#always second best

[mocha-illustrates]

wanted to show lumen some more love but kepler made it onto the page anyway rip

and a bonus penumbra in the middle (belongs to @starsketchez)

[normalguytm]

do yall see the parallels between these two

[lulublack90]

Prompt 20 - Constellation

@jegulus-microfic June 20, Word count 476

Previous part First part

Regulus was still reeling from coming home to find Barty on his doorstep. He had no idea who Evan was, but he was grateful he’d turned up and defused the situation because Sirius may have looked calm, but he was just waiting for Barty to make one wrong move, and he’d have launched himself at Regulus's ex. 

Remus slid a cup of hot chocolate across the kitchen table towards him. He grabbed the cup and wrapped his hands around it, relishing the burning heat as it warmed his hands. 

“So that was fun,” Sirius joked as he opened a packet of chocolate hobnobs and dumped the whole packet onto a plate that he placed in the middle of the table. Remus immediately snatched one up and dunked it into his hot chocolate. 

Sirius was flipping the card Evan gave him over in his hand. “What are we going to do the next time he ‘stops by’? We can’t keep letting this happen,” Sirius muttered darkly. 

“He’ll get the picture eventually,” Regulus replied quietly. He wanted all this Barty business to be over with. He was sick of having to look over his shoulder all the time. “Can we just stop talking about him now? We were having a good time until he turned up,” he looked over at the stuffed lion James had won for him. It made him smile. No one had ever won anything for him. 

They finished up their hot chocolates and said goodnight. Regulus insisted that James use the bathroom first, and he’d wait. In the quietness of his room, he let out a shaky breath. Would Barty ever leave him alone? He just wanted to be free of him. Live his new life and enjoy it. He put his lion on the dresser and opened the sash window fully, slipping out onto his little balcony. He lifted his head to the skies and sought out the Leo constellation and from there his namesake.

His star glittered back at him brightly, but a little to its right was a far brighter star. His brother’s star. He sighed, Barty had been the only one to prefer him over Sirius. Even James had bonded far more with Sirius than he ever had. He was always going to be that little bit duller than Sirius. Always to the left and never beside. Inferior. 

“Hey, love, bathrooms free,” James said happily as he poked his head out of the window.

“Thanks,” Regulus smiled back. He knew it hadn’t quite met his eyes, but James didn’t say anything about it. 

When he came back to his bedroom, James was already snuggled under the covers. Regulus paused a second when he passed his dresser before scooping up his lion and getting into bed. He hugged it all night long while James held him close in his strong arms.  

Next part

[belladonna-miranda]

If Ehren and Cedar are my number one Jackass parent-child pair, then Pontius and Axe are number two on my list. 💕😍

[reeeyachi]

You know what's funny?

Yeah, I love shoujo anime. It gives me the dokis i need in a day. It makes me feel a little light on my feet. Makes my heart flutter. BUT i always always always have this gold standard to romance now and every shoujo i watch just doesn't compare. Know what that is?

Hunter X Hunter

[bambaiyya]

i dont know any other way!!!

[high-pot-in-noose]

Lots of discussion of self-positivity on Tumblr. I’ve noticed that encouraging people to do their best gets mixed results, and I’m not going to act like “Just do you’re best!” motivates me or pulls me out of a mood slump when I’m in that slump, so I’ve decided it’s time to just embrace the ‘good-enough.’ I’ve come to accept that, yeah, I am better at this than some people. I might not be where I want to be, but to dismiss me completely would be too much.

I actually once entered a bad poetry competition to try to cash in with some real stinkers I wrote in my earlier years, but even those didn’t meet the (low) standard. This feels like a humblebrag or false modesty, but I don’t know how to explain my mixed feelings of disappointed, elated, and tickled that I actually failed at failing. I looked through the other submissions and wrote this piece afterward in response. I submitted this one as well, but at that point, I was just bowing out in style.

[anothergoodtime]

Kinda wishing I’d be more than everyone’s second choice or stand-in. Guess we can’t all get what we want.