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#fic: maybe in another life
posallys · 1 year
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posally | 600 words
for @chironshorseass and @drewlover because i think they will lose their minds <3
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It was always going to end this way. 
That’s the things about life—the choices you make don’t matter much in the end.
Endings are the only definite parts of life. Everything has an end, everything will take a final breath and exhale aspirations into the air for the last time. Everything fades away until nothing but memories, the ghostly whisperings of what once was, lingers in its place. 
Species go exint, heroes fall, gods vanish, ancient knowledge evaporates.
And this—well, this was always going to end, just like the times before. It was never a question of if, but a question of when. 
read on ao3
Some think that the hardest part of endings is learning to let go, to realize when it’s time to take a step back and let the fates continue to weave their threads throughout the universe and play your part while the world keeps turning. 
Submitting to the whims of others has never been his strong suit, and yet he’s here, her hand in his, letting fate run its course. 
There are hardly any wires or machines; age, it seems, has simply caught up to her. 
A nurse marks something on her clipboard, then smiles at Sally and says “I’ll leave you and your husband alone, now,” before walking out of the room. 
Sally nods weakly, and Poseidon closes his eyes, squeezing her hand gently. 
She’d been avoiding his eyes until then, but she looks at him—finally looks at him—and her eyes take on a sadness of their own. 
“You didn’t have to do that.” 
He can see his reflection in the glasses that sit on the bridge of her nose, hair greyed and features weathered by time.
Poseidon gives a wry smile. “It wasn’t intentional.” 
She nods again, leaning her head back onto her pillows. “Thank you, anyway. For being here.” 
“I had to give it one last shot.”
And it was worth it, he thinks. Whatever pain her answer may cause him will be worth it just to see the smile on her face and the glint in her eyes and to hear the laugh that manages to bubble out of her. 
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” 
He grins then, a real, genuine smile, and places a hand on her shoulder. Take his shot, he will. “What do you say to one more adventure?” 
Sally’s brow quirks up. “I’m always up for an adventure.” 
His hand slides up to her cheek, and he leans down to place a kiss on her forehead. Then, “Close your eyes, Sal.” 
When she opens them again, it takes a moment for her eyes to adjust. The sun is bright and warm bearing down on them. She’s not in her hospital gown anymore, but rather a flowing white sun dress. Poseidon wraps his arms around her, looking out over the horizon, and for a moment it’s like no time has passed. 
“Sei…” 
He kisses her shoulder. “I could do it.”
“I know.” 
“You deserve to live forever.” 
She shakes her head, blinks, and tilts her chin up. 
“I’ve lived my life.” 
“We could have more, Sal.” 
She turns then, slowly, looking up at him. “Maybe in another life.”
Poseidon nods, smiling sadly. “Maybe in another life.” 
Sally closes her eyes, and when she opens them again she’s back under the harsh lights of the hospital room. 
“Sometimes I wonder what it would’ve been like,” she says after a minute. 
“It would’ve been whatever you wanted it to be.”
“It would’ve been perfect,” she decides. “We would’ve had everything we wanted.”
Despite his best efforts, tears begin to form in his eyes. “Remember that for next time, okay?”
A tear of her own slips down her cheek. “If it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen.”
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gojonanami · 4 months
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thinking about gojo asking you if you think you would be together in your other lifetimes and you say yes. and you are — he’s a model and you’re his photographer, he’s a prince and you’re his knight, he’s your actor husband and you’re his singer wife, and he’s your target and you’re his assassin—
and you are together in every life — one way or another — but in this life, you part, as you watch him fall to Sukuna.
and you wait for the next life, where you can finally be together.
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findafight · 8 months
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Robin chose Steve. Robin made the conscious and deliberate decision that she could and would trust Steve. She already liked him! She had fun working and bantering with him! They were already on their way to being weird little bffs and the torture just expedited the process. Steve chose Robin just the same! He thinks she's fun and cool and likes her so much! He chose to be honest and open with her too, putting himself out there.
Even though their interests on the surface level don't match why wouldn't they share them? Steve clearly caves when Robin wants to watch a movie he doesn't think he'll like, Robin can watch a March madness game or five.
Stop trying to take away their bond oh my god people can be close to more than one person!!! Their best friend doesn't have to be dismissive or mean or whatever in order for a romance to be special to them!
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lovesickeros · 5 days
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☆ thrice the bell tolls
{☆} characters neuvillette {☆} notes cult au, imposter au, villain au, drabble, gender neutral reader {☆} warnings minor angst {☆} word count 0.9k
"Get in the water."
There is no trepidation in the voice of the Sovereign as he speaks, only pure contempt that bleeds into the very air until it chills their lungs – there will be no penance here. No redemption. He stands before them with apathetic indifference, and with his hands he shall draw judgement upon sinners without a shred of mercy, so heavy his gaze they cannot move. This land shall become the grave of gods – no, not gods, Archons. Transcendent..and fallible.
Horribly, humanly fallible.
What a cruel thing to be – neither god nor mortal, in the end. Their Authority a stolen, coveted thing, so easily taken in a blaze of fury that singes them to the bone, in winds so harsh it tears the breath from their lungs from the sheer pressure, in the way their hairs stand on end as if lightning shall smite them for their arrogance. Judgement has come for them, in the end, and no plea nor bargain can save them from it's justice – they shall be judged and they shall be sentenced.
"..I was willing to put aside your past transgressions – forgive your thievery of the Authority that is not your own – to see Their vision of harmony come to reality." He speaks with nothing but clarity and calmness that unsettles – as gentle as the serene pond illuminated by gentle sunlight, ducks drifting across its pristine surface and creating faint, brief ripples. Calm as the tide as it recedes from the shoreline. His eyes speak of the tempest – the raging winds and the harsh waves that will crash and break and ravage. There is a fury so turbulent it makes the wind go still, the earth erode and the water recede. "You do not deserve repentance when Their body bears the marks of your transgressions," There will be no mercy. They try to plead, to beg and bargain but they cannot speak – their cries go unheard just as Theirs were ignored. A horrifying irony.
"Self proclaimed Acolytes, all, yet you bathe in Their most divine blood and call yourselves Saints," He breathes in, taps his cane against the hardened earth, and holds his head high as he meets their eyes unflinching. Mercy, they think, for we are innocent – we did not know. "Sinners, to the very last. You tear at the flesh of the most Divine like wild dogs to sate your own hunger, for you know nothing else."
His voice is the toll – it echoes like the ringing of a bell, calling them to the water like a siren. It beckons, it demands, and it will not wait. The water recedes and he stands like a beacon among the shores – a bastion of light where it has been snuffed out.
His eyes witness their sins – heavy a burden he bears as he witnesses that which they must atone for. The cruel hand of an Archon as it spills the Divine blood of the very earth beneath their feet. He sees Their agony, feels it to the last. Every bolt of wind, every jagged rock, every bolt of lightning. Every single one he feels until he weeps – for Them, he weeps.
His left hand renders judgement – guilty. Their transgressions are grave, and no redemption can be found for such horrors they have inflicted upon the mortal vessel of the Divine. They have felt their sorrow, have felt Their pain, and he has found them guilty.
And with his right hand..he enacts justice.
"Let your sins be your anchor – let your sins weigh heavy upon your shoulders so that you may feel a brief flicker of the agony you have inflicted upon Them," He lifts his cane with a solemn resolve, tears staining the scales upon his cheeks. "I shall weep for you, too, for no other shall do so in my stead. Return, wretched beasts, to the earth and let it nourish Them where you did not."
And at his call, the waves devour.
Entire cities, entire nations – those who bear the sin shall drown in it's wake, dragged to the lowest depths where even the sun cannot breach. It takes and takes, claws and tears and rips at the bodies of the damned – it devours the world, impartial and unrelenting in it's judgement.
And Neuvillette alone weeps.
"Neuvillette? Are you..crying?" Their voices makes him startle back to awareness, the briefest flicker of shame welling up in the empty space of his chest as he wipes away the tears that roll down his cheeks like drops of rain.
"It..appears so. Forgive me, most Divine, it seems I had a brief lapse in focus." He clears his throat, straightens his back, tries to ignore the pit in his stomach as he watches Their lips pull into a smile all too happy. He..he should be happy too, shouldn't he? He should. If They are happy, so should he be. His lips curl into a smile that doesn't feel like it fits on his face, but he delights in the way They smile wider when he does.
They approve, and that's all that matters, isn't it?
"It won't happen again, I assure you."
Their approval is all that matters.
So why does his chest ache so badly? He did as They commanded, he removed the stain upon Teyvat and ensured Their safety.
So why does he feel such sorrow?
The thought gnaws at him like the tides erode at stone, yet he cannot bear to burden his Creator with such..nonsense.
He will bear this weight alone until the day the waves come to claim him, too.
"Shall we visit the gardens today, Divine One?"
#sagau#genshin sagau#self aware genshin#genshin impact sagau#self aware genshin impact#fic tag#genshin cult au#genshin impact cult au#neuvillete#claws my way out of my hiatus again hiiiiiiii#starts gnawing on neuvi and putting him thru the worst things imaginable#basically what if reader was a little fucked up and asked neuvi very nicely 2 do a fontaine on everyone in teyvat :]#only the ppl who didnt hurt reader dont get dissolved#but neuvillette is in the middle of a crisis anyway bc what did he. just do.#local dragon man caught between being loyal 2 his creator and judging the ppl who hurt them and being like What the Fuck#i was gonna make this so much longer but ough.............its fine#maybe ill expand on this idea another time#also like. minor angst is there for a REASON ur favs r DEAD and NEUVI is having a HORRIBLE time just a warning in advance#neuvi looking at villain!reader like a kicked puppy while he drowns like half of teyvat#putting zl and neuvi thru the wringer. they can handle it its fine#what peer pressure (villain reader) does to a man (a 6'4 ft tall sopping wet cat dragon)#need more reader just being a horrible person. they r just a little creature#realistically i would never do this but i do like bullying my favs in fics sooooooooo#difference between neuvi & tsaritsa bc the tsaritsa would be having the time of her LIFE#*extreme over simplification of her character cough cough but#villain reader and tsaritsa is meant 2 go together and FUCK#I MADE IT ABT THE TSARITSA AGAIN#someone bonk me i need 2 be put down#anyway. leaves for like 3 months. comes back randomly just 2 put my fav thru literal actual hell#shakes neuvi around like a dog toy
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nari-roll · 7 months
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i miss you more than the sun misses the moon
wriothesley x reader | angst! | tw// loss, death
oh no what? a rare angst fic from cinna⁉️ (suffer w me pls)
────── ⋆⁺。˚⋆˙‧₊☽ ◯ ☾₊‧˙⋆˚。⁺⋆ ──────
wriothesley doesn’t really know how “i’ll see you later” became “i’ll visit your grave again soon.”
there were days where he could convince himself that he was okay, desperately trying to forget that you laid beneath the earth instead of your shared bed at home. his demeanor at work may look the same, but he can’t seem to hide the way his hands shook every time someone mentions your name. he didn’t like the way they offered their condolences. that sympathetic gaze, the hushed whispers of the the prisoners, as if you were truly gone. he just couldn’t accept it.
it wasn’t like him to delude himself into false realities, but what else could he do? just a few days ago, you were sitting beside him, laughing at the way his hair resembled wolf ears and how you had hoped for your future children to look just like him.
at night, he hugs the blankets tightly, trying to mimic the warmth you used to give off, desperately searching every inch of the sheets for any scent of you left, but it was gone, leaving him with nothing left.
the days and nights were torture without you. everyday was an endless cycle of grief that seemed to claw his chest out. in the end, he was left alone again. maybe he was just meant to live a life like this.
or
maybe if he prayed hard enough, you’d come back.
—but there was nothing but the sounds of his sobs, echoing throughout the empty room…and the ring that sits on the bedside table, untouched. unused. never seeing the light of day.
he wonders what life would be like if he was able to call you his wife, imagining a future that was never meant to be.
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exhuastedpigeon · 6 months
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Just a gentle reminder that when you bookmark a fic on AO3 the author can see anything you've tagged or comments you've added. That means the author can see if you bookmarked a fic saying something like 'this fic sucks' or 'read it and hated it'.
I know this might be shocking to hear, but fic writers are people too and seeing one or two rude comments in the bookmarks, even if all the other ones are nice, can ruin someones day and maybe even mean they stop writing.
If you want to add mean comments/comments about what you don't like about a fic, make the bookmark private. It's just a little check box that you click and then no one but you can see that bookmark and any comments you've made.
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oceanwithouthermoon · 7 months
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im thinking about saikis messed up relationship with romance on this fine night🫶
imagine him developing a crush on someone FIRST but since he can hear their thoughts and knows they dont already like him back, he thinks that that means they never will
because since he hears things so to the point all the time, he doesnt understand the natural progression of relationships and he thinks itd be weird and manipulative if he tried to get someone to like him while he can literally read their mind (which makes sense because there WOULD be a very thin line to tread..)
so he just avoids them and tries to get over it even though there mightve been a good chance that they couldve started liking him soon or even did but hadnt realized it yet themself.......
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dont-offend-the-bees · 4 months
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God I fucking miss my days of Dirk Gently fandom
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collectivecloseness · 6 months
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Oohh for the spotify thing, how about 20 with Eddie Munson??
Literally a great pick, and again another on my character playlist for this specific person. It’s Cherry Bomb by The Runaways!
Eddie Munson x reader
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Eddie always drove you back after school, no matter if you were going to his place, yours, or anywhere else in Hawkins. Walking hand in hand with you through the corridors as you both chucked your bags in his van and managed to leave that shithole behind, and go somewhere for the rest of the day no one would bother Eddie, or the both of you.
Today Eddie had finished taking you out for a milkshake, conveniently the both of you taking long enough to finish that by the time you got back to Eddie’s trailer, you’d both be able to say a quick bye to Wayne before his shift, and it meant you had the entire place to yourselves. As you did most evenings... and nights when you could find an excuse, or sneak out.
Although you had to pick up some stuff from your place before you could go over to Eddie’s, so he was driving there first. Hoping that you’d both stop off at another perfect time, one where there was already food on the table, that your mom always encouraged Eddie to have some of.
He really did like your mom, mostly at first because she always liked him too. She never treated him differently, or bad, even from the start. She literally welcomed Eddie into her home with open arms, giving him a hug that first time she met him, probably because of how much you’d raved about how wonderful Eddie was before.
And Eddie was pestering you about if you knew what your mom was making tonight, and if she might have already made it by the time they get there, when it reminded you of something you forgot to tell Eddie this morning.
“Oh actually, my mom and I were talking about you last night.” You nodded from the passenger seat.
Eddie stopped asking about food, intrigued, turning to you with an expression that was inviting into a full conversation, interested as he let his eyes go back to the road. “Oh yeah? What about? Can your mom not stop complimenting me and going on about how you’ve got such a bitchin’ boyfriend?” Eddie rolled the last couple of words off his tongue, holding it at the base of his open mouth as he beamed at you, head exaggeratedly bent down to tilt up at you, chuckling at your earned laugh.
“No!” You retort smiling. “She said that earlier.”
“Ohhhh, of course!” Eddie beamed, going along with your ‘very serious’ nods. “My apologies. Why were you talking about me?”
“We were listening to a song in the car and she said it remained her of you. And to be honest I totally agree.” You explain, already sensing the eager interest arising in your boyfriend, who would be bouncing in his seat the whole journey if you kept it from him.
“Ooooh, what is it!?” Eddie says excitedly, licking his lips as his eyes flit between you and the road, tapping his fingers on his wheel, almost like a subconscious drumroll. “Holy Diver? Enter Sandman? Please tell me you finally showed her some real Ozzy.”
Instead of answering, you move your hand and eject the tape currently playing Seek & Destroy, letting it fall to his dashboard as you rummage inside your bag by your feet.
Only when you ejected Eddie’s tape, in the middle of a song, a genuine pout spread across Eddie’s poor face. “Heyyy wha- wait.” He whined pitifully, and you looked up at him, raising an eyebrow, at his genuine big brown eyes.
He literally repeated that song twice in the 11 minutes to the milkshake place. “Eddie.” Is all you say, your hand down your bag, just looking at him. And he gets over it real quick. Shuffling up in his seat, attentive as you pulled a blank tape out, and slotted it into place, interested to hear what song was about to start playing.
‘Cherry Bomb’ by The Runaways hadn’t been exactly what he was expecting.
You looked to him as it started playing, noticing he wasn’t shocked, or upset, or ecstatic, he was genuinely thinking about it. His eyes looking up at he tapped his fingers on the wheel to the beat, before looking at you.
“Really?” He says genuinely, taking it in, considering it, and wanting your thoughts on it too, as he thinks more about it, already knowing the song of course. He did like it.
“Yeah actually, I think it does fit your...” you gesture Eddie up and down with your hand, looking at him, and remembering as you listened to the song yesterday you thought all about Eddie Munson “-well, you.”
“Huh.” Eddie nods, nibbling his lip as he nods slightly to the song. “I see it actually.”
“Yeah.” You add quietly, both of you starting to properly nod to the song now. And when Eddie turns to you, cracking a smile, you know he’s about to sing, and knowing him so well, you join in at the exact same time.
“I’m the fox you’ve been waitin’ for!!”
You both burst into laughs, the excited and sudden unison so you two, singing it to each other dramatically, before beginning to rock in your seats. Smiling as you sing the popular song together.
“-Hello mom! I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch- cherry bomb!”
You both exclaim the words, the energy in the van always this high.
“Hello world, I’m your wild girl!”
Eddie rolls his eyes at the ‘wild’ part, and you remember just how ‘him’ this song sometimes feels.
“Yeah. It is you, this song. You’re my wild girl.” You tell Eddie, smiling entrancingly at him, your baby girl, and Eddie very quickly plays along.
“You’re my wild girl.” He says himself leaning in all teasing and mushy to tell you, before you do the exact same thing. Both repeating the words “You’re my wild girl”, “No you’re my wild girl” to each other over and over, until you both pull back from where your lips are extended comically and gushily at each other, laughing too breathlessly from the pose for anyone to repeat the joke.
Before you both end up joining in the song again, quick to make sure you can get to the chorus.
“-ausin’ teenage blues. GET DOWN LADIES, you got nothing to lose!”
You both sing the lyrics loudly and pumped with each other, jamming out together like you often do in his van, and practically anywhere Eddie or you can have music.
“Hello daddy, hello mom!-“
You started the next line, but Eddie instead chose not to ch-ch- with you, and turn to ask you openly. “Hey! Maybe that’s how I should announce myself to your parents when I walk into their home real soon. With the cherry bomb part and everything!” He suggests, a casually serious look on his face as commitment to the bit saying it, but his deep brown eyes sparkling with playfulness.
“Oh yeah. That’ll go over radically.” You both nod in comical agreement, like you’re making fun of middle aged men in a business meeting. And you even manage to throw a thumbs up and a solid wink to Eddie, that he replies with a twisted lipped confident smile, and the okay signal with his free hand. Both throwing out “yeah’s” back and forth to each other, in agreement of this excellent plan.
Although as the next part of the song comes on, one bit is dropped for another for Eddie, as you both listen to the chorus of moans playing in the song.
And as you wonder why Eddie was turning to you yet again, and without singing, he quickly outdid you on the jesting scale.
“Your mom wasn’t reminded of me with the moaning part of the song right?” Eddie asked you, as if he was shocked at the sudden thought she’d overheard anything, but not even bothering to hide his grin.
You slap his shoulder, laughing as he lets one out himself, punching his elbow lightly, just pretending he was ‘saved’ because he was driving, even as you chuckled, shaking your head ‘disapprovingly’ at Eddie with a smile. Which was not a rarity.
Eddie gestured with his hand out as if he had a point, still smirking. “I mean it’s not like anyone’s heard us when you always make us both be so quiet when we’re up there-“ another whack, this time to his knee, cutting him off short.
And you snort laugh first, rolling your eyes at him as Eddie smirks at his suggestive quip. Although beaming with full teeth at you, proud to hear that noise meaning he made you laugh so. And God if you can’t just beam yourself, seeing that stupid smile on his face.
There’s a singular moan before the start of the next verse, and this time Eddie wasn’t quiet listening for it. Instead he leant in close to you, and moaned in time with the song, breathy and sensual and overdramatic in your face.
This time your hand is in his face, pushing him back as Eddie laughs into your palm and spread fingers, his soft skin, pliable lips, and warm breath teasing you, although being teased himself as you pulled away.
Chuckling, you brought your knees up in your seat, feeling your heart race as it so often did, even though you’d been dating Eddie for a while now, he still found ways to make you fall in love over and over. Actually, you don’t think that ever stopped happening.
And at seeing your curled up, excited and chuckling expression, and after he knew his flirting made you feel good, as always, Eddie winks at you, open mouthed smirking, his tongue on his bottom lip.
God your boyfriend was so hot. You admired his body, and hair, and clothes, and his shining personality next to you right now, feeling your blood rush through your body as you let yourself flutter with how extraordinary you knew Eddie was. You were so lucky.
“I’ll give ya something to live for” Eddie sings beautifully to you, before taking your chin with his thumb and forefinger, looking at you for the moment as he sings, shaking your chin lightly. “Have ya and grab ya, till you’re sore!” He squeezes your chin, with his teasing, scrunched smirk.
You giggle in his hold, your whole face lighting up as you love the atmosphere you always have with Eddie. Smirking right back at his perfect face. Not batting him away this time.
Until Eddie lets go himself, leaning over your lap with his arm stretched in his leather jacket, quickly opening the glove compartment by you, to show you his assortment of lollipops he keeps in there just for you. Ever since you two started dating.
You gasp excitedly, mouth open with a beam and thrilled eyes at Eddie! Leaning in to grab a cherry one for him and you, quickly taking off the easy slip wrapping, and popping yours into your mouth, relishing over the cherry flavour gushing over your tastebuds and cheeks.
At the same time leaning Eddie’s cherry lolly over to him, and giggling as he waggles his tongue out, and eventually wraps it around the cherry lollipop, his tongue flicking wetly against the tip of your thumb in amusement.
Taking the sweet red treat into his mouth, lolling it into the corner of his cheek, as he smirks at you. His mouth finally silent, except for breathy laughs that are so Eddie, but his eyes saying it all, glowing and sparkling just so unbelievably in love with you.
Eddie unable to stop stealing glances of you in his passenger seat, as you both speed off down the Hawkins road. Head banging together, especially with Eddie’s shaggy mullet, to the guitar, drums, and last yells of “Cherry bomb! Cherry bomb! Cherry bomb! Cherry bomb! Cherry bomb! Cherry bomb!”
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crabsnpersimmons · 3 months
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Y'ALL HAVE ME LIKE
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I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID
BUT Y'ALL HAVE BEEN SO SWEET
I'M SORRY IT'S TAKING ME SO LONG TO REPLY
I WANNA DRAW THINGS BACK
AND I WILL
after my exam tomorrow :')
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posallys · 1 year
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“It would’ve been perfect,” she decides. “We would’ve had everything we wanted.”
"remember that for next time, okay"
"if it's meant to happen it'll happen."
what the fuckla;kjsd????
fr that part was absolutely devastating to write
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what-aboutno · 4 months
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Been sketching designs for my wriochiluc fic
Bonus little Diluc
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apoptoses · 3 months
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deciding whether to post my fic for the queens of the damned event on butch/femme day or bloodbath might be the end of me tbh
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ferrarihamilton · 8 months
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STORMCHASER?? 👀
this fic has been ruminating in my head for almost a year..... it's a chalex au where charles stopped racing after winning gp3, and alex's family moved to the US when he was young and he visits every summer break just before storm season starts.
Charles texts him at 3:18AM on a Saturday in the middle of July: Alex! I hope you are dreaming sweet dreams. I will be in Dogwood in a week! Can I stay with you?
Alex smiles when he sees it in the morning. Charles asks the same question every summer, and he’s always so polite about it. Like Alex hasn’t seen him throw up on himself after drinking a box of wine, and hasn’t been opening his house to Charles for four years now. Like he doesn’t know how the first thing Alex does upon waking is check the forecast. He might not have the fancy equipment that Charles has, but he can see the cartoon of a little raincloud with lightning as well as anybody else. They’re promised high winds at the beginning of August. Alex had already prepared the spare room.
He replies, Hey charlie. What day would you be arriving?
The typing bubbles appear immediately, and a second later a string of kissy faces come through, followed by Hmmm thursday I think
Alex thumbs up the message, and then sends a photo of his view of the sunrise for good measure. In the foreground, there’s his windowsill, littered with various trinkets that Charles has brought before, and then below, the cafe's porch awning, and the sprawling fields for miles to see. Even without opening the window, the air feels fractious, hot.
Alex knows Charles understands, because he sends back four emojis: a battery, an electric plug, a thermometer, and a satellite. Alex smiles again, helplessly, before tucking his phone into his back pocket and heading out start his day.
Chloe is already starting to make breakfast. She turns as she hears him come down the stairs, and smirks when she sees his face. “Charles due soon?”
“Shut it,” he says. Chloe just smirks wider as she hands him a bowl and a carton of eggs.
+++++
Dogwood, Oklahoma, population 300, sits on State Highway 39, and the township’s economy is mostly fuelled by the tourists heading north to Kansas. It’s completely unremarkable, utterly boring, and the perfect place to spend three weeks of summer when your day job normally consists of multiple timezones a week.
His mum had bought the house and the attached cafe soon after they moved to the US: Albon's, a classic tourist trap place with cheap sandwiches and coffee, morphed into half a farm slash petting zoo when Luca wouldn’t stop rescuing animals and plunking them firmly in their backyard. The tourists kept asking about the donkeys wandering around the picnic tables, and Zoe had said eventually, “Well if they’re not going away, we might as well make some money.” They’re proudly advertised as family-owned and operated, which is supposed to make the people feel good about spending their money there, but mostly gets brought up through gritted teeth whenever Zoe and their mum argue about finances.
Alex tries not to get involved. Even though he makes more than enough money now for them to not need the cafe, he thinks it keeps his mum happy, to be reminded of the first life they'd had that was completely theirs.
And the cafe is how him and Charles are still friends. Alex had been furious when Charles told him he wasn't continuing with racing after winning GP3. Alex would have given everything to have beaten him, and here Charles was, acting like it didn't mean anything.
But Charles had followed him to Oklahoma that winter, instead of going home. He'd helped out at the cafe, and the night before his flight back to Monaco, he'd told Alex that he'd enrolled at Oklahoma State, tentative major in mech-E. Later, Alex will think that he probably had wanted to be an astronaut. Instead, when Charles' prof in sophomore year had taken his class out in the middle of a thunderstorm, and Charles had dragged Alex along with him, Alex had had the almost religious experience of watching Charles’ face as the sky crackled with lightning.
They’re still good friends; they text fairly frequently, but it’s been a year since they’ve seen each other. Charles is a proper stormchaser now, galivanting around the country on grant money from the college. He looks happy in every photo he posts on Instagram, writes long blog posts using words like isobars and Doppler effect and mobile broadband MNVO. And without fail, he stays at Alex's family home for a week before the storm season begins in earnest, and Alex sends him off to run after tornadoes, like a wife watching her husband leave for war.
+++++
Charles arrives in a flurry, bringing with him a battered Jeep fitted with mods Alex isn’t entirely sure are legal. As she does every year, his mother comes out to stand next to him on the porch as they pull up, and her eyebrows are thoroughly unimpressed until Charles’ smiling face hops out.
“Oh Charles!” she coos. “He was always such a good boy,” and then Charles is kissing her on both cheeks, saying hello and how she looks as beautiful ever, before he turns his attention on Alex, and even though Alex is twenty-six, he feels himself flush.
“Alexander,” Charles singsongs, and then mushes his face into Alex’s collarbone as he hugs him. Alex huffs out a laugh, wraps his own arms around Charles.
“It’s good to see you too,” he tells him. Charles beams at him, and Alex hasn’t followed Charles on one of his tornado chases since he was twenty, but under his gaze, he feels supercharged, electric.
Charles insists on helping out around the farm, because Alex absolutely puts his foot down when Charles offers to pay them for his week stay. This would be useful, because it’s the busiest part of the tourist season, if Charles were not completely useless. He takes nervous steps away when the animals approach him, clumsy with the dirty plates when clearing tables, and even though Alex knows that Charles can operate software with GIS overlay and the college’s ham radios that tune into Skywarn frequencies, he stares at their cash register with the same trepidation most people approach large spiders. And despite all of that— he charms all the little old ladies that come though the café doors, even when he messes up the orders. He makes Melina laugh, which in turn, lets Zoe get on with the bookkeeping undisturbed. He also brings in a shitload of tips. Alex hides a smile, watching Charles flit around and somehow be totally out of place and completely at home all at once.
It’s hard not to be charmed by Charles, his quick hands and the way he looks when he’s concentrating. Alex was a lost cause when he was eighteen; he sees no reason why that might have changed now.
+++++
Alex is always worried that Charles will get bored when he stays. Usually, he’s a doer, not a worrier, but he still has a training regime to keep up, so it's not like Alex can skive off to entertain Charles.
But they do have one tradition, and there’s nothing else to do on a Saturday night. So Alex takes the pickup truck they usually use for moving animals, cleans the hay and muck out, and drives Charles out to the fields. It’s a clear night, and they can see the stars, and he spreads out the blanket over the truckbed, throws down a couple of pillows, and leans back to look up at the night sky.  
“Tell me about your year,” Charles demands, once they've settled in.
Alex shrugs. Anybody can find out how his year is going from every sports website under the sun. He nudges Charles. “Tell me about your year.”
But Charles shrugs too, even though he’s smiling, and starts telling him about clouds instead. “Cumulonimbus,” he says. “Cumulus means ‘heap’ in Latin and ‘nimbus’ means storm cloud. They mean a storm is coming— air currents care carrying the water vapour up. When they develop, they have this dome.” He cups his hands into shape. “And then they can become supercells.”
Alex knows about the team that Charles is going with this year: Lewis, who used to work for the National Weather Service but now he’s a storm spotter for fun; Seb, a professor of climatology and technically their team lead; Daniel, who looks like he’s only there because he’s an adrenaline junkie and a good driver.
Alex knows from reading the captions on Charles’ Instagram posts that storm season starts in August, and the café is the first stop. For the next two months, he’ll follows the weather patterns as they shift and morph on radar displays, driving into fields, into wide-open terrains of grass and dirt and lakes with no roads and a cloudless sky, and waiting for the winds to pick up before they go.
He knows their time is limited, so Alex drinks in the sight of Charles and all the ways he’s changed in the time they’ve been apart. He tries not to wish for anything more.
At the end of the week, two more Jeeps roll into the driveway, Seb, Lewis, and Daniel all get introduced in quick fashion, and then Charles kisses Alex high on his cheek, and waves at him the whole time they’re driving away. Alex watches him go, waving, sore.
+++++
August turns into September, and the season picks up again. Williams has a solid midfield car now, and it's good, seeing the fruits of his hard work, having a team around him that listens to him, takes him seriously. Him and Charles continue to text, infrequently, as they always have. Charles tells him about amazing tornadoes, sends photos of himself at the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in nowhere towns on the side of highways, miles and miles of cornfields.
In return, Alex sends photos of the track, some terrible coffee they make him try for a marketing challenge, Luca screwing his face up at his maths homework, the crowd of fans at Singapore.
This is why it’s particularly insulting, that Alex finds out from fucking Lando of all people, that Charles got struck by lightning.
“What,” he says. His hands are clammy where he’s clutching his phone.
“Yeah, Max mentioned it to me. Guess Daniel told him. They’re having one of their weird on again things again.”
Alex couldn’t care less about whatever drama Lando has embroiled himself in. He’d known, logically, the risks of storm chasing. Except it was Charles, who has always seemed bigger than it all, exempt from the rules of physics and karma and everything else that made the rest of them mortal.
He checks Charles’ Instagram after Lando hangs up. The last post is still there, from a few hours ago. Alex had already seen it, liked it, thought nothing of it. A photo of a long stretch of highway, Daniel’s exaggeratedly frown. Location tagged Humboldt, Tennessee: stuck here for a few days with an upside down smiley face.
There’s a shiver running up his spine, a tense, live wire. If he touched anybody right now, he’s be unsurprised if the venom of it ran straight through them.
That feeling only intensifies in the twenty-four hours between Landos call and him pulling up outside the only motel in Humboldt. He stands outside the car feeling angry and frightened as he figures out what to say to Charles. This is greatly ruined by how Charles stumbles out ten minutes later in socks and slides, and stops dead.
“Alex?” He blinks. "You're supposed to be in Austin."
Alex is; it's Wednesday, race week. He has media duties in the paddock tomorrow.
“Did you get taller?” Charles asks, when Alex still doesn't say anything.
“I don’t think so,” Alex manages to get out. He's still feeling that sickly furious feeling, and Charles must see it on his face, because he huffs.
 “Fucking— I’m fine, the car is ruined but it had to happen at some point.”
“Does it?”
Charles squints at him. “Is this a trick question?”
"Charles," Alex says, but he's stopped by movement in the motel. harles glances back. A door is open, and Seb is lounging casually against the door frame in sweats. Alex didn’t know it was possible for a man wearing a headband to look so frightening.
 “Let’s go for a drive,” Charles says.
+++++
Charles directs them back onto the highway. He riddles with the radio, turning the dials until it crackles into a frequency that’s giving a weather report. Alex has to keep his eyes on the road to drive, but he knows what Charles looks like even without turning his head: lips pursed, hands twitching like he’s looking for a notebook before his thoughts fly away.
"Here," Charles finally says. It’s a dirt road turn off that looks like it leads nowhere, but Alex turns off all the same.
“You’re here,” Charles says wonderingly, even before he's killed the engine. Alex takes a deep breath, turns to face Charles. Seeing his face, whole, open, looking at Alex in that way lets the last of Alex’s worry melt away.
“Okay,” Charles says, and Alex leans forward and fists his hand in the collar of Charles’ shirt, and kisses him.
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Y'ALL I-
I saw someone point something out on tiktok, I believe after the first episode, and I just checked this episode and-
BIGB'S TASK ICON IS RED
WHEN IT APPEARS ON SCREEN AFTER THE COUNT DOWN THE PAPER IS RED, WHILE EVERYONE ELSE'S IS TAN
EXCUSE ME????!!?!
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manicplank · 2 months
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I want to do more with vigi and the farm
finally use my farm girl experience in my writing
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