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mamashitty · 5 years

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Samwell Elementary Chapter 14

Title: Samwell Elementary School Fandom: Check, Please! Chapter 14, you can read previous chapters here Word Count: 2,198 Ship: Zimbits Find it on my AO3 & pillowfort! Blurb:Jack and Bitty enjoy their fresh new relationship. And also, this is the last chapter!

Jack shuts his alarm off just a second or two after it goes off. He has been awake for a few minutes now, staring maybe a touch dolefully at the empty space on the bed beside him. He and Bitty are being cautious about the start of their relationship, there are no sleepovers at Jack’s house when he has Maisie. Neither one wants to confuse her and they are keeping the relationship a secret for now. Relationship. He is in a relationship with Eric Bittle and that fact alone makes it difficult to not smile, even if he can’t tell everyone about it just yet. He gets out of bed and goes to get ready for the day before he wakes up Maisie. It is always easier getting himself up and dressed first before he gets her going. He wants to stop by the nearby coffee shop before he drops her off at school. They have a new seasonal flavor that he thinks Bitty is going to love.

“MR. BITTY HI!” Maisie all but shouts as she skips down the hall ahead of Jack. Bitty crouches to get to her level and he holds out a hand that his daughter exuberantly slaps in a high-five. “Like my new leggings?” The leggings are covered in tennis rackets, in homage to Camilla. This week Maisie is all about her Mom and tennis. Jack notices that she goes in spurts with her passions and he loves it. It keeps Jack on his toes.

“I love them, Maisie. Rhiannon is already in class if ya want to go say hi to her before we start,” Bitty says and Jack bends down to give Maisie a tight hug before she scampers off into class. A few weeks ago she had insisted that she put her backpack away in her cubby without his help and since then there has been no turning back. It stings a little to see signs like that of Maisie getting older. He’s happy, though, that Bitty can distract him from those thoughts for a minute. Maybe two if they are lucky and no other parent shows up. Bitty approaches him and Jack’s lips tug up into a smile as he hands over the peppermint atrocity that he knows Bitty will love.

“Thanks, Jack,” Bitty says, and he brings the drink up to his lips. Jack licks his own lips as he watches Bits take a sip. He wishes they could at least hug right now. At least he can get a kiss from Bitty later on.

“Is it good?” Jack asks, his voice lower than necessary.

Bitty lifts an eyebrow before smirking and nodding his head. He looks like he is about to say something, but then he gets cut off by the appearance of another parenting dropping off a student. Jack waves to him before walking away. He manages to make it all the way to his car before fishing out his phone to leave Bitty a text, a text he knows won’t be checked until Bitty’s kids are in their art session with Lardo.

“Jack, I think Shitty and Lardo are sleeping together.”

Jack is laying on his bed, staring up at his ceiling. The amount of time he and Bitty spend on the phone at night makes him feel something like a teenager. He never really had this when he was younger. It was all hockey, all the time. He and Kent—well it was never like this. Neither one of them had it in them to make it like this when they were teens. It makes Jack happy, though, that he is finally embarking on this rite of passage that so many other people hit earlier in their lives.

“What makes you think that, Bud?” Jack asks, smiling. He is always smiling when he talks to Bits.

“Well,” Bitty begins, his voice quieter than usual—not quite a whisper but not speaking at full volume either. Jack fights back a laugh, not wanting to interrupt Bitty. “Lardo’s car is in the drive, and I’m baking some pie for the class tomorrow because we are celebrating Logan’s birthday. Anyway, I may have made some extras. Shitty never came down from his room so I decided I’d see if Lardo wanted some, but she was not in the basement. And Shitty’s door has been shut for quite awhile. I don’t hear much coming from the room but he always knows when I’m baking and heads into the kitchen.”

“Bitty, are you upset that we might not be the only ones in a secret relationship?” Jack chirp and he is unable to stop the slight laugh that escapes him.

“No! I… okay, maybe a little.” Bitty says and Jack can hear the pout in his voice.

It takes a lot out of Jack for him not to blurt out three simple words right now. Three words that convey exactly how he feels for Eric, but he knows it is too soon. This relationship of theirs too young. It does not matter that Jack has been falling hard for Eric since the first time he saw him. That he knows he has never really felt this way for anyone, not even Camilla and he had been married to her. Oh, there had been love between him and Camilla—but this… this is so different. He knows he does not need to say those words, not yet, and so he stuffs them down and contents himself with listening to his boyfriend.

They stay up way too late talking on the phone like they do most nights if Jack is not too tired after a game.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

It is 8:30 on December 31st, but the television says that it is midnight. Maisie is ecstatic and jumping up and down as she throws confetti and streamers into the air. She drinks some bubbly apple juice and dances around the living room with Camilla and Steve. Jack watches, feeling warm and happy. He wishes Bitty and Shitty could see this, and he is glad he remembered to pull his phone out to record it. Then it is his turn to dance with Maisie, so Camilla takes his phone and he dances around the living room with his daughter. He scoops her up in his arms and spins twice before setting her down.

“I love you, Papa!” Maisie shouts.

“I love you too, Corndog.” He says, hugging her tightly once more before she squirms away.

It is ten now and Jack is at Shitty’s haus. He is glad that he and Camilla came up with the plan to celebrate an earlier New Years with Maisie. He thinks that next year he might let her try to stay up until midnight for real. He’s also happy that he gets to spend the last couple hours of the year with his boyfriend and ring in the new one with him too. He and Bitty’s plans are to celebrate midnight with their friends and then sneak out to go to Jack’s house because Maisie is staying at Camilla’s for rest of the week as Jack will be on the road starting tomorrow morning. Staying up and out until midnight is probably a dumb idea on Jack’s part but he wants to because he knows it will make Bitty happy.

Bitty who is slightly flushed in the face from a couple of drinks. Bitty, who keeps touching Jack’s arms lightly as they talk. Bitty who shines brighter than everyone and everything else in the Haus. Bitty who is currently being pulled away from Jack and the wall by a drunk Shitty.

“BITS MY BRAH! DANCE WITH ME!”

Jack smiles as he watches his best friend dance with Bitty. He does not notice Lardo until she nudges him gently in the side and that is when he tears his gaze away from the dancing duo.

“Hey, Lardo.”

“Jack,” she says, her gaze drifting from him towards Shitty and Bits. Since Lardo is watching the two of them, Jack figures he can get away with it too. Silence falls between him and Lardo, but it is comfortable. It is usually comfortable between the two of them.

“Bitty has been really happy lately,” Lardo says after a few minutes, and Jack can feel her eyes on him. He turns to look at her, but her face is obnoxiously blank.

“So has Shitty,” Jack ventures, and he sees Lardo’s lips twitch into something of a smile before she is pushing off from the wall she had been leaning on.

“Happy looks good on them both,” Lardo says before she slips between the dancing Shitty and Bitty, only to take Bitty by his hand and lead him into the kitchen. Shitty shouts something dramatic before his eyes land on Jack and then suddenly Jack has an armful of Shitty.

“THREE… TWO… ONE…”

It is midnight and all around them couples are kissing. Jack wants to kiss Bitty. They have plans, though, to stay mostly a secret until the end of the school year. They are at a party with mostly teachers from Bitty’s school. He notices that Lardo and Shitty are kissing—and it is definitely not a friendly chaste thing—and he nudges Bitty to point that out. Bitty laughs and then he is looking at Jack, and Jack is looking at him. And suddenly it feels foolish and stupid to Jack to keep this all a secret.

“Bits…”

Bitty is close to him, closer than he was a few seconds ago. Then they are kissing too, Jack thinks that they both closed the gap at the same time. The kiss does not start out smooth, more teeth than anything in their rush, but they smooth it out. It might have been half a minute late into the New Year but Jack has no complaints. The sounds of the party are dull to him now as he focuses just on Bitty and his lips.

“I FUCKING KNEW IT!” Shitty shouts and Jack stops kissing Bitty just before Shitty engulfs the two of them in a hug. Bitty’s face is flushed and he looks happy, happier than he did a few minutes before. Jack feels lighter too. They had not kept the secret as long as they had intended too and Jack thinks that it might be better this year.

“’Swawesome and congrats,” Lardo says and they bump fists.

“You too,” Jack says, with a smirk and he notices that her cheeks turn a faint red.

It is late. Well past Jack’s bedtime. He and Bitty made it back to his house a little after 12:30 and they immediately changed into pajamas. Bitty, once again, borrowing a pair of pants from Jack. He is too tired to do much more than kiss, and they have been lazily kissing goodnight since they made it to Jack’s bed.

“This is going to be a great year, Bitty, “Jack says, once they stop kissing. He stifles a yawn and Bitty nuzzles his face against Jack’s neck. Jack loves the feel of Bitty’s breath there, and he sighs, content.

“I think so too, Jack.”

He can feel the pull of sleep and knows he should not fight it, that he will have some regret staying up as late as he did tonight, even if it feels worth it now. Bitty is so warm in his arms, and Jack never realized what he cuddler in bed he could be. He likes falling asleep with Bitty in his arms and he always wakes up a little disorientated when wakes up and they have slipped apart in the middle of the night. He is grateful he gets to spend the final night before a long roadie with Bits in his bed, and his thoughts feel a bit like a broken record these days.

“G’night Jack,” Bits says, his voice thick with the pull of sleep.

“Goodnight, bud. I love you,” Jack says, too tired to stop those three little words from escaping. He feels Bitty tense in his arms, and suddenly, Jack feels too wide awake. He does not want to take those words back. He feels like he will be fine if Bitty is not quite ready to say them back. He just wants Bits to know… even if it is too quick.

“You don’t have to say anything back,” Jack is quick to get out, and he feels Bitty relaxing once more into his arms.

“Jack,” Bitty says, shifting until he can look him in the eyes. Jack flashes him a smile, probably oozing with worry. “I love you too. We are both a little crazy, aren’t we?” Bitty says with a breathless laugh.

Jack says nothing, he just kisses Bitty because Bitty loves him back. And maybe his boyfriend is right and maybe they are both a little crazy but Jack would not trade that for the world. The kiss turns into more than a kiss and Jack resigns himself (without much of a fight) to being exhausted for the road trip tomorrow and that be okay because Eric Bittle loves him and he loves Eric Bittle.

Life is better than good.

#omgcp #zimbits #eric bittle #jack zimmermann #samwell elementary au #a.shitty writes #a.shitty fics #omgcp fic

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not-poignant · 6 years

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What're your issues with Pillowfort, if you don't mind my asking? It looks like the $5 fee is a one-time thing.

My issues with Pillowfort’s background policies are long, and have nothing to do with the subscription fee (if anything, it being a one-time thing, and so small an amount, is a huge part of the problem - though I can see why they’re doing it atm, they will need at least a small influx of money to support an heavier weight of subscriptions, and they’re basically offering amnesty to a lot of Tumblr users, but imho, they should still be either a) charging more now or b) should have implemented a subscription system before now so that people who sign up in the next few weeks/months, can put a larger deposit of money into the site).

All the posts I want to link to about why Pillowfort currently has an unstable and unsustainable business plan, are unironically, currently hosted on pillowfort which is currently down. But basically: not enough of a stable income stream to sustain growth (particularly explosive growth) and, underpaying staff and/or unreasonable expectations as to the salaries of IT managers dealing with this scope.

It’s a complex issue and I really admire what pillowfort.io is and is trying to become, and they have tried to respond to critiques of their business plan (i.e. partly in response to the post ‘Kickstarters are not a viable income stream’ - which was one of the things I was going to link to here, they said they were going to move to a subscription model. Months ago. Though, granted, they may have been moving towards this from the beginning, there also hasn’t been much transparency about this too, so some of their policy posts seem reactive rather than proactive.)

I have lived through sites replacing old sites in the past. I lived through Strikethrough on Livejournal and was part of the early exodus to Dreamwidth. I have lived through fanfiction.net starting to aggressively remove any NSFW content, and had to move to other sites (like adultfanfiction.net) and then finally to AO3. But along the way, many of us have also moved to sites that completely crashed and bombed because the people in charge had earnest dreams, but not very practical strategies.

So I - and tens of thousands of other people - have observed what is needed to make things like this work, and currently, Pillowfort.io needs a regular (like annual) subscription plan, they need to implement it soon, they need the opportunity to gift subscriptions to users who genuinely can’t pay, or to donate subscriptions (this happened on Dreamwidth with great success - though DW still offers free account options), and they need to start paying better money to experienced back-end staff and into their servers, so that the site is more stable and doesn’t experience as much downtime.

The downtime now is understandable, but it happened a fair amount before too, it’s why I’ve had the invite idling in my inbox for months, but haven’t actually used it yet. Anyway yeah, I have a lot of hopes for Pillowfort and they have been improving, but they started off in a really shaky place business wise, and they haven’t exactly left that place yet. I’d suggest Dreamwidth first and foremost, but you can’t share and reblog there, and a lot of the time you need to learn some HTML to post there (or use the rich text editor), which is just another step of labour a lot of people aren’t willing to do.

#asks and answers #i could talk about this more or more complexly #but honestly a lot of other people have done it far better #i just can't link to those posts right now #because pillowfort is down #but this is a good summary #pillowfort #Anonymous

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angevon · 5 years

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Souyo Nov 2017 Writing Challenge (prompt list)

Day 24: Party/Festival

Links

Souji - AO3, ffnet

Yu - DW, Pillowfort, Tumblr (read it below)

Heh, yes, that’s right, 2017... this is over a year late now... But this is a cute one and hopefully worth the wait. It’s an AU of the Culture Festival Event. Instead of a group date, there’s a kissing booth!

[ko-fi]

It was the first day of Yasogami High's Culture Festival. Yosuke trudged up the stairs to the second floor. He didn't want to take part in some stupid group date cafe, and he was pretty sure no one else did either. Why'd everyone in class vote for that?

At the top of the stairs, though, he stopped and stared, because an unbelievably long queue of fellow students and other festival-goers was lined up outside his classroom. There was Saki-senpai's little brother, and Hanako Ohtani, and that girl who liked being on the roof, and that one old lady in her mourning garb, and...

Yosuke was speechless for a long moment. "W-wait," he finally said. "Are you all here for the group date cafe?"

"What group date cafe?" asked Kou, who was standing in the line. "That doesn't sound like fun at all."

"We're not doing a group date thing," Chie said. She wasn't in line. By the big 'Ask me anything!' sticker on her blouse, she was part of the festival staff, helping visitors find their way around the school. "Come on, Yosuke, you were there when we made the decision in class." She rolled her eyes. "Of course you weren't listening."

"I don't remember," Yosuke admitted. "But I can't say I'm all that disappointed we aren't doing that, even if it was my idea and all."

Kou laughed. "That sounds like one of your ideas."

Yosuke made a face, then asked, "So what are we doing? This hall is more happening than Junes on a sales day."

"Our class is doing a kissing booth, you dork," said Chie.

"What, really?" Yosuke blinked in surprise. Then he narrowed his eyes at Kou. "Wait, you wanna kiss someone other than—oof!"

Kou nudged him hard in the ribs. "Ahaha, no," he said, eyeing Chie with a vaguely panicked expression. "But no one can resist the guy they got at the booth."

"'Guy'?" Yosuke's expression flattened. "It's not Teddie, is it? I mean, he's always charming people at the store."

"Guess again," said Chie.

"It can't be our class rep. I mean, he's got the glasses going for him, but that's not a wide enough appeal."

"One more try."

Yosuke's crossed his arms and thought. Anyone watching him could pinpoint the exact moment the truth dawned on him. "N-no way," he stuttered. "Yu?!"

Chie's toothy grin told him he was right on the money.

"Why don't you get in line, too?" Kou said. "There's room for one more. Or five," he added, as a few more students lined up behind him.

"I don't want to kiss Yu!"

Chie tilted her head. "Well... you're in the minority here."

Bewildered, Yosuke glanced down the long line once more. Some of the students weren't even from Yasogami. Wait, was that a cat!?

"Huh," he said.

He thought of how he'd always wanted his first kiss to be something special under the moonlight. His tentative plan to fake a yawn and stretch his arm out and lazily put it around his girlfriend's shoulders, and then he'd move in and they'd gaze into each others' eyes and...

A kissing booth wasn't romantic at all. Yosuke wondered how many people were going to ruin their first kiss with Yu like this. A lot, by the looks of it. Heck, even Nanako-chan was in line—she waved at him when she noticed him looking—but she was just a little kid so it didn't mean anything.

"You wanna be the only guy who hasn't kissed Yu?" Kou asked.

Yosuke scowled. "Come on, don't make it weird."

"I, for one, am getting a kiss," Kou said.

The line moved then, and Kou moved with it, putting him inside the classroom. Yosuke stared after him, still frowning.

He remembered all the times Yu had listened to him without judgement. How he'd told off those annoying girls at Junes on his behalf, and how he'd always looked after him in the TV World. And when he thought about it, well, Yu did have a really cute smile.

They were best friends, and the truth was that Yu was important to him.

Avoiding everyone's eyes, Yosuke got in line. He could feel Chie sneering at him, but fortunately, she was soon distracted by a student asking for directions to a different event.

Despite its length, the line moved quickly, and soon enough he was inside the classroom, where the line looped around a few desks. He could see the kissing booth situated at the far end, next to the chalkboard. A thick red curtain hung around the front of the booth to allow some privacy. Yosuke appreciated that. He knew he wouldn't want an audience.

One by one, like a production line, people went behind the curtain to get their kiss and left with wistful smiles on their faces. It couldn't be much of a kiss, Yosuke figured, since it happened so quickly. It'd just be in and out. No need to get all nervous about this. Heck, Yu'd probably just kiss his cheek and that'd be it.

Yeah, there's nothing to worry about, Yosuke thought as the line continued to move. It was just a kiss from Yu. His best friend in the whole world. Besides, he was just one person in this big crowd. No one could judge him for being here. He could just point out that they were in line too. And he knew Yu. Yu wouldn't think anything—

"Next?" Yu's voice came from behind the curtain.

Startled, Yosuke glanced around before realizing 1) that he was next and 2) that Yu had called "Next" for him more than once.

With the combined strength of all the glares of everyone in line behind him hitting him full force, Yosuke couldn't hesitate any longer. He hustled around the curtain. Standing there resting his arms on the booth's counter and looking totally relaxed, was Yu.

Totally relaxed only for a second, anyway, because he was startled most ungracefully when he saw Yosuke approach. Yosuke wondered if he was okay, but within seconds Yu had composed himself. "Yosuke," he said, with a somewhat glassy smile as if he hadn't nearly just fallen over. "I didn't expect to see you."

Yosuke waved a hand. "Uh, w-well, it was Chie's idea to come here," he claimed. "And I gotta support our class, you know?"

"Oh," Yu said. "Of course. Umm, okay, then... come closer."

Yosuke nodded, determined to get this over with and move on. He stepped closer and closed his eyes and waited.

Nothing happened.

He opened his eyes. Yu was simply looking at him. Spacing out, maybe? No, it wasn't exactly looking, more like gazing at him in a way that reminded him of a puppy.

"Yu?" Yosuke asked.

Yu blinked back to himself. "Oh. Sorry. Umm, here."

He leaned over the booth's counter and gently set one hand behind Yosuke's head, pulling him a little closer. With the other hand he cupped Yosuke's face. Despite himself, Yosuke's heart began to beat faster. This was closer than he'd ever been to his best friend. His cologne was strong, maybe he'd put it on extra thick today. As for himself, Yosuke hoped he didn't smell as nervous as he suddenly felt.

He closed his eyes, because this would be too embarrassing to watch. Yu's presence drew closer. Warm breath played over his face, building anticipation, and then...

Yu was kissing him. It really was just lips on lips, a simple kiss. Yosuke sighed softly and prepared to draw back as the kiss ended.

Except it didn't end. Yu's soft lips lingered. Then his tongue darted over Yosuke's lips. Confused, Yosuke opened his mouth, and Yu apparently took this as a sign.

The kiss deepened.

Yosuke's alarmed sound was cut short by the realization that this felt good. Yu's hand, steadying the back of his head, was gentle as it threaded fingers into his hair. Yu murmured softly into his mouth, and Yosuke found himself murmuring back. He tasted faintly of mint.

When they finally parted, all Yosuke could do was stare and lick his lips. Yu was staring back at him, too, an odd look on his face that Yosuke didn't recognize.

Yu broke the gaze first. "You should probably go," he said.

"H-huh..." Yosuke managed. Slowly, he remembered where he was. At the Culture Festival, right. He was holding up the line. Other people wanted to kiss Yu, too.

And with a kiss like that, he couldn't blame them.

"R-right," he said. "Uh..."

Yu's eyes were already looking past him, as if he could see around the curtain to the next person in line.

Yosuke stepped away, unsure of what he was feeling. On his way out of the classroom, he didn't notice how the next person in line kept checking his watch.

In a daze, he wandered around the Culture Festival, but didn't find anything he wanted to do. After passing a takoyaki stand, he thought of eating, but he wasn't hungry. The taste of mint was still there in his mouth, making him think of how it'd got there, how it had been passed to him by Yu's tongue. He didn't want to wash it away just yet.

Eventually he ended up on the roof, where some of the Investigation Team were gathered: Rise, Yukiko, Kanji, and Naoto. Chie was absent, probably still helping out somewhere.

Rise sent him a playful look as he sat down to join them. "Soooooooo," she trilled. "How was it, Yosuke-senpai? Don't deny it, Chie-senpai told me you went for it."

Yosuke crossed his arms and tried to shrug nonchalantly.

"Yeah," Rise agreed with a nod. "I wish it'd been more than just a peck. Senpai's lips felt like they could do so much more."

"I must admit I'm a little disappointed too," Yukiko said.

"Wait," Yosuke said. "It wasn't just a..."

"Still," Rise said, "I thought you wouldn't go for it, Yosuke-senpai. Way to go! You've matured so much since I've known you. Don't worry, a tiny peck like that isn't weird."

A... peck?

"It wasn't..." Yosuke shook his head and caught Kanji's eyes. "Wait, did you do it too? The kissing booth?"

"Uh, yeah?" Kanji replied. "Senpai's the man. He taught me a lot, y'know. 'Course I gotta support him."

"Support him with your lips?" Yosuke's voice grew louder as he began to panic. "Wh-what kind of kiss was it?!"

Kanji's brow knit together. "Dunno what you mean. Was just a peck."

"Just a... Naoto, did you do it?"

"But of course," Naoto replied. "I can't deny I was curious."

"But what was it like!"

"I could describe it as no more than a peck. It was on my cheek, for the record."

"A peck? A peck?" Yosuke stood up suddenly, and the world reeled around him, partly from his panic and confusion, and partly from the blood rushing from his head.

"Yosuke-senpai?" Rise asked. "It's all right. We all kissed Senpai, or were kissed by him anyway. So we're all in the same place. Oh, but I wonder... does that mean we indirectly kissed everyone else too?"

Yosuke opened and closed his mouth, and then sat back down. He palmed his forehead and splayed his fingers through his hair, trying to calm down. The revelation that Yu had given him and only him much more than a peck was too much for him to process.

"Nah," said Kanji. "Senpai had a whole jug of mouthwash back there. He washed out real good every time."

"That much mouthwash can't be good for him," Naoto remarked. "But I suppose he'll be fine if it's just for the festival."

Yosuke nibbled his lower lip. So that's why the minty taste. It had faded from his tongue by now, and he couldn't help but feel disappointed about that. Maybe... he could visit the booth again later?

The door to the rooftop opened and, to everyone's surprise, Yu joined them.

"Hi," he said, breathlessly. It had to be breathlessly, Yosuke figured, after all that kissing. But then, if he'd only given everyone a peck of a kiss, he wouldn't need much breath for that. "They finally let me have a break."

"You..." Yosuke began.

Yu smiled at him, then addressed the rest of the group. "How's the festival?" He sat down between Yosuke and Rise.

"The haunted house wasn't scary," Yukiko said. "This boy kept following me around inside it. It was very uncomfortable."

"For him, you mean?" Rise said.

Yukiko's eyes glinted in the sunlight.

The group continued to talk about the festival, but Yosuke wasn't listening. The kissing booth wasn't supposed to mean anything. It was just a stupid school event, but now, now...

Now Yu was right next to him and Yosuke didn't know what to think. He found himself watching his mouth. His lips were kind of red, probably from kissing people all day. Had it really been just Yosuke, or were there others he'd kissed so deeply? Which of these scenarios was he more okay with?

Yu was his best friend, and best friends didn't kiss with tongue, right?

At some point during the conversation, Yu wet his lips with his tongue, and Yosuke found himself mimicking the action.

All of a sudden—or so it seemed to Yosuke—Rise was getting up, followed by the other underclassmen. "We gotta get back to our class's booth," Rise said with a dramatic sigh. "We're just doing a bake sale. It's so boring."

"I dunno, the cupcakes are hella cute," Kanji said. "You oughta come by and get one for Nanako-chan, Senpai."

"I will," Yu promised.

"I'll come with you and get one for Chie," Yukiko said.

"See you later, Senpai~~"

In the middle of his crisis, Yosuke now found himself alone with Yu. He wasn't anywhere near ready for that.

Though Yu didn't seem to be either. He was fidgeting with his fingers in his lap. The awkward silence lasted for some time. Finally, Yu spoke. "Yosuke? You've been awfully quiet."

"Why?" Yosuke blurted out. "Why was my kiss different?"

Yu's eyes widened. "It wasn't—" he began, but he saw the look on Yosuke's face and stopped attempting to deny it. His eyes darted away, and then back again. Finally, he mumbled, "...Why do you think?"

Yosuke opened and closed his mouth. "Me?"

Yu didn't answer.

"Me?" he repeated. "Of all those people... you really wanted to kiss me?"

Yu was blushing. Yosuke was pretty sure he'd never seen this before. It was flattering.

"That was my first kiss," Yosuke told him.

"It wasn't mine," Yu said.

"Well, yeah! You were kissing people all day!"

Yosuke laughed, and soon Yu was laughing too. The tension between them lessened into something more comfortable.

"I couldn't help it," Yu said. "I didn't want to kiss any of them, not really, but everyone had voted for me to man the booth, so... I didn't have a choice. And then you were there, and... I wanted something more."

"After the kiss you gave me, I kinda want something more too," Yosuke admitted.

Yu stared at him. "Really?"

Blushing, Yosuke set his hand conspicuously between them. Yu watched it, and like a wary feline, he slowly brought his own hand closer. Yosuke didn't pull his hand away. Finally Yu placed his hand on top, and Yosuke turned his hand so they were holding hands.

Yu's goofy smile after that was its own reward.

"You were my first kiss," Yosuke said. "And..."

"And?" Yu prompted.

"I think," Yosuke said, "I want you to be my second kiss, too."

As they closed the distance, Yosuke could only think: and third, and fourth, and fifth, and...

#persona 4 #souyo #souyowrimo 2017 #p4 #my fic

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pickyperkypenguin · 5 years

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So, a little PSA from me - I will be moving on after all

I had this thought for some time already, but the recent events made it for me more clear, something almost like a sign to finally get my stuff together. When @mindblownie wrote her post (that has many very good points on the situation, that I won’t be repeating here) on how despite the initial will to stay after the 17th she is now reconsidering, I have had it also boiling on my stove, the decision to leave this place.

At first I didn’t join Pillowfort when they were still sending the keys, because I wasn’t sure if all or at least most of the people I still wanted to be following will be moving – and more importantly, being active – there. That was one of the reasons I only set up a Twitter account to keep up with a lot of people, who said they were moving there. I admit, I can’t get used to using it, so it looks like I am not keeping up that well with their content. It’s too… condensed? Fast? Too, like, chunky, if communication can be called such. The marks limit just honestly, honestly doesn’t do it to me at all, it prevents any essay-like format of a post (threads are not the same, they generate a different structure), and it is deeply dissatisfying to me. And as a cherry on top I have to click at every single picture to see it in full (or at least viewable) size, and I have to do the same if there are a couple of pics in one post. It’s the worst, sorry. I’m sure it has a wonderful uses elsewhere, but not for the purpose I liked to be on Tumblr for, not as my kind of blogging platform.

The other reason I didn’t join Pillowfort and why I was having those thoughts before is this: I got lazy with art and culture. I got used to consuming all the time, instead of creating even just a bit. The half-creating thing that reblogging content felt like was appeasing any creative hunger I might’ve had. Instead of wanting to be an active part of a fandom or creating my own original stuff (which I have ideas for! They are just not being developed! At all!!!) I was perfectly content with being a consumer, and a rather lazy one, to add to all of that – rarely left comments on the fics I read, reblogged a lot of art without stopping to give a feedback in the tags (though this I at least tried to do, as I often just had that urge coming from within, to praise the artists), didn’t contact with the other members too much. To be honest, it requires from me – I think – about the same amount of social engagement and energy from me to strike a relationship online as it does offline, so I have never been one of the most popular or sociable fandom people. But, you know, that could change, if I tried. I didn’t.

Anyway, this is first part of the second reason. This is the moment in my life where I am currently trying to somewhat decide or settle on what I want to be pursuing professionally job-wise, and so I have to find out pretty soon if I am able to be creating more, or creating sustainably over a period of time. The mindset of more grinding and improving of what there already is is not going to help me as much as the one where I create and create, and create, and only then I think of the rest. I badly need to get into the habit of that.

The second part of the second reason is that I realised that I waste so much time in here. Even when it’s in the ‘allowed’ situations, like on a bus ride where I have nothing else to do, I just eat up pleasant things, instead of being less directed with my thoughts, I fix on themes I already know instead of reaching outside of my zone.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve talked many times about many, many good sides this platform has (well, had), when it comes to the content, culture, and so on, and how I have actually broadened my horizons, thanks to it. You can go in my ‘whatever life’ tag and see at any time or this last post I made about the current situation. But this post is about the negatives, and why it is very probable I am leaving soon.

I’m feeling somewhat like I should just do some overall Internet detox for myself, or at least drastically change how I have used it. It is not building me up, expanding me, developing me any more. It has become limiting.

Hence, the idea of perhaps changing a platform. Baby steps. I don’t want to lose the contact with the couple of people whom I daresay befriended, and I do hope we will be able to sustain it, even if we will move out to different sites and it will all come down to, I don’t know, sending e-mails, which I feel is for casual relationships on the Internet an equivalent of sending the post via pigeons. Pigeons or not, I want to stay in touch with you. But I also want to move on, I just haven’t figured out yet where exactly – I already have an AO3, maybe I will join Dreamwidth? I feel like both of those may generate more of the climate I want to immerse in the future. Maybe I will get Pillowfort after all, as it is familiar and apparently has all the good sides of Tumblr that I liked, and the blogging format, but they actually listen to the users (my whole heart is with the founders and the idea of Pillowfort). I will sure let you know if/when I will choose a new main platform.

Ah, I would forget. The third reason I don’t feel like being here. I was trying for a bit to be blogging normally, and to observe how everybody else is functioning – but it doesn’t feel right for me anymore. The feeling of being restricted with the content, the general wrongness of it all, the emptiness of my dash – there are just a few people, couple of us here, trying to get over all of what happened. But my landscape have changed, and maybe a couple of the trees have stayed exactly the same in my forest, but I can hear the harvester sound in the distance and see the sky changing the colour from the fires. It doesn’t feel right for me to pretend everything is as it was and contentedly carry on.

So, this is a sort of a prolonged goodbye from me. I am estimating I will be blogging as I am now for about till the New Year, and then. Well, then we’ll see what will I do, where will I go. I will be reblogging this post periodically in hope anyone who wants to can contact or find me on other social media that I have, and that it will all be explained when I will decide to move on.

Places where I can be found:

AO3 (@aislinngun)

Twitter (@pickyperkypeng1)

Instagram (@pleurotus.ostreatus) – though I can’t really be that free there, as people who I know offline are following me there

#whatever life #tumblr purge

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adrianners · 6 years

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Where to find me

Welcome to the next Great Fandom Migration, kids! It will be slow and weird, and not everybody is going to end up in the same places. Fortunately, as it largely was in the LJ to Tumblr shift, AO3 will be a central hub for keeping contact info up to date. Make sure your AO3 profile links to your other accounts, especially if you use different names on different platforms! That will make things a lot less confusing than they were in, say, the gurgling death of eGroups/YahooGroups.

Tumblr is not going to die tomorrow. There are still people using LJ. There are BBS forums still chugging along from the 90s. There’s some urgency here because of the policy changes (I hope everyone knows Tumblr’s bullshit well enough that this goes without saying, but DO NOT assume that your technically TOS-acceptable content won’t get you flagged anyway), but aside from that, the site is unlikely to go dark anytime soon. While that process happens, here’s where you can find me:

AO3: Adrianners Dreamwidth: Adrianners Twitter: AdriannersWrite Discord: adrianners#2645 (Don’t invite me to servers. I basically hate discord and use it exclusively for DMs and a 4-person groupchat that’s been around since AIM was a thing) Playstation Network: adrianners (so you can... look at my trophies if you want, I guess, because I don’t do multiplayer)

I’ve only got about 2k posts, so I’ll take a quick zoom through in the coming days and get things I want to save (some writing posts, 30 Days of YoI, probably not a lot else) moved over to Dreamwidth and backdated. Made a “preserved from tumblr” tag for the purpose. Getting re-accustomed to the LJ style of blogging is gonna be a slow process, but I’ll do my best. The etiquette here really did a number on my perception of what’s “worthy” of posting.

All signs point to DW being my main presence for now. Friendly reminder that DW has free basic accounts and doesn’t even require a code at the moment. Downsides: No sideblogs (but that’s what comms and filters are for, frankly); limited image hosting; you need to learn basic HTML if you don’t know it (but you should anyway); you need to get used to LJ-style keyword-only tagging if you aren’t (but you should anyway). Upsides: Fandom-friendly by design; strong customization of privacy options; ten-year track record; THREADED! MUTHAFUCKIN! COMMENTS! Paid accounts are $35 a year. These unlock some additional social options and raise the caps on tags, followed blogs, icons, etc.

I will probably make have made a fandom twitter but don’t intend to be active outside of likes/RTs (are they still getting rid of likes on there, though?) and keeping in contact with people who don’t go to DW. Twitter is everything I dislike about Tumblr only more so... with the exception of an actually functional block button.

Currently no plans for Pillowfort until it demonstrates staying power, especially in terms of the server load and bad actor issues they’re likely to see in the near future.

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