#intuition and learning by fucking about > schooling and theory

[oacest]

Neil Young is another of your heroes. You both possess the ability to take four chords and create a memorable song. Noel: I learnt so much by playing along to The Beatles and The Smiths. And I learnt it all on acoustic guitar - I didn't get an electric until I was 21. So my style is built around strumming and not really knowing what the chords are. Liam does that now. Is he a decent player? Noel: No, he's fucking rubbish. And the longer he remains rubbish the better he'll be. I think the less you know the more effective you are. You've got to work it all out for yourself. I was never taught a note by anybody. It was just me sitting down and working at it. That chord from Wonderwall, I don't know where it came from. I don't actually want to know what a suspended, augmented ninth is. I remember having an argument with Aimee Mann once. The bridge chord going into the chorus of Supersonic (C#7 - Ed); she said, You must have studied music to come up with that. I was like, What are you talking about? I was on the dole six months ago. Where am I going to get music theory lessons in Burnage?

Noel in Guitarist Magazine, June 2002

[skintyfiia]

How did/do you practice to get to this point in drawing skills? With details, please. I love the texture and lighting in your drawings and how you draw people in your own style while they still look similar ❤️❤️

one thing about me is that i’m stubborn as a mule and if it is humanly possible to do something then i will, in fact, attempt it with a firm belief that I am capable of success no matter my skill level lol

warning: this is going to be a long post ;___;

a little about my background: I’m a 22yo self-taught hobbyist. I didn’t go to art school, I never took any proper drawing classes. All I had since I was like a toddler barely holding a pencil was my drive to always be Better, shitty school art clubs and probably something undiagnosed too

I started digital art when I was around 13-14. My traditional skills were pretty solid (for a kid) at the time but stepping into digital really did feel like learning how to draw from scratch again. This is what some of my earliest work looked like, around one month after I had started… oh god

just a few months after that I switched to semi-realism stylistically as it was pretty close to what I was used to with traditional art. This is what we were dealing with around 1-2 years after those first pieces

I hate to say this because it’s such a useless piece of advice but most of my learning process was just me throwing random shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. Most of the time I was just picking up things from my favorite artists or experimenting. I just barely scratched the surface of fundamentals, only enough to grasp the super basic proportions for everything, some color theory and I would pretty much wing the rest (don’t do that, put in some actual effort, these things are important). I am lucky in the sense that a lot of those things do come to me intuitively, like I don’t know, color theory is very logical to me so I never felt the need to study it properly??

A lot of people mention my use of color and texture and I am going to be 100% real with you, that was born purely out of my laziness, I just sat down one evening, discovered what layer modes and curves do and how with some tweaks they make my art look like I put 12 hours more into it and my heart sang. And as for my bold strokes idk where that came from honestly. My primary school art teacher once told me I have a ‘confident hand’ and my confused 11yo ass sat there with my frozen elsa fanart like thanks??

However this approach only got me so far as I did hit a wall around 2023-2024 which is when I decided to you know… start doing actual Studies™ and learn the fundamentals properly (at least try to). Since Cillian Murphy was my main muse at the time, I sort of used him as a training ground for all kinds of techniques and stylistic choices, I even sat down one day to properly study his face in detail (for science obviously). I went to museums, I stared at actual paintings (AND sculptures!!!), picking them apart and deconstructing them in my head, noticing each brush stroke, really trying to find what makes the whole piece click. I tried master studies for the first time in my life which was mind-blowing, would 100% recommend it. The time I read about Leyendecker’s technique genuinely changed my life and I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days omg. And don’t get me wrong, I’m still winging the shit out of everything but I guess I’m doing it more mindfully now??

I can’t stress enough how much art is about not just seeing but OBSERVING and NOTICING reality, not just copying but interpreting it, capturing the essence, feeeeeeeling it. Who cares if you fucked up a single stroke 500 times, who cares if your base sketch looks disgusting? It really is about trusting the flow, trusting the process and focusing on the bigger picture. And if you flop you dust yourself off and try again, all there is to it. Practiceeeee practice practice and have fun, it’s never that deep

[coffeebanana]

thought a little too hard about the tags i left on @trainsinanime's "alya salt" post so here's the miraculous grad school chemistry AU that abso-fucking-lutely nobody asked for

marinette's an org chem girlie, because she can effortlessly visualize molecular shapes and has great intuition for how they'd bond together. she draws reaction schemes in her sleep. her work station is a fucking mess and she spends her weekends sleeping at the lab to keep an eye on whatever reaction she's got going

adrien studies physical chemistry and/or or some form of spectroscopy. he'd love the puzzle of interpreting the data AND he would love the hands on aspects of tinkering with the spectroscopy set-ups. also maybe he gets to work with lasers

alya feels like an inorganic chemist to me. she's throwing random combinations of ligands together to see what sticks and she has a niche interest in X-ray crystallography. she and adrien commiserate over learning group theory. also, her and marinette's research groups share the same lab space. and thank god because she's stopped so many of marinette's experiments from exploding

nino's not even in the chem department, he's studying biophysics. but his thesis has to do with the effects of different types of radiation on plant growth, and he has to collaborate with adrien's lab group for spectroscopy reasons

[feather-bone]

Excuse me? I was wondering if there is any way you could help me here, I hate my art style so recently I've been making a folder of styles I'd prefer and decided that i like nature-ish styles like drawing animals and using more mute colors! (Like your art and other artists like @mothsprout) so is it okay if i asked some questions? you don't have to answer them all,, but how do you pick your colors? Your colors are always very calming and pretty! How did you study anatomy, your anatomy in art is very good! and lastly, how did you find a style you enjoy drawing in? whenever i attempt to draw i always get sad because i can't draw how I'd like. thank you for taking your time to read this, have a blessed day!

For colors, I like a lot of different types of color palettes. I tend to work quickly and color intuitively if I'm not tryna be super accurate. I also like to test out variations on a color before committing and I know a little about color theory - but it's like seasoning food, ya measure from the heart.

This goes for your other questions as well, but for color especially - a good exercise to try is to look in the world around you and find colors that look good together. You can figure out why they look good together if you want, I feel like do a lot of looking at things in the world and making mental notes about colors to try haha. The sky is a good place to start, she's always up to something wonderful.

I actually find anatomy very challenging! My strategy is to balance practice and stylization... I like to do figure drawings as practice. If there's an animal I'm stuck on I'll import a bunch of photos to procreate and trace over them so I can see the shapes better before making a drawing. It takes time to learn how to see the shapes that make up objects and translate them from real life to 2D space. Sometimes it's good to say fuck it and draw silly cartoony for a while so you don't get too stiff. I have shelves of sketchbooks filled with straight up scribbles.

That's good for style issues as well, it took a long time for me to settle into a style I like - part of that was I had to let it be malleable, I didn't find A Style and stick to it, I continually find things that I like about other art or forms colors lines out in the world and try them out on paper. I need to stretch my style regularly, if that makes sense, like push it into different forms in new media and different schools of art. Use physical paints if I haven't in a while, or try a new folk art style, etc.

Good luck with the skills you are working on and remember to have fun drawing!!

[paintcloset]

Plus Plan 2, Electricity Doesn't Make Noise

I realized recently I actually enjoy learning new things. I like thinking and exploring concepts if they intrest me. And I like researching. I started realizing this when writing the assignment for theory about the post soviet influence of Kazakhstan's contemporary art, but due to the limited word count, I didn't have enough space to spread my theoretical writing wings.

On my first flight to make it back to Rotterdam, I started rewatching Evangelion, yes the anime, and remembered how much I like the mysticism of seemingly advanced technology. Same reason for why I liked Akira's aesthetic. When you don't know how a computer works, or in this case a futuristic mecha flesh robot, it may as well be magic. The lines blur when you don't know enough to understand.

Rewatching Evangelion reminded me of the playlist I made years ago, "Shinji's mental breakdown in the cockpit", which is mostly house/electronic music. Music which I associate with feverish tech, unstable electronics as well as with technological mysticism. Not knowing how it work but still going along with it. Very similar to the main character, Shinji, just going along with piloting the giant mecha robot because it's easier to along with what you're told to do. The anime also explores themes of human connection, how we yearn for it yet avoid it out of fear of pain, the hedgehog theory ect.

But where I'm going with this tangent, is that the digital music made me think of visuals that I associate with the sounds that I hear.

None of the following statements are backed up by science that I know of.

Most things make sound. Natural (vs Manmade) objects have sounds that they are predisposition to make certain noise this can be evaluated/ calculated with a visual analysis. Sound doesn't equal Visual, but when you see a piano, you associate it with the sound it makes. You can knock on a table and predict the sound it makes. Physical music can be quite intuitive to make and play and i think also listen to.

But what about digital sound? Digital instruments and digital songs? And how do these unnatural sounds become associated with certain visuals? I feel a certain level of uncertainty when staring into FL Studio, and this feeling has been following since I first got it when I was 13. What do all the commands mean and buttons do? There's no intuition that can help you in a lawless technological mind field.

So I decided for plus weeks I just want to continue researching, thinking, learning and writing about the connections between digital sounds, their associations with visuals. I'm starting from roughly learning about music theory. I played the piano for 7 years and never learned how to it works lol so that would be a nice gap in my knowledge to fill. I will be following the following course:

Understanding Basic Music Theory | Open Textbooks for Hong Kong

It also covers the physics aspects of why music musics which I'm also interested in, and I think it will help me know which aspects to further research to answer my questions. I like learning about physics, i just never had any good teachers to get me interested or teach me anything about it. Fuck you middle school and high school physics teachers!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I would have been an astrophysicist if not for your dumb fucking asses that don't know how to teach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a very deep and personal grudge towards physics teachers.

Oh yeah I'm also being motivated to do more music related things because I got my first guitar that mine and mine only!! And it's a silent guitar! Which is an electric guitar that you can still play without an amp or headphones and hear it very lightly

I don't know how electric guitars works but I wanna know more cus I love how they sound and I love my new guitar

I don't really know where all of this investigation will lead me but it's something that's grasping my attention and curiosity so I just want to roll with it and see where the research will take me !

physics

[scentedchildnacho]

I had to call the police on project touch my room shares became criminally insane not just mental at me.....the elderly couple who share room 2 explained to me that he was mentally diagnosed before CPS so the study is interested in his capability because he did have a lot of therapy for battery

I guess that was insight about their criminal insanity they have never had therapy or CPS or any of that ...

My insight for him is I was a girl so I was kind of always called trauma and under privileged neglect but I always in some way had a lot of friends willing to older sibling me into realizing that I have to understand program as meaningless social theory or I won't be okay

Program is annoying because it's homo genetic but if you don't just anonymously comply and stay with the wolf pack you won't be okay

Some women do receive a lot more in poor addiction worlds if they have understood the black expulsion so there is a hidden negro brother to all activity and we must follow our martyrs

If you ask me they were only children in the negative sense werent included much at school didn't have charming parents I think they do have really alone weird worlds they really can't figure out a normative

If it's popular indianism....they are sex offenders

Indians to read really don't like naivete....and just get to the point and the power suicidals need to even out to truth and commonality.....their sex offenders so

Theresa and Natalie they were throwing a lot of verbal assault at me to blame me for stuff they did then threatened me with knives....while insulting me.....then finally threw a shirt at my face and after alienating me with a lot of addictive masochistic routines.....finally refused to get out of the way to let me leave though by this point I was saying get the fuck away from me over and over get away from me

They wouldn't hear get away from me so men with guns replaced me in their life

The Europeans Scottish mercy from Saint John would finally admit Europe isn't all an establishment freak time and started sending me fun media to talk to me about it so that's why I have been able to be precocious about women and mental deviance

The police wanted me to profile them so I told them I don't comprehend military intelligence I'm told strictly to learn the right way because generals are like royalty and veterans learn combative training under Him their like leige so to me it's a whole different world view

They were like pick Hispanic white Asian black and I was like Natalie said she was Mexican....

Hispanic isn't a nation.....Mexican is she went to public school in Mexico and like Nazi Germany absorbed the expression of national ideation not Hispanic religion

Hispanic is a form of catholicism it's not a nation and it isn't always organized under English management ideas but it's not indigenous either

Then about Theresa she was like the same choices as above and I said I think she is a European who is hiding here....

I told her I think most people mistake her appearance for white but she has no understanding of how white people show aggression.....she is very straightforward and forceful right away loud pronounced and immodest without passification and that's not white that's a European trying to hide among us who committed some financial crime to the states

Most white people I know show me stuff only works if people don't expect it so she has no understanding of poker face sweetness then hit with a shock that's way beyond normalcy and an apology that there was no apology to white

Or those people kept getting in my white face with no apology at all to me and so I stopped having any shame for how terrible of a lie things are

That's why kamela harris I think white is more of Indian independence and if Indians their always sure to to assure me that they see through my quietness to my thoughts or feelings

Most white people I have met about aggression do like showing off a lot of snarky happiness and an intuition for new York culture and sexuality then hitting when you don't expect it with how could you not know I was upset if you were Indian you would do whatever I want

I did call the cops because I had felt suicidal all day and I did fear for my life around them or sexual control but I think my hidden motive cancer moon a mother told me she kept having seizures in the building and I maybe wanted daddy types to finally look at building codes while the managers had left for the weekend

I went to Catholic school if it's matricide I stop having emotional control about my birther sisters

The fridge was making noises and the foundation appeared cracked and the wall pipes appeared loud and clumsy

I notice that women here have strange medieval German punishments for any type of wealth assumption like child birth and when it's people maybe sexually more deeply injured then my naivete I just start crying I had to cry and

Faustian...

The hare Krishna meditative critique is pretty good at absolute categorical thought so suicidality doesn't bother me much anymore I'm old enough to find myself slipped a homo drug

I ate the shared food and I had to feel something homosexual and homosexuality is political instead of religious so now I'm really unhappy if mother isn't God to me again

Natalie and Theresa pretty much every day I was at project touch would go at me with some type of verbal hostility......so for the most part I kept having a Catholic teacher of mine bill stobbs pop up in my head and I don't think he was armed forces though he either says stuff like cops or cops sometimes act like Hispanics on peace

So for the most part the arguments were kind of interesting to me because I'm not good at not getting into it verbally with people if they start at me so I noticed being blessed with a non affected persona that didn't care to bless the situation with more intelligence then acting like a cool dude

So all I said to them was beard basics like stuff like if you act unkind then people here will send you somewhere unkind

Or better dumb wisdom this is christian and if people here see you wish jail on me the way you have slandered me then you will have to see the jail just prepare for that....

That's what the Christians are like if you stalk around wishing jail on people then you will be perceived as someone that wants to learn jail process Christians are retributive people

But last night Natalie and Theresa kept following me around and trying to beat me up where I was sleeping and that's when I couldn't be cool unaffected and detached about it...it was then that it's anything to get those people away from me

The cops asked me if I wanted to press charges so I said no I view that as allowing the batterer more time with me and I prefer a firm no with Natalie and Theresa it's get away from me forever do not ever come around me

The police asked me if I wanted them to talk to Natalie and Theresa and I told him I felt like I was telling him what to do with the situation and I don't care I would want the police to want to investigate the job they want to do

My German instructor told me to realize that no one likes pushy people anywhere so I finally told Natalie she is a rude pushy person and she may believe that she can do things here that will be forgotten but no one likes you anywhere and there is no where you can go if you don't make the best of things here

After enough.....your disgusting....or your smelly or put things your allergic to on forcibly and then a lot of rude gross nude violence at myself that's when I finally resorted last night to saying mean juvenile things to Natalie without regrets and I do wish I had known to really be with Miranda

I was finally like your nothing but an ass and have no right to judge my decisions

And quite frankly after being shocked by that much immodesty finally said if you must know pushy is a repulsive person and even I as homeless understand southern modeling and you may think your cute but you are after all that nothing but fat ugly and without talent your voice is truly awful

Then I called 911 and Natalie would finally get away from me.....

The police asked me if I wanted to work with the shelter about finding a different room and I said no the managers don't find anything here a matter for a hospital to address and people that mean and poor appear to obey gods not modern laws and I don't ever want the project around me

The project in some way......is condemned that's the only way to them they can stop grabbing off wages....

The couple in room two reported to me that she was having seizures all afternoon.....and that wasn't a matter for a hospital stay....i have been homeless and very poor for like ten years and after seeing a lot of it when situations like it are not for a skilled nurse to correct then lots wife leave dont look back at its evil

I told her partner that I don't idolize the underclassed mother's but when they explain to me they have chosen to be underclassed and want to stay with their children I like encouraging the decision it's really not good for people to detach children with a school from their grandparents too young whales school is not a long enough gestation and though a pride it really wasnt good for any of my class shares or school shares

Then Theresa was like well you don't have a job and why so I told her I wanted a better life then turning into a shameless immodest crazy fool like you....

A job is just a threat to put people in jail it's state id and eventually the job will break you and put you in jail so I tried to find a new way to live

Indigenous Canada told me to realize it's historic truth....policy to indigenous people is to make sedentary so some people become job attached because they will get beat up and made sedentary and some people like me choose to find ways to take a sense of comradery with me into a better life if made sedentary

Margaret Atwood jobs is having to be one of those people that closes the wall and leaves people to die and I don't want that karma oryx and crake

The national historic house was actually free white people and Africans and I appear as white to have a heart for African ideology and capability here because people like me don't care if I die I care if I was trapped living in a locked compound after so many souls passed away meaninglessly

I applied to jobs with the french in Denver and it's France people most often displace white people to and France will really really beat you up in coworker fights so believe me her gang job maybe did drive her that criminally insane

I believe parisians and indigenous people harmless France here.......France was very very bad here

[technoxenoholic]

hi i just discovered that when i tried to respond to this earlier tumblr thought it should use my private blog for that for some fucking reason. here's what i tried to say the first time

musescore (especially newer versions or musescore) is super easy and makes a lot of intuitive sense… if you know all the basics and several of the less-basics of western music theory. which is to say, maybe you would be better off trying some other free music program that doesn’t rely on an above-beginner understanding of something that’s so difficult to learn outside of traditional schooling, instead of fighting with musescore? like, i love it as a program, but i was in music classes and/or the school concert band for six years in middle and high school. people talk about this thing called garageband? that might work better for you

musescore is so confusing I am seriously considering redownloading Origin so I can redownload Spore so I can use the damn city music creator tool to figure out what order the notes are supposed to go in.

[marlinspirkhall]

hi i saw a post of yours about your dyslexia and how reading and writing isn’t the only symptom. how does dyslexia affect you personally?

[This is a really long post, I didn't expect to write so much when I started!]

Hello! Thanks for the ask!

My main symptoms have always been spoonerising words (I do this weekly and often daily, and it gets worse when I'm talking fast or getting excited), and I didn't always notice when I was doing it as a kid (when I was 12 I was trying to infodump about the poultry industry to a friend and kept saying 'leg ayers' instead of 'egg layers' until she pointed out that I'd said Leg Ayers the past 6 times), though I'm generally better at picking up on it now. Now that I know I have dyslexia I know that's probably why I had such a hard time with music theory and maths as a kid.

I'm a musician, and I've been learning how to read sheet music since I was 8. I practised it on a daily basis for about 5+ years, but I still can't read sheet music past a beginner's level. Every time I went to read sheet music at A-Level, my music teacher assumed I was just beginning to learn it, because I would write the individual note names beside each note head.

When I sat my music theory exam I got 0% in the section on "Intervals" because I read everything backwards, and inverted (sigh) all the answers. (You take the first note, you take the second note, the space between them is the "interval". Should be really fucking easy, but I didn't get a single question right out of the 12. And pretty much the only way to do that is to know what you're doing and give the opposite answer. I tried to second-guess myself and give the opposite of the opposite answer, but that doesn't work either. It's sort of like the mental equivalent of trying to catch a bar of soap when it's already wet. You can work out the trajectory of it in your mind, but every time you hold your hands out to grasp it, it bounces off, slips through the sink, and falls straight into the open toilet bowl. And then proceeding to open another 11 bars of soap and have the whole thing happen again another 11 times. And now your toilet is full of soap, your hands are still dirty, and you're thoroughly upset.)

At this point it's easier to tell people that I never bothered learning to read sheet music than it is trying to explain why I can't read it. In a pinch I can maybe work out a starting note and the chords to accompany myself, but in the era of recorded music and notation software, I'm fortunate that I can play everything by ear if I need to, so it's more of a beur... Oh fuck hang on Bureaucratic (?) problem than anything else.

I've always played instruments by ear because I have a hard time remembering which letters are next to each other in a limited alphabet (When reciting A-Z I will get them right, but with a piano octave I forget that G comes before A and frequently write "F-A-B-G"). Even though I know it's wrong, I can't grasp it at all, in the same way that you might hear some dyslexic people getting left and right confused, I end up forgetting which way is "up". So even when I remember that an piano scale or music notes go "F-G-A-B-C-D", I'll see an F on the scale, play an F on the piano, see that the next note is a semitone up, and then play a note below it no matter how often I say 'up, up!' in my head.

I have some difficulty in understanding the relationship between written and spoken language, which is why spelling is such a huge red flag for dyslexia, though it's not the only tell. Past the age of 13 my spelling has been pretty good, but I still have difficulty intuiting unfamiliar spellings. I couldn't do word searches to save my life in primary (elementary) school and would regularly spell "people" as "poeple", because I remembered which letters were in the word "people", but not which order they went in, and didn't necessarily understand that "peo" wouldn't make the same sounds as "poe".

On the flip side, I'm okay at reading messy handwriting and recognising/picking up symbols and patterns. I might just draw the wrong conclusion or miss out on the wider ways it can be applied (i.e, I can still use sheet music to remind me of the rhythm of a piece, but when it comes to 'sight reading' I can only sight read drum music).

[wuggen]

I go from “I am a great computer scientist I am one of the best I know exactly what I’m doing and how it works” to “I haven’t the faintest clue what programming or computers are” every time I check your blog. Man what in the hell kinda fuckin wizardry is going on in here?

So. When I was like 7 or 8 I saw a Foxtrot comic in which Jason wrote a program for waking up and handed a printout of it to his dad, who said "Son, I just wanted a cup of coffee", to which Jason replied "Then why'd you ask for Java?" Anyway, I didn't know shit about programming at that point, but the stuff on the page that Jason printed made a lot of intuitive sense to me ("It's just instructions, huh? Like If this, then do that, I get it!") and I ran with it, writing a series of "Program[s] For The Day" in a little language that I invented on the fly, with inputs and outputs (my own sensory organs and limbs) declared at the top, subroutines (for things like waking up, getting out of bed, getting dressed, goofing off and playing), etc.

I got a lego mindstorms kit when I was maybe 9 or 10, and that little drag-and-drop programming interface was the first actual code I wrote (for some definition of code; it's logically isomorphic). A few years later I started learning more traditional programming languages, starting with Game Maker's little scripting language and then diving straight into C++ when I was maybe like… 13 or 14.

I received a copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach as a gift sometime in high school, and had read most of it before I graduated. The summer before my freshman year of college I worked through a fair amount of Hacking: The Art of Exploitation as well, learning a lot of C in the process of learning a little bit of low-level hacking.

So I went into my computer science degree already knowing a pretty fair amount of base material, not really expecting to be all that interested in the theory side of things and more in it for the practical programming stuff, but then I very quickly discovered that the basics of the theory was basically just the content of Gödel, Escher, Bach and it was like the veil was lifted from my soul. Devoured as many theory classes as I could, both in CS and in more traditional mathy subjects (as long as it was algebra and not analysis).

After I graduated from college I did computer security and program analysis research for several months, and more generally I've tried to continue the same kind of learning I did in college. I still have all of my old textbooks, and I've acquired a pretty hefty number of others (physical and digital) since I graduated.

I'm now 27. I graduated almost four years ago. I've been pretty thoroughly entrenched in — obsessed with, one might be tempted to say — computers and computer science for a solid two decades, over two thirds of my life.

Now, I think it's probably fair to say that I got started on this shit much earlier in life than most of the people who find themselves on a similar path. Seems like learning to program a computer before the age of 10 is unusual among people who know how to program a computer. I was a weird kid.

Pretty sure, though, that it's 100% achievable to get to a similar point as wherever the fuck I'm at regardless of when you started heading that direction. Just takes time and, if you wanna get there extra quickly, probably some mania as well.

All of which is to say: keep going, friend! The path of a wizard is long, and regardless of where you might be on it, the only way to progress is to keep walking and keep learning :3

[marshmallowprotection]

Saeran’s Diary

Spoilers for Saeran’s Diary. It’s within the Special Believer package. Not all of the pages are here. I’ve compiled the ones that looked the most note-worthy to talk about but I will summaries and talk about everything in this post. 

Okay, so Spoilers Ahead, read at your own caution. It’s Spoilers for Another Story, V Route, Ray Route, and the After Ending. 

Saeran introduces himself to the diary even though he has no idea how to use one of these. Saeyoung got it from the Cathedral. His brother tells him that if he can’t think of anything to write, he could draw instead. Saeran spends a lot of his time drawing out things on the pages just as much as he spends talking about this or that. His handwriting is rather clumsy and messy, much more so than what a child his age would have. 

However, he’s not in school and he’s roughly only been able to learn a few rudimentary things thanks to his brother. 

Saeyoung spends a lot of time at the cathedral. He’s been taking countless notes in his books. He’s literally been coping things to learn from the books that he can get his hands on. He’s got four of them, as far as Saeran knows. He has some of Saeyoung’s notes in his journal because he asked him what he was writing about all the time. He’s perplexed, saying that those coding notes look like they’re... 

Puzzles? 

He doesn’t know. 

Saeyoung takes him out for ice cream, and we can assume that’s when they made the promise on their ice cream to always be there for each other, knowing that there will be one day that they can escape together. You know, the one from Ray Route where we’re treated to their promise on twin-popsicles. It seems like Saeran is alone more and more often though. He’s spending so much time at the church.

There’s one day where he and Saeyoung are out that someone suspicious sees the two of them. Saeyoung gets them out of dodge, but it continues to haunt his mind for a while. He draws something really stark imagery. Then, Saeyoung is all of a sudden gone. He’s gone. Their mother demands that he find him but he cannot find him. He’s panicking. He thinks that maybe that man took his twin away and he may never come back. 

He’s so alone. 

He’s so scared. 

He’s begging for someone to come and get him. He’s still fairly young here and out of sorts, but his emotions are rapidly increasing the longer that he’s alone in that house. Until one day, something changes. 

V and Rika come to take him to the cathedral more and more often. He’s spending a good amount of his time there because the two of them managed to convince Mother Choi that it was a good idea. Saeran has no idea how they did it or why they did it. He just knows that this is the place that Saeyoung went to once and that maybe he’ll be able to find him there? Then he talks about how he may be able to find him. Twin’s intuition? 

That plays into the theme of the After Ending. How Saeran and Saeyoung can seemingly feel the other is alive, or that they’re okay. I think that’s kind of a really sweet thing to tie in like that. It’s like they’re connected when they’re not actually connected, and I don’t know if I’ll ever understand that connection since I’m not a twin but it stands out to me since Saeran is so hopeful for his brother again. 

He spends more time in the sun and it feels good. He wishes Saeyoung was here. It’d be nice if they could live somewhere nice like this... where he could see the sun all the time. V said to him that Saeyoung was okay, he had a strong feeling about it. Saeran doesn’t know how to feel about that. He thinks it’s okay but... he wishes that Saeyoung would find him first. He’s him and I’m him, that’s what he says. 

So, can’t they reach for one another...? 

Saeran starts to spend all his time going to classes and learning things at the cathedral. He’s learning how to focus on his work, how to bake, and how to get his head in the right place for things that he’s enjoy. Like, for example, he talks about how his plan for the future would be to have an ice cream store not far from his house as he stays with Saeyoung. He really writes down recipes and his trial and errors. It’s so cute. 

V gifts him a book about flowers and a good chunk of his diary is spent talking about them. He lists his favorites and some that stand out to him. There’s a photo that V took of him in the garden that you’ve likely seen before as he holds tightly to them with a smile. He talks about the life cycle of flowers as he tries to figure them out. He’s really thoughtful and spends an awful amount of time trying to learn how something so little makes something so big! 

I did not know that Rika and V had their own flowers. I’ve talked about these bookmarks before for Saeran and Saeyoung. 

Geranium can be a wish for good health, hope that you pray that the other person will someday feel better and find peace. It makes sense that that is for Saeran because he was a young and sickly child for such a very long time, and this was a gift that said, we pray for you and you will grow to be a bigger flower in due time. You will not wilt and you will grow until you blossom into something that is lovely. 

Rhododendron can be a sign of optimism, the hope that you have that the future ahead will be great. It makes sense that that was gifted to Saeyoung because he is the one that hinges on the hope that one day, he can save his brother and be sure that they are both free from their chains that have kept them down. This is a gift that says, never lose hope in yourself and those that you love when it feels like the end of coming. 

Narcissus means rebirth and renewal because it's one of the earliest bulbs to sprout. We all know the story. Unable to look away from the water, Narcissus grew tired, fell into the stream, and drowned. Rika’s suicide is implied to be her falling from the edge of a cliffside and falling into the water down below. It’s their way of symbolism her final rebirth into someone finally relishing in her cruelty and devil to it’s fullest form. 

Another popular story in mythology, Rhodanthe was someone so beautiful that people wouldn’t leave her alone. They were always at her heels and begging for her love. She turned them all down and grew so tired of them that she retreated and ran away to the Temple of Diana. Those suitors just wouldn’t quit, though, and because of that Diana decided to turn Rhodanthe in a rose and all of the suitors into the thorns of the flower. The implication here is that V and Rika are twisted together in a dangerous path, but it’s hard to tell who is the rose and who is the thorns here. Interesting. 

Here we go, huh? Rika gifts Saeran a book that she claims is the same one that his brother was reading. Saeran wants to be closer to him so he starts to learn and study what he can. He knows that he hid Saeyoung’s books for him so he has to get those from the house and he wants to use them to know more about who his brother is. It’s kind of hard, even Saeran claims that he’s struggling in all of this learning because it’s so much!

But, he says he can do it. 

He’ll do it for Saeyoung. 

We know why Rika is doing this, and we know where this is heading but I’m kind of like: I really don’t want to see how tortured my boy is about to be by this damn woman again. I continue onward to see how Saeran progressively learns as much as humanly possible as fast as he can. Okay, oh boy, he writes that he snuck out late at night to go to cathedral and nobody is usually there, but Rika was there tonight. 

He was perplexed by why she was looking at the wall of photos that contained each child that attended the church and did their studies there. He says that it felt wrong. He felt like he couldn’t speak. Something felt twisted and wrong in his chest but he stayed. He’s not even spending a lot of time with V and Rika at the cathedral up until this point. They just check on him now and again... until now, Rika seems to be more forward. 

She’s been giving him extra lessons and things to do. 

“It looked like she wanted to tell me something.” 

She didn’t though. 

Here’s one continuity error, though. Saeran knows that his mother passed away and she even had a funeral in this diary. He said that nobody came. Not their father, not their brother, nobody. There was nobody in the world to come for his mother’s passing but him and V and Rika. It’s just him and Saeyoung. His twin isn’t there but this is his only family. His only family. He missed his brother. He wishes he was there. 

He knows that his mother is dead but he doesn’t know how she died. I’m bit confused on that front. I’ll go and glance at his speech during the AE to know if it’s an error or not. Okay, so, they imply that Mother Choi never got a proper funeral. I think that means that you know, the one that Saeran held as a child wasn’t a real one by any meaning. It’s just a small ceremony. 

I almost want to say that the fucking trauma of Mint Eye destroyed more and more of his memory as a young child because it implies also in this diary that he does talk to some of the others at the cathedral sometimes, but not often. 

So, it could be an error, or it’s literally that the specific memory of that time at the cathedral isn’t accessible to him. It makes sense, though. Ray and Suit held a lot of their own memories and it feels like there’s other pieces that they’re missing in their lives. It still doesn’t take away from the fact that Saeran didn’t know how she died. Or that Rika burned the house down with V. 

Or that they both hid the fucking body. 

This is just the one thing of interest in the diary that doesn’t make sense unless I apply my theory that he cannot remember that incident. Either way, he makes a prayer to God about Saeyoung on the page after that. He says that he wants to be strong. He wants to be as strong as Saeyoung. Let him have that. 

Rika tricks him not long after this. “Come and meet me late at night. I want to give V a surprise.” He’s noticed that the two of them have been having a really difficult time lately, he thought they weren’t on good terms since they weren’t visiting together. This is literally after the trauma of the murder, self-defense or not, they had to remove a body and worse. 

That added to how bad their relationship already was. This was Rika’s turning point, after all. Saeran’s a child. He just thinks they’re going to make up and get better? He wants to help them because they helped him. 

But this is a trick. 

He spoke to Rika that briefly and then he went home. Someone grabbed him, and before he could fight, he was taken off the streets. It wasn’t Rika, but my money says that it was someone working for her to do the dirty work. He has no clue it’s Rika or anything for a while. He’s locked in a dark room. There’s not a lot in it but it seems like it was prepared for someone to stay in it. He’s scared, they leave him there. He banged on the door over and over, but nobody would listen to him. 

Days pass. 

He’s left with some notes about Mint Eye to read that make no sense to him but he’s trying to understand what they mean. How long is he going to be stuck in a room like this? Nothing makes sense! He gets fed every day, and he thinks that is okay. 

He’s trapped but he has food. It’s not so bad.. right? 

Nobody came to see him until the fourth day. He was taken away to what we can presume is the basement. He doesn’t know what’s happening here, but he just stares, slack-jawed at Rika in the basement as he lifts his head. 

She’s wearing a mask.

But, there’s no doubt. 

It’s Rika. 

He begged for answers but she would barely tell him what was happening in this place. She just says that V is a traitor and a liar to him. She said that he should call her his Savior. By the 11th day, they’re literally drugging through the food as time passes. He says that things don’t taste right but I know what that means as it’s the easiest way to poison someone over time.

I imagine that this is slowly happening as they’re starting to torture him with the elixir outright not long after this. 

He’s clearly confused and losing time the more that he tries to think because these are written on snippets as he’s trying to make sense of what’s going on around him. He’s hurting. He’s in pain. Nothing makes sense and he’s having a hard time dealing with being awake and eating these days. It just gets worse and worse as time passes for him. 

I don’t think I have to explain what this looks like: 

He’s literally terrified out of his fucking mind. He’s not able to focus and this is a point in the timeline where Ray takes control of the situation. Saeran cannot be awake anymore and Ray wakes up. This child has suffered enough already and Ray needs to be here to do this. His anger... his confusion. It’s played out in front of us as he loses himself and Ray takes control of everything that’s going on from now on. 

This is where the scraps end and Ray’s official diary begins. 

Yeah, this is actually a portion of the diary that I’ve seen before. It’s that proof that Rika is the one that dressed Ray. He would prefer to wear dark things but she says that he’s not good enough. He feels gloomy, he would have preferred something gloomy but Rika said no. Her reasoning is that he’s not strong and he needs to wear something vibrant to feel stronger. 

To feel more needed. 

He isn’t sure how to feel about that. He just says that Savior knows best and this is okay. I love his outfit but I know that’s uneasy about it. His gloves are rather tight on his hands so they can keep him from overextending his fingers and not get them to lock or have fractures from working so hard. He’s typing at a speed that not even I can manage so. 

He needs the support. 

No gloves slander about Ray, I know they’re half-gloves and bother some of you but it suits him. And, not to gush about Ray but there’s just so much Ray in this portion of the diary and you know I’m a massive Ray fan. Rika forces hm to do all of the security work. He spends like a week trying to make the system better but he’s hardly sleeping to do it. He’s the one that made the card system, as well, for both Rika and for others. 

He’s the one that grants access to anyone that is a believer. 

Certain people have certain powers. Rika can go anywhere, he can go to some places, and others... limited access. She “gifts” him the often of being able to help design the garden. He does pick a handful of flowers that he thinks are nice to decorate the garden and it’s the one thing that actually makes him feel good in comparison to security hell.

Though, we start to see him planning for the RFA Messenger as well. That’s not looking really good. Rika tells him what they’re going to be doing and that they have a grand plan that she needs him for. He’s so desperate for someone to see him and give him affection that he’s willing to fall to her feet and cry. He doesn’t know if he deserves this chance. He beats himself up over and over about it but takes it. 

He can’t say no to Rika. 

He’s literally crying because she told him that she wants him to do something for her. I’m not a vicious person but if given the chance, I would slap Rika one good time. I just need one time. I realize violence doesn’t solve anything, but I don’t know if I could hold myself back if I saw her treating him like this. 

It’s just not okay and I can’t stand it. No matter how you feel about Rika, when you read and see shit like this, you get angry at her for what she’s done to this child. Saeran was a child. 

He was a child who trusted her and V. 

Goddammit. 

He was a CHILD. 

He’s sleeping three hours. Max. That’s not okay. He’s chugging caffeine pills like they’re Tic-Tacs. Ray, honey, baby, darling, they’re not Tic-Tacs. That’s not okay at all. It’s actually blotted out. I don’t know what he’s eating. I don’t know how many he’s eating. I knew that he was popping like them candy to stay up and at his desk, but Jesus Christ, Ray. The space implies that it’s a high number, it could be double-digits. 

If it’s more than 15, I don’t know what I’m going to do. 

He’s not even eating right. Food that’s easy to eat. Okay, that’s why he eats chocolate most of the time. He’s eating snack foods when he’s eating and only using real food if he has time. [He never has time. It makes me want to cry as I read it because I wanted to grab him by the wrist and ask him to stay during the meals because I don’t really eat more than what a toddler eats due to my health and he could have the rest. He needs it.]

I love this guy, but I can see his suffering here. 

I don’t know if you’ve seen this but he ranks the RFA on a sliding scale of how tough they are to defeat and how easy they are to defeat. Seven and V have the strongest list. V is to be captured alive and that you have to be cautious so he doesn’t trick you.

Seven is “No need. Discard.��

I have to ask Ray what the hell a “honey trap” is though, as far as Zen goes in his explaination. Does that mean that Ray is saying “If there’s a pretty honey, he’ll fall to his knees?” RAY? 

RAY????? 

RAY??????????????

Jumin: Attack social status. Just take his fucking cat. 

Yoosung: Rika. Just use Rika information or threaten his family. 

Jaehee: Break C&R. If it or Jumin falls, she’s easy. Not sure. 

Oh, and there’s actually recipes in his portion of the diary as well. He has a lot of sweet things listed and God, he would get me. He literally makes notes about a tester in this. He has to jot down who would be a good idea and how he could ensure their happiness. He says that he’s not as good as the chef in Mint Eye but he wants to be good enough.

So, he actually tries to learn how to make things for us. He failed at making ice cream. He made some progress at brunch and he tried to make some cake but it wasn’t quite up to par yet. He notes his mistakes and says that he’ll keep trying to learn for the tester. So, that’s how he’s spending his six months. 

His final note in this journal is hopeful of the tester. He’s got everything as it needs to be but he needs his tester to come to him. He hopes they’re a good person but he doesn’t know how to interact with them. He wonders how he should start talking to them, anyway. How do you talk to people on the outside? He doesn’t know... maybe an introduction? 

Should he greet you? 

Should he try harder? 

He really fixates on how to say hi to you. 

He decides simple is good. 

“Hello! My name is Ray.” 

And if you turn the page, you’re smacked with that photo and my knees just went a little weak. Oh boy, honey, darling, I love you. I’m sorry that you’ve suffered so much but it’s okay. I’m here! We’ll get out of this place together soon. All and all, this was a solid read that gave me a lot more perspective on my boy. There’s still a bit of information in Rika’s Diary, to be honest. But this stood out more to me here. 

[thathpheadcanongirl]

Can someone please explain why the trio didn't take divination class seriously??

Firstly, they go to a magic school. Harry and Hermione had no clue that magic ever existed until they were 11 and someone was like, "You can actually do magic and we're taking you to magic school so you know how to control it." And they both were like, "Bet." And just went with it.

They are taught magical theory, transfiguration, potions, defense, charms, flying, etc. And the one subject they thought would be a throw away class was divinations? Really? I mean, Ron and Harry continued to take it because it was an "easy A" I guess.

But divination got shit on the entire time, even when we find out Trelawney was the one that channeled The Prophecy to Dumbledore. McGonagall shit on the subject, and Dumbledore admitted to thinking about cancelling the subject altogether until Trelawney's interview. Even then, Trelawney is constantly described as crazy. Like, shouldn't she be revered as a powerful witch, or at least be credited for revealing who was going to save the world?

Anyway...

Hermione, the supposed brightest witch of her age, believed in every other subject at Hogwarts, EXCEPT divinations. And it solely comes down to her personal morals and ignorance. Divination is actually one of the most powerful subjects to master. And it combines many subjects in one: potions, herbology, dada (wandless magic/Legilimency), astrology, history of magic, ancient runes, and probably others. She is immediately turned off by the idea of learning divinations because Trelawney tells her that she's not good at it during their first lesson. I firmly believe that if she stuck with it and gave it an honest chance, Hermione would've been one of the best in the class by the end of third year.

But no, she chose to... use a time turner so she can literally time jump and know the outcome of some evens and prevent the worst from happening. Idk, man... That sounds like you found a way to cheat in divinations lol. And McGonagall straight-up helped you because she is also not a divinations stan.

Ron was fairly good at it because he actually ironically allowed himself to open up to the possibility. He'd make jokes and stuff, but he wasn't afraid of the magic part of metaphysics, even if he wasn't aware of it.

And I cannot stress enough how Harry is actually very naturally gifted in divinations. Trelawney saw it and told him many times, along with the whole impending death thing. But again, Harry thought her personality was coo-coo bananas, so he would just roll his eyes and basically say, "yeah, what else is new?"

Like, hello?!

Harry acknowledges that she is correct, but still acts like she doesn't know what she's talking about? Not to mention Harry's dreams are always in reference to his current situations, fears, desires, and future. And added bonus: he has the Voldy connection. You can't tell me that Trelawney wouldn't wanna sit in on Harry and Dumbledore's meetings about the connection and just fucking observe and eventually write a book on two-way astral projection and telekinetic possession! Don't get me started on how she could've helped with the horcrux hunt...

Getting back on track, centaurs are also known for being extremely intuitive and look to the sky for guidance. Firenze was hired as the replacement divination teacher when Trelawney was fired, and if I remember, he was doubted a bit too. Not as much as my girl Sybill, but still. Students respected Firenze because divinations was part of his culture. But, like, it is also part of human culture too, so idk. Inconsistencies are a bitch. (So is the blatant racism, but I digress...)

Honestly, I think divinations would've been taken more seriously if Trelawney was credited as a legit Seer. Like, the Ministry and Dumbledore could've just given her legitimacy because of a prophesy. Instead she had to rely on her lineage. According to [terf redacted], Trelawney was considered "washed up" by the time she was hired at Hogwarts and she relied heavily on alcohol to open up more. She was considered 99% fraud, but, like, if people gave her a chance, she wouldn't have to lie to get their attention. (Also one could argue that they weren't lies at all.) Because others didn't believe her, she ended up not believing in herself.

In conclusion, divinations was heavily used in the books without the trio knowing it. I just wish they took it seriously.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[janedrakey131]

zukka hp au part 5

I’m so flattered people like this au. I didn’t think I’d be posting again so soon, but I had some more ideas last night. If you’d like to catch up:

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 part 9 part 10 part 11 part 12 part 13

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My brief, very long, not at all fleshed out plan based roughly on what year Sokka is in and other associated events:

First year

Sokka’s first year is boring 

He meets Zuko, makes some friends in his house, probably a bunch of OCs

He finds the kitchens on day 2

Hogwarts just hires people who like to cook, who cares whether they’re magical beings or humans or whatever, there’s all sorts of really cool kitchen magic though

He’s always asking questions in class and you can tell why he’s a Ravenclaw

He wants to learn about everything

And once he knows how to do more than shoot a few sparks, he’s going to start inventing

He’s going to do some truly awesome things with transfiguration and potions

And I can’t wait for him to start arithmancy

Like let me tell you, Sokka is a genius, and he’s probably going to be the only one who understands magical theory 

This just ended up being a rant about Sokka, so moving on

Second year

The fun starts

Katara and Aang are finally here

Sokka doesn’t know Aang is the avatar

I’m very tempted to have both Katara and Aang be in Hufflepuff

And they run into Sokka in the kitchens

He does a double take, like who is this boy with my sister??

But Aang’s a sweet kid

So Sokka is immediately like we’re bros now, I don’t make the rules

Iroh starts working at Hogwarts (sorry, I changed my mind from herbology) as the potions professor

He comes in on the train with Zuko who just got banished (I actually...might change the specifics)

Sokka doesn’t know what to make of that

Azula is also skulking around annoying Zuzu 

But I think she secretly cares a bit and threatens anyone that looks at his scar wrong, because Zuko helped her a lot with some stuff

I think she’s going to be in the same year as Katara and Aang? I’m not sure

I have plans for Azula

I think Mai and Ty Lee are going to be in Zuko’s year, but closer to Azula

Mai and Zuko will date at some point

I think Mai will end up with Ty Lee

But she and Zuko had a short relationship

I think it was more expected of them by their families that they date

But they’re good friends now

I’m not doing this betraying and cheating and hurting other characters to find out who you are thing

Everyone is having wholesome relationships that just don’t work out

(Sidenote, I’m changing things, and characters might end up a bit OOC for atla, and I’m really sorry, but this is just wish fulfillment for me)

Anyway, there’s a plot to find the avatar 

The mini gaang (toph isn’t here yet) learn the prophecy (still working on it)

Third year

They find out about Sokka and Katara’s mom

I don’t think Hakoda really knows what happened either. I don’t think he was in the country at the time

I also have some ideas for the water tribe/fire nation beef, but I just made the realization that if I spell everything out in these posts, what’s the point of writing for Ao3 XD

But spoilers, it’s going to be pretty angsty

But I like happy endings, so I may find a way to fix it

Ish

I have this whole idea that if Suki or the Kyoshi are also werewolves, they have really cool rituals to respect and honor the moon spirit and that allows them the ability to turn into wolves whenever they want and not just the full moon

So other people can also be born as werewolves, but different groups have different ways of being a werewolf

Also, I believe I said Zuko starts following Suki around thinking she’s the avatar

And then Sokka decides to fake being the avatar (I completely forgot when I said this would happen, so I’m assuming it’s this year or the next)

This is about when Sokka’s letters to Hakoda start going on about Zuko’s everything even more

Fourth year

Zuko (Zuko’s fifth year) witnesses something unspeakable

Sokka is kidnapped

Zuko saves Sokka

That’s all the detail I have on this XD

But the unspeakable thing and the kidnapping are going to be this year’s mystery

Zuko, the idiot, still thinks Sokka is the avatar at this point

Aang is like no

But doesn’t bother to say he is

So Zuko thinks Katara is the avatar for a hot sec

But has some nonsense logic that there’s no need to stop following Sokka, because if he or his sister are the avatar, of the two, Sokka’s more likely to give something away

Which okay, Zuko, not actually terrible reasoning, except Sokka’s been leading you around by the nose for ages

There’s none of this the avatar rotates which element they can use

Because that’s predictable

And half the fun is that Zuko is trying his best, but has zero clues

Fifth year

This is the big question

I’m not sure what to do with this year

I hope Sokka can start inventing

I want him to make some cool shit

There won’t be an equivalent of the DA as far as I can see :( I can’t figure out how I’d structure that

I think it would be really cool to see them all learning how to use their elemental magic though

Toph and Zuko don’t really need the help

Katara and Aang have always had to deal with all the crap going on, so they haven’t had much time for it

I’m wondering if I should bring in Paku

Aang has it rough, because air magic users are really rare now

So I think he might work with Iroh, because he’s studied other styles of magic extensively

Sixth year

I think Mai had to figure out she was bi

I truly think Zuko doesn’t have time for gender

For like five years, he’s like DO YOU KNOW WHO THE AVATAR IS and if you don’t, he’s already forgotten who you are

So my headcanon is that he’s pan and when he and Sokka eventually get together, Sokka doesn’t know anything about his orientation and just knows he dated Mai, so he’s like “are you cool with me being a dude? Sorry, I just know you’ve dated Mai, so just checking haha?”

And Zuko’s so done with all the random crap he’s dealt with that he’s like “wow, you have a dick? Congratulations”

But then realizes Sokka’s actually concerned and talks it out

Anyway, everyone’s leveled up now, we’re all masters at elemental and non-elemental magic (seriously, Sokka could’ve sat for his NEWTs last year if he wanted to. He’s that far ahead and magic is that intuitive for him)

I have no idea what will happen this year lol

I kind of want an invasion of Hogwarts, I know I’ve been trying not to just blindly follow the books completely :/ So I guess we’ll see?

I’ll have to work on that

I’m such a sucker for the villain waits until the end of the school year to attack

Because it’s so dumb

Like I will find the avatar! *shakes fist* But education is important, kids

Like okay, Sozin

Maybe I can have Roku finally escape that mirror

I kind of want the past avatars to be spirits that anyone can interact with

But most people don’t know how

So the Kyoshi can interact with Avatar Kyoshi as well as other relevant spirits

Seventh year

????

The plot?? Who knows yet

I do know that Zuko’s graduated

And they’re all crying and like wtf do we do now

Because Sozin’s still around and they’ll miss him

And finally Zuko leaves

And he shows up as the assistant DADA professor and he’s like “Hi, Zuko here” and then he’s like “I mean, fuck, Professor Zuko, I mean, fuck...just call me Zuko. You guys all know me”

And the gaang is all like wtf Zuko, we thought we would only see you for breaks

And he’s like you really thought I’d leave you

The plan is that he’ll be an apprentice for a year or so and then take over as professor

Toph punches him so hard, Katara has to heal the bruise

I can guarantee a happy ending

I’ll do whatever angst on the way, but they’ll all be happy

I’m like 89% sure they’re all going to end up working at or around Hogwarts (why work for the government, when you can invest in teaching all these talented kids)

One more thing, there is going to be rep in this au. I know there’s at least one aro ace character. Multiple bi characters. One gay character. One pan character. One trans character that I know of, but I need to plan that out a bit more. Some of these orientations and identities, I can’t speak to personally. For instance, while I know a decent amount about the medical aspects of transitioning, I don’t think I’d be able to write the experience of gender dysphoria and give that its due right now. So unless it’s something I have first hand experience with, most of the individual emotions as part of figuring things out might happen off screen. That doesn’t mean I won’t bring up issues the characters may have had in the past, but any that I talk about, I’d have to do more research into first. Also, partly because this is mostly from Sokka and Zuko’s perspectives, we’re mostly going to be present for what other characters tell them about their experiences

I hope you continue to enjoy this au! Sorry, this got so insanely long. The next couple weeks are going to be a bit crazy for me, so I thought I’d write this up while I had the chance. I’ll be back soon though! If anyone has any suggestions or questions, please let me know :)

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 part 9 part 10 part 11 part 12 part 13

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[unordinaryquotes]

UnOrdinary Chapter 203 Review

- “She’s only killed about 6 people. Don’t worry” I’m joking, but the fact that Arlo sees Valerie as an easy to talk to person makes me happy for their relationship

- HE CALLS HER AUNT VAL WTF!?!?

- That is literally the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen him do. Look at his posture too, so relaxed around her.

- So he has nicknames for two people, Pinkie for Remi and Val for his aunt. That’s really sweet. But only one of them’s a good person

- STEP ON ME MAMASITA

- I don’t care if she killed Rei anymore, girl is fucking hot. This is a woman who could wear a trash bag and still look like she’s on the cover of Vogue.

- WTF HE’S SMILING SO PURELY. I CANT BELIEVE MY EYES!

- Arlo being capable of genuine happiness has me shell shocked. He really does like his aunt. Oh god UrU WHY!?!? Take Sera’s mom, not her! Why can’t Arlo have good things in his life?

- Remember guys, we must protect this smile. Arlo Defense Force rise up

- These boys are so fucking tall it makes Remi look like a child. This makes Arlo’s midget height during his first year even funnier. I wonder if he had a major complex about it? Rei would definitely tease him about it

- Um...I’m gonna save this for future use. Y’all don’t need to know what type of use.

- Not gonna lie, this was not what I expected her to say. I thought Valerie was gonna be the kind, upbeat, supportive aunt but I guess she’s a lot more serious then I thought. I guess we know now why Arlo has his disposition. He gets it from his aunt. The two seem to be the type of people who are stone faced and hard towards most people, but go soft for those they care for.

- OH FUCK REMI KNOWS

- UrU was being so unsubtle that Remi picked up on the narrative clues in story. Valerie being Volcan is gonna fuck up so much shit. Especially since we just saw that Arlo likes her a lot.

- Valerie knows she knows. I like the fact that Valerie can keep such a straight face even though she’s facing someone she almost killed (who’s also a friend of her nephew). I wonder how much training she’s had, to be able to kill so efficiently and give no tells that she’s lying.

- Can we talk about how sweet it is that Arlo immediately went to defend Rei in his own way. I swear if I see another person talking about how Arlo doesn’t care about Rei I’m gonna sic Volcan on em.

- Oh god, oh no. This is what I was afraid of. Valerie seems so nice to Arlo but the moment he defended Rei, her mood changed. She probably thinks Remi and co are going to taint her boy and might speed up the exterminate process. I swear if we get a line like “I’m doing this to save you!” from Valerie I’m gonna cry. Also UrU, I beg of you, can Valerie actually be really caring? It’s just something I desire.

- She’s kinda acting like a conservative parent who sent their child off to college and learned they hang out with someone who smokes weed.

- Yuppers, you’re facing your brother’s killer with no mask. And to make it worse, she’s related to Arlo. Hope you have fun with that shitshow Remi.

- Man, forget Rei for a moment. You’re not gonna talk about the fact that she’s related to Arlo?! Like, your friend’s related to a murderer. This is gonna be some rough shit when it’s revealed, and I’ll hope you’ll be there for him when it happens.

- Arlo immediately sensed there was something more wrong with Remi. Considering he was able to pick out that John was a high tier with a few limited interactions, his intuition is really great. That makes Valerie’s bold face lying even more impressive to me. He doesn’t question her once cause she gives no signs that something is wrong.

- “Being a vigilante is dangerous. I should know, I’ve killed like eight of them.”  -Though she’s right that it’s very dangerous. Blyke almost lost his life last time, and many others have died. There has to be an established way to protect vigilantes, and working with the cops would be a better way to protect them (if they weren’t the ones killing them)

- Again, she’s right. Even if they solve one issue, another will just pop up in it’s place. Just fighting the bad guys won’t help, this isn’t some novel, there’s work to be done. Luckily the Safe House is a good step towards this, but we’ll need it on a larger scale otherwise the low tiers will stay oppressed.

- Arlo’s very protective of his aunt and that scares me. He’s definitely not gonna believe it if Remi or someone else tries to tell him that his aunt is a murderer. He thinks so highly of her and her position; he thinks she’s truly trying to help and that what makes the inevitable reveal sad. He’ll be crushed and I’d expect him to be out of commission (either not going to school or kidnapped for a while) due to his depression.

- Arlo protecting his aunt caused him to insult his friends. I see this more as him idolizing his aunt so much than him not caring for Remi and Rei.

- This is something a bit new from Arlo. This isn’t a simple “I respect her” this is something more. I swear if my theory about her being the mother figure in his life is real I’m changing professions to oracle.

- And Valerie and Volcan have two different abilities. Now I’m guessing, Ember’s found a way to be able to transfer abilities between people. Looking at the Ember report we got a while back, it said that they were going to acquire Arlo and Sera’s ability so maybe they take their victims abilities and give it to their workers. I’d like to see what type of barrier ability she has though since Arlo says it’s a variation.

Valerie is so cool and boss and scary that I want to run and hug her at the same time. Arlo is being soft and precious for the first time and I cried. Remi found her brother’s killer, it’s time to pull an Inigo Montoya

[salamoonder]

Here I am with a thought and a question or two: 1. The Thought: do you think Trent will make an allusion to Caleb killing his parents in front of TM9? Because if iirc Jester & Cad are the only one’s who don’t know? (Jester because he’s been purposefully keeping it from her and Cad because Cad somehow keeps missing the convo?) like, I have to believe that the SECOND Trent left from meeting TM9 he has been doing recon on all of them, and having people scry spy on them because knowledge is power and Trent for sure always wants to have the upper hand. Idk but I just think I will live from the drama of it all lol 2. The Question: idk if you’be discussed this before, but do you have any thoughts or theories on what schools or magic Astrid & Wulf took their classes in? To me it would make sense for Trent to pick the blumendrei as all having three distinct magical specialties that as a unit would make them....formidable. Basically I’m just so excited and ready for a possible Trent confrontation and blumendrei reunion that I am just :chinhands: about hearing any and all your thoughts about it lol

ooh lots of thoughts ok ok dkfjslkdj

first i have to make a slight correction: yes, cad and jester are the only one who don’t know, but caleb’s actually been fairly guarded about telling anyone. he told beau because he had to to get into the cobalt soul and nott/veth because he felt wrong about telling beau but not her. he only told fjord a few episodes ago so it took him months to build up to that. the only reason yasha knows is because sam veth forgot she didn’t know to begin with and told her accidentally. to say that he’s purposefully keeping it from jester...*wobbly hand* i have no doubt he’s scared to tell her, but he really didn’t want to tell anyone and i’m honestly still working out for myself why, exactly, he told fjord, lol. that was an extreme act of trust. (not that i don’t think he trusts fjord--i’m just thinking, man, what prompted that, was it fjord dying?) anyway. not the point of your ask.

i think trent is certainly relying on caleb not having told the nein about his past so that he can create distrust between them and i also think it’s highly likely that he’ll bring up something that he’s done in his past--possibly his parents--and...hm. i’ve seen a lot of people discussing the moment way back when they were in zadash and he called him bren, and there are a lot of posts to the effect of “wow it’s a good thing caleb has learned to trust these people and confide in them, thus rendering trent’s tactics ineffective in making the nein distrust caleb”. and they’re right--but--but. i think that there’s a lot we don’t know. last ep when he casually mentioned that he’d never seen the tower from the outside because he was always locked inside it--WHAT. MR O BRIEN EXPLAIN, PLEASE. i have to go back and check if that was in character or not or if it was solely to matt because i feel like that’s a thing that other characters would’ve been like “hey what the fuck” but either he said it so fast that it went over their heads or it was an OOC aside to matt. point being. i think there’s a lot he hasn’t told them. and honestly i wouldn’t be surprised if trent does allude to something at dinner that makes the rest of the nein (and us) go “the FUCK”.

as for your question!! i am not super familiar with dnd and truth be told i’m much more solid on my hcs for the clay family’s classes because they feel a bit more intuitive for me, but i have thought a lot about what classes astrid and wulf are. here’s my best guesses.

astrid - realistically? honestly? i think she’s a sorcerer, BUT it would be very liam if she were just, an evil druid. plus i like the idea of her doing recon/planning as a mouse or bird or something.

wulf - warlock, purely because i think it would be a lovely and dramatic mirror to fjord, but i also like the idea of him having to make a pact around the same time that caleb learned find familiar for the first time.

in my headcanon land, which is tied to canon with a few pieces of string and some glue, the dynamic is something like this: caleb is/was their leader. he’s the mastermind, the strategist, the one putting it all together. astrid is there to question and poke holes in every decision he makes, to keep him on his toes. she’s also the one obtaining all their info for him to put together to begin with. wulf is brute force, intimidation, the physical torturer--the bad cop to astrid’s good cop/charming/manipulative cop, essentially. (or at least--in my head that’s how trent has planned it. i have Lots of thoughts about what roles they Actually occupy, as assassins but also as...like...teenagers. as friends.)

thank youuuu i needed a good ramble lol. and i am SUPER excited for next week.

[youichi-kuramochi]

dearest viv,

how the FUCK do you connect scenes?

i forgot what sign off i was gonna use

started with an r

umm

fuck. whatever

i cant remember if it was regards or respectfully. maybe respectfully?? yeah since i was yelling?? ok

respectfully,

honey ʕ ﹒ ᴥ ﹒ ʔ

ALDFKJGALDFKGDLFJ THIS WAS THE FUNNIEST ASK TO WAKE UP TO THANK YOU FOR THAT OMG

ANYWAY............ do u mean like in general or me personally lmao bc my answer to the second is probably like. totally unhelpful bc I just kinda vibe it most of the time when I’m writing adflkjagdfk at least first drafts. editing is another story (standby. we’ll get there lmao)

[sidebar: OH MY GOD THIS ANSWER GOT SO LONG I’M SO SORRY IF THIS WAS A JOKEY ASK AND I JUST RAMBLED UNNECESSARILY FOR LIKE FOREVER I am just. I am very passionate about writing even though my own process is a Mess aldkfjglkgf anyway I’m putting this under a cut bc uh. this really got away from me]

alright so theoretically??? I think transitions are less important than like. there should be a point each scene is trying to make. it either develops character or plot or relationships or any combination of those, and you need to have enough to make that point and then it can end (though I overelaborate a lot so. idk. I don’t think I follow most of this advice even though I understand it In Theory adlfkgjlkf). similarly, when you string the scenes together, they should to build towards a larger narrative arc. like because character a learned this thing about themself in the previous scene, now they can confront character b about something else. or because of this character establishing moment, we can now have this character do this thing because we, the readers, now have some insight into their motivations/fears/desires/etc. or whatever. I guess this is sort of about transitions lmao but the point is that the larger narrative should connect, not that you need to be super careful always about making the words/physical scenes themselves connect, if that makes sense

imo scenes can start and end abruptly and like as long as the narrative point is made you don’t really miss out on much. I’m terrible at actually doing this which is why my fics all wind up so long but I don’t mind it at all when I’m reading. I think it’s really cool when someone can make a really powerful point with far fewer words than I ever could. idk who told me this maybe a professor or maybe I just read it somewhere but it’s often a good move to drop readers right in the middle of the action like you don’t need that much buildup to it (unless the buildup serves a purpose. maybe your character is hesitating. maybe they’re overthinking.) you might need more buildup/general exposition in the beginning to get us acquainted with the world of the fic, but especially as you go on, exposition only as needed can be a good move. something something kill your darlings, y’know?

actually this last bit I do follow sometimes lmao I often wind up with several pages of just. unused text that I’d written and then decided was extraneous to the point I was trying to make or made a scene drag on or just didn’t click. like for my current ongoing fic, I have entire scenes I’ve cut. I wrote 2k of a high school scene that I ended up only using slivers of for flashbacks. there was a scene when onigiri miya opened at one point. for my bkak big bang fic I literally have over 6k that I took out completely that if I had kept in would’ve given the whole thing a completely different tone that I decided I didn’t like after I’d already written like half the fic. so I scrapped them. I usually save these, not do anything with really but just because deleting text forever is hard lmao so saving the writing somewhere, if not in the fic itself, makes it easier for me to cut

ALL THAT SAID it’s also totally cool to just trust your gut and run with a vague idea. like this kind of writing should be fun and I wouldn’t let worrying about this stuff get in the way of having a good time. and also everyone’s process is different!! everyone’s writing style is different and your writing probably won’t have the same tone or style as writers you admire and that’s okay!! it’s a good thing, even, imo. that’s what’s so cool about writing and honestly a lot of my favorite writers do not write like I do and I love that

and when I said I vibe it w my fics I really honestly do 90% of the time. I usually have a general sense of where I’m going but it’s more enjoyable for me discover things on the way. some people swear by outlines, I fundamentally do not other than like. AT MAX writing a short bullet point list of scenes I want to include as I think of them bc my brain is like a sieve. and usually weeks after starting something, I’ll write a line/paragraph/scene and have an epiphany like oh my god. oh my god I get what this whole piece is trying to say. (this is my favorite part of writing tbh. discovering that moment) and once I have that, it’s much easier to figure out what belongs and what doesn’t when I go back and edit earlier scenes and make sure that everything ties together

and also, finally, (sorry I know I’ve been rambling for a while now I swear this is the last point) I want to note that all of this gets easier and more natural with practice. I’ve been writing for over 10 years, on and off. ao3 says I have 500k+ of published fic, not to mention I probably as much if not more from abandoned wips that will never see the light of day AND a bunch of stuff floating around on livejournal (lol) from the pre-ao3 days, so I have written. a LOT. and over time you sort of hone your intuition about what works for you and what doesn’t and at least for me, now I think a lot less abt the nitty gritty and just go wherever my writing takes me and I’ll usually land in the general vicinity of making sense. I think anyone can get there (or wherever it is you’d like to be if this isn’t your style). the trick is just to keep writing! it’s a skill like everything else ☺️

[jemfisch]

⌠ MASON GOODING, 21, CISMALE, HE/HIM ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, JEREMY “JEM” FISCHMAN II! according to their records, they’re a SECOND YEAR year, specializing in ADVANCED ENCRYPTION & “MACGUYVER” SURVIVAL SKILLS AND NAVIGATION; and they DID NOT go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (old hip hop blaring from headphones, a broken crtv with the cords ripped out and repurposed, the smell of spray paint graffiti, brightly colored shirts with 80s patterns). when it’s the (cancer)’s birthday on 06/23/99, they always request their ICE CREAM SANDWICHES from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation. ⌿ kati, 24, she/her, est ⍀ @gallagherintro

STATS / PINTEREST / CONNECTIONS / CLASSES

INSPIRATION

fox mulder (the x files)

hogarth hughes (the iron giant)

will turner (pirates of the carribean)

robin hood

george weasley (harry potter)

aladdin

spike spiegel (cowboy bebop)

mark watney (the martian)

BACKGROUND + CLICK FOR BIO

his parents were high school sweethearts and married just before they attended college at harvard together, securing careers at the kennedy space center. 

jeremy fischman sr dies under mysterious circumstances in a lab accident and ellen is twenty-eight and left alone to raise baby jem. things only go downhill from here. jeremy was the love of her life and she becomes obsessed with his disappearance and all kinds of conspiracy theories, blows a bunch of her money. it doesn’t take long for her to be fired, savings blown on expensive equipment or sunk into internet hoaxes

they move to a rough neighborhood in gainesville where jem grows up. he likes jem, not jeremy, jeremy is his father. he’s never experienced the perfect life his parents used to live, the white picket fence, the shiny space shuttles. he’s only got this, and honestly, he doesn’t hate it. 

the neighborhood’s rough, but there’s a lot of fun characters, and his mom is practically his best friend – aside from his next-door neighbor, NOAH WARD.

jem’s mom does odd hacking jobs from the comfort of their home. some of them are shadier than others, she makes connections with a lot of private investigators in town and looks into people’s cheating husbands and tracks down birth parents and missing people. she does pro bono work too, a kindhearted woman, she can never say no to those in need, even if she’s not so fortunate herself. as jem gets older, he learns everything that he knows from her

every summer vacation growing up, jem and his mom would pack their bags and make home in a camper van, traveling across the country. in some ways, this was great mother-son bonding, but this wasn’t why they did it. his mom never gave up looking for the truth about her husband,  but hacking into secure, top-secret government databases is nothing like hacking into the gainesville city hall, it’s hard work, and they travel around the country methodically so that their signal cannot be traced. every summer they get close, but never close enough.

when noah moves away for college, jem stays home. he’s not comfortable leaving his mom. 

he keeps up with hacking jobs and keeping up with looking for his dad on the side. he doesn’t think they’ll ever find him, his mom holds out hope but jem is eighteen years old and a bit more jaded now, he figures the guy’s just really dead and well, the conspiracy of it all matters less and less when he knows that either way, he’s still grown up without him. 

a lot of jem’s social life is online, whether it’s friends from hacking forums or via soundcloud.

when he’s not hacking, he’s making music. his passions of technology and music mix and he creates his own beats and soundcloud, mashing together songs, and even putting together a popular meme track or two used on tiktok. 

it’s actually a bit lucrative, but that’s not why he does it. doesn’t even really use his name, catch him on soundcloud…username? uncutjems.

every time he and his mom get close to finding his dad, there’s just more to do, and it’s almost like someone KNOWS what they’re doing. 

jem’s right about that – he is being watched. since noah’s admission to gallagher, recruiters have been aware of the boy who taught her everything she knew. 

when gallagher makes the choice to start allowing male students, an agent shows up at his door offering him a once in a lifetime chance at a free education. 

jem doesn’t have any strong ambition to go into espionage, per say, but he won’t say no to advanced classes taught by some of the world’s brightest minds – and a chance to reunite with his best friend. however, he hasn’t stopped trying to get into the government’s records and still has ambitions of going into music production.

PERSONALITY. 

INTUITIVE. jem has a natural intuition about things and he trusts himself and his own opinions about things. i suppose you could perceive this as confidence, but honestly he’s just really SMART, good at absorbing facts even subconsciously and putting things together about people or situations. in a sense, he has a habit of being correct – he definitely comes off as intelligent, even though his grades in school have never been very good. he just has different priorities. 

LOYAL. make a friend out of jem and you have a friend for life, he’ll take your secrets to the grade and he’s pretty trustworthy. he’s the type of guy that gets along with pretty much everyone but he has a few select, close friends because he is somewhat intentional about the company that he keeps. he’s friendly and kind, but he keeps his inner circle of people he trusts close and somewhat exclusive. 

PROTECTIVE. kind of has papa bear energy, you know ? maybe the dad friend of your friend group, but in a laid back way, he might not seem like he’s the type to spring into action but call someone close to him a rude name and you’ll see his fist coming at your face. he’s protective but not possessive, i guess is how i would describe it, but i think he gives pretty good advice as well because he’s really hoping the best for ppl. 

MALINGERING. jem is kind of a SLACKER! at least, that’s what teachers have called him in the past, he simply does not dream of labor. he’s just kind of doing his own thing, will fake sick to skip a class, whatever else, even though he likes producing music he doesn’t really have a great ambition for anything, spy or otherwise. as long as he has a good computer setup, then he’s fucking chilling. 

MOODY. he’s laid back to the umpteenth degree when it comes to work or obligations, but he does have sort of mood swings, i guess he’s the sort of person that you would describe as grumpy at times ? definitely NOT a morning person and when he’s in an off mood, he can be hard to interact with or snap out of. 

DISORGANIZED. the sort of person to throw his stuff across the bed or leave piles of clothes on the floor to deal with later, maybe he’s not your favorite roommate for this reason. he has a habit of losing things that he just set down or whatever, things like that. 

HEADCANONS.

tbh you can think of him like...beca in pitch perfect ! he’s here bc he was offered a free education and he’s cool with that, but he’d rather be pursuing a future in music. a damn good hacker, though, and the gallagher recruiters are hoping that with some ‘ambition’ he’ll want to work for the government someday. 

played baseball throughout middle and high school and he’s fairly athletic – he can get pretty competitive when he plays, it kind of brings out a side in him that most people don’t expect to see because he’s fairly chilled out most of the time 

a boss with a slingshot. there is no reason for this, but he had one as a kid and he used to chase squirrels away from the bird feeders outside their home. he has great eyesight and his aim is great, but it’s literally the only weapon he’s proficient in

he’s not tiktok famous for his face, but he has two tiktok famous songs...he’s made like 12k in record deals for selling the rights, it’s just the kind of shit that he does goofing around in music software and he has a good ear for what is going to be catchy

he’s NOT a morning person, definitely a late night kind of guy, will stay up until all hours just fucking around on the computer and then he’ll sleep until 1 or 2pm, at least. getting up for morning classes is a struggle for them and he has slept through them on occasion.

funky sweaters, crazy socks, fun-patterned shirts, he dresses a bit like a circus tent at times, but you can’t say that he doesn’t have style – he dresses well, but it’s like he’s stepped out of a 90s cartoon or something

if he makes u a playlist he either wants to be ur friend so fucking bad or he’s head over heels in love with u

really likes making new things with old technology, he loves taking the macguyver courses and learning new things and he’s actually built his own computer and a lot of his own musical instruments 

usually has a couple bandaids because he’s a bit accident prone or can lose his focus when working in the lab. when he gets in his own head while working on a project, he literally cannot hear anything else – sort of selective hearing

likes fucking around with spray paint, if he can, he’s got a bit of an artistic streak and he doodles stickers on sticker paper sometimes. you can probably catch his tag around campus or even stuck to the latops of his close friends, it’s just a little man with a tv for a head. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

HACKING JOBS – if you STILL need a hacker for any of your wild backstory connections, jem is a great bet. he’s been doing paid jobs for people professionally since he could type, and he’s sort of an ace at getting in and out without leaving a trace...and he’s no gossip. so, your secrets would be safe with him. 

SMOKING BUDDIES – people that he can smoke up with, talk about life, talk about the bullshit of gallagher, but also people he can laugh with that don’t make him feel stressed or concerned about the future. 

MUSIC MAKING BUDDIES – if your character makes music, maybe they can collaborate on something...we’re about to drop the hottest mixtape of all time right here at gallagher academy i will teach myself garageband for this shit...jk but maybe

EX ON BAD TERMS – someone he dated last year...i’m imagining it was their first year and things were really great for the first semester, but shit fell apart second semester along with the school. maybe all the drama on campus caused distance, maybe he wasn’t there for them when they needed it, or maybe they got jealous of the way he always prioritizes noah ? a combination of things, we can hash out the details since i know some of you had some pretty angsty things going on second sem, and maybe it’s awkward now because it feels like there’s unfinished biz. 

EX ON GOOD TERMS / LOVERS TO FRIENDS – maybe someone that was a rebound and things didn’t really work and they saw that, maybe he wasn’t over his ex or whatever but they were able to stay friends ? it’s up to you how your muse feels about it but i want an ex that jem also has no hard feels about and actually is maybe sort of protective of them and cares a lot about them finding happiness, they bonded hardcore. 

EX-FLING – idk maybe they were hooking up for a while and then one of them started seeing someone else or one of them caught feels so they don’t hook up any more but it was super fun when they did !! also down for it to have been like a summer fling and once the summer ended. 

BROS – idk i would like for him to have a squad or something for him to just fuck around with <3 but it’s wholesome and they respect women

ONLINE FRIEND (ANONYMOUS) – he spent a lot of time on forums online and stuff so i’d love for him to have an online friend !! maybe cute if they just know each other by their screen names rn and we can do a bunch of text chats and maybe they both know they go to gallagher but they simply. haven’t met idk

ONLINE FRIENDS – also friends he met online that aren’t anonymous they could’ve met through any number of forums but probably have similar interests like music or hacking so they’re long time homies , someone he’s known almost as long as noah

ONE NIGHT STAND – self explanatory. maybe they’re super good friends and now it’s kind of awkward now and they want to get back to a place of normalcy but it’s simply not normal, maybe they fucked things up by breakin the tension on like. halloween or some shit. 

FRIENDZONED – someone jem accidentally friendzoned and maybe he doesn’t even realize it himself but they had a thing for him and he really just didn’t realize it bc he can’t tell unless you spell it out for him.

CLASS RIVALS – someone who tries really hard and cares about class a bunch vs. jem who doesn’t give a fuck but he keeps making the grade without really trying, so they’re ? bitter about it ? and so the two really do not hit it off because of that and they go back and forth , i just rly want a classroom rivalry. maybe even this rivalry and them nagging him actually motivates to try in the class just to piss them off 

 ENEMY – this person shared a secret with jem and then it somehow got out on the gossip blog idk ! they think jem told and now they hate him. 

anything pls let’s chat !