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Yet Another Package Editor
Download the latest version here
YaPe is a modern package editor for DBPF (.package) files
Features:
Edit any package - FAST
List and edit resources in a package
Filter resources by type
Easy editors for several resource types
Supports opening ANY DBPF-coded .package, .dat, or .sc4 file
Easily reduce texture size, add/remove/recreate mipmaps, change texture format
Import textures by dragging, export DDS
Native on Windows and Linux
Why make yet another package editor?
Simply said, because SimPe can be kind of cumbersome especially on Linux, and package editors other than SimPe (s3pe, s4pe, iLive's Reader etc.) do not support Sims 2 resources.
To illustrate, I timed someone shrinking a texture (convert RawARGB32 -> DXT1, shrink 2x) in both SimPe and YaPe:
SimPe + GIMP: 1m 30s
YaPe: 10s
Originally this started as just a way to easily test if my DBPF library was doing the correct thing, but over time it has grown to become a half-decent editor suitable for more general use.
Tutorial / usage tips
Here I will explain how to shrink and convert textures in YaPe because that's what I imagine most people will use this program for right now, but of course you can use it for other things as well.
Let's get started by getting the program to look the way you want to: use the options in the top left to change the scale of the interface and switch between dark and light mode.
Now drag a package file into the program (don't worry about closing the sims except when you save the package), a list of resources in the package will be visible. You can find out what the abbreviations mean by hovering your mouse over them; in general I try to add tooltips like this to buttons or options that are unclear.
Don't be afraid to mess around and make changes! The changes you make are never saved unless you press the save button, so if you simply drag your package file into YaPe again without saving you will get your original package back (there is currently no undo function, but it is a planned feature).
All these resources are great, but we're only interested in the textures for this tutorial so let's set a filter. Right click on a texture (TXTR) and select "Filter on type".
Great! Now you can only see the textures we're interested in. You can disable this filter by unticking the "filter" option at the top.
Now click on the "TXTR" to open the texture, it will open a new tab in the lower half of the window by default. If your window is not very big (like mine is for this tutorial) you might have trouble seeing the texture and all the options. You can drag the tab around and put it somewhere else in the program, I'm going to put it on the right and make it a little bigger so we can see what's going on.
Okay, now we can see all the options, and well... there's a bunch of them. We'll go over some of the options that you'll likely want to use but feel free to experiment of course.
First, let's have a look at the texture viewer at the bottom: you can zoom in on the texture by holding control and scrolling, and you can change which mipmap is displayed by clicking the radio buttons above the texture.
But wait, this texture does not have enough mipmaps to show up in game! (post by @pforestsims) Let's fix that right this instant by clicking the "Add missing mipmaps" button in the middle.
Okay, now the mipmaps will show up in game, which is good... except that this mipmap is really blurry. (post by me) Luckily we can fix this really easily, just click the "Recalculate all mipmaps" button.
Much better!... except that we've created a new hidden problem: the leaves will disappear when zooming out in game (blog by lisyarus) but even this problem can be fixed. We can actually preview what the texture will look like when zoomed out by switching the format to DXT1 since DXT1 has binary transparency, just like alpha tested textures like leaves and grass.
Right, so the leaves have a bunch of holes that don't look right when zooming out, let's change that. Above the "Add missing mipmaps" button there is the "Preserve transparency" slider: try changing it to something like 120-170 and click "Recalculate all mipmaps", you can see that the transparency changes, if it's still too thin/transparent set the value higher and recalculate again and so on.
Have a look at all the mipmaps (zoom levels) and once you're satisfied with the transparency change the format back to DXT5.
This texture will now look great in game! But it is also quite large, so we can reduce the size 2x smaller without sacrificing very much in terms of looks (sorry to all the cc authors who love their large textures). Click the "Remove largest texture" button, which will make it so that the first mipmap becomes the largest texture effectively reducing the size by 2x. Like mentioned it does use the first mipmap so make sure to fix any blurry mipmaps first.
You can repeat the same process for the other textures in the package, and then we're done. Save the package by clicking the save button in the top bar, and have a look in game at your beautiful textures.
Another option is to drag images/textures you've made somewhere else into the program (with special support for dds files), for a full lists of supported image formats you can look here. (image-rs documentation) The image/texture will currently go into the firsts open texture resource tab because of UI framework limitations.
Here's a look at some of the other editor currently implemented:
Enjoy :)
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Ruined vacation (what’s new)

Leon Kennedy x fem! Reader
a/n
Hello everyone ! This is my first post AND the first short fic I’m writing, this is extremely nerve wrecking to actually post but I’ll give it a try, this is kind of short and I’m aware this lacks a lot of work still but I’m fairly new so, please bear with me !! This was written thanks to my friend mil who gave me the inspiration because of an edit (ily mil) but anyway I hope this is still enjoyable, love u all!!
no TW’s this is all fluff. (except toward the end if you squint.)

The warm August breeze was blowing in your let down hair, the wind allowing you to take a deep breath of it through your nose as you admired the view of the sea a few meters away from you.
You were wearing a light yellow sundress with small flower patterns on it, accompanied by a pair of white kitten heels; more comfortable for long walks, as you walked down the busy streets of San Francisco. The thin material of the dress fitting perfectly for this type of weather, allowing you to not literally sweat your ass off.
You had been able to take a few days off from work, and since it was pretty rare, you decided to leave Los Angeles for a bit, leaving the city alone considering most of your friends were on vacation with their lovers. Lovers. Oh how you hated lovers. They were everywhere, showing acts of love to each other. Disgusting. You knew envy was bad, because that’s what it was, envy. A sin, it was. But could anyone really blame you?
Putting that thought aside, there was something nice about traveling alone, maybe the peace of it ? No one there to stress you out as you packed your bags, you only had to worry about yourself, that was more than enough work already. Other nice things about it were that you could visit whatever you wanted, choosing restaurants freely without having anyone talking your ears off about going places you couldn’t give enough fucks to care about.
You walked down the busy streets, your heels softly clicking against the concrete as you occasionally looked at people or cars passing you by.
You were headed to a cafe, you decided to sit down and read a nice book on a terrace, that sounded nice. You were about to round a corner when a shoulder bumped rather harshly into yours by someone going the opposite way, obviously. You turned around to see who had bumped into you, ready to complain about it when your eyes met familiar ones, who looked just as alarmed, before they widened with equal surprise.
“Leon?” You blurted out, clearly not expecting him of all people here, in san Fransisco, unless he had a last minute mission.
You were a receptionist at the agency he worked at, you always a little crush on the man and never dared to ask him out, even if he stopped quite frequently at the front desk, making awkward small talk while you mostly ogled at him. Leon was nice, you had heard by other people they he had been through fucked up shit and that he was only recently getting better.
He said your name in equal surprise, a smile spreading over his handsome features, almost reaching his eyes, not quite.
“What are you, I mean I didn’t expect to see you here.” You said, briefly scanning over his clothes. He was wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and his usual dark blue leather jacket and you wondered how the fuck was he not sweating in this.
He chuckled slightly, the sound going straight to your heart, making it beat faster.
“Yeah. I’m on vacation, finally.” He said, sounding fully relaxed for once. I agreed with him, really, agents like him worked a lot, they were always needed somewhere and Leon was considered one of the best. I mean, he did save the presidents daughter back then… You saw him scan over your outfit briefly, making you almost self conscious, wondering if your outfit now looked ridiculous, knowing damn well you were confident when you picked it out this morning.
“Looks like you’re on vacation too, then ?” His voice suddenly brought you out of your reverie, you nodded, voicing him that he was right, you saw him look around and then back at you.
“You’re not here with your boyfriend or something?” He asked, sounding strangely interested in his own question. You quickly shook your head, dismissing his question with your hands. “No, I’m here alone. I mean, I don’t even have a boyfriend so..” you said with an awkward laugh. Of course he knew you were single, he would keep that part to himself though.
And you swear you almost saw him smile at your admission.
You decided to tell him you were headed for a coffee and with whatever miraculous courage you had in you, you asked him if he wanted to come along, immediately wanting to slap yourself, but to your surprise he immediately agreed. So you both went to get coffee, the conversation then became less awkward, you guys spent the entire afternoon together, with him taking you back to your hotel towards the evening. Safe to say your book was long forgotten.
You opened the door of your room, suddenly dreading parting, what if you guys would only see each other back at the office, going back to doing awkward small talk ?
You stood at the and a small silent fell between you, making your awkwardness rise, and you could tell he felt it too as he cleared his throat, placing his hands in his jeans pockets.
“So..” he started and your eyes immediately went to his face, meeting his. “I was thinking.. maybe I could take you out to dinner tomorrow night, if you’re still here.” He said and suddenly your face felt hot and your palms turned sweaty. “That would be nice, yeah.” You said with a smile, being asked out by a man as handsome as Leon felt like a privilege, really.
He smiled and pulled out his phone out, handing it to you. You got the hint and, with slightly trembling hands, you grabbed it and typed in your number, handing it back to him.
He smiled again and simply said. “See you tomorrow night then, I’ll pick you up at eight. Don’t forget to lock the door.” You supposed it made sense for him to worry about these things, even outside of a mission. You nodded and replied “alright, see you tomorrow, Leon.”
He grinned and leaned down slightly, delivering a kiss to your cheek, his stubble making you almost shiver as you reddened.
He then leaned back and left with a brief wave to your direction.
You closed the door and locked it as he had asked and pressed your back against it.
Yeah, you were sure you liked him now.
The next day came around pretty quickly and you busied yourself pretty easily, you went back to your room around 6:30, deciding to get ready for the date you had tonight ? Was it even a date ? You decided to not overthink and get to work.
You picked a pretty simple outfit, another sundress, white, a bit more fitted for a date, you picked out a pair of black heels and did your hair and makeup.
Eight arrived by pretty slowly as you paced around your room.
You eventually heard a knock on your door and hurried to open it. He stood there, a warm smile on his ever so gorgeous face, wearing black jeans, a navy button up shirt, and that same leather jacket. Ever the eye candy.
“Hi.” You breathed as you smiled at him, you felt his eyes roam over your form intensely but not disrespectfully.
“You look breathtaking.” He says and you feel like a giddy teenager. You thank him and return him the compliment. He smiles and hand you his arm, which you gladly take and you both make your way downtown to a restaurant he had picked.
The evening goes by smoothly, no awkward conversation, a few flirty comments, wine glasses and stolen glances. If you had known Leon and you would get along well so quickly, you would’ve jumped on the opportunity of asking him out way earlier.
Eventually, he takes you back to your hotel room and you almost want to invite him in, but consider the idea to be a bit too early. Instead, as you stand at your door he sneaks his hand beneath your jaw, pulling you in as he leans down and he delivers a sweet and slow kiss that feels like last forever but way too short to your liking. Before you can return it more passionately, he leans back with that same, beautiful smile, this time it reaches his eyes.
“Goodnight. Lock your door.” He says as a reminder and he steps out of your personal space with one last look back at you and he leaves.
You step into your room and closes the door lightheaded. You can’t help but think about the fact that despite the perfect date, Leon looked alarmed the entire time, like something wasn’t right. He kept looking around you two the entire night.
With that thought, you drift to sleep.
You forget to lock your door that night.
The next morning, you wake up and your thoughts drift back to last night, a dopey smile stretching across your lips as you get out of bed and go to the bathroom to shower.
As you step out of the shower, the sound of the door opening makes your heart drop to your ass. You grip your towel and hurriedly step out of the bathroom, holding your hairbrush as a…weapon I guess.
You’re met with Leon’s back facing you as he closes the door.
“Leon??” You suddenly call out, gripping your towel, more than aware of your attire. He turns to you, not paying attention to how you’re ‘dressed’, simply frowning at you as he reaches behind him and lock your door.
“I told you to lock your room.” He only says.
“I forgot” you notice him locking the door “will you tell me what the hell you’re doing here? Get out !” You say, face red at how embarrassing this whole ordeal is.
“I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”
With that, he walks over the to the curtains, closing them as he looks for your bag, once he finds it, he grabs it and starts gathering your stuff.
“What the fuck is going on Leon” you’re beyond confused and now irritated. You walk over to him, grabbing his shoulder and he suddenly grabs your wrist, a bit too harsh to his liking apparently as he softly ease his hold on you.
“We need to leave. Now. Something is going on here and I can’t have you risking your life.” His eyes are soft but hold a sense of urgency in them.
He slowly lets go of your wrist and trace his hand up your arm.
“Something is going on at Alcatraz prison, it’s coming here and we’re too close to it. I can’t go investigate it knowing something could happen to you.” His words make you both afraid at the situation but ignite an unfamiliar warmth in the pit of your stomach.
“Please, get dressed, I’ll pack your things and get you out of here, I promise.” He says, and as if to seal it, he presses his lips to your forehead.
You don’t know it, but he’s always had a soft spot for you, ever since you arrived in his life. He realised how intense it was when he got hunningan’s call, he didn’t head for the prison, but for your hotel, muting her calls in the process.
You obey his words, turning away from him just as he does, dressing yourself in jeans and a shirt as he finished packing your bag at a crazy speed.
Once this was out of the way, he quickly grabbed your hand and bag, leading you down the stairs of the hotel and outside where you saw his bike parked. You swallowed thickly, you liked bikes, just not particularly being on them. You felt his hand squeezing yours in a reassuring manner as he handed you his helmet.
“What about you?” You asked as he placed the helmet on your head and secured it for you.
“As long as you’re safe, I couldn’t care less.” With that, he gets on the bike with you following suit and wrapping your arms tightly around his waist as he roars the engine to life as he proceed to drive you both out of the town.
He led you both away and far from the town, where he judged you could be safe.
You both drove almost the entire day, only stopping for gas and then he eventually stopped at a motel when the sun started to set.
Getting off the bike, he asked you to stay where you were and not move.
You nod and watch him leave as you get off the engine, taking off the helmet and stretching your limbs, groaning in the process as a few joints popped.
After a few minutes, he came back with a key, grabbing your bag and asking you to follow him as he led the way for you.
He unlocked the door and you walked in to see a rather small room with a small bathroom and a singular queen sized bed.
You both take a few minutes to take in your surroundings, Leon double checking the room before judging it safe.
You eventually speaks first. “Thank you for earlier, leon. But why didn’t you go to Alcatraz if you had a mission there ?” You ask and he sits on the edge of the bed, you take a seat next to him, knees touching.
“If I hadn’t known you were in san Fransisco, I would be there right now most likely. But I’m glad I ran into you, I couldn’t leave you behind. Not you.” He says and he looks at you, his face is so close, and suddenly you wish you could read minds. “Not me.” You repeat, voice not above a whisper.
“Not you. I… I care about you.” He says and your heartbeat picks up. Suddenly you’re more aware of his presence, the warmth of his body, your knees and shoulders touching.
“I always have. I just didn’t know how to approach you and I didn’t want to include you in my mess of a life.” His words touch the deepest part of you.
You’re not sure who leans in first, but his lips suddenly find yours and he’s all you can hear, smell, feel. And you need more. So much more.
And as he pulls you closer, making you straddle his lap as his hands grip your hips desperately, deepening the kiss, you think that you wouldn’t mind being included in his life, no matter how messy it could be or get.
You’d be his pillar, no matter what.
#leon kennedy x reader#leon kennedy x you#leon kennedy#resident evil#fanfic#fluff#i’msosorryguysidkwhati’mdoing
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[WIP] Lyralei's Pose addon - Part 2
(See previous post: Click me!)
First things first, MASSIVE thanks to @thesweetsimmer111 for all the help to make this work better and sharing her knowledge on Track masks with me (and the world!)
👀 Better Look at (with reactions!)
Maybe it’s just me, but I used to get endlessly frustrated when Sims wouldn’t properly turn their heads to face an item. So, I set out on a little mission to make their head movements more natural! Unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned—turns out EA’s code for the “Look At” feature is completely deprecated and no longer functional.
Knowing I couldn’t just code a fix, I had to explore other approaches. That’s when @thesweetsimmer111 came up with a brilliant solution: blending left, right, up, and down poses to create a more convincing look-at effect! 🎉
(See: Post)
What's different?
Here's the original pose, without Look at turned on....
On the left, we got VA's original look at.
On the right is what Savanita and I came up with! :)
don’t want to make it seem like the original Look At feature was awful—it actually works pretty well in some cases! For example, in this pose, if the plant were on the other side, the difference wouldn’t be that noticeable since her head is already tilted slightly. 😊
(Same layout again: Left = VA's, Right = Me and Savanita's approach)
Plus, maybe you do want something more subtle, then VA's Look at is great!
Anyways! Of course, I couldn't stop there! Now, your sim has a few options of turning towards the object:
(Note, this list will get 10x cooler in the next feature ;D)
This list is what the "trackmasks" are. :)
Okay, let's give "Eyes Only" a try. So, we expect Morgana to ONLY look at the plant, with her eyes.
(Left is before using look at, Right is with look at, and one up for fun-cies)
And, to please @nocturnalazure's wishes, yep! It now accepts Facial Expressions! :D
(I never would've thought I would see Evil Morgana lmao)
🎭Blending Poses/Reactions
After Savanita's amazing idea of using Track Masks, I found out that I can apply that same technique on, well, poses! And this is a feature I'm SUPER proud of (And honestly, it's taken me an entire week to get working 🙃)
First things first, when we choose the interaction, we will first be greeted by our "trackmask" list with all the selections on it
So, I made a few examples to show of what you could do, but in all fairness, it's endless!
Here I chose the option "Both Arms".
Here I chose "Head And Neck". Look! She even has the expression! (Don't worry though, i also have an expression-less version in the making ;))
What about... Animations?!
While blending poses has the ability to also type in your pose names by name, rather than list, you can also use EA's!
The list is pretty long ( believe 200 entries?) but here is a sneak peek:
Though, as far as I've been able to tell, EA reactions aren't as flexible, where I can tell it to only use the arms, or the eyes. Instead, we got these options:
So, unless I found a way to get around it, this is the only way to do it.
But without further ado....
Here I used the same pose(left) as the last 2 pictures, but with "OverlayHead". And chose "Boo"
(I just realised it looks like she is about to get hit by a ball lol)
🕰️ History List
The Add-on now remembers your pose history!
Whether you’re a dedicated “Pose by Name�� user or prefer the simplicity of “Show by List”, both options now display your pose history for quick reference.
Note: Each Sim has their own individual history list. This means you’ll only see the pose history for Sim X when clicking on them, and not for Sim Y.
📓What's up next?
Adding all the trackmask. (I still need add the hands and legs ones)
Adding an in-game Category maker, so you don't have to edit the XML. It will mean you need to replace the XML file in S3PE yourself. But I can always make a quick How-To for guidance 😉
(Note to self) Optimize the Categorisation code. It's currently taking 1 minute up from the loading screen 😬)
Fixing some minor bugs where Look at will still turn the sim's head back to it's original position.
Fixing some issues where Blending poses with certain track masks aren't working well or at all.
Fixing an issue where the dialogs can crash the whole game (woops!)
Sooo, I think a release date is pretty soon! I think within a week :)
Any VA Addon Bug Fixes?
Of course! It's the mod that inspired me to make stories, and even get to make this mod! I couldn't just... leave it to collect dust while it's other child mod is getting all the attention. :p
Changelog:
There is now an interaction that uses both look at & reaction simultaneously. (In case you don't want to use my look at interaction).
Fixed an issue where reactions would sometimes or never show on the sim.
Fixed an issue where using "Random Quick Poses" would occasionally show a breathing sim, doing nothing.
Fixed an issue where certain poses get called twice, making it harder to keep reactions or even look at history data.
Some minor code changes that aren't worth mentioning honestly.
#the sims 3#ts3#sims 3#the sims#sims#ts3 simblr#lyralei's pose addon#sims 3 wip#ts3 wip#the sims 3 wip#wip
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Underneath the Noise - George Clarke
—————————————————————————
Masterlist
Chapter 8: I’m Not Going Anywhere
—————————————————————————
She wakes up on the sofa.
A blanket she doesn’t remember grabbing is tucked around her shoulders, and George is slouched in the armchair opposite, hoodie bunched under his head, one leg half off the footrest. His phone’s still in his hand. The screen’s gone dark.
It takes her a second to remember. The stream. The comments. The silence that followed.
And then him.
Showing up without asking. No theatrics. Just grounding hands and a steady voice in the dark.
Her throat feels raw, but not from crying. More like she’s been holding something in for too long and finally let go.
George stirs, blinking at the ceiling before his gaze flicks to her. “Hey.”
“Hi,” she croaks.
“You okay?”
She nods, slow. “Bit embarrassed.”
“Don’t be.”
He sits up, stretching one arm over the back of the chair. His voice is quiet, but sure. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
She shrugs. “Still feel like I cracked in front of a live audience.”
His brows pull together. “They don’t count.”
There’s a pause. Then, softer: “You scared me a bit.” She glances at him.
“I’ve seen you stressed,” he continues. “But last night—that was different.” His fingers tap absently against his leg. “I just kept thinking… I shouldn’t have let it get that far.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong either,” she says.
His eyes meet hers, something unreadable behind them. “Still.”
And maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s just residual adrenaline and sleep deprivation. But his voice sounds heavier than usual. Like seeing her like that—shaken, mute, unravelled—has unsettled something in him.
She clears her throat, attempting levity. “You planning on standing outside my flat every night just in case I freak out again?”
His mouth tugs up. “Was thinking of installing a panic button.”
“Very on brand. Streamer Emergency Services.” He grins, just for a second. But the softness lingers longer.
—-
A new message pops up on her phone.
Chaos Goblins
Chris:
just saw the clips from last night. who the hell do we need to fight
Bach:
name and address. I’ve got a shovel.
Hilly:
I’ve started writing a diss track
ATV:
I have an email drafted to Twitch. it’s just the word “ban” 500 times.
George:
she’s fine. I’m handling it.
Y/N:
I’m fine. really. appreciate you all. just need a day.
Chris privately messages her two minutes later:
Chris:
you don’t need to act chill for us. we’ve got you.
She lets the kettle click again before replying.
Y/N:
I know. thanks. also please don’t post a revenge video unless it’s tastefully edited and contains at least one slow-mo ferret montage.
His response is a ferret GIF and a heart.
—
By midday, they’re both at the boys flat.
She hadn’t planned on going, but George hadn’t exactly left room for debate. Just casually said, “We’ll grab food after,” like the past twelve hours hadn’t happened.
No one says anything at first—just the usual mess of filming prep, too many limbs and not enough cables. But she can feel it in the way the others glance over. Bach offers her the good chair. ATV hands her a water bottle already opened. Even Hilly, usually full gremlin mode, drops a quiet, “You alright?”
She nods. “Yeah. Just tired.”
Chris eyes her for a beat longer than usual. “If anyone gives you grief again, send them to me. I’ll unleash the hobbit memes at full force.”
“Please don’t,” she mutters, lips twitching.
George doesn’t say much. But he stays close. Not hovering—just quietly there. Their shoulders brush when they sit side by side. He hands her a mic before she can reach for it. Makes a face when she catches him glancing over.
And maybe no one else notices, but she does.
The way his tone softens when he addresses her during filming. How he nudges a snack toward her without saying a word. How he pauses before making a joke, like he’s checking the landing.
Like he’s still thinking about last night.
She is too.
Not just the bad parts. But the moment everything cracked and someone stepped in—not to fix it, but just to sit with her in the quiet and say I see you. I’m not going anywhere.
And for the first time since the bingo night, the knot in her chest starts to loosen.
Just a little.
But enough.
———
Taglist
@madforgeorge
@wherethezoes-at
@sundarksposts
@clarkey4life
@edgyficuselastica
———
Next part incoming back to back posts - happy Easter to those who celebrate 💛💛
#george clarkey#george clarke fics#george clarke fluff#george clarkey imagine#arthur hill#chrismd#george clarke#george clarke fanfic#george clarke x reader#george clarke x you
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✩ Styled by me
with JULES KOUNDE ✩ smau




.🤎.
synopsis: You’re a stylist. He’s a footballer. It started with a fitting but between the way Jules looks in your clothes and the way he talks like he’s been waiting to meet you, the line between work and something real gets harder to hold.
smau • face claim: amy okoli
a/n: GUYS I USED 3 WHOLE DAYS TO MAKE THIS, I WAS STRESSING WITH THE TWITTER STUFF. and finding the pictures were also really hard!! also i edited and made all of these by myself so please show some love, hopefully you guys like this. also this is my first main smau anyways enjoy!!
.🤎.
──────────────────────────────
@y/nthestylist



liked by voguemagazine, jkeey4, wisdm and 670K others
@y/nthestylist: First fitting with the always dapper @jkeey4
click to view all comments
@jkeey4: Dapper’s a big word…
@y/nthestylist: I said what i said
@coutureinggirl: Not y’all linking up… my fashion and football worlds colliding 🙌🏾
@f1isformula1: remember when she styled lewis hamilton back in 2023 for the GQ men of the year party, those pieces were to good.
@clubfashion: I can already tell this collab is about to have the tunnel fits on LOCK. Respect. 👏🏽
@cocowintor: You better tag the brands when the final pics drop because I’m TAKING NOTES.
@islowkeyseinstine: I don't know why but i'm saving this post for future “how it started” edits 😭
@iwannabejulesbabymama: Theres nothing in this post thats giving that tho
@mysunshinejuley: yea like jules has to be single
@koundedaily: dude he dosen't know you
───────────────────────────────
@jkeey4 posted a new story

@tochumine: He could’ve just said “thanks” but nah…
@bbgthatlovesfashion: Soooo this is a styling session or the beginning of a Wattpad fic or sum?
@y/nthestylist: reacted ❤️ to your story
@y/nthestylist: Greatest? Don’t gas me this early in the week come on
@jkeey4: Real ones get their flowers early in the week too, no?
@y/nthestylist: The flowers were beautiful. Thank you, truly. Unexpected but very appreciated.
@jkeey4: You deserve beautiful things. Simple as that❤️.
─────────────────────────────
SHORT BLURB
Since that first fitting, Jules had been trying to ask you out.
Not in a pushy way. No pressure. No drama. Just small things — soft, consistent signals — like he was leaving the door open for you whenever you felt ready to walk through it.
After that session, he posted the mirror selfie in your styled fit, tagged you in every Story like a badge of pride, and casually dropped compliments that hovered between professional and personal.
“Real ones get their flowers early in the week too, no?” That’s what he wrote the first time he sent flowers to your place — a low, gorgeous arrangement in deep plum, cream, and gold. Understated, elegant. Like he’d studied your taste without asking.
You stared at them in your kitchen for three hours before texting him
He’d asked you to dinner that week. A simple “you pick the spot” kind of text.
And you… dodged it. Politely. You always did.
“I don’t go out with clients.” It was your shield. Firm, well-rehearsed.
But the real reason sat heavier in your chest. You weren’t used to nice. Not like this. Not from someone who made being fine look effortless.
Not from someone who looked at you the way Jules did — like he saw past the layers. Like he wanted to.
“He’s cute,” you admitted once, alone in your bathroom mirror. “But scary cute.” Not in a red flag way. In a this could mean something kind of way. That was the terrifying part.
He never pressed. But he didn’t back down either.
Another fitting. Another bouquet.
“Still not backing down?” you asked, arms crossed but smiling as he leaned against the rack of new-season jackets.
“Not unless you want me to.” His voice was calm. “But I figured… you style people to feel their best. Maybe someone should try giving that back to you.”
And the way he said it?
You didn’t answer right away.
Because your heart did. And that was enough for now.
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@britishgq


liked by y/nthestylist, jkeey4, footballwagstea and 720K others
@britishgq: Look who showed up and showed out at the [Fashion for Future] charity gala tonight 👀. @jkeey4 and @ynthestylist — both styled to absolute perfection. Fashion with a cause never looked so sharp. #GQEvents #StyleWatch #FashionForFuture #Cute
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@someonesusername: nah gq didn’t have to tag them both like that 😭 they KNOW what they’re doing
@footballwagstea: Jules and the stylist being at the same gala, probably styled by each other, smiling like that? come ON.
@ilovemen: you’re telling me this man showed up in a look she probably pulled and they didn’t arrive together??? sure.
@ynandjulesfanpage: this is their red carpet debut idc.
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SHORT BLURB
The interviews faded into background noise, and now you were inside the marble hall of the gala, cocktail in hand, pretending not to feel his eyes on you.
But you felt them.
Jules had walked in wearing a fit you had curated — effortlessly sharp and smooth tailoring with subtle texture. You hadn’t told him you’d be there. He hadn’t told you either. But somehow, both of you showed up dressed like you knew the other would be watching.
And he was watching.
From across the room, leaning against a velvet-draped bar, he was doing that thing again — that quiet, confident stare like he already knew something you hadn’t admitted to yourself yet.
When he crossed the room to you, his smile was a little smug, but soft at the edges.
“You always pull up like this?” he asked, eyes traveling from the structured lines of your dress to your gold cuffs.
“Only when I know someone might show up,” you replied, trying to keep your voice even.
He grinned.
“Okay, so let’s stop playing,” he said, inching just slightly closer. “Can I take you out? Not for fittings. Not for press. Just private... you and me.”
It wasn’t dramatic. Wasn’t slick or rehearsed. Just real.
You opened your mouth to give the usual line, the one you’d practiced: I don’t go out with clients.
But your heart… betrayed you. It had decided before your logic did.
So instead, you smiled and said:
“Okay.”
The surprise on his face was brief — then replaced by something warmer. A spark. Like his patience had been rewarded.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t say anything for a second. Just nodded once, like he was locking the moment into memory.
“Good,” he said, eyes on yours. “Took you long enough.”
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@y/nthestylist



liked by voguemagazine, jkeey4, lewishamilton and 670K others
@ynthestylist: Still thinking about last night — honored to be part of the Fashion for Future charity gala surrounded by vision, purpose, and incredible style. I always say it’s about more than clothes. It’s about presence. Showing up, standing tall, and letting the details speak for you. And some details? Speak louder than words.
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@jkeey4: You’re not slick with that caption😂
@y/nthestylist: 😂😂
@koundefanupdates: 'Some details speak louder than words' OH SHE’S FLIRTING FLIRTING 😭
@lovergirl: Don’t be shy, tag your +1 👀
@caprisunjunkie2: i know jules is somewhere refreshing this post like 😍
@koundecore: jules was NOT smiling like that for no reason i fear…
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@jkeey4



liked by y/mnthestylist, aurelientchm, davidalaba and 800K others
@jkeey4: A good cause, a better night. Styled sharp, felt sharper. Appreciate the team behind the scenes that always makes it look easy @yourhandle. @davidalaba
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@ynthestylist: the real ones make the work effortless 🤝🏾
@davidalaba: my guy❤️
@koundefanupdates34: he really tagged her again… y’all don’t see the slow rollout? WAKE UP
@coreiscoring: so we all saw the way he looked at her in the GQ clip right??
@frenchiesiluv: You tagging her in every fit now? yeah… love is in the details.
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@voguemagazine and @britishvogue

liked by y/nthestylist, jkeey4, pharrell and 17,670K others
@voguemagazine and @britishvogue: From dressing Europe’s elite footballers to crafting red carpet moments with precision and heart, y/n is the tastemaker the world didn’t know it needed—until now. In her first Vogue cover story, the London-based stylist opens up about fearlessness, style as language, and joining forces with image architect Law Roach for a Met Gala partnership that’s rewriting the rules of fashion fantasy.
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@y/nmainfan: Finally getting the recognition she deserves! Been watching her eat
@l/nbaby: From behind the scenes to the COVER? Nah, she is amazing truly
@louis4vuttion: Y’all realize she’s the reason your fav footballer looks like a Dior campaign now? Put some respect
@fashionbiggirl: THEE stylist. THEE visionary. And a Met Gala collab with Law? Unstoppable.
@koundedaily: if jules doesn’t comment something romantic we ride at dawn.
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www.vogue.com
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SHORT BLURB
The sheets are a mess, the air is thick with the glow of what just happened, and the window is cracked open just enough for London’s cool air to sneak in and chill the sweat on your bare shoulder.
Jules is lying beside you, his chest rising slow and steady, arm tucked behind his head like he’s trying to memorize the ceiling. His other hand finds yourss between the sheets and plays with your fingers, almost shy again now that the adrenaline is gone.
“You’re on the cover of Vogue,” he says, voice low, like he still doesn’t believe it.
You laughs softly and hide your face in his chest. “You’ve told me that like four times.”
“Well, I’m still processing,” he says, kissing your forehead. “That’s not small. It’s not even big. It’s... massive.”
You smiles, tracing slow circles on his chest. “You’re part of that, you know. You believed in me when I was still pretending I didn’t want anyone close.”
“Yeah,” he murmurs, “but you’re the one who did it.”
They lie there like that for a while, limbs tangled, skin still warm. It’s the kind of silence that feels like safety.
Then he shifts slightly. “I fly back tomorrow.”
You don’t answer right away. You knows what that means—Barcelona. His world. The matches, the focus, the rhythm of a life your still adjusting to aligning with.
Jules keeps going. “Game on Sunday. I want you there.”
You lifts her head, eyes finding his. “Yeah?”
“I came here for you. To celebrate you,” he says, brushing hair out of your face. “I want you there when I walk out.”
There’s no overthinking this time. No hesitation. Not when it’s him.
You nods. “I’ll be there.”
He smiles so softly it almost breaks you. “Good. I play better when you’re watching.”
You leans in, press your lips to his shoulder, then laughs. “Is that your way of asking me to be your good luck charm?”
He grins. “You’ve always been that. Just didn’t know it yet.”
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www.youtube.com
Step inside the eclectic, refined, and boundary-pushing closet of fashion’s newest powerhouse stylist. From custom runway pieces to vintage treasures and one-of-one football tunnel fits, [Your Name] takes us through her most personal collection yet. #VogueClosetTour
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@y/nthestylist posted a new story

@koundedaily234: I KNOW JULES LOOKED UP AT LEAST ONCE TO FIND YOU. I KNOW IT.
@spongebobsgirl: the ‘i’m just here watching football’ energy is killing me when we ALL know it’s for one man only.
@thisiswhatslayinglookslike: Woke up. Ate breakfast. Sat pretty at her man’s match. That’s a day well spent tbh.
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@hotfootballteazz


liked by fcbarcelonawags, koundedaily, randomperson1 and 1M others
@hotfootballtea: Stylist sweetheart [Your Name] was spotted in Barcelona with none other than Jules Koundé. Sources say the vibes were real friendly — hugs included. Styling session? Romance brewing? Or just two fashion lovers on a stroll?
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@y/nkounde: I don’t know who needs to hear this but they’re already dating and just not telling us.
@randomperson1: I’m unwell
@bubbleguppies5: The hand placement. the lean. the smile.
@koundedaily: Their aura together is dangerous. he’s glowing. SHE’S glowing. idk what’s in the air but i want it too.
@ilovethenotbook: I SWEAR we’re watching this love story unfold in real time and it’s actually so soft 😭
@peaxceandfree: Calling it now: they’re gonna do a shoot for GQ Couples next year and it’s going to destroy the internet.
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SHORT BLURB
The hotel room smelled like steam and vanilla sented soap, the windows fogged just a little despite the AC humming quietly in the background. You sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, phone in hand, scrolling through the flood of paparazzi shots now circling the internet. You and Jules, on the street. Hugging. Laughing. Way too close for just styling clients.
You sat at the foot of the bed, wrapped in white cotton, your damp legs stretched out in front of you, scrolling through your phone. The pap pics were everywhere now.
You tilted your head, the corners of your lips lifting. You should care. The internet was already spiraling into fan theories and soft launches. But right now? You really didn’t.
Behind you, the bathroom door creaked open. Steam curled into the room before Jules stepped out, towel slung low around his waist, droplets still clinging to his chest like they didn’t want to let go. He rubbed a hand through his locs, pushing them back as his eyes flicked to you.
“You’re trending,” you said, not even pretending not to look.
He smirked. “We’re trending.”
You arched a brow. “Don’t get cute.”
“Bit late for that,” he muttered, walking over slowly. He didn’t rush. Jules never did — he moved like he knew the air shifted with him.
He stood in front of you now, warm and still damp, his hand grazing your shoulder as he peered at your phone screen.
“Nice angle,” he murmured, nodding at a photo of the two of you hugging — his arm slung low around your waist, your face tilted up to him. “They caught my good side.”
You let out a low laugh. “You don’t have a bad side.”
He didn’t move away. Instead, he reached out, thumb brushing gently along your jaw. “You okay with it?”
“With what?”
“This,” he said quietly. “Being seen with me.”
You met his eyes — soft brown, steady. Even with the glint of charm, there was something serious behind the question. Not just about photos or rumors. About this. About you and him.
You nodded, slow and sure. “I’m okay.”
His hand slipped down, fingers brushing yours. “Good,” he said, voice low. “Because I’m not trying to hide you.”
You looked up at him — at his soaked locs and golden skin, the heat in his eyes and the softness in his smile — and for the first time, you let yourself lean into it.
“I wasn’t hiding,” you whispered, reaching for his hand. “Just figuring it out.”
“Still figuring it out?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.
You smiled. “A little less now.”
The space between you disappeared, the noise of the world falling away. In that moment, it was just two towels, warm skin, and everything unspoken finally starting to make sense.
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@jkeey4



liked by y/nthestylist, aurelientchm, wisdm and 1M others
@jkeey4: Bits & pieces. Good days. Better company.
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@y/nthestylist: You’re lucky I look cute or I’d sue.
@jkeey4: I'd post more 🤎
@ilovefrench3men: Don’t be shy @jkeey4 tag her again 😭
@julsmyman: she’s pretty, I get it.
@koundedaily: Slide 2. SLIDE. 2. Everyone shut up
@ynkounde: i mean we called it.
@champgnhoney: yes we did.
#mirahsworks🦫#jules kounde#jules kounde fic#jules kounde x reader#jules kounde fanfic#jules kounde imagine#jules kounde x you#jules kounde x black reader#jules kounde x black oc#jules kounde x black!reader#barcelona fc#football smau#jules kounde smau#footballer fanfic#football#footballer x black reader#footballer x reader#footballer x y/n#footballer x you#footballer x oc#footballer x black oc
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Guide to backing up AO3 fics on the Wayback Machine
okay so on the interest of being able to link back to this instead of having to type it all over again the next time a friend asks:
yes, you CAN back up fic (and other websites in general) to the wayback machine, you don't have to be a specific profession or a member of the internet archive or anything
you can do this without an account, but you have extra options when you're saving a website using an internet archive account (saving ALL outlinks from that page, which is a huge time-saver; saving it to your web archive, which is useful when you want to look up the stuff you saved; etc). making an account is free.
specific things need to be taken into consideration when saving, such as whether a webpage requires login in order to enter. the wayback machine only saves a page exactly as it would show up to you if you were to open it on an anonymous tab right now with no extras installed (logged out, no saved cookies, stuff unclicked, etc) so you need to take this into consideration when saving stuff
why does this matter? because when it comes to ao3 fic, specifically, this poses some issues. at the risk of this post being nearly exclusively lists and bullet-points:
login-locked fics can't be saved to the web archive like this (please download them through ao3 itself if you'd like to save them as they are)
fics rated as explicit, mature, or not rated don't get saved properly if you use the normal fic link. they only get saved as the page where you confirm that you're willing to proceed unless you add this confirmation to the link you're saving (more on this below)
fics with more than one chapter don't get saved properly if you use the normal fic link. i see this happen a LOT with people who think they saved stuff but then only the first chapter was actually backed up. you also need to add a parameter to consider this to the link you're saving (more on this below). no, using the save all outlinks option won't help you here as the links to the next chapters aren't all indexed.
saving outlinks won't work if the fics listed in the page are explicit or multichapter, because you'll run into the same issues as in points 2 and 3. using the "save outlinks" option works when you're dealing with the page for a series where all the works are gen/teen oneshots. maybe twoshots, since ao3 now links to the latest chapter on the chapter count, but i haven't tested this yet.
--
step-by-step guide to how to back up fic and deal with the pesky multichapter/rating issues below the cut:
1. get the fic link
you want the one that is formatted like below, with only the work ID listed in the link
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17007075
you can get this straight-up on oneshots, or right-click+"copy link" on the fic name when the fic is listed on an ao3 page (such as in the pages for bookmarks, series, or just in the plain fandom/ship tag). alternatively, if the link you have has anything else on it, such as:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17007075/chapters/49717460
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17007075/bookmarks?page=7
you can just remove everything after the work ID so that the format is the same as in the first example.
2. edit the link
if the fic is a gen/teen oneshot, you can just leave the link as it is
if the fic is explicit/mature/not rated, add ?view_adult=true to the end of the link
if the fic is a multichapter, add ?view_full_work=true to the end of the link
if the fic is explicit/mature/not rated and a multichapter, add ?view_adult=true&view_full_work=true to the end of the link
you can just use the last one for any fics and it'll work! it's just more difficult to find on the wayback machine if you only have the original link to work with, so i try to keep it to the simplest version possible.
as an example, you'll end up with something like this for the last case:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17007075?view_adult=true&view_full_work=true
the edited link you end up with is the one you'll use from now on in this tutorial!
3. check whether the link has already been saved on the web archive (optional)
if the fic was saved, say, yesterday, or the writer has vanished from the interwebz since like 2003, and everything looks to be in order, there's little point in saving it again unless there were major changes since (and PLEASE check if the only save wasn't just an error page instead of the page itself, sometimes this happens and it's heartbreaking when you only notice after the page is gone.)
you can check this by going to the main page of the web archive, entering the link, and then checking on the timeline for how many lines there are in it (if there are no saves at all, they will ask you if you want to save the page). for the fic we're using as an example, someone appears to have saved it in 2021. click on that line, and then on the calendar below (where there'll presumably be either a blue or a green bubble around the date in which someone tried to back it up. other colours are no bueno):
green bubbles/links indicate a redirect. this is not particularly worrying by itself: it happens, for example, when the link is being redirected from the work ID-only format to the ID/chapters/chapter-ID format. but it can also be a redirect to a warning, for example. click on one of those timestamps and check whether the fic shows up as you expect it to. (once you have the page for a snapshot, you can just paste your next links in there to check if they exist instead of doing this all over again.)
for example, in the case of this particular fic, only the third chapter appears to have been saved. weird! you definitely don't want the only back-up of it to be this one, so it's time to move on to the next step.
4. save the fic!!!!
go to the wayback machine save page. paste the link. if you have an account and want to keep the saved website at hand, check the "save in my web archive" option.
whether you want to save error pages (for example, in case ao3 is having server issues, or for archival/historical reasons) or not is up to you, but i prefer to uncheck the box because it's usually more visible if there was an issue. below is the page of a 404 page i tried to save with the box unchecked:
and here is an attempt for another 404 page with the box checked:
the second example saved the error page only, and can mislead you into thinking that the fic was properly archived when it was, in fact, not.
DO NOT CLOSE THE PAGE UNTIL THE ARCHIVING IS DONE OR UNLESS THEY TELL YOU YOU CAN! this latter case usually happens when there's a lot of strain in the archive and the back-ups are happening with some delay, but in general you want to keep the page open so you can see the status of your save.
YES, it's slow as fuck, you're just gonna have to deal with it. i usually have 3-4 pages open when i'm working on saving several fics at a time. be patient. do other stuff meanwhile. i usually do this at the same time i'm updating my bookmarks with the fic title/author/summary/link in case the fic gets deleted and i have no clue which one it was anymore, so i have a pretty steady "copy link->edit link->save fic->update bookmark for that fic->repeat" workflow going on.
5. save the link you used!
bestie. i'm pleading with you. save the fic link somewhere. any! fic link! for that fic! even the original will do! any link that you can reverse-engineer into the one you want! because good fucking luck finding the save you did when you no longer know how to get there, even if you save it on your own web archive (i have a couple thousand websites saved on mine so it's like finding a needle in a haystack).
the web archive does not neatly save the page name so that you can search it easily, so you ABSOLUTELY need the link for the fic or you're likely done for💀
you have a couple options here! place the link in your ao3 bookmark directly, if you have the fic saved on there. if you're the kind of person who bookmarks directly on their browser, go for it, i guess? (but keep a backup of your bookmarks somewhere). create an excel with the fic data in a column or two and their corresponding links on the following one. it's up to you! just save it somewhere.
preferably, save a downloaded copy of the fics you love, too, instead of solely relying on the web archive, but that's a lecture for another day.
6. bonus round: saving series!
also adaptable for saving works by a specific author - the essence of it is that you want every page you'd need to navigate to in order to reach the rest of the works. for an author, this would likely be their main page -> their works page (or their [works in specific fandom] page) -> every page within that -> the works within each page.
this is where the outlinks are your best friend.
get the series link (the format is something like https://archiveofourown.org/series/2930166).
open the save page on the web archive.
if the works are all mature/explicit/not rated and/or contain more than two chapter each, don't bother checking "save outlinks". if the series has a large amount of gen/teen works and they're only oneshots and twoshots, check "save outlinks". you'll save time doing this instead of backing each of them up individually, but please verify that the second chapters of the twoshots have indeed been saved.
save the series page. save also the link to the series page: from this one you can then navigate to the works you save within it.
now individually save each of the works within that series that you want to keep (and that you haven't covered in point 6.3) by using points 1-4 of the larger fic-centric tutorial.
i hope this helps!
#howl rambles a lot#fic archival#howl uses ao3#wayback machine#do i have a tutorial tag? tumblr let me properly check my past tags challenge#idk i'm baptizing a new one#howl writes a tutorial#resources
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lots of fans have made valid points and written well-thought-out posts about the trop ai drama, so i'm not gonna rehash them, but i do want to bring up something that no one seems to be talking about and it's the impulse that leads people to plug these things into ai generators in the first place.
fandom over the last year especially has become increasingly toxic to the point that actual billion-dollar corporations are afraid it. the result is subpar, pandering films, books, and television shows that break no new ground, recycle old tropes, and sacrifice story integrity to avoid catching heat from the loudest, most entitled people in the room. i'm calling this an issue of entitlement first and foremost because the idea that the audience should have any say over a non-crowd-created media project is preposterous. deciding that the cons outweigh the pros of watching something and choosing to walk away without making a fuss is a lost discipline now because everyone with an internet connection and a social media account believes that their vision reigns supreme. "how dare this show downplay my favorite ship! they were supposed to kiss! that was the whole point! the absence of this one thing i had on my wishlist is a crime against me personally!" so they turn to ai and click some buttons and now these gifs exist and are being circulated with an air of "i've righted a wrong." worse, the use of ai in this way is being conflated with the creation of fanworks???
there are reasons why i don't believe the ai saurondiel kiss is on the same raft as, say, making them kiss in a drawing or a published fanfic, but my main concern is with the spirit behind each. fanworks are made in homage to the source material, even the fix-it fics. there is an acknowledgment, a separation even, between the television show and the fanwork. this separation is necessary and i would say even integral to the nature of fan creation, while ai closes that gap until it no longer exists. the elimination of space between creator and audience also happens on social media, when disgruntled fans who have taken umbrage with a fictional character or creative decision directly harass the writers or the actors involved. more and more, fans are demanding to be in the rooms, in the minds, and to exert control over the people who tell their stories, and it has only ever worked to our collective detriment. now i'm not saying that if you liked and shared the saurondiel ai kiss that you're the same as the internet trolls who harass (mostly) women and people of color online. but i'm begging you to do some self-reflection and ask yourself why you feel entitled to seeing what you want on your screen.
what has changed in the last few years that would make you dissatisfied with, say, reading someone's fic or making your own drawing? is it a matter of "the tool is there, so why not use it?" is it "i believe it should have happened and it didn't and i feel cheated?" or maybe there's been a pattern you've noticed in your recent media "consumption" (god, i hate that word) where, unless a show or television series goes the exact way you want it to, it feels like you've been defrauded somehow? i'm not being facetious. i'm inviting you to notice that what you're feeling is probably discomfort, disappointment, maybe even cognitive dissonance because you imagined it going one way, and now you're at a loss because it didn't. you built it up in your head, you had something to look forward to, you were convinced that it would happen, it was exciting and you were so eager to get to that point, and then.... and then...
we've all been there. and it sucks. but i also want to remind you of how important it is to preserve the separation. this space is ours. the writer's room, the filming set, the editing room, those spaces are theirs. the actors' likenesses are theirs. thinking beyond trop, the separation is how we get creative works that challenge us politically, emotionally, that make us uncomfortable and tell us important truths. writers shouldn't have to - and shouldn't FULL STOP - do what we want them to do. sometimes that means knowing when to walk away, when to say "i no longer enjoy this show, i will no longer support it" or "i will continue to watch but pretend things went differently," the latter of which has been the spark that has moved so many online fans to draw, paint, write, or sew. it's a type of creation that allows "canon" and "fanon" to exist parallel to one another. moreover, the effort it takes to make anything with your own two hands, with your own time, and with your own energy increases your appreciation for the creative impulse. films and books and television stop being "products" for your "consumption" because you're aware of what goes into them, and it becomes easier to look at things you don't like or disagree with and say, "you know what, i'm gonna pass," or "not in my headcanon."
oh, and by the way plugging things into an ai generator? is theft. the same way that it's generally frowned upon for people to use ai to, say, write the rest of an unfinished fic without the express permission of the fanwork creator, using the actors' likenesses to make them kiss goes against everything the actors' union fought for last year. i'll also add that it's incredibly creepy. almost all of us are in agreement that intimacy coordinators are a good thing because they act - again! - as a separation between what's "real" and what isn't, the same way going on ao3 and reading a fic that very clearly says on the tin that it's a fanfic, unaffiliated with the official ip, is a separation. it's another beast entirely to normalize fan-use of ai, to say you support creatives, support actors, support unions, and then do this in your personal life. i repeat the question: what impulse leads anyone to believe that this is okay other than a feeling of misplaced ownership?
tl;dr: ai nonsense does not belong in fandom spaces. (in my home state of california, it is illegal to use digital replicas of an actor's voice or likeness in place of their actual services without their informed consent [which, in spirit, is what you're doing by using ai to make your gifs]). we all just need to mind our own business and go back to writing our fix-it fics and complaining to our friends in relative peace. if you're finding it impossible to do so, ask yourself why. remember that fanart is our longstanding tradition. stop outsourcing it to an unregulated technology just because your two faves didn't kiss.
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Being the sixth member of Beta squad
PART 2 , MASTERLIST 𖦹ׂ 𓈒 / ⋆ ۪
A/n This was inspired by another post I saw so if it sounds like I'm copying I'm not I just got inspired by them. The reader is female in this. Also sorry if this doesn't sound accurate I tried my best. There's nothing romantic in this I view this as a platonic post but you could view it however you want. Sorry if this is cringe



Let's say you joined beta squad when it first started. Maybe you know Sharky for a long time and we're introduced to the others then instantly clicked
At first you were hesitant when you were invited to join. But you made the decision to join, which changed your life forever
They weren't friends they were family to you
They'd always look out for you like you were their little sister
You had a bond with each and one of them. You would hang out off camera and talk to them whenever
So much teasing
If you're the youngest they'd sometimes joke about it regarding the age
If you're shorter than AJ you both get teased and made fun of
If you're taller, my gosh AJ would be an absolute joke of the group for being shorter than you
They are all overprotective and view you as a little sister. They want you to be safe and want what's best for you
Maybe they had a little crush on you before..
Being close friends with Nella, Darkest and Filly. You all are good friends
You and Chunkz are the duo who cooks with each other.
You, Kenny, and Sharky being the duo in the jungle video that makes the video 10x entertaining
Niko and you are absolutely hilarious together and people fear you both for your pranks and the type of content you both make
You and Aj being the ones who get teased the most
But you and AJ sometimes have a violation battle over the stupidest things
Your Kenny's number one support. You'd work out with him and keep him company during his training and encourage him
Chunkz and you are super loud and chaotic. But he sometimes brings you around to his family dinners and lets you hang out with his family
Sharky's sisters love you. I imagined you doing Shakira's makeup on stream before
Also feel like AJ is more comfortable with you and will sometimes hug you (like in the mukbang video where he was hugging Chunkz when Sharky was laughing at him almost drowning )
They'd never do anything without you
They would never admit it but they're your biggest supporters and would give you their honest opinions about decisions you make
They definitely would try to be annoying commenting rude things on your Instagram posts
Them being rude to you as a joke but fans take it seriously and make dramatic edits about it. (Just like the AJ edits but 10x dramatic)
When you all lived together you would always cook for them so they wouldn't always order take out everyday
They loved your cooking and sometimes show up to your house uninvited just for you to cook for them
Unless you're a bad cook, I could imagine you attempting to cook but end up burning the food. Which leads to them making fun of you for it and it becomes a huge joke
You and Harry pinaro having the worst relationship ever to the point where people actually think you two hate each other
You two don't get along (I love/hate Harry)
In the weakest link videos I feel like you'd get the hardest questions since everyone knows you have the most intelligence out of all of them
Sometimes when a person collaborates with the channel and they end up flirting and the boys would either tease or get weirded out
I feel like they'd tease depending on the person
If it was stormzy, KSI, or anyone else they'd definitely get weirded out by it
If it was Trent they'd tease you about it till the day you die. They'd bring it up in almost every sports related conversation or video.
You being the mom of the group and making sure everyone is okay. You'd text them everyday to make sure they're doing fine
Since you're a fan favorite and have good video ideas, they like to hear your opinion in videos since you're actually smart and your videos get a lot of views.
Chunkz gets jealous over the fact your Smarter than him
Unless your dumb
you win come dine with me and Niko gets absolutely so upset that you won over him. He accused you of cheating and supposedly hiring someone to cook the meals you made
Them calling you for advice before dates and advice about girls in general. They come to you when they need help with any life situations since they know they could trust you
(Niko definitely would ask u advice if his girlfriend ever got mad at him)
Speaking of his girlfriend, you two are best friends.
if you ever got in a relationship they'd do a full integration on them
They want what's best for you. They have to know what type of person you're dating and need to know if they're treating you right. It's their job to make sure their friend is happy and in a healthy relationship. Especially if you're like a sister to them
If you're ever feeling down they do anything to try to make you laugh or brighten up your mood
Imagine filming the box video with amp
You leaving the box after AJ left since you landed on leave the box. But you genuinely felt like Niko had a better chance at winning since he won the first one
But if one of the amp members flirts with you they'd get weirded out and annoyed because everyone knows how amp is (love amp though especially Chris & agent)
I don't say they would be jealous, they just feel like they should protect you from getting your heart broken
Or maybe they do get jealous (up to you to decide)
In the cooking video for amp channel let's say you and Duke teamed up (sorry filly)
Duke is Duke so obviously he flirted with you trying to get your number and use his cringe "rizz" on you
But before the video, you, Chris, and Davis had a conversation. You gave them advice, out of all the amp members they connected with you the most
But the amp cook off was chaotic especially with you
You actually tried for half the challenge before giving up and just having fun. It was better to just entertain the viewers instead of actually trying to win
You decided to annoy everyone by moving their stuff
I imagine you, aj, fanum, and Niko get in an argument and start throwing flour each other
you and Duke losing which leads to you threatening the person who switched out everyone's cakes
you and Niko both manage the beta squad Instagram and tiktok since you know all the popular trends
Even though everyone is behind Instagram and tiktok, you are mostly the one posting on it, and the one who replies to comments
Niko and you are both know for being menaces and immature. Especially when you two are filming together, you both make the most craziest pranks. Your friendship with him is so adorable and wholesome. You both always joke around and add on to each other's jokes to make it more funny. Always having laugh attacks with him.
You and Chunkz are literally the duo who randomly burst into a song together. You two both send songs to each other and both show a huge interest in music. I like to imagine you and Chunkz going on a drive or just hanging out to sing to music. You two also know a lot of people and are the ones who know a lot of celebrities. You two are the ones who message famous people to Collab with the Beta squad.
You and AJ love hating on each other, even though he'll leave positive messages on your Instagram to be funny, he bashes you and insults you at the same time. It's a bit confusing at times to tell if you're completing each other or insulting. But you two never get offended and know when to stop.
Man, you and Kenny have such a bond. You were his biggest supporter during his Boxing matches and Practices. If you love to work out or get exercise, you both go to the gym together or you'll go on diets with him so he won't be alone. He always goes to you for advice on girls. You two laugh at the random things and can't take anything serious. You and him always are always whispering things to each other during filming.
Sharky and you are known to laugh so hard where you can't even breathe. You two laugh in serious situations and always look at each other before bursting out laughing. He likes to drag you outside for a walk and just listen to music with each other. Similar to Chunkz, he sends you songs that he thinks you'll like.
overall the boys are grateful for you and everything you've done for them. You're like family to them. They all love you. They are family, not just a friend group to you. They love you and always will.
━━━━━━ ━━━━━━ ━━━━━━ ━━━━━━ ━━━━━━
Note: Uhm so I'm working on a Niko agnst fic so please give me ideas for it because I'm kinda concerned on if it isn't good enough
I hope this is good!! I tried my best 😭 I had fun writing this since I wish for a friend group like them and always imagined what it would be like to be in the beta squad. I might make a part two but idk yet 💚 I kinda rushed the ending and put random things down. Lmk if I should add something or you have any suggestions or headcanons I should make
#reader insert#beta squad#niko omilana#chunkz#king kenny#aj shabeel#sharky#imagines#headcanons#duke dennis#fluff#oneshots#writing#scenarios#youtube#group#friend group
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Little Red Bows
A Dave York Fan Fic

Merry Christmas everyone
Time for some festivities from our favourite stabby murder daddy, David Christopher York. Oooh & it’s rather delicious. Sorry shouldn’t hype it up but I’ve enjoyed writing & editing this one. Daves still number 1 for me.
Synopsis:- Dave admires your special wrapping skills so much so that he can’t wait to open his own Christmas gift.
Word Count:-3100
Warnings:- DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNDER 18! DAVE YORK COMES WITH HIS OWN WARNING! Sex, lost of sex, including oral & anal, good play, innuendo, alcohol, swearing, chocking, teasing. Basically if you’ve read any of my Dave fics before you know what’s coming. Also the use of the word Daddy (I know it’s a trigger for some of you). The reader is Daves wife & the kids mum but you are not Carol (unless you want to be)
Thank yous lol so much for reading. Have an amazing festive period.
“Night night molly” he said as he kissed her head. Slowly leaving her bedroom, making sure the night light is glowing purple stars for her. He Silently closes the door. Not even a click. Being an assassin he’s good at that. Can get in & out without a sound. She’s fast asleep not even knowing she’s nodded off. Alice fell asleep much earlier.
Dave makes his way back down stairs & into the kitchen getting some ice from the freezer for his whiskey. As the top come off the bottle her hears you humming. You’re sat on the floor of the little snug area just down from the kitchen, headphones in, crafting away. Dave looks up to see you looking all cute eating a chocolate oranage wrapping up gifts. He gets another glass & pours you a whisky too before he slowly comes to join you. Even with your headphones on you can work out where he’s coming from. You take out the left ear pod & smirk.
“Both asleep?”
“Snug as a bug baby” he says as he leans down & hands you your glass. He goes to move but you grab his shirt. “Forget something did i?” He asks.
“You know it” your eyes widen & soon your lips meet deeply. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve kissed Dave it still feels so good. He’s always desperate for your touch & you are just desperate to be seen by him. He slips his tongue in for a few hungry seconds before pulling back & sighing. He sits on the sofa behind you putting his drink on the table & looks at the scene in front of him.
“How many more gifts to go” he says. In front of you are gift tags, stars, snowflakes, tape ribbons, bows, brown paper, wrapping paper, glitter paper, & lots of different colour pens.
“Tonight & tomorrow morning & we should be done except for whatever you’ve got me Dave but I can’t exactly wrap that up” you say. He rubs your shoulders.
“You do such a good job baby”
“I mean you said I didn’t have to go all out but it’s nice, I get some me time, I get to craft & create & it’s fun”
“Yes & then they get the gift & take off all the hard work you have done”
“You gonna have to open your gifts so slowly now on Christmas Day Dave” you point a gel pen at him as you write the next label.
“True but just look at this…” he hold up a ribbon you’ve curled with tape & attached to a bow. “… I mean yes I have a specific set of skills but this is beautiful.” You laugh “no seriously, these little bows, those ribbon curls, the personalised gift tags, it’s astonishing”
“It’s really not that hard Dave” you smile but are also secretly so proud. It takes a lot to impress Dave & he’s heaping praise on you. Or maybe he just wants his dick sucked. Or both. Probably both. “I could teach you” his hands roam over your shoulders. Yea he wants his dick sucked.
“Really,” he rests his head on your shoulder. “Show me baby.” He kisses your neck & you let out a tiny moan & sigh. You get out the ribbon & the scissors & show him how to curl it. Not that he’s looking at it & not that you care. He’s looking at the at the way your lips move as you speak, how your eyes light up with passion, how that mole on your chin is the most perfect beauty mark that people would pay thousands for & yet you’ve had it since birth.
“& then you cut their throat” you say bluntly. Dave shake his head in shock.
“WHAT!?” You giggle.
“I knew you weren’t listening Dave”
“Did you now” he grabs the scissors out of your hand. “You know I could kill you in 13 different ways with these scissors”
“But you’d never be able to make a pretty bow” you smirk as he pulls you into his lap. He’s hard, he’s very hard. You gulp down a few swigs of your whisky. You place your glass next to his as his hands roam your body.
“I think I’d have other pressing issues instead of bows & glitter” he says. His hands on the outside of your trousers rubbing the material so that it rubs against your clit.
“Dave stop” you moan but enjoying every second.”or at least promise you’ll help me tidy up a little for in the morning after this.”your own hand goes on auto pilot undoing his belt after you turned to face him. The zipper sound louder than the music in your remaining ear pod.
“You got it baby” he sits back on the sofa & man scapes. he’s got thick thighs but an even thicker dick that he just flops out of his boxers as you tie your hair up & gulp some of his whiskey down.”hey that’s…” but your lips meet his to shut him up. Passionate doesn’t cover the ferocity of the kiss.
“Yours baby, just like me Dave, I’m all yours” you trails your hands down his body eventually get to his penis. Leaking precum, erect & ready for pleasure. “Hello big boy” you moan before licking across the top of it, before looking up at Dave & spitting on his shaft. He loves it when you do that. He always tense up when you do it.
“So good to me sweetheart” his hand runs around a your face & he smirk & nods. He watches down as you engulf him. Bobbing. Taking him into your mouth, slowly. Gagging for his enjoyment. “That’s my girl” he thrusts into you & he grabs where you’ve tied your hair up. “You look all sweet but damn you love getting a facial” he keeps your head in place watching your eyes stream as he fucks your mouth. “God I love it when you gag, so fucking hot” he whines. You can see when you look into his eyes, he loves eye contact, he’s intense at everything, that he’s already approaching his peak. His eyes so dilated. The hand not holding your head gripping to the arm of the sofa for dear life. “Fuck sweetheart, fuck fuck fuck I… oooh fuck” hot ropes of cum spill down your throat & your mouth. He quickly lets go of your head & pulls his cock back. Splatters land on your face.”oooh fuck baby” he finishes to make sure your face glistens. He then looks at you, hands in your lap looking up at him pleadingly to mop up your face. He’s still breathless as he looks at you, trying to calm down.
“Dave”
“Hmmm” he then smile coming back to reality. “Kiss first then clean up & then I’ll look after you”
Christmas Eve has now rolled around. You spent the day with the girls baking cakes, cookies & getting some prep done for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner. Dave went & delivered a few gifts & apparently went to get your Christmas present, but you’ve worked it out already. He’s good at secrets on a life & death situation but not when it comes to the surprise 10 day trip to Jamaica he has for you. Also you notice he asked for your passport & a few other travel items. You just don’t know when he’s booked it for.
After Dinner you Dave & the girls sit on the sofa & watch the muppet Christmas Carol as a family, the girls have hot chocolate & marshmallows in them & a big bowl of popcorn. You have an espresso martini & Dave as always has a whiskey. You sit there & laugh & cry & sing along to the film. This is all you really want for Christmas. Gifts & food & excess is nice but just to have a little time where the 4 of you can just be you. For a brief moment in time your just the Yorks. No worrying about if Dave will walk back through the door after a mission, or if you or the girls will be used as bait. It’s just you sitting here doing what all other normal families do this evening. Once the muppets are done you give the girls each their stockings to hang on the fire place. You would usually light the fire but tonight you didn’t.
“We don’t want it to be too hot for Santa when he comes down it do we” you say to the girls.
“Oooh no” says Alice. “His beard might melt off” you & Dave both laugh.
“So when you wake up in the morning girls your stockings will be filled, with all of little Santa gift.” He says as he ties them up. “Now what do you want to leave out for Santa to drink.”
“Milk” says Molly. Dave sighs.
“But everyone will give Santa milk, maybe he’d like something else”
“Chocolate milk” you laugh at that reply Dave trying not to roll his eyes.
“It’s still milk though, why don’t we leave Santa some alcohol” he says “give him a needed boost cos all the milk he will have drank will make him sleepy”
“That’s not what the books say” says Molly. Dave has tried so hard to convince them but neither girls are buying into it.
“I tell you what girls” you say. “Why don’t we leave an empty glass for Santa with a bottle of whiskey next to it & a carton of milk when me & daddy go to bed” Dave raises his eyebrow, not at your suggestion but at the word daddy. He likes it when you moan it just before you cum. “& he can pick what he wants to drink. That way next year you will know what he likes so you can leave the right one out”
“But what if he wants both” even you sigh.
“Well he can have both” you say & the girls run off to the kitchen to get the milk & cookies & carrots they sorted out earlier. You look at Dave as he puts the whiskey down & an empty glass. “I tried baby”
“That’s not what you did” he pauses then wink “daddy appreciates it”
With the girls supposedly asleep you & Dave do some sorting out for tomorrow. The table is laid, the gifts are under the tree & everything is prepped to make Christmas lunch easy. All that’s left to do is for Dave to do his Santa bit & fill up the stocking.
“I’ll go get ready for bed Dave” you say before he heads off to the shed to get the Santa gifts. Easier place for you to both hide all the gifts. The girls will never think in there. As Dave heads to get them you quickly head into the lounge to hide something for him to enjoy.
Dave loves doing this. He’s a serious professional man until it comes to a little bit of festive fun. Leaving some fake shoe marks in the hall way. Eating a cookie. Snapping off parts of the carrots, including dropping an end next to the fire place. He then pours himself a shot of whiskey & downs it, but as he goes to put the drink back down he notices something that the girls didn’t put down. A little red bow. One you had made. He lifts it up with a smile & sees there’s a post it underneath. Your beautiful hand writing make him smile.
Come unwrap your present daddy!
He has never triple checked the house is locked so quickly in his life, he almost forgot to turn the kitchen light off. He’s also trying to be quiet so the girls don’t wake up & the Christmas magic is lost. But it’s not long before he is opening the bedroom door. His jaw hitting the floor instantly.
You are lying face down. Hair in a braid going over your left shoulder. Wearing nothing. A sparkling red bow & some mistletoe stuck on top of your bum. There’s a gift tag tied to your foot. Dave drops to his knees. His mouth instantly sucking the toes on the foot with the gift tag. You moan & then you hear him breathily read out loud, once he has stopped sucking.
“Your gift needs a good stuffing Daddy” he says in his bedroom voice. “Oooh sweetheart fuck sweetheart” you’ve not turned your head but you can hear the clothes hit the floor. “Gonna fuck you so hard you will struggle to stand up to cook Christmas dinner” he snarls.
“Is that a promise Dave” you then hiss as he spanks you hard & your bum lifts up. You then moan as his lips connect. Pulling your cheeks apart & lapping always at both your holes. “Fuck Dave” you can feeling your inner pleasure building up already. His hand moves the bow & mistletoe off you & you then feel his penis drag through the mess he has just made. Your arsehole puckering for him.
“I get the best for Christmas” he says before thrusting his penis into your arse. All the way. Deep enough that his balls bounce against you. “Fuck” he growls & you bury your head into the bed as you moan. “So fucking tight. all your holes”
“They are all yours tonight Dave”
“Seriously?” He’d paused his next thrust upon hearing that. His hands gripping your flesh as you are now on all fours pushing back into him.
“They always are but as a Christmas treat you can go all night for as long as you want”
“You little cum slut” he says & smacks your arse again. You rock back & forth in time. You will have marks on your torso tomorrow from him gripping so hard. He’s thrusting away like he will never have sex again or like he has just gotten out of a mission that could have meant his end & he’s happy to be home to you. “Taking me so well” you put a hand on your clit but Dave smacks your arse hard.
“Fuck”
“No clit touching until I can see it. Want to see how over stimulated you get” he says.
“Then flip me over”
Dave doesn’t need an excuse. He quickly withdraws & turns you so your face up & he laughs.
“The fuck”
You have put a little bow over each nipple & one just above your sex. You giggle impishly back as you suck on a small strawberry candy cane you have.
“Liking your gift so far daddy”
“You’re driving me insane.” The bows are pulled off your skin & he plunges his sopping penis deep inside your moist cunt. Your moaning in seconds, especially when he grips you around the neck. “You’re a naughty girl” he moans. Sloppy thrusting noises filling the room when the two of you aren’t experiencing pleasure.”naughty & nice, nice sopping pussy, naughty girl for touching her clit”
“Fuck Dave” you groan.he squeezing your neck more. His eyes alight with desire & list. You quiver taking him all. Clamping constantly around him. He’s big but tonight he feels bigger.
“gonna fill you up sweetheart, gonna lap up all our cum.” He says before he takes the hand that was around your neck. You gasp for air gives him enough time to take the candy cane you were sucking & for him to suck it as well. Then he strokes the sticky sweet over your clit, rubbing it furiously. Your own eyes close. Pleasure taking over.
“Yes Dave yes yes yes, fuck”
“Like that sweetheart” he says before he slips the Candy cane into your mouth again. You make sloppy noises on purpose to get him to thrust faster. It’s rapid his pace, neither of you are going to last much longer. Dave is giving you his best.”like being so needy for daddy”
“Yes daddy, fuck yes yes yesss”
“CUM FOR DADDY!” He says loud enough that it could wake up the girls. Neither of you care.
“Fuckkkkkk” you spiral down your first orgasm of the night. Everything contracting. Pleasure beyond compare. A warm & wet sensation that’s added to with a snarl of your name as Daves seed spill inside your cunt.
“Fuck” he says with a jolt. His eyes rolling in the back of his head. His body dripping in sweat. His pecks flexing from the spasms of his release. He’s still griping you tight. Panting loudly. You eventually open your eyes to look at your glorious husband, bathed in your own sweaty sticky mess.
“Still just as fucking fabulous” you say as you sit up once he’s pulled his cock out of you & sit next to him, caressing his face before your tongues do their usual make out dance after sex. His saltiness after sex always tastes good & arouses you further.
“I ain’t done yet sweetheart” you then gasp as the hand that what caressing your breasts finds your sex, the thumb on your clit, two fingers inside you. “I need to clean you up first” . His head is between your thighs in seconds as you hold it in place rubbing it for ever more friction as he eats you out.
“Oooh fuck Daddy, Dave yes”
You sit in the lounge as the girls open their stockings on Christmas morning. Dave rubbing your shoulders as you watch the girls open Santas gifts. You both desperately need a shower, certain you both smell of sex.
“Dad” Molly ask “what time did Santa get here last night”
“Well it’s after everyone’s asleep including me & mummy why”
“Well” Molly starts “I head something that sounded like it was hitting my wall at 3am, I went down stairs & saw the gifts where there already, but couldn’t see a raindeer outside”
You blush straight away. Molly had heard you & Dave fucking last night. Dave realised this & then looks at you & puts his hand on you knee.
“Could have been, he’s magic so it could have been his quick get away” Molly seems to bye this. Alice hasn’t been listening she’s too busy trying to solve her rubix cube already. Dave move his hand up to your thigh. “Turns out we did bring the Ho ho ho” he says quietly with a wink & a smirk, before kissing you deeply.
“Dad Mum stop” says Alice.
“Sorry darling” you say. “But Christmas brings out the magic in all of us” you say looking directly at Dave. “Christmas after all is a time for giving & receiving”
#pedro pascal#fanfic#my fics#smutt#no minors#pedro pascal characters#pedro pascal cinematic universe#over18#pedro pascal fanfiction#pedro pascal character fanfiction#pedro pascal fan fic#pedro pascal fic#pedro pascal fandom#pedro pascal smut#pedro pascal x reader#pedro pascal universe#dave york f reader#dave york fan fiction#dave york x f!reader#dave york pit#dave york fanfic#dave york fanfiction#dave york fic#dave york smut#dave york#dave york x reader
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YouTube Downloads through VLC: Step by Step
[EDIT: I've been receiving reports for some time now that this method no longer works. I suspect something about the switch to YouTube Music as a separate app, and/or YouTube's ongoing attempts to force Chrome use, broke the compatibility with the Github version of youtube.luac -- I haven't managed to look into whether there's an updated working version out there yet. Sorry!]
So this guide to easily downloading off YouTube is super helpful, but there's enough important information hidden in the reblogs that (with the permission of OP @queriesntheories ) I'm doing a more step-by-step version.
Please note: these downloads will be in YouTube quality. My test video download is coming through at 360p, even though the video I'm starting from is set to 720p. They're legible, but they won't look great on a TV. For high visual quality, you'll want to seek out other methods.
This guide is written for Windows 10, since that's what I can test on. It's been tested on Firefox, Chrome, and Edge (which is a Chromium browser, so the method should work in other Chromium browsers too). So far, I haven't tracked down a way to use this download method on mobile.
BASIC KNOWLEDGE:
I'll try to make this pretty beginner-friendly, but I am going to assume that you know how to right-click, double-click, navigate right-click menus, click-and-drag, use keyboard shortcuts that are given to you (for example, how to use Ctrl+A), and get the URL for any YouTube video you want to download.
You'll also need to download and install one or more programs off the internet using .exe files, if you don't have these programs already. Please make sure you know how to use your firewall and antivirus to keep your computer safe, and google any names you don't recognize before allowing permission for each file. You can also hover your mouse over each link in this post to make sure it goes where I'm saying it will go.
YOU WILL NEED:
A computer where you have admin permissions. This is usually a computer you own or have the main login on. Sadly, a shared computer like the ones at universities and libraries will not work for this.
Enough space on your computer to install the programs listed below, if you don't have them already, and some space to save your downloaded files to. The files are pretty small because of the low video quality.
A simple text editing program. Notepad is the one that usually comes with Windows. If it lets you change fonts, it's too fancy. A notepad designed specifically to edit program code without messing it up is Notepad++, which you can download here.
A web browser. I use Firefox, which you can get here. Chrome or other Chrome-based browsers should also work. I haven't tested in Safari.
An Internet connection fast enough to load YouTube. A little buffering is fine. The downloads will happen much faster than streaming the entire video, unless your internet is very slow.
VLC Media Player, which you can get here. It's a free player for music and videos, available on Windows, Android, and iOS, and it can play almost any format of video or audio file that exists. We'll be using it for one of the central steps in this process.
If you want just the audio from a YouTube video, you'll need to download the video and then use a different program to copy the audio into its own file. At the end of this post, I'll have instructions for that, using a free sound editor called Audacity.
SETUP TO DOWNLOAD:
The first time you do this, you'll need to set VLC up so it can do what you want. This is where we need Notepad and admin permissions. You shouldn't need to repeat this process unless you're reinstalling VLC.
If VLC is open, close it.
In your computer's file system (File Explorer on Windows), go to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist
If you're not familiar with File Explorer, you'll start by clicking where the left side shows (C:). Then in the big main window, you'll double-click each folder that you see in the file path, in order - so in this case, when you're in C: you need to look for Program Files. (There will be two of them. You want the one without the x86 at the end.) Then inside Program Files you're looking for VideoLAN, and so forth through the whole path.
Once you're inside the "playlist" folder, you'll see a lot of files ending in .luac - they're in alphabetical order. The one you want to edit is youtube.luac which is probably at the bottom.
You can't edit youtube.luac while it's in this folder. Click and drag it out of the playlist folder to somewhere else you can find it - your desktop, for instance. Your computer will ask for admin permission to move the file. Click the "Continue" button with the blue and yellow shield.
Now that the file is moved, double-click on it. The Microsoft Store will want you to search for a program to open the .luac file type with. Don't go to the Microsoft Store, just click on the blue "More apps" below that option, and you'll get a list that should include your notepad program. Click on it and click OK.
The file that opens up will be absolutely full of gibberish-looking code. That's fine. Use Ctrl+A to select everything inside the file, then Backspace or Delete to delete it. Don't close the file yet.
In your web browser, go to https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/share/lua/playlist/youtube.lua
Click in the part of the Github page that has a bunch of mostly blue code in it. Use Ctrl+A to select all of that code, Ctrl+C to copy it, then come back into your empty youtube.luac file and use Ctrl+P to paste the whole chunk of code into the file.
Save the youtube.luac file (Ctrl+S or File > Save in the upper left corner of the notepad program), then close the notepad program.
Drag youtube.luac back into the folder it came from. The computer will ask for admin permission again. Give it permission.
Now you can close Github and Notepad. You're ready to start downloading!
HOW TO DOWNLOAD:
First, get your YouTube link. It should look something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123DEF45 If it's longer, you can delete any extra stuff after that first set of letters and numbers, but you don't have to.
Now open VLC. Go to Media > Open Network Stream and paste your YouTube link into the box that comes up. Click Play. Wait until the video starts to play, then you can pause it if you want so it's not distracting you during the next part.
(If nothing happens, you probably forgot to put youtube.luac back. coughs)
In VLC, go to Tools > Codec Information. At the bottom of the pop-up box you'll see a long string of gibberish in a box labeled Location. Click in the Location box. It won't look like it clicked properly, but when you press Ctrl+A, it should select all. Use Ctrl+C to copy it.
In your web browser, paste the entire string of gibberish and hit Enter. Your same YouTube video should come up, but without any of the YouTube interface around it. This is where the video actually lives on YouTube's servers. YouTube really, really doesn't like to show this address to humans, which is why we needed VLC to be like "hi I'm just a little video player" and get it for us.
Because, if you're looking at the place where the video actually lives, you can just right-click-download it, and YouTube can't stop you.
Right-click on your video. Choose "Save Video As". Choose where to save it to - I use my computer's built-in Music or Videos folders.
Give it a name other than "videoplayback" so you can tell it apart from your other downloads.
The "Save As Type" dropdown under the Name field will probably default to MP4. This is a good versatile video format that most video players can read. If you need a different format, you can convert the download later. (That's a whole other post topic.)
Click Save, and your video will start downloading! It may take a few minutes to fully download, depending on your video length and internet speed. Once the download finishes, congratulations! You have successfully downloaded a YouTube video!
If you'd like to convert your video into a (usually smaller) audio file, so you can put it on a music player, it's time to install and set up Audacity.
INSTALLING AUDACITY (first time setup for audio file conversion):
You can get Audacity here. If you're following along on Windows 10, choose the "64-bit installer (recommended)". Run the installer, but don't open Audacity at the end, or if it does open, close it again.
On that same Audacity download page, scroll down past the installers to the "Additional resources". You'll see a box with a "Link to FFmpeg library". This is where you'll get the add-on program that will let Audacity open your downloaded YouTube video, so you can tell it to make an audio-only file. The link will take you to this page on the Audacity support wiki, which will always have the most up-to-date information on how to install the file you need here.
From that wiki page, follow the link to the actual FFmpeg library. If you're not using an adblocker, be careful not to click on any of the ads showing you download buttons. The link you want is bold blue text under "FFmpeg Installer for Audacity 3.2 and later", and looks something like this: "FFmpeg_5.0.0_for_Audacity_on_Windows_x86.exe". Download and install it. Without this, Audacity won't be able to open MP4 files downloaded from YouTube.
CONVERTING TO AUDIO:
Make sure you know where to find your downloaded MP4 video file. This file won't go away when you "convert" it - you'll just be copying the audio into a different file.
Open up Audacity.
Go to File > Open and choose your video file.
You'll get one of those soundwave file displays you see in recording booths and so forth. Audacity is a good solid choice if you want to teach yourself to edit soundwave files, but that's not what we're here for right now.
Go to File > Export Audio. The File Name will populate to match the video's filename, but you can edit it if you want.
Click the Browse button next to the Folder box, and choose where to save your new audio file to. I use my computer's Music folder.
You can click on the Format dropdown and choose an audio file type. If you're not sure which one you want, MP3 is the most common and versatile.
If you'd like your music player to know the artist, album, and so forth for your audio track, you can edit that later in File Manager, or you can put the information in with the Edit Metadata button here. You can leave any of the slots blank, for instance if you don't have a track number because it's a YouTube video.
Once everything is set up, click Export, and your new audio file will be created. Go forth and listen!
#reference#vlc media player#youtube downloader#youtube#uh what other tags should i use idk#how to internet#long post
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Image Descriptions and Accessibility in General on Tumblr for New Users
What are Image Descriptions
Image Descriptions are text following a picture explaining what’s in that picture. They are primarily for blind/visually impaired people with screen readers and visually impaired people who can read text but have issues with pictures.
They also help people who have trouble:
focusing on/understanding a picture
reading text on images (ex low contrast, weird fonts, etc)
getting images to load
Without image descriptions posts are not accessible to many people, so if you can it's best to include a description or alt text every time you post an image.
Alt text vs image descriptions
Image descriptions are written in the body of the post itself, and have some kind of text before and after, to explain that what's coming up. They typically begin short and concise, but can expand to more detail.
Alt text is added to the image itself, and is what is read by screen-readers (which will otherwise just say "image"). There is no need to add any explanation before the description so you can just say "a description of the image". Alt text can only be added by the original poster, by clicking on the three dots in the bottom right corner of the image and clicking 'update image description.' It is typically short and concise.
On tumblr, alt text is currently available on web by clicking on the alt button (or via new xkit - accesskit - move alt text to captions below image). On mobile, alt text is available in some versions of the app through clicking on the alt text button. Image descriptions are visible on all posts, although if you put them under a read-more, that makes them less accessible. (Thanks to @911described for helping with this section)
How to Make Image Descriptions
Awhile ago I made this general guide. I learned from examples, so here are descriptions made by a bunch of different people. I've also made templates for a lot of common images you'll see on Tumblr.
Other Concerns
Gradient or all caps text make most screen readers read out the word one letter at a time. In addition, these plus text that is bold/italicized/underlined, in colors other than black, or in weird/fancy fonts are difficult for many people to read.
How Filtering Works
You can filter out both words/phrases and tags in the filtering section under the general section in the settings. When filtering out words from a post, it will look at both the text of the post/reblog chain and at the url of op and the rebloggers. When filtering out tags it will look at the tags of the specific post on your dash, and at the tags of the original post.
Tagging for Common Triggers
Don't sensor trigger warnings (for example don't tag suic!de) because then people who have them filtered will still see it.
Tagging for Flashing Lights
If you post a gif or video in a post that flashes, you should tag it with something like "flashing lights" and Not "tw epilepsy" because if any of the tags in the original post contains the world epilepsy it will show up in the epilepsy tag, which is dangerous. Check out this post from @photosensitive-despair for more info about tagging photosensitive content.
Tagging for Unreality vs Misinfo
Things that could trigger delusions/psychotic episodes/etc should be tagged with unreality. This includes:
content that has existential themes related to reality/things not existing (example: a philosophy such as solipsism, do not look up the term if unreality stuff is triggering for you)
extremely surreal content(example: sometimes content such as weirdcore/dreamcore aesthetics can fall under this umbrella but again this is very subjective)
content that reinforces or encourages common delusions(example: that one "im living in your walls" meme)
Things like rp blogs and fake/edited tweets should not be tagged with unreality, unless they contain triggering content. Consider tags like "fiction" or "misinfo." See this post for more info.
Edit:
Addition from @mindflamer
You can look through the reblogs of a post to see if someone's already written a description. There is a button to see just comments vs. comments + tags which makes it easier. Scroll through looking for brackets [], ID, or Image Description. This is great to do if you can't write your own IDs for whatever reason, so that you can at least spread the version of the post that's described if there is one.
If you're not able to write IDs consistently, some is better than none. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You can use the tag #undescribed to make it easy for those who need them to filter out those posts. Similarly, if you primarily tag triggers but can't for certain posts, you can use a separate tag on that to be filtered such as #untagged.
Please, if I forgot something, sound off in the notes and I'll update this post with it
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Fly On The Wall
Pairings: Aether X Reader Type: Fluff Summary: Reader gives Aether a hard time about the new masks. Warnings: Minor cursing Word Count: 931 Notes: Read here on ao3. This isn’t edited because I simply could not be bothered, so if there are mistakes, no there aren’t <3
~
“You cannot be serious,” Aether growled, noting that his phone mysteriously went missing right before he had to go to mass. He knew exactly who took it, and he knew that he couldn’t be that upset. But whatever. He couldn’t be late.
He walked around his room, trying to get used to the new uniform. The cape was what threw him off clothing wise, but his main problem was the mask. He could not see how he could with the mask from Copia’s time as Cardinal or from his time with Terzo. It was bulkier too, and just all around inconvenient.
Typically, the ghouls could decide which of their uniforms they wanted to wear unless it was during Mass. Then their uniforms were chosen by whoever was presenting, and unfortunately, it was Copia’s turn to show off the new uniforms.
He grumbled, leaving the room without acknowledging his reflection, trying not to think about how silly the new mask looked.
The others were already standing in their places, and Aether silently cursed when he realized how late looking for his phone made him. He took his place, ignoring the confused glances from the others. He was never late.
About halfway through Mass, he finally spotted you. You were paying attention closely, looking so engrossed in what Copia had to say. The glint in your eye when Copia cracked a joke almost made him forget his reason for being upset. But when you turned to him, and held up his phone, throwing a wink to him, he couldn’t help the way his lips twisted into a scowl.
Your shoulders shook with a slight giggle before you turned your attention back to Copia. Aether readjusted his stance, turning his head away from you.
After Mass, he caught you in a crowded hallway, so he grabbed your arm, pulling you into one of the small storage closets. Thankfully, there was a light, which he immediately clicked on.
“That wasn’t funny,” he frowned, glaring at you.
“What wasn’t funny?” You giggled in response, pretending to act innocent.
“You took my phone, which made me late for mass. Thank Lucifer it was Copia presenting today. You know how much trouble I could get into for being late,” he said, trying his damn best to be serious, hoping you would realize why he was upset.
“Okay, calm down–” you started, suppressing a giggle when he shifted, the light glinting off his goggles in an odd way. Taking a breath, you started again. “I knew Copia was up today, and you need to not be so uptight. I wouldn’t have put you in harm's way.”
He gave you an odd look as he saw you pressing your lips into a thin line to stop from laughing. “Why are you laughing so much?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing. I swear,” you assured, trying so hard not to burst out laughing.
“Well if it’s nothing, then can you stop laughing? I’m trying to be serious here.”
“I’m sorry!” You said, sarcastic, but hoping he would continue.
“Whatever. Just give me my phone, okay? And maybe let's not play the ‘make Aether late’ prank.”
You sighed as you handed him his phone, keeping it face down. He put it in his pocket and sighed. “Fine.”
“Well, it’s not that fine. The whole pack’s going to poke fun at me for being late.”
“Big whoop.”
“It is a ‘big whoop.’ You know they don’t let anyone live things down,” he said, frowning again. The light reflected off his glasses, and his lips were pressed into a thin line to show how disappointed he was, and that’s when you lost it. “Lucifer almighty! What? What could possibly be so funny?” He asked, a little more irritated.
After taking a moment to catch your breath, you wiped your eyes as you looked at him. “I’m sorry. It’s just these new masks.”
He sighed, knowing that they looked stupid. “What about them?”
“You look like a fucking bug,” you cackled.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, opening the door to the closet. “I’m aware they look stupid. Just…let’s go. The other’s are probably wondering where I’m at.”
You nodded, still slightly laughing. “You may not want to check your phone yet,” you smiled, looking at him with a devious grin.
“What? Why not?” He asked, pausing, but you were already gone, meeting up with some of your friends across the room. You threw a wink at him and left.
—
When you two finally got back to his room, he flopped down on the bed, mask long discarded. He had been pulled left and right after mass due to something that Copia needed, then an emergency in the infirmary, and he just needed a break.
“You gonna be alright while I shower, love?” You asked, sitting on the bed and rubbing his back.
Slowly, he sat up. “Yeah, just tired. Been a long day.”
“I’m sure. I’m going to go shower. Let me know if you need anything,” you said, standing and kissing his forehead as you walked toward the shower.
He finally managed to get out of the rest of his uniform, then laid back down on the bed. The shower started up, and after a few minutes, he finally pulled his phone out. He turned on the screen, and there it was…a picture of a zoomed in fly to only show the eyes.
“Lucifer give me strength,” he groaned loudly, running his hands over his face. All he could hear was a cackle from the other side of the bathroom door.
#the band ghost#nameless ghouls#ghost#ghost x reader#the band ghost x reader#nameless ghouls x reader#aether ghoul x reader#aether ghost x reader#aether x reader#aether ghoul#aether ghost#ghost bc#ghost band
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Imagine being the 9th member of Stray Kids and the youngest because you’re in middle school.
But you get told that you're too loud and clingy so you close yourself away
A warning of angst and like self doubt tell me if I need to add more!
Fans would expect you to be so full of energy and talkative and clingy because you’re a kid, maybe you’re just a quiet kid?
But no, the only reason you don’t talk a lot unless asked questions is because you’ve been told by many people in your personal life that you were just loud and to ‘tone yourself down’. You’ve been told that your clinginess was annoying by those same people. You wanted to leave a good impression on your bandmates, so you’d stay quiet and tried staying independent and not cling to them even when you were nervous or scared.
You got scared that if you became ‘loud’ and ‘clingy’ with them like the people in your personal life they’d be bothered by it. But they weren’t, one day in an interview with just you the interviewer asked about your quietness and distance with the members.
“I got told a lot by people that I was loud and was really clingy and that it was annoying how I wanted to hold hands with someone or hug them for no reason all the time just because I wanted to.” You answered and laughed at yourself a bit. “So then I thought, ‘I really am annoying’ and I’m gonna be in a band with people that are older than me so I wanted to leave a good impression and not seem annoying to them or bother them because of how talkative and clingy I was.” You breathed out and looked down at your lap. “And it’s hard at times because I get really lonely sometimes because im trying to be independent and I don’t really want to bother any of them just because I wanted someone to talk to or cuddle with y’know? They’re the only people I have besides my family and I just struggle with showing them without thinking I’m going overboard.” You sighed after getting a bit off your chest.
The interviewer was baffled because they're so fond of you and talk so much about you that you could never annoy them but moved on, but you missed one detail.
It was going to get to one of the members.
You walked back into the dorm and sighed after the long day and walked to your room to change into a pair of shorts that were just cut sweatpants and a random shirt before going on your phone when you started seeing edits of your recent interview. Your stomach dropped, the members were going to hear about it!
You heard the click of a door and multiple footsteps shuffle in with the sound of bags land on the kitchen counter when Chan shouted "Y/n, are you home?" He asked as you answered back with a yes and walked out your room to greet them.
They had come back from feeding some ducks that were at a pond nearby and they brought dinner back with them. "I heard that you're interview from a few days ago got posted, do you want me to put it on?" Felix asked and looked back at you as he was standing Infront of the TV with the remote in his hand while you were facing away at the counter.
You paused the slightest bit before shrugging. "Whatever you want is fine." You answered in the same quiet tone that you always have around them. Lee Know kept his eyes on you for a bit before going to grab plates.
"Put it on! Y/n looked so cute that time." Han decided as he pinched your cheek.
You sat down on the couch with the others but made sure to keep yourself at the end and quietly ate while the others laughed at the jokes made during the interview.
Then the part where you kind of trailed off was coming up and you abruptly stood up. "I'm full. Thanks for the food." You said quietly "But you just started eating. Do you want to save it for later if you get hungry?" Changbin asked as some of them turned their attention to you while the others kept their eyes on the screen.
"I'll put it in the fridge to heat up later." You answered before walking away as you heard the interviewer ask "So Y/n, it's not hard to notice that you're distant with the members despite knowing them since before debut, is there a reason for that?"
'Just run to your room before they notice.' You thought as you heard your voice finishing up where you trailed off and the interviewer stuttering a bit before asking the next question.
Just run before they ask and they'll eventually forget to ask.
But there was no where to run when Chan and Lee know were blocking your only exit from the kitchen. "Come sit on the couch with us." Chan said as he gently placed a hand on your back and guided you to the couch where the others sat with the video played back and paused on the previous question the interviewer asked.
You were sat between Felix and Seungmin as Felix swung an arm around your shoulder and had you lay your head on his chest while Seungmin wrapped his arms around your torso and rested his head on your shoulder.
Han and Jeongin laid their heads against your legs while the others stood Infront of you.
"Okay, we've been wanting to make a few things clear for a while now regarding you." Chan started as he stood Infront of you with the others.
"You're not in trouble or anything." Lee Know added
"Just know that just because others consider you clingy doesn't mean that we do, and we don't care if you're talkative too. It doesn't even matter if you're a kid or not, you are a member of this band and we want you to be comfortable and not silence yourself because of what some people said." Hyunjin reassured you as you fiddled with your fingers.
"But you'll get annoyed with me like everyone el-" "But we aren't everyone else." Felix cut you off and moved his hand to stroke your hair "We are your family here.” He whispered
“You’re not lonely here, it’s okay to depend on one of us once in a while.” Jeongin spoke up as he looked up at you with a small smile. “You’re still young and you’re you, who cares about what those people said anyway.” Seungmin huffed before squeezing your cheek. “Go grab your food and sit at the table. We’re gonna get to know you, okay?” Han asked as you sat still for a bit before running to the kitchen to grab your food and sit at the table with everyone else as they asked you various things and went over memories.
Over time you were able to come out of your shell with them and fell into open arms as they returned your hugs and listened to you whenever you felt like saying anything even if it was about you whispering that you wanted to throw your skzoo character at the camera during a vlive.
Chan would often invite you when he did his Chans room episodes and they’d mostly end up with you two having your skzoo characters box each other and the loser would have to eat spicy noodles.
Lee know would call you the name of one of this three cats based on what color your hair was dyed and if didn’t match any of his cats he’d call you by the name of your skzoo character. He also has a habit of carrying a brush with him so he could comb your hair if it looked messy.
Changbin would take you to the gym with him and have you count for him and keep him company and when he’s done he’d take you to get a snack and fight over which seat you two would take on the couch before watching a movie
Hyunjin would have you help him decide what to draw or paint when he can’t decide and sometimes would let you chill with him while he did or you two would brainstorm over what he could do next. Sometimes you’d doodle on his sketch pad and he’d add details and he’d hang it either on the fridge or in his room.
Han would share bites of his cheesecake with you or if you bring back cheesecake for him you both would share it and would see who could take the biggest bite and he’d poke your cheeks while they puffed up, you both had a contest of who had the puffiest cheeks and it was left at a tie.
Felix would help you bake things that you’d find at the store and sometimes as a surprise you’d bake something and you'd find a way to get ice cream inside or serve it on the side. And sometimes to mess with him you'd try to bake BbokAri for dinner and in return he'd hit you with your own character.
Seungmin and you like to go out when it becomes fall you two would sit outside in some sweaters and just chill until you two see some stray dogs walk by and then you two run to see who can pet it first.
Jeongin and you would genuinely just bond as the youngest of the group with similarities and you’d mostly follow him around the most out of all of the members and most of the times you two can be seen hiding in a corner gossiping about random things.
HELP THIS HAS BEEN SITTING FOR LIKE A MONTH IM SORRY AND IM KINDA SHY TO POST THIS IDK WHY I FEEL LIKE ITS TOO SHORT
#thedivineflowers#skz x middle schooler! reader#skz x reader#skz imagines#skz fluff#skz scenarios#bang chan#lee know#changbin#hyunjin#han jisung#lee felix#kim seungmim#yang jeongin#child reader#middle schooler reader
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Life Is Short So Make It Sweet
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Caught In The Rain
Summary- 6.2k Curtis Everett x Plus!Sized Reader. Spring showers have taken over life and everyone is trying to escape the rain. Curtis stumbles upon a little stowaway while he is trying to get to his dry home where his Honey is waiting for him.
Warnings- Mentions of asshole Jake.
A/N- Hey everyone! Been a hot minute but thanks for sticking around to read their story! Special shout out to @mumbles411 and @what-is-your-plan-today for the time you all have spent editing my messes. Dividers made by the talented @firefly-graphics. Happy Reading! and remember reblogs and comments are so appreciated.
Chapter Twenty-Seven / Masterlist

“Fucking hell.” Curtis cursed out while the rain splattered around him, the month of April certainly proving to be wet with spring showers. He was trying to get an engine moved into the overhead shelter out of the rain with Grey and Edgar so they could at least switch out the parts without being waterlogged. The mud sloughed around them while the broken machine sluggishly made its way to the overhead. All three of them pausing from their work to look out from under the shelter’s roof. The grey skies showed no sign of the much needed sunshine.
“What was it about April showers?” Edgar asked and Curtis, thoroughly grumpy with feeling soaked through all his layers, growled out.
“Pissing me off is what it’s about. It could let up for at least a couple hours to get those parts changed.”
Grey handed over a towel to Curtis, letting him dry his face off. “I guess we could hold off till tomorrow? Maybe the weather will break.”
“Tomorrow is too late, Gilliam told us to finish this today so it can leave the yard.” Curtis sighed as he handed the towel off to Edgar, who ran it over his hair, spiking it up as he dried himself off. “So unless we wanna be here all night, let's get this done.”
Several hours and several parts later, Curtis was finally clocking out. Already he texted you that he was going to be late and that if you wanted to head back to your apartment, he understood.
You were sure to send a photo back of you lounging in his living room with a book in your lap and cup of tea in hand, saying not a chance was he getting rid of you that easily. As if he would ever want that, Curtis thought to himself.
He flicked off lights as he made his way out of the main office, the last one to leave for the day. Curtis double checked that it was all locked up before he made the run for his truck across the parking section, trying to avoid the rain although it was a losing battle. The drops were streaking down almost sideways, the wind picking up the more the storm raged on. He dug for his keys in his coat, willing them to unlock his door.
Grasping them, he yanked them out of his pocket but fumbled, making his keys drop into the mud at his feet. “Damn it.” He groaned, sweeping down to grasp them when a pair of small green eyes stared at him from under his truck.
They blinked at one another for a second before Curtis lowered down more into a squat, trying to peer under his truck at the little stowaway. “Hey little fella, you can’t stay under there.” Curtis softened his voice, reaching out a finger enough to encourage the pair of eyes forward. “Come on out, I won't hurt you.”
The green eyes blinked at him and then a pitiful squeal was given, making Curtis laugh a bit. “You and me both buddy, how about you come here, let me take a look at you.” Curtis clicked his tongue encouraging, really hoping that it was a kitten or puppy taking refuge under his truck and not some wild animal trying to get out of the rain.
Finally, the little black shadow started coming into the light. A very scrawny, barely able to walk properly black kitten came out, big green eyes almost too big for its face and water droplets rolling off its whiskers. “Well, damn kid…” Curtis’s palm swept around the little body, scooping him easily into his palm to bring him in against his chest and tuck him into his jacket. “You’re no bigger than a flea, what are you doing under there?”
Pulling up to a stand, he was quick to unlock his truck and get them both out of the rain. Once inside, he opened his coat again to see the black kitten huddling into the warmth of his sweater, fur all matted and mud streaked. “Guess you’re coming home with me kid.” He sighed, knowing that now he had this kitten, there was no way he could just leave him all alone in the parking lot. “Wait till Honey gets a look at you.”
You liked being at Curtis’s home alone. It was cozy with the big picture window in the livingroom facing the street, you could curl up and watch the rain drizzle beyond his front porch while being warm and dry. You had spent the better part of the afternoon browsing the wall of books behind the couch, plucking out one you assumed was Lillian’s at one point. A harlequin cowboy romance- the storyline about a lonely schoolteacher and her new beau, the newest cowboy in town.
It was a silly over the top romance with lots of drama and turned into a vivid page turner for you as the afternoon slowly melded into the evening. Curtis had already messaged you that he was going to be late and should just go back to your apartment if you didn’t feel like waiting. But you weren’t ready to leave your little happy place for the lonely apartment. It just felt like a different kind of empty at Curtis’s house, one that made you feel at peace.
So you made yourself right at home, around dinner time you did clean up the few dishes he must have used that morning and pulled dinner together for the both of you. Putting your casserole into the oven, the sound of a truck pulling into the driveway let you know that Curtis finally made it back home.
Quick to set a timer, you clicked open the garage door to see him step out, soaked to the bone from the look of him. “Long day?” You asked while leaning into the doorway.
“Days like today never seem to end.” He grumbled, his hand cupping a part of his jacket near his chest. “Umm, you're not allergic to cats are you?”
“No, why?” You straightened up, curious now and a tinge of wonder and excitement dipped into your voice. “Is that what is in your coat?”
Curtis unzipped part of it and reached in to pull out a little ball of black fur. Now there was no holding you back as you skipped down the couple steps into the garage and tentatively brushed your fingers against the kitten in his palm, cooing softly. “Oh baby, you are so cute.” You scritched behind one little ear and couldn't stop the way you were grinning as the little kitten started to purr. “Where did he come from Curtis? Are you keeping him? Does he have a name? Is it a him or her?” You scooped the kitten into your palms, cuddling the little baby to your chest and started to bring it inside. “You must be starving. Let’s see what Curtis has for you.” Curtis was left behind without getting any answers to the questions you bombarded him with.
He followed you, pausing to shed off his boots and wet outer clothes to hang up and dry. “Found him under the truck trying to get out of the rain. I have no clue where he came from.” Once he had his jacket hung up and boots tilted near the heater vent to help dry them out, he followed you into the kitchen while you were searching his cupboards. “I have no idea if it’s a boy or girl, I have just been calling it him.” Curtis moved in behind you, going through his upper part of the cupboards while you searched through the bottom.
“Tuna? Or anything soft? He doesn't look all that old, can he even eat solids?” You fretted while the kitten clung to your sweater, staring wide eyed at all the surroundings.
“If I don’t have something to use, I will run out to the corner store and get him something.” Curtis pushed aside jars of salsa and canned veggies, scowling at his lack of acceptable food for the kitten. Then a little lonely can of tuna was found, and he grabbed it to hold it up in victory. “But this should work for tonight at least.”
“Perfect, I will get this baby all cleaned up and some food in that belly.” You peeled the kitten off your sweater and cupped him in your hands, finally getting a good look at Curtis. “You’re soaked.” Your free hand went to grab his shirt, squeezing it a bit to feel how damp it was. “I got this, how about you go dry out and get changed.”
“You sure you don’t want help?” Curtis questioned, although grateful for the chance to get out of his work clothes finally.
“Handsome I got this, please before you get chilled and sick.” You glanced at the oven to look at the timer. “That casserole still has a good forty-five minutes at least.
“Damn Pretty Girl, you're really taking care of me… us.” He added the kitten in your hold after a second thought, clasping onto your chin to tilt your face up a bit and place a kiss on your mouth, taking his time to draw out a soft whimper and sure your toes were curling at the affection. “Thank you.” He whispered before splitting away, making for the stairs, the upstairs shower and his bedroom calling his attention now.
His girl making herself right at home in his house, and damn he liked that just fine.
While Curtis went upstairs to clean up, you assessed the kitten in your hold. Big eyes blinked up at you before the loudest squeak came from his little pink mouth, protesting the lack of action you were doing. “Okay! Okay… how about a quick rinse in the sink? Get some of this mud off.”
The kitten didn't like that, protested the whole time you had him in the sink, the running water warm while you worked your fingers through his fur and holding onto his scruff. But you were quick, soon wrapping him into a hand towel and carefully fluffing him up till he looked like an little angry furball.
Setting him onto the floor, the kitten scampered to under the table, flicking each little paw one at a time as if being wet was his biggest worry. You rolled your eyes at him while a little pink tongue defiantly started licking at his chest. With a can opener in hand, you started to peel the tuna’s top open. “You know being clean and wet is much better then muddy and wet.” You squeezed some of the juice onto a saucer while also scooping out some of the meat. You were answered with a little cackle of a mew. “Oh? You agreeing with me?” You set the saucer well away from the table, knowing Curtis would be back down soon and not wanting the kitten underfoot. “Come on lil guy.” You coaxed for him, hoping the smell would bring him out.
It didn’t though, the kitten blinked at you from the shadows under the table and then resorted to cleaning himself once again. “Alright, suit yourself.” Your hands slapped on your knees and with a slight moan, you pushed yourself back to a stand.
“Hey, you okay?” Curtis asked as he came back into the kitchen, out of his wet clothes, freshly showered and looking more like himself. A black tee and his grey sweats were his current comfy clothes of choice, ones which you appreciated on many levels. Taking an appraising look, you let yourself sink into his arms finally, cuddling up to his chest for a moment to bury your face into the soft tee, his soap still strong smelling as you inhaled deeply. “Mmh, very. Just a bit sore from my workout today. I got him all washed, and some food out but he hasn’t come out from under the table.” You shrugged while leaning down enough to peek and see where the kitten was now.
“He will when he gets a whiff of it.” Curtis rubbed at your back, soothing his hand where he figured you might be a bit sore. “Me on the other hand, I'm starving. What’s cooking?”
“Cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole…” You pulled away to look in the oven. “And it's just about done.” When you turned back around, you found Curtis kneeling under the table with the little saucer of tuna, encouraging the kitten to eat.
Without saying anything, you turned the oven off and moved to the floor next to Curtis, both of you now feeding the little stray. He started voraciously eating the tuna off both of your fingers. After a few moments, you softly nudge Curtis’s shoulder. “What are we going to do with him tonight?”
It was such a soft sight for you to witness. Curtis holding out his large fingers for the kitten to nibble tuna off of, everything in him was about being as gentle as possible. “I can put him in the upstairs bathroom for now, make a bed for him in the tub in case he has an accident.”
“And then?” Your mouth twists at the thought of having to find him a new home.
“Then maybe contact the local ASPCA… see where to go from there.”
You nod in understanding, Curtis had never mentioned wanting pets in his home before. “I used to have a cat a long time ago. Her name was Friskey, although I called her Friskababes.” You finally stretched out to lay on your belly, Curtis doing the same next to you while you took turns feeding the kitten.
It didn't matter that dinner was cooling above you on the stove or if anyone walked into Curtis's house, they would find you two lying on the kitchen floor, heads under the table. You both were in your own little world, taking care of the kitten who was starting to slow down his feasting. Pink tongue wiping over his whiskers as he waddled now to Curtis, purring as he head-butted against his bearded chin affectionately. “I never had a cat before. I had an ex that did, every time I would go visit her place, the cat didn’t like me.”
You smirked while watching the scene before you, your arms folded and your head resting on them. The kitten was working on wedging himself into the neck of Curtis’s shirt, batting at his gold chain. “Yeah well, I think this one likes you, a lot. Guess it’s a good thing you're not with that ex anymore.”
“Well I like this one a lot more too.” Curtis admitted while the kitten curled up against the crook of his neck and shoulder, his little claws kneading into his tee shirt. “Both the cat and the partner.” He winked at you with a brilliant blue teasing glance, making you huff in a soft laugh.
“Smooth move Stud. You know…” You inched over closer to him, lifting enough to whisper into his ear. “Seeing you taking care of this helpless kitten… it is sexy as hell. Too bad you are too busy taking care of him to do anything about it.” You nipped at his ear lobe, giggling as you slipped out from under the table before Curtis could react.
“It is?” He couldn’t move out, not like you were able to with the now snoozing black bundle of fur cuddled up against his neck. But he wriggled out, cupping the little protesting kitten, scooping him up while he moved to stand, catching sight of you up the stairs. “Listen kid… You are gonna chill for a while? I got a sweet little Honey to tend to.” He lectured the kitten while making his way up the stairs. The kitten meowed loudly, either in protest for being bothered while napping or in understanding.
Curtis didn’t really care, he was just paying attention to you teasing from the door, peeking around it to watch him stalking down the upstairs hallway for you. You gave a bit of a pout. “You were supposed to take your time, you know, not wake the baby.”
“He is fine.” Curtis assured you, holding up the yawning little black mass that made up the kitten. In the corner of the room was a laundry basket full of his clean clothes, and he deposited the kitten into it before twisting to catch you, knowing you were getting ready to bolt out of reach. You laughed as he pulled you back into his chest, his mouth teasing against a sweet spot behind your ear. “Now tell me more about this sexy as hell business.”
His hands slid up the front of your shirt, cupping your breasts and teasing at your nipples through your bra. You wriggled against him, sure to push your ass against his groin. “You know what those sweatpants do to me.” You whined as your head tilted to the side, “My big giant of a boyfriend going all gentle and taking care of a kitten? That’s like right out of a book.”
His big hands squeezed your breasts, pulling just enough to make the tingles shoot through you, arching yourself into him for more of his touch. “Fuck Honey I love when you say shit like that.” He twisted you to face him and walk backwards to the bed, pulling up the shirt you wore right over your head and making you fall with a bounce onto his bed.
You wriggled up to give him room to follow, grinning at him while you worked your bra off. “Like what?”
Curtis hovered over you, his gaze now on your breasts, like he couldn't look away while a hand fondled one, pulling up over you enough so he could get his mouth on you. Dragging a nipple into his mouth, sensitive from his earlier teasing, it tightened against his tongue; the feeling of his hot wet mouth made you keen at the sensation, pulling and sucking on it until you scratched at the bed to grab the sheets. “When you call me your boyfriend. It’s like I’m yours and I love you for it.” He said after he popped your peak from his mouth, looking at you now, his gaze an intense sliver of blue and blown pupils, making your breath catch for a moment.
“You are mine and I am yours.” You took a moment to sink back onto the bed, catching your breath with a few deep gasps.
He rumbled from between your cleavage now, his tongue lavishing against your skin as he shifted down to kiss and nibble over your belly. “Well it’s a turn-on for me when you just call me yours, you know?” His fingers weren’t far, rubbing along your sides and down to your hips, shifting you more under him and sinking down over you while he stretched out to lay over your body.
You caught his chain to drag him closer, arching up to meet him and kiss him. Your tongue slipped to meet his and tangle till it turned lust-filled and frenzied. Curtis groaned against your mouth, hooking an arm around you and lifting the both of you till he was sitting back on his heels and you were wrapping your legs around his trim waist, in his lap to grind against him. “You are mine Curtis and I see all of you.” Your hands swept up his back and grasped the back of his neck to hold on while your hips rocked in his lap, pushing your sensitive center against him, moaning softly whenever he pressed up against you, making excited tingles race up your spine. “Not just the man who is ridiculously handsome with his rugged good looks and blue eyes that can melt the panties off anyone.” You felt him scoff a bit, but his lips pulled in a grin while he dipped back to your collarbone now, retrailing back to your breasts. Red crept up the back of his neck, a clear sign that he was affected by you.
He once again eased you onto the bed, looming over you before dropping his weight to push you into the mattress and trap you underneath him. Scratches of his beard against your sensitive skin made you wriggle underneath him while his weight continued to pin you in place. “But the side that loves his friends like family, treats me like a fucking goddess, stargazes, reads, takes in little stray kittens found under trucks.” Your voice went a bit higher with emotion while he mapped your body, not leaving an inch of your chest or belly unexplored.
It’s like the kitten knew he was being mentioned cause all of a sudden the little black ball poked his head up over the edge of the bed, meowing loudly in that cackle sound that made you both pause a second, then burst out laughing at how ridiculous it sounded in the middle of you two making out.
“Kid, you are busting in at the wrong time.” Curtis pulled himself off of you while the kitten kept scrambling up the side of the bed till it was tumbling across the mattress towards you both, his little tail straight up like an exclamation point. Before he could reach you two, Curtis got a hold of him and moved back. “Don’t go anywhere Pretty Girl. I’m not done with you.” Stiff legged, he moved his way across the bedroom and disappeared into the bathroom. You stretched a bit, patiently waiting till you heard Curtis lecturing the kitten. “Stay here, just go to sleep or something. Look a nice fluffy towel, courtesy of Honey.” He flickered on a nightlight and then eased out of the bathroom, using his foot to keep the kitten back till the door shut.
You pushed yourself up to your elbows, watching him as he turned on the balls of his feet, grabbing his shirt to pull it over his head. “Our guest is away for the moment.”
“Uh huh… that's why I can see little paws scratching under the door?” You pointed towards the floor, where sure enough black paws were stretching through that little space, and another little pitiful squeal pierced out.
“Shit…” Curtis used his toes to nudge at them. “Come on dude… just an hour, that's all we need.”
That had you laughing again, rolling in the bed till you could push yourself to the edge to find one of Curtis’s nearby shirts. “I know we were busy but…” You tugged it over your head, making Curtis scowl at the sight of you covering back up. “Let’s pick this up later? It’s obvious he doesn’t want to be in there and he is not at all tired.”
“Cock blocked by a cat…” He grumbled a bit as he opened the door and the kitten shot right out, landing at your feet in a tangle of limbs.
“Didn’t you say you were starving?” You pointed out as you reached Curtis, running your hands up his chest and hooking your hands around the back of his neck. “Cause I do gotta take care of that casserole downstairs still.”
It was the most opportune moment that his stomach protested, making you arch a brow that you were indeed correct. “Fine! Fine, this is on pause. Just for now.” His hands cupped your face and kissed you, a quick fast one, no lingering, no turning into something more. “But I’m certainly not finished with you.”
“I don’t ever expect you to be.” You winked at him, before reaching to take one of his hands and lead him back downstairs. Behind the two of you the kitten followed, bouncing down each step till he bypassed both of them and trotted into the downstairs living room like it was all his.
A couple of days turned into a couple of weeks and the kitten was still at Curtis’s house. Slowly food bowls, a cat box and some toys appeared. You took the little black kitten to the vet, whom he hissed and swiped his little sharp claws at. The vet confirmed that he was a male kitten and just barely old enough to have been separated from his mother.
You explained how Curtis found him and that Curtis had gone back the next day searching for more, but he only found him. You lined up for the appropriate shots and left with the understanding to the staff that you weren’t sure if you or Curtis would be keeping him. It made your heart ache though, thinking about bringing him to a shelter to be adopted by someone else.
Even though as a kitten, he had the best chance at someone taking him. You just didn't want to let the little kitten go, even when he was yowling in the car the whole ride back to Curtis’s after the appointment.
Curtis was sure to meet you outside when you arrived back, grabbing the cat carrier before you were able to and carrying it inside. “What did they say about him?”
“He is definitely a boy, so we're correct in calling the little fluffer a boy. He is about ten weeks old… just barely able to leave his mom and he is a bit malnourished but to just keep him on the food we are using and he will be just fine.” You shrugged out of your jacket once inside and Curtis sprang the door open, the kitten dashing out and glaring at both of you over his shoulder for being trapped in the carrier, flicking his tail at you two. “And… the vet wanted to know what name they should put on the file and if we're going to keep him.”
It was out there now, were you guys going to keep this kitten? Curtis’s brow came together in thought, glancing back at the kitten who now was checking out the stainless steel food bowls Curtis bought last week along with the rather expensive bag of kitten food that he insisted on, claiming it would help the ‘Kid’ get some meat on his bones. “What did you say?”
“I said that I had to talk to you, considering if we kept him, he has to stay here. My little apartment doesn't allow pets of any kind. I’m almost shocked they haven't bitched about Peter my spider plant.” You said jokingly.
“Well… I guess that leaves just one thing to do about him, then doesn't it.” Curtis stated so solemnly that your heart sank. He didn’t want a kitten here, you were sure of it. What if it destroyed his stuff or became a problem? You could almost hear your ex’s disgusted voice when you once mentioned that you missed having a pet. What would you want an animal in the house for? They just make messes and cost money. Jake had made up for his callous remark by buying you a goldfish, stuffing it in a goldfish bowl that you immediately got rid of, and bringing the fish to your parent's house with a proper tank since you knew that the tank would just be another issue for Jake to press on. Your goldfish was still happily living there, having gotten big and beautiful in the few years they have had him.
A cat was a bigger responsibility than a goldfish and you were preparing yourself for Curtis to say he was going to take him to the adoption center.
“What do we name him?” He asked, his arms folding over his chest as he stared at the kitten, studying him. “I know I have been calling him Kid, but he needs something better than that.”
“You- you mean it? You want to keep him?”
“Honey, he was ours from that first night I brought him home. He is family now, the little punk. Besides, I would be worrying myself over who took him home if we didn’t.”
You felt such a rush of relief that you flung yourself at Curtis, who caught you with a surprised grunt, your hug around him turning fierce. “I love you so damn much, thank you for wanting to keep him.”
His arms wrapped around you, pulling you in against him just as tightly and pressing his mouth to your forehead affectionately. “I would be such an asshole if I just tossed him away, this house is plenty big enough for him to terrorize.” He eased you back a bit to look down at you. “And you know once Sophia sees him, that he would have to stay anyways, as if she is ever gonna let him leave. So… names?”
“Damn, I don’t know… I tried not to think of names, so I wouldn’t get attached. Um, Midnight?”
“Same… although calling him Kid kinda ruined that. Hmm, Onyx?” Curtis threw out there.
“Nah, makes me think of Pokémon too much.”
“Coal?” He shrugged a bit, throwing another black cat name out.
“Cinders?”
“What about Salem? He acts like that sassy cat on Sabrina.”
“You watched Sabrina, the nineties version?” You asked, having loved that show yourself.
“Sure, Ella loved it and I would watch it on TGIF night. Hey Salem, come here.” Curtis called but the kitten curled up in a window, sunbathing and ignoring the two of them.”Guess not.”
You two just kept throwing out names that seemed fitting for black cats, but none of them seemed to fit the little bundle of terror.
You both went on with the day, as you went to meet up with Claude at the school to help her with a quick project and Curtis went over to Paulie’s to do some late afternoon bartending.
It was later when you finally got to Paulies, patrons already getting rowdy at a baseball game Paulie had on the overhead tv.
You scanned quickly, but their was no Curtis in sight. “Hey Paulie, where’s Curtis hiding?”
“Out back Y/N.” He pulled the bar section up enough for you to duck through. “Make sure he swings back out for his tips before you guys leave for the night. You know, if you ever want a part time job, I can easily hook you up. You’re a lot nicer then Curtis, you'll make way more tips.”
You rolled your eyes at Paulie as you hip checked through the door out back. “I doubt I would make more tips.”
Paulie shook his head as he watched you walk away, tsking to himself. “That girl doesn’t even know that everyone loves her.” He sighed as he went back to refill mugs and take food requests.
You worked your way towards the rear of the building where the backstock was kept, catching sight of Curtis and Edgar lining up to throw axes in the indoor designated area. You could see Yona standing back, watching their form. Edgar went first, his lean body flexing with strength as he leaned into his throw, making his axe spin rapidly with a heavy thunk into the target, almost at the bullseye. Yona gave a victory whoop and you had to add in your own claps of approval, making him spin in surprise at the extra praise. “Throw those last two, if you keep throwing like that, you should be captain of the team.”
Edgar gave a shrug, finally turning back to set himself back up. “I wouldn’t know first thing about being a team captain.” He went again, able to accurately eyeball it, this time the axe embedded on the opposite side, leaving inches between the two and the bullseye right in the middle.
Curtis swung his own, close to the middle, but not with the accuracy of Edgar’s throw. He scoffed at Edgar’s words, sure to cross his arms over his chest and study both the targets. “Man, why the hell not? You are obviously good at this, you are doing better then any of us and the whole team was your idea. Why not be the captain of it when we start competing this summer.”
Edgar let go of his last one, both the men watching as it landed right in the middle with a heavy thud, all three almost perfectly lined up. You and Yona cheering and clapping, making Edgar blush wildly. “I don’t, I never…” He stammered a bit, unsure of how to answer.
Curtis was blunt with him while he started preparing for his next throw. “Man, you gotta stop thinking the worst of yourself. Look at where you are now compared to months ago.” His arm curled over his head and he gave a powerful thrust, leaning into the move. The axe landed heavily into the board, making it wobble slightly and then straighten back out. “Don’t sit there and think you can’t before you even try. All of us think you can. Look.” Curtis motioned behind him back towards Yona and you who were now pouring drinks from a pitcher, lost in conversation. “They clearly think you're hot stuff, cheering at that last throw? Grey and I think you’re the man for the job. Now the question is, do you wanna be captain?”
Edgar was looking for an answer, but with an impatient arch of Curtis’s brow he stammered out “Yes, yeah… yeah I can do it.”
Curtis gave a nod of agreement. “Good man.” Then twisted to toss his remaining axe, sinking it into the target.
You and Yona were watching the guys in what looked like a heated conversation, but weren’t making out much of what they were saying. Yona furrowed her brow worried. “You think everything is okay?”
You glanced up at them while filling the mugs. “Sure, no one is being dragged out and no one is yelling. They are fine. Tell me about your date last night?” You really weren't sure, but if no one was looking like they were about to throw a punch, you figured it was probably fine. Curtis was pretty relaxed looking for the most part, his attention divided between talking to Edgar and focusing on the targets.
Those were your favorite moments, because damn he just looked so masculine in his throws. The way his body would flex and tense the muscles in his shoulders and back, leading down to his ass. You started to let yourself imagine what that would all look naked? Wide shoulders that tapered down to a slimmer waist, he had a stunning back, you knew cause you'd admired it whenever he took his shirt off.
“Then he surprised me with one of those midnight openings at this bookstore in the city.” Your attention turned back to Yona, who had a faraway dreamy look recalling her night before.
“Sounds pretty incredible, the bookstore especially.” You were quick to take a sip of your beer, trying to cover for the fact that you were daydreaming instead of listening to your friend, but now you were making sure to pay attention. “I would have loved that myself.”
“I know they do it every couple of months.” She yanked out her phone and started typing on it. “Let me send you the link. What were you and Curtis up to?”
You let your gaze drift back to the guys, now they were both laughing while wandering to the targets to grab the axes. “Well I took that black kitten this morning to the vet for a checkup, see if he needed anything. That opened up a convo about are we keeping him.”
“And? I know you have fallen for him.” Yona inquired while she put her phone back away. “He would be a nice addition if you are ready for a pet.”
“I wanted to, but my apartment is no pets allowed. I had myself all set for Curtis to say no… but he said absolutely he wanted to keep him.” Your grin spread, the way he had shocked you was still making your heart clench in excitement. “Now we need a name!”
“Oh the best part.” Yona pressed on, waving a hand for you to continue. “What’s his name gonna be?”
“Don’t know yet, every name we thought of that seemed to fit neither of us agreed on.” It was like a light bulb went off in your head and suddenly you were kicking yourself for not thinking of it earlier. “But! I think I have it. Give me a second.” Before Yona could question you, you headed over to where Curtis was set his axes down, ready to take a break.
“Hey Pretty Girl.” His blue eyes shifted over you and a sultry grin crossed his lips.
“I got it!” You bypassed your typical flirty answer, too excited at the moment.
Curtis’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Got what Honey?”
“The name, our kitten’s name. What about Thackery Binx? Or just one of the names, doesn’t have to be the whole thing. From Hocus Pocus.”
He looked thoughtful while considering it. “Why the hell didn’t we think of that before? It’s perfect.” His arms scooped around you, tugging you in close. “How about just Binx if you're okay with that? I like it more for him.”
You nodded with enthusiasm. “I like it too, so I think he will. He looks like a Binx.”
#life is short so make it sweet#curtis everett x reader#Curtis everett and reader#curtis everett x you#curtis everett and you#curtis everett x plus sized reader#Curtis Everett and plus sized reader#curtis everett#curtis everett fanfiction#chris evans characters#amber writes#sweater writes
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Weekly Pond Newsletter
It's Fishing For Treasures weekend here at the Pond, and this month we're celebrating Gen Fics!! Our queue this weekend is full of fics without porn. No smut here! Just wholesome fluff, angst, and at most, implied smut. Celebrating the little joys in life! Or maybe the little angtsy feels that make you want to crawl under your desk and ugly cry. Here's a gif that feels fluffy until you realize how many times Dean died in this episode and how it crushed Sam's spirit. 🤣
Old Business:
Secret Santa Fic Exchange - Signups have closed, so now it's down to Michelle and Marie to match people up. Well, it's down to Michelle to study the list like that guy with the corkboard full of red string and to Marie to keep telling Michelle, "You're making this way harder than it needs to be, I think." 🤣 Either way, we'll have everyone matched up in a few days, and then someone will contact everyone on the list with their person. FYI - Matches will not be reciprocal, so the person you get will not be the person who has you unless you both require the same rarest of rare pairs. 🤣
Last week's #TweetFicTues prompts -
New Business:
Manta Ray chats in the Discord server - There will be THREE chats in the server this week! On Monday, Laili will be chatting from noon to 1pm EST, followed by Arthur from 1pm to 3pm EST. Then, on Wednesday, Admin MJ will be hanging out at 7:30pm EST!
SPN Rewatch: FanFic Edition - Next Saturday at 5pm EST will be the next rewatch chat! We will be discussing episodes 3.11 Mystery Spot and 3.12 Jus in Bello. These are some pivotal scenes in season three, so I'm sure we're going to have a ton to talk about!!
Jason Manns on Stageit - Jason will be performing online on Stageit on Tuesday at 11am EST! This is his first online show in a very long time, so it's a must-see. (Admin Michelle has an appointment at that time, so will not be seeing it, and the FOMO is real, guys.)
(Divider by @glygriffe!)
That’s all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! Click here for a static view in Eastern US/Canada time (desktop only, no mobile app access, sadly), and click here to add our calendar to your own Google calendar! We try to keep it as up-to-date as possible. If there’s something you want to see on the calendar that’s not there (maybe a convention we missed, cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!
Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @heavenssexiestangel, and @spn-fanfic-reblog-writes!
#weekly events post#michelle answers#pond admin#long post#spn fan fiction#spn fanfiction#spn fan fic#spn fanfic#supernatural fan fiction#supernatural fan fic#supernatural fanfiction#supernatural fanfic#dean winchester#sam winchester#castiel#the winchesters#spnwin#spn prequel#john winchester#mary winchester#carlos cervantes#latika desai#pond events#supernatural#fan fiction#fanfiction#fan fic#fanfic
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This week’s writer spotlight feature is: @oh-stars! ohstars has 91 fics in the Stranger Things fandom and 69 of them are in the Steddie tag!
@lady-lostmind recommends the following works by @oh-stars:
Fuck. I Think I Love You.
The Men We've Become (Series)
Yours (all along)
Hidden Depths
Distance
"ohstars has a way of making heartache feel so good. Every time I read one of their fics I know I'm in for something special, and will inevitably go through a wide range of emotions while I'm brought along for a ride with the characters. I love the way they show so much through small details, letting the characters actions speak for themselves a lot of the time and the insight you get as a reader when you catch glimpses of the story even the character hasn't realized yet and getting to watch them grow throughout the story. They have a way of showing the beauty in the little moments, and letting you linger in the sweet in-between of big points, letting the story build on itself slowly." -- @lady-lostmind
Below the cut, @oh-stars answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!
Why do you write Steddie?
I think a lot of my ships boil down to Golden Retriever x Stoic Character. Add in that I adore when there’s a character who would sacrifice themselves to an inch of survival (if that) that gets the love and comfort they deserve, Steddie hits the spot. I’ve always been a big Steve fan but none of the ships prior to season four really inspired anything in me. And it took a minute for Steddie to click (which I think is the case for a lot of us, volume two just hit different), but when it did, there was no going back. I really enjoy exploring their relationship within the universe and everything that comes with – from sexuality crises, coming out, saving the world, and Stobin struggling with Steve liking a gremlin of a man. They just love each other so freakin much, y’all.
What’s your favorite trope to READ?
Misunderstandings, hurt/comfort, and kidfic are all tied as my favorites. It’s hard to pick just one because it really depends on my mood, but a good hurt/comfort is always the vibe.
What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?
Slow burn. It’s kind of a cop out answer because it can be used in any fic and with any trope, but I love the build up.
What’s your favorite Steddie fic?
I read so much that I don’t know if I have one fic that’s my all time favorite. Bandaids for the Heart by LexiRoseWrites and Steve’s First Bruise by cairparavels are ones I think about pretty often.
Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?
I’ve been toying with a royal au in my head for months, if not a year now. I just haven’t nailed the plot yet to want to put some real effort behind it. Once I have a better idea of the story, I can’t wait to dive in.
What is your writing process like?
Up in the air at the moment. It changes a lot over time. Something will work really well for a few months, then suddenly it doesn’t. Most of the time, I can’t seem to write unless I’m sprinting. Usually that’s a solo sprint, but I love writing with other people. I do a little light plotting ahead of time, then let the characters take the reins… which is probably why I hit so many walls throughout a fic.
Do you have any writing quirks?
I don’t know if I have any quirks that are unique to myself. I’m very particular about my format when writing. I can’t write without it being double spaced, times new roman, 12 pt, and justified, which is 100% a product of schools enforcing that format for projects. And I have a hard time actually sitting down to write without the help of writing games like sprints and the word game. Otherwise, I don’t do much editing? I do the bare minimum and post… which isn’t ideal. That’s the opposite of what I’d advise.
Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?
I would love to be someone who can post on a schedule consistently, but it rarely happens. Usually I can only succeed with that when a fic is a part of an event, otherwise I always get behind on my schedule.
Which fic are you most proud of?
You carved the space for my sadness to be seen for once (hold on to me) has a very special place in my heart. Out of my Steddie fics, it’s probably the one that I hold most dear, but I’m incredibly proud of The Man That I Could Be. It’s taken a lot for me to be proud of that one, but it was a whirlwind of an experience. I still go back to it and can’t really believe I wrote it to begin with, even though I have vivid memories of writing some of those scenes.
How did you get the idea for Yours (all along)?
I had an initial idea of doing a teacher AU but also wanted to explore lavender marriage Stobin, so I just… ran with it. I didn’t know where I was going in that first chapter’s first draft, just let Eddie’s voice take over. The plot and idea formed the more he revealed to me, with a few standout points acting as markers to get me through.
When writing Yours (all along), what was something you didn’t expect?
I didn’t expect my big bang artist m0momercy to be inspired by as many scenes as they were! Whenever I write a big bang or event fic, I’m very aware of which scenes I think would be visually compelling versus ones that would be harder to create for. I may dabble in art, but I don’t consider myself an artist, so it really took me by surprise that they were able to take the most random (but beloved – that scare scene is everything to me) scenes and create magic out of my words. I adore them and their work (please go check them out!!), so it was really great getting the honor to work with them on this project.
What inspired Hidden Depths?
This one was based on a prompt for @steddiesummerexchange. I had been wanting to do a nerd Steve fic, so this was the perfect opportunity to explore what that would look like!
What was your favorite part to write from Fuck. I Think I Love You.?
The playlist!! imfinereallyy created the playlist for @strangerthingsreversebigbang and the art to go along with it, so I had the opportunity to create a story around their song choices. I listened to that playlist exclusively (rip my spotify history on that one) while writing it, tried to find new ways to interpret the songs and incorporate them into the fic, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
How do/did you feel writing The Men We've Become?
Honestly, it’s a blur. The first 100k of The Man That I Could Be was written in a month, with the rest over the next few months. It’s a beast of a fic, the longest I’ve ever written. When I think back on that time, I genuinely think something possessed me when writing. I was sitting down and knocking out 5k writing sessions almost daily, tapping into depths I wasn’t really sure I had. It’s kind of insane to me that I finished it.
What was the most difficult part of writing Distance?
I wrote this fic as a part of @steddielovemonth and was doing my own 90-Day writing challenge. Honestly, the hardest part was remembering this was a writing exercise to see a snapshot of Steve and Eddie’s relationship, rather than a longer fic. I wanted it to have the feel of a longer work with the satisfaction of a one-shot. Keeping it short and in the moment, not letting myself get lost in the tangents, and having the fic have a grounded feel was really important to me so I’d hope that I was able to succeed there.
Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?
I know there are lines that I’m proud of but for the life of me, I could not tell you what they are or where to find them. My two favorite scenes that come to mind though are the opener scene in you carved the space for my sadness to be seen for once (hold on to me) and the scene in chapter four of The Man That I Could Be – aka Steve’s breakdown/grief scene.
Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?
Oh gosh. I do plan on writing again soon, with a few FandomTrumpsHate fics coming out by the end of the year and new chapters of you carved the space for my sadness to be seen for once (hold on to me) coming soon. Otherwise, I mod a lot of things! @steddiebingo sign ups start November 1st and @steveharringtonbigbang starts January 1st!
Thank you to our author, @oh-stars, and our nominator, @lady-lostmind! See more of ohstars's works featured on our page throughout the day!
Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!
#writer's spotlight#writer's wednesday#steddie#steddie fic recs#steve harrington#eddie munson#steve x eddie#stranger things#ao3 writer#steddie writers
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