Boo hoo i'll be able to add more physical storage to my phone and be able to change out batteries if they degrade as well as all these other optional features I won't have to touch
I love how they add totally absurd things no one is asking for to make the idea look crazy. And still, I must emphasize, failing to make this look like a bad idea.
"Is this what you want? Is this ugly stupid bullcrap what you want??" the biggest loudest idiot in the room asks, holding up a picture of the hottest looking shit I've ever seen
Oh, for the 5 facts prompts, Buck and Tommy meet through Ravi at frisbee golf!
I want you to know I had to look up what frisbee golf was and then I went and made up a bunch of things about it anyway. Also it got away from me and went in a more, hm, poetical direction.
--
1. Covid had shrunk his life down to the essentials: work, grocery store, socially distance runs, home, video calls. Even with the vaccine roll out, Buck was being cautious.; the last thing he wanted to do was catch Covid and put Maddie and his soon to be born niece at risk. He was lonely and restlessâAlbert was great company when he was there, but he was grabbing as many deliveries as possible as he needed the moneyâwhich was why he didnât laugh when Ravi said, âI have a weekly frisbee golf game with friends. You doing anything on Sunday?â
âUh, not to sound ungrateful,â Buck said, resisting the urge to look behind him to see who Ravi was actually talking to, âbut why are you inviting me? You pretend not to know us outside of work.â
With the mask covering his face, Raviâs eyebrows were putting in overtime in the judgmental department. âItâs called having a work-life balance and actual boundaries. You should try it.â
âYouâre still a probie,â Buck reminded him.
Ravi had a trick of conveying an eye roll without actually rolling his eyes. It was as impressive as it was deeply irritating. âTell me Iâm wrong.â
âBut why me?â Buck asked, refusing to take that bait. âI didnât think you liked me.â
âIâm going to be honest,â Ravi said like he wasnât that all of the time. âIt seems like the pandemic has maybe sent you spiraling into madness.â He held up a hand when Buck went to protest. âYou chased me with a saw last week.â
âUh, I was trying to find you so I could demonstrate how to properly use and store the saw.â
âAnd the best way to do that was by pretending to be Michael Myers?â Ravi pulled out his phone. âIâm sending you the time and place. âBe there.â
His phone vibrated. âI appreciate this, but I donât want to be your weird coworker who got a pity invite.â And, Buck added silently, he didnât want to be the weird older guy pretending to be the same age as a bunch of twenty-somethings.
âYou are my weird coworker,â Ravi said without a shred of pity, âbut Iâm inviting another weird coworker so youâll have someone to be weird with.â
âThanks?â Buck said. âWait, what other coworker? Is it Eddie? Did you invite Eddie? Ravi!â
2. Ravi did not invite Eddie. Buck showed up to the park, compressor sleeve on his bad leg, and saw a tiny woman struggling to pull a giant cooler out of the back of her Subaru. Buck ran to help at the same time as another man hurried over, and they both managed to catch the cooler before it slipped and crushed the poor woman. The guy was masked, but his eyes were so blue and, judging by the way the corners creased, he must have had a hell of a smile.
âNice catch,â the guy said as they navigated the cooler to safety. His voice was higher pitched than Buck was expecting for a guy that size, but it was, and there was no other word for it, melodious.
âYou must be the Raviâs weird coworkers,â she said. âGrab that and follow me.â
The guyâs eyebrows raised, but he obligingly picked up one end of the cooler and Buck took the other, and they followed the woman, who was named Skye and the co-founder of her collegeâs frisbee gold club. That was how she knew Ravi; they were old friends.
âRavi, I found your weird work friends,â she called as they joined Ravi and the rest of the group at the course they were setting up.
âMost people are impressed by us being firefighters,â the guy said mildly.
Skye snorted. âTell you what, kid, save a cat from a tree and I will personally throw you a parade.â
âItâs been a long time since I was called kid,â the guy mused, and Buck was treated to those laugh lines again. They were so deep; this guy must smile a lot. âIâm Tommy.â
âBuck. Buckley. I mean, Evan,â Buck said because apparently he lost control of his mouth. God, he wished he could see that smile. âEvan Buckley.â
âGood to meet you, Evan,â Tommy said.
âGlad you made it,â Ravi said. âWeâre about to break into teams. Full warning, Skye gets physical.â
âYeah, I do,â said Skye, and high fived another woman.
âI didnât think this was a contact sport,â Buck said, who had spent last night reading the frisbee golf Wikipedia article and watching a couple of video of people trying to toss little discs into various baskets.
âNot the way we play it,â said Skye with a wolfish smile. âAre you ready?â
3. Buck was not, in fact, ready. The third time Skye laid him out, Buck just stayed and contemplated his mortality.
âStill alive down there?â Tommy asked, hands braced on his knees as he leaned over Buck.
âUnfortunately,â Buck said. âDo you think if I play dead theyâll forget Iâm here?â
Tommy glanced at where a scrimmage was taking place further down the course. âI think itâs wrapping up. I heard a rumor that cooler we carried was full of snacks. Come on.â
Tommy offered a hand, and Buck was effortlessly pulled to his feet. âOh,â he said, breathless. âIâm, uh, not used to people being able to lift me.â
âBenefits of being a big, strong firefighter,â Tommy said with those gorgeous laugh lines.
âYeah, strong,â Buck agreed over the mad scramble happening at the last basket. It was either luck or skill that kept anyone from losing a mask. âThis is not regulation play.â
âYeah, itâs very Calvinball.â Tommy slid him a sly look. âI bet we can raid the cooler while theyâre distracted.â
Buck was too old to get caught in the violent tangle of limbs that was happening. âLetâs do it.â
4. An incomplete list of things Buck learned about Tommy as they waited for the frisbee golf game to end:
Tommy was not just a firefighter but a firefighter pilot, which was one of the coolest jobs it was possible to have. (âThatâs gotta be like having a super power,â he said way too earnest to be cool, but Tommy just smiled so wide that his nose scrunched and said, âA little bit, yeah.)
Tommy was Harborâs sacrificial goat who got sent to the academy as a guest instructor (âI lost the final round of rock, paper, scissors,â he said in that dry tone that Buck suspected he used when he wanted to hide the truth as a joke.)
Tommy used to be at the 118 and had the best stories from Chim and Henâs probie years (Tommy called him Howie, which was weirdly endearing)
Tommy learned to fly in the army (âThe PTSD was almost worth it.â)
Tommy knew Muay Thai but had not joined an underground fight club because he was only slightly more well adjusted than Eddie
Tommy had the most beautiful smile Buck had ever seen
âSo this is adorable,â Skye said, gesturing between them, âbut if you donât stop bogarting the snacks, I will take you both down.â
Tommy stepped aside and made a dorky little half-bow so Skye could get into the cooler. Apparently everyone contributed to the snack fund but Skye was the one who actually went out and bought everything because she had black market hook ups for the good chips and dip.
Once everyone had raided the cooler and they had all spaced out six feet so they could take off their masks to eat and drink, Ravi raised his can of flavored seltzer and said, âAnd now itâs time for the traditional poetry reading. Kay has chosen this weekâs selection.
Kay, who had an undercut and a septum piercing, said, âYou know I had to go with my girl Mary Oliver. You know it, you love it, itâs Wild Geese!â
Everyone cheered, and Buck found himself exchanging a bewildered look with Tommy and Tommyâs politely baffled eyebrows.
From their back pocket, Kay pulled out a phone and began to read. It was a short poem, but it filled him with a sweet ache, like the relief he felt when a wound had been sutured closed. Tommyâs face had softened with each line, and by the end he looked just like how Buck felt, like pain had given way to ease. And then it was over, and Buck wished heâd though to fix his mask back into place so he could have stood shoulder to shoulder with Tommy as they experienced the poem together.
âSo,â Ravi said once they were once again masked up and reformed into a loose circle, âwhat did you think?â
âI wasnât expecting to be tackled so much,â Tommy said dryly, smile once more hidden away, âbut it was fun.â
âYeah, fun,â Buck said. âHey, whatâs up with the poetry?â
What was up with the poetry was that Raviâs college roommate was an extremely shy kid named Joshua who Ravi managed to, in the words of Skye, cajole into joining their frisbee golf club using sweet words and a muffin. Joshua hated frisbee golf, but he liked poetry and old books, and so would sit on the sidelines reading to them between plays. And soon everyone had their favorite poets and poems and started bringing them to share with Joshua until it became a tradition after every game for one member to read a new poem they found.
âHe had to move back home when his dad got sick,â said Chad, who looked exactly like one of Buckâs roommates from back in the day who would howl without fail at three am every day but was in fact pursuing a masters in gender studies. âBut we kept up the tradition, and we either facetime with him or send him the poem.â
âOh, thatâs really cool,â Buck said, who never had the kinds of friends who would do that. He didnât even keep in touch with Connor, who heâd followed to LA like a lost puppy.
âIt is,â said Beth, who was only slightly less violent than Skye, which was good since she was close to him and Tommy in height, âuntil Skye breaks up with her girlfriend of two years and does nothing but read Richard Siken poems for two straight months.â
Tommy winced, and Sky pointed an accusing finger at him and said, âI knew it! I knew you were one of us!â
Tommyâs eyebrows rose in a way that Buck could only describe as bitchy. âKid, I was in the army under Donât Ask Donât Tell. Youâre one of me.â
âWait, what does Donât Ask Donât Tell have to do with poetry?â Buck said two seconds before his brain caught up. âOh, youâreââ
âGay,â Tommy said, and now those bitchy eyebrows were trained fully on him.
âThatâs cool! I mean, Iâm an ally.â From outside his body, Buck watched as his raised his fist in the air in encouragement and wanted to die. But instead of death, he opened his mouth and said, âI put up a rainbow on my Instagram profile every June.â
Into the terrible silence that followed, Skye said, âSo do you have a reminder about a flag programmed into your phone?â
âNo,â he said quickly.
âOh, he definitely does,â Chad said. âThatâs adorable. Ravi, thank you for inviting him. Heâs going into my thesis.â
Tommy leaned in close and said, âI think that means he likes you,â which almost made the mortification worth it.
Thank god a bunch of moms chased them to clean up and clear out so that their kids could kick around a soccer ball. He and Tommy carried the cooler back to Skyeâs Subaru.
âYou need to contribute to the snack fund,â Sky said, holding out a hand. âI only accept cash.â
Who carried cash anymore? Tommy apparently, and he handed over two crisp twenties. âYou can get it next time,â he said, and gently knocked his knuckles into Buckâs shoulder.
âIâm adding you to the group chat,â Ravi said, and Buck was officially part of frisbee golf.
6. By the third meet up, Buck had given up on understanding the ever shifting rules and instead spent most of his time on the fringes talking to Tommy. They had started getting take out after the game and eating on Tommyâs back patio and then, because they were both fully vaccinated and careful, moving inside to watch the movies Tommy insisted he had to see.
âDo you miss going out to the movies?â Buck asked one day, perusing the two bookcases dedicated to DVDs and CDs.
âI donât miss strangers breathing on me in the dark for two hours,â Tommy said dryly, âbut, yeah, I miss it.â
âWe should go when itâs safe.â Buck brushed his knuckles along Tommyâs shoulder. âIâll buy you Twizzlers.â
The first time Tommy came to the loft, Buck was mortifingly aware of how empty it was, especially compared to Tommyâs carefully curated house. He didnât have a single shelf of movies or even books. The only personal touch was the bike hanging on the wall, and it had been years since heâd been cycling. Thank god Albert never cleaned up against himself; his mess was the only sign of life in the entire place.
âI get the appeal now,â Tommy said, gesturing to the two balconies. âThatâs almost gotta be worth what youâre getting gouged on rent.â
âSpent a lot of nights out here when I canât sleep,â he said, and they ate lunch out on the balcony and listened to the city.
But mostly they snuck away when Buckâs leg and Tommyâs knee started acting up after too many tackles. They were deep in a discussion of which weird 80s fantasy movie to see nextâTommy was adamant that Buck needed to experience Tim Curry as the shirtless devil, and Buck wanted to see Labrinyth since he had remembered seeing that with Maddie and loving all the puppedâwhen Skye said, âThis is why we donât let you be on the same team.â She had evidently clawed her way free from a pile up that, as first responders, he and Tommy should really break up. âAt least weâre both equally down a player.â
Tommy pointed to Buckâs leg and then his own knee. âThereâs no way our old man joints would survive that.â
âArenât you firefighters?â she asked.
âIâve seen the elbows you throw in there,â Tommy said. âOur job is less dangerous.â
âHa!â Skye said, and then immediately proved Tommyâs point by trying to take down Ravi.
Chad gestured between them. âWhatever is happening between you two is adorable, and I want an invite to the wedding.â
Where Buck had been expecting Tommyâs to do their bitchy thing, Tommyâs expression instead smoothed out so quickly and completely that it felt like a flinch, like Chad had inadvertently pressed on a tender bruise.
âI donât think he was trying to be an asshole,â Buck said once Chad had been dragged back into the pile.
âItâs fine,â Tommy said in a tone that meant it was absolutely not fine. âI forget sometimes thatâs an option for me. It wasnât for a long time.â
Buck thought of Abby and Ali and the dating apps he hadnât opened in months, and said, âYeah, I get that.â He touched the back of Tommyâs hand. âWant to raid the cooler while theyâre distracted?â
They had snacks and made an effort to talk to people who werenât each other, and then it was time for the ceremonial poetry reading.
Tommy stepped forward and carefully pulled out a piece of paper that had gone soft along the creases, like Tommy had folded it and unfolded it many times. Tommy cleared his throat and, a little shy, said, âThis is called the undone cowboy writes to his sweetheart.â
And Tommy began to read.
7. These were the poems Buck had heard since joining the group: an ee cummings poem he remembered reading in high school; Frank OâHara writing about New York; Sky choosing a poem about Jesus in a gay bar that had made him and Tommy tear up; a poem about the women in Stop & Shop.
He had liked all of them, but none of them had been read in Tommyâs soft, careful voice, and none of them had felt like they were spreading his ribs apart to let in the sun. God, he thought as Tommy read the last line, god just take my heart in your palm.
âI knew you were one of us,â Skye said, and tapped friendly knuckles to his shoulder.
8. The shift had been quiet enough that Buck was able to sneak away and grab the good bunk in the corner with the mattress that didnât sag and replayed the poem in his head: could you lasso my legs, darling, and press me tender to hay bale?
Buck had spent the better part of a year working on a ranch. Hay was a lot less romantic and a lot more irritating than people thought. It pricked and itched, even through a carefully laid blanket, and Buck had no desire to have it anywhere near his dick and balls again.
And yet he placed his palm against his sternum and thought of leaning against a bale. The hay would try to scratch through his clothes but he wouldnât notice it, not with how close Tommy would be standing. They were the same height and near the same size, although Tommy had more breadth across the shoulders and carried more muscle. Tommy was immovable when he wanted to be, and Buck had felt the heat of him when they collided on the field.
He pressed down on his own breastbone. It wouldnât be hard for Tommy to move him. Itâd be so easy; Buck would go without a fight. God, he would have to spread his legs so wide to let Tommy get in close, and Tommy would kiss as sweetly as he read the poem.
âOh,â Buck said, ribs cracked open and his sternum filled with sunlight, âIâm one of them.â
8. Buck was a firefighter and there was a time for evaluation and there was a time for action, and so he showed up to Tommyâs house and said, âAre you the undone cowboy? Can I be your sweetheart? I, uh, also brought lunch. Hi.â
âHi,â Tommy said, and he was laughing but not at Buck. âYou want to come in, sweetheart?â
âYeah, I really do,â Buck said.
9. Tommy kissed sweeter than the poem.
Buck sliced him an apple.
10. âIâve got a poem,â Buck said, fumbling his phone out of his pocket. It wasnât his frisbee gold reading, but this one was important. He wanted to get it right. âItâs from our girl Mary Oliver.â
âYo Mary Oliver!â Kay shouted.
"It's I Did Think, Let's Go About This Slowly." He cleared his throat and began to read, and on the line, the important one, he met Tommyâs eyes and said, unafraid and full of joy, ââBut, bless us, we didn't.â
Tommyâs smile was still the most beautiful think Buck had ever seen.
11. They invited the entire frisbee golf club to the wedding.
i want to do a painting of a tiger taking a bath to put in a bathroom (bathroom-themed bathroom) and to this end i made a little maquette out of clay and i suspect this will scope creep into having both a painting and sculpture of a tiger or perhaps only a sculpture of a tiger. if i do both should they be displayed together or separately
Working on cutting out a large piece of wood to do the painting on, which is a constraint that will either be really fun or really annoying. Maybe both
Wood primed and underpainted and sketch transferred mostly by cutting it out in different chunks and tracing around them. Stripes to be determined. Nobody let me work on this again for at least two weeks
My mom likes to tell me about how when I was a little kid riding public transport with her I'd always smile and giggle and chat with weird old ladies who smelled like cat pee and homeless folks and strangers dressed in bizarre outfits but any time a tidy and respectable businessman in a suit and tie waved at me I'd immediately clam up, and she takes a great deal of pride in my supposed inherentability to clock personalities but the truth is I do vaguely remember those bus rides, and it was never about the clothes or the hair or the smell, but more because everyone "strange" asked interesting questions and listened to what I had to say and seemed to think about what I said while the neat and tidy and rigid folks only ever acted like they were going through the motions, which was boring as hell and also pretty annoying
In 2026, the chicest thing a gay actor can do is never explicitly come out as gay but also make it abundantly clear that he is. Coming out is too modern. Staying closeted is too old fashioned. But this method merges contemporary freedom with Old Hollywood glamour and allure, and it weeds out the dumbest people who truly donât get it. I call it the Pascal Method.
You clearly don't go here or to queer history and signaling, or both, enough to have this conversation and I'm not going to explain it to you. You could have asked questions, you could have done even a modicum of research. You didn't and you made yourself look ignorant. Goodbye.
#I'm fucking crying#this is an instant classic#this is the next meme#i can't believe I'm here to see a baby copypasta nary two hours old#I can't#lol#i laughed way too hard#iconic
They move in together full time and Ilya notices that Anya acts differently with Shane than she does with him, more quiet and less playful, and he worries that means she doesnât like Shane or is jealous, so he hires a dog trainer to come over and see if thereâs anything they need to do to help
After a while of talking about how Anya acts the trainer says thereâs nothing to worry about, Anya likes Shane just fine, itâs just that she sees him as the boss and is acting accordingly
And Ilya is like. But. Iâm the one who adopted her? And raised her before Shane got here?? And the trainer is just like yeah well she sees you more like an equal. And Ilya is like WAIT she thinks Shane is in charge of both of us?? And the trainer is just like well do you interact in a way that would make her think that?
Ilyaâs life flashes before his eyes as he thinks of all the times Shane has come over with a snack for Ilya and a treat for Anya, or all the times Shane has announced theyâre all going for an after dinner walk, or pets Ilyaâs hair and tells him he did a good job at practice, or the fact that he uses the same warning tone with Anya when she misbehaves as he does with Ilya when heâs causing problems on purpose
Shane comes home to Ilya with his face in his hands going oh god Iâm not Anyaâs dad Iâm her brother and she thinks weâre both your pets. And Shane just goes. What.
why did no one tell me that the full context of âSasuke snapped back. âAnyway, whatâs Gay Pride Day? What are they proud of?â was so fucking funny
I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:
He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.
Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.
Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.
When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.
Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.
Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.
As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.
His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."
Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.
Before and after his death, Thomas has been celebrated as an icon of the LGBTQ+ community for obvious reasons.