#write and or use & or a plus sign or the little 3 with lines on top and bottom

[beiasluv]

heyyy so i was thinking what would happen if neteyam went to jake for advice on how to ask the reader out, i just thought it'll be a cute moment :) you don't have to write it if u don't want to, completely up to u 💓

have a lovely day gorgeous 🫶

a father’s advice? neteyam x reader

a/n: that’s actually so cute / ye grammar mistake cuz I’m too potato / hope you enjoy, gorgeous gorgeous girl 🤍

masterlist

saying who’s got the most rizz in the family is hard, their blood is strong. but one thing neteyam can’t deny, is that his father is the original rizz

how did he managed to pulled off neytiri? he don’t fucking know. the daughter of the chief while he is a ‘dreamwalker’ to them? he got them rizz

neteyam, being the golden child he is, is determined to follow his father’s footsteps.

and who else could he ask advice from? lo’ak? nope, that boy would never miss a chance to make fun of him, if he would go for his assistant. plus, he got rizzed up by tsireya, he down real bad.

kiri? nah, she has her own world and neteyam respects that. letting her be her free-spirited self would be the best option.

spider 👁️👁️ what does that boy know? does he even have a girlfriend? *ahem* i guess we’ll never know. he got the lowest rizz game in the family, with all due respect from neteyam.

tukkk, SHE IS A MINOR AND A CHILD.

neytiri? i guess? bet she would be more of a pain in the ahh if he would go to her for advice. being a mom she is, she would definitely judge neteyam’s crush and all of his dream would crash down. no, we don’t want that.

jake, it is.

but how? how to make it the least awkward to approach his dad about stuff like this?

he tried to give his dad signals and signs everyday but he doesn’t seem to pick them up. he even started to doubt if his dad is the real player, cuz them boy is clueless😭

“dad?”

“yes?” jake replied with his back facing neteyam.

“how do you er…like send a sign?”

“neteyam, i thought we went over this already,” he sighed. “press your collar when speaking, and say ‘over’ when you are done talking”

“oh!” he scratched his neck. “okay, sorry, dad.”

neteyam was hopeless 😭 but to get a girl, he can’t just give up easily

he tried again, now, with a little help from his sister

“dad,” he walked quietly into the marui where his dad is resting.

“what?” he grumbled.

“erm…last time…when…” his words fumbled around each other, while kiri came into the marui.

“when what? get to the point,” he shifted the blanket off his chest and sat up.

“dad, he is asking you how to ask a girl out,” she said nonchalantly as she looked through the drawer. “you’re welcome, bro,” with a swift of her tail, she was out the door.

“oh, well,” jake chuckled loudly. “have i heard correctly?”

“well, yea..yes.”

“c’mere, son,” he patted the mattress. “let me show you.”

jake would be so proud. he would laugh uncontrollably for like 10 minutes cause neteyam got him worried there.

but his son ask, he will reveal

“now, welcome to “the way of rizz 101” class with jake sully,” he joking said. “there are many ways to ask a girl out, alright, but there is a main pattern you must look out for.”

“number 1: set the mood. it is the most important, alright?” he ruffled neteyam’s locks. “you could never go wrong with setting the mood, look for spots, lighting, and the feels.” “guess where we got down, the tree of souls, yeah, magic, am i righ-“

“ew dad, please.”

“okay, listen to the experts, son,” he laughed. “number 2: make it personal, PER-SO-NAL”

“yes, i understand, I’m not dumb”

“no, son, it’s really important. don’t reuse your letters, never get her the same gift. DO NOT never ever use the same pick up line. AND definitely do not use the same pattern for every girl.” (amen to deja-vu from olivia rodrigo, guys)

“number 3: be yourself,” he patted his son back. “don’t be afraid, if she doesn’t accept your offer, don’t let it consume you.”

“how can i do that?” he retorted.

“what is she like?”

“she is the only girl i have ever laid my eyes on and they were stuck! can’t imagine even just one other girl that i have felt the same feelings i am feeling right now.”

“that’s the spirit, atta boy,” he chuckled. “then, i pray for eywa that this is the way.” “eywa will show you the way if she is the one for you,” he smiled softly.

“and a honorable mention, do not ever make a girl cry over your stupid mistakes, alright?”

“how would i know?”

“you would feel it, respect her, respect her as a goddess, hell yeah, adore her, like eywa,” he added. “she is gentle but deadly, the spirit of life. always ask for consent, always. when you are mated for life, you both become equal.”

“let her guide you, and let you guide her,” he held his palms together as one. “now, how to rizz a girl up is not useful without your effort,” he patted his son’s head and pushed him up.

“go get the girl, atta boy!”

today is a great day to go touch grass 😳 i mean- take care of yourself 🤍

@rosaryos / @bumblinbumblvee / @loudcolorwolfgarden / @nyotamalfoy / @fangirl-2610 / @astablacksword / @lokisblueskin

[starsurface]

Hi, hello, how are you? I hope you’re good. :3.

I love your writing and I was hoping you could do a CG Kung Lao, Rain and Kenshi (separate) with a regressor reader? Just some head cannons or something like that Tehehe have a good day sending virtual snackies 🍦🍪🍩🍭🍫🍬

Hi!!! I'm doing good!! How about you? I hope your doing well!! <3

And thank you for the snacks!! I'm on a weight loss program (not diet), and I miss being able to freely have those things.

Sending some to you as well!! 🍓🎂🍬🍿🍨

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

CG Kung Lao w/ Regressor Hcs

🍖 Very exciting CG!!!

🍖 He makes sure to spoil you with affection, whether that’s blowing raspberries on your cheek, or reminding you about how cute/handsome you are!!

🍖 Very good CG with playtime!!! Very fluent too!

🍖 Bigger kids that like running around, playing hopscotch, wrestling? Sign him up!! That sounds like a blast!!

🍖 Little/calming activities, such as building blocks, blowing bubbles, or pattycake? That sounds fun! Do you wanna sit outside on a blankie and play too?

🍖 Very big on getting some outside time, and will take you to his (Raiden’s) small personal garden so you don’t feel too uncomfy being small in public (unless you really don’t want to, he won’t force you)

🍖 He gets very sad if your sad or regress negatively

🍖 His main goal is to cheer you up, even if he has to act like a funky monkey and do a money dance to get you to giggle :(

🍖 Then he’ll cuddle you, put on your favorite cartoon, and get you a whole bucket of your favorite ice cream

🍖 His main mission is to make sure your happy and giggling

🍖 Kung Lao’s strong, and he wants you to know it

🍖 How? Easy! He’ll just carry you everywhere!! :D

🍖 After all, why would you need to walk when your Big Strong Lao is right here? 💪

🍖 This works great if your more of a dependant or clingy regressor!! But if your more of an independant regressor, just tell him and he’ll die down

🍖 I’m not going to make Kung Lao’s entire personality (My Baby’s much more than that) but he’ll make you a food/chore chart!!! Especially if you have difficulties doing these things, both big and little

🍖 ^ And you get a reward at the end of the week!!! :D (and don’t worry about a couple of slip ups effecting your reward, accidents happen sometimes)

🍖 No touching his hat, it’s a big no no

🍖 Well . . . maybe you can touch it

🍖 But he has to put a protecting rubbering on the blades!!! You could get really hurt, and just cause you wanna look cool just like Lao, doesn’t mean you should put your safety will be put on the line

🍖 You can’t throw it either, it’s also a big no no :(

🍖 He’s very good with regressors that use padding!!

🍖 In past games, it’s hinted that the Kung Family is decently big (hyposithis, but still), plus he also has Kung Jin as a nephew/cousin depending on the timeline, so he probably has some brothers/sisters of some sort

🍖 He’ll blow raspberries on your tummy, or jingle keys above you, trying to make sure your not too embarrassed <3

🍖 Kung Lao’s a big competitive, but he’ll always make sure to let you win

🍖 It might hurt his ego a bit (lot), but you look so happy when you run the race!! Or when your car was faster!! 🥺

🍖 He loves arguing with you, especially if you babble, thinks sassy babies are adorable

🍖 Also . . . he’s arguing with a toddler, and he finds the loosing battle highly entertaining

🍖 Favorite CG nicknames are Lao, Lao-Lao, and Papa

🍖 Calls you many nicknames!! Pumpkin, Sweetie, Little One, Aweseome

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

CG Rain w/ Regressor Hcs

💧 Very calm CG

💧 His favorite activity is cuddling with you after a long day

💧 He also likes preforming magic shows though!!

💧 Normally Rain huffs about using his powers for ‘silly’ things

💧 But if his baby wants a water show? . . . How could he say no? They just wanna see how cool their Dada is, obviously!!

💧 He’ll make some water form into little shapes, like stars or fishies swimming by

💧 He becomes very proudful and happy when you giggle and awe, telling him about how awesome he (his magic) is!! 🥺

💧 Your not allowed to touch his staff though, that’s his staff :(

💧 He’s also a bit worried you’ll break it by accident, especially if your tiny tiny or a little ruckus

💧 He’s actually really good with hyper littles!!

💧 He keeps you somewhat in line, chasing after you if your running around, or atleast keeping you close by

💧 He won’t help in your pranks though >:(

💧 In fact, he won’t even save you from the scolding you might get from the person you pranked!! >:O

💧 You wanted to prank them, you’ve gotta have your own consequences :(

💧 ^ . . . He’ll give you candy or something after because he feels bad if you got in trouble . ..  And he’ll probably end up saving you from a big lecture

💧 Your his baby, only he can lecture you >:(

💧 He’s also really good with younger or calmer littles!!!

💧 Hopscotch, tag, and those games can be very fun!!

💧 But he’s also content with cuddling or having you on his lap

💧 He’ll even take you out to the royal gardens and help you watch the little froggies!!!

💧 Outside time is important to him, but he’s also very content staying inside too

💧 He has a really nice bookshelf!! . . . That your not allowed to touch >:\

💧 He likes it organized, and they’re mostly boring magic books

💧 ^ But he’ll get some children books for your!! Whether it’s those baby books, or some simple chapter books (that he’ll read to you, or in his freetime so he can talk to you about it)

💧 Favorite CG nicknames are Dada, Bubba, and Rainy

💧 Guys, I wanna call him Fishy 🥺

💧 I think it’d be a really good nickname for him and all he’d give you as a reaction would be 😑, which totally means he likes it cause he’s not lecturing you!! :D

💧 . . . And your giggles/smiles after calling him that make up for you being mean to him

💧 Favortie nicknames for you are Button, Lovebug, Sweetheart, Little One

💧 ^ Rascal if your more energetic (lovingly of course)

💧 If your okay with it, I can see him playfully calling you a brat (also lovingly, and when you’ve done something naughty but not super naughty)

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

CG Kenshi w/ Regressor Hcs pt 2

❤️ Protective Dada, you’re always within his reach

❤️ And even when your not, he’ll keep a close eye on you

❤️ Again, super good with a lot of ages!

❤️ Middles that want to sit down and watch TV or talk about their favorite band, he’s up for a nice chat (and is really good at treating you your age!!!)

❤️ Bigger kids that want to run around and play chase? He’s gonna make you a leash kid 😮‍💨 (lovingly of course)

❤️ Toddler that wants to make bracelets? He’ll wear them with pride!! And he’s good at tieing the knots at the end!!

❤️ Baby that just wants to cuddle up to him? How about you sit on Dada’s lap while he helps you color your picture?

❤️ Any kind of pet regressor? Well, he can play ug-a-war, or have you lazy on him or his coat!!

❤️ Guys, I dunno about you, but his voice makes me feel really tiny 🥺

❤️ ^ He’d use that to his advantage, softly talking to you on a particularly bad day so you’ll feel smaller faster

❤️ He’s also got a really good ‘Knock that off’ stern voice :(  (Similar to Nightwolf, they can both be really scary when they wanna)

❤️ Not that he purposely scares you!!! He only uses the voice when he really has to, he enverw ants his baby to be scared of him

❤️ If you use padding, and he’s using Sento, he’s very good at it!!!

❤️ He’s trying to learn how to change you without Sento (he’s not the best, but he’s getting good at it!!)

❤️ When he got blinded, he struggled with some activities and watching over you in general, but he also made sure to reassure you that he wanted to watch after you and you shouldn’t feel ashamed being small

❤️ It’s just a process of reworking and figuring some things out

❤️ Yes, he can see with Sento, and he mainly does, but he’s also working on not being hinder on it

❤️ His tattoos are pretty filled in from what it looks like, but if you wanna take a makeup brush and make him your personal canvas, he’ll let you (he finds it cute)

❤️ Kenshi knows how to cook, and he’d make your favorite little meals!! Whether they’re extragevent, or just some dino nuggies he can pop into the stove

❤️ No, you cannot help him, you might get burned and he doesn’t want you injured

❤️ He will let you sit on the stove nearby though!! Maybe you can pass him some seasonings (if you can read them correctly)

❤️ His chuckle when you hand him the wrong one, redirecting you to the right one as he calls you Silly 🥺

❤️ He won’t let you have unlimited candy because he’s mean >:(

❤️ And he doesn’t want your blood sugars to go too high or low, nor does he want to give you a tummy ache

❤️ Other nicknames he likes calling you are Little Lamb, Sweetheart, Tiny, Angel, Bunny

❤️ ^ I’m really set on him calling you Precious 🥺 (it’s his favorite nickname for you)

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Ugh, I love all these characters so much. 🥺

[irelandking]

avenger/agent reader fic recs

bucky barnes x reader

❤️ = fluff 😔 = angst 🔥 = smut 📱 = social media au

multiparts/series:

single bed - @sebbymylove16

Part 2 & Part 3 You and Bucky have to share a single bed on a mission and it prompts him to say what’s been on his mind for a while ❤️

sly as a fox - @sunmoonandeddie

Part 1 (master list links are broken)

After the blip, the Avengers continue on with business as usual.  But they soon find out that while they were away, someone took it upon themselves to do the job they left behind. ❤️📱

catch me - @buckyywiththegoodhair

In which a bet leads Bucky to have to catch you every day for a week, no matter what. ❤️😔

honey and the bee - @chrevastan

One sleepless night brings you to the large communal kitchen at the Avengers Compound. Fully furnished and equipped but barely used, you decide to give the room a little culinary love. Little did you know, your new hobby would bring you some special moments with your friends and opportunities to get to know the newest addition to your team—Bucky Barnes. [chef!reader, baker!reader, avenger!reader, t: enemies-to-lovers] ❤️😔

10 signs an introvert likes you - @andyl394

Bucky wasn’t the type of guy to show his feelings and neither were you the one to notice subtle things, until you come across this video; A guidance that may help you discover rather The Winter Soldier likes you or not. ❤️

mirror for the sun - @imhereforbvcky

Nat tricks you into leading a road trip with Bucky, Sam and Steve. Her plot is partly to get the boys to travel for fun for once but mostly to get you and Bucky together. You and Bucky, who seemingly despise each other. ❤️😔

guiding light - @wkemeup

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Get the intel and go home. Until everything goes wrong and you’re taken captive by Hydra. While you struggle to stay alive and hold your sanity, Bucky begins to lose himself to a darkness and gives into the soldier because he doesn’t know how to breathe without you. Not until he brings you home. If he even can. 😔

deadcrush - @heli0s-writes

Part 2 & Part 3 Deadcrush, a game played based on the question “what historical figure would I want to take on a date if they were alive today?” ❤️

best boyfriend you never had - @language-rxgers

When you find out your sister is getting married and expects you to bring a date to her wedding in two months, you panic, having not gone on so much as a coffee date with a guy in far too long. After all, being an Avenger doesn’t leave too much time for a life outside of work. So, when your best friend, none other than the James Buchanan Barnes himself, offers to pretend to be your boyfriend and plus one, how can you refuse? It seems like something that would come out of a movie. However, real life is never like the movies, and stories like this never go as planned. ❤️😔

the coupon book - @tuiccim

12 part series each part a sexy coupon being used 🔥

play pretend - @wkemeup

part 2 When Bucky is injected with a substance that leaves him desperate for release, you offer your help. But once that line is crossed, Bucky’s not sure he can ever go back. (sex pollen) 🔥

almost had me believing it - @tuiccim

An undercover operation playing Bucky Barnes’ wife is a dream come true. Playing house in the suburbs while trying to take down a drug ring brings you and Bucky closer but a nosy neighbor causes trouble in paradise. ❤️😔🔥

[certaincollectionlandblog]

Another Disney Trip with Mick Schumacher

*Disclaimer: I use Y/N and reader, but when I write this in my mind I see her as a tall plus size gal (mainly because that's my personal body type), but also because I really see Mick doing amazing with a woman like that. If there is anything I write that doesn't apply to you feel free to leave it out and like always feedback is always appreciated and loved!

Photos from Pinterest

- After your first trip to Disney World with Mick he may have fallen in love with the magic of the mouse as well as he loved seeing how happy Disney World made you - Mick asked you if you would want to go back for your birthday and you said yes! - Like once before Mick was more than happy to let you plan the whole trip, but you loved adding in parts that you noticed he loved the most on your last trip like time set aside to visit the confectionary and to ride the Peoplemover - Little did you know that Mick had a surprise (or two) up his sleeve - He may have done some research on how to make this birthday trip a little extra special for you and thus his grand scheme of "Y/N's Disney Birthday Extravaganza" began - Included in his plan of "Y/N's Disney Birthday Extravaganza" was: 1. Getting arrangements to have the room decorated with your favorite flowers and snacks from the parks so you two could have a Disney movie marathon your first in to relax from the flights in before hitting the parks 2. Making dinner arrangements at your favorite Disney sit down meal service with a birthday cake to come out at dessert 3. Arranging to have your immediate family as well as his meet y'all for a day in the parks and making plans to all eat breakfast together at O'hana's to start the day off because we all know this man has a weakness for the Mickey waffles as a surprise 4. Last but not least plans to propose during the fireworks the night that y'alls families will be there, but knowing how shy you can be he and how he isn't huge on PDA he plans to have everyone riding the Peoplemover as the fireworks start with you two in your own little car(don't worry he already called them weeks ago and they're all in on the plan as well as hiring a photographer as well as calling Disney to make sure it was even allowed) - Mick knows how important family is to you both and he's not about to forget how sad you would be if they weren't there to celebrate your engagement with you - However you have no idea that this is going on at all, you're still stuck in your happy little Disney trip planning coma - You make sure to stock up on sunscreen for Mick after knowing how he almost made a lobster out of himself last time ~ Vacation Time~ - You were so excited to be there that Mick laughed at seeing you giggle like a kid going under the Walt Disney World sign - You couldn't wait to drop off your bags into the room and go grab some dinner, but as soon as you scanned into the room you were in for a huge surprise - The whole room had been decorated with your favorite flowers, a set up of your favorite snacks from the parks, confetti, and a happy birthday y/n sign was on the wall - Mick was behind you filming the whole time knowing how much you were going to love looking back at the video in the future - Your movie marathon with Mick was success however you ended up more focused on making out with Mick than the screen but hey neither of y'all were complaining - The first few days at the park were wonderful - You saw someone get engaged in front of the castle and even took some videos and photos of the couple as soon as you noticed happening in case they didn't have a photographer to capture the moment - You gave them your number and texted the videos and photos. They were so grateful - Mick was so sure in that moment that he was lucky enough to have the sweetest fiancé to be ever - You and Mick were in line for the Frozen ride when a fan recognized him. You guys ended riding together in the same row and you and Mick both knew that it made that fan's day - When you walked into breakfast at O'hana's and saw y'alls families your heart melted! You turned around and hugged Mick so tight! - He probably consumed about five Mickey waffles before y'all left breakfast - His mom and your mom loved your earrings that Mick had given you as a birthday present (little did you know they matched your engagement ring) - When he proposed later that night you could hear y'alls families cheering from their seats on the other cars of the Peoplemover

~Instagram~

yourinstagram

liked by landonorris, charles_leclerc, yourmom, and 520 others

yourinstagram best surprise EVER

View All 237 comments

landonorris Congrats! Also WTH is with Mick's face?

yourinstagram That's Mick on Dole whips, he has a problem

yourbestfriend AAAGGGHHHHHHHH I CAN'T WAIT

yourinstagram I think Gina is still cheering too 😂 ginaschumacher YEPPPPPPPPPPP

[luvring]

off topic but after reading your micah yujin bf hcs (the minecraft one specifically) I imagined like after possibly YEARS you get married and after like irl marriage Micah prepares a server FOR ANOTHER MARRIAGE like its just u,him,ur and his friends vibing on a server (U DONT KNOW SHITT ABT WHAT OTHERS R PLANNING)

Then they decide to give u a task or a quest or smth idk and they prepare the wedding ceremony's place as u struggle,after coming back tho YOU COME ACROSS A WEDDING CEREMONY HALL (before there was something cheesy planned by Micah probably,idk like a tiny puzzle he prepared for you and as you go along you read the signs he wrote,THEY'RE ALL FUCKING SAPPY AND WHOLESOME)

U r now married both legally irl AND on minecraft,u bet he celebrates both of those events' dates even after YEARS AND YEARS

— minecraft wedding with micah hcs

micah has been planning this longer than you think. he's been laying down the steps while you were asleep or busy with work.

^ burying chests in places you've visited and made bases in—at world spawn, your first house, that one super big ravine that shocked the both of you, etc etc

as for the reasoning for sending you off on a quest,, it'd probably be something like, under the guise of getting all the achievements and needing resources. or he's literally just like, here's a quest for an incredible secret prize from me ;))

^ you going "oh do i get to marry you again?" as a joke and he laughs like "oh? you want to make it official again? renewing already?" but he can feel his heart rate increase

you end up reading his thoughts on different events both in the game and in real life. you know for someone who already had irl wedding vows, this guy sure has a Lot more to say.

^"this is the stuff i had to cut out so my vows wouldn't be 3 hours long." is somewhere in a book by the way. he's real for that!

( ^ still manages to write his mc vows with a book and quill. finishes the book after you say i do)

imagining there's signs at every location too with cheesy pickup lines that he's used on you in the past. the most iconic ones (the ones he genuinely spent time to think of and planned when to drop on you) plus the casual ones he'd drop throughout the day

he does something silly in a double chest like strategically placing flowers in a heart shape with diamonds/something special in the middle

micah downloads specific mods on both of your desktops to make sure that you can get the Perfect Experience

^ i'm thinking mrcrayfish's furniture mod and pam's harvestcraft kind of deal if those are still updated. i have no idea i haven't played minecraft in a Long time

you realize it looks familiar and like,, he definitely tried to mimic the original wedding venue in the game. it's actually kind of shocking how familiar it feels

I Know You Have Cats. there's a cat that's supposed to be skrunkly/skrunkly's long lost relative, um,,, skrinkly. for sure. every pet is in the audience!

micah setting up fireworks to go off, your friends shifting and throwing flowers at you, etc etc

^ has a big firework show during dinner at night. literally sprints around so he gets hungry and can eat cake

oh my god sorry but like,, you guys all being in a discord call singing and it's the vc lag would be funny. a memory for sure. but there's also those proximity based mic mod things (i watched sykkuno) which would definitely make it all more realistic!

makes a whole thing of crafting beds and putting them next to each other

makes sure there's a time slot somewhere for screenshots . there has to be a folder made and shared for screenshots of the wedding and it has a silly name i think.

^ would not hesitate to print the photos because he thinks they're cute and also a little silly. puts them with the real wedding photos and scatters them around your house

^ sorry but you having an irl wedding photo that's professional and gorgeous then a (still gorgeous) minecraft screenshot right next to it. shaders and everything like that is so perfect to me personally.

[literaticat]

Is it better to include an elevator pitch or not in a query? As an example, if the query is three paragraphs plus a bio, should it also have a one sentence elevator pitch at the top - do you recommend that or is it optional/doesn't matter either way? Which is better - elevator pitch, 3 paragraphs describing book, then bio, sign off or 3 paragraphs describing book (or 2 in some cases), bio, sign off, no one sentence pitch at top? I feel an agent might just read the first line then decide?

I have no questions in the inbox, but this was sitting in drafts for like -- a year? Haha. Sorry, original asker! I'm going to put this in the FAQ under Querying, as it's sort of the definitive "this is what you put in a query" answer, I think.

To answer your question: There are a lot of people who have a lot of rules and tips for queries, and here's what they DON'T usually tell you:

It doesn't really matter what order you put the elements of your query in, or three paragraphs vs two, or whatever whatever. Just include all the information we ask for and make it short enough to fit on a page. These are the ONLY two "technical" rules. Other than that - we just want it to be compelling. We want it to make us want to read the book. So make it how you like it! What sounds good to YOU?

Now. What you are calling the "elevator pitch", I'd call a log-line actually. I consider an elevator pitch to be something you are delivering in person - like if somebody asks, "hey what is your book about", your answer is nutshell elevator pitch. A log-line is a little shorter -- just the very top-of-the-treeline description about what we are about to look at.

Personally, if I were writing a query letter, I'd probably go like this:

Salutation: Dear so-and-so,

Short intro paragraph: I'm querying you for A REASON / I met you at A PLACE, etc. I'm delighted to share TITLE, a CATEGORY complete at WORDCOUNT about LOGLINE.

About the Book: 1 to 3 paragraphs. Mine would probably be two paragraphs: ONE paragraph about the book, expanding the log-line, ANOTHER short paragraph to wrap up the first paragraph as necessary.

Bio: Previous publications if applicable, if not just a little something about yourself.

Sign off: With social media handles, etc.

For example:

#1 - Salutation

#2 - Intro

I have such fun listening to your podcast, and when I saw on social media that you are a sloth fan, I figured it was kismet and I should send this your way! SLOTH COPS is a twisty MG whodunit complete at 60,000 words, about two polar opposite sloth police detectives who must team up if they are to have a hope of catching the mysterious tortoise murderer plaguing their city.

#3, flesh that logline out:

Captain of the Sloth Squad Callisto Jenkins is an experienced veteran on the force; she's seen it all in her day, and has the gallows humor to prove it. Officer Stormy McNair is a rookie on the beat, desperate to make his bones as detective and prove to every doubter that so-called "bad sloths" like him CAN solve crimes. A foolish mistake during an investigation causes Callisto to take Stormy's badge and gun away and consign him to desk duty, but the hothead rookie can't stand being benched and figures out a way to get involved with Callisto's last case before retirement -- the case of the Tortoiseville Strangler.

#3.5, close out the pitch part:

The strangler doesn't take kindly to sloth cops on his turf, and Stormy and Callisto soon find themselves embroiled in a case that is much bigger and more sinister than they could have imagined. It will take Callisto's patience and dedication to the hunt combined with Stormy's brazen attitude and quick wit to get them out of the Strangler's lair with their necks intact, and put the shadowy tortoise killer behind bars where he belongs.

#4 Bio :

I'm Fiona Q Whittlestone, and I'm a professional private detective, which sadly, is a lot less exciting day-to-day than movies would have you believe! I live in Palm Springs, CA, with a 100 year old Desert Tortoise named Ambrose who, as far as I know, has never committed a crime. SLOTH COPS is my first novel.

#5: Sign-Off

--

Now - 1 and 5 obviously have to stay where they are. In my opinion, 2/3/4 make the most sense in that order, and that's about the right amount of room for them. But if you wanna do a hooky log-line, then the about, then the nuts-and-bolts -- that's fine! If you'd rather introduce yourself THEN put the description of the book and then the nuts and bolts -- or you need only one paragraph for the book -- or you need three paragraphs for the book but it still fits on one page -- that's fine! We just need all the info, and we need it on one page. That's it.

[writing-for-life]

Let's go choose violence:

3, 8, 9, 25 for The Sandman :3c

Rubs hands gleefully…

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr 

Of course not screenshotting as everyone’s entitled to their opinion, so this is just a thing *I* find hard to understand/get my head around:

“Neil Gaiman ran out of ideas, and that’s why he killed off Morpheus.”

I mean, you could say he wanted to conclude his arc, and with that I agree. And thank fuck he did, because if Murphy were still alive, we would need to suffer the horrible takes that DC has foisted upon us ever since. But it is so completely incomprehensible to me when I read that there was no sign that Morpheus would off himself before World’s End or TKO. That it came out of nowhere, that it made the whole thing completely depressing and insufferable and sends a "bad" message. 

It all was right there, from the start. You can’t read "The Sound of her Wings" and not see that he’s absolutely haunted by the narrative, and how much comfort he finds in her. And you don’t need to read the whole thing and then just see it in hindsight (it's something I hear/read quite often). It’s clear as day if you are willing to go down the line of thinking that the Endless aren’t people but concepts. I personally think that’s where people can trip up. And I even get it--of course we want to humanise them because we are human. But they are not. They are mirrors and foils that are supposed to make us think about our own humanity (and we recognise it in them, but that still doesn’t make them human--they just show us human traits and what this mortal coil is about. Carry it and abandon it in equal measures).

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about 

Everyone apart from me of course 😂

"Hob Gadling is any shape or form the personification of hope, and his sole purpose is to (squee! UwU) save Murphy from his bleak existence".

No he ain’t. Hope is Hope, and she is a little girl (blows a raspberry right in your face). If Hob''s anything, he is humanity in a nutshell: ugly, self-serving, opportunist, but also feeling, caring and redeemable. But especially the first part is harder to woobify.

Did I also mention I have this take that making Dream's relationship to Hob all about romance and sex forgets about the importance of friendship, and why it's actually so important for the plot? Plus, that we have a tendency to erase male friendship and hence lean into toxic masculinity if we make every glance and every touch and every close emotional bond about: "Oh, they want to fuck?", and that's decidedly *not* progressive? Yeah, about that... (ship them, it's fine, no problem whatsoever, just be aware it's not the *only* take, and I will stick my neck out now and say: it won't be canon).

9. worst part of canon

That’s a tricky one because I can make sense of pretty much everything to be fair, but if I had to choose, it’s that Morpheus’ failed relationship to Nada created ripples that basically doomed every black woman connected to his arc (not *all* black women, I think that’s actually a misinterpretation, as is that Morpheus is racist, which he conceptually can't be). And as soon as he’s dead, we get token Gwen who isn’t doomed by the narrative anymore. And said Gwen *really* is a token black woman with no true agency of her own—her entire purpose is to serve the redemption of the slave trader. And that Neil actually confirmed this was *intentional* in The Sandman Companion. I get why he made that narrative choice, but to me, it still looks bad. I have hopes though he moved on from that take and we don’t get to see it in the show (the signs are there, so fingers crossed).

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Ties in with 3: That The Sandman should have a different, “more hopeful” ending. 

But quite a few others: 

You *should* write fanfics about XYZ because there’s not enough of it. 

You *should* elevate supporting characters to main characters because they are ABC.

You *shouldn’t* focus so much on the main character because he’s a guy/male-presenting (I mean, he’s the protagonist, so there’s that).

You *should* ship m/m because it makes problematic dynamics less problematic. 

You *shouldn’t* ship m/f because it’s heteronormative. My favourite: Johanna Constantine is bi, you *shouldn’t* ship her with a guy, because again: Heteronormative. Erm, I hate to break it to people (and speaking from experience): That’s how being bi works, and we like m, f and nb equally? And we happen to want sex with m, f and nb? And we pretty much have blinkers on when it comes to falling in love with a *person*, or what we find hot/sexually arousing? And I swear if I read shit like that once more, I’ll get heteronormative out of sheer spite and will smite people.

You *should* or *shouldn't* ship. Both fine. And/but there's certainly more to The Sandman than blorbofication and allosexualisation of everything.

So yeah, pretty much anything that involves a *should*. You can do whatever the fuck you like as long as you don’t lose your ability to critically engage with it. Plus, the space has to be welcoming for everyone, and that’s sometimes hard for creators and people who don’s serve/like the main flavour. And therein lies the problem, because critical engagement doesn’t always happen, and a lot of good stuff disappears in amongst the noise…

[ahappydnp]

I’m meeting Dan tomorrow and I’m so stressed. What do I do? What do I say? I’m so unprepared

ahhh yay you're gonna have SO MUCH FUN!!! i pinky double promise there is zero need to be stressed because he is the loveliest dude in the world and is a total pro at m&gs but here are some helpful tips under the cut:

BEFORE YOU MEET HIM

if you're nervous try getting there earlier than you need to be so you can be closer to the front of the queue and will have less time to get anxious

bring something for him to sign! like one of the books/art/a print out for him to sign. if you don't have anything on you, you'll probably get your VIP bag before you meet him and there is a photo in there he can sign! (i got him to write my fav lyrics on a blank stock paper and now it's on my wall and i love it so so much so maybe something that's personal to you?) **side note i wrote down the lyrics on a sticky note ahead of time so he could just copy them down**

if you're going with someone, see if they'll be your buddy so that they can film your interaction while you use your phone to take the selfie (if you're going alone just ask someone in line to buddy up and i PROMISE you'll find someone like that queue is full of the nicest people who are also phannies...so in no way intimidating and also if they're alone you can swap and film them! plus bonus time to just look at dan)

screen record your phone so you can capture video of dan taking your selfies too

stalk meetdnp on twitter to ease the anxiety and also get some pose inspo

MEETING DAN PLAY BY PLAY

rosie (his assistant) will tell you when to go around the corner

dan will already have his arms open for a hug and he'll say hey

he might comment on your outfit/hair/anything as a conversation starter

if you have any gifts/letters to give him he'll ask if it's for him and take it/say thank you and give to security (if you have anything to say it's not too late to write a letter!!!)

if you have nothing to say he'll take over completely and ask if you want him to sign anything and then ask if you want a selfie. he's really really good about making sure you get your time but understands if you freeze up

if you have anything you want to say to him go ahead and do it! this is your time! he's heard it all so don't feel like you can't be sincere or emotional or funny! he genuinely loves meeting us!! you can tell him how long you've been subscribed or your favorite video! tell him how much something has meant to you or how much joy he's brought to your life! or just tell him he needs to check out [insert penis themed tourist site here]

if you don't have a pose in mind he'll take your phone (and i do mean man is gonna snatch your phone from your hand and if it's unlocked he WILL be a little shit so fair warning) and hold it up at a myspace angle and do a peace sign

if you have a pose in mind tell him and he'll do literally whatever! meetdnp has some amazing ideas but ultimately it's up to you! if you have someone filming you he will also pose for a full body shot too (he usually notices them and will ask if you want a full body photo) i do recommend holding hands bc it's just a lovely experience 🥺

if you initiate he'll go in for another hug and then say thanks for coming!

you leave the m&g area and then are free to process meeting the boy <3

you send me another message to tell me how it went!!!!!! good luck!!!! you are going to have THE BEST TIME!!!! (also if you're alone/want phannie friends DM me bc i have several friends who are going to tomorrow's show!!!)

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Rumor Has It

A week late and a dollar short (but plus a Penny... sorry, couldn't resist) but here we are. Spoilers under the cut for Episode 4 of The Case of the Greater Gatsby!

God, this episode made me laugh. Banger after banger from the Persauds. The line about Fig's family being bad at math TOOK ME OUT like I was Cliff Calloway and the writing was his next hit movie.

Speaking of: CLIFF! <3 I've been so looking forward to seeing him and he did not disappoint! The continuation of the gag of him rehearsing threatening play lines is hilarious, as well as thematically on point for a story about Hollywood backstabbing and intrigue. As much as I hate my boy getting threatened, I'm relieved that he seems completely innocent in the case of the malicious hate-mail. But then why did Willie say he'd been acting down recently? He only just received the threatening message the day before, so it couldn't be about that. Is he just pining after his contractor? Stressed about having to manage an estate with 48 bathrooms? And just how does all this tie into F. Scott's murder? Willie and Cliff being targeted suggests that their foe is all about stopping The Grapes of Wrath, but what would that have to do with the larger story? Or are we being misled by the narrative? Is Cliff secretly signed on to play Nick in a still-happening Greater Gatsby? If so, by trying to silence Willie, who can't keep a secret to save her life, and then get Cliff to drop out of the cast, whoever killed Fitzy could be trying to ensure that his final project is buried with him.

The idea of creating one character who does basically everything on the film set is genius. It's very funny, and keeps the character count down and affordable for a small indie company. But on a purely narrative level, what secrets has Penny learned from being everywhere and everyone on the lot? (Also, just waiting for someone to make a "Penny for your thoughts" joke with her.)

Jumping back to the first part of the episode, I agree with Ford that Sheilah was very hard to read. She does seem a little too cavalier about the affair, especially since she then turns around and points the finger right at Vivian. And her theory doesn't even make sense. How is Vivian drumming up dollars from this case? If anything, she's losing money by hiring them. If she wanted the notoriety of being a murdered man's lover, she could have just gone to someone less likely to discover her guilt, like Dash. Unless she didn't trust him to find out that the death wasn't a heart attack (totally fair. He would not have.) But there are other P.I.s... Fitzy's affair with Vivian aside, Sheilah does have plenty of other motives for the murder. Who knows what damage his drunken ramblings could have done. And do we know where Sheilah was during the murder? Citizen Jasper says Fitzy came home around midnight but never mentions seeing her return...

What exactly are Fig's "skeletons"? It's hard to imagine anything particularly upsetting, but then again Shipwrecked loves to hit us with dark and tragic backstories that turn out to be all-too important to the main plot. I also like how they're setting up a Poe-esque arc for Ford to finally start letting Fig in and considering her a real friend.

Another fun episode! Besides Buster Keaton, whom I do not believe is set to appear in this podcast(?), we've now run into everyone from the original crew but Roger. Looking forward to his appearance!

[utterlyinevitable]

Back to December (1/3)

1. An Evening in December

Pairing: Colin Bridgerton x Penelope Featherington Rating: Mature Series / Teen+ Chapter Warning: just some kissin’ 

Summary: A modern AU where they run into one another at a bar a few years after they grew apart.

a/n: Hello! I am on some sort of Polin modern au ex teenage almost lovers kick at the moment. I have no idea if this piece is in the same universe as Could Be Something but it definitely has the same vibe. I also listed to Blue Lips by Tove Lo whilst writing this.

Anyway, thank you for clicking and I hope you enjoy!! <3

__________________

The bar is dim, dark. As deep at the late December sky. Old sconces and dated neon signs hang unintelligibly on the mid-century red brick wall casting hues of white and red throughout the cramped space. It seems every twentysomething had the same idea: a Friday night warming themselves among like-minded bodies and the cheapest drinks in town.

Penelope Featherington is bobbing and weaving, sidestepping around groups in makeshift bubbles all their own, making her way back to her found friends with her third drink of the evening. Carefully balancing her cocktail close to her chest whilst twirling around warm bodies. She’s tipsy, not drunk. Definitely not drunk enough to conjure things or bump into a stranger. Unless... that stranger wanted her attention.

Maybe she was seconds from knocking square into him. Maybe he purposefully made his way into her path. Maybe she saw him out the corner of her eye and stopped short, caught in the headlights of an old daydream.

It didn’t matter who did what. For he was standing before her, a crooked and signature boyish smile gleaming on his lips.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”  

Maybe they said more (formalities on how they are, what he’s doing here, why he’s in her city). Maybe they kept it short (too tongue tied for what to say in the face of an almost-lover, one more time). Maybe they read the room (the electric laced hope radiating off every corner of this dinghy little place neither of them would find themselves in way-back when and surrounding them). Maybe there was really only one question to ask.  

He asks it out of humble curiosity, a flippant formality for taking up her time. The words come out lighter than candy floss in his cadence.

“Are you here with anybody?”

Penelope should be studying. Instead, she’s out with her close friend Stella, and a couple of blokes (plus one fifth wheel) who think they’re taking the girls home, planning on having a good time.

She shook her head at his question, nodding in the direction of her friends trying not to stare and wishing they could eavesdrop. One pair of blue eyes trying to keep a noncommittal façade as he watches them intently.

Penelope sees none of that. Doesn’t even feel the way that guy’s sharp gaze is shortening the strings between them, willingly reeling her in and away from that stranger. The only thing in focus is Colin Bridgerton. Everything is a blur of light stream stripes drowning the rest of the world out. It’s Penelope and Colin, and the nostalgic tunes softly scoring it all.  

“Just some friends,” she responds. “You?”

Colin responds quickly, a half nod that should help explain why he is here (in her bar, her city);

“Healey.” He motions to an opposite corner - Penelope can just about make out the back of Danny’s head above the crowd. She’s hit with a recollection that Danny Healey plays football at the college down the hill. That Colin and Danny were teammates in secondary - good friends to this day, still.  

Memories come in short bursts, playing like motion portraits lining the walls of Hogwarts as her mind races the moving stairs. Making her way back to something comfortable. Calling back on who she used to be. A glimmer of the Cool Girl he once had feelings for.

A raise of a thick brow accompanied by a teasing smirk paves the way for her sassy remark;  

“How’s that working out for you?”

Colin chuckles. He can’t help it; it’s a Pavlovian response to her good-natured barbs. He moves to take a sip of his beer, then thinks better of it. Should probably say something.

Maybe he does.

Maybe they’ve side-stepped out of the carved pathway for prolonged moments so no one asks them to move or shoves them out the way. Innate movements to keep what they’ve found.

Maybe they’re standing in the midst of a packed bar for minutes upon minutes, reconnecting. Inching closer and closer. Building the foundations of a chapter they never got to finish. Minutes passing and her friends are chancing glances and taking bets.

Maybe the conversation fizzles out and their eyes are still stuck on the other. The rush of emotions from all that time ago rises, bubbles through like the beginnings of an eruption. Eyes roaming features (how they’ve changed, matured in the lost time, yet still look as good as they did back then). He’s more defined, she’s cut her hair. His presence still engulfs her, and hers does the same to him. Maybe they haven’t really changed at all if they’re willing to forego their night for a minute of each others time. For an opportunity to be seventeen again.

Maybe she moved first. Maybe he did. Maybe they both took the leap with liquid courage hanging blue and green stars in their eyes.

Before either knows it his free hand cradling her neck with deftly delicate fingers, his lips are ghosting hers. For a fraction of a second he’s there waiting and ready, doing what he should have countless times before.

And with the eyes of no one from their past, the anonymity of this place (this city, this bar), Penelope curls her toes to close the distance.

Light and warm. The weight of the moment overpowering the alcohol coating their lips and drowning the bar out. White flashes behind her eyelids and she has never felt more alive.

A step closer, and closer still.

Until their bodies are flush and her fingers are burrowed in the fabric of his sweater, her drink precariously kept upright between their bodies. The sweating bottle of his beer pressed into her back. Lips parting, mouths opening, tongues exploring. They stand tied up in the middle of the crowded bar until their lungs beg for breath. Even then they barely part. That if they do they’ll wake up from this dream and be nothing to one another once again.

Penelope’s chest is all but heaving. Her eyes hooded and dazed, stuck on the lips she finally got to kiss. Her fists frozen around the blue strands of his sweater. They have barely had time to fill their lungs when he speaks. Colin’s breaths caressing her flushed features as he says,

“Wanna get out of here?” Asks with pure, raw hope and sheer optimism to rewrite the past.

He sees her eyes widen, dart to the side, the shape of her lips rounding on an excuse. So he’s quick to rectify -

“I have a room.”

Her blue eyes get impossibly bigger, her mouth shuts and then just as his fingers itch to keep her in this moment a sly smirk finds him and she’s saying, “Yes.”

His megawatt smile shines brighter than the banks of snow in daylight. Colin is quick to break free of their embrace just enough to deposit his half drunk bottle on the nearest surface whilst Penelope downs the rest of hers. He grabs her hand, leading her through the crowded maze and out the door.

Stepping out into the real world the pair are met with a gust of evening chill as the dive door slams behind them. They stop in their tracks, glance at the other like it was part of some script. And just like a prewritten scene they’re merely replicating, they drop their adjoined hands.

The icy northern air brings fresh views. Colin and Penelope don’t need to talk, they simply know what comes next.

In sync, they reach into their respective pockets and pull out their phones to text their friends they left - well, Colin does. Penelope doesn’t even bother to look at the four unread messages from Stella, all she texts back is: Colin. That name says more than she could put in words. Conveys more than she could type in the short few seconds that she has left them and Him behind for one night with her biggest what if.

“Hey.”

Colin’s voice is low, hoarse and weighted with all the promise of tonight. He reaches out, wraps his hand around the one not holding her phone like a vice, and tugs her by the tips of her fingertips towards him - into him. Colin Bridgerton kisses Penelope Featherington with every reckless thing he’s harbored in the last few years.

Hand-in-hand, the cold dampened by the electric courage flowing freely, Colin and Penelope briskly make their way down the road to the local inn.  

All the while three pairs of eyes watch them through a frosty window.

_____________

a/n: this will have a part 2 as soon as i learn how to write smut 😬

tagging: @mvalentine 

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I keep threatening to say something about Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but it keeps not happening. I either can't figure out what I want to write or am unable to actually write it, like I'll have an idea and then sit up, but that'll make my head get weird and make me give up on it for the rest of the day. Again.

I think I finally figured out what I want to talk about though, and if I can make it through 265 hours of the game itself (plus another 35 on Future Redeemed, the standalone DLC story) I can probably handle writing a single post about it, even if it takes me a few tries across several months and turns into kind of a retrospective on the entire series.

As a brief intro for context, in the summer of 2022 when the game came out my health had reached a new low point, even compared to the already not great lows it's been at other times in my life, and XC3 is honestly probably one of the reasons I'm still here now. And I don't just mean on Tumblr.

Ok, maybe that's a little too brief. I have a weird and wacky combination of physical/psych/neuro things that have been going on for years, but up until 2020 they were only partially disabling and left me moderately functional and still fairly happy, and they seemed to be improving for a change. Since that summer they've all been gradually going downhill though, and I've at least for the time being ended up basically completely disabled and unable to do a lot of basic things in my life, and I haven't been having a great time with it.

It doesn't help that I've gotten the absolute bare minimum support for a lot of it (or sometimes even less than that) because most of my doctors retired or moved or changed jobs in the past couple years, and along with it taking forever to get set up with new ones a lot of the new ones have been extremely reluctant to actually address any of my needs. It's super cool to not only get next to zero help with any of the new problems that came up but also not be able to get prescriptions for any of my psych meds and be effectively forcibly detransitioned. That's starting to slowly turn around now, but only barely.

Anyway, by the beginning of the summer of 2022 I was at the point where I was having periods where I was having trouble forming coherent sentences some of the time, and while my brain generating gibberish like "aspirational truth-pissing" or "post-kneecap society" is very funny (to me at least), it's not super useful. I'd become pretty isolated, a lot of friendships and relationships had become pretty distant for various reasons, and I'd had to move back in with the one person who actually abused me (which is pretty far in the past but still pretty uncomfortable).

Basically my life had next to nothing going for it at that point, not much was showing any signs of improving, and it was pretty hard to find anything to look forward to.

(ok so maybe that ended up being not so brief because I don't talk about all that stuff much and apparently I have a lot of feelings about it)

Good news, though! There's a new game coming out in my favorite series!

I have a long and complicated relationship with the Xeno games. I first played Xenogears before Xenosaga was even out, but I never finished it because some of the jankiness frustrated me (and I'm replaying it now and those things about it have aged really poorly, but it's still plenty interesting otherwise). And then I never really played Xenosaga myself (although it's probably next in line after I eventually finish Xenogears) because I never had a PS2, but I had friends who were super into it that I absorbed everything from.

And then by the time the first Xenoblade came out my Wii had already died. A couple years later I had a computer that could emulate it though, so I played it in Dolphin with the HD texture mod...until about halfway through the game, when my CPU caught on fire. A friend gave me a free replacement, but it was slower and didn't run stuff like that nearly as well, so I held off on finishing it until 2020 when I finally could afford new computer stuff (mostly because I had to spend some of my SSI backpay because you're only allowed to have at most $2000 in your bank account at any given time because this country hates disabled people).

And of course it was great.

And then I grabbed the Switch version so I could play Future Connected, which was also great, and then quickly moved on to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 after that...and then stopped playing that one for several months because Tora really grated on me. I think "blushy-crushy" is the point I gave up at. Thankfully I went back to it a bit later, because aside from that and some of the overly horny character designs it's pretty great overall, and Torna completely recontextualizes so much stuff and makes the base game even better.

I even played some of X, and I would've finished it too if my save hadn't gotten corrupted. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to use a memory editor or something to fix it, because it seems almost fine, and I don't really want to replay 70 hours of it...

So I was understandably pretty excited by the surprise announcement in early 2022 of the third game and then its release date getting pushed up even sooner, and even though my life had imploded further by that summer, some of that feeling carried through.

And you know what? Xenoblade Chronicles 3: also great. I know, big surprise. It looks great and the music's great and the actual gameplay is great (and much better explained than in the previous game), and all of that is great and has already been said by a million other people.

And they've also all had plenty to say about how the characters and their interactions and development are great, generally handled even better than in any of the previous games, and how the side quests are mostly great and actually advance character growth and world building, unlike a lot of them in the first game.

And then also lots of people have had lots to say about their mixed feelings about the story itself and its ending, which some people didn't like for what it didn't answer but which I personally did for the things it did focus on and the general vibes, and then there's been plenty of wild speculation on the implications of Future Redeemed too.

But it wasn't until I finished Future Redeemed and sat on it for a while that I think I figured out what I have to say.

I think what hit me the most about it is the way it expands on the base game and rest of the series, not in the literal narrative way that I've seen most people talking about (although that's definitely fun too) but more in terms of how it made me think about the third game and the series as a whole thematically.

By giving more context and more info about the motivations for the different sides of the conflict (and also introducing another side) it got me thinking about how the entire series can be looked at as how we (or anyone) approach the future, and it doesn't really frame any of the possible ways of doing that as inherently correct and unquestionable.

The central conflicts of each of the games are all about who gets to decide what the future will be and which people and ideas from the past/present should be brought into that future. The settings and situations they find themselves having to make those decisions in are also all the result of previous people's decisions and what was inherited from the past.

Is the future predetermined, or do/should people have free will to make their own choices? Should those choices be individual or collective or by a single central entity? If the outcomes of those decisions turn out to be flawed should they keep pursuing it and stick to the original vision or should it be replaced by something else? If there's been so much pain and suffering and loss in the past, is a future even desirable? Which existing things should be preserved, or should we just start over entirely?

And generally there's more than one answer presented for each of those questions, and often there's even more than one different way of approaching the same answer shown, e.g. you can have no future by preserving the present indefinitely so nothing changes and nothing is lost, or you can just delete fucking everything.

Even answers to those questions that are implicitly endorsed in one game by being associated with the protagonists of its story may turn out later to have more nuance to them. Ok, predestination and fate suck and we should all have free will to make our own choices. But now what if people use that free will to choose things based on fear and anxiety that ultimately restrict other people's free will and choices?

There's no simple answer, no one correct solution, and it takes continued hard work to push the world forward towards a better place. Even when people don't know or even can't know what led the world to the state it's in and all they know is that the way it is is cruel and unfair, they have the ability to come to their own conclusions about the answers of those questions and can work together with like-minded people they find to try to change the world to make it more like what they envision.

And that's real and how things work in reality too. We inherited the world in the state it's in from the people before us, who made their own decisions about those things. Sometimes it was genuinely what they thought would be best for everyone, sometimes it was lashing out because they'd been hurt, sometimes it was someone who didn't care about anyone but themself. But no matter what the reasons, it ultimately is the way it is, and we have to take that and do with it what we will.

Only we, the people who are here right now, can decide what the future will be. Only we can use the power of friendship to kill god. Or heck, you spend half the game in XC3 literally building mutual aid networks. That seems like a pretty reasonable place to start.

[ramblinganthropologist]

Writober 2023 10 - Fortune

Summary: Alistair Shepard had to adjust to some weird shit in the hospital after surviving the Citadel. What he didn't expect was his sister and her book of wedding planning. Since when was she a fortune teller?

---

You know… he was really starting to get tired of being in a hospital bed.

At least he was being left alone for the moment. Ever since Alistair had come out of his coma, the doctors had been in nearly constantly. Apparently, surviving the Citadel coming down around you amidst the final push against the Reapers interested people.

He couldn’t exactly get out of being in the epicenter, but… they could be a little gentler with the needles.

At least he was free for the moment. His thumb kept rubbing up against the ring Garrus had given him as part of their engagement. The fact it was made of the Normandy was a comfort to him, especially since he wasn’t going back to it ever again.

After all… he was retired now. Papers were in and everything.

“I guess we should start thinking about if we want a wedding or not…” He trailed off. Alistair had done his share of alien studies as part of the Alliance, but those rarely covered marriages among the species for obvious reasons. He was kind of in the dark about what turians did to celebrate their vows, if they had any at all. For all he knew, they just signed some papers and got back to duty.

He wouldn’t mind that – justice of the peace was ok by him.

“Not very romantic,  Al.”

A voice hummed in his ear, though the speaker was nowhere to be seen. Alistair scowled, still not used to the fact he was technically subletting his body to somebody else. Well, not somebody – Love was a spirit. So they had never been a person or anything…

Look, it was confusing, ok? He shared head space with a concept that liked The Bachelor.

“We are technically cleaning up after a galaxy wide war, Love.” He sighed. “Plus I don’t know how turians handle marriages, especially if one of the parties isn’t turian. I guess I could ask Anora…”

He trailed off. While he was sure his sister and her family had survived, this was the kind of thing that as awkward to ask. After all, he didn’t really do a lot of bonding with Anora for obvious reasons.

She might not appreciate the call…

“They have a ceremony, don’t worry.”

A new voice drew Alistair’s attention to the door. Bo was there for her daily visit, a book under her arm. She entered the room and took the only chair, the one that had practically be carved out for her she had sat in it so much.

He envied her to look so at ease – he wanted out of the hospital ASAP.

“Do I want to know why you know that?” He shook his head. “Never mind, what’s with the book?”

Bo cracked it open and spread it out on her knees. “It’s the plans for your wedding. I’ve been keeping it since you met Mandibles.”

Alistair’s jaw all but dropped at that. “You what?”

That was nearly 3 years. How had she even thought to start it when he had literally slammed into the turian on the Citadel back in 2183? He knew she could be committed to a bit… but this was just ridiculous.

Maybe it was hypocritical for the guy who literally came back from the dead with a spirit inside him to be a skeptic, but so be it. He had to draw the line somewhere for his own sanity, or everything went out the window.

Bo flipped the pages as she spoke. “I just got a feeling about it is all, so I started writing stuff down. It’s weird, I wrote about the calendar before it even was a thing.”

He shook his head – oww. “So now you’re a fortune teller for my love life?”

“Just a wedding planner.” She flipped another page. “Oh, good news, looks like I planned for the aisle to be accessible in case you’re still in a wheelchair. Nice going, me.”

Ok, now he was calling bullshit. Alistair did his best to lean over so he could try to make out the details of the book. Much to his surprise, it was dated. The one page he was looking at came from 2184, when he was dead.

Al’s alive. Better get back to planning.

Note to self: clearly mark levo and dextro food. Mandibles’ sister has the bad version of the allergy, don’t need to put her in the hospital.

How… would she know about an allergy that Garrus’ sister had. Hell, he had barely spoken to the woman maybe twice since he had started dating the turian. She certainly hadn’t brought up what happened if she ate the wrong food…

Was it just a good guess? Playing the odds, maybe?

“Right, so, thanks to the bet and my winnings in the ring, I have enough saved. You’re not allowed to say no, it’s my present to you.” Bo was still flipping through her notes like this was the most normal thing in the world. “Oh, nice. When I thought about suits, I didn’t mention a binder. Guess that makes things easier.”

…

Nope, he was not going to think too hard about this. His head hurt enough with his amp having to be removed and replaced after what had happened at the Citadel. Pondering too long on her thoughts was dangerous and exhausting.

Would he accept it? Well… he’d probably just ignore it and think she was perceptive.

“Looks like you thought of everything.” He felt a little guilty there – he probably should’ve been the one to plan his own wedding instead of farming it off on his sister. Besides, what if Garrus just wanted a legal ceremony? Would he be comfortable doing things human style?

Man, they probably should’ve both been there for it.

Sensing his anxiety no doubt, Bo closed the book. “Don’t worry, I already ran it past Mandibles. He was a little confused by the human stuff, but you Catholics are confusing regardless. I didn’t put a mass down or anything, you said you haven’t gone to one since you were like 12.”

Yes, and he hadn’t had confession since his confirmation, so taking the Eucharist was a bit beyond him. Besides, did the make a turian version, or was it considered blasphemous? And was it weird for someone resurrected to take the risen lord?

…

This was why he didn’t go to church anymore. It made his head hurt.

“No mass is fine by me, I don’t know any priests who could do it anyway.” He shook his head again. “How did Garrus react to all this?”

Bo shrugged. “He probably thought I was out of my mind, but it’s hard to argue with the data so he’s going along with it.”

Well, at least that made things easier. Alistair was glad he wasn’t forcing his now fiancé into anything he didn’t want to do.

“By the way, here.” Bo drew a tube of green pixie sticks from her pocket and dropped it into his lap. “I get the feeling you’re about to bottom out.”

True to her word, his omni-tool began to beep its familiar sound of low blood sugar. Alistair resisted the urge to shudder as he tore into the pack with his teeth and swallowed it down. After all, he was in the hospital – maybe it was only natural his sugar would drop.

He… was going to go with that.

“Anyway, once that sinks in, I have some notes on food-“

Since there was no way to avoid it, Alistair just nodded and settled in. After all, if she had taken the time to write all this down, it would be rude to ignore her. Some of her ideas were pretty good too, better than anything he would have thought up.

Hooray for wedding planning sisters with strange senses of premonition, he guessed. And he was going to leave it at that, or his battered brain was going to overheat.

…

How had she known he would’ve had top surgery by then, though? Nope… he wasn’t going to dwell on it. Focus on the wedding planning and not the growing sense of unease with the unknown he was welcoming into his life.

Love was giving him practice for that, so maybe he would need to thank the spirit later… much later… after he googled if there was host for turians. Curiosity killed the cat and all that.

[exnihilo-etc]

im packing to move soon and i thought as long as im packing i could show off my bookshelf, one row at a time, starting with the bottom: graphic novels, comics, and puzzle books

most of ex nihilo i still have in its original physical form. im not too sentimental for it, but it is hard to throw it away. if theres literally anything ive drawn that you want, just lmk and ill ship it to you 👀

my old notebook

i fucking LOVE this graphic novel. i found it at a thrift shop, signed by the author, which probably means whoever this belonged to was a kickstarter backer for the project. it tells the story of a young artist and his wife being revisited by an old friend just released from prison. a story about drug use, lost friendships, and how your own memory can lie to you, and by extension, lie to your loved ones. maybe the very last line of the novel inspired the name of my comic?

seconds is an amazing graphic novel by bryan lee o'malley, who might be better known for creating scott pilgrim. this is a contemporary fairy tale of the disastrous consequences you might face if you could literally undo anything that might happen to you during the day, and how katie, a restaurant manager learns to abuse that power to send her own world crashing down around her. find it, i know its for free online somewhere but if you buy it thats even better!!

moon moth started as a short story by jack vance (who in his own right created rules for an internal magic system within his stories now called "vancian magic") about a sci fi murder mystery on a utopian planet called Sirene, a planet so accustomed to luxury that crafting and artistic expression are the sole pastime. everyone always wears a mask on sirene, and the social order is complex to learn and navigate...all communication is done through musical accompaniment as well. how will ambassador edward thissel know who is friend or foe??

i havent read 'everything is teeth' yet

a graphic novelisation of one episode of angel where a tv station is sucking souls out of kids and angel becomes a felt puppet

a great graphic novel going over the history of anti scientific conspiracies, like why ppl think the moon landing was fake, homeopathy, the quack history of chiropractics, anti vax, global warming denial, evolution misunderstandings, and fracking

what the hell?

a collection of wondermark, which i would classify as having the old found artstyle of married to the sea, plus the zany writing of oglaf. its a webcomic, look fer it!

part graphic, part novel. the fog mound explores a world of talking animals where humanity's existence is rumored as a legend. but thelonious chipmunk has proof: an old postcard with a human city on it. when thelonious accidentally gets lost and finds himself in the very city on his postcard, he has to wonder...where did the humans go? are there any left?

i met jeremy at an expo a few years ago and regularly visit him every year now whenever hes at a showcase or expo. putting watercolor illustrations to music, writing little creepy poems, fan art of all kinds of franchises, i just really vibe with his artwork.

like isnt she just gorgeous???

issues 3-6 of kingdom of loathing bc ill always be such a die hard fan of the loathing games, especially the stick figure mmo that started it all

[bexreadstoomuch]

Magic Man - Chapter 13

New Year, New beginnings, shall we go sign a contract?

NSFW — slow burn, fluff, flirting, reader has weight/image issues light angst, 18+ overall for eventual smut, drug/alcohol mention/use/language, EddiemunsonxFemReaderHenderson

Masterlist Part 13/? [wc 3.6k] a/n - please please like, share and comment, your comments make me so happy and encourage me to write more! thank you <3

13 -  The Contract

BANG BANG BANG

You are suddenly woken up to the noise of banging on the door of your motel room. 

BANG BANG BANG

“Come on Y/N, wake up! It's a big day today. We need to be in the venue for the press conference in 20 minutes" It's Lula, she shouts one more time, hearing her let out a sign and walking away down the path.

Rubbing your blurry eyes, you roll over to the side checking the clock on the bedside table. 

8.40am

“Oh shit shit shit!” you rush to get up but feel a weight next to you. Looking over you see the back of a messy head of curls, pale shoulders adorned in tattoos.

Eddie.

Then it hit you. Last night, being on the roof of Bertha, staring at the stars together.

“Please, I promise you y/n, it's only ever been you”

“Ok Eds, I promise too” looking back up at him, you move closer to each other hovering over each other's lips. He doesn't move any closer, letting you make the next decision.

You break the distance, bring your lips to his full ones gently, melting into him.

It's a gentle kiss, but you can feel the intent behind it. Breaking away you lean your foreheads together just enjoying the moment of being together.

After what felt like hours of talking together staring at the stars, listening to each other's stories, you felt at ease, relaxed.

Turning from your position between his legs, you placed your hands on his thighs pushing up to be face to face. Moving your legs positioning them on either side of his hips, he lets out a little huff.

“Y/n what are you doing?” Eddie's voice is hushed and breathy.

You answered him by crashing your lips into his, matching your ferocity, hands moving to your hips, holding you in place.

Small moans start coming from you once you grant him access to your mouth, tongues fighting each other for dominance.

Eddie's hands start moving from your hips, moving down and around you grabbing hold of your legging clad ass, rings digging into the flesh, squeezing.

You feel yourself lose control at his touch, slowly moving your hips to grind against him, eliciting a deep noise from his throat.

Eddie's lips move from yours leaving hot trails down your jaw line, to your neck, feeling his hot breath just below your ear, making you whimper.

“Sweetheart, fuck, stop a minute” his hands suddenly come back to your hips halting your movements, his eyes full of something you dont recognise.

“Ed’s what's wrong?” your hands move from his forearms, winding around his neck, tangling your fingers into the soft curls at the base of his neck.

“We need to stop this sweetheart” His voice is small, hands now moving around your waist drawing you closer to him.

Your head drops, letting out a small “oh” you try to pull away from him, dejection in your voice and face.

“No, no, not like that y/n I promise” Eddie sees the sadness in your face, pulling you back to him to reassure him.

“No, what I mean is, I do want this, I want you, but not like this” he gestures with his chin at your surroundings reminding you that you are outside on top of your bus “plus I want to keep my promise to you and take things slow?”

“Oh, yeah” you let out a small laugh, your head falling onto his shoulder, keeping close.

“Come on y/n, let's get back down, we have a big day tomorrow, with the press conference” He brings your head back to face him, leaning forward and pressing a small kiss to the tip of your nose.

Making your way back to the motel rooms, Eddie didn't let go of your hand once. Lazily rubbing his thumb across yours, as though he wanted to remind you that he was still there.

Stopping outside your door, still wearing his vest jacket, you start to shift your shoulders to take it off, but he stops you.

“Keep hold of it for me?” Eddie asks you timidly.

“Okay, Eds if you're sure. You know back in school I always thought what it would be like if you let me wear your vest” You say looking up at him through your long eyelashes.

“Oh really?” you can't mistake the cockiness emitting from his voice, he leans against your door frame, arms crossed across his chest. “And how does it feel?”

“Feels good” you reply, moving closer to him, lifting yourself up on your tiptoes to reach him for another kiss.

You start to feel it get heated again, pulling away, your words blurt out before you can think about it.

“Will you come in with me? I don't want to be alone” you say against his lips.

“Are you sure?”

“I'm sure, Ed’s, we don't have to do anything, I, I just, after the past few days I feel like I need you close” your voice cracks on the last couple of words, trying to hold it together.

He pulls you into him close “I won't go anywhere, I promise”

Getting your key out of your hoodie pocket, you open the door, looking around at the mess you had left behind and the unmade bed. 

“Sorry about the mess” you move around the room, trying to tidy things up.

“Hey don't worry about it, guessing the maid took a week off?” he says with a smile trying to lighten your mood.

“Ha, funny one Munson” you retorted back.

“Ouch, why the formality doll? You haven't called me that since highschool” he grabs hold of his chest as though fatally wondered by your use of his surname, in the most dramatic of fashion.

Turning towards him you look back and forth from him to the bed awkwardly, your hands twisting in front of you.

“So how do you wanna do this? I’ll take the chair, you take the bed, I'll give you your privacy to get changed if you want?” Eddies quickly said, noting your awkwardness.

“Erm, will you sleep next to me?” You voice barely a whisper

“Oh, errm, are you sure? I don't want to push you”

“Eds please, you've already seen me naked, but I appreciate that, I’ll just go to the bathroom and i'll be right back out” You say with a shy smile, blushing.

Once in the bathroom, you shut the door behind you quickly, leaning against the shut door.

Your brain races. Fuck I havent shaved my legs in days, shit will he care? Gotta brush my teeth, brush my hair, oh my god what if he realises this is a mistake, what if, what if, what if.

You opt to sleep in the oversized t-shirt you have on, some sleep shorts you had in the bathroom already. Removing your bra from under your shirt, throwing it to the side, you look at yourself in the mirror. Taking a deep breath, you look back at your reflection rubbing your hands over your face. You got this, y/n. Deep breath.

Making your way out of the bathroom you see that Eddie has remade the bed, placing your blanket over the top, brightening the room from the plain beige cover that was already on there. 

You take in his appearance standing at the end of the bed. He was down to just his chequered blue boxer shorts, and socks.

Looking at him now you can see the difference time has made since school. He had more tattoos adorning both his arms and chest, one hugging down his left hand side to his waistline which looked like tree branches. You could also make out what looked like the tips of wings on the tops of his shoulders. 

Along his long muscular legs you noticed a tattoo wrapped around his left ankle. From this distance you could see it was a dragon, but not any dragon. 

“Eds, is that Smaug?” you asked, pointing down at his leg.

“Oh yeah, yeah it is, when I moved out to california, a buddy of mine heard I liked this kinda stuff and found a drawing form the film, god we must have been what? 11, 12 years old when it came out? I remember Wayne got a copy of it for me from a buddy of his. It reminds me of him and the good times I had with him” Eddie looks down at his leg, letting out a small sigh and a smile at the memory.

Not wanting to push him any further you smile at him, looking about the room noticing he had switched all the lights off to save the lamp on the bedside table, which let off a warm yellow light.

Rooted to the spot you didn't want to make the first move, looking too eager, even though this is what you wanted.

“Ermm thank you for tidying up a little you really didn't have to” you speak softly, slightly embarrassed.

“Hey sweetheart don't worry about it, give you one less thing to worry about” Eddie spoke as he walked towards the side of the bed lifting the sheets up and climbing in.

“You coming in?” Eddie raises his hand towards you.

Moving to the other side of the bed you lift the sheets up on your side and climb in, taking his hand for balance, quickly laying on your back looking at the ceiling, body tense, not wanting to look at the boy next to you.

You're thankful it's Eddie who makes the first move, shifting his weight slightly, lifting an arm up and tiling his head towards you in a gesture for you to come closer to him. Moving closer you rest your head on his shoulder, your arm stretches across his chest, and one leg drapes across his next to you.

“C’mere sweetheart, listen, I’ll be here when you wake up, I promise you. I’ll always be here, I will tell you everyday if I have to. I don't want to lose you again” Eddies voice is a whisper in your ear as he slowly strokes your hair, your head moving to his chest, you can hear his steady heartbeat. The sound is keeping you grounded, making you feel safe. You never wanted this to end. The sound of his heart aiding you to drift off into a dreamless sleep.

Leaning over toward Eddie's sleeping body, his hair cascading around the pillow, mouth open wide, snoring gently. You place your hand on his tattooed shoulder, which you can now see if inked with bat wings starting at his shoulder blades, shaking him gently. 

“Ed’s come on we have to get up, come on, we gotta go to the press conference in a few minutes” reaching over, you move some of his hair out of his face, seeing his face scrunched up.

“Come on princess, 5 more minutes, it's warm in here” Eddie's voice is all groggy and deep as he rolls over engulfing you in his arms under the covers.

“Ed’s come on, we gotta get up!” you laugh, gently pushing at him to get off you, but he would just squeeze you tighter, and start peppering kisses all over your face.

“Nope, we're staying here forever” Eddie's voice is muffled in your neck as he keeps kissing you.

Giggling you pull away from his clutches out of bed, making your way to the bathroom. 

“Eddie, get out of bed, you need to go back to your room and change, otherwise people will think things, if they see you leaving my room in the same clothes”

“Would that be a bad thing sweetheart?” Eddie calls to you, leaning up on one arm watching you move about getting dressed.

“I'm not answering that right now Eds” you say, looking through your bag for some clothes suitable.

“What do you think of this Eds, youve done this before, a press conference, will this outfit be ok?” you ask him holding up a maroon short skirt, Black belt, a slouch black and white striped long sleeve top, and your oversized denim Jacket.

“You’ll look gorgeous sweetheart whatever you wear”

“Oh shut up Ed’s, now come on get out!” picking up your pillow from your side of the bed and throwing it at him.

“Fine fine im up im up!” Eddie's hands fly up in surrender, throwing his long legs over his side of the bed, grabbing his clothes. Hopping towards you pulling his jeans up his legs “I’ll see you out there sweetheart” learning forwards, plating a kiss to your lips. Throwing you a toothy grin and a wink at you, he grabs the rest of his clothes and makes his way out the door.

Letting out a huge sigh, you rub your hands over your face, still in disbelief of how relaxed you feel, at having Eddie with you last night. You haven't slept so well for such a long time.

Looking at yourself in the mirror, you forced yourself to get yourself together and get dressed. Applying a light makeup look, nothing heavier than your winged eyeliner, you pull on your doc martens, giving yourself one final look at yourself. 

Breathe. You got this.

Lula and Jack spot you making your way over to them, both with knowing grins on their faces, waving you over.

“Have fun last night?” Jack nudged her shoulder into yours.

“I know you had something to do with this Jack, and seriously thank you. I'm so sorry I locked myself away from you guys, I just didn't know what to do and” you were quickly stopped by both of your friends embracing you so tightly you felt like all your troubles could melt away.

“Y/n you don't have to explain yourself, we will always be there for you, you know that right?” Jack's voice was quiet but strong, almost grounding you to the spot.

They had been there for every misstep you took, every time you felt like you didn't belong, every tear you shed, if it was over your own self worth, or a stupid college boy that ever hurt you.

You treasured their friendship.

“Jack's right y/n/n, we're always here. I'm sorry I haven't been present recently. I've been spending all my time with Gare, and I should be with you” you cut Lula off before she could finish her statement.

“No Lula, I'm so happy to see you happy, that's all I want for you, for both of you. And I think things might be working out for me, I don't know properly yet, but maybe” you blush at the last couple of words, as memories of last night creep to the surface.

Still holding onto each other you all start to giggle amongst yourselves, when you hear a cough from behind you.

“Sorry to interrupt ladies, but are we all ready?” Wyatt's smiling face greeted you all.

“Yeah boss, we're all good,” you say, pulling slightly away from the girls, nodding your head, running your hand through your hair.

“Excellent, let's go show you off to the world!”

Walking into what looked like a larger office of the venue, the walls adorned with posters of previous shows that had been here, your eyes are suddenly blinded by the flash of what felt like hundreds of flash bulbs.

You froze, couldn't focus on anything else, your mind went blank. Fear filled your entire body.

You saw some movement in your peripheral vision of a mass of white walking ahead of you and addressing the room.

You could get on a stage in front of hundreds of people and perform your heart out but this was something else.

Feeling like you were being scrutinised under a microscope, everyone in very close proximity.

Feeling very overwhelmed by the whole experience, you're brought suddenly back into the room when you feel a pair of hands grip a hold of your hips giving you a gentle squeeze. Looking up and back quickly you see Eddie's big brown eyes looking down at you with a smile, which you return fully beaming.

Leaning down to your ear he whispers “This is all for you, don't forget that, enjoy it, you deserve this” his hands remain on your hips, when your head whips around and the sudden flash of light from another flash bulb.

“We are making two announcements today. First of all we shall be extending this tour by another 3 months by popular demand, moving into Canada, including shows in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver” Wyatt explained being cut off by more lights to flash and arms to be raised by the press in front of you.

Raising his hands in the air to try and bring order to the room, Wyatt continued.

“Secondly, we are so pleased to announce that the ladies of Paradox here who been supporting the boys here in Corroded Coffin, have graciously accepted our offer to join the family and sign with us, we shall begin work on an album as soon as we have this tour finished and should be with you before the end of the year” Wyatt waves his hands over in your direction, gesturing all three of you forward. You didn't want to leave the safe clutches of Eddie, but he gave you a little push forward of encouragement.

One by one you signed your names at the bottom of the piece of paper in front of you, smiling at each other still in disbelief that this was finally happening. 

Everything then seemed to go by so quickly. You were ushered here and there for photographs. Photos of the three of you with Wyatt, the three of you alone, then with the boys.

“EDDIE! EDDIE! COME ON THROW YOUR ARM AROUND KELLY!” The press shouted at them. Looking over at Eddie you could see him looking over at you uncomfortably, watching Kelly move in closer, her arm snaking around Eddie's waist, a smug grin on her face, posing for the cameras.

Before anything else could happen, Wyatt appeared next to you, shouting back over the noise at the photographers.

“Come on, let's get my two lead singers together for a photo, yes?!” There was some confusion among the photographers at Waytts request but they took your photos nonetheless. Eddie practically engulfed you in a hug, a huge smile on his face. He's done this hundreds of times, and you could tell. Knew actually where to look, what to say.

You feel him tighten his grip around your waist bringing him impossibly close to his side.

“Don't forget sweetheart, you're beautiful, show them, show them how amazing you are” Eddie encouraged you next to him, as he must have felt you seize up next to him with embarrassment.

Taking a deep breath you relax and throw your arm around his back holding onto his waist, while your other reaches up and touches his chest. You feel his hand tickle your sides a little making you laugh and blush, burying your head in his shoulder and the photographers love it, shouting for more and the flashes dont stop.

You look over the room and see your friends, smiling so brightly at you, cheering for you like your own personal cheerleaders. Gareth behind Lula his arms draped over her shoulders, cheering away with her.

Amongst the joy you notice Kelly, standing alone by the door, face full of thunder, raising a lighter to a cigarette hanging from her lips, blowing out a large plume of smoke, storming out the room.

“Don't worry about her y/n, i'll talk to her” Eddie's voice was a little sterner than before but it didn't show on his face. “Come on, let's get out of here, let's celebrate!” 

Turning to the press, but not letting go of you, Eddie's voice booms across the room “OK guys, thanks so much for coming out, but we gotta go get ready for tonight's show!”

You tentatively lift your hand in a wave as you follow him out the room, taking you down a deserted corridor. As soon as he knew you were alone, he swiftly took your face in his hands pushing you up against the wall, beginning his lips down to yours in a heated kiss, pulling a deep moan out of you. 

Your hands go straight to his belt loops in his jeans pulling his hips to yours firmly.

“Oh y/n… we.. fuck…” Eddie's words coming out in short pants between kisses as he feels your hips rock up to meet his.

“Not here, sweetheart, I promise soon” Eddie pulls away from you slowly, stroking his hand across your cheek, seeing your worried eyes looking about at him “Sweet girl, i'm so proud of you in there” 

Face flushed from your heated moment, you look up at Eddie, fingers still in his belt loops, yout thumbs lazily stroke the exposed strip of pale skin you see on his waist “Thank you Eds, for encouraging me in there. I, err I really needed it. Your a natural”

“I’ll always be there to help you y/n, always, you're stuck with me now” bringing his forehead to yours gently rubbing your noses together, you melt at his stare, bringing your arms up to loop around his neck, holding him close.

“Thank you Eds, come on what's this about you saying to go celebrate?” You ask, tickling the back of his neck.

A deep chuckle escapes Eddie's lips, and a glint of mischief flashes in his eyes “come on let's go!” grabbing your hand in his, he pulls along behind him running down the corridor, laughing loudly together.

tag list - @corrodedcoffincumslut @bohemianrhapsody86 @themrsmunson @emmalee-01  @jennk182

[justaredheadf1fan]

Barcelona GP, better known as one of the best weekends I remember, ever

Masterlist

Well, I can finally write about this!

I would’ve written yesterday after finishing up at the circuit if I hadn’t been so freaking beat! Jesus, it was exhausting as well as exciting as hell. We nearly didn’t make it, that heat wave was horrific! Now, back to business 🤪

So, we missed Friday, of course. No biggie. Saturday came and started as the disaster we truly are. We miscalculated big time and we arrived later than we expected. Missed exits on the road because of the shitty GPS plus me being the worst and poor signaling on the organization’s part, which I expected to not happen after so many years of organizing this event but whatever. We arrived and went looking for our gate only to find not only that it was all the way up the hill, but also that there was a line of people so long we passed the following gate until we finally arrived at the end of it. Yes, I’m telling it like I’d tell the rest of my friends at any point, don’t mind me. 28ºC already at 11 or so, we were DYING. Sun blazing like there was no tomorrow, and it was almost true. Add to it that we both look like a piece of paper and burn too easily, the party had already began for us.

The line was done fairly quick, at least comparing to what we expected to be the longest wait ever. We did miss most of FP3 though, we caught the last 15 minutes or so at most. A shame really, but the sudden wave of happiness when we finally got to the track and started seeing the cars flying around was the best. I can’t really describe the feeling, honestly. I don’t think I’ve ever been that happy about anything, truth be told. My smile was huge, I almost started crying, actually 😂

Once FP3 was done, we looked for our seats, started slowly dying in the sun and we went for something refreshing while W Series came on (sorry we missed it, ladies), otherwise it would’ve been a very, very long afternoon melting onto our seats. I wasn’t planning on it but while waiting in line for some Coca Cola (we needed some sugar to endure that hell) I was getting drowsy from the sun burning through my skull, which I knew was a very bad sign that early on, so I succumbed and bought a Merc cap, otherwise it probably would’ve ended badly at that point. Not that the *Mercedes* part of the cap was the saving factor. But, when choosing among all the options, it had to be Mercedes. Duh. It could’ve also been an old Renault cap with Daniel’s number on it, I really thought about it, buuuuut my heart beat me to it, even though the Mercedes cap was expensive as hell for my taste. It is what it is. I’m happy with it anyway. Quite the savior and the mood booster, if I think about it. I got quite a few interesting looks while wearing it, specially from RedBull/Inbred Frog fans. Very nice, indeed.

Quali was surreal. It was so exciting, so many people there, and the results were pretty amazing for our boys too. We had some Leclerc/Ferrari fans behind us, which for me was purely fantastic. And a couple Merc fans on Marina’s side. So, very nice. The ambiance was incredible, in general, people were super nice. When we were leaving some British girls started talking to us and it was quite fun. Ultimately, we took a good 2 hours waiting in the car before we even started moving out of the parking lot because it was impossible, as much as arriving was. But we made it back and that was an amazing Day 1 at Montmeló.

Then Sunday (yesterday) came, and it was still so unbelievable. Many more people comparing to Saturday, and seeing what happened on Saturday, we decided to get there pretty damn early, and it worked. We got a little lost again with the fantastic signals around the parking lots, but much less than the day before, so that was something and we parked pretty close to the entrance and pretty quickly too so yeah, we learnt our lesson 😁

We walked around a little, saw the Main Stands and the Fan Zone behind it. We saw the start of Formula 3, which was amazing. The sound of those cars up close was insane, so I can’t even imagine how F1 cars will sound like right there directly in front of them. It must be pretty special. We even saw the start of Formula 2 from our stand this time, but went for something to eat prior to the F1 race taking advantage that there weren’t so many people yet, so we missed the rest of that race. The ambiance was much more amazing even than Saturday’s, as it was so packed. Over 121,000 people came as it turns out. I still don’t have good enough words to describe it.

Then, it was time for Formula 1. Whoa. I mean. Whoa. Driver’s Parade came right after F2 finished, and there was an hour and a half break more or less so we escaped to find a little shade, otherwise I don’t think we would’ve lasted the whole race in the sun. 36ºC already at that point, so I guessed that’s why they only made a single lap around the track? No idea, but it was super short.

Finally, the race came and that was impressive. To watch it live, to hear the sound of the car engines, the speed. A dream come true would be an understatement. Kevin’s crash onto Lewis, Carlos and then Verstappen going off the track (we were the only ones cheering in our stand while watching that), Lewis gaining position after position after dropping to P19 at the very beginning, Charles losing power right after he passed through the turn we were watching from, George keeping Verstappen at bail… I can’t describe all of this. It’s been over 24h now and I just can’t say a word that would match what we’ve lived this past weekend. Even the Aston Martin Safety Car was sexy this past weekend, for fuck’s sake.

Some pictures I’m particularly happy about:

I obviously have more, but apparently I’ve reached the limit. Anyway, I need to go back 😭

Finally, I wanna say thank you. Thank you to my friend Marina, because for 7 and a half years I missed out on so many incredible races and content about my most favorite (kind of) idiots due to an absurd reasoning on my part and then she came along and opened my eyes back to one of the things I used to love the most when I was just a kid who liked sports more than most girls did back then. I would’ve never gone to Barcelona in the first place if not for her. I’m so grateful you can’t imagine what this has given me on such a deep level. It’s been so long since I last cried because I didn’t wanna let go of such an incredible thing that I just lived. A thing so magnificent regardless of what some people are turning it into, that I wanted time to stop altogether and stay in that moment. It’s been such a pleasure, that next year we’re going back whatever it takes.

To whoever’s reading, I don’t care how many people you are, where you are and that you don’t even know me, thank you. I’m never letting go of this ever again.

Next up is Monaco, I’m moving on Friday and I’m not supposed to start working until Monday, so I really hope I can watch more or less everything during the weekend without issue. At least until I can figure out how will work interfere with the following races and I can organize myself to watch everything in a timely fashion anyway.

Peace out!

[burberrycanary]

Oh I HAVE to ask about The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart, you know my love of that poem.

A perennial favorite of mine, too! And while the doc titles don't show it, more than one of my WIPs draws from this poem for a title—eventually, I'll get one of them published.

I wrote a lot of Rogue One a few five years ago, but only ever ended up finishing one fic. The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart was a Jyn/Cassian/Bodhi story and my first real attempt at writing poly, which isn’t in my comfort zone as an author, at all. Also not helping this fic get finished was how it was shaping up to be a lot of sex scenes, which I was not that comfortable writing at the time. Plus, I hadn’t yet figured out the sort of betaing that works for me and I got some negative feedback that ended up discouraging me. All that taken together, this never got finished.

But there are some scenes that I did like and enjoyed writing! And working with Bodhi’s distinctive speech patterns was great. (I adore writing characters' speech patterns.)

This started with Cassian/Jyn as an established couple and moved to Cassian/Jyn/Bodhi. I was interested in writing these characters as all bi but having a range of gender-based preferences—Bodhi having a strong preference for men while Cassian about equally attracted to men and women—and how these general sexual preferences end up influencing the specific internal relationships within this triad; while at the same time, it was important to me to not have a relationship being less sexual mean that it was less meaningful. 

Looking back on what I’d written all these years later, I can say that writing poly relationships is probably never going to be my strong suit. But it was interesting to try.

As the proposed summary would have put it: love and pain and desire—but the words get it all wrong. Thanks Gilbert. Here are three snippets, pulled from the graveyard <3

—

He’ll never know if the morning after would have been awkward, since Bodhi has to leave at 0400 hours to prep for a 0530 take off. 

“Sorry, sorry.” Bodhi whispers into the dark as he silences the alarm after the first ring. Jyn tenses awake just long enough to bat at the nearest piece of Bodhi she can reach—his elbow, sliding up his arm—and mumble, “Back safe,” before dropping to sleep again, still pressed tight against Cassian’s side. 

(Cassian used to take that as a sign of trust until he saw over and over how easily she can sleep in exposed and insanely dangerous places in a way Bodhi can’t and he struggles to.) 

Bodhi finds his clothes by the light of a datapad. Cassian watches him dress, considering how the bluish-tinged light catches on the abstract lines on his body. 

Bodhi sits on the edge of the bed to put on his socks and boots, then dims the pad screen down to low and hesitates. As Cassian’s eyes adjust to the near darkness, he makes out the uncertain angle of Bodhi’s shoulders, caught between opposing motions—turning nearer or making a polite, simple exit.

“Hey,” Cassian offers quietly. “Come here.”

He pushes up on one elbow and meets Bodhi’s sweet, surprisingly dirty kiss. Bodhi’s hand rests on his shoulder.

Bodhi smiles a little against his lips and pulls back, glancing down at Jyn. Cassian can’t make out any telling details of his expression in the dim light.

Bodhi may get away with kissing the top of Jyn’s head when she’s awake, as long as no one else is around and he draws no pointed attention to the gesture, but he decides against pushing his luck and settles for brushing his fingertips over the back of her hand. 

Good call, the detached part of Cassian’s mind observes. 

(The trust doesn’t show in how Jyn falls asleep. It’s in how she wakes up again.)

Jyn always sleeps near knives. But Bodhi figured that out months ago.

—

“What do you want?” From this? Cassian doesn’t add, just glances at her mouth without moving to kiss her. From me? 

The number of things he wouldn’t do for her keeps narrowing down, the qualifications gradually dropping away. But they both know what he’s capable of too well for that to be something he’d ever admit out loud. 

She reaches up and brushes her thumb over the top of his cheek. Whenever she touches his face, he can’t keep from turning a little into her hand. 

“You’re mine.” Her voice has a quiet certainty he’s heard from her most often when she’s making herself be brave. “Aren’t you?” 

He closes his eyes and feels the tension that had built up over days unwind from his shoulders. He hadn’t expected that simply being understood would hurt, but he doesn't have another word for the sharp, unfamiliar sensation expanding inside his chest.

“I am. You know I am.”

She leans in and kisses just under his jaw. “You can have Bodhi, too. If you want.” The without me hangs in the pause, unspoken. She drags a kiss along the side of his neck. Her mouth and her hand on his face are the only points where they touch. The space between their bodies doesn’t change as she presses a delicate kiss just below his ear and whispers, “That won’t make you any less mine.” 

Then Jyn pulls him down into a final hard kiss that transmits, with perfect clarity, I’ll miss you. And walks away. 

He thinks he’ll see her again in three weeks, maybe two.  

(He’s wrong. He won’t see her again for nearly two months.)

—

Bodhi lifts a hand and reaches out, only to stop just before touching his arm.

“You and Jyn talked, yeah? I mean, she and I talked.” He gives a weak laugh and amends, “Sort of. A very short, not very helpful and at points terrifying talk.”

“Bodhi.”

“Not that you need much protecting, but she’d rip the heart out of anyone who hurt you.” His hand settles against his arm, soft but not uncertain. “And you already know that.” 

Bodhi’s hand slides up towards his shoulder as he takes a step closer. 

“But the thing is, she’d do the same for me. Well, she said gut, I think—but the principle’s the same.” 

They’re so close, their clothes brush. Cassian doesn’t stop the impulse to tilt his head as the distance keeps on collapsing inward. 

Bodhi leans in closer and pauses again. His eyes are serious and steady when he asks, “Is this a bad idea?”

Probably. Cynicism is an easy reflex that Cassian considers and looks past. In a standard minute, he could come up with ten reasons why this will backfire or fall apart. But his gut says lean in and he’s not going to stop trusting his instincts now.

Bodhi’s mouth is wide and soft. The kiss opens out with a banked, unrolling intensity as he brings his hands up to Bodhi’s face, brushing his thumbs out from the corners of Bodhi’s mouth over his beard and back, taking in the details he’d been too keyed up to notice before in the tense, dream-like rush of getting to have them both.