#they actually kinda sound like fun because you can basically do whatever lecture you want to

[dzpenumbra]

3/25/23

It got late. Today was good. Yoga was a bit outside of my comfort zone, which was good in its own way. I ended up getting out of the shower with... what felt like "not enough time" to get to the skatepark, buy a board and ride a bit. Which is silly, honestly. This is like the third time that's happened. It was 5:30, the skatepark closes at 8. I'm not even kidding. And it's like... 10 minutes away, maybe 15.

It's easy to be frustrated with myself. I'm nervous. It just comes out as "I don't have enough time" or "it sounds complicated" or "I don't really need to go". I'm nervous about not knowing how the car sharing service thing works and fucking it up somehow. I'm nervous about making a good first impression. I'm nervous just in general leaving the apartment building for the first time in almost a week. I'm kinda tired of not saying it out loud, tired of being embarrassed about it.

I get nervous about shit, I get anxious about shit. Just like everyone else. More so than most in some regards, less so than most in others. It's part of being human. And I'm working really hard on like... letting myself have those feelings. As a fully-grown adult male. It's okay for a grown adult to be nervous meeting new people when they've been in extreme isolation for like... 4 years. It's okay for me to be nervous about walking into a police station and asking them where they don't want me skating. It's okay for me to be nervous about streaming. And... I'm a bit afraid that like... denying and downplaying those feelings... ends up inflating them. Because if you deny those "silly" feelings, they don't go away... you just end up with some "mysterious force" that's creating a barrier for you, and it gets stronger and stronger the more it's left unchecked.

So... I decided to look myself in the mirror and go "what am I nervous about?" And the big focus was on... the community car thing. So I went onto the website and did a refresher on how it works. It's pretty simple, actually. And that helped calm me down a lot. I didn't go. But it helped me reduce a barrier, and that helped a lot. So next time I have my sleep schedule lined up with their open hours, I can just hop in that truck and head over. One less barrier between me and meeting new people, and getting fun exercise.

Instead of going, I decided to listen to Baroness's Gold & Grey album and got more work done on my hoodie. The back piece is pretty close to done. I still have to figure out what to do with the outer ring, and I need to touch up some little final touches, and I might add a bit more shading... But it's pretty close. At least... the back piece is. As promised, here's the piece so far:

I'm happy with it.

I spent some time trying to figure out how to get Cubase to work with OBS, which was like chugging 2 bottles of Nyquil and trying to stay awake all night. I swear to fucking god. I do not know why this shit is so hard for me to focus on or learn, it's just... one of those few things in the world that just... saps the life out of me. Like... I can listen to some old guy ramble for 2 hours about geology, I can absorb a lecture on evolutionary biology, I can paint all those tedious details up above for hours on end, I can do nothing but run back and forth between two locations in minecraft for hours, I can do a lot of shit others consider boring. But... so far... my Achilles Heel of education is like... math stuff... and a lot of computer stuff. Which is ironic, because last winter I tried really hard to learn basic coding... and I did learn a bit. But... this is just... so hard for me to grasp. Like... my guitar and mic send signals to my Focusrite box, which goes through USB to my computer. Then the signal goes to... Cubase? Who picks it up exclusively and sends it into whatever fun plugins I pop on there, then it's sent out through the Focusrite into my headphones as a monitor. Then OBS comes in and says "I wanna listen too", so I set it to listen to the desktop audio, which is picking up the audio that's going into the Focusrite, and my headphones... all of the audio except... Cubase. Yep. I can listen to a video on YouTube, it picks up the video, I can hear and see it. I can pick up the raw guitar signal from the Focusrite, though I don't want it. But I cannot pick up the audio output from Cubase. And I've done it before in the past, I just... don't remember how. And it's just really fucking frustrating. And I constantly have had audio problems like this my entire goddamn life. It's never "plug + play" with any fucking music-making endeavor. I swear, half the time I've spent trying to make music with my brother in the past was like... trying to figure out latency issues, or patching, or routing, or figuring out something or another. Ugh.

So I said fuck it and scrapped the idea for now. I did 5 more runs in the desire path project. I mapped what is now a total of 20 runs, and plenty more to come. I was debating streaming that. But... honestly? I just kinda didn't want to. I kinda wanted to zone out and watch someone else's stream instead, until they started running 6-ad blocks every half hour or so and were paranoid about needing to censor the word "whorehouse" while playing a fictional character in an RP environment set in 1899. And that just kinda... I just can't really do it anymore with this "getting personally offended" while simultaneously claiming to be "playing a character" bullshit. Like... I shit you not, this poor woman got banned from the server for... brace for it... using the "wrong pronouns"... WHILE ROLEPLAYING A CHARACTER FROM 1899. And I just... I... I just... I feel like every entertainment pioneer from my adolescence who was brave enough to face the corporate and government censors and say "no, we're going to make the joke, we're going to share our humor and our stories". All of their work was for nothing. And we're just going back to fucking Psycho, where it was like... super controversial that they had a flushing toilet on a movie screen. It's regression, it's censorship. Beyond that, it's literally forced RP. It's literally forcing someone's roleplay, forcing your humor values, forcing your comfort zone on people around you. How about if you don't like a joke or find it distasteful? Just walk away. Just go RP with someone else. If you don't want to show the word "fuck" on your stream, if it pops up in a letter or something, just close it and move to the next scene, like... for fuck's sake this is part of the goddamn job. But the admins on this server... side with the ones reporting, apparently? ... And it has been a growing problem? Which really sucks. It's not like they're throwing together lynch mobs to go after black people, which was a very real thing that could very well be roleplayed and turned into a historically accurate storyline if done very delicately and tastefully - in fact, they have a side plotline of that in the game itself, I remember it vividly. I am yet to see a single authentic Asian character, and there was a huge influx of asians immigrating to the west at that point in history, and a lot of animosity, which would make for a really powerful underdog character, imo. It's just like... they want historical accuracy and immersion... and modern political correctness and censorship... and those two do not mesh.

See how fucking stressed this makes me? Because I really wanted to join the server! It looked really immersive and like a good way to both improve my acting abilities and meet new people. But good lord, not anymore I don't. Not if I have to be looking over my shoulder for a 3 day ban every time I say "fuck" to the wrong person. But if I blast them in the face with a shotgun, that's totally fine. ... I hate this timeline. So much. I miss the old internet.

So yeah... after I got a bit burnt out on the repetition of Minecraft, and the stress of watching the stream... I set OBS to record locally and started playing Valheim for the first time. Pretty much a blind playthrough. So... that was the bulk of my night. It's fun. I was thinking I might be able to make a sorta... Mr. Moon-style RP movie out of it, but... I'm not sure. We'll see how it plays out.

And that was pretty much my day. And now it's 5AM, so I gotta go to bed or else I'm definitely not making the skatepark tomorrow. Peace!

[blind-alchemists]

the important question is, in a modern!Thedas, do Magisters need a magister degree to be considered for the position? and are they allowed to take lectures on magic for their major/minor or do they need to take history, art, politics, science, philosophy, and languages instead?

[anxiouslyfred]

Puppy Scratches

Summary: Virgil has always avoided getting any sort of injury, scared of infection among other things. Now his soulmate has started scratching words onto his skin from the flowers appearing and Virgil has no clue how to stop it or respond.

Warnings: Sort of self-harm

/\/\

Virgil did not like injuries, especially not of the level that would scar. They could get infected, and those stories of people losing limbs were not pure fiction. He did everything he could to avoid getting any injury, despite the encouragement people gave to at least get one.

His soulmate got injured enough for both of them. There wasn't any concern in Virgil's mind that he would recognise his soulmate if they ever met.

What was concerning, if not terrifying, to Virgil was when the scars got extremely pale, and started forming words. Apparently the lack of him getting scars had given the world opportunity to make his soulmate believe he didn't exist.

He spent a week freaking out, rambling about the scars if his friends ever gave him the opportunity. His soulmate getting hurt as much as the flowers suggested had always been concerning, but now it couldn't be anything but deliberate... That was the worst thing Virgil could imagine.

“Can I see these pale flowers you're talking about?” Logan asked, interrupting another ramble where Virgil was torn between trying to respond and the dangers that could cause. Infections were dangerous, and how would he even be able to write something using a knife?

Virgil blinked at his friend before rolling the side of his hoodie and top up. One of the questions had been written over his side in the pale flowers. “Sure, here they're asking for me to exist.” He muttered, thankful they were at his house when the request was made.

It was odd to have Logan move closer, pushing at the hoodie a little more, frowning. “I know better than to say you were lying about those flowers, but have you realised they are no longer visible?” He asked after a moment, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.

“But- but they  were scars. Scars don't disappear do they?” The thought of flowers disappearing astounded Virgil. He'd assumed, as did basically everyone that flowers only appeared for permanent scars, things that wouldn't heal any further.

“I'll have to do some research tonight, but I would theorise that injuries that scab over, even ones that wouldn't leave a permanent scar, will still show up if the scratch is enough to, say momentarily draw blood perhaps.” Logan stood again, fetching his notebook of things to research from his briefcase. “If that is the case, would you be willing for me to scratch a reply onto your skin? I could easily do so in a sanitary way and provide plasters to ensure the wounds remain clean and heal rapidly. It would also reduce the fears you've been expressing that your soulmate might continue to harm themself in an attempt to gain a response.”

Virgil nodded along with the explanation, trying to think through what his friend was suggesting and how it could work. “If you're the one to do the scratching then yeah. I can cope with that I think. Just don't make any deep cuts or anything.”

Whomever his soulmate was, Virgil didn't want any harm to come to them, especially not self inflicted as the words must have been.

/To Remus\

Remus had loved the adventures he'd managed to find over his lifetime, whether they ended in injury or merely in some new discovery he could chase after later. It was something that made him feel alive, wild and excited. He wished he could share the adventures with his soulmate when they met but after years of no flowers appearing against his skin, he was beginning to question if they were out there at all.

It took some of the fun out of getting into ridiculous situations to realise he might not have someone to share the stories with in a few years.

That had been when Remus started paying more attention to Roman an Janus. They'd met in school and had been fairly inseparable as soulmates ever since, but that wasn't what interested Remus. He wanted to know how the scars and flowers worked, whether any would disappear and if there was even a faint chance he could actively try to reach out for his soulmate without touring the world.

He managed one week to scratch Roman's cheek, thankfully on the side that hadn't already been covered in flowers. They'd been play-fighting and it had just happened, but it gave Remus a clear view of where the flowers might appear on Janus, regardless of how covered he attempted to be.

Sure enough, instead of the red tulips they claimed appeared for permanent scars Roman gained, there was a trail of pale pink flowers in the place of the scratch. Remus checked over the following weeks to see when it disappeared, and sure enough, long before the scratch had fully healed there were no flowers visible on Janus's face.

If Roman had known his plan after witnessing that, he'd have done everything he could to prevent it, to force Remus into therapy of some kind and keep him company for as long as possible. Whatever they say about twins having a connection was a lie of  superstition and Remus happily traced over words on his skin with a needle until they'd actually scratched into it.

The pain and curiosity over if somehow he'd get a response had been enough to quiet the repeating thought that he had no soulmate or they'd hate him for doing this.

Two weeks passed after Remus had tried to write questions to his soulmate in scratches on his skin. He'd eventually come clean to Roman after a few unexpected hugs and attempts to battle because of some or other absurdity Remus had to share or figure out how to get to. He'd sat through the lecture and Janus's insistence on checking over the scratches with a pout.

You'd think that after all the injuries Remus had lived though the people closest to him would realise he knew how to keep wounds clean and safe. He just didn't always want to enough to miss out on a chance to climb suspension bridges and up onto rooftops.

He'd just gotten up, unbothered about getting dressed while grabbing breakfast and spotted flowers in the mirrors reflection.

There on his arm read “Puppy Village” in pale flowers, possibly lilac but Remus wasn't sure given how close to white the colour was. He now had a new quest to travel the country for, whatever his original intentions for asking if his soulmate existed was.

/Working with Puppies\

Months had passed since Virgil let Logan scratch the name of his workplace onto his side. They'd long since healed and his soulmate hadn't scratched anything else onto his skin, but Virgil still kept an eye out for any more flowers appearing.

He'd had some of the pale green ones appear on his wrists and forearms, as though his soulmate was playing with upset dogs with uncovered skin. They'd all faded with time and Virgil had mentally prepared a number of the lessons and explanations offered to people looking to buy or adopt a dog when they visited his centre.

Part of Virgil had hoped that soon after giving them a clue over where he'd be found someone with a scar on the left of their neck would walk in, introducing themselves as his soulmate. The reasonable side of his brain understood that even in America there could be plenty of places called 'Puppy Village' so even if his soulmate had decided to start trying to look for him, it would take them a while to find him.

Eventually he stopped checking the necks of customers as they came in, deciding to ignore any possibility that his soulmate might come. It was only upsetting Virgil to imagine who they might be and carry on getting no answers regardless.

“I'm here to get cuddles before I'm dragged back to dullville!” A man had tried to kick open the doors, despite them being automatic and already half opened by the time he reached them.

“I assume that means you only intend to help us look after the puppies for an afternoon before leaving town?” Virgil remarked, already moving around the counter.

Occasionally it would happen, generally families trying to decide if they should get a dog, or hoping to convince the kids just how much work and care goes in to having a pet. The occasional tourist wasn't unusual either, although then it would be dog owners from abroad missing their pets at home.

“Any dogs you need looking after... Did you know you have green flowers climbing up your neck?” The man leant far too close to Virgil looking at the flowers and showing off his neck at the same time.

“Have done for years. Kinda curious over the story behind it whenever I meet my soulmate.” Virgil shrugged off the concern, ignoring the scar he could also see as he led the man through to the kennels. “I'm Virgil one of the family for our animals. We treat them all as if they're our own pets until a family arrives to given them a home.”

The man was still trying to stay uncomfortably close to Virgil, looking around at the area, almost as much as he watched Virgil. “Wonderful way to keep them healthy. You know, my soulmate works somewhere called a Puppy Village. Scratched it on when I started to think I might not have any.” The words were deliberately spoken, a laser gaze directed at Virgil's face.

“Does that mean you have a large scar on the back of your calf?” Virgil immediately asked. He knew where all the flowers were on his body, and recognised this man was trying to figure out if they were soulmates. It definitely sounded like they could be.

He'd reached the end of the hallway before he realised the man had sat on the floor to roll up the pants he was wearing. “My right one yes. Got this awesome tattoo on the other and really wanna know how that's appeared on you?”

“Same place the patch I call moss. Logan said it is just a muddled patch, as though there are a lot of the flowers trying to layer up over each other. I guess it's because of how tattoos are done in layers or something.” Virgil muttered. He wasn't going to copy the action. “Get your pants on right, and we can go meet some of my favourite dogs. You need to know how to treat and act around dogs if we're going to be around each other.”

“Awesome, Remus and Virgil the best pairing together. Learnt to be calmer with dogs when I got into a few scraps with them. It got Roman to adopt that dog at least. My brother always was a sucker for a sob story and I definitely made it sound sorry.” Remus cackled, already jumping up again.

Virgil sighed, holding open the door to the kennels for their older dogs. “Glad to hear it. How long do I have you in town before we go to being pen-pals for a while?” He asked, not wanting to immediately let someone in if they'd disappear from his life soon, soulmate connection or now.

“Got a week and then I can get my office to transfer me here in no time. The boss has been looking for an excuse to get me out of there since I started calling him out for the harassment he attempted to do. Can't find an excuse to fire me with Janus on the watch, but also does not want me around.” Remus seemed excited at the plans, even when Virgil knew he had to be basically making it up as he went.

“Are you seriously talking about uprooting your life, just because you met me? Pretty sure anyone normal would want to get to know each other first.” Virgil was sceptical of the idea, but wasn't going to argue. He didn't like the idea of being cities or states away from his soulmate again after they'd just met.

Remus twisted around so much their noses were almost touching. “Is it uprooting if my main friends/ family will literally thank you for giving them a bit of a break from chaos and I can do my job as well from any of our offices? 'Sides, I haven't explored those caves on the lake edge yet and they are just screaming for exploration.”

“Or a cave in. Do you at least know how to get out of them? Or you know mind sharing the stories of the flower patches I'm covered in?” Virgil checked. He had wanted to know something about his soulmate's life with every patch of flowers that appeared. Now he was just a bit confused over how few there were, given Remus seemed set on chasing any impulse he had.

Remus bounced with the question, “Honey, I've been dreaming of sharing those stories with you all my life. Let's meet your dogs and I can start talking too.”

Life with his soulmate around was definitely going to be interesting.

[zordonmlw7]

Plaguetober Day 1 - Magic✨

“I’m never going to pass.” 

Aerithea was staring blankly into her conjuration textbook. The mechanical clocks that all the wizards used over digital because it was ~aesthetic~ said it was 11:15 PM. Less than 10 hours until the exam.  And she still didn’t know any of the material.

She conjured herself some scotch.

She may not be able to understand the metaphysical properties that allowed her to rewrite the laws of thermodynamics and convert mana into physical matter but she definitely DID know how to drink her problems away. And drink she did! In one go.

She stepped out of her dorm room to find the halls strangely empty.  Midterms, she supposed.  Stepping out of the building, Aerithea was greeted by the full moon.  Great, that means the werefolk are transforming.  The werefolk fraternities tended to throw wild parties during full moons that made parking anywhere in a 2 mile radius impossible. Today, however, the streets seemed eerily empty.  She supposed even frat guys worry about midterms.  

She sat on the steps and stared up at the vast and starry night sky. Aerithea had always been a natural conjurer. Her parents said the first spell she ever cast was one that conjured snow because she had wanted to build a snowman during the summer.  All she wound up with was a puddle and wet clothes that her parents had to change her out of, but still. Her junior year of high school, she even made the school conjuration team and helped them reach second at the State competition, the highest her school had ever placed.  

So when it came time to apply for colleges, it made sense to apply as a conjuration major.  She just never expected it to be so boring.  It was magic, for the gods’ sakes! She can’t even remember the last time she actually conjured something for class.  It was all theory.  How mana gets converted into matter and energy. WHATEVER! She just wanted to shoot fireballs and magically make stuff so she didn’t have to buy it herself.  Why did she need to learn about the metaphysical properties of the universe?

A shiver suddenly ran up Aerithea’s spine. She searched her pockets for magic dispeling pepper spray but realized she left it in her room. A voice rang in her head. “I sense you are troubled. Perhaps you are in need of… assistance?”

Aerithea quickly caught on to what was happening.  “Okay, just show yourself,” she said.

A misty figure appeared before her.  Shrouded in black, and too ephemeral to have a precise form, the only details she could make out were glowing yellow eyes and a black-lipped grin revealing pearly white fangs. “Greetings,” the figure said.

“You want to make a pact with me, don’t you?” Aerithea asked while rolling her eyes.

The figure did not respond and just awkwardly maintained its attempt at a menacing face.

“...Well, yes,” it finally said. “I can grant you the power you need to pass your conjuration test,” it stated with a bit more confidence.  

“Yeah, I…” As Aerithea spoke, she conjured an ice sculpture of a cherub with the figure’s same expression. “...got the conjuration part down.”

The figure continued to grin awkwardly. “...Oh.”

“What kind of divination did you even use to find me?” Aerithea asked.

“Well, I figured there would be plenty of students who would need help with their midterms so I used a tracking spell that was attuned to stress levels and thoughts of the word ‘test’. And then when I found you, I just did a surface level mind scan to see what words you had associated with ‘test’ and I found ‘conjuration’ so I figured…” the figure said.

“That sounds like something we had to do for Professor Dowty’s introductory divination course.” Aerithea said.

“That’s who I’m taking!” the figure responded.

“Yeah! She’s nice.  Watch out for her midterms though, they sneak up on you.” Aerithea said.

“Wait what?” The figure’s face went from a bad attempt at menacing to concerned. “But she said we covered everything that would be on the test during her review session.”

“Yeah, she always says that, but then the actual exam has a bunch of questions from the textbook that she never brings up during lecture.”

“What??? Why would she do that?”

Aerithea gave an apathetic shrug. “I remember her saying something about how it's explained in the syllabus that you’re ‘supposed’ to use divination to learn the questions ahead of time and study for them accordingly.”

“What? She can’t do that! Why would she put something in the syllabus and not mention it during class.  Especially with something like that! We haven’t even learned future telling yet!”

“You’re gonna have to ask her yourself. The one time I went to her office hours she pretty much spent the whole time ranting about how divination is about “knowing what you don’t know” or something.  All it did was make me glad I’m not a divination major, heh.”

“...Well shoot, I have her midterm tomorrow.”

“Well at least I won’t be the only one failing a midterm tomorrow!”

“Wait, why are you even stressed if you can make that?” The figure vaguely pointed to the ice sculpture that was already beginning to have its features melt away.

“Because… okay, could you stop being all… misty? It’s weird talking to someone like that.”

“Oh… right.” The mist dissipated, revealing the figure Aerithea had been talking to this entire time was a dark skinned fiend with black horns and a tail with an arrowhead shaped end.  

Aerithea responded, “Thanks.  Okay, anyways, it’s not that I can’t conjure, its that its a conjuration theory class so its all explaining how conjuration works.  The lectures are pointless to go to since the professor is basically just reading out of the textbook and drawing the diagrams straight from the textbook on the chalkboard. Then I don’t understand what the textbook is even saying half the time.  And when I ask the professor about it, he just repeats the same thing over and over again without actually explaining any of it.  It’s like we’re just supposed to memorize the book and write our answers word-for-word to get any credit for it.  I hate it.” 

“Yeah… that really sounds like it sucks. Makes me glad I’m majoring in patronage! We barely have to do any theory. We do have to take a bunch of practical classes, but they’re kinda fun sometimes, you know?”

“Yes!!! If I had known that majoring in conjuring would mean reading about conjuring all the time instead of actually doing it, I’d have majored in something else. It’s so frustrating.”

“Yeah, it sure sounds like it.”

The two just stood there, milling over their words.  It became uncomfortably silent.  Their conversation was clearly over, and the fiend was still there just awkwardly staring at the ground.

“... Anyways…” Aerithea finally broke the silence.  “I should probably go back to studying for the test so I can hopefully at least still do well enough to pass the class. Good luck with your midterm too!”

“Thanks!” the fiend responded.

Though she had expected the fiend to finally leave, it kept standing there, making Aerithea uncomfortable.  Deciding that ultimately, her studying was more important than awkwardly letting the fiend know where she lived, Aerithea broke and started heading back inside.

“Okay bye!” Aerithea said as she waved.

“Bye!” The fiend turned around and took a few steps before standing still again.  Aerithea had had enough and just walked in. 

Aerithea returned to her dorm to see her roommate, Lucille, had already gone to sleep.  Lucky bastard.  Figuring she shouldn’t ruin her sleep, especially since Lucille was a dreamwalker and would lecture Aerithea about it once she tried to sleep if she did, Aerithea picked up her books and went to study in the dorm common area. 

It was going to be a long night. 

[cindersart]

Hey, I was wondering if you had any advice for getting through college lectures when you have ADHD? I really struggle to focus in class and end up missing out on important things because of it, and I know if it goes on it'll tank my grade. Any tips?

i am Neither an expert or a therapist, so pls take all this with a pinch of salt — its literally just a few things that helped me cope with adhd that u may want to try urself:

— get a voice recorder for lectures. ask ur teacher beforehand if its ok to use one in class, bc then u can also ask if u can leave it on their desk so it picks up the lecture better. they’re not too expensive and should last u a good while. read the reviews before u buy a particular one tho, u wanna make sure it picks up the sound clearly and u need to check the recording range it has. since im assuming most classes are online now, if u can find *screen recording software, it should work the same?? whatever u have on hand that can pick up sound clearly, use it to record the class. it helped me go back and pick up stuff i missed/could not focus on the first time.

* please carefully research what software ur goin to use, there’s probably good recs on youtube. i personally have not had to record any online classes, but if any of you guys have, pls drop ur tips/recs in the comments or smth :(

— tell ur teachers/course directors/advisers/teaching assisstants/whatever member of administration u trust, that u have adhd, and ask about what accommodations and services ur university has for students with adhd. my university allowed extra time during exams for students with adhd, and a lot of my lecturers sent me written instructions for certain assignments after giving verbal instruction during the class/lecture (these were a lil more like. SPECIFIC. which helped me a tonne). 

- pls don’t take this as a ‘YOU HAVE TO DO THIS’ tip, bc i realise not all universities/schools are, uh, empathetic when it comes to things like adhd — especially if ur studying a STEM subject (i have been there, i understand, it’s rampant w ableism :/) — only do this if you’re comfortable with it, and if you feel ur school administration can offer u actual help. 

— start making to do lists. this is such basic advice, like it’s EVERYWHERE, but it’s so so so helpful. even if ur day only consists of ‘[x] take a shower [x] pick socks off floor [x] send emails’ — its helping break down tasks that might be giving u anxiety, making bigger things more manageable by giving it an order and specific instructions etc. 

( u can write down ur lists literally on anything: ur phone, loose paper if u have it on hand, etc. but i highly recommend having a notepad or book, bc when i used to write my lists on post its, i kinda started losing track of them, so i invested in a notebook instead. it’s helped turn writing to do lists into a daily habit, AND its fun to actually use a notebook i bought cos it looked pretty :’D )

i have another answer with just. general adhd tips here, if you’re interested — it’s all stuff that can still be applied to schoolwork. 

[mlqcconfessions]

Hi! I wonder what happen if Lucien's sister dating Gavin. Are they can going date freely?

This is already the 4th installment in this series (surprised no one’s mentioned Kiro yet)

WOWOWOWOW you guys must really like them

somebody give poor Birdcop a break here

MLQC Headcanon - MC dating Gavin as Lucien’s sister

Lucien

You two were very close as siblings (even at an early age)

You only had each other, after all

Ever since your parents died in the crash, he’s been much more protective of you

But that doesn’t mean he’s forbidding boyfriends!

He figured it would be better to have someone else you can rely on (especially because he won’t be next to you always)

He wasn’t the type to follow you on dates

He knew you would be uncomfortable if he did that (I’m looking at you Victor)

But he did want to know what you would be doing that day (just so he doesn’t have to constantly worry)

Plus, you would occasionally update him throughout the date

He was curious when he found out that your boyfriend was your high school senior

“Gavin Bai?”

“Yeah! He’s a Loveland police officer!”

“Hmm. And an agent for STF, I see” (he’s looking at his phone)

“…..how did you know that?”

“I have my ways”

“Would you like to know anything else about him, little sister?”

——————–

He’s in his office waiting for you to come home from your date

He’s busy preparing for next week’s lecture

But he wants to greet you when you come home

So he finishes extra early (even the other professors are scared of him sometimes)

“Professor Xu, the rest of us (there’s 5 others in the room) are going for some drinks. Would you like to join us?” 

He smiles politely before gathering his things to leave

“I apologize, but I’ll have to pass up on your offer. My little sister should be getting home anytime soon. She often forgets to carry her keys”

He nods slightly and exits the room

“He really cares for his sister, doesn’t he?”

“Tell me about it! Didn’t you see that photo frame on his desk? He absolutely adores her!”

“How old did you say she was?”

“22. A prime age for a boyfriend, don’t you think?”

“Would Professor Xu allow something like that?”

“Don’t be silly! He’s not old-fashioned like us”

“You’re right. He wouldn’t do such childish things”

——————–

He’s waiting and waiting (but you still haven’t come home)

He’s worried, especially since you haven’t called him

He’s about to call you himself, when he hears a clatter from upstairs

Of course, being the demon brother he is, he immediately locates where the sound is coming from

He walks up to the balcony when he sees you and Gavin together (he was amused at you on the floor, clutching your belly while laughing)

He’s about to open the door when you initiate a kiss on Gavin

The smile doesn’t leave Lucien’s face as he retracts his hand on the door handle

After a while, he decides he’s given you enough time and taps on the windows (he intentionally gathers some currents for the momentum)

“Lu-Lucien!”

“It’s quite late, you should be getting home now”

“Ah, yes….”

“Goodnight Gavin! I’ll see you tomorrow!” (he’s not even using much force, but you still can’t make him budge)

He thinks that you need to train your muscles more

You gently close the door, but can’t seem to look up

It’s not like he was trying to seem intimidating (he doesn’t realize how dangerous his silence is)

“Did you have fun today?” (he wants to break this tension)

“Ah! Yes! I did! Lots of fun!”

“Well, I’m glad you did” (and this was the truth)

But he wanted a little bit of revenge for making him so worried tonight

“I’m just curious, do you do that with Gavin often?”

He’s laughing as he’s being pushed out of your room (again, you’re not able to make him budge)

Gavin

He’s only met Lucien once (when he dropped you off at his office rather than at home)

Minor had warned him about the brothers of girlfriends

“You have to be careful, bro! Don’t chicken out in front of him! You’re gonna get yourself tested for your capabilities as a boyfriend, so just watch out for that. OH! Also! Don’t show too much affection while he’s nearby. You’re gonna get yourself killed. Oh yeah! I almost forgot!…..”

He goes on for nearly 20 minutes

Gavin’s just getting ready at this point

“Yeah, okay. Whatever you say” (Minor reads too many shoujo mangas)

But he recalls the time where he actually saw your brother

He wasn’t threatened in any way whatsoever

He was actually quite amiable

He was even offered tea because it was drizzling outside (to which Gavin politely declined)

Just…..a little intimidating (a smile that wasn’t a smile, if you can picture it)

——————–

Today’s date is to the movies (simple and sweet)

It was actually unplanned, so he had you pick whatever

He was relieved it was a good movie (he was worried that you would feel bad, since you were the one who chose it)

Towards the end he starts sniffling unintentionally

He’s hoping that you can’t hear it (of course you can hear it everyone can hear it)

“…I’m not crying” (he’s whispering into the popcorn)

“Gavin…..I didn’t say anything”

“……”

“……..pfft. Gavin, you’re so adorable”

He’s getting so red right now, he looks purple under the blue light from the movie screen

“…..please stop”

——————–

He’s dropped you off at the front door, waiting while you fumble for your keys

He always insists on watching you walk through the door into your house (something about having to stay alert at all times)

“Huh, I swear I grabbed them this time”

“Forgot your keys?”

“…….yeah…..” (he thinks you look so cute flustered like this)

He grabs onto your waist, pulls you close, and takes off with the wind blowing below you two

“Woah, Gavin!”

“Hold on tight!”

He takes you to your balcony (Birdcop can’t think properly, apparently)

“…Gavin….”

“Yeah?”

“The balcony doors are locked, too”

“……..oh right” (he feels like such a dork right now)

He has to listen to you laughing your butt off for a few minutes before you finally calm down

He’s about to take off when he’s stopped by your surprise kiss

He always gets shy like it’s his first kiss or something

And then becomes an entire EXPERT afterwards

He notices you’ve begun to give in (just what he wanted)

He hears the lights knock over and was about to pick them up (but you re-focus him)

As he was about to start his ultimate move, he heard taps from behind

“Lu-Lucien!”

What. 

Oh.

oh.

He’s screwed (and he knows it well)

The doors open with a powerful gust that almost knocks him back

Did….did he just….. (copy your evol, Birdcop? Yes. Yes, he did)

“It’s quite late, you should be getting home now”

“Ah, yes….”

“Goodnight Gavin! I’ll see you tomorrow!” (he’s looking at your small figure trying so hard to make that mountain of a brother move)

He hears the doors close and jumps down to where Sparky is parked

He had just experienced the most terrifying 5 minutes of his life

Those were the eyes of a killer (and the cross hairs were aimed at him)

But the last thing he remembers is the flurry of kisses he shared with you

He’s ready for round 2 tomorrow

MC

You were never scared to tell Lucien that you were dating someone

The two of you have been close for as long as you can remember

There was always a sense of telepathy between you and him

He knew what you were thinking about, and sometimes you did too

Emphasis on the sometimes

So there wasn’t much secrecy in this household

You didn’t want to keep any secrets from him anyways

“Gavin Bai?” (this was one of those rare moments where his interests were actually piqued)

“Yeah! He’s a Loveland police officer!”

“Hmm. And an agent for STF, I see” 

What.

“…..how did you know that?” (you’re narrowing your eyes at him)

You’re kinda baffled, here

You have an incredible brother (not that you just realized it today)

“I have my ways….would you like to know anything else about him, little sister?”

Correction.

You have an incredible DEVIL as a brother (not that you just realized it today)

You quickly leave the room to get dressed

……you didn’t want to know his ways

——————–

The movie date went really well

You weren’t expecting much, and neither was Gavin

You were kinda proud for picking such a good movie (randomly, at that!)

But he just starts crying? (it was the part where the dog died)

“…I’m not crying” (why is he whispering to the popcorn?)

“Gavin…..I didn’t say anything”

He buries his face in the popcorn container

“……..pfft” (you lean your head on his shoulder)

“Gavin, you’re so adorable”

“…..please stop”

——————–

You walk side-by-side with Gavin, until you reach the steps of the front door

“I had fun today, thank you”

“Me too” (he’s smiling at you so sweetly)

You’re looking for your keys in your bag, but you can’t find them

“Huh, I swear I grabbed them this time”

You can’t raise your head (this is so embarrassing….)

Suddenly you find yourself in the air with his body pressed close to you

“Woah, Gavin!”

“Hold on tight!” (you’re not complaining)

In no time, you’re at your balcony 

“…Gavin….”

“Yeah?”

“The balcony doors are locked, too”

“……..oh right” (you can’t contain your laughter)

After you calm down, you give him a kiss (for being so cute)

He’s definitely startled, but soon responds with his own 

You lose yourself in his affection, drowning under the starry night

You accidentally knock over some lights (but you’re too engrossed to care)

As things were becoming more heated, you hear light taps on the balcony windows

“Lu-Lucien!”

He’s smiling, but he’s not smiling

Lucien opens the doors, and a strong gust of wind nearly sends Gavin flying

“It’s quite late, you should be getting home now”

“Ah, yes….”

You sense the tension in the air, and quickly pull Lucien away from the balcony

“Goodnight Gavin! I’ll see you tomorrow!” (you’re basically using all your strength as you close the doors)

There’s silence in the room as Lucien’s just smiling at you

“Did you have fun today?”

“Ah! Yes! I did! Lots of fun!”

“Well, I’m glad you did”

You sigh of relief (I guess he’s not going to ask about what he just saw)

“I’m just curious, do you do that with Gavin often?”

He’s smiling, but HE’S NOT SMILING

This might have been the longest headcanon I’ve written so far

This series is always fun to write (but Kiro is missing out on the fun)

[libraryofrewrita]

Chapter 23: The Trials

Hey, everyone. Sorry for the super-late update. Don't worry, I haven't lost interest in writing this series. I just had a really bad case of writer's burnout while working on this chapter and I have been working on some other projects to help get my creative juices flowing again.

One of the projects I have been working on is called 'The Yo-kai Tactician's Retirement', which can be read on Archive of Our Own. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/17826341/chapters/42060143)

Oh, plus Yo-kai Watch: The Rewrite Series officially has a TV Tropes page now! You can view it at this link if you wish to check it out. (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/YokaiWatchTheRewriteSeries)

With that said, please enjoy this chapter.

Sixty years in the past, the Wicked’s lair…

Not for the first time since his existence and especially during this latest scheme of trying to destroy the Yo-kai Watch, Unfairy wondered if he was being affected by his own powers as he walked into his room, his latest assignment tucked under his arm.

While he certainly didn’t mind the easy assignment of just spying on the group of kids and Yo-kai trying to stop Dame Dedtime’s plans and delaying any important progress they were making, he certainly didn’t like the implication that it was because the trio of Yo-kai that did originally took care of that, and failed repeatedly once Unfairy really thought about it, had been given a more important assignment rather than letting him take a break from spreading his own discord among the Bonies and Fleshies, which would have nearly made him pass out from exhaustion on multiple occasions if he didn’t have enough snacks on hand.

Speaking of which, he pulled out a box of Fruit Drops from his pockets, scowling when he opened it and saw the few candies left inside. He sighed in annoyance before popping one of the candies into his mouth, closing the box, and pocketing it again. He had planned to go to Galleria Boulevard to pick up more snacks through the not-so-legal manner of sneaking into the closed candy shop and swiping a few treats that probably wouldn’t have been missed from the storage area when he had been called back to the lair to take care of this assignment.

Of course, now the shop was probably open by now with people keeping an eye on the products being sold, not to mention that he didn’t want to risk making Dame Dedtime mad by shirking his duties, even if it would’ve only for a minute or so.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that he didn’t want it to be super obvious to the Bonies and Fleshies that he was responsible for spreading some of the discord among them, he would’ve been more than glad to use his Drain Attribute powers on them to keep himself from falling into total exhaustion.

Unfairy then proceeded to suck on the singular candy as he left the lair, hoping that luck would be on his side and he wouldn’t have to keep an eye on them for too long. After all, there was still a war, no matter how dumb the reason for it was, that the Wickeds planned to take advantage of.

*****

Same time period, Harrisville…

The kids waited at the secret base for Nathaniel and Kenny to return from setting up something that was supposed to help them with getting ready to take down the Wicked Yo-kai.

Nate and Katie nervously fiddled with their Yo-kai Watches, now officially at A rank after a quick stop at Timer’s and More in their time period, while Lucas once again made sure that they had enough supplies so that they didn’t need to possibly ditch this time period to pick up more stuff, along with the information they would need to think up and plan with Nathaniel and Kenny to keep the Wickeds from taking advantage of the war between the Bonies and Fleshies.

Their Yo-kai companions were hoping that they could pull this off and be able to get home to their time period safely, especially Whisper and Jibanyan. They had left Buchinyan with Shogunyan at present day Shoten Temple so that there wasn’t any risk of him getting lost or captured during all of this and while they were aware that this was the best decision, they missed him terribly.

At that moment, Nathaniel and Kenny came back with an elderly calico nekomata with purple flames on the ends of his twin tails wearing a green cloak and carrying a walking stick following behind them.

Kenny gestured to the elderly nekomata and said,

“This is Master Nyada. He helped us set up the three trials that will help you get ready to take down the Wicked Yo-kai.”

The elderly nekomata just gave a sad smile as he said,

“The trials were originally something the boys did for fun before all of this happened, but doing them will still help you out in the long run.”

Whisper looked at Nyada as if he was trying to remember something about him as the kids nodded and Nate said,

“Okay. What’s the first trial?”

*****

Nate asked as he drank from a bottle of water, resting from completing the first trial,

“How was he able to run so fast?”

The first trial, dubbed ‘The Trial of Courage’, involved trying to catch Master Nyada in under a minute. Before they did the trial, they did ask how catching him in under a minute was supposed to be connected to courage and the explanation they had received involved being able to quickly stop evil-doers and being able to quickly save someone.

While they weren’t quite sure how often that sort of thing would happen, Nate, Katie, and Lucas at least knew that with the kind of lifestyle they have, it was bound to come up sooner or later.

It did take them a few tries to actually catch Nyada, considering how crafty he was, but in the end, it took Nate 45 seconds, Katie 30 seconds, and Lucas 35 seconds to finally catch him.

The elderly nekomata, who was somehow not exhausted from basically doing the trial repeatedly, just gave a mischievous grin and explained,

“Oh, that’s a little secret I don’t plan to reveal anytime soon. As soon as you’re ready, we’ll move on to the next trial, The Trial of Love.”

*****

Well, that was certainly entertaining for the first couple minutes.

Unfairy thought as he watched the group with a pair of binoculars from the roof of one of the houses in Harrisville. To avoid setting off the Model Zeroes, he had to watch the group from a distance and while he hated that he wouldn’t be able to hear anything they were saying from where he currently was, it was better than getting caught because he wasn’t aware of how far the Model Zeroes could detect a Yo-kai.

He thankfully didn’t have to worry about anyone else seeing him up there due to all of the Yo-kai that lived in Harrisville having gone to Flatpot Plains or Springdale, so he didn’t have to waste his energy keeping himself invisible all the time.

Not that he was going to use up his energy to screw up something as minor as a bunch of kids just running around to see who was the fastest. It didn’t look important enough and he only had so many candies left. He would only use his energy to go full on invisible if the group was moving to somewhere that wasn’t within his current seeing range and had to follow them without tipping them off.

Though, he would be lying if he didn’t admit that some part of him kinda wanted to reveal himself to them early and force them to rush through everything just to have a shot at stopping the Wickeds, only to get sloppy and screw everything up.

He just didn’t bother to go through with it or even ask about doing it in the report he just sent because he didn’t want to hear whatever lecture Dame Dedtime would come up with to berate him for doing something that had no guarantee of success for the Wickeds and berate him even further.

For now, he would stay here and continue to watch them until something more important than seeing who can run the fastest came up that would be worth the risk of potentially getting caught and could delay the group, even if it was for a short while.

*****

The Trail of Love sounded simple enough when it was explained to them, head to a specific house and find five kittens that a friend of Nyada’s was willing to let him borrow for the trail in that area in under two minutes.

The first catch was they had to do the trail one at a time so that it wouldn’t appear that the work wasn’t being done equally among them. That was fair enough.

The second catch was that the kittens would sometimes move from their intended spots and two of them were rather mischievous if they saw that you could see them moving somewhere else. If they were caught, they would then purposely run faster than usual and hide in a spot that would make it difficult for the kids to just grab them.

Thankfully, Hovernyan had promised to keep the kittens from going towards the river, since that house happened to be located in a spot close to the river, though that was the only help the kids would be getting for this trail.

It was supposed to test their compassion for others, plus their patience in case things weren’t going as smoothly as they would like.

It had taken Nate one minute and 40 seconds to complete the trail because the two mischievous kittens decided to climb a tree after Nate had managed to find the first three in thirty seconds and it had taken him a minute and ten seconds altogether for him to climb up the tree and get the kittens down one at a time.

Katie had an easier time with her having only taken 40 seconds to get all of the kittens. When she had ran into the mischievous kittens, she had managed to win them over when they had hidden in a pile of gardening supplies by taking her hair ribbon off and placing it on the ground in front of them, slowly dragging the ribbon towards her and watching as they pounced on it until they got within reach and she scooped up both of them with no issues.

Lucas had the most trouble with him coming in at a minute and 50 seconds. As a Yo-kai, he could understand what the cats were saying and he knew that they could tell that he was part of a powerful line of Yo-kai. He took the longest because he was spending that time trying to convince the kittens that they didn’t have to be so skittish around him because of his aura. Ironically enough, the two mischievous kittens had been the easiest and quickest for him to convince with him only having to take twenty seconds each for both of them.

Nyada then sent the kittens back to their mother, who had been waiting outside of where the trail was taking place, and said to the group,

“Well, now that trail has been taken care of, let’s head to Mount Middleton for the final trail.”

*****

Unfairy so wished that he could leave his post. He had gotten bored of watching the kids gathering kittens after the first minute and it was only his fear of Dame Dedtime’s retribution that kept him rooted to this spot.

He envied his siblings for not having a huge fear of their mother’s retribution and he especially envied the group he was spying on.

If he hadn’t known that they were doing this because they were getting ready to deal with the Wicked Yo-kai, he would’ve just assumed that they were just having their own weird brand of fun.

The members of the group he was spying on appeared to be pretty close too. Another thing he envied.

He and his siblings had been close once upon a time, but after years upon years of being on separate missions to spread their personal discords among humans and Yo-kai around Japan and the world outside of it, sometimes being forced to go quiet for undetermined periods of time because of something out of their control, and barely being able to just meet up somewhere for old times sake rather than because all of them were needed by Dame Dedtime for something very important, it was hard to tell whether or not he was the only one of the Elite siblings that wished to know if they could ever be close as they had been before if they were given enough time to do so.

Unfairy sighed as he watched the group leave and turned invisible to follow after them. Wherever they were going, it would at least be a change of scenery.

*****

The fact that there was an A Rank Watch Lock door was the first hint that the final trail wasn’t going to be easy.

The second hint was that Nathaniel and Kenny said that this trail was called the Trail of Moxie, but only said that they had to defeat a powerful Yo-kai named Demuncher and said not to worry about how long it took them to finish this trail before they claimed to have to pick up something and would be back as soon as they could before leaving them.

The third and final hint was that when Nyada walked them to the trail, he had led them to a giant yellow Yo-kai just sleeping there, who had to be Demuncher, and picked up a rock.

Whisper eyed the rock in Nyada’s paw warily and asked,

“Umm…what are you planning to do with that rock?”

As his way of answering, Nyada causally threw the rock at the giant Yo-kai, told the group to have their Yo-kai out and ready to battle Demuncher, and fled as the giant Yo-kai was starting to wake up.

“OW! Who disturbed my sleep?!”

He looked to the group that happened to be within fighting range and yelled,

“I’ll show you what happens to people that enrage me!”

*****

The group just had enough time to pull out the six Yo-kai they had on hand before they found themselves battling Demuncher.

As usual, Jibanyan and the Komainu Brothers were in the front row and the back row contained Tattletell, Brushido, and Tongus. Jibanyan started off by barely dodging a punch from Demuncher, taking a small bit of damage that he paid back to Demuncher by burning his hand with one of his tail flames, dealing the same amount plus a little extra since he hadn’t missed his target.

Komajiro then sent a lightning attack at him, but when he noticed that it hadn’t done a lot of damage to Demuncher compared to Jibanyan burning his hand and when Demuncher had thrown a rock at him as payback for the lightning strike, he was able to alert the other fighters that Demuncher was an Earth Attribute Yo-kai. Komasan then threw some fireballs towards Demuncher as retribution for the rock thrown at his younger twin, which he was slow to dodge considering his large stature, resulting in a good amount of damage being dealt.

Jibanyan unleashed his Paws of Fury Soultimate to keep Demuncher distracted as the Komainu Brothers prepared to do a combo attack of their Spirit Dance and Wild Dance Soultimates. Demuncher flicked Jibanyan off once he was finished, but it was enough time for the two brothers to let off their combo attack before all three Yo-kai were damaged by Demuncher throwing some additional rocks at them.

The three Yo-kai in the front retreated to the back row, grateful for the healing from Tattletell and Tongus before the three Yo-kai that were now in front took their turns with dealing their own damage to Demuncher. Brushido used his broom to help Tattletell leap up towards Demuncher to land one of her slaps on him while he froze the large Yo-kai’s feet and waited until Tattletell had landed safely on Tongus before he swept his broom under Demuncher’s feet, breaking his ice and causing the giant Yo-kai to fall to the ground.

Both attacks did a good amount of damage and after the current attacking row had their fun with battling the giant Yo-kai, with Tongus even getting a few hits in in an attempt to stop him from using his Soultimate on her, the main three battlers were brought back to the front row and with a well-timed team attack, Jibanyan and the Komainu Brothers dealt the final blow and watched as Demuncher fell to his knees and admitted defeat.

*****

“Congratulations on completing all of the trails, you guys!”

The group saw Nathaniel, Kenny, and their grandfather’s group of Yo-kai friends coming up the mountain path to congratulate the group.

Demuncher then stood up, brushed the dirt off his cloth, and said to Nyada as he happened to show up,

“I have to hand it to you, sir. You really know how to pick them.”

Nyada made a cat smile as he said,

“Of course I do. I wouldn’t send just anyone up against my star pupil.”

There was a bit of silence from the group that had just battled Demuncher before Whisper finally broke the ice,

“We were never in any real danger?”

“Of course not. If I just told you outright that he was just acting, you wouldn’t have really put your heart and soul into the battle. The Trail of Moxie is to show that you’re willing to fight when you have no other options left.”

He then clasped his paws together and said seriously,

“And thus ends the Trails of Moximous Mask.”

It took Nate and Katie a moment to realize why he said that and facepalmed as they muttered,

“Of course they were called that.”

Nyada glanced at them and gestured to his friend group and said,

“My best friends are literally superhero enthusiasts. You honestly think I wasn’t going to do something that this to make their training more interesting?”

Before they could comment, Hovernyan said,

“Now, since you’ve completed the trails and our Yo-kai friend group is safely together again, we need to discuss stuff.”

Lucas perked up and asked,

“Like what we’re going to do about the Generals and preventing them from going to war?”

Hovernyan nodded,

“Exactly. You three have information from your future about the battle and when the Wickeds officially took advantage of it and when it was able to officially end. Now, your present is part of the ‘slightly perfect timeline’, so if we can just use the information you have, we can hopefully change things around and make your present part of the ‘truly perfect timeline!”

Kenny then presented Nate, Katie, Lucas, and the Yo-kai with them a bag with purple scarves, bandanas, and ribbons before explaining,

“Our best bet is to avoid picking between the Bonies and Fleshies if we want this to work, so we decided to form a third party. Wearing a red scarf, bandana, or ribbon identifies you as a Bony and wearing a blue scarf, bandanas, or ribbon identifies you as a Fleshy, so we decided to combine the two colors and have our third party wear purple scarves, bandanas, or ribbons as our way to identify ourselves as members of the currently unnamed third party.”

Nate and Lucas took a purple bandana each and Katie took a purple ribbon from the bag, then watched as the others made their decisions from the bag as well. Nate, Lucas, the Komainu Brothers, Faux Kappa, and Predictabul now wore a purple bandana, Jibanyan, Hovernyan, Master Nyada, Nathaniel, Kenny, and Gnomey were wearing purple scarves, and Katie, Whisper, Mermaiden, and Pallysol were wearing purple ribbons. When the others had putting on their new accessories, Katie took down her signature pink hair ribbon and replaced it with the purple ribbon so that it could be easily seen.

Katie then admitted as she was putting the pink ribbon into the bag for safe keeping,

“It’s weird not wearing this, but it’s for a good cause. We just need to pick someone to act as the general for our group. Maybe the Generals will be more willing to talk to whoever was in charge of us.”

Pallysol looked at Whisper and said,

“Technically, out of all of us here, you have experience in dealing with war before. You’re probably our best bet here.”

Whisper clarified with a stammer and faint pink blush,

“A-as a private tactician to a warlord, not a battler!”

Pallysol said with a bit of a blush,

“Well, you had to give your former boss ideas to work from, didn’t you? I’m just saying you might be able to work the same magic on our two warring generals and they might be willing to take you more seriously if you presented yourself as a general.”

Whisper looked around at the group and after some consideration, he said,

“I’ll only be the general for this group until we can deal with the Wickeds. After that, I’ll hand the position of the Psychics over to someone else that’s actually from this time period.”

Jibanyan looked at Whisper curiously and asked,

“Is the Psychics our official group name or…?”

Whisper shrugged,

“Unless someone has something better.”

The group started chanting the group name repeatedly, so it was safe to say it was a great name for them.

Whisper straightened up, feeling some pride in his chest as he said,

“Now, first order of business. Let’s get off this mountain and look over the information so that we can get enough of a head start to keep the Wickeds from gaining the advantage this time around!”

With that said, everyone started heading down the mountain, eager to put a stop to the Wickeds plans in one way or another.

*****

Unfairy had been too awestruck by the battle to do anything to make the battle unfair, even when there had been a few points during the battle where no one would’ve been to tell right away that he had gotten involved.

Not that he had mentioned it in the report he had sent during the middle of the battle. He may have fudged the report a bit and claimed that the kids were having more difficulty with battling him than what was actually happening and it would take a while for them to be finished.

Now as he watched the one group of humans and Yo-kai congratulate the other group that had been battling Demuncher, he couldn’t help but feel sad.

Could this have been the type of comradery that he could’ve had with the other Elites, if things had been different?

Unfairy got up from the tree branch that he had been sitting on. He was tired of this. He was tired of fretting about his place among the Wicked Elites and trying to gain respect from Dame Dedtime, who barely gave it to him as it is. He was tired of dwelling on whether things could really change for him or any of the Wickeds if they were successful.

He sighed as he leaned against the tree trunk. It wasn’t like he just bail out of the entire plan at this stage, not if he didn’t want to deal with fighting the other Elites and possibly Dame Dedtime for being a traitorous coward. He also couldn’t just walk up to the humans and Yo-kai fighting against the Wicked Yo-kai and offer his assistance. They would immediately suspect that he was trying to pull something on them.

He glanced at the almost empty Fruit Drops box in his hand just as another paper appeared in his hands. He glanced at the paper telling him to spread his discord around Galleria Boulevard, then to head to Flatpot Plains to keep the two generals and their teams busy long enough for the other Wicked Elites to get everything else set up.

He had originally planned to take advantage of the discord to slip into the candy shop and pick up some more candy and snacks, but if he held off on that and just used up the last of the Fruit Drops he had…

That would be just enough power for him to invisibly spread enough of his discord around Galleria Boulevard to keep the group from reaching Flatpot Plains right away, just to appease Dame Dedtime, then he would use up the rest of his energy to spread discord among the Bonies and Fleshies in Flatpot Plains, including the two generals.

He took one more glance to see that the groups were busy taking things out of a bag and with a mischievous smile on his face coming from him having no plans to tell Dame Dedtime that the group was finished battling Demuncher, Unfairy teleported away to do what he would consider his best work yet.

*****

As the group happily walked down the path to the train station after reviewing the information and being ready to set their plan of hopefully having a peaceful discussion with the Generals Arachnus and Toadal Dude in motion, they saw Smogmella on the path near the train station, she rushed over to the group.

“Everything has gone to absolute chaos! First, almost every Yo-kai on Galleria Boulevard is fighting with each other over every little thing that’s not even related to the main Bony and Fleshy debate, with the ones not involved in the excessive arguing already trying to flee the area to who knows where until everything has calmed down. Then when I went to the battlefield to get the generals to see what was happening, the battlefield was just as bad, if not worse! I couldn’t even keep track of the generals because of how busy they were on the battlefield, which would’ve made trying to talk to them a total waste of time!”

She then clasped Hovernyan’s paws as she continued,

“That’s when I remembered that you’re one of the few Yo-kai I know of that haven’t joined either side and I figured that the group I had seen you with must be on the same page as you, otherwise they would’ve spoken up about whether the Bonies or Fleshies side was better. Will all of you help me with dealing with this chaos?”

The group needed no further prompting as they nodded and Hovernyan said,

“You have my word as a member of the Psychics that we will get to the bottom of this and put an end to this chaos.”

“The Psychics? You’re your own group, then?”

“We’re built up of the Yo-kai and humans that have no desire to take part in any of the Bonies and Fleshies debates. We may like both things that they are debating about or we may prefer a third choice. Regardless, we just wish for things to not get super out of hand. You get that, right?”

Smogmella nodded and asked,

“May I join you, then? I’m tired of being pressured to join one group or the other.”

Hovernyan handed Smogmella a purple scarf she then wrapped around her neck as he said warmly,

“Welcome to the Psychics, Smogmella. We’re glad to have you aboard.”

With a new member in tow, everyone rushed down to the train station by foot, hoping that they could still find a way to put an end to the Wicked’s plan for good.

Previous Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/183172176579/chapter-22-into-the-eye-of-the-storm

Next Chapter: TBA

[percabeth4life]

The Crossroads of Destiny

First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || AO3

I moved into my dorm.

Setting it up was fun.

My roommate hasn’t arrived yet, so I picked the side by the window and started setting up.

I put my bedding on the bed (blue of course), my clothes in the dresser (his school ones and his nice clothes from Triton), my rainbow stone and star globe on the table by the bed, my books on the shelf, I put the candy my mom gave me in the drawer, put my collection of stuff from the sea (assorted gifts from my mer friends and some cool shells and coral pieces I like) on the shelves, and finally set up the fish tank for the human fish I’m still trying to turn back human.

The fishes name is Carl, which is really boring but…

I also put my copies of Avatar on the shelf, and small amount of memorabilia around the room. I’ve heard rumors of a sequel, how fun!

I frowned, studying my side of the room. I don’t think I’m missing anything…

Other than Triton and my mer friends…

Ugh, I hate boarding school already.

I sulked but moved to shove my notebooks on the shelf too.

Classes don’t start for a few days, so I suppose I could spend the next few days looking around the campus. Hopefully this year there wouldn’t be any… incidents.

I grabbed my ocarina and my music book and settled on the bed to practice.

I really like the ocarina, it makes such nice tunes, and it’s made from a really dense coral, it’s brilliant.

I began the warm up tunes, carefully running through the notes, furrowing my brow in concentration.

I’m going to get amazing at this. Triton said that if I get good enough at it by the winter solstice then he’d give me the next book on the Siren’s Song! Then I’ll get to practice actually using the Siren’s Song, using the ocarina of course. Triton said I wasn’t to try it with just my voice until Triton cleared him.

That’s fine though, I’m was still excited.

I started playing one of the simple tunes to start.

Carefully placing my fingers and following my memory of practicing this song until it was perfect.

It was one of the most basic, but I still like it. It’s soothing to practice.

I finished that song and turned to the next one.

I’ve only mastered the first two, I can do those two without looking at the instructions at this point. I’m also pretty good at the third one and alright at the fourth. I can play through the fifth song if I really focus hard.

I haven’t gotten around to trying the sixth yet.

I reached the fourth song in my play throughs. I started playing it for the second time to fix a note I keep messing up but paused when the door opened.

I looked up to see a boy with pasty skin, curly red/brown hair, and a rainbow tie-dye shirt.

“Uh, hi?”

I nodded in greeting, “Hi, are you my roommate?”

“Yeah! Or well,” the boy glanced at the paper in his hands, “You are… Percy, right? Hang on let me check the room number again, this is- Yeah okay, I think you’re my roommate!”

I offered a smile, following the lessons Triton drilled into me, “I’m Percy Jackson, glad to be roommates. What’s your name?”

“I’m Grover, nice to meet you!”

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Grover’s side of the room was nice, he had some books, a few plants, his school supplies of course. It didn’t have the sparklines of my side, what with my Rainbow Stone and Starglobe, but it was nice.

I noticed Grover giving Carl some odd looks when Carl commented on how boring Grover’s side was, or how he needed better clothes, or how he was hungry ‘Percy feed me’.

I of course fed him, I’d hate to be locked up like Carl. Least I can do is make it comfortable.

Grover blinked slowly and stared more confused.

It was almost like he could hear Carl.

…

Please say I’m not rooming with another mythological being that wants me dead.

…

Nope, not dealing with that today.

I grabbed my ocarina and music book and told Grover I was going outside to play.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Grover wasn’t bad, he went with me to explore the campus despite the limp he had.

I made sure to keep my walking slow, I don’t want to strain Grover. La’akea had a permanently injured tail so had to use currents to help her move and while she’s pretty quick now, Grover couldn’t do the same with land.

We found where all our classes would be first, then found the nearby bathrooms and water fountains. Then we went to find the library, we already knew where the cafeteria was thanks to needing food.

We only ended up exploring the inside today (mainly because I got distracted in the mythology section of the library, it had a few books in ancient Greek, which, while not as easy as Halmaheran language, is still easier than English).

The next day we explored the grounds. I like the fountains I could see around the grounds, they’re pretty, and the water sparkles in the light.

We met a few other students, I did his best to smile and act like Triton taught me, it seemed to work better on these kids than the ones from his other schools.

But befriending Grover already seemed to be getting negative views.

I resisted the urge to glare at the student I heard mutter something insulting about Grover. Did they have no manners for disabilities? Triton would kick their butts if he heard it. But Triton would also lecture me if I lost my temper on the first day.

“Ha, look at the cripple, I don’t know why schools let those people in, don’t they want to keep appearances up? Having a loser like that here just ruins the schools rep.”

I smiled sweetly at the boy, “Well you would know if someone should be kicked out for appearances, wouldn’t you?” I gave the boy a brief look over, making my meaning as clear as possible, then turned and walked away.

I walked away with my head held high, Grover following me.

“You didn’t have to do that. But thanks man.”

I huffed, “he was rude, you didn’t deserve that. Just cause you have a disability doesn’t mean he gets free range to insult you!”

Grover grinned, “thanks again”

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Classes started again, they were boring.

I covered the math with Triton, and as long as I wrote in Halmaheran it was easy. Of course, then I have to go back and translate to dumb Arabic numerals but…

Geography was as annoying as ever, land geography was so boring!

I do enjoy Latin, I’m not bad at it I don’t think. We’ve only just started the basics of it, learning some word meanings and not yet at conjugating, but I don’t think I’ll struggle too much if it stays this easy.

Honestly my biggest trouble will probably be grammar in that class.

And of course, in English class.

I hate English class.

They also have art which I enjoy. I would prefer music, so I can practice my ocinara, but it is fun to make things. I figure I can give what I make to Triton or mom.

Science is dumb though.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Carl is seventy percent sure that Grover can understand him, so I have to be careful not to reveal I can also understand my fish.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

So, there are clubs, Grover was nervous to sign up for them, and I’ve never signed up for a club before.

But Triton would probably encourage it, so I decided to look through the clubs to see.

I shouldn’t do swimming, if Grover is a Mythological being than that would give me away real quick.

I decided that model UN should be good, it will let me practice my “princely” stuff, since I won’t have Triton bugging me about it.

And… ooh, the music club. That would give me more opportunities to practice my ocarina!

I couldn’t help but hum happily, I can practice my ocarina, and I can do some fancy talking (that will make Triton happy probably) so it works out!

“What are you going to do Grover?”

“Uh, I’m not sure, what about you?”

I grinned, “Model UN and music club!”

“Oh well, those sound good, maybe I’ll join them too?”

“Do you know an instrument? Or are you going to learn one in the club?”

“Er… I play the reedpipes?”

“Oh cool!” I bounced on my toes, “I’ve never played the reedpipes before, do they sound nice? Are they hard to play? What songs do you know?”

“Uh- they’re nice, I’m not that good yet, they’re kinda hard to play, and I know a few calming songs.”

“That’s cool, let’s go sign up!”

I planted myself beside Grover and tried to copy Triton’s ‘I will end you’ smile that he used at the events, pointing the smile at the jerk that tried to cut Grover in line.

“Whatever,” The guy grumbled, stomping back and kicking Grover’s crutch on the way.

I fought really hard to keep my smile in place as I helped Grover steady himself.

“I’m fine,” Grover muttered.

“He’s a jerk,” I grumbled back.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

We went to the first club meeting of Model UN. It went fine, they just introduced what we’d be doing in the club this year.

It was kinda boring.

The first meeting of music was more fun though.

First everyone picked their instrument, then the teacher had all of us that already knew how to play our instrument demonstrate some.

I played the first song I know on the ocarina, I have it memorized so I looked good when I did it.

Grover played the reedpipes, I did my best not to show that my ears hurt.

Maybe Grover could use a little more practice… just a little…

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

The Latin teacher disappeared?

Like, he was there one day, then a new teacher in a wheelchair appeared.

My eyes narrowed on the wheelchair.

It gives me the same feeling that some of Triton’s gifts give me. That’s no ordinary wheelchair.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I pulled my Rainbow Stone out when Grover was away for a bit.

I tossed in a drachma resisting the urge to bounce, “Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering and show me Triton, where ever he is.”

I grinned when Triton appeared.

I’ve called Triton a few times before and I recognized the backdrop as Triton’s room.

“Percy.”

“Triton! How are you?”

We talked for a while, just trading stories.

I told him about model UN and music club, Triton was pleased.

Triton told me about some of his duties, and how annoying the fish were now that I’m not there anymore. Apparently, they’ve grown fond of me.

I finally started explaining my suspicions.

I explained Grover being able to understand Carl and explained the teacher with the wheelchair that was definitely enchanted.

Triton nodded, his gaze serious.

“It doesn’t sound like a harmful being but keep an eye out. Update me when you can but be careful, if I’m right this Grover is likely empathic, and you should keep your emotions in check around him.

I nodded, what mythological being was empathic?

Oh well, Triton would tell me if it was important.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Welp, apparently there was a robbery right near the school. The person had a gun, so all the students were locked in the classrooms.

I was in Latin when the announcement came. Mr. Brunner had all of us students put the desks in front of the door, then wedged some of his old shields in the way too.

I don’t know if they’ll help at all, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

Mr. Brunner quietly told us stories about the rise of Rome until the announcement came that it was safe to leave again.

That was scary, hopefully nothing else like that happens again.

I really want this year to be calmer.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Apparently, a computer in the library overheated, and promptly blew up.

I didn’t know that was possible but now we’re were standing outside in the rain waiting for the fire department to clear everything.

Or everyone else was, I was trying one of Katara’s tricks, the rain was sliding away just above me!

This year was going great so far, hopefully it was just these things and nothing else…

I purposefully ignored Nancy mumbling that it’s a shame Grover made it out.

I also ignored the way that the rain around her became just a little colder, just a little harder, just a little more like sleet than rain.

That was just a coincidence, I certainly didn’t do that, Triton wouldn’t have been happy.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Music club was going great! I’ve now mastered the first six songs in my book and I’m practicing three more.

It’s so much fun!

The first ten were fairly short, after those it would start taking a lot longer to learn them.

But for now, I’m enjoying the simple songs.

Grover was slowly improving some too so that was good. I know that some students have been mocking his reedpipes behind his back, I usually have a snappy comeback if they do it in front of me, but it’s still hard on Grover.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Model UN is going great, I get to watch Grover argue for environmental reforms. It’s delightful.

This club seems a whole lot more interesting now.

I ended up having to go against Grover, so I promptly channeled all the knowledge I have about the pollution in the ocean and rivers and started arguing for it (I don’t enjoy going against Grover, especially on this subject).

Of course, the students get switched around, and I’m easily able to reverse my argument, it’s the side I actually stand for anyways. I’ve been cleaning the rivers in Manhattan for a while, I know loads about the negative effects of pollution, at least in water environments.

Grover does not like arguing for pollution, that was nearly as fun to watch as him tearing others apart in the against pollution argument.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I opened my eyes.

I was deep in the ocean, a faint red glow from underwater magma spots.

I stared, I’ve of course read about them in the books Triton has given me, but I’ve never seen them before. They weren’t in the territory that Triton would bring me too.

I turned around and gasped when I saw the palace in front of me.

It’s definitely not Poseidon’s palace.

A mermaid swam towards me, glowing in the same way that Triton did, her tail more flowy than any I’ve seen before and glittering blue and silver.

She opened her mouth, her head tilted.

I woke up.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Apparently, a student claimed they saw a guy that matched the description of a criminal. So once again the school was emptied so the police could search the grounds.

On the bright side we all got a field trip to the aquarium.

On the down side we all got a field trip to the aquarium I got expelled from before.

Hopefully that guide didn’t work there anymore.

Grover and I ended up separate from the rest of the group, it was fun, they looked at this fish, I complimented their scales, and their swimming, and their coral. It was nice to talk to fish again.

Grover laughed at me for talking to the fish, but it was friendly.

I’ve never had a human friend before.

I supposed I still haven’t, but at least now I have a land-dwelling friend.

…

Hopefully.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m doing alright in math, even though the teacher sucks.

English was going to end me though.

I have to write the papers in Halmaheran first, then in English, and of course I can’t read the stupid books because they’re in English.

I wish I had audio books for the class, but noooooo.

I’m pretty sure it’s illegal for them to not help me with my disabilities. But I don’t know much about land laws.

I should probably fix that.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Latin is fun, even if I’m suspicious of the teacher, and I was making sure to tell Triton what I notice.

We’re were having a test today though. I can do the words, I’m great at remembering the meaning of the words, but the grammar was killing me.

I lost half my points on doing the grammar wrong.

It’s annoying.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I moved towards the palace this time, it’s not like Poseidon’s palace, from what I’d seen from a distance (a large distance).

This one is dark, carved out of the side of the trench that I’ve now realized I’m in.

But it’s still lit up.

Lantern fish swim all over, some coming near me with their sharp teeth.

I’ve never been afraid of the beings of the sea though, so I didn’t flinch back. I made sure to complement their lights, I’m not sure they could hear me.

There’s also a sea serpent this time, it’s eye focused on me.

It’s massive, easily able to circle Poseidon’s palace at least three times over.

I decided respect was for the best, and quickly did the proper twist of my hand, even if I have legs and not my tails like I would prefer, this would still show the respect that the great serpent deserves.

I made it to the entrance and, after hesitating, pushed in.

I woke up.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I just cannot catch a break.

Some student brought a cursed item to school.

I can feel it.

Everyone else is just convinced the school was haunted.

Carl thinks it’s funny. He would.

Grover is jumping at shadows and even more nervous than usual. I’m not worried though.

I’ll know when the cursed item gets close enough, I’m good at sensing that.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

It took three weeks, but I’ve finally found the cursed item.

A stupid book.

Everyone was baffled that the ghost vanished.

I just sighed and focused on rereading the chapter in one of the books Triton gave me on Purification.

It took me a week to do it, but at last the book is curse free.

I know have to sneak it back to the owner, ugh.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I was standing at the edge of a deep pit. I can’t even begin to see the bottom.

A burning sensation edged my senses.

“How interesting, so faint yet there. It’s slowly getting clearer…”

I frowned, “Hello?”

A low chuckle filled the area, “Hello little Half-Blood.”

“Who are you?” I called, leaning over the edge.

“You may wish to step back little Half-Blood. A fall would be dangerous.”

“You didn’t say who you were.” I replied, but I did step back.

The being chuckled again, “I am-“

I woke up.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m excited, field day is here!

I’m signed up for the tug-of-war, the water sponge, and one of the running events.

It’s fun, I won the water sponge by a landslide, and my team came in second for the tug-of-war. I did alright at the running, I’m certainly not the fastest, but I have decent stamina from all the time I’ve spent swimming and running from the river to my apartment.

I didn’t do the worst, so I suppose that’s good.

Field day is actually a lot of fun, even if Grover can’t participate.

It would’ve been perfect if the field hadn’t caught fire afterwards though.

I have no idea how that happened.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I hummed as I read through one of the more advanced books on Purification magic, this chapter talked about how to infuse items with purifying energy to keep a room clean.

It was really interesting, when Grover was gone I’d try it out.

Carl’s happy about it too, he wants a stone infused with purifying energy in his tank.

I was beginning to wonder if Carl even wants to be turned back human again, Carl seems to like being a fish.

It’s weird.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Grover and I are working on our speech for Model UN, we’re were arguing for environmental reform.

Shocking.

I’m pretty confident in our ability to do this. Grover is really well informed on land pollution, and I have first-hand experience with sea pollution.

I even managed to get Triton to tell me about dealing with oil spills and stuff to help!

We’re gonna kill it.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I glared at the palace in front of me.

Am I gonna wake up the moment I get close again?

I just want to see what’s inside.

It’s strange though, only some of the fish and beings around seem to actually see me.

I sighed and started moving towards the palace again.

This time I got inside! I looked around in awe.

“Well, it appears I have an uninvited guest.”

I turned to see a merman with almost glowing blue hair, and sharp sea green eyes. His tail a deep green with flowy glowing blue on it.

It kinda reminds me of my tail, but his was greener and has specks of blue in the scales too. And it’s not quite as flowy.

The Merman studied me in turn, “And what is your name little Half-Blood?”

“I’m Percy-“

I woke up.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m getting really annoyed this year.

Other years normally have one big disaster that end in my expulsion, this year though, it seems as if the universe just wants to make me suffer slowly.

The Principal had a heart attack.

And I was in the room with him when it happened.

Only I was in the room when it happened.

I did try to help with healing water, but I’m not good enough at that to heal others like Katara. It just hasn’t been a focus of mine with all my work on Purification.

Plus, I don’t have anyone to practice on.

I got a teacher but I still had to explain the symptoms to the emergency responders.

Next thing you know the schools gonna have a pandemic, honestly.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

So, the school had a Pandemic.

A flu pandemic to be precise.

Nearly everyone’s gotten sick at this point.

Grover, Mr. Brunner, me, and a handful of other students are the only ones holding strong.

On the bright side it meant we don’t have to attend class for a few days while the teachers recover.

On the downside everyone has makeup work, and also, I’m was stuck inside with Grover.

Now don’t get me wrong, Grover is a great friend! We hang out a bunch and agree on a lot of stuff and I keep the bullies off his back.

But I can’t call Triton with Grover there, or practice my waterbending, or my Purification magic.

I’m bored.

The flu pandemic just can’t end quickly enough.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m at the edge of the pit again.

“Welcome back little Half-Blood.”

“My name is Percy, not little Half-Blood.”

The voice hummed, I think it’s a guy but I’m not sure.

“Well then little Percy,”

The voice is totally just trying to annoy me.

“Where do you live?” It finished.

Faint whispers reached me, I can only pick out a few odd words, something about disgusting and mortal? He heard a faint whisper of clearer, and last time?

I wonder what that was about. They sounded like multiple voices now, I don’t know who they are.

“I’m not supposed to give my location to dream strangers Mr. Pit Voice, my mom said so.”

And why does the voice want to know where I live anyways? That seems creepy.

The voice chuckled again, I swear I that heard some snickers beneath it too.

“A fair point little Percy, very well then. What-“

I woke up.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m working on my present for Triton for the winter solstice.

I maybe kinda might be sulking about missing the equinox.

I did manage to get my hands on some pearls (the normal kind) while I was in the ocean over the summer. Now I’m trying to make Triton an arm band to go with the ones he normally wears.

They’re basically part of his crown (they show his station and the carvings show how significant he is). Most sea beings with any kind of rank have them. They’re valuable.

I don’t have any mind you, but I’m technically of land. And family is supposed to give them. Hopefully Triton doesn’t take me making him one as an insult.

Thankfully I don’t need to do complicated carvings, I managed to get nice wire from the art room, I was carefully shaping it into some runes shapes, then I’m gonna (very carefully and did a lot of practice before doing it) carve careful strengthening and color changing runes in.

I only have like a dozen runes mastered to the point that I can safely use them, two preservation ones, two color changing ones, three peace inducing ones, two purifying ones and then the new ones, three strengthening ones.

Runes are a lot harder to master than people think.

I’ll add the pearls last, the order and colors are important too.

And of course, I have to make my other friends something too.

Oh, and Grover, I figure I can make a wood carving of a tree for Grover, I’ve already gotten the wood too.

I’m planning on doing some fancy shell and pearl necklaces for Samoa and Elei, colors matching to their scales of course. I’m still trying to figure out how to infuse them with gentle purifying energy, it’s a work in progress.

For Masina I found a really nice spiral shell and I’m infusing it with purifying energy, using a rune base to help hold it.

For Fetu and Lagi I’m painting some cool rocks I found, I’m also planning on infusing them with purifying energy.

So, sue me, I’m running low on gift ideas. And I’m not super close to them, we only see each other every now and then.

I still don’t know what they might like as a present.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m standing in a hall, looking around I realized I’m back in the undersea trench. I peered out the window to see the lantern fish swimming around.

Well at least this time I don’t have to make my way into the palace.

I turned to try and find my way through.

Wandering around I stared in awe at the sparkling inner walls of the palace.

For all that the outside is dark and scary, the inside is bright with glowing walls and misty effects at the ceiling.

The patterns on the floor are cool too.

“I see you’re back little half-blood.”

I whipped around to see the merman from last time there again.

I noted more details this time, like the bands around the merman’s arm.

…

OH

I quickly twisted my hand into the proper show of respect, this was… this was…

“What are you doing in my palace little half-blood?”

I bit my lip, “I didn’t mean too, I went to sleep and ended up here.”

The merman hummed, “Prophetic dreaming then? Interesting…”

Going here without permission could end badly.

“I’m sorry for intruding.”

The merman’s eyes gleamed, “I sense my power on you, you’ve interacted with something of mine.”

I frowned, I have no idea what he’s was talking about. But maybe he’s…

“What’s your name again little Half-Blood? I didn’t quite catch it last time.”

“I’m-“ It feels like I’m drifting, but leaving without answering wouldn’t be smart, “I’m Percy Ja-“

I left Oceanus’s Palace and woke up.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m back home for winter break, I finally get to see my mom again (I missed her a lot), and ignore Gabe. The best thing though, I get to see Triton in person again at last!

I couldn’t help wondering at my dreams though, apparently prophetic visions? That’s what Oceanus said.

I got to meet Oceanus, my probable dad. He even made a comment about sensing something of his, maybe he just didn’t realize it was me?

I’m honestly almost giddy.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I traded gifts with Triton first, giving Triton the arm-band I made, Triton thanked me for it. He didn’t seem insulted, but he ducked his head so I couldn’t really see his face.

He seemed pleased when he left though, so I’m satisfied.

In return Triton gave me a knife. It was made of Abyssal Platinum, found in deepest parts of the ocean trenches. It’s a valuable material, rare but highly coveted in ocean warfare.

The knife is small, but would do damage, it’s hilt is coated in sea serpent scales. And wrapped in Kraken leather.

It’s amazing.

I love it so much. I’ll make sure to keep it in perfect condition. It’s worth a lot more than my partially Celestial Bronze trident.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I traded gifts with my friends, I left my gift for Grover with him before I left, and now gave my merfriends their gifts.

Somoa gave me a shell that played the sounds of the sea, since they knew that my teacher went on land a lot.

That way I could always have a bit of the ocean with me.

Elei gave me some armor for my chest, interlocking plates that were apparently made of sea serpent scales.

It’s really pretty, I’m definitely going to treasure it.

Masina got me a stone that would still the waters if I tossed it. It would be useful for low level storms and the like, but apparently it wouldn’t work for much else yet. They were still improving the technique.

Fetu got me a book on the Siren’s Song, he apparently found out I was working on it. It was a rarer one from his parents library. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Lagi got me the start of a healing kit. I really need to work on my healing more, but Purification is so interesting, and so’s Siren’s Song. I just haven’t had time for it.

I’ll have to try to make time.

Overall, it’s been a great Solstice.

Of course, that’s when the Ocean erupted into a storm.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I was back on shore quickly thanks to Triton, he told me to go home and stay there while Triton finds out what happened.

It took a week for Triton to get back to me. And even then, he didn’t appear himself, or Iris message.

He sent one of his most discreet messengers, a seagull that was exceptionally good at avoiding attention.

Apparently, Poseidon was being accused of a theft, a really major one.

It could mean war.

I’m supposed to lay low. Iris messages couldn’t be trusted until the situation calmed down.

Triton would contact me when it did.

Until then I’m to act as if nothing happened.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I went back to Yancey Academy and pretended that I wasn’t sick with worry.

I acted like nothing was wrong, nothing at all.

We got a new teacher, Ms. Dodds.

I have a really bad feeling about the rest of the year.

[derangedroyalfae]

Sunday, April 18, 2021 - 10:00pm

{mostly taken from a conversation with my best friend, Jem - there were some bits that I thought were worded well}

Royal (2:26 PM): Sometimes I think about taking antidepressants again if only to numb the pain. And then I remember how it made me too numb and to everything, so then I think about drinking or doing edibles, but then it still sounds awful and could possibly amplify those feelings (as alcohol usually does make me feel more upset). And that’s sometimes why self-harm becomes a substitute, because it ether distracts from those feelings or even makes you feel like your receiving punishment for whatever you’re upset about. But I know self-harm turns into a loop of guilt and shame and worrying about worrying others.

Jem (2:27 PM): I haven't heard the same about edibles that I hear about alcohol

Or marijuana in general I suppose

Royal (2:28 PM): Weed scares me. Like I’m worried I’ll have a reaction because whenever people smoke or cook it around me, I get super sick feeling. I also know Kitty had a bad reaction to edibles, like gave her ultra anxiety and hallucinations or something like that.

Jem (2:29 PM): Ah, gotcha I myself am allergic so I can't say I've tried it myself either

Royal (2:29 PM): I think I might be allergic and I don’t wanna find out the hard way

When people smoke/cook it around me, I get nauseous and a headache

Jem (2:32 PM): Yeah, I used to have two roommates that both smoked weed in our tiny apartment I used to have near constant headache until I moved out the next year

Royal (2:33 PM): I wish I could just remove those negative feelings I have: anger, sadness, jealousy, dysphoria, etc Put them somewhere far away so I wouldn’t have to deal with them, and wouldn’t have to hurt others because of them

(I tend to use dysphoria for myself as an in general term, not just with gender dysphoria, btw)

Jem (2:34 PM): Aah, yeah, I get you

Royal (2:38 PM): But even though I’m scared I’ll have a bad reaction, I’m mighty tempted to ask Hummingbird if I can try one of her edible gummies rn...

Jem (2:41 PM): I wonder if there's a way to try it in a safe/monitored way

Royal (2:41 PM): Well, if I do just one gummy

With their supervision

So if I have a bad reaction, they can watch over me or drive me to the urgent care

I love how it’s called urgent care but usually has like an hour or longer wait

Jem (2:43 PM): Ah yeah, that'd be the best way to do it Keep the phone handy too

Royal (2:45 PM): Hey, at the very least, doesn’t look like it has any interactions with my cholesterol medication

Jem (2:46 PM): That's good to know

Royal (2:50 PM): I don’t think I’ll actually follow through with it or anything, just my mind thinking of solutions

I’m feeling calmer now anyway

For now

{And then proceeded to draw this (it’s an idea I’ve had this idea for a long time now, especially since the first time I experienced extreme jealousy with Capy, but never had the courage to follow through since I’ve never done inking and rarely traditional colour, but I finally worked up the motivation to try, and honestly, it’s perfect timing as it was therapeutic to draw)}:

Royal (8:09 PM): Random question, I’m curious your thoughts on this: do you think it’s insensitive to joke about getting with other people when you’re in a relationship, especially/at least in front of your partner (at least if the two of you haven’t established a non-monogamous relationship), and even more so if you know your partner is dealing with jealousy issues?

Jem (8:12 PM): I’d think so, yeah

It's definitely odd

Unless it's like, I donno, a celebrity or something

But even then, it'd make me wonder why someone would say that if they knew already their partner was having issues

Royal (8:12 PM): Like someone they know/knew or met in the past, but 100% out of the picture now

So it’s def not a celeb

Jem (8:14 PM): Yeah then even without the jealousy issues, unless that's some sort of pre-established shared humor, it's kinda weird

Royal (8:15 PM): K, I was curious what you’d think

I agree with that too, it just feels really insensitive, at least if you’re monogamous

{Whilst I never told Jem what it was about, it has to do with something similar that had happened earlier today - though I am not technically in a monogamous relationship, so the above can’t fully apply to me. But to explain this better, I’ll have to jump back to something that happened in December 2020.

Capybara had told me about how there was this really attractive lecturer he met in the past whom if I remember correctly, spoke Greek, so his friend got him a Greek dictionary to help him try to impress her, but he never really ran into her again. I had made a comment that you know, guess it worked out for the better because then we would have never become a thing should he have actually succeeded in getting with her. And he made a joke that wasn’t the case or a joke that brushed off what I said as almost nothing. I knew he was joking, but it was kinda a really emotional time for everyone and I’m still even to this day working through my newfound romantic/sexual jealousy issues, so I took it kinda harsh at first and then eventually told him that same night how that kinda made me feel shitty.

Well, today, we were gaming with one of his friends (super great, hardworking, and nice lad) that we often play Sea of Thieves with and it turns out that was the same friend who got him the Greek dictionary, so it somehow got brought up in conversation…and just…they were joking that Capybara was Odysseus and this other woman was Odysseus’s wife and they’d find each other again one day. I can’t remember which character they assigned the friend but they were saying I could be one of the gods, and I’ll be honest, didn’t handle that situation the best, so I made a off hand comment of something like, “Guess I can be Athena or Aphrodite since they’re the jealous types, guess that works pretty well.” Don’t know if they picked up the hint. I don’t know if they were at all thinking about how this was something awkward for me, cuz I’m pretty sure the friend is aware that I’m dating Capy and is supposed to assume we’re monogamous as Capybara doesn’t really feel comfortable letting his friends or family know I have other partners. It just also happened to be a sore topic for me, cuz when Capy made that joke, even though I knew it was nothing more than a joke, it made me feel like nothing and replaceable, which I already see myself as.

Just to kinda let Capybara know that I’d prefer the topic to be dropped, I messaged him privately: “So I just remembered, it was you talking about that Greek dictionary thing to impress that girl and making a joke that like, meeting me wasn’t for the better cuz she’s still out there that kinda made me feel like shit even though it was a joke”

To which he responded with: “she's a lecturer my dude 😂 she's like in her 40's - don't worry”

And I replied with: “No I know, but it was more of the joke that followed that rubbed me wrong. At the time”

And he just sent these two emoji’s in response: 😧 😕

Immediately after our messages, as we had still been playing, he went dead silent and so I noticed this (not sure if the friend did at first) and I at first just tried to silently apologize in DM, cuz I hadn’t meant to upset him, but he still remained silent. So shortly after, I asked if we should call it quits even though it was early. I felt so guilty and I immediately sent him more apology messages and even an apology voice memo, but I assumed he turned his phone off by that point.

Once again, my jealousy got the best of me and I hurt the person I love most in the world and made a fun time involving friends go awkward. I was having a good early afternoon/late morning with him at first, and then I ruined it because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and my jealousy under control. I’m such an asshole.}

Royal (8:22 PM): Off topic, but still on the issue of jealousy, I feel like when I have jealousy issues myself at the point I’m at, it’s like a double headed snake due to me being in a polyamorous relationship - one head are just the pre-established toxic/venomous things that come with jealousy and the other head is the guilt and shame of feeling I have no right to be jealous when I have two other partners myself thus making me feel hypocritical (and being ignorant of any potential jealousy from other partners)

It feels like those two snake heads could eat me alive with just a few bites each if I let them in

It’s such a viscous cycle and honestly, the basic head of jealousy is enough of a problem that turns my stomach, but the second head just makes me want to surrender to the earth

Jem (8:28 PM): I get you It's a lot

Emotions are hard

Royal (8:28 PM): Especially when they revolve around something or someone you already have such an emotional attachment with

And then those feelings, like feelings of jealousy, only end up making you hurt the ones you love

Making them feel guilty or annoyed or like you don’t trust them or something

Jem (8:31 PM): Tbh, as someone who generally struggles with a lot of jealousy type issues, I get that (not necessarily romantic jealousy even, but just there's undercurrents of it that are always there and present in every relationship)

I don't think it's something that can ever be fully dealt with and just I guess has to be accepted and worked around At least for me

Royal (8:33 PM): And it makes you wonder if you truly care for those if you’re so easily jealous of them, since they tell you that shouldn’t feel that way if you really love someone, that you should be able to love them blindly and trust them, and it’s not like I don’t trust, but I feel so easily discardable by those who I could never even fathom of turning my back on

Royal (8:34 PM): Honestly, I’ve even felt some jealousy toward you in the past - not romantically - but it was something I worked on

Jem (8:34 PM): What if I were to say same though haha

Royal (8:34 PM): You seemed to be doing so well with you VN and you picked up art so fast

Jem (8:35): Aah for me it's always revolving around

My need for attention tbh

Royal (8:35 PM): But I told myself, “you just need to keep trying. Feeling negatively toward someone success is selfish and gets you nowhere. Improve yourself and you can also feel that success. He’s not succeeding to hurt you in anyway - you should be happy for him.”

Or like, probably not those exact words, but ya know, that idea

Royal (8:36 PM): Yeah, I understand that too, especially growing up in a family of 6

That kinda happened the other day with Kitty (whom at this point my feelings are pretty platonic) - for over a week now I’ve been telling the girls about a game (For the King) I’ve been interested in playing with them, and the other day, Hummingbird went on a social distancing date with Crystal, so I asked Kitty if she’d like to play with me since it’d be just the two of us and she agreed. However, she had a headache, so we thought it’d be best if she napped first and if she felt better later on then we could play. When she woke up, Lapis hit her up for some gaming and Kitty decided to game with her instead and forgot she agreed to game with me...

Jem (8:41 PM): Ah, that kinda thing really sticks with me

Royal (8:41 PM): And so I’m just getting to a point where I feel like I should just stop asking them if they wanna game with me, because it’s not the first time something like this has happened (at least they don’t follow through, not a matter of them deciding to do something with someone else)

Like, I made the Murder Beans server so Capybara and Kitty (and Hummingbird if she ever decided to get Among Us) could game with my friends in the CSR Creations server, and that was back in fall...the girls never joined a game even when showing express interest and saying they would

Kitty also once went and bought Lapis like the whole Halo Master Chief Collection for Lapis cuz she was broke and wanted it, and the proceeded to play it with her and Hummingbird...and like...I also would have liked to have played Halo with them if given the opportunity, but I was never asked

Sheezus, don’t even get me started in my family and how invisible they made me feel

But yeah, I’m at a point with the girls that I don’t think it’s even worth bothering to ask anymore, at least about gaming

Hummingbird’s confusion and migraines are also coming back, so she has a legit medical excuse and I can’t really bother her about it

Jem (8:48 PM): I get you, yeah

All of those things would really bother me too They have in the past

I remember when I first joined UCSD, I started hanging out often with the girls that lived around me in the dorms And we all started watching Orphan Black together

And then I literally had no idea when they finished the show because after the first couple sessions they forgot to invite me

Royal (8:51 PM): Oof, yeah, that’d bother me too, or at least tell me how they felt about me in my mind

I don’t think with my jealousy, it’s a matter of not trusting my partner or friends or whomever, it’s just a matter of feeling such low self-worth that I feel easy to discard, and when I get brushed to the side or have someone joking along the lines as how dating me wasn’t for the better when someone else is out there, it furthers those feelings I have about myself, those feelings of self-worth and how I’m replaceable or not worth shit

Jem (8:54 PM): I get you I know mine stems from feeling forgettable

Royal (8:54 PM): I know I’m an annoying person, I know I can be a lot and emotionally draining, I know I can be hypersensitive - so I know it feels like it’d be better to be rid of that sort of force if you can find someone better who doesn’t make you feel the way I’d do

(In response to feeling forgettable) Yeah

If you remove the fun hair, piercings, and tattoo, I’m actually quite a boring person

And I’m quite isolated. If you don’t include my partners, there’s only really two people who come to mind that I’d consider close friends that I can talk to: you and someone else (you’ve never met her)

I’m getting to a point where I have a hard time talking to the girls due to the guilt I feel about me more or less wanting to be platonic with them, and then Hummingbird is constantly having a medical crisis and I’d feel bad burdening her further

So really, I’m isolated down to two people, primarily you, + Capybara, and yeah, that’s my own fault

I feel easily exhausted by my other options at this point, where I feel like I can only take Candy in small doses (which feels really hypocritical of me) and my other VA friends or gaming friends, I don’t know if I’m close enough to have those kinds of conversations with, especially the VA friends since I tend to be their boss

For the most part, the other people I’d sometimes talk about these issues with are on servers that are primarily dead, so it feels awkward to hop back in only to bitch about my life

Besides, I hate seeming like I’m only spewing forth toxicity and negative emotions over and over again

Which I worry I do too much with you as is

[girl-in-the-tower]

SR Card: Lab Coat Part I

So, because I had a lot of fun writing the previous card, I thought I should repeat the experience. Without further ado, here is another Kore card.

Enjoy~

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

Ace: Phew~ Class is finally over.

Grim: I thought it was never gonna end. I was about to fall asleep, yanno.

Deuce: Yeah... No! As students we should do our best to pay attention to the teacher’s lecture no matter what!

Ace: Sure, sure. Whatever you say Mr. Wanna-Be-Student-Model.

Deuce: You-!!

Grim: Kore, what’s for dinner tonight?

Kore: Good question... I was thinking of making some Mushroom Chicken Stew. How does that sound?

Grim: Ugh, mushrooms again... Didn’t we eat that last night?

Kore: Well, it can’t be helped since we bought that large crate of mushrooms from Sam-san. We have to finish them before buying something else or it’ll be a waste.

Grim: Argh! You shouldn’t have got that in the first place! What were you thinking, anyway?!

Kore:... You’re the one who wanted to eat steamed mushrooms so I don’t get why you’re throwing the blame on me.

...mumble... still... mumble

Ace: So Grim was the one who messed up? Not surprising at all~

Grim: Grrr! You’re looking for a fight?!

Ace: Man, you’re such an annoying furball.

Grim: Argh! Why you-!!

Deuce: Oi!! We’re not allowed to fight on school grounds!

Ace: Ah~ There he goes again. Isn’t that kinda hypocritical coming from a guy who’s always itching for a fight?

Deuce: ! That’s-!

Kore: Ah! I’ve got it!

Grim: Gah!

Deuce: That was loud...

Ace: It startled me. Why’d start shouting like that?

Kore: I’ve just thought of a good idea for how to get rid of the mushrooms faster! Ace, Deuce, you should come over for dinner!

Ace: Come over you say?

Kore: Yeah, that way we’ll definitely finish the crate super fast, since there’d be four of us! Ah, we could also invite Cate-senpai and Clover-senpai and maybe even Rosehearts-senpai!

Deuce: Would Prefect Rosehearts actually agree to such a thing?

Kore: I don’t know, but it can’t hurt to ask! We should go to their classrooms to check if they are still here and-

Ace: Ok, ok. Wait just a sec.

Kore: Hm? What’s wrong?

Ace: I think you’re letting yourself get carried away with this whole thing. Besides it’s not like any of us will be able to come over.

Kore: You won’t? How come?

Ace: Seems nice to be so carefree~

Kore: Eh?

Deuce: Ah!

Ace: Oh, looks like he remembered.

Grim: Remembered?

Deuce: The club activities! They’re today!

Ace: Yep, that’s correct! Good job, Deuce!

Deuce: I’ve almost forgotten about it...

Ace: Well, that’s not that surprising...

Kore: ‘Club activities’? What’s that?

Ace: Activities that you do in a club. The term is pretty self-explanatory...

Kore: Oh, I see... What’s a club?

Deuce: Huh, Kore-san, you mean you don’t know?

Kore: Eh, should I?

Ace: There it is~ ‘Kore-chan’s absolute lack of experience when it comes to things most people wouldn’t be confused by!’

Kore:.. why’d you have to say that like you’re a TV announcer?

Ace: Is that really the thing you should be concerned about?

Still, to think you don’t even know that much, but always score high on exams. It’s kinda unfair...

Kore:... It feels like you’re complimenting me, but in fact it’s just an insult, right?

Ace: Oh? So you can be sharp?

Kore: You just did it again...

Ace: But to answer your original question, a club is basically like a group that people form when they are interested in the same thing.

Kore: I see. I have one more question!

Ace: Go ahead!

Deuce:... It suddenly turned into a lecture.

Grim:... Yeah.

Kore: You say that it’s a group of people that like the same things, but isn’t that just a group of friends? It’s the same for us, since we all have common interests...

Ace: Bzzt! Wrong! No points for you this round!

Grim:... and now it’s a game show.

Deuce: It’s not the same, Kore-san. A club is all about hierarchy and listening to your seniors while you do your hardest to accomplish your goal! It’s really intense!

Ace: Yeah, pretty much all that. Except for the intense part...

Kore: Oh, I think I got it...

Then does it mean you are both part of a club?

Ace: Yep. I’m part of the basketball club.

Deuce: And I’m in track and field. Though I really would have preferred a Magical Wheel club...

Ace: There he goes again...

Kore:... That sounds really fun.

Grim: Ha? What are you talking about? It just sounds tiresome...

Kore: Do you really think so? But being able to do things you enjoy with a lot of people doesn’t sound bad at all...

Deuce: Then why don’t you come and join the track and field club, Kore-san?

Kore: Eh?! Am I allowed to do that?

Ace: Of course. Clubs are open to everyone who is interested in them.

Ah, but if you’re thinking of joining one, you should pick mine instead.

Deuce: Huh?! That’s a real bold thing to say when I’ve just invited Kore-san to join my club.

Ace: If you say so. But it’s common sense, isn’t it?

Grim: Hm? What do you mean?

Ace: I mean, every team needs a cute manager to cheer up the players when they feel down. It’s basically a must for a sports club!

Deuce:... I see what you mean. Those roles are necessary as well.

Ace: Besides, the seniors will surely to be happy with me if I bring the popular and responsible Kore-chan to help out~

Grim: He’s looking out for his own interest again...

Deuce: Using Kore-san like that is really- ! Huh? Where are you running off too?

Ace: I’ve already wasted enough time here, so I got to hurry to the gymnasium before I get scolded!

Oh, Kore-chan you’re coming too!

Kore: Eh?! Why?!

Deuce: Oi! Just grabbing Kore-san like that and taking off!

...Crap. If I don’t hurry, I’m sure to be scolded.

Kore-san, make sure to drop by the sports’ field later!

Kore: I-I will try!

Ace: I don’t think that’s necessary since you’ll be joining my club. Though if we don’t there fast... Let’s move up a bit!

Kore: Uwahh!

Grim: Oi!!

[imaginesbymk]

Being a college student and dating Jerome Valeska would include...

— Requested by: anonymous (and an idea of mine once upon a time ago)

he’d always support you but there are ups and downs to it

while he just shrugs the idea, he also wonders why you’re even in college

he knows your major but thinks it’s not even beneficial, as for him, he never had a proper education but wounded up as a anarchist and a messiah to so many people and is very clever and intelligent

sometimes you have to commute so early in the morning so there’s barely any time to eat breakfast with him before leaving

he’d make you coffee anyway

“grab a protein bar, babes”

you’re literally stressed as fuck

he notices the bags under your eyes and knows you messed up your sleeping schedule

Jerome hates it when he’s trying to sleep but the glare from your laptop in the dark is blinding him

you try to balance time with Jerome while keeping school your priority

Jerome barely sees you which bugs him

he’s kinda jealous that you’ve made it so far in your education like his brother Jeremiah because he was miserably dragged through the circus his whole life

he’d try to help you with your homework but not be too good at it, he’d hate it as much as you did

“No,” he groans. “You cross multiply those numbers, whatever is left you divide them, and divide this number by 100.”

“No no no,” he jabs his finger down on your page. “It says to round to 3 significant digits.”

“Hm?” he stops you from writing. “The atomic mass unit formula is set up wrong. And sulfur has 6 valence electrons, not 8. Maybe I’ll get Mr. Freeze to help you, he’s a scientist.”

“Babe, my brain hurts.” You run your temples.

“Well, you made my brain hurt just by looking at the first question. Your life sucks.”

making fun of all the college merch you have

would probably rob a bank so you could pay off your tuition and student loans

calls you a nerd

he is actually banned from entering your campus because of who he is so it’s hard for him to drop off lunch or to come visit you

he hates the “stench of miserable, broke college kids” or so he calls it

he’d blow up your phone during lectures and tutorials

your classmates and just basically anyone at your school know you’re dating Jerome Valeska and they think you’re just like him and they either fear you, hate you, bully you or just simply couldn’t care less

either way, the only thing on your mind is just simply passing your classes

tries to put fun in your life again by taking you to college frat parties or a date night in Gotham

after failing a test you’d studied so hard for, he’d comfort you by telling you a joke and manipulate you into thinking your professor is out to get you, made it personal and was a hard marker specifically on your test

bobs his head to your study music playlist which is lo-fi beats

he’d snoop through your laptop and see all the saved drafts of your assignments and be curious about them

reads your essays sometimes and chuckles at the common mistakes

edits them for you to the point where it doesn’t even sound like it’s been written by you anymore

changes the font to Comic Sans or something so illegible

one of the paragraphs have “HA HA HA!” bolded

gets bored and thinks it’d be funny to use Microsoft paint to draw on a blank page like a five-year old

“You’re such a child, Jerome. I need to finish my assignment! It’s due at 11:59 tonight!”

overall, he’d love you and be proud that you’re trying your best to get good grades and have a relationship with him. he can tell you are committed and one day he’ll help you make it to your 11:59 assignment because he wants you to do well and succeed just like him.

[shinjukuspiritcommittee]

Health and Sports Team Building 1

Fan Event 1

Location: ???

Oh, you’re back. Why? Because you wanted to…? Or maybe… because you felt you had to? You really didn’t get much of a say in it I’m guessing. I’m in the same boat I guess. A lot of the things I know just get decided for me and I don’t ever have any control in what I do. It’s why I asked. I’m just curious if you ever felt that way, that’s all…

~~~

Location: Shinjuku Academy

After another long day of classes, it seemed a well deserved respite was in order for you and your friends. You let loose a rather loud yawn which your friends took notice to. “Finally gettin’ tired of classes?” Kengo teased. You explained that wasn’t quite the case, but rather just exhausted altogether from the lack of sleep.

This seems to have alarmed Shiro. “Oh really? I wonder what could have kept you up.” Shiro’s cold gaze pierced through your sleepiness. You panicked a bit while you responded that students from Yoyogi Academy had kept you out a bit later than normal on your way back. “Hmm, well you are quite popular so it’s no surprise.” You tried to deny you were that popular…

“I agree with Shiro.” Moritaka added. “You are quite known after all that’s happened this past year.” The comments made you a bit sheepish and you wondered aloud if they really thought so.

Ryota laughed. “Yep! There’s just something about you that draws in all sorts of folks. You’ve made a lot of friends too and get involved with all these crazy schemes.” Ryota had a point all things considered. Especially since your sports academy friends did give you a personal invitation to go to their school for their Health and Sports day event. This surprised your friends. “Are they allowed to do that?” Ryota asked with a bit of concern.

“Most cases, no.” Shiro replied. “But since we all celebrate Health and Sports day differently…”

“Whaddya mean? Don’t we all just get the day off?” Kengo asked.

“We do, but Yoyogi Academy is still one of the few prominent schools in Tokyo that still celebrate Health and Sports day. Schools all across Japan used to celebrate it but over the years it’s importance has dwindled quite a bit. At the very least Yoyogi Academy tends to draw out a bit of a crowd every year given the number of athletes that participate so it makes for a nice excuse to watch them compete.” You commented that sounded like a fun day and get a bit excited at what sort of events they might compete in. “All sorts of things like a relay race and tug of war.”

“I once heard they did a Cavalry Battle. Is it true!?” Ryota asked with an equal amount of excitement.

“It’s one of the more uncommon ones but I believe there was…” Shiro pondered. Those didn’t quite sound like normal games. Now you were more excited to see such events play out. You even suggested all your friends should go. “Well, I’m not against going to watch.”

“Lame.” Kengo replied. “If you’re gonna go to a sports school the least you could do is not act like a total bookworm!”

“And maybe you might learn a thing or two about better health habits.” Shiro quipped right back.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, really. Just all those sweets are gonna catch up to you one of these days.”

“...You little-”

Ryota couldn’t help but laugh at the two’s bickering as it was commonplace for the two to act like that while Moritaka sighed. Ryota continued on through his laughter “While I’m not the biggest sports fan, I’d love to go watch and cheer too.”

“Hmm, perhaps I could hone my skills with their sports clubs.” Moritaka added. “Do you think they have Kendo students?” That actually reminded you that they do. In fact, you met one yesterday…

One day earlier

Location: Shinjuku Park

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” A girl with her brunette hair tied up in a pony tail asked you as you were on your way back while on your guild patrol. You took a mental note of her uniform and how her hair was quite unkempt. However familiar she was not a girl you’ve interacted with before. “You sure?” You suggested she might just be mistaking you for someone else. “Hmm… not really. I couldn’t forget a face as cute as yours~.” Well- Wait, hold up. Cute? “Yep.” She chuckled as she took a comical step forward, getting close but not quite touching you. Just who was she?

“That’s enough Yui.” Durga said as a small group of three Yoyogi students jogged up to you; Kyuma, Gunzo, and Durga. “Tatsuya was right, you’re gonna scare people just running up like that.”

The girl who was apparently named Yui backed away from you laughing to herself. “C’mon, can’t I have a bit of fun? They’re totally someone who definitely looks like they need a date~.” You interjected what that was supposed to mean. “That you’re cute. You think so too, right Durga?”

“W-What does that have to do with me!?” Dura stammered out while blushing from embarrassment. “Besides, this one’s a pal of ours!”

“What a funny coincidence!” Gunzo laughed. “Guess we took our jog a bit too far up. So what brings you the way out here?” You didn’t want to burden them with your responsibilities too much so you simply said you were out for a stroll since it was Shinjuku Park. While everyone else was convinced, Yui took notice something of you. You noticed but neither of you said anything.

“Well, whatever the case it’s good to see you again!” Kyuma said. “David’s pretty happy to see you again too.” You were glad David and Kyuma were doing well. “We’d love to stay and chat but we should probably head back soon. We’ve gotta make sure everything is ready for tomorrow.” What was happening tomorrow?

“You haven’t heard? Sports Day is coming up.” Gunzo answered. “Its basically a day when we all take the time to learn more about healthy living. Well all of us in the Academy at least.”

“Yeah, it’s mandatory for us…” Durga sighed. You pointed out she didn’t sound very excited. “Yeah, well… the work’s kinda boring and we had to waste a bunch of good days for training to set up for some boring lectures! It’s definitely dreadful!”

Yui then cut in. “That’s no way to talk! We get to do as much outside as we do inside, remember? Can’t have fun without a little torture!”

“Oh, right! I almost forgot about those since I didn’t do any of that work…” She admitted bashfully.

“It’s too bad you can’t play with us.” Gunzo said to you. “It’d be great to be on the same team again!” You actually brought up your school was giving you the day off and you didn’t have much planned so a day outside sounded like a bunch of fun. “Wait, seriously!? Some people get all the luck…” He grumbled while Legion murmured to him you were still there. “Uh, I mean-! That’s great! Totally!”

Kyuma then got on board with the idea. “That sounds like a lot of fun! I hope we get to play against each other!” You told Kyuma you looked forward to it. “Alright! I’m getting pumped just thinking about it!”

“Whoa, hold up a sec!” Yui jumped in. “You can’t just invite anyone to play in these events with us… can you?”

“Well, I’m sure Mr. Arima or Mr. Avarga could get you approved.”  Kyuma suggested.

“Hmm, actually… Tatsuya’s been at the infirmary a lot lately… maybe he can help.” Yui brought up.

“Ever the reliable Den Mother.” Gunzo said. “I’m sure he’s able to convince Mr. Arima. The two are also doing that seminar together, right?”

“Yeah, I think…” You were confused by who they meant. “Oh, right. Tatsuya is a classmate of ours and a member of the Kendo club like me.” Yui explained. “I’ve known him for quite a while… hmm, maybe you two should meet sometime.” He sounds pretty nice. “Yeah…” She said that with a bit of concern in her voice.

“He really is! He’s always helping us around campus and all sorts of smaller things.” Gunzo said.

“Though his lectures…” Durga sighed. “He’s almost as bad as the coaches about studies…”

“Well, maybe if you did study a bit more and got your grades up he wouldn’t be so hard on you.” Kyuma chided.

“Let’s not talk about that! We gotta get back before curfew anyway! See ya!” Durga then bolted off without her other three friends.

“Hey wait a sec- You can’t just ditch us like that!” Gunzo cried out as he and Kyuma charged after her.

Yui looked back at you a bit nervously. “Y-You know… you really should come. I know it’ll our friend happy!” You said you would but what made her so sure Tatsuya would be happy. “He just… would, okay? I can just tell by looking at you! Anyway gotta go bye!” She then charged off after her friends too leaving you by yourself to ponder what to do.

Present Day

Location: Shinjuku Academy

Everyone remained silent as you recounted your story the whole way through. They all took a minute to process what was said until Kengo finally spoke up. “Some just have all the luck.” You asked what that meant since it didn’t seem out of the ordinary for you. “You always get invited to all the fun stuff!” I-It’s not always… was it? You were just the one who had the free time to do so. Besides there wasn’t any harm in extending your invitation out to your friends.

“Yeah, that sounds good at least!” Ryota said. “It’s too bad Toji is gonna be busy tomorrow. I’m sure he would have enjoyed that lecture they were talking about.”

“I know I’m curious.” Your advisor stated. “It’ll be nice to get a change of pace for a change too.”

“Now you’re talkin’!” Kengo whooped.

“I’ll be accompanying you as well then. I would love to test my skill against athletes of that caliber.” You were confident Moritaka could stand his ground and even beat them. “I’m not trying to be THAT impressive. But… it does sound nice.” The canine therian went on sheepishly.

Meanwhile…

Location: Yoyogi Academy Dorms

Tatsuya had wrapped up his work for the day and was ready to turn in early to get a head start on tomorrow’s preparations since he had to do that lecture on mental health with Mineaki and an upperclassmen pretty early in the morning. As he was nearing his room someone called out for him. “Tatsuyaaaa~!” You called out as she jogged over. When she reached him she panted and took a sip of her sports drink. “Man, you shoulda came on that run with us~.”

“Well I was busy.” Tatsuya pointed out while motioning to his bag.

“Oh, right uh…” Yui hesitated at her misspeaking. “Anyway, about Sports Day tomorrow I realized we hadn’t talked much about our plans after that lecture.”

“We haven’t talked much, but I’ve been making plans.”

“What kinda plans?” Yui asked. Tatsuya wordlessly pulled out a paper from his bag and before presenting it to Yui he made her promise to not tell anyone about it. Once she agreed he showed the contents to her and it was all of his approved sports for Sports Day. Yui was taken aback by how many rejections there were. “There’s no way this is real? Can Mr. Arima really pull you from this many activities!?” Tatsuya nodded. However before he could explain Yui continued speaking. “There has to be a mistake. I’m sure I can persuade Mr. Arima to give you a chance. It’s probably your grades or something right? Don’t worry we’ll get this fixed.”

“Wait a sec-” Tatsuya tried to stop her but she took off again for the main building with his paper still in her hands. He took a picture of it so he remembers what sports he was approved for but his main concern was that paper getting lost and getting loose. Tatsuya sighed to himself. “You can’t just fix things because you want to…”

Location: Yoyogi Academy

Yui raced down the halls hoping Mr. Arima hadn’t turned in for the day so she could talk about Tatsuya’s case. While she made it to the office only a student was standing there. “What’s wrong?” He asked as she came up.

“Uh… I was looking for Mr. Arima…” Yui breathed. “Is he not in?”

“You just missed him. He made his way back to the dorms.”

“Dang it, I musta just missed him…” She sighed. “Thanks anyway, er…”

The canine therian replied with “Yasuyori, third year.”

“Ah okay… Uh, you can just call me Yui! I’m a second year. Anyway, thanks again!”

“No problem.” He told her as she ran off to go find him. “Yui, huh? She seemed nice. It’s too bad she missed him…” For some reason he was rather melancholic as he spoke to himself about her.

[anxiouslyfred]

Unofficial Bar Security

Summary: Remus likes fighting and has gotten known at his local bar as someone who will fight anyone with bigoted views. He just hopes that his marks don’t mean he’ll meet his soulmate by fighting them

warnings: sexism mentions, homophobia and racism mentions, bar fight

/\/\

Remus enjoyed fighting. He always had and it had only gotten worse when he realised how many bigoted self-absorbed bastards there were around, all to ready to lecture, insult or attack him because of the pride badges he wore, or just because he didn't care about wearing popular fashions.

When the bar he liked going to most often started doing specials and hosting events for Pride month or to support the Black Lives Matter movement, Remus was already on watch for anybody causing trouble. In fact he basically became a voluntary security guard given the owners and staff had assured him that any fights started because someone had been racist or queerphobic towards any labels wouldn't get him thrown out. That was basically permission given to Remus to insert himself into any situation he liked and get into additional fights.

The main reason he even thought curiously about getting into fights was that he was fairly sure however he met his soulmate was going to include him grabbing them. He could only hope that was a grab to get them out of a fight rather than starting one with them. It seemed likely given the lighter skin covered his hands and a line down his chest which no matter how many play fights Remus had instigated with his brother couldn't easily be used to attack, only capture and possibly defend as a body shield.

He had visions of meeting them in the bar, possibly someone getting harassed by the one racist group that refused to get the point that their views weren't welcome, and just grabbing them out of the way. There could even still be a fight once he got them out of the way, to show how skilled he is at them.

Remus dismissed the daydreams from his mind, taking another sip of his beer and glancing around the bar. The group of pests was back again, but they seemed to be being quiet for the time being. There were a few groups of teenagers from out of town, probably on a road trip together or something for the summer.

There was a fabulous fellow just waiting at the bar, and looking more than a little uncomfortable. They seemed a bit out of place, hunching into their hoodie and glancing around at the various groups cheering and laughing together. Remus  had to watch for a while, just taking in the lithe form and wary posture. Either this was someone who had been forced to come with their friends or had come out for some space from a bad situation.

Still Remus wouldn't mind on getting his hands on that bum, or offering to keep their company for a while. There was only so much control one could have while waiting for their soulmate and Remus would happily let it go for an adorable... fighter? While he'd been watching the person they must have heard something from the abuse gang and was already glaring and stepping over to them.

Just was the frantic gestures Remus had to move closer, ready to act whether to help or just get the person out of there was yet to be determined. The group had been in the bar longer than normal without causing trouble and tended to react worse the more alcohol they'd had, which could be very bad for the person Remus had been watching.

Whatever was being said was getting hissed too quietly for him to make out the words, but the reaction was obvious. The men that had been laughing together and judging everyone else had started off falling silent but now were all standing, scowling and trying to get out from the table in order to surround the person. Remus barely thought the instant one raised an empty bottle as though about to break it.

The noise of yelling and glass breaking broke out just as he grabbed the person, one hand aiming for their shoulder but hooking around the neck, the other for their bum as Remus pushed into them, the momentum taking them into a booth next to where the guys were getting out from.

“Security! These guys are attempting to attack us with a broken glass! They've been making racist and homophobic comments all evening too!” He turned to yell after checking the person hadn't hit anything in the action. There were battles Remus would love to fight, but the chances of someone completely uninvolved getting hurt with broken glass being used as a weapon was far too high. Plus hopefully if security got involved then the group would be banned forever this time.

From the faces now directed towards him it was obvious they all realised it too. He might be the volunteer unofficial security against bigoted people but as soon as he was calling for the people paid for the role, they weren't likely to be coming back again. Still Remus paid attention to what was happening, using his body to block the fascinating person behind him in case any of them tried anything now. The cameras in the place would show what had happened and his own reports that had been recorded after the previous few fights they'd had should be more than enough to identify them if they tried coming back.

Eventually though he turned back to face the person, hoodie now discarded to the side of them as they were trying to look at the side he'd tackled them from. “Are you okay? Sorry for tacking you, but those guys are some nasty work I've been trying to teach to be better with my fists for weeks. Didn't know what else to do when one raised the bottle.”

They startled, turning to him with a stunned expression, before raising their hand up to their neck. “Yeah, yeah, I'm good, I guess. Um, are your hands...?” They broke off, looking at Remus as though they were torn between finishing the question and ignoring it. Their actions had already made Remus realise that their neck now had a neon green hand print on it though.

Raising his hands up for them both to look he burst out laughing to see they'd turned violet, but just to be sure he was dragging his top and jacket off to look at the pale line on his chest, now a matching purple to his hands. “Oh my god! I actually did that trying to protect you! I mean I hoped, I hoped so much, cause body connections like that are kinda weird to get but with all the fights I've been in I was still worried.”

“I mean that's a better worry than I had. Everyone said one of these marks had to be a birthmark and if they could only see the neck that my soulmate is going to try to suffocate me the first time we touch.” Their voice was shaky, and they were watching Remus as though expecting some kind of bad reaction to his soulmate being them.

“Never. Besides that's like the least interesting way for someone to die. I've got books and books about how different deaths are interesting and suffocation just isn't that good.” he had calmed a little at the mention, reaching out to stroke over their neck for a moment before realising he still knew nothing about this person, and they knew nothing about him in return. “I'm Remus, by the way, and you are fascinatingly dark. He/him pronouns if you will. Can I know my soulmates name and pronouns, or even just whatever battle led you to telling those jerks off?”

“Virgil and  he/him too, currently. I'll let you know when they change. And those guys were making the girls close to where I was stood with the catcalling and jeers they made. I might not know them but nobody should have to hear the vile things they were talking about when they just wanted to have a night out.” Virgil nodded, tugging a pronoun wristband out from the sleeve of his top so it could be seen.

Remus snickered a little. “I have done the same before. Got standing permission to get into fights if people say hate filled things or encourage discrimination while I'm here.”

“What – what do you want to do now? About the soulmates thing, I mean?” Virgil asked, gaze following Remus's hands as he bounced them a bit.

That felt like a loaded question, and just from the way Virgil was shifting in his seat Remus could see he was anxious about the answer. There was a lot of pressure from society over how soulmates should act together, but it all felt pretty meaningless to him. “Get to know you preferably. I'm not jumping into settling down with a complete stranger no matter how cute your butt is, but we could practise fighting together? Message online or something?”

“Thank god. I did not want to jump into soulmates means we have to be joint at the hip thing either. It sounds socially exhausting just thinking about it.” Virgil sighed, giving the distinct impression that if Remus had wanted it he would have gone along with it all for his sake. “It does sound like fun to practise wrestling with you. Where do you train?”

Remus had always enjoyed fighting. He was just ecstatic to know that he didn't meet his soulmate by fighting them.

[nikatyler]

Felt like doing some replies the ~ old fashioned ~ way. I should be packing, but I don’t wanna. One good thing about this semester is that I don’t have classes on Monday morning, which means I don’t have to go to Prague on Sunday. But I’ll be once again going home late on Friday -_- Oh well. Maybe I could skip the lecture every once in a while to go home on Thursday afternoon.

I’m scared. Not really of what I’ll have to learn because I know that even if it’s difficult, I’ll probably get it in my brain in the end. Somehow. I’m more scared that once again, I’ll be left alone. I haven’t really found a stable friend group. I mean, I talk to some people sometimes, but I wouldn’t call it a friendship. One friend that I thought I could rely on doesn’t even bother saying hello to me anymore. I don’t know what I did to him, he just stopped talking to me. But maybe it’s for the best. Even when we still talked, I couldn’t believe how judgemental he was, and I often wondered if he talks about me like that too when I can’t hear it. He probably did. Oh well, I’ll see what I can do. I hope I’ll run into someone who is kinda like my best friend from high school.

As for sims stuff, I know I still owe some things to some people and I feel bad about it. You’ll get it eventually. I’m actually looking forward to doing it too. Makeovers are fun. I’d also like to release some more sims, I have one more sim dump and then some old legacy characters I want to share, plus some BC contestants that didn’t make it. They like to get eliminated in the first rounds.

Also, thanks for the comments on my mental health update post. I’ll see how this turns out and if it doesn’t get any better (I’m kinda hoping that better weather brings better mood, it worked before), I’ll start looking for a therapist or something. No offense to my parents but talking to them about this didn’t help in a slightest. They just don’t get it. And I swear I’m not reverting back to the “I’m an edgy misunderstood teenager” phase. Even though “edgy misunderstood teenager” is an aesthetic I still live for. Whatever that means.

And thanks for the tips on the laptop post. I’ll keep them in mind and I’ll probably ask again when the time comes and I actually buy a new one.

Ahh...I guess that’s it? Replies under the cut. As per usual, they’ll probably be the shorter part of this post, but oh well.

abysims  replied to your photoset  “Let’s find Lilith Vatore some love! In my game, I’ve had Lilith in a...”

Honestly Cassandra and Lilith would be amazing (... In my Glimmerbrook Academy story Cass is actually gonna have a huge crush on Lilith so I'm voting for that, yas!)

Ooooh that sounds great! Also, I’ll have a post announcing the results of the post coming up later, either today or tomorrow, but...spoiler alert: Cassandra might have won ;)

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “Simmer - Get to Know”

Lol this thing with Mermaids made me remember that when my friend and I were like 12 years old, a 6-year-old made her a "proposal" and we answered him that she'll marry him when he buys her a house by the sea in Prague

Omg sea in Prague sounds kinda cool, my faculty would be so close to the beach *-* Haha but at the same time it’s kinda terrifying, where would the sea come from? From the north? From the south? Would that mean my home doesn’t exist? Or, actually, considering my town was built on a big hill, would that mean I live on an island? And which part of Prague would be under the sea and which one would stay?

Sorry, I got distracted thinking of this AU where my country actually has access to the sea :D But we used to have it, back in like I think 12th or 13th century. We’re wayyyy smaller now.

amuhav replied to your post “Me, looking up some specs of my current laptop: you're...you're...”

If it's anything like me with my first 'gaming' laptop, the store clerk basically straight up lied to me about how good it was, and I was too young and naive to know better �� sims 3 almost burnt that thing to a crisp ������

Lmao I have a similar story with my first laptop, we were told that it has this super amazing graphic card...and it wasn’t amazing at all, as I later learned when my laptop broke.

amuhav replied to your photoset “Sims Moodboard Challenge I was tagged by @blurrypxls,...”

Oh no... don't make me want to go back to pinterest and do more of these �� They're ADDICTIVE

THEY ARE! I haven’t done much today, but I’ve spent a lot of time there all through this last week.

amuhav replied to your photo “I need to stop. This is more addictive than scrolling through memes....”

Pssst, not to enable or anything, but Picasa 3 has this nice feature where you can take a bunch of pics and it makes them into a nice collage. That's how I made mine, and then used them as my desktop backgrounds ��

I think I’ll use Photoshop, like I do for everything else, but thanks for giving me an idea for my new background! I used to have my sims or some other characters set as a background, but now that I take my laptop to school I feel a bit uncomfortable with that, so since October I’ve had this kinda boring background and I’ve been meaning to change it into something nicer, I just didn’t know what to put there. Now I do.

fataleromeo replied to your photoset “Sunset: “How dare you pretend you’re Father Winter?” Father Winter:...”

Holy crap, Sunset is a lot more buff than I ever realized. Those arms! ��

Yup. That’s because she has to get her Athletic skill higher for work. I think her muscle slider might be at max, actually!

fataleromeo replied to your photoset “Father Winter: “That’s it! You’re going on my Naughty List. Your...”

How could she not with with muscles like that?? Damn his Christmas magic!

Next time we should just call Caleb. I mean, he defeated Grim Reaper with no problem, surely Father Winter won’t be any more difficult for him!

fataleromeo replied to your photoset “Sunset: “Okay, cool. You won’t give us gifts but I have a special one...”

Lmaoooooo, get him, Sunset! ������

He deserves it

asplashofsims replied to your photo “~ daylight”

Cute picture! ♡ I hope you feel better soon and omgg winx club, it's my guilty pleasure for sure hahah all the childhood memories��

I love Winx Club so much. It’s a little ridiculous and the plot holes are terrible (and don’t let me talk about anything after season 4, those are not my Winx D:), but I can’t let it go.

blubrich replied to your post “I forgot how traumatizing Toy Story 3 was ��”

Especially the ending! ��

YES. I remember the whole cinema was crying.

Also, Toy Story always unpacks this weird guilt in me haha. Because as a child, naturally I was like “I would NEVER abandon my toys, I’ll keep them forever!”. And now...they’re in boxes...under my bed and in the basement...some of them I gave away or to my younger sister, who then also gave some away because she’s fifteen now. I still have my plushies and teddy bears in my bed though, it would be too empty without them :D

silverspringsimmer replied to your audio post “(via...”

I love Within Temptation and they got me into heavier music later, too!

I don’t even remember how I found them. I was just bored of the music I was listening to all the time back then, so I clicked through playlists and stuff on Spotify and somehow I landed on their page, I guess. And I immediately fell in love.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your audio post “(via...”

Oh this song was the first song of this bad which I heard! It was also 5-6 years ago.though I do not listen to them often these days.

I think the first song I heard was What Have You Done, which I liked and still like very much, but then I heard this one and went kinda crazy because it just sounded so epic and exactly what my poor slightly depressed fifteen years old soul needed. In one day, I completely switched from pop to metal and it took me a few years to appreciate my old favourite music again. (I know that I say all the time that I’m a Taylor Swift stan, but actually I only really started LOVING her music again last year.)

I’ve always thought that it’s kinda funny that in my Music class, for the first semester I prepared a project about Taylor Swift. In the second semester, that changed, the old pop loving Ronnie was dead, and my new project was about Within Temptation :D But I remember that I was actually upset that day, I chose to show my classmates the video of What About Us and they didn’t appreciate it. And then after me, my other classmate had a project about some singer who had this weird song about getting high. They wanted to replay it. I was so bitter, in my head I was like “this song that I showed you has an interesting meaningful message and you’d rather listen to a song about drugs, how dare you?! You’re absolutely terrible!”

Yeah. I mean, I get it today, but I was so, so bitter.

amuhav replied to your audio post “(via...”

I recently found out they had a new album out (and Nightwish had a new single out too ��) and early 2000s emo teenage me immediately surfaced and threw money at my screen!

Ahhhh I’ve basically had Noise on repeat since it came out, I love it so much! And the video is cool too. I can’t wait to hear the whole album. Nightwish never disappoints, I hope I’ll one day get to see them live. I’ve had a few chances but then it never worked out.

[kumeko]

Title: trick or trick

A/N: Written for the @disgaeatrickortreat, for @pieroscit. I hope you like it! These three really bounce off each other so well

…

…

…

“What are these?” Distastefully, Laharl picked up a white cloth off the table. His lips curled in disgust as he pinched it between his fingers, spreading out the fabric to reveal it was a smock. “The angels wear these, right?”

 “Right!” Flonne clapped her hands excitedly, picking up a second smock from the table. Buzzing with joy, she hugged the clothing tightly and twirled around. “I haven’t seen these in ages! None of the shops here sell anything in white.”

“Of course not.” Laharl snorted, dropping the smock to the cobbled stone ground. Actually, even his floor was too good for the smock. Maybe if he stepped—no, he didn’t want to touch it again. “I’d kill them if they did.”

 “Huh?” Flonne turned to him, alarmed. “You can’t do that! Just for selling clothing?” She pressed closer, holding up the smock to his face. “What did this ever do to you?”

 “Get that out of my face.” He recoiled, stepping back. The second his foot moved, he knew it was the wrong move. Etna snickered in the corner and god damn it, he was a proud, loud Demon Lord, he was not afraid of some fabric.

 “Well, even if he didn’t, the other demons would probably mob the store anyways.” Standing on the other side of the table, Etna looked like a cat that caught the canary. Picking the smock off the ground, she dusted it off with a click of her tongue. “And don’t get these dirty; I’m only renting them.”

 He’d regret this, he just knew it, but he couldn’t help himself. “Why are you renting these?”

 Her smirk grew broader as though he’d fallen for her trap. Which he probably had. “Why, Laharl, surely you remember Halloween! We need costumes for it.”

 “Halloween?” Flonne was practically bouncing on her feet now. “Oh that sounds fun!” Vibrating happily, she cocked her head. “What is it?”

 “What is it?” Unconcealed scorn in his voice, Laharl glared at her. “How can you be so excited when you don’t even know what it is?”

 “It sounds exciting,” Flonne answered honestly and he had forgotten that sarcasm and scorn and almost any other subtle things were wasted on her. “Is it a festival?”

 “Kind of.” Etna gently pulled the second smock out of her grip. So she really had rented these. “It’s one of those earth things, where people dress up like monsters and go around asking for candy.”

 “Yeah, it’s a human thing and we’re already monsters,” Laharl added derisively, crossing his arms. He tapped his foot impatiently, not sure where the catch in Etna’s plans were. “Besides, I’m the Demon Lord. I can just order people to give me candy.”

 “Laharl! You can’t do that!” Hands on her hips, Flonne started her usual lecture. “You have to ask things—”

 “Nicely and all that, yadda yadda,” Etna interrupted, getting to the point. “More importantly, Laharl, you know what the chant is, right? Trick or treat.”

 That clarified nothing. Laharl raised a brow. “And?”

 “We can do tricks.” When he still didn’t get it, Etna growled in frustration and raised one of the smocks. “On anyone who’s not prepared. Demons. Humans. Angels.”

 Laharl felt his jaw go slack. “You mean…”

 Etna nodded quickly, a sly expression on her face. “Yes. We just need to pop in for a visit.”

 “But…they’d never let us up there in the first place.” His eyes widened and he stared at the smock a second time. Turning to Flonne, he compared her white dress—it didn’t look all that different. Close enough that no one would give it a second glance, at least. “Where’d you find those?”

 “I have my sources,” Etna answered mysteriously, hand on her hip.

 Several Prinnies popped into the room, jumping out of corners, hanging from the roof, peeking out a chimney. One even rolled out of a drawer and Laharl wasn’t sure if he should count this as an infestation at this point. Were there Prinny-removal services, like there were for any other pests? One Prinny pulled out car keys from his pouch. “We had to travel, dood.”

 Another Prinny pulled out a wad of receipts. “We got expenses, dood.”

 “That wasn’t a sign for you to come out!” Etna kicked the closest Prinny, knocking it into two others with the sound of a bowling ball hitting pins. They bounced out a window and exploded. When the Prinnies didn’t leave, she snatched the receipts with a growl. “Fine, fine, I’ll pay the damned thing. Now, out.”

 “Gotcha, boss.” Prinnies disappeared as quickly as they came, rolling back where they came from.

 “Unions.” Etna spit out the word like it was poison. She crumpled the receipts in her fist and buried it in her pocket. “We need to deal with that when we’re done. I’m paying them way too much.”

 “Unfortunately, that’s something even a demon lord can’t touch.” Laharl shivered, remembering how the guild reacted the last time he tried to crush the prinnies union. They shouldn’t be more intimidating than fighting another demon lord! “Apparently they need to be paid ‘living’ wages, whatever that is. They’re only alive because I let them!”

 “Um.” Standing in front of the table, Flonne slowly counted the white smocks. “One. Two.” Confused, she turned to Enta. “Why are there only two costumes?”

 “Well, you’re already an angel.” Etna pulled a white smock over her head, struggling to push her arms through the sleeves. Most demons wore far skimpier outfits and Laharl couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a demon with long sleeves. “It’d be kinda stupid to have you dress up as one.”

 “Huh?” Flonne tugged on the red…horns? Laharl squinted at the ribbon-like things above her head. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t actually know what they were. She had them even as an angel, so it couldn’t be a halo or horns. “But I’m a demon now.”

 “Fallen angel,” Laharl corrected, still staring at the ribbon-things. “All you did was a colour swap.”

 Etna tugged Flonne’s tail. “Yeah, I mean, you don’t even act like a demon. You’re basically still an angel.”

 “But…but…” Flonne turned from one to the other, her face red as she fumed. It was easy enough to guess her thoughts—it was good to be an angel! But she was bad now! But they weren’t wrong about the colour swap! The lazy designers couldn’t put any effort on her new form!

 Rolling his eyes, Laharl reluctantly tugged on the other smock. White. Gah. He’d never be able to wash off the purity. Slipping his arms through the sleeves, he grabbed Flonne’s hand. “Hey, if you dressed like a demon, you wouldn’t be able to go trick or treating with us. In Heaven. Are you coming or not?”

 “But…” Flonne bit her lip. Looking at the table, she grabbed a stray blue ribbon. “Fine. But I get to wear this.” She tied it neatly around her neck and beamed. “Now I’m in a costume too!”

 “Sure.” Laharl resisted the urge to snark or insult. No matter how hard it was. “Now, let’s trick or trick!”

 “Huh?” Flonne stared at Laharl’s and Etna’s retreating backs. “It’s trick or treat. Guys? You know it’s trick or treat, right? Right?”

[keow]

how do you jump between parallel universes

oh boy i thought no one would ever ask 🥰

so step one is to plan it out. plan your location. you can create a new universe from the ground up, you can jump into a reality with only a few differences from this one, technically you can even jump into a fictional reality.

the idea behind this is that every reality already exists within the multiverse, all at the same time.

once you have chosen your desired reality, there are different methods of actually getting there. a common method for realities with smaller changes is to do the “two cup method”, which is basically where you get two glasses, fill one with water, label them both, then pour water into the other glass and drink it. theres more to it but thats the general gist. personally i’m not a huge fan of that method because the results do take some time. + its generally just used for reality transurfing to manifest things into your life, which isnt what im talking about here really.

my favorite method(s) are the ones taught by neville goddard. there are a few different methods that he teaches, but theyre all really effective.

the general gist, if you want to ACTUALLY, ABRUPTLY travel to another reality, is that you have to convince yourself youre already IN that reality. this can be done via affirmations, subliminal messaging, and “feeling” your desired reality.

when we say “feel” your reality, it doesnt just mean to visualize your desired reality, though thats definitely a part of it. incorporate all your senses..

imagine a scene in perfect vivid detail that confirms your desired outcome. how it looks, how it physically feels to touch, how it sounds, how it smells and tastes even. FEEL the energy of the scene as if you were actually physically sitting inside of it. convince your mind you are 100% within that scene and thus, 100% within that reality. no doubt in your mind.

we also mean to FEEL the emotions you would feel in that reality. align your emotions with the joy (hopefully) you would feel if you were to enter that reality. you dont have to be perfect, but you cant exactly 100% align with your desired reality if youre bumfuck depressed and sad. in fact, this might accidentally take you somewhere youd rather not be. not to scare you or anything hehe. its like the law of vibration that those wack ass loa gurus yell about.

now. its best if you remind yourself of your desired reality throughout the day. but its SO IMPORTANT to feel your scene when youre laying in bed, about to sleep. lay very still, breathe deeply and slowly, relax your body, close your eyes. pretend youre asleep.

goddard refers to this state as SATS- state akin to sleep. self explanatory. the reason why this state is so important is because thats when your subconscious mind is more receptive. relax as much as you can, a bit like if you were going to astral project. then FEEL THE SCENE!!!!! fully convince your brain that youre in the reality!!!!!!!

it might not happen the first night you try, but after x amount of time convincing yourself that your desired reality IS the reality youre in, you’ll eventually shift to a parallel universe. this likely won’t be subtle if there are a lot of differences, such as how you look or where you live. youre basically just tapping into another consciousness in a parallel reality. this plays into the idea that we’re all “one” or whatever.

i recommend reading some of neville goddard’s books (such as Feeling Is The Secret) or listening to his lectures on spotify or youtube. you can also check out the subreddit abt him. its kinda fun.i would recommend the reality shifting amino but its full of crackfiend kpoppies so ehhhh...

anyway hope this schizo rant was fun to read! but remember: its real 🥳