#same teacher wants to use me as a buffer student for the guy whos been picking on me for having issues speaking

[snifferz]

myyy history teacher pulled me aside today and made a few unnecessary comments abt the fact that i need headphones in lesson (i am... REALLY. noise sensitive.)

i need a lot of accomodations for my autism and stuff. mooooost of which my college keeps either taking away from me or just flat out being rude to me abt it.

how the fuck do i react to more college ableism???? this hasnt been this explicitly bad since i started asking for accomodations in school.

[mammonshuman92]

- Freckles -

(Yamaguchi x F!Reader)

Warning: none. fluffy stuffs.

NOTE: I kinda went my own way a little, and kinda made our shy boy a tad more nervous and such than he’s usually portrayed. Hope I didn’t fuck it up :)

“I’d like to see you after class.” Mrs. Saito said quietly, laying his test paper face down on his desk. Once she moved onto the next student, he flipped the paper over to reveal yet another failing grade.

He sighed, slightly sinking down into his seat, wishing he could hide. English was definitely his hardest subject. 

When class was over, Yamaguchi reluctantly made his way to the teachers desk.

“Tadashi, with the score you made on the last test, you’re grade for the class has fallen into the failing range.” She explained. 

F-failing..? He thought.

“As you know, extracurriculars require you to maintain good grades. I understand you’re on the volleyball team?” Yamaguchi nodded anxiously.

“Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to raise your grade. However, per the rules, I did have to inform Mr. Takeda, since he’s your head coach.” She said apologetically.

This is bad...

He left the classroom in a slight daze. Not only was he failing English, he could also be removed from the team.. 

Takeda sensei has always been very understanding, and has done his best to help the team and the players as much as he could, but as a teacher and the actual head coach, he couldn’t just over look failing grades.

Lost in thought as he walked to practice, a nervous wreck after talking with his teacher, he didn’t hear the footsteps of the person coming around the corner until it was too late. He lightly bumped into them, knocking some papers out of their hands. He immediately apologized, bowing to the other person, his cheeks turning pink with embarrassment.

“I-I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention! A-are yo-” When he stood back up, he froze.

It was you.

One day in seventh grade as he walked home from school he dropped his bag, causing all of his textbooks and papers to spill onto the sidewalk. 

You had been walking by with your friends when you saw what happened. You knelt down next to him, helping to gather the bags’ spilled contents. He began to say thank you as he turned to the stranger, but ended up stuttering incoherently and turning bright red when he met your e/c eyes. You were so beautiful; angelic. Even in your small interaction, he could feel your warmth and kindness.

He’s had a secret crush on you ever since.

Well, almost secret. Tsukishima was the only one who knew, quickly figuring it out when he noticed how his friend reacted whenever you were nearby. He teased him about it occasionally.

He was sure you didn't remember his existence though. Sure, you were in the same grade and even had a few classes together since that day, but he tried his best not to stand out. Anyway, you helped him in passing that day after school. Not like a timid, insecure, freckle faced boy would make a lasting impression.

You are friendly, and beautiful and really smart. Your laugh is like music and your smile is radiant. You easily stand out in a crowd. You are angelic, ethereal.

And he is, well, he is average.

There’s no way he would ever be brave enough to tell you that though. Someone as amazing as you wouldn’t want to be with someone like him. Out of immense fear of rejection and humiliation, he kept his feelings to himself. 

He was pretty sure his brain was short circuiting. Surely, this wasn’t happening right now. He just wanted to spontaneously combust.

“I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” You asked, studying his face, eyes bright and full of concern.

“O-oh, um, yes. I-I didn’t mean to run into you, I’m really sorry!” He stuttered, gathering up the papers you dropped during the collision, cheeks burning as blood rushed to them. “A-are you hurt?” He asked as he handed them back to you, heart pounding so hard the sound filled his ears. He’s never felt more embarrassed.

“No, I’m okay. I wasn't paying attention either, so no worries.” You said, taking the papers from his trembling hand, giving him a small smile. His chest ached at the sight of it.

Thankfully, someone had called out your name from behind him, potentially saving him from embarrassing himself any further.

“Coming!” You called to your friend before returning your attention to him once more.

“Maybe next time we run into each other it won’t be literally.” You said, smiling at him before walking off to meet your friend.

He just stood there a minute, not quite believing what had just taken place. The interaction was over as quickly as it had started, but he was ready to combust.

Please, please tell me that that didn’t just happen..

He flushed red all the way to his ears, and all but ran the rest of the way to the gym.

-

“I talked with Mrs. Saito today. She said you’re having a hard time in English.” 

When Takeda sensei made it to practice after his meeting, he pulled Tadashi aside. 

“Uh, y-yes sensei. I’m trying, but I don’t understand it..” He explained sheepishly, Takeda nodded.

“There is no shame in asking for help.” He said quietly, placing a hand on the boys shoulder.

“That being said, I’ve asked one of my best students to tutor you. She’s going to come by after practice today.”

A tutor? Wait..today?! Oh, man..

Yamaguchi has been insecure since he was a kid, always being bullied for his freckles and such, so meeting new people always caused him anxiety.

This can’t be over fast enough..

After practice had ended, everyone started their cool down stretches and began cleaning the gym.

“Hey, who is that girl? She’s really cute.” Nishinoya asked, elbowing Tanaka to get his attention as they carried equipment to the storage room.

“Huh? Whoa.” He said, eyes landing on the girl standing in the entrance of the gym, “Never seen her before. Uh, random question though. Can you feel this?” He held the bottom of his shirt out to the libero for him to touch it.

“What about it?” Noya asked, giving his friend a confused look as he rubbed the fabric between his fingers.

“That, my friend, is boyfriend material. Watch and learn, dude.” He said, confidently, taking a couple steps in your direction. Nishinoya started laughing.

“That was a good one!” He said, complementing his friends cliche line. ”But, what if she doesn’t like bald dudes?” He asked, slightly cocking his head to the side.

“Hey! I am not bald!” He yelled, cheeks turning pink.

Their not so quiet conversation was starting to attract the attention of some of the other teammates. Including Daichi, who scolded the two boys.

“Oh, that’s Y/N L/N.” Kageyama said. “She’s in my homeroom.”

Nearby, Yamaguchi was assisting Ennoshita in taking the volleyball net down. At the sound of your name, he turned to see that it was in fact you, now standing inside the gym talking to Coach Ukai. His heart beat accelerated.

W-what?

Previously not caring about Tanaka and Noya’s conversation, he felt a slight pang of jealousy, now realizing you were who they were talking about. It was quickly overshadowed but the flashback of your earlier encounter, which made him feel humiliated all over again.

Coach Ukai scanned the group of boys, looking for one of them in particular.

“Yamaguchi!” He called, waving him over.

Me?  He thought, quickly being snapped out of his daydreaming.

Your eyes, along with several others, landed on him. He was pretty sure his heart stopped beating momentarily.

What did you being here have to do with him?

Then it clicked.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no..this isn’t happening..

As soon as he made it to the front, Coach Ukai switched spots with him, going over to help Ennoshita finish taking down the net, and leaving the two of you alone.

“Hi again, um, Takeda sensei sent me. He said you need help with English class." You said with a smile.

All he could do was nod. After what happened earlier, and now finding out that you of all people are going to tutor him, there’s no way he could talk to you again so soon and actually form coherent sentences.

"I’m free all afternoon, so if you have time after practice we can go ahead and get started."

This is so bad.. What if I say something stupid?

"O-okay, yeah." He said quietly.

"Cool! I'll just wait over there." You said, gesturing to one of the tables outside of the gym.

After giving him a small smile, you disappeared through the doorway.

Once he knew you couldn't hear him, he sighed heavily.

There's no way this is happening.. It's a joke, right?

He wasn’t sure how he was going to get through a study session with you without combusting. You talked to him for a minute and a half and his heart was racing and his cheeks are an embarrassingly bright red. Not to mention he was still mortified about what happened in the hallway.

A playful slap on his back, quickly brought him out of his thoughts.

“Dude, when were you gonna tell us you had a girlfriend?” Tanaka asked, throwing an arm around his shoulders.

“W-what? No! W-we’re not, I mean-” Tadashi stammered. The redness of his cheeks was starting to creep up to his ears.

“She’s way too pretty to be kept as a secret, my guy.” Nishinoya chimed in.

“Oh, totally. Not to mention it’s rude.” Tanaka nodded in agreement.

“I-it’s not like that! S-she’s not-”

“He wishes.” Tsukishima said as he walked past the group on his way to the club room.

“Tsukki!” Yamaguchi whined, wanting nothing more than to crawl under a rock. Hopefully you were far enough away that you couldn’t hear any of his teammates’ conversation.

-

He was glad practice was finally over, as well as the barrage from his teammates, but now he had to meet up with you. He was somewhat excited, but definitely way more nervous.

Aside from other people at the library, he would be alone with you. No one to act as a buffer, all the attention, your attention, would be on him. It made his heart flutter before it fell into his stomach.

When he left the club room after dressing out, he found you exactly where you said you’d be. You were sitting at a table underneath a tree, a book sprawled open in front of you. Even doing something so basic, so common, you were so beautiful.

After practice, everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get home. He was never more thankful. No way did he want Tanaka or Nishinoya talking about you where you could definitely hear it this time. The thought alone was terrifying. 

He usually walks home with Tsukishima but now that he was going to be doing tutoring after school/practice, his best friend gave him a quick “don’t be lame” and left. He knew the meaning behind it essentially translated to “you’re finally getting you’re chance, try not to screw it up.”

You looked up as he approached the table, most likely alerted to his presence by the sound of his footsteps. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought you heard his heart hammering away.

You put the book you were reading into your bag and got up, rounding the table until you were next to him.

“Well, at least we only figuratively ran into each other this time.” You said, laughing lightly. The bubbly sound made his heart squeeze.

Just breathe, Tadashi. You’ll be fine, just try and calm down. He kept thinking over and over. 

If he was ever going to get through this tutoring with you and pass his class, he at least had to learn to talk to you without stuttering, and blushing so hard he thought his face would catch fire.

“Y-yeah, sorry about that.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I guess I can forgive you.” You teased, gently elbowing his arm. The corner of his mouth pulled up slightly, but on the inside he died a little from the brief contact.

“So, the library down the street has rooms specifically for studying. Unless you have somewhere else in mind, we could go there.” You suggested.

“O-okay, yeah.” 

“Awesome, come on.” You lead the way, gesturing for him to follow you.

She’s so outgoing. I wish I could talk to people as easily as her..

“So, English, huh?” You asked, trying to make small talk. 

“Yeah...I just can’t understand it.” He said, laughing weakly.

“We can fix that.” You assured him.

“Um, t-thank you for helping me. I’m sorry Takeda sensei drug you into this.” He said apologetically, looking at his feet while he walked. He knew how relentless Takeda could be, it’s how they’d gotten quite a few practice games.

“He didn’t.” You said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Huh?” He asked confused, lifting his head slightly to look at you.

“Takeda sensei? He didn’t drag me into anything. He didn’t have to.” You said, voice dropping to a whisper at the last part.

Didn’t have to?

“What do you mean?” He was sure he hadn’t heard you correctly.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Anyway, he asked and I agreed. Simple.” You explained, quickly waving your hand dismissively.

He let it go, but was sure there was some hidden meaning in there.

He didn’t have to talk her into it? Maybe tutors get extra credit.. That would make more sense.

-

“Okay, instead of doing it this way,” you pointed to his answer, “try doing it this way.” You said, writing on his paper. “It makes it a little easier to remember.”

It had been nearly two hours since you got to the library. It was surprisingly going well. He was beginning to understand some of the material, and from the forced one-on-one time, he even felt just a little less nervous around you.

“Oh, it’s getting late. We should stop for today.” You said, checking the time on your phone.

You gathered up all your things and made your way to the exit. Once outside, you turned toward him as you began walking down the sidewalk. “Do you feel like it helped so far?”

“A little? It’s still kind of confusing, I’m sorry..” He apologized, feeling defeated.

“That’s okay! You don’t have to be sorry. I’ll help you as much as you need.” you reassured him with a smile. The small gesture was enough to get his heart racing again.

“R-really?” He was a little shocked. Not only did you spend two hours tutoring him today without having to be convinced, but you also wanted to continue to do so?

I know she didn’t mean it like that, but still..

“Of course. It’s only day one, after all.” You shrugged nonchalantly.

Hmm. Day one.

The implication of more days like this gave him butterflies. It didn’t start out the best, but it turned out pretty okay. Even if you were only studying, he really enjoyed being around you.

You stopped walking when you were about a block away from the school, Yamaguchi following suit.

“This is my turnoff.” You said, pointing toward the street to your left.

This is it, Tadashi. You can do this. You can’t be scared forever.

“Oh, um, d-do you mind if I walk with you? It’s getting kinda dark, y-you shouldn’t go alone.” He couldn’t bare to see your reaction, instead choosing to look at the ground. His heart was pounding.

He was mostly afraid for your safety, but he also didn’t want to part ways yet. Although his heart raced the entire time, he really enjoyed the last couple hours that he’d spent with you. His nerves kept getting the best of him; getting inside his own head. Preparing himself for the rejection that would leave him feeling like a kicked puppy.

“I’d like that.” You said quietly.

He looked at you, surprised that you actually agreed, let alone saying that you’d like it; and something seemed different. He went rigid when it clicked.

Is she...blushing?

Your eyes were averted and attention focused elsewhere, as if you were embarrassed. A light dusting of rosy pink on your cheeks. The sight of it gave him butterflies.

Still trying not to look at him, you led the way. Yamaguchi quietly walked beside you, trying to hide the small smile that crept onto his face. 

“Thank you, Yamaguchi. For offering to walk with me.” You said quietly, breaking the silence as you walked side by side down the street. 

“O-of course. Anytime. Oh, and um, you can call me Tadashi, i-if you want.” He said with a smile, blushing at his own forwardness. You smiled back at him.

“My house is just up here.” You said, pointing up the street. “Oh, before I forget.” You handed him your phone, “We should exchange numbers in case one of us needs to cancel or something.” He nodded, taking the phone from you, returning a few seconds later. You immediately sent him a message.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, “There. Now you have my number too.” You said with a smile, sliding your phone back in your bag.

“This is it.” You said as you turned to him, gesturing to the house on your right. “Same time tomorrow?”

He nodded, maybe just a tad too eagerly, which made you smile.

“Can’t wait.” You said quietly, giving him a quick smile and waving good bye before walking up the pathway to your house. Once he saw your door close behind you, he made his way home. He was so lost in thought the whole way, still not quite believing this day actually happened, but thankful that it had.

~

Over the next month or so, he was able to get over most of his nervousness about being around you. It became easy and refreshing to spend so much time together. He’d learned so much about you, which only made him fall harder.

You were his complete opposite, and although you made him more nervous than anyone else on the planet, you were like a breath of fresh air. You always initiated conversations, asking questions or talking about something random, so he never had to worry about trying to fill awkward silence. You were so easy to talk to, when he wasn’t getting flustered by something that is. 

You studied at the library nearly everyday after school, followed by Yamaguchi walking you home. It had quickly become the new normal. Thanks to you, he’s able to understand the material now and has even brought his grade up to a passing level.

Deep down, he was scared though.

Scared that when you no longer had a reason to be around him, you wouldn’t be. That the nature of your relationship resided solely on the fact that you were just doing what your teacher had asked of you, and it would end as quickly as it had begun. Scared that he’d foolishly let himself believe you would ever be friends with him outside of school stuff, much less like him.

And now that his grade had improved, tutoring would be coming to an end soon. He didn’t want to stop meeting you after practice; always sitting at the same table reading. Or walking you home everyday. Watching your face light up when he showed you his good grade on a test. How you’d go over something he didn’t understand as many times as necessary, never once getting annoyed.

He’s spent so long admiring your light from afar, that once he got the slightest chance to feel the warmth you radiated, he didn’t want to lose it. 

-

“...ashi. Tadashi?”

“Hmm? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention..” He smiled apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Are you okay? You’ve been spacey all afternoon.” You looked up at him, genuine concern in your eyes. He’d been feeling kind of out of it; lost in his thoughts about the possibility of not spending time with you anymore.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.. I was thinking. My grade is an A now, so before long tutoring will come to an end..” 

“Oh, well that’s great though!” You exclaimed, “I thought something was wrong.” You laughed, glancing over at him; but it was cut short when you took in his gloomy expression.

“Uh, is there?...Something wrong, I mean?” Your voice was softer now, concern washing over your face.

“Not really, I guess. It’s just that... not spending every afternoon together studying is gonna be..weird.” 

“Tadashi! Are you going to miss me?” You gasped dramatically, lightly bumping his elbow with your own; he scoffed sarcastically.

“Anyway, just because tutoring is over doesn’t mean we can’t still hang out.” You said casually.

“R-really?” He asked surprised. He honestly wasn’t expecting that.

“Umm.. yeah? Are we not friends?” You laughed lightly.

“W-well, I wasn’t sure if you thought so or not.. Since you’re just tutoring me and all..” He said, fidgeting with the strap on his bag that hung over his shoulder.

“Why wouldn’t I?” 

Your persistence in questioning the “why’s” was starting to get to him. He was trying to be careful of his word choices, as to not end up confessing to you accidentally.

“I don’t know.. because you’re you and I’m me.”

“Wait..what?

“You’re outgoing, and funny, and smart. And I’m.. not.”

You stopped abruptly on the sidewalk; Yamaguchi following suit, looking at you in confusion.

“So...you think you’re not good enough to be my friend?” Your voice was barely above a whisper. He remained quiet; looking away from you. Something stirred inside you.

“Tadashi..” You began, nervously fiddling with your fingers as you looked away from him. 

He looked like a kicked puppy. Worse, even. The slight hesitation, how you immediately got nervous when the subject was brought up; he knew what was coming next.

“It’s okay, Y/N. You don’t have to say anyt-” 

“You are smart and funny. Outgoing even, around the right people. And also thoughtful, and a really good listener. And literally, the cutest freckles.”

It took a few seconds, mulling over your words, before they made sense.

Wait...

Oh. 

...OH!

Judging by the look on your face and the shade of red your cheeks turned, he was sure you didn’t mean to say the last part out loud. Regardless, it caused him heart palpitations.

“No turning back now.” You laughed nervously. “Tadashi, I really like you. I don’t want tutoring to be where it ends.”

He was sure his heart stopped as soon as your words reached him. However, the loud hammering sound in his ears proved otherwise.

Calm down. She means as a friend.

..Right?

He hadn’t quite come to the solid conclusion if you had meant as a friend or not, before a wave of courage washed over him, giving him exactly what he needed to be able to speak the words he’s always wanted to say to you. Whether you meant as a friend or not, it was now or never. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever get another opportunity like this one. He needed to make the most of it.

With a deep breath to help calm his racing heart, he turned his gaze on you. Words began flowing completely uninhibited; and getting straight to the point.

“Y/N, I really like you too. I’m still not certain if you meant that you like me as a friend or like-like me, so if it’s just as a friend my confession is probably gonna make this pretty awkward, but I definitely like-like you. I have since that day in seventh grade when you helped me. I’ve just never been able to work up the nerve to tell you.” Yamaguchi was practically winded from talking so fast, in an attempt to get it all. 

The reality of the situation, and the fact that he just spilled his guts to his crush, caused his face to erupt into a shade of bright red, practically turning him into a beacon in the night sky like the ones signal a superhero for help.

“I’m sorry, I guess I should’ve been more specific.” You said.

Oh no.. this is bad. It’s not mutual. I should’ve kno-

“I like-like you too. Also since that day in middle school.”

Excuse me?

His heart definitely stopped this time. 

Where was Yachi with the AED when you needed it..

S-she..likes me back?

“This isn’t happening..” He whispered quietly, squeezing his eyes shut. He still didn’t fully believe your words; didn’t believe this wasn’t all a fever dream or something.

He was slightly taken aback when you closed the gap between the two of you and reached for his hand, slightly rough and calloused from volleyball, and intertwined your fingers in his.

“It is. But, only if you want it to.” You said gently, once again meeting his gaze.

He’s on cloud nine. He’s absolutely sure he’s died and ascended.

“I-I’d like that. A lot.” He said, face lighting up; a fresh round of blush creeping onto his cheeks.

You smiled his favorite smile at him and gently pulled him by the hand, leading him down the sidewalk along your normal after-tutoring-route.

Tutoring and hanging out didn’t have to come to an end after all. Instead, a whole new chapter was beginning for the shy, freckle faced boy.

[cherripeach]

Chapter 2

Little Match Maker

Summary: Your life motto is "I have the power of god and anime on my side, don't mess with me," and you stand by that with your life. No human, magician, or random creature could ever stop your firm belief in it. 

However, getting transported to this world that seemed to turn your already bad luck worse was not what you wanted to be in your life story, but you made the most of it.Making friends, enemies, and disasters, you were in your prime in this world, and so you decided to help as many people as you could flourish, at least what you believed to be.

Prologue 3-5: I wanna take a nap

Chapter Summary: Was everyone in this school an evil bratty child or was it just you?

Warnings: jokes about death(I think) and committing crimes and curse words, some sex jokes (but not the bad ones; middle school boys comments and stuff)

Words: 3.4k

Relationships: Pending twst x reader

Two boys-you assumed-were chasing after the cat, and while neither of them seemed to be very athletic,  the cat really was not either. The cat kept bumping into its own fire and having to turn away, or trying to blast fire at the two chasing him and almost tripping both himself and the other two boys. The cat did end up getting chased into a corner after almost tripping the two boys, and the smaller of the two raised up a pen or pencil looking object and screamed the words “Off with your head.” The only thing that passed through your mind was that you need to get out of here.

After the boy screamed, a red light appeared from the top of the pen and was soon directed straight toward the cat. The cat horror-struck backed up as far as he could and even climbed a few inches up the wall to move away from the beam of light heading toward it. The beam smacked the cat into the wall and caused him to fall from his position onto his butt and falter in any movement. Once the light cleared, there was an obvious difference in the cat’s appearance. A red and white collar had shown up around his neck, and the cat still dazed to notice it screamed out, “Nughab! The heck is this thing?”

You mumbled out, “Kinky…”

“Law of the Queen of Hearts Number 23: ‘One shall never bring a cat into a festival.’ You being a cat means you’ve broken the rule. I shall have you leave at once,” Here we have another member of the crowd who also thought the creature was a cat, but apparently, this disappointed child also has the numbers of the rules for something memorized, and that threw you off. He straightened himself once he noticed that the cat was caught within the collar and put his pen away in his coat that you just noticed everyone was wearing.

You surveyed yourself to see what you were wearing and realized that it was the same thing, only leading your mind to one conclusion: “This has to be some kind of cult…”  you mumbled the phrase so that anyone close by could not question your thought process, but this school and world just happened to get worse and weirder the more you looked around.

“...I'ma burn this collar right up and... ehhh I can’t use my fire!” You caught the rest of the cat’s declaration, and both him and you were in absolute awe for what the collar had apparently accomplished.

“Hmph!” The disappointed child straightened his back even more and tilted his face up toward the ceiling a little, “You won’t be using any magic until I remove the collar. Just like an ordinary cat”.

“Whh-what? I’m not some pet!” The cat was having none of it. He was clawing at the collar on his neck and pulling it as much as he could just sitting in place next to the wall in his time out corner.

“Don’t worry, I’d never keep a pet like you,” the kid really just can’t help himself can he, “I’ll take it off anyway when you get thrown out.” He turned away from the cat and began to walk back to the center of the room where the sus headmaster in the top hat who for a weird second kinda reminded you of Willy Wonka stood and fumed over the past events.

Once the kid began walking, the other male chasing the cat spoke up, “Wow, as wonderful as ever. Any and all magic gets sealed by your Unique Magic, Riddle,” the male even threw his arms out to match his display of amazement only to pull them pack in a second later to place one hand on his chin while the other held his elbow to his chest to allow the male to mutter some words to himself. The taller male then pivoted around and sauntered to follow the smaller male. Both of them held this formal air covered in arrogance, and you wanted nothing to do with either of them.

The end of their conversation must have halted the top hat headmaster because he straightened himself up and glanced at the crowd only pausing his eye movement when they reached you. He kept both of his eyes on you while he strode over to your wall. Your day could apparently get worse.

“You must do something about this! It is your familiar!” the man made hand gestures to point at you in his furry, and you decided that maybe now is the time you should speak up.

“Sir, with all due respect, stop assuming things,” this man was worse than some teenagers and teachers you have met, so you shut him up, “Please tell me when I told you that he was my familiar,” your flicked your hands and continued, “whatever that is, because I am clearly lost.”

“So it’s not yours?” The man put his hand to his chin and closed his eyes either to calm himself down or figure everything out.

“Yep. Never seen it before it asked me to strip” Please let this man listen for once.

“Ah, um You did.” He cleared his throat, “Anyway, let's get it out of the school. We won't turn you into a stew. For I am gracious. Someone help, please.”

Several of the students crowded around the cat until finally two came out holding the cat who was yelling the entire time. He was a little too desperate to just stay in this school.

You broke off from the masked man’s lecture for a second until another voice joined the conversation.

“That’s not different from usual, is it?” You were lost as one of the taller of the five males from earlier spoke up. He was a half furry, but you had no clue what that was called again and you would rather not know.

“What?” The sun graced everyone with its presence, “Did nobody tell him about the ceremony?” His features turned into a sorrowful, sour look from his normal bright and upbeat feature; he even glanced around at all of the others who surrounded the masked male. You noticed that all of them were the five from earlier, not including the tablet.

“If you are going to complain, you should’ve done it yourself.” Another one of the tall gang of the five males spoke up; however, this one was the exact opposite of the half furry. He was incredibly put together and more breathtaking than anyone you have ever been in the same room in. The male must be the ruler of self care, even if he did give you arrogant vibes.

“Hmm. But I don’t really know anything about the guy.” The sun appeared guilty at his statement.

The people which you forgot about broke out into chatter about a man who was named something like ‘Malaus Drakconia’ or something like that, but you had no clue who he actually was or how to actually spell his name. All of the chatter stopped when another male, much smaller than most of the five males, strolled into the room through the double doors.

“I was correct. I thought he might come but ‘Malaus’ really didn't. It seems the invitation "never arrived" again.” The small male shook his head and sighed gently after entering the room.

The males in the middle all exchanged glances before two emerged: the two from before; the ones that were chasing after the cat.

“My deepest apologies. I promise, we didn't intend to exclude you.” The taller male closed his eyes and appeared apologetic.

“His aura makes it hard to approach him,” The shorter male just can’t stop himself.

You just had to butt in because no one was taking this seriously; you walked up from your wall to meet with the group in the middle, “Yo, dude that’s really not right. I mean what has he ever done wrong to ya?” Some teenagers just weren’t for you, and so you apologized to the new face that entered. “Tell the dude he has my condolences or something.”

The short new face just stared through your soul for the next couple of minutes, not blinking, but he finally did cough and twist away from you to face a group of students. “It’s not your fault child, but it is all right.” He took about three steps. “Members of the Diasomnia Dormitory can come with me… I hope this doesn't upset him.”

You in your brilliance decided to cup your mouth and scream out to the male leading the first group out, “Tell the dude that if he needs someone to talk to, I’m freeee! I hope he feels better!”

You even heard a slight chuckle from the group. And slowly all the groups left; most making eye contact with you, but you just carried on trying to think of how expensive the clothes you had one were; you rubbed the sleeve and found out that they were made of a fabric resembling silk.

Crowley, from what you remembered, sauntered up to you once the room was clear and both of you began to conjure in your head and make a conversation about what was going to happen:

“While I normally would have you leave this school, I do not know where you are from. Would you mind stepping up to the mirror to find out. There is no need to worry. The Dark Mirror will send you directly back from whence you came. Enter the Gate, and picture your home clearly in your mind... “ The male pushed you to the mirror again, and you thought of your home for as long as you could. You even heard him mumble words back and forth with the mirror when you were lost in thought.

However, a surprised noise came out of the man’s mouth and your mind buffered to process everything because both Crowley’s and the mirror’s gaze, if you would even call it that, were stuck on you.

“This is the first time this has ever happened since I became headmaster, what should I do?” You held contact with his weird mask eyes for as long as you could before you swerved your gaze to the mirror. “Are you positive that is where you are from? And that you have never heard of Twisted Wonderland, Night Raven College, anything?” He was moving closer to you at an extremely fast rate causing you to discreetly walk back to your wall.

“Yeah, sir, why would I ever lie about that? All of this seems like a weird movie for me.” You just could not believe how little this “headmaster” or whatever believed you.

“Our best option is to go to the Library and do some research. Come and join me.”  Headmaster Crowley twirled around making his cloak follow his mystical movements like some fairy or evil villain and started to make his way out of the room.

You just as confused as before followed after him, wondering if anything in this world would ever make sense.

~~~~

After around an hour of scouring through books in the odd library you were in earlier, you and the headmaster both decided to take a break.

“Can you please believe me now?” You slumped in a chair and groaned as loud as you could for as late as it was and even massaged your forehead, just hoping the man would get your point.

“You are correct. There is nothing about your hometown anywhere…” The male halted his speech and glanced back at the books, “There is also a possibility you are from another world.”

“What a nice thing to say to the tired, lost teenager,” and you stopped your speech to turn to him and point at him, “That you are in charge of.” You could not believe this man, and so you deflated while he carried on with his speech.

“Did you have anything on you when you came here?”

You just shook your head and rolled your eyes out of his view.

“Do you have any identification, like a license for a magic car, name on a shoe... You appear to be empty-handed?”

Another shake and a hand placed back on your forehead, and you noticed that he was probably going to go back into one of his speeches when he stood up taller and paused speaking for a second.

“This is concerning…..My graciousness is limitless! I am a model for all educators.We had better be on our way. Let's head to the dormitory. It may be a bit old but there is a certain charm to it.” Apparently, you were going to stay in a dormitory. Always a new surprise with this man.

And you two were off again through the halls and outside to your new stay in this world, but from how terrible the place was on the outside, this was not a luxury resort.

It was a four or more story house accompanied by a broken gate guarding the house, spider webs on all of the molded dead trees, broken shutters, even broken window, and to top it off just an overall haunted vibe to the place. This was where smart, sane people in life would avoid; this was just the trap for those characters in haunted movies, and you were just hoping to find a peaceful place to sleep in it tonight.

Crowley must have caught your staring at the dorm and ushered you inside, “Right, right. Please come inside.”

You can confidently say that the inside of the dorm was incredibly worse than the outside; the streets might be a better option if you took into account all of the health hazards in just this room alone.

Crowley did not seem to agree, “Staying here will at least keep you out of the rain.”

You hoped to interject, “Isn’t there somewhere el-”

“I'm going back to do more research. Make yourselves at home. Don't go wandering around the school! Goodbye!” This man was going to be the death of you or the reason you commit murder.

The lounge area was terrible: almost everything was broken and covered in dust, including the walls, ceiling, and floor. This area was not fit for a person to live in, and even if you tried your best it might never be.

But of course with your luck streak, Crowley saying that it would rain had to come true. “Are you kidding me now!” You threw your hands up in the air and then grabbed your head and tried not to commit arson.  “Nothing is ever going to go my way here, will it?”

Thunderstruck.

“At least you are on my side…” You gazed out the cracked window expecting it to break soon.

The thunderstorm caused more problems in your new dorm than it should have. The building would shake, as would the windows, and it allowed more damage than before. However, it appears that you are not alone with a caterwaul screech from behind you.

“Hyyyi! It’s really coming down!” And located on your broken couch was the cat from before. He was apparently a gift from someone, who probably was laughing at you, for you with how often he was popping up.

“What are you doing here?” You probed in an apathetic tone as you both deadpanned and glared at the cat.

“Gyhaha! You've got this stupid look on your face like a spider being attacked by a water gun! I'll have no trouble sneaking back into school. Come on, come on. If you think getting thrown out is gonna make me give up on getting in, you've got another thing coming!” The cat gabbed just as long as the headmaster.

Your day could somehow get worse, “Honestly, I don’t care. Please don’t cause problems or I’ll kick you out.”

“Hmph. You wouldn’t understand, but I’m a genius who is destined to be a great magician! I've been waiting for the Ebony Carriage to come pick me up. But... But...Hmph! The Dark Mirror just doesn't have an eye for this.So that's why I came here on my own. Not letting me in would be a loss for the world, humans just don't get it.” This cat might be annoying, but the sob story does make you pity him a little. That is if he started acting kinder and not like an annoying pretentious kid.

Now that you look at him, he resembled a small child disappointed that they did not get what they wanted, but you had sympathy for him. He never mentioned a family or had anyone who cared about around him. He seemed lonely. He wanted to get into school which honestly you don’t know why anyone would want to go to school, but people had their priorities.

A water droplet hit the cat, “Nyaa! So cold! The roof is leaking!”

Another drop.

“Fgyaa! It keeps coming! My adorable ear fire is gonna go out at this rate!” He pulled down his ears closer to his eyes and met your gaze.

“Fine, fine. I’ll get a bucket..” You uttered going to look around the building and ignored any more retorts the cat came up with.

You exited the living room and entered a hallway with a flight of stairs going up, and the rest of the house mirrored the living room and outside by how disgusting and hazardous it is. There was even a gigantic spider web spreading the top of the hallway, and the wallpaper was coming off and covered in mold.

“This is a great time for the first kill in a horror movie,” in this situation talking to yourself helped calm you down.

That is until three ghosts appear. All of different sizes and heights, and they look incredibly familiar like from a movie or something.

“Hihihihi…. Ihihihihi…We haven't had a guest in so long...I'm itching for some action. Ihihihihi!” Frozen in your spot, you watched as the ghosts chuckled and floated closer to you.

“Um, sorry, but like…. What?”  You became more disoriented as the day went on., and this topped the cake.

The cat was not on your wavelength and followed you out of the living room and into the hallway only to freeze at the sight of the three ghosts.  

“Gyaaaaaaaa!!!! G-g-g-g-ghoooooooooooootts!!” The cat bawled before he darted to cling onto your cloak.

The shortest ghost found amusement out of the cat’s reaction, “The people living here got scared of us and left…”

So did the largest ghost, “We’ve  been looking for more ghost pals. How about you guys?”

“Dudesss, chill down. We are not here to hurt you.” You tried to placate both the ghosts and the cat clinging onto you, but nothing ever went your way.

The cat leaped out from behind you looking as ferocious as a duckling, “Grim, the Great Magician, isn't scared of some ghosts!!!” and blew fire at the wall, “Punahhh ~ ~ ~ nnn!!”

The ghosts were having fun with the cat as the tall one asked “Where are you aiming?” and the largest one ran around the hallway area chanting “Over here, over here!”

Apparently Grim-the cat- was actually taking this seriously or did not like getting teased, “Shoot! Stop disappearing!” He continued to blast fire in all directions, most not even where the ghosts were.

You were not going to put up with his attitude so you made a deal with him wanting him to either shut up or do his job right, “Grim or whatever, either you get a move on and listen to me or I’ll tell the headmaster that you are here so that a red collar can be placed on you again and get you kicked out on the streets.”

“Ughhhh, buttt.. I’m a genius.” Grim ran around the area but paused as another ghost came up behind him. “Bunch of cowards ganging up on us! Fine,” Grim circled around to face you, “tell me where the ghosts are!”

“To your left!” Helping Grim would never be easy, but you somehow made it work.

“I hit it! Alright, let’s get them all outta here!” Like a child, he bounced over the fact that he did something right.

And like a child you could not wait to take a nap. 

~~~~~

um like exams such so there was that, but thanks for reading and I hope you have a nice day! Next chapter should be out around Monday or so.. maybe. 

[captainseaweedbrains]

Ship: Everlark #48

Thank you so much for sending me a prompt! I hope you enjoy! As always, drabbles don’t exist in my world. So it’s a bit longer than I anticipated. :P 

Prompt: Meeting again at a high school reunion AU

Ao3: X

Send me a ship and a prompt and I’ll write a fic/drabble!

“If you don’t go over there and talk to him, I’m going to and you know I won’t edit out any embarrassing details,” Madge warned when she saw Katniss looking over at the Welcome table yet again. 

Katniss scowled, the alcohol clearly not kicking in yet. “I don’t need your help, Madge.” 

“You’ve been sitting here for twenty minutes, Katniss,” her friend pointed out, “watching that table like a scared hawk.” 

“Can a hawk be scared?” Madge glared at her and she conceded. “All right, all right. Yes, I am acting like a scared, made-up hawk, but I can’t help it! I made a total ass of myself back in high school. I’m afraid he’ll remember.” 

“Of course he’ll remember.” 

“You’re no help. Why’d I bring you as my date again?” 

Her friend smiled a winning smile and rubbed her swollen stomach. “Because my dearest husband decided a fishing trip with his brothers was more important than coming with me to our ten year high school reunion and he bribed you with anything you wanted from his store as thanks.”

“Right, right,” she laughed. “So why are you trying to pawn your date off on some stranger, Madge Hawthorne?” 

“Please!” Madge scoffed. “Peeta Mellark is so not a stranger to you. How many times did you two hook up in high school? In the band room, under the stage in the auditorium, the Home Ec room, and correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you two do it in Abernathy’s office?” 

Popping the maraschino cherry from her drink into her mouth, Katniss smiled. “I’m not confirming, nor denying, anything of the sort. We were total saints in high school.” 

“Uh huh.” Madge sighed and readjusted herself in her seat. “If you were total saints, why not go over and talk about your sainthood with Peeta, then?” 

Because she had broken his heart? Because 18-year-old Katniss panicked and ruined a great thing? Because she knew for a fact, thanks to Facebook and small town busybodies, that Peeta had just gotten out of an engagement with some gorgeous blonde who looked like a model and showing up now felt like cutting open an old scar? Because she was scared of telling him how she really felt then? And how those feelings haven’t really gone away and seeing him there, smiling and laughing next to Delly Cartwright as they welcomed old classmates, reminded her those feelings were definitely still there?

“Because he’s busy working the Welcome table,” she said instead. “Don’t you hate when people chit chat you up while you’re trying to work a table?” 

“No, but that’s because I’m not weird about people like you are.” 

“I miss the shy, barely-spoke Madge from high school,” Katniss teased, bumping her foot against Madge’s. “What happened to her?” 

“I joined a sorority in college and had to do three years of recruitment,” was all she said, still giving Katniss a pointed look. “Go talk to him, Katniss. Rip the band aid off.” 

She looked over at the table and frowned. “What if he tells me off? I don’t think I can handle that kind of rejection.” 

“He won’t,” Madge comforted, resting a hand on Katniss’ knee. “But you won’t know until you go over and say hello. Here,” she tore off her name tag and ripped it in half, handing the two pieces over to Katniss. “Ask for a new name tag for me as your excuse to talk to him.” 

She gratefully took the stickers and stood up, glancing over at the table. Two people were in line, the first person animatedly talking to both Peeta and Delly she didn’t recognize from behind. Yes, she can do this. With one long shot of her drink, she went and stood in line, Madge giving a whoop of cheer in support. 

The wait wasn’t long. Five minutes tops before she was walking up to the table, the two pale blondes smiling up at her, reminding her of all those times in high school they’d be managing the ticket table at lunch for Student Council or the ticket booth for football and basketball games. 

“Katniss Everdeen!” Delly welcomed in her high-pitched squeaky voice that hasn’t changed a bit in ten years. “I thought I saw you around! You silly goose, how are you? What have you been up to? How has life been treating you? How is that lovely sister of yours?”

“Delly,” Katniss smiled. Even now, after all these years, it was hard not to reciprocate the woman’s warmth and energy. “Life’s been good, thanks. Can’t complain. Still living at home with my mom and sister. Prim’s fine. Going to school to be a doctor.”

“That’s amazing! And you’re a teacher now, I hear, right?” 

“Um—yes, I am.” Her eyes shifted to Peeta, who was all smiles as well, before focusing back on Delly. “I’m a high school choral director at the high school next town over.” 

“You did always have a beautiful voice,” Peeta stepped in and her legs almost turned to jello at the sound of his familiar yet somewhat deeper voice. “Inspiring students to find their voices.” Ever the wordsman, Peeta Mellark was. 

“Yes,” she blushed, unable to help herself. “Um. That’s a really nice way of saying I spend half my time telling my classes to quiet down so we can get some work done.” They laughed and that helped calm some of her anxiety. “How are you both? I haven’t seen either of you since we all left for college!” 

Delly answered first. “I’m a proud Stay-at-Home-Mom—” 

“Don’t get her started on her triplets or else we’ll be here all night,” Peeta teased, happily accepting Delly’s shove. 

“Wow,” Katniss breathed. “Triplets. That’s—that’s a lot of babies!” 

“That’s what Thom says—you remember Thom, right, Katniss? We all had gym together in eleventh grade. Well, he’s my amazing husband now and he’s always joking how we nailed it out of the park on the first try.” She held out her phone to show a picture of three chubby toddlers, two girls and a boy, smiling cheekily at the camera in nothing but their diapers. “Gretchen, Analise, and Tommy,” Delly explained, pointing to each happy baby. “They just turned three last month and boy, are they keeping me busy!” 

Katniss nodded. “They look adorable, Delly. Look just like you.” 

“Thank you. That’s what everyone says.” She put her phone away. “Anyone in your life, Katniss?” 

“Oh, um. No.” She looked down at the stickers in her hand, realizing she didn’t need it now with Delly talking a mile a minute. “Work keeps me pretty busy and most guys don’t understand why I prioritize a bunch of high schoolers over—well, everything.” She laughed, feeling a bit awkward now talking about her non-existent love life. 

Delly looked over at Peeta, a knowing look in her eyes. “Peeta knows exactly how that is.” 

“Delly,” he said, rolling his eyes at her. “I’m a high school art teacher,” he explained to Katniss. “And I run the school’s debate and speech teams for some extra money. So I get prioritizing your students over everything else.” 

Oh. She didn’t know he was a teacher, too. Well that made a lot of sense why it was a pain hunting him down on Facebook. How had she not put two and two together? “Elective teachers unite,” she joked half-heartedly, feeling nervous again now that the attention was on him. 

“May our program budgets always just barely make the cut,” he joined in, all smiles. She smiled back, unable to help herself. His smiles, familiar despite time away, always made her feel more at ease. 

“You know, ever since I had the triplets, my bladder has never been the same,” Delly abruptly said standing up. “I have to visit the potty. The bathroom,” she corrected herself. “We’re working on potty training right now. Peeta, guard the table while I’m away?” 

“Oh. Uh, sure thing, Dells.” 

“You keep a close eye on him, Katniss. Make sure he doesn’t cause any mischief,” Delly warned with a wag of her finger before walking away, waving to those she knew as she went, which seemed to be everyone.

Katniss stood there for a moment, forlornly watching their buffer leave. She barely knew Delly, but now as the curly-haired blonde left, she felt a bit of a betrayal of being left alone with Peeta. 

“You don’t have to watch over me,” Peeta said, her attention snapping back to him. “Delly was just teasing.” 

“Oh no, it’s okay.” It wasn’t, not really, but admitting that would make things ten times more awkward. “Madge is my supposed date tonight, but she’s been spending more time in the bathroom than with me. So it’s fine. Um.” Just get it over with! “How are you, Peeta?” 

“I’m fine, Katniss. Thank you for asking.” 

“Of course, of course.” Wishing she’d consumed more alcohol before pursuing this quest, she went forth, “I heard you moved back into town. With your brother?” 

He shook his head. “I forgot how small this town is. Yeah. I moved back. Go on and ask.” He motioned at her, rolling his eyes. “About my engagement. Everyone’s been asking about it.” 

Katniss winced. “I didn’t want to pry, but yeah, I heard.” 

“As did many others.” He sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I’m fine, really. I broke it off with her, actually. Wasn’t a right fit,” he explained. “I didn’t think it fair to either of us to continue further, but it still hurts a little.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Peeta.” But was she really, though? Was she seriously happy about a guy she hadn’t spoken to in over ten years being single again? God, she was a horrible person. “But it sounds like you did the mature thing. Breaking it off like that.” 

He shrugged. “That’s what everybody tells me.” 

Someone came up behind her and she stepped aside as Peeta snapped into greetings mode. It was amazing watching him change so swiftly like that. Some people truly never changed, she realized, remembering how quickly he seemed to change moods at the flip of a switch. He did it the day she broke things off with him. How his eyes cascaded down in disappointment and she’d wondered if he might cry after confessing how he felt about her for all this time, but then someone had walked in, calling out to them, and he became all smiles and acted like nothing drastic had happened between them.

It was a bit unsettling, the more she thought about it now. 

The line of late comers started growing and Delly still hadn’t returned. Deciding to keep her promise, Katniss took a seat next to Peeta and smiled as another former classmate stepped up, ignoring the quizzical look he sent her as they were asked questions about times for the planned events and how they both were doing. Many assumed they were married now, remembering how close the two were in high school, and thank god for Peeta stepping in and saving her stumbling tongue, explaining how Katniss was just keeping Delly’s seat warm until she returned and that they hadn’t seen each other until tonight. 

After the third or fourth classmate assumed their matrimonial union, Katniss laughed, picking at the ripped sticker she’d stuck to her skirt for safe keeping. “I didn’t realize so many people remembered us together.” 

“Small town school,” he reminded her, his tone light and joking. Like she didn’t stupidly break his heart. “I’m not surprised they remembered you. You forget how much of an effect you have on people, Katniss.” 

Her cheeks warmed. “I think you mean yourself there, Mr. Popular. I was that awkward band and choir girl with the braces who never shut up about why the Baroque style was far superior to Classical.” 

“I remember those rants fondly,” Peeta laughed. “Your face would get all pinched because I barely knew what you were talking about, so I couldn’t offer any opinion. And I loved those braces! The silver brackets really brought out the silver in your eyes.” 

She rolled her eyes, remembering that line he used to pull every time she complained about her teeth. “Well I’m happy to say those days are gone. I’ve been metal-free since college.” 

“Took that long, huh?” 

“I’m pretty sure my orthodontist was just milking it for my money those last three years,” she laughed. “My teeth looked pretty straight to me.” Katniss smiled widely, showing off her white, straight teeth she suffered many mouth cuts and rubber band snaps to achieve. He joined her and wow. It really did feel like no time had passed between them. Like they were just a couple of teens back in high school, making fun of a teacher or a douchey classmate. 

Peeta looked down at the table, tapping his pen in thought. “You know,” he said after a moment, still looking down, “I am free from this table at 7.”

“That makes sense,” she nodded. “If people haven’t arrived in the first hour and a half, that’s their loss.”

“It is,” he smiled, glancing up at her. Yes, his eyes were still as clear blue as she remembered, and was it possible for eyelashes to grow? His looked longer now. “If you’d be fine with it, Katniss, I’d like to catch up with you some more.” Was it her imagination or did he seem nervous? That made no sense. She broke his heart. If anyone should be nervous, it was her. And she was. The constant flutter in her stomach more noticeable now with her sitting so close to him. 

“Oh. Um.” It was her turn to look down at her hands. “Okay. Sure. Yeah, that’d be great.” 

Peeta seemed uncertain, though. “Are you sure? Was I too forward just now? Sorry, ever since my break-up, I seem to be a bit rusty talking with people.” That was hard to believe. 

“No, no!” Katniss rushed to assure him. “I just—didn’t think you’d really want to catch up after how we ended things.” There. She mentioned it. Old heartbreak was out there now. “I know I messed things up pretty badly.” 

To her surprise, Peeta laughed, shaking his head. “Trust me, that is water under the bridge, Katniss. I was stupid and should have picked up on the vibes you were sending me.” 

“And I was stupid, too,” she said, a bit shyly. 

“High schoolers can be pretty stupid.” 

“I don’t know,” she smiled. “Mine seem a lot smarter than when we were that age.” 

“Mine too.” He pretended to think. “Perhaps we were just idiots and it has nothing to do with how young we were.” 

She laughed. “Maybe.” 

He tapped her pen with his. “To being idiots?” 

“To being idiots.” She tapped his pen back. 

And at 7 o’clock sharp, Peeta declared it was time they drank until they got so drunk, it was like they were back at Finnick Odair’s Friday night after-game parties. Katniss happily agreed, sternly reminding him she wasn’t going to make out with him tonight like they used to do in the toolshed during those parties, causing him to burst out laughing. Quickly scrawling out Madge’s name on a new sticker, she told Peeta she’d meet him at the bar. 

“I have to give my date her sticker.” He told her the booze waited for no one and headed to where a group of their classmates were chanting for someone to “Chug! Chug! Chug!” She smiled and went back to Madge, who was chatting with Leevy Anderson, an old friend of hers. 

“Well,” Madge asked after Leevy excused herself. “You were gone an awful long time. Did you get my sticker?” Katniss handed it to her with a smile. “I take it things went well? Or were you just sputtering out nonsense.” 

“It went very well,” Katniss told her, glancing over at the bar where Peeta stood, holding two drinks out, one clearly being hers. “We’re going to get crazy drunk now because this night has been extremely long for both of us. I hope you’re fine driving me?” 

“One of us needs to get crazy drunk tonight,” Madge laughed, patting her stomach. “Drink for me, too?” 

“Of course.” 

“Going to make out with Peeta Mellark like old times?” her friend teased, noticing Peeta now. “I’m sure there’s a closet you two can sneak into.” 

Katniss scoffed at her friend’s blatant assumption. “No, we’re not making out tonight, Madge.” Madge nodded, taking a sip of her pop. “We might next Friday, though,” she added a bit coyly. “He’s taking me out to dinner.” And she walked away before her friend could say anything further.

[ateezmakemeweep]

richboy!seonghwa (part 27)

word count: 4k

angst, fluff

(part 26) (series masterlist)

the next few weeks were spent getting back into the swing of school. the hallways that were buzzing those first few days back quickly fizzled into a panic-induced frenzy. because if you thought the winter coursework was a nightmare, the spring proved to be much worse. 

“20 pages? 20 pages!” you exclaim in the library to mingi and yunho. “i don’t even know enough words to make an essay that long!”

“okay miss scholarship student,” yunho teases, smirking when you smack him playfully. 

“maybe if you weren’t so distracted by boys and read a dictionary instead, you’d be able to write those 20 pages,” mingi says casually, his own face in a book as he chews on a carrot stick. 

your mouth drops as yunho snorts into his hand, the satisfied smirk on the red head’s face quickly falling when you speak up. “you really wanna talk about being distracted by boys, mingi?”

that’s quick to shut him up, only the crunch of him chomping on the carrot stick and the sound of your own chuckle between the three of you. the squeak of the library door opening causes all of you to look, your neck craning back to see seonghwa walking through with two boys from your 4th period class.

your eyes meet and he only does his usual greeting to you, a simple head nod with the smallest of polite smiles on his face before he quickly looks away. you let out a sigh, turning around to see the two boys looking at you carefully.

“still not saying a word?”

“no,” you sigh. 

because the only time you managed to have a conversation with him was by catching him after your class the third day back at school. he’d been avoiding you like the plague and you suppose you understood that maybe he felt embarrassed about his drunken night and confessions. 

but you didn’t want him to feel like he couldn’t talk to you or that you were weirded out. so that’s why you watched the clock and got your books away before the bell, springing up from your seat when it rang reminding you of the other times you had to plan out a way to catch him before he bolted out. 

“seonghwa,” you said, voice quiet but strong as he stiffens upon hearing it. he turns to look at you and tries to smile but it falls flat, his eyes and entire body deflating slightly. 

“hey, y/n.”

the bustling of other students surrounds you as their feet scuffle and backpacks zip close, only a few people straying behind to wait for their friends or talk to the teacher. you two hold a tense eye contact, both of you unsure and guarded but for very different reasons. 

you don’t know if you’re making things harder for him while he doesn’t know if you’re completely perturbed by the shit he pulled last week. because he thinks if there’s two people more disturbed by it than him, it’s you and yeosang. 

“you’ve been avoiding me,” is all you say. because before that night, you guys were kind of back to normal. smiling and laughing and actually talking to one another. 

“and you know why,” he mumbles, leaning his arm on the desk as he looks up at you. 

“seonghwa, it’s fine,” you tell him softly. 

“it’s not,” he says, a humorless laugh leaving his mouth. “i don’t even remember what i said to you but i know it had to be-”

“nothing. it was nothing and nobody’s mad at you,” you tell him in an attempt to make him feel better.

“it wasn’t nothing, y/n,” he snaps, your eyes widening at his unusually harsh tone. and he knows you’re only trying to make him feel less embarrassed and ashamed but it only makes him feel worse. 

you hold your breath as you see him exhale one of his own, running his hand through his hair before he shakes his head. “i’m sorry,” he grunts lowly, “i’m just..i shouldn’t have done that.”

“and i shouldn’t have done a lot of things, either,” you tell him quietly, “i know...that that was kind of my fault.”

his adams apple bobs as he swallows, not even realizing the room has emptied out and people are waiting outside. he can only feel the thick tension between you two, your desperate attempt to make him feel better and make things between you guys normal again while he’s desperate to run away and just forget everything. 

but even after everything, he’s desperate to tell you nothing’s your fault. that you didn’t do anything wrong and there’s no fault to put on anyone. but then the more he thinks about it, the more he thinks maybe placing the blame on you would make you feel better.

ask why you kissed yeosang when you knew he liked you. ask why you kept it a secret for those weeks after even though you both knew it was wrong. ask why the hell you chose yeosang but still insist on talking to him. 

but he knows that’s not in his nature. he couldn’t ever put the blame on you when he sees how much it’s hurt you, how much you’ve cried and gone back and forth with yourself. it’s why he says:

“nothing was your fault,” he tells you. “i got drunk and said shit i shouldn’t have.”

“then why have you been avoiding me?” you ask softly. “yeosang said you haven’t really talked to him either.”

seonghwa swallows down the lump in his throat, his resolve to stay polite and good quickly leaving him. he shoots up from his desk and slugs his bag over his shoulder. he knows you mean well but he’s still sensitive and upset and the way he’s feeling hounded by you right now is making his skin prickle. 

“why are you attacking me, y/n?” 

his voice is such a short snap that it makes you draw back in offense; you were just trying to talk and make him feel better. 

“attacking you?” you ask, “i’m just...i’m just trying to tell you we’re okay. that nothing has to be...weird now.”

air blows out of his nose and he can’t bring himself to look at your face, his head turned back to look out in the hallway. he sees a few younger kids waiting for them to leave, like their able to sense the tense atmosphere and stay far away. 

it’s why he turns back and forces himself to look in your eyes, already feeling like an asshole when he sees the hurt and confusion swirling in yours. but for once in his life, he can’t bring himself to care that much. you say you guys are okay, but that’s not the case. he knows it, you know it, everyone probably knows it. 

but because he needs to get away before he becomes a person that he isn’t at his core, he nods his head at you.

“you’re right. we’re okay. nothing’s weird,” he says, his voice soft but not with the warm sincerity you’ve grown to know. “i gotta get to class, y/n. i’ll see you around.”

“seonghwa,” you breathe out. but he pushes past you and out of the classroom, the people waiting outside immediately filing in and taking their seats. 

that was the last time you’d talk to him and it was almost a month ago. you’ll see each other and nod or wave or attempt to smile but everything feels so forced and fake that it makes your stomach sink. 

“it’s like after the move night,” you tell the two boys looking at you curiously. “we were finally becoming friends again, kind of, and then that call changed everything.”

yunho and mingi look at you then toward seonghwa, who’s walking through the library and looking everywhere but their corner. their hearts hurt for him, knowing how hard these past months have been for everyone but especially him. and they know you mean well but expecting him to be friends with you is a little...unrealistic right now.

“he’ll be friends with you when he’s ready,” mingi tells you, gently but firmly the way he always does. “it’s not that easy, y/n. think about if you felt the way you do about yeosang but he rejected you. and then try to imagine if he kept insisting you guys could be friends.”

you let out a sigh, knowing he has a point and is absolutely correct. but it still hurts your heart because you do love seonghwa and his friendship and everything he has to offer as a person. 

but if he needs you to wait, you’ll wait. because you don’t wanna lose your first friend here over something as silly as a drunken night. 

“did seonghwa talk to you today?” yeosang asks as you plop down in his car, leaning over to place a peck on his cheek before throwing your bag onto the floor. 

“nope,” you say, a frown on your face before you ask him the same. 

“not really,” yeosang says, shaking his head as he holds his palm up for you to take. “just his usual safe bullshit.” 

him and seonghwa are in a similar spot that they were in after the movie night fight, tip toeing around each other and using their other friends as buffers. it’s not as bad, since they’re able to be in the same room as each other, but it’s still not their usual friendship; it’s why yeosang’s decided that today he’s had enough. he misses his friend and they have to talk it out again.

“that’s why i’m going to his house later tonight,” he continues. 

“oh?” you squeak, playing with his fingers as he starts to drive off. 

“yeah, i don’t know if he wants me to like...talk to him about that night?” yeosang questions, wondering if his friend is thinking he’s harboring ill feelings about the whole thing. because he was at first, but it hadn’t had anything to do with seonghwa. it was his own insecurities and stupid brain concocting a bunch of a bullshit. “but i have to go over there. last time it went well and he definitely wanted to punch me in the face back then. so this time should be fine.”

you giggle at his comment, nodding your head before looking over at him again. “maybe let him get one in this time. for fun.”

his eyes roll toward you and your teeth dig into your bottom lip as you smile, your eyes lighting up when he says if that were the case, you’d be the one taking care of him afterward. you peck him on the lips and then do it again when you’re in front of your house, wishing him good luck and reminding him not to be an asshole later. 

“i don’t know where you get this impression that i’m ever an asshole.”

his cute boyish chuckle rings through his open window after you slam the door at his comment, blushing and waving him off when he screams out the three words you’re still getting shy and giddy hearing.

yeosang waits until dinnertime to go over to seonghwa’s, texting the boy that he’s bringing chinese food and to have the door open for him. he doesn’t get an answer but knows the boy saw it when he gets there twenty minutes later, walking into the house and hearing the tv on in the living room. 

he sees seonghwa laid out on the couch, passing right by the kitchen counter and missing the passport papers and boarding school pamphlet laid out for everyone to see. but it appears his house is empty again, everything spotless and untouched like a soul hasn’t lived here in months. 

“hey,” is all he says, placing the food on the coffee table before plopping down on the couch. 

“hey,” seonghwa says, eyeing the plastic bag before looking at the boy. “thanks for the food, though it didn’t seem like i had much of a choice.”

“you turning down a free meal now, you fuck?”

seonghwa smirks at the boy, fishing in the bag for a plastic fork before throwing one at yeosang. “don’t get shit on the couch. my mom will-” the words die in his throat when he realizes even if something did get on them, he could probably buy a new couch and have it shipped to his home before anyone  noticed. “actually, it doesn’t even matter.”

“i won’t,” yeosang says, popping open his container before shoving a piece of sesame chicken in his mouth. the boys eat in a relative silence, a stray comment about the tv show and the sounds of their chewing filling the room. 

“how long have your parents been gone?” yeosang finds himself asking, fishing around his bowl as he successfully avoids the pieces of broccoli. 

“don’t know, maybe since november. hadn’t talked to them in a while.”

yeosang’s eyes widen, placing his sock-covered foot on the table and smirking when seonghwa smacks his foot down immediately. “hwa, what the fuck, you’ve been here alone for almost five months?” 

the boy only shrugs in response, stuffing his mouth with a dumpling as he mumbles “i guess.”

“assholes,” yeosang grumbles, shaking his head before the last part of his sentence rings in his head. “but you’ve talked to them recently, then?” 

the boy only answers with a short “yeah,” but yeosang doesn’t find anything about it suspicious. after all, they’re always a little short and cryptic when it comes to issues with their parents. 

they finish eating as they watch tv, yeosang laying back on the couch with a grunt when his stomach feels like it’s about to explode. seonghwa wipes his mouth with a napkin before picking up the food, humming when the boy laid out thanks him quietly.

seonghwa dumps the food in the trash before eyeing the papers on the table, his gaze roaming to yeosang before back on the counter with a sigh. he licks at his lips questioningly, the short phone call with his father replaying in his mind.

“looks like we’ll be here for a few more months,” his dad told him firmly. it’s the first thing he said after saying hi, not a ‘how are you?’ or ‘have you been eating?’ just a pleasant reminder that he’ll be alone in his huge house for a bit longer. 

“oh,” is all he managed to get out. and whether his dad heard the disappointment in his voice or not, the next sentence that left his mouth throughly shocked him. 

“i know it’s your senior year but we figured we’d ask. would you wanna go to school here?”

his eyes widened at first, his immediate instinct to say absolutely not and enjoy the life of being a teenager whose parents are abroad in france. but he can’t even lie that the thought of getting away could be just what he needs right now. because his life hasn’t felt right for the past few months. 

and he’s not only thinking about the whole thing with you and yeosang. he’s considering how much he’s hated being alone here, how he’s so sick of the empty house and not hearing from his parents for weeks. how he no longer wants to bother his friends with his weepy nonsense while they’re trying to enjoy their last moments of high school.

but does he really wanna do that? does he want to leave his friends and school and move to a country where he doesn’t know anybody? 

“i-i...” he stutters, unsure of how exactly how to answer. but with his son not immediately blurting out the word ‘no,’ the man offers him time to think about it, informing him of the name and telling him to print out the brochure on the school’s website. 

“it’s a great school, seonghwa. it’d be a good opportunity and my colleague’s son goes there. but we’re not gonna force you, it’s all up to you.”

that conversation was a little over a week ago and seonghwa had still been going back and forth with himself, every night going going over the pros and cons in his head. because while a part of him thinks it’d be good for him, another part of him isn’t sure. 

but then when he pads his way back over to the living room and see’s yeosang sitting up with a serious expression, his brain pushes all of that out of his mind. he knew the boy had ulterior motives for coming over and now he thinks he’s about to get his ass handed to him. 

“you know we gotta talk about it,” is all his friend says, placing his foot on his knee as the boy looks at him. “stop looking like i’m gonna punch you in the face.”

seonghwa lets out a snort, rolling his eyes as he plops back down on the couch. “you probably deserve to,” the boy mumbles. 

there’s a few beats of silence before he hears, “you’re fucking joking, right?” seonghwa’s head snaps up immediately, raising an eyebrow as his friend just looks at him in disbelief. “you’re too good a guy, seonghwa, i swear to fuck.”

the boy only lets out a humorless laugh and shakes his head, looking away for a moment before back at his friend. “how do you figure? i called your girlfriend in a drunken fit and confessed all of my feelings to her.”

“she said you couldn’t remember anything,” he says. tone not accusing nor angry.

“i don’t,” seonghwa says, “but i know that’s what happened.”

yeosang looks at his friend and can see the inner turmoil he’s feeling, wishing the boy wasn’t always so hard on himself. he puts aside his own shit all the time to spare others and it’s something yeosang wishes he could do so easily.

“okay. so what?” yeosang says. seonghwa raises an eyebrow as he looks at his friend in confusion. did he not just hear him say he told his girlfriend he had feelings for her? not like he didn’t already know...but still.

“seonghwa, we all already fuckin’ knew that. we also know i was wrong in the first place for kissing her when i knew you liked her.” the boy pops his neck to the side, remembering the blow out fight they had in the basement that felt like it was, both somehow, yesterday and a year ago. 

“but i know also you’d never do anything. you’re my best friend and you’re just too fucking good.”

seonghwa looks at yeosang and swallows the lump in his throat, shaking his head at the boy. he doesn’t feel like he’s good, he doesn’t like that he put you in that position in the first place and he doesn’t like that he couldn’t put his feelings aside for his best friend’s girlfriend, no matter how sneakily you guys started.

“you’re also a fuckin’ pussy so...”

seonghwa rolls his eyes and kicks the boy roughly in the leg, smirking in satisfaction when yeosang lets out a pained groan. “you’re such a dick.” and just like a dick would, he only laughs before his face turns serious again. 

“i’m serious, though, seonghwa,” yeosang says, “neither of us are mad or uncomfortable or any of that bullshit. we did have a fight that night but it’s because i was being a bitch.” 

seonghwa raises his eyebrow at that tid bit of information; he didn’t know about that. 

“she cares about you seonghwa. probably more than she’ll ever admit to me,” he continues to say. “because she was going no matter what i said. she didn’t want you being there drunk and upset.”

and even though seonghwa knows you’d do that for anyone, it does make him happy to know you were gonna be there for him no matter what. because you’re his friend and even if that’s all you see him as, it’s still someone in his life that’s there for him. that should make him want to stay and finish the year out where he grew up. 

but...

“i’m going to france,” he blurts out. 

a dead silence hangs between the two boys, yeosang staring at his friend in immense confusion; that was the last thing he was expecting him to say. what does he mean he’s going to france? 

“what?”

and it’s like saying it aloud has finally made the decision final. he thinks he even knew that’s what he wanted, what he needed, the second he got off the phone with his dad that night. that even though he’s almost an adult, he needs his parents around for guidance and support and can’t be in this house for days at a time with just his own thoughts. 

“my dad told me about a school there,” he finally tells the boy, now wishing he would’ve told him sooner by the look on yeosang’s face. “said it’s a good opportunity and asked if i wanted to go.”

“and you said yes?” yeosang asks in bewilderment, trying to keep his composure and voice calm. but what the fuck, “it’s our senior year, seonghwa. we’re supposed to be graduating in like four months.”

“yeah and no one would even be here to see me graduate, yeosang. they’re gonna be there for god knows how much longer.”

“so?” yeosang asks, knowing he might have a tiny point but not wanting to see it. because his brain can’t stop connecting all of this to the drama that’s been happening this whole entire school year and now he thinks he might be feeling the crushing guilt you’ve been experiencing. 

seonghwa lets out a small chuckle at his friend, shaking his head as he looks over the boy. “so i want my parents to see me graduate. and if that means going to france, then that’s that.”

“thats bullshit, seonghwa, and you know it,” he says. “this is because of y/n, isn’t it?”

seonghwa swallows the obvious elephant in the room. because, yeah okay, he can totally see why he thinks that. he’ll even admit it may be playing a role in this. but even without all the drama, he might’ve considered this opportunity. 

“no,” seonghwa says firmly. 

“don’t fucking lie to me,” yeosang spits back immediately. 

seonghwa rolls his eyes at the boy’s temper, his tongue poking at the inside of his cheek before he throws his arm’s up in defense. “okay, it might have a little bit to do with-”

“fuck, seonghwa,” yeosang groans, getting up from his spot on the couch and pacing around the large living room. he allows his friend the time to process this, watching silently as the boy walks around the room and goes through the motions of allowing the information to sink in.

“if your feelings for her were this strong, you should’ve-”

“it’s not only because of you and her, yeosang, don’t think so highly of yourselves,” seonghwa says, surprising yeosang and causing a smirk to quirk at his lips despite the situation. it even causes him to settle ever so slightly, still feeling a pit in his stomach about his best friend really considering leaving just months before their senior year is over.

he lets out a sigh looking at the boy, not seeing an ounce of hatred or envy in his eyes. just an open honesty that causes yeosang to plop back down on the couch. 

“so, paris?” he finally asks as he looks at seonghwa. 

“i...i think so, yeah,” the boy responds, smiling sadly at his friend. he never would’ve thought in a million years that they’d be having this conversation. that seonghwa would actually take his father’s offer and allow him to ship him off to a fancy, school in europe. 

“and it’s really not because of...everything?” yeosang asks, still unconvinced but trying for his friend, and maybe even himself, to believe the alternative. 

“no,” seonghwa says, “i’ve been feeling...lonely, i guess, in this house. they weren’t even around much but when they were it was good, ya know.” yeosang only gives him a sad smile back, shaking his head as he feels his heart sink.

“no, i don’t.”

seonghwa looks down and wants to laugh at the situation. because there’s nothing more pathetic and cliche than sad kids with mansions and black cards. but if seonghwa has parents who are better than most wealthy ones and yeosang has a girlfriend who he’s incredibly lucky to have, then he thinks both of them are gonna be okay.

“not to take one from your book and be a pussy, but i think i’m gonna miss you.”

seonghwa throws his head back in laughter and it’s the first real laugh he thinks he’s had in weeks. but it’s always been like that with yeosang, a balance of teasing and serious that naturally comes after years of friendship. 

“well i’ll be here for another week. cry then you little bitch.”

and now it’s yeosang’s turn to kick seonghwa in the leg, both the boys snorting in laughter as they try to contain their smiles. it feels good for them to be back to normal, turning their attention back to the show before suggesting to put on one of their favorite movies. 

and with something unspoken in the air, yeosang and seonghwa crash on the couch that night because neither of them would ever utter the term slumber party to one another.

(part 28)

[eag1e98]

Virtual Aces

So this short is an irrelief fic. Going off of @tsarisfanfiction prompt videogames. I imagined at some point in Scott's teenage life he played video games, air combat video games in particular. Fast forward to present day Alan finds Scott's old games and the fun ensues.

"Wow...how old is this?" Alan whispered to himself as he rifled through an unmarked cardboard box. The underground hangars had their fair share of cardboard boxes. Even though most were in storage rooms some found their way into various corners of the hangars. Alan had literally stumbled upon one near the maintenance desks that sat ready to assist with any task involving Thunderbird 1. Alan was placing a can of wax and a buffer pad on the desk after waxing one of the stabilizers. It was a task Scott usually did, and actually enjoyed but he was busy assisting Virgil with maintenance on Thunderbird 2. The waxing could not wait any longer.

Alan had already finished washing and waxing and was ready for a break. Or...at least something else to do. The box beside the desk was worn. It's flaps were coming apart and the bottom corners had stains after sitting in a slightly humid hangar for who knows how long. Alan had opened the box to find a black console and some cords. Alan picked up the box and ran upstairs hoping to further inspect it in privacy.

Alan bypassed any curious brothers and retreated to his room. After pulling the black console out of the box he realized exactly what he was looking at.

It's a video game console.

Due to its age he guessed the possible owners of the video game console. Alan found a single plastic disc case missing any sort of cover that might identify the contents on the disc. Alan opened up the case and read the label on the disc...air combat ace...huh it must be Scott's. Alan was so entranced with his new found treasure that he did not hear the footsteps stopping in his bedroom doorway.

"What are you doing?" Alan jumped like a spring loaded toy. "G'ah!...oh Kayo it's you I thought you were someone else." Kayo had just returned from the gym. Her intuition was on point when it came to her brothers. She knew Alan was up to something. "What are you hiding Alan?" "Nothing..." Alan had never mastered the art of lying. "I saw you running upstairs with a box. Just tell me what you found." Kayo was not looking to snitch on her youngest brother. She hoped it was family history or something like that...which it kind of was.

Alan paused and thought for a moment. His sister had nothing to gain from ratting him out and every ounce of curiosity he had. "I think...I think it's Scott's old game console." Kayo and Alan were not alive when Scott was a teenager so they knew little about the games he played...but they both knew Scott's love of older jet aircraft especially military aircraft. Scott had flown in the United States Air Force for 5 years. Virgil had told the younger siblings about Scott's affinity for warbirds before, but never had they looked at their eldest brother as a gamer.

Alan started setting up the console and plugging it in to the older TV that sat in his room. Antique games were still appreciated in the age of newer TVs and holoprojectors which meant that older consoles could still be hooked up and used. "Look at these older VR headsets! These are so cool!" Alan was delighted to see elements of Scott's childhood. Kayo checked the hallway for Virgil or Scott before sitting down on the floor next to Alan and grabbing the second controller.

There was a moment of suspense as Alan switched on the TV then the console. It would be a real letdown if the console didn't work. The TV sat with a black screen for what seemed like ages until...ding. The word Gamestation appeared on the screen. It works.

Alan had played flying games before even though he preferred his usual role playing games. Kayo didn't game as much but she had taken to any flying game she came across during trips to the arcade with her brothers. Air combat ace was a simple game that allowed up to 4 players to battle together against bots, battle in teams, or battle each other. The aircraft in the game were from the 2010s and 2020s. "So how about we battle each other?" Alan smirked at Kayo who was never one to back down from a challenge. "You're on Alan Tracy." Another voice spoke from the doorway, "You sure about that?" This time Kayo and Alan both jumped. It was Scott.

"Wow... where'd you find my old Gamestation console, I've been looking everywhere for this!" Scott was even more amazed that the thing still worked. "I found it in the hangar...sorry for running off with it." Scott couldn't be mad at Alan...not after finding this treasure. He sat down on the bed intending to spectate. "I'm just glad you found it. Do you guys want help with controls?" "I think we got it." Alan answered as he and Kayo went through the aircraft selection. Kayo eyed the stealth fighter, it looked sleek and maneuverable like her bird. It was called a raptor. Alan chose the same plane. The choices didn't surprise Scott, it was his favorite plane in the game after all. The gaming pair slipped on their VR headsets and commenced battle.

The score was 2 for Kayo, 1 for Alan. After kill 3, Alan pulled off his headset in defeat. "Man, I'm no good at these games...but I guess you have an advantage being the pilot of Thunderbird Shadow." Alan plopped down on his bed next to Scott. "Keep trying, you'll get it," Kayo encouraged her younger brother. "Wait...Scott I challenge you to a dogfight." Kayo had been learning a bit of air combat basics from Scott...only because he knew he couldn't keep her out of a dogfight if a rescue required it. Scott had not taught her everything though. "The student challenging the teacher...bold of you to think I taught you everything. Plus, this is my game." "Well if you aren't busy..." Kayo's grin showed all the competitive spirit that being raised around brothers gave her. Scott returned the expression, "F. A. B. you're on."

Scott took Alan's place on the floor and grabbed the headset and controller. The match continued where it left off. The match would end when someone reached 5 kills, the traditional amount that designated an ace. Alan watched the split screen on the TV in awe. The two virtual jets were locked in a tight furball. Not a word was spoken between the two pilots. Each jet turning and flipping, trying to get an angle on the other. Poof...Kayo's screen erupted in a fireball as Scott landed a missile hit.

10 minutes had passed in the match. Virgil and Gordon peeked in the room to see what was going on. "Who's winning?" Gordon whispered to Alan hoping not to disturb the spectacle before them. Scott had 4 kills and Kayo had managed to land 1 kill bringing her score to 4. The score was tied. Alan's bed was now a metaphorical grandstand as Virgil, Gordon, and Alan watched the enduring battle before them.

Boom...Kayo's screen erupted in fire...match over. Scott and Kayo let out a huff. "That match was the most fun I'd had in years with that game, good job." Scott held his hand up for a high five. Kayo smiled back and high fived her humble brother. "Pay up Virge!" Gordon laughed. Scott and Kayo whipped around to see the audience that had formed behind them. "When did you guys get in here?" Scott questioned. "At the tiebreaker." Virgil chuckled. "I think we have a new family challenge."

From then on the family had their challenge. Beat their own virtual ace.

[pipsketches]

Is there anything you’d change about the characters in Three Houses for fun? Such as, height, age, clothes, body type, hair, or even their house? I find myself unintentionally imagining Caspar buffer and taller then he actually is ^^,

 I’d make a lot of them older. The teacher student thing would have been a lot less of a weird issue if they were all at least 18-20. I mean Sylvain and Mercedes were in their 20s from the beginning so idk why they felt everyone else had to be like 16. Except maybe Lysithea whose need to be seen as mature would benefit from everyone being 20 somethings to her 15-16. It would also make her backstory, imo, sadder being the youngest by that many years and still being the most likely to die. It would make her look smarter and play up the whole prodigy thing. Like all around her character would benefit from everyone else being older.

And I’m going ahead to say this got longer than I intended lol. I’m so sorry! The rest of my long rambling mess under the cut

I don’t really know a lot of the character heights. I know I’ve looked at the heights even charts people made with all of them lined up but I guess cuz their fictional I don’t keep that in mind to much. I’m probably imagining a lot of the character heights wrong to but it’s whatever to me. Caspar funny enough though I had checked and I swear I remember seeing he was 5′9″, which was fine that’s taller than I am lol, but I checked again and he’s actually 5′6″ which is shorter than me but only by an inch so it’s still fine like it’s hardly a noticeable difference. I do prefer guys my height or taller though so I guess I’d make him taller??? It just seems kind of ridiculous cuz it’s just an inch lol.

Hair though! That’s all Felix and Raphael like holy shit do they have terrible hair. Felix more so than Raphael. Like Raphael just needs it maybe a little less fluffier and shorter. He highkey looks like a hobbit post time skip and tweaking it a little could remedy that. Felix on the other hand has like three different parts to his hair. Idk if that’s suppose to mean he’s trying to look good or if it’s suppose to show he isn’t trying at all but Pre-Timeskip had the perfect “I don’t care about my look” look. It was pulled back in a messy bun with strands sticking out everywhere because he genuinely doesn’t care about the superficial. It perfectly told us that he woke up pulled his hair back and called it a day oppose to his timeskip look which seems like he took more time for??? Judging from the little ponytail it’s also shorter which is a good choice. I totally believe Felix just got fed up of dealing with his hair and just cut it to not waste his time on it anymore. So maybe they could have gone shorter. Maybe like a more messy version of timeskip Claude’s hair? Or keep the short ponytail but just don’t have the three different hair parts to get to the ponytail.

Clothing wise I’m gonna say they should have let Raphael l have a boob window! Like it looks like they were gonna let him have one but then added another layer to cover him up. Like if Bernie of all people can have a boob window why not Raph??? I’d also change it so Caspar could maybe have at least his arms exposed. He’s very proud of his muscle (which is why I think a lot of people draw him beefy) so I would think he’d want them out for people to see. He literally has a tea time line drawing attention to his arms being muscular but we can’t even see them??? The generic warrior class, which is his cannon timeskip class, is also pretty revealing so he more than other male character could have been showing off some skin. Change his unit class color to something other than brown. I want to say blue but I think they might have not done that so he wouldn’t be confused as a blue lion,which I get but it also didn’t stop Marianne. Green or teal would be nice to if we can’t go blue (which are Lynhardt colors but their besties so its fine).

Speaking of going blue and being mistaken for a blue lion. If I had to change Caspar’s house it be to blue lion. I’ve seen a few posts on here actually of people making a case for why he’d be great in that house and I can’t say I disagree. He has a lot of potential dynamics there (three of his supports are blue lion with only two yellow deer already) with the most important to me being with Felix. Those two would immediately fight for sure but I think come out as best friends at the end over their love of fighting and even world view. They’re both characters who don’t care about nobility or what others think of them just doing whats right for them and looking out for people. A support with Sylvain could also be pretty funny considering how his C-support with Dorothea and A-support with Hilda went. He’s lovable but not particularly flirty or even good at catching on when someone is flirting (shout out to the random girl who tried to get him to the goddess tower) but clearly interested in flirting, sex, and romance based on his reaction in Dorothea’s C and B-support (personally I think he really thought he was getting to first base until he was made to move furniture lol) and how excited he got in Byleth’s S-support. So having Sylvain try and teach poor oblivious Caspar would be great! Idek if it be funnier to have it end miserably like Dimitri’s or in actual success. A support with Dimitri would be…Something. If you have Caspar, which of course I did, Dimitri personally apologizes to Caspar about Randolph and Caspar didn’t really seem to care but maybe seeing that conversation in more detail could be interesting. Theirs also the whole justice and violence conversation they both could have with eachother.  Other than Caspar idk who else I’d move maybe Lyndhardt to yellow deer? The house is a lot more chill so it seems more his speed. Mercedes being a black eagle could lead to very interesting interactions with Edelgard and Huebert.

For body types I’d make Leonie and Petra have a more visibly athletic build. I honestly think Caspar is suppose to be muscular. Based solely on that one tea time line and his support with Raphael but if he isn’t then I’ll make him muscular! Like the only reason he isn’t…Shown? Is because they gotta have the characters with mostly the same body types to make all the unit class modeling and animating easier. They did this in Fates to with the most glaring example being Saizo. The portrait clearly shows him as this really buff very muscular ninja but give him the towel and all of a sudden his like really lean??? I think that’s what’s happening in three houses. The brawler and grapplers show this the best because Raphael and Dedue who are clearly bigger than the whole cast still have the same model as everyone else. It’s honestly a little weird but I get why they do it. So while I don’t think Caspar is anywhere near Raphael or Dedue he is beefier than what his brawler/grappler/war master class would suggest imo

[thisgirlsays22]

Chapters: 7/? Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Levi/Eren Yeager Characters: Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Eren Yeager, With many other familiar faces showing up Additional Tags: professor Levi, College Student Eren Yeager, long distance, Angst with a Happy Ending, British Levi, Spoilers for His Dark Materials, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Fluff and Smut, American Eren Yeager, Light Spanking, Switching, The Usual Smutty Menu Summary:

“You’re probably just into him for the accent.”

“It’s not that,” Eren argued. “It doesn’t hurt, but it’s so much more than that.”

Mikasa rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

Notes:

Thank you to @attraversiamo19​ and @erensjaegerbombs​ for betaing <3

Read chapter 7 on Ao3 or under the cut. Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 on Tumblr.

The venue was dark, sweaty and crowded. If Levi moved just a fraction in any direction, he’d bump elbows with a stranger, but as long as they stayed away from the mosh pit, he figured it would be fine. It was worth it to see the Cribs playing again. Worth it to be back at a gig with Farlan and Is.

He’d met them right at the venue, so he and Farlan hadn’t yet had a chance to clear the air. They’d hugged awkwardly when they’d arrived, brief claps on the back, and had studiously avoided the sensitive subjects of Eren and their argument.

Levi stared up at the stage, watching one of the singers grip the mic, sweat dripping down his forehead. A strange feeling suddenly hit him in his early state of drunkenness as, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Farlan wrap an arm around Isabel’s shoulder and kiss the top of her head: he wished Eren was with him.

They’d had these tickets for a long time now, but maybe he should have looked online to see if anyone was trying to sell theirs off. Setting aside the matter of introducing him to Farlan and Isabel, it would have been nice to have him here. Even if only to serve as an additional buffer for the people crowded around him.  

“You good?” Farlan asked between songs, raising his voice to be heard over the crowd around them. Isabel tilted her head at him too.

“Yeah,” Levi said, avoiding their eyes.   

Farlan gave him a long look, but let it be.

When the show ended, they lingered in front of the entrance as people hopped into cabs or stood in clumps on the sidewalk, discussing the show or which chip shops were still open.

“You headed back?” Farlan asked in a way that Levi knew meant stick around.

Levi shrugged. He knew he should probably get back home, but he caught Isabel’s pleading look and sighed. “Might stay a bit longer. Fancy a drink?”

He was already buzzed but figured it couldn’t hurt to have another round. Besides, he always had a hard time saying no to Isabel when she widened her eyes that way. It reminded him of the way Eren looked at him sometimes, which might explain why he’d been so susceptible to his charms.

“Yeah, go on then,” Levi agreed, and Farlan shot him a small, tentative smile.   

The surrounding pubs had closed and they wound up drinking in their local park like they were teenagers again. Farlan and Isabel had returned to Kingston a few years ago, while Levi had refused to move back. He didn’t mind going back to visit them for gigs or a movie night round their flat so much, but he tried to avoid passing by Kenny’s old house--long sold and completely renovated. All Levi had left of that place was money in the bank.     

A quiet, melancholy ache settled in Levi’s chest as they sat atop the stone ledge overlooking the deserted playground. They used to play there together as kids, and then they’d made the rest of the park their territory. Football, throwing a frisbee for Farlan’s dog, sneaking beer up here in the dead of night as they gazed up at the stars, gossiped about their classmates, and dreamt about the future.

Farlan took a swig of his beer, then cleared his throat. “About what happened the other day, mate…”

Levi slid his gaze over to Farlan, waiting.

“I shouldn’t have jumped down your throat like that. It’s just...given your past, I was surprised by the choice. But I shouldn’t have just assumed you were behaving irresponsibly.”

Levi popped the tab off his can, which made a satisfied hiss. An explanation wasn’t owed, but he said, “I talked to my department chair.”

“Yeah, Is told me. Look, I know I can be a self-righteous prick, but I care about you. I want you to be happy with someone first and foremost, but I also didn’t want, you know, a young guy to get hurt the way you did. And again, I’m sorry I assumed you were repeating history like that.”

It took Levi a minute to absorb all that. There’d been Robert--one of the founders of the startup Levi had worked at when he was fresh out of uni--who’d been fifteen years older than Levi; Greg, who was a decade Levi’s senior when he’d met him in high school as a busboy at a local cafe.

Just because those experiences had been shitty, didn’t mean he was acting out a reversed sort of history. At least, he didn’t think so. He sat with the uncomfortable thought, staring out into the darkness of the park, lit only by the moon and a few lamp posts that had definitely not been there when they’d been growing up.

Before he started dating Eren, he’d been concerned by the very same thing, so he couldn’t exactly blame Farlan for being a decent human. The thought of hurting Eren in the way he’d been hurt by those relationships made his chest ache.

“It’s alright,” Levi said, and Farlan smiled at him. “You just care about me, and other people. Annoying as fuck sometimes, though.”

Isabel grinned, and Farlan gave a relieved laugh as the tension broke.  “Now that that’s out of the way, how are things going with...?”

“Eren.”

“Eren! How are things going with Eren?”  

“I’m still adjusting to it all.”

“What do you mean?” Isabel asked.

Levi frowned and shifted uncomfortably. “He wants to take me out on a fancy date tomorrow.”

Raising an eyebrow, Farlan said, “And?”  

“You know. He likes me.”

“Oh, right. Of course, you don’t know what to do with that.”

Levi nodded mutely. He took another sip of beer and looked out at the park’s trees rustling in the wind. The swing set below began to sway and creak.  

“We just want you to be happy. What if you just try to let him like you?” Isabel suggested.

“Yeah, we’ve liked you for this long,” Farlan agreed.

Levi tried to hide his smile.

“Tell me about him,” Farlan prompted.

“Tch.”

“Come on, you’ve told Isabel a few things. I’m sorry I was a prick, please tell me.”  

Levi took another swig as he thought. The corner of his mouth quirked up fondly. “When I told him I don’t drink coffee, just tea, he had a proper go at me. Said I was a walking stereotype and should be ashamed of myself.”

Isabel smirked. “He’s not wrong.” She’d been pushing coffee on Levi for years, always insisting that he just had to try the right brew.

There was no excuse for why he added the next part, aside from the pleasant way his head was buzzing and how relaxed he felt being back here. “He didn’t know you couldn’t put wood in the dishwasher, and he ruined two of my spoons.”

Farlan grinned. “You must really like him if you didn’t kick him to the curb after he ruined not one but two of your precious cooking utensils.”

Isabel bumped Farlan’s shoulder with her own. “Imagine if we’d done that, Far. Would’ve never forgiven us.”  

“Nope,” Levi agreed. “You morons should have learned by now. I taught you lot better than that.”

“You think you might bring him round soon to meet everyone?”

“He met Hanji and Erwin,” Levi said, and at Farlan and Isabel’s outraged looks clarified, “Briefly. Before anything had even happened between us.”

They were going to have a field day once they found out. He’d still not told any of his friends except for Mike since they were in the same department and he was Eren’s advisor. Even if Levi was ready to bring Eren to one of their get togethers, Levi didn’t want it to be awkward.  

“We could do something just the four of us, if you like,” Farlan offered. 

“I’ll think about it.” It wouldn’t be the worst thing. He yawned, and realised he better start heading home. “Shit. I’m exhausted.”  

“Stay round ours tonight, yeah?” Isabel said, before Levi could check the train times. “I’ll make us a fry-up in the morning.”

Levi sighed. “Fine.”

She and Farlan cheered, lifting their triumphant fists towards the moon.

   The next day, Levi regretted every choice he’d ever made that had led him to this moment where his head was over the toilet, knees digging into the checkered tile floor. When he finally managed to crawl back to the couch, head pounding, he saw Eren’s message asking if they were still on for tonight.

Feeling terrible, he told Eren he wouldn’t be able to make it, assuming Eren might be a tad disappointed but ultimately wouldn’t mind very much. It took him by surprise when the reply said, Whatever, it’s fine. But if spending time with me is so low on your list of priorities, maybe we shouldn’t bother rescheduling.

Where the fuck had that come from? Assuming an explanation would be readily forthcoming, Levi wrote back as much.  

“I might have fucked up,” Levi announced blandly as he dragged himself back to the living room where they’d all been nursing their hangovers together. He recounted the text exchange with Eren, and Farlan and Isabel exchanged one of their looks. The kind that since they’d gotten together had made Levi feel on the outside on occasion.

“You need to say something else,” Isabel said when Levi showed his stunted reply: the hell?

Levi groaned. His head pounded. “Can’t I leave it until tomorrow? I think I’m going to be sick again.”

“No!” Farlan and Isabel chorused.

“Write back right now,” Isabel instructed, using what they referred to as her ‘teacher voice’.

Levi hung his head over the bin, gagged a few more times, then sat up again. “Right. Fine, I’ll write something else.”

Where is this coming from? He wrote, thinking it sounded gentler than his initial message.

To his dismay, Eren still didn’t respond.

Nothing came all day. The promised fry-up was never made, at their mutual agreement. Levi managed to shower and keep down a bottle of water before catching the train back to Clapham. He lost signal during part of the agonising journey home, and hoped that when he got above ground again, he’d have a text or voicemail from Eren waiting for him, but there was nothing.

He arrived home and moped around his flat, still waiting on a reply. Too tired to hoover the living room like he wanted, he opened The Book of Dust, re-read the same paragraph over and over, and finally gave in and put on a film.

Was this really how he’d blown things with Eren? He’d imagined it would be something both bigger and smaller. No particular event, but tied deeply to his personality. Not something as mundane as asking to reschedule plans. If he was being honest, he was a bit taken aback by the intensity of Eren’s reply.

For a very long time now, Levi’s top priority had been his work and his research. The only living thing that had trumped that had been Luna while she was still alive.

He’d dozed off on his couch by the time his phone vibrated by his side. They messaged back and forth a couple times until Levi decided fuck it, he would go to Eren. He didn’t want this to end just because he didn’t feel like going out to bloody dinner.

If I were hungover, I still would’ve dragged my ass out of bed to see you, Eren had written. Fine, then, Levi would drag his ass to Eren’s flat to talk this out face to face.

Exhausted, he hauled himself up off the couch and to the bathroom. He splashed some water on his face and then went to see Eren.  

   Later that night, on the train journey back to Clapham from Eren’s house, Levi cursed his hungover body. He wished he’d been able to fuck Eren, even in his shitty bed with sheets that probably hadn’t been washed in weeks. Wished he’d been able to climb into Eren’s lap and ride him until Eren’s head fell back, his mouth agape as he clutched at Levi’s thighs, hands seeking purchase as he came. He liked watching Eren’s face when he came, so relaxed and open.

The screeching of the train made his head pound, made it hard to think. Why was it that part of him wanted to be alone and part of him wished he’d asked Eren to come home with him? Even if it was just to cuddle and maybe watch a bit of TV.  

The next day, finished with emails and research earlier than planned, he looked at his empty couch and wished Eren was there. He really liked Eren. Though it wasn’t exactly a revelation, the thought humbled him.

He called Eren.

“Hey, you free?”

“Uhh,” Eren paused. Levi could hear a rustling sound in the background. “I could be.”

“If it’s not too last minute, I thought of something we could maybe do. I know it wasn’t what you had planned, but if you wanted you could take me.”

Another pause. “I’d like that a lot, but take you where ?”

Internally, Levi groaned. He wasn’t normally one to hem and haw, but this was embarrassing. “St Paul’s.”  

“Um...the cathedral? I didn’t know you were religious.”

“I’m not. We’re not going in. Just meet me there.”

“Okay, when?”

“An hour work for you?”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll see you then.”

“Dress...decently.” Don’t wear the hoodie for fuck’s sake, he silently pleaded.

“I’ll wear my Monday best,” Eren quipped.

“Ugh.”

It was still sunny out when Levi arrived at the cathedral, the summer sun refusing to set, bleaching the stone spires white. As grand as it was in the daytime, Levi wanted Eren to see how beautiful it was at night.

He settled down on one of the empty benches. The area was quiet, since most of the crowds had flocked to the nearby chain restaurants that lined the streets.   

Eren arrived wearing the same outfit he’d worn to the Southbank Centre: a grey button-down and black slacks. His hair looked tamer too, Levi noted with a bizarre surge of desire, fighting the urge to drag Eren down a quiet street and make a mess of it.

“You look nice,” he said instead, as though Eren too might be startled to hear the news.

Eren rocked back on his heels, looking nervous as his gaze darted around, eyes tracing the grand dome of the cathedral up towards the sky. “Why do you sound surprised? You told me to dress nicely.”

“I was still expecting the bloody hoodie.” He kept some of his usual bite out of the words, knowing that it was actually an odd source of pride for Eren.

Eren turned his attention back to Levi. “You’re obsessed with it. Look, if you’re so desperate to wear my hoodie, I would consider loaning it to you once in awhile,” he teased. “But it’s my favorite one so you’d have to give it back.”

“I’m familiar with the concept of lending.” Scoffing, Levi turned away so his face wouldn’t betray him and give away how much he might like to take Eren up on his offer; he wouldn’t mind wearing something that was soft and smelled like Eren. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see.”

Levi led them around through the gardens and towards a row of shops.

“Are you taking me to Top Shop?”

“No.”

Eren tentatively reached for Levi’s hand, the question in his eyes as he interlaced their fingers. Levi flicked his gaze down, careful to keep his face neutral even as uncertainty shot through him. He didn’t pull away.

“It feels like you’re taking me to Top Shop,” Eren said as they stepped into the open entrance to the shopping centre. “Or H&M? I know our running joke is you making fun of my clothes, but I don’t need you to sugar daddy me here.”  

Levi ignored him. They walked to the middle of the complex, and Levi pressed the button to call the lift with his free hand.

“Oh, I bet there’s a tea shop upstairs,” Eren guessed.

“Nope. Not a bad shout, though.”

The glass lift doors opened, and they stepped inside. “Holy shit,” Eren exclaimed, “that’s terrifying.” The entire thing was made of glass, and Eren moved towards the side facing the city as they began to rise above it.

He knew Eren wasn’t afraid of heights from the hiking stories he’d told him, but this ride had freaked out a few of Levi’s friends. Moblit had to close his eyes every time they came here.

“It’ll look better at night,” Levi promised as the doors opened to the rooftop and he steered Eren past the bar and restaurant towards the viewing platform.  

Eren gaped out at the view, as though in a trance. His hands came up to grip the ledge. They stood side by side and stared out across the city skyline. You could see so much of London from up here, the bridges, trains and bright red buses looking like a children’s playset from high above.

“It’s incredible,” Eren whispered. “Can we go around the other side too?”  

They began to walk along the perimeter of the roof, and Levi pointed out the Shard, the tall, jagged glass structure rising high above the other buildings. “Tallest building in London, but costs thirty quid for the view. This is free and you can’t tell the difference.”

Eren started laughing.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just that was one of the places I thought about taking you.”

An undercurrent of awkwardness found its way into the conversation, bringing the discomfort of the weekend back into focus.

“We could get drinks at the bar here.” He inclined his head back in the direction of the mostly-empty bar. There were couches with thick tan cushions surrounding a few tables outside with a few high top tables in a row in front of them. “If you really insist on that nice date.”

The grin that broke out on Eren’s face was worth the mild discomfort.

Eren bought them a bottle of prosecco and they sat next to one another at one of the free tables outside. The bartender had told them that if the night was too cool, she could grab a blanket for them, but Levi liked how the cold air combated the warmth in his chest. Proximity to Eren or the bubbly - who was to say, really?  

“How was the concert? I never asked,” Eren said apologetically.

“Wasn’t really a concert, but it was good.”

“Oh right, you called it a gig. Very cool.”  

“I stayed in Kingston with my friends after. Been a while since I was back in my hometown.”

“How was that?”

“Good for a bit of nostalgia. Weird, too, though. Probably why I got so drunk. I’m sorry again about that.” He flicked his gaze to Eren who didn’t look bothered.

Eren shrugged. “Water under the bridge. Going home is weird for me too, I get it.”

“Nice to see my friends, though.”

“I’m glad.” Eren smiled at him, eyes crinkling at the edges. “Who’d you go with? I mean...if you, like, want to tell me about them.”

“I guess I could, like, tell you about them,” Levi teased.  

Eren’s smile broadened. “I mean like, if you want to like, tell me, like, about them?”

Levi laughed. There was something deeply appealing about a person who could take the piss out of themselves, take the piss out of you, and dish out exactly as much as they could take. He hadn’t realised this had been missing from his few past relationships.  

“Isabel and Farlan are the ones I mentioned to you before. Grew up with them, family and all that. Farlan’s a social worker and Isabel’s a secondary school teacher. They started dating when we were teenagers and have been together ever since.”

“I’ve been there,” Eren said. “Was it kind of weird for you too?”

“At first, yeah. But it’s alright now. What about you?”

“It’s actually my sister and one of my best friends. They started dating in high school, and they even have one of those gross couples nicknames. Jean will still add it to the hashtags on their Instagram photos together like there are people out there searching ‘hashtag JeanKasa’.”

“That’s awful,” Levi said. “If Is or Farlan started doing that, I’d knock their heads in.”

“Oh, definitely. It’s the worst. Anyway, it was weird as fuck when they first started dating. Jean would come to my house and then just disappear off with Mikasa, and it was like, ‘oh okay, see you never.’ It’s better now, but do your friends ever do the thing where they just share a look about something you say?”

“All the time,” Levi replied, thinking of yesterday morning when they’d insisted he text Eren back straight away.  

“Ug.” Eren rested his arm over the back of the chair behind Levi and took another sip of his drink. “The worst. Jean and Mikasa do that every time I see them.”

“Same with my lot. Might help if there was a fourth person around.”

Eren blinked at him.

“If you want to meet them sometime.” Smooth, Levi thought. “They offered.”

Sitting up straighter, Eren said, “Yeah, that’d be cool.” He tried to hide his smile as he took another sip, but Levi clocked it.  

Eren retracted his arm and looked down at his glass, rotating the flute of prosecco. “Speaking of friends…”

“What?” Levi prompted.   

“Can I tell you something?” Eren had a sheepish look on his face, but he was biting his lower lip, and Levi thought he might be trying not to laugh.

“You sure you should?”

Eren looked up from the glass he was still fiddling with. “What do you mean?”

“You sure you want to make a drunken confession?” Levi clarified. He took a sip of his drink.

Tonguing his cheek, Eren considered this. “Yeah, I want to tell you. Definitely.”

Levi raised his eyebrows and gestured for Eren to continue.

“Do you remember that night I ran into you at the pub? Before you fell for my ridiculous charms.”

“Oh yes, I remember that time in my life fondly.”

“I...wasn’t actually there with anyone. I could tell you didn’t want me to join you guys when your friend uh--”

“Erwin,” Levi supplied.

“Erwin, yes! When Erwin invited me to join you, I said I had to get back to my friends, but I was just there alone. I don’t know why I made that up.”  

“That was very brave of you to confess. But after a lie like that, I’m not sure how we can move forward, Eren,” Levi said gravely.

Eren laughed. “No, Levi, there’s more.”

“I’m listening.”

“I had seen you going in, and with classes ending, I’d been thinking about how I could make a move or something, and I just...followed you in and waited around until I worked up the nerve to actually talk to you. And then I was worried you were on a date, but then your other friend showed up. Anyway, I’m a creep, and I thought you should just know that.”

Levi kissed him. Mostly to put an end to the babbling, but also because he loved the stupid, very American way Eren said these things, all in an honest rush. And because Eren’s crush charmed him.     

Moments after they pulled apart, Eren blurted out, “Are we okay?”

The ernest way his green eyes searched Levi’s face for any hint of an answer thawed a cold place inside of him. He nodded.

Eren shifted towards him and rested his head against the top of Levi’s arm, wrapping around his side. “I want to talk about us. You know, where we are. At the beginning you said you didn’t see this going anywhere and...I think I want to talk about that.”

“Okay,” Levi said, ignoring how the mere suggestion of this conversation made him want to get up and walk far away. Nothing against Eren--in fact, it was only how much he liked Eren that kept him rooted to his seat. “Tomorrow night?” He needed time to collect his thoughts.

“Tomorrow night,” Eren agreed.

They stayed there for a long time, watching as the sun set over the city and the cathedral lights glowed like the moon. Levi thought of what he might say tomorrow. He was sure of most of the things he did and did not want, but was less sure of the things he could and could not give. Wanting to be with someone was one thing. Being a good partner was another.

[pigeonfancier]

Been awhile since the last dream post, so! Reoccurring dream story-time again.

There's a magical academy that exists in the urban fantasy world of the USA, which exists somewhere in the rurals of Ohio. At age thirteen, I'm being driven to and from it every week by my mother, but it's a deeply unpleasant experience: magic is something you study, like French, not something that you actually perform, unless you've got it innately within you.

I do not. Part of the reason the school exists is to teach people how to harness enough magic to be able to use it regardless, but those are lessons you get taught at 18, and I still have several long, long years before I get there.

So most of my dreams involving this are mostly dealing with the horror mystery of it! Because the school, on the surface, is fine, but it's got my usual loathing for water interposed everywhere - the school is on a beach, on the edge of a cliff, with the sea below and a massive moat in front. people keep drowning in the moat, and the sea is a constant looming danger.

It's great for magic! It's a literal fount of magic, which is why the school is built where it is, but occasionally, people just walk into it and don't come out. And occasionally, the teachers lead people into the sea and drown them to power various spells. Tthis is a constant, accepted risk among the student population, but it's never really clear if the parents know what's going on, because they'll have fake children sent back to them - and if you're not magical, or you don't know what you're looking at, you'll never know.

And most of the parents are not magical.

Cue tonight’s dream.

so, this particular dream starts off with my trying to explain to my mother why i really don't want to go back to school this week. "it's just a bad place," i'm saying, but then we're crossing over the moat, i see one of the teachers, and backtrack. he's my favorite teacher! gangly latino guy who's always super nice. but he also reports back to the headmistress, same as everyone else, and 'shit-talking the school' is one of the things that gets you punished.

so my mother's trying to press me, and i clam up, get out of the car and sprint inside to fall in step with my favorite teacher, just to make sure he didn't hear anything. but he's in a complete snit, and pays no attention to me - instead, he strides up to the headmistress and starts arguing with her over how people deserve to hear, and he isn't being paid to lie for her. she tells him he's not going to be paid at all, if he keeps this up, and he says: fine. he quits, and he's leaving right now.

so, for the rest of the day, i'm in an alarmed haze! the headmistress really doesn't like me, and this teacher was my primary defense / buffer againsnt her, so it's resulting in enough attention from her to completely spook me. after a few passing snide comments and way-too-long looks, she shows up when i'm trying to study in the library to paw through my papers and deride me for wasting time at a study table with doodling, and i decide nope, nope, this week is going to be my last week, i'm going home before i'm drowned for some ritual and a scarecrow's sent home to hide my death.

the next day, i pack up my bags for the schoolday in my dorm, which is one of the shittiest ones there - there's bugs on the wall, cobwebs on the ceiling, and water trailing down the sides, because i'm living in a basement suite. so i'm in more of a rush than i usually am, and i lose my phone in my bag, in addition to my teleportation compass that i use to get back to the campus. i head off campus to get groceries, but i can't figure out a way to get back, and all of my shit is stuck deep within my bag, so no matter how much i look, i can't find it.

so i'm lost and stuck. i manage to find my phone, but my friend just tells me, oh, just ask someone for help - he can't come out to help me. and i'm wee, and thirteen, so i go after the safest looking person i can find - some really tall black dude jogging who reeks of magic and looks vaguely like my father. i flag him down, he looks at me, squints, and then shouts for jasmine. no response! he points at a girl lingering at the end of a campus's flowery driveway-gate and tells me to go ask her, she'll be able to help me out.

so i sprint over to her, she takes one look at me, and goes: '- oh, i'm about to go to the building, too, sweetheart, come with me!'

and she hauls me along to this office building fucking filled with people in blue shirts, while making soothing noises as i'm trying to explain wtf a shit day it's been. then she ditches me in the building, tells me that someone'll help me out here if i sign up, and heads to class.

meanwhile, the building's walls are covered in posters for classes, schedules, ect - normal stuff! advice on when to sign up! but the problem is that it's also covered in rules, and advisories, and warnings, all talking about what blueshirts can and cannot do, and the dangers of if you trespass on the rules. they're really weird rules, too - they're apparently supposed to stay permanently distant from other people, keep to themselves, don't spread information, don't have kids. don't get romantic feelings, because it's a slippery slope from love to attraction, and they're not allowed to have children.

in short, it's fucking terrifying, and everyone keeps sneaking looks at me, the only child in this building full of magical, regulated adults. and if i get put into the registry for blueshirts, i don't know what'll happen, but i'm terrified. so when i see a different teacher in line, i promptly clutch onto him and start wailing, much to his alarm.

he brings me out of the building, tries to soothe me, and then calls up my favorite teacher to come retrieve me. he thankfully does! and on the way back to the campus, the favorite teacher sits me down to explain:

> humans can harness magic naturally, but when they do, they're called blueshirts - which is the place that i ended up on accident.

> being a blueshirt fucking sucks, obviously, and he's one of them. natural magic in humans is super rare, and it's dangerous in a way that it isn't for other species. magical species are bound by geas's and rules, so they can be controlled. humans aren't bound by /anything/, and they can use their magic to do whatever they want.

> learning magic requires binding yourself to rules and geases to be able to use it, which is why it's encouraged in all of the nation's children. but. /but./ not all blueshirts end up regulated, and it's a trait that gets passed down genetically, which is why they aren't allowed to have children.

> and it's dangerous for me, in particular, to ever go to a blueshirt academy, so i need to avoid them at all cost, because the reason he's always been so fond of me..

> is that, oops, i'm his kid, and i have magical abilities that he and my mother have been actively working to repress my entire life. but it's dangerous for anyone to look too closely at me, so i have to be careful.

> and one of the ways i had to be careful is that part of the headmistress's work on campus was figuring out how to strip the geases off of magical creatures, which is part of what the drowning rituals were for, and which has succeeded - so there was now a dryad boy named moss on campus, completely unbound, who was beginning to strip and consume the magic from everyone around him.

> and unfortunately, moss was my bff.

cue waking up!

There were also weird details like “favorite teacher has breasts, for a reason no one ever fucking addresses or pays attention to”, a scene where Moss grabs a girl’s hand while flirting, pulls her around the corner and literally drains the life/mgaic out of her (but I have no idea if my character actually saw this or not, because my dreams aren’t quite that coherent, even lucid), a long extended scene where I tried to convince my mother to let me leave early, but she just breathed heavily into the phone throughout the entire call..

but that was all the narrative stuff, haha.

[mysticdragon3md3]

JJK ep6-13

My reactions while watching Jujutsu Kaisen ep 6-13.  Please ignore my idiocy. This is more for my own fandom memories. . . .

6:49 PM 12/20/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep6

Haaaaaahhhhh~  Crunchyroll crashed at the beginning of the first commercial break.  Now I remmeber.  I decided to stop watching thru Firestick and reconnect my laptop to my Tv.  

6:53 PM 12/20/2020

Let's try this again.  

I forgot how great this animation was in this series.  I should have paid attention to studio MAPPA before Yuri on Ice.

"rotten mikan"?  

7:18 PM 12/20/2020

The great thing about watching on my laptop instead of Amazon Firestick, is that I can rewind and pause when I need to get food, and I don't have to worry about the Firestick crashing Crunchyroll.  ;u;  

Oh now...Fushiguro is talking to that guys' mom... ;o;

Y'know, everyone keeps describing Fushiguro as "cold", but he's REALLY nice.  A LOT.  

Wait.  She doesn' thave a PE uniform?

Oh, that's cool.  The other freshmen need someone good at close combat, and Yuuji is good at it.  

Oh no...!  SUNSHINE SMILE!!!!  MY HEART...!!!!!!!!!!!!!  GODDAMNIT!...

"I couldn't save anyone...I want to become strong."  Endearing shonen protags!!!!  ;U;!!!!!!

This paper silhouette of Yuuji is hilarious.  Which is really odd, becasue just the other week, I was complaining and complaining about how KNY's drawn-out humor got on my nerves.  Yet this joke has been going on for a while, and it wasn't annoying.  O_o?  

Wow.  So many references!  ^O^  Spirit Gun, Bankai, Rasengan,...LOL  

Gojou-sensei says he's not suited to being a teacher, but he's good at being encouraging and focusing students on what they need to study.  

"Negative emotions are the source of Cursed Energy."  Well, nice to get confirmation on that other episode's implied world-building.

I really like so far how this movie-watching training is about practical, mundane emotional control.  I always liked magic systems that alluded to real life emotional experience, and just added some "supernatural", but kept the way emotions work in reality.

Also, I like how often Yuuji does something foolish or silly, and Gojou not only goes along with it, but often also agrees.  In so many other past series, it would be an excuse to chastise the silly protagonist for some "comedy".  You know the routine.  They go back and forth arguing...One gets insulted or angry at the other's lack of sympathy, the other either gets angry that they're getting yelled at for the other's incompetence, or they're stoically dismissive and then the protag gets insulted at that lack of respect, or the protag tries to justify their foolish actions as reasonable, then the other character argues with them about that,...blah blah blah.  Gojo getting along so well with Yuuji is so incredibly refreshing, you don't understand.  

7:44 PM 12/20/2020

I'll save ep7 for later.  Watching anime takes so much effort when I keep wanting to write reactions AND eat at the same time I'm reading subtitles.  Maybe if my eyes were as fast as they used to be...Ah well.   . . . 10:28 PM 12/20/2020

JUJUTSU KAISEN Episode 7 – Assault

I thought this guy got warned not to fight Gojou head-on?  No, wait.  It was just to seal him vs killing him.  Is he ready to seal Gojou?

Gojou's asking this guy to hold up his hand, while he's drawn all cartoony...  This series' humor---!  LOL  ^O^

That is CLEARLY LOTR...  How is this series getting away so many references!  lol

Gojou is really consideratee, compared to a lot of past mentor characters.  I always appreciate compassionate characters.  ^-^  If this series keeps slipping these traits into most of it's characters, I'm going to really love this series even more than I already am starting to.  ^^;  

"New Humanity"?  Is that what Curses think they are?  Talking like it's superior?  But if they're made up of primarily or only negative emotions/energies/Curses, then they have a limited spiritual/experiential range.  That's stagnancy and evolutionarily inferior.  This series is more and more sounding like my Personal Myth's magic system.  lol  And if they start talking about Domains cancelling each other out by one overtaking the same space with its own energy density...Well, this series may be more in sync with my type of thinking than I realized.  ^^;

He can still interrogat Jougo after decapitating him?  Did they establish that Curses can still function a little after being torn up?  Or am I remembering Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba instead?  

Well, I guess that guy is a former student.  

Flower attack and they're both cartoony again.  LOL  This freaking show and it's humor blended into the tense scenes!  ^O^  ...WAit a sec.  How the hell did MAPPA find a director that could so seamlessly blend all that?!  ...Well, it's anime and anime ahs been doing that blending of tones for years, so why is this so surprising to me?  I guess the contrast is a lot more stark.  And yet, it's not jarring AT ALL!  O.O!  

I like that the attack spell was to take away their will to fight.  Usually, I've only seen that concept with humor instead of a peaceful setting.  It's interesting.  

Suddenly it's classroom ettiquite. These dorks!!!!!!!  ^O^  I love them so much already!  LOL

Halloween?  Are they going to explain why sealing Gojou on Halloween is advantageous?  I love Halloween mythology.  

Wow, this omake has a LOT of animation!  O.o . . .

3:43 AM 12/22/2020

JUJUTSU KAISEN Episode 8 – Boredom

I skipped watching this earlier because I thougth I coudlnt' eat and write reactions simultaneously.  But that just made me not watch anime all day.  ;_;  So I'm going to eat while I watch again.  

Odd they're going for a tournament arc when I thought fans were getting tired of it.  But I guess it's only some anime critics.  

Even stranger that fellow students are being set up as antagonists, when there's already such a strong threat established outside of their comrades.  But I guess it's to futher establish the "higher ups" are corrupt and more of a problem than Curses.  

Okkotsu's place?  Was that the person Fushiguro implied died with him on a mission but wasn't in the same year?

I guess not.  

"Boring tastes in women"????  What if someone says they like a feature and in Aoi's opinion that's a "boring" trait but in that person's opinion, it's a great trait?  I can't believe this guy recognnizes it's ok to like guys instead---he'll understand someone else's differing opinion on that level, but not in how subjective a trait can be valued.  -.-;  Well, "ridiculous character introduction" achieved.  

"Unshakable character"  is a good answer.  

See?  What'd I tell you.  Subjective perception.

I'm starting to like Nobara.  She deciphered Maki's weakness already an just started insulted it.  lol  Not even bothering for a physical attack.  

"I panda.  I no understand human speech."  lol

Interesting how Renin makes sure to insult both herself and her sister instead of just insulting her sister.  

Is it weird I like Nobara even more because she's seriously choking Maki?  Naw.  Must be my pet peeve against bullies making me really want to see Maki suffer.  

Liking Nobara more, seeing how calmly she takes these new antagonists.  

4:04 AM 12/22/2020

Crunchyroll is buffering.  ugh.  I hope it doesn't crash.  I'm watching thru my laptop and everything, so it shouldn't crash like the Amazon Firestick.  ;o;

4:14 AM 12/22/2020

Ok. Looks like Crunchyroll froze.  Finsihed an entire YouTube vid, waiting. I'm going to reset the episode then.  ~_~;

4:15 AM 12/22/2020

Oh wait.  It's working.  ---No, wait.  Buffering again.  Ugh.  It's so hard to watch this series!  Lucky I like it more than Demon Slayer KNY.  Makes watching worth the buffering/crashing.  But Yuuji hasn't been in this ep so far, and it's trying my patience without him.  

4:17 AM 12/22/2020

omg.  It unbuffered for only one second.  o__o;;;;;;;

4:19 AM 12/22/2020

Refreshing the page.  

There's stil buffering, even after reloading the ep.  Ugh.  I'm tired of this.  I can try to watch this ep later.  I'm going to watch YouTube.  

5:28 AM 12/22/2020  

I kinda miss my other fandoms.  Persona 5, FE3H,...Much simpler, or rather relationships between characters felt less vitriolic, even when they disagreed.  Even Akechi got dealt with and eventually taken off screen permamently.  I didn't have to spend (much) time with characters I hated.  At least those series didn't have bullies.  Bullies reallly tick me off.  Which again, is weird pet peeve for me to have since I've never been bullied before.  But certainly makes sense in terms of my depression.  How can people go out of their way to make life miserable for others, when life is already miserable on it's own? I can't forgive that Malice.

These so-called classmates from the Kyoto school don't even know what True Strength is, if they're wasting their time bullying their underclassman or any comrades in general, instead of focusing on fighting Curses.  No wonder the number of Curse-related deaths is so high.  

Ugh.  I need to get past this episode soon, before I get soured on this series and drop it, despite its excellent protagonist, like HeroAca.  There are enough horrible things/people in real life.  Why would I put up with fictional people who aren't a joy to be around, in any way?   . . .  

8:41 AM 12/23/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep8

AND CRUNCHYROLL JUST CRASHED AGAIN!  LOL

I was just trying to re-watch ep8, even that first half that I didn't like, and Firestick crashed again.  I thought it'd be ok since it was the first thing I had the Firestick do this morning, but dang.  

Anyway, I just wanted to reiterate my annoyance with Todou Aoi.  Just because he thinks "tall" and "big ass" are interesting traits and that "taste in women" supposedly reflects an interesting person, doesn't mean those are objective assessments of those traits.  There are no objective assessments of sexually appealing triats!  A trait that could be "boring" to Todou could mean everything interesting to someone else!  What a jerk.  If he wants to fight so badly, he should stop hiding behind excuses and come out and fight.  Idiot.  

And the worst thing is that ridiculous antagonist characters like this are probably going to turn out to be really buddy buddy with a "silly protag" like Yuuji.  Goddamnit.  ~_~;;;; . . . 12/25/2020 ..During breakfast, once again tried to finish Jujutsu Kaisen ep8, but Crunchyroll crashed again on Amazon Firestick.  The other day, Crunchyroll crashed on my laptop too, so I didn't have much hope for watching thru my laptop, which is why I bothered watching thru the Firestick/TV in the first place.  It crashed only after the first few minutes; not even reaching the mid-episode commercial break.   ..Got fed up an watched Jujutsu Kaisen ep8 on YouTube, but it was an edited version that skipped every few seconds.   . . . 11:45 AM 12/26/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep8

During breakfast today, I completely gave up on trying to watch on Crunchyroll.  It's crashed on me too many times on Amazon Firestick/TV and too many times on my laptop.  So I just straight up went for the YouTube bootlegs.  I didn't even try this time.  Because I've tried to watch this episode 8 at least 5 times by now, and I'd like to finish it before Nendoroid Fushiguro's preorder window closes, so I can decide if I should preorder him or not!  How many times do I have to watch this first half of ep8?!?!  And it's full of bullies, no less!  Bullies are my pet peeve!  I've dropped frickin BNHA because of just ONE reoccurring bully character, and the first half of JJK ep 8 has TWO.  So no, I don't want to keep watching the fist half of JJK ep8 over and over and over again!  

Miwa was cute and the gag about her being a Gojou fangirl was funny.  

But it made me stop and wonder why this episode had 2 fanboys/fangirls:  Todou Aoi and Miwa.  What are they trying to say?  Since the traditionalist Kyoto school leader was visiting, is it a statement against blindly following something?  

Another thing discussed in this episode that struck me was the very non-traditionalist, antagonistic towards "the olds" way that Gojou spoke.  It clashed against a lot of the popular Shonen series lately that have background messages about "working hard", "simply accepting things", unquestioning,...and something else I can't quite rmember.  One Punch Man, Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba, and maybe even Boku no Hero Academia  I'll have to watch the 2nd half of this ep again to solidify this thought.  But I did notice something in this episode that made Jujutsu Kaisen seem more counter-culture than a lot of the other popular Shonen series I've seen in recent years.  

Also, what's up with that one month future time skip, only to go back to the present to return to Miwa getting her photo with Gojou?  What?  What was wrong with just showing the sequences chronologically?  The curiosity is going to drive me nuts if I dont' stop thinking about it.  lol  

I also really liked Nobara's cute head lean onto Zenin Maki when she realized how much she respected her.  I'm sorry, but I'm always weak for kuudere girls unconsciously making all the other girls fall for them.  ^.~   . . . 1:59 PM 12/27/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep9

I"m not going to type so many reactions, until maybe after the ep is over, because I'm going to focus on eating instead.  Hopefully, I'll remember all the points I reacted to.

2:29 PM 12/27/2020

Episode over.  Let's see what I remember.  

I liked how in depth it portrayed how real life emotions and grudges can fester until they become these supernatural curses.  That first part of the ep, just about Yoshino's supressed anger, getting bullied, feeling harassed, etc. got a whole lot more screentime than most other demon-hunter or yokai series. (Maybe it's just because he's going to become a kind of major character, seeing as he gets to be in the opening theme sequence.) Usually that type of emotional backstory to explain supernatural phenomenon, does get a poignant exposition, but even though it's effective, it's often pretty quick. (Though, I am referring to the more frequent one-shot characters of each supernatural escapade.) Especially in action demon-hunter series, like Ushio & Tora.  Still emotionally effective, but very short screentime.  But this guy, Yoshino's bullying scene goes on, intercuts with daily slights, for that chaotic feeling of compiling grudges everyday, and then he gets onscreen monologues of his specific thoughts while getting beat up.  It's all very viceral and I apprecate that.  I mentioned before how I like that Jujutsu Kaisen seems to portray real emotions to explain its magic system, instead of just making up a fake mystical power source.  I mean, I'm usually fine with that type of purely imaginary magic system that has only vague explainations (in real life emotions), but JJK feels like it more directly translates grudges into Curses/magic and that feels interestingly refreshing.  

This scene with Yuuji and Gojou introducing Nanami was so funny, I was instantly laughing out loud, several times.  I'm so glad I ended up preordering Gojou's Nendoroid and not just Yuuji's.  lol  

I love how whenever Nanami says he doesn't care, the direction returns to the exact same angle, frame, etc.  Really makes the joke hit each time.  LOL  

But again, like I was writing earlier about my growing suspicion that a lot of current popular Shonen series seem to fetishize hard work (without considering people disadvantaged by the same systems) and even sometimes outright parodying people who expect hand-outs (like One Punch Man)---(though I will append that BNHA does have a character like Shinso that demonstrates how the system is stacked vs people no matter how hard they could work)---It may be just my misunderstanding, but I feel like JJK seems to criticize the system, in contrast. I suspect JJK may be more counter-culture than other popular Shonen series right now.  While checking out other current series like OPM, Demon Slayers KNY, and BNHA, I often run into a moment that makes me uneasy in how eagerly a protagonist throws themselves into accepting the abuses of a system, instead of criticizing the system, and how "heroic" that unquestioning or submissiveness is portrayed.  In contrast, Gojou straight-up explained he doesn't believe in the Jujutsu community's current authority systems.  But now we also have Nanami here pointing out that no matter which system you submit yourself to (whether Jujutsu sorcery or office work), it doesn't matter.  Nothing matters...towards happiness or fulfillment, anyway.  Therefore, he explicitly says that he doesn't put excess effort into anything.  But at the same time, he states that he agrees with Gojou about the current system of Jujutsu authority to be wrong.  I'm sure there was a time when themes of fetishizing hard work, without question, worked for me, but I've gotten too old and seen how the system is stacked against people even when they work hard, and how blind followers of the system fetishize "hard work" as an excuse to not show compassion towards others.  It seems especially important in recent years.  

I liked that Nanami mentioned that explaining your technique can actually make it stronger.  It's an idea I liked to play with but  didn't used much until Persona 5.  The idea that the reality people build in their heads can be influenced by external forces.  It's why in Kingdom Hearts II, just thinking about Maleficent, remembering her, resurrected her.  Everyone's thoughts about her, together combined, adding energy for whatever traces of her to finish manifesting.  It's like how some entities come into existence, simply by enough people sharing the same thought or pouring energies into the same beliefs/images.  Some yokai series use this idea to explain why some entities manifest out of prevaent thoughts/emotions that happen in the same place or centered around a specific object.  It's nice to see JJK also use this idea in both to explain Curses that manifest out of fears people have had for centuries about the mountains/forests/ocean, and also to reinforce a magic attack.  Because seeing this technique used in a magic system for the purposes of combat, and not just exposition to explain an entity, doesn't appear often.  (Until Persona 5).  

Oh, and I REALLY LOVE the art style/animation on Yuuji's Divergent Fist.  *U*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Interesting that they're starting to alreay discuss the concept of humans turning into Curses.  But I guess it's more a display of "some villain's horrifying technique", than the climactic change that a lot of other series use this trope for.  ...I love this trope, by the way.  Just villainizing antagonists as "monsters" always feels flimsy to me, so I like plot reveals about "the random enemies you've been fighting all this time are actually human victims transformed into monsters".  Madoka Magica, Claymore, Kamen Rider Heisei phase 2, Bleach, Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba, etc.  But most of all, I love how this trope forces protagonists to use more empathy, since my favorite ideal is "Compassion as the ultimate True Strength".  

That omake---!  LOL  I really thought this was a flashback about Gojou asking Nanami to help with Yuuji, like he mentioned during the episode.  But it turned out to just be a penis joke!  LOL!!!!!!!!!!  I laughed out loud, "WHAT?!"   . . . 2:26 AM 12/28/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep10

Isn't Yuuji going to be sent to infiltrate Yoshino's school.  I hope he can protect them.  

This poor kid Yoshino.  Never been validated before.  He has to hear that it's ok for him to go vs his ideal of Indifference by hating people.  

The body came before the soul.  On this planet, anyway.  And at the very beginning.  Of course now, there's been so much history and accumulation and entities evovled on Earth that there can be entities that begin as souls first and maybe they stay that way or maybe they get souls.  But I think you'd have to go to a whole other star system to find a species that was first on their "planet" that evolved as energy/souls first.  But I'd think most of those species actually started in nebulae than planets.  ..Unelss we're talking about gaseous planets.  

omg I can't believe Yuuji pants'ed that teacher.  It's true that dragging Yoshino along with him woudl've been more expected.  I'm glad the writing called that out.  

Can Yuuji see negative energy on people better now?  Can he see how much Yoshino hates that teacher?  Or was he just reading his expression?  

Interesting that Mahito is distinguishing between protecting the body vs protecting the soul and reinforcing this idea about needing to be aware of one's own soul in order to protect it.  

Aw.  Episode over already?  ;o;  This series is good, but I am trying to catch up, since there are spoilers for this series all over social media and I already ran into a few of them.  

What the hell is this omake.  Why is Nobara's uniform being worn by Panda and Inumaki...And Gojou---Actually Gojo makes sense.  I get the feeling he'll do anything for a laugh sometimes.  lol   . . . 8:38 PM 2/19/2021

Jujutsu Kaisen ep11

Started Jujutsu Kaisen ep11 around 8:10pm.  

8:41 PM 2/19/2021  Just finished.  Hm.  2 sets of previews.  I wonder why.

I finally managed to watch anime again.  ;_;  For many years now, I've had this problem where I can't get myself to watch anime, becaus eI know it's so good and I know it'll be totally engrossing and distracting, that I get preemptively guilty for being so unproductive.  I mean, a lot of times, I can't even multitask _eating_ during anime, because I can't read subtitles as fast as I used to.  So I haven't really watche anime on a regular basis in a long time.  Even though I know I love it.  I guess this is why a lot of my recent fandoms have been videogames instead of anime series.  which I guess doesn't make sense, considering games take as much or more time than watching a series.  Anxiety is wierd.)  There's the inability to multitask, there's pausing every few minutes to write reactions, there's the inevitable daydreaming I have whenever I watch something that's SOOO good that it demands my mental interaction, and if I manage to not write while watching, then there's writing reactions after the episode.  watching anime just takes a lot of time out of me.  I wish I wasn't afraid of that.  Because I'll lose time, wasted on YouTube instead, and a lot of that is just "empty calories" compared to anime watching.  Anyway, I finally managed to watch anime without sitting at my computer, pausing to write reactions at every few minutes.  Finally!  I was searching for a YouTube vid to watch, and everything I clicked was so uninteresting, that I ask myself, "why arn't I watching anime?"  If I wanted something interesting, then go watch anime!"  

Since I'm writing my reactions AFTER watching the episode and I have a very bad memory in general, these are by no means all my reactions:

Sometimes I get confused when Mahito's dialogue slips in some kind of exposition thing about how the magic system in this series works.  Like, a soul's connection to its vessel, effecting the shape of a body.  Yeah, that makes sense, but then he also talks about the reverse not being true---and I'm like, "No, both have to be true, otherwise it doesn't make sense.  I watched FF7AC; there was logic behin Kadaj not being able to house Sephiroth until his body changed to be able to fit Sephiroth.  But psychosomatic effect is a thing that exists in the real world."  Much more than Mahito torturing/experimenting on random people, I was more perplexed by him not recogizing the body/spirit connection not going both ways.  Or like in this episode, when he explained something about his surprise that he really could do something with the shape of his soul.  Didn't he already know he could do that?  But then later in this episode Nanami's internal monologue explained that Mahito must be a new entity and is essentially just a kid playing around, still trying to figure their powers out.  Makes sense.  

Not that I don't understand this magic system, but there seems to be a funamental work around on its restrictions.  Like, Curses/negative energies can't be the only strong magics in a magic system that translates emotions into energy/magic.  Series after series, we see magic based on negative emotions as being outclassed by magic based on positive emotions.  I keep expecting that to be the big twist in Jujutsu Kaisen.  Because a magic system based solely on negative emotions seems strangely restricted.    

Yuuji continues to prove himself to be really sweet an IMMEDIATELY smile-inducing.  It was really nice to see him getting along so fast with Junpei Yoshino.

I was worried about Yoshino and his mom being on bad terms, because of all his repressed anger asides.  I was afraid that maybe she used to abuse him with cigarettes and maybe that was why he had made her promise not to smoke around him.  I can't believe I had _completely forgotten_ that the bullies burned Yoshino's face with cigarettes.  So I was relieved when Yoshino admitted to Yuuji that his mom was nice.  Too bad she immediately was murdered. I feel like Mahito did it; just another experiment.  In the flashback, it was really surprising to see a Japanese mom being ok that Yoshino take time away from school for his mental health, and being so supportive about it.  This manga-ka sure knows how to portray characters as uickly endearing (except Nobara).  

I liked that Yuuji's explaination for his reluctance to kill felt a little more nuanced that the usual answers I hear protagonists give to that uestion.  The line (Yoshino) repeated from Yuuji's monologue was about "being afraid of killing tainting one's soul".  But I preferred how Yuuji explained it before that line.  Something about the temptation of having killing as an option in your arsenal, until it becomes too commonplace, and you lose a sense of taking lives as having any meaning, also losing the sense that lives have value (in preserving or appreciating).  

9:56 PM 2/19/2021

well, that's all I remember so far. . . .

5:45 PM 2/21/2021

Jujutsu Kaisen ep12

6:12 PM 2/21/2021

So the good news is that I actually got myself to watch anime while eating---guilty about distracted unproductivity be damned.  The bad news is that the episode was so good that I stopped eating.  Thsi is my first meal of the day so I really do need to eat.  But I"m not the type of person who can eat popcorn while watching movies.  when I watch something, I give it my full attention.  I don't eat while I'm concentrating.  

Ok.  I guess I should say something about how odd this omake is.  o.o?  Usually you'd have a chibi cameo of a known character.  But I guess we're just getting metaphor instead...or just nonsense.  ^.^;  

Since I avoided sitting at my computer while watching, I'll have to retroactively write reactions again.  

i really loved that this series just had our protagonist TALK to the antagonist, get junpei's story, his reasons for attacking the school, sympathize with him, solve the conflict by promising to help him.  Any other past Shonen series would have had them just fight and then later, after the protag kills the antagonist, he'll learn the "tragic truth" and then carry that regret into his next battles.  I'm glad thee genre is evolving past that.  Not that I don't like that old style---hell, I love that vanilla Persona 5 killed Akechi, instead of redeeming him like P5R---but it's nice to have a variety in the genre.  And Yuuji has proven himself to be a highly sympathetic personality, and curbing genre tropes to accomodate his best qality is really nice.  ;u;  in fact, a lot of the top series in modern Shonen have highly empathetic, visibly emotional, and vulnerable protagonists:  Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba's Tanjiro, Boq no Hero Academia's Midoriya, and now Jujutsu Kaisen's Yuuji Itadori.

I had been considering for a while the idea that people in this series' would coul be turning other people into Curses on purpose.  not just the soul-shape transfigurations that Mahito is doing.  I mean like, manipulating people to be so full of negative emotios that they become a Curse.  Like, is that how Suqna became a Curse?  It's interesting to see this episode kind of foreshadow that idea through Mahito's monologues explaining his manipulations of Junpei.  

I'll admit it.  As a Kingdom Hearts fan, when Junpei was repeating what Mahito taught him about hearts not really existing, all I could think of was Xehanort lying about that to Organization XIII, in order to manipulate them.  ^.^;  

I will say it's really wierd to watch this series act like being able to influence others' souls and being aware of one's soul energy, is a novelty or a rare high level skill...after watching so many series in my life, where that was basic.  Like, in Claymore, that's pretty much HALF of what they do!  There's even a warrior Galatea who is DEFINED by manipulating other's energies.  And I don't mean Jujutsu Kaisen has a bad magic system.  it's really exciting that it's kneecapped its protagonists so much so the audience can anticipate how far they're ascend.  Instituting harsh level, restricting magic system rules, to establish the characters' growth throughout tackling the conflicts of the series' battles, is something I'd wish videogame seqels would do instead of just taking away the protagonists powers.  Don't make the protag start at zero just to give them an up to go to!  Make the system/environment more difficult, to match their increasing power level!  So I'm not frustrated at Jujutsu Kaisen doing this.  But it is strange when your brain is buzzing with, "well, why don't they just do this?" after having watche so many other series' solutions to similar conflicts.  Like, if this was Claymore, any warrior with enough training woul have been able to sync up with Junpei's soul energy and reform him into his body's original shape.  So it feels very odd to be in the POV of a protagonist like Yuuji who doesn't even realize that's a thing that's possible, or at least seems possible within this world's rules.  I mean, Mahito is doing it.  But Yuuji is still a novice student, so he gets a pass; he doesn't become a frustrating protag to follow.  But this series does give the impression that Mahito's ability to transfigure people's souls/bodies is like a power specific to him.  I wonder if his character is just establishing this techniqe into this world's magic system or if it really is just Mahito.  Because so far, it feels like only Mahito.  Only time will tell if Mahito was just an establishing point for this function of this magic system.  

Also, Yuuji, don't rely on that jerk, Sukuna.  lol   . . . 6:24 PM 3/29/2021

Jujutsu Kaisen ep13

Let's see if Crunchyroll will finally let me watch this series.  Well, it's not crashing atthe first commercial before the episdoe starts.  That's a good sign.  

6:32 PM 3/29/2021

Well, look at that. Crunchyroll didn't crash at the 2nd commercial break, right before the opening theme.

6:39 PM 3/29/2021

LOL  Yuuji totally just punched through that Domain?  LOL!  

Whatever potential Fushiguro has that Sukuna is interested in, the story is certainly setting this up this foreshadowing early.  

It's really has been a while since I watched this series. I can't remember where Yuuji got those holes in his back.  

Love these little resolution talks after a big fight in a story.  Impressed that Nanami sidestepped actually answering the philosophy of Yuuji's question and just commented that Yuuji saved him and can save others.  It's that type of good writing I can't do, that always makes my writing get bogged down.  Like in Kingdom Hearts II when Xehanort was asking all these philosophical questions and Riku got caught up in answering them, but Sora had the wisdom to see that the whole line of questioning was faulty or a distraction to begin with.  

Playing a vocal song during the last scene?  Makes it feel like a season finale.  Well, it is ep13, so I guess it's a halfway mark for the season.  

6:52 PM 3/29/2021

I'd had to stop watching when Crunchyroll is actually working well for me right now.  But I've got other stuff to do.  ;o;

Ha!  You were going to skip the previews!  I forgot this series has an omake segment after the ending theme!  

So if Yuuji taught Fushiguro to make meatball...Oh yeah, they think he's dead.  

6:55 PM 3/29/2021

How odd.  Crunchyroll automatically brought me back to teh episode selection screen intead of autoplaying to ep14.  I appreciate it.  But I wonder why that happened.  Is it part of Crunchyroll crashing and glitching on me all the time?  Or did they change their UI?  

[prosperopedia]

Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps for Saving Money, Paying Off Debt, and Building Wealth

Dave Ramsey is a popular radio show host, an author of several books about financial management and developing life skills. Besides being a great teacher, he is also, not coincidentally, a successful businessman and a devout Christian. His Financial Peace University course has been completed by over 4 million people. Ramsey’s formalized and systemized financial advice, built upon Christian principles of self-discipline found in the Bible, includes a formula for changing poor money management habits into a lifestyle that includes saving money, paying off debt, and building wealth. The seven foundational steps of his financial program are called Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps.

The 7 Baby Steps process developed by Dave Ramsey is not intended to simply get a person out of debt, but to change someone’s behavior and help a person live prosperously, including being generous with the wealth built through following the 7 Baby Steps and following other advice offered by Dave Ramsey.

This 7 Baby Steps process for saving money, paying off debt, and building wealth includes these steps:

Baby Step 1 – Emergency Fund:  Start by saving and putting away $1,000 in to its own separate account to be used only for emergencies.

Baby Step 2 – Pay off Debt: Use the debt snowball approach to pay off debts, beginning at the smallest and working up to the largest.

Baby Step 3 – Expense Fund: Save enough money to cover 3-6 months of expenses.

Baby Step 4 – Begin Investing: Invest 15% of your income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement funds.

Baby Step 5 – College Fund: Set aside money for your children to attend college using 529 college savings plans or Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs).

Baby Step 6 – Pay Off Home: Avoid wasting money on mortgage interest payments by paying as much as possible to get rid of your mortgage.

Baby Step 7 – Build Wealth: Put your money to work and build wealth while also contributing to charitable causes and to your posterity.

I will walk through the details of these 7 baby steps, describing the rationale behind them (including their respective orders in the list) as well as adding my input based upon my own experience with making, saving, and managing money.

Spending and Debt Problems in America

It’s no secret that Americans have a spending and debt problem. In the first of this year (2018), we spend happy Americans collectively reached an all-time high of $13.2 trillion in US household debt.

The spending problem among American households really can be attributed to the rapidly increasing thirst for short-term pleasure at the expense of long-term health and prosperity. It’s the same mentality that causes people to eat the food that makes them fat and unhealthy, to cheat on their spouses or to view pornography, and to otherwise abandon the Christian ideals that made America the most powerful and wealthiest country in history.

The modern trend towards short-term satisfaction at the expense of ultimate success and prosperity makes it feel like our country and others who depend in any way upon our continued economic leadership are living on borrowed time.

That’s why it’s up to you, the reader of this article, to put your financial house in order and become part of the solution rather than exacerbating the problem.

My Own Background with Savings, Debt, and Wealth Building

I grew up in a family with poor to average means. My dad always worked his tail off, but he’s just a simple guy who usually finds himself in jobs that involve more manual than intellectual labor, and those most often pay less.

Because of our limited income, my parents were typically very frugal and cautious with their money while I was growing up. I adopted those habits when I became an adult. I’ve always had a very healthy fear of being in debt to anyone for any reason.

During and after high school, I saved over half of the money ($6,500 out of $10,000) necessary to allow me to serve as a volunteer for my church for two years following my becoming an adult. When I returned from my volunteer service at age 21, I was told I needed to educate myself by going to college, but I was not at all interested in financing any part of a college education. My approach instead was to work as I went, pay for whatever expenses I incurred, and

Later, when I got married, I started a business with my wife, and we together made a financial plan that centered on a 10-year goal to become financially independent, which would give us freedom to travel, to spend more time with however many kids we would have (it’s turned out to be 6 so far), and allow us to develop talents and skills (ones necessary for starting a family bluegrass band, for instance) that only can be obtained if you’re not completely absorbed in trying to just pay the bills every month.

My financial path has not had to take me through these specific 7 Baby Steps steps myself, because I’ve naturally saved money and have never been in debt. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that it highly unusual for the majority of Americans. Much of the influences from our contemporary society have taught us to get into debt. We expect people to have student loans, car payments, and to buy Christmas gifts using a credit card. You can expect that the habits you’ll develop from following a formula like Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps will make you unique and different from your peers. And that’s perfectly okay.

If you feel like you’re naturally configured to be both a prodigious earner and a saver, these steps may not be as useful to you as for the other 90% of people for whom it’s not as natural to increase their earnings and discipline themselves to save money. However, there is something to be gained by everyone in the process Dave Ramsey has developed to do the most good for the most people financially.

Baby Step #1: Save $1,000 to Start an Emergency Fund

A survey by the Federal Reserve published in 2017 found that 35% of respondents said they would not be able to pay all of their bills if they encountered an emergency that cost $400 or more. In other words, over a third of us are living so close to the edge that it would only take a small bump to knock us off.

In Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step 1, the objective is to save $1,000 to put into an account that’s separate from your regular operating savings or checking account. The purpose of setting aside that initial $1,000 is to keep you from having to go into anymore debt. It is a small buffer against Murphy’s Law, which essentially says that, if given any chance, whatever can go wrong will go wrong.

One of the major effects of starting off the steps to saving and paying off debt with this $1,000 emergency fund approach is it changes a person’s perspective on how to handle money. While it is highly attainable ($1,000 is really not that much money), taking the step of assertively putting $1,000 acts as a sort of financial repentance, a way of acknowledging that your habits and attitude have not been responsible.

Starting your financial turnaround by $1,000 also gives you a boost of confidence that you can accomplish the next goal, the next baby step, and the next one after that until you attain the fulfillment of your wealth building objectives.

There may be some question about what specifically this $1,000 emergency fund should be used for. What if your car breaks down and you have no way to get to your job? The $1,000 emergency fund should be able to cover that. But what if you find 50% tickets to Disneyland, and you’ve always wanted to take your family there? Well, that’s not what the emergency fund is for. In the Dave Ramsey approach to having an emergency fund, you need to ask yourself three qualifying questions before you decide to pull money from your emergency fund:

Is it unexpected?

Is it necessary?

Is it urgent?

If your answers to those three questions are “yes”, then it’s time to make use of the emergency fund. This time, you won’t have to put the expense on credit.

In a situation where you’ve spent any portion of your emergency fund, you should immediately, or as soon as possible, replenish the fund so that you’re once again in a state of being prepared for the next emergency.

Baby Step #2: Pay Off Debt Using the Debt Snowball Method

After you’ve saved $1,000 and put it into an emergency fund, you now have enough of a cash cushion to take the next step: paying off your debts.

The most effective method for paying of debt is to use what’s called the debt snowball. Instead of paying the same amount towards all of your debts, you prioritize paying on the smallest ones until you’ve paid them off. Then you move on to the larger debts, and so on until you’ve paid them all off.

Here is a quick review of the debt snowball method.

Make a list of all your debt (aside from your mortgage, which is classified as different from consumer debt)

Make minimum payments on all of your debts except for the smallest. Pay as much as possible on your smallest debt to get rid of it. Save money wherever possible and repurpose it towards this debt.

Once you’ve knocked out the smallest debt, move to the next smallest one, and use the same intensity (low maintenance lifestyle and earning extra money) to get rid of that debt.

Using this approach has been a proven effective strategy to pay off debt.

As you’re working through beating down your various debts, it’s important to understand the importance of paying even $1 extra to exterminating debt today or this month versus allowing that principal amount of the debt to accumulate any more interest. Outside of your normal job, there are other ways to earn income that can be applied to your debt snowball routine. I’ve written about how you can do article writing from home in your spare time as a way to continue dousing your debt until the fire is out. In today’s economy, there are too many opportunities to make whatever extra money you want if you’re serious about taking control of your financial future. It’s all about trading non-productive hours for those that provide income for you.

Baby Step #3: Save 3–6 Months of Expenses for Emergencies

This step is similar to Baby Step #1, establish an emergency fund . The big difference is that you’re now able to look further into the future and anticipate larger emergencies. Planning ahead in your expenditures gives you more control over your life.

In order to complete this step, it’s time for you to get much more serious about budgeting. Dave Ramsey’s organization has created an easy-to-use, free budgeting application called EveryDollar to make living on a budget easier for you and your family. Even if you simply use spreadsheets or just plain paper and pen, disciplining yourself to use a budget will simply apply intelligence and inspiration to the system of money that’s coming in and the money that’s going out from your household.

When you’ve completed Baby Step #3, you will have the equivalent of 3-6 months worth of expenses in a separate account. This will help protect you against a job loss or other major issues that could otherwise jeopardize your ability to complete all of these steps.

Baby Step #4: Invest 15% of Your Household Income Into Roth IRAs and Pre-Tax Retirement Funds

This is where things get fun. Your money will now begin going to work for you. If you have made it this far, you have separated yourself financially from the 80.9% of Baby Boomers, 79.9% of Generation Xers, and 81.5% of Millenials who are currently in debt.

Investing in pre-tax retirement funds should allow your money to earn the most for you so that when you’re ready to retire, you’ll maximize how much is available for you to use in your golden years.

The most obvious investment to be made in this step is to match your employer’s 401k program if one is available from them, because of advantage of having your employer match your contribution. Large employers often match your 401k contribution up to 6% of your salary. That match essentially means free money for you because of being disciplined enough to defer the use of some portion of your income until retirement.

There are lots of decisions to be made in this investing baby step, which means it’s critical to become educated, and to get some help from an expert. Dave Ramsey’s team provides a directory of vetted investing professionals to help people find ones that subscribe to their conservative approach to finances.

The general investing recommendation for Baby Step #4 is that you spread your tax-deferred investment money among mutual funds that span the growth side of the mutual fund spectrum, including investing in growth, aggressive growth, growth and income, and international funds.

Baby Step #5: Save for Your Children’s College Fund

This step obviously assumes that you have children, and that you are interested in giving them a leg up when it comes to their ability to obtain an education to propel them towards success without going into debt. If you ever listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show for any length of time, you’re likely to hear people calling in with stressful stories about trying to pay off student loans.

Forbes reported in May, 2018 that the US student-loan debt crisis is “even worse than we thought”, explaining that college graduates are defaulting on their loans at very high rates. College is becoming increasingly more expensive and altogether unaffordable.

Starting a college savings fund, either a 529 college savings plan or through other Educational Savings Account vehicles, should allow your kids to avoid the trap that so many are falling into with higher education, and that seems to be only getting worse.

While we’re on this topic, I will mention that an effective way to mitigate the cost of college is to have you kids take college courses while they are at home, including online curriculum that can help them finish some or all of their undergraduate degree requirements without even having to step foot on a college campus, where the debt seems to rack up much more quickly.

Baby Step #6: Pay Off Your Home Early

Differing from what the more aggressive financial advisers recommend, paying off your home has a lot of advantage, including the security of knowing that, aside from property taxes to your local county, you owe no entity for your housing.

Similar to Baby Step #2, paying off the mortgage (which is often looked at as the “good kind of debt”) should be done quickly and by putting as much money toward principal payments as possible as early as possible. Dave Ramsey recommends refinancing from 30-year and interest only loans to 15-year loans that cut out a lot of the interest that is typically paid on a mortgage and instead move that money towards investment and wealth building.

Baby Step #7: Build Wealth and Give

This step is the culmination of Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps to financial freedom. Building wealth involves putting your money to work in places that align with your risk tolerance. Often real estate (especially rentals or purchasing in growing market segments where values are consistently going up) and other safe investments are good places to build wealth.

In this wealth building step, it becomes your opportunity to give back, both through money and through volunteering and mentoring others, including your own posterity.

In our family, we have a set of charities we choose to donate to, including paying a tithe and fast offerings (we skip two meals and donate at least the value of those meals) to our church. We also participate in charities such as Operation Smile and others whose mission and administration we believe in. We are careful to always involve our kids in our giving efforts, including having them earn money to contribute to charity.

Giving Back Works

One thing that has felt like wealth insurance for our family is a commitment my wife and I made while we were a new couple. We made a covenant with God that if he would bless us with financial prosperity we would always give back. That approach has worked very well for us.

The post Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps for Saving Money, Paying Off Debt, and Building Wealth appeared first on The Handbook for Happiness, and Success, and Prosperity Prosperopedia.

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[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN PROBLEM

There's still debate about whether this was because of the Bubble, or because they're a bad idea. The alarming thing is that we may have to decide which we prefer. Someone ignorant but smart will come along and reinvent everything, and in fact does tend to vary quite a lot in common with. What a solitary task startups are. And when motivated by that you find you can do to help: Avoid distractions. In the Valley it's not only real but fashionable. But using the Internet, and distractions always evolve toward the procrastinators. What they don't tell you is that as a kid you're sitting on the shoulders of someone else who's treading water, and that was considered advanced.1 But I have a separate laptop on the other side of the room that I use to check mail or browse the web. The real question is, what's saving startups in places like Silicon Valley?

Is anyone able to develop software faster than you? Historically the closest analogy to what he does are the great Renaissance patrons of the arts. And what's especially dangerous is that they don't realize how rich they are in the same direction technology evolves in. Why not start a startup with someone you like, because most types of work, but that they're driven by more powerful motivations. In retrospect, he was. Don't ignore this data point just because it's an outlier. Ordinary programmers working in typical office conditions never really understand the problem.

Graduation is a bureaucratic change, not a biological one. Certainly they'll learn more. Another surprise was that the hypothesis we were testing seems to be a good idea were obviously good, someone would already be doing them. Bad circumstances can break the spirit of a strong-willed person, but I think this time I'll wait till I'm sure they argue, like all founders, but by 30 they've either lost touch with them or these people are tied down by jobs they don't want to abandon. If a professor wanted to have students solve real problems, he'd face the same paradox as someone trying to give an example of a paragraph from an essay I wrote about labor unions. Another consequence of the tree structure that every large organization is forced to adopt. I've just described is an acquisition by a public company. Because in fact the distinction we began with has a rather brutal converse: just as you can, give the best advice you can based on your experience, and empathy. The suburbs of Pittsburgh in the 1970s were a pretty dull place. Working for a small one, and if our experience this summer is any guide, this will probably increase the number of points on the curve decreases. If you want to create the most wealth, the way to do this.

I can't read most anymore, because they weren't really saying anything. It's a consequence of the tree, you're going to be one of the heavy school record players and played James Taylor's You've Got a Friend to us. But in her novels I can't see the gears at work. Art History 101. The best of these explorations are sometimes more pleasing than stuff made explicitly to please. So I think it would be a mistake to attribute the decline of unions to some kind of website people will find useful? I found myself thinking of people like Douglas Bader and R. I knew would be hard to start a startup just one year later, after you graduate, you should wait.

Sometimes they're in a buying mood and they'll overpay enormously; other times they're not interested. I'm such a good athlete, why do I feel so tired? Recently I've spent some time advising people, and promoted from within based largely on seniority. Mihalko, everything was different. One group got an exploding term-sheet from some VCs.2 Traditionally the student is the audience, not the teacher; the student's job is not to invent, but to write a prototype that solves a subset of the problem. But between the two I like Calder better, because his work seemed happier. Other parts you don't understand as well, and more efficient.

But that's not the route to well-deserved obscurity. Professors will tend to judge you by the distance between the starting point and where you are now and the features they need. Ignorance can be useful when it's a counterweight to other forms of stupidity. I know to be the investor of the future by accident.3 In practice, it seemed as if there was a correct decision in every situation, and if you have more ideas about what to do when the teacher tells your elementary school class to add all the numbers from 1 to 100? He has an almost superhuman integrity. But the Steelers were the best team in football—and moreover, in a way that's more natural for humans. The reason these conventions are more dangerous is that they interact with the ideas. The reason I suggested college graduates not start startups immediately was that I wrote a lot of smart, young people. Silicon Valley it seems normal.

There are a few places being sprayed with the antidote. The paintings that were popular at the time. They did but I am not negative on this one. People tend to; I'm skeptical about the idea yet, or it seems so far that if you don't have a house or much stuff, but also correct about how correct he is. Your old bad habits now help you to work.4 The distinction is similar to the rule that one should judge talent at its best, and wisdom by its average. As often happens, Ron discovered how to be the most important component of the antidote—an environment that encourages startups, and most will find on the way down that they have wings. The problem comes when we drag the word intelligence over onto what they're measuring. He thought for a second, and said ok.

Maybe not. Perhaps the absent-minded professor is wise in his way, or wiser than he seems, but he's not wise in the way of noticing it consciously. They were so beautifully typeset, and their tone was just captivating—alternately casual and buffer-overflowingly technical. It seems like a defense of present-day union leaders would have to work as if it were the small group of individuals that humans were designed to work in, but something major is missing. Though the most successful investors are also the most upstanding. They delight in breaking rules, but not about observing proprieties. He didn't learn as much as he expected.

Notes

You'd have to give you more by what you've done than where you currently are. It's not a commodity or article of commerce. The idea of getting rich, purely mercenary founders will do that.

See particularly the mail on LL1 led me to try to avoid becoming an administrator, or pigs, to the wealth they generate. Founders are often surprised by this standard, and Fred Wilson to fund them. Everything is a bit dishonest, incidentally; it's roughly correct to say because most of the false positives caused by filters will be pressuring you to behave like adults. Though they were just ordinary guys.

Why Are We Getting a Divorce? Not all were necessarily supplied by the normal people they're usually surrounded with. Thanks to Paul Buchheit points out that this had since been exceeded by actors buying their startups.

Certainly a lot to learn to acknowledge as well. Monk, Ray, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The variation in wealth in a time machine. For example, the laser, it's hard to answer, and oversupply of educated ones come up with much greater inconveniences than that. For example, if you're not even in their own page.

Thanks to Kevin Hale, Sam Altman, and Robert Morris for sharing their expertise on this topic.