#and English is such a fucky language anyway

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: December 14

"KMAG YOYO" by Hayes Carll

#song of the day #still sick >:( #I'm not convinced I actually /like/ this song but I can't sing today either way and it caught in my head last time I was in Nick's car #very very good rhythm and quick enough to be a challenge to learn even if I might not ever listen to it again once I've got it down #and I keep thinking I should look into how informal military abbreviations were established and proliferated #I dunno how commonly understood KMAG YOYO is (kiss my ass goodbye; you're on your own) but I'd say probably a majority of #--hmm you know now I'm really doubting my 'majority'. maybe I've got a sampling bias. #I mostly know folks on the poorer and more rural side of things and I've known a lot of law enforcement and military people. hmm-- #anyway I was going to say a majority of Americans but maybe that's not generalizable. certainly a majority of Americans I've met though #know what FUBAR and SNAFU mean at least in the colloquial sense #(I've heard disagreements about the particulars of FUBAR. whether it's 'beyond all repair' or 'beyond all recognition' mostly) #and I just wonder how they came to be standardized and spread. my just-spitballing guess is Vietnam vets but I wanna look it up #I suppose if we can manage to get 'okay' so heavily popularized with its weirdass origins then anything could happen #and English is such a fucky language anyway #a little research project for post-fever Alexis! she'll be so happy #edit: first late song post. two weeks in exactly. not too bad! #and only two hours late too! (current-fevered-Alexis fell asleep in the shower)

[wormdebut]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @thefreakandthehair and @wynnyfryd You’re both so hot and cool and talented it’s unreal.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Fifteen

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

88,773

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Stranger Things

The only other fandom I’ve ever considered writing for is Good Omens, but I’m so obsessed with Steddie I don’t know if I can peel myself away.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Cut It Loose, Watch You Work The Room

2. I Like Playing Dumb Until You Figure Me Out

3. Tell Eddie He Looks Sexy With His Hair Pushed Back

4. All You Have Is Your Fire

5. Comb The Crowd, Pick You Out

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Abso-fucking-lutely I Do. Why? Because I am in shock and awe that anyone anywhere appreciated the goofy thing I wrote so much that they commented to tell me that. Thank you thank you thank you for commenting on fics. It means everything.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I’m incapable of not writing a happy ending. Happy Ending are GUARANTEED IN THIS HOME. However, Wynn noted I did write a bonus microfic that was posted to Tumblr only that was angsty. Fun fact: it was based off a very un-angsty IRL experience with Wynnyfryd herself.

‘If They Won’t Call You Wynny Baby, I Will.’

Anyway, read Drunk Words—Sober Thoughts if you wanna.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of…All of them I—yall you know my Steddies are so fucking in love with each other it’s stupid.

But Comb The Crowd, Pick You Out is especially cheese.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, and I’m blessed for that, but even if I did…all my buddies know how truly dedicated I am to the fact that We are responsible for our own online experience. Don’t let goofy goobers who have nothing better to do than put you down, get to you. If yall ever get hate and need someone to tell you you’re fucking worth it—cmere.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Me? Write Smut? Oh my god I could never—

Yall what haven’t I written, be so fucking for real.

Requests? Drop ‘Em in my Ask Box.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nooo. I do not. Obviously I have a mess of a good omens X steddie AU rattling around in my brain, but it will never come to fruition

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, but where I largely write Rockstar dom daddy Eddie it’s very easy to see different variations of similar plot lines. Alas, Two Cakes

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No! But I would cry if one ever was.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No! My writing style is so chaotic I think anyone I wrote with would be shook and terrified. HOWEVER, I may have something coming with @steddieas-shegoes real fuckin’ soon.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Steddie. My angels. The loves of my life.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh god. The first thing I ever started writing for Steddie was a Rockstar AU. Shocked looks from the lived audience. Where Steve and Robin moved to Chicago and Eddie covers Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails. Fuckin’ Woof. May it rest in slutty slutty pieces.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Writing seventy two miles of really spicy foreplay…and dialogue 😂

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Some authors are so fucking incredible with imagery and beautiful descriptions of scenes and I just don’t think I’m one of them, but I would like to be one day.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I can barely speak English so I would never write a fic where Eddie speaks French when he fucks…

Anyway stream Tell Eddie He Looks Sexy

19. First fandom you wrote for?

That I published? Stranger Things.

That’s buried in the back of my closet, handwritten in a notebook? The Backstreet Boys.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Kiss Your Knuckles (Before You Punch Me In The Face) It is everything to me.

Well that was fuckin’ fun as heck. Tagging with absolutely zero pressure a couple buddies 🖤

@messessentialist @steddieas-shegoes @just-my-latest-hyperfixation @aidaronan @sourw0lfs @t-boyeddie @scarcrossdlvrs @runninriot @cuips-not-cute @onirislanding @thisapplepielife

#steddie #worm brain #me? write smut?? nooo

[ao3feed-ladynoir]

Only Thing That's Burning When the Nights Grow Cold

Only thing that's burning when the nights grow cold by oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol

What if the very traits that the miraculous holders were chosen for were the exact same traits that drove them to madness?

Words: 3293, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: Gen

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Nino Lahiffe

Additional Tags: not graphic violence i don't think, its more implied, but i put it there to be safe, Anyways, its my birthday so i get to get rid of this idea, its been bouncing around for like two years now, so it gotta go, Heroes to Villains, hell yea babyyyy, OOC characters, duh, they are villains now, idk what tags to do for this tbh, Villain Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Villain Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, villain nino lahiffe, Villain Alya Césaire, i was gonna have a version for hawkmoth, but then my hands got fucky so whoops, i have literally no idea what tags to do

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45849508

#AO3 Feed #FanFiction #AO3 Adrien & Marinette #❤️ #💖 #💚 #Marinette #Adrien #Miraculous Ladybug #♦ #R:T #A:Oliviaandersonis #Villain AU

[sero-pairo]

this is the last time (it never is)

by hcjulie

It’s nothing like the movies, nothing like the songs — they said that it’d be easy but they were fucking wrong. Mutually assured consumption, destruction, or perhaps it even became an unholy deification along the way — it was all relative.

  All so he could take advantage of his little green faerie boy and become the home that held every fragile piece of him — his last promise to the only maternal figure he’s ever known.

    OR: The toxic, quirkless bkdk au where izuku has had ten whole years to learn how to live with the illness of loving katsuki. His rebel saint, his fire, his only god — the beginning to his devastating end.

Words: 25281, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of Wave Your Red Flags (Bet You Do It On Purpose)

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage

Categories: M/M

Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Bakugou Mitsuki, Bakugou Masaru, Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko, Sero Hanta, Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor, Todoroki Fuyumi, Todoroki Natsuo, Todoroki Family (My Hero Academia), Uraraka Ochako, Asui Tsuyu, Monoma Neito, Hakamata Tsunagu | Best Jeanist

Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki & Todoroki Shouto, Bakugou Katsuki & Sero Hanta, Sero Hanta/Todoroki Shouto

Additional Tags: Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Quirkless Bakugou Katsuki, Toxic Relationship, Top Bakugou Katsuki, Bottom Midoriya Izuku, They're both messes, From the Moment They Met, This was Doomed, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Midoriya Izuku is Bad at Feelings, Wave Them Red Flags, they need so much therapy, Modern AU, Pay Attention to the Fucking Tags, Alternate Universe - No Quirks (My Hero Academia), Underage Drinking, Underage Sex, Recreational Drug Use, there's so much miscommunication, Yes someone dies, That Tag Is There For A Reason, Izuku is Ruined, By None Other Than Katsuki, Hanta Sero Is A Little Shithead, Oh They're All Rich BTW, Rich Bitch Problems, Anyways There's Smut, Angst, No Fluff, Just Nasty Fuckies and Tears, Not One Ounce of Comfort, Hope You All Cry I Guess

from AO3 works tagged 'Sero Hanta/Todoroki Shouto', https://ift.tt/AVf3dMC

#seroroki #todosero #todoroki shouto #sero hanta #serotodo #todoroki x sero #sero x todoroki #bnha #m

[shootyrefutey]

sonic gijinka lore (important)

I refer to human Sonic as Nicky (this is because of the manga).

Naturally black haired, dyes hair blue

I always draw him with visible eyelashes.

Needs glasses but hates wearing them, abysmal eyesight.

Has two little strands of hair that stick out on top of his head like an ahoge

(if after Sonic Unleashed) wears Chip’s bracelet

5 foot 5 inches tall (short king)

He rarely wears his hoodie, and likes keeping it around his waist. The back of his hoodie says ‘welcome to the next level’ (deep cut reference)

Also wears bandages around his arms like Boom. This is because his hands go purple and veiny at night, as a side effect of the werehog transformation. (I call them cabbage hands)

Despite me literally making a guide for his design, the plasters can constantly change colour and position. This is on purpose trust me it's totally not because i can't be bothered with consistency. Of course, like 50% of human Sonic designs, he has one on his nose to signify he's a rambunctuous fellow.

Has a huge scar on his chest marking where Mephiles impales him with the laser, as he died that way in an alternate reality (06). He isn’t sure why he has it. He remembers the events of 06 vividly but he considers it a weird fever dream.

Has a few scars on his back where he was cut with the big fans in Eggmanland (hate those fans smh)

Legs and arms have burn scars from Angel Island. Will I ever draw these? No. Is it useful? No.

Has a front tooth missing, he was punched in the face hard by Knuckles at the start of Sonic 3

He pretty much the same personality as the original

A lot more nerdy. Likes reading books a lot more, part time mechanic. Has a sporty element too. Like half nerd/half jock.

Not good at talking to new people, he comes across very obnoxious to those not already used to him. Ambivert.

He smells like wet grass and lemons.

I think of him as around 17? Classic is like 8.

Mostly mute until he was like 13 I think, he started talking a lot. When he gets stressed out he goes mute again

Is bisexual (bisexual rights)

Native Japanese speaker, english is his second language. And yeah I know I can’t draw a consistent face (the opposite of same face syndrome) but I intended for him to be Japanese-American.

I also intended for him to be a trans male (because the trans Sonic headcanon slaps) but I didn’t ever bring this up because I’m not sure how to portray trans characters.

I’ve started referring to my human Shadow as Julien and if you take one step onto my Spotify I think you can guess why.

Due to the difficulties of growing a human in a test tube, some spaces on his body, his skin hasn’t grown in correctly and looks raw.

He hasn't slept in 50 years

He’s 5 foot 4.

He’s really into figure skating

his eye's all fucky wucky because infinite messed it up (the eye that’s covered in this image)

his goggles and neckerchief are based off a sonic channel art i saw somewhere

the shoes are dolce and gabbana

I have no lore on metal other than he’s 5′3 and a sonic kinnie (no doubles allowed)

formatting is kinda wack, Tumblr refused to allow me to move the picture. anyway like comment fave subscribe :)

#the shootyrefutey gijinkaverse

[cyclesprefectpress]

[image description: a proof of a font of handset type for letterpress printing, displaying every letter, symbol, and special character in the font. it's called "Sixteenth Century Roman," 24 pt., and is a rough-edged serif font with a deliberately worn look. end description.]

hello hello i am return from a deep dive into several reference materials that assumed a little bit more knowledge about how Medieval Latin works than i actually have, but, it was all exTREMEly inch resting to me. i am absolutely not a historian but here we are, a speedrun of my pinballing around trying to ensure that I know what the fuck im storing in my type corridor:

so 16th Cent. Roman, i already knew, was a font Paul Duensing designed based on this incomplete set of old Italian punches he acquired (punches, the first step of old school typecasting, where you carve the relief letter shape into the end of a stick of steel, and you uuuh punch that into the copper matrix, which is then the negative mould-shape you use to cast multiple copies of the lead sorts with hot metal; surviving punches are precious artifacts not the least because they are. they’re hand-carved!! often by the type designer themselves. historical and also wildly cool craftsmanship). these punches were all beat up and probably water damaged, fucky and rough-edged, so he re-did and filled in the gaps in the alphabet with similarly styled letters of his own. very cool. an extremely nerdy lil passion project of a typecaster in the 1960s, very typical of type people. we all find a Thing to obsess over, and sometimes it's reviving an incomplete set of punches from the 1500s that you found in, idk, it's usually a bucket in somebody's basement.

anyway it's got a bunch of ligatures and the long s, sure sure sure, but WHAT are all these gibberish characters with tildas and lines thru the stems of ps and qs and such—

Duensing's full font is in Mac McGrew's specimen book, great, i have that, except McGrew's book has complete proofs and a little bit of history for each font but doesn't always cover what each symbol in a unique alphabet is for, and i knew just enough about Latin to guess that they were abbreviations but not what each of them stood for. a little bit of searching got me this far, which is to say, "Abbreviation in Medieval Latin Paleography," a translation of an Italian essay on the subject from 1929. It is prefaced by the translators with gems like: "Take a foreign language, write it in an unfamiliar script, abbreviating every third word, and you have the compound puzzle that is the medieval Latin manuscript." Scribes writing in medieval Latin just tossed out letters they didn't care to deal with, constantly, and had stand-in special characters and abbreviations for syllables/words/particles and there were intuitive rules but way too many variations in time and place and person to make a reasonably-sized, static lexicon. amazing. hope all u paleographers are having fun over there.

the essay has a great big glossary of truncations and abbreviations and so on which clearly cover most of the figures in Duensing's font:

[image description: screenshots of the essay, with various symbols and the Latin syllables they abbreviated. an m with a bar over it, ex., stood in for men or mun. end description.]

ok! BUT this q with a little swoop off the end kept bugging me!! for all these dead-use symbols this essay is using handwritten samples, obviously, and there's clearly variation in execution and also typographers take liberties, and i just thought, sure my piece of type looks a lot like the quod here but it does link the staff to the swoop where the handwritten sample doesn't, and it could just as well be a fanciful ligature for qn which apparently can stand in for quando, and i have no idea which is a more common-use syllable likely to be cast in the font if you're only going to pick your top 14, and i just like to be sure about things.

SO. i went to double-check with Johnson’s Typographia. Johnson made like a thousand pages of printing manuals set in tiny tiny type in the 1820s which are rad as hell and tell you all sorts of things about how to run a shop and build your own press and cast type and going rates for work and employment and also, the alphabets/type case layout for whatever language or symbol set you might have to set type in, when handsetting type was mostly the only way to get stuff printed—English, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, musical notation, astronomical signs, aaaand it’s got a section for "Marks & characters used in the Domesday Book & other ancient records.”

[image description: a photo of a page of the manual, with similar but not always identical symbols for abbreviated use. many of these abbreviations are described as "a Domesday contraction." end description.]

and WHAT is a Domesday contraction, WELL, it's a contraction specifically from/prevalent in the Domesday book, a deeply boring and historically important tome about property distribution in England. It’s literally a survey. who owned what, in 1086. presumably mind-numbing. enormous, handwritten in Medieval Latin, EXTREMELY cool, go look at some images of it at least, very important to historians, economists, linguists, and a complete pain in the ass to set in type when that technology became available, having to cast any significant proportion of these variant characters in an alphabet. Johnson says, (in 1824) “It is an improvement of latter years only*, to have type cast to resemble the abbreviations used in the more ancient manuscripts; they being formerly rudely imitated, either from a common fount, or else were cut in wood for the purposes of any particular work.” wow that sucks. but in 1773 the government really wanted to be able to reproduce the Domesday Book in type, so a couple people tried to cut a set of punches for Domesday abbreviations and Joseph Jackson got it done and it only took 10 years to print an edited version of the manuscript. and then apparently all the type was destroyed in a fire in 1808. WOW that sucks.

but the point is, Johnson has a great big glossary of characters as they were translated into type in the making of the printed Domesday Book, and the Domesday punches were used or refrenced in the printing of other medieval latin works, which consequences a degree of standardization in the abbreviations used in those versions of the text that handwritten manuscripts never had or needed.

notably the Domesday quod looks even more different from my piece of type here which was pretty annoying, so what are the chances this thing is a quando, and anyway that's when my sister texted me back with better computer skills and a different search engine and found me a perfect match on the first try. it’s a quod. this National Diet Library digital exhibition has several different sample fonts, both black letter and roman, with quite consistent letter forms, if not choices about which abbreviations to bother casting.

*I don’t……exactly know what he means by this, since Gutenberg and contemporaries absolutely did cast many Medieval Latin abbreviations for their fonts nearly 400 years before this. His dismissal of “from a common fount” might be fair, since i think what he means by it is that you’d have a generic set of abbreviation characters which you would have to use in conjunction with whatever font was the main body of your text, and it’s messy to mix things that weren’t designed specifically to match. he may just mean that it’s new for his contemporary foundries to be casting all these expanded alphabets of abbreviations; Gutenberg didn’t have foundries to buy from and made his own type. he could include as many characters as he had the patience for. maybe Johnson is just a guy from the 1800s that didn’t have the internet and i shouldn’t jump down his throat for not knowing something. idk!! i have homework.

anyway that was my Friday!! feel free to correct me and/or suggest further reading if early typecasting is your Thing or. again. you just have better googling than me.

#letterpress #letterpress printing #handset type #lead type #typography #long post #:(( sorry #omitted: Johnson's scathing opinions on Almanacks and the people who read them #and ask you to typeset them #'''''the credulity of the vulgar''''''' alRIGHT bud #i guess if he was willing to set that whole paragraph in 8 pt. #or pay for it #it was at least an opinion he believed in very strongly.

[violasmirabiles]

got tagged by @panwriter, thank you xx

1. what do you prefer to be called name-wise? ali. pronounce it however you like i dont really care lol

2. when is your birthday? march 26. so just a few weeks from now. oh boy

3. where do you live? joensuu, finland babey

4. three things you are doing right now? pretending im reading the essays i shouldve read for methodology class weeks ago, making a list of things i need to get from the university library (and where those books are exactly - i dont actually go to the uni library very often at all but for some reason rather many of the books i need arent available as ebooks), trying to drink the second bucket of coffee of the day without spilling it everywhere

5. four fandoms that have piqued your interest? re-animator; stephen king multiverse (was gonna just say the shining and doctor sleep but we all know its more than that); saw franchise; the godfather. though with sk and godfather im basically just playing in my own little isolated sandbox and im more than fine with that thank you

6. how has the pandemic been treating you? ah well. its been treating me. got my ba degree and generally have been able to study more so thats good. spent five months with my family in tampere last year and itd probably be good for me to go there again but as it is im stuck in my apartment because of doctors appointments. like thats the only reason i cant just Go. also i recently realized i havent seen my grandma in over a year and cried about that. choir stuff is obviously all fucky and uncertain. also having time to think about things and stuff means ive been figuring out gender stuff so thats been.....interesting....and energy consuming.....and crisis inducing

7. a song you can’t stop listening to right now? täällä on joku by absoluuttinen nollapiste, its finnish weirdness hours in my head 247

8. recommend a movie. i mean, yeah, re-animator

9. how old are you? 25. 26 in a few weeks

10. school, university, occupation, other? university of eastern finland, babey! english language and culture major, literature minor. did my ba thesis on the shining. the novel, fuck the kubrick film, and wouldnt have been allowed to do my thesis about a film anyway. so right now im a masters student and will start working on my ma thesis next year, trying to get as many classes out of the way before that as possible. dont know what im gonna be once i graduate and id really rather not think about that but i do like studying in spite of everything

11. do you prefer heat or cold? heat. but, like... thats relative, isnt it? what i consider warm is Definitely Not warm to someone who lives in, like, texas. and i Tolerate cold and, christ i dont know. my favorite season is spring.

12. name one fact others may not know about you. once came second in a school skiing competition! i was ten. we didnt get medals, we got like pins/brooches and i still have my silver brooch somewhere

13. are you shy? sometimes. often. im anxious

14. pronouns? they/them. like i said ive been trying to figure out gender stuff and the only thing im Very sure of is that i am Not Cis, and im scared, and i get easily defensive about it all, and i have a lot of internalized issues i need to work on. gendered pronouns are like my number one personal enemy, i need the sort of....neutrality, ambiguity, yknow. finnish does not Have gendered pronouns, we have hän for he/she/they/every neopronoun - and we dont even fucking use that one, everyones just se (it) and thats all fine and dandy when you dont want to Think about your Gender every time someone refers to you and im rambling because i am once again getting defensive for no reason sdfdsfs yeah theres still a lot to unload here i swear were getting there

15. biggest pet peeves? on a bad day? everything. but to give an actual answer, people not realizing their experiences are not universal and that their actions can and will have an effect on others

16. what is your favorite “-dere” type? glad to say im temporarily illiterate so i dont know what this says

17. rate your life from 1 to 10, 1 being crappy and 10 being the best it could be im afraid i cant do that luv i dont want to have a breakdown

18. what’s your main blog? this one babey

19. list your side blogs and what they’re used for. i have @ihmekukkavesi for my photography and @shineondoc for university hell and occasional doctor sleep/the shining yelling. im not gonna call it my studyblr cos it....its really not....its not. im not a good student. im not organized, i dont feel like im Doing This right. im definitely not exemplary. everything becomes a crisis and i need to let it out somewhere and thats what shineondoc is for. 

20. is there something people need to know about you before becoming friend? oh boy. uh. im not good at keeping a conversation going. yet at the same time i cannot fucking shut up if were talking about something im excited about. i dont know how Real this is but i feel like i might come across as like...arrogant or something but i swear im just scared and trying to keep myself from Rambling(tm) and. well. trying to sound like a normal fucking person. 

tagging @nowendil @appelssiini @librarytraveller @sailonacrossthesea @stokoetopia @kirsikkaprinsessa and anyone whos bored and wants to do this

#got tagged #once again. no pressure if you dont feel like doing this

[choisansexual]

“My Cousin’s Best Friend”

For: @atinypiratequeen Pairing: Kim Hongjoong x Fem Reader Genre: Realism/Angst/Smut+ Word Count: 4327 POV: second person POV

Preview: You blinked twice. Then a third time. A fourth. All the air in your lungs suddenly felt like water. Your eyes narrowed. No… fucking… way. Were you dreaming? You were definitely dreaming. Right? No. A doppelganger! Had to be. Because there was absolutely, positively, just… no fucki-- “Hey… nice to meet you. I’m Kim Hongjoong. Well… Hongjoong… or just Joong, is fine, too.” Perfectly articulated english. Fuck…!

“Damnit! Okay, stop. Stop! … Arghhhh, shit!”, you exclaimed loudly as moments of light alternated with pitch blackness. The deep rumbling of thunder followed sharp flashes of lightning as the rain pelted the roof like bullets. The scrolling marquee across bottom of the television screen, read in bold print, warnings of the storm. “Yeah, yeah, yeah…”, you paused in the middle of the living room staring at the screen momentarily. It was rather rare that a strong storm hit your area like this. Much less a storm strong enough to possibly knock the power out. Retrieving your phone from your back pocket, you check the time. It was half past seven in the evening. The sun was already gone from the sky. Checking the time stamp from the last text you’d received from your cousin, it read a quarter past six. Andrew was always the most punctual person you’d known. Always early, hardly on time. When he’d messaged that he’d landed and would be at the door in less than an hour, that’s exactly what you were expecting. Excitement bubbled back up from your stomach as it had been quite some time since you’d seen him. He was your best friend. The big brother you never had, and never knew you needed. So his visits were always a big occasion for you. Especially this one. Your parents had left town for the weekend to visit relatives out of state. You offered to stay and watch the house and surprisingly, they didn’t argue. Now, the entire house was at your free reign for the next 3 days. Not that you had a massive house party planned or anything, but it would definitely be nice to have your own privacy and space. 

Still absent-mindedly glaring at your glowing phone screen, the shadows in your living room began to dance as headlights moved outside of the living room window. Finally! He’s here! A rush of adrenaline shot through your veins and within seconds you were swinging the front door open. “Hey!”, you called out into the steady rain. Huddling into yourself in an effort to shield from the wind, and crossing your arms against your chest as you squinted in the dim porch lighting, Andrew responded with equal excitement. “Hey, you! We got stuck waiting on our rental car!”. Wait ... ‘we’? As you inhaled a breath in preparation to interrogate him, you heard a second door slam shut on the vehicle. There was a dark figure walking alongside Andrew as they approached up the driveway. But… he didn’t mention he was bringing anyone else with him… right? As they stepped onto the porch you were finally able to make out your cousin’s familiarity. Tossing your arms around his neck, completely disregarding the fact that he was absolutely sopping wet from the rain, your happiness over powered all other thoughts in that moment. That is until… “So… uh… yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t mention something sooner. It was literally a last minute thing and I figured since we have the house all to ourselves…”, Andrew’s voice trailed off. Gesturing in the air with his hands as he pretty much failed to present a valid explanation and he knew it. Ceasing to speak and just shrugging his shoulders with his sweet endearing smile, you immediately cut your eyes to the personage situated directly to his left. 

You blinked twice. Then a third time. A fourth. All the air in your lungs suddenly felt like water. Your eyes narrowed. No… fucking… way. Were you dreaming? You were definitely dreaming. Right? No. A doppelganger! Had to be. Because there was absolutely, positively, just… no fucki-- “Hey… nice to meet you. I’m Kim Hongjoong. Well… Hongjoong… or just Joong, is fine, too.” Perfectly articulated english.

Fuck…!

Your skin was feeling like it had been set on fire, from head to toe. You stared. A little too hard. You had no idea how long the silence had been present. Andrew laughed awkwardly, snapping you out of your trance. “Yeahhh… so, uh… he’s a foriegn exchange student from Korea that got assigned to my dorm… we got pretty tight, and I didn’t think it would be an issue for him to just… yunno… tag along!” Trailing off, Andrew left you two standing there face to face in the whipping rain as he disappeared through the front door and into the house. Turning on your heels, you quickly followed him inside. Once all three of you were in the warmth and safety of the living room, you were literally unable to peel your eyes from your cousin’s guest. Emerging from the hallway after taking in their small amount of luggage, Andrew prepared to take his seat in front of the television on the couch when you suddenly sprung to your feet. Quickly making your way to Andrew, grasping onto the sleeve of his sweater, you yanked him up and into the kitchen. 

“Have you… any idea…. any… idea… who… that is?!” You tried so hard to keep your voice hushed and quiet. If hissing counted as quiet. Andrew shrugged his shoulders once again. “I mean, he said he was kinda famous in Korea… and that he sang and danced with a buncha other dudes or something… I don’t know…”, his tone of voice laced with nonchalant disinterest. Huffing you rolled your eyes with your hands balled into fists against your hips. “Look, it’s not a big deal, okay? Even he told me that… so… just treat him like a normal person, alright? He’s my best friend at school, and honestly… he’s pretty cool, actually.” You could not believe what you were hearing. Was this even reality right now? What kind of warped dimension was this?! A look of exasperation twisted up Andrew’s features as he gazed down at you. “He’s really chill, okay? Stop acting weird!”, Andrew remarked as he furrowed his brows. Turning and walking out of the kitchen, he left you speechless and still attempting to comprehend the gravity of the confirmation that was just handed to you. So it really is… it really IS him. 

Tapping your nails against the countertop you momentarily contemplated on texting your friends. No. They wouldn’t believe you anyways. What if you took some candids of him and posted them to your tumblr and twitter? Ew, no. That’s creepy. Super creepy. Besides… he’s on vacation… right. In YOUR HOUSE! But still… respect his privacy. And… respect yours. He’s just a regular human being, right? Just like you and your cousin. Sighing heavily and rubbing both of your palms against your face, you wring your hands out and calm yourself enough to walk back into the living room. Sitting yourself down in the same spot on the sofa that you were prior, tucking one leg underneath yourself, your eyes darted across the room and landed on Joong’s face. My god he was just as breathtaking as the fan cams and fan photos you’d filled your blog with. Gnawing on his thumb nail and slowly rocking back and forth in the lay-z boy recliner, his eyes suddenly dart from the television screen and meet yours. Oh, shit! Dropping his hand from his mouth, he offered a partial smirk from the corner of his lips. You unknowingly gasp to yourself. Clearing your throat loudly you whip your head in Andrew’s direction. “So… how long was the flight here? How’s school? What have you been up to…?”, you spouted questions at him. He was unusually quiet tonight. His stories were always mesmerizing and interesting to hear. But tonight the fatigue on his face and in his body language was as loud as a fog horn. Pursing your lips in frustration you looked upon him anticipating an engrossing conversation. “Oh, man… there’s so much. You have no idea…”, he paused momentarily. “I don’t even know where to begin, honestly… my brain is just mush right now, from being so tired.” You knew it. Nodding and looking at the floor, your eyes lift as Andrew rises to his feet. Patting his hands against the sides of his jeans he looks at you and then at Joong and with that, you already knew what was coming next. “Welp… I think I’m going to shower and take my happy ass to bed. I’ll catch you up on everything in the morning, alright? Don’t worry.” His gaze returns to your face. A subtle wink from his left eye has you feeling the urge to sock him right in the mouth, as he shuffles across the living room floor, turning into the hallway and becoming no longer visible. The awkward silence returned like an inevitable looming cloud. 

“If you don’t mind… I think I might lay down, too?”, Joong’s melodic voice finally slicing through the thick tension in the air. “Oh, y-yeah… yeah, sure. Go right ahead.”, you immediately respond. Wondering if there was something you could have said to keep him right in his place and possibly more entertained. “Okay… thanks. Uhm… if you don’t mind… I’m not sure… could you show me where… please?”. He began to sit up from this chair. His eyes steadily trained on you like a sniper. It was almost intimidating. “Oh, sure! I’m… I’m sorry! I’m just so used to Andrew knowing where to go around here, I just--”

“It’s okay…”, Joong immediately cut you off. His tone offering reassurance since it was rather obvious that you were feeling like a total failure of a host, at that point. His lips parting into an almost blinding smile. His features were literally so flawless. So sharp and so overwhelmingly attractive! He gestured with one hand for you to walk ahead of him. Pressing your lips together to stifle a smile that was going to be bigger than it should have, you pass him. His scent being carried in the wind. It was intoxicating. A mixture of masculine fragrance. Slightly spicy with undertones of cool blue water and crystal clear ice. 

You trek down the darkened hallway and turn a sharp right into the guest room. Flipping on a dim bed side lamp, you spin around anticipating to see his gorgeous face again. Hearing soft shuffling across the carpet, several seconds later, he appears. You swore he got more and more attractive every time you looked at him. Inhaling a deep breath, you gesture around the room, pointing at things and offering a short explanation of the sparse decor in the room when you hear the door click shut behind you. Immediately cutting your eyes towards the sound, you’re met with the most devilish grin you’d ever seen in your life. Air catches in your throat. The shadows casting against his handsome features literally have your heart racing. Your mind scrambled to find an explanation for the situation. Your fight or flight instinct was on a hair trigger, until his soothing and melodic voice cut through the silence like a knife. “Thanks… but I’m sure I can figure it out from here.” He nodded. You nodded. Anxiously weaving your fingers together. So… is he going to let you out then? You take an apprehensive step closer towards the door, but he stood stead fast. His back leaning against the wood. “Got something else to do for the rest of the night…?”. Hongjoong’s bottom lip becomes trapped between his teeth. How incredibly sinful. “No… not really…”, your mind on high alert. He raises a single eyebrow. Pushing himself forward off the door, he takes a slow, single step towards you. Dropping his chin and narrowing his piercing gaze, you were sure you stopped breathing. His jaw shifting left to right as he continued to gnaw at his lower lip. He takes another step towards you. Your mind urges you to take a step backwards, but your feet insist on rebelling. The space between you two quickly closing. Another step and— the air catches in your throat. He was absolutely stunning at this distance. Or rather… lack there of. Perhaps star struck, in your mind, you just knew that you probably looked like that emoji with huge heart eyes and a cheesy smile, gazing back at him. One of his hands comes forward. With his palm facing sideways and index finger slightly curled, he slides it underneath your chin. Lightly lifting up your head, he tilts his own to the right. His gaze darting between your eyes and your lips, Hongjoong ever so cautiously dips his head down. Pressing his lips against yours, your eyes immediately flutter shut. Registering the sensation at a slight delay, you’d only began to relish in the softness of his lips when the hand hooked underneath your chin, slides up and around to cup the nape of your neck. Instinctively your lips reciprocate. Molding against his in a seamless seal. Pulling away just as slowly as he brought himself in,  he presses his lips together and drags his tongue between them. Keeping his forehead pressed against your own, he whispers against your mouth, “....okay?”. The only response you can manage is to offer a single nod of confirmation. Within that same second, Hongjoong returns his lips to your own. This time, parting them slowly, his tongue slides out beyond his teeth and into your mouth. The unexpected, forcing a soft whimper from your throat. The most beautiful note to ever grace his ears. His other hand sliding from the side of your hip, under the bottom hem of your sweater, and coming to press against the small of your bare back. His skilled tongue tangling with your own. Your eyes flutter shut and you momentarily lose yourself in the intensity of the kiss. Without even realizing it, the edge of the mattress was pressing against the back of your knees. With his palm still pressed to your lower back, he gently guides your down onto the sheets. His lips moving in the same direction as he peppered feathery kisses along your jawline, and the side of your throat. Inevitably coming to focus in the crook of your neck, his lips creating a light suction against your flesh. Rotating his hips just right, Hongjoong managed to wedge his way between your thighs. With his left arm bent at the elbow propping himself up above you, his right hand gently slides down the length of your left arm. His hand soon finding your own and weaving his fingers within yours. With his lips never leaving your flesh, he trails his way down the center of your chest and into the valley between your breasts. Stopping short only on the cause of the neckline of your shirt. Lowering himself, his eyes cut to your own. Drinking in every reaction he could pull from, his teeth bite down on the bottom hem of your top. Raising himself back up towards towards your face, your shirt bunches up just under your bustline. Immediately returning to his previous position, his lips resume their connection to the sensitive skin of your tummy. Kissing his way down to the top elastic of your pj bottoms, he looks up once again. Hongjoong’s smoldering gaze rendered you barely coherent and it was getting more and more difficult to focus on anything. But there it was again. That sinful tongue of his. Allowing it to slip from his lips, he drags the tip of his tongue along the bottom of his top lip. Left. Right. Releasing your hand, both of his hook into the waistband of your bottoms. His eyes still fixed on yours, he quietly asks again. “...okay?”. Just as before, a quick and single nod of confirmation, and he’s tugging the material down. Leaning back and up on his knees, you rock your hips to assist in the removal. Pulling them off your ankles and dropping them to the floor bedside, he then crosses his arms, gripping the bottom hem of his shirt and yanks it up over his head. The metal dog tags around his neck clang loudly as they fall back onto his broad chest. Swallowing hard, your eyes shamelessly drink in the sight before you. Tossing his shirt to join your pj pants on the floor, he leans back down over your body. Scooting himself back to adjust his position, his head turns to the right and he continues his trail of feathery kisses starting at your knee, moving down the inside of your thigh and ending directly, dead center, at the crotch of your soaked panties. Chewing on the inside of your cheek, your gaze cuts off to the side, then back to him. Off to the side, then back at him. He purses his lips and presses them against the dampened material. The warmth of his breath sends shock waves all the way to your toes. Bringing a hand up between your bodies, his lithe fingers traces the lacy edge of the fabric. Hooking his index finger underneath the material, he pulls it to the side, fully exposing you to him, as his face sat literally inches away. Squeezing your eyes shut tightly, you swallow hard. Fuck… you shaved last night, right? Or… wait… was it the other day? No… it was this morning! It had to be-- “Auuhhhhnnn!….”, suddenly grounded back into reality as your body responded completely on it’s own, a soft moan spills from your lips as the tip of his tongue delves between your dripping folds. Lashing in an up and down direction, he laps at your core. His free hand coming up to gently pull your folds apart, as he flattens his tongue  against your swollen clit. Being able to hear nothing but your own heart beat pounding in your ears, laced with the lewd noises of sloshing wetness coming from between your legs, your chest rises and falls as your body jerks with each pass of his tongue. Strangle whimpers and drawn out whines tear from your throat as the coiling heat in the pit of your stomach churns. Tangling your fingers into the bedsheets on either side of you, you fight to keep your legs open for him. Feeling your thighs beginning to tremble, Hongjoong suddenly stops. Voiding you of any contact with him, you feel the mattress shift underneath you. Snapping your eyes open, just in time to lock gazes with him, he’s now hovering over you at eye level. Pressing your lips together tightly, that same wickedly seductive expression was plastered all over his face, as his tongue glides over his bottom lip. My god… he’s so beautiful. The dim lighting in your room proved to be a curse just as much as a blessing in that moment as you turned your head to the side, momentarily attempting to catch your breath. Catching his perfectly defined silhouette against the far wall, you admire every hard line as your eyes travel it’s length. Inevitably coming to settle on the shameless bulge on the front of his figure, your head whips back to face him. Holding himself up above you via on hand planted beside your head, his other hand was already wedged between your bodies, making quick work of the front of his pants. Searching his eyes, desperate for any kind of communication before anything else happened, he drops himself down towards you. His dewy lips brushing lightly against your own as the words trickle into your mouth. “You want this…?” In the same moment, you feel the large and smooth head of his cock toying between your soaked folds, just as his tongue had done, minutes earlier. 

Fuck! How could you not?! Temporarily unable to answer, as your eyes flutter shut, his lips press against your own and with his free hand gripping the hilt of his shaft, he continues to tease at your pussy. Skillfully rubbing circles against your clit with the tip of his cock, the friction was absolutely knee-buckling. Pushing your head back into the pillow to create enough space to break the kiss, you pant out the answer that you knew he was patiently waiting to hear. “Y-yes….”.

Without a second to spare and his reaction time seamless, Hongjoong rears his hips back, aligning himself with your entrance. Locking his lips against your own in a conscious effort to muffle the sounds that were to come, he applies pressure with his hips. Feeling yourself stretch around him as he entered you, you suck in a sharp breath through your nose, in return, moaning into his mouth. Your hands grip at his bare shoulder blades, feeling the muscles in his back flex as he thrusts forward. Ceasing his movements only once his lower pelvis leaned flush against the back of your thigh, it was obvious that he was silently at war to keep himself as still as possible, allowing your to adjust to him. Squeezing your floor muscles around his shaft, he suddenly breaks the kiss with a harsh gasp. His torso curls inward as his back bows against your fingernails, and his forehead presses against your collarbone. Seconds later, he blesses you with the sweetest sound you’d probably ever heard in your life. “Auhh-Auuugghhhnn… fuck!”, a lewd moan spills forth from him as he grits his teeth in his face. Panting heavily against your skin, your trail your hands down to each side of his hips as a gesture to let him know that you were okay. Only then did he begin to move. 

Starting with slow and shallow strokes, his body rocks gently against yours. His lips busy working the side of your throat. The slick sounds of flesh on flesh echo through your bedroom. Allowing you plenty of adequate time to take this at your own pace, you’re quick to sense that Hongjoong  was fighting to keep himself in tandem. Your hands slide from his hips down to hook into the back of his thighs and you begin to pull him into you with every inward stroke. Able to read the signals like a well memorized book, he begins to quicken the pace. Keeping flawless rhythm for several minutes to follow, it wasn’t until his movements began to stutter and stumble that you knew he was getting dangerously close. Clamping your muscles around him, his groans grew in volume and frequency. “Sh-Shit… Auugghnn…. Augghnnnnn!”, his voice becoming raspy and ragged. Eventually unable to keep your own climax at bay, you decided if you were going over the edge, you were taking him with you. 

Hongjoong’s thighs begin to quiver as your own begin to violently shake. Feeling the swell rise in the bottom of your belly, your back arches at a sharp angle off the mattress and your head tips back against the pillow. A feral moan rips from your throat as you toss yourself over the edge, spiraling head first into your orgasm. Feeling your muscles spasm around his thick shaft, his thrusts become uneven, breaking the prior pattern he’d kept before. Clinging on to each wave of your climax as they crash over you, his labored breathing rings in your ears. Peeking your eyelids open as you feel yourself beginning to come down from you high, there was nothing in this world that was going to make you miss watching him come unraveled. 

As his hips jerk back and forth, he presses harder and longer into you with each stroke. Finally feeling his cock begin to twitch deep in your core, he thrusts inward one last time before holding his body flush against your own. The arm planted beside your head buckles as he leans down onto his elbows. His face buried into the side of your neck, as a guttural moan shreds the quiet ambience of the room. “Hhhhggnn-AUUUHHgggggnnnnn!!! Auugghnnn! Mmmggghhnnn…. Fuck! Fuck!” Each hard jerk of his shaft accompanied with a lewd groan from his lips as he spilled himself inside of you. Immediate warmth coating every inch of your walls, as he unloaded. Struggling to keep enough air in his lungs, his hips rut against your body as his spasms become less frequent and further apart. Combing your fingers through his hair, soothing him as he began to come down from his climax, sweat collects along the ridge of his spine. 

As several minutes pass, he still remains buried deep inside of you. Looking up through sweat laced bangs, he offers a blissful smile. I literally cannot believe that just happened… am I dreaming? Nope. I asked myself that question before. I’m definitely awake. And he’s definitely right here. And… he’s definitely starting to get heavy-- Shifting yourself underneath him, he chuckles softly as a slightly apologetic expression takes over his sharp features. Looking down, he slowly pulls himself out. Hissing and taking his bottom lip between his teeth, as the slight friction faults a shiver down his spine, he flops to the sheets beside you. With your thighs slightly aching, your sit yourself up. Momentarily lightheaded, but still feeling the rush of the euphoria, you blindly grab at the edge of the covers. Tugging them up and over both of you, and adjusting your position to face him, you lay back down, tucking an arm underneath your head. Gazing at his stunning features, as he lay with his eyes closed, you lift yourself and lean towards him, placing a soft kiss to his forehead. Without bothering to open his eyes, his hand searches for your own. Entangling his fingers into yours once he finally did, he brings your hand up and presses his lips to back of your palm, refusing to let your hand go. Settling back into place, unsure if anything more should be said nor if anything more even needed to, considering how cryptic and quiet of a person he turned out to be, you simply whisper, “....wow.” No response, except for the soft purring of his slumber. 

#kim hongjoong #hongjoong #ateez #ateez hongjoong #ateez writers #ateez fic #ateez smut #i'm literally praying that you like it bby #i cannot apologize enough how long this took me!

[rainbowserenity]

I’m totally alone in the house til at least tomorrow night, and while I’d normally revel in this.....I’m alone because my dad decided to take my stepsister’s family to Sea World

during a pandemic

fuck Sea World in general, but ESPECIALLY fuck it during a pandemic

he said he was taking them because they kept “begging” to go (he usually takes them to a theme park every year) and he ~couldn’t say no~

but that’s not even the worst of it

stepshit moved out in May, but ever since then (and even before then), my dad’s been talking to women on dating sites. he’s basically been glued to his phone for months. I was kinda hoping once stepshit was out of the way, we’d be able to hang out more, but every single night he’s just glued to his phone and barely looks up from it because he’s apparently so desperate for companionship

anyway, he’s tried to convince women to fly down here and either MOVE IN or just visit...one of them was 36 years old....(I’M 32) and luckily, they’ve all backed out for one reason or another

but this weekend, after a germ-filled day at fucking Sea World, he’s supposedly picking up this lady who’s flying in from France. from what he’s told me, she’s been living in South Africa for a couple of years for legal reasons. he paid whatever thousands of dollars in fees to get her out of there and paid another two grand for a plane ticket

she’s supposed to arrive in this country tomorrow night.

and I can GUARANTEE that my dad won’t strictly observe any sort of quarantine. he’ll probably feel that it’s fine enough she’ll just be in the house instead of closing her off for two weeks in his room or something

and maybe this is selfish, but like....what about me?

I don’t want to share my space with some strange lady after finally getting stepshit out of my life. I don’t want to be indirectly exposed to all these germs, I don’t want to feel trapped if this lady and I don’t get along

have I mentioned that she barely speaks English??? she only speaks French fluently. she and my dad have been communicating through google translate, which is fine for texting, but how the hell is that going to work in real life? how long before they get annoyed they have to pull out their phones for every little thing? my dad’s basically banking on her learning English while she’s here, but we all know it’s a fucky language, so it might be months or years before she has a good grasp on it

I just..........I hate that he’s spent all this money on plane tickets and whatever for someone he barely knows, while I have to scrimp and scrounge $$ if I want to eat something besides cereal and had to try to crowdfund therapy. I can understand wanting a girlfriend, but like.....I’m his daughter. shouldn’t that count for something?

and then I spiral in this whole thing of feeling guilty for living here and existing and having the nerve to take up space. I wish I didn’t live here. I never expected to keep feeling like a waste of space after stepshit left, but here we are

the weird thing is that I’m not even depressed about all of this, although that’s probably coming. I’m just.....sad. I’m sad that it feels like I don’t matter at all and that I’m always the second thought and second choice. just feels bad man.

idk how to end this but everything feels bad and I’m just so damn tired. I wish I could figure out a way to move out if my dad’s going to insist on forgetting there’s a pandemic going on. I wish I could support myself, but I think this all feels especially bad because I don’t know how to do anything. I’d be lost without my dad and I hate feeling like that. and now I hate that there will possibly be a strange woman in the way and taking any kind of feeling of security and peace

bahhh I don’t know anymore I’m just so tired

#personal

[rainy-rose]

Happy Meet and Greet Monday from writingamongthecoloredroses: To which of your OCs you want, is there a childhood incident that left a scar?

Hullo and happy MAGM @writingamongthecoloredroses cool username btw ^^

I’ll go with Sabinne (with a bit of help from her adoptive father, Gail)  from Scales and Petals

Sabinne: *arms crossed and a bit put off* Where to fuckying start?

Gail: Hey! Language!

Sabinne *rolls eyes* Yeah, anyway! I grew up in the system so there are a lot. My mum died in childbirth and it is so great finding that up on the day they come and take you! Like, I was what? 8 ish, could barely speak English cause the bas- erm *glances at Gail* 

Gail: I agree with that one, Émile was a bastard. Had some reasons, maybe, but he was still a bastard. 

Sabinne: We agree on something? Okayyyyy *confused* Of course you had to bring up his name *mumble grumble* 

Gail *sighs* Finish the story.

Sabinne: We lived near Oxford yea? In some slum. He is, or was, a junky. Spoke only French around me, I learned English in the system, proper English and proper French for that matter, so the NSPCC  did all right on the front. How I got to the age of 8 with him around, I have no clue. Maybe pity from the neighbours. But yeah, I get taken by these two people from the NSPCC. The bastard had gotten arested and signed me off. The only good thing he did. He told the social about my mum, but did not bother to give them her name. Just that she was from Senegal and she died in childbirth! I had to pry this information out of the NSPCC people. *looks to the side angrily* 

#meet & greet monday #meet and greet monday #magm #answered asks #my writing #my ocs #scales and petals #sabinne duval #gail frost

[necropsittacus]

fuckoff long post about my skeksis language thoughts below the cut. i ought to do more with this but it’s been sitting in my files for a couple months now and i want to Show People  

-i've talked about this hc on here before, but i like it enough to repeat. the existence of names like skekmal and skekvar indicate that they have some means of producing labial consonants with a beak (presumably the skeksis can pronounce their own names. also, while i am very fond of assuming the same "this is translated from what they're actually saying" conceit tolkien uses applies to tdc, it seems unnecessary and overly complicated to assume anything of the sort about *character names,* especially ones that don't sound like real-world names to start with. i am going to assume unless told otherwise that those are their actual in-universe names and not "translated" for human benefit). my favored solution is that they have syrinxes like a parrot’s rather than humanoid vocal apparatus.

-there are separate extant skeksis and gelfling languages. (evidence for this: the skeksis were straight up originally supposed to speak their own language in the movie. "shadows of the dark crystal" has a comment about how well skekso speaks gelfling. also, "shadows of the dark crystal" does some things with speech patterns for the skeksis, which i will get into below and which, with the possible exception of chamberlain and novels!hunter, make most sense to me to treat as second language difficulties--i have a hard time seeing, say, emperor deliberately speaking ""wrongly"")

one might expect that the skeksis, being the way they are, would install their own language as the official or state language. given that "shadows of the dark crystal" specifies that skekso's accent in the Gelfling language is pretty good, in a scene taking place in the castle ("his voice sounded almost cultured, his accent in the gelfling tongue much more perfected than the stilted broken phrases of the Chamberlain" (*shadows of the dark crystal* 202)), i'm assuming that *isn't* the situation, and for whatever reason they're using Gelfling for state business. given the skeksis in general, that sure isn't out of a sense of benevolence. 

one option: the skeksis treat their language as a Special In-Group Thing that they don't want to use with or maybe teach to outsiders. it's become essentially a ritual thing (which might in itself warrant an explanation as to how that came about, tbh), or they do use it for casual purposes but only among themselves, something like that. 

another option: there's some specific reason the skeksis lang would be impractical as a state language--i think the most likely thing for this is that there's some aspect(s) of the skeksis lang that are just anatomically difficult or impossible for gelflings to produce, perceive, or both (my initial thought was just "they might have sounds a gelfling doesn't have the right anatomy to make," influenced by the syrinx idea, but tbh going with that same idea i think like, crows, have fairly nuanced signals that we might just hear as "caw" across the board, so a species with both that sort of vocal anatomy and their own language could conceivably have nuances of sound difference a different species wouldn't Pick Up On, either?)

and these aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, either

-name vs title: (this is as much my friend skye's (@deerpunk) idea as mine, so i don't want to take full credit for it) using a skeksis's personal name vs their title is a formality distinction pretty similar to the T-V distinction, except that, due to the skeksis being How They Are, the more positive familiarity/intimacy sense has been lost in most contexts, for most skeksis, and most of what's left is the insult sense. (there are some exceptions to this: skekvar to skeksil, when he's decided he trusts him, maybe skeklach and skekok (although that strikes me as half-jokingly rude friendship, so it could be both tbh), skekmal's death--and that could be a breaking down of formality expectations because the situation is so dire.) because strength, respect, ornamentation, dignity are so important to the skeksis, using someone's title to refer to them is the default, and using a personal name is specifically marking something. this is also why we very rarely see anyone call emperor "skekso" (with the exception of, to the point i’ve gotten to in the novels at the time of writing, skeksa and skekmal--and those two seem more likely to talk back to skekso anyway tbh)--it would just be rude as hell and there might be consequences

it's also of immense interest to me that at one point in "shadows of the dark crystal," skekmal refers to emperor as "so." i have not seen this kind of shortening anywhere else. it's either a peculiarity of skekmal, which would check out, given how weird his speech patterns generally are in that book, or an additional level of informality, which presumably no one but skekmal has the guts to *use* (especially for skekso holy shit). 

-"shadow of the dark crystal" gives several skeksis specific fucky speech patterns (presumably in the gelfling language), *besides* what's going on with chamberlain, which i think can mostly be attributed to like. Chamberlain. chamberlain has multiple scenes in AOR where there are only other skeksis present (so i think it’s a fair guess that they’d be using the Skeksis language), and his speech patterns are just as weird, in the same ways, as when he’s talking to gelfling. 

so what i'm saying about this is mostly discounting chamberlain, although i will say that the “using the same weird speech patterns in sentences that are in-universe presumably in skeksis and gelfling” thing, to me, suggests maybe that he actually has a different kind of fucked up speech pattern across languages, and it’s being “translated” as the same for the benefit of the viewers (i would guess the skeksis and gelfling languages don’t have exactly the same grammar; i would also guess that chamberlain talking kind of weird is, as iirc the wiki suggests, a deliberate choice meant to project a certain image). it’s also interesting that from the very little information i have just from “shadows of the dark crystal,” chamberlain does not make the same errors as emperor (possibly he actually speaks gelfling fairly well and is playing up “oh look at poor harmless chamberlain, i don’t speak your language too good, be nice to me :)” ?)

i'm going to talk about *shadows of the dark crystal*!skekmal separately, since his speech patterns, as mentioned above, are kind of wild and have some commonalities with both chamberlain and the other skeksis in the book. i feel it necessary to distinguish novels skekmal from aor skekmal, who talks normally if a bit melodramatically. (also i'm getting the impression they have slightly different personalities, from what i've seen so far, but that's not relevant to this monstrosity of a post)

i am going to list the weird sentences individually in a bit here. the most notable oddities (discounting chamberlain and hunter) are copula omission, verb number agreement (possibly person, too, but english has so little verb agreement that that's hard to judge); "gelfling" being pluralized as "gelfling," which i think is common enough in tdc but in combination with the previous point made me wonder about pluralization errors? the omission of definite articles, and some odd word order stuff that could also be taken as sheer pretentiousness

copula omission: 

"gelfling the ones that do the fixing" (202)

"gelfling causing problems for us, lord skeksis (202) ("lord skeksis" there also feels odd to me; i think i would have expected a definite article, and maybe a different word order)

"all gelfling traitors" (211)

verb agreement: 

"we love gelfling, we do, we loves them" (203)

"after all skeksis does for you! gelfling came here just to tell such lies!" (211)

misc: 

“daughter-soldier” (202) is not egregious but a bit odd

“yes?” to end a wh-question (202)

"silverling is sounding like a traitor herself" (212)

"see the crystal herself" (214) is not terrible but feels a Little weird 

“we care not”

hunter: (not sure whether to even count this for Skeksis Speech Oddities because his speech patterns are SO wild)

"skeksis tower"

also drops first person subject pronoun (222)

"end this now, skekMal will do" (222) -- third person for himself, weird word order

omission of third person subject pronoun also 

consistent omission of articles, except "skekTek the Scientist"

"not if skekMal make and take it for *himself*" - verbal agreement error

"what we does with Gelfling" - verbal agreement error

more subject pronoun omission and verb agreement errors- "silverling wanted to know what we does with gelfling. wanted to see for itself...got what it deserves" (222)

"hard to fight while carrying stone" (225) - this is okay but feels kind of weird (at least personally i’d probably say “it’s hard to fight…” in this context) 

skektek also omits subject pronouns (238)--"gets to see the crystal *now*"

we don't see skektek omit first person, which is interesting; i’m taking that as essentially a characterization thing--it makes sense to have skektek in particular emphasizing his own presence and relevance 

"skeksis taking care of it, taking care of gelfling" - past progressive expressed as simple progressive with no copula (243)

"how's skeksis to protect little gelfling when crystal cracked?" - agreement error, article omission (243)

"when growing old? growing weak?" (243) - omission of both subject pronoun and copula

negative concord--"not one with nothing"--(245)

"where the one with wings" (248) - copula omission

"skekmal smells 'em" (248)--is this the first place we get a potentially animate pronoun used for a gelfling by a skeksis? and it's plural?

"what says gelfling"

"gelfling wings comes fluttering out to save it" (248)--with "it" being gurjin, presumably, since skekMal would be unable to grab naia since he doesn't know exactly where she is. so this would be "gelfling wings comes fluttering out to save gurjin;" "gelfling wings" could be interpreted as "gelfling with wings" or "gelfling's wings" with about equal workability in this sentence--"gelfling with wings comes fluttering out to save gurjin" or "gelfling's wings come fluttering out to save gurjin"--Gurjin takes it as the second ("gelfling wings fly her to ha'rar")

"skekMal kills this one, then it kills the others" (249)--skekMal using not only third person, but inanimate third person, to refer to himself. skekMal using third person like this could be taken as meaning that referring to yourself in the third person either has a different connotation than in english (i tend to think of it as sort of childlike or cutesy, and skekMal is REALLY not that), and most likely different connotations for skekMal doing it than chamberlain doing it, or this is just a really weird take on him.

also, I’ve mostly been assuming the skeksis using “it” for gelfling is just a “they don’t see gelflings as fully sentient” thing, but that can’t really apply to skekMal; i wonder if the skeksis language doesn’t have a pronoun animacy distinction, or it doesn’t work the same way as in english, and they’re just Worse about remembering to use the right ones for gelfling, because of the “not seeing gelflings as people” problem? 

you could take that farther and say the skeksis language, or maybe the urskeks? don't have third person pronouns at *all;* (at any rate, my personal headcanon has always been that they didn't originally have gendered pronouns, or really gender at all per se, and skeksa and (probably) skeklach (and by extension presumably their urru counterparts) just heard this "she" and "woman" thing from non-skeksis and went "yeah i want that")

also this could have relevance to chamberlain and novels!skekmal using third person for themselves so much

my friend skye, mentioned above, took this and suggested the skeksis lang is grammatically similar to japanese, in connection with the urskeks being super collectivist, which i like. It would also jive with the verbal agreement and pluralization errors, inconsistent use of articles, and copula omission.

this post may be updated with more novels stuff later on, because This Is What I’m Doing With My Major I Guess. 

#txt #tdc #long post

[loverontheleft]

Ready to Leap (4)

AU with B as a band teacher and reader as an English teacher. Fluff and smut anticipated. Chapters 1-3 can be found on my Masterlist.

Brendon x reader. Warnings: language and implied sexual situations. ALSO SOME KILLER FUCKING DIALOGUE; I LITERALLY HIGH-FIVED MYSELF A FEW TIMES (I looked like a goddamn seal). Lesson of the day: it’s important to notice your strengths and validate them.

Word count: 4.2k. Also, I tried some new formatting with the internal thoughts; honestly I was just too lazy to italicize them in the first three chapters but if y’all have a preference just lmk. I don’t think I love it but I’ll do what you want.

—————————————————————

“MS. MILTON. DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HEARD?” You wince at Jessica’s volume.

“Too early to be so loud Jess. We’re in 1st block and you’re at 3rd block volume.”

“I HEARD THAT YOU AND MR. URIE WERE MAKING OUT ON THE MARCHING BAND FIELD YESTERDAY.”

“That’s not true,” Caroline argues from across the room. “They kissed but they weren’t making out.”

“Well, I heard they hooked up.” You can’t tell who that is. Probably Eric.

Caroline comes to your defense. “No, you guys, they only kissed!”

“No, they definitely hooked up.” Brian smirks from the back row. “I saw it.”

You’re done with this. “Everyone.” They freeze at the tone of your voice. You never raise it; you don’t have to. “First, all of you are wrong. I brought him a water bottle. Second, consider your environment. This is a classroom and a place of learning. Respect it as such. Your current topic is inappropriate.” You’re calm and you look at everyone in their desks. “I don’t want to hear anything else about it, understood?”

“I’m just saying Ms. Milton, no one would judge you. He’s so sexy.”

“Jessica!” That’s Caroline. Bless her.

“I mean have you seen his face?” Anna is joining in now. “And his butt? Lord!”

“Anna!” Caroline is probably planning to become a teacher. Or a nun. You’re not sure which.

“He’s super hot Ms. Milton, you should get it.”

“Beth!”

“Ladies! What did I just say?” You’re annoyed now. They can tell. They turn back to face you, chagrin clear on their faces. “I’ll ask again. Am I understood when I say I don’t want to hear anything else about it?” The entire class nods. “Good. Moving on. We’re going back to Beowulf, Canto 11. Brian, you’re up first.” A groan from the back. “You had plenty to say about me, I want to hear what you have to say about Grendel in Canto 11. Don’t make me ask again.” Your voice is level but they can hear the restraint. Everyone, including Brian, knows better than to fuck with you right now.

The rest of class goes much more smoothly, and you feel your shoulders drop. The bell rings. Maybe second block won’t be so - ah, shit. “Ms. Milton, do you know what they’re saying about you and Mr. Urie?” Emily’s eyes are wild and she’s come flying into the room with Stacy and Josh, two other band kids, right behind her. You hold up both hands, hoping to cut her off but it’s no use. “They’re saying you KISSED.”

You laugh. “Oh, is that the worst you’ve heard?” Her jaw drops and you continue. “You three were there and you saw that nothing happened. Don’t let what other people say bother you. I’m fine.” You smile reassuringly and Stacy looks unsure. “Really.”

“Well. If anything did happen -” Stacy starts, and Josh cuts her off.

“The band leadership board supports it.” You act quickly and stifle your laughter. Maybe the worst is a twitch of your lips. Good to know you have their blessing. “After you left, Mr. Urie let us go home 15 minutes early. He’s never done that.” Josh looks impressed.

Hope he went home to take a cold shower after that eyefucking you gave him; you know you did, that white shirt plastered to his chest with sweat had you all - BRAIN. FUCK. Knock it off. “Well, thank you guys. That’s kind of you. I’m sure I had nothing to do with you getting to leave early; you probably earned that with your hard work.” The three of them look at each other and it’s clear they don’t believe you. “Anyway.” You make eye contact with each of them. “If the class isn’t quiet during SSR because they’re discussing this rumor, you three are going to shut it down, yes?” They all nod eagerly. “Good. Thank you.”

There’s some chatter, but the three of them and a few other band kids in your second block quell the gossip and you transition to Beowulf with more ease than first block. You have good students, all in all. The annoying ones don’t ruin it for everyone, and you count yourself lucky.

When the bell rings for third block, you snatch the print-out of the pop quiz you’re giving tomorrow and book it to the copier. You’re feeling lucky; today’s a good day; you’re only going to say nice things to the stupid fucki-...hardworking and tired machine. You round the corner and the juxtaposition of your emotions is harsh. On one hand, Brendon’s back is to you. On the other, he’s writing a sign that says “Out of Order” and taping it to the stupid fucking bitch machine. It’s like your heart went on Tower of Terror. Yanked up, then sent crashing down. Fuck.

“Nooooooo,” you moan, sliding to the floor. He turns, sees you, and smiles wanly.

“I’ve done my best and I can’t get it. I let Jess in the main office know, so hopefully we’ll get a repair guy out here later this afternoon.”

“In time for me to make copies of a pop quiz I’m giving tomorrow?” You look desperate. Copy machines in this school are on strike, if Brendon can’t get this one to work and the repair guy doesn’t come, you’re fucked. He shrugs and offers you a hand.

“Come with me.” You take it and let yourself be pulled to your feet.

“Brendon, cookies won’t fix this.” He grins and shakes his head.

“I have something better than cookies.” You gasp playfully but you follow him back to his office inside the band room. “I have this.” He points to the corner and you turn to him in awe. And then, you’re annoyed.

“You jerk!” You hit his chest lightly. “You’ve been hiding your own copy machine?” He grins and catches your wrist.

“I’ve been saving the public copy machine and saving you time by not making you walk all the way here to me.” You consider this. “It’s for all of the sheet music I have to print. The school didn’t want me holding people up by using teacher’s lounge copiers, so this was a gift from the Band Boosters. You’re welcome to it for as long as you need.”

“This walk isn’t bad. I’d walk a lot farther to get to you.” Fuck. That was out loud. You walk briskly to the machine and start running copies, your head down, praying the comment will go over his head.

He makes a thoughtful sound and says nothing else for a moment. Then, out of nowhere: “You’re wearing pants today.” You give him a weird look over your shoulder. “You can climb the tower this afternoon then. I mean,” you glance again when he pauses and he looks almost nervous. “If you don’t have anything better to do.”

You turn fully, leaning back against the machine. “It’s a Tuesday. What else could I possibly have to do?” He shrugs and you just want to go hug him, he’s blushing and he looks so insecure right now.

“I don’t know, I mean, maybe you’ve got plans with some-”

You cut him off. “I don’t have any plans. With anyone except for you now. I’ll be there.” He breaks out into a smile and the confidence is back. He eyes your outfit and tells you you look good. Your turn to blush. “It’s different. I mean, I am just so used to the skirts…” you trail off, running a finger over the pattern on your ankle pants.

He shrugs. “You look great all of the time. I mean...the students say so. Someone joked you’d win Best Dressed for the senior superlatives.” He grins. “And yeah, it’s a departure from your normal look, but it’s not a bad one by any means.” You’re not sure what to say.

“Thanks.” You collect the copies and look at him and the door. “Any other secret food-based missions we’re going on today?”

He shrugs. “Nothing on my calendar.” Your eyes meet and you blush again. Why are you like this? It’s never been weird before. Those stupid rumors.

“Have you heard th-”

He interrupts you. “The rumors that we kissed and/or made out and/or had sex on the marching field yesterday?” You feel your shoulders drop and you exhale. “Yeah I have.” He looks up at you and grins. “I’d like to think the two of us have a little more class than to go at it on the field.”

You laugh, and the tension is broken. “It’s like they don’t know us at all.”

He stands, stretching. “Exactly. Come on Milton, let’s go get a cookie.”

Turns out there’s a fridge in the student council room too, and you both audibly gasp with glee when you see the carton of 2% milk. You turn to him, looking conflicted, holding a ten dollar bill in your hands. “It’s only Tuesday. Debbie will notice before Friday that they’re running low, right?”

He nods seriously. “She comes in here every day during 4th block. We’ll be fine.” You tuck the ten under the coffee pot and look at him expectantly. He looks back. “Am I making the cookies?” He seems amused when you nod. “Y/n, you know they’re not really better because I dropped the hunks of frozen dough onto the hot surface, and you didn’t, right?”

You shrug, filling two mugs with milk. “But why risk it?” He laughs at your serious expression and gives in, dropping the dough and setting the timer.

“Alright Milton, spill.” You look dubiously from him to the mug of milk in your hands and he rolls his eyes. “Not what I meant. You know,” he nudges your hand with his mug lightly, “your story. It’s been a whole two weeks and I know your name, what you teach, your age, you’re single, and your favorite movie. And,” he grins, “sometimes you disappear on me. I look over and you’re just staring into space.”

You blush. Oh, I could tell you where I’m at, all you have to do is ask. Shut. Up. Brain. “I’m not great with giant vague topics. What do you want to know?”

“Well, I know this isn’t your first year teaching. Where were you before this? What brought you here?”

You look up at him through lowered lashes. “I killed a man.” You can tell from his eyes he doesn’t know whether to believe you or not and you burst out laughing. “Dang Urie, they did a background check on both of us to get hired, remember?” He nudges you again and you fold. “I taught in Texas for 5 years. I grew up there. My parents died when I was 10 and my grandma passed in early February two years ago. Couldn’t stand to be in the area so I moved from Austin to Amarillo. So when my ex from Austin showed up, I did what I do best.” You give him a rueful smile. “I ran.” He is looking at you so softly and you feel the need to comfort him. “I mean. He wasn’t abusive or anything like that. It was just a messy end and he wanted to get back together and I couldn’t - well, wouldn’t. I respect myself too much.” He gives you an encouraging smile. “But he didn’t like hearing ‘no,’ and kept showing up and I just got tired of it. So I called my best friend, she came from Austin, and we starting packing up my apartment. I gave my notice of not continuing my lease, declined to renew my contract, and I sent out my teaching resume, said I’d move really anywhere, and liked y’all the best. So here I am. New start.” He nods slowly, considering this. “What about you? How did Mr. Brendon Urie end up in glamorous Putnam, Connecticut? I know you’re not from here; Tracy in the English department knows everyone and everything from Putnam and she’s got nothing on you except you’ve been here for five years. Hermit.” You point at him playfully.

He shrugs. “I’m a west coast transplant too. Napa Valley, born and raised. Just got tired of it, I guess. Did the same thing as you; except I’ve done all five years here. Got my teaching license and sent out the resume nationally.”

You look at him in disbelief. “You got tired of Napa Valley, where the air smells like wine and the sun is shining almost all the time?” He shrugs again, meeting your gaze. He certainly doesn’t look like he’s got anything to hide. “Okay then.” You nod decisively.

He glances at his watch. “I don’t want to steal all of your planning period. Mine is really a break; we have band after this, so my prep work is minimal. You have to teach.” He looks cautious and you wave away his concerns.

“I’m an insomniac and I’m here when the building opens at 5. I’m super productive in the morning so this is also my break.” He relaxes a little.

“Next question.” He pauses. “I’m going back over the annoying ones your kids asked. Uh. Where do you get your clothes?” He grins. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like someone’s daydream from 1950. You know, the pencil skirts, the sheath dresses...”

You laugh. “That’s the best one I’ve heard yet. My best friend, the one who helped me pack, is a seamstress and she works for the performing arts center in Austin. We both have a very particular style, so she’s made all of my skirts and dresses. The tops and pants are from wherever.” He looks impressed.

“That’s really cool.” He thinks for a moment. “What music do you like?”

You consider. “I’ll really listen to anything. I like most everything, but give the choice, I’ll usually go with some form of alternative pop/rock. Oh, and showtunes. I’m a huge Broadway nerd. Being so much closer to the city is amazing. 3 hours in the car is nothing.”

He nods. “I love Broadway. Do you have a favorite show?”

You groan. “That’s like asking me to pick a favorite child.”

“Wait, do you have kids?”

“Nope. Unless you count the 73 I see on a daily basis.” You grin at him. “Favorite show...favorite show. Uhm. I relate so much to If/Then, but I also love Next to Normal. Fuck, I can’t choose. That creative team is so talented.” You must really look distressed because he places his hand over yours and you shiver at the contact.

“You don’t have to choose a favorite. I’ve seen both of those and they are incredible.” You return the question to him and he thinks for a moment. “Of the classics...probably RENT. Of the contemporaries...Maybe Book of Mormon?” You nod approvingly and he checks his watch again. “We’ve got time for one more if we want to sneak out between lunches. Speaking of lunch, what’s your favorite food?”

“Again, favorite child scenario. I love all food.” You grin and pop the last bite of cookie in your mouth. He laughs and stands up. “And yours?”

He smiles. “Same answer but I’m going to attempt partial credit and give you a restaurant suggestion. The Stomping Ground on Main Street if you haven’t been already. So fucking good.” He extends a hand and you take it, rising to your feet and you leave the room. You stealthily move from the front of the cafeteria to the back, though stealth might not be necessary since the cafeteria is empty except for staff, and you slip through the arts hall door. You pause at his room and he gives you that crooked smile that makes you warm all over.

“I’ll see you later Milton. Practice starts at 4:30 and we’re done at 7:30. Glad you wore pants so I can get you on my tower.” He gives you a quick wink and then he’s disappearing into the room. You’re certain you’re blushing. He knew what he was doing that time. He had to have known.

The fourth block gossip circuit isn’t as bad and yet, in some ways it’s worse. There aren’t any band kids in this class, so no one has even somewhat accurate stories by this point in the day. As a result, the stories are so outrageous, even the students repeating them don’t seem to believe it. They do seem to like Beowulf though.

The bell rings and it’s 3:35 and they’re flying out the door. You’ve officially got an hour til marching band practice starts and that might be just enough time when you factor in traffic.

You end up being exactly right; you’re pulling in beside what you assume is Brendon’s car and it’s, according to your car, 4:20. You open the door, muttering “blaze it” to yourself and grab the cooler from the backseat. You wore shoes with more traction this time so getting down the hill and dragging the cooler isn’t half as bad as yesterday.

He meets you at the base of the tower. “What’s all this?” He looks behind you at the cooler and back at you. “You look great by the way.”

You give him a weird look. “I literally haven’t changed since you saw me two and half hours ago…you on the other hand…” he’s changed into something similar to yesterday’s outfit and he shrugs, either not noticing or reacting to your appreciative glance.

“Thought you should hear it again. What’s in the cooler?”

You smile and bite your lip, feeling the blush creep up your face. His question finally processes. “Oh. I brought you water yesterday so I brought them water today. And snacks! For when they’re done for the day of course.” He looks so happy. It’s a small band, maybe fifty students tops, so this wasn’t a big deal - two packs of water, a bag of ice, and two variety packs of granola bars. You tell him this and he shakes his head.

“No, it is a big deal. I appreciate it. So much.” If you could capture the look on his face right now, you’d look at it every day for the rest of your life.

“It’s the least I can do since I’m hijacking your copier for the foreseeable future. The repair guy didn’t come today.”

He pretends to look annoyed. “Oh no, you’ll be coming to see me all the time and I’ll have to talk to you. Gross.”

You laugh. “I’m not coming for you, Urie,” fuck; phrasing, do better brain, and this time it’s a serious fuck-up because he smirked and raised one eyebrow - fuck fuck fuck. “I’m coming to see that copier of yours.”

“You’ve wounded me. I’ll never recover.” He looks around. Marissa is the only student even remotely nearby; everyone else is unpacking their instruments and talking to others. You can tell she’s waiting for instructions. “Marissa, please start the group warmups. I want the trumpets at least 20% louder, let them know, please. You can use your judgement with the others. Listen closely and remember what we talked about in identifying the ones who are sharp and who are flat. Now go get’em.” She nods eagerly and he sends her off with an encouraging smile. He turns to you. “She’s an excellent drum major and a very gifted flutist. She’s only a junior, so she’s got time, but she’s looking at Berklee in Boston, Juilliard, and Oberlin. I think she’s gonna get in at all of them but I’m biased.” He grins and shakes his head a little. “Sorry. I’m bragging. Let’s get up there. After you.”

You turn to give him a playful grin. “Trying to get a good view, Urie?” Oh, you are shameless.

“No!” He looks horrified. “Honestly, it’s a safety thing. I don’t want you to slip and fall without anyone to catch you.”

“Oh. Well thank you in advance for catching me. I’m accident-prone and I will fall.” You are sure you look embarrassed, not considering the safety of it and saying what you said out loud.

He smirks. “Well I’ll catch you as needed. Also the view thing might also be true, yeah.” You’re laughing as you climb the ladder and he scampers up behind you, sunglasses in place and an extra pair you hadn’t noticed before tucked in his shirt collar. “Here you go.” He hands the other pair to you. “It can get kind of bright when the sun starts to set, if that makes sense.” You nod and accept them gratefully. “Now Ms. Milton.” You look up at him and he looks very serious. “I’d like for you to listen to the trumpets and give me some feedback, and then I want your general opinion on the show.”

“I think I can do that.” Just as the words leave your mouth, the warmups start and as promised, Marissa has the trumpets louder. You smile appreciatively and nod as they run through their scales. “They have a lovely tone. You’ve got one or two who are sharp.” You both wait and Marissa, without hearing you, gives the same feedback. It isn’t long before the show is starting and you’re honestly blown away. You’re leaning slightly over the edge to watch, and your jaw is dropped. Eyes wide, you turn to him excitedly, hitting his arm repeatedly. “Did you see that?!” He grins and nods. The band transitioned seamlessly from interwoven triangles to a full company forward march and it was stunning - you’d never seen it done that well before. “Brendon, this music!” Your eyes are welling up. The show is called Heroes and Villains and what started with a jazzy Superman theme and a riff on The Incredibles has been a wild ride; you’ve just been transported from a full-band, raging interpretation of Dies Irae with something you can’t quite place before it to a soft, lone trumpet playing Taps. “This is gorgeous. Really.” He smiles softly.

“Do you really think so?” You look at him in surprise.

“Uh, yes! It’s amazing!” His smile gets a little bigger but he tries to contain it. It dawns on you. “Did you do this arrangement?” He just looks at you, beaming, and you poke him in the side. “Brendon I don’t know your middle name Urie, did you do this arrangement?” When he nods, you shriek. “Brendon! Damn you for being both so talented and attractive it’s not fair! This is truly incredible, really.”

He grins at you. “You said I’m attractive.” You roll your eyes and shove him lightly. You did say that. Fuck. You wave a hand in front of his face.

“Focus on what’s important here, Urie.” He nods and grabs his megaphone.

“Sounded great everyone. Pack up and enjoy your Tuesday night. Make good choices. Ms. Milton brought water bottles and snacks for you, so grab something on the way out.”

You and Marissa are both staring at him. “Mr. Urie it’s 4:50...we only warmed up and ran it once…” her voice is cautious like she wants her Tuesday night but also doesn’t want to risk her Superior ranking at State. Everyone else meanwhile is either packing up or already packed and flying up the hill.

He beams down at her and drops the megaphone. “And it sounded great. You did wonderfully. Now call that guy you like, Jason or Justin or whatever and let him know you’re free.” She’s gaping at him and he just grins and makes a shooing gesture. “Go on. Text him if you must but make contact. Go go go.” The teenage girl in Marissa’s brain takes over and she’s off the podium, stuffing things in her bag, and racing toward the parking lot. You turn to head down the ladder and he stops you with a grin. “I set them free, not you.” You shiver a little, enthralled. Okay. You’ll bite.

“Fair enough. Okay, first of all, that opening with Superman as a jazz rendition was so fucking cool and it blended into The Incred-what are you doing?” He’s got one hand on your waist and he’s drawing you closer, eyes blazing.

“Focusing on what’s important.” And his lips are on yours and you’re pretty sure this is real. You moan and arch into the kiss, reaching a hand up to get his hat off so you can run a hand through his hair, pulling gently. He gasps into your mouth and his teeth tug at your lower lip, the hand on your waist bringing you closer still.

“God, Urie,” you sigh against his lips and he pauses, using his other hand to cup your face.

“Yes, Milton?”

“Oh thank god. This is real.” You kiss him again, flicking your tongue out over his and when he responds eagerly, really exploring your mouth, you feel your knees start to buckle. You cling to his shirt and he tightens his hand on your waist, wrapping his arm around you now and holding you up and against him. “Told you I’d fall.” You whisper this and he smiles down at you.

“Told you I’d catch you.”

#brendon urie x reader #brendon urie imagine #brendon urie #imagine #fanfic #ready to leap #work in progress #my work #we’re racing to smut #can you feel it #I fucking can

[ao3feed-davekat]

The Emotional Family Reunion You Deserve (- the emotions)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2pbyOl6

by FrogFacey

CG: ANYWAY YOU KNOW HOW I MENTIONED HAVING A BROTHER ONCE AND REMEMBER HOW YOU’VE LITERALLY NEVER LET ME FORGET? TA: you found hiim?

Karkat groaned, rubbed his eyes and shoved another strawberry into his mouth.

CG: MORE LIKE HE FOUND ME. CG: AND NOW I HAVE HIS CREDIT CARD DETAILS, MONEY AND MEMBERSHIP TO THE FUCKING PORTRAIT GALLERY OF ALL THINGS AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. TA: well obviiou2ly the fiir2t port of call ii2 two get iintwo hii2 bank account. TA: fuckiing iidiiot.

Words: 3801, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Homestuck

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Dave Strider, Karkat Vantas, Kankri Vantas, The Signless | The Sufferer, Other Character Tags to Be Added

Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas

Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Abuse, Humanstuck, Kankri is the dick he deserves to be written as, Karkat is emotionally constipated, Dave doesn't know how to help with emotions, angsty but like not too angsty, nothing bad happens between Dave and Karkat at least, also Karkat has haemophilia, which I did a piss poor job at putting in the story but like it's a fun fact at least?

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2pbyOl6

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #davekat #homestuck

[sero-pairo]

this is the last time (it never is)

by hcjulie

It’s nothing like the movies, nothing like the songs — they said that it’d be easy but they were fucking wrong. Mutually assured consumption, destruction, or perhaps it even became an unholy deification along the way — it was all relative.

All so he could take advantage of his little green faerie boy and become the home that held every fragile piece of him — his last promise to the only maternal figure he’s ever known.

  OR: Izuku has had ten whole years to learn how to live with the illness of loving Katsuki. His rebel saint, his fire, his only god — the beginning to his devastating end.

Words: 25280, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of Wave Your Red Flags (Bet You Do It On Purpose)

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage

Categories: M/M

Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Bakugou Mitsuki, Bakugou Masaru, Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko, Sero Hanta, Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor, Todoroki Fuyumi, Todoroki Natsuo, Todoroki Family (My Hero Academia), Uraraka Ochako, Asui Tsuyu, Monoma Neito, Hakamata Tsunagu | Best Jeanist

Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki & Todoroki Shouto, Bakugou Katsuki & Sero Hanta, Sero Hanta/Todoroki Shouto

Additional Tags: Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Quirkless Bakugou Katsuki, Toxic Relationship, Top Bakugou Katsuki, Bottom Midoriya Izuku, They're both messes, From the Moment They Met, This was Doomed, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Midoriya Izuku is Bad at Feelings, Wave Them Red Flags, they need so much therapy, Modern AU, Pay Attention to the Fucking Tags, Alternate Universe - No Quirks (My Hero Academia), Underage Drinking, Underage Sex, Recreational Drug Use, there's so much miscommunication, Yes someone dies, That Tag Is There For A Reason, Izuku is Ruined, By None Other Than Katsuki, Hanta Sero Is A Little Shithead, Oh They're All Rich BTW, Rich Bitch Problems, Anyways There's Smut, Angst, No Fluff, Just Nasty Fuckies and Tears, Not One Ounce of Comfort, Hope You All Cry I Guess

from AO3 works tagged 'Sero Hanta/Todoroki Shouto', https://ift.tt/PcC6ahn

#seroroki #todosero #todoroki shouto #sero hanta #serotodo #todoroki x sero #sero x todoroki #bnha #m

[animaltheory]

Excuse me but, could you please tell me why you think is Mark and/or Moffat writing those fics? English is not my main language and it's difficult to me to compare their writting with the fics or pick on those subtle things you all seem to be picking :/ There's deffinitely something fucky, that I know.

OK this is… hard to explain but i will try… also I am not kidding when I say that I absolutely cannot read this and I have read the first few sections of Within the Narrative and nothing more

first off my impression from the very first sentence was This Sounds Like Mark from what i’ve read of his other work. his voice, the way he uses narrative language, carries through and is distinctive. i’m not about to like go thru lucifer box rn and compare paragraphs but it has a FEEL

it also tenderly mocks some very specific and hilarious Bad Fanfic Tropes such as the overuse of epithets, with like some of the epithets themselves being “high functioning sociopath” (like sherlock’s anti-characterization played for straight) and apparently also some sexual ones like sherlock getting hard when john licks his lips or they climb 17 steps or something but i have not read that far because i don’t want to willingly subject myself to a deeply evil supernatural curse

although like obviously i totally have already

anyway we came upon these thru some suspicious twitters that are intentionally parodying two v. prominent sherlock fans and there’s some shit with “Dale Pike” being somebody in canon i don’t really get it but we’re not supposed to break the fourth wall so langdale pike is real or whatever

the first section of Within the Narrative is very direct and unconventional and ominous and show-related it’s like “what’s up you trigglypuff bitches time to strap the FUCK in because i was never warned either but HERE there be dragons set the stage the curtain rises enjoy my fanfic lol” (i mean sure any random fuck could write that but Why? mark would have a reason. could have written it. nerd

tea symbolism and elephant motif abound

weird foreshadowing but as i said i have barely read it relax it’s been 10 minutes

the parts that are real feel very real and the parts that are fake feel very intentional and pointed and funny, i’m sorry that there’s not like an easier way to explain this to a non-english speaker asdlfkj4;rgv also i’m stoned so that’s why this answer is Like This

i’ll probably post more about it as i inevitably burn this cursed talisman deeper into my chest so like stay tuned

#Anonymous

[i-am-gaylocked]

You know what makes me really pissed right now?

On platforms other than tumblr there are loads of people joking about how the fandom is going crazy now because The Kiss™ didn’t happen.

NO.

Fuck you. That’s not why we’re angry.

Of course a kiss would have been awesome, but personally I never believed it to happen anyway, and I would have even lived happily ever after with less Johnlock scenes than we got in the end, even though I ship them like crazy - if only the rest of the plot would have made some sort of sense.

You wanna know what’s bothering me about the (supposedly) final problem?

1. Moriarty was hyped up as the ultimate villain for three seasons and frankly, almost everyone loved him. The creators themselves made such a big fuss about him - only to have him replaced by another supervillain out of nowhere. Moriarty was the ultimate mystery and his reveal was basically “actually he’s just a maniac sidekick executing Eurus’ plans who was kinda bored with living anyway so he killed himself just for the fun of it”. I know they made it hard for themselves to have a truly mind-blowing plot twist with Moriarty since they’ve been stirring his story up for more than two years and expectations were high, but this was anticlimactic and disappointing on a new level.

2. I don’t know much about storytelling, but I do sense that this was bad. For the last three seasons, there have always been subtle and not-so-subtle hints as towards what is going to happen next. Everything was connected and logical to follow and quite frankly, this unique way of building up a plot was one of the things that made me fall in love with this show. Compared to what we have experienced in former episodes, this whole fourth season was utter bullshit. Sure, the basic storyline was connected with the other seasons, but only superficially; most of the “"plot twists”“ happened out of nowhere and made the whole series feel very estranged all of a sudden. E.g., in TRF Moriarty said “Have you worked out what it is yet? The final problem? I did tell you… But did you listen?” - Typical Mofftiss style would have been that some very inconspicious Moriarty line somehow hinted at him pairing up with Sherlock’s unknown sister to “play a game” or destroy Sherlock or seek revenge or whatever. But nothing, NOTHING prepared us for this, although this subtle preparation was what made the show so amazing, which is why this season feels like total nonsense.

3. Eurus’ hyper intelligence was over the top. At the beginning, Sherlock was introduced to us as the ultimate mastermind and we all admired his genius. Then Moriarty entered with a similar, though very psychotic level of genius and we were like “ah, two masterminds battling each other, that’s cool”. Then it turned out that Mycroft is actually even smarter and quicker than Sherlock and everyone was like “well… He’s the older brother, there’s rivalry, he’s gotta feel superior in some way, that’s fine, still kinda fun” and it showed us the borders of Sherlock’s intelligence and made him appear more human, all fine and good. I also get that Eurus kind of reflected that even Mycroft is not the all-knowing, stone-faced, flawless, mature older brother and the ultimate version of smart. But continuously adding more characters to the “flawed mastermind” stack where every new one outsmarts the others feels very cheap and uninnovative. First Moriarty was said to be one of those minds that happens once every few centuries, then Mycroft supposedly straight up Fucked Him Over™ (although he actually didn’t in the end, i know), and then there’s suddenly Eurus out of nowhere and wait she’s even smarter than the rest of them?? Sorry sirs, I’m not buying this.

4. In S3, everything was hinting at Mary having some sort of connection with Moriarty (and we still don’t know how she got into Magnussen’s office that easily because I don’t think she proposed to Janine as well). When Mary’s A.G.R.A background was revealed, I thought it was kinda fucky and far-fetched; I’ve been waiting for the big Mary reveal in TFP. Instead, her conflict apparently counted as solved in T6T and she was turned into a lovable goofball who just so happens to posthumously send old DVD recordings of herself over to Baker Street to whisper sweet nothings to both John an Sherlock so that everyone forgets that she shot Sherlock with the intention to kill him, then drugged him again and overall just manipulated John an Sherlock all the time? Mary is a great, twisted character and I do believe that she’s able to feel love for both boys, but that ending was not her. They were trying to find poetic final words and they didn’t have anyone to give them to but the ex-assassin who murdered her husband’s best friend and lied and lied to her oh-so-beloved John? I don’t think so fuckers.

5. Normally, at the end of a movie (/episode) the viewer should be able to distinguish between such things as imagined/hallucinated locations, events and conversations and what happened in the ‘real world’ of that world. Now, this might have something to do with the fact that English isn’t my first language, but after TFP I’m still a bit clueless about how some scenes were connected and what was actually happening and what wasn’t. (I never had problems like that during the old episodes though, including TAB, which was also really fucky and inception-y.)

6. The Molly scene was hurtful as fuck, and not in a movie-typical, good way. There’s a grown woman who just can’t and can’t get over her crush: Mofftiss’ level of extending this idea always appeared a bit forced to me anyway, but that is neither here nor there now. This scene was emotional abuse, heartbreaking and humiliating and most of all, it was so, so useless. Wow, Sherlock was a dick to Molly once again and this time it broke her completely. This doesn’t help us understand Sherlock’s troubled mind any further nor does it advance the plot in any way, it just crashes another character straight into a brick wall because why the fuck not. (Loo did a great job in this scene tho, probz for that.)

7. I’m still not over how fucking cheap Eurus’ little horror game was. “Let’s lock a few people in one room and make them shoot each other, nonono listen to me this has never been done before because in our show the villain and his victims are related isn’t this awesome?” Wow yeah, truly groundbreaking. What a witty, unique idea. The only good thing about this was that Sian truly was great at pulling of four different roles in a very convincing fashion, credit where credit is due.

8. You don’t say stuff like “It’s making a funny face… I think I’ll put a hole in it” and then reveal that the so-called hole was nothing but a tranquilizer, seriously, where’s the classic Mofftiss genius style in that?

9. The plot and the plot twists of this episode (and the whole season 4 for that matter) were lazy and mainstream compared to BBC Sherlock’s usual standards. I used to love this series for its many-layered stories and characters, but here we have classic Hollywood horror and classic Hollywood psycho villain well beyond any boundaries of normality. Of course I’m not opposed to this kind of stories, but it’s common, you can find stuff like that everywhere. BBC Sherlock used to have a really special, unique way of storytelling and most of it got killed for the sake of cheap ass mistery overload and mainstream horror games.

10. Personally, I can begrudgingly accept the ending that we got, aka “open for interpretation”. If you still want to ignore the gayness that is screaming you in the face, go ahead and call it bro!parentlock, I don’t care. But what I do care about is the line “It doesn’t matter who you are”. I believe that it was never meant to be offensive or hurtful, but this version of Sherlock was introduced to us as gay (or bi or pan or whatever, but at least in some way sexually interested in the same sex). If Mofftiss were too scared to actually pull through with it or simply didn’t want to, that’s fine, I understand. But then don’t just go ahead and tell us that it doesn’t matter anyway. Because it does matter. I feel like these men fail to grasp the power they have over us and therefore didn’t see how hurtful this line was, but it did hurt people. Lots of people. Many of us had actual mental breakdowns because of this line. I know it was never meant to mean that much (or it wasn’t meant to be understood differently), but if you have a general understanding of the concept of fandom (Mofftiss sure have it), then you usually understand that there are sensitive topics that can be triggering and should be expressed with caution.

11. Where’s the big Mycroft reveal? All these adressings towards his physical health. How the hell were they implying that he fucked up in dealing with his psychotic sister?

12. I still don’t get the point of Irene if they were neither letting them meet again nor cutting her out permanently. She’s been a recurring thought of Sherlock since ASIB, but in TFP it was just like “Nah it’s not her she’s married idgaf about her anymore anyway bye” Like?? Dramatic flow? is where exactly here??

13. We still don’t know how Sherlock survived the fall. Just sayin’.

14. Yeah john totally cut his metal chains that forced him onto the bottom of the well with a fucking rope and he didn’t even need help for that matter he just pulled himself out of the water by his own hair Munchhausen style I THINK THE FUCK NOT FOLKS

15. No one will ever convince me that they actually jumped out of an upstairs window to escape an explosion and got away without a single scratch. That’s just bullshit.

16. An umbrella that’s also a sword that’s also a gun that’s also not functioning? Yeah, kinda funny, but also really stupid and not at all up to the standards of the usual witty humour of BBC Sherlock.

17. “Sherlock’s in love but who with?” in combination with the “i love you” scene were used to bait us all to start another war between straight!Sherlock and gay!Sherlock supporters in order to make sure as many people as possible would turn in, but the reveal behind this line was utterly disappointing. This was a humiliating and just not cool™ move.

18. They’re not seriously trying to tell us that Eurus, while having an extreme mental and emotional breakdown, built a fake cell in the garden of her old childhood house because Drama™?

19. General conclusion: This whole story of everything being connected and leading back to Moriarty and Sherlock’s childhood just deflated like a big gay balloon full of anticipation. They’ve been talking about this story forever, but the great opportunities it offered were not only ignored, but stuffed into a fucking meat grinder and mashed up into cheap boring mainstream moviemaking.

Also, I still think everything about this season is shady as fuck and I don’t accept a word of it and from now on I’m just gonna mark it down as another victim of 2016. Thank and bye

#mood: still salty #sherlock season 4 #bbc sherlock #sherlock s4 #the final problem #tfp #tld #the lying detective #t6t #tst #the six thatchers #sherlock #sherlock holmes #john watson #johnlock #mycroft holmes #eurus #mycroft #eurus holmes #moriarty #james moriarty #jim moriarty