#what nobody tells you about utah

[bullet-prooflove]

New request for Brendon Acres because I'm weak! What about "Running on two or three hours of sleep" ?

Lifeline - Brendon hands you a lifeline.

Distraction - Brendon needs a distraction from a hideous day.

You’re on your third cup of coffee, Brendon notices because you don’t usually touch the stuff, you’re more accustomed to herbal teas. It’s why he keeps a small stash in his cupboard at home and his bottom desk drawer.

“Late night?” He asks as he leans against the desk adjacent to yours.

It’s been a couple of days since you’ve seen each other. He’s been on a case up in Utah, just getting back in this morning and you’ve been working sorting through a collection of antiquities that had been confiscated by Art Crimes, separating out the real from the fake. You like those kind of tasks because you can make a game of it, timing yourself to see how many flaws you can find in five minutes. Sometimes you get a surprise. Last week you’d found a Dega, hidden amongst an array of false impressionist paintings. It had scored you a couple of extra points with Henderson who was very gradually starting to thaw.

“Yea.” You say, rubbing your palms over your weary features. “You could say that. I ran into Estelle last night.”

“Estelle?” Brendon repeats, his arms crossing over his chest as his voice lowers an octave. “Your ex-girlfriend Estelle, the one who got you caught?”

“Yes.” You say quietly as you sink back into your seat. “That Estelle.”

“Mona…” He drawls out your name and it sends an unwelcome flush of heat rushing through you because despite the fact your emotionally wrung out, your body still craves this man.

You’ve missed him over these past few nights, the way that he looks at you in the heat of the moment, those blue eyes of him searing into yours as he undresses you. It’s all you thought about when you touched yourself, getting off on one of your toys with his name on your lips. He’s been sharing a room with Carter so phone calls and texts were at a minimum. He couldn’t sweet talk you the he usually does on the nights you were apart.

“Do I need to be worried about you?” he asks, tilting his head so that he can study your features.

He doesn’t mean romantically, the two of you have that locked down pretty tight. He means legally and emotionally. As part of your parole you aren’t allowed to associate with people from your criminal past. If Henderson finds out about Estelle, he’ll have you thrown back in jail before you even get a chance to say goodbye.

Then there’s the other part of it. That woman had put you through the ringer. You hadn’t been a saint before she came along but your level of crime was low key, low risk. You made enough money to get by. Then Estelle came onto the scene, brazen, exciting Estelle and everything escalated. She’d introduced you to a world you had never dreamed of, high fashion, expensive dinners, nights in extravagant hotels. You’d fallen in love with her and that lifestyle. Your exploits became bolder, more adrenaline inducing and the high from that…

But then there’s the low, the anxiety that comes with the possibility of getting caught because the crimes you’re committing they’re making people stand up, take notice.

When you try to get out Estelle fights you on it, she manipulates you, she berates you, she seduces you until finally you crack. You decide to leave, the partnership and the relationship but the thing you’ve forgotten? Nobody leaves Estelle.

Two days later the FBI turns up on your doorstep and finds a Renoir that you certainly didn’t leave lying around. You’re given a five year sentence for burglary.

“She wants my help on a job.” You tell him, swallowing hard against the well of emotion in your chest. “She has pictures of the two of us Brendon, ones that we can’t explain away with a professional relationship.”

Your cheeks colour because it had been humiliating to see yourself in the throes of passion and Estelle, she had always been cruel. If you don’t do what she asks, you go back to prison and Brendon, he loses his career before it’s even begun.

“Mona, you can’t do this.” Brendon hisses and you look at him with such defeat in his eyes it kills it.

“Brendon.” You say softly. “I really don’t have a choice.”

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#brendon acres #brendon acres x reader #brendon acres x you #the rookie feds

[phoenixkaptain]

Have you ever noticed that while we have a bunch of evidence that William explicitly told Elizabeth not to go near the Circus Baby animatronic, and the implication of the lines is that he said this multiple times and was very insistent on it, and the Fredbear plush (no matter who you think is speaking through it) told the Crying Child not to go near the animatronics in general, the lines here also suggest that it has given this advice multiple times, we don’t actually have any evidence that Michael was ever told not to go near any of the animatronics?

In fact, in regard to Michael, the only evidence we do have is Michael being explicitly told to go mess around with animatronics. “It was right where you said it would be.” “I put her back together, just like you asked me to.” These both tell us that 1. Unlike the other children, Michael was not only encouraged to go hang out with animatronics but was also encouraged to go mess around with animatronics and 2. Michael’s tone of speaking could imply that this is the first time he’s been told to go mess around with animatronics.

Now, I’m not saying that William, from the very start, took a baby Michael and just handed him over to Fredbear without worrying about it, but I do think William tried to get Michael invested in some aspect of the business. I believe this because Michael’s the oldest son. And while Utah doesn’t have heir apparent to the family title, it did, back in the seventies and eighties, have a common idea that young men should follow in their fathers’ footsteps. Or, at the very least, the oldest son should bond with his father through a shared knowledge of the father’s job.

This was exceptionally common everywhere, but especially in Utah, where the people have always been (as we will diplomatically call it) traditional.

(But, of course, the Aftons probably are not originally from Utah. That doesn’t actually have much of a sway in form of argument in this particular case, because Mormons have a long history of outcasting people they considered “other.” If you smoked, if you drank to excessively, if you didn’t go to church, if you did go to church but not the “correct” way (I have no fucking clue what the correct way is, I only know that I, personally, did not do it correctly as a four-year-old, I know, baffles the mind), you were other and therefore, nobody would speak to you. And, more importantly to my case, nobody would go to your business.

William, being the one who spoke to more people (if we trust the books) had to at least play at being charmingly British enough that his neighbours wouldn’t think he’s a bad person. In fact, they would probably accept that he doesn’t want to go to church if he just used being from another country to get out of it (but they would probably suggest it everytime he spoke to them anyway) but William would have to fit in in other ways so he didn’t come across as too other. Enter Michael.

His relationship with Michael, if it mimicked the common relationship of father-and-son at the time, would be enough to charm people into believing he’s a family man and going to his diner anyway. Having three children was already going to boost people’s opinions of him, but if, on top of that, his oldest son “helped” with animatronics or paperwork or even if he just occasionally wiped tables, that would add more to the public image of the business being a family operation, just this one included two families.)

Admittedly, we don’t know much about how Michael acts. But, since it’s a similar case to Ethan Winters from the Resident Evil series (1. Both first person. 2. Both keeping the face out of view from the viewer, even going as far as obscuring mirrors or leaving mirrors out entirely. 3. Both of them get taken over by an outside entity (Ennard and Mold, respectively). 4. Both seem to do incredibly stupid things (“I think I’ll go see my wife in this ominous house I was given the address to multiple years after her disappearane and assumed death. I want my dearest darlingest baby girl back so I am going to fight hell monsters with whatever weapons aren’t nailed down and if I have to fight a god, then I guess I have to fight a god. I inexplicably know how to put together a functioning flamethrower.” “Well, Dad told me to go down in his weird undergroudn bunker that he keeps behind the house where my sister who has been missing for some amount of time is apparently hanging out, so I guess I’ll head down there on the nightly.” “I will not make any noise of complaint or annoyance or fear or even pain as I am inconvenienced and hurt and even murdered.” “I inexplicably consider being used as a flesh suit by the possessed wires of multiple animatronics a win because I’m pretty sure my sister was in there somewhere, so great news, Old Man, I’ve succeeded in the task.”) 5. I like comparing media that technically is very different but is similar in key ways and that’s what I’m currently doing. Shh, go with it, my child, go with it) I’m going to assume that Michael’s face does the same thing Ethan’s does. As in, if you wait long enough, even in situations where Ethan should reasonably be terrified, he just looks sort of like he’s wondering if he left the oven on. I like to think that’s how Michael’s face looks. Like: “Oh no, Ballora could catch me at any moment and kill me! …I wonder if that bird I saw last week is having any luck finding worms? It’s been a bit of a dry year.”

Michael certainly seems determined, but he only seems determined if we assume that he’s in more than one game. Like, if we think Michael isn’t the guy running the pizzeria in Pizzeria Simulator, then Michael said “I’m going to come find you” to his father and didn’t do anything? If we assume he isn’t the nightguard of the first game, if we assume he isn’t the second nightguard in the second game, if we assume he is only the protagonist of Sister Location, then Michael is the funniest character of all time. Because he literally said “Father, I am going to come find you” and then went back inside and enjoyed a quiet life? Maybe he did look around but didn’t go to any of the obvious places, the restaurants his father worked and killed at? Maybe he knew exactly where William was and just said “Ah, fock it, I’m going back to my tele-novella, tell me when you’re dead, Father.” It also makes William screaming for Michael a lot funnier because oh my God, William, do you think he’ll just teleport there?

(Sorry, that was a tangent. I saw someone complain about the night guards all being the same person or related to the events of the game in some way and it kind of annoyed me. “Why must they be the same person?” you ask? Because that’s just basic storytelling. The characters have to be related to the plot in some way, or the storytelling is nonexistent. And besides, from a narrative perspective, it makes a more satisfying story if Michael is the night guard of at least one location, because it means that Michael isn’t the stupidest man alive. He’s looking for his father. If I was in Michael Afton’s shoes, looking for my father who I knew was a tad obsessive about robots, I would go to the robot restaurant. It makes sense. (I’m sorry, I went on a tangent within my apology for going on a tangent. I will get back to the actual point now.))

We know that William told Elizabeth not to go near animatronics (or at least not to go near one animatronic). We know that someone told the Crying Child not to go near any animatronics. But we don’t have any evidence that Michael was ever told any of the animatronics were dangerous. In fact, evidence suggests that he was not only told to hang around animatronics, but he’s basically used to them. He finds his brother’s fear of animatronics amusing, which, to me, suggests that he finds the animatronics to be the opposite of scary. It suggests that he’s around them enough (because apparently Crying Child and Michael just hung out at the robot restaurant nearly every day of their lives, for some reason) that he’s either ignored any warnings that they’re dangerous or he was never told they could be dangerous in the first place.

Why does any of this matter?

Because I am sick and tired of people complaining about Michael killing his brother. They say it makes him an asshole big brother, I’ve seen some suggest it makes him just like his father, and I respectfully disagree. Michael is certainly not winning any Brother of the Year awards, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t find his relationship with his brother to be unrealistically cruel.

Michael doesn’t hurt his brother. He only scares him. That’s his entire goal. He’s a dick, yes, but he doesn’t seem to actively pursue harmjng his little brother.

Michael was never told the animatronics were dangerous. Michael was never told to stay away from them, and even if he was, it wasn’t terribly convincing. (“Son, the robot performers are super duper dangerous and you should never ever not once go near any of them. Now, here’s a dollar, go play near the robot performers.”)

Michael, if anything, is trying to get his brother to see that he’s overreacting. He’s trying to prove that they aren’t dangerous. He’s trying to show his brother that the animatronics won’t hurt him. He’s making fun of his brother, yes, but the fact that he gets him so close to the stage and goes so far as to put his head in Fredbear’s mouth tells me that he was basically doing something similar to shoving a worm in someone’s face. He was trying to scare him, yes, but then his brother would, we assume, see that nothing happened and would be shaken, but ultimately admit that Michael was right, the animatronics aren’t dangerous.

This, obviously, isn’t what happens. But I’m pretty sure Michael didn’t purposefully kill his brother and I’m even more sure that he wasn’t even trying to hurt him.

I have three older brothers. And, it was a similar situation in that the four of us were left to watch each other a lot while our parents were at work. And while I know my brothers are not the mold for all brothers, I also know that there’s a reason people talk about the “Cain Instinct.” Boys roughhouse. And, while not actively encouraged in Utah, it’s certainly not discouraged either.

Michael was being a dick, yes. But, the behaviour is similar to a child who doesn’t think that guns are dangerous, whether because they’re not told or because they’re left unsupervised with access to guns. This sort of incident is not without precedent. And while it was certainly stupid, Michael didn’t do anything that a dumb big brother wouldn’t do.

#fnaf #five nights at freddy's #michael afton #crying child #cc afton #i like when people call him cc #it’s technically a name or at least a nickname #but also it sounds like a band #‘up next: cc afton and spectacular sea otters’ #somethin like that #anyway #do i think michael afton is a bad brother? #no #do i think he’s a dumb kid? #yes #i don’t think michael did anything morally objectionable #in fact i’m gonna say it #i don’t think michael did anything wrong #he was effectively smearing mud on a germaphobe #he was being a dick #but he was also being a brother #there’s a reason bothers and brothers are only a letter apart #and it’s because brothers r bothers #the inane ramblings of a madman #long post #can you believe this post was just gonna be a little thing #haha like i can make an essay under five paragraphs long

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

May I request Mike finding a reader who runs the only still working Freddy’s? Like, Fazbear entertainment forgot about, there was never an incident there, no one has even heard of William, and everything runs fine, the animatronics are a bit old, like fnaf 1 era, but still function properly.

When Michael learns of another Fazbear establishment still running outside of Utah, he’s full of dread.

Surely his father was going to find his way there...and then all of those horrible things would continue. 

More kids will disappear, more animatronics will malfunction and kill innocent people..

He had to stop him! He had to see what was going on before anyone else got hurt.

So when he gets a job there and meets you, the manager, he’s perplexed that you’re not concerned about any of the “rumors” of past restaurants.

Not even the name “Afton” rings a bell. You just tell him nobody in town has ever heard of that name.

“....what?”

He thinks the company’s trying to make you cover up something.

But you insist that this place was long abandoned by Faz Ent (even before the Bite of 83) You came along to pick up the pieces and turn it into something wonderful--like cleaning off the old 90s-era animatronics and having mechanics regularly check on them.

Michael’s paranoia still runs deep and he takes the nightshift, promising to let you know if there’s any “bugs” or strange happenings like “confusing humans for endoskeletons”.

You find his insistence on watching motionless animatronics all night strange but give him the job anyway.

And...he finds that you’re correct. 

There’s no paranormal activity and they don’t move at all. Not even staring at him.

“A-Are you sure nobody has tried to..put someone inside the animatronic?” He asks you nervously m

“What--Mr. Afton, I can assure you there’s no way for a human to fit inside one of those. You should go home, get some rest.” You comfort, patting his shoulder as you hand him his overtime check.

And he does go home, feeling confused but also...relieved?

This was the only Freddy’s detached from Faz Ent that didn’t have any history of murders or freak accidents.

It was just a normal pizzeria with normal animatronics...the way all of the past establishments should’ve been.

He’s probably never gonna shake the fear that something could go horribly wrong, so he stays with this place. Just in case he ever comes back.

#clanask #anonymous #fnaf x reader #five nights at freddy's x reader #michael afton #michael afton x reader #headcanons #platonic

[afunfunkytime]

sorry my beloveds i was doing my homework smh those poetry essays do not be slaying

BUT

i got yall some juice<3

pennsylvania: eats sleeps and breathes football. reluctantly protects his idiot little brother gov. total history nerd. always has snacks. acts like his car radio isn't blasting all too well on his way too school. total swiftie. gov is paid to not tell anyone. watches the chocolate guy on tiktok religiously.

rhode island: frequently gets mistaken for a lost third grader. his friends put a booster seat in his car. claims hes not gay. liar. weirdly dramatic. gossip king. he knows everyone and everything. can be bribed. bites. still gets put on the child leash sometimes.

south carolina: brought a grill to school several times and set off the fire alarm making brisket. nobody knows how he got a whole grill in. pretends he's not related to north but will beat up people for his liddol brother. football player. acts like he's straight. somehow always plays his best when alabama is cheering for him. peculiar.

south dakota: sad. is the problem child. suspended most days. failing a lot of classes. passion for history and geography, but not school geography. mixed in with the bad kids. does sketchy shit in the school bathroom. this man cannot count. smells like blue raspberry and axe body spray in potentially lethal amounts. shower? who? not him.

tennessee: annoying guitar guy at parties. wears white cowboy boots everywhere he goes. band kid. listens to 9 to 5 religiously every morning as he drives to school. his water bottle is definitely not filled with water. got kicked out of religious studies for claiming dolly parton is god and writing a research paper about why he is correct. may or may not have a mullet. carries a guitar on his back everywhere. what do you mean he needs a backpack. music is life man, if dolly dont say it, he dont need it. fuck you calculus.

texas: wears a cowboy hat and boots every day. loud as fuck. pretends he isn't a nerd. dude is a math genius, he loves it, but he doesnt wanna look soft. how dare tough men be smart. big on the football team. dramatic enough to be a theatre kid. too in denial to actually do it. protects his liddol brother austin from anyone who looks at him wrong. has nightmares about cali and austin being friends.

utah: actually goes to bible study. wears a dress shirt, slacks, and a tie to school. nerd. actually has a girlfriend that goes to another school, the girls school across town that idc and hawai'i go to. utah is giving tryhard vibes. total teachers pet. snitch. ridiculously polite. gets very stressed about trivial things.

S C R E A M in solidarity with soup because these poetry essays got me screaming too

tomorrow is yalls last cup of juice ): what should i do next for yall <3

#wttt #wttsh #ben brainard #welcome to the statehouse #welcome to the table

[darklydeliciousdesires]

The Dream - Chapter Twenty One.

Huge thanks to everyone for their continued support :)

Previous chapters - Prologue  One  Two  Three  Four  Five  Six  Seven  Eight  Nine  Ten  Eleven  Twelve  Thirteen  Fourteen  Fifteen  Sixteen  Seventeen  Eighteen  Nineteen  Twenty

Tag list - In the comments, please DM to be added/removed (note: those not engaging will be automatically removed from the tag list, FYI)

Words - 3,294 

Warnings - 18+ content throughout, minors DNI!

“Hello, Keri, my love! I am so sorry, a thousand apologies for calling you on a Saturday morning when I know you’ve likely been out last night getting very, very drunk!”

Those warm tones of a mostly Indian accent, punctuated every so often with little American twangs, were the last she expected to hear at 10am that morning, getting out of bed and heading into the bathroom so as not to wake Angel.  

“Uncle Sunni!” she gushed excitedly, softly clicking the door shut and closing the toilet lid to take a seat.

“The one and only!” he chirped, Keri grinning widely. She swore, for every year that she’d known him, his accent had gotten stronger for returning to his parent’s homeland. “How are you, darling?”

“I’m really good! How are you and aunt Bee? And my cousins?”  

“We are all very well, thank you for asking. Saanvi has decided she is a Miley Cyrus girl now, so this is all we have playing in the house, Sita is doing well with her dance classes, and Sanjay is awful. Please come and take him away!” His joke about their youngest had her in soft fits, Sunni continuing. “Listen, I was calling to get a hold of my brother-in-law, is he around? I cannot get through to his cell, your mother’s neither,” he spoke, hoping that all was okay with the family.  

“Well, mom is in at work today doing some overtime, and I think David might be working on his truck. I don’t know, I’m not at home right now,” she revealed, finger combing her messy hair.  

“Ahh, I shall keep trying him, then. He is probably listening to that bloody god-awful Rainbow music. Since you’ve been gone? Since I wish you would go, more like!” he exclaimed, snorting with laughter.  

“That’s a classic!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, classic nothing!” Sunni yelled, his volume making her laugh. He always got louder by about twenty decibels whenever excited or trying to make a point. “That and his Boomtown Rats! I don’t like Monday’s? Nobody does, Bob Geldof! Bloody sit down and be quiet!”

She sat there in hysterics at his usual comic observations. Sunni was one of very few people who could legitimately make her cry laugh, her sides hurting. Usually from the hilarious banter he and Bee got into together, or the berating of her stepdad’s taste in music.  

“So where are you, then? You say you’re not at home, are you in work? Did I disturb? I am sorry if I’m getting you into trouble,” he then asked, courteous as always.  

“No, I quit my job recently. I needed more time at the weekends, plus with leaving college approaching and not wanting to have anything to tie me down so I can travel a little, I needed to do it soon anyway,” she began in explanation. “I’m at a hotel right now, my boyfriend is up visiting from Southern Cali.”

The noise of interest Sunni made had her in fits once more. “Oh! There is a new boyfriend on the scene! Have you been with him for long? Would I approve? What is he like?” She sat and gave him a brief outline of Angel to pacify his multiple questions, Sunni making little ‘umhm’ noises as she spoke.

“It sounds like you are very happy with this man, early days or not! I would fetch your auntie for you to have your obligatory girl’s talk, but it is her turn currently trying to get Sanjay to bed, and he is being an absolute horror about it!” Her youngest cousin Sanjay had just turned two and was most definitely living up to the term terrible two’s. “Anyway, I might as well tell you why I was trying to call David, share with you our news. I have been accepted for a post at Utah Valley Speciality Hospital, so good news, darling. We are returning to America.”  

“Oh my god!” she screamed, suddenly clasping a hand over her mouth. “Oh my god, that’s amazing!” she then added much more quietly, drumming her feet softly against the tiled floor. “I can’t wait! When do you come back?”

“Not for another three months, just while we finish getting everything sorted at this end, selling the house, etcetera. We didn’t tell anybody, just in case it didn’t come through, but now that it has and there is also a chance that your aunt could have a job also opening up at the same hospital, now that Sanjay is of preschool age and she can return to work, we felt confident in sharing the news.” he explained, delighted at his niece’s reaction.  

They chatted for a short time longer before ending their call, Keri absolutely ecstatic to have some of her favourite family members returning. Tying her hair up, she brushed her teeth and took a quick shower, coming out to find Angel checking his phone.

“What was all the excitement for? I heard a squeal of ‘oh my god’,” he grumbled, still sounding half asleep as he placed his phone back down, a hand sliding into her towel to stroke her hip.  

“That was my uncle on the phone. He was trying to get a hold of my parents, but they’re not picking up. Anyway, he told me he and Bee are moving back over here, he’s got a job at a local hospital, so I’m over the moon that I’ll be able to see them regularly instead of once a year,” she shared.

“Yeah? That’s great, baby. I know you hated that they lived halfway around the world,” he replied brightly, just as his stomach began to growl. She raised an eyebrow, shaking her head as she leaned to kiss his abdomen. “I think I need feeding.”  

An hour later and they were sitting inside a small restaurant, hard wood surfaces, Edison light bulbs and plants strewn over the large shelves that flanked the black walls, Keri bouncing in her seat with excitement at one particular dish on the menu.

Angel looked over at her with a smile. “You just saw the peanut butter pancakes, didn’t you?”

“I did!” she squeaked. How well he knew her. Anything with peanut butter, and Keri was on it in an instant.  

Reaching for her hand, he squeezed it gently, thinking how adorable she was. “Y’all a hundred percent too cute, mamacita.” Her beamed smile made his heart skip a beat, sitting there feeling like he was the luckiest guy in the world. While the waited for their food, they sat and discussed her ever nearing departure from college, meaning that for the following three weeks they wouldn’t be able to meet with her workload going into overdrive in preparation to finish, but when she did, she had some plans.  

“I’m going to book going over to Galway, but not for as long as I originally wanted to. If you could come then that’d be great, I think Aaron and Rachel are down, Frankie too. Jaime won’t be because of work. So yeah, we’re planning on that to be for two weeks. Then I was thinking of driving down to Santo Padre, maybe basing myself there for a while, travelling around Cali. If you don’t mind, that is?”

He put on a thoughtful face, scratching his chin. “Hmm, do I mind having my beautiful, sexy, funny, amazing girlfriend around more often? Hmm, lemme think on that.” She began laughing softly through her nose, leaning over to kiss him. “Of course, I don’t mind.” Despite the joviality of his statement, he felt a pit in his stomach at hearing her plans to travel. He pushed it down, though, reasoning that she wanted to stay with him in her time between.

“Good, because you’re stuck with me now.” There was truly nobody he’d rather be stuck with. Their weekend went by in a blur, Keri holding him tightly before he departed, crying in his arms at how much she anticipated she was going to miss him. He hated leaving her behind whenever he had to go home again, but the buzz inside of knowing he’d get so much more time with her over the spring and summer alleviated the sadness of being separated from her.

While they were parted, he took his mind off it by putting in some serious time around the yard, taking on extra shifts, deciding to re-decorate his bedroom and make it look a little better than the mismatching bare essentials vibe, seeking some advice from a certain lady.

“You need a theme!” Sharise exclaimed, taking a cart from the front of the local homeware store, buzzing already. If Mrs Reyes thrived on anything, it was a decoration project.  

He viewed her with mild disgust, his nose crinkling. “A theme? Nope. I saw a picture online and I want that. Dark green walls, white ceiling. I got new furniture on the way, too. I just need things to make it look less empty.”

“Rug, lamps, artwork, candles,” Sharise began to list.

“No candles!”

“Yes, candles!” she stated emphatically. “Keri likes them, she told me which is her favourite. Black coconut by Yankee, and they sell them here.”  

He took a pause for a moment, his brow creasing. “Are you two making plans behind my back? Is this a little scheme you’ve cooked up to get some damned chick litter all up in my space?”

Sharise threw her head back, entertained at the chick litter term. “No! We were chatting the other night, she replied to one of my stories I put up with my candle collection all burning, and she mentioned she liked Yankee candles about as much as I do. Us girls talk about things like that, you know.”  

“Hmph.” His mutter was then followed by a speedy swerve around the cart, Sharise attempting to put some large cushions into it. ”No cushions! My couch is fine as it is!”

“These are for the bed,” she clarified, gently slapping his arms, grabbing two more that were slightly darker.  

“I got pillows, I don’t need ‘em!”

“They’ll finish the bed nicely, add a little depth of comfort.”

His face was a picture of confusion. “They add... what?”

“And when you’re having sex, you can pop a couple underneath your lady and they’ll tilt her hips in a way that means you get to hit a whole other host of different angles.”

He nodded, gesturing to the previously frowned upon items. “Alright, they can stay.” She grinned, tossing her braids over her shoulder as they continued, smug that she knew exactly what to say in order to get around his protests. He was, as she expected, still difficult, though.

“Sharise! Put it back,” he ordered, pointing as she wrestled with a giant, white sheepskin rug from the rolls gathered at the back of the store.

“You’re going for bare floorboards, right?”

He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I am.”

“Then you need a nice rug to tie the room together!”

Depth of comfort and tying the room together. Her chosen language was completely lost on him. “But then I gotta vacuum the damned thing!” His complaint was accompanied by a little show of drama, folding his arms over the cart handle, resting his head down and regretting his decision to involve his sister-in-law.

“No, because the fleece is too long, it’ll get caught in the rollers. You just go shake it outside, et voila! Done.” Into the cart it went, Angel muttering in mild despair. Fluffy rugs. Was this what his life had become?  

The rest of the store was browsed rapidly, Angel actually being able to make his own choices, loading up on photo frames he planned to put some of Keri’s photographs into after he’d had them blown up, a set of white plaster skulls that looked remarkably like the real thing, Sharise adding bits and pieces as she went for both him and herself. The large, black and grey vase with black birch twigs was not one of his choices, but he allowed it. Begrudgingly.  

“So, you seem to be very content with Keri, then, with this talk of her coming to stay for a while,” Sharise observed, finishing the large mouthful of Cuban sandwich she’d just taken at a bar she’d driven them to, telling Angel she’d at least buy him lunch in apology for terrorising him in the home décor stakes.

He smiled, thinking of her. “I really am, she’s cool. Can’t wait to have her come kinda live with me, even though I think it’ll only be temporary.”

She noticed he sounded a little dejected by that. “Because of her travelling? You two are so sillily in love with one another, I can see her making Santo Padre her base when she isn’t, you know. I know it’s still early days, but you two fit together so well.”

He scratched the back of his neck, his brow furrowing. “I sometimes wonder if I’m the one who’ll be temporary. She’s so ambitious, and young still, too. Makes me wonder if we’ll last.”  

“Well, just see how it goes, but don’t write off a future with her just because she has ambitions!” she gently suggested, reaching to squeeze his hand. “She doesn’t have to be around you all the time to be in a committed relationship with you.”

He snorted softly, looking uncomfortable, clamming up as she predicted he would. She would press, though. She’d heard of this before. “I did wonder, when you’d have your wobble.” His frown prompted her to continue. “Lucy told me, that back when you guys got together, you had a little bit of a freak out over whether she’d meet anyone else, and I suppose that’s rearing its ugly head again, with talk of Keri going off travelling around. You think she’s going to meet someone you assume to be better, don’t you?”  

He grunted.  

“Angel,” she spoke softly, reaching to stroke his face, tilting his head up. “You need to start putting to bed these feelings that you aren’t good enough. You are. Did Lucy find anyone else? Nope. So, there’s no saying Keri is going to. She’s crazy about you, for heaven’s sake! And I know what you’re gonna say, that other women in the past have only seen you as a short-term fling, but my love, that’s because it’s all you’ve offered to them, whether consciously or not.”  

“Yeah, yeah I guess you’re right," he finally admitted, realising that it was his self-sabotage coming back to haunt him. As soon as he fell in love, it was only a matter of time before it came bubbling up to the surface, his fears of loss, of not being good enough.  

He’d been pushing it down into his darkest depths for the last two weeks, ever since they’d confessed their love. It had been festering a little closer to the surface since her talk of travelling over breakfast the last time he’d seen her, though. The little pit in his stomach he’d felt? It had predictably taken root, no matter how much he didn’t want it to.  

Looking over at Sharise, he felt his little padlocked gate begin to strain. If there was one woman he always opened up to, it was her. “I don’t want to wreck it all, but I’m kinda scared I will. I can’t just be happy. My fucking brain has to freak out and cause drama. Which I usually then fuckin’ thrive on.”  

It suddenly clicked with Sharise, the sprucing up of his home. He wanted to hopefully make Keri feel as if it was hers, too. He wanted to find more ways to entice her return, hence doing away with the bachelor pad look, albeit with slight reluctance. Oh, he was too adorable, in such a beautifully, partially broken way. From what Keri had told her in exchanges messages, chatting online in order to get to know each other more, he had no reason to feel insecure. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t. People were rarely so simple.  

“Angel, the only way you’re going to wreck it is by listening to that toxic little voice in the back of your head instead of Keri. Have faith. She came into your life for a reason. There’s no way that dreaming of her before you even met her is anything less than destiny. Believe in it. You were doing great until you let the panic creep in.” Taking another bite of her sandwich, she winked, Angel determined to take her advice on board.  

It didn’t help that he was only a week into a three-week separation from her, but he did work hard to keep Sharise’s advice in mind. As if the universe had heard his doubts, he received a notification one night, painting well into the small hours after returning from dealing with club affairs, wiping his hand on a spare piece of cloth as he crawled over the painting sheets to grab his phone. Keri had tagged him in an Instagram post.  

‘I don’t even know how one man can be so amazing. He’s the sexiest, the funniest, the loveliest, the best. I miss you, gorgeous. Can’t wait until this is us again.’

He smiled at viewing the image, one Keri had taken in the hotel room on the bed as she’d sat astride him, her hand reached out cupping his cheek, Angel smiling up at her as the sun shone in through the window and bathed him in bright light. He remembered just how happy he’d felt, when she’d taken it, his heart fluttering at the memory, scrolling to his call list and tapping her name.  

“Hey, you free to talk?”

“I am, I have a few spare minutes,” she replied, waiting for her coffee to pour, prepared to work right on through until the morning and then sleep for a few hours before she started again. “How are you? I hate that tomorrow is Saturday and I won’t have you here. Sucks.”

He was surprised to hear she was still up doing her work, since she’d mentioned earlier when they’d messaged that she’d be spending the entire day doing such. “You got some serious dedication there, for it to be 1am and you’re still working. As for me, yeah, I’m alright. Missing you like fuck, though.”  

She made a soft noise in her throat, picking up her large mug of coffee (a two-pod creation) and turning the machine off. “I miss you too! Two weeks and I’ll be free, though, get to come and spend ten days with you before Galway. Did you ask Bish, if you can swing that kind of time away?”

“I did,” he sighed, “and I can’t. I could come for a week, but he can’t lose me for two.”

She was bright in her reply, all optimism. “Well, that’s better than nothing! Come out with us for the week, then head home. How about that? I’d rather at least have you there for a short time rather than not at all. These places I want to travel to, having you there by my side would mean so much. I know it’s corny, but the whole making memories thing is important, you know?”

Her words made him smile, the more rational side of him seeing clearly how stupid his self-doubt was. He knew he wouldn’t likely overcome it immediately, but what she told him had helped. “Yeah, querida, I know. I love you.”

“And I love you too. Listen, I have to hit the laptop again, but I’ll call you tomorrow, after I’ve had some sleep. Night, gorgeous.”

“Night baby.” Ending the call, he looked around at the half-painted walls. They weren’t the only work in progress.  

#angel reyes #Angel reyes fanfiction #angel reyes fanfic #angel reyes fic #angel reyes smut #Angel reyes imagine #mayans mc #mayans mc fanfiction #mayans mc fanfic #mayans mc smut #mayans mc imagine

[forgottenspring]

A whole new level to being the supposedly "closeted" gay cousin at Thanksgiving. I know this may not get notes/views, but I was reminded of this today. So I wanted to share a wild "Me the Gay Cousin at Thanksgiving" story from two years ago that felt right out of a 90s sit com special episode.

Since I'm spending this Thanksgiving chilling with a friend instead, I realized yall might like to hear this story.

In my family my sister and I are the only two of our age. The rest of the cousins are MUCH young than us. Us being young adults and our cousins being lil gremlin preteen boys. We're talking like 10 boys overall and our two lil bros, and two newly not toddler girls at the time.

So bc of this my sister and I always sit at the kids table bc our uncles and aunts didn't want us excluded and feeling we couldn't be kids. (I am now 25 turning 26 for context, so I was about 23).

So, I know my family is highly religious and horribly homophobic/transphobic. So lil pagan nonbinary lesbian cupio aroace me has been squeaking by bc I've been holding my tongue and refusing to date in Utah around family for years in the past. Unless it was a group date with friends and the guy asked me out.

So imagine my shock when me and my lil bros and dude cousins are chilling on the floor playing a board game (my sister was at a friend's house that year) bc I don't want to hear the adults say anything that will rile me up bc I really don't want to be outed this year.

And right after I finish my turn, my kid cousin slides over a whiteboard and I look down and freeze in shock. It says "R U Gay?" And I'm knowing his parents are especially homophobic. And what I was afraid of AKA I'm out of the closet and tired, I wrote "Yes" and turned back to the game. He froze and squeaked out a "What!?" And he whispers back to me asking if it's true, as if I just admitted I was insane. And I shrug, trying to play it cool as I realize suddenly the ramifications of it and freaking out now bc he's a blabbermouth. I see both my brothers make eye contact to make sure I'm okay, which I nod to them. I then whisper back to my cousin and go "Yeah" and he tells me that's wrong bc nobody's gay and if they are they're evil, it's a joke you ask ppl in school. And I realize I have to walk this back immediately before my aunt and uncle are told and I'm outed on Thanksgiving and I haven't even come out to my dad yet.

So I shrug tell him I know a lot of people at school who are gay and they're really sweet people. And lie and tell him I'm not gay that I was just playing into the joke. He seems shocked that gay people exist and I know them. But finally after a bit he nods thinking nothing of it, but at least he's cooler about the gay topic I guess and I just survived.

I go downstairs where the adults are hanging bc the boys are running around in the snow and I'm wanting to try being with the adults, since I am one, for a minute. And to nobody's shock after a bit of joking around and stuff, my dad, aunts, uncles, and grandma are raving about "These people nowadays pushing their politics and gay agenda." I don't know how to react, so after a few minutes, I turn around and go back upstairs realizing what could have happened that night.

Luckily I came out later on to my dad and my siblings have already known for years so I felt less bad. But overall it really felt odd when I was put on the spot like that and then hearing my family talk like that. Like-... It felt like something you hear about on TV shows and go "That's such a contrived scene that doesn't happen in real life." And in that moment I was processing the whole scenario and less if I wanted to come out or not.

So anyways probs going to avoid Thanksgiving moving forward for multiple reasons, but mainly for the fact that I can't stay in the closet anymore bc I've been out for too long and I WILL get into arguments over gay/trans rights without thinking bc I'm tired and bad at staying in the closet. And the few ppl in my family who know other than my sibs have reacted oddly to horribly. And I really would prefer not being ostracized from the family whose already pretty sure I'm somehow gay bc I didn't pray enough or something rn bc I'm tired and in an unstable place that if I need to stay with a relative I'd like not for it to be being hate crimed 24/7. But I live in a different state than my family now and much better for it.

I have a good group of friends that are family to me now and I know I'll be okay. And I'm happy and living my best life rn and enjoy every day I'm being myself around ppl who accept and love me. But it still hurts to think about some days y'know.

TLDR: My preteen cousin asked on a whiteboard "R U GAY?" two years ago and I nearly outed myself on Thanksgiving to my religious homophobic family, bc I didn't realize he was doing a middle school prank.

#TLDR at End. #Just wanted to get it off my chest bc it's rlly coming to mind rn. #thanksgiving #gay cousin #gay thanksgiving #lgbtq+ #lesbian #nonbinary #aromantic #asexual #aroace #cupioromantic #ose

[heathersdesk]

Guys. You guys. He had a PSYCHIC.

And not just any psychic.

A psychic who was receiving messages from

*and I kid you not*

the prophet Nephi. Like, from The Book of Mormon. THAT Nephi.

That's how Tim Ballard was trying to find trafficked kids. Taking directions from a woman who thinks she can talk to a dead prophet. All in hopes that it would convince people to join the Church.

And his delusions have gotten so bad, the Church made a statement that as good as calls Tim Ballard a liar for using Elder Ballard's name to advance himself and give the crazy things he was saying some kind of credibility.

I tell you all that to say this:

Just because something is published or sold at Deseret Book doesn't make it true.

Just because someone says they are close to church leadership doesn't mean they're trustworthy.

Just because they tell you they're helping children doesn't mean that's what they're actually achieving. Wanting to help is not the same thing as knowing how, and doing it in such a way that doesn't put even more people in danger.

Just because someone is a member of the Church doesn't mean they're automatically a good person. It doesn't mean you can trust them with your money, your name, or anything else you care about.

If something sounds too good to be true, like some schmoe who is a literal nobody rescuing kids from human trafficking, it probably is!

Tim Ballard is a grifter. The fact that there are large swaths of the Church who won't recognize him as a grifter, even now that the Church has rejected the narrative he's spinning, is astounding.

So yeah. The Sound of Freedom is fictional. Tim Ballard is a con artist. Everything he says and does is to advance his own ambitions and to make him money. And if he does end up running for office in Utah and y'all vote for him, you can't say you weren't warned.

#mormon #lds #mormonism #the church of jesus christ of latter day saints #religion #faith #tim ballard #sound of freedom

[wehaveagathering]

Ok I'm about to tinhat but I think I'm right, so bear with me

the NHL knew that these guys were gonna get charged, and they worked out a deal with the London Ontario police dept to release the information at this particular time. Right before the All star game? All of this in the news cycle and fanbase is gonna get absolutely eclipsed by the ASG and while people are still going to talk about it, more people are gonna be talking about the ASG. And we know that police depts are absolutely corrupt to their bones, you're telling me that they wouldn't take yummy NHL money to keep something like this quiet for a little while? as @samuelbennett so helpfully informed me, Hart and Dube were in the final years of their contract, with Foote and McLeod on one-year contracts. E.M. came forward in 2022. Did they wait for two years for justice so teams wouldn't lose money? A month before the trade deadline? Right before the All-Star Game? And all those fucking "illnesses" Hart had earlier in the season? the "bad fish?" is that what we're calling it?

no fucking chance. The cops knew in November – at least – if not earlier, if we're thinking way long-term, especially considering a trial might not happen until 2026 – & the NHL paid them to keep it quiet til now, when they knew that people's thought processes would get suddenly interrupted by the ASG, and no one would think too hard about it. The blatant attempt to redirect attention by announcing a potential Utah expansion team? No way. Also staged, to make them look less intelligent than they really were, so nobody would accuse them of exactly what I'm accusing them of right now. "The NHL is so stupid if they think they can redirect our attention with the expansion team news" no. the NHL is not just gary bettman in his ivory tower. The NHL has leagues of lawyers and PR reps and god only fucking knows who advising them. The NHL wants you to think they're stupid. The NHL knows that you're dropping, hard, and they are going to cushion your fall with the All-Star Weekend, and you're going to like it.

#sa cw

[ever-fics]

Rock you Like a Hurricane PT1:

New message:

A Notification pops up on the arcade machine

UtahSuperstar7:

Hi,Sorry to startle you . I’m not a stalker I swear.. I thought I programmed this so it would display my name and not my user name.

Anyway I’ve hacked this…

Its my favorite game. Anyway dont tell anyone I

hacked this please… I need to stay long enough to get information

___________________________________

Michael sighs… knowing he has to get them off the machine before his Dad figures out its been hacked… he begins to type back.

___________________________________

Player 1:

Why do you need information?___________________________________

UtahSuperstar7:

Long story…. I would say I was looking for somone but uh…After a while you get to a point you’ll even settle for answers.

___________________________________

The message and the user name combined gives Michael a good enough guess as to who he’s talking to…

He just… hasn’t seen her in years and didn’t know she could hack but given its her he is talking to it doesn’t surprise him.

___________________________________

Player 1:

Wait a Hot minute I recognize your username…somebody used it as some sort of sports nickname…

___________________________________

Michael smirks as he types it hoping she will correct him on the sports part or just admit who she is. ___________________________________

UtahSuperstar7:

Please. Tell me you weren't at Hurricane High anywhere

between 85 -88?

___________________________________

That was not the response Michael wanted or expected but it still makes him more certain he’s talking to Y/N…

___________________________________

Player 1:

No can do…

___________________________________

UtahSuperstar7:

Okay well maybe you are wrong and you dont recognize the nickname? xP

___________________________________

Player 1:

Superstar of Utah…Y/N?

Cheer Captain?

___________________________________

UtahSuperstar7:

Nobody calls me that …

___________________________________

Michael had forgotten about that that her real name reminded her of her dead sister so she adopted a nickname a while back…

___________________________________

Player 1:

You’re looking for Suzie aren’t you?

___________________________________

UtahSuperstar7:

Who the hell are you and what do you know about my sister?

___________________________________

Michael … didn’t know how to answer that one … oh Yeah my Dad murdered your sister and stuffed her corpse into a baby chicken robot… yeah Um… No … especially not to her…

_________________________________

Player 1:

About as much as you Unfortunately. That she disappeared at a Halloween party …in 1980

_________________________________

Utahsuperstar7:

Again Who the hell are you and what do you know about my sister?…

_________________________________

Player 1:

Y/N …Im…Im sorry… for everything. For.. I shouldnt have let them smash your cassettes..

Rock is actually … kinda rad….

________________________________

UtahSuperstar7:

Of course this would end up being you…Look Whatever screwed up prank your pulling this isnt Candid camera.

ok, so save it. I …

________________________________

Player 1:

No I…. I mean it… I didn’t Know how

badly I had hurt you until it was too late ...

________________________________

UtahSuperstar7:

You have one thing right…

________________________________

Player 1:

And what would that be?

________________________________

Utahsuperstar7:

That its too late…

The person I used to be disapeared with my sister .

________________________________

That. That’s why she joined… cheer? To forget? To be someone else… she … never

________________________________

Player 1:

Wait… you never rebought the albums again?

________________________________

Utahsuperstar7:

Think of one reason I should have…

Bowie, Mecury , music in general you dont need it to live…

Suzie She had made a note before… to try and fix them she took them out of the..trash.

I was so annoyed with her because she stole my …doll after I agreed to be dress like it ffor halloween… I… whatever happened to her… I never got to tell her… The last thing I said to her… was I .. I wished I didn’t have a sister.

Look I liked rock once I liked a lot of things once. What was it you all said … No wonder I watch star…bullshit considering Im basically an alien myself?

How are you surprised I got the message loud and clear? The only reason I would’ve listened to it is… because she convinced me … before she disappeared before she stole my doll before the fight ….

I cant Listen to Hard Rock anymore … it … reminds me too much of her.

________________________________

Player 1:

Good thing those aren’t hard rock then…

________________________________

Utahsuperstar7:

Im sorry what?

________________________________

Player 1:

Those aren’t Hard rock they are Glam Rock…

________________________________

Utahsuperstar7:

how do you know…wait a minute!!!

You secretly listened to them too didn’t you?

Hypocrite…

________________________________

Michael was laughing he’d.. missed that…

However, as he went to reply the screen went Dark only a white glitching text Saying Error and a frozen chat box from

???:

Stop!

talking about what happened to me…

It hurts her. I wont let her hurt

like I do…

Stop!

The electrical outlet the games plugged into crackles and begins to steam ending whatever conversation Michael had been having

#michael afton fluff #michael afton headcanons #michael afton x reader #fnaf x reader #fnafxfem!reader #michael afton xfem!reader #mike afton #mikeaftonxreader #mike afton x reader #mikeaftonxY/n #michaelaftonfanfic #michealaftonfanfiction #fnaf fanfic #fnaf fanfiction #fnafchatfic #five nights at freddy's #five nights at freddys fanfiction

[mourninglamby]

Alright the angry mob appears to have died down a bit and I’m a tad calmer than I was when it first came out so I’m gonna. Talk about my thoughts on that stream a bit. Tw mentions of suicide bc that’s. What the arc was about (looks at Wilbur with bloodshot angry bleeding glazed over eyes and explodes his liver with my mind)

First things first I still can’t rewatch that lore stream like regardless of my opinion on how poorly done the end of that arc was it is so legitimately (I hate this word sorry) triggering to see ctommy say that stuff to him I can’t do it brah… and the fact that he didn’t add the trigger warning until midway through the stream is laughably irresponsible (I was not laughing I was hyperventilating but I’m laughing now). So my memory of the stream might be a bit faulty and I’m sorry if I get shit wrong pero oh well.

I don’t know how any of u are making jokes out of this I genuinely can’t fathom how this is funny .. maybe I’m just a hater but the Utah shit was just so insanely stupid like hey I’m gonna bait u guys into thinking my character is understandably and realistically suicidal again for months with red flags and mentions of ‘leaving where nobody can find me’ popping up in every damn apology stream mixed with mentions and confirmations of his previous mental health issues. and then we’re gonna. throw away any nuanced message about any of that and the process of choosing to heal and stay in this world for your loved ones who are literally BEGGING YOU NOT TO LEAVE out the window for some half baked immersion shattering “joke.”

Disagree with my reluctance to see this as lighthearted and “not that deep” all you want but the trigger warning was added (albeit late) for a reason. If you make an arc that makes people so nervous your character who has ALREADY COMPLETED A SUICIDE ATTEMPT ONCE might do it again that they’re making hundreds of meme images and pictures to act as some kind of uncomfortable lulling reassurance that we might get SOME semblance of a good ending then …. U may not want to like idk treat it like a joke.

I didn’t want him to kill himself. I think if he had conveyed to the audience that someone telling him “stay, I need you, I love you,” meant enough to him that he decided to change his mind, and then told ctommy he was going to get better somehow before he saw him again, I would have been fine with that. That’s like. The perfect outcome for me. I know c!crime are codependent. I know they have work to do. But can you like … srsly sit there and tell me what we got instead was ANY better.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that c!dream is still out there brah… cwilbur essentially poked the bear with the inconsolable differences stream and then bounced. like also dreams initial goal of reviving Wilbur solely to torture tommy worked. It legit just worked lmfao. WILBUR DIDNT EVEN APOLOGIZE FOR THE PIT THAT HE CONSISTENTLY BROUGHT UP. you guys… please tell me I’m not just a hater and ur all joking to make urselves feel better abt how awful that was… PLEASEEEE

#rant #I’m not gonna main tag lol

[luckylolabug]

So since we don't have official locations for what part of the area the characters ACTUALLY live in, I have THOUGHTS as someone who actually grew up in SLC. Or at least for these two, can you tell I've thought a lot about this.

Seb: So the only thing we know about his housing situation is that he lives on a farm. Believe it or not, there aren't farms running around in downtown SLC. So my personal belief is they're up further north, likely in Farmington. Which is like a 30 minute commute to East High, but logistically that's the only thing that makes sense to me because you don't really start seeing farmland until you get up to like, Woods Cross. Plus I just think it would be funny if the Matthew-Smiths lived in a city called FARMINGTON. (Bonus: Why has nobody written a fic about Seblos doing a date at Lagoon yet? ITS RIGHT THERE. Do I need to do this myself?)

Carlos: We know he's got CASH, so there's really only one acceptable answer here. He's gotta live in the Broadway District somewhere, because that neighborhood is RITSY as fuck. Like, apartments and condos running $700,000 kind of expensive. The nice thing about this, is it's pretty close to East High, like ten minutes or so. Not a super long drive. I also feel like his family has a ski lodge up in Park City somewhere because come on. Park City is where all the rich people in Utah spend their winter breaks when they aren't flying somewhere tropical.

#at some point i could probably pinpoint locations for the whole cast #its midnight and ive been wrestling with this thought for hours #hsmtmts #seblos #carlos rodriguez #seb matthew smith #bugs rambles

[ask-the-usa-manor]

you weren't just friends were you.

friends with benefits more accurately

“You’re right,” Iowa nodded, “They could of been best friends.”

Now to the Council of the Big Brothers™️ who have gathered in the kitchen, out of earshot from Iowa’s room.

“What do you mean nobody’s ever f**kin’ told him!?” New York asked, feeling a migraine coming on.

“I mean nobody’s ever f**kin’ told him!” Ohio snapped back.

“How does that even happen? He’s a grown-ass man!” Connecticut exclaimed, “16 years away from being 200!”

“All your dirty jokes, and you've never told one in front of Iowa?” Delaware asked Rhode Island incredulously.

“Hey, have some faith in me!” Rhode Island remarked, “Of course I did! Once! But he just gave me a confused laugh!”

“He went to school, right guys?” Massachusetts looked around the room desperately, “Right guys??”

“I… May have let him ditch the day when that specific topic was being brought up,” Arkansas confessed, “I thought he already knew.”

“Maybe one of the younger states told him about it?” Vermont suggested.

“Why the f**k would one of the younger states tell him?” New Jersey hissed, “Stop the wishful thinking. He doesn’t know.”

“Alright…” Michigan sighed, “So how do we tell him?”

“We just pawn this problem off on Dad,” Alabama suggested.

“No!” Illinois exclaimed, “Then he’ll find out we brushed off his request before.”

“Y’all are worrying too much over this,” Texas said, “Can’t we just hand him a book or something?”

“Oh! We can bake him a cake,” Kentucky suggested.

“We aren’t frosting the entirety of The Talk on a cake again, Kenny,” Tennessee denied, “Last time we tried that, Utah ate it without reading it. Iowa might do the same.”

“‘Oh here, have a cake, you’ve been lied to for your entire life! People f**k!’” New York mocked Kentucky, imitating his voice, “Anybody have any real ideas?”

“Listen, if this is such a big deal,” Florida joined in, starting to head over to the door, “I can tell him.”

“Oh, no you’re not!” DC grabbed Florida’s arm, “I don’t like the look on your face. You’re going to make something up. We don’t need a repeat of Arizona!”

“Ayuh,” Maine nodded, “You traumatized the poor kid.”

“Hey, here’s an idea,” Louisiana spoke up, “How about we just… Don’t?”

Everyone paused and turned to Louisiana.

“Louie,” Alabama raised an eyebrow, “What are you on about?”

“Who says we have to tell him? I’m sure he’ll figure it out for himself if he hasn’t already,” Louisiana continued, “Even if it takes him awhile, it doesn’t have to be our issue. Or maybe that’s just me being classic Lazy Louie.”

“On one hand, that sounds irresponsible,” Massachusetts thought out loud, “But on the other… It would save us from the trouble. All in favor of ignoring this issue and letting Iowa find out for himself?”

The sound of ‘I’ rang through the room.

“All opposed?”

Crickets.

“Well. That solves that,” Massachusetts hopped off of the counter he was sitting on, “Meeting dispersed!”

#Oh yeah Iowa’s never finding out

[safyresky]

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask: ALL the answers!

Got sent this ages ago, just found it again today and ah. Decided that I'm feeling especially unhinged and I will answer all of them, whether you like it or not (and whether it is asked or not). Sticking it under a read more so that I don't clog up dashes :)

😅 What’s a story or scene you’ve created that you’re a smidge embarrassed exists?

Somewhere on one of my old harddrives. There exists a snippet of the start of a smut scene between two of my characters from my sim city I turned into a story. It is only about. 300 words. but it makes me blush very much these days

There also exists, in an old notebook, a draft of Crystal Springs in which PYROS was Jack/Jacqueline's real Dad and no, I will not elaborate

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Any sibling bonding. Makes me soft.

Same with the fucking uh, GIRLFRIENDS (Dite and Jacqueline). ANY time they are romantic I die.

And I wrote those bits

I am dying mySELF! Fuck!

🤡 What’s a line, scene, or exchange you’ve written that made you laugh?

So fucking many, but my all time favourite that nobody caught is the following:

"There's another thing," Curtis said. "The clause involves a sort of de-Santafication process. As we get closer to the date, Santa becomes less Santa and more, well, himself. Before the Santa thing happened. What do we do if Santa notices and finds out about the clause?"

"We send him to Utah," Bernard said. Curtis made an odd noise.

The joke here being that for WHATEVER reason in the Santa Clause 2, the marriage is valid anywhere EXCEPT for in the state of Utah. Why? Idk. But I thought this line was so funny and nobody seems to have picked up on it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

any Elle mentions in Frostmas are written with the intent to cause physical damage, especially to Ana (sorry not sorry boo ;)

When Jacqueline breaks out of Pyros's control and tells Jack to kick his ass, and promptly goes into magic coma >:)

✍ Do you have a beta reader?

No, I do not. I read everything three times before I post; and then a couple days after I post to catch typos I may have skimmed over

Do I want a beta? Not particularly! I already update in long increments of time as is, could you imagine if I had to wait for fics to be beta'd as well? YIKES

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Evil Uncles (idk why. My two uncles are not evil; one is weird in a bad way and the other is a jerk butt. But not evil.)

Families that communicate their issues; fuck miscommunication as a plotline, all my homies hate miscommunication as a plotline

Pathetic fallacy. I'm always a slut for pathetic fallacy >:)

Hurt/Comfort, Humour, healthy doses of angst

The most chaotic scenes you could ever imagine (perks to writing about magical beings!)

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

FROSTMAS!

This fucking FIC I SWEAR

She has given me migranes. She is a game I play, in which I have to give the heroes a chance but also let them fail bc the real villain of Frostmas is ME

And like. We KNOW Frostmas happens for 12 years, ok, so like. BMan and Jacquie Beans cannot win! Not until Year 12 and even then, THEY DON'T DO THE WINNING

I have to stay three steps ahead of them at all times and it is EXHAUSTING, villains do NOT get paid enough/sppreciated enough, geezus

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

the dialogue is AMAZING

the humour fits in WELL

and man am I good at portraying siblings or WHAT

and why do tsc ocs i write fit so well into the universe, wtf is up with that

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

They're nice :)

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I do indeed!

Panic at the Disoc was on loop for Fusion AU as a fun fact

Usually it's instrumentals tho

LATELY Weezer's been on loop, with their SZNZ collection!

Frostmas has it's own playlist, and usually it's angry loud stuff :)

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

Word/OneNote. Nothing fancy. I have it for free from work so, y'know, it gets used :)

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

SEVERAL SMILE SHOTS

They weren't so much as SCRAPPED as they were LOST TO THE VOID when my hard drive got dunked on by a stone floor in 2016

There were two I can recall off the top of my head:

1. When the Twins Met Jack: this one had a solid like. 1k to it. It was a smile shot about the day the Twins realized hey, there's this dude in old photos who looks very similar to us? Whomst tf is he? And rush to ask Jacqueline about it

2. A Trip to Gstaad: Jack takes Jacqueline to Gstaad for skiing/snowboarding. Nasty storm hits and they get stuck at the top with a handful of mortals. shenanigans ensue, mainly "do we magically poof off? stay with these guys? or magically help these guys? decisions, decisions. all of them mediocre. I think the Twins popped over at one point to help keep the humans warm. It was a wild ride

One that I completed then SCRAPPED was Jacqueline and Elle seeing Frozen. They go a lil crazy with the references, and it was funny to indulge in ages ago but when I went back and read it I was like wow! that's cringe, Dani! So it's being reworked to be less cringe. Instead of going full fandom, Elline decides to approach frozen with SCIENCE which, of course, gets everyone very interested.

It's very, CAN WE MAKE CLOTHES WITH JUST SNOW, AND NO BASE? HOW MUCH EFFORT IS A GIANT ICE PALACE? That sort of thing, lol

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

A handful, yes! My fiance, my best friend, my Mom, and my sister, too. I've opened up to a few other friends about writing fanfic but got poked fun at and it made me less inclined to share with IRL folks, so I don't do that as much 🙃. It took me a LOT to open up to my newer friends and they're so sweetly supportive lmao, I love it

🍦 What’s the sweetest fic you’ve created so far?

Probably the snippet where Dite Comes Out as Ace, or Diteline First Kiss, or an amalgamation of snippets from Crystal Springs's B Arc, which is Jack being home and making amends. OH there's also a Blinter fic that follows their meeting and courtship and shit. It's cute. And unfinished. And has been so for like. 5 years?

🍷 Do you drink and write?

Not frequently, no! Maybe done it once or twice.

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what’s your most popular nsfw fic?

Ha, no.

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

Yeah, during work hours. VERY inconvenient. Either then or well past midnight. Also inconvenient 🙃🙃

💖 What made you start writing?

This is a good question! I don't have an answer! I've made stories in my head as long as I can remember. My very first story was about a hippy who lost his magic button and had to find it. The hippy looked very much like Shaggy Scooby-Doo, lmao.

Once my cousin showed me ff.net, all hell broke loose. I made so many lil OCs for me to experience fun stories in various universes! I was too afraid to post and started with original content (not fantasy, think like. Debbie Macomber Cedar Valley or w/e it was called books) and that was a GOOD experience, but for WHATEVER REASON, it was the freaking Santa clause movies that really had me writing nonstop and posting. I've yet to know why, but I know that these blorbos are now mine and I love them very dearly lol

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

Love love LOVE them! All comments! I love paragraph long comments talking about fave parts or waxing poetic about different little allusions or similarities or symbols and shit I sneak in >:)

I've received ConCrit before and it was okay, but a lot of their criticism was because of like. Names for characters and such and why they were similar to place names and such, and things like. Like for example, someone being like "Why is Blaise still leading Crystal Springs? He abolished the monarchy? but is still leader?" And sometimes it's like, thanks for the crit, but like. Suspend ur disbelief/google Mayor Hazel McCallion lol. If I ever receive proper ConCrit I'll see how I feel about it then! I know it's supposed to be constructive, but the only ones I have seen forget the constructive bit and are just criticisms. Wild.

❌ What’s a trope you will never write?

ANYTHING to do with miscommunication. FUCK miscommunication, all my hommies hate miscommunication 😠😠

💲 Would you ever open commissions?

Ugh, that's a toughie. On the one hand, maybe! I'm decent enough a writer for decent fics and such. but on the other hand, I feel as though writing commissions are hard and I worry too much about getting other characters in character, you know? so probably no

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

Not really, but when I do it's always something weird like, filing systems in the 1700s or weather patterns in Australia in the 2000s. that sorta shit.

🏆 What’s your most popular fic?

So if we base it on reviews, Crystal Springs definitely. But if we base it on QUALITY of reviews and readers, it's Frostmas. Frostmas has a lot of readers who don't read CS, so it's a bit more popular! I've also done some Danny Phantom one shots and those get a good amount of notes on tumblr :)

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

The only fic I write is for holidays, baybee. And it's Frostmas I think lol.

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

YES! One of them guessed like, in Year 6 that Jacqueline was gonna do the big freeze! That was excellent! Here's the moment in question:

ON THE MONEY!

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

I've only started getting fanart this year (that is, in big quantities) and I fucking LOVE it. It's been such an ego boost and helped em make new friends and feel really loved and appreciated! 💕💕💕

📈 How many fics do you have?

like 7 or 8 published on ff.net. But one is a collection of onehsots. So like, maybe more??? Also ItS exists but isn't posted and isn't written past Chapter 1 lol, though it is planned through to chapter 7 or 8 rn I believe. So maybe 9????

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

Bit of both! I list scenes I wanna include, or the general idea I want to explore, and go from there! Lots of point form notes that are almost writing. For example:

I am a srs writer, i swear (she claims after reading Blaise say "wtf is up son")

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

Okay, so! We have the sequel to the Santa Dump, AND the proper sequel to the Clifton Manor incident: the highly anticipated Clifton SOCIETY Incident. you can look forward to lots of funky things, including:

Charlie/Jacqueline friendship and being badass mother fuckers!

GOD TIER Jack sass

Santa being sweet to kids

Jack and Jacqueline kicking ass and taking names

The sane Cliftons thinking Jack and Santa are married, courtesy of Jacqueline and Charlie flubbing their cover story lmao

BUT I ALSO HAVE A REWRITE OF THE CALL COMING UP! Along with the part 2 to the original. But with updated lore and ideas and some fun Mother Nature moments and BABY SEASON SISTERS? HELLO?

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

Write for yourself, first and foremost

Mary Sues are FUN. Go crazy!

Double and triple check for grammar/typos :) They sneak by sometimes, and I know it's TEDIOUS but you'll thank yourself in the long run (war flashbacks to snow BOARDER)

PARAGRAPH BREAKS ARE YOUR FRIEND! NEW PARAGRAPH EVERY TIME SOMEONE NEW SPEAKS!

Said is NOT dead. Said is invisible, that's the real secret :)

💞 Who’s your comfort character?

I don't have an answer for this one, lmao. I don't quite have comfort characters like most people seem to have them? I have comfort movies! Comfort VIBES! but no characters :) All of my babies give me comfort tbh!

🧠 Pick a character, and I’ll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

This one's more of an ask box shenanigan so instead I'm just gonna casually put the Crystal Springs FACTS tag right here 👀👀

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

Blaise and the Twins! Though I am LIVING for the vibes Jack and Winter are giving in Chapter 18 >:). See:

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

Another one? Well alright, if you insist 😏😏. Have some fucking uh,,,, Clifton Society Incident?? 😏😏

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

Probably The Clifton Society Incident. I mean, they're straight up myth hunters. The Head Dude wants to torture Santa and Jack. That's all shades of ah, fucked up lmao. You all saw what I did to him in the Santa Dump. It only gets worse >:)

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

Long ass reviews and a feeling of happiness with my me, unrelated to the reviews! If I post it and I like it and reading it makes ME happy, then the fic is a success :)

✅ What’s something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don’t mean to?

Evil Uncles? Idk why? Communication, but I know why THAT is. Bad puns, and sass between siblings, and also, a lot of witty snapbacks. Which I can't do on the spot IRL so I guess they have to go somewhere :)

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

ABSOLUTELY! I'd love to separate Crystal Springs from it's very itty bitty fandom ties (at this point. this world is so developed y'all I'm. WHEW) and write it. I;ve got like 6?? Crystal Springs stories/spinoffs planned??

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

A week at my most productive, 3 months to a year at worst. A year or two for Frostmas. That thing is a monstrosity.

🤯 What’s a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

Definitely mystery and like. Drama/suspense! I don't vibe with those and they don't vibe with me.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

The Smile Shot "They Said it Couldn't be Done". That fucked me UP. ANYTHING with smol Jacqueline pre-Day of Darkness gets me heartbroken, but this one ESPECIALLY hits bc it's Jack's POV and hits home how bad curses do be ):

💥 How do you feel about criticism?

Can't live with it, can't live without it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And the gentler it is, the more it sticks! Being rude/cruel/dehumanizing in your crit makes the reciever less likely to take it and improve! If you're kind and gentle and remember the positives to mention, it'll stick more :)

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

Dani writes! That's where ALL the writing is!

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

YES YES YES AND YES! PLEASE INTERACT I LOVE IT I LIVE FOR IT! IT'S FUN! :D

#dani speaks #about me #ask box shenanigans #but like. unsolicited lmao #long post #dani wips #bc there's some lil wips hanging out in this thing