“No, really, I can tell what people listen to with just one look,” Regulus argues. He glances at James, who has his eyes on the road, head tilted in consideration. The red of the light floods the car, staining James’ face in a warm hue. It looks good on him, Regulus decides.
“Okay, do me,” James says.
The turn signal ticks steadily on. The light stays red. Regulus doesn’t breathe. For the barest, briefest moment, heat floods his face. He’s thankful James is such a careful driver, eyes never on Regulus for long.
“What?” He manages.
“Do me,” James repeats. He shoots Regulus a quick glance. “What do I listen to?”
Air floods his lungs again, the warm scent of wood and allspice that is now so familiar to him. He pretends to consider it for a moment. Makes a show of looking James up and down, examining the way his glasses sit low on his nose, somehow always smudged. The light turns green. The car rolls into motion.
“Whale sounds and city pop,” Regulus says eventually.
James’ eyes flit over to Regulus, wide and amazed behind his smudged glasses, eyebrows raised. “Holy shit, how did you know?” He breathes out, incredulous.
Regulus huffs, soft and fond. “You regularly let me queue up songs on your Spotify. I have eyes, James.”
James’ shoulders droop. He sulks with his whole body, Regulus has learned. It is not enough to pout, mouth twisted in childlike annoyance.
No, he needs to sag and wilt like the plants on Regulus’ windowsill, not satisfied until they get attention.
“Not fair,” James whines and Regulus imagines that he sounds like the kids he teaches.
“Never said I was.”
on the good news train today: I have finally finished the last chapter(!!!) of my Inklings challenge story, which marks the FIRST ever Inklings challenge story I've ever completed properly :'D coming in at 30,810 words (yikes) (it did get out of hand, I must admit), it is definitely not a short story, but it IS a piece that I think articulates a lot of what I've been thinking about lately re: love and death, and, considering everything, is probably something I needed to write. I am very happy!! It has been a wild ride, but a deeply clarifying one.
Had a really stupid conversation via minor emotional breakdown with a queer friend about what makes an LGBTQ person 'assimilist'. From what she said I'm kind of forced to draw the conclusion 'if you say you're not assimilist, then you're not'.
Even though I'm really old now, I started feeling like a child again. I haven't been this vulnerable in my whole life and my family is like... Not there for me. I live with my own family and they don't want to talk to me. I'm really scared it's only a matter of time that they ask me to move out of the house and even though I've been preparing for this for years I still don't have any options. I think I've wasted all my chances for some sort of a safety net and don't have anyone to depend on anymore due to my own stupidity. And what then
I have unexpectedly gained what may potentially be full responsibility for 6-8 hours tomorrow for two 10-year-olds. I was planning to go shopping............
// like the fool I am, I lost my last plotting call and I'm pretty sure I managed to miss some people. I apologize so much for that, I promise that it is not on purpose.
but!! now that I'm around here again, I'm gonna throw out a fresh one. hit the like and i'll come bother you in dms (or on discord if I've got yours)
tagged for my choice of oc by @pralinesims and @raiiny-bay <3
The Rules are simple! Tag people and name a character you want to know more about! If you want to let the person you tagged decide who to showcase, then don’t name a character and they can pick somebody. Easy! The person who is tagged will then bold the remarks below which apply to their character and, if they want to, include a picture with their reply!
[ PERSONAL ]
$ Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty / other
✚ Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non applicable
✪ Class or Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other
✔ Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other
✖ Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no (despite his attempts matthias has never successfully roped her into any of his mess lmao) / has committed crimes, but hasn’t been caught / yes, but charges were dismissed
[ FAMILY ]
◒ Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children
◑ Relationship with Family: close with sibling (but it's complicated... imani has real love for her baby brother but she's also aware of the difference in how her parents treat the two of them and it's definitely impacted their relationship) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased
◔ Affiliation: orphaned / adopted / disowned / raised by birth parents / not applicable / other
[ TRAITS + TENDENCIES ]
♦ extroverted / introverted / in between
♦ disorganized / organized / in between
♦ close minded / open-minded / in between
♦ calm / anxious / in between
♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in between
♦ cautious / reckless / in between
♦ patient / impatient / in between
♦ outspoken / reserved / in between (she's more outspoken when she's just with romeo or matthias, but when she's around her parents she gets quiet)
♦ leader / follower / in between
♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in between
♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in between
♦ traditional / modern / in between
♦ hard-working / lazy / in between
♦ cultured / uncultured / in between / unknown
♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown
♦ faithful / unfaithful / unknown
[ BELIEFS ]
★ Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic
☆ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care
✮ Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care
✯ Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care
❃ Belief in Aliens: yes / no /don’t know / don’t care
✧ Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious
❀ Philosophical: yes / no
[ SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION ]
❤ Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual
❥ Sex: sex repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable / naïve and clueless / other
♥ Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naïve and clueless / romance suspicious
❣ Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naïve / inexperienced (she's had sex before but her experiences have been few and far in between) / curious
⚧ Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all
⚧ Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all
[ ABILITIES ]
☠ Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate (she's taken a self-defense class before and matthias has taught her a couple nasty tricks in case she ever needs them) / poor / none
≡ Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none
✍ Artistic Skills: excellent / good (she sketches while she's waiting around; she's often drawing her own designs, fairies, flowers, snakes, pointy scribbles, or spirals) / moderate / poor / none
✂ Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none
[ HABITS ]
☕ Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic
☁ Smoking: tried it (disliked the taste and the smell) / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker
✿ Recreational Drugs: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict
✌ Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication (used to take meds for an old ballet related injury but she's good now) / some medication needed / frequently / to excess
☻ Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / binge eater
$ Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic
♣ Gambling: never (she's too disciplined for that) / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gambler
tagging @cowboycid for val, @helltrait for chris, and @tau1tvec for isa! and let me just rapid fire some of you who i think might have fun with this tag game!! @birdietrait, @wildmelon, @diwns, @fangs-trait, @deehya, @bunmou, and @spurgees
this part genuinely makes me feel like eating dry wall like i can't explain how i feel about it without making some of you finally tire of me and block me about it i think
(note: this was written without any leaked spoilers or lore in mind)
Genshin 3.6 finally gave us access to the back room in Bubu Pharmacy, in anticipation of Baizhu’s upcoming release and story quest. And I have to give all the praise to the designers and developers here, because this small room has some of the best environmental storytelling I’ve seen in a game in a while, with only a few simple details. Today is Baizhu’s birthday, so I wanted to talk about it a little 💚🐍🌿
Nothing in this room is neatly in its place. The chairs aren’t in position, everything on the desk is messy and strewn about, and some of the drawers are left open. There’s a pillow on the desk, as well. Baizhu is quite frail and sickly, so this all paints a picture of him constantly looking for things and working, both as a doctor and frantically on his research into immortality, without having the energy or care to keep everything neat, and probably often falling asleep at his desk out of exhaustion (hence the pillow, though admittedly it could be for Changsheng, but I kind of doubt it).
There’s medicine on the bedside tables, which is probably just as much for Baizhu as it (and all the other medicine in the room) is for his patients. The bedside chair indicates he likely sits with patients there a lot so as to be as comforting as possible, but again, it’s also likely for people like Gui and Qiqi, when Baizhu is the one in bed. The sole small washtub thing stuck in the corner behind the screen... just makes me sad. I don’t know why in particular... it just does.
All of this, combined with the lighting, and the new, unique song, creates a room that manages to feel both warm and welcoming during the day, but solemn, lonely, almost suffocating, and unbearably sad at night, completely befitting the person who practically lives here, and the two very different sides he has. I say “practically”, but we have no indication so far that Baizhu actually does live anywhere else -- with his low energy and poor health, and all those damn steps leading up to the pharmacy, I’m fully convinced now that he does live here full-time, after seeing the state of it, which is... heartbreaking. He puts on a smile for everyone around him who are relying on him to care for them (and he loves his job, he truly does!), but his tiny, cramped patient room seemingly doubles as his living space, and even though Baizhu may lie and try to hide his own suffering... this room itself does not lie, and said suffering is bleeding from every corner here. The music is elegant, gentle, comforting, and soothing, but also delicate, weak, mournful, and again unimaginably lonely...... just like Baizhu. 💔
If you haven’t been here yet in the game, I highly recommend you visit it at least once; the atmosphere is simply unmatched. I can’t wait to see what happens here in Baizhu’s story quest, and how it will wreck our hearts even more 💚💔
that godless photo... rafa this is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions (1949) by instagram user j.m in a post "wilfully causing great suffering" and therefore classed as a war crime
Just finished episode 9 of season 2 on Desperate Housewives (so about halfway) and this show is fucking a lot.
Susan - she is less insufferable this season. i feel like the whole first season they were trying to figure out where her character was going and they kind of got it. what she did with mike was severely fucked up and she deserves to be alone for a while. When she said "its time for me to be an adult" I fucking cheered and screamed. YES that is what you need to do because the way you behave is so fatherless behavior.
Lynette - girl i'm sorry but you are just creating more and more problems for your self!! Can you just let shit be for 5 FUCKING MINUTES??!?! I'm so upset with her right now i have nothing more to say about her. Tom is too good for her.
Gabrielle - Good for her she got Carlos out of jail without committing adultery. I did think it was sad that she lost the baby and having Danny Trejo come in and pretend to be big and bad but really soft was a treat lol. I am excited to see her fight with this nun over Carlos. She gives lily rabe nun from ahs. fun. i still think of her as a pedo every time she is on screen.
Edie - I JUST GOOGLED HOW TO SPELL HER NAME AND I SAW DEATH! DOES SHE DIE?? nvm don't tell me. She is taking more of a backseat so far but I am glad that the wives genuinely try to bring her in on things now. lynette even mad a snide joke to her at poker and she just was like "you right". I just want her to do blonde bombshell man eater things.
Bree - my unproblematic (?) republican wife. why do the writers give the toughest battles to their most undeserved characters?!?? I am SO GLAD that G*orges weird stalker ass got what he deserved - Death. Playing "she loves me she loves me not" with a bottle of pills and jack daniels is something certifiably insane. But we are not talking about him (yet).
Bree is the most solid character on this show to me. I was so glad that she finally got to show her anger when she found out what Rex thought about her. But she still could not let that man go, she did say that he was her true love and all. Because i looked in the tags, i will know that she will be alright but she is the one i hate to see suffer the most. Bree. She is a better woman than i because she was going to let the pharmacist (i can no longer call him by his name) live.
I really do like how Mary Alice always comes in at the end and ties up everyones plot line with 1 over arching theme. Dare i say that this is good writing? idk i'm not a professional but this is the most entertaining non animated show i have watched in a while.