#trying every bit of tricks and advice i can find and it all ends the same

[ganondoodle]

11 pm again and i spent my evening trying to draw but ending up deleting like 5 attempts again and i just want to cry

cant even get upset anymore, i just sit here looking at the wasted time and just kinda going 'yeah ... what did i expect' and the tears are already back :I

[alebrijediscordico]

Prism's palette - chapter 1: lines on the sand

[Part 1]

You breathe in. And out.

You keep your head steady. Your body slowly swings.

Isa left just a few minutes ago for some more of that really tasty drink you two were having. Is a warm evening, the sun above the horizon. You hear in the distance the people you love. And you lay there in the woven, multishaded hammock, trying to not sink in the fear building up in you. And look up to the stars starting to come out.

Breathe in...

If you close your eye it almost feels like…

Breathe out.

Like a little boat adrift to sea.

You try to focus on that thought instead of what you're holding. Or any feeling clawing deep inside you. At least for a moment.

Or that panic might get the better part of you.

You think about what to do.

...And you think about how Mira had been reading some books to you about how to take care of one's mind. Slow down a wild heart. Some were her own findings, from before you all meet, the ones she never got around to read until then, others were Odile's and Isa's leaned books from a library near to where you all were staying at the time.

"And with… everything that happened just at the very end, i got thinking—wishfully thinking maybe, these would've come in very handy a few times..."

She rests her head on yours, you feel the light pressure. You don't flinch this time to her touch. It feels... nice. Truly, every drop of affection you've been slowly asking for and receiving has been making you not only less jumpy, but it feels like is filling up the empty spaces that you've had in your chest since the very beginning.

You closed your eye, still listening, fighting off sleep.

"But. Maybe… it wouldn't have been that easy, isn't it? Or maybe it would've been? I still... wonder about that. But we… we can get better at taking care of ourselves from now on, together.

I did once read... is better a tiny bit later than never, at the end of the day."

Some of the books weren't… really made by professionals—you came to find morning after morning in your new little routine with her—but about and by people's own experiences. It was a pick and choose thing, between advice, stories to reflect on, and a mix of them; something that felt less serious than the direct, more professional books with all their specific words and medical treatments. Those were more usual with your reads with Isa. It was less pressure on you, but it was still some amount of pressure to start and keep you going.

So that was your current go-to thought to keep your head in place.

That clear image of the water under your little boat—like a mirror reflecting the universe over you, tricking your terrified mind into feeling like that was where you found yourself floating in: Among stars, in the universe, it's endless void holding the tiny shiny dots up.

Far away from where you needed to be.

Far away from where you wanted to be.

And into a lonely night.

It was… really, a bad memory, filled with such grief you could almost taste it, way too close to how it had been… on the loops; the initial shock and fear, all mixing in the pit of your gut, causing this painful vertigo (then burning, then the tug in your stomach-).

(Breathe in. Breathe out.)

But at the same time it was… oddly grounding. It was what led you to Isa, Mira, Bonbon and Odile… to your family. And before getting to land, paralyzed by the great unknown, you still remember being almost cradled by the waves to shore…

So from certainly upsetting you once in the past, the core of your nightmares before the House, to now being a reminder of this love that you found and found you, the similar rocking motion was keeping your head in place. An anchor between past and present.

For now.

…It's hard to sit down when your whole body lightly shakes. Is it fear? Dread? Panic fully building up in you again? Or… oddly enough…

Anticipation?

A… new or foreign part of you was almost expecting this.

Out of precaution you no longer Wish for things to be true; you instead try to go get them if you find a way to do so. It feels overly cautious as it feels right.

So you almost really, really want for things to stay calm and not...

To only have to dread your new title as one of the saviors, and only worry about what you'll eat tomorrow and about the remaining sadnesses as Vaugarde cleans itself from them. But…

It seems your future... was about to lead you somewhere else...

[secretariatess]

Now, if you are single like me and have been longing to get married, as a Christian, you may have been told or seen . . . once . . . .twice . . .. three times . . . . .. "Just give it to God!! ^_^ The moment I just focused on God and cast away searching for a boyfriend, I found The One!!! ^_^"

And it can sound condescending, and inconsiderate of the pain one has being single. On top of that, they never really explain how. Like, don't they know you're already trying??

For me, I had been trying. It was a constant prayer. Either to be blessed with a husband or to rid me of the desire because of how much pain and even distraction it would cause in my walk. But neither would be answered. It became frustrating. I would have genuine happiness for friends who did get married. However, it would come with a gnarly ache and the question of, "Why not me, Lord?" Which spiraled into self-deprecation, feeding on every little bit of negativity.

Eventually I got sick and tired of it. An actual breaking point where I came to a final decision- Either I would make the wallowing and hurt my life, or I would truly seek what God wanted no matter the path it took me. And in the midst of this breaking point, in the middle of prayer, the root of issue was exposed: Bitterness. Perhaps I could already have seen it, but the "right" to be hurt hid it. But that night, I let God remove it.

Did it remove the longing, the hurt, the desire for marriage?

No.

I still long for it, and it still hurts at times. I didn't even find an instant boyfriend at the end of it. But my perspective on it has changed greatly. I don't feel passed over anymore. I don't go to the Lord demanding an ultimatum. I find myself no longer even asking, "Why not me?" Instead, when those waves of hurt come, it is much easier to just ask for comfort instead. There's a certain peace with it now. Have I stopped praying for marriage? No. The Lord has not told me to stop. And if He does, I find more trust now that He will provide peace over the pain over being told "no."

I can't speak nor will I speak for every single person wishing for marriage. I do not have some magical formula that will get you into a relationship with an awesome God-fearing spouse. I can't even promise you God has that plan for you. I can't even tell myself that!

But I can say that this can very well become a roadblock in your walk with Christ. I know because I experienced it. I wasn't backsliding. I was still very much a Christian. I still very much found blessings of God. But once He exposed that root and I gave it up, i felt so different. I felt like I had reached another level of knowing Him.

The hurt from the desire is very real. However, so is the "Just give it to God" advice. It won't make everything perfect. And it's not a matter of throwing it at Him like an toddler throwing toy they're supposed to give their sibling. You have to be willing to let Him search you, and expose the root of the issue- the thing that keeps you from actually giving it over. Because if we asked Him to take it, and we keep going back to it, demanding to know why it's not gone, are we really giving it to Him, or are we setting the terms and conditions for it?

Again, I'm not saying this because I got into a relationship and this was the "no fail" trick that got it. I'm not saying this because I can slap a guarantee on your future relationship status. I'm saying it because at the end of it all, growing closer to God is more important than even this, and my regret is not doing it sooner.

[have-you-seen-my-sanity]

For my dear Bunny

Dark!Yandere William Afton/Steve Raglan x gn!Reader

Category: Twisted Letter - I suggest you read the informations for twisted letters first ->here<-

Dead dove do not eat - you'll get exactly what's in the tags!

Tags: Stalking, description of kidnapping, mention of murder, 18+!!!, mention of male masturbation, NSFW, William Afton is a warning himself.

For my dear Bunny,

I don't even know where to start. Perhaps when you first entered my office? I get you were new to this town and needed a new job. You tried a few of the offers, but ended up inside my office because none of them were to your liking. The first time you entered my office I was secretly happy to see you, you were like fresh air in a stuffy place.

I can still remember how quiet, how shy you were, it was so cute! And when I stood up and you saw the size difference between us? Oh, you looked so adorable!!

When you told me how eager you were for a job but wanted a rather quiet one, I gave you just the right one. I loved seeing your eyes widen in joy and the smile on your face after it met your expectations.

Your first night went well, right? My daughter Vanessa told me how good you were at your job, she showed you around, gave you useful advices and showed you the Animatronics. But what she didn't tell you? In every corner of the place was a secret camera, which I could watch you through the computer in my office. And to be brutally honest with you here? I was planning to kill you. Yes that's right, I bet you saw the news about the missing nightguards here at Freddy's? I was the one responsible for it. My creations - the Animatronics killed them as I ordered them to.

But... after your first night I was beginning to really like you... the second night was also the night you encountered the Animatronics for the first time. At first I could see the fear in your eyes, the thought of getting killed by them. But I ordered them to just scare you a little bit, and you began to like them. And you know what? The Animatronics started to like you too. You are their friend now.

And now to your third night... at that night you were tired, so you thought a little 5 minute power nap would do the trick? Nobody would notice it since you were all alone in this haunted building...

But... I have seen it. You remember the little Freddy plushy on your desk, right? There was a small camera inside of it, I could see everything you did in the office. Your jumps whenever the power went out and you had to put it back on? Sweet.

I loved seeing you clean up the place after you were getting bored, throwing the trash out, cleaning the tables, or just simply swept the floor. You were a sight for sore eyes in that security uniform.

Please don't judge me but... after seeing you like this? I just had to jerk off right there. You moved so swiftly, I just lost control. It became my dirty little secret - watching you work while stroking my cock. You made me cum so hard every time...

Now to your fourth night. Did you like the short visit I gave you? Because I sure did. I can still see the fear in your eyes when you saw me standing there - inside the Springbonnie suit. You were so terrified, running back to the office and hiding under the desk. I loved it. Thought you would recognize my voice when I laughed at you, Bunny...

Today is your fifth night. I already prepared everything,

-making sure to lock all entrances and vents...

-to finally see the look on your face when I take off the yellow rabbit mask and reveal myself to you...

-the cloth with chloroform to get you unconcious...

Why am I letting you know what I want to do with you? So you can get a chance in trying your futile escape. I love seeing you run for your life.

You see... why I am writing this letter for you is... that you have triggered something inside me... something snapped... I don't know how to tell you, but all I know is that I want you. Did I become obsessed with you? Maybe I did. And you're about to find out.

I hope you will read this letter before Night 5 ends. Because if not it will be too late.

-- William Afton.

[minas-linkverse]

Do you have any tips or tricks on how to start a comic like this? Or even just how you got started?? I've had my own au for years that I so badly wanna put out into the world but I've been struggling with finding a good way to start it!!!!

Hm!! Ok!! This is a tough question with many different answers even just from me. I'll do my best to answer tho!! 😮

The main bit of advice I want to give, and which I think is vital to anyone creating anything:

☆ Know yourself.

When looking up advice for creating, people love to tell you that by doing things a specific way is the best and only way to go. Often advice of this sort has solid points, you should plan ahead, you should have easy character designs, buut... You don't have to.

I do not work well with outlines or scripts. I dislike sketching. You'd think that'd make being a long form comic artist impossible for me, but nope.

I know theres things I cannot do, so I've put all my practise to what I can do. My lineart style allows me to almost skip sketching completely, my scripts are more of an A to B structure than law. I improv 90% of the time when making pages. It's kinda like dnd with myself.

I would absolutely not reccomend what I'm doing to others, but I know it works for me. People can tell me I'm doing it wrong but its either wrong or no comic at all, SO. Suck it. 👍

Er. Rambling now.

My point is, figure out what you can and cant do, and do your best to give yourself the ideal work enviorment and process.

☆ Deal with being overwhelmed

Making just a few panels and suddenly realising its gonna take years to get anywhere is SO demoralising. It's gonna happen and its gonna happen again, and again, and—

But continuing with the earlier advice, you gotta ask yourself what would help you. Are you willing to sacrifice quality? Do you just need a break? Maybe you're like me and like to include smth you love in every update so you'll have something to get excited about making.

That feeling of overwhelm is trying to tell you something, so figure out what that is so it wont end the project for you.

☆ Start it

You wont like what you make when starting. I've never heard of an artist who has.

I'm not saying start this instant, not everyone is as into improv and flailing around as me. But I will say you'll never feel ready. Figure out the minimun of what you need to start and do it. Show friends first if youre afraid to post.

Also where to start? Well sure there's lots of good advice online about that, but you can also just doodle random stuff until you feel like diving deeper. That's what LV started with, just Twi and Wild hanging out with animals and some headcanons. It may not be the most tightly written work but theres beauty in the humanity of a mess.

☆ Extras

A "failed project" or "forgotten WIP" is only a failure if you let yourself feel that way. Yea it can be a hauntingly strong feeling thats hard to deal with... But it can be beaten. WIPS are proof you tried and not everyone can say they have.

Lv is far from done and I have no intention of dropping it, but because the journey has been so nice I'd satisfied even if I had to call it here. Its smth that helps me with the overwhelm... What I've made is beautiful even now.

Comparing yourself to others is gonna rip your heart out. I love that theres other links meet aus out there and hope the best for those artists but I caNNot follow any of them or I'll crumble to dust.

So Uhm.

Basically. Have fun and be yourself. 👍

Ps. Readability is basically the most important thing for a comic artist to pay attention to, that and not destroying yourself with details and rendering. 🙌 Good luck out there!

[blairelythere]

do you have any fashion advice for other tall trans girls? more specifically, where can i find cute pants???

Pants are an elusive creature. I know that being tall (trust me, I know) makes it more difficult to find pants that fit, but just for some peace of mind, basically all girls struggle to find fitting pants. Pants are not designed for normal human beings of varying heights and shapes.

A few things that I've learned are:

You'll have to go to so many stores. So. Many. Stores. Do not give up. You must have more patience than the pants, because they will always win. Do not be afraid to spend hours trying on clothes, just for a single item that fits. Its always worth it after the fact.

Know your inseam, waist, hip, and leg length in inches and centimeters. Have it on hand at all times.

If you're nervous about trying on pants in public, you can try this little trick: wrap the waistline around your neck. If the ends touch, there is a very high chance they will fit your waist.

Know where pants are designed to sit comfortably. Some people don't know the difference between waist and hip, so here's a little guide:

High-rises go to the waist (and sometimes above), mid-rises hit the upper hip and abdomen, and low-rises rest on the hips.

Every brand fits different. Every single brand. Even if the measurements are exactly the same. Materials will always alter how a size fits too.

It's okay if pants don't reach your ankle or even your mid-calf. Anything's a capri if you're brave enough!

Hope this helps a bit! 💛💛

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

Hi sleepy, just want to start out by saying I love your art (chef kiss). Secondly, do you have any tips on drawing? I'm trying to get better at it, but they way everyone tells me how to draw or rules and other things tend to stress me out. I'm not a bad drawer, I do decent when I'm bored. But as far as drawing on purpose, it doesn't click.

I know practice makes perfect and all, but I need advice....or guidance.

Hello Anon! Thank you so much for the love ╰(*´︶`*)╯

Hmm tips on drawing 🤔 I completely understand that feeling on how others tell me how to draw with the rules and other stuff becomes stressful and stuff.

But then again, speaking from realism and how people act, it's just natural for them to say something. People just needs to say something. We can't control what other people do, so overtime I personally just lessen the impact on what they say to me.

On the other side of the coin, sometimes we need to listen to what other people say. Some things that people say are... actually kind right ngl. And then some things are just plain wrong. Discard and ignore the latter, and absorb the former. I honestly wouldn't be in this level if not for my lecturers saying some mean stuff to my art lmao 💀💀💀. I just be selective on what people say. Just push through every comment. We can't improve if we let those voices wallow us and take us away from drawing.

Okay so that's about mindset. Now about the practical practices.

Hmm if you draw decent when bored, you can make the bored-drawings to be a practical drawing. In that way, you can improve while being bored!

Take it like this: Sometimes when we're bored during classes or lectures, we draw things like eyes, nose, or lips, or anything like that on our notebooks or papers. Now, we draw that thing literally every time we get bored, so every time we draw it, we unconsciously improve.

This is actually a lil trick that I did ever since I went to college : Try drawing your surroundings. Draw your friends, draw yourself. Draw what you see. My personal fave downtime is going to Pinterest and search "People Cutout" and drawing it on my sketchbooks/ipad.

I personally feel I'm exercising my proportions on humans and natural poses/how human moves with this. And it doesn't even have to end up like an actual drawing. Just doodles are enough.

If you want to learn to draw faces, then start searching "Face Reference" and draw it. If you want to learn hands "hands reference" and draw it.

When drawing, we're interpreting reality with our own eyes, and then transferring them to our hands to draw. That's why reference from reality/real life is important.

Drawing is essentially about training our sense of space and shapes, transferring ideas and images from our eyes to our hands to a drawing, and when advanced, from our imaginations to our hands to a drawing.

It also depends on your art style, but practicing realistic shapes and what reality looks like helps me a ton in finding my own style. It is hard and takes a lot of time, years and years even. So don't be too stressed about it and waltz through it.

Anyway, just have fun. Again, don't let people's words or rules affect you too much - let it affect you a bit, but not too much. Other's inputs are indeed necessary, just be selective.

Hope that at least answers this ask! Happy drawing and don't forget to stay happy! YAYAYAYAYA

[distortedataraxia]

"Life isn't just about fun."

Y/n x sk8 the infinity (platonic)

wordcount : 14,587

Type : one-shot

Warnings : mention of hospital accident, school related bad memories (?) swearing/cursing, negative thoughts, and i think that's about it!

Author note : Hi! It's been really long since i posted, i wanted to challenge myself to write something way longer than usual, and i've been pretty down in the dumps so it's hard staying active. I'll get to your requests soon, i'm sorry it always take so many months for me to catch up to them! I hope you'll appreciate it nontheless, it's the first time i write a one-shot so long, don't hesitate to send in a few advices if you want! I hope this isn't too much out of character and that y/n can be relatable. It's not easy writing a relatable y/n. I tried to have a moment for each characters but kinda failed, i hope that's okay and that i can write each of them better overtime! Well, now that's out of the way, i hope you enjoy! ★take care ★

The summer holidays have been good, despites the overwhelming heat making you sweat to your heart content.

You could handle the heat with your friends around you while making sure to stay dehydrated, really, whenever you went to see your friend weither it was to eat at a restaurant, harass shadow, skate around random places, try new tricks, race at S, discuss about skateboards and make skateboards : you could rarely every worry about the heat. It's like the heat never existed in the first place, but of course, as soon as you get home you will inevitably notice a shower is reallly necessary if you don't want to turn into a glue stick human form of thing just by sweating.

Time really does fly by when i'm around my friends.. you think to yourself, the summer holidays are coming to an end very soon..

And every nights i feel it.

This is going to be a long night for you, a very long night.

There is no better feeling than staring at a wall with closed eyes. If that makes senses.

In fact, you couldn't really sleep, you kept waking up every 2 hours, scared of missing your alarms, afterall you'd be bummed out if you were to miss your first day of school. It's not that you enjoy going to school at all, it's just that if you'd miss the first day of school you'd probably get into troubles with your parents, and you'd feel double lost at school, which isn't so cool to be honest.

So you kept trying to sleep, rolling around in your bed to try to find a comfortable position, and… stay here until you stop crying. Because yes, tears were leaving your eyes right at that moment, your eyes were burning and your head was hurting and it was hard to sleep. Breathing was a bit troublesome, it might seem dramatic, but you still felt all of these wandering emotions anyway.

You had some fears concerning school, or a lot of fears. You remembered all the bad years you spent, having to complete your homework in time and stay good enough to your teachers and parents no matter what, forcing yourself to try to even listen to the teachers' lesson and remember it, having to suck up all the weird looks from your classmates whenever you answered something dumb or did something weird from their point of view, while you had to look unaffected whenever the teacher or your classmates said something dumb… School wasn't a place where you could be yourself, it wasn't a place where you could express your opinion, it's not a place in which you're ever good enough, not a place where you feel able to develop any sort of potential if you had any, and it's not a place in which you had fun at, if anything, all the bad years at school were just taking colors away from life, a lot of colors. The endless homework to finish at night wasn't so pleasant aswell, you could remember the allnighter or allnighters to catch up on your homework or lessons. Hours of class felt more like a black hole sucking up all of your energy, what was the use of having energy and going through the day if you're going to do this your whole life? Was something you thought more than once or twice.

What if it happens all over again?

You really hopped to stay in the same class as Reki and Langa this year, but it wasn't for sure, you guys could be picked to be in different classes for all you know, why do you have to even change classes every years? It's a breeze when your class sucks but not when your class is actually somehow not that bad. And what about all the new people?

When you weren't in their class, you could recall zoning out more, dissociating more. Strangely enough, they usually seperate people from their friends so that they focus on the class, but you're more prone to focus if your friends are here, let alone, if they ask for your help with any homework, you feel a kind of responsability and a will to help, so your grades uncounsciously got better so that you could help out Reki who's being late on classes because he's staying up late to skate at S and barely listening at class, so you could also help out Langa who's having struggles taking notes and understanding everything, because even if he spoke japanese, he still had a hard time to adapt. But even if your grades were to be lower or not different, it felt way better when you were willing to work for it not just to not get in troubles, but also to help your friends. Maybe it wasn't entirely for you in that case, but it already felt better.

But whenever you mess up and feel unable to help, it feels bad. You actually had a bad dream once in which messing up continuously during group projects with your friends led them to burst into tears because it was really too much.

There's just, a lot of things to worry about. You have to study about your future, you can't just skate all day long and have fun with your friends, and they'll be fine without you, life isn't like that, it's not just about fun…

Ah…

You stared blankly at your arm.

You absolutely dreaded this day. School for you was like a survival game, you'd play, try not to fail and lose just like you'd go to school everyday and try to keep everything up to just not fall apart.

Well, to be honest, last school year was a bit more manageable with Reki and Langa around, surprisingly enough, they made your days at school usually less boring, and if the all three of you guys were unhappy or not doing good, you could complain together ; About the teacher's teaching methods, the way this or that spoke to you, the way you got caught watching skating videos instead of reading-

You could really cool down a bit with them around, things were way less stressful than they could have been. And somehow you felt more productive with less pressure felt.

So, in the end, maybe it wasn't that bad, you could get to spend more time with Reki and Langa, and you wouldn't have to die to the summer heat.

Or maybe not, maybe you won't end up in the same class, maybe you won't feel brave enough to sneak your phone between your pages to pretend to read anymore, maybe you won't be in a good class, maybe you'll get picked on by your classmates and maybe-

afterall, it is true that you could spend much more time with Reki, Langa AND your other friends outside of school, if they weren't on vacations without you that is. School can be a real seperation factor for friends, and it sucks, it can be very isolating.

But school is important, nontheless.

I think.

Are the all-nighters productive? Are they healthy? The stress, the social fears, just… everything overall that comes from school, except the time you spend with Reki and Langa and the rare lessons where you learn something that is actually helpful for you.

Probably not.

You've tried not to think about it, but really, the more time passes, the less you're able to sleep well or spend your days without worrying as to weither or not you're making the best of the summer holidays, without feeling guilty for doing nothing when the heat is killing you or you're tired. Time is so scary, the meaninfgul times fade away so fast, and you lose so much occasions on making the best of your life, time always gets you.

Finally, the morning came, you could hear the birds sing, the sun was shining through the curtains, making you regret ever opening your eyes who were now burning at the burning source of light, you wanted to hide under your pillow and blankets and never see the light again. Why get up when you can just sleep ? Your alarm rang, it gave you a headache, a headache that'll follow you probably all day long, you had to get up now. Goodbye to the everyday without worrying of what's coming next day. What a life.

I mean, everyone has to work or go to school, it's society, it's just life, there's nothing to complain about, be grateful that you have it easier than some people. Or even, most people.

Besides, you still have Reki and Langa right? It'll be okay, right? Even if you don't end up in the same class, you could look up to every ends of the days to skate together and every mornings to skate together, same for the free time.

That is, if your schedules aren't too different and if you even have the energy to skate and hang with your friends, you could remember days in which as soon as you'd get home, you'd fall to your bed, fall asleep and skip dinner, only to have to catch up on your homework in another stressful morning and find something to eat in the fridge your family emptied the night before.

School is back. Holidays were great, but everything came to an end. Nothing ever last forever, does it ?

You yawned and tried to stretch yourself to wake up but your eyes were shutting tight, your every single thoughts begged you to fall back asleep and rebel agaisnt whatever keeped you awake, before you knew it, 5 minutes already passed. If you wouldn't have put multiple alarms to wake you up every minutes, the amount of time in which you were late would have greatly multiplied, by ten maybe, well, if you were never late because of that ; that's because you skated very fast to school or ran. These alarms really pain you but they still save you, a great plenty of time, you probably would have been late right now without them. On the first day of school, your sleep schedule is not even set on time.

Be grateful.

You sit up and get up, feeling every ounce of your body wanting to fall down and just lie in the ground to sleep, you try your hardest to motivate yourself to get dressed, making a mess out of your wardrobe, you'd have to clean that later and put your clothes in order, or deal with it and have your parents scold you for it until next holidays, but really all the thoughts that came to your head were negative, you didn't even bother to think about your friends yet, you just wanted to sleep it off, sleep it off so much you wanted to cry, get away from reality. As you kept getting lost in your thoughts, your arm hits your wardrobe and furnitures.

Ouch. The hit was a bit brutal, you were stressed and you were scared. Your arm felt like it was burning, why did you have to get that arm hit and not the other? How lucky can you get? Is it a lack of luck or is it just your problem for not sleeping enough?

And before you know it, you already have to leave your house in 5 minutes. 5 fricking minutes, and you just got dressed.

Mornings were really fast, especially if you're as tired as you are right now. You could get up and leave your bed and you already have only 10 minutes left to somehow get dressed, eat, brush your teeth, check that everything is ready, make sure to use the toilets, wash your hands, and happily get out of the house with your skateboard to get to school! How you loved going to school every mornings!

Well, last year you could feel positive going to school most days, it's the year when you met Reki and Langa at, one of the most liveliest years of your life. But now that you know them, you rather spend time with them outside of school.

You were tired, completely tired, your heart was beating fast, so fast and hard it was hurting, like some sort of drums inside you, the bat would dum- dum- slap your heart out just to keep you awake. You could barely keep your eyes open, your hair was a mess, all you wanted to do was hide yourself under your blankets until the school year ends. You only want this to be a dream, it's just a bad dream, school never existed… Is hiding and denying all you're ever good at?

But maybe that's a bit harsh, isn't it ?

What a great start of the year, surely the year wouldn't go well if you kept that up.

You didn't have time to eat breakfast, or else you'd be late, so you started walking out of your room and you fought the stairs. Not literally don't worry, we respect stairs here

As you were about to step out of your house to get to school you receive a message on your phone on a groupchat. A groupchat between you, Reki and Langa.

"Y/n, we're waiting for you at our usual spot, where are you?? :("

You smiled, for a second there, you felt like summer holidays were still going on. You felt as if you had nothing to worry about. Your friends were really important to you, they held a special place in your heart. And they made you look forward to everyday, everyday felt more like a pleasant surprise with them around. Maybe just maybe, you don't have to worry about this school year.

Or maybe you do, maybe you do have to worry about this school year.

The messages having reminded you to take your skateboard, you grabbed your skateboard after turning off your phone, almost forgetting to take your skate, almost forgetting about how you got into skateboarding and almost forgetting the entire last year you've spent with Reki and Langa. Too busy overthinking about the past years before that one.

Maybe it was better to expect the worse to not have your hopes crushed, but would that make you happy?

You put your phone in your backpack, left the house, and pushed to get to your skateboard, trying to be careful of where you're riding despites your attention span being lower, trying to keep your foot well positionned and not accidentally press your back foot against the tail of your skateboard which would make you.. fall off if you press hard.

Skating was a bit harder this morning, the thought of school came back to you very soon and it drew out your motivation fast, very fast.

You were really tired so it was hard, but the thoughts of your friends cheered you up a bit, so you skated to your usual meeting spot, thinking about how Reki and Langa must be waiting for you right now. And soon enough, you recognized a shining red-head and a outstanding blue-head, you surely couldn't miss them by accident even if your vision was blurry, not a lot of people around there has had their hair dyed.

You wondered, would reki's head shine more with no hair or does it shine more with red hair?

They finally noticed you skating towards them, they turned to you, it seems like Reki was staring at his phone while Langa's head was peeking over his shoulder to see the screen. You waved at them and they waved back, you smiled instinctively, until you suddenly fell of your skateboard and rolled down the floor, making sure to protect your head while trying to keep your other arm safe. But you still hurt your arm, which is sadful.

"Ouchhh-" you yelped, usually you'd laugh whenever you fall of your skateboard, it was silly, you fell off because you kept your eyes on your friend and not the floor. You liked them just way too much. But you just didn't feel the energy in you to laugh, something just didn't click inside, you couldn't laugh. Maybe you're just grumpy because it's the morning, maybe you're just not in the mood. Whatever it was, you didn't feel the willpower to laugh it off as you usually do.

"Y/n !" Reki screamed running towards you "Don't be reckless, you hurt yourself at your last race ! " he crouched down to your level "here, let me help you" he took your arm and checked your bandages "did you even change them!? He asked frantically, eyes focused on your bandaged arm, as Langa walked towards you and caught your skateboard for you. —I forgot. you answered, in an honest and tired laugh, it was so hard getting even dressed in the morning that you forgot to check your bandages. —This can't be good.. The redhead sighed and looked at Langa Langa, pass me the bag Langa tossed him his bag over, hitting Reki in the face Ouch ! That wasn't cool Langa ! he complained —Sorry, i didn't mean to, are you hurt ? The blue haired boy panicked —No, i'm fine, anyways… Reki's hand searched for something in the bag Ah there it is ! He got his hands out of the bag and took out a disinfectant and some bandages Now let me check that."

Reki always had this sort of thing ready in his bag, as getting hurt is common when you skate.

He inspected your arm and your wrist, your bandages were getting red, he got rid of them to check your injuries "Oh they're healing faster than i thought, even though they should have already been healed, thank god they're still healing though. But you're bleeding." He smiled, almost motherly to you, making sure that you don't panick, the thought of reki as a mother was very funny to you as it crossed your mind, but the cursed images of reki being pregnant following your thoughts were more cursed than funny "I'm gonna have to use disinfectant, Just tell me if it hurts okay?" he uses the disinfectant carefully, you groaned in pain a bit but it was fine. "There we go." he then proceed to put some new bandages over your arm and wrist, and Langa complained " you never took this much care of me whenever i bled. —You never got really that injured, you only ever bled, it's nothing we all bleed from time to time when we skate. Reki tried to explain himself, still focused on your arm. —You let me faint. —Oh shut up, i panicked and ran to you for the record. —Like a prince in a shining armor ? you asked, randomly, Reki stopped bandaging your arm for a second, only a second, and then he continued bandaging your arm. —I wasn't charmed, I was already uncounscious. Langa argued —Are you falling in love with Reki or something Langa? You wanted to be charmed? You tried to tease him, Reki just finished bandaging your arm and jumped over to turn around and put the stuff back in his backpack, seeming a bit agitated and quick to hide his face, he then spoke —Don't say things like that y/n ! We're bros, nothing like that —I was speaking to Langa, not you. —Oh you get what i meant ! "

You didn't continue trying to tease them, this was largely enough and you enjoyed the way Reki was talking to you but turned away from you and Langa was just staring at the both of you completely zoned out, dumbfounded.

They were really fun to be around with. Your morning was already much less depressing, Reki really cared for you and Langa did too. You reallly hopped to be in the same class as them, even if you felt like a thirdwheel, you don't want classes schedules to disrupt your common routines.

For a moment there, it felt like you guys were already in the same class, but would that be too optimistic? Should you actually hope?

"So… Are you guys, perhaps… excited for school ?" you asked, curiously. They looked like they had much more energy than you, it's as if summer holidays never actually ended. Their face looked so bright, they seemed so happy and careless, as if summer never really ended. Reki and Langa looked at you curiously, finally, Reki spoke ;

"Definitely not. —Eh!? How can you have so much energy then!? I don't get you. —Personally, Langa speaks I'm excited whenever i can spend time with you or Reki, and school is important to me, i need to improve my japanese skills and understand how things work around there. Langa explained, honestly. —Right… Well, as long as i'm not a thirdwheel. —Don't even say that word, it makes me think about my final race with Adam. Reki groaned thinking about it, he acted like he was going to puke, Langa chuckled. —Was that race this bad? You were really good. —It was fun but.. I really don't enjoy skating against Adam and you know that Langa, i don't get you, you almost died when racing him down that crazy path last time ! —Oh, that's true. Langa recalled, having actually forgotten this detail —You really looked like you were falling mindlessly, you weren't even moving and then you suddenly moved and took your skateboard and won the race, what even got into you? You really scared me you know? I was worried. You both are crazy, you got injured last time too y/n Reki spoke, with a genuine troubled expression on his face. —Reki, you get injured much more than i do. You spoke, with a stern voice —The word fun saved me. Langa spoke, out of the blue, with full honesty in his voice —What? You mean the word fun we put on your fixed skateboard?"

Reki turned to Langa with a curious face. You looked at the time, you guys were already going to be late at this rate, you coughed "guys, we're going to be late." your tone was a bit harsh, but you really didn't want to be late.

"Oh crap! Langa, y/n, let's go ! " and there you guys went, skating to school, fast.

Your friends looked very energetic, it killed you that you couldn't be as energetic, honestly, it's been a few days or weeks since your energy drastically dropped to the thought of school, and you couldn't tell if your friends noticed, but you were afraid to be a burden to them. They were shining so bad, and you were starting to feel like you were staying in the dark, maybe you always were in the back afterall, but everytime, it seemed Reki, Langa or Miya found a way to cheer you up or make you feel like you belong.

Reki and Langa did a few ollies and some random tricks while you just cruised. It's crazy how they're late and still able to flex, have fun and pull up some tricks. Well, it was like this last year too.

You met Reki and Langa at school, and met your other friends at S, and these friendships really made your life much more brighter. Could it be constantly the case though? What if they were the one brightening up your days - but you weren't the one brightening up their days ? That thought hit you a bit inside, like a small bullet passing through your body, but slowly, and with barely enough pain, you felt a small wave of negative emotions, it hurts a bit, but you felt a bit empty, in a way.

You felt the air pass through your lungs, burning, as the cold air hits your face, and finally, you reached school. Somehow you made it despites the overwhelming feeling that the air is so heavy it'll crush your bones.

School is back. ~

You slid your skateboard behind your backpack and walked to your assigned classroom after the school announcement concerning the begginning of the year, you were not in the same class as Reki and Langa, of course.

That's not all that mattered though. Your grades mattered too.

You're not going to die by working a little and spend less time with your friends, come on. You could still spend time with them nontheless later.

Before you go, you exchanged a small wave in Reki and Langa's direction, they waved back; these two were in the same class it seemed. Maybe they were better without your grumpy-self though. They seemed much more happier than you were, were you just overthinking and dramatising everything?

You reached your classroom and when the teacher told you to, you sit down, taking the sit at the back, avoiding to talk to anyone. Why bother? Approaching people isn't on your to-do list at the moment.

The class was already loud and obnoxious, just like a circus. You paid no attention to the noises and as to avoid getting bothered by the noises, you stared at your desk and zoned out, thinking about all the times you went skating with your friends. It was the only thing you wanted to think about right now.

Despites your efforts to not be bothered by all these voices, you still heard a few people talk

"The manager of the fruit stand always sat and only sold vegetables —What!? You mean the fruit stand down your street ? —Yes, atleast the vegetables are cheap. So me and my mom always go there the saturday mornings. —I wouldn't buy my vegetables there if it was a fruit stand only selling vegetables…"

This random conversation you heard was completely unrelated to school, you sighed, but who were you to care? It seemed like people knew each other, you were probably going to end up alone this year, is it so bad though?

The teacher coughed and asked for everyone to be quiet, and the class continued talking. Why were you even here? This is supposed to be the first class, usually during the first classes people should be quiet, atleast on the first classes of the year. But who were you to talk? You can't lie, you really wished you could talk to Reki and Langa like this right now, but you guys aren't even in the same class.

Between all the talks you could hear, you heard another one, still completely unrelated to school, there was a brown-haired girl talking to a black haired boy, the girl looks cute you thought, the boy spoke : "Why do you LoOOooOOOoOve me Stanley? —I like your blue eyes. She replied as if it was a sufficient reason to like someone —Why did you only tell me now ? He stared at her with his PieRcIng BlUe EyEs —I didn't want any new girls stealing you away from me. Your classmate declared in full confidence —…Wow so possesive grrr~ He said before the two burst out laughing —You're so stupid the girl chuckled, a smile on her face —Stupid for you ? he asked, playfully "

And there you witnessed a newborn couple that was probably going to last a few days or weeks, on the first day of school.

Everyone didn't look like they cared about the first class. You wished you could not care aswell, but you cared, you cared a plenty lot, this was supposed to be important. You couldn't not care with all these anxious thoughts going on in your head.

Why can't i see? you thought to yourself, wondering why you couldn't see things the way your other classmates did. Everyone else seemed so much more happier than you did. Why do you have to be like this? Why can't you see things the way they see things? Why do you have to mess up so bad on this?

When you finally stopped your thoughts and snapped back to reality, you noticed the new couple stopped talking and were looking at you whispering some things. Shit, you stared too long. You quickly turned to look at your desk.

Finally, after some time the teacher managed to get the class to be silent, he presented himself, talked about how everything works this year, and asked everyone to present themselves one by one, to break the ice… apparently.

A girl on the left front beggined ; "My name is Mallory and i love riding horses on my free time. —You mean men? the boys snickered"

Long after that, it is finally your turn to present yourself.

"Uhm, i'm y/n.. and i love skating with my friends. —You have friends!? Someone random in the class exclamed themselves, even though they barely knew you for even an hour, some people laughed and the teacher told the class to be quiet"

It's crazy how people make assumptions on even people they never talked to and saw for only minutes of their lives. This is gonna be a long class, ice breaker wasn't really working out, was there even ice to break to begin with?

School is back, i guess. ~

The class ended, it's finally free time, you went to sit on your skateboard at the rooftop, the place you, Reki and Langa discussed going to if you were ever seperated at school and wanted to meet up. Eventually, Reki and Langa walked up to you.

The class was long, everyone was loud and judgemental, it was… definitely great.

"Hey, y/n" Langa spoke with a gentle voice "Wanna go skate in the playground ?" he asked and you looked at him, with a frown on your face "we're gonna get in troubles again, and i'm injured, for you to know." Langa insisted "But you still skated this morning despite your injury, and it could be fun, you seem down, come on come with us" he almost pleaded, you couldn't say no to him at this point, reki finally spoke "I mean it's your choice if you don't wanna skate i understand, but you're acting just like you were when we barely knew you, come cheer up a bit with us, won't ya ? If we get in troubles i'll take the blame if that reassures you." you looked at Reki, with a curious look on your face "How can you even take the blame for something like this ? —I don't know, I'll come up with something. Reki shrugged, you looked at the floor, a bit hesitant, but ended up saying —Fine fine. you saw the boys' eyes light up —Let's go then ! "

You stood up and took your skateboard with you.

You guys ended up skating at the corridors before reaching the playground, of course, a teacher was there and you ended up having to run away from a teacher with your skateboard in hands. You guys were caught as always and got in troubles, Reki did his best to put the blame on him but it didn't work out, now you three have to stay after school and help the janitors clean, atleast it's better that it's the three of you guys in troubles than only Reki. Ah, and the teachers took your skateboards, Reki literally groaned and Langa looked like he was going through all the stages of grief at that moment.

"Oops? Reki muttered under his breath when the teacher finally left you guys I hate cleaning He complained innocently —If it's with my friends i think it's okay, i help my mom clean the house most times. Langa said, looking as if he was recalling all the times he helped his mom with the laundry, the cooking and the overall house chores, as her husband died, Reki turned to you and spoke —Sorry, we didn't want to get you in troubles, we just thought you'd cheer up a bit since the first school day doesn't seem to be going well for you- —How was your class guys ? you asked out of nowhere, after having zoned out, cutting reki's speech off as if it was nothing —Huh!? Oh uh, i don't know, i didn't really pay attention, the window was more attractive. Reki answered, taken a bit off guard you didn't pay attention to what i was saying thou- —You mean the reflection of Langa next to you was more attractive? —How did you- i mean, no homo though. Reki scratched the back of his head, a bit embarassed, these two were so obvious, you stared at Langa, he seemed zoned out —Langa ? you called to him, he looked at you and then he said —I'm confused. —What are you even confused about ? Reki asked, with a nervous voice —I'm confused: when people ask me what's up, and I point, they groan."

You facepalmed.

"Dude?! When people ask you what's up they ask you how you are, not what's literally up ! Reki spoke, dumbfounded —Japanese is difficult. Langa remarked, thoughtful, looking at the ground —You mean english is difficult!? Reki retorted, remembering the many times Langa tried to teach him something in English —I guess any language can be difficult for anyone."

You were not participating in this conversation, staring in disbelief at Langa.

you zoned out, thinking about the way your new classmates were staring at you in class, and all the whispers you heard in your direction.

"say y/n, how was your class ? Reki turned to you, curious I mean, you're not in the same class as us and you asked us so.. —It was fine. "

Your answer was short and automatic, you know that tone and voice when you reply automatically and it's technically you talking but it doesn't feel like it's you - like you don't even think the words you say but somehow they leave your mouth as if they were the complete truth ? As if you had to answer this specific answer at all cost to protect yourself and act like it's the truth, so much you replied without thinking ? That's exactly how you felt when you spoke, and you hated it. You couldn't control it though, your brain decided it was best to lie.

And yeah, maybe it was best, Reki and Langa didn't have to know about anything, you didn't want to make them feel akward. I mean, it's always this way, whenever you feel the slightest bit down, everyone is always akward or replying "ah" or "oof" or "Sorry", it's as if what you said bothered them in a way, and you just didn't like it.

You noticed Reki and Langa exchanged a glance, did they notice your weird behaviour and caught on your lie or is it just a gay-type of glance ?

You continued talking, trying to sound convincing "I mean, the class was rather loud but it was pretty funny, there was this newborn couple and the guys joked around a lot-"

The bell rang, it was time to seperate again. Thanks god the bell interrupted you, because you didn't even know what you were saying. Still you didn't want to go back to the classroom, you wanted to stay with your friends.

"What? Already!? Reki complained, looking like he was going to be out of his mind if the bell rang one more time —Please focus this time Reki, instead of staring at me. Langa remarked, blankly, it took Reki off guard —I wasn't staring at you i was staring at me ! He defended himself, he put his arm over Langa's shoulder and tried to coonvince him I was staring at my hair because i thought about getting an haircut, you know ? You noticed sweats appear very fast on Reki's face —Right. Langa spoke, half-convinced You never changed your haircut in over a year, you only ever take your headband off when you're mad at me. —Let's go to class now, i need to tell you something. Reki changed the subject and started walking away, before turning to you and waving See you on the rooftop at lunch y/n ! "

You guys waved at each other, and you went back to your class. It was loud, once again, and you could hear a bunch of random conversations again, unamused.

"My uncle's favorite pastime was building cars out of noodles. —How do you even -"

"You know my favorite song? It kinda goes like this, tired of explaining, as these seasons keep on changing —Is this even Japanese…? —No it isn't."

"Which is greener, purple or red ? —Red is greener than purple, for sure. —Look at that color circle, purple is closer to green than red is ! —Does that even mean anything… Purple is made by blue and red, why wouldn't be red greener ? "

"What do these results on this quiz mean ? —You're like the peanut butter. The creator said so. —Wha- but i wanted to be a cheese! so that i could be cheesy with rome- —You're not always who you want to be."

The teacher eventually got the class to quiet down and called for everyone's names one by one to check weither they were present.

Your name wasn't pronounced, weird. But you paid no attention to it.

The teacher begun with an history lesson, a classmate raised his hand and asked something, he wondered why at 18 he was old enough to go to war, but not old enough to buy cigarettes.

You couldn't focus, your head was heavy, until eventually, you noticed the teacher was looking at you.

"Uhm, excuse me.. he called out to you, not pronouncing your name, he coughed, akwardly —Yes ? you asked, a bit taken off guards, were you going to get in troubles for not listening ? —What's your name ? He asked, a bit unsure of his question, staring at a paper, the class was looking at you —y/n l/n —Hm let me see… no you're not in this list. The teacher remarked Weird… What class are you supposed to be in ? —This class sir, it was written on the paper. you show the paper and the teacher examinates it, he looks embarassed —There must have been a mistake somewhere, maybe this is why Aoi haruka isn't here, let me contact my colleagues."

The class was silent, and after a few minutes, an adult came to the class to pick you up and lead you to your class, when you left the classroom, you could hear whispers in your directions, the adult apologized to you explaining your name got mixed up with someone else.

You walked with the adult, reaching another classroom. They knocked on the other classroom door and explained the situation to the other teacher.

"Please excuse me, we mixed up the names and got two students mixed up, i'm here to put y/n l/n here and take Aoi haruka to her actual class. —Oh uh, it's okay… Aoi haruka, please go, and uh.. y/n l/n, please go sit down"

The teacher looked a bit embarassed by this situation.

You entered the classroom, a bit nervous, everyone was looking at you, you looked at the whole classroom to search for a place to sit at, and saw a girl standing up with her backpack and stuff and leaving the classroom, it must have been Aoi Haruka. You looked at the seat, it was next to Langa.

You were in Reki and Langa's class in the end.

You could feel immense relief when you realized, and went to sit down next to Langa, Langa and Reki looked at you curiously, there's a paper on Langa's desk, there's sentences with a very good japanese writing on it next to bunch of badly written japanese sentences, Reki and Langa were probably passing notes about something, you could read a few words from the distance, but only a few, you managed to read your name and the words mission and lie.

What were they planning? When you think about it, what if they were talking behing your back like the other people who you thought were your classmates probably did ? You decided to shake it off, you were probably going too far. You want to trust Reki and Langa… Don't you? Aren't you a good friend?

…

Yeah.

Reki whispered something to Langa, and Langa then leaned his head towards you to whisper something to you.

"Reki asks what are you doing here —My name got mixed up with someone else, i was apparently supposed to be here"

Langa leaned his head back towards Reki and whispered to him what you said, Reki gave you a thumb up.

You smiled. Maybe you were luckier than you thought.

And maybe they weren't.

the class passed, it was way much better, the other class was kind of funny to be honest, but it was really tiring on the first day and they didn't seem to like you so, it's really better this way, and you get to be next to your friends.

But you need to focus on your school work don't you? You can't always hang out with your friends and have fun, life isn't like that, you need to work and be responsible. Be grateful you have it easier than other people, make the best of your school time because it will be harder once you start having a job.

Ah… right.

The teacher talked and you started taking notes, struggling because your wrist hurt, this is the wrist you usually write with, it's injured since your last race at S. Langa looked at you.

"Do you need any help ? he asked, with a calm expression on his face and a tint of worry —No it's okay, i rather not bother you, besides i can't even understand your writing. you whispered back, a bit harshly at the end, you internally slapped yourself for it. —L/n, is there anything you want to share with us ? The teacher spoke, looking at you, your classmates looked at you, you hated it —Uhm actually sir, their wrist is injured, so i was asking them if they needed help. Langa spoke instead of you —Thank you Langa but I was asking L/n to talk- —I CAN HELP ! reki raised his hand and exclaimed himself —Alright… Thank you for your enthusiasm Reki… the teacher replied, looking like he gave up at this moment —Sit next to me, y/n reki spoke —Ah yes… Langa, could you please exchange your desk with l/n's for the class from now on until their wrist heal ? —Yes. Langa moved and you guys switched desk, it looked like Langa was a bit sad to not be next to Reki anymore, but he was happy to be of help in any way —Thank you, Reki, Langa you mumbled, Reki smiled to you —It's nothing "

You got injured after a race at S a few days ago, you were racing Reki. You weren't doing so bad during the race until you thought that if you got injured maybe you wouldn't have to deal with school, and coincidentally, you lost balance, rolled down to the side, and hurt your arm and wrist. Reki was upset and worried and your skateboard continued rolling until it fell off a cliff and you never saw it ever again, but Reki had a spare skateboard for you, thankfully.

The class passed faster than the last class, Reki helped you and took notes for you, though he was pretending to take his notes about the lesson, his notes were mostly about skateboarding if anything, he looked more focused to help you though. Reki seemed kinder to you than usual, it's not that he's never kind, he's always been kind, but it felt a bit more insistant this time. ~ The bell rang, you put your stuff in your backpack and Reki helped you.

"Y/n" Langa spoke, you turned around to face him "yes ? —My stomach hurt. He said, Reki closed your backpack and walked up to him, concerned, he asked —Did you eat anything weird this morning ? Do you want to go to the infirmary ? —This morning, I ate a sock because people on the Internet told me to. You stared, blankly, trying to process the information, and Reki exclamed, in disbelief —What people on the internet !? Langa you can't listen to everything the people tell you to do, how did you even get yourself to eat a sock!? —It didn't taste good. —No kidding it didn't taste good! Langa look at me, did you swallow the whole sock ? —Yes. —So that's why you were having a hard time skateboarding earlier! "

To be honest, you didn't even notice this, but now you were worried for your friend, Langa. And you let Reki speak to him and explain to him that: no, eating a sock isn't safe.

Langa was really something, he was still skating better than you this morning even though he swallowed a whole sock, how did he not choke? ~ Long story short, he got drived to an hospital. For eating a sock. Because people on the internet told him to. Reki looked mad.

You were sitting on the rooftop with Reki, you both were silently eating.

"Langa really is reckless, he scares me"

Reki broke the silence.

You contested : "I don't think he's scary —That's not what i meant, but i mean, sometimes i literally have nightmares because of him, he can't go on and accept every challenges people offer him, i mean, the race with ADAM and now the sock? What's next is he going to mess with the FBI or something!? —I wouldn't even be surprised at this point.. you sighed —Right? I wonder what goes through his head, i mean, what's fun in eating a sock? —I don't even want to imagine. "

And there's a silence again. Until Reki broke it once again, looking at you with a stern look on his face.

"y/n, you won't be as reckless as him right ? —Huh? —I mean, last time you raced at S you got injured, we were racing, y'know… —Well hey, atleast you won ! You tried to reassure him —I want to skate with you but i don't want you to get injured, you know, and you just fell off so suddenly, it didn't even feel like it was an accident if i was honest You felt yourself internally panick, you didn't even know yourself if you did it on accident or on purpose. —No, don't worry it's just a silly little injury, it could have been worse. you tried to reassure him, Reki shouldn't be too worrieed about this, it's not like he never gets injured, he was injured for half of the memories you have had with him, he needs to think more of himself too. —Oka once told me, it's not bad to take care of yourself sometimes, you know ? his tone became a bit more stern —What do you mean ? —You don't look like you've been even sleeping at all y/n, and for the record, your injury was supposed to be healed by now, but you keep using your injured arm and your body is not getting enough rest, i'm worried that you'll actually make it worse."

You stayed quiet at his words, Reki sighed.

"y/n, please take care of yourself, i really don't want to lose you too"

you remembered him telling you about his old friend, you felt bad for even thinking for a second that maybe Reki didn't care about you, but now you needed to think of a way to reassure Reki, this was your fault for being reckless. You smiled and said "Hey hey, i swear it's going to be okay, i'm not being merely as reckless as you or Langa are sometimes " you joked and added "I never raced ADAM"

Reki looked at you with a silly angry face "Well it doesn't mean you can go around and make your injuries worse! You don't want to have to quit skateboarding do you? —Oh, come on it's just an arm —Just an arm!?"

You finished your lunch, and as you were about to get up while Reki was scolding you relentlessly about your injury, you tried to grab for your skateboard, and cut Reki's scolding off "Let's get our mind off of it and skate- —Our skateboards got taken away, y/n —Right"

You sighed, it felt empty without Langa. You felt silly for asking to skate into the school's grounds when you were the one refusing it this morning when Langa asked.

Did it ever feel this way when you were gone?

It felt empty even though Reki was still as lively as ever. If Langa was there though, you knew you wouldn't have been able to escape Reki's scolding, he's been pretty insistent for you to take care of yourself since that injury.

"Thinking about Langa, I hope he's doing okay…" you thought out loud, Reki nodded

Reki looked more quiet than usual, he was still talkative but less, it seemed he was thinking about something. No wonder why though, one of his bestfriends was in a hospital.

Well, bestfriend, that's understimating what the both of them really are. They have one hell of a bond. Even you can notice; their eyes contacts are everything. Even If they aren't romantic, they are still much more than bestfriends in ways words can't describe.

He got up and smiled "Well If It's Langa we have nothing to worry about, he always gets out of troubles somehow"

you nodded, chuckling a bit. It's true, Langa always get out of troubles.

The bell rang, you walked to your classroom together. You sat next to Reki, feeling weird that the seat next to you was empty, you missed Langa already.

The class passed, and when it ended it looked like Reki has fallen asleep while he was trying to take notes for you, but you were too zoned out to even notice.

A voice snapped you back to reality though.

"Just because the water is red doesn't mean you can't drink it… Langa what are you even talking about"

It was Reki's, you looked at him, confused, he was actually awake? You stood up and put your stuff back in your backpack, ignoring the burning pain in your arm.

"What do you mean? " you asked, before realising he has fallen back asleep. Reki is one to talk in his sleep afterall, he always does, you could still remember the day he woke up, stood up from his desk and screamed for Langa's name loudly in utter panick in front of the whole class when he was worried about his race with ADAM. You could also remember staying up with Langa when you guys were having a sleepover, just to hear what Reki would say in his sleep, there were no boring nights with Reki even when he was asleep, he was full of surprises, just like Langa, in a way.

"Reki?" you put your hand on his shoulder, he jumped and screamed "AH ?!!" you gestured for him to calm down. ~ Finally, the school day ended, more silently. You were in front of the school, Reki told you to wait here, you knew you had to stay one hour after class anyways to help the janitors clean, so it didn't reallly matter much.

"What are we even waiting for Reki? The teachers are waiting for us. —Just wait"

You stayed silent, until you noticed Miya walking up to you "hey slimes, so are we gonna go get the skateboards or what? You better pay me back after that. *You stared, confused, before turning to face Reki. —Reki, what is this about? *Reki sighed* —Long story short y/n… I'll have the two of you conduct a prison break ! —Wait you don't mean- —We're going to get our skateboards back and get away from here ! Reki exclamed himself, proudly —And then he'll become my cat. Miya added, killing Reki's joy in just a sentence —Don't act smug it's just one day ! —Wanna make it two?"

you stared at them, surprised, Miya didn't bring his skateboard.

So you were going to get your skateboards back and Miya was going to take Langa's skateboard back.

And then you could break out of school.

You stared the ground, your face frowned, and you spoke "They'll call our parents for that —Oh don't worry, i've done this plenty of time with Langa, you just never got into that much troubles before —What? But- you whole lots of crazy!- —They always forget! Infact, when i tried to wait for them to give me back my skateboard, they always forgot, so we have to get these back ourselves before they damage our babies ! —Fair enough i guess.."

You didn't want to imagine Reki giving birth to a skateboard, so you just went along with his plan hoping he'd stop using the name "babies" for the skateboards. ~ You were out of school with your skateboard, at the small skatepark you and Langa usually go to, you could remember Langa practicing tic-tacs here.

You were sitting with Miya as Reki was skating around

Miya yelled at his new human pet " drop, you must! —On it!" Reki dropped down the ramp, and failed, miya snickered

"Wow, and i thought i promoted you to a a golem! —You did!? Reki sounded happy Also If i failed, that's Langa's fault! Reki complained, which led Miya to be confused, he asked —How so? —Today I heard something new and unmemorable. Langa literally swallowed a sock because people on the internet told him to, i can't focus! —He did what!? So that's why he couldn't go pick up his skateboard himself!? Miya looked heavily surprised, he stared at the ground, hiding his concern"

Reki started skating again and raised his voice "Yes, he never changes!" Reki was obviously shaking and struggling to keep his balance, he looked tired and stressed, damn, you hated to see him like this. You looked away from him for a bit, and looked at Miya.

"Miya, how was school ? you asked, curious —It was fine i guess, you ? —You know how people get pregnant around their belly? Well i get brain pregnant, it's like i'm giving birth to so many neurons i'm gonna explode"

Miya stared at you and questionned your sanity. You looked back to Reki who was skating, you decided to cheer him on "Never back down never what!? —Never give up! Reki screamed in enthusiasm, before he falls on his balls and scream in more pain —Are you okay!?"

Reki sat up and gave you a thumb up, before standing up, visibly in pain. You started to wonder if you should join him, he seemed to continue skating despite his struggles, and you were just watching him with Miya, not doing an effort at all.

You can be such a burden sometime, you're almost certain being looked at this way while you're struggling must not feel cool. You remember being scared of people's looks when you started skating.

Reki went up to you, and asked you

"Hey, so y/n how are you feelin- —Meow for me, slime. Miya cut him off and Reki meowed, embarassed and annoyed, you laughed That's a good cat. Miya commented before Reki said —Oh shut it Miya, if we have a beef one day i'll make sure you regret that"

You looked at your phone and noticed that you had a message on a groupchat with Reki, Langa, Miya, Joe, Cherry and Shadow.

…You have a lot of groupchats. Like one that excludes Joe just for Cherry, and one to exclude Cherry just for Joe.

Shadow : " I'm racing a rookie tonight ! Watch me blow them off at midnight ! scary laughter "

It's scary how he used the scary laughters seriously as if he was talking to bots and roleplaying

Cherry : "I'll pass"

Reki looked at your screen, before saying "maybe we should go to Joe's… —Hm? you turned your head to face Reki, he seemed thoughtful. He turned to Miya and said —Miya, let's- —Call me master and meow. —Frick you! —It's apart of the deal —Fine- Master, let's go to Joe's meow —There there that's better. Miya pet Reki's hair and Reki looked like he was trying his best to compose himself, you tried not to laugh —Who's paying ? you asked —My cat is paying. —I didn't even- but yes that's true"

a few seconds passed, before Reki screamed

"WAIT I FORGOT I HAD A JOB !"

Your eyes widened, and you all skated to Reki's workplace, Reki apologized and you volunteered to replace Langa since he was unavailable tonight, since he… ate a sock. Miya was playing on his console while you two were working, you were pretty much zoned out and it looked like Reki would talk mostly to Miya anyways, you were zoned out but you could hear him complain whenever Miya told him to act like a cat, some things about this being inadequate at a workplace.

~ Finally, after that, you guys skated to Joe's restaurant, it seemed the restaurant was still open and Joe was waiting for you, Shadow and Cherry were all here, they seemed to know you'd come. Maybe Miya or Reki texted them to come.

You guys ordered some meals, and Shadow tried to steal Joe's kitchen to cook instead and show his great cooking skills, he wanted to cook you waffles or something… somehow, with his secret recipe. For shadow, excitement replaced fear until the final moment where Joe was able to stop him from using the kitchen furthermore.

Waffles are always better without fire ants and fleas, afterall. (This is an Italian restaurant).

It seemed the restaurant was originally closed but Joe made an exception for all of you because Reki convinced him to.

You were sitting near the window next to Miya, facing Reki. You asked : "So, what are we doing here Reki ? —I wanted to pass some quality time with my friends, you know.. eheh He looked like he was hiding something —That is your friend ? Miya pointed to Shadow which Shadow immediately noticed —Hey! I'm not your teacher or anything! Shadow raged, and Miya shrugged —You could have just invited everyone except Shadow on the groupchat excluding Shadow. Miya said, indifferent, playing on his console —WHAT GROUPCHAT?? Shadow yelled, before Joe told him to quiet down"

you stared at the table, a few moments later, Joe handed you guys over a few plates of food, as you guys ordered. Cherry was sitting next to Reki.

Shadow was renting, something along the lines "My dentist tells me that chewing bricks is very bad for your teeth. But no bricks can hurt my teeth behind this mask! I'm a true man!" you couldn't really understand what he was even saying, too zoned out to even try to understand. If Langa was here, he'd have been very happy to eat all of the restaurant's leftovers. You heard miya tells shadow "Well good for you idiot, just tell me if you want me to call a mental hospital for you"

You were happy you were all together, but you couldn't help but think about tomorrow's school day, you were definitely going to be even more tired than you were today tomorrow.

Joe kicked Shadow out of the restaurant for being a menace to his kitchen in the end as Shadow continued to try going back to the kitchen of the restaurant.

The first school day was tiresome, even if you were in Reki and Langa's classroom, you felt a sort of stress concerning your future, you didn't want to mess your life up. Life isn't just about fun…

Miya nudged your shoulder to get you to listen to whatever they're talking about, and he spoke "Thank god Joe was able to get Shadow out of his kitchen, if Joe ever lets Shadow cooks for us, I won't think twice i'll go : bye-bye-bye —This feels familliar you spoke, the way he said the end of his sentence looked like a song, strange.. —What does? Miya asked —Oh- nothing, nothing."

You stared at your plate and ate a bit, you were slow though. Reki was silent, after some time, Cherry spoke.

" Today I discovered something i never knew about carla before. —Which is ? Joe asks —Nothing. —If you want everyone to have a conversation so bad, atleast come up with something more creative."

the room was silent, Joe and Cherry wouldn't even speak, Reki looked at Joe, with pleading eyes, you were confused. Joe sighed and speaked:

"Say y/n, are you going to S tonight? —Uhm… You thought, S was really fun, and you really didn't wanna go to school and all, maybe you could just go to S and call it your life cheatcode- —I don't advice you to If you're still injured. Cherry said, glancing at your arm —I'm fine guys, i swear —You're not going to race anyone though, right ? Reki asked, looking concerned —Well actually i was thinking about it. you admitted, Reki looked at you with a face of despair and Miya spoke —You're so reckless y/n. —Y/n! please don't hurt yourself! Reki pleaded —It's no use Reki, they don't understand you… —What do you mean they don't understand me!?? —They zoned out again" ~ Long story short, the group convinced you not to go to S tonight, and Reki ended up convincing you to sleep at his place tonight for a sleepover so that you wouldn't be alone in skipping S tonight, but also to be sure you don't go there. He already sneaked to S without his friends knowing before, and he doesn't want you to do that too.

You walked out of the restaurant with Reki, Miya already went home, Cherry already left, and Joe had to clean after you. You already texted your parents that you would be on a sleepover with Reki tonight, you also mentionned that Langa would be there so that they wouldn't ask too many questions, even though Langa wasn't here.

"What a long day" Reki stretched, and looked at you "Let's go"

You both started skating, until it started raining, your skateboard wasn't set for rain, shit.

"Shoot! Y/n this way ! " Reki called out to you, skating away, the rain was getting slowly, no, quickly heavier and heavier, and you ended up falling off, you got up and took your skateboard and ran, Reki was already far away.

Big thunder noises

Oh, there's a thunder. ~ You reached Reki's house, panting and barely breathing, covered in mud, barely standing on your own. He panicked and apologized a thousand times when he noticed you got even more hurt, he took you to his house quickly not wanting to let you get even colder, and he checked your injuries once again, this time, in his bathroom, just in case something was missing in his bag, he was sure to find whatever it could be in the bathroom.

The bathroom looked clean, it was a small room but sufficient, you sat on a chair, Reki opened his bag and a drawer, before checking your arm first, your wounds visbly opened again as your bandages were red. How amazing. Reki probably didn't like seeing your bandages being red so often.

"Damn, now this must be my fault this time. Reki mumbled, as he got rid of your bloodied bandages and pulled up a disinfectant Thanks god the wounds aren't that big, you could have ended up in the hospital like Langa, because of me… —Hey, no, we're fine, we didn't predict the weather."

Reki seemed distant as he stared at your arm, he mumbled something inaudible. He was zoning out while lightly using the disinfectant, you didn't like this. So you spoke.

"You're not a god, you know. —And you're not either, so stop being so reckless will ya? He retorted, unhappy —Say the one who was blaming himself a few minutes ago! You didn't want to let this slide, Reki was done changing your bandages, and he spoke while putting back the bandages supplies into their places —I'm not blaming you! I'm just, well, worried for you you know! —There's no reasons to be. You stared at the ground, ready to deny everything, Reki spoke, almost reading your mind —Where else are you hurt? —Nowhere! You tried to stand up but your legs gave up pretty easily Agh- You almost fell but Reki caught you, some of the dirt of your clothes got to him, you both were still dripping wet, and you were covered in mud, it was a bit awkward, but Reki was there for you, he was like a brother to you —Hold into me, where does it hurt? —My knees —Shit "

Reki cursed and slowly had you sitting back in the chair, telling you to not move and not be reckless.

You and Reki held something in common, you both were pretty stubborn when it came to being fine.

Right now, Reki looked lost in thoughts as he checked your knees, and as he suspected, your knees were hurt, but it didn't look too bad yet, he sighed and looked at you in the eyes "We're going to get that checked tomorrow if it doesn't get better, okay? —Okay..? You sounded hesitant, as if it was weird for him to care about you,but it's not supposed to be —So you can't stand? —Actually yes I can! you tried to let go of Reki's grip, but you held into the chair instead, Reki sighed —Alright, uhm, you're covered in mud, do you want to take a bath? I have some spare clothes for you if you want? He politely asked, feeling bad that he let you get hurt like this —I mean, yeah alright you replied, not knowing why you could possibly say no, being covered in mud really wasn't pleasant"

This isn't the first time something like this happened, you smiled, this is why Reki always had spare clothes just in case, because you can recall the three of you getting all muddy so many times, and you guys would usually have sleepovers at Reki's house more than anyone's house. You knew what was going to happen was that you would take a bath, and then Reki would do so too when you leave the bathroom, clean and changed and as you go get your other clothes cleaned.

You might catch a pretty bad cold tomorrow. ~ After you took a bath and put on the spare clothes that were ready for you, you ended up in the living room, desperately holding into whatever you could hold into, you were told to sit down and not exhaust yourself. But to be honest, you uncounsciously wanted to exhaust yourself, so maybe you could ghost through the whole year, was it selfish? It's just the first day…

The family was really loud and lively, even at night, you recalled that it was often like this whenever you had a sleepover with Langa at Reki's house.

It's weird that Langa isn't here… It feels so empty even with all of the noises going on, Reki must be feeling stressed out. Just as he showed at the skatepark earlier, barely able to keep balance on his skateboard.

You heard one of Reki's sibling, try to tell a story to another sibling, something along the lines of "The llama couldn't resist trying the lemonade…", It felt very silly.

The atmosphere was warm, you sure never get lonely in here, this place is full of life. It was such a warm and fuzzy atmosphere, you couldn't help but smile a bit. Though the noises gave you a headache. Surprisingly enough, it still wasn't too late for Reki's siblings to be awake, somehow. Well, it's true that Reki's mother was desperately trying to calm the siblings down and get them to sleep, you were in the living room, your backpack out, you already had homework on the first day of school, and you could barely focus.

After some time, Reki came downstairs, he seemed to have cleaned himself up and changed himself faster than you did, he walked towards you and sat next to you, opening his backpack aswell.

You both tried to focus with the awkward silence going on between you, it was funny because no one could hear the silence as the house was really loud, but you could still feel it.

After some time, Reki scratched his hair, stretched and sighed "Man, I didn't listen to a single word the teachers said today —You didn't? —You did? —Yes, I mean… you hesitated, you mostly remember having negative thoughts about yourself today, you looked down at your paper I don't really remember anything…"

You felt Reki's gaze on you, you didn't know if it was a thoughtful look, a mocking look, a look of disbelief, or a look of concern, you didn't dare to move your head to know, sometimes it's better not to know, so you tried to focus on the printed writing of your paper.

"Is this history? you asked, Reki gulped —I thought it was maths —But there are centuries on the paper —True… But you have to calculate the centuries right? —Reki…"

You sighed, this was getting nowhere, you were barely reading. Mostly reading with your own eyes but not your brain, a simple sentence was like a treasure hint, each simple little words just wouldn't reunite or make sense in your brain. At that exact moment you just wanted to spend time with Reki, you didn't want to work, it was selfish, yes, but you couldn't help it, you didn't want to drag Reki into troubles though. You knew you were tired, but if you slept right now, you knew that you'd still be unable to work the next morning, it stressed you out, you didn't want to mess up on the second day of school aswell. You couldn't let all these bad feelings stop you, you didn't want to make yourself up excuses not to work, you felt like it was your fault, like you were the one who uncounsciously made yourself feel bad to have an excuse to work less and feel better about yourself. Though it was doing the opposite, and maybe you weren't right about this.

Thoughts were spinning around inside your head as your eyes focused on the sheet of paper and your textbook, you were completely zoning out.

How are you going to do this? How are you going to handle all of this? You messed up, all you had to do was not overthink it and here you already tired yourself out for a whole period, and you're dragging Reki into it aren't you? How stupid can you be? This is important, school is important, you can't just ignore that, it's not all just about fun. Why would it be?

"Y/n" *Reki called your name, looking at you "Hey, Y/n" *he insisted, you shook your head as your eyes widened, you stopped your trail of thoughts* "Yes ?" you tried to hold in your tears, but instead, you yawned, which got a few tears out of your eyes anyway, you whipped those tears away: you were just tired, that was all. Why else would have tears left your eyes? You're tired, nothing more. It was just one or two tears, a natural reaction from yawning, isn't it?

That is, before you realized it, the tears didn't stop leaving your eyes, it wasn't caused by just the yawning, you couldn't control yourself and your thoughts right now. Reki panicked, "Woah y/n! Hey please don't cry uhm-" you hid your face. when you realized.

Fuck, this wasn't the time to be dramatic, your other bestfriend was in the hospital, and all you could think about was yourself. How selfish can you be? Why are you ruining everything?

You weren't looking at Reki but even you could hear his panic, you tried to wipe away your tears and to calm down, it wasn't working out. Reki spoke, trying to be reassuring and comforting "hey, hey, it's okay- it's going to be okay, look at me- Well it's okay if you don't want to look at me, do you want to talk about it? What's up? —It's nothing, I'm just tired you said, your voice was shaking, you couldn't even make your voice sound normal, Reki's siblings were staring at you, great, you're making a scene now. —Is this the school stressing you out again? He asked, you stayed silent and your eyes widened a bit as you stared at the ground, Reki put an hesitant hand on your shoulder and spoke —Hey, it's okay, we're in classes of 30 people, they never check our work- —But I can't mess up you cut him off School's important, life isn't about just fun, work exist too Reki stayed silent for a second, before saying —Hey, I have fun at work you know —Huh? But this is a part time job!- —Does it matter? "

You paused, questioning your life's choices, Reki continued

"Hey, let me show you something" He stood up and led you an hand, you got up and he helped you walk, you guys walked toward the place he usually goes to to work on his skateboards in his garden, it seemed it stopped raining a while ago, probably while you were trying to focus on your work.

"Remember this place?" He asked, you nodded. Of course you can't forget, Reki made you multiple skateboards for free here, it was loud hearing the machines sometimes, but you can never forget a place with such fond memories.

Reki walked and grabbed a piece of wood "your skateboard got wet right? It needs to dry, this can last months, so to wait, i can make you another skateboard before this one breaks" he said, taking the usual measurements of the wood and tracing some lines, you were confused, weren't you guys talking about school and work just now? Why is he suddenly talking about skateboards again? I mean, atleast he was really passionate about it…

You stared at him, a bit dumbfounded, as he work, and you asked, before he turns on that godamn machine that had your ears dying on spot.

"Why are you doing this? —Well, because, if i let you skateboardless and dying to the stress of school, what will i think of myself for letting you down like this? —You're never letting me down, and, as I've said, life isn't about just fun anyway- —But it can be. Why torture yourself? He turned on the machine to cut the wood, making sure to follow the lines he traced precisely, communicating would be harder now, you had to raise your voice —It's not that simple! —Pick some trucks and some wheels"

Welp, there it is, Reki was being stubborn again, does he even understand you?

You sighed and stared at the available trucks and wheels, Reki was a bit too nice, he always gave you wheels and trucks for free.

Small wheels are for tricks, big wheels are for cruising on rougher surfaces. You pick out some wheels, and some trucks. When you think about it, Reki could just make you a board and you could replace the trucks and wheels yourself, why was he doing this?

When he was done cutting down the board, he asked "you done picking your trucks and wheels?" you nodded "mhm" he smiled and looked at the wheels and trucks you picked before nodding aswell, not surprised by your choice. He spoke, almost teasing you.

"You know, you really never changed your style of skating. —I don't really want to. You replied, Reki chuckled —You don't have to if this style suits you"

Reki started taking his supplies to color and decorate your board, you looked at him do so, and he asked "The same theme as usual? —Yes, please don't get too silly about it. You said in anticipation of whatever was about to come, Reki can be all but predictable sometimes —Will do!"

Reki got to work after putting a support under the board so that the paint wouldn't go over all the desk, and you just stared at him, feeling useless. He was used to working on this now to no surprises, and he was extremely fast, he surely looked like a professional. To you, he was like the God of skating, and you're sure many other would agree with you.

"Hey, y/n, want to add a touch of your help too? Let's spray some paint together —Can I really? —Yeah, it's your board not mine, as long as you don't spray paint all over my face I'm cool with it."

You smiled, feeling excited, you chose a color, specifically your favorite color. You started trying to draw some lines on the back of your board, not really confident. Reki nudged your shoulders to tease you, so you fought back.

Before you knew it, your board was full of colors and failed drawings, this definitely wasn't your usual board. And you both had full paint on your clothes, and some on your skin. You both were laughing and hardly breathing, when you calmed down, Reki looked at your board and declared "I shall call it the double painted friendship Reki-Y/n creation board, aka the Reki y/n dp friendship board!" you sighed, there he went again with his ridiculous nicknames, but you didn't dislike it either. If anything, Reki's enthusiasm was cheering you up, at this exact moment, you couldn't even bear to think about school, you just wanted to have fun. So what if they say life isn't just about fun?

You turned to face Reki, your eyes widened, and you looked at yourself. This was a catastrophe, you both were full of paint. Reki looked at you and looked at himself and realised the mess you both have done aswell, he had a curious and surprised look on his face for a second, before his smile brightened, and proud of himself he declared "Well looks like we both had a relooking!" you sighed and smiled "this isn't very healthy" he laughed "Don't worry, the paint is offensive once every 10 years"

"Let's let the paint dry for now." Reki said, before turning to look at you "You good?" you paused and thought, before answering "Yeah, i'm fine, why do you ask?" Reki sighed and said "I was scared you'd flood my house back there. —Hey! I'm not that much of a crybaby! —I'd rather have you cry than stay alone though. Joe once told me to never end up on my own."

You paused and stared at the table "Yeah, that's a good advice" you mumbled, before turning your head to face Reki, a curious look on your face "Say, why did you do all of this? You didn't have to let me pick out some new trucks and wheels, we could have just put the ones from the old board on the new board, you know? —Y/n, this is not the first time your trucks got wet, and i'm afraid they're getting rusty —They are? —Even a 4 year old would notice. —Hey! "

You guys laughed, and you asked "what do we do about the paint? —Let's go get it cleaned before it dries on our face, it's not raining anymore so we can go back to my house and to the cabin when it dries"

You were able to stand on your own, but when you took a step, it really hurts a lot, but you felt like you could handle it, things are way much less painful when you're in a better mood, it's crazy.

Once you entered his house again, you saw one of his younger sister, Koyomi, eating an ice cream and directly turning to talk to you "Hey y/n, i've got something for you —You're not sleeping? Reki asked —Nope, couldn't sleep with all the charades our younger relatives put in the house"

Koyomi took some papers and handed them to you "Here, nanaka and chihiro made these for you, they said they hoped it would make you feel better"

You took the drawings, these were drawings made by one of Reki's youngest siblings, a stickman kind of drawing with some hearts. It seemed even they cared about you. you stared at the drawing, while Reki said "Hey Koyomi, don't stay up too late. —You aswell" ~ After you both cleaned the paint off your face and arms, you went back to the place where the paint dried. You already felt much better, you made sure to keep the drawings somewhere in your backpack, these were silly, but you wanted to keep them in your room or something when you'll go back to your house.

Your phone bzzzzed, you turn on your phone and checked the notification, it was a message from Langa on the trio group containing you, Langa and Reki.

"Hey guys! I'm out of the hospital! :) The sock was no problem much, i'm on my way home!" Reki turned to you "Hm, what are you doing y/n? —Hey, look at this, Langa's out of the hospital you said, Reki immediately looked at your phone without any hesitation and said —Wow, so he really got out of troubles huh? —Yup, once again."

You smiled and typed a message on your phone "Hey Langa, I'm at Reki's house right now, I hope you have a good night, see you at school tomorrow!" you sent the message, before you knew it, reki took out his own phone and typed a message "Hey Langa, btw, i made y/n a new board, wanna video call to see it?".

You saw the message appear on the groupchat, and before you knew it, Langa already sent a videocall ask, you refused as Reki already turned on the video call and one was enough.

It seems the paint has dried already.

Reki picked the trucks and wheels you chose to put them and fix them on your board, you only noticed now but these also got colored in the process somehow, it gave your board a new type of look, you couldn't help but smile. When Reki was done, he took care of the grip tape, and when that was done aswell, he looked at you to present the final result while showing Langa through his phone the final result, and proud of himself, he asked, a big genuine smile on his face "Well! What do you think??" you clapped, genuinely amused. Langa praised Reki.

Reki grinned "I know, i'm the best when it comes to making boards —I helped painting the board too! —You sure are an artist y/n l/n."

Reki laughed, and you heard Langa laugh too. You were smiling, you didn't even know what time was it, you didn't really care about the time anymore, though you could notice dark circles under Reki's eyes, you didn't know if you had them too.

After a small moment of silence, Reki talked, in a low soft voice "Hey, y/n —Hm? —You're right, life isn't about just fun. you dropped your composure when he said this —What do you mean? —Life is about being happy, silly! He messed your hair up, leaving the screen on the desk and leaving Langa confused, he smiled you really are an idiot you know? he teased you, not actually meaning it —Hey! Atleast I care about my grades! You defended yourself, Reki grinned —You know, when it comes to school and grades, i'm not really worried, you build yourself a path towards the future by being happy and doing the things you like, don't you? —Well, it's true but… —So why torture yourself? You'll be just fine, a day of not doing homework won't kill you, hey, what makes you happy? —Being with you you blurted out and everyone else you added, Reki seemed a bit caught off guard, he scratched his head and blushed a bit, flattered, he spoke —Well then use your mind a bit more for us and less for school, I promise you you'll figure everything out at your own pace —Can I really? —Do I inspire you? he asked out of the blue, semi-hesitant, semi-confident —Reki! you nudged his shoulder and laughed —What? —Of course you inspire me! —But i'm not good at school and grades, I don't even care about school as much as you do. —Yes, but you're so passionate and good at what you do. I'm not even sure of what i want to do in the future. —All I did was enjoy what i enjoy. He paused and smiled brightly I love skating, the fun is infinite, it never ends!"

You heard Langa's confused voice through the phone, the lonely blue-haired teenage boy spoke "Y'know y/n, when it comes to school and work, i rather see you happy with average grades than stressed out and on edge with good grades, just like we found you were last year"

You felt a bit embarrassed and nervous, so you stared at Reki, internally begging for him to change the topic. He smiled, and said "it might not be easy, but hang in there, i promise everything will be okay, school won't pick your path for you, school will force you to pick a path, of course school is important, but a balance is important aswell, we can't have you so stressed out that you break down on one sheet of paper everytime, what kind of friends would we be if we let you alone to struggle like this? I don't think that would be very fair, you know. Life may not just be about fun, but sometimes it is. What's more important anyway is to be happy anyway isn't it?"

His confident and long monologue was interrupted by a big sneeze.

Oh, you had all that nasty stuff over your face, dear god.

Reki panicked and ran to grab some tissues, you tried not to laugh at the way he ran, welp, this was really worth not going to S for.

You stared at the phone on the desk and Langa saw your face and laughed as you picked the tissue Reki handed to you.

Through the phone, you heard Langa's voice "y/n, you know, I'm happy with you guys too —You better be." ~ You fell asleep in your sleeping bag, and the next morning, you both were completely sick. And you forgot to complete the homework you were supposed to turn in today. You still weren't even sure if it was an History sheet or a Maths one.

But did it really matter? You had so much fun yesterday, and you cheered up, sometimes it's cool to loosen up.

This is the type of memory you won't regret when you'll be at death's door. This is the type of memory that really matters.

Of course school did matter, but when it slowly kills you and you have no idea of what you want to do, what do you do? How do you balance personal life and school?

Life isn't just about fun sure,

It's about appreciating the moment that's happening right now. And right now, you didn't want to think about school.

Rather, you wanted to think about getting some meds, because you both were REALLY a sick mess.

And little did you know the papers you both left on the living room table didn't last long when Reki's siblings woke up.

Oops?

[purplepeptobismol]

Hii I absolutely adore your writing but I got a question, do you have any writing tips? I'm an amateur and I'm not good with English like idk whatever I write it becomes stiff

I love your writing ;o; help this beginner writer

Hi anon!!

I appreciate you reaching out!! In all honestly, English isn’t my first language either lolol. Like majority of us, we’re all still learning 🫠 sadly. (I did explain a bit about advice for getting longer chapter here if you wanna check that post out) But that’s not to say that I haven’t seen improvement in my own writing either. I don’t really have concrete tips a professional might give you, but I do have tips for things that have helped me and could help you improve your writing flow!!

• Organize your story! Of course, you don’t have to do it for all of your stories, but it could really help for those really big projects. Planning out scenes and concepts before even starting to write chapter drafts can help getting an understanding of the direction of the story. If you don’t understand your own story, how would you expect others to do so? It doesn’t have to be neat at all either! Just as long as you have all of your thoughts written out is enough. I’m a bit extreme, and I end up doing graphs, diagrams, and character profiles lolol. I’ve recently started using Lore Forge, and I’m been trying to learn how to use Obsidian (but my god, shit is confusing), so you could always use note organizers for those big stories (but you don’t have to, and it’s not necessary)! At the end of the day, if you want your story to be impactful, getting your story concept/scenes planned out can really be a game changer!

• Music! Music is one of my major inspirations for writing. I always say that art can inspire other’s to create their own art, which is true. Literature, music, ballads, dance— all those things can really impact a person’s creativity. Setting a tone for your story by using music can really get your mind to explore and insert yourself in your writing (or if you prefer setting up collages of images, that can also help too).

• Read more! Whether it’s fan fiction or novels, or even articles, getting an understanding of sentence structures and dynamics can really shape a story up! If you find interesting uses of phrases or words, I recommend noting them down so you could see how you can incorporate it in your story!! Trust, I have a whole bunch of them in my notes up and it really helps a lot! Thesaurus is your best friend!

• Think about sentence structures! Sentence structure is the key to flow! You can describe a simple action in multiple ways. Here’s a quick example from my fic:

“Cooper tilted his head slightly with a smile curling his lips.”

If I were to put it in simple words, it would’ve been: “Cooper tilted his head and smiled.”

Which in itself, it isn’t bad at all!! There are multiple ways you can edit the structure by using compound sentences, complex sentences, periodic sentences, etc.

“Tilting his head slightly, Cooper smiled, curling his lips.”

“Smiling with curled lips, Cooper tilted his head slightly.

“Cooper tilted his head slightly, and a smile curled his lips.

“As Cooper tilted his head, a smile curled his lips.

There are many ways you can play around with sentence structures. The trick is to use all of the types throughout your whole story so it doesn’t become too over repetitive! Some work better in certain scenes, while others don’t. As you improve as a writer, the skill to noting which one of them to use becomes more easier.

• Figures of speech are cool! Ever since I was a child, I was always fascinated by the concept of idioms. I’m autistic, and I tend to take things literally, so it was really hard for me to understand people. But when I was in English class in the first grade, and I learned about figures of speech, I was so enthralled by the whole concept of it! Similes, idioms, metaphors, and personifications are something every writer should include in their stories! It makes everything feel so much more alive, me thinks.

• Read your story out loud! When you’re looking at a screen with words, it becomes sort of difficult to grasp the words in your head (or maybe it’s just me, idk) so having it (preferably someone else) read out loud to you can really help with noticing mistakes. My editor tends to do that for me on call or audio messages, but if you have no one available, something as simple as the Google translate lady can help too lolol. You’ll start to realize how many words you overuse when you hear it out loud. Though, I don’t recommend to overusing an automated voice instead of a human one. At some point, you’re hearing the same automatic sound to the point it numbs your mind. When you have a person/human reading it out loud, you can check if the feeling or emotion of the story is in par with the writing being given.

• Act it out! Now, this could be just a me thing…. So, uhm, I have other mental disorders that causes me to hallucinate and enter a state of psychosis. It can be very dangerous (and I wish I could say im safe, and that I take meds, but that would be a lie. I ran out of them and I don’t have insurance anymore RIP). But I try to use that to my advantage. You’ve heard of actors doing things such as method acting, and it’s sort of like that (only way more intense and actually unsafe if you’re not receiving treatment. Please, if you financially can, seek professional help if you struggle with schizophrenia or any other psychotic disorder. Do NOT do this if you’re not in the right state of mind). I try to use my hallucinations to my advantage by putting myself in the perspective/setting of the character and/or scene I’m writing. You can do something similar by daydreaming the scene, or actually acting it out like it’s a script from a movie. When you’re visualizing a scene or acting out the emotion of the characters, you can actually feel it more clearly. Those surges of emotions and images can really help with writing down the details/emotions you want to describe.

• Live life, and go outside! With everything in mind, the only way you can improve in writing is by experiencing things yourself. Your own experiences and memories can hold as references for your writing. How can you describe the taste of vanilla ice cream if you’ve never tasted it? Sure, you can read about it and hear others describe it, but it won’t hit the same as you describing it from your own experience. Of course, there a certain things you can’t experience because it could be dangerous or illegal (idk what you’re planning on writing), so I say you should opt to doing research on the topic, or much more preferably: talking/listening to people who have gone through those things. Art derives from life.

Well, these are my main tips! I can always go in detail with a specific one, or if you have a certain interest or request, please let me know! I hope this could help in some way 🙂‍↕️🤲

[hollowsart]

ok here's that Spider-Man AU I came up with:

University AU, but with a twist + the origin of the AU itself (aka, what inspired it, at the very bottom of the post)

Peter is the freshman newbie and they're not actually trying to cause trouble, they're just really enthusiastic and enjoying life to its fullest before they graduate at the tops of their classes and as the heads of their fields.

shirtless frat bro energy Mysterio who will probably go hand to hand with Spider-Man despite not having super powers himself. wrap his arm around Peter and give him actually good solid advice while Peter is trying not to gag over Beck's hairy pits.

what if they want Peter to join their fraternity family and they're genuinely good people, but they keep giving Peter a friendly fight on the university's school grounds every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. the way he gets in is if he defeats all of them.

he's done that and they consider him an honorary member even tho he keeps rejecting them and just wanting to stick to his small clique.

but over time he can't deny he does enjoy their eccentric personalities and their energetic personalities are contagious. He does go to them to get help with his homework tho for his various classes so he can try to impress his crush(es)

I think Otto would secretly enjoy theater and watch Beck do his performances and even aid him in practice.

everyone would cheer on and praise Otto for his crazed inventions and even the mad creation of the Actuators

Max being a party guy.. his hair is like.. frosted tips and spiked up with his own static electricity

I think Max would probably have given himself electric powers when he was younger cuz of a crazy stupid stunt he pulled that backfired, BUT HE SURVIVED!!

he uses the electrical abilities as his little.. party trick. always does something with it to try and impress the ladies lol he isn't allowed in the pools tho. obvious reasons.

he ended a party early once and learned the hard way why he shouldn't get into the water when others are present. (no one died thankfully!)

Otto has the patience of a SAINT when it comes to helping out Rhino with his homework so he can join them when they graduate. he cares for his homeboys, wants to see them succeed.

Mysterio is a jack of all trades. he is an art student to the bone, but he tries to party and wrestle and be more like a jock than he actually is. probably accidentally huffed some paint and drank the paint water once while delusional from pulling an all-nighter to finish his project/assignment on time.

Chameleon & Kraven are transfer students from Russia and they're both unbelievably pompous and eccentric.

chameleon being the guy you go to if you want the highest quality fake IDs. he makes them himself

Flint is also an art student, but he does those pottery things. he does it on the side and tries to keep up with the sports teams of the university instead, trying to keep up a tougher facade, but he just really likes making pottery and sculptures. finds them relaxing and will stay late to make them. people think he stayed up partying even tho they don't remember seeing him at any parties on campus. they just make the assumption and he always plays along. he submits his works to the school under a false name that the school is aware of and have agreed to in order to keep his privacy.

Rhino keeps the secret, having discovered him one night. stumbling upon Flint spinning some clay and while being a bit tipsy, he just sits and watches. completely transfixed by the actions and effort.

They become the BEST of friends.

and Rhino, being much bigger than the others, will gladly protect and back up Flint

Screwball brought her entire gaming and live-streaming setup to the dorm room. brings her phone to the lectures and records herself or the professors/teachers.

she's def part of the news section and records all the fights Peter has with the Sinister Six fraternity

Kingpin is the one in charge of it. he owns the university. the head professor or whatever heck they're called.

Norman being the 2nd in command of the university. Harry does NOT get special treatment from his dad. but Norman DOES see promise in Peter and tries to bribe and coax him with free good grades/marks and more. Peter keeps denying the old man.

man gives him the creeps and he'd rather earn his good rewards with his hard work. it's more satisfying that way.

plus, he has the whole sinister six fraternity helping him out with all sorts of things. so it's fiiiinnee. he doesn't need Norman's help.

I firmly believe that by the end of the story, when everyone is graduating, Peter is definitely good friends with the Sinister Six and is really gonna miss them once the graduation ceremony is over.

all of them are gonna miss him too tbh

Also, here's the origin of this AU:

[spacedlexi]

hey same anon from yesterday!

first off, good luck with your assignments, Killin myself out here too.

And thanks for the advice! I’m trying to make it canonical while in a modern au, so since this was a mainly S1 part of the series, Clem’s parents + Lee’s wife nonsense still happens, just navigated differently. Different dates obviously happen, some characters are less prominent and others are more (i.e St. John’s useless, or Larry + Lee’s family roles/created)

For the personalities, some characters are just easier to write I think. I’ll never understand the Violet southerner thing, a telltale sight for me is if someone messes that up. (Also basically every story has Minerva as a total asshole so that’s funny)

I tried to implement game lines too, while putting it in modern context! And the end of the day you’re right, it is MY choice, just want to have it look nice. Again, thanks and good luck!

using lines ripped from the game can definitely be helpful, especially if it feels natural in the scene, i would just be careful in not leaning on it too much. adding a twist to it definitely helps. but really try to pay attention to the cadence with which characters speak. theres a rhythm to Everything. do they stutter when theyre nervous? do they use a lot of filler words? do they hesitate at all or do they speak confidently? do they enunciate? stuff like that. if you can figure that out it makes it easier to write dialogue that really feels like its coming from that character. think about the different ways multiple characters may express the same idea. how does it get filtered through their heads and mouths. its less about What the character is saying and more How theyre saying it. believability and all that. to me it feels like pulling off a magic trick

it really is just a delicate balance of behavior and vocabulary. its why i try to cut a lot of slack to writers when it comes to fic. i know its a hard line to walk, and i'll give points for getting Enough right. especially for characters we dont see much of. thats why even tho it annoys me a bit i understand why so many people write minnie as being a possessive asshole and not much else. its why i end up going down the rabbit hole trying to figure out who she was before the delta. like we Know she was a different person, we just dont know much about that person, and the experience/thought process that she had that turned her from the "didnt even like killing walkers" never mind the darkness minnie into the minnie that killed her sister. i find her to be a really interesting character because its obvious she still cares about the ericson group in some fucked up way (sans clem she just sees her as an obstacle to getting them back) and i Do wish that depth was examined more in fics. but maybe im just not reading the right ones

ANYWAY i hope this has all been helpful and good luck with your writing 💕

[mightbewriting]

hi so i want to ask how i would go about improving my craft. more specifically, how do you do that, and do you have any advice?

i've accepted that my writing now isn't going to be perfect by any means, but i've also found myself wondering how i'd go about improving my craft to that point where i'm satisfied with it? or is it always going to feel like you have more to improve and more to change and more, more, more even when you've come a long way? like idk it's so hard to measure the endpoint (is there even an endpoint/end goal?) because even when i can see that i've improved in certain ways, there are also times i cringe at myself so much, which actually leads to fluctuating motivation too.

hi anon!

so sorry for taking a bit to get to this! i think the place i want to start with is no, there is no end point. at least, not one i've ever found. and truly, i think the most helpful point of growth with writing is in finding a way to accept that nothing you write will ever feel 100% perfected to you. even the things that readers might give you glowing feedback on and say there's nothing they would change, even if you can't necessarily figure out what it is that's wrong or that you would change, in my experience, there's always going to be a lingering sense of "but i could do this better, i know i could." the trick is in letting that be okay and, if i may be grotesquely trite, accepting that writing is the kind of activity that's pretty exclusively about the journey, not the destination. i'm not convinced there is a destination.

with regards to how i've gone about improving my craft, i'm a big proponent of craft books and reading a wide variety of them (which is boring, tedious advice, i know, but it's what i've done). i think it's easy to want to take craft advice as prescriptive, but processes are so unique to the way each of us thinks and how our brains work that i employ more of magpie technique. i want to pick and choose from a bunch of different sources to build my own little treasure trove of what works for me.

in addition to that, my trick for a very, very long time was disciplined practice. writing is one of those things you have to do to improve. i had a lot of success with daily word count minimums because, at least for me, having to get a certain number of words on the page no matter what they were or what project they were for, really helped me push past perfectionist tendencies. there just isn't time to obsess over 100 words when i have 1500 more to write and don't want to spend every second of my life doing it. if you're struggling to let something be a little bit imperfect, i highly recommend giving daily word counts a try for at least a month to build the habit and see how it feels. it doesn't work for everyone, but it worked for me. and if community helps, i highly recommend nanowrimo (national novel writing month) as a way to make a little event out of those daily word counts (i've done nano many times in my life and even wrote at nano pace for an entire year. and while that was...a lot, it also did a lot for my ability to write first drafts without shame). additionally, word sprints (timed, focused writing as fast as you can) with friends are a great way to help get words in with a support system cheering you on.

the last thing i'll throw out there, if it's helpful at all, a lot of the time my "endpoint" with a project is when i can't stand working on it anymore, not when i feel like it's perfect. because at a certain point, i'm not the project's best advocate anymore; i'm too close to it. and calling it done is usually the best thing for both me and the story.

i hope this is at least a little bit helpful anon! good luck with your writing! i promise you deserve way more credit than you're giving yourself right now!

[anteaters-in-the-sky]

Hey you, yeah you! Do you have long hair? Is it thin? Frizzy? Easily knotted? Then this post is for you! It’s time for….

HAIR CARE TIPS AND TRICKS!

Much of this comes from my personal experience as someone who only started growing out my hair about two years ago.

First of all: haircuts

“But I’m growing it out, why would I want to cut it?” Well, trimming just an inch or two can make a huge difference in how neat your hair can look, especially since the relative lengths of hair from various parts of your head are very different with short vs long hair. Also, if you haven’t had a haircut in a while, your hair will be much thinner and have a lot of split ends near the bottom and evening things out can drastically improve your luscious locks. Also, if they offer a shampooing at the hairdresser, it may not be a bad idea to decline, as I find it usually just leaves my hair a frizzy mess.

Next: brushing

Getting a good hairbrush and brushing your hair at least once a day can make a huge difference. If you’re a man, don’t get one of those brushes “FOR MEN” because they are usually a lot worse than something marketed towards women. Brushing your hair in the morning, before you go to bed, and especially after you shower will decrease the difficulty of brushing overall as well as reducing the likelihood of knots forming. Also brushing after you’ve been wearing a hat or helmet or if you’ve had your hair up in some manner can help a lot as well.

Third: showering and hair products

Unless you have very oily hair, using shampoo every time you shower is probably a mistake. Generally, you should only be using shampoo every 3-5 days and just washing your hair with water every other time you shower. Using too much shampoo is also a mistake a lot of people make, this can strip all of the natural oils out of your hair which help to keep it healthy and looking nice. Using conditioner is also important every time you shampoo. If your hair is still frizzy, I would recommend using some sort of leave-in conditioner, either after showers or in the morning. For this you can either look for a dedicated product or find a conditioner that can be used both in the shower and as a leave-in.

Finally: finding what works for you

Everyone has different hair and these are just rough guidelines. The best advice I can give in this regard is just to try things out and see what works for you.

I hope this has been helpful and maybe I can provide some guidance to those who may feel a bit lost in their long hair journey. Please reblog if you found this helpful and spread the message and feel free to add any of your own tips, tricks, or stories. Good luck and luscious locks to you all!

[weaselle]

sure! -- massive spoilers for All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein down below. Buckle up, it's wild

let's see, do i have to look it up? probably it's such a knot. okay uh

Story starts Some Guy telling his story to Bartender. Turns out Some Guy actually grew up as Some Girl in an orphanage.

As a teen Some Girl is seduced by This Dude and gets preggers, at which point This Dude fucks off. After a difficult childbirth Some Girl wakes up and ...

the Docs are like, yo while you were out we had to do some major surgery to save the baby and it turns out you were born intersex! with like, internalized male genitalia? i guess? and the child birth complications and surgery damage was so severe it was easier to just make you a man??? So anyway, sorry or congrats or whatever to you Some Girl .. you're Some Guy now.

Soooo instead of being a space hooker like Some Girl planned, Some Guy now writes something like an advice column under the pen name Unmarried Woman or something. (Somehow all this is easier for us to accept than there not being a thriving gay community willing to pay for sex among the we're-known-for-paying-for-sex space colonists who seem to be mostly men. idk why space hooker wasn't still a viable option, but whatever)

Bartender is like, cool story bro, you know what's crazy is, i can actually find and bring you to where This Dude is if you want some closure. Some Guy is like YES that asshole i was only 17 when he seduced me and left me preggo, i'm gonna get his ass let's gooo

Bartender says bet, so, check it out - this... is my time machine. See, you know where you were at the time This Dude seduced you, and i can bring you to when that was. Ta-dah!

Anyway Bartender brings Some Guy back to about a year before the difficult childbirth, then pops forward a year and, just, steals a baby. Which is clearly THE baby. And drops the baby off at the orphanage Some Girl grew up in. See what happened?

Then Bartender goes and gets Some Guy from a couple months after he dropped him off. Like, Some Guy has been living in the past for a couple of months. And of course Some Guy from the future has managed seduce his Some Girl self, becoming This Dude. Who, having gotten themself preggannenant, is now fucking off back to his own time with the Bartender, leaving herself pregnant with a baby that will grow up to be Some Girl, who is also themself.

Anyway Bartender picks up Some Guy from her past to bring him to their present

Only the Bartender is revealed to actually be an undercover agent working for the Time Travel Secret Service of Time Protectors Agency or whatever. And Bartender recruits Some Guy into said TTSSTP Agency to protect the timeline.

Some Guy gets trained into the TTSSTP Agency and is assigned an undercover mission... AS THE BARTENDER.

Every major character in this story is the same person. Someone who trains themself to go undercover and time travel back to seduce themself so they could get pregnant with themself and ensure their circular existence.

At the very end, this Someone lays in the dark mission accomplished touching the surgery scars. As they do so, they think something like "okay, so that explains where i come from, but why are there all these zombies?"

personally i think it's a bit like ending your story "and then she screamed until she woke up and it was all a dream" and then trying to disguise your bad ending as being possibly clever by titling your book "The Wakeful Scream" but whatever. The concept is certainly intriguing, and heinlein is a somewhat decent author who explores it competently for us, tho he is certainly not as great as some consider him to be, in my opinion.

The Cat Who Walked Through Walls by heinlein for example, is one of the two books i've ever thrown at a wall in anger at the author having tricked me into reading their bullshit.

Anyway there you have it. OP's "I'm pregnant with you and it's me" is basically the plot of this actual short story printed by a publishing house.

I’m pregnant with you and it’s me

[inky-thoughts]

Sales for a zine I’m a mod on haven’t been going too well :/ any advice for how to increase preorders or where to sell directly?

Ah, sorry to hear that! First of all I want to say, I don't know if it's any comfort to you, but it's tough to break even with a zine, especially if it's one of your first ones. So this doesn't have to be a failing on your part, it's just the nature of things. This is a big reason why I stress saving up for such a project first, because you cannot guarantee its success but it'd be sad to cancel something everyone worked really hard on.

I don't know which of these you might already have exhausted so my suggestions might be a bit redundant but here we go.

One thing I always recommend is getting your contributors into the boat as well, after all it's also in their interest for the zine to do well. Ask everyone to share your zine's posts frequently (like every couple days) & do one or two promo posts on their own (after all they know their audience and what they vibe with the best!) - this goes for the mods as well, share to your own audiences and tell them you'd really appreciate their support. Also, another big thing nowadays is to actively encourage reblogs. It's a fact that a lot of people don't share posts anymore and only like them, so telling your audience it's ok if they can't support you financially, a reblog goes a long way as well, might do the trick (it's no guarantee but at least you tried).

If you have (online) friends who aren't part of the zine, ask them to help you out as well. Fandom is community, so take advantage of that, just be ready to do it for others as well.

Other avenues I can think of is asking for reblogs/promo from zine blogs (I listed a few general zine blogs that reblog zines' interest checks, application apps, preorder posts and the similar in a htoaz101 post but I'm not sure whether these all still exist/are still active but usually you can also just search tumblr tags and find blogs through that, some fandoms also have fandom-specific zine blogs) and fellow zines (just make sure to promo their stuff in return).

The only other thing I can think of is selling your zine at conventions or fairs you, other mods, or contributors attend. In my first zine we asked our contributors if anyone was willing to buy a couple extra copies for conventions for a little over the production cost and they could keep the profits. One person bought 10 extras, which helped a lot.

Another thing we did was selling e-zines once the print preorders were done and handled, this was how we managed to break even in the end and even got a small profit. International shipping is getting quite expensive so this was a great way to reach customers we otherwise wouldn't have gotten.

I don't think that paid advertisment or tumblr blaze will make a big difference due to the nature of tumblr and fandom being more idk. skeptical of ads, but if you wanted to try, you could also consider this (idk how much it costs on various platforms tbh)

Outside of asking irl social circles whether they'd like to buy a copy, that's all I've got for now with the limited details you gave.

Good luck with everything!

-Inky

[fugos-lil-fork]

Do you have any headcanons for the Bucci Gang with a s/o that constantly has nightmares? :")

Naaah, cuz I can definitely relate to that. I have somniphobia bc of the nightmares I get actually 💀 Word of advice!; Try to pay attention to what you eat right before you go to sleep! I know it sounds silly, but certain foods you eat are known to trigger nightmares. However, those foods vary from person to person, obviously, not everyone had the same trigger(s)! But, anyways! I gotchu! Ty very much for ur request! (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

~➗🍓🍊🐞⏳🔫🤐~

Bucci Gang with S/O who has constant nightmares!

Abbacchio;

He completely understands how you feel

He's definitely struggled with nightmares ever since... Well, you know...

He tries his best to really just be there for you, y'know?

When you wake up after a nightmare he's always there to comfort you

He holds you tight

Reminds you that whatever you dreamed about wasn't real

That he's there for you and always will be there for you

He's not really sure how to help you with your nightmares

Hell, he doesn't really believe he is helping you despite how many times you reassure him that he does in fact help you out

He, himself, had never really handled his nightmares problem

He just kinda got used to sucking them up and pretending like they didn't take a toll on him

But, obviously, he doesn't want you to do the same

So, every time you wake up he always make sure to ask you about your dreams

Even if it seemed like nothing was wrong that whole night

He wants to make extra sure that you, for once, got a comfortable sweet dream

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Bruno;

He worries a lot about your constant nightmares

No person can deal with such a thing without it taking a toll on them

Of course, he's always there for you when you wake up from one

Hugging you, reminding you that it was just a dream

Whispering sweet nothings into you

Placing soft, comforting kisses on your head and forehead as he gently holds you

But he knows those are just quick fixes to something that's so obviously constantly troubling you

So, he'll begin to find daily solutions to your nightmares

Maybe setting a bedtime routine

And switching it up to see what helps you sleep better at night

He'll even do it with you! You're both in this together!

He makes it very clear that you'll never have to deal with this alone ever again

And no matter how long it'll takes, he'll help you find a way to help you sleep better

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Mista;

He's so ready to help you out

This man is so laid back and relax

He genuinely thinks he could "train you" to relax and let go of your nightmares-

As silly as how his goal sounds when worded like that

He does give genuine suggestions that could help with relaxing before going to bed

Recommending that you do some light stretches

Maybe some meditation?

Hell, why not try the old classic trick of warm milk?

However, even if that doesn't work

The man is always there to comfort you as well if you do end up waking up due to a nightmare

He holds you so protectively

And reassure your that he's right there with you

That he'll always protect you no matter from what or from who

He even offers to try to do something else instead of going back to sleep

Simply to help you calm down more and so you don't have to force yourself to go back to sleep

He definitely wouldn't mind to go on a 3 am run to get some snacks from a nearby store if it'll help you clear out your head for a bit-

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Narancia;

P a n i c

At first, he isn't really sure how to help

He definitely still deals with nightmares as well from his time on the streets and his mother's passing

Though, he's definitely gotten good at basically shaking them off throughout the day and forgetting about them

He's hesitant about it

Obviously, he wants to help but he doesn't really think he could be much of help

After all, he realizes his way of dealing with nightmares isn't the healthiest and therefore is something he definitely doesn't want for you

But he's just so clueless as to how to help

Eventually though, it kind of just comes natural to him

Sure, he might not know how to help in the big picture

But whenever you do have a nightmare, he's always there by your side

He tries his best to give you physical affection and comforting reassurance that's he's never going to leave you much less let something or someone hurt you

He does his best to make you smile again and helping you feel better by telling jokes or silly stories as well!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Fugo;

Oh, how much he could relate

Fugo's nightmares seem never ending as well

So, once he realized you dealt with the same problem as him, he was completely heartbroken for you

He knows very well how painful it is to deal with constant nightmares

And so, he makes it his mission to do everything within his power to help you

This boy dives in deep for you

Literally analyzing you, to your comfort, trying to get to the root of the problem

Reading and researching endlessly for answers

If he realizes it's something he can't entirely handle on his own, he'll even try to contact doctors, therapists, specialists, literally anyone that could give an solution to your problems

But aside from all of that, of course he's always physically there for you right after you wake up from a nightmare

The poor boy even stays up to make sure you don't show signs that you are having a nightmare

And if you do, he makes sure to wake you up before it gets any worse

He hugs you, trying to be gentle but can't help but give some squeezes of reassurance here and there

Reminding you that it's all going to be okay and you're going to get the help you need with his help

Definitely reminds you that you're not alone and never will be

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Giorno;

He doesn't really understand at first

He's definitely had nightmares before but had become so used to them that he couldn't become upset at then anymore

He'd literally shove them away to the back of his head and would never acknowledge how bad they actually were

However, he could clearly see how negatively this was affecting you

And of course his instinct was to try to understand and help you

He tries to read a bit into how to lessen nightmares and get a better sleep

He's so attentive

Always paying close attention on whether your nightmares get better or worse based on what he suggests you try in order to get a better sleep

He even tried to grow lavenders in your bedroom to help you relax and get better rest

And he always listens

Whenever you have a nightmare, he's always hearing you out as to what happened in your nightmare

Constantly debunking the fictitious dream

And reassuring you of the reality

He was here for you

Always will

And he swears that he'll never let anything or anyone hurt you

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Trish;

Ah, she feels for you as well

After what happened with Diavolo, she started developing constant nightmares

So, she constantly reminds you that she completely understands what you're going through

And that you're most definitely not alone

She tries to help you both by planning calming/comforting activities before going to bed

Such as a homemade spa of some sort

Or even just cuddling and watching some comforting movies you both love

Hoping that maybe you'll go to sleep with those happy feelings and your dreams will contain them

However, if that doesn't work, she tightly hugs you

Sometimes even cries with you

She knows how horrible it feels

She'll place soft kisses all over your face though

She really wants you to never forget that you're both in this together

And you'll pull through it, together

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡