#very early valentines

[lonicera-caprifolium]

can I interest you in some conversation hearts? 💗💗💗

[littlewitchbee]

Es war ein Traum

[rosesofenvy]

Over the Years Kendra

Burn It Down: Chapter 3

Collab with @xinrouska

[scaredstupid]

(james a. janisse voice) aww, that's nice!

[sarxzu]

Early 80's moments ♡ ↳ previous part

[marlynnofmany]

Courtship Behaviors

(Happy early Valentine’s Day! I wrote this to share with some specific writer friends. It’s short. Enjoy.)

~~~

The space station marketplace was bustling with crowds and conversation, but when a voice spoke from behind me, I was pretty sure the question was for me.

“Can I ask you something?” said the nervous voice.

I turned to see a feathery alien of a species I hadn’t met yet, looking like a flustered eagle — or no, more like a secretary bird. Those were the long-legged ones that kicked snakes, right? This one had shiny white feathers with a pearlescent shimmer, and some very anxious body language.

“Sure,” I said, prepared for anything. Was this a question about the courier ship I’d come in on? A question about Earthlings? Something for me specifically?

Option B.

“Do humans do mating dances?” the bird asked in a rush.

“Uh, sort of,” I said, thinking quickly. “We have dances with a lot of people together, and courting couples might use it as an excuse to show off or get close to one another.”

“But not individual dances?” the bird asked, fidgeting with clawed hands. Those claws were painted with what looked like human nail polish. Awfully similar to the color my cousin was fond of, called “Pinking Of You.”

“Maybe sometimes,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

Pearl-white feathers ruffled into an endearing puffball. “My advances are being ignored,” the alien admitted. “I’m starting to doubt whether my human even realizes. We’ve been working together for many cycles now, and I like to think we know each other well, but…” The alien drifted off into a plaintive chirp.

“Has the human done anything that looked like courtship gestures to you?” I asked.

“Maybe? I don’t know? I thought the food-sharing was just kindness, but it’s become a regular thing, and surely asking to wear one of my shed feathers as a decoration is significant, right? I don’t know anymore.”

“Wait,” I said. “Is this the human with blue hair that I just saw over that way? The one buying a feather-care kit and a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant?”

The birdlike alien stilled, feathers smoothing out. “Heart-shaped?”

“Like this,” I said, tracing the shape in the air. “It’s a sign of love.”

“It is??” Feathers fluttered everywhere as the alien hopped in place. “Is that why — I had no idea!”

“Go talk to your human,” I said. “Maybe you can eat food and go dancing together.”

“I will! Thank you!” The bird pranced off, jumping to see over the crowd like an excited teenager.

I thought about calling out directions to the nearest dance club, since this space station had some great ones, but it occurred to me that the human probably knew. And they could find out together.

~~~

Ongoing backstory adventures of the main character in this book. Very long and storied adventures.

[worldsewage]

saint and shank and valentine lore? Please? I am looking up at you with the biggest eyes... Are any of them friends with Callie? Is she getting socialized?

Answers (some vague some not) to this under the cut :]

There’s also Octarian + Inkling head cannons sprinkled in here if that interests you!

⚠️ Saint + Shank:

Saint was raised as a Salmonid, how they got so far separated from their family is a mystery, but they got picked up by a family of Salmonids, who live in one of the wastelands, and due to rising and falling waters in a territory that’s mostly like a long stretch of tide pools… lots of random salmonid eggs wash up. Saint was found with one in their hands.

Saint (though raised by Salmonids, biologically,) is assumed to be born from a race of Krakened Inklings, who have developed more squid like “ancestral” traits, so Saint has some non-common Inkling characteristics. Such as rotating hook-like claws on their tentacles, and hook like claws on their hands and feet. They have small sharp teeth, and behind these cat-like teeth, a much larger mostly retractable beak. (Not relevant, but Pearl also has this trait.)

Saint, when they were younger, was often seen bundled up in a bunch of hazard gear, as a result of their salmon brothers being exceptionally worried about the water harming them. While still vulnerable to water— life in the wasteland has adjusted them to water, they are NOT splat proof, but they’re much better at navigating chaotic water-wastes grounds effectively, silently, quickly, and most importantly: safely.

^ Despite this, Saint is deeply afraid of water, and all things considered, life here has most likely stunted their growth and development due to water’s damage (high humidity, even) to Inkling skin.

Saint has a swim form, but doesn’t like transforming, it’s a clunky and slow process for them. Saint is also pretty poor at managing retaining ink naturally, and can only absorb ink via naturally letting it into their skin, as opposed to drinking it in like other Inklings, they are also a little shoddy at changing their color at will.

Saint’s family is quite large, they live with a bunch of their family in a very small house, they get by, and their family adores them to bits.

Shank’s still young, due to how salmonids develop, their first few years of their life aren’t very comparable to how inkling babies develop, (ie needing constant care + attention , like human babies!) but rather Shank is still in a running form, which baby salmonids cling onto, as they’re still running on the power of the egg they hatched from, still don’t have legs, and are in a swimming form designed to cross the ocean + rigorous conditions, so Shank’s ability to learn + grow hasn’t fully kicked in yet.

Shank can still identify what’s good, bad, etc, but more like how an actual fish or reptile identifies a threat, rather than a result of analyzing morality. Chances are everything they learn in this stage of life will be mostly forgotten as they begin to grow limbs and begin a new stage of development. (After the events of Return of the Mammalians, they will not remember much of it, even if only a year after. Threats + Tastes are forever wired into her system, though.)

Shank knows Saint is family, Shank likes Marie. Shank dislikes Callie.

Shank is a rare salmonid variant, as they’re one of the few species that are born from a COMPLETE Homerun, rather than a grizzco harvested egg. These babies are extremely rare, as very few Homerun grounds remain.

Shank likes the taste of Jam. And enjoys small puzzles. This is probably a result of wanting to feel included while watching Saint modify tech, it’s out of her range of understanding, so small puzzles make Shank feel like they’re involved in the process… somehow.

⚠️ Valentine:

Agent 8 was a child of a military program, they were not raised by parents due to a high maternal mortality rate among the Octarian Society as a result of their evolution not straying far from their Octopus ancestor’s strange behaviors. (Inkling’s developed in an opposite direction, and are much more ink-reliant than their more hardy thick-skinned Octopus counterparts) it’s common for Octarian children to be sent to Octo-Troopers who (through a similar process to the Salmonid’s “egg sorting system”) raise them in a state militant organization. Agent 8 was forced into a military school programs, and was housed with numerous other Octolings. Not all were orphaned, most Octolings are encouraged to go into Militray schools that allow them to graduate with a trade from the get-go, this is mostly because Military service is required of Octarians, so it’s common to send children into these schools to get it out of the way.

Valentine practiced with weapons (namely, best with chargers) from a very young age. But school children were never forced into combat. Just prepped.

Agent 8, despite the skill they had with weapon use, found their passion in auto mechanics and robotics repair… Valentine fantasizes about one day owning a retro Computer.

During the development of Santization, 8 found themself in the metro after trying to escape the army during the rebellious strike founded in many Octolings during the singing of the Inkantation… many Octarian in the metro seem to be either Low Ranking troops— or Octolings who’ve gone AWOL. Valentine, of course, has no memory of this.

Unlike in Canon, Craig Cuttlefish wakes up in the Metro after their radios kept picking up a strange warped signal, it sounded like discordant screaming; or singing? But it came from beneath AC TOKYO which is a new Salmonid society, and to Craig: where there’s Salmonids there’s OCTARIANS, and he’s old, but stubborn when it comes to the Octarian since the war.

⚠️ Callie:

The Squid Sisters, wholly, aren’t very social creatures due to being raised as agents and then pursuing Idol work in their free time. They have no idea how a normal HONEST conversation is intended to function; and mostly rely on quips and answers learned solely from public showings, they are very rarely honest with their true (or, uglier) emotions and very rarely crack.

Sometimes; when you catch their eye, for a moment you’re met with a blank look, a hollow vague distaste, before the Callie and Marie you’ve seen on TV flicker into existence on their faces.

Callie, though, feels most comfortable around Agent 3 — (July 3) and has really began to lighten up (beyond an Idol farce) and has become more comfortable overall.

Don’t get her wrong, she loves her life in an Idol setting, and it doesn’t exhaust her, per se, it just isn’t who she is ALL the time, and it can wear her down, even if you can’t tell.

After the events with MUD, Callie— to everyone’s shock — has actually grown far more confident and sympathetic of the other surrounding brother species, trying to unlearn the teachings of Craig Cuttlefish takes time; and Callie can’t help but feel a faint bitterness or hatred towards him for it, but overall puts effort in pushing her emotions towards a nameless hope. Hell, that’s what’s the Inkantation is for, right?!?

Though, on the topic of MUD, it makes her feel restless at times, even though it’s been worked out of her system, it seems that her instincts have been slightly fried, her metabolism and diet has changed slightly, her overly sugary drinks now leave a weird gross taste in her mouth, it makes her a little sad; but she’ll adjust.

Agent 4 unnerves her slightly, for reasons she can’t fully remember, and Marie doesn’t talk much about the rescue missions.

She hasn’t made many public appearances since MUD, mostly due to some rumors of seeing her, and she was waiting for the heat to die down on speculation of an Octarian attack. On the note of appearances, Callie hasn’t made any attempt to try and treat the scar, or cover it; she thinks it makes her look gnarly. July desperately tries to get her to put scar cream on the injury so it doesn’t itch or burn, but Callie is committed to having a Cool Scar.

After all the events: Callie has learned that she loves to collab with other artists, and Marie has started a Solo Career, and Callie has left (mostly) the singing field completely to focus on Octarian / Inkling relations. Callie still sings with other artists who she admires, but has no plans on creating anything of her own.

Callie stays sharp with Agent work— mostly trying to step away from Craig Cuttlefish’s previous ideals, and step into her OWN ideas and dreams. Craig, despite the learning curve, does all he can to help Callie on her missions.

Relations between these three are summarized as:

Callie ( and Marie, to an extent ) see Neo 3 as the child they are, and unfortunately sees herself in Neo 3 in the sense of “forced into warring politics of events too young to completely comprehend.” Seeing Neo 3 as the Agent 1 she became when she was young. She tends to baby Neo 3 at times, but has ultimately become an Older Sister figure to them.

(Note: I still like to envision Neo 3’s mission as a pretty rough one, as opposed to Agent 3/4’s mission, Agent 8’s was also pretty threatening— but Saint’s was on a (literal) whole nother world.)

Neo 3 has seen Callie on T-Shirts, and broken billboards, and knows she’s famous, to some extent, they don’t completely know she’s an Idol until they get a tad closer. They like her because she tends to spoil them with sugary foods.

Callie adores Valentine; Callie THINKS she admires her solely thanks to the Calimari Inkantation, Callie thinks she sees her as a figure of hope for deserters of the Octarian Army.

Valentine though, does not— Valentine remembers her as the Mud-Infected Callie, and is too shy to fangirl completely, and generally is pretty cold as a result… they have a lot of respect for Callie and Marie because of how adept they are with weaponry.

Callie sometimes fears that Agent 8 doesn’t like her because of their rigid icy personality… but is friendly nonetheless. They warm up. (Rather, thaw out.)

Callie thinks agent 8 is a tad strange, namely due to the fact they bite the leaves of the plants in her house. (She does nothing about this)

[derrygirlstrash]

Not to start shit, if you know me you know I'm a "ship and let ship" kinda gal and saying this I truly have no problem with James/Orla as a ship it harms no one and plenty of people like it, I like people having fun... that said...

I have never understood the common argument that James/Erin as a ship makes no sense and James/Orla should have been the ship instead. Often one of the arguments is that James/Erin wasn't set up while James/Orla was and I'm sorry... what? James/Erin have at least one ship heavy episode each season as well as plenty of background moments and several significant moments in Erin's Diary.

Even if you ignore all the background moments of the two holding hands, being inside each others personal space, the times where they're clearly matching and whatnot. There is at LEAST the implication that Erin would ignore her supposed crush for James, that she cares what he thinks, that Erin is James's type, that they're aligned in creative values and match each others energies, that Erin thinks he's handsome, that James thinks she's beautiful, that she can't imagine her life without him, etc.

James/Orla have some touchy moments... that's kinda all they have as far as romantic coding and I don't see how those two hugging in the Season 2 finale is somehow more significant than what setup James/Erin have throughout all the seasons.

Honestly, while I can see Orla liking James - you could build a case for it and convince me even though I see Orla as ace/aro in my own personal headcanons... no one has ever been able to give me a convincing argument for James liking Orla back. It kinda feels like you have to ignore that he never has a reason to fancy Orla back and just project onto him that.

Which, again, go off if that's your bag I think their friendship is fun and I could see making a ship out of it, but the common argument is that the SHOW makes a better case for James/Orla and like, no? No it really doesn't? It's just not main girl/main boy and some people really don't like that trope or Erin as a main and I think that if you say the show didn't set up James/Erin well and you argue the show would have been better with James/Orla based on what's in the show, you just might not like Erin very much?

I've also never been able to make sense of the argument that James/Erin is somehow the trope that 'guys and girls can't just be friends' like, is that not also James/Orla? Y'know, besides that Orla isn't a girl. They do use she/her during the show time period though and some people who argue this think Orla is a girl, they just think they're not THE girl. So somehow it's better even though it's the same thing.

Basically what I'm saying is that shipping is fun and we all oughta do it. Every ship besides the obvious ones is potentially fun and I'm down for it, but there is one ship the show was setting up and we all know what that ship was and I think it would be better if we all were honest about it.

PS: "James was gay the whole time!" Truthers, if you made it through this post somehow I'd like to offer a compromise: James Maguire is the most bisexual coded male character in media history we can all win here.

[sugarsweetvirgo]

White day

[fieryphrazes]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: MASH (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: B. J. Hunnicutt/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce Characters: B. J. Hunnicutt, Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, emphasis on the fluff, Insomnia, Mental Health Issues, Sleeping Together, Protective B. J. Hunnicutt Summary:

“Where do you go?” BJ asked quietly, sounding like he didn’t expect an answer. Hawkeye sighed and burrowed back into BJ, into the steady warmth and softness of him. “I love you,” Hawkeye finally said, hoping it made up for everything else that came along with him.

It's 3 a.m., and Hawkeye can't sleep.

[hiis-theme]

somewhere out there is an alternate timeline where toby was correct and people actually did hate spamton. could you imagine that. i have to imagine we wouldn't have gotten the spamton sweepstakes in that case which is crazy to think about given how much lore that gave us-

[jimmyspades]

"You look pretty in pink." JAMES SPADER as Alan Shore in BOSTON LEGAL (2004-2008) 🩷

[ghostlylicious]

gotta thank my english teacher for getting me into cyrano de bergerac . also might redesign christian

(theyre free to use js credit me hsjgd)

[pricemarshfield]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

thank you for the ask, neutral!! time to show my deeply multifandom roots and not have any of these share the same fandom 🫡 below the cut because i’m chatty as hell

number one on the list is a recent one but absolutely my all-time favorite thing i’ve ever written: talk, a bg3/raphtav-and-also-haarlep-is-there smut oneshot

i don’t use this tweet here because it’s smut, but because no fic has EVER gripped me by the brain and haunted me for months until i wrote it like this one did and also because the devil’s hot. i laid awake at night in a cold sweat thinking about this even before i’d finished house of hope for the first time. i’m not even being hyperbolic here, this fic GOT me. also this fic converted me from haarlep-neutral to haarlep’s personal cheerleader. they’re so fun

my beloved darling tav already had a very strong characterization to me but i still feel like i Learned her through writing this, and certainly learned a lot about her dynamics with raphael and haarlep. enough that i’m braving actually writing a longfic for them, and feel free to hold me to this because otherwise it’ll languish in my drafts for another six months. but i’m actually formatting the first chapter for ao3, it’s Genuinely almost done !! promise

fun story about this is i cheerfully told my mom i’d finished writing something after i posted this and she asked to read it. i was like haha. well i’ll do that after work! and then i didn’t ♥️

-

number two on the list is what i’d have confidently said was the best thing i’ve ever writtennbefore talk, and that’s one of my dimension 20 big bang 2021 fics: plant a garden in the yard, then, a fantasy high/aelwyn & ayda friendship fic where they explore the deeply haunted tunnels beneath aelwyn’s deeply haunted house

it’s hard to overstate how personal this fic ended up being to me, enough that i hold it as close to my heart as my other d21bb fic which i wrote about grief while Actively grieving. both fics for that event ended up being a good deal more melancholic and introspective than i thought they would at the start, but this one Feels more intimate (for lack of a better word)

aelwyn & ayda are both characters that mean a lot to me on their own, and figuring out their friendship—prickly and uncomfortable as it starts—was honestly healing. there’s something really cathartic about writing a character who’s gone through such extraordinary circumstances in their canon finding a path Towards genuine connection and happiness, even if they don’t find it and Especially if things still aren’t perfect.

also the only time i’ve ever actually hit ao3’s comment length limit was on a reply to an absolutely lovely comment my friend shark left on it so :) the response to this fic was also really nice!

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number three on the list is my queen b magnum opus even though i have one that’s like 8 times longer than it: teeth, the book 1 mc/poppy romance i craved/theoretically a smut oneshot that became something more.

this is a remix of another fic i wrote, so it feels weird to prop it up higher than the original, but i’m just so fond of this one. queen b is a very silly game and poppy min-sinclair can be a VERY silly character but my bea for this fic is another oc i grew deeply attached to, and i think the sheer self-indulgence of the fic shines through, in a good way.

also, i think the characterization in this is strong enough that i’ve been able to recommend it to friends with better taste who haven’t played queen b, and they’ve still enjoyed it! which is just IMMENSELY validating as a writer :’)

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number four and five on the list are my niche oneshots which i wrote for a target audience of me, myself, and i, and i think that’s part of why they work as well as they do!

four is a session with dr. martin whitly, a prodigal son fic which focused on ainsley & martin, namely ainsley relying really heavily on her father, despite the fact he’s a serial killer that she Knows he’s manipulative and terrible.

the fact that i wrote this before the season 1 finale is astounding to me. i have never called characterization beats harder than this, and i feel comfortable saying that even though the actual plot points are quite different, and also even though ainsley isn’t canonically gay. that’s okay because i know and perceive the truth <3

prodigal son’s cancellation is something i’m hard-pressed to say i’m Upset about this far out, but i wish every day that the episode where some ainsley issues got addressed had lived to see the light of day.

this fic i Cannot recommend to people who haven’t watched prodigal son because it’s me extrapolating and picking at lines of dialogue that Suggest a lot without confirming much, but that’s also really fun, in its own way. some of the best fics i’ve ever read are enjoyable specifically as transformative media.

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five is walk with the devil, a the martian/ares3some noir au which was honestly 90% a style experiment but like i fucking nailed it?? there was a stretch of a couple years where some of my best work were from smashing together whatever pairing i wanted to write with a bunch of prompts and seeing what i could make from it (werewolf au caitvi was also one, and a runner-up on this list)

this fic has a lot of hallmarks that i know people aren’t usually a fan of, but i love it. non-linear narrative. major character death but also maybe not, you won’t get closure and neither will the characters. actively avoiding concrete details in favor of a strong, hopeless tone. bringing in a ton of the cast for no reason. LOTS of 1940s slang. and because of that it’s my baby. weirdly i feel like my johanssen characterization is better in this than in either of my two canonverse fics?

i don’t know that i’d write fic for the martian like this again—a lot of what i like about it is really different from the more transformative fandom approach for the things that compel me to write—but i’m glad i did, because this fic is my darling. more people should be experimental in their fics because some of the weirdest stuff will almost always be some of the best !!!

anyway answering this made me so very hyped to write more once i’m off work !!!

[berrybarry]

Just a normal Valentine’s Day card

[changeling-fae]

Since the upgrade to FO4 is happening soon, here are my old moodboards.

Nick Valentine’s moodboard was actually my very first moodboard I ever made.

For ocs, we have:

Shelly Quirke - retired cat burglar

Bonnie Hart - retired nightclub singer

Sadie Starr - retired mechanic from Nuka-World

Alice Winter - Eddie Winter’s estranged daughter