#also getting carsick as i write this but worth it

[imagineagreatadventure]

in a car omw to an airport and for some reason all that is repeatedly going through my head right now is this passage:

'"’You want her? Go get her.’

So he did”

bc honestly it sounds like it’s from a fanfic and instead its an actual real scene of jaime lannister jumping into a goddamn bear 🐻 pit with an actual live bear 🐻 for brienne. seems fake but is canon thanks george

#jaime x brienne #silliness #this is what happens when i read fanfic when i have insomnia instead of going to sleep like a normal person #also getting carsick as i write this but worth it #like we dont know whats next for either character but at least we have this and so many other wondrous lines

[ask-artsy-oncie]

I’m obsessed with your Anastasia AU. Do you have any more thoughts or ramblings?

Sorry this took six months to answer anon - know that I resolved to answer it before the year ended, and so here we are!

Obviously the Anastasia AU post I made leaves something to be desired. I was getting carsick while writing it so it peters off at the end. It's especially lacking in actual Llewerius content - especially especially stuff from Ty's point of view - so I want to focus on that.

The biggest thing that Ty and Louie tend to clash over in this AU is Louie's godawful work ethic. Ty has pretty good work ethic, and in this AU literally grew up as a servant, so the fact that Louie seems so keen to laze about and not take this "posing as a prince" business seriously annoys the hell out of him. And he's not beyond verbalizing this.

Either way, they're both smart-mouthed individuals with similar criminal habits and it's easy for them to get on each other's nerves. Baloo considers it love at first sight, though he might just be missing Becky.

Despite all this, there is physical attraction at play, and once they get over their petty annoyances with one another, the two end up genuinely enjoying each other's company (not that they would openly admit it, at first)

The nightmare on the boat still happens in this AU. To accomodate for the lack of pets in this AU, it's worth noting that Ty is a (relatively) light sleeper to Kit and Baloo, so when Louie flopped out of bed and started sleepwalking out the door of their cabin, Ty woke up. Took him a minute to fully wake up and realize something was wrong, though, so he didn't bolt out of bed right away.

Yes, he carried Louie back to bed in his arms. They probably slept in the same bed that night, too, just to feel a little safer. They do not acknowledge any of that at all the morning after.

Once Ty realizes that Louie is, in fact, the missing prince, it finally hits him that Louie's probably going to be in his life forever, due to their families being friends, and that makes his budding crush on Louie kind of too much for him to handle. It also makes him feel guilty to have all this sudden emotional baggage when Louie should really only be worrying about reuniting with his family, like Ty feels as though being around Louie wouldn't be fair to him, so he decides that becoming more distant is the best (and kindest) option. He essentially avoids him after the Duck family reunites.

Louie picks up on this and starts to think that maybe his own crush on Ty had him reading their relationship wrong, that Ty probably truly can't stand him, and does his best to rebottle the resulting hurt he feels into contempt.

Ty does, however, have to participate in the ball thrown to celebrate Louie's return, since his family is expected to be there. The bird kids all willingly sneak out of the party once they start to notice Magica's presence, and Ty is the only one who notices, though he isn't aware of why they left. Of course, he gets to show up just in time to clock Magica right in the face.

Since the kids all get to face Magica together, I don't think there's really any instance of any of them being injured so grievously that they'd think one of them was dead or something, like what happens in the movie. Moreso, I think that being shoehorned back together and surviving a final-gambit attack from an incredibly powerful sorceress together forces Ty and Louie to confront the feelings they have for each other and be honest with one another. Like sure, maybe they aren't scared into believing one of them died, but they're forced to wrestle with the idea that they could have, and if that's the case, there are things that shouldn't be left unsaid.

And so! We get a happy ending! Louie gets to be with his family again, and Ty and Louie learn that their feelings for one another are reciprocated!

Hope this answer satisfies you, anon! And I hope you enjoy the rest of your December!

#ty cloudkicker #louie duck #Anastasia AU #Llewerius #Ducktales

[inlovewithsidecharacters]

yes. more 4 town headcanons

Helloooooo!

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

Tae 

-Kind to all creatures, humans included.

-The only problem he has is a fear of bees, but he supports them.

-Shortsighted and needs contacts, because I said so.

-Forgetful as crud, and the others need to remind him of things a lot.

-He May be the baby of the band, but don’t get me wrong- he can probably pick you up, toss you, and not break a sweat.

-Good relationship with his bandmates, and everyone else just has a feeling to protect the boy once they meet him.

-Holy crap this guy has some self-worth issues.

-Once went on a roller coaster that broke down. Never going on one again.

-Has a sweet tooth, and can easily be manipulated by that.

-Jesse, Aaron Z., and Robaire are like his older brothers, while Aaron T is sort of a dumber version of himself.

-He has a bit of a problem with mistaking his I’s from his E’s in writing, but he easily fixes this once he realizes.

-His parents were pretty rich, if I guess correct.

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

Robaire

-Worried parent of the band.

-Still gets freaked out when a fan says they want to kiss him.

-Exceptionally good at dancing, and has an amazing voice.

-The leader of the band. 

-Keeps them all going in one direction. (oNe DiReCtiOn)

-I’m sorry but he still can’t use his keyboard on his computer.

-Tunes in to weird romance movies, with his heart and his soul.

-church boi

-tends to get carsick a lot

-had a falling out with his parents after joining the band

-he’s actually one of the dumbest in the band

-likes batman, and will fight against the Superman fans…

Person: yo Superman good

Robaire: ahem, he has weird eye problems, and has a hairdo like alfalfa

Jesse: (whisper shout) ro! we talked about this!!!!

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

Aaron Z

-quiet little bastard

-dirty minded

-often picks up tae like he’s a cat

-wants a cat, but the band won’t let him because he killed his goldfish by feeding it animal crackers

-naps everywhere

-athletic boi

-NoBodY gEtS mE mOm

-will swear at interviewers

-protective mun

-that older sibling who you pretend to hate but you’re actually happy that they’re there

-t’s best friend. hes just got a vibe

-probably puts notes on his food in the fridge, ahem.. ((Z’s food. Do not eat or I will throw you out of the window.))

-no grammar issues ever

-constant sighing in the background

-just done

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

Jesse

-will constantly insult the monalisa, wondering how she could even be popular, when she’s got no EYEBROWS

-also a concerned parent

-shakes his head a lot

-insomnia

-nyctophobia

-got butterflies in his shirt. will never be the same again.

-wears little bracelets from his kids

-brings up his kids to management a lot

-has a good reputation with management

-coffee is the only reason he is alive today

-“i cant do this anymORE PUT THE PHRICKING LAWN MOWER DOWN T”

-is mainly the one to use like, the one braincell that the band shares

-teases robaire about baguettes and oui oui oui’s

-steals Tae’s nail polish and puts it on, if he ever feels like it

-eats toast with Nutella every morning, period.

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

Aaron T

-jokester 

-happy-go-lucky

-jumps on couches, and 100% of the time falls onto the coffee table

-he makes it seem like nothing, but he actually plans out how to make his bandmates feel better, in any situation at all.

-will often pick up gross bugs and throw them at people, management included

-only got one ear pearced, because he was too scared. not that he’d ever tell anyone he was afraid though

-has demons in his head, that he never lets out

-he has this vibe, that can make everyone smile. its like his happiness is contagious

-right before he had joined the band, he had been roofied at a bar, and still has trouble going to public restrooms

-when he’s upset, the band will immediately realize, and debate on how to make him feel better 

-the band knows he doesn’t like it, but they’re all very protective around him, and try to shield him from fans sometimes

-will never miss an opportunity to jump onto jesse or robaires backs

-they don’t mind it though, they know that he only does that when he’s stressed, and needs human contact

(those were just a bunch of me making his life hard. ANYWAYS)

-speaks reeeeaaaally fast

-snorts when he laughs

-currently the reason why robaire and jesse are mentally aging at an elevated pace

-likes horses, a lot

-once tried to stack all 56 of his hats onto his head. did not end well

-almost caused jesse to drive off a bridge, and WASNT EVEN IN THE CAR-

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

#4town headcanons #4town #4town jesse #4town aaron t #4town Aaron z #4town robaire #4 town robaire #4 town tae young #4 town tae #yes #i made t’s life a nightmare #im sorry

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

Right back at you, buddy! 3, 5, 12, 13, and 19 for the behind-the-scenes ask game :D

~ @sammys-magical-au 🫶

(Thank you, Sammy~ 😊😊😊)

3 — Do you write fics from start to finish, or jump around?

When I officially started writing fanfics, I mainly jumped around with the plot until I was satisfied with how things went in the story. And that was years and years ago. More recently, I decided to try writing from start to finish, and honestly. . .I see it as sort of a bad habit? That's not to say it can't work for other writers, but it just seems to slow me down. So, I'm trying to unlearn it and go back to my old tricks.

Like, I tend to think of climax scenes first. You know, the really dramatic/important stuff because, well, it's dramatic/important. I feel that once I get those particular details out of the way, it'll be easier for me to write other stuff around it until the story is full. Plus, that type of format allows for random ideas to pop up and potentially make things even better.

5 — What is the perfect environment for you to write in?

Typically somewhere quiet with no distractions. I take meds for my autism and ADD, but I can still be tempted to focus on other things, thus plagiarizing my stories. I don't like to, it just happens, and I'm still working on it.

When the weather is nice, I love riding my bike over to the library and just writing there for a few hours (so long as some disruptive asshole doesn't waltz into the areas that are CLEARLY MARKED FOR SILENT STUDY. It happens more frequently than I care to admit, but oh well. Not the end of the world).

But if I'm really focused/dedicated to the story at hand, then I can write pretty much anywhere. Just a year ago, I tagged along on a family vacation and seriously surprised myself via writing a full story for Goretober 2023 during the several-hour-long car ride. And I didn't feel carsick once, which was practically a miracle. I'd brought one of the cool-looking notebooks I'd collected on a whim, as well as a pencil and a lap-desk thing. I totally covered the entire backseat with eraser shavings, but it was worth it!

12 — Is there a trope you haven't written yet but really want to?

Hard to say; I've written with tons of tropes—I've definitely done so without even meaning to. If you've read my stuff, then it's probably very obvious which tropes are my personal favorites, but I still try to be open to new ones.

I suppose I haven't written Talking Animals, since the stories I've been focused on are somewhat set in reality (fictional, but not Fantasy, you know?). But I always loved seeing that when I was a kid. Since a lot of my fanegos have pets, perhaps I could write a snippet from said pets' perspective? I know it technically wouldn't count as them talking, but it'd be pretty close, right?

13 — Is there a trope you wouldn't write if it was the last trope on Earth?

It's a tie between two tropes, actually: Minority Character Dies First, and The Pure and The Promiscuous.

The former is completely stupid and racist/ableist/etc., and I don't understand how or why it's still being used in some movies or books today.

The latter is more complex, since it's typically used in romantic scenarios, which I don't write very often anyway. But I still hate it because it just seems insulting to the characters. Like, I can understand the appeal of having one character teach things to an inexperienced character, but the way I've seen it handled almost always leads to the character on the receiving end being infantilized or dumbed-down. Which is bullshit, because the character deserves more depth and thought than that!

19 — Who is the easiest/hardest character for you to write about? Why?

Maybe this is obvious, but fanegos are the easiest for me to write! True, sometimes I struggle a bit, since I want to have a balance of originality and a clear tie to the content-creator the fanego was inspired by. But otherwise, I make the rules. Canon egos also aren't too tricky for me to write; I feel like I'm pretty decent at learning/feeling a character's quirks to make that character seem authentic in fanfic settings.

One thing that's undeniably difficult for me to write is reader-inserts. No shame to those who have requested reader-insert fics from me, because I love engaging with people on here. The problem I have with it just seems to be my own self-consciousness. You already know why I tend to avoid shipping in fanfics, and I guess that also counts as a factor.

[Ask Game]

#the edgelord gets fed #ask game #sammy's magical au #friendship

[lutiaslayton]

Hi all, I’m very sorry for the late notice (I was trying to push through until the end against the odds), but I won’t be able to get today’s update for Layton’s Book Club done in time 😔 I tried my best, but with the Christmas family gatherings (and eating ten times more than I am used to), the moving around multiple places (I get carsick so I can’t work during travels), the running some more simulations for my lab (I know my PhD is done but we just might be on the brink of a breakthrough), my favourite laptop needing repairs (it is now finally back home and I can finally draw again!), and the flu I got for two days (I’m better now), I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it.

When past me said that I had the entire first chapter as buffer and that it would amount to at least six weeks worth of updates… Well, that is technically true, but also that is only true if you want to consider the primary DeepL-only translation with the bare minimum of editing. What I realised upon giving it a closer look was that a lot of sentences are a bit hard to analyse and interpret correctly, at the very least during the scene which was supposed to be posted today. This first scene in particular is already extremely fast-paced and confusing as it is due to the sheer amount of action happening in it, so for this update more than for any other, translation accuracy really needs to be top notch. and the issue is that since I still do not speak Japanese, top notch 9/10 accurate translations take forever to make because I have to verify every word one by one.

The entire point of this second translation I am making is to have one that is better than the currently-existing Google Docs one on all aspects, mainly reliability and reading enjoyment (as much as I can make it since my own writing style is miles away from the Layton’s Book Club narration style). It would be hypocritical if my translation were just as half-baked as this first one from years ago, even if it would be of just barely higher quality thanks solely to DeepL being superior to how Google Translate was ten years ago.

So… If you want, you can read the first DeepL-with-minimalistic-editing translation directly on my transcription website in the meantime. And if you are even more impatient/curious, you can read here the Google Docs translation which was made by someone else years ago, and… really is lacking in a lot of important moments. But for Layton’s Book Club, in the end I decided to go for quality over quantity. And also this extra week will hopefully allow me to breathe a bit :')

---

PS: The translation you can read in black text on my transcription website is not actually meant to be enjoyable to read, it is rather meant to be as accurate and close to the original as possible (including the order of words, which is notably why they are so weird to read). Green text shows the sentences that DeepL spat out when I copy-pasted the Japanese version and which past me barely edited in order to make them sound like actual English, but their accuracy is not ascertained.

#lutiastalks #layton's book club

[topgunruinedme]

Doing it like this because of annon 😁

What ship would you like to see more often?  Hollywolf and Floydsinshaw!!

What’s a rare ship that you enjoy that’s not seen often? I don't know if this counts, but a while ago I read a Omegaverse fic where Jester had a mate, Vinny and they where so cute together. Kinda like grumpy x sunshine trope and I absolutely love it. (But it was mostly about IceMav)

What’s your favourite of my fics? I am absolutely obsessed with your Less Than Achievable series on Ao3. I literally cannot wait for more.

What do you enjoy the most (genre, whump, love, affection/Platonic, etc)? I love everything that has the '86 class and dagger squad family theme. And I love the 'Mav has to raise baby Bradley but the '86 class + Viper & Jester show up one day and won't leave so they're stuck with them and everyone argues who's Bradley's favorite'.

How are you guys?  Kinda shitty tbh 🥲 I'm just back from a sort school trip that took two days where you learn about being in a team and stuff. We had a whole day outside with way to many snow and it was cold and boring. And when we went back to the train station, I got carsick (actually bus sick because we where in a bus) and then when we had to switch trains I threw up on the platform when everyone was leaving the train and everyone stared at me (also people from my school) and I was so embarrassed.

Tell me a fun fact about yourself?  -I'm from the Netherlands. -I have a cat without a tail. -I have celiac disease. -I'm trying to write a book, but I'm failing horribly and thinking about giving up. -I buy more books than that I read. -I read a unhealthy amount of fluff and smut because i've been single for way to long. -Last week my ex broke up with me through a text and then I found out that he has been cheating on me with my (ex) best friend for the past 2 months.

-🦊

Foxie!

I was just thinking about you.

I would be happy to write some more Hollywolf and Floydsinshaw. I admit they are not ships I typically go to but I can certainly experiment with them.

haha i can defiantly have a look into character like Jester and Viper if you want some moody old men content.

You'll be happy to know that I'm just waiting for my Beta to sign off for my next chapter of Less Than Achievable, I'm hoping to have it out soon.

Fun fact, that series was only meant to be 7 chapters long, were now at chapter 6 and I have a lot to cover yet. So many idea's running through my head.

I really like this idea, 'Mav has to raise baby Bradley but the '86 class + Viper & Jester show up one day and won't leave so they're stuck with them and everyone argues who's Bradley's favorite'. I'm sort of attempting something similar with my Dagger Daycare series. I've never explored it before it came to me on a whim but I'm really enjoying writing the series so I hope to continue with the 1986 flyboy and Bradley/ daggers family theme.

I'm, so sorry to hear that life's kind of shit at the moment. I'm sorry that you found your camp boring (i was never one for camp either, I was the weird kid in the corner playing with toads). I used to get really badly car sick so I know exactly how bad that feels. I've thrown up on so many people that the embarrassment eventually fades. My class had a bingo card at one point after I vomited on my Principle (Twice). Let me know if I can do anything to help you through it or make it more manageable!

Oh I thought about visiting the Netherlands this year, its a beautiful country. I love cats but unfortunately I'm allergic to them which is very sad instead I own a very dumb but lovable dog who I Absolutely love. Don't worry start a book is hard work and it will come with a lot of failure. But that only builds the platform to success. Don't give up! there will be many first drafts before your final. 90% of the time you will want to give up, its a struggle. But trust me if you push through it, its worth it. It took me a long time to feel satisficed with what I was writing. One book I wrote when I was younger I absolutely hated to the bottom of my heart and yet it became one of my most popular. It takes patience and dedication, I believe if you want it hard enough and your willing to work for it you will do just fine. (Let me know/send me through a private message if you want any advice or help/ or just have a conversation about anything (e.g. the weather) I'm free and open to anything. I enjoy talking to you guys).

I defiantly buy far more books then I read. I tend to buy a book every time I go out.

I read far to much fanfiction, I can go through few hundred story's a day. I believe I've lead at least 95% of the top fanfiction at this rate.

Personally, your ex wasn't worth his title if he's going to break up with you in such an immature way. He didn't deserve you! Especially if he thought cheating on you with a friend was a good idea. You beast friend doesn't deserve her title as well. I'm glad you've dumped them both, go out a treat yourself a bit. You deserve to be happy and positive. Try going out on a walk by yourself, just listen to the nature around you. Try some mediation. Take this time to learn about yourself, what your needs are and find your inner calm. If you can understand what you need, then you can find friends who will accept you for who you are without asking you to change. You should never change yourself to fit someone else's needs.

Take care of yourself Foxie.

I'm happy to report that I have recently been working on your Wolfman/Oc nurse request. I honestly didn't expect to have this much fin writing this request I only intended it to be a 1-2k at most but it seams my mind has gotten away from me...

#Talk to me #top gun fanfiction #top gun imagine #top gun fandom #top gun maverick #top gun 1986 #top gun headcanons #TGRM #TGRM requests #TGRM messages

[allylikethecat]

🍄🔪

YAYY more writer truth & dare ask game emojis!! Thank you so much for sending these my way! This game is so fun, and I'm really liking the questions on this list! If anyone else wants to send some or reblog themselves, it can be found HERE.

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

Fictional!Matty is an absolutely horrible driver, so whenever he and Fictional!George go somewhere together, Fictional!George drives. However, Fictional!Matty always gets horrifically carsick, but they have decided that Fictional!Matty maybe vomiting on the side of the road is better than like... crashing the car.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Oh my god this is a hard one. I feel live I've researched a lot of really weird stuff for fic over the years lol I feel like I have AT LEAST half a semester's worth of a medical degree at this point (because that's how it works right?) I know it's not the question but the thing that got me the most fired up was when I discovered Brussels was only a 2 hour train ride from London. I thought it was further and let myself be manipulated into going back to Paris last time I was in London, when I could have gone to Belgium and had a Belgium WAFFLE in BELGIUM instead. I'm still salty. So I guess, geography is my answer. Oh! Also if they have microwave popcorn in the UK. I called my cousin in a panic and was like DO YOU HAVE POPCORN IN YOUR COUNTRY and he was like what? Yes? and I was like okay cool bye.

Thank you so much again for sending these!!! I hope you had a wonderful Monday and that you have a great rest of the week! (I also hope you enjoy tomorrow's update 👀) Thank you again!!

❤️Ally

#allylikethecat #ask ally #anon ask #fanfiction #keep it kind #fanfic #Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game #im sorry my tags are lacking on these asks #im tried and just put the finishing touches on tomorrows fic update #and my brain has decided it doesnt wanna be clever anymore #not that it was ever clever #but you know what i mean lol

[aaaaaaaaaaaas-things]

   I’ve always had quite the gift for falling in love. This brought me so many others; it came with a gift for writing, whenever I felt like I couldn’t tell things to anybody/ I wrote. 

   When I got over you, a few months later, I realized I’d never been good at writing; I was good at suffering love pain. Years passed and I had already accepted I wouldn’t write anything worth reading ever again. I hated everything that came out of me; I got terrible at writing text messages and my market lists were suicidal to read. I never wrote a song again, and couldn’t find the right motivation to learn anything new in the guitar. I abandoned the piano for good, and not knowing what I was doing, I backpacked all I was and every memory, and I left it on the road.

   I developed eating dysfunctions and memory losses, I forgot every song I’ve ever played and could barely remember the few that used to remind me of you. This was all by chance, I didn’t even realized I was forgetting you. The first time I actually noticed how over you I had been, I was already a few steps from falling again.

   I spent the day trying to make my backpack smaller (couldn’t be done, the camera is way too big). Then I dressed the jeans I had just bought (they make my ass look nice), and my favorite cropped, my loveliest necklace and rings. I was looking damn nice. No makeup on, just the perfect smell and the right amount of fun, I was looking great- (fun fact: while I kicked you out of my life, I was in such a peace with myself. Guess during high school you were always telling me how great I was looking, or how cool were my clothes, trying to start up a conversation, and I was denying it, so every time there might have been a taught telling me I wasn’t good- my head just replied with “he didn’t like you, now he does, so you’re doing just fine!”) 

   Of course I was still insecure about my bikini body, but every time my head replied- “he’s gonna think you very fine”. So I just went. 

   You texted me you were leaving to pick me up- I didn’t even knew I had your phone number. I left a few minutes earlier to step in the drugstore- I wouldn’t like to get carsick. I arrived in the meeting point, took my dramin, and waited, while talking to my father. You arrived, but my phone’s internet was off. I felt a tiny bit of a gut feeling, pulled it from my pocket, turned the internet on- to find 2 messages from you, from 1 minute ago- “arriving” -and- “we’ll stop to eat”. 

   My tummy got a bit blurry but I can only remember it now. I got out from our car, leaving my huge backpack, I was afraid it might scare you. So I was standing in front of my car, looking for you, and then my eyes crossed yours, but I had already commanded my head to look at my father in calling him to come out- immediately regretting ‘cause I taught I might have looked a bit rude- avoiding your look. Anyway. 

   When I was back to your eyes, you were out of the car walking in my direction. I smiled and said -“hi! You’re already looking “beach-y”!” You said that this was your style now and hugged me. Our hug lasted longer than what I taught it would. I hadn’t hugged you for 4 years- at least. It was also care-fuller then what I expected. I attempted to feel your smell cause I had forgotten it- couldn’t.

   When we un-hugged your dad was out of the car- he also hugged me with more caring then what I taught you guys had for me. I hugged him back remembering how much I know your family and rubbing his arms. I felt your eyes looking at me. Our dads went to smoke looking at the streets and I didn’t know how to talk to you so I entered the bakery. You followed. I chose where to sit (tough I remind being a bit apprehensive on doing so - every seat was free and the choice was 100% on me. And I’ve feared your disapproval my whole life, but I didn’t thought of asking your opinion at the moment- so I sat by the window) you seated in front of me and I noticed you had different nail polish in each nail. And I taught “how TF did I liked you?”. 

   We talked about your college, I showed you the pictures I took in there- a blank wall with brick patterns- I told you I didn’t even know why this photo, but that my dad also liked it and I just felt it was so good to look at. To which you answered a resounding YES. Our parents came into the bakery when we had just entered the weed topic- so you stopped. 

   I don’t recall much from the dining. But before entering the car they went for another cigarette and we talked a bit// about your trip to United States and how you and your friends aren’t the most travel-enjoying crew. How you didn’t even knew bagels. And then I talked about something (I don’t remember what) though I remember feeling your look burning my face. They finished and I took my backpack, said goodbye to my dad and went to enter the car- you closed the door for me. 

   I wasn’t feeling anxious- should have already think it weird. I actually felt very good inside the car with you. We stopped for gas and you commented on the 24hour laundry at the gas station- felt like you could talk about anything not to stay in the weird silence I thought we’d be stuck in. 

   Then we were in the road- had matter to some minutes, and while I talked you looked. Then there was some silence, and you guys talked family and plans. I looked through the window, but the entire time I felt your eyes staring at me like a sun- you wouldn’t stop looking for nothing and I hadn’t the courage nor the need to look back. But I felt you looking- I thought it might have been craziness of me- that I was just existing in your field of vision- but later I sat in the front bench and realized you had to be making an effort to be looking at me. 

   When we entered the city I talked while we passed the places I knew there. I felt your look the exact same way you used to do at the movies, waiting to see my face react to the famous deathly hallows sign. You might have a thing for my reaction to familiar stuff. I hadn’t remembered that day in such a long time ... but it would come really clearly in that week.

[baecvlt]

First Love

Pairing: Sougami (Byakuya Togami x Kazuichi Soda)

Warnings: Smut (all wholesome tho bc they barely met in this one)

A/N: Decided to write this up for the bestie (komaedanovio on TikTok; follow them). Azul would die for them and there are 0 fics abt them sooo. Yeah.

“So you’re part of the Future Foundation, huh?”

Byakuya pushes his glasses back as they were falling off his nose, then turning around to see the person who spoke. “Uh, yes,” he answered the pink haired man behind him, he stuck out his hand that he’d covered with a handkerchief,“Byakuya Togami”. They shook hands.

“Name’s Kazuichi Soda”

“I know. The ‘Ultimate Mechanic’, is it not?”

“Yeah! You look really rich. Valentino Couture?”

“Yeah—,” Byakuya answered, then looked down at his suit,“How did you know?”. “My mom was somewhat a tailor. She’d help fix and sew up suits such as yours, so I obviously had to recognize Italian threads,” he explained,“Made sure I washed my hands before approaching you, can’t stain a fine suit like that”. Byakuya was somewhat impressed. No one has ever appreciated his attire, he looked like a snob to most people.

Then again, Kazuichi isn’t most people.

“She taught me to sew, never let me handle suits,” Kazuichi added,“But I’d always see them in the closet hung up nicely”. He had a warm smile on his face, reminiscing tends to bring a little joy to him. “I think that’s just honorable,” Byakuya said warmly. “You think so?”. Byakuya nodded, the smile on Kazuichi’s face spreading. “Thanks,” he mumbled, but spoke up,“We should keep in touch, y’know?”. Byakuya began to think. He wasn’t really one for friends, Kazuichi was extremely beneath him. On the other hand, he was interesting to talk to and didn’t seem like a pest, right?

“That’s fine”

“Alright! How about we meet up during the island celebration? Tonight?”

Byakuya nodded, he didn’t know why, but he nodded. “Cool! See you later, Togami”. Kazuichi ran off, going to see if he can help with cleanup someway. As he ran, Byakuya had just realized he agreed to hang out with someone who he had just met. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, but it was just weird to him. I guess, he just seemed nice enough. Whatever. Now that the Tragedy is over, it’d be nice to return things to normal. Byakuya was ready to make new partnerships and if his first besides his classmates was to be Kazuichi, so be it.

Later that evening, Byakuya made sure to attend. He got there early, making it easier to spot Kazuichi. He was around Gundham and Sonia, who had begun warming up to him. Their eyes locked, Byakuya waved. Kazuichi waved back as he called for him,“Togami! Wait up—”. He ran from his two classmates and to Byakuya. Everyone had gotten dressed up, Kazuichi in a nice little suit that complimented his hair. He had glasses on this time. “What a surprise!,” he cheered,“I thought you would’ve bailed!”. That was sad to say the least. “How could I do such a thing? I had to come anyway,” Byakuya explained,“Makoto can’t drive...he’s also in the Future Foundation”.

“So I’ve heard. Can I offer you a drink?”

“Why not?”

Byakuya was a pessimist, this we know. He was as pessimistic as they come. Hanging out with Kazuichi was something he told himself wouldn’t be worth his time, but he agreed, so he had to suck it up. To his surprise, hanging out with him wasn’t so bad. In fact, he’ll never admit it, but Byakuya actually enjoyed Kazuichi’s company. They went for a glass of punch, enjoyed the feast, danced with friends till dawn. Around 4am (because damn, this party was just never gonna end), they took it upon themselves to walk along the beach. As they walked, conversations took place. Byakuya went off on a rant about his limousine life, riding in one everyday and how he feared for his life when doing so. His limo made a sound that sounded as if it were going to fall apart any time soon.

“It was a scratching noise against the asphalt and absolutely terrorized me as a child. To this day, I won’t enter a limousine. I just can’t”

“Scratching? Gee, only thing that comes to mind is the exhaust coming down. Wish I could’ve seen it and told you for sure”

“I still have it in a hidden garage. It’s that valuable”

“Oh, nice! Maybe, I can stop by and see what’s wrong. You’ll have to drive it though”

Byakuya raised a brow. “You’re the mechanic, are you not?,” he asked. Kazuichi laughed nervously, nodding. “See, thing is...I get terribly carsick”. Well, that was new. It was confusing to Byakuya, just as the confusion hit, Kazuichi added:

“Isn’t that funny? The rich guy who’s scared of limos and the mechanic with carsickness”

Byakuya snickered,“Yeah, I guess that’s unheard of”.

They laughed, finding a perfect place to sit down. It was late. Dark and late, the sand was cool against their hands. They took off their shoes, setting them aside. The waves crashes on the shore, “So, what next?,” Kazuichi asked. His voice was softer, Byakuya took notice. “What do you mean?,” he asked. Kazuichi pushed back his hair and shrugged. “I mean, now that we’re all free”. Byakuya took time to give a proper answer, he had a plan.

“Well, for starters, after we finish cleanup, do the very best to rebuild homes. Slowly as we become civilized again, I rebuild the Togami Conglomerate. It’s what my family would’ve wanted and for them, I’d do just about anything” “Wow” “And yourself?”

Kazuichi smiled, facing him. “I’ve been working on blueprints here and there to, get this, introduce new transportation for us all!”. Byakuya shrugged. “You haven’t heard the best part, though,” he added,“You’ll never guess what it is!”.

“Flying car?

“That sounds awesome— No! That’s not it at all!”

“What is it?”

Kazuichi bit back his smile and answered,“A monorail! One that goes super fast! I just know it’s possible! Average monorail? 70 miles per hour, but if I get it right, It could go 200 miles per hour...ore more!”. Now, Byakuya was smiling. “Impressive,” he responded,“It’d be very convenient for people to get around”.

“I’m glad you think so”

Kazuichi faced the ocean, sighing deeply. “I’ve just always wanted to build transportation, really fast ones,” he said,“My old man doubted me, though. He didn’t think it was realistic. He said cars I can do, but never anything past that. Something about cars is all the family knows, I dunno”.

“I think you can do it”

“You’re just saying things—”

“No, I know you can. You have something other geniuses lack. You have the heart. Where there’s heart, there is will”

“That means a lot coming from you”

“Why from me?”

Kazuichi explained that he knows about Byakuya’s family and they didn’t sound any easier, either. “We didn’t have good upbringings,” he said,“But you, you had it so hard. Yet, you overcame all of that shit. If you survived that and all of this, I know you can rebuild your conga line”

“Conglomerate?”

“Yeah, that”

They smiled. “Man to man,” Kazuichi added,“Is settling down in that plan?”. Byakuya hadn’t thought of that at all. Would he even want to settle down? Jesus. That was the last thing he expected to think about. “I’m going to be completely honest with you,” Byakuya answered,“I have no idea. That isn’t something that’s come to mind. While I’d like to have someone to continue my legacy, I just don’t know. Tell me about your plan?”. Kazuichi was confused now, he didn’t think Byakuya was gonna return the question. “I would like to, but who’d love me?,” he muttered. He continued.

“I never had the best luck with women, but then sometimes, I sit and wonder,’Do I really feel this way about women?’ I try to be such a people pleaser, I sometimes don’t even know if I genuinely like something or if I say I do because that’s what’s expected of me and I’ve never told anyone else that, wow”

Byakuya sucked at being comforting, we also know this, but he really wanted to be there for Kazuichi. “I think I’m gay,” Kazuichi blurted, covering his mouth. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that”. Byakuya shook his head,“First of all, congratulations”. Kazuichi couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Second of all, don’t apologize for being truthful to yourself,” he said,“I’m not exactly of heterosexual persuasion either”.

“Oh, thank god. I though I was going to be killed and thrown into the ocean”

“Nah, because who on this island is straight? Absolutely no one”

“You might be right...wow. I’m gay. I’m gay. I’m gaaaayyy”

Byakuya laughed,“Let it out, I guess”. “I’ve just never said that out loud! It feels so freeing!”. Kazuichi stood up and ran to the ocean. At the top of his lungs, he professed his attraction to men. He ran back, only for them to hear someone say. “You love who you love, man, more power to ya!”. They laughed at that moment, laughed so hard their stomach cramped. “Who even was that?,” Kazuichi sobbed.

“I think that might’ve been Yasuhiro”

“O-Oh, at least you know him”

They calmed down, enjoying their time on the sand. “This was fun,” Kazuichi mumbled. “I agree”. He scoot closer to Byakuya, who unknowingly wrapped his arm around his waist. He caressed his sides, softly. Kazuichi lay his head on Byakuya’s shoulder, which he didn’t mind. There was just something really comforting about this. “What’s most important to you in a relationship?,” Kazuichi asked. His voice was still soft, but unlike before, it wasn’t stern or blue. “For both of us to have ambition and goals set,” he answered,“What’s important to you?”.

“I just wanna trust someone. It’s hard for me to trust anyone, really. So as long as I can trust them and they’re kind, that’s all I want”

“Well, I’m a brutally honest cunt”

“I love brutally honest cunts”

He laughed as he continued to rub down his sides. As the saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Plus, tonight was going just great. “Look at me,” Byakuya said. “Hm?”. Kazuichi faced him, only to be grabbed and pulled to Byakuya’s lips. He gasped, a blush coming across his face as Byakuya kissed him ever so tenderly. They pulled away slowly. Kazuichi covered his face, Byakuya reaching for his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “No! Its okay!,” he blurted,“It was more than okay! I-I’ve just never kissed another dude before. Okay, I’ve never actually kissed anyone else”.

“Oh?”

“Well, I have, but not like this”

“I can tell. Your lips, they were so soft and inexperienced. Untouched, I’d say”

As Byakuya said this, he placed his thumb gently on Kazuichi’s lips, sliding it down soft and slowly; he shuddered before he spoke. “I want you to kiss me again,” he muttered against his sliding thumb. “Good”. Kazuichi’s breath hitched as Byakuya grabbed his jaw, gently kissed him. He kissed back now with more readiness, his hand digging into the sand. Byakuya’s hand moved from his jaw to his throat, gripping softly. A sweet moan escaped Kazuichi’s lips, making him bite Byakuya’s bottom lip. He winced, pulling away momentarily. “Sorry,” he whispered. Byakuya reassured him it was okay, but Kazuichi shook his head. “Let me kiss it better,” he cooed, pushing Togami on his back. Soda straddled him, pecking his lower lip.

Now, Byakuya was blushing.

“Ah, don’t hate me, but I kinda drew blood”

“You? Withdraw blood? With those teeth? Also unheard of”

“Hey! Shut up about my teeth”

“I like your teeth”

“I like you”

“Really? Prove yourself truthful”

“Say less”

“WHAT THE FUCK”

Soda quickly got off of Togami, who sat up just as fast. There stood Hiyoko, Mahiru, Ibuki, and Mikan. “Hey girls!,” Kazuichi waved,“Togami was just helping me find my glasses. We found them know, so there’s no need to worry”. “Oh don’t worry, we were just on our way to the cabins,” Mahiru explained. “What goes on in the cabins stays in the cabins! Wooho- ouch!”. Hiyoko acting as if she didn’t just nudge the fuck out of Ibuki. “Y-You know, if you two are going to, uhm, continue what you were d-doing here,” Mikan began to suggest,“Maybe you c-could go get a cabin too. The others are headed over here”. Kazuichi looked at Byakuya, who nodded. “Okay then! Let’s go!”.

So there they were, following the girls to the cabins. “I say we go to mine, just to be safe,” Kazuichi explained,“Besides, I got to clean up. It looks greats now”. Byakuya just nodded, he couldn’t utter a word. For some reason, his heart was pounding out of his chest. The girl’s split from them, giggling as they entered their room. “Home sweet home,” Kazuichi said as he opened the door. They stepped in, Kazuichi locking it. He had turned the lights on, but once he jumped on his bed, Byakuya turned them off. “Oh, you’re straight to the point, aren’t you?,” Kazuichi teased as he held his arms open for Byakuya to crawl in. He did just that, kissing him all over. He focused on his lips for about 30 seconds, before moving on to his neck, and finally he unbuttoned his shirt a little to kiss along his chest. Feeling his shirt unbutton, Kazuichi took it upon himself to do the same to Byakuya, except unbuttoning it all.

“Togami..

“Yeah?”

“Lay down”

“Alright”

Byakuya lay down as Kazuichi got between his legs, hands on his belt buckle. “Can I...?”. Byakuya nodded, giving Kazuichi permission to take it off. Carefully, he slid off his jeans and briefs, exposing his pale cock. At that point, it was quite obvious that Kazuichi had no idea as to what he was doing and supposed to do. He began by grabbing his cock, licking at his tip a little, stroking him. Byakuya snickered as Kazuichi’s eyes met his, but breathed deeply. He put his mouth over it, bobbing his head, accidentally hitting his throat. He gagged, but not loudly. Byakuya played with his hair, not yet grabbing it. “Take your time,” he comforted,“I want you to enjoy this as much as I am...Fuck~ you’re doing so well”.

Kazuichi was really, really struggling. He had to think back to the most realistic porno he’s ever seen. What were these people doing that he hasn’t? Try being sloppy maybe? Cursing himself for his lack of education in gay sex (well, actually, just sex in general), he worked with what he knew. The last thing he wanted was to embarrass himself. Little did he know, he was actually putting Byakuya on edge. Byakuya hardly cursed and when he did, it was for good reason. Like right now, Kazuichi was giving him the sloppiest head in that moment. He was doing so well, Byakuya became fixated his mouth. Something about his mouth drove him insane.

And then there was Kazuichi, still believing he was doing terrible. His thoughts were racing.

I know I’m doing something wrong...

Is he even enjoying it?

God, I’m so out of his league...

Maybe if I just spit...

What would my dad think of this? Wait, my dad’s dead—

Kazuichi allowed himself to drool all over his cock. Byakuya moaned, pushing his head back. “No more, I’m so close...,” he gasped,“I’d prefer to finish elsewhere...”. Kazuichi’s stomach sank. “O-Oh,” he stuttered,“Okay, I guess I’ll just lay down”. Byakuya got in between his legs now, removing his jeans amd boxers, examining him, realizing he’d look better completely nude. Kazuichi shivered, which he also took note of. “Let me pull a bedsheet over us,” he said,“You look cold”. “Thank you,” Kazuichi muttered as Byakuya fumbled for the covers.

“Better?”

“Still a little chilly”

“Okay, Uhm- how about now?”

Byakuya held Kazuichi with his arms wrapped around him, bare chests making contact. “Feels so nice,” he mumbled. Byakuya placed a kiss on his chest before warning him about prep.

“Please be gentle”

“I will be, just relax. Breathe”

Kazuichi was shaking at this point, he was so nervous and didn’t know why. Byakuya held him tightly, stopping himself from entering even a finger in the guy. “You’re shaking,” he noted,“Is everything okay?”. Kazuichi nodded, explaining,“This is my first time, I just want you to be gentle”. Byakuya helped him work on his breathing. He placed a warm hand on his chest, making sure his heart rate slows down. “There,” he whispered,“I’m gonna go slow”. Kazuichi nodded, bracing himself.

Prep wasn’t actually bad?

He took Byakuya’s first two fingers well, but then the third one made him whine (and cry a little). Nonetheless, he just wanted to get it over with. The pain had gone away once Byakuya had curled his fingers a few times. Kazuichi made small noises as he took his fingers, whining when pulled out. With his other hand, he cupped Kazuichi’s jaw, but slowly slit it down to his throat. Kazuichi gasped as he felt Byakuya’s grip tighten. “I’m going to ruin you ever so softly,” he whispered,“Understood?”.

“Yes...”

“Good”

Byakuya took his cock out, placing Kazuichi’s legs on his shoulders. Still tight, he groaned as he pushed in. “Ah! Fuck...”. Along with being filled by Byakuya’s cock, the grip on his throat remained, sending a wave of pleasure through him. Byakuya kept his thrusts slow, just like be promised. “I-Is this okay?,” Byakuya managed.

“Harder”

“I just started. D-Don’t you want to ease into it first”

“No, just— please. Also...”

Kazuichi moved his hand to Byakuya’s choking hand, pressing it down harder against him. “What you’re asking for could hurt you, um...Are you sure?,” Byakuya asked. Kazuichi nodded, fisting Byakuya’s hair and pulling him in for a heated kiss. In response, Byakuya only thrust harder into him. He knew he wouldn’t last long, seeing Kazuichi’s already fucked out face. Each thrust only made his blush deepen and his stomach acids find new ways to make him feel sick. Byakuya came to the realization that his cock already had the guy in shambles and in a trance, almost. He was making him feel good, but he knew that he wasn’t exactly fucking him the way he should be fucked, deserves to be fucked. He wasn’t hitting his sweet spot just right, Byakuya taking it upon himself to experiment with his thrusts.

“Ngh! Hey, why’d you stop doing that? It felt— Ah!”

Found it.

Byakuya tried thrusting with his cock in that angle, but realized it was harder in this position. “Ass up,” he sighed, slightly out of breath. Kazuichi didn’t hesitate whatsoever, immediately laying on his stomach with his ass in the air. Sure, he already felt weak in his knees, but that wouldn’t stop him from letting Byakuya do him the way he was about to.

It didn’t take long for Byakuya to rediscover this new spot, hitting it repeatedly. Kazuichi dug his face into the soft, white pillows; practically screaming as he was unraveling underneath Byakuya. His whines were perpetual and if you listened closely, you could hear exactly what he was saying in a quiet breath.

“Yesyesyes, oh! Please don’t stop now pleasepleaseplease I can’t take it anymore, Ah! I love you, I love you so much, I really love you, o-oh thank you..”

Byakuya smiled at his low, yet raspy words. I love you? “How cute,” he muttered, pulling his messy pink hair back. Kazuichi’s hand shook as he moved it too his leaking cock. “I’m close, Togami, please don’t stop”. Byakuya snickered,“I don’t plan on it”. Gently, he shoved his head back down onto the pillow, also nearing his high. Without warning, Byakuya came after a few thrusts. Feeling his warmth, Kazuichi came right after. He collapsed onto the mattress, head in the pillows and trying his very best to catch his breath. As he took deep breaths, Byakuya smiled as his fingers walked up the blushing boy’s back, tracing small circles and figure eights.

“You’re too kind”

“You deserve it,” Byakuya whispered, placing a hand on Kazuichi’s hip and kissing up and down his back (and to his neck). Kazuichi turned around, Byakuya getting to kiss his stomach a few times before being pulled up by Kazuichi. “Ah!”. He laughed as he held Byakuya tighter, nuzzling him. Byakuya may have been taller, but Kazuichi was definitely stronger.

“Gotcha”

Byakuya would be annoyed, but not when Kazuichi has the goofiest and most smug look on his face. Eventually he let him go, laying by him. Kazuichi’s hair was ruined by their little night Basically, he ended up with his tiny braid undone. Kazuichi twirled his excess hair in between his fingers. “Oh- Allow me,” Byakuya said, finding the rubber band used to fasten the hair, braiding. Kazuichi’s eyes stared at him lovingly, watching Byakuya put his glasses back on just to redo his braid. “Annnnnd...done”. Byakuya rubbed his chest before reaching for the the ground and picking up his briefs, putting them back on. He tossed Kazuichi his boxers.

“Thanks”

“Of course”

They lay next to each other, Kazuichi playing with Byakuya’s hair. “I’m so glad I met you,” Byakuya admitted. “Ditto”. Byakuya grabbed his chin, pulling him in for a slow, passionate kiss. Suddenly, the door creaked open, but two girls rush in, already fondling each other.

“Excited, aren’t you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be when you look so—”

Kazuichi and Byakuya stared at the two women, who awkwardly stared back.

“Togami?”

“Fukawa?...WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH NAEGI’S SISTER?”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE MECHANIC?”

“I won’t say anything if you don’t”

“Sounds good to me! Come on, Komaru”

The girls ran out, thus allowing Kazuichi and Byakuya to finish their little makeout session. Eventually, it tired them out, sleeping in each other’s arms. Before sleep, Byakuya wondered something, but decided it could wait. The next morning, Kazuichi woke up first, planting a small kiss on Byakuya’s lips. As his eyes fluttered open, Kazuichi gasped. “My prince has finally awoken”.

“Silly”

“I know”

Byakuya kissed him properly, getting up to bathe. Upon entering the shower, he heard the door open. “Can I join?!”. Byakuya invited him in, closing the shower door. “Did you want something before we go?,” Byakuya asked, making Kazuichi blush. “Uh, no, um...did you?”. Byakuya shook his head.

“I just wanted to shower with you”

“I see. Help me with my hair, I’ll help you with yours”

Kazuichi nodded, grabbing the shampoo and lathering it into his hair. It didn’t take long to add in the conditioner in too since his hair was short. Now, Byakuya got to Kazuichi’s hair. He took care of Kazuichi, being less awkward about washing him up. It’s not that Kazuichi wasn’t into helping him, he was insecure about touching him. He wanted to do it right, sometimes doubting himself and what he was doing. Byakuya on the other hand, was confident in what he was doing as he massaged Kazuichi’s scalp whilst washing him. “Did you mean it?”.

“Mean what?”

“Last night while I was destroying you from the inside out—”

“Of course”

“—you said you loved me....well, did you mean it? I know people say things they don’t mean in a state of bliss, but-”

“Togami, I meant every word”

Byakuya’s heart skipped a beat as Kazuichi spoke. “If you mean it, tell me right now that you love me,” he ordered. “I love you, Togami. Do you love me?”. Byakuya held onto him, hugging him tightly. “Well, I guess this is my answer,” Kazuichi laughed,“Hey— Are you crying?”. Obviously crying, (because he was emotional for some reason) Byakuya backed away.

“Of course not! Me? Crying? No, never!”

“I love you”

“I love you too”

“Was this too fast?”

“What? You’re telling me you don’t believe in love at first sight?”

“I guess I do”

They finished up their shower and got dressed, heading out. Everyone had already met up at the dock. “Jesus, where the hell were you two?!,” Makoto asked, genuinely concerned. “Yeah, we were about to go search,” Hajime added. “I was helping Kazuichi pack something. I saw him struggle in his room with it,” Byakuya said, calmly. Kazuichi just went along with it. “Yeah, my tools wouldn’t pack well,” he explained,“Togami was just helping me stuff everything into my toolbox”. A low mutter was heard, but you’d have to be close enough to understand it.

“Yeah, right. That toolbox wasn’t the only thing Byakuya was stuffing...—”

“FUKAWA!”

“Alright! That does it for the headcount!,” Makoto announced,“Let’s get going. We have a rebuilt city to settle into!”. As everyone cheered on boarded the boat with their own individual classes, Byakuya rushed closer to Kazuichi. “Will I see you again?,” Kazuichi asked.

“Soon. May I kiss you goodbye, or would that be too much a cliche?”

“Yeah, but I love cliches. All the best movies have ‘em”

“So do I”

They kissed tenderly, Byakuya holding his waist. They pulled away, smiling. “See ya around,” Kazuichi mumbled. “Goodbye, Souda”.

#danganronpa #danganronpa goodbye despair #danganronpa trigger happy havoc #goodbye despair #trigger happy havoc #sdr2 #thh #byakuya togami #kazuichi soda #kazuichi souda #byakuya togami x kazuichi soda #byakuya togami x kazuichi souda #sogami #sougami #rarepair danganronpa #rarepair #smut #fanfic #send asks #send requests #kazuichi headcanons #kazuichi x reader #kazuichi souda x reader #kazuichi soda x reader #kazuichi #kazuichi danganronpa #byakuya togami hc #byakuya togami smut #dr byakuya #byakuya togami x reader

[captaincravatthecapricious]

Concussion- Prompt Fill

Jon falls out of a Kayak

CW nausea, concussion, hospital mention

Thanks for reading! I am still accepting bingo prompts (Bing card by the wonderful @celosiaa​)! Tell me a character and which prompt, and let me know if you want art or writing! The starred prompts are ones I already have received, and probably have outlined! (I am much faster at art just fyi).  Sorry this one took so long, I wrote it a week ago and hated it! 

Jon doesn’t like the outdoors.  In his experience it’s loud or wet or sandy or bright or crowded or filled with bugs or hot or spider ridden or just generally uncomfortable.  

But that doesn't matter, because he needs to prove that things are alright with Tim.  He has finally earned enough trust or goodwill or something to be invited on a kayaking trip.  

Even back when things were good, Jon rarely got invited along to these things.  Tim knows Jon isn't the outdoorsy sort, but occasionally invites him so he doesn't feel excluded.  

A traitorous part of Jon thinks that he was only invited as a joke.  But more of Jon doesn't care if that is true.  He earned that invitation, and it doesn't matter that he is baking in the heat or that driving to the lake made him carsick or that he already has 30 mosquito bites and counting.  He.  Does.  Not.  Care.  

It doesn't matter because he is here with Tim.  And Tim is having a good time.  

They paddle around the secluded lake for a couple hours.  Jon almost has fun.  He isn't having a bad time.  Tim has been cracking jokes, and Jon is having something adjacent to fun.  Not to mention... it just feels damn good to be included.  Usually it's Tim and Sasha, or on occasion Tim and Martin.  Not that this is the first time since... everything that Tim and Jon have been alone together... it's just.... Kayaking is important to Tim.  And Jon rarely merits such a heartfelt invitation.  And even if it isn't really his scene.  It's worth the itchiness, and sore muscles, and carsickness and oppressive heat.  It is all worth it.  

Jon doesn't really know how he ends up in the water.  One minute he is breathing hard, his back and shoulders burning after all that paddling, trying to convince himself that he probably doesn't need his inhaler (that he left in the car in any case), the next... he is in the water.  Life vest dragging him towards the surface... or where the surface would be if the kayak wasn't in the way.  

He cracks his head on textured, blue plastic, and it doesn't even have time to hurt before Tim is hauling him out of the lake.  

He can't say it really hurts.  Just the surprise, and  the moment of timelessness and involuntary tears when something smacks a person from nowhere.  The brief moment of everything being a little too sharp and a little too blurry all at once.  

He coughs as he breaks the surface and Tim's strong arms lift him back into the kayak as if he weighs nothing (which... Martin would say is the case).  It's probably the firefighter training.  

Water is streaming off him, and there is some sort of weed tangled in his hair.  

"Boss, you alright, there?" Tim clapping him on the shoulder, almost knocking him out of the kayak again.  (Jon isn't sure if the fact that it is a two seater is better or worse).  "Whoa there!"

Tim is steading him again.  He's honestly feeling a little dizzy and a little distant.  But that's probably just the surprise, right?  Probably.  

"Not your boss," he grumbles, trying his best to scowl despite how Bright everything is, and how he really is very very damp and how maybe jeans weren't his smartest move today.  He lets that hang for a beat.  "...Thanks Tim."  

He offers a tiny smile, trying not to shrink in on himself, like he did... back then.  

"Fine, you alright, buddy?  What even happened?"

Jon shrugs.  "I'm in one piece, I think."  

Tim fishes in the water for Jon's dropped paddle.  "Maybe it's time we head back, wouldn't want that to happen again.  I need you in top form if you wanna come out again with me!"  

His head is starting to hurt.  

Jon flushes slightly.  "I'd... really like that, Tim."

Tim hands him back the paddle and they head back towards shore, and the car, and their respective domesticities.  

The headache isn't exactly gone by the evening, but it isn't bad.  Not worth telling Martin about, although he couldn't escape Tim telling Martin how he fell out of the kayak, and having Tim show Martin the pictures of one very damp and disgruntled Jonathan Sims dripping in the kayak, and Jon in Tim's spare workout clothes in the car.  And Jon looking faintly ill with ginger ale clutched tightly with eyes closed on the way back.  And of course the selfie with Tim giving him a sloppy cheek smooch while Jon wears a truly terrible hat that he has no idea why Tim owns.  

Tim stays for dinner.  

By the time that Jon wakes up, Martin has already left for work.  

His head hurts.  Not migraine bad, but he makes a mental note to tuck some excedrin into his bag just in case.  Best to be prepared for these things.  

He drags himself upright with a groan, trying to ignore the way that the room tilts for a few moments as he gets up.  

School.  

Right.  

He's got work today.  And as long as Martin isn't there to be disappointed in his decision making, a headache is not going to stop him.  

It's too bright outside, and Jon isn’t hungry for breakfast.  Tea counts as breakfast, right?  That's good enough.  There's milk and sugar in there... that has to have enough calories to count for something, right?  It's fine.  

Halfway through class, Jon has to sit down.  Abruptly.  His lecture trailing off into a dizzy silence.  

The headache has become too distracting, the tilting of the room around him making it hard to stay tethered to the Earth's gravity.  He presses the heels of his hands against his eyelids, trying to stop the listing of the room.  

He hears a student calling his name, but he can't make himself parse out who.  And the Eye doesn't seem inclined to tell him.  

Which is probably for the best, because he is beginning to wonder if he can take much more headache.  

He doesn't know how long he's been down, but Martin is there now.  

Fluttering hands, checking him for a temperature, coaxing him to look up, shielding him from the fluorescent lighting.  

Jon leans into the cool of his hand.  

Martin's hands in his hair, smoothing away the bedhead, Jon forgot about before leaving the house.  Jon making an embarrassing sound as he relaxes into the touch.  

Until Martin reaches the crown of his head, and Jon hisses in pain.  

Martin has been talking to him the whole time, but the ringing in his ears has been too distracting to make out words until now.  "Jon?  Love, did you hit your head?  Can you look at me?  Tim said you fell yesterday, did you hit your head?"

Jon struggles against the painful light to meet Martin's gaze.  

Martin is shining a pen light in his eyes.  

Jon tries not to feel betrayed.  But the light Hurts.  And he just wants to go back to bed, and be held, or maybe have Martin bring him an ice pack, and he's starting to feel sick as well as dizzy.  

"Jon-love, we should get you to a hospital.  I need to get you actually looked at."  

Jon whines in complaint, but doesn't have the energy to argue as Martin guides him up, folding against Martin's chest, when his legs try to give with the pins and needles of inactivity.  

He doesn't want to go to the hospital.  It's bright and he is very tired.  And he feels so guilty that someone... probably one of his students called Martin in when Martin had likely just gotten off his shift and should be at home and sleeping and not scraping Jon's ass off the floor again.  

It hadn't been this bad earlier!  He's fine!  Really!  

"Jon-love, why didn't you say something?"

And Jon tries not to cry.  "I was fine... didn't hurt then."  

Martin tuts over him and holds him close.  

The hospital is just as bad as he fears, and he's pretty sure he guilty cried on Martin at least once, and possibly also took a nap in the waiting room, but when it's over, Martin shoos Jon into a waiting cab, and trundles them both home.  

Jon is dozing on the couch, because Martin is making dinner and he can't bear the thought of being farther away than one room over, and Jon has never been comfortable about the idea of eating in bed.  Breakfast in bed (Or dinner in this case) sounds good in theory, it just sounds messy and awkward in practice.  His phone has been confiscated after he sent a brief email to his students.  Martin wasn't happy that he already was ignoring the don't look at screens and don't think too much instructions.  

That will be an argument for tomorrow, and the next day until they eventually reach a compromise.  One Jon knows Martin won't be happy about, and one Jon will feel the bite of guilt over, but his students need him, and it really isn't a bad concussion.  He might let Martin fuss over him a little more than normal, but only until the extra work catches up with Martin.  Then it will be Jon's turn to look after him.  

“Jon, Tim just texted.  He says he’s sorry he didn’t know you were hurt, and that you don’t have to go with him again.”

Jon wants to cry again.  He breathes as deeply as he can, trying to draw courage into his lungs.  “Could you… tell him I Want to go?  I promise this won’t happen again?  I… had fun… and I want to go kayaking with him.”  

Martin enters the room with his phone in one hand, and a spatula in the other.  He kisses Jon’s forehead softly, and starts to type one-handed.   

“And please tell him to not feel badly?  I didn’t really notice until …well until you got called.  It was just a headache until then.  Not even a bad one.”

“Of course love, just tell me if it gets worse, alright?”

Jon hmms in agreement.  

#the magnus archives #tma #cw nausea #cw hospital #cw concussion #jonmartin #hurt/ comfort #whump #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #timothy stoker #tim stoker #words #my words #my writing #art #my art

[bookandcranny]

Shortwave Radio

Why he decided to leave behind a perfectly good astral cluster and go sight-seeing on a spinning ball of dirt in this great cosmic nothing of a solar system is a mystery to the entire family, but it’s been almost ten years now and so they’ve all had no choice but to conclude that he’s not coming back any time soon. 

The right thing to do is to support him in it, so says tender-hearted big brother Hercules, and if that means jumping through a few hoops to attend some strange human ceremony in this hot and lifeless wasteland, then that’s simply what they’ll do.

summary: Five siblings from the stars come to earth by invitation of their estranged little brother, who’s only request to them is that they take a road trip across the American southwest and try to learn to see this planet the way he sees it.

content warnings: dysfunctional families, carsickness, strong language, fear of abandonment, and accidental misgendering of a nonbinary character

length: about 7k words

also, have a playlist!

🛸🛸🛸

On a particularly sticky day in late July, a black minivan rolls up outside Gruber’s Convenience somewhere in the vague liminal world of the i-110 out of El Paso. Shimmering like a mirage the vehicle comes to a stop and five figures shuffle into the station. Working the counter is a greasy-faced teenager who calls himself Benj, though according to his nametag he’s Benjamin until the end of his shift.

If he weren’t intentionally ignoring the group that just walked in, resenting the loss of quiet and the cool air that just escaped with the chime of the door, Benj would notice a few things about them. For one thing, while they all look quite different, all five of them are wearing the exact same clothes: pale blue t-shirt, gray jeans, plain white sneakers, not a toe scuffed or sullied by the dust they kicked up coming in. They’re perfectly inconspicuous outfits, but too new, too deliberate in their banality. 

The people in the clothes have much the same effect. They’re collections of ordinary, aesthetically pleasing parts assembled as if at random, almost uncanny at the wrong angle. Not supermodel pretty, but perhaps stock photo passable. One of them keeps touching things. Just, touching them. He trails his fingers over snack cakes and little pouches of corn nuts with an unreadable expression. Three of them are clustered together in front of the drinks fridge speaking in hushed tones. 

The last one of the bunch is hovering in the corner making eyes at the shop’s resident mascot, Garfield, an uncreatively named tabby cat who’s taken to sleeping on a box underneath the AC unit. The cashier does notice her (he thinks she’s a her) if only because she’s kind of cute, in a straight-laced camp counselor kinda way. He’s already building up an idea of her in his head, every atom of it more false than he realizes.

The Christine or Sydney or whoever reaches down and gives the cat a poke, which turns into an experimental stroke. 

“Mrph?” says Garfield, like cats do.

“Mrph?” parrots the... Liz maybe? No, not quite, he thinks. Garfield blinks at her, yawns. She withdraws, looking half offended by his indifference.

“Don’t take it personal,” Benj says. “He’s not very social.”

She looks at him for the first time and he reevaluates his earlier assessment. Eyes too pale, too far apart-- not ugly per se but definitely not worth the possible write-up he’d get for flirting with a customer.

“He’s the owner’s cat,” he babbles, scratching his chin and looking anywhere but at her. “Or so they say. Honestly I think he just showed up here one day and no one could get him to leave.”

Before she can reply, one of her matching buddies comes up to the register and dumps an assortment of snacks onto the counter. It’s a baffling, eclectic pile, but like any good retail worker Benj has long since learned not to examine anything too closely.

“Road trip, huh? Where are you guys headed?”

The radio behind the counter has gone all staticky. He fiddles with the antenna.

“Visiting family,” says snacks guy. His voice is soft and monotonous, a stark contrast as the guy’s built like a US SEAL. 

Benj looks from face to face. “All of you?” He’s having a hard time believing any two of them are related.

He nods, once. A stiff, decisive shake of the head. The crackling of the radio is getting worse. Benj turns it off.

“Will that be everything, sir?”

Another nod. 

“Herc, wait!” One of the man’s supposed relatives comes up behind him and shakes him by the shoulders. “Hercules, look at this.”

He slams a book down on the counter, one of the cheap paperbacks Gruber’s pedals between the condoms and the first-aid kit stuffings. The cover reads, “The Chest from The West” and features a heavily airbrushed model in a cowboy hat and unbuttoned flannel shirt.

“What am I looking at?” Herc asks.

“Get this too. I want to read it.”

“Why?”

He opens his mouth but whatever he’s about to say, Benj doesn’t really want to be present for it. He quickly scans the book and throws it cover-side-down into the bag. Let them work this one out on their own, hopefully somewhere else.

“Your total’s $29.75” He spins around to shake the radio, which is somehow now back on and blaring louder. When he turns back, the register is telling him everything’s been bought and paid for. Guy must be lightning quick with a credit card, he thinks.

“Huh. Guess you’re all set, man-- sir.” He hands them their bags. “Have fun at your family thing.”

He flashes the big guy a thumbs up. He looks strangely staggered by the gesture and replies haltingly, “Thank you. You also, have fun.”

“Come on, sibs,” the more energetic one chirps. “Cass? Cass, come on.” He drags his sister away from the cat, who’s just starting to warm up to her. “That’s you, remember? Let’s go.”

They don’t get any gas from the pumps outside. Benj is pretty sure he saw the testy looking one with the ponytail shoplift a bottle of off-brand cola, but he isn’t paid nearly enough to care. At least after they’re gone the radio starts working normally again.

Hercules drives, though it’s not so much driving as sitting in the driver’s seat and telling the van to go. Earth machines are simplistic and easy to manipulate. Slow though. Cass is riding “shotgun”, as is apparently customary for the navigator. Andromeda, Zeta, and Camelopardalis share the backseat, where the formermost is rehashing the same tired debate with the latter.

“We need to work out a better earth name for you,” he insists. “Myself, I’ve been doing some research and I’m thinking about going by ‘Andy’ from now on.”

“I’m not calling you that,” says Zeta.

Camelopardalis asks, “What’s wrong with the name I have?”

“It is a bit long,” Cassiopeia agrees. “A shorter one would help you fit in better.”

“Speaking of fitting in, something else has been bothering me. What’s your gender supposed to be?”

“My what?”

“You know, your gender. We all picked one.”

“It’s almost like you didn’t read the brief,” Zeta says, instigator that she is.

“It’s almost like none of you read the brief, that I took the time to write specifically to help you all acclimate to earth culture.”

“Zeta, don’t upset Cass,” Herc scolds.

“I’m not upset.” She turns in her seat to stare pointedly out the window. There isn’t much to look at, just miles upon miles of rolling desert interrupted by the occasional billboard or truck stop, all crawling by at a snail’s pace compared to the sort of travel they’re used to. Not that she’d recognize the analogy. She misses the cat.

Camelopardalis fiddles with their seatbelt. “Which one are you again?”

“I’m a ‘man’,” Andromeda recites. “Earth men are known for their physical prowess and carnivorous diet, they live in cave environments, and often congregate in packs called ‘fraternities’.” He waves the gas-station novel in the air. “I’m going to research their habits and perfect my persona. By the time I’m done with this I’ll practically be a local.”

“I don’t know… Zeta, what made you decide to be the other one?”

“Flipped a coin.”

“Women,” Cass informs them. “Can be most commonly identified by their long hair, fastidious hygiene habits, the use of traditional face paints to accentuate the eyes and lips, and by fleshy protrusions of the upper torso. Any of these traits can indicate an earth woman, though none are necessarily required.”

They throw up their hands. “How is that helpful at all then! Zeta?”

“What do you want me to do about it? I didn’t invent them. Hercules, are you sure these ‘snacks’ are safe to eat? They have a strange texture.”

“If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.” He punctuates the point by reaching back and grabbing a cream-filled cupcake off the pile. He tears the plastic with his teeth and eats half of it in a single bite. He barely tastes the thing, but he’s hoping if his siblings follow his lead their mouths will be too full to whine at him.

“Yeah, Zeta, don’t be a bitch.” Andromeda opens a pack of mini donuts, albeit more gingerly, and pops one into his mouth.

Cass whips her head around. “Where did you learn that word?”

He holds open the paperback and points to a page.

Austin hesitated. “I’ve never ridden a horse before. What if I fall?”

Derek chuckled manfully. “Don’t be a bitch, city boy,” he teased. Then he placed his large, calloused hand upon the small of Austin’s back. He leaned in and whispered, “Don’t worry, I won’t ever let you fall.”

The navigator leans over the center console and tries to snatch the book away but he dodges swiftly, clutching it to his chest.

“That’s foul language, Andromeda Alpheratz.”

“Earthers use this kind of speech with each other all the time. It’s a sign of familiarity and affection. You guys need to be less formal if you want to blend in.”

“If it’s meant to be an insult,” Camelopardalis wonders. “Why would they use it to convey affection.”

“Because they’re brutish, unevolved lifeforms,” Zeta sneers. “‘Blend in, blend in’. The rest of you can worry about blending in with the apes. I’m only doing this for Perseus.”

“We’re all doing this for Percy,” Hercules says in a chastising voice that makes even Zeta shrink down in her seat. “So can we please agree to be somewhat civil and not make this trip more painful than it needs to be?”

There’s a murmur of general agreement and peace is restored, however temporarily. Camelopardalis clears their throat.

“I still don’t really understand why we couldn’t land directly at Perseus Nine’s coordinates.”

Cass huffs, blowing a dark curl out of her face. “For the last time, Percy specifically requested we partake in the human ritual of the ‘road-trip’ for this last portion of our journey. It’s the same route he traveled the first time he came to earth, and apparently holds some sort of sentimental significance. It’s important to him we experience the same pilgrimage. For some reason.” 

She adds the last part under her breath, knowing full well the others will still hear her. They can hear one another when separated by countless miles of empty space, their voices resonating from star to star, clear as a bell. Compared to that, the close proximity of a rented minivan is stifling. There’s an uncomfortable intimacy to it, these crudely assembled physical forms pressed together, bloated and heavy with all the trappings of humanity. Sweat and road dust and gravity cling to Cass like an over-warm coat and she longs for the cool estrangement that comes so easily in the void of space. It’s tough to be a star-dweller away from her star.

“The reasons don’t matter,” Herc declares, and his word is as good as law here. He is the eldest of them, though the concept of seniority is abstracted somewhat by the literal millennia they’ve all lived through.

Percy is the baby, as well as the black sheep of the family, so to speak. (His actual moniker among their kinfolk roughly translates to “the dissonant note”, a scathing insult for those who knew what it meant.) Why he decided to leave behind a perfectly good astral cluster and go sight-seeing on a spinning ball of dirt in this great cosmic nothing of a solar system is a mystery to the entire family, but it’s been almost ten years now and so they’ve all had no choice but to conclude that he’s not coming back any time soon. 

The right thing to do is to support him in it, so says tender-hearted big brother Hercules, and if that means jumping through a few hoops to attend some strange human ceremony in this hot and lifeless wasteland, then that’s simply what they’ll do.

“At least we can check one more stop off the list,” Zeta quips. “What’s next?”

Cass checks her itinerary. “We are to visit one national historic landmark, one ‘tourist trap’-- whatever that means-- followed by a stop at ‘Diane’s Diner’, home of the world’s best pie. After that, we can head straight to the meet-up location.” She glances at the clock on the dashboard. “We’re a little behind schedule but we should make it right on time as long as there are no unexpected delays.”

An hour and a half of driving later, Andromeda throws up corn chips and mini donuts all over the back of Herc’s seat.

They pull over on the side of the road. The desert sand is just beginning to give way to sparse yellow grass, brittle from the sun. Herc steadies Andromeda, looking viscerally displeased as he finishes emptying out his recently manifested stomach.

Camelopardalis frets through the whole episode. “We’ve all been eating the same food, except for Zeta. If it’s poisonous, one of us will be next.”

“It’s not poison, it’s carsickness,” Cass sighs. “Honestly, I’m starting to think none of you even looked at the brief.”

“Zeta, look in the back for something to clean up with.”

“Why me?”

“We’re going to lose so much time…”

“Would you rather hold him?”

Andromeda retches.

“Do you think Percy would care if we skipped a couple stops?”

“Cassiopeia Sigma,” Hercules begins sternly.

“Alright, alright. I’ll figure something out.”

Fortunately they’ve happened to stop within walking distance of something called The Trinity Site, according to the map. Camelopardalis and Cass go ahead to check another stop off the list while Zeta and Herc clean up the van and make sure Andromeda isn’t actually dying. (How embarrassing, to be a quasi-immortal astral being only to perish at the hands of a tainted twinkie.)

They wander from the roadside, following the map and occasional signposts, and shortly find themselves standing in front of an ominous looking stone obelisk with a bronze placard affixed to one side.

Trinity Site: Where the world’s first nuclear device was exploded on July 16th, 1945

There’s more but Cass stops reading. Camelopardalis asks her to explain what the plaque means by nuclear device-- they’re familiar with nuclear power as a concept, fission and fusion, ideas not far departed from the system of energy exchange that sustains their natural bodies in the heart of their stars-- but goes pale when she goes into the relevant applications of said devices.

“Wonderful,” she grumbles to herself as she snaps a few photos of the monument with a disposable camera. “I’m sure Percy will be thrilled.”

“Excuse me.”

The pair turn to see a man in a colorful button-up and khakis and a woman with a day-old sunburn peeling off beneath the straps of her tank top. 

“Boy are we happy t’see the two of yous. Couldja take our picture real quick?” 

The woman holds out a camera, a significantly more professional piece of equipment than the one Cass is holding.

“Oh, sure,” Cass replies. She’s nervous as she takes it from her hands. She’s never encountered this sub-species of human in her research before, and finds it difficult to parse the woman’s peculiar dialect. Both of them are smiling, but they’re also showing a lot more teeth (and a fair bit of gum) than she thinks is normal. A subtle threat?

Nevertheless, she fumbles with the camera for a moment before managing to take a decent snapshot. The man wraps an arm around his wife’s waist and she slots herself in against his side.

“Ope, wait, let’s do a silly one to send to Marsha and the kids. Were my eyes closed? No? Perfect, you’re a doll. We’ll leave you kids alone now.”

“Sure,” she says again, feeling out of pace.

“My nephew wears his hair like that,” the man says without segway. He’s talking to Camelopardalis, they realize. “It’s very… hip.”

They touch their hair. They hadn’t given it much thought before, might not ever have if he hadn’t pointed it out. It’s nice, they think.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

His expression flinches into a puzzled frown. Cass smacks their arm.

“Sir! Thank you, sir.”

After they’ve walked away Cass gives him another jab for good measure.

“His hair was longer than the other one’s,” they complain. “And the chest was sort of fleshy. How was I supposed to know?”

“We’re lucky you didn’t cause an incident. Earthers carry weapons in this part of the world.”

They rub their arm. “I don’t know, they seemed nice.”

Still they give a fleeting glance at the plaque behind them and argue no more.

They return to the van, now blessedly puke-free. Andromeda is looking better too. They all pile in and almost immediately Camelopardalis misses the freedom of being able to move without touching somebody. It may be their imagination, but the car seems to be moving slower than ever.

“How was it?” Zeta asks, despite her obvious disinterest.

“Uninspiring,” is Cass’ reply.

The other nods and doesn’t force her to elaborate. “I wish I knew what Perseus intended for us with this… chore list.”

“It’s not important, we just do it.” 

Herc is always a steady presence, but even he is starting to sound annoyed with repeating himself. Zeta, of course, can’t leave well enough alone.

“If we just knew what he wanted us to do or say we could do it and go back to how we were before.”

Cass snaps. “Maybe you should stop complaining and make an effort for once.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

The car erupts into a heated four-way argument. Only Hercules resolutely abstains from comment, though his hands tighten into fists on the steering wheel. The fight doesn’t end in resolution so much as exhaustion. Everyone’s too miserable to keep hurling accusations and insults for the next hundred miles, and at length they lapse back into tense silence.

Zeta rests her head against the window, taking the arythmic rattle into herself, breathing it out in silent, frenetic melodies. She dislikes fighting with her siblings, no matter what they might claim to the contrary. It doesn’t happen often, or didn’t, but things have been different since Percy left home. The littlest star-child had a natural soothing presence to him, one that she’d long taken for granted. Earth is so noisy, she thinks. She strains to listen but she can’t hear a trace of him anywhere.

She tries to imagine what he’d say, if he were here.

“What are we even doing?” 

Probably not that, but she already has everyone’s attention now so she figures she might as well keep going.

“I mean, we’re still behind schedule, we can’t stop bickering, Andromeda can’t even eat right apparently, and I’m pretty sure half of us didn’t even look at Cassiopeia’s brief.”

“Are you getting to a point?” Cass asks irritably.

“I’m just saying we’re all… bitches.”

“Zeta!”

“Get comfortable with it! We’re all bad at this. Me, you, all of us. So can we just stop blaming each other and have a truce in the interest of getting this over with?”

Cass opens her mouth, then lets it fall shut, sinking back into her seat. For a moment it seems they’re heading for another long awkward silence, when Andromeda sits up and points out the window with a sudden urgency.

“Look!”

Herc slows down and they see a billboard lit up in eerie green neon light, directing them to the next off-ramp.

Must see attraction! Visit the one of a kind Ancient Aliens Exhibit! 

The star-folk look at one another.

“Is this what they call a tourist trap?”

“It seems likely.”

Andromeda is glowing-- in a very literal sense-- with excitement. “It’s an exhibit about us.”

“‘Ancient’? Speak for yourself, I’m still only in my six-thousands.”

Needless to say, they do stop at the roadside museum. Cass takes pictures aplenty and, to her surprise, actually enjoys it. Andromeda is disappointed to find there isn’t actually a display dedicated to their kind. Instead there are a lot of grainy photos of some squat, bug-eyed species called “greys” and diagrams of the Egyptian pyramids for some reason. He gets over it by the time they get to the gift shop.

By unanimous decision, they do not buy anymore snacks, though Zeta’s eye does linger on a cooler in the corner advertising “the ice cream of the future!”. Herc does however buy a number of souvenirs. (Rather, he convinces the automated register to record a purchase that didn’t technically take place, and bumps up the number in the bank account of one very nice tour guide while he’s at it.) 

They leave with a mood ring, a handful of polished stones in a small velvet bag, a “gravity defying” purple yo-yo shaped like a UFO, and Camelopardalis sheepishly lays claim to a friendly looking martian figurine with bendable limbs. Overall, spirits are much higher by the time they make it back to the van.

“Hercules,” his meek younger sibling ventures. “Could I try driving? I’ve been curious about it.”

Feeling generous and more than a little tired of staring out at the road for hours at a time, he agrees. He shows Camelopardalis the basics and makes sure they know how not to veer off the road or into other drivers and then he climbs into the middle backseat and stretches out his arms so the siblings on either side of him can tuck in against him and rest. Eventually even the diligent navigator Cassiopeia begins to doze. It’s been a long day and none of them are quite accustomed to the burden of having earthbound bodies.

When Andromeda wakes up the first thing he registers is that it’s getting dark, the day reduced to a slim red band sinking over the horizon. The second thing is the yelling.

“What do you mean you don’t know!”

“I thought I could read the map myself--”

“What about you, navigator? What were you doing?”

“--didn’t mean to--”

“As if you’re one to talk! I can’t believe--”

“--and you were the one who--”

“Shut up!”

Hercules’ normally subdued baritone booms through the van. The windshield wipers begin swinging as if in indignation, while the passengers wince and cover their ears. Andromeda can’t remember a time when his brother’s frequency had felt so violent. The shivering resonance it leaves behind makes his teeth ache.

There’s a pregnant pause, then Cass slams open the door and begins to pace.

“Shit!” she yells at the empty air. They’re parked in a field somewhere, no sign of life save for the buzzing of insects and the rumble of a train somewhere off in the distance. Cass kicks at the ground and screams again. “Shit fuck bitch hell! We are so fucking lost! And so fucking late!”

Andromeda winces again and gets out to try and calm her. “Hey, it’s okay.”

“It is not! We’re probably missing the ceremony right now. Percy will never forgive me for this.”

“It wasn’t your fault…”

“I’m supposed to be the navigator!”

“Well, yes, but…” The words come out strangled. He touches his chest and realizes he’s breathing rapidly. His eyes are beginning to water as well. “I should’ve… I didn’t…”

Zeta hurries over to him. “What’s wrong? Are you going to be sick again?”

Without warning he doubles over and begins bawling. 

“Hercules, do something! Something’s wrong with him!”

“Don’t… don’t… don’t…” he gasps and stammers.

Herc clutches his brother. “Don’t what? Talk to me.”

“Don’t fight,” he finally chokes out. “I don’t want to lose anybody else.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Percy,” he sniffles miserably. “He doesn’t care about us anymore. He has earth now, and all his new earth friends, and we can’t even do this one thing for him. It’s my fault. I knew he hated when I called him a dissonant note and made fun of his earth music but I did it anyway. Now he probably hates me and all of us and this whole thing has been for nothing.”

The eldest braces his arms on Andromeda’s slumped shoulders. “Percy doesn’t hate us. He invited us here because he wanted to see us.”

“Herc’s right, Andromeda. Percy doesn’t have it in him to hate anyone.”

“It’s not easy, but he chose this. He chose earth. We have to respect that.”

Zeta grumbles, “And just what is so special about this stupid planet anyway?”

“It has cats,” Cassiopeia says quietly. Her sister glares but she stays firm. “Well it does. And… people.”

“Strange, silly earth people,” Camelopardalis adds, nervously fussing with their hair. “Confusing and contradictory and fascinating.”

“People who hurt each other for no good reason.”

“People who are kind for no good reason too.”

Andromeda wipes phosphorous tears from his eyes and takes out the rumpled gas-station paperback. “In this book Austin leaves his job as a big city lawyer to follow the cowboy he’s in love with.”

“You think Perseus traveled to earth for cowboy love?”

“It’s a possibility!”

Cass scoffs. “I honestly don’t think he was thinking that far ahead. You know Percy. He probably crash-landed without any plan whatsoever. Or, he probably thought he knew what he was doing, and then when he actually got there he was terrified. And then he probably didn’t want to say anything because he was afraid his siblings would think less of him once they realized he was actually just as clueless about earth stuff as they were. That would probably be really, really stressful for him.”

“Are we still talking about Percy?”

She makes a wordless noise of frustration and kicks up another patch of grass.

Andromeda puts an arm around her. “If… Percy was worried about that, I’d tell her-- him! I’d tell him that he shouldn’t be, because there’s nothing he could do that would make us stop believing in him.”

She exhales. “Thanks.”

“I was talking about you, Cass,” he whispers. “It’s you I believe in.”

“Thank you, I got that.”

“I just… miss him, I guess.”

Herc hums in agreement. “Barely a millennium old and he’s already grown up and gone completely terrestrial. This past century has been the longest of my existence.”

“Hercules, it’s only been ten years.”

That news causes him to make such a face that Zeta starts laughing. It’s the first time she’s so much as cracked a smile the entire trip.

“So… what do we do now?” Camelopardalis asks.

After a moment, Cass grabs the map off the dashboard and holds it open.

“A little more light please?”

They step up behind her and hold a glowing hand over the paper. Her brow creases in concentration.

“Alright, I think we’re somewhere around here,” She gestures. “And we need to be here. There’s no way we’re going to show up on time, but we can still show up. We owe him that much.”

They get in their seats, Herc back at the helm, and begin trying to reclaim the distance they lost with the unplanned detour. Cass breathes a sigh of relief when road signs start to reappear. A driver honks at them as they pick up speed and Herc steers closer and makes their radio start playing at top volume. Zeta opens the window and a cool night breeze tickles her skin. The stars are bright and beautiful above them, and looking up, suddenly home doesn’t feel so far away.

All at once they slow to a near stop.

“What’s going on? Why are we stopping?”

“Traffic,” Herc says like it’s a curse. “Looks like there was an accident.”

“Take this exit,” Cass commands. “We can cut through the next town and get ahead of it.”

So he does and soon they find themselves driving through the quiet streets of Kismet, Nevada. That is, quiet until Zeta catches sight of something out the window and yells, “Pull over!”

“What! What is it now!”

She points, and they see. The sign ahead reads, “Diane’s Diner: Home of the World’s Best Pie”. They pull in so fast they nearly end up colliding with a stout aproned woman who’s pushing a teetering hand cart across the lot.

“What do you maniacs think you’re doing?” she demands as they clambour out of the van.

“I’m very sorry, ma’am,” Cass says in a rush. “It is just very important to my siblings and I that we get to this establishment.”

The woman huffs. “You’re a mite late then, I’m afraid. We’re closing up early tonight. Got a big catering order I have to deliver.”

Herc asks, “Are you Diane, of the diner?”

She laughs. “Close. I’m Maddie Finkle of the diner. Diane’s my mother’s name. It’s a family business. But what brings you folks here looking for Diane at this time of night? I don’t think I’ve seen your faces around town before, and I always remember a customer.”

“Do you remember a customer named Percy? It would’ve been years ago, but this place was very important to him. He’s our brother.”

Maddie’s eyes light up. “Why didn’t you say so! Of course I know Percy. And if you rowdy lot are his siblings, then I’ve got a message for you.”

“A message?” Percy hadn’t said anything to them about a message. Maybe this was his way of ensuring they actually made it to the last stop on his list.

“Well, sort of. Come, come, help me load up all this grub and I’ll tell you everything.”

Herc and Zeta go to either side of her and help push the wobbly cart to a truck with the diner’s logo emblazoned on the side. As they load the boxes, Maddie speaks.

“I first met your Percy when I was just a waitress, mama still working the kitchen. One day this kid walks in, looking as lost as can be, comes straight up to the counter and tells me he’s just fallen from outer space and could use some assistance.” She barks a laugh. “I didn’t go for the whole alien thing but that second part was a lot more believable. He looked a mess. I asked if he needed something to eat but he just said he needed a safe place to rest for a moment. He’d been on his feet all day, walking and hitchhiking his way clear across the desert.

“Of course I wanted to know where he was going that was so important, but he said he didn’t know for sure yet. Said he was following a melody, a song he’d heard from very far away that had drawn him to this place. I told him I couldn’t help him there. The only music we had in the diner was this old stereo system mama had put in when she first opened the place and it was long broken. Mama was too sentimental to get rid of the old thing and the repairman couldn’t do anything for it so broken it stayed. 

“He asked me to show him so I did, figuring it couldn’t hurt anything. Then that kid walked up to the busted speaker and just like that it started playing again like it was new. I told him, ‘For that, I owe you more than a place to rest your legs. Stay in town for a while, let us put you up and get you back on your feet, or at least let me drive you to the train station so you can get where you’re going.’ But he refused, and before long he was gone again.

“Then, not a couple days later, spaceboy comes back traveling with this other kid, heading in the opposite direction. I ask him what happened and he says he was going one way but he changed his mind and turned around. He leans in like he’s sharing a great big secret, like we’ve been friends all our lives, and says, ‘I found it, Maddie. I found the song.’ Weirdest kid I’ve ever met! But they make a cute couple, him and that boy, and they’re some of my best customers to this day.”

They finish packing up the truck, Maddie leaning leisurely against the fender as she reminisces. Herc frowns, confused.

“Was that the message?”

“Yup.” She pops the P. “He just told me to tell you the story. Not sure why. I mean, it’s a good story, I think. But you already know all about it, right? You’re his family after all.”

“No, he never told us,” he admits softly.

“Huh. Weird. But then, he’s kind of a weird kid, yeah? I always wondered, is it all you aliens who talk in riddles like that, or just him?”

“I thought you said you didn’t believe his claims.”

“I didn’t the first time, but if your Percy’s one thing it’s… Perc-istent.” When no one laughs, she pushes onward. “Well, that’s all of it. We’d better get a move on, huh?”

“‘We’?”  

“Sure, aren’t you folks on your way to Percy’s place too? I figured you’d be staying over, and I gotta get everything set up for the wedding tomorrow.”

A palpable shock ripples through the star-folk. “Tomorrow?”

“‘Course, what did you think all this was for?” She pats the truck. “I wanted to get everything ready ahead of time so we’re good to go in the morning. It’s not easy being the caterer and providing my lovely self as a guest on the same day, but I couldn’t let those sweet boys down.”

Andromeda slumps over, leaning on Herc for support. “Percy told us the wedding was tonight.”

The chef raises an eyebrow. “Sounds like someone’s been having a little fun with you. Nah, they’re doing some sort of get-together tonight since neither one of the bachelors wanted a bachelor party, but the actual wedding ceremony’s definitely not until tomorrow.”

“I’m going to end him,” Cass mutters under her breath.

“Hurry up now,” she says. “I’m sure the groom-to-be’s expecting you.”

The five follow Maddie’s truck away from the main drags, away from the buildings, the scenery becoming gradually greener as the road turns from asphalt to gravel. At last they find themselves pulling up in front of the house that Percy has come to call home. It’s a raised ranch, flanked by evergreens and patchwork plots of small white and yellow flowers that Percy’s fiance must have planted, and a tower of plastic chairs and tables covered by a tarp. 

It’s a nice place, large and somewhat secluded, set apart from the noise of traffic or threat of nosy human neighbors. Percy’s sensitive to loud noise and, after all, still an alien living in secret amongst humanity. Yet as they get out and follow the caterer where she’s cutting around back through the garden, they’re struck by the sounds of laughter and music and lively chatter.

A group of earthers are gathered on the patio, smiling faces lit by a string of twinkling lights. A man with a guitar strums along with the music coming from inside.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Andromeda whispers. 

“You think there’s a second Perseus Nine about to be married in this town?” Cass shoots back.

Zeta hisses, “Quiet, I can hear him.”

To his surprise, Herc can too. Above the noise, laced into everything he touches, there is a resonance, his baby brother’s unique personal frequency. To describe it as sound alone would perhaps be inaccurate; it’s a vibration, an echo. Percy is everywhere in this place: his whispers and his shouts, his twinkling laugh, but also the part of him that no human being can detect, the part of him that is still, and will always be, of the stars.

He must sense them too, because in that moment he appears standing in the doorway, bathed in its yellow light. His face breaks out in a glowing grin and he runs to greet them, bolting like a comet being pulled into his siblings’ orbit.

“You made it!” he exclaims.

Zeta snorts and allows him to throw his arms around her. “No thanks to you and your list of demands.”

“You brat,” Cass accuses. “You told us the ceremony was tonight.”

Percy tilts his head to look at her, his expression not half as guilty as it should be. For a moment she reels at the sight of him; the body he’s constructed for himself has aged since the last time they crossed paths. It’s subtle, the way his dimples have deepened into true laugh lines, and his hair has grown ever longer, though it also isn’t as tangled as she remembers. He is still himself, underneath, the light of his true being faintly visible beneath the skin. 

“I was worried if I told you the real date you wouldn’t make it in time. You’re not used to traveling the human way. It can be messy.”

She grimaces. “You’re not wrong.”

“You’re actually here way earlier than I thought you’d be.” His smile falters, only slightly. “This is… everyone?”

Herc swallows. “The others…” he begins, but quickly finds he doesn’t have the words that should follow.

“Well, it’s not like I had enough chairs for all two-hundred-ninety-seven of them anyway.” He reaches out and squeezes his brothers tightly. “Hercules, Andromeda, It’s so wonderful to see you. Camelopardalis, Cassiopeia, it means so much to me that you came. I know it probably wasn’t easy. Zeta…”

She scoffs. “The only hard part was putting up with these bitches.”

Hercules interjects, “We shouldn’t keep you from your party. Go on, I need to get some things from the van.”

“You didn’t bring presents, did you?”

“It’s customary for weddings, is it not?”

Percy grins. “You’re becoming a real expert on earth customs.”

He shrugs and looks at Cass. “I just read the brief.”

Percy invites his family in, along with Maddie, who is perfectly tickled by the siblings’ awkward affection. After helping her bring in the food, Percy beckons over the man with the guitar.

“Adam!”

The man looks up. He has a boyish, freckled face and a head of dark curls that spill over his brow. He sets down the instrument and comes to slot himself against Percy’s side, thoughtlessly, as if that was always where he was meant to be.

“I’d like to formally introduce you to my fiance, Adam. And Adam, this is my family.”

His smile broadens. “Hey, great to finally really meet you guys. Percy talks about you all the time. Did you have a long trip?”

They look at one another for a moment until finally Herc shrugs and says, “Only about twenty-five trillion miles, give or take.”

The happy couple linger for a moment longer, sharing stories and talking about honeymoon plans. Adam is especially thrilled when Andromeda and Zeta begin to co-narrate an embarrassing tale from Percy’s childhood in the Alpha Persei Cluster. Eventually though the pair wander off together, leaving the star-folk to their most harrowing challenge yet: mingling.

“Sorry, what did you say your name was?”

“Camelopardalis.”

The guest, one of the couple’s mutual friends, goes a bit bug-eyed. “Wow, okay, that’s really cool. Kind of a mouthful though. Got a nickname?”

“Nick… name?”

“Like, something that your friends call you for short. My friends call me Dee, but my highschool nickname was Dent.” They point to a scar on the side of their head, just above their left ear. Their fair hair is buzzed short, making it easy to see. “Long story. What if for now I called you ‘Cam’?”

They consider it. “I think I’d like that.”

“Cool, nice to meet you, Cam.”

“Nice to meet you, Dee.” They hesitate. “Would you say you’re a man or a woman?”

Dee frowns.

“Nevermind! I’m so sorry, I just don’t understand the earth gender binary at all. Everything about it just seems so arbitrary and senseless.”

Oddly enough, their new friend perks back up at this. 

“Honestly, same,” they laugh.

Andromeda joins shortly, having struck up a conversation with Dee’s partner who is deeply intrigued by his review of “The Chest from The West”. The three of them spend a while swapping book recommendations. Meanwhile, Zeta gets hit on by a slightly intoxicated young woman with an undercut and an eyebrow ring, although the star-dweller vastly misinterprets her none-too-subtle questioning about alien biology. Cass meets Adam and Percy’s pet dog, Chowder, and deems him as good a companion as the convenience store cat.

Herc catches Percy alone in the kitchen and the two have a long overdue talk. It’s clumsy but earnest, and when Herc mumbles something out about possible future family visits, Percy throws himself into his brother with such vigor that he momentarily forgets about gravity and starts to float off the ground.

“I’m sorry too, by the way, for the whole thing with the list,” he sighs. “It probably seems pretty stupid, I just kind of hoped I could get you to see this world the way I see it. Full of life and love and adventure.”

“And music,” he finishes, catching the way his gaze flits back to the patio. To Adam, singing softly and dancing with one of their friends.

He nods. “I thought maybe then you’d understand why this is so important to me.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see earth the way you do,” Hercules confesses. “But I don’t think it was stupid of you to try either, and I don’t think it was for nothing.”

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the mood ring. The friendly prismatic face of a cartoon alien glints up at him. Perseus takes the gift with an understanding chuckle and slips it onto his pinky finger.

“No, not for nothing.”

Tomorrow, there will be a wedding. Percy and Adam will stand in front of their friends and family and exchange their vows. Adam’s mother will complain about them not booking a proper venue for just short of an annoying amount of time, Maddie will bring out a ridiculously tall tier cake that will taste almost as good as one of her mother’s pies, and for once Percy will not be the worst one on the dance floor. 

Tomorrow, there will be a bright silver band around Percy’s fourth finger, neighbored by a smaller ring in the shape of an inside joke, and with all the weight of a promise.

#aliens #original fiction #writeblr #short story #original writing #road trip #me? posting my writing again? its more likely than u think #lgbt #my writing

[angstyaches]

it's the motion sickness anon

I was going to request car sick felix but you said that you already had something like that coming so I kind of dropped the matter haha

here is the scenario I was thinking about tho. if it's not too similar to the story you have coming you could still write it maybe? some genuinely car sick felix who throws up in the car cause elliot can't pull over fast enough? elliot isn't mad at all tho and just wants his boo to feel better? just some reaaaaally nauseous felix and caring elliot basically

Hi motion sickness anon! Sorry if you thought I’d forgotten about you, I just didn’t want to pop up another Felix-puking-in-a-car fic so soon after the last one. Thank you so much for your request, I’m so happy to have an excuse to give the world more Soft Elliott. 

CW: emeto, carsickness, blood

___

When Nancy had insisted on sitting up front, Felix hadn’t given it a second thought. He didn’t always subscribe to the idea of being a gentleman, but Nancy subscribed so hard to the idea of being a lady that he automatically slipped into the role whenever it was required of him. Elliott didn’t so much, but he’d grown up with Nancy as his guardian from the age of fifteen, so he was probably more immune to her charms than Felix was. Felix wondered if his boyfriend was also more immune to her perfume, too.

Felix was wearing headphones, so he didn’t hear Nancy calling him until she reached over to tap the top of his head. 

“What?” he gasped, pulling his headphones down around his neck. The car was filled with slow, melodic notes from the CD Nancy had insisted on playing.

“You’re pushing on the headrest, sweetie.”

“Oh!” Felix lifted his head all too quickly from the back of the passenger seat, where he’d been leaning his forehead. The blood rushed from his face. “I-I’m sorry, Nancy. I don’t know what I was thi–”

He pressed a hand to his mouth, a little too late to stifle the heavy burp that slipped out suddenly. He hadn’t even noticed his stomach starting to feel quite so uneasy until some of the air had already been released, and he glanced at Elliott’s eyes in the rear-view mirror, silently begging him to look back for a second.

“Felix?” Nancy called out expectantly, as though she was calling him out for insulting her.

“Oh – excuse me,” Felix blurted dutifully. 

He sat back in his seat, tugging at the hem of his jumper to try to circulate some air across his body. He didn’t feel hot from sickness, but from the panic of suppressing his sudden nausea. He leaned to the side so he could see the road signs better, his stomach toppling towards his knees as he realised they had quite a bit further to go.

“Can we make a stop soon? I could do with a bathroom,” he asked shakily. Maybe, maybe he’d be okay if he could just get out onto solid ground for a few minutes and clear his head. The other thing that might help would be letting the windows down a bit, but Nancy had gotten her hair done for this appointment, and wouldn’t want the wind ripping through it.

“It’s not much further,” Nancy said. “Besides, the bathrooms at the manor I’ve been looking at will be far more impressive than some roadside stop. Believe me, sweetie, it’ll be worth it.”

Felix tried to release another burp into his fist, hoping it would come out softly, but it was badly timed with a nauseous lurch in his belly. His insides rumbled, and probably would have been audible to Nancy and Elliott in the front seats, if not for the classical music. Felix gasped and tried to ride out the urge to retch, gripping the edge of the seat with both hands to keep himself from squirming too much.

“Elli,” he exclaimed. “I really need you to –”

Up came another belch.

“Excu—use me,” he mumbled, his throat grumbling along with his words. Almost immediately after, up came a mouthful of the fried breakfast they’d had before setting out for the day. The semi-digested food was bright red from the miniscule sips of blood he’d taken, as though the liquid had somehow tripled in volume in his stomach.

Nancy gave a yelp, and the music was suddenly turned down. Felix looked tearfully across the seats to see that it was Elliott turning the dial.

“You’re alright, Fee, just hold on one minute.”

Felix whimpered and hugged his stomach, pressing his head to Nancy’s seat again. He didn’t care if he annoyed her for a few more seconds. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at the red stains in the carpet and on the back of the seat; it already bothered him enough that he had to consume human blood at all, without having to see it again after it’d been settling in his stomach for an hour. He didn’t want to have to think about how much was left in there.

A cool waft of air alerted him to the fact that the car had stopped, and Elliott had opened the back door next to him. He felt him reach across to undo his seatbelt and take his hands, drawing him out onto the forecourt of an abandoned petrol station.

“You’re okay, I’ve got you,” Elliott said gently, leading him over to a low wall.

“I-I don’t feel good, Elli.” Felix let his weight sink against Elliott’s chest as they sat down, his muscles twitching and refusing to relax. “I thought I’d be okay in the back, but my stomach had other ideas.”

“It definitely seems that way.”

“Oh gosh. Nancy…”

“Don’t worry about Nancy,” Elliott said, stifling a laugh. “She’s probably just relieved that you destroyed my car, and not the fancy toilets at Stick-up-your-ass Manor.”

Felix groaned weakly and rubbed at the point where pressure was building below his ribs. He knew he was going to be sick again so he stood up from the wall, turning around so he could put his hands on it and let his head hang towards the overgrown grassland that lay beyond it.

“Need some help, boo?”

Felix nodded. He absolutely wanted his stomach to be empty before he got back in the car. He felt Elliott place one hand on his back and one on his belly, and moaned when he started rubbing in slow, gentle circles.

Felix muffled a burp against the back of his hand. 

“Excuse me,” he muttered unenthusiastically.

“Hey, it’s just us now,” Elliott chuckled. “You can be as disgusting as you want. It’s encouraged, in fact.”

Felix doubled over as though his belly had been waiting for Elliott’s permission to continue emptying itself. He choked up the rest of his breakfast in two or three waves of gagging, grateful for the gentle pressure Elliott kept on his back the whole time. He only opened his eyes long enough for a single glimpse of the bright red sick in the grass and weeds, and he made a silent apology to the human it had been taken from, for the waste.

He straightened up and glanced towards the car, even though Elliott had taken his hand and hadn’t stood up from the wall yet. Nancy had gotten out, and was smoking one of her electronic cigarettes while leaning on the bonnet, gazing off in the opposite direction to the two boys.

“We’re going to be late for that appointment,” Felix muttered, shivering with the nausea that lingered.

“Who cares? I’m the driver, so I decide when we go.” Elliott parted his legs and tapped one knee. 

Felix gladly sat down, letting his boyfriend take all of his shivery weight, smiling to himself every time Elliott planted a kiss somewhere on his head or face. Felix felt a familiar stab of gratitude that, deadlines and appointments aside, he literally had all the time in the world to spend with this boy.

#swallow the world #felix #elliott #felix and elliott #sickfic #motion sickness #carsickness #tw emeto #tw carsickness #carsickfic #request

[a-conspiracy-of-bad-decisions]

Smart Yamada

Okay so I’ve seen a lot of responses to stories or art with Present Mic doing dumbish stuff with ‘but Mic has 5/5 intelligence’. I will not argue with this. What I will argue with is the idea that just because you’re smart you wont do stupid things.

I’m decently smart. I’m not a genius or anything but my family/friends tend to believe I’m pretty smart and my grades support this. My decision making skills and instincts do not support this. The following is a list of dumb, dumb, actions I’ve taken:

·       I thought I ended up with pink eye because late at night my eye began to get swollen and red and had discharge. It began to clear up within a few hours though, so… either I had a superhuman immune system (I do not) or it was not pinkeye. I could not figure it out, until I remembered what happened that morning. My grandma made me and my cousin put OFF on to go outside to play. While doing this I sprayed OFF directly into my eye and decided to try walking it off. You know how you should always handle spaying dangerous chemicals directly in your eye.

·      I sprained my wrist because I used way to much force when shutting a car door.

·       I shut my own head in a car door. Like shutting the door on your hand but it was just… my entire face.

·       I’ve both played and worked with a migraine so bad I had to vomit. As in I played/worked with my migraine right up until I had to go run to the bathroom to vomit. If my mom or friends didn’t stop me, I would return to working or playing because I have no sense of self preservation.

·       I set my desk on fire (for ScIeNcE!!!). So… I knew nail polish remover was flammable but I didn’t know how flammable. And I watched T.V. I watched documentaries. I know when you want to know something you do an experiment. So I cut the top off a plastic water bottle, poured about ½ cup of nail polish remover in and dropped in a lit match. My friend started yelling for my parents, meanwhile I’m dead behind the eyes as I walk to the bathroom, get a cup of water and return to dump it on the fire.

·       I was painting and on impulse wasted a ton of black acrylic paint by coating my entire hand in paint. I have done this multiple times and will likely do so again.

·       I’ve always been short. So I decided I did not have time to go get a step stool every time I needed a cup. Seven year old me came up with a solution, countertop parkour.

·       There was the whole… ‘Bird Incident’

·       I was the king of hide and seek. Mostly because I chose hiding spots a person should not be able to fit into. Such as the washing machine. Or under a horse trailer so low to the ground my back brushed the floor when I breathed in.

·       Doing things that trigger: allergies, asthma, headaches, carsickness, nausea, etc because yeah it made me sick but it was fun so worth it.

·       I met this dude and had a slight dislike of him. So I returned every comment he made with snark and sarcasm. After a few minutes I was “alright cool, we’re rivals that’s fun”. Turns out he had a crush on me. I was disappointed we weren’t actually rivals.

·       I will get so focused on my work I will forget to breath. As in the only way I remember to breath is when my lungs hurt bad because ‘oh yeah I haven’t breathed in like… a minute’.

·       I spaced out and just stood in the middle of a parking lot staring at something on the ground.

·       I have recently developed health issues that can involve bouts of muscle weakness. I also love backpacking. I decided to go on a backpacking trip despite my health issues. (Because what my body needs it strap 15 lbs of gear on my back and walk for hours). Yeah, I fell multiple times, scraped my legs to shreds, and my legs shook like half set Jello in an earthquake.

·       I would get bored in class and would bend my fingers back far enough that it hurt.

·       We had a golf cart. Because once again I’ve seen T.V. I had a brilliant idea. My cousin should drive the cart as fast as it will go and I should run behind and then jump on it as it moves. This was fun.

·       Despite being terrified of spiders I try to relocate them outside because if I kill one the guilt will haunt me for weeks.

·       I’ve always liked snakes. Young me desperately wanted a pet snake. Current me also wants a pet snake but that’s irrelevant. My cousins and I were playing in the yard and found!! a!! snake!! So we caught it. Then however we were like… is this a worm or a snake? Cause if this is a worm it’s really big. If it’s a snake it’s really weird. So we asked my grandfather who agreed Yes. This is a snake. So we decided that we now had a pet snake. Our snake needed a name. This was not a snake. This is how we ended up with a worm named Fang.

·       While backpacking (around 11 years oldish) we were headed back to the car. I was ready to get to the car so I hyper focused on the trail. Which means that I hiked full speed, carrying a heavy backpack, without breaks, and ended up way ahead of the adults (who were keeping a reasonable pace), and hiked until I almost passed out from exhaustion, heat, and dehydration.

·       While in Walmart saw some pixie stix. Yelled “PIXIE STIX” as loudly as humanly possible.

·       Got coffee on a road trip. Coffee was disgusting, stale, AND cold. Drank it anyway.

·       Invinted and played ‘the blindfold game’ with my cousin. In the blindfold game you blindfold yourself (obviously) and then try to do daily tasks without making a huge mess. (Yes blind people do this every day. My cousin and I are not blind. We had no practice in this what so ever.)  I think on of the most complicated things we did was make a sandwich.

·       Fixed a minor problem with my ceiling light. Did not flip the breaker to make sure I couldn’t get shocked.

·       We had an above ground swimming pool. It had about 5-6 inches of water in it in the winter. The ice froze and I was like ‘Neat! I can go ice skating!’. I do not have ice skates. I broke through the ice multiple times. I only went inside to warm up when my legs were completely numb. 10/10 would repeat.

·       Ran on slick concrete, in the rain. Fell and opened a five inch long cut on my arm. I was at work so I duct taped some paper towels to my arm and got back to work.

·       Ended up with a bone bruise (also called microfracture) on one of the bones in my foot. Was supposed to stay off it a whole week. Wanted to go do something fun but Mom  was like ‘with your foot injured you’re in no condition to do so’. Forced myself to walk without crutches, a limp, or wincing to ‘prove’ I was well enough to go do the fun thing. Mom relented. I was not well enough.

·       I have to move sharp things away because my instincts will scream ‘stab it through your hand’ and I’m like ‘that’s not a good idea’ and my instincts are like ‘do it, coward’.

·       Windows? You mean extra doors.

·       And finally my favorite story. Real life fruit ninja. This was around the time the fruit ninja app was super popular. I was cleaning up the scraps from a pineapple and had a long knife in one hand. I also had an idea. It it safe to wave around long sharp knives in front of you while your friend hurls potatoes (cheaper and less wasteful than actual fruit) at your face safe? No. Is putting three knives between your fingers so you have wolverine claws safe? No. Is it fun? Yes. Have I learned that this is too dangerous? Nope, this game is fun and I will play again in the future.

·       Got my first pocket knife. Immediately closed it on my finger. Never mentioned it to my parent because my dad had told me to be careful of that about five minutes earlier.

Just because you are smart doesn’t mean you make good choices, it just means you’re better at fixing the fallout from your bad choices. Is my point you shouldn’t write smart Yamada Hizashi? Is my point you should write only smart Yamada Hizashi? No. My point is you can have the best of both worlds. Complete Idiotic Genius Yamada Hizashi. Present Mic that put together clues and come up with an answer Sherlock Holmes style, but who also got bored, set a bunch of ‘Home Alone’ traps all over the house, forgot and got punted down the stairs by his own trap.

#yamada hizashi #present mic #presentation michael #bnha

[thedancingwalrus-blog]

I am attempting this meme thing. I hope I’ve got it right.

Rules are:

·         Post the rules

·         Answer the questions given to you by the tagger

·         Write 11 questions of your own

·         And tag 11 people

 1. if you were Not A Mammal, what (other) animal would you be?

Could I be the kea-bird? I very much like the kea bird. You see I have a lot of admiration for any animal that has figured out a way to snowboard, have snow ball fights and also kill things several dozen times its size so it can eat their kidneys. :)

New Zealand is insane and I love it.

2. what AU would you kill to see someone write about your OTP?

Hmmmmm well first I need to decide what my OTP is.

I write a lot of different ships. Like I checked my AO3 tags just now and the biggest number I have for one ship is 3 fics. The vast majority of those fics are AUs so there’s a certain amount that if I want a pairing and AU I write it myself because I don’t expect other people to be interested in what I am.

I’m honestly struggling to think of one pairing to put down let alone an AU for them.

I would be like Golem and want them ALL. MINE! MY PRECIOUS!

*ahem*

I love Lena Luthor/Supergirl to a ridiculous degree but don’t have any particular AU urges with them.

I think I’d really love to see an AU where Alex Danvers and M’gann Morzz were a couple, a long, emotionally intense slow burn, dealing with M’gann’s PTSD and Alex’s desire for a family and everything happening on Mars.

Having just watched the latest Star Wars and the Doctor Who Christmas Special I’d also really love to see the AU where the Doctor and Bill show up right at the end of The Last Jedi and Bill’s incredible whirlwind romance with Rose.  

3. do you like crossover fics/stories? (e.g., blending marvel and dc?) why or why not?

Considering how many of them I write I don’t actually read a lot of them.

I like writing them because doing them well requires that extra level of thought: how do the worlds overlap? How do the characters interact? Is there anything from either world that doesn’t fit and can it be reconciled?

As much as it’s slow going I’m loving writing the Batman/Iron man crossover with my partner. For me fiction should be talking about something, no matter how light the story and no matter whether it’s publishable or not. I really like the way we’ve used Bruce and Tony to talk about different approaches to social problems, a sort of ground-up personal approach versus a top-down at a remove approach. I don’t think we could have done so well outside of a crossover.

But that extra complexity is probably why I don’t read a lot of them. With my health problems over the past year-and-change I’ve found it difficult to dedicate time and focus to reading other people’s fiction. And given the choice between reading and writing I’ll always go for writing.

4. what’s the last piece of fiction you read that you would recommend?

Heh, yeah I’m not sure what the last book I finished and enjoyed was. My difficulty focusing over the year has meant a lot of books were started and put down again, no matter how good they were.

I also read a lot of non-fiction rather than fiction.

Generally though here are some I managed through mental health problems and probably give an idea of how eclectic my reading is-

The Lord Peter Wimsey Series by Dorothy L Sayers.

·         These were written in the 1920s and there are some issues with racist language as a result. But by Gods they’re brilliant. Startlingly original mysteries that don’t always turn out to be murders, excellent, varied female characters, a mentally ill protagonist, a wealth of disabled characters, memorable descriptions. They’re worth a read.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

·         Best sci fi book I’ve read in a very very long time. Excellent plot. Wonderful lightness of touch when it comes to world building. And an intensely personal, emotional focus. It’s essentially the story of a loyal soldier plotting to kill the head of their nation, not out of any moral compulsion or difference of opinion but because she killed someone the soldier loved. Powerful stuff.

5. your thoughts about poetry? Do you write it?

Poetry is excellent but I never write it myself.

I find it’s a wonderful way to summarise intense emotion. I memorise a lot of it (for which we broadly blame Saudi) and quote it fairly often. My favourites are Sassoon, Sappho and Rumi. I dip into Byron occasionally and I have a compass engraved with The Road Less Travelled By.

I’m also a big fan of the Sagas but obviously they lose a lot of the meter in translation. I’m thinking of trying to learn Lokasenna in the original because I think it would be satisfying to growl at people. I’ve got a copy of Beowulf in Old English that I go back to every so often to look at the language. One day I shall have the courage to read it aloud as it was supposed to be.

6. what’s one period of history (from any place) you find interesting and want to either learn more about or teach others about?

I have to choose ONE?!

I mean it’s sort of obvious but also I think the only reason this is counted as ‘one’ thing by a lot of people is bloody Western bias not taking the entire African continent seriously.

West African pre-colonial history.

For godssakes if you’re making the slightest pretence at understanding the New World you should know the basics. It feeds into so much Caribbean, Brazilian and US history. It shaped wars in Brazil and Cuba and Haiti.

It's also a wonderful contrast to Western philosophical schools. There are completely different concepts about deities, kingship, gender and souls.

And honestly? I just think it's really interesting and really under appreciated. I really love learning more about it and I wish more people learnt about it.

 7. salty or sweet?

Sweet. No sweeter. Sweeter than that. Look just pass me the fucking sugar already I’ll handle this.

Wait- This is about food right? This isn’t that weird American thing of assigning flavours to emotions and behaviours?

Are you trying to confuse me so you can take the coffee? I see through your cunning ruse and the caffeine is mine. Yes.

8. feelings about gift-giving? Enjoy it? Find it burdensome? Think it’s too commercial? Ritualized? Etc?

Well…of course it’s ritualised but that doesn’t make it wrong. Rituals are a large part of what holds us together.

I like gift giving. It appeals to the old fashioned part of me and I think it’s a good way of reinforcing social ties and showing appreciate of others. Sure it can be difficult, but I enjoy the exchange.

At least when it is actually focused on the person getting the gift rather than just some generic expensive thing for the sake of it.

9. vampires: yay or nay?

-the Queen of air and darkness

begins to shrill and cry,

Oh young man oh my slayer,

Tomorrow you shall die.

Oh Queen of air and darkness

I think it’s true you say,

And I shall die tomorrow

But you will die today.

10. what’s one trope you love and can’t get enough of, no matter the medium in which it arises (tv, film, fic, etc)?

Hmmm difficult.

I really like seeing characters who are genuinely very different, with different backgrounds and beliefs coming together to do the right thing. That's part of why I liked the Justice League, seeing very different people working together and becoming friends.

I also like complex villains. I have a serious weak spot for them. My favourite characters are often villains, Lex Luthor, the Joker, Catwoman- But I sort of have mixed emotions about that. Because it comes from....poorly written heroes essentially. I often focus on complex villains when the heroes are bland and uninteresting. I think a lot of the time that comes from people assuming that the audience will empathise with the hero and that they need to take more effort over the villain.

So when I write I try to make a concerted effort to make the heroes interesting and flawed and complex. Because otherwise why aren't we reading a story about the villain?

 11. are you a morning shower person or a night shower person? or the elusive bubble baths person?

I am an ‘ARGH NO WATER!!!! WHY IS IT SO COLD?! WHY IS IT FALLING FROM THE CELING?! THIS IS UNNATURAL AND WRONG!!! THE PAIN!!! THE INDIGINITY!!!!!’ person.

 1) John Boyega or Idris Elba?

2) Murder Mysteries, good family fun, awful and disturbing, dull- Thoughts?

3) Favourite mythology and why?

4) Is there a type of story you wish you could write but don’t want to attempt?

5) Never-fail feel good book?

6) Last film that made you cry?

7) Do you get carsick?

8) What’s the best plant in the world? Have you grown one?

9) Dosas. Breakfast food or lunch food?

10) If you were dividing things up into seasons from scratch what would they be based on and what would you call them?

11) What and where is the best time of year?

 @akindoodle, @phynali @thehungryvortigaunt @warclad (sorry mate I couldn’t remember what your personal blog was called) @bysamanthakeel, 

#meme #look I did a meme #I can totally internet #and I don't know 11 people on this site XD

[jasonhaw]

Life in Ghana 7 (9/13 - 22): The Unwavering Kindness of Ghanaians

It has been seven weeks since I have arrived here and I have probably talked to dozens of Ghanaians by this point. Every single one of them has been extremely kind and generous and hospitable. I borrow some words in Filipino: Wala akong masabi (I have nothing [ill] to say). This week I share about 5 little acts of kindness over the past week.

1. Tuesday (Sep 12): We visited the District Health Office of the neighboring Ningo-Prampram district (Dodowa is in Shai-Osudoku, and both Ningo-Prampram and Shai-Osudoku used to be part of the same district, Dangme West). We were welcomed by Dr. Gifty Ofori-Ansah, who welcomed us with kind words and a comprehensive presentation on the health status of the district. From the moment I talked to her, I can tell that she is a very smart, decisive, and open-minded woman, and she was kind enough to offer her input to the research topics of Natalie and Allie, who are still in the process of writing their proposal. We also met some of the supervisors managing the different health programs like family planning and infectious disease control. 

What I admired about her was her humility and dedication as a public servant when she was talking about the issues that plagued her district - teenage pregnancy, quack doctors (and its relationship with religious faith), and the rising burden of non-communicable diseases. She reminded me of the hardworking municipal health officers that I have met so far in the Philippines. It is people like her that continue to give me hope about public health - that most of us have good, wonderful hearts always ready to help those in need.

2. Monday (Sep 18): I presented my initial results to the staff of the research center and the room was packed. Days leading up to the presentation, I felt a bit uncomfortable because I did not want to feel like a foreigner telling them what their health system is like given that these are researchers who have spent their careers understanding their own health system. After I presented, my colleagues gave wonderful and helpful remarks on how to improve my paper. One thing I appreciate about Ghanaians is that they always have a sense of humor even in the driest of things, such as presenting something as technical as statistical analysis. After that presentation, I am more confident in finishing my presentation.  

3. Tuesday (Sep 19): I had two tasks that day: go to immigration and extend my visa stay, and visit a professor over at the University of Ghana who has written extensively on the topic of quality of care perceptions, which you may recall is also my topic for my scholarly paper. The Ghana Immigration Service is the first government office I have transacted since arriving here, and while the office is a bit chaotic, it is miles and miles better from the Bureau of Immigration back home. First of all, there are no fixers! Fixers, as officially defined by law in the Philippines, are "any individual whether or not officially involved in the operation of a government office or agency who has access to people working therein, and whether or not in collusion with them, facilitates speedy completion of transactions for pecuniary gain or any other advantage or consideration." We have a law that explicitly bans fixers in government offices (Republic Act 9485) but of course, just like most laws in the Philippines, no one implements them. Second, the immigration officers have been extremely helpful, unlike the ones in the Philippines where a lot of them are snarky and powertrip foreigners.

After that trip to immigration, I visited a professor at the University of Ghana Business School and an expert on quality of care perceptions in hospitals. We had a very fun and fruitful discussion on his papers, and I also consulted with him on my method. He was very honored that someone read his 400 page dissertation on the topic, and I told him that I love doing research so 400 pages is a breezy read to me. At the end of the meeting, he agreed to review my paper and comment on it. I am so honored to have someone so knowledgeable on the topic review my work.  

4. Wednesday (Sep 20): I left early again to visit another professor who is currently based in the University of Health and Allied Sciences at Ho, the capital of Volta Region, which is east of Greater Accra Region. The ride took almost three hours getting there - mostly because Ghanaian roads are not paved (which makes me carsick most of the time). The trip was definitely, definitely worth it. I cannot stress how engaging and fruitful our discussion was. He has written a lot of papers on the topic of health care quality, as he also did his dissertation on it. What particularly interested me was how he ended up doing his PhD program, which I hope I will have the opportunity to have in the future when I finally study for my PhD. In short, he was my #PhDGoals. In summary (and if I understood it correctly): The National Health Insurance Agency (= PhilHealth in the Philippines) asked help from the Dutch government to solve their issue of low population coverage/ enrollment into the scheme. The Dutch government gave them a grant, and allowed three PhD students (one from Ghana Health Service, one from the Netherlands, and one from the school where Prof Kaba was affiliated at that time), and one postdoc (who is now head of research at the insurance agency) to be principal investigators in distinct but interrated parts of the project grant. Prof Kaba was primarily responsible for doing the quantitative work in assessing the impact of the project, which was a community trial that used community engagement as a tool to improve insurance enrollment. Since then, he has written 9 published papers on the topic (in very reputable journals like PLoS One)! 

What particularly impressed me with his PhD journey was that: (1) he was involved with the insurance agency the entire time - and some of his recommendations have been turned to policy, such as the issuance of the cards on the same day, and the shift to biometric insurance cards, and (2) the PhD students leading the studies had a lot of freedom with their paper, with national implications. I have never seen anything as seamless and empowering as his PhD program, and all I could think about during that meeting was how we should emulate this in the Philippines. Like this was my lightbulb moment for my PhD program - I want my PhD program to be structured like this. I will not settle for anything less. 

But going back this professor, he was so, so kind. First of all, he saw my undergraduate thesis online (which is published in a Scopus-indexed journal) and was very interested with the findings we had on family planning in urban poor communities in the Philippines. I was so flattered someone actually read our paper. Second, he wanted me to invite for lunch but I had to decline as I had matters to attend back at the research center before office closes (remember the journey back is 3 hours!). Finally, he was just a guy who had a lot of good vibes, showed love for his country, and is very intelligent. I am so grateful to have met someone as inspiring as him.

5. Thursday (Sep 22): I will post more about this in my next post next week, but we went to a nature reserve in nearby Shai Hills. But going back to the overall theme of kindness of Ghanaians, I just want to remark how everyone has been so kind to us whenever we ride the tro-tro. As lost foreigners (oburonis), we would not have known where to go, but someone - either the mate (conductor) or a kind passenger - always tells us where to alight and what to ride. Even the taxi driver that took us home from the reserve did not scam us (or at least based from our computations as we spent around 30 cedis in tro-tros coming there, and the taxi home was just 50 cedis).   

Honestly, this country is just oozing with kindness, and I am starting to regret that I only have four weeks remaining here. I honestly want to extend but matters at home are more pressing at the end of the year. Ghana's tourism slogan should be, "Visit Ghana for good vibes."

#Life in Ghana #kindness

[apirateslifeforme123]

On Books 8,10,11,12,30 @snowbryneich

 8. The book you read when you’re stuck in bed sick

 You know, as an adult when I’m sick enough to be in bed I am sleeping! Lol. But when I was a kid my go to books were Treasure Island (go figure! And we had the copy with Howard Pyle’s illustrations, SO COOL!) and a copy of Aesop’s fables we had that was also illustrated so beautifully and I loved it.

 10. The book(s) you bought because the cover was pretty, and whether it was worth it

 Hmm. You know, I really try not to do this bc I’ve been disappointed so many times! LOL. But one that sticks out in my memory was The Redbreast by the Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. It had this cool minimalist bird design and I really liked it. Then it turned out to be this SUPER gritty murder mystery, LOL, and reading his books has changed my life and the way I write, I love him SO much!

I may have also discovered S. Thomas Russell’s age of sail series this way too, the pretty ships and all. XD

 11. The worst book hangover you’ve ever had

 Hmm. This honor might belong to the real last book in the Amelia Peabody mystery series (it went on a bit after but this was the one that really tied things up) when I was a teenager. I was deep in my Egyptology phase (these books are about a family of Egyptologists in the Victorian era!) and He Shall Thunder In The Sky came out in the fall. I had this big project due and though I had my time management all planned out but my meddling mother felt I was reading too much, and she took it away, there was a HUGE fight, and it was the ONLY time I’ve ever been grounded! LOL. So she finally gave the book back to me over Thanksgiving break. I read it in the car on the 4 hr drive to my aunt’s house, even though I get carsick doing that. I barely paused to even eat the Big Meal. When I finally finished it later that night I remember just laying out on the floor like I was dead for an hour, LOL, I was so happy with how it all turned out. It ruined me haha.I need to reread those as an adult now.

 12. Do you have to finish one book before you start the next one, or do you read multiple books at the same time?

 Oh God, I read so many books at once haha. I’ll have several ebooks, paper books, and an audiobook going all at the same time.  

 30. The book you read the blurb of, constructed a version of in your mind, and were promptly disappointed by once you finally got around to actually reading it.

 This happened just a couple months ago. It was a book called The Andalusian Friend. It was supposed to be this gritty part Spanish part Swedish organized crime thriller with a sweeping love story thrown in the mix—but it wasn’t. The ending was SO anticlimactic and the relationships were so bland. Don’t read that book, I was so mad I literally threw it in the recycle bin, lol.

#on books