#my school was less weird about this stuff than a lot of places i hear about and most teachers would e.g. enter negotiations about a way

[unopenablebox]

my mom recently reminded me that when i was in 5th grade my teacher would periodically report to her that i was "sneaky" because i would ask to use the bathroom during class and instead go retrieve things from my locker that i had forgotten to bring with me

and even at the time she thought this was ridiculous and obviously not representative of an intrinsically deceitful nature, fortunately for me. but it's really extra ridiculous looking back on it now as a 28-year-old research professional who has to double back into the room i just left for some combination of gloves, tube rack, ice bucket, or samples at least once a day, a quality absolutely no one cares about or would ever make me justify to another person and which i therefore don't have to tell contrived lies about

[yuri-is-online]

c-could we have some crumbs of what Yuu and Yutu’s life was like before Yuu died? any particular moments that Yutu may remember fondly for example? 👉👈

Of course my friend, let me see if I can make this less angsty than some of the other posts (challenge impossible)

notes: they/them used for Yuu, this is part of the fyuuture kid au which can be found here and here

I want to leave exactly where in the world Yuu and Yutu are from up to the reader, but I sort of see them as having lived in a small town. They moved at least once to get away from the rumor mill of the place Yuu went missing from, Yutu doesn't have a lot of fond memories of Yuu's og hometown. He remembers it as a place where people were constantly talking about where they thought Yuu went for all the years they went missing.

Even after they moved Yuu and Yutu were considered to be weird and seen as outcasts, something I think Yuu was more upset about it than Yutu was. Until the game explains the rules of Yuu's world, in my mind it is sort of functioning off of Kingdom Hearts logic where when traveling to a different world, your form changes to reflect that one so no merfolk forms for the Octotrio's kids, no beastmen traits for the Savanaclaw kids, and no ability to use Twisted Wonderland like magic for anyone. Yutu can still tell he should have those things and it bothered him a lot.

It was a wild experience to be taken through the mirror and have his ears change or learn he was part fish.

I like to think that Yuu had a job working nights so they could spend more time with Yutu during the day, in what field I leave up to you but they were a really hard worker who saved all their pto and vacation days to attend Yutu's school events and any extracurricular stuff he decided to do. That meant a lot to Yutu, his feelings about his dad change depending on a few things but he never felt like he was lacking in support from Yuu.

Little Yutu really liked making crafts for Yuu. He was really into origami flowers for a while and still knows how to make them, though he's a bit embarrassed by it now.

Yutu genuinely likes Yuu's cooking even if it isn't good. I like the idea of Yutu and Yuu baking cakes together on birthdays, picking out a box mix and fun frosting so they can decorate it the exact way Yutu wants to. A bit before they died Yutu surprised them by baking a cake all on his own the day before their birthday, Yuu was very proud of him and Yutu was just a tiny bit smug about it.

I like to think Yuu subconsciously bought Yutu a stuffed animal that related to Twisted Wonderland in some way. A black cat, a white rabbit, a lion, or maybe even an octopus. Yutu isn't very creative with names so he just named his animals after himself, which is something Yuu would have been able to tease him about because he is very sensitive about it.

Any holidays that are significantly important to Yuu are important to Yutu as well. If you have family traditions that you passed on to him he will think of those fondly and will have told his friends, both in your world and Twisted Wonderland, about them. I like to think that Yuu might have come up with someones unique to them and Yutu since their memories of their past weren't great, so the new ones they made with their son were very important to them.

He especially liked Halloween. It's easily his favorite holiday and he used to get really excited to dress up with Yuu.

Yuu used to read Yutu bedtime stories, and he did like those, but he has really strong memories of times when they would work together to make up a story. He could still repeat some of those back to you... if you knew to ask him about them.

I am interested in hearing what sort of things you would think about Yuu doing with Yutu, or hobbies you think would be fun for specific Yutus to pursue.

[unfortunate-songbird]

ok hear me out

what if April was older

pov you’re like 15, working your after school job at your local pet store, nbd

Then this guy walks in wearing a literal suit of armor. It’s bright blue. He’s got long pinkish hair and golden horns. Are those freaking gargoyles on his shoulders. he asks for four turtles.

Sure, whatever. New York be like that sometimes. You get him four turtles, different types. While you’re, like, ringing up the turtles or w/ever, he starts droning on about how he’s going to mutate them into the greatest warriors in the universe and use them to reclaim his peoples’ rightful place on the surface

you aren’t really paid enough for this, but honestly it’s either this or freaking McDonald’s, so you deal with it

guy takes his turtles and leaves

maybe you mostly forget

maybe it keeps you up a few nights, idk

you get fired four months later in an incident that Totally wasn’t your fault but the managers just saw thirty hamsters dyed bright pink and jumped to conclusions, yknow? That’s how it be sometimes

Anyways, picture about 3 years later

you pick up a part time delivery job at a pizza place. Not ideal, but when you’ve been blacklisted from the majority of businesses in your general area, beggars can’t be choosers. Anyways, a guy asks for 3 large pizzas. You can hear kids yelling in the background. He sounds tired. Mood. then he asks you to leave them in an alleyway near a manhole. uhhhhh

look, you’re dead inside from customer service, but you’ve still got a Little of that investigative spirit that got you expelled from that fancy smancy high school sophomore year

So you wait

A rat man (!!?!???) emerges from the sewer, holding a very small toddler that’s also a turtle (?!???!?)

Wait. wait. wait.

that guy from the pet store.

no way.

Anyways, it takes a lot of yelling, panic, a few ninja moves (??) and some really awful lies from the rat man, but they manage to talk it out. It helps when one bawling turtle kiddo quiets after a couple minutes of the April O’Neil flair. (For once’s she’s grateful for her many younger cousins)

besides, she’s basically their aunt at this point. She sold them to the goat man, so she kinda counts. She’s pretty sure Rat Man- Splints- is just glad to have some help wrangling the disasters. He pays her nicely for her services, which is great, so she drops the other jobs and babysits mutant turtles in the sewers. It’s weird, for sure, but it could be way worse.

Plus, they’re all so cute.

Raph is super helpful, always following her around and trying to participate in whatever she’s doing. It’s so cute watching him bite his lip as he carefully fills Mikey’s sippy cup with juice (April holding onto the carton to make sure he doesn’t spill everywhere)

Donnie is super smart already, eagerly recounting to April whatever cool facts he’s learned. April buys him some Legos to build stuff, and he’s over the moon about them. Mikey eats one of the pieces, leading to a few hours of panic and a lifelong hatred of people touching his stuff.

Leo is a little show off, always yelling “April, April!! Lookit this!!” (Those words have proceeded, to date: three broken bones (at least mutants heal quickly), two sprained ankles, a sprained wrist, a nasty cut down his leg, and more scraped up knees that April can count).

Mikey is much less of a daredevil on his own, but he’s quick to copy whatever dangerous stunt Leo is doing. He’s always easily mollified with colorful bandaids, though, and Leo has more than once abandoned a trick when he sees Mikey trying to attempt it too. His drawings cover both the lair’s fridge and April’s own.

((( idk what this was I just think it’s very cute. My brain went “haha Draxum in a pet shop” and then everything else happened. i don’t know where Splinter gets his money, but he obviously Has it. He doesn’t work, but the boys can still afford pizza and have allowances (I’m assuming, since it’s unlikely they have jobs to earn money, so whatever they get is probably from Splinter.) and also?? Electricity?? (Where do they get that)

anyway I have Many questions that are never answered about that)))

[withacapitalp]

Hidden Gem Friday

Hey guys! It's time for our second Hidden Gem Friday. If you don't already know the drill, here's how it works. You guys send me fics you like that have less than 2k hits on ao3 or less than 200 notes here on Tumblr, and I read them and put them out as reccs on Fridays. I also like to add in my own reccs, because there's some stuff I've read that just really needs more engagement. I really like doing this, but I have a few asks. If you read these fics, please leave a comment! Comments are the lifeblood of keeping authors invested in writing for a lot of us, and it makes us feel super happy to know people enjoyed the fics. Secondly, if you comment, let the author know where you got it from! I always love to hear I was added to a recc list. Okay Reccs under read more as always. If you want to see the others look at the tag #Hidden Gem Friday

Still So Much To Learn by BonitaBreezy recced by me. @bonitabreezy on here! 4k words (Complete)- Steddie

Summary:

Steve Harrington knows he’s stupid. Everyone has made that very clear to him. But sometimes it hurts to hear, especially from the people you love.

My Thoughts:

Ough you guysssss. Okay so I watched this being written, and I got it in bits and pieces slowly over the course of four(? maybe five) hours. It was so fucking intenseeeeeeee. This fic is really well written, and it deals with one of my favorite headcanons, and I really like that it didn't pull the usual route of 'Eddie is the only one who never calls him stupid'. I love that sm but like this is so much more realistic? These kinds of miscommunications happen allllllll the time, and we do things and say things we don't mean, and I just yeah everyone should read this one!!!!!

Go At Your Own Pace by Cardigains recced by @andrea-csenge 17k words (Complete)- Gen El focused

Summary:

“Write down three things,” Hopper says, ducking his head to catch her eye. “Three things you want to make happen this year, and we’ll do everything in our power to help you. How about that?” or New place, new school, not new but new-together parents—after last year, El is more than happy to let the world pass her by from the safety inside of their home, but her friends and family have different ideas. How they work to prove to El she is not alone and can succeed at anything she sets her mind to.

My Thoughts

This one is really really good. It's canon to season four ending, and I didn't even have time to doubt, because this El is so good. This is an El who is past the traumatic events, but still impacted by them. She feels older but still El? I love it. All of the characters are super realistic, amazing jopper, WONDERTWINS, it's all jsut really well written, and it floooooows god does this flow. It is awesome

uh-oh, love comes to town by 96 tears recced by @daysarestranger 13k words (Complete)- Steddie w side of Robin/Vickie

Summary:

It’s not like Steve thought Eddie would stay single forever, but he figured he’d have a girlfriend by the time Eddie got a boyfriend. So, when Vickie and Robin set Eddie up on a blind date with Vickie’s cousin, Steve figures he feels weird about it because he’s the only one without a date.But an annoying little voice starts telling him maybe there’s more to it than that. He just has to figure out what it is.

My Thoughts:

This one is so fricken sweet!! I love the way Vickie is characterized in this one, we don't see her a lot (except for people saying her and Robin didn't work) but this person took the time to think about it. There's also a good dollop of QPR stobin which I always love, and a badass little granny for Steve, but the main thing here is the awesome Steddie! It's really well written, you an see them doing this complicated little dance around each other and the ending is so so sweet. It's also really funny I laughed at least three times

down on the timeline by annabeeus recced by @silverysnake 6k words (Complete)- Steddie with Ronance and a little Jargyle

Summary:

In a slightly altered universe where the Demogorgon never became more than a D&D character - The Party are semi-famous Youtubers. Steve, one-half of movie commentary channel BLOCKBUSTERS, and Eddie, the leader of D&D channel THE HELLFIRE SOCIETY, can't help but start falling for each other after meeting through a mutual friend.

My thoughts:

I always wanna try to be honest with my thoughts here- I did not think I was going to like this story. The way it was formatted isn't something I'm used to and it threw me off, but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did! It's really funny, and I love the little references thrown in everywhere. You know when you can feel an author probably worked harder on something then they initially planned, and the result is fucking awesome? Yeah that's this fic. It's super cute, it's told in this really unique kind of outsider perspective, and I so so enjoyed it.

i wish i knew how (your eyes are like starlight now) by MacksDramaticShenanigans aka @stevethehairington this one is also a me recc bc it's my list! I can do as I please haha. 10k words (Complete)- Steddie

Summary:

“Mistletoe!” Robin cheers, and Steve’s heart stutters so hard in his chest that he thinks it might crack his ribcage and drop right out the bottom of his stomach. His eyes fly up, and, sure enough, there hangs one of the many sprigs hung all around the apartment. Small and inconspicuous, but unmistakable. That ridiculous little plant has no idea that it’s just turned Steve’s entire world on its axis. Across from him, Eddie’s eyes are trained up too, big and round and wide where they stick on the mistletoe. His lips are parted in surprise, and Steve can’t help but stare and think am I going to kiss those now? When Eddie finally tears his gaze from the plant and lets it flicker down to Steve, a pretty pink dusting blooms across the bridge of his nose and spreads into the apples of his cheeks when he finds Steve already looking back. Steve spares the mistletoe one last quick peek before he takes a deep breath and steels himself. This is it. He sticks his hands on his hips, aiming for casual, and asks, “What do you say, Munson?” Or, Steve makes a promise, Robin likes to meddle, and the spirit of Christmas strikes (out) again. And again. And again. (Until it doesn’t.)

My Thoughts:

Okay I'm going to be frank I may be biased bc I betad this fic, except I'm not because it's so goddman spectacular. I'll start with how funny it is. I reread it today to have it fresh in my mind, and it's hilarious. Secondly the reveal and the moment where Steve thinks Eddie doesn't want him is so quietly heartbreaking, but perfectly written. Characterization is awesome, I watched every iteration of this as it grew and grew into something absolutely magnificent, and I'm so lucky to have gotten to beta for it!!

[creekfiend]

I never heard of bluetick dogs before I started watching Moishe grow up on your blog! May I ask what some of his breed-specific mannerisms are? Is he a kind of working dog that needs a bunch of jobs? Or more of a chilling out dog?

Honestly I only have personal experience with our weird neighbor's dogs. Because they keep fucking showing up at our farm 😂 but his have really nice temperaments. A couple of his older dogs turned up here like a year or two ago and just vibed around the place like goofuses. We closed them in our shed/pen area to keep them safe while we tries to contact the breeder and they were here for over 24 hours and just... chill. Very sweet. Very smelly. Very dog neutral and people friendly

In general the impression I get about coonhounds is they should be like that -- although I hear some lines or breeds can produce aggression problems, like a friend of mine with a redbone says she hears about aggression popping up sometimes with those but idk

They're pretty much only used by old school hunting guys who are pretty offline compared to a lot of other dog breed communities and who tend to have pretty different priorities as well. But I will say that the local blueticks have all been exuberant at times but easygoing, not hyper or anything. And hounds should always be dogs that 'pack up' easily which is nice in multidog households

Its always a toss-up how a dog from lines mostly bred to live in kennels will adjust to living in a house but all the coonhounds I know of who are pets have adjusted just fine and tend to be lazy in the house

Moses has been an easy-ass puppy. He self regulates astoundingly well and I'm honestly jealous because he will do stuff like PUT HIMSELF DOWN FOR NAPS when he gets tired, which... **looks at Lambchop** lol

My mom has been really sick recently and not as able to get him out and was expressing guilt about it to me the other day because Moses has been just FINE about napping with her in bed all day apart from a couple like, 30min bouts of puppy silliness/zoomies etc. Like he just doesn't care.

Definitely not the same vibe as, like, breeds that you hear "they need a job" about, lol, I think those tend to be herding type breeds and they adjust less well to being pets than scenthounds, when you take one from a working farm sitution and make it a house pet, but that might be an overly broad generalization

With coonhounds they're not going to be super like, handler sensitive (or sensitive at all lol) and that's where the "stubborn" thing comes in I think. Although since Moses showed up SO early, and we have been raising him carefully and with lots of puppy culture foundations, his handler focus is honestly much stronger than I expected but I don't know how much of that is due to his innate temperament etc as I don't know any of his immediate relatives. In general the adult coonhounds that I've met seem to have a "yes I love you so so much let's kiss okay I'm going to go do hound stuff now bye :)" approach to people, lol

In general they'll follow their noses!!!!!!! They'll run off and they'll bay. That's what they were bred to do. Moses' baying is really weird sounding and yelpy right now like a goofy teenage boy 😂 we started really strong with his recall and check-in training to try and balance any "running off" tendencies he might develop in adulthood but right now he's amazing and gets lots of cheese for coming to find us when he has off leash time around the farm. Unlike some other dogs that might have "run off and tree an animal" urges, coonhounds don't seem to be fence testers in my limited experience

BUT YEAH I have a data set of like, 4 dogs?? In terms of personal experience. Anyone else who has more please feel free to weigh in. If you got this far, here is my mom's little buddy for ya :)

[ruler-of-garbage]

Wait, You're My Colleague?!?! Part 2-

Word Count- 1072 (Part 2)

Part 1 HERE

MASTERLIST

Wait, You're My Colleague?!?!- Part 3

1 Warning(s): Y/n is appearing to be feminine (No pronouns though)(Scaramouche will be the name, but its a mix of all of his personas)

This is MODERN AU

Wow!! Part 2 is here! I had a lot of fun writing this part. I can't wait till I finish part 3, that one is going to be hilarious.

Also! Let me know in the replies that you want more (It will give me motivation). If you also want more of this stuff, let me know by following and making a suggestion in the Questions and Suggestions on my profile!

Thank you all, and here is Wait, You’re My Colleague?!?!

Scaramouche stands frozen as his new boss talks, not taking in anything the Boss Lady was saying. How could he?!?! There is something way more nerve wracking right beside him. You. 

He was just hired as an editor for a publishing company he’s had an eye on since he was in college. But he didn’t know that you did too. You are standing right next to him, in all your glory. Your hair is a bit longer than when you both were in college, but that didn’t change how beautiful you were, no, it made you even hotter. 

“Now that's said and done, everyone should introduce themselves to each other. I will come back in a bit with assignments and seating charts.” The Boss Lady says as she leaves the room, everyone waits until they couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore, before chattering away on how hot she is, and if her pink hair was professionally done. But Scaramouche couldn’t have cared less about the Boss. All he can think about is why you are staring at him so intensely. Your eyes were wide, as if you were trying to figure out who Scaramouche was. Could you possibly remember him?

“Hi, I’m y/n. It is a pleasure to meet you” You say out of nowhere. Scaramouche, still freaking out inside, turns to you. He knew it, you wouldn’t remember him over something so small. Before he could let a word come out of his mouth, You were called over to a big group of people. As you swiftly walk over, still regretting that he couldn’t talk to you, Scaramouche recognizes one of the girls. She was one of the friends that he gave a tip to. Seems that Scaramouche and you weren’t the only ones that decided to apply here. Tch. How annoying.

With his hands in a fist, Scaramouche can feel his hands start to sweat. He knows that it is going to be hard to talk to you. But, now you have a friend here. Knowing that you are probably just staying in your friend group, he has to force himself to take this chance to get to be your friend. Scaramouche didn’t want it to end like it did before. 

Scaramouche slowly tip-toes his way over to the group of people. He can smell the trail of perfume that you are wearing, something sweet, like a flower. But as he was about to reach the group, a hand was placed on his shoulder. Scaramouche whips around looking at whoever touched him straight in the face. At least he planned to, but all he got was a face full of chest, and a weird smell of Russian Collon. Scaramouche’s eyes slowly wandered up towards the person's face. 

“Ajax?” Oh fuc- Why is he here? Ajax's face slowly scrunched up, confused on who this small kid is. 

“Do I know you?” Oh great, another person that doesn’t remember me. Ajax used to be one of his acquaintances in a club back in highschool. The club was all about working out secret alliances between different clubs in their school and other schools. Ajax, or his code name, Childe, would be the one that would go around talking to other clubs trying to reel them into a pact with the club. The only reason Scaramouche joined that club was because they promised him a quiet place to rest during the school day. 

“No… What do you want anyways?” Ajax, still kinda surprised by the informality, and hands over some papers. 

He points to the Boss Lady in the back of the room stating, “Once you’re done skimming through these, pick up an envelope next to Mrs Yae Miko and move to your new desk in the room next to this one. Your name should be right on the desk.”.

As Ajax leaves, Scaramouche takes one last look at you, and then goes on his way. Scaramouche slowly made his way over to Yae, making sure to not draw attention, but like everything else in his life, it fails. “Hello, Scaramouche. How are you.” He slowly rolled his eyes, then he gave a fake smile to Yae. He did not want to deal with more people after not being able to talk to you. 

“I’m good, Mrs. Yae Miko. And you?” She smiles and hands him the envelope. 

She looks around and leans forward, whispering in his ear, “Your Mom says hello.” She leans back and hands out more envelopes to workers that were piling up behind Scaramouche. Don’t tell me about that woman, I don’t need to hear about someone that gave me up. Rolling the papers that he had gotten into a makeshift bat, he walks over to his cubicle. Slowly looking inside to see if it is the right size for him. He approves of it at first… but something is off. Even though the cubicle is the right size for him, there is one thing that doesn’t make sense. There is another desk! Scaramouche looks around before looking back at his cubicle. No one else had another desk… why is he the only one that has to have another person sitting with him?!?! In a fit of rage he turns around ready to stomp his way back over to Yae and tell her to tell his mommy to change his seat even if it meant speaking to the person he hates. But before he could fully turn around, he bumps into someone. But this time, they don't feel like Ajax. 

Looking over his shoulder he can feel a brush of hair against his chin. And there was your face. You looked a little surprised as he slowly backed up and hid his face. Scaramouche knew he had the most ugly face on, so he tried to hide it by putting his hands to his face and backing into his corner of the cubicle. But as you entered after him he knew he was doomed. How could he possibly work while he knew you were right there?!?! Clearly the all knowing gods of this world are against him- while also pushing for something to happen between him and you. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t able to get your name earlier.” You say looking at him as he slowly lowers his hands. Now he's trying to put on a facade. He slowly pushes his hair back and smirks. 

“It’s Scaramouche. Pleasure to meet you.” 

Wait, You're My Colleague?!?!- Part 3

[imaddicted2hs]

A one shot of enemies to friends to lovers

Another one shot yes because i don't feel like continuing the series i started just yet.

This is not my best work why lie. I could have done way better but i guess i got too excited to just finish it. Though promise, next post will be better than this because i will give it time.

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

Word Count- 2,527

warnings- none

happy reading!!

Nothing is better than a romantic weather with pink skies and soft breeze carrying a sweet smell of wet leaves. But sitting with your legs on the dashboard as you and your friend (with whom you are secretly in love with) jam together to the songs loudly, driving past wide, empty fields, is a cherry on the top really. "Are we ever going to make a stop or our plan is to drive until the fuel tank is empty?" He doesn't answer right away. I stare at his side profile, which I dare to say is perfect, waiting for a response. "I know it's hard for you to stay still in a place like a good pup, but 10 more minutes babe, we are almost at our motel." I dramatically gasp and smack his arm which makes him chuckle.

Long story short, few months back as I was walking past the school lab, my ears couldn't help but listen to someone talk through the paper thin walls. It was that cocky voice which I could recognize from miles away. Harry Styles. My biggest enemy and academic rival. If someone told me at the time that I'll be hanging out with him and secretly even like him a lot, I would have declared that person delusional. He and I had all the same classes and what can I say other than that everyone knew if we got a chance to stab each other to death we wouldn't let it slide. He wanted to be the one to score the most and so did I. We pulled all sort of pranks just to bring the other one down at our level. Ms. Grey, our English professor never gave any of us the chance to answer in class because it all ended with torn notebooks, weird drawings on the faces and the class hooting. Yes we both have had a perfect record other than those countless detentions because of each other. "UGH finally. I have been dying to pee and take a shower." I see him roll his eyes but I don't pay any mind to it because I'm too busy collecting my stuff and leaving the old red mustang. My grandmother was crazy about cars and made sure to leave the best one of her collections for her best granddaughter that is me. "Can we have a room with two single beds for one night? Oh and can you please check if you have the once with a balcony." As the receptionist in front of me does her thing, I look out of the window as Harry takes out his stuff from the backseat and closes the door. Not for a single second I take my eyes off of him until the lady that was long forgotten by me clears her throat for my attention. "Oh yeah sorry." I smile awkwardly as I pick up the key kept in front of me. "Gimme the keys I'll open the door, make the payment and keep the stuff so that you can go collect your stuff you forgot in the backseat and lock the car because you brought the keys with yourself." I sigh and hand him the key and make a quick run outside.

I'm huffing like a mad person as I finally reach the fourth floor because this place didn't have an elevator. My eyes widen as I hear the shower running and I don't waste a second to bang on the door and shout "how dare you, you cheater! You knew I wanted to use the bathroom badly you cruel ass." I whine. I sit angrily on the bed staring at the door so that as soon as it opens I can ruin his pretty face with my nails and maybe bite him so that his body hurts. He opens the door and before I get to throw my tantrum I notice that he is fully dressed and his hair is dry. "But-" he cuts me off "it wasn't in the best condition and you are extremely crazy about hygiene so I just ran some water so that it looks less dirty." I'm embarrassed. "Oh my god I-" "Go use it before you make a mess here" he chuckles and before I turn even more red I leave the room faster than Flash himself. On the first day of the semester last year, he slimed me just because I took his favourite seat and he had to sit in the last row. It was funny to see his face during the whole class and hearing his tone as he introduced himself. Even if I had to face the consequences and get slimed in the end, it was worth it. And today he gave a thought to my pet peeve which has my mind all puzzled. And I even forgot to bring a clean pair of clothes with me inside. I'll have to go out in the towel. I suck in a long breath and open the door to find him on the bed scrolling through his phone. "Can you please close your eyes?" He looks directly at me totally still and the moment I see something change in his eyes he quickly mutters a sure and looks away with his eyes clamped shut before I can figure out the look.

The series of events has been too embarrassing for my liking and I'm almost at the brink of overthinking. "Meet me downstairs in an hour okay?" "Don't forget the whipped cream for me." "Alright and wear a jacket, it gets cold at night." I hum in response and he leaves. What exactly are we doing here? Well after a prank war, unlimited broken pens, thousands of notes lost, the headmaster was fed up with us. We were called in the office after I had pulled a pretty big prank on him which was dope but he denied that wholeheartedly. He hated cats, what an abomination right? So I came early in the morning, and just before the bell, I put not 1 but 4 kittens and a cat in his locker. More to my luck, he was late that day and didn't take the necessary precautions we used to whenever we opened our lockers because locker pranks were the most common ones. He opened it in a hurry and was met with the smallest kitten ready to leap on him. The look on his face as he shrieked didn't go uncaptured ofcourse. He was horrified and I was grinning like the most evil creature. The other two kittens with the help of his hoody climbed on him and started licking his face as he tried to shoo them out of his locker. The cat was the most stubborn and the dirty looks Harry gave to her were too funny. I just couldn't stop laughing. As he finally managed to get rid of them, they all were not in his favour as they started roaming in the corridor creating noises. Teachers who were teaching with the doors open stepped out just to give Harry the annoyed looks while he tried to escape from the crime scene. Even the universe was against him because the smallest kitten had made his way into his bag and made an appearance while Professor Keith was trying to explain the economics crisis. Whole class turned into a chaos as the kitten destroyed the benches with his scratches and other students pushed each other to pet the little devil. This was the limit I guess because we were both sitting in front of the headmaster as he wrote us a 5 days suspension letter. We argued like crazy until he asked us to settle the matter between us right there right then and promise each other to let the whole school live peacefully. We got rid of the suspension letter disaster and as I started to walk out in the corridor he called my name and said he wanted to talk. "Let's call off the war and make a bet." "I'm all ears." "Whoever has the higher GPA in the semester end will get a fully paid one day trip from the loser." I rolled my eyes at him as I laughed just to realise he was serious. "Okay then it's a bet. Also the winner gets the most expensive drink on the Starbucks menu with all the toppings." I never liked coffee but it was a pretty good idea to make one's pocket hurt. He throwed a terrified look which quickly changed into a neutral expression before he nodded and walked away as I stared at his tall figure.

From that day we still competed but through out the process we actually grew closer by slowly clearing each other's doubt when we were the only ones in the library late at night to offering each other pens and snacks. I heard him listening to my favorite band and I couldn't help but throw questions at him out of the blue. I caught him off guard that day because he stuttered non stop and didn't look at my face for longer than a second. I didn't realize when we became friends but it turned out pretty good. So who's paying? Harry ofcourse. He left one hour earlier to get the most expensive drink on the menu and some other snacks before we go to a view point. I wanted it to be a road trip because that's the best you can do in a single day. I had a 4.0 GPA whereas his was 3.9. Not a big difference but I still won. I glance at the table clock and it's been 50 minutes since he left. I put my hair in a braid, curly hair are impossible to handle. I make my way down stairs and I see him with the mustang in the parking lot. I make my way over and without wasting a minute I open the door, sit and grin at him. It's just a 5 minute ride which I'm thankful for because driving at night at like 10 p.m. isn't my favorite thing. I get out of the car and as soon as I look ahead, I'm stunned. The most perfect view I have ever seen is in front of me as the cold breeze is all I can feel and hear. With tall trees on both the sides of the cliff, a lightened town below us and a starry night above us, I'm breathless. It's so perfect. I turn to look at Harry and he's already looking at me. He's holding everything and he gestures for me to sit on the hood. So I do. He takes a seat beside me with all types of snacks between us. He hands me the drink and I laugh at his same expression. "I don't even like coffee, I just wanted to let the loser lose some money too." He looks at me offended and shocked. "You are cruel. I don't like coffee too." "Well we need to drink it though. Let's share it hm?" I offer him picking up a red cup from the stash. He's hesitant but nods eventually taking the cup from my hand. "So how much?" "This coffee itself was 61 dollars" I gasp wide eyed. "You're kidding???" All I get is a shoulder shrug and a tight lipped smile as I laugh in shock. "Now I feel bad." "We both know you don't." He rolls his eyes as we both give it a try. "Okay it's not THAT bad you know." "Yeah because you got all the toppings and I got only coffee!" He accuses me even if I didn't attempt so. I squint my eyes then I just offer him my drink. "Oh- oh. Uhm. You sure?" He's blushing? Why? "Yeah I'm sure. Here. Give me yours." He smells great. He always does. "So how does it feel to lose?" I wiggle my eyebrows at him. "I let you win babe." I scoff at his response while he sips on his coffee making faces.

"Can I ask you something?" I take the opportunity to ask him something I have always thought of everytime we talked or everytime I saw him. "Go ahead." "Why were you always rude to me?" his shoulders stiffen all of a sudden, "since the day I joined this school, even in homeroom, when we had no classes together you didn't shake my hand when I offered. Everyone was kind to me but you just stared at me." I look at him as he stares ahead barely breathing. "Harry." He whips his head towards me. "Why?" He just looks me in the eyes as I do the same. "I liked you." My eyes widen and I quickly look away. "Wha-" "I saw you and I was so mesmerized by you. By your confidence, by your looks, by your voice. And I was competitive and rude three years ago." I can't believe my ears. This is not happening. It can't be. "I couldn't believe it and thought if I showed you I'm capable too, you will like me. But you didn't spare a single glance at me because of how I acted on the first day." I'm not able to comprehend the words as I listen to him. "But you wanted to be first? The bet too?" I ask him without looking at him. "It never was about the grades. I wanted you. So when an year after that we had all the classes together I did everything to just make you notice me. Even if it included all the pranks, the competition and fights." I'm too stunned to speak. As I turn my head, I look in his eyes and they carry guilt. Like he's trying to apologize. "I liked you too but never knew why you hated me. So I started hating you too." "You still like me?" He's quick to ask after my confession." I nod slightly in response. "Good because I still like you too." Before I get to open my mouth, he cradles my face with his big hand and pulls me towards him. Our foreheads touch as he stares right into my eyes. I can smell the scent of coffee in his breathe and his sandlewood smell. I glance towards his lips and I think he takes the hint as he wastes not even a second in wrapping his lips into mine. He's impatient and fast and he doesn't stop. Neither do I. Our tongues fight for the dominance and I give up easily because he's too good. I let him explore my mouth, I let him bite my lips, I let him devour me. I soon run out of breathe though because I pull away panting as he stares me with those eyes and I feel small under his gaze. I peck at his lips as I move the stash of food aside and come close. I hold on too his arm tightly and snuggle into him. We both look at the beauty in front of us as we feel each other's presence without uttering another word.

Reblogs, comments and likes are appreciated:)

[nehswritesstuffs]

Intro Post, GO!

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph--I last did one of these in 2018... fucking...

Info under the cut, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Hi! My name is Nehs and I write stuffs. I’m a trained screenwriter and hope to one day break into that, but I also know that since it’s a lot of work and luck I might as well enjoy myself along the way. I’ve been writing fan fiction since about 1998 and sharing online since 2004, so when I say I’ve been writing fic for most of my life, I mean it. More recently I’ve been very active in the Doctor Who/Whouffaldi fandom and back in One Piece. These things are more alike than one would think. My life force feeds off of weird, rare, and otherwise less-popular ships as well as alternate universe settings.

Aside from being here I’m also on fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own. In the past nine years I’ve put out about 1.78mil words on AO3. My totals on FFN (which begin in high school (beware weird/lower quality work earlier on) and are skewed due to author’s notes and review replies bc i’ve been on the site for so long) are at ~2.38mil. Not everything from here is on my FFN or AO3 and not everything on FFN is on AO3 and vice versa. I do tend to crosspost a lot of my work, however, so when one site is down, there’s usually a good place to find my stuff otherwise if you were in the middle of something!

(No, seriously, my FFN hits took off during the latest mass-AO3 outage and it was mainly for stuff that was crossposted, so don’t be afraid to come on over!)

Uhh... big things I’m known for...

The Time That We Love Best: slice of life Whouffaldi AU set from WWII-1960; a hundred chapters of a relationship and lots of period-related plot; there are prompt fills to add to the story

The Thick of UNIT: crossover involving Doctor Who and The Thick of It, prominently showcasing the crackship of Kate Stewart/Malcolm Tucker; contains many OCs, canon cameos from both shows, weird shit, and current events; lots of offshoots and even has spawned fic of the fic

The March of Kasterborous and Gallifrey: pseudo-fantasy/nobility Whouffaldi AU that starts with an arranged marriage and morphs into a loving relationship and the building of a dynasty; consists of In Want of An Heir, Stars in A Sky of Blood and Blue, a prompt fill fic, and an AU of the AU that’s a remix of the first fic

Getting the Hang of Things: my attempt at a close-as-possible-to-canon Whouffaldi AU where they raise kids

a bunch of different fantasy-related Whouffaldi AUs, incorporating things such as selkies, werewolves, vampires, a How to Train Your Dragon setting, and more

Father Like Son, Mother Like Daughter, Parent Like Child: a One Piece Bellazón AU where Cora-san and Bell-mère raise their six kids in the East Blue, they’re all better adjusted, and proceed to make it everyone’s problem

little seagull, little seagull, where shall you go?: a One Piece AU where the Heart Pirates find a kid during the timeskip and Law completes the circle and becomes her Cora-san; is pretty much becoming a pick-your-own adventure story as I write varying branches to the plot

Love, Loss, and Finding One’s Self on the High Seas; I wanted to write Sanji/Pudding that gave her agency and made things less creepy; there’s lots of other ships too and it’s just weird af trust me

Other than that I am generally friendly and willing to interact with people. Drop me a line anytime, about fic or fandom or anything else, even if you think it’s negative. My personal blog is escapaldi. I enjoy hearing from readers (I’m one of those people that stalk reblogs for fun tags) and anything is better than nothing. There’s always room for improvement in a writer’s craft, so if you catch something then please let me know. Anon is on and if you prefer to confer in private just say so. Another thing to note is that I tend to reblog fanart for things I’ve written,things I find neat/important, and any other projects I may be in at the moment. If you got a problem with that, then I’m not really sure what to tell you. *shrugs* Oh, and yeah, don’t feed my fics to an AI for any reason whatsoever or I’ll astral-project myself to your computer and no one will enjoy themselves. :D

[wawawawawawawawawawawawawa]

hiiiiiiii we havent sent you any asks for some time. mostly because kanra didnt front much

[idk if you can recognize us after all the url changes]

ereyesterday our their of pissed suggested getting into an outpatient psychward and told us to think about it. and silver[headmate] made a post on the tumbler saying that this could be a bad idea because somewhat recently i made a hole in a wall and less than a week ago Lyra messed up a cupboard. as if we're the only ones who on occasion damage stuff when angered. this is literally so mean for no reason.

also. a few months ago shinra had an accident with a knife. and we got a fun new 1 inch long scar and possibly a little bit of nerve damage or something. and we were supposed to get some reminder tetanus shot around a month after that since i had no idea when was my previous tetanus shot. and i uhhhhhhh didn't get it since i'm scared of doctors, and it would probably seem quite weird if i went to a doctor about this now

also im sorta balding but. scared of doctors so cant do anything about that

last sunday i was in some social studies class or some other shit. and the teacher said something about how lgbt people were never oppressed in this country. which is a very bold thing to say as someone living in a country in which like a quarter of the area declared itself a "lgbt free zone" and only calmed down a little when the european onion told them that that's probably illegal. and i decided to argue with the teacher a bit. one of the things she said was that sometimes there's dudes in pup masks on pride parades, which invokes disgust and thus should be banned, and. idk why but i kinda expected teachers to have a bit more common sense than 14 year old twitter users. also i came to school wearing a spiked dog collar on a regular basis. [for reasons unrelated to kink.]

well. good thing i'm failing every single one of my classes lmao. at least i won't be invoking disgust in fragile old ladies

also. i just met a doggy and he was very niceys. very soft and friendly. and polite also.

- toby

HOW COULD I NOT RECOGNIZE U MY BESTIE IN CHRIST <3 u changed ur url a binch of times but ur icon remained the same sdlfndnfkjsnsdf so i was able to keep track!

i however do not understand a single word of that first paragraph. if u want my advice, DO NOT. FUCKING GO. TO A PSYCH WARD!!!!! idfc Who it helped, it hurts a lot more than it helps, theres NO WAY to tell which psych wards are good and which are shit. no really let me go thru them all rn:

REFERRALS: most professionals that work in different offices do not know each other on a personal level and may never hear of their bad stories. a doctor that was the chillest coolest doctor id ever met referred me to a psychiatrist that sucked fucking ass shit. there is no way to know for sure

GOOGLE REVIEWS: im gonna b real i dont trust some of those mfs. you seen the guys that go into psych wards? a lot of mentally ill people r internalizers and just accept whatever happens to them, and even if they arent, society looks down on the mentally ill SO MUCH that they could b told "you deserve this bc ur crazy" and due to all this societal gaslighting, theyd agree

REVIEWS ON OTHER WEBSITES: same thing lol

why is this so important? because you cannot Fucking leave a psych ward. an outpatient ward yeah you can leave, but ive been to both in and outpatient and they excert the same level of bullshit control over their patients. in outpatient, one of the therapist told me "you are not mentally ill" and made me cry lol. she MEANT to mean it in a "you're not mentally ill, you're ~suffering from a mental illness~ uwu dont let ur disorder define you" kinda way, but that concept was introduced in therapy..... two days after she told me this. like hello? and then she tried to spin it as like, it was a problem with Me i.e. My PTSD Was Triggered and not She Is Dog Shit At Timing The Explaining Of Concepts.

this place also invited my abuser into group therapy even after me incessantly telling them "this is my abuser, she will use all this against me" and yeah guess what she did immidiatley after lol

dont go to wards.

WRT THE KNIFE: damn :0 thats insane dude, hopefully the nerve damage will heal but from experience its gonna take like, a few years at minimum lmao. i had a Knife Incident involving my pinky and the nerve damage was so bad that i couldnt hold scissors w my pinky in the scissor loop thing but evenchually it got better but it took like 4 years. if the knife was clean and not rusty ur risk of tetanus is pretty low i THINK, do not quote me on this. if ur scared of doctors, look into if ur pharmacy offers tetanus shots! some pharmacies have vaccinations other than flu and covid (which i need 2 get lol rip) so u might be able to get one THERE and not see A Doctor about it!

u dont need a doctor for the balding. minoxidil my dear boy, its at walmart, its the stuff thats in rogaine. you want "minoxidil 5%" thats whats in rogaine, theres "minoxidil 3%" thats For Girls but idk ive never heard of anyone having a problem w it. IT IS TOXIC TO CATS THOUGH IT IS VERY VERY TOXIC TO CATS IF YOU HAVE A CAT DO NOT LET THEM FUCKING TOUCH YOU OR RUB ON YOU UNTIL IT DRIES ok? :) id google more if i were u but boom. problem solved. i am the doctor now

"dog masks invoke disgust and should be banned" babygirl disgust is subjective and like, someone could use that logic to ban whatever YOU like, or Are. maybe someone is really disgusted by lil old ladies bc the wrinkles look gross as fuck to them. should we quarrantine the grandmas?

also lol at the dig against 14 year old internet puritans and then surprise surprise guess what happened on This Very Blog while this ask was sitting n collecting dust!! i gotta b on my best behavior bc theres a nonzero chance that The Feds will be looking at this blog (did u know u dont report cybercrime to local police and instead theres a form on the fbi's website? Well Now You Know!) and that goes 4 all of u too. bart please be good..... for the love of GOD please be good....... please tell me yall know that simpsons scene

also also yay doggy!! was it a regular dog or a dude in a pup mask? either way very fun n cool!!!

[moron-hassaikai-and-more]

Character ask: hojo!!

:0 UNDERRATED CRYSTAL BOI!!

Quick heads up: there’s brief overdose mention and suicide right at the end so be wary of that if you think that’ll be triggering to you.

What I like about him: How much he clearly cares for Tabe and Setsuno (blah blah the camaraderie warms my heart, blah blah trauma from having no friends in school blah blah), pretty Crystals, buff man make brain go brrr.

What I dislike about him: that one screenshot where you can see he’s got stubble under his mask. No. Fucking shave your face dude. You already shave your head. Also that he got no screen time outside of getting his ass kicked :’)

Favourite moment: explaining why he and the other 2/3s of the trash trio are so close and that they’re not worth anything without each other (EEEEEEEEEE-)

Least favourite moment:

Cries at that panel

Situations I want to see more: Give me day to day trash trio shenaniganary. I want them doing normal stuff: going grocery shopping, hanging out with the other bullets, pestering overhaul, just slice of life stuff. I’d also love his relationships with Toya and Tabe to be developed more. Like, yeah, they’re trash but with each other they’re trash with meaning (EEEEEEEE-*is knocked out) but I want to know the actual dynamics. Toya is supposed to be the leader, do they actual respect that? (See more on this in the head cannon bit)

Interesting AU: One where he’s in a bizarre interlinked family tree with like, 6 others from the series. This is one me and my bf made, I dubbed it the Sin AU because each person’s quirk is from one of the seven deadly sins: Midnight is Lust, Deidoro is Gluttony, Monoma is Envy, Hojo is Greed, Tiger is Sloth, and there were two more I can’t recall at the current time. It doesn’t really do much other than add another layer of depth to the character, but I think it’s cool none the less. (Also I wanna see how the family reunions would go lol)

Crossover: Give this man a cavern crasher, give this man a rock stomper, we’re going to Berk, Gadies and Lents. I wanna see the entire Hassaikai with dragons from how to train your dragon so bad!! (I actually have headcannons for everyone! If you want to know I’ll elaborate in the notes)

OTP: ok ok ok. It’s weird, I know, but you gotta hear me out on this one: Hojo and Pixie Bob. The reason I say this is linked back to the Sin AU (Ibara must have coded my iPad or something, it won’t let me type sin without autocorrecting to sun a million times) because I Headcannon Deidoro and Ragdoll to be friends/partners/no one can fucking tell, so because Ragdoll and pixie are best friends, and in that au Deidoro and hojo were brothers, plus Hojo and tiger were related, it just kinda fell into place. Plus Pixie is super desperate for a partner and I feel like Hojo gets zero bitches, he’s the human embodiment of the ‘No bitches?’ Meme. Anyways.

Other ships: Overhaul and Chrono (because under no circumstance will I ever split them up). Purely cos I saw a post saying that entire rant about the trash trio being useless without overhaul and them owing everything to him was said by Hojo, not Setsuno, and it sounding like he had a crush on him.

BROTP: the rest of the trash trio. Duh.

NOTP: anyone from the league except now that I think about it I can weirdly see him working with Magne? …hm. And any pro too.

Headcannon time!!!

1. While Setsuno is the ‘leader’ of the trash trio, and he’s good at it, don’t get me wrong, he can definitely strategise and knows what he’s doing, he’s terrible at just…existing day to day life, so Hojo typically has to help him. He’s his common sense, in a way. He’s to Setsuno what Tengai is to Rappa, just both are a lot happier with the arrangement.

2. He and Setsuno actually knew each other before they joined the hassiakai, not well but they attended the same school and had a few classes together.

3. He’s 22 years old and the oldest of the trash trio. He’s also the third tallest in the bullets at 6’1 (only Rappa and Katsukame are taller cos…yeah. Btw this is completely ignoring the canon evidence showing otherwise because Tabe is not allowed to be tall. He is baby and he is no taller than 5’3 and I will bite anyone who says otherwise. I’m only saying this because I want to be taller than at least one person in the hassiakai-)

4. Sad backstory time. He was orphaned: his dad cheated on his mum before Hojo was born and his mum died of a drug overdose when he was around four. He was then moved to live with his aunt who..wasn’t an amazing parent but was better than what he had previously. As he got older, about 16, he found out what actually happened with his parents, and attempted to find his dad. He eventually managed to get in contact with him- however his dad wanted nothing to do with him. This destroyed him and he attempted to end his life, however overhaul found him and took him in. A few months later, Setsuno joined, and then Tabe about half a year after that, and with that, the trash trio was fully formed.

Huh. Didn’t know I had that much to say about him. I really thought I’d have a few sentences for each question…anyways, hope you enjoyed!

[beej-hunnicutt]

The way I genuinely end up thinking about the Mary and Brandi friendship quite a lot, actually.

Mary in PV is really fun to think about! She'd be close to John and Jennifer. As she'd really like them, and I think Eugene would get along really well with John! I think Mary and Eugene like how much they seem to care for Lucy, while Jennifer can still balance that with work (unlike SOME Ppl there 😒). With Mary and John both being stay at home parents, they'd like to go grocery shopping together when Mary isn't helping Brandi with her shopping and hanging out and whatnot.

Mary would really watch over Brandi's boys. She knows Dustin is forced to have too much on his plate. She hears the rumors that he has started to get mixed in with the wrong crowd, but knows he is really a good boy in his heart. She would offer to take the boys out to dinner, or even in the mornings give them a lift. She tries not to be too overbearing and knows Brandi is a capable woman and won't treat her as anything less. But man........some adult needs to be there for her boys even if Brandi struggles with the responsibility.

I think Mary would enjoy it when she gets to meet and chat with Darren! She'd love to hear about his paintings and what good things Dirk is doing in school! She'd talk to Mary-Sue if the opportunity arises, but she's so busy it doesn't happen much. She likes Mary-Sue and Daniel they seem like good people on the outside, but she's heard some stuff from Jennifer, and she wishes they'd be better parents. I honestly am not totally sure how much Mary would talk to the G*ths. She thinks Cassandra is a little wacky and weird, but it is a good thing. She loves talking literature with her and Mortimer! Mortimer has a lot of stories to share, but something about that Mad Scientist is just a tad too off-putting for her!

Don, Nina and Dina... she doesn't have anything against them; just too young for her! (Granted she rlly isn't too much older; just at different spots in life.) They're not hurting her, she likes to hear the sisters talk to each other when they're shopping at the same place or what not. :) makes her feel happy seeing other sisters being close. Don though....well. ...she really wishes he'd ease up on the flirting and his "smooth talking," when talking to her. She finds it more embarrassing than anything.

Sorry for that ramble I am missing this game and I am thinking abt my current PV save!!

[obitv]

DEADWOOD DEFENDERS - an au that asks a question literally nobody else has asked: what if things were FREAKIER!

dwd is an au where instead of being picked to become the prime defenders, all 3 of them (and later ashe) are kept in/sent to deadwood so WATCH doesnt have to worry about them, because theyre... a lot weirder

FYI - obviously this all takes place in deadwood, so im leaning a LOT into my own personal speculation and headcanons here. powers have also been toned down because i cant imagine a world with their current powers where theyd be hidden away no matter what this au version of WATCH thinks

THE GUYS!

william is a lot more dead from the outset, but not as bad as he is at current canon. he also has much less control over his powers and doesnt have ghostshaping. right before dakota and vyncent transfer, one of his best friends cory was reported to WATCH as having powers and because of this, his ghost hunting crew of the unwitness protection program have been reluctant to get up to their usual "fun". also theres definitely still monster attacks but theyre a lt less intense than they seemed to be in canon so nobody really connects the dots

dakotas also more dead!! well not really. but he is Very Aware he was dead for a bit, and WATCH is also very aware. he still had his martial arts training, and turned himself in to WATCH hoping he'd be sent to one of their training programs and get to be a real hero. but uh. WATCH had.. different ideas. and what better use for this kid with very clearly superntural shit going on than as a guide for this OTHER kid with supernatural shit that theyve been desperately trying to deal with!

vyncent is just trying his fucking best here. this version of fauna was a lot more "vengeful spirits" than dragons, and instead of the greats being confined to vyncents head he can see them as spirits and they can possess him, though hes still the only one who can hear them otherwise. WATCH had no fucking idea what to do with him, since they couldnt just toss this guy who doesnt even know what a phone is into deadwood (their favourite dumping ground for things hey dont want to worry about) alone. enter dakota!

when vyncent and dakota move to deadwood, theyre pretty much just.. given an apartment, money, the timetable for the school bus and very little else. however!! WATCH did the bare minimum and sends tide out to check on them every couple weeks or so. officially hes just there for a day to make sure theyre both still nebulusly alive and give them what money they need, check on their powers, that stuff. but unofficially he and dakota still manage to have their father-son dynamic but its a lot fucking funnier when they only see eachother once or twice a month and tide is banned from speaking with them unless its an emergency

"how do they meet?" i hear you ask. well. as far as WILLIAM knows, it was on his first day back after everyone got over him disappearing into the woods for a week and let him go to school again. but in reality he ran into them when he was still trying to get home post cliffdiving incident, looking like he just got mauled, and yelled at them for being in the woods because its dangerous before stumbling off in what was honestly . probably the wrong way. dakota doesnt realise it was william when he sees him in school and vyncent is honestly kinda intimidated by it and also is partially convinced william is some sort of spirit which. he isnt wrong. but he isnt fully right either. or a wereworld, because thats funny. but he isnt sure if theyre real in this world so he doesnt ask. he tries to ask dakota but all dakota knows about deadwood is "its weird" so he just says Yeah probably! and moves the fuck on

ashe is in this too!! since theres no pd in this au, nobody raided harttowa to capture wavelength until much later. while WATCH does still crack down on the operation, he has enough time to get the hell out of there with ashe. but since ashe never becomes friends with them, he gets a LOT riskier with his book and has An Incident. at this point, with watch AND overlord on his ass and his kid running the risk of dying or killing a lot of other people, he decides to move them to the only place too weird for heroes to go: deadwood! ashe is one of the only people who can safely go into the woods without getting horribly killed or changed, likely bc of the books protection. he'd meet william for the first time trying to figure out what the hell is going on, because of course he didnt ask if its ok to go into the haunted fucking woods, and william has to fucking bodily drag him out while explaining all the horrible death that happens there before realising OMG NEW WOODS FRIEND and begins assimilating her into the group

as for plot. um. ask me later. KIDDING ok but im only in the beginnings of one of those. this au is less mnm and more toned down call of cthulu, since thats what deadwood has been compared to a couple times before. mal and the spirit world still feature, but theres a lot more focus on trying to unravel the mysteries of this town and the woods around it while trying not to die or go insane or die worse

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #6

It's Christmas today. It's one of the days upon which people in my world like to celebrate your birthday, so Happy Birthday!

Days like these usually aren't especially happy for me though, for a variety of reasons. I guess it's about time I got into 'em… I'll warn you now, if abuse (all forms) and trauma are triggers for you, this is probably something you should avoid reading.

The short version is that I am estranged from all of my biological family. It sucks and I wish it didn't have to be that way; my family is full of good and beautiful people, even though they've made some really weird choices in the throes of their pain and fear, even though some of those choices have permanently affected me in ways that are very much not ideal, and even though, no matter how hard I try, they do not hear me calling them back into the light. My voice just… isn't the kind of voice that most people find credible, I guess. There are a lot of societal reasons for that, but I won't get into that just now; maybe some other time. In any case, my hand is outstretched to them always if they want to try, but… well… they don't seem to want to, and I can't afford to bend myself into pretzels and sacrifice my peace of mind for them anymore - not while people who are willing to respect me are counting on me to be emotionally stable and meaningfully present in their lives.

The long version is that my birth in this place was accidental. I didn't come into being because I was wanted; I came into being because the condom broke. I was kept around most likely because things like aborting your kid and giving your kid up for adoption come with a lot of stigma - my parents would have had to face the fury of their family and social group, and that would have been very bad for them. From there, a lot of really weird and objectively awful stuff happened. In those days, I wasn't really a person; I was treated more like an appliance or a piece of furniture. I was a physical and emotional punching bag for others, both in and out of the various houses and schools I grew up in. I was tapped as a resource with little regard for my wellbeing (outside of that which was strictly obligatory; in my world, it's illegal to starve your kid, for example). I was parentified, objectified, beaten, and broken, and a lot of terrifying, horrifying stuff happened in between (I'll not get into it; it's too much, and I don't want you to be sad). I've been altered forever because of it all.

As it was taught to me as a child, I needed to make up for my existence by serving my master - in this case, "master" is defined as either a parental-type caretaker, a teacher or a professor, or a romantic partner, or even a friend who didn't seem to mind that I am a thing that breathes. In my case, "serving my master" looked like bringing home excellent grades, making sure the house is spotless at all times, taking care of my siblings, and doing literally whatever was asked of me, no matter how uncomfortable I felt about it or what it cost me. Again, I won't get into it; it's really not pretty.

There were PUNISHMENTS (some subtle, others very much not subtle) for failing to jump through these hoops. There were different and less severe punishments for jumping through the hoops I was meant to fail at. I did everything I could to avoid these punishments (imagine my shock at the fact that they couldn't really be avoided, despite my best efforts), bending myself up like a pretzel into whoever those in my vicinity wanted me to be. It was like the most hellish game of Twister - I couldn't fathom at the time that the conditions of this "game" were unfair, and I tore myself to pieces every single time I fell down, because at the time, tearing myself apart hurt less than having others do it for me.

But still, that's not to say it was all bad. It's not as though there was never smiles or laughter or wholesome things then. And I do know that those who were in charge of my care did love me, even if their upbringings left them unable to show it in non-violent ways. It's just that all the other stuff, all the other ways that the world seemed to be telling me that I was hated, unwanted, didn't belong, and should disappear were overwhelmingly heavy, and I almost didn't make it.

Against all odds though, I did make it. With your help, and with the help of a few very important others, I made it. I was 22 when I made it to safety, and from there, things were really weird at first. At the time, it had been ground into my skull that empathy is weakness, mercilessness is strength, cunning and ruthlessness were lauded as virtues, and emotions and expressions of wants and needs are for other people, not for me, because when I do it, it's just evidence that I'm nothing but a selfish, manipulative attention-seeker who likes to trick people into doing things for me when they shouldn't have to. When they do it, it meant that I didn't do a good enough job of anticipating their wants and needs before they had to express them, and that, too, was a punishable offense.

I can't say that I was a very kind or even a very good person then. Others try to convince me sometimes that the goodness was in me, but I think that's probably not true; I know the judgment and scorn with which I viewed others when they did not live their lives through the same harsh lens that I was brought up with. I remember how angry I used to get internally whenever I'd see children speak without permission at the grocery store. I remember the contempt I felt at schoolchildren who were allowed to stay home when they were sick. I remember all the manipulative ways I got my siblings to comply with my caretakers' rules, because if I failed to keep them in line, I was going to be the one who was punished for it, not them. I remember just how mistrustful I was towards anyone who was different from me, and how very little empathy I had for other people at the time; after all, it was taught to me over and over again that there is only one correct way to be a human (that's just "common sense", right?? this is sarcasm - insert a sigh and an eye roll here), and compassion is how you either get screwed over by other people, or end up making it so they can't survive on their own. In those days, either way, if something bad happens to me, or if something bad happens to someone else, it's my fault for having cared too much in the first place.

I was accustomed to other people using me as though I am something that is disposable. I was, with only a few exceptions (you know who you are; thank you!), accustomed to receiving verbal, physical, and even sexual violence whenever I wasn't "perfect" as defined by those within my vicinity. This was my "normal" for a very long time, and my "normal" blinded me to a variety of things, including, joy, love, care… and perhaps counterintuitively, the suffering of other people. There was so much that I simply couldn't see.

So the whole "safety, compassion, and empathy" thing was all very new and foreign to me. It took me a long time to get used to. And in the process, I lashed out often at the very same people who were trying so hard to help me, not unlike a dirty, mangy, rot-afflicted cat being captured and taken to the vet - all growls, claws, and teeth that mean BUSINESS - incidentally, did you know that cats have flesh-eating bacteria in their mouths that can make you lose an arm if they bite you, even if you get treatment promptly?

But through my kicking and screaming and resistance, I was gently held accountable for all my bullshit. What was most shocking, I think, was the fact that the people who were with me were able to hold me accountable without judging me, even when I was behaving in ways that were objectively not very lovable. But I learned. I learned, and I'm different now. I'm not the same bitter, angry, spiteful, hard-hearted person I used to be. I'm always learning new and better ways to listen to and relate to other people. I'm always learning more and more about lives and stories that look very different from my own. I am always learning to increase my self-awareness and communication skills. I'm always trying harder to learn how not to react harshly, with judgment or violence, when I feel hurt, angry, or afraid. It's not to say that I never make mistakes anymore; I can still be harsh and judgmental sometimes, and that's not great when it happens. But I can see clearly now that the true definition of strength is in choosing to be soft, loving, and kind, even in a world as fucked-up as this one, and even when you know you're gonna get hurt for it.

But it took a lot of help and a lot of courage for me to get to this point. I can say with absolute certainty that pulling back the veil on all the crap I lived through (instead of burying my head in the sand and pretending that it was all normal and okay) is, in some ways, more painful than the events themselves. Finding and rooting out all the shitty coping mechanisms I developed, staring at my own ugliness in the face, choosing to love and care for that ugliness anyway until it becomes something beautiful, breaking myself down piece by piece, and stitching myself back together from scratch… all of it without any kind of anesthesia, haha… doing this took unimaginable strength, and it's not something that people can do without help, I think; I've been lucky enough to have received a lot of hands, outstretched to me, trying to lift me up, even while I was trying to bite them; living life without chains, outside of the dark hole that I knew, seemed terrifying then, and I couldn't understand at the time that they were trying to help me to be free. I'm glad that I understand a lot more things now. But I still have so very much left to learn, and so much lost time to make up for…

You can do this, too. You have the necessary intelligence, courage, and strength of heart for it. And you have lots of people who would be willing to help you. I am one of them. So please try, because refusing to try is tantamount to saying that I am stronger than you.

And don't you DARE try tell me that some derpy, feeble, traumatized, autistic nerd like me is stronger than you. That's impossible, and you'll never, ever get me to believe that kind of nonsense. I know for a fact that you're better than me in every possible way, so if I can crawl my way back into the light with a bit of help, then so can you. That "bit of help" is right here in front of you; all you have to do is take the hand that is outstretched to you. Even if there wasn't already a lot of hands outstretched to you, mine will always be here, waiting; that much is a constant. You don't get to say that there is no one who is willing to try for your sake. You don't get to say that there isn't someone who cares. I am literally right here, and I always will be, even long after my ephemeral, unremarkable life fades unnoticed into obscurity.

I don't want to leave this on a melancholy note though, so I'll leave you with this picture, done by a person named Kate:

You are loved. You are needed. You are irreplaceable. Whatever it is that you're doing over at The Edge of Creation, make good, kind, and loving choices. And please come back to us safe and sound.

Your friend, Lumine

[gameminds]

Tooth Gone

I got my tooth extracted. hooray

lol but seriously. I already feel substantially better psychologically just to have it out and not have to worry about it, and it hurts less than it has when it was at its worst already anyway. I'm glad I was at least able to be on top of my shit for long enough and consistently enough that I was able to get that done.

I'm still a little short on the financial side, and unfortunately I still haven't been able to monetize streaming or writing in any way yet. But really, I'm still in a very happy hobby space with both of those, and I've been very successful with school and work in the mean time. Partially because I sold a house last year, I'm essentially getting exactly zero dollars back on my tax return. So it may be another few weeks of grinding pretty hard until the end of the semester in the first week or so of May.

This summer, I'm going to be taking 4 full credit classes, so my school schedule is going to ramp up pretty dramatically. But I'm in a place where my productivity level and focus level is at all time highs, and I'm feeling more comfortable and fulfilled than I maybe ever have. Unfortunately again, I will probably have to reduce my content output a little. But basically no one is consuming it right now anyway XD

If you've stopped by the blog or my stream, I'd love to hear from you! I've been really interested to get feedback and hear from people who share interests with me, and I'm eager to build a bigger community of people that I feel like a part of. If you read my stories and you enjoy them, please please please share them, comment on my posts about them, send me a message, anything at all to let me know you're out there! Helping me share my stories with new people is the most important way you can help me meet more writers and content creators, share queer, progressive content you enjoy with people you love, and grow my channel so that I can keep adding more stories to the portfolio! Letting me know what you like and don't like, what you want to see more of, what keeps you coming back, and how I can help you see yourself in my stories is the most important way you can let me know that you appreciate the effort I put into crafting stories that speak to people, and help me get better and better all the time!

Anyway today I'm feeling very grateful after having several very bad weeks full of a lot of pain, stress, and depression. For anyone out there who reads this blog, reads my stories, watches the stream, hangs out with me on twitter-- thank you for spending some of your time with me and my weird thoughts!

the patreon can be found through my linktree if you want to support or check out my stories-- everything on patreon except the story outlines is available TOTALLY FREE. any amount you want to contribute goes directly to supporting me as a writer and content creator.

I've been posting stories sort of scattershot between a bunch of different profiles, but this week I'm going to migrate all of them over so that they're linked on both the patreon page and my writing blog, AB sci-fi. All of the stories will also be migrated to Google Docs in the process. I may even do some updates and edits 😉

Hope all is well with all of you! Enjoy the stories!

Catch you next time-

-AB

[cassandrajoybellbittner]

*Warning Adult Content*

WANTING A FAMILY- Chapter 19

Adyen

I had never thought about what having a proper older sibling would be like.

Sure, when I had been passed around from family to family, a lot of my foster parents had older children of their own or other foster kids a few years older than me but I had been on my own mostly.

A lot of them also didn't seem to have any want for a family-like dynamic with someone they weren't related to. 

Now I knew my brother and all those things I had told myself I didn't need... all those sibling friendship scenes on T.V.

I had rolled my eyes at... I realized that I had a deep-seated want for them that had only showed itself when Naylan and I started talking a lot. 

He was only a year and some change older than me,but I felt like I was talking to someone much older when he gave me advice and listened to my rambling about school and my relationship with Len. 

He had been the one to encourage me not to think about what my track mates would think if I was a little more open about being gay.

I had told Naylan that a lot of their jokes made me uncomfortable and he suggested that nothing would change until I stood up to that, so I did.

I took a stance, told them blankly that I was seeing Len and since then I've been conscious about being more open about that fact in public.

If people asked, I stammered but managed to admit that yes, I was with him and I was gay. 

There was something freeing about taking agency and openly stating a fact that I kept to myself.

Being a foster kid had made me hide things instinctively.

I wasn't sure which adults would be supportive and which ones wouldn't be and there's a memory of one of my foster siblings from years back simply saying 'ew' when I mentioned that a boy on television was sort of cute.     

My thoughts drifted back to Len.

There was so much I wanted to tell him but I had to be a bit careful about that.

It was a good thing that Naylan and his pack had settled in an abandoned building complex close to a factory site.

They were bordering territories that weren't there own but remained distant enough to not be a problem.

My stomach knotted a bit.

I knew a part of me was just making excuses not to tell him yet because I was a bit worried that he would panic or get sad about me keeping this from him for so long.

He was supposed to be teaching me stuff but I've carried those burdens to Naylan since there was less of an emotional factor to it.   

"When are you going to tell him?" Naylan asked me, making me sit up on the sofa before looking in the direction of his voice.

It was a bit dark but the light from the muffled television was enough to make out his face.

I was in Naylan's place in the abandoned apartment complex.

It being abandoned meant there was no running water or electricity.

A few of the pack members were handy, so getting a few stolen car batteries to power everything from fridges, televisions, to lamps made it possible to live there.     

My brother gave me a small smile before coming to sit beside me and handing me one of the bowls of cereal he had in his hands.   

"You were having a little conversation with yourself back there," he said, looking at the television as he took a spoonful of cereal.

"You know, you'll have to tell him when you go and visit mum in the summer."     

"I know that," I sighed, nodding my head in agreement.

Naylan did that mind-reading thing a lot, but I had gotten used to it.   

Talking to Naylan had also meant contact with my mother.

The first call was scary.

I had shaken and stammered all the way through it but her voice was soft and I could hear the clear affection in the way she said my name. 

We talked about dumb things like books and movies and what she had been up to all these years.

She had audibly gasped when I mentioned I was in university for architecture and was in the track team.

She was very proud of me and it was weird... that warm feeling that came from a parental figure praising you. 

"I'm glad they didn't change your name," she had said, explaining that it had been my father who had named me.     

"How about telling him on that date you two have planned together..." Naylan trailed and I felt my face warm up.

A new ice castle place had opened and Len kept talking about it in a way that made it obvious he wanted to go, so I suggested we did. 

"Maybe that's a good idea," I muttered, looking down at my feet in the darkness of the room.

The blue light from the television illuminated Naylan's figure as he leaned forward.     

There was a tooth smacking sound.

"You really like him, yeah?"     

I shrugged, trying to play it cool even though my chest was fluttering.

"Yeah," I croaked and he laughed, making my chest flutter even more.   

I stuffed my mouth with a spoon of cereal and let myself watch the car battery next to the television as Naylan's free tangle guinea pig hopped by.   

"I don't think he'll take it badly at all," Naylan said, dropping his empty bowl on the floor before leading back on the sofa.     

"Hey," he started, after a period of silence passed by.

"You know the only reason mum had to give you up was that..." 

"I couldn't survive, I get it," I said, cutting my brother off.

He stared at me with eyes that had gone yellow, something that happened to Len's sometimes. 

"I just..." he started saying, opening his mouth then closing it.

He hummed to himself and I brought up my legs before hugging them to myself.

"The streets are hard and mum didn't know what to do. She thought that she had found her person, you know?"     

My ears perked up in interest.

I had heard Naylan go on about my mother's ex but I learned new things about him every time he was brought up.

My dad... our dad had made my mum happy,or so Naylan said.

He didn't talk about his biological father much.

I got a sense that he wasn't a real person in Naylan's head.     

"We were really young but I remember a bit about him... how sick he was. We couldn't afford any of that so..." Naylan paused and I swallowed, knowing that my father had died. 

Naylan's guinea pig made a squeaking noise, distracting both of us.

Naylan let out a sigh, getting up from his seat on the sofa before helping the poor thing get untangled from the wires.     

"He always does this," Naylan said and I grinned, watching him pet the rodent.

He looked dumb in his pajama pants and the hoodie that was too small for him as he smiled down at his pet.

The imagery was a big contrast from when I had first seen him.   

"Hey, can I ask you something?" I asked, feeling my stomach tighten up.   

Naylan raised a brow at me.

"Sure," he agreed but he still looked a bit unsure.   

I swallowed the anxiety building up at the back of my throat.

"Was your dad mum's mate?" I asked.

It was something that had been in my mind for a while.

I looked up, noticing that Naylan had gone a bit frigid.     

His lips twitched after a while and he let out a sigh.

"No," he said.

"Just some douche mum had a fling with. I still see him around when I go home," he said, and the last part shook me a bit.     

"Mum's mate isn't in Canada," he said, humming to himself.

"She's a Caribbean immigrant. She still has the mate bond but it's very weak. They're never going to meet each other..."   

"Then what's the point of mates?" I asked, feeling confused.

Mum's love of her life was out there somewhere and she let her heart get broken twice.     

Naylan sighed.

"You're still new to all of this. Mate bonds aren't binding, they're suggestions. Lots of wolves don't end up with their mates, especially city wolves like us..." he paused.

"Well, like me. You got yourself some rural pure-blooded mate. We're all just mutts here," he corrected himself. 

I froze up for a bit, not knowing what to say.     

"I have a mate. I can feel the bond," Naylan said, walking over to the sofa before sitting beside me.

The furniture creaked and the foam sunk under his weight.

"But I don't know, it's not like I'm invested in looking for them. I'd much rather stay here... with my pack."

There was fondness in his voice at the last part.

Something I had come to realize was that Naylan really wanted a family... a community.

It was something he craved and went on about.     

Where Alpha Georgiou saw a bunch of annoying thieving teenagers, Alpha Naylan saw the potential for a family.

I smiled, thinking that he was a good leader so far and would get better with time.

But what did I want? I wanted very small things... a family, a boyfriend, a chance to feel like I wasn't being drowned by my life.     

The whole thing with Len had started out in a confusing nerve-racking chain of events.

It had felt like puberty all over again but things were stable now and we were getting along fine... it almost felt like we were normal university kids who were dating and figure if things out together.

We were... Studying together in the library... Grabbing Pizza at Georgiou's... Playing video games with his roommates... those were all the basic things I dreamed of doing with a boyfriend.

I craved that mundane normalcy and I wanted to keep having it with Len as I grew in my understanding of myself.   

"I'm going to tell Len everything when we go on our date on Saturday," I announced under my breath but I knew my brother heard me because he reached out to comb his fingers through my curls.

He didn't say anything but his gesture was enough of an acknowledgment.

[hitaka5ever]

I haven't been on social media much for months and I'll explain why here and how I plan on finishing the rest of the year and what my goals for next year are (I will probs forget to do it later, hence why I'm doing it now)

Anywho, my main reason for being away is for my mental health that has gotten much worse since the end of summer, mainly of course to do with the genocide of Palestinians and the amount of information that has been shared by millions. I've kept my eye on the atrocities on and off since it started, getting some info from family, who I visited recently, but for the most part I've avoided minute-by-minute coverage

I'm a very empathetic person. This means I have a strong sense of noticing others' emotions that become a part of me after enough exposure to them. So for example, if someone I know is extremely sad or cries, even though I'm not experiencing their sadness or pain, I get emotional along with them (since I spend 99% of my time with mum, we feed off each others' feelings and physical attributes the most)

So my depression and anxiety are the main reasons for my absence on everything but YouTube and email. I ultimately have to take care of myself before I can worry about anyone or anything else

I'm back to seeing a therapist every other week on Thursdays via Zoom. She's the first therapist I've ever had that's asked me what my main goals with therapy are and what I'm looking for. My last therapist asked the same thing, but we never actually went over anything practical. Right now, my severe anxiety is what's ruining my life the most, so I wanted to focus strictly on that for now. I want to know what I need to do to combat my anxiety in specific situations, like being out in public places

I've brought up before that I have severe hearing sensory overload. If too many physical noises (meaning stuff not on a screen or through speakers) surround me, I get very jittery and weird feeling in my head and body. I have to leave the room when it gets really bad. Normally I can calm down within 5 minutes of leaving the situation, but that's only if I'm in between 2 people talking with each other. It's a lot worse when they're talking over one another. My worst experience was having sound inside and outside my house that surrounded me on all sides. It took ~30 minutes to return to normal after I went into a secluded area to listen to music with headphones on. As you can imagine this is way too much stimulation for my broken brain to handle, so finding jobs out in the real world are very hard on me

That comes to my next bit of information: I'm still unemployed and looking into temporary disability through my therapist while I learn to take control of my anxiety. I have severe PTSD from being bullied in middle school, living with a mentally abusive parent, and having experienced a terrible car accident almost a year after I graduated high school (this was in 2009) So trusting people on and offline (less so online) has made my adult life very difficult. Riding in vehicles to reach a certain destination was the absolute worst symptom of my mental illness from 2009-2021, and even now I get very subtle anxiety knowing when I have places to get to. I'm obviously loads better than I was back then thanks to meds, but now I have employment to think about, which brings on its own problems

Finding jobs that don't include retail, fast food, or talking to people face-to-face or via phone, especially in my shitty small town, is a nightmare. I've tried finding work remotely at home, but there's always at least 1 requirement that makes me ineligible for the job. I want to make money making digital art, but I lack the skills and exposure in a world where even the most experienced freelancers are struggling to make ends meet (bc of artificial images (AI) taking over the community) As you can tell, this gives me very limited job opportunities and I don't know if I qualify for disability on a normal basis rather than a temporary one, so either way I have less than $150 left in my bank and unable to pay my parents rent bc of all of this

But things here aren't all bad. I enjoyed going to stay with my sisters for all of November where they live, getting to spend time with 4 cats and a foster baby (I did get a bad cold the last week of vacation, but that was the only bad thing about the trip) and coming home to have something I haven't had since 2020

We are fostering a purebred Pitbull girl named Stella for the rest of the year. She's 8 years old but still in her prime and we have become best buds (and napping pals) since day 1. This was a trial run to see if she would be the right fit for the family, and so far everything's been going great, minus her ear infections that we're taking care of. Stella has basically become my dog and we're likely keeping her for the remainder of her life. She's the sweetest and most chill dog I have ever met and I fell in love with her immediately. It took her 2 days of coaxing to be used to getting on my bed, with and without me, and she follows me everywhere I go, so we're bonded for life lol

So that's the most exciting news I have to share about what's been happening with me. I get to go into the new year owning my very own dog and learning how to cope with my anxiety before and after it starts, so I'm looking forward to the new year

Speaking of the new year (I'm almost done, promise!) I have a few goals for 2024 that I really want to stick to my guns about

Run a successful Kickstarter making and selling fire-breathing insect and bug stickers

Making extensive reference sheets of my OCs and fan fiction characters (eg my werewolf au and LoZ stories)

Learning (digital) art restoration. When I visited my sisters, my oldest was gathering foster kid stuff when she became a foster parent, and she got a set of Mega Building Blocks that had significant wear and tear. Some of the pieces with stickers on them were faded and peeling off, so I want to remake those stickers, get them printed, and give them to my sister so she can restore the broken pieces for her future foster kids. This gave me the idea of restoring art that has worn down or ruined over time. I like taking electronics apart and putting them back together again and I enjoy the assembly and design of things, so I think restoring physical items could become a potential art job

Learn basic idle animations of characters and objects. A Clip Studio Paint user makes tutorial videos on the official English CSP YouTube channel, and their latest is simplistic animations in CSP, so I want to try it out and offer it as a commission option if I'm comfortable with the process

Cartoonify famous or interesting places from real life, such as cool cities/towns, schools/colleges, or the Seven Wonders of the World, etc

Visit my friends at our homes or going out to restaurants and into town. My anxiety has made being around the friends I've grown up with really hard as well, not just with employment, so I want that to change a lot too

Legally change my name and gender after wanting to for the last few years (Rocky Dean (dad's middle name) Fuller (mum's maiden name))

Look into getting top surgery in the next 3+ years. I'm finally to the point where having breasts is ruining my life physically (back pain) and mentally (dysphoria) so I need to find a surgeon that doesn't require weight loss or hormone therapy to do the procedure

Just do art in general

That's all for now!