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lucifers-daughterr · 2 years

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Modern | Aro & Sulpicia

artist : fabian perez [ i highly recommend checking out his works, they are honestly one of the most amazing pieces i’ve seen, truly incredible ]

a. ― m. sheen

s. ― m. belluci

disclaimer : it is the first time I write something like this. It's my headcanon for modern au of Sulpicia and Aro, but I also briefly touch the topic of Marcus and Didyme (which will be covered in a few days). I am aware that Aro is in fact, not Italian and that Sulpicia isn’t British. You might not agree with my portrayal of the characters, but I am asking to please be respectful. I am not a native English speaker so there might be grammar mistakes (sorry Aro please don’t unalive me). Enjoy! :)

Sulpicia comes from a very old, well-established family. From young age she has been privately tutored until she reached age when she could be sent to a boarding school. It has been a wonderful convenience for her parents, since it allowed them to travel for business reasons more often. She has received a Bachelors degree in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences from Cambridge followed by two Master degrees from London School of Economics — one in Economics and second in Public Relations. Since then she pursued a career as a lobbyist in the United Kingdom. Both her personal and her family’s connections combined with extreme determination and understanding of dynamics between politicians and private companies, made her one of the most successful women in the mostly male-dominated field. In her free time, Sulpicia enjoys fencing and opera. When someone invites her for a friendly golf play, she rarely refuses. For a long time she has wished for a dog. Unfortunately, her busy schedule and constant travelling make her unable to properly take care of one. Her guilty pleasure are sweet, romantic movies — she loves watching them with a glass of wine and always tears up when there is a happy ending. However, she also doesn’t mind listening to a good old fashioned crime podcast while getting ready.

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Aro, unlike Sulpicia, comes from a broken middle class Italian family. Constant juggling between his parents’ new homes made him mature quickly. He has learned to become his own friend, as well as a parent. Switching schools from young age didn’t exactly help him with maintaining meaningful long-term friendships. Since early childhood he was a very curious creature with insatiable appetite for knowledge. Constantly learning and researching fascinating things that he came across. He passed final high school exams with the highest marks, despite being mostly self-taught. Due to his poor health, he couldn’t attend school as regularly as his peers. After high school, he took a gap year to focus on learning English and Greek, all while working as a waiter and freelance writer on the side. Next year, he decided to study law for Bachelor and later ― Masters degree. He was always fascinated by origins of legal systems and especially the relation between a crime and a punishment. After receiving his Master’s degree he pursued a career in politics, becoming the youngest elected vice-president of the Italian High Council of the Judiciary (consiglio superiore della magistratura). He has strong interest in arts, especially architecture and theatre. His secretaries arrange invitations for auctions all over the world, so he can purchase another valuable art piece for his personal collection. Unfortunately, due to his high expectations and quite eccentric personality, secretaries tend to be replaced, sometimes a few times over the course of a year. As for personal life, he did have relationships with a few fashion designers and more meaningful one with a certain paediatric surgeon. Unfortunately the affair has ended shortly after the doctor got offered a job in one of Seattle’s teaching hospitals.

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One day Aro has attended a fundraising event, hosted by Sulpicia’s family in one of their lavish mansions. She was in fact, the main speaker during the gala, also presenting items for the charity auction. At first he didn’t really pay attention to her, as his interest was mostly focused on the beautiful art piece the woman was presenting. It was a wonderful Rubens’ painting. He got discouraged when the price of the artwork reached a higher amount that he originally intended to spend. Eventually, he decided it was worth the price and right after the auctioneer’s fair warning he raised his paddle. At his convenience, no one increased the bidding.

As he stood up, being the winning bidder, his eyes met with the woman on stage. Instantly he was mesmerised by her presence. He was watching her the whole time, but he didn’t see her. When the auction ended he decided to approach her, striking a conversation about the gala. She knew, of course, it wasn’t the real reason he came up to her. Regardless, she decided to further engage in the conversation as her companion was quite knowledgable in the topics of her interest. As the night went on she grew rather fond of the dark haired man. They conversed about politics, arts and common friends. During his leisure hours, or “night time” as he referred to them, he sponsored many artists and happily observed their careers thriving. To her surprise, Aro’s sister was a teacher in elementary school close to her parents’ house in Florence. Apparently she was married to a history professor and they had three children together. By the end of the event Aro and Sulpicia got quite drunk, keeping each other’s company for the past few hours. The night eventually became a morning and alas, the gala has come to an end. Both Aro and Sulpicia weren’t fond of this fact, but they had their own responsibilities and work duties. After both arrived to their homes, they realised none on them has other’s contact information. It was very unfortunate, since they hoped to meet each other again.

As the months have passed, Sulpicia’s memory of an attractive stranger became foggy. To be fair, she always moved on quickly and had the ability to forget situations that didn’t exactly go as she planned. That was until one day she came home to find a bouquet of red roses, wrapped in dark ribbon. She picked them up, curious about the sender’s identity. There was a little white card attached to the velvet cloth. Her hazel eyes opened wide as she read:

“I was hoping to see you again”

― Night time patron of arts

+39 0393 7511779

#modern au #the volturi #twilight #aesthetic #aro volturi #sulpicia volturi #headcanon #fanfiction #oneshot #kinda lol #canon divergence #guess who the doctor is #hint #he is blonde

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scribblingfangirl · 3 years

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WITH LOVE, THE GOSTS | Julie and The Phantoms - Part Three

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Author’s Note: I decided that this fic trilogy occurs a year after the season one final, making Julie and Y/N almost (or already) 17. Also… this part turned out waaay longer than expected. Which is why there is going to be a fourth part because I have one last idea but didn’t want to rush to write it. And to think this all started because of a rushed (haha) 1k Oneshot. I should really start to write more spontaneously, it seems like good things come out of it. Anyway, Enjoy! :D

word count: ~ 3.9k

summary: Even after meeting the boys they still aren’t tired of helping you out and they each have their own little ways to do it.

warnings: // (english is not my first language, not beta-read)

| PART ONE | PART TWO |

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Knowing that ghosts existed was an absurd feeling (even though you had always believed or hoped that there was more out there than just this world, especially with all those planets that had been discovered by NASA), but knowing that there were three certain ghosts that liked you enough to kindly haunt you, well… that was just plain unimaginable somehow. Yet, still less anxiety awakening than you expected.

After Julie let you meet the guys for the first time you thought you were prepared to accept that you would not be able to talk to them unless they played something (after all, you had Flynn to groan about that), but the occasional giggle from Julie and her glances into nothing still sent chills down your spine.

So you started to always look around very suspiciously whenever you were over at her house and make obscene hand movements just to be sure that the boys would move before you walked somewhere or sat down (which just earned chuckles from Flynn and annoyed sighs from Julie - “Just because you can’t see them, doesn’t mean they can’t see you. They know where you are, so please stop, or else my dad will call your parents and send you to Dr Turner as well.” The boys found it hilarious and liked to imitate you whenever they came too close to you.)

The boys also still kept doing little things for you, just not so in secret anymore (though… Reggie was never one for subtlety). Whenever you seemed to have had a bad day (or whenever they just wanted to make you smile) you knew you could count on them having something prepared for you.

You soon discovered that anything related to food (which sometimes were extremely odd and bizarre combinations) was Luke’s doing (except for pizza and meatballs, according to Julie that was always Reggie). And you knew it was Alex whenever it was something more calm and soothing, yet sometimes a little bit clumsy. And whenever it was blatantly obvious and/or slightly weird (in a good way!) it was Reggie.

Well, no. Not always in a good way. One time you came back from school and your whole room was filled with glitter and butterflies and a small note with a little ‘Sorry!’ on it was pinned to your desk - cleaning that had been a pain in the a-. But you couldn’t be angry at Reggie, even though you weren’t quite sure what his ultimate goal would have been.

Speaking of REGGIE...

All those helpful little deeds and nice gestures were always done within the limits of your house (mostly room) or Julie’s house and the studio, which is why you almost let out a loud yelp when suddenly during a math test your pen started to move on his own, filling out the empty space (because yes, you hadn’t been doing very much other than staring helplessly at the paper in front of you). Quickly you grabbed the pen as well (loosely and while trying to ignore the fact that you were practically holding hands with one of the guys) so that nobody would see a floating pen as you did a few weeks ago at Christmas.

From the corners of your eyes, you saw Julie slightly move her head towards you, as if she was listening to you - or rather someone right beside or behind you. ‘Of course. I can’t see them, so the only way to help me is by physically grabbing the pen, but Julie can hear and see them, so they (whoever this is - because let’s be honest, none of the guys really looks like a math genius) only have to tell her the corrects solutions and how to get there. My money’s on Alex.’

You were kind of shocked, and weirdly proud when Julie came up to you after class and said: “Reggie’s not so questionable after all, huh?” (Though… you should’ve guessed it, you did say subtlety wasn’t Reggie’s strong suit.) So you just giggled and shook your head while leaving some of your books in your locker (alongside the fact that Reggie was probably almost (if not!) hugging you from behind - you shuddered at that thought, it’s not like you were already awkward around living boys your age, no need to add ghosts to that list!)

A week later you and Julie entered the studio with blank faces and hanging shoulders. Julie threw a weak little wave towards the piano and sighed while you threw the blankets and snacks you were holding carelessly on the ground and let yourself fall face-first onto the couch, not being able to hide your smile anymore.

“We got our math exams back… yes the one Reggie helped us with.”

You couldn’t see what Julie was doing, but you heard her gasp and whisper “No! Reggie…” after a while. Then she was standing beside you, nudging your shoulder and willing you to sit up, but you didn’t bulge, needing a few more seconds to wipe the smile off your face again.

Faking to disgruntledly accept defeat as Julie’s nudges got stronger (the couch was really comfortable, you totally understood Luke now) you sat up and looked at Julie. “Who’s going to tell them?” you said with a heavy voice and felt how the couch dipped beside you. Raising your eyebrows you quickly glanced to the side (obviously not seeing anybody or anything) and looked back at Julie questioningly.

She nodded, telling you that it was indeed Reggie and gave you the okay to drop the bomb.

You sighed as you turned back around, facing the wall on the other side of the studio and hoped that Reggie would ignore the fact that you were probably talking to his ear or something. “So Reggie… the help you gave us on the math final? Well…,” you couldn’t keep your face straight any longer and jumped onto the couch, “WE ACED IT! I WOULD HUG YOU IF YOU WEREN’T MADE OUT OF CUTE AIR!” (Okay… maybe there was a little bit too much serotonin involved.)

Julie added smiling, “And I’m happy to announce that due to my good grades my father allowed Julie and The Phantoms to play at the upcoming Summer Music Festival!”

A guitar riff filled the studio, followed by a short drum intro and with a ‘puff!’ the boys appeared in front of you, beaming and glowing at the news. Reggie even threw a wink at you when you smiled back and said: “Thank you!”

Don't look down 'Cause we're still rising Up right now And even if we hit the ground We'll still fly Keep dreaming like we'll live forever But live it like it's now or never!

This allowed LUKE…

The music festival was an experience you would never forget. You were very happy Ray managed to persuade your parents to let you accompany Julie (sadly Flynn had no such luck). Not only did you turn 17 and the boys made sure to have the whole crowd sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you (as soon as you were back home you would add an extra point to your to-do: ‘find out how to kill ghosts a second time’), but the boys rocked the stage and Julie stood up taller and shined brighter than ever before.

Gone (yet not forgotten) were the painful shocks and the fear of never performing again and the serenity of the guys was visible.

It was the last night of the music festival when Julie got the phone call from her father. He would come by to get her the next morning and they would drive directly to visit other family members and spend the rest of the summer holidays there.

Of course, Julie was excited to see her cousins and aunts and uncles again, but she also felt bad to leave you to drive back alone (you had come with your car jam-packed with all the necessary equipment you needed and that wasn’t provided by the festival).

“Don’t worry! It’s only a four-hour drive! I’ve got good music, podcasts and audiobooks to keep me company and back home Flynn will be waiting. It sadly looks like I’m going to survive without you.”

Early the next morning Julie and some newfound fans of Julie and The Phantoms helped you load the equipment into your car and you said goodbye to Julie. Expecting the boys to just directly puff back to Los Feliz you didn’t waste any time and entered your car, connected your phone with the stereo and started to blast your favourite Broadway musicals.

You must’ve been on the road for half an hour when suddenly the playlist stopped and ‘Wake Up’ started to play.

So wake that spirit, spirit!

Confused you scrunched up your nose and touched the touch screen displaying the music system, trying to change it back to your playlist. But instead, the music changed yet again.

(Don't stop me now) 'Cause I'm having a good time (Don't stop me now) Yes, I'm havin' a good time I don't want to stop at all

“What the hell?” you muttered, staring at your stereo for a quick second before focusing back on the road, “Why you always going crazy on me dude?”

Once again the music switched.

Why you gotta be so rude? Don't you know I'm human too?

It took you a hot minute to understand what was going on and then you couldn’t stop laughing.

Don't laugh at me, don't call me names Don't get your pleasure from my pain

“Oh, I’m sorry,” you said mockingly, looking at the empty passenger seat, guessing that that’s where your invisible friend was sitting. “Your pain? I’m not the one who is able to puff wherever and whenever their heart desires and who sneaks up on innocent people.”

Silence.

“For what it’s worth. I’m sorry. I really am. It’s not like you choose this life, you deserved better than this. But I’m really glad I was able to get to know you. I’m really thankful for the light and happiness you brought back into Julie’s life.”

Don't you worry 'bout a thing

But I'm still learnin' to

using technology

You laughed. “Impressive skills nevertheless. Knowing three fitting songs and then changing them at the right time? Let me guess, Luke? Because I don’t think all of you three would fit into my tiny car full of musical equipment.”

At first, there was no music yet again, but then the slow melody of a (for you) well-known song flooded your car. It was the one Trevor Wilson song you never understood until you met the boys, the one song that was so totally different to his usual rock sound (except for the refrains, which, as you later would find out, were parts of the original lyrics Luke wrote for his version of the song).

I sing to remember the stories that used to be But I don’t write to create what could have been And as I scream words into the darkness around me They come out like a dying whisper

The kindest thing to do is to silence them and let them die To unleash my heartfelt sorrow into the sky And diminish the will to fight That pulses like fire and screams with pain through my veins

But life’s not always beautiful, it’s rare So I’mma chase it, watch you make it

Don’t need to introduce himself You will want to know his name Pushing your foundations down He is here to stay

Don’t call him a breeze when he’s a hurricane Don’t call him a tremble when he’s an earthquake Don’t call him an inconvenience Please just say his name

Leaving lyrics in my hands That I swallow like pills Like hurtful words, they rip and claw And press painfully against my chest

But no matter how painful they are I will soak them up, thinking of our hopes and wishes And as each word pushes a new pulse through my veins I keep staring out on the grave of our shared space of mind

Life’s not always beautiful, but it’s rare So I’mma chase it, watch you make it

Don’t need to introduce himself You will want to know his name Pushing your foundations down He is here to stay

Don’t call him a spark when he’s a lightning bolt Don’t call him a flicker when he’s a raging flame Don’t you dare to underestimate him Please just say his name

But even when the word flood finally comes to an end Fidgeting hands remind me of music never played

I owe him my voice I owe him my sound

So I give him this time I give him this space To sing it out loud To let him declare And let me be proud

What’s his name? (His name is Luke!) What’s his name? (His name is Luke!) What’s his name? (His name is Luke!)

How long do we say his name? (Until we explode!)

My name is Luke! (Tell your friends!)

Tears were rolling down your cheeks, the song now more emotional than ever before. You couldn’t imagine how this song must affect Luke. Thinking that his bandmate abandoned him (which honestly… he kind of did, only mentioning him in one song, not giving any money to their parents and so on) up until he heard the song for the first time.

“Luke…”

Forget about it Let's forget about it

The ensuing silence wasn’t awkward. You hummed along to the music Luke selected, sometimes it were old classics (probably his favourites), other times it seemed to be random newer hits he probably never heard before mixed with some songs from your favourite playlists.

It was nearing midday and your stomach made itself known. As if on cue a road sign hinted at a diner just up ahead. Setting the blinker you pulled into the parking lot a few moments later.

“I hope you don’t mind. I know home’s only like an hour away, but...” you began to trail off, not knowing where to look at and your stomach finished your sentence. And before you were able to grab the door handle it sprung wide open.

“Uh, what a gentleman. Thank you very much.”

The meal was over in a flash and once more you realised how much the boys actually knew about you without having actually interacted with you (perks of seeing other people without being seen themselves?).

It’s like Luke could read your wishes just from your facial expressions. Whenever you needed salt or pepper they were right there. Whenever something was too salty or had too much pepper on your drink was being pushed closer to your side. And when you accidentally spilt something and needed more napkins they magically appeared.

When you then spotted a cute little guitar keychain that reminded you of Luke that was being sold as a souvenir at the check-out it was suddenly safely tucked into your back pocket (though that was really really risky, and while you did not condone it you couldn’t really stop a ghost).

Back in your car, you didn’t even bother to turn on the stereo, knowing that Luke would take over as soon as your hands were on the steering wheel again.

However, a glance to your right presented you with a map of your surroundings, a big x hastily drawn over the Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino, which was basically just around the corner.

“You want to go swimming? We- I just ate! And my bathing suit is somewhere under that mountain of equipment on the backseat.”

Let's just get naked, just for a laugh Let's just get naked It's a trip and a half

You laughed at that, rolling your eyes and shaking your head, before stowing the map away and turning on the car. “I guess catching Reggie in the shower isn’t enough anymore?”

Hey!

“You started making it weird buddy.”

It had started to rain when you finally pulled up in your driveway, but you couldn’t be bothered to rush inside, enjoying the feeling of the cooling wetness on your skin.

“Look at that,” you said to nobody in particular, not knowing if Luke was still around or if he puffed back to the garage, “I didn’t even need to go swimming after all.”

He was. Sitting in the passenger seat, face on his arms while he leaned on the open car window, he watched you dance in the rain with a smile on his face. He was glad he decided to stick around and keep you company on that road trip. You gave him the courage to listen to My Name Is Luke for the first time (and getting to see you smile while showing off his impressive music knowledge was a bonus too). Because without knowing, you were doing little deeds for the boys too.

And made ALEX…

Whoever wrote that “Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain”-quote totally forgot to mention how dangerous small summer storms can be.

Well sure, it might have been your fault for staying out for too long and deciding to let the sun that came out a little bit later dry you instead of changing into fresh and dry clothes, but whatever happened happened and you got sick. (It’s not like you had anything better to do during the last few days of your summer holidays, right?)

Flynn had been a great friend and hung out almost daily at your house, playing board games, watching movies or tv or even just discussing upcoming Julie and The Phantoms possibilities with you. But your dearest little helper had been Alex.

The blond drummer had turned into the tall brother you never had but always wanted (focus on tall because the age thing with ghosts is seriously confusing) even if he was invisible to you 100% of the time. You had the same interests and were able to bond without actually having to say any words, little gestures and reciprocations on your side were more than enough.

Julie had come up with an easy solution and had bought you some of those sound buzzers (like the ones that dogs and cats use to communicate with their owners) and recorded some simple words and phrases the boys liked to use on them. Now the boys just had to press them to be able to communicate with you without having to use pen and paper or Julie herself (sure your parents were a little bit weary and confused, but you said it was for a longer school research project and that shut them up).

Now, feeling way better than during the last few days, but still very tired, you were sitting in your bed, not really focused on the tv show (or was it a movie?) that was playing on your computer. You had been contemplating and mentally preparing yourself to get something to eat and to drink for the past 15 minutes, but the thoughts alone were exhausting and binding you to the bed. Just then a tray with a water bottle, meds and a fruit bowl floated into your room.

Suddenly wide awake and full of energy you clumsily jumped out of your bed and grabbed the tray, throwing a quick glance out of the door to see if your parents were around and slammed the door shut, wincing at the loud sound and hoping that Alex had walked out of the way (not that it would have hurt him, but you know - rude).

“Rude.”

See? He thought the same. (Julie had to specifically add this word for Alex.)

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. But I would like not to get murdered or have Sam and Dean Winchester on my back because my parents think I’m possessed and need to be exorcised.”

“Me.”

“You what?”

“Me.”

“Alex… I need more context.”

“I do. Me.”

You just blinked blankly at the sound buzzers, trying to piece together what Alex was trying to say.

“Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. M-”

“THAT’S ENOUGH Y/N! WHATEVER THAT SCHOOL PROJECT IS, TELL IT I HEARD IT AND I DON’T CARE WHAT IT WANTS!” you heard your father's scream come muffled through the door.

The audience laughter from sitcoms filled your room and you groaned, grabbing a pillow and smashing it against your face.

Faintly you heard the telltale sound of a pen scribbling something on paper and when you peeked from behind the pillow a note was floating in the air in front of you. “You mean exorcise ME! You would be the one surviving!”

“What? Oh my god… yeah okay, YOU get exorcised… same thing. Both aren’t allowed to happen. Forgive my fever brain.”

“No.”

“Fork you, Alex.”

“No.”

“I have Carlos on speed-dial, I’m sure he already came up with other methods to get rid of ghosts other than the salt thing. He already told me that he’s sorry and that he thinks I might get haunted by you too with the amount of time I spend at their house.”

“No. Food.”

Confused at that topic change it took you a few seconds to answer. “What?” Looking around your gaze landed on the tray that you had deposited on your desk. “Oh right! Boy, I completely forgot how thirsty and hungry I am. Did I say thank you? Fang u!” you mumbled with your mouth full of fruit.

“No. Food.”

You swallowed down your food and took a big gulp of water. “Yes Alex, thank you. I am eating. You see? Here I am, here’s the food. The food is here and now whoops - ifs gan!”

You could basically feel the annoyance radiating from the ghost and weren’t really shocked when the pen started to scribble something down again.

“No! Argh!” He really wrote Argh… that dork really wrote Argh! “You can be worse than Reggie sometimes, but you do it on purpose and I’m just sorry for Reggie. A) Carlos thinks he got rid of us by making a french dip and B) You’re awfully lively for a supposedly sick person. I might need to use the buzzers more and see what other reactions I can provoke from your parents.”

Crumbling the note in your hands you thought ‘Challenge accepted’. “You know what? I think I’mma go back on Reggie’s offer and actually let him introduce me to Wilbur. He might know some stuff I could use to blackmail you. And you’re right! I feel much better, just very tired, but that’s nothing a little bit of fresh air can’t fix! Toodles!”

You left your room, leaving a flabbergasted ghost behind who had lost his snapback with the number of times he had been combing through his hair with his hands. And while angrily pressing a pink buzzer, the buzzer wasn't the only thing that screamed “WILLIAM!” after the girl. (That was another important sound Alex wanted to have recorded.)

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Taglist: @sunsetcurvej @ifilwtmfc

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp x reader #julie and the phantoms x reader #luke patterson x reader #reggie peters x reader #alex mercer x reader #jatp imagine #julie and the phantoms imagine #jatp fanfiction #julie and the phantoms fanfiction #jatp one shot #jatp oneshot #julie and the phantoms oneshot #julie and the phantoms one shot #my writing #viascribbles

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billionairebabes · 3 years

Note

Can you share what your daily routine is and what your hobbies are??

Yes. Sorry I didn’t get to your question before. I knew it’d be a more in-depth answer so I needed to wait until I could give it my full attention.

I don’t have a particular wake up time currently. When I first wake up, I take time to just breathe. Deep breaths in and out and no pressure to set any intentions. I’m usually just trying to center myself before I start facing my to do list for the day.

Morning routine looks like:

1. Reading The Skimm in bed. It’s an email I get every week day that gives me a rundown of a few things happening in the world

2. Brush my teeth and wash my face. If it’s a day I’m working out then I don’t wash, I just rinse and maybe use a super gentle cleanser like Cetaphil Gentle cleanser and not the daily facial one that I normally use.

3. Workout. I do this on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. I eat something small first. My workout usually looks like a few laps on the treadmill full incline and then strength and muscle building stuff. I used to take burlesque dance classes once a week too.

4. Eat my real breakfast. Usually something pretty high calorie and I make a smoothie. I might drink tea before I eat. Helps with digestion.

5. Full shower and skincare routine. I’ll do my hair and makeup right after. While I shower, I might listen to a podcast. How I built this by Guy Raz is my favorite. Gives me good ideas and everyone knows the best ideas come in the shower. If I’m staying home I’ll just do brow gel, lip gloss and mascara.

6. Make my to do list for the day if I didn’t the day before and get to work. I’m usually pulling this list from a list a made earlier in the week. On Sundays I try to do a weekly to do list to guide me though the week.

The rest of my day looks like anyone else’s I think.

Night time routine (I’m usually doing this really late at night because I’m a night owl) :

1. Light candles

2. Tidy up any mess I might’ve made throughout the day.

3. If I anticipate that I’ll be leaving the house the next day then I’ll pick an outfit. I don’t do this if I’m not leaving the house because I have a ton of nice loungewear that I cycle through. Most are sets so that makes it easy.

4. Full Shower and skincare routine. , lotion with something thick like a butter and apply fragrance. I have less expensive perfumes that I like to use at night. Don’t forget to floss. I’ll be investing in a waterpik in the new year as well. I also take all of my vitamins at this time too. Currently talking probiotics, fish oil and vitamin C and Zinc.

5. Flexibility stretching. Helps me wind down and I want to be able to do my splits again.

6. Check social media and then usually read a book I like. Nothing too serious. I might drink a calming tea while I do this. I also always keep my water bottle by my bedside so I’m hydrating first thing when I wake up and last thing before I go back to sleep.

My Sunday Routine:

1. Prepare my menu for the week and order groceries from instacart. I’ll just go to the store if I need to visit a specialty store.

2. Catch up with my friends

3. Prepare any food that will age well throughout the week. I’m not big on leftovers so I don’t do this for a lot of things but sometimes i’ll make a simple brocolli and cheese frittata and bake my sausages at the beginning of the week so that breakfast is easy.

4. Plan my week. If there are things that didn’t get done last week then I move them over to the upcoming one. Make sure all of my upcoming appointments or meetings are either documented in my notebook or Google calendar.

5. In depth self care. Deep conditioning my hair. Painting my nails clear If they aren’t done. Face masks. Steaming. Hair removal etc.

Hobbies as of lately: A lot of writing and cooking/gastronomy. I’ve been testing my culinary skills to their limits lately. I want to be above average in the whole culinary category. Since visiting Asia I’ve developed an interest in exotic teas. Before the pandemic I’d definitely consider travel as one of my hobbies as well.

#ask bb

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r-ene · 3 years

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Hi, I came across your blog and saw that you took a gap year. College has drained me mentally and emotionally so I talked to my parents and finally decided to drop from my courses and take a gap year. I was wondering how you self studied while you had yours and how did you make the most of it? Do you have any advice or tips for people like me who want to take a gap year? Thank you 🤍🤍

hey!! sorry it's just now that I got back to you, I just had my examinations and I've been trying to type up an answer but I don't think I've been making sense😅

anyways, it's good you're taking a gap year !!

hmm, first, you're taking a gap year to rest from academics for awhile, so I feel it's alright if you don't really dive into advance/self-studying yet - give yourself some months to breathe, do things you aren't able to do while you have classes even if it's just catching up on sleep, catching up with tv series', kdramas, etc haha.

i said that ^^ but I actually started to self study after summer break, mid-August/September, with the help of my college friends who sent me lecture notes, their quizlet sets and their love and support, hahaha. with that, I study at least 2 hours a day, with a schedule of which subject to study for the day. then I did that until November, I guess then I took a break to watch most of the films/anime/kdramas/series' that I wanted to watch, started to play video games (I don't really do these unless it's a summer break so why not, right? haha), caught up on sleep and exercise, focus on myself, my family, plants and pets.

aside from those, here are 10 things I did that might be helpful with making the most of your gap year :)

make a list of things you wanted to do that you didn't have time for while there were classes ongoing (I mentioned some that I did above and with that was learning new languages - Korean and Japanese!)

this one's my favorite, I hope you'll like this too !! wake up at dawn to watch the sky change as the moon and stars go to rest and the sun gently rises up. It's difficult to wake that early, so I don't often wake up at dawn but just 10-20 minutes before the sun rises and that's the highlight of my day :) very calming, please enjoy this with a cup of coffee/tea and a book

I reset my biological clock mid-gap year, so me and my cat now usually wake at 5:30am and are both very sleepy by 11pm and this increased my overall productivity + I feel more energized throughout the day? + power naps at 1-3pm, sometimes 8-10am, haha.

adapted habits, routines I'd like to keep up even when classes are ongoing - until now I start my day really early most days, fix my bed, organize my room and our kitchen then I have a fixed schedule for cleaning and all :)

catch up with books, series' ++ as I've been saying earlier, haha (really satisfying to finally have read and watched those on my growing list from the past years)

catch up with yourself. how have you been? what do you think you need to de-stress? (for this I tried journaling but wasn't so consistent, listened to podcasts and read self-help books and often resort to de-stressing with cleaning and moving my body)

catch up with your family :) I have 3 siblings and I feel I wasn't so close to 2 and with the gap year I was able to be more open and bond more with everyone + parents and grandma (until now me and mommy (grandma) still chats about random stuff, more of dogs and Luna most times), this was really nice.

in relation to self-studying: keep a google drive with compiled notes, learning materials per subject you'll be taking once you get back to uni so during maybe the last 2-3 months before you go back, you've already read/studied at least prelims-worth of lessons or even just 2-4 lessons per subject. this one's really helpful as well with ongoing classes if your professor doesn't give their lecture presentations beforehand but you know the topic to be discussed as per syllabus, you could whip out your notes from google drive during lecture and just annotate during class instead of typing/writing lots of notes during classes (I do this with my cardiorespiratory anatomy and physiology subject, helps me focus more on the lecture)

learn skills + new recipes - I've been a very curious kid until now, so during my gap year I learned skills I would need for when I move out... how to manage a family of 6.... it lead to that, and I'm in awe of how patient and how much energy mama has to manage everything here at home. I also tried out new recipes and experimented a bit with some dishes that combined ingredients I crave for and resulted very very well 👌🏻

working out and taking care of myself better :) - I was diagnosed with folate deficiency anemia during my medical examination for college (May, 2019) as it was mandatory but I kept forgetting it and didn't take supplements, get enough sleep and eat well. so I took the time to finally start taking my iron-folate supplements religiously and with my body clock reset, I started sleeping early and cooking + eating healthier and working out - I challenged myself with planks, pilates and yoga. I've also been tagging along my parents whenever they go to get their blood tests, urinalysis ++ to monitor my health + also started monitoring my blood pressure everyday. This one's really important to do for the gap year, okay? monitor your health well, it's the most important thing for us to go on daily tasks (not limited to physiological health - mental, emotional, spiritual health is also very, very important. I'm still struggling to stabilize and keep those 3 in check but I try to keep those in check whenever possible)

this one's really lengthy, I'm sorry hehe but I hope it's of help for you and your gap year !!! Just enjoy and relax for this time, you've worked really hard, you deserve to rest as much as you've worked 🤍.

#r-ene #r ene #asks #gap year

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blessedarethebinarybreakers · 3 years

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how to deal with feeling that you don`t want to read bible at all?

Read something else!!

For real, if you dread opening the Bible and get nothing out of it, it’s okay to leave it aside for a while and read (or watch, or listen to, etc.) other things. You have your whole life to dig back into it, if you ever feel called to do so at all. In the meantime, there is wonderful wisdom to be found in other sources too -- many of which, but not all, point back to scripture. I believe God would rather you be exploring those such works and actually gaining wisdom and connection to the Divine, than see you slogging through scripture as a chore and getting nothing but boredom or frustration out of it.

You might, for instance, read books that are about the Bible in the hopes that they can help you learn what there is to love in the Bible.

I most highly recommend Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans. Read that and you’ll find a beautiful framework for reading scripture faithfully and critically, with advice on how to approach the more disturbing texts.

(for something shorter, you might also like my webpage on reframing scripture.)

Or maybe you don’t want a book that’s about the Bible at all, but is spiritually rich -- finding a good devotional is what you’ll want to do then.

My personal faves are, like, anything written by Barbara Brown Taylor (An Altar in the World, for instance), A Tree Full of Angels by Sister Macrina Wiederkehr, Native by Kaitlin B. Curtice (not a devotional, actually a memoir, but so so rich).

If you like shorter stuff than a full book, check out the Our Bible App for so many incredible devotionals, including ones by and for BIPOC, LGBT/queer folks, disabled folks, and more.

Or maybe you want some quality spiritual poetry!

there’s Queering Lent by slats toole, my own book The Kin(g)dom in the Rubble by Avery Smith (i’ve also got poetry posted on my wordpress), poetry by Jessica Powers if you are into traditional Catholic Vibes....

If books aren’t your speed in general, you might prefer a good podcast -- some of my favorite “spiritual” type ones include

Bible Bash (it is SUCH a fun podcast that looks at Bible passages from a queer/trans lens, or sometimes from an environmentalist lens);

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler (which explores life after or in the midst of suffering, from chronic illness to a loved one’s death)

my own podcast (lmao i’m sorry, i’m that kind of person), Blessed Are the Binary Breakers, where I interview trans and/or nonbinary people of all sorts of religious backgrounds about their experiences with faith, gender, and life in general

So. Yeah. It’s okay to take a break from the Bible and explore other ways of connecting to the Divine, humanity, and all of Creation for a time. You’re okay. The Bible will be waiting for you, its pages as alive as ever, whenever you’re ready to try again.

___________

And when you are ready to check out the Bible again, whether that’s next week or years from now...

I highly recommend picking a version of the Bible with quality commentary and footnotes so you actually understand what’s going on haha -- see here for some suggestions

You absolutely want to know the history behind why any given Bible text was written. You try to read one of the prophets without knowing about the Exile? you’re gonna be bored. You might be disturbed. Ya gotta know the history!! Having a Bible with good commentary will help with that!

I also recommend The Bible Project on Youtube’s videos for good historical context -- even tho I don’t agree with all of their theology, their history is sound and they have a wonderful concise engaging video on every single book of the Bible for you to watch. (Don’t like videos? Check out their website instead for info on each book in text format)

Know you don’t have to read from Genesis through Revelation all in order. You can pick the books of the Bible that most call to you. Some of my faves include Genesis, Exodus, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel (but i’m weird that way haha, you’ll want lotssss of good commentary for those), Amos, Joel, Micah, Mark and Luke, and 1 Corinthians.

For help on picking a book of the Bible to read and all that, see this post

Or tell me what you’re looking for and ask me haha

It’s also cool to read a book or passage of scripture while engaging with a variety of interpretations on that same text at the same time!

When I want to ~Resonate~ with what I’m reading, I seek out queer/trans and disabled theologies.

When I want to be challenged to love my neighbor better and catch glimpses of God I (as a white, middle class, US citizen, etc.) would never catch on my own, I check out works by Black theologians, Dalit theologians, stuff from Mujeristas and Womanists and Latin American liberation theologians and on and on.

Find suggestions for such commentaries here in my recs tag.

Or, if you’ve been taught how to read academic articles, you can visit academia.edu to search for free scholarly texts on any Bible passage you can think of, and see if there are any good ones from a perspective you’re interested in. (Example: if you search for “Isaiah 56″ and “disability” on there, you should find some gooooood stuff).

And if you’re ever reading a passage from the Bible and think “oooh I bet there are disabled/trans/Black/Indigenous/feminist/etc. theologians who’ve said some amazing stuff about this bit but I have No Clue how to find their writings on my own -- message me!!! I would LOVE to help!! Let me put my seminary Masters of Divinity to use and infodump about cool theology PLEASE

#bible tag #reading and studying the Bible #Anonymous

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ace-in-a-shopping-cart · 4 years

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Day 12

Prompt: You meet your soulmate in your dreams every night.

Word Count: 3,321

Main Taglist: (Send an ask to be added or removed!) @starlocked01, @spoopy-turtle, @lizluvscupcakes, @more-fandon-than-friends, @i-cant-find-a-good-username, @vindicatedvirgil, @star-crossed-shipper, @justaqueercactus, @gayboopnoodle, @sanderssidesweirdo, @the-sympathetic-villain, @8-writes, @lizzy-lineart, @battlebunnyteardropsinthesun Soulmate taglist:(Send an ask to be added or removed!) @elizabutgayer, @melodiread, @tsshipmonth2020, @mikalya12, @8-writes, @lizzy-lineart

Logan drifted off with a smile on his face. Soon, he was met with a large room that took up two stories, a bay window that had a lovely area to curl up in, and more bookshelves than anyone could ask for filled to the brim with books on any subject he’d ever learned. Looking out the window would reveal that it was constantly pouring, a gentle rain that released a calm into the air. Upon the seat at the window was a figure in a hoodie, the hood pulled up over his head. His feet were curled beneath him as he sat back against the padded wall. He was deep in a book, lost to the world around him.

Logan smiled at the sight of his soulmate, walking over to the window seat and the figure curled up on it. “How are you tonight?” His voice was soft, speaking before he approached.

Virgil looked up, eyes bleary from being dragged out of the story. “Hmm?”

Logan couldn't help but laugh as he sat down next to his soulmate. He knew he wasn’t really his soulmate, just his mind's recreation of him. But he’d been assured that his soulmate acted just like his mind thought he did. Logan didn’t know the science behind it but assumed it was a defense against differences in time zones and sleeping habits or a way of letting soulmates meet, even if one has died.

“Oh, I’m doing fine.” Virgil‘s voice drew him out of his thoughts.

Logan smiled, shifting so he was sitting with a pillow in his lap and his legs drawn up beside him. He gently patted the pillow, inviting Virgil to lay his head on it. When he did so, Logan began to run his fingers through his hair, having been told that it calms Virgil’s anxiety as it lets him know Logan is there and it feels nice. “Do you have a topic in mind for our talk tonight?” Logan asked absentmindedly.

Virgil shrugged. “I mean, I could always just read to you.”

Logan shook his head, pausing to gently scratch his nails against Virgil’s scalp. “No, I don’t think I’m in the mood for that. Are you?”

“I was simply offering it. If you want to talk about the latest episode of the paranormal podcast I’ve listened to, that’s up to you.”

Logan smiled. “Sure, tell me about that.” And thus, another quiet night was spent with his soulmate in his arms.

The next morning, Logan woke to an empty bed, an empty room, an empty apartment. He got dressed, ate his breakfast, and left for work. That was the thing about seeing his soulmate in his dreams; he got used to it. He got used to seeing him on a regular basis, got used to living with him in his mind. He got used to having Virgil there. It was hard to wake up sometimes, knowing all he had to do was drift off to see him.

He shook himself out of his thoughts when he got to work, his mind switching gears to focus on the lecture of the day. He went about the morning classes productively, until he got to office hours. He’d just sat down at his desk, his door open for students, when a knock sounded.

“Come in!” He called without looking up.

Footsteps sounded before a voice he would recognize anywhere spoke. “I seem to have gotten a bit turned around. Could you help me find Professor Engel’’s office?”

He raised his head, eyes coming to rest on a face he’d only ever seen in his dreams. He smiled. “Are you her new TA, Virgil?”

The man startled. “Have we met before?”

Logan decided to just be cheesy, knowing Virgil loved Disney and secretly loved cheesy things. “Once upon a dream.”

He relaxed, sagging against the door frame. “Great, I just found my soulmate.” He muttered beneath his breath.

Logan chuckled. “Sorry, did I startle you?” He decided to forgo the question of why Virgil didn’t recognize him as he could already see the eye bags that signaled he was not one to sleep often.

His soulmate shrugged. “Just a little. Seriously, though,” he glanced at the nameplate on the door, “Logan, I really need to know where her office is.”

Logan nodded. “Of course. Take a left at the end of this hall and a right at the end of that one. Her office should be the third door on the right.”

Virgil smiled. “Thanks.” There was a pause as he stood there for a few more seconds. “Should I come back later to discuss the soulmate thing?”

“I’m just doing office hours right now so as long as a student isn’t in here, you’re free to do so.”

Virgil left, coming back in half an hour. In that time, only one student had briefly dropped by in between classes to ask him to clarify something from the syllabus. He made a note to change that to be clearer if he reused that particular syllabus. “Hey, you still open?”

Logan looked up briefly. “I just have to finish this note and then I’m free to talk.”

Virgil took a seat and waited, his fingers fiddling with the lid of the thermos he carried. Logan jotted down the correction on a sticky note before spinning around to stick it to the wall. He let the momentum carry him around a full rotation, coming back around to face Virgil, who was smiling at his antics.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

Virgil sighed, his fingers stilling. “How about that stupid law that says that once you meet your soulmate you have to move in with them as soon as possible?”

“Yeah, there’s that. How is your living situation?”

Virgil shrugged. “I’ve just got a small apartment. No pets, no roommates.”

Logan pulled out a notepad and began to jot things down. “How many bedrooms does it have?”

Virgil’s brow furrowed as he frowned. “Why does that matter?” His voice was defensive.

Logan looked up at him. “It matters because I’d prefer to sleep in two separate rooms as we are still practically strangers. This way, we’d be closer to roommates than soulmates and would feel no need to form a romantic relationship if we don’t desire one.” He paused, ignoring the fact that he knew he was already in love with Virgil. “Would you be more comfortable sleeping in the same bed?”

Virgil shook his head almost too quickly. “No, two bedrooms is ideal. My current apartment only has one.”

Logan made another note. “My apartment has two bedrooms. Is yours close to anything you like, such as a favorite store, park, movie theatre, or even the school?”

Virgil bobbled his head as he thought. “Not really.”

“Mine is only a fifteen minutes drive from most things.” Logan paused as a thought hit him. “Even though my apartment sounds like the obvious choice, would you prefer to find a completely new apartment? It might feel better for both of us to move into something instead of one person moving into the other’s space.”

Virgil smiled. “Yeah, a new apartment sounds nice. You know, this is almost providence as the lease of my current apartment is almost up anyways.”

Logan wrote that down as well. “Do you have anything you are allergic to? Food, creatures, medicine?”

“I can’t have most seafood due to iodine. I’m also allergic to red fire ants. You?”

“I’m allergic to peanuts but you are welcome to have them in the house in any form as long as you make sure to label them and clean up after the mess as even just a bit of the oil on my skin can be dangerous. Other than that, I don’t think so.”

Logan searched through his drawers, pulling out a calendar. He flipped it open to the current month. “Do you have any time that’s good for apartment hunting?”

Virgil pulled his phone out of his hoodie pocket and Logan couldn’t help but notice the Nightmare Before Christmas case he had on it. “Uhh, I’m free on the weekend or any time after three in the afternoon.”

They planned for the next few minutes of where they preferred the apartment to be and what times worked best for them. A few days later, they were out apartment hunting together. They found the one they wanted and applied, managing to get it on the first try. Both of their names were on the lease and they were moving in the next weekend. Logan had his friend Roman come and help while Virgil roped his brother Patton into doing so, finding out the pair were soulmates in the process.

Logan had loved Virgil for about three years now but it was quite clear that Virgil hadn’t been aware of Logan’s existence until they’d met. So, while they were sitting on the floor of their shared apartment and eating a dinner of pizza, Logan decided to ask about it. “Virgil, may I ask about your sleeping habits?”

Virgil put down the slice of pizza he’d been raising to his mouth. “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“I’m sure you know of seeing your soulmate in your dreams so by all means you should have recognized me on sight, just as I did you. Have you . . . never seen me at all?” Logan was scared. He was scared to think that Virgil had never seen him but was more scared to think that Virgil had chosen to forget about him, chosen to not acknowledge his existence within him.

Virgil shrugged, a small almost apologetic smile gracing his face. “I don’t sleep.”

Logan’s brow furrowed as a million questions jumped into his brain. “How is that possible? You’d have to sleep eventually.”

“I have pretty bad insomnia. Only one thing seems to have helped but I haven’t been able to do that since I was small. So, I deal with it. I plan around it, drinking energy drinks and caffeine, waiting for the inevitable collapse that comes where I basically just pass out for a few hours. As I’m unconscious, I don’t dream. Thus, I’ve never met my soulmate until you recognized me.”

Logan nodded, wiping his hands on a napkin. “Is there any way I can help? You mentioned something you could do to help it?”

“No, there’s nothing you can do to help although I appreciate the offer.”

With that, the conversation changed to a different topic while Logan’s mind wandered. He wondered if there was anything he could do to help. Determined, he silently promised to be the best housemate anyone could ever ask for. He was going to be quiet whenever possible and make sure to stay out of Virgil’s way. He’d pretend to not even be there for much of the time.

That lasted a week before the system broke down. Logan had been sitting on the couch doing some work when Virgil came home, looking even more exhausted than usual. Logan began to gather his things, meaning to move to his room to give Virgil space. As he did so, he glanced up at his roommate, who looked close to tears.

Logan instantly dropped everything he had, not caring about the scattering of his neat piles, to move over to Virgil, hands hovering. “Is something wrong? Did something bad happen?”

Virgil dropped his bag. “Do you really hate me that much?” His voice was watery and he looked even closer to tears now.

Logan paused, confusion plain on his face. “What do you mean? Why would I hate you?” His voice was as soft as he could make it, trying to be gentle with his sleep deprived soulmate.

“You always leave the room as soon as I walk in, you only talk to me when I speak first. Do you really hate me already?”

Logan shook his head. “No! I don’t hate you, quite the opposite in fact.”

Virgil sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “Then why do you avoid me so much?”

“I don’t mean to avoid you. My intention was to give you space so you don’t feel like I forced you to move in with me.” Logan had no idea what to do about the sleep deprived TA in front of him so he was as sincere as possible.

Virgil nodded before shuffling over to the couch and dropping onto it. “Don’t. Just stay.”

Logan got the hint and sat back down, beginning to fix his piles. He glanced over at Virgil every once in a while, seeing he was in the same position of sitting with his head thrown back and eyes closed. He eventually sat back as he set up his computer on his lap. It was then that Virgil tilted to the side, his head ending up on Logan’s shoulder. Logan froze, waiting for Virgil to move or say something. Instead, his roommate and soulmate just snored.

Logan smiled, taking the opportunity to kiss the top of his head and whisper, “Sleep well,” before going back to his work.

When he woke, Virgil stirred and Logan’s hand came up to cradle Virgil’s head, quietly shushing him. Virgil pulled away entirely but still sat close. Logan put down his book and looked over at him. “Did you have a nice nap? I tried to be quiet so as to not interrupt it.”

Virgil smiled. “I dreamt for the first time in ten years.”

Logan was surprised but happy. “Oh, that’s nice. Did you enjoy the experience? I find it rather calming myself.”

Virgil nodded. “I did. Although, I do have a few questions for you.”

“I’ll answer them as best I can.”

“Did our conversation before I fell asleep actually happen or was that part of the dream?”

“You came home and got upset when you saw me begin moving back to my room. You expressed a feeling of inadequacy that I corrected as best I could. Is that the conversation you were thinking of?”

Virgil nodded. “Okay, so, how do you feel about me?”

Logan reached out, as if he wanted to cradle Virgil’s face. “I don’t want to tell you the extent of my emotions as I’m not sure you’re ready for them. I can say that I don’t hate you in the slightest.” He hesitated. “Do you hate me?”

Virgil was quick to shake his head, hand reaching out to rest on Logan's arm. “I may not have had enough time yet to accurately gauge your personality but I like what I’ve seen so far.”

Logan nodded and he felt like there was a weight lifted from his shoulders. “Okay. In that case, I think we need to establish some house rules.”

They discussed at length such things as shared spaces and personal ones, communication of needs, and communication in general. Then, as it was already getting to their usual eating time, they both made their way to the kitchen. Logan started looking through the fridge. “Hey, how was the latest episode of your paranormal podcast?” He popped his head out of the fridge to look at Virgil. “Sorry, I just realized how creepy that could sound.”

Virgil just shrugged, settling onto a clean and out of the way part of the counter. “It’s fine. I’m always willing to talk about that thing as no one else seems to care.”

Logan pulled out ingredients for pancakes before closing the door. “Well, I enjoy hearing about it and find it a calming part of my routine.” He didn’t mention that he found Virgil looked his best when he was animated and talking about a topic he enjoyed. He didn’t mention that he could watch and listen to him for hours, never getting bored of him. He didn’t say it, knowing that it’s too soon and it would freak him out. So, instead, he listened to him ramble with a smile on his face, occasionally making comments to spur him down a different rabbit hole.

The rest of the month went smoothly. They got to know each other over that time, Logan learning the small things that showed that Virgil was alive and not just his imagination and Virgil learning everything there was to know about Logan. Logan made sure to answer any question he had and gave him as much information as he could while doing so.

It was toward the end of the month when it happened. Logan had just been drifting off when he heard a soft knock at his door. Sitting up, he fumbled for his glasses case and the lamp switch. “Virgil? Is that you?” He called quietly.

The door opened with a barely audible click, Virgil coming to stand in the doorway. Logan finally got his glasses on to see Virgil in his nightclothes, fingers playing with the ends of his too long sleeves. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” His voice sounded different, softer and more scared than Logan had ever heard from him.

Logan smiled, gesturing for him to come in. “It’s alright. Is there something I can help with?”

“I can’t sleep.” It almost sounded like an apology.

Logan nodded, sitting up fully and crossing his legs beneath his weighted blanket. “Okay. Do you want me to talk with you for a bit?”’

“I was actually hoping you could . . . Nevermind, this was stupid.” He turned to go.

Logan stood, reaching Virgil in a few strides. He didn’t try to stop him, but did put a gentle hand on his arm. “Hey, no. Your needs and wants are valid. Talk to me, please.”

Virgil shrugged. “I fell asleep on your shoulder a month ago and dreamt for the first time in ten years. I don’t know, I guess I was just wondering if I could try that again.”

Logan smiled. “You want to try to sleep with physical contact?”

“Yeah, that.” Virgil sounded relieved that he didn't have to explain himself further.

“Okay. Come on in and make yourself comfortable.”

In a few minutes, they were curled up together in bed. Virgil was on his stomach, head on Logan's chest, while Logan had his arms wrapped around his roommate. The lamp had been turned off and Logan’s glasses had been safely returned to their case. After being in a similar position with his imagination’s fabrication of Virgil, Logan raised a hand to card through Virgil’s hair. He realized what he was doing and stopped, putting the hand flat on the mattress.

Virgil tilted his head to look at Logan. “You don’t have to stop. That felt kind of nice, actually.”

Logan smiled, his hand going back to the familiar rhythm that calmed him even after years of doing it. They both soon drifted off like that, held in each other’s arms and perfectly content. In the morning, Virgil told Logan he’d dreamt again and they celebrated a little before they had to get to work.

Soon, that became a recurring event. Sometimes, it was three nights a week that Logan would find Virgil curled up beside him, sometimes it was less or more. After the third week in a row of this behavior, Logan had to sit down and talk with Virgil about it. They worked out that having physical contact with another human helped Virgil sleep, something about his anxiety calming when he felt protected.

One night, Virgil was curled against Logan, who was reading aloud in an attempt to lull Virgil to sleep. Virgil reached up, his hand coming to curve around Logan’s jaw and pause his reading. Leaning closer, Virgil softly planted a kiss on Logan’s cheek and muttered, “I love you, soulmate.”

Logan turned, kissing Virgil’s palm. “I love you too, soulmate.” He closed the book and set it aside, turning off the lamp before sliding deeper into the bed and curling around Virgil. They both fell asleep, comfortable, protected, and loved.

#tsshipmonth2020 #analogical #virgil sanders #logan sanders #soulmate au #food mention #ace writes

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strangerays · 3 years

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Nothing in Particular Update #2

It’s the Nothing and Particular and Everything update part two: the electric booglaloo. This one is long, so strap in.

It’s been a while since I wrote an update for this story. To be honest, this one gave me a lot of stress, but here I am! Writing this story feels like it is going very slow. I keep telling myself I’ve made a lot of progress (which is true, I have) but for some reason it doesn’t feel like I have? This is likely just my own insecurity. To be frank, I can’t believe I’m still writing this story. If you had told me in February that I’d still be writing this when the weather got warm, I would have laughed.

I am SO excited that I will finally be able to focus on writing now that I’m out of school. I’m afraid to speak the rough deadline that I’ve given myself for this story (the end of August-early September) but now that I’ve spoken it into existence, I hope I can finish! (I hope I can stop watching dumb videogame playthroughs and listening to The Magnus Archives and get something done)

Here is a link to the story introduction and previous update!

TAGLIST (ask to be +/-); @wannabeauthorzofija @a-completely-normal-writer @baguettethebooklover @corkytheguar @writeherewaiting

STORY CHANGES/THOUGHTS/IDEAS:

Here is a big one: I’ve been trying to write this story for myself. I started writing Ray’s story from a place that was personal to me, but I feel like, as that part of myself has begun to heal, I’ve started to think about what a reader would want out of the story. I’m realizing that this is my story so it has to be what I want. Drafts are drafts for a reason, so I’m going to try to get better at letting myself explore what is fun to me.

I always thought I was a discovery writer (I still sort of think I am) but as I’ve finished small sections of the story, I am finding that it’s very helpful to do a rough outline of scenes in upcoming chapters. (I also recommend turning to this if something doesn’t work and you need to retrace your steps!) Just helps me feel more organized!

Jude’s character has got to be one of the most difficult personalities I’ve ever written. Putting her beside Ray just makes it harder. Where Ray is secretive and keeps to herself, Jude is ready to unpack her entire life’s story to anyone. I find that I really have to slow down when writing their interactions. I know this is going to be nowhere near perfect in the first draft, but I think it is a main contributor to my slow writing.

I really like this little narrative I’ve created in the background of the main plot with Ray and Lonan. I love writing these scenes because it’s a way for me to use Lonan when he’s not actively with Ray and to show why Ray is predetermined about things at certain points. Also I love their friendship so much <3

CONGRATULATIONS TO ME on starting to read again because I forgot how much of a help reading other people’s stories can be when you’re struggling with your own oml

I now have a set timeline for the story! Takes place ~4-5 months.

I did that thing where you write a letter from the characters’ perspectives and that was kind of fun

Also just for fun I thought I’d add in that I spent an hour and a half last week filling up a page in my sketchbook with diagrams of the plot. It feels good to be a mad scientist

EXCERPTS UNDER THE CUT!

*At this point, I’m only sharing writing that I am really proud of in order not to spoil the story! This is because I am unsure whether I want to publish this story someday. With that said, that does NOT give you permission to steal my ideas!

CHAPTER: NIGHT CRIES

In the last week of summer, I did everything I could to avoid post-vacation blues. I rode my bike along the gravel roads with no destination, wore my dark sunglasses to people-watch, and fed salami to the minnows that floated on the cusps of boulders. Usually, I sat still for so long that my elbows turned a deep shade of red and the blood in my toes buzzed.

New pockets seemed to open up in Point Blink every day. And with them, came new people. Most of them were older – a middle aged woman who caked her lipstick on, an uncle estranged from his brother, a couple who had miscarried. I hadn’t forgotten about the kids at Mothouse. It was impossible not to think about them. It wasn’t just that I’d never seen them before.

The girl’s limp cigarette bled a trail of smoke that seeped into my Vans. My shirt folded like skin over my bed post. Haunted the room – foiled my mauve sheets and teased my locks. Swept the curtains apart and heated the oak floor. Beams of moonlight leapt to my bookcases; highlighted the posters from various podcasts and bands that I listened to. Wind whistled when I was too still. She forced me to look outside, onto the dark cul-de-sac lit by the reflections of forming rain puddles. No matter whether I sat at my desk or burrowed under my sheets, I felt out of place. She made my bedroom louder. She made my bedroom quieter.

I decided it would probably be best if I never saw her again.

To be honest, I don’t remember much about writing this chapter because it was over a month ago (sorry) but I’m still quite happy with the prose! This comes in after Ray sees Jude for the first time at Mothouse. Based on a first impression, decides that she might want be friends with Jude.

CHAPTER: SORRY

If you spend any long amount of time with someone, you’ll become a thief to their behaviors. If I stared long enough, trees began to replace all of the people we’d ever seen. Oaks had roots that serpentined the ground like children splashing in the bay, pines with needles like spindly old hands, maples with hollows like watchful eyes – all things Lonan had taught me to observe.

CHAPTER: GHOSTS

Then there was the sea – violent and knowing as it romped within bays and alcoves. She had eaten me many times before, both my father and Lonan too. Gulped them as if they were shining plastic wrappings left behind after a meal. I spited her for inviting me once again. I reached up again to grapple with the next rung. It twisted and offered a low whistle.

In these two chapters, Ray is on a photography trip with her class. This is the first time she’s been on this annual trip without Lonan. She left that morning with a goal of being independent and learning to get on with one of the only people she has felt close to. I realize now that the Ghost excerpt sort of sounds like her dad and Lonan have drowned?? Which was not my intention??

CHAPTER: A DIVINE INTERVENTION

“Do you believe in ghosts?” A raspy voice teased from behind me. Cigarette smoke tickled the words, like they were stuck together with jelly inside of her. The question wasn’t particularly calming, but it strengthened my grip on reality. As if the foiled leaves, bark, and dandelions had sprung from the ground and begun to float, they came crashing back down.

I was made of stone.

“I’m not a ghost,” Jude said. “If I was, a ladder would be a pretty counteractive way to outrun me. I could just float up there and haunt you.”

“Maybe you’re a ghost,” she asked, her voice distant.

I shifted my grasp up and down the sides of the ladder. “What?”

“Don’t you believe in ghosts?”

I was reading back some of Ray and Jude’s conversation and there are so many snippets of dialogue that make me laugh because I totally forgot I wrote them... but UGhhH I don’t know if I want to share them because I don’t know whether or not I want to try and publish the story someday. Speaking of that, it’s sort of because it’s so personal to me? I don’t know (this is for future me to pursue) Honestly though, reading these back has made me really happy :)

I wanted to shake her by the shoulders. She acted as though Point Blink could breathe – as though corpses in the cemetery might pull the grass away like dead skin, neighbors would draw blades, and blood-salt would stain her clothes rather than that from the sea. “Trust me, they’ll forgive you. But, I’m just saying, most people around here don’t care nearly as much as you think so. Most of them are way older anyways, so they’re tired of us.”

“Is that you complimenting yourself?” Jude asked.

“Not intentionally,” I said, “but I will take it.”

She laughed. “You shouldn’t be so nice to strangers.”

I wasn’t trying to be. I just didn’t think I wanted her to dislike me.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing or a good thing,” Jude said. “Being good gets you tucked into a thousand different memories. Being good makes you live a lifetime.”

I almost laughed, but then I wondered what I was to her now. “I don’t talk to lots of people.”

“Sometimes there aren’t many people to talk to. But I thought you would have loads of friends.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. “I thought you would too.”

Alarm like grief lit her eyes, but she laughed. I did too.

“You hardly know me,” she said quietly.

Then the girls explore some old newspapers and letters in a fire tower! Spooky fun!

CHAPTER: YOU LET THIS HAPPEN

This isn’t a major spoiler as it’s literally in the blurb I wrote, but Ray and Jude are caught (targeted..??) in a fire. Ray is brought back to a field where she is questioned.

CHAPTER: NOTHING HAPPENS

He was quiet for several moments while he painted a picture with what little details I had given him, then said, “It’s unfair. I think that’s why it hurts.”

“Because we almost got hurt?”

“No. Because it came true.”

His gentle, ragged voice made me think I could tell him anything. Sometimes, I think that, even then, he knew I left something out.

Ray talks to Lonan after the fire... She’s being a bit dishonest about what actually happened.

CHAPTER: WHY NOT

I remember how the barest amount of red light glared across Lonan’s entire scalp and washed his boyish curls magenta from the roots out. When Jude leaned back on the counter, she melded into the darkness.

This chapter is just part of the narrative that I created with Ray and Lonan’s friendship. There isn’t much I want to spoil from it, but I liked this paragraph!

CHAPTER: INEVITABLE

“We didn’t do anything,” I said.

“Someone did. Why won’t you believe me?”

“I think I would remember whether or not someone was there with us,” I said, “even if we didn’t have the picture.”

This was untrue. I hung lots of photos in my room. A long time would pass before I went to a restaurant again, or a specific coven on one of the beaches, or an outfit that I wore, and I would look into one of my pictures and remember it, and then I would be quite angry with myself that I had almost forgotten that thing forever.

“I don’t think you understand what I mean,” Jude said. I didn’t like the way she’d lowered her voice. She sounded different every time I saw her. She reached out her arm so our photos were side by side and our fingers were almost touching. “I don’t think you want to.”

Ray finds herself alone in the school’s dark room with Jude. Based on the contents of one of her photos, she tries to convince Ray that there is more to the fire than what meets the eye.

CHAPTER: (this one is untitled)

I didn’t mind that he followed me everywhere. Even when he was quiet, I didn’t find it strange to be around him. We sat silently through films and went on walks. Once, he had fallen asleep while watching The Iron Giant in my bed. I didn’t know if I should wake him up once it ended. I tried not to stare at him. He’d rolled onto his side and bundled himself in one of my blankets covered in stars up to his shoulders so only his small face poked out like a baby owl’s. His soft breath messed his dirty gold coils. They were at their longest. Except for the ebbing light from a candle on my desk, my house was asleep – Lonan needed to go home.

For the first time, I wondered if anyone cared where he was.

Another small part of the little friendship narrative! (This really is the part of the story where I get nostalgic for my childhood, isn’t it) Ray starts to discover more about Lonan’s home life in this part of the story, but there’s not much that I think I want to reveal about that for now.

CHAPTER: THE CRUX OF IT

Why did I feel so paranoid? I found myself staring out the window, into the film of blue that the late sun shown onto the grass and trying to remember what summer felt like.

My main problem was that I didn’t know how to talk to Jude unless it was about Sugarfell. I ran from the hush of cigarette smoke behind closing doors and heard her loud voice in conversations. Even though there might have still been a part of me that wanted to be friends with her, I didn’t have much to base that feeling off of. I could have spent hours clicking the little pieces of her that I had together, but the crux of it was that I would never know Jude unless I forced myself to.

For some reason, that really scared me.

I spent all week trying to think of what to say to her. By Friday afternoon, I still had nothing.

I left off writing with Ray actively avoiding Jude’s little investigation into the arsonist. Ray doesn’t want to be involved in this because she feels that it will throw her sense of normalcy off course. She really just wants to learn how to adapt to a life without her best friend. (It doesn’t help that she’s got fresh trauma)

What will Ray decide? I don’t know. We shall see. (just kidding I know)

Sorry this update was longer! I think I would like to start updating more often than once a month just because they would be shorter and those of you reading this won’t forget what happened in the last update. There are thousands and thousands of words that didn’t show up in this update because - like I said - I don’t know whether I want to publish this story ever?? I’ll probably talk more about this in a separate update.

Thank you so much to those of you who read about my story! I hope you enjoy it!

p.s. btw I now have a myWriteClub account! You can check it out here and stalk me as I tragically fail my writing goals!

#ffs writing this update was like throwing a boulder into a lake #there was so much I wanted to share #it's really difficult to decide what to share as sometimes a paragraph that I'm really proud of will be really spoilery #I can only imagine this will be more and more difficult as I get further into the story #ANYWAYS #I feel like I'm really beginning to see who my characters are <3 #I feel like a proud mother #To be honest #I kind of hated Jude in the beginning #but now I feel like Ray hates her too so that makes me like her #haha im so mean #tune in next time for a Sapphic spy date

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sanakoreanlangblr · 3 years

Text

2021 Goals

Heyy! I’ve decided to put my goals for this year here, hoping that that might motivate me further, and maybe motivate someone else as well. Good luck everyone! And please take extra care of yourselves and your health, mental or otherwise! Everything else can wait.

This year has been difficult for all of us. As for me, even now, the upcoming semester is a big question mark. Currently I’m studying in France, and this semester I was supposed to go on an exchange to Taiwan buuuut that’s not happening anymore, as it has been cancelled. So per my school’s requirements I need to find an internship in the place of expatriation, which is a pain now. And that basically just means I have no idea where I’m going to be in the coming year or what I’m gonna be doing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry, needed to complain for a bit, as I am going absolutely insane with the stress…

Anywayyyy, I still hope I will be able to uphold most of these goals, wherever I will end up. I tried to not make them overly big, so that I won’t get burned out too fast. But I have a whole year for those, some of these have dates for which I could expect to finish but I will not keep to them very strictly. Whatever happens, happens :))

Also, sorry if there are any mistakes, English is not my first language!

Korean (A2 -> B1)

1. Do 100 lessons of grammar from the HowToStudyKorean website.

I’ve started a few grammar books but in the end decided to settle on this website as I like its explanations best, and it provides the most example sentences when introducing each point. A nice touch is also the fact that it includes a list of a number of new words before each chapter, which gives me some new vocabulary to learn :)

So far I’ve divided the grammar points introduced in lessons into „to learn”, „to revise”, „already know”, and turns out I have:

66 „to learn”

35 „to revise”

32 „already know”

So if I did 3 points a week, I should be done around August.

2. Read 2 little stories per week from “Easy Korean Reading for Beginners”.

There is 30 stories in the first one (I already did 5), so I should be done by the middle of April.

3. Do one chapter per week from “My first hanja guide”.

I just got this book for Christmas and haven’t had the time to fully go through it so we will see how it goes.

4. Do Anki at least three times a week.

Every day would be preferable but I know that would last like a week at most.

5. Have iTalki lesson at least once a week.

That one is not a problem as I have been doing one or two per week for the last year, but I would just like to keep it up.

6. Try writing at least twice a month, and at least 2 pages.

Yeahhh that one is a bit of a bother, as writing still takes me a long time so we will leave it a twice a month and see how it goes.

7. Watch one youtube video per week on Korean grammar or vocabulary.

Generally I would say my goal is to use Korean more, as I know quite a lot but when I’m speaking I tend to go towards the easier words and grammar, which is why I am thinking that writing more could help me. And also I really want to focus on learning vocabulary as that’s always been a pain for me, I’m more of a grammar lover :))

French (A2 -> hoping for upper B1/ beginning of B2)

1. Finish the intermediate grammar book. I’m currently doing „Grammaire Progressive du Français” Intermediate edition, for A2/B1.

The problem is that my grammar knowledge of french is a mess , so going through this book is a bit of an annoyance, as most chapters I technically know but each time I find some nuance I wasn’t aware of... therefore I need to go through it, even the chapters I would have assumed I know :|

So I divided the chapters the same way I did Korean, into „to learn”, „to revise”, „already know”, and I ended up with:

14 „to learn”

34 „to revise”

4 „already know”

So technically if I did 2 points a week, I should be done in June.

2. Read the two french books I got for Christmas (“Les aventures d’Alice au pays des merveilles” and “Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours”).

3. Read at least two of the Harry Potter books in French.

I have started the first one this week, and I can tell it’s gonna be a very very slow process. It’s the first book I’m reading in french so it’s a bit difficult and frustrating but hopefully it’ll get better as I go along.

4. Watch at least 4 french movies, with french subtitles.

5. Learn a french song.

6. Read one story per week from „French Stories for Beginners”.

These are quite easy, but they are a nice practice for switching to books later on.

I don’t know if I’m gonna keep this one in, depends on how much my reading of actual books will progress.

7. Get to point 5 on the Duolingo tree.

I use Duolingo mostly as a revision tool, so I’m not really going to focus on it much, but still want to keep it up.

8. Watch one YouTube video per week (on any topic).

9. Listen to two podcasts per month.

10. At least one iTalki lesson per week.

11. Do Anki at least 3 times a week.

I really need to listen to french more, as I’m good at reading and I usually understand that pretty well, and I’m not the worst as speaking, but I am absolutely terrible at listening :| So that’s a priority.

Chinese (tbh I don’t know...end of HSK1/Beginning of HSK2 -> let’s say the goal is HSK3 for this year)

1. Finish the book „Integrated Chinese”

I’m having a tough time to pick a book from which to learn but I guess for now I’ll continue with that one.

Again, I divided the points in the book to „to learn”, „to revise”, „already know”, and ended up with:

47 „to learn”

11 „to revise”

15 „already know”

So doing 2 a week I should be done in July.

2. Learn 15 characters a day

I am way behind on learning characters.. I remember the words well but I didn’t put enough time to learn the characters at the start and now that’s gonna be a bit annoying to catch up on :|

3. Finish the drama „Go Ahead”.

4. Watch 3 Chinese movies, with both English and Chinese subtitles.

5. Have one Italki lesson per week.

6. Learn a children song in Chinese

7. Watch one youtube video per week on grammar.

8. Do Anki twice a week.

Generally focus more on characters. My speaking isn’t terrible (well besides the tones), but I need to work on the grammar a bit more as I seem to mess up the structures quite frequently. I need to put more work outside of my lessons. Since I found out I’m actually not going to Taiwan this semester my motivation has fallen a bit, but on the other hand I now have more time to prepare for fall, at which point I will hopefully be able to go!

Personal

Read 20 books.

I have always loved reading but in the past two years the amount of books I’ve read has gone down, which upsets me a bit… On the other hand the amount of fanfiction I’ve read is tremendous, so there’s that. However I would like to make more effort to read this year, especially since I’ve accumulated a huge pile of books over those few years.

2. Workout regularly.

Right now I’m at home, so that should be easy to do. I don’t really know what’s gonna happen this semester, so we’ll see what I’m going to do about that later.

3. Eat better.

Meaning: cut down on sugar, eat more veggies and fruit.

4. Get a bit closer to my ideal weight

I’m not necessarily focusing on that this year as the previous one has been hell and really managed to deteriorate my mental health back to high school levels... but still hopefully working out a bit and eating less sugar, more veggies, I will be able to lose a tiny bit of weight. But overall I just want to focus on being a bit healthier.

5. Clean out my wardrobe

Sorry that’s a silly one but I’ve been getting to it for half a year now and I’m just too lazy to do that... maybe once I put it here I will have some motivation

6. Take care of my face and hair

So my sensitive skin hates wearing masks and needs extra care these days I need to really focus on it and baby it, to not go back to the awful red mess it was two months ago

As for my hair, I have kind of 3a curls which I haven’t been taking care of properly and plus I damaged them with hair dye (still I refuse to give up ginger hair, I blame Merida). So now during lockdown and quarantine season I finally had some time to read up on hair care of curls, and honestly after a month I can already see the difference, and well I hope for the best :)))

7. Get a tattoo

It’s something I’ve always put off since I either didn’t have the money or time. And now again both are problematic, so I will wait for the decision until I know what my school semester is going to be like. Maybe this time I will find a good moment! (Although honestly saving up for travelling after all this is over is also a great idea :))) )

8. Don’t go to sleep at 5

Yeah so during lockdown and because of online classes my sleeping schedule got so messed up I don’t even know what to do about it anymore. And while my goal isn’t to switch it to 10 pm, cutting it to 2 am at max would be nice

9. Watch 25 movies

10. Sell/donate the things that I don’t need

I’ve accumulated a huge pile of books, movies, CDs, Xbox games, art products - that I need to get rid of - and I’ve been saying that for like three years now, about the same pile of things. I will try to do that one this year!

I hope everyone’s 2021 will be a ton better than 2020! Keep fighting!

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pamgkrthwrites · 4 years

Text

Flame of Healing | EsaerMic x Reader | Chapter 4 - Arms

Masterlist | AO3

Warnings: Time skip, major cuts, Soulmate AU, Large age gap mention, slight gore(broken bones), mention of death, mention of lost virginity, mention of running away, denying of grief, grief avoidance, a slow chapter.

Word Count: 2028

Taglist: @stargazingaloneatnight

A/N: I have lesbian plans for Ms Joke, I’ll say that now. I was going to mention this new law in the last chapter but I decided to mention in passing here because we needed to focus more on Oboro. His death will be a big deal for all these three soulmate babies. Also, I really do not want to write a first time, so it is canon that reader has had a couple of relationships and hookups. ALSO ALSO, the group mention will also play a big part. This is the chapter to foreshadow A BUNCH of shit. Hope you all enjoy.

It had been 4 years since Oboro’s death, 3 years since you finished school and 2 years since you started working for hero agency as a nurse.

You had been hurting ever since you were told Oboro died. You might not have talked to him in that last year of his life, but that made it worse for you. His was your best friend throughout middle school, and no one was going to replace him.

You hadn’t bumped into your soulmates since that day in the street either. You heard about Hizashi all the time though. He was very loud and hard to take your eyes from whenever he was on TV. Shouta never appeared on TV though.

You were all turning 21 this year, which meant only one thing.

Soulmate reveal.

It was a law that passed a year ago in response to people unable to find their soulmate. Your name, soulmates names, quirks, family, job, date of birth, address and a picture of you were on a database. Once the youngest soulmate turned 21, the information on you would be released to the other party.

The guy who wrote the final draft choice the age 21 because he got his soulmate’s name at 21, but justified as ‘Well what if they want to go out drinking? The age to drink is 21.’

America was the country who made it and other countries started to follow suit so that cross country soulmates could still meet.

This somehow opened up a question most had ignored until now.

What if someone didn’t want to meet their soulmate or didn’t want to date them?

The Anti-Soulmate movement had grown, and you were apart of the group. The local group would meet once a week and would talk about a wild range of things. A lot of people got up and confessed they met someone before meeting their soulmate and love them instead. Some revealed their age gap with their soulmate grossed them out. Some revealed they had no knows, and didn’t want to be told that they couldn’t love anyone.

And somehow it turned into a dating hub.

You knew you were being watched, but no one knew your true name. You once again gave up your middle name when meeting people in the group. You had joined in your last year of school and had been dating and doing hookups since.

You were watching the news, the morning of the 5th of July. The news was talking about the celebration in America about the 4th of July. Then, Hizashi came on.

Your heart sank when you saw his face, heard him speak. His was a public figure so his birthday was already revealed to be in 2 days.

“Hello, Japan!” He greeted with a wide smile on his face. “America has been going crazy with their party, which I will be able to relate to in a couple of days!” He laughed.

The news anchor smiled. “Yes, I heard your 21st is in two days! Are you excited to meet your soulmate?”

Mic awkwardly laughed. “Funny thing! I met one of my soulmates in UA!” Mic looked at the camera. “Hey Shouta, baby!”

You chuckled, he was a drama queen. He loved the camera, he even started his own podcast.

Even though you didn’t want to meet them, you didn’t move, did legally change your name, and listened in to Hizashi whenever you could.

“He is the youngest out of us two, but we don’t know if he is the youngest in our soulmates.”

Unlike you, Hizashi became open about his soulmate status, probably to get your attention. Everyone knew he had two names, and he was the most vocal about it. He surprisingly cleared up a lot of horrible rumours about 2 name soulmates and there hadn’t been any slander on them since.

Well, to your knowledge, you still covered their names up.

“And when is Shouta birthday, Mic?”

You breathed in. You were on the edge of your seat, you needed to know your timeframe to move out of the city.

He smiled. “November 8th.”

4 months, you could move countries in 4 months, right?

---

“Good morning Miss L/N!” Smiled Ms Joke at you as she walked into the building behind you.

You smiled back in return. “Good Morning Senpai, how are you?”

Even though it was not asked of you, you called all the Heroes in the building Senpai. You didn’t call Heroes from other Agencies Senpai, you called them by their hero name. It was kinda wired as Ms Joke was 2 years younger than you.

“You won’t believe who I met last night on patrol!” She smiled with a light blush.

“Who did you meet, Senpai?” You asked as you pressed the button for the elevator.

“Eraserhead!” She smiled brightly. “He acts like an old grumpy man! Haha.”

You hadn’t heard much of Esaerhead, you knew he was an underground hero who kept to himself.

“What does he look like? I’ve only heard of him.” You state and the elevator doors ding.

“He has messy black hair, unshaven face, tired eyes, and he wears a dark green suit, black boots, and a light grey wrap scarf.” Ms Joke answered as you both stepped into the elevator. You pressed the button to the floor above while she pressed the floor where the heroes training station was.

You looked back to when you talk to Shouta, the night Oboro died. He wore something like that.

“Does he also wear goggles?” You asked.

Her face lit up and she smiled and nodded. “YES! Have you met him before?!”

Sadly, yes. It was Shouta. He sounded the same since that day, maybe besides the messy hair and tired eyes.

“Kinda, he was just in my friend’s class. Only saw him twice.” You brushed the answer off.

The doors binged opened to your floor and you walked through. Ms Joke smiled and waved you goodbye before the doors closed.

You weren’t a fan of Joke, you weren’t friends, just saw each other at work enough to know each other names but not well enough to invite places.

You head over to your station to start off your day as per usual on a Monday morning.

---

“Hello Listener!”

No.

“Sorry ‘bout this, but I got permission from your agency to get you help.”

Hizashi was standing in your healing booth, with a give bruise down his right arm, possibly broken.

“...That’s fine Present Mic.” You spoke softly. “Sit down and I’ll get started.”

Mic sat down and whined a little at his arm. You sat down next to him and pulled up the fabric of his clothing to see full damage.

“May I ask what happened?” You asked softly as you placed your hand on his arm and activated your quirk.

Mic whined at the touch but as the bruise started to fade the more willing he was too it. “Yeah I was happily talking to some fans and a baddie ran past so I tried to stop him but he threw me into a building.”

“Ouch. Did the guy get away?” You asked as your deactivate your work and checked his arm to make sure it had been properly taken care of.

“Nah, some other heroes were there and took care of it.” He answered as he watched you. “Have we met before Listener?”

You stopped and looked up at him. His eyes were so intense and it made you shiver. You wanted to fall and you couldn’t take your hands away from him.

“...Yes, first-year, I was friends with Shirakumo.” You answered softly as you took away your hands.

You both became quite. You both knew the situation around him, and that it was hard on both of you for different reasons.

“I… See…” He said as he tried to avoid the situation. “Do I have to do extra care with my arm?”

You can tell he cringed at asking after such a wired moment. You both were avoiding it and it was best you both got away from it.

“It might be a little tight for a couple of days, so just stretch it and massage it.”

“Great!” He smiled, awkwardly. “May I leave?”

You nodded your head and he zipped past you. You watched him make a beeline to the exist and leave before saying goodbye to anyone.

You let out a breath, and you noticed how fast your heart was pounding.

Was that the first time you ever touch one of your soulmates? You didn’t even notice how strong the will to not take your hand away was until he left. Your hand left so heavy yet empty once your hand was away.

You were going to have to go out on Friday night.

---

You walked into your apartment and left out a deep breath. You kicked off your shoes and dropped your bag to the floor. You face-first into the couch and sighed. You pulled up the couch blanket and turned on the TV.

You groaned and closed your eyes to briefly rest your eyes.

“There is currently an attack and the underground hero Eraserhead the first responder to the situation.”

Your eyes snapped open and you sat up to watch.

Your heart dropped once you saw his face, he really was like how Ms Joke described him. He looked so tired.

You didn’t get to see his eyes - more like you couldn’t because of the goggles. His left shoulder was slightly dripping, making it looked like he was in pain.

You weren’t paying attention to what the anchor was saying, all you could do was focus on Shouta as you started to do soft rubs into his name on your wrist.

You notice him flinch a little regarding his left wrist, he must be feeling the pain in his shoulder down to his arm.

You saw a girl with green hair running towards the fight and try to make the baddie docile.

Your heart dropped when you figured out it was Ms Joke.

You quickly took note of what street they were one, noticing they were close by.

You quickly got up to put on your shoes to start running over there.

---

You got there when the fight looked like it was ending, as police were there and the baddie was tied up with a grey scarf.

“L/N!” You heard before you were hugged tightly by the woman with green hair.

She let you go and you saw the smiling face of Ms Joke.

“Senpai, are you okay?” You asked as you touched her arm and activated your quirk to heal anything. “I saw you on the news and rushed over.”

“Aww, aren’t you just the cutest thing.” She smiled widely. “I’m fine, nothing too damaged.”

You saw Shouta walking towards you two with a glare in his eye, an angry glare. You made a whining sound and avoided eye contact.

Ms Joke turned and smiled brightly at Shouta.

“Eraserhead! Your shoulder is hurt, right? You can get healed from my lady friend here!”

You briefly looked up at him and he only glared.

“Lady friend?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“...Kinda, I am a healer at the agency Ms Joke Senpai works for.” You answered.

He was silent for a moment until he brought out his left arm, your name showing. “Could you-?”

“Of course, it’s my job.” You reached out to his arm and activated your quirk to heal him. You did your best but you couldn’t avoid to briefly touch your name on his wrist.

Ms Joke stared with a big smile as she read your name on his wrist.

When you were done you let go and deactivated your work. “It will be stiff for a day at most, so rest it. Stretch it before training and going out.”

“Thank you.” He said sweetly.

He took a couple of seconds before walking away from you two.

“Hiding from your soulmate, F/N L/N?” Ms Joke teased with a smirk on her face.

You looked up at her and sighed. “Soulmates, Senpai. I am avoiding my soulmates.”

#bnha #mha #bnha x reader #mha x reader #eraserhead x reader #present mic x reader #shouta aizawa x reader #hizashi yamada x reader #aizawa x reader #erasermic x reader #x reader #reader is female #soulmate au

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pricemarshfield · 3 years

Text

hero

A Drevarry colllege AU. Read on AO3 here.

"Potter," someone calls, all posh accent and outrage, and Harry sighs and turns.

"What dyou want, Malfoy?" Harry asks. He's got a chemistry book in his bag--his least favorite subject with the worst professor on campus, but it's important for STEM education majors to be well-rounded--and has been dreaming about a way-too-sugary coffee ever since he got out of his 8am. "And talk while we walk, if I get caught in the mid-class line at the cafe, I'll kill you."

"As if you could," Malfoy says with a scoff, as if they're not both in a variety of intramural sports just to fuck with each other. As rivalries go, it's fun, even if only started over a tiff over plane seats on the flight over. He'd just wanted to sit with Ron (planned on sleeping the whole ride) and Hermione (so focused on her podcasts and book and notes that she'd stop any noises she was making before Harry could). It's hardly his fault the guy wanted a window seat and was stuck next to two American football players instead.

"You're not listening, are you?" Malfoy says, and Harry snaps out of it.

"I had an 8am physics lecture today," he says. "And I don't mind physics, but it's not engaging."

"Fine, I'll just repeat myself," Malfoy says with a roll of his eyes.

"If you're going to follow me across campus, you're paying for my coffee," Harry says.

Malfoy glares at him, but also holds open the door to Starbucks, so, yknow, whatever.

"Not Starbucks!" Ginny calls with a glare as soon as she sees him walk in, even though her eyes are sparkling. "We serve Starbucks drinks. We are not a Starbucks, you cannot use your giftcard here, you cannot get stars here, try it and I'll jump across the table and kill you."

"What did you do to piss off the barista?" Malfoy asks. They've not entirely avoided the line between classes, but they're pretty fairly in the middle, and Harry should still have plenty of time to study before the mandatory event for international students tonight.

"Nothing, she's a friend of mine," Harry says with a laugh. "If she was mad at me, she'd just poison my coffee."

"If I can't use gift cards, at least get something cheap," Malfoy says.

"Are you trying to convince me to do something?" Harry asks, instantly suspicious. "I was just taking the piss out of you."

Malfoy's cheeks tinge red, but just to play nice, since he seems to be making an effort, he'll order something cheap.

Cheap-ish, at least, he loves the fancy drinks here. "Iced caramel macchiato. None of the pineapple ginger syrup this time."

"I have no idea what you mean," Ginny says brightly, already grabbing the cup and writing the codes on autopilot. "I would never. Extra shots or syrup or anything?"

Harry hesitates, and Malfoy says, "It's fine, I can afford it."

"Extra shot, pump of the brown sugar syrup if you still have it," Harry says.

"I can't wait to tell my mother you've gotten pretentious about coffee," Ginny says victoriously, giving the cup to one of her coworkers as she types it into the cashier. "She'll be so proud."

"Don't make a thing out of it," Harry groans.

"Too late," Ginny says. "You can see the total, Malfoy, just pay."

Malfoy bristles before Harry stage-whispers, "That's Ginny being nice, Malfoy," and then he grumbles and slides the card in. Harry doesn't even pretend to look at him as he types his pin.

"Coffee'll be out in a few, caramel macchiatos are easy, " Ginny says. "Wish me luck for the rush."

"Stay strong, good luck," Harry says, and Ginny gives him a little mocking salute as the two of them move to the side.

"What I meant to say," Malfoy says with a grumble. "I have a--"

"Hey, Harry!" Neville calls, and Harry turns to his roommate with a wide grin. "Headed back to the room?"

"After I get my coffee, yeah," Harry says, ignoring Malfoy muttering obscenities under his breath right next to him. "You?"

"Nah, got a class on identifying plants first," Neville says. "Interesting stuff! It's totally different in this part of the world. By the way, I meant to ask you, would you mind being my model for a photography project? Just a quick thing, not anything, like--"

"Absolutely not," Malfoy says. "I asked first."

"You didn't?" Harry says.

"You not listening doesn't mean I didn't ask!" Malfoy protests, loud enough that a couple grad students look up from the tables they're at and glare. Malfoy quiets down. "Look, Neville--"

"Neville?" Harry interrupts, just to see Malfoy's cheeks get even redder. "You two know each other?"

"Back in primary school, yeah," Neville says. "Don't get me wrong, we didn't get along or anything, but he's not a dumb kid anymore."

"Yes, yes, I was an arse and a privileged git a decade ago, I know, but I did genuinely ask," Malfoy says.

Neville shrugs. "I'll just see if there's a modeling club on campus. Luna and Ginny are both busy, but--"

"I really don't like photos," Harry says. "So no to both of you. Sorry."

"Why?" Malfoy asks, cutting himself off when Neville makes a shut-up motion.

"Just, y'know," Harry says. "Had enough of it. Why don't you two just use each other as models?"

Neville makes a not-the-worst-idea face. Malfoy looks like Harry's just proposed pissing in his oatmeal.

"I mean, you said you've asked your friends, right, Nev? And I'm sure you wouldn't ask me if you had another option," Harry says. Draco doesn't answer, which is as good as an acknowledgement that he's right. "Is it against the rules or something?"

"I'm sure it's not, Professor Burbage wants us to be friends," Neville says.

"God," Malfoy says. "Everyone in your dorm really is all so friendly, huh?"

"Best dorm on campus," Neville says.

"Go Lions," Harry adds.

"Fine," Malfoy says. "If I must."

"Great," Harry says. "I'll be studying, so if you're going to discuss it in the dorm stay quiet. I've got an o-chem test tomorrow."

Both of them wince in sympathy.

"I'll make sure to be quiet when I come back in tonight so you can get some sleep," Neville says.

"Thanks, man," Harry says. "I'll grab dinner for you and leave it in the fridge?"

"Gryffindors," Malfoy says despairingly.

#drevarry #drarry #dreville #nevarry #harry potter #draco malfoy #neville longbottom #harry james potter #my fics

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ivory-sunflower · 3 years

Text

Arty Art Things ✨

Hellooo!

I've decided to post some of the arty things I've done either recently or in the last few years, well the pieces I'm somewhat proud of at least. All my posts tend to be a lot more wordy than they need to be but hey it's what I do here!

Conchúr White

Anyone one who's been on this blog for a bit will have probably have seen me talk about this lovely Irish fella. The pencil drawing is actually a year old as of yesterday, I only know that because screenshots of me flipping out about Conchúr following me on twitter popped up in my memories yesterday. I think I'd sent it to him at about 3 in the morning (I was not in a good head space at that point in time), so probably not what he was expecting to see when he opened his phone in the morning aha

The biro version is much more recent: I got bored while sat at my desk and doing research about university courses, saw a biro, saw my old drawing of Conchúr, had an idea. I revisited my GCSE art techniques and here we are. Again, I put this up on Twitter and now (at the the time I'm writing this) when you google "Conchúr White" it's the third top image of him which is a bit mad really. I think I spent all of about 20 minutes on Conchúr but another 45 minutes on the words behind him. The words are the names of the songs on his EP 'Bikini Crops', he doesn't just really love the idea of Channing Tatum driving him around at night in a daisy print bikini... Well maybe he does but what he does in his spare time is none of my business...

TechDif

So I mentioned that the pencil drawing of Conchúr came from a rough patch in my mental health and this one is no different! In fact this one came from an even worse circumstance so we love to see it. I had a bad, bad time in July and this started as a way of distracting myself from what was going on in my head. Without it, I can't honestly say I'd still be here so even if the final product of this had been a terrible mess I would still love it for keeping me alive. However, it did not turn out to be a terrible mess!

Now that the origin of this is out the way, where do I start with TechDif? Unlike Conchúr, I haven't really talked about them on here (unless you count one brief post about Citation Needed) before so I guess I'll do it here. The Technical Difficulties are a wonderful group of 4 British fellas who have had their fair share of fun online and even before. They did a radio show at university together, which went on to become their Reverse Trivia Podcast, later moving on to a panel show called 'Citation Needed': and a game called 'Two of These People Are Lying'. All of which I would thoroughly reccomend, they're one of my go to things when I'm having a rough time. All 4 of them are excellent! Tom Scott (red top, blue jeans on the picture) has his own YouTube channel which does content aside from TechDif. If you're quite nerdy and like science, linguistics, computers, or any number of other things you may enjoy Tom's channel. He is probably best described as "The Moderator" of the group, much like a tired teacher he tries desperately to keep everyone on track with what they're meant to be doing, but usually it does not end well for him. Then we have Matt Gray (space top, holding an ice cream) who also has a channel away from TechDif stuff, he does techy electronic things and has a series called 'Will it Soft Serve?' where he puts all kinds of strange things through a soft serve machine. Matt brings a very specific energy to TechDif and I can't fully describe what that vibe is but I love it. Matt and Tom also share a YouTube channel where TOTPAL is posted and they had a series called 'The Park Bench'. Moving on to everybody's favourite Gary Brannan: Gary Brannan (SATIRE hoodie, glasses) and can I just say, what a fella he is! He's just excellent! He is the one that will argue and rip into Tom the most (not in a malicious way) and hilarity ensues. There are some episodes where he is absolutely on it, getting all the points and others where he very clearly has no idea and that's where some of his funniest quotes come from. Given how badly I was doing at the time I made this, his response to it on Twitter was so so lovely. I specifically remember one tweet where he said I'd made him happy and although it was probably a flippant comment, it just made feel alright for a bit. Yeah I might be feeling awful right now, but I've made someone else happy so that's a nice feeling. Then last but certainly not least, we have Chris Joel (buffalo check shirt, beard)! I would be lying if I said he isn’t my favourite... His sense of humor is the one I vibe with most, he can get rather dramatic in parts and can chat bollocks like a champion. He has absolutely no online presence away from TechDif and, like Rens from Temples, I fully believe he’s a cryptid and lives off in a tree somewhere.

The picture took me about 4 days to complete, well 4 nights because I did most of it between the hours of 12 a.m. and 7a.m. - I remember watching the sun come through my window each morning. It’s made up of lots of little pieces, all cut out and stuck on; even the sky and hills are made of separate pieces of paper. Nothing was actually drawn on the piece of paper it’s all stuck on, it’s not how I usually do things but if I messed up one little but I could just redraw it rather than ruining the whole thing. The most tedious parts to make were Chris’ shirt because I had to draw each square individually and then join the as well, and cutting out the ban-hammer in the bottom right was surprisingly hard. Every single detail of the picture is a reference to the podcast/shows, I still have the plan sketch and reference list knocking about somewhere. I listened to a lot of true crime videos while making it to the point that certain parts remind me of different cases: the brandy now reminds me of Peter Tobin, and the big spiral thing reminds me of Tim McLean (very harrowing case) - sorry that fact is a bit morbid but interesting nonetheless.

I did post this for a little bit back in July, but I received some rather awful messages so I took it down. Generally, Tom Scott/TechDif fans are lovely but there’s been a few that have taken a disliking to me for some reason so I’m hoping they don’t resurface again. I’m in a better head space now though, so even if they do I’m more equipped to deal with it this time.

Hozier

This was a quick sketch I did in April, I was getting bored with lockdown and decided to summon the bog man himself. There’s not really much more backstory than that, no poor mental health story, no fun twitter story - he’s just here. He’s vibing. I will say I’m particularly proud of his nose, I just think it’s one of the best noses I’ve ever drawn. His hand is okay, but I think that the hands on my Conchúr drawings are better. So there is the Hozi-Boi...

The Corpse Bry

I’ve talked about Bry on here before as well, I love him, he’s excellent, top lad. He is a living Tim Burton character, he’s 6′6, very skinny, and his legs are longer than my will to live. I was watching ‘The Corpse Bride’ a few weeks ago and suddenly had an idea and so ‘The Corpse Bry’ came to be. I gave him a little panda friend because the panda has always been his animal - he used to wear a panda beanie all the time and his album had a panda on the cover. Again, there’s not really a fun story behind this one, I guess it’s somewhat fun because it’s the first art I made after finishing my psychology exams in October so it was nice to actually have the time to draw.

James Bagshaw

Ginger talking about Temples for the third post in a row? it’s more likely than you think! I did this one last week, I’d had a bit of a wobbly day and had group therapy on Teams in the evening and I just couldn’t concentrate on what was going on and I ended up doodling Mr James E. Bagshaw, the glitter crying fraggle man himself. It’s a bare-bones drawing that I could definitely work into more but I’m happy with it as it is to be honest. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit and add the individual bits of fringe to his jacket, just thinking about doing that makes me tired. Maybe I’ll get around to drawing the whole band at some point...

Alice in “Wonderland”

This one is from about 5(?) years ago, it’s not my typical style and was a “study” based on another artists work (basically i just had to copy this fellas work). I’ll be honest, this one has a sketchy backstory that I won’t go in to because it’s not exactly a nice one, and because of that I also won’t say who the artist is that it’s based on. Despite this, I’m still really proud of this one and I’m so sad that I never got this piece back after I got taken out the class. I’ve considered trying this style again, I’ve even joked about doing another Conchúr drawing in this style as a nod to my progression through GCSE art, eventually leading to Conchúr drawn in ink on music manuscript and stained with neon paint and dyes - it would be quite the project!

So this has been quite a lengthy post so apologies about that but life goes on. Similar to the vinyl post, I’ll probably add to this as and when I make more art. Even if no one is reading these posts, I’m enjoying making them so that’s the main thing. It’s just nice to document things and the feelings that go with them. 💕

~ Love Ginger xx

29/11/2020

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demigodsanswer · 4 years

Note

What are everyones favorite songs/bands?

(all links go to Youtube)

Percy: It’s been said before, but this boy is a music snob. He only listens to “real music” and for sure has London Calling and Sticky Fingers on vinyl. Sally can always tell when he’s had a bad day, because he comes home and listens to The Wall (because he’s a drama queen). Bisexual music snob Percy for sure has this poster of Jim Morrison on his wall, and not just because he’s a fan of The Doors:

He is also a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His favorite song by them is “Easily” (some of the lyrics are: “The story of a woman on the morning of a war / Remind me, if you will, exactly what we're fighting for / Throw me to the wolves because there's order in the pack / Throw me to the sky because I know I'm coming back”). He’s also a fan of Rise Against, and his favorite album by them is Appeal to Reason.

Annabeth: Listen, I’m gonna say something potentially controversial, but it’s something I believe very strongly in. Annabeth is a Britney Spears fan. Hard core. She was born in 1993 and got to camp in 2000. You know that older girls at camp were all learning the dance moves to “Oops I Did It Again” and she learned with them. In 2007, when Britney had her breakdown, Annabeth looked back on her own past three years - the quest for the lightning bolt, the sea of monsters, holding up the sky, and going into the Labyrinth, and she just thought “Oh okay. I’m not gonna do it, but I totally get it.”

And for a while she hid this, writing it off as a guilty pleasure. But then, somewhere after the war with Gaia, she was finally like “fuck it. I’m Annabeth Chase, I’ve saved the world, I redesigned Olympus. I like Britney Spears and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” Now she’ll unironically say things like: “I didn’t like the Greatest Showman, I thought it was too derivative of the Britney Spears Circus music video.” This does annoy her music snob boyfriend to no end, but she just responds to his complaints with: “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over how much fun I’m having.”

Grover: I feel like he and Percy just chill in the woods and listen to the Grateful Dead while Grover plays covers of their songs on his reed pipes.

Nico: This is also potentially controversial. I don’t think he’d really like pop punk or emo music. I think that he’d actually really enjoy more mellow indie-folk music. I think he’d love Hozier (favorite song is “Be” and “In a Week”. He also loves Hadestown, both the musical and the original concept album. Besides Hozier, he also loves the band the Oh Hellos. His favorite song by them (and possibly his favorite song of all time) is “Dear Wormwood.”

Thalia: Green Day, but especially newer Green Day. She did not pay attention to the parental advisory warning on American Idiot and now she’s gay and she hates the government. Her favorite song is “Letterbomb,” and, although she’s not a fan of musical theater generally, she has to admit that Rebecca Naomi Jones killed that song on the musical album.

Piper: I don’t know what her favorite band would be, but she for sure has the energy of someone who says “Oh yeah, I like Panic! at the Disco, but only their early stuff, like A Fever You Can’t Swear Out and Pretty Odd.” But then she secretly jams to Prey for the Wicked.

Leo: He for sure likes comedy music, like Bo Burnham (favorite song is the Kanye Rant) and Lewberger’s “White People Taco Night.”

Jason: Jason has the energy of a white boy who loves the Beatles. His favorite song is probably “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” His favorite movie is “Across the Universe.”

Hazel: I don’t know what her favorite band/singer/song would be, but I do know that Jason tried to get her to listen to Abby Road once, and she laughed in his face.

Frank: I think that Frank just vibes with everything. Doesn’t matter what it is. Spotify is so confused by what to recommend him, because he’s just got the most eclectic playlists. The algorithm is like “Do you want show tunes? KPop? Rock? R&B? What do you want??”

Clarisse: I don’t think she’d really care about music that much, she just wants music thats upbeat to workout to. If she were to go to a band’s concert live, she’d probably go see the Dropkick Murphy's; they’re probably the only band that she actually listens to when she’s not working out (she prefers audiobooks and podcasts for things like commutes to work/class and downtime). Her favorite song by them is “Rose Tattoo.” One time, she wore a Murphy’s tee shirt to a bar, and the bartender asked if she was from Boston or if she was Irish, and she just said: “No, but I’m white and violent, so I feel spiritually connected to them.”

Will: I think that he’d be the one to be obsessed with early 2000s pop punk and emo music. Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Say Anything, all of it. He hears the opening chords to “Cute Without the E” and he loses his damn mind.

I can’t do everyone, because I’ve pretty much only listened to the same 48 songs for the last decade. Also my youtube algorithm is not fucked from searching for all this music.

#some regularly scheduled programing #percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #piper mclean #leo valdez #jason grace #hazel levesque #frank zhang #clarisse la rue #will solace #Anonymous

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littlemarvelfics · 4 years

Text

The Graduate

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader (tattoo artist!bucky)

Word Count: about 2k

Warnings: just some fluff

Square Filled: Accomplishing a Goal for @marvelfluffbingo, Artist AU for @star-spangled-bingo and Artist!Bucky (Y5) for @buckybarnesbingo

A/N: Hi all! I hope you enjoy this! Side note, it has nothing to do with the movie The Graduate. I’m just terrible at titles. Also... I started a Kofi. If you want to donate, the link is in my bio. Leave me a little note and lemme know if I can write something for you! Enjoy!

You wiped your hands on the black gown currently covering your clothes. You stood with the rest of your row and slowly shuffled towards the side of the stage. In just a few moments, your college experience would be over. All the late nights and cram sessions would be done and for that you were grateful. But you would miss the group of friends you had made, the ones who made those late nights bearable.

You took a deep breath as you ascended the stairs towards the podium where the Dean of Students was reading out names. Yours was called and you walked across the stage, hearing a whistle that could only belong to one man. Bucky Barnes.

You had met Bucky two years ago when you were a sophomore and he was finishing up his apprenticeship at a local tattoo shop. He was friends with Steve, a senior you had befriended through an art elective. You and Bucky had met at a party and the rest was history. Once Bucky had finished his apprenticeship, he worked at opening his own shop and he finally took his first appointment six months ago. Bucky was the one responsible for the black ink over your ribs, a simple bushel of wildflowers.

As you walked down the stairs, you scanned over the audience quickly looking for your parents. You sent them an invitation to the ceremony along with two tickets but you were sure they wouldn’t show up. Majoring in journalism with the dream of becoming a reporter hadn’t sat well with them, they never missed an opportunity to tell you that you were wasting your life.

You walked back to your seat and listened as the rest of the names were called, cheering loudly for your friends as they crossed the stage. By the time the Dean announced the class of 2020, you were beyond ready to find Bucky, get out of the sun and get on with whatever he had planned for the night.

Thirty minutes later, you pushed your way through the crowd, attempting to find Bucky. You hugged a few people on your way and you were just about to call him when you found him leaning against a tree, away from the madness. His sunglasses were covering his eyes and he had his hair pulled back off his neck. He wore a dark blue button-down with the sleeves rolled up, showing off the dark ink decorating his left arm. The look was finished off with a pair of black jeans and suede boots that were scuffed to hell. When he spotted you, he straightened up off the tree and grinned at you as you took off running, jumping into his arms when you made it to him. He held you around your waist and held you close to him.

“Congratulations sugar,” he mumbled in your ear. “I’m so proud of you.”

“You know what? I’m proud of me too,” you responded with a giggle.

“Is there anything else you need to finish up here? Or can I take my best girl to lunch?” Bucky asked.

You were just about to answer when you heard your name called from behind you. You whipped around and came face to face with your parents.

“Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?”

“You invited us,” your mom said tensely.

“Right of course,” you responded, at a loss for words.

Your mom coughed and looked behind you where Bucky was still standing.

“Oh right,” you said with a smile. “Mom, dad this is Bucky, my boyfriend. Bucky these are my parents Ken and Sue.”

Bucky stepped around you and offered his hand to your father who looked at Bucky’s tattoos with disgust, ignoring his outstretched hand. You spoke up in an effort to diffuse the awkward situation.

“I didn’t realize the two of you were coming out. I never heard back from you.”

“We decided to surprise you. We wouldn’t believe you graduated if we wouldn’t have seen it for ourselves,” your dad said with a smirk.

You gave a tight smile, not sure what to say to the backhanded comment. Luckily Bucky stepped in.

“She’s pretty amazing,” he commented, wrapping his arm around you. “Graduated first in the program.”

“The journalism program,” your mom said under her breath.

You sighed and barely stopped yourself from rolling your eyes.

“Why don’t we all go out to lunch?” Bucky suggested, ignoring your mother’s comment. “Celebrate the grad a bit?”

You looked at your parents, almost positive they would turn down the invitation.

“Why not,” your dad said. “Have a place in mind?”

“Sure, there’s a place a few miles from here called Tony’s.”

You smiled up at Bucky- that was the restaurant the two of you had your first official date at.

+++++

The four of you were seated quickly at Tony’s, you and Bucky being somewhat of regulars. You all ordered your drinks and you saw your parents internally scrutinizing the place. It wasn’t anything fancy, a hole in the wall with loud music on Friday nights and an expansive drink menu making it a popular place for the local college kids.

“So what’s the plan Y/N?” your mom asked.

“The plan?” you questioned.

“You got your… journalism degree. What’s next?”

The way your mother said ‘journalism’ made it seem like it was a dirty word, never to be uttered in public.

“I have an internship starting in a few weeks-”

Before you could finish your sentence, your mom cut you off again.

“Four years of work for an unpaid internship?” she scoffed.

“Did she say unpaid?” Bucky said under his breath.

You nudged him with your elbow as you suppress a smile.

“It’s not unpaid and it will probably lead to a job after a few months,” you said, the pride clear in your voice. “It’s with This American Life.”

You had worked your ass off to secure the highly coveted internship with This American Life, a radio show and podcast that was on public radio once a week. The show had made you fall in love with telling stories and working for them had been a dream of yours since you moved to New York for college. You recorded your own story to go with your application, Bucky had been the subject of it. A simple story that revolved around two weeks of shadowing him as he worked to open White Wolf Ink, his tattoo shop.

“That’s… impressive,” your dad said, clearly surprised you had an actual plan. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks dad,” you responded as your food arrived at the table.

“What about you Bucky? When did you graduate?” your mom asked.

“I didn’t,” Bucky said simply. “College wasn’t the right choice for me.”

Your mom laughed, not bothering to hide her disdain.

“So what is it that you do with no college degree?”

“I’m a tattoo artist,” Bucky responded.

Both of your parents looked at Bucky, failing to hide the judgment on their faces.

“He just opened his own shop,” you said, never one to shy away from bragging about your boyfriend. “It’s been busy.”

“So how long have the two of you been dating?” your dad asked, ignoring your comments about Bucky.

“Two years,” Bucky answered, looking over at you with a smile and placing a kiss on your head.

“Really Y/N?” your mom moaned.

“Really what?”

“A struggling journalist dating a tattoo artist? Is that how you pictured your life?”

“Nope,” you said, taking a sip of your wine. “I plan to be a successful journalist. And I never dreamed I’d be dating a man like Bucky. He’s so far out of my league.”

You mother glared at you, clearly not satisfied with your answer.

“Do you know how embarrassing this is for us? First, you leave town and then you major in something so… trivial. You were smart! You could have done something with your life! And if that wasn’t what you wanted, you could have married a nice respectable man!”

“Enough!” you yelled. “You can sit there and tell me how much you dislike every choice I’ve ever made. But leave Bucky out of it.”

Bucky squeezed your knee under the table and immediately you felt more calm and collected.

“Listen,” Bucky said quietly. “I have a night planned to celebrate your amazing daughter and all the hard work she’s put in for the last four years. I’d love to have you stay for lunch but not if you’re going to act like this.

Your mom looked between you and Bucky, waiting for you to defend her. You simply shrugged a shoulder and glanced over a Bucky, his face serious. You put your hand on top of his and squeezed three times, a silent way of saying “I love you”.

“Well I’m not gonna sit here and listen to you act like any of this is okay,” your mom said, getting up from the table.

Your father got up and followed behind your mom, glancing back at you with a sad smile.

Once your parents were out of sight, Bucky turned to face you.

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” he said quickly.

“Why are you sorry? That was on them, not either one of us.”

“Still-”

“Let’s eat and then I promise we can talk this to death later tonight but right now, I just wanna have my happy day with my boyfriend,” you said, cutting him off.

“Then a happy day is what you’ll have,” Bucky replied with a smile.

+++++

An hour later, you were back in the car with Bucky, your late lunch and a glass of wine leaving you relaxed and content. You looked over at Bucky driving and smiled, putting your hand at the back of his neck and rubbing your thumb against him.

“I love you lots, you know that?” you asked simply.

“Not as much as I love you.”

“Don’t you fight me,” you said with a giggle. “Where are we heading anyway?”

“I finally finished sketching out your tattoo. Thought you might wanna get it done tonight?”

“Really?! That sounds perfect,” you said with a sigh, leaning your head against the car window.

It didn’t take long to get to the shop. Bucky unlocked the front door and you walked over you his chair, making yourself comfortable while he grabbed the design and went over to the machine, preparing the stencil to place on your skin. You lifted your dress slightly, revealing your right thigh for Bucky to decorate. You scrolled on your phone, looking through all the Instagram posts from your classmates, all celebrating your recent accomplishments.

Bucky came back in, paper in hand. He instructed you to look away, wanting the final design to be a surprise. You laughed but did as you were told, smiling when you felt him press the page to your leg.

“Okay,” Bucky said quietly. “You can look.”

You looked down at your thigh and gasped. Instead of one of Bucky’s designs, purple words were pressed into your skin. “Will you marry me?”

You looked up at Bucky, a black velvet box in his hand revealing a beautiful engagement ring.

“You’re the one I want with me when all my dreams come true, when I accomplish any of my goals or when I fall short. You’re the one I want with me. Will you marry me?” Bucky asked.

You could barely see him through the tears filling your eyes, frantically nodding your head up and down. He kissed you before sliding the ring on your finger and pulling you into his arms.

You pulled away from him, kissing him once again.

“Best day ever,” you mumbled against his lips.

“One of many sweetheart. One of many.”

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tuz-on-ao3 · 3 years

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Hey, I was reading your fic (I really like it by the way! Sasuke's, my favorite character, and I think you wrote him really well :D), and I was wondering, what's your writing process? I know everyone has something different that works for them, but how do you plan out your chapters, or get ideas, or things like that (very vague, I know, I'm sorry)?

Hiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!! Thank you sugar plum for reading Maybe I’m Paying for the Things I’ve Done and liking my characterization of Sasuke, it’s very heartwarming and I appreciate it.

As for my writing process, oof. As you know everyone’s writing process is really different and it has been a joy to learn more about other people’s process to help figure out what works for me. This is something you can absolutely cherry pick with and try things out for the first time.

Timing: some people write better at certain points during the day, some people can start writing at 5am or write till 3am in the morning with a late start. I am a mix of both. I can start writing around 9am because that’s when my internal ticker is like “Let’s go to work now!” It’s just how my school and internship schedule line up. I also just write when I am bored(while in class sometimes) and late at night if I really have the momentum. Which happened for some of the chapters I have written for Maybe I’m Paying for the Things I’ve Done. So figure out what works for you. Also, timing myself sometimes helps, I use Pomodoro as a way to keep track of my work, I don’t necessarily take my short breaks.

Initial phase of writing: I draft first and I backwards outline as I go along and then I hit a wall. The idea circulates in the back of my mind and I either get a sense of a scene or a situation that I want the characters to go into and I start writing. Writing the story informs me where it’s going to go, it comes to me during the process. However, I will hit a wall. The fics I write are rarely short(shoutout to the people who can do short and sweet, your sense of pacing is unreal and I bow to your greatness) so there is a lot of worldbuilding, plot, and character development that needs to happen. Important thing to note, just because you are writing fanfiction doesn’t mean you can skip worldbuilding. It is very important!!!!!! It doesn’t need to be the crazy amount that I do but you need to set your reader up in a place and time so give some context.

Timeline: Things happen at certain places and times, and my characters will be a certain age when it happens, so I need to keep track. One of the walls I’ve hit is that for my current posted fic Sasuke spends time in jail, but how much time was not made clear in my non existent early planning and that changes the way things happen. And how old he is, and how much time should I spend on that prison sentence. If it was a long time then I need to talk about it as a life event that will have consequences throughout the entire fic, or if he was just detained until his lawyers came that changes Sasuke’s character. It also is a good way to talk about the criminal justice system of Konoha that I am making up. So I keep track of everyone’s ages, and birthdays, and sometimes I change them. I mean it is really hard for me to write baby ninja that go out into the battlefield when they are four years old and not make the entire fic about a shitty world like that. I don’t want to do that, it’s too fucking hard, and fluff feeds my soul. Also, seasons!!! That changes the way you set up your environment as well, from what I can tell Fire Country should have a monsoon season since they are so forested and are located near the equator of their world. So when that happens, if I decide to include that, is important for pacing of the story. I mean how long should this go on? Also, romance in the rain *hitn hint wink wink* who knows.

Outlining: I didn’t use to be an outline and to some extent I still am not. I have done a previous post explaining a little bit of it but I backwards outline to keep track of what is happening because it’s a lot of detail and I don’t want to make mistakes. However, spreadsheets are my jam. I didn’t use to be this way but my internship has changed me and now I like spreadsheets as a way to be organized. Huzzah *throws confetti in the air* to being a boring adult person! There are a couple of way to do this but first actual writing notes:

5 commandments of story

Inciting incident

Progressive complications

Crisis

Climax

Resolution

This is something that helped me a lot when it came to structure, because sometimes my plot points are all happening at the same time and I’m like this makes no goddamn sense, what is happening. Story Grid is a podcast, and a book, and a website that can help you talk about structure. They can also talk to you about the Hero's journey. Take or leave whatever works for you because a lot of their stuff doesn’t work for me. But in doing their spreadsheets and exercises I learned what doesn’t work in a story. It’s how I realized pacing was a problem in my writing, and that I needed to take time away.

So they have sample spreadsheets that break down books into scenes, turning points, characters on stage, etc. Take what works and leave what doesn’t.

Back to spreadsheets, I have a story grid one for Maybe I’m Paying for the Things I’ve Done which I will backwards outline for the chapters I have already posted and a weird visual index card thing with the five commandments on my computer to help me figure out what is happening in my story.

It looks kind of like five boxes side by side with the five commandments written on each one.

Sometimes there is more than one box for progressive complication and that is fine, it is also fine if every scene you write doesn’t have a resolution, because by the end of the fic you will have one. I split this up by chapter, expected word count, POV.

Word count: Some people care about this, some people don’t. I don’t write stuff for ‘Maybe’ that is less than 10000 each chapter, there is way too much going on in the fic to do short chapters. For my other works in progress I find that I will be writing shorter, which is both easier and harder because it needs me to be concise and clear. Anyway, I do take notes from Story Grid in this because 50% of my words have to be for my middle build, while 25% each go to the opening hook and to the ending payoff. A scene is about 1200-2000 words.

Wiggle Room: Shit happens, you don’t do as much one day and you do a lot another. It’s okay, your story will evolve at certain points, it will tell you what to do. Don’t worry about it that much.

Struggle/villainy: Protagonists are often defined by their antagonists, and if that is the type of story you are writing make sure you spend just as much time on the villain of your story as you do the hero. They are major actors and deserve the attention. When I talk about the Akatsuki I am thinking that they are an international terrorist organization hellbent on kidnapping people that are systematically treated as weapons. There are a lot of moving parts for this. Also the characters themselves, Pein and Konana are radicalized in my story from peaceful revolutionaries to violent ones because they watched the leader of an institution murder their best friend, that will cause personal and political damage. It informs the way I write them or will.

Sasuke's struggle isn’t necessarily against a person, it is against himself. He wants a home because when he was little the one place where he felt safe was violated by his own brother, that is a hell of a trauma. Then he left his former home to go to Oto. Place has a huge part to play in Sasuke’s characterization and I tag homemaking in my fic because I want to show the process of creating a home for yourself as a process of revival and change and hope and vulnerability. It is a huge emotional labor of love and will be a focal point in the fic. That’s why I spend so much time talking about these goddamn renovations and art deco, it matters. This is a boy who has traveled all over the world and is now trying to put all the pieces of himself into one place, how he does it will be incredibly revealing of his characters.

Character: Emotional arcs are important for everyone. Try to figure out what your character is going to go through. It helps so much. Victoria Schwab asks her characters three questions:

What do they fear?

What do they want?

What are they willing to do to get what they want?

See if this helps. Also, understand that you got to develop your side characters as well, they act as a foil for the main character and add richness to the story, you will notice if they are flat. Understand the dynamics they bring to the story and to the world. Are they a woman in a field that is more socially acceptable for men? How does that affect them? What does gender look like in this world and how does this affect your characterization? Have they gone through physical/emotional trauma? Because that shit will keep coming up in a story, healing takes time. Also this is a fanfic, do whatever you want honey bear.

Vocab: the lovely @slexenskee told me to have a running doc of vocabulary and I am trying to do that.

I also have a running doc for a fic/character where I put all my brainstorming, little scenes, lines, vibes, questions into. And a doc for the synopsis of any new fic ideas I get.

Inspiration: Read, a lot. I read fics, I read fiction and fantasy books, I read non fiction and I read about other people’s writing process. I read the news, I read twitter threads, I read random quotes on Pinterest. I watch tv shows and take note of how they do characterization or pacing or plot. I listen to music, I couldn’t live without it. I am on Pinterest looking for vibes or aesthetics for my fics. When I first started writing, since my fic was inspired by another fic, I was worried it would be too similar, that worry is fading because I am doing more writing, and more reading as well. But you must consume culture in order to produce it. Also take breaks, sometimes you figure stuff out if you leave it alone or talk to friends about it. If you reach out to me about it, I will do my best to help so feel free.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT BE A RACIST/HOMOPHOBIS/TRANSPHOBIC/MISOGYNIST. UNDERSTAND THAT WHEN YOU WRITE A FANFICTION THE CHARACTERS ARE CODED IN A CERTAIN WAY. DON’T GO AROUND MAKING PEOPLE OF COLOR WHITE OR MORE LIGHT SKINNED THAN THEY ARE. WOMEN AND NON BINARY PEOPLE EXIST ALWAYS, IF YOU ARE NOT WRITING THEM INTO YOUR WORLD THAT MEANS YOU ARE MARGINALIZING THEM IN YOUR WORLD AND IN YOUR MIND. IF YOU ARE CISGENDERED BE DAMN CAREFUL ABOUT WRITING TRANS NARRATIVES, PROBABLY DON’T. WHEN I DECIDED TO INCLUDE MY OWN CULTURE INTO SASUKE’S CHARACTER AND PAST I DIDN’T MEAN TO MAKE HIM LESS EAST ASIAN BUT TO ADD PARTS OF MYSELF TO THE WORLD. ACCEPT AND ADAPT TO CRITICISM COMING YOUR WAY IN THIS SENSE. I AM SURE YOU WILL BE FINE, THIS IS JUST A STANDARD DISCLAIMER.

This was really long, and I hope you won't mind. Thanks again for this question, and let me know how your writing goes. Also listen to Deadline City the podcast.

#answers #fic writing #process #naruto

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