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cafe-7-dream · 4 months

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Little Lies

Note(s): Happy Holidays! Here’s my gift for y’all, hope it’s good since it hasn’t been beta-read. Hope y’all like it! I’m a bit nervous to post this, it’s my baby after all, but hey, what can I say? I’m delusional about Andy Park. ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´ω`ﾟ)ﾟ｡ Word count: 6k Warning(s): spying and recording? (it’s not nefarious) jail and prison sentence mentions, swearing, insecure/negative thoughts, talk of wanting to die, panic attacks, mention of throwing up

Jisung knew it was wrong, but what you don’t know can't kill you, am I right?

He knew spying was morally— and probably legally— wrong. Throw the metaphorical cherry of recording on top of the oh-yeah-this-is-definitely-wrong-sundae, and voila! A prison sentence!

Jisung didn’t want to go to jail, but he didn’t want to stop recording your sick skating tricks either.

If you are in a public space, you should expect your privacy to be violated! It’s common sense!

This is the defence Jisung just made up on the spot to spit out if you catch him red-handed with his borrowed camcorder in hand. Thankfully, he doesn’t end up having to use them since you are too focused on landing correctly and picking up speed on your board to notice him by the chain-link fence around the skate park.

The skate park is near the public basketball court where Jisung’s (self-proclaimed) best friend, Chenle, is currently too busy shooting hoops to notice that Jisung has wandered off. Lucky him, because Jisung could already imagine the teasing he would have to endure over filming a “pretty stranger”. He was only interested in the artistry thank you very much!

Okay, maybe that was a little lie.

But it doesn’t matter. You are just a passerby in Jisung’s life, only never forgotten by the footage he films secretly.

Or are you?

It’d seem fate was on Jisung’s side, or against him, because you were at the skatepark once again the next Saturday. And the Saturday after that, and the one after that—you get the picture.

Jisung would encourage Chenle and the rest of his basketball club friends, vice-captain Jeno and captain Mark, to play street ball at the public court just so he could have a valid excuse as to why he also showed up near the skatepark every Saturday like clockwork.

It became a comfortable routine at one point.

But all good things must come to an end, and Jisung wasn’t surprised that Donghyuck was the one to cause it.

“So that’s the person you fancy, ey?” Donghyuck—or Haechan that he keeps insisting on being called instead of his legal name— asked in his trademarked teasing tone.

Jisung jumped, caught red-handed with the camcorder pointed at you instead of the unofficial basketball match going on behind him.

“What? No!” Jisung tried to defend himself.

But this was Haechan, so naturally, it was in vain. Haechan was a bloodhound at sniffing out gossip and rumours. He had to be, he claims, because he’s the school’s radio show host and the newscaster in the broadcasting club which Jisung also was a part of. That’s where he got his borrowed camcorder from.

“Oh-ho?” Haechan annoyingly wiggled his eyebrows. “Then you wouldn’t mind me going over there, right?”

Jisung wished the ground would just swallow him up right then and there.

Haechan was a known flirt, so Jisung knew that Haechan had no shame in trying to sweet-talk a stranger.

That’d be embarrassing enough, but what if you actually fell for his charms?

That’d feel ten times worse, even though Jisung was already resigned to his fate as a passerby in your life.

Over these past few weeks, he had indeed started fancying you, little by little. He knew he only liked the idea of you and was terrified of getting to know you and getting his perfect concept of you in his head destroyed.

But Jisung was still a teenage boy with pride.

“No, of course not.”

And a liar.

“Sweet! Be right back!” Haechan took off before Jisung could falter and stop him.

Jisung cursed his fate—and his “friends”.

This was not how he planned nor expected this Saturday to go. Why did Haechan have to force himself to tag along when he never had before? He had claimed that nothing was interesting about three sweaty boys playing with balls so why did he change his mind now?

Jisung didn’t find them that interesting either, but he was grateful that they were too competitive and hyper-focused on the game to notice him wandering off.

Jisung’s body froze.

Had they noticed? Had they spotted him while his attention was diverted?? Is that why Haechan already knew that Jisung had been transfixed by you before???

Oh no, oh no.

Jisung couldn’t believe this.

When he turned around towards the court, he saw Chenle, Jeno and Mark all coming over, abandoning their game.

“So, Haechan’s picking them up for you?” Chenle asked between taking gulps of water from his water bottle.

“Or is he being a brat and picking them up for himself?” Jeno tagged on as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his shirt.

“No way, Haechan wouldn’t do that!” Mark defended. “Not to our baby Jisungie anyways.”

Jisung prayed to God for the strength to endure these assholes.

Tattletales, the lot of them.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Jisung lied through his teeth.

“Oh yeah, sure.” Chenle grinned provokingly. “You definitely haven’t been scoping them out every time we have gone here for the past month. It must’ve been someone else.”

“A ghost, maybe.”

A chill went down Jisung’s spine, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.

Was it because Mark thoughtlessly mentioned ghosts despite knowing damn well that Jisung was scared shitless of the supernatural?

Was it because he now knew that he’d been spied upon this last month without his knowledge?

Was it because Haechan was pointing at him while talking to you?

Wait, what?

Jisung turned his attention back to you two, and sure enough, you were now watching him because Haechan was stupidly pointing him out.

Incredible. Amazing. Show-stopping. Spectacular.

Jisung respected Haechan dearly for his extrovertedness— he’s the only extrovert in the friend group besides Jaemin when he’s high from caffeine— but he kinda wished Haechan could break an arm or something at this very moment so they could flee the scene and never come back.

Preferably right now.

Alas, Haechan waved them over and his other treacherous friends grabbed him by the shoulders so he couldn’t bolt and drag him over to you.

Jisung’s mind and heart raced but he couldn’t get his stupid legs to obey him to take him far away.

They just limply kept taking him closer and closer to his impending doom.

What a funny view this must’ve been for you.

A lanky boy being almost entirely dragged by the friends that he towers over and should by all means be assumed stronger than when he’s actually the weakest strength-wise in the friend group.

Jisung hates his life.

Jisung’s legs and heart finally freeze, but he’s already near you now.

You, who is talking to him?

“You want to learn how to skate?”

No.

“Yes.”

Oh my god, you idiot.

“Oh cool, do you have a board?”

No!

“Yes?”

Jisung seemed to be short-circuiting because he couldn’t seem to say what he thought in his head, it all came out opposite to what he wanted!

“He didn’t bring it today,” Jeno fortunately lied to save him.

”Yeah, he promised to play ball with us!” Mark unfortunately lied when it’s obvious just by looking at them that Jisung was the only one not sweaty.

“I noticed you skate really well, and since none of us know how to and can’t teach Jisungie, maybe you could help out?” Haechan dramatically clasped his hands together and flashed puppy eyes.

God, smite him now.

Jisung doesn’t care whether he goes to heaven or hell, he just wants to disappear.

“Of course!”

Scratch that, bring it back, what was that?

Did you agree? And you don’t even seem the least creeped out that strangers are boldly asking you for a favour!

“Great, thanks!” Haechan patted Jisung on the back in either support or mockery. “We’ll be right over there at the court so just scream if he breaks something!”

Jisung’s friends scampered off before he could get a word in. Not that he could, since he was standing tongue-tied before you.

“So, you got a board. Do you know how to ride it yet?” You ask.

“No,” Jisung dumbly answers. Great. Now you’ll definitely see through his lies.

“Ah, a kind of I-will-learn-how-to-later purchase? I get you, I was the same way.”

You’re either incredibly kind by not calling Jisung out on his lies, or incredibly stupid.

Jisung preferred to imagine it to be kindness over stupidity. Or maybe not, since it meant you only played along despite knowing that he’s a seemingly compulsive liar.

“Well, we’ll start with learning how to balance and then go from there, it’s the most important basic of skating.” You place your board by Jisung’s shoes. “Place your feet near the ends of the board, your toes between the screws.”

Oh god, it slipped Jisung’s mind that he’d have to get on the board. He forgot that he couldn’t do this; he couldn’t even ride a bike properly yet! The last time he tried, another bike rider got pissy with him because he couldn’t ride in a straight line and kept swaying this way and that!

“It’s okay, I gotcha,” you said as you held your hands out for stability.

Jisung automatically placed his shaky hands in yours and stepped one foot on the board by the screws as you instructed. You swiftly placed your foot by the wheels on the other end, securing it in place.

“Good, now the other one.”

Jisung must look so stupid right now, shaky without even having both feet above the ground.

He’s grateful that you are nicer and more patient than he could ever have imagined.

Jisung bit the bullet and jumped fully on the board. It creaked beneath his feet but didn’t go anywhere. Jisung noticed that he had your hands in a death grip and tried to relax his grasp without much success.

“Good! Now, bend your knees slightly.”

Jisung’s heart was about to burst out of his chest, but he did as you asked either way.

“Find the centre of gravity. Balance your weight until you find it.”

Jisung shuffled a bit until he thought he could let go of your hands and not immediately faceplant. He did, indeed, let go once he realized that his hands were starting to get sweaty.

“You are doing great! Okay, now lock your knees in place.”

Oh god, you’re not about to do what he thinks you’re about to do, right?

You placed your hands on his hips and pushed him. The wheels turned and the board went shakily forward.

Jisung immediately felt himself losing his balance and reached out for anything to steady him. Your shoulders end up being just that thing, and he gripped on tight.

“You’re doing amazing!”

Physically? He hasn’t broken a bone yet.

Mentally? In absolute shambles.

Hotel? Trivago.

Now’s not the time for jokes, Jisung is about to meet his maker!

The board continued to go forward despite Jisung’s prayers and he continued to hold onto you, his only saving grace from a hospital trip. It continued like that for what felt like a lifetime, but probably was only a few minutes in reality.

You helped him get off the board eventually, and Jisung had never been more grateful to stand on firm ground before.

“Good job! Same time next week?” You asked.

“Yeah,” Jisung breathlessly agreed before his mind processed the question.

“Great! Bring your board,” you cut in before Jisung’s mind caught up. “Oh, and a helmet and knee and elbow pads if you have them? I usually don’t use them unless I’m attempting a new trick that I know I’m going to fail several times before landing so I didn’t bring them today but I’ll bring them with me next week so you can borrow them if you don’t have any yet. You should invest in some though!”

Jisung is still coming down from the adrenaline of his near-death experience when you bid goodbye and ride off into the sunset. Literally. The sun had already set by now.

It was only on the bus on the way home that everything clicked into place and Jisung realised that he just agreed to put his life in danger again.

Risking his life only to spend time with a pretty passerby.

What has he gotten himself into?

What has he gotten himself into, indeed, Jisung wondered as he stood in a skate shop Friday evening after school, a mere day away from your promised meet-up.

His friends—all six of them this time— explored the shop and advised him on which board to buy despite knowing jack shit about skating, just like him.

“No, this one is prettier,” Haechan argued loudly.

“Pretty isn’t the point, function is,” Renjun argued back. “And even if it was, then that one would totally win.”

Poor Jisung’s eardrums; why Renjun kept taking the bait leading to arguments with Haechan, he’ll never understand.

Jisung had planned, before everything went ape-shit, to have a chill Friday night spent either sleeping early or gaming late, whichever caught his fancy. Instead, he’s blowing money just to spend time with someone he likes. Can he even say he likes you when he’s only spoken a few words to you? Jisung doesn’t know. He just wants to buy a board and get out of there.

“How about this one?” Jaemin asked as he pointed to a board on the wall filled with racks of them.

“Let’s just ask an employee, none of us knows what we’re looking for.” Mark, in his senior wisdom, replied.

And that’s precisely what they did, or rather, what Jeno ended up doing instead of Jisung as he was too intimidated to ask the clerk on his own.

At least he walked out of that store with the new purchase secured in hand.

Mission accomplished.

Now onto the next mission: not losing his one and only life. -

“I have a competition coming up.”

“Hmm?”

You and Jisung were currently taking a break, sitting on the ramp and eating snacks.

Jisung was finally comfortable enough to skate around without assistance, but he valued his life enough to not attempt to do any tricks. Or make a move on you.

He’s finally gotten over being tongue-tied and could honestly call you a friend now. A friend that he had a crush on. But he wouldn’t dare mention that to anyone but his six other friends who already knew of this.

“-u listening, Jisungie?”

No, he wasn’t, and now he was distracted by the nickname you picked up from Haechan. “Jisungie” was the only name you ever called him by, which made him wonder if you thought that was his real name.

“No?” Jisung shyly admitted.

“I swear, sometimes I wonder what goes on inside your head. Like that time you had beef with a tree.”

You laughed. God, how pathetic Jisung is to love to be laughed at, as long as you are happy.

“What? Don’t you know that trees are rude? Try talking to one and you’ll see.”

You laugh harder, and Jisung smiles wider.

“As I was saying: I have a competition coming up and wonder if you want to come and watch?”

“Of course!”

“Cool! It’s in two weeks on Saturday so I can’t see you next week because I have to practice.”

Jisung could feel his heart sink a little.

“Yeah, I gotcha. Don’t worry about it.”

“You could bring your camcorder if you don’t think it’ll be broken by a stray skateboard.”

Jisung’s heart picked up the pace. How did you know he had a camcorder?

“I’ve seen you before, filming me. I thought it was because you thought skating was cool at first, and then thought that you used the footage to study how to skate on your own when your friend approached me about teaching you how to. Either way, I’m cool with it so don’t worry if you chose to not bring it with you because you thought I would think it would be awkward or creepy or anything!”

Oh my god, you knew about him filming you! And you were cool with it! You were truly incredibly kind!

“Yeah, I could bring it and film you winning and then make a tape about it that you can watch later when you want to relieve the moment.”

Why did Jisung just offer that?

“Really? That’d honestly be so cool! Are you sure?” You excitedly asked.

Jisung thought he might kiss you if he had to look at your hopeful face any longer so he looked away.

“Of course, it’s nothing much. I could probably have it ready the week after the competition, in time for our next meet-up.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but is it really okay that I take over your Saturday every week?” You asked. “You don’t have anything better you would rather be doing, right?”

“No, I like being with you,” Jisung said a bit too honestly. Shit. Would you think he’s weird?

“Cool, me too! You’re really fun to hang around with. There’s never a dull conversation, that’s for sure!”

Jisung smiled while he bit down on his red apple. -

Jisung could feel his veins pumping with adrenaline from where he stood in the crowd.

The skate park was packed with bystanders who came to watch the competition, and skaters were already warming up in the free space.

“Let’s try to find a better spot on higher ground, so we won’t only be seeing the backs of people’s heads,” Jaemin suggested.

Jaemin and Haechan tagged along without asking for permission first once they heard of where Jisung would be spending his Saturday. Secretly, Jisung was grateful that they came with him; he hates having to push through crowds alone.

Jisung held onto Jaemin’s backpack as Haechan led the makeshift train of three through the swarm. Finally, they found a good spot not too far away from the main event, but still less crowded with people.

“Full battery?” Haechan asked Jaemin when he took out a camcorder borrowed from the broadcast club from his backpack.

“I made sure to charge it completely since we’ll film for a long time. I think you said the competition would take about 3 hours?” Jaemin asked as he handed over a spare camcorder to Jisung to hold onto while he tried to untangle cords for the audio setup.

“That’s what Y/N said, anyways,” Jisung confirmed.

“It’s the finals!” Haechan excitedly said, despite never showing an interest in skating before. “How did we miss that someone from our school made it to the finals? This is a good scoop for next week’s broadcast!”

Haechan was always on the lookout for new and exciting topics to cover during his radio show. That he’d be the first to rope Jaemin and Jisung into helping out with camera work and audio was unsurprising. They were all in the broadcast club after all. Jisung didn’t mind. He was here for you, not Haechan. But it was still nice to not come alone.

“Imagine if they win?” Jaemin asked. “We’d be the first to cover the scoop.”

Jaemin was currently on his third coffee of the day, which meant that he was 127% more likely to indulge in Haechan’s antics. Or create his own.

“We have to be professional and impartial during the broadcast.” Haechan dutifully stated, like a liar. “But we all know who our Jisungie is hoping to win.”

Jisung could feel his cheeks warm up.

He couldn’t deny it, so he settled for saying, “Get ready, it’s starting soon.”

The skaters had finished their warmups and stood on standby. The local newscasters who were invited by the event organisers to host the competition introduced themselves and the course. They also explained the semi-final rankings and the 2/5/3 competition format–two 45-second-long runs that can net the highest score of 100 with the 5 best single trick attempts also scored out of 100 counting toward producing 3 top scores (the best run score out of the two attempts where flow and consistency matters and the 2 highest scoring single tricks)– before calling up the first contestant.

The first skater made their way up the ramp.

Haechan made a few comments on his own, but since he only researched the contestants and skating terminology a day before the event, he didn’t have much to add. Especially since the first skater wasn’t from their school or you.

The skater balanced their board with the tail on the ledge of the ramp.

The background music started.

The skater dropped down, the board picking up speed from the momentum.

Jisung was relegated to ensuring quality sound and audio since they all knew that if he was the cameraman, the footage would come out shaky from his nerves despite being behind the camera and not competing himself. He was quite happy with this task, however, since it meant that he could put headphones on in an attempt to drown out the booming music and cheers from the crowd. Jaemin was the assigned cameraman and he made sure to get clean footage of the contestants’ runs. Haechan made witty comments now and then, or just general statements about what was going on.

When the contestant from their school got their turn, Haechan instantly became more invested. Jisung could feel his heart in his throat the entire time, but he didn’t know if it was because he wanted their fellow classmate to do well, or because you were the next skater.

Once their classmate finished their run, Haechan continued his spirited spiel by introducing you. He had seen footage of your skating before by “borrowing” Jisung’s camcorder, so he was familiar with your style and had much more to say than the rest of the contestants. Jisung could already feel the upcoming headache of trying to edit the audio down.

You got ready and started your run with a drop-in just like every other contestant.

The drop from the ledge made Jisung’s heart drop to his stomach. He was more nervous than ever, but also elated to see you enjoying the wind in your face.

With the momentum built from the fall from the ramp, you did a basic ollie when flying over a bump.

Jisung leaned forward, mesmerized, when you flew into the air and the board stayed on your feet. You stuck the landing, and Jisung let out a relieved sigh. He was too on edge to relax entirely yet though. You still had 40 seconds left on this run and then another attempt.

Next, you did an ollie to get up on a rail and then slid down it.

35 seconds to go and you made another drop-in at the ramp on the other end of the course to pick up speed once again.

You may have gained a second wind, but Jisung felt winded already only from observing you. He was in disbelief over how effortlessly you make these tricks look when he knows for a fact that they are hard from how many times the other contestants failed or didn’t stick the landing while attempting similar tricks.

Jisung was utterly, and hopelessly in love with this side of you, fully concentrated on your craft.

You finished off your last run with a 180 ollie up a bump to rail and went down the rail with a frontside boardslide.

The crowd cheered as you rode past them. Your and Jisung’s eyes met, and he automatically sent you a thumbs up. You smiled and raised your fist at him in lieu of thanks.

Now that you were done with your runs, Jisung could rest easy, right?

Wrong.

Jisung hadn’t felt this much anticipation and anxiety since he reluctantly showed recordings of his dancing to his friends– all of whom he knew would encourage and support him–after they had begged and nagged him to show his dancing for months.

Did you win? Would you be disappointed if you lost?

You were the best out there, and that’s not just Jisung’s bias talking; he had to listen to Haechan excitedly discussing your performance. By the smile on Jaemin’s face, Jisung knew he enjoyed it too despite not caring about skating in general. Jaemin just tagged along to witness “a love story for the ages in progress”.

After the last contestants’ runs, there was a break where the judges would count up all the contestants’ scores.

Jisung sat anxiously at the edge of his seat the entire break. He didn’t have the stomach to eat or drink anything Jaemin or Haechan tried to feed him, it felt like he’d just throw it back up.

Eventually, the judges announced that the official rankings were ready.

Jisung had his heart in his throat the entire time they listed off 10th to 5th place. Neither you nor the guys’ classmate had been announced yet.

Finally, in second place, a familiar name was announced.

Jisung cheered and so did Haechan and Jaemin.

They almost couldn’t believe it!

Their classmate made it to second place!

In all their joy and cheer, they almost missed the announcement of first place.

Jisung didn’t, of course. His attention had been on you this entire time.

He watched as your face lit up and you skated forward to be awarded the first-place medal.

Jisung could feel hot tears start to prick his eyes out of overwhelment. He cried out and accepted the hugs that his friends offered him. Jisung felt on top of the world despite not having accomplished anything of his own yet.

He stuck around, waiting for you once Haechan left to annoy Renjun, wherever he was, and Jaemin went home to start editing the footage and audio.

“Hey.”

Jisung swivelled around, revealing you standing behind him.

“Hey, you were amazing out there. Congratulations!”

“Thanks,” you say with a bright smile. “I could only do so well because I had my lucky charm with me.”

Jisung’s ears perked up. Why had he never heard of this before?

“Lucky charm?”

“Yeah. You”

Jisung inhaled sharply and choked on nothing. You patted his back while laughing at his coughing form. Jisung could feel the heat in his face so he tried to get his breathing back to normal before attempting to salvage the situation.

“You can’t say stuff like that! My heart can’t take it,” he ended up saying a bit too honestly.

“Okay, okay,” you reply, still with a toothy smile on your face. “Didn’t know you would react like that, my bad.”

You and Jisung stared at each other in comfortable silence, drinking in the moment.

Jisung broke the silence, by thoughtlessly offering, “Want to grab ice cream?”

He could feel his breathing starting to get erratic again. It didn’t make it to a full-blown panic attack before you put him out of his misery.

“Of course!”

This was the best day in a long time.

This was the worst day in a long time.

“She was totally flirting with you, dude!” Haechan cornered Jisung one day before school started in the broadcasting club room to force out what happened after he left Jisung back at the skate park last Saturday.

“It’d be so romantic to confess at the end of the tape.” Jaemin tacked on, ever the romantic.

“This isn’t a rom-com.” Jisung bit out a little too harshly, but his adrenaline was pumping just at the mere thought of doing what he had just been suggested.

Jisung’s a coward; he fears a lot of things. Some are relatively common fears like heights, bugs, and ghosts. And this? Rejection after confession? That definitely topped the list right now.

“C’mon, Jisungie!” Haechan goaded. “This is the best way to confess, you don’t even have to look at them because you’re looking at the camera lens.”

“Plus, you get to redo it if it comes out wrong,” Jaemin added. “It’s the best way!”

“Mind your own business.” Jisung dismissively said despite his racing and turning thoughts. “We’re on in five.”

”This isn’t over!” Haechan got the last word in before settling down at the newscaster's desk and reading through his cue cards in anticipation of going live for the school's morning news.

Jisung’s mind wandered during school like it usually does. He was thinking about you which wasn’t unusual. But this time he was seriously considering and planning out his confession, which was a subject he had tried to not even think about before unless he would revert back to his nervous state around you again. Jisung wrote and rewrote a cue card during class and desperately hid them from his friends’ prying eyes during recess and lunch. He wanted to do this entirely on his own, with no input or interference from anyone else. Jisung wanted his confession to come straight from the heart, regardless of whether it turned out clumsy or not.

Jisung sat down at his desk at home to fine-tune his cue card for the last time before hitting record, the first of many takes.

Jisung knew he was worrying you.

This— his overthinking and jumpy nature— was exactly why he never seriously considered whether he had a shot with you or not, he knew that the thoughts would fray on his already anxiety-prone nerves.

“Are we going to talk about it?” You ask after he jumped away when you touched shoulders while sitting down on the ramp.

“Talk aBoUt what?”

Oh my God.

A voice crack? Really? Jisung was way past puberty by now!

“This?” You gesture.

“You just gestured to all of me.”

“Exactly!” You empathised. “You’re being jumpy, you haven’t been jumpy with me since like the first few times we met. Did something happen?”

“No.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No!” Jisung made you jump back with how fast he turned around to reassure you. “You haven’t done anything, I swear!”

And that was the truth. He was just scared of what you were going to do once you saw the tape on the USB that lies hidden in his backpack.

Were you going to hate him? Think that he was creepy? Finally cut ties with him after realising you are so way out of his league?

Jisung took a deep breath to still his negativity-prone mind like his therapist advised him to do when he gets stuck in a cycle of negative and unhelpful thoughts.

“It’s just-“ he tries but reconsiders. “The tape. That I’m supposed to give you.”

Jisung doesn’t know how to formulate this well without giving himself away.

“Do you need more time?” You ask.

“No, it’s done.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”

God. He sucked at this. Why was he so awkward?

“Then, can I have it? I promise to watch it the full way through since you put effort into it. I haven’t seen it yet but I bet it’s good, but only because you made it.”

You’re such an angel, too sweet for him. No, that is an unhelpful thought. You were kind, and that’s a fact. Even if you don’t feel the same way, you would let him down gently, Jisung was sure of it.

Your sweet encouragement got Jisung to move his body to take out the USB and hand it over to you.

“Let me know what you think next week. I’ve got to go home. Mom’s calling.”

A brave coward, that’s what Jisung was.

He couldn’t even look you in the eyes as he sprinted away from the skatepark.

It was actually getting pretty late, you had endured Jisung’s weird behaviour for longer than he would’ve thought. But that’s what you do, surprise him again and again with being a better person than what he could dare imagine. He just hoped you wouldn’t break his bare heart. He had an inkling that you would, no matter how gently you turned him down. -

Next week Jisung ran late to your usual scheduled time. He was usually early and the first to get there but this time he wasn’t as eager. He was in for a bad time, he could feel it in his gut.

Nevertheless, he didn’t want to stand you up so he dragged himself out of the house and on the bus to the skate park.

You were sitting on the ramp, doodling on the tape of your skateboard like you were prone to do. Each time you met up, the tape sported a new addition. Somehow, this show of normalcy eased Jisung’s heart a little.

When you heard Jisung’s shoes scraping against the gravel, you looked up and smiled at him.

Maybe you haven’t seen the tape yet?

You jumped down from the ramp and placed your pen on the board and pushed it towards Jisung.

It stopped a few feet away from him.

Jisung bent down to pick it up when he noticed the new doodle in red.

WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?

YES NO

His lungs stopped functioning.

Were you serious? Have you actually seen the tape and thought Jisung was worth something? Have you seen something in him that you actually liked? Did you like-like him or did you just pity him? Were you going to laugh at him if he didn’t circle NO?

With shaky hands, Jisung circled YES.

He put the cap back on the pen and put it back on the board that he gently shoved back to you. He slowly raised himself back to his full height and eagerly drank in your reaction. It was hard to decipher your face, it’s like nothing gave way for whether you were going to kiss him next or burst out in laughter. Jisung doesn’t think he could take being laughed at right now.

You skate over to him, feet on the fresh graffiti and Jisung’s heart sinks to his stomach.

Ah, this was it then. You were going to tell him that it was all a joke and you didn’t like him back.

“Wassup, boyfriend?”

Jisung could feel tears start to prick his eyes.

He couldn’t do this.

Not now. Not here. Not with you.

“-Jisungie?”

Jisung couldn’t hear anything. He shut his eyes to try and limit the sensory overload.

He was spiralling and he knew it, but he couldn’t stop.

Suddenly he felt a soft warmth on his lips.

When he clocked back into reality, you were standing on your board, face inches from his.

“I said: do I have to kiss you to wake you up, Jisungie?”

“Yes.” Jisung breathlessly replied a beat too late.

You smiled at him and he could feel his cheeks warm up.

“Alrighty, you get another free for being cute.”

Jisung couldn’t start processing that you just called him cute to his face before the warmth was back on his lips.

This time, he was a little bit more prepared and kissed back.

When you pulled back, both sported toothy grins at each other.

“Be honest,” you whisper to not break the moment. “Do you actually like skating, or do you just like me?”

Jisung was a coward. And sometimes a liar.

“You.”

But sometimes he bravely told the truth.

#nct dream x reader #nct dream fluff #nct dream angst #park jisung x reader #jisung park x reader #jisung x reader #jisung park fluff #jisung park angst #jisung fluff #jisung angst #park jisung angst #park jisung fluff #my fics

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angelkitty54 · 5 days

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Making yet more Sonic fankids! These be Dash and Nova from an AU where Sonic is a divorced single dad! Failed relationships galore in this AU!!

Bit of an info dump about them below the cut. Tho there's still a lot more that isn't mentioned coz I don't want this to get too long... You can ask them stuff if ya want! :)

Dash (actual name is David but no one really calls him that) is Sonic's first kid from a failed relationship with Amy. They got married too young and had a kid way before they were really ready. But where Sonic was able to adapt to being a parent, Amy wasn't able to.

Amy had stubbornly clung to her childhood crush and the dream of marrying the handsome hero, settling down with the white picket fence and the big family, but when she finally got everything she wanted instead of being happy she found herself feeling empty instead. She only realised that this wasn't actually the life she wanted for herself after she'd she'd given birth to Dash and by then it was too late. Things only got worse from there, in both her marriage and relationship with her son.

She and Sonic stayed together for a while but really only due to social conventions. Neither really wanted to stay together but they were just sorta stuck. One day Amy saw how much of an angry, hateful person she had become and just couldn't stand it anymore. So one day when Sonic was out, she just packed up and left, leaving divorce papers for him to sign and a note that said he could keep the house. At that point Sonic was so emotionally drained that he was honestly just kind of relieved it was over.

Dash doesn't have many memories of his mum, and the few he does have are not that great tbh. The clearest memory he has of her is the day she abandoned them. So yeah, he does not have a great relationship, and does not desire to have one, with Amy. Even after she and Sonic reunited and reconciled their friendship years later. He loves his dad tho and otherwise is having a pretty great childhood.

Nova was created by several GUN scientist that went rogue. They stole the confiscated genetic research done by Starline and combined it with what was left of Project Shadow to create a new living weapon for their own purposes. Fortunately they were discovered before they could finish their schemes, and they only specimen they managed to create was taken by Shadow.

He brought her to Tails and Sonic, mostly coz he didn't know what to do with her, and no longer trusted GUN security. And also the fact that she was made with Sonic's DNA too. Nova is constantly in a semi-super state, which is not good for her coz unlike her dads who when they run out of energy in super state would revert back to normal, she can't. So she taps into her own life force instead. Her inhibitor rings block most of her power and regulate her energy so that doesn't happen. Unlike Shadow's, they don't come off.

Nova might look like about 12-ish, but she's actually only about 4 years old. And she acts her age too. When she was first brought home she couldn't walk, talk or do much of anything really. Which of course made everyone very concerned about her development. Shadow had worried he'd been too hasty in pulling her out of her incubation tube. Sonic was the one to figure out that tho her body looked older she was, in fact, a literal baby and thus would need to learn how to do everything the same way a literal baby does. Good thing he already had experience raising one baby already.

Shadow moved in together with Sonic to help raise Nova. They got really close during this time, even tho they were constantly arguing over how to parent their tube baby. Shadow ended up being confronted with a few revelations about his "childhood" aboard the Ark as well as even more complicated feeling he had towards his creators. He found himself trying to push the same image of perfection onto Nova that had been placed on him, and being at odds with Sonic as a result. Over time he came to feel inadequate as a parent, especially given Sonic's methods tended to work better than his most of the time. After the first year he began to pull away and by the end of the second had moved back out entirely.

Nova was sad that Shadow isn't around as much anymore, tho she's a little too young to fully understand everything. For the most part she is a happy, healthy little girl who loves her daddy (and her other daddy too!) and her super awesome big brother!

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic au #Divorced Single Dad AU #sonic fanart #sonic the hedgehog fanart #my art #sonic fankid #sonamy #sonadow

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denaphoenix · 4 months

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Hazbin Hotel - the first two episodes, but only how it made me feel about the characters without spoiling any plot.

Angel - I’m still in love with Angel. He’s a living, breathing closed door, layers upon layers of not himself while also seemingly having no filter - and the subtlety of letting little tiny glimpses of what’s underneath show is awesome.

Vaggie - Vaggie is amazing. She’s got so much heart and cynicism, and it’s more well-balanced than I’ve ever seen it in fanfiction. Especially digging her vibes with Angel because she’s not really antagonising him, and I’ve got a feeling that underneath it all, she’s digging him just because he says the things she’s sometimes thinking, and then she doesn’t have to say it, and can instead tease Angel for having said it, because all in all she knows that whatever’s being said will fall on deaf ears anyways. (all of that mostly being conveyed in vibes) Also, who wouldn’t revel in annoying Angel Dust? He’s annoying after all!

Charlie - Still Charlie. I don’t think she’s entirely getting it. Any of the it. Another super layered performance that gives off major toxic positivity mixed in with the non-toxic normal positivity. I feel like she might be getting there, but not before something blows up in her face worse than it’s already blowing up in her face. I just really want to take her aside and slap her - in a good way. She’s just darling.

Alastor - literally screaming. He’s delicious. He’s just - a presence. Personified chaos, and just barely scraping that uncanny every second he’s there. Love how he just ignores everything he’s not interested in addressing, and seems to genuinely be standing above everything. Unphased, and easily agreeing when presented with arguments, while also never seeming like he’s losing in any exchange. Nothing’s personal for him, I feel like, and I dig that. He’s always either “ok fair”, “ok, fair, but” or “sorry to disappoint” - those are the three modes and I just want to be half as classy as him. Or at least half as unhinged.

Husk - he’s… there. The first two episodes gave me just enough of him to kinda get me settled with the new voice, and other than that, all he’s offering are Husk vibes - which are no-nonsense, and uninterested to the max. He’s doing things, sure, but it always has the vibe of him only doing them because walking away would have just been too much effort. Can’t wait for his no-nonsense to actually contribute to things.

Nifty - I am obsessed with Niffty. Loved her before, and now that we’re getting more actual character development, boy am I here for it. She’s got a character, and the character is single-minded, trope-based, obsession. And I’m here for it.

Sir Pentious - amazing voice acting, and Pent just continues to be so FUN. I’m pretty sure he’s got about one brain cell, and the results of that give me life.

Adam - ok, I feel like I need to be spoiling this, because he himself said it best. He’s quite literally “the original dick”, and I don’t mean it in the way he seems to see it. There, I said it. He’s making my skin crawl, and while I’m still on the fence with how he’s being voiced, the longer I think about it, the more I think that that was actually a smart move to balance out the ick with some ridiculousness so they can have him make his statements before everyone with a vagina switches off. So yeah, barely bearable, and I don’t know if I want him to be even that bearable, because he could otherwise be powerfully unbearable.

Lute - highly dislikeable girl, and in the best way possible. Heartless and uncaring, and deep in the rationalisation tunnel. I wanna hug her just to get the experience of getting pushed away.

Velvette - will take some serious getting used to, that one. Don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t this. I think what might have put me off was her voice being more… idk… cockney than expected? Or… deep? Or… assertive? Or…sane? Uhm, I don’t know what it is, really, if I’m being honest. Pretty sure I will get around to digging her eventually though. Because the potential is SO there. So yeah, kind of looking forward to getting that to click.

Valentino - currently unlocking a new tier of hating Valentino - the “I do not understand his vibes” tier, which is very much interlinked with the realisation that I do not see whatever the casting team must have seen in Valentino’s voice actor. Whatever they were going for, I don’t think they got there. I don’t even like to hate him… he’s just - taking me out of the story with his line delivery and fucking with my mind in a non-good way.

Vox - Vox is the complete opposite to Val in terms of my feelings - I love, love LOVE Vox. He’s absolutely awesome, and I just want MORE of him. The voice acting’s got so much depth. He’s bringing the sleazy, and the despicable, but also the deeply HUMAN underneath it all - which just makes his scenes with Val all the more jarring.

Katie Killjoy - yeah, she’s just Bryce Tankthrust in hell. A tad underwhelming, but the meta’s funny, so I’ll certainly be able to deal.

All in all, it was a solid two episodes, and the music was banging, so I'm still aboard the hype train.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel spoilers #first two episodes #has it already been 7 years?

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2demon2slayer · 11 months

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What does the not-friend group think of Sabito?

giyuu obviously loves sabito a whole lot. they're the best of friends. he's very nervous about being sabito's sort-of-caretaker now that he's a demon and kind of needs to be hidden from people. but giyuu's also kind of dealing with sabito's turn into a demon worse than sabito himself and is banking his entire mental stability on turning sabito back into a human. he's a little bit codependent

kanae was initially cautious about sabito (as you would be upon meeting any demon, no matter how friendly they supposedly were), but basically the moment she realizes that sabito really is a Good Demon, she's all in on becoming best friends with him. something about his existence is just . it gives her so much hope. hope for what demons could be. (arguably, maybe too much hope. she ought to be more careful or i'll write her another tragic death, but on-screen this time)

shinobu doesn't really know how to feel about sabito. she's distrustful of him at the start, but she's rational enough to recognize that he really is harmless towards humans. so she's generally nice to him, but she still finds mr fox boy sort of off-putting

despite his brother's relative faith in sabito, kyoujurou still didn't really trust the demon for a while! after all, it's a demon's nature to want to hurt and kill and eat people! he doesn't say it because he loves his brother, but kyoujurou thinks senjurou's a bit stupid for trusting sabito. but all it takes is one mission together for kyoujurou to realize that sabito's not only a genuinely good dude, but he's also Very strong. kyoujurou ends up dragging him over to train together a handful of times and ultimately decides that sabito's also very fun to be around. they get on like a house on fire. (kyoujurou also maybe goes to his brother afterwards and is like "hey, i'm sorry i thought you were stupid" and senjurou, heartbroken, goes "you thought i was stupid????")

gyoumei was initially distrusting of sabito, but with his teacher's (genya's) approval of the guy, and eventual proof that sabito's not bad, he decides that he's fine with the kid. they don't interact much, but if ever gyoumei encounters a weird fox that feels a bit too much like a demon, he'll give it a little pet before moving on

look. see, here's the thing. sanemi kind of has this thing where he cannot let himself believe that any demon could do any good. because if he follows that train of thought, it'll lead him to the ultimate realization that he murdered his mother for no reason when she could've been saved and reasoned with. and sanemi can't have that particular breakdown, so he hates sabito on principle. because fuck demons, am i right?

obanai has never encountered a demon who wasn't terrible awful. and in his mind, he never will. because sabito is also terrible awful and obanai Does Not like or trust him. nothing more to say than that

tengen thinks the fox boy is kind of scrawny, but pretty flashy! he definitely approves, even if he's not usually a fan of demons. honestly they don't really interact much.

and sabito interacts with kaigaku even less. kaigaku's kind of on the fence about sabito. he's heard good things from both zenitsu and tengen, but also sabito is a whole ass demon. kaigaku sometimes finds himself almost envious of sabito. all the power of a demon without any of the hunger. the guy's not even an actual demon slayer and yet he's allowed to follow around the goddamn sun hashira on missions. if kaigaku was a demon- ah, well. he's not, so it doesn't really matter

mitsuri thinks sabito's kind of really cool! he's a demon, which made him kinda scary at first, but then he turned out to be a good demon which is crazy but also super cool! he's a genuinely kind guy and really strong, too! mitsuri properly met him when he started hanging out with kyoujurou, and so the three of them tend to hang out all together! also, very important tidbit: his fox form is so fucking fluffy!!!!!!!!!

#kny #demon slayer #queries #sun hashira and tsuguko au #scramblings

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ieatsmallorphansnamedtom · 1 year

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Bachelor/ettes When They Aren't Asked to the Flower Dance

Number 4 of the prompts I was given by a very kind someone. Other/s can be found in my new masterlist (pinned post).

Bachelors:

Sam

He'd been working up the courage to ask you to dance all month. He was sure you would accept his invitation (or at least that's what he told himself). Despite having two left feet, he did his best to practice the dance with the help of Jodi. Finally, after weeks' worth of practicing, he was ready.

That said, he was still extremely nervous. The Flower Dance has never really been his thing, with his (as I said) two left feet and allergies. But still, he tried to put on a happy smile when seeing you come his way. Little did he know, he was in for a sad surprise.

"Sam," you said, running over to him, "[bachelor/ette] asked me to dance!"

"Oh, that's great! You two have fun."

Oh, that poor boy. All that hope and training for nothing. He was devastated, as anyone would be. He ended up messing up the entire dance with his partner because he was looking at you and [bachelor/ette] the whole time.

Elliott

Elliott was sure he'd get your hand in the dance. He'd wowed the townies since his first ever Flower Dance there. He was just too good at all that old-timey stuff. And with this knowledge, he just knew he'd get to be your partner. He was just waiting to write the experience down in his diary.

And eventually the dance came. Elliott had made sure his suit was in perfect condition with the help of Emily. He got there extra early to A), help with the setting up, and B), make sure he got to you first. Little did he know, that would be his downfall. While he was waiting patiently in the field, you were being asked to dance by someone else.

"Wow, Elliott, you're early," you said.

"Yes," he replied, "now I was wondering if you'd-" [bachelor/ette] joined you side, taking your arm in theirs.

"You were wondering if you could ask me...?"

"Never mind. Enjoy the dance."

He's pretty upset afterwards. I mean, who wouldn't be? He put in all that effort to get up early and spill some of the punch on his suit setting things up only to find out it was for nothing. He vents to Leah and gets drunk on that same punch (now spiked by Pam).

Sebastian

Sebastian was super nervous asking you to dance. He had practiced his lines over and over and over in the mirror, just hoping everything would go right. He had every possible route of conversation planned out in his mind and was memorising every line possible. Robin caught on pretty quick and found it cute.

He was one of the last people to arrive at the Flower Dance. Partly because he was having trouble saving his work and refused to leave before being sure it was absolutely 100% saved, but also because he was doing everything in his power to delay a bad outcome. Walking up to you was terrifying. He could feel his heartbeat lodged in his throat.

"Hey, Y/N," he said, leaning against the wooden fence keeping out all the weeds and shrubbery. "You got a dance partner yet?"

"Yeah, [bachelor/ette] asked me as soon as I got here. What about you?"

"Nah, not yet. Well, um, glad to see you got a partner."

Well, this is all his fault now, isn't it? If he had just gotten here sooner this wouldn't have happened. No, that's stupid. He wouldn't have been able to ask anyway. Yoba, what was wrong with him?

Harvey

Harvey's nervousness is on par with (if not exceeding) Sebastian's. He's a blushing mess whenever he thinks of dancing with you. He just can't help it! He's actually a pretty good dancer, especially with the older dances, so he doesn't really need to practice for it. He just has to focus on his lines.

Once he's actually at the dance, somehow, that anxiety gets even worse. Just seeing you in that outfit has him on his knees. He's all awkward walking up to you, and it's pretty obvious to most people what he's about to ask. He's so nervous he doesn't even see you eyeing another townie.

"Hey Y/N. How are you?" he says, not even trying to look you in the eye.

"Oh, hey Harvey!" you reply, "I'm good. You got a dance partner yet?"

"No, not yet. Have you?"

"No, but I'm hoping to get with [bachelor/ette]. What about you?"

"Oh, that's nice. Um, I don't know."

His heart is broken. Absolutely shattered. All that nervousness for nothing. He tries not to look at you for the rest of the day. It just makes him too sad.

Shane

Shane was not looking forward to the dance. Under no means did he intend to have fun there. If anything, he was only doing it for Jas and you. But even you were on thin ice. Still, Jas was begging him to go. And so, he needed a date. Why not ask you?

Well, you see, the funny thing is he doesn't know how to do that. He's exactly like that scene of Shrek in the first movie where he's practicing his confession to Fiona. He's trying to work everything out as he goes along.

During the festival, he's a little grumpier than usual. But that's just because he's nervous. Walking up to you with a few flowers hiding behind his back.

"Hey Y/N," he says, "quite the festival, huh?"

You laugh and reply, "yeah, it is something! You got a date?"

"Uh, no. No, I don't. You?"

"Oh, I got asked by [bachelor/ette]. Good luck to you, though!" you say as you walk off.

Well, that went just swimmingly now, didn't it? He bought those flowers for nothing. Well, unless you count being able to give Jas a fairy rose. But it still cost money!

Alex

Alex, Alex, what do I think about Alex? Well, he's absolutely freaking out inside, but he's not letting it show. He's spent years putting up a front, and he's not letting it crack because of some stupid dance. Most of his evenings after dinner are spent practicing his words in front of a mirror. Evelyn ends up catching him one night and the two have a bit of a training session together.

Anyways, the dance itself. Wow, what a day. For a start, you look absolutely gorgeous and it's driving him insane. Who knew that confident persona could crack so easily? Either way, he's still going to ask you to dance. He walks up to you with the biggest, most 'look at me I'm good at dancing please ask me to be your partner' smile possible when all of a sudden, the news hits him like a brick.

"Alex! You won't believe this: [bachelor/ette] asked me to dance!"

"Oh, that's great! I'll probably go with [Alex's partner]."

Poor boy. Still, he's not going to give up now. He asks you to practice dancing with him, and if that doesn't work, then he'll just sit out of the dance so he can put all his attention on you.

Bachelorettes:

Penny

Penny doesn't even want to begin practicing her lines. The levels of absolute mortification she would feel if someone caught her would have her crying. Even just repeating the lines in her head she feels there's someone watching her. Due to this, she's completely unprepared.

So yeah, the conversation is awkward. She's pushing herself to her very limit just trying to grasp the concept of asking you to dance. But it all comes crashing down when you tell her the truth of what's really going on.

"Penny, I have to ask you something," you say.

"Oh- yes?" she replies.

"Do you think [bachelor/ette] would want to be my partner?"

"Oh... Of course, they would. Of course."

She's really sad. She probably sits out of the dance for that one. Still, she's happy to see that you're happy. And it's not like she'll lose anything if she sits out.

Leah

Leah's pretty excited to ask you to dance! Elliott had been helping her practice her moves every day in the week leading up to the dance, and she had gotten pretty good at it by the time rolled around. Contrary to popular belief, not all introverts are shy, and that is especially true for Leah! She has no major concerns when it comes to asking you. Except for being turned down, of course.

The day finally comes, and she looks pretty good! She spent the morning finding the perfect flowers to put in her hair to make sure she looks her best. She really wants to impress not only you, but herself, too! She walks up to you confidently with a smile on her face only to hear the news.

"Hey, Y/N!" she says, running over to you. "You got a partner yet?"

"Oh, yeah! I got to go with [bachelor/ette]. I'm really happy about it." you reply.

"Oh, that's great!"

Well, what can she do now? There's no point sulking about it. Might as well pick herself up and move along. Elliott wouldn't want her to waste all that practice.

Abigail

Abigail's been pretty confident in asking you to dance. She doesn't need to practice her lines, and only requires a little bit of practice for her dance moves (she really needs more, but she can't be bothered). She hangs out with you a lot more in the weeks leading up to the dance to try and coax you into thinking about her.

The day of the dance comes and things are looking good. Abigail walks you to the dance to make sure nobody asks you to dance before she does. Little does she you've already been asked.

"Oh, Abby, I forgot to tell you," you say, "[bachelor/ette] asked me to the dance!"

"Oh, that's great!" she replies. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I'll race you to the dance. See ya!"

She just wanted an excuse to get away for the moment. But it was still funny hearing you yell and try to catch up with her.

Maru

Maru's pretty nervous to ask you to dance. Most people would be, after all. She plans to buy you flowers at the dance and ask you, but things don't go that way. She spends most of her time practicing her lines either out loud or in her head.

In fact, she's still practicing her lines at the dance. And you catch her in the act. She's right about to say your name when you overhear and walk up to her with a smile on your face.

"So, who's the special person?" you ask.

"Oh! Uh..."

"Just kidding. You know, I think you would go well with [Maru's partner]."

"Really?" she replies, "who told you?"

"[bachelor/ette], my partner."

Oh... So, she was too late. That's no good. Of course, she's still going to dance. Maru loves getting involved with the community and she's not going to let your 'rejection' get in the way. You two dance side by side, and in the end, she really isn't all that upset. There's always next year.

Emily

Emily had been looking forward to asking you to dance for a while now. She'd always thought of you as a wonderful person, and what better way to show that than to ask for your hand in a dance? She's quite the dancer herself, though she doesn't mind if that's not your forte. Still, she wanted to shoot her shot.

The day of the flower dance came, and Emily was, quite honestly, really looking forward to it. She and Haley had practiced the dance together for a good while and she was confident she had mastered it. Walking up to you, she gifted you a sweet pea and was about to pop the question when you told her the news.

"Oh, Emily," she said, looking down at the flower in her hands, "I'm sorry, I can't accept this."

"Why not? It's a gift," she replied.

"Oh! I thought you were asking me to dance. Sorry, of course I'll take this!"

Emily only laughed and said, "well, you enjoy yourself then. I'll go and find a partner."

So, that didn't go as planned. Yes, she was upset, but she also wasn't going to let it get in the way of her plans. Emily respected that you had just as important of a say in the matter as she did, and wasn't going to push your boundaries like that.

Haley

Haley had been obsessed with practicing the dance for you. Despite being the Flower Queen for many years in a row, she still felt the need to be just certain of her ability to dance. Her plan was to woo you over while practicing at the festival, but we all know it didn't quite go according to plan.

The festival day came, and her plan was in action. She had already perfected her moves, but that just meant her wooing ability was even greater. She was dancing in front of Alex, watching you get closer out of the corner of your eye when you talked to her.

"Hey, Haley." you waved her attention over to yourself.

"Huh? Oh, hey Y/N," she said, faking her surprise at your decision to talk to her, "did you like my dancing?"

"Yeah, actually, I was just looking at it. I was gonna say, I think you'd be a great match for [Haley's partner]."

"Oh, I don't know." she rubbed the back of her neck. "[Haley's partner] isn't really my type. Who are you going with?"

"[bachelor/ette]."

"Neat. Well, I'm gonna get back to practicing. See you."

Well, that was fucking useless. Now what? She doesn't want to go with [Haley's partner], but who else is there to choose? I suppose there's no point letting that practice go to waste. She can't try to woo you over like that and then to nothing about her skill. That would be a waste.

-~-~-

Hnghghgmnfn this took so long to get out I don't know why. I like the prompt a lot I guess my brain has just got low battery or something. Anyways, yeah, so activity might be a bit sporadic if you haven't already noticed. I've got five WIPs going on all at once (A+ organisation I know) which I'm constantly switching between, so this blog isn't really my focus right now. Hopefully I'll have the energy and brain power to get back into it soon!

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rottenrewards · 9 days

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NICK ROBINSON . MALE . HE/HIM -ELLIOT WEAVER was blasting PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS BY KID CUDI on the sidewalk in austin today . according to other atx residents , the TWENTY-NINE year old LOTTERY WINNER has been given a reputation of being GLUM , but also GENEROUS . A WORN OUT WALLET THICK WITH DOLLAR BILLS, THE CONSTANT SPINNING OF A CAROUSEL, SUBSCRIPTIONS TO EVERY DATING APP + [ MAD, 27, THEY/THEM, PST]

Name: Elliot Timothy Weaver Nicknames: Eli (preferred name), Ellie, E.T. Age: 29 Birthday: October 15th, 1994 FC: Nick Robinson Gender: Male Pronouns: He/Him/His Sexuality: Bisexual Height: 5′11 Blood Type: A+ Build: Medium Vices: Cannabis, Alcohol, Cigarettes Favorite Colors: Red & Orange

History

Elliot grew up entirely average. Greatness wasn't in store for the middle Weaver child. His older brother was a football star and his younger sister was a pageant queen and as a result his parents attention was usually used up in pursuing his siblings dreams. Elliot never minded much. His nose was typically buried in a book as he was dragged along for support to his siblings endeavors. As he grew up the more Eli branched out on his own. He found himself friends with the band geeks and nerds more than the popular crowd his family was drawn to. He was never prom royalty but he also never wanted to be and he was entirely content. He had a girlfriend whom he loved and friends who he could depend on, what more could he ask for? When Elliot graduated high school he decided to stick around in Amarillo. The town might be small but it was his home and after a few years at the local community college he got a job in auto insurance. He was still with the same girl from high school who he proposed to at the age of twenty-six after being together for ten years. Life was good for Eli and he saw his whole future ahead of. Marriage, a couple of kids running around, and a small house he'd call home, maybe even a white picket fence. All of that changed one fateful afternoon in August of 2023. Elliot came home on his lunch break only to catch his fiance with another man. He was heartbroken and the simple life he'd had planned for himself was ruined. The engagement was off then and there and Eli quickly spun downward. Life had gone to shit. His fiance moved out (and in with the guy she'd been cheating with) and Elliot spent most nights drinking and wallowing in self pity. Things couldn't have gotten any worse and miraculous it didn't. Almost two months after his break up Elliot's life would change again. He was never much of a gambler but one night when buying cigarettes he decided to purchase a lottery ticket from the gas station. Never in Eli's wildest dreams did he expect to actually win but he did. 16.8 million dollars to be exact. His life changed overnight once again. His achievement became the biggest story to hit Amarillo history in the last 20 years and it seemed everyone who'd ever known Elliot was coming out of the woodwork including his ex. Everyone put a bad taste in his mouth and after he'd been coerced into giving away nearly a million dollars to various different people in a very short period of time Elliot went into hiding. He could no longer trust the people closest to him as they all seemed to turn green with envy or fat with greed. His new found wealth made him incredibly lonely and forced him to outgrow his town he'd once called home. Being a Texas boy through and through he found it difficult to leave the state and how he wound up 7 hours south down in Austin. He'd always wanted to visit the city and he figured now was as good a time as any to check it out for a while.

Headcanons

Elliot's life is a mess. He's still recovering from his recent breakup over the summer and now that he's a millionaire he really doesn't know how to act. One minute he's celebrating and the next he's crying because his Spotify Wrapped playlist reminds him of home.

He is the embodiment of the meme "If I ever win the lottery I won't tell anybody but there will be signs". He doesn't boast about his wealth but he's definitely treating himself and is very generous with his money. He has been known to give 50% to 100% tips at businesses around town.

He's stopped doing laundry all together. Now he simply donates his clothes and buys new ones when he needs them. Laundry has always been his least favorite chore and now that he doesn't have to clean his clothes he won't.

He spontaneously drops twenty dollar bills around just to brighten people's days.

There's always a pile of packages waiting for him at his mailbox. Half the time he doesn't know what he's ordered because he's developed a late night spending habit whenever he can't sleep.

#atxfm.intro

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here-have-some-stories · 2 months

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Silent Laughter Chap 10

Chapter 1 Chapter 9

One week later:

An entire week had gone by and nothing had happened. The creature didn’t make itself seen again, no windows would mysteriously open and shut, no music playing all of a sudden, no creepy images or messed up photos. Nothing. By now I had twelve X’s marked down on my calendar, and I was on my thirteenth day of survival.

It was on this very day that I realised I was running very low on food. I had been running out before, but that was a whole week ago. Now I needed to get more food supplies. So I guessed I had made it long enough.

I made the decision to go out and walk to the local supermarket. I would take a knife with me. I knew, realistically, it probably wouldn’t do anything against the creature, but carrying it gave me a sense of safety and protection.

As I was mentally preparing myself to shove into the outside world, I convinced myself that this could be a good thing. Not only would I get more food, but maybe I could possibly find some people who were actually alive. Ever since this had all started, I hadn’t actually gone past my street. I had no way of knowing if anyone outside of that was alive or not.

When I stepped outside, I noticed everything was very dark, like it came straight out of some sort of horror movie. It was cold. I walked down the street, cautiously glancing over my shoulder and looking left and right every now and again. I rubbed my arms to keep me warm, but it didn’t do much. I wished I’d bought a jacket.

I was about halfway down my street when I first noticed them. They hadn’t been around my house, but bodies were hanging from the trees, just like they had been in the nightmare I had.

I felt my heart rate go faster. The atmosphere seemed similar to the one in my dream. I felt my chest constricting and felt like I was going to have a panic attack, or pass out. But I kept on walking, and tried to ignore the eyeless bodies. There was also a lot of blood pouring into the drains on the side of the road, and some sort of meat in the gutter, but I paid no attention to that, just kept on walking.

When I made it to the streets with the shops on it, the darkness hadn’t cleared away, and there was still no one in sight. The bodies weren’t hanging anymore, instead they were scattered around on the ground, or hanging on fences, and there were more of them. It looked like some sort of massacre had happened here. The smell was horrible, and I brought up my hand to cover my nose and block out the stench.

The supermarket glass sliding doors had been smashed, and one was leaning on an angle. Most of the lights inside were off, apart from the occasional flickering ones. The creepy atmosphere was even worse inside, and I wanted to run back out, and keep running all the way home, but I pushed on and forced myself to step over the glass shattered on the ground.

Despite the darkness, I knew where everything was, and I easily made my ways to the different aisles, grabbing the food I thought I would need. I grabbed about two loaves of bread, a bottle of milk, some butter and spreads, a bag of fruit, a box of muesli bars, and some junk food snacks, because if I was going to die, why not spend my last days feasting like a king?

I was walking out of the chip aisle and all of a sudden I felt my foot fly up and I fell to the ground, dropping most of my food. I groaned as I stood up slowly and felt something wet and sticky on my hands. Blood. I slipped in blood. I quickly hurried away from it and hit something behind me. I turned around and saw a dismembered and bloody body of a store clerk. Black goop was leaking from where their eyes had been. I screamed, and grabbed up the food I could, before running out of the store, almost tripping up again and landing in glass. Ignoring the corpses on the street and in the trees, I ran all the way home, tears running down my face the whole time.

Woo hoo! Back to back chapters. I've pretty much got the same message and reminders down here as always. Please comment if you liked it and if you have and feedback or suggestions please tell me. If you have any requests for stories or questions, just send them to my ask box and I'll get to them. Hope you liked it! -Kenickie

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the-phantom-author · 3 months

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i personally can’t stop thinking about popstar!gf performing vampire or smth at the grammys to kind of “end” that era and she maybe announces late that grammys night she’s going to release Tortured Poets Department. (especially with how the tides seem to be turning on taylor, there seems to have been a huge shift in public opinion almost??)

this is gonna become her darker era. while maybe guts was the anger, TPD is the sadness, the acceptance, the moving on. the making fun of exes. i think guts came out before or just as she’s meeting hasan. then while she’s hanging out with hasan and just living the single life, thinking back on how STUPID things were. how she let someone dull her sparkle, someone who wanted her not be a singer/songwriter (cue song “my boy only breaks his favourite toys” and “i can do it with a broken heart” or “the smallest man who ever lived”)

hasan helps her heal and move past that awful relationship, someone she maybe gave a few years of her life to, she’s no longer angry, she’s understanding how badly she was affected and now is gonna poke fun at him. (side note: apparently joe alwyn who is taylor’s ex, had a group chat with some friends called the tortured man club, so in this scenario, popstars ex has one and she’s 100% making fun of it)

and while she’s beginning to work on reputation before even releasing this (she’s already written things like call it what you want and delicate, etc) when TPD releases her fans go crazy for it but the media is gonna eat her alive. basically anything people are criticizing taylor for (that’s not actually valid) is how things are happening for her.

people calling her a snake, trying to cancel her, etc etc etc etc.

which THISSSS leads into the reputation era. she’s not trying to be seen by anybody. they want her gone so bad? fine. say no more. she’s an attention seeker because she lets the charities she works with publicize that she’s helping out? (even though she’s just wanting to drive more eyes to that cause) fine, she’ll stop being public, donate anonymously and move on.

and even avoids the spotlight anytime hasan is in it. she’s not trying to be on stream or the pod, no tiktok’s, no reacts, no instagrams, nothing. hasan will mention her in passing. if someone asks if she’s okay, he assures everyone she’s doing alright, they’re still together and very happy together, she’s just going through some stuff so leave her alone.

not seen for at least almost a year. she deletes socials, just tries to focus on writing and building her relationship with hasan, reading, working on her craft. plotting revenge.

after a longgg time. she’s back. she surprise drops the entire album with no explanation. (because , THERE WILL BE MORE EXPLANATION, THERE WILL JUST BE REPUTATION!) and the internet is going up in FLAMES. chat is CRAZY.

because she’s really coming for everyone on it:

-i don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me! i’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams!

-so i took an axe to a mended fence

-this ain’t for the best, my reputations never been worse so you must like me for me

-the world moves on, another day another drama drama, but not for me , not for me all i think about is karma! and then the world moves on but one things for sure!!! maybe i got mine but!! you’ll!! all!! get !!! yours!!

like literally look what everyone made her do!!!!!!!!!

but also at the end of the day, it’s a love album. because when nobody was standing by her, hasan was.

-even in my worst times, you could see the best of me

-even in my worst lies, you saw the truth in me

-all the liars are calling me one, nobody’s heard from me for months, i’m doing better than i ever was.

-baby let the games begin!!!!

him being here before during and after a public downfall shows how much he loves her and is gonna stand by her. (SORRY FOR THE NOVEL!!!!)

The way I know I can't much to this becuase God is it great.

I'm so happy that we were thinking the same thing about album progression with popstar!gf. Rep immediately after Guts seemed a bit weird, but to have TPD be in the middle of of them fits in just right.

As for the the ex who dulled her spark. I'm almost thinking someone who wanted to be married, like they've been together for about a year or two, and he just goes for it. He mentions that he wants her to be a little house wife, and doesn't want her writing anymore music or performing for any reason. Obviously, our girl said no.

But yes, TPD is all about her acceptance with how unbelievably dumb she was for letting man do ever he did to her. It's about just how messy that relationship was. And just how below her, and everyone really, her ex is. So yeah, TDP has moments where it gets petty and it's just belittling him a bit, becuase why wouldn't it.

And that's why people start calling her a snake, and trying to cancel her. She gets in details on the album, she goes into details while in interviews, and people men don't understand how she could be so blunt about her experiences with her ex. They don't why she would ever make fun of someone she dated in such a public way.

And that is how Rep goes from her only album to have song about how che loves someone, to essentially a revenge album.

#i second everything you said #hasanabi #hasanabi x reader #hasan x reader #popstar!gf #bohogothic

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echodrops · 4 months

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The Promises I Made (2023)

Oh man. Oh man.

At the end of last year, I said that I had really struggled through 2022 and hoped that 2023 would be an easier year, but also that I didn't want to count any chickens. Which was... ultimately the right mindset to have, because 2023 was even worse for me than 2022. Between the stressors of work, money, and things just falling apart on me left and right (car is still in need of $3000 worth of work...), I couldn't be more glad that 2023 is over.

Consequently, it was a very bad year for promises. Possibly the worst year I've ever had since I started, actually. Oof, icing on the cake after all the disappointment I dealt with this year.

Still, a tradition is a tradition. Here are the promises I made for this last year!

2023 Promises

1) Work on the Texas house yard. It’s still never really recovered from the frost that killed everything in 2021 and it looks pretty shabby right now.

Status: Broken, mostly. I did have the gardener come and do a lot of trimming as well as take out one dead tree, but still, one dead tree remains, and the tree in the backyard has grown roots so big now that they've exposed a underground wire, so uhhhh... gonna have to deal with that this year...

2) Get both bedroom floors sanded in the Utah house upstairs.

Status: Broken. This just didn't happen. No money. But it really, really needs to happen soon though... Oof...

3) Get the Utah house sprinklers up and working ALL the way for this summer.

Status: Broken. This is the hardest promise on this list, I swear to god. This city in Utah has NO ONE who is willing to work on normal residential sprinklers. Please someone save me.

4) Actually get the back fence fixed up and the greenery back there trimmed and managed.

Status: Broken. Well, one day...

4) Put a new sink/vanity in the downstairs bathroom of the Utah house.

Status: Broken. I sure... made a lot of promises about the Utah house, didn't I... Where did I think all this money would come from...

5) Related to that, lose at least 20 pounds. 2020-2022 was not kind to me and the stress eating was real.

Status: Broken. I didn't gain weight this year but I didn't lose any either. RIP.

6) Take my mom on a road trip to one of the U.S. states that she has not been to before.

Status: Broken. I was busy all summer and we just didn't do this.

7) Get back in touch with the allergy specialist to continue working on my allergy/inflammation issues.

Status: Broken. Yikes, seven in a row without a single kept promise. Anyway, I did want to do this, but again, the surgery they want me to have will take all my insurance and then $2000 out of pocket. It's just... not going to happen...

8) Go through my closets and donate or throw away clothes that I know I will not wear.

Status: KEPT. Oh my god, one I actually did. I ended up donating SO MANY shirts to Goodwill.

9) Finish at least five books this year.

Status: Broken. I finished two I believe. But... maybe the 50+ 100k word fanfics I read this year could count instead?

10) Organize my documents (especially student papers)—my desktop and documents folders give me nightmares just looking at them.

Status: Broken. Jesus, why am I so allergic to this promise? I think it's been on the list for like three years running now.

11) Help Kacchan through her first semester as a teacher! Exciting!!

Status: According to Kacchan herself, this promise has been kept. Go me.

12) Get a decent paper shredder to shred old mail.

Status: Kept! I finally got a shredder!!

13) Clean off my back patio/car port area so I can park my car there again.

Status: Broken. Literally there's not that much stuff out there other than my coworker's old bikes she dumped on me. Why have I not done this...

14) Get the Texas house dishwasher fixed… I’m so tired of washing dishes by hand… How do people do this, oof.

Status: Kept! I got a newwww dishwasherrrrrr. I am so happy...

15) 100% complete FF16 babyyyyy!!

Status: Broken. I played it, but did not 100%. Too busy. TvT

16) Talk to an HR rep about my retirement savings so that I can consolidate my retirement accounts. I have been putting this off for like five years now.

Status: Broken. I think this has been on the list for years too. And given the current uncertainty of my workplace, I honestly think at this point I might be better off not asking anyone who works there for any financial advice...

17) Do at least one artwork to actually use that new paint program I bought.

Status: Broken. Well, I THOUGHT about it. Does that count?

18) Pay my credit debt down by at least $2000. I’m still paying off the hell year but I hope I can make progress on this.

Status: Broken. The hell year of last year became Hell Year 2.0, Economic Boogaloo this year. So many things went wrong and had to be paid for. My wallet is C R Y I N G.

19) Finish making changes to master courses. No more major revisions!

Status: You know what, I'm going to count this as kept, because we're now down to the really specific courses that only one or two professors teach. So, close enough!!

20) See a zone-tailed hawk. This is another rare-but-possible bird for my area.

Status: Kept! Conveniently, one flew over my car one day?? I got only a terrible cellphone photo, but I did see it. Yay!

21) Attend the FFXIV Fanfest in Las Vegas!

Status: Broken. I tried!! But I did not win the lottery for a ticket, so I was not able to go. This one was pretty much out of my hands, though.

22) Update HaaH at least once. Please, Echo???

Status: ...I'm sorry, forgive meeee. OTL

23) Get the small leak fixed in the side bathroom of the Texas house and have the faucets replaced.

Status: Plumbers are... so expensive... Broken.

24) Look into the cost of light housekeeping services to give myself a little more time to do things that aren’t work.

Status: Technically kept... in that I did look into the costs... But ultimately, I chickened out of contacting anyone. I don't know why, but I feel like even if I got a housekeeper, I would be so embarrassed by my house being messy, I would frantically clean it the day before the housekeeper arrived anyway...

25) Catch up with hanging up all the charms/pins I’ve gotten recently on my corkboards; these are just sitting in boxes/bags around the house. D;

Status: Broken. My god, I thought about doing this so many times this year but I just never did it... I even both MORE charms and then didn't hang them.

26) Use Spotify more often or cancel my Spotify Premium subscription; it’s not worth it if I don’t use it.

Status: Kept. I cancelled it when they decided to raise the price. Cancelled Amazon Prime and Netflix this year too. Honestly way too tired of companies raising the prices of subscription services while offering LESS quality than in prior years.

27) Get an art display book to preserve my great grandfather’s artworks.

Status: Kept. They are safeeeee now.

28) Fix the screens on the Texas house.

Status: Broken. Probably for the best I didn't do this though, since the dog developed a habit of scratching at the office WINDOW to be let back into the house...

29) Bird watch at a specific location in Texas. It’s my secret where since I’d rather not share my specific location on social media, but let’s hope I can finally make it to this place!

Status: Kept. I didn't see many birds there though, RIP.

30) Finally get rid of the dirt pile in the front of the Utah house.

Status: Broken. I feel like the dirt pile is getting smaller and smaller over time as erosion takes its natural course, but I didn't really do anything to decrease the pile this year.

31) Sign NeNe (my puppy) up for the intermediate dog training course.

Status: Broken. I thought about this several times, but decided not to in the end. I wasn't massively impressed by the trainer she had for her puppy class, and honestly she's pretty decent at learning things at home anyway.

32) This is super nerdy, but my bro got me the FFXIV cookbook and made me promise to actually use it, so I guess I’d better at least try to make something from it.

Status: Broken. I keep making this promise and continually forget it, over and over.

33) Take down the remains of the wooden fence posts at the Utah house.

Status: Broken. This one I could have done and just... did not do. I'm pretty useless.

34) Take part in the fitness challenge at work this coming semester.

Status: Broken. To be fair to me though, in August I fractured my pelvis and basically couldn't do anything past basic walking all the way until December so I kind of have a semi-reasonable excuse for this one.

35) I will remember to take my medicine on time, all the time. Taking them late is messing things up quite a bit.

Status: Mostly kept. There was a night or two where I did forget, but since I literally require this medicine to live, I can basically immediately tell when I need to take it again, so most nights I do take it on time.

36) Get a stand for the toaster oven in the break room so we can finally use it!

Status: I'm going to count this as kept even though we did not get a new stand. Instead, we rearranged the order of the room to make it possible to fit both the toaster over and the microwave on the same countertop. So the toaster oven can indeed be used now!

37) Get my car detailed because the inside really needs to be vacuumed.

Status: Broken. My god, the car needs this so desperately now. But... money...

38) Go horseback riding on the island. I’ve never ridden on a beach before!

Status: Broken. Nobody really seemed that interested in going with me, and I thought it would be weird to go alone...

39) Eat healthier. Maybe cutting out snacks is too much to ask, but at least replace some average meals with salads, etc. and overall make an effort to actually eat better. Sometimes the fact that I feel like garbage is my own fault.

Status: Broken. The stress eating was extreme this last year. Please save me.

40) Wait, I should probably acquire a Playstation 5 so I can actually play my new copy of FF16, lol.

Status: Kept.

41) Help make sure the new tutoring requirement for the English classes goes over well.

Status: Kept, in that I did the best I could with a very, very weird plan. We immediately abandoned this plan the moment the grant expired anyway, since no one liked what admin had wanted us to do.

42) Finish decorating the main office. I’ll feel better if my workplace reflects the level of professionalism and school spirit that I envisioned it having this year.

Status: Broken, and I'm not going to roll this one over to the next year because I am 100% stepping down from my current administrative position and going back to being a full-time instructor again, so I will not need to decorate the main office anymore! Whoo!

43) Catch every variant of Vivillon in Pokemon Go. I’m currently missing Icy Snow, Marine, Meadow, Monsoon, Ocean, Polar, River, Sandstorm, Savanna, Sun, and Tundra, if anyone would like to be friends!

Status: Broken. I caught some of the ones I was missing but I really didn't play as much Pokemon Go this year. Broken pelvis decreasing walking ability but also just got tired of the game pushing more and more microtransactions, so I kinda took a longggg break.

44) Try to be more comprehensive with giving feedback to students. I’m always good at providing detailed comments on essays, but I’d like to spend more time commenting on smaller assignments too this year.

Status: Broken. Every year I try, every year I feel like I still haven't given enough. Maybe the issue with this promise is that I don't really know what is "enough" for the students compared to what I personally think I should give...

45) Make sure the retirement party for my coworkers who retired this year goes off without a hitch and honors them well.

Status: Kept. Oh, this was so nice and so much fun. It was really great seeing the retiring faculty members so emotional over how much we were able to honor them and their contributions to the school.

46) Take part in more activities on campus; I have a tendency to not attend many events because they’re in the evening when I’m tired, but I should really stay more often.

Status: Kept, though mostly by necessity. I kept constantly getting called in to help on things, even in other departments.

47) Write some Chainsaw Man fanfic for @mistystarshine!

Status: Broken. I'm so sorry, this just did not happen. I wish my work schedule was manageable instead of actually insane. There are so many things I want to write and do for myself, rather than for work...

48) Help my parents tear out the carpet in my old childhood bedroom.

Status: Broken. My mom talked about it a lot, but it never ended up happening.

49) Do something to destress (massage, pedicure, something?) at least once per month. I gotta take better care of myself…

Status: Broken. So broken. I only got more stressed this year. More and more and more and more...

50) I will keep my promises!

Status: Oof, mostly broken. Next year I'm going to set a reminder for myself so that I remember to check my promises every few weeks or something...

Kept promises: 15

Broken promises: 35

Another year, another chance, I guess. See you all in 2024!

#50 promises #new year's resolutions #irl stuff #that's a big yikes from me dog

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kehannii · 5 months

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Okay yes I love seeing stories where Adrien like says fuck you to his dad and moves on with zero connection or just has a shitty relashionship where he’s like inferior

But listen to me-

How about Adrien blowing up at Gabriel at some point early on when he’s like 15 and it’s like, solidifies for him that his father isn’t capable of being a parent anymore, like there’s something wrong with him and he learns to accept that. He doesn’t love his father any more or any less but he learns to stop seeking his affection as a son does a father. Instead he takes a different approach. His father is incapable of being a father (he’s not even horribly bitter about it. It just is what it is. That part of him was lost with his mother and he’s learning to be okay with that. He’s mourned the loss of his father and he’s over it) so instead Adrien stops acting like his son. He doesn’t think oh father would disapprove of this it’s just oh Gabriel wouldn’t like this and the disappointment of Gabriel is much less terrifying of that of his father. So he sort of rebels. It’s not huge things. Just simple normal people stuff. Staying at school for lunch instead of going home, joining clubs and dropping fencing. When Gabriel, not Nathalie because he might not show it but gabe knows something shifted during that fight, confronts him about it, Adrien meets him head in and is like there’s no point of this and this or if I do this instead of this and he’s doing it without Andy trepadition and Gabriel looks at him for a long moment and nods and just say let somebody know before hand. And it’s a win. Adrien does what he wants, Gabriel allows him too and stops pretending to the father he can’t bear to be. Idk if Gabriel or Adrien inicuatea it but one of them forces themselves into the other proximity. Like maybe there’s some kitchen where gabr makes his coffee in his wing and nobody really goes there except him but oh so suddenly Adrien needs things from there and they keep bumping into each other. Gabriel is like wtf let me make my coffee but doesn’t say anything outwardly and instead observes. He recognizes Adrien intruding in his space as him trying to at least be around him and he’s like oh bc Adrien is going the extra mile just to awkwardly shuffle around the small kitchen like he’s actually doing something and he’s like he’s still a child no matter how much this arrangement of ours has benefited the both of us the boy still wants to be around his father. And gabe just sips his coffee and doesn’t say a word about his discovery. The next day though, he’s making his coffee in the main kitchen so that Adrien doesn’t have to walk halfway across the manor just to breath the same air as him. And Adrien when he notices as he’s putting his plate away brightens but doesn’t say anything because he sees the action for what it is even if Gabriel doesn’t say a word.

Eventually one day adriens like…can I try that? To Gabes coffee even though Adrien cannot stand coffee hes willing to chug it. And Gabe is like…sure and when Adrien tries it his eyes widen and he’s like this is really good and…choclaty?? This isn’t coffee and gabe insists that it is. And very hesitantly, because he hasn’t had a normal not work related conversation willingly with anybody in years, explains that it’s caffeinated hot choclate and he made the recipe becuase he didn’t kike coffee but he also needed to stay awake and adriens like…can you teach me? Turns out Adrien hot his sweet tooth from Gabriel.

They spend many many mornings of Gabriel just trying to tech Adrien his recipes and getting (gently) frustrated because Adrien keeps messing up and it stakes an (embarrassingly ) long time to realize that Adrien is fucking up on purpose because he enjoys doing something with his dad and Gabriel is smacked in the face for the millionth time that this child is 16 and his and he’s a shitty father and his heart sort of cracks even though he thought it had shattered to dust and could get any worse. And he’s beginning to hate that he can’t be the father Adrien deserves. He doesn’t say a word, the next day though he takes out his shitty pancake recipe and makes shitty pancakes for his son who immediately spits them out, tells his father all the horrible things they taste like and then demands that they fix the recip because wtf and gabe rolls his eyes but adriens hot choclate is perfect for the first time.

#gabriel agreste #adrien agreste #the agrestes #mlb #mlb txt

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fatefulfortune · 23 days

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[ nick robinson, male, he/him ] — whoa! ELLIOT WEAVER just stole my cab! not cool, but maybe they needed it more. they have lived in the city for FOUR MONTHS, working as a LOTTERY WINNER. that can’t be easy, especially at only 29 YEARS OLD. some people say they can be a little bit PESSIMISTIC and GLUM , but i know them to be FREE-THINKING and GENEROUS. whatever. i guess i’ll catch the next cab. hope they like the ride back to MANHATTAN! — (mad, 27, pst, they/them, n/a)

History

Elliot grew up entirely average. Greatness wasn't in store for the middle Weaver child. His older brother was a football star and his younger sister was a pageant queen and as a result his parents attention was usually used up in pursuing his siblings dreams. Elliot never minded much. His nose was typically buried in a book as he was dragged along for support to his siblings endeavors. As he grew up the more Eli branched out on his own. He found himself friends with the band geeks and nerds more than the popular crowd his family was drawn to. He was never prom royalty but he also never wanted to be and he was entirely content. He had a girlfriend whom he loved and friends who he could depend on, what more could he ask for? When Elliot graduated high school he decided to stick around in Amarillo. The town might be small but it was his home and after a few years at the local community college he got a job in auto insurance. He was still with the same girl from high school who he proposed to at the age of twenty-six after being together for ten years. Life was good for Eli and he saw his whole future ahead of. Marriage, a couple of kids running around, and a small house he'd call home, maybe even a white picket fence. All of that changed one fateful afternoon in August of 2023. Elliot came home on his lunch break only to catch his fiance with another man. He was heartbroken and the simple life he'd had planned for himself was ruined. The engagement was off then and there and Eli quickly spun downward. Life had gone to shit. His fiance moved out (and in with the guy she'd been cheating with) and Elliot spent most nights drinking and wallowing in self pity. Things couldn't have gotten any worse and miraculous it didn't. Almost two months after his break up Elliot's life would change again. He was never much of a gambler but one night when buying cigarettes he decided to purchase a lottery ticket from the gas station. Never in Eli's wildest dreams did he expect to actually win but he did. 16.8 million dollars to be exact. His life changed overnight once again. His achievement became the biggest story to hit Amarillo history in the last 20 years and it seemed everyone who'd ever known Elliot was coming out of the woodwork including his ex. Everyone put a bad taste in his mouth and after he'd been coerced into giving away nearly a million dollars to various different people in a very short period of time Elliot went into hiding. He could no longer trust the people closest to him as they all seemed to turn green with envy or fat with greed. His new found wealth made him incredibly lonely and forced him to outgrow his town he'd once called home. Instead Elliot decided to travel until he figured out where he wanted to call home next. That was how he wound up in New York, he'd always wanted to visit the city. He's not sure how long he'll be stick around for but he figured since he had the means to rent an apartment he might as well even if his stay is only temporary until his life calms back down.

Headcanons

He spontaneously drops twenty dollar bills around just to brighten people's days.

There's always a pile of packages waiting for him at his mailbox. Half the time he doesn't know what he's ordered because he's developed a late night spending habit whenever he can't sleep.

Even though he's been in the city for a few months now he still isn't the best at navigating around. He'll often call an Uber if he has to go somewhere that isn't a couple of blocks from his apartment. He is however always exploring and hitting up all the major tourist attractions New York has to offer.

#boroughs.intro

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birdo-is-here · 1 month

Text

also some writing I did, in which Phanuel and Dabria liberate a zoo

written from third-person perspective because why not

word length is 1390, no TWs that i can find! (let me know if i’ve missed any)

Phanuel manifested amidst a very crowded area. He looked around, taking in what he could of his surroundings that weren’t obscured by the bustling chatter of the human form. He was on some sort of flat, stone-esk path, likely built by humans. Hm, actually. As he looked around, he figured most of the things here were human-made.

Phanuel himself had made sure to take it upon himself to go incognito. Especially considering… recent events. He took the form of a blond-haired human with white highlights, because even if he was trying to be discreet he couldn’t possibly give up his theme – even if the colours had to be inverted. He wore some ‘denim jeans’ and an article of clothing he’d heard called a ‘letterman jacket’ atop a vibrant yellow ‘t-shirt’. All those funny human words.

Around him he figured were different types of fences: some metal and jutting out of the ground with more, muuuch longer metal bars running horizontally across the beams as support, creating some sort of grid pattern. Other fences were entirely clear – so clear he almost thought they weren’t there, but he wasn’t gonna be fooled twice by these dastardly demons supposedly called glass. The ‘glass’ ones were rather tall, and reinforced by wooden rims and beams.

Past the fences seemed to mimic several different natural environments. Admittedly, Phanuel only recognised a few of them. He saw animals resting in the trees and on the floors of the spaces, though!

A familiar, clawed, terribly feathery, figure landed on his shoulder, trilling something in his very human ear. He recognised the trills to be from the lovely Dabria, who seemed to be telling him not to stand in the middle of the road.

“Joke’s on you, I can’t even remember what a ‘road’ is,” The process of moving the lips to fit one’s speech was terribly redundant. He didn’t know why humans bothered with it.

Dabria made a small sound of disgruntlement. Just move to one side of the stone slab on the floor, it translated. He did as much, before finally doing what he had come here to do.

He scanned the environment, taking careful consideration not to have his head do a 360 degree turn, because apparently that wasn’t very natural for humans. And yet ‘glass’ was, he understood. Makes sense.

There were no signs of Jesus in the immediate vicinity, but he did pick up some other divine aura. Strange, he picked up quite a few divine auras, actually. They all seemed to be past the fences, but… lower. Underground, perhaps.

Dabria seemed to pick up on it as well, releasing a nervous scree. He could sympathise with her worries; most types of divine auras would mean bad news for them now. Still, Phanuel was a terribly curious angel. Fallen angel? Heaven-assigned fallen angel, he figured was closest. He didn’t really like to think about that too much.

He veered his attention back to the divinities underground. They seemed angelic, at least. Well, actually, that would be worse now, wouldn’t it… Hm. Anyway.

Phanuel approached the closest group of humans, waving to them in a very human fashion.

“Hello fellow humans! I must ask, is there anything underground?” For some reason Dabria did the owl equivalent of exclaiming her exasperation, which hurt Phanuel’s poor human ears, by the way.

The humans exchanged momentarily confused glances, before one of them responded, “uuuuhh… I guess there’s the underwater exhibit? Is that what you’re after?”

“Maybe! How would one get there?”

“Oh, it’s.. The entrance is just behind you, I believe,” Another pointed somewhere behind Phanuel, where he spotted a stairwell going down into the ground. There was an incredibly blue sign labelled ‘FISH AND FUN’ with a smaller sign next to the entrance that read ‘Come see the swimming harpies!’

Phanuel bid the humans farewell, before heading for the stairwell. As they got within typical eyeshot, Dabria released a small hoot. Harpies, she repeated the sign, once again slightly exasperated. Phanuel didn’t really know what those were.

When he expressed as much, Dabria gave another, slightly longer hoot. Mythological creatures. Not real at all. I think I can guess what those ‘harpies’ are supposed to be. He hummed, his attention drifting to the stairwell as he reached it. He hovered at the entrance a moment, though he was quickly ushered forward by a very impatient owl on his shoulder.

Inside was some sort of long human-made cave with rounded corners. Just ahead of him was more ‘glass’, barricading him from a very large, water-filled exhibit that held many, many scaled creatures of varying sizes. He recalled them to be the ‘fish’, if he wasn’t wrong.

There were also angels inside. About six or seven that he could see.

Oh that’s a problem actually. He momentarily stumbled back, preparing to leave the underwater exhibit before they noticed him and Dabria, but then he noticed something.

..Oh, they were Guardians. They had the odd scarf-like accessory to show as much. He debated his chances that they were unaware of the most recent news.

“Angels! Wherefore hast thou soggied yourselves?!” He called in a foreign language, in a way any human would not be able to hear. Dabria squawked very loudly in his ear. ARE YOU STUPID, she exclaimed, though Phanuel doubted he really needed to translate that one.

The angels looked over. A few of them were on the ‘sea’bed, resting gracefully on some rocks and slopes. Others were actually out swimming, playing in the currents. It was immediately obvious that they were trying to be dramatic about it, as if they were putting on some sort of show.

Their forms were distorted by the effect of the water, but it was easy to see how soaked they were – as one would be when spending all your time underwater. He wondered how heavy their feathers would be when they stepped out of the water.

“What?” The closest one replied. She had a sort of mustard-coloured halo, slightly distorted by the water just like her body. Fortunately, she didn’t immediately jump up to go apprehend him on sight, so he’d take any win he could get.

“Why are you in the water?” He clarified. Honestly he didn’t know where he learnt that other dialect.

“Oh! Uuuuh… it’s fun!”

“Oh, okay!”

Well that settles that, Phanuel thought. But then Dabria decided she wasn’t quite satisfied. Ask them if anyone knows what they actually are, she cooed. He repeated the bird’s question to them.

“The CEO does! And some other employees!” One called. “We’re working as interns!” Said another.

“Woah! I don’t know those words, but okay!”

Why would they be working as interns? Are they getting paid?

“Are you getting paid for it?”

“No! Mr. CEO man said we can stay to guard this place as long as we work as attractions!” One further up the back contributed.

Dabria made a rumbling noise of uncertainty. Phanuel didn’t really know any of these words, but he was happy to be here. She began to screech quietly again, giving quite a spiel of information for Phanuel to translate across.

“Okay— Have you ever heard of this thing called a union?”

“A bit! Not enough, though! What is that?”

“It’s this thing where like— You get money for your work, right?”

“Nah!”

“Well the.. Typical human gets money for their work, right?” He couldn’t really remember what money was all the time. It was brought up a lot, though, so he figured he’d have to get familiar with it.

“Oh, yeah! Yeah that happens!”

“You’re doing a work right now, and you’re not getting any money! And why would you need to intern for being a.. zoo attraction?”

Many of them hummed in strange unison. “That’s true! And we can get cool things with money!”

“Yes! . .. y. yes?” He looked to Dabria, who nodded in confirmation. “Yes!”

“Wooow! Oh, well– let’s go on strike!”

They said it very cheerfully, the one who spoke clasping her hands together in front of her torso. A moment later, all the angels were teleported out of the tank, and Phanuel heard screams of shock and a bit of fear upstairs.

Dabria bopped him on the head with a wing. Job well done, we should probably go before chaos erupts.

“Yes!” He replied with finality.

Truth be told, he didn’t know what he just did, but he enjoyed the validation from the owl. The scene began to change around him as he teleported away.

#birdo babbles for an extended period of time #angel goober shenanigans #birdo’s silly little guys

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