#pandemic boredom

[tsmerch]

hey I just wanted to thank you for running this blog, you've saved me from missing amazing merch so many times or keeping track of what I wanna keep an eye out for, and I appreciate it so much, you're wonderful and I hope you have a lovely day 💖🥺

Oh this is so nice!! I’m so glad it was helpful for you!!

[bl33py]

my top 9 first time watches of the year ❤️

i'm a little late but @desertsquiet tagged me in this (thank uu 💞) and it thought it was too fun to miss out on!

admittedly kind of a slow year for me film wise, i only got around 60 new watches when usually i manage almost double that 💀 but i ended up watching a lot of classics that had been in my watchlist for years so - a win either way!

i don't have anyone to tag so if you see this and you want to do it, go ahead :)

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

just hit season six in m’superstore rewatch, and oh my god, the portrayal of all the early-stage pandemic stuff feels like it happened nine million years ago

like, i feel like 2015 was five minutes ago but i feel like 2020 was nine million years ago

(also, for the record, i so value superstore season six as a historical artifact of that very specific time! man, did it ever capture the pain and scariness and uncertainty and absurdity of it so well.)

[linecoveredinjellyfish]

i am a person who gets very Into aesthetics. like i very much enter Eras that last like a week or two where i'm very invested in a particular type of aesthetic, usually correlated to a hobby or interest. i am not immune to online aesthetic communities. if i'm reading a holmes book, i feel the dark academia phase stirring in its sleep. if i'm dabbling in cryptography, i can sense cryptidcore lurking somewhere in my soul. when i'm unusually happy with summer weather and spend the afternoon making cookies, i know that there is the potential for a cottagecore era within me. same with goblincore, same with corvidcore and werewolfcore and lighthousecore and all the random, niche internet subcommunities that you can find tucked into the maze of obscure tumblr tags at one in the morning.

given the nature of these communities and the way they're treated by participants in them, this is, of course, humiliating.

[grungepoetica]

I PULLED AN ALL-NIGHTER AND SUBMITTED MY PORTFOLIOS AND I CAME BACK TO 10K NOTES AND GENUINE TUMBLR FAME WHAT IS MY LIFE

[sheilaerinniperonista]

there's a lot to criticize in fma brotherhood but the buildup to the promised day is insane

[mitheryn]

i’m quiet quitting(as the capitalists say) twitter. regardless if it ends.

[clove-pinks]

A series of 8 tweets on the experience of being autistic and ADHD (AuDHD) by @pot8um on twitter, image descriptions below cut.

I saved these shortly after being dx + medicated with ADHD last year. It was the first time I began to seriously consider the possibility that I was also autistic. 1/8

AuDHD is a constant tug-of-war— contradictions that exist simultaneously that I feel equally strongly about.

[image description: Two-column text inside orange arrows on left, and blue arrows on right. Title “What ADHD & autism feel like…” L column is ADHD; R column is autism. 1st row, L text: “Making spontaneous plans”, R text: “Getting very upset if those plans are interrupted” 2nd row, L text: “Struggling to organize”, R text: “Having a strong need for order”. By @autistic.qualia]

Each of these are so familiar to me, but I could never articulate my experiences with the right language. Also, if you don’t know what you’re experiencing is AuDHD, you don’t know what questions to ask. You didn’t know you were even supposed to *have* questions! 2/8

[image description: Two-column text inside orange arrows on left, and blue arrows on right. Title “What ADHD & autism feel like…” L column is ADHD; R column is autism. 1st row, L text: “Impulsively making purchases for a new hyperfixation”, R text: “Hyperfocus on researching the products” 2nd row, L text: “Struggling to be on time”, R text: “Upset when others are a few minutes late”. by @autistic.qualia]

I have phases of hyperfixation with certain things, and lifelong interest in others. Successfully executed plans / tasks is always my goal. (The perfectionism is too real.) I always get frustrated when I inevitably miss steps, regardless of my attention to detail. 3/8

[image description: Two-column text inside orange arrows on left, and blue arrows on right. Title “What ADHD & autism feel like…” L column is ADHD; R column is autism. 1st row, L text: “Hyperfixating on a wide variety of topics”, R text: “Also having long term special interests” 2nd row, L text: “Forgetting steps in plans”, R text: “Needing plans to execute perfectly”. by @autistic.qualia]

I *love* trying new foods… until it’s a bad experience, then I clam up and am reluctant to try again. When it comes to food, consistency is vital to me. My brain is far more active than I have spoons for. Most of my ideas strike when I’m freshly overloaded and spoonless. 4/8

[image description: Two-column text inside orange arrows on left, and blue arrows on right. Title “What ADHD & autism feel like…” L column is ADHD; R column is autism. 1st row, L text: “Enticed by novel foods”, R text: “Hypercritical of food taste and texture” 2nd row, L text: “Wanting new experiences”, R text: “Wanting to stick to what I know I like”. by @autistic.qualia]

I tend to hyperfixate on things that aren’t central to the task at hand. (I don’t want to say “on the ‘wrong’ thing” because I’m on my self-compassion shit ) Discovering my neurodivergence during the pandemic was surreal. Severe boredom, severe overload, severe whiplash. 5/8

[image description: Two-column text inside arrows. Title “What ADHD & autism feel like…” L column is ADHD; R column is autism. 1st row, orange arrow, L text: “Misses details and makes mistakes on boring topics”, blue arrow, R text: “Notices small details and points out others’ mistakes”. 2nd row, purple arrow, L text: “Becoming easily understimulated”; Yellow arrow, R text: “Becoming easily overstimulated”. by @autistic.qualia]

Overthinking the stages of your emotional dysregulation is its own personal hell. When I’m lowest on spoons, I tend to ruminate the most. My thirst for knowledge is met by my shoddy working memory. I try recalling a fact that *I know* I read up on. Can’t. Frustration ensues. 6/8

[image description: Two-column text inside arrows. Title “What ADHD & autism feel like…” L column is ADHD; R column is autism. 1st row, purple arrow, L text: “Struggling from emotional dysregulation”. Blue arrow, R text: “Being a logical and analytical thinker”. 2nd row, orange arrow, L text: “Struggling to retain information”; Yellow arrow, R text: “Wanting to learn everything”. by @autistic.qualia]

It’s hard for me to Start the Thing. Once I start, I NEED to ride that wave! If I’m taken out of the moment, idk when I’ll be able to start back up. If I don’t say what I’m thinking *while* I’m thinking it, it’ll be forever lost. (Trying my best to work on this. It’s hard!) 7/8

[image description: Two-column text inside purple and yellow arrows. Title “What ADHD & autism feel like…” L column is ADHD; R column is autism. 1st row, L text: “Having difficulty sitting still”, R text: “Hypersensitive to other people fidgeting”. 2nd row, L text: “Interrupting others when they are busy”; R text: “Hate being bothered while in hyperfocus”. by @autistic.qualia]

Please note: • These traits are infinitely more nuanced than a few tweets can possibly cover. • I do not speak for the entire autistic community. From @autisticqualia on IG, an outstanding AuDHD awareness account.

[image descriptions: a box of text at left reads “Having both ADHD & autism can sometimes feel like there are contradicting forces within you. Traits that seem incompatible on the surface can exist in the same person.” A box of text at right reads  “Everyone with ADHD & autism is different. These are the contradicting traits that I personally experience as someone with both ADHD and autism.”]

It's uncommon for me to see someone discussing the experience of being both austistic and ADHD, and this was articulated so well, I feel like it also describes my experiences. (The author is also an advocate for late diagnosis AuDHD adults, who has shared her experiences about working with dismissive, misogynist doctors.)

Bearing in mind that every individual is different, as noted by the tweet author, I feel like I am more autistic than I am ADHD, despite my ADHD diagnosis (and these two developmental disorders have many overlapping traits, of course).

I have never, ever understood the experience of "ADHD boredom" that I have seen some people describe. I am perpetually overstimulated, not understimulated, and I stuggle to process experiences and find enough time and space. Executive dysfunction also prevents me from starting/enjoying activities, as is typical with ADHD. It's not just a thing that makes it difficult to work on stressful or boring tasks; it prevents you being being able to commence fun things, like reading for enjoyment or watching a TV show you want to watch. And when I do manage to start the book/TV show, the stimulus is often overwhelming and I don't get very far.

[megxplryxb]

Lockdown Lovers

Living with your best friend during lockdown sounded like such a great idea until you remembered how hot and horny he was.

Disclaimer: I do not own this gif and take no credit for it. Not my best work but might do a part two out of lockdown at some stage. :)))

Sleeping with your best friend had never really been on your agenda. Sure, you’d thought about the what if’s late at night when you couldn’t sleep and random musings would enter your mind to deter your slumber even more. You’d by lying if you said you hadn’t thought about what it would be like, he was hot and you were only human after all. But the reality was, Colby Brock was your best friend and nothing more.

That was however, until the world pretty much stopped turning and you were living in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Being on lockdown wasn’t too bad though. It was like being a kid on summer break again, having nothing to do only hang out with your friends and watch the time go by.

You and Kat pretty much lived in Sam and Colby’s house during the pandemic. Only going home when necessary or when Kat and Sam needed some alone time and Colby would beg to go with you because he’d much rather chill with you than listen to his friends getting it on. Colby loved your place because it felt like a home and he knew he could treat it as his own like you did to his house. You’d wrap yourself around Colby on the couch watching movies because with him, it wasn’t weird, it was easy. His fingers running through your hair while you lay on his chest playing with the strings of his many xplr hoodies, eating popcorn, pizza, teaching him how to cook, finding new music, helping him out with new song lyrics and content for his youtube channel. Those were the best of times, times you knew you’d miss when the world eventually got back to “normal”.

Weeks passed however, and the lockdown was no closer to being lifted. Boredom was finally starting to set in, among other things. It felt like an eternity since you had felt the weight of someone on top of you, someone inside of you and you were frustrated as hell. You needed a distraction from the aching feeling between your legs, so when Kat and Sam left to go to Kat’s apartment for the night, Colby suggested getting completely hammered with him and you happily obliged not having anything better to do. Both of you ending up in the pool for a late night swim and having conversations that wouldn’t dare take place in the brightness of the day.

Sitting shoulder to shoulder, skin touching skin, in the hot tub with Colby, sharing a couple of white claws, talk turned to sex or lack thereof. Colby admitting he was “so fucking horny all the time” and jerking off just wasn’t the same. You confessed that masturbation only did so much after a while and that you also longed for more than your own fingers and sex toys. Colby’s eyes widened hearing you talk about pleasuring yourself and he revealed to hearing you touch yourself in your room several nights prior. Your face turned red, mortified by his revelation until he whispered in your ear how hot it was and that he couldn’t help but get himself off along with you. You immediately felt a funny sensation in your stomach noting the change in Colby’s eyes as he looked at you, the friendly sparkle replaced with a fiery wickedness that you hadn’t seen before. He was your friend, he wasn’t supposed to look at you like that, think of you that way. But here you were, heat radiating between your legs, heart racing, sinful images of Colby running through your mind while he mentally undressed you with his piercing blue eyes.

“You have no idea how much strength it took not to come in to your room and offer to finish you off.”

The words lustfully fell from Colby’s mouth before he even realised he had said them. His head lowered feeling he had said the wrong thing. You contemplated removing yourself from the situation knowing that you and your best friend were heading down a slippery slope but in the moment you didn’t care. Everything was telling you to walk away but your body wasn’t moving and that told you enough. You needed this as much as Colby did. Maybe even more.

“Does that offer still stand?”

You questioned biting your lip playing with the thin string on your bikini.

“Fuck yeah it does.” Colby exhaled, pulling you on to his lap, mouth on yours before you had time to settle yourself.

In all of the years that you had known Colby Brock, you had never made out. Not even for a game of truth or dare. You always said it would feel weird, wrong, but in reality it was because you feared what would happen to your friendship if you crossed that line. Luckily for you, you were both too drunk to consider anything other than how quick you could undress each other as Colby dragged you from the hot tub inside to the house and to his bedroom, quickly disposing of your bikini.

Neither of you lasted too long, not that that had surprised you as you were both full of alcohol and extremely worked up. From what you could remember of the night, it was messy, a little clumsy, falling over each other, bodies pushed up against walls and fighting for dominance between the sheets. What you knew for sure? You had just fucked your best friend for the first time. Neither of you spoke straight away after as you panted heavily beside each other, pulling the sheets over your body as realisation began to set in that you were in bed and naked with Colby.

“Wow. So ugh, we never did that before.” Colby joked trying to break the awkward silence that had fallen between you as you both began to sober up.

“Yeah, no, that was…new.” You chuckled going red again as you both sat up in the bed.

“Um, are you ok? I mean, are we?” Colby began to ask as you interrupted quickly. You knew how Colby was, he had more than his fair share of one night stands and you weren’t expecting anything out of what had just happened between you. He didn’t have to give you the talk he gave every other girl once they were done. It was just sex.

“Oh yeah, I’m good, we’re good. This was just… two friends helping each other out, right?” You questioned as Colby grinned nodding in agreement.

“Right.”

“And we were drunk and it won’t happen again so we don’t need to talk about it.” You asserted wrapping Colby’s sheet around you as you stood up, leaving him completely naked on the bed. “I’m going to go back to my room and take a shower, you can take your sheet back when I’m in the bathroom.” You smiled playfully throwing a pillow at your friend to block the view you were receiving because it didn’t look like Colby was in any rush to cover himself.

Once you were back in your room, you closed the door, leaving the bedsheet on the arm chair so Colby could grab it when you were in the shower. The water was a welcomed touch on your skin as the hot soapy beads ran down your body. Closing your eyes, all you could think about was what had just taken place with Colby moments ago in his bedroom. Your heart was still racing from the adrenaline running through your body, hands tracing the parts of you where he had kissed and sucked at, noticing light bite marks on your breasts and inner thighs, evidence that you hadn’t been dreaming . You wondered what Colby was thinking, would he regret it? Would he tell Sam? Would it change your friendship and how he felt about you? That last thought sent your mind in to a panic.

A knock came to the bathroom door, pulling you from your thoughts. “Hey, can I come in?, I need to ask you something.” Colby spoke gently.

“I’m in the shower!” You yelled so he could hear you above the sound of the water.

“So?” He replied, unbothered about your current lack of clothing.

“So, I’m naked!”

“Are you serious? I literally saw you naked five minutes ago.” He yelled back as your face flushed with embarrassment.

“That was different!”

“Why because we were fucking?”

“Colby!”

“Ok I’m coming in…”

“Don’t you dare come in here!” You shrieked watching the door knob turn before Colby stood in front of the shower screen in nothing but a towel around his waist. You shook your head trying to cover your body as the water to hit off of the tiles.

“Okay Brock, what was so important that it couldn’t wait until I was dressed?” You questioned raising your brow towards him, only a screen door between you.

“Why can’t it happen again?”

“What?”

“Back in my room, you said this won’t happen again.”

“It won’t.”

“But what if I want it to happen again?” Colby stood silently waiting for his answer as you shook your head in disbelief. Part of you thought Colby might regret what happened with you but saying he wanted it to happen again was not what you expected to hear at all.

“Colby we.” Is all you could manage to say before he slid the shower door open, leaving nothing but hot air between you.

“Look, I’m not saying this has to be an official thing, you know I don’t do relationships but fuck, that was fun.” He grinned as you rolled your eyes and laughed at his confession.

“What exactly are you getting at?” You questioned folding your arms still standing in the shower.

“I’m suggesting that while we’re on lockdown, you and I make a little arrangement…” Colby paused for a moment to try and read the expression on your face and when he noticed you didn’t automatically have a horrified look on your face he continued. “I mean, we’re both single adults and let’s be honest, we both have needs that the other can fulfil…so I’m suggesting that until the world gets back to normal we…”

“You want to be fuck buddies?” You asked cutting him off as he nodded a yes. You bit your lip trying to consider the pros and cons of what he was proposing, not taking notice of the nervous look on Colby’s face in front of you.

“I’ve completely freaked you out haven’t I? I’m sorry, I never should have suggested it, I’m an idiot.” He cursed himself turning to leave you alone again as he suddenly felt a small tug on the towel around his waist preventing him from moving any further. Colby turned back to face you, watching with excitement as you gently pulled the towel from his waist and to the ground.

“Close the door, it's getting cold in here.” You whispered, a smile creeping on to Colby’s face as he slid the screen door shut, joining you in the shower. It didn’t take long until the space between you was closed once again as your lips met his in a warm embrace and you fucked your best friend for the second time that night.

[whywoulditho]

"the fandom ruined mha" is one of those vastly popular opinions that i've never quite understood. because they honestly...weren't as bad as people made it seem??? i swear people with zero fandom experience will see a thirteen year old in cheap cosplay having fun and say shit like "ew i hate this fandom you're ruining it" like maybe leave the goddamn kid alone??

mha has a very large fan community, and what makes it a little different than most other anime fandoms is that mha was specifically targeted for a global audience. they did their best to avoid any quirks and cliche tropes of anime that would go over non-japanese' heads. the art style is pretty cartoonish and it's got lots of references to western comics. there's a whole ass movie set in the US. what i'm trying to say is that a large, international fandom was always what they were going for, and it was well received. it was one of those shows that you'd kind of had to watch if you wanted to be in anime spaces back in like 2016-2018. mind you this is when even aot wasn't that popular. and when something is so popular, there's gonna be lot of weird people in the fandom. BECAUSE most of them will be people who have never been in fandom spaces before. the "cringy mha fans" that were the butt of every joke in anime discord were more of than not minors having just been introduced to anime or fandom culture as a whole. there were lots of weird stuff, i admit. but was it ever really that serious? like why couldn't yall just leave those people alone??

another thing people just couldn't stop talking about was how there were way too many ships in the fandom but 1) why is that a bad thing? and 2) of course there were gonna be a lot of ships in a show that introduced TWO WHOLE CLASSROOMS OF TEENAGERS AS THE MAIN CAST who interacted all the time. not to mention all the students from other hero schools, upperclassmen, pro heroes & teachers. there are like a million characters in this show and the more characters the more potential ships -it's fucking common sense. i think what really happened there was that people outside of the fandom looked at the fanmade content and thought the fandom must have been obsessed with ships. when in reality i think the fans were really chill about it. most of them were multishippers, they didn’t mind the other pairings. i understand that for an outsider's eye all the ships and disclose must've looked chaotic but in fandom spaces people know how to filter the content they engage with so there really arent any serious "ship wars" going on anywhere except for maybe instagram comments.

i am not saying all the ships were unproblematic, there were some pretty weird ships going on too, but honestly i thought half of them were jokes? or at least crackships? and if you compared the number of fics those kind of pairings have on ao3 to the more family friendly ones you'd see that there really weren't an actual fanbase for any of those weird ass pairings.

i think the core of mha fandom has never been as chaotic as others thought it was. mha fans were interested in the story, the fights & the character development while casually enjoying ships as well. it wasn't that serious until yall started bullying a bunch of kids online. with the rise of tiktok and the boredom the pandemic caused there were a huge amount of amateur content. i'm not saying i've never seen a mha fan being genuinely cringe. i just think the mature response to those posts would have been leaving the poor kids alone.

yesterday i've seen a youtube video about how awful mha fans are and this guy just showed a clip of a bunch of cosplayers outside of what was probably an anime convention dancing to gangnam style and he was going on and on about how annoying they are. and it made me so angry because where the fuck did these anime fan bourgeoisie snobs come from telling people they can't have fun at FUCKING ANIME CONVENTIONS??? i dont know if you've ever been to one but an anime con is basically the only place that's supposed to be safe to do cringe shit like that. everyone goes to those things in cosplay, some better than others. but last i checked everyone was pretty nice to each other, complimenting each other's costumes, asking to take photos. the cosplays don't have to be good, they don't even have to be complete. a convention is the one place you can show up in a wig you bought off ebay and a costume you finished making the night before. i dont know what yall are on but people go to those events to have fun. not to be filmed and made fun of. and from my personal experience having been in fandom spaces since middle school, someone who dances to gangnam style in a cheap todoroki cosplay is an infinitely nicer person than the stuck-up loser who makes a video complaining about it

[guacala]

Bella ramsey x reader and them doing cute tiktoks and couple trends pls pls pls!!!

tiktok headcannons, bella ramsey

masterlist pairing: bella ramsey x fem!reader summary: you and bella on tiktok word count: 769 warnings: language, fluff overload a/n: girl, i don’t have tiktok so i just based it off what i’ve seen, and i'm so sorry if its bad 😭 also, this is compensation for my met gala brainrot on monday, i'm so sorry...

you would 100% be the one to get tiktok, and Bella would just not care for it

like we’ve all seen how horrible people can be towards Bella on social media, and if we’re being completely honest, tiktok is extremely toxic too

so yeah, I think that they would be fine with you having it, they just didn’t want it on their mind

you, like the rest of the fucking world, would’ve gotten tiktok during the pandemic

it was a last resort, okay? everyone was bored and desperate and your mental health was already shit

you didn’t even post anything till the pandemic was relatively over (spring 2022 ish), and you rarely ever posted anyway

whenever you did post though, it was stupid shit you decided to do with your friends, usually some strange trend that seemed to cure your boredom for a bit

that was around the same time that you met Bella, but you made sure that you never posted them

obviously, since you were attached at the hip from the moment you met, there were some slip-ups

it was known that Bella was dating someone, but nobody knew who you even were as Bella would only refer to you as “my partner” in interviews

you wouldn’t even know how people found your account, but stalkers will stalk and trolls will troll 

yeah, that definitely made you stop posting completely and it wasn’t till after the last of us finished airing that you finally felt comfortable enough to post again.

you wouldn’t normally post Bella on any of your social media, but there were instances where you just had an urge to, and, well, Bella had a hard time saying no to you

you definitely made that one tiktok where you have the phone and you pass it up to Bella and you turn around to hug them (x)

“can you hold my phone for me, please? i need to tie my shoe” you would ask one day when you’re out late, walking around after going to dinner.  “yeah,” they said as you handed her the phone above your head. they looked at the camera a bit confused. they were used to you taking photos and videos, but it was facing them, which was highly unusual. while they were in their confusion, you took advantage of the fact that their arms were still up and straight, and turned around to bury your face in their chest.  their face immediately melted, and they stopped grabbing the phone with both hands and wrapped their arms around you. “you’re so cute, i love you,” Bella said quietly, but it could still be heard in the video with the black screen. “i love you more,” you could be heard responding. “not possible,” they said as you giggled and responded by saying “possible” as they kissed all over your face.

they would also 100% be the okok to your lala

“Bells?” you had said as you laid your head on their stomach and you both scrolled mindlessly on your phones. “yeah, my love?” “you’re the okok to my lala.” “what?” they giggled as they sat up a bit, looking down at your face. you shrug as you say “you heard me”. “nooo, what does that mean?” they whine as they pinch your side, and you let out a small sound in protest. “nobody really knows, it just is.” “that makes no sense!” “yeah it does!” you say loudly with a smile on your face.  “no!” “okay, okay, look at this and sing what you hear,” you say as you pull up the sound and turn the camera to you. “baby, you’re not making any sense,” they say as you start the video. “just do what i said,” you demand as the music starts and they playfully roll their eyes. they start singing “okokok” in their beautiful voice, as you start to mouth “lala la lala” and they look at you in shock. “how does that even work!” Bella yells as you throw your head back and laugh as you end the video. 

you also did that one that goes “tell me how you know your boyfriend won’t cheat on you without telling me that your boyfriend won’t cheat on you”

and it honestly just became a combination of photos and videos of Bella being clingy and text messages that went along the lines of:

bella: i miss you :( you: i saw you an hour ago bella: your point? you: omg, okay, i miss you too :/

yeah, everyone was obsessed with the two of you

as they should be, of course

[ghostalservice]

A new collab from nomadsland (author of such hits as Old Bae Season and Throat G.O.A.T.!) and me, for day 16 of JanuAUry!

Ed Teach stands in the lobby of the Marriott hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, and wonders if he’s made a terrible mistake.

He’d picked up the hobby as a solitary pursuit. During stakeouts, at first, with a pencil and yesterday’s paper, a quiet diversion while he bided his time waiting for his suspect to poke their nose out of whatever scatter they’ve been lying low in. Years went by, and times had changed, and he moved to doing it on an app, and that had worked to soothe the wild shit in his brain, too, had helped him look like just another bored schmuck rotting his brain on his own pocket-sized idiot box.

And then the pandemic had hit and he’d retired, a double whammy of boredom and not knowing what the fuck to do with himself in the 900 square foot studio apartment that had been nice enough in the 90s but felt more like the pound by April 2020. So, yeah, he’d picked up the crosswords again, and had gotten pretty fucking good at them. When something had come up on his Twitter about a tournament, he’d ignored it at first, but it kept turning up, like a bad penny, and he’d lived in his own fucking brain long enough to learn to trust his instincts. So he’d ponied up the $270 registration fee and booked himself an Airbnb nearby because he’d seen enough stiffs with their throats slit in hotel beds and floaters with their throats slit in hotel baths and crispy critters who’d been electrocuted accidentally-on-purpose in hotel boiler rooms to last him a fucking lifetime, all right? So yeah, fuck the short-term rental market, but at least he could be pretty certain of not bunking down with the fucking Ghost of Strippers Past if he stayed at Cozy Ridgeway Nest (whole unit, 2 br, 2 ba) instead of the fucking Marriott. And now he’s here, rubbing shoulders with the damn intelligentsia, wondering why he’d decided taking his solitary pursuit public sounded like a fun idea. He’s holding a nine-dollar beer and standing in the lobby of the Stamford, Connecticut Marriott hotel on a Friday night regretting all his life decisions when he first spots him.

When he sees the blond guy, his brain can’t help but switch into full-on noir-novel mode, because sue him, he might be a retired P.I. but he still fucking loves a totally inaccurate portrayal of his profession full of stupid jokes and femme fatales.

He walked into the room like a warning, with legs like a stormfront and hair like sunlight on the waves. He lit up the room, but I could almost taste the air of misery that clung to him.

Yeah. Ed’s definitely read too many dime novels.

Read more at AO3!

[poopwons]

So I was thinking about how the AOT characters would have reacted during the pandemic quarantine and I have to get it out.

Eren Jaeger, who always complains that he never had any time to play video games is super pumped at first. He proceeds to play for maybe an hour, gets bored and comes to interrupt your work from home call complaining that he’s bored and lonely without you.

Sasha Braus eats every snack in the house while binge watching reality tv. You’re not surprised when you hear a knock on your door and it’s another grocery or go puff delivery.

Pieck Finger, baby girl sleeps her day away. Sleeps in until ten, has some breakfast, gets back in bed to watch a movie and falls asleep again. When you finally get off from work she pulls you under the covers to snuggle up with her.

Armin Arlert buys and assembles copious amounts and varieties of Lego sets. He buys you special flower sets that he helps you put together. Also uses the free time to go through his TBR list.

Jean Kirstein does all your silly tik tok trends with you. You want that silly dalgona coffee? He’s making it with you. You want to try a new baking recipe out of boredom? He’s right there in the kitchen separating the yolks from whites for you.

Reiner Braun makes a home gym. Sweet beefy boy is not about to let something silly like a quarantine keep him from working out. He asks you to go for walks with him all the time, telling you the sunshine will do you good. He also takes up gardening.

Levi Ackerman is thankful for some peace and quiet from all the brats coming in and out of his place dirtying everything up when they forget to take off their shoes. Needless to say Levi spends this time isolating to deep clean his whole house, while you sit in the living room amazed that this place could get any cleaner.

[eventuallyaugust]

3. birth month twinnie (half written)

hyunseol types on her laptop while on her bed, trying to cure her boredom by writing a song. her members aren't in the dorm with her, probably out with their idol friends or visiting a family. she just finished doing her weekly clean-up in the whole dorm, including the members' room (she asked for their consent first).

now, she is currently taking a rest before she goes out for her daily afternoon walk.

she has been staring at her laptop for a few minutes before she lays down with a grunt, experiencing a writer's block. looking up on the ceiling, she breathes out as she runs a hand through her hair. out of nowhere, the memory of interacting with minjeong from the other day floods her mind.

suddenly, she finds herself sitting up on her bed and searching for minjeong's group profile on her laptop with her fingers aggresively typing on the keyboard. several websites pop up before she clicks one of them, the site looking a bit promising.

the picture of four girls pop up on the screen with the words æspa above it. she scrolls down a few minutes and arrives at minjeong's part of the group profile. the txt member raises a brow when her eyes read her new friend's birthday.

birthday: january 1, 2001

we're born in the same month, and i just had my birthday, so that means...

hyunseol immediately exits from the website and grabs her phone in her nightstand, dialing a number.

"hello, is your service available today?"

----

"minjeong, did you order something?"

the said girl stops playing her mobile game for a moment and blinks, trying to remember if she did order something from the previous days. she then looks up from her phone and meets the leader's gaze, shaking her head. "no, i didn't. why?"

"a package and a bouquet arrived in the front porch just now. the surprising part is that, it's addressed to someone named azrael?" karina points to the front door.

"what?!"

minjeong approaches the items, one gift-wrapped box and bouquet and crouches before she inspects them carefully. she then opens the box and sees the jacket, a black designed with smiley emojis in a light yellowish color.

she takes the apparel out and a note drops on the box before she grabs it and examines the writings.

curious, ningning asks as she looks over her fellow maknae's shoulder. "what does it say?"

the second youngest starts to read the note, "'dear minjeong,

happy belated birthday !! i just found out that we were born in the same month and would like to greet you as a gratitude for being my new friend.

signed, azrael'"

"who's that?"

"i don't know?" minjeong shrugs and looks at her members before looking back at the two items and grabbing her phone.

"hold on, i'll ask around."

----

summary: txt's oldest member, oh hyunseol just want a peaceful life after pandemic with her members, but it seems like fate wants to shake things up.

----

taglist (open!!): @curly-fr13s

masterlist | previous | next

[esthermitchell-author]

The Additions (or Why I'm Not Done, Yet)

So, for those of you wondering why it's taking me so bloody long to get done adding a few spicy scenes to my GO fanfic book... Weeellll... It turned into a little more than that. In making a couple of alterations necessary for one or two of the sexy scenes, I stumbled over a few places were scenes important to the overall story or character arcs got skipped. Things I didn't mean to or want to leave out or leave to an offhand mention later on (the offhand mentions were actually supposed to remind me to go back and fill in the scenes... then I got ahead of myself and in my excitement to share with y'all, I sort of forgot to write those scenes 🤦‍♀️🙄).

So, please bear with me. I really am trying to make this the best version it can be (and I will be re-uploading the non-explicit version with the important additional scenes that aren't sex-oriented, once I'm done with the additions). If you're wondering what I mean, here's an important scene that ended up missing from the original release... This is supposed to happen right after the lectern sculpture scene, but at first writing, I was busy weaving scenes from other stories into the overall book, and so I left myself "note" in the following chapter (the Christmas scene) to come back and fill in -- and then never did. It (and it's follow-up scene about the crepes mentioned later) will be in the update of BOTH versions of the book. But, for now, you can enjoy this part, right now... (Scene Under Cut)

Crowley leaned against the open doorway into the kitchen -- Aziraphale miracled it into being back during the pandemic out of boredom and a desire for something to nibble on -- watching his angel putter about making himself a cup of tea. Aziraphale swore there was a whole process to making a proper cup of tea. Personally, Crowley never touched the stuff, but he was relieved Aziraphale was starting to enjoy his little Earthly rituals and pleasures.

"You know it's okay to eat, yeah?" He rested his head on the door frame, letting his gaze drift over the angel's still sparse -- compared to before, anyway -- form.

Aziraphale tensed for a fraction of a second, but it was enough Crowley caught it, before the angel half-turned his way with a vaguely exasperated smile. "Why do you keep trying to get me to eat?"

Crowley blinked in surprise, sucking in a small breath against the instant clench of pain at the sorrow and fear he could see buried deep in his angel's eyes. "Because food makes you happy. You're not happy, angel, and I don't know how else to fix it."

Aziraphale startled. "Of course I'm happy! You're all I need to be happy, Anthony--"

"Not that kind of happy, angel." Crowley sighed heavily. "Happy with yourself, I mean."

Aziraphale lifted one eyebrow. "And you think I need food to be happy with myself?"

"I dunno." Crowley straightened from where he slouched, tension crackling through him. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. First time I ever saw you enjoy any-blessed-thing was that night in Job's cellar. Every time you eat, it's like you're back there, again, enjoying yourself for the first time. You have no idea how much I love seeing that."

Aziraphale turned back to what he was doing, leaving Crowley at a loss for how to get through to him. Except, maybe... Crowley slipped his mobile phone from his blazer pocket and sent a quick text to Maggie.

He glanced up as he heard the clink of metal against ceramic, before Aziraphale turned from the counter where the kettle was, cup and saucer in hand and a soft smile on his face. "I really do appreciate you looking out for me, love, but it's entirely unnecessary for me to eat, and I'm perfectly fine."

As if that wasn't, as the Americans liked to say, the biggest crock of shit he'd ever heard. Still, Crowley bit back his argument. He was already forming a plan. He knew he was right, and he wasn't giving up on this.

As Aziraphale headed back toward the sitting area with his tea -- all the proof Crowley needed that his angel wanted his creature comforts, but was denying them for some reason -- Crowley's phone pinged in his hand, and he glanced down at the message on his screen.

MAGGIE: You want Justine's number? Why?

Crowley rolled his eyes and typed, It's a surprise. For Aziraphale.

MAGGIE: Oh, that's brilliant! How about I just give her your mobile number, and she can contact you when she's not busy?

Fine.

Tucking his phone away, Crowley was just turning to head out to snuggle up with his angel when something caught his eye he'd never noticed before. What he'd always assumed was just another desk or table covered in books, wasn't anything of the sort. He should have recognized the shape on sight -- he blamed the piles of books masking its appearance -- since he'd spent close to a decade after the Great War playing one in speakeasies and cathouses of the American South, trying to stir up all sorts of Hellish mischief during Prohibition.

"Hey, angel?"

There was a moment of silence, before the clink of teacup against saucer, and then, "What is it?"

"Do you actually have a Steinway upright piano tucked back here? When did you get it?"

"Oh." The quiet rustle of movement reached him, and he looked over his shoulder to see Aziraphale pause in the open doorway from the sitting area.

"I acquired that shortly after the Great War. The quiet around here was... unsettling. Music helped chase away the memories, so I had the idea I might learn to play the piano. I thought it would help." A flush stole up the angel's face, even as he shrugged. "I'm afraid I never did quite master it. I have the ear, but kept tripping over my own fingers. I keep it tuned and maintained the way the purveyor said I should, but I'm afraid it mostly just sits there, like... well, like that."

The desire to feel the ivory keys beneath his fingers again, and to provide his angel some kind of comfort, settled in Crowley. "Mind if I give it a go?"

Aziraphale blinked at him, confusion clear in his cerulean eyes. "You play?"

"Haven't done since the '20s, but I can't be that rusty, yeah?"

A small smile flickered at the angel's lips, before he waved a hand and the books covering the piano disappeared. "By all means."

As Aziraphale headed back to the sitting area, Crowley slid out the bench, flipped open the lid over the keys, and flexed his fingers as he tried to remember if he ever learned any soothing melodies. He didn't have much of a refined playing style, since the only places he'd ever played before didn't have anywhere near the level of musical sophistication his angel did.

Here goes nothing.

Settling onto the bench, he placed his fingers over the keys, drew a breath, and began gently setting his fingers down over the keys. For being over a hundred years old, the piano's notes played true and clear. Not that he was surprised. His angel was meticulous at keeping things in tip-top shape. Crowley closed his eyes and let the sweet notes he drew from the old piano flow through him, his love of the music, and of the angel for whom he played, inspiring the placement of his fingers.

After a time, Crowley allowed the notes to fall off gently, until silence filled the room again as he hung his head, uncertain if he felt more exhausted or elated by the emotions he'd poured out in that melody.

"That was beautiful."

The sound of his angel's voice drew his attention, and he turned his head to look at Aziraphale -- now seated at the table watching him, so much gentle, healing love on his face, all Crowley could do was turn on the piano bench and open his arms. Aziraphale came to him without even a flicker of hesitance, and a grateful sigh shuddered from Crowley as he wrapped his arms around his angel's waist and leaned into what remained of the soft cushion of his angel's body. He felt Aziraphale's arms on his shoulders, and the stroke of one hand through his hair, even as the angel pressed gentle kisses to his forehead and temples. He loved this angel, whatever corporation he took, but his throat tightened around pained tears as he wished fervently to have his angel back -- the angel who thrived surrounded by books, who sighed happily at a cup of cocoa or tea, whose eyes lit at the sight of good food and who could never say no to sweets. The angel who got pleasure from comfortable, well-worn clothes, a glass of good wine, and a stirring symphony.

So far, Crowley had seen only glimpses of his angel, since Aziraphale came back. And he was desperate to break through whatever was holding the angel back.

"Please," Crowley rasped brokenly, nuzzling his face against his angel's body. "Please eat, angel. I'm begging, here."

Aziraphale sighed softly, and Crowley felt the press of the angel's kiss against the top of his head. "I'm sorry, love. I can't. I just... I can't."

"Please." Crowley tightened his grip, his fingers digging into warm flesh covered in soft cloth. "Please, just give me a chance to remind you."

He felt the angel's fingers in his hair, then another small sigh, and a kiss to his forehead, before Aziraphale murmured, "All right. Only for you, my love."

[queenofcoquette]

social media addiction

what is it?

the name pretty much explains it all. now more than ever people are chained into social media. we use laptops for school and work, we use our phones to scroll and communicate. our entertainment is shaped by the internet, and sometimes even our views. although social media isn't inherently bad, it can be used in ways that are harmful to our mental and even physical health.

during covid this became a big problem for me. growing up i never played sports, and my only hobby was playing piano, so i would literally spend 12+ hours online. even when the pandemic ended this was a problem for me. after school i had no activities and just spent time online. over the past 2 years i've changed this, adopting new hobbies, playing 2 sports and making my schedule more busy.

what it can look like:

high screen time

stress when not using social media

falling behind on work/school

a lack of hobbies due to time online

lack of interest towards other activites

increased boredom

low patience/short attention span

struggling in social situations

a distorted view of the world (being in an echo chamber online)

not living life to the fullest

beating social media addiction:

recognize whether or not you overuse social media

think about how it makes you feel (how does being chronically online negatively impact your life? i always like to use this introspectiveness for advice)

when you're doing something online think "how do i benefit from this?" "do i really care about what i'm watching or doing?"

discover new hobbies that interest you

create a morning & night routine that excludes phone time

put your phone on "do not disturb" sometimes

swap out old habits (when you feel like scrolling for hours, find another activiy to do)

practice mindfullness, find a balance

being consistent- your actions become routines, which become habits. make sure to be mindful in what you do and stay consistent with your routine.

there's more to life then social media. social media can be a great thing. it can entertain us and even teach us. but too much of anything is a bad thing. be mindful in the choices you make, and begin to live life. find a good balance and learn how to use social media in a way that is healthy to your mental and physical health. sending positive energy and all of my love :) -amy <3