#''what do you mean leopards are like fish??''

[toxicanonymity]

leopard print.  

4.5k, joel x f!reader; special guest in tags

SUMMARY: Depraved one shot based on this. Joel mistakes you for a sex worker, offers you a ride, Fs you, shares you and is mildly possessive about it.

WARNINGS: I8+ strangers, drugs, talk of sex work, unsafe public P in V, dubcon (drugs/alc, not noticeably intoxicated), cockwarming, degradation, pantygagging, creampies, car stuff, orgasm delay m, vaginal plugging, voyeurism, sharing. Unedited. 

A/N: Night walks vibes, but different too. You'll see. New fantasy for myself 😫

"And if I was workin'?" You ask.  He gives a low whistle. "Wouldn't know where to start," he murmurs. "But I can tell ya how it'd end." He looks at your skirt. . . "She'd be wrecked n' beggin' for more, baby." Your fingers absentmindedly graze your chest. . . He sticks the joint in his mouth and shamelessly adjusts himself with both hands, tucking it into his waistband.

You pull into the gas station on the back of your friend's motorcycle. "When I fuel up, I'm outta here," he warns you.  Oh well. If you have to walk back to your friend's condo, it's only two blocks.  He's grumpy – You and your girlfriends have been a hot mess at the pool all day playing floating beer pong and licking alcoholic whipped cream off each other.  He didn't wanna take you with him in the first place. No helmet, no reasonable shoes, not even a shirt.

You swing your leg off the motorcycle and as you step down onto the ground with your red wedges, you adjust your cheap, stretchy leopard print miniskirt. It matches, or clashes, with your leopard print bikini. You leave your sunglasses on as you enter the gas station with a chime. You fish a damp $20 out of your bikini top and survey the snacks. 

You feel someone lurking nearby, but ignore it until you hear a deep, smooth voice.  "Nice rosettes."

"s’cuse me?" 

You turn only slightly toward the man. Maybe homeless.  Good looking like a washed up rockstar. He gestures toward your bikini top. "That's a nice set'a rosettes." You look down at your tits spilling out of your push-up bikini top, then you look back at his face. Handsome man, really. Salt and pepper beard. Full head of dark hair with a little gray. Sunkissed skin. His eyes are kind and glassy. His nose twitches. "Oh, that's what leopards call their spots. Rosettes."  

You laugh uncomfortably. 

“Yeah, the ones on your top, those are pretty good.” His eyes drift down your body. “Skirt doesn’t really have’em right. Still nice though.” 

"Thanks." You politely nod and return to looking at the snacks, ignoring him in the corner of your eye. 

He doesn’t leave. He only gets closer.  He looks you up and down and steps into your personal space. He lowers his voice.  "You, uh, workin'?"

No, you don't work there. Do you look like you work at the gas station? Your stomach turns as you realize what he means, and your face goes cold. You stare at him, and your eyes drift to a hole in his shirt right below the collar. "Am I WHAT?" You ask incredulously, but trying to be quiet. Your whole body feels hot at the implication. You're humiliated, but for some reason it makes you warm between the thighs, too. 

His eyes go wide, and he puts his hands up in surrender. "Sorry," he mumbles, then adds, "A man can dream,” as he backs away. 

Your heart races and flutters and you scold yourself for being flattered.  You end up in line behind the guy. And the line takes forever, giving you plenty of time to fume and also wonder about him. It's nothing against sex work – Work is work. But you'd like to think you wouldn't be picking up a rough looking guy in a gas station.  Your friend's motorcycle revs outside. You look out the window and he's there by the curb waiting for you. You could drop the snacks on the closest rack and get the heck out.  But for some reason, you stay in line, and not because you’re that hungry. 

Someone needs to scoot behind you and you're forced to step into the sleazy man's personal space. He smells far better than you would have imagined. Woodsy and fresh. Somehow that makes all the difference, like he's not a filthy vagrant after all. He just had the aesthetic. Which is kinda hot.  Your friend on the motorcycle shakes his head, revs his engine again, then drives away.

"Asshole," you mutter.  

The man in front of you (your aspiring john) glances back and again mutters, "sorry." He scratches the back of his neck and exposes a chain under his ratty t-shirt. He really does have a nice head of hair, and now you see there’s a joint behind his ear, too.  Maybe he’s just a hippy. 

"Not you," you mumble. Well, not only him. Both of them. 

He turns to face you. "I know. Saw ya roll in." Great, so he thought that was your pimp. "Want a ride?" 

"Nah, I’m close," you mutter without looking right at him, then mumble, “thanks.” 

He wets his lips and stares at your chest for a moment before adding, "ya sure?" And now that you know this man smells good, wears a chain, and has a ride, you're throbbing. You cross your arms and bite your lip looking at his handsome nose while his kind eyes search yours in anticipation. 

"Okay," you whisper.

"Hell yeah," he whispers back with half a smile, getting a little closer, like the two of you are plotting something. 

"But I'm not workin'," you remind him.

"Heard ya the first time, gorgeous." He winks at you.

He tries to buy your food for you. When you don't let him, he nods with a smirk. He crosses his big arms, plastic bag that reads “thank you” hanging from one of them, and waits for you. Then he holds the door open on your way out. 

He checks you out as you pass through the door frame. You take your sunglasses off and put them in the bag with your snacks. 

"Name's Joel."  When you don't tell him yours, there’s a new smirk in his voice when he says, "don't gotta tell me your real name, if ya got a street name or somethin'. . ." 

"Jerk." You punch his arm and mostly suppress a laugh. 

He smiles and brings a massive hand to his bicep to pretend like it hurts, and for the first time it hits you how muscular he is.

"Truck's around back." He nods toward the back of the store. He walks slightly behind you. You feel his eyes boring a hole in your ass. Then you feel the warmth of his massive palm on the small of your back and he gets closer to you as he curves his hand around your side. "Too damn hot, baby. Had me thinkin' with my dick is all." Your face heats up and you glance at him. “I’ll carry that for ya.” He takes your bag. 

He's parked around a corner out of view. Between some bushes and a closed library for some reason. His truck is nice, and it's big. Tinted windows. The back window of the cab says Miller Brothers.  It's sunset, so you're grateful for the ride, lest any other low lifes make the same mistake on your walk back. When y'all get to his truck, he lets his hand slide down your hip. He opens the driver’s seat and puts the bags inside. Then he leans against his truck and adjusts himself. He's wearing pinstripe lounge pants.  "Can't really blame me, can ya?" He raises his eyebrows. He scans you top to bottom again.  "God damn, baby." 

You laugh and look down shyly, unsure whether to thank him. His eyes don't leave your body at all.  "To be fair, I thought you were homeless," you admit. 

He exhales a laugh and shrugs.  "Where ya headed?"

"Back to my friend’s pool."

"Hungry?"

"Nah."

"Smoke?" So that’s why you’re still outside the truck. You shouldn't, but you hesitate curiously.

You lean against the bed of his truck with your elbow resting on its edge, facing him.

"Fuck you're sexy," he mutters to himself. "Helluva rack but I'm an ass man, c'mere."

He turns toward you so he's leaning with his left side on the driver's side of the truck. He puts his right hand on your hip, rotating you so you're facing the truck. "Mmmmm." He puts his hand on the small of your back again, then slides it down–slowly, experimentally, cautiously enough for you to stop him. You don't. You're throbbing.  He grabs your ass–his palm is huge. You glance at him and watch his eyes study the curve of your body. Deep down in your body, you know you're gonna fuck him. You both know it. With his left hand he retrieves the joint from behind his ear and puts it in his mouth unlit. 

He sucks in a breath around the joint and lifts the flesh of your closest ass cheek. When he lets it drop, a growl escapes his chest. 

He fishes a lighter out of his soft pants pocket and lights up. and as he inhales, once again he can't keep his eyes off your body.  He takes the joint out of his mouth and turns your face toward his. You rotate toward him and he gets close, your bodies almost touching. He looks to your eyes for permission and begins to slowly exhale downward, so it's yours if you want it. You bring your mouth closer to his and he angles the smoke more toward your mouth as you suck it up. The moment seems to last forever and your lower belly is on fire. 

The sunset washes everything in a pink hue. When his lungs are empty, he murmurs "good girl" and rests his hand on your hip, lightly running his palm over your stretchy little miniskirt, feeling the bump toward the top hem where your bikini tie is. He peels the top of your stretchy skirt down to expose the knot and pulls at the string. You let him untie it. The parking lot is empty and wet from an earlier rain. 

"Fuck you're hot," he mutters with the strings of your bikini hanging over the miniskirt on that side. He takes another puff and passes you the joint. You take only a small inhale. "C'mere," he murmurs and his hand on your waist nudges your side off the truck and pulls you closer to him. He unties that side of your bottoms the same way. 

"And if I was workin'?" You ask. 

He gives a low whistle. "Wouldn't know where to start," he murmurs. "But I can tell ya how it'd end." He looks at your skirt.

You ask, "How's that?"

He doesn't take his eyes off your skirt. "She'd be wrecked n' beggin' for more, baby." Your fingers absentmindedly graze your chest, feeling where your tits spill over the cups. "Careful sugar," he chuckles. "Start me up, I won't ever stop." He sticks the joint in his mouth and shamelessly adjusts himself with both hands so his cock is upright and held in his waistband. He offers the joint again and you decline. He pinches it out and puts it back behind his ear.  "Damn," he mutters, still checking you out. He rubs his hand over his cock through his soft pants. "But ya *ain’t* workin'. . . so ya got nothin' to worry 'bout," he adds with a twinkle in his eye. "''Less ya want it . . ." God, you do. You want it. 

"Wrecked, huh?" You challenge him. 

He sighs and his big hand on your hot skin rotates you back toward the truck.  You hang your elbows over the side of the truck bed. He slinks behind you, then lets the heft of his cock against your ass crack. You gasp at how nice and hard it is. It moves against you and he sucks in a breath through his teeth then lets out a, "Mmm" as he exhales. He rolls his hips against you and uses both hands on your hips to pull your ass back into him so you're off the truck.

He holds you with one arm around your waist and his other hand slides between your legs from the front, up your skirt. "Bad girl, ain't ya?" His hand skims up your inner thigh to the crotch of your swimsuit, hanging loosely now that it's untied on both sides. "Yeah, ya are,” he answers for you. He slides two thick fingers through your folds and you sigh, tilting your head back.  "Spread your legs for a stranger?." His voice is deep and gruff and makes you throb.  “S’okay, not just any stranger.” His other hand grabs a tit while he runs his fingers through your dripping folds, then begins to circle your clit with his drenched digits. "Oh she's beggin' for it, baby," he murmurs. 

He lets your weight against the truck again so his forearm is between you and the metal with his hand still between your legs. His cock presses against your ass at a slow rhythm, making your insides swell with need for him as he fingers your clit. You squirm and your hips rock into his hand. You whimper and he brings his mouth to your ear. "Five hundred," he whispers. 

You gasp and he adds, "Not you. . .I'm workin' now, baby" as he speeds up on your clit. "I'm a penthouse boy, but that's your back alley discount." 

"Fuck you," you laugh.

"First one's free if i cum inside," he murmurs into your neck. Then he grabs the crotch of your swimsuit and yanks it down, pulling it off entirely. He pins you to the truck with his cock against your ass. He shoves the swimsuit in your mouth and ties the strings behind your head. You taste the chlorine and your own arousal. You turn your head to look behind you and he reassures you no one can see. 

His hand returns between your legs and he slips one, then two thick, wet fingers into you. Your cunt squelches obscenely around his digits. "Hell yeah, hear her beggin' for me?". He frees his cock from his pants and keeps fingering you.  Then he slides his fingers out and your walls twitch at the loss. He wedges his cock under your skirt and it’s so big you have to spread your legs more. He runs the head through your folds and you’re gushing. As the head massages your clit, you moan into the swimsuit in your mouth. "Want the first one free, don't ya?" He taunts into your neck, dragging his lips along the delicate skin. "Want me to fill up this filthy hole?" You nod, desperate to feel him inside you. "First with this cock, then all the cum ya can hold," he murmurs and you nod. You tilt your hips and spread your legs. "Good," he breathes. "Good girl." He notches himself with the curve of his tip just inside. "Ready to swallow me whole, hot damn." 

You push back on him and he says, "shit," and pushes into you.  He slides right into you, spreading your cunt wide open with a groan into your neck. It's a delicious stretch and he fills you to the brim, bottoming out on the first go.  "God damn, sugar." He retreats and slides his thick cock into you again, sheathing it entirely with your dripping cunt. You weren't even sure you could take this cock but it's perfect. "Fuck, you feel good," he pants and twitches inside you. If he comes early you're going to laugh but you pray he won't. He begins to roll his hips at a steady rhythm, and you moan into the swimsuit. He breathes heavily against your neck and bites and sucks you. You adjust your hips and push back on him to his rhythm. 

"Take it like a pro," he pants, "an' you're tight, too. Damn." His right hand works your clit.  His left hand comes to your throat, thumb on the left side of it, fingers on the right.  Choke me, you think. Do it. But he doesn't. He licks and kisses at the left side of your throat, by his thumb. Then his fingers on the right of your neck tense for leverage and he plants his teeth on the left side of your neck. He sucks hard and moans into you as he sucks more, like he's thirsty for blood. Your neck aches under the grip of his mouth. He breathes through his nose, and when he finally breaks with a gasp, he fucks you harder, grunting and sighing. 

You moan and he pulls your top down under your tits. A breeze and the rustling of branches nearby reminds you of the danger and you shiver. Your nipples harden under his forearm and palm and your cunt spasms. He groans behind your ear and you whimper and arch your back. 

"Gonna come on this cock?" 

You can only whimper again in response. 

"Go 'head, baby," he breathes and reaches for your clit again, groping a breast with his other hand.

You bite down on the swimsuit and your body jerks into his as you come undone. "Oh yeah," he sighs. "Fuck yeah, ohhh baby." He thrusts into you harder and you moan as your cunt chokes his cock, and with another powerful thrust he bottoms out and begins to erupt with a long sigh, pulsing warmly inside you. Then he reaches for your face and pulls down the swimsuit gag. As you gasp for air, he turns your head toward him. He kisses you deeply with his cock still rutting deep and slow inside you, pulsing the last of his seed into your depths. He moans into your mouth. And when your lips disconnect, he looks at you softly. Your eyes lock for a few seconds, more intimately than you’d expect. Then you feel awkward, and look at the back of his truck–Miller Brothers.  You say the first thing that comes to mind. "Joel Miller, huh?" You cringe at yourself. 

He raises his eyebrows. "What, like the sound'a Miller?" 

Your face goes hot and you make a joke to change the subject. "Your brother’a penthouse boy too?" 

Joel's cock slides out of you and you feel empty. He starts to fix your swimsuit top and says, "Somethin' like that. . .I'll introduce ya," as he finishes straightening it. What are you, dating now?

You start to protest, "Oh, I dunno," then pivot to something more agreeable but noncommittal. “Sure, maybe sometime.” 

—---

Joel walks you to the passenger side. What a gentleman.  He opens the door for you.  The seat isn't empty. There's a handsome man with longer, curly hair, a sexy smile, and his hands in his lap.  

"Name’s Tommy," Joel says behind you. "My lil bro." 

When Tommy lifts a hand to give you a little salute, you see his cock is out of his pj pants.   "Howdy, sweetheart." He's not even shy about it. He raises his eyebrows and holds it at attention for you,  thick and hard.  Butterflies swarm in your stomach and you can't take your eyes off it. "Kept the seat warm for ya," Tommy beams.

"Go on, sugar," Joel nods to Tommy's lap. "’fore my cum leaks out everywhere."

Your heart races and your clit throbs. It feels like you're in a dream. This is so lewd and vile. But you just got pounded in a parking lot, and who's gonna know, and who cares. You wanna sit on that cock. 

You look at Joel and he shrugs. "Don't gotta, but it's there." He leans in and gives you a kis, then murmurs "An’ she won't be leakin’ all over." He chuckles, then kisses you again. Damn, he’s a good kisser. When his head pulls back, you give him a devious, inquisitive look. and he says, "that's my girl." He helps you up and you scrunch up your skirt more. "She's hot as fuck, man," he tells his brother. 

You're facing the windshield, and it's like Tommy’s just part of the seat. It's a large truck so there's enough clearance over your head.  Tommy's large hands come to your thighs. 

"I got her," Joel says and Tommy moves his right hand to hold his cock for you. You tilt your hips and Tommy notches himself at your hole, which is still pulsing with an occasional aftershock. Before too much of Joel's cum can trickle down Tommy's cock, they both pull you down on him and you're stuffed full once again. 

"Good girl," Tommy whispers. Joel looks at you lustily and reaches his hand between your legs. He gives your clit a little rub, and you spasm on Tommy’s cock with an aftershock from Joel. 

"Goddamn," Tommy mutters. 

"Yeah," Joel whispers, then gives you another kiss.  He shoots Tommy a serious look.  "Don't fuckin' come inside her."

"I know, I know." Tommy hugs you back into his broad chest. "I’ain’t nothin' but a seat, honey. A seat and a plug." The crudeness makes you twitch.

Joel shuts the passenger door and goes back around to the driver's side. Tommy murmurs softly behind your ear. "Ya feel nice, though."

Joel buckles his seatbelt and starts the engine.  Tommy rests his hands casually on your hips and his thick cock twitches inside you. He clears his throat.

"Tellin' ya, man," Joel warns. 

"Nothin' to worry 'bout, brother,"  Tommy reassures him, playing it cool. "You used her up good." 

Joel backs up the truck and asks, "Where to?" 

You tell him the building. It's already in view in the distance as you approach the street to pull out from the parking lot. "There," you point to it. Joel opens his Takis and puts a few in his mouth. Your walls are hugging Tommy's cock as Joel eats his snack and drives. You bounce on Tommy's thick cock as Joel pulls onto the main street, immediately getting stuck at a red light.  You moan, and Tommy stifles a grunt then whispers "shhhh,"  into your hair.  It's not a long way. But you're stuck in traffic.  

"What do you listen to?" Joel asks and turns on the radio. It's on the local classic rock station.

"That works," you mumble, laid back against Tommy's barrel chest with your eyes half closed. While Joel is focused on the road, Tommy wedges his hand under one of the push-up cups of your bikini. 

Tommy sighs, then whispers into your right ear where Joel can’t see. "Sexy little thing ain't ya." His cock twitches. You close your eyes and take a deep breath, trying not to moan. He lightly pinches your nipple then fixes your suit again. God his cock feels good. You're almost to your friends condo, but you don't want it to be over. 

"Can you, uh–can you take me to my place instead?" You ask

Joel looks at you and cocks an eyebrow. "Not back to the pool?" You shake your head sleepily. "Tuckered out, huh?” he chuckles.  “That's okay baby. Where ya live?" 

You tell him the apartment complex. It's a couple miles further. "Good girl," Tommy whispers, pleased to have you on his cock a little longer. As Joel drives, you feel Tommy subtly lifting his hips. The bumps in the road have you bouncing on him too. And with the slow traffic, wearing nothing but a bikini top and a miniskirt,  you catch a few stares, even through the dark tinted windows. It turns you on more. It turns Joel on, too. He's hard again and rubbing himself over his pj's which are wrecked with drying drops of his cum, your juices, and a darker new spot of precum.  Tommy’s cock is so thick, and it throbs, and occasionally twitches, and you can so freshly conjure the feeling of Joel pounding you too, whispering filth into your ear.  

Your body’s building toward another climax, but you’re trying not to let it. Your cunt spasms, and Tommy's chest expands under your back with a deep inhale. "Shhh, it's okay," he murmurs. You’re almost there. 

"Joel, i–" you reach over for him. He looks at your face and does a double take. "Shit," he peels into the closest corner. "It's okay, hold on for me sugar."

Tommy moans, trying so hard not to cum.  "You better fuckin not,” Joel growls at Tommy.  Joel takes off his seat belt as he parks and urgently takes his cock out. "C'mere baby," Joel reaches for you. Tommy groans and you feel a little pulse as he hoists you off his cock. Your cunt twitches, trying to hang onto Tommy, not wanting to let him go.  Tommy erupts as his cock slides out of you and his cum paints your folds.  He moans through it, cock in his hand, cum gurgling onto his fist, head tilted back, eyes closed. 

Meanwhile Joel pulls you toward him and your cunt is beginning to flutter ever so slightly around nothing, but you’re staving off a full climax.  You kneel on the empty seat between them and Joel urgently pulls you into straddling him. His cheeks are flushed and his face is serious. "yeah, I got ya baby." He wets his lips, then his mouth hangs open as his tip finds your hole and he pulls you down on his dick, even thicker than you remember. "Hell yeah," he whispers and you're packed full of cock again. "Uungghh yeah," Joel lifts his hips into you and you cum on his cock right away. 

"Oh fuck," you gasp, "Joel–ugghgh," you moan unrestrained and tilt your head back. He catches it in his hand and brings your face to his. You clench around his cock and he fucks up into you slowly. Your lips break with moans from each of you as you cum on his cock and he moves you. He hugs you into him and latches onto the unmarked side of your neck. Then your clit is grinding into him as he keeps moving you on him while your climax wanes. 

"So damn hot, baby. Really take it like a pro." His words make you spasm again, and Joel groans. He rocks you on his cock, biting his lip. You can tell from how quiet he is, he’s trying not to cum so fast. But he can’t help it and after a minute, he asks,  "Ready for another load?" You nod, desperate to feel him pulse inside you.  "Think ya can handle it?"

You nod and roll your hips into him. You could come again, too. 

"Hell yeah, that's my bad girl–oh, fuck, fuck–ohhh.” He grunts from the back of his throat as his cock pulses enormously inside you, adding to his first load. As his moan wanes, his lips latch onto yours again. Your lips move together, and you begin to clench around his cock again, whimpering into his mouth with the pleasure. It seems to last forever. When your lips break, he reads your eye and mutters, "fuck, you're hot.”

He breathes heavily while his pulses continue but echo smaller and smaller, as with your aftershocks on him. He sits back against the seat for a moment catching his breath. "You're somethin' else," he whispers, then looks around outside. "What unit are you?" 

You tell him your apartment number and point out the building. You stay impaled on his cock as he drives to that building. He nuzzles his nose and mouth into your neck. He parks the car, then spends another moment with you.  He nibbles your neck, presses sweet kisses into your jaw, fixes your hair, then whispers, "Nice to meet ya, sugar." 

Tommy gets out of the truck and walks around to the driver’s side, and opens Joel’s door. Joel kisses you goodbye, deeply, with tongue, and helps hoist you off his cock. Tommy helps you down out of the truck while Joel tucks his cock away.  Tommy gives you a hug and kisses you on the cheek.  Then they drive away and leave you wrecked and wanting more. 

---------

thank you so much for reading and engaging! I really love and appreciate y'all.

For more Joel and Tommy, check out stuffing.

if you liked this joel... you'd like the night walks AU, If you like the sharing with a hint of dominance/possessiveness, I think walkintotheriveranddisappear has a gang bang where only Joel can cum inside. I have Tommy's hard day (established free use relationship with Joel)

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#joel miller x reader #joel miller smut #joel miller x f!reader #joel miller x female reader #joel miller fanfiction #toxicanonymity ☠️ #tommy miller x reader #tommy miller smut #cw dubcon #tw dubcon #cw dub con #tw dub con #night walks!joel

[woso-dreamzzz]

Master Builder

Lauren Hemp x Reader

Summary: You work at Legoland

You spent most of your time tucked away in your workshop, isolated from the rest of the world.

Your work was repetitive most of the time, forcing Lego bricks together and gluing them in place, but you loved it. You had done a lot to become the head Master Builder of the Legoland Windsor Resort and sitting in your little room with your earphones in and nothing but Lego bricks was soothing.

You got to do what you loved day-in, day-out and watch as your creations got displayed around the theme park.

You weren't used to having people in your workspace (all of your coworkers knew not to interrupt you while you were building) so you didn't expect the thunder of feet on the stairs as you worked on your life size model of a leopard.

You paid no mind to it though. Sometimes the park booked schools to come look at the workshops and as the head Master Builder, they always ended up in your one last.

Sure, little kids were a bit annoying and always tried to touch your models but you could tolerate them for the ten minutes they spent in your room.

So, you didn't even turn around as you dug through your drawer of black bricks.

Arms wrapped around your shoulders and a familiar wet kiss was placed on your cheek.

You wiped it off in disgust and tore off your headphones, whipping your head around to glare at the offender.

Chloe Kelly grinned back at you.

"Must you do that?"

"Course I do!" She said," Only the best for Mrs Hemp!"

"The fact that you think you're the best is very arrogant," You replied, hunching back over your model with the black brick you had fished out.

"y/n's our head master builder," The tour guide said," It seems that she knows a few of you already..."

"You can leave them here," You said," I can take them from here."

"Are you sure? You're-"

"I'm nearly done. Can you call the site team and get them to move this outside the gift shop?"

"Of course."

You glued on your last piece and took your usual photo of the model before turning around to face the rest of the Lionesses. You hadn't met many of them in person apart from the City girls, whom you each greeted, but your eyes were immediately drawn to your wife.

Like whenever she ended up at your work, she was digging through the drawers of your mini models.

"If you're going to take some of them," You said," Then I'm going to need some of my other ones back. You're robbing me blind, Lauren."

She smiled at you. "You can make more. What's yours is mine, right?"

You rolled your eyes. "You're so lucky we're married."

She pressed a little kiss to your lips. "I know."

You picked out a few little parrots and a wolf for Lauren to put in her bag. "I didn't know you were coming today."

"It was meant to be a surprise. We've got the next few days off before we fly out."

You kissed her cheek. "It's nice that you came to see me." You slipped your hand into hers, swinging it for a moment before sending her an ear-splitting smile.

She shrugged. "I just came for the Lego."

You pulled your hand away. "In that case, I'm sure that Chloe can take your place."

"You're a catch!" Chloe crowed from the other side of your workshop," I'll fill Lauren's space if you're asking!"

"Hey!" Lauren grabbed your hand again. "Get your own wife!" She squeezed your hand and pouted in a way that had you kissing it off her face.

"Come on, pouty," You said," You've only got a few more hours before you have to go to your hotel. Don't waste them being grumpy."

Lauren sighed. "Only if you take me to see Miniland. It's very mean that you guys keep updating it while I'm in Manchester."

You laughed, already pulling her out of your workshop by the big double doors that led into the park. "The work doesn't stop just because Lauren Hemp isn't here."

"It should," Lauren said as you led her and the group over to Miniland," You know how much I love coming here."

"You love coming here because you get in for free," You reminded her with a soft smile," Always take advantage of me, you are."

"Only when it's about Lego."

From behind you, you could hear one of the girls say in amusement," Of course, Hempo's wife works at Legoland. I don't know what I expected."

"There's a bit of a surprise for you now," You said as you wandered through Miniland (with the same amount of pride you always got from looking at your work)," And I want you to be very happy because I had to fight tooth and nail for this."

Lauren's brow furrowed as she frowned. "Huh? But you didn't know we were coming."

"I didn't," You confirmed," But you haven't been here for a while now. I did want to show you on our anniversary but," You shrugged," You're here now and you would have found out anyway."

You covered her eyes with your hands and guided her over to the model of Wembley.

"Okay," You said, feeling an anxious kind of excitement filling your body," Are you ready?"

"Ready."

You took your hands away from her to reveal the final of the Euros made out of Lego figures.

It had taken you a while to get permission to change what was going on in the model and even longer to get speciality minifigures made to represent everybody.

Lauren looked wildly between you and the model even as all of her teammates crowed out and exclaimed their excitement.

"Do you like it?" You asked.

"Baby," She said," I love it!" Her hands wrapped around your waist and she spun you around. "You're so brilliant! Look! That's me!"

"Good god," Chloe muttered behind you," She's more excited about a bloody Lego figure than having her shirts sold."

#woso x reader #lauren hemp x reader #lauren hemp #woso community #woso fanfics #woso imagine #woso

[weebsinstash]

Ok! OK! Back to normal posts! Or at least normal for over here!

So I've been getting a lot of Hazbin and Helluva content in my YouTube feed recently and, as an interesting but also kind of disappointing fact, the way a Sinner dies directly influences how they appear in Hell. If you drown on a sinking ship like Baxter (scrapped side character who still has an enamel pin for some reason?), you might have an aquatic fishy look. Angel Dust died of a drug overdose, and he now has a prominent heart on his chest symbolizing the heart attack he died from

So, like. Obviously there are cool ideas on how maybe you could catch attention or appear down there, but, could you imagine how fucked you would be with like literally any yandere HH/HB character if you go down there very obviously dead from suicide. Platonic, romantic, sexual, it doesn't matter. You can't keep that shit secret

Charlie meets you and you're like a zebra with horizontal stripes and she thinks you just look so neat and interesting, and wow you're so sweet amd fun actually, what are you doing down here? And then she sees you have stripes going vertically down one or both of your forearms and she suddenly feels a little hope die inside of her because, what does it MEAN for someone like you to be in HELL for... suicide? That's not your fault! That's so sad! She would vow to be your new best friend and do her best to give you an amazing afterlife to make up for all the time you didn't get to have "up top"

Angel accidentally walks in on you changing and sees you have a heart on your chest and is in instant sibling mode because he knows the second Val sees that he'll go crazy for it since he loves that aesthetic (Also extra bad luck if you're chesty and the heart is like in between your boobs or like you know nestled in your cleavage or whatever because then you're getting forced into constant push-up bras) but, also, if you were an addict, that means you're vulnerable. For Val, that makes you a target, and for Angel that means you're probably miserable and spiraling like him and he doesn't want to see you go down the same roads he has

Alastor who meets a version of you that has a certain old timey kinda twang or is kinda theatrical and showtuney in your voice/mannerisms and maybe you glow a little and it's because you put your radio in the bathtub 💀 definitely don't let your extra special "platonic friend" find out you killed yourself from crippling loneliness, partially caused by not having a partner!

Valentino who sees you're literally blue-faced with a certain pattern around your neck and instantly knowing that this interesting little cutie he's curious about is an emotionally vulnerable mark. It won't be TOO hard to pour drinks down your throat and maybe lend you some of this joint until you're spilling all your intimate secrets, he figures

Blitz already has multiple instances of family trauma and feeling rejected and isolated, so how do you think he's gonna empathize if you're some.... yellow skinned aquatic demon who literally drank like a fish and died of liver failure/alcohol poisoning. The imp watching you get piss drunk all over again and bawling how you're a failure and no one will love you? You're crashing on his couch tonight cuz he doesn't wanna leave you alone. And also the next night. And the next. And the next.

Stolas certainly would be awfully sympathetic to a teen or adult child abused by their family and ending their life because of it, coming down to Hell with spots like a dalmatian or leopard from where you were beaten, and bright red on one specific patch of your hair from where you hit the ground after jumping from a great height

Annnnnnnd as a bonus, Asmodeus and a Darling with visible handprints on their neck who was choked to death during sex, so not only is he horribly protective of you as someone killed by a lover, the act of even being lovers something he considers pretty intimate and important, but also because you've now got these horrible sex related traumas and.... honey baby cutiepie, he's gotta fix all that if the two of you are gonna bone down something nasty. You're at least gonna let him cuddle, right 🥺

#yandere x reader #yandere hazbin hotel #yandere helluva boss #sinprompts

[springborzoi]

What species are the airys (im a professional)

ok it's important to note that no matter what species an object is it doesn't mean they follow the exact behavior of said animal. Objects in one still live in a society like humans and can function as one

Ex : Objects can have a different diet then their species and live in another habit

Airy

The original Airy is commonly believed to be a seal although there's no exact type of seal for him it's still a common theory

First off there's many physical similarities

as well as characteristics

seal have been seen getting knocked over by crashing waves and are shown to be clumsy which is pretty fitting

both sunbathe confirmed by Q (airy- mod)

similar walk / run

same stupid FUCKING expression

similar build

Speculated for Airy to have a diet of fish

both squishy (confirmed by me)

Sounds similar

Ok now to address the cat comparisons

A second theory on what species airy could be Is a cat more specifically a Manul / pallas

Physical appearances is obvious as well as traits

spends time in caves, rock crevices, marmot Burrows

sunbathe

Can survive in cold & dry winters, moderate/low rainfall, warm summers

Overall the Pallas cat is a responsible species for airy considering they both live in similar habits

However it's argued that the using the universe airy was at is unfair for this theory considering it wasn't exactly by choice

A counter-argument is that the Pallas cat would obviously survive better than a seal would in that world and since airy was able to live there for about a decade a Pallas would be a better fit

But it was address earlier that objects live differently than their animal and can survive in their own ways as well as airy being a lantern commonly used for camping/outdoors so it possible regardless of what species he is he can survive on his own

Something about seals and cats

Something interesting about the two is how often their seen together, compared, or just associated with one another

it pretty common for objects to be compared to cats since most animals share similar traits but cats are most known so it often thought of cat traits

However seals and cats have shown to have more in common than any other animal

similar body types

Speech

Teeth

Claws

Similar pupils

These are only a bit of the similarities because of this it commonly theorized that seals and cats could be possibly related or somewhat part of the same family but it's yet to be confirmed or denied

Airy has had things in common with cats such as getting scruffed

Nothing is right or wrong it basically what theory you personally believe in

Evil airy

its possible for him and original airy to be the same species since they have the same appearance with a tail being the only serious difference (the bow and leaves are not apart of him)

This time I do have a specific type of seal he could be

Leopards seal

Similarities on appearance

Both also have similar behavior

Aggressive (a BITCH)

Similar teeth

eyes dilate

leopard seals are the only ones who hunt warm blooded animals and it's known for evil airy to be a serial killer

Evil airy has also mentioned possibly of liking drinking blood

Fanon Airy

Fanon airy is more complicated since it was said how he currently looks isn't what he used to look like so using his appearance may not be as accurate

And he already seems to have animal features like claws and hooves

But IDGAF!!!!

I imagine fanon airy to be a sea lion

Sea lion's are bigger than seals

Ear flaps can translate to horns

Teeth!!

Friendly (compared to the others)

Social (compared to others)

Another species that fanon airy can be (for the airy cat believers)

A lynx

ears translate to horns

Sharper shapes

teeth again

More golden color

Claws

Lynx are associated with eyesight and we've seen fanon airy eyes

There's a lynx god

ok that all I was able to put together if anymore information that comes out that can change or debunk anything I'll do my best to update this :b

@airy-mod @thefanonairy @evil-airy @ask-hfjone-airy @moldydominos109

It is important you now join this discussion @askalampanything

#hfjone #hfjone airy #onehfj #ask airy #evil airy au #fanon airy

[little-pup-pip]

Just curious, what requests do you have in your queue/to do currently? If you're ok with saying it that is :]

Oh boy, that's a bigger question than last time someone asked! I have over 200 waiting requests at this point!! Because of that this got very very long, so I put the rest under the cut! Like last time, this is in order of how recently I received the request, and doesn't mean I'm too busy to take new requests!!

Ibara saegusa (enstars)

Monochrome oranges cats and angels

Gloomy bear

Another rockruff (maybe)

Cult of the lamb (specifically the lamb)

Llewellyn Watts (Murdoch Mysteries)

Jake (trailer park warlock)

Cult of the lamb (pet dreaming themed)

Bear therian

Selkie

Ice bear (we bare bears)

Tubbo (maybe)

Snow leopard

Pink

Australian shepherd (pupre)

Cassie (fnaf: ruin)

Draik (neopets)

The rainbow fish

Black kitten + space

Pumpkin head (maybe, needs more research)

Alice in wonderland

Sheep

Someone's OC Avery & siblings

Gothic

Star catcher (MLP)

Masc version of my druid board

Scrooge CG (2009 film)

Beetlejuice

Superstar daycare (fnaf)

1950s + ocean

Pandas + light purple and black

Dandelions

Willy wonka CG (recent movie)

Maki Harukawa (Danganronpa)

Kidcore Halloween + pumpkin puppy Webkinz

Fruit bat

Mermaid

Pastel purple + pandas

Robocar Poli

Brown, lime green and forest green puppy

Weird Barbie CG

Shiny Vaporeon

Where the wild things are

Squid

Dylan (the magic roundabout)

Conner CG (Detroit become human)

Mitsuri kanroji (demon slayer)

Minecraft mooshrooms

Sharks or wolves (haven't decided)

Hot Wheels

Miffy

Fox

Sharks

Zombies

Vincent (dead plate)

Vintage kitty dreaming

Deadpool

Shane CG (stardew valley)

Wolf pup

Celestia and Luna (MLP)

Soft blue and yellow

Pascal (animal crossing)

Pastel blue and pink

Batman CG

Ram

Osamu dazai (bungo stray dogs)

Dylan (the quarry)

Rain/nature + white rabbits

Ox

Penguin + dinosaur

Noah (total drama island)

Vision CG (marvel)

Light blue

Bumble bees + lavender

Yellow + ducks

Bearded vulture

Barn owl

Queen barb (trolls world tour)

Oliver (vocaloid)

Light green light brown and beige

Mind (Chonny Jash/CCCC)

Cinnamoroll + emu otori (project sekai)

Yellow+ chicks and puppy stuffies

Seam CG (deltarune)

Plants vs zombies

Viktor (arcane)

Queen of trash CG (Elmo goes to grouch land)

John Constantine (Justice League Dark)

Aziraphale (good omens)

Scenecore

Musa (winx club)

Leap frog

Hyper feminine puppy

Crow + black cat

Totodile + bodies of water

Bees

Sackboy (Little Big Planet) and or My Melody

Baby crocodile

Animal crossing

Pastel kitten

Doki doki literature club

Keralis (Hermitcraft, maybe)

90s grunge

Tula tones (novi stars)

Eevee + dragons

Kitten + stars

Ratchet (rescue bot academy)

Pastel shark

Mikan Tsumiki (Danganronpa)

Mushrooms

Grey + Ross federman youtooz

Sparkly dragon

Blue and purple + puppies

Ducks + alt/Gothic lean

Cinnamoroll

Shadow (sonic)

Jellyfish

Boyfriend.xml (Friday night funkin')

Puppet (fnaf)

Golden retriever + yellow and blue

Bernese mountain dog

Strawberries

Genshin impact

Len or Miku

Toothless (httyd)

Eddworld

Donnie (rise of the tmnt)

The princess and the grilled cheese sandwich

Pastel goth princess

SpongeBob

Karako Pierot (hiveswap)

Young Michael Afton

Soft fox

Great pyrenees + farm

Ike eveland

Invader Zim + neon green

Julius Caesar (Octavian, night at the museum, waiting until March for this one)

Scorpion

Vampire squid

Golden retriever (again, lol)

Cats + playing outside

Border Collie

Tiger

Argos CG (World of Mr. Plant) 

Pochacco

Mortal Kombat

marble cross fox/forest/fantasy (I'm figuring this one out still)

Puppy + SpongeBob

characters from Project Sekai, Hoshino Ichika, Mochizuki Honami, Akiyama Mizuki and Kusanagi Nene.

Baby vulture

Frog with more fem themes

Rain world/slugcat

Dark academia/cottagecore

Border Collie

Modded smash hit rooms

Crying child (fnaf)

Agent Smith CG (the matrix)

Katamari

Enjolras (les miserable)

Rolfe DeWolfe CG (Rockafire Explosion)

Bugbo

Slime rancher

Puppet (fnaf)

CosMc's

Parado (Kamen Rider)

Tally hall

Gordon (all engines go)

Spinel (Steven universe)

Cater diamond (twisted wonderland)

Rockabilly (probably)

Felix Lee

Jing yuan CG (Hsr)

Charles Xavier CG (X-Men)

Toki wartooth (metalocalypse)

Naoto Shirogane (persona 4)

Kitoto (I don't know what he's from)

17th century dutch

Sirena von boo (monster high)

Jake (miss peregrines home for peculiar children)

Minecraft

Sees behind trees

Allay (Minecraft, I think)

Spinosaurus screenshots or products

Tecchou (Bungo Stray Dogs)

Barbara (genshin impact)

Tasmanian devil

Spamton CG (deltarune)

Spinosaurus

Grunge + lop eared bunnies

Yume-Nikki

Daxter (jak and daxter)

Madness combat for puppies

James Sunderland (silent Hill)

Shirokuma (Danganronpa)

Leo (IDW comic)

#this took a while #a couple hours i think #but i don't mind because it's a fair question! #i also discovered a bunch of non request things that i didn't see!! #for people who sent those I'm sorry! #I'll respond shortly! #anyway no colored text for this because too much text #I'm curious which ones people are most excited about #and if you're wondering why most requests with people say maybe #it's because i need to research the people first #to make sure I'm comfortable with them #and that their face is okay to put on my account #anyway thats all #i hope you like reading anon! #Pip's barks

[kvalenagle]

Okay, I've been summoned to Tumblr by cute Satra and Lei fan art, so I should probably introduce myself and my books. Hello! I'm Vale, and I write creature fantasy as K. Vale Nagle. If you like interesting gryphons, you're in the right place: aquatic diving petrel/fishing cat gryphons, poisonous hooded pitohui/tiger gryphons, pretty gyrfalcon/snow leopard gryphons, intimidating Haast's eagle/saber-toothed tiger gryphons, soggy sandgrouse/sand cat gryphons, and a lot more. My series are epic fantasy using mostly real (though sometimes extinct) animals, free of humans but full of queer characters, intrigue, large battles, and ecological apocalypses. My cover art is by Jeff Brown, with interior graphite pieces by Brenda Lyons and gryphon chapter headers by Kittrel (whose chibi hearts you may have seen). I also have a short story collection (best read anytime after Starling, book three) with a beak-cute lesbian gryphon love story with terror birds, a Gryphon vs. Nature blizzard apocalypse tale, a Christmas-y story, and something pretty close to zombies. I've also written a full novel set in the world of Dire by John Bailey called Coldbright which can be found in the Tales of Feathers & Flames anthology. If you like GryphIns but you want something with more mystery, almost horror, as told through the eyes of a snarky little opinicus and his dire gryphon ex-boyfriend, it's a great read this time of year. I love and appreciate all the fan mail, fan fiction, fan letters, and people reaching out about this series. I'm a little slow replying, as I started writing the series right after getting diagnosed with a catastrophic autoimmune system. The treatments are pretty intense, and it's easiest for me to spend my time and energy writing. I used to have a few pen names across several genres, but for the most part, all of my energy goes into finishing up GryphIns. I'm married to dragon author Glenn Birmingham, so if you've seen us posting pictures of our cats and thought it's strange they share a name, they're the same cats. And that's about it. Just a queer author writing gryphony books when I'm not walking my cat. A few common answers to questions: Q: There are sometimes typos in social media, why is that? A: Catastrophic APS means I've had a stroke (and associated memory loss), so when a copy editor isn't coming up behind me, there'll be doubled words and typos from time-to-time. I used to worry about them, since they don't look good if you're an author! But I'd rather reply to fan letters and kind posts. I think if you've read my author notes at the back of my books, you know to expect a few doubled words here and there. Q: When you say a queer author, what do you mean? A: Since people ask about own voices and I have a lot of lgbtqia+ characters in my books, I'm pan, demi, trans, and genderfluid. I'm lucky enough to have a lot of queer friends and first readers who make sure I don't mess up any characters. Q: When's the next GryphIns novel coming out? A: Some years, I spend a lot of my time fighting health insurance battles, and it slows me down. Pridelord (#8) is currently in line edits. It's twice as long as Eyrie and three times as long as Coldbright, so it's a pretty big book! It shouldn't be too much longer. You'll know it's just about time because you'll hear James Scott Spaid talk about narrating the audiobook. Q: How many books will there be in GryphIns? A: I'm famous for underestimating how many books it takes to finish a series. My other pen names all wrote short stories and standalone novels, so my proposal for GryphIns originally had five books. Jeff Brown is wrapping up the cover for Saberbeak (#9) and Nighthaunt (#10). If I end up needing one more book to finish, though, don't be too surprised.

#Gryphon Insurrection #GryphIns #queer books #creature fantasy #genderfluid

[pollswithnogoals]

What's your favorite animal(s)?

Ohohooooo I have many, many, many animals I love with all my heart, so I'll divide them into categories : birds,fishes, reptiles, and mammals.

Birb: The Potoo 👁 🔻 👁

I mean, just look at it. It also has some folklore around it that I find really interesting, and some native tribes used its feathers in ceremonies. It's a shame that because of its call, some people kill it because they think it's an omen of death.

Fish: Leopard shark 🦈

Nature really said "peak character design" on this one. It's so pretty and friendly and small, aaaaahh I love it your honor, I want to treasure it and watch it grow up and have a family .

Reptiles: Gold dust day gecko

Look at this color scheme, so pleasant so colorful. I like creatures that look like they come straight out of Pandora from that avatar movie. Blue toes, hehehe

Mammals: Maned wolf

Not a wolf, not a fox. It's just doing its thing and showing those supermodel legs. Babe's ready for vogue!

But yeah, those are some of my favorites. Thank you for the question, anon. You are really sweet!

What are your favorite animal(s)?

#anon ask #asks #ask me anything #thank you sm #i literally love interacting with you guys #sometimes tumblr feels very lonely so in my opinion we should start interacting more with others even if its a bit awkward

[werewolf-transgenderism]

was the art in medieval manuscripts purposefully stylized or were monks and such just really bad at drawing? :D

well I think there are a couple of answers to this:

firstly, naturalism was not necessarily the goal of various pieces of art. if you look at carolingian art, for instance, it’s waaaay more naturalistic than insular art from around the same time, because carolingian art has classical influences where insular art is more about the interlacing, knotwork, and zoomorphic imagery. there are a lot of regional styles that do/do not prioritize naturalism! or! many books of hours from the 14th-15th century onwards will have very naturalistic people and animals and structures but also still have weird little stylized beasts in the margins and illustrations. it’s not that some of these artists were good/bad at drawing, necessarily, but they may not have been aiming for naturalism

the second thing is that in bestiaries in particular there are beasts that people in medieval europe almost certainly would never have seen and would just be working from descriptions or others’ illustrations of that animal. imagine you have to draw a leopard or a hyena or a scorpion or an octopus when you have lived your whole life in, like, york or aberdeen or oxfordshire or wherever. you would probably not do a great job of it if you are just working from a description and cannot see the animal itself (hence why so many medieval octopuses look like fish with extra legs). also in bestiaries there are often allegorical meanings that impact how animals are drawn, like pelicans pricking their breasts because of the jesus allegories or elephants killing dragons or leopards having rainbow spots, etc.

I’m sure there were truly just some guys who sucked at drawing as there are in life today, but we simply have to consider that our standards for what makes art “good” or “bad” might not have been something that those medieval guys took into consideration or considered “good” or “bad”

#even in like the same bestiaries you can find animals that look really normal and ones that look very weird #my favorite bestiary has really normal dogs and cats and stuff like that but the scorpions in there are so silly

[asmoteeth]

I have to be honest here... I have never been that invested in merformers/mer-mech AUs, but this wedgeshot mer made me change my mind. Do you have any new hc/scenarios about them? Also, just passing by to say hi ;)

I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO THINK ABOUT THEM ENOUGH, BUT I'LL TRY JUST FOR YOU BECAUSE I LOVE WHEN YOU SEND ME ASKS <3

Hotshot is not very welcomed in his herd because of his ego (plus he has some nerve being this shameless while being a runt), if he gets too close to the late-teens section of his herd he will -and he has- get dragged around by them (teen harbor seals tend to blow steam of lost fights on younger pups, and Heatwave's protection can only be there for so long :( )

That's one of the main reasons he strays from his herd quite often, and that's how he eventually finds Wedge on the seaweed forest in the first place.

Wedge is a little bit more orange than the normal calf because their carriers is supposed to fuel them so they gain proper blubber and insulation, a cycle Wedge's couldn't really complete so he's stuck on that peachy color until he matures

Once they meet they don't actually don't know what to make of the other, Wedge is surprised a seal pup is this far from the harbor and also kinda annoyed someone is at their special spot, Hotshot is kinda scared however both of their species are known to be curious, so they just kinda keep asking eachother questions until Hotshot gets bored and is like "you wanna play tag" and Wedge is confused as he doesn't really get along with any other calfs to play that much (he enjoys himself greatly playing for the first time)

Wedge actually pretends to practice tracking just to go near Hotshot's herd to visit without making his matriline suspicious of him

Once they meet Wedge and Hotshot can go wherever they want until a certain hour (said hour Wedge is supposed to join his matriline once again for feeding, same for Hotshot)

Wedge is gonna grow up to be PRETTY MUCH BIGGER THAN HOTSHOT, could I have chosen a bigger seal species for Hotshot? Yes, but I was really fixed on the Harbor Seals srry--

Hotshot met Heatwave while learning to swim, he almost drowned and almost got a heart attack at seeing a big Leopard Seal coming his way

When Hotshot gets dragged by teens of his herd sometimes Heatwave will be near enough to notice, he will burst out of the water and give the teens 2 or 3 warning "nibbles" and they drop Hotshot inmediatly

Hotshot wants to grow up into a Leopard Seal so bad, but he's a little harbor seal rip

Wedge can also hide Hotshot underneath his lower body if he needs to

HOWEVER THIS DOESN'T MEAN HOTSHOT IS DEFENSELESS, he will bite and scratch all he can, will it be enough? Probably not, but sometimes it's enough for him to get dropped and swim away fast.

Hotshot swims like a boss, he loves to jump out of the water and splash his way back in, sometimes he coaxes Wedge into doing jumps with him (Wedge doesn't quite get it, nor can he jump as high as Hotshot, but he does it anyways) Sometimes he will even throw Hotshot with his tail so he can jump even higher (do not understimate the power of an orca's tail)

Hotshot also has Scorch as a friend, which is a lemon shark, because if Hotshot is careless enough to encounter a full orca, sharks are just a playdate for him (he probably shouldn't even be in one piece by now, but he still is somehow)

I'm still finding a place for the other recruits in the AU, however I kinda already have their species laid out

Hoist is a Beluga Whale, Medix is a Mimic Octopus and Whirl is a Flying Fish

Thanks for the ask <3

#wedgeshot mermech au #wedgeshot asks #asmo.txt #asmo asks #rescue bots academy #transformers rescue bots academy #rescue bots academy wedge #transformers #rba wedge #rescue bots academy hotshot #tf rba #rba hotshot #maccadams #maccadam #wedgeshot #wedge x hotshot #hotshot x wedge

[oddishblossom]

Don't know if you've shared or not, but (if you don't mind me asking), can I ask your top 5 fav banana fish fanfics? Thanks a lot for your blog, love reading them....

Aaaah only 5!? I could name like 50 of them that are near and dear to my heart, but I’ll try to limit myself. Here are my absolute favorites ❤️

Hangin' Tough by TurnUps (48K)

A series of oneshots set in the 80s during that one Summer where Eiji is telling Ash he's going to go home soon and yet not leaving. (Episode 11-12) Also mostly set at 3 a.m, so late nights and early mornings. (Slow dancing in the kitchen in socks at 3 a.m)

All I Ever Learned of Love by A Dreaming Songbird (20K)

The leopard comes back down the mountain. The bluebird finds its way back to its nest. Ash Lynx goes home.

Skipping Stones by TurnUps (54K)

A collection of oneshots filling in some scenes that probably didn't happen in between episodes/scenes, but that I like to think did because these boys need to talk to each other.

Water on Water’s the Way by A Dreaming Songbird (3K)

The waves rush in and flow back out, water endlessly stirring the sand, as Ash takes Eiji's hand by the seaside and wonders if they can truly have a happily-ever-after.

(Spoilers: yes, they can.) (psst. this one’s my #1 favorite btw)

Where the Daylight Begins by A Dreaming Songbird (4K)

It's a blustery winter day when Okumura Nahoko answers the door to find a handsome American asking for her brother.

Fishbowl by luftballons99 (4K)

In which Mrs. Coleman means well, Alex sees God, Sing loses, and the age-old question “What’s with Ash and Eiji?” is answered.

"It’s like watching a goddamn soap opera."

Higher Off the Ground by kybelles (2K)

Ash discovers Eiji can lift him easily and develops a slight obsession.

This Dream, Realized by luftballons99 (4K)

“It’s just dancing,” Ash whispers, knowing that nothing he does with Eiji could ever be ‘just’ anything. “You’ll be a pro in no time.”

Ash teaches Eiji how to dance. Eiji teaches Ash how to hope.

Like a Light I’m Luring You by kybelles (33K)

One night, world famous musician Ash Lynx drunk tweets about a cute boy he saw in a magazine and all hell breaks loose.

Dull Swords, Sluggish Arrows by A Dreaming Songbird (10K)

An unexpected visitor shows up on Eiji's doorstep, seeking answers about Ash's death.

Except that Ash isn't dead, and there is very little Eiji wouldn't do to keep him safe. Even if that does mean yelling at a very tall Russian man in public.

#asheiji #banana fish #anonymous #fic recs #lucy answers #asks #thank you for the ask! #somehow my top 5 became a top 10 #i’m SO sorry for responding this late #i may have started to reply and then completely forgot about this in my drafts 🥲 #if you check any of these fics out pls be nice and leave them a lovely comment!

[embraceyourfandom]

[DISCLAIMER: this post contains strong language and cannot be recommended for anyone]

On the  journey to a new language it helps to have themes one works with. Because I’m a biologist, one theme when trying to expand my vocabulary is of course nature and especially animal names. Oh my, what fun things I learned on the side.

Interestingly, the word animal (สัตว์, saht /sat̚˨˩/) itself is an insult. As such, when directed at a person, it translates to something like asshole, shithead or bastard, but especially when combined with a super rude pronoun อี / ไอ้  (ee / âi  = you for woman and for man respectively, please never use these), it really conveys contempt.   

Porsche calls Kinn สัตว์ already in the first episode, (not with badterrible pronouns at least, but the pronouns he uses are lacking common decency, even if they are not in-your-face offensive)

(I have to say that the more I learn Thai, the more I am rolling my eyes at these two being total jerks to each other in the beginning. I mean… I was told about this, but still… Seriously guys, where are your manners? Your mums would be so ashamed of you!)

Anyhow, back to animals.

Animal names are fun to learn because living things are a good conversational topic (that also happens to interest me a great deal), but also because many Thai people are named after animals.

Thai nicknames (ชื่อเล่น chuu len, literally name play) are unofficial, but they are the names people use the most and it is normal that for example at school or workplace this is the only name people know of a person. Usually the nickname is given by parents and it can be short for the official first name (Kinn, Khun), but way more often it is a descriptive word or food or animal or (especially for girls) a plant, flower or fruit, but it can be anything. And I mean anything. It is very popular to give a child an English nickname that just sounds nice. So we get Barcode, Bible,  Job and so on… 

Self evident amongst animal names are the fluffycute or big and strong, like: cat แมว (maew - yes it's meow-sound), deer กวาง (kwaang), bird นก (nók), baby chicken เจี๊ยบ (jíap), tiger เสือ (sĕua) etc

[sidenote: เสือ is also a common name for the whole genus Panthera - “big cats”, so name for most of them in Thai starts with เสือ - for example leopard is เสือดาว (sĕua dow - star tiger), animals in Thai in general have a lot of names like this: bird this, bird that, fish this, fish that, which is familiar to English speakers, but somewhat special to my Finnish ear.]

More interesting animals people are named after:

pig หมู (mŏo) — pigs are considered very nice and valuable animals in Thailand, so this is not at all a bad name, but a cute one given to a much loved boy. To be fair, หมู  can be used to call someone chubby, or gently scolding them for eating too much, but it isn’t offensive, really, unless combined with expletives.

Mouse/rat หนู (nŏo), frog กบ (gòp), tadpole อ๊อด (ót), shrimp กุ้ง (gûng), ant มด (mót)... all of these being obviously suitable names for a tiny, adorable child.

----

I decided to save you (for now) from my terribly rambly, long ethnozoological ponderings I've had while digging into the creepy crawly nomenclature. It is pretty fascinating, though. No wonder - Thailand is a tropical country and consequently the invertebrate diversity there is breathtaking. I’m so jealous.

----

In my opinion a very misunderstood animal is Asian water monitor Varanus salvator. Its name is เหี้ย (hîia /hia̯˥˩/), which is also one of the most vulgar, profane, insulting thing you can say to anybody in Thai. DO NOT USE. 

How did this poor animal end up being a terrible insult? Asian water monitor, like most members of Varanidae, is a generalist predator that eats whatever it can catch or find, including carcasses. But instead of being praised as a valuable, free cleaning aid, it is seen as a dirty animal because of this (fine, they also can predate on farm animals – a monitor in a chicken coop equals bloodbath). Them living in the murky, muddy places isn’t helping their public image. Historically, they are considered bad luck and that killing them definitely causes bad things to happen. Even saying the name is considered unlucky, so many people call them ตัวเงินตัวทอง - “silver and gold” instead.

Sure, water monitors are big, surprisingly fast and they can give nasty, easily infected bites, and claw and hit hard with their tails, but they are also important, interesting and kinda derpy animals. Asian water monitors are kept as pets even, although they require a lot of room as they can grow up to 3 metres long (in average 1,5 m). They can be tamed and they learn all kinds of things. I think they are cute and I would love to meet a pet monitor someday and give it belly scratches (wild animals I prefer to observe from a respectful distance away, but it would be supercool to see one).

Regardless, เหี้ย is a Profanity. Linguistically, it can be used pretty flexibly much like ‘fuсk’ as a noun, adjective, adverb, comma, full stop, exclamation mark… But do not use it - it really is much worse word than even 'сunt', especially combined with  อี / ไอ้ ( ee/âi). 

And that is exactly how Kinn uses it here, calling Vegas a water monitor.

He continues here. Now adverbial use, so not directed at person. Less offensive, still pretty mean tone.

(I cannot believe this man had the audacity to tell Porsche off for his language...)

There are my uncivilised musing for now.

#Lea learns stuff #thai language #kinnporsche #because I know some of you are definitely interested #TW: terrible terrible language #language #I can't believe I have to censor words for Tmblr to show this post - thanks big bro for treating us like we are five #Well with several keyboards ready at hand this is not a problem - lets just substitute some letters with cyrillics

[uminohotaru]

Journey to the Land of the Gods

Banana Fish spoilers warning!

I'm late to the party but yeah, I just finished Banana Fish if you know what I mean. And maybe my heart would rather switch to smth else now and heal but my brain won't stop thinking about that story. So I feel the need to rant into the void, at least. I have no idea whether there are Banana Fish fans among my subscribers but if you haven’t seen it, I really REALLY recommend you watch this masterpiece, and that you better scroll this post without glancing under the cut since I'm going to analyze the end. Or rather, why could that story have had no other ending. 

And it all has probably been said and discussed a thousand times but hey, I’ve told ya I’m late to the party, and I haven’t read any thorough analyses except those in the youtube comments below random videos, so now I need my own chance to rant. 

During my short journey through the BF content (finally I can google it all I want without being afraid of the spoilers yay!) I came across different opinions on the ending. Mostly pain, of course, but then it’s either acceptance or denial. My first reaction was violent denial. But funny thing, as much as I wanted to immediately forget the Garden of Light and drown myself in fix-it AUs (the latter, I still do read), I realized quite soon that I can’t. That no matter how painful it is, the original ending is the thing that MAKES SENSE. No, Ash dying like that wasn’t something that had been decided on for the sake of shock, as some of the most bitter opinions I came across accused. Neither it devaluates the whole struggle and his final decision to leave to Japan with Eiji and have a normal life. No, there was something a lot deeper there, I realized once I’d cried my eyes out. As heartbroken as I was, I just couldn’t bring myself to hate it and reject it, and I tend to do that with the endings I do not like, as it happened with some other stories that I rejected with my whole heart and even devoted a good amount of my time to write the fix-its for. But strangely enough, it was not the case with Banana Fish. Its finale just makes sense. In fact, it makes so much sense that I’d go as far as to say that this whole story is the story of a journey to death which stemmed from the image of the leopard’s inscrutable journey to the summit of Kilimanjaro, the House of Gods. I can almost see the author being captivated with that image, and as someone who’s been writing from the young age I know that often (not always but still) you start the story from its finale. You take some resulting picture that for some reason appeared in your head and mesmerised you, and begin to unravel it, like an investigator: what could have happened? who are those people? why did they end up like this? Of course, it is only my assumptions but if I allow myself to guess, I’ll say the entire character of Ash, him being the wild cat, has originated exactly from that short excerpt of Hemingway. 

Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai "Ngaje Ngai," the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.

The concept is here. It was never a question whether Ash dies, it was the question of how and why he dies. Just like the riddle he’s been pondering on—what was the leopard doing near the summit? What did it seek there? Was it climbing or trying to descend? And that in either case, it must have realized it won’t return. The direct parallel to that leopard, in the end Ash finds the answers to all those questions for himself, on his own journey to the Land of the Gods.

The Japanese characters for the name Izumo literally mean “out of the clouds,” evoking images of a place where the seen and the unseen worlds blur together.

Long before there was a Kyoto or Nara, this region was the center of what was known as Shinkoku, the Country of the Gods.

This is no coincidence. Japan in Banana Fish, and for Ash especially, is the image of the world untouched by the evil where you don’t need a gun, rather than a real country with the same amount of evil and dirt as any other. The fact that Eiji describes it as the country where there are 80 thousand gods, and that he is from Izumo, the Land of the Gods, of all places, makes the spiritual connotation all the more evident. The white peak of Kilimanjaro soaring over the wild jungle, an impossible image of two different worlds in one--there could not have been a better symbolism. Ash, the character who in one of the early episodes says, “I’ve never repented, not even once”, cannot even imagine himself in such a world, just like the sinner can’t seriously think about paradise, or a leopard about climbing a snow-clad peak, so of course his immediate reaction is “Are you nuts? me in Japan? what I’d be even doing there?” But the invitation is there. And deep inside, he realizes that yes, he wants that. To be with Eiji, the angel, in his Land of the Gods. Yet his hands are stained with blood. He's been ruined and tainted in most horrible ways. Is it even possible? But what Eiji sees is his beautiful, fragile, wounded soul, and he says—yes, of course you can, and I will take you there, let’s begin with learning the language. This is when it starts—Ash’s journey from the jungle and toward the summit, toward the Land of the Gods. Or well, that’s when it becomes more or less a conscious decision. And maybe that is also when he realizes it will probably cost him his life. 

He tries to stop and turn back, more than once. Tries to convince himself that he will never belong there, that his fate is to be just another scum on these streets, in the world he has learned how to survive in, his jungle. Just as, more than once, he understands that no, he would rather die on his way to that summit, having decided to take this journey—but die with love, rather than remain in the jungle, even as the king, but empty inside. He has seen the white summit of Kilimanjaro above the wild forest, and that’s it—he can’t tear his eyes off it. 

He learns to repent. He learns to pray. And he even takes the ultimate step—asking God to take him in place of Eiji. Just like Aslan from Narnia, a representation of Christ, he learns such a deep love that he willingly choses to sacrifice himself for another; and it’s not to say he couldn’t sacrifice himself for his friends earlier—he could, risking his life constantly to save others, not exactly cherishing it too much to begin with. But his bargain, for the lack of a better word, with God in ep.23 was something different. It was a conscious offering, a prayer to the God whom he wouldn’t even consider asking for anything earlier, the scarred soul that he is—take me instead of him. Not in the mess of the fight, say, covering Eiji with his body from a bullet, but through a prayer, in the quiet hours on his knees before that window basked in the rays of light. The difference between an act and a prayer in that sense is the difference between one moment and eternity. I'm offering myself in his place, give him the divine protection, change his fate, please God--I'm willing to pay the price. It is different.

Eiji who had a 50% chance of surviving, I believe, survived exactly because of that, at least we can say that it was implied. Ash’s spiritual journey, from being the one who “never once repented”, through finding the spirit to hope and to say I want that, please take me to the Land of the Gods, and to finally offering himself in place of the one he loves—that journey is simply amazing. 

That's why his life could not be taken simply in the mess of the fight. Narratively it would have diminished that huge journey. So he defeats the strongest enemies and survives. Like Cain says, Ash will only die if he brings it on himself. The leopard dies near the summit, but you are not a leopard, you can choose—says Eiji. And we truly can say that Ash chooses to die—from a non-lethal wound (which is more clear in the manga.) Even then, God leaves him the chance to reconsider, to return to the jungle and lick his wounds. In a way, he is safe while he stays in the jungle. But once he tries to reach Eiji, to reach the Land of the Gods, after that prayer, it is no longer so as if fate says, you've exchanged your life for his, that's it. So Ash chooses to pay and to die, and he dies on his own terms to an extent—in the peace of that library, the only place in the “jungle” that has always been his refuge, a part of another world, and he dies smiling—which implies it is not the Grim Reaper who comes for him unlike back then in the hospital, bringing dead calmness devoid of any pain as well as of joy. No, what Ash sees in that moment is some beautiful and happy scenery, so we can say that yes, he sees the Land of the Gods, his paradise where their souls are together, the exact scene from the ED2. He dies, but he ends up reaching it.

So why does Ash, not the logic of the narrative, choose death? For one, this is his part of the bargain with God: and when he is attacked exactly at the moment when he finally runs to reunite with Eiji, he realizes that. Eiji has been able to live on because Ash offered himself instead. And he should have died exactly because he covered Ash with his body, exactly because there is a price for him staying in the jungle, as well as for Ash breaking from the jungle, and from the beginning, Eiji took multiple risks and he took that last bullet meant for Ash, too, because basically his very residence in Ash’s world was the act of his love and desire to save Ash. So of course, he does. But Eiji does more than just saving his life, he saves his soul—since in the end he provides the chance for Ash to say nope, I will not have that, I will ask God to save you and take me instead. Just like Aslan the lion's sacrifice that results in his rebirth. The pinnacle of his spiritual journey, his ticket to the plane going to the Land of the Gods. No, we couldn’t have had Japan as the real 3D country in this story. We simply couldn't.

...One of the distinguishing features of Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine: the shimenawa, or immense straw rope hanging from side to side in the front. The Kaguraden building shimenawa is the largest of its kind in Japan, measuring eight meters in diameter at its largest hanging parts.

It is a reflection of the main god enshrined here, Okuninushi-no-Okami, the god of human relationships. The Japanese word for this is enmusubi, which we can translate literally as “bound fate.” 

#banana fish #ash x eiji #umi rants #what have i dragged myself into #banana fish theory #banana fish analysis #aslan callenreese #ash lynx #eiji okumura

[deathfavor]

@kisumshi said: There's a six pack of Hanma's favourite booze topped with a ciggy pack waiting for the Reaper in a spot Draken knows he'll find it quickly enough, before anyone else helps themselves to it. Next to it is a wrapped package, light, rather flat, with a label saying 'for zombie boy' a real obvious indication of its gifter. Inside, Hanma would find a cooking apron ( a staple for any self respecting male wife ) with an image of a reaper riding a motorbike printed on the front. He'd even gone to the effort of making it somewhat personalised by asking Mitsuya to paint a design onto the motorbike that mimicked Hanma's gaudy leopard print trim. Anyway, happy birthday asshole.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANMA

It's one of Hanma's spots - which means he doesn't expect to find anything in his spot that he didn't leave. Although he's certainly not going to complain about booze and cigarettes. " Must be my lucky day ~ " He grins to himself only to quickly make note of the wrapped present when he strides over. So maybe not so much luck as it is something intentional. Although....He really couldn't imagine who other than the fact that so few people know of this as being one of the spots he lingers at really limited who it could be. He stares at the present before sitting down and staring at the label. on the present

Ah. Well that explains a lot. It would be Draken who would know his favorite drink and brand of cigarettes, and to leave them at this spot for the reaper to find. It's been years since Hanma has been given a present. It evokes a strange feeling that moves inside his chest at the thought. He's not sure what to call it, and he shoves it away to think about later. ( Or maybe not at all. )

His fingers reach to unwrap the present, expression puzzled for a split second when he sees fabric fall into his lap. Coarse fabric at that. But when he lifts it up and it unfolds into an apron - Hanma stares for a solid few seconds before breaking into hyena laughter. Does he want to kick Draken's ass for getting him an apron? Yeah. But does he also find the apron hilarious? Also yeah. Especially seeing the motorbike on it and the intentional purple leopard print paint job. Which he's sure as hell is not a standard design. He can't really imagine Draken doing that, which means someone else has unintentionally been roped into the gift. ( Also a hilarious thought. )

Hanma fishes around inside his pocket to grab his phone while he sits down and grabs one of the cans to crack open. For a minute he simply stares at the text conversations, debating what to say. Ultimately, it's simple.

[Text: Draken ♡ - Status: SENT - 9:00 a.m.] Thanks.

Hanma takes a drink from the can as he stares at the text message. It seems far too serious for his liking. ( It is genuine, but that doesn't mean it needs to be serious. ) So he types another message to follow it up with far more of his typical attitude.

[Text: Draken ♡ - Status: SENT - 9:02 a.m.] Maybe I'll send you a pic of me in the apron later. 😘

Better. He laughs to himself before he puts the phone back into his pocket. Well, it's certainly made for a memorable start to his birthday.

#kisumshi #hanma surprise pikachu but delight #thank you draken #᛭ — [IC] death follows in the wake of the reaper [SHUJI HANMA]

[girlfriendline]

top 5 fish

idk what i expected when i reblogged that ask game but this definitely wasn't it. do you mean like....for eating? or just. fish. in general.

but okay, sure. i'll bite. under the cut here are my top 5 fish, courtesy of googling 'pretty fish':

clown fish. it's nemo. i didn't even have to google this one.

half moon betta (all the bettas tbh. who designed these. give them an award.) this thing? gorgeous. regal. she's dressed up for a ball.

leopard shark. this one's sappy. i got to pet them (literally. them. the two in this photo) w my best friend.

mandarin fish. bro. she's neon. i'd see her at a rave.

mosaic guppy. i won't disclose the amount of time i just spent trying to decide which kind of guppy is my favourite. too much, to say the least. anyway, stunning.

#ask game #anon #uh. fish cw?

[mangoisms]

like the part of the song where it falls ━ miyuki kazuya

━ part four: mostly, i want to be kind / read part three

━ wc: 7k

━ warnings: none

━ masterpost

“How’d your appointment go?”

“Three months. Three months and I’m cleared for rollercoasters!” 

“I thought that was a joke.”

“Whaaaat? No! January twenty-fifth —” you clap a hand on Miyuki’s shoulder, grinning; he shakes his head, pulling into the parking lot of Birch Aquarium. “That’s our day.”

“Our? No way.”

“Yes way.”

He groans melodramatically and makes a perfect right swing into a parking spot. “So, what? Disneyland? Universal Studios?”

“What? Screw those guys! I’m talkin’ about Six Flags, baby! It’s Batman time!”

“How are you even cleared for that?”

“Well, I’m not yet. I’ll schedule an appointment for the week before and if my doctor clears it, we’re good to go. Speaking of, we should settle on a date.”

“A date for our date?”

He’s doing that more often. Mostly because the press has gotten a lot of pictures of you two hanging around the city and the more sensationalist tabloids are saying you’re dating. Framing your whole meeting as one big meet-ugly that leads to a love story for the ages. You’ve both denied the rumors but mostly, you try not to think about it. 

You flush. “No jokes or I’ll drag you onto Viper.”

“And what’s that one like?”

“Terrifying enough to have you coming off appreciating life and loving your neighbor.”

He snickers. 

Realistically speaking, you probably won’t be able to ride that one. Too much G-force. You’d either grey out or just straight up blackout. 

Hector would kill you. If the coaster didn’t do the job, anyway. 

“You’re all healed, then?” he asks as you approach the entrance. 

“Brain bruises are gone and so is the fracture.”

“Good. That’s good.” He hands the tickets to the attendant. You watch him. 

You’ve been thinking about what Jerry told you for the past few days. About the incident with that little girl in Georgia. You aren’t sure if you should say something. Anything. It was already a few years ago. Truthfully now, you’re just…

Well, you’re wondering if he is doing this stuff because he feels guilty. You don’t want him to feel guilty. You want him here because he wants to be here. You want —

Nothing. 

You shove the thoughts away and follow him. You’d both come early because you wanted to see the penguin feeding at one. 

And plus, there aren’t as many people around. Kind of a bonus. A Tuesday at noon. The second week of December. Empty. Or, well, mostly empty. 

Inside, the air is cool, smelling faintly fishy. It is dark, with the light coming from the tanks, shining blue on your faces. You’ve come prepared with your camera, taking pictures of whatever catches your eye. You two walk through the Hall of Fishes, showcasing the diverse marine life of the pacific. The Giant Kelp Forest, with kelp swaying in cool blue water, Leopard Sharks, Moray Eels, and Giant Black Sea Bass gliding through them. Then the Sea-dragons and Seahorses display, with the aforementioned marine life as well as pipefish and other unique species. 

“Seahorses mate for life, you know.”

“Don’t the males also get pregnant?”

“They’ve got it all figured out,” you sigh wistfully; half of you wants to climb in that tank. “I mean, seriously, that’s some soulmate shit.”

“Isn’t it kind of… not?”

“For me, soulmates are created, not found.”

“What’s the criteria?”

The question shocks you. You look at him. 

He’s already looking at you. 

Your chest warms and you look back at the tank, where a light green seahorse speckled with black dots swims through the water. 

“Why are you asking?” you ask, a little teasing, though your heart is suddenly beating out of your chest. 

Quiet for a moment. Then… “I’m curious.”

The thing is, he doesn’t sound like he’s joking or even teasing you. No, he sounds… well. Curious. 

“I don’t know,” you say, deciding screw it and looking at him. Your hands grow clammy around your camera. You let it fall, hanging from your neck. 

You tug distractedly at your shirt. It’s a comfortable day, so you’re in an outfit similar to the day you and he had Rico’s, with your Docs, your over-the-knee black socks, denim shorts and black cherry lip lacquer. Except it’s not your Wonder Woman shirt, but the Padres jersey you’d been generously gifted by the team. A rusty brown kind of color, with golden trims and San Diego written across the front. Nothing else on the back. You wear it unbuttoned, though, with a black lace trim cami underneath; the jersey is a tad oversized at your request, so the ends fall down a little bit past your hips. Your nails are painted black again. 

When Miyuki saw you after picking you up from your apartment, he said if you were going to be friends, you had to have his jersey, too, so he was getting you one immediately. You said that wouldn’t help your dating rumors at all. He said Do you really care what they think, tomcat?

“I don’t know,” you say again. Unsure if it’s to his question about criteria or your own thoughts. 

(But you know — your answer to whether you care what others think, you mean. Not the press, not the media, not the fans who think you’re trying to steal his money — and they can die mad about it, too, because nine out of ten times, he’s insisting on paying and since you only make enough to pay rent, feed yourself and your pets, and sustain a Spotify subscription, well, why the hell are you going to say no? You don’t care about them, not really. You just care about him. About this. Whatever this is. Real friendship or just his guilt. 

But god, you really hope it isn’t that.)

“I don’t think there’s a specific criteria for what classifies a soulmate. That’s the beauty of it. I think Jerry is my soulmate but I think Batman and Robin are my soulmates, too. My pets, I mean, not the actual characters.”

He smiles. Your heart does that funny thing again. 

“But you know how I am. I love love. I love humanity. I love the strangers I see on the streets being kind to one another, the baby who smiles at me on the bus. It’s just… it’s not hard. It’s easy.”

“Aren’t you afraid of getting hurt?”

“What’s life without a little heartbreak? Yeah, I’ll get hurt and I’ll lose a little part of my heart but at the end of the day, I’ve got people to help me fill it back up. I don’t think you can go through life and get a fulfilling experience if you try to protect yourself constantly, never be willing to let someone else handle it.”

You pause, a question on the tip of your tongue, unsure if you can go ahead with it. 

“Ask,” he says quietly. “We’re friends. Friends ask each other questions.”

You smile at him repeating your words from last week. 

“Well… do you have people like that?” 

He looks ahead, pensive. Quiet long enough that you know you won’t get an answer. Not now, anyhow. And that’s okay. 

He’s spoken of his old friends from high school. Told you plenty of amusing stories from that time. Told you about how they lost Nationals in his first and second year, then won it in his third. Told you about Kuramochi Youichi, who ‘is sharper than he looks and surprisingly reliable, too,’ and Sawamura Eijun, who is ‘obnoxiously loud and passionate and won’t ever leave you alone, but he’s one hell of a guy.’

Miyuki bared a lot to you. But there’s still more to him. You think that’s how it will always be, you peeling the layers back one by one, discovering who he is. Then perhaps one day, you might get the privilege of holding his heart in your hands. 

You continue to explore the aquarium for a little while longer. 

Outside, they have tide pools, with sea stars, sea anemones, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, lobsters, and other little creatures swim around. You can even dip your hand inside and feel them. 

Miyuki refuses (“My hands are my life!”) but you get him to join you, only by guiding his arm under yours, your hand pressed over the back of his. He squirms at the feeling of the creatures brushing up against his palm and you beam. 

Afterward, you check out their penguin exhibit, where they have a feeding show as well. Then you start to feel hungry. 

“They have a cafe here, don’t they?” Probably exorbitantly priced but you know the aquarium is owned by UC San Diego and they’re doing lots of conservation efforts so you don’t mind. Even if the tickets were twenty-five bucks a pop. 

“Not necessary,” Miyuki says.

You chuckle at his matter-of-fact tone. “Why not?”

“I brought food.” He opens the messenger bag he’s had over his shoulder, showing you two bentos. You’d been curious about it but didn’t ask. Now you know. 

“Are you allowed to bring that in?” you ask curiously. 

He shrugs. “They didn’t say anything to me about it.”

Well. You can never say no to his cooking. 

The two of you find a picnic bench near the cafe. Not many people are outside but you still sit with your backs to everything else, anyway. 

He made thick club sandwiches with mayo, ketchup, cooked ham, bacon, cheese, an over medium egg, lettuce, and tomato. It is paired with spam musubi, made of mixed grain rice with furikake, spam, egg, and nori, then wrapped with seaweed. It’s delicious, as usual. 

You eat in a companionable silence. You feel a little sleepy, too, since you slept intermittently while running the show last night. It runs on weekdays but not weekends, but since yesterday was Monday, you had no choice but to stay up late, then get back to your apartment at four where you slept until eleven. 

Overhead, the sun is out, shining down warmly on you, mitigating the effects of the cool breeze that rustles your hair occasionally.

This is nice. 

It’s always nice but… 

You find yourself increasingly appreciative of these stolen moments of peace. 

You finish your food. Miyuki wordlessly offers you his water bottle, which you gladly accept, washing down your food with still-cold water. You pass it back afterward unthinkingly. You don’t quite realize what you did until you see him looking at something in the corner of your eye and you turn to see, too. Only to wince when you realize he is staring at the rim of the bottle, where a dark imprint of your lips lingers behind. 

“Shit, sorry —”

“It’s fine,” he says, shaking his head a little, then swiping a thumb over it. But the attempt to clean it doesn’t work. It smears over the white of the water bottle and on the pad of his thumb instead. He blinks and stares at his thumb, the stain darker than the light brown of his skin. 

“It’s… long lasting,” you stammer, embarrassed as you turn to rifle through your tote bag, pulling out a small pack of makeup wipes. 

You pull one out, then lean over to clean the rim of the bottle, black cherry staining the wipe. He doesn’t let go, so you just move into his space to do it, embarrassed for the most part. 

Once the bottle is clean, you turn to his hand, cleaning the lacquer from his thumb. 

“Sorry,” you mutter, lifting your eyes to him. 

You freeze as you realize how close you two are. You’re in his space. Your legs pressed against each other, your hand on his. The heat of him bleeds through his jeans, warding off any chills from the cool breeze. And he’s looking at you. 

He’s looking at you. 

This close, you can see how thick his lashes are, amber brown eyes flecked with gold, burning through you, and you can see the faint tan lines on his face, from his glasses or from his catcher’s mask, who knows, but it’s a decidedly endearing tidbit of information that you tuck away behind your ribcage. 

Your heart pounds fast. Heat rises within you, ballooning in your chest. You don’t know what to do — you should pull away but…

You don’t want to. 

The realization is enough to make you feel dizzy. Or it could be that you’re so close, you can smell his shampoo, something spicy and warm. 

“You asked me earlier,” he begins quietly, surprising you, making you pull back a fraction and your hand jerk (the two of you are in public and granted he has a cap on but still; if the press caught this, they’d have a field day). But he doesn’t let you go, plucking the wipe from your hand with his left hand, while his right, the one that had the stain, closes around yours. 

“About whether I have anyone,” he goes on. “The truth is, I’m not sure I do.”

You soften. “Why not?”

“It’s only me over here. Well… there’s Chris but he’s in Toronto with the Blue Jays. He’s… got his own life to handle. My friends from school… they’re all back in Japan and truthfully, I’m not as great a friend as I should be to them. They’re good, they’ve always been, but me…”

He finally looks away from you, sighing. You’re pressed to his side since he has your right hand clasped in his right, your arms and legs pressed together. It’s a bit of an awkward angle but you ignore that, happy to be this close. Happy to have him opening up even if it makes you sad. 

“I’m the variable in the equation. And the fact that I’m here and not there… after everything… next to impossible.”

The new information you’d learned from Jerry about his second season with the Braves springs to the forefront of your mind. 

“After everything?” you ask hesitantly. You don’t want to assume. 

He looks at you. “You know.”

Guilt curls in your chest. “I only found out recently. I didn’t… Before that, I had no idea that had happened.”

He looks away again, fingers tugging the bill of his cap. 

“Her name is Mia. She was six when it happened. She just turned ten a few weeks ago.” He digs out his phone. Shows you a picture of a little girl with a gap-toothed smile, dressed in a baseball uniform, with a glove on her hand. “She still wants to play baseball. Be the first girl to join the Majors. After everything, the least I can do is make sure she has every chance to.”

“That’s… really nice of you, you know.” 

He doesn’t respond to that, putting his phone. “I assume you know how that season turned out, then.”

The worst slump of his career.

You don’t say that. You don’t say anything. You just look at him, heart aching on his behalf.

He leans back, looking up at the sky. “They tried. They did. But up until then… accidents like that didn’t happen for me.”

You stay quiet. A slow breeze flutters his hair. 

“When I was a kid… I was smaller than most of the kids on my team. Much smaller than them. I said things — the truth, it was only ever the truth, to make us better — and they didn’t like that. I saw no use in fighting back. I’d show them on the field. But what that taught me… violence has no place in baseball. Not that kind of violence. Say what you want on the field, in your plays, but… you ruin the game by doing anything else.”

Your heart aches; it feels like each beat it takes is harder than the last. “Miyuki…”

“I know,” he sighs. “I didn’t try to hit her. I didn’t. But indirectly… it was my fault, my actions. More than that… why didn’t they have netting there? Why were there no precautions in place? Why’d it take so long for someone to get to them?”

Tension bubbles in the air. Everything about him sharpens in that moment, anger taking over; a dormant anger, the kind you hold onto, brutal and unforgiving. Not something new. 

He looks at you. Sunlight turns his eyes honey brown but they’re hard, burning. 

“Do you know what they told me? The park, MLB? They just said, that’s just how things are here. Fans didn’t want netting there. This is America. But that’s too easy. They just don’t want to lose the money in the initial stages. But people would come. They always will. But how could they make that expense? Of course not.” He lets out a slow exhale, some tension unwinding from his shoulders. “I didn’t let it go. They threatened suspension.”

“What?”

“Her mom told me to let it go. The park would put up netting, but it would just be them. No one else would follow suit. Not until one of their fans almost died from a foul ball or a broken bat flying into the stands.”

“That’s…”

“I’m biding my time,” he says, speaking with a kind of ruthless finality that raises the hair on the back of your neck. “A few more years before my age catches up with me and they start putting me on the back-burner. I’ll do it then.” 

He is prepared to scorch the earth and salt it behind him, too, for this. You can’t say you disagree with him. 

“Anyway,” he sighs, thumb idly rubbing over your hand; you suppress a shiver at the feeling, catcher’s callouses ticklish against your skin. “All of that happened that year, that summer. My friends, they tried, but… nothing could be done. Things got… better when I moved out here. But the damage had been done. I couldn’t try turning up pretending everything was fine. A younger me would’ve but I can’t do things like that anymore. We made some progress but… like I said. They’re there and I’m here. The variable in the equation.”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a call from you. Anything, really. I don’t get the sense they’ll abandon you.”

“Maybe.” 

“Everyone has their issues, Miyuki,” you say softly. “No one is perfect. But you’re trying, aren’t you? Right now, you’re trying. You don’t have to. You could’ve just told me to go to hell and that… well. That would’ve been fine. But you’re trying.”

He looks back at you. The look in his eyes makes your stomach flip-flop and your heart pound. 

“You remind me of them, you know. Both of them.”

“Naive?”

“You and I both know you aren’t naive. No… you’re hopeful.”

Warmth spools like cotton candy in your chest. Your face warms and you smile, leaning your head on your shoulder. 

“And a little annoying. Admit it. It’s okay. Everyone should be a little annoying and off-putting every now and then.”

He chuckles, a small smile tugging at his mouth as he looks down at you. “A little annoying sometimes, yes. But it’s fine. Think I need to be annoyed every now and then. Probably payback for all the people I’ve annoyed when I was a kid.”

“You were just a kid. Let yourself off the hook. Though, I do agree that you should be annoyed every now and then. You certainly are annoying now. Well. A bit more than every now and then.”

“Don’t lie to me. I rarely annoy you. You’re just so… impossible to get worked up.”

“I let it go. I know you’re just like that. No reason in getting bothered about it.” You elbow him gently. “But there are limits, alright? You’re a grown man. Act accordingly.”

He laughs hard, for a reason you don’t understand, but you don’t care. You like the way his eyes crinkle. 

“You aren’t wrong!” he says when he finishes, grinning down at you. “Starting to think I should. Like maybe talking to my friends more. Maybe… give them a call like you say.”

You smile. “That sounds like a good start.”

“And I think… I think I should be a little more appreciative of the friend I have here with me right now.” 

“Oh, yeah?” you ask, beyond pleased. 

“So… you should start calling me Kazuya.”

“Wait — what —” you jerk and he quickly lets go of your hand to sling an arm around your shoulder and pull you low against his chest. It’s not particularly romantic because he kind of has you hunched over against his stomach. 

“Miyuki, what — hey, this isn’t comfortable…”

“I’m sorry, who are you talking to? That bird over there?”

“That’s a squirrel.”

“Question still stands. He doesn’t look like a Miyuki to me. He looks like a… Nori.”

“Miyuki.”

He doesn’t acknowledge you. 

Your face burns. You groan. You should be happy — you are happy. You know how big this kind of thing is. But you’re also embarrassed. Why are you embarrassed?

Being given the privilege of his name doesn’t mean anything other than you two are friends. And he said it himself. 

You’re friends. This is just what friends do. 

(Yeah, you know this sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself. 

You are.)

“Kazuya.”

“Now we’re talking about me. Very nice.”

He lets go. You glare a little at him as you come back up. He just smiles. It’s far too bewitching for you to really be annoyed with him. 

“Have any more room?”

“For?”

He rifles around the bag next to him, pulling out an orange. 

You melt like butter in a pan. 

“Sure, yeah.”

Kazuya (gah, that’s weird… but not in a bad way) proceeds to peel it expertly by hand, dropping orange peels into the now-empty bento box. Citrusy orange tickles your nose pleasantly. 

He splits off a few wedges for you. You take it, pulling one free. He pulls one free for himself. You sit side by side eating the orange together wedge by wedge.

Yeah. You’re thinking about it. 

You know — the poem. 

You know the one.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Do I need a reason to smile?”

He eyes you and the look on his face is both amused and fond but mostly fond. “I guess not.”

[Night Owl Transcript — 20:31 — 12/15/2022]

Tee: I just… I love poetry. I think poetry is great. Mouser’s rolling his eyes but that’s just ‘cause he likes nonfiction better, which is fine. I like both. Oh, someone on Twitter is asking what brought this on. Um. Nothing in particular at all. [Laughs]

[DNCE’s “Unsweet” starts playing in the background]

Tee: But if you guys have any favorites, send them my way. I’m always happy to get new material. 

[“Unsweet” starts playing] I want you unsweet You satisfy me That brutal honesty Won't you pour your heart out on me?

[Off-air recording starts] Mouser: What are you smiling about? Tee: I just think… the universe is great. Mouser: Right. Sure.  Tee: Soooo.  Mouser: [Laughing] What? Tee: I’ve come to a realization.  Mouser: And that is? Tee: I like Kazuya. Mouser: Jesus Christ. Tee: I mean, look at this queue. It wasn’t intentional but… Angel Baby. Attention. I’ll Be Waiting. It’s so… Mouser: [Laughing] You’re in love with this guy! Tee, Mouser: [Laughter] Tee: Ohhh. That is so… It’s fine. It’s cool. It’s chill. We’re chill.  Mouser: Hehe, wait, are you, like, just realizing this? Like actually? Tee: Yeah.  Tee, Mouser: [Laughter] Mouser: [Laughing] And you’re spending the holidays with him! Tee, Mouser: [Laughter] Tee: I know! I know… but it was just convenient. When the plans were made, I mean, ‘cause my sister and Hector are going out of the country and I could spend it with the family but… then he’d be alone.  Mouser: What do the kids call that? Down bad. You are down bad.  Tee: [Laughing] I know! It’s just… you don’t even realize it, the way he gets to you. It sneaks up on you. And then one day — today — you’re just like… Huh. He tries to seem so aloof, like he doesn’t care, but he does. A lot. I think that’s partially why he is the way he is.  Mouser: He’s also nice to look at it.  Tee: Really nice.

[Lolo Zouaï’s “Blur” plays next] Last night was a blur I stayed till the morning Let you call me your girl That don’t mean I’m falling (But I think I might) You’re every single thing that I deserve Maybe that’s too boring

Tee: Hey, you know I love you, right? Mouser: I know. I love you, too.  Tee: Good. I don’t want you to think… I mean, I know you don’t but, like, let me just reassure you… just ‘cause I like Kazuya like that won’t change anything between us. You’re my Mouser. My guy in the chair. The Donna Troy to my Dick Grayson.  Mouser: You geek. You’re the Chewie to my Han. Tee: I think I’m more Han than you but since we’re having a nice moment, I’ll let it go.  Mouser: Andddd the moment is over. 

You have no idea if Kazuya listens to the show. 

You don’t really know how to feel about it if he does. 

Mostly because, around him, you’re already feeling a whirlwind of emotions. More so because you’ve planted your white flag and given in. Given in to the fact that you do like him. That you like when he smiles, those rarities that make you appreciate them all the more, that you like the way his eyes crinkle when he laughs that stupid laugh of his. 

That you like his thoughtfulness, that he goes the full nine yards even when you tell him he doesn’t have to. He stopped buying shellfish for himself, even though you’d adamantly told him he didn’t have to do that, that all you asked if he hung out with you when he had it was wash his hands and if you were eating at his place, avoid cross-contamination. No. He just got rid of it completely. Not like I’m cutting out fish entirely, he told you. I still have my seafood. 

You like how he pays attention to you, he remembers things, like when you mentioned, a month ago, that you were trying to complete your collection of the Batman: No Man’s Land omnibuses by getting the second book and you also wanted to get the Batman: Road to No Man’s Land omnibus, too. They’re just ridiculously expensive — Volume 2 of NML is $150 and RTNML is $125. He surprises you with them a few days after your realization, says he was just passing a comic book store and braved the geeks to get it for you and that it looked mildly intriguing, so you have to let him read Volume 1, it’s only fair.

It’s so surprising, so unexpected and emotionally overwhelming for you that you throw your arms around with him without thinking it through. 

“And what will the press think?” he teases, but he still wraps his arms around you and there, in his embrace, everything feels right, like a puzzle piece sliding into place.

You would know. You’re, like, the leading authority on puzzles. 

“Screw the press,” you mumble into his hoodie. 

You don’t want to say something like, Well, this is just a platonic hug between friends. It aches too much. Like you can pretend you don’t want to stay here forever. Like you can pretend the urges to touch him freely aren’t growing stronger every day, minute by minute. 

But that won’t happen. You know it won’t. You’re a hypocrite for doing this, really, but the truth is, you’re selfish enough to want to keep him as a friend, if anything else. No use in ruining things by inserting feelings into the equation. You don’t want to lose him. You really, truly don’t. 

You’ll just wait for it to abate, for it to go away. It will. It’s the third week of December. The new year is creeping closer and closer. On February fifteenth, he is due to report in Peoria, Arizona for spring training; pitchers and catchers report on that day, before the rest of the team. From there, he won’t be back in San Diego until late March. Opening Day is April first. And from there… well. One-hundred-and-sixty-two games in the MLB’s regular season, from April to September. 

That’s only two months away. The thought is… sobering. Makes something inside you stiffen up but you tell yourself it’s fine. The distance might help. It will. 

You surely won’t compromise your relationship with him to get rid of these feelings, no way, they’ll just… be there. And if you get help in moving on from them with his busy season, well. That’s just how the cards fall.  

You let go before you get carried away, leaning down to deposit your gift in the car. A cool breeze flutters through your hair; you shiver a little. The breeze is cool but the day is pleasant enough with the sun is out. Still, you find yourself dressing a little more conservatively today, in a pair of mom jeans and a brand-new eggplant purple Night Owl crewneck.

Yes, you’re wearing your own merch. But this is more of a test-run, to see that it actually is comfortable before you release it. 

The ocean sprawls out ahead of you, gravel leading to soft white sand, overgrown grass and weeds sprouting from the fence that separates the parking lot from the beach. 

While you carefully put away the bag, behind you, Kazuya types on his phone. 

He called them — Kuramochi, Sawamura — a few weeks ago, finally taking that leap. Things are on the mend for them, you think. The thing is, they text a lot. 

“Texting your friends?”

He hums absently. You turn away from the passenger side and creep up next to him, deftly stealing his phone. 

“Wh — oi!” He sounds vaguely panicked for a reason you aren’t sure of but he has nothing to worry about.

“Relax, dude. I can’t read any of this.”

He snorts, looking relieved, then he switches gears, trying to look sternly at you. “Give me back my phone, brat.”

“Just for that?”

Despite everything being in Japanese, you know the symbol for the camera anywhere. You click it, opening the front camera, snapping a quick selfie of you, your wine-purple lips (you gotta match, man!) spread in a grin, peace sign thrown up, while he tries to grab you in the background. 

You send it just as he steals his phone back, laughing and pushing you gently. 

“Bothersome.”

“I get it from you.”

He rolls his eyes, still grinning, types a few things, then puts his phone away. You two go back to the car, where he uses you to balance himself as he rolls up his jeans and pulls off his socks and shoes. 

As he straightens, his eyes find your crewneck. He blinks, head tilting. He puts his shoes away. 

“So, you guys aren’t being shut down, then.”

You plant a hand on his offered arm and bend down to do the same with your shoes. Since you’d agreed to stop by the beach, you’d chosen a pair of sneakers rather than your Docs. Your camera hangs around your neck. 

Things are going well. Whether Night Owl is doing well because you’re constantly photographed hanging out with Kazuya (and constantly being accused of dating) or because the people who listened to you out of curiosity or word of mouth decided to stay because they liked the content and the music, you have no idea. 

But you don’t care. Both work just fine in your opinion. Either way, KCSD isn’t going to shut you down. No way. Not with the kind of traffic you get. 

Questions about merch increased, which pleased the company beyond end, but you had to go in there and negotiate. They didn’t get to take all the money. No. You think, after you and Jerry manning this show for several years, that you two deserve a pay raise. And updated equipment. You could probably ask for a bigger studio but you like it the way it is, honestly. Cozy. 

They’d agreed, of course. The reason they’re getting money is because of you and Jerry. You two are in positions to negotiate like that. 

So, you and Jerry have been creating all kinds of designs and ideas over the last few weeks. You’d settled on shirts, crewnecks, hoodies, and stickers. It’s eggplant purple, with a cartoonish owl and one of those old-world microphones, the silver ones. 

(You couldn’t do a Tom and Jerry thing, since, you know. Copyright issues. Thankfully everyone is aware of that and also don’t want you guys to be slapped with a cease and desist.)

“No,” you say, bare feet sinking into the sand; it’s not warm but it’s not cold, either. Somewhere in the middle. “They aren’t shutting us down. Things are going well.”

“Had me thinking otherwise since you’re wearing your own merch.”

You laugh. “Just testing it out. Making sure it’s fit to be released to the listeners. Can’t give them shoddy work.”

“Does your fan base have a name? Since you’re releasing merch…”

The two of you start walking. 

“There’s actually this organization in the comics called the Court of Owls. There’s no real name for the members themselves but they do employ these superhuman beings called Talons.”

“Naturally.”

“But we nixed that one. They’re kind of… evil. Organized crime type situation.”

“Probably for the best.”

“The best we’ve come up with is Owlers.”

He snickers. You laugh. 

“Yeah, I know. Not great. Night Owl’s name itself is pretty self-explanatory. There isn’t a lot to pull from it.”

“Well, this —” he tugs at your crewneck “— probably makes up for it. Where’s mine, by the way?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize —”

“You should’ve realized. I don’t accept your apology.”

You laugh loudly, your eyes taking in the tan sand and the blue waves stretching out into oblivion. Foamy tides lap at the shoreline. One part of you wants to dip your toes into it but you know you’ll be disappointed. The water is too cold to enjoy. 

A salty breeze kisses your face. You’ve missed the beach. You haven’t been in a while. This one is fairly empty, with only a few people around. At Scripps Pier, a quarter of a mile from Torrey Pine, that’s where you two are. It’s the same area as Black’s Beach, which is clothing optional but you know that if you continue south of the lifeguard tower, almost no one is around. So, no accidental eyefuls of naked people. 

He grins at you, looking all kinds of dashing with the breeze ruffling his hair, his dark blue crewneck pretty against his skin, the sun shining down on him. 

“So, then,” he starts casually in a way that has you raising an eyebrow, “you won’t be taking that offer.”

You cock your head, confused, before he nods at the camera in your hands. 

“Oh. Oh. God, I completely forgot about that. God. That was weird.” You raise the viewfinder to your eye, capturing the swaths of empty beach ahead of you. 

“Why?”

“It just is.” 

Click. You let your camera fall back to your neck. 

“Well, if you take it, you’ll definitely be spending more time around me and since you want to be best friends forever —”

You grin, face warming. “You can just say you want me to take it. That’s fine.”

“Hm.” He tilts his face up thoughtfully. “I do want you to take it. I mean, I think it’d be nice. But I also know you’re happy with Night Owl, which is admittedly cooler.”

“Hey, don’t disrespect your photographers like that.” 

He shoves you gently, rolling his eyes. “I’m trying to compliment you and this is what I get.”

You grin, falling back a few steps and raising the viewfinder to your eye again, moving until he’s in your frame. 

“See?” he says, lips quirked, hands tucked in his pocket. “Aren’t you having a great time taking pictures of me?”

Click. 

“Well, if I want to take pictures of you, all we have to do is this.”

He laughs and it sounds genuine. Click. “Touché, tomcat. Touché.”

Warmth unspools in your chest, ballooning there until you feel like you might float up. His eyes twinkle with something warm as he looks at you. The urge to feel his arms around you swells with vicious intensity, until you’re choking on it. 

“Hey. Let me see that.”

You let him tug the camera from your neck, resisting a shiver when his fingers brush the skin there. 

“You need merchandise shots, don’t you?” he asks, backing up, eyes on the screen. He knows his way around it. For the most part. You taught him that. 

“I think I need merchandise shots of you. You’ve been great for business.” You still toss your tote bag to the side. 

He barks out a laugh. “As soon as I get my own patented Night Owl merch. Then I’m yours.”

Your heart leaps in your chest. Like it wants to go to him. 

If only. 

He raises the viewfinder to his eye. 

You smile, holding out your hands. “What am I supposed to do?”

Click. 

“Aren’t you the one into photography? Shouldn’t you know?”

You laugh. Click. “Aren’t you the one whose face is plastered all over GQ, Sports Illustrated, and TIME right now?”

“So, you’re the person who bought all my copies at that one Whole Foods?”

“Look, you look good, but there are enough pictures of you primped and preened out there. The fact is, those guys would kill for the ones I have. You know. Candids. The natural state of being. You stuffing your face with black bean noodles from that one restaurant —”

“Those were good noodles! And I looked great!”

“The professional guy in the magazines is great, don’t get me wrong. But I like this version of you, too. You know. Just… you,” you say, smiling as a breeze ruffles through your hair. Click. That one surprises you. 

It’s maybe too honest on your part. But that’s fine. You think he needs to know that. You like the oh-so-professional Miyuki Kazuya on the field and you like him off the field, too, behind closed doors, teasing you constantly with rare, unexpected bouts of sensitivity, recipe testing in his kitchen, his competitiveness coming out when you try to complete thousand piece puzzles, and binge-watching episodes of House (because of course he likes that show). 

Despite what he likes to think, he is… good. Truly. 

Click. He adjusts something. 

“You should get your bag,” he says instead of responding to that. You don’t mind but —

“What?”

“I said, you should get your bag. A seagull is digging through it.”

“Wha — HEY! Get out of there!”

The seagull flies off. You snatch up your bag. Kazuya laughs so hard, you think he might bust a lung. You can’t help it, either. It only takes a second for you to start laughing, too. 

“Did you get that?!”

Still laughing, he nods, holding out the camera. You hurry to his side, uncontrollable giggles spilling out of you. 

Sure enough, in perfect clarity, he documented the entire thing. 

A few days later, Night Owl’s merchandise goes up, on a brand new website for the segment. The pictures before tragedy struck you on the beach go up, along with some of Jerry, and then one of Kazuya. Theirs get taken at the same beach. The Padres’ socials post them, too. 

And yours, documenting ‘Seagullgate,’ go up on Twitter as a bloopers thing. It becomes your most liked Tweet. (Especially when people find out who was behind the camera.)

[Night Owl Transcript — 20:48 — 12/21/2022]

Tee: Thank you guys for your continued support with the merch stuff. None of you are obligated to buy anything and honestly if you listen, that’s pretty much all we need but still. Thank you. 

[Pale Waves’ “My Obsession” plays] You're such a mess but you're always beautiful to me Run your fingers across my mouth I'm not prepared to stay here without you

[Off-air recording starts] Mouser: Hm.  Tee: What? Mouser: Today’s queue… Tee: Let me live, Jer. I’m pining.  Mouser: Well, don’t just admit it! Tee: Hey, we’re not live, right? Mouser: No.  Tee: Thank god. Could you imagine? Mouser: I would laugh.  Tee: What? My best friend… my Mouser… my Donna Troy… how could you betray me like that? Mouser: Admit it. It’d be hilarious.  Tee: In hindsight maybe. If it didn’t blow up in my face. Like the kind of thing you laugh about when you’re eighty.  Mouser: Oh, come on. That guy likes you. Why else would he agree to taking pictures for us? Tee: Um. We’re friends? Duh.  Mouser: Sure, but he also looks at you like you hung the moon in the sky. Tee: Hmm.  Mouser: Why do I even try?  Tee: Hey, if this is being recorded, where does it go? Mouser: I… actually have no idea.  Tee: We should find out. We’ve talked a lot of shit about the supervisors on here. Mouser: [Laughing]

[Seulgi’s “Anywhere But Home” plays next] Baby 그런적없니넌? 아무런계획없이떠나고싶은밤

Please take me anywhere but home Take me anywhere Please take me anywhere Gotta take me anywhere Take me anywhere but home

Slowly

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

You don’t want to hear the story of my life, and anyway I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it’s the same old story-- a few people just trying, one way or another, to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind. And nobody, of course, is kind, or mean, for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to swim through the fires to stay in this world.

#daiya no ace #daiya no ace x reader #ace of diamond #ace of diamond x reader #miyuki kazuya #miyuki kazuya x reader #moss writes

[oolathurman]

I have a minimum of four spirits who may or may not be haunting or otherwise attached my place of residence.

The first two would be pets of mine: Alpha the Betta, a petsmart betta fish with a giant 10 gallon tank, and Mandalore the Great, my queen of a leopard gecko.

The third would be my late dad, who passed away a little over 10 years ago at this point. He was so warm, and first and foremost loved to make his kids laugh. I think I modeled a lot of myself after him after he passed, that's just how much I looked up to him.

The fourth would be a ghost my younger sibling saw at home when we were much, much, much younger. She basically looked like the girl from The Ring.

Mom recently moved in with her new husband, and I'm now currently caretaker of the house, which means it's just me at home. And I think in the absence of any religious faith (and perhaps in an effort to keep myself from going mad lmao), I've started speaking to the possible spirits who may or may not be haunting or otherwise attached to my place of residence.

There's a post going around. "Be nice to ghosts. They were people once." And yeah, I agree.

I'm not familiar with the personality of the ghost who looked like the girl from The Ring, but I've taken to referring to her as Ringo. I don't know why she's here, nor do I know if I've encountered her specifically (though perhaps my moments of sudden fear in the dark nighttime hallways is because of her). But I greet her, dad, and my pets all the same.

If there's a weird noise, I'll call out: Who did that? What did you do?

Last month or so, there were weird noises from my bedside table, I think originating from where I charge my phone. I'd say, "Please stop, I'm trying to sleep." I've even told the spirits that I'll show them the phone later if they'd like. The noise has since stopped.

At this point... I don't really know how much I truly, truly believe in spirits. Or perhaps it's more like I just haven't seen a ghost myself, in the same way my sibling has. (I've had other supernatural(?) experiences, but nothing to do with spirits.)

I suppose my thought process is this: If they exist, then it does me no harm to be kind to them and talk with them. If they don't, well it's fun to make believe, isn't it?

#personal post tag i guess #was just reflective that's all c: it's a positive post dw