The Missiles Are Very Eepy

Perhaps someday, in another life, they'll finally get the ending they deserve.

"You look beautiful today Johnny, as always."

made more of these. now featuring Claire and Jody ‼️

Filipino artist, Gregory Halili, carves intricate skulls into mother of pearl shells.

Simon, without ever really considering it, places a lot of weight on a name. It's why he likes the separation between Simon and Ghost, why he gets to a point where he calls Soap Johnny, even when no one else does. It's important, what you call someone. There's a lot in a name.

With you, you'd never even know about Ghost -- to you, he's just Simon, and that's all he ever wants to be. He doesn't want those worlds to mix. Simon will do just fine.

But, after you've been dating a while, when you've convinced him to relax enough to lay his head in your lap while you watch tv and you let out a soft little "there you go, baby"?

Well that's something else entirely.

Because he's never been a "baby." He's never been "honey" or "sweetie" or any of those other cutesy little names you come up with, but when you call him those things, it's nice. Sort of relaxing in a way he never knew it could be.

"Baby, can you change the lightbulb for me?" "What's for dinner, baby?" "Right there, baby, don't stop."

He notices, every single time. It makes him want to try it too, to see if it'll give you the same little easy thrill it gives him. But he's not sure what kind of pet name feels right. He turns over words and phrases in his head when he's trying to go to sleep or in the shower -- he'd absolutely never admit this to you -- and he practices, trying to figure out what feels natural, what feels like you.

In the end, all the practice is for naught, because the right one slips out without him even thinking about it.

It's after he comes home from a deployment, exhausted from both everything that happened and from trying to hide his desperation to see you. When he gets home, you take him in your arms, and all the tension, for the moment, anyway, just falls right out of him, and he holds onto you like a lifeline.

"Missed you so fucking much, sweetheart."

He can feel you smile, your face pressed against his chest, and while he is glad to see you seem to like it, he wasn't prepared for how much he'd like it himself.

Because what you call someone matters. He'd spent the first half of his life as Simon, the second as Ghost, and now, as a complete surprise to him, he's getting a third chapter where he gets to be "baby," where he gets to be close enough to you to share these special little names. He gets to know your sweet heart, and it's more than he deserves.

But he'll never, ever stop trying to earn it.

as promised some braid ghosties! (+ my first exploratory sketches of ghost in the first one ++ the last one a slightly updated version)

i am nooooot locked the fuck in. im locked the fuck out. call the locksmith

Soap is a leaver. He will always be the first to leave. Never to be left. He'll be gone before you know it. But they'll get over him. He knows they will. Which itls why it scares him so much when Ghost keeps following

Wish you all a beautiful day with this lil sketch 💛

I get so irrationally angry when people (namely non USAmericans) lean hard into meme-ing the "stupid americans" jokes

Because yeah, maybe you're right, a lot of us couldn't name your neighboring countries, or we can't point to your province on a map, or we haven't the foggiest clue of conversion rate of imperial to metric, or whatever reason or tidbit you want to add. Yes. We know that. We know that you know that.

But consider. A lot of us haven't left our own state before. A lot of us don't know half our own state. Please consider that a lot of people are simply trying to make it to the next day, next week, next month. I, myself, am extremely fortunate to be living with my parents at my age and my "rent" is extremely low. I'm fortunate. Many people are scrambling to pick up extra shifts at work or finding a second job to afford cost of living. Lots and lots of people are worrying about how to get karen out of their face without losing their job, they don't have time to study maps of europe.

And I get it. It's extremely easy to make that joke. We make it easy. And you don't what the average working class looks like. You hate our politics but can't change them, we hate them more and have no choice but to live with them. Your taxes go to public schools and healthcare. Ours go to military forces.

I can't police what anyone says, just asking that you think about your jokes. You're kicking a dying horse here.