#20 guys and 12 girls :| TWELVE. WHOLE GIRLS. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE FUN EVER WHEN I DONT LIKE TALKING TO GUYS OR BEING AROUND THEM OR

[ihavemyfits]

a boy w somewhat artsy eyeliner was our cashier at a shop today and im sorry to say that i havent changed at all since i was a kid. i am not immune to guyliner

[notfeelingthyaster]

Imagine (Son of Hades! Percy; Godswapped! Big Three's kids) Son of Neptune AU (2/7) or (7/12)

Hello! Before reading, check the PJO AU and the TLH AU - the links are on the masterpost - because they are essential to this one. Don't forget to check the warnings before reading. Review and make suggestions! And have a good reading :))

TW: This post in special has sexual harassment, racist slurs, and mentions of whipping.

Perseus wakes up in a semi-destroyed building full of wolves with a black ax in one hand and a Warhammer in the other. And that's just the beginning of the worst months of his life - or the only months of his life he can remember.

Then everything hurts - too much, like his skin is melting from his bones and his eyes are being gouged out. His skin feels like it's melting, and he promptly passes out.

He has no idea of who he is - except his name, but he might just know it because the wolf woman told him - and the talking wolves don't know - or can't tell him anything else. Either way, Perseus is getting nowhere.

Oh yes - he is also pretty sure wolves aren't supposed to shapeshift. And rope you into training - which, he must've been a bodybuilder or something because he is pretty good at wrestling.

Shoving the wolves into the ground and destroying the monsters that try and defy Lady Lupa's pack are the highlights of his week.

Lady Lupa is... - Lupa is everything he knows. She is the one who, for some reason, let's him stay. She tells him about the gods and the monsters - about how she found him in her doorstep after her home was sacked by Earthborn.

How he must be the sign of the Olympus that Lady Venus promised her. The one who comes to help.

Perseus doesn't know her - he doesn't know who she is or if she is telling the truth. But he has well-trained powers that he has no idea how to utilize, nowhere to go and no way of searching for his family - no one knows who he is, except for his first name (which sounds wrong).

And he tried to run away once - it didn't end well, because monsters are immortal - and everywhere.

Lupa tells him he had a curse upon him, so he has to train himself all over again now that it's gone. It doesn't sound like the truth, but he prefers Lady Lupa's carefully crafted half-truths than sleeping in the streets.

Lady Lupa teaches him - and tells him to expect the signal of the gods. They will guide him - even if they give him no answers.

Perseus doesn't like the gods much. They've left him here - which is a good place, but not his home, wherever it is - with no idea of who he is or what to do - except train and learn.

Mother Lupa - as most call her in the Wolf House - educates him like one would an unruly puppy. She corrects everything - from the way he addresses the gods at evening prayers to the way he sits - and he obeys.

Because in the midst of all those wolves? Perseus is just another puppy. So he sits and read hours of Vergil, Ovid and Horace in ancient Latin out loud - even if he would prefer not to.

Sadly - he does not have an opinion. Lady Lupa won't hesitate on using her whip on him. Oh yes, she has a whip - a black whip, which she uses to educate them. His back hurts sometimes when he rests upon the cold floor.

He prays to anyone - his godly parent - who is some Underworld God if his hold on shadows and stone means anything - or a friend, someone who's missing him, anyone really, for them to come and gives him answers.

It doesn't happen.

So he trains and he trains. He has no idea how much time has passed - how much time he has been slashing and cutting and killing, how much time he has heard every detail of Julius Caesar crusade through Europe.

It's still cold when the gods send their signal - they send him a maiden. She holds her hand to him like he is an old friend - and he goes.

She makes him only one question - "Do you want peace or answers, Perseus? Choose carefully, for no path will be easy, but the harvest comes for those who plant the seeds" - and when he answers, she climbs to his back and flowers create a path in the ground.

She doesn't talk anymore. He follows the trail and the girl threads her fingers through his hair, humming to herself a melody only she is able to hear.

In the way, there are two gorgons. Lady Lupa taught him about them. It's an easy battle - until he discovers that they just don't die. They keep reforming, like evil pottery.

They attack again and he picks up his ax to continue racking them into bits, but she tightened her fingers in his hair - like one would steer a horse.

So before they reform, he runs. Perseus runs - with a beyond beautiful maiden on his back (which would be really uncomfortable, if he wasn't so pissed with the gods for giving exactly no answers) doing nothing but play with his hair and eat granola bars - and he gets to a military outpost.

At least, it's what it looks like. There's a wall who must be at least 20 feet high. Its not a normal wall - because he can see eyes in its crevices, looking at him.

Perseus is really tired. There are people there - he is seeing them, do they think he is stupid? - and he has a person in his back.

So he kills both gorgons again with his stone spikes - he is pretty sure the guys that aren't opening the doors can deal with them when they eventually reform - and shadow travels inside.

He doesn't do this often - it takes a lot out of him and he might end up stuck in the wall if he is too tired, but he is too angry to care.

Perseus could've destroyed their door. He should've, really. It might have stopped those people from surrounding him with weapons.

These people - the people looming over him now that he crossed the barrier, who are using togas just like him, so different but so familiar - would've let him die for nothing. Perseus growls - a bad habit he picked up living only with wolves for an undetermined amount of time.

He should kill every single one of them. He should open the ground - and let it swallow them, let their bones turn to dust, return their weapons to molten metal.

But the maiden tightens her fingers in his hair, and he obeys - because Perseus has been well trained, and he doesn't bend.

"Who are you?!" A boy with a bow asks harshly, and Perseus wants him to rip him apart - he is so done. Perseus is a Roman - is what Lupa taught him - and Roman wolves don't roll over.

"Lady Lupa sent me." They don't look like they believe him, but they take him to their leader.

He feels like an alien - behind the wall, there's a whole new world - hundreds of people stare at him with a mix of fear, disdain, and curiosity. It feels familiar.

Perseus is reluctant to leave his weapons with a statue - specially while entering the territory of people who won't protect him and might try to kill him, but he is not one for scandals - so he thanks Lord Terminus, and goes on.

They enter the Senate after walking for about an hour - his head held high, even with the extra weight in his back - in the middle of the session. Lady Lupa would find this appalling.

Everyone turns to them - the tall black muscular man, dressed in a dark red toga, with a woman in his back also clad in a toga - they look like normal citizens, and yet, somehow, completely foreign.

Their escorts - a black girl no older than fourteen and the archer, that must be around his age - kneel to the Praetor - but as soon as they start explaining, they are interrupted.

Their promagistrate - a man Perseus will later learn is named Justus - looks at them once and shrieks.

"Lord Pluto!" They call him, and the whole Senatus knee down "Lady Ceres!"

The goddess he didn't recognize comes down of his back, chuckling to herself. All gods are mad - Perseus thinks, but keeps stoic in front of the government of this Rome copycat, else they kill him for disrespect or something.

"Rise!" She starts "You're almost correct, child of Justitia. For I am Ceres, but this is not Lord Pluto."

The promagistrate seems offended with Perseus somehow - like it's his fault the man is an idiot.

"This is his only mortal son and my daughter's champion, Perseus of Styx. He has been under Lady Lupa's tutelage in her command." This was new.

So his father was the king of the dead himself - which was not surprising. But he was apparently Lady Proserpina's champion - a goddess who left him with Lady Lupa, apparently with his father's, Lady Venus' and Lady Ceres' approval.

Perseus (apparently, of Styx) wants to tear Olympus apart. He wants a lot of things - but for now, he shall observe and do what it's told of him.

Ceres leaves him under the "care" of the Romans. Immediately, the Praetor takes him to be interrogated.

He tells her the truth - or at least, what he can bender: He has been with Lady Lupa as long as he remembers. Yes, he is trained. He can control earth, shadows, metal. Sometimes, vines and skeletons. No, he doesn't have a last name. No, he doesn't know Jason Grace.

In return, the woman (a daughter of Bellona with brown skin that he feels he should know) explains where he is.

This is Nova Roma - and they are in Jupiter's Capitol, also known as the First City of Twelve, where is localized their Forum Romanum - which is composed by the Comitium (where the Senatus is localized), the Pluton Denar Domum (their bank) and a temple for all the gods - decorated with gardens and founts mainly used by the politicians in session and augurs.

The other non-military districts are Juno's Urbs, where most families live; Minerva's Scientia et Quaerere Centrum, which contains schools, colleges, libraries, and research centers; Phoebus Apollo's Salutem Receptum, a whole district for health care and who mainly takes care of cleaning the city; and Vesta's Forum Boarium, where the temples reside, including the Hearth of Rome, with their sacred fire.

Then there the indirectly of military nature; Ceres' Agris, fields who produce all food of the city; Mercury's Via, where communication and post are handled - also, the main place for entertainment; Vulcan's Caminus, the forges and armory; and Neptune's Militiarum Equestri, battle horses, pegasi, hellhounds, elephants, wolves and hounds.

There's also the military ones: Venus Victrix's Feminam Lorem ad Bellum, the training camp for girls; Mars Ultor's Masculum Lorem ad Bellum, the training camp for boys; and Diana's Venari, a forest they use to hunt monsters.

Praetor Arellano shows him around. The praetor shouldn't be doing that, but he seems to be important enough - he got here with a goddess in his back after all. His step-grandmother?

"Everyone is involved in the war effort - Everything for Rome. Everyone capable is obliged to join the training as soon as they're eight. When you're ready, you join the Legion, for fifteen years, in any capacity. Some - the ones with specific talents - join the field healers or the forges."

"Most join the legionnaires. Later in life, some go to college - training to farm, teach, own business, plan buildings, weave, research, write, go exclusively into politics, or become doctors - for either animals or people. Some never leave until they absolutely have to - it's an honor to serve Rome."

"You are neither a son or legacy of any construction or any health deity, so you'll go directly to be tested by Mars Ultor's Masculum Lorem ad Bellum - to see if you are qualified to be a soldier or if you need to undergo more training, and how much."

"A fight, Praetor?" He asks, as respectfully as Lupa indoctrinated in him, even if he hated this situation from the start.

"It's part of it, yes. But a fighter is not a soldier - you'll be expected to know rhetoric and show resilience, to be able to think and strategize. Put on a good performance - the Centurions choose which Cohort you go."

Then, she explained the Legion and its Five Cohorts - and the Centurions - before leaving him with one of his escorts from earlier. He doesn't think it matters much - if one of the Praetors is from Third Cohort and their last Praetor, from Fifth, while the Consul himself was from Fourth - what does it matter?

The guard seems uncomfortable in his presence - as if she knows exactly who he is. She introduces herself - Hazel Levesque, daughter of Jupiter. And part of the Fifth Cohort - mainly because of the previous Praetor - the one who's missing.

Her buddy, the archer, - Frank Zhang, unclaimed - is also part of the Fifth Cohort. But it's not him they meet - it's a boy way too familiar to be a coincidence - three times today.

"You know me, don't you? You know where I come from?" He snarls, and the boy denies it.

Shadows start curling at his feet - and he's told later that his eyes darken to black from their usual forest green. Perseus is a second away from killing the little lying gremlin when Praetor Arellano shows - and he immediately reverts to parade rest.

She doesn't ask - and he doesn't volunteer an answer. He leaves the guy trembling - and flustered, for some reason - and goes with the Praetor to his "test".

Hazel is having a very bad year. A very bad life, to be true, but mostly, a bad year.

She died, and she was walking aimlessly for years - until she met a boy. She thought, initially, that was a god - for his beauty was insurmountable.

He talked with her - he was named Perseus Jackson. He was powerful and kind - but still a mortal, so she latched into him. Hazel isn't a good person - her mother always told her that - and she used his kindness to drawn just a little of his powers. Just enough.

When the Doors opened, she was strong enough to escape - even if she left Perseus drained for a week, apparently. Hazel didn't go far - she got caught by Ceres.

Ceres - who was in her greek form - took pity of her and brought her to Hazel's father and stepmother, pleading for her usefulness in the war to come. The dead aren't their domain - but as long as Pluto didn't discover it, they would turn a blind eye.

Her brother - who was the first bridge between the two demigod settlements - took her to Nova Roma. She adapted - she learned about the ending of segregation and the world they now lived - and made friends - Frank and Jason.

But she never forgot the boy who gave her the chance, the chance to be more than the cursed child Marie Levesque told her she was. Her curse is supposed to be washed away by a descendant of Pluto.

Perseus gave her a chance, and now he is probably her salvation from this poisoned existence. He is in Nova Roma, and both Hazel and Nico are too ungrateful, too proud, too involved in the gods' plans to help him.

Her father's curse rang true - for children of Zeus aren't supposed to control unaltered energy through minerals. Metal is not theirs to use - and Hazel is paying the price.

Perseus does well in his test - so well, the First Cohort wants him. He is not generally rude, but the way Octavian - their apparent Centurion and Leader of the Augurs (the priests of Apollo) - calls him "Excellent, for a colored one with a graecus name" makes him mad.

So he rejects Octavian - no one gets to mock his name, the slur for greeks matched with the blatant racism almost makes him clock the guy in the face - and, since no other Centurion wants to go against the white supremacist, he joins the Fifth Cohort.

"Well, there's the place for filth, anyway. What could you expect from a nigger ape, like that one?"

If in the training that followed, he left Octavian unconscious - well, everyone turned a blind eye. Perseus saw the Praetor laughing discreetly from where she was polishing her spear.

He is given a bunk to sleep on, a probatio tablet and a date - it's March 18th, 2012. He remembered that, when he ran away from the House of the Wolf, was still January's first week.

Almost three months for the gods to bother with him, and he has no guesses how much time he is missing. Did his family give up on him? Did he have a family?

Perseus doesn't know. He spends the next weeks following the army's routine - wake up with dawn with the horn, muster, morning prayers, then the morning drills - stretching, an obstacle circuit of three miles with a lake in the middle and running five times around Ceres' Agri.

After the drills - which Perseus and Hazel bond over hating, because there's a lake - they go to breakfast, then classes - for the younger ones. Perseus is old enough (and did well in the school tests), so he has a free slot where he allots his power training - under Praetor Arellano's watchful gaze, as she tries and brings him to his full potential.

Reyna (as he is allowed to call her during free time) also does power training - she has a different kind of charmspeak - the kind that makes people motivated or defeated. She can make armies have a burst of energy, or drop-down with exhaustion - possibly. Nova Roma has very few wars nowadays.

There's lunch, then weaponry training - where he kicks Octavian's (and all of his little friends who look down on Perseus because of his name, his lack of family or his skin color) ass with pleasure every single day - followed by weapon cleaning - which always takes forever because Perseus has both an ax and a giant Warhammer.

On Wednesdays, they have horse and pegasi riding. Both Perseus and Hazel have it slightly different - she mounts a venti, Tempest and he mounts a hellhound, Spot. On Fridays, they have hunting lessons in Diana's Venari - which always end up with some Apollo's child or legacy waving their victory in everybody's face - except for that one time where Frank and Perseus joined forces and won in an hour.

At four p.m. every day, those who did well enough get to have two hours of free time before evening prayers, which can either be followed by dinner or competitions - wrestling and gladiator games are really popular on weekends.

Then, if it's Sunday, they are allowed to go to Mercury's Via to drink, party, dance, go to karaoke - whatever, if they're over fourteen. It seems young - but Perseus has seen younger kids, at the training camps, sneaking in wine.

If it's not Sunday - they are free to do anything if they don't drink and are in bed by 21h30. You are only excused of the routine if you are escalated for border patrol - generally twenty different people every day. Perseus's patrols are on Thursdays - because Reyna loves him. Octavian's are on Sundays - they're just not on Saturdays because he has Augur functions and is excused of everything on Saturday.

Saturdays are days of prayer - there's no training and no feasting. They go to the temples and see the Vestal Virgins - a custom Perseus though would be outdated by now - and do basic chores - like washing their togas and sheets, mending their leathers, or airing the blankets.

When Hazel's brother leaves, he actually bonds with the girl - over being a child of the Big Three, of having big expectations thrust upon them - and consequently, with Frank - who is also his bunkmate. They spend their free time on the small fountain that overlooks the aqueduct, just in front of the Vesta Temple.

It's weird to see the Vestal Virgins - they are six girls between 8 and 24, wearing white stolas and veils, of incredible beauty and vowed to modesty and chastity. They spent their days tending the fire and giving blessings, cleaning the temple, and visiting the Senatus.

They didn't choose to be priestesses of Vesta - Vesta herself chooses them, and they have to leave their families and vow their lives away for thirty years. The other priests are there of free will - they never join the Legion, if they choose to serve a specific god.

Perseus goes to his father's, Lady Proserpina's and Lady Ceres' temples regularly - if only to ask for answers. His father's priests treat him as royalty - which, to them, he probably is. There are not even legacies of Pluto, as far as they know.

Every Sunday, Perseus goes to the Comitium - while people don't generally like him, he is good in rhetoric, and well respected for a probatio - so they hear him. He is good at politics. Reyna looks like he is measuring him, when he rises to debate - like he can be the next Praetor instead of the campaigning Octavian - who the Senatus is divided into loving or hating his guts.

Perseus is happy - or something. He hates not having memories - not knowing who he is, who his mother is, pains him. He has friends - Frank, Hazel, even Reyna and Dakota, his Centurion, who lives half-drunk in wine most of the time - and a life.

It doesn't feel like his life. By the third week of his staying in Nova Roma, he starts having dreams - a blonde boy, doing everything Perseus is doing now. He is afraid of telling anyone. Perseus is already called slurs by Octavian and his hateful friends - he doesn't want to attract attention now that he is settling.

By Reyna's pictures, he finally names the blonde in his dreams. It's Jason Grace.

Jason Grace is, for lack of a better word, graceful. He is loved by everyone - so different from Perseus, who is more feared then liked - and a troublemaker - if the vision of him being whipped in Mars Ultor's training camp is to be believed.

Romans don't hesitate in corporal punishment on children. Nor in adults, either - misdemeanors are punished harshly. Perseus is lucky Octavian has no direct authority over him - the number of times he put him on his ass would get Perseus bleeding on the floor for days.

However, he didn't escape the whip completely. In his fourth week on Nova Roma, Hazel is disrespectful to one of Octavian's friends - he called her a "good piece of monkey meat" and touched her ass, so she kneeled him in the balls. Reyna is out on a mission - and the guy just happens to be Questor Cicero.

Questor Cicero is twenty-eight - and everybody believes him when he tells them Hazel kneeled him without reason - a grave offense because it can affect his descendants. Hazel gets sentenced - by the Consul, in absentia of the Praetor - to a hundred lashes.

Everyone is obliged to watch - and neither Perseus nor Frank can last after she sobs. They rise from the crowd and volunteer to take the rest of her punishment. The executioner of it - a girl named Domitia - is surprised and asks why when they rise up to take Hazel's place - not a lot volunteer, generally older siblings or partners.

Hazel protests, while she is taken by a daughter of Aesculapius, Lavinia - "No, Perseus, no, it's my fault, Frank, I can take it, please!" - But he doesn't care to hear. Hazel is a child, and something stirs inside of his memory - No child shall suffer under his watch. - He wants to stop Frank - the boy is only sixteen - but there's no stopping the guy about his best friend.

"She could take it. I just don't want to see her, or anyone I care about, do it. She is too young. A child - one that shouldn't feel the injustices of life."

"That's my best friend. I won't let her pay for something she didn't do, and I won't let Perseus do this alone."

It's rational enough that no one will see weakness when she starts whipping them. Domitia is a good girl - they become a sort of friends after it, but Perseus can never understand why the daughter of Nemesis would dispense unfair punishments.

Perseus endure the whole thing awake - the forty-five lashes, under the jeers of Octavian and his friends - and they walk out of the stage supporting one another, before collapsing in a pool of their own blood, in the arms of Caelius - the youngest of Apollo's offspring working on the hospital.

They take both of them to the UTI - he doesn't remember a thing. He wakes up three days later - they aren't allowed to use any magic to heal him, or anesthetics to numb his pain. He suffers for a week, while his godly blood slowly heals him.

Hazel sits by their bedside - he and Frank are in the same room - her own back fully healed by now - and tells him stories about how Dakota kicked Octavian's ass in training in their name, or just plays with his hair. Sometimes, when she thinks he is asleep, she cries - it's heartbreaking.

Reyna comes back by the time Frank is out of the hospital - Perseus moved to much and his stitches came out - and is fueled by rage. This kind of punishment is hers to give - and with through interrogation before - and she has been trying to eradicate them for years.

She does insist on an interrogation with Aurum and Argentum - perhaps because she knows what a sweetheart Hazel is. She uncovers the whole story - how Cicero called her names and sexually harassed her - and the guy is stripped off his post and exiled - sexual harassment is a crime punishable by lashing, but together with lying to a court of law and supplanting his direct superior - oh well, he is not coming back for the next five years.

With Hazel's absolving, the doctors are allowed to heal them with magic - but it's too late. They can repair the nerves and muscles, take away all the pain - but the flesh will remain scarred.

Their backs are now a crisscross of scar tissue - it's a reminder of Nova Roma's failings - and he revels on taking his shirt off to drills, even if Frank is ashamed of it, for some reason.

Praetor Arellano thinks "Perseus' loyalty to the Roman Law and his Cohort" is enough to give him an SPQR tattoo instead of his probatio tablet. He didn't cry when they put the mark of his father on his arm - just later, in his bunk, for the eleven-year-old that was tattooed together with him.

After the tattoo, Perseus discovers he has money. Like, really, lots of money in the bank - which is named after his father, who is their patron god - and apparently filled his account with denars. Perseus solves to donate part of it - and part of it he keeps because his wages as a foot soldier are meager.

Hazel, on the other side, is brimming with remorse - and protectiveness. She will do her absolute best to protect Perseus Jackson - this is the second time he saves her. She can't tell him anything - but she can make his life as easy as possible.

Hazel dreams about Frank - Frank, and a terrible price that is a piece of wood - and she thinks she likes him, even if he is older and braver than she'll ever be.

It's June 18th - and Perseus has been in Camp for three months when the war games take an unexpected turn.

Frank is leading the Fifth Cohort - Dakota is hangover somewhere - and their battle formation is impeccable. They also have the two biggest powerhouses - Perseus and Levesque.

Hazel - while a child of Jupiter - is unable to fly - or any air or climate control. Her power lies on energy - publicly, she controls lighting and thunder - and can get bolts to basically incinerate whole canons or dismantle phalanges.

Perseus, however, can raise skeleton soldiers to fight for him - and stone spikes to block his enemies. His vines are of no use - the First Cohort has two sons of Ceres who out-do him any day. He can also use the shadows to confuse their rivals or make the ground tremble - under the cost of their own stability.

Frank is very proud of having such powerful and amazing people as friends. He didn't expect Perseus of Styx, the boy who didn't have to fight to be recognized - the one who came with a goddess at his back and muscles in his arms and a father on his blood - to be friends with Frank.

He is a very okay guy, you see. Frank had - has - three best friends, but no one openly dislikes him. He doesn't have someone - he has no use for quick tumbles under the cloak of darkness, and that is all people like him can ever have.

But he is not like Perseus or Jason. He doesn't defy Octavian. He was too anxious to muster the courage to volunteer to take Hazel's punishment alone - Perseus had to do it first.

He is not like them. He isn't anything like his mother. Frank feels happy, at least, that at those little things like war games he has better strategies than anyone else. It was Perseus who motivated him to take the lead while Dakota is otherwise incapable - under Hazel's cheerful applause.

This time, there are elephants involved - Perseus loves elephants - and they burst through their rival's doors - the 12th consecutive victory for the Fifth Cohort since Perseus arrived.

Gwen - the only openly ficatrix girl that Perseus knows, a Jewish daughter of Venus Genetrix - dies probably by Octavian's hand - and doesn't stay dead.

This evokes Lord Mars Ultor - who claims Frank, gives him a quest to find Letum and ropes Perseus into it - "Your father's domain, your responsibility" - so they choose Hazel as a third member - because who else - and get in a car to go to Alaska.

Before that, for Dakota's negligence, the Fifth Cohort is passed to newly-coined Centurion Frank - with Hazel as his second in command, while Gwen - who is not respected because of her preferences - steps down the second position to go study - apparently, she wants to be a teacher.

They have to be back by June 24th - or die. That gives them six days - it's at least two days going and two days back from San Francisco to Alaska, so they have two extra days to localize and rescue Letum.

Hazel, Frank, and Perseus battle the karpoi in Mendocino - this time, they're easily defeated, because no one leaves Hazel alone. Frank actually kills a lot of them - under the sheer appreciation of both his very supportive friends.

They see Polybotes army - and run away in their car, which crashes in the front of the R.O.F.L.

Perseus IM's Reyna - he thinks it necessary, for she is their Praetor, their leader. Hazel is right by his side - and then goes to call her brother - which he doesn't stick around for, examining the drachmas - the weird graecus' coins that Perseus recognizes

Iris remembers Perseus of someone. He doesn't know who, or why, but that night, for the first time in months, he doesn't dream of Jason Grace. He dreams of red hair spilled into the snow, blond curls around his fingers, a mechanic leg whirring in his ear, a spear coated with blood, shoes with wings and pan pipes - and wakes up crying for a past he doesn't remember.

He hugs the tie-dye bag against his chest - and cries. Perseus doesn't care - his chest literally aches with missing, for someone he doesn't know.

Frank doesn't ask questions when he finds Perseus crying. Frank cried a lot when he first got to Nova Roma.

"Are you missing someone?"

"I'm missing everything" And that's how Frank discovers Perseus doesn't remember anything at all.

Everything spills up - Lady Lupa's house, the dreams about Jason, the way he just dreamed of what could possibly be his friends, and what if he was a graecus like Octavian said - and Frank does not judge him.

He knows what it is to have a gigantic secret pressing upon his shoulders - and he has known Perseus for three months now. He knows Perseus is a trustworthy person.

"We'll discover who you are - but if you don't like it, we won't judge you. It doesn't matter what your past life has been like, it doesn't matter if you're a graecus - you're one of us now."

Because Frank is the absolute best - Perseus can't think of a friendship he deserves less than Frank's.

They trade stories about their rage against the gods - things they would never be able to utter at home. Their lives, their insecurities, their shared hate of Octavian's racist ass - everything they can share.

Frank tells Perseus about the piece of wood - which is very important when Perseus tells Frank that, sometimes, he can conjure a weird green fire of which he has little control over, so is better to keep that wood far away from him.

Some things are kept in secret - Frank is not sure Perseus will be repelled by his preferences, by the way, no woman ever caught his eye - and Perseus is afraid of telling Frank about the way that, sometimes, he wants to see the world burn, skeletons beneath his feet and blood coating his hands.

They travel through Portland - which means half the journey is done - and meet Ella - which Perseus immediately wants to take away from the creepy old dude because that's a child.

Ella is hungry and cold and in pain - and neither Perseus nor his quest mates are having that.

So he does a gamble with Creepy Old Dude and Lady Terra - which he isn't sure is in their side - and kills him. Because he is not dealing with a creepy old man who is trying to capture children, even if those children are monsters.

They take Ella with them - she's such a small, innocent girl-bird. They can't send her to Nova Roma alone - they would either kill her, hunt her or use her as entertainment - and they can't stop the mission, so there's that.

Hazel and Frank are sharing memories - with each other and Perseus. Perseus himself has no private memories to talk about - except for his dreams of Jason, which he already told Frank and now relays to Hazel.

Ella says is because their destinies are connected - says that their curses will be gone by their hands. Frank gives Hazel his piece of wood - "I would give it to both of you, but your fire is weird" - And Hazel tells them about being dead.

Perseus has an inkling of suspicion - that maybe - just maybe - he brought Hazel back. Maybe that's why his memories are gone. Either that - or he has a sibling, and wouldn't that be amazing? Siblings, cousins - a giant family. Just for him.

He doesn't ask though - because Hazel is sad and he is not an insensitive ass.

They head to the Amazon Headquarters - where Perseus has the amazing idea of going in, even if he knows Amazons just have one utility for men - sex.

They get caught - just this time, while Hylla does recognize Perseus, she is grateful. Perseus did kill Circe, yes, but he didn't free any pirates - Hylla and Reyna sailed away and never got any trouble.

Hylla is grateful for Perseus - but she cannot help him or Frank - Amazons are misandry warriors, and they are too young to be lovers, but too old to be reliable to let go. So they lock them up, and Hylla and Hazel make a plan to free them.

Otrera is dangerous - because the Amazons will follow anyone, they aren't connected to any goddess. So, when Perseus shadow travels from his cage with Frank, Hylla helps Perseus - who is way too tired - to mount Tempest - Hazel's venti - so that they can reach Letum - or, how Hylla calls him, Mors.

They go North - then further North - to the house of Frank's Grandma.

Everything goes the same - Frank's Grandma is cryptic, Mars appears, the house catches fire, they flee. A bird is seeing flying out of the window - but if it's her or no, they don't know.

Frank and Perseus discover they are related - by a lot of generations, but does it matter really? They are shield brothers - and fight in the same Cohort, for the same Rome.

Hazel feels lucky - both her best friends are related to Pluto. Both can be the one to save her - and she really hopes is not Perseus, for she can't own him any more debts.

Frank tries to control his abilities - and between Perseus' own training and Hazel's unwavering belief on him, they get him to shapeshift. Some. He is not good at it at all - but he'll get there.

They don't fear Hazel - not even when gold slips between her fingertips. Perseus calls her sister, for their connection shall be forged on metal and fire.

They fly to Alaska - this time, Perseus entrusts Ella to a General skeleton and tells him to take her somewhere safe.

During the travel, they cuddle together - all three of them - to share body warmth. Hazel is flushed - for she never had such close contact with a boy, least a boy she really likes, like Frank.

Frank, on the other side, has never been so close to a boy as he is to Perseus now. Perseus is just a brother to him - but he can't help but blush like a virgin maiden.

Perseus observes the situation with confusion - for he doesn't understand Hazel's flustered expression - which makes her look a lot like her brother any time Perseus even glances at the guy - nor Frank's blushing cheeks - which must be because of the cold.

Perseus almost drowns on Earth - the single thing he fears the most, in his own element. It pains him, and he wants to destroy Lady Terra for her trickery and mockery.

They stay in a little motel, just out of the way. No way that Frank nor Perseus would make Hazel go back to where she was abused and mistreated.

They shared basically everything in the past few days - they know almost everything about each other. Hazel tells Perseus she knows him - but is under oath to not tell anything.

Perseus is frustrated - but that is Hazel. Soft, trustworthy Hazel. She isn't doing this to hurt him. Her brother, on the other hand, can go to hell. He obviously knows Perseus - but lies to him. Explicitly. Nico Di Angelo is as bad as the gods are in Perseus' eyes.

He can't sleep - he keeps dreaming of the Earth swallowing him like it did many of his enemies - and Frank hugs him as Hazel inches closer to their shared embrace - it feels, for the first time since he woke up, like family.

They fight against Alcyoneus. Frank frees Letum - waisting part of his life on it, literally - Hazel takes on Alcyoneus - vengeance for herself - and Perseus raises an army to fight against the Undead Roman one - it's easy to defeat them, and then turn them against the giant once he has the Twelfth Legion Eagle.

Perseus - and his army that is getting harder and harder to maintain - helps Frank (who has finally managed to shapeshift) and Hazel to drive away Alcyoneus - and finally kill him, once he is out of Alaska.

They head back to Nova Roma - Hazel on her venti, Tempest, with Frank as an eagle and Perseus mounting Spot - the hellhound he was able to call from Nova Roma - pushing a chariot of Imperial Gold weapons - something rare and essential.

They meet Mrs. O'Leary - another hellhound - Blackjack - a hellhound that can speak with Perseus - Ella - who apparently found safety - and Nico Di Angelo with the cyclops Tyson - which immediately spark Perseus memories, even if he has no time to think about it.

Perseus leads the Romans - they look at him, and see the boy that has spent three months with them and three months with Lady Lupa, the boy who has been invaluable for Nova Roma's safety - their own Julius Caesar, their Augustus.

He fights against Polybotes one on one. Polybotes may be the bane of Neptune - but Perseus is also an earthshaker. He makes the Earth - Lady Terra's earth, who they are oh so proud of, the earth that swallowed him - fight against her own son.

With help from Terminus - and lots of backup from the army, his army - Polybotes is gone. The monsters - defeated.

There are thirteen dismemberments and fifty-three gravely injured. These are rushed to the hospital, while the other 184 soldiers rest and prepare for the burials.

Thirty-eight dead - men and women alike - plus nine that succumbed to their injuries. They do the procession - followed by cremation and the burial of the ashes in the temple of Pluto.

What follows is the eulogy - and the laurels. The families who have dead members are given money and prestige - it bothers Perseus. Is not enough - it won't fullfill their childrens, siblings and friends places.

Then come the laurels of the living. Frank, Hazel, Di Angelo, and Reyna are awarded Civic Crowns - the second biggest award any commander can win for battle. Everyone else is rewarded Golden Crowns - the fourth-highest decoration of battle, for their bravery.

Perseus himself is the most celebrated - he not only wins a Grass Crown (Corona Obsidionalis) for being credited for saving the whole Legion - he charms the Senatus with his acts of heroism - enough that they give him the Praetor Peregrinus title - for he also has a reputation of a good politician, as he often spoke on the Forum - while Reyna holds to the Praetor Urbanus one.

Frank himself also gains a promotion - he is now Legatus Legionis - the overall Legion commander - a title that was vacant since Jason Grace rose to Praetor, but with him missing for six months - it is time to fulfill both positions. Hazel raises to be Centurion of the Fifth Cohort.

The Consul holds the ceremony for both of their awards - where they vowed to serve Nova Roma with their lives, to put Nova Roma above their personal lives and interests - and later, they feast.

Perseus is happy with his new position - While Reyna is in charge of all judicial matters - the matters of the law - he is in charge of all defense, war and foreign matters.

That's why - when Lady Juno gives back his memories - he is infuriated. Not only he has a whole life waiting for him - one that conflicts directly with his new life - he has now a giant pile of paperwork.

The first thing he does - still in his toga praetexta, the worst garment to ever be done, even if he pities Reyna for having to use a stola on most occasions - is to punch Nico di Angelo in the face.

Then he hugs him. The boy apologizes - stuttering through words - promise to make up for it - and promptly leaves to not be seen again.

Perseus goes to the Senatus, and tell the truth: Lady Juno has sent him a vision - and in the war to come, they have to fight alongside the greeks.

Octavian wants to discredit Perseus for being a graecus. It doesn't work - for the Romans love their new Praetor - and Octavian wasn't even in the battle.

That night, Perseus doesn't even remember Jason Grace - he is just a shadow of some dreams he had for two weeks, more nightmarish than not. He dreams of Nico di Angelo - who is walking around ruins - and fears for the life of the boy who betrayed him.

He doesn't think much about it.

Perseus shadow travels to his mother - not yet to Camp, he is not ready to see them yet, and Hera/Juno told him they are coming, so it would be a waste of his energy - and hugs her for about four hours before his duties call him back.

She is happy to see him alive and well - even if she doesn't like he is fighting in yet another war for the gods. He doesn't like it either - after this, he is retiring and making them promise to never bother him again.

Perseus spends the next days preparing - for his friends, for his two lives to collide - and working his very difficult political job - Nova Roma is a homophobic and racist place, and he won't stand for other people like Gwen to be killed for it - he isn't tolerating "ficatrix" instead of lesbians or the clearly prejudiced priests anymore.

He has a long way to go. But it's fine - he and his friends are the government. Talking about his friends...

"Call me Percy"

[domesticsns]

Honestly if the Uchiha family existed in real life, let's be honest,they would look pretty shady.A man insulted an Uchiha's boyfriend? The next day,he was found beaten up and was placed in a psychiatric ward due to traumatic experience he would not tell.People would probably assume they're the mafia or something.While in reality they are just a family of disfunctional human beings.

Yeah, but they’re a close family. They are broken pieces, but turns out these broken pieces fit together perfectly. 

One time it were just the Uchiha boys hanging out together. Just like the old days before they had jobs and wives and children *for Sasuke just Naruto but it still fits the two latter categories*.

They were having drinks at the bar and were talking and their conversation can be pretty much about anything. Anyway Sasuke checks his phone and says: “The waifu texted.’

And Madara arches an eyebrow and asks what he means with that and Sasuke says that sometimes for fun he and Naruto pretend they’re in a hetereosexual relationship. When Shisui asked what he meant by that. Sasuke says it just kind of joking about being in a stereotypical hetereosexual relationship by pretending their sex life is non-exisitng, the kids are bunch of ungrateful brats and they’re only together for ‘the kids’ but the reality is, is that they are just too afraid to be by themselves that they force them self to stick with the other because those are the norms society pushes on them and they pretend to be happy and to not have an affair. 

This all kinda just started happening when Sasuke and Naruto were shopping and found the typical Kyle and Karin type and they just started cracking about them and it stuck around. 

Madara asks who the Kyle is and who is the Karin.  Sasuke says they switch depending on the situation. If Sasuke calls because he is overworking he is the Kyle and if Naruto hasn’t done the dishes then he is the Kyle. and so on. 

“It almost sounds like you’re making fun of my marriage,” Itachi mutteres. 

“Wait, wait....You pretend to be a straight dude?” Madara asks. 

Sasuke says: “yes.” 

Madara: “You....Straight. I mean Naruto sure but you?” 

Sasuke: “What is that supposed to mean.” 

Madara : “Because he is bi that makes him half straight.” 

Sasuke: “No.” 

Izuna: “I wonder about straight Sasuke now.” 

Sasuke: “Yeah my straight alter ego his name is Chad, he is an investment banker. He is constantly cheating with his assistant and the lady from the lobby, but they don’t know about each other. The name of my wife is Susan. She is home maker and craft fanatic. Her cooking if awful and my house is always dirty. I have three kids and all three are spoiled and call me by my first name. It is like Susan isn’t even trying to raise them but whenever bring it up she ends up crying we get in a big fight. We hand’t had sex in like 3 years. “ 

Itachi, Shisui, Madara and Izuna are staring at Sasuke. 

“What?” Sasuke asks. 

“I wanna meet this Chad character of yours... Can please pretend to be chad for like five minutes.” Izuna beggs.

“No, I am only Chad over the phone. When people call for like the cable or something. So i can make them uncomfortable by secretly asking about the erotic packages and then I tell them about how i paid the doctor to give Susan a  husband’s stitch  after she gave birth to my daughter. Teared her right up. And now, she doesn’t want to have sex with me because it hurts.” 

“Okay Chad is dog.” Itachi says.

“I wanna meet chad.” Madara insist. 

“Pleaseee, I wanna meet chad too! Bring chad out!” Shisui beggs.

“You’re making it sound like I have multiple personalities while in reality I am just really good in role playing...Because everytime I broke character during disguise classes. I got my fingers broken. One by one.” 

“Everything you say is always so sad...” Izuna sighs and everybody looks down. Sasuke killed the mood, he feels kinda bad now. 

“Okay! I will pretend to be Chad!” He turns to Itachi, “Say PeanutButterAsshole in like an hour or else I will subconscious keep thinking somebody will break my fingers and won’t stop pretending to be Chad for like at least 6 months” 

“Okay, guys we shouldn’t be doing this. It sounds like playing with fire-” 

“It is fine, he gave us his safe word!” Izuna shouts. 

“Okay, I am grab a drink and I will chad after I finished it.” Sasuke gets up and goes to the bar orders a shot, takes it back, slams the drink on the table. Turns to the women who is maybe just 20 and says.  “He...” With little head nod and Madara goes: “Oh my god he is chad!” 

“Did anybody else feel like all the gayness around him disappear.” Izuna jokes. 

“I feel like this is going to be troublesome.” 

So they watch him flirt with this women, as Chad. And he is being a fucking jerk. Like he keeps talking about himself (chad)  what he went school he went the sports he played. How awesome he is. How much he makes and how tough he is and the women, sorry for her self-respect, is digging it. Probably because he is good looking.

“Okay I am going to stop this y’all had enough fun.” Itachi says after like twenty minutes. 

“NO he says an hour! I wanna hear about chad!” 

“You know more about Chad than you do about Sasuke.” 

“Fine i’ll go, but I’ll have Sasuke pay for the next round of drinks.” Izuna says and walks up to the bar and says: “PeanutButterAsshole”

And Sasuke turns to him Izuna and says :”Oh I said in an hour, was the fun over so quickly?” 

“Your brother killed the mood, but Chad was amazing. I mean I would have probably slept with Chad.” Izuna joked. 

“No, Chad is extremely homophobic.” Sasuke says, “Also he is like weirdly fascinated by the second world war.” 

“You thought his entire character out.” Izuna says, grabbing Sasuke’s wallet from his pocket. 

“I know I started this as a joke over the phone with Naruto...But I always do this. Like I am not the one to talk about my sex life a lot but every one of my character during role plays has entire backstory. I should stop doing that.” 

“i tried roleplay...Makes me laugh the entire time. Couldn’t cut it.”Izuna says. 

This woman is asking what the hell is going on and Izuna is like, “Oh sweetie, you just go see a therapist because the moment Chad cut you off when you talked about your mother who is in hospital just so he could talk about himself must have been an eye opener for you. Respect yourself, queen.” Izuna says. 

Then suddenly her boyfriend shows up and suddenly they realise where the lack of respect for herself come from because her boyfriend’s name is actually Kyle. And he is super mad. And shouts at his girlfriend and she looks at Izuna and goes: “No I am not going with you. I am breaking up with you.” 

And this guy grabs her arm and she screams and Izuna pushed Kyle away tells him to lay off. Kyle’s frat buddies is walking in and Kyle tells Izuna what he is going to do and called him an old man and Izuna is like: “Old?! Me?!” 

And he turns to Sasuke who says: “Well we are 30s and he is like what...25?” 

Kyle: “22″ 

Sasuke: “You’re just bunch babies. listen, I don’t want to hurt you guys. But I can’t let hit my cousin...Or...drag this girl with you, that is like low key kidnapping. Anyway it is against her will and I might not like but I did take an ought to protect the innocent...Whatever the fuck that means.” 

Izuna: “Yeah fuck off...I am not old.”  

Kyle is ready to punch Izuna in the face, but Sasuke blocks it and sighs as he looks at Izuna who gives Sasuke a little innocent smile. 

“You want me to help you take them down?” 

“Because you caused it and you feel responsible?” Sasuke asks Izuna who shakes his head. 

“He called me old!” Izuna protests. 

“What’s going on?” Itachi asks. 

“Why won’t we all just calm down and maybe not fight-” 

These guys start insulting Itachi and Shisui. Madara is just sitting in the booth, arms behind his head shouting at the others to just sit down and enjoy the show. 

Itachi says no and tells Sasuke and Izuna to just go and these frat guys say a whole ass of offensive shit now even Itachi doesn’t feel bad for them and he just taps Sasuke’s shoulder and says :”Go wild, I couldn’t give a shit.” 

“You heard him.” Sasuke says and that when he skilfully beat up twelve frat guys in a bar fight while Madara is paying off to owner to “break the security camera”. 

Shisui shouting: “No if you do that it doesn’t count as self defence anymore!” 

Sasuke goes: “What if I do this?!” 

Shisui: “Yeah that is okay...” 

Thirty minutes later Sasuke sits back down in the booth. 

“Oh you’re knuckles are bleeding...” 

Itachi pours some vodka on a napkin and cleans Sasuke’s knuckles who then AFTER BEATING 12 GUYS WHO LOOKS LIKE A BUNCH OF BEARS. says :”That hurts...Brother~” And have his older brother blow on it before covering it up with the first aid kit. 

“Is there ever going to be sceneratio where we just go out as a family and not...Y’know get in trouble.” 

(sorry my rambles are just kinda weird these days because idk i am in a rambling mood)

[all-hail-the-witcher]

every book i had to read for english and why i didn't like any of them

i woke up thinking about this and decided to make this post. for context, i went to public school and was on the honors/ap track for english. i am a firm believer that english teachers ruin books for their students inadvertently. this is my experience:

6th grade language arts

we read three books during 6th grade, bridge to terabithia, the cay, and where the red fern grows. and i had to read a wrinkle in time over the summer which i didn't understand like at all so I'm just gonna skip that one honors english was not a thing until 8th grade where i went to middle school so this was a regular english class and i hated it. it was also a double period class for some reason, so i had an hour and a half of language arts every day. 

it took us half the year to read bridge to terabithia. i am not kidding. that book is like maybe 100 pages and it took us a good 4-5 months. this is because our teacher stopped us every time we got to a pice of figurative language and made us analyze it. every. single. piece. i got so bored that i read ahead and then got in trouble for reading ahead. needless to say, i absolutely detested bridge to terabithia and would not touch it to this day if my life depended on it. 

after bridge to terabithia we read the cay. this took us the rest of the year. the cay is a relatively short book as well so i got bored with this one quickly as well. i really dont remember much about the discussions, but i remember a long one about how the cover was “inaccurate,” which, yes, it was but i dont know if a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds need to spend a week debating that. i think i hated it mostly because, again, we read it for 5 months. 

the last three weeks of the school year, our teacher gave us a book and said “here read this before school ends because we have to read three books a year and we only read 2″ (for context, the other language arts class had read about 5-7 books that year and found it insane that we were “still reading bridge to terabithia”) so i read where the red fern grows. all in all it wasn't a bad book, i did kind of enjoy it, but since i was rushed reading it on top of all my other homework and because it was definitely ahead of my reading comprehension level, it wasn't my favorite.

7th grade language arts

now, a bit of a disclaimer here, this was the year that i was in language arts with the guy i had a crush on and one of my close friends at the time. so, i didn't really pay that much attention to begin with. we read quite a few books in this class, but I'm not sure if i remember all of them. again, this was a double period. 

i think the first book we read was freak the mighty. i remember not liking this book because i felt like i was missing something. there was definitely some kind of metaphor or something in there that i was supposed to get but because i was literally twelve i didn't get it and i didn't find the meaning in it. theres nothing more frustrating than reading a book that you dont understand.

after that I'm pretty sure we read the wave. it was explained to us that the wave is supposed to symbolize how the n*zis came to power and all that stuff, and while we all knew this, i dont think we really Understood it. (probably because we were 12). we all kinda saw it as a joke and thought it was funny. i think that if i read it now i would be like. “well shit this is really interesting” but 12 year old me wanted to make fun of it with the rest of my class. 

i think we read seed folks next. this was another book that just went over all of our heads. its about how a garden changes a whole bunch of peoples lives which is like, super interesting. but none of us got it and were like “lol this is stupid” so much so that we actually stopped reading it. like my teacher stopped having us read it.

I'm fairly certain the last book we read was the miracle worker. a lot of us had had to read parts of it before that class so we were all kinda familiar with it already. i vaguely remember some kind of obnoxious class joke about the book that was probably rude. i remember finding it interesting, but there were so many activities we did about the book that i lost interest. 

8th grade honors reading

this class was A Trip. i liked the teacher, but she was a little out there. its unclear whether she got fired or just didn't come back after that year. i had a lot of fun in her class but it was usually because we all bonded over hating the assigned reading.

i dont remember what order we read the books in and i dont remember if this was all of them, but to the best of my recollection this is what we read

we definitely read romeo and juliet. by the time you're in 8th grade, everyone knows the story of romeo and juliet, so it wasn't like that suspenseful or a surprise or anything. but we had to act the reading out. yes we had to act out romeo and juliet. with burger king crowns. and wrapping paper swords. clearly the teacher was trying to have fun with us, and it was fun fun for awhile but it got old. especially when you got participation points taken off your grade if you didn't read for once of the characters (which is massively unfair because not everyone wants to get up in front of a class in a paper crown holding a wrapping paper tube and read in old english when you're 13 but whatever). 

we also definitely read animal farm. it was another book that went right over our heads (or, mine at least). i didn't actually really understand it until i had to read the communist manifesto for ap euro senior year. and our teacher talked in a bad russain accent the entire time? i could barely keep the characters straight, let alone analyze the underlying message and all that. now i might actually like it since I'm a history major and have a decent background on the russian revolution, but at 13? no thanks.

the one book that everyone hated (including the teacher herself) was farewell to manzanar. it was a memoir about a young girl growing up in the japanese internment camps and looking back on her life and stuff like that. the story itself was very interesting and we all learned a lot from it. but the person who wrote it did not know how to write. it was confusing, some chapters made no sense, and none of us generally knew what was going on. we had to finish the book because we were the honors class, but the regular class got to stop after chapter 6. 

i think we only read 4 books that year and the fourth one was the outsiders. this was one of two books that i actually liked the entirely of my public school education. i kinda vibed with it when we were reading it and then i vibes with it more once i got to high school and rediscovered it. it was just a good book, pretty solid, good themes, fantastic. 

9th grade honors english

i absolutely hated this class. hands down the worst teacher i ever had. she was one of those that should have retired 20 years ago but was still teaching for some reason. and she hated kids. legitimately. that was the first time i got a c and it took my parents a long time to realize that it wasn't because of me, it was because the teacher was absolute shit. the only thing that made that class bearable was the fact that my friend was in there and so was this guy that totally like her so he would flirt with her pretty incessantly and it was Hilarious. 

we read so many books that year and i hated all of them. a lot of them were like greek dramas and plays? like we read oedipus rex and julius caesar and antigone. and i hated all of them because the teacher made me hate reading and made it seem like a chore. 

by far the worst was the old man and the sea. i hated that book, hemingway was terrible. i struggled to find any kind of meaning in it and connected all of my responses to the bible because my teacher loved it when people did that.

we read inherit the wind and to kill a mockingbird and all quiet on the western front which were the only books i found remotely interesting. but i still hated them because i knew that we would have to do her reading quizzes which were impossible so it was pointless to read the book anyway. 

and we also read a raisin in the sun. i dont remember what this was even about except that there was some kind of insurance money involved. but by this point we were all really done with our teachers shit and my one friend legitimately said during class “but, ms. [name] if you put a raisin in the sun, doesn't it just get more raisiny?”

10th grade ap english language and composition (american lit)

i loved this class and the teacher but i hated all the assigned reading because we read it for the ap test. everything you read was in the context of having to find themes and shit to write about on the ap. so i didn't really get any of the books for that reason. i think we only read three and they were the scarlet letter, the crucible, and the great gatsby. i kind wish i paid more attention to gatsby and i think i would like it more now but at the time i detested it. we also had to read grapes of wrath over the summer and i hated that. i wanna read books to read them, not to come into school and write essays on them. also the ending was weird and i hated it.

11th grade honors (british lit)

another bad year of english, not quite as bad as freshman year, but still bad. still hated it. i outlined many fics in that class. the teacher did not like me and i did not like her. she also talked in this weird fake almost british but not quite accent that sometimes still haunts my nightmares. she was also one of those backwards feminists who claims they're a feminist but still was sexist in her favorites and the way that she treated people in the class?? after english i had math and my friend (the same girl who said the thing about raisins freshman year) and some others would complain to our math teacher about our english teacher. math was essentially a support group for english where we would discuss answers to reading checks. 

over the summer we read 1984, which, cool concept (esp right now) but i hated knowing that i had to find some kind of deep meaning in it because i was going to have to write an essay on it as soon as i came back to school.

from there i think we read beowulf which was interesting. i dont know if we actually read the whole thing or just excerpts but again, i hated looking for meaning.

we read a tale of two cities which was like the one book i actually wanted to read because i am a huge fan of the shadow hunters book serieses and will and tessa quote that book all the time. i think if i had read it to read it it would have been better but first, dickens is wordy and weird and second i dont really wanna have to search out symbolism while I'm reading because its required.

we read macbeth, which i just didn't like. idk why. i just kinda thought it was stupid. i dont really have an explanation for this one. i think it was because we read it in the old english and that confused me a lot of the time.

and we read jane eyre. the only thing i remember from jane eyre was “pathetic fallacy” which is where the mood of the scene is reflected in the weather. i dont wanna dissect a book like that. and also my teacher referred to the book as “jane” but she said it “jAAYYneeE” which was annoying. 

12th grade ap lit

dear god. this class. i had issues with this class. our teacher was something. everyone was afraid of him. e v e r y o n e. he ran detention and didn't know how to match his clothes and wore skinny ties. he had three swell bottles the he would bring with him to school every day. people claimed he used to be in a rock band and that was why his voice was so high pitched and weird. some said his wife left him, others said he had a kid. we were genuinely confused by him. he didn't teach, he yelled at you for doing things wrong without giving any instructions on how he actually wanted it done. he made college out to be some big scary thing where we would all be trampled. but mostly, he was an existentialist. 

we had to read song of solomon over the summer. i hated it. i didn't hate it because of the messages and all that stuff, no the book itself was good and toni morrison is a great author. i just hated the fact that there was graphic description of incest, necrophilia, or sex at least once every 5-10 pages. i didn't wanna read that. and it turned me off the book. so when he asked us if we liked the book when the year started i said no and i argued with him about it. and he hated me for the entire year. 

next i think we read waiting for godot. which was absolutely terrible. its literally a play where nothing happens. it would have been funny except that i knew i was gonna have to write an essay on it. how do you write an essay on a play where nothing happens? literally all of our discussions about it were about existentialism and it was terrible. 

we read the metamorphosis, which everyone hated cause it could have been written in like 4 sentences. and our teacher thought he was So Clever for assigning it to us. he thought it was the biggest joke. and he went on and on about how its about existentialism and blah blah. the book would have been funny had he not only discussed it in regards to existentialism. 

i think next was hamlet. i would have like hamlet had we not discussed it only through the lens of existentialism. its a good play, but i hated it because of the way he talked about it. even now, i only like it to make fun of the way he liked it. my friend and i send hamlet memes to each other all the time but only cause they remind us of our teacher.

one flew over the cuckoos nest. the second and final book that i actually liked my entirety of school. i dont know why i liked it, but it was just a good book. our teacher also had some kind of weird cowboy trope thing that he thought mcmurphy fell under which i thought was hilarious. the essay i wrote on that book was the only one he wrote “nice job” on and i still have it somewhere

my friend claims that we also read the stranger. i dont really remember what that book was about except some guy shot some people. there was definitely something in it that i didnt get. 

anyway in conclusion required reading ruins books. when i told my creative writing advisor that i out of all the books i read for school i only like the outsiders and one flew over the cuckoos nest she was like “yeah, english teachers really ruin books for students”

[marshmallowatheart]

To All The Boys I've Loved Before (Part 37)

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36)

Dear Veronica,

Have I told you how much everything sucks without you next to me? Because it does. It sucks so bad.

Have I told you that your simple presence makes everything better? Because it does. Like a thousand times better.

There's not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful that my everyday has you in it.

- L

P.S. Have I told you kissing you when I was twelve is the best decision I've ever made?

She kinda hates that she's swooning because of Logan Echolls but she kinda loves that he's making her swoon. Her eyes graze over his messy handwriting again and she inks her own blank piece of paper.

Dear Logan,

Have I ever told you kissing you in the middle of my kitchen is the best decision I've ever made? Because it is. At the time, it felt like the bravest thing I've ever done.

Everyday is definitely better with you in it.

- V

It feels sappy as she writes it but she's full of sappy emotions caused by this brown eyed boy that she's come to love; she knows he'll smile that smile that makes his whole face kinda just light up and that makes it worth it.

She doesn't expect a response but she gets one. She feels a rush, a warm and jittery rush that's become accustomed with being Logan's girlfriend.

Speaking of kisses, I really love it when you kiss me. You know, in that you can't help yourself kinda way. It's sexy as hell.

Logan's fighting a smile, eyes flickering between Veronica and his notes - he's got to keep up appearances for the sake of not getting caught but he finds it difficult to not look at her and to not smile when she's writing him back. Her letter may have triggered their reunion but he doesn't usually receive such affection written responses from her.

I like it when you hold me tighter. Like you can't help yourself. Like you want me as much as I want you.

His heart beats ridiculously faster as he reads the note, he blows out a low breath, looking at the words as though he were looking at her all while trying to control himself. He reminds himself that they're in class, that even though he can see her he can't touch her.

God, Veronica, I always want you. Always. I don't think you understand how much I want you. It's hard not to lose control when I'm with you, bobcat but I can't.

She swallows, fighting the urge to grab him by the hand and drag him out of class. There's only one response she can think of to him, it's a response she's given him before but it's never left her mind and so she writes,

What if I want you to?

She doesn't get a reply but after class he's tugging her away and into a supply closet.

"Maybe notes in class aren't allowed for a reason," he whispers into the dark of the cramped room, hands on her waist, completely focused on her.

She grins, tilting her head slightly and toying with the seams of his shirt. "Here I thought you were a bad boy."

"Am I a bad boy?" His voice hoarse, his body pressing into hers and forehead resting against hers. "'Cause I gotta tell ya, I've been feeling rather reformed."

"Mmm," she hums, nose nudging his as her eyes stare at his lips before flickering up to meet his eyes. "Do good boys pull their girlfriends into mop closets? How does one gain access to such things?"

He lets out a soft snort, lips kissing her cheek before whispering, "Coming from the girl that uses the girls bathroom as her own personal office."

He doesn't leave her time to make her quips, hands find her bottom and his mouth finally goes to hers.

It's a short kiss and she already wants more, drifting closer as he makes them come apart. He gives her a light smile, keeping an inch of distance as he speaks, "I want you to promise me something."

"Hmmm?" She finds herself humming, eyes still trailing on his lips that's messed with her watermelon lip gloss.

"You'll tell me to stop. Whenever it feels like too much. Tell me to stop," he says, eyes forcing here to look at him and she knows he's referring to her note.

She nods her head, easily accepting these conditions that he's made solely for her convenience. "Does that mean you won't be pulling away when we're in the middle of a make out session?"

"I can't promise that entirely but we can test the waters," he promises. "You need to tell me to stop if it's too much, babe. It's so easy to get carried away with you."

She breaths into him, body lifting as she kisses him, eyes closed, she whispers, "I can do that." She hopes that she can because it really is way to easy to get carried away with him.

"I want you to be comfortable," he tells her, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I also want you to be satisfied."

"Mmm," she nods, his hands are on her cheeks and she wonders if he can feel how warm she is. She wonders if he knows it's because of him. "And I don't want you to be tardy."

He squishes her face a bit and she wrinkles her nose at him, he grins, kissing her again before letting his hands fall away from her cheeks. "Who needs physics?"

"You do," she laughs, pulling him back for a quick kiss but halts midway. "Remember," she starts and he laughs, soft and warm and she feels like she's floating on a Logan high. "Force equals mass times acceleration."

"Mmm," he hums into her mouth, kissing her as much as he can.

"Light is a particle that can exhibit properties of a wave," she lets out, airy and he's giving her light kisses before they have to part ways again.

"I'd learn more staying here with you," he whispers and she pushes him away. He gives her a final kiss and she sighs, needing to cool down. She really wishes he didn't have to go to physics.

--vm--

"These are for you," Carmen chirps, smiling as she places an open box full of cupcakes on Veronica's table. "Thanks for being my knight in shining armour."

Veronica peeks into the box and playfully remarks, "What do I have to do for a pie?"

Carmen's smile slips away and Veronica mentally cringes. "I'm kidding," she assures. "They're great. Thanks."

The brunette relaxes, relieved and takes a seat next to the blonde. "I really am so grateful for what you've done for me, Veronica. If you ever need anything, at all, I'm your girl, Captain."

"I'm gonna hold you to that," she teases, chuckling. "I hear Tad's been trying to get you back."

Carmen nods. "He's been calling and coming around but I can't. He says I'm flushing our two year relationship down the toilet like he wasn't the one that had done that all by himself."

Veronica nods sympathetically. "He's a jerk. You deserve better. You deserve much better," she adds, channelling Meg.

"I know," Carmen smiles, acknowledging and assuring that she's not backsliding. "And I saw what Logan did yesterday, that was just amazing. You're really lucky, Veronica. He really loves you."

I'm in love with you, Veronica Mars, she remembers the warm night they'd confessed their true feelings to each other.

Veronica nods, soft smile and then she realises that he hasn't said it again. She realises that she hasn't said it at all.

--vm--

"You're friends with Ryan's sister?" Heather frantically asks the moment she's in the backseat of Logan's car.

Veronica's brows furrow, she glances at her sister's wide eyes and deep frown. "Yes. And why?"

"Who's Ryan's sister?" Logan asks, eyes flickering between the Mars girls.

"Cindy Mackenzie," Veronica tells him. "Goes by Mac. She helped me with the test scores."

He nods and any response he had was drowned out by Heather's exaggerated groan. "In all of the girls in all of Neptune, you had to try to be friends with her."

"What's with the tone, Snippy?" Veronica redirects, surprised.

"You're not capable of having girlfriends. You're gonna have a fall out and Ryan's gonna hate me," she slumps, pouting with a huff.

"First off, ouch," Veronica frowns, surprise turning into anger. "How am I incapable of having girlfriends?"

"Because you're seventeen and you don't have any?" Heather throws out. "Georgia's obviously been conditioned by Wallace to like you so that doesn't count."

"Okay you're being way mean," the older Mars shakes her head, disbelieving that her sister is saying these things to her, especially for no good reason.

"It's true! You get along well with us, your family and you get along with guys," Heather tries to explain, defending her criticism and feeling the slightest bit guilt for the way Veronica's face crumbles for a second. "But you don't do well with girls for some reason."

Everything feels like white noise and Veronica doesn't care for Heather's explanations right this second. "Well, I don't appreciate being judged by my people preferences."

Heather pouts, loud and dramatic while Veronica crosses her arms as she glares out the window.

Logan sucks in a breath, his car has never been this silent with the two of them in it. He swallows, looking between both girls before looking into the rear view mirror and asking, "So how was school?"

Heather decidedly continues to speak to Logan while Veronica continues to silently stare out the window.

--vm--

"I don't think she meant it to be as mean as it sounded," Logan tries to placate the angry Veronica before him. "She's just upset that there's a possibility of another thing getting in the way of her being with the boy she likes."

Veronica gets out the water bottles from the fridge, twisting on the cap, she rants, "So I'm just supposed to get over it? She was outright mean to me for no good reason. I'm her sister. I take care of her. I do everything she wants. She's never spoken to Meg that way. She always says whatever she wants to me. How is that fair?"

She gulps down the water and Logan's still thinking of a rebuttal, a way to ease the tension between the two sisters when Veronica continues her rant, "And if I had to say anything resembling something she doesn't like, she throws a tantrum and goes to her room, giving me the silent treatment."

She's visibly upset and Logan really doesn't know what to do considering the person the other side of this battlefield is Heather. He touches her arm, moving closer, his other arm caressing the top of her hair and he softly says, "She's a kid, babe."

"You know once she got upset because of a joke I made," Veronica snorts, letting Logan hold her.

Heather's retreated to her room, it's the first time that he's seen her lock herself away when he was here. "What was the joke?" He prompts, hoping that she lets out all her pent up frustrations on him rather than her little sister.

"It was before we got Backup," she tells him, moving out of his hold and getting together ingredients to make them a sandwich. "So we were talking about getting a dog and Duncan had asked what she was gonna name it so I jokingly said that it was after her crush," she recalls, buttering the slices of bread.

"She threw a hissy fit and stormed off. She wouldn't talk to me. I baked her cookies and left it as an apology on her night stand and she still didn't talk to me," Veronica goes on, pausing only to shake her head and grab the ham. "She ate the cookies though. And you know what? I won't so much as get an apology out of this," she blows out, placing the ham on the buttered slices of bread laid out.

"Wait, why would that have made her upset?" He asks, confused as he helps her by breaking out the lettuce.

"Because her crush was Duncan."

This surprises him and he shakes his head, "What is with you Mars girls and Duncan Kane? He's not that special."

For the first time since the car ride, she cracks a slight smile. "Are you jealous?"

"I mean, I had at least thought I had Heather on my team," he sighs, trying to subdue his disappointment.

She's cutting up the sandwiches and feels herself lighten a bit. She hands him a plate and says, "We both like you better."

"Yeah?" He asks, eyes meeting hers.

She smiles, accompanied with a easy nod and a soft, "Yeah. Can you go give this to her please?"

He gives her a soft smile, taking the plate from her hand and says, "You're amazing, you know that, right?"

Veronica hums, nodding her head and hopes he doesn't see the doubt that lingers behind her eyes.

[de-boeldieu]

My Aviation Films List

I know some of you might be wondering why I did this to myself, and the answer is simple; I’m bored and I like movies, and I stumbled across so many films that I felt it was my duty to watch some regardless of quality. Oh boy did this prove to be a challenge.

There were a total of 22 movies on the list. Two films I was unable to watch Journey Together ( 1945 ) (anything on the film seemed to be lost, unfortunately), and a 30 minute Hitchcock French propaganda short called Bon Voyage ( 1944 ) (version I watched was slightly screwed up, and some of the English subtitles were translated incorrectly).

However, I was able to watch every other film on the list! Granted, completing this took a LOT longer than I anticipated.

I’m not quite sure how I should go about writing, but I suppose I will rank each film to my own personal opinions of what they were like, with a brief summary, and any small notes I had whilst watching. If you’d like a more in depth summary or any additional details I had while watching the film, ask me, or look the name up if it interests you.

Also I’d just like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to anyone who takes the time to read some of these. You’re ace.

In order, from my favorite to least favorite:

1. La Grande Illusion ( 1937 )

Oooh my god you guys, this film made me cry so hard. Trust me, the dramatic music on the title card is there for a reason. A French film set in WWI, where French pilots get captured and sent to German POW camps where they make attempts to escape. It also has low key socialist sentiments. Some parts are a little cheesy because it’s a 30s film, but still amazing.

The only thing I was not terribly fond of was the last half hour or so, just really wasn’t my thing. But overall? Absolutely brilliant.

2. Dark Blue World ( 2001 )

A Czech film about two WWII Czech RAF pilots and their friendship, both loving the same woman. This one will also make you cry. Really beautiful film.

I was super worried that the romance in it was just sort of going to be thrust in there, but it certainly was not. Drama was great and all the characters were super memorable and had their own personalities. Highly recommend this one.

3. Riders In The Sky ( 1968 )

Another Czech film about WWII Czech RAF pilots. About the dynamic between a bomber crew and how they cope with the war, and the Battle of Britain. It’s adorable and I highly recommend this one too.

4. Into The White ( 2010 )

A Norwegian movie based on the story of how an RAF bomber crew and a Luftwaffe bomber crew both get shot down in the middle of Norway, and then had to learn to get along and work together to survive. What a wonderful film. Some parts can be predictable, but as a whole good. An interesting character study. Also it gets bonus points from me because it has a ginger, Scottish RAF Air gunner.

5. Wings ( 1927 )

A VERY long silent film. Takes place during WWI, two American fighter pilots, both in love with the same girl, and another girl is in love (requited) with one of them. About their rivalry and friendship, and how they deal with training and the war. The training scenes were delightful. I was worried I was going to get bored, but it was actually super excellent (and sad too). The camera work was brilliant and the musical score was amazing. It also has the first ever on-screen same-sex kiss. A really great film, even if silent films aren’t your thing, there’s SO much drama in this one. If you already love silent films, you will adore this movie, but I’d recommend it to most anyone.

6. The Dawn Patrol ( 1930 ) & ( 1938 )

About an RFC commander during WWI, who is distraught over casualties, an RFC captain, and his friend. The captain lashes out at the commander over the casualties as well after the death of a friend. Eventually the captain replaces the commander and starts to understand the stress of the job the previous major had, as his friend begins to lash out at him.

I thought it was an interesting take on both the pilots and the authorities in the RFC during the war. Both provided interesting perspectives.

I can tell you right now, unless you’re dedicated like I am, the 1938 version of The Dawn Patrol is MUCH better than the 1930 one. I’d recommend watching that version, if this movie interests you.

7. The One That Got Away ( 1957 )

About the only Luftwaffe pilot to ever escape from British POW camps. Usually I’m very wary of films that have WWII German characters, but this was very well written and remained predominantly neutral through the whole thing. Lots of clever escapes. If you like Luftwaffe pilots, escape films, and / or old movies, you will adore this film.

8. The Dam Busters ( 1955 )

A damn fine film. About the invention of the RAF “bouncing bomb” used to destroy German dams in WWII, and the RAF Squadron that flew the Lancasters to drop them. The writer of the movie was R.C. Sheriff, the original author of the play Journey’s End. Really enjoyed every aspect of the movie, my only complaint is that it was dreadfully long. Overall, a good movie, if this sort of thing interests you.

9. One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing ( 1942 )

Hands down the most intense opening scenes I had watched in any of these movies. About an RAF bomber getting shot down over Nazi occupied Holland, and they have to escape to England without being caught.

I remember being really engaged in this movie and I quite enjoyed the witty British banter. A good movie, if you like old ones.

10. La Grande Vadrouille ( 1966 )

A French WWII war comedy film about two Frenchmen who help a British bomber crew who crashed in France escape to Britain. Very strange? But also funny? But also a little dated but also incredibly hilarious? I was just really intrigued by it honestly. Reminded me of a few Monty Python sketches, despite this film being made years prior. You will either really enjoy it or not at all, but if it interests you, I’d recommend giving it a watch.

11. The Eagle And The Hawk ( 1933 )

Takes place in WWI and is about two American pilots, and various other ones, and how the war affects them, some more than others. I remember this movie surprising me quite a lot, which I think is good for a war film dealing with the sudden deaths of your comrades. Good movie, although not as well executed as The Dawn Patrol.

12. Reach For The Sky ( 1956 )

This one is LONG. About Douglas Bader, pretty much. A cute film though. You will like it if Bader or famous World War aces are your cup of tea.

13. Aces High ( 1976 )

So this movie was based off Journey’s End, except with aeroplanes. It also draws from Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis (a book I’ve been meaning to find and read). If you know the plot of that play (and now more recently a movie), you will know the plot of this movie, except the names are changed. It’s a character study of three RFC pilots during WWI and the life expectancy of “Green pilots” AKA newly trained pilots.

Was a cute movie, not as good as the Journey’s End film from this year however. A lot of awkward silences and I really didn’t understand why? There was also a L’Armée de L’Air Officer who was having NONE of the British banter.

But if you liked Journey’s End and wished there were more pilots then you will enjoy it. The movie might be an interesting watch for those of you who are fans of the original play and / or movie as well.

14. The First Of The Few ( 1942 ), also titled The Spitfire

About the invention of the Spitfire fighter plane. Good if you’re really into aviation. Really liked the witty banter, however.

15. Johnny In The Clouds ( 1945 ), also titled The Way To The Stars

A romance drama. Takes place during WWII in Britain. Initially about two RAF pilots, one married and the other one with a girlfriend that he goes through a serious of hardships with. Then the 8th USAAF come, then it’s about two USAAF pilots and one RAF one, and the widowed wife. One of the USAAF pilots looks and acts like a Tarantino character. Really boring until the Americans come. I’d recommend this to people who like period romances and dramas, but the cultural stuff between the Brits and Americans was pretty good. An alright movie that takes a little bit to get into.

16. Memphis Belle ( 1990 )

REALLY CHEESY. About 8th USAAF in Britain, the bomber crew of the B-17, Memphis Belle. Except it’s not actually the crew, it’s just characters based on them. I remember the dialogue being cheesy, but still somehow better than Flyboys. Also felt pretty entertained the entire thing. A nice detail I liked was that all the bomber crew had their own individually painted A-2 jackets. Characteristic of mostly American bomber crews, and I thought that was a unique touch.

If you like cheesy, feel-good, American WWII movies, you will really like this film.

17. The Red Baron ( 2008 )

About Manfred von Richthofen. Not super accurate, but a decent amount of research done. I remember it being boring, but some of the camera shots were beautiful, looked like paintings. Boring though.

18. Angels One Five ( 1952 )

About an RAF Squadron during the Battle of Britain, except it’s more about the superior officers in that Squadron rather than the pilots. Boring, but the camera work was super high quality for a 50s film? There’s a scene where a Hurricane crashes into a base home. But mostly just officers talking and ordering folks around.

19. Twelve O’Clock High ( 1949 )

Incredibly dull and boring. Nothing but USAAF generals talking, then a bomber scene that was also boring. Flat, bland, and uninspired camerawork. Would not recommend.

20. Flyboys ( 2005 )

I’m sure many of you lads have seen my rant on this film. It’s an ugly, awful, waste of film. I can’t describe the plot of the movie, because there really isn’t one, except that a group of American volunteer pilots, called the Lafayette Escadrille, go to war. That’s it.

I found myself either laughing or yelling at the absolute ridiculousness of this film. It’s dreadful, but depending on your sense of humor, it’s VERY entertaining.

Would recommend watching it drunk, for an even more enhanced experience. I’d also suggest it if bad, horribly inaccurate, and ridiculously American action movies are your thing, you’ll have an absolute blast.

Thank you so much if you took any time to read even just one of these. I super appreciate it, this list was loads of fun and a rollercoaster of emotions. Thank you to those of you who enjoyed hearing my ranting about these bloody things.

[humansofoz]

October 30th, 2018

“Knock me down 9 times, but I get up 10.” -Cardi B

Cliff-Simon Vital. 20. SUNY Oswego Senior. 

HoOz- What was your most memorable childhood experience?

Cliff- I would have to say the day before I came to America. So what a lot of people don’t know, or I don’t advertise it a lot, but I come from Haiti which is a small country in the Caribbean. The night before I came to America, my aunt who took care of me when I lived in Haiti, threw this big going away party for me. It meant a lot because we struggled, so I knew she didn’t have the money for it but she threw me a party anyway. I had a giant cake, I had this huge lollipop. It was one of the rainbow lollipops that has swirls. Any time that I think back about my transition here, or when I’m sad and I’m trying to think of happier thoughts, I just go back to that memory of her giving me this huge lollipop because we went to the market one day, and I saw it there and I really wanted it but it was very pricey and we had to buy other things because, you know, money doesn’t grow on trees. She knew that I wanted it and she bought it for me and it just meant a lot. So that’s probably my most sacred childhood memory. The flights that I was on to come from Port-au-Prince to Florida was the worst flight I’ve ever taken in my life. There was so much turbulence, and the entire time I was clinging onto the lollipop. Hard times. So I always go back to that memory of her giving me that lollipop, throwing me the party, and just having fun.

HoOz- Can you tell me what your childhood was like in Haiti?

Cliff- Here’s a little backstory for everyone that’s going to read this or just to connect the dots. I was born in Long Island. I was born in Mineola and when I was three years old, around this time actually, so when I was about to turn three I was sent to Haiti to live with my aunt because my mom just couldn’t raise me. At that time it wasn’t financially good. So she sent me to Haiti and I lived with my aunt for a couple of years. My mom was getting her education, she was also relatively new to America, so she had to transition herself and raising a child at the same time for her was just not convenient. So she sent me to live with people who could take care of me, who were more better off. I lived in Haiti for a couple of years and I came here when I was about ten years old. Between that time, I had to go back to Haiti a couple times just to figure out the whole immigration stuff. I couldn’t stay in this country for so long because of how the laws were back then. So I had to keep going back and forth. My first full year in America was when I was like twelve if I remember correctly. So I lived there for a while. I don’t have a lot of memories other than the really good ones and the really bad ones. I know that I woke up every day around 6:00 am, got dressed, and went to school. My uncle picked me up from school and then we drove back home, I did my homework, and then I watched TV, and then I went to bed, and repeat. When I lived with my aunt, she lived in like a mountainous area, so it was away from the city, away from people. It’s like upstate New York. It was more isolated, so I had a really boring childhood. I didn’t have sleepovers, I didn’t ride bikes, I didn’t fly kites. I went to school, did my work, and came back home. I think that’s why I’m so structured now because I’ve always lived that structured life. That’s also why I don’t know how to dress because I wore uniform my entire life. Since like pre-k I was wearing a uniform. So.. it wasn’t bad. There are more good memories than bad memories. I was also raised with family, so there was always another guy or girl in the house. So who I thought were my siblings for a while, but I realized were my cousins, I had an older guy cousin and an older female cousin. I was the youngest, I was treated like the youngest, more attention was sent to me, my birthday presents were more elaborate. But I never go special treatment, I still had chores, I still had to get good grades. I lived how any other kid lived, full of innocence and not aware of what’s going on around them. Just doing what they’re told.

HoOz- When you finally came to America for good, how was the transition for you?

Cliff- Oh my. So when I left Haiti I knew two languages, French and Haitian Creole. When I came to America people did not speak French or Haitian Creole. So that was my number one struggle. Oh man did I struggle. Second or third grade, I was bullied a lot. I went to a Catholic school, and nothing against Catholic schools, but I was one of two black people there. I know Catholic schools are more diverse now, but back then it wasn’t, and back then I was this kid who was black and came from an international country that’s known for being poor. When I came to America my mom graduated with her RN, she was well off this time. She had money, enough to send me to a private Catholic school, so I was living life, but in school, I was not. I had to go to extra classes. During my normal 9:00 to 3:00 schedule, around 11:00 or 12:00 I would have to go to ESL class. Back then it was called English as a second language. I think it’s called ESOL now but it’s definitely advanced since then. That professor helped me learn English. I remember always having to defend myself about why I had to leave math class. I remember that sometimes when people had recess I would have to stay inside and do more English work. I think it was actually sixth grade where I stopped ESL, I was speaking more proficiently, but that’s because school didn’t end for me when I went home or when class was over. I got home, I ate, I did my chores, and then I did either homework or I was watching TV. On those days that I had no homework, I was watching PBS Kids stuff where they taught you English in the morning, or more English specific TV shows. I was forced to watch those shows for a while until I passed this specialized English test at the end of the year. So seventh grade was my first normal like “hey I’m a kid. I’m gonna watch Codename: Kids Next Door and hang out with friends.” I lived in Rockaway Beach, and the beach was two minutes from my house, we had parks every couple of blocks. There were things to do as a kid there but I was never able to that because if I wasn’t helping to raise my siblings, I was studying for the English proficiency exam. I eventually transferred schools in fourth grade because the bullying was ridiculous. When I moved from one school to another, the bullying didn’t stop. I was made fun of in class and it didn’t help that the professors were also making fun. Yes, usually teachers are supposed to be helping or guiding or whatever but some of the teachers weren’t supportive. It wasn’t until I got to fifth grade, my teacher backed me up and yelled at the kids who were making fun of me. I’m not gonna @ any names but this kid, and I still remember his name because you always remember the name of your first bully, threw me in the coat closet and then put the broom in the door so I couldn’t get out. It was right before lunchtime, so I was in there crying for forty minutes. When my professor found me, she made a big deal. She was a little Irish white lady screaming her head off, the principal came into the room, I’m sobbing. I was also bleeding because I hit my head on one of the coat hooks. It was a big deal. My mom called, she was screaming, she was threatening to sue the parents about the kid. It was this big thing. The kid got kicked out of school for bullying. That’s just one of the worst examples I could think of about how my transition from Haiti to America was, being in the American school system where the only support you had was your ESL class. Yes, I had two hours of ESL where I learned the language and stuff but I was thrown into those classes and I just had to swim. I was thrown into the pool and told to swim. Imagine not knowing what the teacher is saying sitting in class all day long for like two years. That was me until I really was like I don’t understand. My mom was like we’re gonna put you in this ESL class, we’re gonna go to the library, we’re gonna do all these things to make sure you’re caught up. My siblings who were growing up with me, my younger ones, didn’t have to face all that because they were born in America, raised in America. I was born there, raised here, and when I came back I had to transition all over again. So it was hard. It’s crazy. It’s a lot.

HoOz- Let’s fast forward a little bit. You’re now in college and flourishing, and you’re the president of the Pre-Health Care club. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got involved in that?

Cliff- So, funny story. I was never really the big pre-med person that I came in as. In high school, I was involved in like health care specific organizations but that didn’t really go anywhere once I came to college. I came to college and there were a couple of changes with my major the first year, but as a first-year student I was a Biochemistry major and my goal was to be an OBGYN working in the intensive care unit. Then Organic Chemistry happened, but whatever. I got involved with the Pre-Health Care club as a freshman when the current president Ian Thompson told me about it, and I was like this is a great organization, it’s gonna help me get to where I want to go, and I just joined like anyone else would join. I went to the involvement fair and that’s when they told me about it, I went to their meetings, and now I’m president. So it’s been a journey.

HoOz- What do you hope to accomplish with the club as president this year?

Cliff- This is actually my second year as president, and usually your first term is where you make all of your mistakes. So this semester, it’s been very helpful to know what didn’t work last year in my presidency. What we do for Pre-Health is we bring in medical professionals to come in and speak to the club members and tell them about what they do, how they got to where they are, any advice that they would have wanted to know when they were in our shoes. My first year as president we had a lot of issues with booking speakers. That’s all we did was bring in speakers and we teach through them. Last year it was very hard to get speakers because me being the president, I didn’t really know what I was doing in a sense, but this year we’ve been killing it. We have speakers every single week. We’ve only had to cancel once this semester. Last year I think we canceled five out of ten times, this semester we canceled once just because the speaker was having family issues and couldn’t come in which was understandable. But we have speakers lined up every week to come in and it’s been great. People are enjoying it, I’m seeing a lot of recurring people so people are staying. I get emails every week on LakerLife, “hi I want to join the organization,” and I add them to the email list. So it’s working well. I want to evolve Pre-Health. We were founded in 2011. In 2013 we got our footing in. Like I said I was a member, I was treasurer at one point, vice president at one point, and now president for the past two years. We’ve only been doing speakers. This semester, I’m really excited to announce that we’re using the money that we get from SA to fund group trips. So November 10th, we’re bringing about ten people to Temple University, which is known for their Podiatry School but they also have other programs that our club members are interested in. So we’re gonna go to their open house in Pennsylvania. We have an Airbnb, we’re gonna buy groceries to cook, and it’s gonna be a really fun time. We’re also going to The Mütter Museum that has all these failed experiments and body parts that people have donated to science. It’s gonna be really exciting. We’re also planning an Upstate trip the week after that. So we’re gonna go to Upstate Medical and have a tour and participate in their open house day. Me being president this year we’re trying to do more. We’re trying to evolve to not only do guest speakers but to have events. At one point I want to advertise Pre-Health to the public. I want to table or do a fundraiser or something. I want to give the organization to the next president a bit more developed than it was when I got it. I don’t want them to only be doing guest speakers. So that’s my plan.

HoOz- If you could tell your future self one thing, what would it be?

Cliff- Wow this is a tricky question, it’s always been like your past self. I guess if I could talk to my future self right now, I don’t know what I would tell them, I would ask them. I would tell them to keep pushing. Keep thriving. What I’m currently going through right now, all the stress, all the homework, all the papers, all the on calls, I hope it was all worth it. So just keep pushing, keep thriving, keep surrounding yourself with the people you love, and just keep moving. We’re going through all these hurdles so we can make the end goal of being happy, being successful, being financially stable, so just keep going. There are a lot of times where it’s just like I’m just gonna give up, I’m just gonna quit this, I don’t wanna do this anymore, I don’t have to deal with the stress, if I quit right now I won’t have to deal with this. I don’t obviously because being a student leader you can’t just quit. I think I would just tell him to keep going because you’ve done it already. You’ve jumped through all these hoops because if you don’t keep moving then you’re gonna be stuck in the past, and if I’m talking to my future self then they already got through the things I’ve gone through.

[penguinsocksworks]

How to Win a Tsundere’s Heart (19/20)

Read on AO3 or FF.net Read on Tumblr: Chapter 1-5// Chapter 6// Chapter 7// Chapter 8// Chapter 9// Chapter 10//Chapter 11// Chapter 12// Chapter 13// Chapter 14// Chapter 15// Chapter 16// Chapter 17//Chapter 18// Chapter 19

Main pairings: Usuk, Dennor, Spamano

Summary of chapter: Final confessions!

Chapter 19: Confessions from the Heart

I am so sorry for not updating in HOLY SHIT 4 MONTHS PROBABLY MORE. BUT this is the second to last chapter. I ALREADY HAVE THE LAST CHAPTER TYPED AND READY TO GO FOR THE NEXT UPDATE WHEN I THINK ITS TIME TO POST I GUESS LOL 

“Well guys,” Alfred bit on the end of his pen, “I think the book is almost done!”

Matthias peered at his computer screen, looking at about only twenty pages of notes, “well, we definitely have enough data but… how do we turn all of that into a hundred and fifty page novel?”

“Um… We embellish?” Alfred shrugged, “There are three of us, maybe we can write down what happened after each scenario.”

Matthias laughed, snapping his fingers, “That’s a good idea, we have more than enough to write about.”

“Wait,” Antonio piped up, “But, shouldn't it go out with… a… what's that thing you say Al?”

“Going out with a bang?”

“Yeah! That! Shouldn't the book end with, you know… actually getting our objects of affection?”

Alfred’s nose scrunched up, thinking about how much time they’ve spent doing dating like things with their… crushes? Ugh, was there another way to put that that didn't make it seem like they were twelve and writing on bathroom stalls? “We’ve been practically dating them for a awhile now.”

“Yeah,” Matthias clicked his tongue, “But Toni is right. Nothing's ever been official. We need one last thing.”

The three boys sat in silence for a moment, each of them trying to come up with an idea that would be the icing on the cake of this horribly amazing project.

“How about…” Alfred turns the computer towards him, tapping out a few words with his deft fingers, “how about this.”

Confession of the truth

“Ah… what do you mean by that?” Antonios eyebrows furrowed together.

Alfred shook his head, “Oh Toni. I mean let's just come right out and say it. You know the whole, ‘I like you, do you wanna be my boyfriend?’ Thing.”

Matthias offered a small smile, standing up straight, “I think that's an extremely simple and nice way to end things.”

“Great,” Alfred started to type under the first thing they ever wrote, “We better get typing so we can just knock this off our plates.”

Matthias squinted at the words appearing on the screen, “ah yes. The pick up lines thing… if my sore legs remember correctly that did not go well.”

Alfred shrugged and just continued to type, “Third person okay with you guys?”

Alfred F. Jones practically had to drag his lazy ass to class that morning. AP english was not something he was looking forward to.

_____

It had taken them almost a month of staying up until five am typing and waking up at seven just to do more of the same. But they did it. Managed it. Just barely.

They had their whole story typed out, and between the three of them it only took going through hell and back!

It was a lot longer than they had anticipated. It was the size of a very decent novel. Quality of a decent novel though? Not so much… good enough for an A on the project? Debatable. At this point they’re level of caring was at “YOLO fuck it lol XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD”

Now it was nearing the second week in February and they had yet to do anything about their grand finally. They became extremely accustomed to staying up and only getting about two hours of sleep that when they finally finished, they dropped. It took two days of sleeping for twelve hours just to feel rightish again. Ha, and those loser scientists said you couldn't catch up on sleep.

But now came the hard part. The part that was probably tougher than the grueling writing.

Despite everything they had already done, every horribly complex and embarrassing plan, this confession had to be the most nerve racking thing poor Antonio had ever faced.

Lovino was just there. Sitting. As if there weren't a care in the world. As if Antonio’s heart wasn't beating fifty thousand miles an hour. As if he weren't about to go run and request a room change this late into the year. As if he weren’t about to absolutely die.

But it had to be done. For the sake of his sanity and the ending of all the madness. An end to the book.

That brought a slightly sad thought into his mind, what would happen with Alfred and Matthias after? Of course they'd all be friends still, but they wouldn't have anything keeping them that close anymore. It had been fun hanging out with people other than Lovino, Francis and Gilbert. People who others looked at with that same little head shake when they didn't read the mood right, or were just straight up too optimistically oblivious to understand the extent of things.

He almost didn't want anything to change.

But that was probably an excuse. This was the end of an era and they would come out stronger. He just had to do it.

How though?

Lovino looked over, probably noticing how uncharacteristically quiet everything was. He put down the book he was reading, one that Arthur had recommended, and addressed the boy, “What is wrong with you?”

Antonio twittled one more time, “I have a problem.”

“Hm?” Antonio watched as Lovino dogged eared the page he was on, one in the beginning cause let's face it, when does Lovino read for enjoyment. That was more Arthur and Lukas’ thing.

Antonio carefully took the book out of Lovino’s hands and set it on the bed beside him, so he had his friends full attention, “Well, I sort of like someone.”

“Omg,” Lovino perked up like a teenage girl before he growled and narrowed his eyes, “I don’t care.”

Antonio pretended that it didn't sting a bit, “I need help. How do you suppose I…”

“You what?” Lovino raised an eyebrow. He was only slightly more invested than before. Antonio figured that he would have known that he was talking about him, but Lovino’s expression said otherwise. Lovino’s mouth was pulled into a tight frown and his eyes held a sort of betrayal.

Antonio rubbed at the back of his head, “I don’t know how to ask them out.”

“And…?” Lovino waved his hand, unimpressed.

“And I wanted your advice, since… you’re from Italy and they're good at this stuff right?” Antonio chuckled awkwardly.

Lovino shook his head, “Well, you aren’t wrong.”

Antonio smiled at Lovino’s confident smirk. Despite having dated only one person before in his life, for two weeks in the sixth grade that is, Lovino was cocky when it came to these things. It was something about his confident expression that made him glow. And Antonio couldn't help but gush at it sometimes, “So what do you suggest that I do?”

“You’re stupid, so don't do anything stupid,” Antonio was about to protest when Lovino shot out a hand as a stop, “Just tell them.”

“Tell them?”

Lovino closed his eyes and shrugged, “Yes, tell them I like you, will you go out with me. It’s simple as that.”

“Okay. Simple. I will,” Antonio nodded. They both sat there for a moment, the silence weighing down on them awkwardly. It was a silence that hadn’t bothered them for years, but now it felt unbearable and foreign.

Lovino moved to pick up his book again and resume his reading. He was about one paragraph further than he was before when Antonio’s scratching at the bedsheets became unbearable.

“What now?” Came Lovino’s flat question. Antonio took in a deep breath that puffed his chest out, as if he were preparing for a battle of some sort or something.

Without missing a beat, Antonio put on a small smile, “I like you, will you go out with me?”

Lovino’s face turned a deep shade of red, sputtering a bit. Antonio had done a lot of things, said a lot of things, but they all seemed so unreal. This confession had a different air around it. It was no nonsense and… Antonio’s face seemed so serious with the way his eyebrows were drawing closer together.

Sputtering, Lovino covered his mouth for a lack of a better thing to do, “What?”

“I like you , will you go out with me?” Antonio repeated, the words sounding even more foreign than the first time, but just as serious.

Lovino shook his head, “Antonio…”

“I like you, will you go out with me?” He was beginning to sound like a broken record. And for the first time since this whole thing started, Lovino looked him in the eyes. There was a harsh undertone of uncertainty and fear that was covered up by bright determination, “I like you, will you go out with me?”

Lovino sighed and shook his head, “If I say yes will you fucking stop?”

“I like you, will you go out with me?” Antonio’s eyes were clouded and his gaze distant, almost like he was over heating.

Lovino snapped his fingers, but there was no result.

“Antonio! Fucking, snap out of it!” Lovino sandwiched antonio’s face between his palms, “I like you too okay!”

“Really?” Antonio blinked a few time in disbelief. Sure all the signs have been there, but Antonio had never been really good at reading the mood. Or in general. It was nice to hear the statement back for once. He doesn't think that he could recall a time where Lovino actually said it back. But then again, his memory wasn't all that great either.

Jesus, what did he have going for him? What did he ever do to get Lovino to like him?

Lovino rolled his eyes, but nodded his head anyways, “Yes Antonio. Yes.”

“You want to be my…”

Lovino’s hands dropped to the back of Antonio’s neck, “Boyfriend?”

“Yeah…” Antonio wrapped his arms around the middle of Lovino’s waist, “I would like that.”

_____

Matthias had thought about how he was going to do it for hours and hours. Hours. Do you know how long an hour is? It’s a really fucking long time.

But it was worth it. It had to be. Matthias knew that this wasn't something he could just do on the fly.

Unless he could…

Maybe he was putting way too much thought into it. Maybe he should just go a simpler route. Lukas was never one for flashy performances anyways. These past few months have been full of over the top plans and performances, this could be a change.

Lukas was settled in next to him, ready for another movie night. Arthur had left an hour ago for the library or some other place, Matthias hadn't quite been paying attention due to the weird feeling of nervousness that settled in his stomach.

Lukas broke the silence, “Want to order something?”

Matthias nodded excitedly, happy that he wouldn't be stuck thinking about it anymore. Tonight was the night that he was going to ask him. He couldn't back out. He was done being a chicken and pushing it off. He was out of excuses. He had to, for Lukas. For himself.

Well, that and if he didn't then he would get a metal bat to the groin, courteous of the deal he made with Alfred.

“Chinese?” Lukas was raised an eyebrow, as if he were slightly worried about Matthias’ off behavior, “Or do you want something else?”

“Yeah sure sounds great!” Matthias smiled, “Anything you want.”

They put in the order and laid on the bed, waiting. Lukas didn’t speak anymore, probably figuring that Matthias was fine. Matthias chattered on about the laborious task of writing out the book. Of course he didn't tell Lukas what it was about, even when Lukas gave him a look that clearly asked. The only thing that he revealed was that their research had been hard and sometimes extremely stressful. The writing process hadn’t been much fun either, sometimes one of them would lose inspiration or forget exactly what happened. It only made Lukas more curious, surely he would have noticed if Matthias was researching something. Or Matthias would have let it slip by now, on accident or not. But as hard as Lukas tried to remember, he just couldn't come up with something plausible that Matthias would have been studying for months.

So in return, Lukas didn't tell Matthias what his group did.

Of course this killed Matthias, his curiosity growing to exponential heights in a matter of minutes. But he had to stay strong. Lukas would find out… eventually. Possibly. Maybe never. Would his teacher be the only one reading  the book?

Oh god. What if they had to read it to the class. All those personal thoughts!

Yes. Lukas was a beautiful person whose smile brightened up a room and could make Matthias weak in the knees. Yes, Lukas’ attitude was like no one else's and Matthias wouldn't ever trade the small bite that Lukas’ words held for anything. And yes, Matthias wants to kiss that smirk  off his face until the day he dies.

But no one else had to know all of this.

The food came and they ate in relative silence, both of them couldn’t really talk around cheeks full of lo mein. Matthias tried to say something and accidentally let a bit of noodle slip out.

And Lukas laughed.

Matthias wanted to make it his ringtone, and keep it forever going on repeat. Grabbing a sharpie and napkin off his side table, he thought impulsively.

“Lukas,” Matthias fidgeted, placing the cap back onto the marker, “Wait never mind.”

Lukas leaned back into his seat on the bed, reading the summary on the back of a DVD that Matthias had thrown his way.

“Lukas!” The boy in question looked up and Matthias felt himself blush, “Ah, never mind.”

Lukas glanced up and rolled his eyes before looking back down. Did all moviestars look that pretty without a shirt on? The picture on the case looked like one of those harlequin novel covers.

“Lukas!” Lukas could feel his headache grow, “Ah wait, ne-”

Lukas slapped a hand over Matthias’ mouth, “What the hell do you want!”

Matthias shrunk a bit, letting out a sheepish laugh. He held out his hand and waited for Lukas to take the crumpled up napkin.

“You wanted me to throw out your trash for you?” Lukas deadpanned, looking distastefully down at the slightly food stained item, “Seriously?”

“No!” Matthias threw his hands up, “I mean, no. Look uh, look a little closer.”

Lukas shook his head, and let his navy eyes roam around, trying to spot what Matthias so desperately wanted him to find. The sharpie was smudged, the oil that Matthias had dropped on it spreading. But it was still legible.

Lukas sat back down on his knees, unfolding the napkin with unusual care. He would have snorted at the crappy kissy face picture drawn on the top left of he weren’t too shocked by the actual words.

In all honesty he shouldn't have been. It was Matthias, what more should he expect?

Do you want to go out with me?

_Yes

_ no :(

Lukas didn't say anything. His blank look making Matthias nervous. He just silently motioned for the marker and Matthias obliged.

He didn't even show any emotion as he scribbled something on the yellow note. It was much more than the simple checkmark or x that Matthias was prepared to get back, no matter which line it was on.

Though as he was handed back the note, crumpled and slightly tearing from where the oil damaged its structure, Matthias wasn’t as terrified as he thought he would be. As he should be.

Lukas stared at the bed sheet, picking at it and not looking up. Matthias didn't know if he was trying to hid a blush or a look of sympathy.

He took his time straightening out the napkin against his leg, daring himself to look down.

Do you want to go out with me?

x  Yes

_ no :(

You’re really asking you idiot?

Matthias brain took a moment to process it, his vision snapping back and forth from the note to Lukas’ shrinking form.

A smile breaking out on his face, Matthias tackled Lukas down onto the mattress, “Hey! Matthias!”

Burying his nose further into Lukas’ neck, Matthias tightened his grip, “Lukas!”

“Matthias get off me!” Lukas pushed his face away with little strength behind it, “That's enough!”

“It's never going to be enough Lukas!” Matthias laughed, “Never!”

Lukas gave an endearing smile, his usually stoic expression breaking as he let out a small laugh, “Yes but that tickles, stop!”

“Yes but!” Matthias shot up and pinned Lukas’ wrist on either side of his head, “I just realized something.”

Rolling his eyes, Lukas squirmed a bit under Matthias’ hands, “What?”

“You’re my boyfriend now!” Matthias’ grin stretched across his face and Lukas just hummed in agreement, “Lukas! You have a boyfriend. Ha! Lukas has a boyfriend, Lukas has a boyfriend!”

Lukas brought his leg up and kicked Matthias in the stomach, maybe a little harder than he should have, “Yeah I do. But not for much longer.”

“What? Why?” Matthias’ expression morphed almost instantly into one that resembled a hurt puppies.

Lukas smirked, “Because, even though he’s sweet, funny, and everything I could ever want, he’s also an annoying piece of shit. And I might have to kill him.”

“I love you,” Matthias just smiled and connected their foreheads. Lukas hummed.

“Me too.”

_________

[last edit made by Alfred Jones at 5:48 am]

How to Win a Tsundere’s Heart

By Alfred F. Jones, Matthias Kohler, & Antonio Corrier

[page 2]

Want to win over your tsundere’s heart? Then read this book to find out the steps you to take in order to win over that stubborn heart. Tsundere- a person who is mean and hateful at first but eventually warms up and shows a more affectionate side.

Warning: Our test subjects are still human. Meaning that their response can be different from what you encounter. To keep it interesting, we decided to tell you guys our entire story.

[Page 3]

Table of contents

Pickup lines = pain

Gilbert’s plan

Group chats

Singing and cuddles?

Plays and Bad Auditions

pumpkin and sunshine, darlin

Halloween parties

Words, strings, and Colors

Kiss the girl

Overly cliche lines and Stars

Costco is life

Jealousy tactics

Picture perfect

Cardverse

Nights

Pottertalia

Siblings and Domestic Fluff AF

Confessions from the Heart

19.Summary of plans

[Scroll down 357 pages (A/N: HOLY SHIT THIS IS ACTUALLY HOW MANY PAGES THIS STORY IS NOT INCLUDING THIS CHAPTER)]

[Page 357]

Plan #1: Pickup lines

entered at 6:33 pm Alfred : 6 points

entered at 5:56 pm Antonio : 5 points

entered at 8:57 pm  Mathias : 4 points

Pickup lines on a Tsundere equals Pain, Do not, DO NOT, try

Plan #2: singing to them

entered at 12:47 am Alfred : 17 points

entered at 8:26 pm Antonio : 15 points

entered at 2:57 am Mathias : 10 bajillion points

Plan #3: nicknames

entered at 6:43 pm Alfred : 23 points

entered at 5:19 pm Antonio : 22 points

entered at 6:50 pm  Mathias : 19 points

Plan #4: Halloween Costumes

entered at 8:12 pm Alfred : 21 points

entered at 6:43 pm Antonio : 23 points

entered at 10:36 pm  Mathias : 23 points

Plan #5: Soul mates

entered at 4:56 pm Alfred : 23 points

entered at 5:23 pm Antonio : 22 points

entered at 4:43 pm  Mathias : 19 points

Plan #6: Supermarket fighting

entered at 6:04 pm Alfred : 17 points

entered at 7:36 pm Antonio : 13 points

entered at 8:54 pm  Mathias : 19 points

Matthias got stuck in a closet haha!~Alfred

Plan #7: Jealousy

Warning: may result in catastrophe where your friends get locked in a basement. Don't use on a Tsundere, they most likely won’t understand and it will cause confusion. Better used when they are really oblivious, but use with caution.

Alfred (entered 4:58 am) : 20 points

Matthias (entered 4:30 am) : 22 points

Antonio (entered 3:54 am) : 20 points

Plan #8: Picture Perfect

entered at 8:05 pm Alfred : 20 points

entered at 7:43 pm Antonio : 23 points

entered at 9:52 pm  Mathias : 21 points

Plan #9: Play's the thing

entered at 12:07 am Alfred : 22 points

entered at 5:32 am Antonio : 20 points

entered at 11:57 pm  Mathias : 21 points

Plan #10: Nighttime Dates

entered at 3:21 am Alfred : 21 points

entered at 1:55am Antonio : 22 points

entered at 1:23 am  Mathias : 21 points

Plan #11: Gryffindors and Slytherins

entered at 4:54 pm Alfred : 18 points

entered at 3:13pm Antonio : 18 points

entered at 5:52 pm  Mathias : 19 points

Plan #12: Domestic af/Sibling's side

entered at 7:28 am Alfred : 24 points

entered at 12:37 pm Antonio : 22 points

entered at 3:39 am  Mathias : 23 points

Plan #13: Confessions of the heart

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Arthur had been doing some student council work in the office. His office he would like to think. Of course it was dedicated to all members of the unit, but he was the one who was in the rather spacy room most of the time. Michelle was the only other person accompanying him then, carefully putting books away like he had asked.

“Arthur,” She whined, “This is boring.”

The boy in question rolled his eyes and shook his head, “You sound like my baby brother Michelle. The faster you put those away the closer you are to leaving. That's the last task for you today since Alfred agreed to feed Sanders for the week.”

Sanders was the student councils pet. Issued to them by the dean their first year to ensure responsibility and show commitment. Of course, the fat hamster now just lazed around and didn't really serve a purpose other than converting oxygen into carbon dioxide and being the ‘cutest pet in the history of the world!’ as Feliciano put it one day. It now lived in the science wing on the other side of the school, since the temperature in the student council room was terribly dictated by the weather. Though for some reason, they still kept the food under Arthur’s desk. So they didn’t lose it? So they didn't forget to feed him? Arthur would never know why Michelle and Francis’ insisted on keeping it not near the cage.

Michelle perked up a bit at the comment, trying to act as casually as she could as she shelved the books, “How is Alfred? Haven’t seen him drop by here in awhile.”

Alfred wasn’t what you would call a… member of the student council. But he probably spent as much time in the office as any of the other members (save arthur) just hanging around. Michelle herself found herself drawn to his presence once, feeling giddy everytime he came to visit. That is until she realized that he only had one thing that kept him coming back to the boring and dreadful room.

That thing being, Arthur.

“Good I suppose. He gave me this book actually,” Arthur’s supposed student council work was put down for a second. Michelle felt betrayed. How dare he leisurely read while she did all of this labor?

Michelle tried to keep any annoyance out of her voice as she hummed, “Oh yeah? What's it about?”

“I'm not quite sure…” Arthur was about half way through the book and he was still not absolutely sure what it was about. It had a plethora of genres packed into it, adventure, romance, action, mystery… a few others.

Michelle paused her work to walk behind him, looking over his shoulder, “You’re almost a hundred pages in! How do you not know what it’s about!”

“I just dont Michelle. It’s rather confusing,” He grit his teeth. It wasn't his fault that the book was obviously written for people with attention problems. His brain wasn't able to keep up with so many plot lines at the same time. Snorting, Michelle watched as Arthur flipped the page with a huff.

The first thing that both of them noticed was a bright neon pink post-it. Second was the scrawly handwriting on said post-it.

a. Yes

b. Hell yes

c. A and B

~Alfred

It took Arthur a moment to understand what was going on, but Michelle squealed almost immediately.

The edge of the post-it perfectly underlined a quote from the main character asking the other character, “Will you be my boyfriend?”

Of course this is when Arthur himself squeaked and dropped the book, his face feeling red. He knew he should’ve just been nice and let Michelle leave early!

“That fucking! He! He made me read almost a hundred pages of a stupid book for that! He gave this to me over a week ago!” Arthur resorted to something more familiar than the warm and bubbly feeling wanted him too. Anger. Clenched fists. Screaming.

Michelle was unphased, laughing instead, “Oh Arthur! That's too great haha!”

It was at that moment, the moment when Arthur leaped up and started to chase Michelle around his desk, that the doors flew open.

“Where is the food!? I gotta go feed my little Sanders!” Alfred cheered, throwing his open book bag on one of the long desks, he paused though, eyes widening at the pair, “Bad time?”

Michelle shook her head and skipped towards the door with the few books she had left to shelve. Placing them in Alfred’s stunned arms, she smiled, “Someone found your note! Also, shelve these for me? Thanks!”

Both were left hearts beating frantically. Both left holding in breaths. Both minds left completely blank. Both left with cheeks red as they could possibly be. Both left frozen.

Until the door shut with a reassuring slam that seemed to wake them up.

“What is the meaning of this!” Arthur shook his head, scrunching up his nose, “You… this book was bloody awful!”

Alfred laughed sheepishly, “Yeah, wasn’t my ‘cuppa tea’ either.”

“So why did you…” Arthur sighed and leaned back into his desk, which faced the door.

Alfred took a strong breath before marching forward until he was directly in front of Arthur, “What do you say?”

“I say that this book clearly doesn’t deserve the types of reviews that it got.” Arthur answered stubbornly, avoiding the topic that he knew Alfred was trying to address.

Alfred playfully rolled his eyes, finding it ironic that he was the one putting up with the childish bullshit for once, “Not what I meant Artie. And you know it.”

“Know what?”

Alfred carefully walked closer until his legs hit up against the table between Arthur’s thighs, “You’re smarter than this Arthur.”

“Of course I’m smart. I am at the top of our class for most things,” Arthur huffed, “Maths is hard.”

“Mm… sure it is Arthur,” Alfred laughed, placing a hand on top of Arthur’s on the desk, “So, can you do this simple equation? What is you plus me?”

“Back to the bad lines? I don't know Alfred, pain on your part? Suffering? A swift kick to your private area?” Arthur smirked, unsure of where his confidence was coming from considering that his head was spinning, “Again, I was always on the bottom when it came to mathematics.”

Letting out a snort, Alfred cupped his face, “Lucky for you I was always good at that class.”

“Mm,” Alfred liked the way that Arthur simply buzzed with contentment at the familiar bantering, humming nicely, “So, tell me. What’s the answer than?”

Alfred tsked, “Now that’s just cheating. I already made it multiple choice, it can’t get easier than that.”

“Okay…” Arthur turned his body slightly to reach behind him for the book and a pen, flipping through the pages, “Let’s see.”

Alfred watched, amused as Arthur dragged his pen across the post-it, “So? What’s the answer?”

“D.” Arthur handed the book back with an unreadable expression.

Alfred on the other hand was confused, “D? That wasn’t an option.”

Flipping back through the pages until he found the pink post-it.

a. Yes

b. Hell yes

c. A and B

~Alfred

d. Kiss me?

Arthur watched in amusement as Alfred’s eyes widened, “Seriously?”

Nodding was all it took for Alfred to close the distance between them.

Arthur's lips were softer than he remembered, Alfred noted out of habit. They were far more inviting than when it was a forced action on a stage in front of a theater full of people. It was sincere, private. And just screamed Arthur.

How could two people be happier? Alfred kept one hand on his cheek and the other at the small of Arthur’s back. While the smaller male wrapped his arms around Alfred’s neck so that he didn’t fall backwards onto all of the papers that still covered his desk. The moment was silent, but spoke all of the feelings that they had kept inside for a while. The true and deepest ones. The ones that could only be shown through pure action and not loud words or suspecting glares.

Breaking apart after what seemed like a blissful eternity, Arthur spoke in a breathy tone,

“Alfred, you still have to-”

Alfred dove in for another kiss and almost passed out when Arthur laughed into it.

“-to feed sanders. He needs his food or he’ll get sick.”

The American sat up, looking down at his perfectly flushed boyfriend, who was breathing hard on the edge of the desk. Ah, he could say that now. Arthur was his boyfriend, all his and no one else's! Wow. That sounds kinda possessive and creepy. But oh well, that didn't make it any less true.

“I'll feed him in the morning,” Alfred groaned, tugging Arthur closer, “His cage is all the way across campus, and I'm a bit preoccupied right now.”

Arthur rolled his eyes and pushed on Alfred's chest, “It's only a building away. He needs to be fed, it's barely a ten minute endeavor. Five if you run.”

“Yeah but five minutes away from you would be too long, I wouldn't be able to live,” Alfred thumped their foreheads together, “What am I supposed to do?”

“You will, go feed that poor hamster,” Arthur shook his head, “I'll still be here when you come back.”

“You sure?” Alfred started to get up, knowing that he wasn't going to change the brits mind, “I just got you and I don't want you disappearing on me.”

Arthur blushed a little, “I'm not leaving. Now just go you idiot! The longer you stall the longer it's going to take!”

Alfred’s eyes widened, and he nodded excitedly with a grin stretched across his face, “I'll be right back!”

When the door shut behind Alfred, Arthur finally was able to release a sigh of relief. How did he end up here?

Before he could turn into a blushing, puddle of embarrassment, Arthur sat up and smacked his hands against his cheeks. It was real. Andddd now he needed a distraction before he over thought anything before Alfred came back. He looked around, searching for something to do.

The desk that Alfred had carelessly thrown his stuff on earlier was a mess still. Maybe he could straighten it out before the he got back. Picking up and stacking the note books carefully before shoving them back into the open bag, he hummed to himself. It was just like Alfred to leave pens and various papers around to clutter his backpack up and… was his computer on?

Arthur lifted the lid from its half closed state, the screen still glowing. He squinted from the sudden brightness of the light. He was just going to turn it off and leave it alone, but then his vision became a bit clearer and the big bolded text in the center of a document caught his attention, Arthur rubbed at his eyes, “What is this? How to Win a Tsundere’s Heart?”

_______

Awesome F. Jones changed the chat name to HELP SOOS EXTREAMELY IMPORTANT

Awesome F. Jones: HELP I CAN’TT FINS ARTHUR