#you are one of 2 people to ask me to add freckles lately and I am THRIVING

[dawns-beauty]

How did you get started modding npcs? I’d love to work on making the elderly people in Skyrim feel less identical but the creation kit is intimidating. Is there an easy way to dip into the modding scene or do you just have to crack things open and make mistakes? It’s hard to find guides that don’t focus on cbbe 😔

Sorry for the lateness of this, Tumblr won't let me edit drafts for asks on mobile, so I couldn't jot down my thoughts as I had them which is my usual method of answering stuff like this.

Oh man, my start was probably learning to edit the NPC from Tame the Beast 2 lol. She stood out like a sore thumb in my game. I found a tutorial that ended up becoming my method through the RS Children page.

It primarily focuses around using RaceMenu, which has a function that allows you to export the head you make directly from Character Creation. This allows you to use the extra facial sliders (like the ones from and overlays (like Freckle Mania 2, my beloved). So basically, it allows for potentially far more unique NPCs than editing via CK.

I am going to warn you, it definitely is not simpler than editing NPCs in the Creation Kit alone. Sorry.

Links are to the SE version of the mods, as that's what I'm most familiar with. They likely have LE counterparts. Sorry, I am not the greatest at writing tutorials.

Things you will need:

RaceMenu (and SKSE; be sure to get the correct versions of both for your game)

NifSkope - you will use this to open and edit the mesh. Here's GamerPoet's setup video

Things I recommend:

Creation Kit Platform Extended for Skyrim - makes using the Creation Kit way less like pulling teeth

Unofficial Creation Kit Patch - if you're using AE

an alternate start mod - I like Dimes Quickstart for its simplicity, but any would work

Another Race Menu Rotation Mod - handy for seeing how the back of hairs look

Stand still in RaceMenu (OAR) - stops the character from wiggling out of frame

For your quest to edit elders specifically, you will probably need a playable Elder Race mod (I have not tested any, but just searching for them yields plenty of options.) You will have to know exactly what races the NPCs you're editing are, though

Fun Stuff for diverse options:

Extra slider mods (I like Expressive FaceGen Morphs)

Skin Overlay Mods (for extra detailed faces)

If you want to get REAL funky with it, you can also use OutfitStudio to have a lot better time sculpting/getting super wild with assets, but that's too advanced for this tutorial (and my method is very 'goof around until it just works.'

I don't really want to cover using mod-added headparts (like eyes, hairs, etc.) There are basically two options there: add them as new headparts for your mod or make your mod dependent on the mod the headparts are from. The second way is probably simpler for beginners, but I definitely suggest installing Creation Kit Platform Extended, as it will allow you to load the other mods as masters without the Suffering™.

The Workflow

1. Design your character like you would a player character. For this example, I am redesigning Arcadia.

A recommendation: unless you really feel like you need to change it, it is typically better to make the Weight slider match the NPC's actual weight. You can see this value using either SSE Edit or the Creation Kit. It is no big deal if you don't, but if you change the weight and load the mod into an already existing save you will get a gap between the NPC's neck and body (unless you use Save Unbaker.) Be careful, though, there is a RaceMenu bug where if you load up RM again after exiting, it changes the weight by .01. So annoying.

For Skin Tone choice, if you do a custom skin tone (by pressing 'E' while hovering over the slider) I would recommend leaving the transparency slider (the 'A' value) at 100% (though I usually make the exception for Khajiit and Argonians.) This info will go into the Interpolation Value box in the CK, and the RM values can't be directly input, so you have to calculate the value with a (RM Number/255 = X/100, solve for X which is your Interpolation Value)

1a. If you are planning on adding faceparts from mods to your own plugin, I recommend saving and doing that now. Then come back to your save and change your headparts to the versions from your plugin. If you want to just have the other mods as masters, you can skip this.

2. Once you're satisfied with your design, I recommend saving your game and saving your head as a preset (click to enlarge):

3. Now, you will need to write down some stuff.

Skin Tone (RGB value):

Hover over Skin Tone slider. Press 'E'.

write down the R G B values (and A if you change it, see above note)

Even if you use a default skin tone, this is the best way to make sure you get the correct value for the CK.

Weight (number)

Scars (name) (if applicable)

Hair (name)

Facial Hair (name) (if applicable)

Eye Color (name)

Brow Type (name)

Writing down Hair Color is optional: with this method, the hair will inherit color from the head you export, not the CK value. Plus, RM's values are not really useful, because the default hair colors are named. It's the same with the Face Complexion (wrinkles, etc), with this method it is exported with the head mesh.

4. Export the Sculpt:

It should end up in your SKSE folder (SKSE\Plugins\CharGen), wherever that is for you

5. Now you can close down the game and open the Creation Kit.

Use the folder icon to load your masters.

Pick Skyrim, Update, any official DLC (if applicable), and any other mods you want to be masters for your mod (for eyes, hairs, etc.) If you've made your plugin already for headparts, just load it up.

6. In the Object Window, expand the Actors -> Actor -> Actor tabs and now you have a lot of tabs with Race names. Find the race your NPC belongs to then open the appropriate gender tab. Alternatively, you can just search the character's name in the searchbox.

7. Find your NPC's name and double click. This opens their Actor window, which is where you will use all the data you wrote down.

If you want a preview of their face, tick the box at the bottom of the window.

For weight adjustments: go to the Traits Tab. For all other values you need to worry about for this tutorial, go to the Character Gen Parts.

So, to parse this: you can ignore the Face Tint Layers box and pretty much everything on the left side of the screen.

Face Tinting Color

Type in your values for R G and B (you can ignore the Preset dropdown completely.) The Interpolation value corresponsed to the 'A' value, so unless you are working on Khajiit or Argonians, it will probably always be 1.

Base Head Parts

To change stuff in this section, click the line you want to change then go down to the dropbox below it and change it to what you want Face - unless you're using something like High Poly Heads, you can ignore this Everything else in this box: change to what you wrote down for each

Additional Head Parts

This is mainly used for scars and functions a little differently To add a scar, you need to go to the Object window again You can expand the Character tab and click 'HeadPart' then search the name of the scar you want. Click and drag the line with your scar into the Additional Head Parts box and it should show up there.

8. Once you've got the above like you want it, hit 'Ok', save your plugin. Now, to make the next step a little easier, you can click the NPC name in the Object Window again and hit f4.

This will export the meshes/textures file folders to wherever you have CK set up to export files (if you use MO2, it goes directly to the Overwrite folder by default.) Your plugin will be in the same place, (probably. Mine is bugged.)

Go ahead and exit the CK now

9. Go your your files exported from the last step. Open a second window from the files you exported from SKSE.

Open both meshes in two separate NifSkope windows.

You absolutely must make sure your headparts match the head you exported from RaceMenu exactly, or you will get the dreaded dark face bug.

If your SKSE head has a weird broken neck mesh, that's not a problem and can be ignored.

Now, you will need to find the Head textures in the head you exported from the CK. If your NifSkope is set up like mine, it should look like this:

Copy this line and paste it into the SKSE head in the same slot.

Save the SKSE NifSkope and close.

10. Rename the SKSE files (both .dds and .nif) to the number your exported heads are. You can then copy and paste your your SKSE files to their respective folders:

the .nif file goes in meshes/actors/character/FaceGenData/FaceGeom/[name of plugin]

the .dds file goes into textures/actors/character/FaceGenData/FaceTint/[name of plugin]

And now you're ready to pack up your mod for testing! At this point I also recommend taking a second and converting your plugin to an ESPFE via SSE Edit. It's pretty simple and there are probably tutorials out there.

Scully, you're not gonna believe this.

[keii-starz]

answer any or all I wanna know more about you 👁️👁️

Do you have freckles? 

 Do you drink tea or coffee? How do you take it? 

What was the last song you listened to? 

Do you sleep on your back, stomach or side? 

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? 

Do you prefer drawing or writing? 

What’s your ideal number of blankets to sleep with? 

What’s your favorite band/artist? 

When is your birthday? 

How tall are you? 

What color are your eyes? 

Who are five (or more) people you want to hug right now? 

Fears? 

What’s your favorite color? 

What’s your favorite season? 

Want any tattoos? What of? 

Want any piercings? Where? 

Who is the last person you texted? 

Do you have a best friend? How long have you been friends? 

What/who do you miss? 

How was your day today? 

How much sleep did you get last night? 

Do you believe in aliens? 

When was the last time you cried? Why? 

What’s your favorite decade? 

What are some seemingly childish things you like? 

What’s your favorite book? Or just one you’ve read a few times? 

How are you, really? 

Does it take you a long time to make decisions? 

What are you looking forward to in the near future? 

What are you looking forward to in the distant future? 

If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go? 

Do you sleep with your door open or closed? 

What’s your favorite flower? 

Do you currently have a squish? 

Do you like your middle name? 

Do you prefer dogs or cats? 

Do you have any phobias? 

Do you stay up late?

Do you like the beach? Do you prefer it sunny or cloudy? 

What’s your favorite cartoon? 

Tag 5 of your favorite blogs

Do you have siblings? How many? 

Who was the last person you said “I love you” to? 

Is there anyone you would die for? 

What do you need when you’re sad? 

Have you memorized your phone number? 

Who’s someone you can trust with your life? 

What does your last text say? 

Wild Card. Any question, ask away. 

1. I wish (no) 😔

2. I drink both!!! but I don't drink coffee that often, and when I do, it's only if it has milk and sugar in it! when I drink tea, I usually drink milk tea, or I add milk to my matcha tea, but sometimes I just drink regular tea!

3. DAYDREAM by HIGHLIGHT!!!

4. I sleep on my back, but I actually prefer sleeping on my side!! I just dont sleep on my side most of the time because I sleep with headphones on, and its kinda uncomfortable sleeping on my side with headphones on

5. yes!! my little teddy bear that I got from my bestie!!! I named him lucy

6. hmm I love both a lot, but I'd say drawing!

7. ummm it doesn't really matter for me but I'll say teo because of my blanket I've had since childhood (its too small to cover me now so ofc I have to use another blanket)

8. hmm for band, it'd be LUCY!!! (K-band) I think the violin in their music makes their songs sound even nicer! but my fav part is obv sangyeop's soft voice :3

but for artists in general...hmm there's quite a few, so I'll name them by language! 1. CRAVITY (korean boy group), ZICO (korean soloist, k-hiphop), COLDE (korean soloist, k-r&b), 2. yoh kamiyama (japanese), TUYU (japanese band), 3. jeremy zucker, suggi (english)

9. february 11!

14. sage green!!

15. autumn! not too cold or hot, and not as much bugs!

19. I do! we've been friends since 4th grade!

21. it was great!!! I had so much fun and got to eat a lot of good food!!

24. sometime last week, I think tuesday..I think it had smth to do with my insecurities or like. how I keep getting the feeling I'm not wanted

28. my mental and physical states both suck a ton, but since I've returned home for spring break, im trying to convince myself to not worry about anything and just think of this as a lil vacation just until this is over

31. im definitely looking forward to moving out of my mom's house or just not staying with my family in general...I want to get an apartment where I feel relaxed at when I turn into an adult

32. if I could go anywhere right now...I would probably go to my aunt's house in florida..tbh, I wouldn't say her cooking's (sorry auntie 😔) the best, but I'd probably feel way...calmer? there and less likely to cry so often

34. my favorite flower is the star of bethlehem!!! it's really really pretty!!! im pretty sure it's a poisonous flower tho lol

39. all the time 😊

42. I prefer cloudy days! sunny days are nice, but I don't like getting the sun in my eyes very much, plus the sky is prettier with clouds :3

44. 5 of my fav blogs: @azulashengrottospiano @dove-da-birb @twistwonderlanddevotee @alexisomnias @l7k-a

45. I have 2 siblings! an older brother and younger sister, who is the youngest, but if I didn't tell u this and you met us both irl, you'd probably think shes the older one based on height and personality lol

47. I would die for any of my friends in a heartbeat

48. music!!! I CANNOT go without my music I tell u!!!

49. nope!!! you see, my phone doesn't tell me my phone number, so I always have to ask other people what it is 😐 (my other phone did tho)

50. uhhh hmmm this one is really hard bcuz I don't think I know anyone irl who I can trust with my life but probably...no one..?

[electricratlady]

My Walmart Gripes List

i worked at Walmart stocking shelves starting in 2020 as an 18 y/o and am about to quit as a 22 y/o, as soon as i have another job lined up.

i have endured endless bullshit and… interesting situations from customers and employees/management across the 4 stores i’ve worked at, and i want to catalogue as much as possible to emphasize how working retail (at least Walmart) is NOT WORTH IT.

(worth mentioning that as much as i’ve had bad experiences i’ve also met a lot of nice people and don’t hold anything against them or their reasons for continuing to work at Walmart.)

this is not going to be chronological, since i’m just jotting down these examples as they come to me, but i’m gonna specify which location i’m talking about with Store 1, 2, 3, and 4. also way too many to write at once so i’ll add as i have time/energy to.

let’s jump in!

1. Store 1– i applied and started my job in January 2020 less than a week before the infamous Toilet Paper Rush from Covid. people were so desperate we stopped stocking it on the shelves for a while and just left the pallets they shipped on out on the floor for people to take, and they’d be cleared within an hour or two.

2. Store 1– fuckin 5’3” ginger guy with tons of freckles and glasses came into work several times with a Sons of the Confederacy shirt, and a couple weeks later during a team meeting where we were asked to raise our hands if XYZ he full on did a nazi salute, then smiled and looked around to see if anyone noticed (i was the only one who noticed but managed to pretend i didn’t).

3. Store 1– this was before i was out as bisexual and well before i figured out i was trans. a coworker two years younger than me came up to me, kinda pointed at me, and randomly said “f*ggot?” and i couldn’t tell if i misheard him so i kinda awkwardly laughed and said “what?” and he said it again and i had absolutely no idea what to say, and he said “see, i knew it! i knew you liked men!” and walked away. never reported it cuz i was a dumb kid who was more just scared that someone possibly knew despite me being closeted. turns out! he didn’t know, he was just beefing with my brother on the high school football team and randomly decided to bring me into it.

4. Store 1– same kid as #3 hated doing his job and would often leave the aisle he’s stocking to wander to different aisles to chat with people, somehow never being disciplined for it despite everyone knowing. he even would walk and chat with the guy from our Subway as he took the Subway trash all the way to the trash compactor at the back of the store and back. Dude only got fired after he was adamant that Walmart was giving employees free Kleenex for Covid and walked out with a 4-pack after his shift without paying. dumb bitch.

5. Store 1– one coworker i thought was cool was in his late 20s and, despite very bad anger management issues, was very openly pro-LGBTQ+ and pro-worker’s-rights and would chat about it a lot. then one day we were both monitoring the front entrance to sanitize carts and count people going in/out (Covid protocols), and he told a story about his grandfather being robbed and him shooting the robber as they fled, and at the very end very casually dropped the n-word while laughing, then said “i’m sorry, but if you’re gonna do that shit, you deserve to be called it.” in retrospect i wish i said something to him or management but i didn’t want to risk being the target of his anger problems so i kinda just stopped talking to him.

6. Store 1– during one surge the people monitoring the front entrances had to tell people coming in that our town was a high-risk/concentration Covid area and tell people that we don’t mandate masks but still suggest them (even had some free paper ones up front for those who wanted them). i tried to be as polite and non-confrontational as possible when explaining each time but one bigger guy walking in genuinely just went “you wanna know what i think? FUCK YOU.” and laughed as he walked past me. made me feel shit for the rest of the day.

7. Store 1– this is a recurring theme at Walmart but certain employees love slacking off and don’t really get reprimanded for it as long as the jobs get finished by other people. still remember when we had a rough truck unload and i looked over as we were about to finish and saw two of the guys supposed to be helping (people who are PAID the same amount as ME who was BUSTING MY ASS) just sitting down for 5 minutes, with a look on their faces like “why aren’t you all done with this dumb bullshit yet?” one of those guys was also in my computer science class and was openly passive-aggressively homophobic there, so add that to the tally i guess.

[breezy-cheezy]

A Commission I did for @durinswizardwheezes ! Of the Dylandy siblings from Gundam 00! This was very cute, thank you again for commissioning me! <3

My Commission info can be found here!

[jinxhallows]

You Are The Prototype (100 Follower Celebration Fluff - Felix (SKZ) x Reader

What the heck yinz guys?! How did I hit 100 followers?! I don’t even think I got that far when I first started writing fanfiction on tumblr like 10+ years ago.  This random drabble means a lot to me for a couple reasons lol....first, its my 100 follower celebration! Second, I am a very shy bean these days when it comes to writing real people.  I’m not sure why, since one of my most incredibly popular fics to date was a full length + sequel series of a Bruno Mars Vampire AU I wrote in 2010 LOL (its still out there in the tumblr-verse if you can find it LOL!).  

I guess the world has grown more sensitive to these kinds of things so I tread lightly; but with the help of my new friend Kai, I’ve been introduced to this fantastic human (and many others!) and would appreciate it if you guys would allow me to celebrate 100 amazing people supporting my writing with this bit o’ fluff.

One more thing! I have some WIPs now (how exciting!), so if you’re interested, here’s what I’ve got in the works to be posted soon:

- Chaotic Freewrite Pt. 9  - Method Writing feat. Lucifer (Pt. 2) - 40′s Asylum Patient Levi (collab) - Karma Akabane (collab)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT.  It really means the world to me.  Every single one of yinz. I’ve met and interacted with so many wonderful souls here.  I don’t even know what some of yall look like and you share my deepest secrets.  Please take my hand and trust me as we continue to grow together during this journey. I love you very much for accepting me.  Enjoy.

-----------------------

ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴏᴛʏᴘᴇ - 100 ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡᴇʀ ᴄᴇʟᴇʙʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ! (ꜰᴇʟɪx ꜱᴋᴢ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ)

ᴄᴡ: ɴᴏɴᴇ

ɢᴇɴʀᴇ: ꜰʟᴜꜰꜰ

ᴡᴏʀᴅꜱ: ıllıllı １.８k ıllıllı

----------------

I hope that you’re the one...

If not,

You are the prototype.

Prototype by OutKast (piano cover)

Raucous sounds of combined laughter filled your duplex.  You were certain the neighbors next door could hear everything going on and were likely wondering what prompted this kind of boisterous fun on a Tuesday evening.

You had to work in the late afternoon, so you felt it was reasonable and necessary to succumb to your cravings at 11pm for the chocolate chip pecan cookies you used to love as a child. Besides, your boyfriend was a pretty damn good cook and a bit of an insomniac himself.  He’s sitting atop the edge of the kitchen table, beaming down at you, all freckled and brown-eyed; his bleached golden hair tousled over his head.

He watches you as you happily ramble, speaking entirely too fast and too loud. Anybody else might have tapped out by now, but Felix remained steadfast, instinctively drawn to your bright, bubbly personality, enamored by every excited word that fell from your plump lips.

He’s holding a big, white ceramic bowl of wet and dry cookie mix ingredients, stirring the wooden spoon every so often as he nods to let you know he’s still with you on every word of your speech.

You finally take a deep breath, coming to the end of your roundabout explanation.

“So, can you help me? Pretty please?” You add on the last part, hoping the bat of your lashes sealed the deal for you.  Little did you realize, Felix would’ve done nearly anything for you.  He loved you.  You two had fell into the natural rhythm of your relationship two years ago.  What you were asking was simple of him; you were a theatre major in college and needed to complete a final speech for dialect class.  You chose Australian.  You were good at faking a believable high British dialect, could it be much different?

Instead, the subtle nuances proved to be more challenging than you had anticipated; so it made sense to ask your Aussie boyfriend to help you out. Who else was there to ask, after all? You didn’t think it would be this frustrating when you picked it up to begin with.  You’ve heard him speak to you all the time—over the phone, in person, Facetime; it even came out in a strangely sexy way during intimacy.  You thought you could mimic it with no qualms, but your mouth just refused to cooperate with your brain.

“Do I ever say no to you?” He asks with a lopsided grin, plopping a dollop of cookie dough on your nose.  “What’s your speech about?”

“Well...” You giggle, trying to lick your nose, “It’s gonna sound really dumb and simple–”

“Try me.” He grins, leaning forward to take care of the work for you, swiping the cookie dough off with a flick of his tongue.

You’re standing between his legs that dangle mid-air off of the table.  You place your hands on his thighs, rubbing back and forth a few times before you give a deep sigh, “I just told the story of how we got Doobie.”

Doobie was the dog you both shared, sleeping peacefully in her bed across the kitchen.

“You make the biggest deal out of nothing, you know that?” He leans down and kisses your nose, pushing himself off of the table so he can continue with the baking process.  “You made it seem like you were going to ask me to have sex with you for a show and tell project or something.” He chuckles as he sets the bowl on the table and begins to pick up dollops of cookie dough out of the bowl, rolling it between his clean palms, rounding the cookies out into perfect shapes and placing them on the cookie sheet.

“Now that is quite an idea…” You know it could never happen, but goodness, just the thought of your boyfriend spreading you out on a desk for all of your classmates to see–

“Bring it back here, Y/N.” He snaps greasy, flour dusted fingers in front of your face, lifting a brow.  A kind, simple way to nudge your focus back on the task at hand.  He had a unique way of being incredibly sweet, but taking control of you when necessary.  “The speech?”

“Right!” You bring your attention span back to the present for a moment.  You begin your speech, trying the best Australian dialect that you can muster.  Felix tries to focus on the cookies being placed on the sheet; but when you get to the third sentence, his can’t help the laugh that breaks through his tightly closed lips.

“Shit..is this for a grade, Y/N?” He finally looks up at you from the cookie sheet, his brown eyes locking onto your own, twinkling in amusement.  

You nod slowly, “Is it that bad?”

Felix is rubbing the dough between his palms, smoothing out the final cookie.  “If your teacher knows anything about dialects, that’s a solid C-.” he places it on the sheet before looking at you, “I might be being generous since I love you.” He’s trying to not laugh again, as he places a few stray pieces of pecans atop the cookies that lay on the sheet.

“C’mon baby, I’m serious.  It’s due in three weeks!” You pick up the tray, carrying it across the room to place into the pre-heated oven.

“Alright, alright.  I get it.” he becomes a bit more serious; but before he begins, he asks, “Is the timer set?”

You set your phone onto the table, counting down from 14 minutes.  “Ready when you are.” You sit at the kitchen table, pulling out your phone notes with the full speech inside of it.

“Let me see it.” He grasps the phone from you, his free hand dropping onto your knee.  He strokes the fabric of your pajamas with his thumb absentmindedly as his lips silently move, eyes narrowing as he focuses on reading all of the text you had written down.  He starts typing into the notes, thumbs moving quickly and efficiently.  You want to ask what is he up to, but decide to just be grateful for the help instead.  A minute or two passes, and Felix hands your phone back to you.

“Try to read it now.” He suggests, watching you intently as you scan over the phonetics he’s added to help with pronunciation.

You sound as if you’re reading a foreign language for the first time as you sound out the first sentence, “The car ride to the farm didn’t give me a single clue to what the future held.” You speak in a staggering manner, dropping the “r” at the end of car, adding emphasis to the “u” in ‘future’ (which was sounding a bit more like fee-you-cha).  The e’s became i’s, and the i’s became oi’s, so on and so forth, phonetically speaking.  Finally, you look up at Felix for approval.

You’re about to smack fire out of him when you see he’s about to laugh again.

Noticing your impending frustration as your brows knit together, he leans forward out of his chair to give you a kiss of encouragement before he pulls his chair closer next to yours, taking your phone and pointing out the lines to you.  “You’re thinkin’ about it way too much.”

“It’s my final exam for this class and 50% of my grade.” You give him a defeated look, “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

The smell of freshly baked cookies begins to waft throughout the air.

His eyes flit across your face for a moment.  He’s thinking of what to say to make you feel at ease, a little better.  Felix heard you practicing your dialects all day, nearly everyday for this advanced level class ever since the semester began.  He knew you had it in you to learn something so simple; but you always got in your own way with the imposter syndrome that was eating at you from the inside out.  Felix was always good at that–at making sure you felt as capable as you truly were.

“Baby, you’re gonna kill this.  I know it.”

Ding.

The cookie timer begins to ring.

You turn the notification off as Felix ambles over to open the stove, grabbing oven mitts and pulling the tray out and setting it atop the stove.  He waves his hand over them, purely out of habit, and takes a whiff, his eyes closing in pure bliss.  

Suddenly, he turns around to you excitedly.  “I have an idea.” he says, his complexion begins to flush with reddened nervousness that he tried not to show, instead, displaying masked determination.  “Your exam is in three weeks, right?”

“It is…”

“What if–” He places his hands out, trying to get you to not jump further than where he was headed in the conversation.  “What if, I took you to meet my family finally?” He finally blurts, waiting on your reply with bated breath.

You feel a combination of shock and excitement climbing your nerves.  “Y-You want me to meet your family, Felix?” You repeat.

He rolls his eyes, “Yes that’s what I just said!”

“I mean–” Your heartrate is climbing at top speed with anticipatory anxiety, “Yes?” You say it again to sound more sure of yourself, “Yes! Yes…I would…I would be honored.” Your voice softens.  You feel stupid hot, fat tears welling in your eyes.  Both of your past relationships had never given you the opportunity to meet their families, let alone in an completely different country.

“ ‘I would be honored’ ” Felix mocks you lovingly with soft tone, “Just relax baby, they’re gonna adore you.  And...” he kneels down in front of you, reaching up to wipe a tear before it gets to fall down your cheek.

“I’ll make sure you pass your final with flying colors.” He smiles at you, “You know I love you, right?”

A few relentless tears drop anyhow.

“I love you too, Felix.” 

[telli1206]

How Can You Not Get Romantic About Baseball?

A little 2 part fic inspired by this post. I couldn’t get past how perfect this was for a Jaylos fic, so this happened 😆 Thanks to @bunny-lou for reblogging this and inspiring me on my feed, and @hersilentlanguage for always pushing me and motivating me to write all the ideas that pop in my head lol. Please consider this your Christmas gift we talked about 😘💖 And now I’ll return to my NEED TO BE UPDATED WIPs

ALSO ON AO3

Part 1

Carlos tries to wrench his hand away again, twisting it in Evie’s tight grasp. But her grip doesn’t budge, and he winces when her red nails start to press harder into the thin flesh of his wrist.

“Eves, stop,” he groans, almost stumbling over his feet as she pulls him along. She sighs and picks up the pace, refusing to look back at Carlos as she practically breaks in a jog, forcing him to do the same to keep from falling.

“Stop!” He screeches again, trying another yank. It’s enough to stop Evie in her tracks, but only so she can serve Carlos a pointed glare.

“What is it, Carlitos?? We’re going to be late!” Evie huffs, flapping her arms. She’s still holding onto Carlos as she does so, and he almost topples over from her exaggerated flailing. But she finally stops when she notices his panicked expression.

“Oh! Sorry,” she squeaks softly, dropping his hand. “But can we please hurry? You know I have to meet the rest of the squad. We all promised we’d be at the holiday tournament. We have to get a spot by them!”

Carlos scoffs, but starts trudging along beside her. At least she’s slowed her pace, he’s grateful for that.

“I don’t see why you need me then,” he grumbles, scuffing his boots as they walk. “This is gonna be SO…awkward.”

“Awkward?” Evie repeats, and Carlos sneers at the mocking lilt to her voice. “Please. You’re being a little dramatic, don’t you think? He’s only asked you out a couple of time-“

“Five! Five times Evie! Every day this week!”

He waves five fingers in her face, waggling them harshly when Evie perks an uninterested brow. Gently but firmly, she tucks Carlos’ fingers into her own, pushing them back down as her gaze softens into a pout.

“Carlos. My Carlitos,” Evie sighs. “It’s just a boy. A very cute boy, by the way,” she adds with a giggle when Carlos rolls his eyes, “and he happens to be the captain of our baseball team and our star pitcher. Which also means he’ll be busy. Playing. You know, baseball? That we came to watch, just like the hundreds of other people in here? I think you’re worrying for nothing.”

Carlos bites back a huff, shaking his head dismissively at his best friend. Truthfully, he hopes Evie is right. Maybe Jay will be too busy to notice that he’s even there. There’s a huge crowd, the school has been hyping up the tournament for weeks. Maybe he can just disappear in it. He’s good at that. He loves that.  Going unnoticed. That’s all he wants. Especially tonight.

“Hey! Freckles!!”

“Ooops…” Evie breathes, reaching to tuck Carlos behind her. His breathe hitches at the sight of Jay jogging towards them. He’s staring so intently at Carlos that when he tries to toss a ball back behind him nonchalantly, he nearly takes out another player with it instead.

“Fuck, Jay!” Chad screeches as he jumps back. “Watch it! And where are you going?? The game’s about to start!”

But Jay pays him no attention, his eyes never leaving the boy behind Evie’s shoulder. “Aw, Freckles! C’mere! Don’t be so shy, I just wanna talk to you!”

“Let’s go,” Carlos hisses, pulling Evie by the back of her dress. She stumbles in line with him, grabbing his hand and letting him lead her towards the rest of her squad that’s huddled at the other end of the arena. But even through the din of the crowd, they can still hear Jay shouting after them. Carlos curses silently and tugs at Evie to move her along faster.

“JAY-DIR!”

Jay halts at the familiar wail. He knows better than to ignore that voice. He sighs and casts one last longing look to the cute boy retreating from his sight before turning back towards their dugout.

“Get your ass over here!” Mal calls again, waving at Jay frantically as she runs towards him. “Seriously, what do you think you’re doing??” She grabs his bicep when she finally reaches him and starts to drag him back, relentlessly grumbling at him the entire way.

“I can’t fucking believe you’d just run off like that! The game’s literally about to start!!”

“Just shut it, Mals,” Jay grits through his teeth. “I had something…important, to take care of.”

He startles when she bursts out a laugh. “Your little crush is not as important as this game, Jay-Jay,” Mal tuts, squeezing his arm tightly. “Seriously. Ben said he’s going to throw us a victory bash at the castle after we win! Don’t you want that??”

Jay just scoffs, trying his best to be casual as he lets his gaze skitter across the crowd. But Mal shakes her head and gives a firm tug, hard enough to launch Jay forward and almost knock him to the ground.

“STOP looking for freckle nerd! Got it?? I swear Jay, if you cost us this game I’m kicking your ass allll the way up and down this field. Comprende??”

She jabs his chest pointedly, prompting a yelp before Jay slaps her hand away.

“Yeah. Comprended.”

Mal grins wide, finally dropping her grip. “Good boy,” she snips, giving him a slap on the back despite the fiery glare directed right at her. “Now, I think it’s time we go make this tournament our bitch, don’t you think?”

 -----

Unfortunately, the next two hours of the game don’t go as well as Mal predicted. They’re actually bad enough to make Carlos cringe. Auradon Prep is one of the best teams in the league, but that’s not what Carlos sees at all right now. Not tonight. And he’s only seen one, very obvious, weak link the entire game –their bumbling, distracted, raven-haired pitcher.

The crowd lets out another collective groan when the ball suddenly slips out of Jay’s fingers again. Carlos has lost count at this point how many the teen has dropped it throughout the game. The boos only continue to get louder with each passing minute, and Jay’s look of complete distress over it almost makes Carlos feel a little bad for him. Almost.

“He’s looking again.”

Evie nods towards the pitcher’s mound at Jay, who’s craning his neck in their direction, his eyes searching the bleachers. Carlos is already instinctively tucking behind Evie as he has several times tonight, noticing the shuddering sigh of her body as he does so.

“This is ridiculous. He can’t even see you!!” She whines. When she turns a little to look at Carlos, his body quickly follows, curling away from any exposure. Evie groans and rolls her eyes.

“I’m not doing this all night, C! You’re going to have to face him sooner or later.”

“Later,” he mumbles simply, dropping down to sit on the bench behind them.

“Is he really that bad?” She asks again for what seems like the fiftieth time, and Carlos scoffs and looks away.

“He’s just a jock that’s looking to get laid, Eves. That’s it. I’m just another challenge to him, nothing else.”

“Hey! Freckles!! There you are, babe!”

Carlos groans and buries his face in his hands, trying to ignore the tan-skinned boy sprinting at him. But Evie tugs his hands away and promptly yanks him on his feet. “Just talk to him,” she mumbles, leaning in Carlos’ hear. He shrugs her off, glaring sullenly towards her before straightening to face Jay, who’s already right in front of them, smiling triumphantly as if Carlos is a prize that he’s here to collect.

“Did you come to watch me play?”

Carlos’ lip twinges, and he fights back the urge to smile. “Oh, is that what you were doing?? Because the scoreboard says otherwise, I think.”

Jay looks taken aback for a moment, his mouth tipped open at Carlos’ biting retort. But he steels himself just as quickly, curling a soft smile at Carlos’ smug grin.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s not my best day,” Jay agrees, nodding slightly. “But you…could make it better.”

Carlos perks a brow, intrigued. Jay clears his throat, his fingers weaving in a nervous twitch. “Did you maybe, think it over more? You know, going on a date, with me?”

“Didn’t we already?”

Jay tips his head curiously, and Carlos chuckles a little.

“In your dreams?”

“Aw Freckles,” Jay moans, “Come on, don’t go breaking my heart! What are you doing this weekend??”

His voice cracks a little, hinting of frustration, and Carlos huffs before dropping back down onto the bleachers.

“Well, definitely not you. Sorry if that bruises the captain’s fragile ego.”

Jay gapes again, still in shock at the brazenness of this cute freckled geek. He honestly never thought that the teen could have such a sharp tongue. It’s kind of…hot. Even if the attitude is directed towards him.

“Um, no? That’s not...” Jay hesitates. But a sharp cackle from behind redirects his thoughts.

“Haha Damn, kid! I don’t think there’s enough water in Auradon to treat that burn.”

Jay curls a sneer at the interruption, shaking Mal harshly off his shoulder when she reaches for him.

“Will you shut it, Mal?? I got this!”

“Actually,” Evie straightens behind Carlos, crossing her arms and fixing a glare at Mal and Jay. “I don’t think you do. It’s been a week now, Jay, hasn’t it? And I think Carlos has been pretty clear where he stands about dating you. That’s his name, by the way, did you know that? Carlos.” She sits down and wraps an arm around her friend, pulling him in close and earning a small smile from him. “Which is probably something you should have bothered to ask him in that entire time you were looking for a way to get in his pants, hm??”

Mal’s hands shoot up to cover her mouth, barely in time to muffle a loud chortle. Jay jabs her sharply with his elbow then, and she stumbles back with an angered gasp.

“Ow! Don’t be such an ass, Jay! It’s not my fault your flirting is SO fucking funny!” She adds with another chuckle.

“Shut UP,” Jay mutters, his eyes downcast. “I didn’t…I tried.” He lets out a sigh, surprisingly soft and despondent. He looks up then, meeting Carlos’ eyes. “You didn’t…I didn’t get much of a chance to get anything. Y-you shut me out pretty fast, Carlos. Every time.”

Carlos stares back, silent. The boy in front of him suddenly seems so…fragile? He’s hugging his torso, shoulders hunched and looking so reserved and unsure. Nothing like the confident athlete that strut up to him in the halls, touching Carlos freely and acting unphased with every rejection Carlos threw his way. Carlos had never gotten the impression that his words mattered to Jay, until now.

“Um. I’m. I’m sorry?”

Carlos’ voice barely comes out as a whisper, but it’s loud enough for Jay. His head whips back up, a small smile already on his lips.

“So, does that mean you’ll give me a shot?” He swallows, taking a tentative step closer. “Carlos, will you go on a date with me?”

Carlos furrows his brow, eyeing Jay cautiously. “That’s not -I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry I shut you down so fast, Jay. But I was trying to save us both some time, ok? I don’t really think we’re on the same page for like, anything.”

He gestures dismissively at Jay, slumping back in his seat, back towards Evie.

“So, that’s it then?” Carlos whips back to Jay, surprised at the hardened look in his eyes. “You’re not even gonna give me a chance??”

Carlos bites his lip, his eyes flitting to Evie with a questioning stare. But she looks equally as perplexed, only offering a small shrug that’s no help at all.

“Tell you what,” Mal steps in, literally. She positions herself between Carlos and Jay, earning perturbed glares from both sides. But she crosses her arms sternly, looking entirely unphased.

“We’ve gotta get back and try like hell to save this game,” she quips, perking a brow in Jay’s direction. His head drops and he looks away immediately. “So, maybe we can turn this into something that could help all of us.”

“Oh?” Evie jumps in shrilly. She leans in front of Carlos to face Mal, looking intrigued. “And how do you propose we do that?”

Mal smirks proudly. “How about…if we win, Carlos agrees to be Jay’s date to the party after? At Beast’s castle?”

Jay visibly brightens at the idea, but Carlos and Evie just look at each other, silent and unsure.

“If we lose, Jay will leave you alone, Carlos.”

She gives Jay a look then, brow raised as she waits for his response. Despite visibly deflating at the thought, he nods quickly in agreement, and Mal grins.

“And anyway C, if we actually win, you’re only giving Jay one date. It’s like, that chance he’s asking for, ok? If you’re still not interested when the date’s over, no harm done. No strings attached. You just part ways. Deal?”

Jay and Mal are both looking at Carlos expectantly now, their movements frozen momentarily in anticipation. And Carlos is looking back at them, a brow perked and contemplative as he carefully thinks over Mal’s words.

Evie clears her throat. “That sounds, agreeable, to me,” she starts, noting Carlos’ surprise at her words. “Don’t you think, Carlitos? You don’t have anything to lose, really. Do you? Just one date. Maybe.”

Jay’s still staring at Carlos, eyes wide and hopeful, and Carlos can only sigh loudly. “FINE,” he relents, flinching when Jay and Mal whoop and high five each other. “You still have to win though,” he snaps, gesturing toward the scoreboard.

Jay’s smile stretches wide. “Oh, don’t you worry about that, babe. Carlos,” he corrects himself when Carlos glares at him. “I think I’ve got the right motivation now. You just worry about what you’re wearing to the party tonight,” he adds with a wink, and Carlos rolls his eyes as he and Mal finally turn away to run back towards the dugout. He sneers a little when Jay spins back and waves at him.

“Maybe that was a mistake,” he grumbles, glancing at Evie. But she’s already buried in her compact and carefully touching up her lip gloss, seemingly indifferent to what just happened.

“Evie!” Carlos persists, grabbing the compact away from her and forcing her to look at him. “Come on, we basically just bartered me for the sake of this fucking game. That was stupid. We are stupid.”

“No, we’re not,” Evie sighs. “You only agreed because you think there’s almost zero chance of them winning. And you’re right, they’ll probably need a miracle, they’re so far behind.”

“True,” Carlos agrees, laughing dryly. “I mean, what do you think the chances are that I’ll actually have to go on this date?”

THWACK.

“Holy Shit!!”

Evie and Carlos turn their attention to the field just as Chad tumbles to the ground, ball in hand. Jay is standing at the pitcher’s mound, wildly grinning and punching his glove repeatedly.

“Fuckin’ hell, Jay! Bet you can’t do that again!” Chad taunts, tossing the ball back to him.

Jay catches it easily and throws Chad a wink before whipping the ball right back at him, smacking him squarely in the chest and knocking him on his ass again.

“Aw, throw it back here, you baby!” Jay taunts as Chad rolls on the ground a little, moaning helplessly. “Come on, I could do this all night!”

“Well,” Evie smirks, clapping Carlos soundly on his shoulder. “I think…you should wear the new patchwork leather jacket I made you. Tonight. And maybe, a fitted black t-shirt underneath? You know, give him a sneak peek of the goods, but still make him work for it.” Evie giggles wickedly.

“Ugh. Shut it, Eves,” Carlos groans, and buries his face in his hands. This is most definitely NOT how he thought his night would be going.

[startanewdream]

Sometimes I write the most random things at night.

This is a Part 2 (3?) of that comfort Sirius Lives AU where Sirius would never shut up about Harry and Ginny getting together (or my point that Harry would be happier if anyone had lived).

Part 1 | Part 2 (no need to read them)

_______________

‘All things packed? Socks folded and all?’

Harry jumps, turning to Sirius with a fond smile; he has just closed his trunk. ‘You know, nobody ever asked me that.’

‘Remus told me to ask you. He’s adamant I should be a serious godfather.’

Harry grins. ‘He did not.’

‘He may have used the word responsible instead,’ Sirius agrees, grinning. 'People seem to avoid the word "serious" near me.'

Sirius crosses his arm, leaning against the door of Harry’s room (Harry has a room there that he decorated with Sirius’ help, with his personal belongings that no one judges him for), watching Harry with attention.

‘Excited for tomorrow?’

Harry shrugs. He loves Hogwarts but he won’t deny that for the first time he wasn’t counting the days to go back. Between Sirius’ company, the summer days at the Burrow and the first vacation he took since… since forever, he could add a few more days to that summer break.

‘You’ll enjoy the Sixth Year,’ Sirius says. ‘Lots of free time. It’s so relaxing after O.W.L.s.’ There is a smirk on Sirius’ face now. ‘Good dating opportunities too.’

Harry rolls his eyes, his face reddening.

‘What?’ Sirius asks, innocent. ‘I meant about your friends, Ron and Hermione. They were all over each other this summer, didn’t you see?’

‘They are always like that.’

‘Talking to each other all the time, finding every excuse to be together, laughing until late in the night—’

‘Fine, fine, I won’t be surprised.’

But Sirius hasn’t stopped. ‘—Teasing each other non-stop, flying together every sunset—’

‘That wasn’t them,’ Harry interrupts, frowning.

Sirius blinks. ‘No? Oh, right, I was thinking about you and Ginny, sorry.’ He doesn’t look remorseful, though.

Something warm spreads through Harry. His neck burns—maybe he’s got some allergy.

‘Come on, Ginny and I—we are nothing like Ron and Hermione.’

‘No, no, you bicker a lot less. More of a teasing banter. Well, to each couple their own foreplay—’

‘Foreplay? Couple? No, no.’

‘Yes, yes.’

‘I am not—we are not—Ron’s sister—she has a boyfriend!’

‘Well, people are allowed to make bad choices once in a while,’ Sirius notes, shrugging, evidently not considering Ginny’s relationship status a problem.

‘You… you are out of your mind, really. I don’t… I can’t fancy her!’

‘Why not?’

‘Because she… she is Ron’s sister.’

‘Well, Lily was Petunia’s sister, imagine if James considered that.’

‘Ugh, Sirius. It’s nothing to do—Ron would never accept it.’

‘Good thing it’s not Ron who you want to snog.’

‘Snog? I don’t… I can’t—’

‘Fine,’ Sirius sighs, though the smile is still on his face. It’s a victorious smile that does nothing to calm Harry. ‘Tell me you can’t see yourself snogging Ginny and I’ll drop it.’

‘I…’

He begins the phrase with the full intention of finishing it, but now that Sirius has mentioned it, his voice extremely reasonable, Harry can’t avoid the thought. It is easy, strangely easy, as if his unconsciousness has been harbouring these images for a while, almost a dream of a dream, and until then Harry didn’t realize they existed.

But now all he can see as clearly as if they happened is the scene of him and Ginny after one of their silly races, reaching the ground and dismounting the broom still laughing, still full with the adrenaline of the dive. Ginny’s hair is all windswept, escaping her ponytail, framing her red face; her freckles are highlighted after so much sun exposure and this time, in his mind, Harry doesn’t resist the urge to get closer to count them.

But when he is close, with that fragrance of her perfume—the one he is also sure he didn’t notice until now, though some part of him has always registered how good-smelling she is—, staring at Ginny’s warm brown eyes, the smile on her lips…

All he can think of is that he would like very much to kiss her, no matter that she has a boyfriend or that she is Ron’s sister.

There is only Ginny.

‘AHA!’ Sirius’ cry makes Harry jump, blinking, the image of Ginny in front of him suddenly evaporating. ‘You Potters have the same pining face. It’s so adorable!’

‘No, it’s not! What—what do I do now, Sirius?’

‘Only one thing to do! Make her realize she fancies you too!’

‘But… she has a boyfriend,’ Harry mumbles, and then his face is replaced by Dean’s in his mind, and it’s Dean who is close to Ginny. He closes his eyes. ‘I feel like… like there is a monster in my chest and—’

‘Monster in your chest? We gotta better up your metaphors, Harry. But don’t worry, we will get there.’

‘I… I shouldn’t get there, she is still Ron’s sister…’

‘Ron? Your best friend Ron? The one thing you would miss the most?’

‘Yeah—he will feel like I am betraying him—’

‘Harry, you are best friends. I would even say brothers, but that would get weird considering how you definitely don’t see Ginny as your sister… But the point is that he would be happy for you! His best friend and his sister? I would be.’

‘You don’t have a sister.’

‘Good point. I have no idea how it would be, but, hey, I supported your mother with your father, and all because I saw how amazing they were together! You would support Ron and Hermione, right?’

‘I guess… I mean, I want them to be happy. If snogging would lessen their fights...’

‘Snogging helps a lot to channelize energy into something else,’ Sirius promises him. ‘You’ll see.’

Harry doesn’t look convinced. ‘Ginny still has a boyfriend.’

‘Nonsense, I’ve seen how she looks at you. And Fred and George may have mentioned something about a crush?’

‘Oh, that was years ago. Hermione told me Ginny is… over me.’

‘Then let’s get her under you! No, wait, that came out wrong. What I mean is to show her that you belong together!’

‘How do I do that?’

‘Don’t worry, I will guide you. I am an amazing matchmaker. You should have seen me with your parents.’

‘Didn’t my father take at least two years to make my mother date him?’

‘Well, you are here, right? Or as we used to call you, the final proof that James Potter and Lily Evans had—’

‘Okay! Don’t say it!’

‘That they had a love for each other, Harry,’ Sirius finishes, shaking his head, the smirk on his face bigger than ever. ‘Gods, what did you think I would say?’

Harry is sure his face is redder than the Gryffindor banners decorating the room.

‘Fine, I will listen to you.’

‘Oh, perfect.’ Sirius walks to sit on Harry’s bed, his face shining with something that Harry suddenly associates with mischief. He looks years wounger. ‘Let me share with you a wisdom I once shared with your mother—’

‘My mother?’

‘Yeah, well, you are much more like in her situation than with your father. All things considered, you are the one who fancies someone who supposedly got over you.’

‘This happened to them?’

‘Oh, yeah, by our last year they were just friends. Lily was convinced that James had moved on, and James was convinced she couldn’t ever like him back. It was rather pathetic and they were both wrong, let me tell you.’

‘Then what?’

‘Oh, lie in, Harry, let me tell you this bedtime story: how your parents got together. Once upon a time…’

[gaylorlyrics]

Diana Playlist!

just got an ask for a Dianna playlist!!! This is definitely not comprehensive and TBH im not even convinced that all of these are Dianna songs (idk I still think the 1 is a reference to Highway 1), but they all COULD be about Diana for the reasons below!

1. Wonderland - "green eyes", "too in love to think straight", Tay uses Alice in Wonderland imagery for Dianna because she has a "were all mad here" tattoo (we both went mad) and her Tumblr was called "down the rabbit hole" (fell down a rabbit hole"

2. Clean - the imagery that Tay used in the tour video for this is really similar to this pic of Dianna and Taylor, "flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst", I also think that the "ten months sober" line matches with their timeline? but someone can fact check me on that

3. Holy Ground - "I left a note on the door with a joke we made"...this is Diannas door with a note in Taylors handwriting

4. 22 - the liner note for this includes “DIANNA”, as well as the names of a few other friends

5. I Wish You Would - "It's 2 A.M. in your car" lots of late night driving imagery for Di because they would hang after Di was done filming Glee late at night, "we're a crooked love in a straight line down", my favorite theory about this song is that Tay is saying "never hung up the phone like I Dianna"

6. Everything Has Changed - "green eyes and freckles", the secret message in the liner notes here is "hyiannis port", where Di and Tay hung out. ALSO worth noting that it's actually spelled "Hyannis Port" but she added an "I" making it "hy(D)IANN(A)is port"

7. Stay Stay Stay - tbh this one isn’t super conclusive that it’s about Dianna, but it matches their on again off again relationship, “you came in wearing a football helmet” seems like a nod to disputed rumors that di, tay, and Tim Tebow the football guy had a love triangle

8. All You Had To Do Was Stay - car imagery "you drove us off the road", this is the flip side to Stay Stay Stay so it makes sense they’re about the same person

9. Treacherous - this is basically a whole song that’s “were crooked love in a straight line down”, lots of queer coding, “put your lips close to mine as long as they don’t touch”, “skin and bones trained to get along” because her and di were very thin and tried to be inoffensive

10. Begin Again - the timing for this song lines up with this being about dianna, as it seems like di was tays first really serious relationship after Emily

11. How You Get The Girl - Taylor telling us how to get a girl?!?! because she the one who gets the girl!!! There’s no definitive proof that this is dianna, but they were rumored to be on and off again and also rumors they talked about getting married “I want you for worse or for better/I would wait forever and ever”

12. Babe - Tay doesn't sing this song, but she did write it and it's common consensus that it's about Dianna. There are a lot of parallels between this mv and the I’m not the only one mv

13. I'm Not The Only One - OK! This is also not a Taylor song!!!! BUT Di stars in the mv and there is a lot of speculation that it is about Swiftgron from Dianna's perspective.

14. long story short - "Right down the rabbit hole" Alice in wonderland imagery again!

15. the 1 - "Roaring twenties" dianna is dressed as a flapper in these pics with tay, you can read more of my thoughts here

16. Champagne Problems - “this dorm was once a madhouse” could be another way to say “we’re all mad here”, there’s speculation that this is about dianna because people think Taylor rejected her marriage proposal

If there are any you think I’m missing please add!

[1engele]

daybreak | sal fisher x fem!reader - 2. math

Previous | Next

[warnings: cursing, mention of smoking, mention of household abuse of a teenager]

"what a plot twist you were."

—

The next day, you'd wakened with dry lungs and an even drier mouth.

It was true that smoking was bad for you—but it hadn't been as horrible as you'd thought. You'd try it again, but you couldn't see yourself becoming addicted.

Your mother wasn't home, again. You were quick to understand that she worked longer shifts now and you wouldn't see her a whole lot.

Not like you cared. Michelle never really liked you all that well. You'd probably have been dumped on the street a long time ago had your father not legally obligated to pay child support.

You'd never known him. You weren't sure if you wanted to.

She doesn't use child support for your well-being. Probably uses it to continuously feed her crippling gambling addiction and buy more pointless flowers for the apartment.

You were nervous about today. You'd never been the new girl before—and you didn't know what to expect about these kids. You doubted they were as cool as people as Larry and Sal.

You showered and put on your boyfriend jeans—which had holes in the knees, but you couldn't bother to concern yourself whether or not that conflicted with the dress code or not— and your light grey hoodie. You added a flannel on top of that which was a little too big for you. Don't forget the white sneakers which you should probably replace.

You pocketed your flip phone and slung your bag over your shoulder. Stopping in front of the mirror, you passed a hand through your hair, decided it was adequate, and walked into the kitchen. You grabbed an apple—you never really found yourself hungry in the mornings. Besides, it wasn't like your mother was around to make sure you were fed—and left the apartment.

You locked the door behind you and shoved the keys into the front pocket of your bag afterward.

You met with Sal and Larry at the foot of the front steps of the apartments, like you'd agreed the day prior. You couldn't help but feel a little nervous as you opened the door and walked down the three stairs.

"Hey!" Larry greets you first.

"Hey, Larry," you smile weakly, as you're not fully awake yet, but it still means as much as a smile you'd give him when you were awake. You turn your eyes to Sal, waving shortly. You were momentarily startled when you realized he'd already been looking at you. "Hi, Sal."

"Hey," he says your name pleasantly. "How are you feeling?"

It was sweet that he was concerned about your well-being. "Alright. My lungs hurt."

He hooked a thumb around the strap of his bag and slid it up and down. His hands were pale and veiny. His nails were painted black and the polish was chipped in a few places. "Yeah. You did a shit-ton of coughing."

You open your mouth to reply, but before you can he meets your eyes. His head is inclined slightly downward, tilted a bit. He peers at you through the shadows of the mask. Lash-fringed, blue angel eyes bore through yours.

His eyes are opalescent. It's almost as if every time you look at them they were a different shade of blue.

You're sure your gazes hadn't connected for more than 3 seconds but the feeling that spawns inside of you from that short contact is slightly jarring. You don't necessarily comprehend what is stirring in your gut and you don't have time to because Larry's speaking breaks through your reverie.

He begins to talk about the chaos the first day of school would be. You quickly forget what had happened before.

But nothing had happened. It was nothing.

When you'd arrived at school after a little bit of walking, you, Larry, and Sal received your schedules together.

"Fuck me," you murmur, mostly to yourself, as you look down at your paper. "Math is first. This always happens to me."

Larry laughs loudly. "Yeah. That does suck. Mrs. Packerton looks like a walking corpse."

Sal jerks his head upward from his schedule. "That's fucked, Larry. She's an old lady."

"I don't care. Pretty sure she's secretly evil anyway."

Sal looks as though he's done reasoning with how harshly true Larry is most of the time. He shakes his head and looks back at you. "Well, if it's any consolation—I've also got math first. So, you know. We could go together," he pauses. "If you want."

You grin. "Yeah. Sure. At least I'll know someone there."

Larry flicks his eyes between the both of you before stopping them on Sal. "Hopefully you won't have Travis again," His eyebrows twitch. "He always has math first."

"Travis?" You echo curiously.

The two boys exchange a glance.

"Just a guy we know who-" Sal starts, hurrying to finish the sentence.

He was rushing so Larry wouldn't cut in and say something but it happened before he even had a chance. "He's a little fucker we know who gives Sal shit. 24/7. He makes my blood boil."

You furrow your eyebrows. "What- why? What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing," Sal replies. "Pretty sure he's really troubled. Not unlike the rest of us."

"Doesn't mean he should take it out on other people." Larry scoffs. "I know it bothers you, dude."

Sal doesn't reply—seems as though he's growing uncomfortable speaking about all of it.

"Hey, guys!"

A voice calls, having grown closer halfway through her sentence. You all turn towards it. A girl, leggy and taller than both you and Sal, with long locks and eyes greener than a spring clover. There was something homey in the way her chocolate brown hair brought warmth to her features.

A boy is beside her, with ginger hair with eyes a deep shade of the richest earth. His skin is pale and freckled. He carries himself with an air of bluntness and just a little bit awkwardly—his facial expression is very blank, you note.

"Hey, Ash. Shocked you aren't late," Larry grins.

"Ash" rolls her eyes at him and mirrors his expression. "You know Todd would never let that happen."

"No, I wouldn't." Todd deadpans.

Ash turns toward you after laughing enough to flash the white gleam of her teeth and a slight dimple in her cheek. "Hey!" She then says your name prettily and juts out her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ashley."

You don't ask her how she knows your name. Instead, you sincerely smile, take her hand and shake it. "Nice to meet you," you return, and then turn toward Todd. "You, too."

Todd is already an interesting character. He doesn't smile but his expression is cordial. "Welcome to Nockfell."

Your smile widens.

"Have you guys gotten your schedules yet?" Sal speaks up after having been quiet for a moment. He must've been reading over his schedule to himself.

"Oh! Yeah," Ashley opened her other hand, the one she hadn't shaken your hand with, and unfolded a now very crumpled piece of paper. She passed summer green over the list. "I've got biology."

Todd didn't even look at his list. "I have history."

Sal looks at you. His gaze easily levels with yours. "Looks like it's just me and you then."

Your face feels hot. "Haha," you suddenly feel nervous. "You're right. Sit beside me, okay?"

His eyebrows jump—that much you can tell by the way his eyes move. Tucking a strand of loose blue hair behind his ear, he replies: "Will do."

His ears are double pierced.

The bell's shrill ringing floods the halls. You wince, and you and Sal's eye contact is broken. Before that happens, though, you see Larry grinning to himself.

Weirdo, you think lightheartedly.

Everyone parts after that. Larry and Ash walk away together. They must both have biology, you thought. Todd leaves by himself to his respective class and you and Sal head towards math.

For a moment, the silence is unbearable. You've never been alone with a boy. Well, you weren't alone, just not in a group with other people. The noiselessness begins to bother you so you fleetingly think of something to say and blurt the first thing that comes to mind.

"The piercings," you say suddenly.

He turns his head toward you. You look up to him before looking straight. "What?"

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god, you thought. All I do is make a mockery of myself.

"I like them!" you add, hurriedly. "They're pierced twice. That's really cool. Looks good on you."

He laughs shyly. "Thanks. I like your shoes."

"My shoes?" You look down and laugh. They were so worn. "Why?" You continue to giggle. "They're falling apart at the seams, haha."

"That's the best kind of shoe," he retorts. He jerks his chin towards his sneakers, a muted shade of cornflower blue. "Look at mine. They barely fit and they're- like, super constricting. Also super ratty—but I can't seem to get rid of them."

You laugh with him. "They look better than mine, at least."

You're glad the ice was broken so fast. You liked him.

The class was boring and uninteresting as any math class would be. You do work. You glance over at Sal a few times throughout the class—not to cheat, just to see how he was fairing—and he was writing answers down with a quick response time and humble confidence within the drawl of his handwriting.

Alright, so he was smart. Not much of a surprise there. You could tell just how perceptive of a boy he was.

You stared hopelessly at an answer on your sheet you'd yet to fill out and twirled the pencil around in your fingers.

Suddenly, a pale hand with black nails has nimbly reached over and hastily circled what you assume was the correct answer to the question with his pencil. You look up to Sal in surprise and appreciation, who's already back in his seat as if nothing had happened.

You giggle before you can stop yourself when he raises a hand and raises a finger in front of the prosthetic's mouth, to tell you "shh."

Mrs. Packerton slowly pivots away from the chalkboard and passes her eyes over the class. You and Sal quickly break eye contact and look down on your papers. Sal's shoulders shake in your peripheral vision and you press your knuckles to your lips and force a bored expression on your paper.

Before the bell rang, you noticed a blond boy with tan skin and caramel eyes in front of you and Sal, occasionally shooting your friend bitter looks. It left a sour taste in your mouth, but you didn't mention it.

You find Ash and Larry before your next class. You think you've burst a blood vessel from how hard you'd laughed when you left the classroom.

"I thought I'd cracked a rib," Sal states over your laughter. as you walked up to Larry and Ashley.

Larry and Ashley exchange a look. Larry is the first to state the obvious. "What the hell happened to you two?"

You and Sal look toward each other and make eye contact. That's the last straw. You cover your mouth and try and hold it in.

"I-" Sal inhales. "It doesn't matter," he breathes out, an amused lilt in his tone. "How was class?"

"Bad," Larry and Ashley reply, in synchronization.

"Really?" You ask, surprised. "Biology can be fun."

"This biology isn't," Ashley sighs. "Not when you're just staring at cells and organisms for 20 minutes and then being expected to do work on it and understand what's happening."

"Well, math wasn't any better," you reply. "If it's any consolation—I don't think I got any answers right except for the one Sal did for me."

"I thought math was fine," Sal chimes in.

"That's because you're fucking Albert Einstein reincarnate," Larry squints. "Please have mercy on our mortal souls, Math God."

"Oh my god," Sal looks down. "Please don't make this into another nickname."

"I like it!" Ashley grins.

You know they're teasing but you can't find it in you to join in after he helped you out in class. Instead, you resign into silence and watch as countless students filter through the halls, bumping into each other as they pass and chatting with their peers.

Through the crowd, at the far end of the hall, you see him. The blond boy who'd been eying Sal in class. He was looking at him in the same way he had been then, with threat and resent shadowing his polished amber eyes.

It looks as if he's readying himself to approach.

You glance toward Larry, Sal, and Ashley. They seem occupied well enough, so you slip into the crowd and head towards who you've now pieced together to be: "Travis," you state, as you stand in front of him. "That's you, right?"

He regards you with distaste. "Do I know you?"

You suck your teeth. "No," you tell him your name. "I came to ask you something."

Despite himself and his embitterment, his eyes shine with hesitant curiosity. You take that as your answer. In spite of his stance over you and his general advantage of being bigger, you hold his gaze with blunt intent.

"What were you planning on doing when you walked over?"

"Why do you fucking care what I do?"

You shrug. "I don't know, Travis. I just think you need to learn how to pick your battles."

"Pick my fucking battles.. you know what? I think I will go over there-"

As he takes a step forward, you raise your hand and your palm roughly hits his chest, stopping him in his tracks—not because of strength (he's at an advantage, and he could easily walk right through) but because of the views he had, or rather—the views pushed upon him.

You saw the golden cross swinging off of his neck as soon as you approached. You'd also seen the gnarly black eye he wore on his face.

It was safe to assume he was being beaten at home and by a parent. And, most of the time.. when an adult is religious they will use several methods to further push it upon their child. Like sinner's guilt. And abuse.

If Travis' extremely religious guardian were to ever find out he'd harmed a girl, especially under the eyes of many others—it wouldn't turn out very well for him.

Yes, maybe you were being manipulative. But you were being manipulative for the good of both Sal and Travis.

"Step down," you advised. "This won't go very well."

You steadily meet his eyes. The stare between the two of you lasts for an even amount of time. Finally, he breaks that contact, jerks away with you, huffs, and walks his way around you and down the hall.

After that, you returned with the excuse of exchanging books from your locker, after Larry had asked you where you had wandered off to. No one seemed to have noticed Travis standing ominously at the end of the hall or your altercation with him.

At the end of school, you were beat. You said goodbye to both Ashley and Todd. Afterward, you, Larry, and Sal head for Addison's Apartments.

"You know, we don't have to go home yet," you say.

The boys turn to you curiously, as you kick a pebble as you walk along the side of the road. The beginnings of the sunset blossom in the sky—orange and fruity like tangerine jelly and amaranth pink like homemade strawberry frosting. like home. It fills you up inside and makes you feel so sweet.

"You guys wanna see a movie?"

Larry grins. "We don't have money."

"Who says we need money?"

When you'd arrived at the movie theater, all three of you had circled to the side exit. After a few moments of waiting suspiciously, an older couple exited through the doors. Larry caught the handle before it closed, and you brushed past them and quickly entered the theater. Before the doors closed, you heard them mumbling about "pesky children," or something.

Once you'd gotten in, you scanned each screening room and what movie the doors said it was playing.

You and Sal decided on a scary movie. Larry was not amused. Whatsoever. Apparently, horror is not his thing.

Before you entered, you frowned.

"We have no popcorn.."

In moments, Larry was reaching into a nearby trash can and pulling out an empty bucket that improbably had popcorn inside of it at some point in time. He then walked away, holding this empty popcorn bucket. It was so bizarre and you would have laughed had not been extremely confused.

"What.." Sal murmured, looking to you. "You think he'll come back?"

"I don't know where he would even be coming back from," You admitted.

It wasn't very long until he'd returned, with the empty bucket he'd taken from the trash now full of popcorn.

"Mandatory free refills," He said to your baffled face, pointing toward the poster on the wall above the trash can which read exactly what he'd just said. "You can never forget the hustle, kids."

"Oh my god," Sal mumbled and you barely heard him beneath Larry's laughter.

The movie was horribly made, and it still somehow scared the shit out of Larry. It may as well have been a comedy with how hard you'd laughed. Multiple other people in the theater had told you to shut Larry up but that was impossible when he was screaming every time a shadow would come on screen or the scene would change.

You, being between Larry and Sal, originally thought you'd had the best seat. You were wrong. Not only was Larry cowering into you and screaming directly in your ear, but Sal had simultaneously begun to throw popcorn at Larry's face to shut him up. That only resulted in popcorn. All over.

Needless to say, you left before the movie ended because of the fear of being escorted out by the employees.

"I'm never seeing a movie with you again," Sal squinted towards Larry. The three of you were now on the way back to the apartments. The night was thick and pearly moonlight bounced off old the white of his prosthetic face. "I think my eardrums are bleeding."

"It's the horror movies! This isn't my fault. Both of you ganged up on me and chose it."

You giggled to yourself.

Sal, beside you, suddenly stopped. "Wait, Y/N."

You stopped, and Larry halted a few feet away, as he'd been walking a bit ahead. Sal leaned forward and reached toward your face. Your body felt as though it had been zapped and you stood still.

He reached into your hair and pulled out a piece of popcorn.

"Huh." You said, dumbly. "How'd that get there?"

Larry's approaching footsteps were fast and leggy. He reached into Sal's hand, plucked the piece of popcorn between his fingers and fucking ate it.

"Jesus Christ, I can't do this anymore," Sal shook his head.

"What? It looked okay."

Recovering quickly from whatever had happened to you, you laughed.

You also inwardly denied what your body was feeling because you knew it was much too soon.

[jschllatt]

𝐍𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝟏𝐊 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓

hi my loves! today i hit 1,000 followers and i could not be happier! every milestone i reach makes me more and more appreciative of all of the wonderful people i’ve met through this blog. i just wanted to thank all of my amazing mutuals for being here for me, i’m grateful for you more than you know. so, as a celebration of this milestone and a way to recognize my talented mutuals, i decided to create a writing event! below is a list of prompts to choose from.

the rules are as follows:

anyone can participate!

three people per prompt

you can pick as many prompts as you like!

you can write for whichever mcyt you want (character, cc)

fics can be romantic or platonic (platonic only for minors, of course)

send me an ask with your character/cc & prompt number and i’ll add you to the list!

there’s absolutely no deadline! i want this event to be enjoyable for everyone, so don’t feel too pressured to get your fic done - have fun with it!! <33

be sure to tag me in the fic so i can see it!

feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions at all!

without further ado, here are the prompts:

(fluff, found some of these prompts from these links 1, 2,)

1. “i’m not going to stop poking you until i get your attention.”

⤷ @mcyt-sh1t with cc!quackity

2. “you’re so cute when you’re half asleep like this.”

⤷ @mcyt-sh1t with cc!dream - here

3. “let’s just stay in bed.”

⤷ @ohworm-writes with wilbur - let’s just stay in bed ⤷ @heyskeppy with cc!dream

4. “i can’t believe you’re actually wearing my clothes.”

⤷ @glattandblade with c!bbh - dress shirt

5. “can you stop playing connect the dots with my freckles?”

⤷ @sunniewrites with cc!dream - connect the dots

⤷ @orionfromabove with slimecicle - here

6. “you snuck in my room at 4am to cuddle?”

⤷ @soraahq with cc!quackity

⤷ @dawnfallx with cc!ranboo - use the door next time

7. “it’s nice that your voice was the first thing i heard today.”

⤷ @oh-mcyt with wilbur- first thing

⤷ @sexsellz with schlatt

8. “wait, don’t pull away...not yet.”

⤷ @orionfromabove with slimecicle - here

⤷ @glattandblade with c!techno

9. “you can call me whenever you want, even if you don’t have a reason to.”

⤷ @gr33kp3rs3us with cc!dream - help

⤷ @brownz-suga with quackity - call me

10. “rumor has it, i make you nervous.”

⤷ @libbynotfound with cc!quackity

⤷ @sabinanotfound with cc!dream - rumor has it

11. “somehow, i always seem to end up here with you.”

⤷ @beepbopbee with wilbur - our special place

12. “i’m only doing it because you’re cute.”

13. “you can sleep, i’ll keep you safe.”

⤷ @fromthebrainofachaoticwriter with fundy - here

14. “i’ve never felt so strongly about someone before, i’m terrified.”

⤷ 🚼 anon with schlatt

⤷ @orionfromabove with slimecicle - here

⤷ @chubbity with cc!quackity - here

15. “i can’t stop thinking about you.”

⤷ @bozowrites with cc!dream

16. “just say the words and i’m yours.”

17. “don’t smile at me like that, you know it drives me crazy.”

18. “will you just hold me?”

19. “it was a joke, i swear.”

20. “we should run away.”

⤷ @im-an-ungodly-mess with wilbur

(angst, found some of these prompts from this link 1)

1. “i don’t even know who you are anymore.”

2. “i can’t be with you.”

3. “you shouldn’t be here.”

4. “can you kiss me? just one last time, that’s all i ask.”

⤷ @glattandblade with c!sam - goodbyes

5. “am i too late?”

⤷ @fromthebrainofachaoticwriter with wilbur

6. “i don’t want to hear your excuses anymore.”

7. “yeah, i remember the drill.”

⤷ @krabmeat with bench trio - i remembered the drill

8. “i don’t want to say goodbye.”

⤷ @galaxygnf with c!dream - let him go

⤷ @dyslexicbur with wilbur - not good at goodbyes

⤷ @lorefulll with c!beeduo - i don’t want to say goodbye

9. “you’re either with me or against me.”

⤷ @sunniewrites with c!wilbur

⤷ @dreamwvrld with c!techno

⤷ @soraahq with c!jack manifold

10. “i’m done trying for you.”

11. “go ahead and leave like you always do.”

⤷ @dyslexicbur with wilbur - leave before you love me

12. “let me go, i can still save them!”

⤷ @orionfromabove with slimecicle - here

13. “i’m not going to sit here and watch you destroy yourself.”

⤷ @your-imxgination with c!dream

14. “you left me behind to die!”

⤷ @your-imxgination with c!dream

15. “i knew i was wrong to believe you.”

⤷ @soraahq with c!sam - mistakes

16. “why can’t you just look at me?”

17. “i can’t bear to look at you any longer.”

18. “it doesn’t have to end, not like this.”

⤷ @dyslexicbur with wilbur

⤷ @soraahq with karl

19. “why won’t you listen to me?”

20. “i wish we never met.”

[mochi-marie]

hello and congratulations ! 💕 for the event could you do the song heat waves by glass animals with bokuto? focusing on the chorus „sometimes all i think about is you, late nights in the middle of june,,,,". for the reader! male reader if you're okay with that, if not then gender neutral is totally okay! shorter than him (not by a lot, probably like half a foot or less), and has a build more on the larger side, and has freckles, curly hair, and glasses. the reader is also introverted and gets flustered very easily. thank u ! <3

genre : ( insecurity-based ) angst to fluff ( ? )

pairing : bokuto kotaro x introverted! male reader ( bigger, curly, freckles, glasses )

author's note : okay, for some reason, i started to listen to this song on repeat for a long while just basking in the lyrics and music to get acquainted and to familiarize myself with the general vibe i got from it -- i got really inspired by reading the lyrics while listening, so thank you so much for helping me find my new favorite song!!! i hope you enjoy! this is also my first time officially writing a male-insert, so please, any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! also, i might have strayed from the main focus of the specific lyric, so i deeply apologize!! 😖💛

also, if i forgot any warnings that anyone thinks i should add, please tell me as soon as possible!!

warning : insecurity, feeling as though you are not enough, angst ( kinda? ), ooc bokuto ( in my opinion ), written at 2 A.M. + Unedited

Hands shoved into small pockets under the summer night sky, you avoided his curious gaze, opting to let your hand come up to ruffle your curly hair rather hastily. thinking -- thinking about ways to stall for just a few minutes longer, hoping to whatever power above that he would just wait and listen patiently until you finally explained why you had asked him to meet you out in the parking lot after his practice. The daylight had disappeared during the few minutes you both silently basked in each other's company, the stars just barely starting to flash and twinkle above both of your heads. Summertime was in full swing, though a soft breeze managed to drift by, tousling and playing with your bouncy locks and waving through his salt-and-pepper hair. If the bitter thoughts had not been weighing heavily on your mind, perhaps you would've giggled. Any other time you might have nudged him, gesturing for him to lean down just a smidge so you yourself could do as the wind and card through his hair with your fingers, gently separating the spikes of hair stuck together from sweat due to the hard volleyball practice. Oh, what you would give for your mind to be empty enough to carelessly be enough for and with him.

The thoughts weighed on you heavily -- the ideas implanted by society's view of perfection. The world around you would question why Bokuto would be with someone such as yourself; someone so imperfect, drowning in their insecurities. What gave you the right to bog him down with your personal issues? Did you not notice the glances peers would give, watching Bokuto buzz around you happily as you both walked along? Do you not see the way he works hard to keep himself so... perfect? That was the only word worthy of describing your Kotaro. Perfection was his middle name, it seemed; a perfectly beautiful smile that lit up a room, a bubbly personality that could only ever seem to do good for the people that relaxed in his presence. Yes, your boyfriend was effortlessly perfect. So why couldn't you be the same? Why were you who you are, why must you feel so unworthy?

Your arms had migrated to wrapping around your mid-section, eyes planted to the ground as your mind raced. You didn't see the way Bokuto's eyes glanced down to you, worry laced in his honey eyes. While Bokuto wasn't the brightest academically, that did not mean he was completely simple-minded; he was well versed in emotions, specifically your emotions. He often prided himself on saying that he knew you like he knows the very back of his hand, and it seemed that this claim was no lie. His hand gravitated toward your own, eyebrows furrowed in confusion and worry -- "(name)? is... is everything okay?" His voice was spoken low and soft, hoping to not startle you. "What's wrong?" His voice reached your ears, and with a quick glance from the corner of your eye, you were met with the honey-hued sight that always managed to calm your nerves better than what any remedy could.

Clearing your throat softly, your mouth opened, and yet no words would form. The words that swam dangerously in your head died the second they landed on your tongue, and you were left open-mouthed, trying to form a coherent sentence. Why was it so hard to simply talk about your insecurities? You mentally scowled, a bretah catching in your chest before you let your eyes flutter closed, trying to gather yourself quickly.

Bokuto's hand grasped onto the tips of your fingers, eyes surveying your face for any reaction. With the familiar cute pink hue slowly growing onto the apples of your cheeks, he pulled your hand closer to himself, his own fingers nervously fiddling with your own fingers. Your nervousness was starting to catch, making him anxious. What was so wrong that you could barely even form the words you wanted to say? His mind blanked, biting the inside of his cheek as he scanned your face numerous times, waiting for a sign that you were ready. He would be patient, for you.

His hand never left yours.

"Why are you still with me?"

Shaky breathing. The stilling of fiddling fingers. The confused exhale of air, paired with furrowed eyebrows that you could not see with your eyes tightly snapped shut, cheeks burning with embarrassment and eyes met with the faint, familiar hot sting. Your breath was held tightly in your throat, glasses slipping down the bridge of your nose with the way your head was tilted at a downward angle.

"What do you mean?" Was his only response, calm, though by the small waver of his voice, you knew his eyes were most likely wide. Wide and churning with golden panic that would not suit his boyish attitude. Eyes creeping open, you were met with exactly what you had predicted. Your hand slipped from his, arms resting against your stomach, trying to provide yourself the comfort a part of you was craving -- a crave for his comforting touch. His hugs of which never failed to spark butterflies to explode in your stomach, the hugs that wrapped around you fully, trapping you within his warm, strong embrace that made you feel at home; the hugs that made you feel like everything was okay again. "You'd be better off with someone more like you. You just need a better life than this..." Your voice met his ears, and with every unspoken word that finally spilled from your lips, he finally realized how much this bothered you, and now how it affected him.

His hands found your shoulders and he pulled you to his chest, one palm resting snug against your back, the other arm resting around your shoulder, cradling your face to his chest and into the strong, warm embrace that always managed to wash all your worries away.

"You're all I need." Bokuto mumbled firmly, adam's apple bobbing as he held back the severe urge to let his tears escape from the corner of his eyes where they had started to pool as the situation continued to dawn. You didn't feel enough, and that was more than enough information for him to finally understand what was going on through your handsome little head. "You're all I need, all I'll ever want, 'kay?" Voice murmured against the crown of your head as he pressed his lips to your curly hair -- so soft, locks of your beautiful curls that always tickled his face when you'd embrace in a joyful hug at every greeting, his lips, like default, softly curling upwards at the familiar feeling that calmed his nerves. "You're more than enough, just remember that. Sometimes all i think about is you... don't forget that 'm never far away," Bokuto paused, pulling away to look down at you softly, readjusting the glasses that had slipped down your nose and at an awkward angle to avoid being crushed by the force of you against his chest.

"Say it with me."

"What?" "Say you're enough, please, (name),"

"Wh-"

"So you know that you're perfect the way you are, I need to know that we leave happy. Happy and together, (name)," Bokuto smiled a wobbly smile, eyes begging you to do this one thing for him -- for the both of you.

"I am enough" is a phrase that will resonate with your soul one day. A fact that is disguised by the hardened layers of stony-resilience that makes the battle of self-love seem impossible. Yet you are one of the strongest people Bokuto knows, and he believes in your abilities, passion, and you as a whole in all of his entirety, just like you do with him. A relationship with a deep emotional connection, and with him, this deep connection felt like a home away from home. Yes, Bokuto is indeed perfection, you decide.

His hand never left yours for the rest of the night, uncharacteristically yet sweetly lifting the back of your hand up ever few minutes to press three quick kisses to the back of your hand in a show of physical love -- a reminder that your Bokuto Kotaro will always be there, no matter what.

[hyucksong]

nct dream as roommates

a/n: *romantically calls you bro* 

lee mark 

the roommate that walked in on you taking a shower on the first night you moved in and avoided you for a week afterward

he even went as far as browsing different apartments to live in because baby boy was too afraid to face you

sometimes wakes up before you and he always prepares your coffee or tea and sets it by your bed for you when you wake up…sometimes sits on the edge of your bed to watch you

asks you to do his laundry because he doesn’t know how to separate the colors

you’re fine with doing them because he tries his absolute bestest with everything else, and it’s so cute

the first time he did the laundry you were sick…and you got a whole new wardrobe of pink clothing the next day

always does the dishes and you do the laundry…he’ll clean the living room and kitchen if you clean the bathrooms…he’ll go grocery shopping…only if you go with him

asks you to do his hair when he meets up with his friends, and if you say no he says “okay” and then pouts until you agree

you really like photography but hiring models is expensive so you always ask mark to model for you

and he always agrees, blushing while doing so

make-up artists are expensive too, so you also get him dressed up and add whatever you want to his face

(once you did a fairy photoshoot and he had freckles and pink cheeks and your heart did the thing) 

this time you need him to sit still for hours because it's supposedly a big photoshoot with a few other photographers coming too, so there’s a lot of looks to get through 

you do the first look before you get to the photo site to save time

he thinks nothing of you curling his hair until he looks up at you and time slows as his heart stops…

because you smell like vanilla and your nose is scrunched in concentration…because your breathing is heavy as you run to the bathroom to get more things before you’re late…

because you’re biting your lip while looking at him, admiring your own work, proud of the way the make-up came out, but a little disheartened because it looked like you put a little too much blush (even though you only put a little) 

and mark thinks,,, oh no

fuck

huang renjun

your best friend since you were a child

you’re used to ‘living with him’ because you practically lived with him as a kid; you were always at his house spending the night or vice versa 

he wakes you up an hour after he gets up because ‘he needs his peaceful time’

claims that ‘you’re the worst person to live with’ but refuses to look for another apartment because ‘no one else can handle you but me’

(in reality, he knows that there will never be anyone else he’ss comfortable with as you) 

he wakes you up by throwing a pillow in your face and or flopping on your bed next to you and bouncing a few times

once got really scared because you weren’t waking up no matter what he did, and when he started to tear up you opened your eyes and pushed him off the bed 

you just didn’t want to be woken up that day and tried to ignore him, but apparently, you ignored him for too long because he genuinely freaking out on the inside

he’s watched ‘what’s eating gilbert grape’ okay he was SCARED

he didn’t talk to you for three days after that....only started to wake you up again because you made the effort to wake up before him and make him breakfast in bed with hot tea

he expected you to leave his room after you gave it to him, but you just looked at him for a minute before sitting on the bed next to him, getting under the covers with him 

he focused on the fact you were taking up all the space instead of the now-familiar thrum of his heartbreak against his ribcage

(he’s felt it for the past fewyears, he’s gotten used to drowning it out) 

“y/nnnnnnn what are you doingggggg”

“shut up i made the breakfast, can’t i at least sit next to my favorite boy?”

...he’s your favorite boy?...okaythatwasreallycutebuthe’llneveradmitit

“o...kay...”

blushes when you lay your head on his shoulder in bed, watching whatever he’s doing on his phone, because your cheek is warm against his shirt and its bleeding through onto his skin and weiowioegfhowieh

but also yells at you when you take a bite of his toast and bolt out of the room, giggling

“yAH y/N”

lee jeno

the roommate that was awkward for the first month because he didn’t really want to room with a girl because then he can’t spend saturday with the boys 

then he brought them home one day without telling you and was expected to get his ass Whopped but you were drinking vodka and crying while watching Cars so

yeah you were the perfect roommate for him

you drink together

saturday may be for the boys but sunday is for drinking your problems away with your roommate 

can’t cook but will make BOMB desserts for you both every friday...also fridays are pizza nights and you both order a large cheese pizza with ranch on the side and a pint of dr.pepper

yall have the same diet but he has a six-pack and you don’t so you call bullshit on health and everything it is

both of you fall asleep on the couch all the time, TV still playing the game soundtrack with the controllers on the floor, blinking from low battery

jeno alwayswakes up before you, and he doesn’t admit it, but he loves to watch you sleep

you just look so...ethereal 

even with the drool

ANYWAY

you are one of the bros...he’s even taken a shit when you took a shower before -- that’s how close you are 

then one day you get dressed up real pretty and he’s making fun of you, laughing “you never look this nice who’s holding you at gunpoint”

“i’m going on a date jeno hop off my DICK”

“,,,what”

immediately felt defensive and was questioing who could like you and why you were going on a saturday night when it was busy on the streets and also please call the guy and cancel the date because he wants to watch toy story with you and eat pasta why are you going out with someone has he met him why haven’t you told jeno about this guy you know what you should just not go

and it’s when you walk out the door rolling your eyes, promising to be back home before 9pm with a cute shirt on and nice perfume on when jeno realizes 

that damn he hates to see you leave,,,but he loves to watch you go

(and he might have the teeniest, weeniest crush on you) 

lee donghyuck

the type to never clean the dishes and always makes you do them even if he cooks because he hates the feeling of wet food

then one day he sees you v e r y stressed over school work and he just...cleans the whole house

you come back from the library and you’re like,,,the fuck where’s haechan and what have you done with him

in turn, you buy him a headset that he’s been wanting for the past year...and you think he’s about to propose to you after you give them to him

but in all reality he’s just so happy that you even remembered something so trivial...like he talking about them once (1) and you remembered?

...cute bitch

he’s a big prankster, but in an endearing way, so whenever he goes too far you never really stay mad because he’s just a little unaware of the anger his pranks cause

plus you always get back at him 

always :)

you both are basically the same people; you’re passionate about your studies and he’s passionate about gaming and dancing

yall are the bad bitches that no one messes with 

BET that yall wear matching fits whenever you two go out together

you get together to watch his favorite youtubers do let’s plays of popular games

one day yall sit down to watch some outlast 2

and boy

did you underestimate the scare factor

so now you’re three episodes deep into the let’s play and your head is buried in haechans stomach because you’re laying down facing away from the TV, clinging to the poor boy

he doesn’t know if his heart is beating so fast because of the jumpscare or because of the way you look up at him when you ask if the scary part is over yet

he doesn’t like seeing you scared with tears in your eyes...but the way you’re clinging to him makes him want to watch a thousand more scary episodes...

...if it means you’ll cuddle with him

na jaemin

the best roommate you could ever ask for

he loves to clean and cook, not to mention he’s an absolute sweetheart!!!!!!!

you started to live with him because you had posted an ad on a website for a roommate and he sent back a reply

but the texts used so many of (=｀ω´=) these emojis you just assumed it was a girl

he was not

every night before you go to bed, he’ll walk into your room and whisper “good night, sleep well” to you before petting you head and walking out

people always wonder if you’re dating, but you always reply that it’s just the way he is

until one night you invite your (asshole) project partner to your apartment and she flirts with him endLESSLY,,, not doing her work or anything, just talking with jaems

like it’s pissing you off, and you think it’s pissing him off, and you’re about to send her home when you notice the storm outside and you realize,,,, you’re too good of a person to do that

so she sleeps on the couch, and you do the same, just so you can keep an eye on her and so that she isn’t left alone with jaemin at any point (poor boy looked like he’s about to combust if she tries to talk to him again) 

and jaemin does his usual routine even with the extra company, stroking your head and even going as far as to place a kiss on your forehead

“what about me, do I get a kiss” the girl annoyingly asked

“no, you’re not yn” and hE WALKS AWAY AND CLOSES THE DOOR TO HIS ROOM 

there’s silence in your head as you process his words, a little shocked and confused as to what he means, but most of all, your thoughts consist of;

oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit

you might have just fallen for him (let’s face it, you’ve been in love with him (just not as long as he’d been in love with you)) 

zhong chenle

not going to lie, you two did NOT get along in the beginning

you were each other’s first roommates, and you knew he was extroverted, but you underestimated the differences between your personalities

like,,, no please don’t invite the dreamies over again for the eighth time this week I can’t focus on homework with all the screaming

but even with all the head-butting, the chores are split evenly because he’s practicing to ‘be marriage material for his future wife’

you don’t care as long as he just does what he’s supposed to, and you two aren’t exactly the closest

but there are times when you connect, like on lazy Sunday afternoons where you both just relax on the couch...anywaY

and he always rolls his eyes, telling you that ‘you need to stop being a hermit and make some friends’

‘get some confidence’

‘why don’t you put any effort into how you dress’

it hurts a little...you know you’re not the prettiest and you don’t really try anyway

but to have it pointed out to you just...stings

and after a guy rejects you (after you built up courage for a whole years to confess to him) your confidence is at an all-time low (he said no because ‘you were too bland’ like wtf fUCk you)

and you’re just crying and eating spaghetti o’s, telling chenle as oon as you walk into the door that you’re ‘too sensitive for his bullshit today’ 

to which chenle doesn’t care... then he sees your puffy eyes and asks wha happens

you tell him, and he just gets...angry

(and jealous?)

he goes on a tangent, mocking the guy, saying that ‘you’re the most doen-to-earth natural beauty’ he’s ever seen and that ‘any guy who doesn’t fall in love with your cute sarcastic personality’ is dumber than a rock

he grumbles for the rest of the night, sitting and watching movies with you; it makes your heart swell that he’s getting so mad for you

and at the end of the mini-movie night, and he strokes your hair saying  that you’re ‘his little introvert’,

you decide that ‘opposite attract’ is 100% true

(and chenle notices that you have very pretty lips)

park jisung

you two are dorm roommates at a dance school, and y’all are so cute all the teachers LOVE you

like you both just spend so much time together it’s ridiculous

yall walk to class together, then from class to class together, eat lunch together, after school activities, walk back to the dorms, meet each other’s friends, go out on the weekends together...everything

it feels weird to not be with him

(the teachers have a bet that you’ll be dating before your senior year)

the dorm is just a studio apartment with two bedrooms (your parents both pay a lot for space) 

so chores aren’t too hard, in fact, you both usually spend the last few hours of daylight on Sunday nights straightening up your apartment from the hectic week before, to start off completely fresh and new

nothing big ever happens on Sundays around the home, but one day jisung (who went to hang out with chenle (he invited you but you pouted and said you had too much hmwk)) found a little puppy on the side of the road

and then proceeded to sneak into the dorms with it, hiding it under his shirt

when he showed you what he found, you couldn’t be mad...it was just so cute (both jisung’s little smile and the puppy) 

but you noticed it was shivering, and you whined, ‘jisung you didn’t even notice it was cold oH My GoD, go get it some water and food’ while you set up a nest of blankets for the little guy

hours later when the puppy had eaten and subsequently fallen asleep in your lap, you turned to jisung

‘let’s name it mousie’

‘what that’s dumb’

‘it’s not dumb! i wanna name it that because it looks like you whenever you sleep! it's so cute hehehe’

you thought jisung was WHAT when he slept

jisung didn’t talk for a whole minute, drinking in your words and thinking about them over and over again, in the meantime you were just smiling down at the puppy

your cheeks were red with happiness and your nose was a little red from sneezing (because the puppy was covered in pollen from being outside) and your gaze was filled with such love that jisung shivered

you let out a sigh and plopped your head on his shoulder, and all his feelings he’d ever had for you exploded in his chest, and he tensed (though if you noticed, you didn’t day anything)

you just kept and petting the dog

and damn did jisung want to be that dog

[lifeofkaze]

When Stars Ignite - Chapter 7

HPHM Rockstar AU

A/N: Can you believe it, that's already the final chapter of Part 1! Part 2 is already completely written but still needs editing. As soon as we will be done writing Part 3, we will start publishing Part 2.

General Warning: This whole fic has a general warning of being NSFW / 18+. We will give specific warnings for every chapter in itself, but several adult themes will be more or less present in every chapter, may it be explicitly or in mention. These include sexual topics, drug abuse, (ab)use of alcohol, smoking and a whole lot of cursing.

Specific Warning: Language

~~~

Find the masterpost here, the previous chapter here and the next one here. The songs featured before every chapter can be found on this pretty badass playlist here.

~~~

This work is a collaboration with @the-al-chemist

Taglist: @slytherindisaster @night-rhea @carewyncromwell

Fascinating new thing

The scene-makin'

Want a temporary savior

Fascinating new thing

Don't betray them

By becoming familiar

~ Semisonic - F.N.T. ~

Everyone’s eyes flicked towards the entrance of the dressing room as the door opened and Charlie entered the crowded room, a petite looking woman trailing behind him.

Lizzie surely wasn’t one of the taller girls, but Charlie’s companion seemed to be even smaller than she was. She had olive toned skin and messy dark hair that ended a little bit beneath her shoulders. She was dressed casually, wearing black ripped jeans, sneakers and a simple white shirt beneath her denim jacket; Lizzie recognised several of the logo patches sewn onto the fabric as belonging to a few of her favourite bands. The girl carried large headphones around her neck, much like the ones Lizzie was using when she was drumming and didn’t want to bother with her in-ear monitor.

What struck her the most however, were the new girl's eyes. They were of an unusual colour, not quite brown, not quite green. As she moved to stand next to Charlie, their colour seemed to shift, never quite settling for one or the other. The expression in them wasn’t hostile, but still guarded as she looked around the room. After her gaze had swept the round, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and looked down at her feet with an unreadable expression. The only thing Lizzie could say for sure was that it wasn’t a shy one.

Her attention was drawn from inspecting their crew’s newest addition when Charlie spoke up.

“Sorry to bother you.”

Despite the palpable tension, he smiled openly into the round of the faces staring at him. Glad to see his friendly, freckled face, Lizzie hopped down from the arm of the sofa and quickly made her way across the room.

“Not at all, it’s fantastic to see you, Charlie.”

Hugging her childhood friend, Lizzie stood on her tiptoes to whisper into his ear. “We’re having a bit of a situation at the moment, just so you know.”

Charlie’s brow furrowed before letting her go. His scowl was quickly replaced by another smile as he loosely draped his arm around her shoulder, nudging her playfully.

“I only saw you this morning, sunshine,” he laughed before inclining his head in his companion’s direction. “I just came in to introduce you all to my new assistant, Artemis Hexley. She’s hopefully going to take over from me properly once she’s completed her training.”

The girl called Artemis opened her mouth to say something to Charlie, and judging by her scowl it probably wasn’t something nice. Before the mood in the room could deteriorate again, Lizzie cut her off prematurely.

“That’s great! It’s really nice to meet you.”

She realised how overly enthusiastic she was sounding and if Artemis’ confused look was anything to go by, she was thinking the same thing. But Lizzie didn’t want her first impression of them to be that of a bunch of people sulking at each other; while they did have their low points sometimes, that generally just wasn’t them.

Taking a deep breath to tone herself down a notch, she flashed a smile at Artemis. “My name’s Lizzie, I’m the percussionist. I really like your jacket by the way, it’s so pretty. Where is it from?”

Lizzie noticed too late that she had cut off Artemis’ answer. The look on the new pyro tech’s face grew increasingly darker and Lizzie instantly felt sorry; that was not what she had been trying to achieve.

“I can’t believe that we’ve finally found someone to take over the pyros who’s actually suited for the job. Charlie here’s been working himself to the bone doing sound as well.” Lizzie’s smile turned into a smirk as she shot Charlie a brief side glance. “You just let me know if he gives you a hard time, okay?”

Charlie snorted. “Like I’d do a thing like that.”

Laughing his remark off, she playfully poked Charlie between his ribs.

“I mean it,” Lizzie continued more seriously, placing a hand on Artemis’ shoulder, “any problems, you tell me. I’ll deal with him for you.”

She had meant it as a friendly offer, to show the new girl she had someone to talk to in case Charlie would treat her the same as all the others who had tried out for the job; God knew, there had been a lot of them. But Artemis must have misunderstood her intention. She shook Lizzie’s hand from her shoulder with one pointed movement of her body and grimaced.

“Thanks, but I am perfectly capable of dealing with my own problems. I don’t need a babysitter,” she replied blankly. Her last words were directed just as much at her as they were at Charlie.

Surprised at being shot down like that, Lizzie exchanged a glance with Charlie, who pressed his lips together and averted his eyes. He gave Lizzie the tiniest of apologetic shrugs.

Artemis had turned her attention to examining the other members of the band and Lizzie used the moment to lean closer to Charlie.

“What a nice little ray of sunshine you got yourself there,” she muttered into his ear, shooting a quick glance at Artemis again. “Is she always that charming?”

Charlie shrugged. “Can’t really tell yet, but yeah, she might be rubbing people the wrong way. I hope that won’t be a problem.”

“Why take her on if you’re not sure she’ll fit in?”

Charlie shook his head. “That’s not what I said. I think she just needs a bit of time to open up. And believe me, that girl knows her stuff. The first one I really think capable of doing the job justice.”

Lizzie made a noncommittal noise. “Let’s hope you’re right then. The rest of the tour has to be perfect, Ethan made that very clear.”

Before Charlie could ask what she meant, Everett’s voice drew both their attention. It had this slightly condescending tone to it that he usually reserved for his more adoring fans.

“Smile, love, it might never happen.”

Lizzie felt her stomach twist as her eyes shot back to Artemis. She had narrowed her eyes and was glaring at Everett. He didn’t seem impressed in the slightest; he had his chair propped back on its hind legs and was leaning back against it with a cocky grin. He was sizing Artemis up with his eyes; it reminded Lizzie of a wolf deciding at which point to sink its teeth into his prey.

Thankfully, Orion disbanded the situation by briefly looking up from his notes. “A smile is not something that can be conjured on request, but is a blessing to be earned,” he said softly, his eyes resting not on Artemis but Everett. “For now, Artemis’ presence in itself must be a blessing for us all.”

“Are you taking the piss?”

Artemis was looking at Orion with a mixture of defiance and incredulity. Lizzie always forgot that people who had never spoken to him before needed a while to get used to his way of talking.

“I am not,” Orion answered levelly before turning his attention to his notes again. “We were in need of a pyrotechnician, and now, here you are.”

“And you were certainly blessed with much better looks than the last one,” Everett couldn’t help but add. “Nice work mate,” he grinned into Charlie’s direction.

Lizzie sighed inwardly; she stepped away from Charlie and into the line of sight between their singer and the new crewmate. There weren’t many ways in which they could have given Artemis a worse first impression of themselves.

Trying to steer the conversation onto safer grounds again, Lizzie forced herself to smile. “What Ev wants to say is, it really is great to meet you, Artemis.”

She had the impression Artemis wasn’t trying too hard not to roll her eyes. “You said that already.”

“Because it’s true. Isn’t that right?” Lizzie pointedly asked into the direction of Merula and Skye, who had taken themselves out of the conversation completely.

Much to her exasperation, Merula only gave the tiniest shrug while Skye didn’t seem to be listening at all. She was still engaged in a whispered conversation with Ethan; Lizzie could just imagine what about. Nonetheless, she cleared her throat to get Skye’s attention.

“Skye?”

The blue haired bassist looked over to them for the first time now, a flicker of annoyance crossing her freckled face for the briefest moment. “Yeah, smashing, absolutely.”

She gave her father a last look before sharply clapping her hands together. “Right, sounds like we’ve got a lot of work to do. I say let’s crack on with it.”

“Skye’s right, we really need to get to work,” Ethan nodded into Charlie’s and Artemis’ direction, indicating it was time for them to go. “Pleasure to meet you, Alexis.”

Artemis tried correcting him but he had already turned his back on her and gone over to Everett, probably in an attempt to soothe the singer’s hurt pride.

Lizzie shook her head as Charlie and his new assistant left the room. So much for making a good impression.

As they were leaving the dressing room a little while later, Lizzie joined up with Orion, who was walking behind the rest. She waited until they were out of earshot before asking what had been bothering her ever since their discussion with Ethan.

“Why do you want to sing all of a sudden?”

Orion glanced at her for a moment and smirked. “Why did you fall over yourself to be friendly to Charlie’s new partner?”

Lizzie made a face. “Really? A question for a question again?”

Orion’s smirk turned into a melodic chuckle. “I’d call it an answer for an answer.”

“Fine then. I think Artemis only looks really tough and don’t-come-near-me on the outside. Charlie and I spend a lot of time together, me being friends with her would make things a lot easier for all of us. And besides,” she added with a shrug, “I didn’t want her to think we’re all idiots with an attitude.”

Orion had to laugh at that. “Sometimes I’m not sure any of us is too far from that. Don’t go all overboard with that poor girl though, drummer girl. You can’t force her to be friends with you. She didn’t seem to approve of your bright spirit.”

“I can’t force her, but I can certainly try to win her over,” Lizzie replied confidently. “I do know how to make people come out of their shell, don’t I?” she added with a not completely innocent flutter of her eyelashes.

“You most certainly do,” Orion smirked, a crooked smile tugging at the corners of his mouth that made Lizzie want to reach out and touch him.

Distracting herself, she held him to his end of the bargain. “That was my answer, what is yours? Why not let Everett sing? He has a point when he says you’ll be in the spotlight much more; I always thought you didn’t want that.”

The playful look on Orion’s face vanished, making way for a more contemplative one.

“There is a reason you are the only person to have heard the new songs so far. You understand my music, you know what I want to say even if they still need work. You get them. But the others often don’t, Everett in particular.”

Orion watched the frontman of their band, who was walking a little ahead of them. He was still arguing with Ethan about something, neither of them looking too happy.

“Your assumption that I don’t have the same wish to stand in the spotlight that he has is correct. Contrary to Everett, I play for the music, not the attention. But I’d rather have all eyes on me than having to see my music and my thoughts not being done justice.”

He furrowed his brow at the sheer idea of it. “There are so many nuances and little details about each and every one of them that I can’t quite put into words yet. So far, I - and I alone - know how they have to be presented to the world to carry their message.”

Lizzie thought about his words for a moment. “Doesn’t sound like either solution is a good one then.”

Orion sighed. “In this, you are right. Sometimes it is just a matter of choosing the lesser evil.”

[ka-writes]

——————

Notes: haha I did a semi short chapter... sorry... also this is chapter 4 of my space AU..

ALSO READ THE DAMN WARNINGS. Thank you ☺️

——————

Incase you missed:

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

——————

Inspired by:

Humans are Space Velociraptors

By:FreshRoses_InMyGarden_NeedTheRain

Some kids come from storks, others come from crashed spaceships

By: mmmajora

Home Again, Home Again

By: teeth_eater

All works can be found on Ao3

——————

Warning: Mentions of abuse (physical verbal and sexual) there aren’t any graphic recalls it is simply mentions. Mentions of being beaten up. Mentions of knives and blood. Threatening characters, and character pain. Again characters being trapped and not going home. Cussing. Characters passing out. Characters being distressed characters being malnourished. Yea I kinda was in an angsty mode sooo.... here you go..

——————

Ao3 link:

——————

“Humans are [Add text here]”

Chapter 4: I guess it qualifies as an introduction?

Phil wasn’t expecting to wake up at 4 in the morning to the sound of laughter.

It wouldn’t be the first time, definitely not the last.

Curiously the avian poked his head into his kids’ room. The laughter wasn’t coming from the gardener, guard, or scientist. The laughter was coming from the assistant who wasn’t in their room. Phil turned his attention down the hall. Sure enough the laughter was louder. Quietly he made his way to the holding cell. Phil sat in a smaller hallway and decided to listen into the conversation… What can he say? He always eavesdropped..

“What even is a you-tube?” The assistant asked through small giggles. To that the human gasped as if he was hurt by the statement.

“You don’t have YouTube?! Or like an alien version of it?!” The human replied, not even trying to hide his shock.

“Erm no?”

“Well it’s like this thing that humans use to make really cool videos and stuff.”

“What’s a video?” Ranboo interrupted.

“They’re kinda like moving photos that usually work as a sort of entertainment or info dump. I could probably tell you thousands of the times my stupid teacher made me watch ‘educational’ videos..”

“So they’re kinda like illusions?”

“Yea but you don’t see 'em in 3D. As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted..” The enderian let out a small squeak of embarrassment at that, “YouTube is like a thing people use to post videos on. I am totally making an alien version of YouTube when I get out.” The air stiffened at that.

“Tommy.. you probably won’t get out for a while…” Ranboo said, Phil heard one of them shift and the entire atmosphere lost it’s warmth, “It’s not like you won’t get out! It’s just hard… especially when no one really trusts you yet.” Ranboo swallowed, as he usually does when he is uncomfortable, “Even when we let you out of the holding cell.. you probably won’t be allowed off the ship. It’s too dangerous for all of us..” the two fell into a deafening silence. Phil shivered at the tension, making sure to be silent while doing so.

“I assumed as much…” the human started, being the first to break the silence, “I-I… I guess I won’t be going home either… since the ISF absolutely hates us.. plus like you said, only already crazy humans are sent back..” the human sighed sadly.. For the first time Phil felt sympathetic towards a human. With that he decided it was time to start on breakfast.

——————

Three things happened after Tubbo woke up.

One, Ranboo passed out at the table. Phil simply shook his head and picked up the enderian with some unknown strength to the rest of the crew.

Two, a scream was heard from the other side of the ship, causing Wilbur to frantically run to the holding cell.

Three, Techno put his milk in before he poured his tea… I mean who does that?

Ignoring the last strange thing, Tubbo went to check on Ranboo. He was fine, so Phil said. “He only needs rest. Leave them be.” Was what Tubbo got as he peered into the enderian’s room. Shrugging off the weird behavior Tubbo made his way to the garden.

Before he made his way to the garden he noticed the human wasn’t in the holding cell. That meant he was probably in the lab… Which meant Tubbo would have to meet him.. Oh prime no. That’s not gonna happen.

He started sprinting to the garden. It was just passed the lab if only he took another step-

“Tubbo, I need your help.” Wilbur said from behind him. The droneling turned around reluctantly. Holding his breath he made his way into the medical part of the lab.

[gore and distressed characters, skim if you need to]

There, laying on the bed, was a human. He held back a scream which came out as a labored gasp. Sweat was bubbling on his forehead. With that he turned to Wilbur who examined the human from a distance.

“Go get some bandages and the stitching kit.” Wilbur commanded. Without hesitation Tubbo ran to grab the items. Wilbur took both objects and disinfected a bad cut on the human’s arm. He hadn’t even realized there was a cut until Wilbur cleared off the strange red blood. Wilbur then proceeds to stitch the wound and bandage the irritated wound.

That’s when Tubbo noticed the amount of blood the human lost. Most species wouldn’t be able to handle that much blood loss, but here was the beast of the galaxy, completely fine in a matter of minutes after losing quite a bit of blood.

[End]

When Wilbur was satisfied, he picked the human up and carried him back to the holding cell. Tubbo was unable to stop himself from following. Before thinking the droneling sat at the table and watched as Wilbur finished cleaning the human.

“Er.. do you want me to grab Techno so you can stay in here?” Wilbur asked, noticing Tubbo sitting in the corner.

Without saying a word Tubbo gave a small nod. Wil didn’t push like he usually did and left to get Techno.

Tubbo got up and approached the sleeping human. He was skinnier than what Tubbo thought humans should be. There were odd dark circles under his eyes and his hair clearly hadn’t had a good wash for what looked like months. He had injuries over his body and was practically shaking in his sleep.

Since Tubbo was preoccupied, he barely noticed Techno enter, or the door closing. Let alone the clangs and thuds from other crew mates.

He was preoccupied by the strange human who was sleeping in front of him.

The human stirred and the droneling stumbled away.

After a few seconds the human sat up and looked at the now fallen droneling.

“What the fuck?”

——————

Tommy didn’t expect another alien to push their luck in his space. But here he was.

The alien was smaller than Tommy by a lot. Further proving Tommy was the biggest man. Unlike the other aliens this one wasn’t threatening upon first glance.

The one from last night had been way more intimidating at first. Being way taller than Tommy and having weird lanky limbs and magical purple glowing orbs surrounding them. They had horns and a half and half complexion. One half of the alien being white with grey and purple freckles along with a red eye. The other half being a purplish black with grey and green freckles along with a green eye. They wore a suit with a red tie and dress shoes. He also had two tails of the same colors as his complexion. All of this being forgotten after they stammered through their introduction. It was honestly hilarious.

This alien was very different from the others. They had brown messy hair, encasing black antennas and small black bumps that resembled horns. Their skin was a honey peach color and practically glistened. There were strange hexagon patterns over their face along with three black stripes on either side of their face. They had bee wings, which was the only thing Tommy could relate to the alien too. There was also a black fuzzy tail, similar to a stinger, poking out of their pants. Their hands were lanky and pointed, completely black. There was also soft yellow fuzz poking out of their sleeves and holes in their pants. They wore ripped jeans along with a long sleeved green button down shirt. Their eyes were another thing entirely, being a honey brown in certain light but could also shift to a greenish blue in other light. They had fly-like pupils.

After a minute of them sitting in an awkward stance the alien got up. Using their wings to properly position them in a standing position. They brushed themselves off and approached Tommy.

“You lay a finger on anyone here and I will kill you. Understand?” The alien said, any intimidation that was lost from the alien falling was regained in an instant. The alien poked him in the chest with one of the lanky fingers, which started burning like acid after a minute.

Since Tommy was too, sacred, poggers to move he simply nodded, which is absolutely the best response to the situation. Sadly the alien didn’t get the gesture and dug their nail into his chest even more. Seriously, it was starting to really burn.

“Y-yes.” Was all Tommy could muster. The alien was satisfied with the answer and let go of Tommy. They walked out of the now open door. Shortly after Techno followed the door closing behind him. Tommy never realized the other alien was in the room.

[Mentions of abuse]

For a split second the interaction reminded him of his dad.

The way his dad did the same thing to his mom when she didn’t listen.

Or when his sister didn’t follow his dad’s friend.

Or when Tommy made a mistake.

Except instead of a nail, it was glass, or a punch, or sometimes a knife…

[End]

He shook off the thoughts and reminded himself that the aliens weren’t his father, nor were they going to do that to him.

They wouldn’t do that right?.. Right?

Tommy slapped his face, only to find there were silent tears flowing down his cheeks. He quickly wiped his cheeks and continued his train of thought.

Tommy trusted too easily. That in the end is how at nine he ended up getting beat up in his first foster home. He condemned himself for trusting the aliens. They were strangers. He knew nothing of them and they knew more about him. This was the moment in which Tommy shut himself off. Where he regained the ability to leave his blind trusting instincts.

——————

Chapter 4- End

Words: 1633

——————

Notes: I didn’t know what to add next so I decided to leave you here. Your welcome! <3

Again hope you enjoyed! Now go eat food, drink water, take a shower if you haven’t, and go to sleep. Stay safe, love ya! <3

——————

Tubbo: *falls out of fear

Tommy: ._. This dude ain’t intimidating

Tubbo: *threatens Tommy

Tommy: ,:^ never mind then...

——————

Reminder likes are appreciated but reblogs are better!!

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[albatris]

uhm hi there im new to your blog, and your ocs/snippets seem really interesting! i also love your art, but i have no idea whos who and i can’t seem to find a master post with all of your characters, what they look like, their pronouns, backstory etc. would it be possible for you to maybe give a brief rundown of each character or link some posts related to them?? it doesn’t have to be super in depth and please DO NOT feel obligated to do this at all if you don’t want to. but id love to know a little bit more about them! hope you have a good day and sorry for the long message :))

hello!!! thank you so much, that’s so nice of you to say!!! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen so far :D :D

now, you’ll have to forgive me, it’s super late and this reply will NOT be neat or concise whatsoever....... which kinda sets the tone for most of this blog tbh so I guess it’s cool

I don’t really have any sort of masterpost, most of what I post about these guys is in the form of snippets and rambles and usually people just jump on board wherever..... which, yeah, can be confusing and difficult for folks to keep up with especially if they’re new HAHAHA

I will start out with the bits I *do* have nice neat intros for! I have two main WIPs, All The Doors Are Open and Undertow! Undertow is currently more of a side project, but you can read about the characters here, and here’s some art for Aster and Kit and also Meg so you have faces to the names c:

and now this:

the main four I speak about on this blog are Noa, Tris, Shara and Kai from ATDAO, n I have these handy character intros on hand for this exact purpose!! here u go (I mean here’s the link to the old post but it’s still got the wrong name for Tris so eh)

n honestly knowing these four is like 90% of the work tbh, I am a simple man, I post content about the same four OCs 24/7 until everyone is sick of it,,

Tris and Noa are the protagonists and viewpoint characters! 

Tris’s plotline involves him trying to figure out what happened to his older brother Jacob, who got hit by a car and straight-up vanished from existence entirely, and involves a quest into an unreality that can be described as “getting lost down the back of an interdimensional sofa”. also there’s a sword and a cat. think fantasy/adventure vibes that veer into horror

Noa’s plotline involves her work at the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities! and her becoming tangled up with otherworldly energies and gaining some strange powers, as well as her clash with basically-a-cartoon-supervillain Laurence Marrick Thiele, whose full name I like to type out and who’s attempting to manipulate interdimensional doorways for his own gain and putting a hell of a lot of people’s lives in peril. think mystery/sci-fi vibes!

Shara and Kai aren’t viewpoint characters but they’re still up there as MCs and I love them! Shara’s story centres around her attempting to solve three mysteries from her childhood which she believes will lead her to the source of the apocalypse, and Kai’s story involves them dealing with the emotional and interpersonal repercussions of losing seven years of their life to a time loop and their attempts to reconnect with their family, who thought they were dead

annnnnnnnd that’s basically all the nice neat concise stuff I can give ya! 

under the cut will be some additional rambles you don’t really need to read, I’m not so good at coming up with Nice Neat Character Summaries on the fly, so it’s just me scrambling about to find vaguely relevant posts and links..... it will unfortunately be a bit of a mess and perhaps only tangentially relevant

cannot emphasise enough that I debated not even including the next stuff but hey! I like talking

OK SO

Other side characters you might see around are Alice (she/her, red curly hair, undercut, dresses in lots of green) and Jet (he/they, green spiky hair, freckles, dresses like a thrift store got hit by a tornado), who are Noa’s teammates at the DII! Alice is Noa’s love interest n is cool and mysterious and Jet is the team leader n is completely chaotic and unhinged

these two

There’s also Kai’s younger brother Kieran (he/him) and Tris’s siblings Becca (she/her) and Jacob (he/him), none of whom I have ever drawn more than twice and whose appearances seem to change every time I write about them so I’m not going to describe them here hahahaha

I do have a Kieran for you though uhhhh where’s my One Decent Kieran Drawing

that’s the one!

anyway, backstories are................ a lot. so I don’t think I’m gonna go into too much of it here on this post

I have, like........ a collection of posts scattered all over the place that kind of go into some things? but in very tangential ways. I’ll toss you some plot + character rambles that might be of interest! though my rambles are not everyone’s cup of tea ‘cause they’re, well, rambling

first! the plot of the story is here! which might give you some context for the Everything! this one is a Big ramble, not all of them are like this lol

Greer siblings!

romance?

here’s Jacob info for an ask response I did one time which is one of the few posts where I talk about Jacob at length ‘cause he’s just lots of spoilers

also did one for Kai which might have some info for ya?? but idk if it’s all that relevant

might come back and add more rambles later, it is currently 2 in the AM

or I might come back and be like “logan could you really not think of a better way to answer this question” and delete the rambles

yeehaw thx for listening I love you

also apologies for the complete and utter lack of info on Kieran he is a mystery that eludes me still

[theroomofreq]

Personality Before Punctuality: Chapter 2

James Potter plays in a band but spends his mornings in the bakery chatting up Lily Evans. Lily spends her week days selling pastries, but on weekends she goes to see James play guitar. 

The second part to my meet cute muggle au! 

Read on AO3

Lily flung open the door to The Hallows, her bag knocked on the door frame as her quick pace carried her into the bakery. 9:07, Okay not terribly late, she could work with that. Her morning walk had little to no distractions and after yesterday she figured she had better be more timely than usual. Lily blew her bangs out of her face as she looked up to find one of the primary bakers, Simon, engaged with a customer.

Yikes, Simon hated customers. Lily increased her pace as she made her way around the counter, her bag dropping un-ceremonially to the floor. She chanced an apologetic look at Simon before turning to the customer in front of her.

“Evans, have you tried this treacle tart?!”

James Potter had a mouthful of tart and a goofy grin that came with his question. 

Lily’s eyes roamed down his figure wondering how she had missed him. The first detail to notice was his hat, Potter had a large black bucket hat that fit snuggly on his head, the strap and buckle pulled tightly across his sharp jaw line. Apparently black was his theme today, as his long-sleeved shirt and trousers match his hat color.

 “Of course, Potter” Lily couldn’t hold back her grin as he shoveled another bite into his mouth “This week is especially good because Simon here made it. He always makes the best pastry crust” Lily placed a hand on Simon’s shoulder and hoped her honest compliment would get her out of being late this morning.

“Flattery will not excuse the tardiness Lily, but it doesn’t stop you from being my favorite” Simon gave her a small smile, which Lily counted as a win. “Wonderful to meet you James” 

“Likewise” Potter replied as Simon walked back into the kitchen. 

 Potter leaned up against the display case crossing his arms as he smirked down toward Lily. “I’m glad I caught you again.”

“At the bakery where I work? Yes, you’re very lucky to find me here.” She couldn’t hold back the sarcasm that dripped out of her mouth.

The way James rolled his eyes had an affectionate feel, “Oh come on, you know what I mean Evans. I didn’t know your schedule at all, this was really all I had.”

“So, what was your plan?” Lily said, her eyebrows quirked up, “Show up here every morning until I finally came in to work?”

James seemed to startle as he stood up from his relaxed position, his eyes went downcast as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well yeah, actually that was the idea…” His eyes turned up at Lily with a bashful look.

The way his eyes locked on her resulted in Lily biting down on her lip as her cheeks flushed. Before she could reply the door chimed as another customer walked into the shop. James began to back away from the register and Lily, as his eyes wandered around the bakery.

“The table to your left has the best chairs” Lily mentioned, hoping that her invitation to stay would come across.

Potter’s eyes lit up as he made his way to where Lily suggested, walking backward toward the table with a lazy gate that had Lily captivated the whole time. Perhaps it was the way he rubbed his hands together or how held her gaze the entire time, regardless Lily loved what an all-black look did for James Potter.  

Regrettably, Lily tore her eyes away from him and back to the latest customer to enter The Hallows.

 ----

As a Wednesday morning, the bakery wasn’t terribly busy, but there was a steady stream of people who came in to buy pastries. She knew most everyone that came in, as she had a good grasp on who the regulars were and what they would buy. Often, she found herself sending glances toward James, who sat alone at his table writing away in a notebook he had pulled from his back pocket. 

She was grateful he had chosen to sit with his back to the front door, he was less likely to be noticed this way, especially because his stag tattoo was facing the wall not the open shop. Well that, and the obvious fact that she had a brilliant view of him as he focused on his writing, rolled up the sleeves on his shirt, or even shot glances at Lily.

There was something about James Potter that made her believe that he did everything at 100%. Maybe it was the way his eyes lit up as he scrawled across the page, never stopping for a moment as rotated his book to add notes or circle a word. It could’ve been the way that she caught him looking at her, his deep eyes latching on to her movements as she did her job. Whenever she caught him staring (which was very often) he didn’t ever look away, his smile just got brighter as he winked or waved in her direction. It might’ve even been the way he kept coming up and buying more sweets.

Yes, it was definitely the sweets. He seemed hell bent on trying every item available at the bakery. The fifth time he sauntered up to the register Lily rolled her eyes, “You’re going to make yourself sick Potter”

“Probably, but I just can’t help myself around sweet things.” James said as he quite obviously looked Lily up and down with a smirk. “Meaning…”

“Potter. I know” Lily interrupted. “I know what you mean. You’ve been gawking at me for hours; you are anything but subtle.”

“You’re one to talk red” James said, propping his elbow up on the counter, “I’ve caught you sending eyes my way many a time as well.” He rested his chin on his hand while winking at Lily. 

“Right. I’m fit, you’re fit. Good to know we are on the same page here. Now get back to your table, my break is in an hour.”

“Anything for you love.”

---

“Do you work at all the rest of the week?” James asked her between bites of bread.

“Tomorrow evening and Sunday” Lily told him.

She ripped off another chunk of bread from the loaf they were sharing. Lily decided to spend her break sitting with James as he reviewed his favorite sweets and asked her about her schedule. 

“Brill, I uh, wanted to ask if you would come to my show on Friday night” The smile he tacked on at the end was hopeful.

“I didn’t know you had a show this week? I haven’t heard anything about it- where are you playing?”

“Oh well, yes, it is a bit of a secret. Sirius’ idea really” He gestured with his hands in an attempt to explain. “Our lead singer, my best mate he’s got a real flair for the dramatic that one. He convinced us to play at one of the places that first gave us a shot. Something about taking care of the little guys and standing up to the man. We are all pretty passionate about it now”

“Yeah, alright I’d love to.”

“Yeah, okay great actually, that’s excellent!” James gave her a megawatt grin. He looked down toward his notebook again and began rapidly flipping through the pages. Finally, he stopped on a page and ripped it out before passing it across the table towards Lily.

The note seemed distinctly James and Lily wasn’t really sure what that meant, she didn’t really even know this man all that well, but the page felt like James Potter. In the middle of the page was a hand drawn logo of a bar, The Hogs Head, with a large arrow that pointed to the time he would be playing. The time was circled multiple times with a small note that said, “Be punctual Evans”.

Across the top of the page was her name, written in a cursive script that was far prettier than she had ever penned her own name in. Lily’s eyes lingered a long time around her name and the drawing right beside it. James had drawn a small portrait of Lily laughing, her nose was scrunched close to her eyes which seemed brighter than usual. It was incredible what he had drawn of her with a simple black marker, the lines on her face and her freckles were expertly drawn, Lily’s breath caught as she looked up at James. He was staring intensely at her through his dark eye lashes, slowly his lips pulled to the side in a very signature smirk that Lily simply couldn’t handle looking at for too long. 

Lily shook her head trying to throw out that smirk, she knew she was in deep trouble when she had to pinch her leg before responding to James, “I didn’t know you were such an artist.”

“Nah, ‘m not. The gorgeous things in life end up drawing themselves” Potter spent a long time searching her flushed face before continuing, “I actually have to run to sound checks now, but trust me, I can’t wait to see you Friday.”

He reached across the table and gave her hand a tight squeeze before standing and walking out the door. Lily watched him go wondering how the way he had touched her so briefly had turned her legs to jelly. 

 ----

“Damn Lils, that Potter bloke won’t even know what a guitar is much less be able to play one once he sees you.”

Lily flashed a smile into the mirror towards her best friend, “You don’t think it’s too much do you?” 

“Absolutely not, we didn’t spend 2 hours trying on outfits for you to start second guessing how hot you are” Marlene let out a low whistle to prove her point.

Lily swatted at her flatmate, it did not take her that long to get ready- but even if it did, it was worth it. She’d decided to wear favorite black crop top which rested just above the smallest sliver of skin before her skirt pulled tightly across her figure hitting just about mid-thigh. Her favorite sheer tights matched her black Doc Martens perfectly and to top it all off she’d left her hair loose, Lily guessed Marlene was right, she was pretty damn hot.

Lily looked in the mirror one last time, she was ready to blow James Potter away.

---

Marlene pushed open the doors to the small venue, the outside made it look small, but it was actually pretty large on the inside. The lights were dimmed, and the crowds filled the room with a low roar, the place had an air of grunge to it. Lily glanced down at her watch, she and Marlene had showed up at the exact time Potter had written down for her, but there was no one on the small make-shift stage.

“Looks like that Potter bloke has you pegged already,” Marlene laughed as she pointed to a sign to the left of the stage.

“The Marauders” the messy scrawl on the sign read, “Tonight at 8”

It was 7:30. Potter must’ve given her an earlier time to make sure she wouldn’t be late. Lily rolled her eyes at her best friend, if James really knew her, he would know she wouldn’t dare to be late to see him. 

When The Marauders walked on stage Lily’s eyes locked on James, she felt a twinge of annoyance as he sauntered out waving at the crowd. It wasn’t entirely fair for someone to be that good looking, his white long sleeve contrasted perfectly with his black bottoms and shoes. As he stepped up to his mic he pushed up the sleeve on his right arm before resting it across the strings of his guitar.

 Honestly, she couldn’t bring herself to look at the rest of the band, the guitarist was just too mesmerizing. Was she obsessed with him? Probably. Was her heart rate going through the roof for reasons other than seeing a really good band? Definitely. Was she going to spend the rest of her night shamelessly staring at James Potter? Absolutely.

 As Lily came to terms with how quickly this man had taken over her thoughts the past few days, James turned around to walk to the back of the stage. The sandy-haired drummer was talking animatedly with the shaggy haired singer, for some reason Lily couldn’t quite remember their names. Potter threw his arm over the singer taking a moment to nod at the flustered drummer before pulling away a now red-faced front man. Potter gave his friend a final shove toward the forward microphone and the set list began.

There’s something about seeing a band play live that is exciting, the energy from the crowd is thrilling, the band going all out while playing, and the way your emotions come in waves. But, seeing a band that you love? Exhilarating. The long lead up before the song begins, singing along to your favorite song, the vibe of hearing a chorus live for the first time, all of it is magic. 

Lily was convinced that none of these feelings held a candle to seeing James Potter play. His entire body thrummed with the music, it wasn’t just his foot keeping pace, but his whole body moving as he played. The guitarist was emotionally involved in every note he played, the way his eyes followed his fingers, and how he strummed the chords perfectly in time. The smirk on his face was absolutely startling when he came in with a powerful riff or ran through a difficult set of chords. Lily decided that watching James perform was enthralling. 

As The Marauders lead singer said their goodbyes Lily finally remembered his name, Sirius Black, it wasn’t that hard to remember now that she wasn’t distracted by Potter’s arse. The moment Sirius waved goodnight, Potter placed his guitar on his stand and jumped off the front of the stage. 

Lily watched him weave through the crowd as he was stopped by many individuals for a photo or signature. Her attention was pulled from Potter as Marlene placed a hand on her arm.  

“Lils, are you okay if I head out now?” Marlene asked the question timidly, “I promised Dorcas I would stop by after the show.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I didn’t know you were seeing her again?” Lily was surprised her friend had kept the news from her, she was usually so open about her latest relationships

“It’s new and I don’t know,” Marlene shrugged, “I didn’t want to jinx it or anything.” 

Lily shook her head at her outgoing friend now turned shy at the thought of Dorcas. “Get going then, I’m sure she is waiting for you.” 

“Thanks Lils,” Marlene said as she pulled the redhead in for a hug, “Maybe we will both get a bit lucky tonight.” 

Ahh, there was her friend. Marlene practically ran out the front doors toward her new girlfriend. Lily turned her eyes back to the crowd searching for Potter, before she could locate him someone stepped right in front of her path blocking her view. 

“You’ve created a lot of grief for me Evans.” Sirius Black stood cooly in front of Lily, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked evenly at her. 

“And what would that be Black?” Lily crossed her arms challenging whatever Black was about to go on about. 

“You’ve driven this fool out of his mind the last few days” Black jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward Potter who walked up next to him. “All I’ve heard the last bit is all about Lily Evans, how witty and gorgeous you are. It is enough to turn me completely mental.” Sirius had a smirk on his face, but Potter looked warily at his friend. 

“I’d be happy to foot the bill for any harm my wit and or beauty has caused you.” 

Potter’s jaw dropped at Lily's quip while Sirius threw his arm around his mate and cackled. “I can see why you’ve been tracing her name every night” Sirius said as he used his other hand to pat James’ chest, “See you at home mate.” 

Sirius untangled himself from a now flustered James and turned to Lily, “Evans, it’s been more of a pleasure than you realize.” With a final wink sent to Lily, Sirius walked off into the crowd. 

“Tracing my name?” Lily posed the question while looking toward his left arm, the sleeve still flush with his wrist, whereas the other sleeve was racked up to his elbow. 

“Well, err,” the flush across his face deepened as James pushed up the sleeve to reveal the arm that Lily had signed a number of days ago. The writing was dark and thick, as if she had written it moments ago. 

“I just really liked the mark you left on me, and I didn’t want to lose it. So I, err, I’ve been tracing it over every night, so it stays with me.” He looked up at her with hopeful eyes. 

“Who knew you were such a softie Potter?” 

“Only around you Evans.” He took a step forward and grabbed her hand, “Thank you for coming, did you have a good time?”

“It was incredible! You were incredible!” Lily felt her face light up as she talked about the concert, “That last song was unreal, I loved where you came in at the end!” 

“Thanks, I wrote the song but it was Remus who came up with that section, he’s the musical genius of the four of us.” 

Potter began leading her towards the exit as he continued on about the song. He held tight to her hand as he walked her out the front doors, his other hand gesturing wildly as he explained the underlying tones of Pete’s keyboard and how it meshed with his chords. 

He stopped just outside of the bar before standing directly in front of her, his smile was reaching across his entire face as he took her in. “Evans you look stunning tonight.” His eyes roamed down her legs before returning to her freckled face. 

“Almost as good as my Hallows apron right?” Lily’s voice came out a bit breathier than usual. 

“Just about” 

James reached out toward her, allowing the crimson locks to run through his fingers as he looked intently at her. Lily struggled to swallow as his eyes ran across her face, his hand tucked her hair behind her shoulder before running down her arm. Shivers ran after his hand until he secured it against her own, pulling her a step closer to his body. 

“Listen, Evans, The boys and I always used to go back to the flat and just hang around after we played here. In the spirit of nostalgia we’re going to be doing it again, and I was hoping you’d come along tonight?” The hopeful smirk was back on his face as he looked down at her. 

“Lead the way Potter.” 

Lily let a smile break across her face as James mirrored her emotion, with a tug on her hand he pulled her alongside him into the night.