#AND IM GOING TO BE DRIVEN BY ONE OF MY NEW CLASSMATES

[lovebvni]

things to look forward to + ways to move forward!! <3

hello, lovelies!! i’m finally doing a pick-a-pile on this blog… after about half a year of being active

this pap will be answering 2 questions, but they have multiple parts. what’s coming in (from what i can see) and ways to get to it.

disclaimer: this pac isn’t legal advice or what you should do in your life. it is just based off your current energy. and that can change. purely for entertainment purposes.

now please, close your eyes and take a deep breath. wait until you see a swirl of colour to exhale. let your breath and spirit guide you to a pile.

piles 1 -> 2 -> 3

pile 1 — find it inside

hello, pile 1! here’s your reading :)

how close is your reward?

your reward is very close. 6 of pentacles coming out makes me have the vision on a banker grabbing their papers being put together before handing the recipient, you! maybe there’s like two more things you have to sign, or bring those documents to someone else, but at most im getting that there’s about 3 more steps left in the process? 4 at most. but seriously, you are close!

the papers can be to finally get your new business started… are you starting something like a business pile one? material wealth is coming through. the justice card comes to mind — perhaps in a legal argument with someone? i think this is the success about to come. or at least a satisfactory agreement.

what do you need to remove from your energy?

being too ambitious. you’re almost toooo focused and driven. are you cutting people off or isolating yourself from people and friends? honey you need a support group. it’s not always good to do things alone. you aren’t in a cage. your tunnel vision is too stuck on this goal you’re trying to reach. you need a breath of fresh air. just take a moment to relax and have a fun time. even students need a break from school, why do you think we have weekends? you’re wearing yourself out.

what do you need to accept?

finishing touches make everything look better. this is the final steps. just because i’m saying “oh you have abt 3 more steps” didn’t mean those are big steps. those are teeny steps. but material wealth(or a legal win) is coming either way, no matter what you change in the end. just trust the process.

a new focus & what to reject

stick to your plan! don’t back out of it last minute because you don’t like how it’s turning out. you need a BREAK! take a step back! but this doesn’t mean let everyone get into your business. keep it to yourself for now. it’s gonna work out, though!

thanks for reading, pile one! i hope this resonates, and i wish you the best!! now go have fun! stop working yourself overtime!

confirmation/additional signs: “don’t compare yourself to others”, don’t let others control you, have your own path and stick to it, “have some sort of tunnel vision”, the colour red, “girl trip!”, painting, “i need you to take a step back before i knock you on your fucking ass” — elita’s mentally not here, 555.

pile 2 — gift from the gods

hello, pile two! this is your reading!

first off, i’m doing this reading with my friend nile (nile says hi bc nile always says hi 💯) and they said they REALLY felt the need to touch on ur overall energy. so here’s what they said!

“With the number of face cards that are in this spread, and the general theme I thought about while pulling out the cards, it seems like pile 2 is the type to ask others for 2nd and 3rd opinions alot? I mainly thought about family members but it could easily be like, friends, classmates, school counselors/teachers, etc. Pile 2 maybe feels like they're conflicted because they're getting way different opinions on something (or maybe that's the normal dynamic) and they aren't sure which one is good advice and which one isn't”

don’t second guess urself 😡😡 ur intuition is always right!

how close is your reward?

this idea is brand new, isn’t it? some something you just decided to try, to dabble in. to dip your toes in, maybe as a distraction? i feel like this is something you decided to do on a whim, so maybe you’re not that far along with it. i mean you aren’t even in the pool yet… how can you start swimming? so, i would say about a 1-3 out of ten.

what do you need to remove from your energy?

wow, fear of some sort of older male figure. you may have an older sibling, nile got a brother or a cousin. they have divine masculine energy. they may or may not be a male, though. they may be someone who reaches out when they need something from you. you need to learn to start saying no to them. i also think that this could be where your double and triple checking could come in. are you someone who asks “should i do this for them?” and most of your friends say no, but you only need that one yes and you’ll take it? why would you do that to urself :( it’s so harmful to give away your energy without gaining.

nile also brought up inner voices, “inner voices that has that sort of vibe, but this is the energy of a young, mean-spirited, holier-than-thou, smart-ass that moreso likes to spout their own ideals than to actually consider what is pile 2's idea of a 'reward'” and you know what i say to this energy? SUCK ON MY DICK!

sorry. that was out of pocket. but tell them to get a life, and cut them off !!

what do you need to accept?

have u had a romantic offer? or do you think someone’s attracted to you? grab them 🤭 get ur man!! this person may also be an important friend. maybe friends w benefits? that was js a side thought. but focus on them, accept them into your life, and allow them to make your life better! i also get the feeling they could have darker hair (dirty blonde at the lightest)!! masculine energy btw!

i got the need to ask if yall r gay but 💀💀 ok girl u slay!! i’m gay too!! dw!! nblm here girly 🤞🫶‼️

a new focus & what to reject

an older, calm spirit. they could be a father or grandfather — but they could also be the person in the romantic offer trying to support you. they may advice you to focus on the here and now rather than the future or the past. stay grounded in your truth and your faith. spend some time in nature, too! you really just need a minute to take a break.

is there a person with extroverted, wild energy? they may be an energy vampire. they could be a friend of a friend, and they might spread rumors around a lot. but don’t waste too much time with them. they could make you physically sick.

that’s all i have for you, pile two! i hope your messages resonated!! have fun :)

confirmation/additional signs: “on those we call”, rapunzel’s healing song, past lives, ancestors guidance, black panther, a calming energy, (air or water sign?), the colour purple (movie + colour), issues being grounded (root chakra?), Oh No! by Marina, knowing what you want but not knowing how to get there, knowing why you make actions you don’t want to, beating yourself up, spiritually, 555.

pile 3 — black cat, do you belong?

hello pile 3!! this is ur reading :)

how close is your reward?

i also heard goal, by the way, so this may have been something you’ve been working to for a while. your card was knight of wands. homestretch, almost. i keep thinking of soccer/football. that may be something you’re into, but i’m gonna use sports references now.

this is the final quarter, not even. there’s 3 minute left in the game. you know you can win this! i feel like you’re almost too carefree in this moment though. i mean you have a carefree spirit, so that’s good! but you need more focus. overall, i would rate you the highest of any pile, a 9! at the least it’s a 9, at the most you’re literally on the last step.

what do you need to remove from your energy?

nile and i both thought it was weird/important that ace of wands came out. this is a card that obviously symbolizes new beginnings, and it’s probably the most creative card too. it shows swiftness and excitement in a challenge. you need to remove your carefreeness just for a moment to be able to grab the ace of wands from the hand of the universe. i feel like you’re being a bit lazy, so don’t! reignite your passion!

this is what nile said btw (it genuinely made me laugh 💀)

“pile 3 shouldn't just think about what they want - they should act on it! I really don't have much else to say, maybe pile 3's guides think that there's no other way to say it - it's a one way or the other type of thing, you do it or you don't - chop chop”

what do you need to accept?

5 of wands is usually about fights and rivalry, but in this context nile got sports, and i totally agree.

i mean, sports already came up in this pile for you guys already, so i feel like spirit is saying join a club or do something with other people!! stop isolating yourself! you need to do something competitive, primarily because you like fighting in a friendly way (maybe sometimes a violent way! anger issues).

if there isn’t a sport you can join, maybe because of finances or time issues, be competitive! race against yourself! do something that makes you feel good!

“if not sports, then something at the very least that gives pile 3 a sense of competition; something that makes them feel like they have to put their best foot forward to reap the best rewards! this isn't something that will wait for them if they do things half-a-step, every once in awhile kind of pace or attitude.”

in other words — DONT GO SLOW, GIRL! ACT LIKE ITS THE LAST THING U GET TO DO!! RUN!

a new focus & what to reject

focus on relationships. i want to say i get the feeling most of u guys are shifter and shifting for someone, but i could just be biased and projecting bc this like really resonates and resembles me in a lot of ways — and it’s scary!

anyways, there’s some romance in this pile. someone who has a calm spirit, maybe cold on the outside but warm on the inside. they may have been sending you signs that you haven’t been picking up much. or maybe you have been picking them up but you aren’t making an effort to reach out or you just forget easily. i totally get that, by the way, but try to put some time and focus into this romantic offer! even if it’s not in this reality, or in your mind (be delulu, and may it become trululu). nile also got this person may not want a romantic offer, but idk abt that one. getting a strong sense this is a romantic offer.

ok, sports coming through again! maybe you’ve been thinking about them a lot, but for some reason it’s in the context of something to reject. maybe this is a coach or a controlling person in a sporting way? maybe someone from your past? someone who thinks with his head, not his heart. they aren’t very emotional, and they could be cruel to you.

“maybe pile 3 is getting offers for more than one team/group? if that's the case, then I think pile 3's guides is saying to avoid the one(s) that have no-nonsense, frownie face leaders, the type of person to cut down any chances of fun and straight-up running things like a marine. whoever this is, they're way too tough on everyone else and they're allergic to fun, their authoritative stance prevents the teammates from develop a bond with each other, and this energy would probably damper pile 3's motivation.”

i’m gonna be so for real, pile 3, i had to hold off posting this pick-a-card because of yall — it’s not bad, by the way! it’s just that something that i need to say to you guys — its a personal message, i believe. i was talking to a friend, sigyn (love u girl, even if you don’t see this), and she made me think about my own journey with shifting and breaking out of a shell. i said these words: “but man, even tho i’m scared, i don’t care, because my happiness… no, im worth more than fear.”

i feel like this was what i was missing no matter what happens, no matter how scared you are of success or messing up, you are worth more than fear. it cannot hold you. and, as i said before, do it with fear. be like miles morales, jump off that roof fucking BACKWARDS. fear cannot control you, you control it. omg i’m about to cry, but you guys, fear is not all. i promise you this. if you need to talk about fear and how to get over it, send me an ask and i’ll dm you. this is not the end of this journey, nah man, this is the beginning of your life. i love you pile 3.

that’s all i got for you, pile three! wishing you the best, and i rlly hope your work pays off before the new year :) i know how hard it is to keep motivation, and keep moving after such a long time of hard work, but know it will all pay off in the end. nothing {bad} can last forever, as all things must come to an end.

confirmation/additional signs: football, hockey, sports in general, Doja Cat, fire truck (victim of sa), food, especially salads or greens, “almost there”, “i can’t give up now; i have to prove them wrong,” getting back what you lost, anger issues, self doubt, the colour blue (throat chakra?), 2020 music 💀💀 (my heart went oops by tiagz came on…! and so did savage by megan thee stallion), chaos, thriving in chaos, not from the us, barbie, sia, black and white, contrasting colours, i know better by noahfinnce — “and i won’t stop running until i hear the sirens coming…”, not stopping until you get to your goal, “i’m just ken” — ryan gosling, 69, miles morales, impulsive decisions, 555, 999, alien blues.

thank yall for reading my first pac on this blog !! it was really fun, and i hope to do it again soon <3

[hirokari]

(っ 'ᜊ')っ I just wish I could hug you right now!! :(( You deserve so much better! I know you'll get through this tho, you're very strong, after all.

Still, just reminding you that taking a moment to yourself is completely ok and necessary sometimes. You have enough on your plate already, no need to feel bad about being sort of inactive here. No one (that truly cares) is going to hate you for prioritising your life outside tumblr over your presence here. (;•͈́༚•͈̀)

It's alright, we understand and we'll wait for you even if it takes forever. <3

And I'm fine, I've been resting a lot and catching up to some anime I started but never finished! School will start only by the end of the month, but I'm already very very nervous... But I'm still enjoying the free time I have while I can. (◎‸◎)

- 🧋

!! thank you for acknowledging that i'm strong!! though it may be a tiny detail, i myself needed a reminder for it :( i appreciate and accept the hug (づ￣ 3￣)づ very much needed

i assure you i won't take too long but you saying that makes me wanna cry i :'(( thank you so much, i appreciate this so much you have no idea

it's nice to hear you're well!! ah...... school. i am super EXTREMELY nevous on my part, too, because i've moved to another school!! some say it's a good thing because of a new environment and friends... but haha. i don't make friends very easily (#｀-_ゝ-) i'm rooting for you and your school activities!!!

thank you for the ask, bub. i seriously appreciate it.

[mooncademia]

Caught in Love

PAIRING ~ Aizawa x reader

GENRE ~ fluff

SUMMARY ~ After getting a job offer at U.A, your love life w/ Aizawa has officially transferred to school. And you loved it.

But wait...something is different about Class 1-A homeroom teacher! And it has definitely caught a few suspicious eyes.. who may or may not have an idea up their sleeves to satisfy their burning curiosity. 

First day working at U.A, you realized that you didn’t have to wake up at your usual morning alarm at 5:30 a.m.

Ah yes, the pro hero days of waking up super early, going to the agency, giving Aizawa (who continued to sleep beside you) a peck on his cheek before you left were now over.

And instead, you were introduced to a new routine.

A fresh one.

However, things weren’t going to change that fast, after all, you’ve been pro-hero for years! And your sleep cycle has stuck to your 5:30 a.m alarm and Aizawa, your husband, did not appreciate that.

“We are going to work, together!” You squealed as you flung open the blankets that covered you and Aizawa. You hopped out of bed and shook his shoulder, making Aizawa mumble a groan.

You kissed his cheek passionately and ruffled his messy raven-black hair a little bit.

“Come on,” you said. “Wake up, I’m going to make some coffee.”

Aizawa turned to the side to peek at the clock on the bed side table. He let out another groan when he saw the three digits.

“Y/N, it’s literally 5:34 a.m. You just need to be at U.A at 8 and we don’t live that far.”

“Yeah, well,” you said with an exciting smile. “You can never be too prepared!”

You scurried out of the room and turned on your coffee machine in the kitchen.  Aizawa turned around and saw his bedroom now empty. His wrinkled long black sleeve was bunched up to his waist and he frowned as he got up this early for the first time in months. You knew your husband was a rationally-driven man, sometimes a lone cat who prefers privacy and waking up a lot later. But what you didn’t know was that when Principal Nezu asked him if his wife could teach at U.A after All Might retired, he was thrilled.

So despite it being before 6 a.m, his excitement was bubbling over that it made him finally leave the bed.

But of course, he had to play it cool. With rational excuses, right?!

“Well, I guess I do have to review the school schedule with you,” he mumbled as he palmed the back of his neck and walked out of the bedroom.

When you saw your husband slumping down on the dining chair with his half-lidded eyes, your heart immediately flipped and you poured a nice cup of hot coffee for him.  

You knew him well enough that he didn’t wake up this early in the morning for no reason. You set the cup on the table and leaned down to give him a peck on the corner of his lips as a gesture of gratitude.

But at the very last second of pulling away, Aizawa got the best of you and wrapped your waist with his strong arms, causing you to sit down on his lap—santa lap style.

He hugged you warmly and you slung your arms around his neck. Aizawa snuggled his head between your neck and shoulder and sighed blissfully with his eyes closed. You laughed with your head tilted slightly back.

Yeah, he definitely was not a morning person.

After much time of Aizawa discussing you about the school system for the millionth time during breakfast and almost having a mental breakdown of whether or not you could actually teach (we all have those moments, right?), you were on your way to U.A.

And it really took your breath away.

The school was located on the top hill in Musutafu with the whole neighborhood revolving around it. Glass windows seemed to reach the sky and when you realized how freakin’ big the campus actually was, you couldn’t tear your eyes away from the building, not even a second.

But that wasn’t the best thing of all.

Because the best thing was having to walk to work with your favorite (and sometimes most annoying, but you love him nonetheless) person beside you. It was like having your best friend as a partner for your science project in high school. Ease poured over you as you found it quite pleasant to have a strong arm to lean delightedly upon, a familiar face that peers down at you with a gentle smile, and a reassuring voice to tell you that things will be okay.

It was still an hour before class but you and Aizawa were—of course—there early.

The two of you were walking down the halls. Sooner or later you’ll have to let go of your arm that was crossed with Aizawa’s before entering the teacher’s office because one thing that you both agreed upon was to keep the relationship low-key. No one knew that Aizawa’s wife was going to be the new teacher at U.A except for some of the faculty and of course…Hizashi Yamada, aka: the loudest person in the world in Shouta’s opinion.

“Y/N!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Present Mic shouted when he saw you step into the teacher’s office. His blonde hair that was religiously shifted upward was too iconic to not be noticed from far away. You giggled at the sight as he threw his arm around his best friend, Aizawa, poking him teasingly on the shoulder. You were great friends with Hizashi and in fact, he was the one who introduced you to Aizawa in the first place.

“Oi, Eraserhead, you’re so lucky your wife goes to work with you,” Hizashi teasingly snickered with his arm still slung around Shouta’s neck. Aizawa tried to shrug him off but it only made him tighten his grip. “So they managed to get Y/N to teach here but they haven’t even implemented my great idea?!”

“Please no, Mic.” Aizawa groaned, trying again to pull away from Hizashi’s grip.

You sat down your bag. “What’s your  ‘idea?’ ”

Hizashi let go of Aizawa’s neck and casually slung his arm around yours, making you giggle in surprise.

“Well of course it’s my HERO FM radio! Every Friday from 1:00-5:00 p.m!” He announced proudly (or more like promoting) making you laugh even more as Aizawa facepalmed himself. “I told the staff that they should let me add one more day, you know, because of my great increasing popularity! But they said one day a week is already “enough,” he said letting go of you to make air quotes with a disgusted expression on his face.

“Get to work Mic,” Aizawa called as he headed towards his desk to gather up some assignments for his morning class.

Hizashi winked at you before he trotted off, throwing you a thumbs-up sign. “Get ready for some ‘strict Aizawa-sensei.’ One day during U.A fest, I wanted to hear Class 1-A perform but Aizawa kept on saying that I should be on patrol duty—“

“Which you should’ve. It was your shift.” Aizawa interrupted bluntly.

“But I just wanted an INSEY WINCEY listen!!” Hizashi stomped on his feet childishly which made Aizawa roll his eyes and let out a sigh.

You went to your husband and stood on your tippy-toes to land a small peck on his cheek. Aizawa blushed at your move because of the fact that you two were in a semi-public place, but he didn’t complain at all.

“Oh, don’t worry.” You seductively caressed his shoulder and gave him a charming smile as you leaned in deadly closer to his face with your hips arched a bit. “I can’t wait to see… what Aizawa-sensei is like.”

Your tone was silky smooth and you rolled out the last word so slowly that it made Aizawa’s mouth part open just a bit. He stared at you dumbfoundedly. Your eyes flickered down to his lips and he swallowed a gulp. He felt like Cupid just shot his heart and he was totally falling for you once again because the fact that you called him ‘sensei’ totally did not make his stomach or heart heat up.

Yeah…he really was goddamn lucky to have you work at U.A alongside him.

———

“Overall, ‘Plus Ultra’ doesn’t always necessarily means you need to exceed your limits physically. But it also means mentally. It’s how your brain exercises to solve complex situations. What are your strategies like? Are you saving those who need saving in quick time while doing minimal damage to your surroundings? I hope next week’s practice can allow you to exercise these brain muscles of yours that I reviewed today because listening to your thoughts and being mentally stable/prepared is more important than how powerful your quirk is. Listen to that hero gut instinct of yours, because at the end, especially in dearest times… it’s going to help you immensely.” You finished with an encouraging smile that made the class almost want to clap at your amazing class. You were glad to see their engaging faces and raising their hands when they had a question.

Class 1-A was truly remarkable. Though, the only student that left you curiously wondering about was the small boy with purple balls on his head because he seemed to be staring at you so intensely that you swore his eyes were bugging out of their sockets.

Aizawa bowed at you when you finished and you gave him a smirk.

The class began to exchange small chats as you bowed back to Aizawa.

“Wow, I think this teacher is really good! She’s so pretty and smart!” Ashido excitedly whispered to Tsuyu behind her with her eyes widened.

“That’s pro-hero for you,” Kaminari added with his index finger and thumb pointed high up. “Plus, she even made Aizawa-sensei stand there awake the whole entire time listening.”

Some of the classmates nodded eagerly in return, truly astounded that their homeroom teacher did not retreat to his traditional yellow sleeping bag that he usually does.  

“Thank you L/N-sensei,” Aizawa said, popping the class back to the board ahead. You bowed at him in return, but before you headed out, you saw Aizawa gave you the tiniest nod and wait…was that a smile creeping on his lips?!

You exhaled silently in relief. You have been so nervous and worried about teaching at U.A. When Principal Nezu offered you the position, you were shocked to even know that he had you on his mind. You previously thought that Aizawa proposed the option but that guess was quickly diminished when he told you that he had nothing to do with it.

You were just a pro-hero doing your job and when the amazing opportunity arose, you immediately accepted it, knowing that you deeply wanted to help students find their way to hero-life.

And Aizawa knew you had been nervous about U.A since accepting the offer. You have stayed up countless nights just reviewing paperwork, going over the school schedule many times, and even looking through practice exams from the past, thinking about what further lessons you can teach to these students.

You folded your lips and returned a small nod, eyes twinkling as you slid the door to head out.

The class truly captured the small moment you and Aizawa had, but then all shrugged away when they heard their homeroom teacher begin handing out today’s assignments.

As you trotted away from the class back to the main office, you smiled at yourself as you hugged your folders tighter to your chest.

Hm… I could definitely get used to this.

———

Days seemed to go by faster than you had expected.

Wake up (sometimes not that early anymore thanks to Aizawa hugging you down even after your 5:30 alarm rings), enjoy breakfast, head to U.A, teach, and then go back home with Aizawa (when everyone else is —of course— away).

You’ve had your ups and downs at U.A. Some days, work seemed to flow by very smoothly while other days, work was more than just grading papers or checking assignments. There were a few days where work overloaded and you and Aizawa will be staying up past midnight checking over paperwork. But it was times like these where you truly felt utmost grateful to have a mentor there to help you. And it was even better that your mentor was your favorite person in the world.

It has been ten days since your first day at U.A.

Which means: ten days Aizawa not sleeping a wink during your long lectures about hero work that he already confidently knows. And to some of the classmates who knew their homeroom teacher well enough that his yellow sleeping bag was his best friend, it was a bit…odd.

“Don’t you think it's weird that Aizawa-sensei stays awake only during L/N-sensei’s lectures?” Uraraka asked Kaminari on their way to the Lunch Rush.  

“What do you mean?” Kaminari shrugged and chuckled. “It should be weird that a teacher sleeps during class in the first place, right?” He grabbed his food tray excitingly, his eyes focused closely on it, clearly not noticing Uraraka’s suspicious tone nor mischievous eyes.

Tsuyu popped in between with the two and let out a sigh. “Boys……You have to read in between the lines. Uraraka’s right.” She snapped her finger perkily.  “Aizawa-sensei is not just awake but he’s seemed very engaged to L/N-sensei.”

Kaminari stared at Tsuyu and Uraraka obliviously as he sat down with the rest of the classmates. “Huh?”

Uraraka rolled her eyes. “You know! From the way he nods his head when she talks or oh! That smile?! I have never seen his lips tilt upwards besides haunting us on how difficult practice exams are going to be.” She tiredly sighed, thinking about her teacher’s wicked smirk every time a huge exam was coming. It was like he found pleasure in challenging the students to surpass their limits.

But Tsuyu and Uraraka knew that Aizawa’s expression when you were in the room wasn’t that wicked grin that he had when announcing an upcoming exam or event. Instead, it was a mixture of awe and sincerity. And it definitely made the two girls exchange some giggles and fun guesses.

“What’s up?” Jirou said, sitting down beside Tsuyu with her cafeteria tray, noticing her friends laughing loudly.

Uraraka leaned forward on the table to peer over at Jirou. “It's about Aizawa-sensei and the new teacher!”  Her voice was loud enough that it caught the other classmates’ ears, making her furiously blush afterward from her spontaneous excitement.

But of course, of all the pairs of ears in Class 1-A, there was always the one come rushing in when it’s about his favorite subject: women.

“L/N-SENSEI?!” Mineta’s ears visibly perked up from Uraraka’s gush, clearly engrossed with the topic of the new teacher. “She’s SO gorgeous and oh lord, her—“

“Quit it, Mineta.” Kirishima slapped the back of Mineta’s head beside him before he could finish his lewd statement. He hooked his arm around Kaminari with a giant smirk plastered on his face.

“Why don’t we find out, huh?” Kirishima proposed as Kaminari tried to wiggle his way free from his grasp.

“Hey man, watch your grip!”

Uraraka waved her hand to dismiss Kaminari's racket and stared back up at Kirishima. “About what?” She asked curiously, taking another bite of her rice.

“Girls…” Kaminari mocked sarcastically with a sigh, mirroring Tsuyu’s earlier comment that she made on him. The two girls rolled their eyes and punched his shoulder.

Kirishima leaned into the group closer with slyness flickering in his eyes. He grinned and bopped his head at Jirou. “We can find out if there’s anything special between Aizawa-sensei and L/N-sensei…using Jirou’s quirk!”

Jirou scoffed and leaned back with her arms crossed before Kirishima could continue. “Uh, you’re using me to get info about our homeroom teacher’s private life? That doesn’t sound very friend-like to me if I say so myself.”

“Come on Jirou,” Kaminari whined. “It’ll be fun!”

Jirou raised her brows and sneered. “Since when did you get interested in this?”

Tsuyu shook her head and waved her hands, dismissing the rising chaos. “No, you’re right,” She said, trying not to show her disappointing face. “It’s not fair to just use Jirou to grab juicy news about our teachers, you know…even if it can be so great to the point that it makes us cheerful and excited despite upcoming exams.”

Uraraka bobbled her head up and down, religiously agreeing to everything Tsuyu had to say with a pout on her lips and closed eyes. “Or it can even help us lift our spirits.”

Tsuyu nodded. “Even if it is just a tiny bit, it can-“

“Alright, guys! I get it! Fine!” Jirou said over Tsuyu, earning grins from the boys and giggles from the girls. Jirou sighed and pinched her nose bridge. She looked up at her friends and darted a death glare at Kirishima and Kaminari. “I’m only doing this for the girls.”

It was half-true. Jirou didn’t want to agree to this for the boys. But another reason was because of school lately.  With heavy workload that the whole class was dealing with, plus the hero-work after school and training, school has been…well, quite draining. And similar to the time where the whole class decided to hold a competition for “best dorm room” last year to raise everyone’s spirits from the whole villain chaos, she thought maybe this can raise spirits up again too. Even if it’s just miscellaneous curiosity or excitement. She knew and sensed that her friends needed something exciting happening, besides school work.

So the plan that Kirishima introduced was to head over to the teacher’s lounge at this moment during lunch break. Since it was merely the beginning of lunch and there was still a good 45 minutes left, it was the perfect time for teachers to be on their desks with students the last thing on their minds. Jirou can place her earphone jacks in the wall to hear the voices inside to retrieve any news from the two teachers.

“And if we got nothing, that’s totally okay as well.” Kirishima shrugged. “We can always try next time!”

“NEXT TIME?!” Jirou exclaimed uneasily, twirling her earphone jacks. “Let’s just see what happens now, and focus on next time later.”

“All right then!” Uraraka clapped her hands excitingly and bumped her shoulder against Tsuyu’s with a beam. “Mission: FIONA starts now!“

“Fiona?” Kaminari raised his brow, getting out of his seat with the rest of his friends.

Uraraka pointed her finger up in the air pridefully. “Find-Info-ON-Aizawa. I couldn’t think of an acronym for ‘ON’ so just leave it together and you’ll get—wooah!”

Jirou and Tsuyu locked elbows with her and dragged her away before she could finished,  followed by Kirishima and Kaminari trotting behind their footsteps.

“If you keep explaining it’s going to be Mission: GIT!” Jirou sneered, giving Uraraka’s elbows a good tug.

“GIT?”

Tsuyu smirked as the five of them head towards the teacher’s office. “GETTING INTO TROUBLE!”

———

Lunch breaks were times where you and Aizawa could finally heave a sigh of relief and chat with each other freely. You were happy to work at U.A with Aizawa because now since work schedules were parallel, you could efficiently have the time to hang out with him. When you were pro-hero at your original agency, you’ll often come back home with no trace of Aizawa since he was still in school working on students’ assignments till late evening.

But now, you had all the time in the world to chat with him. Okay maybe not all the time, just an hour and a half, but it was definitely enough for you.

Aizawa was sitting next to you on your desk, nodding along to your talks about your recent lectures with other classes as he gave some advice on teaching.

You let out a wistful sigh and rested your head on Aizawa’s shoulder. You closed your eyes and let out a hum. “Thanks for helping me through all this. I can’t believe teacher work is this much.”

Aizawa let out a puff of air and smirked. He peered down at you from the corner of his eye. “So are you gonna apologize for all the times you were scolding me for not coming back home early?”

You shot your head back up with your eyes widened and a jaw exasperated dropped. You knew that Aizawa was joking from on his tone but you pressed your hand on your chest and squinted your eyes at him, giving him a death glare. “Excuse me? Uhm, sir, I don’t think that’s fair. And besides! All the hours you were gone, I really really missed you and-“

Aizawa leaned forward, a hand snaking to the back of your neck, taking you by surprise as he crashed his lips against yours. You were completely shell-shocked that your eyes stayed open the entire time. Sure, you have kissed Aizawa a thousand times before, but he rarely made the first move. And oh did your heart fluttered!

Aizawa pulled away with a smile dancing on his lips. “And I really missed you too.”

Before you could open your mouth to respond, you heard a loud gasp from outside, making you unconsciously turn your head towards the sound.

A muffled voice transmitted through the walls. “KEEP IT DOWN, KAMINARI!”  

A female’s voice? Or was it a boy?

More muffling voices continued and you couldn’t really understand it, but one thing you knew for sure was that there was someone outside.

You twirled your head back to Aizawa. His face hardened and got up from the chair, walking towards the door.

“SH- ! HE- COMING!” A familiar voice echoed through the walls that you could only capture words of.

Aizawa finally opened the door and looked to his right.

Caught red-handed.

All five students were crunched down to the ground. With Jirou’s earplugs on the wall with Uraraka and Tsuyu beside her, plus Kaminar and Kirishima hovering right above her not missing any detail she was saying, Aizawa knew exactly what was up.

“Shouta? What’s wrong?” You asked, making your way to the door when you saw his cold expression.

You sucked in a breath when you saw the scene to your right.  

“RUN!” Jirou shouted but it was too late. Aizawa immediately caught the five of them with his trusty gray scarf so fast that you swore you didn’t even notice it. His scarf rolled all five up into a bundle individually so that their arms were glued to their sides.

All of the students heated up from shame.

“Soooooo……..” Kaminari mumbled weakly, trying to make the matter less intensive. “Are you two dating..or..something?” His voice squeaked higher and higher as Aizawa’s brows got deeper and deeper.

You knew you had every right to be mad that these students who were invading you and Aizawa’s privacy, and you should! But to your surprised, your offended emotions were quickly replaced with a comical one as you saw all the students’ ducking their heads in shame, darting their eyes away from Aizawa’s hardened glare.

Ah well…they would’ve found out sooner or later.

You let out a chuckle. Aizawa turned his head at you with his eyes widened, not knowing that you would be taking this matter so lightly. But you returned him with a kind of smile that immediately released the tension of his grip and the eyebrows on his face.

The students perked their heads up in confusion from your reaction, and you flashed them a smile as you snaked your hand behind Aizawa’s back.

“Dating? Hmmm…,” you said, a lopsided smirk dancing across your lips.

“I think it’s a little bit more than that.”

And with those words, Uraraka and Tsuyu couldn’t help but squeal in delight despite still being bonded.  Kaminari swore he never felt this wholesome since getting accepted into U.A, and Kirishima—on the other hand—twirled his head away from you and mumbled with his eyebrows furrowed in great passion: “…He’s so manly!”

And Aizawa? Well, he definitely looked at you in surprise for being so open, but no less than a second, he felt a warm breeze rushing through his body.

Your laugh after seeing the students’ reaction was the most beautiful sound he has ever heard.  

It always has been.

And hearing that made him feel like hey…

Perhaps people knowing wouldn’t hurt! And maybe it’s because he just loved you that much, or maybe it’s that fact that he realized, that no matter if his class or the freakin’ public knows or not….

Nothing…absolutely nothing, is going to disrupt the beautiful relationship the two of you have.

[violetnotez]

Can I request a storyline where reader and Ms. Joke gives advice to each other to ask their crushes out. (Reader crushing on Bakugou and Ms. Joke likes Eraserhead). Also I love your Dabi fic it's so damn amazing.

Anon I know this took so long but I loved this idea ALOT. Like-literally GENIUSSSSSSSS!!!! And omg I’m so happy you liked my Dabi fics!!!🥺😭

Another fic for the @bnhabookclub event! If you wanna join in, heres the link!

Also pls ignore that Ms Jokes shoulder has disappeared I forgot to fix it 💀

Bakugo x reader

⤷ Genre: Fluff

⤷ Word Count: 2000+

⤷ Warnings: cursing

⤷ Synopsis: As your helping your hero aunt Ms. Joke concoct a plan to win over Eraserhead, the conversation somehow turns to your crush on Bakugo. Even though you feel comfortable talking about the hotheaded boy with your aunt over the phone, you don’t realize how bad that idea is until a certain someone decided to eavesdrop outside the door.

Song Recs: ⤷ Leave This Place-Lione ⤷All This Time-Deorro ⤷Start It Over-NOTD

“Okay okay, how about this one-

“Can you pass me my inhaler, because you just took my breath away!”

Ms. Joke made an over exaggerated attempt at swooning, her voice airy and theatrical. You couldn’t help but giggle at her antics, your nose scrunching at the terrible pick up line she just gave you.

“I don’t think that one will work Auntie,” you mused, your phone on speaker as you tidied up your UA dorm room.

Not many people were aware of it, but your aunt was Ms. Joke, the comedy hero. It was quite a shocker when you let that information out to your classmates, as they couldn’t understand why you had went to UA over her hero school. It was true you had entertained the idea of going, but as much as you loved your aunt-you could only tolerate her for so long. She was so fun and energetic to be around, but that energy quickly became draining after a few hours.

The thought of having to be around your aunt every day made you feel tired just thinking about it, so you had kindly opted to try UA instead. Your aunt was a little disappointed that you had picked UA over her school, but she was over the moon excited for you to finally follow her footsteps and become a hero.

It also didn’t hurt that you would be around Aizawa quite a lot-and she definitely used that to her advantage.

“Oh Cmon tho, Jitter Bug, he would love it!” She exclaimed through the phone. “That one is such a laugh riot!”

“I think you forget that Mr. Aizawa isn’t too big on jokes,” you gave her a short giggle as you began to fold the freshly cleaned clothes on your bed.

“Hm….” she hummed in thought.

“What about-I’m thirsty, and guess whose body is 75% water? I’d then give him a killer smile to go along with it-he can’t say no to me then!”

Your cheeks turned incredibly red-the thought of your aunt hitting on your teacher so openly like that? Revolting.

You made a gagging noise at the prospect, a nervous laugh spilling out.

“I swear if you do that, I will dig my own grave and lay in there from second hand embarrassment,”

A belly laugh erupted in the other end of the line, Ms. Joke’s chuckles high pitched and uncontrollable.

“You really are a hard one to impress, huh?” She said between laughter.

“That type of pick up line is a little too young though-you babies are the ones that say ‘thirsty’ all the time…”

You heard a little hum on the other side of the phone, signaling she was thinking deeply.

“Why don’t you use that one on that boy you like, what’s his name again?”

She asked good naturedly, a hint of sneakiness in her voice. “It’s-Bakugo, Katsuki Bakugo, right?”

Your eyes went wide like saucers, your body language going rigid.

“Auntie you cant say that so loud, I’m on speaker phone!” You hushed her.

Your cheeks went insanely red, your head swiveling to look at your door.

Damn you and not closing it properly-anybody walking by could have heard!

Your aunt only knew about your crush because she had noticed you staring quite intently at Bakugou at your provisional licensing exam, her questions hard to not answer truthfully. She had promised not to tell anyone, not even your parents, but she used it against you nevertheless.

You sighed a breath of relief once you were satisfied that no one had walked by, your head turning back to your phone call.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ

Unknowing to you, someone had walked by-Bakugo.

It was later in the day and getting close to his early bedtime, so he had come up to tell you to be quiet.

It felt strange walking up to your room-Bakugo knew he was beginning to like you, more than just a classmate or a friend, yet he didn’t quite want to believe it.

He shouldn’t have all these vulnerable feelings, he should be focusing on training and nothing more. But the more and more he tried to ignore it the more and more he realized how much he truly admired you-you were so damn pretty to him, your laugh and smile always making a blush rise to his cheeks, and the way you would look at him so innocently whenever he spoke to you made his whole world light up.

He liked how you respected him, but you would also put him in his place if needed.You were really one of the few only people he would listen to, which made it even worse-you had a power over him you didn’t even know about. It frustrated him, but he cared about your opinion too damn much to openly defy your wishes.

It sucked how easily he’d fallen for you, but he couldn't make it stop, no matter how hard he tried.

Just as he trudged up the stairs to your room, he noticed the door unlocked, a strange thing for him to see since he had prepared himself to knock. Whatever-less time waiting outside your door. He lightly leaned himself against the adjacent wall, ready to yell his warning at you quickly until he heard the familiar voice of Ms. Joke speak his name from a phone call.

The hell were you even talking about?

He couldn’t help it, he had to listen in, it was him you were talking about after all. As much as he didnt want to care, he hoped it was only good things you were speaking of, his heart fluttering when he heard your aunt say “you like him.”

Was it true? Did you really feel the same for him?

Bakugo instantly felt himself to sweat, his vermillion eyes wide as he prayed the news he was hearing wasn’t a lie-you had to like him back. You just had to.

Ms. Joke laughed at your distress, her voice lighthearted and loud.

“Oops, sorry!” She said, not a single ounce of remorse in her tone. “But really, y/n, what do you see in that boy! He’s so-well-“

“Harsh?” You finished her sentence, shuffling on your bed.

“Exactly! He’s always so mean and entitled too-you can’t find another boy in UA? What about Shoto-hes a pretty one!”

You gave a giggle, your hands fiddling nervously with your hair.

“Shoto is just a friend Auntie, and besides, he’s quite reserved-Bakugo isn’t,” you sighed, “Ive never meant anyone like him before.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ

Bakugo’s heart beat painfully in his chest from outside the door.

This was fucking wrong-he was being a total creepster eaves dropping in your private conversation.

He kept telling himself that this was all okay, because you were talking about him and it was your goddamn fault for speaking about him behind his back-

But he knew deep down it was because he wanted so badly to know. He just wanted to be reassured that there was a connection between you two and he could pursue it somehow.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ

“He’s just so-different. He is really harsh and brutally honest-it makes him kinda unique in a way. He’s always so driven, trying to do his best to be the best-it’s infectious, ya know? I can't help but admire him for that.”

you admired him? god, hearing those words sent him over the moon. You sounded so sweet and so soft as you relayed all your inner feelings to Ms. Joke, his heart was practically swooning.

Your aunt gave a small nod at your words, her voice much more understanding.

“Have you talked to him? Tried to ask him out or do anything you little kiddies usually do when you have a crush?” She asked playfully.

You sighed, your hands combing through your hair.

“Oh I could never! He wouldn’t like me back-he’s too into his school work. And he is super harsh-god I don’t know what I’d do if he’d reject me….”

“I understand you full heartedly JitterBug,” she used your nickname again, a groan slipping out of your lips.

“Are you yiu ever going to stop calling me that!”

“Never!” She exclaimed, her voice loud and cheerful again. “Your my wonderful little JitterBug and I’m going to keep calling you that until I kick the bucket!

“But really,” she sighed, her tone much more serious. “You never know until you try! I got rejected myself many, many, MANY times-but Im still doing perfectly fine!”

You held back a small snicker-your aunt, the Jokester Hero, who can’t hold a conversation without cackling like a maniac, the one who wears the most ridiculous outfits, has a chaotic fighting style, and has been pinning over the same guy since her internship days as a rookie?

Yeah, perfectly fine isn’t the best way you would describe her.

You simply hummed a nod in order to satiate her a response, a small smile gracing your lips.

“Ugh, I just got a call-they need me to help out with some robbery,” you aunt huffed out, her tone clearly tired. You felt a little bad for the hero-she must have been having a pretty crazy day.

“I’m sorry we had to cut our call so short!”

“Oh no it’s no problem!” You reasuresed her happily, “stay safe out there!”

“You two Jitterbug! Byeeeee!” She practically yelled her goodbye into the phone, making you flinch.

You breathed a tranquil sigh, readying yourself to start studying for your tests when you heard a loud banging upon your door.

“Oi, dumbass, can I come in for a minute?” The gruff voice of Bakugo filled the room, making your blood shiver-

Bakugo?!? Wait-was he there the whole time?!?

You teeth were practically chattering from that overwhelming fear, your cheeks red and your eyes wide.

You seriously were going to crawl into a hole and never come out if he heard that whole conversation.

You crawled off your bed, your hand making their way to the door to peak it open slightly.

Bakugo’s heart was thumping violently in his chest-now he knew you felt the same for him, this was going to be extremely easy. But he still felt really nervous, especially when your hair was so perfectly messy like that and your cheeks were dusted with pink like you were already nervous yourself.

God damn, why did you have to be so attractive? It just messed everything up for him, making him feel like he couldn’t think straight.

“Hey Bakugo, I-Uh-what’s up? Did you need something?”

“Yeah,” he replied gruffly, his nerves making his hand sweat more than usual. “something like that,”

Damn quirk, he thought in annoyance, shoving his hands into his pants. “You gonna let me in?”

“Oh-uh,”you began to stutter, shifting away from the door and opening it up slightly, “sure, yeah!”

He grinned to himself at your adorableness-did you always act this nervous around him? How did he not notice you like him before-it was so obvious to see now when you were fidgeting like that.

He strutted into your room, a new found confidence in him as he shut the door of the room for you, practically trapping you in with him. A mischievous smirk graced his lips, making your heart thump against your ribcage.

“Don’t want anyone overhearing by accident cause you cant close a door right,”

You groaned in embarrassment.

Welp-he knew.

You gave him a small look, your eyes doe -like and scrunched up in uneasiness.

“How much of that did you hear?” You asked timidly.

Bakugo scoffed, that shit eating grin still plastered on his face.

“All of it, Jitterbug,”

You groaned yet again, plopping your body onto the bed in embarrassment.

How could this happen?! He was right-you should have closed the door! You covered your face with your hands, your fingers trailing against your forehead and your hair.

“God I’m so sorry, I probably sounded like a creep, I didn’t mean to-“ you tried to apologize and explain yourself, your cheeks a cherry red.

“Do you like me?” He interrupted you, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

You looked up timidly-god, was he always this intimidating?

He was standing right in front you, his overwhelming stature making you feel so small and overpowered. He was wearing this strange smirk, as if he was enjoying interrogating you.

That usually wasn’t a Bakugo thing to do, to smirk like that, but damn, was it kinda-hot. You could really only focus on that, on the way his lips curled up so softly like he was happy about something but trying to repress it. It was warm and inviting, and you couldn’t help but feel some of your awkwardness melt away.

“How would you feel if I said ‘yes’?” You tried your best to lighten the mood some what, a nervous smile slipping against your lips.

Bakugo knelt down, his body so much more closer to you. His hands went on each side of your legs, his thumbs just brushing your outer thigh. He caged you in to the bed with his arms, his face mere inches from yours.

Well shit.

You felt the blood rush to your face, your ears pounding-you never knew he felt this warm so close, and god-did he really smell like salted caramel? His vermillion eyes were boaring to yours, sending your senses into over drive.

“And how would it feel if I said ‘yes’?” He turned your words against you, his voice husky and deep form being so close.

You squirmed from nerves, your hands going to play with your hair. It was so strange being so close to him, and you didn’t know what to do.

You looked so cute flustered like this-Bakugo internally tried to remember this perfectly, mentally writing down your adorable mannerisms and facial expression to memory. As much as he loved this, you were taking too long for a reply, and he was getting a little annoyed.

“What was that? I’m still waiting,” he asked gruffly, his voice low and sultry.

You gulped, feeling a pang in your heart from hearing that type of voice come from him. Directed to you.

“I-Uh-yes, I-I do, I've liked you for a while now,” you revealed, your cheeks practically tomato red.

He smirked at your expression, slowly lifting his body with off the weight.

You looked up in confusion, already feeling cold without his warm body so close to yours.

“Good,” he replied, his voice prideful, “cause I feel the same way.”

“You do!” You practically shouted, your eyes wide with shock.

The Bakugo-“liked you” liked you? You could practically scream with happiness.

“Well yeah dumbass, why would I say that if I didn’t?” He chuckled slightly, his bright red eyes still drinking you in.

Now his nerves were coming out again, a heaviness feeling his stomach as he realized what he had to do now.

“I-I’m not good at this shit, but-

“Wanna go out tomorrow?”

You were practically screaming like a little girl internally. This was happening? Was this all just a cruel dream?

Only one way to figure out if this was real or not.

You stood up from the bed, bringing yourself close to the hot head.

Now it was Bakugo’s turn to be embarrased-he was getting too comfortable being the one to make you nervous. He forgot how you could make him so flustered, your warm smile and pretty eyes making his heart thump painfully and his mind go into a panicked standstill.

Your hands shakily wrapped around his neck, slow to see how he would react.

God, you had thought about touching his hair for so long now, it was even better than you imagined-soft and fluffy like a cloud, you ran your hands through the spiky locks. The faint smell of caramel wafted into your nose agaun, making you feel nervous and calm at the same time.

He was slightly rigid, staring at you with shocked eyes-but he seemed to not mind this. You smiled softly, your heart thumping-it was now or never.

You slowly got on your toes and leaned yourself into his lips, surprised how warm they felt. At first he didn’t move, which scared you-but he eventually began to move against your lips, a little rough but still pleasant. A flood of warmth filled your body, your hands relaxing against his body. You felt his arms wrap around your body, his lips now taking the lead and guiding you into him.

You couldn’t believe how good this felt, how perfect and surreal it was.

But you remembered-sadly- breathing was a thing, your lungs burning as you both reluctantly pulled away.

You thanked your aunt for her loud mouth in your blissful daze, because without her, you wouldn’t be kissing your crush now.

You smiled at the blonde, his cheeks dusted with red and his eyes drinking you in.

“Tomorrow sounds great.”

[chaoskirin]

Reversed (Reworked) Chapter One

Well, I finally did it! I am re-working Reversed in order to remove the Harry Potter from it. This was one of my most popular Queen stories, written before the author of HP showed her true colors. I like the story too much to allow it to be tainted by that BS, so here it is with a new coat of paint!

There is, of course, still some similarities. I’m REMOVING the Harry Potter. And while that does necessitate some re-writes, the gist is still the same. I hope you enjoy the story as I repost it chapter by chapter!

PLEASE Reblog, and please feel free to comment on AO3. I love comments, if you’re so inclined.

AO3 link can be found here!

---

Chapter Title: In His Eyes Word Count: 5148 Rating: PG Genre: Fantasy/Gen Summary: Roger, Brian, and John are brought together by a shared accident.

Between the two of them, Brian and John should have been able to get Roger up the stairs. Should have. Except Roger had become dead weight between them, legs dragging, black eyes staring.

"Did you hex his legs, too?" Brian snapped, lip curling at John, who supported Roger's other arm.

Neither Brian--a student in the Kyyra View--nor John--who made his home in Vexxzus--were particularly powerful. Despite Roger falling prey to the same muscle-less predicament, he sure had a healthy weight to him. As John stumbled on an uneven step, he growled, "Use your legs, Taylor!"

"I thought I was supposed to be playing the grievously injured damsel in distress?"

Brian groaned. "How are you still joking about this? You can't see, you idiot!"

"Bet he can walk, though." John elbowed Roger's ribs, and miraculously, the Oerris found his feet.

Vale Rest loomed ahead of them--an enormous, crooked tree growing out of a shallow escarpment. The natural magical force in the area made it an ideal, if not unsightly, place to construct an academy. At least it blended in with the environment, which was more that could be said for other schools. Of course to get to it, one had to climb a million steps.

At least that's what it felt like.

They paused outside the southern tanglewood doors to catch their breath. Despite their altercation, John kept one hand on Roger's arm out of guilt; he couldn't just leave the other student alone on the dark after everything, especially since it wasn't meant to happen.

John only meant to disarm the other boy, but a much nastier curse had bubbled up in his mind instead. The anger, combined with the fresh blood on his hands, led to the recitation of a spell he didn't even know he knew.

Scraping his thumb across his palm, John dislodged the last of the dried beetle haemolymph. Vexxzus spellcasting was disgusting but powerful, and he could still feel the magical aura around him from the insect's death. With that alone, he'd be able to cast for many hours.

As if reading his mind, Brian asked, "Why can't you Vexxzus have a normal focus?" He ran his hand over the branched barrier in front of him until he found the right combination, after which the door swung open. "To cast immediately, too. It's... Well, it's irresponsible is what it is!"

"Aw, c'mon. You know Vexxzus' magic is pretty new," Roger said, glancing up from the floor. An intricate black mask traced the skin in and around his eyes, the pattern almost like lace. It was disturbing but beautiful, shimmering like stars. John couldn't stop looking at it, half with pride and half with horror. A second year student such as himself shouldn't have been able to cast such a curse.

"Decades old," Brian corrected as he and John guided Roger onto the flagstone interior, then toward yet another set of stairs. "A new study in the course of history, sure, but it's been around--There's still people alive who were kids when it first manifested. It's hardly new! Anyway, why are you defending him?"

"Mmmh," Roger mused, his feet tapping in front of him to find the steps. "It looks like he's sorry."

"Looks like!" Brian exclaimed. "You can't bloody see!"

"But I can feel!" Roger argued. "Look at 'im. He's practically shakin' out of his boots."

John certainly did feel as if he'd be expelled for this, or that his family would disown him. Or kill him. Consequently, he couldn't prevent the occasional shudder from wracking his body.

Brian grunted a halfhearted acknowledgement. Roger patted John's arm and said, "It's okay, John. Trust me."

John curled his lip, sneering. "How, in any way, is this okay?"

"It's not," Brian said. "And once we make sure Roger's okay, I'm telling the Council everything."

"I hope you make sure you tell them that this idiot challenged me to a duel in the first place!" John snarled. "And you were his second, May!"

"'This idiot' is right here," Roger noted.

"Good! Don't challenge me to a duel next time!"

"Roger that!" Roger Roger'd.

Incredulous, Brian let Roger go, and stood with his hands on his hips. "Oh, you'll listen to him?" Brian demanded. "This is a snake, Roger. We step on snakes. I'm your best friend, and I clearly remember telling you that this was a bad idea."

"Well, I mean..." Roger fumbled for words. "There's a big difference between 'this is a bad idea' and 'don't do the thing.' Seems to me like we should keep John around. He has the potential to stop me from doing some incredibly stupid stuff!"

John chuckled before he realized what he was doing.

"It's not funny, you prat," Brian said. "You could have killed him." Killed? No. Could he have? Granted, he'd said the words to the curse that blinded Roger before he really knew what he was saying, as if they had a mind of their own. He'd screamed them, in fact, if he remembered right. At full volume, louder than he'd ever said anything before.

What if his anger had driven him to say something else, though? There were rumors. The barest whispers of the power of Death Magic--the power to take a life for a life. Since the Vexxzus View manifested some seventy-odd years ago, those in the darkest reaches of the world had experimented. And, it had been theorized, the words came from deep within; a language spoken with no context. An ancient tongue... "No," John said, half to himself and half to Brian. "I couldn't have. I'm twelve." He stopped on the stairs, distracted by the idea. "You could have. I'm honestly surprised you didn't," Brian said. "Pleasantly, mind, since we're all still very much alive. Thanks for that."

Could he have felt so much hate in that moment that he could have possibly used magic to kill? Was it even possible? If anyone could do it, his View could.

No.

"Let's go, Rog," Brian said, taking Roger's arm again. He gave John another good glare before turning away.

Despite his blindness, Roger still faced backward even as Brian dragged him up the stairs. Eventually, Roger turned away as well, and John thought that would be the end of it. He'd escape to his dormitory and await his punishment while he pondered if he was capable of killing another student in hatred.

Well. Hatred was too strong a word. John didn't particularly like Roger Taylor, but he didn't hate him.

"Hang on, Bri," Roger said. John looked up again, to find the Oerris student feeling his way down the stairs on his own. John automatically reached out to help him. Roger wasn't a bad kid after all... He was just a bit of a jackass. And definitely didn't deserve a life of blindness for a few idiot pranks. "John, I told you, it'll be okay." He took one of John's hands in both of his, and for a second, John believed him.

"No, he's like all the other Vexxzuses," Brian grumbled. "He'll grow up to be a murderer. Maybe even the first person to murder someone with a single word."

John wrenched his hand away from Roger. He lacked the fortitude to argue, since fear and a painfully insistent shame clouded his thoughts. He actually could have killed someone! And even if Roger was just an stick-waving Oerris like the rest of them, with no sense of artistry to the craft, he was still a kid.

Also, the most confusing person John had ever met, because who in their right mind was actually nice to someone who'd just cast a terrible curse on you?

Roger, apparently. An person with feelings and dreams and goals. What if, instead of staring into Roger's starry eyes, John had to stare at his life-robbed corpse?

He saw it for a moment. A snow-pale classmate, dead and still. Struck with the gravity of what could have happened, John shuffled backwards. Unfortunately, as he was on a step, his foot landed on thin air, resulting in an immediate tumble. Something cracked as he tried to catch himself, and the resulting pain followed him all the way down. He couldn't remember how high up he was, but by the time he collided with the landing, he felt like he'd rolled down a hundred stairs. Howling in agony, he curled against the banister, clutching at his arm.

"What happened?" Roger asked. "John?"

"Look--I didn't mean it, Deacon," Brian said, footsteps getting closer. "I mean, as far as Vexxzuses go, you're all right, I guess? What'd you go and--Oh, hell, this is broken."

John opened his eyes, tears distorting the blue and silver colors of Brian's Kyyra uniform. "Broken?" John hadn't ever seen that look on Brian's face before. Gentle, worried, caring. Before, it always looked so angry. "You're both idiots," he said.

"Brian?" Roger whimpered.

Brian bit his lip, brow furrowed. "Okay, Rog... Let me..." He stood, skipping back up the stairs. Taking Roger by the hand, he guided him back down to the landing. "Sit here with Deacon. I'm gonna go get a nurse. Don't move, either of you. I mean it."

After helping Roger sit, Brian ran off, at a much quicker pace, toward the hospital. All John wanted to do was cry, really, but he found himself distracted when he felt Roger's hand on his hip. "What are you...?" John started. But Roger seemed to be concentrating quite intently as he moved his hand, finding John's elbow. A little more, and he was touching John's shoulder. "Ah-ha!" he exclaimed. Reaching all the way around, Roger pulled John up, until he was sitting. Not one to reject any sort of comfort at the moment, John leaned against Roger, relishing the warmth. "Did you fall down the whole flight?" Roger asked. "Half, maybe," John said, glancing up and estimating. "Yeah, half. May says my arm is broken." He looked down at it and wished he hadn't; no arm should be able to bend quite that way, and seeing it just made it hurt more.

"Why do you do that?" Roger asked.

"What? Fall? It's a hobby."

"No. You call me and Brian by our last names. I mean, he does it, too, but just 'cuz you do, I think."

John really had no idea. It seemed like the thing to do, he supposed. Take something precious to someone and completely ignore it in favor of something less personal? Seemed stupid, now that he really thought about it.

"Anyway," Roger went on. "This is quite a spell you did. I think you might know more than Brian." More than a stuck up old Kyyra? Possible. Probable, even. Though Brian didn't seem like the type to study curses in the first place. Academics could name a curse and maybe even go through the incantation for a test, but to actually pull it off? Nah. Most who shared the Kyyra View had the same problem, at least as far as John knew.

He took a moment to feel pride at the compliment, until the implications hit him. Looking into Roger's eyes, he winced. "It's bad, Roger."

"I know."

"Then why are you so calm?"

He smiled serenely. "Well, it's done, isn't it? There's nothing I can do about it right this minute. Besides, I don't think you meant to."

After a moment, John said, "No. I really didn't." There was no sense wasting an opportunity to learn, though. He leaned over to look at the spell's handiwork again. "What's it like? Do you see anything?"

Roger shook his head. "No. N'come to think of it, I'm not totally sure what... what it was like to see." His eyes narrowed, the bright stars shifting around inside. "That's strange. I mean, odd, isn't it? I don't remember what you look like."

John felt sick.

"It'll be okay!" Roger said again. "Brian'll demand the Head Matron. Salwix, or her assistant Cammielle. He gets all panicky and people kinda take him seriously 'cuz he's so brainy. They'll make it better."

John wasn't so sure.

In the idle silence, Roger waved a hand in front of his own face, expression elated, as if this was the most wonderful thing to ever happen to him. "Wow! What's a hand look like? I can feel it, but I don't remember. Neat, huh? You know, my view's colors are purple and gold, but I can't even think of what purple is anymore! This is so weird--"

"Please stop," John said weakly.

"Eh? All right. Just thought you wanted to know, is all." Roger pulled his knees up, wrapping his arms around them.

"Didn't know it did all that," John replied. "Actually I wasn't sure what it'd do. I think I read about it once. My family's got these old books. Sometimes I'd sneak into my mom's study to read them."

"Didja get in trouble?"

John laughed. "Yeah. Sometimes." Roger laughed, too, then said, "Look at us, havin' a normal conversation for once."

"You're cursed, and I've just broken my arm. This isn't how normal people have a chat."

"Normal as we've ever had. Anyway, you seem nice enough. How'd you end up with the Death View, anyway? I thought only the creepy ones ended up there."

John curled his nose. A lot of people thought the same of Vexxzus, but one couldn't control their magical aptitude any more than they could control the color of the sky. "They shouldn't be called Views," John answered. It was the only thing he could think of to say.

"Yeah, but--"

"It's just a way to do magic, all right? And some people are... better at it than the other views. Some people... It's all they can do."

"Really? It's all you can do?" Roger pressed. "I'm good at Oerris, but I can do Kyyra if I really concentrate. But I don't want to concentrate, so..." He trailed off with a shrug. "You know Brian can do all four? Even Ghittan?"

John didn't know that. His respect for the Kyyra increased a fraction of a millimeter.

After re-situating his arm, which had dulled from a brilliant pain to a mere sharp ache, John said, "yes, it's all I can do."

"Weird," Roger said, though his voice carried a hint of contemplation to it. "We all just thought that--"

"Oh! Heavens, there they are, just like you said!" a voice echoed from the upper landing, cutting Roger off as a heavyset nurse bustled down the steps. Headmatron Salwix, who ran the entire hospital, reached John and Roger and knelt down next to them. Brian followed a few steps behind.

Salwix reached into her pocket, retrieving a pouch, out of which she took a pinch of red clay. Looping the pouch around her thumb, she reached for John's wrist; her touch set it to throbbing again, and he squealed.

She tsk'd. "You're right, May. Definitely broken. Falling down a flight of steps at your age, Deacon? Remind me--"

"A second-year, ma'am," Brian supplied.

"Well, I suppose it happens sometimes," Salwix muttered, gently sprinkling the cold clay down John's forearm. She muttered a healing incantation John hadn't yet learned and added, "this will numb the pain until I can take a closer look. But it's still broken, so don't go doing cartwheels on it."

John's answered with a relieved sign. "Yes, ma'am."

"As for you..." she said, turning to Roger. Reaching for his face, she grabbed his cheeks and turned his head from side to side, squishing his lips into a pucker with her grasp. With her other hand, she traced the lines around his eyes. "Cold, smooth. I know what this is, but I haven't seen it in years, and then, only once in my entire career! What in Merlin's name happened?"

John looked up at Brian. The Kyyra crossed his arms, quickly looking away. He hadn't told!

"Whrrbwoosiiyrrs--" Roger tried. Salwix released his face.

After rubbing his jaw, Roger tried again. "One of the sixth-years bet me that I couldn't curse myself," he said, brimming with unearned pride. "Now he owes me n' Brian n' John here a round next time we go to Rec."

John bristled. How dare a stick-waver take credit for John's brilliant spell? Before he could ruin their whole cover, though, he bit his tongue. Roger seemed to be in the process of saving his ass, which meant John was going to have to let that little insult go. At least for now.

Salwix looked up at Brian, who rolled his eyes. "Roger's an idiot, Matron Salwix," he said. "I found him wandering around down the hill. Me n' Deacon were helping him get up to the hospital, but then..."

"I see. Well, Mister Taylor, I'll be informing your View's council that you've been using advanced curses. This won't go unpunished, I'm afraid. This sort of magic is dangerous." She shook her head, clicking her tongue. "At least you didn't curse someone else. Honestly, you children. Up. Both of you. We'll have you seen to."

With Salwix helping Roger to his feet, that left Brian to help John. He did so with surprising care, slowly, so as not to jar the broken arm too badly. It still stung, now that gravity was pulling on it. John held it to his chest, feeling tears sting at his eyes again. "Matron Salwix?" John asked. "Can you fix his eyes? He's going to be okay, right?"

Salwix turned, hesitating. Roger said, "It's okay. You can say." "There are... some side effects," she said. "Minor, but obvious, I'm afraid. But you'll see again." Side effects. As Salwix helped Roger up the stairs, John met Brian's eyes, and they shared a moment of worry.

~*~

"Uuughhhh," Roger groaned. As he became more and more conscious, the headache seemed to get worse. Still, he chanced opening his eyes, grimacing as the light hit them. He threw his arms up in front of his face to block it out.

Well, at least he remembered what seeing was like now. Pain. Agony.

"Roger," someone whispered.

"No, not so loud," he whined. Peering through his fingers, he found John and Brian standing over him. If John would only move a little bit to the right, he'd block out the overhead light...

"We're between classes," Brian said, as quietly as he could manage. Thankfully, Brian's voice was fairly comforting anyway, but it still made Roger's head hurt. "Thought we'd come see if you were awake yet." Between classes? Roger's duel with John was on Saturday, which meant he must have missed all of Sunday. At least. "So, this is when I ask the cliché, 'how long was I out?' question, I suppose." He squeezed his eyes shut and added, "Shut up, Roger. You're too loud."

"He's Roger, though," John said, worried. "He knows. He's just being funny," Brian replied. "Or trying. It rarely ever hits the mark." "Hey, I'm funny." Roger opened one eye again, and gestured to the window. "Think one of you can shut the curtains?" "They're closed, Rog," Brian said. "Besides, it's cloudy out. You're just very photosensitive right now. It'll pass." "Oh, yeah, don't take my photo right now, either. I imagine I'm a bit of a mess. Now, c'mon. Tell me. How long was I out?"

Brian and John looked at each other. Roger noticed that John's wrist was neither wrapped, nor did it look like it hurt at all as he cradled a stack of books. "Ah, well," John said. "Salwix put you out for a week. She thought you'd wake up today. I got your homework."

Roger groaned.

"I told you, he doesn't like homework," Brian said. "You should have saved that for when he was up and about."

Roger smiled. "You two friends now?"

"He needed someone to keep him in line. Vexxzuses, you know," Brian said.

John rolled his eyes.

Roger pushed himself up until he was sitting. The headache was easing a bit now, although it still felt like someone had grabbed his brain, shaken it, and put it back sideways. One would think that with all the mages around Vale Rest, they might have found a way to eliminate such inconveniences entirely. Maybe he'd ask Salwix for a headache draught once Brian and John left. "You guys figure out what the side effects are supposed to be?"

They smiled, and John giggled behind his hand. Roger didn't like that. It meant they were in on a joke that he wasn't in on, and that was unacceptable. "C'mon, it can't be too serious. What? What is it? Do I have another eye?" He waved his hand in front of his face, but found that he was still seeing in boring, normal three dimensions. No mystical powers of prestidigitation. Alas. "Is he disappointed that he doesn't have another eye?" John asked.

"No," Roger said. Then, "Yes, maybe."

"It's not that exciting," Brian said. "John, did you bring the mirror?"

"Oh, right. Hang on." He set his books down on the nightstand and slung his bag off his shoulder, digging through it. "You'll have some dark circles under your eyes," Brian said. "That's thanks to the initial masking spell effect. But it doesn't look that bad, honestly, I think. It's the other thing... Show him. He'll probably love it." John handed him the mirror. Despite his curiosity, Roger still felt just the slightest amount of trepidation as he looked into it... and found that his eyes were a rather fetching shade of bright lavender. Surprising, to say the least. He wondered if it was a trick of the light, but when he moved the mirror, they stayed purple.

"Salwix says they'll change based on the weather," Brian said. "It's raining now, so... We're guessing purple is rain. We'll have to see what the rest is. I guess that's the true intention of the spell, it's just... imperfect. Also, it's..."

"Not reversible," John said quietly. "I'm really sorry, Roger."

He missed the blue, it was true. Still, John seemed so down, and it could have ended up being a whole lot worse. Color-changing eyes? The girls were going to love him. "Are you kidding?" Roger exclaimed. "This is great. There's no windows in the dorms. We'll know what to wear without sending someone upstairs in their skivvies."

"Told you," Brian said. He smiled, laying a hand on John's shoulder. But John didn't look particularly relieved. He had that same sick, pale look that he had on the stairs. Or, the same look Roger imagined he would have, if Roger could have pictured anything at that point in time. In any case, he looked now how he sounded then, and that was kind of sad. "Hey, Bri?" Roger said. "Can I talk to John for a bit?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Glad you're up, Roger. I'll have your homework waiting for you when you get out of here." He winked as Roger groaned, before shouldering his bag.

"He knows I hate homework," Roger said, once Brian was gone. "Your wrist looks okay." "Oh, yeah. They fixed it up here really quick," John said, turning it over a couple times. He sat on the bed, shoulders slumping. "Thanks, by the way... For taking the fall for me. While I was up here, I heard Salwix talking to your Council. I'm sure if they knew I cursed you, I would have been expelled."

"It's not that bad! Is it?" Roger held up the mirror again, poking at the dark smudges under his eyes. Eh, he could make it work. They really brought out the color, honestly, even if that color was purple. "We gotta find out what the other colors are. Think you can make it stop raining?"

"...Yes." John said. "I mean, yes, it's bad. No, I can't make it stop raining. Do you take anything seriously? I cursed you, Roger. Forever. What if it'd been worse?"

Roger lowered the mirror. The poor second-year looked like he was about to cry. "My mum says 'if' is a big word."

"It's two letters."

"Yeah, but you can't dwell on it, you know? If you start thinking of all the 'what ifs,' then you never live now. What are you worried about? That you'd be able to do some weird death magic?"

John didn't say anything.

Honestly, Roger always did have a healthy fear of the Vexxzus View. Some, like John, crushed beetles to gain a burst of magic power, but he'd seen others take the lives of mice or birds. Killing was a strange, gruesome, macabre focus, unlike the much more sensible imbuing of magic into a wand or gem--like a sensible human.

Furthermore, the View possessed an air of secrecy and mystery, even among its own members. No one knew how far the magic could go. What it could do. Everyone else in Vale Rest just assumed the Vexxzuses pursued murder as their ultimate goal. Why else would you choose...

But John said he hadn't chosen it.

Roger sighed. "Look, I don't know you very well, but everything I need to know about you, I've learned since our duel. S'far as I can tell, you wouldn't be able to do it." When John looked affronted, Roger clarified. "That's a good thing! No one should be able to invent a killing word, and those who'd do it are bad people. And... and even if you could... Even if you knew some death spell, you wouldn't have done it anyway. You wanted to teach me a lesson. You didn't want to kill me." Roger paused, then added, "Did you?"

"No! Of course not!" As soon as John said the words, realization dawned, and he relaxed. "No. I never want that. Still. I think what I did to you... It's the worst curse I know of. And I shouldn't have been able to do it. I mean, most adults can't do it. It is still under development, after all. It just doesn't work right... But it's not the words. I've read about it, you see. A little. It must be the pronunciation. It's not at all natural. The words--they say they're ancient..."

"Like... Old god ancient?"

"Maybe," John wondered. "And it'd be easier with a wand, like you have in Oerris. There's a... A motion to it."

"I thought you said you didn't read much about it."

John's academic fixation fizzled, and he slumped. "I pick things up."

Roger muttered to himself, throwing his feet over the side of the bed. Looking through the drawers in his nightstand, he finally found his focus--a rosewood wand, carved in the shape of a panda eating bamboo. He held it out to John, who wrinkled his nose.

"Yes, yes," Roger said. "Stick-wavers and such. I've heard it all. It's a valid implement for magic!"

"Mm-hm," John conceded, taking the wand and holding it between his fingers, as if it were filth. "I told you, I can't. Most people who can do Vexxzus magic can't. Except Brian, I guess."

Undeterred, Roger reached for the nearly spent candle next to him, and puffed out the flame. "Light it. It's the easiest spell we know. You said you pick things up, right? Maybe a different View? One that's not so deathy?"

"I can't--"

"Try!"

"No!"

John pressed the wand back into Roger's hand. "No. It's--It's not..."

He pressed his lips together, eyes focused downward at his own hands.

"All right, all right," Roger said, tapping the wand to the candle's wick and setting it alight again. "I just thought--"

John vigorously shook his head. "Sorry."

Interesting.

Roger set the candle back on the nightstand, and leaned back on his pillow. Despite having slept for a week, he still felt incredibly tired. Maybe being cursed sapped all your energy, too. Honestly, the thought that it could have been worse was pretty frightening, and maybe he'd think about how lucky he was later when it all caught up with him. Maybe he'd talk about that with Brian, though, since John seemed awfully traumatized by the whole thing. He certainly didn't seem like the stereotypical mean-spirited, borderline-evil Vexxzus everyone talked about.

"Hey, John? Why'd we start fighting, anyway?"

"You don't remember?"

Roger thought for a moment. He really didn't.

Clearly uncomfortable, John shifted, appearing much smaller. His brows lowered, but he looked hurt more than angry. "You... You charmed all the words in all my books to be the same color as the pages. I'd bought new books before I realized what you did."

"Oh yeah! Yeah, I remember now." He chuckled. "You were so pissed. I never heard a first-year say those words before." John reddened, looking away. It wasn't just the incident with the books, though, Roger realized, with a rare stab of guilt. Because after that, there was the hair-color-changing incident. And the sweater-unraveling incident. And many other incidents that seemed entirely minor and extremely funny, until Roger added them all up and realized... He'd been harassing the shy kid. The quiet one who just wanted to stay out of the way. Who didn't want to bother anyone.

Because John was a Vexxzus, and so very easy to harass. The whole time, Roger felt like a hero.

It was no wonder John had been so angry by the time they got to dueling. "Oh. Damn. I mean, you have such a bad temper... It was like, ah... throwing water balloons at a bear. Hilarious, 'til it... rips out your spleen or something. Brian did tell me to leave you alone. I guess after all that, I deserved--"

"Don't say you deserved it," John interrupted. "I was scared you'd never see again. I was scared I could have killed you. That's a lot worse."

Roger always prided himself on being the easy-going, laid-back guy who everyone thought was a complete idiot. He liked to make people laugh. And he did! Of course, it meant he was a bully, which wasn't ever what he intended. And he'd driven a nice kid to cast a horrible curse. Of course Roger deserved what he got. "I'm sorry, John. I really am."

"Yeah, well, if we're going to be friends, can you maybe do that a little less often? The bear-harassing, I mean." Friends? Friends? Roger knew his face must be lit up like a Christmas tree. He didn't care, though. "You? And a stick-waving Oerris? This is so cool." He used the springiness of the horrible hospital mattress to propel himself forward, knocking John's bag to the floor, so he could wrap his arms around his new Vexxzus best friend forever. "Ain't no one messin' with me now," he said.

John tried everything to pry him away, finally gave up, and said, "You're going to have to stop hugging me at some point."

"That's a lie," Roger replied.

[luobingmeis]

Anyone else lowkey confused about Leon's words at the end? He noticed people acting weird or giving odd looks alot but I cant think of moment before this that matches up. Usually im hella good at picking up when a character is acting off or wrong in a way but besides Firbolg and the stone in this ep, no interactions have said otherwise. Idk im just worried that characters arent going to act like themselves and nne of us will notice either until a big reveal. Also Dm controlling PC, UNSETTLING

tbh i think it’s one of those things where we have to assume and acknowledge that the npcs have lives not surrounding the pcs? bc grad isn’t like balance, where most npcs only stuck around for an arc before an entire crew of new ones were brought in, nor amnesty where the npcs were not only super pc-driven, but there was also a pretty big divide between “npcs who knew abt sylvain” and “npcs who didn’t know abt sylvain”

like, in grad, they all go to the same school and a bunch of them are classmates, so we kinda have to assume that certain npcs know things without the pcs needing to tell them. for example, leon probably knows abt the strangeness of groundy’s hut. since he’s with buckminster basically all the time, he probably knows that jackle is an acquired taste. he’s probably also seen how the sidekicks/henchpeople are treated in comparison to their hero/villain counterparts. so it probably depends on the person, but i don’t think “this npc knows more than the pcs do” is too out of the question, considering that we have jackle knowing shit abt argo, something in the forest knowing that something is up with the school, and also that we ourselves as listeners know more abt the school than the pcs do

plus, since this was all brought up to fitzroy, i think it’s naturally going to start working it’s way more into the narrative. we're only 5 episodes in, after all

also i don’t think it’s “none of these characters are gonna act like themselves and we don’t know,” i think it’s more “this super quiet character is underestimated and people think he’s dumb when really he’s just observant”

imo, the way grad strikes me, it seems like the story is very “the big bad(s)/main plot(s) are mentioned early and it’s going to be the characters preparing how to deal with it,” kinda like carry on and other books, u know? kinda like we already know abt the monster in the forest, that something is implied to be up with hieronymous and higglemas, and also the huge guiding theme of these first few episodes has been “things are not what they seem”

it’s very storybook-esque and tbh i love it. like, balance was very video game like, amnesty was like “i could imagine myself watching this as a tv show,” and graduation has big epic narrative vibes

see my only concern with grad, and even then it’s not that big of a concern for me, is that it’s going to move pretty quickly, but that’s mostly bc 1) ngl i really want another big 50+ episode campaign and 2) i think travis is doing A Lot of “laying out the groundworks” and then it’ll become a lot more spread out

also tho im really excited that someone finally mentioned something w/ the school bc i’ve been saying since the first episode that “basically government made heroes and villains and catastrophies” is the type of plan that works perfectly until it doesn’t anymore, and it seems like the school itself is doing some shit to its students

[bladengineer]

Bladebreakers: College Edition

anyone who’s already read my fics knows exactly what i’m about, so lets get straight to business about the college headcanons im about to slap yall with

also all under the cut bc this went way too long lmfao Hilary and Kenny should follow shortly bc it got really long and im just. oops

Kai is the first to go which is like. logical considering he’s the oldest and most driven out of all of them

not to mention he had the entirety of Hiwatari Corp. about to be put into his name as soon as he reached 18 and he’s just like aw man here we go

to be honest? he’s not keen on taking over the company, never has been (excluding the time where he felt obligated to under his grandfather’s influence) and the thought of actually having too just kinda. embitters him

so he gets himself sucked into the whole Business classes to get himself the necessary qualifications – and despite being bitter, he doesn’t half-ass shit so he studies on the regular

it isn't until Max wrangles him into finally giving his own interests a go and he changes his path to a History Major with a Minor in Business

he is so much happier

History, specifically Ancient History, had always been an avid interest in Kai’s books so he basically dives into his new studies with his own brand of stoic enthusiasm

its also the sole reason why he’s been amassing so many books in his personal collection at home, Hilary had implored him to buy bigger shelves after Max nearly broke his neck tripping over a loose pile

Kai likes to study alone, preferably in his private study (Tyson keeps making fun of him for having a private study at the age of 18, what are you, a grandpa? damn rich kid lmao) with soft instrumental music playing – he’s especially fond of rainy ambience music

of course, Kai is often seated at the back of the classes, but is indisputably one of the best students with very insightful and well-researched essays, naturally, most of his professors adore him

except a select few traditional-minded professors – they’re still bitter that Kai stood his ground when they had overlooked Cleopatra’s history and reduced her to the Ancient Sex Symbol and Kai was ready to cut a bitch at the blatant disrespect towards an Ancient Political Mastermind

the majority in his class has a fat crush on him but thats nothing new

Max, for a long time, had a bit of a dilemma as his parents urge him to start choosing his preferred path; was it going to be Engineering like his Mother or Mechanics like his Father, and honestly? the poor boy was so torn

in the end, he confessed he wanted to do neither – he loved Beyblade but it wasn’t something he wanted to dedicate his life to forever

instead, his heart had always belonged to the ocean and he dreams of being a Marine Biologist

his father was very supportive, while Judy had her doubts so it took a little convincing – in the end, her son’s joy was more important to her and she too gave her blessing for him to pursue his dream

Max goes on to major Zoology, directed towards marine animals, and takes up a minor in Engineering because hey, it pretty much runs in his family and it stayed an avid interest of his

his university wasn’t too far of from Kai’s own, so sometimes when he stays over at Kai’s he gets a free ride to class

he returns the gesture by always providing the best butter croissants for breakfast (they’re still warm too!)

Max usually studies in the campus library, noise-cancelling headphones on, bopping silently to whatever music he’s listening to as he reviews his notes for the next exam

he researches a lot for his topics and has collected so much trivia about the ocean and its inhabitants in general

Max: did you know jellyfishes have no brain? Kai: Max don’t bully Tyson Tyson: excuse me?

the professors love Max tbh, he’s always fully engaged within class so they usually let him get away with things mainly bc he’s just their Favourite

pretty sure half of the university knows of Max in some way or another, being a social butterfly and all and maybe having flooded the campus once by accident

Ray also had a hard time deciding what to do and what to study; being from a rural village with traditions certainly made him question wether he should pursue a modern career or stay within his community

the White Tigers were quick to kick his ass over it however, booting him straight to Kai’s doorstep and telling him to do what he feels was right for him

now, he’s managed to get himself applied to one of the prestigious university for culinary arts – he’s not too sure yet which path he wants to take in terms of culinary skill

he loves cooking and working in a kitchen, however after many work experiences he has found that working at the command of someone else wasn't exactly to his tastes, not to mention, he’d like to dabble in more traditional culinary arts

as of now, Ray particularly enjoys the sweeter side of cooking, preferring to create intricate pastries and confectionaries, often stemming from his chinese roots but also applying his skill within the japanese side of things

his homemade mooncakes are honestly to die for

next to his obvious passion for cooking, he’s also taken up classes in horticulture, mainly bc he’d love to grow his own ingredients and create his own sets of spices and various artisan products

since his career path is very labour focused, he often practices at home and takes inspiration from various chefs all around the world. his bookshelves are full of recipe books and general insightful cookbooks

Max had suggested to him to make videos of his dishes, mainly for self-improvement, but also being able to put them online to start a crowd interest for his work

its going pretty well actually, his videos have become quite popular since they are aesthetically pleasing, the food looks tasty as hell and also a wide crowd of older people have voiced their joy in seeing more traditional confectionary being made

his friends secretly love their birthdays nowadays bc without fail, Ray always gifts them homemade foods, from neat boxes of handcrafted chocolates to cute jars of sweet jams

he knows, he always takes time to create flavours he knows they will appreciate

Tyson, surprisingly, knew exactly what he wanted to do, and it wasn’t anything to do with Beyblade

Hilary: WHAT ARE YOU SICK Tyson: i- no? i just– Ray: hold on maybe he’s running a fever Tyson: would yOU GUYS JUST LISTEN–

look, he loves Beyblade, it’s something he’ll treasure all his life, something he’ll still pursue in the future, but

it won’t be what he wants to do full time

instead, he majors in Anthropology in order to pave his way into Archeology and everyone is so proud they start crying

next to his Major, he also minors in Business, mainly due to his longstanding position within the BBA, with whom he stays as a particular poster boy and star

next to his work with the BBA, he occasionally helps out in the Dojo and everyone kinda realises? that this guy is literally holding down two (2) whole jobs while also studying and if that isn't hardcore my dudes i don’t know

then again, he’s grown a lot and his interest in his father’s career had always accompanied him since he was a kid – however, his studying habits are still all kinds of atrocious and the only reason why he can even halfway ace his exams is bc he refuses to go down quietly, actually is really critical and analytical is he puts his head into it, and the fact that he employs Hilary to stand vigil with a rolled up magazine to smack him back into focus should he slack off

otherwise, he’s friends with most people in his class and regularly exchanges notes with them and even has become a favourite with a select few of his professors

most just find him exhausting but can’t refute his elaborate essays, which are both thoughtful as eyebrow raising

he attends the same university as Kai (much to his chagrin) and they stick together just as much as they bicker (one-sidedly) just like old times – however, they are both ancient history buffs and its one of the very few topics that they can be heard talking about in actual peace without Tyson going apeshit when Kai loses interest in the conversation

Tyson and Kai are also those college students who pull ridiculous all nighters to study

Max once got so nervous for an exam he made a terrifying concoction of Red Bull and Instant Coffee to stay up and study

he aced the exam but he cannot for the life of him remember what he did in those 24hours bc as soon as he went home he crashed for nearly 32hours straight

Tyson and Ray who were present at the time refuse to speak about it and when asked about it, they kinda just. disassociate for a minute at the sheer horror they had witnessed

Kai rarely ever communicates with classmates yet somehow gets always invited to all the frat parties

who are those people? he doesn’t know

[lovemesomesurveys]

SEVEN DEADLY SINS Sin 1: Lust 1. Who was the last person you checked out? Did they check you out too? It’s been a looooooong time, honestly.  2. Who was the last person you desired, but they didn’t feel the same? Ty. 3. Ever cheated on a significant other? If so, have you learned from it? No. 4. Do you watch porn? No, not my thing.

5. Do you masturbate? No.

6. Best physical features on your preferred sex? Eyes, smile, hair, jaw line, arms. A nice stomach is nice, too. 7. Who are some celebrities that you think are totally hot? Alexander Skarsgard. 8. Did you ever lust after a best friend’s significant other? How did it turn out? No. 9. When was the last time you had sex? I’m a virgin.  10. Ever pursued someone, even though they were taken? No. Sin 2: Gluttony 1. When did you last eat at a restaurant? What restaurant was it? IHOP a couple weeks ago with my mom after doing some Christmas shopping. 2. When did you last have fast food? Where did you get it? For breakfast on Christmas day we had breakfast sandwiches from Jack in the Box. 3. What was the biggest meal you had all day? Nothing so far today, it’s only 1:54AM.  4. Do you have too many clothes? How often do you go shopping? Yes. I need to go through and get rid of stuff. It’s something I need to do soon. 5. What’s something you have a LOT of? Clothes and giraffe stuffed animals. 6. Do you eat a lot? Not really. I should be eating a lot more. 7. What was the last thing you splurged (spent a lot of money) on? Christmas presents. I always get a little too carried away for Christmas, but I love spoiling my family when I can. 8. What do you spend most of your money on (besides bills and anything necessary like that)? Clothes and coffee. 9. Last time you ate candy? What was it? I don’t remember. I haven’t had candy in such a long time. 10. Last thing you ate too much of? I’ve had Wingstop and pizza from my favorite pizza place a lot lately, but I love it. Sin 3: Greed 1. Do you share things? How often? Yes. I don’t know how often? I share what I can, when I can. 2. Someone asks you for a piece of your cookie. You break it in half, but the pieces aren’t equal. Who gets the bigger piece? I always give the other person more of whatever it is we’re splitting. 3. When you see change on the ground, do you pick it up? Rarely. 4. How often do you lend money to people? I don’t get asked often. More often I treat my family to things when I can, but if they ever needed to borrow money and I was able to lend it, then I certainly would.  5. Do you loooove money? Unfortunately, it’s necessary and I’d be lying if I said I wish I didn’t have a little more of it.  6. If someone offers to pay for you, do you decline or readily accept? If it’s my parents or brother, I’ll accept. I feel comfortable enough to, and I pay for them sometimes as well. If it’s someone else, I’ll decline unless they’re really persistent about it, but I’ll treat them the next time. 7. Which of your friends is the wealthiest? I don’t have any friends. 8. Would you take a high-paying job that you didn’t really like just for the money and benefits? Not if I was just absolutely miserable.  9. Ever stole from anyone? What about stole from a store? What happened? Only when I was a kid. I thought the candy in the big candy bins was free. :X 10. Do you ever have enough money? My family and I have a roof over our head, food to eat, clothes to wear, bills are paid, and we have nice things. Things definitely get stressful, though. Some months tend to be harder than others, financially. I, personally, would like to have more of it, but I’m able to have the necessities.  Sin 4: Sloth 1. Last thing you procrastinated on? Life. 2. When you’re at a strip mall and the next store you want to go to is at the other side, do you drive over there instead of take a short walk? I usually just head over there, but it would depend on how far the next store is. 3. What’s a typical day off of school and/or work like for you? I’m finished with school and I don’t have a job, but a typical day for me consists of checking social media, watching TV, watching YouTube, Tumblr, surveys, and resting. Lately I’ve also been playing my Nintendo Switch because I recently got Luigi’s Mansion 3, which I had been wanting to play since it came out. 4. What’s one talent you have that you don’t really work on, even though you have the ability to be good at it? I don’t have any. 5. How many hours of television do you watch a day? It really varies. Most of the time it’s on for background noise more than anything, but it depends on the day and what’s on. I multitask, so I tune in and out to what’s on unless it’s a new episode of a favorite show.  6. What about the amount of time you spend on the internet a day? I’m always either on my laptop or on my phone doing something, even if just watching YouTube.   7. How many hours of sleep do you get a day? Do you sleep in late? Lately, my sleep schedule has been from like 4AM to 12-1PM.  8. Do you drive to places that are less than three blocks away? I don’t drive, personally, but yeah my family and I take the car everywhere.  9. When was the last time you exercised? Uhhhh. 10. Ever copied and pasted your homework from a website on the internet? No. Sin 5: Wrath 1. If you could kill one person and get away with it, would you do it? No! 2. Is there anyone you honestly and truly can say that you hate? Besides myself, no. 3. Is there anyone you want revenge on, whether you want to get them back big-time or just play a little prank on them for hurting your feelings? No. I’m not a revengeful person. 4. Are you fighting with any friends right now? Why? No friends, so no. 5. Last time you were really angry? What happened? Blah. 6. When you’re angry, what do you do to calm yourself down? When I’m angry I shut down and just cry. 7. “Hate is just the fear of loving someone.” true or false? I wouldn’t say that. 8. What’s the best revenge you ever got on someone? I don’t seek revenge. 9. Was there any hard feelings after your last break-up? On whose end was it on? He broke things off with me, and there was definitely hard feelings on my end. He seemed completely unfazed.  10. Ever been cheated on? How did that make you feel? No. Sin 6: Envy 1. Is there anyone you’re jealous of? Name a person and tell us why. This is the envy section and envy and jealousy are different things. I am envious of certain types of people. 2. List three physical features some other people have that you’re envious of (no need to get specific and name people; you can just say something like “brown eyes” or “having perfect eyebrows”). Blue or green eyes, nice, shiny, thick hair that styles well, perfect shiny white teeth, fit bodies... 3. List three personality features that other people have that you’re envious of. Outgoing, intelligent, witty, adventurous, driven and ambitious, talented... 4. Are you a jealous significant other? I’m single. 5. Could you date someone who was really jealous? No. If they’re the possessive and abusive type, then absolutely not. 6. What celebrity’s looks do you envy the most? All the gorgeous ones. 7. Do you think anyone is envious of you? In your opinion, what characteristics (physical and mental) do you possess that you think someone might be envious of? HA, no. 8. What are a few things you wish you were good at? I wish I could play the piano, sing, draw, be an adult... 9. Did you ever date someone, break up, and then see them dating someone very attractive a few days later? Were you jealous of that person? No. 10. When looking at a love interest’s exes, do you often find yourself jealous of their good-looking exes? It has happened. Sin 7: Pride 1. What’s something you brag about a lot (be honest–we all brag sometimes)? I’m honestly probably the most non-braggy person you’ll ever meet. There, I guess that’s me bragging about something.  <<< Haaaa, same. I have nothing else to brag about. Also, bragging isn’t a cute look anyway. It’s one thing to be proud of yourself and your accomplishments, but bragging is another level. 2. What physical features do you take the most pride in? None. 3. Are you satisfied with what you have? Some things. 4. Be honest… when someone is telling you something, do you often change the subject so it’s about you and your accomplishments instead? Nooo, I’m very much the opposite. I shift the conversation away from me and towards them.  5. Do you like talking about your achievements? What achievements? 6. Do your parents tend to brag about how well you came out? My parents like to share that I went to a good college and got my BA in psych. Sounds all good when just left at that. Too bad I haven’t done anything at all since graduating and that degree is just collecting dust. I don’t even want to pursue that anymore. I have no idea what I want to do. If I’m being honest, I don’t want to do anything. :X  7. Do you strive to be better than others? Do you think competing with others is healthy? Ha, clearly not. 8. What do you do better than most people? Nothingggg. 9. Do you believe in taking pride in things you can’t control (ex. being proud of your heritage, being proud of your skin color, being proud of your natural artistic ability)? Sure.  10. Who are you competing with right now (it could be anything–classmates for a grade, co-workers for a position, other girl for a guy, etc.)? I don’t feel Im competing with anyone. I’m not even in the running.

[jacobmybeloved]

Far Cry 5/FCND Superhero AU Pt. 2

Can’t say when I’ll actually start writing for this if at all. If you are interested please let me know! Anyway, below the cut: Thomas Rush, Sharky, and my FC OC’s.

[Part 1 Here - Seed Family]

Name: Mai Alias: Athenia Species: Meta human Abilities: Agility, superhuman strength, superhuman durability, unarmed combat, swordsmanship, healing factor, retractable claws

Mai has been on her own for as long as she could remember, not that she remembers much. Suffering from amnesia at a young age, and jumping from foster home, after foster home, Mai set out on her own after incidentally crippling a classmate during an after-school bout. At sixteen she was taken in by philanthropist John Seed, making her a part of his superhero task force initiative. Given the code name Athenia, Mai became a trademark figure. It did not last long, however. By eighteen she left the group leaving little to no trace behind and began to participate as a “small-time fighter” in illegal meta human arenas. She worked her way up to work as a bodyguard for one of the States lead traffickers, Ramona King, also known as The Raven. After a chance meeting with one of Raven’s newest “merchandise”, Mai devises a plan to get herself and this particular child out of the state. As fate would have it, the well-meaning police officer turned vigilante, Thomas Rush, inadvertently disrupts her means of escape, causing the trio to go on the run. With Raven’s forces after them, and the perplexing villain, The Father taking a keen interest in the child, Mai is led down a road that unexpectedly leads her on the path to finding out who her birth parents are.

Name: Thomas Rush Alias: N/A Species: Human Abilities: Agility, criminology, hand-to-hand combat, weaponry, military protocol, marksmanship, stealth, computer hacking

Thomas Rush grew up reading about Superheros and wanted nothing more than to be one himself. The closest approximation he could achieve was joining the military straight out of high school. After two tours, he returned to the states, marrying his high school sweetheart, eventually having a daughter named Mila. Life was good for a time for the former soldier. With his prior service in the military, he felt right at home, cruising through the ranks up to sergeant. To celebrate his new promotion, the Rush family took an outing to the local mall, celebrating not only his new position but also Mila’s birthday. Tragedy struck quick and swiftly, however. With meta human trafficking on the rise, children became the ultimate target and the criminal underworld’s newest currency. Mila was snatched right under her parent’s noses while at the mall, sending Thomas’ life spiraling out of control. After three months of searching, all of Thomas’ leads ended up cold, leaving the father grieving and putting immense stress on his marriage. His wife eventually left, unable to deal with the loss of their daughter. Thomas Rush, however, could not give up so easily. Using his resources at the police precinct, he uses each waking moment searching for any lead that may lead him to find his daughter. Eventually, he adopts his own vigilante moniker, allowing him access to places that would have been inaccessible by wearing his badge. His investigation leads him down a rabbit hole, leading him to the heart of the meta human trafficking ring, meanwhile leading him to team up with the enigmatic and extremely powerful meta human Mai.

Name: Vittoria Arya-Giordano Alias: Scarlett Banshee Species: Meta human Abilities: Sound immunity, multilingualism, boxing, sound manipulation, sonic scream, charisma, durability.

The daughter of Italian immigrants, Vittoria Arya-Giordano has had only one dream: becoming a superstar. Discovering a love for music and singing at a young age, her parents facilitated her passion by hiring instructors and saving up every penny to send her to the most renowned schools of performance arts. During her senior year for her final recital, Vittoria’s lament meta human abilities came to manifest. Vittoria leveled the theater in which hundreds had come to watch her performance, killing everyone, her parents included. Vittoria survived miraculously, the mass body count attributed to a structural error. Vittoria spent the next ten years honing her abilities, though her dreams of performing were now dead. Her talent, however, did not go unseen. Vittoria was recruited by entrepreneur and philanthropist John Seed as part of his “marketable” superhero division, the United State's answer to National Security against the threats of international meta humans. Vittoria served dutifully, becoming a high profile figure, achieving the fame she had always dreamed of. Though, as always with fame, there was a darker side to it she could not have anticipated.

Name: Nayeli Lamb Alias: The Judge Species: Human Abilities: Archery, acrobatics, martial arts, tracking, weaponry, swordsmanship, gadgetry, hand-to-hand-combat, firearms

Nayeli and her older brother Takoda were born to Ciaran and Sokanon Lamb. Her father hailed from a prestigious family while her mother came from an impoverished background, their union causing unparalleled drama. As Nayeli grew older, she became aware of her father’s shady business practices following the death of her mother, the result of a business deal with the citie’s many mob leaders gone wrong. Idolizing the rise in meta human news, Nayeli Lamb and her brother took up their own mantles, taking on the persona of The Judge and SabreWulf. The teens took down many a villain and mob boss, particularly after Takoda began to manifest meta human powers himself. They continued their work well into their twenties until Nayeli was kidnapped, abused and tortured by the notorious villains, The Father and The Mindbender. By pure luck, she had struck a romantic bond with The Father’s henchman-brother, known simply as The Wolf of Sparta who helped her escape. Nayeli hung up her mantle after discovering she was pregnant with The Wolf’s child. The child however was stolen from her, a devastating loss the Lamb never really got over. Nayeli ended up having a second child with The Wolf years later after encountering one another again. Nayeli kept the children a secret from the Wolf till this very day. The Lamb eventually established herself as a successful psychologist and living a semi-normal life with her son. She grew estranged from her brother who continued to carry on with his alter-ego, feeling this was his true self. After his death at the hands of The Mindbender, she debated taking up her mantle as The Judge once more. It wasn’t until the disappearance of her son that she donned her cape and mask once more in an effort to find him.

Name: Charlemagne Victor Boshaw IV Alias: Sharky, Warden Awesome Species: Metahuman Abilities: Pyrokinesis, firearms, no filter

Charlemagne Boshaw did not have a happy childhood, but from his outward behavior, one may never know or find out. Birthed in a gas station bathroom and left in the toilet, Sharky as he likes to be called, led quite the tumultuous childhood and adolescence. While many would define him as a serial arsonist, the Boshaw man would prefer the term "fire enthusiast". What many didn’t know was that these many fire incidents were the result of Sharky being a pyrokinesis. After burning down his family’s trailer park three times, Sharky was forced on the run. His path eventually led him to Nayeli Lamb, with whom he became close friends with. Together, they lead the charge in finding her missing son, Malik.

Name: Ramona King

Species: Meta human

Alias: Raven

Abilities: Animal control, animal driven abilities, enhanced speed, agility, enhanced vision, combat skill, animal telepathy

Born on the east coast and raised by a single father, Ramona King was brought up with strict discipline and a need to succeed no matter the cost. Her father groomed her to be the perfect candidate for the Boston police force. By the time of her induction into the police academy however, her dormant meta-genes began to surface. Her abilities gave her an edge over her other officers. Her animal like abilities gave her a sixth sense rivaled only by those in the animal kingdom themselves. With her hardworking being relayed in flimsy promotions and measly raises, she began to sing a different tune. Leaving the police force, Ramona struck out as a small time cat-thief before eventually becoming a kingpin herself. Ramona ended up taking her underworld business out west, using a nightclub as a front to hide her extracurricular activities: money laundering, drug production, and more importantly, meta human trafficking.

Name: Malik Lamb

Species: Metahuman

Alias: N/A, referred to as The Asset

Abilities: chlorokinesis, toxic immunity, bio-fission, metamorphosis, accelerated healing, ability to heal others

Malik may only be six years old but he has had a whirlwind of a life so far. The second born child, created out of the union between The Judge and The Soldier, Malik knows nothing about his family’s complicated history, only that he was born with a target on his back. Since the day was born, he exhibited meta human capabilities though his family did their best to keep it a secret. After his Uncle Takoda’s death revealed that the Lamb family is a carrier of the meta-human gene, the family was thrust into the spotlight by news media outlets and criminal organizations. Despite being put under twenty-four hour surveillance by his grandfather, that did not stop those closest to the Lamb family to seize the boy for themselves in return for a quick buck. As the newest addition to Ramon King’s collection and hundreds of miles away from home, Malik saw no happy ending in sight, at least until a fateful meeting with another meta human and a vigilante police officer lead him on an unexpected journey.

Name: Dayana King

Species: Human (Cyborg)

Alias: Dove

Abilities: Flight, Electronics expert, speed, superhuman strength, cybernetic implants/enhancements, endurance, technopathy, invulnerability, cloaking abilities

As a fellow member of philanthropist John Seed’s superhero initiative, Dove is one of the most respected public faces of the meta human community. After a tragic accident left her father dead and herself in a near-death state, Dove underwent extensive life-saving surgeries with cybernetic enhancements at the request of her mother. Dove was, shortly after being discharged, inducted into the superhero initiative. While her co-hort Vittoria appeals to the more lavish side of the superhero community, Dove is seen as the public face of selflessness and social justice, though behind the scenes, that could not be more further from the truth. When not in front of the news camera, the cybernetic hero acts as a hired thug to Mr. Seed, taking out those who would oppose the use of meta humans overseas. Dove, having become disillusioned with her employer Mr. Seed and the antics of her criminal mother, Ramona King, Dove has debated hanging up her mantle once and for all. A chance meeting with an old friend though leads her to question whether she is doing more harm than good.

[sirikyu]

Sun and Moon and character dynamics - a.k.a Ash’s unbelievably many varied types of friendships in this series like holy s

sit down friend, i am about to ramble on about sun & moon’s brilliance in its character writing. i center this mostly around ash because he’s my fave. i love all of them but i have biases from my childhood and i tend to gravitate towards main charact- i mean anyway here we go. (warning: gettin a bit personal but not in a negative way)

one of my many fave things about sun and moon are the characters. the entire main crew of classmates are all different and fun in the own individual ways and they all manage to hold an episode very well, even though they rarely have to do that (and that’s good, because it’s a story about friends and support and family!! never put them alone to deal with a new, scary situation tbh, that’s too dark for me). everyone in the main cast have all managed as the emotional core of the episode, not necessarily because they are all very likeable, which definitely isn’t necessary for good storytelling, but i’d argue that it’s valuable especially in children’s tv, showing good people making mistakes and showing how far a supportive environment goes to help them over that. every individual dynamic between ash and another member of the sumo team is so unique to each other. ash isn’t at the forefront of everything, he’s not “the” main protagonist, and he isn’t what makes this series compelling, but he IS an excellent tether between this group of friends to me, personally, and i think this show has a lot of new ash content i haven’t gotten in many, many series run (ash is great, alright? you guys are just mean.)

im especially glad of sophocles’ and ash’s friendship because their complementary differences are in such a good balance, and i have such a soft spot for sophocles. sophocles is smart and not-sporty, but he isn’t a know-it-all stereotype. i was afraid there would inevitably be a fat joke or nerdy joke, but i don’t remember seeing anything too demeaning or harmful in the light tone they handle sophocles’ nerdiness and roundness. i still remember watching the very early episode where ash and sophocles are still getting to know each other and they get stuck in the mall. even before all the fun character beats as they scramble in the dark (and get short with each other) in that episode, i remember with GREAT fondness when sophocles was very hesitant to admit he’s in the mall to indulge in ice cream. he’s shy about his sweet tooth! i found the excecution very delicate and sweet (pardon the pun), because i don’t think i’ve related in that specific way to a character before in a show? because being fat means that there is an awkwardness and hyperawareness whenever you so much as think about stepping into the candy aisle, and sophocles not wanting to admit to his new classmate-soon-to-be-friend that he’s indulging was, deliberately written that way or not, very real. (not to be a sophocles stan, but he’s a good kid and deserves everything good since episode 1).

but i digress. sophocles steps in to teach his classmates sometimes because he loves learning. he rarely acts condescending to his friends. be the everyman in some crazy situations ash and others get into sometimes (that shrinking episode?? it’s still one of my favourites mostly because of the group of characters they chose for the main conflict. the daredevil pokemon loving duo that is lillie and ash vs. sophocles’ anxiety about the hectic and kinda perilous situation!! it was hilarious). sophocles, to me, seems to value ash’s friendship for similiar reasons clemont used to, in XY. it seems more warm and mutual in this series, thanks to ash’s characterisation. sophocles saves ash in several occasions, which, just! hello!! is the best thing and i love that all these kids are heroes and worthy of admiration. they also remain good. theyre all good. all rangers are equally important. they’re all amazing. okay? alright.

its heartwarming and supportive. they also are like, bonded through their main pokemon being electric mice. isn’t that the cutest?

ash and kiawe on the other hand, they’re a powerhouse couple that egg each other on. they push each other forward and have similiar sense of drive towards pokemon and battles. ever since kiawe gave hint that he battles he found common ground with ash. also he’s such a goofball who gets SUPER emotional about so many things (his sister!! mountains!! determined people!! so many things! he cries openly!) even though he comes across as serious at first, which kind of gives us a character with some similiar traits to ash but who couldn’t ever be mistaken for ash’s personality. they both get fired up in tandem about competing, but they also come from very different lives and backgrounds. I don’t ever think to compare their dynamic to anything else, they’re really unique! they are also mutually supportive, but it has a distinct flavor compared to sophocles and ash. maybe kiawe is a little bit more relatable to ash because of their similiar interest in battling and competing?

ash and lillie are super lovely and i like that lillie has her own story that ash is driven to help her with. and they are similiar in their excitement about pokemon (and yet, in a wholly different way than ash and kiawe are?? lillie has great drive in wanting to help pokemon with knowledge and books, because a hands-on approah wasn’t possible to her in so long, but i think when sophocles learns about stuff, it’s his studious nature and interest in tiny details.) and self-sacrificing hero-type stuff. we got to see lillie fulfill her potential after she figured out her way through her trauma, and we could see that out of her shell, lillie and ash are super similiar, AGAIN in a different way from the others, but never in a less important way. lillie is just a ray of sunshine. she also knows he limitations and works toward overcoming them. her and ash’s frienship comes from going through some very important and life-changing things together. i think ash really wanted lillie to be able to touch pokemon because it’s important to him and it clearly used to be to lillie, which he realises when he sees her old photos.

ash and mallow have this very sweet and family-oriented sibling relationship. they’re not often paired up but i think the times they are, they remind me of my sister and me, which is such a big part of my love for mallow, even if she doesn’t get imo enough spotlight in the big plots. on the other hand, her personal journeys within her own family are so good i cannot be mad at anything. she guides, she’s patient, she’s enhusiastic in a similiar way to ash, but has a more level head. but she also eggs her friends on with her boundless energy. the more i think about her, the more i love her. mallow is awesome!! not least of all, she has such good relationships toward her female classmates. she’s nosy and protective, but not in a smothering way. she’s very supportive and very good at it. (the episode with the mom? killed me.) the way she takes care of her peers in the school is amazing.

ash and lana are both adventurous, i think they really like to get in trouble together lol. lana is also strong and they both ooze main character material with the way they have with pokemon in the wild. it’s awesome. i kind of feel like these two could use a more emotional episode together, but i think i’ll have plenty to be emotional about when this crew parts ways :(((

i made myself sad, but i can confidently say that this show has the most unique and varied and developed set of characters and character dynamics of all pokemon, in a cast this size. the fact that they’re good friends and have none of that bordering-on-mean banter from any of the previous seasons is in fact, a big bonus for me. i love this class, i wish i could hang out in alola indefinitely.

[saskiafms-blog]

♥ . ･ﾟ◜ im going to be super blunt and warn you all now, that i cannot do introductions for my life?? like, i truly wish i could put into words just how shitty i am with them, but no words would be able to grasp my inability assf. so, to jump to the point im bursting with excitement to write saskia and even more so write her in this group !! so, if you want to read her all over the place bio (shes an old muse so everything i have for her is everywhere and a whole lot of information no one really cares about ajsd) please keep on reading, and dont be afraid to message me (or like this and ill find you) to plot!!

TRIGGER WARNING !! MENTION OF GANGS AND GANG ACTIVITY (DRUGS, MURDER)!! 

scribbles on empty pages that equal pain, anger, and struggle. words that had only been meant for one, carved themselves into the brunettes skin the moment air filled her lungs for the first time .. screams into the air, she formed into a fear that driven those around her. a fear that was so powerful, it made even a king cower. her king. the daughter of a man who ran an empire, was vowed to be protected along with her four other siblings who stood beside her. but the life of crime and danger always tugged at their skin, forced their claws into their flesh. it was an eat or being eaten lifestyle, and without choice saskia remis was thrown in the middle of it. it was her bloodline. and while her mother wanted to protect and shelter, her father wanted to toughen her skin and wrap the chains of their gang around her feet. she was forced into situations by loyalty, by the love she had for of those around her, by the drive that was forced within her. but, this lifestyle was not always for her. the constant fear, the murder, the dirty hands, the loss, the pain, and the anger, it sat on her shoulders like boulders. the pain and anger that latched on to her and her siblings wrist troubled their mother, at first it was an itch, and then it was a rash, and then it ate at her flesh. she was barely skin and mostly bone when she decided to take her twin boys, saskia, and her youngest child out of their fathers arms, lifestyle, and curse.

her oldest twin brother, has started to get back into the lifestyle their mother has done everything in her power to keep them out of- yet despite the knowledge and knowing for a fact that its not something he should be in she has kept his secret out of loyalty and has lied countless of times to not only his mother for him, but her other siblings as well as his friends and others in his life.

she once filled out a police report on her father, exposing everything he has and everything he has done. of course, it came from a place of anger and hurt, and a way to get back at him for not being in her the way she wants him to be. she never actually filed this report considering it could have gotten her into a lot of trouble with her father and his gang, not just trouble put could’ve put her on her death bed.

despite the anger and hatred she has for her father, he still sends her along with his three other kids money each month; while one of the twins refuses to touch it and her mother forbids it… she and her two other siblings have used it to benefit them educational wise, as in paying for college and for their own pleasure such as brand items, cars, spring break trips to bora bora, and whatever else they can get their hands on.

at five years old, sasky had actually witnessed a murder (the reason her mother removed them from her fathers live) and to this day it still lives on in her head. so bad, that she use to have night terrors (and occasionally still does ).

a lot of their time when people ask her about her father, she lies and tells them that hes this big ceo whos not around a lot because of his job. she hates admitting who he really is and how much damage he caused her.

extras

psychology is a way for saskia to kind of, come to terms and understand her life and those around her? like, almost as if she can understand why people act and think the way they do everything else will come naturally. 

she has been cheering since a little girl, and its like her one true passion? she just adores it, and it makes her feel free?

she went from living in the city of new york to a small little shore town and FELL in love.. she can not wait to start her life and move someone near the coast in a little town and live.

her and manon were best friends turned distant friends? like, once they were attached at the hip and then?? life happened and the two just werent there for each other anymore??

her personality is a MESS . 

shes such an ebullient soul, with love flowing through her!! like, she has such a big heart and loves hard.. affectionate when she cares about you! so fucking loyal! playful as hell but shes also stubborn and can be guarded and HATES growing attached to people but always grows attached to people! she has trust issues like you wouldnt believe and is a jealous little thing.

connections; 

platonic soulmates, best friends, group of friends, roommates, study buddies, classmates, tutors, cheer teammates, party friends, drinking buddies, gossip buddies, old friends, childhood friends, family friends, ex lovers, first love, boy toy, someone who uses her for sex, a girl shes experimented with, someone on the team she competes with (could be friendly or rivalry), old neighbors, someone whos heart she broke, someone whos heart she broke, cousins, someone who knows about her dad, confidants, former lovers to friends, best friend to enemy, enemy to best friend, sibling like friendship, love/hate friendship !! 

[booabug]

I was gonna make the cringe challenge roundup when my brain freaking clickbaited me with, “WHICH ONE OF THE MIRACUSQUAD FOUR ARE YOU?”

I got the whole investigative, researching, conclusion reaching thing going p much compulsively (idk if uve noticed.... been dropping hints......) but I am... I’m not... Alya’s too good. Alya’s amazing. She’s so driven and brave and ready to freaking thrown down but also soft and affectionate in a way that really gets through to the people she loves and good with kids and she just has so much personality and attitude and presence and I admire her? So MCUH? AND SHE’D BE SO MUCH FUN TO HANG OUT WITH?!

Now like, I freakity fracking love music and film and stuff (again..... mayb u noticed......) but I’m not outgoing enough to be Nino. Nino’s so cool you know we see him hanging out with other classmates in the bg all the time and he puts himself forward to enter contests like the talent show in Jacakady and city film competition I mean dang!!! And he! He! Made himself Adrien’s first new friend when everyone thought he was just a thot like Chloe. It’s no wonder he’s everyone’s buddy though because he is so soft and good and he just... he has good energy. He radiates goodness. (I love you nino I love you so much I love you cappy)

Marinette is #goals. I don’t even know where to start. She is so freaking amazing on every level my dudes but it’s like... it’s her. It’s just her. Being amazing. And she’s POV character most of the time so it’s all lowkey and casual because that’s just her she’s just hella and no big deal about it that’s just me, good old Marinette “pursue my passions and do everything and anything it takes for the people around me to feel safe and validated and included and appreciated because I’m just so gosh darned sweet and adorable and determined and capable and I deserve the world I just deserve so much I’m so many things for so many people but each way is still special there’s so much to 

.... anyway i guess im most like adrien. except i come off as a grandma/grandpa instead of an erudite gentleman... literally when I had to say bye to a friend once, she wrote in my notebook with all the other goodbye messages, “I’ll miss you and all your grandpa jokes and clothes.” yeah. well. at least I get to pun all I want, whenever I want.

yea boi

[wishingforatypewriter]

Hi. Love your works! I see in your work you see Soma having a lifestyle similar to Erina. I guess my question is why? Im a huge sorina but im worried that soma will end up with Megumi because it seems at times he want a easy going small restaurant like his dad, and megumi fits that scene. But, im hoping he doesnt lolll just steady right away, I feel he needs more excitement before that, just wanted to know your ideas.

Hey, lovely anon! You pose a really good point. In order to answer your question, I may need to get into my perspective on Souma’s character arc. (I’ve never been particularly good at making meta posts, but I’ll try my best lol)

The way I see it, thus far in the series, Souma has been driven by one primary goal—developing his cooking so that he can surpass his father. 

Over the course of the plot, his perspective has shifted enough to allow for him to pursue secondary and tertiary goals—namely protecting his friends/classmates/dorm and reaching the pinnacle of the academy (represented by the first seat of the Elite Ten Council). 

While both of these objectives currently complement his primary goal, they also represent two very different aspects of his personality, and two unique trajectories that his life might take after he graduates from (or leaves) Totsuki.

In essence, I’d argue that Souma will climb as high as he has to both at the academy and in the gourmet world at large in order to surpass his father. However, after he has achieved this goal, he will have to make a crucial choice—will he return to his roots (a family diner and close-knit community like the one he grew up in) or keep climbing to the top of the culinary world?

So far the series has provided ample evidence to support either outcome (I might come back and insert relevant manga panels here later). However, I agree that the person he ends up with will likely correlate with the lifestyle he ultimately chooses to pursue. This is a huge part of why (at least at this point in the manga) I can easily see him ending up with either Megumi or Erina, the two female leads who essentially personify the potential paths. 

While I’m usually not a fan of the “Betty and Veronica” love triangle trope, in SnS I can see it serving a significant rhetorical purpose, one other than frustrating shippers on both sides.

(Short analyses of Soumegu and Sorina endgame scenarios under the cut) 

Megumi and the Appeal of Home & Stability 

At this point, I would say that whether one perceives their relationship as wholly platonic or potentially romantic, Souma and Megumi have one of the healthiest and most supportive bonds depicted in the series. 

Something that initially attracted me to SouMegu (which is actually the first pair I started shipping in the series) was the fact that out of everyone Souma has helped—a metric shit ton of people at Totsuki and beyond—Megumi has always been the most committed to looking out for him. I think this is pretty significant because like most shonen heroes, Souma kind of sucks at self-care, especially when he’s focused on a specific task or competition. 

She also seems to understand his personality and mannerisms better than most characters. One scene that exemplifies this took place during the Polar Star party after the AE preliminaries. Souma’s facial expression changed for a split second and Megumi immediately noticed something was bothering him and followed him out onto the balcony. 

It’s also implied in a number of scenes (most notably, the way he reacts to losing the shokugeki against Shinomiya during the training camp arc IN THE MANGA SPECIFICALLY) that Souma’s relationship with his goals and the amount of pressure he puts on himself can be potentially destructive. More than any other character, Megumi has the potential to alleviate some of that stress and keep him focused on what’s most important in life (from her perspective that would be friends, family, and the customers who enjoy his cooking).  

I agree that if Souma ultimately decides that he wants to return to the Yukihira diner or open a single restaurant with a similar atmosphere, it makes the most sense for him to end up with Megumi. 

However, as the manga creators seem pretty strongly inclined to make Sorina endgame, it seems unlikely that this is the path he will choose. 

Erina and the Elite & Unknown World  

While this is solely my personal opinion, I would say that if Souma and Erina end up together, he would undoubtedly end up in her elite milieu before she settled into the social sphere he grew up in. This seems to be the case for a couple of reasons. 

Firstly, Souma is inherently competitive and ambitious. Throughout his childhood and early adolescence, his competitions with his father were what drove him to keep producing new dishes. After he has surpasses Jouichirou, the same impulse that currently drives him to reach the first seat will draw him to new challenges—challenges that will only emerge if he is constantly among the culinary elite. 

Second, the Totsuki empire is Erina’s birthright and family legacy. Although some of her opinions have and will likely continue to evolve due to her interactions with Souma and other members of the 92nd generation, I cannot see her turning her back on haute cuisine because that is the world of her grandfather as well as Alice and the Denmark Nakiris. It also seems to be loosely implied that Erina will be Nakiri Senzaemon’s successor. Even if she fell so head over heels that she’d be willing to turn her back on all of that and work in a small family diner (very unlikely, in my opinion), Souma wouldn’t let her do it. 

Next, backing up a few steps, in order for Souma to catch up with his father in terms of experience, he will have to travel extensively. Erina is the love interest best suited to match (and even exceed) him in that jetsetter lifestyle. This is actually something that I imagine would become a point of contention if he ends up with Megumi.

Perhaps most importantly, Erina will keep him on his toes. Even if Souma reaches a point when he can outmaneuver some of the world’s most talented chefs, I imagine that he and Erina will remain evenly matched in terms of skill. If those two are always there to challenge one another, there’s no way that either of them will stagnate or become disillusioned with cooking.  

Finally, just as Souma went from seeing Totsuki is just a stepping stone to finding a home at the academy, if he is fully immersed in the fast-paced, cutthroat gourmet world, I hypothesize that he will like it—maybe too much to leave (especially if Erina is there).

Anyway, I hope that answers your question, anon! Have a great day, everybody! 

[softestkabru]

please DO elaborate...... 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

From my tododeku hc post:

they’re soft and sweet in their first year, ridiculously hot and heavy in their second, and by third year, they are down right steady and known across UA as being “the strongest powercouple of the generation” (it is kind of embarrassing when people say that but they secretly love it)

Ok, so what I mean by all this is as follows:

First year: In my mind, they wouldn’t start actually dating till their first year is nearly over but ANYWAYS, when they do start dating, it’s really little things like ice cream dates after school. It’s hooking pinkys underneath the lunch table when they sit next to each other and blushing about it. It’s soft hand kisses when they part ways after school to walk home. It’s coming home with the dreamy-ist smiles on their faces. It’s the way todoroki blushes slightly and smiling softly when he talks to Momo about how his date with Deku was. It’s the way Deku’s face lights up when he talks about Todoroki to Iida and Uraraka. It’s holding hands when they think nobody can see. It’s when one catches the other staring at them from across the classroom and they both blush like crazy, Deku hiding his face in his hands. You know, pure and wholesome shit like that

Second year: At this point, they are way comfortable in their relationship and it’s less fluttery nerves and more hormone driven want. I’m basically working off the “horny high school boys” trope bc im so weak for that but you know how it goes. It just starts with them being more open about the fact that their dating and so they’re less nervous about PDA. They hold hands A LOT. They’ll hang off of each other (cue the “Todoroki holding deku by the hips” headcanon). One day in homeroom, they not-so-subtly end up sitting next to each  other even though they know they have assigned seats. Aizawa comes in and looks over the class like he does and he doesn’t say anything but he’s rolling his eyes. So, as you can imagine, this all develops into them being way more touchy than last year. Everyone can tell. Deku brings Todoroki home to meet his mom and have dinner (Deku’s mom is thrilled her son is so happy but that’s all matters for a different post).

 Their kisses evolve to the point where they’re getting at some deeper feeling than before and all they want to do is explore that feeling. Because it feels damn good. So before you know it, they’re stumbling into homeroom a few minutes late with ruffled hair and red faces bc yeah maybe they were making out behind a building and lost track of time, ok? They do stop being late for class but there’s rarely a moment after class that their hands aren’t all over each other.

There’s also the matter of the rival tension that’s inevitably between them. At first Deku is terrified that it’ll wreck their relationship but it sort of does the opposite... they figure out that it’s kind of a turn on.... Cue the sports festival and an avalanche of sexual tension. The entirety of both classes A and B end up having to oggle at it for the whole event because it’s very rare that they are put on the same teams. At nearly every break between events and such, Todoroki has Deku up against a wall kissing him crazy, the adrenaline of the games mixing with the hormonal haze that drives them together like magnets. He does have to let Deku be though as the one on one fights start because he knows how much Deku likes to take analysis notes. Without speculating on year 2 sports festival results, I think I’ll leave this here ^^ 

So, the year rolls on. There’s probably a class trip that’s at least semi-relaxing, maybe?? things get steamy ofc wtf else are class tips for.

 Terushima and other classmates start prying with little shame, asking if they’ve done it yet, had sex. Deku is slightly scandalized. Todoroki just rolls his eyes. Neither of them say so, but yes they have done the deed but just once, at Todoroki’s house one weekend when no one was home. They were under the guise of a train/study weekend, which wasn’t a lie... they just happened to also have sex as well...

so yeah, you get the gist of 2nd year ;)

Third year: By now, most of UA knows they’re boyfriends. At the very least they know that if you get pitted against either one of them for whatever reason, You’re probably fucked and if you were to go against them as a pair, well, you’re really fucked. They’re dead serious about their hero careers. They’re also dead serious about each other. Freshman and their own classmates alike look up to them as #relationshipgoals

They are way less distracted by each other than the previous year, buckling down on studying and training and more studying. They’re still stupidly in love, obviously but it isn’t all shiny, new urges so it’s less “oh my god what is this feeling?? i want more of it right now” and more “God, I can’t wait till this training exercise is over so I can flirt with my boyfriend”

Oh also, they LIVE for bragging about each other, ok. Even to people they already know like, I can imagine Deku getting first place in the sports festival that year and Todoroki doesn’t shut up about it for weeks. Class A turns into that meme of “I love--” “Yes, we know, you love Deku. You are in love with Izuku Midoriya who won the third year Sports Festival competition. you love him, Deku, the next symbol of peace among humanity, we get it...” and it’s beautiful. Deku is the exact same way, btw. Basically I see them walking though halls, holding hands and standing tall and everyone’s heads turn to watch them as they go by :’)

This post is almost 1k words so if you read all of it, i love u. let me know what u think

[ramune-raven]

So. Should I continue writing this?

PHOENIX ARC It was a warm ‪‪Monday morning���‬ , students prepare for their first day of school , one of those students was named Elmer. It'd be his first time going to a boarding school. It was called Phoenix Arc academy of science , arts , and it featured special classes for people interested in Wizardry but you had to pay an extra fee. Which Elmer's parents did. ( Elmer was a large fan of wizarding worlds ). Elmer was a 13 year old brown Rabbit with glasses , spiked hair , a beanie , a sweater and blue jeans. Clearly not your average bunny rabbit. He was preparing to be driven by his parents ( Ronald Robins , Alice Robins ) to Phoenix arc. He grabbed his bags and his large sketchbook and ran out the door "Come on , hurry hurry! You'll be late on your first day!" Yelled his father sitting in the front seat of the car. Elmer threw his bags in the trunk and than hastily sat in the back seat. As they drove to the school , Elmer was sketching down Ideas of some of his characters. One of them was named Ricky. A little mouse who carried a needle pin as a sword , he fought monstrous felines and battle giant canines. As he sketched away his parents talked about how proud they are of Elmer. ("Oh can't wait to see him animate!" , "Oh , our sons art is amazing!!!") But in almost a flash , they arrived at Phoenix arc. It was a very large building , with large gold circular Roofs ( there were many buildings ) and lovely white bricks , one side had a balcony facing a deep dark forest ( for the artist's to sketch things ) and vines creeping up the walls. There Elmer was able to see one of his professors as they drove by , they were close enough for Elmer to see every detail. He was a grayish brown rat with one ear torn , and one blind eye. His buck teeth were yellow and sharp. He didn't seem like the professor you'd like to get in an argument with. "Oh the building is extraordinary!" Yelled Elmer's  mother , looking out the window. They than finally found a place to park. Elmer's mom and dad helped him unpack his things and take them to the front. Elmer looked around the lovely building as they entered. Elmer's mom than dropped his bags and sighed heavily "all right! Have fun dear!" She yelled out "wai-WAIT WHERE DO I GO-" His mother and father already left the building. He looked around , confused. "Maybe I should-.... Ask a teacher...." Elmer muttered to himself. "Or another student- but what if they're lost as well?...." He was talking to himself as he walked around the school. Than out of nowhere a blue goat with glasses as well , puffy brown hair , a red and white scarf , and a tan sweater walked into Elmer making him drop his sketchbook. "OH MY- I-IM SO S-SORRY!!!" The goat yelled. "No no , it's okay-" Elmer said picking up his sketch book and helping the goat up. He than remembered he needed to find the dormitory. "hey- do you know where we put our stuff? Im quite lost..." Elmer asked. "Oh! Yeah! Follow me." The goat began to lead the way "oh- by the way , my names Ghust." "Elmer." The walked to their dormitories and Elmer finally put his stuff away. "What's your schedule?" Ghust asked , looking at one of Elmer's sketches. "Uhhhh.... Don't know yet...." "WHAT?! That must be terrible! You don't know who's class your late for!" Ghust said fearfully. "Uhhh... What's the big deal? It's not like the teachers can hurt us" Elmer said , looking at Ghust with a kinda sarcastic look. Ghust was still freaking out. "We need to go to the office to get your schedule , now!" Ghust grabbed Elmer's arm and dragged him to the office. At the front desk and old shabby grey cat sat. She had small glasses and was slouching over her desk. "What shall I help you with boys?" She asked in an old dusty voice "Well , Elmer here doesn't have a schedule!" Ghust said kinda loudly "hmmm... What was his name?" The shabby cat asked. "Oh! Uhhh.... I'm Elmer Robins , son of Ronald and Alice Robins...." The shabby cat took a long look at him , than proceeded to check her computer. "Ah... Yes , Elmer. Give me a minute to print your schedule....." Elmer looked at Ghust , nervous about his first class. "I hope you don't have someone like Ratsworth or Crow.... But you only get Crow if you paid the fee for the wizarding classes." Elmer gave Ghust an uncomfortable glare " well- my parents actually signed me up for those classes....." Right as Elmer said that the cat came with a printed schedule. "Here you are my dear...." She handed him the schedule and walked off. Elmer began reading "Ratsworth.... Cavin.... Crow...... Sieth.... King..... And than Cooper...." Ghust looked at Elmer , clearly showing he felt bad for him. "Well.... We have at least four classes together.... Ratsworth , Cavin , Sieth , and Cooper... Who happens to be my dad...." Elmer stared at his schedule for a couple minutes until Ghust yelled "WE'RE THIRTY MINUTES LATE TO RATSWORTH'S CLASS!!!!" He again , grabbed Elmer and ran to Ratsworth's class. "Why are you boys late?" To Elmer's surprise , Ratsworth was that one rat from earlier. His cloudy eyes gazed upon Elmer. "Sorry sir! This is a new student and his parents came h-here late! I helped him find one of the dormitories!" Ghust replied to Ratsworth. He stared at the two boys for a minute or so. "Take , your seats." Ghust ran to his desk as fast as he could. Elmer just walked and sat next to him , supposing that's where he shall sit. "Okay class. Today we shall be going over the rules , of my class..... Number one! No side conversations! If I see you engaged in one , you shall earn three weeks detention!" Elmer stared , than started scribbling a note to Ghust. "Three weeks!? A bit excessive for simply chatting...." He passed the note to Ghust and as a reply to the note , Ghust gave Elmer a nervous look and nodded. "Passing notes in my class boy!?" Ratsworth was leaning over Elmer's desk , he gestured Ghust to give him the note. "Hmmm.... Detention , both of you." He walked off and began going over the rules again. "Oh! Also...." He grabbed Elmer and his things and moved him to the back of the class. Many kids giggled seeing this. Ghust sat in the front row nervously. "Alright class... Rule number four! I shall not tolerate any sexual jokes during the reproductive unit!" One orange cat giggle loud enough for Elmer to hear in the back of the class. "Number five! No note passing! As we just witnessed the consequences. I'm sure nobody will even think of passing a note." Elmer went bright red as a few kids including a white rabbit and a crocodile stared at him. "Focus kids!" Snapped Ratsworth. "We have limited time children!" At least half an hour passed and than the bell rang. "Finally! Mr Ratsworth's class smells like a skunk!" The one crocodile yelled out. Ghust and Elmer giggled. "Okay next we have Cavin. Say, what does he teach?" Elmer asked. "He is one of the art teachers. Kinda silly cause he's a bat." Ghust helped Elmer to Cavins class. It was a messy room , paintings hung everywhere and piles of sketch books were stacked in the back. "Wow!" Elmer looked around the place , until a large bat who had a turquoise necklace and a flannel patterned short sleeve shirt walked in the class. "Welcome students! I'm mr Cavin , the art teacher. I would like everyone to grab a sketchbook from the back and write their names on it!" Elmer raced to the back and grabbed a large sketchbook. He choose his seat next to Ghust and a white dog with low hanging ears and luxurious fur. "Alright students- the first thing I'd like you to do is to copy down the rules on the board in the first page of your sketchbooks" these sketchbooks were a lot nicer than the ones you'd find at a normal school. They looked very expensive. As the students copied down the rules mr Cavin was looking over the assignments that are for throughout the year. Ghust and Elmer were aloud to talk to each other as well. It was a wonderful class , that Elmer absolutely loved. He gets to draw , paint , and animate , he can talk with his classmates , and no assigned seats. "Alright kids! After you finish copying the rules down , I would like to give you an assignment for the following week-" most of the kids were looking at mr Cavin , while Elmer and some other students were sketching in their books already. "I would like you to sketch some trees- the best place to do so would be the balcony at the side of the school. I want to see the whole page filled with trees , and if you want you can add a couple animals if you wish" Elmer raised his hand. "Yes?" Cavin looked at Elmer. "If we wish can we add one of our own characters in the forest?" "I don't mind." Cavin smiled warmly at Elmer , he smiled back. The class ended to soon , the bell rang loudly as students filled the halls , it was break time. Ghust and Elmer decided to spend their twenty minutes doodling in the library. Wow Elmer.... Your art is just- amazing...." Ghust was looking through pages of Elmer's art. "Uhhh th-thank you!" Elmer was drawing another picture of Ricky until he was interrupted by another student peeking over him. "Your art can use improvement...." Said the same dog from the art class. "Oh! I know!" Elmer looked at the dog , smiling. "Ugh...." The dog walked off. The bell rang again , signaling that their break is over. "Okay gotta go to one of the wizard classes!" He was clearly very excited. "Okay! I got to go to professor Enoch! Bye!!!" The both split ways , Elmer ran as fast as he could up the stairs to his first class of wizardry. He burst through the door and- "your late- rabbit." Said a females voice. She stared at him , she wore a long dark blue coats with potions and bags tied around her waist. "Sit." Elmer looked at her. "Yes ma'am." He sat next to a tiny mouse with the same outfit as professor crow. "Now today we shall be going over our rules and expectations in this  class. Firstly to let you know , there is no wands , chocolate toads , or boys with messy hair and glasses." Elmer looked at his own hair and tried to flatten it to make it look straiter. "But we will be learning Jinxes and potions. But firstly , as I said , Rules! Rule number one! Don't ever , EVER , stick any part of your body in a full cauldron. Rule number two! Don't jinx anyone's books , we've had to many incidents last year. Rule number three! Don't turn your friend into a toad." Elmer began to think these rules were ridiculously specific. Some kids in the back even giggled , including that one orange cat from Ratsworth's class. After going over every single rule crow faced the class. "Our first unit shall be Jinxes. Bring out your books and begin to study page 13." Elmer reached in his bag and grabbed a large book. "Page 13...." He opens the book to page  13 and begins to study , the orange cat than randomly yells "SPECTON ALUS!" Of course nothing happens , but crow yells out "JACOB NO!!!! IF THAT JINX WAS TO WORK YOU WOULD'VE CURSED THE WHOLE CLASS!!!" Jacob was laughing to tears in the back. Elmer was fearful now , what if some kid actually did try and turn him into a toad? "Class , what Jacob did was an example of what NOT TO DO!" Crow was still yelling at Jacob , and throughout the class she gave him death stares. "Dang Jacob , that was idiotic...." Said a black fox. "Heh , I know!" They were still giggling about it. "Now , I want you all to say this , aminang parvata. It's a spell that will , if you do it right , call the creatures of light to serve you- it's a very important spell and you must know it. Due to the forest at the side of the school being filled with the creatures of shadows." Elmer felt a chill go down his spine. He raised his hand. "Ugghh.... What is it Elmer?...." He looked at her , fearfully as he said this. "C-creatures of the shadows? Wh-what are those?" Crow stared down at him. "You came here and you did not know about them?" She looked shocked. Elmer was confused. "Y-yeah?" Crow sighed loudly. "I guess I shall have to teach you all.... Ughhhhh...." She went to the front of the class and grabbed a large book. She opened it to what seemed like the middle. "Alright... The creatures of the shadows are like soul eaters, except not as violent. Their story is , the creatures lived a happy life , a cheerful life , until someone or something kills something or someone they love. Than kill the creature. Their spirits rise as shadowy figures , and they are very dangerous. We don't know much about them , or how the got a physical form , but what we do know is that they will kill." Elmer looked at her , shocked. Jacob yelled "WHATS A SOUL EATER!? IM SURE THATS AN ANIME-" Crow yelled at him again. Throughout the rest of the class , Jacob  was yelled at , and Elmer felt terrified. This was the longest class he has ever had. When the bell rang , Elmer was extremely happy knowing that he gets to see Ghust again. He ran up to the dormitory to grab some things. As he ran down the stairs he bumped into the white dog again. "Hey! Watch where ya going stupid!" The dog ran off again. Elmer continued to run down the stairs , he really was in no hurry , he had twenty minutes , but he wanted to have time to speak with Ghust about what happened in Crows class. He found him in the library , but with a female sheep. "Ooohhh... Who's she?" Elmer asked. Ghust jumped at Elmer's voice. "Uhhhhh...." "She your girlfriend?" "N-NO!" Ghust blushed deeply and Elmer giggled "just kidding , just kidding , so , hi I'm Elmer , you are?" He reached his paw out to the sheep. "Lydia!" She grabbed his hand and shook it violently. "I'm Ghust's girlfriend!!!" Ghust was trying hard to get her to shut up. While Ghust and Lydia were talking ( "he wasn't supposed to know that Lydia!" ) Elmer was looking through his book. It was like a biology book , but with magical creatures , he was studying the Jackalope page , he wished he had antlers , it'd make him a lot cooler than he actually is. The bell rang loudly and Lydia shot up and ran down the hall. "Well now we have Sieth.... He teaches like , animal things...." Said Ghust in a bored way. "But wait- Aren't we anima-" Elmer shuttered at the thought of a tiny version of him , without clothes or glasses. They both ran to Sieth's room , with huge Biology books at their sides. When they walked in , there was a Komodo dragon standing at a desk , he had a Warlock like outfit , and his eyes seemed closed. "He kinda looks like a snake...." Elmer whispered to Ghust. "Well- he is a reptile , I think he's dating Mrs Enoch. And she's a snake...." Ghust looked at Elmer giggling. "Alright class , take your seats!" Mr Sieth yelled loud enough for the other side of the hall to hear him. "Now , take out your books. And throw em' out the window." Everyone looked at Sieth. One of the kids hid their books so they can keep it. "Also , don't call me Mr Sieth. That gets on my nerves , just call me Ragnall." None of the kids actually threw their books through the window except for Jacob, he did so gladly. "Now , we'll be learning about the Phoenix! Best thing to do on the first day at Phoenix arc!" All the kids seemed interested immediately. "The Phoenix is a bird made of fire , when it dies it turns into ash and then is reborn from the ashes." Elmer was taking notes on this. "Sir?" "Yes Elmer?" "Why is the school called Phoenix arc?" All the kids around him laughed. "Well , our founder and principle , is a Phoenix." Ragnall seemed very surprised he did not know this. Elmer went red in the face , Ghust patted his back trying to comfort him. "Anyway , as I was saying , a Phoenix's tears can heal wounds , very beautiful and spiritual birds if I do say so myself." Just then Ragnall thought of a fun activity. "I would like you all to draw how you see a Phoenix! Not how I see a Phoenix , not how the person sitting next to you see's a Phoenix , how you see one." Elmer was very happy to hear that he can draw in a class like this , he got out his sketching pencil and started to draw. At least ten minutes late he raised his hand. "Yes Elmer?" Elmer held up his paper so Ragnall can see. "I finished!" Ragnall looked at the picture , admiring the art style. "Very nice Elmer! I like the flames in the background!" Elmer smiled brightly at this compliment. Ghust was still working on the feet. ( he never really draws , even though his dad is an art teacher. ) Jacob finished , but it looked like a three year old drew it. Elmer thought he did this on purpose. Then Elmer thought of something. "Sir , if we are finished with the Phoenix , can we maybe draw how we see.... The.... Ummm.... Creatures of the shadows?" Ragnall looked at him , his slit eyes opened enough for Elmer to see his Supernatural golden eyes. He looked mad for a second , Elmer thought he said something outrageous. "Sure!" Ragnall smiled warmly at Elmer. "Draw as you wish , we only have like , twenty minutes left." One kid stood up , she was a white and light brown rabbit with glasses as well. "What about the learning? We could be using this time to educate ourselves!" Ragnall looked at her. "I didn't say you had to sketch. You can study through your large book if you wish , that was my plan at first." She looked outraged. "Th-THAN WHY'D YOU ASK US TO THROW THEM OUT THE WINDOW?!" "It was a test of intelligence." Everyone laughed cause Jacob actually threw his book out the window. Ghust looked at Elmer and passed him a note. "Dude , she's like perfect for you , she even looks like you dude! " Elmer made a loud scoffing noise and went bright red. He whispered loudly to Ghust , "I don't like her!!!" Ghust just nodded his head with a smug look , Elmer knew he didn't believe him. Elmer turned back to his paper , and began sketching out an idea of what the creatures look like. He viewed them as large shadows that follow you through the forest , he could see one having sharp canine teeth and razor claws. Ragnall looked over his shoulder and chuckled. "I like it!" Elmer jumped , he was so involved in his drawing he had not noticed his professor looming over him. "O-oh.... Thanks...." Ragnall smiled. Elmers classes went smoothly besides Coopers , Elmer found out that Copper was Ghust dad and throughout the class he embarrassed Ghust. ( "Oh Ghust , remember the first time you "Fainted"?! I nearly laughed to tears!" "I remember the day Ghust brought back Lydia his... GIRLFRIEND" ) Ghust and Elmer went back to the dormitories with many kids following , Elmer followed Ghust , due to him not knowing where he sleeps. "Before you sleep , I suggest you study for Ragnalls class...." Said a young owl with very little feathers. "Study? For that looney?" The white rabbit from Ragnall's class was hanging out on a couch. Elmer was starring at her. "OoooooHHHHH , SOMEBODY'S IN LOOOOVE!!!!" Ghust was right next to Elmer. And apparently the other rabbit overheard. "What?" Before Ghust could answer Elmer covered his mouth. "N-nothing! L-lets go to the boys dormitory Ghust!!!!" He dragged Ghust away into their dormitories. "WHAT WAS THAT!?" Ghust seemed pretty mad. "You can't tell her I like her! She'll freak out! And if I tell her I might get rejected!" Ghust looked at him nastily , "at least write a note to her!" Elmer thought of it , maybe if he makes it anonymous.... "But-.... I don't even know her name!" Ghust smiled "Crystal Yang. But for now , you should go to sleep. You get top bunk. I'm afraid of height's." Ghust climbed in the bottom bunk and began to change into his pajamas. Elmer climbed in the top bunk after putting his glasses on a stand. "Goodnight Ghust...." "Goodnight Elmer....." They both doze of into a long sleep. CHAPTER TWO: That night Elmer had the most peculiar dream. He was in the woods , with someone else who he couldn't remember. A shadowy creature that appeared had a large completely pitch black body in the shape of a dog , and the only thing you could make out was its white glowing eyes and teeth. Elmer couldn't stop thinking of it. It seemed to real. He told Ghust about the dream. "Eh probably nothing." Ghust was eating a plate full of grass for breakfast. "Nothing?! It looked like one of the shadow creatures!!!" Elmer was eating lettuce , carrots , and a couple radishes. "Everyone has seen one at least once. The can't hurt you unless your like , right in their way. If your on a balcony and you see one your safe." Ghust coughed up a bug he found in his plate of grass. "Ew who prepared this plate?! UGH!!!!" Elmer giggled slightly as he began to eat a large radish. Ghust stopped freaking out over the bug and looked over his shoulder. "Oooohhhh!!!! Crystals gonna have to sit next to yoooouu!!!!" Elmer spat out a piece of the radish As he looked over his shoulder , crystal was talking to Ratsworth than began to walk towards them. "Ah!!! G-Ghust , how do I look?!" Ghust giggled "fine dude.... You look good! Stop freaking out!" Crystal sat next to Elmer with a plate similar to his. "O-oh hi Cr-Crystal!" Elmer smiled. "Hi....." That morning was pretty awkward for Elmer. Ghust kept throwing jokes on how Elmer has a crush on Crystal ( Elmer and Crystal sitting in a tree~ ) and Elmer was overwhelmed by all of Ratsworth's homework assignments. ( he announced them at the beginning of class ) "now students!!! Today , we'll be learning the anatomy of a goat!" Ghust looked at Elmer and mouthed "horns , beard , long ears. We're all basically the same." Elmer giggled "three weeks detention Elmer and Ghust." Ghust then screamed a curse word and got longer detention. "Now before we learn the anatomy. I must list different species of goats!" He went on listing them then stopped and looked at Ghust. "And finally , a fainting goat." Ghust was not paying attention , he was almost asleep in his chair. Ratsworth walked behind Ghust and grabbed his shoulder yelling "BOO!" Ghust screamed and fell to the floor as though he fainted. Every one in the classroom laughed. Elmer helped him up. "Yo dude... You alright?" Ghust simply giggled out of embarrassment. "Well... Yeah... I was just doing what comes natural.... You see , as Ratsworth said , I'm a fainting goat" the class stared and giggled loudly at Ghust. "PAY ATTENTION!!!!! Ghust , stay after class for distracting the whole class. "WHAT?!" "YOU HEARD ME!!!!" Ghust , again , fainted. The bell rang after a long class all about goats. Ghust stayed behind as Elmer made his way to Cavins room. He felt suspicious about Ratsworth , he didn't know why. It was , just the way he looked. He was talking to Lydia. "So.... Do you know how Ratsworth got his ear all jacked up?.." Lydia looked at Elmer and said enthusiastically "how would I know? He just a mean ol' grumpy pants!!! I don't care for him.... He's a meanie!" Elmer giggled at this as they were talking on their way to Cavins. "AHHH!" Lydia jumped as a large spider walked down the hall. "Not a fan of spiders?" Ragnall was behind them except he was accompanied by someone , a black cat in a martial arts outfit with a red bandana with teeth patterns. He had a brown belt tied around his waist , "I finally convinced Dean Lockwood to enroll Martial arts class!!!" Ragnall beamed in excitement. "Um , who's Dean Lockwood?" Elmer asked. Ragnall laughed , "He's a good friend of our founder Mr Flamecoover. He kinda chooses the classes." Lydia jumped up "COOL!" She than mimicked some martial arts moves and yelled "HOOOYAAAAHHH!!!" Each time she did them. The cat looked at them and than said quietly "I'm Neil , the martial arts teacher here. Well , at least assistant." Elmer thought about using some martial arts on Ratsworth. It was pleasing to think about. "Now get to class children!" Ragnall pointed to the clock and smiled "OH CRUD!!!!" Elmer got up and bolted toward his class , Lydia following. they made it to Cavins class , late , they both sat down and pulled out their sketchbooks. "Did any of you finish your assignment?" Elmers hand shot up. "Very.... Uhh.... Nice.... And do any of you have an explanation as to why yours are not done?" "Ratsworth!!!! It was him I swear!!" "To be honest , I don't care" "Sorry , forgot" "Homework" the list went on and on , Cavin gave everyone a second chance but took away points from everyone's grades. Otherwise the class went by smoothly. After class Elmer and Ghust were talking about the latest episode of their favorite show and heard something going on in Ratsworth's room. "Listen , Dean! You can't hide this forever!!!! I know your trying to help King Xavier!!! I know your trying to help him gain the crystal!!!" That was clearly crows voice. "Juliet , why does it matter to you? Why must you be peeking your tiny nose in every one of my conversations? If you don't stop , I'll be sure to have Xavier kill you first...." Elmer and Ghust heard enough. They were curious. They ran to the library. "I don't think they'd have a book on Xa-" "Shut it Ghust!!!" Ghust immediately stopped talking. They began to look through books. But no luck. "Told you" Ghust looked at Elmer "maybe we should ask , well.... I don't know... A teacher?" Elmer could read his sarcastic tone almost immediately. "Shut up" They eventually had to go to class. "Bye Ghust.... Good luck in Skulls class...." Elmer walked to Crows class. Desperately wanting to ask about this Xavier guy. Or what the "Crystal" is. So many questions filled his head as he entered the class. Today crow wasn't sitting at the desk. It was a young giraffe with a plaid jacket and glasses. Looked about in his twenties. "Alri.... Alright class... S-settle down...." The class was pretty occupied by something Jacob was doing. Elmer walked up to the new teacher "where's crow?" The teacher looked at him "she told me she has some errands..." "Alright , and you are , sir?" "Oh! Umm.... Just call me mister Daniels." Mr Daniels smiled as he directed Elmer to his seat "now , crow told me you will all be studying!" The entire class booed. He ignored them. The class ended with a huge lecture on how to study properly. Elmer walked out , not caring. He walked to Skulls class to wait for Ghust. Until a dark brown poodle Labrador mix walked past him. He was wearing a formal outfit , with what looked like a diamond pendant around his collar , he stops to look at Elmer. "What are you doing? Class doesn't end for like five more minutes." "My substitute was giving a lecture I didn't care for" "Oh... You can't just barge outta class like that young man!" Elmer looked at the dog , did he have any authority over him? No. "So? And don't call me you man , your the same age as I mister -?" "Alexander Sutcliff" "Alrighty , Alex , the names Elmer." "Don't call me Alex , rabbit." "Alright , don't call me Rabbit" they talked for the remainder of the time , until the classes began to flood out , Ghust walked up to Elmer and Alexander. "Um , who's this?" He clearly thought Elmer "replaced" him. "Alexander , Alexander Sutcliff." He bowed as he said this. "Okay , I'm Ghust...." He held out his hoof , Alexander looked at it. "Umm... Sir do you ever trim your hooves?" Ghust was obviously offended by this. The three of them walked to their next classes. Luckily Alexander had Ragnall as well. Elmer and Alexander sat down , Ghust sat in the other side of Elmer , away for Alexander. Ragnall walked in out of nowhere , and he took a seat. There was an awkward silence , until Jacob yelled "SO NOW WHAT?!" Ragnall gave Jacob a nasty look than turned back to the whole class. "Good Morning" "good morning mr Sieth" the class replied back. "I prefer to be called Ragnall , as I have said before." He stood up and he looked at Alexander. "New here?" "Y-yes mr s- I mean Ragnall." "Why is everyone so scared of me all the sudden? Are you people afraid of reptiles?" The entire class looked up , Alexander rose his hand in the air. "Yes?" "Jacob was talking about how all Komodo dragons, kill." "He's not wrong" the entire class gasped. "But , I'm vegan. I eat tofu. Like all of you kids do at this school. Only phsyco's kill." Some kids looked relived while others looked skeptical.

[allofbeercom]

The day I went hunting for the Ku Klux Klan | Dave Eggers

Following Trumps win, one KKK chapter announced plans for a victory parade in North Carolina. But where was it going to be, and who might turn up? Dave Eggers joined the protestors playing cat-and-mouse with white supremacists

No one knew much, but the crowd was growing. We were at the rest stop off Highway 29 between Eden and Pelham, where North Carolina meets Virginia, and everyone was looking for the Ku Klux Klan. It was 8.40am.

The day after the election of Donald Trump, the Loyal White Knights of Pelham, a chapter of the KKK with a suitably unhinged website, had announced that they would be holding a victory parade on 3 December. In the weeks since, there had been no word on the Knights website or anywhere else about when or where the parade would be.

But the initial declaration was perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of what we might call the New Emboldening a coast-to-coast rise in everyday American racism and bigotry spurred by the rhetoric and election of a billionaire who had taken swipes at certain Mexican-Americans and all Mexicans, certain women and all women, certain Muslim-Americans and all Muslims, all African Americans and all immigrants.

In the month after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center had tracked more than 900 incidents targeting non-whites. A Muslim college student in Ann Arbor had been told, by a young white man, to remove her hijab or he would light her on fire. At a Utah high school, two Mexican-American sisters were told by their white classmates, You get a free trip back to Mexico. You should be happy.

The idea of a Klan rally in this kind of atmosphere was potentially explosive. The KKK had demonstrated a year earlier, in Columbia, South Carolina, and the results had been ugly. Three hundred Klan members had been there. The New Black Panthers had countered with 400 of their own members. In all, there were 2,000 protesters. There were cops in body armour. Ripped Confederate flags. A grandmother with a bloody nose. A Klan member, trying to flee in his vehicle, ran into a lamppost.

This 3 December parade, then, coming after Trumps election and during this New Emboldening, had the potential to be far worse. The promise that the parade was coming was a blight on the soul of the nation; the vast majority of the country, whether they supported Trump or not, dreaded it. There is no more wretched and horrifying segment of the American people or history than the Klan, who in their darkest years had lynched black men and women and had terrorised anyone who wasnt white or Christian. At their height, in 1924, the Klans membership was 4 million. In 2016, estimates put their strength at no more than 8,000.

Two masked Ku Klux Klansmen giving an interview on a rural backroad near Pelham, North Carolina on the night of 2 December. Photograph: Jay Reeves/AP

But Trump, like a snake charmer, had coaxed the rise of the alt-right, who embodied the spirit of the Klan, but in different robes and with better social media. And because the depth of Trumps support so much of it invisible to polls and data had shocked much of the nation, there existed the possibility that the Klan, too, would emerge with far greater numbers than anyone thought possible.

But for a month, no one knew where the rally would take place. Activists marked it on their calendars but had no clue where to go, other than Pelham, North Carolina a tiny town of 3,592 souls, with no central business district through which to parade. The night before, Id driven around Pelham and found nowhere a potential parade might happen. Guessing the Klan might be gathering at the home of Amanda and Christopher Barker, the only Knights listed on their website, I drove past the home listed as their address. It was a humble clapboard house in nearby Eden. There were no cars parked outside, no sign of an assembling of regional racists.

Then, late on the night of 2 December, an article appeared on the website of the Times-News of Burlington, North Carolina. A reporter there, Natalie Janicello, spoke with a Loyal White Knights representative who called himself the chapters exalted cyclops. He confirmed that the Klan would indeed parade. Probably at 9am, he said, and in the vicinity of Pelham.

So here we were, at the rest stop, waiting for word. The sky was grey and the temperature hovered at 40F. Cars continued to arrive, and their passengers disembarked to use the facilities. Most were young and dressed in black boots, pants, hoodies and sunglasses. A few were wearing bandanas to cover their faces. These were black-bloc activists some anarchist, some communist, some apolitical in general more willing to engage in confrontation and property damage (thus the efforts to anonymise themselves). There were six of them. Then 10. Then 20. Thirty. They made up the largest group of the assembling activists, but there were also members of the International Workers of the World (IWW), a few people with Black Lives Matter signs, and a smattering of unaffiliateds men and women, most of them under 30, standing in the cold, waiting for word of when and where. But 9am was fast approaching and there was no update.

I befriended a trio of activists who seemed to have the most up-to-date information. Megan Squire, a red-haired professor of computing sciences at nearby Elon University, was earnest and funny and determined to confront the Klan. She was with her husband, Tony Crider, a professor of physics, who, in Ray-Bans and a leather jacket, was a bit more detached and sceptical (for reasons that would become clear later). With them was Sugelema Lynch, a bright-eyed second-grade teacher from nearby Alamance County.

Im more of a tag-along, she said. She was wearing a lime-green scarf and teal-coloured sneakers, and had an enormous camera around her neck. I just want to get a couple cool photos and tell my kids, Look what I did this weekend! She had moved from California five years earlier, when shed married a man who grew up nearby. She was still getting used to this once-Confederate state, whose Latino population had grown from 76,000 in 1990 to 800,000 in 2016.

When I first moved here, she said, living in the Burlington area, you just felt the tension. As a Hispanic woman, just walking around felt awkward. She is one of two Latino teachers at her elementary school, where most of the students are the children of Latino immigrants. Its not really a surprise to hear about the Klan here. Things dont ever just go away. But Im not offended just looking at the Confederate flag. I grew up watching The Dukes of Hazzard, too.

Megan was periodically checking in with the IWW and black-bloc groups, and returned with news. OK, she said. The rumour now is that the Klan is organising itself, planning to go to Danville via Highway 29. Everyones trying to find someone who might have a car shitty enough to block the highway.

Black bloc protesters some anarchist, some communist, some apolitical who formed a large part of the turnout against the KKK march. Photograph: Carol Guzy/Photoshot/Avalon

Danville was a city of 43,000, just over the Virginia border. It had been on the list of possible sites for the Klan march.As we waited, Tony told a story of a recent Trump-fuelled incident on the Elon campus. The day after the election, he had arrived at his classroom to find the words Bye bye Latinos. Hasta la Vista written in large letters on his whiteboard. There had been recent activity in the area by another neo-white supremacist group called Actbac (Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County), and Tony thought this might have something to do with them. Deciding to make it a teachable moment, he took a picture of the board and posted it on his Facebook account.

When his first class arrived that morning, he left the words up. He asked the students to write down their thoughts on the election and drop them in a bin, so each students opinion would remain anonymous. (He planned to read them aloud a week later, when they had some distance.) He taught the class as planned, then went back to his office, closed the door, and cried.

Meanwhile, his photo had been shared with a student reporter at Elon, who tweeted it. That tweet was retweeted 2,000 times, and by the next day, it had been reported in the Daily Mail and the Associated Press. It was referenced all over the world.

Then we found out it was a hoax, Tony said. It turned out that a Latino student at Elon had written it. The student considered it satire.

Now the assembled protesters gathered around Greg Williams, an organiser from the IWW. With long dark hair and a beard, he was calm and in control. He introduced the protesters to four men and women wearing bright green baseball caps. They were from the National Lawyers Guild, he said if anyone got arrested, they would be available. He provided one of their phone numbers. It had a San Francisco area code. The activists passed around a black marker and wrote it on their arms.

Anyone with a smartphone that can be opened with your fingerprints should disable that function, Megan said. If youre arrested, she explained, police cant make you give up your password, but they can compel you to use your fingerprint. The heads of the assembled protesters bent downward as they busily made adjustments to their phones.

Finally, Williams instructed the protesters to think about your positionality. White protesters should, he said, try to keep at least two of them (white protesters) between the Klan and any protesters of colour. Speak for yourself, a black protester said, and there were laughs. The bottom line, Williams said, is look after each other.

A parking attendant had been making her way through, marking tires. The police would soon have reason to move the group, so everyone got in their cars and caravanned to the Pelham Community Center just across the highway. A sign out front promised a visit from Santa Claus later that week.

Behind the community centre was a dirt road with a narrow stretch of grass running alongside it. The area was flanked by a high wire fence on one side and a dense forest on another. Everyone parked their cars, got out and waited. The protesters milled and talked and looked at each others placards. RAPIST PRESIDENT read one. NO HATE IN OUR STATE read another. A white man in shorts held a sign declaring that The Worst Thing to Ever Come Out of a Vagina Was a WHITE MAN. Another white man demonstrating every protests struggle to keep focus had a sign pushing for a $15 minimum wage.

Word was that the parade would happen at 11am. Now the black bloc got serious. Baseball bats were removed from car trunks. Masks were adjusted. One man wore a leather jacket covered with silver studs. Another put on a motorcycle helmet. The scene began to have the look of troops assembling before battle.

More members of the media appeared. There were about a dozen small video crews and an equal number of journalists walking around with notebooks and tape recorders. They roamed among the assembled and waiting protesters, and, with nothing else to do, pretty much every journalist and photographer interviewed and photographed pretty much every protester. A trio of young activists with hand-drawn signs were photographed at least 10 times in precisely the same pose. Sugelema took a picture, too. What the hell, she said.

An SUV with tinted windows arrived. Two men emerged wearing identical outfits fleece jackets, khaki pants, sunglasses and hats. Security contractors with a group called ESG, they were there to protect a TV newscaster, an older gentleman, well-tanned, who emerged from the SUV with a cameraman in tow. His security detail followed.

Two young men removed two crates from their car trunk, one full of bottled water, the other Red Bull, and distributed them. The mood was upbeat. The current joke, Megan said, is that were just a bunch of goth kids playing Pokmon Go.

With an hour to kill before the Klan parade, there was general anxiety that some faction of the protesters would start a drum circle. The anarchists dont like drum circles, Megan noted. Sugelema pointed to a man with a red drum at his feet. Two other men were carrying cymbals. Another man with an elaborate moustache appeared with a saxophone. A few days before, at the Standing Rock protests, Sioux tribal leaders had asked the white people, arriving in great numbers and in festive spirit, not to treat the protests like Burning Man.

Megan checked in with Natalie Janicello, the reporter who had the trust of the Loyal White Knights. Janicello happened to have been a student of Megans at Elon University. She conveyed the latest: the Loyal White Knights had pushed their parade back to 3pm. The theory circulated that the Klan had been scared off by the size of the counter-protest, and had postponed their rally to gather a comparable volume of paraders of their own. One woman with hair dyed blue carried around a sign, newly made, that said Big Bad KKK: 2 Scared 2 March.

Protesters in Danville after the theory circulated that the Klan had been scared off and had postponed their rally. Photograph: Carol Guzy/Photoshot/Avalon

Sugelema and I went to get snacks. At the local mini-mart, where the staff and customers were all black, there was no awareness at all of the parade and counter-rally happening down the road. Next door, three young African American men were offering car washes. It was business as usual. We drove through Danville, quiet as a tomb.

They used to make socks here, Sugelema noted. A wide river, the Dan, cut through the town, and there were abandoned factories decomposing alongside its grey water. Around this part of North Carolina, there had been textile factories specialising in hosiery. In 1951, two local manufacturers, the Riverside Cotton Mill and Schoolfield, merged and became the largest single-unit textile mill in the world. But the plant closed in 2006. Now the city looked like the kind of place that might see its red-brick warehouses turned into lofts, and its riverside factories transformed by non-profits. But this kind of revival had yet to arrive in Danville.

Sugelemas parents were migrant farmworkers from Mexico. We moved every couple months, she said, following harvests up and down the Pacific coast. They picked apples in Washington and Oregon, melon and strawberries in Californias central valley. Thats where she was born, between harvests, and was given an unprecedented name.

Its Estonian. In the hospital, my mom didnt know what to name me, so the nurse suggested Sugelema, making her name at birth Sugelema Guadalupe Gonzalez probably the only person with that name the world has ever known. As an adult, Sugelema had looked up the meaning of her first name. According to the internet, in Estonian her name means itchy.

Of the 17 students in her classroom this year, 14 are from immigrant families, most of them from Mexico. Since Trumps election, some of the families were worried, fearing that he would follow through on promises to deport millions of people, but Sugelema had not rushed to judgment. Growing up, her parents had admired another Republican, Ronald Reagan. With the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Reagan had granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants, including many seasonal agricultural workers like her parents. It was Reagan who allowed us stay in the US, she said.

Her parents found a small town in Oregon and settled down. Sugelema and her older brother were sent to a public school where most of the kids were white. Later, her brother joined the marines and became a successful IT specialist, with most of his contracts coming from the US military. He now lives in San Diego, where Sugelemas mother is comfortably retired. Sugelema went to college and is the mother of five. Her oldest son is on the local football team.

The American dream is not perfect, but it is real. Sugelemas parents arrived in the 1970s from Mexico with nothing. They worked the fields, and now their daughter is a teacher and an indie-rock singer-songwriter. This I learned on the drive. Later, Sugelema showed me one of the music videos she had made with her husband. The song was called All Things Considered, and the video has the manic energy and lurid colours of 1980s MTV. In it, Sugelema wears Tweety Bird pyjamas as a cast of costumed partygoers dances around her. Megan is dressed in lederhosen; Tony wears the mask of a devil. In the centre of the frame, Sugelema sings, not quite awake and not quite asleep.

We returned from the convenience store to find that the protesters had decided to have an impromptu march down the dirt road. The Caswell County sheriff had blocked off one entrance, so we went around to the other, parked, and arrived in time to see the march in full swing. The photographers dutifully took pictures and the videographers filmed. In every way it had the look of a real protest, and any close-cropped photo would imply a rousing demonstration in favour of equality and diversity.

But there was no Klan and there were no spectators. It was about 60 activists marching for about 100ft on a road in the woods. After a few minutes, the group stopped marching and went back to waiting. It was not quite noon.

Soon there was news. Apparently there was a group of white supremacists demonstrating in nearby Danville. Sugelema and I had just come back from there, and had seen nothing of the kind. I think we should head out there! Williams roared, and the crowd cheered. Someone started drumming. The saxophonist played a ditty as everyone ran to their cars. Saxman, youre my hero, someone yelled.

We followed the 30 cars back on to Highway 29. There was one catch: no one had an address. There had been some mention of the centre of town. Someone else had heard the word Sutherlin. Megan sleuthed that this might be the Sutherlin home in downtown Danville. During the waning days of the civil war, when Union troops had overrun and burned Richmond to the ground, the home of Major WT Sutherin in Danville had become the last capital of the Confederacy. For a week at least 3-10 April 1865. It was now a museum.

There was no Klan and there were no spectators anti-KKK protesters march outside Danville, Virginia. Photograph: MWAA/ZDS/WENN.com

We raced into Danville and were the first to find the building. It was a grand, red-stone home in the Italian villa style, on a hilltop, with a wide lawn and a stone obelisk on which were engraved the words Guarding Our Future by Preserving Our Past. The property occupied an entire city block, and would have been a fitting site for any demonstration. But there was no one there. No white supremacists. No one at all.

We drove through Danville and soon found the ESG Security SUV in a parking lot on the edge of Danvilles downtown. Theyd found something. The white-haired newscaster stood outside, flanked by his private security guards, talking to a tall man with a wild grey beard. He wore a black leather cowboy hat and a denim jacket bearing at least 10 Confederate flag patches. There were two trucks nearby. One bore the Virginia license plate CNFEDRT.

The bearded mans was named George Randall. He and the two women with him were bewildered, like Custer caught in an ambush. Were not part of the Klan, Randall said. They were part of a group called the Virginia Flaggers, whose motto was Heritage, not hate. Periodically they held rallies to preserve Southern heritage and fly the Southern flag. He said he hadnt heard anything about a Klan rally, and hated getting confused with the Klan. This kind of mix-up, he said, was the fault of the media. And the young people. And the liberals. He monologued for a time, at one point complaining about a woman hed seen on the internet defecating on a picture of Trump. While he was speaking two more cars, carrying activists and journalists, pulled into the parking lot. Randall looked alarmed.

We better get out of here, said one of the women in the CNFEDRT truck. Randall jumped in and they took off.

Back at the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, a handful of black-bloc activists stood on the corner. Passing motorists, most of them African American, gawked and pointed. Thought experiment: what would the reaction have been in a reciprocal situation? If 30 or so young black people, most of them men, showed up in a small predominantly white town, wearing masks and carrying baseball bats, what might happen?

Megans phone dinged. The activists were headed back to the rest stop where we had started the day almost five hours earlier. Sugelema and I left Danville and got on the highway. When we got to the rest stop, the 30 cars were leaving. They were going back to the Danville Museum. Theyd heard that a different Confederate group was about to demonstrate. We tried to convince them that we had just come from Danville and that nothing was happening there, but it was too late. They were gone. We followed. It was a lot like high school, where dozens of cars roamed the same few suburban miles, looking for a party, stopping at the mini-mart, getting a Slurpee, exchanging specious information and driving off only to repeat the whole process half an hour later.

We arrived at the museum to find a few disappointed black-bloc members. No Klan, no Confederates, no neo-Confederates. Megan and Tony arrived with news. Tony had seen some police cars a few blocks away, parked near a playground. He thought it might be the protest, or at least a protest. We raced to the park, but there were no Klansmen there, no black bloc. Instead, about 25 Danville residents, most of them African American, had assembled before a video camera, in rows, as if posing for a school picture. Put down the guns! they all said in unison. The gathering had nothing to do with white supremacists or Trump. It was about ending a recent cycle of violence in Danville.

David L Wilson, who split his time between selling life insurance and working at a tyre-manufacturing plant, explained. Weve had a lot of shootings in our city. Weve had 14 murders recently. Even last night, a young lady here had a gunshots outside of her house. He took the arm of an older man next to him; he had tired eyes. This was the idea of this man, Gerald Holmes, Wilson said. Holmes had organised a movement called 434 Lives Matter, named for the local area code.

We have to change the mindset of the people, Wilson said. We cant do it from a top-down position. We cant do it just with the police. If we dont change the mindset of the people in the community, and change the way theyre dealing with each other in terms of conflict resolution, were going to continue to see this robbing and shooting and killing.

The members of 434 Lives Matter planned to go canvassing that day, door to door, in the neighbourhoods affected by the violence. For a moment, what the rest of us had been doing all day seemed hopelessly irrelevant. A mass of interlopers, many of whom were in costume, were chasing the Klan like it was some urban scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, the actual residents of the town were trying to figure out why their young men were shooting each other.

Sometimes they do things out of their character, Wilson said. But theyre doing what they think they have to do in order to survive. Theyre trying to do what they can to make ends meet, to take care of their families. Our main thing is listening now. We have to listen to what peoples hurts are.

We left the park. Megans phone went off again. The protesters were marching in downtown Danville. Apparently they were tired of waiting for the Klan. We raced to Main Street and found them. It was happening. And their numbers had grown there were now about 100 people marching. There were more locals. There were parents with their children. It was loud and it was real. No hate! No Fear! The KKKs not welcome here! they chanted. Leading the march were the black bloc, their baseball bats dragging on the pavement. Minutes before, I had felt like whatever the anti-KKK activists were doing had no tangible meaning, but now, seeing it happen, it seemed vital and necessary. The last vestiges of the Ku Klux Klan must be met with this kind of demonstration of resistance.

Trailing the marchers were three Danville police cars, their lights spinning brightly. They had sanctioned the march and were ensuring that it had the run of the road. All of which was remarkable. The police had allowed the protest on incredibly short notice, and were OK with dozens of black-clad protesters marching down their street with bats. It was a model of accommodation and restraint.

But because it was a Saturday, and because the stretch of road they marched was not a busy pedestrian thoroughfare, and because the march had been organized in the last half-hour, there were only a few people to watch it. A beautician peeked out the window of her shop, but otherwise the witnesses to the march were entirely members of the media.

After a few blocks, the protesters gathered in a parking lot. Williams spoke first. We shut shit down! he said, and the crowd repeated it: We shut shit down! they roared. The mood was ebullient. We shut shit down, they roared again and again, their baseball bats hammering the pavement. Then, in the call-and-response style he had used earlier, Williams added a coda.

One more good piece of news before you go, he said.

One more good piece of news before you go, the crowd repeated.

We just heard from folks, he said.

We just heard from folks, the crowd repeated.

Who are watching the Twitter account, he said.

Who are watching the Twitter account, the crowd repeated.

Of the official spokesperson, he said.

Of the official spokesperson, the crowd repeated.

Of the Loyal White Knights, he said.

Of the Loyal White Knights, the crowd repeated.

Who says they fucking cancelled their march.

One more good piece of news before you go, he said. We just heard from folks who are watching the Twitter account of the official spokesperson of the Loyal White Knights who says they fucking cancelled their march.

The crowd erupted. Megan was ecstatic. The Klan, she and the activists had deduced, had been scared off by the strength of the counter-protests. Maybe the Loyal White Knights were really only two people Amanda and Chris Barker. And maybe they had been trying to gather enough people all day to make their parade worthwhile, and had failed. It seemed like a suitably pathetic end to a hateful but powerless cabal. There was still the alt-right, and David Duke was running for office again, but at least the KKK, or this head of the serpent, was dead.

Since the Loyal White Knights announcement of the rally, there had been much debate about what to do. There was a school of thought that said paying the Klan any attention at all was only encouraging them. There were those elsewhere in North Carolina, from Greensboro to Raleigh to Charlotte who preferred to hold counter-rallies, focusing on inclusion and featuring speakers and songs, far away from any confrontation. But the people in Danville believed it would be a terrible thing, in 2016, if a Klan rally happened, and happened uncontested. Slightly better would be a Klan rally that was vociferously confronted. Best of all, though, would be a Klan rally cancelled in the face of opposition. And this is what had just happened. And even though this was a modest counter-protest in a modest city, it mattered just as Birmingham had mattered in 1963, and Ferguson had mattered in 2014. Maybe it mattered more because it was Danville, the last home of the Confederacy.

Terrell Simmons was feeling good. A tall African American man wearing combat boots and a red bandana, he had led some of the post-march chants. The Klan dont have the people, so they dont have the power! he had yelled. The establishment dont have the people, so they dont have the power! He was a high school test-prep teacher from Mobile, Alabama, and had driven 12 hours to confront the Klan. Now he was basking in the victory and planning what would come next. Were going to have a lot of cohesion between the groups that have been divided, he said. Were going to see that we cant build this country without one another. A lot of the things that have held us up in the past are going to go away. Reality is going to set in that without actually meeting the needs of the poor people, the sick people, this nation is doomed to fail.

He walked away smiling, joining the black bloc, whose members were taking off their masks and disbanding. Soon there were only a few people left on Main Street. Tony and Sugelema were looking for a place to get a beer. Shit, Megan said. In the parking lot, now nearly empty, she was reading her phone. Natalie Janicello had just posted a tweet. ITS HAPPENING, she wrote. KKK just came through Roxboro. Battle flags and shouting WHITE POWER.

Natalie A. Janicello (@natalie_allison)

IT’S HAPPENING. KKK just came through Roxboro. Battle flags & shouting “WHITE POWER!” pic.twitter.com/rcjHbmUUiR

December 3, 2016

While the anti-Klan protesters marched through Danville, the Klan had paraded through a different town, 45 minutes away. Janicello had embedded film of it into her Twitter feed.

In the video, about 20 vehicles speed through an intersection. Some of the cars have Confederate flags flapping from their windows. Some cars are unadorned just gray sedans driving down the street. No spectators are visible. None of the drivers are visible. A woman in one of the cars yells White power from a window. Then its over.

Megan was despondent. Not just because the Klan had trolled the protesters and had pulled off their parade. But there was the matter of her former student, Natalie Janicello, who must have known about the location of the parade, and had opted not to tell any of the protesters or members of the media. She was the only media member, and maybe the only person, who saw it.

The next day brought one last twist. A Klan member named Richard Dillon, who had made the trip from Indiana, was in the hospital with multiple stab wounds to the chest. Two other Klansmen, Chris Barker and William Ernest Hagen of California, were charged with the crime. Apparently, in the early morning before the planned parade, the Klan had assembled at the Barkers house. Drinks were drunk. Dillon had hassled Hagen about a Klan rally Hagen had put on in Orange County, where the Klansmen had been beaten up by counter-protesters. Hagen didnt much appreciate that, so he stabbed Dillon repeatedly, while Barker blocked the door. Bleeding profusely, Dillon managed to escape, drove to Danville, went to the hospital and told the doctors on duty what had happened.

Police arrested Barker and Hagen that morning. So they didnt get to see the parade, either.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/the-day-i-went-hunting-for-the-ku-klux-klan-dave-eggers/