mxrauders4lyfexx

[crypticthumbs]

[lazylittledragon]

pt 1 of my catalogue for mcm!! more incoming >:))

[sapphicwiles]

It’s ArcaneFanKidWeek over on Twitter! I initially I wasn’t going to participate bc it feels weird knowing that my fic isn’t complete so there’s, like, not a fankid to write about? At least, not in the ways the prompts are set up. BUT! I couldn’t resist. This is for the prompt, “new sibling.”

I don’t consider it a spoiler for anything (except for maybe Slugger’s name if you haven’t figured it out yet), but it is set about three years after the final chapter of glad you’re here. I hope you enjoy a little fluff about actual CaitVi moms!

“Mama?” Caitlyn calls softly from the doorway, her voice high and lilting. “Mama, may we come in?”

“Who’s ‘we,’ Mummy? Is that my Cammie?” Vi answers.

Vi hears Cammie’s sweet giggle before she sees her, muffled behind Caitlyn’s thigh where she clings tighter than a secret. That giggle, so unlike the baby’s powerful cries not even an hour before, has Vi’s chest hitching with nostalgia as she looks down at her new daughter’s sleeping face. It wasn’t so very long ago that Cammie was small enough to be swaddled this way. It wouldn’t be so very long before the new baby giggled that sweetly. Today was the day her daughters became sisters, giggling and sleeping and too little to remember it.

Vi wants to remember every second.

The double doors open wider to reveal Caitlyn and Cammie, peeking around Mummy’s leg and gasping when her wide blue eyes land on Vi.

“Hi, bud,” Vi smiles at her. She had already had a bath and been dressed in her little nightgown, damp lilac hair slicked back from her rosy face. “I missed you. C’mere, I wanna hold you.”

Vi lifts the baby off her legs and settles her into the crook of her elbow. Her little mouth grunts in displeasure, but Vi is quick to offer her a kiss and a soothing, “Oh, it’s okay. Big sister’s here to see you.”

Cammie doesn’t trip forward on bare feet, she doesn’t run for Vi’s unoccupied lap. She just watches from behind Caitlyn’s leg until Mummy bends down to pick her up and cuddle her close.

“Your baby sister wants to meet you so badly, blossom. She can’t wait, she was talking all about you.” Caitlyn says, kissing her cheek.

Cammie lets herself be kissed—for which Vi is grateful, she had recently taken to wiping her kisses off as a ploy to get more—but she doesn’t look away from Vi. Caitlyn had helped Vi clean up as best she could and brushed her hair, but she must still look worryingly subdued to Cammie.

“You okay, Mama?”

Oh, her sweet girl.

“I’m okay, bud. I’m just sleepy.”

Cammie flexes her little bicep with a grunt. “Bein’ so tough?”

“I was bein’ so tough—just ask Mummy.”

“So, so tough,” Caitlyn assures her, squeezing Cammie’s bicep. “Do you want to go show Mama what you made for her?”

“Come show me, Camellia,” says Vi. “Come here, baby.”

Caitlyn walks her over to the bed and sits gingerly down next to Vi, giving her a quick kiss over their daughters’—their daughters’—heads. Vi can still taste Caitlyn’s earlier smile, the salt of her tears and the shape of her teeth, unable to stay hidden in her joy. Camellia shifts around in Caitlyn’s lap until she is leaning all the way on Vi’s arm to peer down at the baby.

She catches Caitlyn’s eye and can’t help but laugh at the way they both mist over at the sight of those two purple heads, sweetly close. Caitlyn cups her hand behind the baby’s head. Vi watches her. She rubs her thumb against the edge of the knitted cap and traces the shell of the baby’s ear in wonder.

That nostalgia overtakes her again. The remembrance of holding Camellia like this nearly three years ago, the same wonder guiding Caitlyn’s every touch against petal-soft skin. And now Cammie follows Caitlyn’s example. She traces her finger right behind Mummy’s, eager to touch her baby sister.

“Where’s her…nose?” Caitlyn asks softly. “Where’s her…ears? Where’s her…big sister? Very good. Where’s her…well, not her eyes. Um, where’s her…chin? Good.”

Vi is overwhelmed by it. By her new baby girl’s sleeping face. By her big girl’s growing confidence. By her wife’s tender hand as she guides them along together. Tears gather in the corner of her eyes and her face begins to crumple with the force of it all, but she sniffs it back and asks Cammie, “What do you think, bud?”

Camellia looks back up at Vi with her Mummy’s curious eyes. “How come your tummy getted big but she just getted so tiny?”

Vi laughs despite the ache it causes and Caitlyn brushes Cammie’s damp hair back to kiss her temple better.

“Well, babies have to grow inside a tummy before they can come out and meet their families, remember?” Caitlyn asks. “It feels like she grew for a very long time, but she’s still just tiny, isn’t she? She’ll get a little bigger every week until she’s big enough to play with you.”

“Yeah, ‘member when I was a baby when it was lasterday, and I was so, so teeny tiny too?”

“You were so teeny tiny,” Vi all but chokes. “And now you’re a big girl, huh? Got all your teeth and everything. You’re a big sister.”

Cammie shows all of her teeth and then turns her attention to the baby again, continuing her soft tracing.

“Show Mama what you made for her,” Caitlyn prompts. “Do you have your drawing?” Cammie offers up the crumpled piece of paper in her hand. One of the drawings Meggie and Heddy kept her occupied with while both of her moms and her Yèye were busy bringing her baby sister into the world.

Cammie points out the little blobs of color one by one. “That’s me, and Mama and Mummy, and baby sister. That’s Yéye, and Meggie, and Addie.”

“Are those your arms? They look so strong,” says Vi.

“Yeah, so strong so I can hug all of everybody in our whole family!”

The baby’s bleary eyes open at Cammie’s exclamation and she begins making unhappy little noises. Vi and Caitlyn each pat a hand against the baby’s back and bum as Vi rocks her. It’s surreal to be a team in this way again. Not that they aren’t a team in raising their toddler, partners in all things, but to soothe their new baby with the shared confidence they lacked with the first is a bittersweet blessing.

“You need a hug, baby?” Cammie asks. She looks down at her little sister’s scrunched up, wrinkly face, smiles sweetly, and lays her head down on the baby’s chest. Confused but comforted, the baby quiets back down.

It won’t last long, she’ll need to eat very soon and she’ll make quite a ruckus if Vi takes too much longer, but for now, Vi just holds her family. She holds them and lets them hold her. Tomorrow will be the first full day of their family of four, but today is the first minute, the first memory, the first moment.

Vi wants to remember every second.

[sapphicwiles]

I don't have a 24-hour sneak peak for y'all yet, and I think it might be several weeks before I do. Turns out it's pretty hard to write about new parents loving on their sweet baby when you and your spouse want to be parents very badly but aren't yet, AND when your relationship with your own mother started disintegrating three days after posting the last chapter 😅

Anyway, we're also in the process of moving (into a nicer house with the hope of celebrating a first birthday there one day!) so it's been just really hectic and emotional, but I wanted to share with you Camellia's first bath from chapter 10! I hope to be able to share more with you soon :)

Vi raises her clenched fists to guard her face. 

She shakes them out with a huff, her brow drawn and her teeth grit tight behind her lips. Half-moon divots bruise her palms at the sound of Camellia’s distress as it reaches fever pitch. 

She throws a punch. 

“See how I—hnh—see how I move my shoulder and my foot at the same time? Like that, that’s the movement she’s used to, that’s how I was moving when she was in my belly. You gotta really bounce her around. Try like that. But hold her head.”

Cait cradles the fussy baby against her chest, little bare feet kicking against her stomach as she cries tearlessly in a damp bath towel. 

“Like this?” Cait bounces on the balls of her feet. Left, right, left, right. Tossing her shoulders as hard as she can with Cammie’s little purple head secure between her breast and hand. The bathroom tile is skin-warm beneath Vi’s feet as she shuffles them, demonstrating the footwork patterns she had kept up all throughout her pregnancy. 

The baby’s cries, just a minute ago too quick a tempo to even allow a breath between, begin to settle into something more like confused breathing. 

“Yeah, that’s perfect.”

Cait jerks her shoulder again in perfect shadowboxing form and the confused breathing quiets even further. To her credit, Cait doesn’t stop. She just tucks her chin down to place a smiling kiss against Camellia’s head, rubs her back over the towel, and keeps jumping like a featherweight champion. Vi’s heart swells up into her throat watching Cammie nestle her face into Cait’s chest for comfort. She can’t imagine watching her wife become a mother will ever grow old.

“Good job,” Vi says with a subtle cough to clear her throat. “I’m gonna dump the water out and refill it. We’ll see if she pees again.”

“I think she managed to get it all out. She peed on me a little after.”

Vi sloshes the dirty water from the baby’s tub into the shower to drain, then fills it back up just this side of lukewarm. Camellia had met her first bath with all the kittenish bravery of a four-day-old milksop—skittering away and shrieking, peeing the instant her little tummy touched warm water and making her displeasure well known. 

“Poor little blossom,” Cait croons as Vi brings the new bathwater over to the marble counter. “Everything is so new and scary, isn’t it? Here, we’ll try again and we’ll all be very brave together.”

Vi plops a squeaky rubber bath toy into the water first, a purple waverider that splashes its tail if the water gets too hot. It floats serenely across the surface, so Vi holds her hands out for Cammie.

“Sorry for peeing on you, Mummy,” Vi says in her nasally little voice. “I’ll be really, really brave this time and pee on Mama instead.” 

Cait laughs and slows her shadowboxing down to a gentle sway. She lets Vi reach into the towel and pluck out the naked, previously-furious baby. Cammie grunts and waves her fists as Vi lays her back against her forearm, one hand cupping the baby’s little head and the other holding her tummy. Vi holds the baby an inch above the plastic bathtub. In the reflection of the mirror, she sees Cait take her soiled shirt off and toss it into the laundry bin. Her short, smooth torso is exposed above her waistband, bare breasts as full as they always are without the ache that accompanies Vi’s new size.

Logically, it makes sense that Cait’s body hasn’t changed at all. She hadn’t carried the baby or given birth to her, she wasn’t nursing or recovering from her entire pelvic floor becoming an open wound. Perhaps her tummy was the slightest bit softer with some sympathy weight, but for the most part, it was only Caitlyn’s mind and her heart that were different. Her soul. Her hair, Vi thinks fondly.

Vi’s body, on the other hand, was so alien in the mirror. In the days since Camellia’s birth, her stomach had deflated to about the size of her four-month bump. Loose skin was already beginning to pull away from her navel, the stretch marks at the bottom of her belly softening with the rest of her skin. What was once tight and firm, whether from constant exercise or from an eight-pound-three-ounce baby taking up all the space in her abdomen, was now soft and squishy. 

She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. All of her physical changes in pregnancy had seemed so gradual. She watched her belly grow a little bigger every week, watched the gentle first-time transition from Violet to That Pregnant Lady Over There with patience and appreciation. Now she just felt like a motorcar wreck with leaking nipples, abrupt and irreversible.

Cammie gurgles in Vi’s arm. Her aimless little hands swing. Vi smiles down at her. The air feels warmer all around her to see that little mouth working noisily, blue eyes open and direct on Vi, as if she was trying very hard to tell Mama all about these scary new things. 

“What is it, bud? You didn’t like the water? You were swimming around in Magic juice for nine months, and all the sudden ultrafiltered city water’s not good enough for you? Piltie princess just like your mummy.” 

Maybe she was a motorcar wreck right now. Maybe she would feel like one for a little while yet. But then Cait’s unchanged body returns to her side and she rolls her eye with a scrunched nose. But then Cait’s unchanged hands cup the warm water and gently pour it over Cammie’s hair, careful to shield her face and rub her scalp. But then Cait’s unchanged face beams down at the sweet baby in Vi’s hands—the baby Vi made with her still-changing body. And Vi couldn’t be more grateful for all the ways she had softened.

Satisfied that Cammie has warmed up to the idea of bathwater, Vi lays her down against the sloped back of the tub. Both moms hold their breaths in anticipation of another meltdown, but the baby just bares her pink gums in a grimace and kicks the waverider to a squeaky death. 

“That’s a brave girl,” Cait praises. She slides her hand down to the Runic scar on Cammie’s round tummy and the baby splashes again. “Is that really how hard she kicked in your belly?”

Vi scoffs. “You felt her all the way up to the end, cupcake. She didn’t get that much stronger in four days. Kick him again, Slugger!”

She wets a thin cloth and starts to wipe behind Camellia’s ears while Cait finishes washing her hair. Her fussy little moue softens into something blissful at the soft scratch of Cait’s fingers, just the way she looks with milk dribbling down the side of her slack mouth after a long feed. The lilac color had darkened in the bath and Vi wonders how much darker it would get as she got older. Despite the deep red-toned magenta of her hair now, Vi had started life nearly bald and only gotten candyfloss-colored wisps shortly before her first birthday. Maybe Camellia’s would do the same, darkening into a cool twilight like Vi’s mom. 

Vi keeps up the gentle swipes under the baby’s chin and around her neck for a few more moments before switching to her hands. Her heart felt too big for her chest every time those hands held Vi as tight as they could, every time she grunted and stretched those arms out for the simple pleasure of actually having the room to do so. Four days really hadn’t made much difference to Cammie’s size or development, but it was still so hard to imagine that all of this had been trapped inside Vi less than a week ago, unseen and unheard.

Cammie’s fat little feet are next when Vi finishes cleaning up her hands.

“Don’t you just wanna pop one in your mouth?”

Cait stands with her eyepatch to Vi and so she has to grin up at her in the mirror with a glint in her other eye. “Like one of those little pastries you were always eating.”

“Just a nibble. Just a toe.” Vi lifts the baby’s foot and kisses each toe with a loud smack. She makes a show of gobbling up the soles of Camellia’s feet and smiles when those wobbly legs kick her right in the teeth. Vi swears she feels it in her stomach. “Stinker. I’m gonna eat your tummy next.”

A flashbulb reflects off the mirror and blinds Vi twice. 

“Where the fuck did you even hide that? Your hands are still wet, you’re gonna ruin the film. Give me that.” Cait holds the camera out of Vi’s reach with a cheeky smile and soapy hands. “Cait, I mean it. I have milk stains on my bra and you’re half-naked, come on.”

“This is a very important moment,” Cait argues. “The first photograph I have of her is the first time she kicked you, it only makes sense that I have a photograph of her kicking you again during her first bath.”

Vi dries her hands on her pants and reaches for the camera again. This time, she hipchecks Cait as she grabs it and yanks. Cait squawks indignantly. 

“You know what I think?” Vi asks as she cranks the film to the next cell. “I think Cammie and Mummy need their first picture together. Go on, lean in close, act like you know each other.”

For all her sneaky picture-taking, Cait seems somewhat flustered to be on the receiving end of the lens. She takes in her shirtless torso, her soft pajama pants with spit up on the thigh from a rough burp, the strap of her eyepatch matting down her messy hair. But one look down at their girl, wiggling around in her bathwater, pink and clean and sweet, has Cait laying a towel over her chest and lifting Camellia out of the tub to cuddle. 

Vi clicks the trigger. What develops in the dark room later that month will become of Vi’s favorite memories ever captured on film. Caitlyn, disheveled and tired, holding their scrunchy newborn against her chest once more and cupping her little body like the most precious thing she has ever held. 

It won’t even be her favorite because it’s the first, nor will it be her favorite because of how sweet Cammie looks tucked up underneath her Mummy’s cheek. It will be her favorite because when Caitlyn looks up at the camera, Vi will understand exactly what Cait felt to see her satisfaction, her peace, knowing their daughter was moving beneath her hand.

It felt like relief.

[lazylittledragon]

forgot to post the context for my new pfp!!

i can’t remember if i announced this yet BUT you can find me in artist alley at mcm bham next month!!

[mukuroom]

Oh boy, a complex character who's a woman! I love messy characters who hurt everyone around them and continue the cycles that hurt them!! Can't wait to share this joy with fellow fans– why's everyone calling her a bitch

[maja-paja]

[coveystrings]

vi meets your parents for the first time feat. powder╱ sfw: modern au, established relationship, reader has a young sister, just fluff

a/n: dedicated to ky @asapcity and based on her request

Vi had been sitting frozen in her car a few blocks away from your house for about ten minutes, staring blankly ahead as she tried to fight off the nerves eating her alive.

Fortunately, she didn't have to face this alone since Powder was right there with her. Though, to be fair, her sister was acting more like a little devil on her shoulder than any actual emotional support.

She wasn't the type of person who scared easily, but saying she wasn't terrified of making a bad impression on your parents would be a massive lie.

“Please don't tell me you're thinking this is a bad idea,” Powder’s voice broke the silence, filling the car for the first time in ten minutes.

The pink-haired girl didn't say a word, but the look she gave her sister was enough to make the younger girl roll her eyes at the silent confession.

“Relax, sis,” Powder said, giving her a gentle shove on the shoulder. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Well...” Vi was completely ready to list every single worst-case scenario, but Powder's constant rambling cut her right off.

“We're already here, you bought her some beautiful flowers, and if we sit here any longer, we're going to be late. Now that would definitely leave a bad impression.”

She was glad to have Powder around, and even more glad that you had agreed to let her tag along. In fact, inviting Powder had been your idea in the first place, arguing that she might get along great with your sister.

On top of that, it comforted her to remember how confidently you had promised that your parents would absolutely love her.

“Okay, you're right,” she sighed. “Let's get out of here.”

She unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of the car, though not before quickly fixing her hair in the rearview mirror.

Her hand trembled slightly as her fingers pressed the doorbell. She shot one last desperate look toward her sister for help, but Powder just gave her an encouraging thumbs-up.

After a few seconds of waiting, the door swung open to reveal a girl younger than you, who looked to be around Powder's age.

“Hi, I'm...”

“Vi, I know. You're pretty famous around here,” she interrupted.

Your sister called out, shouting your name to announce that your girlfriend had finally arrived. A second later, hurried footsteps echoed from the second floor, and you came running down stairs, throwing yourself straight into Vi’s arms.

She wrapped her arms around your lower back, accidentally crushing the flowers a bit, as you pulled her close by her neck to give her a kiss.

“You look beautiful,” she whispered the second you pulled apart.

And she wasn't lying, you looked absolutely stunning. It wasn't just because you had dressed up for the special occasion; to Vi, you always looked perfect.

Even after all the time you had been together, you couldn't help but blush, feeling just like you did back when your hands had brushed against each other by accident for the very first time.

“Thanks. You look great too,” you replied.

Your younger sisters exchanged looks and, almost by instinct, began making childish, disgusted faces at the two of you.

“Get a room!” Powder called out.

“Grow up!” Vi snapped back, which only made you laugh.

You apologized to the younger girls for not introducing them sooner, so you quickly did the honors. They greeted each other in the most awkward way possible, looking exactly like the teenagers forced to socialize that they were.

It wasn't long before your parents joined everyone, warmly greeting the sisters and saying how happy they were to finally meet them.

Everyone headed into the kitchen, sitting down to enjoy Vi's favorite dish, which your parents had made absolutely sure to cook after asking you at least three times what she liked.

The two of you sat right next to each other, a perfect spot that allowed you to squeeze Vi's hand whenever she started looking too nervous under your parents' questioning. It was also the perfect angle for Vi to kick Powder under the table whenever she said something totally out of line in front of her in-laws.

“So, Vi...” your mother began, “I heard you're in a band, is that right?”

Vi nearly choked on her bite of food.

“Yes, that's right. I play guitar,” she answered as politely as possible.

Your parents showed genuine interest in both Vi and Powder, asking questions about their hobbies, their family, and their plans for the future—even though you had already filled them in on everything beforehand.

Amid the small talk and laughter, the conversation eventually drifted to music. That was the exact moment your sister and Powder discovered they had almost identical tastes. Their eyes completely lit up when they mentioned an indie artist that apparently only the two of them had ever heard of.

Once everyone finished eating, Vi insisted on helping to clear the table and wash the dishes, but your parents were even more stubborn, firmly insisting that she didn't need to lift a finger.

“I can't believe you were actually that nervous about this,” you said, finally having some quiet time alone together in your bedroom.

She was lying back on your bed with her arms crossed behind her head, while you searched for the perfect spot to place the vase with the flowers she had brought you. In the background, you could hear the muffled music drifting from your sister's room, where she and Powder were hanging out.

“I don't know, I just really didn't want your parents to hate me and forbid you from ever seeing me again.”

“A forbidden romance... sounds kind of exciting,” you teased.

Vi laughed, and before she could reply, you playfully flopped onto the bed, knocking the wind out of her as you rested your weight against her chest. You planted a soft kiss on her cheek while she playfully pretended to push you away—though you both knew that was the last thing she actually wanted.

“The worst part is over,” you reassured her, getting comfortable against her chest. “My parents absolutely adore you, and our sisters actually seem to be getting along.”

Vi pulled you even closer, as if that were humanly possible, while her fingers traced gentle circles on your shoulder.

“You're right, the worst is over,” she whispered, pressing a soft kiss to your forehead.

© coveystrings do not use or copy my work !!

[rottingfacade]

i love those blinking red lights they put on top of radio towers and windmills and skyscrapers etc, theyre like electronic flowers or something to me

[rottingfacade]

[tonysopranoproskater69420]

thanks tvtropes I can always count on you to gas me up

[whaile]

late summer / early fall thoughts

[dogpuppy]

[dogpuppy]

[4mtns]

NASA just dropped the closest image ever taken of Jupiter

[chocoholicbec]

@hamletthedane’s tags: #Vincent Van Gogh is crying somewhere in the after and I’m crying just thinking about that#you knew!! you saw the patterns!! there is a whole planet painted in the oils from your brush!!#TIL that the craft Juno went as close as 4000km from Jupiter’s weather surface#for context: the craft was closer to Jupiter than NYC is to LA#which is space terms is like. basically being on the planet#holy shit

[feastofsnakes]

this is actually literally how every day felt in high school

[yellow-cat]

(voice of a person spiralling) its embarrassing but i still havent figured out if its ok for me to be alive

[gothluv]

it's like damn are people like not born in the 90's anymore?

[tothewhirlwind]

this all goes back to how sometime around the late 90s/early 2000s they stopped making people born in the 90s and switched over to making people born in the 2000s. it's not a coincidence