hApPY sHAdoW thOugHtS

i am in. a terrible wrought. a breakdown if you will. over one single word.

“or.”

this is not a normal “or.”

this is the final nail in the coffin.

this is what’s being left unspoken. we’re being asked to read between the lines here. their relationship wasn’t what she had expected. she doesn’t want to say it, not yet. but she knows it wasn’t right.

finality. i don’t think they’re coming back from this. as sad as that is to say, to even think.

whether that be a messy bedroom, a basement, a dorm, just describe it and see if it reflects on you at all. try to do as much as possible from memory, see what stands out.

ill start:

my room is messy as hell. i have two desks, two of them, but i never use them because their covered in knick knacks, in notebooks, in hair ribbons, in little inside jokes. it’s as crowded as my mind. i never make my bed, i just leave the four blankets wrinkled and folded. my curtains are gossamer gray, cheaply bought from bed bath and beyond. the desk closest to my bed is so cluttered, with my alarm clock and two cups, one filled with pens and pencils and straws i’ve collected over time. the second is a quarter filled cup of water that i desperately need to wash. the entire room is filled with color and chaos. it’s a comfort, walking in with some clothes spilling out of a hamper and knowing i’m home.

ill tag some people to start, tag as many people as you want afterwards, i found this really therapeutic.

Next to my bed is my “nightstand”. Small and painted blue, white, and purple. It hold my chargers, electronics, and papers. 

My bookshelf sits on the other wall by the foot of my bed, the closet door between them. Two shelves together, completely full. Surrounded in purple fairy lights, and holding knickknacks too. It’s my favorite part of my room. 

My desk sits in font of my door, on the other side of the room. My dad and I built it ourselves. Topped with a whiteboard panel, I decorate it with writing and reminders. It has no legs, suspended from the wall by wires. Littered with more knickknacks: far too many pens, mugs (the winner currently a FRIENDS themed mug with my name on it), papers, speakers, my purple fairy light jar, my whiteboard calendar, with pictures and schedules hanging from the wall above it, just under the shelf stuck above. That shelf holds my jewelry box, antique dolls and treasures, and my latest yearbook. 

And next to that, in the last corner, is a chair. It hold my bear; my 53 inch bear. He’s huge and was moved from the bed because Brissy used him as a pillow far too much. 

My walls are sadly left mostly bare. A small spattering of purple butterfly stickers around the light switch, desk, and nightstand. Purple curtains covering my one window, in the last corner. 

I have a loft bed way up by the ceiling, with stairs that are also bookshelves. Under the loft I have a floor couch that can be collapsed into a temporary bed and shelves where I keep random stuff like makeup, my flute, memory boxes, and my notebooks and folders for work. I have random knicknacks on top of the shelves, as well as a radio.

On the other side of my room is my desk and my shelves of art supplies. Hanging over the desk is a paper mache moon. Under the desk are 3 large stuffed penguins that I had no other place for.

I have icicle wallpaper, fish-shaped lights, and a beaded hummingbird hanging by the door. I also have posters from shows I’ve been in, art various people have gifted me, and multiple captain marvel posters. I have a bulletin board that I haven’t hung up because I haven’t had time, and a bunch of masks that haven’t been put on shelves for the same reason. They’re sitting on the floor.

I have a gigantic cushy chair under my window that I sometimes sleep in, next to a cardboard box full of stuffed animals that I put my jackets on top of. I have a closet in the corner, and a bureau with random things on top of it and shadowboxes hanging over it. None of my windows have drapes or shades.

Every single corner makes me want to jump out the inexistant windows. The urge to repeatedly bang my head against my desk grows each minute I spend there.

I’d like to say that at least it’s clean, but the truth is that it’s so nasty it’s a miracle it’s legally allowed to exist. The amount of gum stuck on the pillars and all the food junking the floor…

The worst part’s the crowd, though. The hallways are crowded with people, the corridors are filled with noise. You have to do fricking parkour to navigate. The amount of times I wish I could just yeet myself to the bottom of the overpacked staircases is astonishing.

Those are the main things, but there are also alarming backround details that become more and more concerning by the day: the weird red attempts of decoration, the music blasting from the speakers that makes you question your music taste whenever a song you like pops up, the weird holiday activities like throwing a plastic chicken as far as possible to win a prize?

Overall, it could’ve been potentially bearable if it wasn’t for the goddamed constructions outside. It’s literally a whole jungle of construction sites and it’s not even prettier. There are just mounts of dirts and we have to walk in a brown sludge of melting snow twice a day, everyday. The new parking lot is a pointless labyrinth and I usually have a headache and want to go home, but no, a detour was most definitely a must.

Yes, that is where I spend most of my time, especially now that the whole family tries to stay indoors as much as possible, and this is the one place I can retreat to for peace and quiet.

If I were to spend a lot more time here, I would definitely think of redecorating but I’m moving out soon so there’s no use in getting new paint or wallpaper. There are also some minor cracks running down the walls here and there but it’s an old house and I really don’t mind.

I have been surprisingly tidy recently, everything has a place and I have developed a system for organizing my belongings. My desk is a little cluttery but there’s always space for everything, even my digital art board, which I’m trying to use more frequently.

My bed has the nicest linens on right now, giving it an almost bohemian vibe, and it’s always made in the morning. It is super small but I fit on it well enough. As soon as I move, however, I am treating myself to a nice, new bed, preferably a double.

I’ve got windchimes hanging near the windows which make a really sweet sound whenever I let some fresh air in. And one of my favorite things: I tiny balcony, big enough to step outside into the open. I can see the woods that run behind the house. When I lean onto the railing, I also get to feel a little bit like Marinette Dupain Cheng from Miraculous Ladybug, when she’s up on her rooftop terrace.

—

Thank you for the tag (this is @suldreen-saga)!!

i’ll start with describing my room. to start with, it’s unbelievably cold and i can hear sounds from all around the house from here. no matter if it’s just my dog in the middle if the night, i can hear the clipping if his nails against the floor and approximate his position based on whether it sounds like wood or stone on nail. visually, there is no rhyme or reason to the decor, but at least my bed, vanity, nightstand, and wardrobe match with their dark, slightly cherry stained mahogany tones. these were chosen by my parents, long before i had any mind to tell them that i much prefer lighter colour palettes for interior decor. the walls and carpet technically match, one a more repulsive shade of khaki than the other, contrasting starkly with my pale blue and grey bed. there’s not much i can do about those; my parents have sworn this house was only temporary for the past four years. i just wish the space were mine, so i try to crows it with things that are, hoping it will make the space feel more like home. there are books piled high on all available surfaces, organised by my own personal whims but also, more generally: fantasy on my bedside table, sci-fi/realistic fiction atop my wardrobe, and school books on a corner of my vanity. textbooks tend to find their way them too, but mostly live near my keyboard. sketch books and pads of paper are hidden everywhere, as well. i always need some sort of paper near me in case i feel the urge to draw. overall, my room just looks unfinished. i hate it. i have too much stuff that i don’t really want nor need that just sits there, crowding my mind, but also a lot of the things i love and snippets from my past. the mirrors on either side of my window make the space look much bigger than it is. i’m convinced i’ll have room for the hundreds of papers i claim to need, but i’m only disappointed by the true lack of space.

school, on the other hand, feels more like home than my room ever could. the architecture is open, surrounded by expansive lawns and trees and it’s so green, contrasting nicely with the glass, aluminium, and warm-toned wooden buildings. on most days, i would spend up to fourteen hours and i loved every moment of it. sure, class could be boring, and there were certain peers of mine that i could live without, but i have so many great memories there. especially after school. i would spend the first three hours after the final bell at practice for sports or working on a history day project or doing homework or walking to 7-11 with friends. then, at six o’clock i rush over to start working on robotics for the next four hours. there’s never a boring moment and i love it so much, despite the generally soul-sucking, mind-numbing nature of the industrial leds in the classrooms that we would inhabit for the night. it would never be quiet and there was always someone doing something interesting and there’s hardly a boring moment during robotics hours. even at the end of the night, as i’m strolling over to my mom’s car at 10 pm, i can’t help but stare at the sky, void of clouds and scattered with twinkling stars.

~

i kind of wrote a lot, whoops. thank you so much for the tag, i didn’t realise how much i thought about the spaces i reside in so much

~

As you enter, the first thing you’ll notice is the soft, mint green walls. The paint will look recent, undisturbed by everyday life. As your eyes drift over the room, you’ll notice the mess that pervades the space. A suitcase from a trip long ago sits at the foot of a bed; the desk is covered in scraps of paper; the closet is filled with everything that needs to be dealt with.

Then you’ll start to notice the furniture. A white loft bed sits against the back wall, with another bed perpendicular to it. You’ll note that another mattress is peeking out from underneath the lower bed. These beds take up most of the room.

To the right of the door you’ll see a white dresser that looks as if it recently received a fresh coat of paint. It has purple handles, and the top is scattered with various knick-nacks: statues, a hairbrush, a picture, a few select books. Beyond that dresser lies the closet door, which has a few stickers on it. The stickers seem to be old, perhaps years old.

You’ll notice the clunky white storage container right in front of you. Dark brown baskets sit in each of its compartments, and a bulletin board sits on top, covered with letter clippings and other memories. Beyond it lies the softly messy desk, covered with scraps of paper, pencils, pens, markers, and colored pencils. 

Finally, you’ll notice the cluttered bookcase across the room from you. It stands in a light, orange-tinted brown, sharp against the soft, light color scheme of the other furniture. The top few shelves are filled with books. Some of the books look fresh and crisp; others are falling apart at the seams. Each book tells a tale of the person who owns the room.

You close the unmarked, white door and step back from the room, wondering about the person who lives within. She seems to be trying to make a space her own, but not quite sure who she is.

Our room isn’t long enough to fit in a bed and not have it partly cover the window, and so it does. The window sill holds at least two flashlights, a scattering of safety pins, and, for some reason, a paintbrush. Pushed to the side of the window are our really-just-a-dark-sheet blackout curtains, weighed down at the bottom by the million little buttons we can’t think of anywhere better to stick. The biggest one—my favorite—is the Verdi pin my best friend gave me the first time we met Shannon Messenger.

Then there’s the closet—which used to have door until it fell off last summer. The closet door is still there, propped up next to the actual door, where it occasionally decides to fall down on one of us. Inside the closet is a hodgepodge stack of drawers filled with art supplies—watercolors, yarn and knitting needles, basic pens and pencils, markers. Atop both stacks of drawers rest piles of spiral notebooks—filled on one, empty on the other—and on top of that rest all the drawings I’ve drawn for my art class since quarantine, the worst one displayed on top—an extremely detailed graphite drawing of a potato on a couch, grudgingly drawn on April Fools to satisfy my teacher’s “it has to be food” requirement.

Propped up the narrow band of available wall in the corner between our bed, the window, and the closet is a cheap mirror, with a pink crown-shaped sticker stuck on near the top, deliberately askew so it will never, not even accidentally, look like whoever’s looking in the mirror is wearing it.

The floor is mostly clean today, unusually, though the ends of several half-finished friendship bracelets peek out from under the bed, and a few charging cables snake across the floor to where our alarm clock sits at the bottom of our closet. (An alarm clock that, since day 2 of quarantine, has been very joyfully unplugged.) 

***

I could go on for longer—I didn’t even get to the dresser or under the bed or the OTHER stack of drawers that’s on top of the dresser, but I’m gonna cut off there because this is already Super Long. Thanks for the tag, Mooncakes! It was fun trying to make this interesting, and description is not my strong suit so it was good to practice.

Amy doesn’t get to see her sister a lot. Sophie only gets so many chances to visit her, and it’s never for very long. She also didn’t get to spend a ton of time with Sophie and her friends when she was in the Lost Cities. So, when she sees Sophie again, she gives her a camera and asks her to video a day in her life. She just wants to feel more connected with her sister, and make sure she’s being safe. Sophie is hesitant at first (she’s not exactly sure how legal it is to vlog in the lost cities) but she can’t say no. She brings this project to her friends and... well...

First of all, they’re excited as hell. They love Amy and they’re so ready to show her what a day in their life looks like.

It starts off normal. Sophie shows her what it’s like to take care of the animals at the sanctuary, what she wears to school, what they have for breakfast

Grady and Edaline definitely try to put on a fun show for Amy. Dancing in the kitchen, super big breakfast, feeding the dinosaurs

But when she brings it to school is when it gets really interesting

Keefe is the first to officially declare Sophie’s portrayal of her life BORING AS HELL. “I mean you fight bad guys for Pete’s sake, and all you’re gonna show her is Verdi refusing to eat her food???”

He does everything he can to make the video as fun as possible. Which for keefe can mean a lot of things

He makes so many gross faces at the camera. so. many.

Fitz and Dex DEFINITELY joined him too. Especially impressive is how Fitz can give himself three extra chins, and Dex can pick his nose with his tongue

When Leto comes on the screen for morning announcements Keefe pretends he’s picking Leto’s nose and putting it in Fitzs hair

He bribes Linh to throw water at Tam every opportunity she has

By the end of the day Tam is carrying a towel around to dry himself off

He also made Biana sneak up on people to scare them. Among their victims were Fitz, Sophie, Sandor, and Ro

Ro was SOOO close to throttling him, but settled for smashing some not so good smelling ogre snack in his hair

He also 1000% tried to start a food fight at their lunch table, except it was just him flicking carrots at everyone’s faces until they got angry enough and they all threw their desserts in his face

“Worth it” he said as he licked frosting from his nose

They also bring the camera to training. Sophie wants to ease Amy’s worries about her safety by showing her how seriously they’re taking their work in the Black Swan

Okay but like who is she kidding??? they’re NEVER serious

Every time one of them walks by the camera they dance in front of it. Every. Single. Time.

(Fitz got super good at throwing it back somehow, but nobody really wants to know how)

Tam just stood in front of the camera like the “you know I had to do it to em” guy for a solid two minutes

At one point Sophie and Keefe have a body-guard-off

They both run at Sandor and Ro screaming “INCOMING” and then jump into their arms (think that scene from b99)

Sandor drops everything and catches Sophie

Ro sees keefe dive for her, takes one step out of the way, and watches him face plant on the ground

Sophie CANNOT stop laughing she’s starting to cry

Sophie tries SO HARD to get a shot of them sparring or something even remotely serious to show her sister

But the sparring very quickly devolves into a wrestling match between the boys, and then with the girls when they try to break it up, and then there’s just an insane tickle fight that takes wayyy to much effort on the bodyguards’ behalf to break up

Then they bring the camera to their Team Valiant meeting with the council. Now this one took some SERIOUS convincing, but Dex was the one who got her to bring it

“You did say you’d show her the WHOLE day didn’t you? And you can’t break a promise to your SISTER Sophie!”

Before they went, Biana and Sophie (mostly Biana) essentially did a whole beauty video, and she even got Dex and Sophie to let her do their hair

She also tried to do their makeup but Sophie couldn’t keep her eyes open for the mascara, and Dex kept sneezing when she was applying the powder

Wylie thinks bringing the camera in with the council is risky, and Stina just rolls her eyes at them

They set up the camera on this table that sits between them and the council, with the camera well hidden in a floral centerpiece and facing them

The camera catches them doing the following things

All of them playing Rock Paper Scissors during a lecture from Bronte (Sophie won)

Making gross faces at the camera when nobody was looking

Trading circlets when nobody was looking

Sophie teaching team valiant how to hit the woah

Hitting the woah every time Emery yelled at them to pay better attention

When the meeting is FINALLY over, they all (Sophie, Dex, Biana, Fitz, Keefe, Linh, Tam) meet at Havenfield for dinner, bc Friday night picnics with the gang are a thing and you can’t tell me otherwise

Linh has the idea to take a group photo to give to Amy with the video

They all get together under the Panakes tree, and Sophie sets the camera on a rock

Right after they’ve taken the picture, and Sophie’s walking back to grab the camera, they hear Grady and Edaline yelling “WATCH OUT!”

They all look and see the escaped verminion running towards them

It goes right past them, grabs the camera and just takes off in the other direction

Sheer, unadulterated chaos overtakes the next fifteen minutes

Sandor and Grizel try to tackle it, but end up face planting in the mud

Keefe almost laughs himself to death but shuts up when they ask him if he’d like a mud bath of his own

Sophie, meanwhile, is trying to calm the verminion down telepathically but it’s so excited to be free that it won’t listen

Fitz and Keefe help Dex set up this new laser cage he invented to trap it, and Tam and Linh try to herd it in by directing it with water and shadows

Linh gets some water on the cage and it short circuits before they can get the verminion inside

It shocks Fitz, Dex and Keefe (they were holding the cage up) pretty good. They’re all laying on the ground groaning and twitching

Ro is PISSING HERSELF laughing she cannot stand up

What eventually works is when Biana sneaks up on it with a tranquilizer and they finally get Amy’s camera back

Watching the footage back is like watching looney toons it’s so cartoonishly stupid

Sophie gives it to Dex to edit down for her, and sends the whole (thirty minute) vlog to Amy from her iPod

Fitz: *clutching Linh’s murcat to his chest and staring into the distance* I think I’m in love

Sophie:

Fitz:

Sophie:

Fitz:

Hello @lodestarinitiative, it is I, your secret santa!  ♡＾▽＾♡ Here is the drawing of Sophie and Fitz sharing an eskimo kiss and a Christmas-themed scarf!  (✿ ♥‿♥) I hope you’ll like it! XD

I’d also like to thank the awesome @keeperoftheaesthetics for organizing this Secret Santa event for the keeper fandom!  (‘∀’●)♡

Bonus Speedpaint Video:  ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡