#but 7 ft 2 might be stretching it a bit

[messinwitheddie]

How tall is a tallest compared to a tall human? Like are they around 6 to 7 feet? Or a bit taller? (Without the hovering gadget. 😅) Are they all stretched to be the same size or were there ever a tallest who was Stretched a bit too far?

Ancient Irken tallests ranged from over 6 ft to over 17 ft tall [The Colossus, Behemmotta Tallest of tallests, died measuring about 18 feet]. (The measuring process had not yet developed in Irken culture).

Late first era to the third era tallests ranged from over 7 to 9 ft tall (after the measuring process, without hovor belts, to specify) Soxx, Hitz and Kii all stood just over 9 feet tall in their original flesh vessels.

Modern tallests range from 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 ft tall (After the measuring process. The control brains put a cap on the species so to speak...) Red and Purple stood about 7 1/2 ft tall after the measuring process.

So, most modern Irken tallest would only stand a few feet taller than the average American male, BUT, their proportions would look so incredibly off to us, an Irken tallest might appear taller at a glance (Imperial robes are designed to give this visual effect. The hovor belts exaggerate the visual even more.)

No two modern tallests, with the exception of Red and Purple, are the exact same height.

I had a list of the top 5 tallest modern tallests, but I can't find the post, so maybe I'll make a new one.

Sadly, some drones who are encoded as tallests do not survive the early steps to the measuring process. It's a brutal ordeal.

[Adult Dib (well over 6ft in my head canon) standing beside disgraced Purple (so no hovor belts).]

Purple "You were that big headed kid? That's why your head looks so familiar?"

Dib "Yes, I promise you, that's accurate."

Purple "Good Glord, what did they feed you?"

Dib "A lot of beef, pizza and soda and...garbage. My drone, I know it's been a while, but we've spoken on multiple occasions. I met you in person once. How do you n-?"

Purple "Where? When?"

Dib "Remember a few decades back when you and Red shunned Zim imperially?"

Purple *nodding* "Imm hmm??"

Dib "About six hours prior you snuck off to smoke in the civilian halls and you ran into this awkward weapons engineer intern-cadet also sneaking a smoke...?"

Purple "..."

Dib "You asked him what he was smoking and he told you, tobacco; they're imported. Then you asked him did he bring enough for the armada? And he told you "I brought enough for you, my tallest" and he handed you a little box filled with "imported" cigarettes?"

Purple *chuckles* "That was a good answer."

Dib "That intern drone was ME. I was infiltrating the massive to sabotage whatever Zim was planning."

Purple *exhales, coughing as he laughs* "That's hilarious!... and wonderful a earth monkey managing to infiltrate the Armada isn't my problem anymore... It's a shame you weren't born an Irken drone; the empire could have benefited from you."

Dib "Sorry, but that sentiment doesn't exactly come across as a compliment."

[Because I'm too lazy to draw a height chart. And because I will probably never have an excuse to write out this dialogue...]

#invader zim #irken #head canons #jv style is so exaggerated #keeping height #and proportions consistent #is a challenge

[gamerbearmira]

Any advice for drawing small children(newborn to five), of the chonky and non-chonky varieties? Specifically with proportions and shaping. I am rather clueless.

I can try???? Tbh I suck at tutorials but les get it 😭😭

Ok so

Newborn-3 months

So babies, when they’re first born, are pretty chubby. Even if they aren’t, they gain weight as they grow. They also tend to have short hair, sometimes it’s textured, but it depends. They can’t move or anything, so they often lay down on their back instead of their stomach. Also, babies at this age are still in a somewhat fetal position, because they have yet to stretch out. Most of the time they’re asleep as well. And while Mirabel here has no clothes, babies this age can’t quite regulate their body temperature, so they’re bundled up, especially in cold weather.

4-8 months

At this point, a baby is capable of holding their head up and move around a lot more. They’re still pretty chubby, gaining at least 6 or 7 pounds. They often are capable of sitting up as well, and start moving around more. Their hair is a bit longer as well, but it depends on the baby. People often dress babies in more loose clothes too, because they move around a lot more. Their eyes are open wider now too.

9-12 months

Ok so now they’re capable of standing up and walking. Babies stretching out a bit more, and are more active. They’re still the chubbsters ™️ but they don’t gain weight as fast. When they stand, their feet or legs might turn inwards, but most of the time they grow out of that by 2. Not much changes at this stage, just that they can stand and walk. Though, I will say when they walk, it’s sort of wobbly; very slow as well. At this age, they also start wearing shoes more often. Children also start growing teeth as well, too.

2-3 years

Using my ocs Ty here, since he’s not as chubby. Toddlers now, they can walk and run, and begin to do more stuff. They get taller, and since they’re starting to move away from diapers, their clothes are a bit more fitting, but still loose enough so they can move comfortably. They’re very round faced still, but they do get taller, and thus have less chubby features. Also, they often have almost, if not all of their baby teeth at this age, and so when they speak it’s more fluent. When you draw them, you have to make sure you start defining their limbs more, seeing that they aren’t as squished as before.

4-5 years

Now they’re starting to gain some height. Usually they’re between 2.5 ft and 3.5 ft , but it varies. When you draw them, you can define their faces more, some their weight is more even distributed. They clothes are much more detailed as well, since they can fluently move around and do more activities. Their features in their faces also become more defined, and at this point start to look more like their parents. They have all their teeth and sometimes can even be missing teeth, but again, it depends.

I HOPE THIS HELP 😩😩😩 again I. Suck at tutorials, so if this is wack. I don’t blame you for thinking so.

#encanto #my asks are open #my asks #my art #black artist on tumblr #artist

[thecreaturecodex]

Bloodbrother

Image © Paizo Publishing

[Commissioned by @coldbloodassassin, asking me to convert a Starfinder monster to Pathfinder. The Starfinder Alien Archives rub me the wrong way. There’s a lot of cool ideas and designs in them, but the “all monsters must get a two-page spread” means you get relatively few monsters per dollar, and a whole lot of them are designed to be at least theoretically playable species, reducing the diversity a bit. In addition, even though there’s a lot of ecology info for the monsters, it doesn’t seem to be aligned with the actual mechanics. For example, the flavor text says that bloodbrothers turn white and blend into their environment to hunt when they run low on blood, but they’re not even trained in Stealth! They can supposedly keep victims alive inside them for months, but deal 1d6 cold damage a round. It’s frustrating.]

Bloodbrother CR 7 NE Magical Beast This creature looks something like a huge armored leech with humanoid arms. Its upper surface has a chitinous mass studded with sensory organs, but it would be a stretch to call it a “head”. The thing’s body opens up into a visible ribcage, which pulses slightly as if breathing or tasting the air. Two jointed appendages, like warped legs, grow from the midpoint of this ribcage.

A bloodbrother is a grotesque creature native to glacial plains, pack ice, and other frozen expanses. The body of a bloodbrother is so cold that it causes damage to unprotected creatures. It feeds on blood and heat, but lacks a typical digestive system. Instead, a bloodbrother engulfs a victim in an expanding rib cage, holds it tight while siphoning blood with multiple suckered tendrils, and abandons it when the creature finally succumbs to cold and blood loss. A bloodbrother only needs a few sips to sustain itself, and a cold resistant prey item might find itself imprisoned inside a bloodbrother for days or weeks before succumbing to dehydration or starvation.

Bloodbrothers are sapient despite their monstrous appearances, communicating among each other through gesture and touch. They are genderless and reproduce asexually through budding. Their lairs are typically in cliffs and caves, marked by the abandoned husks of bone and fur from their feeding. They are cooperative within their clans, with a single adult staying behind to guard offspring while the others hunt and bring back prey for the juveniles. Juveniles grow to full size quickly, and are fully adult within a year or two.

Bloodbrother    CR 7 XP 3,200 NE Huge magical beast (cold) Init +6; Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +7 Defense AC 21, touch 11, flat-footed 18 (-2 size, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +10 natural) hp 85 (9d10+36) Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +5 Immune cold; Vulnerable fire Offense Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft. Melee 2 slams +12 (1d8+5 plus 1d6 cold plus grab) Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks cold, rib cage prison, tap victim Statistics Str 21, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10 Base Atk +9; CMB +16 (+20 grapple); CMD 29 Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack Skills Climb +18, Perception +7, Stealth +5, Survival +7, Swim +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth Languages Common (cannot speak) Ecology Environment cold land and underground Organization solitary, pair or clan (3-6) Treasure incidental Special Abilities Cold (Su) A bloodbrother’s body is supernaturally cold, dealing 1d6 points of damage per hit with its natural weapons. Creatures trapped in the bloodbrother’s rib cage prison take this damage as well. Rib Cage Prison (Ex) As a standard action, a bloodbrother can transfer a grabbed opponent to its rib cage prison. There it is treated as if pinned, while the bloodbrother does not gain the grappled condition. A bloodbrother can hold a creature of Large or smaller size in its rib cage prison, and release a creature as a free action. Tap Victim (Su) As a swift action, a bloodbrother can force a creature in its rib cage prison to make a DC 18 Fortitude save or take 1 point of Con damage. Any round it successfully deals Con damage with its tap victim ability, the bloodbrother gains fast healing 5. The save DC is Constitution based.

#bloodbrother #starfinder #commissions #body horror

[harperwasstaken1]

𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝐻𝑒𝑟.

©☆andy! On pinterest for header!

Student!Lee Heeseung x Fem!Reader

𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔➪ Angst(Lol), Small tinge of Fluff if you squint hard enough, Swearing, Sunghoon crushing on the reader but is scared lmao. Lovers to Exes.

𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔➪ 2.6k

𝑺𝒚𝒑𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒔➪ Lee Heeseung. You discovered him in a closed off area somewhere in the school crying. Only to find out he got left by his girlfriend of 4 years. Then you came in the picture. A year and a half later she came back.

Enhypen Masterlist

Main Masterlist

————

Saying that you love him was an understatement. Sometimes I say that I love him so much that I'd accept everything that happens in our relationship. Even if I would get hurt.

Heeseung was the best boyfriend, I discovered him when he was in his coping state. Or as I call it his heartbroken state, discovering him 2 days after his 4 year long girlfriend left him without a word.

That's when I came in the picture, I came in the picture as the one who helped him move on. That's when I fell inlove with him, he trusted me with all his problems. I became his shoulder to cry on.

"Hee, drink some water. I don't want you to choke on your own sobs." He glared at me with his tear-filled eyes. I gave him an anxious grin, he rolled his eyes and buried his face on my shoulder. Trying to calm down.

ˢᵗᵒʳʸ✍︎ ᶜᵒⁿᵗⁱⁿᵘᵉˢ☕︎ ʰᵉʳᵉ☟︎︎︎

2 months in our friendship, Starting to grow feelings. He moved on, surprisingly he did it really quickly. He threw peas at me from his table as I ignored him and kept talking to my friend group on our usual table.

From my peripheral sight, Heeseung visibly frowned. Really close to sulking his ass off like the 4 year old he is.

I snickered, as he glared at me. Jay silently chewing and rolling his eyes at his friend who won't leave me alone.

The girls threw our trash away, as I packed up and waited by the door. Heeseung stared at me, as soon as I caught his piercing eyes, he immediately mouthed; 'Where are you going?'.

Mouthing back; 'Dance Class', he frowned and nodded and went back to eating. Immediately, Ryujin and Yeji went up beside me. Wrapping their arm around mine.

----

7 months in, our relationship started. He confessed 4 months ago, and I was happy. Heck, even Ryujin finds it weird to see my grins everyday.

Everytime, Heeseung would pick me up so we could go to school together. He would text me a goodmorning with a little '<3' at the end. Ask me if I eaten breakfast, lunch, or dinner yet. He'd even ask if I was feeling well the next day after I tell him I have a headache.

That's why every girl in the school wanted to be with him. He was smart, sweet, kind, handsome, understanding, and just so down to earth. He was the most endearing person I know.

Everytime I don't feel well, He'd go to my house to personally give me class notes, would give me my favorite flowers, and along with a note that says how much he adores me and loves me so much.

I've always kept them in a box, right under my bed. All the notes, he gave when I was sick. He looked like a whole different person when I first saw him, crying his eyes out to his ex lover.

"Heeseung! Give me back my bag!" I yelled at him, followed with a giggle as he laughed and stretched his arms up, knowing I couldn't reach it.

Involuntarily, my lips formed into a small pout as I kept trying to snatch my backpack from my tall boyfriend.

"Say 'I Love You, Hee.' First then I might consider it." He teased as he swung my backpack left and right. I gave a groan of feigned annoyance.

"I love you, Heeseung." I muttered, he tutted and shook his head.

"No, not Heeseung. It's Hee. And say it a little bit louder, Doll." He grinned, My cheeks flushed red as I rolled my eyes.

"I love you, Hee. Now can you please give me my backpack?" I asked again, he grinned and kissed the crown on my head and lowered my backpack.

"I love you too, Doll." He whispered as he caressed my waist. I shook my head in disbelief of my playful boyfriend, turning around to leave. As he followed closely behind.

----

1 year and a half in our relationship, He was still the same. Just with alot more love for me. I think. Recently, my Instagram feed has been of Hee's ex lovers post. As he follows her now and likes all of her recent posts.

I didn't pay no mind to it as I don't want to be those types of girlfriends. He can be friends with his ex's, as long as he doesn't neglect me that is. He walked over and gave me a small smile and a side hug before going to his usual table with his friends.

I frowned, not even a word? or a kiss on my forehead? He's been only giving me side hugs for the past fews days since he started following her again. I sighed and continued eating.

----

Heeseung's POV

"Hyung, don't you think your neglecting Y/n?" Sunghoon asked the eldest guy on the table. He looked at the youngest of the 02's.

"No? Why would I be neglecting Y/n?" Heeseung furrowed his brows.

"Because you seem more excited of your own ex returning than hanging out with your girlfriend." Sunghoon muttered as Jay kicked his shin under the table lightly.

"Can't I be excited for her to come back?" Heeseung frowned. Jay opened his mouth, as he looked at Sunghoon and Jake.

"Well, Don't you think she'll get the wrong idea of you falling out of love?" Jay worried for his friend's girlfriend, Heeseung took a glance at his lover as she talked to Ryujin.

"No? She would understand." Right? She'd understand that I'd be happy to see her comeback?

----

She was finally back from the states. Heeseung dragged me with him to the airport to pick her up. We both waited by the gate, as soon as he saw her he immediately ran up to her with the widest smile I've ever seen him had, he gave her a huge hug as he twirled her around and immediately started a conversation.

Raising my brow at them, they went pass me, Heeseung completely forgetting about my existence. Getting in the car after helping her and completely leaving me at the airport.

"What the fuck?" I muttered as a pang in my chest appeared. He never smiled at me like that, nor hugged me.

I shook it off, Still anxious of her being back. Contacting a cab, to get back home.

----

Fuck it, Even his own friends know that he has been neglecting me. Ignoring me at every damn way possible.

It was getting to my head, I stopped contacting him since he snapped at me once.

"Y/n! Just shut the fuck up! Lea is back, so I want to spend time with her! So please, just leave!" He sneered. I pursed my lips before grabbing my backpack and rushing out of the house.

He never snapped at me like that before. My heart was aching. Why does it seem like she was more important than me?

I stared as Lea and Heeseung giggled and talked like they were the ones together. Jake, Jay, and Sunghoon had been sitting at my group's table since she arrived.

Jaks furrowed his brows as he stared immensely at his friend.

"What the fuck does he think he is? He's been ignoring you, Y/n! For almost a month and a half!" Jake frowned. Emphasizing the 'month and a half'.

"Yeah, It's like he prioritizes Lea more than you." Sunghoon frowned from beside you, as Jay shook his head at his bestfriend. Dissapointed.

I've been quiet since he snapped at me too, I never talked to him. Because if I do even try texting him, he'd just ignore my calls and such and put it on 'do not disturb'.

I was starting to think, that he actually fell out of love.

"Y/n, you have to confront him about it." Yeji whispered from my right. I sighed as I stared at his back. His eyes were shining as he looked at her.

"He never looks at me like that." I smiled, tears slowly welling up in my eyes. They just stared at me sadly.

"Fine, I'll talk to him later."

----

That's how I ended up in his house. With a huge argument.

"Heeseung! You've been ignoring me! Like I've never existed!" I basically screamed at him as he combed his hair back in frustration.

"I've haven't seen Lea in almost 2 years! I wanted to catch up with her Y/n! You know how important she is to me!" He snapped at my face.

"Well, It feels like your dating her again! It feels like I was never your girlfriend." I explained as calmly as possible.

"Well maybe we are!" He finally said. Immediately falling silent. Fear, sadness, and guilt was shown in his eyes as I stared behind him. Zoning out.

"You're...What?" It was like I couldn't breathe. It's like I was under water, trying to swim up for more air.

Like I was confined in a small room, as it gets smaller and smaller.

"Y/n..I'm so sorry. I— It's still her?" I cut him off, he closes his mouth.

"Answer me, Lee. It's still her right?" I finally looked at his eyes. My eyes stinging with tears, threatening to fall.

He looked everywhere, he couldn't speak.

"I'm so sorry, It was just. It's her. I've known her for years, Y/n. I can't just fall out of love with her that quick." He muttered as he inched closer to me.

I was frozen in place, I gripped the neck of my shirt. Feeling the cold metal of the necklace he gave me as a gift.

"Don't. You shouldn't be sorry Heeseung." I laughed breathlessly. He was confused. Why shouldn't he be sorry? He hurt you. The most kindest, sweetest, and prettiest girl.

"What do you mean? I should be sorry! I hurt you. I.. I'm like ripping your heart into pieces!" He furrowed his brows again. He was right though, My heart is being ripped into pieces by him.

"It's not your fault that your still inlove with her Hee." I whispered, my tears falling like a waterfall.

"Then who's fault is it. It can't be yours Y/n." He softly retorted.

"No, It is my fault." I laughed again, realizing that I made a mistake.

"It's not that I'm not enough. It's just. I'm not her. I'm not Lea, I was just that girl who found you sobbing in a closed off area in the school." I tried wiping my tears but it kept falling.

He stayed quiet as I kept continuing in how it was my fault.

"It was my fault for ever meeting you in there. We were better off as strangers, Lee." I said, a small smile forming on my lips.

"What?" He trailed off as he shook his head.

"No, Doll. It's not your fault." I winced at the nickname, the bittersweet nickname. It hurts to even hear it.

"You know, I asked Jay on where that nickname came from Heeseung. It was her nickname." I stared at him.

"From what I know, I'm not her. Your not inlove with me."

"It's still her Heeseung. It's always been her." I smiled weakly at him.

"Even this necklace. I feel like it doesn't belong to me. Your heart doesn't belong to me neither. It's hers." My heart ached more and more as I realized that he was never inlove with me.

"You only thought you were inlove with me because I was your shoulder to cry on when she left you, heartbroken a year and a half ago." I finished off. I felt as I was being stabbed multiple times.

"Y/n." He started off, I shook my head with a small facade. A smile.

"Go back to her Heeseung, You love her." I said as I trailed my hands up to my neck to remove the necklace.

I stared at the silver necklace on my hands. I walked towards his front door. Gripping the necklace as tight as I can.

"Remember though, even if you don't love me. I loved you with all of my heart. Which apparently, wasn't enough." I opened the door, closing it behind me.

"Goodbye, Lee Heeseung." I walked off his front porch. From my peripheral vision, I see tears cascading down his beautiful face.

He doesn't get to cry, he has the love of his life.

I placed the necklace down on the driveway, right behind the tire of my car.

Getting in and starting the engene. I backed out of the driveway, the necklace breaking under the weight of my car. As I drive off to my house, where his own friends, with Ryujin and Yeji were waiting.

-

Heeseung POV

As soon as Y/n left, I was sobbing. I really hurt her. She didn't deserve this. I played with her. She was so understanding during my breakdowns. She never deserved this in return.

I ran outside, immediately picking up the broken necklace. The heart pendant was broken in half. On the other half was an H, my initial. And on the other half was hers.

This was resembling her heart, that I broke. Just because I was still inlove with her, still inlove with Lea.

----

Yeji comforted me as I cried on her shoulder.

"You guys broke up?" Ryujin muttered, as she sat across from me. I nodded on Yeji's shoulder as Yeji asked.

"What did he say?" She said loud enough to pique his friends' interest.

"It's still her. It's always been her." My voice shook as Sunghoon, who didn't trust Heeseung at first with his choices, Furrowed his eyebrows, Jay and Jake scoffing quietly.

Ofcourse it's still her. It'll always be her.

From the window, Sunghoon caught his friend's red, puffy eyes, along with Jay and Jake.

Sunghoon got up to go to his friend, the three men were just as broken and mad to see someone they trusted more than they trusted Lea, so broken as you would always see her in the hall, like a ball of sunshine. Until she met Heeseung.

"You broke her Hyung! She's been crying since she came back, those boxes infront of her house is all those damn polariods and shit you had together." Sunghoon practically yelled at the eldest. As he could only see your swelling eyes, as you cried on your friend's shoulder.

"She doesn't need you anymore Heeseung. Just leave her alone now, You've done enough damage to her." Jay told him, with a huge frown on his face.

"She was a huge ball of sunshine, Heeseung. She was like the Sun in a field of sunflowers. But now those flowers have wilted in the cruel darkness of the night because of you. You brought this upon her." Sunghoon sneered as he poked harshly at the guy's chest.

"I know." Heeseung finally spoke up as he gripped the necklace in his clenched hands.

"I don't think you should be here Heeseung, I don't think you should even be near her." Jake said, as he dragged Sunghoon away.

Heeseung looked at his bestfriend, who shook his head at him.

"You just lost the best girl in the world, and I don't think you could get her back.

Because as you said Hyung, It's still her."

Jay left to go back inside to help console you. Heeseung stared at you shaking figure in remorse, and guilt.

"Fuck!" He gripped the roots of his hair, as he went back in his car. Hanging the chain of your broken necklace on his rear mirror, keeping the pendant somewhere safe. Before finally leaving the front of your house, with an empty feeling in his chest, that only left an ache in his heart.

♡○♡○♡○♡

Note: Omg? I've had this planned when I was in my depressive state🤡🤞🏻 Omg? Its 12:37am? Anyways Y/nHoon endgame? Part 2? Yeah? No? What🧍🏻‍♀️

#spotify #enhypen #enhypen jay #enhypen heeseung #enhypen jake #enhypen sunghoon #enhypen scenarios #enhypen heeseung x reader #enhypen sunghoon x reader #who hurt you? #It's Still Her #enhypen story #enhypen high school au #SoundCloud #itzy #itzy yeji #itzy ryujin

[dagnedoodlin]

These are all of my humanoid species so far in digital! I've talked about all but the humans, but humans are humans y'know?

Anyways this is a size comparison chart basically! So fair the fair folk/maenads are my tallest species, clocking in to about 9/10 feet in height, and gnomes are my smallest, with the tallest of them coming in to around 2 feet. I feel like I keep drawing them too tall to be accurate, but that's also me conflating them with house spirits.

The Fair Folk/Maenads are godly spirits that are functionally immortal in that they age at such a slow rate they basically don't age at all. They are either forest spirits or wind spirits, I haven't decided, and they tend flow apart and then together again. This is their society? I don't think I can call it that, but I think they tend to live alone in the middle of nowhere and spend their days learning and preparing for the next 'gathering of all' (I should probably read more traditional folk tales I know there's proper names for this stuff) where they all basically throw a giant party/rave, get lit, and run around enjoying themselves; sometimes making extremely advanced magical. Things. And generally making the laws of the world just a liiiiittttleeee bit bent.

I do wanna do a story with one of these guys, where a prince goes and asks one of these folk to give him an out for becoming king. But he wakes them up or interrupts them or just plain gets on their nerves and basically curses his whole bloodline to always be on the throne for as long as it exists or a certain area will always be in conflict. It's basically gonna be a prequel to ANOTHER story abt a country that hasn't been able to have a government in like 100 years cause of shenanigans and tomfoolery from the royal's marriage.

Since my story basically stretched out into the galaxy they're in I have thought about whether or not they've left the planet to colonize somewhere else, and my only answer is the mental image of a spaceship version of a van or even a minivan with lights flashing out the window with rave music in the background. Idk if it's them tho.

I don't have a lot of extra stuff to add for the elves? I've mostly covered all the details that make them special to my story. I will say that my elves average out to about 7 ft tall! Because fuck you dnd being shorter than humans my ass.

Also I don't think there's gonna be a systematic hatred between the elves and dwarves. Certain elves might feud with certain dwarves, but there's not gonna be like. Fantasy racism hatred feuds.

Also also I haven't put this anywhere else yet but I've been noodling on Dierdra's mom cause her mom's a diplomat, but the only thing I know about the place she goes to is that it's largely mechanical in infrastructure while the elves she represents have, for the most part, an infrastructure based largely on magic and how it affects the world. Dierdra's mom's job is to be a sharer of ideas, communication, and discoveries. Anyways I say all that to get to the point of: I think the society Dierdra's mom diplomats to is a dwarven one! I've been playing with this idea for a while, and it's basically down to a steampunk based human society (easiest, boring), a dwarven society (harder, people always assumes there's bef between the two species, there's the logical problem of 'dwarves make magical tools on the regular, why do they need elves help?), and a gnome society (a best of both worlds? I'll have to continue thinking on it).

Humans! Not much to say about them. Uhh there's no species divide relating to magic, although some species find using it easier. Humans are a middle ground for most things, not the best but not the worst either. Also! Given that there's more humanoid/sentient species than our world it's kinda given that there's less humans overall and they aren't EVERYWHERE. Or that they are, but at different concentrations.

My dwarven society isn't all that fleshed out in my mind-brain, so I've got more than a few holes in their society. However! Given that they are beings more connected to the earth and dirt they almost never wear shoes! It's sort of a negative feedback loop wherein wearing shoes feels off and wrong so they don't wear shoes so they get less used to wearing shoes so those emotions pop up again. This also happens to gnomes!

My little gnomes~ I love my little gnomes~ I still have some tumbling around in my noggin scheduled for their society, just to flesh it out more. I will say that I think my gnomes are gonna be on the whole a lot more superstitious than most species. And I don't mean in a religious way, more of a 'broken mirror, not walking under a ladder, knocking on wood' sort of superstitious.

I do think that gnomes live higher in the earth then dwarves. Mostly to aid in a quick escape via phasing into their cities. Oh! I had an idea that because basically all of them have the ability to phase through rocks and earth they probably don't have a door or such to enter their cities and houses. 🤔

#dagne doodles #my characters #miscellaneous doodles #digital art #original species #species design #gnome #dwarf #human #elf #maenad #worldbuilding #fantasy writing #long post

[stairset]

Okay I don’t care WHAT the official Clone Wars character encyclopedia says I refuse to accept that Tech is apparently 6′4

#maul is listed is 6 ft which. whatever his height was always inconsistent as shit #savage is listed as 7'2 which...hmmm #i mean obviously he's tall i mean he's taller than dooku who's listed as 6'4 #but 7 ft 2 might be stretching it a bit #idk i woulda figured savage would listed as like 6'6 maybe #which is what wrecker's listed as #like looking at the scene where he trains w dooku in witches of the mist #he's only Slightly taller than dooku so 6'6 just seems more believable to me #for the bad batch i think it'd make more sense for them all to just be 6 ft ike the regular clones #except wrecker cause his mutation is super strength so it makes sense for him to be bigger #but with the others' abilities there's really no reason for them to fluctuate in height #idk man star wars heights are dumb and inconsistent we've been through this #also what i said about savage also applies to talzin #she's listed as 7 ft 4 which like come on she's tall but not THAT tall #she's like maybe a head taller than ventress who's like 5'9-ish #shut up tristan

[the-chicken-or-the-banana]

andreil and goodbye kisses (pt. 7) ft. allison

parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 good lord why have i stretched this one concept out for so long skdflskj || part 8

allison thinks — nay, knows — that neil josten is just the cutest human being alive. certainly a badass. very threatening. will bite when provoked.

but still very cute. adorable. squish, if you will.

(also, have you seen those eyes??)

she likes to believe she is the mother hen of the newborn chick — the startled bambi — that is neil josten

and so, as an experienced, highly intellectual person, she... questions neil's taste in men

allison worries that andrew is just stringing neil along, ready to drop him whenever he pleases

(renee insists this is not the case, but what does renee know?)

anyways, allison concludes that andrew must be put to the test to confirm that he is good enough for her precious (and slightly rude) child

now, allison isn't one to perpetuate stereotypes, but andrew is a well-dressed gay man with plenty of experience in dressing up neil nicely

and, as the self-crowned queen of fashion, she knows that clothes can tell a lot about an individual

(for example, her clothes are wonderful, which means that she is flawless)

so allison decides that going clothes shopping with andreil (she cannot thank nicky enough for coming up with that ship name) is the only way to truly see if andrew is good enough for neil

so she plans. and one thursday evening, she corners andrew and neil and tells them what's going down

"neil. you and your boy— " "he's not my boy" "you and your boy will join me this saturday to go shopping at the mall. any questions?" "yes, actually— " "great, i'll see you then!"

to her surprise, andrew actually shows up with neil on saturday, twirling his car keys with a bored expression

"minyard. you are not driving"

"alright then. neil, let's go back to to bed"

"okay okay fine you can drive"

allison, with great dignity, regales herself to backseat passenger. at least this way she has a perfect view of the heart eyes transpiring between andrew and neil

(and if she sneaks in a couple of pictures of them — well, no one needs to know)

they finally reach the mall and allison is ready to start her sneaky observations

first: she spots a cute pink sweater in an egregiously bright shop window and drags neil inside, checking conspicuously if andrew follows him

he does

pleased, allison browses through the store, plucking the sweater she originally saw to try on later

after a little more looking, she emerges from the dressing room to show off the sweater to neil

"well neil? how do i look?"

"oh uh. pretty? andrew, how does she look?"

andrew sweeps an impassive gaze over her and promptly turns around without a word

allison is outraged. how dare he simply ignore neil! does he not think neil is important enough to respond to? does he not care at all? how can he just— oh

andrew returns with a pale blue sweater she had seemingly missed and throws it at her face

she goes back in to try it with a huff. surprisingly (and annoyingly), this one looks even better than the pink one did

she buys the blue one. but andrew's still on thin fucking ice

second: after the sweater fiasco, she leads andreil over to a shoe store. allison * very deliberately * walks through the men's footwear, hoping andrew will take notice of something he likes there for neil, before making her way to the women's section

she tries on a few sandals, showing them off to neil, and andrew wanders off in the middle of her runway strut

(she can't understand why. he might be gay, but surely he can still appreciate her legs, right?)

her questions are answered after andrew emerges from an aisle carrying a navy blue box, placing it in front of neil

neil stares at it. andrew kicks him in the shin

"oh am i supposed to wear it?"

andrew rolls his eyes and bends down, switching neil's old sneakers for a new pair of running shoes he found

allison nearly coos at the sight of the terrifying andrew minyard tying his boyfriend's shoelaces with such a focused look

neil loves the shoes. allison buys them for him. and maybe she approves of andrew just a little bit more

third: after a few more stores, allison is at the final stop of her experiment — clothes shopping for neil

she spends an agonizingly long hour searching for clothes neil might actually wear, but when she goes to give it to him, he's nowhere to be found

frantically, she combs through the store again, already thinking of private investigators to hire to find him

suddenly, allison spots his bright hair against the wall in the far corner of the store

she races over there, ready to give neil a piece of her mind for worrying her, until she sees what he's up to

he's kissing andrew. but it's not heavy making-out, it's not anything too explicit. it's just very adorable kissing

(allison has to bite back a laugh when she notices that andrew has to go on his toes to reach neil)

she goes to pull out her phone, but the clothes in her hand rustle, causing neil to glance her way

he winces at the massive pile of clothes, but presses a kiss to andrew's lips, then nose, before gingerly taking the clothes to try on

allison squints at andrew upon seeing the nose kiss. he scowls at her and promptly walks away in the direction neil left to

allison considers the sight she just saw. surely andrew wouldn't be willing to be so openly soft if he was just playing neil, right? right.

(damn, maybe renee did know some things after all)

allison gives a pleased smile — maybe andrew really is okay for neil — before suddenly remembering the bet that she's probably going to lose soon

but she doesn't mind losing some money anymore; she has plenty of it

all allison wants is for neil to be happy. and if andrew brings him happiness— well, she doesn't really understand neil's taste, but she supports it anyway

fuck. when did she get so soft?

#this one ended up unreasonably long lmao #idek why? like i had no ideas and then bam! #this was the longest hc yet #life is weird #andreil #andrew minyard #the foxhole court #neil josten #aftg #tfc #all for the game #allison reynolds #renee walker #andreil headcanon #andreil hc #aftg hc #aftg headcanon #palmetto state foxes #andreil bullet fic

[rawmeanderson]

pretty please ― saturday.

ft. Kevin Hayes plot: with Kevin, Brady, and Jimmy all gone from New York and the new season about to start, everyone gets together for a long weekend. warnings: swearing, drinking, body issues, soft Nolan Patrick content. there’s quite a bit of smut in this tbh. word count: 8.6k many thanks to @danglesnipecelly​ for proof reading and putting up with my ridiculous typos 

THURSDAY / FRIDAY You didn’t sleep well that night, tossing and turning and never feeling like you actually got beyond dozing. Guilt was eating at you, even as you slept, and at one point, you opened your eyes and saw the first bits of daylight peaking through the window. There was a certain numbness to you, as when you rolled over, trying to get back to sleep, you realized you were parched.

Sitting up, you stretched for a moment before getting out of bed. You felt like running. Not like, physically running, but running away from the cabin, from the conversation you were going to avoid for as long as you could. When you checked your phone, you saw that it was barely 7:00am, and you yawned, forcing yourself out of bed anyway. A walk might do you some good, let you wear off some of this anxious energy so you could get more sleep later.

You changed out of your pjs and into a pair of jean shorts and a clean shirt, stuffing your feet into your sandals as you went across the hall to brush your teeth. Your hair was an absolute mess, but you just tied it up in a bun, deciding to deal with it later. 

To say you tiptoed past Kevin’s door on the way to the living room was an understatement. You wondered if he was awake, or if he’d woken up at all in the night and realized you’d left. Your palm itched as your eyes settled on the doorknob, shoving down the urge to go inside and slip into bed with him, but you kept moving. 

The living room and kitchen were empty when you got there, and the cabin seemed peaceful despite the way your brain was running wild. You got yourself a glass of water, leaning back against the cabinet as you sipped at it. Really, you were poised to sprint out the door if you heard any sign of Kevin, your shoulders tense as your heart thundered in your chest. Coffee was already brewing, so someone had to be up already. 

You heard voices a moment later, the sound of footsteps, and just as your fight or flight instincts had you ready to bolt, you realized that it was Nolan and the friend of Jimmy’s whose name you never remembered coming out of the garage. They had fishing poles in their hand, among other things, and Nolan nodded to you in acknowledgement. 

“Morning,” you said, refilling your glass of water as Nolan put down the things in his hands to reach for a mug from the cabinet. He kind of grumbled in response, and you didn’t take it personally as he filled the mug with coffee. “Are you guys going fishing? Like, off the boat?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” no name responded, nodding as he got a cup of coffee for himself. 

“Can I come?” you asked before you really thought about it. “I mean, I won’t fish, I’ll just sit there and read. I’ll even keep my mouth shut so I don’t scare away the fish or whatever.” What better way to avoid the problem you created than by sitting in the middle of the lake for a few hours. 

The two guys looked at each other and shrugged. “Yeah, that’s fine, I guess. We’ll be out there for a few hours,” Nolan said, sipping at his coffee as he shrugged again. “We’re leaving in a few.”

You nodded, finishing your glass of water. “Alright, cool,” you responded, deciding that the awkwardness of a silent fishing trip with two people you barely knew was better than the chance of running into Kevin in the next few hours. “I’m gonna grab some stuff from my room, I’ll meet you guys down at the water.”

When you ran to grab your sunglasses and your iPad from your room, the rational whisper in the back of your mind told you this was a dumb idea, that you needed to put on your big girl panties and deal with it. You were too panicked to listen to yourself though, and you tiptoed past Kevin’s door again on your way out of the cabin. Making your way down to the dock, you texted Sophie to tell her you were going out on the boat, and that Nolan and what’s his name were waiting for you.

No one said much as you settled yourself at the opposite end of the boat from them, putting your feet up as the boat pulled away from the dock. The sky was overcast, but you wore your sunglasses anyway, looking out at the water with a sigh. You opened your book on your iPad, but never really got around to reading. The guys decided on a fishing spot, and the boat came to a stop. 

Your mind was cycling, thinking about what needed done at your apartment in the next few weeks ahead of Sophie moving out, thinking about the meeting you had to be in on Tuesday morning, thinking about almost anything besides the 6’5” man you’d slipped out on the night before. As soon as your mind even started to drift to him, you corrected course by thinking about something boring and menial. 

After an hour on the water, you started to realize why people might enjoy fishing. None of you had said a word since leaving the dock, and if your mind wasn’t an anxiety ridden frenzy right now, you’d probably find being on the boat rather peaceful. Nolan had moved seats, sitting closer to your end of the boat as he cast his line into the water. 

You finally did your best to start reading, but after reading the same page four times and still remembering none of it, you promptly gave up. Glancing at your phone, you remembered that your service was hit or miss on the water, and maybe that was a good thing. Feeling a little fidgety, you turned in your seat, leaning against the railing to look out at the water again. All you had to do was withstand another 32 hours or so of avoiding Kevin, then you and Sophie would be on your way home and you could go back to pretending he didn’t exist.

It was the sound of Nolan’s voice after a while that zapped you back to the present. When you looked at him, he was already watching you and you blinked. 

“I’m sorry, were you talking to me?” you asked, eyebrows raised. You could feel your cheeks warm as you straightened up in your seat. 

“Uh, yeah. I asked if you were good, considering you’ve been staring at the same spot of nothing for close to 45 minutes,” he responded, actually chuckling a little bit. You didn’t want to believe you’d been staring off into space for that long, but you checked your phone and it had actually been longer.

“Oh,” you said, not sure what to say. Your response surely told him everything he needed to know, so you didn’t bother trying to act like you were having an awesome morning. “I’ll be okay.”

Nolan nodded, eyes moving back to watch the fishing line. You expected that to be the end of it, and you were already turning your head back to look out at the water again when he spoke. “Is this about Kevin?”

You froze, shoulders tense as you took a deep breath. Looking at him again, you were surprised by how direct he was about it. You hardly knew him, so you weren’t sure how much of your soul you were willing to bare to him in the middle of a lake.

“Kind of,” you said finally, looking down at your lap and picking a piece of invisible fuzz off your shorts. You were being truthful. Kevin was the immediate issue, but of course, it all stemmed back to the fact that you were about to be the last of the group left in New York.

Nolan was quiet, chewing on the inside of his cheek like he was trying to figure out what to do next. After a moment’s thought, he sighed, reeling in his fishing line before getting to his feet and moving closer to where you were sitting. That surprised you more than the fact that he was speaking to you to begin with, and you straightened up in your seat when you noticed that his brow was creased still.

“So, Kev’s probably gonna kill me for telling you all of this, but I don’t see much point in you both being miserable for the rest of the trip because you’re both too afraid to talk about your feelings,” he started, looking at you pointedly enough that you felt like a kid getting a talking to from their teacher. When you didn’t say anything to stop him, he continued.

“I met you two days ago, but I’ve known about you since my third conversation with Kevin. He talks about you all the time. The whole reason he invited me this weekend was because he wanted me to meet you. He invited a few others too, just to meet you, but they weren’t able to make it,” he told you, and you knew your eyes were wide as you listened to him. 

“Well, hopefully I lived up to the hype,” you said, exhaling a breath of humorless laughter.

“I’m undecided, so far,” he responded, his tone flat as the corner of his mouth twitched up in a grin that put you a little more at ease. “He hasn’t gone on more than 2 dates with someone since he got to Philly because he compares them all to you. I know, because I live with him, and he whines about it constantly. I had to stop him from drunk dialing you about nine times last year, then he’d go on and on about how he just wanted to go up to New York and see you, and that he was happy to be in Philly because he was closer to you again. He misses you, and he’s crazy about you, but he’s either too fucking dumb to realize it or too scared to say anything to you about it.”

You ran your tongue along your teeth as you thought over what Nolan had said, and you were grateful that he’d paused to give you a chance to process all of it. The words had surprised you, that was for sure, but thinking back to yesterday and last night...he was never this sweet with you before. Sure, there’d been some light flirting here and there between hook ups, but he’d never seemed to want you this badly before. You thought back to the other night and what he’d said about the two of you dating. This was all stupid, you decided, and you didn’t really know what to think.

“From the things he’s said, I don’t think he fully realized how he felt about you until he was traded to Winnipeg, and then he didn’t know what to do about it,” Nolan said with pursed lips, like he somehow could read your mind. 

You were grateful that your sunglasses were on, because you felt tears burning in your eyes. Taking a deep breath, you swallowed, glancing out at the water again. You hated this feeling, the sinking in your stomach of not knowing what to do, not knowing how to fix the whole situation. Sniffling, you took another deep breath and looked at Nolan again.

“Well, since you’re obviously smarter than both of us, any advice on what to do?” you asked finally, your throat tight with the threat of tears. He looked pleased with the compliment, then continued.

“It’s so painfully obvious to everyone that you’re both waiting on the other to make the first more, so I say just talk to him. You know he’s a good dude, you know he just wants you to be happy, so you both just need to find the time to talk about what’s going on,” he said, shrugging again. Talking about things like this clearly wasn’t his strong suit, but you appreciated the effort that he was making to help you out.

Nodding, you looked down at your lap momentarily, checking your phone again. Sophie had texted you, saying Kevin was looking for you, followed by a sad face, asking what happened last night. You’d respond to those later, after you had time to process your emotions a little more.

“Thanks for this, really,” you said, hoping you sounded as sincere as you felt. 

“You can thank me by getting him to shut up about how much he misses you,” Nolan told you, letting out a dry laugh. “I guess I get the hype, kind of, but Philly and New York are close enough that the only thing keeping you guys apart is the fact that you like to avoid each other instead of talking about it.” You snorted softly, glad to see that he at least had a sense of humor about it.

“I’m glad he had you at least, to whine to enough that you took matters into your own hands,” you told him and he gave you a genuine smile with a nod. 

“I had a rough year too. Kev did a lot for me, so this is just me trying to repay him.” 

You both fell silent then, looking out at the water. It was nearly 10:30 by then. You hadn’t read a single page of your book, but your mind wasn’t racing anymore. Now, the thought of talking to Kevin didn’t make you want to hide, and you decided that was a good start.

Half an hour later, the guys decided they’d had enough fishing and started packing up to head back. Despite your better attitude, nervousness fluttered in your stomach, but you knew you’d survive talking to Kevin, just like you had survived for the last year and a half of carrying around all of the feelings. You made a plan for yourself and felt good about it: get up to the cabin, shower, then find Kevin to fix the problem. 

Your plan immediately went out the door when you realized that Kevin was already sitting on the dock waiting for you. When you looked at Nolan, you saw the corner of his mouth turn up slightly and you gather that he must’ve texted him that you guys were heading back. Nolan raised his eyebrows at you with a look that said ‘if you don’t figure this out, you’re dead to me,’ and you clenched your jaw.

The boat docked a minute later, and the guy who’s name you really should remember started toward the cabin while Nolan stood on the dock for a short moment, talking to Kevin before taking off as well. You stayed where you were as he stepped onto the boat, and when you took your sunglasses off, you realized that your hands were shaking. It was nice to better understand how he felt about you, but that didn’t stop the flood of emotions that rose in you when you looked at him. 

Kevin looked tired, like he’d slept as poorly as you had, and a wave of guilt made your stomach churn. He stood there for a minute, hands in his pockets and neither of you really seemed to know what to say. “Can I sit down?” he asked eventually, nodding to the spot next to you. 

You could feel your bottom lip quivering, and you nodded, trying to swallow the lump in your throat. “Yeah,” you managed to say without your voice breaking. When he sat down, he turned toward you slightly, close enough that his leg was touching yours. By the time you forced yourself to meet his eye, your vision was blurry with tears, your mouth drawn in a tight line. 

“Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked, frowning as he reached for your hand. The contact was all it took for the tears to spill over and you wiped at them quickly with your other hand.

“I’m sorry,” you told him, sniffling as you looked away from him. He squeezed your hand tightly, bringing the other up to cup your face, guiding you to look at him. “I’m sorry I left last night, I should’ve stayed.”

“Jesus, what did Nolan tell you? Why are you crying?” he asked, looking concerned as his thumb swept over your cheek.

“I’m just so sad,” you admitted, stifling a sob as you avoided his eyes. Your face was hot, because you were upset and because you were embarrassed by the fact that you were such a blubbering mess all of a sudden.

“What, about last night?” Now he really looked concerned, and it actually made you let out a breath of laughter as you shook your head. Kevin looked relieved by your reaction, and easily pulled you into his lap before you could say anything else. His arms were tight around you, holding you against his chest as he sighed quietly.

The way he was holding you made you feel so small and so secure, and you just stayed like that for a moment with your face pressed into his neck. “I’m just sad about everything right now, I guess,” you admitted, shifting enough to wrap your arm around him as well as you leaned into his chest. “I’m sad about Sophie again, I’m sad we’re all leaving tomorrow. I’m sad you got traded to begin with, and I’m sad I wasted a year and a half being too scared to talk to you.” Your voice was raw with emotion and tears started spilling down your cheeks again no matter how hard you tried to stop them.

“Why were you scared to talk to me?” he asked, his lips pressed to the top of your head. His hand moved over your back in a firm motion that was hypnotically soothing, making you feel safe to spill your heart out as he held you.

You sniffled, shrugging as you took a shuddering breath. “I just didn’t know what to say to you. I didn’t know where we stood or how you felt. I don’t look like the girls you usually date, so I thought that whenever we hooked up that it had just been out of boredom, since it was always at the end of a night out. I figured you’d be too busy getting settled and I guess I felt like I cared more about you than you cared about me.” You felt bad admitting it after hearing what Nolan had had to say, and you couldn’t help the way your voice was shaking as you spoke. 

Kevin’s hand slid along your jaw gently, bringing your face up to look at him. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way. It was never out of boredom either, I spent so long trying to figure out how to get your attention,” he told you, practically whispering the words. He kissed you softly, his lips just barely brushing over yours. “I was scared to talk to you too, but I shouldn’t have let that stop me.”

Determined to stop crying, you wiped your eyes, already tilting your head enough to kiss him again. Your eyes moved over his face like you were committing it to memory, letting your knuckles drag over the stubble that covered his jawline. “And why on earth were you scared to talk to me?” you asked, your throat still tight even after the tears had stopped.

“Because you’ve always been way too cool and smart for me, and I was so close to finally working up the nerve to ask you out when I got traded,” he told you, a sad smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. His fingers were still moving up and down your back in a way that made you want to press closer to him and just stay like that for the rest of the day. “Once I was in Winnipeg, I didn’t really know what to say to you either. I didn’t know what your feelings were about us, and I didn’t know how to even bring it up. I don’t think I even knew how badly I wanted there to be an us until I was already in Winnipeg. Since I wasn’t sure where I was going to end up once the season ended, it didn't feel fair to you to drag you into something long distance.”

“Then you signed to Philly,” you said softly, feeling tears fill your eyes again as your head settled on his shoulder. 

“Yep, I signed to Philly, then each time I was in New York last summer, you never came around. I figured you had moved on or something, or that you hadn’t felt the same way to begin with.”

He kissed the top of your head and fell silent, both of you letting everything hang between you for a few moments. You still felt sad and angry with yourself, but at least him holding you like he was made it easier to let go of those feelings. 

“What do we do now?” you asked eventually, though really you were content to stay there all day, soaking in the warmth of the sun and Kevin’s body. He seemed to be enjoying the contact as much as you were, and didn’t answer right away.

“Well, are you hungry?” He pulled back a little to look down at you, eyes sweeping over your tear stained face. You nodded quickly, realizing that it was nearly noon and you hadn’t eaten anything that morning. “There’s a restaurant down the road a bit, we can go get lunch if you want, and this is me making it clear that it would be a date.”

Snorting, you grinned, your hands coming up to cup his face. “I like that idea,” you said, kissing him softly. You only pulled back enough to look at him briefly, but his mouth found yours again, making you smile. “I want to take a shower first though, then we can go.”

“Good, you need it,” he responded, already laughing by the time you poked him in the ribs. Before you could shoot something snarky back, he kissed you again, harder this time to make you groan into his mouth. When you pulled back again, you got to your feet, knowing that otherwise, you’d never want to move. 

Lunch was wonderful, honestly. After your shower, Kevin drove you to the restaurant, his arm stretched over the center console to hold your hand. As you ate, he told you about his favorite spots in Philly and about his teammates, and you talked about your family and the ongoing drama at your office. Admittedly, you had one too many mimosas, leaving you giggling as Kevin nudged your foot gently under the table.

As soon as you made it back to the cabin, Sophie was hugging you so tightly that it hurt. Jimmy eventually got her to let go and you laughed as she made you promise to sit with her at dinner. On the way back from lunch, you and Kevin had decided a nap was in order since you’d both slept like shit, and you let him pull you into his room with a grin. 

The making out was kept to a minimum, both of you tired and full from lunch, but it still felt nice to curl up with him, knowing you had nothing else to be doing. With your head on his chest, he asked if you wanted to put a movie on or anything, and you just shook your head sleepily, pressing your face into his neck. His arm was around you, keeping you curled against him, and it occurred to you that this was the first time you’d fallen asleep with him. He kept kissing the top of your head like he was realizing the same thing, murmuring to you that you made him happy. 

The sound of your phone vibrating beside you woke you up a few hours later. Kevin was still asleep, and you stretched as much as you could without disturbing him as you reached for your phone. It was Sophie, as nosey as ever, wanting to be filled in on how lunch had gone, and you grinned to yourself as you texted her back. You stayed put for a while, happy to be right where you were as Kevin continued to doze.

When he woke up, it was with a loud yawn, rolling onto his side and taking you with him. You laughed as he spooned you, immediately pressing his face into the back of his neck. 

“Don’t go back to sleep,” you warned, rubbing your hand over his forearm where it was looped tightly around you.

“Why not?” he murmured, his voice deeper than usual and thick with grogginess. 

“Because we’ll be up all night if we sleep too late,” you told him matter of factly, shivering as he nosed at your hairline lightly.

“Maybe I was planning to keep you up half the night anyway,” he countered. The laugh you let out bled into a soft moan as he tugged at your earlobe with his teeth gently. Your body leaned back against him more, just barely pressing your thighs together when arousal jolted through you.

“Jesus, Kev,” you said, enjoying the soft rumble of laughter that left him. You were both quiet for a moment after that, your heart racing as he alternated between kissing your skin and nuzzling against you.

“What time are you and Soph leaving tomorrow?” he asked, his hand sliding over your waist. He brushed his thumb against the band of your bra lightly, like he was trying to be casual about it and you grinned at the contact. 

“Between 3 and 4, I think,” you responded, squirming as his hand slid over your stomach. Your breathing had quickened from the light touches, and if it didn’t feel so good, you would hate how easily he was able to turn you on. 

“Good.” The word was short, and he said it as his fingers toyed with the button of your shorts. His mouth was still against your neck and you could feel him smirking into your skin. Your mouth was dry, your heart fluttering in your chest as your hips pressed back toward him. You murmured his name impatiently, enjoying that you could feel the hardening outline of his dick against your ass, when a knock at the door made you both jump.

“Kevin, stop hogging Y/N for yourself!” Sophie said from the other side of the door, voice slightly raised as she knocked again. You let out a loud laugh, leaning back against him as he sighed. 

“Finders keepers, Sophie!” he responded as he loosened his hold on you.

“We’ll be out in a minute, chill, Soph,” you said finally, your heart still racing from the touches that surely would’ve gone further had you not been interrupted.

Sophie’s response was to walk away, and you laughed as you sat up. You knew your cheeks were flushed and your hair was probably a mess from your nap, but you were smiling as you looked back at Kevin who was still stretched out along the mattress. 

“Maybe I should’ve warned you that she knew I was awake,” you teased, leaning over him to press a quick kiss to his mouth.

“Mhm, maybe,” Kevin hummed, his hand sliding along your jaw before he kissed you again. You pulled away quickly after that before he could pull you back down to him, because you knew that if Sophie came back, she wouldn’t hesitate to open the door. 

It was a really good evening, honestly. Brady, Jimmy, and Kevin all seemed a little down that it was the last night of the trip and that they probably wouldn’t see each other for a while. You played cards and pong, maintaining a slight buzz through dinner, where you next to Sophie as promised. Kevin was essentially glued to your side, mostly keeping his hands to himself despite the way he was looking at you. 

One simple grin from him had fire jolting up your spine, leaving you to think about his hands on you, the way they squeezed your waist, and the tight grip of them in your hair when you went down on him. He had even texted you at one point, telling you he was thinking about how good you tasted, that he couldn’t wait to be inside you later. Of course, he’d been sitting right next to you when he’d sent it and watched for your reaction, even when you’d been in the middle of talking with Brady about his new place in Raleigh. You’d stumbled over your words a little after reading the message, your cheeks flushing as your clit throbbed. 

Just like every other night of the trip, someone got a fire going once it was dark. Jimmy and Brady were both a little past drunk by then, making s’mores under Sophie’s supervision. You grinned as you watched, letting Kevin pull you into his lap. He kissed your shoulder through your shirt, then the curve of your neck and you leaned back into him. You were quiet, not really having anything to say as you simply enjoyed the togetherness of having your favorite people all in one spot. It was bittersweet, but it no longer felt like the end of the world, especially with Kevin’s warmth as he held you in his lap.

His hands started wandering a bit eventually, brushing his thumb over the clasp of your bra and letting his knuckles graze over your spine. You repaid him by shifting in his lap casually here and there, making sure your ass pressed against his lap to make him grip your hips in a plea to stop. He said your name at one point and kissed you when you turned your head to glance back at him, and you realized that was the first time he’d done that in front of other people. Brady was quick to make a comment that it was about fucking time, rolling his eyes dramatically before giving Kevin a thumbs up. 

Around 10, you stretched slightly in his lap before moving to stand up. Kevin’s arm tightened around you, and you scoffed. “I have to pee, dude, I’ll be right back,” you told him with a quiet laugh, squeezing his wrist when he finally released you. “You want anything from the house?”

“Nah, I’m good,” he said, pressing a quick kiss to your mouth before you got to your feet. 

When you came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, the cabin was dark aside from the string lights on one wall, and you jumped a little when you spotted Kevin on the sofa.

“You really did just have to use the bathroom, huh?” he said, grinning as he got to his feet. The look in his eye as he watched you made your back straighten as he approached. 

“Yeah,” you laughed, licking your lips. “What did you think I meant?”

“I dunno, I figured that was code that you wanted me to follow you up here to fuck you senseless or something,” he told you with a shrug, his hands finding your waist once he was close enough. You snorted softly, shaking your head as you looked up at him. He was grinning at you like he had been all night, like you and your body were the only things on his mind, and anything you’d thought about saying as a response was lost. 

He dipped his head to kiss you, pressing you back against the closed door of the bathroom, and you sighed into his mouth. Your hands came up to grip the fabric of his shirt, letting him keep the slow pace he’d set even as your restraint was threatening to fray. His tongue slid over yours, and he held your jaw tenderly, thumb brushing over your cheek. Your knees already felt weak as you leaned into him, all of the heat from earlier flooding back. 

You couldn’t help the way that you moaned into his mouth, your hips already pressing toward him eagerly. That was when he pulled back, clearly enjoying the way your cheeks were flushed. “You wanna go back out to the fire?” he asked, smirking casually and hellbent on torturing you.

Rolling your eyes, you brought an arm up to wrap around his shoulders, keeping him where he was. “I thought you were gonna keep me up half the night and fuck me senseless,” you responded, surprised that your voice wasn’t shaking as you repeated his earlier words back to him. 

His only reaction was to curse under his breath as he kissed you again roughly enough that you melted against him. Your hand slid along his neck, and when your thumb brushed over his pulse point, you could feel that his heart was racing. You were already wet, and had been since before Sophie interrupted you after your nap earlier. He squeezed your ass firmly, pulling your hips forward against his as his teeth caught on your bottom lip.

“Kev, we need to relocate,” you breathed, tilting your head back as he kissed down your throat. He let out a grumble that made you laugh even as you arched toward him again and he sighed, finally pulling back. 

“Meet me in your room?” he murmured, hands sliding up your waist like he wasn’t ready to let go of you just yet. You nodded, nudging his shoulder lightly to make him move finally, and you took off ahead of him. 

He smacked your ass hard enough to make you gasp before slipping into his room as you kept going toward your own. With the door closed behind you, you tugged off your shirt and kicked your shorts aside, knowing they wouldn’t stay on much longer anyway. You wished you had thought ahead and packed some cute underwear or something that would’ve made you feel a little sexier as you laid back against your pillows. 

You held your breath when you heard his footsteps come toward your door, and he cursed loudly when he saw you, making sure to lock the door behind him. He’d always managed to boost your ego, and damn, you were grateful for that. His eyes were glued to you as he approached the bed, already pulling his shirt off over his head with a grin.

When he set a box of condoms on the end table next to the bed, you laughed loudly. “A whole box, huh?” you teased, beaming as you watched him closely. 

Licking his lips as his eyes slid over your body, he shrugged. “Just trying to be prepared, baby girl,” he told you, smirking as his hands moved to unbutton his pants. 

He kicked his shorts off, and the outline of his half hard dick in his boxer-briefs was enough to make you groan. His body was absolutely stunning, perfectly sculpted by years of training and you had never figured out how someone as hot as him was interested in you.

“My eyes are up here, y’know,” he told you, still smirking as he joined you on the bed. You shrugged, continuing to check him out because you knew he certainly didn’t mind. The ache between your legs was becoming unbearable, and you pulled him over you as soon as he was close enough. 

Settled over you, his body was close enough for you to feel his warmth, and as soon as he kissed you, you were arching toward him for the skin to skin contact you were so desperate for. There wasn’t much restraint in his kiss as his knee sank into the mattress between your thighs. You put an arm around his neck, your fingers digging into his shoulder as you tugged at his bottom lip with your teeth. 

His mouth left yours to move along your jaw in hot, open mouthed kisses and you sighed softly, tilting your head back for him. You already felt like you were burning from the inside out, your clit throbbing as your hands moved to start tugging down his underwear.

He chuckled softly, his lips vibrating against your throat as he swatted your hands away. “So impatient,” he murmured with a soft tsk, letting his mouth slide over your collarbone. You exhaled a loud breath, a shiver running through you from the contact, and you made a pleading sound. 

When he kissed you again, you saw stars, only faintly aware of his hand slipping under your back to unfasten your bra. Pulling the fabric away from you, he cursed under his breath and his mouth was already making its way down your throat again. 

“Kev, baby, just fuck me already,” you whined, dragging your nails over his shoulder. He glanced up at you with dark eyes, and he had the audacity to grin at you before sucking your nipple into his mouth. You nearly jumped out of your skin, moaning loudly as your hips rocked in search of friction. His hand came up to tug your panties down in an easy motion, so at least he was heading in the right direction of what you wanted. 

You were about to whine for him again, damn near ready to beg by the time his hand slipped between your thighs. A loud, grateful moan left you from the contact, even if it was just him sliding his fingers through your folds. 

“How are you always just so fucking wet?” he murmured, mostly to himself as he purposefully avoided your clit. A frustrated sound left you as you squirmed, your hips twitching toward his hand. 

“It might have something to do with the fact that you teased me for half the day,” you responded, voice shaking slightly as you managed to laugh a bit. Sucking a mark against the curve of your breast, he hummed softly like he was acknowledging his role in the matter. 

Without much further teasing, he sank two fingers into you, and you each moaned in unison. You felt so on edge already, barely able to keep still as your body squeezed around his fingers greedily. His mouth moved over your chest and shoulder without much direction, like he was just happy to be able to touch you at all while his fingers rocked into you.

“You’re so fucking tight, sweetheart,” he groaned, nosing at the hollow of your throat. “Can’t wait to feel you around my dick, baby, I’ve been waiting so fucking long.” He said that just when you thought you couldn’t possibly get any wetter, but the words alone made you exhale a pleading whine. 

Your nails sank into his shoulder when his fingers curled against your g-spot and you cursed loudly as you rocked against his hand hungrily. He leaned up to kiss you again, happily swallowing the moans that were spilling out of you. His thumb had started rubbing circles and figure 8s against your clit and you swore that you were on the verge of actually exploding.

The motion of his fingers sped up and you were already so close, desperately trying to meet the motion of his hand to get what you needed. His mouth closed around your nipple again, nearly overwhelming you. Your heartbeat was roaring in your ears and your scalp prickled from the perfect pressure of his thumb against you.

“Fuck, Kev, I’m gonna cum,” you warned, panting as heat threatened to consume your body. He cursed, and just as you were right there at the edge, his fingers were suddenly gone. The sound that left you was practically a sob, your body shaking as you tried to squeeze your thighs together for whatever friction you could get.

Kevin actually chuckled at the sight, using the leg still between your knees to stop you as he leaned to kiss you again quickly. “Not yet, baby, don’t want you to cum until it’s on my cock,” he told you, and all you could do was nod out of desperation.

He brought his hand up to your mouth and you locked eyes with him as you sucked his fingers into your mouth, moaning at the taste of yourself. Eagerly, your tongue slid along his digits and you held his gaze, knowing your eyes were dark and clouded with lust. All you could hear over the rush of your own heartbeat was the soft mumble of his voice as he praised you.

When he pulled away completely, standing to grab a condom from the end table, your head turned to watch him, just as you had earlier. He smirked when he caught you checking him out, your eyes obviously stuck on the hard line of his cock as it strained against the fabric of his underwear.

“Turn over, sweetheart, get up on your hands and knees for me,” he told you, licking his lips as he tore open the condom.

You didn’t even bother to nod, just moving as quickly as you could on limbs that were still shaking. Your knees sank into the mattress, eagerness clawing at you as you heard the sound of his boxer-briefs sliding down his legs. Still trembling, you looked back at him, loving the look in his eye as he stroked his cock slowly, surveyed the way you were presenting yourself to him.

“Kev, c’mon, stop making me wait,” you pleaded, already rocking back toward him hungrily. He chuckled softly, letting his hand rub over your back in a way that made you shake even more. It surprised you when he pulled you to the edge of the mattress where his feet were still planted on the floor. 

“I don’t remember you being this needy before,” he mused, his voice a low hum as he smacked your ass, earning a gasp from you. You gritted your teeth as your hand tightened in the sheets, pressing back toward him again as your pussy throbbed. 

“Maybe because before, I hadn’t spent a year and a half fantasizing about you,” you responded, the words punctuated with a moan as he started to drag the head of his cock through your folds. You figured stroking his ego a little bit might get you what you wanted, and your arms were shaking so badly that you dropped to let your chest rest against the mattress.

“Let’s hope this lives up to the fantasy then, huh?” You had started to laugh at his words, but the sound immediately became a loud moan when he sank into you all at once.

You were so full that you swore you could feel him through every inch of you, your muscles already tightening around him eagerly. A grunt left him as his hands found your waist, squeezing you there while his hips ground against you in a way that left you whimpering.

Just as you were about to whine for him to move, to give you more, he pulled back, almost slipping out of you before slamming his hips into yours again. You cursed loudly, nodding in encouragement as he set a rhythm that was somehow both lazy and desperate.

That pace didn’t last though, not when you were still so close to an orgasm that you found yourself rocking back toward him hungrily. He got the message, starting to pound into you with shallow thrusts that had the head of his cock dragging over your g-spot with each stroke. Moaning loudly into the comforter, it was hard to catch your breath, but the need for oxygen was second to your need for him.

“Right there, Kev, fuck, I’m gonna cum,” you gasped out, not even sure if your words were coherent by then. He seemed to understand well enough though, keeping the current pace as his hand slid up your back to press between your shoulders as he fucked you into the bed. 

When you came, you groaned into the mattress, only faintly aware of the sharp curse that Kevin let out from the way you tightened around him as he fucked you through it. It was the kind of orgasm that left you boneless and panting, clinging to the sheets in the hopes of staying upright as it faded. With your eyes squeezed shut, you may have blacked out for a second, barely aware of the fact that you were now on your back. 

“You good, sweetheart?” Kevin asked softly, leaning over you to press a gentle kiss to your mouth. You nodded, almost feeling drunk as you smiled at him, tilting your head up for another kiss. He was still buried inside you as you throbbed around him, and you were surprised that you were able to move your arm enough to loop it around his neck.

With the buzzing in your mind and body slowing, Kevin’s mouth moved over your throat again as he let you come down a little more. You didn’t need much of a break though, and you gasped when he leaned into you more. The sound made him smirk and his teeth grazed over your pulse point sharply enough that your hips rocked against him. 

“Ready for more?” he asked, straightening up before you were ready to lose the contact of him leaning over you. Looking up at him, you nodded, biting your lip. He swore under his breath again, glancing down between your bodies to where you were joined and started to move. 

Your urgency and impatience returned quickly, leaving you to roll your hips against his encouragingly as you gripped the sheets beneath you. The groan that left him was so hot, and you could practically see his hands shaking as he reached for a pillow to slide under your hips. You managed to wrap your legs around his waist despite the fact that they still felt like jello, and he made a sound of approval, guiding one leg a bit higher.

He was slow for a bit, just like he had been earlier, studying your body as it was stretched out in front of him. You knew you were flushed, your skin hot and there was at least one mark on you left by his mouth. When you said his name, your tone was desperate and he met your gaze as he nodded. His hand squeezed your thigh, moving to hold the crook of your knee as his brow creased in concentration. 

His pace changed quickly after that like he was tired of making you wait for it. The drag of his cock inside you was enough to make you arch toward him and your mouth fell open with a moan. He was far too good at this, he always had been. His jaw was slack as he looked down at you, obviously taking note of the fact that your tits were bouncing each time his hips slammed into yours.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” he breathed, his voice tense as his hand moved from your hip up to your breast to toy with your nipple. The contact made you cry out, your chest rising to meet his hand in search of more.

A smirk flashed across his face at your reaction, his eyes dark as you dug your heel into his back, silently pleading for more. With your hands fisted in the sheets beneath you as you tried to rock against him, you whined his name, already the pressure building in you again. He had such a gorgeous body and you brought a hand up to his abs, letting your nails scratch over his skin lightly.

“Touch yourself, Y/N,” Kevin told you, guiding one of your legs higher on his waist. “I wanna see you make yourself cum while I fuck you, wanna cum with you.” His words were rushed, and the slight increase in pace told you he was growing close, just like you were. 

Your hand dropped from his abs to between your thighs, gasping at just how wet you were. Your clit was swollen and throbbing, and the pressure of your fingers made your body shake as his grip on your thigh tightened.

“Goddammit, Kevin,” you whined, rubbing frantic circles against your clit as he fucked you.

“Good girl, keep going, I know you can cum for me again,” he said, the husky tone of his voice only turning you on more. Your breathing was ragged as your legs tightened around him, still needing him deeper.

He leaned over you, one hand beside your head as he pressed his face into your breasts. Grateful for the contact, your arm wrapped around him and your hand found its way into his hair, tugging at the strands. The new angle had his cock grinding over your g-spot with each snap of his hips, sending you over the edge as you continued to rub hard circles against your clit. 

Your body arched off the mattress as you came, exhaling moans that were semi-pornographic as his mouth closed around your nipple. He moaned loudly, sending a vibration through you as his hips stuttered, and you both lost all sense of rhythm as you came, grinding together almost aimlessly.

As soon as your orgasm passed, your head fell back, desperately trying to catch your breath as Kevin nuzzled against our chest. He was breathing just as heavily as you were, and his skin was damp with sweat when your hand slid over his back. You doubted you were in any better condition, but you were so content to just lay there for a long while, tangled together and blissed out. His weight was slumped against you a little, keeping you from floating away. When you remembered how to move, your hand moved to his hair, and he hummed in appreciation.

“Holy shit, you’re incredible,” he breathed eventually, turning his head enough to kiss your skin lazily. You couldn’t help the quiet laugh that bubbled in you as you continued toying with his hair. He lifted his head to look up at you and a content grin slid onto your face. “Better than the fantasies?”

You chuckled, nodding as you let out a sigh. “Absolutely,” you told him, smiling as his lips moved up your throat to your mouth. The kiss was lazy but left you breathless, and when he pulled away, you couldn’t help but pout. He shot you a wink, making your stomach flutter as you moved lay against the pillows.

Laying on your side, you watched as he disposed of the condom and stepped into his underwear. You felt warm all over, admiring the lines of his tattoo as he climbed into bed again. He was quick to spoon you, pressing kisses along the back of your shoulder as you relaxed back against him.

It was easy to lay there for a while, talking quietly about nothing really, just light conversation as he kept himself curled around you. You had to get up eventually to use the bathroom, and Kevin made a displeased sound over the fact that you pulled on pants as you got dressed again. Scoffing at him, you made sure to remove them again the second you were back and you hit the light before getting into bed in your t-shirt and panties.

Laying together in the dark, Kevin’s legs tangled with yours as his arm held you around the waist tightly. He was so warm behind you, and neither of you seemed to want to talk about leaving tomorrow, so you talked about easier things until you both dozed off.

#khayes #kevin hayes fic #kevin hayes imagine #nhl imagine #philladelphia flyers imagine #pretty please #mine

[into1-wonderland]

Baby!Into1 x Daycare au | Intro

(ft. Bo Yuan as the caretaker of the 10 chaotic bunch, ranging from the ages of 3-5)

a/n: hello hello yumi here~ so this is the first into1 au of mine that will ever see the light of day. at first I was going to write things for it, but honestly I'm going to make it into a series with incorrect quotes to attach with it. this post will be the bios of all the babies and our lovely caretaker Bo Yuan, so enough of me babbling and I hope you guys could enjoy~

First off, we have the Caretaker™ Bo Yuan:

my mans is like in his 20's rn

wanted to open up a little day care as like side job/internship because he wanted to teach kids in the future so he was like “might as well start working with kids now!”

and so

he did it

only regretted his life decisions when his devil number 1 and devil number 2 does something bad

other times he really enjoy looking after them! and he doesn’t even feel like it’s a job!

has been thinking about taking a field trip with all 10 of them but he’s afraid: 1) he might lose one 2) he might lose himself 3) can they behave themselves

his favorite thing to do is having all of them gather around while reading a fairytale to them for nap time

or sometimes he would sing a song

he has a lot of favorite things in day care, literally having all 10 of them just there makes him happy

except when lin mo and nine is having a scream off:

lin mo: ahh

nine: aHH

lin mo: AHH

nine: AHHHHH-

bo yuan, running into the room: what’s wrong?

ak: screaming

bo yuan: why?

patrick, with his hands over his ears: TO SEE WHOS LOUDER

all the other boys: *nods*

isnt always watching the kids 24/7, since day 1 when the kids came in he told them the rules of the daycare and kinda just let them familiarize the place

(bo yuan: its a daycare, and they are kids, they are suppose to have fun!

keyu, in the back, mumbles: i wanna climb the tree in the yard

bo yuan, turns around: keyu no)

///////////

And now we have the kids!!

Liu Yu:

4 years old

very quiet, just likes to sit and read and draw

the most obedient one, and likes to follow around bo yuan

well,, most of the time

he’s played a few pranks on bo yuan like:

bo yuan: liu yu nap time is over you have to wake up

liu yu: *not moving*

bo yuan, gently nudged liu yu: liu yu wake up!

liu yu: *continues to fake sleep and not move*

bo yuan: *leans closer to liu yu’s face to make sure hes not sick or has a fever*

liu yu, scares bo yuan: WAH

bo yuan: liu yu dont do that! you scared me!

liu yu: *giggles*

likes to stretch and bend himself in odd positions

(bo yuan: everyday I’m in fear that he will snap himself in half)

kinda an introvert but once he hangs around everyone for a bit he will open up to them and fit himself in very well

likes to organize and keep things how he found them/have special places where he organizes his toys

jiayuan: *moves liu yu’s fan*

liu yu: hey! put that back!!

has really good etiquettes and never really fights or argues or bicker with the other kids

but likes to joke around and mess around with once in a while

patrick: wahhh i put my cupcakes here who took one!

liu yu, hiding it behind his back: idk maybe keyu took it?

the least of bo yuan’s worries since he’s always in bo yuan’s sight, also he’s aware of his surroundings so he actually helps bo yuan make sure everything’s okay

(bo yuan: i made a checklist for myself on the whiteboard and liu yu likes to check things off for me, he said “coloring in the boxes is fun” so now he's the reason why i get all my work done)

-----------

Santa:

4 years old

riki’s best friend

super happy and bright, like a ray of sunshine

is easily scared

lin mo: hi

santa: WAHHHHH BO YUAN GEGE

really likes bo yuan, would stick on to him a lot and ask him about everything

santa: bo yuan gege whats this?

santa: bo yuan gege what’s that?

santa: bo yuan gege what are you making right now?

hangs out with liu yu and mika a lot (other than riki)

riki is older than him but would hold riki’s hand and take him around like a didi

also really likes racing with mika for E V E R Y T H I N G

(bo yuan: yeah couple days ago they tried to race who can fall asleep faster but because they kept on peeking at each other so they basically didn’t sleep till i said i’ll watch for them)

really likes to dance, every time he hears music he would start grooving around

loves learning new things, which is probably the reason why he always asks bo yuan so many questions

also least one of bo yuan’s worries, just gotta make sure jiayuan and lin mo don’t pull pranks on him

(bo yuan: well they dont really pull prank pranks, its just once lin mo grabbed a frog and started running around and showing it to everyone, but lin mo lost grip and the frog jumped on santa)

-----------

Rikimaru:

5 years old

looks like he’s 3, acts like he’s 3, but is actually 5

best friends with santa! always sticks around him and likes to tug on a corner of his shirt out of habit

bo yuan: alright everyone it’s nap time! i’ve made the beds for everyone

riki, sees his bed is not next to santa: bo yuan gege can you switch my bed next to santa? i wanna be next to santa

he didn’t start speaking till he was 4 so he often stutters when he talk and just looks confused a lot (it's because he’s thinking and formulating his words)

santa and the other kids would always have to interpret for him

bo yuan: riki I brought some snacks today do you want cookies or marshmallows?

riki: ???

santa, motioning with his hands: bo yuan gege said do you want the white fluffies or brown crunchies

riki: oh! crunchies!

squishy cheeks,, bo yuan’s favorite thing is to squish his cheek everytime he sees him

riki: gud mooning bo yuan gege!

bo yuan, squishes riki’s cheeks: ahh I haven’t seen you in so long good morning!!

nine: wait wasnt riki here yesterday??

also likes to stretch,, often seen around with liu yu and they just help each other

(bo yuan: i am afraid he will snap himself in half too)

not too much of bo yuan’s worries, besides the fact that he might get kidnapped because he’s so oblivious

(bo yuan: we were playing outside in the yard once and riki just wandered off because he thought the neighbor’s flowers were pretty)

-----------

Mika:

4 years old

also kinda an introvert, doesn’t interact with too many people

usually it’s santa that approaches him first or keyu^^

found a ukulele in the toy bin one time and wouldn’t let go of it (he claims it’s his now)

his favorite activity at daycare is when they all sing together, that’s when he smiles the most and has the most fun

the one that likes to nap the most

also likes to help bo yuan cook once in a while (mostly just having mika washing vegetables and passing things to bo yuan)

very laid back and not noisy (till he starts playing the ukulele)

often gets scared by lin mo’s sudden screams (actually, lin mo scares a lot of people, sorry to mika’s ears)

also not one of bo yuan’s worries, literally there’s nothing to worry about with mika, all the kids just likes to sit around mika and pet his head so he keeps everyone safe

(bo yuan: one time I couldn’t find any of the kids in the play room, apparently they were all in the napping corner petting mika’s head since he just got a hair cut)

-----------

Nine:

4 years old

loud, very loud.

pouts a lot

everyone calls nine cute, even the boys who are younger than him

likes to boss around patrick because he’s older

nine: patrick gimme that juice box!

patrick: you’re closer you get it!

nine: i’m older than you!

literally scared of everything

if he hasn’t seen it before and it’s living, he’s scared

jiayuan: *holds a bowl of tadpoles*

nine, several feet away: WAHHH WHAT IS THAT

the happiest when he gets snacks + real food food

also really likes to sing!! his favorite thing is watching disney movies because there’s so much music in it and he just loves to sing along

he’s not part of bo yuan’s worries because he’s literally scared of everything, but nine is really naive and would do things that the other kids tell him to do so, it’s a 50/50 on nine

(bo yuan: there was an edible decorative flower on keyu’s birthday cake couple days ago, and somehow jiayuan convinced nine all flowers were edible. so today during outside time nine almost ate the neighbor’s flowers)

-----------

Lin Mo:

3 years old

LOUD. VERY LOUD.

probably the craziest most hyper one out of them all

he and jiayuan always have something bad planned

literally doesn’t have a moment where he’s calm

constantly in bickering mode with ak

lin mo: NO IM RIGHT

ak: NO. IM RIGHT

patrick: what are they arguing about?

keyu: *shrugs*

but is also best friends with ak so he’s also calm around him

(bo yuan: yeah these two have on and off days, you can never predict it)

and also constantly naruto runs around the daycare

bo yuan: lin mo stop running!

lin mo: *nyoom*

he also once nyoomed into keyu

keyu: ow what was that for?

lin mo: you were in my way!

and now he nyooms into keyu for fun

a very good mood maker

likes to smile/laugh a lot

would calm down if you show him a movie or a cartoon

number 2 on bo yuan’s worry list because he’s the "bad influence" for everyone, also he reduces hearing for everyone

(bo yuan: i’ve secretly made a tally book on how many times i have to say “lin mo” in a concerning tone this week and he came in 2nd. he was only here for like 3 days!)

-----------

Zhang Jiayuan:

3 years old

YOURE THREE STOP SMIRKING LIKE THAT

couple months younger than lin mo but this is the real culprit under a lot of his and lin mo‘s plans

it’s just because jiayuan has a lot of crazy ideas and he says them out loud and lin mo is just like “yes”

also sometimes they are just accidents, but he's always doing weird questionable things with lin mo

got really sad one time because he brought tadpoles and put them in the fish tank and killed them since the fish went nom

but then started to constantly catch for tadpoles to feed the fishes

bo yuan: jiayuan stop, you’re killing the frog population!

jiayuan: but the fishies are hungry *pouts*

likes to fight/mess around with keyu for no reason

keyu: *sitting there, drawing*

jiayuan, with a squishy hammer: *bops keyu’s head*

but also will protect keyu if anyone tries to mess with him

lin mo: *nyooms into keyu for the 3rd time of the day* jiayuan, hugs keyu: stop hurting him!

the calmest thing he likes to do is taking care of plants, probably because he saw bo yuan spraying the plants one time and he like to squeeze the spray bottle

number 1 on bo yuan’s worry list, this child is literally not safe alone or with anyone. they were trying to celebrate keyu’s birthday and jiayuan tried to touch the candles, while it was lit, by the flame.

(bo yuan: i just got the tablets and haven’t set up children mode, so i’ll take the blame for this one. but also why are kids so good with technologies nowadays??)

-----------

Patrick:

3 years old

squishy :D

smiley :DD

favorite thing is nap time and snack time

somehow knows every location where bo yuan hides their snacks

bo yuan: *getting the snacks that he hid in the piano*

patrick: *sitting next to the window sill with the snack* hi~

of course bo yuan can never get mad at patrick for eating the snacks because patrick doesn’t do anything bad

also he's a growing child

best friends with keyu,, and drags him on to “adventures”

*the daycare got a new toy play house*

patrick: bo yuan gege, keyu and I are moving out so we can go on an adventure!

keyu: I didnt agree to this??

wants bo yuan to add dress up into the daycare games, since he wants to dress up the other boys in the daycare

patrick: i call it, patrick fashion!

not part of bo yuan’s worries till he’s on his hunt for the hidden snacks, just because bo yuan is afraid he might hurt himself

(bo yuan: i started hiding the snacks higher up and one time i saw him trying to climb on keyu’s shoulders to grab it)

-----------

Zhou Keyu:

3 years old

smart, but really clueless at the same time

tall, but has the personality of smol

likes to draw

also likes to read with patrick,, but usually patrick falls asleep so it’s him, the book, and a sleeping patrick

wears glasses all the time since his vision isn’t so good but somehow he makes glasses look good on him???

has a chain with his glasses because there too many glasses incident with keyu

glasses #1 keyu: I don’t like them! *takes it off and loses it*

glasses #2 keyu: *takes them off for nap time, but riki accidentally rolled on to them and snapped it*

glasses # we don’t know how many: *disconnected from the keyu universe*

also like a month younger than lin mo but literally has to make sure lin mo doesnt “blow” the place up

lin mo: what if I stuck this fork into the pluggie thing?

keyu, picking lin mo up: nope you’re not

when keyu is clueless he either stands there or just sit there and space out, not really noticeable but bo yuan ran into him doing that a couple times

(bo yuan: I thought he was an ai that was malfunctioning, it scared me at first but now I know he just doesn’t remember what he’s doing)

oh did I mention this,, even though he’s one of the youngest, he’s the tallest, with that advantage he likes to try to pick people up

jiayuan: keyu pick me up!

keyu: no

patrick: keyu likes me more he will pick me up!

keyu: no

patrick: *pouts*

keyu: *tries to pick both jiayuan and patrick up at the same time*

bo yuan, running over: ZHOU KEYU PUT THEM DOWN YOULL BREAK YOURSELF

not too high up on bo yuan’s worry list, give him a piece of paper or book or anything he would just calmly sit there and do something with it

(bo yuan: every time when we do art or reading its so hard to pry keyu away, he has to finish what he was doing and he’s so concentrated he doesn’t hear anybody)

-----------

Liu Zhang (AK):

4 years old

loud, VERY LOUD.

he doesn’t know he’s loud

bo yuan: ak you don’t have to yell

ak: OKAY

monopolized over all the instrument music type of toys in the daycare

bo yuan: ak you know you have to share your toys right?

ak: I gave the ukulele to mika

honestly having ak is like having a walking megaphone so bo yuan ended up actually making ak his little helper for announcements

bo yuan: ak go tell everyone is lunch time

ak: alright!

ak: *da da da running to fetch his little stool*

ak, stands on a little stool in the middle of the play room: ITS LUNCH TIMEEEEEE-

nine, swats ak’s leg: YOU SCARED ME

the only time ak is quiet is when he’s around lin mo, he kinda just likes to watch lin mo and follow him around so that’s that

unless lin mo starts messing with him, then you just lose your hearing for the day

also at first bo yuan was trying to see what ak is interested in, and he taught ak hot cross buns on the bells and thought that would calm ak down,, but oops ak ended up making more noises

patrick: I WANNA SLEEP AK

(bo yuan: I swear something happened to this kid or something. he’s not hard of hearing but he’s just naturally so loud)

i too would lose my hearing if im around ak so much

not to high on bo yuan’s worries but he just make sure ak isn’t being too loud and bothering the other kids, usually he’s pretty good about that but you never know when a little patrick will start napping or anyone really so gotta contain his energy

(bo yuan: ak is usually the first one that’s awake from nap time but its usually like 5-10min before everyone else so i told him he can go and play but he just has to be quiet)

///////////

alrighty !! now you've met everyone in the daycare, what kind of fun and chaotic adventures are they going to have??

(all future daycare au things will be incorrect quotes + short little one shots, this intro mostly served as a bio so you understand their personalities a bit, and i hope you enjoyed it!)

#i wrote a lot of these at like 3 to 5 in the morning #i know theres a lot of loop holes in this au but please ignore it #i just want the fatherly love and chaotic children energy #might have the other chuang boys featured in future stuff in this series #<- im not dropping any spoilers #baby!into1 daycare au #into1 #into1 liuyu #into1 santa #into1 rikimaru #into1 mika #into1 nine #into1 boyuan #into1 linmo #into1 zhang jiayuan #into1 patrick #into1 zhou keyu #into1 ak

[mmimagine-40]

Crazy Kind of Love 2

Mob!Sebastian Stan x Reader

Part 1 here

The kiss put Y/n on cloud-9 so much that next thing she knew they were in the elevator. Sebastian started leaving love bites on her neck while she moaned softly and her hands ran through his hair. Y/n whined when the elevator door dinged to the floor and he pulled away from her. Sebastian smiled down at her grabbing her hand and pulled her to his room. He's quick to open the door pulling her in and to his bed. 

Y/n wakes up the next morning to lips leaving kisses down her spine. She moans softly as the lip goes up her back and to her neck. Smoothing the love bites that lay there. “ If I lay here all day will you count that?”, Y/n says mumbling. Sebastian laughs softly ,” I would but I have business meetings.``. He says, pulling away from her. She whines and rolls over ,making sure the blanket around her covers her body. “ Who works on a cruise? Cruises are to be vacation”, she says, not opening her eyes. He smiles down at her and sits down next to her, “ Well for me this isn’t vacation but a work trip.”. Y/n opens her eyes and looks at him.  Meet with him in dress pants but no shirt as he leans over her. Before she could say something there was a knock on the door. Sebastian looks at the door growling. He looks back to her , who's already looking up at him. He leans down kissing her. He deepened the kiss but before it could go any longer another knock interrupted. Y/n giggles as he pulls away growling again and getting up to get the door. He left the bedroom door open. Y/n gets up and goes to close the door hearing someone tell Sebastian that he had to get to the meeting soon. She turns back to the room and quickly gets dressed not wanting to keep him from his work. Y/n put her bra and dress back on, and began looking for her underwear. She gets on her knees looking under the bed. “ Mmm, What a view to walk into.``, Sebastian says walking into the room. Y/n rolls her eyes grabbing the underwear and standing back up. Her back was against his chest as he wraps his arms around her waist pulling her in to him.  “ You RIP Them!”Y/n says, holding the underwear that was barley holding on from being in two pieces. Sebastian laughs and kisses her cheek. “ We are supposed to land on the next island tomorrow. I’ll buy you more when we land.``, He says into her neck. Y/n pushes away from him throwing away the underwear. She turned back to him smiling , “ I probably should get going.”. Sebastian nods and puts his hand on her lower back showing her out. Before she walks over to the door and leaves , Sebastian grabs her hand stopping her. He slightly blushes when she turns back to him, “ I ...Um...could I uh get your number? I don’t want this to be a one time thing…”. Y/n smiles at him. “ Got a pen?”she asked, stepping closer to him. Sebastian eyebrows frown confused as he nods and pulls a pen out of his suit. She grabs it and his hand and writes her number on his hand with hearts next to it. Sebastian looks at it then her , “ Really? You had to write it on my hand where my business partners will see?” . She giggles nodding. She kisses his check and without another word leaves. He smiles watching as she leaves. He’s never felt anything like this before. He’s never been with a girl more than once. Or asked for her number. But something about Y/n was different. He didn’t know why but he wanted her and her only. He would make sure Y/n was his girl and everyone knew that. Sebastian smiled down at the phone number on his hand. “ Boss?”, Chris says, walking into the room. Sebastian looked up glaring at him, “ What?!”. “ Jonas call. They are just waiting on you.”, Chris says. “ Ugh. Fine let's get this over with.”, Sebastian says growling. He heads out of his room and to the elevator. When he was in the elevator he pulled his phone out, saving Y/n’s phone number as Baby Girl. Sending her a text telling her he hopes she has a nice day. Chris softly laughs next to him , as Sebastian puts his phone away. Sebastian glares at him. “ Going soft there Boss?”, Chris teases him. “ Shut it.”, Sebastian says. If it wasn’t for Christ being one of his closest friends and best workers , he might have killed him for that comment. He walks out the doors as the elevator opens , heading straight to the bar where the meeting was. Christ laughs behind him as he follows him. Sebastian heads straight to the VIP section and straight to the small group of men. “ Sorry about that Gentleman , a little miss keep me back for a bit.”, He says laughing as the men laugh with comments talking about being there before. But he lied y/n wasn’t the one holding the both of you back. It was him not wanting to let her go. But he does have an image to keep up. He feels a vibration in his pocket as he takes a seat. He pulls his phone out to see it's a text from Y/n. 

BabyGirl: and you have a good meeting, Try not to think about me too much ;).

He smirks and puts his phone away turning his attention back to the men.

Y/n bites her lip standing in front of her door. She knew what was coming walking into that room. She takes a deep breath before entering the room. She kept her head down as she entered the room. F/n is sitting on her bed on her phone. She looks up smirking when she hears the door opening and Y/n looking down. “I did something.”, Y/n says innocently. F/n starts laughing as  Y/n falls on to her bed. “So you sucked his dick huh?”, F/n turns to face her. Y/n grabs one of her pillows and throws it at f/n. “ You're not denying it!”, F/n says getting up and sitting on Y/n's bed shaking her, “ Come on details!”. Y/n rolls over facing her , “ After you left he showed up asking if I liked the gifts. And then we kissed and next thing I know we are in his room.”. She says she doesn't want to go into great detail. “ And had some fun!!”, F/n says poking at the love bites on Y/n’s neck. She groans slapping at f/n. “Well get up and showered. I have to meet with the group in a couple hours.”, F/n says, stepping away from her. Y/n groans again getting up, grabbing some clothes and heading into the bathroom. 

“F/n! Can you come help me cover these please?!”, Y/n says whining. She tries covering them but nothing is working. F/n laughs and helps her fully cover them. After that they grab their stuff and head to the meeting area. They get to the place which is a couple tables near the pool and bar. There are only a few others there. They were still waiting for the teacher and the rest of the people. Y/n and F/n sit down and order some drinks talking. More like F/n asking her about last night again. Y/n rolls her eyes not saying anything to her. While she blushes and looks down shaking her head at her friend. F/n nudges at her , “ Isn’t that prince charming now?”, she says pointing towards inside the bar. Where Y/n see Sebastian sitting with two other men. If looks could kill those two men would be 6 ft under from the way Sebastian staring at them. “ Damn he looks like he’s about to kill someone.”, F/n says , “ It’s kind of hot.”. Y/n turns frowning at her and hits her. She just laughs and says sorry. Y/n looks back to see the men stand up and leave and the other guy Sebastian takes their spot. Y/n takes a picture of him , while he is still looking pissed. She sends it to him along with:

BabyGirl: [ picture]

BabyGirl: Why so Grumpy? :(

Seby: Are you stalking me now, Babygirl?

Y/n softly laughs at the text. She’s about to reply when she gets a text again from him. 

  Seby: When you're down , come and join me?

She was about to reply when she saw the teacher and the last few people showing up. She quickly replies before putting her phone away and paying attention to her teacher.

  BabyGirl: I’ll think about ;)

Y/n sighs board. As the teacher keeps going over and over the AMAZING things they will see on the next island. Y/n looks at F/n who was leaning on her hand about to fall asleep.  She sighs before turning back to the Teacher. “ Okay that’s all we have to talk about. Oh, so everything we talked about will be the next day. We technically will land tomorrow night. That night you are free to roam the land. But please if you do go make sure you are with someone else just to be safe. And remember not to stay out all night we will be leaving the ship the next day by 7 am. “, The teacher says and then dismisses them. Y/n and F/n stand stretching a bit. “ I’m heading to the room for a nap.”, F/n tells her. Y/n nods and looks over to see Sebastian still sitting in the booth waiting. “ Okay , I’ll see you.”, She says and heads into the bar to the booth. Before she can get any closer someone stands in front of her stopping her. “ Let her through Chris.”, Sebastian says, not even turning to them. The man looks at Y/n and then at his boss before stepping back and letting her through. “ i’m surprised you are still here. That meeting took longer than I thought it would.” , Y/n says going to sit in front of him. But he grabbed her hand pulling her next to her. “ It’s okay, I needed a few minutes to drink and think over some stuff.”, He says, grabbing the glass in front of him and drowning it. “ Bad meeting?”she asks, grabbing an arm behind him , running her fingers through his hair. He groans nodding leaning his head back into her touch. Sebastian closes his eyes and puts his hand on her knee and slowly moves it up and down her thigh. He opens his eyes looking at her. “ yeah, but I don’t want to talk about that. What are you doing when we land tomorrow night?”, he asks, putting his face in her neck. Leaving light small kisses. “ Nothing I have that night off. But the next day we leave at 7 and don't come back till about 6 or so.”, She says biting her lip trying to not moan as he kisses her sweet spot. Also where one of the hickeys he left on her. He pulls away nodding. “ Why?”, she asks, resting her head on his shoulder. “ I have a party to attend and I wanted you to attend with me.``, he says while taking a drink. “Business party?”, she asked. Sebastian nods , “ So what.”. He says and singles for her to get up. “ As much fun as I’m sure that is, I don't really have anything fancy like that to wear.”, Y/n says as Sebastian stands in front of her looking down at her. He reaches his hand out lightly stroking her check. He smirks as he watches her melt into his touch. “ Don’t worry baby girl. I’ll take care of everything.”, Sebastian says, watching the glint in her eyes. Someone who wants to be taken care of. Sebastian plans on doing that for his baby girl. He pulls her close and kisses her. Loving the way she melts into him and lightly paws at his chest. He pulls away after a bit, even though he didn’t want to. Sebastian looks up to Chris who is tapping his watch at him. He looks back down at y/n as she looks up at him with doe eyes. Making him want to cancel the rest of his plans and take her back to his room just to cover her in kisses and hear those sweet sounds she made last night. But he has a really important business he has to get down tonight. “ Sorry to cut it short baby girl. But with your meeting lasting so long , we only get a few minutes. Now I have to go.”, he says to her. Y/n pouts not wanting him to go. He kisses her one last time saying a quick sorry before he is dragged away by Chris. She laughs softly watching Chris drag him away as he keeps looking back at her. Y/n sighs looking at the time to see it's just about noon. She decides to go back to the room. The walk back and the elevator ride , Y/n’s mind was racing with thoughts. Thoughts about Seb and what she is doing. Walking into the room she sees F/n sleeping. Y/n grabs her headphones and decides to watch some YouTube to try and help take her mind of things. 

Few hours later

F/n stirs away and looks up to y/n. Who takes her headphones off. “ When did you get back?”, She asks, sitting up, rubbing her face. “ A few hours ago.”, Y/n says standing up and looking at herself in the mirror before turning to f/n. “What to get something to eat?”, she asked. Before f/n could say anything her stomach growls. They look at each other laughing as f/n nods her head. She gets up and freshens up a bit before she grabs y/n rushing her out of the room. Y/n laughs at her trying to keep up with her. They make their way to this little burger place on the cruise. Deciding to sit outside. They order their food and then talk a bit as they wait. F/n noticed something was bugging Y/n. She waited for her to tell her what it is. But after a bit , and knowing she was going to be stuttered about it she decided to just find out herself. “Okay, what's going on with you?”, F/n says. Y/n lets out a soft sigh, “ It’s nothing.”. F/n grabs her hand squeezing lightly , “Yes it is. It’s clearly bugging you badly.”. Y/n looks up at her meeting her very consumed eyes. Y/n takes her hand away and buries her face in her hands. “ It's about him.”, she says softly. But F/n still heard her. She reached over and pulled y/n’s hands down to look at her. “He asked me to go with him to this business party when we land tomorrow night. And on top of that he is buying me something to wear. He’s spending all this money on me and taking me places. I feel like it's all going too fast. I just talked to him yesterday and it feels like we have known each other for a couple months without even knowing pretty much anything about each other!”, y/n says. “ It sounds like he’s crazy for you.”, F/n says laughing, “ But in honesty how do you feel when you are with him or talk to him?”. Y/n shrugs as the waiter comes to drop off the food. Once he's gone y/n speaks up again, “Special. He makes me feel like no one ever has.”. “ Then stop worrying and just see where this can go.”, F/n tells her. Y/n just nods biting inside her check thinking about somethings she didn’t tell F/n. Y/n changes the subject not wanting to talk about Seb anymore. 

After they eat they both decide to go walk around the ship. Go into some of the shopping places and stuff. Just basically hang out. At about 6 they decided to grab some snacks and head back to the room for the night. When they get to the room they look at each other confused for there were some boxes stacked together with ribbon tied into a bow at the top holding them together. Y/n gave F/n the bags of snacks she was holding to see what they were. There was a note attached to the bow. 

For tomorrow, As promised I'll take care of you always.

                                   ~SS

Y/n blushes picking up the boxes and opening the door. F/n follows in and watches y/n put the boxes on her bed/ F/n drops the bags she was carrying on her bed. “ Are they from a special someone?”, F/n says teasing Y/n. Y/n just nods smiling as she opens the boxes.

Box 1

Box 2

Box 3

-MM

#Sebastian Stan #sebastian #stan #sebastian stan imagines #sebastian imagines #Bucky Barnes #bucky barnes imagine #mob sebastian #mob!sebastian #mob sebastian stan #mob sebastian imagines #mob sebastian stan imagines #Mob!au #Mob!Sebastian Stan #Mob!Sebastian Stan au #Mob!Sebastian imagines #Mob!Sebastian x reader #Sebastian x reader #Sebastian Stan x reader #Mob!Sebastian Stan x reader #Crazy kind of love #MM

[andy-the-8th]

Summer Research

Part 7 of Creatures That Defy Logic

Read on AO3

Jess is mapping and navigating the reefs on the coasts. John is navigating how to be a better father.

Contains a direct homage one of the most intense scenes in Moonlight (2016)

cw: homophobia, homophobic slurs, bullying, minor violence

Salty spray kicked up against the rocks, splashing with the breaking waves in the warm June sunlight. It was only late morning, but Jess had already been out at the coast for several hours.

Ever since getting past his fear of swimming (mostly), he'd realized his exploration and study of the local reefs and waters had entirely new unlocked potential. He couldn't properly dive yet - scuba was expensive and dangerous, nevermind he was probably too young - but there was plenty you could see with a snorkel in the clear shallow waters around Mahone Bay.

Jess had spent much of the last few weeks working on one stretch of coastline, on the opposite end of the harbor from where the Griffins lived. It was only a half hour bike ride from the marina, but far enough that there was rarely any significant boat activity.

From his searches at the library, Jess knew that there were very generalized maps of the offshore waters nearby - mostly just marking depths for the benefit of fishing and boating, the better to not get run aground.

However, no one had ever mapped the different micro-ecosystems, the biological landscape of the waters. Jess had decided to make this his ongoing personal research project for the summer.

Days started early, just after sunrise - temperature checks of the water and air, confirming locations with latitude and longitude. Surveys of the tide pools, updated with proper location data: tracking all species identified, recording numbers.

Once the sun was up, he'd swim out to the shallows. There were plenty of rock reefs, kelp forests, and flats within comfortable swimming range of the beach - California didn't have a lot in the ways of coral, on account of the cold open ocean currents, but what species it did have were in the southern part of the state, right where Mahone was situated on the coast. Jess had marked out 50 ft lengths of beach into specific zones, then gridded out 50 ft from the shore, 100, 150, 200 - he didn't swim out much past 200. Every day he'd pick a zone, head out with waterproof clipboard, spend the morning swimming down and resurfacing, noting everything he saw.

The rest of the afternoon he'd spend going over field guides from the library, trying to match up his observations with species he could name and identify. He'd fill it in on his data grid, another little patch of ocean, a little bit more closely explored.

This was not a terribly efficient system of research.

Still, it certainly was good practice field work, good exercise, and a good way for Jess to throw himself at his passions and not think too hard about people for a while.

That was the best part of the work - Jess didn't get lonely doing it. Marine biology had always been his main interest, but he'd spent 13 years unable to go past the tide pools for any in-person field observations. There was SO much lost time to make up.

Jess was dutiful with keeping records of his research, carefully sorted in folders in his room, labeled spiral notebooks, Xeroxed maps from the library, hand-drawn data tables and grids. His dad had asked after the first week or so if he was doing some kind of summer extra credit project, a bit surprised at how much literature Jess seemed to be producing.

Of course, he wasn't - Jess did all this on his own, like any responsible aspiring scientist. The work was its own reward.

John had kept his distance the first few weeks of the summer - Jess could tell how sorry he was for what happened. In his own way,  Jess had tried to show that he'd forgiven him the last day or two - they'd never been particularly talkative, but at least Jess stopped purposefully not talking to him. He wasn't sure if his dad had picked up on that yet.

Jess thought of that as he was putting his charts and books into his bag. It was still the early in the day, but he'd decided to cut field work short today in favor of heading to the library. He had stayed out on the shore a bit to dry in the air before pedaling home. Jess usually swam with a long sleeve swim shirt, mostly to prevent sunburn and maintain body heat in the early morning water, but it meant not drying out quite as quickly. He'd have to change before going to the library.

The ride back to the marina felt a little longer than usual from the sun and heat beating down - Jess didn't normally make the trip in the middle of the day. Veering off the smooth road onto the crushed gravel of the marina, he quickly rolled to a stop under the overhang just outside the shed door next to the workshop, into the shade, before hurrying up the metal steps along the side of the building to the apartment.

The space wasn't large - really just one area for a living room/kitchen, two bedrooms, and one small bathroom at the end of the hall. The walls of the living room were mostly for maps, fishing photographs, an odd nautical salvaged antique here or there. There was a little mantle, more of a shelf (given that there was no fireplace) along the wall, with a small row of photos in frames.

Jess's school photos from the last few years. A picture of John's parents in front of the marina when it just was one workshop and shack. A photo of Jess's mother and father on their wedding day at the far end.

Jess hadn't ever known his mom - Evy, as his dad would refer to her when reminiscing. She had passed away before he was 2 year years old. In a way, it also meant he didn't really miss her either - like it or not, he'd only ever known life with just John.

He walked quickly down the hall to his room, changed into dry clothes, hung his swim shirt and towel out the sill of the small window overlooking the boat yard to dry in the sun. Carefully took the books out of his bag, swapped out the ones from his desk due back at the library, catalogued his notes. The whole process took only 15 minutes or so, and he was headed back down the outside steps to his bike.

"Where you headed, Jess?"

Even growing up with him had never quite gotten rid of the surprise when John would speak unexpectedly from his small dark study in the shed, surrounded by all his nets, salvaging gear, mermaid memorabilia. Jess jumped a bit at the sound.

"Oh uh, just going to the library, switch out some books."

"Do you, uh, want a ride? I was going to drive into town this afternoo-"

"No Dad, it's OK. I'll just go on my own."

Jess strapped on his helmet, grabbed the handlebars, starting walking his bike toward the road, out into the sun, leaving his father in the shade.

"Jess, can we tal-"

"I don't really want to talk about it. I know. I know you didn't mean any harm. I forgive you for that, or whatever. I don't want to have to go over it again."

Jess never really spoke back to his father like that. He paused, nervous, realizing how gruff he might have sounded.

John didn't really move or say anything for a second. Jess wondered if he might actually get mad at him right then.

He didn't. John breathed in and out heavily, eyes fixed on the floor, then looked up at his son.

"Thank you Jess. Thank you for forgiving me."

Immediately awkward but not wanting to ruin the moment, Jess shakily nodded and half-smiled. "You're welcome."

"You sure you don't want a ride into town?"

"No Dad, I'm fine."

He pushed himself onto the bike, kicked off the gravel, and pedaled out of the marina.

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

"Back again Mr. Wheatley?"

The lady behind the front desk at Mahone Bay's small library had a pretty good memory for faces as it was, and Jess had been coming by at least once a week for the last couple years.

"Yes Ms. Mullins, just returning some books." Jess put the small stack on the counter, helpfully handing her each one to sign it back in, then stamping his library card. The library had just gotten a computer last year, but most of the checkout systems were done on paper, especially for reference texts and maps.

"So what are you studying these days? Still mapping the reefs on the south shore?"

"Yup! Plenty more beach still to go, and that's just documenting what I can see this time of year!"

By now Ms. Mullins looked forward to Jess's visits; he was always so polite, so eager to talk about what he was studying. It was a nice break from most of the teen boys one might encounter as a front desk library lady.

The door slid open behind them, another patron coming into the cool lobby out of the hot sun. A gust of the summer heat followed whoever it was through the door.

"Jess?"

Well, that wasn't a voice he normally heard this time of year.

"Mrs. Nelson?" There was a special weirdness in running into a teacher outside of school, and doubly so in the summer - almost like they were regular humans or something.

"How's your summer going? Did I hear you're doing research again?"

"I am! Continuing some of the topography studies Cody and I started on our project, but now I'm documenting up to 200 ft away from the coast, and moving it to the south side of the harbor! I've been charting all the coral and plants on the reefs, the temperatures, composition of the rocks, any animal species I can find....."

Mrs. Nelson smiled as he continued, impressed but not surprised at how much work Jess had taken on. Sure, his methods were....perhaps imprecise....but his heart was really in it. And his observations could actually be quite useful for studying the shallows around the bay, effectively building a map of all the biomes.

Always a great moment as a teacher to see one of your students applying your subject in the real world - even if they're a 13 year old amateur oceanographer.

"That's really great Jess!"

Jess had finished, a bit breathless after giving what he'd thought was a concise and quick review of his work. He was a tinge self-conscious at how much he'd spoken in such a quick burst - Sam had advised him to tone it down a bit. Then again, Mrs. Nelson was a biology teacher, and she clearly didn't show any signs of being bored or annoyed.

"Would you be interested in bringing in your research at the end of the summer? Not as homework of course, just to share your findings. You could maybe even present it for my next year's biology class if you want?"

Jess lit up like a lighthouse at that.

"Oh I'd love to! That'd be great!"

Mrs. Nelson smiled again. "Well, I won't keep you from your work any longer. Good luck! Always a great day for science." She often ended class with that little adage.

"Always a great day for science" Jess agreed, as she walked past him into the library.

"Will that be everything today dear?" Ms. Mullins was looking over the desk at him, the last book checked in and moved to the cart for re-shelving.

Jess had gotten distracted, dizzingly pre-planning how he might present his research to next year's class. "Oh, yeah. Thank you ma'am, I'll see you next week." He turned back to the automatic doors, the warm air hitting again as he stepped outside, walked down the sidewalk to the bike rack.

The library was right on the main strip in town - Mahone Bay wasn't big, so most of the usual staples were all on one or two main streets. The library sat across from the post office and a coffee shop adjoining it next door; on one side was the town hall, on the other another line of shops - tourist traps, small bookstores and craft places, small restaurants and cafes. Apartments over top of them.

Jess was just about done unchaining his bike and putting on his helmet when he caught a shadow of someone walking toward him on the sidewalk - too late.

"Ugh, watch it!" Jess started to get up to apologize to whoever it was who half-tripped over him. He looked up to see three unfortunately familiar faces.

"Oh great. How's it going Josh, summer OK?" Of course luck would have it that Sean Marshall would almost trip over him in front of the library. His voice hadn't lost any of the disdain from the last time they'd spoken - when Sean had been pretty unambiguously about to beat Jess up pretty bad.

"I-I'm sorry Sean. I didn't see you, I...." Jess stammered, surprised and more than a little shaken to see Sean again. He didn't know the other two other than that they were other swim team guys - also familiar from the last day of school as part of Sean's hangers-on crowd.

"Yeah, you should be."

"OK, I'm sorry, I am," Jess just wanted to leave now. He wanted to be away from these guys and away from whatever this might lead to.

Sean got quiet again as Jess started to get on his bike up the hill to head off. "Learned not to talk back to me, huh smartass?"

Jess knew this was an attempt to bait him. He knew he shouldn't say anything, but then again, not saying anything was equally giving Sean what he wanted.

Annoying how these bullying asshole types always created these Catch-22 situations.

"I guess I just don't really have anything to say to you right now."

If it wasn't for the proximity it brought him to physical harm, Jess would find that look of insulted surprise in Sean's eyes incredibly funny. At least he didn't give him the last word.

"Oh you'll be sorry now, no one speaks to me like that, you little fucking fag," Sean growled, starting toward Jess - it would only be seconds for him to cover the couple meters between where the three had been standing and where Jess was on his bike a bit up the sidewalk.

The library doors slid open again right as the words left his lips - Mrs. Nelson had apparently finished whatever she needed to do at the library and serendipity had her emerge right at that second.

She may only technically only hold authority in school, but a teacher being directly in sight was enough to defuse most bullies away from outright violence.

"Mr. Marshall, good to see you." Mrs. Nelson definitely didn't sound happy to see him. She was definitely using The Teacher Voice here. "Was there some problem?"

Just like before, Sean wiped away his more dangerous side effortlessly, unnervingly cool and charming in an instant. "No Mrs. Nelson, no problem. Just getting a chance to catch up with Josh."

In the back of his mind Jess wondered if all these swim team people called him Josh on purpose, or if it was a genuine mistake - not the most pressing matter at hand though.

Mrs. Nelson was looking at him pointedly now, then back at Sean. "OK then. Stay out of trouble boys. Jess, I'll see you later then?"

That was a confusing statement: she hadn't said anything about reviewing his research today.

Unless she was making it clear to Sean and the others that he would be missed, should he not get home safe today. That made Jess shudder to think about.

"Uh, OK, definitely! Thanks Mrs. Nelson!"

She sent another tough glare at the other three, and stood by the outside of the building til they moved along. Sean turned back and sneered at Jess, a dangerous glint in his eyes - he wasn't going to forget this.

Mrs. Nelson quickly walked up the sidewalk once the other three boys were out of sight down the hill, stopping right in front of where Jess was still poised on his bike.

"Jess, is there anything you need help with? Anything you want me to know here?" He'd heard that same line from teachers before - teachers knowing something was going on, but knowing they lacked proof unless a student actually told them something. He knew she did genuinely want to help.

Unfortunately, he also knew how it usually went when you tried to report bullying.

"Kids will be kids." "Boys will be boys." "They'll sort it out."

"No Mrs. Nelson, I'm fine." Jess started to get on moving, pointing his bike up the road to head home. Jess saw in her face that she knew he wasn't telling her everything.

"OK. If you're ever not, please don't be afraid to tell someone." Jess knew she really did care. But he also knew teachers could only do so much.

"Really, I'm OK. It was nice to see you, have a good rest of your summer" Jess tried to smile and sound confident as he turned and pedaled off.

Mrs. Nelson straightened up as Jess went over the hill and out of sight. Another one scared to ask for help. God, if she ever caught that Sean Marshall red handed. Fullest extent of suspension possible, swim champion or not. If only they weren't going to be in the high school next year, away from where she'd be around.

Still, she could tell Jess was tougher than most people would give him credit for. She hoped that would always be enough.

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

Whether it was smart to do so or not, Jess took the long way home. Much of the afternoon heat had dissipated by the time he saw the marina coming up on the road - of course it would be light past 8 at night this time of year, but the sun was past its zenith for the day. He sped through the shadows of the boat masts and antennae crisscrossing along the gravel, turned and rolled to a stop under the overhang, put his bike just inside the shed door and hung his helmet on the handlebar. He was half-wondering if his dad would still be in his study from earlier today.

He wasn't, and from what Jess could tell once he got upstairs, he wasn't home at all. Jess wasn't surprised - it was still early in the day all things considered, and he often worked late out at the docks. Even if it was just outside the walls of the apartment, he was still at work, busy fixing up whatever boat pieces or engines the fishermen had brought in, sorting through whatever salvage he'd trawled up earlier that week.

Jess went in his room and closed the door, leaving the lights off, window open to try to get some cool sea air inside. He picked up the shirt and towel off the sill, hung them over the chair in front of his small desk. He laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, took off his glasses, let the world go blurry.

He really wasn't a stranger to bullies, but there was something more cutting about his last two run-ins with Sean Marshall. Most prominently, he knew at least something about Cody - in more ways than one, that could be used to hurt Jess in a way other bullies never could. What if Sean ever worked out what really happened? What if he told anyone else? What if what he'd said about Cody not caring about Jess had any truth in it?

There was something else though. Jess hadn't let himself look it up, even though he definitely wanted to. He wanted to know what it was that Sean had been calling him. Why it stung so strangely, even without knowing the definition.

Just from context though, he knew that it wasn't something he could ask a teacher, or a librarian. And definitely not something to type into a computer's search engine.

A shuffle and the sound of the door closing outside his room let Jess know his dad had come in. Jess sat up, rubbed his eyes, and put his glasses back on. The sun had gone down while he'd been lying there, thoughts writhing around his mind. He got up and opened the door to his room, softly padded down the hall to the small living room.

"Oh hey Jess." John was taking his boots off, putting them under where he'd already hung up his work overshirt on the little wall hooks next to the door. "How was the library?"

Words caught in Jess's throat, worse than he'd expected. "It was fine Dad. Dropped off my books. I ran into Mrs. Nelson too."

John mentally chided himself for not remembering who that was. After a second, it was clear Jess hadn't really expected him to either.

"She said I can bring her my research from mapping the south shore reefs at the start of next school year. Maybe even present it to the next year's biology class."

John smiled at that, moving past the pause a line ago. "Oh that's great! That's real good, gettin' to show off all the hard work you've been doin'."

"Yeah Dad, it'll be great." Jess finished quietly, like he was closing the door on talking any more right now. It was a familiar enough cadence to their discussions. Not exactly uncomfortable most of the time. John still got the sense there was something else Jess wanted to say, or didn't want to say, or....something. He couldn't pin it but he knew that Jess wasn't closing the conversation because he didn't have more to say.

"So I uh, smoked some sea bass for dinner." They didn't always eat together at the table, but when John had a particularly good catch he tried to make the time for it. Jess brightened a bit at that - sea bass was one of his favorites, with a mildly sweet flavor and less of a fishy aftertaste.

"Oh great! I'll, um, I'll get some plates out?" Jess said this quickly walking to the small cabinet over the stove, putting two old porcelain plates on the table. Smiling for a second at the dramatic mermaid designs etched into the old china.

John got the fish out of the fridge and heated it on the gas stove while Jess cut up potatoes to fry on the side. They worked mostly silently, only a word here or there - could you pass the seasoning, can I use that dishtowel - that sort of thing.

Still not whatever John could tell that his son was avoiding.

They didn't say grace or anything, but did take a moment of pause after both sitting down, fish and fries laid out on each plate, opposite ends of the short table.

John could see Jess making small looks up at him between bites, like he was trying to hide it. He knew not to push him. His mind could come up with a dozen things Jess could want to say to him, especially after the brief outburst earlier that day. A dozen things John had already known he'd done wrong, a dozen things he wanted to make better or make up for if he knew how. He felt like he was prepared for anything Jess could be about to say -

"Dad," Jess started hesitantly. His voice was soft. Almost scared.

John let a full beat pass, swallowing his own anxiety, ready to talk about whatever Jess was about to bring up.

Jess looked down at his plate, his voice only hair above a whisper. "What does 'faggot' mean?"

John could feel his own eyes widen, his own face freeze in shock. Of all the things he was ready for Jess to say, that was definitely not one of them. What was he even supposed to say to this?"

"Jess, uh, um...." he stammered to find words, trying to sound more confident than he really was. He hoped Jess wouldn't notice, or would forgive him that too if he did. Controlling his tone, he tried to sound caring and firm, but not accusatory. It still came out rougher than he'd wanted it to. "Jess, where did you hear that word?"

He could hear Jess breathe and shudder nervously at the other end of the table. Only a few feet apart in their small kitchen, he still felt both miles away and uncomfortably, vulnerably close.

"I don't know, uh...nowhere....just, um....someone at school."

"Did someone call you that Jess?" He couldn't keep the roughness out of that line.

"No." He said it too quickly, but John wasn't going to call him on the lie. He knew Jess kept things from him, especially when it came to his social problems. There were only so many times any kid could realistically "fall off a bike." There were only so many ways to "accidentally" break one's glasses.

"Well then." John breathed heavily again. Whatever he said now, he knew it might well be one of the most critical moments in his relationship with his son.

"Faggot, uh. Well, in British, it just means a pile of sticks." He tried to make it sound humorous, to push back against the stifling unease between them. Jess gave a compulsory half smile that vanished almost before John could see it.

"But um. It means, well.....it's something people say to hurt someone. To make them feel awful about themselves."

"OK, but what does it mean." Frustrated, Jess could tell he was talking around something. It hurt to see that his son clearly already knew that the word was meant to be hurtful.

John paused again, making every effort to even and soften his voice, to bury the rage he felt at whoever had brought his Jess to this point. To the cusp of crying out of frustration at his own kitchen table.

"It's a way to negatively call a man a homosexual." That was about as even and measured as he could have put that. Jess didn't look up from his lap, but he could see that his son's shoulders relaxed just a little bit.

"Oh."

Jess felt himself breathe out at that. Well, at least there was the answer.

"Jess, do you know what that -"

"Yeah, Dad, I know....I know what that means." Jess couldn't keep the lie out of his voice on that last part though. Sure, he could reason through the word's meaning - he knew enough Latin for that.

"Is that....even possible?" he asked in a hushed uptalk, looking up at John from behind his glasses.

"Is what possible Jess?"

"Homosexual, that means, um....." Jess wasn't exactly sure what meaning to go with. Having the same sets of sex chromosomes? Having offspring from two organisms of the same sex?

John paused, realizing Jess actually didn't know this one. On one hand, in the back of his mind John was at least a little glad his son hadn't had to learn this from someone else too - that there was a bit of innocence to grownup things left in him. On the other hand, he had to answer this truthfully. Some parenting conversations are never easy.

"Jess, you know how boys like to date and get married to girls?"

"Of course" Jess's cheeks flushed, surprised and embarrassed by wherever this was going. The space between them twisted taut, made the kitchen feel almost suffocating, but he had to get this right.

"Well, sometimes, um. Boys like other boys that way. Or girls like other girls too, I guess." John was trying to keep it as age-appropriate and neutral as he could. He watched Jess carefully, watched as he had turned his eyes nervously back to his plate.

The silence hung in the air. No change to the crushing, nervous energy in the room.

His voice still quiet, but almost thick with anxiety - hopefully not tears, John prayed - Jess spoke still looking down.

"Is that bad?"

In the split second after he said it, John's brain again whirred through possible explanations, outcomes, everything, knowing he had to get this right -to not think about politics, or society, or Jesus, or AIDS - not think about what Jess might be about to tell him, or might be about to realize. Just to be the best father he could to the small scared boy in front of him.

"No Jess. That's not bad."

They both exhaled - the air in the room felt just a bit more breathable. "It's different. It's not that common. But it's not bad."

Jess looked up then, breathed in and out, in and out, calming down. "OK. Thanks for explaining Dad." He closed in the same way he'd done other conversations - times when John had asked about a black eye, a broken glasses lens, a missing shoe. Times Jess thought he had gotten as much support from his father as he was going to.

"Jess." John said it gently but emphatically. His son looked up at him, surprised.

"No matter what you might hear, I want you to always remember: no one has the right to make anyone feel bad about themselves for being different. In any way."

John let the silence hang after that. He had to make sure Jess knew that.

Jess's eyes were a bit shiny behind his glasses as he looked back across the table, and nodded once again, a bit more confident. "Thanks Dad. I won't forget."

"Alright then."

They both finished the rest of dinner without speaking - not an uncomfortable silence. Both of them had to take time to process things when it came to people and emotions rather than mythology and marine biology. They were alike in that way.

Jess was finishing drying off the last dish John had handed to him. John looked at him carefully open the cabinet, carefully put it back, carefully fold the dish towel. So gentle and harmless.

God damn, he couldn't stand to imagine anyone hurting this kid.

Jess turned away from the stove, back toward the hall, toward his room. "Goodnight Dad. Thanks for the sea bass."

"Don't mention it, bud. Goodnight." John watched his son down the hall, start to open his door.

"Jess?"

"Yeah Dad?"

"I love you."

A quiet pause. John didn't move from where he was in the kitchen, hand still on the sponge at the sink. He didn't hear Jess moving at the far end of the apartment - he was still standing with the door to his room half open.

"I love you too, Dad."

John heard the door to Jess's room click closed. He felt his whole body relax as he turned, rinsing off the sponge, wringing it out over the sink.

He heard Jess's door click open. Worry caught in his throat again.

"You alright bud?"

"Yeah Dad, I forgot to brush my teeth." John felt the tension leave again. His Jess. Always so responsible.

END NOTES:

Definitely the heaviest entry in the series so far.

I know it might seem a bit far-fetched that Jess might not know what some things mean at this age, but I can attest that I based that on my own experience - everyone learns about things in their own time and being socially out-of-the-loop, especially pre-Internet, meant kids might not learn about things until later than they might nowadays

I think Mahone Bay is an actual place in Nova Scotia and that that may be where the movie was supposed to be set, but we're going to ignore that - the sealife in the movie much better lines up with California, so that's where this fictional Mahone Bay's going to be - it also might make future crossovers that may or may not be planned a little bit easier to work with.

On a lighter note I think I've also decided that Al Gore's going to win the 2000 election in this universe, and 9/11 and the Iraq invasion are not going to happen. I doubt those will impact the story as it's currently planned but y'know, never hurts to be prepared for such questions.

#the thirteenth year #long post #dcom #disney channel original movies #disney #mermaid #mermen #homophobic slurs #ocean life #marine biology #fanfic

[severetimetravelnerd]

Change (ft. G Dragon and Yoo Yeon-Seok)

Part 18

Jiyong notices the small signs and decides to try and cheer you up.

(I don’t own any of the images used. All credit goes to the original owners.)

Taglist:

@unabashedturkeytreeslime​

@starlighttaek8​​

@happiestgirlontheeastcoast​

If there is anyone else who would like to be tagged, you can comment or leave me a message :))

I only write on this blog on tumblr, so if you see my work on any other platform, please let me know immediately.

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You were dreading the day Mino had to leave for tour. He had been staying at Jiyong’s place with you, but after he was gone, there would be nothing to hide the fact that you were slowly getting more comfortable with Jiyong. You didn’t want to. You absolutely hated the fact that you were slowly starting to forgive him for what happened at year ago. You would never forgive him for kissing you and driving Yeon-Seok away, but you found yourself forgiving him of wanting to make you feel pain. And because you didn’t want that to show, you stubbornly clung to your armour of insults and glares, hoping that it would hide the truth from Jiyong. But Mino left, and with that, you were left alone with Jiyong.

You ignored him. You avoided talking to him for the most part, and you just continued with your life, trying not to address the small changes, like Jiyong picking you up after work because he didn’t want you to strain yourself. You went to work every day, looking forward to the small aspect of normalcy it gave your life, but you did try and cut down on the strenuous massages. You stayed behind the desk for the most part, only going for lighter massages and reflexology. Jiyong’s life, on the other hand, had taken a drastic turn, and he couldn’t be happier. The very same day he saw you, he had decided to make some drastic changes to his life and get his life back in order, but when you moved in, without even realising it, his priorities changed. You and your health were the number one priority. He found himself making small changes to his life to make sure you were okay. Although he hadn’t had any schedules in a while, he made sure to let YG know he wouldn’t be available for the next year. They were only too happy to see that Jiyong was getting out of drinking every day, so they gladly agreed. He usually left the chores to the housekeeper, but for your privacy, he asked her to stop coming, and he tried to learn to do them instead. He managed just about everything but cooking, but he was determined to learn and make your favourite foods for you, so he called his mother everyday and took lessons, but all of this was without you knowing. He didn’t want you to feel like he was trying to guilt you into forgiving him.

You had called that doctor who came to treat you when you collapsed at Jiyong’s place. You liked that doctor. He was nice, he was understanding, he wasn’t judgemental and he was good at what he did he also calmed you, which was good, because you were terrified to go for your first pre-natal appointment. It was a little late for your first appointment, at 7 weeks pregnant, but you couldn’t bring yourself to go before that. You were so scared. It was all new to you, and you were handling it alone. You took a deep breath before stepping into the clinic, clutching your handbag a little tighter, and pushed open the door. You were trying to prepare yourself for doing this alone mentally, but you couldn’t deny the small bit of relief you felt when you saw Jiyong sitting there, waiting for you, although you did mask it with a frown. You sat down next to him, and scowling, you asked,

 “Why’re you here?” 

He smiled nervously and said, 

“I’m not going to leave you to do this alone.” 

You could not deny that it made your heavy heart a little lighter to hear him say that, because you knew you wouldn’t be able to handle this on your own, because it was at moments like these that you really missed Yeon-Seok, and resented him just a little for not hearing you out.

When it was finally your turn, you were beyond nervous, but because you were you, you kept a straight face, showing none of that to the world. You walked in, smiling at Wooshik, sitting down, while Jiyong stood at a safe distance behind you, wanting to make sure you were comfortable. As Wooshik tried to smile and make you feel comfortable while explaining the things you would need to do throughout the pregnancy, Jiyong stood there, only half-listening to what Wooshik said. Instead, he was watching you closely, because he knew you were scared. When Wooshik took an ultrasound scan of your uterus, you waited nervously to know whether everything was okay, but after he assured you everything was okay, you zoned out while he explained the biological changes at this stage of the pregnancy, unable to think of anything other than the fact that Yeon-Seok should have been there by your side. Your baby’s father wasn’t there to see his child for the first time. At the thought, you clenched your fist, and took a deep breath. It went unnoticed by the doctor and the nurses, but not by Jiyong, who made up his mind to try and make you feel better soon.

That night, you just couldn’t sleep. You couldn’t stop thinking about Yeon-Seok. You sat up in bed at around 2 am, feeling wretched. You looked around, sighing and biting your lip. You picked up your phone, and you decided to try and call him again. You prayed so much, hoping for him to just answer, because once he knew, you were sure he would come back, but of course, there was no answer. Suddenly feeling frustrated, you threw your phone down, and flopped back onto the bed. You blinked away the tears that threatened to fall, because you were just too tired to cry. Trying to distract yourself with happy thoughts, suddenly you sat up straight. You were hit with a craving. You desperately wanted French fries and vanilla ice cream. You got up and decided that since you couldn’t sleep anyway, you might as well eat to your heart’s content. You walked out of the door, not particularly quietly, because you knew that Jiyong’s room was too far away for him to hear you going to the kitchen, but you got the shock of your life when you saw him laying there on the couch, fast asleep. Immediately, you quietened down, though you were very confused about why he was sleeping there. You tiptoed over to the fridge and began searching for the frozen fries, rustling away, so absorbed in your job that you didn’t notice that Jiyong woke up. You only snapped out of it when you heard his sleepy voice ask,

 “Y/N, all okay? What’re you looking for?” 

You jolted backwards, staring at him. He looked adorable, with his hair all fluffy and his face puffy, but you shook those thoughts away, telling yourself to stay strong. Clearing your throat, you said rather sheepishly,

 “Cravings. I’m sorry if I woke you up.” 

He gave you a lazy smile and stretched, slowly making his way towards you. 

“What exactly are you craving Y/N? I’ll make it for you.”

 You snorted. 

“What’re you saying Jiyong? You can’t cook to save your life!” 

His smirk was back when he said,

 “Ah but that’s what you think. Tell me what you’re craving.” 

You raised an eyebrow and you also smirked. You were sure this would end in failure, but you were curious.

 “I’m craving French fries and vanilla ice cream.” 

He just nodded and began to heat the oil. And he was right, because in minutes, you had freshly fried fries on a plate with a bowl of ice cream sitting in front of you. You didn’t say anything, and you just devoured it, but Jiyong sat there across you, with a smile tugging at his lips, knowing how surprised you actually were. Halfway through your fries, without looking up from your food, you asked him a question.

 “Jiyong, why were you sleeping on the couch?”

 He looked at you like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“If I sleep in my room, I won’t be able to hear you if you call for help in the night.”

 You looked up and made eye contact with the warm, genuine Jiyong that you hadn’t seen in a while. It threw you off. The kindness, the caring, the sensitivity, everything seemed so different. And you couldn’t stop yourself from thinking deep down that maybe Jiyong had changed. But of course, that was deep down, so you just went back to eating your food, not wanting to show him how much his small gestures had touched you.

 The next morning, you woke up and lazily made your way to the kitchen, expecting Jiyong to be in his room, but he was in the kitchen, making you breakfast. He was dressed differently, as though he were about to go out. He looked up from the pancakes he was making to smile at you and point to your plate. Stunned, you just quietly sat, without your customary snarkiness. You just didn’t want to admit that he was being nice and was slowly wearing down your defences. You wordlessly ate the pancakes and were about to go back into your room, when you heard Jiyong nervously call you. 

“Y/N?” 

You turned and quietly asked, 

“What?”

 “I need to go shopping for a few things around the house, and I need help. Will you come with me?” 

He wasn’t even expecting you to respond. He just expected you to walk back into your room, so when you shrugged and said,

 “Sure.”,

 he was beyond excited.

You got into the car with him, looking grumpy, but secretly curious about what it was that he wanted to buy. You zoned out as he drove, because it seemed to be a little far off, peacefully looking at the scenery. You didn’t see his small, nervous smile as he checked the GPS again. You snapped out of your thoughts when you saw him pull up in front of a big building, which looked a bit like an old farm. Your eyes widened even more when you saw a man standing there, waving to Jiyong, surrounded by dogs. You turned to Jiyong, eyes widening. He nervously grinned and said,

 “Surprise!”

 Looking around shocked, you asked,

 “Where is this?” 

Still grinning, he said, 

“At a dog shelter.”

As Jiyong fell on his back, overcome with the flood of puppies that charged at him, although his body was aching a little, his heart warmed when he saw you sit on the nearby steps, laughing at him while you pet a few dogs. He would never get used to your beauty. As you sat there, with the sun reflecting off your hair, in a cotton dress, with the same smile that made him go crazy, he knew he was right to try and cheer you up this way. He only snapped out of his reverie when he heard you laughingly ask him, 

“So, this is why you needed my help? To adopt a dog?”

 You couldn’t stop your heart from warming when you saw his lazy grin as he said, 

“Of course I did. I can’t adopt a dog without your opinion.” 

Jiyong was overjoyed to see you grin, for the first time since he found you, surrounded by all these amazing, loving dogs. He was in the middle of playing with the more energetic puppies while you were sitting with the older, more calmer dogs, because both of you wanted to be on the safe side. Surrounded by all these loving, adorable dogs, you were the happiest you had been in a long time. Of course, it helped to see the adorable sight of Jiyong getting mobbed by puppies. The two of you spent your day there. You just lazed around with the doggies, all of them sensing how upset you had been, and refusing to leave your side, while Jiyong ran around and helped his friend. When you jokingly yelled out to him,

 “Have you picked a dog?” 

while he lugged around a giant bag of dog food, he smiled, and yelled back, 

“Well, I might be delaying it on purpose so that we can come back.”

In the evening, he was putting the dogs back into their kennels as you sat there watching him, feeling oddly grateful that he had brought you there, because you knew that he had done to cheer you up. You had only mentioned once that you like dogs, but it really touched you that he had remembered it after all this time. You smiled as you got up to go over to him and talk to him and thank him. Halfway through your walk there, it started to rain heavily. Jiyong was so engrossed in helping with the dogs that he didn’t even notice. You grabbed an umbrella from somewhere and you rushed over to him.

 “Ji, what the hell do you think you’re doing? It’s raining!” 

He just slowly turned over to you, in shock from the fact that you just called ‘Ji’, and when he saw you there, your cheeks flushed from running and your eyes shining, smiling and scolding him, his heart skipped a beat. He just stood there numb, watching you babble as you half-scolded him and half-thanked him for trying to cheer you up, but halfway through, he noticed your lips quiver. You suddenly remembered why you were upset in this first place. Yeon-Seok. You were supposed to adopt a dog with Yeon-Seok. And as your lips quivered more, and your legs started to shake, you finally gave in and cried. You practically wailed and sobbed, choking on your words, barely managing to get a word out. You finally choked on a sob, and managed to say, 

“Ji” 

when you fell forward onto his shirt, burying your head in his shoulder, crying harder as you relaxed into his arm’s grip. He just froze when you did that, unsure about whether to say anything, but he finally decided to pull you a little closer and pat your head, letting you sob it all out, your sobs covered by the rain.

#kpop scenarios #kpop angst #g dragon scenarios #g dragon angst #yoo yeon seok scenarios #angst #fluff #kpop #kpop fluff #g dragon #g dragon fluff #bigbang scenarios #yoo yeon seok #yoo yeon seok angst #yoo yeon seok fluff #gaho #dogs #kpop series #fanfiction #scenarios #new to tumblr

[dreams-of-the-arcana]

It’s finally here! Chapter 2 of the Spy AU (it rhymed so I had to). Still no title (suggestions greatly appreciated) or header art.

For Chapter 1:

Ft. @theroyalmage’s Emrys, Asra Alnazar, Portia Devorak, newcomer Godiva

We left off with Nadia Satrinava, the Prime Minister of Vesuvia, receiving a very suspicious note leading to a mystery visitor. Now we meet our surprise guest!

Chapter Two: Right Back At It

The common consensus amongst the members of the Vesuvian Secret Intelligence Agency, or VSIA, was that there was no such thing as a ‘normal’ day. How could there be? While other agencies drowned in weeks of paperwork and red tape, the VSIA agents moved rapidly and in the most intense situations.

So even getting the call that the Prime Minister had received a serious death threat wasn’t enough to make the agents blink.

Hidden away, the VSIA building stood tall and boring from the outside. A grey building in a sea of grey buildings made even worse with most of the floors boarded up. A small law firm operated on the second floor and a simple accountant set up on the fourth but that was just the beginning of this particular building.

Agent Emrys Trevellyan stretched and yawned as he strode across the white tiling towards the elevator. The receptionist offered a brief nod before turning back to her newspaper. Pulling back the rusted metal grate, Emrys entered the ancient looking elevator and tiredly put a blank keycard into the small slot at the bottom of the floor numbers. A small camera looking device popped out from seemingly nowhere and announced in an overly chipper voice.

“Look at the birdie!”

Emrys gave the camera a muted smile, as he had a thousand times before, and trained his eye on the lens.

“Welcome Agent Trevellyan”

The elevator began to descend.

Many years prior, the organization that would become the VSIA needed to find a suitable space for their operations. They had quite a few requirements.

“There must be space for expansion as our assignments grow. It must not draw attention to itself. Please no more moldy damp basements?”

Once the building was secured they decided to build underground rather than above. Though the space was absolutely covered in dehumidifiers and vitamin D lamps.

The elevator came to a stop and Emrys strolled through slowly towards his office. Other agents were already hurrying about, the VSIA maintained 24-hour Ops. Emrys reaches for his door, dreaming of hot coffee, when a voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Emrys wanted so badly to keep walking but instead he faced the voice.

“I haven’t even been here for two minutes, Goldie.”

The woman in front of him was tall and impressive. Agent Godiva Köhler stood at 6’3” with wide hips, strong arms, golden brown skin, and most striking were her gold eyes. The vibrant intensity of her gaze earned her the nickname, Goldie.

Goldie had a way with getting information out of people without using any of the usual methods. Most other agents described it as “killing them with kindness”. She inspired other people to want to make her proud. It was terrifying.

Goldie just smiled and pointed to the note attached to Emrys’ door that he’d missed.

‘Please see me immediately - A’

Emrys pulled the note off of his door and gave it another once over with a narrowed, curious gaze.

"Must be important..." he trailed off before stifling a yawn and turning towards their boss' office.

“I know you just got back,” Goldie offered sympathetically. “But I’m sure he wouldn’t ask for you right away unless it was important.”

Emrys understood that and accepted it, he just still dreamed of the coffee machine in his office.

The Director’s office of a secret organization should probably call up images of professional, cold, and impersonal rooms with metal chairs and plain stately wooden desks but Director Alnazar took a different approach.

Upon entering, Emrys and Goldie immediately took in the calming smell of freshly made tea. Tapestries, paintings, and totems filled the room with color and even though there was a stately desk, Director Asra Alnazar was sitting on top of it.

Touchless screens sat around the Director as he worked through a world full of information using only gestures. Deep violet eyes took in everything and most of the agents joked that the Director could even see the future with those eyes.

“Ah, Emrys!” The look of concentration vanished and the Director stood up to greet the agent. Goldie waved and stepped back out.

“Good morning, Director.”

“Emrys, you know you can call me Asra.”

“And yet...”

“Fair enough. I apologize for calling you so soon after you got back. I heard you did an amazing job out in Nopal though!”

Asra smiled and led Emrys to a couple low cushions where a pot of tea waited. Emrys gladly took a cup with a small smile as the mild caffeine hit him. Asra took a moment too before beginning.

“I didn’t want to send you out at first, you’ve been gone for months but after today I knew I needed you for this,” Asra looked troubled. An unusual expression on the happy Director’s face. Emrys leaned in a bit more.

“You’re my best undercover agent though and I can’t be certain how long this assignment will take,” Asra warned.

“I can take it, Director. Just let me know.”

Asra smiled softly.

“I know you can... you’ve probably heard us mention ‘The Devil’ before.”

Emrys nodded. Many agents had worked tirelessly on uncovering as much as they could about the shadowy gang.

“Well it looks like they’re making a big move suddenly,” Asra sighed. “The Prime Minister received a death threat today and we believe it’s from them.”

Emrys’ eyes widened, so far The Devil had been involved in undercover deals like illegal fighting rings, human trafficking, or blackmail. They’d never threatened public officials so blatantly.

“Why do you believe it’s them, boss? They’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Because of Lucio Morgasson, the PM’s late husband. We’ve uncovered information that he was involved with The Devil before his accident. It appears he used his nightclubs to further The Devil’s agenda. Now that Lucio is gone, they might believe PM Satrinava knows something she shouldn’t. Lately, her own goals have been too close to hurting The Devil’s plans so she’s now a potentially a reasonable threat to them.”

Emrys took a moment to process everything he’d heard. Everyone in the VSIA had discussed Morgasson’s ‘accident’ in detail but held no suspicion his wife had anything to do with it. By all accounts, Nadia Satrinava had been a model citizen and PM with no idea the shady dealings her husband engaged in. To target her now too? Why?

Questions filled Emrys’ mind as Asra waited for him to comment.

“... What do you need from me?” Emrys finally asked.

“You’ll be inserted into PM Satrinava’s personal guard. I want eyes on her 24/7 until we have a handle on the situation.”

Asra pulled a file from beside him and passed it to Emrys.

“We have an agent already in posing as the PM’s personal secretary.”

Emrys opened the file to see Pasha Devorak’s smiling face, he smiled. Pasha was posing as “Portia Kocourek, 25-year-old personal secretary” and actually acting as Emrys’ handler.

“We have files on all of her staff and their contacts”

A large man with dark circles under his eyes and heavy features stared up. “Muriel Kokhuri, Vesuvian Secret Service, personal bodyguard to PM Satrinava.”

“He may look mean but Muriel and I grew up together. Just don’t mention the VSIA to him.”

A small woman with porcelain skin and brilliant blue eyes was next. “Andraste ‘Andi’ Ó Conail, public relations for PM Satrinava.” A small star sat by her name which Emrys mentioned to Asra. The Director quickly moved to refill their cups and shrugged it off with a simple “we want to recruit her” but wouldn’t say more.

The files went on as the two poured over the details. Finally, Asra checked the time and informed Emrys he had a meeting that day to introduce himself to the PM. They said their goodbyes and Emrys set out for the capitol building.

Questions still swirled around his mind but he focused on the task at hand. Upon entering he sought out Pasha’s cheerful face and gave her the slightest nod.

While Pasha reached out to the PM, Emrys took the time to drop into the closest chair. It really felt like a 100 years since he’d had a real break. Maybe after all this he would actually take a vacation? Use some of those days piling up behind his name.

“The Prime Minister will see you now, sir.”

Emrys nodded and stood back up, vacations would have to come later. Right now, he had a job to do.

#the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana au #the arcana fanfic #the arcana fanfic au #arcana fanfic #andi the apprentice #cleo the apprentice #emrys trevellyan #kit hunter #portia devorak #pasha devorak #julian devorak #ilya devorak #lucio morgasson #nadia satrinava #muriel the mountain man #asra alnazar #godiva Köhler

[chpkns]

BEST ALBUMS 2020

Some albums I enjoyed during quarantine.

Hon Mentions: Campfire Chords - Arkells, A Written Testimony - Jay Electronica, All In One - Jaunt, Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers, Alfredo - Freddie Gibs and Madlib, Thats What They All Say - Jack Harlow, Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs - Colter Wall, This Place Sucks Ass - PUP, Only For Dolphins - Action Bronson, Black Habits - D Smoke, What’s Your Pleasure - Jessie Ware, 3.15.20 - Childish Gambino, Dedicated Side B - Carly Rae Jepsen, Dark Lane Demo Tapes - Drake, After Hours - The Weeknd, color theory - Soccer Mommy, Circles - Mac Miller, Womb - Purity Ring

10) Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa

One of the lesser, although still significant, tragedies of the 2020 COVID era was that weddings and sweaty club basements the world over were robbed of Dua Lipa’s prolific output this year. Future Nostalgia is hit or miss in places, but the hits come hot and heavy delivering banger after 80′s-disco-inspired banger. Dominant summer jams “Don’t Start Now” and “Break My Heart” are the highlights here, along with “Levitating” (equally good with or without DaBaby). Sleeper tracks “Cool” and “Hallucinate” round out the year’s best pure pop album.

Highlights: Don’t Start Now, Break My Heart, Levitating, Physical, Cool, Hallucinate

9) Women In Music, Pt. III - HAIM

The third album from LA’s sister act rock trio HAIM delivers consistency and growth for the band. There’s plenty of retro heartbreak rock on Women In Music, Pt. III to satisfy fans of HAIM’s first two albums, but lots of new on offer as well including the jazzy Lou Reed inspired sax of “Summer Girl” and Danielle Haim sounding positively Joni Mitchell-esque on “Man From the Magazine”. The auditory production flourishes of erstwhile Vampire Weekend member Rostam are noticeable throughout and help stretch the bounds of the HAIM sisters’ signature Wilson Phillips meets Fleetwood Mac summer rock sound into something more of the moment.

Highlights: The Steps, Summer Girl, Don’t Wanna, Man From the Magazine, FUBT

8) My Turn (Deluxe) - Lil Baby

I’ve almost given up on trying to enjoy or understand most “new rap” but every now and then something breaks through that I connect with for some reason. Atlanta rapper Lil Baby’s My Turn was that album for me this year. There are many reasons I feel I should not like Lil Baby’s music, from his liberal use of autotune to his mumbling delivery, but something always drew me back to it and, listen after listen, it grew on me. Lil Baby’s flow is persistent when he locks in, with matching driving trap production from Quay Global, Tay Keith and others, mirroring in sound the story of Baby’s rise from the streets to prison to the studio. The standout track is late addition “The Bigger Picture”, Lil Baby’s protest anthem on race in America, policing and the turmoil following the killing of George Floyd by police, a political statement from an otherwise apolitical artist, showing that Lil Baby has much more to offer than bravado and autotune.

Highlights: Grace (ft. 42 Dugg), Forever (ft. Lil Wayne), No Sucker (ft. Moneybagg Yo), Social Distancing, The Bigger Picture

7) Miss Anthropocene - Grimes

The third major studio release from Montreal native Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, doesn’t reach the same highs as its predecessors - 2015′s electro-pop masterpiece Art Angels (which rated number 1 on this list for that year) or 2012′s Visions, the synth-laden fever dream that introduced Grimes to mainstream notoriety (number 2 on this list for 2012) - but it’s still very much worth the time. The vibe of Miss A falls somewhere between Grimes’ previous two albums, and a little darker and messier to boot. Grimes sounds a bit like she’s playing a concert for the end of the world, which feels a bit prophetic for an album released just before a global pandemic took hold. As always, Grimes is out to flex her muscle as a technician and across the album’s ten tracks she mixes diverse sounds ranging from rave synths to banjos showing how far her craft has come since making Visions on Garageband in her Mile End apartment.

Highlights: So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth, Violence, Delete Forever, 4ÆM, You’ll miss me when I’m not around

6) evermore - Taylor Swift

Spoiler alert, this isn’t the highest ranked Taylor Swift album on this list. Surprise released in December, evermore was an early Christmas present to fans of Swift’s surprise summer album folklore (more on that later). evermore continues Swift’s reinvention from pop star to indie singer-songwriter, assisted by songwriting partner Aaron Dessner of The National and a variety of indie darling guest stars - this time around featuring HAIM, The National’s Matt Berninger and another stunning guest turn with Bon Iver. Speaking of Justin Vernon, the album capping title track might be the single best song on either folklore or evermore. And for fans of Taylor’s earlier catalogue like me, the return to country music on “no body, no crime” is like reconnecting with an old friend. evermore is a little messier and less consistent thematically than its sister album, feeling a bit like folklore’s b-sides. But when your b-sides are better than most artist’s a-sides, why not release another album’s worth?

Highlights: ‘tis the damn season, no body no crime (ft. HAIM), coney island (ft. The National), cowboy like me, evermore (ft. Bon Iver)

5) RTJ4 - Run The Jewels

Walking the streets of my neighbourhood with the first listen of RTJ4 in my earbuds, I found myself actually crying at the thought that I would not get to see Killer Mike and el-P perform these songs live in the summer of 2020. The memories of RTJ festival sets past came rushing over me in a wave. That was my first “damn, I miss live music moment” of the pandemic. The fourth instalment of Run The Jewels’ historic rap partnership is more of the same in the very best way. Like the dynamic duo’s previous three instalments, RTJ4 is in your face, moves at a frenetic clip, and takes no prisoners. There’s even another album highlighting collaboration with Rage Against The Machine’s Zack De La Rocha. The politics of RTJ4′s tirades against inequity and the police state feel even more imminent in 2020 against the backdrop of George Floyd, the ensuing protest movement that gripped America, and the 2020 presidential election. I really hope we get a chance to see Mike and el-P tour these songs in 2021, the world needs it.

Highlights: ooh la la (ft. Greg Nice and DJ Premier), goonies vs. E.T., walking in the snow, JU$T (ft. Pharrell Williams and Zack de la Rocha), a few words for the firing squad (radiation)

4) Saint Cloud - Waxahatchee

The majestically twangy folk-Americana of Saint Cloud, the fifth solo album from Katie Crutchfield (stage named Waxahatchee after Waxahatchee Creek, Alabama, where the singer grew up), is a nostalgic cure for the ails of 2020. The soft bluesy rhythms of Crutchfield’s songs feel like a lazy long summer day spent by the water. That was something we needed this year. The songwriting is just as beautiful. The standout track, “Fire”, speaks to Crutchfield’s journey finding sobriety and reconnecting with her southern roots. It also speaks to a longing feeling “give me something / it ain’t enough / it ain’t enough”.  On “Arkadelphia”, Crutchfield croons: “We try to give it all meaning / Glorify the grain of the wood / Tell ourselves what's beautiful and good”. In the chaos of 2020, the calm oasis of Saint Cloud is certainly something beautiful and good worth enjoying.

Highlights: Can’t Do Much, Fire, The Eye, Arkadelphia, St. Cloud

3) Suddenly - Caribou

Suddenly was my first genuine pandemic listen and, in the early days of lockdown, I found myself going back to it again and again. So much so, that the opening haunting notes of “Sister” became a kind of touchstone as I adjusted to a weird new work-from-home lifestyle. The chilled out weirdness of Caribou was an extremely welcome presence in 2020. It had been long enough since 2014′s Our Love (2014′s number 1 on this list) that I’d forgotten how enjoyably quirky Dan Snaith’s floaty pseudo-house tunes could be. Suddenly is a little more laid back than the club ready Our Love, which maybe suits it more to a world where dancefloors are closed. The tunes are also tighter, more economical in their length and soundscape. The lead single “Home” sounds downright commercial (in a good way) with it’s motown sampled chorus. Other parts of the album, like the closing “Cloud Song” venture into more experimental territories. All throughout, however, are Caribou’s signature warm chord progressions inviting you to lose yourself in them. Whether you’re looking for a guided meditation or an at-home dance party, Suddenly was the perfect 2020 album for it.

Highlights: Sister, Home, Lime, Never Come Back, Ravi

2) Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1 : The Butcher Shoppe Sessions - Sturgill Simpson

2020 was full of unexpected things, many bad but some surprisingly delightful. Firmly in the latter category is Cuttin’ Grass, Sturgill Simpson’s surprise double album made up entirely of bluegrass covers of his own catalogue. A true product of 2020, Simpson recorded the album with a murderer’s row of contemporary bluegrass artists after recovering from COVID-19 and challenging his fans to raise funds for charity in exchange for recording a new album. That album became Cuttin’ Grass, a traditional bluegrass re-imagination of the greatest hits and hidden gems of a country artist who has always strived to avoid being labelled as a country artist. The songs feel effortlessly at home and are given new life amid the frenetic guitar and mandolin picking, flying fiddles, and twangling banjos. If Simpson’s ode to the revelatory experience of psychedlic drug use “Turtles All The Way Down” felt revolutionary on 2014′s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, it feels like an old standard here with its tempo pitched up and enveloped in the cacophony of the bluegrass ensemble. There is some good old fashioned heartbreak to slow things down too. Mandolin player and backup vocalist Sierra Hull shines on “I Wonder” (a cover of a song originally recorded by Sturgill’s former band Sunday Valley) as she joins Simpson on the chorus: “Tell me am I the only one / drinking and cursing your name?” The juxtaposition of Simpson’s unconventional country catalogue with the most traditional of country music styles just works and the entire hour can be listened and relistened for days. And if you’re still not satisfied, the companion “Volume 2: the Cowboy Arms Sessions” released in December brings back the same supporting cast to explore more of Simpson’s catalogue.

 Highlights: All The Pretty Colors, Breakers Roar, Time After All, Turtles All The Way Down, Voices

1) folklore - Taylor Swift

Well, I told you there’d be more Taylor Swift on this list, and here it is. Your number 1 album of 2020 is folklore, the surprise release pandemic project in which the world’s biggest country star turned pop star reinvented herself again as an indie artist. Unlike anything else Swift has put out since RED, nothing on folklore is designed to be played in a stadium. Rather, it’s all more at home in a cabin by the fire, or in your earbuds on a fall walk... basically, it’s music meant for 2020. Like its companion evermore, folklore is the product of Swift’s songwriting collaboration with The National’s guitarist Aaron Dessner. The melding of songwriting styles seems like an odd match at first but sounds like a match made in heaven. Lyrically, Swift’s songwriting makes an evolutionary leap, almost leaving her primary auto or semi-autobiographical comfort zone behind completely (other than, perhaps, in heavily veiled metaphor) in favour of invented stories and semi-historical world building. After a few listens, you discover that the same characters appear in different songs like the imagined history of Rebekah Harkness, the real life former inhabitant of Swift’s Rhode Island home, on “the last great american dynasty” or imagery of “battleships” that “sink beneath the waves” in the ghost story of “my tears ricochet”. In the so-called “teenage love triangle trilogy” of “betty”, “cardigan”, and “august”, Swift tells different parts of the same story from the perspective of different characters. Each song stands on its own, but the discovery that the pieces fit together is wonderful. “betty” is the standout track for me, as a long suffering fan of “country Taylor”. In style, it harkens back to her earlier work, but in substance it’s something new entirely as Swift sings from the perspective of James, the boy who has done wrong by his lover and is seeking forgiveness. The pinnacle of the album is “exile” Swift’s collaboration with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. The call and response interaction of Swift with Vernon’s true to for emma form baritone is chill inducing. Like so many of the unexpected good things in 2020, folklore came from throwing plans out the window and doing what felt right for the moment. This is Taylor Swift making the music she wanted to make. In Dark Knight fashion, it’s the album we needed, if not the one we deserved. It’s the best album of the year.

Highlights: cardigan, the last great american dynasty, exile (ft. Bon Iver), my tears ricochet, epiphany, betty, peace

[narutobookshelf]

The Morning After Job

I rated this T on AO3, it has hints but there’s nothing explicit.

Part 2 in the Leverage AU ft Team 7 and KakIru, please appreciate how much I struggled writing from Kakashi’s pervy, sappy pov.

---

Kakashi wakes slowly. Much more slowly than his usual. But then, he slept better than his usual too. The magic of a job well done and...pleasant company afterward. He stretches and is disappointed but not surprised when his hand hits an empty pillow. It probably was too much to hope to have another round before Iruka followed the others’ examples and departed for greener fields. He takes a moment to just lay there and enjoy the quiet, remembering the night before. Hopefully, he’ll have the opportunity to reenact some of the highlights in the future if they continue this little game of catch and release.

His peace is disturbed by a thunk and the sound of voices from his living room and he rolls to his feet, blinking awake. The voices rise, arguing tones that are far too familiar. He frowns and pulls on a mask as he pads down the hallway, stepping soft and light. Halfway to the living room he almost trips over Pakkun who is sprawled across the floor, gnawing on one of the really good rawhide treats that Kakashi keeps hidden on the top shelf in the pantry. He steps around the corner, blinking in the morning light streaming in through his mysteriously open blinds.

Sakura is shoving his furniture around, completely rearranging it. Naruto is hanging from the ceiling in what Kakashi thinks might be a new harness, adjusting one of six large-screen TVs that seem to have appeared on his wall across from the kitchen. Iruka is seated in Kakashi’s armchair in the corner, Bisuke in his lap, critiquing Naruto’s work.

He’s wearing Kakashi’s crumpled blue dress shirt from the day before and Kakashi takes a moment to appreciate that sight before he clears his throat. “What is going on here? I thought we were all going to go our separate ways again? Wait until the heat died down? Any of that sound familiar?”

Naruto flipped upside down to look at him, resembling nothing so much as some sort of grotesque, grinning, four-legged spider. “It’s been a month, Kakashi. We’re bored.”

Kakashi leans against the breakfast bar and gives him his best, unimpressed look. “Don’t you have ways to entertain yourself?”

Naruto sulks at him and drops like a rock, landing neatly across Sakura’s shoulders as she straightens up from dragging the coffee table to the other side of the living room. “NARUTO!”

Kakashi is distracted from their squabble by a clatter and shuffle and Sasuke climbing out of a hole in his wall. “What are you doing?”

Sasuke grunts and straightens up, dusting off his sweater. “Wiring this place for this century. Do you live in the warring clans era or something?”

Kakashi opens and closes his mouth behind the mask, Iruka smirks at him from his seat and Kakashi is momentarily distracted by the way his lips curl before he refocuses on the actual issue at hand. “I don’t think my landlord will like that.”

Sasuke shrugs and Kakashi thinks he might smirk, just a little bit. “I don’t mind.”

“What?”

Now Sasuke is smirking for sure. “I bought your building.”

Before Kakashi can ask why, Naruto manages to free himself from Sakura’s wrath and drapes himself over the armchair and Iruka, grimacing down at Iruka’s bare legs. (Kakashi rather appreciates those, actually.)

One of these days he is going to figure out what the relationship between those two is. He’s pretty sure that they aren’t sleeping together, now or in the past. If anything, they act like family, in the moments when they are most relaxed and let their guard down. He was never able to find enough on either of their backgrounds to make a connection. That doesn’t mean that one doesn’t exist. He knows Iruka spent some time on the streets as a kid and Naruto doesn’t even seem to have existed before his mid-late teens.

“We’re bored,” Naruto repeats his earlier statement, unaware of Kakashi’s internal ponderings. “I stole The Beauty of Nature from the Fire National Museum of Art,” he pauses dramatically. “And I put it back.” He flops back with an overblown sigh, almost hitting Iruka in the face and causing Bisuke to scramble to the floor with an indignant huff. Kakashi tilts his head a bit to consider the spot where Iruka’s thighs disappear beneath the hem of his shirt. Naruto notices and scowls at him, sliding off the arm to land in Iruka’s lap.

Kakashi mourns the disappearance of his lovely visual.

“I hacked the Konoha governmental files,” Sasuke says, intense as always. “But I didn’t take anything.” He pauses “We are up to some pretty…” he considers his words carefully, “hinky stuff in the Land of Greens though.”

Naruto nods emphatically, “What about you Sakura?”

The hitter crosses her arms and leans back against the wall, mirroring Kakashi across the room. “I was in the Land of Greens.”

Naruto and Sasuke both look at her. Naruto opens his mouth, reconsiders, and closes it again. They all decide to collectively ignore that.

“The point is,” Iruka says, helpfully moving them all past it. “We can’t just go back to what we used to do.” He points at Kakashi over Naruto’s shoulder. “We’re the best of the best. Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief and you? You took us and you broke us.”

“Infected us, more like,” Naruto mutters, still glaring at Kakashi. “This whole helping people thing, it feels good, okay!” He crosses his arms. “You need to find a bad guy so I can steal something without it feeling wrong.”

Sasuke nods, short and sharp. “And since the offices got blown up, I bought this building so we can set up shop here.” As if Kakashi’s living room exists for their convenience and not for housing multiple dogs.

“I live here.” It seems that this is a point that needs to be stressed, so Kakashi does his best to remind them of it. “This is not an office, it is my home.”

He gets four blank stares in response.

He really doesn’t know what else he expected.

#leverage au #kakairu #team seven #naruto fanfiction #hatake kakashi #umino iruka #uzumaki naruto #haruno sakura #uchiha sasuke #rain rambles #my fanfiction #rip kakashi #crossposting from ao3

[justoneday-namjoonii]

Too Sweet. Part-13 BTSVampire!au | sneak peek

genre: Angst/ Fluff? (I’m sure there will be some elements of fluff eventually) / M(Mature themes) / Descriptions of blood and…other things/ Supernatural

biased: You X Yoongi X Jungkook X Vampire!au BTS ft. got7, wayv

Type: Vampire!au

release date: January 20th 6-7pm est

a/n: y/n’s botany retreat to a dreamy island!!❤️ this is a small sneak peek but I think this chapter is going to be really fun and different from other chapters. I hope you like it!

| INTRO I Pt. 1 I Pt. 2 I Pt. 3 I Pt. 4 I Pt. 5 I Pt. 6 I Pt. 7 I Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Pt. 10 | Pt. 11 | Pt. 12 |

In the corner of the library at 7 o’clock in the morning, you sit curled up on a study-chair with your reading glasses stuck to your face. Finals week. Every other paragraph you write down a few notes and your handwriting is beginning to look more and more like hieroglyphics. Despite the stress from a bunch of classes, your glad that your classmate just informed you of the donor requested break policy—a policy that no one had bothered to mention to you.

Basically, you can request a period of time where you don’t feed and they respect it. You requested two weeks, and despite the cries from Tae and Jimin to make an exception, you declined—you need a break. After everything that’s been happening, Rain coming here, Jungkook acting out, and even Yoongi, it’s been really stressful and Jin actually thought a break was just what you needed to regroup.

“Y/n, I was wondering where you were,” Namjoon peeks around the corner, “still studying I see.”

“Yeah, I have a test at 9 so just thought I’d just get some extra studying in.”

“Hm,” He nods, “so how are you liking your break?”

You furrow your brow and look up at him briefly. “It’s nice.”

“That’s nice.” He nods, leaning against the bookshelf for no reason.

“Um, did you need something or?—”

“I was wondering, what is your field of study?”

“I’ve been in general studies up until now, why do you ask?”

“Jin wanted me to ask you if you were interested in the botany program. An internship just opened and he thought you’d be great for it.” He finally gets to what he came here to say.

Your eyes brighten. “Really? Well, I’ve always thought about botany but I never really knew much about it. Would I have to change any of my classes if I started the program?”

“No, we might switch one of your classes around with one of the required courses for the program but it won’t be difficult. Besides, your grades are good so I don’t think an extra class would put you in a rough spot. I’ve skimmed through your test scores and I’m proud, especially of your biology test. Honestly, you were struggling so much in our study sessions, I didn’t think you were gonna make it, but you did.” He grins like a proud teacher and you giggle because that's not the first time Namjoon has shared his concern regarding your lack of promise during lessons. “What? I’m proud.”

“Namjoon, you sound like my advisor or something,” You laugh, putting your book down to stretch your legs and pull your hoddie hood off your head.

“I kind of am in a way,” He takes his hand out of his pocket to comb it through his hair, “your academic life is important to me.”

“Quick question, why didn’t Jin just tell me about this himself? He normally would tell me something like that over tea or something, is he really busy this morning?”

“You know the whole Jungkook situation is stressing him out so he’s relying on me to relay the message, but he sends his love. He’ll be out for a majority of the day and if you accept the offer, you’ll be packing for the botanical sciences retreat so you’ll see him tonight.”

“A retreat?” You have the widest smile, “You mean like a vacation?”

“No, not a vacation- Although, the botanical gardens on the Island are exceptionally beautiful this time of year the spas there are amazing-”

“Islands!? I get to go to the Island and its for school? I’m definitely accepting now.” You glance up at the clock on the wall and sigh, “I’ll see you later, I gotta go sign in for testing.” You pack up your books and Namjoon watches you run off and out of the library.

Namjoon has been thinking a lot about your time here at the college and over the past year, he’s realized some things. Firstly, he’s recognized that there aren’t many donors that get the opportunity to spend as much time as you do with people like him. He’s got scholarly titles that he’s not even sure you know about and some of the top-paying families have paid him to mentor their children. But here you are, not rich by any means, in fact, you’re here on a well-deserved scholarship awarded by Jin. And he’s felt like he’s taken you under his wing and all he’s wants is for you is the best.

It’s almost a maternal feeling he has towards you and your education. That’s a lot coming from him, he’s not the type to just dish out his help like a tutoring center. Normally he wants compensation of some sort. He has an extraordinary mind and one lesson with him can cost a pretty penny if they’re willing.

Namjoon left the library and went back to Jungkook’s lovely little abode across the campus. But rather than Jungkook being inside looking for something to get into, he was out on the track, running to his heart's content.

Namjoon approaches the track and Jungkook’s personal trainer is standing at the finish line with his hands on his hips.

“He’s doing well. Working out has really lightened him up a little bit,” The trainer says, watching Jungkook run up to them when he caught Namjoon’s eye.

“Hyung,” He slows down, panting lightly with his damp hair sticking to the side of his face, “hey,”

“Hey, Jungkook. You look refreshed,” Namjoon grins, “I came to let you know that we’re leaving tonight and your uncle will be stopping by tomorrow morning to check on you.” The trainer says Jungkook can go shower because they’re done for the day so they make they’re way to the house.

“Where are you going?”

“Botany retreat, it’s a three-day trip. Jin is going and for the first day and since Y/n has entered the program, she’s going too.”

“Oh...” Jungkook looked down for a moment, a bit shy suddenly, “H- How is she by the way?”

“She’s good. Right now she’s taking a donor break so she’s living like a normal human girl.” Namjoon was slightly taken aback but he answered nonetheless. “Why do you ask?”

Jungkook runs the back of his neck and sighs. “Uh, I don’t know, I was wondering if she was still mad at me or something.”

“You’d have to ask her. She’s been busy with her studies lately, so I’m sure the last thing she’s worried about is being mad at you.”

Jungkook had to laugh, knowing you two were always at odds made him like you even more.  “Beleive it or not, I do feel bad for what I did to her. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t take back what I said but I can see why I went about it in the wrong way.”

“That’s a start I guess.” Namjoon scoffed, not surprised by Jungkook’s partial apology. “Well, while we’re gone just call if you need anything.” He gives the younger a hug before saying his final goodbyes as he walked back to the main university building.

He has no idea what Jungkook is going through. But if there’s one thing for sure, he might be mellowing out.

#bts vampire #bts vampire au #jungkook vampire #bts smut #bts fluff #bts angst #Too Sweet #yoongi vampire #namjoon vampire #jin vampire #taehyung vampire #jimin vampire #hoseok vampire #got7 vampire #wayv