Tommy threw himself at Louis and held on tightly. “Thank you so fucking much,” he muttered against Louis’ shoulder, squeezing a little. “You have no idea how much this means to us.” Louis softened a little, gently tapping Tommy’s back. “I absolutely know what this means, lad,” he replied, his voice gentle and supportive. “The way you’re reacting to being out there? That’s exactly why I chose you for the support slot.” He gave a reassuring squeeze. “You deserve this, okay?” He pulled back a little, gripping the back of Tommy’s neck and looking him in the eyes. “You deserve this.”

＊ don’t let the fire die by @nouies [E, 8k, Harry/Louis]

Harry makes a long trip to take back what is his. Part 2 of burning bright

＊ Ride My Sleigh Tonight by @kingsofeverything [E, 9k, Louis/Harry]

In exchange for free food and drinks at Liam’s office holiday party, Harry pretends to be his boyfriend.

But this is not that story.

＊ “Are there any gays in here?” by red_panda28 / @red-pandaaa [E, 7k, Harry/Louis]

“Maybe you just need a different approach,” Niall suggested, as Louis stopped by to pick up Clifford and was whining about not having met anyone in ages.

“Yeah, cheers. Very helpful,” he replied sarcastically. But as he took Cliff for his evening walk Niall’s words stuck with him.

OR Louis is fed up with meaningless hook-ups, Harry happened to visit Starbucks on a Wednesday, and Clifford is the best

＊ Stuck in Midnight Traffic by LetTheMusicMoveYou / @letthemusicmoveyou28 [M, 2k, Louis/Harry]

The curly haired man sniffles again, but the tears seemed to have stopped for now at least. “I was supposed to spend Christmas Eve with my boyfriend, that is until we got into a horrible fight.” He seems to wince at his own words. “I guess I should start getting used to calling him my ex-boyfriend. But anyways, we just couldn’t stay there any longer. Kevin and I had to get out.”

Louis blinks before looking around the empty tube car confusedly. “Kevin?”

The man nods and then squeezes a little tighter to the little potted plant clutched in his arms. “Kevin is a Christmas Cactus, but he doesn’t bloom.” He quickly adds. “Which is completely fine, because I love him just as he is.”

Louis’ not sure what most of that means. All he does know is that he needs to make sure this strange, beautiful creature is never sad again.

(Or the one where two broken people meet in an empty tube car on Christmas Eve. Can they find a way to heal each other?)

＊ Let Me Inside by @enchantedlandcoffee [E, 286 words, Louis/Harry]

Louis gets a surprise visit from his alpha in the shower.

＊ Feel My Traces [M, 2k, Harry/Louis]

“Oh. You actually have a tattoo gun?" "Yes, Harold, I actually have a tattoo gun. What did you think I was gonna tattoo you with? A cucumber? You do talk some shit sometimes," Louis teased, walking up to Harry with the tattoo gun in his hand. "Right, what do you want?" Harry looked at the device and paled. "Um…" "Not backing out on me now, are you Styles?" Louis teased, a gentle smile forming on his face. "You see, the thing is, I didn't actually think you had a tattoo gun,” Harry chuckled nervously, eyes still fixated on the device.

Or, temporary tattoos, a misunderstanding and a passionate moment.

＊ Do you really want to be all alone? [G, 601 words, Louis/Harry]

Harry, Louis and the kids wake up on Christmas Morning. Part One of Three, Part 6 of The Coach Tommo Universe 

＊ hope we grow old but we never grow up [G, 5k, Niall/Harry]

But Niall was convinced that Harry couldn't like him back, that just wouldn't make sense. Both of them couldn't be that oblivious to how the other one felt. …Right? So he did the only logical thing his 17 year old self could think of. He flirted back.

OR Three key moments in Niall and Harry's relationship.

＊ I'm Missing Half Of Me... [T, 233 words, Louis/Harry]

Louis calls Harry after he's shaved his head.

＊ Always You [G, 922 words, Harry/Louis]

“You heading home, mate?” Liam asked as the movie ended. softly nudging Zayn to wake him up. “Is it alright if I just kip here, Payno?” Louis answered, taking a sip of his beer as he stretched his legs out, having been sitting on them for the majority of the movie. “You sure, Lou? You’re only down the hall and I’m sure Harry’d be worried if you didn’t come home?” “Nah, I'm sure he'll be just fine by himself for one night. Besides, I’m pretty sure Nick’s over there.” Louis drawled, finishing off his beer as he searched his pockets for his phone. Liam winced at the bitter tone in his friend’s voice.

Or, Louis calls his ex on Valentine's Day.

＊ Have yourself a larry little christmas [T, 2k, Louis/Harry]

The two of them had planned to exchange presents for Christmas and Louis’ birthday before they separated until New Years and Harry thought it'd be a perfect time to introduce Louis to his cat. However, they’d run into a small obstacle shortly after they'd arrived. That obstacle being British weather. An alert from their weather apps had popped up on their phones, signalling to them the start of a freak snowstorm and advising everyone to stay indoors.

OR A plan to exchange presents lead to more than both Harry and Louis bargained for.

＊ All The Way Home I'll Be Warm by @justanothershadeofblue [T, 2k, Louis/Harry]

Harry & Louis jokingly send out holiday cards together as friends, and now everyone is congratulating them for finally getting together. A 5+1 fic, for Christmas.

＊ Be Merry All [M, 30k, Harry/Louis]

there is a specific sort of oppression that comes with a miserable so-cal christmas, when it’s dark and dirty and rainy or else it's too hot and too bright and everyone’s hustling, and your family is all far away and the laundry machines in your building are broken and you’ve eaten too much take-out and all you want is two seconds of quiet and maybe a morsel of holiday joy.

an advent fic, posting daily (in theory).

＊ Santa Baby (one little thing I really need) by we_are_the_same / @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed [T, 3k, Louis/Harry]

When Louis himself had first heard those words - all the nurses at the A&E have a secret line to Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve-, not nearly long enough ago to be considered a child himself, but long enough that he hadn't really felt like an adult all the time, he’d laughed them off. Thought they were sweet, of course, but just a line, something said to appease the kids who ended up having to stay overnight. Something to explain the presents that parents brought to the hospital on Christmas morning, or that were waiting for them at home, if they were lucky not to have to stay any longer.

Something that would allow a little bit of Christmas spirit in the sometimes sterile rooms of the hospital.

But that was before he’d met him.

＊ Snow In Love by @lululawrence [NR, 33k, Harry/Louis]

Harry and Louis are best friends and have been for basically as long as they can remember. For the first time since middle school, they are both single for the holidays leaving them with the brilliant idea to take each other as their dates to work events. To make things easier they will pretend like they’re dating. But then they learn something funny.

People thought they were already dating. Weird.

An advent fic featuring childhood friends, fake dating turned actual dating, really horrible secret keeping, and a winter weather surprise.

＊ Damsel in Christmas Distress [NR, 5k, Louis/Harry/NIck Grimshaw]

Nick's door was open. He didn't leave it that way. Maybe his gorgeous neighbor will help protect him from any possible murderers who have made their way into his flat while he was gone.

Merry Louis' birthday, Happy Stylinshaw.

＊ Step Into Christmas by babyhoneyhslt / @babyhoneyheslt [G, 4k, Harry/Louis]

Louis just wants to celebrate his birthday in peace, without all the Christmas antics.

Instead he wakes up in a strange bed, a confused stranger next to him and a self proclaimed elf calling him Santa. Part 1 of Holidays Are Coming

＊ 'tis the damn season by YesIsAWorld / @louandhazaf [E, 17k, Louis/Harry]

Harry returns to her small hometown over the holiday season and starts to think about the road not taken.

＊ A Christmas at Home by @parmahamlarrie [T, 3k, Harry/Louis]

After meeting his boyfriend in the emergency room, not having Louis home for Christmas Eve (and his birthday) was not a big surprise to Harry. What he didn't expect was just how hard that would be on his six year old son, Arlo.

Or, the one where Arlo wants nothing more than to celebrate Louis' birthday with him, and Harry hates having to be the parent who says no. Part 2 of Arlo's Christmases

＊ Get Out Of My Head (and I'll get out of yours) by Imogenlee / @imogenleewriter [E, 29k, Louis/Harry]

“You really that desperate, are you?” Despite it being a shitty thing to say, Harry didn’t mind too much, as the bitterness in Louis’ tone sounded like music to Harry’s ears. Harry was winning tonight. “Can’t find anyone new to be interested in you, so you try to hit on Zayn.”

“I can’t find someone interested in me?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’re having a laugh, mate.”

“Yeah, well, where are they, then? Because from what I’ve heard, you’re here alone.”

“As if I’d bring anyone to somewhere I knew you’d be. I wouldn’t wish your presence on my worst enemy.”

“Aw,” Louis cooed in a way that made Harry want to slap him. “You’re saying I’m not your worst enemy?”

“For someone to be an enemy, you have to give a shit about them. So, no. You’re not even on the list.”

“Oh–kay. Well, it’s been lovely as always, gents,” Zayn said before knocking back the rest of his drink.

Or the one for the Bottom Harry Fic Fest where Harry bottoming is more of a side plot, because angst got in the way--but it doesn't really matter because the fest stopped existing when I was halfthrough.

＊ Oh Christmas Three by @tommokat [M, 1k, Harry/Louis]

A birthday surprise goes awry. Louis doesn’t understand. Harry blames the oven.

— Fic Fests —

＊ Louis Rare Pair Fest / @louisrarepairfest [AO3, masterpost]

A rare pair fest for all Louis rare pairs

＊ The Show Fic Fest / @theshowficfest [AO3, masterpost]

Fics written for and inspired by songs from Niall Horan's third album The Show

— Podfics —

＊ [podfic] Season 2, Episode 13: Oh Little Town of BATHlehem [a fic by ladylondonderry] by podfic_pals / @podfic-pals [G, Louis/Harry]

Louis Tomlinson needs a small pink bathtub.

He needs it.

His fucking family had forgotten to include him in the email chain for Doris for Christmas, with her very carefully thought out Christmas list, until every easy item was gone. Only when he asked Lottie if anyone else had heard from Doris yet, only then did they realise their mistake and forward the email chain to him.

So, it’s either a small pink bathtub or an entire bouncy castle. And if he had the money for a bouncy castle that would be fine, but that fucker costs more than his monthly rent and he simply does not make that much working as an optometrist assistant.

＊ [podfic] Season 2, Episode 14: I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm [a fic by haloeverlasting] by podfic_pals / @podfic-pals [NR, Harry/Louis]

Louis takes a deep breath, and replies very quickly to get it over with, “Well, see, I don’t have any heat in my flat right now and it’s hard enough to go to sleep when I’m bloody freezing—”

“Oh god. And my music’s gone and made it even worse,” Harry cuts in.

“Well, it only went out today,” Louis explains, “So it wasn’t that bad before, erm. Now.”

“Before?” Harry asks, horrified. “How long has this been?”

“Oh, erm,” Louis folds his hands where they hang in front of him and admits, “All week.”

Harry visibly wilts. He looks so sad, it makes Louis feel awful. He’s gone and crushed someone’s Christmas spirit. Some beautiful boy who looks like Danny Zuko is sad now and it’s Louis’ fault, which means he doesn’t stand a chance at being the cute neighbor from the floor below. And now he’s going to have to sleep in his freezing cold flat knowing he may as well have ruined Christmas.

Or, Louis' heat is out, Harry's a terrible upstairs neighbor, and an empty Christmas tree is the perfect excuse to fall in love.

＊ [Podfic] All I Do the Whole Day Through by Panda_Podfics / @pandapodfics [NR, Louis/Harry]

Louis reached up and grabbed the ridiculously thick jumper that had the planets all over it and slammed the wardrobe doors shut. It was only as he turned around that he realized why Harry’s bedroom door had been shut.

There was a nest on Harry’s bed.

But why was Harry using Louis’ clothes and items that probably smelled like him in his nest?

＊ [podfic] Season 2, Episode 15: room for your love underneath this tree [a fic by we_are_the_same] by podfic_pals / @podfic-pals [T, Harry/Louis]

“IwannameetHarryStyles,” Daisy mumbles, and Louis blinks.

“What?”

“She says she wants to meet Harry Styles.” Phoebe pipes up, and Louis blinks again, absently switches the camera to himself because he knows that his followers will want to catch his baffled expression.

“You-” he starts, and then stops himself, because he did tell her she could ask for anything she wanted, and how can he go back on his word and tell her that he doesn’t actually have the power to make that happen?

Because Harry Styles is -- he’s next level kind of famous. Louis has two million subscribers on his YouTube, but Harry has eighteen times as many followers on his Twitter alone. He’s had three number one hits in the last year, and his last album had charted at the top spot for a record breaking 27 weeks. He’s a singer, actor and philanthropist, and there is no way in hell that Louis can get him to come meet Daisy for Christmas.

So of course he laughs, even if it’s a little bit breathless, and nods at her. “One Harry Styles for Christmas, coming right up.”

＊ [Podfic] Christmas Special 2023 by Panda_Podfics / @pandapodfics [T, Louis/Harry]

three fics full of Christmas Fluff

All the lights are sparkling for you, it seems written by @thebreadvansstuff

Do you really want to be all alone? written by @enchantedlandcoffee

You Don’t Have to Be Lonely Tonight written by @neondiamond

[lucawrites11]

In regard to Leah/Alessia navigating their sex life…such a shame people had to get weird about it. I remember you mentioning Rose and Rosie having a conversation about it with Shannon and thought that it was an interesting topic because I know that can be hard to figure out. But I get not wanting to go near it when people don’t know how to behave and start asking for things you’re not comfortable with.

If you did want to do that drabble, I’d love to read it! But no pressure if you find it difficult.

rose and rosie had a really interesting conversation on their podcast with shannon, their whole podcast with her, their channel and social media is just an amazing honest depiction of queer parenting that has a lot of depth, i love their channel and i recommend it to everyone - it was a huge part of me coming to terms with my sexuality

i will not write smut on here BUT here's a little look at the conversations they would have under the cut with little regard for grammar, sentence structure and just everything else...

warning: allusions to and conversations about sex, 18+

after the six week appointment, they are both acutely aware that alessia is allowed to be sexually active but leah's too anxious to approach it, she doesn't want to pressure her, and alessia doesn't know how to approach it, she feels uncomfortable in her body, she isn't 100% confident in herself and she has a baby attached to her most of the time

but they are back in training and leah's got the sleeveless shirt on and emy's napping and she's staring because arms and it's kind of what starts to trigger the conversations after a week. it takes a couple of days but leah confronts alessia about her staring, she snaps her fingers in front of her face because alessia's completely zoned out and teasingly asks if she's still with them

alessia turns a new shade of red and leah's completely obsessed with making her blush so she just kisses her quickly. "are you okay?" she asked and it doesn't help, she's still turning red, it's kind of when leah starts to get a little more confidence about bringing her up. she suggests it while she's washing up and alessia's sitting on the counter, chatting. emy is asleep upstairs, they ate just the two of them after emy went to bed (leah's suggestion)

leah stumbled over her words for thirty seconds, alessia tells her to just say what she wants to say and leah is just staring at the wall and blurts out "do you want to have sex?" and alessia invents an even more red colour for her cheeks and is like choking on air because she didn't expect it at all to be what leah wanted to say and it makes leah panic so she backtracks and is like "no pressure, completely no pressure, i was just wondering if we could talk about it and everything like that because it's kind of important to talk about you know..." and keeps on talking while she aggressively washes dishes

alessia is just shocked because she hasn't seen leah this stressed about sex since when they first started dating and she can't help but laugh because they are married and she's so nervous and trying to make sure that she doesn't pressure her. she just kicks leah in her back softly to shut her up and get her attention, "we can talk about it" she tells her and leah takes her first breath for a minute when she hears that

they conversation is mostly around the practicalities, leah asks if alessia wants to have sex again and she's like "when? because we don't have time and what if emy wake up?" and they spend the next half an hour trying to find the best time, looking at their schedules and trying to figure out when emy is sleeping most of the time and everything else. they landed on a time and then everything else dawns and she starts to freak out luckily they couldn't find time for a few days so she just pretends that she's fine

leah picks up on it but decides not to push it that night, she pushes it in a couple of days time. again when emy's napping. she is like "you know there's no actual pressure to have sex, we don't have to, we can just have a date night or something, i don't mind"

alessia stays completely quiet and just eventually admits that she's not sure about her body when leah doesn't say anything. leah showers her in compliments, kissing her neck and telling her how much she loves her. she makes sure to compliment alessia A LOT for the next few weeks and eventually alessia finds time by herself and starts kissing leah with a lot of purpose and they have really gentle sex, they don't have much time but leah is very determined to show alessia in that time how much she still loves her and how attracted she is to her. alessia ends up crying, it makes leah's panic but it's a really positive emotional release

[agere-fics]

A Day With Daddy

dni: k!nk, anti-agere, agepl4y, or ddlg-esque blogs 🍄 this blog is a safe space for age regressors and age dreamers 🍄

Summary: Little!Reader and CG!Daddy!Bucky have a day of play when Stevie's away 🥰

Request From @juiceboxgothbaby: "hey I would really love a CG!stucky Little!reader fix where Steve goes out for a while and reader and Bucky get silly and make a mess and then steve comes home"

Relationship: Caregiver Bucky Barnes x Caregiver Steve Rogers x AgeRe Little Reader

Word Count: 1,092

Content Warnings: usage of "daddy" and "dada" (but in a nonsexual context), playing messily and chaotically

Author's Note: hi! thank you for the request! i'm very proud of myself for writing a completed fic. i haven't been able to do so for a long time. reader is completely neutral from what i can tell. there are parts that may seem not body size friendly but i promise my intention was to make it to where you can really feel little as you read! i hope y'all enjoy!

(if there is anything else you believe i should put as a warning or to change to make reader more neutral please let me know! /gen /srs)

♡

"Bye-bye, dada!" you shouted from the front door, waving your hand so fast your wrist ached. It wasn't painful though, and you really wanted to show your dada a whole lotta love as he got into his car. He wanted to spend the day with you, he told you himself. However, Tony Stank called your dada away. But that was okay because you knew he needed to do "saving the world" stuff.

Steve opened the door to his black pickup truck, placing one foot on the step and turning to face you. "I'll be back in no time, kiddo." He smiled. "Be good for daddy."

"I will!" Your eyes squinted from how wide you grinned.

Your dada sat in the driver's seat, waving once more before pulling out the driveway. You watched as he drove away, and continued to watch even more despite him already being out of your sight. Being away from your dada left a pain in your heart. You still had Bucky though, your daddy, to watch over you and keep you company.

Bucky walked closer to the front door, observing you still standing at the door frame, looking out where your dada once was.

"He'll be back, pumpkin. Dada always comes back."

You whined, jutting out your bottom lip in a pout.

Bucky never took that to heart. He knew you loved hanging out with him just as much as you loved being with your Stevie. But that didn't mean you still wouldn't feel a sting in your adorable, loving heart.

Luckily, your Daddy knew just what to do.

"Little one," You turned to face Bucky. "I got these new paints, and I've been dying to try them out. Do you want to join Daddy?"

You gasped and smiled brightly. "Yes, yes, yes!"

Your daddy adoringly laughed at your joy. He knew it would work.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go, Daddy, c'mon!" you dragged him to the living room.

"Alrighty, cutie patootie, I'm coming."

♡

Your caregivers shared a bunch of similarities. It made sense considering how long they've known each other and how well they bonded closely. The only difference between your dada and daddy you've ever been able to notice is their strictness. Daddy does things before thinking. His worry is focused on you having fun and having a good time. At the end of it, he'll concern himself with the mess and make sure little and big you didn't feel bad in the slightest. He always makes sure you knew it was absolutely okay because you had fun and that was his most important rule.

Your dada is a different story. Of course, he wants you to have fun and enjoy being little, but he also believed rules and structure were something that you needed and could highly benefit from. No punishments are given, but he makes sure little you is disciplined in a way that'll help you grow. He sets your bedtimes, ensures you eat healthily, makes sure your activities are safe, amongst other things.

So, when caregiving you together, Bucky and Steve are able to balance each other. But, when they're seperate (especially when Bucky is alone with little you) things become...well, interesting.

Your favorite kid safe song played on loop in the living room, blasting so loud your next door neighbors could probably hear it word for word. You and your daddy had jumped on the couch, on the beds, and danced on the floors. The only thing he didn't let you do was jump off the dining table. But your pout was quickly gone when he explained that he didn't want his precious little one to get hurt. He compromised by picking you up, spinning you around, and having you "fly" around the house in his arms like a superhero.

"Look at you go, my little avenger! We're recruiting you know... you'd be the cutest, adorablest, most powerful avenger there ever was!"

Silly string was sprayed all over the wall, the couches, the floor, and especially in one corner of your playroom, where you tried to make a spider web. Unfortunately, it crumbled and held barely any weight at all. You decided you'd have to FaceTime Peter Parker at some point to assist you in perfecting the art of web building.

Your utmost favorite part of the day was the humongous painting you did on the fence of your backyard.

Daddy had cheered you on and complimented you the entire time.

"Good job, my little Vincent Van Gogh!"

"Wow! How did I get so lucky to have the most talented baby in the whole wide world? No, universe. The best baby in the whole universe!"

"I'm gonna have to call Tony. I got the smartest little doll on my hands."

By the time it was seven o clock, you started getting worn down and a bit hungry.

"Daddy, can I has some nuggies?" you asked while yawning, leaning your head on the dining table.

Bucky patted your head. "Of course, bubba."

You ate about half the nuggies when your eyes started drooping and feeling very, very heavy.

Your daddy noticed this and set down the fork he held that still had a small piece of chicken nugget on it.

He picked you up, letting your head rest on his shoulder and your arms wrap around his neck. Your daddy carried you to your room and set you down on the bed. He grabbed clean pairs of comfy clothes to help you change into before tucking you into bed and kissing your forehead.

"Sweet dreams, my little one." He handed you your best friend stuffie that you quickly grabbed and hugged close to your chest. Not even a second later, you drifted off into dreamland.

♡

Bucky cleaned up every single piece of silly string, organized your toys and art utensils, and wiped down all of the surfaces in record time.

He felt like he was in the clear. I mean, there was no piece of chaoticness left from their adventurous day.

That was, until Steve walked into the living room holding up a single leftover strand of silly string, placing his other hand on his hip.

"Do I even want to know what you guys did today?"

"No." Bucky smiled. "It would stress you out just to hear it."

"New rule for the house... Silly String is outside play only." Steve let out a breathy laugh as he threw away the stranded piece of silly string. You had fun, and that's all that mattered.

[agaypanic]

Furry Little Friend (Adult!Benny Weir X Adult!Reader)

Masterlist

Request Something!

Summary: After moving in together, you feel like there’s something missing in your and Benny’s lives. Luckily, a solution pops up right at your window.

A/N: warning for one suggestive moment and that’s it

***

“I think that was the last box.” You say, looking at the bookshelf you just filled with your and Benny’s books and trinkets. You looked around quickly, not seeing your boyfriend. “Benny!”

Your shout drew Benny out of the room you designated as your office/gaming room. While you were working on the living room, he was in charge of setting up your desks and PCs. “Huh?” He lazily wrapped his arms around your waist, clearly about as worn out as you from unpacking.

“What do you think of the bookshelf?” You asked, gesturing to the structure in front of you. It was filled with pictures of the two of you and your friends, some of Benny’s spellbooks, crystals and rocks you’ve been collecting for the past few years, and some other miscellaneous items. “It’s not too crowded, right?”

“I think it’s perfect,” Benny reassured you, bending down to kiss your cheek.

“Thank god, because I’m too tired to rearrange it right now.” You both laughed, looking around your new apartment. “I can’t believe we have our own apartment.” Benny made a murmur of agreement, nuzzling into your neck. Your eyes darted around, something suddenly nagging at you. “It feels like something’s missing…”

“What is?” Your boyfriend asked, slightly tickling you with his lips. He lifted his head momentarily. “We brought all the boxes in, right?”

You nodded. “Yeah, everything’s here, but…” You trailed off, soon sighing. “Whatever. The apartment’s fully unpacked; that’s all that matters.”

Benny started kissing up to your ear. “You know what else is fully unpacked?” He whispered to you. You gave a confused look, and he raised his eyebrows. “Our bed. And…” You suddenly became very aware of something hard pressing into your backside. “I have something that’s waiting to be taken out.”

You looked at each other. Suddenly, all exhaustion left your bodies as Benny chased you into your new bedroom, both of you laughing and squealing all the way down the hall.

***

A week later, you were working from home in your office, and you still couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. You couldn’t pinpoint what it was, though. You weren’t missing anything from the move. You even tried rearranging some things in the apartment to see if that would fix your little problem. Of course, it didn’t.

Benny kept trying to reassure you that it was nothing, that it was just you adjusting to a new environment. But you thought if that was the case, the feeling would be gone after a week. Of course, it wasn’t.

After sending another email, you decided to take a quick coffee break. Sluggishly, you moved to the kitchen and turned on your coffeemaker, setting your favorite mug underneath the dispenser. 

Suddenly, you started to hear a faint scratching noise. You looked around, but shrugged it off after not finding a source. 

Then it happened again while your coffee was pouring. “What the hell…” You muttered to yourself, moving around the seemingly empty apartment. As you got closer to your little porch balcony, you jumped in surprise.

Outside the door, clawing at the glass, was a skinny black cat. It looked like it was about a year old, but not fed much. When you made eye contact, the little cat started to meow, its voice slightly muffled by your glass doors.

“Hey, little guy.” You cooed, unable to stop yourself from sliding the door open. It chirped at you before slowly entering the apartment. “What are you doing here?” You reached down to pet it, and were a bit surprised that the cat quickly started purring at your touch and flopping onto its back for more scratches.

You observed the cat carefully while you played with it. It didn’t have a collar, but it was very friendly. Whenever you tried taking your hand away, it would either chase after you or try to grab at you with its little paws.

Remembering that you would have to get back to work soon, you closed the porch door and pulled out your phone. You scrolled through your contacts, debating for a second on who to call. “Hey, Sarah! Are you busy right now?”

“Not really. Why, what’s up?”

***

Later that night, Benny came home with takeout. “Babe! I brought dinner.”

He waited for an answer but never got one. Benny just shrugged, setting the food on the kitchen counter and flopping onto the couch. He knew you were home; he saw your car in the parking garage. You must’ve just been doing a last-minute work thing or something. 

With all the tiredness of the day, and frankly this week, catching up to him, Benny was slowly drifting off.

“Oof!” 

Benny’s eyes shot open, only to stare into a pair of eyes that did not belong to you. Or any person for that matter. The black cat started sniffing his face. “Y/n!”

“What’s up?” You came into the living room, smiling at the scene in front of you. 

“Who’s this?” Your boyfriend asked, pointing to the cat, who started purring and curling up on his chest.

“You know how I’ve been feeling like we were missing something here?” He nodded, watching you sit on the floor next to him to pet the cat. “Well, I found it. Literally appeared at the door.”

“So…” Benny trailed off, his tired brain trying to wrap around what was happening. “We have a cat now?”

“Yup!” As he looked at you, Benny realized he couldn’t argue with this decision, even if he wanted to. Not when you looked so happy. “Her name is Salem, Sarah came over with a bunch of cat stuff for me, and she has a vet appointment next week.”

Benny couldn’t help but snort. “Salem? You named the cat Salem?”

You shrugged. “She’s a black cat. You’re a wizard. I thought it was fitting.”

Benny nodded. It made sense, but it just felt a little stereotypical. But when he looked down at the purring cat on his chest, Benny decided the name fit perfectly.

“I’m hungry.” Benny sighed. “But I don’t wanna get up.”

You giggled, getting up from the floor. You went to the kitchen to serve dinner, leaving Benny to pet little Salem.

***

Benny Weir Taglist: @batmandallyboy