#it is very important that girls be allowed to goof off in books and movies actually

[hadesoftheladies]

it isn't empowering for girls to see adultified/sexualized adolescent female characters in media, actually. get that child a pack of legos, a nintendo and a juice box you creeps.

[collectivefandomstuff]

Hey mom! I’m stressed at 1am, any advice? I’m having trouble in school via studying sometimes it feels like we’re going from 0 to 100. And I need better study habits, do you have any advice? Bc sometimes it feels like I’m so afraid of failure that if I do study to my full potential (sounds weird) I feel like I loose the excuse of saying oh I got a bad score bc I goofed off. Like if I actually do all my effort to study and do bad, then is there something wrong with me??

(A/N: this answer is so long I almost feel ashamed to post it. I’m very sorry everyone. Anyway, if you’re looking for the concrete tips they’re at the end :) )

Hey :)

This doesn’t sound weird at all because I’m the exact same way. This way of thinking is actually more common than you’d think, and is often a part of the cognitive profile of perfectionism (btw, perfectionism isn’t that apt a name but I digress. Also, this way of thinking doesn’t mean you’re a perfectionist.). Anyway, I know a bunch of people who’ve experienced this, and the common factor isn’t fear of failure, but rather what it is you think you’re failing at. For example, I once told my therapist that I was super stressed over a bunch of stuff and I also had a paper I had to get done, and he asked me what would happen if I didn’t turn it in on time and I was like “academically? nothing. mentally? I wouldn’t be me anymore.” And that’s the stitch.

The people I know who struggle with this are often (though not exclusively) girls, and often people who’re pretty smart. They spent their childhood being told over and over that they were gifted, intelligent, and good at school. And back then, that was easy to live up to. They danced through the first few years of school without any issue, and enjoyed it a lot. They did their homework, understood stuff, and were usually “good kids”.

Now, we’re always growing and re-shaping our sense of self, but the foundations are lain when we’re children. So, when people around you keep identifying you as a smart/good student, then we start identifying ourselves like that too. Especially if it is being reinforced by your actual achievements. And then, suddenly, getting good grades isn’t about doing well or working hard, it’s about identity. It’s about who you are at your core. Thus, the stakes become infinitely higher. If you fail at a math test that you really studied for, then that means that you don’t have what it takes, and that means you are no longer yourself- the intelligent kid who’s good at school. A test might not be that anxiety-inducing, but losing your whole sense of self is. So, in that case procastination makes a lot of sense, because as long as you don’t fail while doing your best then you never put your identity on the line.

(This also applies if failing at school has become synonymous with being a failure, i.e. if you’ve been taught that doing well academically is the only way to be a successful/useful person in society, or if academic success has merged with the idea of a happy future so it feels like failing autmatically leads to an unhappy life. Essentially, mental structures that lead to a misconception of the stakes involved in a single exam/paper/task.)

That said, I do have some more practical things to say here. First off, sometimes we’re in a situation where we can’t do our best and that’s okay. I’ve failed exams, tests, papers, you name it and I still have my degree in the end. It’s never the end all of things.

Now, my own biggest freak out like this came when I started uni. My first paper I went completely insane and procrastinated like crazy, and I failed. And then the though crept in “what if I can’t do this? What if this is it. I can’t handle higher education, even if I try my hardest?” The anxiety was... big bad and mad.

I should say for this next part that my therapist once told me that I have a strangely aggressive approach to handling anxiety. Moving on. I sat down and said to myself “what is worse, to try my hardest and fail or half-ass it and never be able to live the life I want?” Since the answer was pretty obvious, I got to it. I had about 5 weeks until the next exam, and I sat down and planned every single hour until then. I studied for that damn test like I’ve never studied before, and whenever I felt anxious I would tell it to FUCK OFF and focus on the task I had planned. I didn’t allow myself to think beyond that first planning session, I just did what was next on the agenda. What am I supposed to do right now? read these 10 pages? Ok.

I’ve had two exams during my studies where I failed (the second due to the situation I was in) and ended up in this spiral. And here’s the funny thing: I have a small number of courses in uni where I got a higher grade. They include 1) courses that I found extremly interesting and 2) those two courses.

Okay! I know this is already so fucking long but I want to give you some actual tips too. Number one is obviously to plan. Take a whole day, sit down and plan the next month. Consider all your assignments, when they’re due, what you need to do to study, how long that’ll take and when that is done most efficiently. Plan everything in your calendar. Give yourself enough time for each task that you can do it even if you’re not super super focused. Do not study outside these hours. When you’re done for the day you’re done for the day. This way, there’s a clear, reachable end to each study session and you don’t feel as compelled to postpone tasks. When you sit down to study, don’t worry about the other stuff you have to do, or other subjects that you haven’t done yet. They’re all in the plan, all you have to do is what is in front of you. As long as you keep doing that you’ll make it. (If the plan goes to shit for some reason, take a day to plan a make a new one. It happens).

Some things to consider:

Different subjects are best studied in different ways. I used to set aside 15-30 minutes every day in high school for Italian, where I’d sit down and read the chapter we were working on out loud. I didn’t even focus that hard, I just did it every day- the chapter and the glossary. I STILL remember some sentences from that book. Math is best done in longer stretches, but not too long. 1-2 hours preferably. Think about how YOU work. Do you best read a textbook in one go or in increments? Do you learn better in a coffee-shop or your room? Silence? Music? This can also change depending on your subject. Plan accordingly.

For reading, time your reading speed for the book. Read a page at normal speed and clock it, then multiply that by the pages you need to read to see how much time you’ll have to plan for. Round up to give yourself room for spacing out.

Plan for breaks. Think about your normal need for it, but the uni standard is 15 minutes for every 45, making an even hour. Find a break activity that’s has a specific end, for example making some more tea/coffee and snacks and doing some stretches, or maybe playing one race in mario kart. Avoid things that you can get stuck doing beyond the alotted break time.

Buffers. For every five hours or so, plan one hour of buffer time. This is time that you can use if something takes longer than expected. If you do everything as planned, this is surprise free time! :D If you have a long study session, plan 30 minute buffers every two or three hours to be used for extra breaks and to keep panic at bay. Buffers will save your life.

Make a chart with different tasks and have little boxes that you get to fill in with fun colours when you’re done. If you have to read 100 pages, do a bar with ten boxes, that way you can see your progress visually.

Plan for days/evenings that are free. Plan what you’re going to do those days, like “movie night with X”, “play videogames and eat cupcakes”, “take a long bath and read a good book”. That way, you use your free time well and can use those days and evenings as incentive.

Prioritize your work. If you have too much to do, make a list of what’s most to least important and focus on doing the important stuff first. This includes studying tasks. What’s more important, reading that text for the third time or really understanding integrals?

Drink lots of water and eat sugar. It’s brain food. I usually bake before an intense week. That way when I feel myself going down I can go get a cupcake instead of taking time to make something to eat, or worse- try to soldier through which never works.

I hope this helped a little at least :) Good Luck! I believe in you! 💙💜

[bluejaywriter]

Anyway, here’s my How To Fix WW84 in 42 scenes (or less) list:

BTW, this is a very long post. It is a whole movie :P

1. Delete the first scene with the Amazons and have the opening credits be over the 80s montage. I KNOW, but trust me.

2. Mall robbery scene goes normally, but like... less clunky. And there’s a bop playing in the background because it’s the 80s.

3. When Diana comes back, she’s wearing her armor underneath her jacket; have a shot of her hanging it up in her closet, and pieces of the Golden Armor are displayed nearby. She has dinner by herself, and looks lonely. 

4. Diana meets Barbara, and it’s the same, but if she needs something “human”, how about she walks with a cane instead of being clumsy in heels because it may be 1984, but it’s also 2020 :P (also Rucka’s Rebirth run literally has her walking with a cane??) And a girlfriend

5. They bond over the FBI artifacts from the mall robbery, Barbara’s studying something that will be important on an expedition later (a map?), but it’s not like. Placement. It’s just buried in the list of things they’re looking at. Also Barbara is smart and also knows Latin and Diana is impressed.

6. They go to dinner (and there’s a bop playing in the background) and Barbara asks what made her get into archeology, and Diana is vague, and Diana asks what made her get into archeology, and Barbara is also vague, but says she’s always loved ancient civilizations and things. No one asks about anyone’s love life. :P

7. Diana walks Barbara home. Diana asks if she’s in pain (the cane), and she says no, and then it’s never mentioned again because it’s 2020. Also there are no drunk creeps, and no amiable homeless black guys, because… euuuurgh.

8. There’s a scene with another version of the map (or not a map), and a faceless somebody having a vague, Villainy conversation about it (and not Dr. Poison faceless, just... we don’t see their face, lol).

9. Barbara gets to work early and finds out she has to give a tour to Maxwell “The Oil Guy” Lord. This scene goes as normal, and he insists they both come tonight to the gala he’s hosting for the museum at his house. Diana thinks galas are stupid, but she plays along because she wants to keep Barbara away from Max she can tell Barbara wants to go she wants to protect Barbara.

10. Insert artistic shots of Diana’s office here. Basically ancient artifact porn. Show us the cool stuff, God.

11. Diana looks irritated/confused about something and is flipping through books (although computers did exist in 1984, right? Right?). Barbara comes in asking if Diana wants to go shopping for the gala, and Diana asks if she still has the FBI artifacts, and Barbara says yeah, why. Diana says she just wants to check something later, then they go shoe shoppingggggg

12. Diana does all the things the store attendant does. Dialogue, facial expressions, everything. Harold they’re lesbi—

13. Barbara asks if she wants to share a cab to the party, but Diana has to put out a wildfire or something, and says she’ll meet her there.

14. Action scene fire-putting out that somehow relates to a moment later in the movie. Diana can’t save a cat stuck in a tree

15. There’s a shot of Diana stepping out of the burning forest and looking out over the sea, and there are burning embers falling around her, and the sun is setting, and it’s beautiful dammit. And then she remembers she has a date, and she smells like a wildfire, and the music comes in because this was the best scene in the real movie.

15. Gala scene. Entrances and music are perfect, change nothing except man creeps are like… more subtle? And more insidious/Mr. Nice Guy, sure. Diana finds Barbara Ann, and she mentions that she hasn’t drunk/partied like this since college, because she’s a confident woman who can drink, dammit.

16. Pedro Pascal invites Barbara up for a drink, and Diana is prepared to come along uninvited, but there’s an invite for her, too.

17. The three main actors from this movie actually get to hang out together and bond like atoms because they have serious chemistry. Max is a bit of a douche at first, but he relaxes after a bit of goofing off. Diana asks him about the pictures on the wall of his son, and he says he’s the smartest boy in his school, and his goal every day is to make his son proud of him. Barbara Ann (who is slightly drunk) mentions that her father didn’t want her to become a scientist, and they swap horrible Dad stories for 45 seconds. 

18. Diana’s Horrible Dad Story: “My mother never told me his name.”

19. Pedro Pascal mentions that he’s putting together a team for a dig (Apparently they dug up some stuff while he was looking for oil) and he wants Barbara Ann to lead the expedition. 

20. Barbara Ann wants Diana in her team don’t we all. Pedro Pascal pretends to be surprised and delighted by this idea. There’s a shot of his happy face disappearing once the girls leave.

21. Diana goes to find the FBI artifact she’d been wondering about (it’s after the gala, so it’s dark in the museum), and it’s gone.

22. They fly to the dig, and everyone has their passports, and Kristen Wiig does not reprise her Bridesmaids airplane scene, but she can mention that it was nice of Max Lord to put them in first class. It’s also the 80s, so flying looks like whatever flying looked like in the 80s (more leg room? :P) Also, there’s a bop playing in the flying montage. 

23. They get to the dig (in a helicopter), and a bunch of diverse people introduce themselves, because we have to have diversity somewhere in here, it’s 2020.

24. Barbara Ann gets to work, and Diana goes exploring because she’s the main character and doesn’t need to work. She sees a temple/palace further up the island, and it looks like there’s smoke coming out of the courtyard, but she’s called back for dinner before she can go see. The other people tell her the building is abandoned.

25. Diana goes later that night to see, and it is abandoned and there’s lots of animal bones lying around and weird symbols on the walls and it’s creepy AF. But there are other things (pottery?) that remind her of Themyscira, and there’s a flash of a memory from an Amazon feast, and she sees Antiope laughing with a group of Amazons because we need a Robin Wright cameo, and then a hard cut to—

26. Barbara Ann comes to find Diana sitting on the edge of the cliff looking over the ocean, and she asks if she’s jetlagged too, and she says no, just homesick. She tells Barbara Ann that she grew up on an island, and after she left, she spent years trying to move on and assimilate into the new world, but she kept finding things that reminded her of her homeland, and she finally accepted that she should be proud of who she is and where she’s from. Barbara Ann says she should never be ashamed of her true self and then they kiss

27. In the morning, there’s a dig montage, and a bop playing in the background. Diana pretends that heavy things are heavy. They find Diana’s golden helmet and other scraps of the golden armor and a bunch of other stuff so then it’s not conspicuous, and then there’s a tsunami/hurricane, and the rest of the crew dies or evacuates or something. It’s dramatic, and Diana and Barbara almost drown, except Diana is Wonder Woman. 

28. The two of them end up heading up to the abandoned building for shelter, and it looks sturdy, and the animal bones are gone, which is weird, but it’s dry, so Diana tells Barbara Ann to sleep while she takes the first watch. Barbara Ann says this isn’t the worst night she’s spent on the job.

29. Diana falls asleep and has a dream of this building in its heyday, and there’s an Amazon feast, and Diana wanders through the dream looking sad, and Hippolyta stands up to give a toast and is shouting about their guest of honor, the Princess from—

30. And then Diana wakes up, Barbara Ann is gone, and it’s full daylight, and there’s no sign of the storm or their camp. Diana hears a sound and goes to investigate likes she’s in a horror movie or something, and it takes her to stairs that lead underground, and she realizes that the tunnels match the map from the FBI (this is too convenient, but whatever, this is the first draft okay :P).

31. Maxwell Lord is sitting on a folding chair (or a couch!) in the cave at the end of the tunnel, and he’s surrounded by animals in cages. Diana recognizes some of the animals from the bones she saw earlier, because why not. He says that he brought Diana and Barbara Ann here to settle some old scores. Diana thinks for a minute that he’s Ares or something, and he says not MY old scores. 

32. And then Diana is attacked by a Cheetah (why not), and she’s not wearing her armor, but she can fight in her indiana jones outfit, and it’s kind of a lame fight (dark, realistic, no slow-mo), and she re-cages the animal pretty easily, and THEN she’s surrounded by the blurriness like she’s dreaming (bad, but it’s the first draft, okay), and Eva Green’s voice says some villainy things about is this how she treats her friends and she’s just like her mother—

33. And then Diana realizes that Barbara Ann is the Cheetah, and there’s a montage of her falling into Circe’s trap and being turned into a Cheetah, and then a scene of Pedro Pascal’s son being kidnapped while they’re on rich people vacation and being turned into a gerbil, and transformations of a bunch of explorers and warriors from over the years getting turned into animals (including Asteria), and then a scene of Circe being banished from the Amazons and not being allowed to return to (old) Themyscira.

34. Circe isn’t actually in the tunnel, but in the fog sequence, she talks to Diana through a mirror and occasionally morphs into Diana’s reflection, because she’s magic, and that’s creepy.

35. After the fog is over, and Diana’s wearing the Golden Armor because we need to sell toys, and then there’s ACTUAL fight with Cheetah, and a bop (Sebastian Böhm’s “Sweet Dreams are Made of This”) is playing in the background, and this time there are actual stakes because Diana doesn’t want to hurt her. And it’s like, the Cheetah and Wonder Woman fight from Rucka’s run, okay. Cheetah says this is her true self and to leave her alone, and Diana says no, this isn’t you.

36. Diana breaks Circe’s curse with true love’s kiss. Diana breaks Circe’s the curse with the lasso and a speech about love, and it turns out the Cheetah form is held back by the lasso, so Diana lets her keep it. 

37. Pedro Pascal gets his son back and it actually makes sense for him to run out from the bushes. He apparently doesn’t remember anything about Circe.

38. A helicopter comes to get them, and Diana is uneasy, because there’s a third movie, but she leaves and there’s a bop playing, because this is the end of the second movie.

39. Diana adds the helmet and the rest of the armor to her collection in her closet. 

40. Barbara Ann now has to tell the truth all the time because she’s wearing the lasso all the time. This is terrible, but the movie plays it off as amusing. 

41. Diana promises to find help for Barbara Ann, and they kiss

42. I guess the mid credits scene with Asteria can still happen. She could clean up after herself though, lol. A possible end credits scene is Diana finding the lasso on her work desk and Barbara Ann’s desk cleared out, but that’s kind of a bitter ending, and the lesbian ending is nicer.

In the third movie, Diana tries to find Themyscira and Circe is the main villain and maybe Cheetah comes back. Boom.

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

OC Master List

Obviously if you’ve followed me for any length of time you will know that I have a really nasty habit of making characters of my own design. I love to be creative and make my own realities through this medium. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do. I’ve wanted to make this for a while because my friends sometimes get confused as to which OC that I’m talking about so this is the master list for everybody. 

My Hero Academia: If I have any fandom where most of my OCs go it’s into the MHA fandom. I have currently five OCs in this show so let’s talk about them one by one. 

Mitsuki Haruka: My first OC that I truly ever created and invented with the knowledge of doing it. Mitsu has a really special place in my heart because she was the first and the one that I work for the most in this fandom usually. Her comfort character is Katara from Avatar The Last Airbender. Her quirk is water. She can pretty much do anything with water. She can heat it, freeze it, glide around on it, whip it out of her and use something that I stole from Fairy Tail called waterlock where she locks a person inside of a body of water. Her canon partner is Tenya Iida my favorite square boi. I often talk about her with her adopted brother and my amazing friend @bio-hazard0us OC Kaku. 

Violet Katsuragi: Violet is one that I don’t really talk about in great detail a whole lot because every time I try to I cry. Her family is a massive shit show and I always feel so bad for making it that way.  I’m always like “My poor baby who is making you suffer so much-oh yeah it’s me sorry about that babe.” She is my “villain” OC. She is really only a member of the league so that she can stay close with her boyfriend and love of her life Twice (Jin). Her quirk is that she can control the plant tattoos that are on her arms by summoning them and using them in combat. Her comfort character is Mary Poppins because it reminds her of her older brother. Violet is an actress for a local community theater once the league disbands quietly. She and Jin also adopt Toga (a younger member of the villain league) as their own daughter to give her a second chance at life. I love her even though she’s the saddest backstory one that I have to work with it’s also the most fulfilling when I write fluff for her. 

Shizuko Kanade: Another absolute baby with a crappy home life. I’m sorry that I made it that way hun but it gets better for you I promise. Shizuko is my quirkless OC and my genius tech girl. She lives below her best friend and brother in arms Denki Kaminari and they’ve been best friends since they moved into the same building together. Her comfort character is PJ from the Goof franchise especially from Goof Troop that was her favorite show to watch with her aunt when she was growing up. She starts off really chubby, the cute kind of chubby but starts drastically dropping pounds in order for her parents to love and accept her. When they still don’t Denki has enough and talks to his mom and they decide to call the police and foster Shizuko into their own home. They get a restraining order against her biological family and my best girl gets a happy home. She wants to be the first quirkless hero to rely completely on support items. (She is also partnered with Shoji if anybody is curious.)

Arashi Mitsuha: This absolute baby, I love them. Ari is my gender fluid OC that I made who started off as just your everyday cis male but then I had an idea that spiraled from Ari in eyeliner to Ari in a skirt and then we wound up with the gender fluid absolute icon that they are today. Ari has a weather quirk. Basically anything involving weather they can do it with their eyes closed. Thunder and lightning storms, tsunamis, tornados but also snow and sunshine. They’re really OP and hella versatile it makes it more fun to write their fighting style. I paired them up with Denki in your stereotypical meet-cute scenario. In terms of backstory they just had a really bad ex-boyfriend before Denki came into their life like a literal speeding bullet. Their comfort character is Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. 

Litzy Diaz: My last and FINAL MHA OC I promise you. Litzy is from a small town in Mexico and transferred to UA giving herself a second chance to start anew with her new friends and away from her toxic parents. She is fostered by Aizawa and Present Mic who have already adopted Shinsou so they are brother and sister in every way but blood. Her quirk was very heavily inspired by my love of Dr Facilier in Princess And The Frog. She can control shadows, shadow travel through things such as walls and she can control her friends on the other side basically demons from the underworld. Present Mic sees her as his long lost daughter and basically worships the ground that she walks on. He loves her more than anything in the entire world. Her comfort character is Miguel from Coco and La Muerte from Book Of Life. Her canon partner is Juso from Class B. 

DuckTales: I only have one DuckTales OC (thank the Gods) but she’s very special and important to me. I love the reboot of this show even if I’m way the hell behind on it (I promise I’ll catch up after Gravity Falls Donuts!!). 

Sabrina Duck: Sabrina is a sister for Huey, Dewey and Louie!! She shares the title of oldest quadruplet by thirty seconds and often took over the motherly role for her siblings when their mom wasn’t there. She was always reminding them to do their homework, regulated who got TV time and who was in charge of the delegated family movie night. This resulted in a rift between her and her brother Dewey that only got bigger overtime. School was really hard for her to deal with. She was never the best at paying attention during her classes and had a really bad sensory overload one day. She was really close with her uncle Ludwig though and he offered to teach her. They have a really special bond between the two of them that I love writing for. Sabrina was the person that grounded Ludwig to not think up as many crazy inventions. She also knits!! She loves knitting sweaters for her friends and family around the holidays. I am partnering her up with Gosalyn eventually. 

Star Vs The Forces Of Evil: To be perfectly honest with you guys, I have not seen the entire show. It’s really hard for me to get into it. Because when you only really love one character in the entire thing it gets harder to keep coming back for more. Especially because in the first two seasons you don’t get a whole lot of him and I’m stuck on season 2. 

Allania (Nia) Alvez: I feel like out of all my OCs I am the most like Nia. She’s a half elf-half mortal princess that isn’t allowed to live with the elves so they sent her to live with her mortal father. Her dad’s run a bakery in town and she works there as an assistant baker when she isn’t preparing for her next drag show. She grew up in this family full of love and acceptance and grew excited about one day having a relationship just like her parents. Her first brush with love left her broken by the side of the road even though no relationship came of it. A lot of my feelings for my ex-best friend went into Nia’s personality. However, there is a bright side! Of course with every one of my fics so far there is a bright side that comes in the form of my favorite character Tom who gives her the love that she deserves. 

Animaniacs: Of course this is me we’re talking about so there has to be an Animaniacs OC on this list! This is actually the first character that I ever made on my own free will! She has changed a lot throughout the years that I’ve had her mostly because my tastes have changed.  

Elizabeth Martin: Lizzy is a member of the scene crowd, I was inspired by my best friend and what she wears every day. For the modern au that I have her in her and Yakko are dance partners in a musical theater style school. For the regular fic she’s cast as his love interest. I love this girl so much. To me she is everything that I want to be even now. Her strength and confidence to get through every situation, even the ones that she is afraid to deal with speaks volumes to how I want to be one day. One of the few things that we have in common is that we both did martial arts! She stuck with it for longer than me though and is currently a green belt in kempo karate. Her favorite musical is Fun Home because it’s the one that she relates to the most through the eyes of the mother Helen Beckdal. Her parents basically had three other kids and went here take care of these it’s your job. Every time I listen to Days and Days I think of how much she had to go through just to make sure that everything was going according to plan. 

Looney Toons: Who doesn’t love Looney Toons?! We all have our personal favorite characters, mine has always been the schemer Daffy Duck. I thought that he was a combination of the funniest and had the most personality other than Bugs. I love his antics and get rich quick schemes and I thought to myself one day “How cute would it be if he had an adorable little niece who loved space?!” 

Daniella Duck: This began the creation of one of the best ideas that I personally think that I have ever had. So Daniella is the only one out of all my OCs that does not have aspergers. Instead I looked at Daffy’s elongated tongue and was like “Hm something inside of me thinks that she would have down-syndrome...” At first she was just going to have a little bit of her uncle’s speech impediment but this is what happens when I get ideas when I’m working out. Daniella lives with her uncle on the warner movie lot in the show fic. I love writing for her and her uncle’s relationship because it’s soft Daffy (it’s very similar to writing for soft Grunkle Stan and I LOVE BOTH). Daniella also has an uncle figure in Bugs and Porky of course. I gave her canon partner to Wakko because I just thought that they would be SO cute together. He helps her work on her self confidence and working her way around her speech impediment. In the modern au that I have she has a brother Ding Dong (@oo-fabooo02 OC). She goes to school with Wakko, loves Ed, Ed N Eddy, helps her uncle on his podcast because Daffy is a comedian in this au and she helps him write his script for the episodes. She loves space in both aus but in the modern au she actually is able to become an astronaut! 

Teen Titans\Promare: I have the same OC for both Teen Titans and for Promare but she’s more for Promare right now. What started off as just a happy au that she could have with her comfort character from the TT fic sort of spiraled into this whole other au. 

Keiko Katsuragi\Fotia in the Promare au: Keiko is a really special OC in my heart. She’s adorable, fun loving, sweet and just an all around amazing girl. In the Teen Titans au she’s a lot more damaged emotionally. Her father gave her powers through a serum that she didn’t even really want (she thought that he was joking) and it caused her house to burn down. When she left Japan she was homeless until the Teen Titans found her. Keiko is a member of the decora community and loves cutesy, girly things (especially Pokémon, Sanrio characters, Spongebob, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears). Her collection of stuffed animals is immense and intimidating. Her canon partner is Beast Boy. I’ve had Keiko since I was six and only just started to refine her and make her into an official OC. Promare au Keiko still has BB as her partner but I made him into a fire fighter for this au to work. She started off in a poly relationship with Meis and Gueira but I changed my mind. Writing the Promare au gave me the chance to make a happy unscarred Keiko. Her comfort character in this au is Dot. 

Princess And The Frog: If you forced me to pick a favorite Disney movie this one would be one of the two answers that I gave to you. I have a very big soft spot for this movie in particular. It is one that changed my life when I sat there as a young child and watched the movie unfold in front of my very eyes. Every time I rewatch this movie I am reminded of how much of my childhood I spent loving hand drawn Disney animation. 

Rhiannon (Rae): Rae is the daughter of Tiana and Naveen. I named her after Raymond the firefly. If you knew what a big comfort character my favorite cajun firefly is for me and my mom then her name will come as no surprise. She is the baker and pastry chef for Tiana’s Palace. Rae is a multi musically talented young girl she plays the ukulele, trumpet and accordion. When I first started writing for her I knew that I wanted her to be bisexual. So I turned to one of my favorite animation fun facts that I know. When Jim Cummings was first auditioning for Raymond they had him sing a song. This song that he sang is by Leon Russel and it’s called Cajun Love Song. It is also the song that he sings when he is untying Tiana and Naveen’s tongues. The song is about a girl named Alice. And part of my brain that makes these connections went perfect! That’ll be the name of her girlfriend. Rae is mostly a daddy’s girl. The relationship between her and Naveen was really what helped me refine her personality. Her comfort character is Rabbit from Winnie The Pooh. She is a gardener in her free time and that’s where she gets a majority of her fresh fruits and vegetables for her pastries and desserts. She isn’t really the best at being a princess. In fact she hates when she has to go and visit Maldonia. She doesn’t feel at home there and they won’t let her cook or bake anything at all because it’s not seen as ladylike. This is when she mostly feels like something is wrong with her. Why can’t she just do this one seemingly simple thing for her dad? When he does so much for her why can’t she do this? She learns that even though she isn’t perfect she is so very much loved that it’s ridiculous. Her family loves her so much and they’re willing to move hell or high water for her to be comfortable. 

Gravity Falls: My most recent obsession (I did not have cable when the original show was being released please don’t kill me). I have recently been binging this show on Disney+ and have just started the second season. I hope to be done with it within the next week or so because I love it so much. My favorite character so far is definitely Grunkle Stan. I love his growth and development from a power hungry greedy old man to somebody that clearly loves the kids that are put under his care. Watching his adorable relationship with mother and the father son relationship with Dipper is something that is really close to my heart.

Twilight Pines: My most recent OC!! Twilight is the older sister of Mabel and Dipper and has been visiting Grunkle Stan for years prior to the start of the show. She’s used to his money scheming antics by now but she still loves her favorite Grunkle. Growing up, Twilight had a nervous stutter. She was shy, nervous a lot, socially awkward and was never really the best at dealing with other people. This made her comfort character Piglet from Winnie The Pooh. Her stutter is still there but it’s gotten a lot better!! She spent the year before the show starts at drama camp trying to get over her stutter. While it’s not gone completely it was a lot of progress. She has a really strong relationship with her caretaker for the summer because of the years that she’s spent with him in the past. Up until Mabel went with her for the summer she thought that she would be the only niece in his heart. See, after Mabel was born she took up a lot of the attention. Everyone wanted to look at the cute one instead of the nervous one. It’s just the way that life is. But during the summer she got to spend it being the favorite relative of somebody. When she notices how close Mabel and Stan are getting that’s when she knows that it’s over. She was naive to ever think that somebody would pick her as the favorite. Not when Mabel existed alongside her. It’s not that she doesn’t love Mabel because she clearly does. It’s just that well sometimes she wants to be loved and appreciated by her parents instead of constantly being sidelined. That’s why her summers with her Grunkle were so important to her. It was just three months out of the year. But for those three months working at the Mystery Shack and having all kinds of chaotic fun were the highlight of her year. She has to learn that she has her own values too. One’s that while don’t oversell her sister are still her’s and they are still beautiful. She learns that her parents love and care about her just as much as her sister. It’s just hard to be a show stealer in this house let’s be honest. Twilight is a pansexual and her canon partner is Wendy. 

[sunsetnest]

Jean is a 22 year old love pixie! She uses she/her pronouns and is beginner friendly! Jean is our Valentine’s Day Special spirit! She is also a Fast Track spirit. This means if she doesn’t get enough attention, she will be taken down on March 1st. For more information please look here!

Appearance: Jean is a very proud pixie standing at 4'3" tall. Because of her height, many mistake her for being fae rather than pixie, but she assures us that her, and her entire family, are in fact pixies! She has waist length hair that’s been dyed a bright blue. Her stark white roots are showing for the first 2 inches of the top of her head. She often puts her hair in a half up half down ponytail, just to keep it out of her face. Though, Jean is very experimental and loves doing new things with her look, especially her hair. Even though Jean dyes her hair, she doesn’t even bother with her eyebrows and eyelashes, which are both white and almost appear to glow off of her brown skin. She has pink eyes and always has a large smile on her lips. She loves to laugh and the corners of her lips seem to be pulled into a permanent uptilt. Her ears are very pointed and stick straight up, barely passing the top of her head. Out of her back are two typical fairy wings. They’re each split into two sections, much like a butterfly’s. Unlike butterflies, her wings end in sharp points aiming up and down. Lucky for Jean, her wings are made of energy and don’t actually connect to her body, so she can wear whatever clothing she wants without having to worry about if it will fit around her wings. When she's around those she loves, or around a large amount of love (i.e. going out on V-day) her wings can grow way larger, but they never shrink past a certain point. Jean often wears tight fitting clothes because she hates them moving when she flies. And she doesn't mind that they help accentuate her figure. She is a love sprite of familial love and that is where her natural abilities lie, but she loves romantic love and is a true romantic dreaming of finding true love.

Personality: Jean is very eccentric. She is very outgoing and rocks her own style all day every day. In general she’s very chatty and loves to talk about anything and everything. Just because she loves to talk doesn’t mean that she can’t listen. She values the relationships she forms with others and loves listening to others talk about their day or about the meaning of the universe. Due to her nature, she tries to form meaningful connections with everyone she meets, but she isn’t a doormat. If someone is truly an ass, they don’t get the time of day in Jean’s book. Why waste time with someone who doesn’t even try in the first place? In her spare time, Jean can be found dancing or trying to learn a new dance, giggling as she writes in her diary, or on her version of a phone talking with her older sister. She loves to move and communicate and is trying to learn how to dance to communicate with bees. One may think that sitting still and quiet are words that don’t appear to be in Jean’s vocabulary, but to the contrary! Not only can Jean sit quietly through a movie (only at the theaters though, she’ll talk when watching at home), but she’s also fond of meditation and tries to relax her body through meditation right before bed every night. Jean is also a hopeless romantic. She adores bad and good romance books, romcom movies, sad romance movies, anything that involves true love. She will gobble that shit right up. She also often dreams of finding the perfect person to spend the rest of her life with. While she enjoys her life as it is, it’d still be nice to fall in love. Being the hopeless romantic she is, she falls in love a little bit with everyone she runs into.

Species Info: Jean belongs to a species of pixie that specialize in familial love. They naturally strengthen bonds of those that see each other as a family, and will often throw their all into helping fix a relationship. Family is really important to these spirits, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t also provide help with other types of love or relationships. Many make it their lives around helping others in this area.

Past: Jean was born into a very loving family (as you could guess) with two dads and an older sister. Being 8 years younger than her sis, Jean was always babied, even as she grew older. Some of Jean’s earliest memories are playing around with her family, singing karaoke with them, or throwing flour at each other as they tried to bake. She she grew older, she would follow her sister around to parties and quickly became the life of the party. I mean, who wouldn’t love a little kid dancing as hard as she can and complimenting everyone she spoke to? At 19, Jean got the job she currently works at as adopted granddaughter of an old man who runs a poolside bar. It was there that she learned about companionship and decided to go for it!

Current Lifestyle: Currently Jean wakes up at about 7 am and starts playing music to urge her out of bed. It still takes about 3-4 songs before her feet touch the ground. She showers and then spends a good amount of time fixing up her appearance, dancing around the music this entire time. After breakfast, she’ll go about her day. At least 4 days a week that she chooses she works at a poolside bar with her friends. On days she works, Jean arrives home at about 6 pm and starts cooking dinner, dancing around the kitchen to music the entire time. She often reads or watches a show while she eats and afterwards goes to her neighbor’s house to play with their dogs. Right before bed Jean makes sure to write in her diary and meditate before drifting off to bed. Most nights though, she’ll be at a friends house talking and goofing off, having a good ole time.

Companionship: When finding out that for a lot of people, spirit companionship is like a second (or first) family, Jean figured she kind of had to get involved. With companionship that’s what she hopes to find - another family. People to bond with and live with and come home to. Any size of family and any experience is good for Jean! She just wants her companion to be someone who will put in the time with her, bond and do things.

Communication: Astral speaking is preferred. She can use telepathy, but prefers not to as it takes a lot of concentration on her end and she doesn’t usually hear messages unless she’s expecting one. She can also read tarot and oracle decks and use a pendulum.

From Jean: “Oh I get to say words? Okay! Hello~ I’m Jean! I can not not not wait to be posted and actually get to meet you people!!! I’ve been in vetting for like, 2 years, so like, I just really can’t wait! I really hope to make some friends! I plan to talk every single day so I hope some good things come out of this month!! *blows kiss* See you soon!”

Likes: A good romance book, stereotypical ‘girls' night’ with painting each others nails, doing facemasks, talking about crushes, etc, though boys and those of other genders are certainly allowed to join as well, dancing in large fields of flowers, making flower crowns, Valentine's day, piglets

Dislikes: Making her bed, dying her hair, but also having white hair (her natural color), being actually scared, people who don’t think she’s a pixie for any reason

Hobbies: Reading and watching romance media, writing in her diary, pressing flowers, dancing and singing, taking polaroid pictures and scrapbooking them, going to the zoo

Magic: All love based magic, though familial love is strongest

Songs: Who Cares? By Sundial Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos Family by Mother Mother

Friends You Might Know: Hyper the Harper  Greeny the Friend!  Wingul the Air Sprite

Vessel: Something heart shaped! Or pink!

Vetting Start: 2/12/18 Posted: 2/1/20

If you are interested in getting to know Jean better, feel free to send an ask or talk to her in our discord! You can find other posts and asks about Jean under this tag! Interested in applying for Jean? Here’s how to write a good app! You can apply here or here! New here? Here’s out FAQ, shop info, mod info, and our reviews! Not feelin’ Jean? Here are our other spirits currently up for adoption! Got further questions? Shoot us an ask! 

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[allsystemsarenotgo]

A friend and I were talking one day, and she shared this with me.

She was much like me, raised with a quarter between the knees, terrified of the things we were taught to avoid and trying to live reasonably noble lives. She wasn't allowed Birth Control for religious reasons (pro-life) as well as to prevent enablism. Her family was much more religious than mile, though I still went to church during my Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years of high school.

She married a guy 10 years older than herself, who was a long-time routine customer of her family's business. They married right after she graduated high school, long before she applied to higher education.

She is a nurse now. She has 3 kids, works long hours at a hospital, and her husband is a successful farmer as he always has been. She struggled at times, but she made it through.

She knows life would have been easier without the first child, but she was innocent and naiive and I think she realizes that she jumped in the deep end of the pool before learning how to swim.

I did the same thing.

All through high school I pledged to abstinence until marriage. I hated everything to do with sex. The topic, the drama, the action, the result. I wanted nothing to do with it.

But I also never dated through grade school at all. I never had a girlfriend. Plenty of crushes (M.S. above being one of them), but just as many denials. Because I didn't drink, smoke, do drugs, have FFA animals, or play athletics, I also wasn't a member of any social group. I was always the kid in the corner of the cafeteria scarfing food down in 5 minutes and sleeping the other 20, or asking to go to a teacher's classroom, where it was serene and quiet.

My freshman year of college, I even wrote an essay on abstinents for English class. That really didn't go over well in regards to having to read it out loud. There might as well have been fruit flying at me.

My dorm was set up such that we had 3 private bedrooms that shared a living space and bathroom. One of the roommates always had girls over, and he never tried to be quiet (or if he did, he failed...badly).

So those two things were my indoctrination to college life. Getting judged and leered at for writing an abstinence essay, and having to listen to a roommate multiple times a week.

Towards the very end of my freshman year, a girl from high school messaged me. We started talking, and she admitted that she had always had a crush on me and was too shy to ever say anything.

Error #1: For no good reason whatsoever, I agreed to formulate a relationship with this female

So when I moved home from the dorms, I hung out with the lass a few times, but my parents were moving out of the country and closer to my school, so I could live at home. That meant that this would now be a 1.5-hour-each-way medium-distance relationship.

So every 4th or 6th weekend during the remainder of that summer and into the fall semester, I would drive up and spend a day with her. Sometimes, I would drive her out of the country and into the city to give her a glimpse of escape (it was very impoverished where we grew up).

Error #2: Doing whatever made her happy

I really enjoyed the time that we spent together. She got me a purity necklace for Christmas that year. She said she understood that my preference meant something to me.

But then, something changed. She would start dropping enuindos and jokes and send me photos that I didn't ask for.

Error #3: Not standing up for myself

She said that I meant something to her, and asked me if she meant something to me. At the time, I did not comprehend that as a trap...but I wanted to make her happy, so I said "yes".

The next thing I know, she is booking a hotel for us for Valentine's day. Wherein, I learned a thing or two or five or ten that I really wasn't interested in learning in the first place.

-Provides Clorox to help scrub the thoughts from your mind-

After that, she wanted me to come see her more and more often. But I was tied up with school and life.

Mind you, we usually had a phone call every night, or at least every other night. Same time, right before bed. Sometimes we would fall asleep on the phone with eachother.

Error #4: Accepting anything as fact

Well one night, I called her, and she answered...but it was noisy in the background, like she was driving. But she never talked while driving, and wouldn't answer the phone with family in the car.

She said she was in a friend's car and they were going to the beach for the night, which was completely reasonable for the time of year and her group of friends. She cut the conversation short saying they had arrive, so we bid our greeting. But she didn't hang up, and something told me that I shouldn't either. So I didn't.

"Who was that?"

"Don't mind him. He was just calling to check on me. He's controlling like that."

"He sounds like a jerk"

"Enough about him. He won't do this."

-Provides more clorox-

And that's how I found out that her primal needs were more important than our "relationship".

Unfortunately, shortly after I broke up with her, I was sent a photo of her quite visibly pregnant. Fortunately, the timetable did not add up to Valentine's day (aside of the fact that it was physically/biologically 95% impossible).

That summer, I started a job at the student newspaper. Right off the bat, one of the graphic artists and I got along very well. We spent way too much time at work talking to eachother and goofing off, instead of working. Enough so that our boss took notice and things got tense for a bit with him. We still cranked out work no problem, but we were both too young to understand workplace policy and procedure when it comes to "dating but not dating", which is basically exactly what we were doing. We spent alot of time together. I would go to her dorm after class and we would watch movies and just goof off or do whatever. We enjoyed time together.

Error #1: So cliché. So, so cliché.

So Valentine's day rolls around, and she asks 'the question'.

So something in biology: There is a term called "Once an animal has the taste of blood, they will always hunt for it." Unfortunately, humans can sometimes be considered a sub-species of the animal kingdom.

Like the dumbass that I am, I accept to the terms and conditions.

And at the end of the night, she asks: "So are we officially dating now?"

"I...I guess?", I answered nervously.

Errors #2 to #457: Not escaping

And just like that, I was suckered into nearly 2.5 years of having a FWB while having to, very creatively at times, mask it as a legitimate relationship.

We enjoyed the time we spent together.

We enjoyed going places together.

My mum liked her, her parents liked me. (Dad was skeptical at best and thought I could do better)

The small issue: I struggled to communicate at times. I didn't know how to find my voice, so there were times that I would have to text her how I felt. Sometimes I would hide in a corner just so I could cry. (I later learned of my autism, and it all made sense and I learned how to resolve this)

The big issue: I was completely burned out on intimacy. After almost 2.5 years of emulating laboratory rabbits, I was done. My usefulness had expired.

The biggest issue: We were both suffering academically. We had no common interests at all anymore, and we had put eachother ahead of our own academics so much that we were both risking academic expulsion.

So we mutually agreed to break up.

She dropped out of university (and never went back or finished her schooling), and I changed majors twice before getting my Bachelor of Science.

My first relationship lasted from June 2009 to April 2010.

My second "relationship" lasted from February 2011 until May 2012 (Although we started spending time together in significant amounts starting August 2010)

I have not had a girlfriend since May 2012.

I had one friend in my senior year of college, who gave me some non-physical affection while also keeping me firmly locked in the friendzone. But quality time, by itself, only goes so far.

I have not had any physical affection since May 2012.

I have not spent quality time with a female since May 2013.

For most of that time, from May 2013 to August 2019, I really didn't mind it at all. I have been so tied up in working, hobbies, and life in general, that I completely ignored women.

But as my birthday loomed near in October 2019, it donned on me....I was on a crash course to being eternally lonely.

So I have tried online dating. I have gone on a few first dates, but no second dates.

Sometimes, I want to give up. The fight just doesn't seem worth the reward.

And honestly?

Sometimes I feel exactly like my friend's remarks at the top of this post. Sometimes I wish I would have been a little more rebellious, a little more care-free, a little more out-there.

But at the same time, ...

Sometimes I wish that neither relationship would have ever happened.

That I would have never learned the true definition of intimacy.

That I would have never done whatever it took to make the other person happy.

That I wouldn't have been such an easy push-over.

That I would have stuck to my initial pledge in life

That I would have spoke up more and defended myself.

All I am now, is damaged product.

I don't truly know how to love.

I don't truly know how to feel.

I don't truly know how to be myself.

I don't truly know how to be intimate.

I am human, I am male, so of course I have my moments. But I don't want that to be the reason for a relationship. I want it to be the least-important factor, or not a factor at all.

I want a relationship founded on trust, honesty, fortitude, common interests, personality, maybe even a little faith.

Not intimacy.

I just want to not be invisible, or to only have one attribute visible.

I want to be seen for all the other attributes.

I am not A-sexual. I still feel emotions and feelings. I just don't want to let them out of the locked box which contains them. Not without lots of context and preparedness.

[letsbitchyfestcollection]

You were a sixteen year-old high school student in Oklahoma when you wrote The Outsiders. Where did you get the idea for the story? I was actually fifteen when I first began it. It was the year I was sixteen and a junior in high school that I did the majority of the work (that year I made a D in creative writing). One day a friend of mine was walking home from school and these "nice" kids jumped out of a car and beat him up because they didn't like his being a greaser. This made me mad and I just went home and started pounding out a story about this boy who was beaten up while he was walking home from the movies--the beginning of The Outsiders. I was just something to let off steam. I didn't have any grand design. I just sat down and started writing it. I look back and I think it was totally written in my subconscious or something. S.E Hinton considering that nice kids usually not go around beating people up in real life so either your so called freind must of done samething that pissed of these so called nice kids and they attcaked your freind usually nice decent children don't just go around beating strangers up there must be more to this story about your freind being attcaked. Did you even witness this attcak or did you hear it as gossip around high school so without you being a witness to the events you don't know if your freind hasn't embellished facts maybe do same research before you strat writing a novel instead of just running of with your emotions. So was there a real-life Ponyboy? A real Johnny? Ponyboy's gang was inspired by a true-life gang, the members of which were very dear to me. Later, all the gang members I hung out with were sure they were in the book--but they aren't. I guess it's because these characters are really kind of universal without losing their individuality. Firstly a real greaser gangs wouldn't allow a girl to hang with them unless they were part of the gang themselves but maybe you got inspired by real greaser gangs just by observing them around the community so you base your charcters on real gresers but no of these real greasers are in the book so basically you as a writer could have made shit up and do you really thing real greasers would have been impressed with the way you were writing about them being cry babies and hugging one another and being melodramatic they properly laughed at you for writing them like this did you show your so called greasers freinds your writing i bet you didn't. How did you turn that inspiration for a story into such memorable characters? When I write, an interesting transformation takes place. I go from thinking about my narrator to being him. A lot of Ponyboy's thoughts are my thoughts. He's probably the closest I've come to putting myself into a character. He has a lot of freedom, true-blue friends, people he loves and who love him; the things that are important to him are the things that are important to me. I think Ponyboy and Soda and Darry come out better than the rest of them because they have their love for one another. So basically what your saying is that ponyboy is a self insert of yourself so you basically created a mary sue with your lead character well tell us samething we don't know boys are usually will have farmore freedom becouse it socially expectable unlike us girls who have to be protected from the world and we don't have as much freedom I should now I have an older brother who had way more free then me becouse he's 16 years old them myself and i was so caged in most of the time the backyard was my playground becouse it was safer then the park so you basically self inserted what you value instead of inserting samething diffrent in ponyboy like valuesin justice/freedom/honesty/intrgrity/ freedom of speech etc these far better values for teens to work towrads then I have amazing freinds sametimes your so called frinds are that amazing and can be increibly toxic. What were you like as a teenager? Were you a Greaser; a Soc? I was a tomboy--I played football, my close friends were guys. Fortunately, I was born without the need-to-belong gene, the gene that says you have to be in a little group to feel secure. I never wanted to be classified as anything, nor did I ever join anything for fear of losing my individuality. I didn't even realize that these guys, who were my good friends, were greasers until one day we were walking down the street and some guys came and yelled, "Greaser!" It's funny to look back at people you've know your whole life, to suddenly see them as everyone else sees them, with their slicked-back hair and cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and their black leather jackets, and respond, "My God, they're hoods." You knew them and they're not hoods, but they just look like hoods. I had friends on the rich side of town, too, and saw that they had their share of problems, also. so basically you were a loner and anti social and didn't want to get invloved in after school activities maybe becouse you didn't have any freinds. Nobody is born with a gene for belonging it the way your socalized within society/family/school etc didn't your mum drag you out of the bedroom and tell you you were going to be part of the family and you even said in an interview that your mother was abusive towards you maybe becouse you were anti social. And bullcrap you didn't know they were greasers. Did you really have freinds on the rich side of town even though you were a loner. I can tell you being at school with children who are assholes and i had toput up with there shit 5 days a week was enough i didn't want to hang out with these children after school as well or on the weekend or during school break either which was rather peaceful. How did you pursue getting The Outsiders published? When I wrote it I hadn't thought of getting it published. But at school one day I mentioned to a friend that I wrote, and her mother happened to write children's books. I gave her a copy of The Outsiders, and this woman showed it to a friend who had a New York agent. The agent liked it and sold it to the second publisher who read it. She has been my agent ever since. I received the contract from the publisher on graduation day! Well it seems like the novel didn't see an editor that why same of it doesn't sound beliverable and not providing any consequnces with your charcters it doesn't work like this in the real world. Firstly Ponyboy spiting at another person in same states it considered assult on a person then david drowning ponyboy he wouldn't have been charged under the law this is how stupid johnny is instead off holding bob off with the swith he had and try and get david to let pony go johnny had enough criminal motive enough to go after bob after bob attcaked him 4 months earlier if he had lived that would have been enough to convict the kid on murder instead of manslaughter becouse there is enough intent to cause injury or death. dally harbouring futatives running away from the law hrassing girls he would have been charged along with them and ponyboy wouldn't have gone to a boys home he would have been charged and been put in prison instead teenagers who have wagged school have been placed in jail man i wish authors who want to write about real life issues would go watch reasl documetries about teens in prison and see what they did to land up in there it doesn't take a lot to get into trouble and fuck your life up. What made you want to become a writer? The major influence on my writing has been my reading. When I was young, I read everything, including cereal boxes and coffee labels. Reading taught me sentence structure, paragraphing, how to build a chapter. Strangely enough, it never taught me spelling. I have always loved to write, almost as much as I love to read. I began goofing around with a typewriter when I was about twelve. I've always written about things that interest me, so my first years of writing (grades three through ten), I wrote about cowboys and horses. I wanted to be a cowboy and have a horse. Writing is easy for me because I never begain to write unless I have something to say. I'm a character writer. Some writers are plot writers...I have to begin with people. I always knew my characters, exactly what they look like, their birthdays, what they like for breakfast. It doesn't matter if these things appear in the book. I still have to know. I get ideas for characters from real people, but overall they are fictional; my characters exist only in my head. What books and authors inspire and influence you? Well, as an adult, I can pick out a lot of authors who have influenced me. My favorite authors are Jane Austen, Mary Renault, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Shirley Jackson. My favorite books are The Haunting of Hill House, Fire from Heaven, Emma, and Tender Is the Night. I like Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s novels, but not his short stories, and the other way around for J.D. Salinger. But people want to know your childhood influences, and I'll have to say just books in general. I loved to read, and as soon as I learned how I was reading everything I could get my hands on. I was a horse nut, and Peanuts the Pony was the first book I ever checked out of the library. I still remember that book. The act of reading was so pleasurable for me. For an introverted kid, it's a means of communication, because you interact with the author even if you aren't sitting there conversing with her. Why do you use your initials instead of your full name? My publisher was afraid that the reviewers would assume a girl couldn't write a book like The Outsiders. Later, when my books became popular, I found I liked the privacy of having a "public" name and a private one, so it has worked out fine. Why didn;t you just go with your name becouse people are assumping a male wrote this but they read the novel and they can tell that a chick wrote it instead I was reading sweet valley high and baby sitters club way before the outsiders and these novels were flying of the selve with teens becouse they could relate to them. When it was first published, the realism of The Outsiders shocked a lot of reviewers, but readers embraced the book. Did that surprise you? No, I was pleased that people were shocked when The Outsiders came out. One of my reasons for writing it was that I wanted something realistic to be written about teenagers. At that time realistic teenage fiction didn't exist. If you didn't want to read Mary Jane Goes to the Prom and you were through with horse books, there was nothing to read. I just wanted to write something that dealt with what I saw kids really doing. Why do you think the book has remained so popular through the years? Every teenager feels that adults have no idea what's going on. That's exactly the way I felt when I wrote The Outsiders. Even today, the concept of the in-group and the out-group remains the same. The kids say, "Okay, this is like the Preppies and the Punks," or whatever they call themselves. The uniforms change, and the names of the groups change, but kids really grasp how similar their situations are to Ponyboy's. Some portions were quoted from "The Outsiders Conference & Readers Meet Author" from University of Utah's Top of the News, November 1968; "S.E. Hinton:On Writing and Tex" in Notes from Delacorte Press, Winter 1979/Spring 1980; "S.E. Hinton on Becoming a Writer" from teachers@random; "The Insider Outsider" in Interview, July 1999; and "Autobiographical Sketch" from the Educational Paperback Association. Powered by

[natasha-cole]

Worlds Collide Chapter 4

Pairing: Eventual Reader x Billy Moran

Chapter Summary: Billy is not what Reader expected. Everything he does catches her off guard.

Word Count: 4076

Warnings: none that I can think of, just fluff, maybe some swears

Notes: I had Billy feels today and it resulted in this rushed chapter.

Catch Up: Chapter 1  Chapter 2  Chapter 3

*Ah, yes, much better. You know me and my need for fic aesthetics.*

For once, you had sat through the Saturday night concert with the rest of the cast. The interesting thing is, you actually enjoyed yourself. You always were a fan of music, and you had to admit that the band was pretty amazing. You made a mental note to listen to more of their songs when you had the chance, really impressed with their sound.

You were also amazed at how everyone around you seemed to be multi talented. Many of the other actors joined the band on stage, taking part in different songs and you sort of wished you had been more aware of their talent sooner. At one point, you stood of to the side of the stage, taking a moment to watch Billy, impressed at how great he was playing the guitar. You knew it took a lot of talent and patience, and the man was impressive.

After the show, Billy walked you back to your room and you chatted about the performance, only stopping once you had reached your door.

“Thanks for talking me into that. It was a lot of fun. You guys are great,” you said.

“I’m glad you had a good time,” he replied, “see, it’s okay to do something you don’t normally do sometimes.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” you chuckled.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Hmm, actually, I leave in the morning.”

“Oh, well, maybe we can hang out when I get back to L.A. on Monday”

“No,” you said simply.

“You are so blunt. It worries me that you don’t even attempt to make the effort to let me down gently, make up some lame excuse as to why you don’t want to see me.” Billy went on, seeming hurt over your shut down.

“It’s not that,” you laughed, realizing that you came off as being your usual rude self, “I just fly to Vancouver tomorrow. I’m needed on set this week.”

“Oh.”

“But, we should definitely hang out again.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I had a nice time with you.”

“Me too. It’s nice to get to know you better.”

“You think that until you realize one day that I really am just as lame as everyone thinks I am,” you chuckled.

“I doubt it.” He gave you a warm smile, not at all buying into the fact that you thought you were boring. “Well, I’ve got your number, you have mine. Let’s figure it out, I promised you another date.”

“Okay, you call me.”

“I will. Goodnight Y/N. Have a safe flight tomorrow.”

You watched him as he walked down the hall, noticing how your heart raced every time you even talked to him. This was new. You never felt like this just by talking to someone, especially not a guy like him. But, he was nice to you and it had been a really long time since anyone had been nice to you.

You tried to focus on work during the week you were back on set, even if you found yourself occasionally thinking of Billy for some reason. This had been the first time since being on the show that you were the one slowing down the scenes. It wasn’t like you to daydream or allow outside thoughts to take over, but Billy made you feel something that you hadn’t felt before. If only you could figure out why that was.

He had called you first, mostly just to say hi. You smiled hard when you had seen his name pop up on your phone while you sat in the chair, waiting for your hair and makeup to get done before you were needed on set. He never called with any particular thing to say, it always seemed to be just little things that he wanted to bother you with. Even if the random phone calls got annoying, you never said anything, mostly because they made you feel pretty good when they did happen.

“I’m just calling because the band is having a debate over cover songs. I want your input. Seger or Fleetwood Mac? Or, do you even listen to music?” Billy had asked one day. There was no, ‘hello, how are you?’ just a call because the band was arguing and he wanted your opinion.

“Of course I listen to music. I’m not completely dead inside.”

“Okay, which one?” He asked.

“You gave me a nearly impossible decision to make,” you told him, “Both are fantastic. But, Seger. All the way.”

“That’s my girl.” You could almost see him smile as he said it, and you felt your stomach twist at the way it sounded.

The week went on as such. Phone calls back and forth when you eventually built up the nerve to call him as well. It was never anything important, just a reason to hear each other’s voices.

After a particularly long morning of mostly dealing with Jared and Jensen goofing off on set, you had finally been sent on a break.

You walked to your trailer after you had finished lunch, hoping you could get a couple hours of sleep before you were needed back on set. As you unlocked your door and stepped inside, you were greeted by a rather large bouquet of flowers sitting on your small table. You scrunched up your face in confusion when you looked at them, wondering who they were from, and more importantly, why they were sunflowers.

No one ever sent you flowers, and you sort of imagined that the first time anyone did, it would be something romantic, like a dozen red roses; the way it is on movies and in books. You walked toward the massive bouquet, now smiling to yourself as you searched for a card or something to let you know who these might be from. You finally found it, hidden in between the large blossoms and you opened the envelope quickly.

“Maybe not what you were expecting, but these made me think of you. - Billy”

Your smile widened and your heartbeat quickened when you realized that he had actually sent you flowers. For some reason, it didn’t even matter to you that it wasn’t how you pictured it. Just the gesture alone was enough to make you feel something you haven’t ever felt before. You pulled your phone out of your pocket and immediately found his number. It rang a few times before he picked up.

“I got the flowers,” you said sweetly, still unable to wipe the smile off your face.

“Do you like them?” Billy asked. You could almost see him smile, his lips hidden behind that mess of a beard that you hated.

“They’re… nice.”

“Just nice?” He asked.

“I’ve never gotten flowers before. I didn’t realize sunflowers were a thing.”

“That’s what the florist said,” he chuckled. “But, they made me think of you.”

“Is it because I’m boring, and sunflowers are kinda boring too?” You asked, still thinking for some reason that he was making fun of you.

“You think they’re boring?”

“No, I mean, these ones are pretty. They’re so bright, and… big.”

Billy laughed, “they’re supposed to mean happiness or something.”

“Well, they made me very happy,” you replied.

“I thought of you when I saw them.”

“Hmm, now I’m questioning your motive here,” you replied with a grin. You ran your fingertips over the flowers, honestly feeling happier just looking at them.

“I assume you’re not coming back to L.A. this week,” he said, changing the subject.

“No. I think I’ll go straight to the next con by the time we get through these scenes.”

“Well, then I’ll see you there, and I haven’t forgotten that you said you’d go out with me again.”

“Yes, I know. You’ll never let me forget,” you joked.

“I’ll see you soon,” Billy said before ending the call.

When you had ended up at the next convention at your usual time, you of course ran into the usual crowd. You found yourself in the green room, ready to go over the schedule for the weekend. You couldn’t help but smile when you saw Billy.

“Hey, you,” He said happily as he moved to give you an awkward hug. In all honestly, it was you who had made it awkward. If there was one thing you were worse at than conversation, it was physical contact.

“Billy,” you said fondly, as you tried to make the hug less awkward.

“So, are you free tonight? I had our date planned and I thought it would be nice to do it before the weekend gets crazy.”

“What- yeah, I’m definitely free,” you replied. Again, you could feel everyone else’s eyes on you as the two of you spoke. “Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise, but I think you’ll love it.”

“I hate surprises,” you responded truthfully.

“Then you’re actually going to hate it,” he grinned.

When the schedule had been discussed that evening and you were free to go, you hurried off to your room to get ready. You weren’t sure why, but you wanted to make sure that you looked nice for Billy and it sounded like he had a nice evening planned for the two of you. As you walked, Kim caught up to you, now walking alongside you. You stiffened, remembering the way she had talked about you before.

“Hey, Y/N, can I talk to you?”

“Uh, sure, but can we talk in my room?” You asked. “I have a date to get ready for.”

You continued to walk quickly, Kim right at your side when you found your room and opened the door. She followed you in hesitantly, watching as you immediately went to freshening up and changing into something more appropriate for a date.

Kim never said a word, just watched you silently as you rushed around, and finally began touching up your makeup after you were dressed and you had on your heels.

“Are you really going to wear that?” Kim asked, looking you up and down.

“What? What’s wrong with my outfit?” You felt nervous now. It’s not like you overdressed, but you still wanted to look nice for Billy. “It’s casual, right?”

“No, you look really great,” she replied, “I mean, the jeans are great… the top is a little dressy… and those shoes…”

“What is wrong with my shoes?” You asked, wondering why you were even listening to her to begin with.

“They’re… tall.”

“I always wear shoes with heels, I’m short if you haven’t noticed, especially next to him.”

“I’m not judging your heels, you always look amazing,” Kim promised, “But if I know Billy, and I do, he’s got something a little… different planned.”

“What do you mean?” You asked as you applied your lipstick.

“You should probably value comfort over fashion tonight. Don’t you have a t-shirt and some simpler shoes?”

“I do have a t-shirt!” You exclaimed, scrambling for your bag to find one, “and I brought some Converse.”

“Good, go with that,” Kim chuckled.

“What do you think he has planned?” You asked breathlessly as you changed again. You were suddenly nervous and sort of wondering why Kim was helping you in the first place. “I was expecting dinner and drinks.”

“I’m sure there will be dinner and drinks, he’s still a gentleman. But, don’t be surprised if you go do something fun.” Kim smiled at you softly as she watched you. You definitely noticed, and it made you slightly uncomfortable.

“Like, what kind of fun?” You asked as you sat on the edge of your bed. You tossed your heels aside, slipping on some socks and then your Converse, already feeling under-dressed and awkward.

“I don’t know; he likes music and stuff. He’s also pretty laid back, but he’s a lot of fun. I just recommend not trying so hard.”

“Last time he just took me to dinner.”

“Yeah, but he also specifically stated that it was a dinner date. This one is just a date, right?”

“Yeah. He didn’t specify.”

“I’d assume he has something else planned then. Best to be prepared.”

“Okay, thanks Kim,” you grinned as you looked at yourself in the mirror, fussing with your hair.

“Hey, Y/N? I just wanted to apologize for last time. I shouldn’t have been talking about you like that. That was pretty horrible of me.”

“It’s nothing. My feelings don’t get hurt easily.”

“Still, that was wrong of me, especially when I don’t even know you.”

“It’s my own fault that no one knows me. It’s my own fault that people think of me the way that they do,” you began, trying to ease her mind. You knew that she meant no harm by it, most people usually didn’t. ”I’m really trying to be better though. I hope you guys can see that.”

“We do. We’ve noticed. Billy seems to bring out the best in you.”

“I feel like a different person, and I’ve only just gotten to know him,” you said honestly. Not only have you been feeling happier the past few weeks, but you also noticed that you felt friendlier. Normally, if someone was talking about you behind your back the way Kim had done, you certainly wouldn’t be sitting here having a conversation with them and taking their advice.

“I’m glad. He seems to like you, and I don’t know, maybe you like him to.”

“I do. He’s very sweet and he listens to me, you know? No one has ever tried to get to know me. No one has ever listened to me before.”

“He’s a really good guy,” Kim reminded you, “just… go have fun.”

“I will,” you beamed, “thanks again Kim.”

This was not at all your idea of a date. As you arrived, you looked at Billy; questioning whether this was a joke. Your heart dropped when you realized he was, in fact, serious.

“You up for this?” Billy asked, eyebrows raised, a cocky grin plastered on his face, almost as if he were challenging you.

“Not really,” you said honestly, “I’ve never done this before.” Despite the fact that you didn’t expect this and you really felt like now would be the moment when you should turn and run from him, you found yourself unable to do so.

“Me neither,” he replied.

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re lying to me?”

“I’m not,” he grinned wider, “I would never lie to you.”

“See, I still can’t tell if you’re lying.”

He only continued to grin at you as you both suited up. There were a few other people, mostly younger kids preparing to play as well. You noticed that you and Billy had somehow ended up in separate colors, meaning that you wouldn’t even be on the same team.

“Wait,” you said, “we’re not on the same team?”

“No, it’s more exciting this way.”

You felt sort of ridiculous in the get-up, carrying around a plastic phaser gun, and looking around to see that your teammates were probably each half your age at least. This was not your idea of a nice first date, but it was something that Billy had come up with. You had to admit, you really liked the guy, and maybe you could set aside your pride for one night and let him talk you into doing something silly. You sat through the video that explained the rules and how to play, sort of bored as your team discussed, very seriously, their strategy. You were basically chosen to protect the base; because, as one kid had put it, “it’s easier for the old one to just stand in one spot.”

You scoffed at him, knowing perfectly well that you had your fair share of training with weaponry just from being on film and T.V. sets. It may all be make-believe, but at least you knew what you were doing. It was simple really, aim for the sensors and fire; avoid being hit, and keep the other team from taking down your base.

When it was time to actually play the game, you thought you felt a surge of adrenaline rush through you, which was unusual since you really didn’t participate in games like this. You felt sort of embarrassed to even be here, sure that you would go home after this date and probably never want to see Billy again. You realized very suddenly that he wasn’t your type. You were always very serious; you took your job and yourself seriously. You knew you were too old for things like this, when you should be out meeting a serious man who valued the same things that you did. Billy came off as the serious type, but right now, you realized that he might be a bit too immature for you. After all, there were far better ways you could be spending your Friday night.

Some time into the game, you did as you were instructed, hanging around the base, occasionally stunning the guys from the other team who had made their way to you. With each hit you landed, you were just as amazed as them with how good your aim was.

You hung out for some time, bored and unamused, when you finally saw Billy for the first time since the game had started. Not one to mess around, even when it came to this stupid game, you took aim as soon as you saw him, and hit one of his shoulder sensors in one shot.

“Hey!” He called out, looking down at his vest that was now flashing, indicating that he was stunned for a few minutes.

“I forgot to warn you, I’m a really good shot,” you grinned.

He glanced up at you, smiling playfully before making his way toward you.

“You can’t move,” you warned, aiming again, “you’re supposed to be stunned.”

“Oh, trust me, I am,” he said.

“Want me to shoot again?”

“I think someone is having fun,” he replied, still moving closer to you.

“This is actually really lame, but I also don’t like to lose.”

“Neither do I,” Billy said softly. He was now directly in front of you, his face inches from yours as he continued to grin. You realized that you had dropped your arms down, letting the phaser hang loosely in your hand. Your heart began to race, suddenly nervous over how close he was to you.

“You’re not supposed to move,” you said softly, eyeing those lips that were dangerously close to your own..

“Are you sure?” He asked coyly. He leaned in closer then, lips ghosting your own as your breath hitched.

You nodded as you watched him. He gave you one more smile before finally leaning in, his lips pressing against yours gently at first. He waited, taking note of your reaction, which at first was that of complete shock. His lips were soft and his beard tickled your face. You thought you might be put off by the idea of kissing him, but everything inside of you began to react wildly to the sensation. You parted your lips carefully, pressing into him just a bit harder as he deepened the kiss. You felt him reach his free hand up to your face, letting his fingertips caress your cheek as he kissed you. You were lost then; head buzzing, heart racing, breathing becoming more erratic as you let him kiss you harder. You finally moved to wrap your arms around his waist, pulling him closer as he backed you up against a wall. The noise around you disappeared, the flashing lights of his stupid vest blinking dimly behind your closed eyes. There was a lot going on and your senses were overwhelmed now.

Almost as soon as the kiss became heated, he pulled back from you, breaking contact only to rest his forehead against yours. You breathed heavily, still dizzy and still overwhelmed. No one had ever kissed you like that before. You opened your eyes, now meeting his gaze. He watched you, still with that sly grin on his face.

“Guess what?” He said as he watched you struggle to regain your composure. You only looked at him questioningly, unable to form words. He pulled away from you, moving back a step as he pulled his phaser up to you, aiming point blank at the sensor of your vest. You suddenly noticed that the sensor on his vest had stopped blinking; he was no longer stunned and very much back in the game.

“Wait!” You shouted. It was too late. He pulled his trigger, instantly stunning you. You watched as the lights of your vest flashed, completely caught off guard. You looked back up at him as he shrugged at you. Before you could object, he had turned from you completely, racing off to attack your base.

“You fucker,” you muttered under your breath.

“You deliberately diverted my attention so that you could win,” you spat as you hurried down the sidewalk. Billy took short strides, keeping up with you as you walked without any real destination. You only knew that you were mad and you wanted to get away from him to avoid anymore humiliation.

“Maybe,” he grinned, “you’re not mad are you?”

“I’m a little mad,” you said honestly. It was one thing to draw your opponents attention elsewhere to gain the upper hand, but the fact that he had kissed you like that just to win the game left you feeling gross. For a brief moment, you thought that you might have actual feelings for the man, but that quickly changed when he decided to use that kiss as a distraction.

“You’re mad that I won? Or you’re mad that I kissed you?”

“Both. You shouldn’t have done that. That wasn’t fair at all.”

“Why not?”

“You don’t just kiss someone to win a stupid game,” you felt tears well up in your eyes as you realized that you had actually been really into that kiss and he had treated it like a joke, a way to pick on you.

“Well, what if I really wanted to win… but I also really wanted to kiss you?”

“You’re such an ass.”

“I’m sorry,” he laughed, “you’re right. I went about that all wrong.”

He grabbed your hand, stopping you suddenly. He pulled you gently toward him, until you were standing face to face again.

“Let me make it up to you,” he said softly. He leaned in again, and you felt the same sensations from before; excitement over the idea of him kissing you again, electricity shooting through you just at the way his hand felt holding yours, maybe a little bit of fear.

“H-how do you plan to do that?” You asked, catching yourself as you stared at his lips that were nearly hidden beneath that damn beard.

“I mean, I really did want to kiss you. I shouldn’t have used it as a distraction. Can I kiss you again, for real this time?”

You paused, considering his offer. The kiss during the game had been exciting, even if you did feel that it was done out of spite so that he could win. You hated that you felt this way right now; very much attracted to him, even if he wasn’t your type; and very much wanting him to kiss you again, even if you were pissed at him.

You were unable to form words, you only stood there in a stupor as you kept your eyes on his mouth as he leaned down toward you again. You wanted to push him away, to not let him get the upper hand again, but you slowly tilted your face up toward his until your lips met again. It was the same feeling as before. Your pulse quickened, head spinning as he kissed you deeply. You moved your hands up against his chest as he drew you in closer. You wanted more of him. Even in that moment, the sensation of that beard rubbing against your face as he kissed you no longer bothered you. Maybe beards weren’t such a turn-off after all. Eventually, you were on tiptoes, arms now resting along his shoulders as you strained to keep contact with him.

You kissed for a long time, standing right there in the middle of a busy sidewalk. You never saw yourself as one who would ever partake in PDA, but for once in your life, you really didn’t care what anyone thought of you.

Tag List: @winchestergirl-13  @thecandylovingarchangelgabriel  @capital-eyyyy-ohhh  @barba-booty  @narisjournal-blog  @waywardswain @laffytaffyhumor   @destielschild  @sorenmarie87  @smoothdogsgirl @kocswain @culturebay @itsfunnierin-enochian @typicalweirdbookworm @angelsandhuntersgalore @riversong-sam @emoryhemsworth @hunterpuff @mandilion76  @anayacortez   @camelotandastronauts

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 27)

For the volume of both clients and water that went through the hot springs on a daily basis, they had several Tube stations scattered all over the place, to keep backlogs from occurring and incidentally, giving the very elderly or less mobile, time-starved, or those who just didn't want to walk a convenient, fast way to get around the place.

And frankly, Weiss couldn't blame the third because of how massive it was.

It was everything she imagined: steaming hot pools of mineral-rich water, inside an open-air cave in one of the mountains that surrounded the valley. Wooden structures that sectioned it off, provided walkways, planters, and the aforementioned private baths if clients were willing to pay extra. A large army of uniformed attendants offering towels, body care products like shampoo, lotions, and ointments, and even someone to talk with you or wash your back and tail, if you couldn't get your hands or the brushes to the really hard to reach spots.

But there was also what looked like an incredibly expansive series of restaurants, miniature farms, and bars all set up in one alcove, clients enjoying delicious food and drink at the tables provided, or sent floating to them on trays as they soaked in the water. There was what looked like a giant book club and/or a language learning class, a meditation/yoga session, and “Weavers” practicing their magics, guiding floating masses of water or air with their hands and tails as they slowly progressed through a series of poses. There was even a full stage for live plays or a movie showing (the latter of which was going on at the moment—Weiss recognized it as “Sound and Fury XXXVIII”); a temperate swimming pool for doing laps, goofing off, or just laying about on a raft; and even a section coated with non-slip flooring for land-bound activities like basketball, running laps, or most of your sports of choice.

It was a hot springs, a well-equipped spa, a library, a school, a foodie's paradise, a temple, a recreation center, a gym, a movie theater, and many more, stretching on for miles underground, sunshine beaming in from the mouth of the cave through a wall of protective tree canopy and giant thriving plants providing more shade and privacy, very few walls higher than your waist, an open, airy place where the Fae could all get clean, chat, and relax as a whole community.

It was beautiful, a sight she would have loved to share with the whole of Avalon if she could, if not for one big, glaring detail that she just could not ignore:

“WHY IS EVERYONE NAKED...?!” Weiss whispered, her face burning bright red.

“Uh, because we're here to take baths...?” Ruby explained. “I don't get it: don't you humans take off all your clothes when you bathe, too?”

“YES!” she hissed. “GENERALLY IN PRIVATE, AND NOT WITH OTHER PEOPLE AROUND!”

“Well, I'm sorry to say, Weiss, but you're going to have to get used to it unless you never want to take a bath ever again,” Ruby said. “Well, unless you want to go outside the walls and find a spring out in the wilds, but that's dangerous and pretty inconvenient.”

Weiss was about to reply when a group of elderly Fae ambled on past. She didn't know what bothered her more: that she had just seen several old people completely naked, or that Fae aged very well indeed. She quickly wrenched her face back to Ruby, and whispered, “Don't you have private baths anywhere but here?”

Ruby shook her head. “Not even Elder Goodwitch. We do have them in hospitals, but that's only for the patients who really shouldn't be going anywhere in the first place.”

“Regular visits to the hot springs are actually a very common and important part of the recovery process,” Penny added. “The magic and mineral-content that seeps into the water is very conducive to physical health and the treatment of many illnesses and injuries, not to mention the relaxed, leisurely atmosphere, and opportunities for social interaction and bonding is excellent for mental and emotional health.

“On a related note, said magic and mineral-content is also great for my systems, helping maintain structural integrity and full efficiency.”

Weiss groaned. “Do I HAVE to get naked…?” she muttered as she pointedly looked down at her feet.

“You could wear a towel around you, but you'll look really out of place,” Ruby replied.

“Any more out of place than being the only human in a sea of Fae?”

Ruby paused. “Good point! Towel it is.”

They went through to the entrance, where there was surprisingly tight and serious security, a sizable amount of Watchers and Menders making sure all heads were paid for, you weren't bringing in any contraband, infectious disease, or parasites, and you were briefed on all the rules—very basic things, like no running, no fighting, and no having sex or other intimate acts in the public areas.

After feeling like she was about to be thrown into prison again, much friendlier, gentler staff took their clothes before they put them through a brief hosing down to remove the worst of the dirt and the grime, a walk through and under a running stream for a little extra insurance, until they were given a towel and a basket of complementary toiletries as the doors to the hot springs proper were opened to them.

Weiss didn't protest, but she didn't enjoy the process, either, spending most of it with her eyes closed, trying not to think about how many bodies had been through this same process, of the Fae behind and in front of her in the line, and as Penny reminded her beforehand, doing her damnedest not to swallow any of the water.

“You're not going to spend this whole trip with your eyes closed, are you, Weiss?” Ruby asked as she and the others toweled off from the dip.

“I'm going to damn well try,” Weiss grumbled, her face burning red.

Ruby sighed, she heard her padding over to her. “Weiss, is it really that big of a deal for you?”

“Yes...” she muttered.

She felt Ruby take her hand into her own. “I'll go slow and tell you when you can open your eyes again, alright?”

Weiss tightly wrapped her fingers around hand. “Okay.”

<You're making an awfully big fuss about this,> Blake said. <It's just being naked, what's so wrong about it?>

“Blake is expressing concern and confusion about your distress because of the hot springs allowing complete nudity,” Penny translated.

“It's just a human thing, alright?” Weiss said.

Blake shrugged, and the group got going, Ruby and Weiss trailing behind.

Sounds of conversation, laughter, and activity poured in from all around; the hot springs looked busy and lively from a distance, and was even more animated and noisy when you were right in the thick of it. How the Fae ever managed to ever relax in such a chaoitc place like this, especially with their superb hearing, she didn't know.

She couldn't understand anything they were saying, but she could get the gist of it from tone and the sounds of the syllables—if she had to guess, it was just catching up on each others' lives, talking about recent events, or lively debate about whatever. She thought back on what Penny had said about the Fae being adverse to adjectives and adverbs, and preferring single words to describe things than tacking on more; did they really have a term for everything, to cover every single description and situation possible?

Just as she was thinking that, someone called out at her specifically—some things were universal, language barriers be damned.

<Hey, soft-skin! Why don't you take that towel off and show us what you got, huh?> yelled a teenage Fae, before he and his friends began laughing raucously.

Weiss gritted her teeth and kept on walking.

<Hey, bark-bite! Why don't you get out of the water and show us what you're compensating for first, huh?!> Blake yelled back.

The teenage boy was stunned, before his friends quickly started laughing at him. A fight ensued, and whistles were blown as security came in.

Weiss opened her eyes just long enough to see the boys getting hauled out of the water, before she turned to Blake and smiled. "Thanks," she said.

<Don't mention it,> Blake replied coolly.

Weiss closed her eyes again and continued walking.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally made it to their private bath, stepping through a door, the sounds of the public areas outside all but muted the moment it was closed behind them.

“You can open your eyes now, Weiss,” Ruby said.

Weiss did. Then, she squinted, trying to adjust to the low light from the glowing rocks set into the wall.

The private baths were set deep within the springs, spacious, carved out niches with a large steaming pool in the center, miniatures of most of the amenities the rest of the springs offered all around: a table with food and drink already set out, a nook for reading and study, even what looked like a bed to lounge on after your bath, among others.

“No wonder these were so expensive,” Weiss thought, remembering the simple characters beside “Public Entrance” and the much more complex calligraphy beside “Private Bath.”

“See you in the water, Weiss!” Ruby said as she let go and skipped off.

Weiss blinked. “Wait, what?”

<You didn't think this was going to be just for you, did you?> Blake asked as she sauntered past her.

“Blake is expressing surprise at your surprise that we're going to be sharing this bath,” Penny explained as she passed by her other side.

“Wait, wait, wait—HOLD UP!” Weiss cried.

All three of them turned around to look at her. Except for Penny, who's “body” was a larger collection of intricately carved rocks and gems held together by a layer of green energy, Blake and Ruby were completely naked, doing nothing to cover themselves up, and not caring in the slightest.

The comfortably warm room suddenly got excruciatingly hot.

Weiss squeezed her eyes shut but that particular image wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Ruby frowned. “Weiss, what's…?”

Ding.

Ruby smiled. “Weiss… do you like girls?”

Weiss bit her lip.

“Are you—what do you humans call it—a less-bean?”

“A lesbian,” Weiss corrected her. She tilted her head down. “… And yes.”

She may as well have said it outright, since she was being so obvious she may as well have had a giant sign behind her, the word “GAY” blinking on and off, while three arrows pointing towards her lit up in turn.

Ruby chuckled. “Relax, Weiss! I'm fine with it! I mean, it'd be pretty hypocra—hypocrey—hyporcry—really weird in the bad way if I was, since I'm one, too.”

Weiss paused. “Wait… you're gay...?”

“Is that what you humans also call girls who like other girls, and boys who like other boys?”

“It is,” Penny said. “Other terms may include 'queer,' and 'homosexual,' along with a surprisingly expansive list of derogatory slang, if you include Old World languages alongside Nivian.”

“Then yeah! I'm guess that means I'm gay, too,” Ruby said, nodding. “And Penny here is a robot so she doesn't really do… well… any of that stuff, and Blake here is… actually I don't really know what Blake is, but she doesn't mind! Right, Blake?”

<Yep, couldn't care less,> Blake replied, nodding.

“Blake confirmed what Ruby said, and assures you it's not a matter she puts too much attention to,” Penny translated.

Weiss slowly opened her eyes, her face still burning red. “Okay… that… makes me feel slightly better about this.”

Ruby beamed. “Great! Now that that's over, let's get in and get clean! We don't have this place for all day!” she turned around and padded over to the water.

Weiss nodded and made her way to the spring after her, before she stopped.

Because of the cloaks and long-sleeved hunting gear Ruby wore underneath, and Weiss being distracted by other things when she was wearing more revealing clothing, she'd never ever seen more bare skin than her hands, her face, and her feet.

Now, she got a full view of Ruby from the front and back, knew just how powerfully built and muscular she was in spite of her tiny frame, and the soft, fluffy, happily waggling reindeer tail sitting just atop her rear, black with red tips just like her hair.

Whatever goodwill Weiss had built up with Blake was completely erased when Ruby and Penny sided with her and cut their time short so Weiss could have the bath all to herself.

If it was any comfort to Blake, watching Weiss sitting in the corner, face hidden from the others, attempting to bore holes into the wall with her sight alone was pretty damn funny.

[makayladunn1993]

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How To Get Your Ex Boyfriend Back Quotes