#this is gonna be my motto this semester

[horizontalsplash]

step 1: don’t panic

step 2: do it

[retrievablememories]

cherry bomb | jungkook (m)

pairing: jungkook x fem reader

summary: “get fucked or die” becomes the motto to live by when a serial killer begins targeting virgins on your campus.

genre: smut, horror/slasher, college!au

word count: 7.1k

warnings: multiple minor character deaths, blood, gore, violence (including gun and knife use), mentions of alcohol consumption. virgin-shaming and slut-shaming, oral (fem receiving), riding, virgin!reader, first-time sex, protected sex, hair-pulling, biting, fingering, dirty talk, virgin kink/corruption kink, fuckboy JK. is JK a sub or a masochist here? answer: i don’t fucking know!

a/n: inspired by the movie cherry falls (2000). heed the warnings. remember that this is fiction, not meant to be entirely realistic, and characters' views/actions don't represent my own. if this kind of content is not up your alley just block me or make use of the wonderful filtering option in your account settings

sources for the fic dividers: one | two

link to part 2

CHERRY BOMB

don't wanna die? come out and hook up with a sexy girl or guy.

virgins get in free!

THIS FRIDAY

NOV 3, 20XX

[address here]

"very corny." you shake your head, looking at the party flyer in your hands. you'd just torn it down from the bulletin board in your dorm lobby; unauthorized advertisements aren’t allowed, and your job as RA involves these menial-ass tasks. "this is literally life or death...why are they turning it into a joke?"

"it is a joke," your friend camille says, snatching the flyer out of your hands to look it over. "think about it. 10 students get killed since we came back in august, and the semester isn't even over yet. the school administration and local police haven't done nearly enough to address it or stop any more deaths. and the common denominator is that all these people were suspected or confirmed virgins?” you haven’t seen the evidence yourself, but the daughter of one of the local policemen claimed every victim also had virgin carved into some part of their dead body. “yeah, i'd say it's a joke to pretty much everyone at this point. this is what happens when you let the students come up with a solution."

camille hands the flyer back to you, and you hold it limply. "but...it's not like you can look at someone and tell if they're a virgin. the killer must've known them all personally. it just doesn't make sense."

"some of those people had no mutual friends. nothing connecting them whatsoever. not even shared extracurriculars. it's gotta be a perverted stalker with a fetish, maybe. a scorned hacker who somehow got into their private conversations 'n' shit? or maybe he consulted the cards to know who’d fucked before and who hadn’t.”

“oh please.” you scoff. “now you’re being completely ridiculous. tarot cards aren’t gonna tell you if someone’s a virgin or not.”

“then you come up with a better explanation. either way, these folks—" camille points to the flyer "—aren't taking their chances."

"hm..." you keep staring at the flyer, looking at the shiny-red cherries, condoms, sex toys, and other sex-related objects decorating the paper. whoever designed this really wasn't playing.

"so, are you gonna go?" camille asks with a sidelong glance. "free admittance, after all."

your neck burns under the collar of your shirt. "are you?" neither of you have had sex yet, for differing reasons. camille's reason was almost complete indifference to the whole act.

she gives you a look that says i could give a shit. "...you know the answer to that one, dear. so you're not even thinking about it? as much as you have cried to me and lorelai about not being able to find a man you like enough to give it up for, our killer here probably already knows. you practically have a ‘come kill me’ bullseye on your back.”

"i don't know," you say, because you genuinely are thinking about it. “and stop trying to fucking scare me.” despite your logical brain trying to reason with you, you still feel a sense of underlying terror about being the next victim. "the virgin killer," as they'd nicknamed the freak, clearly prefers a specific type of victim, and all kills have been random and unpredictable other than that—and the fact that every victim attended your university. he also seems partial to using a knife on his victims, but even that isn’t guaranteed—3 of the 10 had been killed in ways other than stabbing. "i don’t know why you’re so nonchalant about this, though."

camille shrugs. "if he comes for me, i'll just spray him with my illegal mace and kick his nuts into his throat. then tie him up and wait for my dad to come blow his head off. there are some advantages to having a gun nut for a dad."

you chuckle at the absurdity of it. "you've got it all planned out, then."

--

FRIDAY, NOV 3

taking a rideshare to the party was a smart idea on lorelai's part, because the two little shots you took to pre-game already have you feeling woozy. or maybe it's just your nerves.

the cherry bomb is located at a mansion that isn’t really a mansion, but a large once-abandoned house one of the fraternities fixed up years ago for throwing off-campus parties.

the party is stacked wall to wall with people when you enter, though from what you can see, no one has actually started fucking yet—maybe they're saving that for the supposed orgy later in the night. you just hope you can get someone in one of the backrooms before that happens, because you're not really keen on having everyone in your class knowing what your tits look like.

you have one simple mission here tonight—lose your long-held virginity and get off the virgin killer's radar. once that's done, you'll make your exit.

"actually, i'm surprised anyone else showed up. other than you, who wants to willingly admit that they're still a virgin in college?" lorelai shudders. you roll your eyes and try not to feel offended, sucking your teeth.

"you were more than welcome to stay back at the dorm."

"no! i'm here for moral support, plus i don't want to be alone tonight. i don't care who this killer targets, it's getting too crazy out here to just be letting your guard down anymore."

well, you won't argue that.

you and lorelai dance to the song booming over the multiple speakers, scanning the room for potential hookups all the while. you become more alert when you recognize a familiar length of black hair coming through the front door, plus the tattoos and piercings to match.

you're not surprised jungkook came. he has his pick of untouched and easily corruptible virgins here, which has always been his thing; you've heard him brag about it to his seatmates more than once in your shared elective. not to mention the stories you've heard from the women who actually fucked him. as far as you could figure, it was the usual male ego posturing bullshit about being able to say he was someone’s first—and likely best. for that reason, alarm rises when he makes eye contact and starts making a beeline for where you and lorelai are.

"oh, here comes the campus bicycle," lorelai says, voice deadpan.

you continue watching him from the corner of your eye, trying to see if he's just approaching someone in your general vicinity, but no. once he shoves his way through the crowd of dancers, some unashamedly groping at his body as he does, he stops right in front of you two.

"so, are you here for the same reason i am?" he asks you, grinning like the devil himself. "or are you looking to get that sweet little cherry popped?"

the backs of your knees sweat. "um—latter, i guess." you hadn't meant to answer that honestly, but to say you are caught off-guard is understating it. you can count on one hand the number of times you and jungkook have talked to each other in class, and never about anything of this nature.

"you're not gonna ask me?" lorelai says.

jungkook gives a hearty laugh; you didn't think it was that funny. "everyone knows you're not a virgin, why waste my time?"

"wow, okay. fuck you. you're no saint yourself." she huffs.

"anyway…" jungkook returns his attention to you. "have you really never done anything before? not even sucked a dick? there's no way someone hasn't tried to hit that. not even some 'backdoor action only' like those weird religious girls?"

"is that any of your business? i didn't know we had to give a rundown of our lack of sexual experience before getting laid around here." you snap.

jungkook's eyelids lower a fraction. "i'm tryna decide how easy i should go on you, babe. i mean, if you wanna take this in one of the rooms. otherwise, i'll let someone else have a go if you're not interested."

unfortunately, you are interested, despite his overly blunt manner and objectifying language. even though you know you’ll just become another entry on his long list of flings—someone he’ll tell his boys about later—maybe the fear of death is making you impulsive.

but maybe his looks are playing a part in it, too.

he's imposing with his physique and his all-black attire, his shirt so tight that you can clearly see his pectoral muscles and his nipples, his unbuttoned leather jacket doing nothing to hide those details. you can easily imagine yourself running your hands across those pecs, squeezing them, rubbing your fingers against his nipples and making him moan underneath you, feeling and seeing his abs contract through this stupid-ass shirt that must've been painted on. this brief fantasy immediately dampens your panties.

"…i'm interested," you affirm, dragging your gaze back up to his eyes, and he smirks from knowing you were obviously checking him out.

knowing the direction this is going in, lorelai taps you on the back and whispers in your ear. “have fun but don’t do anything stupid, yeah? i’m not playing auntie to any offspring you and this dude pop out, sis. use protection.” then she makes her exit to go find herself a partner for the night.

“so, come on.” jungkook nods his head in the direction of the stairs, and you follow him through the crowd as he leads you up the winding staircase. you squeeze past two girls kissing on the staircase railing, their motions a bit unsure as if they’ve never done it before but clearly still enjoying themselves.

jungkook pushes a few doors in until he finds an empty room, and you try not to ogle at the random couples you see along the way. not even an hour in and the two shots must be wearing off, because your body is beginning to buzz with nervousness again.

jungkook closes the door behind him when you both step into the room, which is lit by one lamp on a nightstand and the open window beside the bed. he reaches for you, and you shiver when his hand grasps the side of your face, the other snaking around your waist.

“scared?” he asks, his voice low. you shake your head, and he grins. “relax.” he leans in as if to kiss you and you part your lips, but he doesn’t do that just yet. he traces your top lip and then your bottom lip with his tongue, dipping it into your mouth as he switches. the teasing nature of his actions makes your body heat up as you watch a string of saliva spread and then break between the both of you.

he presses back in for a real kiss this time, his nose bumping yours. despite all your fears about tonight, you’re able to unwind somewhat and just focus on the full sensory experience that is this kiss—the warmth of his hands and his mouth, the sappy sound your lips make when they separate and come back together, the scent of his cologne, the taste of his spearmint-flavored tongue.

you find yourselves inching toward the bed, him walking you backwards while keeping you steady. just as the backs of your knees hit the edge of the bed, there's the sound of a woman's bloodcurdling scream from behind you, and you nearly shove jungkook to the ground in your haste to run to the door. your fingers are scrabbling at the doorknob when you hear a burst of laughter. a guy you don't recognize crawls out from under the bed holding his phone up, displaying a youtube video of the shower scene in the movie psycho, which is where the noise is coming from.

"that was funny as fuck." the guy laughs obnoxiously loud, holding his stomach. “don’t get too carefree or you just might die, girlie.”

jungkook grabs the guy by his jacket collar like he's a kid and throws him out the door; the guy doesn't object because he knows this is preferable to getting his ass beaten by the bigger man. "fuck outta here, you jackass." jungkook snaps.

jungkook stomps over to the closet to yank it open. "any more idiots in here wanna show themselves?" he checks a couple more areas before deciding the room is clear and closing the door again, locking it for good measure.

“okay.” he sighs, stripping off his jacket and shoes. he takes your hand and pulls you toward him as he sits on the bed. “relax, baby. forget about that fucking clown. come ‘ere. why don’t you sit on my lap?”

with a heavy exhale, you try to steady your still-shaking hands as you shuck your boots off and pull your dress up slightly to comfortably sit in his lap, your legs loosely wrapped around his waist.

he squeezes your waist. “so, where were we? i don’t really remember…”

you huff out a half-amused laugh. “really? i’m pretty sure it was this…” you lean forward with your hands on his shoulders and press your lips back onto his. jungkook follows in kind, his hands running up from your thighs to your waist and back again. the rhythm of his hands is hypnotic, distracting you as you try to keep most of your focus on the kiss, and you fear you may be getting overstimulated before anything has truly began.

as you continue kissing, jungkook’s hands creep your dress further up your thighs until your panties are revealed. still feeling up your legs, his hands press further toward your inner thighs, and you gasp into the kiss when his thumb pushes against the seat of your underwear. they have been damp for a while now and you know he knows this, so you aren’t surprised when he breaks the kiss to smirk, though it makes you roll your eyes.

jungkook whispers against your lips, “let’s try something. will you sit on my face?” you stare at him without a word, not expecting this to be the first thing he proposes. at your response, or lack of, he adds, “i want to make you feel good. do you want me to taste you?” his voice is so soft, so unassuming and cloying, that it makes you feel like a lamb clutched gently in the mouth of a wolf.

your brain is already surrendering to it. “yes.”

you get another kiss and a smile. jungkook moves you out of his lap, shuffles further up the bed, and lies down so that he’s flat on his back, his head surrounded by the pillows. he gestures for you to follow.

taking your time, you slide your panties off and crawl up the bed until you’re near his face and he’s lying below you looking like he’s struck gold. he grabs your hips to bring you closer until you’re right over his mouth. you’re embarrassed to have someone looking at you from this angle for the first time, and you’re about to get too into your head about it when he french kisses your inner thigh, blanking out your mind.

the only thing you know from then on is that his mouth is burning hot. his tongue is everywhere. he licks at you delicately to test the waters, and then more firmly when your thighs tremble around his head, in an effort to elicit the same response.

the way he fits his mouth over your entire pussy and sucks it with just the right amount of pressure so that it won’t hurt makes you feel faint. the way he slides the flat of his tongue over your clit only to suck it gently at the end of the stroke makes you cry out louder than you intended. you’re glad he moved further up the bed for this, because you’re holding onto the headboard for dear life.

the only things you’re aware of are your own out-of-control moans and the wet sounds of jungkook’s mouth working you over. all of it has you so overwrought that you’re already reaching your peak, your grip on the headboard weakening.

jungkook seems to know this without you telling him anything. he pauses and looks up at you with a fucked-out smirk and a wet mouth. you don’t know whether to thank him or curse him for giving you a break. “before you come, fuck my face.”

“wh-what?”

“rub that wet fucking cunt on my face.” heat flares through your body at his frank words. “grab my hair and just ride my face.” he reaches up to take your hands off the headboard and places them in his hair. “you can do it, baby. fucking use me.”

it takes you a minute to get over the fresh wave of embarrassment and find a pace that works, because the connection between your brain and body feels like it’s frying and your coordination is off. jungkook helps guide your hips, especially with how you’re trembling from pleasure and close to falling apart. soon enough, you’re letting go of yourself and moving your hips enthusiastically, if a little clumsily, and chasing your climax. you savor the feel of your clit sliding across his wet tongue and his soft hair in between your fingers, and you push his head as close as it can get.

you come while screaming, dizzyingly immersed in the pleasure. you forget that you’re holding his hair as you yank roughly on it. the only thing that matters to you is that jungkook’s mouth is still sucking your clit through the best physical sensation you’ve ever experienced.

when he finally lets go and gives you reprieve, you collapse beside him on the pillows.

“i’m sorry,” you mumble, disoriented. “about your hair, i mean?”

jungkook laughs. it’s funny how shiny-wet his face is—and that you caused it, which is kind of hard to believe in the aftermath of it. “the pain is what gets my dick hard. don’t worry.”

you chuckle breathlessly at that, and for a few seconds you both have that funny little moment to yourselves in all the ridiculousness of the overarching situation.

then jungkook’s hand is reaching for you again. “i’m not done with that pussy yet, though.” he brushes a finger over your hole, and your body twitches from the sensitivity. he slides that finger through the wetness and then uses the lubrication to push only the tip of his finger in. he dips it in and out, teasing the nerves at your entrance, until you’re shifting your hips closer to him to implore him for more. he grants your request by sliding his finger all the way inside.

having a finger inside you feels okay at first, though not as good as his actions a few seconds ago. jungkook decides to amplify your pleasure by placing his lips on your neck, leaving gentle and wet kisses behind, and you become all too aware of the feeling of your hardened nipples against the material of your dress. the pleasure begins to heighten when his finger finds a place inside of you that makes you throb, your walls clenching around him.

“ah…” you gasp and shift eagerly against his body as he keeps stimulating that spot, not thrusting his finger into you but simply stroking it across that area in a come here motion.

jungkook pulls away from your neck to smile at his handiwork. “that’s better, right?” he whispers, watching your reactions. your lips form around the word yes, though it’s difficult to try to speak, and you worry how unsteady your voice might sound. he waits until you’re clutching at his arm, leaving red lines on his skin from your fingernails, to carefully push another finger in beside the first. you try to breathe evenly, though his refusal to let up on that spot has your lungs stuttering for air all over again. his nose nudges your ear as he leans even closer and whispers, “there are so many different spots to find, so many different ways to make you come; i wanna go looking for them all.”

jungkook angles his hand so that his palm is also stimulating your clit, his fingers thrusting slowly now. you turn your head away from him as your body becomes ablaze, unsure what to do with yourself as your climax nears quickly.

“would you let me do that? learn your body like no one else has done?” he kisses the shell of your ear, and even that small action is enough to tip you closer to the edge with how your body is already so fired up. “who else could make you feel as good?”

this orgasm makes your eyes fill with involuntary tears, and little clear droplets bleed down the sides of your face and towards your ears as your body convulses. jungkook kisses the wet trails they make on your face, still fingering you steadily and forcing another urgent cry out of you. you feel untethered from yourself, like you’re not in control of your reactions, and you don’t know whether to be afraid of that or not.

jungkook pulls his fingers out when you have mostly calmed down, watching strands of your wetness drip between them before sliding them into his mouth.

after you come the second time, you begin to tire. the deeds have been done, and if you want, you can confidently go back out to the party now and say you’re no longer a virgin; you’re off the unofficial kill list and can live the rest of your days without having to look over your shoulder with every breath.

…but jungkook is hard against your hip, and in all honesty, you don’t want to leave without knowing what his dick looks and feels like.

“you tired?” he asks, and the casual air of it makes your stomach flip, for some reason. he says it as if this is something you two do all the time and he’s used to asking you this after wearing you out during a good session.

but now’s not the time to get delusional.

“no. i want more.”

jungkook smiles broadly, teasing his lip ring with his teeth. he sits up to peel that skin-tight shirt off, and you don’t bother to stop yourself from staring at all that skin in front of you. your eyes drop further down when he removes his belt and undoes his jeans, pushing his pants and underwear down enough for you to see his v-line but not taking them off. is that an invitation for you to do it? "you hold the reins here," he says, lying back on the bed again. "do whatever you want to me."

“whatever i want?” you repeat, already sitting up. he nods, hands behind his head, and you take the initiative to straddle him again, knowing you’re getting his jeans wet.

you reach for his pecs first, just like you’d imagined downstairs. the firm muscle of them is mesmerizing; but when you slowly circle your thumb against his nipple and his eyes flutter, a small and breathy moan escaping his lips, you’re sure you enjoy this much more.

you play with his nipples and even work up the boldness to purse your lips around one, sucking it softly, and every noise that arises from him makes your clit tingle.

you eventually move your hands to his abs, enjoying how they flex at your touch. you didn't think his navel would be pierced, not hearing that detail in any of the sex tales you've eavesdropped on about jungkook, and you wonder what else you might find out about him tonight.

“you should do your nipples to match.” you suggest it without much thought as you’re teasing his navel piercing, though you don’t regret saying it.

“would you be into that?” jungkook sounds like he’s actually considering it, watching you from below his lashes.

you grin. you don’t know if you’ll actually end up having sex with him again to see them, but you answer, “i’d love it…it’d be sexy on you.”

sliding your hands further down still, you come to the waistband of his underwear, which is peeking over the top of his lowered jeans. for a second the nervousness returns; jungkook notices how your hands twitch with hesitation. “it’s fine, i’m not gonna bite you…unless you ask me to, though. here.”

he slips a hand into his underwear and grips his dick, though he doesn’t take it out right away; he strokes the shaft a few times, observing your reaction with expectant and hazy eyes. the scene before you makes your mouth dry. jungkook quickens his pace, twisting his hand at the tip and using his own precum as lube, until you are overcome with the desire to see it and you pull his underwear out of the way.

his cock is thick and flushed and glossy with precum. you don’t have much to compare it to, but it’s a good size, and all the previous women have said that he clearly knows what to do with it. he releases it and it slaps against his abs, leaving a streak of precum behind. when you look at him in anticipation of what he’ll do next, he grasps it again and starts stroking himself quickly, like he’s trying to get off. the wet slap of his motions and his quiet groans make your walls clench.

“i could keep fucking myself and you could watch, since you seem to prefer it…” he murmurs.

“no, i—let’s go all the way.”

jungkook smirks and answers your decision by pulling a condom out of his jean pocket. you watch as he unwraps it and slips it down his cock. though you’re already straddling him, he grasps your wrist and encourages you to draw nearer to him. “come here, pretty thing.”

when you’re hovering directly over him, jungkook grips the base and teases his tip against your entrance. “ready?” he asks.

“yeah,” you say breathlessly.

it’s a little slow-going, but you eventually end up with him seated inside you. it’s uncomfortable to be taking something bigger than a couple fingers, but it isn’t terribly painful.

“now, try moving your hips like this…” with his hands on your hips, jungkook helps you grind against him so that your clit slides across his pubic bone with every move. the discomfort begins to ebb out of your mind after a little while of doing this, and you laugh quietly.

“i thought…i thought this doesn’t feel good for men,” you sigh, your eyes closing from the bliss of his firm abdomen stimulating your clit. “this grinding thing, you know. or so a friend told me…”

jungkook laughs too, but he doesn’t confirm it like you expect him to. his only answer is, “a sexy woman on my dick will always feel good.”

he seems to be more about showing than telling, anyway. his hands reach for your breasts, groping them over the fabric of your dress before sliding underneath for better access. sporadic moans escape you as he plays with your nipples, making your clit throb harder and sending more warmth pooling in your abdomen.

your breath wheezes out of you when jungkook starts pushing up into you, his hands still squeezing your breasts. “you’re okay, baby…” he tries a few different angles until he pulls a visceral reaction out of you, your walls fluttering around him and your body shivering intensely. “mmm, there it is.”

your motions start tapering off as jungkook continues thrusting up against that same spot that had you in tears earlier. noticing this, he slips one hand back down to your hip and encourages you to maintain your pace, keeping your clit stimulated while meeting his thrusts. “you’re doing good…” he murmurs. “go ahead, keep fucking me just like that.”

you’re glad lorelai makes you go to the campus gym with her every week, because otherwise you’d be about to collapse riding him for this long. it takes more of your strength and stamina than you’d expected. no wonder jungkook stays in the gym.

“oh, fuck…” the way all his muscles flex as he repeatedly pushes up into you makes you wetter; you no longer have the wherewithal to be embarrassed about the gushy noises your pussy is creating. your whole world has whittled down to this one room, and all you can think about is your next orgasm.

“pull my hair again,” he requests, his eyes dark and lost in lust when he looks up at you.

"jungkook..." you grip his sweaty hair in your hand and pull it to bare his throat, and he gives a desperate moan, his member jerking inside you. you've never felt so in control of a situation before in your life. it gives you a straight adrenaline-slash-dopamine rush.

his neck is just there and exposed, flushed from exertion, and his physical responses make you feel so primal, like you could do absolutely anything to him right now and he’d enjoy it. because of this, you decide to bite his neck, if only to give your mouth something to do. his dick twitches again when you do, another pretty moan leaving his mouth.

his voice is strained when he says, “bite me harder.” when you let go, your mouth travels the expanse of his neck to leave marks in a few other places, digging in harder just as he asked of you.

“fuck, y/n—” the pain of your teeth is pushing him close to the edge too soon, so he slips his other hand out from under your dress and brings it lower to circle his fingers over your clit. jungkook adding his experienced fingers to his constant stimulation of your g-spot is enough to cause your release. your body slumps onto his as you squeeze around him, your head falling into the juncture of his neck and shoulder and your eyes shutting so tightly that you see wobbling shapes in the darkness.

jungkook gives you a few more thrusts rougher than the rest, causing you to cry out. your climax and the aftershocks have your mind so dizzy that you only just realize that he’s reaching his own peak, his muscles tensing and relaxing as he fills the condom with his cum. you hear him groan next to your ear, the sound of it filthy and uninhibited.

jungkook lifts your head from his shoulder, his thumbs on your cheeks, and his lips meet yours in a final slow kiss, his teeth leaving their mark on your bottom lip as a parting reminder.

you're still trying to get your bearings and slide him out of you when jungkook suddenly says, "what is that noise?"

"huh?" you remain immobile for a moment so you can listen more clearly, and you recognize the sounds of screaming and feet pounding on the floors in a bid to run away—both upstairs and downstairs. these don't sound like the same screams of pleasure from earlier. "what the hell?"

you and jungkook scramble to collect your clothes and get dressed, thankful that neither of you stripped down completely, and he throws the used condom into a random corner of the room. you're still making last minute adjustments when jungkook stands up and unlocks the door.

"the fuck is—?" his voice cuts off as if he can't finish his thought.

"what? what is it?" you stand up to get a better view around his body in the doorway, and you scream when you see a lone blonde girl lying a few feet away from the door, slumped against the opposite wall with a slashed throat. her pink party dress bleeds red, and her face that catches the illumination of the string lights glints with tear tracks. you look away from her unseeing eyes before you can cry out again.

jungkook seems confused, peering down the other end of the hallway like there'll be someone there to explain. "it...didn't work?" he asks to no one in particular, as you have no answer. you walk farther back into the room as if putting more distance between you and the body will provide some protection. bumping against the window sill, you turn around to look out the window and see several cars peeling out of the makeshift grass parking lot, nearly running over other people or hitting other cars on the way. you release a stifled scream from behind your hands when someone is too disoriented to get out of the way of the speeding cars and is sent flying through the air before landing painfully, their body now unmoving. the offending car never stops to check on them.

the screaming downstairs worsens, countless voices rising to a fever pitch of shouting and wailing, and you imagine this must be what the pits of hell sound like. jungkook whips around to look at you. “we gotta get the fuck out of here.”

you two inch out of the room with him in the lead, peering into jarred-open doorways to see if anybody could be waiting in the shadows. there are a couple of other bodies in two other rooms, and you wonder—even with the loud music constantly reverberating through the house, did you really not hear the struggles that led to these deaths in your throes of passion? the thought unnerves you. the idea that maybe you were only saved by jungkook deciding to lock the door…

the stair railing you’d walked by an hour ago is now broken in the middle, splinters of wood lying scattered on the stairs, along with more bodies lying on the steps just as haphazardly. the scene looks like the remnants of a stampede; you hope most of these people are just unconscious and not dead.

the dancefloor is a swarm of people in various states of undress pushing and pulling each other as they rush for the exit. there’s not as many people heading for the back door, everyone attempting to squeeze through the main entrance in their unthinking panic, so jungkook grabs your arm and the two of you pick your way through the bodies to get down the stairs as best you can. when you enter the mass of people, you’re exceptionally glad for his strength because it’s easier to get through the opposing crowd.

to reach the back door, you must first get through the kitchen. beside the kitchen entrance in a dark corner, you see someone doubled over and grasping the person in front of them for stability.

you realize belatedly that they have a knife in their stomach; the other person standing over them is the virgin killer himself, calmly watching them suffer.

the killer’s face is hidden by the mask he always wears, which you are seeing for the first time now, up-close—a hairy werewolf head with lemon-yellow eyes and a candy-red tongue. it’s so unexpected that you would’ve found it comedic if not for the context.

a guy in a blue sweater grasps the killer from behind in an attempted surprise attack, causing him to jerk the knife out of the other person’s stomach. the sudden movement causes a spray of blood to come flying off the knife, and you have to hold back vomit when drops of the warm, stinking crimson hit your face. though it feels like time has slowed to a mere creep, all of this happens within seconds.

you don’t see much more before jungkook is forcing you to move again.

you, jungkook, and multiple others barrel out of the back patio door, nearly ripping the flimsy screen door off its hinges in your haste, while the classmate in the blue sweater fruitlessly struggles with the killer in the kitchen. your leg muscles flex harder when you hear the person's agonized shout and the mushy rip of flesh being torn seconds later. almost everyone else has taken the same idea to run for their lives rather than stay and try to fight or disarm the killer; the streets are dotted in every direction with students running for any possible safety, many not having arrived to the party in cars to escape in.

thankfully, jungkook is not one of them.

he grasps your wrist painfully hard in his panic and yanks you in the direction of his car, which is so pitch black that you almost didn't see it sitting in the shadows.

when you get inside, you've never been so grateful to be within the safe metal enclosure of a car in your whole life. hands shaking, jungkook jams the key into the ignition and presses the gas pedal so hard your head jerks against the headrest. however, in your temporary relief, you think of lorelai. your vision doubles as you scramble to open your phone and call her, your head spinning with a new spike of fear. it rings for a while with no answer, and you try two more times only to get the same result.

"maybe she got to safety somewhere else?” jungkook tries to reason with you, his eyes bouncing between your face and the road ahead so he doesn't hit any other cars or any random students still running across the streets. "i didn't see her anywhere in the house before we ran out."

"that just means she could be hiding somewhere in there!" you shriek, unable to control your terror at your friend possibly being trapped in the house with the killer.

"well—maybe just let her stick it out, he won't find her if she just—"

"oh god, but i called her like three fucking times; what if he heard the phone ringing? i'm gonna kill myself."

“y/n, you’re overreacting like shit, there’s no way he’d hear a phone ringing in all that noise—"

unlistening, you drop your phone and bang your fists on your head in frustration and anguish.

sighing deeply, jungkook forgoes any attempt to do a 3-point turn, which requires more coordination than he has at the moment, and drives straight up into someone's yard to make a U-turn back toward the house.

you hadn’t gotten too far from the party house, so in another minute or two and with a couple messy turns that cause the wheels to ride up onto the curb, you’re back on the street leading up to the house. before you can reach it, though, jungkook slams on the breaks, and you have to throw your hands out onto the dashboard to avoid flying into it due to not fastening your seatbelt. you’re not very successful; the move hurts your wrists, and you’re pretty sure some of your ribs just got bruised anyway.

“what the fuck?” jungkook shouts.

the virgin killer with his lycanthrope mask is standing in the middle of the street; he turns to face the car. he has a chokehold grip on a guy you recognize as a popular frat member, who is almost bare except for his blue-plaid boxers. you remember seeing the frat guy dancing with his girlfriend when you and lorelai initially entered the party; he was in the group of guys who put this whole party together as a way to “save” the campus’s virgins.

the virgin killer is holding a gun to the guy’s head, and you have no clue where he might’ve gotten it from. the guy’s demeanor is weak, and he’s barely able to stand, which is obviously from the profuse blood loss he’s suffering; the killer has carved sharp letters into his stomach to form two words—“FAIR GAME.”

“fair game?” you mumble, a sickly realization forming in your mind.

“fuck no—" jungkook is already throwing the car into reverse when you hear and see the first bullet go off, exploding the frat member’s head into an unrecognizable mess and making you scream at the top of your lungs. you hear more shots after you close your eyes and tuck your body down, along with the sounds of bullets splitting metal and hitting glass, and you think you might be actively dying—or maybe you’re already dead. even that would be preferable to experiencing this nightmare.

you can’t think as you feel the whole world spinning, your body tossed violently around. in reality, the only thing moving is jungkook’s car as he whips the vehicle around and speeds down the same street you just traveled up.

for a few long minutes, you only hear your own heartbeat, his murmured and frantic curses, and the strained breaths coming from both of you. you keep your body curled up with your knees tucked to your chest and arms over your face. the car’s engine roars as it races down the highway.

you’re afraid to open your eyes and find out, but you have to at some point. plus, the uncomfortable position is making your body hurt. carefully, you unfurl yourself and turn to look at him. “did you get hurt?”

“uhh—no? i don’t think…?” he takes one hand off the wheel to feel up his body as if he’s just realizing that might be a possibility. “but i’m wired off pure adrenaline right now, so give me a few more minutes to be sure…” he looks to you. “are you?”

“no.” your blood still runs cold at the thought of lorelai being stuck in the house or navigating the dark neighborhood streets at this time of night. maybe she doesn’t even have her phone; maybe it was lost in the commotion. the number of possible scenarios makes you ill.

there’s silence for a while; you assume he must not be hurt after all. you start seeing familiar roads that lead back to the campus, and the gears in your mind begin turning, powered by fear.

“do you think it’s safe to go back to the college?” you ask, your voice small.

after a pause jungkook asks, “why not?” though his face begins to look like he’s second-guessing things.

“the killer could go back to the campus…i don’t know. there was so much violence tonight. it’s like he really has a grudge against the students from our school or something. what if he wants more victims? the campus police are already incompetent, but with most of them off the grounds and on their way to the party house…” you don’t finish your thought. you’ll need to warn camille of the potential danger.

“right, yeah…” jungkook’s hands flex around the steering wheel a few times. “we should…probably go somewhere else, then.”

nowhere feels safe. still, you ask, “where?”

changing his route, jungkook glances over at you. “to a friend’s house.”

[theoreticaltranstherian]

New Years Plan

This year, in 2024, I am going to follow a new plan.

Plans are hard for me but I've been getting better

Thats going to be the motto this year: "I'm getting better"

Anyone who stumbles upon this, feel free to use this as inspiration for your new year

Please don't give me hate. The stuff on this list is stuff I struggle with.

DAILY:

Change my clothes and put them in the hamper

I wake up late most days before school because of ADHD paralysis, and so I want to be able to get up earlier and have time to move slowly

Brush my teeth

I got braces recently and I don't brush my teeth enough because I can never find the motivation. Hopefully if I wake up earlier to get dressed I'll have time to brush my teeth more too

EAT.

The average weight that someone who is 5'6 and AFAB is 120-130, and i have not weighed above 118 in months. I take Adderall so eating is already hard, plus I don't quite understand what being hungry feels like? I know that sounds weird but I just eat when my stomach hurts and I hope to change that.

Do my homework (ALL OF IT)

I have a big problem with getting my homework done because I just can't make myself do it. I just can't get myself to touch it half the time and I never know why. I just passed this semester with all As and Bs and I hope to keep that streak going.

Say 1 thing I like about myself

This is pretty self explanatory. ✨️Depression and self hatred. ✨️

Make my bed

I'm hoping it will help me stay motivated to keep my room clean if I have my bed all comfy every night

Take a shower

*Without sitting on the floor in the shower for an hour and contemplating life

Sit at my altar

Honestly I just think spending time at my altar has helped with my stress; it's like a place that I can control and that I have power over and where I van do my part to help others with things they may not be able to control. I meditate there, make spell jars there, and write in my journal there.

WEEKLY

Do my laundry

Once again, my room. We've been redoing it lately and keeping clean clothes will help me always get changed AND keep it clean

Clean my room a bit

I haaaate cleaning my room. I love having my cozy little areas like dens and places under furniture and boxes of shiny stuff. I know I need to keep things clean though so I'm gonna do it little by little to make it easier

Do dishes

*without being asked to repeatedly

Do a craft

Being creative is a great way for me to help with fighting depression as well as boredom. I have a bunch of stuff I've been planning to make, and this will finally give me the chance to

Post on Tumblr

I don't know how other people think of tumblr, but I imagine it sort of like you are writing on a piece of paper and hanging it on a string from the ceiling, where others will walk around and read it. I want to use this upcoming year to share my journey in self improvement and healing from everything that's happened, whether that be by venting or by giving advice I myself need.

Anyone who's interested in seeing how the journey goes, I'll be posting weekly like I said, so hopefully we'll see some improvements!!!

I hope anyone else following this or another new years resolution has luck and strength in sticking with their plans <3

Go into the new year breathing out, so all of 2023 will be left behind and you get a fresh start

[diorwoo]

AAAAAAAAAAA REN im so happy to hear that you’re doing well, or…. trying to make everything fine, BUT IM SO HAPPY THAT U’RE TRYING YES BABE WE HATE LIFE BUT unfortunately we have to keep going just to spite it !!!!! (my motto 24/7) but yes omgomg we should exchange igs (i’ll send u another ask hehe)

i’ve missed u so so much and literally when i felt like i have feelings for one irl man i immediately thought of u and went,,,, my gawd ren’s gonna have a field day about this,,,,,,,, buT literally idk how and idk when but i fell for him and now im down bad IM A SIMP. THERE I’VE ADMITTED IT 😔. (i don’t even simp for san anymore 😨😨😨😨😨)

but to tell u a brieF bit abt this man (bcs if u let me actually talk about him, i could go on for DAYS), he’s literally the sweetest mf that’s living on this earth, i kid u not. it turns out, he’s been interested in me since my first semester of uni (im currently in my 5th semester) but he’s never gotten a chance bcs i get into situationships often and he’s super shy so he was not confident on approaching me at all 😭 but in the beginning of our 5th semester, we end up being in the same classes and we found out we have mutual friends and that’s when we started hanging out (at first, in group settings)!!!!

to answer ur question, yes he’s very handsome, he’s very tall, and he goes to the gym and……. welllllllll i shouldnt be thirsty on main but GAWDDDAMN he can literally headlock me n i’d say thankyou (LORDDDD IS THIS WHO I AM NOW) but yeah 😝 the first time we hungout, we’ve barEly talked, but long story short i got drenched bcs we went to a golf driving range AND THE SPRINKLERS TO WATER THE GRASS TURNED ON OUT OF NOWHERE AND I WALKED INTO IT 💀 he then offered me his shirt and it just started spiralling after that ehe (🤢 i folded 🤢)

we’ve recently been going on dates and he picks me up to go to campus even though he lives literally 5 minutes away from campus and i live 30 minutes away from campus 💀 like he spends an HOUR driving just to go to me and take me to campus then drives another hour to take me home and go back to hiS house almost everyday and he’s just…. so sweet. he’d open his car door for me all the time, never lets me pay for anything (we literally physically BRAWL in front of every cashier of every restaurant we’ve eaten in bcs i also insist in paying), is such a SHYYY person but gets loud whenever hes with me and texts with emojis with me, always waits for me anytime EVERYTIME, sends me tiktoks of cats bcs it reminds him of me, is allergic to cats but has FOUR who he loves veeery much, and thinks of the cutest activities for the both of us to do :’-)

also, one time i got him his favorite coffee (that he drinks. every. single. day.) and he literally couldnt stop going MMMMMMMM THIS COFFEE IS SO GOOD everytime he takes a sip and i was like… bro it’s the coffee u drink everyday tho????? and he went sorry it just tastes sm better bcs u got it for me 😔 AND I WENT AKAKKANFNDJSBJSJSSJNS !!!!!!!!! there’s so many things about him i could tell u but oops i realized i literally just wrote a 3 page essay about him 🧍‍♀️

ANYWAYYYSS all the simping aside, i can’t thank you enough for supporting me throughout my journey here!!!! you were the first person ever to send me an ask detailing abt how u loved my first work and that holds such a special place in my heart IM NOT KIDDING. literally trashed around like crazy when i saw ur ask ily. and i love love whenever u send me asks bcs theyre so fun to read and its so nice to get to know u!!! thank you so so much for being u, ren. i literally cannot thank you enough and im so glad we’ve met <3 i love u the mostest <3

OH MY GOD U ARE DOWN BAD ND THE THING IS U ARE DOWN BAD FOR A GOOOD ASS MAN A FINE ASS MF LITERALLY LIZ U WON IN LIFE DANG THATS HUSBAND MATERIAL

he DRIVES U HOME DOESNT COMPLAIN SIMPS FOR U OMFGGGG IM SO HAPPY FOR U LIZ IM LITERALLY SOSOSOSOSO HAPPY ND THE STOEY AAAAA IM SO ON LOVE WITH like he was right in front of u nd I'm telling u are gonna have ur happily ever after (my frnd also had the same story nd is now happily married with the guy ) MY GOD LIZ U ARE IN LOVEEEE Finally U PULLED A GENTLEMAN A KEEPER A LOVER A SIMP FOR U (when both simp for e/o >>>>>>) TELL ME MOREEEEE I WOULD LOVE TO LISTEN TO U ND YES I WILL ANNOY U 9N IG 🤩🤩🤩ND Y3S THANK U SM for coming back nd u just healed a part of me which u didn't break

[septimaseverina]

Okay. If I don't get these out of my chest and head, I can't work and write fan fictions properly.

Actually, this was one of my PTSD, but it has been healed for 95% It has been haunted me for almost 10 years (including 4 years in University days.).

12 years ago, I must choose what to study when I graduated from high shcool. That time, I was interesting in foreign language - out of English, Japanese and Korean (I had studied Korean for 1 year) - international relationship, Political Science, History and Fashion Designing.

I decided not to study Fashion Designing because when I registered for the entrance, the staff from that University looked at me like I'm not a person - just because I didn't come from the best and elite high schools of the country. I had carried my colours which I kept it in a bag. She said Icouldn't bring the bag into the room, while I saw other girls - who was in the 'elite-high school's uniform' - carried bags into the room without any prohibittion. I knew suddenly at that moment . If I were studying in THAT University, I must be insulted. So, I swear to everything that I'm not gonna study at THAT University for the rest of my life. Even they give me a scholarship, I'm gonna deny them.

And I finally find the University where I had graduated. I love The University so much. Even now, my spirit can be up when people mension it. Because there are true freedom and liberty, everything is just like Assassin's Creed's motto; Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted.

I choose Russian Studies because that time, I was recieving information about world's politic from only the USA, I wanted to know from Russia's side too, and because of my obsession in language, et voila.

Before the semester began, I had prepared myself by learning Russian's language alphabet and reading books about Russia as much as I can. But I didn't aware of the Russian grammar 'lecturer' (In my culture, we call everyone who teach us somethings 'teacher' in respecting term. But I call her lecturer until now.) and her pets.

Fisrt year, there is a rule that the students are autimatically registered in each section and each subject by their IDs. So, I met the Russian grammar lecturer and her pets, who had ruined my dreams, my studying method and approaching, my thoughts and my mental health.

The story began with I studied Russian grammar in her (the lecturer) class, and there were students, who used to be Russian exchanged student, they can read, translated and pronouced it exactly and rapidly. I would say they must be exempted from Russian 101-202. And no doubt, they became the lecturer's pets immediaetly. The worst things are the lecturer paid attention to them more than students who didn't understand the fundamental of Russian grammar. I'm in this group, so we must find our method to approach.

I, unintentionally, have found the link between Russian+Sanskrit-Pali+English and German, but I don't know what it is that time, because I didn't know about Linguistic. So, my expectation was so high, hoping she would answer my question and explain it to me.

But

She didn't. She rejected me. The moment I was asking her, there were her pet stood and asking her questions, she frowned and said the sentences which it has been still haunted me (But after this post, I promise I won't ramble.);

"Dear girl, you can't compare Russian grammar to other languages - even English - Russian language has its own syntax. You must study as it is."

And then her pets agreed with her. I still remember their words; "Yeah, dude. You can't. Russian is not similar to other langauges. Just stay in our teacher's method".

Those negative and harsh words had been haunted and wrecked my confidence on studying foreign languages, absolutely, just like insulting me (later, other Russian language's teachers tell me that there are many connection). And I was like a blinded person. I never got A in Russian language's classes. It had worn me out for eight and half year, until my best bitch returning from Russia after she had graduated in Bachelor and Master degree of Fine Arts.

I told her this story and then she tells me, even now; "That old hag doesn't read much books about Linguistic, girl. I insist, also my Russian friends that many languages have 'things' to do with Russian language. Especially with Sanskrit, because it's also derived from Proto-Indo-European too! She is so wrong and I'm sorry for you."

After that meeting, it was 4 years after the graduating, I regain my confidence on studying foreign languages, especially Spanish, Latin, French, Italian and many languages! Not only because my best bitch's pep talk, Sanskrit learning and Sanskrit lituratures's group in Facebook opens and expanding the world of linguistic. Many members post about connection about many languages and Sanskrit. Everytime I ask them, if I understand this and that right or wrong, they never say any harsh word! They explain them to me and helping me with their whole hearts.

So, finally, I could get out of that blackhole. But it triggers because of my current work, and the internal politics is the fuse.

I'm gonna leave all misery and sadness right here. I promise to myself that I'm not gonna let any mortal soul destroys any of my positive vibe again. I thought I would write some book about connectioin between Russian language and Sanskrit, to indirectly slap that old hag. But now I be like, nahhhhhh let her be. My younger friend from Russian Studies tells me that the major is in crisis. So I think it's Karma. Because one of the teachers has wrecked many students' dreams and chances, including me. I can safely say, this is the paid back.

Am I gonna revisiting Russian Language again? Maybe. I'm still enjoyed Sanskrit, Latin and Ancient Greek hehehehehehehe

[zxcerjnvxrh]

hi

[seiin-translations]

2.43 S1 Chapter 1.4 - Young Yunichika

4. MISCONDUCT

Translation Notes

1. Bon refers to a young man from a well-to-do family

2. These are lyrics from the opening theme for the famous volleyball anime, Attack No.1

3. I know nothing about Attack No.1 so I have no idea what this is referring to. The original line is “ヒロイン訛ってるって”. If you know anything about this, let me know

4. The kanji for Meisei is 銘誠.   銘 from 座右の銘 (means favorite motto) and 誠 is pronounced makoto by itself

5. Meisei-chuu as in Meisei Middle School

Previous || Index || Next

Haijima Kimichika was an idiot. No, his grades overall weren’t that bad. He was slightly above middling for his third semester finals. However, Kuroba was dumbfounded when he saw the breakdown of that “slightly above middling.”

In regards to math and social studies, he was well above the average, and in fact, he was at the top of the class in his grade. Math, ninety-five. Social studies, ninety-nine—that was the first time he ever saw ninety-nine on an exam paper. He was taken aback by the brilliance of the two 9’s next to each other.

But, things didn’t look good from there. Science, seventy-three. English, sixty. His marks around here were so normal that it made you wonder what his high marks in math and social studies were. Apparently, his strong areas were unusually inclined towards calculation and memorization.  

Japanese,

Thirty points.

…They really were unusually inclined.

“Ooh, there’s a whole row of x’s here. What a nice view.”

It was a question about close reading a novel. The answers to “What are the emotional states of the characters”-type questions were continuously absurd, and the way the x’s were written was becoming increasingly desperate, as if to represent his Japanese teacher’s emotional state.

“For the question ‘Please answer in eighty words or less why you think the king forgives Melos,’ you answered, ‘Melos was naked      the cow,’. I can see the signs of suffering from trying to write a little more, but not being able to write a sentence and getting frustrated. …Cow?”

“Shut up. You’re always joking about people’s exam answers.”

“Ow ow ow!”

Kuroba groaned as he fell prostrate on the exam papers spread out between his legs with a weight pressed tightly against his back. The other club members laughed at the two stretching as a pair.

“You shouldn’t laugh at other people, Yuni. You got forty-two in math and fifty-five in social studies.”

“Hey, don’t read it aloud. This is an invasion of privacy.”

“Japanese…oh? Eighty-seven. Not bad.”

“For real?”

His back lightened with Haijima’s upset-sounding voice. He lifted his body with a self-satisfied look that said “Fufufu. Japanese is the only thing this guy’s good at,” but Haijima, who snatched and returned Kuroba’s Japanese exam paper, once again pressed down on his back tightly with his entire upper body while staring at his answers with a slightly displeased look on his face. Kuroba grumbled “Ow ow ow” while facing the floor in an open-legged forward bending position.

“Why did you answer the cow question like this? I don’t get it at all.”

“First, let go of the cow…I think the first issue is that no cows appear in the story. I’m getting worried about whether or not you can get into high school.”

He briefly wondered if one could get into school through a volleyball recommendation, but even if one could, it didn’t matter because there was no chance of their weak club reaching the point where they could get noticed in a big tournament. If Haijima was in his previous middle school, recommendations might come, however—he hadn’t asked Haijima himself, but there was no doubt that he had been in a fairly strong volleyball club with a decent coach. He had no idea what a full-scale stretching regimen was until he started practicing with Haijima. Next, Kuroba laid on his back as Haijima took his legs and thoroughly stretched them.

I thought that since Haijima would have nothing left if you took volleyball away from him, it would be his greatest desire to go to a strong volleyball school, but…

Haijima Kimichika was a volleyball fanatic.

The ban on club activities, which had been suspended a week before finals, had been lifted, and they held a practice day at once. With people turning up once they knew it was active, the boys’ volleyball team, which used to be as good as non-existent, had more or less taken on the appearance of club activities recently. With just barely six people, they still haven’t been in a match yet.

It was when they stood up and stretched their backs after finishing their brief stretching session.

“Kuroba, how tall are you now?”

Haijima said while looking up at his hair whorl.

“Hmm? Didn’t I say I was one-seventy-three?”

“When did you measure that?”

“Um…in fall, I think…November?”

He tamped down his hair whorl, but his bed hair bobbed back up. He felt depressed when he wondered if he had been exposing this hair to people all day since morning.

There was a scale on the door frame of the gym equipment room that could be used to measure height, and was used to compare heights for fun during club activities and gym class. It was probably the work of students from decades ago. It was the culmination of very precise work, with each millimeter being carved out from one-fifty to one-eighty centimeters with a utility knife.

“One-seventy-five-point-zero.”

Putting an empty powdered drink box to the top of Kuroba’s head, Haijima read the scale out loud.

“Ooh, I grew two centimeters?”

“My turn.”

They exchanged places and now it was Haijima with his back to the scale.

“Don’t raise your heels. Um, one-seventy-two-point…seven.”

“Ah. I grew too.”

But, Haijima didn’t seem too happy about it. With a sullen face, he left the scale and grumbled “Two centimeters off.”

“Two-point-three centimeters off. Don’t round it down. You’re a setter, so you don’t have to be so worried about your height, right?”

“I have a favorite player. It’s Abe, who was selected for the national team. He’s a setter, but he’s one-ninety-one. Even for setters, the bigger you are, the better you block and the faster you set. And, Abe’s ambidextrous, and he has a good left dump.”

“Huh? That reminds me, do you also…”

Haijima served with his left hand. But which hand did he hit with outside of those times...he didn’t have a clear impression. He felt like he recalled him hitting with his left and with his right.

“Use both hands?”

“I do,” He said carelessly, but was that something so easy to do? “There’s still an eighteen-centimeter difference, huh… But Abe can’t hit jump serves, so once my height catches up, I’ll be better.”

When it came to the subject of volleyball, Haijima became more talkative than usual. The way he spoke was basically like cutting short the front part of the context and throwing away the back end, but he came to be able to speak fairly long lines in a polite manner. He must love it a lot, he thought in half amazement and half admiration.

“I’m not sure if you have way too much confidence in yourself or is just an idiot…but I never thought you’d compare yourself to a member of the national team.”

He forced a smile, and got glared at with resentful eyes. He got scared, wondering if he said something that made him angry. He still wasn’t very good at knowing what set Haijima off.

“Kuroba, at the practice game, you see blocks and differentiate between hitting the ball cross and straight, right?”

“Cross-court and straight…oh, straight is where you hit the ball right down the middle, and cross is where you twist a little and hit it outside.”

“It’s the other way around, dumbass.”

He had answered with hand gestures while tilting his head to the side in confusion, but was completely denied with an insult.

“A cross is a spike that passes through the court at an angle. A straight is a spike that goes straight and parallel to the sidelines. When you’re hitting on the front row, you tend to step towards the center in front of the net a lot, so if you hit it straight on, it becomes a cross, and if you hit it with the intention to twist it outside, it will be straight.”

“So complicated…”

“It’s not that complicated, but…oh well. I’ll teach you step by step.”

He thought “Teach me?” every time, but why was he naturally acting like he was above him?

“Even if you don’t understand it with your head, you have good eyes, so you can deal with blocks. Being able to naturally rotate your trunk midair, the length of your time in the air, the suppleness of your shoulders…those are qualities you’ve probably always had. You will get good. It’ll be in no time if you do it properly. You’ll be taller, too.”

“…? Do you have a fever?”

He stared at Haijima’s face suspiciously and got a suspicious look in return.

“What. Did I say something weird?”

“No, it’s just that you’re always so self-important, so I thought you were someone who wouldn’t praise or acknowledge people in that way.”

“If there’s something to acknowledge, then of course I’m gonna acknowledge it. But, there’s no way to acknowledge what’s not there.”

Haijima stated, pouting and seeming truly upset.

Haijima never flattered. He wasn’t humble. He couldn’t hold himself back. Indeed, he might be sincere and straightforward in a sense. …But, he thought it was probably a tough way to live. Most people didn’t want to be told the truth right to their faces.

“You will get good.”

Afterwards, slowly but steadily, a ticklish feeling welled up in the depths of his body. It was uncool to take someone at their word, so he purposely looked indifferent and said,

“I have a talent for volleyball, huh. It won’t make me all that popular though.”

He feigned ignorance and talked big. Unlike Haijima, he felt like he had been drifting through life frivolously, with a bunch of façades lined up in front of him, obscuring reality.

***

The days have become longer, and the chill had subsided considerably. It was now often possible to sneak peeks at patches of blue in the sky which had been covered by depressing snow-laden clouds in midwinter. The sun had completely set when he nearly ran over Haijima in front of that karaoke box in February, but by mid-March, there was still some faint light left in the sky at that same time of day. A rusty copper sunset fringed the ridgelines of Mount Nokude in the distance.

Since their houses were in the same direction, he ended up going home with Haijima on days they had club activities. Their enamel bags, slung over their shoulders, rattled, and they tread on the rugged road in their snow boots. Although the snow on the road melted during the day and was close to becoming sherbet, it had begun to freeze again in the shape of punched-through car ruts and footprints. During the snowfall season from December to March, elementary and middle school students were prohibited from cycling to school, so it took forty minutes to get there on foot. There was no doubt that they would starve before they reached home, so the two stuffed their cheeks with sweet bread as they walked. Incidentally, he stuffed himself with two pieces of bread before club and of course he was going to eat dinner when he got home. At any rate, he was hungry. And at any rate, he was sleepy.

Until one or two months ago, he would have wanted to skip over middle school and become a high school student as soon as possible, but come to think of it, he had stopped thinking about that recently. He had no time to think about superfluous things because after he finished club activities, went home, ate, and took a bath, he immediately went to bed. He fell asleep feeling like he was sinking into the floor with his futon, and then when he woke up, it was next morning.

Finals were over, and now it was time to neglect everything and go into spring break. And whether he left it alone or made a fuss, once the break ended, he would become a third-year. The word examinee still didn’t really strike home for him.

“Haijima, what are you gonna do for high school? Are you taking it here?”

He finally broached the subject that actually wanted to ask him about during club, but hesitated over.

“Well, I was thinking of taking it here, but…”

He got stuck on how Haijima trailed off at the end of his sentence, which was unusual for him.

“But? Is there a condition or something?”

He once again asked Haijima’s profile, which was bulged out with the bread he stuffed in his mouth. He wasn’t wearing his glasses right now. Haijima always followed the procedure of putting in contact lenses and taping his hands before club started. If he taped first, he wouldn’t be able to handle his contacts. When club activities were finished, he followed that procedure in reverse, but there were days when he went home as he was, perhaps because he couldn’t be bothered. From the point of view of Kuroba, whose vision had never fell below 20/20 and whose fingernails and bones seemed healthy and strong, he had a difficult constitution.

“More importantly, new first-years will come in April.”

“Hmm? Oh yeah. Skilled guys would get picked up by the other clubs, so it’s better not to get your hopes up, but maybe we can get one or two people.” More importantly? He had a feeling he was changing the subject, but the timing to repeat the question escaped him.

“If we get more members, I wanna go to a tournament. I don’t know the tournament schedule here, but there should be a prefectural tournament before the summer inter-school.”

“Tournament, huh. But even if we can be in it, I don’t think we can win at our level…”

“It’s no fun if you don’t play a game. I wanna be in a match. I’m gonna train you all to be presentable enough by summer. I’ll take care of the rest.” Once again, he said that he was gonna train us without hesitation. Is he treating us like performing monkeys or something?

Ah, there it was. The sparkle in his eyes like that of a dinosaur-loving elementary schooler. Though he was just being arrogant and saying something self-centered, when he had that look in his eyes, he couldn’t help but feel that it was as though it was being secretly switched with something of pure purpose. Kuroba realized that he couldn’t oppose those eyes at all.

“Ooookay, got it. We need an advisor to be in a tournament or it’s no good, right? Let’s ask tomorrow.”

When he said that with a sigh, a crude voice called out to them from the side of the road.

“Hey, isn’t that the head house’s bon walking there?” (1)

It came from in front of the signboard of the aforementioned “Karaoke Box Monshiro”. Was this the only place to hang out? Well, it probably was. There were three men. Two 125cc motorbikes and one moped. Each of them was sitting astride their seats and hanging their butts on their tandem grips, smoking cigarettes as they tucked their chins inside their collars of their jackets, looking cold. They had the appearances of what countryside delinquents should be.

“Oh, Yori-chan!”

Kuroba called out to him with a smile, but Yorimichi only took a glance at his appearance and looked away.

The other two were Yorimichi’s senpais, both from the neighborhood. When someone other than his relatives called him the “head house’s bon”, it was probably filled with ridicule, but since he was used to it, he didn’t react to it every single time, and Kuroba greeted them in a friendly manner as well.

“’Sup. It’s been a while. I didn’t know you guys are back.”

“It’s spring break in uni too. Bon, how much you got today?”

“Oh…I only have some coins. I’ve been doing club activities lately so there’s a lot of times when I’d be leaving my bag alone.”

“’Club activities’?”

The two repeated it with a rising inflection that contained laughter.

“Oh, is that what Yorimichi was talking about?”

Smirking, they eyed Kuroba from the top of his head to his feet. He uncomfortably let his gaze escape to Haijima, who was waiting next to him. When he looked at Haijima, he could see his own appearance like he was looking into a mirror, or rather, he was just copying Haijima, but—he was wearing a knee-length padded coat over his jersey with his rectangular enamel sports bag slung over his shoulder, and he really did look like he was coming back from a sports club. In regards to the padded coat, Kuroba saw Haijima’s and also bought one recently.

“You do receives or something, how did that go again? We didn’t do it in gym in high school, so I completely forgot.”

The two had mean smiles on their faces, pointing their chins. Either the smoke of their cigarettes or the whiteness of their breath from the cold made their stubbled mouths misty.

“Um, it’s like this, I guess…?”

Kuroba had no choice but to drop his hips on the spot and did the posture for an underhand pass, and the two cackled and applauded.

“Wow, looking pretty good, aren’t you? I know, it’s that thing, Attack No.1, right?”

“That old manga? It’s that ‘I won’t cry, I’m just a girl’ thing, right?” (2)

“The heroine spoke in dialect. Gyahahaha!” (3)

“Haha…”

When Kuroba forced a smile while feeling his face turning hot, his bag was suddenly pulled on. The strap was biting into the pit of his stomach. “Gueh,” he groaned as he turned around.

“Haijima?”

“You’re just getting looked down on. We’re not playing around.  Don’t keep them company.”

Like he was pulling on the leash of a not particularly disciplined dog, Haijima primly started walking while gripping the strap. “Okay, okay, don’t pull me. It’s dan…” Right when he twisted his body around and rushed to follow him,

“You’re hanging out with us, right, Yuni?”

Yorimichi called out to his back.

Haijima turned around, not even trying to hide his annoyance. Kuroba also followed his gaze while feeling lost. Turning away and smoking his cigarette, Yorimichi snorted sarcastically.

“Don’t tell me you’re getting’ influenced by Fighting Spirit Chika-chan, are ya? You’re the one who’s gonna be embarrassed later.”

“Hey…oh, hey Yori-chan, are you mad at me? Sorry for not hanging out with you lately. We’ll do stuff together during spring break.”

“Kuroba, we’re practicing during spring break too.”

Haijima’s dissatisfied sounding voice pierced the back of his ear. “We can’t practice everyday, right?” When he turned around with a half-smile, his face seemed to say, As a matter of fact, of course we are. “If we’re going to the summer tournament, we’ll still never make it in time even with that.” “Are you serious…” He was of course ready to have fun and relax during spring break, so when he was told to be prepared to completely spend that time on club activities… I underestimated this guy’s volleyball obsession.

“Yuuuuni. You understand, right? It’s no good for you. It’d be less embarrassing if you stop playing around. I ain’t patient either, so I can’t wait too long for you.”

“Hey, even Yori-chan’s being mean? You’re not serious, right?”

He looked at Yorimichi again with a twitching smile. “Oh, you’re pretty popular, Bon. If you pick one, you have to cut off the other. This is a real mess.” The two university students irresponsibly jeered and aggravated the situation.

“You, you get it, right? I have the same blood in my veins as you, so we get fired up and cooled off easily.  I’ll probably get bored halfway, right?”

He ended up prioritizing putting Yorimichi in a good mood with a joking tone. A cold sweat ran down the nape of his neck as he felt Haijima’s burning gaze scorching it.

He knew that he was playing it safe. He was still afraid now that Yorimichi would throw him away. He wanted to secure the warm place he could always return to if things got tough. Don’t put me together with you, he grumbled in his mind. Haijima, who didn’t have an ounce of doubt about himself doing volleyball, probably wouldn’t understand, but for us until just now, guys who went hardcore for club activities were just something to be watched from a distance and gawked at.

Yorimichi bared his teeth and grinned.

“Haha, that’s right. You’re the same as me.”

Relieved, Kuroba also slackened his cheeks.

And, the heat wave of Haijima’s gaze that was burning the back of his neck also abruptly disappeared. The strap was released to send him flying.

“Then quit now.”

Haijima said it bluntly in a cold voice, a complete reversal from the heat of earlier.

“Hey, no need to go that far…”

“I don’t want to the tournament to get messed up.”

“Messed up…”

He immediately guessed that he was talking about scandals that would result in a suspension. Kuroba himself didn’t smoke or drink, but he overlooked Yorimichi doing it. It wasn’t illegal to ride double on a bike, but having only one helmet was probably not allowed. It wasn’t a good look to sneak into karaoke bars either. He didn’t really care about it until now, but it was somewhat understandable that school sports were sensitive to those kinds of issues.

Haijima’s concern was reasonable, and perhaps this was where he should be sorry. But on the contrary, antagonism reared its head. So, from the beginning, he wasn’t worried about whether or not Kuroba would continue to do volleyball or not, but about that?

“You showed your true colors, eh!”

Yorimichi’s loud voice suddenly rang out. Haijima glared suspiciously at him and Kuroba was also confused. Peeling his lips back in a vicious grin that made him draw back a little, Yorimichi continued to speak in a theatrical way.

“The infamous ‘Genius Setter’ of Meisei Middle School only thinks about satisfying his own desires, right?”

“Yori-chan? What are you talking about?”

“You were the one who wanted to know, Yuni. You asked why he came back here. That’s why I investigated.”

Haijima’s sharp gaze immediately moved to Kuroba. He did voice his doubts, but he thought the conversation ended there, so to think that Yorimichi would investigate it…

“Oops, you’re barking up the wrong tree if you’re blaming Yuni. It’s that ‘you reap what you sow’ kind of thing, right?”

Yorimichi came down from his bike and stepped on his cigarette to put it out. He thrust his hands into the pockets of his down jacket and approached him with bowlegs and swinging shoulders, looking particularly vulgar. “Move, Yuni,” he said, pushing Kuroba aside and standing before Haijima.

“I could have easily gotten the name of your school from your grandpa through mine. Well, I used Itoko though, since I’ve been given up on by Gramps. So when I quickly searched the net…oh look, there’s slander of the ‘Genius Setter’ who reigned over Meisei Middle until last year. The net sure is terrifyin’. Everything’s on there. Well, I guess it means you’re not liked very much.”

The more Yorimichi talked, the stiffer Haijima’s expression became. The color disappeared from Haijima’s face that seemed to embody the world’s arrogance and fearlessness, and his gaze dropped downwards. The shadow of Yorimichi, who was a size bigger in height and width, hung over the head of Haijima, who was looking down and biting his lower lip. “Oi oi, look at the poor guy, Yorimichi. Don’t bully middle schoolers. You’ll make him cry.” The two university students saying insincere things were completely taking the role of spectators.

“Yuni.”

“Huh? Y-yeah.”

Kuroba reflexively responded, unable to catch up with the conversation very well. Yorimichi’s face changed from that of someone tormenting a dying animal, and when he turned around, he was no longer smiling. It was an extremely serious expression.

“I don’t have anything against Chika, but I don’t really care. I think it’s petty to talk about other people behind their backs online. It’s all for you. Don’t get too absorbed in it. After all there was apparently someone who attempted suicide because of this guy——”

An instant later, Haijima barked something that couldn’t be expressed in words and grabbed Yorimichi. “Oh?” Although Yorimichi staggered a little, their physiques and amount of fight experiences were different. He grabbed Haijima’s face and thrust it aside, just like he was grabbing a ball—a dodgeball instead of a volleyball—with one hand and throwing it violently. Haijima was lightly blown off two or three meters away, the side of his face crashing into the muddy snow-covered road.

Because it was the first time he heard Haijima’s enraged voice, Kuroba was temporarily distracted by that. He hurriedly broke into Yorimichi’s path.

“Yo-Yori-chan, stop! Violence is no good!”

“He was the one who charged at me. Ah, it’d be no good for a sports boy to be violent, right? Didn’t you say that yourself? I’m being kind by ending it with just knocking him down.”

Yorimichi threw mocking jeers at Haijima over Kuroba’s shoulder. Kuroba turned around and ran up to Haijima, who was crouching and holding his hand to his face. “Oi, you’re alive…” he knelt down and was about to touch his shoulder, but what Yorimichi said flashed across his mind and he stopped his hand.

…Attempted suicide…?

“Let’s go back. My ass is frozen.”

Urging the two university students, Yorimichi returned to his bike.

“Yuni, get over here.”

Summoned, Kuroba looked up at the chin of Yorimichi, who was sitting astride his bike, but hesitated and returned his gaze to Haijima. His earlobe, which was poking out from the gaps between his hair, were terrifyingly white. No way, is he actually dead? He thought, but he saw a fist clenching the snow underneath his face pressed against the ground. Mud soaked into his white taping and stained it brown.

He couldn’t leave him here and go home.

“Even if you say go home, you won’t let me ride double anyways. I’ll send him home, okay?”

“Well, whatever.”

Yorimichi backed down easily with just a shrug of his shoulders. The sneering had already disappeared and he returned to his normal self.

“Don’t forget. Wash your hands of him as soon as possible. From his reaction, it doesn’t seem like those are groundless rumors. Be careful on your way home. I’m talking about the snowy roads and your teammate next to you.”

Perhaps Yorimichi also felt that he went a bit too far. He awkwardly turned his face away, made his engine roar its usual crude and vulgar sounds, and departed on the Komashi-gou.

***

“Mei from zayuu no mei and makoto, Meisei. (4) It’s called Meisei Private Academy Middle School. It’s a middle and high school in one, and their sports clubs are pretty strong. Apparently the distribution map of famous private schools is common knowledge among Kanto kids. You can’t really experience it here, can you? There aren’t enough schools to choose from. Hey, everyone’s gonna hang out in the city after the end-of term ceremony, so do you wanna come with us? I wonder if Haijima would come if we invited him. You guys have been getting along well lately.”

“Um, oh, yeah. If that’s all I can ask then I’m good for now. Thanks.”

He hung up first because it seemed like the conversation would never end if he left it alone.

Itoko said “Everyone”, so the group probably included girls. To tell the truth, he was really jealous of this merry spring break-like event. Normally he wouldn’t be able to refuse. But, it was only today that he couldn’t get into the mood at all. He was willing to bet that Haijima would never come either.

He put the phone handset next to the desk and turned towards the computer again. Since he had an agreement to not own a cell phone until high school, the only place he could access the Internet at home was the laptop in his dad’s study. When he tried to convert Meisei-chuu (5), he realized he didn’t know the kanji for it, and since Yorimichi said he learned it by way of Itoko, he called to ask her directly. Based on the current feeling, Yorimichi had really only gotten the school name, and it seemed he didn’t tell Itoko more than that. He felt relieved about that.

A school with a strong athletic department. If this school was that famous, then it might not be strange for there to be a rumor or two to float around the Internet. After all, there was even a message board titled “[Monshiro Town] Old Man Kuroba [Yokai]”—Yorimichi thought it was hilarious and told him about it, but Kuroba never searched for it because he was scared of learning the contents.

“Tokyo meisei academy middle school boys volleyball club attempted suicide”

He entered the search words, and just when he was about to click the search button, his finger stopped. He couldn’t easily press the key. Of course he was unbearably curious. But, he was afraid to find out the contents for that more than Grandpa’s message board.

“Yuni? Where are you?”

His mother’s voice came from somewhere on the other side of the sliding screen door. He twisted himself around on the tatami chair and raised his voice.

“In here! The study!”

“Why are you there? Aren’t you going to take a bath?”

“Okay!”

After thinking about it a little bit, he ended up pressing the backspace key to delete everything he typed in. Once he did so, he completely gave up, closed the computer and stood up.

Previous || Index || Next

[timextoxhajima]

im not really going thru sumn bad perse but ive just been, not too great? recently? especially today, but its ok ..! and i agree w u, idols put in so much effort to keep improving themselves and to make other people happy, their hard work should be recognised! do you do some kind of dance / performance stuff ? im sorry to hear that it gets really tiring, im rooting for you in whatever you’re involved in ! 🫂

oh no my bby :< im so sorry you had a hard time,,, i'm not one to tell you that everything's gonna be okay because that's really subjective to everybody but i just want you to know that you'll get through it, i promise. maybe bruised and tired but you will get through it.

i know you didnt ask but i've also been gg thru a shit time w my mom especially, and my clique's falling apart for reasons i think are my fault and yet i can't do anything about it because feelings were involved and there was no other way i could've prevented it so- it just makes me feel extra shitty :")

anyway, point is- you'll get through it. im always here for you to rant to and leave asks in my askbox (you can also dm me if you want to but that's completely up to your own comfort, no worries yeah?)

and yes i am part of a kpop dance cover group in sch rn actually, i have my own dance cover account on ig too and i'm actually on youtube somewhere bec of the dance cover grp (doubt you'll find it tho, it's not a popular channel). i was involved in a concert earlier this year in march (made the final line up for exo's history) and i also did somi's wywf last year so i did have a good amount of time spent in the studio.

i grew so sick of the songs so fast that neither of the songs are in my playlists anymore. if anything, all the songs ive learnt some bit too (bec i learn on my own as well) are in a separate playlist and i know never to listen to them on my own accord LMAOOOO about 2 months back i was involved in a dance chain challenge organised by the team and it features about 20+ songs? i was in about 4 or 5 but my screentime was so little (alot off the screentime went to the members who were more 'exclusive' and chummy with the editor)

i got kinda mad because it made me feel like i practised so much at home for nothing and it kind of made me feel bad too because- yknow idol groups have such a huge disparity- i cant imagine how it must feel for some members to receive lesser attention despite putting in a comparable amount of effort? dont get me wrong, i bias the members of most groups who had a solid fanbase (juyeon, seonghwa, baekhyun for ex are all high fliers) but my heart hurts when i remember how much effort they put in as well only to get a significantly lesser amount of attention.

i definitely talked more than i expected to, i hope you don't mind, and i hope you hang in there alright! my motto for this semester's 'no lows, no highs' and i hope that does help you with sticking to your resilience and making it through!! <3333

[ruinedbytc]

The time L almost quit for me (long story)

I remember I was having a really hard time in school my senior year and L noticed and asked me to come to his classroom. I was being majorly bullied by some of my classmates and it was really surprising and unexpected. And at that time, there was a girl who really hated me and was spreading nasty rumors around about me. And honestly my biggest fear was that he had heard these rumors and believe them and that was a major point of sadness for me. I literally have no idea what I did to hurt her no JOKE YALL MY MOTTO IS "be kind to everyone." She was new to the school the previous yr and liked this guy i was good friends with and I think that was it tbh. I was NOT interested in him, i had my eyes solely on L!!! But like....couldn't tell her that could I?

Anyway so I'm in L's office telling him the truth about my entire childhood and what stuff I'd been through. And he was just sitting there open mouthed like what??? I think he didn't expect me to tell him all this bc im usually quiet about my personal life and am pretty shy around him.. And I kid you not, I suck so bad at being vulnerable so.... I covered my face and he looked at me and said "you ever gonna peek out over those hands H?" And I was like "NO...." AND HE just stared at me. And stared at me. And I slowly looked over. And he was like "ok but im not looking away until you smile." ugjufjdlsmrhfmr. Kill me.

And then he told me "I'd expel every single person that's been mean to you, this is highschool, people are so idiotic. All I know is that you're above it all and I don't believe any rumors that are being spread about you. I know who you are....at least I like to think that I do. "

And then he told me be was having A FACULTY MEETING TO RENEW HIS next semester AND are you gonna drop out of school? "Because H, if you're not coming back, im going in there and telling them I'm not coming back either."

And I was just sat there....PARALYZED. And said "why?"

And he just shrugged his shoulder. And thats the story.

I'm blushing thinking about it.

[haniswritingstuff]

Baumhaus Uni life just got even weirder

Hiiii People this is me author of the day ( honestly I just neglected all the work I need to do for 3 hours you better be thankful XD) I'll update maybe once a week? If I can make it? For now I just really wanted the idea out of my head and into chapter 1 :D It is not proof read, ignore any grammar or spelling mistakes XD

„Lea wake up. Lea. Goddamnit Julia could I get some help over here I really don’t want to be late for our first day!” Lea groaned and rolled over, not for the first time cursing her friend who was worse than any alarm clock.

She tried to peel open her eyes and saw Hanna standing in the door, still trying to fix her mess of hair with some product by looking into her mirror at the other side of the room. There were slow footsteps in the hall as Julia walked into the room and fell next to Lea on the bed.

“Move” she instructed, getting under the blankets. Grunting Lea wiggled to make room for her friend who pretended to fall asleep again. The only thing that was an indicator that she was already awake was the fact that she was dressed in jeans and a simple t-shirt and not in her RJ Pajamas. “Lier she already woke you up!” Lea accused and tried to grab the blanket from Julia again.

Dishes where heard clirring in the kitchen, followed by Hanna shouting “Wait girls, why is our coffee empty I thought we still had coffee, ohmygod how will I make it through the morning.” The stress was clear in her voice but that made the girls only laugh silently. “We’re gonna stop by Dynamite Coffee today don’t worry!” Julia answered loud enough for Hanna to hear. The girl came back into view. “Ah yes for us to make it in time though we really need to be out of the house in 5” she said, hands on her hips. Lea groaned again, though the promise of good coffee made getting up a bit more appealing. Dynamite had this really great Vanilla-Caramel Frappé creation, and as it was the first day of hell, aka the new semester, the motto was treat yourself with sugar. “Veto on the shower” she finally said, pushing the blankets (and Julia) out of the bed to get up. “Dude no need to call Veto you know I only shower in the evening” said Hanna, going back to her room. Lea blinked and looked down at Julia, who was apparently also dressed.

“Ok , at least give me 10 minutes”

 They somehow still made it out of the house with time to spare and luckily there weren’t that many people waiting in Line at the coffee-shop. Lea grinned when she saw Jimin was working today. Hanna ordered first, black coffee and the biggest vegan sandwich they had on display, Julia some iced tea and something sweet. Jimin grinned and went into full pose when he saw Lea, who had already gotten into some extra stance, with her hand on one hip, the other going through her hair as Jimin would often do. “Good morning Sunshine what can I get you?” Jimin said, completing his sentence with a wink.

Lea rolled her eyes. “More like raincloud you know what day it is today, though I appreciate the positivity.” Lea answered, following up with “The usual with extra syrup please.” Jimin went to work as Hanna and Julia went beeline for their usual seat at the window. Lea stayed at the counter for a moment longer, as there wasn’t really anyone waiting to order anyway right now.

“Why do you have the morning shift today don’t you have classes?” She asked her best friend, who was busy creating magic in the form of caffeinated drinks. “Hah do you think I’m gonna turn up the first day, people might think I’m actually taking studying serious. I really don’t want to ruin my reputation like that!” Lea grinned “I wish, But I think you-know-who drinking her black coffee over there would have killed me!” Jimin finished her drink and slid it over in one fluid movement, perfectly in sync for Lea to grab the cup.

“Yea, to be honest though most of my classes start in the afternoon this semester.” Lea nodded. Jimin was a dance major and most of the morning classes where often the theoretical kind in the lecture halls. And she couldn’t really picture Jimin turning up for dance history at 8am on a Monday morning either.

“Well, I’ll see you around then, I’m going to inhale this now and hope it helps with my class at least.” She sighed. “You know my magic always works” Jimin smiled. “Don’t worry what is it again that you have today? Fashion history? You passed that one with flying colors last semester and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you study for it.”

“Yeah, but only because I already know most of the material, which still makes it a super boring class to sit in” Jimin moved a hand through his orange hair in his trademark way, before putting it on Leas Hand, morphing his face into somewhat of a pretend-pity-pout. “Don’t worry I promise I’m going to invite you to our party on Friday if you live through the week” Lea slapped his Hand away, though her eyes gave away that she was intrigued. “Your fraternity already planning for the first party of the semester?” Jimin puffed out his chest proudly. “What do you think, Beta Tau Sigma doesn’t sleep, and like hell, we’re going to top last semesters opening party by far!” He announced.

Beta Tau Sigma was probably most known for their party’s and pretty boys around Campus and while there were a bunch of different fraternities as Jimin would say “Don’t fraternitise with the enemy, especially not alpha delta psi”. In that moment the doorbell rung, signalizing a new wave of costumers. Lea turned around one last time saying “Don’t forget to keep me updated” before going to sit over to her friends. When she turned around she saw an old woman, maybe a professor?, stumble while she was trying to stand up from her table. Without thinking and in a moment of unknown agility Lea helped steady the woman and her tea set, so it wouldn’t shatter into a thousand pieces on the floor. “Wow are you alright?” She asked when the woman didn’t move for a second. She turned her head up and blinked up at her with incredibly light blue eyes. “Ah yes, thank you very much young lady!” She moved to put back her plate and cup and went to the door, when Lea shook her head and noticed she had left a little bag on her chair. She grabbed it and ran after the woman but when she looked around it seemed like the old lady had vanished into thin air.

“I guess I’ll maybe take this to the campus fundus later” She shrugged and placed the little item in her bag before joining her friends for breakfast.

“Ah Lea!” Hanna said, while swallowing the last of her sandwich. She placed her heads on the table and leaned forward in a serious manner. “Guess what Tae is actually in my art history class this semester!” She smiled and Julia gave Lea the look, they always shared when it came to Hanna and that certain boy. “Yeah guess how she found out, Tae just messaged her happily how his best friend ever being in the same class is just the greatest thing that happened to him today” Lea snickered and took a huge slurp from her drink. Whatever they put in there truly was like magic, lighting up her mood. Or maybe it’s just the sugar. “Hanna blinked at them, but before she could ask why they were being weird again Lea decided to share her news. “And guess what I just heard; beta tau sigma  is returning to the scene this Friday with their legendary semester opening party!” Julia clapped her hands together “Dude yes we totally need to go!” She high fived Lea, both of them starting to plan their outfits and makeup for the day. “I have to hope there’s just no student council on Friday or I’ll just come Later” Hanna, who had just taken out her calendar and was nibbling on her pen said. Lea took her calendar and a pen from her bag, before writing in big, bold letters PARTY in the spot for Friday. She closed it, throwing it back into Hanna’s’ bag. Hanna gaped at her, but she just took another slurp of her Frappé “Don’t tell me you want to miss out on the chance of Tae freestyling something again for boring student council”  Hanna started mumbling something about “Not that boring but…” when Julia groaned and leaned back in her chair. “Now that you mention that maybe I will come a bit later when that part of the evening is over” “Well I’m sure Suga is already appointed as the real DJ for the evening.” “Touché I’m back on board”

  Lea entered the Lecture hall right on time, heading straight for a place in the last row, before pulling out her I-pad that automatically connected with the university Wlan. Thank god for that because without some distractions she truly wouldn’t survive the class. Fashion history, while being one of the more interesting subjects, was taught by an old white man called Mr. Park Jin-young and his lecture style was awkward at best and dead-boring at worst. She was really just here for attendance credits anyway, as most of the material she already knew from her free time research. The decision to study fashion was really something that happened after a failed- first attempt at studying  “something useful” as her father had called it, while she just spat on it as economics hell. Julia might be convinced that subject was actually exciting, but she wasn’t fooling anyone. Economics was really just the first nail in her coffin and after dropping all her mandatory classes after one semester she decided to switch over to something that actually interested her. While she didn’t want to go full design category, though that would’ve put her in some classes with Tae or Hanna, she decided to major in Fashion history and Costume design, hoping to work for film or theatre one day, whichever way it worked out really.  The class passed slower than ever, Lea caught up with the Baumhaus Blog, a university legend really as it was written by someone who clearly had all the intel into not only University politics but also most classes and famous people. Some thought it was led by the actual university president itself, as he was the only one who was always present for the last 20 years when the blog had first started out as a makeshift website. Another popular theory was that the blog was passed on from the founder to different people and every time they graduated the moderator would change as well. Lea thought that theory was more plausible, because not only would it be weird for the Uni president to trash himself in third person but also it seemed like the style had changed ever so slightly last year and 3 years before that, as Julia had once explained to her. The newest entry was about the Party on Friday, which wasn’t that surprising because for Beta Tau Sigma to keep a secret for more than an hour was nearly impossible. Not only did they have the eyes of fangirls on them, but the own members weren’t really secretive about their activities either, as much as Jimin would like to make it out to be.

The class wrapped up a tiring 2 hours later and Lea’s stomach grumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t really eaten anything this morning. She stood up, after quickly noting down the first assignment because of course Mr. Park wanted them to have an essay ready by next week already, that asshole.

The prospect of Jimin maybe still being on shift made her steer back to Dynamite Coffee, as it was also the most convenient option around Campus unless you actually dared to eat the Mensa food.

The ringing of the bell for a second time that day and the smell of coffee was so comforting, she nearly forgot all about the assignment that she had to finish already this week. Well, nearly. Lea looked around, the coffee shop was a lot busier now, as many people had the same idea to drop by during classes. Behind the counter it actually wasn’t only Jimin now, but also another guy with black hair. His sleeves were pushed up over his elbows revealing tattoos that were all over his forearm and fingers. Lea vaguely remembered seeing his face somewhere, though she couldn’t quite place it. Before she could catch Jimin’s eye he vanished in the back for something, and she sighed. “Eh excuse me could I take your order?” She looked up, confused that it was already her turn but apparently the people in front of her were in a group. She looked at the food options to the left. “I’ll take one grilled cheese sandwich and a Nutella muffin” She said, looking back up at the waiter. And suddenly she remembered where she knew him from. “Holy shit you’re stock-photo guy!” She blurted out. The guy just took out her muffin from the display and nearly dropped it because of her sudden outburst. He blushed and looked at her stammering something incoherently. “Oh my god I’m right! I always see you in memes all over Tumblr oh my god!” In that moment Jimin came from the back grinning at Lea and throwing an arm around Bartender guy. “I knew I heard your voice and yes this is our newest addition to the team may I present Model and photography student Jeon Jungkook”. Jeon Jungkook looked very uncomfortable and busied himself with trying and somehow failing to place Lea’s muffin in a bag. Lea shook her head in a small laugh, her blonde hair falling out from behind her ear. “Damn Jimin and I thought you were the only model allowed to serve coffee out here, seems new guy as you beat in popularity as I saw his ‘model photos’ somewhere else than his own Instagram thirst-tap page.” Jimin crossed his arms in mock-offend while Jungkook finally gave the bag with food over to Lea. “Here’s your dude- I mean food” he said groaning a little about his slip of tongue. “Thanks dude” Lea grinned, placing her EC card over the card reader to pay. “You’re taking it to-go?” Jimin asked. “Yeah I wanna go home for a second before my next class, I want to pick up a book that I left lying there and you know I need a good book to survive literature” “Wow that is so wannabe-author of you” Jimin answered. Lea picked up her things and waved “Thanks I’ll take it, Bye Jimin, bye stock-photo-guy!”

 Considering that she had some time before her next class Lea sat down in the kitchen with her freshly-warmed up sandwich and looked around her bag for her iPad. She placed it on the table, when her hand felt something else inside the bag.

Confused she pulled it out of her bag and placed it on the table. It was the thing the old lady had forgotten in the coffee shop earlier that morning. “Shit I totally forgot to drop it off at the fundus” Lea said. Curious she opened up the bag, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to take a small look inside. It was a silver ring, beautifully crafted. She turned it around in her hand admiring the weight and style of it. Her own fingers were always full of different rings and this one was actually really pretty the more she looked at it. Before she could put it back in her bag her phone suddenly started ringing. Lea carefully placed the ring back on the little bag it came in and fished out her phone from the depth of her bag. “What the-“ The caller ID showed Julia’s name, though that was weird, because Julia was supposed to sit in class right now and she usually wasn’t one to ditch a class that easily.

“Hello girl what’s up?” Lea asked into the phone. Through the line she could hear some wind crashing and other sounds but Julia started speaking before she could even wonder further. “GIRL, where are you right now?” She asked kind of frantically. “Huh I came home for my break why?” “There’s a supervillain that just crashed into your lecture hall and I didn’t remember if you still had class” Lea pulled her eyebrows together, concentrating to make out Julia’s voice with all the background commotion. “What is that some joke?!” “You need to look at the Baumhaus blog, there’s some footage up already” Julia continued talking, through most of it was drowned out by the bad connection while Lea swiped her iPad open. And somehow, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “What the fuck-?” she whispered, when the line went dead. Suddenly worried Lea jumped up and whirled around when a bright green flash illuminated the kitchen. She screeched some high note and fell back against the sink closing her eyes. When she reopened them, she saw something floating over her left-over sandwich. Said something sniffed her half-eaten sandwich. What was happening? “Oh my god is that … cheese” Said something exclaimed. “I haven’t had that in a century!”

Lea, finding her voice and body connection again jumped up from her place at the floor and she pointed accusingly at the thing that had just started eating her lunch with huge bites.

“What the fuck!” She exclaimed again, and while it wasn’t her most eloquent moment, she truly couldn’t find any words to better describe the situation.

The something looked up at her as if just remembering she was here. “Oh hi. I’m Plagg. Let me just eat first than we can go deal with that akuma”

“Aku-what?” Lea asked slowly sitting down in front of the black creature. It kind of resembled a small cat now that she looked at it. Plagg ate the last of that sandwich in a huge bite that shouldn’t be possible for his small statue and happily rubbed his belly. “Look girl, I am a kwami, and the god of destruction” he started, flowing from the plate towards the ring. “And it’s just your luck you seem to be my new holder, as you own my ring now.” He took the ring and placed it down in front of a still silently staring Lea. “This is a dream or something, maybe I woke up in one of my fantasy novels” the girl whispered, taking the ring hesitantly. It felt cool and very real against her skin. She slipped it on one of her fingers and found out it somehow fit perfectly. “Nonono this is actually real life; I know that because I just ate very real yummy cheese, and it tastes better than in my dreams. Now we have to deal with a supervillain, but don’t worry Ladybug will surely help you so you won’t have to fight him alone. We need her power anyway as you will sure learn. Your power is more awesome anyway it’s called cataclysm and it is all about destroying stuff. Anyway listen. You mustn’t tell anyone about this okay, most important rule. “Lea blinked down at the small creature. Ladybug? Fighting a supervillain? What the hell was going on?

“Now after you say, ‘claws out’ we can actually start trying to find that villain-“ Plagg certainly wanted to go on, but as if still in denial Lea repeated “Claws out?” confused and everything happened at once.

The small creatures’ eyes widened, and he opened his mouth but suddenly he was gone, and Lea was standing in the apartment in a leather suit. She looked down at her hands that were clad in leather as well, her nails seemingly got sharper under the material.

She rushed out into the hall, towards the mirror and stopped as she looked at herself. She was wearing a freaking leather catsuit. “Again. What. The. Fuck” She looked down at herself and up into the mirror. Her eyes where light green and very cat like under a black mask that obscured her face around the eyes. Lea turned around, admiring how the material seemed to fit just right in all places and she noticed a little stick in her belt, that also kind of looked like a cat’s tail. She took it and pressed a paw-shaped button, causing the thing to open up with all kinds of options. And suddenly she somehow, as if it was instinctual, knew what she had to do. She ran back into the kitchen, checking Baumhaus blog which was still reporting life on the incident. The supervillain apparently had moved on toward the art building And Lea remembered Tae and Hanna were supposed to be there right about now.

She sprinted out onto the balcony and in a jump, that could only be described as very daring or downright suicidal, she leaped over the street. Her staff expended and like a pole-vaulter she reached the next rooftop unshattered. She stopped when her feet hit the roof, looking down at her slightly trembling hands. “Wow.” She breathed out and her face turned into a smile. “This is awesome!”

She pole-vaulted her way towards the campus which resulted her being there in second’s time. Deciding that looking at what was going on first might be a smart idea, she hid behind one of the chimneys. She peeked around again just in time to see something red and spotted crash down in front of her. On the roof. There were no red spotted giant birds as far as she was aware.

She peeked around again just in time to notice a guy with dark hair sitting up. He groaned and rubbed his head. He looked around and their eyes met, both blinking at the other person. “Wait…” Lea started, remembering some things that Plagg had been trying to tell her before she transformed. She eyed the suit that was skin-tight, showing the lean muscle of the guy in front of her, but most importantly it was reminiscent of a certain animal “Are you the Ladybug? Nice biceps by the way!” The guy shrugged and stood up to his full height. “More like Mr.Bug as you can see. And who are you?” He shot her a charming grin. Lea rolled her eyes. “I’m L-leather dressed superhero lady noir as you can see” For effect she bowed down. “And I thought my getup was bad but here you are running around like a domeownatrix!” Lea’s eyebrow twitched under her mask and she decided that maybe, she did not like this guy. “I’d take my suit any day over that spotted fashion disaster you are sporting.” She shot back but Mr.Bug only smiled, striking a pose. “Oh, really you don’t spot something you like?” “More like you are bugging me already-“ she started, when suddenly a huge rock was thrown their way causing them both to jump apart and turn around.

Oh right. There was that problem with the supervillain.

LMAO :D:D:D:D:D Did you see that coming? A reverse Miraculous AU because I can. And we are only just getting started.

[thisnerdsadventures]

I, a campaign manager

so in addition to being a CTO, a CS major, and a dorm vice president, i was also a campaign manager for 2 weeks (the exact campaign that I was managing is not entirely difficult to figure out if you really want to know, especially if you click on the links BUT i will be trying to not mention it specifically here lol). You might be wondering - (1) why and (2) how did you end up becoming a campaign manager..... you're not even a poli sci/gov/humanities/literally anything vaguely related to this major??

You're correct, yes, how did this happen? Well that's a great place to start this story:

How in the world this happened

Friends drag you into stuff. This happens to be the same friend that dragged me to New York, and then was 20% of the reason I got dragged into the negotiation class, and then was maybe 15% of the reason i got dragged into nonprofit activities? In terms of providing unique opportunities in my life, she definitely takes the cake. So one day, she says "I'm running for this position," and me and the squad says "we gotchu." What does that mean? Clearly wasn't sure in the beginning, but we were texting campaign strategies and slogans and tiktok ideas in the chat for fun. None of us had any real responsibilities, especially since the actual candidates were still weighing the playing field and figuring out their platform.

I also was a course 6, so I guess there was some expectation that I would make the website, even though I didn't actually code the website from scratch.

but anyways, it was actual campaign time.

CAMPAIGN SZN

After they figured out the campaign platform, it was game on for the campaign materials. We spent a lot of time on artwork, we photoshopped pictures from a photo shoot, we came up with campaign motto ideas, we brainstormed strategies for officially announcing the campaign. We had an actual campaign meeting to talk over things in mid-April where I met like six different people, friends from both candidates on this ticket, who were supporting this effort. We had a google drive AND a Dropbox. Look at this:

Despite this seemingly organized effort, it was not that organized because this publicity team didn't actually actively do anything for like a week. Many reasons for this: one being it was actually the semester, and it was also CPW weekend. Unfortunately for me, that weekend was literally hell for me, because I was managing this site for our nonprofit, CPW events (so like five zoom calls on a Saturday), classes (because those are still happening), and then the campaign thing finally started, about a week before voting opened. In the form, of a website.

So the tl;dr is I developed an entire Squarespace website in one night. Yes, one night. I had to model it from I think the website from a Harvard campaign site, which took me like three or four hours on a Saturday night, which is a very fast time in my opinion to learn how to use Squarespace. I also bought a domain and figured out how to connect it to Squarespace at like 1 in the morning, which was the first domain I ever bought in my life!

(It expires in a month. I am absolutely going to let it die.)

Also, if anyone from squarespace is reading this for some reason, yall made a really solid product. I actually was very happy with my experience. You all should use it, I am 100% not sponsored by them at all, but honestly it was a very good experience. If you need to develop a website in four hours and don't have a lot of webdev experience, definitely consider it. You can even see website clicks and user analytics, it's actually really put together.

The next day we spend a lot of time going through website changes and artwork changes. It's bad. We had so many discussions about color palettes and the advantages of a 3 column vs 4 column layout. Yes. I'm serious. I'm starting to go crazy.

If anyone's interested, I would say that our website definitely was better than the other campaign's website. Like objectively. Like both campaigns were great, but the website? well. Here's the link (archived because I only paid for 1 month of squarespace :D) The amount of detail that went into it is actually incredible, the amount of spacing, i even had to custom CSS the header image so that mobile headers would show up correctly.

THE CAMPAIGN VIDEO

so sometime during this week, I had this thought about making a really good campaign video. I was very inspired by some of these Google ads that started with a Google search bar. (Yes, I am aware that I am that much of a Google simp.) To be honest, rewatching this ad, I really definitely just copied this entire ad lol, it's ok we don't have to talk about that.

That Wednesday, we coincidentally talked about what makes campaign videos successful. We talked about how Trump's incendiary imagery helped stoke the flames and how it was really effective in getting people to vote, and eventually helped him beat Clinton in the presidential election. So I went and took that and grabbed news clips and campus videos and overlayed that in the video, and it went from like a solid 6 to an 8 immediately, in my honest, unbiased opinion. You can see what I mean in the video itself: [link].

We also had to put together quite a few interviews about what they wanted from the school and were looking for in their candidates, which took a million years of coordination, but we somehow got it done in three days, and everything was put together in a flurry of a weekend, unending changes and small fixes for sixteen hours straight. I could not even tell you how much I learned about premiere pro and how to use layer masks and everything. I even composed the music for the first fifteen seconds of it. Literally, composed, it.

And so on a Sunday afternoon FINALLY right before voting, the video drops. I'm sitting in my backyard absorbing the sun because I hadn't left my computer for 48 hours straight.

It gets like 1000 views or impressions or something in like two days, which is incredible for me, since I'm not a professional by any standards, but I am considering being a professional campaign manager at this point. By the way, we're also managing an Instagram page, a Facebook page, a tiktok page, a website, our individual social media pages, and we're trying to synchronize this video drop and all of our publicity efforts across every single one of these channels. It's chaotic at best.

VOTING SZN

So it's voting week, where we give everyone an entire week to vote. Across the week, it's mostly a waiting game, we make a few more tiktoks and funny videos that we publicize to get out the vote more. The last day, we're thinking about it, and we know the final vote's gonna be close, so we message every. single. person. in our Facebook friends list. I think I singlehandedly convinced like twenty people to vote (and hopefully vote for our ticket).

There's a lot of drama about different stuff. I won't really talk about it because I think it got really messy, but this week and entire couple weeks was a lot to get through honestly. As a reminder, I'm also working on my senior thesis and my nonprofit website work is peaking at this point, so everything is very, very bad and none of us have slept in a while. Also it's the pandemic.

Finally, the results come out. We lost by like 20 votes or something, out of 1500 or so total votes casted or something like that. It's one of the highest voter turnouts in school history or something, I don't quite remember. After that, we're so emotionally drained from this whole thing that we just don't talk about it for a while and that's that.

If the ticket won, I wonder how it would've turned out. I feel like things would've continued to be busy, and maybe that's not a great thing. So maybe everything happened for a reason. I don't know, but those three weeks were quite interesting, quite fun, quite odd. I'm putting those videos in my personal portfolio and am putting Adobe Premiere Pro and Squarespace on my resume and moving on.

Anyways, thought I'd just share! i haven't posted in a while, and this was definitely one of my #weird #odd stories from my time at MIT, which is quite reminiscent of #weird #odd at MIT in general.

[iridescentides]

dia i changed my user again so ive come here to tell u that but mainly im here to say that i think im gonna finally listen to all of waterparks music this week!!! fuck my midterms all i know is waterparks

AH hi artemis!!! yes fuck midterms, school iz 4 chumpz. someone wrote that in my math textbook one time (spelled just like that) and it is now my motto,, as im one semester away from a bachelors degree 😂 i hope you have a great time falling down the parx black hole, please tell me which songs end up being your favorites!!!

[schoolnerdateen]

10 Questions tag!!!

I wasn’t tagged, but I’m joining in

@studyingel questions:

1. Are you a morning person or a night person and why?

Night person because the night is so lovely, mysterious, and quiet. Also if you wake me up in the morning, there’s a chance I might kill you.

2. Do you like casual studying or are you organized?

I wanna say both cuz at times I am organized and other times I’m not.

3. Is there a book/movie/tv show that you think changed your perspective notably, if so what is it?

There’s a lot that most likely has.

4. Is there something that most people seem to like, but you don’t?

Coffee. I hate the taste.

5. Coffee or tea?

I don’t like both and personally like hot chocolate. But in this case, tea.

6. Do you play any instruments and if so what is that instrument?

I use to play the violin. I would love to learn to play it again.

7. Favorite artist/musician/actor/actress?

Honestly any emo bands 😂. Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, 5SOS....

8. One author you would read without a doubt?

James Patterson and Stephen King

9. Would you like to to live in the past or the future and why?

I wanna say the past cuz I would love to see how it was like in the past.

10. A random fact about yourself?

I love NASCAR

@raonaidstudies questions:

1. If you could have dinner with two people,dead or alive, who would it be and why?

My dad and grandpa. I miss my dad a lot and I never got to say goodbye to my grandpa.

2. What’s your favorite cuisine?

Italian and Chinese. I’m a sucker for lasagna.

3. Which accent is your favorite why? Or what language is your favorite to listen to and why?

Favorite accent is probably british.

Favorite language music, Spanish...Mexican...not Spain aka because it makes me feel connected to my Hispanic roots.

4. How are you doing right now? (love to everyone, bc the world kind of sucks right now 💜)

Currently, tired. My mom woke me up at like 7:30 to babysit my neighbor while she takes one of the dogs to the groomers.

5. Do you collect anything? If so, what is it? If not, what would you like to collect?

Books, nuff said.

6. If I gave you a plane ticket for tomorrow, where would you go, what would you see and why?

London or Enland in general. I would love to go to the boarding school my grandfather went to.

7. What types of classes are you taking when the semester starts? Are you excited?

Chemistry, Biology, a science class (I wanna say in general), Algebra, and Chem & Bio labs.

Very excited. I love chemistry and have knowledge in it.

8. What do you typically order at a cafe?

Depends where I’m at. Starbucks is a white hot mochoa (no expresso), Smores frappe (no espresso), and sometimes vanilla bean frappe.

9. What are your top 5 songs/artists?

Unwritten cover by Settle Your Scores

Old Me by 5SOS

Blame It On My Youth by Blink 182

Last First Kiss by One Direction

Magic by One Direction

10. Do you have a motto or a quote that you live by?

I a have a few but mainly the lyrics to Life Goes On by The Summer Set

Life goes on, we got all night, if you got rock n roll, you’re gonna be alright

@cstudy questions:

1. What’s your favorite book ever?

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

2. How do you motivate yourself?

Legally Blonde and Gilmore Girls... as well as study videos.

3. How do you like to relax?

In my bed with my dog with murder podcasts on and falling asleep to it

4. What languages do you wish you could speak?

Sign language and Spanish for the most part

5. Do you have any pets? If so, what are they called?

3 dogs and a bird.

Dogs: Lady, Claire, and Hennessey...ssie...my mom made it where it wasn’t spelled like the alcohol.

Bird: Cuddles...Baby Cuddles for his nickname

6. What do you usually put in a smoothie?

Strawberries

7. Are you good at cooking?

Nopeee

8. What’s a part of your morning routine you wish you didn’t have to do?

Waking up. But I suppose my meds.

9. Neon pens or glitter pens?

Neon pens I suppose.

10. A skill you’re proud of?

My writing?

My questions:

1. Favorite per you’ve had? If no pet, ideal pet?

2. Crime shows or medical shows?

3. Favorite drink? Can be detailed or no details.

4. Favorite dinner to have? Or favorite dinner parents cook?

5. Favorite Baskin Robins flavor?

6. How do you like to study? Messy, organized, semi, etc...?

7. Favorite stationary?

8. College ruled or wide ruled paper?

9. Digital notes or paper notes?

10. What is your ideal study environment?

[cstudy]

10 questions tag!

i was tagged by @studyingel and @raonaidstudies (a while ago lol). thanks 4 the tag! :))

@studyingel‘s questions:

are you a morning person or a night person and why?                                I'm mostly a night person because I get very motivated at night. I suck at mornings because it takes me a good 2 hours to wake up and be 100% there attention wise lol.

do you like casual studying or are you organised?                                 hmm, I'm better at casual studying, because I suck at schedules. organized studying works better tho, so I like that more.

is there a book/movie/tv show that you think changed your    perspective notably, if so what is that?                                                          not yet ;)

is there something that most people seem to like but you don’t?         milk :’)

coffee or tea?                                                                                                    I love coffee, but I think I'm gonna go with tea, just because I drink it more often.

do you play any instruments and if so what is that instrument?           I play the guitar :)

favorite artist/musician/actor/actress?                                                          I love love love MARINA and Arctic monkeys

one author you would read without a doubt?                                               probably Jane Austen. I haven’t read anything from her yet but everyone says her writing is beautiful.

would you like to live in the past or the future and why?                       the future. more possibilities, I think?

a random fact about yourself?                                                                       I love museums :)

@raonaidstudies‘ questions:

If you could have dinner with two people, dead or alive, who would they be and why?                                                                                        Freddie Mercury and Tyler, the Creator, because they’re really cool lol

What’s your favourite cuisine?                                                                      hmm, I think Indian?

Which accent is your favourite, why? (OR) What language is your favourite to listen to and why?                                                                          French and French ;) it sounds very pretty. Arabic sounds really cool too tho.

How are you doing right now? (Love to everyone, bc the world kind of sucks right now ❤️ )                                                                               I'm doing okay, thanks :)

Do you collect anything? If so, what is it? If not, what would you like to collect?                                                                                                       I guess? I collect books? does that count

If I gave you a plane ticket for tomorrow, where would you go, what would you see and why?                                                                         ��      I'd go to Japan and see mount Fuji, because I'd love to visit Japan sometime and Mount Fuji always looks so gorg on pictures.

What types of classes are you taking when the semester starts? Are you excited?                                                                                                    I'm taking classes to get into Med school (so bio stuff and chemistry), History, and art! very excited :)

What do you typically order at a cafe?                                                            hot chocolate :)   

What are your top 5 songs/artists?                                                           Marina, Arctic Monkeys, Tyler the Creator, Kali Uchis, and Queen :)

Do you have a motto or quote that you live by?                                             I don’t atm

my questions:

what’s your favourite book ever?

how do you motivate yourself?

how do you like to relax?

what languages do you wish you could speak?

do you have any pets? if so, what are they called?

what do you usually put in a smoothie?

are you good at cooking?

what’s a part of your morning routine you wish you didn’t have to do?

neon pens or glitter pens?

a skill you’re proud of?

people I'm tagging:

@study-van @sydthefuturenurse @d-studies-medicine @plover-studies @staedyhan @itssusanmarie @yourstudyfriend @katrienstudies

<3

[unofficialkfamtranscripts]

King Falls AM - Episode Four: Wolves Gone Wild

View in Google Docs

Summary: June 15, 2015 - With Sammy & Ben in contention over a forced apology regarding the Bass Tournament, a full moon causes all hell to break loose on the outskirts of King Falls.

[Podcast intro music]

[KFAM rock intro music]

Ben Top of the hour here on King Falls AM, that’s 660 on the AM dial. And we’re live here on this crisp, King Falls evening. It’s a full moon, and you know what that means, so be careful out there. It’s four AM, on the dot, and as per instructed by Merv, the station manager, who we will be—

Sammy [agitated] You’re really gonna play that.

Ben [sarcastically] Oh look who’s talking again, everybody! Sammy Stevens, ladies and gents.

Sammy Very funny, Ben. You know, we’ve played this apology enough. let’s just get back on track, how ‘bout it?

Ben Gotta do it.

[radio static as recording begins]

Sammy Hello, this is Sammy Stevens and I’m sitting here with Ben Arnold, your co-host of King Falls AM.

[record scratch]

Sammy No! We aren’t doing this, Ben.

Ben Sammy! I’m gonna have to file a report if we don’t play this apology at the top of every hour.

Sammy Write it up!

Ben I don’t want to!

Sammy Then don’t.

Ben Sammy— can we talk about this? Folks, uh, we’re just gonna take a quick break for—

Sammy No break, no apology, you wanna play that tape?

Ben No, but we have to!

Sammy Fine. You know what? We’ll do this one live, kids, and *angry laugh/huff* boy are you in for a treat.

Ben I don’t know, I—

Sammy [mildly outraged] So there’s a note, on the board, when we came in. We’re to record an apology to you, the dear listeners and residents of King Falls—

Ben Merv simply asked that we apologize for… creating a controversy at the 55th annual—

Sammy We talk about the news here. Relevant subjects that affect this town. What we don’t do- *angry laughing* What we would never do, is apologize for trying to cover a breaking news story! A dead body at a public event that King Falls AM is covering is News.

Ben Maybe Mayor Grisham went a little overboard kicking us out- I’m not saying he didn’t, but—

Sammy [outrage continues] If I owned this station! If I owned the station? I’d go after him. I mean, why isn’t Merv mad at Grisham. Why is this on us? [softer] Have you even met Merv, Ben?

Ben Yes— I mean… not in person, but— Look, we have a show to keep on track: in a few minutes we’ll be speaking with both of the winners of the 55th annual Bass Tournament—

Sammy How ‘bout this. How ‘bout we open up the phone lines and talk about how the good Mayor Grisham is strongarming the media—

[static]

Announcer This Sunday evening, at 7PM, we say goodbye to longtime host of King Falls Sewing Corner, Esther Rollens, the way she would’ve wanted us to.

Esther [old, wavering voice] Talkin’ about life, talkin’ about love, and crochetin’ a mean doily while we’re at it!

Announcer While we will all miss Esther’s sweet stitchery tips and needlepoint mastery, we’ll miss Esther even more.

Esther We’ll darn your socks, and maybe even darn your men to heck, while we’re at it.

Announcer We’ll reminisce and play clips from Sewing Corner’s illustrious twenty-four year run. As well as a live music tribute from Esther’s favourite band.

[heavy metal music] ♪WAKE UP. YOU’LL SEE.♪

Esther Ohh, I just love these boys! All possible states. [heavy metal music fades out] Always remember: bad times never last. But badasses certainly do! We’ll see you soon, King Falls!

Announcer Hopefully not too soon, Esther. 7PM, this Sunday. Help us say goodbye to King Falls’ most bitchin’ granny.

[heavy metal music resumes] ♪*SCREAMING* I WILL NEVER REESST. UNTIL I WALK IN THE SUNSET. BURN ME UP IN FLAAMES.♪

[heavy metal fades out]

Ben I didn’t cut you off, Sammy!

Sammy Real mature, Ben.

Ben You were looking right at me, I didn’t even touch the board! And you know Esther Rollens was slated for 4:32 AM! I’d never.

Sammy [sarcastically] Oh, oh, okay, it must’ve been General Abilene, right?

Ben You know he’s in Sweetzer Fore- Sheesh. Can’t you just take some calls? You’re killing me. Line 6!

Cecil Sheffield [Cecil’s voice is old and slurred] Benjamin Arnold! Mr. Sheffield here! Why’re you on- the radio?

Ben [muttered] Crap. Bass Tournament winners were scheduled for two minutes ago. I-I’m gonna call the other—

Sammy Oh! So we can talk about the tournament, we just can’t talk about the dead body.

Ben Sammy.

Sammy Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Cecil Sheffield to the show, uh, co-winner of the 55th annual King Falls Bass Tourney.

Ben It’s great to have you. Mr. Sheffield.

Cecil It’ss good to be taalkin’ to you fellas too! Benn, how’re yer grades holdin’ up this year?

Ben Uhh, I- *confused laugh* I- I graduated uh- already. Sev-several years ago—

Cecil No more late papers thiss semester, Mr. Arrnold.

Sammy Yeah, Ben! No more late papers!

Ben *deep breath* For those of you who don’t know: Mr. Sheffield was my history teacher at King Falls High School. [embarrassed and tense] Shouldn’t he be retired by now?

Cecil [singing] ♫Riiiiiising miidst the goooolden orrrange, graaandly iiin tooo th— bluuuee, reeeeeaches our dear aaaaalma maater—♫

Sammy *clapping sarcastically* There ya have it folks! Mr. Cecil Sheffield, winner of this year’s King Falls Idol.

Cecil Go Faaallls! I rreally lovve talkin’ t’ you guuys.

Ben [awkwardly] And we… love talking to you.

Sammy How ‘bout we talk about the big win at the tournament, huh? You split the grand prize, $500 and a bass boat, is that correct?

Cecil Ohh it was awwesome. Staandin’ up there at the podium with ma’ good friend Herrschel! I’m happy t’ shaare the prriize wi’ such a great man! I haven’ gotten a channce to uuse the new booat- uhh… yet—

Ben Aaand, we’ve got Herschel Baumgartner!

Sammy Sorry to cut you off, Cecil. Herschel, you’re live on King Fal-

Herschel [angry as always] You usurpin’, unsportsmanlike, son of a b[bleep]h filth! I know all you were colludin’ against me this year. It’s a conspiracy!

Sammy I’m sorry, what now, Mr. Baumgartner?

Herschel You know exactly what I’m talkin’ about, Big City.

Ben We actually don’t, Mr. Baumgartner.

Herschel Don’t mouth off to me, you conspirin’ little bag of d[bleep]ks!

Sammy Hey! Hey, hey, Herschel! No one is conspiring against anybody here! You should be happy right now, this is what, your fourth time winning the tournament? Granted, let’s be honest, a cadaver should probably give this one an asterisk.

Ben [eagerly] 1989,1992, and now back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015. You’re the first ever to have four titles!

Herschel [hesitantly] W-wellll, when you put it like that, I guess. I never thought o’ it that way. I was just so red-faced about someone pokin’ a hole in the bottom of my boat right after I caught my last fish. Old Cecil wouldn’t’ve come close if some boobstain hadn’t’a messed with my damn boat!

Ben Kingsie got ya!

Herschel [mocking] It wasn’t Kingsie; that serpenty little b[bleep]h!

Cecil Iss that Herrschel? Hooww ya doin’ buddy? I’miss ya. Why dontcha answer when I calll?

Herschel [back to angry] Cecil! You cheatin’ dog pecker! I’d know-what-it was you who sunk my battleship! You couldn’t stand to have me win all by myself this year you limp-d[bleep]ked drunkard!

Ben Ooh-[worried]Haah! We’re gonna have to ask you. to watch your language. Mr. Baumgartner.

Herschel Now you listen here, you motherf[bleep]—

[dial tone]

Sammy Hello?

Ben Sorry Sammy. Merv’s already not happy, let’s not have the FCC[1]join him?

Sammy You know, you’re gettin’ real good with that dump button trigger finger tonight, Ben.

Ben I told you I didn’t dump you! Herschel, yes, but not you.

Sammy Y- *huff/laugh* You were so right about this full moon tonight, Ben.

Ben [mumbled] This is a nightmare.

Sammy [seriously] Hey. I’m sorry. Okay? I shouldn’t have gotten so fired up.

Ben You and Herschel both- You know how hard I work on this schedule? Don’t… puppy dog eye me, Sammy.

Sammy Hey, I’m just tryin’ to ice this apology cake, buddy.

Ben … 6:20, you buy me a stack of pancakes, at Rose’s Diner, and… we’ll call it even.

Sammy Sounds like a plan. So you’ve heard our story King Falls, now let’s hear—

Ben Good grief, we’ve got line 2, he’s in a panic.

Sammy Aren’t we all? You’re on the air with Sammy and Ben, what can we—

Line 2 [overly dramatic] No time for pleasantries- I need the law!

[small dogs barking in bg throughout call]

Ben Sir, uh, 911 is probably your best bet.

Sammy Or maybe tweet Troy and hashtag “KingFalls911” [half-muttered] I dunno.

Line 2 You silly Sallys. I’ve already called, the deputy is on the way. But I’m havin’ a terrible night, and I don’t appreciate the two of you makin’ it worse!

Ben Wait, is this- Archie Simmons?

Archie [sing-song] The one and onlyy.

Ben Is there something wrong out at the Pomchi Palace?

Sammy Pomchi? What the hell is a “pomchi”?

Archie Oh my gawd, read a book Sammy.

Ben It’s a dog— breed, half pomeranian, half chihuahua.

Sammy Oh! So Archie’s a professional dog breeder.

Archie Best bitches in the tri-state area!

Ben [flatly] That’s their motto.

Archie [softly aside, cooing] That’s a good baby, Daddy loves you! What’s that? That angry, mean werewolf violated you? Don’t you worry, Daddy will make. him. pay.

Sammy Did he just say “werewolf?”

Archie You betchyer bottom dollar I did!

Sammy Ben, I- I can’t.

Ben T-tell us what’s going on, Archie.

Archie Well, I live offa Route-72, damn near out of town. It’s usually nice and quiet [muttering](except for those damn trashy rednecks in their trailer park every damn Saturday night!)

Ben Buuut, tonight, it’s not nice and quiet?

Archie Hell no! I woke up to the most godawful squawlin’. I mean it sounded like a freight train hit a barrel a’ screamin’ billygoats. Half a step below a damn eight f[bleep] bottle rocket.

Ben That is vivid!

Sammy [being a smart-aleck] Dare I say, was it a half-man, half-wolf?

Ben [unimpressed] Good job, Sammy.

Sammy [quietly] Please don’t encourage this.

Archie It was so terrible a noise, I thought I might’a dreamed it. But then I heard it again!

Sammy Go on.

Archie So I threw on my slippers, and I went runnin’ towards the back of the house— an’ I’m scared, because I just paid— well, I paid a bundle for a couple’a these new pomchi bitches? So I’m worried that maybe Rufus (that’s my labradoodle)—

Sammy Labradoodl—?

Ben [quickly] Labrador-poodle mix.

Archie Damnit, Google it fellas and keep up. I’m worried that Rufus is maybe snuck in the backyard and roughed up the new pomchis? So I rushed toward the back and Rufus is in the Florida Room— just a-growlin’ mind you— so it wasn’t him. So I burst open the back door, and what do I see??

Ben What-ahh… wh-wh-what did you see?

Archie [increasingly distressed I see a half-man, half-dog, bent over hunchin’ the hell out of my twenty-four-hundred-dollar Princess Von Barktooth!

Ben Not Princess Von Barktooth!

Sammy Okay, so you run outside in your slippers, and you see some skeezy pervert, and he’s got your dog—

Archie In the biblical sense! But the maaan was A. Werewolf.

Sammy Are we really talkin’ about wolf-man werewolves, here? *laughs* I’m sorry Ben—

Archie You shouldn’ be sorryin’ to Beeen! He’s not the one who’s been sodomized by a damn man-wolf! And now I gotta stay up all night watchin’ the princess and dealin’ with the law! Lord knows I’m worried that this leads to long term emotional distress, or, worse. [distraught] An’ we can just throw out winnin’ the Westminster trophy!![2] That was not in our five year plAN!!!

Ben I have to. What- Was the five year plan?

Archie [soft and rushed] Princess Von Barktooth was supposed to fall in love with another purebred pomchi, who sweeps her off her feet, holds open all the doggy doors for her, shares all his treats. *giggles* [to the dog] Isn’t that right lil princess?

Sammy [derisively] This is just silly. I mean it was obviously just a creep with serious issues, not a mythical—

Archie Are you callin’ me a liar? I saw that abomination with my own two baby blues.

Ben S-Sammy likes to look at these paranormal events from all angles, Archie.

Archie Well the angle that I saw it at was a G-D crime against humanity and dogmanity alike! The beast man looked at me, evil in his eyes, and desire in his heart, tossed my princess like a ragdoll, howled at the moon like the wretched demon that he is and scampered off!!

Ben Ar-Archie have- have you had issues with the werewolves before?

Archie Oh-my-gosh, who hasn’t? Ol’ Dylan hillbilly Baxter used to pepper buckshot those chicken-thievin’ shapeshiftin’ sons-of-bitches!

Sammy Brass tacks[3] here; Is Princess Von Barktooth okay?

Archie Needless to saayy, we are more than a bit shaken by this turn of events.

Sammy Have you looked into silver bullets? eBay? Amazon Prime?

Archie You come out here the next full moon you sassy Sally and I’ll show you more werewolves than you can shake a d[bleep]k at… Aw, I just heard Deputy Troy pull up, I gotta go, boys. [click]

[dial tone]

Ben Th-thanks for letting all of us know that there’s been some activity on the wolf front, Archie.

Sam This is just too much. Look, stay safe, Archie, listening public. I’m not saying that there’s werewolves on the loose—

Ben There are.

Sammy *laugh/huff* Ben. Everyone stay safe. There’s definitely something in the air tonight.

Ben Oh no. Sammy *heavy breath* Can you take Line One?

Sammy Do I even want to ask?

Finn [panicked] Sammy?! Ben?! It’s bad! It’s real bad, y’ know?!

Sammy Are you alright, Finn?

Finn [still strained and panicked] I-I didn’t.. even see him comin’! Musta run head-long through the truck on my blind side!

Sammy Who did? What’s going on?

Ben Finn hit a dog, off Route 72.

Sammy You’re f[bleep]king kidding.

Finn [distraught, almost crying] This poor little guy! I feel so bad, y’know? [less scared, more nervous] Actually. He’s not that little.

Ben Finn, are you still in your truck?

Finn Oh yeah, but I stopped it when I hit the fella… I’ma shakin’ somethin’ awful here.

Sammy [“not” worried] I think you should start the truck up, and just keep on movin’.

Finn … I think he’s still alive! I’m goin’ out to do the right thing an’ check this out, Sammy.

Ben Sammy’s right. Keep—

Finn I’m outside the truck! Headin’ back towards the pooch!

Sammy Get back in the truck, Finn! [quietly aside] Uh, you know, because it could be a- a coyote or something, n-not a were- you know.

Finn Oh my. This poor fella don’t look too good. This looks— Whoa now!

Ben Move your maple lovin’ ass, Finn!

Finn It’s two-leg runnin’ at me boys! What the f[bleep]k!

Sammy Finn? Finn?!

[sounds of a struggle, garbled words, then howling]

[KFAM outro]

[CREDITS]

References

[1] FCC - The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States.

[2] Westminster trophy - The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is an all-breed conformation show that has been hosted in New York City annually since 1877.

[3] Brass tacks - n. details of immediate practical importance —usually used in the phrase “get down to brass tacks”

[asrasotherbottom]

Five Questions

Tagged by @samusisagirl! Thank you! I cant believe someone actually wants to hear about this!!

So the Visual Novel i’m starting to work on (and i use that term loosely because its largely going to be text based at first because i cannot draw and am commissioning a friend for concept art for the characters but would maybe have a kickstarter to help hire an artist to actually make full sprite packs/backgrounds should people enjoy the story) is called In the Dark! I’m gonna really start heavily working on it after the semester ends next week. 

1. What was the idea that inspired your story?

I was like damn, i just started writing and am an aries  relatively confident I can tell a decent story and after playing a bunch of dating sims I realized there were a few consistent things i thought i could just...do better. Or that I wanted to see? 

I knew i wanted a story where trans people existed and had access to any medical care they desired (so scifi-ish), and where you could romance cool creatures. So i started with designing the creatures and when i designed Chaen’s species to be extremely cool and teethy and predatory, it sorta snowballed from there. Why have a species that hunts humans in the dark if not to surround the central conflict there. 

2. Did you make an outline, did you stick to it?

I have not made an outline yet, I sort of want to try to make an outline at least a little bit. Each route is going to be different from each other to avoid overlap of scenes (which was something that bothered me a lot in wtnc) so I want to make sure I actually have enough factual overlap that you can make sense of things. 

3. What’s your favourite part of the story?

Happy trans people who don’t experience dysphoria but are still trans, happy trans people (including nb people) who have medically transitioned in every way they can or partially and also happy. Does that count? If not then it definitely is the idea I had for MC being a largely unspecified creature that is the only one of their kind, so that people can make up their own fan species for MC to look like! 

4. Who is your favourite character and why?

God i really love all of them, but Tarsi is .....my husband. Hes a chubby hairy trans guy who works as a barista at an underground almost entirely dark tea house. Why entirely dark you say? Because his species (The Rhine) are mostly nocturnal, have huge eyes that let in a lot of light (he wears sunglasses when he has to go out during the day) He also has extremely long fingers and toes with little suction cups at the end. Anyway that was really just a biography but i love everything about him. Create the chubby trans nonhuman being you’d wish to marry is the new motto. 

5. Did anything happen that surprised you as you were writing?

Yeah! I ended up with subplots! I was sort of thinking this should be dipping my toe into the field of writing something like this and do something kind of boring but straightforward but nope! I was like “what if in addition to the age old human/creature conflict, it was extra” and there we are. Also as each of the characters fleshed out their own personalities and the way they’d interact with the main plot, things came up and all. I’m barely the god of this story. 

Tagging @joshuaorrizonte and @greyvvardenfell if either of you wanna talk about your WIPs!!!