#then in middle school we watched it in english class (class where you learn how to speak english. not the one tumblr says everyone should

[maddy-ferguson]

i don't know if i want to have kids but i know what movies i wanna show my nonexistent kids

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

I Cherish You, Halcyon Days: v.

“You’re gonna die, kid. In the worst way possible.”

tags: afab!reader (she/her), angst, slow burn

pairing: gojou x reader + onesided!getou x reader

summary: You’re 15 years old when you’re told you’re going to die. You’re 17 years old when you realize who your killer will be. And you’re 17 years old when you make peace with the fact you wouldn’t want it any other way.

index | previous chapter | next chapter

"Sister School Exchange?"

"Yeah, it's this thing we do each year with the other of Jujutsu Tech in Kyoto," you lean back against Chinatsu's bed as your non-sorcerer friends look at your curiously.

It's a peaceful Sunday like any other.

Tooru is slouched awkwardly but comfortably at Chinatsu's desk playing Zelda, meanwhile Chinatsu has claimed her bed as her own while she braids her hair. Hard as these days are to come by now that you live in a school remote in some mountains on the countryside-esque outskirts of Tokyo, you relish when you have them. It's a touch of comfort and familiarity. "It's like a sports thing. Loser goes to the winner's school the following year. Last year we won so those suckers are coming to Tokyo."

"Who went where last year?" Chinatsu continues braiding her bright brown hair.

"We went to Kyoto," you expertly leave out the fact you didn't actually get to go. Nor the fact that you wouldn't be participating once again. Your friends don't need to know all that. Stupid special grade technicalities, you want to complain. There's no point, however, with the company you've surrounded yourself with. You're still more than a bit miffed at your inability to attend last year's Exchange.

"Is it an open event where anyone can go?" At your sympathetic grimace, Tooru scowls. "Damn rich people," he swears, rolling his eyes with an exaggerated sigh. His blue-black bangs are pulled back by a hairclip, fully displaying his newfound grumpiness. The idea of sports always kicks Tooru's competitive spirit into overdrive being a member of Tsubame High's rock climbing club. He tried getting you to join your middle school's team once. As it turns out, your grip strength was ass. And it still is if I'm being honest with myself. "Well kick their asses and send those losers back to Kyoto in shambles," Tooru demands as he returns to the visuals of Majora's Mask.

Oh if only. Well, you're certain that victory will be spelled out for your school once again if Gojou and Suguru have anything to say about it. You just know you won't actually play any role in it.

"I'll be sure to let you guys know how it goes."

ー

It's a toss up for you on which days you prefer at Jujutsu Tech. Some days it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday and other times you really appreciate a good Tuesday, Thursday Saturday schedule. It depends on how tired your are... and how much procrastinating you've done on your assignments.

After watching X-Men back in '01, maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise that Jujutsu Tech had regular classes but you still remember your surprise during your first week of first year. Apparently, you actually need to at least know the essential basics society deemed important. As such, Jujutsu Tech operated on a block schedule where certain days detailed which day you'd be learning standard course work or anything related to jujutsu.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday were dedicated to normalcy with classes like Math, Japanese, English and Japanese History. Those were handled by the assistants who actually had teaching licenses. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday were all jujutsu-based. History of Jujutsu, Application of Cursed Techniques and Exorcism and Physical Education. (Physical Education being a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday class was the most surprising for you. But once you found out PE included sparring and mock battles against curses, you understood the picture.) These classes were handled by the sorcerers that did the heavier curse-exorcising work in this field with four teachers assigned a specific grade of students to handle.

With Nanami Kento and Haibara Yuu joining as first years, Fujioka still had her hands full with preparing the first years for the rest of their jujutsu careers.

Being in charge of the second years, Yaga didn't have much to do in terms of teaching late last year after Okita died. So the muscle head seemed pretty excited to go from 0 students to 4.

Yamada's graduated but with Utahime and Mei Mei being the new fourth years, Koizumi still has work to do.

The only teacher doing nothing now until next year rolled around at the Tokyo branch of Jujutsu Tech is Matsuno. If none of you are dead by the time third year rolls around, she'll have 4 students bothering her then.

This particular Saturday, classes have been halved for the day. Thanks again, irregular scheduling. And thanks again, Kyoto Tech. It's not the first day of it, that won't be until Monday. Still, today is the day the Kyoto Tech students are arriving and that is important enough that you don't need a full day of schooling.

You recall the names of the people of interest Utahime mentioned during spring break and try imagining faces to the names while Gojou loudly groans at Shoko's newest terrible attempt at explaining how reversed curse technique works. It doesn't help that it looks like smoke is exiting Haibara's brain in his own confusion.

"I think Shoko's right, Gojou," you grin widely at the snow-haired boy's head swivel in your direction. Even with the sunglasses, you can tell he's irritated. "You just don't have the common sense for it."

"Oh like you're able to understand her gibberish," Gojou's tongue clicks.

You're absolutely not. "Hyoo hyoi, right, Shoko?"

"Hyoo hyoi!" Shoko chirps back deviously. "[First] is getting it."

"See?" You gesture at the girl. A crumpled, empty soda can gets tossed your way and your hands fly out immediately to create a peach-colored shield of energy. "Sore loser!"

"Walking copyright infringement," you hate how that comment actually gets a choked laugh of you while you tell him your technique is called Rejection based on the Phoenix Wright franchise. So what if your abilities are reminiscent of a certain manga character with burnt orange hair and a pair of blue flower pins, Gojou should leave you be. You don't control the way in which jujutsu techniques are passed out.

"Why do I have to be stuck with the generation of teachers that don't know how to do reversed curse technique," he grumbles. "Why does the one person I know who can do it have the explanation abilities of a 5 year old? Who the hell did I piss off in a past life for this?"

Shoko tries to pull out a cigarette but it's snatched out of her hands by Suguru in equal parts concern and his own frustration at her less-than-stellar explanations. "I'm sure the list is long so thanks for spreading your bad luck to me too, Satoru," Gojou sticks out his tongue and brandishes his middle finger brazenly, Suguru flips him the bird right back. Yours and Haibara's giggles fill the air while Nanami, arguably the most sane of the six of you, sighs in annoyance.

It really is unfortunate for everyone that Shoko's pure instincts surrounding her abilities can't be translated into comprehensible words.

You learned the year prior in Application of Cursed Techniques and Exorcism I that it was really only relatively recently the jujutsu schools were established and passing down general knowledge outside of family became a thing. Unfortunately, the time in which these schools were created, information on reversed cursed technique was unable to be secured. So until Shoko is able to explain in full how she does it ー or the rest of you are able to start using it on your own ー Jujutsu Tech won't be receiving any updates to the cursed technique application curriculum.

"Nanami," Gojou points at the blond who already looks like he regrets even stepping one foot out of his dorm today. "Learn how to use RCT and explain it to me like a good underclassman!"

"I'd prefer to have a responsible upperclassman who learns on his own and teaches me instead," came the instant rebuttal from the practical sorcerer-in-training.

"Where's the fun in tradition?"

One last sigh of amusement later, you look at your hands thoughtfully. Rejection. A tiny shield stands tall in front your palm. But if we're talking about missing a few puzzle pieces, I'm assed out too. You sigh as Rejection dissipates. Why can't you have six little faerie creatures to help you create a variety of shields too? When it comes to you second years, it's easy explaining the roles you have based on ability alone.

You're the tank, Shoko's the healer and Getou and Gojou are both different flavors of DPS. That's not necessarily a problem, you know. Even the basics of cursed energy usage can exorcise a curse, but when it comes down to it ー you are your partner are both supports and having a bit of an offensive kick would come in handy at some point in the future.

So you decided at the beginning of second year that if you already were teetering the line of coincidentally ripping off Inoue Orihime's technique, why not go for the full thing and try mimicking the rest too? Your first assignment, creating a shield that sends back the damage and finally start stepping in the direction of acquiring an offensive move set.

It's just been a bit of a work-in-progress developing the technique in secret mostly because you have no idea what you're doing beyond the general principle of what you want to do. Dissonance and Disconnect will be your masterpieces ー whenever you manage to them figure out.

There's a tap on your shoulder, "[First]," Shoko taps you once again. "Help me carry back drinks from the vending machine?"

"Yeah, I got you," you'll figure out your masterpieces later then.

Together the two of you made your way to the nearest vending machine to the training grounds. It's not terribly far but it isn't particularly close either. You grumbled over this fact more than enough during your first year. You understand the lack of students means a lack of vending machines, but it would still be nice if this particular vending machine was close enough you didn't have to walk twenty minutes to get to it. "Do you think we could move it ourselves, actually?"

"Do you really feel like carrying that thing down a flight of stairs?"

"Never mind," you groan.

It's part way through your quest to quench everyone else's thirst when you see him. A boy donned in navy blue and gray traditional clothes and dirty blond hair with dark tips. He's certainly no student of Tokyo Tech, you perk up in realization. The boy is cute, you think. "You're one of the Kyoto students, right?" You wave politely as he glances at you. "We can help you if you're lost."

Amber eyes look you up and down before the boy turns to Shoko alone, "When I heard you were enrolling I was surprised, Ieiri," you can't stop your head from tilting, wide eyes blinking in surprise. "Considering all you're good for is healing your peers, you'd think your family wouldn't invest in your education. Especially considering

"Hey," you glare, sticking a friend out in front of your friend. "The only ones who gets to mess with one of us, is us." It's a privilege, not a right. "And all things considered, since Shoko's able to do shit you clearly can't, you shouldn't be running your mouth."

Amber eyes point your way again as the boy actually addresses you, "you must be the foreigner, your accent is very apparent." You have an accent, what of it? You learned Japanese from the ground and you were proud of the progress. No one can take away from you, least of all this guy. "If anyone shouldn't be speaking here, it's the one from a country so backwater you had to come to a foreign land to learn anything about sorcery."

"Naoya," Shoko finally speaks, mouth pulled into a frown. So this is the face you can put with the name Zenin Naoya. "How horrible to see you too. If you're looking to talk to Gojou and Getou, they're in that direction." The brunette thumbs behind herself in the direction you both came from. "Otherwise, you're a long ways off from the rooms the Kyoto students are supposed to be staying in."

You aren't sure what the boy has to be smirking about and you wonder how much trouble you'd get in if you tried punching him. "I know where I'm heading," the first year states, crossing his arms. "I wanted to see the Six Eyes of the Gojou Clan myself. But it'll be something to see the other special-grade as well."

"Yeah well get a good look at the dudes who are going to kick your-"

"Naoya," a deep voice interjects growing tensions. For once, something akin to a scowl dons Naoya's face as his expression shifts to annoyance. "You said you wouldn't antagonize the Tokyo students if I let you off on your own."

"That wasn't antagonizing, that was small talk," his upperclassman's face tells you he doesn't believe that one bit.

He's tall, albeit not as tall as Gojou or Suguru, with black hair with a dyed streak of green in his bangs."Sorry about our first year," the Kyoto senior bows with an exasperated sigh. You don't envy what he has to deal with. If Naoya had been included in the batch of first years Tokyo Tech received, you're sure you would have transferred schools. Or maybe you would have stayed out of spite. "I'll deal with him."

"Please see that you do," your cheek muscles ache from how forcefully you are smiling. What the actual hell is wrong with that guy? You side-eye your partner as the Kyoto first year skulks off, likely ignoring the scolding his upperclassman is giving him. "Why doesn't he have a hate club?"

"Believe it or not, that's not even as bad as he gets. That was actually Naoya at his best," Shoko has to be joking. This is another one of her dry humor jokes. Unfortunately, there's not even a wink of playfulness in her eyes. If that's this guy's best, I don't want to see what his worst is. "The rest of us were in a secret Hope Naoya Gets Homeschooled Alliance. Sadly all our efforts have clearly been for naught."

"Yeah, you guys really should have tried harder," you aren't sure there is any word in any language that could best describe him besides 'worst' and 'brat. And you know what? He isn't even that cute! The culmination of terrible traits in asshole shoujosei love interests created a terrible creature. I'll never say Gojou's a waste of a pretty face ever again. 

Even at Gojou's absolute worse, he's never held a candle to the display of disrespect you bore witness to. "I really need us to win this year. I am so serious if we lose to that pompous asshole, I'll quit being a sorcerer because I refuse to accept defeat from him. Matter of fact," you cross your arms obstinately. "I know we're winning this year and I can't wait to see his walk of shame out of Tokyo. It isn't enough for him to lose, he has to be utterly humiliated."

"I hope he fights Getou," your rant certainly appeals to the brunette who nods in agreement. "It would have been better if Getou was a girl," despite the disappointment that is your reality, Shoko's eyes dance with mischief. "But either way, he'll hate losing to someone who comes from a non-sorcerer family the most." At your look, Shoko blinks in realization. "Right, you wouldn't know. The Zenin's have a saying that basically boils down to the only sorcerer's worth their salt are from the Zenin family, but a non-sorcerer is basically less than human."

Every time you learn something new about the Amazing Sexists, the less you like what you hear. "Geez that family sounds like a real piece of work," you stick out your tongue in annoyance. "I want him to fight Gojou," you nod to yourself in satisfaction. "Their families hate each other, right? So if he loses to him I just know his parents will be pissed. 'How dare you lose to the son of the Gojou family! You're no son of ours! Leave this house!' or something like that."

Shoko's bob dances as she shakes her head, "doubt it. When you're that strong, winning is guaranteed. They'd be disappointed but not surprised, if anything."

"Why 'cause Gojou's a special-grade?" You purse your lips in your prodding. "Because if that's what we're going off of Suguru's got the win in the bag too. Or is it the Gojou comes from sorcerer family thing?"

"Partly the latter," Shoko admits. "But I told you before already. Gojou's pretty much a legend to sorcerers," yes, it is hard to forget when everyone talked about it. "They'd expect a loss if Naoya had to fight him. Maybe if he had the Ten Shadows they'd think he had a fighting chance, but I doubt he does because it would be talked about all over if he inherited it."

Has Gojou always been so... Your mind struggles for the right word. It dawns on you then that Naoya had referred to him as the Six Eyes instead of Gojou's family or given name. Objectified? It's an unpleasant feeling to admit to yourself that he is. Even slightly more so as you try to recall if you've done so yourself and how much you may if you did. You're sure you have. You must have. What else were the bulk of your rants with Utahime were about if Gojou ever organically came up in conversation?

"He's still just some guy," you wonder if your words are more meant to self-soothe than a solid argument. "He thinks eating pancakes is substantial for dinner. I don't know how he's never had a cavity."

"A guy who'll be in the future Jujutsu Tech textbooks and we won't even be footnotes," Shoko sighs at her joke of self-deprecation. "But yeah, it's too bad they won't have anything in there about how he eats his weight in junk food." She pulls out a piece of paper where she has everyone else's desired drinks scrawled on. "Anyway, let's finish getting the drinks."

ー

This isn't the first time you've come out to the training grounds past curfew, but you would have head in by now.

Perhaps it's your irritation at Naoya that has you practicing longer than usual. Or perhaps it's your own inability to advance your technique and the frustration beginning to boil over. It's likely a mixture of both. It's well-past dinner and the sun has set for the evening, your only light source being a lantern you took out of the storage shed.

If there's another thing this school needs, it is stadium lights for the training grounds.

"Uwah," You look behind you, noticing the approaching footsteps and you spot a familiar head of messy white hair. "I would have thought you were sneaking off somewhere more exciting."

"How'd you know I was sneaking out?"

"Was up playing Momotetsu a few times and I saw your cursed energy moving around," Gojou shrugs. It truly is hard to hide anything from those eyes. You wondered in the past if his ocular abilities were passive or something that needed to be activated. When you saw his eyes glowing in the past, you came to the conclusion it's a mixture of both depending on what he needed to see. His sunglasses are on but in your dark surroundings, you don't see any signs of azure glow. Seeing cursed energy must be one of the passives. "Finally got curious to see where you heading off the past couple weeks. Didn't expect it to be here."

"Well now you know," you rest a hand on your hip. "Go back to playing Momotetsu."

Gojou dropped a hand above his hidden eyes as if blocking out the sun, "Nah, I'm looking for Orihime's faeries now, they're out here somewhere," haha very funny, Gojou hasn't said that one before. Ever. His grin widens as he takes in the unamused roll of your eyes. "What are you doing back out here? I could hear your big feet clunking around even with my walkman on."

"If you must know," you ignore his last jab petulantly as he comes closer. "I'm trying to evolve how Rejection works by ripping off Orihime's moves. Sadly these faeries aren't worth shit, they're stingy and only work for her." That earns a snicker from your new audience and that manages to make you perk up. "Jokes aside though, I'm pretty sure I can make Rejection be a return-to-sender and even get it to cut things in half if I try hard enough. So I've been trying it out."

"Must suck not having a users manual," Gojou whistles.

You huff in agreement, kicking a nearby pebble. "Who are you telling?" That's the trial-and-error of coming from non-sorcerer families. Everything you learn about your cursed technique is through figuring it out on your own. Weird glowing orb thing? It's was just Suguru doing as dumb kids do when he decided to swallow it and see what would happen. You didn't even start using Rejection until you were 10, well past the usual date of ability manifestation, all because of an accident. "But if I look at it from a different angle, this just means there's no pre-existing guide to tell me Rejection can't do this or that. I test out those limits myself and be the one who makes the guide."

And if you ever had kids, they'd be the beneficiaries. If you ever lived long enough to get to the point you'd start considering them. You shake head, physically tossing the thoughts out of your brain. "Anyways, like I said, I'm going all in on the copyright infringement. What Kubo doesn't know won't hurt him," you chuckle to yourself. "So I'm starting out with trying to get Rejection to return attack energy back at specific triggers."

Gojou looks between you and the noticeably empty space in front of you. You can already tell what your classmate is thinking ー must be pretty difficult when there's literally nothing to shoot anything at what you put up. "... and you're doing that how?"

You puff your cheeks sheepishly, glancing pointedly in a different direction, "Casper's been a great assistant to me lately."

"So all you've been doing is wasting cursed energy and hoping something happens?"

"On the bright side, I've gotten really good at putting my technique up with various poses over the past couple weeks," you offer weakly with a cough. So far you've mastered the Jotaro Kujo point, the Okuyasu The Hand swipe and the Kakyoin Emerald Splash.

That comment gets you a light swat to the back of your head and you move to elbow him back, but you only meet the infinity between you both. "Just get to posing out your shields and I'll blast cursed energy at it," Gojou flicks his fingers back in a shooing motion as he walks a couple meters away from you. Before you can even attempt to dissuade him, he's already in position. "Tell Casper to take a hike for a while. You don't pay him enough to do overtime."

"You'll help me?" You've never trained personally with Gojou. Likely because neither of you felt the need. You didn't like him and you likely weren't someone worth training with from his perspective. You'd sooner expect Hell to freeze over. It must have frozen over then.

"I don't know how you're planning on making a shield that shoots back attacks without actually having something shot at it," he shrugs in the dim light of the lantern. "And I'm already out here."

"You know what," you rest your hands on your hips. "Dinner's on me tonight, what do you want? This is gonna work up an appetite for me and you eat like a horse anyway."

"Seriously?"

"Just don't say pancakes. Or waffles," you rack your brain for different loopholes. "Actually, I'm putting in stipulations ー there needs to be a protein and a vegetable, bare minimum. I'm making sure you eat actual food tonight." You're pretty sure there's salmon leftover from the other night from when Nanami cooked. And I could sauté the spinach so he doesn't complain much. "Salmon, sauteed spinach and something else. I don't want this to take forever so I guess I'll just go with rice since it's already late." Rice it'll be then. "This is your reward for helping me!"

There's a decent-sized blast of energy that hurls in your direction. "Um, excuse me, I thought I was supposed to pick what we eat?"

"Rejection!" True to your word, you point as if you're the JoJo of Stardust Crusaders. There's no energy that shoots back in Gojou's direction, but you'll figure out a pattern before the night is over. Maybe I should try something where Rejection can pocket that energy and then it gets shot back? "I changed my mind," you snort. "You're eating what I make and you'll like it. I don't need you dying of a sugar coma before the Exchange Event properly begins."

"Oh come on, it's a treat for helping you out, shouldn't I call the shots here?" The pouting begins much to your lack of surprise. "What sort of reward dinner is this? If this is how you treat them, I can see why the faeries didn't want to help you out!"

"Do you want a free dinner?" When there's no slick comment shot your way, you consider this a victory. "Beat Zenin Naoya's ass to kingdom come and maybe I'll consider making something you want without any sort of fine print. Do we got ourselves a deal?"

There's a smile in Gojou's voice. A smug smile, but it is in his tone nonetheless while he speaks, "I'd do that even if there wasn't a free meal on the line, you know."

index | previous chapter | next chapter

Extra

And we're back to our usually scheduled programming. I update once per week for four weeks, two week hiatus, then back to consistent updates. At least, that's what I decided on other platforms to give myself a break here and there.

Admittedly the Orihime copyright infringement joke is one of the few jokes I've been waiting to make. Glad this moment is finally here.

You also finally get to meet your buddies from middle school, Tooru and Chinatsu. There's another buddy too but he's a special case who won't be showing up for some chapters. I honestly have an entire mini TV series worth of shenanigans concerning this friend group but y'all will just have the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully when that gets touched on in a future chapter, you guys will find it as amusing as I do. Like I made it a point to mention, the Reader really wants to hold onto what she can of her non-sorcerer life. She's "*Miles Morales voice* I can do both" about it

Anyways, you and Gojou are bonding some more and it doesn't relate to food. This is growth. Reblogs and Likes appreciated.

[simonsrosebud]

WIP Game: can I have some Brussels?

Nathaniel barely remembered the day that they ran.  It was only four years before, but it was the middle of the night.  He was young, and traumatized and tired.  His eye was freshly swollen and the only thing he was able to think about was the idea of getting caught sneaking out.

Mary held his hand tightly as she led him to the old car parked around the corner.  He had so many questions, but he was forbidden to talk until they got out of town.  Until they passed the exit sign on the edge of Birmingham and made their way to London.

Nathaniel watched it pass by and sunk down further in his seat.  “Where are we going?”

Mary didn’t look at him.  Her bruised knuckles were white against the steering wheel.  In French, she said, “Grab the book I put in your bag.  You need to start studying.  No English until we’re out of the country.”

Nathaniel reached towards the bottom of his backpack until he hit something hard.  He looked at her with a grimace.  “Germany?”  She nodded once.  “Why can’t we just go to Nan’s in France?”

“Not in English, Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel frowned, but obeyed.  “But Mum, we’re in a car.”

Mary didn’t answer.  She had gotten the car from someone Nathan didn’t know, but there was no telling what he was capable of.  Wiring a car could’ve easily fit the bill.  “Where do you think he’s going to look as soon as he notices we’re gone?” she asked.

Nathaniel sunk in his seat.  “Bordeaux,” he mumbled.

“So where are we not going?”

He leaned his head back on the seat and sighed.  “Bordeaux.”

-

Nuremberg was gloomy when they arrived, and Stefan quickly discovered that he was terrible at learning German.  And he wasn’t doing well with responding to his new name.  He didn’t see why he couldn’t keep his if they were a whole two countries away.

The only good thing was that he was doing great in French class.  That, and he could pretend to be whoever he wanted without repercussions.

But eventually pretending gets old.  Boring.  Sad.

In Munich, Alex tried making friends.

In Dijon, France, Olivier wished his mother would keep him in the loop.  He was fourteen years old, he could handle responsibility.

In Croatia, Luis wondered how his mother got away with sneaking her gun to different countries.  He asked if she would teach him to shoot it, but he was ignored.

Antwerp challenged Chris with a new language.  Dutch wasn’t something that he’d ever thought he’d have to learn, since the computer at the library said that there were French speaking schools in Belgium, but he didn’t pretend to understand his mother’s intentions in enrolling him elsewhere.

The Netherlands surprised Sebastian by how normal it felt.  Pictures made it seem more interesting, more touristy, but the people were nice and he felt almost like they could make a home there. Then he kissed a girl, and took the Eurostar while hiding a red handprint on his cheek.

Amsterdam was better than Almere in Dominic’s opinion.  He was allowed to go off on his own a few times, which was surprising.  His mother finally taught him how to use the gun, but never let him fire it.

Stuttgart was Liam’s favorite.  He’d spent more time speaking German than Dutch, and liked the language more than he remembered.  He kissed a girl this time around in Germany.  It was fine.

Strasbourg, France, was not fun for Timothée.  He was lonely and growing out of his clothes, and his classmates deemed it obvious that he wasn’t French even though they admitted that he had the accent. He thanked his mother for that.

Brussels was better.  Neil liked Brussels, even though his Dutch was still far from perfect.  They’d arrived in early November, and his first day at the new school proved to be the best first day he’d had in four years.

His first teacher of the day told him where to sit, next to a kid with blonde hair hiding his eyes.  “Andrew is an exchange student from the United States, so I figured it would be easier to pair you together.  Your mother said that your Dutch is not as strong.”

Neil tried not to frown.  American. It was almost insulting. “My Dutch is fine,” he said, and found his seat.

The American didn’t pay attention to him until the end of the class period.   He looked up and spoke in Dutch. “I won’t give you special treatment just because you’re the new kid.”

“I don’t want it.”

“Good,” he said. He leveled Neil with a slow stare, up and down, and left to go to his next class. 

next

[flyingwargle]

iwaizumi stands in front of his mirror, phone in one hand, the other running through his hair. he has his notes open, english words typed across the screen. he knows what each word means, how they're spelled, how they sound. when it comes to speaking, however...

he takes a breath and stares at his reflection with the same intensity as preparing for a jump serve. with a quick glance at his phone, he quirks his lips into a smile and speaks in english. "hi, my name is iwaizumi haji- wait." he frowns. given name first. he tries again. "hi, my name is hajime iwaizumi. it's nice to meet you."

the words feel awkward on his tongue. his vowels are too exaggerated, words slurred together. he clears his throat. "hi." his voice rises in pitch. "my name is hajime. it's nice to meet you." ugh. it's obvious that english isn't his mother tongue, but he sounds like he's barely spoken it, which isn't wrong, but that's not the impression that he wants to give, especially in america.

iwaizumi falls onto his bed with a groan. going to school overseas remained a dream until he decided to make it a reality during his second year of high school. aside from classroom learning, he attended a weekly english class, but stopped to focus on volleyball after losing the inter-high prelims. now that their last chance has come and passed, it's about time that he picked up where he left off.

and damn does it sound like he lost all his progress from before.

his other skills are solid. listening - he's been watching american shows with subtitles since middle school. writing - he's been translating his homework as practice since the start of high school, along with the comics that he started reading. speaking, however, is a different beast because of how few opportunities he has to practice.

he scrolls through his notes, where he's saved other phrases that he'll need for university life. is this the right classroom? do you know where the washroom is? can you please repeat that? he even has volleyball-related terminology, just in case he decides to try out for the team.

but something tells him that he'll be busy enough, especially with the language barrirer.

his phone buzzes with notifications, but he dismisses them and stands back up. facing the mirror, he takes in a breath. "good afternoon." draw out the vowels longer. pronounce the Rs clearer. "nice weather today." he has no idea when he'll use that, but it's good to have, anyway. he scrolls to practice other phrases. "excuse me, do you know where this classroom is?"

his arm falls to his side as he stares at himself. heat rushes to his cheeks, and he grits his teeth, tosses his phone aside. he practically yells at his reflection. "hello! my name is hajime! i'm from japan! it's nice to meet you!"

that's when his bedroom door opens and a sing-song reply in english responds to him. "it's nice to meet you too!"

"jesus christ!" iwaizumi jumps, glaring at oikawa, who shows himself in. "how did you get in here?"

oikawa gives him a look. "i've had a key to your house since kindergarten. did all that english make you forget?"

"no, i...why are you here?"

"mattsun asked if we wanted to join him and makki for ramen. you didn't reply, so i came over to ask."

iwaizumi deflates, falling onto his bed. "no, thanks. my mom is making dinner."

oikawa sits beside him. "okay, i'll let him know we'll come next time."

"...what do you mean 'we'?"

"you clearly need me to help you practice your english! your accent is awful, iwa-chan."

he grits his teeth. while he'd score higher on written and listening tests, oikawa passed the oral exams with flying colors. "aren't you going to argentina? don't you need spanish instead?"

"english is the language of the world. i'll need it eventually." oikawa waves a flippant hand. "besides, how much spanish do you know? exactly." he smirks at iwaizumi's silence. "so, let's stick with english."

"okay." iwaizumi fiddles with the edge of his blanket, suddenly shy. they'd spoken in english to each other before, but there would always be a topic and vocabulary to use. the real world has no such parameters, no limits as to what can be said or how. "what...what should we talk about?"

"anything." oikawa shrugs. "just like how we always talk, but in english." he switches gears, as seamless as his tosses. "what's your mom making for dinner?"

"she's...making curry," iwaizumi answers slowly. he can envision all the words in his mind, knows how to arrange them into sentences, but when he speaks, they become wobbly, hesitant. "her vegetable curry is pretty good."

"i know, right? i love how it's both sweet and spicy. my mom would never put apples in her curry." oikawa falls onto the bed, and iwaizumi joins him, both of them staring at the ceiling. "do you think you'll play volleyball in america?"

"i want to, but don't know if i can."

"why not?"

he gestures at himself. "i'm not tall enough. the other guys will probably be better than me. i'll be busy trying to understand my homework."

"you understand more english than me. i think you'll be fine. you can tell them you were the ace in high school!"

“that isn’t a term americans know, idiot.”

“wow, you know how to swear?”

“you’d be surprised, shittykawa.”

“mean! iwa-chan, that’s mean!”

he chuckles. “i picked it up from all those shows we watched.”

“oh, yeah. i forgot about them.” oikawa has a smile on his face. “you wanted this for a long time, huh?”

“yeah. i guess i did.”

they keep the conversation going, all the way until iwaizumi’s mom returns home and shouts for him to help. “coming!” he calls back, jaw snapping shut when he realizes he said it in english. oikawa gives him a look as he remains still, shocked. “oh.”

“see?” oikawa prods him, switching back to japanese. “you’ll be fine. your accent is still terrible, though.”

“shut up.” iwaizumi shoves him before he rises to his feet. he catches his eye in the mirror, watches his friend grumble and stand behind him. oikawa looks up at his voice. “let’s do it again tomorrow?”

“sure. we can even rope in mattsun and makki.”

“they’re so bad at english.” iwaizumi chuckles, remembering how they complained about the exams last term. he pushes the door open, gestures for oikawa to follow. “thanks. for helping, i mean.”

“any time, iwa-chan.”

[sixty-silver-wishes]

ranking every hyperfixation I can remember having

Fish: Since I was two years old up until like, middle school, I was obsessed with fish and sea life in general. I wanted to be a marine biologist for years. I still cry when I go to aquariums because seeing all the kids watching the fish reminds me of myself at that age. 8/10. Basic hyperfixation, but fish are still pretty cool

The American Flag: For some reason, I remember having an American flag phase in preschool. Not even having to do with America or American history or some other reason; I just thought the flag itself went hard. I can't tell you why. 2/10 because my patriotism levels are at an all time low as of now

Spin the Globe: Spin the Globe was the animated host of National Geographic's "Really Wild Animals," a series of wildlife documentaries for children. For some reason, I latched onto this guy HARD when I was in kindergarten.

I watched the ocean one every day, to the point where I memorized it and spent the whole class day writing down the script from memory (I don't understand how I didn't get my ADHD diagnosis until I was an adult). I rewatched the ocean documentary last year for some nostalgia, and I found out that Spin was REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING. I don't know what 5 year old me was thinking. 1/10.

The Wonder Pets: This was my favorite show when I was in, like, first grade. Unfortunately, that's right about the age where kids think it's cool to joke about brutally murdering children's show characters to prove how mature they are, so really liking a children's show was social suicide. The animation in Wonder Pets did slap tho. 4/10

Power Lab VBS Bible Buddies: Like I said, my hyperfixations were weird as a kid. I was raised Baptist Christian, and every year, my church held a VBS (Vacation Bible School), which for those who don't know, is basically a five-day Christian summer camp. Each day, they would hand out these figurines called "Bible Buddies," which each were supposed to represent a different lesson about the Bible. One year (I think I was in second grade?) the theme was "Power Lab," which had a science laboratory theme. These were the "Buddies" for that year:

I used to play with the figurines of these guys all the time. I can't tell you why, but I thought they were so cool. I also think I was enamored with the lightning bolt lady for some reason? Anyway I'm giving these guys a 4/10. Low score for lameness, but points for originality.

Word Girl: I was raised with PBS as a kid because I didn't have cable until maybe second grade, and I LOVED Word Girl. And I majored in English, so I think that explains a lot. The humor of that show still holds up, and I was so happy to see it made a comeback with fans last year. 8/10; would watch Word Girl again

The Future is Wild: When we finally got cable, my sister and I watched a lot of Discovery Kids. Our favorite show was The Future is Wild, which was a sort of speculative evolution sci-fi for children. These characters would go on adventures in the future and learn things about the animals that lived in environments that had been altered due to global events, and I really liked all the creatures, especially the "Ocean Phantom." Also looking back I think I may have had a crush on CG? Her annoying-ass voice and drama trying to balance working for her father vs. being loyal to her friends had me in a chokehold

6/10. Batshit insane show (I mean. it is in the title), but we love women in STEM

A Series of Unfortunate Events: This is the mother of all my more recent hyperfixations. Something was set in motion here that could not be reversed. 10/10 hyperfixation. this book series made me who I am

Guardians of Ga'Hoole: Along with Unfortunate Events, I was also into the ridiculously violent middle-grade animal xenofiction series in elementary school. I loved these books, and I was so disappointed when the movie came out because of all the ways it diverged from the plot. 8/10 for antifascism and owls, but points docked off because I could never get far in the DS game

Pokemon: So, my mom was pretty sheltering when I was really little, so there was no Pokemon or Harry Potter in the house until I was in 4th grade and she loosened up some. I'd wanted to get into Pokemon for a long time because everyone brought the cards to recess, and one of my friends gave me a holographic Mew card that she said was "really special." My mom threw it away, along with the rest of the cards my friend gave me, because she didn't like the words "psychic" or "evolution" on there lol. But once I was allowed to play my first Pokemon game (Heartgold), I got really into it. If my old Deviantart can be found somewhere in the dark, dark corners of the internet, it was filled with awful Pokemon MS paint drawings. Sometimes I still think about them. 7/10, because I still like Pokemon a lot, but docking points off because my Pokemon hyperfixation introduced me to the more unsavory parts of the internet at a young age.

Harry Potter: This one goes hand-in-hand with the Pokemon thing. Because Harry Potter was forbidden fruit in my household until my mom eventually decided it wasn't that bad, I got really into it when I was a kid. It was less about Harry Potter itself, but more about the fact that I could finally experience something that everyone else had been enjoying for so long. Obviously now that JK Rowling is, well, JK Rowling, I've distanced myself from Harry Potter, and have begun to think about it more critically, but just like everyone else that used to be into it, it did give me some fond memories. 1/10, with the 1 point going solely to Neil Cicierega.

My Little Pony: Got into it in fifth grade and watched it up until freshman year of high school. Not a lot to say about it to be honest; I liked some of the fan works well enough, and I don't have any strong feelings on it now. 5/10

Doctor Who: Oh god; who didn't have a Doctor Who phase in middle school? This was me at my most obnoxious. I constantly wore my 10th Doctor "Allons-y" shirt everywhere I could, and even insisted on wearing 3D glasses at times (I still have them). I quoted the damn show in every conversation (I used to be able to recite the "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" monologue word for word). I'm just glad I didn't get the Hot Topic TARDIS dress that I wanted for so long. I keep finding Doctor Who merch in my room, long after I thought I'd cleared it all out. To be clear, I don't hate Doctor Who, but it just brings up a lot of memories of the annoying kid I used to be in the past. 6.5/10

Celtic Woman: Celtic Woman was the first band I actually got really into. I'd been introduced to their music through Endless Ocean 2, and I would spend hours listening to them and watching their concert videos. Unfortunately, being a middle schooler and listening primarily to Celtic folk music and inspirational songs is not a very good combination, but it is satisfying to see all the people who probably would have bullied me back then dancing to "Teir Abhaile Riu" on TikTok. "Dulaman" was my favorite song, and I was tragically determined to sing it for a good while, despite not knowing any Irish Gaelic. I miss the original band, but their new stuff is all right. 7/10

The Legend of Zelda: More specifically, Skull Kid. My first Zelda game was Ocarina of Time, but Majora's Mask was really the peak of my hyperfixation. Skull Kid was easily my favorite character, and I once dressed up as him to school during Spirit Week. I also really liked Fierce Deity Link, and would roleplay both him and Skull Kid on DeviantArt. But the biggest impact my Zelda hyperfixation had on me was kickstarting my love of playing music. I took piano lessons for a short while and started out playing Zelda songs, and I was always listening to video game soundtracks. I switched over to violin later and also took up the ocarina (which I did get pretty serious about for a while. You won't see me playing video game songs anymore, but I still love to play.) 8/10 for the impact, with points taken off because I kept starting games but never finishing them

Lord of the Rings: Got really into Tolkien in high school. My best friend and I bonded over the books, and I also ended up reading the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. I didn't really get into the fandom because I was sort of "outgrowing" fandom culture at this time, but even though it's been a while, I still really like Tolkien. 9/10

The Aztec Empire: Did a report on the Aztec Empire in high school and was really interested it for a while, especially Aztec mythology and sacrificial rituals. 7/10 because I feel like the sacrifice stuff held my attention a lot more than it should have, and I feel like I absorbed a lot of misinformation about it

Medieval Europe: I have an on-and-off Medieval European history phase that comes and goes. Mainly, I'm interested in literature; I read Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales for fun in high school, and I was unfortunately very obnoxious about that. I did study Medieval history and Arthurian legends in college though, so that was neat. 7/10 because saying you're interested in Medieval history sometimes has to come with a disclaimer

Sweeney Todd: My favorite musical, and a big hyperfixation for a while. My best friend played Judge Turpin in high school, and we were both really into "Sweeney" to the point of permanently adopting lines from it into our regular conversations, even today. We even went to see it on Broadway together, which was awesome. 9/10, with one point off because I hate explaining to people why the Tim Burton version Sucks

Classical Music History: Specifically Shostakovich. I like a lot of other composers too, but this was a BIG phase. We're talking three years of research, writing long essays, Russian language and Soviet history classes, working for a Shostakovich journal, learning music, etc. I wasn't even doing this for a career; I just really, really liked Shostakovich a lot in college. I started getting into classical music in high school, but college was when I stopped being an idiot about it. 9/10, with a point taken off because I used to be an idiot about it

Sea Shanties: This falls into my wider love of folk music, but shanties and sea songs got me through college and working a minimum-wage job during the pandemic. 9/10; very fun to sing while in the car with friends

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Currently hyperfixated on classic films, but this one in general. You've seen my blog. 8/10, because it's a great movie with a lot to hyperfixate on, but points off because it's so hard to want to discuss this with people in public.

Tom Waits: Another current one. I listen to at least two full albums every day, usually "The Black Rider" (which could have its own spot on this list). Meeting a fellow Tom Waits fan in public is the best feeling ever, but telling someone that you like Tom Waits to someone who doesn't know who Tom Waits is sometimes means weird results. Like, someone asked me once if he was a new indie musician. I just want to know what they thought his music was like. 10/10 hyperfixation. no notes

Honorable mentions for smaller hyperfixations I've had over the years, in no particular chronological order:

Gila Monsters (9/10)

Klaus Nomi (9/10)

Hamilton (3/10)

Victorian literature (7/10)

Current events (0/10)

Japan's Torii Gate (5/10. I just thought it looked really cool when I was a kid)

Deaths on Mt. Everest (8/10)

The Oceangate disaster (3/10)

Parakeets (7/10)

House of Leaves (10/10)

Encanto (7.5/10)

My best friend (9/10. Great friend but unfortunately I misidentified it as a crush for many years)

My first ex (0/10)

W.I.T.C.H. (4/10)

This thing:

(Its name is Mathra and it's from an educational kids' game called ClueFinders. I pretended it was my friend when I was little and I drew it all the time, then got embarrassed when people asked what I was drawing)

Lord of the Flies (7/10)

Finding Nemo (6/10)

The Russian language (7/10)

Edgar Allan Poe (8/10)

Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinsky (8.5/10)

Nikolai Gogol (8/10)

In conclusion. it's weird to me that I think my most niche and bizarre hyperfixations were from when I was a really little kid lol

[maria-ruta]

I love your art and this blog, your oc designs are very alive and have a soul...i wanted to ask, as a russian speaking person learning spanish, im interested, how has your spanish learning process been so far? Any general thoughts or experiences, было бы любопытно узнать😄 желаю вам удачи и здоровья в непростые времена

Thank you very much!!! <3

also heeeeey comrade!

I started learning spanish from Duolinguo, bc i think its good for beguiners, when you know literrally nothing

I've been doing it for 1 year+ but then dropped it after finding out they use ai now X)

some other nice apps for learning spanish that i have (but havent used much recently since im lazy ass...) - spanishDictionary.com, ConjuGato, Reword

tbh I've got the most of the progress in learning by having to talk to people on daily basis and going to school. I found free classes in Buenos Aires for adults/immigrants. I already finished one year of primaria (primary school) and now im on my first year of secundaria (middle+high school). we have several different subjects a week, like language and litreture, healthcare, civil education, neonatology (i decided to take medical oriented classes bc why not)

I don't know where are you at the moment, but if you are in spanish speaking country, try to search for free classes like that. There could be information on offical goverment city websites and such

also argentinos are just very friendly and talkative people so after figuring out I'm from different country (usually just by looking at my blue eyes potato nose white face lol) they love to ask me tons of questions and I'm usually happy to use it as practice X'D

even been invited to several parties where id have to speak spanish bc nobody talks english lol. good for practicing

as for spanish itself - i find this language very fun! for me it feels like somewhere between english and russian. lots of things similar to english, lots of basically same words, but also verbs and adjectives have many forms and there are gendered pronounces to all nouns, just like in russian, and also you can make cute lil words! thats my favorite, that i miss when i speak english! so I find it easier to learn third language, when i already know 2

but I still have to learn sooooo much! I'm basically good at using only present simple time and a little bit of past simple,,,, but i havent mastered other tenses yet. My level isnt enough to watch whole movies in spanish or understand people that talk very fast, and i make shit ton of mistakes, but I'm only on my second year of learning spanish so... its okay

also learning is never linear. some days i feel like i get stupider than i was before and forget what ivealready known, but then in few months i suddenly start to understand more! its interesting!

also of course now i start to forget words in all 3 languages hahah funnnn X'D

idk what else to add

желаю вам успехов в испанском и получать удовольствие от процесса! me alegro ver otra persona rusa que quiere aprender espanol tambien! <3

[thesolarangel]

A touch of cinnamon and spice

Chapter 2

Summary: Eddie meets the handsome stranger again and finally learns his name.

2.566 words · Rated: G · College AU, no upside down · fluff, pining, getting together, cozy cute fall fanfic with minimum drama and zero angst or warnings!

Btw, Eddie is just kidding, he secretly digs Tears for Fears! Also: Freddie Mercury being bi probably wasn’t widespread knowledge in 1987, but it’s important for the plot to mention this.

Read on AO3 here

Chapter 2 · October 20th 1987 

Two weeks had passed and of course Eddie couldn’t get him out of his head. His mind was constantly spinning around the most beautiful man he had ever seen.

Right now Jonathan, Argyle and him were at the cafeteria, standing in line to get  lunch. Eddie was shoveling tater tots onto his plate when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“Hey, um, you’re the artist.” 

He turned and saw the handsome stranger from art class standing next to him. His hair looked perfect and so effortlessly styled as the last time Eddie saw him. He was wearing a white tee with a Queen print on it as well as tight blue jeans and a dark blue coat. Play it cool, Eddie thought to himself.

“Oh hey, I almost didn’t recognize you with your clothes on.” Eddie blurted out. Not like that.

The brunette made a bewildered face. And not just him, Jonathan looked reasonably confused as well. Argyle just giggled at Eddie’s comment.

“I’ll explain later”, Eddie murmured to his friends. He turned to the handsome stranger. “Hey… you.” he ended, smiling awkwardly.  

“Steve”, he responded, slightly amused.

“I’m Eddie”, he introduced himself, “this is Jonathan and Argyle.” 

“Oh, we have English together, right?” Steve asked Jonathan.

“Um, yeah, I remember you”, Jonathan replied and then gestured to Steve’s band shirt. “Great taste in music, man.”

“Thanks!” Steve beamed at him. “Hammer to fall is one of my favorite songs.”

Pretty, big dick AND loves rock music? Eddie looked at him wide-eyed. He wasn’t sure this guy was even real. 

Before he got caught staring again, he tried to set up a conversation: “So what do you study?”

“I wanna be a middle school teacher. English and PE. I was just helping out with the modeling thing”, he shrugged, like it was nothing, getting butt naked in front of a full class of strangers.

“Um, wanna share a table?" Eddie asked, putting his tray down on a nearby table, where the group had sat down.

“Oh, I already had lunch, I gotta go, see ya!” Steve waved.

Eddie watched Steve leave the cafeteria, leaving him quite astonished. Did he just come over to say hi to him? To get his name?

“He’s really pretty…”, Argyle commented while absentmindedly digging into his pasta.

Jonathan mustered Eddie’s face curiously and smirked “So, what was up with that comment? Did you meet in the showers for the first time or what?”

“Oh, noo, much better.” 

…

In the evening, back at Eddie’s and Jonathan’s dorm room, they were munching on some pizza that Argyle had brought with him. Eddie had just told them the whole story about how he met Steve. In the nude. And how he got caught peeping. But Steve didn’t react badly and called him a freak, which is how this scene would have probably played out at Eddie’s old high school.

“He seemed amused, I guess?” Eddie ended, taking a big bite of his pizza.

“What a sight he must’ve made, dude”, Argyle mumbled with his mouth full. “I am totally not immune to pretty people like him, jeez…”

Jonathan took another slice and reflected on what Eddie had told them “So, he seems like the stereotypical jock… do you think he likes guys?”

“UGH, I don’t knoooow, I’m already crushing so hard, fuck!” Eddie cried out, slumping back into his chair dramatically, hiding his face beneath both hands. Jonathan patted his knee sympathetically.

“Oh! OH!” Argyle blurted out, waving his arms around with a slice of pizza still in his hand “He likes Queen and Freddie Mercury is bi, sooo...”, he looked at his friends, eager to get a big reaction.

“I guess that means he’s definitely not homophobic. But bi? I dunno…” Eddie frowned. “It seems too good to be true, I guess?”

“Nah, don’t think like that, man. You gotta believe that the universe has good things in store for you, that’s how I do it”, Argyle laid out his wisdom.

Jonathan and Eddie stared at him for a few seconds and then burst out in laughter. 

…

Since the day at the cafeteria it seemed like Eddie met Steve everywhere on campus.

In the hallway, when he went to get some books from his dorm room and heard some high pitched laughter behind him. He turned and saw Steve, a few feet away. He was currently being swarmed by a flock of four pretty girls and couldn't seem to shake them off. One girl, Tammy Thompson, brushed over his arm flirtingly and laughed. Eddie recognized her annoying voice and big curly blonde hair. She was in one of his art courses this semester. Rolling his eyes at what he witnessed, Eddie fetched his books, shut the door a little too hard behind him and left for his next class.

…

 The next time he ran into Steve, he literally crashed into him at the library.

“Oof!” 

The books and pens Eddie had been holding fell to the floor. “Oh god, sorry!” he muttered and knelt down to pick everything up. When he looked up to see who he had bumped into, his eyes met… Steve’s, who was now also on the floor, helping Eddie. He was wearing a pair of slim round framed glasses which suited him exceptionally well. 

“Oh, hey.” 

“Hi…” Steve offered him a charming smile. When he handed him the last pens that had fallen out of his pencil case, Eddie realized how close they were and his heart made a sudden jump. Steve smelled so good… woodsy and slightly sweet, maybe cinnamon? 

“Thanks…” Eddie smiled back as he got up again and so did Steve. 

“What are you working on?” Steve asked.

“German Romanticism”, Eddie replied, pointing him to the cover of a large illustrated book on top of the pile he was carrying. “We’re supposed to create our own painting in the style of that period.”

“Sounds tough, those look really detailed”, Steve said as he studied the book cover.

“Oh, I’m all about romance, so it shouldn’t be too hard.” Eddie joked, giving Steve a wink.

“Right, um…” Steve blushed and adjusted his glasses awkwardly. “I'd better go, I have a paper to write. See you around!” And so he left Eddie standing there a little lost. 

Maybe he was straight after all.

Eddie tried not to give it too much thought. But his first few drafts of his assignment on German Romanticism turned out to look very gloomy.

…

The third time their paths crossed was when Eddie’s art course was practicing dynamic sketching. It was a sunny, mild October day and their tutor had agreed to let them go outside to sketch as long as they stayed on campus grounds.

He found a cozy looking spot under a large orange oak tree. From there he had an excellent view of the front entrance of the building, students walking around or enjoying their break on the benches and tables nearby. 

Eddie put on his headphones, pressed play on his walkman and let himself immerse into some Metallica while drawing. The best way for him to concentrate was and had always been with metal.

He had been sitting there and sketching for a while when he saw someone come up to him in the corner of his eye.

“Hey, Eddie.”

Steve stood in front of him, smiling. He looked dashing as ever, dressed in a cozy multicolored sweater and a pair of blue jeans. He wasn’t wearing his glasses today.

“Hey”, Eddie greeted him, taking off his headphones. “What brings you here, Stevie?” he said, giving him a charming smile back.

“I have a free period and thought I’d hang out here since the weather is so nice today”, he said, sitting down comfortably in the grass beside Eddie. “What are you drawing?”

“Oh, I’m just doing some sketching of things and people around me, nothing special”, he fidgeted with his sketchbook.

“Can I have a look?” Steve asked politely.

“Sure”, Eddie replied, handing him his sketches. 

Steve skimmed through the pages, occasionally pausing to take a closer look. “Woah, you’re really talented”, he said in awe. “Can I see the drawings you made of me the other time?”

“Sure, hang on.” Eddie’s heart began to thumb violently in his chest. Steve asked to see the nude drawings he had made of him in class. He took the sketchbook from Steve and searched for the right pages. “Here”, he said and handed it back to him.

A cool autumn breeze blew through Steve’s hair, leaving it slightly disheveled, but it didn’t bother him. 

Cute…

“These are beautiful…”, he whispered while observing the drawings Eddie had made of him. 

“Thank you…” Eddie’s face went a little red at that. He still couldn’t deal with compliments very well, but he tried.

“Would you draw me again?”

Steve quickly added “My portrait that is…” when he saw Eddie’s shocked expression.

“Right now?”

“You gotta practice, right? So, draw me!”

“Um, okay…”, Eddie indulged him, browsing the sketchbook to find a blank page.

“How do you want me?” Steve grinned at him cheekily.

Eddie grinned back and asked “Can I?”

“Go for it.”

Eddie put his hands softly on both of Steve’s shoulders and turned him slightly.

“And then… just turn your head a little to the side, but not all the way…” Eddie carefully tilted Steve’s chin with one hand. He felt a little stubble beneath his fingertips. Eddie felt warm all over, touching him, being so close to him and knowing Steve was watching his every move closely. “Alright, stay like this, okay? I’m gonna need maybe 10 minutes or so…”

“Gotcha.” Steve affirmed, a small smile on his lips.

Eddie started sketching the rough outlines and proportions of Steve’s head and shoulders with a pencil. Then he mapped out his beautiful features one by one: His big eyes with thick eyebrows, his strong nose, pouty lips with a prominent cupid’s bow and his square jaw and Adams’ apple.

He did his best to capture the shape of Steve’s bright hazel eyes that were watching him closely. He duplicated his numerous cute moles and freckles on his cheeks and throat onto the sketchbook. 

Eddie paused and held the sketch at arm length away from him to see if he got the proportions right. He studied Steve’s face once again and he could have sworn he caught Steve staring at his lips for a split second. He smirked, but decided not to say something and continued his work.

Steve’s ears were mostly hidden by his brown hair which framed his face perfectly, the way it flowed up and curved down. He outlined Steve’s sideburns and then drew some individual strands of hair on the top of his head and the sides to give it more depth. Then he proceeded to replicate the pattern of Steve’s sweater onto the paper and added some soft shading to the whole drawing. Eddie continued until he was satisfied with the likeness of the portrait. 

“Alright, I’m done.” Eddie sighed and turned around the sketchbook for Steve to see.

“Oh, wow…this is amazing”, Steve’s eyes swept over the details of the drawing and then back to Eddie. “This is how you see me?”

“Do you not own a mirror, man?” Eddie raised his eyebrows.

“I do, but that doesn’t answer my question.” Steve interrogated him further with a daring smile.

“Oooh, you want me to tell you how pretty you are, is that it, pretty boy?” Eddie teased him, leaning forward, one hand on Steve’s chin again. 

Steve’s face and neck went ablaze and he started stuttering “You – that’s not –”

Finally. He had rendered Steve to a babbling mess. 

“You’re so cute when you’re all flustered.”

“Shut up.”

Eddie grinned from ear to ear, feeling very satisfied with himself. 

Steve was still a little pink, but he tried to get a hold of himself again and straightened out his back. “Hey, what have you been listening to before?” He wanted to know, gesturing to Eddie’s walkman.

“Oh, uh, Metallica… the album is called “Ride the lightning”, do you know it?”

“Not yet, can I have a listen?”

Eddie handed over the walkman to him and Steve put on the headphones. Eddie skipped the cassette tape to “Fade to black” since it was his favorite song of the album.

Steve laid back in the grass with his legs drawn up. He listened to the whole song with his eyes closed while Eddie went back to sketching for his art course.

After a while Steve sat up and took off the headphones. “This is really cool, I might have to get that album”, Steve said, a faint smile curling his lips. Eddie was elated to hear that he liked it “What else do you like besides Metallica?”

Eddie felt a spark of joy at being asked about his music. Naturally, he dove into a whole enthusiastic monologue about his interests with Steve listening closely and asking questions here and there. 

Eddie talked about the best metal concerts he had visited, that time they had to drive 6 hours to see Judas Priest live, but it had been so worth it and the time he had met Gareth, when they were twelve and founded their band Corroded Coffin. 

“We started out by doing covers, just the standard stuff like Metallica, Dio, Black Sabbath. But right now, we’re working on some original songs and Jeff, he’s our guitarist, his writing is so great!” Eddie ended with a bright smile.

Steve grinned, studying Eddie’s face.

“What? What did I do?” Eddie chuckled.

“Nothing…” Steve blushed, still smiling, but looking away. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it disheveled, but in a really hot way. “You’re so passionate about all of this stuff… I don’t think I know anyone like you.”

“‘Course you don’t! Nobody is like me! Only I am like me”, Eddie commented playfully.

“You know what I mean”, Steve laughed.

“For what it’s worth, you’re not at all what I thought you’d be like… you know, not a typical jock”, Eddie shrugged.

“Gee, thanks!” Steve blurted out.

“What I meant was… I always see you surrounded by girls, you’re very popular and you’re obviously very handsome and I just know your type, ok!” 

The type that bullied me in high school… 

“At least I thought I did. But… I’ve changed my mind about you. You’re not just a pretty face, you’re actually fun to be around.” Eddie, who was slightly blushing now, scratched the back of his head and looked back at Steve.

“Thanks…” Steve’s expression was kind. Eddie was relieved. Opening up like this wasn’t his strong suit.

“What about you? Any favorite artists?”

“Tears for Fears, definitely!”

“Oh god, no, Stevie, noo.” 

…

Later that day, Eddie was back at his dorm, unpacking his backpack when he found a bright orange piece of paper in the side pocket.

He unfolded the paper and it read in large black letters: “Halloween bash at Jared’s!” with an address underneath.

But on the back someone had scribbled in neat handwriting:

See you there, hopefully – Steve

Eddie grinned to himself. Steve must have sneaked it in there this afternoon. He already knew what his costume was gonna be and if the party meant he would see Steve again… he’d better make it tempting.

To be continued...

tag list: @starlady66 @bananaphanta @runawaymun @mistergandalf @fenharel-enaste @queenmeriadoc @elronds-pointy-ears @hbyrde36 @hammity-hammer @corrodedbisexual @spoookysix @rozzieroos @cranberrymoons

devider by @firefly-graphics

[ashsostrange]

i hope y’all like reading cz it’s storytime! 🗣️

lemme tell y’all ab the time i (allegedly) got two ppl onna hitlist when i was like 10 or 11

so in middle school (sixth grade i think it was) i stayed at this after school program cz my momma didn’t get off work til, like, four to five. we would eat snacks, talk shit, do hw, normal middle schooler stuff.

there was this one strange new-ish kid that just gave everyone weird vibes.. he was one of the class clowns, nd real disrespectful. he was also a lil mean so i didn’t really fw him. we gon call him jason.

one time, me n some other sixth graders were in a science classroom doing work and talking or wtv, and bro is sitting at a table by himself with a computer turned away from everyone. i’m talking those large black lab tables. i was w my friend (we gon call her lara) and she’s always been really pretty, so she was one of the girls all the guys would crush on.

including this nigga apparently.

atp, wbk that he wanted her cz he didn’t try to hide it. she js wasn’t interested 🤷‍♀️

me n lara were sitting across the room, minding our black ass business and jason started doing that thing with your eyebrows where you wiggle them up n down real fast in attempt to be “seductive.” he was smirking too. at lara.. from ACROSS THE ROOM!!

idk y.. but i came to the conclusion that bro was up to no good on that laptop. i had just learned how to check search history, so i walked my ass on over there unprovoked and pulled up his history. i cannot tell you what possessed me bc idk.

the last page he was on was youtube and ts said “sex”

like JUST sex.

i just gasp then look at him like he’s crazy and then eb starts walking over and looking while jason swears up and down it wasn’t him that looked that up. this other girl (we gon call her diana) was being loud as hell, basically indirectly snitching. the teacher that was watching us eventually caught on and came over. she was so pissed. she made us shut down all the computers and go down to the library 😭 she also said sumn ab not letting us use them again, but obv that wasn’t gna work. we needed them to do hw…

yk middle schoolers are EVIL.. so this one guy, (we gon call him ryan) and this diana were js dogging on jason’s ass like he wasn’t right there with his head hung in shame 🚶‍♀️i never liked those two. they were bullies frl

when jason’s mom came to get him, the teacher snitched ab his search history and that was the start of his villian origin story..

fast forward to idk when, i’m starting to hear that jason is gna shoot up the school and that he’s coming for ryan and diana first?? and at some point in time, he had stopped coming to school.. so we were all freaked tf out. he didn’t mention my name though, so i was like 🙆‍♀️💆‍♀️💁‍♀️ yes, i remain untouched!

n e way, word spread that bro was gna shoot up the school. nobody knew where it was coming from tho, like there was no source

i was sittin’ there like “damn, if everyone dies then it’s kinda my fault..” and diana gon agree w me.. like girl.

anyway nothing happened, thank gawd. me and jason had english class tg, but when he stopped coming to school, he never came back. my english teacher said that everyone was spreading nasty rumors about him so he had to transfer. she was like “poor kid”… GIRL.

i don’t know if he ever truly claimed to shoot up the school or if it was even him lookin up “sex” on the computer 😭 all of this is a mystery to me!

nobody ever found out that i was lowk the one that started this mess 🤫 i wasn’t “popular” unlike miss diana and ryan, so nobody was gna talk ab me. those mfs were real life bullies. this is y you be nice to everyone 🙃 there’s a reason i wasn’t a “target”

whew, anyway.

moral of the story: don’t fuck around and you won’t have to worry about finding out! 👍

[100ducksizedfolignos]

15 people 15 questions

thanks @girlfriendline @giveemgreef @tblueger <333

1. are you named after anyone?

i am not! my middle name was an homage to my mom's grandparents but i have since changed it and my parents are blessedly allergic to otherwise naming anything after anybody

2. when was the last time you cried?

few days before christmas

3. do you have kids?

no and i do not want to. i have one fur baby (that i co-parent with my parents lmao) though as you all well know (scout my baby boy <3)

4. what sports do you play/have you played?

played kids' baseball/softball until i was like 10/11 bc i was constantly in the outfield and nobody can pitch until you get to like. high school. so it was boring and i hated it so i quit. i was on dance team for a while until i had to drop it bc recital dates kept being on the same days as school band concerts. was in marching band throughout high school, which counts bc i was a percussionist and had to lug around those heavy drum harnesses

5. do you use sarcasm?

a ridiculous amount. if we also count like comedic lying in this i accidentally convinced a coworker that there were only three seasons of spongebob doing that whole pretending that only the good parts of a show exist. such a shame spongebob ended after season 3. there's no more of it! just too bad

6. what’s the first thing you notice about people?

hair probably

7. what’s your eye color?

brown! medium tending towards dark

8. scary movies or happy endings?

while i love gothicness and gothyness i am a Known Weenie and certain types of gore literally make me feel faint. like the finale of the terror s1 made me a little faint and gave me the sweats and i had to fully pause the episode and lay on the floor for a while. so i guess categorically happy endings based on that. if a scary movie isn't super gory though i'll go for it

9. any talents?

i’m very performing arts inclined! i play piano, sing, dance, and act (was a theatre major in college). i memorize things quickly if i set my mind to it, am great at navigating, have great pitch memory (like i can be exactly or near-exactly on pitch when singing something i’ve heard before even without backing accompaniment. this unfortunately drives me crazy when people post pitch-shifted versions of songs and i can tell they’re off. bearer of the curse), decent stage combatant, good crowd weaver, and somehow bear the ability to unintentionally come off as intimidating to basically everyone i’ve ever met

10. where were you born?

iowa, usa

11. what are your hobbies?

i'm something of a gamer in my spare time. basically only solo joints though i'm not like gamer nhlers that play like. league of legends or fortnite or counterstrike. i've recently joined a community band and a bar trivia team (with my old middle school choir teacher lmao. he's a homie), i write fic every once in a while, read, dance around the house, go for walks when it's not cold, snuggle my pup, and obviously watch hockey. i keep telling myself i'm going to learn how to sew but trying to find beginner projects for men types is fucking dire and i keep not going out to get fabric for the pirate blouse i keep wanting to make rip

12. do you have any pets?

ah there's a separate question for this. scout, my yellow lab baby boy whose breeder had a confederate flag up in his barn when we got him (we saved you buddy). have some pictures

13. how tall are you?

5'5". short king territory

14. favorite subject in school?

i was a band/choir bitch. probably followed by english (literature). i liked basically all of it but phys ed though fuck that class i hate distance running it gives me a stitch in my side and you have to run a mile at least twice a semester (fuck you presidential fitness test). on top of all the other running they make you do. loved when they just did games though. matball my beloved

15. dream job.

actor, either stage or voice. unfortunately i do not want to live where the big voice acting studios are located and regional stage acting is kind of limited unless you go all the way out to chicago, which i tried for a couple of months before multiple breakdowns told me i should probably be closer to home. i enjoy being a librarian though :)

tagging @get-hockeyed-idiot @amandaleveille @wildaboutmnhockey @girldewar @letkirillfight @yes-perwallstedt if you guys haven't done it yet and also anyone else who wants to

[petrichoraline]

Hi Petri! 👋😊 I’m here to offer a distraction! (And cause I’m genuinely curious) Not to sound like an ignorant American 😬 but how did you learn English? Is it taught in schools in Italy? Like it’s just standard for people to be bilingual now? Or is it something you took extra classes for? Or did you grow up in an English speaking environment? How much English do you use in your daily life?

Ho imparato l’italiano all’università ma non lo uso tutti i giorni quindi l’ho dimenticato 😔

karen my love, first and foremost - thank you soo much for indulging me 🥰🥰🥰 the giffing process is kicking my ass right now so this is a breath of fresh air <33

i think i should immediately clarify - i am not italian! i'm assuming it's possible the misunderstanding happened because monica is? or maybe i said smth that could lead to that conclusion? anyways, i am eastern european and balkan, my first closer look at italian happened two days ago through a language learning app hahah

so, i don't know about italian schools, i would assume they also teach english just like ours do (i hope you forgive me trying to be vague about my nationality) but i cannot say with certainty. i've studied english all throughout school but i didn't become fluent because of it - most english classes in school are not nearly enough to make you good, whether it's the teachers or the study plans - it's just not it. this is why many of us were signed up for lessons as kids - i went to group lessons near school till the sixth grade. i took a pause because of school exams but never went back so all of my fluency now is a result of

1. english class in school

2. six years of private (group) english lessons (!!!)

3. all sorts of media - not only movies, music, books etc. the original language of which is english but also other foreign media in english -translated books, subtitled videos, explained lyrics (!!!)

4. talking to foreigners and friends in english

5. studying other languages through english - even while studying japanese in high school most if not all of our resources were in english, the sites we use, the textbooks - all of it (though there was this one textbook in vietnamese lol)

i'd say it's pretty standard for europeans to know english, a lot of us know three languages or more because they're close to ours. i personally don't but still, it is common. in school english was the basic foreign language and in middle school i chose russian as my second one. most people don't end up fluent in the language they choose in middle school (if they even choose any, you could do maths or smth else, i suppose schools are different) because we study it for three years only. i am not anywhere near fluent in russian lol

but language learning is a thing. my personal observations, though, are that people from my country aren't that good at english in general but maybe as a whole we're fine. a foreigner would make do around here especially speaking to younger people.

as for how much english i use - i use it daily lol, online i speak and read in english, the shows i watch are either in english or have english subtitles and i spend a lot of time on the computer. a lot of my personal vent monologues are in english (you know the ones where youre alone and decide its time to give a ted talk to no one in particular), even when i chat with irl friends we often use english because we're all fluent and we throw it in there, there's a lot of sentence frankensteining happening lol

thank you so much for asking!! if you have additional questions please hit me up, i am a yapper and you're giving me enrichment <33

also it's never too late to go back to italian you know 😗im just getting started and it's so interesting! (though confusing cause they also have gendered nouns but the genders don't match ours 😩lmao)

[ramayantika]

I just remembered something. Now like most lower middle class children, I was also the one brought up with hindi movies, songs and ofc hindi serials. Now, I was all 12 when for the first time i was studying in one of those posh schools in kolkata. The area where the school wasn't that posh but the children definitely were. Bmws, businessmen, surgeons doctors, club owners, ameeron ke bache.

So i have met showoff kids who show their money and status discreetly like they will be your friends, give you notes, share tiffin but also in a way show you that you aren't rich. And i also met some realy rich kids who could afford partying at expensive hotels, but God they were so humble and down to earth.

That was when I had learnt how to fit in. Now my friends were the ones who from the start watched English comedies, knew the lyrics to English pop songs and watched web series.

For me the concept of web series, Netflix etc started in kolkata when I was 13-14. I would see the photos of their colonies and all and would go damn I want to live like them too.

Now to fit in I began watching those English movies and songs I trained my ears to understand the words because for the first time when you hear them it feels like a rap song at least that's what it was for me. Soon after a couple of months I learnt how to understand those lyrics without captions and stuff and could sing that. In free periods in my old schools we used to sing hindi songs retro to modern, here it went bieber, ed Sheeran, Taylor and all those. I went with the same now. I remember ny 8th grad winter vacation where I was learning their lyrics.

Now my friend had invited me to her birthday party. My brother was anyway angrez from rhe start so everyone consented to watch some old English comedy series

And boy I felt so awkward because I saw them clutching their stomach and laughing while there was me trying to find where was the joke -

I only focused on having 2 pieces of pizza for that entire show lol. I trained how to pick up English songs but not the jokes.

Somehow I ended up liking no loving 1d which started out again as a way to fit in with the others and now I have fell out of it.

You know being with them around them I too wanted to live their kinda lifestyle. Rich homes, big rooms, parties and events, those clothes and stuff, money outings. I was young and kehte hai na bahar ka dekh ke chaka chaundh hona?

But now I have lost all that interest I once had. Sure I want money and a good lifestyle but not that. Now that I am growing I see how many of them are shallow on the inside. With money clothes parties they don't see anything beyond it it's like a glittery cover on the outside.

And once again I found myself after I was separated from the school and the community. I can't enjoy Friends Or The Office. I cannot understand those sit coms shows like they must be good but not something for me. Taylor and other pop singers and other ones I do find them interesting and ofc talented in their respective fields, but yeah that's not for me.

I actually like this lower middle class life. I have been brought up living with uncertainty and maybe that's why I was taught to live in the present. For some time it was good in those bright rich homes, rich friends, shine and sparkles, but I feel much at home with niche baith ke khana, local dukano mein shopping aur hindi serials ka mazak bannate huye bhi aage ke episodes pe hooked rehna. Many of my friends ask me why are you so devi dharmik types because you talk about gods, wear Indian clothes and are all traditional when the world is advancing india too.

Bhai these are my roots my values and the way I was brought up. There's nothing wrong in either of those lifestyles. Mera gaon kahin andar odisha mein hai papa mere jis gaon school se the vahan ab tak bijli nahi aati. I like this simplicity that we live with. And dharmik devi stuff isn't my entire personality meri choice hai I don't like going out to parties and clubs and go around calling every boy and girl my bestie, babes, darling when I see them only once.

And middle class vale bich ke phasse hote hai ameer bhi gareeb bhi dono inme hai. You learn many things while growing up in a middle class family.

Bahut gyan de diya mein jaati ab padhne

[microsuedemouse]

~ 15 questions & 15 friends ~

tagged by my much beloved @czarcaustic <3

1. Are you named after anyone?

My grandfather!! Courtney was his middle name. (That spelling was originally the masculine form of the name, though it's pretty rare to see it used as such these days.) My middle name is also a family name :)

2. When was the last time you cried?

Uhh... oh it was a couple nights ago, when talking with my parents about my Nana. I still miss her a lot

3. Do you have kids?

Nope. At this stage of my life I can't say it feels super likely ever to happen, though I'd be lying if I said I don't feel a twinge of Something when I meet babies at work lol.

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

lmao I have never played any. I am extremely unathletic by nature, and also always struggled to get my brain around the rules of pretty much any of them when I was like, a kid in gym class

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Sure, but not a lot? Probably an average amount I figure

6. What is the first thing you notice about people?

Man, I dunno - probably their faces or their clothes, depending on context?

7. What's your eye color?

Brown!

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Big big fan of both! I'm not a big sad endings guy, though. Even when it feels right for the story, it's usually not my jam. (I guess sometimes sad endings can be good for scary movies, but that's like... sort of its own thing? because it's about The Horror.)

9. Any talents?

This is always a hard question for me to answer, bc I feel like most of the things I'm good at are more skills than talents - they're things I've practiced and developed over time, like with my writing and art. Although I guess it'd be fair, if unusual maybe, to say I've got a couple naturally strong interpersonal skills. I'm very good at communication, including figuring out what other people are trying to say, and I'm also pretty good at making people feel comfortable and understood.

10. Where were you born?

In southern Ontario, in the city where both of my parents did most of their growing up :)

11. What are your hobbies?

Writing (fiction prose, mostly) and the many kinds of thinking that go with it (worldbuilding, character development, etc). Arts and crafts (of many kinds; I'm often bouncing from one thing to another. Currently I'm having lots of fun learning to crochet). Taking in stories (reading books and comics, watching movies and TV, playing games, listening to podcasts - I love stories in all their forms). Goofing off with my family, especially my younger siblings.

12. Do you have any pets?

We have three cats - Neverland, Louie, and Smudge :)

13. How tall are you?

Uhh my ID says 165 cm, so that's... 5'5"-ish? I'm genuinely so incapable of remembering that on my own, for some reason.

14. Favorite subject in school?

It was usually English and art, growing up. In university it was always my courses that delved into genre fiction - science fiction, children's lit, the fairy tale... also that graphic novel seminar I took

15. Dream job?

Iiii. [sweats] I wanna be a novelist, but also, that's hard in its own way, and I think it's gonna take me a while yet to really Get There in terms of my own skills, disregarding the challenges of publishing. Beyond that... is something I've been struggling a lot with lately, because it's hard for me to imagine myself in a job where I'm both content and competent, let alone able to support myself. I've been wondering a lot again about library sciences, lately, but I just don't know. It's tough out here!

I definitely don't have 15 people to tag, but. @izupie @werewolfin @serenabeanie @womanaction @mana-sputachu perhaps, if you're feelin' it?

[cait-curious]

15 questions for 15 mutuals

I got tagged by @sicksadsim! Thanks for tagging me and for liking my Cora's Story posts, I appreciate you!!

are you named after anyone? My middle name was my great grandmother's name, and I love that connection because she passed away before I was born.

when was the last time you cried? I can't remember, but I feel like I've cried in the past month from watching an emotional show. Or maybe it was a TikTok lol.

do you have kids? I do not. My only wish for Mother's Day is that the people at Starbucks don't wish me a Happy Mother's Day.

do you use sarcasm a lot? No never...

what sports do you play/have you played? I am not athletic at all, BUT I was in Marching Band all through high school and college. In high school we went to a lot of competitions, so it was sort of like a sport.

what’s the first thing you notice about other people? If they look friendly/approachable or not.

scary movies or happy endings? So, neither, lol. I love a twist ending, or something bittersweet.

any special talents? I'm taking sewing classes, and last month I made a dress! More a skill than a talent, but it's been really fun and different to learn. Very different than what I'm usually doing for fun, things like writing and playing the Sims lol.

where were you born? In the northeast of the US.

what are your hobbies? Sewing, playing the Sims, coloring, and planners.

do you have any pets? Yes I have two kitties, both girls.

how tall are you? 5'8"

fave subject in school? I've been out of school for a long time so I really have to think back lol. I liked English class and I was pretty good at it. Same with Computer class. I really wish I had studied more about computers in school. I also really liked Psychology class in high school, and I took several Psych classes in college too.

dream job? Running a combination used book store and cat cafe.

eye colour? Green

I'm tagging: @corruptuslocus @cindysimblr @kevinvoncrastenburg @simologista @madman-of-amargosa @simolemons @ewinkasiminka @leggsthesimmer @sixamese-simblr @strangerpxels @emperorofthedark @chrissybrown1127 @ophelianigmosz @lasudio @captainnikki

[johnwgrey]

15 QUESTIONS / 15 PEOPLE

thank you for the tag @ic3-que3n 🥰

1. Are you named after anyone?

I'm named after that one random character in Family Plot. (When she was pregnant, my mother watched one of Hitchcock's movies. There was a character named "aunt Julia"; she thought it was a nice name and gave it to me. Thing is, she couldn't remember which movie it was so for years I searched Hitchcock's movies in hope of finding it. I finally found it in 2020 and I cannot tell you how satisfied I was!)

And I inherited my middle name from both my grandmothers (though middle names aren't really important around here. No one uses them ever except for like, official/governmental reasons)

2. When was the last time you cried?

When I watched Thor: Love and Thunder 4 days ago

3. Do you have kids?

Nope

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Sarcasm is my second language 😌

5. Whats the first thing you notice about people?

Their whole vibe, I guess. And like, their height?

6. Whats your eye color?

Brown with a dash of brown

7. Scary movies or happy ending?

Happy ending!!

8. Any special talents?

I would love to say yes but no, I don't. I mean, I probably have one. Everybody probably has one, right? But I can't think of anything right now

9. Where were you born?

France

10. What are your hobbies?

Watching movies and TV shows, reading, writing, baking, learning new languages, traveling. I also love going on long walks but I rarely do it due to extreme laziness.

11. Do you have any pets?

Not anymore. My baby dog passed away in 2021 :(

Have a picture just cause I love and miss him

12. What sports do you play/have you played?

Sports? I don't know her

13. How tall are you?

1.65m

14. Favorite subject at school?

English (as in foreign language class, not as in literature and stuff) I also really loved my Italian classes

15. Dream job?

Honestly my dream job would be to not have to work a day in my life. More seriously, I've always struggled when I was in school and we had to decide what we wanted to study in college because I never really had a calling, and I still don't.

Tagging: @martsonmars @facewithoutheart @bookish-bogwitch @ileadacharmedlife @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @cutestkilla @messofthejess @artsyunderstudy @tea-brigade @hushed-chorus @moodandmist @onepintobean @shrekgogurt @whogaveyoupermission @palimpsessed

[andithiel]

15 questions | 15 people

Thank you for taggin me @crazybutgood it only took me little more than two weeks to answer!

1. are you named after anyone?: Not that I know of, but I have the same middle name as my mum.

2. when was the last time you cried?: Just the other day when I was kissing my oldest son on the cheek (he’s 10 and still have skin as soft as a baby) and I realised that in a few years, he won’t be that soft there anymore, there will be acne and/or beard there. And later I was helping my youngest wash up after dinner and I thought “there will be a last time I see him doing this in this particular way”, the way he moves his hands and how they look now, and now I’ve made myself cry again.

3. do you have kids?: I do! Two of them and they drive me crazy and make me burst with love and pride in equal measures (see above answer).

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?: All the time when I feel comfortable enough with someone

5. what’s the first thing you notice about people?: I don’t know really, just the general vibe of them I think. Also handshake, give me a dead fish handshake and I will judge you.

6. what’s your eye colour?: I’ve learned that it’s called hazel in English, which was very exciting because I’ve always called them brown-green. They’re brown closest to the pupil and then green and then a darker rim around.

7. scary movies or happy ending?: Oh definitely happy ending, but I don’t mind a bit of angst leading up to it. Can’t take scary movies though and I was forced to see enough of them in my teens to last me a lifetime.

8. any special talents?: This is really weird but I can make farting noises by pressing my hand to my eye socket. My husband hates when I do this so naturally I have to do it all the time. I don’t know if this counts as a talent or if it’s even rare, but I can turn my tongue around so it’s upside down. Super useful!

9. where were you born?: Sweden

10. what are your hobbies?: knitting, writing, watching movies or more likely tv shows.

11. do you have any pets?: Sadly no. I think it’s a bit enough of responsibility and turning my life upside down for my kids, and also my husband has allergies. 

12. what sports do you play/have you played?: I’ve been horseback riding once a week since I was a kid and it’s still one of my favourite hobbies!

13. how tall are you?: 167cm

14. favourite subject at school?: I loved all the languages and also when we had nature and science with human anatomy I was at the front of the class eagerly looking at the movements of the esophagus moving. So fascinating! The rest of my class were grossed out.

15. dream job?: I honestly don’t know, and I’m questioning whether I even like the job I have now, sooooo I’ll dodge this one, lalalalalala!

Trying to go our of my comfort zone and tagging some new people, no pressure to do this and sorry if you've already been tagged: @julcheninred @phdmama @sitp-recs @drarryruinedme7 @thehoneybeet @bluebutter-art @evaeleanor @isamijoo @mystickitten42 @thebooktopus @shealwaysreads @fictional @stavromulabetaaa @quackquackcey @purplehotmess

[milk-toast-honey]

Oh wow, thank you Lucía @surrenderworldtour!! 💞💞

1) named after anyone? not my first name, but my middle name is from my great grandmother which i think is sweet!

2) last time you cried? ummm, a few days ago maybe?

3) do you have any kids? nope

4) do you use sarcasm a lot? not a lot but sometimes

5) what's the first thing you notice about people? the vibe i think. and like of theyre easy to talk to or not. otherwise maybe body language and if they smile a lot

6) color of your eyes? blue

7) scary movies or happy endings? happy endings. but i like it when the road to the happy ending is a … idk suspensful? or a bit scary? i like it when they keep you on the edge of your seat

8) any special talents? i can write in reverse. like, not backwards really, but so that you need a mirror to read it correctly

9) where were you born? in a middle sized city in the middle of sweden

10) hobbies? reading, watching tv series and writing. also sitting in the sun if that counts as a hobby hahah (that's such a swedish thing to say too ughh lol)

11) any pets? my family has a cat. i miss her every day when i'm not there

12) what sports do you/have you played? i did riding when i was younger. i still love horses but with time it felt like the riding classes became more about learning quite difficult things (and i just came there to have fun), and the whole setting of being in a group of people i didn't know every week made me anxious so i quit. nowadays i take walks or run sometimes but that's about it

13) how tall are you? 173 cm

14) favorite subject in school? swedish since day one! and later on english and spanish too. i also reallllly loved the philosophy and religion classes we took in high school!!

15) dream job? to be a writer i think. i've wanted it for as long as i can remember. otherwise anything that has to do with books!

I'm tagging @sanguineremedydreams and @wallflxwergarden to do it if they want to! 🌸