If we can’t be silly and nerdy together, we can’t be sexy and kinky together.

He was tempted to say something flirty, like ‘hey, you can share the comfiest bed in the world if you play your cards right’, but… it just wasn’t that sort of mood right now. Maybe if the topic had come up last night, with the mood they’d both been in, he would’ve said it then.

“That’s better though, right? Then you don’t have to keep thinking about it.”

It wasn’t too far from the beach and be pulled into a space on the side of the road, switching the engine off and turning to look at her.

“Aight, girl,” he said, slapping his knees. “Ready to get going?”

“Oooooooooone second,” she said as she unbuckled her seat belt, then leaned over and kissed him again. “Alright, now we can go.”

Grabbing her hat and her bag, she got out of the car and took a deep breath of sea air.

“This is a way different mood from the last time we were here, huh?” she mused as she took his hand. God, that had been the start. The real start. He’d decided to show compassion to her, and so she’d decided to stop making assumptions about him. The beach was like the beginning of their friendship.

Taking his hand, she stepped off the pavement and into the sand, grinning at the crunch and how poorly it supported weight. Sand was so much fun! Warm and gritty, fun to bury your toes in, a good artistic medium!

“I’ve got a blue tooth speaker in my bag, if you want some tunes. We can set up a sort of base camp, so we’re not carrying our towels everywhere while we’re wading.”

Twinsies! 💚

bioluminescent mushrooms 💚🍄‍🟫 | unbiodiversity on ig

Well, she made plenty of good points there, he supposed. Something about gaining fame was that people had disagreed with him less and less. It'd made dating kinda hard - he didn't wanna hang out with someone who was just a yes man, who agreed with whatever he said. Rapunzel challenging him was a breath of fresh air, and had been from the start, even before he'd liked her at all.

"Don't tempt me. Sleeping on a bed of money feels like a bucket list thing." It would be ridiculous, and not comfortable, but it'd be funny at least. "But no, I don't. I actually have the comfiest bed in the world." And now he knew that she'd had nightmares, he wished he had invited her round to try it out. He'd be surprised if nightmares showed up after that.

He cleared his throat to try and clear his mind of those thoughts, then grinned at her comment about his knees. "For more than you can imagine," he said, a laugh in his voice. Ahhh, and there was her hand, at last, resting on his leg. Man, he liked that. He liked that she wanted to touch him, even while he was driving.

"How was your head this morning? Aside from bad dreams. Hangover?" he asked. His own had been pretty minor - he'd slept most of it off and some more water and painkillers before lunch had taken care of the vestiges.

She really liked that he had real conversations with her. Lots of people did, but lots of people also considered her their boss, above them and unwise to hang out with. That was why it was so nice that Rai was on the same level as her – rich, famous (which equaled powerful), and stubborn as hell, not to mention smart as hell. She remembered the conversation at the aquarium about his teachers writing him off, and gave his leg a little squeeze in retroactive support.

“Oh, yes,” she laughed. I forgot to drink water before I went to bed, but I hydrated and took some painkillers once I felt up to it. Maybe if I had the comfiest bed in the world, my head would have been fine, but alas, that honor is yours.“

Still, she didn’t regret drinking as much as she had last night. She didn’t blame the alcohol for the nightmare.

"Kinda funny that now, I can’t really remember what happened in it. I just know it was scary as hell at the time.”

Within moments, he's donned the gloves that Rapunzel provided him with--in his mind, there was no reason to no heed her warning. After all, these were precious items indeed! To him, it seemed like there was one certain book that she was after and as it was, Melvin was correct in thinking so.

Interest still very much intact, he comes over to the table in the centre and allows his eyes to glance over the text once, near enough. A gloved hand gently glides over the page before him, only able to pick out various bits here and there. If only his twin was present either instead or as well. “Whan that Aprill his shoures soote. The droughte of March hath perced to the roote,” he read a loud, not having done so in a bit of time, yet it didn't show. “That part is easily translated 'When April with its sweet-smelling showers. Has pierced the drought of March to the root. The rest is somethin' my sister is more versed in.”

Rapunzel absolutely beamed at him. “Very good!” she complimented. “It’s fascinating to me how Middle English is almost unintelligible now, but Old English is much worse. People think Shakespearean is difficult to understand, but they don’t realize that that’s modern English, simply not modern vernacular.”

She closed the book carefully and put it away. “Your sister is also versed in Middle English? That’s impressive, does it run in the family? Are your parents historians?”

@ocsareawesome
Continued from here

Rapunzel regarded the creature, utterly unique to her. "Sorry, Sonari," she said with an apologetic smile and a tilt of her head. "I've never seen anything like you, other than you."

She called a page over and quickly wrote a note to be delivered to the royal beekeeper, so she could come and get the bees out of the wall without hurting them.

Once that was done, she turned her attention back to Sonari. "How hard will it be for you to figure out which one it is?" she wondered.

Sonari pondered on that question before answering "Depends on how distant it is and how long the other communicates, if it is another quadareoth. It's like hearing a dog bark across a mountain and trying to identify the breed."

Meanwhile a guard patrolling the border wall spotted Akethiel. Mistaking the dragon for a fallen guard he called out, asking if the other was ok, and received no reply. The guard rushed over out of concern and accidentally trampled Akethiel's tail.

Awakening with a roar, Akethiel lunged to bite whatever creature just snuck up on him. The guard shielded himself with his arms and thus, ended up with teeth locked on his right gauntlet; the metal dented inward once Akethiel let go. The dragon scampered off towards the wilderness while the guard ran to get help and report the attack to the rest of his division.

Sonari would suddenly perk up, listening to something. She could've sworn she detected the startled alarm signal of a fellow quadareoth, followed by whirs of annoyance. Maybe she was just imagining it though.

He dragon friend was jumpy today, and that put Rapunzel ill at ease. “Is everything alright?” she pressed again. “Did you hear something that’s helping you figure out one way or the other?”

“Yeah, I bet you would. You’re kinda similar,” he mused, raising an eyebrow in thought. Huh. He’d never really made that connection until now. The thought of her meeting his entire family was a little scary, but hey, no need to linger on that right now, right? They weren’t there yet. This was only their third date.

Man, her explanation of how she spent her wealth warmed him towards her even more, and he felt guilty once again for initially assuming that she was just some white saviour. “… maybe that’s why you deserve it. Because you’re using it for good. You got yourself a modest place in Rio, but other than that… girl, you don’t even have a car. I’ve never seen you go on holiday. You’re using it all for good. I think that’s ‘earning’ it.” He glanced sideways at her to smile, then returned his attention to the road.

“Anyway, I work hard, but c’mon. I don’t earn like 16 million real every year, but…” He shrugged. “Might as well give it to charities and my family and whatever else seems like it could use a hand.”

“I don’t have a car because I usually pick my life up every few months and often take myself somewhere remote without decent roads,” she laughed. “And I’m pretty sure I’m on holiday right now,” she countered with a wry smile. She wasn’t even looking for her next project at the moment, choosing instead to spend her time and focus dating him. Was it a little selfish of her? Yeah, probably. But, like he said, she deserved it. Everyone needed a break, and could she help it that Rio was something really special to her? A part of her – a very large part of her – wanted to build a real life here. Then she’d get a car. And a license.

“Okay, but you see how you have two jobs, right? You’ve got the physical one, and also the one in front of the cameras. You’re a celebrity, and you’ve traded a lot of your privacy and time for that money. You work a full-time, very physical job, with expected travel and sometimes overtime. Plus, you’re expected to be charming on camera and not get into brawls or do questionable things, and meanwhile you’re doing endorsements and advertising for… for the swoosh people. What was their name? ‘Naik’? At least you’re not buying private airplanes and jetting all over the world on your own, right? You’re not spending your money on trashing the environment, or… I don’t know… do you stuff your mattress with bills so you can honestly say you sleep on a big pile of money?” she teased. “In fact, you bought acres of rainforest just to preserve it! And how many years of your life have you dedicated to futebol? And how many more will you? Sweat, blood, and tears, not to mention you risk your literal health every time you play.”

Sue her, she’d started doing research into the sport and its players once she’d started actually liking him as a person. It had made it easier to relate to him. And now that information was coming in handy.

“I bet your knees are insured,” she smirked and nudged him.

It occurred to her then that she hadn’t yet rested her hand on his leg, so she did so now, inhaling and exhaling audibly in a satisfied breath.

You need to move off of Google Docs!

I know some people have seen the news recently and may be doubtful of it. To the uninformed, Google Docs has started using AI to find "inappropriate" and "problematic" content, scraping your documents and deleting it. I know some people are unsure if this is real or think this is not going to affect them.

I regret to inform you that this is real.

As I was on a call with some writers and we were moving our documents as a precautionary measure, one person discovered entire pages missing that they did not delete themselves. This is happening to us, it's not a hoax or a rumor, it's happening right now. You need to move everything if you want to preserve it.

If you're a writer with writer mutuals, please reblog this so they know. I rarely write on Google Docs anymore, but I started my fanfics on there, and I would be devastated if I lost works more than ten years old because people decided marketing appeal is more important than creative freedom.

EDIT READ THIS: https://www.tumblr.com/bravehyde/790422701153157120/hi-can-we-have-any-sort-of-source-about-the

Oh, thank God, he hadn’t hurt her feelings. He’d been genuinely concerned for a second there with that slip, but at least she was chill about it. “We’ll get you swimming one day,” he said determinedly.

Photos of him? Ha! Well, he was pretty used to that, but it’d be much more satisfying knowing Rapunzel was taking them because she thought he was hot.

He laughed lightly at her enthusiasm about the sand painting. “You sound just like him. Jõao. He uses different amounts of water for shading and a that. He’s big into art, mãe didn’t want him to take it to university but then… I got more money, so…” he shrugged, feeling a little awkward, talking about his newfound wealth. “So he could go study whatever he wanted.”

Back when they’d first gone to the beach together because he took pity on how high strung she was, she’d made a comment about him teaching her to swim one day, and that was all that had been said about it. The fact that he remembered that she couldn’t swim and was now also suggesting she learn how touched her. We’ll get you swimming. He paid attention, remembered small details. And now she was pretty sure he’d be more willing to be the one to teach her.

“I’d like that. There’s lots to see under the water, and I bet it’s totally different when you’re seeing it with your own eyes instead of through a camera.” The aquarium had taught her that, but as immersive as it was, there was still the sense that all of it was behind glass, and all the fish were in tanks, big as they could get.

João. She’d have to remember that. She was pretty sure she hadn’t met him, but his family didn’t attend his parties as often as his team and friends. “Sounds like João and I would get along,” she smiled.

Her smiled widened. “But, that’s good! If I had people who needed my money, you can bet they’d get it. And hell, they do. Just because they aren’t direct friends and family… That’s why I went into charity, you know? What am I ever going to do with all the money to my name? Might as well make other people’s lives better with it. But that’s the biggest difference between us; you earn your money. You started with nothing and skill and talent got you this far. I…” She gestured vaguely and shrugged. “I’m a trust fund baby. I haven’t done anything to deserve what I’ve got. So I’m determined to use my privilege for good.”

i think love is revolutionary because when done right, it allows for accountability, for growth, for healing, for laughter, for joy, for connection, for touch, for coming home. maybe it is foolish of me, even a little stupid to think of it as such but when done right, when honoured, when fulfilled, when prepared and boiled and served well, it truly does magic, it truly changes lives, it nourishes, it feeds, it gives hope, hope, so much of it.

A bad dream wasn't ideal, but she didn't seem too shaken up, and seemed pretty determined to breeze past it. So he went with his first instinct - to make a joke, of course.

"You were supposed to dream about me dude, c'mon," he fake-complained, shooting her a sidelong grin.

Was he planning to swim today? "Duh! Nearly brought my board but nah, not today. I'll be underwater half the time, and--" Oh. Oh shit. She couldn't swim. He'd completely forgotten that.

"... when I'm not sunbathing and wading with my hot date," he amended. "Y'ever draw sand portraits? My brother's always doing that."

She laughed at his joke, both becauseit was funny and to show it didn’t upset her at all. “You were there, at first. It got bad when you ditched me,” she teased right back. It was the truth, in a manner of speaking, but the joking part was key.

It was sweet how quickly he remembered that she couldn’t swim, and back-pedaled. “Feel free to swim. These were your plans for today, I’m just tagging along. I can take photos of my hot date soaking wet.” She threw him a wink and patted her bag.

“Sand portraits? Heck yeah! I love seeing how detailed I can get them, using water and whatever else I happen to find on the beach. Shells and driftwood and whatever else. Also, there’s something beautiful in knowing they’re temporary.” He so rarely talked about his family, and she couldn’t help being curious. “Which brother?” She’d met one of them, but knew there was more than one.