"That one's wrong."
Larry did not look up from his homework, knowing full well who was speaking and what was coming next. With a sigh, he drew his papers closer to him, leaving the back of his desk clear. Ernest sat down on it immediately, one leg tucked underneath him and the other foot propped up on the edge of Larry's seat, blocking him off from the rest of the classroom.
Resolutely, Larry frowned down at his homework. He could see, now that it had been so helpfully pointed out, where he had made a mistake, but he didn't want to give Ernest the satisfaction of seeing him erase his work.
"You don't seem very chipper this morning," commented Ernest, resting his chin on his hand and leaning in.
"Maybe because someone's taking up my time and workspace when we are supposed to be studying," replied Larry, giving up and restarting the problem.
Ernest hummed in consideration, and Larry resolved himself to ignoring him entirely. It went spectacularly well for about another minute, as he finished his work for the problem, although he was acutely aware that Ernest was watching him the whole time.
"You know," said Ernest, as Larry turned over the paper, "I'll leave, if you want me to."
Larry looked up sharply in surprise, only to find that Ernest was much closer than he had originally thought. He startled, and sat up straighter, pushing his chair a little further away from the desk to properly look at Ernest without going crossed-eyed.
"I- what?"
Ernest tilted his head and smiled. Larry wasn't sure what to make of that.
"I said, I'll leave if you want me to," Ernest repeated. "If I'm really an unwanted distraction."
Larry blinked several times, trying to process the odd tone of Ernest's voice, which, coupled with his teasing smile, was making Larry feel both warm and cold at the same time. Ernest nudged Larry's leg with his shoe, still balanced on the side of Larry's chair, and Larry swallowed his confusion.
"You're certainly a distraction," he said, leveling Ernest with a look that he hoped was as stern as he meant it to be.
"Larry, please," Ernest drawled, "it's not my fault that I'm interesting."
"And the fact that you're choosing to be so awfully interesting on top of my homework is, I'm assuming, also not your fault?" asked Larry.
He folded his arms across his chest, because this deviation from their usual morning interactions and Ernest's wholehearted attention was making him feel more than a little unsteady, and he wanted to at least pretend he wasn't going pink with inexplicable self-consciousness.
"Oh, no," said Ernest, "that I will take the blame for."
Out in the hallway, Prufrock's clanging bell sounded for the end of the period. Larry recognized, somewhere in the back of his mind, that they both needed to go, but it didn't translate to any attempt to actually do so.
"Why are you here, then?" he asked, cautiously.
With the glee of someone who had been just waiting for the right question, Ernest slid forward on the desk so he was right in front of Larry.
"Because," he said, reaching out and straightening the tie of Larry's uniform, "I prefer your attention to anyone else's in the school."
Ernest stayed right there in Larry's space for just a moment, watching his words sink in, before patting Larry firmly on the chest and sliding down off the desk. He strode across the now-empty classroom as if nothing unusual had happened, even though Larry didn't think he could breathe anymore.
"Oh!" said Ernest, stopping in the doorway and looking back at Larry. "Still on for a tutoring session tonight?"
"Uh-huh," managed Larry, as his brain supplied helpful things like hands, tie, legs, smile, lips.
Ernest smiled, and the expression simply exuded satisfaction.
"Looking forward to it," he said, and he was gone, leaving Larry to his racing thoughts and unfinished homework.
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how long did it take you to compose a story for your comic? I'm trying to make one myself but sadly I have no ideas! Well I do, but it's really bad. 😭🙏
oh god. im probably the worst person to ask about this mostly because i kind of blacked out in a dissociative haze and woke up with like 15 pages boarded out but it’s kind of a mix of pre-planning (mew, yena and i have a shared google drive where we put all our writing) and just kind of coming up with shit on the fly and/or reworking things that sounded good in in the moment but didn’t necessarily fit the narrative. its really a subjective process but i found what works for me is writing out ideas first, scripting the comic and then boarding once everything is finished. i dont worry too much about details, i usually just scribble down the image i have in my head and move onto the next panel, then come back with fresh eyes for cleanup once a few pages’ve been scratched out
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Writing friend: I need help with a character coming up with a nickname for her crush that they don't know their name.
Me: ah, ok. What's the first thing they notice about their crush?
Them: their scent *sends sentence*
"He smelled like what I would have imagined my forest to be, wild and earthy with a hint of honey."
Me: ok so, that covers pine, rosemary, possibly vanilla, and of course honey notes.
Them: .....ya
Me: Mr. Yankee Candle
Them: *cracking up*
Me: Sir Mainstay, Lord Seasonal Evergreen, Count -
Them: 💀💀💀💀
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