all my keysmash are belong to you

 1. retirement for my dad isn't relaxation. that doesn't seem to be his dream. the dreams he is realizing, the ones he's pursuing now that he has the time and funds to, is to serve. in his twilight years, he seems to be getting his internal ducks in a row. finding order, finding peace in this way. he's working on a panel that approves climate change grants in southeast asia. he gives workshops to university students on how to improve their grant proposals for future projects. he's donating our old house to an orphanage and naming it for my mom, in honor of my grandparents. this moves me. i didn't get along with my mom, but i predict my dad will go through the rest of his life naming every good and beautiful thing in his life for her. our house, the stars, the sea - he'll call them by her name just so she is still in this world with him. the stars come back every night. the waters rise. he knows this. that's why he persists.

2. and then me. and then my love, and all the things i'd name for him. isn't it rude to want to measure joy? i'm curious yet content. a handful of secret names and a collection of habits curated over the course of almost half a life. the habit of constant and casual intimacy. my hand sliding along his forearm as i pass by. eye contact across a room then we kiss the air at each other at the exact same time because that's what muscle memory does. a certain angle of the head means kiss me. a casual kiss on the forehead as we carry dirty glasses to the kitchen is a thoughtless throwaway thing, too ubiquitous to be high in value. but we value it, which is the same as how we have it, which is the same thing as years of learning how to do this, knowing we'll never get it perfect but too deeply a part of one another to care. the bedroom is a mess. i like to hold him when the sun flickers gold on our white walls. i like to hold him when i can hear the rain outside. all my favorite stories are now rooted in this. a long-learned guilt says it's arrogance, that one day i'll pay for all this happiness. everyone who ever resented me will rejoice when i am hurt. i can't stop it; it leaks through in my beliefs. it leaks through in the stories i tell. i love you, i'm home. i love you i love you i love you and i'm home. if i keep this at arm's length for fear of losing it, i'll regret it. i know i'll regret it. he wakes up to kiss me, then burrows into my neck and goes back to sleep. this is what i use to remind me that life goes on, that it waits for me no matter what. and that's why i persist.

Dear author,

First of all, thanks for being here! I'm pumped to read whatever it is you wanna write about the things I wanna read! I basically fell in love with Canada's top line over the WCoH so my prompts have something of a theme...

Unsurprisingly, for any combination of Patrice Bergeron/Brad Marchand/Sidney Crosby that I've requested, I'd love something WCoH-centric. Slices of life before, during, and after the tournament. But also, before the tournament, Sid and Marchy have been working out together during the summers in Nova Scotia for the past few years, and I'd love something about their growing relationship over the years. I love hometown feelings, the comfort being on your own turf. idk if there's rivalry between Cole Harbour and Hammonds Plains or what, lol (though that would be great), but I'd love stuff like them showing each other where they skated as kids and where they hung out, stuff like that. Speaking of which, Bergy came to Halifax before the WCoH to bond and skate around, so that's prime fodder for that kind of thing right there. But bonding during the tournament or celebrating the win, those are all A+ too.

Whether it's threesome, or two of them are together and the third one knows or finds out, or two of them are together and no one else knows, I'm up for it! What else do I love, I love emotional game description e.g. what was going through their heads when Marchy scored the GWG short-handed. That "thrill of victory, agony of defeat" stuff, not always the details but how they galvanize the players and open floodgates for them - I eat it up with a spoon. It's been such a tremendous summer for Marchy in general, and it would be such a great bonus for me if you touched on that. Coming from a 37-goal season to win 2 golds, one of which you won playing on the same line with your BFF and your hometown boy? I cry. Marchy is my fave, so if you cast the spotlight a little more on him, that'd be a great bonus.

On a Bergy/Marchy note, Bergy said that he wasn't really worried that Marchy was gonna leave the Bruins by the time they got to final contract negotiations, but I'd be curious about the journey they took to how they both got to be this confident in Marchy's decision. The worry and uncertainty and wondering if they're gonna lose each other at the same time that they're stumbling to each other. Also, unrelatedly, I found this in my notes somewhere: DONT PLAY POND HOCKEY ON THE HAUNTED POND OR YOU'LL HAVE TO GO THRU SOME ORPHEUS-ASS SHIT TO GET YOUR BOYFRIEND BACK. So that's another prompt. I would love that premise for Marchy/Bergy, except with a happier ending lol

On Sid/Marchy note, this thing on my tumblr. On a general note, hockey's pretty much all I tumbl about these days so if you're curious to see how I feel about stuff and things, go ahead and click through.

To go to the other side of the spectrum, the AU that I've been thinking about a lot is one of them is a forest spirit and their woods are in danger of being clear-cut, so the other person (or people, if it's OT3) tries to stop this travesty. Or! A sailor(s) keeps getting lost at sea, and they figure out that it's because one of the stars he navigates by is missing from the sky. The star is the other half/third of the ship.

A belated DNW that I forgot to add on my sign-up: please don't use real life WAGs or Tyler Seguin. I've enjoyed and written fics with both, but I'm not feeling it for this specific challenge. <33

So yeah! Use and/or discard these prompts as your inspiration sees fit! I don't mean to get specific, just want to give you as many jumping-off points as possible so that you can find the one that suits you best! Good luck, author, and thanks again!

xoxo Las

Most of the background of this happened in an email, which I'll collate and post later, but I think you can get it without context.

( NOTFIC: reilly smith has the meeps feat. patrice and brad )

Baseball's back! Well, kind of, spring training and such. After the white water rapids of hockey, baseball feels like slipping into a warm bath. I had the baseball game on the other day as I twiddled on the computer and it felt like having a screensaver on the TV. ALL MY FAVORITE BASEBALL BABIES WERE ON BASE WHEN PEDEY BROUGHT THEM HOME WITH A GRAND SLAM, so that's nice. Less nice: Bruins in a shootout.

( flashficlet: Xander/Christian; trying to cover 3 languages in English )

So anyway. Man, I thought I loved the Krejci line, and I do, but the Spooner line is EXCITING and FUN, and admittedly a lot of that is David Pastrnak backchecking from his knees or dancing his way through a 1-on-3 for a shot on goal, BUT also seeing Ryan Spooner flourish and Looch basically adopting them as his tiny sons. They are always talking to each other on the bench, and Spooner may be the center, but the Looch is the one mentoring it out of him and Pastrnak is the one being his knight. SPOONER, LITTLE KING. Ryan Spooner with the Allen Webster face because he always looks kinda anxious all the time, like, it's his resting face or something.

( notfic, Spooner/Pastrnak ramblings )

You For Me | hockey RPF | Tyler Seguin/Brad Marchand | T | ~2900 words
"On the ice, everything clarifies, but then Tyler steps out into the real world and it kind of unravels a bit."

So that's a thing that happened. I didn't think I usually went for this flavor Seguin/Marchand, but when I read the prompt, my brain was like, "Oh? Why not? WHY NOT?? AAAAAHHHDAKJDSK-!!!"

Anyway, Mr. Las and I were watching the BOS-VAN game, and when they got into the pusharound at the end, I burst out laughing. The sportscaster said something like "Brad Marchand is at the bottom of the pile," and I laughed even harder because what a dingus.

Las: He's just so, like--like Marchand would get these good breakaways and then instead of shooting he'd be like "I'm gonna practice my breakdancing".
Mr. Las: "Check out this spin move, bros - OH NO I LOST THE PUCK."
Las: "BRAD MARCHAND IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PILE."
MR. Las: "AND NOW WITH A FLUTE UP HIS NOSE, BRAD MARCHAND."



That's some nice fluting, Marchy.


Pens friends! What Pens Twitter account/sportsball blog would you rec?

The shock has worn away and I'm fuzzy on a couple of beers, and now the nagging doubt settles. Krejci's injured again. We got a call-up playing center in his place. Granted, the Spooner line turned out to be effective tonight. And hey, Ferlin got his first point, and Bart and Caron played like they were determined to prove people wrong. But was Chicago the last hurrah before the long dark teatime of the soul? The Bruins haven't really proved themselves to be a durable team this season.

I missed the Bergeron goal because I was trying to figure out which channel it was on gdi NBC, but the Vines showed up soon enough. I watched it and my heart pretty much turned into the :') emoticon. Marchand to Smith to Bergeron. Marchand with the nice play to Smith, who has been struggling of late, who has been shuffled up and down the lines, who couldn't even look happy when he finally broke his scoring drought in Edmonton because it had been too long. He just looked hunted. But then the feed to Bergeron, and then the goal. This stupid fucking line. This king and his lionhearts. I hate them.

And then Smith got a goal, too! So that was nice.

Tuuka's losing it, though.

I got my hockeyexchange assignment! I'm very happy with it.

Also, in other Bruins stuff, can we talk about this? And how Dougie is all, "Wow, there is a lot of touching right now, I better put my hands in my pockets so I don't... touc...h...stuff........" It's getting hot in hurr. IDK DUDES THEY ARE ALL SO FOND OF PASTA AND IT IS GIVING ME ALL THE FEELS. #tbt to this dumb shit. Krug couldn't even stay upright and crashed into him in his rush. bb that is no helping way, but we can appreciate your intent.

do you ever cry

( malcolm notfic feat. just a wee linguini )

ALL THE PIECES OF MY HEART. Pasta goes down on the high-stick and Krug literally falls over to get to him. GET THESE FEELINGS AWAY FROM ME. And here's Kells dadding it up. Everybody goes into Mama Bear mode for the kid.

In other news, my attention was brought to this Marchand/Seguin prompt and now I am DESTROYED. WHO ARE YOU, MARCHAND/SEGUIN ANON? LET'S BE FRIENDS.

( He doesn't care who knows. )

So apparently there is a hockey exchange going on! And I am signing up. Filling in my likes like "decisions you don't regret that make you sad anyway" aw yeeeeeeaaa, bring it.

A CERTAIN SOMEBODY has me tumbling down an Alexander Ovechkin/Evgeni Malkin spiral. VERY DRAMATIC. Very FEELSFUL. Also I just read this old article on Malkin and it's SO. MUCH. It starts out like some gritty noir novel because what on earth, his escape from his old team is like he's trying to escape Cuba to play baseball, and then there's stuff like this:

On Twitter, which Malkin joined at the start of the season, he responded to an earth-shattering nutritional discovery by asking for verification from his 79,000 followers: “Just read that tomato = fruit? True???”

oh nO.

I caught an episode of "In the Room" on the NHL network and woah, the cinematography is tight?? The music alone. Step up your game, "Behind the B".

Where is all the Geno/Ovi fic? Where is it all?