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bees-writting · 6 months ago

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would you ever do a mike schmidt with a trans coworker reader? maybe platonic? or ambiguous? they could be friends who worked at freddy's together, and he doesnt judge them for being trans or their interests

Hey, sorry if it’s not the best, I’ve got some sun poisoning but THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING, I LITERALLY JUMPED FOR JOY WHEN I SAW SOME REQUEST.

MASTERLIST HERE

MIKE SCHMIDT X TRANS COWORKER READER

(Y/N) sighed as he pulled into the empty parking lot of Freddy’s. The man had been having some painful chest pains all day so he decided to go without a binder to try and sooth the aches.

He grabbed his green messenger bag as he got out of his car and began dragging his feet towards the building slowly, until he saw the aggressive beam of headlights shining behind him.

Turning around as the lights shut off he saw his fellow night guard stumbling out of the car.

“Hey Mike, your early.” The man noted with scrunched brows.

“So are you (Y/N).” The other man retorted as he gave the (H/C) man a once over. Instead of responding (Y/N) just motioned to the building as the two fell in step together.

After getting situated inside the security office (Y/N) opened his bag and pulled out a Chinese puzzle and began trying to fit it together.

“What are you doing?” (Y/N) heard Mike whisper in question.

“A puzzle, they help me focus.” (Y/N) responded.

“Oh cool.” Mikes response was short.

(Y/N) kept shuffling around and messing with his shirt when he couldn’t figure out the puzzle, the boy was so focused on his own things that he didn’t feel the way his coworker was staring at him until his voice interrupted the silence.

“What’s wrong, your shuffling around a lot?”

“Huh? Oh I’m fine just- nothing nevermind.” (Y/N) shut him down.

“Dude c’mon, even I’m not to stupid to see you’ve been acting weird.” Mike contorted.

“I’ve been having some chest pains so I haven’t been able to properly bind and it feels weird okay?” (Y/N) lashed. Mikes eyes softened at the admittance and clear uncomfortability of the man.

“Oh I’m sorry dude, that must suck.”

(Y/N)’s eyes widened slightly, not used to the sympathy from the other man. Not knowing how to respond he awkwardly went back to his puzzle with a nod.

“How do you do it?” (Y/N)’s head snapped up at the voice, not expecting him to speak again.

“The puzzle? You just have to find and fit everything in there place-“ the man said as he found the proper placement for a piece he had been having a particularly rough time with “- and boom, a star.” (Y/N) held up the finished puzzle as he saw Mike’s face adjust in surprise at the finished project. (Y/N) nonchalantly handed it to the boy before speaking, “You can have it, give it to Abby or something, it’s no fun to do if I already know how.”

“Really? Thanks, it’s cool.” Mike stuttered out.

“I agree, anywho we should probably start actually doing our job.” (Y/N) responds, turning over to look at the security footage.

“Yeah, your probably right.” Mike responded, copying the others movements.

“So uh, how does the whole trans thing work.” Mike questioned hesitantly.

“What do you mean?” (Y/N) replied guardedly.

“Like how did you know? How does it feel?” Mike asked with a bit more confidence.

“I don’t know, I was in highschool one day and just kinda figured it out. And it feels like shit sometimes.” (Y/N) says with a short laugh.

“Nice, well sorry about the binding thing you were talking about earlier.” Mike replied.

“The ‘binding thing’?” (Y/N) laughed. “It’s when I wear a thing called a binder to hide my quite feminine chest.” (Y/N) explained at the boys confused face.

“Oh, that’s cool- how does it work exactly, like wouldn’t it hurt to just shove your chest back?” Mike questioned again, feeling more comfortable since (Y/N) didn’t seem upset.

“Surprisingly no, I’m not supposed to do a bunch of stuff with it on though or it can cause some damage.”

“What aren’t you supposed to do?”

“Things like sleep, exercise, just wear it for too long or when I might be having chest or breathing pain, if I ignore that it can cause a bunch of unnecessary damage in that area, which could in turn make it harder to have the surgery to remove my chest.” (Y/N) explained, not used to people actually wanting to know about how it all works.

“So you just, don’t wear one during those things? Doesn’t that feel weird?” Mike asked rapidly.

“Sometimes, but my health is important, even if that means I’m uncomfortable.”

“Anywho we seriously need to get back to work, how bout I start cleaning the party room and you get the kitchen?” (Y/N) said again, changing the topic.

“Shit your right, uhh, yeah that sounds good.” Mike replied as he checked the time before the boys went there separate ways to clean the building.

#fnaf #fnaf movie #michael afton #mike schmidt #mike schimdt x reader #transgender #transmasc #bee-writes #fanfic #writers #authors #william afton

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ghostonly · 3 years ago

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FTM Top Surgery Q&A - Installment #2

1-Week Post-Op Recovery and Progress

Welcome to installment #2! If you're new here, I'm currently working on a Q&A / Series combo where I outline my experience with FTM top surgery as a large, disabled guy with ADHD and low income. I'll also answer any questions sent in to me. Currently, I haven't received any questions. If you have any now or when you're done reading this post, feel free to send them to me. I'll be taking questions all the way until May of 2023, when the series should be wrapping up.

If you want to know more about the series, check out the announcement here or visit the installment masterlist here.

For this second installment, I'll be covering the first week post-op, what it was like, what changed, and so on. There will be progress pictures included.

Content Warning: There are photos under the cut showing incision sites from as early as a couple of days after surgery. If you're squeamish or triggered by blood, scars, wounds, bruises, or just a generally beat-up looking part of the body, I recommend skipping to a later installment.

If anyone is interested in reading my notes without looking at pictures, please let me know and I'll copy the commentary to a new post with the images excluded.

This installment should be the longest of the bunch, since it introduces so much starter information. If the length is overwhelming, fear not; the others won't be as big.

So to start, here's me after I got home! Very tired and sore

Sore Throat

The worst part of the first few days home after surgery was the sore throat from the breathing tube. The best remedy for this was drinking tea constantly. I kept a bit of a side-bar on my bed with a folded up blanket where I had my med basket and set up a hard surface to keep drinks on and this spot was occupied by a glass of hot tea about 90% of each day and night.

I know a lot of people prefer cold on a sore throat over hot but, looking it up, I found a couple places saying warm fluids are more helpful in the long run. I found this to be true. Ice cream felt amazing in the moment because the cold numbed the area, but the hot tea relaxed my throat and made the soreness go away longer.

Pain Levels

I was on oxycodone-acetaminophine for the rest of the pain and it worked pretty well. Everyone I told about this (3 others who had had top) was like, "Oh, they gave you the good stuff," and then went on to say that they hadn't used the pain meds as long as they were allowed to, which I did not understand.

My pain levels after surgery seemed to be a lot higher than those of my friends who had had top done. The original prescription of pain meds was enough to last about 3-4 days and they gave me a second prescription as well. All in all, I was on those meds for about a week and I was in misery when I had to go off of them the following Wednesday. If this ends up being your experience, ask your doctor if there's a pain medication halfway between opioid and over-the-counter that they can prescribe. Mine prescribed me a synthetic opioid called tramadol. I was too late to pick it up for it to be there when I needed it, which is why I wish I'd known to ask for this ahead of time.

My pain levels were manageable, but not pleasant, even on the pain meds. Aside from my throat, the worst pain was actually the drain exits, followed by the nipple bolsters, then the incisions. I'll get to these in more detail in a moment.

The Compression Binder

After surgery, you get wrapped up in a compression binder. I think there are other types of post-op binders, but mine is plain white with one vertical end lined in about 2 inches of velcro (so it's strong and won't come undone)

Most doctors insist you wear this for a month post-op, ~24-hours a day, but some say 2 weeks or 6 weeks. It depends on what doctor you go to. Mine wants me to wear mine 6 weeks. By the end of week 2, I was about 90% sure I was not going to do this, but now that my drains are out, I think I probably will. More on that in the 3-4 week installment.

The Drains

While there are some cutting edge top surgeons who will operate without using drains, they're still the default.

Post-op drains are basically rubber bulbs with a thin, squishy, rubber tub that runs in through the skin and into the surgery site to collect fluids. This is because your body is pissed that it's been fucked with in this particular manner and sends all kinds of water and shit to collect there, presumably in an effort to heal it faster (which it doesn't).

The content of the drains has to be measured daily, which is a pain in the ass but, ultimately, not a big deal. They give you a little sample cup with measuring marks on the sides.

To measure the fluid output, you just pop the top off the bulb (the container at the end of the drains) and pour it into the sample cup. After checking the amount on the side, you dump it into the toilet. Then you repeat with the other bulb and write down the output on a piece of paper.

My doctor said that when I got to less than 10cc of output from each in a 24 hour period, I could get the drains out.

First Follow-Up - 24 Hours

Brutal as it is to make someone leave the house just under 24 hours after surgery, the first follow-up was the next day.

This follow-up, as annoying as it was to leave for, was exciting because it meant getting to take the binder off for the first time. They had me come in and lie down on a long exam chair (think something like a dentist's chair) and undid the binder.

There was a bunch of gauze packed in it from right after surgery, which I was told I could remove. They also told me that, if I wanted to, I could put on a shirt under the binder to help pad things and create a barrier between my skin and the binder (which is kind of rough and unpleasant).

With the gauze removed, here's what it looked like (taken the next day)

About the Pain Sites

I'll call each area affected by the surgery a pain site and cover what each is and what sucks about it in order of most to least suckiness.

Drains

So, the first pain site is caused by the drains. Generally, the only painful part of them is the exit hole. The drain tube is really soft and flexible, so it's not much of a bother where it's sitting inside. In fact, you generally won't feel it at all unless you squeeze out the drain tubes and create a suction, which can kind of sting. The drains run along the bottom of each pec, near where the stitches/scar are. They run all the way back, under the arm, and exit through a separate hole there. You can see in the image above where it's hanging from the exit hole.

The drain exit gave me a bitch of a time. First off, try your best not to accidentally pull on it like I did. I was conscious of this the whole time I had them in but, a few days after surgery, I lifted my arm, not realizing it was under the tube, and pulled on it a bit. The reason this sucked is because, at the exit hole, there is a stitch tightly looped through the skin and around the drain tube to keep it from coming out. You can imagine how good that felt :)

For the first week, the drains got progressively more and more irritated because your body isn't really a fan of having a hole in it that's not allowed to heal.

The most important part of keeping the drains from being a (pretty literal) thorn in your side is to ensure they're kept pointed back so that they're not pulling on the exit in a different direction than they're running. I used bandaids and then medical tape to tape them down. That way, if the tube tried moving downward, it would pull on the tape and not the exit hole.

Nipple Bolsters

The next pain site is the nipple bolters. These are the thick bits of padding that are stitched onto the nipples to protect them. They're both kind of hard and have stitches running through them to the perimeter of the nipples.

These aren't too bad. The really irritating part of them was that, because they stick out further than everything else, they're the first thing to pull when the binder moves. So, if you twist your core, the binder will want to stay in place and your nipples want to move with the body, creating some drag. This will tug at the stitches and hurt, limiting your core movement.

The other annoying thing is that, again, because they stick out further than everything else, the pressure from the binder pushes them in pretty hard. I was worried this would leave my nipples indented or something but it doesn't.

Incisions

Finally, there are the incisions. These are actually the least troublesome part of healing for the first week. They're pretty numb.

These are stitched with dissolving stitches on the inside and taped shut on the outside. In the picture above, it's hard to see, but there's a clear tape about 2 inches wide going from one end of each incision to the other. This tape is very very strong. It's like a solid piece of adhesive with mesh running through it. There's no apparent backing to it so it's sticky and obnoxious and stays there for a couple weeks.

Near the end of the first week, I started to regain some feeling in the scar area, mostly in twinges. If I moved too far or used my chest muscles too much, I'd get these tight pains. Otherwise, they weren't really notable. I was much more focused on the drain exit pains, since the exits really ached.

Range of Motion

So I was told by most people that you can't lift your arms past your chest for like a month after surgery, and this wasn't the case for me.

I'm not sure if this is because my skin functions and stretches differently because of the probable EDS, or if it's something else. I was able to lift my right, upper arm to about 120 degrees. Adding in the fact that I've got a whole forearm attached to that, I had a lot more reach than I thought I would. The key is just stretching very slowly so that if you hit a limit you notice right away. My left arm was slightly more limited for some reason - possibly because the incision seems to go back farther on that side.

Within a couple days of surgery, I was even able to put regular shirts on and off. The key to this was that the shirts I was putting on were either stretchy or a bit oversized, so they made up for what my range of motion lacked.

Movement

Another thing I wasn't sure what to expect on was how much I'd be able to move. It turned out, I could move quite a bit. It was the little movements that you can't really avoid that caused discomfort or twinges of pain. Getting out of bed and going to the bathroom and whatnot was no big deal as long as I didn't like, yeet myself out of bed.

Keeping a hand pressed to my chest for stability was helpful as well. The biggest thing is just making slow motions. Large motions that jostle things around is what leads to pain.

Binder Management

I had a bit of a hard time with the binder as someone with a belly and with asthma, so here's what I took from that.

Tightness and Position

For the first week, I don't think I had the binder tight enough. This was fine, generally, because the nipple bolsters prevented the chafing from causing any actual damage (even if it was uncomfortable).

I thought I had it tight enough because it felt snug, but I later realized that making it even tighter prevented some of the binder movement and chafing that was causing me trouble with my drain exits and bolsters. Part of the reason I didn't put it tighter was because of the size and position of it. I experimented with this a lot and have got some great advice for you.

The experimenting I did with the binder mostly had to do with folding it in different ways. The trouble with wearing something that goes down your torso when you have a belly is that your belly is pushing upwards on it. So, any time I sat up, it was pushing upwards on my chest and trying to move things that I didn't want moved.

The kind of binder I was given is made up of 4 panels that are sewn together. You can see what I mean in the first picture. These panels are sewn together with a lot of thread, but the thread is kind of weak, so it can easily be bent at those areas.

Folding one of the panels up made my shape less of an issue. However, there was still enough of the binder overlapping my stomach to cause discomfort when sitting. So, next I folded it in half. Trying to fold it in half upward was kind of difficult and would have ended up with the open side of the fold toward my face, which seemed irritating. Instead, I figured out how to fold it in half downward, before putting it on, overlapping the sides to secure it, then pulling up the top layer of the non-velcro side before securing the velcro.

I'm not going to try explaining that better because, in the end, it doesn't matter. The better method was, after okaying it with my doctor, cutting the entire thing in half the long way. Now I have, basically, two binders that are both only wide enough to cover my chest instead of chest and stomach. I also cut about 6 inches off the non-velcro end because it was a bit too long to secure tight enough with ease.

With a more narrow binder that covers just my chest, and a bit shorter so that I can easily secure it much tighter, I now have less chafing and less interference from other body parts.

The important thing when gauging tightness is to make sure you can easily fit a hand under it. If you can pull it out a bit, that's also good, as it means more expansion for your lungs and also the ability to adjust it while you're wearing it.

Asthma

So, my asthma is triggered by all kinds of stuff, including pressure on my chest and lying on my back. So, wearing a binder and lying on my back 24/7 after surgery was really great! :)

I was coughing almost nonstop for the first few days, both from asthma and from the sore throat. If you have asthma or have had asthma in the past, and don't have an inhaler, get one before you have surgery. If anything is going to bring it back up again, this is probably it.

If you don't think you have asthma, I would like to inform you that asthma is not the way it's portrayed dramatically in TV. Your throat doesn't just close off like you're going into anaphylaxis.

These are symptoms of regular asthma:

Wheezing or crackling sounds when breathing (most common after physical exertion or breathing outside in the cold) These will not be noticeable if you're breathing more shallowly, which you will naturally do if you start to have asthma. To check for wheezing, take a deep breath and exhale forcefully.

Difficulty taking a deep breath without coughing

Pain in your chest when you try taking a deep breath

Difficulty breathing in cold air

Continued cough that you can't think of another cause for

Phlegm (this is made by your lungs to try and catch whatever triggered the asthma)

Stuffed up nose in combination with cough (I don't know if this is for everyone, but when I have asthma, one of the first signs to me is that my nose is hard to breathe through. I'll exhale hard to see if I'm wheezy and find I've been having asthma without realizing it.)

If you experience these things, talk to your PCP before surgery. Getting an inhaler is usually covered by insurance, including medicaid, and will be your best friend if you start having asthma attacks after surgery.

Specifically because of the amount of asthma I had the first few days after surgery, I think it might have been better that I didn't have the binder on tighter than I did. As time passed, the pressure from the binder and the lying on my back caused less asthma. I think part of the reason it was triggering it before was some kind of subconscious panic response from my lungs because the position and sensation were unfamiliar and my lungs thought something was terribly wrong. After the asthma stopped being so persistent from the pressure and position, tightening the binder a bit didn't pose a problem.

My biggest advice is this: make sure you breathe deliberately every once in a while. Every ten minutes or so, take a nice slow, deep breath. If the pressure from the binder is inhibiting your breathing, this will help keep your oxygen levels up. After the first couple days of trying to remind yourself to do this, you'll just start to remember naturally to pay some amount of attention to whether you're breathing enough.

Shirt Under Binder

After the first follow-up, I was told I'm allowed to take my binder off for repositioning or cloth-baths. The first thing I did when I got home was take it off, use alcohol prep pads to try getting rid of some of the sticky shit surrounding the incision tape (not the tape itself), and put on a tank top under the binder.

Putting on a shirt under the binder is like, so necessary imo. The binder I got is kind of a scratchy material, so having it directly on my skin was crap. Plus, I wanted another layer between the binder and my chest and nipple bolsters after the gauze bandaging was no longer there so that there was something for the binder to slide against without directly rubbing against the surgical site.

I chose to use some shirts that weren't my most favorite, in case they got blood or adhesive on them that wouldn't come out. I don't think there was any blood on them, but they did get sticky with adhesive. I don't think any of that stayed on after going through the wash though.

When the fabric gets sticky after a day or so of being shoved up against the sticky incision tape, it loses that additional movement it was adding. So instead of moving slightly when the binder rubs against it, the friction would cause the fabric to pull at the skin where it was stuck. That was my signal for changing my shirt.

Food and Drink

If you don't have a personal assistant who's going to cook for you and bring you things, you need to prep for what you'll eat ahead of time.

Accessible Foods

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to plan ahead with accessible foods. Have a variety of snacks, both sweet and salty, wet and dry, so that when you need something to eat and don't have the energy to put different things together, you have something appealing on hand. Keep them within reach of your bed.

If you have a shelf or table, put it beside your bed where it won't make getting up difficult. If you've got a large bed you're not sharing, consider making some kind of spot on a wall-adjacent side to set things. I did this by folding up a big blanket so it's about 1x4 feet and a few inches thick and laid it against the wall next to me. This gave me somewhere to set my meds basket, a couple snack containers, and a hard surface for setting drinks. (Just be careful if you intend to set open drinks here. Spilling something in bed after surgery is like, one of those things that would straight up give me a breakdown lmao)

Prepare foods ahead of time. I picked all the meat off of some rotisserie chickens as well as cleaned and sliced a ton of strawberries. The chicken I ate in tortillas with some shredded cheese and tomatoes. That was one of my favorite meals in the first week because it could be prepped in about ten minutes, sitting at the desk, and it didn't make any mess to eat in bed.

Other considerations are frozen meals, ice cream, fruit drinks with some amount of natural sugar to keep your blood sugar up when you don't feel like eating, and things you can eat on crackers, like tuna. Tuna Creations pouches are great for this.

Fluids

As far as fluids go, I recommend keeping a water bottle with you and just chugging that shit as often as you can. If you don't have a personal servant fetching you things, 100% keep some kind of big water vessels with you for refilling.

I like tropicana bottles because they have a wide opening so don't Glug when you pour from them. They're almost 2 liters. If you're going to get some juice to drink beforehand and harvest the bottles from as makeshift pitchers, I recommend going with orange juice. For some reason the taste doesn't get into the plastic as much as something like the strawberry peach juice. Just wash it with hot water after you're done and keep the bottle aside for later. Remember to keep the lid off if you plan to have it sitting in wait so it can dry and doesn't grow bacteria.

Keeping some large bottles of water nearby means not having to get up as much and, if you live with stairs, not having to go downstairs as much. Frankly, if you're disabled, highly recommend just keeping these around regardless of if you're recovering from surgery or not. I have a mini fridge, so I also have the added perk of keeping them cold.

Next up, hot tea. 100% if you enjoy any kind of tea at all, keep it around. I had a box of sleepytime tea (which I just drink because it's a good blend) and I used the entire thing in like 5 days. Tea for the first few days is a life saver because of the sore throat. Personally, I have an electric kettle that I keep in my room, so making tea is really easy. If you've got an electric kettle in your kitchen, move it to your nesting area and bring a bunch of hotcups or mugs with you.

If you don't have a microwave or kettle near where you'll be nesting after surgery, I recommend changing that, but I know not everyone has the money to throw down on new appliances.

If you live alone and have a free-standing microwave in your kitchen, it might be worth moving closer temporarily if you have things near your nest to heat up, like canned soup. This is especially true if you have a mini fridge near your nest. This is more likely to be helpful if you live on a different floor from the kitchen and have a mini fridge. If you're on the same floor and don't have a mini fridge (thus, keeping all of your cold food in the kitchen anyway), it's more likely to just make more work.

Fighting Constipation

Anesthesia causes constipation. Pretty sure opioid pain meds also cause constipation, but could be wrong. Either way, after surgery, your body will not want to shit.

If you don't enjoy putting chalk stool softener in your drinks, I highly recommend having some fruit prepared and some coffee on hand.

I know it's not a universal thing, but I'm one of those people who coffee makes shit. If you are too, keep some on hand and start drinking it in the days following surgery. Be sure to drink lots of other water to offset the diuretic effect of coffee.

As far as fruit, everyone works differently but, for me, a bunch of apples worked pretty well. I know it's probably not like, the most healthy choice, but I found out a week or two before surgery that eating a bunch of apples in one sitting would definitely get the desired outcome, somehow with no stomachache, which is a rarity for someone with my digestive issues. I thought they would give me a stomachache because apple juice does, but empire apples and caramel dip did nothing but move everything along. I'm talkin' 4 apples in one sitting.

It sounds like a lot but if you slice them all up and eat them as a meal, it's not as much as it sounds. For anyone smaller than me, I'd recommend more like 3, since 4 was pretty filling for me. Stool softening powder can kiss my ass, basically.

Healing Progress

Finally, now that I've gone through all of the details, here are a couple photos of the healing progress about 6 days after surgery, one from each side:

The tape is more visible in these two because it's got some remnants of kleenex stuck to it that I used to try preventing my shirt from sticking to it (yum, I know).

And a selfie of me where I am very happy to be flat (but still tired asf)

Conclusion

I think that's about all I can think of for week 1. Let me know if you have any questions!

Here's another link to the installment list if you want to see what else there is but don't want to scroll back up. Follow me or the #ghostsurgeryseries tag to keep up-to-date on the next installments! the 2-week progress installment should be done soonish~

#ftm #ftm top surgery #top surgery #trans #transgender #queer #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbt+#lgbtq+#surgery #q&a #transman #transmasc #ghostsurgeryseries

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feverinfeveroutfic · 4 years ago

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chapter fourteen: venus as a boy

“he's exploring the taste of her arousal so accurate he sets off the beauty in her he's venus, venus as a boy.” -”venus as a boy”, bjork

Sam locked the front door with one hand and Cliff lingered next to her. He had offered to hold her binder for her but she insisted that she could handle it: he adjusted the hat upon his head as well as his big black sunglasses. She slung a big heavy black canvas courier bag over her shoulder: she had loaded it full with her art supplies before she turned into bed the night before.

“Never seen that before,” he noted as they headed down the stairs in unison.

“What, this bag?” she asked him.

“Yeah. It looks new.”

“I got it before I moved here,” she explained. “I'm always in need of something for my artistry. I have to give this its moment in the sun at some point, too.”

Cliff reached the bottom of the stairs first and he awaited her as she followed suit right behind him.

“So art history first thing,” he remarked as he held the front door for her.

“First thing in the morning, baby,” she added as she adjusted her sunglasses before they stepped outside to the late summer early morning sun. It was a cool crisp day there in the Bronx, but one that didn't call for a sweater or anything to protect them from the bitter New York cold. However, Sam could feel it in her bones as they made their way over to the subway terminal.

Typical Monday morning in the heart of the Bronx: the train was chock full of passengers, but Cliff was willing to keep the space for them in the car closest to the front. He held onto the brim of his hat before he bowed inside behind her. She held onto the pole with her free hand and he held onto the rung over his head.

The train swayed underneath them, and such that Cliff almost lost his balance at one point. He caught himself on the pole at one point.

“If I fall asleep standing up, I want you to slap me across the face,” he said to her as he gave his soft hair a toss back with a flick of his head.

“I'm not gonna slap you,” she scoffed at the suggestion.

“But I want you to slap me, though.”

“Slap him, girlfriend,” a little old lady next to them chimed in, and they both laughed out at that.

It took them a full hour to reach the school; once they stepped inside of the front atrium, Sam took her schedule out of her jeans pocket for a check of the room number.

“This way, Cliff—” She gestured to their left, where they were met with a corridor with a smooth black and white checkered floor and a series of classrooms along the right side, right across from a long row of bay windows. If there was stained glass in lieu of the regular panes and if the ceiling rose up a bit higher, Sam imagined that wing of the school resembling to a church corridor.

He walked by her side down the corridor to her first class of the day. The heavy soles of his pointed toe boots pattered on the hard linoleum: even though a small crowd of people were in the hallway with them as well, she could hear his boots loud and clear, like a pair of Clydesdale hooves on the hard floor underneath them.

Her art history class stood at the far end, and she was taken aback by the door standing wide open to welcome her in for the first morning. She stood in the doorway with her binder pressed close to her chest: Cliff lingered behind her as they scanned the room before them.

Eight rows of long heavy wooden tables spread over the floor in front of them: most of them were empty, except for the one closest to the front of the room. A blonde girl wrapped in a Ramones shirt sat near the front: she kept her head bowed so her smooth golden blonde curls blanketed her face from view, even as Sam strode into the room and took a seat two away from her, right down in center so she could make eye contact with whoever taught the class.

“What do you think the teacher's gonna look like?” Cliff asked her in a low voice.

“No idea,” she confessed as she took a glimpse down at her schedule again. She didn't recognize the last name, but she did recognize him once he stepped into the room with a binder and some papers tucked under his arm.

“Oh, hi, Bill,” she said in a soft voice.

“Miss Shelley!” he declared with a twinkle in his eye. “I wasn't expecting to see you right now.”

“I wasn't expecting to see you, either.” He set his things down on the table right in front of her. He lifted his gaze to Cliff, who stood right behind her, complete with his long smooth hair over his shoulders and his wide brimmed hat upon the crown of his head.

“I like that hat,” Bill told him with a gesture around his own head.

“That's like his signature look,” Sam pointed out; she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, the blonde girl next to her lifting her attention from her book. Cliff stood out like a radio tower, even with no one else in there.

“I feel like a cowboy if I'm being perfectly frank,” Cliff declared.

“Cowboy on his horse to help out his lady,” the blonde girl interjected, and Sam laughed out loud at that.

“I don't have a horse, though,” Cliff replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Bill turned his attention to the papers before him.

“Belinda Grimes, right?” he asked her, and she nodded her head at him. Sam eyed her smooth soft looking skin and it made her think of a doll. Her eyes lit up with a soft bright blue and her smooth lips made her think of ripe apples. Her fingers crept over the cover of her book, and Sam spotted a silver ring on her right index finger and a turquoise one on her pinky. She also wore a pendant in the shape of a king cobra around her neck.

“Oh, hey, Marla,” Cliff spoke out of the blue. Sam looked past him and she recognized Marla's head of rich violet hair. Her face lit up at the sight of them right there.

“Hey, you two!” she greeted them; she turned her attention to Belinda two seats away from Sam. “And Bel!”

“You guys know each other?” Belinda gestured to Sam and Cliff as Marla stood before that middle seat and kept her hands upon the top of the chair.

“We know each other like you would a bunch of other friends,” she replied, and she gave her violet hair a flick back. Sam noticed the dark circles under her eyes even with her head pointed away from her.

“Sam, this is my friend Belinda,” Marla introduced her, “or Bel, as I like to call her. She lived down the street from me in Hell's Kitchen for a long time.”

“I like your shirt,” Sam told her.

“Thank you—they're probably my favorite band.” Belinda showed her a shy little smile and a soft warm blush crossed her face.

“Sam hung out with Stormtroopers of Death all summer long,” Marla told her. “You know, Charlie's little punky side project. She's even got some credits with them.”

“Wow, I'm jealous,” Belinda said as she tucked a curled lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

“It's been interesting,” Sam remarked, “hanging with Stormtroopers and also Anthrax. And this big guy right here.”

“Cliff, right?” Belinda asked him.

“Cliff from—” He held out a hand as if to lead her along.

“Hell's Kitchen,” Bill echoed Marla, and the four of them burst out laughing. “And by the way, Sam?”

She raised her eyebrows at him.

“I need to talk to you about your being from out of state at some point today.”

“Okay,” she followed along, even though it didn't really make any sense to her because she believed she had figured it out before school even started.

“She gets special treatment?” Cliff asked him with a smirk on his face. A couple more people walked into the room right behind him.

“Somewhat.”

Sam peered over her shoulder to the handful of people in the two rows behind them. Bill took a glimpse down at his wristwatch.

“We're almost about to start,” he informed them.

“Kind of a small class,” said Sam.

“It surprises me, too,” Bill added in a low voice; Marla took a seat next to her and gave her violet hair another toss back from the side of her neck.

“I'll catch you later, Sam,” Cliff whispered into her ear before he stepped back out to the hallway.

Even though that first day of class was only twenty minutes long in comparison to its hour length, Sam wondered what Bill wanted to talk to her about at some point. He handed out copies of their syllabus within time. A study of art from the early part of the Millennium and all the way through to the Middle East and Central America, and Sam would have to find a textbook for herself at some point that week.

“No Renaissance art?” Marla asked him at one point as he walked them through it.

“That's with the second level of history,” he explained, and Marla turned to Sam.

“I envy you,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Why not take it for the winter?” Sam suggested to her with a shrug of her shoulders.

“I'd have too full of a schedule for the winter,” Marla explained. “It's already pretty loaded at the moment.”

Sam tucked the orange sheet of paper into her binder: at some point, she would have to find some page protectors for all the important things such as that. He dismissed that small class, and thus she figured to get it out of the way. Sam stood up and leaned towards him.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” she asked him over Marla and Belinda talking to each other.

“Oh! Because you're from out of state, and well out of state to boot, there's a special scholarship for you. I'm thinking it can help you out at some point because—the more money you have, the merrier.”

“I see.” She paused and she rested her hands on her hips. “How do I get it?”

“You have to finish out your first year here at school,” he started, “and then—when you fill out the credits needed, come back to me and I'll walk you right through it. I just wanted to tell you because you're one of thirteen students I'm counseling right now who hails from California.”

“Oh, I see! I'll have to write that down when I get a chance. Thank you, Bill.”

She picked up her binder and let Marla and Belinda through first. The former turned her attention to Sam.

“What's your next class, drawing?”

“Yes! That big three hour beast of a class.”

“The two of us, too!” Belinda said as she adjusted the straps of her book bag.

“Belinda aided that class last summer,” Marla explained. “Apparently, it's in a brand new room, so she knows the way better than I do.”

Belinda led the two of them out to the corridor and towards the front door yet again: there was another corridor in front of them, and Sam made out the sight of stained glass windows that hung within those big bay windows. She and Marla stopped in place so they could look on at a round window suspended within their line of sight. It was about the size of a truck wheel and the royal blue glass shone in the morning sunlight, and Sam let her eyes wander along the shape of the trio of orange koi fish in between seaweed. The solders on the joints were a soft silver and as smooth as butter.

“That's freaking beautiful,” Marla blurted out.

“It's stunning,” Sam added; she pictured herself making a window for Anthrax's rehearsal space.

“Oh, yeah, glass class,” Belinda said as she doubled back to them. “One of the classes I aided over the summer. That was a lot of fun to oversee, lemme tell you guys. All those physical arts are a baggle of fun, come to think of it.” She pointed to a bright green one that hung two windows away from them. “I like this one.”

“Oh, yeah!” Sam agreed with her as she lay eyes on the emerald green glass that surrounded the side portrait of a woman. She eyed the lush leaves that surrounded her, as well as the flowers in her hair. She thought back to that side drawing she made of Joey to get into the school, and she pictured it being brought to life with stained glass. The side of his face brought out from an art journal to an elaborate stained glass window, suspended in the school hallway, felt like something straight out of a dream given there was a lot about it to learn in the future.

Belinda then guided them further down the hall until they reached the end of the windows and a lefthand corner. The hallway ended in a vast room down below the floor: if Sam didn't know better, she swore it was a laboratory, except the dozen metal tables down on the floor were arranged in a circle. They descended the stairs and she could make out the sight of all the shelves that lined the walls: shelves crammed full of boxes, all of which were filled with things that ranged from soldering irons and pliers to pieces of paper, packets of glitter, and seemingly brand new bottles of glue. Once they reached the base of the stairs, a blast of cool air greeted them and Sam shivered at the sensation given it wasn't that cold out that morning.

“This was my sanctuary for the summer,” Belinda told them as she led them towards the other side of the room, where a heavy wooden desk stood near the wall and an older woman wrapped in a light purple shawl leaned over a little wooden podium with a pencil in her hand. Sam eyed her short salt and pepper flyaway hair and she thought of that boy Alex and that tiny sliver over his forehead.

“This almost looks like a machine shop,” said Marla. “More that than an art room.”

“This was the machine shop for a long time,” the woman replied in a scratchy voice once they came within earshot. She lifted her gaze to the three girls as they took their seats in front of her. “Oh, hi, Belinda.”

“Hi, Miss Estes—I'm just not gonna leave this room,” she joked as she set her things down on the table before her.

“That's the physical arts,” she replied with a sly smirk. “It demands the hands and the body in a way that simply drawing can't do.”

“So is this straight up drawing?” Sam asked Miss Estes.

“Yes, it is. I also teach the stained glass kids and also ceramics. Marla knows a thing or two about ceramics.”

“It's so much fun,” Marla told Sam. “You should take it in the next couple of terms, or at some point. You'll love it, Sam. I promise.”

“Let's see—Marla Taylor and Belinda Grimes are both here—and what's your name?” Miss Estes pointed a pencil at her.

“Sam. Sam Shelley.”

“Samantha Shelley,” Miss Estes clarified as she scribbled something down.

“The Seashell,” Belinda said. “I couldn't resist that.”

“No, I like that,” Sam told her with a chuckle. “I'm kinda surprised no one ever took that opportunity and threw that out at me.”

“We get to draw a naked person starting next week,” Miss Estes told them.

“Oh, boy,” Marla quipped.

“Don't get too excited, Marla—it's going to be a woman.”

“Even better,” she joked, and Sam and Belinda laughed at that.

Within time, more people filled out the subterranean classroom and they were given yet another syllabus. She had the pencils and the erasers and everything she already needed, but one thing Sam didn't have was a large pad of paper to do that sort of lifelike drawing.

Lunch break followed by one more class, which she took without Marla and Belinda there next to her. She would have to go at the whole endeavor of academic writing solo, and she made a note to find that small textbook in question. It wasn't needed, but she knew she would have to get it to understand what was even happening during class time. By the middle of the afternoon, she returned back outside to the bright sunlight. At that point, the fatigue from driving the night before combined with a full day of school began to sink over her. All she wanted was to climb aboard the next subway and head on back up to the Bronx: she could worry about the textbooks and the pad of paper the next day on her time off.

But Cliff awaited her there at the front step.

“Hey,” she greeted him, taken aback by the sight of him.

“Hey,” he returned the favor: the sun shone down on the brim of his hat which in turn cast a shadow over his handsome face.

“Wasn't expecting to see you here,” she confessed as she made her way down the steps. She turned her head to find Marla at the far end of the sidewalk: she climbed into Charlie's car and they drove away without a moment's hesitation.

“When I was looking at your schedule last night, I saw the release times,” he said with a shrug. “I decided to hang out around this neighborhood and when the time came, I decided to come and join you back home.”

“Oh, I see. Hey, at least you're not some random guy from the street telling me that.”

“Exactly!”

“I gotta get a couple of textbooks plus a big drawing pad for my drawing class,” she told him as they began down the sidewalk to the subway side by side. “I have tomorrow off, though, so I'll do it then. I just wanna go back to my place and chill for a bit.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” he added, “you look tired.”

“All that driving last night, plus all that time on tour with Stormtroopers. I'm just gonna relish my down time, you know?”

“Oh, yeah. We always do. It's all fun and games until you're absolutely beat...” His voice trailed off, and Sam recognized the metal fence that surrounded the entrance to the terminal.

“While I was walking out of the school,” he started, but then he stopped right in his tracks. Sam turned her head towards him.

“While you were walking out of the school?”

“I'm thinking I'm going to be a model for your drawing class,” he confessed to her. “I decided to sign up for it.”

“You ought to!” she said. “It'd be a nice li'l change of pace for you while you're staying here for the time being.”

A woman on a bike rode past them and she waved at Sam, and it took her a moment to realize that was Belinda under the sparkling blue helmet.

“Oh, hey!” she called after her. “See you Wednesday!”

Belinda flashed her a thumbs up before she pedaled away from them.

“Who was that, mind me asking?” Cliff turned his attention to Sam.

“Belinda—longtime friend to Marla. Literally, another girl from Hell's Kitchen. She's like a lighter version of Zelda in that she's kinda tomboyish. She strikes me as being a little more girlish, though, you know, she's not so brutish.”

“All the 'ish' in that sentence,” Cliff cracked as they reached the steps.

Another hour ride home up to the Bronx and Sam was quick to collapse on the couch.

“It was a good day, though,” she pointed out as Cliff shut the front door behind him. “The three of us saw a bunch of these stained glass windows in the hall on the way to our drawing class. You should've seen these, Cliff—there was this round blue one with koi fish in it. Just the way the sun shone on it... it was unreal. And then Belinda showed us this big beautiful green one. It's such a big lush world.”

He was silent and she lifted her head to see where he had gone to. She rolled her head over the cushion and let her eyes wander to the vase of yellow tulips before her.

“Cliff?” she called out. Sam sat upright and swung her legs over the edge of the cushion. He had disappeared. She glanced behind her to the kitchen and there he was without his hat.

Cliff stripped off his shirt and exposed his smooth chest at first. He let the sleeves fall down his arms towards his hands.

“What're you doing?” she demanded with a chuckle.

“Practicing for a pose in front of your class.” Sam then burst out laughing, and she rounded the corner just in time for him to drop his pants to the linoleum.

“I just realized something,” she said.

“What's that?”

“You—You're going to pose right in front of me,” she sputtered.

“Right in front of you, really?” he laughed at that.

“Yeah, I'm sitting close to the middle of the room,” she explained, “well, we're all sitting in the middle of the room, so no matter where we sit, you're gonna be right in front of me when it happens.”

“Want me to shake my hips while I'm doing it, too?”

“If you want. I'm probably gonna get a faceful of ass for the first lifelike drawing so if and when you do that—you pose for us—it'll be up to you as to what you wanna do for that day. Or maybe Miss Estes will have another suggestion for the day, I dunno.”

He ran his fingers through his soft hair and she glanced over his long and lanky body. Nice sinewy long legs and shapely hips, slim in the waist and deep in the chest, and strong in the arms. Like a statue of Venus that stood before her.

For a split second, she imagined Joey doing the exact same thing for her.

He dropped his underwear and she raised her eyebrows at what she saw before her.

“Sit tight, I'm gonna get my journal,” she told him with a raise of her finger. “I'm just gonna get in the mood for that right now with you—like this already. Getting in the mood for a lifelike drawing of Cliff before it even happens.”

She headed out of the kitchen when a knock on the door caught her attention. She opened the door and recognized that helmet of lush dark hair about his head and that smile full of star's teeth.

“Oh, hi, Frankie!” she greeted him, and she lowered her gaze to the stack of papers in his left hand.

“I checked the mail yesterday,” he explained, “but since you weren't able to get home until late last night—and you also had school this morning—I haven't been able to give you this. It wound up in my mailbox by accident.” He handed her a red envelope, which made her think of the red envelope from Legacy the night before.

“Oh, I got something like this just last night when we got home,” she replied as she took the envelope for a look herself.

“I guess it's something else, though,” Frank answered with a shrug of his shoulders. Sam turned it over and opened the flap to find a series of photographs inside, plus a sheet of paper.

“Oh, yeah, this is something totally different,” she told him. “Thank you, Frankie.”

“My pleasure!” He lifted his gaze to the room behind her. “Hey, Cliff—” And he began laughing. Sam turned around to find him reaching for the vase of tulips. Cliff held it before his thighs to protect himself from view.

“It's not what it looks like,” he told Frank.

“Sure about that?” he joked.

“Positive,” Sam assured him as she shut the door. She turned back to him. “What're you doing?”

“I was just gonna ask you if you had any clean towels or a bathrobe,” he answered, nonplussed despite his holding a vase of yellow tulips before him.

“I have towels,” she told him as she set the red envelope down on the coffee table. “Just—sit tight, and I'll get it for you. I promise.”

She headed into the bathroom for a clean dark red towel for him, and she returned to find him looking at a something about the size of a postage stamp. He showed it to her and she recognized the face inside.

“That boy, Alex?” she asked him.

“Yeah, you can see his stripe in there,” Cliff explained with a tap of his finger. “I remember types of pictures like this from a few years ago—it's actually a place holder photo for a new fan club. But look at this boy, though. Look at this handsome little devil.”

Sam traded him the photograph for the towel and he put it around his waist before he headed into the safety of the kitchen.

Meanwhile, she took a glimpse down at the envelope and then she held the photo closer to her chest for a moment. Handsome little devil indeed. Those deep eyes stared back at her, as if he coaxed her closer to her. That little pearl of white against a head of black.

But she would have to delve through it at a later point. She had a man to draw for herself.

#chapter 14 #fanfic #fanfiction #metallica fanfic #cliff burton #fever in fever out #fever in fever out fanfic #ocs #oc tag #deadly nightshade #book two #artistry #art school #also on ao3 #writing #text

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ahnsael · 4 years ago

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Last night I got to work and found a stack of printed emails in my cubbyhole. They were from Audit, about all the errors on our Progressive Log while I was out sick (we have to log the jackpot levels daily so that if, for some reason, a machine malfunctions and loses the progressive amount that it was at, we know where to set the amount to when we fix the problem).

One was the other grave manager with whom I’ve been working for several months, and we all make mistakes now and then so I’ll show it to her, but I won’t harp on it.

But then there were several dozen other mistakes made by the one who got caught drinking on the job. And, honestly, “drinking on the job” is the only plausible explanation I can think of for some of these.

For example, we have a game called Fortune Charm. The amount of the progressive jackpots depends on how much a player is betting -- for example, a bet of 60¢ has a top jackpot with a base level of $100 (just as an example -- I don’t remember that bet level’s starting point off the top of my head since we don’t log that). But at a $3 bet, the lowest it can be is $500. We log it at the top bet level, because they are connected. If someone wins $600 on a $3 bet, then not only does the jackpot at $3 drop down to $500, but at the 60¢ bet it drops back down to $100 -- higher bet levels have jackpots that are a specific amount higher than at lower bet levels, and they all go up at the same time and by the same amount (the only exception is a game called Big Five Safari, where each bet level has jackpots that are independent of other bet levels -- if someone wins a jackpot betting $3.75, the 75¢ jackpot doesn’t reset to the base, so we have to log the jackpots at every bet level).

This manager logged the top two levels of jackpots correctly -- and then for the two lower jackpots, wrote them down at the 60¢ bet level. Like...there’s a screen in the game menus that shows the jackpots at each bet level and they correctly wrote the first to from the chart, then switched from writing the number on the bottom row (the one we need) to writing numbers from the top row of the chart. Like, how does one even do that? (Oh, yeah...because they were drunk at work).

I had to research a BUNCH of things like this to try to divine what the progressives were that day, when I was home sick at the time. And there’s one week of the log that wasn’t even saved on the computer, so I have no way of knowing what may have happened.

On top of that, Audit claimed things that weren’t true. For example, “Why is there no entry for this particular machine on this particular day?” and I would look at our copy of the log on the computer, and there is an entry there. There were three things like that where Audit said there was something wrong on a particular day, but it looked right to me (they said a jackpot dropped by $1,000, and another by $1,408, with no explanation of a jackpot being hit).

So my best guess is that for this week, they printed a new copy of the log without changing the dates to the new week, and there are two different logs with the same dates on them. Because the one I WAS able to find an answer to for that week was exactly one week after the dates in the email, when a jackpot was hit and, despite CLEAR instructions on the front of the binder (not only to do this, but explaining EXACTLY what info needs to be there), nobody bothered to note the jackpot being hit.

It was a VERY frustrating hour and a half trying to research things that happened when I wasn’t there, and I’m going to have to sit this manager down the next time I work with them and show them the emails, and then show them the stack of incident reports I had to write to explain how they messed up. There would be several more reports if I had been able to access the missing week’s paperwork.

#work things #when it comes to casinos a paper trail is EVERYTHING #if someone cannot keep a legible and accurate paper trail they may be in the wrong business

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mydarlingvioletine · 6 years ago

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Just a Puppy Crush - Chapter 2

Ship(s): Violet/Clementine, some background Ruby/Aasim

Media: The Walking Dead Game (Season 4)

The rest of her classes had gone by relatively quick. It was Friday, after all. Nobody was all that interested in doing their work.

Violet's lunch period was the only one where time went slow, as she took her tray out to the courtyard and sat down between Aasim and Louis.

“Where’s Clem?” Louis asked, mouth grossly full. He looked towards Violet, who shrugged, and looked across him to see a disgusted Ruby.

“You can’t even close your mouth long enough to eat, huh?” Ruby chided, jabbing her chopsticks towards Louis for emphasis, before shoving a bunch of noodles into her mouth. Louis rolled his eyes, then started chewing as loudly as he could.

Ruby huffed and crossed her arms before turning her attention towards Violet. "Welp, I'm just gonna have to cross my fingers that he's got his manners with him at Clem's little hootenanny."

Violet looked up from the soupy school mashed potatoes she had been poking with her fork. "You're not going?"

Ruby shook her head, cheeks full of noodles. She lightly kicked Aasim's leg under the table, and he jerked his head up from his book, angry until he saw it was Ruby. She gestured towards the food in her mouth and pulled the invitation out of her pocket.

"Ohhh, Rube has a mandatory shift at the hospital she's volunteering at," Aasim droned, his eyes immediately darting back to the book he was into. "I'm pretty sure Brody's going, though."

"That makes four." Violet noted, taking a bite of her sandwich. "It'll be nice to 3v1 your asses at Smash." She said, with a smug tone, watching Louis gasp out of the corner of her eye.

"Some harsh words from a King K. Rool main," Louis muttered under his breath, loud enough for her to hear. Violet angrily chewed, keeping eye contact with Louis before swallowing and raising her middle finger.

"I bet you're wondering why I'm not going," Marlon spoke up from the end of the table, causing Violet to roll her eyes instinctively. "Well, I was invited, but I'm not gonna be there because of her little terror of a brother."

"Are you openly admitting to being afraid of a tot?" Louis chuckled, putting down his tray to cradle his chin and look at Marlon try to defend himself.

"That kid's a fucking demon, man." Marlon's voice rose, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes in recollection. “We ump their game for free, and he was killing it so I went up to tell him how good he was doing and kid fucking elbows me in the nuts.”

The lunch table erupted into laughter as Marlon pouted and sulked. “Wasn’t funny. Kid didn’t even apologize, just ran off.”

“I like this kid already.” Violet mused, before dumping her tray into the garbage and throwing her backpack over the shoulder. Louis was trying his best not to laugh, and was failing miserably, doubled over and wheezing. “Gotta motor. See you guys later.”

Violet lazily threw her backpack down as soon as she slammed the front door to her trailer behind her. With a groan, she flopped down onto her mattress and covered her face with her hands.

After a couple minutes of quietly sulking, she flipped onto her side, eyes landing on her worn, raggedy old bunny plush. She swiftly reached out and grabbed it, holding it to her chest while she mulled over her thoughts.

Why did I say I'd go? What was I thinking?

Clementine's eyes, crinkled upwards at the ends while she was smiling at her, filled her mind. How soft and low her voice had gotten when Violet showed hesitation about going. The feeling of her hand tight around hers, with pleading puppy-dog eyes that almost rivaled Louis' when he needed to copy notes.

Violet sighed, before setting the plush back down on it's established spot on her pillow.

"Thumper, I think I'm fucked." Violet whispered to herself, tracing her fingers across the rugged toy she held so close to her heart.

It was a gift from her grandmother. Her first stuffed animal, a comfort object that brought her warmth and comfort while her mother was absent. In some old photo album, there was a picture of her cradling it as a baby, even bigger than her at the time.

It was the only constant in her life. The only thing that stayed. She couldn’t imagine sleeping without it in her arms.

Her reminiscing was cut off by her phone vibrating noisily on the floor. Irritated, she looked down at it and scooped it up in her hands.

Incoming FaceTime from Pain in My Ass.

Violet rolled her eyes before picking up the call, immediately getting a look at Louis with a bright green, chunky face mask on.

“Holy shit, Shrek?” Violet snorted, earning a glare and a middle finger from Louis. “Whats up?”

Louis rolled his eyes before pulling his hair back into a bulky ponytail. “You never did let me copy your English work. There’s an extension though, so gimme.”

Violet huffed before pulling her backpack onto her mattress, and dug through her belongings. She hauled her English binder out and started rummaging through it. “Found it.”

She tried her best to focus the camera on the sheet, failing miserably as her hands couldn’t stop shaking. “Shit, I’ll just text it to you.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m on my way over.” Before Violet could process anything, the call cut off and she just now noticed the mess all around her.

She’d been trying to find any socially acceptable pair of pajamas for the party, but her wardrobe mostly consisted of torn old tee shirts that were too stain-ridden to incorporate into her actual clothes.

Violet quickly made up her mattress as well as she could, hiding Thumper under her pillow. She tried her best to throw out all the empty beer bottles that were scattered across the floor, and was almost done when there was an impatient, loud knock on her front door.

She froze, the bottle falling out of her hands and onto the rug. She took a sigh of relief at the fact that it didn’t break, and kicked it under the couch. “Hold on!”

“Guess the song.” Louis cheerfully sang out from the other side of the door, before knocking in a noisily and unrecognizable manner.

“Uhh.. Jingle Bells?” Violet guessed, before turning and opening the door to a very jubilant Louis.

“What? No. It’s Bohemian Rhapsody,” Louis snorted, before throwing himself down on the couch. Violet winced as the bottle rolled out from under it and quickly reached down to grab it. Louis pretended not to notice, digging through his backpack. “You always say that.”

Violet shrugged before heading over to her section, and picking up her backpack. “Someday, I’ll be right.” She called over her shoulder. Louis suddenly appeared behind her, more interested in the huge pile of clothes that was thrown around all over Violet’s room.

“Uhh, what happened here?” Louis gestured towards her room as a whole, to which Violet shyly crossed her arms, letting her shaggy hair fall in front of her face.

“Couldn’t find a good set of PJs for the party.” Violet sighed, letting herself flop down next to the mountain of old tee shirts. Louis leaned against the doorway, observing the mess from a distance.

“Hey, where’s that onesie I gave you? I’m bringing mine.” Louis knelt down and started digging through drawers, giving an “aha!” when he grabbed onto the purple fabric, pulling it out of the drawer. “C’mon, let’s match.”

Violet’s expression turned sour as Louis held up the purple footie pajamas with a bunny hoodie, eagerly nodding and shoving it towards her.

“Oh, absolutely not.” Violet feigned disgust and backed away from him. “Oh, my god. I never noticed it had a tail.”

Louis shoved the pajamas back towards her, cocking an eyebrow as she continued to refuse. “Ohhh, I get it. You prioritize looking cool and suave in front of Clem over our seven-year long friendship.” Louis mock gasped, quivering his bottom lip dramatically while holding the onesie in his hands.

“You’re such a dummy,” Violet snorted, grabbing the onesie from Louis’ grasp and holding it out in front of her. “I’ll wear it as long as you come through, too.”

Louis happily squealed as Violet passed him her English forward and started putting away her clothes. She kept seeing Louis glance up at her from the corner of her eye, and rolled her eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You didn’t protest,” Violet turned her head to meet Louis’ eyes, cautiousness and amusement in his smile, like he just went through a huge revelation. “You usually get mad when I talk about you and Clem. You didn’t this time.”

Violet thoughtfully cradled the side of her face, bottom lip forming into a pout. “I’m kinda nervous, Lou.”

She expected some snarky remark or dig at her but instead, she got Louis lowering himself beside her, hesitating before gently putting his arm around her.

“It’ll be okay, Vi. I promise. It’s just one night. I’ll be there, and so will Brody and Clem.” Louis tried his best to comfort her, and she let herself relax and melt into Louis’ embrace. “The only thing you have to worry about is how you’re gonna defend yourself in front of Clem when I absolutely destroy you at Smash.”

Violet giggled, playfully shoving him aside and rubbing her eyes. With a happy sigh, she tugged on his arm, standing up. “Thanks, Lou. C’mon, I gotta show you this weird ass record I found when I was digging through all my stuff. I think it’s right up your alley.”

#redd writes #this took forever im sorry #twdg violet #twdg clementine #twdg louis #twdg marlon #twdg aj #twdg ruby #twdg aasim #violentine #violetine #rusim #clementine/violet #violet/clementine #twdg season 4 #skybound games #the walking dead game #the walking dead game season 4

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katliners · 5 years ago

Text

by kat, a rising highschool senior who’s been through this highschool stuff a few times

• use your damn locker. i don’t care how far away it is or if you “don’t need it”. save your back some stress and your bag some space. keep all of your heavy books and binders in your locker and then work out a schedule on when you can go to your locker and grab what you need.

• don’t buy supplies until you have the syllabus. i know it can be tempting to run out and buy all these cute supplies before school starts, but sometimes tecahers can be picky about the supplies you use, or sometimes they say you can share a binder/notebook with a different class. just wait until you find out what your teachers want. but obviously you can go buy the basics like pens, pencils, paper.

• take notes. and handwrite them. blah blah blah studies have shown that writing stuff down helps you retain information and i don’t know but it’s helped me. when i started taking textbook notes for ap euro my test grades went from 50s to 100s. oh and read the textbook/readings it might actually help you. if you need to type them you do you, just find a note taking method that helps you.

• make friends with your teachers. or at least be respectful. they’re more likely to be easier/more lenient with you if you’re nice.

• use a planner. it doesn’t have to be a nice, fancy one or a bullet journal, as long as you write down your homework assignments, upcoming tests, club meetings, etc. you’ll be good. it’s so crucial in highschool to stay organized and know whats going on.

• put specific tasks in your planner/on your to do list. don’t just write “read” or “write essay”. say “read chapters 1-4” or “write paragraph one of history essay” it gives you a specific goal to reach and you’ll feel like you accomplished more if you finished a specific goal over a general one.

• buy a nice, sturdy backpack. i know tote bags can be cute but you should really invest in a nice backpack with two straps to take the stress off your back. i bought an adidas one for like $30 and it’s so nice. the one i used last year was a $45 jansport marley backpack and yeah it was cute but it didn’t have any support in the straps and it was really small. a nice bag will save you.

• stop procrastinating!!!! i know this is so vague and basic but it’s so important in highschool. your gpa matters a lot in highschool and you cannot slack off, obviously everyone has days where you forget to do your homework but don’t make it a daily occurrence. this goes back to writing everything down!! don’t wait til the last minute to finish projects and essays, make a plan and do a little every day until the due date. also turning in half finished homework is better than turning nothing in at all, just try your best!

• learn how to be independent, you don’t need your friends with you at all times, but also ask if you need help, want someone to go with you somewhere. just know that it’s okay to walk around alone or take some time for yourself and eat lunch alone.

• join a club/sport/organization!! find something you’re interested in and join it!! you’ll make tons of friends and memories! plus you’ll be involved which is just really important in highschool, just don’t get too distracted from your academics.

• spirit week is fun but don’t feel obligated to join in and spend a lot of money on outfits. don’t feel pressured by your classmates, yes it can be fun but i understand if you don’t have the money/time/means to dress up everyday!

• always pack your school bag/lunch the night before. make sure you have all of your homework, books, and stationery for the next day. pack your lunch and maybe make your breakfast the night before so you don’t forget about it. also plan your outfit the night before so you don’t waste time in the morning.

• don’t feel the need to own a bunch of expensive stationery. yes, it’s nice, but you don’t need it to make good, helpful notes. all you need is a sheet of paper and a basic pen or pencil and you’re good to go. (but nice stationery does help with motivation so maybe treat urself to some muji pens or mildliners they’re the best for notetaking in my opinion)

• make group chats with people in your classes!! or discuss the work with your friends in those classes. my sophomore year we had an apush group chat where we discussed projects, shared homework answers (not copied, but shared and compared), and asked each other questions. it’s a lifesaver to have a group chat or at least a friend you can ask so if you’re absent they can fill you in on what happened and you can be a little more prepared. and it also helps if you’re confused because most of the time at least one person will understand.

• and most importantly, take care of yourself. take breaks when you need them and don’t overwork yourself. drink water, eat before school, take a nice lunch. just be nice to yourself and body and don’t stress yourself out too much.

okay this post has been in the works for like three months and i’m finally happy with it, feel free to leave your own tips!!! have fun this school year i believe in u!!!!

#bujo #bujo spread #studyblr #studygram #studyquill #studywithinspo #studyspo #studying #notes #katliners

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wwoww-au · 5 years ago

Text

Fun at Your Local Library

Dark rarely found themselves with time off. Even when they weren't physically chasing after Wilford, they would be cooped up in their office analyzing evidence, searching for leads, anything that would get them closer to finding the thief. It was rare to find days where there was nothing for them to do.

Today was one of those days. While going over some old reports on the Warfstache case, Dark had found an inconsistency in the timeline of events. They figured that it must have been caused by him jumping through time again. Unfortunately, as soon as the Committee got word of this breakthrough in the case, they took the reports in for review. This meant that Dark would have to wait at least a day for them to go over the reports and rule out any other possible reasons for the inconsistencies before they would allow them to time travel again.

And that is why they decided it would be best to just stay out of the way and go to the Library instead. They’d learned a long time ago that it was easier to just let the Committee do as they please, rather than argue and make things worse.

They pushed open the heavy door to the Library and walked in, boots squeaking on the shiny wooden floor. The room was comfortably silent. G sat at his desk as usual, lifting his gaze from his work to take a brief glance at who just came in. A teenager with red hair sat at one of the work tables, scrolling through their phone and mindlessly fidgeting with the chain of the locket around their neck.

"Good morning, G," Dark said, walking up to the main desk. G was busy reading from a large leather-bound book and taking notes, his enchanted quill making an exact copy of said notes as he wrote.

"What can I do for you, detective?" G finished a page of notes and put down his pen, the quill following suit by lying itself down on its own stack of papers. "Do you need something for the case? History books, Committee files?"

"No, none of that today. I'm off duty." Dark looked off to the side, avoiding eye contact with the librarian. "Actually, I was hoping to study up on magic. Spells and all that…" They trailed off. G watched them with a look of understanding.

"Fair enough, just wait at one of the tables and I'll have my apprentice find something for you," he said.

Dark nodded in silent thanks and sat down at a table near the front desk. They looked over at the teen at the other table.

"Are you waiting on books, too?" Dark asked. They normally didn't start small talk, but the sudden random quiet of the Library was becoming too unbearable.

"Hm?" They looked up from their phone. "Oh, no. I'm just waiting for B. We're gonna hang out after he gets out of work. I'm Yan by the way." They smiled, leaning forward on their hands and looking at them curiously.

"Dark," they replied. "Speaking of, where is B? He's normally around here somewhere."

"G sent him to go organize one of the sections. 'Early Survival Techniques' or something like that." As if on cue, B emerged from one of the opposite bookshelves. His face was covered in ash, and the ends of his clothes were singed. He was patting out a small flame on the sleeve of his sweater when he walked up to Yan.

"All finished, you ready to go?" He smiled at his friend.

"Not yet, B," G interrupted. "I need you to grab some books on basic soul magic for Dark."

"But you said I could leave early today," B protested, looking disappointed.

"I know what I said. It shouldn't take too long." G spoke with the voice of a stern parent. "You can take your friend along with you if you want." He gestured vaguely towards Yan, and sat back down to finish his work. B smiled and grabbed his friend by the hand.

"Thank you! Come on Yan, this is gonna be fun!" He dragged them with him into the rows of bookshelves. Yan waved to the other two as they disappeared down the aisles, a giddy smile on their face.

"It was nice meeting you, Dark!" they called back.

As the two teenagers walked down a row of bookshelves, it grew increasingly more cramped as more and more stacks of books began to take up space. Eventually it grew to the point where the stacks were so tall that it was hard to see the top, and books would occasionally drop from somewhere up high.

"Sorry about this," B said sheepishly, maneuvering as best he could through the stacks. "I was supposed to organize this section, but I guess things just got piled up. Literally." He jumped back as a heavy binder filled with various files fell in front of him. "The Committee is in the process of backlogging a bunch of their old files, and all of it is getting shipped here." He picked up the binder and placed it on the nearest shelf.

"No worries," said Yan. "It's actually pretty interesting to see what you do all day. Being an apprentice at the Great Library must be pretty cool." They stepped around a pile of more binders, only to bump into it and knock one off the top. It hit the ground with an explosion of glitter.

"It's alright. Just very, very weird." B brushed the glitter off the binder and placed it on the shelf next to the other one. "Hey, how's your apprenticeship going? I'm sure it's a lot easier than all of this." He gestured at the whole of the Library, stopping in time to lunge out of the way of a heavy leather bound book that hit the ground with a loud thud to his left.

"Well it's certainly less dangerous, I'll tell you that," they giggled. "But matchmaking does have its challenges from time to time. It helps to have a built-in guide, though."

"Guide?" B scrunched up his face in confusion. "Like your boss tells you what to do or…"

"No, not that. The heart strings." Yan looked over at B to see he was still visibly confused. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Okay, this is really hard to explain to someone who isn't a heart core so just bear with me." They took a deep breath and rubbed their hands together. "So when two people are compatible as a couple, a red string binds them together. Matchmakers follow these strings and use them as a guide to bring people together. Pretty much all heart wizards can see them, but no one really talks about it 'cause it's a super personal thing."

"Oh, I get it," B said. "Like soulmates?"

"Not exactly." Yan thought for a moment. "It's not really set in stone. People can gain strings after getting to know one another, or lose strings over time. Some people don't even have them."

"So, anyone can have a heart string? What about… G? Does he have one?”

“Well, like I said it’s rude to talk about someone’s strings… but yeah, his is super weird,” Yan leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.

“Man, must be nice to know who likes who. Wait, can you see your own string? Or is that like, against the magic rules?”

“Oh yeah, you can see your own. I don’t have one, but, well… there’s this one guy I like,” Yan said, eyes going dreamy. “I met him in the city while at work. He’s so nice, and handsome, and he helped me out of the rain, and he’s super sweet, and oh, he’s perfect B! My Senpai… but he’s… well, he’s already got someone else.”

B looked back at them worriedly having noticed their tone shift, and almost tripped over a large root on the ground. That was when Yan noticed the foliage- branches grew off of shelves, roots and grass sprung through the floor, flowers of various shapes and sizes began to pop up, and leaves started to appear to create a sort of canopy above them. Up ahead, a curtain of ivy cut off the aisle of bookshelves.

“Oh hey, we’re nearly at the Gardening Section,” B said, trying to change the subject.

“What’s the Gardening Section? Is it nice?”

“Oh yeah, I guess. It’s where all the books on gardening are. It’s really pretty, though you gotta watch out for the plants.”

“I’ll say,” Yan said as they picked their way through the increasingly dense undergrowth. “I bet it would be the perfect date spot, if it wasn’t so wild. Story of my life, though, huh?”

“So, uh, that detective, right? Dark? Man, are they a mystery. Do they have any heart strings?” B said, trying to change the topic again. Talking about this Senpai clearly made them sad, and he’d hate to see his friend like that.

“Them? Oh yeah, they’re weird too. Why does everyone-“

Their sentence was cut short as an enormous vine shot forward, wrapping around Yan's leg and dragging them screaming through the ivy.

"YAN!" B shouted, running after them through the foliage. He had worried something like this would happen, the Library was full of danger for anyone who didn't know how to navigate it. He pushed through the curtain of ivy and stumbled into the Gardening Section.

The narrow row of bookshelves opened into a large courtyard where flowers of all kinds grew across the grass-covered ground. Trees blooming with blossoms and fresh fruit towered above it, reaching the vaulted ceiling where sunlight poured through a tinted glass window. A small gardening shed sat to the side next to a tree stump with a hatchet still embedded in its surface. Bookshelves coated in a thick layer of ivy formed a wall enclosing it all in.

At the very center of the courtyard was a giant orange flower, over four times as tall as B. Normally its petals were closed together like a Venus fly trap, but today they were open, revealing the sharp and dangerous barbs lining the inside of the petals, and its many vine-like appendages were whipping around like crazy. B had to duck to avoid more than one almost smashing into his head.

Up ahead he saw Yan struggling against the vine wrapped around their leg. They had managed to grab onto a flowering cherry blossom tree and were struggling to hold on, trying to kick the plant off them with their free leg. B jumped into action- he sprinted towards the stump by the shed, bobbing and weaving around the violent plant appendages. He dove for the axe on the stump, nearly getting slammed in the chest by a vine that he thankfully narrowly dodged. Yan’s shouts grew louder and more panicked as they felt their arms start to slip.

No time to lose, B yanked the axe out of the stump and charged forwards, leaping and dodging with great agility. Just as Yan’s grip finally gave out he raised the axe over his head and lunged forward, cleaving the vine connecting Yan to the plant in two with great ease.

"We have to get to cover!" B pulled Yan to their feet as they let out a string of curses. He frantically looked around, eyes landing on the storage shed. "Follow me!"

B grabbed Yan by the wrist and started running back to the shed, pulling them along behind him. They both sprinted as fast as they could, doing their best not to trip or get separated. B dove towards the door, slamming it open with his shoulder and just barely managing to turn around close it before a large heavy vine slammed into the wall. A few more slams came after, followed by more angry thrashing sounds before things seemed to calm down a bit.

“What. The wuck. Was that!?” Yan yelled gesturing wildly. “What the wuck that, B!?”

“Look, dude, I’m real sorry. I didn’t know Daisy was going to be so touchy today. I’ll have to deal with that later,” B sighed, running a hand through his hair. He slumped on a bench sitting by the wall, just glad to be able to stop and catch his breath a bit.

“That thing has a name? And what do you mean touchy today!? You knew it was there and you didn’t think to mention the giant plant monster in the middle of the ‘pretty little garden’!?” Yan started to rant and pace back and forth a little, still jumpy from the scare. Eventually they just collapsed to the floor, sitting with their back to a worn trunk. "What are we gonna do now?"

"We'll have to make a break for it once she tires herself out," B shrugged.

"Maybe there's something in here to help us fight it? This is a storage shed after all, maybe there are some shears or something.” Yan turned to the trunk and flipped the brass latches, pushing the heavy wooden lid open.

"Wait, Yan, don't-!” B tried to stop them but Yan already opened the trunk.

"Woah," they muttered. "What’s all this?"

The trunk was filled to the brim with a strange collection of items; a pearl necklace, a mini bronze statuette of an octopus, an old mp3 player, a stuffed fox, a dagger with a bejeweled hilt, a diamond ring, a gilded hourglass, an Altoids tin, and a picture frame holding a photo of a smiling family.

"They're magic items," B explained as he stood up to look at the contents of the trunk with them. "They're all filled with super powerful core magics. We store them here until that fades into pure magic and the item can be used again. We keep them in little hideaways like this, scattered across the Library. That's why Daisy is here, to protect the items."

"So all of these used to belong to wizards?" Yan asked, B nodding in return. They reached into the trunk and pulled out a pair of scissors. It had a red handle. On one side there was a little image of a heart, and on the other an image of a person with a small circle over their chest; the symbols for heart cores and soul cores, respectively. Yan couldn't help but stare at them- something about the scissors fascinated them. They could practically feel the powerful magic it contained radiating off of it, much stronger than the other items in the trunk.

"It looks like Daisy's calmed down a bit." B pulled them out of their thoughts. He had the door cracked open, enough to look out into the courtyard. The orange flower was drooped over, the vines beginning to recede back into the base. He opened the door and took a careful step out. He looked back into the shed to see Yan still sitting in front of the chest, holding onto the lip of it. They hesitated before closing it with a dull thud. "Yan?"

"I'm coming.” They stood up and moved to stand behind him.

"Follow my lead," B said. He skirted the edges of the courtyard, back to the ivy-covered bookshelves. He held his breath as he moved slowly so as to not disturb the drooping flower in the center. He held the axe in one hand, the other in front of his friend. As soon as they reached a hole in the bookshelf wall, B dropped the axe and the two broke into a sprint, running as fast as they could until the foliage underfoot became plain carpet.

"That was insane," Yan said between heavy breathes. The two stopped at a junction between bookshelves to catch their breath. "You seriously deal with this kind of stuff on a daily basis?"

"You don't know the half of it," B panted. He pointed down the aisle to their left. "Soul Magic Section should be down that way."

Yan looked around at the spot they stood in. Their eyes rested at a sudden new aisle across from them with confusion. Unlike the rest of the Library, it was dark, as if the lights overhead were out. So dark they couldn't even see what went beyond it. They could've sworn they heard whispers coming from that direction, so far away that they couldn't distinguish what was being said. "B, what's that section?" Their voice was shaky, something about it unsettled them.

"Huh?" B turned to look at the section. His face dropped. "Nope." He grabbed Yan by the shoulders and quickly steered them down the left row. "That's the Dead Zone. We have to stay, far, far away from that."

"What?" Yan turned to look at him. "What's the Dead Zone?"

"It's where all the darkest, most forbidden magic is stored." B's voice was laced with panic. "It's incredibly dangerous. Only one person has ever gone in and made it back out alive."

"Who?"

"I-I'm not supposed to say," he stuttered. Now that they were far enough away, he let go of Yan's shoulders and slowed the pace down a bit. They continued walking on their own.

"Why not?" Yan was concerned, they'd never seen B so nervous before.

"G doesn't want me to talk about it.” He tugged at the end of his scarf. "Says it brings up unpleasant memories, something about the last apprentice. But they're banned for life, I think. They scare me a bit to be honest. If someone other than the Head Librarian could survive that, they must be pretty powerful."

"Have you ever gotten near it?" Yan asked.

"Once. Biggest mistake of my life. I had nightmares for weeks, not to mention what happened when G found out I got too close.” B's voice dropped to a grave tone, “he gave me a forty minute lecture and made me clean the bathrooms."

"That sounds awf- wait, this place has bathrooms?" Yan smirked at the idea.

"Oh yeah. Kind of hard to find though, depending on how badly you need it," he shrugged.

"From what I've seen today, I shouldn't be surprised."

"This place really is crazy, huh?" He was smiling again. "I mean, there's a garden, a gym with a pool, a section full of life-sized board games including D&D, a room full of cats, a bit of Antarctica, the sun room-"

"Oh," Yan said. "Like a patio?"

"No, it's a room with an actual sun," B corrected them. "It's huge, and it has little models of the planets revolving around it. It's really cool looking."

“You should show it to me some time, as long as it doesn’t turn out there’s a super deadly alien living there that you forgot to mention. Though let’s take a less dangerous route next time, please.”

"Sounds like a plan," he smiled.

The row of shelves ended abruptly with a bronze spiral staircase leading up to a trapdoor on the ceiling. On the door was a plaque engraved with the same emblem of a person with a circle over their chest. B quickly climbed the staircase, Yan carefully following after. He reached the top, pushing open the trapdoor and climbing inside. He held out a hand to help his friend through.

Yan stared in awe of the room as they climbed in. It reminded them of an observatory. The room was covered by a large dome, the ceiling made entirely of stained glass forming a mosaic of wizards with colorful magic dancing off their hands. The walls and floor were made from sturdy wood, doors of the same material lining the walls. The most remarkable thing, Yan noted, were all the books floating through the air, held aloft by sparks of pure magic. Some floated near the roof, others only a foot or so off the ground.

"G said they needed some books on basic soul magic," B recalled. "So just grab something close to the ground and we can leave."

Yan nodded and set to work, strolling around the room to find what looked appropriate. They looked up at the books floating high above their head, filled with yellowed pages and adorned with ancient runes. The kinds of books you could find in the hands of only the most powerful wizards. The ones closer to the ground were more simple, reminding Yan of the textbooks at Academy. They eventually settled on a copy of The Art of Soul Magic: An Introduction, which they almost stepped on because it had been hovering barely an inch off the ground. They turned to see B, partially hidden by a stack of spell-books.

"Do you need help with that?" they giggled.

"Nah, I got this," B said, blatantly ignoring the fact that he had just dropped two. "This way." He turned and walked over to one of the doors, letting Yan open it for him. It lead into another narrow row of bookshelves. The two walked for maybe ten feet before suddenly arriving back in the lobby of the Library. G and Dark were still sitting in their respective spots from when they left.

"Wait-" Yan glanced around in confusion. "Didn't we go upstairs? In the opposite direction?"

B nudged past them and placed the pile of books on the table next to Dark, who jumped at the sudden loud noise. "Don't think about it too hard, you'll give yourself a headache."

G stood up from his desk and walked over to Dark's table, where they were looking over the books B had just dropped there. The quill followed him, quickly jotting down the book titles on a small notepad. G looked up at his apprentice.

"Thank you, B," he nodded. "That's all for today. You're free to go."

“Sweet!” B said, pumping his fist in the air. He started to make his way to the front door, an excited grin shining on his face. “Come on, Yan, I can’t wait to show you this cool show! It’s called Little Shop of Horrors and it’s supposed to be real funny.”

“Can’t wait,” Yan giggled, hurrying after him. They turn around before they leave, calling “Good luck with your studies, Dark!” And waving goodbye at the tired detective before quickly moving back to catch up.

“Ah, to be that young and careless again,” G mused as he finished double checking all of the books.

“You care about them, admit it,” Dark said, opening the copy of The Art of Soul Magic: An Introduction.

G rolled his eyes, walking back to his desk and almost relaxing in his chair. He felt a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Maybe he did care for them, just a little.

#wwoww au #wwoww dark #wwoww google #wwoww bing #wwoww yan #darkiplier #googleplier #bingiplier #yandereplier #wwoww story #markiplier

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jui-imouto-chan · 6 years ago

Text

Part 11 of The Mostly Human AU

Level Select:

Suggestions by @supposedlymatureadult

It’s odd to be in the house without Conan or Collin around.

Even Hank feels a bit off with the lack of the twins’ presence.

He keeps going to their rooms to inform that breakfast is ready, or lunch, or dinner, and he finds himself deflating when he remembers that they’re gone.

He places one shirt on each of their door’s knobs to remind himself to stop when he goes to enter their rooms.

Some nights, he’ll lay on their beds and wear their shirts while going into sleep mode.

Hank takes a few pictures and prints them out without Connor’s knowledge—he has good reasons, and he’s sure he’ll be forgiven.

Hank proposes the idea of a care package, and Connor leaps at the chance to provide for two of his closest people.

Connor prepares a bunch of food that he then freezes for them to heat up after they receive it.

He also packs medicine, some extra school supplies, and puts in some of the money he’d gotten from his detective-ing.

He also recognizes that they’re in college, so he hides something else inside of one of the zippable binders.

Hank slips some extra things into the package just as they’re about to seal it, but Connor doesn’t inspect nor question it—they’re Hank’s sons, not Connor’s. Whatever is in there is from Hank to them, and Connor can respect that.

The twins share an apartment nearby the campus, and find a package had been shipped to them, sitting on their doorstep.

“I hope it’s not a bomb.”

“It’s from dad, it’s probably a gun or something.”

“Let’s open it inside, then; don’t want the neighbors to catch us with a firearm again.”

“Yeah, that was messy.”

They open it and immediately find a note taped to the inside.

‘Hope you’re doing well! It’s weird not seeing you every day, and I’m finding that I miss you two a lot! Please do call me soon, I really want to hear your voices again! Hank’s message for you is, “Fuck shit up and don’t die.” Sumo only says “boof”, but I’m sure what he’s saying is full of affection. -Connor’

The note is cute, the words holding so much warmth and personality despite being written with perfect handwriting—the typeface appears to be specific to androids, from what they understand, after having scanned it with an app.

Conan and Collin fight over who keeps the note, but eventually they agree to stick it to the fridge.

After they get over their appreciation for Connor’s overwhelmingly endearing note, they see that he had labeled everything he packaged with little post-its.

The miscellaneous meals all had instructions for storing and heating. Connor prepared their favorites.

They immediately set about disposing of the dry ice they were packaged with and putting the food away. Conan also puts the medicine in the cabinet near the sink, while Collin places the school supplies on the table. One of the binders is heavier than the other, and he decides to investigate that after they’ve gotten everything out of the package. The money is placed in their savings jar, which they stash in a safe place.

At the bottom of the package is an envelope with the words, ‘From Dad’ on the top in Hank’s semi-neat, semi-sloppy handwriting.

Collin pulls it out and waits for Conan to sit beside him, tearing it open only after the older twin urges him to do so.

He reaches in an pulls up a few pieces of photo paper, though they’re facing away, so he can’t see what images are on them yet. The envelope reads, ‘He misses you two.’ under the cover.

They turn the photos over to see images of Connor sleeping in their clothes and their beds, pillows arranged to replace their bodies so that Connor could hug and cuddle them. There are two copies of each photo, so they can divide them up and take their share without fuss.

Their father knows them well.

Collin mentions the binder after he and Conan put the photos in their rooms.

He and Conan are surprised to find packages of condoms inside.

“Connor what the fuck.” Collin mutters to himself.

There’s an assortment of sizes, Connor got them anything between medium and extra large and they feel an odd sense of pride at that. There are also miscellaneous flavors and colors.

‘College is a place to learn first and foremost, but a search has shown me that there’s a lot of intercourse that occurs during a student’s time there, so I’m making sure you guys are safe! I didn’t know for sure what you’d prefer and your specifications on size, so I’ve taken the liberty of buying you a bunch! Have fun! 😉’

The winky face at the end is what gets Collin to groan into his hands and Conan to blow out a sigh.

“Does Connor really think we prioritize sexual endeavors to our schoolwork? Not to mention that neither of us are really interested in anyone other than him.”

Conan silently places the condoms under the bathroom sink, slamming the cabinet door shut. He vows that he will make it clear to Connor that the only one he’d ever have any sexual intentions for is him.

Collin wonders if he’d even need condoms with Connor, since he’s an android, but that leads into a rabbit hole of thoughts that Collin would rather not dive into while in the living room.

Carl calls Connor after a month of radio silence on the elder’s end.

His health had taken a nose dive, and Markus had been disguising his unease at flitting in and out of the hospital behind a cheery exterior.

Carl’s status was kept under wraps until he got better—even the rest of Jericho were left unaware of the man’s condition.

While he was in the hospital, he took a liking to the android in charge of tending to his needs—he didn’t have a name, but his model number was AP700.

This android doesn’t have a personality, unlike Connor, as it didn’t have a proper AI, just an extensive but not as extensive set of protocols.

Carl had Markus call up Kamski and request for the android to be reprogrammed after buying him from the hospital.

“Connor could use a friend he can relate to.” Carl explained, though Markus didn’t look entirely pleased by that.

When Carl calls, Connor is delighted to speak with him, polite but eager as he asks about how he’s been doing.

“It’s August, isn’t it? How time flies—it feels like it was only yesterday that Hank first called to complain about you.”

“It really doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, despite my system clock telling me it’s been 8 months. Simulatanously, it feels like it has also been a lifetime, which, considering the length of mine so far, is almost true.”

Carl considers for a moment. “How old are you, Connor?”

“It has been approximately one year since I was first activated in Mr. Kamski’s lab.”

“One year? It’s pretty weird that I’m talking to a one year old right now, wouldn’t you say?” Carl teases, chuckling lightly. Then his eyes light up in realization.

“Oh, Connor, we ought to throw you a birthday party!”

“A birthday party? I have been invited to a few before, but they seem to be something humans do to celebrate the life someone was given. Why would I need one?”

“You’re as alive as can be Connor, and you’re reason enough to celebrate.”

Connor eventually relents, and Carl eagerly recruits Kamski and Kara for the party planning.

August 23rd, 2037 was the date Kamski booted up Connor after his AI was finished and installed, so that’s when the party is set.

They didn’t inform Connor of the exact date, hoping that Connor will enjoy a surprise party.

They make sure to tell Hank to keep Connor from having any of his weapons on him. And, just in case, his coin.

Connor is good at improvising; he could wreak havoc with a sunflower seed and a glue stick if he felt the need to. Such precautions are drastic but necessary.

Everyone’s waiting in Carl’s living room, silent in the darkened room when Connor arrives at the mansion, dressed in black slim fitting jeans and with a blue oversized t-shirt. It has cartoonish versions of a multitude of cute animals arranged neatly on the front with hearts placed around them.

Connor is pushing Carl’s wheelchair, the painter and Hank keeping him distracted as they lead him to the living room.

Hank, standing slightly behind Connor, draws his attention with a question just as the doors open, so Connor is extra startled when there’s a shout of “Happy Birthday!” from a large sum of people.

He’s so shocked, in fact, that his system shuts down for a moment.

Hank catches Connor and Connor is left wide eyed, partially limp while his systems start back up, tears slowly coming to his eyes.

Markus runs out of the crowd trying to wipe Connor’s tears while apologizing profusely and telling everyone to cancel everything.

Carl rolls his eyes at Markus being utterly overdramatic.

“I...” Connor begins, eyes slowly focusing as his systems finally start coming back online.

“I’m not upset, or anything... I just...was overwhelmed by emotion and surprise.”

He can see his software instability shooting up and up and up, until it glitches out and vanishes. He’s just so happy now. He has so many friends—So many people who care about him and he can’t help the joyful tears.

They all surround him and reassure him and all comfort him with pats and cooed words.

Hank eventually grows exasperated with the comfort situation and clasps Connor’s hand, yanking him up onto his own feet, telling everyone that it’s time for actual partying, a hand clapped on Connor’s shoulder.

The Jerrys go into the kitchen and pull out an utterly MASSIVE cake, decked with an impressive amount and variety of frosting.

It’s decorated to look like a dog with an LED as a frisbee in its mouth. Candles stick up like the dog’s fur is 3D, and the LED itself is shimmering amongst the flickering firelight.

Connor almost screams in delight, and the Jerrys tell him that Markus used the frosting colors as paint to make the picture.

He throws his arms around Markus’ neck and jumps up and down, shouting out “thank you!!”-s at an alarmingly rapid pace. Markus moves his arms up to Connor’s waist to hug him back and/or hold him down, but Connor’s motions lead to Markus accidentally squeezing Connor’s ass. Markus suddenly finds himself being given a scolding look from Daniel and Josh while Simon gives him a congratulatory pat on the back with North. Rupert, standing nearby, watches him with displeasure in his eyes.

Ralph offers to cut the cake, and Kara warily hands him a knife, though her fear is unfounded—Ralph handles the knife with a certain amount of caution and care that makes her feel guilty for not trusting him as he places it beside the cake.

Meanwhile, Luther goes over to a box at the side and pulls out an excessive amount of party hats.

Everyone puts their hats on, waiting on Connor, who places it on his head.

He’s so cute when he looks up from under his lashes with a shy, delighted smile.

Immediately, Carl has little drones ready for pictures, capturing Connor’s smile as well as the group grinning at said birthday boy.

Another photo is of Connor blowing out the candles, hands holding the edge of the table as he does so, eyes sparkling in the light of the flames.

Ralph meticulously cuts the cake into even pieces. Thankfully, Connor doesn’t pay attention to the fact that the dog in the photo is now separated onto a bunch of plates.

Connor actually doesn’t get his own plate.

Per a suggestion from Kamski, everyone takes turns feeding Connor, who throws his head back and lets out muffled squeals of joy at the taste every time a forkful finds itself in his mouth.

Kara and Chloe teamed up to actually bake it, with Alice giving them tips about what Connor likes and dislikes. They also premade the frosting, before Markus used food coloring and flavoring mixed with the frosting to create his masterpiece on top.

The Jerrys helped with gathering supplies.

As the clock strikes midnight, Connor is laying his head on Hank’s lap, his father figure petting his hair lazily.

“First birthday, eh, Connor?” Hank takes care in messing Connor’s hair up as much as possible. “Did ya have fun, kiddo?”

“Yeah,” Connor says, looking all around the room sleepily.

Luther and Kara had to take Alice home not too long ago, despite the girl’s reluctance. She gave him a big hug and a kiss to the cheek before leaving. After them, people slowly trickled out, having work the next day. Markus set about putting Carl to bed, Jericho having left with the others, and now Connor, Hank, and the twins sluggishly ready themselves to leave. Most of Connor’s gifts were packed into the back of the car by Conan and Collin, so it was just a matter of getting him in the vehicle.

Unfortunately, Connor’s sleep mode overtook him and Hank ended up piggybacking him to the car. The twins agreed on sharing Conan’s bed so that they could both have Connor for the night.

Next Level: Getting Crushed at the Pet Shelter (suggested by @manadrite )

X| Continue to Next Level

O| Save Progress And Quit to Main Menu

————————————- •

Leave suggestions in the comments or my ask! You can also criticize, scream, and/or question in the same places!

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shookethbrooketh · 6 years ago

Text

Church Boy - Chapter 4

Other than the bizarre bell schedule, the new school didn’t seem anywhere near as bad as he’d expected. In fact, as he waved goodbye to Phil and started the trek to where he remembered he’d shown him his fourth period to be, he began to think it might even be a hell of a lot better as his old school. In fact, it might even be the place he’d finally find happiness.

Description: Phil’s lived in the same town and gone to the same church his entire life. But when his pastor leaves, a new one comes in, with his teenage son Dan in tow. He’s broken; real broken. And he thinks Phil’s just another church boy that’s going to hate him just as much as everyone else he’s ever met, but maybe he’s just going to be the one that can fix all his broken parts.

Genre: AU, High School, Strangers to Lovers

Chapter Warnings: Swearing, Mentions of Homophobia/Transphobia

Fic Warnings (Not Final!): Heavy Speak of Religion, Heavy Homophobia, Swearing, Discussion of Sex, Fighting with Family

Chapter Word Count: 2.5k Total Word Count: 8.8k

Read it on Ao3! Read it on Wattpad! Fic Masterlist

Dan stepped into the room and took it in. There were cheesy math posters all around the room, hung a consistent few inches from the ceiling. A few were peeling, but they still looked as pristine as cheesy math posters could. The room appeared to be intensely cleaned and organized, yet it gave off a calming vibe due to the darkness, as the only light in the room was the sunlight from the windows. There was a bellwork problem projected on the board, and a few kids were sitting sparsely in desks working on it. A few gave glances to Dan, but nobody could bother to address him; they were too busy frantically trying to finish their bellwork before the bell rang.

“I sit here,” Phil said. “Right under the fan.” He looked as if snatching a chair under the ceiling fan at the beginning of the year was the one event in his life he took the most pride in. Dan cocked his neck up to look at the violently rotating fan, and he couldn’t quite blame him. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there was no air conditioning in that room, and it must have gotten hot as hell at the beginning of the school year. “Nobody sits there,” he added, pointing to the chair to his left. “You can just sit there for now.”

Dan slipped into the chair and pulled his notebook out of his binder to start copying the bellwork, and he was suddenly overwhelmed. He had started Precalc at his old school, but they hadn’t yet done the problem on the board or even anything like it. And that’s when it struck him that he hadn’t even started Chemistry. Both of those were honors classes, and they both built on what they had already learned, and Dan hadn’t a clue what he had missed.

Dan’s breathing had begun to get heavy when he found a tall, dark-haired woman towering over him. “You must be the new student. Is everything going alright here?”

“No, actually,” he let out, trying to calm himself. “I took Precalc in my old school, but we hadn’t gotten here yet.”

In the split second before she answered, he could hear her telling him to go change his schedule because she couldn’t have him behind. He could already feel himself losing the one class he had with Phil.

“That’s okay!” she said, and Dan’s eyes popped out of his head.

“It is?”

“Of course. You couldn’t be too far behind, so I can give you some worksheets and lessons to catch you up. You should be totally fine by next week. We’re currently about to start a totally new unit, so you should be able to follow along just fine.”

“Thank you!” Dan said, a smile crossing his face as all his anxiety, about that particular class, at least, dissipated. He decided to give up on the bellwork and looked towards Phil, who was sitting and staring off into the distance, having already finished the problem.

“You’re right; this school really isn’t half bad,” he whispered over to him.

“I told you!” Phil said back in a bit more than a whisper, which earned them a less menacing than Dan would have expected glance from the teacher. “It’s gonna be fine,” he said with a smile as the bell rang.

“Have a great day, and be thinking about who you want your partner to be!”

The words were no use, as the entire class was already out the door the second the bell rang. “How the hell are we doing a project in math?” Dan asked, throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

“Don’t ask me!” Phil said, glancing over at Dan. It was obvious what he was thinking. “By the way, you can be my partner.”

Phil immediately saw Dan’s face brighten. “Who says I wanna be your partner?”

Phil grinned, biting his lip a bit. “Well, I can find someone else, if that’s what you’d prefer.”

“You know, it’s your lucky day; I think I’ll take the partnership.”

“Great.”

They had made their way halfway down the hall when Phil stopped at his next class, Dan walking on ahead of him. “Dan, wait!” he shouted, and Dan’s head snapped back. “This is my next class.”

“Oh,” he said, seeming a bit disappointed.

“You remember where your second is, right?”

“I got it. If worst comes to worst I’ll be late.”

“Alright. Good luck, and have fun!” he called out as he started to walk into the room.

“If you say so,” Dan laughed out as he walked in the opposite direction.

Phil was a bit concerned about Dan being alone on his first day; he wasn’t sure why, but he was. He was sixteen; he could handle himself. For some reason, though, Phil couldn’t help but worry about him. All through his second he was distracted, thinking about Dan downstairs and hoping his class was going well.

He was finally jolted from his trance when the bell rang; he hadn’t managed to copy a word of the notes for the last half hour of class. Hopefully he’d think to pick them up from someone eventually. When he slipped out the door, he was far too anxious to try and find Dan; he checked his phone and saw no texts from him, so he tried to convince himself that meant he was alright and headed to his third.

Somehow, Phil managed to pay even less attention in third than he did in second. He couldn’t even focus on his friends beside him being absolute dumbasses (as per usual). All he could ever focus on was the ticking clock, inching closer minute by minute to when he could finally meet Dan for lunch.

After yet another class of missing the entire lecture, Phil was the first one out the door towards the lunchroom. He had already memorized the fact that Dan had chemistry third, so he made sure to head straight there first.

The students were just beginning to pour out of the classroom when he got there; he’d plowed his way down the hall. He hadn’t realized it, but all the kids he nearly knocked over definitely did. Phil watched a bunch of kids in his class give him a confused glance as they walked past him; after all, it probably wasn’t the most normal thing on the planet to see someone panting outside their classroom. Finally, Dan filed out of the room, a weary smile on his face. “Hey, Phil!”

“Hey, Dan!” A smile crossed his face as he realized lunch was definitely going to be the best part of his day.

Dan couldn’t help but smile as he saw Phil waiting in the doorway; he had been so overexcited to see him that he had obviously literally ran, and Dan found that fucking adorable.

“How were your last two classes?” Phil asked him.

He frowned a bit. “Eh, they were alright. Spanish wasn’t too bad; apparently Spanish at my old school was a lot more intense. The teachers here don’t really know how to control their classes.” He flashed back to screaming freshmen that he didn’t even know how got in to Spanish 3. Those voices would haunt him for a long, long time.

Phil chuckled. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“Chemistry kinda sucked. I had it next semester in my old school, so I just walked in halfway through the class and I’m completely lost. I’m going to have to have the teacher catch me up, but I’ll get it eventually, I guess. It’s just...” he sighed, trailing off. “a lot of work.”

“I get that,” Phil said. “Playing catch up is the worst.”

Dan smiled, but he was a bit angry that Dan didn’t really get it. He’d never had to pick up and move before. Well, maybe he had, but that didn’t seem like what he meant. Getting the flu was different from missing half of a semester, especially of Chemistry.

“Lunch?” Phil asked.

It was just then that Dan realized how hungry he was. He had been so stressed the entire morning that he hadn’t even thought about food, but he was starving. Third lunch was terrifyingly late, and Dan ate half his lunch in class at his old school where he had lunch an hour earlier. Now that he thought about it, he was starving. “Definitely.”

They were about to start walking when a two boys and a girl walked up behind Phil. “There you are, dude! You literally took off running there,” said the boy on the right. Suddenly all their eyes seemed to fall on Dan at once, and he could almost feel them all staring into his soul. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, guys, meet Dan! He’s new here.”

“Hi,” Dan said inwardly.

“Dan, this is James,” Phil said. James was the boy on the far left; he was tall, but not too lanky, with tan skin and brown hair. He looked a bit like a surfer, except it was evident that he’d never surfed before in his life. He did a bit of an awkward wave and let his hand fall at his side. “Eli,” the boy on the right had pure blonde hair, and he was a few inches shorter than James, as well as a bit more heavyset. The first word that came to Dan’s mind to describe him was ‘adorable’, but something told him the boy was anything but adorable and innocent. He said a quick “hey” and raised his hand to indicate his existence. “and Nora.” Nora was the only girl of the group, and she was standing in the middle of the other two. She had short, brown hair, about the same shade as his, and she was about the same height as Eli. She wore a dirty, black hoodie and jeans even though it was an uncharacteristically hot day for October. She simply gave him some finger guns. They seemed like nice kids, but that didn’t stop Dan from thinking they were staring into his soul. “They’re my closest friends. They may be hella weird sometimes,” he said, glaring at all three of them. “But I love them, and I think you’ll like them too.”

“Rad,” was all Dan said.

The five of them made their way down the stairs to the lunchroom, where Phil’s friends headed to what Dan assumed was their group’s table. There were already a couple kids sitting there, who they each greeted with a “hey” and sat down. Dan stood awkwardly for a moment at the head of the table before Phil patted the seat beside him and he scurried off to sit down. Most of the other kids didn’t notice him.

“So, today in history, I was working with James, Eli, and Ben, and we made an entire page of Vines on our project,” Phil said.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Phil, this is the fifth one this semester!” Nora exclaimed, overwhelmed but obviously a bit intrigued.

“Oh?” Dan asked, he himself also quite intrigued. He didn’t know that much about Phil or his group, but as much as he felt like the outsider he was definitely interested in their antics. “

“Well, at the beginning of the year we wrote about Waluigi...”

To Dan, something about the ten-minute story that appeared to be Phil’s favorite felt like an induction to the group, because by the time he finished they were on their way to hang out in the library, Dan in tow laughing. He didn’t even feel like an outsider anymore; sure, he didn’t get their inside jokes, but he felt included in the conversations and even in the group. He had only managed to eat half his lunch, but he figured he’d finish it in his fourth. He knew to eat before lunch the next day, so he’d be fine.

Dan entered the library with Phil, Nora, Eli, James, and who he assumed to be Ben. He deduced that the library was where they usually went when they finished up in the cafeteria, even though none of them appeared to be avid readers. Instead they made their way into a corner and began laughing at something Dan couldn’t even comprehend. Within thirty seconds, Dan, Phil, and Nora were leaning up against a bookcase watching Ben, Eli, and James in a standing pileup. Ben was in James’s arms, and Eli was simply laughing so hard he was about to fall into the other two. Phil and Nora were roaring with laughter as well, and Dan couldn’t help but to join in.

“Is this normal?” he asked his two companions.

“Oh, definitely,” said Nora. “They literally do this every day. Before school, during lunch, sometimes even after school. Literally everyone here is gay.”

Dan cackled. “Really?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Phil piped in. “They might not actually be gay, but they sure act like it. We’re all just waiting for it to actually happen. It’s a pretty good life, to be honest.”

“Damn right,” Dan responded. They stood in silence for a moment, the three boys still poking at each other, before Dan’s curiosity finally got the best of him. “Are there really that many gays in this school?”

“Eh, there aren’t too many,” Phil said, shrugging. “All three of us are, any number of them might be, and there’s a good few more circulating. It’s really not as bad as you’d think.”

“Yeah, I would have expected at least one redneck to mock me for some gay mannerism by now,” Dan said, half joking.

“I had a trans friend they called ‘it’ for a while, but that’s about as bad as it got. They can sometimes get ugly with the slurs, but we don’t really notice it much. It’s actually pretty chill here, for the most part,” Nora added, as if she’d discussed the topic many a time. Both Nora and Phil seemed completely accustomed to the environment they’d found themselves in, from its best to its worst.

“Oh, yeah. They’re not the worst. They might just be oblivious though,” Phil said, throwing one strap off his backpack and slinging it over his chest so it faced Dan. “You see this?” he asked, pointing to a Hot Topic pin with a rainbow flag on it. “I’ve had this since freshman year, and not a single one of them has noticed. In fact, most of them still think I’m straight, despite my constant closet jokes. In reality, they just don’t give a shit about anything or anyone around it, and I’m not mad about taking advantage of it.”

Dan shrugged. “Fair.”

The bell rang, and Phil slung his backpack back over his shoulder. Dan glanced at the clock, reading 1:24. That school had the weirdest bell schedule Dan had ever seen, and he wasn’t excited to get used to it, but he’d live. Other than the bizarre bell schedule, the new school didn’t seem anywhere near as bad as he’d expected. In fact, as he waved goodbye to Phil and started the trek to where he remembered he’d shown him his fourth period to be, he began to think it might even be a hell of a lot better as his old school. In fact, it might even be the place he’d finally find happiness.

#phan #phanfic #phanfiction #phic stuff #church boy

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twodaysintojune · 6 years ago

Text

All These Things That I've Done

Prompted by: Vee’s Favorite Songs Challenge

Using @nobodys-baby-now guideline:

You can use the entire song as inspiration, or take some lyrics from the song and use them as dialogue.

Song:

All These Things That I've Done -The Killers

Find me at AO3, Warnings-None

You were trying your best. But your best was nothing when you were confronted with the power of an archangel. The mightiest of the archangels. Michael.

At the moment you were helping Rowena search for every tracking and halting spell in all the notes of the bunker, you even decided to find the other Chapterhouses in order to see if they had something else inside. Something that could help you reach Dean. And some spells looked like they could have worked but something jarred it, no doubt that had been Michael. Had it been any other lesser being you were damn sure it would have worked.

Most of the time you were all by yourself these days. You still remembered the words that started your pilgrimage.

-Sam, you go and put a bunch of silver bullets over those werewolves’ hearts and stop worrying about the research for a while. I’ll do it. I’ll call you every night to keep you informed if that helps you distract yourself.

You called every night the first couple of weeks. You didn’t mind calling anymore. You couldn’t stand hearing Sam’s broken voice lose a little bit more hope every time you told him you still had found nothing. These days just a text note would go.

Chapterhouse 7 breached, everything’s in order.

Chapterhouse 7 day 1, nothing new.

Chapterhouse 7 day 2, nothing new.

Chapterhouse 7 day 3, nothing new.

Chapterhouse 7 day 4, nothing new.

Chapterhouse 7 day 5, nothing new.

Chapterhouse 7 day 6, nothing new.

Chapterhouse 7 done. Nothing new.

Found Chapterhouse 3.

Chapterhouse 3 entrance flooded up by the Glen Canyon Dam. Called Rowena. Impossible to breach and open.

Found Chapterhouse 11.

Chapterhouse 11 breached, everything’s in order.

Chapterhouse 11 day 1, nothing new.

Nothing new.

You even felt that the words themselves were losing meaning. What is nothing? What is new? Was it pronounced that way?

Those were the times you dropped all the books off the table. Rivers of tears flowing. Flowing for Sam, flowing for Dean, flowing for Cas, flowing for yourself. The phone rang, startling you from your breakdown. You checked out the caller id in fear before you answered the call.

-Any good news Rowena?

-And a very fine day to you too lass.

-Sigh... I’m sorry. I just… I just don’t feel like I care anymore.

Despite all the problems she had caused you in the past, Rowena had slowly become the closest thing to a confident you had these days. Oddly enough, she was a very good listener.

-Aye, that I see. But things will turn out just right. Three hundred years of experience are talking to you right now.

You couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly -I really don’t know how you’ve been able to do it. I am so much older than I can take.

The call had ended after you gave Rowena your current address. She wanted to check something in the scripture database Charlie had left as her legacy that you had copied on your laptop for easy access. Rowena still didn’t like to use computers and she preferred your company to that of the boys.

You went for your cooler to grab a beer and take a break. The table of that Chapterhouse was eerily similar to the one at home. Everything was similar to everything at home. Your mind went back to the last time you had an argument with Dean over a table just like that one.

You slammed your hand over the table.

-Oh don't you put me on the backburner, Dean Winchester!

Dean stood up exasperated. -And what exactly are you going to do over there!? It’s bad enough that we’d have to watch all of our friends die together, I don’t want to see you go as well!

-And will it even matter if everybody else dies!?

Even Gabriel winced at the high pitch of your retort. You hated to show your weaknesses and Dean had managed to push you the wrong way enough. The room had gone silent, and you had to do your best to keep the tears up to yourself while hanging your head down. Finally you turned your sight back at him.

-I don’t need to argue with you. I’ll go.

You stormed before he could say a thing against it, grabbing a couple of beers on your way through the kitchen as safeguard to help yourself stay inside your bedroom without the need of going out again for at least half a day.

A soft knock came some minutes later. -Go away Bitch!

-Wow, rude much kid?

A slight pang of guilt held your gut, wrong person to lash at. You went for the doorknob and greeted a pair of pale gold eyes. Gabriel had not been too communicative with you ever since he had arrived to the bunker, not that you had had much time to interact with the assumed archangel. Still you were curious as to what the guy wanted with you. You knew from the boys that there was some sort of history between them but they never elaborated on that. You figured it might not have been that good considering Sam always winced when reminded about it and proceeded to bitchface Dean if the older brother tried to insist on telling the story.

He strolled into the room without even asking for permission.

-Couldn’t help but notice you care about the pair of idiots out there a bit too much.

You were startled, was this guy making himself at home, sitting over your bed and having a go at your recently opened beer stash?

-I thought angels were unable to taste food at all.

Gabriel just winked at her. -I’m way above the average angel Pumpkin.

-Even powered down?

-Potato, potato… whatever. You ain’t answering my question.

-I don’t recall you asking one.

He acknowledged you with a pointing finger. -You’re sassy, I like that. Come have a beer with me, my treat.

Such a ridiculous situation would have put Sam or Dean in a snappy mode but you ended up laughing about it. How could you not? It was exactly the same thing you used to do to the guys.

-You’re weird.

-Am I?

-Yeah but it’s alright... I like that.

You went to grab the second beer Gabriel already had opened for you and sat by his side. A quiet silence fell upon the both of you while you emptied your drink.

-They care about you too.

-Sigh, I know… And I get it. I mean, they are the closest thing to a family I got now but that’s exactly why I can’t let them go alone.

-We'll take care that everything goes well for you kid.

-Thanks Gabriel.

-You can call me Gabe.

-Gabe

The sound of the phone buzzing over the table woke you up. your neck was hurting. Somehow you had snoozed off and the consequences of sleep deprivation were starting to show all over your aching body.

-Yeah?

-I’m outside the Chapterhouse sweetie, be a good girl and open this door for me.

-Coming right up ma’am.

The day passed, Rowena found her translated codes with help of the database and you had found an old archived box filled to the brim with codexes on nephilim. Maybe they would be of interest for Jack, you thought while putting them aside and filling up a note in an old recording binder denoting the time of removal of the box and the Chapterhouse to where it would be moved. Habit that you had taken up after Sam had gotten the librarian in himself out and forced everyone at the bunker to use library cards whenever a book was removed for reading after having lost a particularly important tome that appeared later on in Dean’s bedroom under a scotch glass. The idiot had forgotten he had taken it.

And there was Dean again coming back to your thoughts.

Gabriel had confronted you about it in a small free space of time at the refugee camp. The grey monotone of the land thankfully cut off by the brightness of the stars above. These were the moments where despite having angels by your side you wondered if there really was a Heaven out there.

-Oh there is a Heaven alright.

You turned to look at Gabriel in a start. This wasn’t the first time an angel had given a straight answer for an unasked question. Were your thoughts so open to every feathered ass out there? Gabriel chuckled.

-I’m sorry to break it to you Sugar Plum but you really are an open book when you let your mind drift like that. The more you let yourself be swallowed by everything around you the more your thoughts resound.

Well, that explained a thing or two you thought to yourself.

-So even if I’m not praying…

-We’ll hear you alright.

-Can demons hear me as well?

-Never seen one do that so I don’t think so.

You just nodded and sighed while turning your eyes back to the sky. Gabriel just followed your gaze.

-I know there’s a Heaven alright…

-But?

-I don’t think I’ll ever reach it at all.

You could sense Gabriel turning towards you but you were angled in a way that didn’t allow you to read his expressions. You turned your head towards the ground at your feet and slightly crouched, hiding from the light above you with loose strands of hair over your gaze.

-With all these things that I've done… Guess I just hope I’d rather be thrown into The Empty.

-You don’t know what you’re saying.

-Billy said she’d throw Dean there with her own hands. I don’t see why I can’t ask for the same.

Gabriel didn’t say a thing but you could feel him turning his whole body at you, you finally decided to face the archangel.

-Stop thinking like this. You're gonna bring yourself down.

-I just don’t want to be left alone.

-No. You just don’t want to leave Dean alone.

You blushed and turned away. You were desperate to give a comeback and deny everything but you were too tired for doing anything about it at all. You had been pining over him long enough. That anybody else could see the obvious wouldn’t change the fact that the object of your affection would never see you as anything more than a cute little sister. That battle had been lost long ago.

-It doesn’t matter.

-It matters to me. -You chuckled but had to regain some sobriety when Gabriel knelt in front of you to be at your sitting height and made a move to hold your hand. -Because you are human and beautiful. And yeah, you may have committed terrible mistakes along the way but believe it or not, you are still so very pure. The single fact that you can love someone desperately enough to follow them everywhere just to ensure their safety is proof enough of that.

Everything happened so fast. Maybe it had been the piercing truth within his words, maybe it had been the soft touch between your bodies, maybe it was the way his attention was completely concentrated on you and nothing else than you. But you had felt those walls inside your heart crumble one by one and before you even knew it, your tears had been streaming down while you made a go to hold Gabriel tight and cry your grievance away.

Rowena startled you from your pensive state when she placed a plate of small sandwiches and a cup of tea in front of you.

-Enough research for today, it’s time to let the mind rest.

-Thanks Rowena. -The witch only smiled at you while sitting by your side to enjoy the refreshments.

-Well, have you discovered anything new?

You just gave away a sigh. -Not really, there is only so much documented angel lore, let alone talk about archangel lore. If we at least still had Gabriel by our side...

-...You miss the nifty steamy boy don’t you?

You could catch the undertone of the question Rowena gave you but you just didn’t feel like answering that kind of thing. -Well yeah, it would be such a great help to have him by our side to help us out of this Michael predicament. If we could only bring him back just like Jack brought Castiel ba…

You went silent, slowly dropping your hands over the table. Rowena could have been able to literally see the cogs in your brain work.

-Of course! Rowena I’m such an idiot! Why didn’t I think of this before!?

Rowena just raised an eyebrow with a smirk. She wouldn’t admit it but your pure joy was contagious and she was suddenly happy for the simple fact that you were happy as well. She saw you pick up the phone and send a message to Sam asking if he was available to talk then wait impatiently until your phone rang.

-Hello? Sam? I think I have an idea!

#supernatural #gabriel #dean winchester #reader #vee’sfavoritesongs #fanfic #spn fanfic

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notspoondere · 7 years ago

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Rocky Shocky Dracos - May 2018 Banlist

Banlist season is kind of savage when you think about it; everyone’s out for blood, and they turn to tournament results for donors.

Spoiler: we didn’t get much blood, but this list was fairly solid nonetheless.

The best decks of this format were Pendulum Magicians (notable variants included the Magician FTK, which copied the effect of Lyrilusc - Independent Nightingale twice with Supreme King Dragon Starving Venom to burn for 4000 twice; and the Zexal variant, which used Chronograph Sorcerer to make Beatrice in order to dump Rank-Up-Magic Argent Chaos Force, then overlay Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger to add it back to hand, then discard it to turn Number 39: Utopia into Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL) and True Draco (almost entirely Demise, though the Metalfoes variant also faired well). Almost nothing else came close to these decks, though the format was fairly diverse apart from that: 60-card variants, Dinosaur variants, 60-card Dinosaur variants (wow!!), SPYRAL, Burning Abyss, Zefra, Metalfoes, Mekk-Knight Invoked, and sometimes ABC and Trickstar all made significant tournament placements during the format, and for a while, it seemed like everyone was happy.

Of course, that’s ignoring the two legal FTKs. In addition to the above Pendulum FTK, Gem-Knights got a Link Monster last set, and as a result, generated some easy combos to burn 8000 on turn 1 by making Lady Lapis Lazuli and copying her effect with Gem-Knight Master Diamond. If you interrupt it, they end on True King of All Calamities instead, for an equally interactive experience.

Oh, and Draco was pretty uninteractive as well. You could spend your entire turn building the biggest board of monsters ever conceived by man, but any board without backrow could more or less be outed with good old Rocky Shocky (Amano-Iwato + Raigeki), down to the point where it was the default answer to any “break my board” post on Zodiac Duelist. Once they got in, or if they went first, they spiced up the experience by flipping two or three of the exact same floodgates every single time, so you’d have to deal with outing a Master Peace on top of obscenely powerful backrow. Oh, and Amano-Iwato also prevents the activation of handtraps (except for Infinite Impermanence), so you can’t do anything about them drawing cards!!

Mind you, this is on top of an already GOOD archetype. Imagine telling someone playing 2016 Monarchs that they made an archetype where all of the continuous spells were Eidos and drew cards, and all of the traps were Escalation, and one of them was also Monster Reborn, and all of the monsters went plus if your opponent tried to play the game, and every time you Tribute Summoned, you also destroyed stuff, and the field spell was BETTER than Domain, and...

But that’s over now, right? Did they finally do Draco dirty this time? We’ll see.

Forbidden

Astrograph Sorcerer

Astro, Astro. It’s funny how long it took for this card to become good: it wasn’t played at all until Electrumite came out, but I guess that makes sense, since Electrumite is the reason this card had to go straight from 3 to 0. Let’s get into why this card in particular is so ridiculous, and why it was obviously the best hit.

Astrograph Sorcerer does three important things.

You can destroy it in scale to summon Stargazer Magician from the deck or hand. This makes half of Electrumite without a Pendulum or Normal Summon.

If a monster is destroyed, you can summon Astrograph from hand to search another copy of any monster that was destroyed this turn. This isn’t even once per turn, and can activate even if Astrograph wasn’t in hand when it happened.

Astrograph is level 7, so you can overlay him for Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, which can float into Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon or Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon when it leaves the field; this comprises about 1/3 of the ending board of any Pendulum deck.

Best part is that putting it to 1 doesn’t stop you from being able to loop it at all! You can resolve it multiple times per turn with just one copy thanks to Electrumite’s effect.

Yeah, this was a great hit.

Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King

Yep, this is Luster Pendulum. He’s now Zoodiac Drident crossed with Apoqliphort Towers, and naturally he’s on the banlist again. Feel old yet?

To continue on that analogy, I fully expect this deck to go the way of Qliphorts and continue to see play as a stun variant. Note that nerfed Draco is still a better deck than Qliphorts, unfortunately.

Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis

Woohoo, we won’t get Plant FTK! With that, I have the feeling we’ll be getting the Aromage Link Monster next set, since that’s the card that enables this FTK. Once again, a good hit.

Supreme King Dragon Starving Venom

Magicians lost two cards, it turns out. Did I mention when you copy Independent Nightingale with this, it becomes unaffected by card effects? And it’s a 3000 beater with piercing? And you don’t even have to use Polymerization?

There were people making the case for Nightingale being banned instead of this, but I’d like to make the argument that copy effects limit design space even more than random Level 1 birds that can burn do.

I actually think the FTK more or less dies with Astrograph, but this helps to make that certain.

Ancient Fairy Dragon

Remember how everyone laughed at that Fairytale archetype and then, on the same day, an FTK was discovered off of the field spell?

Remember how ABC-Dragon Buster is a 1.5 card combo off of any Field Spell?

Remember Fieldspell.dek, which ends on UCT + Mechaba or Naturia Beast with no trouble whatsoever?

Yeah, you can thank this card for all of that. There are people that think Ancient Fairy is innocent, but this card is absolutely the culprit. I bought a copy not too long ago, but I’m glad I’ll be putting her into the “banned cards” page of my binder, hopefully never to see the light of day again.

Rank-Up-Magic Argent Chaos Force

And here’s the first case where I feel like they picked the card to hit at random, as Konami used to do. The Zexal combo required a bunch of cards to exist within the game:

RUM ACF

Chronograph Sorcerer

Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal

Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL

Gaia Dragon, etc...

It seems like Konami spun a wheel for this one, since I can’t imagine Utopic ZEXAL coming up in any non-degenerate strategies, and it certainly prevents them from printing any searchable non-Quick-Play Rank-Up-Magics, but who cares, buy Links!

That Grass Looks Greener

I’ve been a 60-card player since around this time last year, and Lightsworn is my favorite deck of all time, so I’m sad to see this one go, but it was absolutely responsible for 60-card decks’ most unfair hands. “Oh, you decided to drop Ash Blossom on my Lonefire? Here, let me just mill a third of my deck real quick and end on Naturia Beast or Void Ogre Dragon with Fairy Tail - Snow and Shiranui Spiritmaster in the GY. Oh, and you only have three cards in hand. Sorry, not sorry!”

Limited Cards

Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter

This is the best card in Draco that isn’t named Master Peace, and is the sole reason for why I think the deck isn’t totally dead. Return and Apocalypse are still absurdly strong cards going first and this card searches them.

Gem-Knight Master Diamond

Here’s another “spin the wheel” hit; the Gem-Knight that actually burns is Lady Lapis Lazuli, but hitting this hurts the deck’s attempts to play legitimately, too. Problem solved, I guess, but at what cost?

They can’t make Calamities anymore, either, but that matters much less when they can’t actually kill you, either.

Chain Strike

And there’s a strange hit! Chain Burn has been a nuisance since, well, the release of Chain Strike, and this hit is kind of out of nowhere, but who cares. Chain Burn is dead if you don’t draw an insane hand. Better now than never.

Semi-Limited Cards

Apoqlihport Towers

Ring of Destruction

I’ll take “Cards that have seen no play” for 800, Alex.

Unlimited Cards

I’m doing these out of order so I can sort them into tiers depending on how much discussion they actually deserve. Without further ado:

Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

Compulsory Evacuation Device

Fairy Tail - Luna saw no play and Solemn Strike is still at 3. Who cares.

Grandsoil the Elemental Lord

The functional errata is effective already, though we won’t get it in print until FLOD: SE. Elementsaber buff, though the deck really isn’t good anyways.

Mathematician

This is still a solid card, honestly. I could see it seeing play again in decks that don’t need a Normal Summon, or if they finally unban Construct. I don’t think that deck’s in the game right now, but it could be soon.

Atlantean Dragoons

Dragoons was tearing through boards years before SPYRAL Tough was, and honestly, there’s very little stopping it from doing so now with Light of Sekka in the game (Abyss-scale is a brick and chances are that you don’t run any spells that do anything more impactful than drawing two cards and fixing your hand). This is kind of like when Charge of the Light Brigade came back to 3: It’s a fairly solid buff to a fairly solid deck. Add onto that the imminent reprint of Moulinglacia and the new Mermail Link Monster, and the deck is looking like it’s soon to be in a very strong place.

Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior

This means virtually nothing compared to Dinomight coming back to 1.

...

Okay, hear me out. Ignis was the deck’s best play going second since it grabs Heritage, which plusses off of disruption. That’s fine, but:

Amano-Iwato stops your opponent from doing anything to stop you already.

You are going to search your spells with Diagram anyways, and you don’t need your opponent to be using effects on your turn to do that.

Heritage is still a disruptable card itself, and the proper play with Ignis is usually to let him hit the board and swing over him later in order to give the opponent Heritage on a turn when they can’t immediately use it.

For these reasons... yeah, Ignis doesn’t actually matter that much. Draco would still be fine with Ignis at 1, and I don’t really expect that he’ll be run at more than 2 at MOST due to the way optimal ratios work with Card of Demise.

END OF LIST

And that’s it. So what happened here?

Magicians nerfed. FTK and Zexal builds murdered. Pure deck is still viable.

Every other pendulum deck nerfed, though pure Metalfoes arguably lost the least. (Zefra didn’t use Astrograph at all, but really needed AFD.)

Draco nerfed. Still viable, mark my words.

60-card is dead outright. The best playmakers are still there, but Left Arm into Grass is no longer valid backup for Lonefire Blossom. You may see 40-card Dino or Zombiesworn lists in the future given good enough hands, but there’s no good way to fit the Lonefire combo in 40 cards without bricking too often.

Gem-Knight FTK dead.

Plant FTK pre-emptively dead.

Chain Burn, for some reason, also dead.

Every deck that plays Destrudo into AFD is nerfed or dead. I expect ABC and Zefra to survive through sheer power, though both lost much in consistency.

Invoked are fine, though invoked hybrids lost AFD, I guess.

World Chalice untouched. If you think you’re good at this game, try this deck and realize how wrong you are.

SPYRAL untouched. Easily a top-tier contender.

Burning Abyss untouched. Still a solid deck with proper backrow.

Paleozoics untouched, though the worst part of their worst matchup is totally gone, and they’re very solid versus Altergeist. Budget players, keep an eye on this deck.

Mermails buffed. Remember to respect this deck, since anyone who’s still got it has probably been holding onto the cards for years (especially if they have Moulinglacia, that shit went straight up to $40 a pop).

...

Neo-Spacians tier 1, obviously.

EXTRA: Cards that Did Not Get Hit, Somehow

Card of Demise

Normal Amano-Iwato, set 3, activate Diagram, Demise. Your opponent looks you straight in the eye as if you could respond, but he knows the truth. In the pursuit of victory, he lost whatever part of his heart that was capable of compassion. Even now, there’s no saving him.

This card provides way too much advantage in the right decks and has deserved a hit for like four or five lists in a row now. I’ll be happy to see it gone, but Konami seems to think not. Maybe LC Kaiba still needs to sell?

Trickstar ANYTHING

This deck has fallen off a bit, but Drollcarnation is still legal and the deck is still a threat based off of that alone.

Scapegoat

Free 1-card Borreload if your deck doesn’t SS on the opponent’s turn! That’s fair, right? Kill me.

#yugioh #yu-gi-oh #yugioh tcg

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exi-dentally · 7 years ago

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Secret Admirer - Park Jinwoo x Reader

Title: Secret Admirer Author: Haru. Pairing: Park Jinwoo x Reader Prompt: “I can’t tell them I’m writing the love notes! They’ll kill me!”

"'And, with everything that happens in this dark, confusing world,'" The girl had her nose deep into her novel, sitting under a cherry blossom tree with her backpack filled with her homework which was due tomorrow and a portable mug full of green, mint tea. "'I will do anything to protect you and make sure you're safe, happy and well, for you are my entire galaxy.'" Placing her bookmark in the page she was finished reading, the girl closed her book and hugged it near her chest with a sigh. Oh, how great it would be to get something like that. The world would probably have to be in peril for something as realistic as that, to happen to a simple, bookworm like her. Tipping her black rimmed hipster glasses further on her nose, the young hopeless teenager carefully - so that nothing happened to her baby, her book - laid her book in her backpack and stood up, swinging the bag onto her shoulders. "Why don't boys behave like the ones in the novels?" She questioned out loud, trudging her way home, mentally cursing her teacher for assigning multiple pages of homework. You know, professor, there are more to students' lives than just homework! Some people actually have lives! Shocking, right? Pulling out her phone, she unlocked it by pressing her thumb on the home button of her phone and tapped on the messaging app, opening her conversation with her best friend.

(Y/N): Jinjin, I'm almost finished the novel you wanted me to read!!! It's pretty good.

The girl smiled to herself as she looked up from her screen, gazing up at the beautiful sky, trying to make shapes out of the clouds as she waited for Jinjin to reply to her text. "Butterfly," She whispered to herself, the clouds coming together to form a butterfly. You know, if you spot a butterfly, that means your soulmate is sending you love. But who would believe in those types of things these days? Her phone vibrated in her palm, making her instantly check it.

Jinwoo: I gave it to you, like, five days ago and you're almost finished it? Geeze!

The girl laughed and his response and started to type out her reply.

(Y/N): I like reading, okay? Besides I couldn't put it down after the first few chapters. I am seriously in love with Theta. Jinwoo: Aren't we all?

"Why does school hate me so much?" The girl groaned as she took notes down about Chemistry in her notebook. She used a variety of colors and post-it notes; each color held a different importance, red was for new vocabulary, blue for hints for upcoming tests and the end of the year exam and purple for extra notes. "I think school hates everyone, jagi." "Says the one who the teacher actually likes - teacher's pet." "The one time I wanted to get a good grade on that ONE test I didn't understand," The girl sitting in the desk beside him snickered, reminiscing of the memory Jinwoo tried so hard to burn (although, with his best friend doing that and reminding him, there was no way he could forget). "And my mom decided that baking cookies and asking for extra help after school were the greatest ways to bump up my grades." "Still quite funny that you did that--" "Shut up," The dirty blond boy huffed and chucked a spare pencil from his pencil case at her, making her laugh a little harder. Sometimes, he questioned why the hell he decided to stick with her for that long... The little bugger. "Pay attention to the board." "Oh, I will, don't worry." The girl replied and took out her packet of sticky notes, writing down the formula for finding how many electrons were present in every subshell in the Quantum Atomic Model - the most (confusing) and current model that chemists have designed and theorize how the atom of each element - including isotopes - looks like. Though, since when did science ever make sense? Even the teacher, who, hell, probably has a degree in Chemistry - the science he's educating them on - said that no one truly knows how an atom looks like, thus meaning everything about this stupid quantum model or any other models chemists or scientists in general have ever made. Jinwoo, once finished copying his notes - in his chicken scratch writing because he needed to leave before the bell rang - raised up his hand and quickly and deviously stuffed something in his jeans pocket. "Mr. Teacher-nim," the dirty blond called on his teacher, making him pause from the note-taking. "May I be excused early?" "Is there any reason why you want to leave," The teacher turned around to face the analog clock that was at the back of the classroom, reading the time. "About fifteen minutes before the bell?" "Yes, actually," He stood up, smirking at the girl beside him as she shot him a look. If only looks could kill Park Jinwoo would be on the floor having a heart attack. The male student then made his way over to the front of the class, still with his stupidly (attractive) smug look on his face, taking out a note from his binder. "My mom wrote this, you can actually call her to verify if you'd like." He then flashed an innocent smile at the teacher before bowing and walking out of class. Time to put his plan into action! Mission 001: Love Note In Locker. "That smug, stupid, little--" The teacher coughed as the whole class looked over at the girl, who was fuming with anger at her alleged best friend ditching the most boring class she had on her schedule. Biting her lip she bowed her head as an apology to the teacher and her classmates for disrupting and once again started to take notes. "If you're going to ditch class with a note from your mom, at least ask her to add me onto that note as well, Park Jinwoo!!”

Lunchtime. Thank the bloody Lords. Walking over to her locker, the female carefully placed her books near her feet and held her metallic lock in her hands, taking ahold of the dial to punch in her code. "Hey," Jinwoo appeared at her left side, leaning back against the lockers. "Are we sitting at the usual place near the music room with the gang?" "Well, obviously," The girl replied, pulling her lock down to unlock it. "Where else would we go?" "Outside like normal students our age to get some vitamin D." "I don't want to go outside because, one," The girl hooked the hook of her lock onto the inside of the handle of the locker, pausing from opening her locker to look over at Jinwoo. "It's raining--" "A little rain can't hurt you--" "And two, if we go outside, I swear to you that there are going to be people flocking us because of Eunwoo." The boy rolled his eyes at (Y/N)'s attempt to lie and make excuses. "You're lucky you're my best friend." "Unfortunately." She teased with a grin as she opened her locker. A small, folded piece of paper fluttered out of her locker and the girl watched as it gracefully fell onto her books. "Looks like someone's got a note." "Shut up." The girl glared at the older male before bending down and picking up the note, slowly unfolding it. "'You're the cutest nerd I know.'" "Why are reading over my shoulder?" "Because I want to know who's trying to win over my best friend." "What makes you think this note is legit?" The girl re-folded the note and placed it in one of the compartments in her bag, zipping it up. "It could literally be that some random dude mistook my locker for someone else's." "There's a chance it could be real," Jinwoo said with a shrug, helping the girl put her textbooks, binder and pencil case in her locker, placing it just the way the girl liked it - the binders had to be placed in pattern (the first one had its spine facing her, the other one had the spine facing the back of the locker), her textbook spines facing her and the notebooks she kept for each color had been put according to color (biology and mathematics were both purple notebooks, thus they were together, along with the blue notebooks which were English and French, then the red notebooks were for the chemistry courses she was taking. "Shouldn't you have a little hope in the field of romance." "I do," The girl replied, going onto her tippy toes to reach the top of her locker to grab her lunch kit. "I'm a hopeless romantic, just like you, but," She then lowered herself to the ground and looked over at her best friend, pouting. "The boys here aren't that interested in me." "Says the one who got the love letter." "Then again, you and the rest of the group always has fans running up to them--" "Let's not talk about that during lunch time. Lunch is sacred time to eat and socialize with friends."

In the school, since they were high schoolers - juniors, to be exact - they were able to eat wherever the hell they wanted to, which thank the lord because the gym cafeteria was complete garbage and there were way too many people around. The seven of them - Sanha, MJ, Jinjin, Rocky, Eunwoo, (Y/N) and Moonbin - sat on the roof of the building where the staff had the greenhouse for the various flora and plants to show off that they were a 'green thumbed' and 'eco friendly' school. The group sat at a plastic wood looking picnic table - Sanha, (Y/N), Jinjin sat in front of MJ, Eunwoo, Moonbin while Rocky was too cool for the uncomfortable, tiny spot left for him on the picnic table bench and sat on top of the table. "What'cha got for lunch?" Asked the youngest of the group, Sanha, as he peeked over the girl's shoulder to peer into her lunch bag. The girl huffed and pulled her lunch bag near her chest, half glaring at Sanha. "Nothing of your concern." "But you share with Jinjin-hyung all the time!" "It's because he at least shares his food with me as well!" "Kids!" MJ, the eldest but the shortest out of the bunch stood up and bent over the table from his seat, holding out his arms to block Sanha from (Y/N) fighting. "There's no fighting at the table." "We're not fighting," The girl replied, mumbling her words and watching as Sanha backed off since Binnie glared at Sanha as well. "We're simply bantering, there is a difference." "It's a synonym for fighting," Eunwoo corrected, holding up his index finger in the air and smiled. "So it counts." The two 'kids' huffed and opened their lunches simultaneously and stuffed the sandwich, which was in their lunch bags packed by their lovely mothers, making the rest of the group laugh. "So," Jinjin started to spike up a conversation, smirking over to his best friend, nudging her left arm as she held the sandwich with her right had and munched on it. "Someone got a love letter in her locker today." "What?!" All the boys gasped in unison, looking over at her or leaning over the table, getting into her space bubble. "You got a love note?!" "Finally!" Rocky grinned and turned around, facing his friend, eyes crinkling as he smiled. "Someone had the balls to ask you out! I told you, a lot of people actually like you, they just don't have the guts!" "I wonder who it is!" Binnie added, grinning from ear to ear at his friend, chuckling at her blushing face. "I really hope this boy that likes you is a nice one! A gentleman for our (Y/N)!" "It's probably fake," The girl interjected with a cough as she finished off the rest of her sandwich and zipping up her lunch bag. With her friend's weird antics, she slowly lost her appetite. Hyping her up on something like this - a love letter that had a 90% chance that it could have been a prank - was stupid. She didn't want to believe in something that might not ever happen. "Besides, the locker beside mine is Pinky's, maybe it was for her." "Nonsense!" Jinjin immediately replied, making the boys glare at him for almost spilling the identity of the note writer. "I think it was meant for you! I mean, Pinky isn't that much of a nerd as you are..." "Still," The girl got up and exited the table, going downstairs to her locker. Meanwhile with the rest of the boys, they were all yelling and bickering with Jinjin. "If you're going to mess up MJ's plan like that," Rocky huffed and smacked Jinjin's chest. "You should just confess." "I can't just tell her that I'm the one that wrote that letter! She'll kill me!" "Well then next time, don't be stupid!" "Sanha!"

A/N: That took days to finish! Sorry for the long wait! I have been trying to feel better the past few days! So @sanhalation (Riley) here’s the fic you’ve been waiting for hehe! I love you Riles, hope you love it!

-H.

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