Writing prompt! slash Halloween giftie because I felt like it since it’s my birthday month and I’m taking a break from commissions ^w^

OMG More fanart for pushpin! Thank you, Camy! It’s so cute!!! Here is what I have written to accompany it:

Pushpin’s Halloween Night

It was cold, I remember that.

Kind of like poking your head into the fridge, with a blast of chilly air, forcing things to be cold. Actually, outside was a lot like a fridge. The grass was crunchy under my paws like the french fries that had been trapped in styrofoam. The bark of the trees was dry and stiff like Chloe’s leftover sandwich. It tasted about the same, too, except without mayo. Bleck!

It had been so long since I’d eaten… a whole three hours since I’d gotten into Chloe’s fridge… 

I licked my belly to console the rumbling. The smell of food was everywhere on the grounds, but I couldn’t find it. I wandered back toward the house, letting my tail swish back and forth because it needed the practice, and watched for any more monsters. That’s why I’d left in the first place… monsters.

Not like we never had monsters here. The Linden Estate was haunted with real, live ghosts. Or, uh, not live. I guess they’re dead. Like Limerick.  He’d gotten attacked and eaten by a big ol’ monster before I was paired with Chloe, so now he walked around as a ghost. I didn’t wanna be a ghost, so I stayed away from monsters.

But there they were, a big bat guy, a dog thing, a scarecrow, some kinda… I don’t even know what it was, but it was a big mess. I sat out of grabbing reach and sniffed at them to get a better idea of what they were. They smelled… familiar… somehow…

“Pushpin, I told you to stay in the house!” 

My heart did somersaults and my tail started vibrating. It was– that scary-looking lady in robes was my Chloe! “Chloeee!” 

I ran to her, ignoring the monsters all around us, and scrambled up her robes to get onto her shoulder. She made little sounds of protest, but that was just because I hadn’t started rubbing on her yet. But I did, purring as loud as I could, rubbing all over her cheek and ear and neck. 

She put her hand between me and her face and pushed me so I had to cling to her shoulder with my claws. It wouldn’t be good to make everyone jealous of our special bond, after all.  The thought made me so happy that I couldn’t stop purring.  

“Pushpin! Geez, what is wrong with you?”

The other monsters laughed, and their voices were familiar, but I couldn’t place it. And even if they were going to destroy me, they were going to know my feelings! “I looove you!” I screeched, and affectionately nibbled on her hand. 

“You can’t blame him, Chloe.” The dog guy said. “He is your familiar.”

“Shut up, Salmon.”

Ohhhhh. Ohhhhhhh! It was the fish guy! I crawled on top of Chloe’s head to get a better look at the rest. Oh! So the Boss was the bat guy! Then I remembered…. it was HALLOWEEN. The thing the Boss was always talking about. “HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” I yelled, making sure to include some yodeling because it always got a good reaction.

Chloe growled, which was a good sign. “Pushpin…”

But the Boss bat man took me from her shoulder and curled me up in his arms. “Yeah, it’s Halloween! Come on, I’ll give you a tour of what we have set up for the party!”

“A party?!” I squeaked. I liked the Boss man. He was always so excited, and good at petting me right between the shoulderblades.

“Theo, we don’t have time for this…” the fish man groaned. He didn’t like having fun, so I didn’t understand him very well. But he was nice, too, so he was still my friend. 

The Boss showed me all of the stuff they had set up in the courtyard. There were apples under water (cruel!), cotton candy behind glass (why!), popcorn trapped in plastic (nooo!), plus lots and lots of candy in their own sealed prisons. What was this horrible thing?! 

There was also something about mirrors and a corn maze but I didn’t really get it. When it was over, the Boss set me down in the pumpkin patch.

 “Here,” he said. “You greet the guests and charm them with your cuteness.” 

That was easy to do! And I wanted to, because he was the Boss! But Chloe always said to never work for free. I frowned. “What do I get out of it?”

Then the Boss took out a bag of popcorn from the insides of is cape somehow and opened it, scattering the pieces all over. “There! You can eat all of the popcorn that you can find!”

I wasn’t listening any more, though; I HAD TO GET THE MOVING THINGS! 

There were a lot more monsters, though they might not have been, and lots more treats for me. Everyone oohed and ahhed about how cute I was, even Chloe! Basically, Halloween was the best night ever.

acutelesbian:

fat-thin-skinny:

acutelesbian:

A lot of people ask me what my biggest fear is, or what scares me most. And I know they expect an answer like heights, or closed spaces, or people dressed like animals, but how do I tell them that when I was 17 I took a class called Relationships For Life and I learned that most people fall out of love for the same reasons they fell in it. That their lover’s once endearing stubbornness has now become refusal to compromise and their one track mind is now immaturity and their bad habits that you once adored is now money down the drain. Their spontaneity becomes reckless and irresponsible and their feet up on your dash is no longer sexy, just another distraction in your busy life.
Nothing saddens and scares me like the thought that I can become ugly to someone who once thought all the stars were in my eyes.

this fucks me up every single time

I never expected this to be my most popular poem out of the hundreds I’ve written. I was extremely bitter and sad when I wrote this and I left out the most beautiful part of that class.

After my teacher introduced us to this theory, she asked us, “is love a feeling? Or is it a choice?” We were all a bunch of teenagers. Naturally we said it was a feeling. She said that if we clung to that belief, we’d never have a lasting relationship of any sort.

She made us interview a dozen adults who were or had been married and we asked them about their marriages and why it lasted or why it failed. At the end, I asked every single person if love was an emotion or a choice.

Everybody said that it was a choice. It was a conscious commitment. It was something you choose to make work every day with a person who has chosen the same thing. They all said that at one point in their marriage, the “feeling of love” had vanished or faded and they weren’t happy. They said feelings are always changing and you cannot build something that will last on such a shaky foundation.

The married ones said that when things were bad, they chose to open the communication, chose to identify what broke and how to fix it, and chose to recreate something worth falling in love with.

The divorced ones said they chose to walk away.

Ever since that class, since that project, I never looked at relationships the same way. I understood why arranged marriages were successful. I discovered the difference in feelings and commitments. I’ve never gone for the person who makes my heart flutter or my head spin. I’ve chosen the people who were committed to choosing me, dedicated to finding something to adore even on the ugliest days.

I no longer fear the day someone who swore I was their universe can no longer see the stars in my eyes as long as they still choose to look until they find them again.

I was too busy at work today to finish tomorrow’s dragon, so here’s a preview… I left my sketchbook at my desk so it’ll have to wait until Monday!

I’m wearing my Mabel sweater today for Halloween at the office… And the guy I sat across from on the train looked a little too excited about it.