#remember a teacher getting angry once that I never corrected them

[arisuworld]

HOW TO IGNORE THE 3D?

A lot of people get confused over the phrase "ignoring the 3D." They think this means they have to “act as if,” lie to themselves and the people around them, and then end up feeling pretty delusional. However, i’m here to tell you that it's NOT THE CORRECT WAY. If you're doing this, you're probably gonna end up feeling like you're being delusional and lose faith in LOA overall. first of all, we need to rephrase the term “ignoring the 3D.” When neville goddard and other teachers said to “ignore” the 3D, they didn’t mean to literally ignore it. They meant to stop REACTING to it mentally, to what the 3D is showing to you. So the better phrase would be to “not react to the 3D".

જ⁀➴ FIRSTLY, YOU MUST KNOW THAT-

1. You're the god of your reality. You have the power to change anything you want. Nothing can stop you, other than YOU.

2. Circumstances do not matter. They're NOT permanent. They change in literal seconds.

3. Subconscious does not have eyes. What you tell it, is what it will assume.

4. 3D is nothing but a bitch of 4D. It will conform to your assumptions, right in front of your eyes.

• WHAT DOES 'IGNORING THE 3D' MEANS?

So, what exactly does not reacting to the 3D mean? It means to not mentally reaffirm unfavorable assumptions about the 3D. For example, if you’ve been affirming that you're your ideal height but suddenly you come across a mirror and see the opposite, DON’T MENTALLY REACT TO IT!!! Simply acknowledge it and know that you already have your desires and the 3D will conform no matter what. Also, keep in mind that it’s completely fine to react emotionally to the 3D. You can cry or be angry, you’re still human after all. But don’t let your thoughts slip back into the old story and old pattern of thinking because once you do, it will manifest the opposite.

I know, this is way easier said than done, but once you master this, all of your manifestations will literally come flowing in!!

: ̗̀➛ HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU CURB YOUR REACTION TO THE 3D

1. KNOW YOUR POWER: Whenever you face any unfavorable circumstances, sit back and take deep breaths.Remind yourself that you're the god and nothing can stop you from achieving the things you desire.

2. SUBLIMINALS: I know subliminals aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but i personally love them! There are some really great ones for self-concept, and a bunch for literally any specific desire. (i'll make a separate post in the future on subs and how to use them).

3. YOGA NIDRA/ MEDITATION: This is an excellent way to not only get into a calmer state, but to really tune into your thoughts and become aware of what assumptions are serving you are not. (I personally love Lizzy Hill's yoga nidra video!!)

4. IMPROVE SELF CONCEPT: When faced with an unfavorable circumstance, you may be tempted to let your thoughts spiral back into the old story. By keeping a strict mental diet, you can prevent this from even happening. Don’t even give your mind a chance to go back to your old assumptions.

5. CREATE NEW ASSUMPTIONS: By this, I mean creating a whole new assumption for whenever you react to the 3D. This can be something like “negative thoughts never manifest,” “nothing, not even i, can stop my desires from manifesting” or “everything works out for me.” Affirm these if you’re reacting emotionally.

At the end of the day, the most important thing to remember is to PERSIST despite what you see in the 3D!! Don’t ever give up on your desires. Your desires have NO choice but to manifest!!

[romansmartini]

AITA for getting angry because I wrongly guessed the identity of my companion’s boyfriend?

I (2000-ishM-ish) have been traveling with my companion (28F) for ages now. We’ll call her Claire. She’s been there for me through some big changes in my life, and I’ve improved her life a lot. We used to have a sort of thing, but I was married at the time, and now I think I’m too old for her. Anyway, onto the story.

Claire started dating her boyfriend (29M) at some point. I honestly don’t remember when and honestly can’t be bothered to. His name is Dave. He works at the same school as Claire does. I recently took on a temporary job at their school as a caretaker. I met several of the teachers there, including a very handsome young man who likes literature (Claire loves literature) and reminds me a great deal of my younger self. I didn’t know anything about the man Claire was seeing, so I assumed it was this man. It would make sense, I think, considering our past feelings for each other. As it turns out, however, this man is not Claire’s boyfriend, but instead she’s dating a former soldier who now teaches P.E. at the school!

I hate soldiers, and Claire knows this. I thought she hated soldiers, too. She told me so herself. She was very clearly lying to me all this time about this fact, and she was lying to him about me, too, presumably so we would never meet and I would never find out the truth. For a while, Dave believed I was Claire’s father, which I don’t mind, but she didn’t say anything to correct him. Dave mockingly saluted me and called me “sir,” and claimed I’m an officer. He implied very heavily that I’m dangerous to be around, which is complete nonsense, because I’m always saving Claire from dangerous situations. She never says no to traveling with me, even once leaving in the middle of dinner with Dave to go on a trip. I shouted at Dave for his blatant disrespect, but now Claire is upset with me for making things difficult between her and Dave — he’s angry with her for lying to him about how she was spending her time the past however long of their relationship. I don’t regret shouting at Dave, though. I really hate soldiers, and he’s no better than any of them.

I don’t know. It would be different if Claire was dating this lovely bowtie-wearing gentleman, who really looks so much like a younger me it’s uncanny, but you would think she wouldn’t date a soldier when she knows just how much I hate them?

EDIT: Many incessant commenters were asking, so I’ll clarify. Yes, I was a soldier centuries ago. Yes, I watched thousands of people die, and I believed for several centuries that I was responsible for the death of the entire planet. I don’t like to talk about it.

[rayneydays]

very late gustholomule week drabble

_

Little human children giggled behind their hands at the sight before them, Gus couldn’t help but do the same.

They didn’t visit the public pool often. However, as witches crossed over more, Gus, as past captain of the HAS, wanted his friends to enjoy all aspects of human culture. Including the figurative and potentially literal cesspool of splashing toddlers and probably-pee infested water.

Plus, to Gus’ joy, one of those friends didn’t learn how to swim. And the beach, with its aggressive waves that even knocked Willow over, probably wouldn’t be the best place to learn. So he took it upon himself to teach Matt. He was so generous, really.

”Your parents really never took you to Lake Lacuna?” the question had been on the tip of his tongue when he first found out. But there was always a certain look when Matt got upset, genuinely upset. Faraway eyes and pinched upturned brows that made Gus feel something.

But just like he was with illusions, Matt was a quick learner, and Gus was a fabulous teacher if he did say so himself.

When they got the basics down, he retreated to sit on the edge, letting Matt practice with Vee.

Gus kicked his feet, watching the pool water ripple. It was such a bright blue. Did chlorine do that? What was chlorine anyway?

He looked up, biting back a laugh at Matt doggy paddling awkwardly under Vee’s guidance.

Anticipation simmered in his gut.

He looked at Matt, all toothy grins and bangs plastered to his forehead. He looked happy.

Gus wanted that look all to himself. And once Matt was skilled enough, he’d have it.

-

It was a pretty long ride to the beach in Conneticut, but Gus knew of another place. During their initial time on the human realm, on days he needed alone, he’d walk off.

After being gone for hours, Gus would return with a clearer head and a new secret destination all to himself. At least, until now.

Matt blinked slowly as sun hit him right in the eye. Gus brushed tree branches aside, revealing the edge of a cliff. He looked down with a grin.

“Woah,” Matt said faintly.

”I know, right? isn’t it cool?” The lake below them was a deep sea green, the sun making it sparkle in their eyes.

”It’s … okay.”

”Don’t lie.”

Gus dropped his bag, shoving it underneath a bush and kicking off his shoes, Matt followed. The two eased closer to the edge, Matt slowing a bit.

The cliff was pretty tall, but not enough that the fall hurt, the illusionist figured.

“This is safe, Augustus?” Matt’s voice voice was hesitant, however he was quick to deflect. “I don’t want you getting hurt, you’re so frail.”

”I’m bigger than you.”

”Taller,” Matt corrected, “whose job is literally construction ergo lifting heavy shit all the time?” he flexed his muscles for emphasis, and Gus had to feign disgust.

”You mainly draw the crap, and make Kikimora do all the work,” he snapped back, a light blush tinging his ears.

Matt grumbled a bit, crossing his arms as he looked over the edge.

“You swear it doesn’t boil?”

“I swear.”

“On King’s dad?”

“On King’s dad, dude.”

Gus grabbed Matt’s shoulders, hugging him loosely. Upon being drawn into the false sense of security, Matt begrudgingly nodded.

”You remember to hold your nose?”

”Yeah - but,” Gus cut him off quickly, dirt scuffled underneath their feet as Gus pushed - pushed -

A girlish shriek the constructionist would deny later.

“What the fuck!”

The two tumbled off the cliff in a gaggle of tangled limbs and held noses, the air ripping through them.

Matt yelled all the way down, clinging to him with wide, angry eyes.

Gus took back his previous assessment on it not hurting to hit the water. It was like a cold smack to the face. They detached as they sank, clawing to the surface. Gus gulped up air, skin prickly as goosebumps formed. The water was so much colder in the human realm …

”Matty?” he called as he breached the surface, eyes still shut tightly. At the lack of response, a bit of panic flared. “Matt?”

”Hold your nose.”

Gus gasped as he was pushed back under water, swallowing lake water as he sputtered for oxygen. After the blatant assassination attempt on Matt’s part, Gus had to enact revenge. They continued to splash and chase each other for almost an hour.

His legs shook from exertion as they swam for a nearby rock. He glared in envy as Matt hoisted himself on the boulder like it was nothing, like really, where was that twig packing the muscle?

Matt yanked Gus up by the back of his tank top so he could flop beside him on the rough surface, gasping.

”Weak, nerd.”

”Shut up.”

Matt looked around. The lake was encased in a woodlands, the land sloped upward to be a mountain. There were a couple lower ledges that Gus would originally jump into the lake from, as he worked his way up to the highest one.

“You didn’t even jump from that before making me do it? What if there was rocks or something?” Matt cried. “I could’ve died!”

”I’ve swam this lake plenty of times, there aren’t rocks.”

”We’re sitting on a rock, you dumb fuck.”

Gus promptly shoved the boy off the edge, taking great satisfaction in Matt’s flailing limbs.

As Matt drowned beside him, Gus tugged idly on his hair. It was a good thing wash day was coming up.

It was another hour before they made their way back up the mountain, which, in hindsight was a lot harder barefoot, but Gus still thought it was worth it.

Too tired to hold an argument, they murmured amongst each other quietly, bumping shoulders and brushing hands.

Gus shivered, only partially from the cold.

They arrived back at Camilla’s as the sun came down. Thankful that she allowed them to stay the night, they trekked to the basement.

Camilla came down to call them for dinner, only to find them tangled together still in their swim trunks.

She smiled, and flicked the light off before retreating back upstairs.

-

“Did you put on any sunscreen?” Camilla gasped in horror at the angry, red flaking skin of Matt’s shoulders.

”I did!” he shouted back, shoulder’s bunched up, “ .. Ms. Noceda,” he added hastily.

Matt hissed as Gus pumped aloe vera over the irritated skin, rubbing it in weakly. When Camilla excused herself to find more healing ointment, Gus smacked the skin lightly.

”Ow! Augustus!” Matt reached behind him blindly to hit Gus.

”Does it hurt?”

”What do you think, prodigy?”

Gus laughed quietly, muttering an apology as he massaged the aloe vera into Matt’s shoulder blades. On autopilot, he leaned forward, head darting down to press a brief kiss to his shoulder.

”I’m sorry, Matty.”

He peeked at Matt’s face hesitantly, silently hoping the red adorning his face wasn’t just because of the sunburn.

[showstopper35]

King of the Hop (A Megatronus x Orion AU)

a/n: I am weak at heart and mostly wrote this to deal with my own problems so…enjoy. Free therapy for both of us. Swearing ahead. Also, @plutoids-thoughts this is now dedicated to you.

An AU in which TFP is set in a college universe…with a twist. This is the story of Orion Paciano, the greatest ballroom dancer in his class. And when one aggressive, angry student is accidentally placed in a ballroom class, shit goes down. 

“You’re stepping with the wrong foot.” Orion gently corrected him and stepped back for them to start again. 

“Everything I do is wrong. This is so stupid.” Megs cursed under his breath, wanting to rip off the tight ballroom shoes and storm off. But he gritted his teeth and awkwardly gripped his partner’s hand again. Orion curled his fingers around his hand, and Megs had to fight to not look at their hands. 

He had danced with him so many times, but he could never get used to that sensation. Orion’s hold was gentle, but Megs knew that the second he messed up again he would grip tighter and push until Megs’ legs would follow Orion’s. Why the hell did his hands have to be so warm? 

“Left turning box, are you ready?” 

“No.”

“Shut up, you’re ready.” 

They turned, and Megs would have stumbled to the floor if it wasn’t for Orion sliding his hand down Meg’s back so that he stayed upright. Unnecessary, in his opinion. 

“Step back and to the si-yeah, you got it that time!” 

He got it? 

Megs looked over to meet Orion’s smile. It was slightly crooked in that sweet, hopelessly nerdy way. He should smile more, honestly. People with nice smiles-

“Now do it five more times.”

Megs decided it wasn’t that nice of a smile after all. Nope, perfectly ordinary. Annoyingly smug at best. Fuck you, Mr. Ballroom. He let go of Orion’s hand and let out a long-sufffering sigh. He closed his eyes and rubbed his arms, groaning. His muscles could get surprisingly sore from this class. 

A small chuckle from the other male caused him to open one eye. Orion’s eyes were twinkling, and Megs felt an unwelcome prickle of heat creep up his neck. Probably just because the ballroom classroom was always hot and stuffy, right? 

“I know it’s hard. My first semester was rough.” 

Megs scoffed. “See, you say that, but I don’t believe you at all. Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s bad to lie, Paciano?” 

Orion splayed his fingers with a hint of exasperation. “I promise, I’m not ly-”

“HEY! Listen to the teacher!” A loud voice cut through the air, and the two turned to face a frowning girl with dyed blue hair. Megs could never remember her name, but she was damn good at dancing and that was enough for him to find her annoying. He shot her a glare that she shrugged off with a smirk. 

“Now that I finally have your attention,” Mr. Magnus drawled, “We can start a new dance. This one is called the Cha-cha. It’s from Cuba. Watch me.” 

He gestured to Orion, who immediately began to execute the dance with flawless accuracy. Megs watched in disbelief at the way his hips moved back and forth, rocking from one foot to the other. The dance was fast, and looked complicated as hell. So many side-to-side steps that Megs suspected only Orion could pull off perfectly. 

God, why did he have to be so good at this? It was unfair, really. Megs was good at plenty of stuff. History, writing, swordfighting, even occasionally art. So why couldn’t he get this? Orion looked so happy when he was dancing. He had this wide, stupid smile that he couldn’t get off his face. All Megs did do when he danced was frown. 

The teacher let go of Orion and began going over the basic steps, instructing the class to follow long. Megs tried his best, stepping forward on the beat but losing all coordination once Mr. Magnus threw the random-ass spin in. 

“The hell? This is awful.” He tried to readjust his body, but now his rhythm was off. He moved backwards and stood stiffly to the side. Maybe if he observed this nonsense better he would be able to pick it up. 

He tried to ignore it when the blue-haired girl rolled her eyes when she caught sight of his still frame in the mirror. 

This dance was the worst. At least he could kind of do the other ones. Sometimes. This was just hell. What the hell were his fellow Cubans thinking? 

“This is my favorite dance.” A whisper in his ear nearly made him jump. Orion laughed at his startled expression and held out his hand to Megs. 

“Of course its your favorite dance. It’s fucking awful and I don’t understand any of it and I just want to go back to fencing because I’m not even supposed to be in this class and-” 

“Shut up, Megatronus.”

And before he could continue protesting, Orion took his hands in his and pulled him to an empty space in the ballroom. 

“Here. We’ll go at our own pace.” 

He clasped Megs’ hand to his, and kept a gentle but firm hold on his back. His hands were so goddamn warm. It was like he was trying to electrify him with the power of dance…or some shit. 

“One..two-three-four…” Orion murmured the count under his breath, making eye contact with Megs every few numbers. 

And of course, he was good. He guided them forward and back, keeping them both upright even when Megs stepped on his feet and even when Megs awkwardly crossed his legs around and nearly fell. 

“Okay, we’re going to try a spin.” 

“Wait-”

Orion pushed against Meg’s hand, and Megs turned, a little too quickly. He felt his ankles knock into each other and he fell forward, but Orion was faster. He reached forward and caught him with both hands, one hand against the small of Megs’ back and the other wrapped around his waist. 

They both froze, and Megs knew the warmth in his face wasn’t just from the stuffy room. He looked into Orion’s eyes for one second, two, before looking down and correcting his feet. 

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, be better.”

“Whatever, Paciano.” 

Orion let go, a small smile on his face. It looked more tender than smug, and his eyes were sparkling. A small snort left his mouth and he shook his head, still smiling. 

He was so beautiful.

He looked at Megs and held out his hands to dance again. 

“One..two-three-four…”

fin.

[storytimewithnova]

Single parent

Prologue

You figure Tooru Oikawa as a normal high school guy right and you’d be right to a point See that is not all he is oikawa is a single parent to two sons Oikawa Shoyo and Oikawa Kenma there dad up and split he was from another school A teacher And this guy just wanted Kawa for his body no strings attached so when Kawa dropped it on him he could have kids and was having kids this asshole up and left Kawa to struggle alone.

So that brings us to the present here and now and once again Oikawa was late for practice no explanation why and he was getting let off for it again and the team was getting sick of it to the point they wanted to follow Kawa to find out what could be so important that it makes him late every day so they followed Kawa home only he didn’t go straight back home he went to a daycare

Chapter one

Tooru’s pov

Tooru:Hi miss were they any trouble

Miss Yula:Good as gold as always you have two angels there Oikawa

Tooru:I know that and I love them both so much

Miss Yula:it’s not easy being a single parent Kawa don’t be scared to ask for help

Tooru:I’ve brought my sons up on my own this far without that low life dead beat that did a runner as so as he found out I can get pregnant sorry miss I know it’s not your fault it’s just a sore subject for me

Tooru Ran

Tooru:so did my babies be good

Shoyo:Yesh Momma

Tooru:Sunshine what happened to your face look At mommy for a minute

Sho turned his face for Kawa to see

Tooru:sunshine did one of the kids do this

he nodded

Tooru:okay let’s go home get this cleared up before it gets infected and sunshine listen mommy can’t take you and Ken Ken to daycare tomorrow I may have to bring you to my school will you promise to behave and mommy get ice cream after

The two nodded The team watch him

The team mumbling: why does he call himself mommy and whose kids are they maybe his brothers

Iwaizumi:nah his an only child as far as I know

Makki:Let’s follow him home

Tooru:babies dinner then bath Shoyo help your baby brother

Shoyo:Yes momma

Kenma:momma where is dadda

Tooru:dead in a ditch for all I care

he mumbled under his breath

Tooru:babies you're too young to understand I better call my school let them know you are coming with me because I can’t take you to daycare and I think tomorrow what I am going to do I go volleyball then collect all my class work and we get ice cream how does that sound and I spend all my time with my two favouite sons

Shoyo:really momma can we watch you play I want to be a setter

Tooru:of course my sunshine

Tooru looked over at Kenma he was trying to wat paste

Tooru:Kenma sweetie no no no here oh what a mess Sho help your brother

Shoyo:Otay

Tooru:no sweetie it’s Okay

With the team

Makki:He is so good with them I see why he is the team mom

Makki said Iwaizumi was watching like he heart shaped eyes.

Makki:Iwa you okay

Iwaizumi:huh? Oh yeah

Kunimi:Iwaizumi senpai your basically drooling Jesus” wait look he's on the phone listen

Tooru’s phone call 📞

Tooru:Hey Kiyoko Ni

Kiyo:📞Hey Tooru how are my Nephews

Tooru:Hang on Sunshine do you want to talk to auntie Kiyo

Shoyo:yesh

Kiyo: 📞 Hey sweetie you looking after mommy

Shoyo:Yesh but momma sad”

Kiyo:📞 is that so Angel do you want to put mommy on so he can tell me”

Shoyo:otay Momma Antie Kiyo wants you

Tooru: okay baby take you brother

Shoyo:otay

Tooru:baby it Okay remember Okay break the word up sweetheart

Shoyo:“O-Kay

Tooru:well that’s a start any way Kiyoko Ni sorry I have to correct him

Kiyo:📞 No it cute anyway Shoyo said you were sad

Tooru:well his not wrong I am also angry I guess I haven’t forgiven Klaus for up and leaving as soon as he found out I was Pregnant Dick move on his part now kenma wants to know when daddy is coming back

Kiyo:📞yes it was a shitty move but remeber what you got our of it

Tooru:True but how are you meant to say to a kid your daddy is never coming back because that abusive bastard just up and bailed on his own kids and simply said fuck this shit I’m out you mean nothing to me now I only need you for your body and now you have kids you are practically useless to me good luck with the brats peace out his exact words”

Back with team

Matsun:Did we hear that right the kids are his that guy he is talking about said he only wanted him for his body That is basically R@pe he knows That right

Back with Kawa and the call

Tooru:Seriously sis i haven’t even told the school that my babies dad is an ex teacher oh well like you said i got something Precious out of it

Kiyo: 📞exactly baby bro you spent this long which is what a 1 year and half raising those kids by yourself and you have done fabulous don’t get me wrong but they do need a dad”

Tooru: I know but I don’t think I can trust again my trust and heart was broken with Klaus I might have a crush but is a stupid high school crush I have to be muture I’m a parent at the end of the day I can’t focus on love

Kiyo📞 Well enlighten me who you have a crush on

Chapter Two

Kawa’s pov My crush is Iwa chan not that I ever tell him or say it out loud to his face but right now I am still on the phone to my cousin and she has been teasing me non stop

In the phone call with Kiyoko 📞

Tooru:My childhood friend Iwa chan but I can’t trust myself to fall again and let myself get hurt

Back with the team

Omg he's been through so much he has trust issue

Iwaizumi:the thing is I love him too have done since when we were kids why didn’t I know about this Klaus guy

Shoyo:Momma someone is outside

Tooru:okay sweetie I’ll have a look

Kawa’pov I went to see who was outside and saw my team Standing there to say i was shocked would be an understatement

Tooru:what are you guys doing here?

Matsun:Honestly Kawa we were worried about you all this coming late to practice and looking tired can you blame us

Tooru:how much did you hear

Makki:all of it we’re sorry

Shoyo:Momma who they

Tooru:mommy’s friends sunshine go back to your brother

Shoyo:Okay

Tooru:wait what did you say?

Shoyo:Okay

Tooru: you finally said it right baby well done

Shoyo:Tank you momma

Tooru:okay well baby steps now I’m going to invite my friends in okay you are going to be polite at all times and look after you brother

Shoyo:me good boy i go to ken now

Tooru:thank you sunshine I am guessing you have questions guys come in

Back in the call

Tooru:Kiyoko Ni I am going to have to call you back my team followed me home and heard everything

Kiyo:📞 well now is you chance to tell Iwa how you feel

Tooru:bitch did you not hear a word I say about trust issues

Kiyo:📞 yeah yeah whatever bye bro

Chapter Three

Kawa’s narrative

I looked over to my kids only to see Kenma trying to eat a Lego brick I swear that kid will just put anything in his mouth i worry for him *signs*

Tooru:no sweetie no we don’t eat that are you hungry come on you guys can sit Sho stay with mommy’s friends while mommy sorts your brother out

Shoyo:okay momma

Tooru:and sunshine

Shoyo:Yesh momma

Tooru:Tell you brother no more silly questions

Kenma:Huh?

Tooru:Oh he heard me

Kenma:my qests not silly

Tooru:sweetie you literally asked me yesterday who switches on the moonlight

the team giggle

Kunimi:hey that seems like a genuine question to me captain

kunimi said

Tooru:Kunimi please don't encourage my son

Kawa walks back in with Kenma and says

Tooru:sorry about that anyway

Makki:captain we said we heard everything we meant Everything

Iwaizumi:Tooru I am your childhood bestfriend why didn’t know about this Klaus guy what he did to you can be classed as R@pe

Tooru:maybe but out of something horrific i received something precious and that’s how I’ve always looked at it yes I may Have lost the ability to love

Iwaizumi mumbled

Iwaizumi: please don’t say that because I love you

Tooru:Huh what was that Iwa chan

Sho heard and parroted back

Shoyo:he said please no say that I wuv you

Tooru:so if I am getting what Sho said you said Iwa you said Please don’t say that because I love you

Iwaizumi:why you Little snitch

Sho sticks his touge out Sometime later the rest of the team left leaving Iwa and Kawa alone to talk….

Chapter four

Tooru:Iwa I know it’s not completely ideal I am a single parent two kids still in high school and have trust issues I am broken I get you love me and I do like you in fact I have loved you since we were kids but I am scared to let myself fall in love again scared I will get hurt again scared if I rush in head first again I will end up more damaged Than I already am and lord know how that will affect my kids their affected now not having their deadbeat dad around

Iwaizumi: Like you said i may not be ideal but we will figure something out together if you will Let me help you out with the kids I love them they are cute kids Tooru you have done Fabulous on your own but you are struggling I will treat them like they are mine they won’t know also in regards of my feelings I wait for you however long it takes

Tooru:you’re serious about this

Iwaizumi:when have you ever known me to joke

true he has never made a joke he wanted to do this so they agreed And Iwa was around more the kids called him daddy he loved every single minute with them right now he was playing with Shoyo because Kenma was napping

Shoyo:daddy why mama always sad

Shoyo asked out of the blue Kawa heard the question and answer it

Tooru:I’m not sad sweetie tell you what how about tomorrow you and Ken come watch me and daddy play volleyball would you like that

Shoyo:yay otay let me go get Ken Ken and tell him

Tooru:you do that baby he should be waking up from his nap now

Chapter five

the next day and Kawa and Iwa brought the kids to the school gym

Matsun and makki:morning kids

Shoyo:Ohayo

Shoyo said with a big smile Kenma just waved and cuddled up to Kawa more

Tooru:sweetie what did mommy say about socialising

Kenma;can’t

Tooru:yes you can even if it one or two words

Shoyo:try it Kenken I’m here look take my hand there you Go Ni chan Got you

Kenma:H-h-hello

kenma said then hugged his brother

Shoyo:yeah kenma Ni did it

Kenma ran to Kawa

Tooru:well done baby do you want to play volleyball with daddy now

Kenma:mhm

Tooru:okay take your big brother mommy will be with you in a bit then we can go to get Dino nuggets

Shoyo and Kenma’s lit up after hearing that they yelled together

Kenma and shoyo:MOMMY’S THE BEST EVER

Chapter six

Practice continued as normal and let’s be honest having the kids around saw a huge change in the team as well Kyotani who is normally Rude violent Bad mannered and has severe anger issues kind of mellowed out with the kids around and was playing and tossing the volleyball he even got them chocolate milk and Ice cream he told them not to tell their mom it would ruin his image as the tough guy

Shoyo:Uncle Kyo

Kyotani:yes sunshine

Shoyo:why do you put on that Tough guy act anyway when your really a softy who hurt you

Makki:well kid his a Juvenile delinquent

Shoyo:😕❓❓❓ huh?

Iwaizumi:You will understand when you are older kiddo

Kyotani:no one wants to hear from the meme lords that Live vicariously through the Internet so Makki button it I only have a soft side for kids and yabaha

Kenma:mommy can we go to training camp with you

Tooru:what do you think guys they seem to love being round you also you guys are helping Kenma be more socialable and training camp might be another step to help his social anxiety

Iwaizumi:I agree with Kawa and we need Kenma to open up more

The day of the training camp you would think nothing exciting happened right well almost true the boys deadbeat asshole dad wanted to pay a visit

If you wanted to know what their deadbeat dad looks like

Tooru:Niklaus why the fuck are you here

Niklaus:can’t I see my sons Tooru

Tooru:how about no klaus they are never going to know what they are you have a daughter with Hayley got back to her

Niklaus:Tooru please let me make right with them

Tooru bared his fangs

Tooru:I said NO!!

he growled

Iwaizumi:Tooru your teeth

Iwa said Kawa covered his mouth

Niklaus:oh little wolf you haven’t changed

Tooru:fuck off Klaus my kids are better off with out you barstard they have a dad and he ain’t you if they want to see you in the future then they’ll call NOW GO

he growled again his wolf side showing a deadly and menacing Urge to attack

Shoyo:Who was that mommy

Shoyo asked

Tooru:someone you are to young to meet and he is bad man

Shoyo:okay me and Ken Ken are going to uncle bokuto he is going to show me his service ace

Tooru:have fun kiddo and don’t try any risky moves mommy will be in a bit

Iwaizumi:so are you going to tell me what that was or am I going to have to guess

Tooru:signs* “I am a wolf leader of the wolfs now last of my pack that asshole was my sons deadbeat dad he is a hybrid vampire and wolf hence why you saw my fangs when that dick tried to get to my boys

Iwaizumi:wait what so those supernatural stories you told the kids and told me when we were kids

Tooru:are true they will be like him a hybrid but the have a witch side they will discover their powers at 16 now I understand if you want to leave us

Iwaizumi:hold your horses Tooru who says I am going anywhere

Tooru:Thanks Iwa for loving us even though you know the truth let’s go back to the kids

Chapter seven

Time skip Shoyo and Kenma have grown up and they have discovered their powers Kenma uses his witch powers do his homework and to keep a track of his brother at all cost and Shoyo is leaning to control his wolf and vampire side he doesn’t like using his witch side not like Kenma who found he could use it to be lazy or use it in volleyball and not just to confuse the opposition also Iwa and oikawa was married

the kids never asked about Klaus and they were happy and As for Klaus he could see he wasn’t wanted in his boys life but he did tell hope about them so if hope wanted to know about her brothers she could and like wise for Kawa he told the boys they have a half sister if they ever want to know her they can earning from shoyo

Shoyo:Ew a girl Cooties

Kenma:Shoyo she’s our sister she isn’t contagious

Shoyo:how do we know Ken Ken

Kenma:she is like us blood of a wolf and An orginal aka the deadbeat

Tooru:Kenma he is still your dad

Kenma:no he isn’t you married our dad he was a sperm donor I-

Tooru: hold it right there son where did you learn that

Kenma:uncle Makki

Iwaizumi:oh really well you can tell uncle Makki he is dead

Kenma:yes dad

And that is the single parent story

[grumpygreenwitch]

The Fairy and the Prince #3 + #4

Part 1 - Part 2 - Parts 3 & 4 - Part 5 - Part 6, 7 & 8 - Part 9 & 10 - Part 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 - Part 17, 18, & 19 - Part 20, 21 & 22 - Part 23, 24, 25 & 26 - Part 27, 28, 29 & 30 - Part 31, 32, 33 & 34 - Part 35, 36 & 37 - Part 38, 39, 40 & 41 - Part 42 & 43 - Part 44 & 45 - Part 46 & 47 - Part 48, 49, 50 & 51 - Part, 52, 53 & 54 - Part 55 & 56 - Part 57, 58, 59 & 60 - Part 61, 62, 63, 64 & 65 - Part 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 & 72

These are short chapters, so you get two at a pop. As always, my Ko-fi’s at the bottom. And remember, I proofread these but never actually did the fine-tune editing that usually goes into my larger manuscripts. Also, if anyone knows a literary agent, please send them my way. I’m quite literally terrified of reaching out to one. I can’t even begin to explain how bad I am with people. I’m good with plants! People? Mmmno.

He came back, of course, he had to. Hunger brought him back.

"Are they going to lock you up again?"

"Probably," Adam admitted as they meandered over the narrow edge of a high partition, soaring high above a private courtyard on one side and a small kitchen's garden on the other. "It won't be forever," he told Linden when his friend's face fell. "I'll find some way to get out, I promise."

"What do they even want from you?" Linden demanded. "If you're not going to be king, why can't they let you be?"

Adam found that an excellent question and, when he was dragged once again before Master Leminy, after the sour-faced, prune-mouthed man was done with his shouting and berating, he asked it. The Master of Scions swelled up like an angry toad. Adam would know, he'd recently made the acquaintance of several of the creatures.

The truth of the matter was, Everidge Leminy had tried to get Adam sent home. Repeatedly. But he couldn't very well explain to the Dowager why he wanted the boy gone without admitting that he was balking the entirety of the palace staff and, mostly importantly, master Leminy himself. Admitting to such a failure might well cost the Master of Scions his job, and the rank and power that came with it. The first time he had excused it as the teacher's failing. There wouldn't always be someone else to blame, and the Dowager would not eschew even one boy. There was talk of a prophecy, of a fairy curse that she was trying to escape, ergo there being no children of her own. But master Leminy was too busy a man to believe in fairies.

He did believe, however, that the shameless, reckless brat before him would keep on vanishing. No one could watch a child every moment of the day; no one should have to, which made it all the more infuriating, because Adam was forcing him to do exactly that, and falling behind in his studies to boot. The latter wasn't terrible, it could be readily excused by his youth, by having to compete with peers who in some cases more than doubled him in age. But eventually someone would make a comment to the Dowager, and she would start asking questions of Master Leminy.

Faced with uncomfortable risks and unwanted variables, Leminy shifted tacks. He clapped his hands and pressed his laced fingers to his mouth. "Prince Adam. It occurs to me that your life in the palace must be unbearably boring."

Adam, who knew grown-ups never speak to a child with that sort of make-believe respect unless they want to set a trap, was instantly on his guard. "It's alright," he admitted neutrally, wary.

"You've no peers," Leminy replied. "No one to do childish things with. I believe Prince Rickard is... thirteen?"

"He's twelve," Adam replied. And a bully, he didn't add, but gosh he was thinking it very loudly.

"Just so." The Master of Scions kept from gritting his teeth at being corrected, but it was a close thing. "I will make you a deal. I will find friends for you. I will set aside time from your schedule so you can do," he flapped a hand, "whatever it is children do. But in exchange you must attend your lessons without fail."

Adam nearly cried out agreement in delight. But as his many escapes made clear, he was a clever young boy. "How much time?"

"Three hours every day before supper." Which were hours Adam would have had free anyway, until new teachers could be found from the monastery; the Dowager's letters had not impressed them. "But you will have to make them up; no more free mornings during the end of the week."

Adam chewed on his lip restlessly, his hands in his pockets. In one of them Linden had thrust an empty snail shell, and he ran his fingers restlessly over the rim. Was it a good bargain? It sounded like one to him, but the source made him nervous. And would the Master of Scions stick to it? He had no reason to. He could throw Adam up in a high tower cell and leave him there forever, until his hair grew as long as his nails and he forgot what the green world looked and felt like. "I don't need paid-for friends," he murmured.

"Of course you do! Every young boy needs friends!"

Adam saw the trap then. They wouldn't be friends; they would be Lemony-Leminy's spies. That made much, much more sense. And so, as graciously as he knew a prince should, he agreed. They both left the meeting quite satisfied, even if Adam was being marched off to another punishment detail in the kitchens, and Leminy was off to wrangle an impossible little urchin's schedule into something suitable for a would-be king.

***

Summer quickened into fall, and then into winter. Linden warned Adam that they wouldn't be able to come once the snow fell, and the young prince spent the time after their last parting forlorn behind the glass-paned windows of the palace. For lack of anything better to do he applied himself to his lessons, half forgotten during the golden warmth of better days. He found in himself a surprising aptitude for things he'd learned with half an ear and a tenth of the interest they should have been originally given. His teachers didn't question their good fortune; they merely rushed to catch him up while they had his attention.

The 'friends' Lemony-Leminy had promised him had come the day directly after his talk with the Master of Scions, and they were no better or worse than Adam had expected. Older, of course, he'd expected no different. Unfortunately for master Leminy, when you might grow up to be a king, the politics of getting people to do what you want them to do take up a good part of your education. Adam made it clear to the three boys that if they left him alone and asked no questions he would return the courtesy, effectively getting them paid for doing whatever they wanted with their afternoons. All they had to do was meet with Adam briefly after his lessons so they could agree on a likely tale to tell anyone who asked, and not get caught the rest of the time.

Two of the boys had been thrilled with this agreement. The third tried to stick to his purpose, until he discovered that it entailed trying to follow the young prince as he climbed up walls and raced along roofs like a squirrel. After falling one time too many, he wisely gave up before he hurt himself irredeemably, and contented himself with scowling at the young prince every time Adam took off through paths best suited to cats and thieves.

Winter left him stuck with the boys, and while they weren't bad sorts, Adam couldn't forget that they weren't his friends. They were paid to stick around, paid to tell master Leminy what he did with his time, paid to try and keep him busy. He'd offered for them to accompany him in his lessons, but while all three had agreed, it quickly became obvious the only one with a real interest was Beliwick. To the other two boys it was just time spent away from unwanted chores with a valid excuse.

"Is she pretty?" one of the boys asked one afternoon, his voice just this side of a taunt.

Adam jerked back to reality. He'd been staring out the window at the snow-choked grounds of the palace, willing spring to arrive faster, hoping for just one sprig of green, one touch of color, to let him know his best friend would come back soon. "Who?" he asked in confusion.

The two boys, Dane and Oliver, where sprawled by the hearth playing dice. Beli, who'd been painstakingly reading one of Adam's math primers, a gift of the prince to him, glanced cautiously at them and then ducked his head low.

It was warning enough for Adam, who dragged himself with an effort to the present.

Oliver, the oldest of the boys, snorted. "Whatever girl you're pining after."

"Ugh," Adam made a face to go with the groan. "You're getting too old to be my friend if you think I'm interested in a girl, Oliver."

The smirk went right out of their faces, and Adam saw Beli hide a grin.

"I'm waiting for spring. I'm tired of being inside forever and forever," he explained.

Dane flopped on the warm slate before the hearth. "The whole world is," he agreed easily enough. Dane was not a bad sort; he was simply lazy. He would always agree with whatever was easiest. "Winter's dragged on this year."

"Well, it needs to drag away faster," Adam groused.

Winter, of course, would be rushed away by no one, but it eventually did give way to spring. By then, much to his teachers' astonishment, Adam had caught up with and surpassed a few of his peers in his academic studies. It didn't occur to most of them that it was because he had nothing to do but read.

Rain fell on the day of his birthday, rather than snow, and he took comfort from it. He was invited to tea with the Queen Dowager, who asked the questions expected of her station and his studies, and seemed distractedly pleased over a boy from whom she expected very little, if anything at all. Just before supper he was dragged before the Master of Scions, along with prince Rickard and four more miscreants, one of them Dane. Everyone ended with punishment duties to go along with their black eyes and bloody lips, but since it was the first time Adam had landed a punch on the older boy, he counted it an improvement and the best birthday gift so far.

[cybermoonmoon]

FB chat with a former listener 'Chris Wedl' to my old radio programs. Hello Chris Wendl. I just received a friend request from your page, asking if this is actually from you. Be well.

Hi Uncle Sidney... you don't know me, but I used to listen to you on BAI during those dark post-9/11 years when WNYC drove me away by cutting out the music, and I felt angry about that, and about violence and jingoism and unnecessary wars... and what could be better for feeding anger than WBAI? Except your show wasn't angry, it was actually uplifting (for those of us who enjoy sarcasm and irony). I was a grad student at the time, so the 1am time slot was perfect for me. The shows I listened to religiously were yours, MORC (I just recently discovered that Bill Weinberg still has a podcast), and Weaponry. I moved away from NYC in 2004 and have wished ever since that I still had the chance to listen to your program once a week. I hope you're doing well.

Hello Chris. Of course we can be friends. I knew there was a listener out there...so it was you! True the station went grim. A few of us tried to keep our humanity...basically by laughing. Sadly, Tom left us 11 years ago, many have left. I retired 10 years ago. Did a pod a few years. Now this and I appear on local radio now and then. Thank you for remembering. I was on air for 34 years. Like I tell my old radio friends '...it was like a long, strange dream'. ...it wasn't but still. I'm impressed at where you are and what you're doing. Hope I helped when you were a student. We have more effect on the world than we know. Which is why we must always be aware and create for the good. Thank you for being out there and welcome to whatever it is I'm doing now. Be well be kind be wise.

"We have more effect on the world than we know"... quite true. Btw, I also was on the radio for a few years, in my youth... WHRB, Harvard radio. I did classical music and some studio engineering. There was a kind of mentor figure there, a native Bostonian named David Elliott, who had been an undergraduate in the 60's and somehow never left the station (we always figured he must be independently wealthy, but no one knew for sure... no one gets paid for working at WHRB).

At a station where most people don't stay more than 4 years, he was the main source of institutional memory and accumulated wisdom. As part of his standard training regime, he gave us a quote that stuck with me, though I can only reproduce it approximately -- I think it came from Edward R. Murrow originally: something like "as broadcasters, we must guard against the temptation to believe that the microphone in front of us makes our words more important than anyone else's". Something many people on BAI should be taking to heart. Anyway, yeah... the internet told me that Tom Wisker is gone now, I miss him too. Glad you're still around!

Hi Chris and thanks for your thoughts and kindness. Tom. He was a very dear kind funny brilliant and wise friend for many years we miss we all miss his unique soul very deeply. As for matters temporal. Indeed Mr. Murrow was most correct. When I taught new producers, I'd take them up to the station's roof. It had a view of the whole City. A wonder an Emerald City. I told them when on the air the were speaking to all they saw and beyond. Their voices were being heard by more than their friends or interest groups. With this dramatic back drop I tried to explain gravity of their responsibility to the truth and objectivity. As always mixed results. Some went on to fine broadcast or arts careers some politics. Two became representatives in State governments. Vermont and New Hampshire. Sadly, as we know others became entrenched in extremist ideologies. A teacher can only guide nudge and hope. I'm sure you're finding this out. However, we must continue in hope. Right, I'm giving sermons...a habit as you remember. A very Happy Holiday Season to you and yours. Be well be kind be brave.

Well yes, I miss your sermons, that's why I reached out.

Take care!

[jade-parcels]

I love your headcanons about Diluc being a father! Based on that post, how would Diluc, Zhongli, Kaeya, Xiao, and Childe as fathers handle it if they found out their child was being bullied? Would they confront the bullies themselves or handle it in a different way?

The dads find out their kid is being bullied

With Diluc, Zhongli, Kaeya, Xiao and Childe

—————————

Diluc:

Something Diluc loves about his job is that most days, he gets to work from home in his office! So when his son gets home from school, he always runs into his office to show him what he learned in class

But today, his son trudged into his office with puffy eyes and tearstained cheeks “I don’t wanna go to school anymore...” Diluc has never dropped his work so fast. He sets everything aside and takes his kiddo to the couch in front of the fireplace to talk

Since you’re all still living in Mondstadt, your kid is going to the same school that Diluc went to. He knows how bratty some of these kids can be since he serves wine to their parents every weekend. This is just unacceptable.

He hugs his boy and tells him that he’ll make the bullying stop. And he does. That night at the tavern, he’ll confront those parents, even threaten to ban them from the Angel’s Share if they don’t correct their kids’ behavior “I will not tolerate your children picking on mine. So until you get them to stop, I’m going to have to cut you off for now”

Let’s just say that the bullying stops faster than he thought it would. Mondstadters are serious about their wine intake 0-0

Zhongli:

Zhongli knows something is wrong the second he steps inside when he gets home from work

His usually energetic girl is sulking in her room instead of running around or doing school work

He’ll change out of his work clothes and go sit on the floor with her “is something bothering you?”

Zhongli may be a chatterbox but he knows how to listen. He’ll sit and listen to everything his daughter has to say, pulling her in for a hug when she starts to cry

He makes sure she knows her feelings are valid, that she doesn’t deserve to be picked on

He also tells her that she can’t let them see her cry “they want you to cry, they want you to feel sad. So if you don’t allow their words to hurt you, they will leave you alone” “really?” “Really. That’s how mean kids think. So if they don’t leave you alone, remember to hold your head high, okay? After school, talk to your teacher about their behavior too” he’s great at making people feel better about themselves :’) he just happens to have thousands of years of experience under his belt lmao

Kaeya:

Kaeya loves getting to pick his daughter up from school! He loves how excited she is to see him and how she happily talks about everything they did in class while they walk home.

But when she hurries outside and hides behind him, sniffling and crying he’s quick to help out

He’ll kneel down to her height and give her his best ‘dad hug’ “What’s the matter, sweetheart? Did something happen today?” “Uh huh...” he’ll sit there on the ground with her while she explains what happened

Since there are plenty of other parents there to get there kids, Kaeya won’t hesitate to approach the parents of the bullies

“Excuse me, you may not know me but it seems that your daughter has been picking on mine. I think she owes her an apology” of course they all know who Kaeya is so he may be using his position with the Knights as leverage...maybe, maybe not lol

He’s not shy. He doesn’t tolerate bullying!! If the roles were reversed, he’d make his kid apologize too.

And since she had a rough day, Kaeya would let her pick what they have for dinner that night just to cheer her up :)

Xiao:

Xiao is not an emotional guy but when his son runs up to him, bawling his little eyes out, he can’t help but feel upset too

He picks him up and tells him to tell him all about this bully at school. Man oh man, it totally breaks Xiao’s heart to hear that cause his kiddo is so cute and well mannered, why would kids pick on him??

Xiao will take him to school early the next day to have a word with his teacher “You need to do something about this. If you don’t talk to these kids or their parents, I will”

Then he’ll kiss his son on the cheek and leave, the teacher is probably freaked out cause if looks would kill, Xiao’s angry glare would have killed them for sure

If the bullying continues he will pay those parents a visit. He won’t be rude but he will be blunt with them, that’s just the way he is “Your style of parenting is repulsive. Do you think it’s okay for your kid to pick on mine? Pathetic”

Once he’s big enough, Xiao will train his kiddo to fight. He would have done this anyway but since he’s been bullied, Xiao thinks that building muscle and learning to fight will be extremely beneficial for him

Childe:

This man....is such a good dad

He’ll do anything to make his kids laugh, anything to make sure they’re never hurt, sad or in danger! To them, he’s the best toy salesman around! And he’s the coolest day they could have! He takes them ice fishing and teaches them archery once their big enough. His kids are always having fun when he’s around

So you can imagine his surprise when you come home with your youngest son and he’s crying his little eyes out

Ajax wants to beat those little shits uo himself, no one makes his kid cry and lives to tell the tale!! That stupid 5 year old will feel his wrath!!....Which is why you have to handle this.

He’s disappointed when you say you’re going to talk to the bully’s parents cause HE wants to do it!! But you both know that if he’s the one to go, those parents will shit their pants in fear

So instead Ajax stays behind with the kids, playing with them and making them laugh. Your son will cheer up right away and probably forget how the other kids were mean to him earlier :) so yeah, you gotta handle bullies and their parents...Ajax is...scary lmao

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Graveyard Siblings (6)

Class revenge. And mention of suicide.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1)(Part 5)

------

Normal class day and most of the class was still together. This is set after the class’s trip to Gotham.

Alix and Chloe had transferred to another class or a different school. There were a few new students but they transferred out within a week, when they all had tried to point out Lila’s lies and the class picked on them on Lila’s behalf.

Class is still taught by Mme. Bustier.

She rolled-calls and somehow Marinette’s name was on there and she just absentmindedly read it.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng”

“Present.” A cheery voice said.

Goes to the next name before everyone froze and looked at the source of the voice which was where they exiled Marinette to before her ‘suicide’.

There she was. An older-looking Marinette who would look the same age as them as if she was still alive, her longer hair was in a high ponytail and her clothes were switched out from her usual pink to red and black and had a more mature look that was stylish instead of cute.

She wore her signature bright grin but the sight of it brought chills down everyone’s spines.

Lila thought that it was her curse kicking in and since she hadn't seen Marinette until then, fainted on the spot, thinking she was finally going to be killed.

“M-ma-marinette. What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean?” Older Marinette said with a confused face. “Oh. You mean why am I not late? First time for everything, I guess. I am not late today so Yay for me.” She giggles but everyone else thinks that it sounds terrifying.

“But this is impossible. You simply can’t be here.” Max said, “Odds of you still alive are zero.”

“Can’t I? I mean I woke up early and got here on time. What is impossible about me being early? I would normally be a zombie during the morning, Max but nice one.”

Some students checked their phones for akumas. Hawkmoth had mysteriously disappeared around Marinette’s death making a few rumours about Marinette being Hawkmoth floating around. (Lila was the first to suggest that as a theory.)

Mme Bustier cleared her throat, terrified out of her mind and scared that if she provoked the ‘ghost’ of her former star student, there would be consequences like the horror movies. But she was not going to let it hurt any of her students.

“Marinette, there must have been a misunderstanding. You should be home.”

“Why?’

“Because um...you are... you are sick and you don’t want to infect your fellow classmates, right?”

“Hm..I feel fine but now that you mention it, I feel a little dizzy. I think I am going to take the day off.”

The rest of the class murmured in agreement, scared not to offend the ‘ghost’. A few of the girls like Mylene had tears running down their cheeks. Horror movies logic dictates that you should not remind the ghost that they are dead or make them angry.

Juleka was half-scared out of her mind for Rose who was also crying and herself and also half-excited, even though Marinette might be a vengeful ghost, there is still a ghost in their classroom.

Mme Bustier started muttering prayers under her breath.

Marinette packed up her things and was out of her seat when Adrien came into the class.

He was held up because he started sneezing non-stop this morning. Turns out Natalie had some black feathers on her.

He sees Marinette in the back row.

“Ma-Marinette! How are you here?!” to which everyone in the class sans Lila who was still passed out, shushed at him.

Ignoring them, he blurted out, “You are dead.”

The word echoed through the classroom. It was silent for a moment and you could hear a pin drop.

“Dead? What do you mean dead?” Marinette took a step down the stairs, the perfect picture of confusion but her eyes seemed a little crazed and Adrien took a step back, the word ‘Traitor’ carved into his back started burning.

Everyone in their seats shifted slightly away from her. Some considered making a run for the door but they didn’t want to draw attention and face the ghost’s wrath. They all mimed at Adrien to stop.

He ignored them again. “Don’t pretend you are innocent. You did this to me. YOU MADE ME LOSE EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD. I DON’T REGRET KILLING YOU FOR THE HORRIBLE PERSON YOU ARE, LADYBUG. YOU DESERVED TO DIE FOR WHAT YOU DID.”

Realizing what he said, he covered his mouth, hoping it would somehow fix the damage he had done.

Marinette smirked. The picture of innocence gone.

It took a moment for what Adrien’s outburst meant to register in their heads.

Adrien, in an attempt to get back into their good graces, had once claimed to be Chat Noir, the ‘hero’ of Paris. They had brushed him off. If what he had said was correct then that meant that they drove Marinette who was Ladybug to kill herself. Horrible realization sets in as it meant that Hawkmoth won.

Lila chose that moment to came back to the land of the living to scream bloody murder once she saw Marinette again.

The scream brought everyone out of their trance from their shock and started screaming or yelling.

The windows slammed open and the wind whipped. The doors of the classroom closed shut with a loud bang. The clouds were dark outside and there were some flashes of lighting and thunder. (Thank you Longg.)

Marinette’s hair was undone and whipped around her. Her eyes were glowing blue. As she started laughing at the chaos she had unleashed, the class and Mme Bustier ducked for cover and hid under their desks. Except for Adrien and Lila.

Lila, fueled by anger, pounced at the ravenette but was thrown against the classroom wall before she even had a chance to lay a hand. Fell down and appeared to be knocked out. Alya made a move to check up on her.

Adrien was thrown back against the floor when the strong winds started. The scars on his back were burning with a lot of intensity now and it was a miracle that he still hasn’t passed out from the pain.

Unknown to him, the words were glowing red and seen through his shirt. Mme Bustier, Nino, Sabrina and Nathaniel were the few that saw the bright red letters spelling out ‘TRAITOR’ on Adrien’s back as he got back up.

“Marinette, this isn’t you. Milady, please.”

“Shut up.” She flicked her wrist, sending Adrien against the teacher’s desk. He hit it hard and was knocked out like Lila.

Alya after making sure that Lila was fine. “Marinette, stop this. I know that you are probably mad at Adrien for killing you but we never did anything to you.”

“Never did anything?! Never did anything? Hah. What about the time that you slapped me in the face in front of the entire school and said our friendship was over? You called me names. You said that I deserve every bruise you gave me. The rest of you weren’t any better.” She turned around and with the flick of her wrist, the heavy desks were in the air, robbing anyone of a hiding place.

“You stood by and allowed it to happen. You destroyed my stuff, claiming I deserve it. My sketchbook, filled with commissions, torn and stepped on like trash. You all crossed a line that Chloe didn’t even dare and you call it the right thing to do. Hypocrites all of you. Some of you have known me since l'école primaire. What was it about me that you believed her over me?! ”

What happened next was all a blur to everyone, there was a lot of screaming involved, some blood, lightning and thunder everywhere and then, black.

Nino opened his eyes to see Alya peacefully sleeping on her desk. What happened?...Oh Crap I fell asleep. The last thing I remember was….MARINETTE!

Nino snapped his head up. And saw the rest of the class and Mme. Bustier asleep in their respective places.

But there was a sense of wrongness. Something was off... and he can’t pinpoint on what.

The bell rang, startling everyone awake. Nino checked the time. And crap did they all sleep through the first period?! Turning towards his now-awake girlfriend, “Hey Alya, Alya, what do you remember?”

He was surprised to see red eyes like she had been crying. “I- I- I had the weirdest dream. Marinette was there, like she never died and she… why are you looking at me like that?”

“Don’t freak out but I don’t think it was a dream.”

On the rooftop, above the classroom, a red clad figure lounged at the edge with her airpods in and chuckling to herself.

-----

Marinette didn’t torture them. Scared the hell out of them, sure but it was harmless. Mostly. She left carved words on everyone’s wrists which no one else but the class can see. (This one is more mental than anything.)

The scars are unique depending on how close they were to Marinette before she died. Most of the class had the word ‘friend’ crossed out. FRIEND

Nino and Kim had Childhood friends. It serves as a painful reminder of how long they had known the girl.

Alya was a special case with BEST FRIEND and ‘A good reporter always checks her sources’ underneath it. She remembers saying those words to Marinette a long time ago, back when she thought she knew Marinette.

Mme Busitier had Best Teacher and when she was in the comfort of her own home, saw ‘Bully Enabler’ on her other wrist.

Adrien and Lila were questioned as they weren’t the only ones with scars on their wrists. (Although Lila had LIAR written in big letters across her forehead with a sharpie and a drawn-on-moustache of a cartoon villain.)

Nino managed to get the class to back off on Adrien and later to pull him aside to explain about the scars on his back and why did Ladybug (who was apparently Marinette this whole time and she was dead... he thinks.) called him ‘Traitor’?

Adrien told Nino everything. The curse didn’t interfere so for the first time in months, Adrien was able to say the truth.

-----

That was also the day that Lila’s reign finally ended.

The class had suspected for a while about her lies and false promises. There were a few inconsistencies in the beginning that were overlooked and brushed off as Lila’s memory problems.

They all had for the first two years had defended Lila against anyone (mainly Marinette) who thought she was a liar. Lila herself made sure that her lies were believable, actually putting in research for once in her life and planting evidence here and there about her achievements with a few faked articles. They staunchly believed her lies until Marinette’s death.

With her main enemy finally down and everyone else who opposed her, lost their morale along with their ally, Lila stopped putting in the efforts to make her lies seem real and then the cracks of her kingdom began forming.

At first, the students of Mme Bustier class believed them but the stories soon seemed like bragging but they were too polite to point it out to their ‘nice’ and ‘shy’ classmates.

Lila began making mistakes from her lack of research and a few of them later pointed out the few inconsistencies but they were brushed off as memory lapses.

More and more of these ‘memory lapses’ happened more often and soon, most of the class had their suspicion of Lila.

They were just in denial of Lila lying to them.

A few like Max, Nathaniel, Juleka and Sabrina who finally find out that Lila was lying and confront her about it were threatened and they were too afraid to do anything.

After all, Marinette had tried to disprove them and look where she is now. Six feet under.

And the ‘ghost attack’ from Marinette was the final straw.

The class tried to help Lila get rid of the sharpie, especially the one on her forehead and Alya made a comment how it was so typical of Marinette despite being dead and some half-heartedly agreeing.

Max, frustrated that his friends still can’t see it that Lila is a liar and they were the ones who drove Marinette to death that she is now haunting them and it was all their fault, took out his detailed research to disprove Lila’s lies. Nathaniel, Sabrina and Juleka spoke up and brought out their own research. The seeds of doubts which had been planted the past years were finally sprouting

A while later, the entire class was in chaos, everyone was shouting at Lila, some of them were shouting at Adrien, Alya being in complete denial and Mme. Bustier trying to maintain the peace.

Unknown to them, the camera in the classroom was being live streamed to a screen in a room in Le Grand Paris, complete with audio as a group of teenagers watched the chaos unfold.

“You know.” Chloe said, “I thought it was hilarious when you went all bloody mary on them but this shit is way more entertaining.”

Maria smiled, satisfaction on her face as she snatched some popcorn from Alix. “Oh, I had fun. Took years but Lila is finally getting what is coming to her. In about an hour, Signora Rossi is going to come through the door with the police.”

“What did you do, M?”

“Let’s just say the Italian Embassy and the French Police got an anonymous tip this morning about Lila Rossi and the incidents following her around the schools she had attended in the past couple of years.”

“No..” Alix gasped.

Maria just smirked.

-----

Gabriel was freaking out when Adrien came home and told him about what happened to his class.

He did not need another ghost attack on top of everything else.

First, Afterlife had managed to steal some (read: a lot) of Gabriel’s investors and Gabriel’s shares were plummeting.

Secondly, there were a few important documents leaked onto the internet, showing a few suspicious purchases which had the brand and himself under scrutiny.

Third, Natalie told him about her recent condition which occurs during the night and raised a few suspicious glances from Emilie when there was a raven in the house while Gabriel wanted to see proof of this transformation.

Lastly, Emilie had been poking around about the years she was in her coma and it was sheer luck that she hadn't found out about Hawkmoth and connected the dots.

He called up John again to complain that it didn’t work and asked for a refund or face a lawsuit. John pointed out that the spell only worked in the house and kept ghosts out of it and other places were free game.

Needless to say, Gabriel pulled Adrien out of school to be homeschooled again and made sure Emilie stayed inside, no matter what.

The longer Natalie stayed as a raven, the whiter Gabriel’s head of hair became and he was beginning to lose hair at a very fast rate.

----

(Part 7)

I swear I didn't mean to forget tagging you guys.

Taglist: @local-witch-of-mn, @ladyqnoirr, @lolieg, @istoleyourcookies

[chipper-smol]

Hollow Knight Telephone Round Two: Babysitter SL

Prompt: Shade (lord) is in the midst of final exams and they’re more stressed and tired than usual while babysitting. They accidentally fall asleep in the middle of a calm spell and the god babies become worried. The next time Shade comes over, all of the god babies present a gift they all made together!

By @minnesotamidian-blog​

Shade barely noticed their surroundings as they entered the nursery playroom. Plastic clattered and they sighed as Radiance yelled at the top of her lungs. At least she wasn't screaming. Yet. The scene was set: Unn was still in a crib and chewing on a bar, Root was climbing slowly onto a chair. Radiance was knocking over plastic blocks as Grimm cackled away. For once, Wyrm was playing peacefully with a kick toy, batting at it with his tail. Root got onto the chair and squealed, raising her arms. "Big Root now!" The little blue-eyed godling squeaked out.

Shade picked her up, hugged her to their chest before holding her out. "Now you're a flying Root."

She screamed laughter as Shade tiredly walked her around the room before setting her down near some of her favorite toys. They made sure nobody else had claimed the chair and took a seat, bending over to pick up the fussy moth. "Ancient enemy!" Of course she bit their hand.

Shade winced and just ran a hand over her fluff. "Are you hungry for something that isn't void?" They spoke tiredly.

"Oranges!" She yelled out.

The teen sighed as he went to the mini-fridge with snacks and found some miracle of miracles! pre-peeled oranges. Shade pulled them out and put her in a high chair with one at a time so she wouldn't be tempted to throw the extras at them.

Finals were here and they were really taking it out of the gangly god. Why did they have to know stuff about inorganic chemistry? Why did they have to know about history nobody cared about? There were some fun subjects, but the finals seemed to even suck the fun out of those classes, going over notes and studying everything just in case. They'd been pulling long nights and the night before had been an all-night cram session-and they still had to come to work, they couldn't afford not to. They'd underlined all the stuff the teacher had said was important to remember and had written down stuff from the last finals about each teacher's usual tests.

It made narrowing down what to study from impossible to I'm totally toast. They groaned as they set down a calmer Radiance the opposite side of the room from Wyrm. She found toys that interested her, at least. Root wandered over to Wyrm, who was really into knocking at the kick toy and purring. Root settled nearby and burbled as she hugged and gnawed a plushie.

The teen couldn't help it. The kids were calm for once; their head started to tilt forward, eyes heavy. They were exhausted. Shade's eyes closed and their breathing deepened. At first, their toys were too interesting to notice their babysitter's state; but it didn't take long for Grimm to get bored enough to fly over and notice. "...Shade? Shade's eyes are closed." They landed and the four children not in a crib headed for the batlike godling.

"Is Shade dead?" Wyrm sounded worried.

"Don't be stupid, they're having a nap!" Radiance huffed.

Root looked up and swayed before patting Shade's leg. "Grown-ups don't have nap times." She was tearing up.

"Nuh-uh, they're having bad dreams and it's tasty!" Grimm clamored onto their lap.

The others joined, Radiance grabbing Unn to join them on the sleeping teen. Grimm rested between Shade's horns, Unn was on one shoulder, Radiance on the other, with Root and Wyrm curled up together on Shade's lap, Wyrm purring for once.

When Shade woke up, they were surprised by the weight on their body and forced themself to look down and around before moving. "Uh oh, I fell asleep… sheesh, I'm glad this place isn't a fiery disaster." They picked the godlings up. "You're not dead!" Wyrm exclaimed.

Root burst into tears and even Grimm joined in on the crying spat. Shade sighed and spent the rest of the time comforting them until meal time and settled them down. Time to go home for them all!

But the worry didn't leave the heads of the little godlings. "We should make something for Shade. If they're having nightmares, they might be sad." Radiance sighed. "But that doesn't mean I feel bad for my ancient enemy!" "What do we make?" Root twirled around, slowly turning in place until she fell onto pillows in her dizziness.

"Something of clay! I can burn it dry!" Grimm hopped around.

"But there's no clay." Unn spoke slowly, thoughtfully. "But there's crayons and paper."

"Oooh. We can make a pretty picture for Shade!" Wyrm waved his head happily. The group went for papers and each started to draw on the paper. "You're taking up too much paper!" Wyrm whined.
Radiance complained in turn, pointing at the color he was using. "I want that color!"

Wyrm growled and argued back. "I had it first!"

They started rolling around over their drawings, biting and clawing. Grimm gave a solid scream that startled the two. "You ruined Shade's pretty pictures!" He yelled.

The two looked at each other and hung their heads. "...sorry." Radiance muttered.
"-'m sorry." Wyrm looked away from the moth, skulking. "Start again? You can have the crayon, Radiance…"

Radiance took the crayon and they all picked up the last piece of paper. "I think this is better." Root spoke cheerfully.

It was three days later, once Shade had a solid night's sleep and finals completed that they'd returned to work. A large construction sheet of paper in grey covered in scribbles and rough names and messages was waiting for them.

Feel better soon Shade

Love you

Best babysitter

Tastiest nightmare!

Not the worst anciant ancient enemy.Shade could only feel warmth and laugh, hugging the drawing to themself. There were some days the job felt like the best thing in the world.  ------------------------------- By @tomatotimes

-------------------------------

By @loud-whistling-yes

"No."

The kids protested louder. Shade lifted the TV remote higher up, now above their head.

"Screentime's over, I said no."

Wyrm attempted to crawl up their leg in what was a rather pathetic attempt at stealing the remote, but was promptly shaken off. Grimm tried next, flying overhead to snatch the controller. Shade ducked and grabbed him by the tail before he could send himself flying straight towards the ceiling fan for the third time that day.

"Find something else to do," Shade said as they stuffed the remote deep into their pocket, much to everyone else's dismay. "Look, as much as I'd love to shut you guys up for the whole day, you've all been staring at the TV for hours now and I don't want to get in trouble with your parents."

Louder complaints.

"No, no, no. I am not cracking this time." Shade announced as they pulled Radi, who was hissing like an angry cat, off their jeans and pulled their phone out. "You guys got me last week, never again. No more TV for you, we're doing something else before I lose my money for tonight. Google almighty, what is your suggestion."

activities to do with children

fun activities to do with children

activities to do with toddlers

what can I do with kids that isn't a major headache to deal with goddamnit

Go to the park? Shade took about half a second to consider the thought before wondering why they even thought it was possible anyways. Five kids from the deepest depths of hell, outdoors? No. No park.

Finger painting? A pain to clean up, but better than outdoors. Then they looked up from their phone and considered the idea with greater thought. Grimm's wings, Radi's legs, Unn and Wyrm's… er…. Body?.... Nevermind.

Play pretend? …. If they hear the name Hallownest one more time they might just go insane.

Hide and seek? No. No no no no no. No more hide and seek. Shade was utterly sick of hide and seek. If they had to spend another second stuffed inside the closet or trying to get Radi off the roof they'll probably quit the job right there and then.

Baking?

… That might work. Sure, cleaning up is gonna be absolute hell but it's the only thing Google suggested that they haven't tried yet without horrible results.

Shade stuffed their phone back into their pocket and made a getaway to the kitchen, everyone else following, probably still trying to get the remote back. Butter, eggs, flour, sugar, oh, even some chocolate chips…

"Well then," They declared, pulling every ingredient out of the cabinet and fridge. "We're making cookies! And no, no one is allowed to touch the oven when it's hot. If you guys behave we'll have cookies in like, an hour or something like that."

The kids watched in confusion as Shade ran around the kitchen, pulling out bowls and spoons and a bunch of other utensils while typing furiously on their phone.

Cookies recipe

Cookies recipe easy

Cookies recipe for beginners

Cookies recipe for kids

"What do you guys think about chocolate chip cookies?"

Multiple chitters of approval. "Chocolate chip cookies it is then."

Step one: sieve the flour. Oh wyrm, first step and it's already gonna go to shit.

"Okay, you guys can watch this but for the love of the holy wyrm, do not touch it." Shade measured the correct amount of flour before scooping Wrym and Unn off the floor onto the table so they could see while Radi pulled herself onto the chair. The Lady had already clinged herself onto their sweater and Grimm was doing just fine flying nearby.

“You guys get one chocolate chip each if you guys behave and don’t get flour everywhere.” Shade added. “Now, Lady, hold still and don’t move, I gotta keep my hands steady for this…”

************

"Okay, chocolate chip time." Shade popped open the jar of chocolate as the kids cheered. "Actually, we’re not supposed to be eating this plain, cause it's going into the cookies. But no one actually does that so you guys get five chips each for not setting the kitchen on fire so far."

"The recipe says a cup of chocolate chips but we all know that's a lie." They added while shoving their phone back in their pocket and grabbing a handful of chips before mixing the batter together. "I'm probably not someone you should take life lessons from, but here's one thing I can guarantee you should take to heart: never follow the recipe when it comes to chocolate chips, you count that with your soul."

Final step: oven time. The oven was preheated earlier, and the only thing left was to get the cookies into the tray and into the oven. "Now, who wants to make heart-shaped cookies?"

****************

Three deformed stars, five mutated trees, two malformed cats, several irregular hearts, a couple handfuls of chocolate eaten straight from the jar, and one (1) perfectly round cookie later, the cookies were on the tray, in the oven, and in a surprising turn of events, no one burned themselves… yet. Shade grabbed everyone and made sure no one was in a five-meter radius within the oven before picking up all the dirty bowls and utensils. “Cookies will have to sit in there for about 15 minutes, we’ll be cleaning up in the meantime.”

“Don’t look at me like that, and no whining, if you want cookies you gotta deal with the mess afterwards. That's the payoff, unless you're a wizard who has a passion for baking. Then that's fair, I guess." They dumped all the used utensils they could find and turned on the sink. The sief, three bowls, tablespoons and teaspoons.. Oh wait.

"Radi, the big wooden spoon, please?" Shade called, sponge in their hand and bowls being thoroughly rinsed.

Radi, of course, was not willing to help, because she's basically a feral house cat that just so happened to grow more legs than the average feline. Shade sighed and moved on to finding the next helper they could find.

"Grimm, I know you're touching the oven, stop it. I'm pretty sure you're immune to fire but not everyone else and you're setting a bad example for them. Get me the spoon please."

“Lady, here’s a cloth, help me dry the bowls up. Wyrm, … i have no idea how you can help, no limbs and all but uh, could you go get Unn? I have no idea where she went. Thanks.” The last sentence was to Grimm, who flew over with the mixing spoon and dropped it into the sink while Wyrm scurried away to find Unn, wherever she’s napping at.

"Radi? Radi, I know you're right behind me, stop pretending that you can't hear me. Lady has an extra cloth with her, you're on table wiping duty."

*********

“See? That wasn't so bad,” Shade sent the last of the bowls back into the cupboards and closed it shut. “And the cookies are pretty much done.”

“Also, no. You may not eat the cookies the moment I pull them out of the oven. These rules also apply to Grimm because it's unfair to everyone else.. Don’t look at me like that Grimm, I know you’ll eat them all before they cool and leave us nothing.”

The cookies smelt delicious, and were left on the dining table to cool. “Now that it's cooling down, it's naptime.”

A chorus of groans and wailing.

“It’ll be ready when you guys get up. Up up up, sleep time.”

**********

If you’ve been anywhere near toddlers before, you’d know that getting them to nap in their bedrooms is a near-impossible situation. And Shade was not a person who deals with near-impossible situations well. So following the months old custom, Shade turned on the tv, remote miraculously not pickpocketed, collapsed onto the couch, and waited for everyone piling on them to fall asleep before moving them into their bedroom and pretending they managed to wrangle them all into bed.

And it all goes to plan, the Lady and Wyrm were sound asleep on their lap, Radi and Unn were dozing off on their shoulders, and they're pretty sure the snoring from the top of their head was coming from Grmm. Now, step 2: get everyone off them and onto the beds.

… Or maybe later. It's been a long day, and the couch is pretty comfy. Yeah, just five more minutes, nothing wrong with that…

And if the parents came home to see a cleaner-than-expected kitchen, a tray of chocolate chip cookies, and five kids snoring on top of their babysitter, also sound asleep, then that’s nobody’s business.

And if the originally completely full jar of chocolate chips was pretty much empty, then that’s no one’s business as well.

-------------------------------

By @astronomicartz​

-------------------------------

By @hollow-kin​

Shade lord wanted to take a nap. They are sooo tired, but they are babysitting 5 baby gods for 5$/H. Grimm is a brat, Radiance his sister is also a brat. Unn was ether eating or seeping, same with grub1. Lady was, well sweet and cuddly. they needed to find a distraction for the kids, what would work?

Would tv work, would cartoons work? They had dinner already. Tv had to work or grub and radiance would destroy the house. They needed to take a nap. Now what to watch was a different question, they would have to ask the kids. “so, what do guys want to watch? “Movie!” well they were all in agreement, what was good. “What kind of movie do you guys want to watch?” “Fire!” “dath” “animal” “tree” “ok. No, we are NOT watching fire.” “awww” “i do not know what dath means so no. So nature show it is then.” they go over to the tv and turn it on, then select the world around us. Lady was quick to fall asleep, on their lap. Shade lord slowly fell asleep, and grub nested between grub and shade lord. Grimm climed up to shade lord's head. 

-------------------------------

By @hawaiianbabidoll

-------------------------------

By @neoliberalsatan

A gentle darkness surrounded the shade lord. He finally felt at ease. "finally", he thought, "rest." it didn't take long after that before the darkness started to take shape and a whole new world created out of shadows sheathed him.

But the happiness of the shadows didn't last long. A new and a new sound drowned out their world and all the animals and plants took to hiding back in his head. The shade lord felt the distressed creations stir inside his mind and woke up to the sound of his phone ringing. He rubbed his lowest eyes and accepted the call

"Hello, with shade lord. How can i help you?" "Oh sorry dear, i know it's terribly late but we got an unexpected call and need to leave. Since you've babysat Unn multiple times we assumed she would like to stay with you. Is it okay for you? Can we bring her to your place?" The shade lord thought for a moment and decided he could use the money. "Yea it's fine, she's always such a pleasure to babysit." The voice on the other side sounded relieved. "Thank you. You're a life saver. We will make sure you're compensated accordingly."

Feeling a bit more awake after the phone call he started to prepare for having baby Unn over. After a while her parents arrived and after some greetings he was home alone with the baby. He walked with her in his arms towards the living room and placed her gently inside the crib. She opened her eyes for a moment after losing the feeling of someone holding her, but then closed them again and fell back asleep.

The shade lord decided he couldn't sleep anymore and made some popcorn and decided to put on a movie. It didn't even take 20 minutes before he got called again.

"Hello, with shade lord. How can i help you?" "Oh yes finally someone who answers. Sorry but you're our last hope. We were going somewhere tonight but our babysitter called off. Do you think you could babysit our lovely Radiance? She's very good behaved and won't cause you trouble." "yea, no problem. You'll just need to bring her to my place if it's no trouble"

Not even 5 minutes later the parents showed up and dropped of their larva. Shade lord looked at it a bit confused but didn't get the time to say anything because the parents left as soon as they handed her over. He closed his front door and gave the larva a good look. She was white and had a fluffy appearance. She had 5 pairs of legs and yellow-orange eyes. She started to writhe a little bit and shade lord made sure to hurry to the living room. He took a pillow and placed it on the couch and softly laid her on it. She seemed at ease and rested on the pillow all stretched out

Shade lord continued his movie, which was finally starting to get interesting, but as usual the commercial break hit. He was in the kitchen making more popcorn when he got another call.

"Hello, with shade lord. How can i help you?" "Hello, is this the babysitter?" "Yes, that's the one you're speaking with." "Great, a family member had an accident and i need to be there for them so do you think you could babysit for me?" "Yep, totally." "Thank you, can we bring him to you?" "Oh yea, no problem."

A few minutes later his doorbell rang and he hurried towards it. The father carried his toddler in what could only be described as wing-esque appendages. The shade lord extended his arms for the man to put his toddler in and felt a gentle brush of the leathery membrane. He shivered lightly before feeling a sudden warmth light up in his face, like someone has started a fire. When he looked back up the man was gone and he closed the door. The creature he was holding in his arms was unlike anything he had ever seen. 2 horns sprouted from its black head. The face was as bleak as white linen on a summer day. It seems she likes make-up because she had already 2 black lines running from her cheeks towards her eyes, eventually fading into the darkness of her head. She had the same membranes as her father and no limbs besides it.

He wasn’t even in the living room before he heard his front door being was under siege. He put the weird creature down and opened the front door. Immediately he was assaulted by Hollow, a very energetic child. He was wearing a green cloak today and it finally seemed he was starting to grow bigger than a hand. His horns has also branched into the inside. Immediately after Hollow jumped on his he could hear Pale complain about his unprofessional work attitude. Although he was bigger than most it seems he wouldn’t grow much anymore. His tiny stature didn’t discourage him from being bossy. Finally White entered. By far the biggest of the bunch, she was also the most introverted. Her roots slid elegantly over towards him and even managed to stop Pale from talking for a moment.

He took them inside the living room only to find that somehow the larva and the winged creature had somehow gotten into a fight and now both were in hiding in opposite sides of the room. Normally he wouldn’t make such a big deal out of this if somehow his couch wasn’t full of tiny needles and a chair was on fire. He rushed to the tap to fill a bowl of water to extinguish the little fire. With the attention being diverted Hollow managed to slip from the watch of Pale and could now be found in the corner Radiance was hiding. The larva figured out quickly he liked to play games and had soon enough set up a plan to make him betray Pale.

In the meantime White had climbed the couch and started pulling out the needles while Shade lord had figured out what the membrane between the appendages from the weird creature were for. Namely, for flight. And now she was attacking his horns and he couldn’t reach her. As if her flying was not good enough alone, whenever he raised his arms she would back off and launch a little fireball  All this commotion woke up baby Unn who slowly started to slither away from her crib to find food.

The shade lord finally had enough of the little fire hazard and rushed towards the pantry to get a kettle. Once he had found it he peeked around the corner only to find that fire hazard eating his popcorn! All caution was thrown aside and he grabbed her by the guts and put her inside the kettle. She tried to heat it but he added some water to it. While it evaporated quickly it was apparently enough to bring over the message. Now he could focus his attention back on the larva again, only she could’ve produced those needles, which White was making great progress with removing them as a quick glance told him.

Now back to Pale and Radiance who were apparently having a fight (Darkness, that larva really has a talent to provoke others). They were arguing near the coffee table, because apparently they wanted a fight so bad they just ran to each other and met in the middle. Hollow was climbing one of the legs of the table, but wasn’t noticed by the shade lord because he was too occupied with the other 2. He tried to separate the arguing pair but they were at each other’s throats. They even had summoned a needle and a tiny dagger to fight each other. The shade lord obviously didn’t count on this tiny factor and had soon enough one in each hand. He screamed, trying not to curse, barely not failing miserably, and Pale managed to escape. In any other situation this wouldn’t pose a problem, but Hollow, after eating some popcorn, found himself at the right edge of the coffee table and pulled out his tiny wooden sword he got from Pale. The larva, Darkness curse her, used this to her advantage and made the sign to Hollow to betray Pale. The act of betraying Pale involved jumping off of the coffee table and hitting Pale as hard on the head as possible. Naturally, all of this went according to plan and even brought some extra spectacle. After Hollow had hit Pale on the head he wasn’t prepared for the recoil of the wood and ended up hitting himself in the face.

All of this lead to 3 crying children (1 of them from laughing, the others from pain) and 1 very angry young adult. He put the larva on the couch and took care of the others while White held a close eye on the damned 10 legged thing. After Pale and Hollow weren’t crying anymore he took the little fire hazard out of the kettle and continued his movie, which was getting to an end.

After the film ended a documentary started and had all the kids hooked. He went to check on Unn only to find an empty crib. He could however see a slimy trail lead up his wall and onto the ceiling. It went through the door into the pantry where he kept his food and toys for the toddlers. He looked up on the ceiling only to find a sleepy Unn with a letter block in her mouth. Suddenly Unn started to make a very weird noise and fell from the ceiling onto his face. He swiped her off of his face onto his shoulder and then washed it.

He returned back to the tv to watch the documentary that was still playing and plopped down on the couch. Not long after he was asleep with White on his left shoulder, Unn on his right shoulder, the little fire hazard on the same arm and Pale curled up in his lap. Radiance and hollow were still awake but occupied with the documentary instead of causing trouble. After the documentary ended they crawled up against his sides and fell asleep.

-------------------------------

By @constantlost 

-------------------------------

By @bugbeee

Exhaustion seeped into Shadelord’s body, limbs weighed down by a heaviness they hadn’t experienced in a while. The smatter of godlings that lay around them on the couch, or on them in Radi’s case, was enough to convince them that they had died and that this was the Eternal Void that was created to punish them for cheating on that test in the 8th grade. In their defence, it had been on rock sedimentation.

Wyrm continued his grumbling from the corner of the couch, still infuriated by the attack on his person only moments before. Root, the aggressor, looked remarkably pleased with herself. Shade knew they should probably punish her further in some way but... well, to be perfectly honest, they simply were not paid enough to do so.

They really should have charged more. Fifteen dollars at least per tiny demon they had to look after rather than the whole bunch. Fifteen dollars was not enough to encourage discipline. It was enough for them to make sure none of the godlings killed the other. And they had thought they had come up with an ingenious plan to secure some peace and quiet.

After much wrangling, they had finally managed to set up two separate playpens, each far enough away that the godlings wouldn’t start screaming if one of them saw their rival. Wyrm and Root in one pen, Grimm, Radi and Unn in another. It was a gamble, but one that thankfully seemed to have paid off. Radi was still exhausted from the tussle she had just had with Wyrm, and Grimm seemed content to chew off the heads of the plastic Garbies they had found. Unn continued to watch, and occasionally helped Grimm execute a Garbie in a spectacular manner. It was both reassuring, and beyond disturbing. Root and Wyrm meanwhile were cheerfully ignoring each other as they both played with their own toys.

It should have been foolproof.

Unfortunately for Shade however, they were dealing with infants instead of fools.

For some damned reason, Root had decided that now was the perfect time to act up, instead of being the sweet little darling she had been so far. Her target, much to their dismay, had been Wyrm. In all fairness, the godling had probably deserved it in some way; most likely he had tried to worm too close in order to steal some of the grubpaste and mushroom sticks Shade had left out as a snack. Root had seen this theft as a cardinal sin, and had subsequently decided that Wyrm deserved nothing less than absolute annihilation.

The momentary doze Shade had managed to fall into was abruptly interrupted by loud shrieking and wailing, resulting in them vaulting over the couch to hurriedly find out which one of the godlings was being tortured.

The scene that greeted them was... well, it wasn’t any less ridiculous than some of the other stuff the little goblins had pulled before.

Using her flexible tendrils, Root had seen fit to wrap them around Wyrm, and aggressively dunk him into the bowl of grubpaste he had attempted to steal from. His shrieks and hisses had woken up Radi and drawn the attention of the other children, who were now cheering on Root’s attack on Wyrm’s person.

“Enough,” Shade declared, shooting a glare behind them, “Root, let him go.” Root looked up innocently.

No, she seemed to say with her eyes, justice must prevail.

“Justice won’t get me my fifteen dollars,” they hissed out in return, and they could have sworn that Root shrugged, turning away from them to dunk Wyrm into the bowl yet again.

“No!” they cried out, quickly whipping down to grab the poor child before he could be further humiliated. After finally being saved from his vicious tormentor, Wyrm decided it was time to go into hysterics, lashing out with a sharp tail to fully show his displeasure. Root simply watched impassively as the rest of the children cheered.

Shade wondered if fifteen dollars was even worth it at this point.

“Alright, alright, enough! Root, you go in time out. We do not waterboard our fellow godlings in grubpaste. Wyrm, calm down, it’s just grubpaste- Settle down!” they yelped out, flinching as something heavy settled onto their head. The soft fluff revealed that Radi had decided to fly out of her pen and taunt Wyrm in person. Shade wanted to sob with frustration.

The door cracked open, and Ghost peered in, head tilted curiously.

Need help? they signed, and Shade wanted to collapse in relief.

“Please,” they begged, and their sibling nodded grimly, even as amusement danced in their eyes. Shucking off their school backpack, they quickly headed over to the other pen and signed to them, bobbing their head up and down in a soothing motion. Grimm and Unn were entranced. Radi less so. She remained seated on their head, but at least seemed to have finally stopped provoking Wyrm.

“I’m just going to clean him up,” Shade explained uselessly, watching as Ghost simply nodded and waved them off. 

With a tired gait, Shade wandered into the kitchen and turned on the tap, listening as Wyrm’s panicked yelps grew louder at the realisation of what was going to happen next. Radi snickered softly, before leaping off and gliding back into the living room.

Bath time, according to the godlings, was a fate worse than death, and something to be avoided at all cost.

Unfortunately for both Wyrm and Shade, it was a necessary evil. Wyrm disagreed. Loudly. And with claws.

He howled furiously as Shade slowly lowered him into the warm water, softly scrubbing at the now-dried grubpaste sticking to his skin. Despite his attempts, Wyrm failed to prevent them from continuing his bath. He turned to pathetic pleading instead, making soft mewling sounds as though he was nothing more than a poor innocent child who had done nothing wrong, ever.

Shade, who remembered the little bastard knocking a glass ornament onto their head, was not convinced. Ultimately there was no escape, and Wyrm reluctantly gave in to the soft scrubbing, though he made sure his rumbling complaints were known.

“Yes, yes,” Shade said quietly, “I truly am the worst. Close your eyes so I can rinse you.”

Wyrm, in a dumb act of defiance, did not close his eyes. The hysterics started again, and Shade contemplated drowning themself in the half-filled sink. Fifteen dollars, they repeated. Fifteen dollars.

Grabbing a tea towel, they quickly dried the godling off, carefully teasing out water droplets from soft scales. He child gnawed on their fingers in revenge. “I’m done,” they announced, wandering back into the living room with a now clean, and furious, Wyrm.

Ghost looked up from their position on the floor, back leaning against the couch as they played with Grimm. Radi immediately perked up at the sound of Shade’s voice, and quickly flew over, making herself at home on top of their head. Unn seemed to have decided to undertake the momentous task of scaling up the back of the couch, leaving a thick trail of slime behind. Root, still stuck in her pen as punishment, let out a wail, demanding to be let out.

Shade was all out of energy to fight back or deal with a tantrum.

“Alright, alright, out you go,” they muttered, depositing Wyrm on the couch before reaching down to lift out the petulant child from her terrible prison. She clung to them desperately until they finally collapsed on the sofa. She quickly wriggled out of their hold and instead plonked down beside them. Wyrm had hissed at the sight of her, and slunk to the other side of the couch to sulk.

Grimm let out a raspy cackle at the sight, before diving down to nip at Ghost’s fingers.

Unn finally made her way to the top of the couch and waved her eyestalks victoriously. All Shade could do was give her a tired pat.

They sank into the couch, the exhaustion creeping back in. It should have been foolproof.

Fifteen dollars.

-------------------------------

By @arandoskeleartist​

[jujutsu-headcanons]

Gojo Satoru general headcanons

Let's get one thing clear: this man is absolutely chaotic. He is always full of energy. His energy levels never reach below 50%. He is loud and proud, always running, and never takes a minute to relax.

Do not give him Monster. Shoko did that once and it took her forever to get him off the ceiling. Also, avoid caffeine. Shoko replaces his normal coffee with decaf and he still hasn't noticed the difference. Keep it that way.

He was the class clown when he was younger. He wasn't exactly a trouble maker, but he may as well be. I cannot word that sentence and I am sorry. Next.

All of his teachers assumed he never listened in class, so they always called in him when they thought he wasn't paying attention. It still shocked them every time he rattled off the correct answer.

Not only did he answer the question correctly, but he could also explain his reasoning behind the answer, and if it was multiple choice, explain why the other answers were wrong. 

This tall man child would march up to the board and absolutely fill it to the brim with work, turn around, drop the chalk-like a mic drop and walk back to his desk with the smuggest look on his face.

That doesn't mean he did the work tho

Idk how schools in japan work but we all know schools in America only care about the amount of work you do and not what you actually know so we'll use that for the sake of the headcanon: he had straight D's bc he never turned in his work

Despite not doing the work snd goofing off, teachers actually really liked him

A lot of people liked him and he was super popular, but he still felt alone

Fake friends, you know how that works, he didn't meet any real friends until he became a shaman

Clean freak. This dude actually makes his bed. He scrubs his bathroom twice a week. His desk can get cluttered but he straightens up once a week. He's not exactly a germaphobe because

He cannot respect your personal space and that's actually canon but let me take it a step further 

He's a slapper. Especially when he laughs. It doesn't hurt, it's playful dw. He hugs you from behind especially when he's cold. He picks you up and carries you around. He will grab your wrist, arm, or hand and lead you around even if you're following him. He lays his legs across you or lays across your lap. Puts his head on your shoulder. Platonic cuddling between friends is mandatory. He's just so hands-on it's ridiculous.

Unless you explicitly tell him you're uncomfortable he won't stop

Don't worry, if you aren't in that type of relationship, your no-no square is safe. Except, if you seem chill, he will slap your ass regardless of friendship status. His ass is also slappable. You can't tell me Geto and Gojo didn't run around slapping each other asses, okay

He was weird and scrawny as a child. He didn't start beefing out until he started training to be a shaman and he's still kinda smaller than most beefy boys

He can pick you up and throw you around easily. He carried around a 170 pound Yuji like a sack of potatoes and can easily carry around three times that weight

It's amazing he's so tiny because you remember 2014 Shane Dawson making all of those wack ass desserts that was just s pile of chaos wrapped in chocolate?

He can eat every last bite of one of those monstrosities without getting a stomach ache, gaining weight, or dying basically

He knows bc Yuji dared him to do it

He has really cold hands and feet

He sounds old. Let me elaborate. He's constantly cracking his joints. They also creak when he moves. He complains about body pains like he's 80 y/o

He also shares wisdom with the kids as if he's actually 80 y/o

It's irrelevant advice that doesn't make sense but is also useful. Megumi can't count the number of times he's asked Gojo for feedback on his technique but had been told to remember to chew 40 times or never go to bed angry

Starts off sentences with "now son" and "when I was your age"

He uses his blindfold as a headband when he wants his hair out of his face. He also uses headbands as... Headbands... When he wants to wear sunglasses but get his hair out of his face

He owns so many pairs of sunglasses but he always wears the same pair

He's only bought a handful of them himself, most of them are gifts

No one knows what to get him for Christmas or his birthday bc he has everything, so they resort to sunglasses

His favorite pair is a pair that Shoko and Geto bought him as a gag. He thought they were dead serious, though, so he wore them around for a month

They were heart-shaped, rose-tinted glasses

Can you believe this man doesn't use any gel or anything to keep his hair spiky with the blindfold on? It just naturally defies gravity when the blindfold is on

Tell this man he's pretty because he already knows. He's narcissistic but not the cringy kind

Photogenic as hell. Takes great pictures from any angle. 

He gives everyone a different story as to why he covers his eyes. Sometimes he says it's because his eyes are too pretty and are a distraction. Sometimes he says it's because the sunglasses/bandages/blindfold look cooler than his eyes. Sometimes he says it's to protect the six eyes from seeing things he doesn't want to see. The world may never know

He's tried covering his whole face before, but he thinks he's too pretty for that. He at least wants one of his many amazing features to be shown at all times.

So about his driver's license;

He knows how to drive. He can be a good driver. When he wants to be. He just doesn't have a driver's license.

Now he TELLS people he just never got around to getting one, however, there's a rumor he lost it due to too many parking tickets

It's amazing the only tickets he's ever gotten have been from that and once he got caught without a seatbelt; he would have gotten out of that one if he hadn't been flirting with the police officer so bad

This doesn't stop Gojo from driving places though

He steals Ijichi's car a LOT and Ijichi DOESN'T KNOW HOW like??? The windows are never broken and it doesn't look hotwired-

Gojo has a key

You're not even supposed to be able to duplicate car keys but Gojo did 

Also; none of the first-year trio knows he doesn't have a driver's license, though that much should be painfully obvious

He whips around corners, speeds up at yellow lights, goes "watch this" and does a donut, it's just a mess

The poor students have to sit in the backseat too. Just imagine Megumi with all three seatbelts around him like that one meme.

He thrives off of Nobara and Yuji screaming from the backseat, and he can see Megumi being smooshed because he thought the middle seat was the safest through the rearview mirror

Which he doesn't even need because of the six eyes

Despite being such a reckless driver, he knows when danger will happen, so he's never once gotten in a wreck

He blasts the radio, which makes up for the driving.

Has a habit of getting in a car and ending up in the McDonalds drive-thru

Steals other people's fries and keeps the fullest one for himself.

He was rebellious as a kid and teenager, but hey, at least his juvie record is sealed 

He's been detained and in the back of a cop car many times, but the reason was never really bad enough for him to be arrested. Mostly he's just being mouthy. And the time he got caught spray painting on the side of a building. And that one time he and Getou hopped the fence to get into the local pool. And that other time-

It got worse after Getou wasn't around to get him out of trouble. Suddenly, breaking the rules wasn't fun anymore and he mellowed out. 

Tried alcohol and cigarettes before he was legal. Decided neither was his thing, however, he did start drinking occasionally when he was legal.

He's a fucking chaotic drunk. Oh my god he's absolutely feral

Most bars in the vicinity know him by name and they sigh whenever he walks in

Shoko is his emergency contact. She hates it

Shoko has to drag drunk Gojo home at least twice a month and is not happy about it

Once she left him in an alley. He made it home okay so she guesses it's fine

Once he got so drunk he spilled beer on his sock. The thought the fastest way to dry them was by sticking them in the microwave. Forgot about it until someone asked, "Who the fuck is cooking socks???"

I feel it important he was in the break room of the local grocery store and no one knows how he got there

As he was escorted out he stole a grocery cart and rode away in it while singing Don't Threaten Me (With A Good Time) by Panic! At The Disco

He has no alcohol tolerance at all what so ever

He will literally just stare at you and giggle

It's funny he's really flirty but also doesn't seal the deal. Literally, every woman in that bar is willing to get in his bed but he declines every offer. No one knows why

Its because he respects women

He helps his students break the rules as long as they're within reason. Once night Yuji was really hungry and after having a temper tantrum he couldn't order Uber eats bc the school is supposed to be secret Gojo helped sneak him out to get food. Who needs curfew anyway.

The shirts in his closet range from like twenty bucks to the iconic rich bitch shirt the kids ruined in that one chapter we all know the one 

He still wears that by the way, he calls it "art" 

When he was younger, Megumi drew a picture of Gojo being eaten by his shadow dogs. Gojo found it and now it's framed in his room.

He keeps up with current trends and memes like no one's business. This is how he bonds with his kids.

Don't call him old, but also, he'll tell you to respect your elders it's a mess

He has a lot of games on his phone. You can usually find him holding his phone sideways playing some RPG game he probably spent too much money on 

He did hop on the Pokemon Go hype train but after becoming overpowered he got bored

This happens to a lot of games. He pays way too much money, gets to be the strongest in the server, and gets bored

He likes games where you can kill other people's troops and likes to watch as they lose all their power

I canon him as being borderline sadistic

This is why he's Sakata Gintoki reincarnated

White hair, sweet tooth, black leather clothes, dad vibes, never takes anything seriously bc when he does he's scary as fuck, the works.

He is Sakata Gintoki

He liked Gintama growing up. He watched a lot of iconic shows as they aired. He considers himself an og

He's hella bilingual

Because he's the strongest he goes overseas for missions a lot. Because of this he speaks a lot of languages and knows a lot about international cuisine 

He takes pictures of himself eating disgusting foods like snails. He never likes them but he loves the idea of Nobara gagging back in japan

Has paperwork sitting untouched on his desk from three months ago that he will not touch for at least another three months

Does the crossword puzzles in the newspaper every week

Uses humor as a coping mechanism and it honestly just became a personality

Constantly popping his joints. I'm sorry if you find this gross I too find it gross.

Probably brought home every stray animal he ever met ever until he was at least like 22 y/o

Tags: @wasabito @kittaliapenn

[captain039]

Secrets of mutation PART 3

Logan(wolverine) x reader

Warnings: Age gap, student/teacher, AOB, trauma, swearing, sexual, intimate, a little forceful, heats, smut

Xmen X new mutants

AOB will be referred to second gender xD

Previous chapter

Living with memories seemed strange, knowing who you were, remembering your parents and their death. Your mutation to shape shift like Rahne only another species. You could half shift also, claws and fangs, just not as much body hair as Rahne. You could see in the dark too in human form, your nose was quite strong as was your hearing of you laid attention.

What you couldn’t get out your head though was your parents, those strange men in all black and the memory of someone saying they overdosed you. Dr Reyes knew all this, she had it all on file, never once told you or gave any hint into it. It made you angry, made you want to make her suffer but she was long gone now.

You hated training, hated physical training for that matter. You watched everybody get their ass kicked and kick ass while you hid in the corner.

“Hey” you jumped when Scott called you.

“Mat three now” he said and you sighed going over there.

You looked to the guy and sighed.

“Come on” he grinned.

“I’m- I’m not hitting you” you huffed.

“How are you gonna learn if your not gonna do it?” He asked stepping closer.

“I-“ you sighed.

“Fine” you threw a lazy punch to his arm and he raised an eyebrow.

“Really?” He questioned and you nodded.

“You we’re holding your fist wrong” he said and you sighed.

“I don’t fight” you said.

“You’re a cat” he said.

“A lazy cat” you corrected.

“I like sleep, food and warm beds with-“ you yelped when your feet were taken out from under you. You landed on your back with a groan even though the mat cushioned it.

“Fuck you” you grumbled staying on the ground.

“Come on where’s the feisty kitty cat” he taunted looking over you. You glared not even knowing who this guy was.

“New kid ain’t got balls” he chuckled as people began to look. You felt yourself wanting to shrink as he taunted and went cocky. You growled though claws and fangs out as you grabbed his legs and held you claws to his throat.

“Woah- hey!” You jumped when Logan came over. The boy under you was scared, you could smell his blood also and frowned when you saw scratches on his legs.

“No powers!” Scott scolded.

“Shut up” Logan said kneeling by you.

“I know you wanna claw his throat out but don’t” he said softly and you sighed getting off him. You walked out of the gym and huffed as Logan followed.

“What happened in there?” He asked and you turned to glare.

“Kid” he sighed as you waited for him to catch up.

“I don’t fight” you said.

“Seems like you do” he said.

“He was an asshole” you mumbled crossing your arms.

“I agree but, you did scratch both his legs” he reminded and you sighed.

“Well then maybe I’ll fight you and scratch you to death” you were annoyed, you didn’t want to fight.

“You won’t kill me” he said a slight smirk on his lips.

“You know what I mean” you sighed going to the elevator.

“No come on” he called you and you huffed again.

“You train with me, at least if you scratch I’ll heal” he called and you sighed trudging back to him.

Back in the room you sighed at the looks, the kid was already gone though his blood lingered.

“I don’t fight” you said once again as you stood on the match.

“Humour me” he said and you sighed holding your fists up.

“You’re gonna break your fist if you punch like that” he shook his head walking over to fix it. You stared at him while he did it, his touch less rough than you though and warm.

“Punch my hands” he said as he held them up and you sighed punching them lightly.

“You just took a man down and your punching like this?” He questioned and you sighed.

“I told you-“ he stopped you.

“You don’t like fighting” he finished. You sighed sitting on the ground with your legs crossed.

“I’m only dangerous when I’m a cat” you said as he sat in front of you.

“Even then I’m not, I’m just quick” you shrugged.

“Half shift” he said and you frowned.

“I’ll scratch you-“ you said huffing as he stood.

“I don’t care” you stood and sighed half shifting. The sounds around you became amplified and you twitched at any light noise, your knuckles cracked as you stared at Logan.

“Try and take me down” he said and you made a small hiss noise. Your mind was always half and half, sometimes the feline took control other times it laid dormant.

You tried fighting him, you ended up on your back with him pinning you down easily. You changed back sighing as you let your hands fall to the side.

“Did I scratch you?” you asked and he shook his head. You nodded when a cramp went through your stomach. You froze remembering what it meant. At the program you were always forced to drink some disgusting medicine that kept that nature at bay, but now you haven’t been weaned off it’ll probably hit harder.

“Get off me” you mumbled and he frowned looking to you. You were shaking under his hold and he let go of you, sitting back on his knees. You made a small noise and his nose flared slightly. Others were looking to catching your scent as you whined softly. You stood as quickly as you could stumbling in the process.

“Kid” Logan held you steady and you sighed leaning into him.

“Ah hell” he muttered.

“Come on” he said rather softly to you as he helped you outside the door.

“You should control yourself cat!” Someone called and Logan turned.

“You better control that tongue before you lose it” he snapped before urging you into the elevator.

“I’m sorry” you said in pain as you held your stomach.

“It’s fine kid” he said though it clearly wasn’t fine.

“I can’t go to my room I have a roommate!” You said panicked as the elevator dinged.

“Fuck!” He growled leading you down the opposite end and into a room. He closed the door and you sighed as you laid on the bed before it hit you. His scent hit you and you looked to him. He was scratching his head back turned to you as he sighed.

“Logan” you mumbled.

“Yeah, I know” he growled pacing as a knock came.

“Logan” the Professor called.

“What?!” Logan snapped opening the door.

“Sorry Charles” he muttered going to the other end of the room.

“I’m sorry” you said crying softly.

“It’s alright, you’ve been on some form of suppressant at the facility, we have some here for those who want it, we just needed your body to wear off the other ones I’m afraid” Charles explained and you nodded. Usually mixing two suppressants ended badly, usually in intense heat.

“I know you’ve got a roommate at the moment, I’ll organise a room for you ok?” He added and you nodded.

“Logan?” Charles called and the man practically snarled.

“Come with me and I’ll have Jean come help here” Logan followed Charles out with tense shoulders. The door closed and you sighed hugging his pillow.

Over the last couple of weeks you’ve been sceptical of the man, an attraction to him. He was handsome and an unmated alpha, but he’d probably been with many women, probably had one now, he flirted with Jean a lot though she was with Scott. You knew you two had a large age gap, probably double seeing as he didn’t age like normal. But when you did fight with him or he taught history you were focused on him, his scent. It was stronger thanks to your cat senses, you tried not too, he was just intriguing to you. He always snapped back at anyone that gave you crap too, stood up for you even if you didn’t need it. He was almost protective of you maybe. Now though as you laid there you wanted him back here, holding you, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much than. You pulled the covers over you and curled up in a ball as you inhaled his scent. It was strong on his bed thankfully, it took a little off the edge.

“Y/n” you grumbled when someone called you.

“We’ve got your room ready” it was Jean. You froze though gripping the pillow between your arms as you began to panic a little. She came over and you looked to her begging.

“I-“ she obviously could read your mind as she stuttered.

“Jean” another voice came and you looked to the door seeing Logan. She walked to him and they muttered by the door while you sighed.

“She’s a student” Jean said and Logan sighed.

“Logan” you mumbled and their talking stopped.

You heard footsteps and frowned before Logan knelt by the bed.

“Kid you gotta go into your own room” he said softly.

“I’m not a kid” you glared rolling over. You heard him sigh as he moved to the other side of the bed and knelt.

“I’m old enough to be your grandfather, you need someone your age ok?” You glared again and he pinched the top of his nose.

“Look you can take my pillow, just, we gotta get you into your own room” you still glared but sat up clutching his pillow. You followed him to the assigned room you got, further down the hall. You looked to the fresh bed and sighed lying on it, your back to Logan and the door. You were shaking slightly as you held onto his pillow. Tears were in your eyes, he was right but right now it just hurt. The door closed and you closed your eyes curling up on the cold bed.

Next chapter ->

[boardingschoolforgirls1970s]

The Dining Room

Not exactly Hogwarts, but very similar to my school. Pupils were arranged according to seniority, with Prefects on the top tables with Headmistress and teachers.

The Headmistress, used to address the school after dinner with annoucements and occasionally with a sermon like lesson of the perils of boys. We should not getting to the point of no return with them, such that it made them cum in us, let alone getting us pregnant or we might catch venereal disease. As a virgin (up to that time), all this talk only made me and others more encouraged to get to that point of no return, which subconsciously we thought must be a far more intense a feeling, that our own efforts under the covers at night!

To the Headmistress, boys were not to be trusted, and were only after one thing, namely getting their hands up your skirt and in to your knickers and more. I was not sure of her ultimate point, as she was unmarried. Was she genuinely putting us off boys, or hoping we would be virgos on our wedding night?

In her sermons, there was never any suggestion that we might be getting pleasure from whatever boys might do with us, more that is was something done to us. It was just that as respectable young ladies we should not indulge in such activities (at this time).

So in this photo below, if the Headmistress was correct, the guy is going to pull the girls knickers off, 'stick it in' and have his pleasure, with no consideration for her, and if she got pregnant, it was her fault and not his child. According to the Headmistress he would be off doing it to other girls.

Actually many boys were not like her description, and although horny like us, they were very inexperienced and a bit reticent about upsetting us with sexual advances we were too young to want now. Having a long term girlfriend was important to teenage boys as it gave them kudos with friends from not being a looser or loner!

By lying about where I was, I got out of school once for a brief weekday liaison, which after some kissing, loose bra etc did not result in some 'hands in' or 'panties off' action, as the guy was rather shy and thought I might disapprove. Actually it left me frustrated and I often wonder what if!

In addition to sermons against having sex, there were also talks about some perceived problem, such as drugs that none of us did, with the Headmistress getting more and more angry as she spoke. I remember an occasion when someone in the 5th form middle ranks had the audacity to say "Yeah right" loud enough to be heard. The Headmistress, in no mood for such rude interuptions, picked out the culprit (real or imagined) and told her to leave the room, and report to her office in 5 minutes in PE kit. We knew why, so did the girl!

Two things to remember; the Headmistress was never wrong and even if it was you she picked, you were better off in the long run to accept the hard and vicious beating from an angry Headmistress, full of outrage that 'you' interupted her talk. The alternative was to be shunned by all the girls as a snitch for ever more and have your life made hell.

Such terrible injustice really, waiting in your gym slip and gym knickers. The gym slip for sports, came off quickly with the release of a clip on the waste. In view of Headmistress's rage at being interupted, she may have required 'skirt off' access to your gym knickers and bottom, in order that you, the 5th form girl, got the most severe thrashing with the cane, you never deserved.

Teachers were in no mood to discuss what you may or may not have done, so if they said you were guilty and in need of a caning, you were expected to touch your toes and be caned! No meaningfull investigation took place afterwards. You were supposed to put it down to experience and not make a fuss (!)

Even afterwards, for my caning with my friend, when my friend's parents complained, the Headmistress basically lied to the parents, in the new term, by saying that despite getting permission from a prefect, not studying a day before the summer holidays, was not an approved activity, hence our thrashing, which was pretty pointless. It was not as if we could disappear and the Head could have just said naughty naughty, don't do it again girls.

However, for any girl that was beaten by mistake for supposedly shouting out 'Yeah right' at least she would have been a legend in the other girls eyes, and not a snitch, and after the event they couldn't do enough for her, save for healing her very sore caned bottom!

[worminstuff]

Maybe all of their reactions to one of their student's having an anxiety attack possibly because they're falling behind on work and panicking or their class gets too loud. I was wondering as well if i could be Cloud Anon? (If you do name Anons that is)

|| I don’t think I can do all of them because that was genuinely take so long, (the short blurb one was almost 4K words) so I’m gonna do a few, I hope that’s okay. And I do do name anons but it’s been a really long time since anons sent anons like that, but I do! I don’t remember all of the ones there are but, ill try to make a post or something ||

Mr.Blade, Mr.wastaken, and Mr.Jacbobs helping student!reader with panic attacks!

Warnings: panic attacks, anxiety

Word count: I dunno

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Mr.Wastaken

Mr.Wastaken sits in his class for about an hour after school ends so if anyone needs extra help they can come sit with him and he’ll do homework with them. Even when it’s not math work too.

Today he was sitting with y/n, one of his students in his third period class.

The cringe worthy noise of Mr.Wastakens chair sliding towards the desk y/n was at made them close their eyes.

“I know ,I’m sorry, should’ve just picked it up and moved it.” He offered them a smile, expecting the sweet smile that y/n usually would return but they didn’t smile.

Dream paused. That’s strange. He thought, but he didn’t bring it up.

“So we’re working on some quiz corrections right?” He asked, they nodded, “easy peasy, no big deal. Which ones gave you trouble?”

Y/n explained their trouble with certain ones, their voice quiet and shaky. Y/n hadn’t looked him in the eyes yet, which he noticed. Their eyes were trained on the paper.

Dream started to explain one of the problems they pointed out, drawing a little explaination beside it. He quickly stopped when he heard a small sniffle.

He looked back up at y/n seeing they paced a arm over their eyes. His brows furrowed, he quickly became worried.

“Hey, hey,” he placed a gentle hand on their shoulder, “what’s going on?” He figured it probably wasn’t just the math on the desk in front of them.

Y/n sniffled again before replying, “I just- there’s so much work due and I can’t bring myself to do it cause there’s so- so much and and” their voice was shaky as y/n pulled their arm from their face. Under their eyes were wet, stained from the smooshed tears.

“Oh kiddo..I get that. How about I exempt this grade, actually I’ll just put it at a 100 since we’re moving on to a new unit, and we work on something else maybe?” He offered another smile, this one more comforting. “And we can go steal some snacks from Mr.Dudes room too.”

Y/n nodded, “thank you.” Their voice was still soft but less sad. Dreams heart melted.

“Dont sweat it kiddo, and if it gets like this again, please let me know. I don’t mind hanging out with you after school so we can do this whenever you need. I’ve got your back, kid.”

Dream hated seeing his kiddos upset, he would always do anything for them.

^^^^^^

Mr.Blade

There was a new student in Mr.Blades class. they were new to the whole school too but Mr.Minecraft put Mr.Blade as their home room teacher.

The reason Mr.Minecraft did so, unknowing to Mr.Blade was because this student was super anxious being new, and he thought techno would deal with this well.

Mr.Blade didnt usually have a home room class, it was usually his free period. So this ment y/n and him were alone each morning.

This freaked y/n out because obviously she didn’t know him, and he came off as very...scary.

Mr.Blade didnt realize they found him scary until about a week in to them being in his class.

He noticed multiple things. y/n never looked him in the eyes, they never asked for anything, and they were always jittery. This particular morning, it seemed ten times worse.

“Are you okay there?” he tried to soften his tone, he really didn’t want them to be afraid of him.

Y/n only nodded, but their eyes screwed tight for a moment before looking back to their computer. They’d been staring at it for a while now, silently shaking and ringing their hands.

Mr.Blade was well aware of the wordless lie so he stood from his desk and made his way over. He squatted down and placed his arms on the edge of their desk, resting his head on them.

He waited a moment, thinking they’d close the computer. They didn’t.

slowly, he placed his hand on it and slowly closed it. He waited a bit longer, letting y/n calm down a tad by themself before he said anything.

“What’s going on, kid?” he tried to look into y/n’s eyes but they were closed. “Can you look at me? I’m not angry, i’m not gonna yell or anything.”

Y/n opened their eyes slowly but surely, and Technos hesrt just about shattered.

He didn’t often get soft over his students but the pools of tears in y/ns eyes made even his cold heart ache.

He waited a moment, giving them a moment to breathe and see he wasn’t a threat or anything.

“Stressed.” Y/n said, voice barely above a whisper.

“Yeah? How come? What’s stressing you out?”

Y/n explained how much they didn’t like being new and having to be caught up in classes was really stressing them out.

Mr.Blade quickly understood, and sympathized.

He helped y/n make a little planner, and even drew little drawings on it to make it more fun. Once they had a planner, both made a plan together so the work load didn’t seem so much.

Afterwords he even called some of y/ns teachers to see if they could accommodate in any way. He even offered to teach the materials to them in their free period, as long as y/n didn’t have to turn them in as assignments or anything.

They agreed of course.

^^^^^^^

Mr.Jacobs

Mr. Jacobs classes were often hectic. That was sorta his nature and the students just followed in his footsteps.

Usually it wasn’t a problem because karl was able to keep it from getting too out of hand, but today everyone seemed a bit to energized to want to listen.

They were working on a map project so they were working and talking with friends and just being sort of wild.

Karl noticed quickly, one of his students y/n, was getting a bit overwhelmed by it.

“Hey, hi, hey, what’s going on?” He stood so his back was facing most of the class, and y/n was in front of him.

Y/n was shaky, and looked visibly nervous.

“S’ just a bit loud.” Y/n said, offering a small smile. y/n was internally screaming. Thought they were good at hiding it, they were moments from snapping and curling into a ball hoping for some quiet so the feeling of impending doom would end.

Karl nodded, he read her like a book and instantly understood.

“Can i give you a hug, kiddo?” He asked, his head tilted in parental like worry. Y/n nodded and he leaned down to give her a quick hug before standing back up to go back to the front of the class.

He gave her two thumbs up. Then whistled loudly, getting everyone’s attention.

“Quiet game! Whoever wins gets forty five dollars. That’s right. Forty buckeroos. “

The class was instantly silent. Y/n’s shoulders relaxed, and she shot karl a thankful smile. He ruturned one similar.

[mistaeq]

One scoop of Bucci gang HCs for the first time quiet reader bursts out laughing in front of them please!

Bucciarati Gang: with a Quiet s/o who Bursts out Laughing

TW // none

Thank you for your request! Bucciarati Gang, my favourite dorky compatriots <3 hope you enjoy, I had fun writing these!

Bucciarati Gang with a quiet s/o who bursts out laughing in front of them, neutral!s/o

WORD COUNT: 1.9k

GIORNO GIOVANNA

You first burst out laughing in front of Giorno when nature itself betrays him and he can't stop sneezing because of the pollen coming from a flower he had grown himself. Karma? An unlucky day? You may never know.

Having been with Giorno a lot, you learnt that plant's effect isn't dangerous, so you can look at your boyfriend getting mad over sneezes, and he's absolutely hilarious. You're sorry that this is happening to him, don't get it twisted, but seeing his chill behavior get lost for this mess is priceless.

He's not only pissed off because he keeps on sneezing, but he's also pissed off because he'd totally like to hear that unexpected laughter of yours clearly, without his sneezes covering it every now and then. He doesn't know when this chance might ever come back, and he wants to clearly hear you.

His frantic and clumsy moves while his nose keeps on betraying him cause his perfectly donut shaped hairstyle to ruin, golden locks falling on his forehead and his braid becoming a messy load of fluffy hair covering his neck.

"Y/n... will you..." sneeze. "..w-will you stop staring..." sneeze. "..it's kinda embarrassing... m-mamma mia..." sneeze. "..but no... no, don't stop laughing... p-plea.. a.." s n e e z e.

After he manages to stop sneezing, his shocked look and his red cheeks let a last giggle come from you, as you hold him tight and leave a sweet peck on his nose. You caress his hair, you find him so attractive even without his signature hairstyle, and that's worth some sneezes, isn't it.

LEONE ABBACCHIO

You first burst out laughing in front of Leone when you hear him curse in front of his mirror because his clothes won't fit him anymore. His chest was too broad.

Abbacchio chose not to use curse words in front of you, that's why when you catch him red handed, swearing and cursing at his clothes, you can't help finding him funny. As soon as he hears you laughing, he winces and turns around.

"Fuck... come on... why won't this fit..." he was pulling the irremovable fabric on his shoulder. "Maybe my chest is now too big... what the hell, come on... mamm ro Carmn... [Neapolitan dialect for: Carmine's mom. Not a cute thing to say. It's an angry neapolitan "mamma mia".]" then, he heard you laughing, and winced.

When he sees the big smile on your face when you lovingly laugh at him, he's petrified. He hates hearing this type of laughing, because it's the exact thing Mista and Narancia do all the time. But on you? You sound so happy and relieved, and Leone likes it. For real.

He just stands there, half his chest and a shoulder being naked, looking like a disheveled princess. Too funny. He huffs and ignores you, to make you think he's annoyed. But you know him too well, and know that if he's hiding his face, it's because he's actually smiling, too.

You hug him from behind, looking at your reflection in the mirror still in front of him. Abbacchio looks over his naked shoulder, right where you are, leaving a tender kiss on his skin, before giggling once again. He turns around, and kisses you, leaving his purple lipstick all over your cute mouth. He likes your laughter better, like this.

GUIDO MISTA

You first burst out laughing in front of Guido when you're practising together with cooking. And he just can't believe it, when you laugh so hard just for a pun of his. You are baking some good bread to share it with the gang.

He takes your hand and smiled. "Are you a garden, y/n?" Guido asks you, before throwing a handful of flour on you. "Because I feel like my love for you is FLOURishing!" you burst out laughing, holding onto him, spreading flour on his apron, too.

That genuine, happy laugh really warms his heart, he feels his knees get weaker and his negative thoughts fly away. He could listen to that forever. Mista is just so shocked. It takes for him a couple of seconds to realize what happened, before he finally holds you back.

Seeing you silent all day makes him kinda sad, and one of his dreams was making you laugh like that. He has been putting a lot of effort for that, but manages to do it only when he's his actual self, with a simple pun.

"My love for you is FLOURishing too, Guido..." you manage to answer, your cheeks obtaining a cute, irresistible red color, as you get on tiptoe and peck his beautiful lips. He's totally enamored, he's under your spell and can't believe you answered his pun so well.

When you get back to your work, he sometimes still hears you giggle, thinking of how bad yet cheesy that pun was. But it made you unwillingly burst out laughing, so you guess it's okay just the way it is.

FUGO PANNACOTTA

You first burst out laughing in front of Fugo when you see him getting angry over Narancia not knowing maths. Fugo promised himself and Bruno not to physically hurt Narancia again like what happened with the fork in his cheek.

This being said, the only way for Fugo to express his anger is screeching on his chair. When you hear that sound coming from your boyfriend, you can't hold back your laughter. It was so unexpected and someway unbelievably cute. Narancia is just scared.

Fugo hears the angelic bells of love in his heart, as if God himself came down from the paradise and graced his ears with your laughing voice. It immediately calms him down. But if he calms down, you stop laughing.

"Why isn't 8 ÷2 = 3? If I split an 8 in half I get a three!" after hearing Narancia mumbling those words, Fugo screeches again, and you giggle even louder. But you understand the poor boy can't keep on getting angry just to hear you laugh.

That's why you soon stop, approaching Fugo and resting your magical hands on his shoulders, giving him a massage because he's a great teacher and he's doing his best. His moans while you help him relaxing his shoulders make you shyly giggle too.

"Why does this sound sexual?" Fugo wishes he could kill Narancia. But he's too focused on your hands working on his shoulders to care, and quietly screeches as you giggle again.

NARANCIA GHIRGA

You first burst out laughing in front of Narancia when you see Fugo getting angry over him not knowing maths. Narancia is shook, kinda confused on why what he wrote isn't correct.

Fugo screeches on his chair, he promised not to hurt your boyfriend, who shows you his paper, looking at you with a questioning look, probably asking you why what he wrote is wrong. You burst out laughing as you read. Narancia is a complete mess.

As soon as he hears you, he completely forgets about maths for a second, focusing on the sound of your beautiful laughter. Narancia is baby, if the person he loves the most laughs, he doesn't care what's the reason, he laughs with you. Then, he kinda remembers why you started giggling in first place.

"For real though. Y/n, why isn't 8 ÷ 2 = 3? If I split an 8 in half I get a three!" after hearing Narancia mumbling those words, you laugh even harder, desperate Fugo witnessing your boyfriend throwing away his maths notebook and run into your arms.

You're usually so silent and he may never know when he's gonna hear you again like that. You two laugh together so much that you start panting, your faces red with big smiles and almost sweating.

"Why does this look sexual?" Narancia wishes he could kill Fugo. But he's too focused on your little giggles and your cute smile as you lean on his shoulder and kiss his cheek. He might be not so perfect in maths, but he's perfect in making you so happy.

TRISH UNA

You first burst out laughing in front of Trish after you trip on a piece of furniture and risk falling on the ground. But as soon as your body touches the ground, you feel it jiggly and soft, bouncing a little on it.

Just a moment before you thought you were gonna get a few bruises after falling on the ground, but now you're just there, happily bouncing on Spicy Lady's brand new jiggly floor and laughing out loud, staring at your girlfriend's surprised expression.

You've never laughed like that before, and Trish is pleasantly surprise to see that her stand's work has such a good effect on your mood and on you, in general. She might consider making more objects jiggly, if this is what you like. All she cares about is seeing you happy and amused.

"Tell me, y/n..." she gets closer to your figure jumping and loudly giggling, and stares at you with loving eyes. "Would you mind it, if I jumped with you too? You look like you're having fun..."

You couldn't ask for anything more. You moved a little to let Trish join you, grabbing both your hands and jumping along with you, finally laughing so you can see her beautiful smile, even though she's the one who cares about seeing yours. Your girlfriend would do anything for you... even disobey Bucciarati.

"You... you two had to clean the house while we were away... it was your turn, this morning!" the capo's jaw fell as soon as he saw the mess Spicy Lady had done. Nothing that couldn't be fixed, but what matters is that afterwards, you and her laugh together remembering Bucciarati's expression. Then, she kisses your smile in case it would take a lot for it to come back.

BRUNO BUCCIARATI

You first burst out laughing in front of Bruno when his stand disobeys him and opens a zipper through a wall to reach for your room and cuddle with you.

His shocked face and Sticky Fingers's cute, happy sounds are too hilarious for you to keep a serious expression. You're so used to see Bucciarati as the authoritarian type of person who has everything under his control, but now he doesn't and he's quite panicking.

Even more shocking for Bruno is seeing how you actually let his stand cuddle with you, a warm laughter coming from your sweet lips, he loves so much. Music for his tired capo ears.

He can't help staring at you with a loving smile. Moments like these don't happen that much, and God knows when you're gonna do that beautiful sound again. He secretly thanks Sticky Fingers for doing all of this, but since it's his soul, there's no need to say it out loud.

"Your laugh is one of the best sounds my ears ever witnessed, tesoro. I might want Sticky Fingers to disobey me more, if this is the result..." then, he'd bring a hand of yours to his lips and kiss it, kiss your smile, kiss your precious laughter.

Even if you stop laughing, Bruno enjoys your little giggles while his stand strokes your hair and purrs when you caress its head. As the user feels what the stand feels, your hand caressing Sticky Fingers caresses Bruno too, and he'll eventually giggle with you.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Spilled Pearls

- Chapter 9 - ao3 -

Lan Qiren was groggy with lack of sleep the next morning, but an evening’s contemplation of the Lan sect’s rules had put him back into the right mindset.

As a disciple of the Lan sect, he was entitled under the rules for his elders to remember do not disrespect your juniors just as he was required to respect and obey your elders. Pursuant to the rules, he should have the protection of his sect and their support, and if what he had was imperfect, it was at least something; for every Lan Ganhui that mocked him, there was a Lan Yueheng that encouraged him, and there were plenty of teachers that preferred him over all the others.

As for his brother – Lan Qiren should not hold his anger against him. He had been acting in the best interest of the sect, seeking to obtain benefits for what had been lost; he had thought throughout the trip that Lan Qiren had given up more than just his word of honor, but had refrained from punishing him accordingly. In the end, even his father had assigned him only to kneel, which was a milder punishment by far than he deserved for all his mistakes and insolence.

More than that, his brother was right: Wen Ruohan would be bound by his own word of honor and public reputation to treat Lan Qiren with dignity, and by endorsing the relationship rather than rejecting it, his sect was indicating that they would hold Wen Ruohan to his word. His father had appropriately expressed concern on Lan Qiren’s behalf, his brother had refuted those concerns with well-reasoned logic; it was inappropriate for Lan Qiren to take such an intellectual discussion to heart.

That he had – and that he had forgotten, even temporarily and in the privacy of his own head, the rule do not argue with family for it does not matter who wins – was merely evidence once again that Lan Qiren was inferior to his brother, who through keeping a cool head had enabled their sect to turn what could have been an embarrassment into a victory.

As for his father…Lan Qiren shouldn’t have been surprised, that’s all. Hadn’t years and years taught him that fathers only gave what they chose to give and no more? He had long ago learned that his father was kind and noble and equitable, concerned with all the Lan sect disciples (but for his dearly beloved eldest) in the same way and the same manner; being disappointed to receive that and nothing more was only his own foolishness.

(He only wondered, in passing, why it had been his father’s glacial voice that had scared him so, compared to the familiar warmth of his brother’s anger.)

So fortified and reassured, Lan Qiren returned to the regular flow of daily life at the Cloud Recesses.

It was not easy. As his brother had predicted, rumors about his sworn brotherhood with Wen Ruohan sprang up at once, and many of his fellow disciples were prone to staring at him when they thought he wouldn’t notice. The teachers handed out many punishments for breaking the prohibition about talking behind people’s backs, although with a certain leniency that made Lan Qiren suspect that they themselves toed the line of that particular rule behind closed doors.

The rumors themselves were split between those that theorized that Wen Ruohan had used nefarious means to entrap Lan Qiren and force him to agree to brotherhood – the Fire Palace was mentioned often, as were various theoretical misapplications of cultivation techniques of dark and unsavory natures – and those that skipped over the how of brotherhood and went straight to speculating as to the why, which typically also involved a variety of references to misapplied cultivation techniques, this time of the sort most often found exclusively in certain types of low-brow spring books.

Someone even suggested that Wen Ruohan intended on taking Lan Qiren to bed as a cauldron, which was the stupidest idea out of the whole lot.

“Of course that can’t be true,” Lan Qiren patiently explained to Lan Yueheng, who had come to collect his geometry book. As a gesture of thanks for his support, Lan Qiren had read the whole thing and sent an annotated list of questions and comments; Lan Yueheng had practically turned pink with excitement when he’d seen it and then secluded himself for two days to write a response. Lan Qiren still didn’t see the appeal of geometry, but he’d managed to coax Lan Yueheng into a discussion of the mathematics of music theory, an area in which their particular interests overlapped, and he had hope of a fruitful dialogue continuing into the future. “At least traditionally, cauldrons are individuals with high cultivation potential that has yet to be developed – raw natural talent, in other words, which can then be refined into strength for another. My inborn talent is only moderate, even low, and my progress is primarily due to good resources and hard work. So even if someone put in the work to make me a cauldron, they wouldn’t get much out of me.”

Lan Yueheng nodded, his brow wrinkled thoughtfully. “So your brother would’ve been a better cauldron than you.”

“…that is correct, but please don’t say it.” Lan Qiren quietly pitied Lan Yueheng’s etiquette teachers, and spared a thought to hope that his cousin’s children, should he have them, would take more after whoever he married than him. Even if only because Lan Qiren hoped to become a teacher himself one day, and he was sure that Lan Yueheng’s particularly brash and un-Lan-like bluntness would make for a terrible future student. “Perhaps it would be more helpful for you to think of it in the sense of energy transfers of heat? I’m already cold, so to speak, so he wouldn’t be able to draw out much heat from me.”

“Wait, if you’re cold and Sect Leader Wen is hot, would that make him the cauldron? Assuming you ever did dual cultivate.”

Lan Qiren pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s...not how that works, Yueheng-xiong. At all. I was merely attempting to use a metaphor to clarify the issue. Clearly I failed and only confused things further.”

Lan Yueheng shrugged. “At least you try,” he remarked. “And when you fail, you try again, doing something different. It’s better than the teachers who just do the same thing every time and blame you for being as bemused on the seventh repetition as you were on the first.”

Lan Qiren felt his ears go red at the compliment. “You’ve been here too long,” he reminded his cousin. “Your parents won’t be happy to see you spending too much time with me.”

“My parents don’t care. It’s my aunt and uncle who don’t like it. They say that people might start asking if I cultivate as a cauldron too –”

“Your parents listen to your aunt and uncle, so if they don’t like it, you shouldn’t disobey them. The rules say Be a filial child.”

“They also say Do not form cliques to exclude others, but that isn’t stopping the other disciples from playing favorites, is it?”

That was definitely one of the rules more honored in the breach, Lan Qiren thought with a sigh. But what could be done, when their elders did the same? The sect followed the example of its leader, and his father’s tendency towards favoritism were well known, albeit one that was widely indulged as a quirk rather than condemned as a serious flaw. 

“I will remind the teachers of that one,” he said. “Perhaps a refresher would be suitable, to remind people. But the rule are meant for your own discipline, not others, and – ”

“Just because other people aren’t following the rules doesn’t mean I shouldn’t, I know,” Lan Yueheng said with a sigh of his own. “I’ll go…oh! It’s getting late. Weren’t you supposed to go to the guest’s pavilion by the western watchtower already?”

Lan Qiren blinked. “I don’t have that patrol route in my schedule until the end of the week.”

“No, no! I was supposed to tell you! Lao Nie’s come to visit, and –”

There were rules against running in the Cloud Recesses, so Lan Qiren was slightly late despite his best efforts, but true to form Lao Nie didn’t admonish him: he only turned from where he was sitting in the pavilion and smiled, calling out, “Qiren! There you are!”

“Forgive –”

“Forgiven,” Lao Nie interrupted before Lan Qiren even got the first word out. Lan Qiren was relieved to see that there was neither food nor tea already prepared; he would have been mortified if it had grown cold while Lao Nie was waiting to see him. “And don’t bow, either. How have you been? Tell me people aren’t harassing you over the nonsense with Hanhan.”

Lan Qiren opened his mouth, then hesitated.

“Do not tell lies,” Lao Nie observed, grimacing. “Ah, Qiren! Sometimes your brother’s worse than useless. It’s a pity, really, I hadn’t realized – well. At any rate, I’ve been bothering him for weeks to tell me about you and he wouldn’t say a word.”

“He was angry at me for messing up the conference,” Lan Qiren explained.

Lao Nie’s eyebrows arched. “You mean the conference where the Lan sect got first place in both major events and then extracted serious concessions from the Wen sect in a completely unexpected and nearly inexplicable political coup that got the whole cultivation world talking in awe at your political acumen? That conference?”

“I lost face for him. He thought – well, he’d thought it was worse than it was,” Lan Qiren hesitated. “He’s not the only one.”

Lao Nie huffed. “People are, by and large, stupid,” he declared. “Don’t let them get to you. They’ll change their tune soon enough.”

Lan Qiren wasn’t so sure. “They say a reputation is like a porcelain vase,” he said, unable to conceal his worries in the face of someone actually expressing concern rather than curiosity. His dream was to be a traveling cultivator, and that would be much easier with a good name, which he had always had before – good, or at least boring, which was just fine with him. He preferred to be boring! It had never occurred to him that he might do something that would render him the subject of gossip; it had never happened before. “Once cracked…”

“Right now, there’s only some bored people speculating that there might be a crack,” Lao Nie said. His confidence was contagious; Lan Qiren couldn’t help but relax a little in the face of it. “No one’s actually sure about it, and they’re willing to hear otherwise – things aren’t yet so bad. Don’t worry. I’ve spoken with Hanhan about it already.”

Lan Qiren felt his ears burning in shame. “Lao Nie! You didn’t!”

Especially since that would undoubtedly only make Wen Ruohan even more angry…

Lao Nie laughed and put his hand on his head, rubbing it lightly. “I did. Not in your name, but rather his own – do you think the Wen sect wants to get a reputation for being led by a man with an unhealthy interest in noble-born children? It’s in his interest to get this cleared up as much as you.”

Lan Qiren felt the tension rush out of his shoulders all at once. That hadn’t occurred to him, but now that Lao Nie had pointed it out, it was clear enough.

After all, for all the talk going around about Lan Qiren, it was widely agreed that he was clearly the victim in whatever scenario they’d thought up, whether through having his oath extracted under torture or by force; even among those who theorized that Wen Ruohan intended to use him as a cauldron, the reputation Lan Qiren might get would be, at worst, that of a seductive flirt who couldn’t be resisted. Lan Qiren’s brother had scoffed audibly the first time he’d heard that, saying that such a rumor would naturally be dispelled the moment anyone came in contact with Lan Qiren for more than a moment, and in all honesty Lan Qiren agreed with his assessment. He had the classic Lan sect looks, yes, but so did many others, and he had a demeanor as stern as a schoolmaster, giving off the feel of an old man even though he wasn’t even of age.

Meanwhile, for Wen Ruohan, the consequences were undoubtedly more dire – if he was said to have a taste for boys, especially noble-born ones, the other sects might be afraid to send their sons around him. It was a different reputation by far than his taste for torture, or his supposed use of dark and forbidden cultivation; those would make people fear him, while lusting for children would only make people disdain him.

Still, Lan Qiren wasn’t sure how exactly even someone of Wen Ruohan’s cunning would go about fixing such a mistake – and that was putting aside why he would make such a mistake over Lan Qiren in the first place. He hadn’t had a chance to explain to his brother his theory that Wen Ruohan had acted just to irritate Lao Nie, and in the end he’d decided it wasn’t worth drawing his brother’s attention back to the subject.

Besides, if Lan Qiren could figure it out, with his notorious inability to understand interpersonal affairs, then surely his brother was more than able to do the same. It wasn’t as if Lao Nie were being shy about it…

“Hanhan said he had something in mind,” Lao Nie was saying, shaking his head. “He usually does, I find, and each idea’s more awful than the next.”

Lan Qiren shifted a little from one foot to the other. “If you know he’s awful, why do you…” he hesitated. “I mean, you call him – an endearment.”

“Oh, he’s a little awful, no doubt,” Lao Nie said, sounding rather fond. “But as long as it’s not my sect, what do I care? Anyway, Qiren, you shouldn’t worry. If there’s one thing you can trust with Hanhan, it’s that he takes care of anything associated with himself.”

Lan Qiren didn’t really like the fact that he was now counted among that number.

It didn’t seem all that safe.

“Though of course that doesn’t protect him from you,” Lao Nie added, suddenly smirking, and Lan Qiren blinked owlishly at him. “Apparently, you’re a very talkative drunk.”

Lan Qiren’s face burned red.

“And effusive, too! According to Hanhan, even after you forced him down in his seat to keep listening to you, you kept waving your hands around while you were talking and knocking things over; he had to pin you down to keep you from destroying things by accident.”

That would explain the marks on his arms.

“Apparently, you didn’t appreciate him doing that and kneed him right in the –”

“You really think he can make the rumors go away?” Lan Qiren hastily interrupted, rubbing the back of his neck a little as if it would make the heat of hideous embarrassment go away. That tallied up a little too well with the physical evidence to be anything other than accurate. “There’s – a lot of them. And I’d like to have a clean reputation.”

“You will,” Lao Nie said, thankfully distracted from his mortifyingly plausible story. “Anyone who meets you will know at once that you’re a righteous and upstanding person.”

Lan Qiren liked that better than the way his brother had put it.

“It’s just that you haven’t had a chance to make your name in the cultivation world,” Lao Nie said. He sounded sure of himself. “You’ll do wonderful things one day, Qiren. I’ve no doubt.”

“I don’t want to do wonderful things,” Lan Qiren said, scowling. “I just want to travel around and help people.”

“Yes, I know,” Lao Nie said, and he sounded fond again, just the way he did when he was talking about Wen Ruohan, or even Lan Qiren’s brother. Truly, Lan Qiren thought to himself, the Nie sect had no idea how lucky they were to have him as sect leader. “Really, Qiren, it’s like I said: don’t worry about it. Now come, tell me what you’ve been studying recently.”

Lan Qiren had promised himself that he would reduce the amount of time he spent with Lao Nie on his occasional visits to the Lan sect, not wanting to risk inciting Wen Ruohan’s unreasonable anger and jealousy any further.

He would need to assign himself an appropriate punishment for breaking that promise, he thought, and sat down to start telling Lao Nie all about the work he was doing with one of his teachers on comparing the origin points of the various Lan sect rules, as well as his experiments on arrays to enhance open-air acoustics that would, he hoped, eventually be inscribed on all Lan sect instruments to increase the range and impact of their spell songs.

He even mentioned the possibility of a joint project on the mathematics of musical theory, and for whatever reason he thought Lao Nie looked especially pleased about that.

He didn’t think about Wen Ruohan at all.