#queue coded of course. nope

[faeryton]

finally set up my voltron blog (kinda...) and i'm literally so anxious to post there. i just love this show sm and i want the fandom to like meeee

[a-la-elodie]

The Orbonne Monastery | GLAM FARMING PARTY 🗓️ July 16th, SUNDAY

Howdy to my fellow Ivalice fashion enjoyers! I am a bun with a plan that involves some honest work of farming for glams. The idea is to organize enough people for a raid party and queue into Orbonne Monastery on repeat. We're here to do the honest work of helping each other leave with the glam pieces of one's desire.

DC: Crystal / Goblin 📍 Old Gridania | Mih Khetto's Amphitheatre

🕐 SCHEDULE 6:30PM CST ~ Meet & party up 6:45PM CST ~ Party Finder to fill any open slots 7pm-11pm CST ~ RAID TRAIN!!

---

[FAQ]

This sounds like a rootin' tootin' good time, where can I sign-up? Comment and I'll DM you the sign-up link & alliance party spreadsheet! -

Can I come even if I have no interest rolling for loot? Absolutely! The closer we are to wrangling up & filling out three full parties, the less we have to rely on party finder to fill out those empty player slots. The spirit of this event is helping your fellow adventurer, so tagging along and being here because you want to have fun is welcomed and appreciated~ -

It's been a while since I ran Orbonne, how long does it take? Not counting the queue time, the raid takes roughly 35 minutes on average! A rough run can easily add another 5 to 10 minutes. Queue times are trickier to calculate, because I've had to wait anywhere from 7-20 minutes. But hopefully queue times won't be an issue! *knock on wood* -

Will there be small breaks? Of course! Each run will be followed up with a 5-10 minute break to stretch/hydrate/etc. before queueing into the next run. -

I won't be able to run this the whole evening, is it okay to arrive late or dip out early? If you need to leave early for whatever reason, do what you need to do! But good communication is the key to running this event smoothly, so please fill out the spreadsheet accordingly or inform me ahead of time. As for the fashionably late, I can only guarantee it if there's an open slot in the party. -

Is there a dress code? Nope! But if some of you want to coordinate, be my guest! xD -

Can I come even though I never completed Orbonne Monastery? Not going to tell you no, but kindly suggest that you maybe run it at least once before the event. :) This event was organized in hopes of helping folks farm for possible glam items they're missing or want. I'm sure they would appreciate it if they didn't have to wait on cutscenes. -

I have prior plans that night, will you do another? Depends on how well this one goes! This is my first time organizing an event like this so it really depends on how well this one goes. Heck, I might consider organizing this for the other two Ivalice raids if there's enough interest! -

Is this an Art Party? No, we're here to do honest work & farm for some glam pieces! -

Is there a hashtag for the event!? Sure, why not! #wheretheglamsarepretty

[taylortruther]

Sometimes it's like people, better said some fans, live in a world of dreams. Do people really think that arranging for accomodation and travels in EUROPE, in summer is something you can do last minute? In cities where there are gonna be not only the regular tourists but extra visitors coming for a concert? Do they really believe fans can wait till the last minute to buy a ticket for a Taylor's concert in Europe, in summer, not knowing till the last time if they can make it? People are travelling between different Countries to see the concert! She's not touring some unknown places, she's bringing the tour to major cities. So no, fans had to go through a maddening process to even get a code one year in advance, then to get a ticket which I repeat is quite expensive especially if you were not among the firsts in the queue. And let's not even talk about the tickets whose prices kept changing every time you checked the platform. Fine, business is business. But some swifties should also accept that other fans might not love other aspects of those business methods. And honestly that she does it for the fans is a poor excuse. If that had been the case she would have filmed and released the movie in the middle of the American leg, when nobody knew there were gonna be more 2024 dates added, in order to let more fans have the experience. Did she do it? Nope. I wonder why! She's doing it now for specific business reasons, fullstop. Is it her right? Of course. Can some fans be disappointed? Of course. And it has nothing to do with not wanting other people to watch the concert to keep it unique to yourself, come on! They would have watched it anyway, the movie was going to be released and streamed. It's the timing that some find disappointing and I cannot blame them.

oh well i can blame them lmao

[writing-with-olive]

(very) short-term goal setting tip

So by very short term goal, what I mean is more of things you want to accomplish in a given day or few hours, or the small chunks of much larger goals.

Here's the tip:

Give yourself easy outs.

"But doesn't that just make it easier to give up?"

NOPE!

Here's the thing. It can be really hard to commit to something that's big and daunting and difficult. It's a lot easier to commit to something easier.

You are far more likely to give up if you're looking at an hour of something unpleasant. But say... five minutes? You can do five minutes. And once you've finished those five minutes, well, two minutes on top of that isn't too bad might as well. And so on.

And if you do have to take one of those easy outs instead of doing the whole thing? You still made progress. You can build on that tomorrow.

Here's how I set up these little outs.

First thing to remember: they're frequent but not constant. Basically, once you get started on a stretch, you have to finish it. but the finish point is in relatively easy grasp at all times.

For example, I'm working on building up my running stamina. To do that, I run on a small loop I've set up along the street I live on. It's about a tenth of a mile, and ends like fifteen feet away from the door. Basically each time I get around, I ask myself, "can I do another?" More and more often, the answer is yes, because i'm only tacking on a tenth of a mile and then if I want I can be done and go inside.

Or, with writing, I use 4thewords.com (my referral code is S2XSR15522 if you want to sign up and try it out) where I queue up monsters to fight by writing words. If I stop writing before I finish the wordcount for that monster, then I lose the battle. I hate losing, so I keep writing. I often pick little monsters and fight a lot of them, so I can get high wordcounts, but can stop every 50-150 words or so.

Second thing to remember: each "block" should be just as easy to start and end as it is to continue. In other words, when you get to one of your outs, you should be able to end right there, or keep going, without any extra steps attached. Same with starting - when it occurs to you to do the thing, you should be able to start within a few minutes tops. This helps to reduce mental resistance because (a) you have less time to change your mind before you get started, and (b) you know that if you change your mind AFTER you get started, you can stop in short order, so there's little risk to starting.

Continuing with the running example, that loop that I mentioned starts/ends mere steps from my front door. This means as soon as I feel like running, I put on my shoes and go outside and boom, I'm doing it. And if it turns out I forgot to drink enough water or something, then after I finish that first lap, then I can come right back in and remedy that.

For writing, when I want to start, it's as easy as going to my 4thewords tab and clicking "start fight." When I'm done, I turn off auto-start, so that I only have to finish the monster I'm currently battling, and then I can switch to something else.

Third thing to remember: It can be helpful to set up outs both at good and inconvenient stopping points. This is an entirely motivational thing, but if you get to an out, but it would feel so much better to get to that point two outs later, where you get to a round number of repetitions, or passed a personal record, or whatever, then you're going to build up momentum, and possibly even surpass those points, all while being able to stop pretty much whenever as a means to keep the pressure off.

With my running, I really like it when the number of laps I do is a multiple of 3 or 5, or greater than my personal record. So if I get to an out that isn't one of those, then it's like, yes I could stop, but if I do one more, then it will be So Much Cooler.

For writing, I like getting over certain wordcounts in a day, or getting to certain plotpoints/scenes/chapters. So if I realize any one of those are close, of course I'm going to fight just a couple monsters to get to them (plus I get more loot that way - bonus!)

In conclusion...

The idea of this approach is about taking out the emotional risk of starting a project. You can go as far as you want, and quantify how far you're going, while still being able to stop whenever you need to. For me at least, that's often enough to get me to go farther than I would otherwise.

[yeojaa]

Can I request more smut for A&A couple?? I love sexy jay and jinny RYFUIOOIDEWETYUKOJK

[ read angels & airwaves ]

pairing.  jjk x f!reader.  rating.  explicit.  tags.  gamer!jjk deserves his own warning.�� but also cockwarming and a gross amount of love between these two.  wc. 1.5k.  beta reader.  @hobi-gif because she is the pb to my j.  author note.  this is probably less sexy and more soft, but i hope you enjoy and i’m sorry it’s so late! ✨ 

He’s playing Overwatch - unwinding after a long day, dressed down in sweats and little else - when his chair starts rolling back, pulled by an invisible hand.  (Luckily, he’s only in queue, not yet matched into a game.  It’s easy for him to leave, exit out of the waiting screen as he continues his journey away from the desk, releasing his hold on his mouse, letting his keyboard hand fall into his lap.)  Feigned surprise trips across his expression, a subtle widening of his eyes, the softest hm? slipping like sandman’s dust from his lips.

“Play with me,”  you say in that way of yours, deceivingly sweet, lilting like the chorus of his favourite song.  (He thinks that’s what you’d be if you were anything else, played over and over in his thoughts, quiet in the background of his everyday life.  A kind reminder of your love, of your giggles and that cheekiness you offer in spades.  A heartfelt melody in A minor.)

(Jungkook wants to write something for you - because of you - he realises.  Of course he does.)  

He echoes your words back, pairs it with a quirked brow and a sing-song laugh that makes his eyes crinkle, long grooves dug into the bridge of his nose.  Sunshine pours between his teeth, lights up his entire face.  “You wanna play?”

Your answer is a shake of your head, freeing tousled strands from the haphazard bun you wear - the one that goes up any time you’re half-asleep (or gaming or simply too lazy to do anything else) - too many pieces askew to be sophisticated.  (It’s cute still, one of his favourite looks on you.  Messy, sleep-addled, real.)  

“I want you to play.”  The way you enunciate, throw heavy meaning into your words has him curious, chin canting when you round the chair, step to the side and brush a delicate hand through his crown of curls.  You push velvet away from his face, tuck it neatly behind his ear and smile so prettily he swears his heart might leap out of his chest.  The same hand falls over his with meaning, your own eyes the size of saucers.  Were you trying to communicate as if you were psychic?  He thinks you must be when you stare for longer than you need to, mouth pulling and pursing adorably, a wavering wall against whatever you want to offer but won’t.

When he relents, it’s with his hand curled around your wrist and a gentle tug of you closer.  (Because he always wants you closer.)  “Let’s play then.”

It takes you no time at all to settle into his lap, legs dangling around the back of his gaming chair, arms locked around his neck.  He imagines it isn’t the most comfortable position in the world but, well, Jungkook’s not going to complain that his girlfriend wants to cuddle.  Can’t even fathom the thought when you’re so warm and your weight feels like some sort of top-tier blanket.

“Good?”  

You simply nod into the small of his neck, cheek cold against his shoulder.  Maybe you’re just tired.  You haven’t been sleeping well the last few nights, if you could even call it that.  They were more midday cat naps, laid up in his arms on his free days.   

(Don’t worry, you’d said.  He did, anyway.)

When he wins his next three games, he thinks you might be a lucky charm - his own personal blessing, all his good karma offered in the form of victory.  The headshots are clean, the flashbang-right-click combos flawless.  Gold damage is his the entire time;  he’s racking up gold medals left and right with you there with him.

(It’s almost as good as when you play together, your damage boost enabling him to obliterate the enemy without worry.  Granted, the Mercy on his team isn’t bad either - but she’s no you.  Not the girl that makes his heart pitter patter in his chest, play some silly crescendo that feels like a sugar high.)

But then he begins losing, missing shots that should be easy, sends them into the dark, strangely distracted.  He doesn’t realise by what until it’s too late and the next roll of your hips makes him whine, the sound tripping off his tongue in a whimper.  

“Angel.”  The word is practically choked out, broken despite being only two syllables.  You’re still snuggled into his chest, seemingly innocent, unaware of the tension that grows, turning bone to brimstone.  He’s half-worried he’s getting riled up over nothing - turned on by only your closeness - when he feels the damp of your teeth, the sharp edge tickling over muscle.  For what it is, it shouldn’t flood his stomach with heat, have electricity tracking up his spine as if struck by lightning.  “What’re you doing?”

“Play with me.”  You repeat the words into his hair, thread them between the midnight strands as you stamp a sweet, chaste kiss right below his ear.  He thinks he might be able to resist you - until you’re tugging lightly at one of the silver hoops that line his ear, laving your tongue over the sensitive spot that has him seeing stars.

He parrots the words back to you but it isn’t a question this time.  More a promise, tenderness turning his smile soft, needy, utterly in love.

“Let’s go to bed.”  Not because it’s late - though it is, half past two in the morning now - but because he wants to feel you wholly, watch you fall apart in the comfort of your bed.  No more distractions, just the two of you.  Just how he likes it. 

“No.”  That surprises him, throwing him off his axis.  He’s halfway to a pout when you press a kiss, steal his brattiness away with one sweep of your lemon-lined mouth.  “You keep playing.”

Oh.

The time you take to slide his sweats down - taking his boxers with them, fingers hooked into the black band that hugs his hips - should be criminal.  It’s as if you’re doing it on purpose, tugging the material down carefully, balanced above him by his hands on your waist.  

(He steals the softest touches while you’re there, thumbs grazing the undersides of your breasts, fingers laying themselves into the rungs of your ribs.)

When they’re halfway down his legs, he kicks them off, lets them gather in a pile somewhere by his feet.  Forgotten - because he’s got much more important matters to attend to.  “Your turn,”  he hums - almost begs - when you settle back against him, straddling him as you had before, still dressed in his favourite grey shirt and your plain black thong. 

“Nope.”  You’re smiling down at him, more devil than angel, smile so sinful he feels his cock twitch against his stomach, hard and leaking pre-cum from the tip.

“But—”

The turn of your head further dislodges strands, has shadow throwing your features into muted light.  That’s not what has his attention, though.  

It’s your hand dipping between you, curling light around his length.  Pad of your thumb massaging over his head, slicking arousal until the glide is easy.  With a gun to his head, Jungkook couldn’t help himself from moaning, a keening sound that tickles your cheek and has heat flooding his own.  (You’ll be the death of him, he swears.)  “Baby, please—”

“Play,”  you repeat. 

He does, rolling himself forward, finding his mouse and keyboard with trembling hands.  

It’s cruel, what you’re doing.  (It’s also everything he could ask for, offered by the hand of the girl he loves most.  Even through the haze of desire, there’s affection that paints him pink, lights him up like a Christmas tree.)

(All he wants to do is fill you, fuck you full until you’re coming apart, crying his name out in that breathy way that drives him wild.  Playing his favourite song again again again.)

But he’s a good boy for you - always is - so he says nothing as he queues once more, tries his damnedest not to make a sound when he feels the press of his cock against your cunt, the heat that engulfs him when you take him in one fluid motion.

It’s as if his brain short circuits, as if you’ve rewritten all the code that makes him who he is.  He chokes a sound - a whine, a laugh, a cry - when you sink fully into him, curl those arms back around his neck.  You’re absolutely perfect, wet and warm.  Split wide open by how deep he is, clit flush against his pelvis, velvet walls yielding to the fullness.  

Whether he wins or loses his next games, Jungkook doesn’t care.  He’s already got everything he could ask for. 

tag list.  @neverthefirstchoice @youwannabelostandnotbefound @snackhobi @codeinebelle

[carminite-wyrm]

A Sunless Skies!AU fic, Part 1

So I've...ended up writing a fic for my Sunless Skies x Hermitcraft AU. At first it was meant to be just like, a ficlet, but it's kind of spiralled a bit into a multi-parter fic. So here's the Part 1!

Again, credit to @redstone-sun for the FL!AU that kickstarted my inspiration for the Sunless Skies!AU!

Ren and Doc, brave Co-Captains of the Octagon Van, seekers of secrets and conspiracies, have for once, decided to take a brief vacation from their adventures and accidental incidents in the High Wilderness. Their vacation of choice? A few days at the most desirable holiday destination in all of Albion: Worlebury-juxta-Mare.

An idyllic holiday spot, where nothing is amiss, and nothing can go wrong. Right?

(Spoilers for Sunless Skies lore!)

The admission passes for a weekend stay at Worlebury-juxta-Mare had been a gift from the Boatem Crew, after a series of incidents that were probably best to never be spoken about again, on both groups’ parts.

Specifically, Scar had handed over the admission permits with a wink, tipping them out of his top hat with a dramatic gesture, along with a pamphlet.

“Should be fine for a weekend stay, gentlemen! I’ve heard that they even sell genuine rubbery lumps there, tastes just like it does back in London, apparently. Haven’t tried any myself, admittedly.”

And with that parting note, the Boatem Crew had set off from their rendezvous, leaving behind Ren, Doc, and their horde of semi-displaced goats.

A few weeks later, they had finished finding decent homes for the goats across the entirety of the High Wilderness, with a few exceptions who were still very much at home onboard their locomotive. And finally, the two could head off to their first vacation in several months.

“So, Worlebury-juxta-Mare.” Ren commented, staring at the cursive writing on one of the passes, and checking the pamphlet’s travel details with the map in front of him. “Have you gone there before?”

“Nope.” Doc replied, most of his focus upon repairing his mechanical arm after their last goat drop-off resulted in a very close call with some of Albion’s native wildlife. “It’s…off to the east, isn’t it?”

“Past London, yeah. Not close to the Avid Horizon, though.”

“That’s good to hear, I don’t think they’ll be happy to see us again so soon after that one, uh, incident.”

“I thought we agreed to never speak of that again.”

“True.”

The journey to the holiday destination took a little under a fortnight, with the last of the goats willing to leave rehomed on the way. The one remaining goat ended up being named Vigenere, and appointed as the Octagon Van’s noble mascot, screams and all.

The island that Worlebury was located upon was shrouded in mist, which slowly parted to reveal a quaint-looking town, with multiple other locomotives docked at the port, and the faint outline of amusement park rides in the distance.

“Well, it certainly looks like what the pamphlet described.” Doc said, as their locomotive was guided to a docking station.

As they stepped onto the wooden planks of the docks, they followed the signs leading them to a sizeable queue in front of the main gates of the station. A few signs, all in the same fanciful cursive as the passes that they carried, directed visitors either to the queue for those with passes, those bringing supplies, those waiting for regular entry, and workers. Right by where all the queues began, they could see a bright turquoise banner for a Swaggon Inc. stall, set up in what looked like a cart, and selling all manner of knickknacks to the passing visitors.

“Suppose that’s us.” Doc pointed at one of the shorter queues, patrons in fine clothing and clearly of noble or wealthy backgrounds murmuring among themselves as their passes were checked and stamped.

As they waited, an official suddenly wandered by, stared at them for half a second, before making a ‘come over here’ gesture. Curious, the two headed over, and the man held out a hand, the badge of a government representative clearly affixed to his lapel.

“First time in Worlebury-juxta-Mare? Excellent, excellent, right this way then.” He said, a businessman’s grin fixed upon his face as he shook their hands in greeting. “I’m a representative of the Bureau of Entertainments, and I’d like to welcome you to our fine port. Now, I know queue jumping is a little uncouth, but well, for fine gentlemen as yourself, I am certain you would rather be enjoying the sights rather than mingling with the proletariat for hours.”

Ren and Doc shared an awkward glance, silently comparing their practical, but significantly less extravagant, attire with the shining emerald suit the official was wearing. Over by the admission pass queue, one of the women’s hats looked more expensive than all of Doc’s prosthetics combined, and Ren knew for a fact that Doc had not spared any expense with his equipment or materials for that.

“Uh, thanks? We do have passes though.” Ren held up the aforementioned two items.

“Consider this a courtesy for your first time visiting. We are, of course, absolutely certain that you will be returning guests, after all.” The man smiled at them, before showing them to a door that had a brass plaque with the words ‘Fitting Room’ etched onto it. “Now, there is a dress code, so please do step inside and let the good Couturier find you a suitable outfit.”

With only the slightest amount of hesitancy, the duo stepped into what turned out to be a sizeable room that had all manner of clothing hung up in the wardrobes and racks that lined its walls. The Couturier took one look at Doc’s labcoat (missing a sleeve after it was ripped too many times by him using his mechanical arm to physically fend off the creatures that attacked their locomotive), and Ren’s combination of overalls, tinted goggles, and a ragged red shirt, seemed to grind his teeth in silent outrage, and stalked over to one of the racks.

“Pick an article of clothing you imagine suits you, and I’ll…figure something out to match it.” He said shortly.

Doc immediately gravitated towards the rack of coats, finding a white coat that was almost like his labcoat except with all its sleeves, and also made in the fashion style of decades past. The Couturier seemed to calm down upon seeing his choice, and immediately busied himself with providing the rest of a three-piece suit to accompany it. Off to the side, Doc saw Ren contemplate a lavish velvet-lined hat, before putting it down and flicking through a selection of dress shirts and blouses.

Fifteen minutes later, they had finally shoved Ren into a tailcoat set, much to the relief of the Couturier, who had seemed close to sobbing after the twelfth time that Ren had thought the chosen attire did not suit him.

“I still think the fur coat would have looked better.”

“It looked like someone had stitched together a bunch of rats, Ren.”

Ren sighed dramatically, before immediately lighting up once again as they finally made it into the port town proper, and spotted the wide variety of shops and amusement park games that lined the streets.

“Oh, there’s a stall for the rubbery lumps that Scar mentioned!”

And with that, the hours whirled past as they visited shop after shop, Ren gleefully taste-testing several shops’ worth of tea variety before ordering a few caddies for them to take with them. At one point, Doc swore there was something more wormy than earthy in a particular cup of tea, staring suspiciously into his cup before setting it down. There was something…just a bit odd, besides the fact that the mists really were vaguely corrosive and causing their clothes from the fitting room to slowly disintegrate and unravel as time went by.

But, on the other hand, Ren did seem to be having a good time, and the shop with a wide array of elaborate tea sets, and other porcelain objects, was quite enjoyable to wander through, even if the screams from the nearby donkey ride was a little disconcerting.

Wait. Screams?

Doc whirled around, to where the donkey ride was. No, he must have been mistaken, it seemed like nothing was amiss, though his mechanical eye did focus upon an odd reddish stain that seemed to shimmer in and out of view. He blinked, and the stain was gone.

Huh, his eye probably needed a little bit of a tune up once they were back on board the Van.

“Hey, Doc, want to get some candyfloss?”

He turned away from the donkeys, to where Ren was tugging him over to a stand with multicoloured sticks of candyfloss. Still perturbed, he absently took a bite out of the pale green spun sugar that Ren had purchased for him.

It was sweet. A bit almond-bitter, if he thought about it for long enough.

Their hotel resort room was actually quite comfortable, considering they were essentially visiting for free. The Department official had said that their stay would be the equivalent of their usual pass, just without needing the actual pass, for some reason.

Ren tugged awkwardly at his clothes as they settled for the day, the fabric already looking a bit threadbare. Doc simply huffed, sitting down in one of the armchairs with relief after a whole day of walking and running around.

“They sure weren’t joking about the mists.” Ren joked, looking out at their beachfront view. “We’ll probably be lucky to get to midday tomorrow before we have to leave because our fitting room outfits are in tatters.”

“I thought we already saw everything today?” Doc eyed the bags of souvenirs that they had acquired, and the stack of cargo receipts he was dreading having to file away at a later time.

“There’s an art exhibition tomorrow, and we still haven’t seen the beach.”

“Hm, alright.” Doc sighed, sinking further into his armchair. “I’m going to be honest; I’m looking forward to being back on our locomotive, my eye’s been seeing some strange things and I think it might need a tune-up.”

“Probably isn’t anything serious, Doc!”

“I hope so.”

Roughly eight hours later, Doc was deeply regretting everything as the sky above the beach shimmered and doubled, the sight of an idyllic foggy day overlapping with scintillating tendrils of unsettling light. Off to the side, Ren was attempting to skip stones along the sea of mist, which quite frankly wasn’t working on account of the ‘water’ not being water in the first place.

“Ren, I think we should leave.” He said, catching the other man’s attention. “I’m…The place is starting to look a bit weird.”

“Ah, is the eye giving you that much trouble?”

“No, it’s-“

“Eh, we can always come back later, we still have the tickets Scar gave us.” Ren shrugged, and the two of them slowly made their way back to the dock. As they stepped back out onto the wooden platforms that formed the dockside, Doc blinked as the double vision he had been experiencing slowly cleared up, fading away almost like mist on a windy day.

An hour or two later, and Doc held up his mechanical eye to the lightbulb above his workstation, frowning in consternation. There didn’t seem to be any faults with the eye, and he even swapped it back out again with the spare, to compare the two. For all intents and purposes, his eye was perfectly functional, down to the polished glass lenses within it.

“Well, Doc? How’s the eye?” Ren poked his head into the tiny room that housed most of Doc’s tools and other equipment.

“It…seems to be working as normal. I don’t get it, I swear it was glitching out whilst we were in town, but there’s nothing wrong with it! I even pulled it apart to check if some of the internal pieces had corroded or fallen out of place, but it was all fine!”

“Huh, weird.” Ren shrugged. “So, you up for heading back in to the town, or do you want us to go? We did manage to get quite a bit of souvenirs, anyways.”

“Honestly? I think we ought to go, there’s just something not right about this place.”

“Hm, maybe something about the mists is making your hardware go a bit haywire? They do have a corrosive effect, even if its mild enough to only affect fabrics.” Ren nodded. “Anyways, I’ll go tell the crew to get ready to set off.”

“Uh. Captains?”

The two turned, to see one of the crewmembers looking at them with barely hidden panic on their face.

“Yeah?” Ren raised an eyebrow.

“Vigenere. The mascot. We can’t find them anywhere!”

[yeah-klave]

Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Summary: Klaus and Dave visit the happiest place on earth.

A/N: Dave-didn’t-die!AU. Pure fluff.

Word length: 1.2k

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything.

*******************************************

“So, what’s the plan then?”

“What makes you think I have a plan?” Dave said lightly, turning to Klaus who was practically vibrating with excitement on the purple plastic seat next to him.

Klaus huffed an exhalation of disbelief, rolling his eyes. “Oh, please, don’t play coy,” he grinned. “I’ve seen you with your charts and your spreadsheets and your maps. Of course you’ve made us a plan. Come on, give it up buttercup!”

Dave grinned. “Okay, yeah,” he admitted, “I have made us a plan.” Dave paused, his eyes flicking over Klaus’ face. “Would it be unforgivable nerdy of me to admit I have a screenshot of an Excel itinerary saved on my phone?”

Klaus looked back at Dave fondly, the corners of his eyes crinkling with warmth and affection. “Nope,” he said firmly. “Totally on brand. I’m down. Now, come on, let’s see!”

Dave pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up an image of a color-coded grid with times and notes highlighted.

“Well,” he said. “I’ve come up with a rough outline that factors in showtimes, FastPasses and dining reservations, you can see I’ve highlighted these yellow here,” he pointed at the screen. “I’ve also planned a route” he pulled a colorful map out of his pocket, unfolded it in his lap and pointed out a roughly clockwise route, “which is as much of a complete circuit as possible, without too much zipping from one side of the park to the other. It doesn’t look like these places are designed so you can get anywhere quickly!” He paused and referred back to the image on his phone. “I thought we could start by grabbing some breakfast from Main Street Bakery, which is here,” he pointed at the map, “and then head off in this direction and hit up the classics Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain and then I’ve got us FastPasses to ride Splash Mountain mid-morning. Then I think we should head over to Liberty Square, here,” his finger indicated the position on the map, “and go on the Haunted Mansion and the Liberty Square Riverboat. It’s probably going to be about lunchtime by then, so I suggest getting something to eat in Columbia Harbour House – I’ve read their salmon and couscous is great – and then that leaves us all afternoon to do Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. I’ve got us FastPasses for Peter Pan and –”

“Hang on,” Klaus interrupted, “you’ve got us queue jumps for a kid’s ride?”

“Firstly, it’s not a kid’s ride just because it’s slow,” Dave said. “And secondly, I’ve heard the wait time for that ride gets ridiculously long. So yeah, I have.”

“Oh, okay,” Klaus nodded. “So what next?”

“Well, depending on wait times, there’s Barnstormer, Mine Train, it’s a small world… and I’d love to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic, which is this cute, multi-sensory show.”

“That sounds cool,” Klaus agreed, “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“And then in Tomorrowland there’s Space Mountain – I’ve got us FastPasses for that. And Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is an absolute must! Then I’ve got us a reservation at Be Our Guest for dinner, the photos online for that place look spectacular – you can eat in the Beast’s ballroom or even the West Wing. You order your food in one place, take a seat somewhere and then the food gets brought to you as if by magic! Although I think they track you with some kind of GPS rose. Then in the evening there’s the Happily Ever After fireworks – I think we should get a spot in front of the castle to watch them. I mean,” he paused, “there’s also loads more we could do too, and it’s going to depend on wait times and things, but I thought this was a good starting point at least…” He trailed off, pouring again over the map and his itinerary.

Klaus studied Dave’s face. “Hey Dave,” he said gently, taking hold of Dave’s hand, “I’m so lucky to have you.” Dave looked up, smiled and squeezed Klaus’ fingers. For a moment they just gazed into each other’s eyes.

“Just think,” Klaus laughed, “without you I’d have just been pinballing all over the place randomly and probably missing loads!”

“Yeah,” Dave smiled, “but I’m sure you’d still have had a chaotically wonderful time.”

“Only if I was with you,” Klaus said simply, reaching out and booping Dave gently on the nose.

Suddenly overhead a fanfare started playing through the speakers and Klaus twisted in his seat quickly, peering out of the window and desperately trying to catch a first glimpse.

The bus finally pulled up. “Thank you,” they both said as they stepped through the front doors.

“Have a magical day,” they heard, as the doors closed behind them.

As they stepped out of the air conditioning, a wall of hot air hit them.

“How can it be this hot, this early?” Dave pulled at the collar of his tee.

“Dave, we survived the wet heat of the Vietnamese jungle,” Klaus grinned. “We can handle Florida!”

“Yeah,” Dave said, “but I hate to think what this humidity is going to do to our curls.”

“That I’ll give you,” Klaus nodded, scrunching his nose and pulling a face. “Come on,” he took hold of Dave hand again and eagerly pulled him in the direction the other guests were walking.

“Woah,” Dave whistled, “this looks as intense as airport security!”

After having their bags checked, they scanned their MagicBands and fingerprints at the turnstiles and entered the Magic Kingdom park for the very first time.

Hand in hand, they walked under the train station and out into Mainstreet USA. Klaus was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. After another few steps they both stopped and stood in awestruck wonder.

“Woah,” Klaus breathed.

“Yeah,” Dave agreed. “Just, yeah... wow.”

“There it is” Klaus said. He tore his eyes away from Cinderella’s Castle and turned to Dave, his huge, dark-rimmed eyes twinkling. “We’re actually here, Dave. Finally!”

“Yeah,” Dave breathed, looking back at Klaus with pure affection. “It’s even more wonderful than I imagined.”

Their faces split into matching grins. Dave reached out, gently cupped Klaus’ cheek in his large hand and – at eight o’clock in the morning, at the bottom of Main Street USA, looking up towards Cinderella’s Castle, in the Magic Kingdom, the happiest place on earth – Dave leaned forwards and kissed the love of his life.

“What was that for?” Klaus murmured into the space between them.

“Oh, you know,” Dave said quietly, supressing a smile, “all princesses deserve a True Love’s kiss.”

“Oh, you Disney geek!” Klaus grinned, rolling his eyes. “I suppose you think that makes you Prince Charming?” But he pulled Dave towards him and grasped him in a fierce hug, pressing his cheek into Dave’s neck.

When they pulled apart, Dave could see Klaus’ eyes were shining a little.

“Right,” Dave said, his voice firm and determined, “are you ready to have the most magical day of your life?”

Klaus smiled and leaned forwards to rub the tips of their noses together briefly. “Every day with you is magical,” he said, “but let’s have this one in Disney World.”

Then, hand in hand, they turned, took a deep breath that smelled like jasmine and butter popcorn and happiness, and stepped into a magical kingdom of possibilities. Their very own great big beautiful tomorrow.

[subbe93]

This took more time than I thought, but hey, I'm ready! So thank you @meitanteisachi tagging me, it means so much to me <3

1. Why did you choose your url? Umm, well… I don’t know? xD I didn’t have any other ideas at that time :D

2. Any side blogs? Nope

3. How long have you been on tumblr? I have no idea, but my first post was from September 2016. So at least since then :D Though I remember that there was a long time when I just lurked, I don't really remember when I made my account, and sadly I didn't find any info about it.

4. Do you have a queue tag? No, I don’t

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? Well, I have always wanted to belong somewhere, have a friend who likes the same things as I do, because I have so many thoughts, but I don't have anyone to share them with. I found Tumblr, I kinda like it, so in 2016 I wanted to try to get along with the Avengers fandom. Well, I didn't do a very good job with that, so I gave up and started to lurk again. But then I found Detective Conan and again, I didn’t have any friends who would know it or even wanted to talk about it, so I was alone again. So in Tumblr, I found DC fandom and ShinRan shippers and I thought that maybe I should try to get active as a follower and that way make some friends. Yet someone (yeah, the same person who tagged me <3 ) told me to post my ShinRan headcanons, so… here we are, I think? :D Well, I admit that I haven’t done a very good job with my blog, but I kinda want to be more active. I just… I don't know, maybe I should try to find more courage to post some headcanons and try to write more fics (though I have written some fics for ShinRan week, so hopefully there is something you like to read :3 )

6 . Why did you choose your icon/pfp? Well, I remember how much I loved that smiling Conan from the beginning of the series <3 He got so excited to search that treasure after cracking that code :3 Art is also somehow so cute. Don’t get me wrong, I also love the new style, but there is something with those round faces and all… Somehow Ran and Shinichi look younger at the beginning of the manga/anime than with nowadays style… They look more like adults. Probably it's just me, but I also like that idea x)

7. Why did you choose your header? Oh, I just took a photo of a cherry tree that grows on the inner court of our apartment building, and at that time I just didn’t know what to do with my blog, though I still wanted it to look nice, so I made it to my header (though when I last night looked at it from the computer, it looked terrible xD)... Kinda want to change it, but I don't know which would be the new one.

8. What's your post with the most notes? Well, it is this one. Have to admit, I was a little surprised to see it, but I'm also happy about it. In the end, Shinichi is pretty cute when he can't take his eyes away from Ran :3 And the other reason is that it did its job like I hoped <3

9. How many mutuals do you have? Four, basically five (because they follow me and I follow their side blogs x) )

10. How many followers do you have? 66. And I want to thank you all for following my blog <3 I hope that I got myself more active and be worthy of your follow :)

11. How many people do you follow? 91

12. Have you ever made a shitpost? No

13. How often do you use tumblr each day? It depends... At least every morning and evening I scroll over my dashboard, but somedays when I'm bored, I can spend much more time here.

14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won? Nope, and I hope that I don't even have to. I don't like to fight or have arguments because I have heard my parents do that much more than I care to remember, so hopefully, we can talk peacefully here and respects everyone's opinions :)

15. How do you feel about "you need to reblog this" posts? Once upon a time, I share some of those, but not a long time and probably not gonna do it. I have been thinking that I want to concentrate on ShinRan on my blog.

16. Do you like tag games? Yeah, they are fun to do, and it makes me feel like I have made a friend :)

17. Do you like ask games? Well, yeah, I think so… Not sure if I have ever done any ask games, but it’s somehow always fun to answer some questions.

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is [tumblr] famous? I respect all my mutuals, but truth to be told, I don't think any of them famous. This sounds so wrong, but the truth is that they don't give me the feeling that I couldn't just go and talk to them. To me, they feel like normal people who have done much work for their blogs and got many followers and all - and they deserve them. But that's why I like them and follow them! They don't behave like they would be above others. Of course, I have been happy to see that they have started to follow me, but I'm also been very happy with every follower who has shown any interest in my posts. Because to me, that means that there are people who also love (in this case) ShinRan and everyone has welcomed me to be part of the "community" :3 I really hope that this doesn't sound too disrespectful...

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? No.

20. Tags: I kinda want to tag someone, but I don't really know who, so I do this: I tag you ;)

[thistreasurehunter]

Kings and Castles

Happy Birthday @playitaagain!  

I am fully aware that this fic will probably only be of interest to one other person on the planet - if it can make her smile though, it’s totally worth it!

A/N: This occurs in the same universe as my ongoing series After the Rain, but is set several years in the future. However, it can be read as a stand-alone one-shot. All characters are aged 18+. 

Summary: Just a little snippet from a trip JJ and Pope have been really looking forward to.

Genre: Fluff.

Word length: 1k

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Outer Banks characters or settings.

*************************************************

“So, what’s the plan then?”

Pope smiled. “What makes you think I have a plan?” he said, turning to JJ who was practically vibrating with excitement on the purple plastic seat next to him.

JJ huffed out an exhalation of disbelief, rolling his eyes. “Oh, please, don’t start with that,” he grinned, “I’ve seen you with your charts and your spreadsheets and your maps. Of course you’ve made us a plan. Spill!”

Pope grinned even wider. “Okay, yeah,” he admitted, “I have made us a plan.” Pope paused, his eyes flicking over JJ’s face. “Would it be unforgivable nerdy of me to admit I have a screenshot of an Excel itinerary saved on my phone?”

JJ looked back at Pope fondly, the corners of his eyes crinkling with warmth and tenderness. “Nope,” he said firmly. “Totally on brand. I’m down. Now, come on, let’s see!”

Pope pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up an image of color-coded grid with times and notes highlighted.

“Well,” he said. “I’ve come up with a rough guide that factors in showtimes, FastPasses and dining reservations, you can see I’ve highlighted these yellow here,” he pointed at the screen. “I’ve also planned a route” he pulled a colorful map out of his pocket, unfolded it in his lap and pointed out a roughly clockwise route, “which is as much of a complete circuit as possible, without too much zipping from one side of the park to the other. It doesn’t look like these places are designed so you can get anywhere quickly!” He paused and referred back to the image on his phone. “I thought we could start by grabbing some breakfast from Main Street Bakery, which is here,” he pointed at the map, “and then head off in this direction and hit up the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain and then I’ve got us FastPasses to ride Splash Mountain mid-morning. Then I think we should head over to Liberty Square, here,” his finger indicated the position on the map, “and go on the Haunted Mansion and the Liberty Square Riverboat. It’s probably going to be about lunchtime by then, so I suggest getting something to eat in Columbia Harbor House – I’ve read their salmon is great – and then that leaves us all afternoon to do Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. I’ve got us FastPasses for Peter Pan and –”

“Hang on,” JJ interrupted, “you’ve got us queue jumps for a kid’s ride?”

“Firstly, it’s not a kid’s ride just because it’s slow,” Pope said. “And secondly, I’ve heard the wait time for that ride gets ridiculously long. So yeah, I have.”

“Oh, okay,” JJ nodded, “so what next?”

“Well, depending on wait times, there’s Barnstormer, Mine Train, it’s a small world… and I’d love to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic, I read it’s a multi-sensory show.”

“That sounds cool,” JJ agreed, “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“And then in Tomorrowland there’s Space Mountain – I’ve got us FastPasses for that – and Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is an absolute must! Then I’ve got us a reservation at Be Our Guest for dinner, the photos online for that place look spectacular. Then in the evening there’s the Happily Ever After fireworks – I think we should get a spot in front of the castle to watch them. I mean,” he paused, “there’s also loads more we could do too, and it’s going to depend on wait times and things, but I thought this was a good starting point at least…” He trailed off, pouring again over the map and his itinerary.

JJ studied Pope’s face. “Hey Pope,” he said gently, taking hold of Pope’s hand, “I’m so lucky to have you.” Pope looked up, smiled and squeezed JJ’s fingers. For a moment they just gazed into each other’s eyes.

Eventually JJ laughed, “Just think, without you I’d have just been pinballing all over the place randomly and probably missing loads!”

“Yeah,” Pope smiled, “but I’m sure you’d still have had a chaotically awesome time.”

“Only if I was with you,” JJ said simply.

Suddenly overhead a fanfare started playing through the speakers and JJ twisted in his seat quickly, peering out of the window and desperately trying to catch a first glimpse.

The bus finally pulled up. “Thank you,” they both said as they stepped through the front doors.

“Have a magical day,” they heard, as the doors closed behind them.

As they stepped out of the air conditioning, a wall of hot Floridian air hit them.

“How can it be this hot, this early?” Pope pulled at the collar of his tee.

“Dude, we’re from the OBX,” JJ grinned, “we can handle the heat!”

“Yeah,” Pope said, “but what about this humidity?”

“That I’ll give you,” JJ nodded. “Come on,” he took hold of Pope hand again and eagerly pulled him in the direction the other guests were walking.

“Woah,” Pope whistled, “this looks as intense as airport security!”

After having their bags checked, they scanned their MagicBands and fingerprints at the turnstiles and entered the Magic Kingdom park for the very first time.

Hand in hand, they walked under the train station and out into Mainstreet USA. After another few steps they both stopped and stood still in awestruck wonder.

“Woah,” JJ breathed.

“Yeah,” Pope agreed. “Just, yeah... wow.”

“There it is” JJ said. He tore his eyes away from Cinderella’s Castle and turned to Pope, his eyes twinkling “we’re actually here. Finally.”

“Yeah,” Pope breathed, looking back at JJ with pure affection. “It’s even more wonderful than I imagined.”

Their faces split into matching grins and they grasped each other in a fierce hug.

When they pulled apart, Pope could see JJ’s eyes were shining a little.

“Right,” Pope said, his voice firm and determined, “are you ready to have the most magical day of your life?”

JJ smiled and leaned forwards to press a quick kiss to Pope’s lips. “Every day with you is magical,” he said, “but let’s have this one in Disney World.”

Then, hand in hand, they turned, took a deep breath that smelled like jasmine and butter popcorn and happiness, and stepped into a magical kingdom of possibilities.

[todaysbiggesthits]

The Exam

Best Music Moment of 2019

BC: Three straight hours of this

in my Chapman Ryder Cup match with Code  -The Robert M. Chennault Playlist in my Ryder Cup match with Laser  -Vampire Weekend's "M79" with Parks and Rec theme interlude in Pawnee Peytonville with my babe  -Late night music game with JD and Chaps this Fall  -My kids competing for best air guitar solo to Daft Punk's "Digital Love"  -The Stones soundtracking Raceday morning with Counterfeit Kenny and the Kennel Boys 

Codem: -Picking up the keys after closing on #our house and listening to Arden's dreams for the pad while listening to the songs that brought us together in the first place. -Perched in the balcony of Park West watching Chromatics live and in person. -The Chapman format playlist that Brendon and I put together.  It was just one song on repeat.  Xtal - Aphex Twin -Plugging in my klipsch's for the first time in the new house to listen to elliott smith on the day of his death. the sound of his discography wafting throughout the whole house was a true delight.

Bronco: My 6-year-old discovering Green Day.  My 9-year-old discovering Metallica.  Both discoveries have awakened something in them that is hilarious and awesome to behold.  And seeing Tool was pretty flaming awesome.

JD: March: Realizing I’d never heard this Stones song, nodding along to the opening riff, and exploding into my biggest laugh of the year at the first line.

June: The Joni Mitchell performance in the Rolling Thunder Review documentary on Netflix. June: Catching the Thom Yorke Anima short film at the IMAX theater on the Upper West Side. July: Code and I getting a perfect 99 score on the greatest rendition of “Emotional Rescue” karaoke you’ll ever see. October: Playing the music game WAY too deep into the night with BC and Chap (look for the next day’s hangover on my worst moments list).

Chap: Patrick Stickles singing "I'm sorry dad no I'm not making this up" to his dad in the audience.

Nasty: Listening to music at BOB. Nothing but jams that whole weekend. Driving in with Laser - GOOGLE MUSIC JAMS. Trip to the casino - JAMS. Hanging out on the deck - JAMS. Driving to the course with Blazer Black - Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love for Planet Earth aka JAMS. In the cart with Code - JAMS. Driving Chappy and Sfreddo to the rental car - JAMS (but quietly).

Larse: Greta Thunberg speech dubbed to metal

Best Shows Seent in 2019

Nasty: The Killers @ Summerfest. Hot Fuss will always be an all-time favorite album and Mr. Brightside is the best pop song of our lifetime, IMO. Also, my wife loves them which is about the only band in middle of the venn diagram. 

Larse: The Lonely Island at Summerfest

BC: Dead & Company

JD: 1. The Rapture at Music Hall of Williamsburg 2. Viagra Boys at Bowery Ballroom 3. The Strokes and Parkay Boys at the All Points East fest in London with drunk lads screaming along to the guitar parts 4. B Boys at Union Pool 5. Titus Andronicus at Bowery Ballroom 6. Avey Tare at Market Hotel 7. Tame Impala at MSG 8. Weeping Icon at Elsewhere 9. Priests at Elsewhere

Code: interpol - chicago theater illuminati hotties - hideout it looks sad - subT downstairs robyn - riviera steve malkmus - art institute eleventh dream day - hideout colleen green - sleeping village swearin' - lincoln hall surf curse - subT shura - the bottle

Chap: TA was the only show I saw. It was great!

Bronco: All of them.  They were each great in their own way.  Aside from Tool I was able to interact with the band members at each of the shows.  One I didn't have a ticket for and scored one at the door.  One was in the tiniest venue I've seen a show at.  One had a surprisingly entertaining opening act.  And Tool surprised me with how much I enjoyed an arena show despite being so far away I couldn't see the facial features of the band members.  And there was SOOOOOOO much weed being smoked in the Garden that night.  And I was with a few good buddies.  And I was able to sell my fourth ticket for twice what I paid, simulatenously covering me and my fourth friend who had to bail because his life sucks because his wife sucks. 

Confession of 2019

Nasty: I consume more music at my cushy, suburban OrangeTheory workout classes than in my own free time. S/O to Coach Vanessa for having some Girl Talk on her playlists. 

Codem: i had more fun listening to stuff that i already knew about than stuff that was coming out.

BC: I saw a Yacht Rock cover band and didn't hate it -I succumbed to social pressure and saw DMB -I didn't realize until the last minute that my favorite album was released in 2018 (Wild Nothing). Removing it greatly reduced my loyalty to my list.

Bronco: I'm losing my edge.  I enjoyed way more lady singer bands this year than in any other year.

Chap:  Couldn't get my shit together on the tracks list so just posted a random playlist

Larse: Not really a confession but more of a TIL (today I learned), but Raphael Saadiq was an original member of Tony! Toni! Tone!

Biggest Disappointment of 2019

Bin: The National @ Summerfest. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "the frontman was completely detached, even confessing at one point that he was excited to get back home to his family. The result was an incredibly depressing show — which, given the band's dour songs, is really saying something." ... Huge Bummer.

BC: Didn't see nearly enough shows with nearly enough of yous 

Chap: Sturgill Simpson... unlistenable!

Bronco: Baroness.

Laser: Modest Mouse opening for The Black Keys

Code: i was really messed up by dave berman's passing. i had tickets to see him play at the end of august. it was going to be my first catching him live and in concert. i had waited for this moment since i picked up american water back in 2003.  two weeks before he was supposed to come through town, he up and died.  also, much less of a bummer, the chromatics show in miami that Arden and i were going to attend got canceled two days before the show.

Most Overrated of 2019

Nasty: Kanye's shoes

Chap: LEGACY! LEGACY! – Jamila Woods seems to have been highly regarded? Not my thing

BC: FKA Twigs

Bronco: Baroness.

JD: Big Thief

Code: cancel culture

Larse: Mayor Pete

Make it Stop 2019

Chap: In my house, the Nutcracker Suite. It's great, until the 300th time that day.

Nasty: Cage the Elephant (but children, instead of elephant, and in real life, not the band)

BC: Lizzo 

Code: lizzo

JD: Memes

Larse: Trump

Bronco: News

Biggest TBH Regret of 2019

Chap: Can't seem to get to more than one show per year; Jessica Pratt in a church by my old place

JD: Missin’ dat Pratt yet Nick!

BC: Should've listened to the Kanye album.  Should've spent more time with the Deerhunter record.

Rotty: Skipping CHVRCHES at Summerfest

Code: another year with no fog party

Nasty: Not going to Indy 500. lol jk.

Bronco: I didn't buy tickets to a few shows I would've liked to have seen.  One of them I went to the venue and didn't get in.  That bummed me out, but I crossed the street and had a few beers by myself for good measure, so it wasn't a total loss.

Detective Murtaugh of 2019

JD: Everything.

Bronco: Shows that don't start until 10pm. That Girl Band show nearly wrecked me.

Chap: How much I loved Bruce Springsteen's adult contemporary western-themed old-man album.

BC: The ten seconds I lasted with 1000 GECS

Nasty: For the life of me - I cannot figure out how to operate the "play next" queue on these apps. 

Laser: Lizzo at Summerfest - lot of younglings running around; people were racist towards Lizzo's security guards, she vowed not to come back to MKE, one of the most segregated cities in America :(

Resolution for 2019 Status

Laser: — How It Went: Who can even remember this shit...I'm sure it was that I'd do better at keeping track or listen to more shit people suggest and I'm sure I failed.

BC: Listen to one new album a week; reboot the Classic Album Review Club How It Went:  Noooot toooo gooooood

Code: catch ovlov, pictureplane, washer, chromatics, EMA and colleen green live this year. How It Went: i saw chromatics and colleen green. last i checked .400 gets you into cooperstown.

JD: Greater consciousness of how I’m using my attention - an ineffectual and meaningless protest of the ways the world is burning down in pursuit of it. How It Went: Not bad! I especially nailed the “ineffectual and meaningless” part.

Chap: Learn Piano; Guilt Joe Dons into finally inviting me to a concert. How It Went: Learned some piano but got to busy for it... Couldn't guilt JD to invite me anywhere but I DID invite him to a show! The same one I went to! With him!

Bronco: Read more 'classic’ books. I didn’t read many of them, even in school (especially in school? Never could read a book I was told to read). But I’m leaning in the sci-fi direction of 'classics’. I just read Dune this summer, and wrapped up Fahrenheit 451 the other day. I’m feeling an unexplained need to beef up my nerd credentials and this seems the way to accomplish it. How It Went: Nope.  Fell back in to zombie-apocalypse genre series that I've been reading for a while. But I am currently reading arch-nerd Neal Stephenson's "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell". It's almost 900 pages, I feel like I've been reading for months now, and because I'm a stupidly slow reader, I read only before going to bed, and can only make it 10 minutes before falling asleep and hitting myself in the face with my phone, I'm only 25% of the way through. But man is it painting a creepy yet eerily plausible scene of the near future. Guy just knows how to write.

Nasty: Hope last year I was smart enough to leave this blank. (editor’s note: [removes shoes, pets cat, puts on slippers, retires to favorite easy chair, sips martini, slowly pulls reading glasses out of cardigan pocket, dusts them off, loads todaysbiggesthits.tumblr.com, scrolls to ‘Resolution for 2019’] “Nasty: I’m sticking with it - get to NY for a show with JD.”)

Resolution for 2020

BC: See Phish in 2020

Codem: i'm making it easier this year. catch ovlov, washer, EMA and colleen green live this year. bonus points: see dom's much anticipated return to the stage.

Bronco: Build a vinyl collection. I know I dumped on Brendon for suggesting he press copies of Carpet Affair, but my kid's getting way into music and listening to it on his own (via Alexa in my bedroom which is super fucking annoying), so we're getting him his own record player and I think it's going to be a cool activity to go record store diving for whatever classics we can scrounge up.

JD: Get to more shows. Take more aimless strolls spinning tunes.

Bin: Send an email about music on the TBH! thread. 

Larse: None

Chap: Eh I'm cool

Most Anticipated of 2020

Code: my man dom said that he is coming back to the world this year. i have to believe that he'll keep his word. i'm thinking 2020 is going to be the year for chromatics' Tommy.

Chap: TWOD, Perfume Genius, Jason Isbell

BC: Huey Lewis and the News, Tame Impala, Run the Jewels

Bronco: Kvelertak and Mastodon, maybe some surprise extra Tool material?

JD: Working Men’s Club

Nasty: Spotify getting Jay-Z's catalog back. 

[pi-cat000]

Trollhunters Timetravel idea p2

Part 1 here

Part 2: Decided to continue this idea to write more Jim and Barbara interactions. Also Troll-Jim is fun to write. 

“Now, when you encounter the younger version of myself you need to say these words exactly,” Blinky cleared his throat, raising a single hand, “Nassel, Razzel, Bezzel bub.”

“Ah,” Jim coughed, glancing across from where he was memorising the, overly complex, time travel ritual, “Why?”

“Why?” Blinky puffed, “It is a pass code of course,”

At his continued confusion Blinky elaborated, “Consider this, if you were to come across an alternate you, how would you go about identifying them. The answer is a pass code, known only to yourself, which would allow you immediately ascertain their character.”

“Is coming across alternate versions of yourself that common?” He couldn’t help but ask, slightly bemused. Typical that Blinky had a ‘time travel’ fail safe.

“Oh, you would be surprised. I have had several nasty encounters with shape shifters. Foul, horrid, creatures. Pray you never meet one.”

As Blinky launched into a recount of his most recent shape shifter confrontation Jim relaxed backward, folding his arms behind his head.  It had been ages since he had seen Blinky this animated.

“This is the basement but then you already know that don’t you,” his mum trailed off, giving him a sideward glance. Despite her commitment to ‘give him a chance’   she was obviously still having trouble wrapping her head around the whole ‘time travel/future son’ thing.

“I’ll have to bring down some blankets. Clear a space. This place is messy. So much junk,” she continued to mutter, frowning at piles of stuff. The basement was cold, covered in cobwebs and mostly covered in boxes of miscellaneous stuff. More junk than he remembered. They must have cleaned it out at some point between now and the future.

She cleared her throat, addressing him again, “When you say Trolls can’t stand the daylight is that direct sunlight or sunlight in general.”

“Sunlight isn’t great for Trolls,” one of the reasons they lived underground, “but only direct Sunlight will turn you to stone,”  he confirmed, looking over the stacks of boxes.

“Then I could put some thick blankets over the window in my room and you could stay up there,”

“Huh? Oh. No, no this is fine,” he rushed to reassure. His last year had been spent sleeping on mostly rocks and dirt so anything could be seen as a step up in his opinion.

“All we need to do is pile this stuff up over there,” he picked up a stack of old books and newspaper, placing to one side, “see, plenty of room.”

The pile toppled over and his mum gave both the pile and him a dubious look.

“Are you sure? I can sleep on the couch. In fact, I insist.”

There was no way he was going to let his mum sleep on the couch. Not when she was always so exhausted working those late shifts. And she had small Jim to take care of as well. Nope. That was not happening.

“Trust me. This is all the comfort I need. Like I said, even indirect sunlight isn’t great in the long term, so being down here is actually better,” he tried for a reassuring smile.

More disbelief. She was raising an eyebrow in that ‘I know what you’re doing’ way.

“Trolls live underground right? Well, this is underground. It’s more comfortable for me to sleep down here and not up there…in your room.”

She sighed, glancing around again,  ���I suppose it will do for now, but if you’re staying here for any length of time then we are definitely cleaning this place up and I’ll see what I can do about dragging a bed down here.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” he accepted before she changed her mind, deliberately not thinking about the ‘length of time’ potion of the statement. Staying here? He would love to. But he just wasn’t sure. He needed to be out there working to defeat Bular and stop the completion of the Killahead bridge. Not that he knew where to start.

Luckily, he was saved from addressing the issue by sounds coming from up in the main house. The light steps of small Jim shuffling around, getting ready for school, dew both there attentions.

“Drat. What time is it?” his mum was looked down at her watch, “Jim needs to get to school. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. I’ll be back in a bit,” she quickly moved up the stairs.

“Jim do you have all your books,” she yelled into the house.

“It’s a sports carnival mum,” came the muffled the response.

“Right. I’ll be up soon. Wait by the door,”

“Is the Troll man still here?”

Younger Jim had taken the sudden appearance of Troll-Jim slightly better than his mum being more stunned than anything else. They had held off explaining the whole situation, stopping short at the bear minimum of facts. Yes, Trolls existed and he was a good Troll and wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“Wait by the door,” his mums voice grew stifled as she moved through the house.

Then of course the sun had started to raise and Jim had had the fun task of explaining the nuances of turning to stone in the sunlight to which his mum had been properly horrified. Seamed he couldn’t go two sentences without freaking her out.

The sound of approaching steps. His mum leant back down, looking back at him, “We’ll work everything out. Just wait here.” He nodded, attempting to be as reassuring as possible, giving a thumbs up. She nodded and disappeared again. Not like he could go anywhere anyway. Nothing to do but wait until the sunset.

Once he heard the door click he climbed the stairway, peering out the window to watch the car pull away. Small Jim was still at the age where his mum had been driving to school. As he watched the door to the house adjacent to theirs was flung open and a small Toby detached himself from his Grandmother, running down towards the car. He tracked the movements almost desperately. Both children greeted each other excitedly. He had no doubt that, as soon as they were out of earshot, the kids would be discussing and theorising about his sudden appearance. Who knew what sort of wacky theories they would come up with. Was it weird to be jealous of your younger self?

Sundown saw him sneaking out of the basement window, darting across his yard and heading in the direction of the town centre. After much discussion and explanation, his mum had left for her shift at the hospital. Queue increased levels of guilt upon realising that he had kept her up all day.  Her shifts around this time started at five and finished at one in the morning, meaning she had gotten no sleep at all. Stupid. How could he have forgotten that?

He paused momentarily to glance through Toby’s kitchen window, watching small Jim enjoy dinner with Toby and his Grandmother. His frustration momentarily subsided to be replaced will longing. The last time he had seen Toby had been at the start of the ill-fated search for the Heartstone. Almost two years ago. It felt like an age.

Jim pushed on, pushing Toby to the back of his mind. That kid in the window wasn’t his best friend. None of this was his, as much as he wanted it to be. He dashed over the darkening street. Occasionally, the loose shirt he was wearing in place of armour caught on bushes and brick alike. He was beginning to gain a better understanding as to why Trolls wore minimal clothing. The baggy spare clothes- which he suspected to have belonged to his dad- were more of a hindrance than anything, limiting his quick movement. He would have to find something more form-fitting later. Just add that to the list of things he needed to do.

The first place he checked was the museum. It smelt musty and damp. No signs of Trolls or any other creature besides humans.  Of course, there was no Killahead bridge. That would be too easy.  After some time sniffing around and exploring various rooms he concluded it to be empty. Sometimes it was hard to tell with changelings and he would probably have to return a few times to double check. However, at that moment, there was nothing. Even the exhibits looked strange.

He growled and the noise grumbled in his chest, echoing through the deserted halls, reminding him of rock grinding together. He hated all these unknowns. Him and Blinky had spent ages hashing out plans and back up plans and backups for those backups.  Now they were all useless. Just his presence was probably messing things up, making all his future knowledge worthless.

He had been prepared for the displacement but he had also been relying on, at least, being able to return to Trollmarket. Without the pre-existing history as a human Trollhunter, or his friends, or younger self, he didn’t dare go near Trollmarket. As much as he loved his friends and wished to see them well, Trolls weren’t the most accepting bunch. It had taken them months to warm up to him when he had been a human let alone a strange Troll-human hybrid.  Even if he managed to win Blinky over it wouldn’t be the same. He wasn’t ready for it. Not until he had a better understanding of his circumstances.

At a loss, he started in the direction of the school. Maybe he would find something familiar there.

[cardshcrp]

a combo apology / vent for anyone who’s been kept waiting. i know my inbox is really full, i’m trying to work through it slowly and keep my queue full of alternating replies more or less chronologically at a pace i can handle.

negativity under the cut.

i’m just completely fucking exhausted all the time. basically what happened is my university has this rule - you can only retake a core class in your major twice, and then you’re kicked out of your major. 

this upcoming fall semester will be my senior year.

spring semester, my mother had a (third) neurosurgery. i’m the caretaker. as you can imagine, this just fucking sucked, straight up. there was radiation therapy, and stuff, she couldn’t do anything on her own, icu time, everything. 

i had one (x1) jackass teacher who refused to give me any provision. my parents refused to provide the documentation, so i couldn’t push for it, either. the guy is genuinely the worst teacher i’ve ever had. what coding / computing professor doesn’t give partial credit? he didn’t even look at our code. he handed 0s out like candy. we had 5 assignments in the whole class. as you can imagine, fuck that. i had a d by a few points; my major requires a c. 

okay, no big deal. i figured i could retake during the summer, as shitty as that is, even though it’s insanely expensive. i took 2 courses this summer, and it ran me just under 5k. which is crazy, but it’s better than the alternative losing my scholarships. wasn’t expecting a great grade, considering all the crap going on, but whatever. just needed a c, i had a grade replacement i could use to fix up my transcript and gpa.

i got the same teacher. he didn’t even give us the full 5 assignments. his grading program was broken but despite contacting him repeatedly, going to him about it, trying to get stuff fixed, i performed better on the retake but failed with an f. he had assignments due the day of the final because he scheduled wrong.

i went to go complain to the department, and i was told that they don’t have any system in place currently to handle unfair grading, and if he didn’t technically break anything in his syllabus i couldn’t actually make a complaint. which is absolute bullshit. everyone in my summer section? they failed out of the spring section. the literal only people i’m aware of who passed the original time? they paid people to do their work.

so now i have to panic, to petition a whole slew of people. if i get kicked out of my major, my credits aren’t applicable to a different area. it’s not just kicking you out of the major - if i get booted, it’s out of the entire college of computing and engineering. if i get booted from that, my gpa won’t be high enough to keep my scholarships.

if i don’t keep my scholarships, i lose my status in the honors college and my double major. i also, presumably, will lose my fucking publishing grant, which is the one thing i really care about right now. i went after it hard, on my own, without telling my family, and i won that grant, and i was so damn proud of it and i might lose it now. 

if i lose all this i can’t afford to restart a new degree. i’m not exactly rich. even if i don’t get kicked from my major but lose the rest, i still might not be able to afford the last year i’d need, and i’d still be losing my double. 

i’m pissed and frustrated and so, so tired and i have no energy to do the things i love. i’m way behind on the art commissions i have, and to add to that i’m still having to take care of my family. who are, unfortunately for me, homophobic, transphobic, and pretty racist to everyone else (despite the fact that it’s a mixed race family...)

so to top off all the bullshit at school, i’m stuck wearing women’s clothes that haven’t looked right on me in a long time, hearing not just a piece of my deadname like my first name (which i haven’t gone by since i was young, no one's called me that but my birth family), but my entire one, because for some reason first middle last is what’s necessary to summon me, as are complaints about how unladylike i am an average of six times a day. i counted over the course of a week. you’d think someone would be appreciative of their child moving back in to cook, clean, and (previously literally) wipe their ass, but. nope. 

so i’m having a whole lot of mental fun and dysphoria, while taking an insanely hard math class as well that i absolutely have to have an a in just in case i don’t lose the other crap but if i do it won’t even matter! 

i also get to plan an emergency move to oregon just in case i do lose everything, because if i do there’s a very real fear that my family will take it out on me violently.

so yeah. i’m pretty frustrated with myself. i want to be managing my blogs better but i can’t seem to, even though it’s currently my escape, and it just sucks and i’m really sorry. please bear with me, i wanna give you guys a quality experience since it feels like one of the only things i have left, and i feel like i’m failing at that too.

[ai-katsuu]

Thanks for tagging!@hanadoesstuffwrong

Why did you choose your url? It was around 2016 when I finally decided to make a side blog that was originally for Aikatsu stuff, and I was in a trip in Taiwan where I played the Aikatsu arcade game so I went ahead and made a side blog for it! Eventually it became the place I posted and reblogged about non Pretty Series related content.

Any side-blogs? This is my side blog but now I sort of consider it my main! My og one was@pretty-rhythmm and my more popular Haikyuu 'x reader' and headcanons one is@ninliane

How long have you been using tumblr? Since 2015 for PriPara and Pretty Rhythm!

Do you have a queue tag? Nope!

Why did you create your blog in the first place? See the first question!

Why did you choose your icon? Because Alice from Ikemen Revolution was one of my first drawings that I thought genuinely looked professional, like it could be used in a game or anything!

Why did you choose your header? I was super proud of my Red Shoes styled art! I wanted to create a scene with Jack and Audrey that looked like it was straight out of the credits!

What's your post with the most notes? THIS ONE. THE DAMN RED SHOES MEME. before it used to be a voltron post that reminisced about how they were so happy before haha

How many mutuals do you have? I'm not quite sure :00

How many followers do you have? 153!

How many people are you following? 319

Have you ever made a sh*tpost? I think so?

How often do you use tumblr each day? Usually I only use it to check the red shoes and the seven/7 dwarfs tag to see if anyone made new content, and to look up cute 'x reader' scenarios from different fandoms because Tumblr has the best!

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Hmm, I made a post about how unfair Aikatsu Stars was being to Ako and Kanata compared to Rei and Elza, Rei saying "I don't do this for fans or myself I only perform for Elza." which was completely contradictory to what Kanata told Ako in the first season "You shouldn't perform solely for one person." and I was like "So what?? Just because Rei is new/talented/different backstory from Ako that makes it okay??

How do you feel about "you have to reblog this" posts? completely ignore them. like maybe I would've but the fact that the op or anyone put "f u if you don't reblog this" or "you have no excuse not to reblog" like damn maybe I would've but now I won't. thats not how you get people to support what you're advocating for.

Do you like tag games? sometimes yeah! I enjoy them especially when Hana (op who tagged me) mentions me in stuff like these! but I don't like tagging other people bc I don't know who haha

Do you like ask games? so true but no one responds haha

Which of ur tumblr mutuals do u think is famous? (AWW I copy pasted Hana's questions and responses and just read her answer and just had a super big smile on my face :))@oceanspray5 I see occasionally on my dash and they have super informative posts about said fandom and every time I read it I'm like woahhh :00 I don't even know anything about this show and I'm invested! I've even gotten to research about stuff like Code Lyoko and Umbrella Academy, both stuff I've never really watched! Ooh plus Red Shoes content creators like @cookieeks-art and @audreythesquid , I'm on a discord server with them and every time the post art or do oc lore I'm also like, "woahhh :00"

Do you have a crush on a mutual? Yes! But sort of just like I adore them bc they're so cute and I feel like if we were classmates irl we would've become super close because of all of our shared interests and fandoms! They actually have a very very similar name to one of my irl friends who lives in Canada, her and I share a lot of the same interests and aesthetics as this mutual!

Tagging: as I said I don't really know who to tag so uhh any of the people I mentioned in this post ig? but of course no need to do it haha

Thanks for the tag, @cacodaemonia!

1. Why did you choose your url?

The honest answer? I didn’t have a clever idea so I looked to the right and saw my bookshelf (I was an avid reader as a kid and now) and then I looked at my cats, thus the name

2. Any side blogs?

Nah

3. How long have you been on Tumblr?

I’m not sure. I started it a few years ago, but wasn’t very active until a year or two ago.

4. Do you have a queue tag?

No

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I don’t remember my original reason, but when I became more active it was because I wanted to be involved in the Star Wars fandom and have another place to inflict my fanfics on unsuspecting readers XD

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

Because it’s the best thing I’ve sketched and I’m stupidly proud of it

7. Why did you choose your header?

I just think it’s cool

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

I’m not 100% sure, I also don’t know how to check tbh

9. How many mutuals do you have?

I don’t know, y'all. I’m not certain what a mutual is. Pls forgive my ignorance! XD

10. How many followers do you have?

Um, 80 last I saw

11. How many people do you follow?

239 so far

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

Occasionally

13. How often do you use Tumblr each day?

I don’t really time it, maybe an hour or so?

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

Nope, not about that shit

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I already have anxiety and use tumblr to escape. I reblog some that I believe in and want to help spread awareness about, but I don’t like the pressure that comes from them

16. Do you like tag games?

Y e s!! I love these!!

17. Do you like ask games?

I love those too!!

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous?

so, so many

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Nope

20. Tags

No pressure tags: @gracethescribbler, @cadaverriffic, @agentfrostbite, @english-is-weird, @l-theseus, @xcertaindarkthingsx

[starfleetorbust]

Trust - for mccoymostly

So... I’m leaving you a story that I had and just putting it in a queue so...yeah. Unedited, but that’s not new. This is... out of my element thought, so that’s new But it’s a gift for @mccoymostly who most certainly is trying to make me fall for these two together. I’m not Anna, I’m not falling. NOT. FALLING. YOU HEAR? nope. Can you guys make sure she sees it pretty pretty please? Send her a message or something? I don’t want to spam her inbox but I know she’s been super busy and I don’t want her to just miss it. It’s okay if it takes her a while to get to it but I want to make sure it doesn’t slip past since its a gift

So yeah, Jen writes McKirk... lets see how this goes You brought this on yourself if this fails Anna And yes there are some references to... things. Books and movies and... yeah. I needed examples and I was lazy.

words: (because I always forget to add this because I’m not a pro here but some people care about this stuff- I know I do >->) --- 1200ish ish... >-> most of its dialogue though It’s a cute story. I think. Yes. Cute. can junk be cute I’m sticking the whole thing under a cut because that’s how jen writes stories now. Makes me more comfortable. But its totally SFW and all that Okay Jen, stop delaying it.

Kirk flopped onto his bed with a sigh and stared at the ceiling. The temperature controls were blowing right in his face and he twisted around out of the jet of air before he hung his head over the edge of the bed, glancing at his partner upside-down. “Bones do you trust me?”

“’Course I do.” Len answered without even looking up from his textbook.

“Yeah, but, like, how much do you trust me?”

That got Leonard to glance up and over at the sprawled-out cadet in front of him. Dangerous question. “Well, not enough to try that new Klingon bloodwine you got from god knows where last week. Not enough to give you the access code to the forensics lab that you’ve been trying to hack into, and don’t act like I don’t know about that. Not enough to sign off that medical exam so that ‘you can go at another more convenient time’.” He ticked off his fingers and threw Jim a pointed look that said do you need me to go on. “And if you’re about to ask about a threesome again, the answer’s still no.”

“No, come on Bones, I’m serious.” The cadet sat up and faced McCoy. “How much would you honestly say you trust me?”

Leonard sighed and set the book on his desk before he swiveled the chair around to directly face Kirk. “You’re a goddamn idiot sometimes. You act recklessly and you tend to leap before you look. You’re irresponsible, you don’t think about consequences, and you blow up more simulation flights then every other cadet in our class put together.” He watched as Jim seemed to deflate a little before he continued. “But you’re smart - a goddamn genius. And you’re persistent. You don’t give up and you always find some solution even if it takes ten tries.  You care about your crew and you stick to your guns. Truth is, kid, I may not jump off a bridge just because you did, but I’d certainly trust you if you said ‘jump’.” He watched Jim stared down at the floor, still looking uncertain after the ramble. “What, not what you wanted to hear?”

Jim glanced up and tangled edges on his sheets in his fingers. “Well, just, what if I were to tell you something really weird though. Something so out there that you’re not sure I’m telling the truth. Something that makes you think I’m insane?”

“You are insane.” Len scoffed.

“I’m serious!” Jim complained and threw a pillow halfheartedly at McCoy. It bounced on the ground about a foot in front of his chair. “If I told you something really crazy, would you believe me or would you question me until you got proof?”

“Like what? Give me an example.”

Kirk sat up on his knees, resting himself back on his heels. “Well, what if I were to tell you I magically gained super powers? That I found some magic space rock over in the trees behind a classroom and that now I could fly. What would you say?”

Len rolled his eyes and went back to his book. So much for serious. “I’m sure it’s happened to someone before. I’d probably tell you we need to run a scan in the labs and see what we could do.” He glanced over a passage about the slug he was supposed to be looking at next class.

“That’s not- Well. what about if I told you I found a unicorn? A real one.”

“There are those unicorn looking aliens on D’Paronal XI. You probably saw one of them.” His eyes stayed glued to the page even if he could hear the bed squeak under Jim as he shifted.

“Then a ghost.”

“Maybe a shapeshifter? Lots of species can turn invisible, and not every one even has a corporeal form.”

“What if I found a magical land in my cupboard then? Complete with it’s own currency and government?”

“Did you?” Len shot him an annoyed glance as he reread the same passage over again, too distracted to take in the words.

“No, but would you believe me?”

“Guess I’d try to help you out. That kinda stuff happens every week down in the physics department that works with the wormhole structures. I bet they know the procedures.”

“What about if I told you days were repeating over and over? That I was stuck in a time-loop and nobody but me could see it?”

“You sound like an old holovid trope. I think the solution to those is ‘wait’ usually, and time corrects itself.”

“And what if I told you I was a super-secret national spy and I was undercover here at the Academy and had to lie to everyone about my identity to protect my mission?”

“Can’t blame you. I’d say I’d probably do the same in that position.” He closed the book and carded his fingers through his hair. Jim sounded like he wasn’t about to let up.

“What if I wasn’t human and there was a just a holo-emitter that was hiding my true appearance?”

“As long as whoever gives your physicals knows.” Len snarked.

“What about if I told you I can hear voices in my head and they’re trying to guide me to these colorful caves to eat one of the mushrooms?”

“Who says I haven’t heard that too? Jim, you know it’s one of those hazing rituals the Xabodaxians do. Those ‘mushrooms’ probably make you delirious.”

Jim curled his hands in show of frustration.“Then I could tell you that that hacker-chip Erikson gave me was alive. Or I was sent from the future to warn you about something we had to prevent. Or there’s a huge conspiracy where all the teachers in the biology department fail every kid with blonde hair. The point is it can be anything.” He stood up and paced in the small empty space between their beds.“Like, what if I told you that I had told you something huge, something so big it could risk our friendship, but then I didn’t like how you reacted, so I made a promise with a deity to reverse time back to where I never told you, and now we’re living in an alternate timeline where I haven’t told you, and you’re not aware because you never saw the other timeline, but now I’m feeling guilty about not telling you even in this timeline?”

“Come on, you don’t really think that would happen.” The kid really did look torn up over something, and Len wasn’t sure how to figure it out without prying.

“The point is Bones, things do happen. Anomalies and abductions and species that break the boundaries of impossible. There are a lot of crazy things out there. I want to know I could trust you to believe me.”

“What are you really trying to ask, kid?”

“What if I was trying to tell you something really serious-”

“Jim-”

“And it sounded crazy-”

“Jim-”

“And what if you doubted me-”

“Jim-”

“Because you know if it were something serious I wouldn’t lie to you about that-”

“Jim-”

“And I’d still offer proof, but sometimes its hard to show something that doesn’t make much sense.”

“Jim! Out with it.”

Jim swallowed hard and met Leonard’s eyes.

“What if I told you I loved you?”

[callmessam-blog]

Not One, But Two (Part VI)

Summary: It all started on that night when you and Jay were both too drunk to remember anything. You resigned from your job and left Seoul with a secret. Now you’re back and ready to tell Jay about them, but doing so means sharing their lives and putting his career and love life on the line.

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI

Jay scanned the sheet of paper, carefully taking in every word to make sense of the whole document, but no matter how much he tried to regain his focus, it was futile.

He closed the folder, placed it on top of the papers piled on his desk and threw his head back as he swirled his chair to face the window on one side of his office. Gray clouds hovered with threats of an imminent rain. The city looked anything but cheerful.

His phone vibrated on his pocket, and with muscle memory he grabbed it, unlocked the screen and read the message from one of his friends. He was asking him if he’s up for some drinks tonight.

Some other time, he texted back.

He was about to put it on his desk when his thumb pressed the message app again. Three names below the recent contact was your name. You told him that you’d be going on a grocery, with a slight indication of holding him responsible for spending, if not all, what’s little left of it.

Remembering that morning and your expression when you saw him taking out the contents of you ref, he chuckled to himself. He liked cooking, and when he anticipated what Suri and Jaeyoung would look like when they find out that he cooked for them, it motivated him to give his best. That included using the necessary and additional ingredients for his simple recipes.

I don’t mind that you cook for them, I really don’t. But my brother had just used too much last night and I need to save up, you told him, one hand planted on your hips.

If it’s the food expenses you’re worried about, I’ll buy you food, he replied as he placed a bowl of cut fruits on the table.

Nope. We talked about this. If you wanna buy something for the kids, then buy what only is necessary. But my house, my rules.

You’re so stubborn.

I’ll take that as a compliment.

Your message was sent over thirty minutes ago. If he recalled correctly, Suri and Jaeyoung were again with your brother and his wife. They received free tickets to a children’s show, with enough number to bring you along but you passed on as you had a number of chores to do. Everything, you told him on a phone call he dialled after you messaged him.

Jay closed his eyes. A week had passed since he spent the night over at your house. Nevertheless, he could still remember that moment when awoke.

Splashes of sunlight filled your bedroom, walls painted in light yellow and apple green curtains hanging on the window. It was cold, but the sunlight pricked his skin. Your back was turned on them while you adjusted the temperature of the air conditioner. Because your bed could not accommodate four people—which he only knew later when you told him—you took the sofa on the living room.

He didn’t know exactly what he felt at that moment. If he would be asked, it was nothing special at all, and maybe that’s why it puzzled him even more. How could something seemingly so insignificant affect him so much?

But it wasn’t exactly like he disliked remembering it and pondering about it over and over again. It’s just that when he came to his senses, he would find himself in a position where he had to choose between staying and learning. He had a girlfriend whom he loved and also loved him in return, to the point that she willingly supported him in getting close to his children.

He didn’t want to leave her, neither you, who stubbornly refused to ask anything from him, but accepting your children. How could he leave you alone when he kept on seeing that smile you would make when you watched him with your children? Just the thought of it made him feel like he could be more than who he was.

Three short knocks stole him away from his train of thoughts. He opened his eyes and cleared his throat. “Come in,” he said, sitting upright.

It was Hyukwoo.

“Ready to go?” Hyukwoo asked. Only his upper torso entered Jay’s office as his hand on the doorknob supported his weight.

“Where?” Jay asked back.

“Uh, lunch? It’s past one already,” Hyukwoo replied, chuckling lightly.

Jay lips formed into an ‘o’ and then he nodded. Hyukwoo closed the door, already knowing that Jay would follow him.

He took his phone from the desk and checked his back pocket if his wallet was there. In a matter of few minutes he was swallowed in his thoughts, he hadn’t realized that the rain already fell. He wondered if you were still in the grocery, but if you’re on your way home, he hoped at the very least that you brought an umbrella.

The queues in the counters were longer than usual.

Then again, it’s probably because, like you, these people exhausted their foods; it just happened that you’re all here at the same time. The supermarket in the mall and its counters here were always full of people. When it was your turn, you breathed in relief. “Finally,” you mumbled to yourself, smiling as if you won the lottery.

The cashier gave you a formal smile, the ones you knew they were instructed to give to every customer, while you placed the contents of your shopping cart on the counter and she ran their bar codes, a beep coming after every item. She told you the total amount and you paid her in cash.

You pushed your cart, where your shopping bags sat, out of the supermarket and into the nearest Japanese restaurant. Since you lined behind that middle-aged couple, your stomach began to rumble, begging you to fill it in. There were more restaurants in the mall, but you had a cart to push around and you couldn’t be bothered to be so choosy when you’re starving to the point of feeling like everything was edible.

“Excuse me, but can you please make sure everything is still here after I order?” You asked the welcoming staff outside the restaurant.

“Of course, ma’am,” he said.

“Yay! Thank you!”

You ordered a bowl of ramen, one large size of iced tea and a blueberry cheesecake for desert, and then headed back outside where you chose to sit on one of the tables beside the glass wall of the restaurant.

“Hey did you hear? AOMG is here at the mall. People saw them on the second level!” A girl chatted to her friend as they passed by you.

“How about Simon D?”

“I don’t know. But Loco is there. You like him too right?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh? Oh well, as long as they don’t see me,” you thought to yourself. Your order came several minutes later, and not ten minutes had passed when you finished everything.

Only they did see you. One of them first; the rest followed.

You were pushing your cart on your way to the main doors of the mall, when you felt a hand on your shoulder. “J-Jay?” You spluttered as you turned around.

“No one else,” he said. He glanced at your cart and the brown paper bags filled with your recent groceries, and laughed before he could think about it.

“What’s so funny?” You puckered your eyebrows.

“I’m sorry. I just remembered... anyway, it’s raining. Are you going home already?”

You nodded. “I’ll take a cab. Are you sure you should be here talking to me? You could’ve called me just to remind you.”

“Why not? We’re just talking.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Have you eaten already?”

“Ramen.”

“Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

“Aren’t you with your friends?”

“I am, but how do you know? Stalking me?”

“Funny. Some of your fans wouldn’t stop talking about it, and,” you nodded your head at a direction from behind Jay and waved lightly, “they’re behind you.”

Jay turned around just as Hyukwoo and Jukyung walked up to the both of you, each with wide smiles and rather excited looks on their faces.

“H-hi!” You greeted them and gave each a quick hug. “How are you guys?”

“Wow! You’re back!” Jukyung exclaimed.

“I guess I am.”

Jukyung squinted at you and you did the same, until both of you cracked into laughter. Back then you usually did this with him. Neither of you could really remember how it started, but seeing that this had not changed the nervousness you felt slowly eased.

“How long have you been here?” Hyukwoo asked.

“Almost two months now. You look great Hyukwoo,” you said, nodding in agreement at the improvement of his style since you had last seen him in person.

“Not better than you,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But do I really?”

“Absolutely!” You raised your thumb at him.

“Alright!” His reserved demeanour vanished as he flattened his palm on air and you clapped it.

Unbeknownst to the three of you, Jay felt strangely annoyed at the brisk interaction going on in front of him, because as far as he could remember you were not this happy when you saw him. It’s like you were a completely different person. Pursing his lips, he hung an arm over the side of your cart.

“I’d really want to talk to you more, but I have to go home,” you told them. Through the corner of your eyes you quickly glanced at Jay.

“You should drop by the office some time or give us a call when you’re free so we can catch up,” Jukyung said.

“I will,” you said.

“You’re not telling me you’re going to carry all of these up to the waiting line?” Jay asked, nodding at your shopping bags.

“Don’t be silly. They allow the carts up to that point,” you told him.

“But all by yourself.”

“That’s my plan.”

“I—we can drive you to your home.” Jay turned to Hyukwoo and Jukyung. He almost slipped there. “Right?”

They nodded.

“No, but thank you for the offer. I can do this much and a lot actually just by myself,” you said.

“Fine,” Jay muttered under his breath.

“Jay...”

“What?”

“It was nice seeing all of you again.”

Certain that they would see you off than the other way around, you waved at them and then turned to your original direction, towards the main exit door, and pushed your cart. Unlike the queue in the supermarket, this one on the waiting line for the cabs was short. A group of four office ladies in their business attires, probably heading back to their office, and then you with no one in behind.

Your phone’s message ringtone reverberated from inside your bag.

Call me if you need help, Jay texted you.

Smiling to yourself, your fingers typed in your reply.

Not today.

Jay liked to think that he was not the type to be impulsive.

Sure he had his share of doing things in the spur-of-the-moment, but most times he carefully thought of the effects of his actions. This time was both of it. For so long he had been waiting for the right timing, the perfect opportunity, to tell his friends about your children. And yesterday, when you met Jukyung and Hyukwoo, and had that familiar tone of conversation, he knew it was what he was waiting for.

Today was a typical lazy day for AOMG. After consecutive days and nights of performing, some of them, including him, were finally given a much needed rest day. His two companions yesterday were among with him plus Sunghwa, who came out of his studio after finishing a song he produced for an artist of a different crew.

Sluggishly sitting on a sofa beside Hyukwoo, he scrolled through his photos. A few steps away, leaning on the wall with a beer can on his grasp, Sunghwa spouted his overworked jokes. Usually he would seek out Kiseok as his fan because the older man laughed at them. Jay often mused that it’s probably because their sense of humor were on same levels.

“Make him stop,” Jukyung puffed, plopping on the couch across Jay. He was forced to listen to Sunghwa, because no one else would, and Jukyung pitied him. He had been cooped in his studio for too long, requesting no one disturbed him until he completed the music, and now that he’s done he just wanted to see real people.

“Unfortunately our Ssam D is feeling under the weather. He has to perform tonight though,” Jay said, looking up from the screen of his phone.

“They say laughter is the best medicine,” Sunghwa said, a corner of his lips twitching, stopping himself from smiling at his knack.

“Not today,” Jay said. A smile spread on his lips then as he remembered the same words appear on his screen from your message. He clicked a thumbnail of a photo. You were carrying Suri and holding Jaeyoung’s hand, standing beside you. Thin trees, a metre apart from each other, stood behind you and striped the gray outline of the city below. He took it during your trip.

“Is that...?” Hyukwoo asked, inching closer to Jay so he could look at the photo.

Jay nodded. He needed to remain calm.

“Are they...” His questions that took long to finish captured the attention of the other guys. They walked towards him and Jay and asked to see the photo.

“No way! Are they her children?” Jukyung gasped. “But you know I feel like I’ve seen the little boy before. I just can’t remember when.”

“Oh, so she’s married then?” Sunghwa asked, standing behind Jay.

“No, she’s not married,” Jay said.

“Eh? How do you know?” Hyukwoo asked.

“We already met before yesterday,” Jay answered. This slow progress of the conversation almost drove him insane. He both wanted to laugh and cry all because they none of them asked the right question.

“I really think that his face is familiar...” Jukyung murmured, drumming his fingers on his chin as he sat his arm on his thigh. He closed his eyes, deep in thought.

Jay sighed. “He looks like me.”

“Yeah! You’re right! He does look like you!” Jukyung exclaimed, shaking a fist in the air.

“Now that you mention it,” Sunghwa muttered. His eyes shifted from Jaeyoung’s face to Jay’s face and back and forth, studying both features.

Hyukwoo nodded evenly.

“Of course,” Jay massaged his cheeks, “I’m his father after all. They’re twins, just so you know.”

[lostinkoreantranslations]

So...?

Will I use romanization in my notes/vocab?

For the most part, nope. There’s no single universal standard for romanization; so how I might romanize something might be completely different from how someone else might do it (especially since I speak irl with a slight southern accent).

On top of that, using romanization actually hinders learning. If you look at pictures of Korean signs or watch Korean variety shows, you’ll see there’s no romanization at all. There’s only 한글. So what’s the point of learning a language if you’re not going to use its alphabet system? SPOILER ALERT: There is none really. Plus, when you read romanization, you’re reading it in your native accent (so for me, my pronunciation would have a bit of a drawl to it) and that prevents you from developing a Korean accent which will make you easier to be understood by native speakers.

So as long as you’re on this journey with me, you’re just gonna have to get used to reading 한글 as is. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure to link you to pronunciation guides as often as I can.

How do I take notes?

Okay so there’s a general two part system I use:

Graph paper for vocab

Using the graph paper for vocabulary lists helps me see the words syllable by syllable AND it helps me practice fitting my characters into little boxes so I get used to writing the script. MY vocab lists are likely gonna have little mistakes on them since that’s where I practice my handwriting, but I’ll always make sure that my mistakes are still legible enough or I’ll type out what I flubbed up in my explanation. And if you still can’t understand what I wrote, just shoot me an ask and I’ll let you know!

Lined paper for notes

Lined paper provides a cleaner space for me to write and to be able to quickly understand what I wrote. It also gives me a chance to see how I write 한글 without little boxes breaking up my words.

For note taking, I like to use a modified essay outline. So I write the main topic next to the Roman numeral and then work my way down into specifics. I find it’s easy for me to really learn something that way since I’m grouping similar things together. It’s also just a really simple system to use. (I use it in school for ALL my classes.)

I color code/switch colors A LOT since having contrasting colors makes things pop out not to mention it makes my notes look pretty and I like looking at pretty things *stares at biases*. Plus switching colors actually means I have to spend time writing things out so I don’t confuse myself later on when I read over my notes; and spending more time on my notes means I’m spending more time working with the material and learning it. Now of course you don’t have to use colors as much as I do, but I do highly recommend it.

Will my posts be queued?

For the most part, yes. However, I’ll often be on my blog when the posts are set to be queued just in case something goes wrong so I can fix it quickly. So if you see a queue tag, don’t assume I’m not here and therefore you can’t ask me a question or comment on something. You can shoot me a message/ask any time of the day & I’ll respond to it pretty quickly (unless it requires a lotta thought & research, then you just gotta be patient with me)!

Will my notes be pretty/aesthetically pleasing?

To put it simply, nope. I am not a super artistic person (aka, I can't draw for 💩) so I don't even know where to begin to make my notes super Aesthetic™. Also, I'm such a perfectionist that I know it would take me more time to perfectly decorate my notes than it would to actually take them and learn them. Additionally, and this is my own personal opinion, I find it kind of disheartening to look at some of these really Aesthetic™ notes that circulate around Tumblr because I know I could never really be able to accomplish that. Yes, I know there's tutorials and whatnot on how to make your notes ~*pretty*~, but I started this blog to be a reinforcing way to help me stay on track with my learning and be an accessible source for anyone else who wanted to learn. And part of that accessibility is having really standard and easy to read notes where you all can see the material and not get distracted by extra stuff like doodles and pastel calligraphy (because honestly, that would distract me so much and I would never get anything done). The most I do is switch ink colors, but that's to help me learn new concepts/words and focus on key points of the lesson.

That being said, I am totally not against aesthetically pleasing/~*pretty*~ notes; so if making your notes look fresh outta studyblr heaven is how you learn/what you like, then by all means please do it! Additionally, like most other studyblr owners, I am addicted to really pretty stationery so if you know any good supplies, please lemme know so I can ogle over them and fail to convince myself I don't need any more journals pens.