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mushrubes · 1 year

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Here with me

Masterlist | The walking dead Masterlist

Part one | Part two

Requested : No

Song : The Beach - The Neighbourhood

Pairing : Daryl Dixon x reader (No use of Y/n)

Pronouns : you/yours

Type : fluff + angst

Contents : mutual pinning, slightly canon divergent, best friends :)

Word count : 1k

Have a great day / night !!

——

I'm sick and I'm tired too

You were currently sitting at the table, hair tied up out of the way as you cleaned some of the group's weapons. Setting Michonne's katana down, you grabbed your knife, leaning back as you carefully sharpened it. A gentle smile on your face as you heard Carl talking to Judith in the other room, playing with her as Rick spoke to Michonne about his next plan about whatever. You heard the familiar creek of footsteps coming down the stairs, trying to fight the grin that was trying to appear. "Morning sleeping beauty." you teased, earning a glare and a grunt.

"Shut up." he grumbled, grabbing a drink as he leaned against the counter. You carried on with what you were doing, trying to ignore the gaze you felt lingering on you. He loved moments like this although he'd never tell anyone. Quiet(ish) mornings where everyone would do their own things and he'd get time with you - not that he didn't anyway. The pair of you were joined at the hip most of the time now, unable to separate one from the other. He took in how you look, admiring your beauty in the sunbeams that were peaking in.

"Want me to do your knife?" you asked, your head tilting slightly without you realising. He reached to his side, pulled the knife out and placed it on the table. He went to walk away before you held your hand out, signaling for him to wait. "I cleaned these for you." you reminded, handing him a couple of arrows he used, not having any others. "Should really get more," you suggested, earning a raised eyebrow. "Not that easy." he huffed, the pair of them chuckling.

You made a mental note to tell Glenn you were coming with him on the next run.

I feel it burning me I feel it burning you

"Where is he?" you breathed out, moving through the swarm of bodies that were piling at the gate. The walkers had gotten a bit out of hand, certain people not sticking to the original plan and making it harder for those all together here. "Move!" you heard a voice shout, seeing a slight commotion build up at the front. "Sorry! 'cuse me!" you apologised, speeding up as you made your way out. A breath of relief left your mouth as your eyes settled on him.

You jogged over, nodding your head at Rick who saw you before him. He said something to Daryl, causing him to turn around and see you approaching. He met you the last few steps, engulfing you in a hug. His arms wrapped around you tightly, your arms round his neck while his were on your waist. "Thank God, you're okay." you gasped, looking back up at him. He pulled away, checking you all over as you suppressed your smile. "Are you okay? Did they get you?" he rambled, still checking all over you. He continued looking and rambling until you cupped his face, caressing his cheeks.

"Look at me, Daryl. I'm fine." you assured, frowning at him. Both of your cheeks heated up, grinning as you saw his cheeks go red. "Are you blushing?" you teased, making sure it was loud enough for the two of you to hear. "Na, shut up." he grumbled, pulling you closer, muffling your laugh as he rested his head on top of yours. "Oh! Right, look what I found." you smirked, pulling away as he looked at you in suspicion. You reached into your backpack, pulling out the pack of arrows you had found in one of the houses laying around, seeing his face light up. "You're welcome." you grinned, resulting in him rolling his eyes and pulling you in again.

You were going to be the death of him.

I hope I don't murder me I hope I don't burden you

Confusion filled him as he looked beside him and around the room, not seeing your figure anywhere. He carefully made his way out, not wanting to wake the others up. Avoiding the creeks on the stairs, he made his way to the front door, seeing the soft glow of the porch light on. Making sure not to scare you, he softly pushed it open, walking out after. You looked up, looking back as you saw him. He shut the door, sitting next to you.

Your gaze was on the moon, seeing it clearly as the clouds were nowhere to be seen, the stars and moon brighter. He didn't press you, simply sitting next to you. Partly because he wasn't sure of what to say, but also because he knew if he was there with you, it was helping a lot more anyway. "What's goin' on in there, doll." he whispered, his hand resting softly on your thigh. "Thinking. My mind won't shut up." you groaned, leg bouncing slightly as his hand pressed a bit harder, trying to help it.

"I'm..." you paused, swallowing as you tried to fight the tears welling up in your eyes. You hadn't even realised some had fallen until you felt him gently wipe them away. "Am I a burden?" you whispered, your voice cracking slightly as you spoke. "Who said tha'? Na, ya not." Daryl comforted, trying to not let his anger get the best of him. "No one." you answered, leaving the topic. "It's fine, Dar." you assured, knowing how he would react.

"Yer no burden, I promise. I dunno where I'd be if it weren't for yer, honestly." he confessed, wrapping an arm around you and pulling you into him. You sat there for a few minutes together, his hand occasionally brushing up and down your back, silently assuring you he was there for you. "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" you smiled softly, your eyes on him as he looked up briefly before looking back at you. The look in his eyes showed he knew exactly what you meant, his full of adoration. "Yer right." he mumbled, pressing his lips to yours. Though the words were never said directly, there was a mutual understanding and reciprocation of feelings shared between the soulmates.

Turns out, Carol and Rick were right.

------

Part one | Part two

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noteveryoneis · 9 months

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Grocery shopping with three kids is like balancing a goldfish’s bowl on your head — impossible and always ending in disaster.

Especially when one of them is a little girl with ADHD and who is going through her teenage rebellion at eight years old. Ava has already lost sight of Nina five times in the span of thirty minutes, no matter how many times she has asked her to stay with them and not get lost. Every time she finds her, the little girl just rolls her eyes and mutters ‘ugh’ like Ava is just the most annoying bitch on Earth — at least she hasn’t said it yet, she still has some respect left for her mother.

‘Dad would have let me have it,’ Ava hears after she tells her to put back the Laffy Taffy she tried to add to the cart.

Ava clenches her teeth, doesn’t say anything (of course her dad would have let her have it, as he doesn’t care about her, about her sisters, about what they eat and who they are and if they are loved), but she sees the way Neves looks up at her quietly, as if her five year old brain can sense that her mother has just been hit in the chest by an invisible arrow, and Nova’s grip on the shopping cart tightens, like she is doing everything in her power not to smack her little sister with one of the pool noodles on display.

Still, Ava makes the most of it. She makes whooshing noises as she turns the cart, drops kisses on Neves’ nose from time to time where she is sitting in the child seat, helps Nova choose the best pens and even lets Nina get the Barbie notebook she really wanted.

She’s mentally doing the math of how much they’ll need and if she can add a bottle of her pain meds to the list when she hears the voice behind her.

“My my my, as I live and breathe, if that isn’t Ava Silva.”

Her first reflex is to grip the cart like it’s going to float away, muscles locked up. She's been hearing that so much lately, the snarls and mocking chuckles from everyone who knew her from before — and from now, Ava Silva who left her shiny little city after being kicked out like a dog by the father of her kids and came back with her tail in between her legs to her hometown (when in reality Ava is working her ass off so that her girls can go to school and live in a real house where they each have their own rooms and where they can go to the beach every weekend and she loves it).

But then she recognizes the hoarseness of the voice and the way it sounds like a warm smile — or like coming home. And so Ava whirls around, only to be met by the sight of none other than Mary freaking Masters, grinning down at her.

People have had a lot of different reactions at Ava’s return. Camila blew up her phone at the first text Ava sent announcing her move, Lilith tried to stare her down, Mrs. Salvius smiled at her and wished her a warm welcome back, Duretti almost kicked her out of the school and Superion announced loudly that she was praying Nova wasn’t anything like her mother — fondly and teasingly too, Superion was a softie even though she claimed the opposite.

But being picked up and hugged tightly? A first.

Mary’s laugh echoes in her ear as Ava hugs her back, grinning like an idiot.

“Jesus, kid, I heard you were back and town and I didn’t believe it, but you’re actually here!”

Mary sets her back down on the ground, smiling at her (the only thing stopping her from ruffling Ava’s hair is probably the fact that she’s a grown woman of twenty-eight-years old).

“Yeah, I am, moved back three weeks ago. Glad to know news still travel fast around here.”

“You know it,” Mary laughs, like she just knows how much the residents of their hometown love talking back behind each other’s backs.

All three of the girls are still staring at the two of them in silence from the cart, big eyes open as if wondering who the fuck this woman is.

“Right, sorry,” Ava laughs, taking a step back and putting a hand on Nina’s shoulder, the other setting on Neves’ back, leaving it to Nova to decide whether or not she wants to hide behind her mother — she doesn’t, looking curiously at Mary as if trying to remember her. “Girls, this is Mary, Nova’s godmother. Mary, well, you already know them.”

They all greet her in a concert of little ‘hi’s as Mary smiles back at them.

“You guys have grown,” she whistles, raising an impressed eyebrow — right, she hasn’t seen them since Neves’ birth. “Especially you,” she tells Nova, “Jesus Christ, you’re tall, kid.”

“Everyone keeps saying that,” Nova frowns.

“Most people here haven’t seen you since you were a baby,” Ava reminds her.

“Yes, but what else am I supposed to be but taller? Of course I am, I’ve grown!” Nova says, raising her hands to the sky. “And what if I have had dwarfism? What would you guys have said?”

“No’, you don’t have dwarfism,” Ava says.

“But I could have!”

Ava throws in the towel at that one, turning back towards Mary who is raising an eyebrow with a shit-eating grin.

“Cute kid.”

“Thanks,” Nina grins because of course she does, flipping her hair back to make her sisters laugh (and it works).

“Oh, I just know which one of you has the Silva genes,” Mary says, pointing a finger at her, clearly amused.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Ava stops her. “The tale of mama’s adventures will have to wait,” she says, redirecting Nina towards the cart and ushering Nova back to her sisters.

Mary smiles back at her, really smiles, not just one of those uptight fake smiles that Ava has been receiving since her move back here — except for Teacher-Hot-Neighbor Beatrice whose smiles always look timid and hesitant, like she’s not sure she’s allowed to do that, and Camila who is just genuinely a ray of sunshine.

“Shannon has been talking about you,” she says, softly and a little more seriously. “She’s been wondering where you and the girls were at, she’s going to be happy to know you’re all so close.”

She doesn’t ask about JC, like she already knows, or maybe she had seen it coming, like they all did. Ava smiles back, not knowing what to say.

“You know I have to invite you all to our house for dinner now, right? The wife wouldn’t let me live if I didn’t.”

“You have a wife?” Nina asks, her head poking out from behind Ava’s hip, tiny fingers hooking into the loop of her shorts.

“She’s Neves’ godmother, come on, you guys know that,” Ava explains, frowning.

They’ve met them five years ago — okay, Nina was three and probably doesn’t remember it, and Nova was six and already didn’t like talking to people (which annoyed JC greatly and made her miserable). All things considered, she doesn’t blame them for not remembering Shannon and Mary.

“Yup, I have a wife,” Mary says instead, not missing a beat as she shows her wedding ring. “She’ll want to meet you guys as soon as I tell her about you.”

“Are you gay?”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Ava intervenes immediately, shoving the shopping list into Nova’s hand. “Take your sister around, don’t get lost and, Antonina, please stop asking questions about people’s sexualities.”

Mary is laughing her ass off as the two little girls scamper away, Neves kicking her little legs from her child seat, smiling slightly to herself. Ava sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose, trying to stop herself from laughing too. Now she understands everyone’s suffering from when she was younger, karma is a bitch.

“I’m serious,” Mary says after a few seconds of laughing like a madman. “We’re throwing a cookout next sunday, you have to come. And bring your comedian kid with you, I like her,” she says, like Nina is a shiny new toy (Ava can already feel the headache coming just thinking about how much chaos the two will bring together).

“I’m… I’ll see what I can do.”

“Nah, you know I don’t take no for an answer. Seriously, Ava, come. Shannon will be thrilled to see you. We’ve missed you, kid.”

Neves tugs on her shirt, Ava picks her up and sets her on her hip, putting a kiss on her hair and letting the anxiety melt away as the girl wraps her arms around her shoulders.

“Okay,” she says. “We’ll come.”

Mary smiles again, Ava feels a bit warmer already.

#fic: strangers in this town #warrior nun #avatrice #ava silva #shotgun mary #shitpost or whatever the kids say #this is shit but i don't care cause it finally hit me that i'm a lesbian so i'm happy

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queermentaldisaster · 3 months

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The Dancing And The Dreaming

A HTTYD x COD fic, crossposted on Tumblr and AO3.

Taglist: @myriadblvck @thegreyjoyed @forestshadow-wolf @im-here-and-im-confused (if you wanna be added to or removed from the taglist, please let me know!)

No warnings for this chapter. Enjoy!

He was perched atop one of the pillars on Melody Island, his wings folded back behind him. The sun reflected off the water below, and he chirped softly. He finished picking the last of the meat off of the chicken bones, and devoured it. Not filling, but better than what the rest of his kind did. Soap let out a trill, his tail curling around himself.

“Hm. Ah’m kinda bored.” He mumbled, standing up so he could go for a flight, when he spotted something on the beach. He glided over there, folding his wings back as he landed on the sand. He tilted his head when he saw a Skrill. The Skrill’s face reminded him of a skull, with a thick ring of black around his closed eyes. He looked over the rest of his body, spotting scars. He noticed an arrow embedded in the poor dragon's leg, and he picked him up in his back claws as he took off flying.

He landed in his den, a cave on the far side of the island. He set the Skrill down on his pile of moss he called a bed, and managed to get the arrow out of his leg. He hummed, cleaning the wound with water from the nearby river. He then laid down next to the Skrill, draping his wing over the smaller dragon. He let out another trill, nudging the dragon to see if he'd wake. The Skrill shot awake with a snarl, and Soap quickly shot up and backed the fuck up. “Woah, easy there! Yer safe!” He said. The Skrill snarled again. “Who are you and where am I?”

Soap sat down, with a slight trill. “Ah’m Soap. A Death Song. And yer in ma den, on Melody Island.” The Skrill blinked. “Melody Island…then I need to go.” He spread his wings to fly out, but Soap moved in front of the entrance. “Why do you need to go?” The Skrill growled. “I’m being hunted. It's not safe for me to be here. I can lead them away if I'm quick, and keep your species safe.” Soap let out a melodic laugh. “if yer bein’ hunted, yer nae goin’ anywhere by yerself,” he paused, waiting for the Skrill to introduce himself.

The Skrill huffed, his spines crackling with lightning. “Ghost. I'm Ghost.” he muttered. Soap nodded. “Ghost. It's nice to meet ye. Now, am ah gonna have to follow ye without yer permission or are ye gonna let me take care of ye?” Soap asked, not really giving Ghost a choice. Ghost snarled. “I don't drag others into my messes.” he snapped, and Soap laughed again. “Then it's a good thing ah'm jumpin’ in of ma own will, aye?”

Ghost rolled his brown eyes. “You’re a right pain in my ass.” he spat, as he walked past Soap and took to the sky, Soap following close behind. “Aye, ah'm quite aware of that, Ghost!” Ghost looked back at Soap, his eyes narrowing. “Can you fuck off?” he demanded. Soap grinned, picking up speed. “Ah cannae! Ye washed up on ma home island, wounded and talking ‘bout being hunted, so ah'm gonna worry ‘bout ye! Welcome to empathy.”

He laughed as he did a little loop in the air. “Are ye scared, Ghost?” Ghost huffed. “I don't get scared, Soap.” He responded.

“Ah beg tae differ, sir.”

“Shut up.”

“Nae.”

#call of duty #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #call of duty mw2 #ghostsoap #ghoap #ghost mw2 #soap mw2 #soapghost #ghoap au #httyd!au #skrill!ghost #deathsong!soap

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rose-pearls · 10 months

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Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw - Masterlist

Hi! Welcome to my Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw Masterlist, there are other Top Gun characters that I write for and that you can find right here - Requests are open

If you want to have a look at other fandoms I write for it is on my Main Masterlist

Oneshots:

Hospitals and the Dagger Squad

Your brother Bob was in an accident and you decide to go check on him. As you meet his sort of boyfriend Hangman you also meet Rooster who makes your heart beat faster.

Beach day

A day at the beach gets interrupted by your one night stand Hangman and by your old boyfriend Rooster, chaos follows.

Yours - Conan Gray

You fell in love with Rooster the moment you met him but quickly realise he never loved you the same way, yet you can't stop going back to him.

Baby Nick and his niece

The Dagger squad gets ready to leave San Diego to enjoy the snow during the holidays with your four year old son. While you are pregnant with Bob and Hangman's baby girl

Little chick costume

Rooster's birthday is celebrated with your son Nick and your one year old Tom.

Matchmaking pool game

At your friends birthday you see the guy with who she spent the best night of her life, while trying to get them back together you meet a pilot named Rooster.

You were bigger than the whole sky

Medusa and her WSO Clover were supposed to win Top Gun but an incident with Phoenix and then Hangman causes one of them to lose each other.

An interrupted beach day

Stacy and you were supposed to have a relax beach day but it is interrupted by a football and a handsome pilot.

Office hours - Part 2

Bradley and you can't stand your bosses flirting/arguing so you decide to get them together. (Relationships: Icemav, bob x hangman (mentioned), Bradley x reader)

Prompts:

The Great War

Series:

Childhood infatuation

Viper's daughter had been in love with Bradley since the tender age of four but after overhearing a conversation between Bradley and his friends she decides to move on, with Hangman. Part 1 - Viper Part 2 - Hangman Part 3 - Rooster Part 4 - Thunder Epilogue

Dawn

Dawn is Hangman's little sister and has been called back to Top Gun but when she sees her ex, Rooster, back she drags Bob into a fake relationship. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Epilogue

Arrow

As the eldest daughter of Ice people had thought you would be exactly like him but that was your little sister. Everyone has always overlooked you but a special mission will be your time to shine alongside a handsome pilot. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 - The end

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Based on the series Part 1 Part 2

#top gun x reader #top gun imagine #top gun fanfiction #rooster fanfic #rooster fanfiction #rooster x you #rooster x y/n #bradley rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x y/n #bradley bradshaw fanfiction #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw

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starsfic · 9 months

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Done For

Summary: Azure Lion is sent to negotiate with a monster.

He finds a monkey.

Notes: So you know when you have this grand plan set out because you're so close to having both 500 works and a million words written on AO3 but the word count is off but you're so excited to share your 500th work?

AO3

The news came early in the evening.

A small group of celestial soldiers had been sent to the realm of the one known as Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of Flower Fruit Mountain. The plan had been to scout out the mountain and see the monkey’s forces. Considering his history of violence and threats against those who stood in the way, it was just in case. According to several nobles, the Dragon Kings were starving for a fight.

But the soldiers had been unable to complete the mission. One had returned, looking like he had been through a warzone.

“They…they came out of nowhere!” he had stammered. “An army of monkeys- they took everyone and then that-” A golden monkey, carrying the iron pillar stolen from Ao Guang’s palace, had allowed him to escape. To deliver the news. “He wants to negotiate.”

The Gold Star of Venus had perked up. “To negotiate?” The soldier had nodded. “Did he say what he wanted?”

The soldier had taken his head. “No, no,” he stammered. “But he promised that the others would be treated well.”

The debate in the court raged for days. Several wanted to just plummel this monkey into the ground. Others, like the Gold Star, wanted to negotiate. He had the right to take prisoners. The company had snuck on his land.

In the end, it was agreed. A negotiator would be sent to negotiate the release of the prisoners.

And that was when Azure Lion volunteered himself.

As Gold Star agreed, he didn’t notice the lion celestial’s satisfied grin as he stared at the floor.

Azure’s smile faded when he landed on the golden beach of Flower Fruit Mountain. The very moment his foot touched the sand, he could feel eyes digging into him. The lion took a deep breath. He needed to keep calm. He was a celestial warrior. He had faced bigger things than this.

With that, he began to walk for a few seconds before he found himself pausing at the beginning of the path.

Azure swore a trail hadn’t been there before, reaching up through the beach and disappearing into the jungle's green. It was clear. The king of this mountain knew he was here. He was expecting him. This was practically a red carpet and a welcome mat, rolled out and displayed just for him.

How powerful was Sun Wukong? Could he manipulate the entire mountain?

The warrior took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Keep your wits, Azure Lion.” He was a warrior of the Jade Emperor’s court. Nothing was more powerful than that.

He stepped forward.

The moment his foot landed on the dirt of the trail…nothing happened. Azure blinked as he stepped fully on the trail. Honestly, he had thought something would happen. But nothing did.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

The trail was surprisingly nice. The eyes glaring at him hadn’t let up, but Azure was more distracted by his surroundings. He had never seen such verdant green trees or beautiful multi-colored flowers before. Butterflies, bees, phoenixes, and other such flying creatures could be seen. Occasionally, he caught a glimpse of a white tail of a monkey, but more often, he saw deer with glossy brown hides, sunny turtles with multi-colored shells, and cute little lizards running about.

Slowly, the trail began to move up. Azure almost didn’t notice until he came to a pause and realized he could see the ocean. He looked out and his heart skipped a beat at the vast expanse of natural beauty.

He had seen beautiful gardens. Flower Fruit Mountain had them all beat.

But the glares of unseen eyes were even fiercer now. He was getting closer to the king and the monkey knew it. Azure took another deep breath in, deep breath out.

Focus.

The trail was still nice and easy (even if you noticed how easy it would be to have spears or arrows aimed at you), but Azure was still winded when he reached a flat pane. Like the survivor had said, there was a giant waterfall. A small river with stones popping out was the path forward.

Azure continued forward.

It would be easy to just walk through the river. The water was barely up to the ankles. But he could not resist jumping from stone to stone, feeling very much like a small child. Maybe it was just this place, but Azure found himself laughing like a small boy that had found something extraordinary.

Before he reached the last stone, there was a rumble. Azure paused. His eyes widened as the waterfall glowed gold and a seal formed like water lilies blooming on a still pond. It looked like a heart-shaped blossom, spreading its petals across the water, before the water parted like a curtain.

Sun Wukong knew he was here.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Ignore his racing heart.

Azure stepped through.

He must’ve been inside the mountain itself. A wide cave met his eyes. Still, there was no shortage of life. Flowers that bloomed in darkness shared space with glowing fungi. In spaces where sunshine shone through, sunshine-eating flowers and actual crops grew.

He crossed a bridge and came to a stop.

In the most immense cavern he had ever seen stood a stone manor. The survivor had described it as monstrous and hulking, but Azure couldn’t bring himself to agree. It was elegant, working with the space it had, and practically glowed with radiance.

What was even more amazing, however, were the monkeys.

Several nobles had personal zoos. Azure had always thought the animals looked rather sad, and that included the monkeys. Here, however, the monkeys gleamed with good health and joy. Until they all turned as one to stare at him.

That explained the glares.

Azure took a step forward and a few monkeys moved off the staircase. He took the path with a polite bow of the head.

The inside was even more beautiful, with bright colors and soft shades. It was more color than he had ever seen in Heaven. Even more monkeys waited inside, on either side of a path. Azure took a deep breath and continued to walk.

He was led to a set of grand red doors. The handles were the only horrifying or scary thing, sitting in the mouth of hideous monkey faceplates. Before Azure could study them, the doors opened.

The throne room was just as grand as the mountain. Wide windows allowed sunlight and a gentle breeze inside. It felt more like a garden with how much plant life and monkeys existed inside. A simple stone throne sat at the very end, perched on top of a large dias.

And, standing to the side and watering some flowers, was Sun Wukong.

He wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t even ugly.

He was beautiful.

Soft golden fur shone in the sunlight. More golden fur was leaking past a cute yellow cap. A tail swished back and forth, giving the monkey an air of casualness. If they stood facing each other, Azure was certain he would have to crane his head down, the monkey was so small.

Focus.

“Are you the lord of the palace, Sun Wukong?” His only response was a simple hum. “My apologies for just barging in, but I heard a disturbing rumor that you are holding a squad of soldiers hostage. I wish to keep things peaceful and I did not want to start a fight. So, I must ask: Did you do something to them?” He tried to keep his voice serious, but also warm. He wanted peace, not a fight.

“Who, me?” His voice was warm and sweet, honey-sweet laughter lining the words. A pleasant shiver shot up Azure’s spine. “I only showed them their place.”

“You’re holding them hostage.”

“Hmph.” Sun set down the jug and whirled around, revealing flashing golden eyes and sweet lips twisted into a sneer. Azure’s heart skipped a beat as he glared at him. “I don’t know who you are, but let me make one thing clear.” The room darkened as he stepped down the steps. The monkeys backed away, giving room for Sun Wukong and the golden glow of his magic. “I’ve got people to protect, monkeys I can’t neglect, so I’m not taking chances here.”

And there it was.

The staff, red and gold, right in his face. Sun began to stalk around him, looking more like a fierce jungle cat than a monkey.

“If you make one wrong move,” The door slammed shut. “ Anything I don't approve, then you're done for,” The monkeys vanished. “Boy, you better run or soon you will done for-”

“I know.”

There was a pause. A stutter.

“Excuse me?”

Azure turned. Deep breath, in and out. “I know we are not evenly matched. I know better than to dare to fight you.” He knelt at the king’s feet. “That is why I am here to pledge my loyalty.”

The room brightened.

“Um, what?”

Oh, this was better than he hoped. Everything was going to plan.

Truth be told, Azure had already met the terrifying Sun Wukong. Or, had seen him. Azure had followed the rumors of a monkey demon, a king, to the island. For a while now, anger at the bureaucracy of Heaven had burned in his heart, especially at the court’s rotten center.

The Jade Emperor.

However, as tempting as the idea was, Azure could not take the throne. He had no knowledge of how to rule. His only example in leadership was commanding armies and that was rare, only done if needed. And, he hated to admit, he was not the strongest one there. Cleverness and a willingness to learn had helped him rise.

He had followed those rumors to an island paradise hoping to find someone worthy.

He had found that and more in Sun Wukong.

It had been torture to stay away from the island from that first glance. Azure’s heart ached as he forced himself to walk away. It was so tempting to throw himself at the feet of his beloved and beg to be his. It was almost frightening- Azure had never felt this way towards anyone, not even the maidens and soldiers he had dalliances with.

This was love. True, all consuming, love. Even if Sun killed him now, Azure would happily die with a smile on his face. He didn’t like the idea of dying, but still. The pause was giving him hope.

“I am Qingmao Shizi, also known as the steed of the bodhisattva Manjusri, commonly known as the Azure Lion, and I am tired of corruption." He had a speech planned and everything. "The Jade Emperor is the heart of corruption, stretching from the Heavenly Court to the mortal realm. I have seen how mortals suffer. I have tried my best to help and I have begged the emperor to help, but he is unmoved. He thinks there is nothing wrong.” Azure didn’t dare look up. “And then I found you. I’ve seen how you love your subjects, your people, your home. You told me yourself that you are willing to kill any intruders.” The end of a tail wagged in his vision. “You have made this place a paradise. I wish to leave the Jade Emperor’s service and-”

“Be my sworn brother?!”

“What.” Azure craned his head up, not expecting those words. Sun’s frown had disappeared, replaced by a dazzling smile. “I don’t think I’m worthy to-” He held his hand up, not sure of what to do or say, mind in a daze.

Did he mean sworn brothers as in allies? Or sworn brothers as in husband ?

A warm hand wrapped around his and Azure was yanked to his feet. “I mean, I already have sworn brothers, but you seem pretty smart! I didn’t know animals were part of the court-” Azure was being dragged somewhere, still in a daze, almost unhearing of the babble.

“You want me to be your sworn brother. Sun, I-” The very idea of being husbands was enough to make Azure feel faint with want. “I don’t think I’m worthy.”

The monkey turned and grinned at him and there went his heart again. “Oh, hush. Sure you’re worth it!” That tail gently tapped his knee. “And, please. Call me Wukong.”

The thought of the soldiers he had sent here was barely a thought.

Instead, the sunshine smile of Sun Wukong filled his mind.

“Of course…Wukong.”

#Lionpeach #LMK #Monkie Kid #LEGO Monkie Kid #Azure Lion #Sun Wukong #my writing #fic #fanfic #fanfiction

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ghostlynightpanda · 1 year

Text

Last Boss - A present

English is not my first language!

Synopsis: Last Boss has his eyes on a certain girl who’s been living at the Beach for a few weeks now. But how is he supposed to approach her? He had seen boys giving the girls they like flowers and chocolate in his old world. But in this world? He had to find something better.

Akemi was laying on one of the pool chairs next to her friends, enjoying the sun, while hearing the faint sounds of music coming from the inside of the hotel.

She had been in this strange world for a month now, having spend her last two weeks at the Beach. It was a nice place, but she also knew about the many dangers that were all around them. They often lead back to a certain group, the militants. The group were supposed to keep the peace at the Beach and make sure everyone was safe, sadly that wasn’t the case. They terrorized the people and took whatever they wanted, since no one was able to say anything against them.

But apart from them the Beach was a nice place, a place that provided electricity, working showers, even fun and friends. It was a place for the people who were all in the same situation. Having to fight for their lives every few days in brutal games just to be allowed to survive in this world for as long as their visa was. It was horrible, but the Beach offered distraction, which was happily welcomed.

„God, I wish he wasn’t a killer.“ Ikari, one of Akemi’s friends, sighed loudly as the others now followed her line of vision.

The militants just arrived at the pool area, led by none other than Niragi, the right hand of the militant’s leader. He was a known killer and rapist, a horrible person, someone you didn’t want to get too close to.

„He’s so hot.“ She continued, causing Akemi to turn her head towards her friend, staring at her unbelieving.

„Are you kidding me? You know how he is.“ She muttered, glancing back at the militants, just to catch Last Boss’ eyes.

She had never talked to the tattooed man, but she had played a game with him. It was difficult as they had to escape out of an old trailer park, with dangers hiding behind nearly every single trailer. They managed to get out of there together as a team. He had saved her life as she was nearly stumbling into a bear trap, therefore she had saved his life, stopping him from getting pierced by an arrow triggered by a trip hazard.

But ever since the game, they haven’t spoken one word with each other. Akemi wasn’t even sure if he was able to talk at all, she had yet never heard him say something. Therefore, he observed a lot, wherever she went, he was there a few minutes later. If she was in the disco room, dancing or drinking, he stood somewhere leaned against a wall, looking around while she felt his eyes on her more than once. If she was at the pool, he walked his rounds here or sat down at the pool bar. If she was in the dining hall, he was there too, grabbing himself something to eat. At first, she found it a little creepy, but by now she wasn’t bothered with it.

„I know, I know.“ Ikari answered with a loud sigh, „But it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s hot.“ She hummed, making Akemi raise her eyebrows before shaking her head.

„Whatever. I’m gonna go and get another round.“ She told her friends as she now got up, walking towards the pool bar. „Hi.“ She smiled at the man behind it, „Could I get four mojitos please?“ She asked, making him smile and nod his head as he now prepared the drinks.

Akemi sat down on one of the stools, hanging behind her thoughts while watching how he was getting four glasses out of a cabinet, filling them with cubes.

„Do you want,“ He began, turning towards her with a smile, but he quickly stopped in the middle of the sentence, widening his eyes slightly. „Uhm… Do you want mint leaves in the glasses?“ He asked now almost shyly, stumbling over his own words, which caused Akemi to raise her eyebrows confused. She sent him a short nod, causing him to quickly turn around again as he continued, while she now looked over her shoulders.

„Hey,“ She greeted the man who stood right behind her, staring at her with his typical, dead eyes. „You’re Last Boss, right?“ She asked after a second where he didn’t answer her, just continuing to stare at her. „We played the Six of Spades together, I don’t know if you remember…“ She continued as he still didn’t give her an answer.

This time, he at least nodded slowly, causing her to smile awkwardly as an uncomfortable silence spread between them. Why was he just staring at her without saying anything? What was wrong with him?

„Last Boss,“ Niragi now called out to him, glancing at Akemi dismissive for a second before focusing back on his friend. „Stop flirting! Come on, Aguni wants to talk to us.“

Flirting? Whatever this was, it wasn’t flirting, right?

Last Boss slowly nodded at his friend before focusing back on Akemi. And instead of saying something, anything, he just extended his hand. The girl raised her eyebrows confused as she held her hand out, feeling how something cold made contact with her palm, causing her to look down confused. Last Boss gave her a small white stone with black dots all over it, as it had a honey comb structure. It shined a little, almost as if he had tried to polish it a little.

„Thank you.“ Akemi whispered, not sure what this meant but to her surprise he had the smallest blush on his cheeks, „It’s really beautiful.“ She told him, making him almost squirm as he now nodded, before quickly turning around and practically bolting over to Niragi who just laughed at his friend.

Akemi continued glancing between his retreating figure and the small stone in her hand, but before she could make sense of it, her friends already rushed over towards her, surrounding her as they all stared at the thing in her hand.

„He gave you this?“ One of them asked, looking at her surprised. „A stone?“

„Yeah?“ Akemi sounded unsure, shaking her head. „I’ve got no idea why.“

„Oh my god,“ Ikari squealed slightly, grabbing Akemi’s shoulders. „He likes you!“

#alice in borderland #last boss x reader #last boss #last boss fluff #samura takatora #samura taratora x reader

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ava7sworld · 1 year

Text

➳a problem to solve♡PART 2♡

the girl with demon blood

summary:Reader decided to mess with Ao'nung only for him to fall even more for her.

! ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE!

yawne-love

not proof read lol

_________________________________________

Annoyed?Why would I be annoyed by my siblings dragging me to the beach right after sunrise? That's a stupid reason to be annoyed,and yes I was in fact very annoyed.

Dragging me to a huge rock just to sit and breathe? It's a ridiculous waste of time.So ridiculous,I mean do you see us dragging people to trees just to teach them how to run?No.So why are we dragged here at sunrise,half awake,just for a bunch of teens to teach us how to breathe.I would much rather be at home right now, sharpening my arrows,or even just climbing in search of fruit.I sound selfish,my family was given a place to stay,a home,and everything we might need,but how could I be happy in a place I was not made for.They might have given us a place in their clan,but it does not mean we are welcomed by the rest of their people.They don't want us here,but isn't it inconsiderate of them to think like that?Like we wanted to come on this island,like we wouldn't choose to stay in our beautiful forests,our clan,our home.We didn't have a choice,we had to move.

I thought about it, a lot.While waiting for the three Metkayina Na'vi to get there.So you could only imagine my mood when the oldest decided to tease me.

"hey forest girl,time to wake up!"he yelled in my ear.

"shut up."was all I said before climbing on the rock and sitting down.I could tell he didn't like my reaction,he wanted something more out of me.But I will not give in,We already have enough problems,and my rage will not help any of them.

He sat next to me, giving me the side eye before just letting it go.As we all sat in a circle I couldn't help but zone out until I heard his voice next to me.

"hey will you start breathing already?what the fuck is wrong with you freak?"

"CAN YOU FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS TO YOURSELF FOR YOUR OWN GOOD." they all went silent,I did not want to make a scene so I just started breathing like Rotxo and Tsireya told me.It helped calm me down which ment a lot.It got most of my thoughts about home away,and I calmed down a bit too.

"you must slow down your heartbeat" said Tsireya before putting her hand on Lo'ak's chest.This will not end good...

"breath in,breath from down here"Lo'ak took a breath "breath out slowly,your heartbeat is fast."

"sorry" he looked up at us.Alredy annoyed of Rotxo and Neteyam laughing,Kiri didn't look to fascinated by their behavior.

"you aren't doing it right" Ao'nung turned their attention to me, "breath from here" he placed his big hand on my stomach,it sent shivers up my spine,and that cocky bastard could tell.

"your heart is beating quite fast, why's that?"he looked up at my face, holding one of his hand on my stomach and the other on my back.

"I don't know,maybe I should feel yours?"He gave me a look

"and why might I ask?" he glared at me.

"I should feel yours,so that I know how it should beat?"without giving him a warning I placed my cold hand on his chest, making him give me another look.I can feel his heartbeat increase.

"hmm,your heart seems to beat even faster then mine? Why's that?"I smirk looking up at him.

"might be because a beautiful forest girl is feeling my chest,hmm?" He whispered in my ear so only I can hear him.

My cheeks were now purplish making my barely noticeable white freckles even more noticeable for the men in front of me.He strated laughing at me,making me move my hand to my side and squashing my thighs together in embarrassment.

"what did he say to you" Lo'ak asked concerned by Ao'nung's laughing,which you don't hear often.

"n-nothing"I said still trying to forget about the situation.

"well.. I think that's it for today.."Rotxo tried to save me from embarrassed, already knowing his best friend said something stupid.

I was the one to stand up first,getting off the rock.

"Y/N.What did Ao'nung tell you?"Lo'ak said sternly–still standing next to them.He was always more protective, which in our old clan was annoying,but now it's even worse since he doesn't trust anyone.

"nothing"

"Y/N either you tell us or we make him tell us"

"oh my Eywa you idiots just drop the topic"

The three Metkayina's ears rising up at the unfamiliar language the siblings used.

"English,really Y/N?"Neteyam wasn't surprised,his sister often switched to the language when annoyed or mad.

"yes really,and leave Ao'nung alone he is just another perverted idiot"

"he said something perverted?"Loak did not like that at all.Alredy trying to swing at the poor Metkayina for flirting with his sister.

She knew if she didn't stop this now nobody will.She stood in front if the older boy who definitely deserved that punch,but she still saved him from the cruel hands of her brothers.

"Y/n move" this time it was Neteyam who used the English language, feeling like it's the only way his sister will listen,but she didn't even listen to him.

"sister I'm saying this nicely,get out of the way." he said again.After not listing Lo'ak took the matters in his own hands.

"Y/N get away or I'll carry you away myself."

"no" she simply responded,not giving any attitude to her brothers.

"why are you protecting this asshole anyway?"her brother yelled.

"he didn't do anything wrong he was simply joking.Let him be" It surprised her brothers,truly.How can she protect the boy they all claim to hate?Even after what he told her?She even switched back from english,which made the two brothers stop everything they were trying to do.

"Okay..well guys lets just get back"Kiri tried to get them back home before something bad happened,but too late.As Y/N walked away from the poor boy,the two brothers turned back around and took aim for his face.The punch hurt him like a bitch, which they thought he deserved,still not knowing the exact word he said to their sister.What they also didn't know was that whatever he said to her,made her whole insides all lovely dovely.It made her,as the sky people often say :

"it gave her butterflies in the stomach"

____________________________________

And it was very true.I felt butterflies in my stomach.But who cares about butterflies when the boy who gave me the butterflies was about to cry from the pain.

"Ao'nung,are you okay?"I asked concerned,of course he wasn't tho , how could he when my brothers almost made his whole head fall off.

"ye-yes I'm fine"he whined in pain tho.I grabbed his hand and started to drag him to our marui.My siblings calling out for us.

"sit." was all I said when we got there.Lucky day since no one was home.I got some herbal paste that will heal him faster,some cloths that I can dip in cold water and put on the injury.

"you don't hav-"

"shut up fish lips.My brothers almost broke your nose,well I'm pretty sure they did"I cut the boy off.

Putting a heavy load of paste on his nose and spreading it on the injured spot.I got one of the wet cloths and cleand up the blood.I finished up by putting a wet cloth on his top of the paste so it will work faster.

"you should look better in about 3 days,but it will take a few weeks for it to fully heal."I said.

"thank you,for all of it" he looked up at me.

"for what all?"

"for trying to talk your brothers out of it,for trying to protect me back there,and now for taking care of me."

taking care if him.

hmm I could get used to that.

_________________________________________

Dinner was super awkward.Our parents didn't know about any of the events that have happened today.The tension in the room could be cut with a blade.The only people looking at each other where the two older sisters and the two brothers.The parents knew how awkward it was,they knew that if they tried to start the conversation it would either be...

a) done in under 10 minutes

b) turn into a fight

c) lead to hearing about the things that happened that they can comfortably live without knowing of.

They decided to just silently eat their dinner today.

_________________________________________

The four siblings decided to avoid each other.The two girls spending time together doing girl stuff,or the two boys discussing their sister's weird action of kindness twords the Ole'eyktan's son, which they infact did not understand even after discussing for hours after dinner.

*y/n's pov*

I knew my brothers were confused by me,but I was confused too?Was I not supposed to hate the boy?He was always acting childish and rude twords us.When we don't understand some of their traditions he talk to us like we are children.I hated that.

But no amount of hate could make me stop looking at this men.

Whatever he does or says I will always forgive him.I will always stand by his side and respect him, defending him even when he's wrong.

My mother always said "stand by someone in public, correct them in private" my dad said it sky people have their own version of the saying "praise in public, criticize in private".Now I understand the saying.

I walked to the end of the beach seeing Ao'nung and his friends.He looked over at me and I pointed my head twords the woods.Silantly telling him to follow me.

I waited with my back against the tree for him.When he showed up he was silent,not wanting to start the conversation.

"um,is your nose okay?"I asked now feeling awkward.

"Oh yeah it hurts,but the cold cloth you put makes it barrable" he answered my question also not sure of what to say to me.

"did you call me just to ask how my nose is"he smirked trying to make it less awkward.

"no but I also wanted to tell you how stupid it was of you to do that in front of my brothers" I now turned to the side so I can face him.

"do what?" oh he knew exactly what he did.

"put your hands on me dumbass,also flirting,come on now did you want to die?"I said jokingly "I mean was it even worth the punch " he thought about a response for a second before coming up with one that will make my legs shake already.

"was it worth it?Of course it was worth it" he had an offended look by me even asking that "Flirting with you is a priceless thing.I would sell every valuable thing in my possession for a chance with you yawne"

"who said you don't have one?"I challenged.

"don't start something you can't finish forest girl"

♡ _____________________________

#aonung #atwow loak #avatar #avatar imagines #loak sully #avatar the way of water #shifting realities #ao'nung #loak x y/n #ao'nung x y/n #aonung x sully!reader

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oc-cafe · 10 months

Text

No one killed the King.

It’s been three days, seven hours, nine minutes and exactly sixty nine seconds since Vea Amaris broke into our ballroom, collapsed on the floor and cried. In the past three days, seven hours, nine minutes, and exactly sixty nine, well seventy seconds since then, a lot has happened. My mother has decided to acknowledge herself as the queen until I breach eighteen. After that, I will be the ruler, and she an advisor.

Vea Amaris is now well enough to sit up straight, well partially. Their ministers have already received a letter, explaining where their acting ruler is, as their father’s whereabouts are unknown. Eren left early yesterday morning, determined to find King Amom.

There’s so much to do. Father’s funeral has already been held. We had no body to bury so we buried his falchion, even though he never used it. He stuck to his daggers until the very end, but they were lost at sea along with his beloved bow and arrow, if only we had them.

Grief weighs down every move in the castle, Zuri can no longer be seen sketching the horizon or taking one of her long walks on the beach, she’s shut herself in her wing and has allowed no one to see her. She’s even stopped taking her meals with mother and I!

I wish I could fault her, blame her, but it would be hypocritical of me. If I could, I would hide away in my room as well, but I have duties. I am expected to rule while my mother recovers from the shock, she is still queen but I am still the heir. I still have to lead my people, I still have to look after Vea, soothe our agitated allies before they turn on us, defend my kingdom and most importantly, find my father’s killer.

There aren’t any leads to follow, I haven’t been allowed near Vea, therefore I cannot question them about his death. There’s no ship to inspect, no bodies, no witnesses, nothing. Nothing. NOTHING.

Nothing’s such a horrible word, there’s no point to it. It’s the only lie we accept. Every question in the world could be answered with those seven letters, but it’s never nothing, is it? There’s always something, or someone.

This is basically a long winded way of saying, I’m sneaking into Vea’s hospital room to ask them questions about my father’s brutal murder. Yay! This will definitely not backfire, Amaris is… reasonable, for the lack of a better word.

My shoes are off, and all that could give away my identity is hidden away in my room, where I’ve arranged a few cushions to pretend that I’m asleep in my room. The borrowed (read: stolen) servant’s gown is slightly uncomfortable but nondescript enough that no one will pay attention to me.

Now. I have a royal to harass.

-X-

I quietly make my way around the clinic, careful to stay on my guard, while Ababyomi may be out for now, she’s sure to return soon, and she knows every single nurse that works for her. The second she’s back, I’m screwed. The other nurses mill about restlessly, currently the only patient in the castle is Vea. That makes my work a lot harder. I manage to disappear behind the curtain that separates my mark from me and my questions. Vea looks less pitiful today, the swelling around their eyes has gone down, making them look less racoonish. The blood that clung to their armour and skin that night, has been painstakingly cleaned, the only trace of their injuries are the stitches that line most of their body.

They cock their head to the side, and sit up. Their smile is tired and their hands barely obey them when they lift it in a silent gesture. “You’re welcome here.” It’s small and silent, a mutual understanding. We’ve both lost our fathers and for tonight, there is to be no mention of the war, only a grim compromise.

I’ll tell you what you want to know, and you’ll tell me what I want to know. No ifs, no buts.

“Good evening, Vea.” I drag a chair next to their bed, allowing my body to finally rest. For the past three days, I’ve done nothing but run around, and deal with agitated allies. A few moments of rest and relaxation was much needed. “Daraja. I am truly sorry about your father, I wish I could have done more , helped him, somehow.”

“You still can, help me find who killed him, Vea. Please.” I want to scream and cry but diplomacy helped us before, perhaps it can again.

“I’ll help however I can…. For a price.”

“A price?” “Nothing is ever free Princess.” They smile at me softly, their gaze carries no heat, a simple aura of cool intellect hidden by a weak exterior.

“I’m aware, name your price.” “A walk around the palace?” Well. That was…surprising.

“Uh. Sure.” What could possibly go wrong?

-X-

After a nerve wracking escape from the clinic, we wander around in the gardens, there is not a single soul in sight. Only Vea and I.

For a few moments neither of us speak, the only sound passing between us is that of their cane sounding against the cobblestones.

“So.” A brave attempt at breaking the tension, a failed one but brave nonetheless.

“Right.” “I don’t know how to start.” A beat.

“I’ll tell you exactly what happened and then you can decide what you want to do with me.” Vea offers, their gaze turned away from me. They don’t wait for an answer.

“We set sail almost immediately after the treaty was signed. He didn’t want to wait until dinner, he didn’t want to wait a second longer. All he could talk about were his girls, he talked about Zuri and The queen but mostly, he talked about you and how proud he was of you. He really loved you Daraja.” The weather is exceptionally warm, even my eyes are perspiring.

“ I wish both of us could have made it home Daraja, I really do, but when those monsters took me…”

“Monsters? Took you? Wha-” WHAT MONSTERS? LITERAL? FIGURATIVE? ELABORATE.

“They didn’t tell you, did they?” Of couuuurse they did, I’m just pretending not to know. Read the garden Amaris.

“I’m sorry, um I forgot that Aiga wasn’t aware of the skelons.” Skelons? What?

“Skelons?”

“It’s a long story…” “I’ve got time.”

A/N: Has this been beta read? Absolutely not no. Has this been posted after a billion years? Absolutely yes.

I apologise for the incredibly long hiatus, I really didn't mean to do that. I’m really hoping y’all haven’t lost interest yet.

Mod Tag: @tiredguyswag@ne0npurplefantasies

Taglist (send an ask to be added or removed): @ghostdragoncookie @jewishdainix @ialmostdonothingnew @just-call-me-a-god @death-and-the-lady13 @fierreth-who @mister-finally-found-himself @coffeelovinggayidiot @pinkyy-promises @sassychaostrash @lesbiansayaishii @a-cloud-for-dreams @brkh96 @i-likestuff86 @redvelvetpdf @xx0yeet-everything0xx

#the royalty representation project #mod🔥#battlecrown #battlecrown the rrp #written by: mod 🔥#battlecrown 2022

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hpdrizzle · 7 months

Text

🌈 HP Drizzle Weekly Round Up Post #2 🌧️

Hello everyone and welcome to our second round up of 2023!

💧 Don't let anyone rain down on your parade and enjoy this week's works underneath the cut!

🌈 HP Drizzle Art 🌧️

☔ Forgotten

💧 Pairing: Harry Potter/Severus Snape 💧 General Audience, Traditional Art: watercolors, inks, acrylic, and colored pencils on 7.75" x 9.95" mixed media paper. 💧 Weather: Sunny ☔ Summary: Before, I used to be your whole world, now, I’m nothing more than a stranger in your eyes. Why have you forgotten me and not anybody else?

🌈 HP Drizzle Fic 🌧️

☔ Letters In the Rain [G, 3274]

💧 Pairing: Harry Potter/Severus Snape 💧 Weather: Rainy ☔ Summary: Harry Potter’s always hated the rain, though perhaps certain events make him change his mind.

☔ Unbuttoned [E, 2402]

💧 Pairing: Harry Potter/Severus Snape 💧 Weather: Rainy ☔ Summary: Due to the change in weather, Snape starts leaving a few top buttons on his robe undone. It drives Harry crazy.

☔ Weathering Malfoy [T, 6,806]

💧 Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter 💧 Weather: Rainy, Stormy ☔ Summary: The war is over and all Harry wants is a normal year at Hogwarts. But he hadn’t counted on hanging out with Draco Malfoy and liking it. Not to mention Malfoy’s bizarre obsession with the weather. Or is there something else behind Malfoy’s odd behaviour?

☔ Scream If You Wanna Go Faster [E, 21,458]

💧 Pairing: Scorpius Malfoy/James Sirius Potter 💧 Weather: Sunny, Stormy ☔ Summary: James leaned forward to blow out the candles and for a brief moment their eyes met. Scorpius felt it like an arrow to his chest. His breath hitched as people cheered and the smoke from the candles climbed to the ceiling. “You’re going to ruin him.” Albus said, nipping at Scorpius’s shoulder. Scorpius sighed, “It would be fun to try.” Scorpius and Albus are determined to have one last hurrah before their summer ends. Featuring, ratbag twinks, progressive parenting with Harry Potter, the homoeroticism of sportwear, the dance floor as a love language and birds.

☔ A Work Trip to Spain [E, 1443]

💧 Pairing: Victoire Weasley/Blaise Zabini 💧 Weather: Rainy, Stormy ☔ Summary: Victoire Weasley had been looking forward to lounging on the beach during her work trip to Spain. When a thunderstorm strikes, she ends up at the bar spending the evening with Blaise Zabini. Little did she know how it would progress.

#hp drizzle #hp drizzle 2023 #hp fest #weekly round up no 2

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ira-hydrangea · 2 years

Note

Everyone decided to go to the beach and mc is receiving a lot of stares because of their swimsuit but the only thing that prevents anything from flirting with them is the death glare of the food souls. Sorry if this is long

HOW CUTEEEE 💕

Watch your eyes. (Twisted Wonderland x Food Fantasy)

This is such an useless activity. Not all food souls feel thrilled for this trip while the younger one is feel energetic when seeing the beach.

“Have you see Master Attendant?” Cookie ask.

“Uh... no? I thought Master is going with you?” Said Milk.

Brownies then calmly pointed towards the beach entrance where MC is stuck with a group of boys surrounding them. Looking at the way the boys act, it clearly show that they try to woo their master attendant. Before Cookie can storm towards the group, Peking Duck already appear with Martini. He give them an infamous smiling face while pulling MC towards them.

“My~ Such an annoying pest dare to approach my dear master attendant.” Said Peking Duck.

“W-what is you problem?! We just want to-”

BRAK!

One out. The rest just look at the boys and Peking Duck back and forth. He still calmly smiled while Martini start to polish his arrow while counting a numbers.

“One...two...three...”

They didn’t to use more hint to say their presence is not welcome there and so as fast as they could, they start to running away from the scene leaving MC with their food souls.

“This is the reason why I’m against this beach vacation. Now we need to do extra works to make sure those monkey didn’t dare approach Master Attendant again.” Said Cookie.

“I agree.”

And so for the rest of the day, the beach is pretty much divided into two. One side is the normal side while the others is the side of Master Attendant and their food souls. When someone try to cross the line that the food souls draw, the outsome is not very pretty...

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #disney twisted wonderland #ira answer #twisted wonderland x food fantasy #food fantasy x twisted wonderland #food fantasy x reader

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batfamscreaming · 1 year

Text

i've always kind of meant to fic rec more and even when sometimes I can post a fic i'm reading on here I always feel bad I don't do it more often. The ao3 share option always feels hard to read and you always wanna edit the summaries to expand on what you as a reader found compelling instead of what the author thought to put... anyway, tonight i finally mustered myself and ignored everything I usually do at night to spend (checks watch) 2.5 hours putting this list together and fighting tumblr formatting. They're in no particular order, and every single author you should check out their other fics; a lot of them have updated other things since I read these in my AO3 history. If you've never read fics for fandoms you're not in: this is the list to pic one from and just go. Crossovers may be posted in multiple sections, just in case. This is just a list of fics that, when I found them in my history I said, "I remember this one! It was so good!" and a lot of them are ones that, every time they show up in my inbox, I drop everything to read (or I stow them away for the upcoming three hours I desperately will need them). Because of that, a lot of them are fucked up, so check warnings once you get on the page. But like. I think they're fucked up in a delightful little way.

Also a lot of them are long. SUPER long. You all did this for free. Do you know how much I owe you for nightshifts alone, much less long trips and difficult, depressed days that I just had to get to tomorrow and a long fanfic gave me somewhere else to be?

Please give them some love.

___

TWEWY/KH

∞:∞ ((to infinity and beyond)) - Divisionten

Post KH3, spoilers ahoy. He got off the pavement, wet, dirty and alone. They left the beach, ready to chase him down. She gripped her Keyblade, twisting it tight enough in her hands to leave marks. It was time to go home. ((Sora and Riku arrive in Shibuya after KH3 just in time to be mistaken for cosplayers. Extremely good Neku))

Marvel

From the Top - garamonder

Miles let go. Peter B. Parker closed his eyes as he dropped back through the rift, heading home. It would have been nice if he’d ended up there. Instead, the veteran hero makes an unintended pit stop in another Peter's universe - one where he's an Avenger, of all things. (Takes place in the MCU, post-hypothetical-Avengers 4)

Weight the Dice - tuesday

Tony's aim was off the first few tries. It was an imprecise art, time travel by magic rather than science, for all that it could actually change things instead of branching the timeline. He wanted early enough he could still make a difference, but not so early he had to go through puberty again. ((the only fic on this list under 5k, youre welcome))

LOTR???

Less Wise and More Dangerous - DeepWatersWaiting

Fleeing the Balrog and Orcs in Moria, Legolas Greenleaf is shot down with an arrow. He dies upon the bridge, unaware of the fates of his Fellowship, and wakes up moments later with the intention of finding his mother, escaping the Halls of Mandos and re-joining the War of the Ring. This would be a lot easier if he was actually in the Halls of Mandos however, instead of at Losgar as the Noldor arrive in Beleriand from Valinor for the first time. ((i don’t know who any of these people are besides legolas i’m just having a good time and think this one needs more eyes))

Legend of Zelda: One Link

Third Eye - StudioRat

In which we climb the dark tower into the dawn. ((Link wants a third option. Ocarina of Time climax.))

Navigator [Act One] - SaltySaph

A Ganondorf/Link Slowburn Adventure narrative, first of three Acts. It is not based on, or connected to, any of the games in the franchise; but instead a largely invented piece using the Zelda formula and tropes as a base. This is not an Enemies to Lovers piece, because even though they are enemies in the games? They never have any personal or direct enmity toward one another.

The Inevitable - Phlyarologist

A hero falls. A hero rises. Repeat as necessary. Ravio gets an unpleasant lesson in the cost of legends. ((the only good take on heroic deaths))

The Legend of Zelda: Ten Thousand Year Elegy - winklepickers

Months after Calamity Ganon's defeat at the hands of the Princess and the Master Sword's chosen hero, Hyrule is approaching something resembling peace. That is, until Link and Zelda go missing following a disastrous archaeological expedition. Meanwhile, in Domino City, Japan: a dimensional domain emulator belonging to one Kaiba Seto abruptly self-destructs, causing an explosion that catches Mutou Yuugi and his friends in the crossfire. Unexpected? Yes. Unforeseen? Maybe not.

Legend of Zelda: Multiple Links

Please Don't Come for Me - sister_dear

Hyrule gets chucked headfirst through a mysterious portal. He feels the magic of fairies nearby and transforms, intending to ask them for help. Unfortunately for him, Time also found the fountain, and he has something of an effect on fairies. A “Hyrule meets the chain” story where Hyrule encounters each of his new companions in fairy form first.

Language Barriers - Kastaborous

The group made their way over to the two Hylians, where the individual they had rushed to save was conversing with the newcomer. The newcomer was heavily scarred on his left side, and from the bow on his back, he was the archer who had brought down many of the monsters. “Hello,” Time said, as he nodded to them. “Could you point us toward Castle Town?” The scarred man blinked. “Nanda?” … The Heroes of Courage are spread across ages. Hundreds to thousands of years between them. It should come as no surprise that they are having some trouble communicating. But when they’re dropped in a world of alien technology and a language wholly unfamiliar, they really wish Hylia had thought ahead. Or, the gang-meets-wild fic in which there is an appropriate amount of linguistic drift between Links, Hylia does not provide Google Translate, and Wild is a linguaphile among other things.

To Isolate - Poltea, sky_squido

Sky has only just figured out that Ganon is the manifestation of Demise's curse when he starts noticing... something working its way up the chain. Nobody is okay, Sky least of all, but he’s determined to figure out what’s going on or die trying. He has no idea what he’s getting himself into. This is a story of pain, fear, loss, and somehow, despite it all, courage.

Yu Gi Oh

((Basically All Crossovers & Literally The Best Section Of This Whole List u just gotta trust me))

The Power Of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!) - GallusRostromegalus

Honestly, Mokuba deserves to have a gun. And everyone else deserves to go absolutely Off The Fucking Rails. YuGiOh, but they're all appropriately feral little gremlins. Kind of a Reconciliation of the 4Kids Dub and the Horror-Comedy Manga, but mostly me wildly overthinking the setting and deciding to lean into the weirdness.

Shed Some of This Black Light to Surrounding Towns - arinrowan

What Yuugi wants is simple. He wants Izuku to get into Yuuei with him. He wants the rocket engines designed for KaibaCorp to work. He wants to launch his emotions about his father’s family into hyperbolic orbit. Unfortunately, Yuugi and his friends find themselves in the middle of a plot to manipulate the course of history that leaves him struggling to answer two very not simple questions. What does it cost to build the future? And who decides who pays?

The Legend of Zelda: Ten Thousand Year Elegy - winklepickers

ATLA

While Mighty Oaks Do Fall - WitchofEndor

High Sage Kenji blesses Fire Prince Zuko with the resilience of the reed, who bends in the wind and never breaks. When he is done, Fire Prince Ozai narrows his eyes, seemingly displeased by this blessing. But Kenji does not speak for himself; he is only a vessel. The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple. This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.

Boomerangs and Rainbows - mindbending

At Sokka’s behest, the Gaang skips rescuing Zuko during the Siege at the North Pole. Instead they leave him, unconscious, buried in the snow. In completely unrelated news, Sokka’s haunted by a ghost now.

Mountains and Badgermolehills - Glass_Onion

After the Blue Spirit frees the Avatar from the Pohuai Stronghold, Admiral Zhao captures Prince Zuko under suspicion of treason. Isolated from his Uncle and his crew, Zuko has only one ally: the chatty prisoner one cell over.

BNHA

You Ever Sabotage A Wedding? No?...Would You Like To? - All_five_pieces_of_Exodia

Izuku gets invited to Kacchan's wedding as the "Worst man". He thinks it's a joke. Or My story based off a post I saw on Tumblr: > Hot wedding idea, the worst man, it's his duty to try to prevent the wedding at all costs. > The best man and worst man engage in Spy Vs Spy shenanigans until the wedding is done.

That time I got reincarnated as a doomed side character - Gentrychild

Izuku wakes up in the recent light novel he read called “ My Hero Academia.” Unfortunately, he’s in the body of Midoriya Izuku, a minor character killed off early in the manga to motivate the main character Katsuki Bakugo on his Hero’s Journey. Izuku decides he’s going to do whatever it takes to stay alive in this stupidly deadly Isekai. Unfortunately, Izuku isn't aware that in the last novel of the series where the minor character who died is revealed as the main villain’s son All for One has relived his son’s death multiple times, unable to change the outcomes. But something has changed this time.

Locked In Digital - RogueDruid (Icarius51)

A day goes bad to worse for 14 year old Izuku Midoriya, as he wakes up trapped in a computer simulation with nine different Horror games. The only objective given by the madman who locked him in? Beat all nine games, or be deleted. A year later, a very different Izuku shows up at the Gates of UA to take the entrance exam What horrors has he faced?

Ill-Gotten Gains - ghostmaybite

When his father and Tomura start planning the USJ attack, Izuku makes a plan of his own. It’s simple, only four steps: 1. Steal Eraserhead’s quirk 2. Use it to kill All for One 3. Give Erasure back, hopefully 4. Go to jail, probably He’s prepared for the plan to fail at any time, but surprisingly, it’s not until step 4 that things fall through.

Shed Some of This Black Light to Surrounding Towns - arinrowan

#long post #fic recs #fandoms

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darkness-in-the-valley · 1 year

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A DEEPER ANALYSIS ON THE FALL OUT BOY CLAYMATION VIDEO

Fall out boy released a claymation video on Christmas, as a celebration of Fall Out Boy video and a promotional video of FOB8. It certainly… is something! I believe that a lot of this has a way deeper meaning than just what we’re seeing on the surface. I wanna take a deep dive into the analysis of the video, since there are plenty of hidden details that, knowing Fall Out Boy, cannot just be coincidences.

QUICK WARNING: there will be some mentions/imagery of drugs, and kinda vomit. It's not at all graphic, but I just thought that it might be better to give a heads-up just in case.

A SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO

First, I’ll give a quick summary of the video before I go on.

The video starts out with stars falling from the sky, as the camera pans down to a Doberman sitting in a backyard. As he lies down, the falling stars emerge from the bushes and approach the dog. He stares curiously as they move toward him and sprinkles stardust onto him. As he inhales it, he starts sneezing, before his doghouse behind him reveals a portal somewhere. The dog appears intimidated as he sees a green, octopus-like monster drag him through the portal unwillingly.

He’s taken to a much larger purple monster, so large that he can stand on its tongue. He drags his tongue back into his mouth with the dog on it and swallows him. The dog looks confused as standing around him are bright neon hands, regurgitating some kind of green substance. A lot of them appear to be dying.

There is one much larger hand that gets up from the ground and looks toward the dog. The hand points towards an image on the wall of a dog, surrounded by hands, and arrows pointing towards it, and he is dragged over to this painting by the hand. The door opens to a beach, where the hands seem excited to see. The dog enters the beach, the hand leaves, and he is welcomed by more creatures coming out behind the palm trees.

A centipede like creature, and a dinosaur like creature approach the dog, and the centipede turns into a door. The dog is pushed through the door, and is pushed into what seems like the same backyard as he was in from the beginning, but daytime. There’s a man, assumingly the owner of the dog, grilling burgers, and he tosses one to the dog. As the dog is about to eat it, the owner turns around and reveals many faces all over his body. The video ends with the dog barking up at the owner somewhat abruptly.

ANALYSIS

Now that we know the video, let's take a deeper look into the details and what this video could mean:

The dog’s dimension

We’ll start from the beginning. The blue skies and the stars seem very similar to the cover of Infinity on High. We’ll get into why this is important later, but it definitely has an influence on the references made in this video.

The stars sprinkle stardust on the dog, which is what seems to be the thing that kickstarts his journey through this alternate dimension.

Stardust can refer to a few things: -Stardust is a slang term for cocaine -Stardust can refer to a person’s soul being dreamlike

-Stardust also can refer to the stars and supernovae which lead to the birth of the earth, and actually is what science refers to as the things that humans are made of (97% mostly as carbon is the thing which kickstarted the creation of earth, and is what all life is made of)

So lets apply what all of these meanings can mean for this video: For the first definition, stardust is a hallucinogen, and the dog inhaling this could mean he is “hallucinating” what happens. Immediately after he inhales it is when his doghouse opens to another dimension. I don’t believe he’s hallucinating it, but it could be the thing which lead to him seeing this alternate dimension– maybe its a drug which allows people to enter this dimension.

The second one could be that maybe this is a dream the dog is having, or that his soul is entering another plane of existence. However, it seems like its truly happening, so the soul explanation may make a bit more sense.

The third is one that could be just a reach. Or it could have something to do with something I’ll mention later, about the end of the video and the man himself.

I’m considering all options, but the first seems the most likely.

Purple monster layer

Next, we’ll talk about the dimension itself:

The dog is brought to the first layer of this dimension. I was not able to find any smaller significant details except for the monster having eight eyes, and some are a yellowish green while others seem to be bluish green. I don’t know if this means anything other than a tease for fob8. There doesn’t seem to be too much of note here, so for now, let’s move on.

The monster’s stomach

Let’s think about the stomach of the monster. The hands are suggesting they were expecting the dog, almost excitedly as they point towards the drawing of the dog on the wall, and this wall opens up an entrance to the next world. If the door is inside the monster’s stomach, are they living inside of the monster? It is the thing the dog entered through.

The dog is emphasized by the markings on the wall. There are three hands pointing up, and three pointing right when facing them. These hands are right hands, which will be important later. The existing hands in the stomach appear to be all left hands. There are right hands, but the only ones I can see are dead ones. Not all the dead hands are right hands, but all the right hands are dead if that makes sense. They seem to be sick from something, as they are vomiting some kind of substance.

If we know anything from this video, if they've all been sent by the same stars, it's possible this drug they've been given could mean they're OD'ing, since it is a common symptom. I’ll be mentioning why this is applicable later, but green inverted would appear as red. Could it be they’re coughing up blood?

The beach layer

The next thing we see is a beach. Something that’s been really consistent throughout what we know of this storyline.

The pink shell beach website changed as soon as this video dropped. When clicking on the seashell it now reads: “The beach was never real, none of it is”, and opening the console refers to it as a red herring. The beach has been the most difficult thing to decipher, because although its supposedly not real, its still a theme in what we’re looking at.

Obviously, this beach has to exist on some level, otherwise why would we have seen this dog entering a beach? It can’t be a coincidence.

But wait, it isn’t pink is it? It’s primarily green, but green is also a complementary color to pink. When inverted, it would appear pink/red. It could be that the colors are inverted in this reality. We can assume this as the trees are a dark purple and when inverted, will look brown- the way our reality perceives them.

We are playing an alternate reality game though.

It’s not that this beach isn’t real:

It does not exist on the same dimension we are, and to us, does not exist.

The final part: dog returns to his own dimension

Now lets analyze the final part of the video, the backyard.

The dog stayed overnight in this dimension, although he was only there was for seconds, which may suggest time passes much quicker in this dimension. If the man was grilling burgers, then we can assume this is later in the day as well, so he was there for longer than just overnight.

The man is obviously friendly despite his appearance that we see. He feeds the dog, he smiles towards him, and continues to smile despite revealing his appearance. I assume this man must be the dog’s owner if both he and the dog are already friendly with each other and the man does not question him appearing in his backyard. The dog only seems scared of him once he notices the faces on his body, as if he isn't who he thought he was.

The faces on his body however, seem angry and in distress as they shout, the man himself is calm.

I’ve been made aware (credit to @ive-traced-your-shadows for this one) that one face, on the right wrist seems to have blue eyes, and is the only one while the others have dark eyes black or brown.

Does this have correlation with the right hands on the wall of the monster’s stomach brought up earlier? Is there a reason why there are so many hands swallowed by this monster? Why are the right hands dead?

I believe this could be a reference to GINASFS, “trade baby blues for wide-eyed browns” which could be a metaphor. This metaphor has been explained as losing your innocence, as people are born with blue eyes but as they mature, may turn brown.

Are the innocent hands dead? Does this mean innocence is no longer alive in most people, but maybe to this man who may only have an ounce of innocence left? Are the drugs and the trips they caused a symbolism of losing innocence?

Once again, @ive-traced-your-shadows has added onto these thoughts, suggesting coming out of “the other side of the apocalypse” definitely would drain you of whatever innocence you have left, or at least most of it in the case of this man. Drugs and the apocalypse would certainly get to anyone's head.

I would also like to mention the man being in swimming trunks, having a barbecue, suggests this is summer time.

This is worth noting as this means we have at least one reference of three seasons so far.

“Spring training” in the sending my love to the other side console.

“I’m in a winter mood” when clicking on the seashell from the same site, and the date the song snippet was dropped.

And now, likely this, the video taking place in the summer.

The only one we seem to be missing is autumn, if it doesn’t yet exist.

Or maybe it already does… Could it be “grand theft autumn”?

But what would it have to do with this video in particular, it sounds like a reach on surface level doesn’t it?

We’ve been given snippets of a promotional image, and @ive-traced-your-shadows has stitched them together. If you take a look, they look very similar to a specific album cover, don’t they? The same album that would have grand theft autumn. Is this album relevant to what's to come?

EDIT: this has been confirmed by the fall out boy tumblr, but I'm still giving credit to him for getting it right lol

The music snippet

We get a few seconds of a music snippet at the end, and its DEFINITELY giving off earlier FOB vibes, leaning more towards punk rock than they have in recent years (well… recent album its been like 5 years so its not very recent in terms of time, but we’re gonna ignore that).

Several people have brought up that its similar to “Alpha Dog” which would make sense, this whole video is centered around a dog.

“Alpha Dog and OMEGAlomaniac” for now are the only lyrics I think are relevant, and it's mostly the sound that's similar. We might have to wait and see what the song is.

I will say though, omegalomaniac is a play on megalomaniac (don’t say it don’t think it-) which means someone who is crazy with/for power. Whether its applicable or not I’m not sure.

What’s the apocalypse?

Another thing we haven’t answered yet is, where is this dog and this man living? Where is this set? Well, let’s take a look. They’re living in a suburban area, the weather is sunny and warm, and there are palm trees in the background.

A beach perhaps? The pink seashell beach background does have a lot of houses.

I’ve been thrown off by “The beach isn’t real”. Was it meant to throw us off from our search? Is it really a red herring or do they want us to think it isn’t? Is it possible that maybe they don’t want us to think its real?

Even if it isn't real, it doesn't remove it from the analysis. The beach exists on some level, even if not on our world.

And then there’s the apocalypse, which I've barely touched on yet.

As we see, the dimension has started to affect the plane of existence the dog is on, as the monsters were the first to approach the dog. Everything seemed to be normal in terms of our reality- until the man revealed himself to be a monster himself. Are monsters affecting the reality? Is this the beginning of them starting the apocalypse? Monsters seem to be affecting the reality, and since the dog seems to know the man we see at the ending of the video can mean a few things:

-The monsters are affecting him

-The monsters are taking his place

A running theme in the past of Fall Out Boy is turning people into monsters (Patrick in the Youngblood Chronicles comes to mind, and Pete as a vampire in the Sixteen Candles music video), and if we’re correct about the loss of innocence, the passing of the apocalypse, then it could be this man is turning into a monster before our eyes. And as we can see, the man himself is not hostile, but the faces appear to be. They are clearly separate from who he is.

The beach could be the start of the apocalypse, and might be why for some reason it isn’t considered real.

I don't have a for sure answer yet on what pink seashell beach could be, so I'm throwing several ideas out there, in case it sounds contradictory.

CONCLUSION

We are getting references to a lot of albums here. Pink shell beach is going to be very important to this story, it is more than just a red herring. We may be seeing alternate dimensions and I have a feeling we could be getting another storyline with this album. The monsters are likely starting the apocalypse as they traverse our world. There is so much I am not able to sum up in just a few sentences.

BUT HEY, THATS JUST A TH-

I plan on adding more thoughts to this as I get more ideas, more connections- I am far from finished with my thoughts. I’m sure we are going to be getting a lot of more things over the next few months (especially if we could be getting this album in the spring/summer).

These are just my thoughts, my word isn’t law of course. I don’t have answers for everything yet but I still feel a lot of these things are at least important to bring up.

Thank you to my husband @ive-traced-your-shadows who helped me out with this a ton as well ily.

If there’s anything anyone would like to point out, add onto, suggest, or give insight to what may be important to some of the things I’ve mentioned (especially if anyone is familiar with coding and can find some important info on these websites)- I would love to hear your thoughts! I am most certain that people will have a better clue about things than what I currently do.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it! <3

#fall out boy #fob #fob 8 #fob8 #love from the other side #pink seashell beach #patrick stump #joe trohman #pete wentz #andy hurley #why can't i write my college essays this fast #i wrote this in an hour #tw vomit #tw drugs

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arqueete · 4 months

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New Year's Meme 2023

This is a survey reflecting on the year that I've been diligently filling out since Livejournal days. Anyone is welcome to take it for themselves.

1. What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before?

I visited Italy! I went on a trip with my in-laws where we stayed in a rented house in Tuscany for a bit and then my husband and I spent a few days on our own in Venice.

I rode a water taxi in Venice.

I'm not 100% sure but I think I had actual tiramisu (as opposed to tiramisu-flavored things) for the first time this year?

I got into very seriously and deliberately writing a romance novel.

I went rollerblading at Red Arrow Park in Milwaukee which only opened to roller skates for the first time this summer.

I saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway (just before it closed.)

After making several recipes out of a Milk Bar cookbook, while we were in New York we got to actually get dessert at Milk Bar

I got this little display called a Tidbyt and I wrote an app for it that identifies airplanes that go past my apartment. (I also visited the observation lot at the airport for the first time because I'm a nerd.)

I went down to Chicago and visited a museum there by myself.

I got a Polaroid camera and took some photos with it.

I got food (biryani) from an Indian restaurant.

I went to beloved Milwaukee bar Bryant's and had a cocktail that was set on fire.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?

In 2023, I wanted to be more regular in going to the pottery studio where I have a membership, and I did work on that for a while but then I started to slow down again. I don't seem to do well with hobbies where I have to drive somewhere to go do them. I'm hoping to do more pottery stuff at home next year.

I also wanted to throw away less food and use up leftover ingredients in better ways. Still working on this, but my husband and I have a list on our fridge now of stuff we have sitting around that we know needs to be used soon.

I also wanted to ride the bus a little more. I did a pretty good job of this, I think! I bussed to the beach, to a favorite bookshop, to the State Fair, and to the train station.

In 2024, here's what I'm going for:

I want to get this novel I'm writing to the point where I can get some people to beta read it.

I used to keep a budget but since I got married and my husband and I got a joint account, we haven't really figured out a good way to keep a budget together. I'd like to start budgeting again.

I want to read every book the bi book club I'm in has on its schedule for 2024. I also want to reread more books I already own.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? I went to a baby shower for one of my husband's cousins. I'm happy for them and their baby boy! 4. Did anyone close to you die? We lost one of my husband's best and oldest friends to suicide earlier this year. It's been rough, to be honest.

5. What countries did you visit? I went to Italy! Trying to learn some Italian from scratch stressed me out but I especially loved eating way too much gelato and walking around Venice. 6. What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023? Last year I said I wanted closer relationships to people who live nearby, to invite people over more. We tried to do a bit of this. We had guests over for dinner a few times, including my husband's cousin who literally lives in our apartment building so it's a little embarrassing that we haven't seen him. Also, things have been ramping back up with the bisexual community group I'm a part of.

I would like to have less stress in 2024 though, you know, wouldn't we all? 7. What date from 2023 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? In trying to think of dates off the top of my head and my brain says, hmm, April 7th, the day I saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I mean, that was a good and important day in my life. 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Maybe writing multiple drafts of a novel. I've gotten past first drafts before but it's been years since I've been writing this much and this regularly and I've been enjoying it. 9. What was your biggest failure? After feeling like I was managing my anxiety really well in recent years I think this year it became more of a struggle for me again. 10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I'm very lucky to generally be a healthy person but this year I dealt with some things... In the spring my chronic hives did finally stop. But then I got Covid. Then I got a painful cyst on my ovary. Then I got the stomach flu.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Probably the Tidbyt. It's a cute little super low res screen that sits in my living room and tells me things like the sunrise/sunset times, the weather forecast, the nearest airplane, and the flavor of the day at Kopp's Frozen Custard. Even though it's a tech thing it's helping me appreciate the little things and I like that about it. 12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Sufjan Stevens definitely seemed to have a shitty year but it was nice to see him making progress in recovering from his illness and, you know, I'd like to celebrate the great album he put out.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I already complained about Elon Musk in last year's survey but seeing Twitter fall apart has been depressing this year. 14. Where did most of your money go? Besides rent, probably to the Italy trip. 15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Airplanes! I got really into reading about commercial aviation this year and paying attention to the planes that pass by my apartment. 16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2023? We got a new Sufjan album, Javelin, in October and I listened to it a ton at that time.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. Happier or sadder? Sadder. ii. Older or wiser? Older. iii. Thinner or fatter? The same. iv. Richer or poorer? Richer. 18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I felt like I really didn't pay much attention to the news and world events this year. It seemed like everyone around me was outraged about one thing or another and I've just been tired and uninformed. I'm not proud of that. 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Staying up late even when I knew I wouldn't get enough sleep. 20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent Christmas Eve with my family and then Christmas Day with my husband's family out in Madison.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve? We have late dinner reservations and plan to hang around the restaurant bar until midnight.

22. Did you fall in love in 2023? I celebrated my first anniversary with my husband (went went to a nice new restaurant in the city called Lupi & Iris.) 23. How many one-night stands? None.

24. What was your favorite TV program? I loved the new seasons of What We Do In the Shadows and The Bear.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I like to read snark pages about fundamentalist Christian influencers and I've loved to hate Girl Defined and watching them just kind of spiral out of control this year. 26. What was the best book you read? I read a lot this year (I finished 18 books!) and I started a Goodreads account if anyone wants to be my reading buddy. Probably the best book I read this year in terms of quality was Educated by Tara Westover which is well-known and highly rated for good reason.

In terms of books that are not impressive in a literary way but made me feel totally rabid in a fandom way, I recently finished With Love, From Cold World and bought a copy just so I can reread it some time next year. 27. What was your greatest musical discovery? I discovered Jose Gonzalez this year and he was really scratching an itch for me while waiting for a new Sufjan album. His song "Heartbeats" was on my Spotify Wrapped top songs.

28. What did you want and get? I wanted an inflatable Lapras so bad and in previous years they kept selling out before I could buy one but this summer I got one! I got the Lapras!!! I rode it out on the lake!

29. What did you want and not get? There were three different times that people were supposed to come visit us this year and it didn't happen. My husband's friend was supposed to stay with us and he passed before that happened. One of my husband's cousins was supposed to visit and then we got Covid and had to cancel. Then another one of my husband's cousins was supposed to visit and my husband had to go out of state for a relative's funeral and we canceled that, too. These are the sorts of things that added up to the year feeling like there were hard times around every corner, even though we had a lot to be grateful for. 30. What was your favorite film of this year? I saw a surprising amount of movies in theaters this year! I think Barbie was the most memorable (also, the theater I saw it in, The Downer Theatre, has since shut down so I will also remember it for that.)

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 33. My husband and I got lunch at an Italian restaurant and then saw the matinee of Skylight Music Theater's production of School of Rock, which I did enjoy even though mostly it just made the both of us want to rewatch the movie.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Maybe not getting Covid. 33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023? I'm loving flannel shirts and sweater dresses this fall/winter. In the summer I was wearing a lot of dresses, too. I've gotten into tucking shirts into shorts or jeans. 34. What kept you sane? All the reading and writing I've been doing has helped me feel productive and grounded. 35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Maybe Ayo Edebiri on The Bear. 36. What political issue stirred you the most? Climate change felt relentless and inevitable this year, especially with the wildfire smoke we dealt with over the summer and the mild winter so far. 37. Who did you miss? I don't go on Twitter anymore and that's generally good for me, but there were some interesting people I followed on there where I'm like huh, wonder what they're up to now (but not enough to go back on Twitter and find out.) 38. Who was the best new person you met? My team at work went through a lot of changes this year and I always get nervous about new people getting hired (like, what if they're assholes?) Fortunately everyone who joined our team has been really nice and I'm grateful. 39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2023: This year I found a lot of freedom in taking a Marie Kondo-esque approach to my physical surroundings and just throwing shit out if I don't use it and it doesn't have active sentimental value to me. At the same time, this year I stopped being so hard on myself for buying things like coffee shop drinks all the time. So I guess generally the lesson is about recalibrating my idea of what is valuable to me to reflect what I actually enjoy day-to-day more than what I think I'm "supposed to" keep around or spend money on.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

He said that nothing lives long, only the earth and the mountains As he quoted Black Kettle's death song The words drifting off into the emptiness Of this great land where we’ve never belonged

Death Cab For Cutie - "Foxglove Through the Clearcut"

#meme

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