#my old ones broke this weekend after 4 years of use

[transratsactivist]

mediamarkt sent me the wrong headphones :( already contacted them. these don't have active noise cancelling and they cost less than half the price i paid for the ones i actually ordered. i hope they get back to me soon

[jackharloww]

“It’s not nice to scream”

Summary: The one where you and Jack get into a heated argument and the kids wake up. - Angst to fluff

Jack was working on his album, which meant he was away in the studio for hours every day for the past few weeks. When the weekend came you thought he would stay at home with you, but at first, he had to go to the studio to finish a track, after that, it was a work lunch and after that, he went out with the boys. Meanwhile, you were at home with both your kids, feeling exhausted.

Your children were good and nice kids, but with Nathaniel teething and being attached to you and Grace being an energetic 4-year-old, you felt overwhelmed. You had tried to get ahold of Jack, but he wasn't picking up, It wasn't until you called Clay that you knew where Jack was.

"Look who finally decides to come home" You rolled your eyes as you walked past him and into the kitchen to put Nathaniel's chewing toy in the freezer. Grace and Nathaniel had just fallen asleep when Jack walked into the house.

"What's with the attitude?" Jack asked, confused. He followed you into the kitchen and stood there with a hand on his hip.

"Well let's see, my husband has apparently forgotten he has a family at home"

"What do you mean?" He furrowed his eyebrows. You walked past him, going to the living room to clean the toys that were scattered all over the floor.

"Let me remind you. You have two kids at home that would love to spend time with their father" You roughly said as you picked up one of Grace's dolls before shoving it in her toy basket.

"I've been working Y/N" Jack tensed his jaw, his hand was balled up in a fist and it was clear he was getting worked up. He was already in a bad mood before he came home, there was this one track that didn't turn out the way he wanted it. He just wanted to go home and relax for the rest of the night, not expecting his wife to blow up on him.

“I just find it funny you..” you were speaking but Jack's loud sigh interrupted you

“Here we go” he mumbled under his breath, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall, rolling his eyes in the process.

“Excuse me?” You could practically feel your blood pumping into your veins, You couldn't believe the audacity. "What the actual fuck has gotten into you?" you lashed out, your voice getting louder with every word.

"Y/N I have a lot to do at work" Jack couldn't help but raise his voice as well.

"And I have a lot to do at home. I understand you having to be at the studio or going to work dinners, but I can't comprehend you going out with the boys instead of coming home to us"

"Well, maybe I just want some time alone and be with my boys" He retaliated.

"And I don't?" your shoulders slumped down as your voice got caught in your throat. You swallowed and took a deep breath, looking down at your feet before meeting his, now, dark eyes, "I can't do this alone Jack"

"You could've just asked me for help" he shrugged, his tone still filled with anger

"I shouldn't have to ask you Jack" you spoke sharply, closing your eyes for a second, moving your hand to your forehead. "But I called you multiple times this morning, but you of course have it on fucking airplane mode"

"Well that's how I work in the studio, you know that already" He spat out, not even trying to understand your point of view.

"Well maybe fucking change that now that you have a family and wife that needs to come in contact with you" You didn't know he was acting like this, and it broke your heart.

"I can't deal with this right now" Jack snapped back, he walked to the foyer with you in tow.

"So you're just going to leave?" you whispered, not trusting your voice anymore. Jack grabbed his car keys and turned around to look at you,

"Better than being here" he mumbled and walked out, slamming the door in the process. The words he said cut deep, and you couldn't stop the tears from falling.

Just as the door closed, you heard cries coming from Nathaniel's room, he must have woken up from all the screaming and shouting. You wiped away the tears that were falling from your face and walked to Nathaniel's room. You picked him up and brought him closer to your chest as you rocked him back and forth, trying to calm him down.

"Mommy" You heard Grace's tiny voice say from behind you. She was standing next to Nathaniel's door with tears in her eyes, "Where's Daddy?" she asked. She had also woken up to the screaming and gotten sad.

You took a deep breath and quickly dried your own tears, for her sake, "He forgot something at Uncle Urby's place" you lied. You sat down in the chair you had in Nathaniel's room and motioned for her, "Come here". She sat down in your lap and you hugged her and Nathaniel.

"Why were you and Daddy screaming?" Grace sniffled. You looked at her for a few seconds, not knowing what to tell her.

"We got a little angry with each other, but it was not right of us to scream, I'm sorry baby"

"It's not nice to scream," she said, scrunching her nose and wiping away the snot.

"You're totally right, It's not nice" You gave her a kiss on the head. You looked down and saw that Nathaniel had fallen asleep, so you put him back in his crib before picking Grace up.

"Do you want to sleep in Mommy's bed?" you asked her, receiving excited nods. The both of you laid down in bed, and you played with her hair as she fell asleep.

----------------------------------

Meanwhile, Jack had gone to Urban's place. His friend could clearly note the anger on his face. "What's up" Urban stepped aside and let him walk in.

"I don't even want to talk about it" He walked straight to the living room and slumped down on the couch. Urban looked at him, confusion written all over his face.

"Weren't you going home? Did something happen there?" Urban didn't let it go

"I said I didn't want to talk about it" Jack groaned

"Well, I don't give a fuck. Does Y/N know you're here?" he asked him, sitting down next to him

"No, I just walked out" Jack looked down, he knew what he did was wrong, but he couldn't stay there and scream at you, his blood was boiling and he needed to get out of there to calm down.

"That's low" Urban was completely honest with him, "I'm telling her you're here, you know how worried she can get," Urban said and picked up his phone to text you. Jack could only nod, even though he was angry he knew Urban was right, he didn't want you to worry and overthink the situation.

Urban: Jack's here, I think it's best he stays the night

You: Thank you.

"Now speak, what happened" Urban gave Jack a little time before he made him talk. Jack told him everything, and Urban was furious at him.

"Dude, I know you're my brother and all that, but that was fucked up of you. Y/N didn't say anything wrong. You out of everyone know how important family is, and that they come first"

"I know, It's just all been too much and I guess I took it out on her" Jack ran his fingers through his hair, "I fucked up didn't I?"

"Just talk to her tomorrow, but yes you fucked up bro" Urban patted his shoulder, "I'll go with you tomorrow, I can take the kids out for breakfast, I know a place Grace will love and you two can talk it out"

"Thank you" Jack gave him a hug, thankful he had Urban by his side.

They both got ready for bed and Jack walked into Urban's guest bedroom. He picked up his phone and decided to send you a message.

Jack: I'm sorry. I love you always.

-------------------------------------------

You were thankful that Urban had sent you a message last night, letting you know Jack was there. It made you calm down, and you fell asleep shortly after.

You woke up with Grace's feet in your face and chuckled as you moved her around so she was lying normally. You checked your phone and saw Jack's message from last night and your chest tightened. At least he calmed down, you thought.

You had just gotten out of the bathroom when you heard the front door being unlocked. You took a deep breath and quickly fixed your hair before going to meet him.

And there he was, He was standing there a guilty look on his face with Urban standing next to him.

"Hi" you said, Urban walked up to you and gave you a hug.

"Good morning, I'm taking the kids out for breakfast," He told you with a gentle smile.

"Let me just get them ready" you didn't even acknowledge Jack, not having the energy to talk to him just yet.

"I'll help," Jack mumbled. When you didn't respond, he nodded to himself and went to get Nathaniel ready, who had just woken up. You woke Grace up. She got very excited to see her dad and uncle and became even more excited when you told her she was going out to breakfast with Urban. After half an hour, both kids were ready, and Urban took them out.

You took a shaky breath as you walked into the living room. Jack sat awkwardly on the sofa, like a guest in his own home, waiting for the two of you to talk.

As soon as you sat down, Jack apologized, saying, "Y/N, I'm so sorry." He rubbed his hands on his legs, a nervous habit of his, before running his fingers through his curls. However, his anxiety only increased when you remained silent. "Please say something," he whispered and reached out to hold your hand.

You pulled your hand away and finally looked at him, "Sorry? That's all you have to say?"

"I know I fucked up, but please let me make it up to you" he begged

"You hurt me," you expressed, looking down at your fidgeting hands, twisting your wedding ring as you often do when anxious. "You promised that work would never take priority over our family, yet that's exactly what happened."

"I never meant to hurt you, I know what I did was wrong" he spoke, his voice getting caught in his throat. Jack was really regretting his actions and the way he spoke to you last night.

"I know you didn't mean to hurt me" you sighed, "but you did, and you made me feel neglected. It's not only been hard for me, but the kids as well"

Jack nodded, taking a deep breath before speaking, "I understand. I've had so much at work that I let it consume me. I took my frustration out on you, and for that, I'm truly sorry. I messed up" He spoke, and his eyes glistened with tears. "Please let me make it up to you. You and the kids mean the world to me, I don't want to lose you"

You reached forward and grabbed his hand, in that moment he closed his eyes and a tear slipped down his cheek. "I don't want to lose you either" you couldn't hold back your own tears, "But something has got to change Jack, We barely see you at home"

Jack squeezed your hand "I promise you I will be better, You, Grace and Nathaniel are my one and only priority, and I'm sorry I ever made you doubt that. I regret everything I said last night, you don't deserve that"

"You’re right, I didn’t deserve that. But I'm glad you came to your senses" you gave him a gentle smile as you reached out and wiped away his tears, "We just want our Jack back"

"Oh he's back" Jack chuckled. He grabbed the hand you had on his face and pulled it closer to his lips, he planted a kiss in the palm of your hand as you now cradled his cheek. "Thank you for grounding me, I love you" He whispered

"I love you too" You leaned in and kissed him.

--------------------------------------------------------

Okay damn, It's been more than a month since I posted a concept. Glad to be back I guess

This has been in the draft for months….. so sorry if the ending seems rushed… it is

Taglist: @heavyhitterheaux , @killatravtramp , @middlechild404 , @harlowcomehome , @harlowsbby , @neon-lights-and-glitter , @nattinatalia , @itsyagirljaz , @hoodharlow

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I reported my classmates for potentially breaking traffic laws?

I (17F) am a junior in high school for just juniors and seniors. This means we're in our last two years of school and more or less everyone is 16-18 years old.

In one of my classes, there's 3-4 (I don't know the exact amount since I'm partially faceblind) guys who are all friends. I've only spoken with one of them outside of class, who I'll call Flame, so I don't know their sense of humor or anything.

Whenever I've spoken with Flame outside of class, it's always been because we leave our shared class in the same general direction, and he catches up to me after 2-3 minutes of walking in the halls (crowded). This doesn't happen a lot; I've gone about a month now without speaking a word to him, and it's only happened maybe 10 times in total over the past 3 months?

I was initially alright talking with him, but on my second or so time ever talking to him, he breezily mentioned how he got in a physical fight with a friend and was sent to the hospital for it, but "broke [his friend's] arm so it was fine" and laughed about it. He's also cheerily mentioned and detailed how he ignored his girlfriend for a whole week, causing her to break down over the weekend, because her dad didn't approve of the relationship, and he was hoping she'd "forgive him soon". He's also told me that he was being investigated for a "false claim of sexual assault"?

In all, he scares me, but I try to not let this get in the way of my judgement of him since he's not entirely bad (offered to share his umbrella a few times when it was pouring, seems pretty passionate about sports).

Onto the main point, today in class, I overheard one of Flame's friends suggesting, pretty loudly, that he get a license plate cover (or something like that, I didn't remember the details) so that Flame could get away with speeding too so that he wouldn't be late for work. They laughed about it, and although I didn't catch Flame's response, he seemed pretty positive about the idea? I estimate from what he's told me that Flame has had a license for about a year by now.

I usually wouldn't consider reporting someone for doing something that only affects themselves, but driving is something that impacts others pretty significantly.

However, I'm not entirely sure it was a serious suggestion, if Flame actually plans to do it, nor even if Flame's friend uses the license plate cover. I'm also unsure how much it will impact Flame's future. He's been accepted by a college already and is going to be playing a sport for them, he just needs to pass his current classes to graduate. Notably, he's also southeast asian, and I'm unsure of how bad police officers here are since I'm white and haven't ever interacted with any. I think the government here generally has a slight conservative lean, though there's also a more poc here compared to other places in the US (~50% of people in general, ~75% of people at my school), if that changes anything.

Overall, I don't want to ruin his life over nothing, but I also think speeding could easily ruin someone else's life if he's doing it.

WIBTA if I reported him (and/or his friend(s) if I learn their names) via anonymous tipline for potentially speeding?

[blouisparadise]

Upon request, today we have the second part to our heat fic rec list! You can also check out the first part to this rec list here and you can expect another one at some point in the near future. If you enjoy our rec lists, please be sure to like and reblog this post to help spread the word. Happy reading!

1) Bank Holiday Weekend | Mature | 4,135 words

Louis Tomlinson is a twenty-two year old omega who doesn’t give a shit. The omega knows his heat is coming up but still decides to attend Reading and Leeds Festival with his nineteen year old alpha co-worker Harry Styles.

2) The Prints Of Your Hands Are Still On My Canvas | Not Rated | 4,563 words

Harry and Louis broke up not long ago. Everything was fine until then, problems started with Louis’ heat just around the corner, an important presentation that he could not miss, and a very visible (or more like invisible) alpha that could help him go through his heat. And then Harry shows up. (Again.)

3) Haze On The Horizon | Explicit | 6,397 words

“— Louis?” He couldn’t speak. He should hang up. He should’ve never called. His breaths were building into a staccato. “…baby? Are you doing alright? Talk to me, please.” Harry sounded so concerned, and it was quickly weakening his defences. No. No, he wouldn’t. No- “Omega,” Harry called, voice low and just shy of his alpha voice, even through the phone, and Louis just… Louis broke. “I miss you! I-” he cried out, an agonising crack in his voice, a loud sob being ripped from him. “— I need you!” Louis sniffled harshly, slumping, before admitting, quieter, “I need you.” Louis finds himself unexpectedly going into soft heat. Which would’ve been fine, except he is hundreds of miles away from his alpha, Harry, and he needs him. They make it work.

4) The Box | Explicit | 8,895 words

When the signal comes, Harry dips and slides into the box, settling himself on his back with his knees bent.  Louis lifts the side of the box to close it, and as he does so Harry goes to pull his jacket from behind his back a little. The last sight that Louis is presented with before Harry is gone from view is the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen arching his back, with his head thrown upwards, mouth slightly open. And fuck. 

5) Teacups For The Wine | Not Rated | 9,111 words

Harry's possibly the most handsome and kind alpha Louis' ever met but the problem is that he cannot take a goddamned hint.

6) Part Time Soulmates (Full Time Problem) | Mature | 12,072 words

Sworn enemies Harry and Louis are soulmates. Everything is going smoothly until the pain hits.

7) To Have Touched the Sun | Explicit | 12,491 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

Louis has been taking suppressants ever since he first presented as an omega, and because of that, he has his heats dwindled down to just once a year. When he suddenly goes into heat in the middle of a supermarket only two months after just having one, he immediately knows something is wrong. It takes the act of a very kind stranger in that supermarket to change Louis' life forever.

8) Like A Hurt, Lost, And Blinded Fool | Not Rated | 13,919 words

ABO college AU where alpha Harry is a frat boy and he asks omega Louis out multiple times but he rejects him every time because Louis doesn’t like how frat boys act towards omegas. One night at a Halloween party, Harry dresses up as a stormtrooper and keeps his mask on all the time and flirts with Louis and Louis flirts back without knowing that’s Harry under the costume.

9) Good Panic | Explicit | 14,517 words

Louis is an Omega student studying botany at uni. He suffers from a disease trigger by the SFG (Soulmate Finder Gene). This is a disease that makes his scent strong, and alluring to all Alphas, but makes everyone, Alphas and Omegas alike, smell absolutely rancid. Everyone except for his Soulmate. For three years he has used scent soothers, and neutralizers to keep himself safe. Even though the majority of the population deems him ungrateful of such a “blessing”. Who wouldn’t want to find their Soulmate. Right? No matter what the cost.

10) We Chase The Stars To Lose Our Shadow | Explicit | 15,962 words

“I think it may be time for you to try something… different.” Louis fidgets on his sofa, nervous. “What - what do you have in mind? A new medication?” He is less than enthused about being forced onto another medication. He has already tried most of them, to no avail, and the cocktail of prescriptions he is currently taking has been very expensive, even after using his drug benefit copay for each refill. “Sort of…. Louis, have you heard of Prescription Pillows?”

11) Butterflies, The Beautiful Kind | Explicit | 18,401 words

Prompt 36: Louis is a single parent with a child who is terrified of doctors. However, one day, the kid gets sick. Thankfully the new pediatrician, doctor Styles, has wild curly hair and green eyes, and a soothing deep voice that the kid immediately grows attached to.

12) Apparently By Chance, At Precisely The Right Moment | Explicit | 19,329 words

Alpha Harry doesn’t believe in soulmates. Omega Louis has been looking for his soulmate all his life.

13) This Love Is Ours | Mature | 21,028 words

“I told you to call me Harry.” Harry looks amused. It’s not funny. Louis throwing up because of him isn’t funny. “But I’ve been calling you Mr. Styles for so long.” “And now you’re carrying my baby.”

14) Manners And Misjudgements | Explicit | 21,178 words

“Everyone you mention the Duke to raves about him, just like you are defending him now. But no one looks behind the façade he so ably maintains to deceive you all.” Liam sighs deeply. “You sound like a crazy man right now, Louis.” “I will prove to you who the Duke really is, just wait.”

15) Alone Together | Explicit | 28,320 words

Alpha Harry moves to Oslo, Norway and is perfectly content being mostly alone in a strange foreign land where he barely speaks the language, until a certain skittish blue-eyed boy seeks refuge in his video rental store. Almost immediately, Harry feels connected and protective over him. So what choice does he have when the boy drops other than to take him home and nurse him back to health?

16) Perfect | Explicit | 28,856 words

Between the usual stressors of school, losing his mum, and being partly responsible for six underage kids, Louis didn’t need anything else in his life to go wrong. Yet here he was getting the worst news of his life: he was an omega.

17) I Don’t Want You | Mature | 35,941 words

Louis never wanted to be an omega. He didn’t want to end up like his mother- a submissive omega that married his father in an arranged marriage, and is now living her life as a baby making machine, and a trophy wife who can never voice her opinion- Louis was never the quiet type, he always said exactly what he thought. But life has a funny way of fucking him over and Louis finds himself forced into an arranged marriage with the one and only Harry styles.

18) Truebonds | Explicit | 39,687 words

Louis doesn’t mind being an omega, most of the time. Modern medicine allows him to suppress almost all of his omega traits, but the one thing it can’t suppress is his scenting cycle. Fortunately, that only needs to be dealt with every seven years and he counts himself lucky that he can afford the services of a reputable agency. With his cycle due, he reviews the matched candidates and there’s one alpha who fits all of his criteria, S28A. That’s pretty much where things start to unravel. Enter Harry Styles, scenter for hire.

19) Some Records Turnin’ | Explicit | 49,330 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

Harry is a soft alpha who owns a record store and Louis is a closeted singer omega masquerading as an alpha who randomly stumbles into Harry’s store.

20) All The Small Things You Do (Remind Me Why I Fell For You) | Not Rated | 53,685 words

Prompt 68: Pack alpha Harry only wants to marry for matrimonial benefits but no other omega wishes to marry him for his reputation of being a big scary wolf who snarls at everyone for even breathing the wrong way. Omega Louis, to improve his pack’s condition, decides to be Harry’s pack Luna but is taken aback by how soft and sweet Harry actually is with him. AU where Harry is intimidating pack alpha but is very sweet and lovely with his soon-to-be mate and would do anything for his pack Luna, even make fool of himself in front of everyone just to see his giggle.

21) Love Me If You Dare | Explicit | 54,721 words

Harry and Louis’ friendship starts with a game, after a simple dare. The two little boys quickly become the best of friends and referees of their own game. Unfortunately, as they grow up, they sometimes become the victims of it too. With them, everything is possible. They are capable of daring each other to do anything. But will they dare confess their feelings for each other?

22) Let Your Damage, Damage Me | Explicit | 57,077 words

A low and dangerous growl was ripped from the future King’s chest. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” the alpha snarled, eyes dark and nostrils flared. Even as anger rushed through him at the alpha’s brutish display, Louis felt breathless at the intense gaze of the man that was going to be his future mate. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to be under all that. He will be inside me, all muscles and rage.’ Louis felt his cheeks heat again, but refused to be cowed. So he put his best smirk on display, the one alphas despised to see, the one that assured them all he had the upper hand. “Thought you were expecting me, dear husband. I’m your future mate.”

23) The Cottage | Explicit | 70,600

Louis hates alphas and he has good reason to, but when his beloved omega grandmother dies, and he inherits her cottage, he meets Harry, an alpha hazelnut farmer who sneaks his way into Louis’ life. While Louis struggles with his severe touch deprivation, he forms a friendship with Harry that turns out to be exactly what he needed.

24) As Sweet As You Are | Mature | 87,394 words

“Do you not have something more expensive?” The alpha gives him a weird look, resting his hands on the table. “Definitely not something the cost of that shade of blue that are your eyes,” he responds effortlessly. “Why is a male omega on his own out in the middle of the woods at this time of night?” Harry speaks, staring intensely at the prince, smirk lingering on his face. “Your kind is rather rare. You should be more careful. There are a lot of rogue alphas around that won’t blink until they’ve knotted and bred you up.” The blue eyed omega swallows, shuffling in his seat awkwardly and looking anywhere but the alpha before him. “I ran away from home,” Louis admits, occupying himself by taking a sip of the lager instead of thinking about the fact that the alpha hasn’t yet taken his eyes off him. “My parents want me to marry someone I do not want to marry, so I ran.”

25) Wind Beneath My Wings | Explicit | 93,131 words

“You shouldn’t be here,” Harry gritted out, wild-eyed. “You should be scared of me.” Louis opened his mouth to speak, to cut him off, to disagree, but Harry was pushing. “I could hurt you.” “You won’t hurt me,” Louis said, simple and assuredly. Calm. “I’m capable of hurting you.” “But you won’t. That’s not who you are, Harry. I trust you,” Louis whispered. As an omega carer that works at a rescue and rehabilitation centre for feral alphas and omegas, Louis has experienced all sides of ferality. So Harry- a cold, near mute, non-receptive alpha- was a challenging case for everyone at Phoenix Rehab Centre. Louis wasn’t expecting to feel drawn towards an aloof Harry, or to form a slow bond with him. He certainly was not expecting for his entire life to change in unforeseen ways.

26) Siren Calls Me Home | Explicit | 133,762 words

Harry and Louis’ kingdoms have rivaled one another for ages. When the time comes for Prince Louis to choose a mate, Harry’s father puts him in the running for his hand. But Harry has no intentions of marrying the omega. He is only using the opportunity to investigate and expose Louis’ sordid past, where rumors of fornication and murder abound, and bring justice down on his rival once and for all.

27) Your Eyes Are Tired But Keep Them Open Cause You Wouldn’t Wanna Miss A Thing | Explicit | 144,281 words

Louis is an omega in an abusive relationship everyone forced him into; he’s miserable until he meets his favorite student’s uncle, Harry, a gentle alpha with a big heart.

28) Sewn Into You | Explicit | 167,485 words

Harry Styles thinks soulmates are a fairytale, or in other words-a lie. He has no interest in entertaining anything that has anything to do with the very name that had been etched along his collarbone since his eighteenth birthday. Louis Tomlinson won’t be answering to another alpha for the rest of his life if he can help it. Fuck happy endings, his soul mate can choke on it. Problem is, Harry needs a personal assistant to save his family’s business, Louis needs the cash to officially move off of his childhood best-friend’s couch. They can manage. Surely, nothing will go wrong.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[outerbankspov]

Omg what about baby daddy rafe. You guys aren’t together but you both still love each other. And your baby adores rafe and always look for him breaking your heart. Maybe he visits only on the weekends. Eventually you get back together..?

“Theo, my love” you softy whisper in your one year old daughter’s ear. “I want dada” she whimpers in your neck as her wet tears hit your hot skin. “I know honey, I do to. He will be here before you know it.” You try to reassure her but fails as she fusses around to be on the play mat. You let her down and she crawls around curious eyes as she calls out for her dad. Moral of the story… Rafe and you first fell in love in high school and been together 4 years after high school until you wasn’t. Things started to change and you both ended your relationship and it really broke you because you love him so much.

“Time for bed Theo” you wipe and tear from your face and give her the best smile. “Dada comin with?” She asks. You get down to her level and shake your head no. “Not right now baby.” She doesn’t reply, she just lifts her arms up and you pick her up and bring her to her bedroom. “Want mommy to read you a bedtime story huh?” You put her in her PJ’s and she giggles as a way to answer your question. You hum and laid down in the large comfortable rocking chair and laid her on your chest.

“Once upon a time a princess name... Theo" she gasps and points to her chest with a "me" You giggle with a nod. "A princess named Theo lived in her very own castle that was pink! very pink and-" You pause as you hear the door open from upstairs and picked Theo up before shushing her with a worried smile. "mama?" she says in her soft voice. making your way downstairs. "hello?" you say carefully. "y/n/n" you jump at the voice of your ex-boyfriend turned towards him. Theo's eyes were wide as she cries out. "DADA" she yells with her angry tears as she throws herself at him "Hey love bug" she sobs into his neck and he looks at her with an apologist's face. "Rafe" you wine. "I'm sorry baby-" they both look at one another and she apologizes. "so what are you doing here? I was about to put Theo to sleep"

"I'm sorry, I just really need to talk to you" you nod and you both Sit down and Theo is already dozing off. “What?” You say, slight regretting it after by the tone of your voice. “I- I Just wanna tell you that- I miss you y/n. So much. I miss us so so much.” He tells you simply. You smile and nod. “And I miss you too baby- Rafe but things are gonna have to change.” He nods in understanding and starts caressing theo’s cheek. “I know and it will. I just miss this. Our family and everything” you smile and pulls him gently into a kiss. “Now let’s get Theo into bed” you tell him.

He gets up and they both walk into Theo room and places her into bed without waking her. “I love you Rafe” you say. He looks at you and almost cries. “And I love you.”

- I hope you enjoy <3

[mod2amaryllis]

I'm waiting for this migraine to die so I'm gonna tell you guys about Marshall, the dog who made me quit. read on if you wanna learn about extended quarantine and why this job sucks sometimes and other times is the most rewarding thing on the planet, often for the same reasons lmao.

in 2021, the weight of covid was kinda crashing down. i heard this was the case for a lot of health workers. we switched into emergency mode throughout 2020 and powered through, then the rest of the world decided to try and "get back to normal" a year later, giving no regard to the people who'd been working like a speeding train with the brakes off all that time. i was losing it!!! add a few more hay bales to my back when we hired a new doc who was the most demanding dude I'd ever met (still is, but we've come to some understanding lol) and who decided to run me as ragged as possible the first day he was left to his own devices.

that was the day Marshall came in.

i didn't talk about this back then because the outcome of the case was uncertain and the details so specific, but here's the run down knowing that 2 years later, Marshall is living his best life. when he was a baby, too young to have received a rabies vaccine, his owners found a rabies positive bat in the house. the state vet will always recommend euthanasia in these situations, OR, if you can somehow find and afford the option, a 6 month quarantine. this was such a tragic situation the owners were willing to try to save him. my clinic happens to have a decent isolation ward that's rarely in use; we use it for infectious patients like parvo puppies, uri's that have to be hospitalized, etc. so my boss agreed to take him for those 6 months. but the owners' caveat was that if he wasn't mentally adjusting to isolation after a couple weeks, they would euthanize so as not to put him through it and leave him with lifelong behavior issues.

that day, when animal control brought Marshall in the middle of an insane rush, we were short staffed and already at the end of our ropes with this new doc. i was the only qualified person who could talk to the officer. i was the only person who could take him back to isolation. the act of putting a 12 week old puppy in a 4 x 4 run where i knew he would either spend 6 months untouched, or never see the outside again, broke me. last straw.

i was a mess, for the rest of that day and the rest of that weekend having to go in and take care of him, when it was too early for him to adjust so i was sure he wouldn't make it. I'd come home sobbing. eventually jose was just like, "this isn't worth it any more," and i sent in a two weeks notice. i'd come close to doing so many times in the previous 6 years but never pulled the trigger. it took a total meltdown. my managers responded with regret, but understanding.

i wish i could've just felt free and done with it but for those two weeks i was just uncertain. this job is so complicated. the benefits for my pets are enormous; it's my main social network; it's income; I'm good at it and it gives me purpose. it's just also hell on earth! with no pressure from anyone else one way or the other, by the end of two weeks I'd decided to instead try going part time. that's where I'm at 2 years later so guess it worked lol.

but! there was still Marshall. shortly after we took him, we also happened to get a call for the same situation on 2 cats, and decided to take them as well. 3 animals on a 6 month quarantine. very new and daunting for all of us.

that first weekend was hard, but slowly, Marshall figured things out. it was the least ideal situation imaginable and i was at rock bottom and so was he, but i had this moment of like.....ok. if he wants to make this work, I'm gonna do as right by him as possible. and of course all us techs were helping him (one of my road dog coworkers always opened so i referred to her as his "morning mom") but i in particular took a special interest in training and enrichment. it became a passion. i was working less, but i volunteered extra weekends so i could see him more.

he was so young he hadn't even done much basic command training, and the fact that i couldn't touch him at all was a challenge. i started with a clicker to signal I'd rolled a treat into his run, since i couldn't give it to him directly. over those months we went through the basics: sit, down, paw, touch, using a back scratcher for a hand. part of the worry was him getting enough exercise; we noticed that when he'd get agitated, he'd jump on the bars non stop. i was like hmm that might be our only option, so i made "up" a command. i'd basically run burpies for exercise, up-sit-down-sit-up. he was a fast learner, very attentive. seeing him keep his wits about him like that was straight up thrilling. he even "potty trained" himself, barking like crazy whenever he'd go to the bathroom so we'd know right away he needed the run cleaned.

in the ward, there are 2 runs and 3 kennels. i trained Marshall to go back and forth between runs so we could clean. we'd have his food waiting for him in the next run over so he could eat while we'd clean; at the midday switch, he'd have a doggie popsicle. he was such a smart dog i knew toys and treats alone weren't cutting it for enrichment, and i couldn't constantly train him when i still had to be doing the rest of my job.

i started having everyone save every single box and paper-packaging that came in. i'd unfold some boxes for "bedding," so he'd at least have something between him and the concrete (he'd chew and eat any blanket we tried giving him). the rest, i turned into puzzles. i put treats inside and closed them up. put big boxes on their side in his run so he could go in and out. crumpled up paper-packaging with treats mixed in for him to dig through. every day i'd turn one run into a box-toy paradise, let him in, clean the other, and by the time i was checking back in on him he was snoozing in a pile of destruction. success. when other techs wouldn't go to the same lengths, i'd stay late pre-making his boxes and telling people to just throw them in dammit. i also queued several ambient sound playlists, birdsong cityscapes etc, to play on the weekend days when he was alone for long periods.

the months went by like this. i learned more about training, enrichment, and most specifically quarantine than i ever had outside of my experiences with my own puppies. we fell into a routine. we straight up loved each other, he was part of my life. he'd been this horrible trigger and pretty much doubled my workload, but he got to live.

then there were the cats! they were a little easier than Marsh just because they were already adults so didn't have all this energy to wrangle. for them, daily cleaning of course, taking turns going into the 1 empty kennel where i'd have treats, catnip, and other "new" smells waiting for them. for enrichment i focused on reconfiguration. every 2-3 days i'd rearrange things in their kennels, with the big pieces being a litter box, a bed, and an upright sturdy box (so they could either be in it or on top of it, giving them one upper level). it was habitat tetris. we'd play with strings and use the back scratcher for pets. then about every week, i'd switch their kennels to slightly change their view AND traded beds to mingle scents. they were from the same household and we were worried there'd be difficulty re-bonding after not being in direct contact for so long. they also did very well by the end of 6 months aside from gaining a lot of weight (oops). i learned just as much from them, and would love to help anyone else who might struggle with needing to quarantine pets.

i've seen people posting for help about similar situations and just wanna scream from the rooftops: the beginning is very daunting and hopeless, but animals aren't like us!!!!!! they do the best with what they got!!!!! if you work hard and keep them clean and develop a routine it'll all work out!!!!! Marshall walked out of there at 6 months a normal happy puppy in desperate need of a haircut.

it's interesting because i've never interacted much with his owners. i don't think they know i'm the one who kept him from losing his mind in there, even though everyone else at the clinic does, and i'm weirdly ok with that. the other day he came in cuz the dummy ate a bunch of meds he wasn't supposed to; the doc brought him to the back and instantly, Marshall rushed right for me. he still remembers me in a good way. there's still love. it's like...one of the few patient relationships i've had that feels truly deeply personal. in retrospect i think he had a bigger hand in healing my relationship with this career and animals in general than i realized at the time.

so thanks for making me quit Marshall. i feel a lot better now.

(i don't have any pics of him from that time (tragic ssd card accident) but he was an overgrown doodle puppy so he looked like this.)

[spacey-llama]

How did u get into just dance 👀👀

haha why thank you for opening the can of worms

Proper punctuation for this one, it’s long. Seriously. I’m basically putting my whole history with the Just Dance franchise in one post.

So, I got into Just Dance in kindergarten when my music teacher put on Cotton Eye Joe from Just Dance 1 as a fun little exercise thing.

However, I didn’t get deep into it until I started having sleepovers basically every weekend with my best friend at the time, and she introduced me to Just Dance 4 on her Xbox 360 (she also introduced me to Minecraft, but that’s a different story). We weren’t allowed to play Crucified or Disturbia, but every other song was on the menu. It was cool!

The funny thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever been a good dancer. I was just enamored by the colorful characters and the delicious songs. Most of my music taste comes from Just Dance soundtracks!

I didn’t have a console of my own until YEARS later, so I would look up the choreos on YouTube and follow along w/ them. Throughout the years at school, teachers would also put on choreos as fun little things! I still associate Moskau from JD 2014 with 3rd grade gym class.

Small tangent, I was moving states when they started putting Just Dance 2014 ads on TV. So, I really associate that game with these two weeks I was staying in a hotel before my parents could find an apartment. Troublemaker is a choreo I specifically remember seeing on TV.

When I got a Wii U, I got Just Dance 3 and 4 with it. Later on, I would acquire all the games (except for 1, 2, and 2014) up until 2017. Dude, I played them all the time. The YEARS I spent fixated on those games was insane. Most of my friends didn’t like them, so I didn’t have many people to play with, but it was fine. Also, I would literally point out any song playing on the radio and be like “Thats on Just Dance (insert game here).” I still do that.

Oh, and the first song I got 5 stars on was Me And My Broken Heart on JD 2015! It’s still one of my favorite choreos ;)

AND THEN! My Wii U broke! And instead of trying to find a place to fix it, my brother elected to SMASH IT IN THE BACKYARD WITH A HAMMER!

So I didn’t play much Just Dance after that. I still have all my old game discs, though. And I’d play it with friends at their houses if given the opportunity. Unrelated, but I’m also very unfamiliar with any game that came out after JD 2017 (sans 2023 and 2024) because of The Hammer Incident.

“Oh, gee, Spacey, this is so crazy, how’d the fixation grab you again?” Glad you asked! See, I started seeing edits of the Just Dance 2023 storymode and I went “LORE???? CHARACTERS?????? THEY HAVE NAMES NOW?????? AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”

And I immediately watched the story stuff on YouTube and fell in LOVE! I like the silly little cast! The songs they use in the story modes aren’t my faves, but the CHARACTERS and LORE are what I am here for.

So. Yeah. Then I got 2024 for my Switch (not smashed by hammers) as well as Just Dance+ and I’ve been on that grind ever since. It’s one of those games that I find most people tend to like. It connects people. I’ve kept foreign exchange students at my house, and we wouldn’t be able to hold a long conversation, but we could play Just Dance together. There’s a comfort in that. I could wax poetic on the beauty of Just Dance and its ability to bring people together, but I won’t.

Also, while I do adore the main cast of 2023/2024, I’ve kind of started to take older characters and give them names, personalities, and stories myself! So if you’re going to follow this blog or anything, expect a lot of that.

TLDR: Kindergarten bestie introduced me to Just Dance, was crazy about it for years, it faded into the back of my mind, the 2023 lore got me back into it.

Thank you for the ask! I love yapping!

[lethalityandlustmoved]

-RULES, REGULATIONS, & RANDOMNESS-

Welcome to my blog! Peek under the cut for more information. Yes, it’s required reading.

RULES

This blog, while 18+ due to all themes associated with the Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss franchise, is completely NSFW-free. I am willing to write threads that mention NSFW topics in detail, but I will not roleplay the act itself.

I am not selective at all! My only rules about who I interact with are that they cannot be minors (less than 18 years old) and that they need to give me something to work with in threads. You can write as many paragraphs as you want, but if you don’t give me something substantial to keep writing with, I cannot continue writing with you.

I would prefer if personals did not interact unless they have a roleplay sideblog, state that clearly in their blog description/pinned post, and (if they have multiple sideblogs) specify which they are intending to roleplay with. Personals are completely free to follow, however!

My memes and open starters are open to everyone, even if we haven’t interacted yet or we already have a thread! I prefer to start threads with memes, though, so please specify if you would like me to write a drabble instead.

I am on mobile and therefore cannot trim posts. If this is a problem, then I apologize, but I cannot do anything to fix that fact unless my partner is not on mobile.

This is a sideblog! Follows and follow-backs will come from @kottonkandykiller. I do have multiple roleplay sideblogs, so feel free to choose which one you would like to interact with. All asks will be on anon and I will tag my sideblog in the ask.

I’m a busy person, but rest assured, I’ve seen your reply/ask. You can absolutely nag me for replies! Sometimes I forget, sometimes I don’t have the energy, but you aren’t being annoying if you send me a reminder. In fact, please do!

I am most active on Saturdays and in the evenings on weekdays. I’m on Pacific Standard Time, and typically sleep at 9 pm and wake up at 10 am (on weekends). I get home from work anytime from 4 to 6 pm on weekdays.

I currently tag whatever I think would be triggering as topic tw, but I can tag anything that anyone messages me to tag or have in their rules that they want tagged. I have no squicks/triggers myself, but I may add to this list later on.

The muse is not equal to the mod! In Nikki’s case, his moods tend to fluctuate with mine more than my other characters, and in Zephyr’s case, their gender is affected by whatever gender I most associate with at the moment, but nothing else.

These rules may be updated later on, but for now, this’ll be it.

MUSE BIO

NAME: Nikki “Neeks” Knockout

GENDER: male

PRONOUNS: he/they

SPECIES: imp/succubus hybrid

SEXUALITY: bisexual (male lean)

OCCUPATION: freelance stripper/mercenary for hire

RESIDENCE: Pentagram City

PERSONALITY: talkative, oblivious, caring, happy-go-lucky, & sensitive.

BACKSTORY: At 13 years old, a Hellhound murdered his parents in front of him. That same Hellhound blinded him in his right eye, broke his left horn off, and scarred him all over his body. He spent a year in the hospital, having his wounds treated, learning to see with only one eye, and adjusting to having only one horn. For 3 years after that, he bounced around from orphanage to orphanage before escaping a year before becoming an adult. He tattooed the left side of his face, replaced his left horn with a prosthetic, and dyed half of his hair black. He made a name for himself as a freelance pole dancer and taught himself to use several different weapons. After surviving for several years comfortably, his luck ran out during the Extermination of 2023. He was blinded in his other eye during the process of protecting another demon from an Exorcist, and while he did manage to kill the Exorcist, he is now homeless and struggling with his new predicament.

TAG LIST

nikki knockout’s daily dose [lethality and lust]

try these ones on for size [rp memes]

get a load of this [dash commentary]

the real star of the show [mod hunter speaks]

the real star of the show [mod hunter’s art]

i’m sexy and i know it [headcanon]

this is what i look like when the lights are broken [drabble]

this a trivia game? [askbox]

come one come all [open starter]

i’ll play along for the hell of it [dash games]

it’s goin’ down for real [promo]

you’re just like my favorite song going ‘round and ‘round my head [nikki & raven]

what i gotta do to find a sub who down to choke me [nikki & north]

i can tell you’re shy and i think you’re so sweet [nikki & frosty]

a little death [nikki & angel dust]

[unhingedwomandiaries]

Ugh. Not again. I've been asked again for dating advice at work, which is pretty amusing when you consider how disastrous my romantic experiences have been. This time the same person asked, "Would you enjoy going for a drink as a date or to the bar?" Excuse me? I don't even drink, so why would I enjoy that if I were a single woman? Actually, at that moment I started mentally reviewing all the weird dates I've ever been on, and I can't recall a single instance involving a bar. 

There was my very first date with x. It started off with my dad, a former Falcon like x, firing up the grill for me, x, and my best friend who I weirdly asked to be third-wheel for "moral support" (I was a bizarre 15-year-old, admittedly). We watched anime - Naruto, Fruit Baskets, One Piece - and then did what kids do and ran off into the woods. I won't scar you with the gory details, but x tried to assault me in front of my friend, who then started dating him because people are naturally shitty, I guess.

Then there was x, splitting time between France and Toronto. Our first date was over Skype playing RuneScape together for almost 12 hours straight. Just laughter and the insufferable twenty questions game that everyone plays to get to know someone.

I even went on a date with the famous x back when we were underage youths. We illegally drank while wandering the streets of New York until I had to catch a train home to my mom's for the weekend. He asked to come with me, so I ended up sneaking him through my childhood bedroom window to watch 10 Things I Hate About You on my MacBook. Not exactly romantic when my mom found us innocently sleeping and threatened to call the cops on the future $4 million net worth man that my brother insisted "smelled like a homeless person."

My first date with x, meanwhile, involved him taking me to Olive Garden because he claimed "their breadsticks were bomb." We then hiked up a mountain, which turned out to be better than the endless breadsticks. 

X brought me home to meet his parents on our first date, where we watched Casablanca in his childhood bedroom until falling asleep on his twin waterbed. His parents didn't mind at all and even made me pancakes in the morning. Totally normal stuff.

Then there was x, who picked me up at the airport for a date at his favorite froyo place before playing his collection of rare Atari games at his dad's place (his father was one of the original Atari programmers). 

The Polish bodybuilder x took me to a Mexican restaurant, then back to his parents house to watch a Denzel Washington movie in his bedroom. Halfway through, he started mauling me despite my protests about not doing anything sexual unless I knew I loved the person. I ended up walking 7 miles home with hickeys all over after he pinned me down and ignored my boundaries. X's response when I called? That I "deserved it" for dating so soon after we broke up when he was already engaged a month later. Logic!

I went to a Jeff Beck concert with x where we were too focused on his shredding skills to assess any romantic chemistry.

X and I had a long weekend date building a blanket fort and marathoning the How To Train Your Dragon films, his favorite animated series apparently.

X took me to a Yankees game at Fenway Park. Because why not mix that up a little?

X took me thrift shopping for random outfits that we then had to wear to a pizza place, looking completely ridiculous.

X had autism, so he took me to the racetrack for a date focused on his fixation with cars.

After backpacking across Europe, x took me to a diner for a much-needed rootbeer and a stack of pancakes to revive me. 

X swept me off to the London Eye and dinner at The Shard, followed by a hot tub boat cruise around Canary Wharf, naturally.

X scored us tickets to a World Cup match. 

For our date, x took me to a pancake house on a boat where I had crepes smothered in cloyingly sweet caramel sauce.

X and I went to see one of the latter Lord of the Rings movies, but skipped the dinner aspect - we just returned to his place afterward for hot chocolate by the fireplace.

X was the date that never happened because he stood me up, only to later claim he couldn't make it because he had leukemia. I'm guessing he was a catfish.

And then there was my husband, the "one ring to rule them all," whose first date with me involved seeing the final Lord of the Rings film in theaters.

So no, the pub scene was never really in the cards for me, despite the well-intentioned assumptions of my coworker. My romantic experiences were...unconventional, to say the least.

[cathedralrosary]

My boyfriend and I went to a pottery place to paint some pieces, something I’d been wanting to do for a while. The table behind us had three younger children, with the youngest being a boy probably about 3-4 years old. The boy was clearly energetic and not ready to be in a place with fragile pottery that can take a while to paint. He was running around, and the adults with him (can’t tell if they were grandparents or parents) would yell at him to stop, instead of providing him with an activity to do or redirecting him. He eventually broke one of his sisters’ pieces and she had to start all over. He was clearly too young for that kind of environment, and his sisters had to deal with stressed out and angry adults.

After we finished our pottery, my boyfriend and I went to eat at a local restaurant right down the street. We were seated next to a window which overlooked a street in our city’s downtown. At one point, a car pulls up and stops (at the red light) and then three or so people get out of that car. Then a couple of people get out of the car behind that first one. A few punches are thrown and there’s a lot of yelling before the light changes and everyone gets back in their cars and drives away.

After my boyfriend dropped me off back at my place, he stopped at a four-way intersection on his way home. An older woman tried to go out of turn at the stop, and in the process screamed at my boyfriend that he was “a bastard from hell.” He had his windows down for his dog and so heard her perfectly.

I try to give people grace, and no I am not perfect at it. And of course I also have moments where anger or other emotions get the best of me. But I can’t help thinking about how today, the day before Easter, there are so many people who seem so angry. I live in a predominantly white Christian area, and while I don’t know if any of these people I’ve talked about are actually Christians, it makes me sad that so many people are taking this holy weekend to be filled with anger and hate. Easter reminds me of the undying and unconditional love of Christ, something I think we as Catholics (and even more broadly as humans) should be striving to emulate in our own lives. I’m not trying to say these people are bad people, I just wish we all showed a little bit more love and grace in stressful situations.

[f1]

F1 fans devastated as Fernando Alonso's rumoured girlfriend Taylor Swift is linked with Matty Healy

Devastated Formula One fans react after it emerges Fernando Alonso's rumoured girlfriend Taylor Swift 'is madly in love' with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy: 'He must be so so sad' By Ollie Lewis For Daily Mail Australia Published: 12:50 BST, 4 May 2023 | Updated: 12:50 BST, 4 May 2023 Devastated Fernando Alonso fans have taken to Twitter after his rumoured girlfriend Taylor Swift was linked with English musician Matty Healy. This week, rumours were rife that the Formula One star was the American singer's new beau after she split up with long-term partner Joe Alwyn. The Spaniard did little to dispel the rumours and played along, much to the delight of fans on social media. He posted a TikTok of himself listening to her music and avoided questions about their rumoured relationship, while Sky F1 pundits eagerly dropped Swift-related puns throughout their coverage of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. However, any hope of seeing Swift in the Aston Martin garage this season have been quashed after reports emerged claiming that the 33-year-old is set to go public with Healy, frontman of The 1975.  Unsurprisingly, fans of the 41-year-old have not taken the news well, and posted their disappointment on Twitter. Devastated Formula One fans have reacted to the latest development in Taylor Swift's love life Swift is reportedly 'madly in love' with musician Matty Healy (L) after rumours linked her with F1 veteran Fernando Alonso (R) 'Taylor Swift and Matty Healy are dating???' one fan posted. 'Fernando Alonso must be so sad...' Another said: 'Wait wait... Taylor Swift and Matty Healy are dating? Wasn't there rumours about Taylor and Fernando Alonso just less than 24 hours ago' alongside a crying emoji.  A third fan posted: 'I JUST FELL ON MY KNEES.' 'I refuse and I refuse to allow and accept Taylor Swift dating anyone other than Fernando Alonso,' a fourth fan said. Healy is not the first Brit to date Swift, with the American pop star also enjoying romances with Harry Styles, Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris.  Swift is said to be 'madly in love' with Healy - who is the son of Loose Women star Denise Welch and Benidorm actor, Tim Healy.  An insider told The Sun: 'She and Matty are madly in love. 'It's super-early days, but it feels right. They first dated, very briefly, almost ten years ago but timings just didn’t work out.' The source went on to insist that there was no crossover in Swift's love life, despite news of her split from Joe emerging last month, insisting that the pair actually broke up in February. Swift is currently in the middle of the US leg of her The Eras Tour while The 1975 are on their At Their Very Best concert tour, but the source insisted they have kept in constant communication by texting and Face Timing. The source added: 'As two international megastars, they understand the pressures of one another’s jobs better than anyone, and are incredibly supportive of their respective careers. 'They are both massively proud and excited about this relationship and, unlike Taylor’s last one — which was very much kept out of the spotlight, deliberately — she wants to ‘own’ this romance, and not hide it away. 'Taylor just wants to live her life, and be happy. She’s told pals Matty is flying to Nashville over the weekend to support her on the next leg of her tour.' Share or comment on this article: F1 fans react after Fernando Alonso's rumoured girlfriend Taylor Swift is linked with Matty Healy via Formula One | Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

[hpysprkl]

4, 11, 15, 19 for writer asks 😊 have a good weekend!

Ooh, good ones, thanks for the ask @twosides--samecoin (btw, I just started reading Long Time Running the other day, I love it so far)!

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

Five. Three are Fallout 4, one Fallout 76, and one Starfield (love me some space cowboy!).

11. Do you have specific playlists for writing fics?

ABSOLUTELY. When I start outlining a new fic, I start putting together a playlist that captures an overall mood for the thing, and that's what I listen to whenever I work on it. Makes it a lot easier to switch between projects or just get back in the right headspace for writing.

15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters?

The aforementioned playlists. Titles are always song lyrics from the fic's playlist.

19. Give us a small teaser from one of your WIPs.

Here's a bit from the prologue of my main Fallout 4 fic, Holding Out For a Hero. Been working on this baby for a little over a year now 😬

Winlock's corpse (or what's left of it) is still smoking on the overpass where the fusion core's explosion ripped his body into several now-lifeless pieces. MacCready glances at the boss, standing over the body of a Gunner, reloading her pistols. Lifeblood is still percolating from a hole in the man's forehead. She's scanning the broken highway, always on the lookout for threats, but all is quiet. It's over. The Gunners will never bother him again, after sending them a message like that. It's hard to reconcile the woman in front of him - this vengeful goddess of death and fire and destruction - with the empty shell she'd become just a couple months ago, the day they'd gone to the Memory Den with Valentine, the day they'd learned what had happened to her son. The day she knew she wasn't his mother anymore. She'd seen that boy in Kellogg's memories, probably ten or eleven years old, the boy with his mother's eyes framed in his father's face, and she was done. He has a life, a home, a family, and it's not me, she'd sobbed as Nick held her. What kind of monster would I be if I stole him away from that? MacCready agreed, not that it was his place or his business. At the end of the day, biology wasn't everything; she understood that, wanted what was best for the kid, even if it broke her heart. At the end of the day, that's what being a good parent was - putting your child first, no matter how much it hurt or how hard it was. It's what earned her Mac's undying loyalty and respect that day, which was not something he bestowed lightly. He could count on one hand the number of people who had it, and he'd still have fingers to spare.

[triplexdoublex]

I think wats messing me up about this whole thing is that my parents are going through a very similar situation where my mom was the extremely toxic one who cheated, said some extremely horrible lies about my dad and all of that stuff, then they seperated, and my dad got very suicidal and me and my sis had to watch him just spiral down hill and then like a few months later right when he was getting better, my dad let her just walk right back in like nothing happened and she never saw wat she did wrong and coudint understand why everyone was so upset, and now literally won't face any of our family and is only happy when she's spending his money. And I'm not saying this for sympathy or anything but I'm saying this from experience it doesn't matter how old the kid is when they have to sit there and watch their dad become suicidal and depressed over a women (doesn't matter if they are ur real mom, step mom, cousin, aunt, grandmother idc) but if ur kids watches u become suicidal over a women it not only breaks something inside of them but it makes them become extremely angry and not trusting to that said women. And him staying in this very openly toxic very public relationship is very damaging to Casie and I can almost garentee Casie despises Megan and is just waiting for her to leave/mess up again and I can also almost garentee she isint facing his family (the crew) anytime soon. Hell he's already trying to hide it from his other family (est) so I can only imagine how the crew feels about this

TW// domestic violence, blood, death threats, guns

I’m so sorry you had to go through that I unfortunately know exactly how you and Casie must feel. Growing up my step mother was extremely jealous, abusive and manipulative towards my dad even before they got married and it destroyed my relationship with him. She would take off her rings and have me hold them while she went and beat my dad up over the stupidest things like glancing at the Victoria Secret poster ads in the store window while walking by at the mall, she even once accused him of checking ME out that’s how crazy and jealous she was. One time he hurt his back at work and she accused him of “walking like he just had sex” and broke a small wooden baseball bat over his face , took pictures of him all bloody and then showed them to me and was basically like “this is what’s gonna happen if your dad keeps cheating on me.” My dad wasn’t allowed to attend any life events of mine birthdays, graduation, my wedding. She always had to tag along to every weekend visitation or vacation I had with my dad, and would never let my dad buy me things when we were out because he “already pays enough in child support” ( $55 a week 🙄). He worked as a janitor at my school and she made him quit because she thought he flirted with my teacher. She literally made him tell my teacher “I have to quit because I jerk off thinking about you” and she stood there and made sure he said it. At her and my dads wedding she told me “I’m your mother now and I will smack you” because I wouldn’t give two of her friends a ride home. Eventually they thankfully divorced when she cheated and decided she was done with my dad, but not before having 4 more kids and fucking them all up. Even after the divorce she continued to fuck with him and would claim all the kids on her taxes when the agreement was to split it or do every other year. So one time obviously extremely angry my dad said “I’m gonna kill you” purely out of anger and she called the police ( all of who my dad was friends with because he used to be a firefighter— another job she made him quit) and one of my dads own friends had to come to his house and confiscate all his LEGAL hunting guns and bows because “she feared he would use them to kill her” So after all the shit she put him through now he was the bad guy! I fear Megan’s gonna do the same thing to Kells and push him to a breaking point where he either says or does something violent so then she can spin the narrative and play the Amber Heard victim card and be like “see he was really the bad guy all along this is why you should always believe women, this is why I’m such a powerful feminist” 🙄 Sorry for the rant I can just see from experience how badly this can end for him and Casie’s relationship as well as his already tarnished reputation.

[lovelyfanatical]

I Get a Sugar Rush Whenever I’m With You - Chapter 4.3

Happy weekend fellow Drukkari stans, or whatever day it is for you! Took longer than I hoped, but I am here with the end of Chapter 4! If you missed the last installment and need to catch up, you can find that here, or start over from the beginning here. We have reached the end of '70s week, and Detective Makkari has her eye on Thenamesh. What will they uncover this time? Find out now in the next mini-chapter of Drukkari in the Great British Bake Off!

The final challenge of the week went surprisingly well for Druig, considering how often he found himself distracted by Makkari. She remained determined to facilitate Thena and Gilgamesh’s budding relationship, even if she still had no idea how to go about it. The result of this was simply Makkari watching the two of them like a hawk and alerting Druig and Sersi whenever she witnessed something cute, regardless of whether the cameras were rolling. In the three hours they had to complete their bakes that week, Druig had spotted at least fourteen pointed looks from Makkari as she tried to alert him and Sersi to some new development without letting Thena or Gil catch on. While Gil hadn’t appeared to notice, Druig wasn’t so sure they had escaped Thena’s attention. His suspicions soon proven correct.

Following judgment time, he found himself waiting for his interview along with the stoic blonde. Despite being at the end of the fourth week, he still hadn’t really talked to her. He was almost certain he was being rude by not talking to her now, being the only two in the waiting area at present. That said, Thena’s judgment hadn’t gone very well at all, and he wasn’t sure if she was in the mood to make casual conversation with someone she barely knew. But just as Druig’s mind was jumping through hoops to justify his silence, Thena broke right through it with a surprising phrase: “You can just ask, you know.”

Druig nearly jumped out of his skin at the interruption to his train of thought. “What?”

“About me and Gilgamesh,” she replied nonchalantly. At his stunned silence, she continued, “I know you and Makkari have been watching us. Possibly Sersi as well.”

“Sorry about that. We didn’t mean to make you or Gil… uncomfortable,” he said, treading carefully with his choice of words. To his astonishment, Thena actually cracked a smile at his response.

“Oh, we’re not uncomfortable. If anything, it’s amusing how subtle Makkari thinks she’s being,” she said, which made Druig smile at the memory of her barely contained smiles during the competition today. “You still haven’t asked.”

Makkari would be sad to have missed this, but Druig wasn’t sure he’d get the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Thena again, so he asked, “What’s the deal with you and Gilgamesh?”

“We’re old acquaintances. I trained with him briefly early in my career,” she explained. “He invited me out for coffee once, but I had an overseas gig. Then another. After the third, I ended up moving there for a few years. I moved back eventually, but before I knew it, years had passed, and between all the moving around, we’d lost touch.”

“So, you didn’t see each other again until now?”

“Yes. It seems we both took up the same hobby.”

Druig hummed in response and weighed his next question carefully. He wasn’t sure if it was too nosy to ask, but then again, Thena had prompted him to do so, and she was eyeing him knowingly now. So he continued, “And did you two go for that cup of coffee yet?”

While she didn’t seem at all surprised by the question, she still took some time to consider her answer. “I’m not sure if coffee from the hotel really counts. Beyond that, he hasn’t brought it up. I think he might be waiting.”

“For what?”

“For one of us to get eliminated. I’m not sure if they allow contestants to date.”

“Oh,” was all he could think to say.

“I suppose after today’s performance, he may not need to wait much longer,” she continued. Druig realized a beat too late that he should probably object to this statement, assure her that everything would be alright, as Thena asked, “Not even going to try to tell me it wasn’t that bad?”

“Sorry, thought it might sound patronizing,” he muttered.

“You’d be right,” she replied before falling silent again.

After a moment, he awkwardly asked, “Are you sad about it?”

“A little, but at least I got to be here and intimidate the judges,” she responded with a small smile. “Besides, Gilgamesh is worth the wait, but I’m not the most patient person.”

Just then, they both noticed Darcy nearing the waiting area, and Thena stood up to go. Before she did, she turned back to him to say, “Thanks for not patronizing me, Druig. And I hope you’re a more patient person than I am.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, feeling his face screw up in confusion. Thena raised an eyebrow at him.

“You think I haven’t noticed the way you look at Makkari?”

Druig felt all of the blood rush to his face as he fought the urge to look anywhere else. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Thena merely smiled wryly and gave a satisfied hum before she went out to meet Darcy. Druig was left feeling suddenly very warm. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how he felt; he’d known he was a goner the moment he saw Makkari. That said, if anyone else had noticed, they hadn’t brought it up – Makkari included. At the thought of Makkari knowing, Druig was filled with an entirely different level of anxiety, but he pushed it down as he saw Darcy coming back to fetch him.

-

As Makkari had predicted, Ajak won Star Baker that week. And as Thena herself had predicted, she was going home. Their group tried to contain their enthusiasm, but they all agreed it was well-deserved and fitting that their matriarch should be the first of them to win. Even with all the excitement, Makkari’s eyes were still glued to Thena and Gilgamesh, who she spotted appearing to say their goodbyes for now. Despite how happy she was for Ajak, Druig could see how torn she was with Thena leaving. Of course, that changed on the train ride home when he relayed his and Thena’s conversation to her. He nearly keeled over laughing at the number of times her jaw dropped.

I can’t believe it! she signed, practically jumping out of her seat with joy. You really were right on the money again!

Is that so surprising? he asked in mock offense, at which she rolled her eyes.

No, but you may be the true detective after all, Watson. Not that anyone else needs to know, she answered with a smirk.

As you wish, Sherlock, he replied, unable to hide his own smile. So, what will you do now without a case to keep you occupied?

Focus on the actual competition, I suppose, she responded.

Really? No other potential matches you want to make?

Phastos is married and Sprite is a child. I think I’ve exhausted all matches amongst competitors.  

All of them except us, Druig thought, though he didn’t dare sign it. While they continued to talk throughout the rest of the train ride, Druig couldn’t help but replay the end of his conversation with Thena in his head, a detail he had not shared with Makkari. Obviously, she’d seen right through him, but what had she actually meant when she told him to be patient? Did she simply mean to wait to ask Makkari out, or was there another meaning? He and Makkari had grown so close so quickly that he really wasn’t sure how to even go about asking her out, let alone whether he’d be breaking any rules in doing so. And although he hadn’t made much effort to hide his affection for her, he still wasn’t exactly sure of how she felt toward him. She certainly liked him as a friend, but beyond that, he couldn’t really say.

While he did feel there was something special about their friendship, he could say the same thing about all of Makkari’s friendships, at least the ones he’d seen. She seemed to have a unique bond with everyone in their group (apart from Dane, but he was still new). Who was to say if she had a romantic interest in any of them? She was quite invested in their love lives, but she’d never once said anything about her own except that she was single.

And all of that aside, Makkari really was a great friend. Druig’s circle of friends had always been small, which he didn’t mind. But now that Makkari was part of that circle, he was eager for her to stay there. Druig could definitely be patient, but he wouldn’t risk losing that for anything.

-

I'm sorry I wrote Thena out, she was fun to write while it lasted 😭😭😭 Anyway, I'm quite busy at the moment, so it may take a bit longer for the next installment to come out. In the meantime, likes, reblogs, and comments would be very appreciated!

Part 14

[mygeekcorner]

No I don’t know how I did it either

@genderfluid-faerie-bf​ tagged me in telling the story of how me and @magnusdidntwantablog​ got together back in the day. Long story short, we met at work.

If you want a longer walk down memory lane here’s some actual bits that happened

How we first met: The very first time we met was in the changing room at my summer job - it was co-ed because 99% of people in our line of work are women so why bother, right? I was halfway through changing into my work clothes and was just pulling off my jeans when he walked in. And like, I’m not shy like that, and if I had been at any other part of the getting-changed-process this would all have been fine. But you know when you’re pulling off your jeans with that little hunched back and your jeans are Just beneath your ass, the pose Nobody looks good in? Yeah. That’s when he walked in. I was mortified and so flustered!

The only thing I could do for the rest of the day was try to repay that feeling, so every chance I got between customers I would pick on him in an effort to feel less like I was below(???) him. Yeah, 24 year old me was super mature and would never resort to pigtail pulling. Promise.

How we first spoke got to know each other: Later in the fall a new store opened and we both started working there. We recognised each other and started talking more and more on our shifts together. I was nicer this time around. Also way more nerdy.

How we got together: Come spring I broke up with my ex and moved back in with my parents for two months while waiting to get a new flat. There was a lot of car sex (but hey we only got the cops called on us once so \o/ ) lol. When I finally got the keys to my new place he pretty much moved in with me - hey it was closer to work for him -, and when I caught the flu he was by my side with cold towels and cups of honeyed tea, we snuck away to London for a weekend and he kept being the sweetest person ever as we held hands through the parks.

Me being an idiot kept telling myself that we were still totally not together though.

After 6 months of me insisting there was totally nothing there besides great sex and conversation he got sick of it and dumped my sorry ass. Good for him though, honestly, if I was his friend and heard about how I was acting I would tell him to leave that bitch 4 months ago lmao.

Thankfully for me he is too nice for his own good, and after a depressed month apart I came crawling back after realising that maybe I did love him after all. 8 years later and I’m still shocked he hasn’t realised he deserves better yet.

Our first date: Our first date once we started hooking up was probably going out for tapas around my birthday, we both agree. It was still very new, I was still very recently single and all we did was talk and maybe some kisses. Neither can remember our first date as a proper couple though. I asked! And all his responses where stuff from those 6 months of me being a dumbass too lol

Like I swear we’ve had date nights as boyfriend and girlfriend, just maybe not that many from the early days?

But yeah, that was the story of how me being mean and dumb somehow managed to not scare away one of the kindest people I know xD

.

I’m supposed to pay this forward by tagging people I know are in relationships but I’ll be honest and say that I don’t know lots of peoples social status so... @jacquelinesrumbottle​ @topcatnikki​ @nevergonnafallfor​ @happygomadhatter​ I think you all have someone you’re allowed to annoy(affectionate) on a regular basis and if anyone else wants to tell the story of how they bagged their partner please go ahead and consider this your tag <3

[mountainmaven]

It's just been a lot.

I was so proud of myself for handling all that I did last week...until I reached my limit and broke down on Friday. My husband wasn't home yet (he'd be home that afternoon). We had the neighbor plow the driveway and while that was helpful, it wasn't quite the stress reliever I thought it was going to be. It was good, don't get me wrong, I just thought I'd feel more relieved than I did.

I was going into the workroom to put some trash out there (until I could get to that trash cans that were still buried in snow outside) and I saw that we had several drips coming from the ceiling/beams. The side deck of the house is above the workroom (we think the workroom used to be a garage that was converted (and not well)). But a couple of years ago we had the deck resurfaced with that cool decking stuff that they use around pools. We did have one small drip in that room last winter. But this was way more. So I dried what I could and covered everything with a plastic tarp - well not even a tarp, but a plastic drop cloth that you use for painting because that was the only thing I had that was appropriate. This was when I lost it, I just started to cry and I video called my oldest and told her "I just needed to talk to someone who loved me." LOL It was helpful just seeing her face, and hearing her voice.

In the meantime I was waiting for an inspector to show up as we have to do radon mitigation in our house. We recently discovered that we have high levels of radon in our home. So he was coming to look at the house so he can write up a proposal and tell us how things would go during the process etc. (That went fine by the way, and so far the estimate is significantly lower than we had anticipated - though we still will have to factor in travel, lodging, and Per Diem expenses as they are from up north in the state, but it still should come in at less than what we had anticipated which is really good news).

So while I was waiting I was doing some dusting in the living room and that's when I noticed that one of the ledges in there was wet. So this is where the a-frame roof meets the half wall. This particular spot on the outside is currently covered with plastic tarp from the siding project because they didn't have roof tiles to replace the ones they had to remove to redo the flashing. Well with the amount of snow we've gotten it's gotten behind that plastic and is now seeping into the living room (there is one other small spot on the other side of the room - again same issue - siding messed up flashing).

The inspector showed up, we walked the house, he told me about mitigation etc. Then hubby came home while the inspector was still here (thankfully so I didn't have to try to remember all the details he told me).

We spent this past weekend working on massive snow removal on the side deck and the roof. (the seepage/drips in the workroom are also from the roof/flashing issue). My husband had to chip through approx 8 inches of ice on the roof, after taking the snow off.

I've said this before and I'll say it again this is a learning year for us for sure. And I truly hope we do better next winter - I mean how could we not??

But also when I had my breakdown I was so upset with myself because I automatically felt like a failure. Like my breakdown completely negated my successful 4 days prior to that. Which I know it didn't, but that was the feeling and that was the first thought that entered my mind. And that sucks.

My Jeep is still buried under snow (more so now obviously) and it still isn't going anywhere anytime soon - even if it wasn't buried. Because my battery that is less than 6 or 7 months old is dead from the cold weather and lack of use. So we ordered a car battery charger, but we haven't been able to use it yet because of the snow LOL. But once we do we can get it started so I can get it back down the mountain and back to the Jeep garage and have them look at it. And going forward we'll have to address that issue as well. We know the things that will help, but they don't help us at the moment. Again - hopefully we'll do better next winter.