#HOWEVER i saw a review of someone saying it came out of nowhere and was unnecessary

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread    

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

a female professor from Cambridge visiting a wintery town in the far north with her old dog to study the local fey for her encyclopedia

her colleague shows up despite her protests, managing to charm the local townsfolk

in the form of journal entries

interesting fey, field trips, grumpy romance

[mercurialmalcontent]

Spoiler-free DA:TV Review

tl;dr -- I thought it was fantastic.

When I found out we were really for real getting a new Dragon Age game, I was interested but not excited. It had been ten years since DAI released and I'd made my peace with us never getting another one years ago, so my reaction was oh, that's cool, maybe I'll get it on sale later. As release came closer and I saw more about the game I got more interested, enough so that when I suddenly had some spare cash I decided I'd get it on release after all.

I ended up barely able to put it down for two solid weeks.

The Dragon Age writing team wove together all the many, many story threads they spun out over the previous three games into one glorious tapestry. None of the story felt like it came out of nowhere or any sort of gotchya, but that it was carefully and expertly crafted into what unfolded before my eyes.

The story is also focused in a way that Origins and DAI were not. No more meandering aimlessly around a map or ultimately pointless fetch quests; every sidequest ties into the story and has direct results… as do your decisions. There will be things that come back to haunt you, because all hard decisions have consequences, after all.

The rest is under a cut for length.

On a character level, for once I didn't feel like any of the companions were extraenous. They're all integral in their areas of expertise and, as far as I could tell in one lengthy playthrough, all have a lot of reactivity to one another (and apparently other non-companion NPCs). It's worth switching your party up regularly and going back to base after every quest to see who's chatting with who and who has new things to say to you. I'm absolutely certain I missed a ton of stuff because I'd get so caught up in questing and exploring and didn't return to base often in early game.

For the player character, Rook is less of a blank slate than the Inquisitor or HoF, but more of one than Hawke. They very much have a base personality suited to someone who can build trust and lead a team, but you have a lot of flexibility in how to express that. Mimir, for example, I played as largely stoic and decisive with a few places he was pushed into a snarling rage, but when he independently acted a little goofy and awkward after building up some trust with his team, it still made sense -- after all, how is he going to build trust if he can't unclench once in a while? I played into that in his more vulnerable moments and it worked really well for me.

I was also delighted that his background came into play far, far more frequently than I could have guessed. I chose Mourn Watch because it sounded interesting, but I had my doubts about how tied into the story it would really be. However, I got quite a few Mourn Watch-specific responses and a TON of dialogue whenever anything to do with their domain came up. Mimir was able to talk shop extensively with the Mourn Watch companion and it felt like they understood each other on a deeper level, especially coming from a culture considered weird and creepy by most of Thedas. (Some players may still find Nevarran customs weird and creepy, but personally I thought they handled death in an interesting and respectful way.)

Rook's race also plays a part in how they participate in conversations. Mimir is an elf, and while I got the occassional elf-specific option, he would often indepedently speak from an elvish perspective in relevant conversations. I really enjoyed him feeling like a part of the world without me having to make it happen.

As far as the moment-to-moment gameplay goes, I had a great time. Maps were fun to traverse, with multiple levels and full of (relatively simple but still satisfying) puzzles to get to hidden areas and secret chests. There are some jumping puzzles, but they're pretty forgiving (if you almost-but-don't-quite make a jump, Rook will grab on and haul themself up) and there's no fall damage; any fall that would have killed you just respawns you where you jumped. Maybe this takes the 'stakes' out for some people, but I'm glad they cut out the annoyance.

The combat is fast and fun, if a little frantic once the game starts throwing five to ten enemies at you at once. (I recommend playing with a controller if you can.) I went straight Adventurer (normal) difficulty and only had to use a revive a handful of times, but there's a lot of customization so you can tweak things to get gameplay you prefer. (There's also a wealth of other accessibility options too; the fixed point always on screen saved me from constant motion sickness.) If you don't want to change difficulties but still struggle, check your build; you can redo your point allocation for free any time outside of combat. I started having a hard time with my scattershot choices at around level 20, but when I refunded my points and went straight for a specialization before branching out, I was suddenly hitting a lot harder.

While I do have my nitpicks, they're pretty inconsequential. I only have two real gripes -- one is that it's not entirely clear when you're going to a one-time-only map. Unfortunately these maps are also littered with treasure and codex entries that you'll miss forever if you skip them. Being on an ostensibly time-sensitive mission but knowing you're going to miss a bunch of stuff if you don't explore is a buzzkill.

The other is more petty but still really annoyed me, and that's that enemies can block your attacks even when you're standing directly behind them. I thought maybe I was reading the screen wrong until J watched me play a bit and asked, "Uh, why was he able to block you from behind??" Good question! I grumbled "This doesn't happen in Elden Ring" far too often.

I'll be playing the game again at least a couple more times; I'm really interested in seeing how the story feels from the perspective of other races and factions, and I always have a good time in taking a closer look at how the story falls into place once I know how it plays out.

[treesnutsandleaveswrites]

Night on the Town

Pairing: The Bad Batch x Reader (Polyam)

Summary: After the mission, you all head to Coruscant to the Clone bar 79’s; part 4 to my bad batch polyam series

Warning: discussion about sex, flirting, jealousy

Word Count: 2185

A/N: Made a masterlist for my works, it's pinned on my profile

pt iii, pt v

XXXXXXX

You sat in the cockpit, reviewing the recent data you got from the mission. It was nice and quiet on the ship as you made your way back to Kamino.

“Ugh! Are there any upcoming missions?!” Wrecker groaned as he walked into the cockpit.

“Not that I’ve been notified of.” You explained. “Great! Let’s go to 79’s!”

You looked at the boys with a confused look, “79’s?”

Tech sighed, “It’s a bar on Coruscant where most of the Clone Troopers go to cool down after missions.”

“That sounds fun. We should go. Especially after this mission.” You suggested.

They all looked at each other before nodding and dispersing to other parts of the ship.

Hunter took your hand gently and led you out of the cockpit. He sat down in the main section of the ship and looked down at his hands. Wrecker settled in one of the bunks, immediately knocking out, and Crosshair was in his compartment. You looked at Hunter and sat next to him, grabbing his hands gently.

“What is it?” You whispered, so no to overstimulate his senses. He turned to you and reached to cup your face before taking a moment to look into your eyes. Worry started to pool in the pit of your stomach which Hunter could sense, so he shook his head.

“I’m alright, cyar’ika. Really…”

It was nowhere near convincing, so you moved closer and placed your lips against his. It must have felt extremely relieving to him because he sighed into your lips and pulled you onto his lap. His lips then started to trail away from yours and found the skin of your neck. Even if you have been with the batch for nearly a year now, you were still in the early stages of your relationship with all of them. The subject of intimacy and sex life never really came up due to the interruption of work. You didn’t want to stop him, but knew you couldn’t continue. You grabbed his shoulders gently before pushing him back against the back of the seat and looking at him. He was panting softly and holding your hips.

“Sorry…” He whispered.

You didn’t know what to say while caressing the tattooed side of his face. Multiple thoughts started to reel through your mind which you wanted to relay to him. You looked towards the direction of the cockpit and called out.

“Tech! How long until we’re in Coruscant’s star system?”

“An hour, maybe more! I don’t want to waste the fuel on a lightspeed jump!”

You nodded and stood, holding out your hand. Hunter took it and you pulled him into the cockpit.

“Wait here…”

You rushed out of the cockpit and stood next to Wrecker’s bunk. He always took the top bunk, so you stepped on the bottom one and held yourself up with his own.

“Wreck… darling?”

He grunted before opening his eyes, “Yes, ad'ika?”

“Can we talk in the cockpit? Wait for me there, okay?”

He grunted in response and got down when you moved from his space, going up the ladder of the shooter’s chair. You found Crosshair leaning against the wall and examining one of his blasters.

“Cross…” You whispered, which caused him to turn his head to you, “Can… can you come join us in the cockpit? I want to talk about something.”

He gave you a short nod before you moved back to the cockpit with him behind you. The other boys were talking amongst themselves, obviously confused with why you wanted to gather them together. You entered and Crosshair leaned against the wall next to the threshold. Tech offered you a seat at the front of the cockpit and the rest of them averted their attention to you. You looked down at your hands, feeling the tension grow stronger.

“I… I wanted to talk about us.”

“How so, mesh’la?”

You started to get flustered and tried not to choke on your words, “I-I know we have been together for almost a year and I wanted to talk about… um…” You felt your face start to heat up more, “Dank farrik.” You cussed quietly, causing the boys to chuckle.

“It’s alright, ad'ika. Take your time.”

You nodded and hummed, “Umm, I wanted to talk about… becoming intimate?”

The boys looked at each other, shocked by the words that just left your lips. This caused you to sigh and turn away.

“Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything-”

“No, no, mesh’la. It’s alright.” Hunter took hold of your shoulders and crouched to meet your eyes, “We’ve… we’ve actually talked about this also.”

“You have?”

“Yes, but we were unsure how to approach you about this.” Tech admitted.

“Oh…” You sat back as Hunter stood up and looked at the others.

“We didn’t know if you preferred to talk about it individually, or if you wanted to talk as a group, but now we’re here.”

You nodded and cleared your throat, “Do… do you want me all at once or-”

“We don’t want to pressure you, ad’ika. If you want to start with us individually, you can.”

“Have you… have you done this before?”

“Well… we’ve had our share of lovers but never have shared one before you.”

You nodded, “Okay.”

“And we have been in group things with one or two brothers before, but not all of us together.”

“Ah.” You whispered, feeling smaller than before.

“And what about you, cyare?” Echo chimed, “Have you been with anyone?”

You blushed and looked down at your hands, fiddling with them nervously. It took each of them a moment before realizing what you were implying. No one really knew what to say, but then Wrecker spoke up.

“We don’t want to pressure you to choose who you’d like to... do it with first. And we’ll try not to be upset with who you choose.” Wrecker said as gently as he could. The other boys nodded and looked at you as your eyes scanned the room. Crosshair was still leaning against the wall, no change in facial or words coming from his lips. However, when you looked at him, his eyes quickly looked away. This must have meant he had something on his mind, but you weren’t going to make him tell you at the moment. You stood and looked at your lovers.

“Thank you so much for being so understanding.”

“Of course, mesh’la.”

Everyone dispersed and went back to whatever they were doing. You placed yourself in front of one of the ship’s computers and decided to look some things up. Some time passed and your eyes started to hurt from the brightness of the display. You then got up, decided to stretch your legs, and stepped on the seats to get something from the small storage compartment. As you were stepping down, a pair of hands grabbed your waist to help you. You turned once you were back on the floor and saw Crosshair. The both of you looked deeply into each other's eyes, not speaking; however, you knew he had some things to say. You gestured to the seats next to you which caused him to nod and sit with you.

“What… what do you think? Y’know, of what we discussed?”

He took a moment before speaking lowly, “I agree with the others. We won’t pressure you into choosing who you’d like to be intimate with first,” He hesitated before continuing, “I… I have had thoughts about you. About us…”

You bit your bottom lip and nodded before smiling, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to figure things out together. Luckily, we have some time off. Maybe something will happen on Coruscant…” He looked at you for a second before nodding. You kissed the corner of his lips gently then let him walk off to his compartment.

The Havoc Marauder landed in Coruscant at one of the local hangars. You held Wrecker’s hand as all of you walked out of the hangar and looked over Coruscant.

“Let’s get a car and head to 79’s.” Hunter suggested, heading to another part of the hangar. There was a small garage that let people rent out speeder bikes and other vehicles of transportation. A skiff was rented since you were a big group, and you all headed to 79’s.

You walked into the bar and looked around, seeing many clone troopers and some other different customers. Tech took your hand before leading you to a booth big enough to seat the six of you. Even if the place was mainly full of clones, it was a fairly new atmosphere for you. People were yelling, laughing, and even singing: though it wasn’t any good. It was entirely different from when the clones would spend their free time on Kamino, which was mostly for training or eating in the mess hall.

Tech stood and looked at the lot of you, “I’m going to get us a round of drinks. Your usuals, brothers?”

They nodded and then he looked to you, “Anything for you, darling?”

“Um… something not too strong, please.”

Once he went to the bar, the others sat quietly. You looked around, and recognized most of the other clones. Even if they had the same face, you can tell them apart individually from certain physical marks and mannerisms. Someone called your name from across the bar so you turned. It was Noco with a few others from his squadron. The boys groaned while rolling their eyes, which made you laugh gently before greeting him as he walked over to your table.

“I didn’t know you came here!” He grinned.

“First time. Do you come here often?”

“Of course. I’m always near the temple in case any of the jedi masters need help.”

That was one thing Noco seemed to always talk about. The Jedi. You didn’t blame his enthusiasm, but it was starting to get tedious.

“That sounds amazing, Noco. I-” You stopped when you looked over to the bar to see Tech being fondled over by some random woman, “I… just want to relax with my squadron for now. It was nice seeing you and I hope we can catch up on Kamino when we aren’t drinking.”

Noco laughed, “Of course!” He then walked back to his friends and they ordered a round of drinks. Your eyes then immediately averted back to Tech. The woman had her hands nearly everywhere and you could feel yourself start to burn a hole into her with your eyes.

“Mesh’la? What’s wrong?” Echo looked over to where you were looking, realizing why you were so distracted. He smirked and nudged Hunter. He also looked before patting Crosshair’s shoulder to relay the situation at hand. Wrecker had been busy ordering some food for you all at the other side of the bar. As you were still looking at the woman and Tech, Hunter spoke.

“Tech! Why don’t you bring your friend over!”

Your heart skipped a beat as you looked at Hunter, who sat back and shrugged, but a sly smile formed on his lips. Tech walked over with the tray of drinks and the woman by his side.

“Friends, this is Ky’ari. She lives around these parts.”

The boys shook hands with her while introducing themselves. Tech took a seat next to Crosshair and she leaned over his shoulder. You clenched your hand closed which caused your knuckles to turn almost white. Crosshair saw this and a small smirk reached his mouth.

“This is our communications officer: Lodestar.” He introduced.

“Lodestar, what a funny name.” Ky’ari smiled,

“It’s a nickname.” You managed to get out. The heat in your chest and throat started to rise and you wanted to spit venom at this woman.

“What’s an officer like you hanging around here for?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” You downed your drink, “You’re such a pretty woman, should be all over those holoboards outside.”

“I like the company.”

“Well there’s plenty of that here. And lucky you, they look the same so you don’t have to learn their names.” You shrugged, leaning back and looking at the boys, “Almost all of them have the same body and stamina anyways.”

It was Crosshair and Hunter’s turn to have sour faces due to being compared to all the regs in the bar. Wrecker made his way back with a tray full of food and laughed.

“Sorry about that! Couldn’t find my credit holder!”

The woman’s eyes lit up seeing Wrecker, but an idea popped up in your head.

“Here, Wreck, let me give you some more room. May I?” You gestured to his lap and he grinned before nodding.

You moved and gently hummed, “Well, let’s all try to have a nice night and relax.” You picked up a piece of food and popped it into your mouth.

Wrecker was enjoying the food also while the other boys looked at you. Each one of them had a hint of jealousy behind their eyes. It wasn’t long before the woman was distracted by a different clone and left all of you alone. You knew you were going to be in for a long night.

XXXXXXX

Another reminder that requests are open! You find the link to the guidelines on my Masterlist post!

[wintermelonbear]

Artistry

Pairing: Damian Al-Ghul Wayne/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Trope/s: Childhood Friends, No Powers AU

Summary: A story in which two seemingly dissimilar eight-year-olds build bonds through their love for martial arts. Written for the MGI Trope Tussle 2021.

Words: 4808

Damian and Marinette first met when they were 8 at his mother’s Wushu studio. At first glance they were an unlikely duo, before meeting in martial arts class their social circles ran entirely parallel with one another with Damian attending a private school that was a feeder for Gotham academy and Marinette attending a public elementary local to her, but they truly brought out the best in each other.

Damian had grown up inside his mother’s studio, working day in and day out from the tender age of 3 to improve his weaponry and martial arts skill. His mother and father, divorced but trying their best to co-parent for his sake, each preached to him about the importance of self-discipline and concentration. When his mother and her father, Ras himself a master martial artist, had competed in Wushu they were national champions. As a third-generation practitioner of Wushu, Damian had a lot riding on his shoulders.

Marinette’s mother had practiced Wushu as a child in China. When she first arrived in France she found herself disappointed that there were no local Chinese martial arts centers, let alone Wushu training centers. Sabine always thought it would be a passion she could pass down to her future child, but there was only so much she could teach on her own. However, as fate would have it, after a falling out with Tom’s father Roland the Dupain-Chengs found themselves in a city not too far from Gotham, New Jersey. Sabine was pleasantly surprised to find that the martial arts scene was much more alive there than it had been in Paris. However, between the bakery and her young daughter Sabine had little time to spend practicing martial arts. It wasn’t until Marinette’s kindergarten teacher suggested that Marinette be enrolled in a sport to better her hand-eye coordination that Sabine finally put her daughter into formal martial arts courses.

At first, everything was fine until it became apparent that Marinette was progressing much faster than her peers, despite her typical clumsiness she was surprisingly adept at martial arts. Sabine wasn’t entirely surprised as while Wushu was difficult to teach within the confined space they had at home, she still took the time to practice Tai Chi with her daughter on the weekends, providing Marinette with martial arts fundamentals and self-discipline. With Marinette’s slight inclination for martial arts paired with her hard work she was outperforming her classmates and even some of the older kids at the studio she went to. Eventually, Marinette found herself ostracized by her peers, but her teachers at the studio refused to advance her because they had an in-house rule where children could not be advanced more than two years past their age group. Tom and Sabine knew that pulling Marinette out of the sport entirely was off the table, the pure joy that spread across her face every time she mastered a new trick was proof enough that she was in love with the sport. So they set off to find a new studio to train at, where Marinette’s needs as a budding martial artist would be met. After looking around for a while, they decided to give Talia’s Wushu academy a try despite it being a little over a 30-minute drive from their house.

In regards to the first year of their friendship, Marinette would describe it as very professional, and almost nothing more. It took a while for Damian to become more cordial with her. When asked, Marinette would say “Damian didn’t like me, but he tolerated me enough as a partner because there was only so much practice he could have done alone.”

At first, Damian did not like Marinette at all, in fact, maybe he even hated her. When he first met her, Damian thought she was like every other “talented” kid that came into his mother’s studio, only to realize talent alone would get you nowhere in the sport of Wushu. On her first day, she immediately took up the spot next to him at the front and center of the class and offered him a warm smile, “Hello my name is Marinette, I’m new here.” Damian returned her greeting with a harsh tut of his tongue and the turn of his head, he was there to train, not to make friends. Marinette’s expression was aghast, but she quickly recovered and mumbled a soft “okay not talkative then…this is going great….” Damian suppressed an eye roll, simply because he knew his mother would not tolerate that in her classroom.

Against every one of Damian’s expectations, Marinette proved herself to be a hard-working individual. Eventually, after seeing her work on her technique and tricks after class during open gym hours, seeing that she wasn’t relying purely on natural ability and truly was putting in the effort to become a better martial artist, he began to tolerate her. The first time he returned her daily “Hello” with the nod of his head Marinette’s facial expression went from neutral to shocked to absolutely beaming. Damian simply raised his eyebrow and continued with his pre-class warmup.

Over time Marinette had grown a deep respect for Damian; she wished he was a bit friendlier, but despite their rough start Marinette realized early on that, while gruff and unfriendly, Damian was kind in his own way. He always pointed out when someone’s technique was wrong so that they wouldn’t hurt themselves, he always helped bandage someone up when they were hurt, and he always stayed after class to help his mom clean up. Most people would think he did it out of obligation or his mother’s demands, but Marinette loves people watching, and even after just a few months Marinette has observed that Talia would rather Damian use the time to better himself and will insist that she, or one of their workers, handle the menial tasks.

It was not until Damian saw Marinette work through her struggles that he gained respect for her. While Wushu is a largely performative sport where everyone’s moves are choreographed, Talia wanted to ensure everyone was also learning basic self-defense resulting in regularly held sparring sessions at the end of class. Marinette was a great performer, she was highly expressive and could easily recall choreography, but she had minimal exposure to actual sparring and her reflexes were not as sharp and trained like the others. She managed to win against her opponents in the first few classes by utilizing her creativity, but eventually, her lack of experience caught up with her and in her third month at the studio, she began her losing streak. Looking at her lose to her opponents time and time again he couldn’t help but wonder to himself, “will you still be here tomorrow?” Growing up in the studio, Damian knew that most of the people who were considered to be “gifted” had a tendency to drop out the moment things no longer came naturally to them, they grew frustrated with themselves and then with the sport. At this point, he figured he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Instead, the stage was set for her to become the most prevalent figure in his life.

Despite being in the same classes for over 3 months Damian and Marinette had never sparred. It was actually quite odd that they hadn’t yet sparred, the pairings for the most part were random. Talia reasoned that with the right circumstances even someone who seems weak could win; it was important to never underestimate an opponent and lower your guard. After bowing to one another their eyes met. If you asked them as adults they would unabashedly say that they love the other’s eyes, it was like staring at the calm before a storm. Their eyes were clear, fierce, and piercing. Despite being clearly disadvantaged Marinette showed no fear. She met his first few strikes blow for blow and even managed to evade a few of his strikes with a few unique tumbling passes – something Damian noted that she excelled in. He could tell she has been studying him, observing his strike patterns from his previous matches. Rather than reacting to his strikes, she was anticipating them – a smart move considering her reflexes were lacking. Unfortunately for Marinette, this meant that one unanticipated fake was all it took to defeat her.

That night during open gym hours Marinette approached Damian on her own for the first time. “There is only so much I can practice on my own, please train with me.”

“Why would I do that?” Damian held his face firm, his mouth in a thin line and his eyebrow slightly quirked.

Marinette’s eyes steeled over with conviction. “Did you know that every time you get up from xie bu you duck your chin down in your struggle to regain balance? It’s obvious you’re trying to shift your center of gravity. Instead, try leaning on your front leg from the beginning. The first few times you try this method, you should put a ball between your chin and neck to keep your head held up until you get used to it.”

“How did you–?”

“Notice? I love observing others, I can help you. There’s only so much we can practice on our own. I need help with my reflexes and you need someone who can review your performances. We can’t do this alone. You don’t have to like me, you just have to work with me. What do you say? Deal?”

“Tch. Deal.”

At first, their conversations mainly consisted of Marinette’s one-sided chatter during their warm-up, breaks, and cool-down stretches. It took a while for Marinette to get Damian to open up, but once she found the right topics she found that he was strongly opinionated about almost everything and shared quite a few hobbies with her. While Wushu was the common interest that brought them together, they were much more alike than they thought. They both enjoyed art, video games, and superhero shows to name a few common interests. Damian would say he would want to be a hero without any powers, someone who relies on their own skill to punish evil-doers. Marinette on the other hand would love to be a magical girl who could save others without causing too much damage. After hotly debating the topic of normal heroes and powered heroes, Damian and Marinette came to an agreement that both sides had their own set of struggles and perks.

Damian and Marinette found themselves spending more time with each other both inside and outside of the studio. After arguing over which type of paint was superior, Marinette was team watercolor because of its varied use, relative cheapness to oil paints, and blendability where Damian was a more traditional artist who believed that the blending capabilities of oil paint were just as good, if not better, and their longevity was worth the cost, the two decided to settle it with a paint off. Art sessions quickly became a biweekly tradition between the two, whenever the Gotham botanical garden would have a new exhibit Marinette would insist they go to sketch the flora. Damian quickly found that Marinette was almost as passionate about plants as he was about animals, with the way she flitted about the garden he couldn’t help but wonder if she had been something like a ladybug in her past life. There were also plenty of weekends spent sketching Damian’s pets, though Marinette would note that no drawings could capture what good boys Titus, Alfred the Cat, Jerry the Turkey, and Bat Cow were.

Together they found new ways to integrate Wushu into their hobbies, Marinette had plenty of friends at school who loved art and plenty of friends who did Wushu at the same center, but Damian was the only one she shared nearly all her passions with.

With their art, they began making flyers and posters for the studio, and banners to cheer on their classmates at competitions – Damian would argue he only did this because it would increase morale, which in turn would produce better results for the studio. Marinette struggled with the posters at first as a lot of proposed designs incorporated traditional Chinese characters, she couldn’t even write in Pinyin! Tom and Sabine had prioritized teaching Marinette about her French roots, in the event that one day they decided to move back to France, and neglected teaching her much about Chinese heritage. Marinette still learned basic conversational phrases: yes, no, please, thank you, and familial titles, but she was nowhere near conversational or fluent. After realizing Marinette did not know how to speak Mandarin Damian made it his personal goal to make her at least conversational before they would begin to travel internationally for competitions. Many of the major Wushu competitions took place in China and if Marinette was going to be his partner in the couples division he was going to make sure she was able to converse with any interviewers they may meet, and that if she were to end up lost – he swears Marinette was born without a sense of direction – that she could find her way back to him or their hotel. He hoped that while working on the banners he could work in a few lessons on traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters so that Marinette could at least read signs. Apart from art, reenacting scenes from video game cutscenes and superhero movies became one of their favorite activities, it became a way to train while still having plenty of fun. Sometimes after mastering a new move-in Ultimate Mecha Strike, they would break out the crash mats to test if the moves in the game were actually physically possible.

Even the hobbies Damian didn’t share with Marinette he was willing to partake in, and the fact that he was trying meant the world to Marinette. Damian was rarely physically affectionate in the first few years of their friendship, and it was even rarer for him to vocalize his emotions, and so Marinette quickly learned that Damian had a tendency to express himself through his actions. A lot of people failed to see how warm and loving Damian truly was, but Marinette saw it in how he interacted with everyone. For example, when Damian’s eldest brother opened up an acrobatics and gymnastics center Damian immediately volunteered to design and paint a mural on the outside that would more easily catch attention, Marinette watched him alter the design day and night and sort through hundreds of color palettes to ensure the pairing was just right. She saw his kindness through his interactions with his family and hers, the painting of her mom and dad baking, a gift from Damian for their 20th anniversary, hung up in the living room was more physical proof of it. When Marinette began sewing he proudly wore her designs and when she began to take commissions, he always kept her business card on his body in the event someone asked about his apparel.

One of Marinette’s fondest memories with Damian was when they decided to host a bake sale to offset the cost of international travel for the competition team. It was near the Mid-Autumn festival so Marinette and her parents decided to make mooncakes. Damian had some experience in the kitchen helping his mother make baozi and baklava, but he definitely wasn’t as experienced as Marinette who grew up in a bakery, yet he still came over to help them with the first few test batches and to help design packaging. Watching him carefully weigh out the ingredients her parents listed and chat about his favorite flavors with her parents in French filled her with so much warmth. The kitchen was filled with banter as a discourse between traditional baked mooncakes and skin mooncakes arose. Marinette and Sabine preferred snow skin mooncakes, the chewiness pairs well with pastes like red bean and taro, where Damian and Tom were strongly on the side of the more traditionally baked mooncake, arguing that the crumble of the pastry paired with fillings like salted egg and lotus paste was clearly superior. Marinette was unsurprised that Damian was strongly advocating for traditional flavors, but her father? The same man who made mustard macarons? It wasn’t until Marinette suggested thousand-layer mooncakes were simply croissants with a pasty filling that everyone else was willing to set aside their different preferences to unite against her. While the thousand layer mooncakes and traditional mooncakes baked, and the snow skin mooncakes steamed Marinette and Damian got to work on the packaging. In order to reduce cost, they had ordered plain packaging and planned to carve potato stamps with Mid-Autumn festival motifs: the moon, rabbits, flowers, fans, and lanterns. Despite having seen how proficient Damian was with a blade in training, Marinette was pleasantly surprised, if not downright awed, by Damian’s precision with a knife. By the time Marinette had finished carving out one flower Damian had finished three lantern carvings. After finishing stamping the final package Marinette daringly pressed the still paint-laden potato stamp onto Damian’s cheek which quickly devolved into a paint fight. The picture of Damian and Marinette covered head to two in paint was proudly pinned at the top of her corkboard, Marinette would never forget the sound of the kitchen filled with laughter that day.

Damian’s parents were extremely supportive of this arrangement. Talia thought it was a great opportunity, open gym hours were busy and she couldn’t give all her attention to Damian, having a training partner could really help him grow. If they got along well they could even enter paired events together! Bruce was enthralled that his son found someone to spend time with other than his friend Clark’s son, Jon. Jon and Damian were great friends, but Jon lived in Metropolis and so the boys rarely saw each other outside of business galas and Skype calls. It was nice knowing his son had someone he could spend time with in person, Bruce was concerned that Damian’s interpersonal growth would be stunted by his lack of interaction with his classmates at school. To see his son being a kid, laughing freely, filled him with great joy, he knew that being the son of a billionaire and a top-notch martial artist had put a lot of pressure on Damian’s shoulders, but he never knew what he could do to help his son. Seeing the walls in Damian’s room at the manor fill up with pictures of him and Marinette smiling, Damian smiling, made Bruce figure that everything was going to be okay.

Sabine and Tom grew to love Damian like their own son with the more time he spent at each other’s houses. At first, they were a bit skeptical, they didn’t quite understand what their daughter saw in the boy, but they trusted her judgment and boy are they glad they did. Damian was like a missing piece of their family, despite his hard exterior, the boy was extremely loyal and caring, they could always count on him to have Marinette’s back. Sabine especially had a soft spot for him after watching him correct Marinette’s brush strokes on the banners, teaching her the differences between what she wrote and what he was writing. The two watched their daughter give herself wholly to this boy, and in return, he gave himself back to her and that was all they could’ve ever wanted for Marinette, to love and be loved.

As they grew older they shared more than just common interests: their dreams, their fears, and the pressure they faced from their families. Marinette knew what she wanted for herself – something Damian was envious of. When they were 11 to offset the competition costs, Marinette’s mother began designing and sewing their competition outfits. Once Marinette saw what her mother was doing she wanted to help, and she ended up falling in love with fashion design. From the age of 13 and onward Marinette designed all of her own stage wear, as well as Damian’s. Sabine would joke that with such a talented daughter it’s a shame they didn’t stay in Paris. Damian wouldn’t admit it – Marinette would – but the thought of possibly never meeting Marinette made him feel uncomfortably empty; he wonders how he bore with that feeling before becoming close with Marinette. Damian wasn’t sure what he wanted for himself, he would love to take over his mother’s Wushu studio, maybe even expand it, but he was always raised with the expectation that one day he would inherit his father’s corporation. Despite loving both options, loving both his parents, there was also a part of him that wanted something that was completely Damian, he had already spent so much of his life living in the shadow of his parents. It wasn’t until high school that Damian opened up to Marinette about this, as the time to make decisions grew closer Damian naturally grew more anxious about his future. Marinette rarely gets the chance to comfort Damian, oftentimes he bottles his emotions up until they’re ready to burst, and even then Marinette has to slowly coax him into talking about them, even if it is with his brothers and not her, she just wants him to feel safe with his own emotions. The first time Damian opened up to her about the pressure he felt as his parent’s only biological son she immediately swept him into her arms, stroking his hair she began to tell him about how loved he was. She told him “Damian I love you, your family loves you, my family loves you. I just want you to know how loved you are. I speak not only for myself, but for everyone who loves you when I say this, do what makes you happy. Your parents will be happy as long as you are, they trust that they raised you to make good decisions for yourself. Even if you don’t know what it is that makes you happy yet, don’t be afraid to explore your options; I’ll be right here by your side and I’m going to support you no matter what. You’ve told me before that even if you inherit the studio Maya would co-own it with you, or even if you inherit your father’s business you would be working alongside your brothers. You are not alone, the world is not riding on solely your shoulders.” Damian was completely silent, if not for the wetness on her shoulder and his grip tightening around her, Marinette would figure he was unphased. Marinette has known that she loves this boy, far past the platonic love she just expressed, but for Damian, it was at this moment that he realized that not only was he loved, but he was in love with Marinette.

“WELCOME TO THE WORLD WUSHU CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019 LIVE FROM GOTHAM, NEW JERSEY” roared overhead on the speakers.

Damian and Marinette were standing in a hall away from the main room where other contestants were preparing themselves both appearance-wise and physically. Marinette herself was fixing the crown braid in her hair. The women’s event would take place in the morning to late afternoon, where the men’s event in the evening giving Damian ample time before he needs to warm up to support Marinette. He gave Marinette’s ensemble a once over and with his cheeks tinged red he muttered “I like your costume, you look really cute”, quickly averting his gaze.

Marinette immediately flushed, almost as red as the silken top that adorned her torso, and brought the hands that were adjusting her braids down to her hips and leaned forward, exclaiming in a hushed shout as to not disturb the other competitors warming up, “Damian Al-Ghul Wayne, are you making fun of me? I just want to make sure that any pictures taken do not make me look like a hot mess. Could you imagine what could happen if Audrey Bourgeois sees pictures of me completely frumpled looking and cancels my apprenticeship?? Oh my God and then Parson’s will find out and rescind me and then I won’t be able to visit you at NYU!” Marinette’s hands now rested on her cheeks smearing away her perfectly placed blush. How Marinette managed to go from disgruntled to spiraling in less than a minute is still a mystery that still eludes Damian after years of friendship, but it was his duty to calm her down. He understands her nerves, they had spent the last few years dominating the juniors division and as they entered the senior division there was a lot of pressure for them to win there too. Unfortunately, for every person who wanted them to win, another five were praying for them to slip up, but now is not the time to be overcome by nerves, her turn would come soon and she cannot afford to be overwhelmed by nerves.

Damian fully grasped her wrists pulling her hands away from her face, “Marinette, genuinely you look stunning”. After that comment, Damian noted to himself that it seems like there was no more need for the blush she applied anyways. With the soft tut of his tongue, he smoothed out the harsh lines of her smeared blush using the pad of his thumb. He whispered, just loud enough for her to hear, “Don’t worry too much about your hair and makeup, the most important thing is your form”. Marinette leaned into his touch and gave a small nod, calming down from her spiraling thoughts, he always knew how to ground her.

“Contestant number 54 you’re up next!”

“That’s you; you might want to fix up your makeup real quick, but everything is going to be fine.” He handed her a bag with her cosmetics and a wipe and quickly clapped his hands around her shoulders to guide her to the main stage so she could focus on herself.

Fixing her makeup Marinette shot him a cheeky grin, “wish me luck?”

“You don’t need luck. Marinette you have the skill, you know that.”

“Next up is Marinette Dupain-Cheng from New Jersey, USA! She is definitely a fan favorite to win today on the Women’s Taolu floor. She is internationally known for competing not only in the women’s division but also in the couples’ scene. She’s been training for the individual event from the age of six and for the partner event from the age of nine with her studio mate Damian Al-Ghul Wayne, who is predicted to win the Men’s Taolu event. While we do not have a couples’ Wushu competition here, since turning 18 they have been dominating the senior international couples’ Wushu scene and have gone undefeated.”

Taking off her team jacket, with a quick nod to her parents, Talia, and of course, Damian Marinette strode to the center stage. Damian would never grow sick of watching her transform on stage, it was strikingly similar to the magical girl shows she had been obsessed with as a child. The moment Marinette stepped onto the mat her whole demeanor changed. Her back straightened up, her head would be held high, and most of all, the look in her eyes was filled with inextinguishable fire.

By the end of the event after getting changed Marinette and Damian were making their way to his car. Once Damian turned 16 and got his license, it became a tradition for them to go out for a celebratory meal together without their parents. “Marinette!” Damian heard a voice call out, Agreste he noted in his head. Marinette had met Agreste and Tsurugi while vacationing in Paris. While they weren’t the worst, in fact, Tsurugi was typically pleasant company, Damian was in no mood to socialize after the several rounds of interviews he had to endure after winning first place in Men’s Taolu. Many of the interviewers failed to understand that while yes, he had more opportunities to train as he is a third-generation Wushu champion, it was his hard work that got him to where he was, not his genetics.

Seeing Damian continue on to his car, not wanting to keep him waiting, Marinette quickly bid them farewell with a promise to see them tomorrow. “Hey wait for me!” Marinette called out, running after Damian. Despite his pride usually preventing him from heeding to his peers’ commands, Damian stopped in his tracks, his breath shallow and wondering why Marinette’s voice still makes his heartthrob despite having heard it call out to him for over 10 years. Feeling her hands latch around his arm gave him a sense of comfort. Her grip was strong and steady, yet still gentle. He couldn’t help but envision his hand in hers instead of his arm. The bouquet and hand-painted card in his car were waiting to see if she felt the same.

[ravennm84]

The Inspector

I read a short story on AO3 a while back about a teacher or adult sending a letter to the Board of Governors about the teachers of the school and how terrible they were, and decided to write a story about the person who was assigned to look into the accusations. Got some salt and justice coming along. And I must say, this was very therapeutic to write. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!!

Inspector Walters had a bad feeling about the Francois-Dupont College since the moment he’d received the assignment. The Board of Governors had been debating conducting an investigation on the school since one of the classes had been nicknamed “The Akuma Class” by social media and a few news sources. It became a necessity when a complaint had been filed by the Dupain-Cheng family about their daughter’s expulsion. 

That complaint had surprised him. Only the Board of Governors had the power to expel a student after an investigation, and they hadn’t expelled the girl. The parents claimed that it was done on the same day as the accusations against the student, and was then retracted the following day. Again, something that only the Board of Governors had the power to do.

Looking over the incident report, the details were slim at best. Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was accused of cheating on a mock exam and the answer sheet was found in her backpack. When looking at the schedule, he saw that the mock exam had been taken the day before and the teacher only noticed that the answer sheet was missing after receiving the exams. A fact which bothered him a bit, but he’d seen a few scatterbrained teachers, as well as students make the mistake of not getting rid of the evidence. However, he also saw from her student records that she was one of the top students and always got high grades, so there was some doubt that she would have cheated.

The next thing was the accusation that she had pushed another student, Mlle. Lila Rossi down the stairs, injuring her right knee. However, there was no mention of an ambulance being called or even a trip to the nurse’s station. It was also suspect that there was no mention of other injuries that someone would have received after falling down stairs; no recorded cuts, bruises, or anything. So either Rossi had the most well placed fall that kept her from major injury, or she was lying.

The last part of the report was that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng had stolen a necklace from Mlle. Rossi and put it in her locker. Again, he was a bit skeptical considering that the same two girls had been involved with a separate incident on the same day. There was a picture of the locker, but Walters quickly noticed that there was no actual lock on the locker, something that he should be seeing since the Board had funded upgrades for lockers months ago. There was also no CCTV record attached to the incident report, meaning that the system was down and not reported, or the principal never checked them and only went by the word Mlle. Rossi.

Looking over the rest of the file, it was even more suspect when he saw that only Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents had been called in. Mlle. Rossi’s contact, her mother, had been listed as “unavailable”. This was yet another thing that didn’t sit well with him. Following his gut, M. Walters set aside the Dupain-Cheng student file to look more closely at the Rossi student file. 

Not five minutes in, he knew that things were not right. The disabilities she had listed in the current file were not consistent with the files from her previous schools, and there were no doctors notes to support them as being recently discovered ailments. He attempted to call the number listed on the current file, but it kept going straight to voicemail. Comparing the number to the previous files, he noticed that the number did not match.

Finding himself very unhappy with the incomplete file provided by Principal Damocles, he decided that he would have to go to the school in person the following morning and see for himself what was really going on.

~oOo~

First stop he made was to the principal’s office. M. Walters had not alerted him of the inspection so that the man would not have a chance to change or hide specific documents, he’d seen that happen more than once. What he had not expected was to see a grown man playing with dolls/action figures behind his desk. Damocles quickly straightened up, hiding the dolls in a drawer before scowling at him. “What is the meaning of this? You can’t simply barge into my office without-”

“Actually, M. Damocles, I can,” he interrupted, pulling out his identification. “Inspector Walters, I’m with the Board of Governors, looking into a recent complaint filed against the school.”

“Complaint? What complaint?” He asked, sputtering a bit in surprise.

“The expulsion of Mlle. Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he glared at the man.

“Oh, that incident has already been handled.”

“Is that so? Then please, explain to me how the incident was handled.” Pulling out a chair, Walters flipped open his notepad and clicked open his pen. Some of his colleagues considered the whole pen and paper thing to be a little old-school at times, but it had its purpose. He waved a hand at Damocles to begin.

“Well, Mlle. Lila Rossi suffers from a rare disease that makes her lie uncontrollably when she is stressed-”

“I’m going to stop you right there, M. Damocles. We will get to the reason why you reinstated Mlle. Dupain-Cheng in a moment. First, I want you to go through everything on the day of the incident.”

“Oh, of-of course,” he was beginning to fidget. “I was sitting in my office when I heard screaming outside of my door. When I came outside, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was standing at the top of the stairs and Mlle. Lila Rossi was at the bottom of the stairs, crying that she had been pushed.” Walters wrote this down and waved a hand for him to continue. “M. Harpele and I brought her upstairs and wrapped the knee that was injured, and then contacted Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents to talk about the incident, seeing as Mlle. Rossi had been badly injured.”

Walters finished writing that down before looking back up at Damocles. “And is that when you called an ambulance to look over Mlle. Rossi’s injury and check to make sure there were no other injuries?”

It was no surprise to him when Damocles mouth did an impersonation of a fish for a moment. “Well, um, no. I did not call an ambulance-”

“Then I can only imagine that you called the school nurse to your office to look her over and deem whether or not a trip to the hospital was necessary?”

Again, he began impersonating a fish. “I-I didn’t think it was- Mlle. Rossi claimed that she was fine and that only her knee was injured.”

“You just told me that you believed Mlle. Rossi was, and I quote ‘badly injured’, and yet she received no medical attention?” Walters hummed in a disbelieving manner as he looked down at his notepad and wrote down his thoughts. “That was quite irresponsible of you. I’ve read your personnel file and nowhere does it list that you have a medical background. Yet, you thought yourself qualified to treat and diagnose a girl that claimed to have been pushed down the stairs and could have underlying injuries, such as a concussion, broken bones, or internal bleeding?” 

To his satisfaction, the principal began to sweat, but he was nowhere close to finished yet. “I can imagine that Mme. Rossi was upset when you called her to the school for the meeting with M. and Mme. Dupain-Cheng.” Just as he suspected, Damocles wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You have contacted Mme. Rossi about the incident, have you not?”

“Well, Mme. Rossi is an ambassador and is very busy-”

“Are you meaning to tell me that you failed to alert a parent that their child was injured while in your care?” When the principal looked away again, Walters glared before double clicking his pen and writing down more notes.Taking his time as he wrote to allow the man to sweat and worry about what was being written.

“We will return to your failure at contacting parents and guardians later. Now, tell me what you observed when you reviewed the CCTV footage of the stairs at the time of the incident.” Just as he suspected, the man became flustered and refused to meet his eyes. “Are you telling me that you did not, at any time, look over the footage to corroborate whether Mlle. Rossi was pushed or accidentally fell?” 

Hesitating again. “I, um, thought it unnecessary. It was clear that she was pushed-”

“And you know that for fact, how, exactly?” He glared as he kept writing.

“As I said, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was standing at the top of the stairs while Mlle. Rossi was at the bottom of the stairs, crying that she’d been pushed-”

“You also said, and I quote ‘I was sitting in my office when I heard screaming outside of my door’. Meaning that you did not actually see whether Mlle. Rossi was pushed or simply fell. Am I to understand that you believed one child over another without gathering evidence to prove or disprove the claim?”

Walters watched as the man’s parlor turned a pale green while muttering multiple failed excuses, which only served to anger him further. So far, Damocles had failed to show him, in any way, that he was qualified to run this school and had let an innocent girl suffer for his mistakes. “You are going to pull up that footage right now, and have it prepared for a meeting I will be setting up with Mme. Rossi later today. And not just the stairs, but the footage of the classroom to see exactly who stole the test answer sheet and the lockerroom to see if the accusations of Mlle. Dupain-Cheng stealing Mlle. Rossi’s property is at all valid. And allow me to make something very clear, you are already looking at being brought up on negligence and abuse of power, seeing as you expelled and reinstated a student, something that only the Board of Governors has the power to do. If I find out that the footage is somehow ‘missing’, I will have no choice but to assume that you have purposefully erased it to protect yourself and will have you brought before the Board by tomorrow morning. Am I clear?”

The man gave a shaky nod, as he immediately got on his computer and began pulling up the footage from that day.

Getting on his phone, Walters called the number that Mme. Rossi had listed in the previous files and it went straight through. He easily scheduled a meeting for later that day and hung up.“I will be sitting in on Mme. Bustier’s class for the rest of the day, until Mme. Rossi arrives at 1pm for our appointment. Have all the footage ready by then.” Without another word, Inspector Walters left the office and made his way down to the Akuma Classroom.

~oOo~

Lunch had finally come and Walters was anything but impressed by what he had seen. To her credit, Mme. Bustier had been polite and understanding towards his presence in the classroom and seemed to go about teaching as usual. She was also a very upbeat type of personality, something needed in a city plagued by akumas. But that was the extent of his compliments towards the teacher. 

During the first half of the day, he witnessed the woman allow her students to become disorderly multiple times. Three of which stood out to him beyond the normal rowdy teenage energy that is normal for a classroom. 

The first was how a boy in the front of the room kept flinching and curling into himself whenever another student, who just happened to be Mlle. Lila Rossi, touched him. She was sharing his desk in the front, sitting inappropriately close, clutching his arm in a possessive manor, and ignored him when he asked her to let him go or give him space. All this was done in full view of Mme. Bustier, and she did nothing.

During the literature lesson, they were studying Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mlle. Rossi interrupted and began telling a story about being a descendant of Vlad the Impaler. A complete falsehood since Vlad’s only child had been killed as an infant. This was a fact that the teacher should have corrected or told the girl to pay attention to the lesson, but she did nothing. Allowing the girl to prattle on for close to 15 minutes before returning to the lesson.

The worst though, was when Mlle. Rossi, made another scene when she began complaining about how her left knee was still hurting from when Marinette pushed her down the stairs. The other students proceeded to glare and speak harsh words about the girl. It was at this time that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng stood from her seat in the back and attempted to defend herself. Mme. Bustier did intervene this time, but she did not reprimanded the other students that were ganging up on the one girl. Instead, she reprimanded Marinette and told her that she was not setting a good example for the class. Then forced her to apologize to Lila for upsetting her. Blatant victim blaming, right in front of him, and the teacher had the nerve to smile at him as if to say that she had handled the situation.

Walters had written everything down, already deciding that he would need to call the Board at the first possible moment to alert them to the incompitent administrative practices of Damocles, as well as the toxic teaching methods of Bustier. It was now little wonder why this class had produced so many akumas. It was a miracle that there were any students left in the class that hadn’t been akumatized. But seeing as one student was clearly being bullied and the other was being sexually harassed, it likely wouldn’t be long.

He was just barely able to fit in the call and look over the CCTV footage before his meeting with Mme. Rossi in M. Damocles office. That had been interesting, to say the least. Before the meeting had even started, Mme. Rossi was voicing her worry about the amount of time that the school had been closed due to akuma attacks…

Once that had been cleared up, M. Damocles got to the matter at hand. Beginning with requesting information and doctors notes at her earliest convenience pertaining to her daughter’s injuries, disabilities, as well as requesting more information about her lying disease. Again, that had been a very interesting conversation that resulted in the woman yelling at Damocles in French and Italian about how incompetant he was and why hadn’t he gotten ahold of her sooner?

But the worst reaction came when Damocles told her about the day of the incident. They showed her the footage found of Lila, and yes it was Lila, stealing the answer sheet off of Mme. Bustier’s desk and then slip it into Marinette’s bag on her way back to her seat. Then the footage of Lila breaking into Marinette’s locker and planting the necklace. And finally, Lila smiling at Marinette before walking down the stairs and sitting on the ground before she started screaming. 

By then, another inspector from the Board of Governors had arrived to assist in the situation that he had reported during his earlier phone call and the students had returned from lunch. Walters requested Mme. Bustier to join them and to bring Lila along. When the girl entered the office and saw her furious mother and principal, she paled immediately and started lying.

Even when Walters, Damocles, and her mother tore apart every one of her lies, she kept trying to turn things around and make herself a victim. And to Walters’ horror, Damocles was actually buying her lies! It was at that moment that he decided that the man had no right being a school administrator and would be put on leave, pending the end of his investigation and the Board of Governors decision. 

Bustier attempted to side with Lila as well, claiming that the girl suffered from a disease and shouldn’t be punished. Completely ignoring that Mme. Rossi told her that her daughter suffered no such ‘disease’. The other inspector, Marchand, looked on in disgust before pulling out his phone and calling the Board of Governors right there, relaying his support of Walters’ recommendation against Damocles and Bustier. 

Walters took charge of the situation, forcing Damocles out of his chair to take his seat. “Mme. Rossi, as an inspector of the Board of Governors, I must ask if you fully understand the situations that your daughter has caused?”

The woman took a deep breath before slowly letting it out, all the while retaining a firm grip on her daughter’s arm after she had attempted to flee the room earlier. “If you would, please go over everything from the top.” The woman requested, her voice a bit hoarse after yelling at the principal, the teacher, and her daughter.

Giving the woman a sympathetic nod, he flipped open the notebook and went over his notes while Marchand kept Damocles and Bustier quiet and standing in a corner. “I have personally observed your daughter disrupting class, bullying a student named Marinette Dupain-Cheng, lying to her peers, leading them to also bully Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, and sexually harassing another student who verbally asked her to stop. We have video evidence of her committing theft, harassing the same student I witnessed her bullying, framing that student for assault, as well as framing that student of theft and cheating. All that, as well as your testimony of her lying to the school administration about different injuries and illnesses, fraud in regards to changing your contact information, and four months of truancy. 

“At this point, the school has no choice but to suspend Lila, pending an investigation to be completed by the Board of Governors,” he said, handing her the paperwork to sign, which she did right away. “At the time the investigation is complete, she will have the opportunity to plead her case to the Board. However, I want to make it clear that, from what I have seen, it is very likely that your daughter will be expelled.”

To her credit, Mme. Rossi held her head high as she nodded and handed back their copies of the suspension papers. “I suspected as much. However, I do request that a meeting be scheduled with Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents so that Lila may apologize in person. I also want her to apologize to the class and admit her lies to them so that there won’t be any backlash on that poor girl.”

Lila turned to her mother in a panic. “No, Mom! Please don’t make me-”

“YOUNG LADY, you are going to tell the class everything you lied about, apologize to that girl, and admit that you have been bullying her. Am I clear?” Walters was impressed that the girl simply nodded as she curled into herself before Mme. Rossi looked back to him. “I will not allow Lila to escape her punishment, that includes telling the truth to the people she has wronged.”

He nodded in understanding. “I’ll see about arranging a meeting. However, the suspension will be taking effect immediately, if you wish to have her confess to the class, I suggest doing so right now before school lets out.” Walters then turned to give the teacher a hard look that had her wilting under his gaze. “I’m sure Mme. Bustier would have no problem with that, I will also accompany you. M. Marchand, would you mind keeping an eye on M. Damocles?”

“Of course, I would like to word with him in private, myself.” He said, sending the man his own scathing look.

Mme. Bustier quietly escorted the Rossis and himself back to the classroom. The gym teacher, M. D’Argencourt had been watching over the class while Bustier had been in the meeting. Walters asked him to stay, and that they would only be there for a moment before turning to nod at the other teacher.

“Students, may I have your attention, please?” She waited a few seconds as the students put away what they were doing, likely hearing the tremor in the woman’s voice. “As you know, M. Walters, from the Board of Governors, has been sitting in with us today. It has been brought to my attention that one of our students has not been honest with us and has been causing a fair amount of trouble.” 

Looking back at the girl and her mother, Mme. Rossi forced her daughter to step forward while keeping a hand on her shoulder. At first, she didn’t say anything. Then her mother leaned forward to whisper something in her ear, causing her to slump and tears to fall down her cheeks. “I-I lied, about everything. *sniffle* I don’t know any celebrities. I’ve never helped charities or been to Achu. *sniffle* I don’t have tinnitus, arthritis, or anything like that. I’m not Ladybug’s best friend and I’m not related to Vlad the Impaler. And-and…”

“And…” Mme Rossi said in a forceful tone, ignoring the stunned looks they were receiving from the class. Lila tucked her chin to her chest, muttering the rest of her confession under her breath. But her mother wasn’t going to allow that. “Speak up so everyone can hear you, unless you want to be grounded for twice as long with no allowance at all.”

The girl’s hands fisted at her side as she spoke loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. “Marinette never bullied me. I-I bullied her. I told her that I would take her friends from her. I pl-planted the answer sheet in her bag. *sob* I put my necklace in-in her locker. She never pushed me down the stairs either, I faked it to get her expelled.”

“And why did you do all of this to that girl, Lila?” Her mother asked, making it clear that she had to answer. 

“Be-because sh-she knew that I was lying *sob hiccup sob* and I wanted her gone.”

“And what do you have to say to Marinette?”

Lila lifted her chin, glaring dangerously at the girl sitting in the back. “Sorry,” she snapped.

Mme. Bustier looked up at the girl, giving her a kind smile. “And do you accept her apology, Marinette?”

That really pissed him off, that woman had no right to put that girl on the spot after Rossi had done everything in her power to ruin that girl’s life. Before she could say anything, Walters stepped in front of Bustier. “Marinette, you are under no obligation to accept her apology, that is completely up to you.” Waiting a moment he saw the absolute relief on the girl’s face before quietly shaking her head and settling back in her chair. 

Walters then instructed M. D’Argencourt to continue with the class while he escorted Bustier back to the office while Mme. Rossi took her daughter home. 

There was still a lot to do in this school, it was clear to him that the two educators, and he used that term loosely, needed to go. There was paperwork to fill out, more CCTV footage to go over, interviews with the students of Bustier’s class, and calls needed to be made to the Dupain-Chengs and the Agrestes about Lila Rossi and what she’d done to their children. The investigation literally had weeks of work to do, but it had to be done. But Walters knew, by the time they were done cleaning house, the students and school would be better off for it.

~oOo~ Four Weeks Later ~oOo~

Walters was working on the last of the paperwork having to do with the Francois-Dupont College debacle, greatly relieved that it was over.

Lila Rossi had been officially expelled after the investigation for bullying, harassment, theft, sexual harassment, cheating, destruction of property, fraud, and truancy. During her trial before the Board, the Dupain-Cheng family had been present and she had been forced to apologize to them for what she had done to her daughter. From her file, he saw that the Dupain-Chengs, as well as the Agreste family, had placed restraining orders on the girl. The Agreste family were also pressing charges for sexual harassment. Mme. Rossi had mentioned a reformatory school for delinquent children in Italy, stating that she had already enrolled her daughter, despite the outcome of the Board’s decision. He was glad that the woman was taking everything in stride and seemed to be doing the right thing.

The investigation into M. Damocles had uncovered even more skeletons than Walters had expected. Negligence and abuse of power, those were easily confirmed. They also uncovered proof of favoritism, taking bribes to ensure that certain students were not punished for offenses or that they passed their classes, despite failing grades. But the nail in the coffin was when Walters tracked down the money that was supposed to go to upgrading the lockers, Damocles had embezzled it to fund his vigilante superhero activities. He had officially been fired and blacklisted from ever working for the educational system or any branch of the government. The new principal was a vice principal from another school, well versed in bullying situations and had degrees in accounting as well as education. She would be going over all the books to see exactly how much money Damocles had embezzled over the years, so the Board of Governors would be able to sue for the proper amount of restitutions.

The issue of Mme. Bustier turned out to be an interesting matter. While looking into her qualifications, it had been revealed that her teaching license had been suspended before she had been hired by Damocles to teach at the school. Not trusting her file, Walters contacted her previous school and found out that they had fired her for much of the same reasons he had put her on leave. She had enabled bullies, blamed the victims, and pressured her “star pupil” to take on the work of a teaching assistant. When that same student complained and refused to help anymore, Bustier had told his parents that the boy was a troublemaker, refused to follow instruction, and was talking back. The boy had insisted on talking to the principal, who had cleared things up with the student and his parents. Bustier had been fired for her behavior and her license suspended until she completed anti-bullying classes, which she never attended. She simply applied to a new school, where the principal didn’t look too closely at her paperwork, and resumed her toxic teaching methods. Because of this; Bustier had been fired, blacklisted from ever teaching again, as well as arrested for teaching without a license.

The whole of Bustier’s class had been assigned counselling sessions for the foreseeable future until the toxic habits that the teacher had instilled in the class could be rectified. Though Walters was pleased to see that there seemed to be progress, as none of the students had been akumatized since the day he had gone to the school. A new record for time between akumatizations. The substitute that had been hired was stern, well versed in squashing bullying habits, but was sympathetic to the victims. That was what that class needed for the time until the Board could find a suitable, permanent replacement. 

All in all, Walters felt that he had done his job with investigating the Dupain-Cheng expulsion, and was happy to hear that the girl was doing much better. Her record had been cleared, her grades were still at the top of the class, and she had given the Board a basket of baked goods on the day of Lila’s trial, which had been like eating little bites of heaven. She had even given him a custom notebook cover, that he was pretty sure she made herself, and a matching pen. It was a very kind gift, and might have thought it was a bribe if anyone else had given it to him, but he could tell that she was just grateful to him for listening to her and making her school life better. 

That was the reason he enjoyed his job.

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[g-on-ef]

Hey I was wondering if you're still a fan of Helluva Boss and what you thought of the latest episode?

@megashadowdragon asked: have you watched helluva boss episode 6 which came out today ( if you were unaware) what are your thoughts

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It warms my heart to know you guys ask for my opinion ^^ now let's get down to business

WARNING THIS REVIEW WILL BE A NEGATIVE ONE WIT A HINT OF POSITIVITY THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON THE EPISODE YOU DONT HAVE TO AGREE WIT THEM BUT DONT WASTE MY TIME WIT YOUR NEED TO ATTACK ME FOR HAVING THOUGHTS OF MY OWN YOU HAVE BEEN WARN

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

To answer both questions yes I still watch Helluva Boss however after their latest episode I think I will just stick to writing fanfiction about Blitz and Striker as well as stick to whatever content the fandom creates.

This episode if Imma be honest with you guys was not worth the wait, hell I was literally tempted to leave the episode as it just didn’t have my attention as the others.

The episode had some decent moments where I was chuckling a little but other than that I wasn’t that into it, to be honest the bad out weigh the good. 

Also I wanna add that a while ago I wrote how Vivzipop and her crew did not know how to handle complex characters or complex scenes and I was right, this show and their crew do not know how to handle mature topics without reducing them into a joke but we are getting ahead of ourselves so let’s start with the pros, the cons, and everything in between.

Let’s start of with the pros,

Loona knowing when Blitz was being serious was a nice touch, it showed that even if Loona acts like she doesn’t care about Blitz she actually pays attention to him and knows when he is being serious and when he is joking around.

Moxxie was the true MVP his interaction with the agents had me smiling as well enjoying his moments.

Blitz protecting Moxxie

STRIKER !!!! I am a simp for this imp and I’ll take whatever crumbs I can get to see him ^^

Verosika, Fitzorallia, love them, love them 

And that’s it...to be honest that’s it...like other than that that’s basically all that I like from that episode...

Now let’s get into the rest of this episode...

Okay was anyone other than me confused as to why they decided now was a good time to introduce the agents so late in the game?

Like at this point I am convinced that Vivizie and her crew are just winging it.

The agents were literally thrown in the show and it felt outta the blue, like I said it feels like Vivizie and her crew don’t know what they are doing and are just throwing things together like they could’ve given us hints that the agents were watching them, or give us a hint that they were being spied on, it didn’t even have to be big it could have just been small.

An example would be from my favorite book series Cirque Du Freak, in the first book Mr. Crepsely (a main character in the book) mentions something small that will become huge in later books, it was small but allowed the reader to be curious it gave the reader that something big was coming and we should be prepared.

Like I said it was a small hint but I left me curious and wanting to read more to find out more about what is going on.

Helluva boss didn’t do that it just threw this new idea and new characters without giving the others to grow.

If they gave us a hint that they were being watched it wouldn’t have felt like that idea came outta nowhere.

Also was I the only one that was uncomfortable with the way Blitz kept making jokes about the agent’s dead mom? I’m sorry but that was just wrong on soooo many levels.

Also with the truth serum thing...why did they use it if they weren’t even gonna get answers like again this came outta nowhere because the truth serum was supposed to make them speak the truth not look like they were tripping on acid. On less I missed something please let me now if I did.

Also to be honest the whole confession thing was once again treated like a joke, especially when Blitz asked Moxxie why he let Millie peg him, ummm...an emotional scene like that shouldn’t have jokes of any kind surrounding it, especially when it was supposed to be a heartfull moment.

Now Blitz ... okay Blitz and his vision was a little decent but I also didn’t like it.  A lot of people had their speculation especially with the Stolas scene but the more I look at it the more I see it as a bittersweet moment.

Revealing that he was afraid of intamacy wasn’t that big of a surprised since we already knew that like it was nice for conformation.

Okay now onto the Sto*itz moment in the song ... like I said this was bittersweet moment,

People interpet the scene as how Blitz is afraid to love Stolas others saw it as Blitz was still chained to Stolas and would only be free if he and Stolas talk it out and another mentioned how he was forever chained to Stolas and how toxic the relationship between the two is.

Honestly I viewed it as how Blitz will be forever trapped in situations like this were he is to afraid to love someone or love himself and unless he comes to terms with his own demons he’ll forever be trapped in an endless cycle of pain and misery.

Now onto why I think that that Vivizie and her crew can’t handle mature themes.

Two characters have just had a revelation about their relationship with one another and instead of being honest with each other it gets turned into a joke...again...

Moxxie told Blitz what he felt and Blitz told him he treats him like shit cause its tough love...da freak ??? You just had a moment where you realized you pushed everyone away because you were afraid to be alone so you rather push everyone away so you have an excuse to let them leave and instead of admitting to that you just tell Moxxie it was all tough love.

Not to mentioned that you’re giving compliments and than tell him your done because your out of compliments...again you had a huge revelation and instead of giving the characters time to digest what they went through you just toss it to the side. 

Another thing that pissed me off was how right after a huge moment you throw in a fight scene...I...why...just why ???

You had an emotional scene (that had no build up) but than throw it to the side for a fight scene that shouldn’t have been added at all.

Like the minute Millie and Loona saved them they should’ve opened up a portal and take them away not waste time on fighting only for them to get caught in the end.

Like I literally feel like they wasted all that time on animation than on writing and planning what they wanted from this.

Like again they had an emotional connection/scene and threw it to the side for some fight scenes which was a disappointment because had Loona and Millie saved them  and take them home Blitz could’ve had some major character development and the four of them could have a heartfelt scene admitting everything that bothers them and help them get closer. 

Nope, they decided to just throw a fight scene why I don’t know but it bothers me how they just tossed an emotional scene for some action scenes.

So yeah I am not happy with how that was handle at all.

Let’s also get to the Loona and Millie scenes...Millie crying for Moxxie once again made no sense as we never seen Millie care for Moxxie, hell she cares more for Blitz than Moxxie which is fucked up.

Hell when Moxxie was being critizied by her parents she didn’t do much to defend him hell Sally Mae was more honest with him than Millie.

Honestly Millie feels like she is being written by twenty different people who don’t know what they want from her.

And Loona, Loona could seriously be written outta the episode and nothing would changed.

Also they truly refused to let their characters grow seriously Moxxie was still treated like shit by Blitz in the end so yeah no character growth at all.

And now onto the last scene with Stolas and Blitz ... holy shit man Imma be honest with you guys Stolas asking for sex after saving them feels fucked up, to me it felt like the only reasons he saved the imps is so that he doesn’t get in trouble and for Blitz to reward him for saving them.

Again they could’ve had Stolas saving them and they could have had a heart to heart moment nope we had to toss all that emotional build up (if one can call it that) and toss it to the side for cheap jokes and a horny owl.

needless to say I was beyond disappointed with this episode and with the way they handle the “saddest” scene in the episode I am scared to see how they will handle the other scenes.

AGAIN I honestly don’t see why this episode took so long and I feel like Vivzie and her crew are more focus on the animation than anything else which sucks because this show has so much potential and it is being thrown to the side for pretty designs and shipping moments. 

Anywhore that’s my thought on this show let me know what you guys think ^^

~GoNEF out ^^

[angst-and-fajitas]

I posted 1,562 times in 2021

337 posts created (22%)

1225 posts reblogged (78%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3.6 posts.

I added 1,998 tags in 2021

#dream smp - 548 posts

#mcyt - 367 posts

#technoblade - 288 posts

#philza - 255 posts

#emma talks - 142 posts

#pokemon - 94 posts

#ranboo - 85 posts

#hermitcraft - 81 posts

#tommyinnit - 73 posts

#food - 65 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#from a writer's perspective however--and knowing that tommy is honestly a really good writer--i'm pretty certain his story isn't ending here

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Y’know, one of my all-time favorite lines from the server has always been this one line from Technoblade that went totally forgotten. It was a while back, too, from his first stream after L’Manburg got destroyed. He had found his cows gone, base ransacked, and he packed up everything he could carry to leave forever. He was traveling by trident, talking and joking with chat, and then he came across this little house in the middle of nowhere. It had a sign out in front of it that said “SAFE HAVEN”. And Techno stopped, and went silent, and after a moment he said, in a quiet voice:

“Incredible. I’d like to believe those words would be true anywhere... But the only safety is in being alone.”

And I never saw anyone mention those lines again, but for me, they’ve always spoken volumes about his character. There was this deep loneliness there after he left L’Manburg, you could tell that he really did feel hurt, and alone, and that nowhere was safe unless no one could reach him. Techno is someone who, despite what we can all say about his pvp skills, still feels very vulnerable.

clip is in Techno’s stream “the fallout (dream SMP)”, starting around 54:04, for anyone interested

2958 notes • Posted 2021-03-30 05:48:08 GMT

#4

I miss the bedrock bros SO MUCH.

Looking back, it’s clear how they really did care for each other like brothers. There was no bad intent, no one meant to use each other, but their ideals were just too far apart for them to share the same path. They just kept ignoring that though and hoping the other would come around to their point of view. It was bound to break, but I still wish it didn’t have to.

3620 notes • Posted 2021-01-27 10:49:27 GMT

#3

“Heavy and hard is the heart of a king”

Short comic based on some great lines from Hadestown’s “Epic III” (the original cast recording version)! Cross-posted to twitter. Don’t repost.

4224 notes • Posted 2021-02-02 03:27:45 GMT

#2

Fancy Bois Inc!!

Now that I'm starting another semester of college, I'll have less time to draw, so I wanted to at least finish this. It was a lot of fun, and Phil's crow cane was my favorite little detail

4751 notes • Posted 2021-04-20 11:46:14 GMT

#1

Maybe it's just my soup-loving instincts, but food in a bowl is so much better than food on a plate. Why eat a salad on a plate when I can eat it in a bowl? Why eat pasta on a plate when I can eat it in a bowl? Mashed potatoes and gravy! Pie and ice cream! Curry! Soups and stews! Beans! Bowls are Round and Good and shaped for your hands! Hold bowl close and feel warmth!! Heck yeah!!

43658 notes • Posted 2021-07-06 03:38:49 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[writingwhimsey]

Lady of Azuchi Ch. 4

Chapter 4

Sasuke stood in the highest watch tower of Kasugayama, looking up at the clear night sky. He had conflicting feelings after the meeting with Kenshin and Shingen. But then again he knew Shingen well enough to know that he wouldn't order anyone to harm an innocent woman...especially a pregnant woman. But that still didn't stop the nagging feeling in the back of his mind.

"Yuki said I could find you up here."

Sasuke turned, surprised by Shingen's approach. He had been so lost in thought that he didn't notice the man's approach. "What had you looking for me?" Sasuke asked.

"The fact that expression broke through on your face at the mention of the Devil King's wife." Shingen answered. There was no need to hide anything from Sasuke.

"You noticed?"

"Of course. I'm surprised Kenshin didn't notice, but for once he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice yours." Shingen replied. "Now, tell me what you want to tell me."

Sasuke sighed. "What are your plans with having one of your Mitsumono working as Ava's midwife?" He asked.

"You speak as if you know her." Shingen said ignoring the younger man's question.

"She is a friend." Sasuke answered. "We are from the same hometown."

"Oh, so she is the woman you made that bargain with Kenshin to protect?" Shingen asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Yes."

"And yet she is married to your lord's enemy and carries his child."

"She is still my friend." Sasuke replied. "You never answered my question, Lord Shingen."

Shingen smiled. "You won't let me out of it that easily I see."

Sasuke stared at Shingen, patiently waiting his answer.

"I promise, I mean no harm to the Lady of Azuchi." Shingen replied. "Nor to the child she carries. I know both are innocent of Nobunaga's crimes."

"Then what is your plan?" Sasuke asked.

"To gather information." Shingen answered. "I am not certain, but it appears Nobunaga has changed. All reports are saying that in his recent battles he has been offering a bloodless surrender to every one of them. Many still do not take it and he is just as ruthless in battle as ever...however there have been some who have."

"And what of their domains?" Sasuke asked.

"I am still gathering information on that." Shingen answered.

Sasuke eyed Shingen.

"You know with Nobunaga out of the way, you could very easily console your friend and become more in the process."

"Why would you think that's what I want?" Sasuke asked.

"Why else would a man put up with training under Kenshin for four years to help protect a woman?" Shingen asked. "Especially a beautiful one. I have not seen her, but I hear the lady is quite a beauty."

"She is my friend and she loves Nobunaga...he makes her happy."

"That seems strange because I hear she is quite kind as well. That doesn't seem like someone who could be so easily matched with the Devil King."

"Maybe it takes someone truly kind to see and bring out the good in others." Sasuke replied.

"Perhaps." Shingen replied. "But again, I swear to you I mean no harm to Lady Ava, or her child, and nor would Asuna harm a patient of hers even if I gave the order to. She may be a skilled fighter, but she is an even more skilled midwife and she would do anything for her patients. Seeing women be happy and healthy and alive during the child bearing process and beyond is quite personal for her."

"What do you mean?"

"That is not my story to tell." Shingen replied. "Perhaps if you ever meet her, she may tell you. For now, rest easy knowing that your friend is safe and is in good hands." He then placed a comforting hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

Hideyoshi...

"Have you been able to find anything?" Hideyoshi asked as he sat in a meeting with Nobunaga and Mitsuhide.

"She comes from a village that has always been in Lord Nobunaga's domain." Mitsihide began. "She lost her mother at a young age and had to help care for her younger sister. She became an apprentice midwife when she was ten. I have found no ties or connections to any groups or nefarious persons."

Hideyoshi grunted, not settled with that answer.

"I've also found nothing but glowing reviews on her from her former patients as well as the other midwives she has worked with." Mitsuhide added. "It appears your suspicions are unfounded."

"Or she's just as good as you are at hiding her true intentions." Hideyoshi replied. "I just...I don't trust her."

"To be fair, you didn't trust Ava either in the beginning." Mitsuhide replied. "And look how wrong you turned out to be there."

"It doesn't mean I am wrong this time. My gut is telling me she can't be trusted."

"Ava does." Nobunaga spoke up. "After the interviews, she told me all about Asuna." His thoughts recalled the morning after Ava had chosen Asuna as her midwife.

They had been sitting down to breakfast. Though Nobunaga had already spoken with Hideyoshi and knew of his suspicions and that they had chosen a midwife, he wanted to get Ava's thoughts.

"So, how did the interviews go? Did you find someone suitable?"

A smile came to her face. "Yes and she is absolutely perfect!"

"How so?"

"Well, for one thing she was honest about her losses." Ava had answered. "But then she mentioned how she still checks on those people afterwards and how she believes in continuing to check on and support the mothers after birth. Post-partum care isn't something that I thought was common in this age."

"Post...pardum?"

"It means after birth."

"I see. Is that something big in the future?"

"Kind of." Ava had answered. "It is something that still needs some work on, but it is definitely more practiced in the future than here."

"I see."

Nobunaga had to smile at the memory. He loved learning things of the world Ava had come from. He then took a sip of his tea, avoiding the sake at this time as it was a serious meeting. "She said that Asuna believes in follow-up and keeping up with her patients even after they have given birth. She practically gushed about how in her hometown that was something they did there and it really made a difference."

"I wonder where Ava is from." Mitsuhide mused. "She came to us quite sheltered and yet she lets these little tidbits slip that her hometown is quite different from where she comes from...more advanced in ways it seems."

"Her hometown must be strange indeed." Hideyoshi agreed.

Nobunaga had to sip his tea to hide his pleased smile. He was the only one who knew Ava's secret of being from the future and he liked it that way. "We have spoken at length about her hometown...it is a very interesting place."

"Hmm...the secrets shared between lovers." Mitsuhide murmured quietly taking a sip of his own tea.

Hideyoshi coughed awkwardly.

The bells chimed then, signaling the changing of the hour. "Hmm, I should be going." Nobunaga said, standing up. "I promised Ava I would be there when she greeted Asuna's arrival today."

"Allow me to come as well, my lord." Hideyoshi said. "I still do not trust the woman."

"You can do as you like." Nobunaga replied.

Ava...

I stood at the gate to the castle. The bells had chimed just a few moments ago and Nobunaga was nowhere in sight. I chewed my bottom lip. He had promised he would be with me to greet Asuna when she arrived and yet he was not here.

I let out a sigh. He probably had something come up. He is trying to unite the entire country after all. He has important work to do. I internally scolded myself.

It was at that moment I felt two strong arms wrap around me from behind. "You look disappointed." His gentle voice was at my ear.

I couldn't help the smile that came to my face. "I was not disappointed. I was just...impatient."

Nobunaga chuckled. "I promised I would be here. I will always keep my word to you."

That was the moment I heard an awkward cough from behind us. Nobunaga turned with me still in his arms and we looked at Hideyoshi. "You didn't have to come, Hideyoshi." Nobunaga said, an amused smile on his face.

"I didn't say anything." Hideyoshi replied, looking abashed.

Nobunaga laughed in amusement. "You know I cannot contain myself when I am near my wife."

Oh Nobunaga, why do you have to say such things? I thought, my cheeks reddening.

Asuna...

Asuna made her way through the castle town of Azuchi. As she approached the castle she couldn't help but to think of her mission. She had easily blended in countless times to families of nobles and warriors. She had cared for the expectant mothers and reported on the husband's movements to Lord Shingen.

It was something she managed to do with ease and no one ever knew. Yet there was something different about this mission. She felt slightly intimidated. Her target wasn't just any lord or warrior, but Nobunaga Oda, the Devil King.

He can't be easy to fool. His wife was not wary of me, but I know Hideyoshi was. His questioning made that perfectly clear...as well as that intense look in his eyes. Asuna thought as she approached the castle gates.

From a ways back she could see inside and saw Lady Ava waiting at the gates. She was chewing on her bottom lip and looking around almost nervously...no anxiously was more like it. Then she let out a defeated sigh right before a man came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

Asuna watched as the man held her so gently and tenderly. She having an affair? There's no way that could be the Devil King. She thought as she approached. She decided to get closer, but remain hidden for a bit to be able to hear what was going on.

"...I will always keep my word to you." The man holding Ava had said.

Then someone coughed and that was when Asuna saw Hideyoshi standing behind Ava and the man holding her. Oh did he just catch her in the act? Asuna thought to herself.

"You didn't have to come Hideyoshi."

"I didn't say anything."

"You know I cannot contain myself when I am near my wife."

Wife? Wait that is Nobunaga? She thought as she watched the scene unfold before her eyes. How could Nobunaga be so tender with Ava? That doesn't fit the man I have heard of all my life.

Ava smiled, her cheeks red. "I take it you still don't trust Asuna?" She asked, looking over at Hideyoshi, but staying snug in Nobunaga's arms.

"No." Hideyoshi replied.

Ava sighed. "I know you may not believe me, but I trust her."

"How can you after such a brief meeting?"

"Call it woman's intuition." Ava replied. "But there was just something in her eyes...I know that I will be in good hands with her as my midwife."

You're too kind, my lady. Asuna thought at those words. Hideyoshi is right of course...but so are you for I would never harm a patient. It goes against everything in me as a midwife. One of the reasons I had chosen to serve Lord Shingen. I knew he would never do harm to the women and children I cared for.

"Your lady has spoken Hideyoshi." Nobunaga said. "Her mind is made up and I think you should just accept it."

Hideyoshi bowed. "Yes, my lord."

Wow, so Nobunaga's word is law to him, I see. Asuna thought. But it would appear that Ava's word is law to Nobunaga. How interesting.

Asuna decided then that she should make herself known soon before someone found her lurking. She changed her position and approached the gate from straight on, making sure no one could tell she had been hiding off to the side.

"Lady Ava?"

Three sets of eyes turned to her then. Hideyoshi's eyes were wary, Nobunaga's seemed curious, and Ava's were warm and welcoming. "Asuna! I am so glad to see you. Welcome." She greeted with a smile.

"I didn't expect you to greet me personally at the gate." Asuna said.

"Why wouldn't I?" Ava replied, apparently unaware of just how unusual she was or what exactly her status was. "Besides, you are going to be invading my personal space a lot in these coming months...so I may as well get to know you and get comfortable with you."

Asuna nodded. "That does make sense." So she is aware of what exams will be like? And this is her first child. I wonder if she's spent time around midwives before.

"Oh and I have something for you." Ava added, squirming her way out of Nobunaga's arms and then pulling a small package from her robes.

"What is this?" Asuna asked.

"A little gift to thank you for agreeing to the terms of this job." Ava answered, a bright smile on her face.

"I couldn't accept a gift for that."

"Please?" Ava insisted. "At least open it before you say no."

"Alright." Asuna agreed, unable to say no to such a sincere request. She took the package and opened it to find a small pouch made with a beautiful red fabric with a delicate embroidery on it. "You bought this for me?"

"She made it." Nobunaga declared in his deep voice, one that sounded like it was full of pride.

"You made this?" Asuna asked.

Ava blushed slightly. "I am a seamstress and I just thought that I could make you something useful yet cute to say thank you."

Asuna looked at Ava who wore such a warm and sincere smile she couldn't help but to return it. "Thank you, I shall treasure this my lady. It is beautiful and very well made."

Ava beamed. "I am glad you like it. Oh and if you would like anything else, I would be happy to make you something else as well."

Asuna had to hide her surprise. What a strange lady. She thought.

"My wife is not the only one who wishes to thank you." Nobunaga said, looking at Asuna. "I think you for agreeing to care for her and our child. I welcome you to Azuchi castle."

Asuna bowed. "Thank you, my lord." She replied. "I hope that I can live up to your expectations."

"See that you do." Nobunaga replied. "Ava is most precious to me and I will only ask for the best to care for her."

Asuna could see the warmth and love in Nobunaga's eyes as he gazed at Ava. How can the Devil King seem so...kind? She is his wife yes, but I would expect him to treat her as he treats everyone else. He is kind and gentle as a husband and every bit the picture of a loving father-to-be...how can that be?

"Is something wrong, Asuna?" Ava asked, looking at her.

Asuna shook herself and smiled. "No, I was just lost in thought for a moment." She replied.

"Plotting something?" Hideyoshi asked.

"No, I was just thinking it was so nice to be personally welcomed to Azuchi castle by Lord Nobunaga and Lady Ava." Asuna said. "No one has ever given me such a warm welcome before nor was it something I was expecting. It's also nice to be met by you, even if you are suspicious of me."

Hideyoshi seemed taken aback for a moment, but only a moment. "Well, I only came for extra security."

Ava was rolling her eyes and then taking Asuna by the arm. "Don't worry about him. He was suspicious of me, too when I first arrived. Come on, I'll show you to your room."

Asuna smiled. So the lady was under suspicion once, too. She thought. "Alright, thank you, my lady."

"How could I have not been suspicious?" Hideyoshi asked. "Just as now? How can I not be suspicious?"

"I don't take it personally." Asuna replied. "And I understand it. I will just have to prove you wrong. I really am here just to care for Lady Ava and the baby."

Ava led Asuna to a nice room inside the castle, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi coming with them as well. She was then introduced to the maids and left alone to settle in.

Asuna unpacked her things and sat down. She then looked at the pouch Ava had made and given her. "They are not what I was expecting." She muttered to herself. She then shook her head. "I can't forget what he did though. Nobunaga is the sworn enemy of my liege lord. I can't forget that. He is the Devil King, no matter what he pretends to be now."

Chapter 5 below!

https://writingwhimsey.tumblr.com/post/659999856981688320/lady-of-azuchi-ch-5

[serowotonin]

𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐞 | k.k.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ a serowotonin christmas special ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

✲︎��� you and kenma have had feelings for each other for far too long without doing anything about it. kuroo, with the help of some mistletoe, finally decides to step in and hurry things along...

⊰ pairing ⊱ kozume kenma x gn!reader

⊰ genre ⊱ fluff, crack(?)

⊰ word count ⊱ 1.2k

⊰ type ⊱ hcs + scenario

⊰ tags & warnings ⊱ pining, mistletoe, matchmaker!kuroo, unedited, no caps:D

author’s note. its almost 3AM. i still don’t feel sleepy but my bren ded

you’ve had a crush on kenma for the longest time

and, unbeknownst to you, so has he

ofc you two never seemed to realize this cuz… thats just the way you were??

kuroo knew tho,, bout kenma’s crush and had an inkling that you may like him back

he also almost “accidentally” let it slip a few times in front you

kenma always did smth to either shut him up or divert your attention elsewhere so you wouldn’t hear what kuroo was saying

poor kuroo he just wants to be that helpful senpai and see his two cute kohais get together

after a few too many “slip-ups” around you though, kenma made kuroo swear not to breathe a word of his crush to you

and kuroo reluctantly obliged,,,, but this boi still had a few things up his sleeve 😼😼

christmas time came and, as usual, everyone was abuzz with holiday fever and stress for the upcoming exams:,(

now during exam time, kuroo would often invite kenma to his house to study (even tho they’re in different grades) and this year was no different

except,,,,,, for some reason that some reason being kuroo you were also there??

kuroo and kenma were just sitting there talking about you when, coincidentally, the bell rang and they opened the door to you

“ah glad you could make it y/n ~” kuroo said in a playful tone upon your entrance

kenma knew he was up to something and few moments later, he was proven right

“actually now that you’re here, i got an errand i need to run. you two enjoy studying i’ll be back real quick;3”

you & kenma: “wAIT WHAT?!??” *internally panics at the thought of being alone with each other*

you: “sooo...👉👈”

kenma: “....👉👈”

let’s just say the two of you actually managed to do some a lot of studying cuz you two felt too shy to do anything else 

when kuroo came back, he couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised. he knew kenna would’ve been too shy to initiate anything but he figured you might’ve at least had the confidence to say smth

but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ guess you two were more similar than he thought

that just brought him to phase 2 of his grand plan to get you two together

which was to be carried out at the christmas party after exams...

exams were finally over and you felt like a weight had been lifted off your heart. of course, even though the weight of exams were lifted, the weight of… other things, still anchored your heart. as you combed a hand through your hair, you tried your best to ignore those anchors. they weren’t something you were brave enough to do anything about anyway.  

one last look in the mirror and you deemed yourself good enough to leave the house. you weren’t wearing anything fancy or special for the night’s event; just a simple holiday sweater and classic blue jeans. you grabbed your things and headed out, texting your friends telling them that you’ll meet them at the station in a few minutes. 

seconds later, you felt your phone vibrate and pulled it out.

kenma: y/n, are you going to the christmas party?

you: yep, im on my way to the station rn actually.

kenma: oh ok.

you wondered what he wanted, your brain already coming up with tons of possibilities. you quickly shook them out of your head and texted him back.

you: how bout you? are you coming too??

there was a slight delay in his reply and you had to shut your phone to navigate through the small crowd in front of the station. your friends spotted you first and quickly made their way to you. you all boarded the train and found yourselves a few seats towards the back to sit on. checking your phone for the time, you saw Kenma texted back.

kenma: yeah i have no choice. kuro’s making me go TT

you: lol poor you. im sure it’ll be fine tho 

kenma: mmm he’s probably going to ditch me once we get there

you: i’ll stay with you if he ditches you then hahahha

he didn’t reply for a few seconds and internally you were lowkey panicking. as the train came to a halt, your phone lit up again with a message.

kenma: i’ll be glad if you did (:

you started grinning to yourself but before you could type a reply, the train doors opened and you had to pocket your phone to navigate through the crowd leaving and entering the cabin. 

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ . ⊹ . ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

the gym was brightly-lit with streamers of all colors, sizes, and fluffiness adorning the walls. a standard-sized christmas tree stood in one corner with a large number of what you presumed to be placebo presents arranged neatly around it.

your eyes scanned the groups of students until finally landing on a lone boy with hair that seemed to shimmer under the christmas lights. to most others, he seemed quiet and reserved. he wasn’t easily approachable, to everyone else at least. 

you walked over and easily struck a conversation. to you, kenma wasn’t someone someone hard to approach or talk to. he was kenma afterall. what was hard, however, was trying to hide your blush every time he smiled at you, trying to keep a neutral face whenever he said your name, and most importantly, making sure your crush on him was not in any way obvious to him.

oblivious to you, he was trying hard to do just the same. and oblivious to the both of you, kuroo had already completed preparations for ‘phase 2 of getting kenma and y/n together’. 

dont give the man too much credit, “preparations” is just a fancy way of saying he found some mistletoe

lucky for kuroo, you two were exactly where he wanted you to be —standing face to face in a quiet corner of the beautifully decorated gym. 

like a large cat sneaking up on it’s prey, kuroo silently made his way towards the two of you.

“hEY ! y/n, kenma,” he said nodding to each of you respectively. “enjoying the party?”

before either of you could answer, kuroo continued talking.

“oH would you look at that.. it seems you two have been caught under some mistletoe~”

he waved his hand holding the mistletoe just above your heads as the both of you started blushing furiously. 

“cmon, you two know what you have to do~ :3” 

you couldn’t think straight. one moment everything was fine with you and kenma, and the next, some big bloke pops up out of nowhere ruining your peace of mind.

nervously, you glanced at kenma. he was staring at the ground with visibly red cheeks. kuroo kept poking him while he attempted to swat kuroo away. of course that didn't work, but it did make you swoon a bit because damn if kenma wasnt really cute right now…

taking a deep breath, you thought to yourself ‘why the heck not?’. before you had the chance to properly think, you took two steps forward and gave kenma a quick peck on the cheek. 

“oh come on y/n,,, you can do better than that~” kuroo teased. 

not even attempting to hide your blush or embarrassment anymore, you looked at kenma and saw he, too, was as red as his volleyball uniform. what struck most was the way he looked back at you. his eyes seemed to mirror yours perfectly. both searching the others for something to just push you off the edge and admit to each other how you felt. 

it seems you two found it as you both leaned in for another kiss, a proper one. 

— ✲︎

author’s note btw remember how kuroo had an “errand he needed to run”. yes that errand was coming to give yours truly some cuddles;3 ditch exam review to sleep-n-cuddle bitch ψ( ` ∇ ´ )ψ

[dokifluffs]

Comforting their Bullied S/O | Yamaguchi, Suga, Akaashi

Pairirng: Yamaguchi X Reader (gender neutral), Suga X Reader (gender neutral), and Akaashi X Reader (gender neutral)

Genre: angst to fluff 🥺👉👈

Request: “Are requests open? I would like to request hcs for Yams, Suga and Akaashi. How would they comfort their s/o if they were to get bullied. Thank you in advance!” - anonnie

Author’s Note: Indeedy requests are open~ Awww this is so cute and this was so fun to write 😊 Also here’s third year akaashi 🥺🥺 

Warnings: name calling (suga), insults (akaashi) , embarrassment (yamaguchi) ((note: these are the things in their hcs, not what they do or say to y/n)) 

Yamaguchi: 

“Y/N, let’s eat” Yamaguchi’s voice was gentle and a little excited as he stood in the doorway of your classroom, looking to your empty seat as the halls behind him filled with kids rushing to the cafeteria

“Excuse me, do you know where Y/N went?” He asked one of your friends, approaching them as they opened up and ate their own bentos at their desk

“Oh, they ran off when the bell rang..” one spoke, paused from her eating. He didn’t miss how everyone else around had a sad look as they looked down to their bentos

“Do- do you know where they went?” He asked, curious since you didn’t tell him anything new or different about lunch. He remembered distinctly you telling him that the two of you should eat together today last night

“We’re not so sure but they seemed pretty sad... I mean I know I would be too if senses outed me like that,” another spoke, stuffing his mouth with a spoonful of rice

“Ah, thank you, enjoy your meals,” he said as he left your classroom. He didn’t really know where to look and instead went to the spot the two of you usually ate together at

Snow slowly fell outside, the clouds gray and bits of snow sticking here and there as he walked down the hall toward the stairwell

Pushing the door open, the sound echoed around the tall, spacious place. The area cold since it was in the corner of the school

Before he could leave, he heard the slightest sound that caught his ear. Walking around the corner to the stairs, he saw you

You sat curled up with your hands linked together below your legs, folded up to your chest. Your eyes were red and teary as you sniffled, your head resting on one knee, squishing your cheek

“Y/N, what happened?” Yamaguchi forgot about the cold, taking a step up towards you, one half holding the railing while the other held his dangling bento. “How come you weren’t in the classroom?”

You turned in your seat, making space for him on the step to which he sat himself beside you, his undivided attention unwavering

You reached into your uniform pocket and took out the crumpled wad of paper, handing it to him

He unfolded it, seeing it was a mock everyone in your guys’ year recently took. Apparently, the curve was harder than the previous years

He saw the red marks made by your teachers hand but it made him curious since he referred back to what your friend had said before he left

“I feel... so dumb,” your voice weak. You took the test and crumpled it back into a ball, putting it beside you. You couldn’t even bring yourself to look at it. “I wanna go home, tadashi,” you said dejectedly, resting your head on his shoulder

“Can I ask what happened in class?” He treaded carefully

It honestly hurt to think back to not too long ago. The sickening embarrassment rose back up in your chest

“When we got our tests back, sensei purposefully gave mine back last. He held it up for the class to see saying that this was a perfect example of what not to do on a test,” you sobbed

He couldn’t believe what he heard

“I honestly thought I did pretty okay... I felt good about it afterwards,” you used your sleeve to wipe your nose. “But I guess I was wrong,” you sighed

Yamaguchi empathized with you, however. The two of you studied before his practice and even over the weekend, diligently reviewing. He felt good about his test too but unfortunately for quite a handful wrong

There just wasn’t as many marked wrong on his compared to yours but he would never say that. It was the last thing you needed

“You’re not dumb and what sensei did was wrong of him. Everyone’s talking about how hard the test was... even I found it hard..” he scratched the back of his head, laughing just a little to lighten the atmosphere

“Really?” You peered over to him, eyes big

“Really. And this was just a mock too- let’s study and work even harder together and prove sensei wrong.” He took your hand in his, surprised at how cold it was

“You’ll do a lot better next time, I know you will. We both will,” he leaned his head down to find your eyes, showing you a kind smile, one that warmed you up in this cold cold world

“But let’s go somewhere warmer,” he offered, standing up, leading you out of the cold stairwell. But little did he know that you were always warm enough with him

Suga: 

You bit your lip hard, biting back the tears but your eyes couldn’t stop watering up every single time you could hear their voices in your mind

You never did anything to them so why did they target you? How did they enjoy hurting someone’s feelings on purpose?

The old supply/ janitor closet was dark, dusty, and cold, a single dim lightbulb hanging and shining in the center of the room but you paid no mind finding comfort in the dark. It had a musty smell to it but you never paid mind to it if it meant solitude

The room itself was small, even smaller with the old metal shelves leaned up against two of the four walls in a corner, old basketballs and deflated soccer balls, cobwebbed cones sitting on the dusty shelves

You sat in the corner that connected the two shelves, sat next to, practically behind, an old rolled up gymnastic mat that was discarded in here due to rips and tears in the material

It was able to hide the red flush in your cheeks, your slightly runny nose and your tear filled eyes

You sat on the ground, playing with a ping pong ball that was left out by accident long ago, bouncing it on the concrete floor, the sound of it echoing

Beyond the door, you could hear the sounds of the volleyball poles used to hold the bet up being lifted from the posts they stood in, the chatter of the team as approached

You knew they carried the poles to the other closet, the cleaner and bigger one for all gym and sports equipment so you didn’t panic or anything hearing their steps approach

However, this all changed when the old doorknob jiggled, shadows of someone’s feet visible beneath the crack of the door

You scooted back into the corner, bringing your legs in as much as you could to hide yourself, not wanting to be seen or to have your little place discovered

“Y/N?” Suga’s honey voice called out to you as he stepped in, closing the door behind him. “Are you in here?”

It had completely slipped your mind that you stayed after school for your own club activities and planned to stay a bit longer to walk home with suga but then you bumped into them

They were quick to spot you and begin to nit pick things about you- the way you looked, dressed, spoke but you never understood why. They were always ones to tease and push your buttons in class, acting all friendly whenever any teacher passed by. They even brought up your relationship with suga

With a burning ache in your heart, a wound they constantly prodded their fingers at, you naturally came to what you deemed your little closet after you discovered it one day, trying to get away from reality

It was small and unlocked and nowhere near the heart of the school since it was by the gym which was perfect. It was your safe place at school

“I’m here,” your croaked, tossing your ping pong out to the old counter with the sink across from you. The ball bounced back to you and it wasn’t long until suga sat down beside you

You kept your eyes down on your lap, pretending to focus and stare at the off-white plastic ball in your hands, rolling it about

“Are you okay?” He asked, sitting himself in the slim space between you and the metal shelf. “I saw you come in earlier and you haven’t come out since...”

“Yeah,” You lied, making your voice sound as natural as you could but of course it cracked just a little at the end, keeping your eyes down

“Are you really?” His voice was so gentle with you, he was always so kind... their words rang into your mind once again, their words etched deep. Why was he with you?

“Who would want to be with a loser like you?” They asked, making you feel bitter and worthless

You shook your head, your vision blurred until you felt the weight of a tear drip from your eye onto your hand with a little splat sound. Your words were caught in your throat, unable to speak. He knew exactly what group did this to you yet they never had the guts to say it while he was around or beside you

Suga didn’t say anything either but instead brought his arms around you, his hand on your head to bring you closer to him. He spread his legs and sat himself around you, holding you close as he hummed softly

“Don’t listen to them.. no matter what they say, it isn’t true,” his voice just above a whisper but it was enough to go into your ears, his hand rubbing down your arm.

“But what if it is?” You sobbed, your knitted together in worry as you looked up to him, even catching him off guard. “What if what they said was true?.... that you don’t actually want to be with me..” it hurt to say out loud

“Ow,” you brought your hand to your forehead, looking back up to suga who had softly flicked you

“They’re wrong. I’m with you because I care about you and there’s nothing about you that would make me leave since you’re the reason I want to stay,” he huffed a little

“Don’t cry,” he spoke a moment later, using the back of his club sweater to wipe your tears away. “Let’s go get a snack and take a long walk home, okay?” He flashed his signature smile to you, holding your hands happily in his 

Akaashi: ft. bokuto 😗

The sky was getting darker and darker, clouds heavy, ready to split at any second, sending a heavy downpour all over the land

Winds blew strongly, making the branches sway, pulling off leaves, sending them rolling all over

From what you could see as you sat below one not too far from the water station of the volleyball camp, you could see the winds turning the leaves showing their pale undersides

Rumbles of thunder sounded in the distance, the humid wind blowing in your ears

You sniffled to yourself, picking at the grass around you, your back pressed against the bark of the large tree

You looked down to your hands, looking at your taped fingers but it only made you sadder making you feel like you were sinking deeper and deeper into your own little pit

“What happened?” Akaashi’s subtle voice was soft. You didn’t even hear his steps but it was most likely due to the wind

He sat beside you, offering a drink from his bottle but you declined

You let go of the stray pieces of grass, watching as they flew away and disappeared into the taller grasses that danced with the wind, creating a wave effect

“F/N said you went to get water but you haven’t come back since”

“Do...” you tried to gather your words, pushing through. “Do you think I made a mistake? Choosing to play volleyball?”

“No, why would I?” But then he put the pieces together. You had told him about a few girls on your team who you overheard doubting your skills as a setter

He was aware of your insecurities since you were a manager your first year and last year you rode the bench but now that you two were third years, it meant you were going to play

It made you nervous. The slightest mistake crushed you from the inside out. He could imagine what it felt like to hear such discouraging things from your teammates

“They-“ You hiccuped, the heat of the emotional pain you felt rushing up your back. “They told me I should have never made the team. They called me useless...”

you sat cross legged beside Akaashi, fidgeting with your fingers, your hair getting caught up in your face, strands getting into your eyes cause of the wind

“You literally make it so much harder to hit the ball since you can’t even get under the ball in time. We might as well have a ds (defensive specialist aka a passer) give us bump sets instead of the doubles you give us,” one mocked to which everyone else agreed and laughed

A team wasn’t supposed to feel like this...

“Maybe they were right... it’s not too late for me to just manage boys anyways...” you shook your head, even breaking into a smile with no happiness behind it

“You’re an exceptional player, y/n. I’ve seen it.” He did his best to clear your hair from your eyes. “Bokuto has mentioned it numerous times, too.” He did his best to ease your doubts. Akaashi wasn’t fond of your “teammates”

“We both know what you’re like once you’re in the zone.” The image of you setting for bokuto whenever you had spare time and paid them a visit at their practices last year came to mind. “You know it better than anyone else. Give yourself some time and loosen up.” He rested his hand on your shoulder, squeezing it

“Prove to them how wrong they are, because they are.” He leaned down to find your eyes, giving you a reassuring smile

“We should also head back in,” he mentioned seeing flashes of lightning, cracks of thunder even louder than moments ago, the storm closer than ever. “Someone’s waiting for you,” he held your hand as the two of you walked back

“Who?” You wiped away remnants of your sadness

“Hey, hey, hey, Y/N!” Bokuto’s voice boomed as soon as the two of you stepped through the gym. He came over to there if you in no time, meeting you at the edge of the court

He was dressed in his own light blue practice shirt and white shorts, wearing his extended knee pads as if he was a third year practicing once again

“Toss for me!” His eyes sparkled as he rubbed your head. “I love your fosses, no offense, Akaashi”

“I- I don’t know...” you hesitated feeling the eyes of your teammates on you, whispering to each other on the court beside the one Fukurodani was occupying

“Training ended for the day so technically, it’s free time. Come on, toss for me so I can show these third years what an ace really is,” he said excitedly

But before you could say anything, he was already holding your wrist, leading you to the court as he gestured to his “the way of the ace” shirt

Looking back to Akaashi, all he could do was give you a kind smile, unable to really say otherwise since Bokuto had repeatedly talked to him about seeing you play

As Bokuto stretched out his arms on he side, you warmed up your fingers

“Don’t be nervous. Show them what you can do, Y/N. And this is Bokuto, you know exactly how he likes it,” Akaashi said quietly only to you. “You can do this.”

~~~~~ Thanks for reading! Masterlist for more! Please do not repost anywhere else!

Tags (send me an ask if you wanna be tagged for all my haikyuu posts): @yams046  @mazey-chan  @sunboikyo00  @kara-grayson04​  @fortheloveofbakugo​

[letsdiscoverkitty]

Treatment/Recovery Update - May 2021

Okay, I will try to ramble less in this one (so sorry!) ^ well that didn't happen!

In terms of when I did leave hospital, as I mentioned a tiny bit in the last post, my EDP was completely AWOL. A month before I was due to be discharged she came to a meeting with myself and my consultant, during which we set up 4 appointments that would be over zoom before I was discharged to help with relapse prevention and the transition home, as well as setting out, in principle, the therapeutic support that I would be getting once home...it all sounded great, so great. But as usual when it comes to my team, it was too good to be true (should have called it). I attempted to contact her when our appointments never happened but I kept being met by a brick wall; no one knew what was happening, all I got told was that she was "off"... Time passed and I was discharged with only a phone call booked in from someone from the general team to check I was safe a few days later (it was literally 5 minutes, long if that) and an appointment to do physical monitoring the next wee....a far cry from the original discharge plan *sigh* Coming home was a bit of a whirlwind. We were approaching Christmas but we were still under a lot of restrictions with COVID, so it was a very strange/messy/weird few weeks.

Time continued to pass and there was still no confirmation around therapy or support, even the ED team didn't know what was happening with L, I just continued to go to two weekly physical monitoring. In the end, with nowhere else to turn, I contacted my consultant from hospital. To say that she was mad that nothing had been in place/I had no support would be an understatement and I thank my lucky stars that she was able to get involved. It took a couple of weeks but I finally had my first session with a therapist in February. In total it took about 8-9weeks from discharge to see someone, which, well, was hard.

Upon reflection, I think one of the biggest things I struggled with with coming home was that I had literally no leave to practice beforehand. This meant that I unfortunately slipped back into old habits very quickly as, well I know it is no excuse but coming back to the same environment your brain easily slips into automatic mode and you find yourself doing what you "used" to do without realising it.

I was in, I would say, quite a vulnerable state when I left hospital (the last few months there were pretty rocky to say the least) and the day before I was discharged (as I mentioned in a previous post somewhere) I was handed 3 different, very conflicting, meal plans and the nutritionist who had previously been very horrible to me and who had been away for a number of weeks, told me that she did not think I could continue to recover at home and that the best possible case would be if I only lost a bit of weight over the next 6 months....I think you can probably guess how badly this was taken and how messy my mind was. So with 3 meal plans in hand, none of which I had practiced, with little to no support from the ED team, I was, essentially, crisis managing, simply trying to get through each day.

I know, I know. Classic kitty - stuck record. failure. mess. making a million and one excuses. trying to make out like she is fine to the rest of the world when in fact inside she was falling apart. sigh.

In terms of my weight recovery I was not discharged at a healthy BMI/weight, which my consultant was sad about, however I was in a much better place than when I was admitted (I think I had gained about half the weight I would have needed to from when I was admitted to get to a healthy weight). I will admit that part of me does wonders whether staying would have been beneficial, because on a very basic level yes it could have helped in some ways. However if I stretch my mind back to when I was still on the ward ,it actually still floods me with anxiety and fear because of how UNHELPFUL the environment had sadly become. It is hard to explain to someone who has not experienced an EDU, but the patient groups can and do make a massive of differences. I was vvv lucky that when I was initially admitted, and for the first good couple of months, it was a v supportive and recovery focused environment. However, by about late Sept/early October ,things turned completely upside down (which was not helped by the fresh COVID lockdowns either) and even staff were saying how terrible it had gotten and how they could not believe the things that they were being asked to manage on the progression ward. There were times when I felt incredible unsafe on the ward and feared for others patients, which is not "okay". I genuinely believe that staying any longer would have likely made my mental health decline further; I had already found the massive shift was negatively affecting me and I think staying would have been unwise. I had also gained quite a lot of weight and was, I hate to admit, struggling with both coming to terms with that along with dealing with everything that you are continually facing when going through treatment/recovery alongside working on trauma stuff. I know none of that is any worthy excuse, but that was how it was...At this time I was struggling a lot with my meal plan and had quite a few lapses whilst on the transition phase of the unit however despite screaming out for help/support from staff, because of the acute situation on the ward, I was just left. They knew I was struggling, I was told time and time again that they had not forgotten me, but did I get help? no. It was actually made worse by the then nutritionist who sat me down like a naughty school girl and basically told me that I was a failure and that I would never achieve anything in life blah blah blah (please see a past post if you want to know more) which made me even more scared to reach out for 'help'/'support'. So no, I don't think staying would have helped much, which is a real shame.

Therapy wise I had a bit of a rough ride in there (god I'm really selling this aren't I?!). When admitted I was not in a place for 'traditional' therapy what so ever; looking back I honestly have no idea how I was even 'functioning' (was I functioning? probably not) and even the group therapies were a struggle but my consultant stuck with me and with time I was able to process a little more. One thing that helped me beyond words was 1:1 Art Therapy. This was not something I had accessed before, only ever doing group sessions in the past which was mostly about getting away from the ward and doing a bit of art. I cannot reiterate enough how different and HELPFUL the 1:1 sessions were. The art therapy, who I knew from the last year and is an absolutely GEM, helped me to begin to process and work through the trauma that I had experienced with dad. It took a lot of time and persistence but I was able to use those sessions in so many ways and I will forever be grateful to P for supporting me (I was so lucky to be able to have 1:1 sessions for the majority of my 8 admission).

The more traditional therapy initially took the form of 30min sessions with my consultant once to twice a week (as much as I hated them, she was bloody good). I also had a review and a few sessions with the lead therapist via zoom (she was heavily pregnant so was working from home) not long after being admitted, but she soon went on maternity leave. This left me to be picked up by her student, who was actually incredible. We did a long extended piece of work on my perfectionism which, again, was SO helpful but she sadly left (for bigger and better things) and I was left hanging for a while as there were no other openings. A new lead therapist started and after a while he did a few sessions with me before leaving suddenly (I think even staff only had a weeks notice, which was ridiculous), so I was back to twiddling thumbs for a few weeks. I then met with a therapist who worked 2 mornings a week that I saw a bit during my last admission but we didn't do many sessions and it just fell away. This was mostly my fault as by this point I was questioning my admission and whether I would self discharge as there were some not good things going on on the ward, so I wasn't really in the headspace to explore things deeply and had been picked up and put down so many times that I just couldn't do anymore. Throughout that time though I continued to see my consultant weekly, mainly focusing on mindfulness and other therapy styles thrown in there too at times.

I will forever be thankful/grateful for the admission I had, especially to be under a different consultant (for COVID reasons they had to split things differently as they would usually do it by area but that wasn't possible at the time I was admitted) as her approach made a huge difference. I still remember one of the first things she said to me was that she couldn't believe/was that I had been placed on the SEED pathway and that she believed that I could be more than that, which honestly, gave me a little bit of hope (something that had been ripped apart and shredded by my usual consultant multiple times).

But back to now.... I have now been seeing a new therapist weekly (when possible) since February and, in a backwards way, I am so glad that L disappeared off the grid because the "support" I was going to be getting under the original plan was just sessions with her to do some self guided self help stuff, whereas with this therapist we have actually been doing some HELPFUL work. In terms of L, I think the last I was told she never returned to work and has now left the team (we have a sneaky feeling that she either had a complete break down or that it was due to too may complaints (mum called this a long time ago as she was not qualified for the role at all and was utterly useless), which, yeah, was strange to not get an ending as I had worked with her for a few years. Anyway, I've been doing SCHEMA therapy with this new lady (I'd not heard of it before) and at first I was a bit reluctant but it's been incredibly insightful. I continue to learn more about myself and the reasons why I may have gone down certain roads each session. HOWEVER. and this is a big however. There has been a bit of a snag in the rope.

In short, yes I have been engaging really well with the therapy side, my weight and physical health has only continued to deteriorate since i was discharged. We are talking classic kitty of slowly slipped backwards, nothing dramatic, nothing to make alarm bells go off or warrant a review, but it's not been good. Anorexia is screaming at me for saying all of this, it shouts "but you weigh so much more than when you were admitted, you are a complete fraud blah blah blah" which is all the same old boring drivel it always spews out. But basically Im in dangerous waters now in terms of losing therapy/not being able to engage with therapy properly if things dont improve. Ive been in classic stuck mode, getting so absorbed by the numbers and the bubble that AN offers, that I have been numb to it all. The HCA I was seeing was really trying to help me to make changes but she left a while ago (she was going back to train as a nurse) and since then I have had the odd appointment here and there (I think it fell to every 3 weeks for a while as there were no available appointments) with people trying to cover the clinic until someone else is hired for the role, which is far from ideal as they literally just do the necessary obs and send you on your way.

Okay that sounds like yet another excuse, which is probably is, but it's not been an easy ride since I left hospital to say the least.

BUT this past week things have begun to shift a little. I was honest with my therapist about the whole food/meal plan side of things and we actually spoke about how we can't focus on therapy things until I am in a more stable place, which is both really hard to hear but also exactly what I need to hear. I am actually being more open to change, which is a shift from where I was just a week ago. It is bloody painful, even just thinking about it all hurts/is exhausting and I am still very much in the darkness /struggling with it but there is now a little part of me that is screaming out and trying to be heard. There is a little part of me that WANTS to get out of this endless messy limbo that this relapse has been and wants to start stepping back into "recovery". There is part of me that wants a chance. And I've got to start listening to that side a little more.

I promise, the next update will be a little more positive Stay tuned.

[crystal-moon-101]

History Of Corona & Saporia (Rewrite)

So I mentioned in one of my fic premises, me and my brother made up a whole new history of Corona and Saporia, because he’s a history nerd and said the real story sounded dumb and didn’t make sense. So instead of the child friendly love story, me and him made this! (Also @rachelbethhines​ salt reviews kind of pushed me to write this too) Warning, it is a little long, but I’ve been wanting to share this for a while now, and I hope you guys enjoy it! ✨

History Of Corona & Saporia

Many years ago, there was a Kingdom brimming with life and culture, living by the sea with luscious land nearby. This Kingdom was called Solstice, well known for their craftsmanship with boats, creative personalities and clever debates. For a long time, the Kingdom rarely suffer majorly. Sure, they would get into disputes with other Kingdoms or neighbouring villages, or simple times where mother nature would be harsh for a few months, but they stood tall and proud, growing in size over the many years.

That was until strange events began popping up. It was mere things at first, heavy rains here and there, strange plagues coming and coming with the wildlife and farm animals, but over the dangerous events became higher and higher in their destruction and damage. Plagues now shifting onto the people, an unusual pattern between having bleeding hot droughts and winter filled blizzards, the local fish even disappearing over time. There were many theories on what was happening, one of the biggest involved either magic or a god upset with Solstice. But one thing was for sure, in that it was no longer safe to stay.

So the King Heller Der Sonne ordered an evacuation of his entire Kingdom, moving them onto their ships to find land elsewhere. Though a few small groups stayed behind or decided to venture elsewhere for a new home. When everything was packed and done, the Kingdom of Solstice sailed out into the waters to begin their search for a new home.

Time passed, and eventually they came across another Kingdom, one that also lied near the ocean, their capital and castle built on an island next to the land. The found this Kingdom to be called Saporia. But here is where history seems to split, two stories formed from this very encounter, both differ depending on which side you ask. For you see, Solstice was planning to land and speak with the Kingdom, in hopes to collect more resources and have a break from sailing, before then heading off to find land. But they had edged close to Saporia, this new Kingdom suddenly attacked them out of nowhere, striking down a ship or two in the process. 

Surprised and angered by the unfriendly welcome, Solstice retaliated and attacked the capital, being that would be easy to surround with their boats, especially since the Saporians didn’t have any good defences in the waters. And this attack severely crippled Saporia, since the castle was home to many of their important people, including doctors, engineers, researchers, alchemists and the royal family, while the peasants and farmers lived on the mainland. 

There were also two big reasons why the Saporians struggled to fight back during the start of this war, one being that they did have a proper army, but most of it was out fighting in battles and wars outside or at the edge of their homeland that they were already a part of, and it would take time for them to return. The second being that while they didn’t have a good defence in the waters, they had good defences in the skies, that being that their culture created well-crafted sets of airships, but they struggled to use them in the primary fight in the capital, as firing or bombing the city would have been too risky at the time. Plus, since Solstice killed many of the people who knew how to build and fix the ships, they had to be careful when using the Airships, or else they could run out without anyone able to make more at this time.

Eventually, Solstice took over the capital, making it their main base for the war, while Saporia had many outposts around the mainland, setting up their bases around their farmlands. So by the time the second wave of the war was about to start, Saporia’s army returned finally, and Solstice now had grounds to fight on. 

However, this start of the story differs a little from the Saporians side, for they claimed that they didn’t start the fight. Before Solstice arrived, Saporia was a grand Kingdom full of intelligent and inventive people, a culture well versed in science and magic. Two well-known inventions known in current times are the airships and memory wands. But this all went downhill when Solstice arrived.

A few days before they came, a few peasants or farmers would keep coming to the castle to give a warning one by one, all saying the same thing. They claimed that there were spies from Solstice that were scouting out the land, even attacking people and starting fires in farms, as if to try and weaken Saporia from the inside. This set the Kingdom on edge, as they couldn’t let these newcomers take over their lands, or come near them even. 

So when they saw the boats coming in, they had shot at them in an attempt to make them turn back, perhaps kill them if needed. But of course, that didn’t work, as they had underestimated the powerful water fleet Solstice had, which lead into the start of the war. To the Saporians random strangers came, spied on their lands, tried crippling them on the inside, then committed genocide in their capital and killing their nobles, elites and top scientists and doctors. Thankfully their Queen, Lady Mallory Shampanier, and some of her family survived, managing to escape into the farmlands where they prepared to try and get their home back. 

And that is how the war began, with two sides of the stories, both with holes in them. There were arguments about the different sides of the tale, some asking questions like “Why would Solstice want to risk starting a fight with spies if they had their entire Kingdom with them, including civilians?” or “Someone had to have started those fires, and no Saporian would want to damage their homes and farms, so it had to be Solstice, right?”, but by then no one cared around the hows and whys, as both sides had to stand their ground for their home and people.

However, during the near start of the war, both King Heller Der Sonne and Queen Mallory Shampanier had already been old rulers, and could not hold out for long, both eventually succumbing to their ages and dying, passing their roles down to their children. Now the new King of Solstice was Roland Der Sonne, while the new Queen of Saporia was Jarvia Shampanier, both who were ready to carry out their parents and peoples’ wishes. 

The war was brutal, many deaths and damages on both sides, with Solstice cutting off their access to ocean resources, and Saporia bombing farmlands close to the capital to ruin their enemies chances for harvesting food from the land. But as time went on, it became clearer and clearer that neither side was winning, in fact, they could risk dying out if they kept this out, perhaps never recovering from the battles if they didn’t stop. Solstice had lost a lot of their people, while Saporia lost a lot of their culture due to most of their knowledge and blueprints had been in the capital, mostly destroyed by the genocide. 

But neither side wanted to let up, pressing on and on and on for many years, crippling their Kingdoms and the land around them. In fact, it went on for the rest of King Roland Der Sonne, Queen Jarvia Shampanier lives, as they too eventually passed on like their parents. 

This led into the third generation involved with this war, with the new rulers being King Herz Der Sonne and Queen Serilda Shampanier. Now, many people in Corona during these current times know their story, one about true love. Unfortunately, it is not as black and white as it appears to be, and their story of love was nothing but a cover-up for the future. 

By this time, both sides were drained and knew the consequences of not stopping would forever be unfixable. So in desperate times, the King and Queen decided to debate and settle matters in a different way. While they discussed, many waited in anticipation, not knowing what the two would do in the end. But after a few days, both come out to the public and announced that they would be uniting the Kingdom through married. Now, Hertz and Serilda never loved each other, that was the reality of it, though they didn’t necessarily hate one another either, they just knew that this might be their only option in saving both their Kingdoms. 

There was some arguing and debating between the people, a few unsure or downright upset with the propositions, but by then the majority of them were tired and wanted the war to be over, so they agreed to the idea of their King and Queen. So when the two finally married, their Kingdoms were untied, now going by the name Corona. 

However, even that didn’t please everyone. The younger brother of the Queen, Leonard Shampanier, was furious, demanding that his sister break up this deal, as he didn’t want their people to be untied with Solstice, who they still believed started this whole mess. However, his sister denied him, saying she had to do what was right for their people, and at this point it didn’t matter who started what, they just wanted it to end. But Leonard could not accept this, collecting other Saporians who too felt this was wrong, and vanishing out into the forests and valleys, going under the name Separatists of Saporia. They had originally thought about causing an uprising with other Saporians too, but it didn’t go as planned as the King turned it against them, stating that the Separatists of Saporia were trying to start a war again. It also didn’t help that, since they didn’t have access to the Kingdom, they had to steal food from farms, which inturned made the peasants favour the King. So the Separatists of Saporia hid away in the shadows, collecting what remained of their culture, waiting for the right time.

And that is how Corona was formed, under the desperate uniting Kingdoms that sought to end a raging war finally. Herz and Serilda were successful rulers, managing to bring their Kingdoms from the brink of death and building up a new culture, their descendants being King Frederic and his daughter Rapunzel. 

Meanwhile, the Separatists of Saporia stuck to the shadows, coming out from time to time to try and find ways to take back their home. Their leader and founder, Leonard, kept their culture alive for as long as he could, having a strong bloodline that followed, one of his descendants being Andrew.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re confused by parts of this story still, mostly about the different sides on how this war started. Well, that’s because not all sides were told, as there is a third story that fits into explaining the truth. But we must go back to the start, back before Solstice ever left their original lands.

This part of the tale as two characters, a young man with a passion for science called Demanitus, the other being a young woman who wanted to understand the unknown named Zhan Tiri. These two were the royal researchers and advisers to the King, well known in their Kingdom for their intelligence and inventions. The two had met young, sharing their passions and want for knowledge, soon finding themselves to be partners and close friends. 

They trusted each other, shared with each other, thought with each other, and cared for each other. But as they rose in ranks, soon standing by the King’s side, things began to take a turn for the worst, though very slowly at first. For you see, Demanitus was more favoured than Zhan Tiri, being more approachable and was even a few steps ahead of her in the science field in specific areas. Zhan Tiri was somewhat jealous, but didn’t try and focus on it, instead she wanted to keep working on a particular project with her friend. 

The two had heard the stories of the Sundrop and Moonstone, and what power they processed, and so both were eager and had dreams of finding them one day, wanting to learn about them and perhaps even use them to make the world a better place. They made a promise in their youth to find them together and fulfil their dreams. 

But as time passed, Demanitus seemed to move on from this goal, getting caught up with his new duties and tasks, wanting the best for his Kingdom, for he had a soft spot for it and his people. Zhan Tiri tried to get his interest back on the stones, but he kept dismissing her as he was far too busy for that. She was, of course, hurt by this and annoyed that the Kingdom kept dragging her friend away from her, but she was also scared that one day he might leave her behind, as he was the only person who ever truly cared about her, her only friend.

So in a desperate attempt to, in a way, improve herself and find a way to draw Demanitus back, Zhan Tiri began delving into magic. It is unclear what happened in these times, as she would often vanish for hours, until coming back a little different each time. Unbeknownst to everyone, Zhan Tiri slowly found a way to infuse herself with raw magic, something that a human should never go through, as it seems to cause a shift in their emotional and mental state, eventually physical too over time. 

As she grew stronger in secret, Zhan Tiri decided to put her plan into motion. It started off simple, she just had to make the Kingdom unlivable over time and eventually she could convince Demanitus to leave with her. But that didn’t happen, instead he stayed with his Kingdom as they packed up and left, so she came too, needing to fix of a new idea. 

So subtly in the background, she used their research on the Sundrop and Moonstone to pinpoint the location of one of them, and made small suggestions on where to go to the King, influencing his direction on where to sail, soon leading them to the lands where one of the stones could be. Her new plan was that while the Kingdom was settling in their new home, her and Demanitus could go searching for the stone. 

But then a new obstacle appeared, that being that the land was already taken by a Kingdom, Saporia. When Zhan Tiri realised that the King wouldn’t stay, instead picking up a few things then leaving, she had to come up with a new plan. And so, with her powers, she kept disguising herself as Saporian farmers and peasants, being the one who kept starting the fires and going to the capital, telling them that Solstice was going to attack. 

In the end, she had been the one who started the war by manipulating both sides. She had hoped this would have been enough to get Demanitus to leave with her finally, her mental state crumbling due to the magic she was forcing her body to merge with, her friendship with Demanitus now becoming an obsession. But he still denied her, saying he had to help their people, especially now with this war going on.

By the time King Heller Der Sonne died, Zhan Tiri and Demanitus’s arguments were heated, aggressive and loud, with Zhan Tiri coming up with any reason to get him to leave. It all came to a head when she slipped up, revealing that she had been behind all of this. And when Demanitus rejected her, turning his back on her, it was the final straw that cracked Zhan Tiri, losing herself to her magic and pain towards Demanitus. She vowed to find the stones on her own now, and Demanitus knew he had to stop her.

He had tried to tell his King this, in hopes to end the war and put all focus on Zhan Tiri, who was practically becoming a demon at this point. But the King stated that while Zhan Tiri might have been the one to start this, he couldn’t simply stop the war, as they were in the thick of it and he knew neither side would see reason. So, Demanitus had to start pulling most of his resources onto Zhan Tiri, still helping his Kingdom on the side, but it was overly stressful, even more so when the pupils he took under his wing turned against him too.

The tale between Zhan Tiri and Demanitus continues after this, but that’s a story for another time, though many now that, in the end, Demanitus managed to banish her. Zhan Tiri’s final words to him being that she will destroy Corona, as she had given it to him, and she would take it back...

[jokertrap-ran]

(时空中的绘旅人—For All Time—) EVENT! 「艾因 • 2020生贺」 Ayn 2020 Birthday Celebration Translation

*For All Time Master-list *Proofread by @crazy-moko *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut! *Maintaining Ai Yin’s name as Ayn. *Join the For All Time discord!

“In a hut shrouded in the winter's sunlight, a sweet scent enveloped us as we both shared the same cake.”

I rushed to make a small bunny-themed birthday cake for Ayn before our agreed meet-up time. The finished product looked pretty good, despite how I was only a beginner in sweets making.

Packaging the small cake properly, I headed off towards the address that Ayn had sent me.

⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

Following its location on the map, I found myself arriving at a small hill by the sea not far from the school.

I surveyed the surroundings; The atmosphere here was peaceful and serene, overlooking St. Shelter's University alongside the vast sea, yet Ayn was nowhere to be found.

Just then, I received a text message from Ayn.

Putting my phone away, I followed the instructions that he had sent and found a hut; I pushed the door open.

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Ayn's hut was by no means big, but the things piled up within were plentiful, to say the least. Music records, a skateboard, gaming consoles… A single glance around was all it took for me to realize that they were all his favorite things.

From the looks of it, it seems like he comes here often. Recalling his practice room and the piano room, the phrase "A crafty rabbit has three burrows" suddenly resonated within my heart.

Just how many more secret bases does this person have that I don't know about?

I set the cake that I was planning to give him down and took a seat on his sofa. The sofa was soft and pretty comfortable...

Let's rest a little before Ayn arrives.

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!

I had originally intended to recline and rest on the sofa for a while, but I never expected that I’d actually drift off.

I didn't know how much time had passed by either. I rubbed my eyes and was about to take my phone out to check the time when I saw a figure dressed in red before me.

It's Ayn!

I hurriedly sat up on the sofa.

Ayn stood not far off from me with his jacket slightly open, a cold drink fresh out of the refrigerator in his hand.

MC: Has it been long have you been there?

Ayn: Quite a while.

He shook the cold drink within his grasp.

Ayn: Long enough to finish half of my drink.

MC: Then why didn’t you wake me up…?

Ayn: I did. You wouldn’t wake up.

MC: Really?

I looked at him suspiciously, but his expression was one of utter calm, which in turn, made me doubt myself instead. Was I really lacking that much sleep that I’d fail to wake even when called?

Ayn: Nope.

MC: …...

The sides of his lips quirked up, perhaps from having seen how speechless I was.

He sat down on the sofa, keeping a safe distance away from me.

Ayn: I don’t want you to feel pressured.

Ayn: This is our secret base; you can rest here anytime you want.

Ayn looked at me, the winter sunlight filtering in through the window, shining onto his youthful face. He slightly squinted his eyes at the sunlight, but the curve his mouth was set in never fell.

Looks like Ayn’s in a rather good mood today.

I shifted over and tugged at his sleeve.

MC: Speaking of which, did you have something on before this?

Ayn: Nothing much. It just took a little more effort to make an escape.

MC: An escape?

He glanced at me before adding on.

Ayn: Don't overthink it; it wasn't any weird task or anything like that.

MC: Oh.

Ayn: It's only because I didn't want to be cooped up at home and spend the day with them, despite today not being anything special at all.

Ayn: They're all just… Way too boring.

Ayn: It's a good thing that I managed to escape out here.

I lifted my head up to face Ayn, only to see that he was also looking at me, a faint smile in his eyes. 

As we faced each other, some curious sort of tacit understanding wound around us, like that of an invisible hairspring. I rose, pulling Ayn along with me by the hand and sitting him down on his gaming chair. Following that, I unraveled the ribbon that held the packaging together, opening the paper box and pushing the cake before him.

MC: Ta-da!

MC: Happy birthday, Ayn!

Ayn glanced at the bunny cake and back to me again. His eyes, clear and bright, reflected the early winter's sunlight.

Ayn: Didn't I already tell you that you didn't need to prepare anything…?

MC: It just so happened that I had some spare ingredients back home...

Ayn: You made this yourself?

He raised his eyebrows and looked like he was about to deliver some harsh and sharp words in the next moment.

I remembered that his reviews of every sweets shop down in the commercial street had been uncannily accurate...

MC: I was too short on time so it might look a little ugly, but it's going to go into your stomach anyway so just bear with it...

Ayn: Cute; just like you.

MC: Huh?

Which part of it resembles me? I made this based-off his image...

MC: It obviously resembles you more.

I muttered under my breath upon regaining my sense of self.

He didn't seem to be listening to me, staring intently at the cake before ducking his head to bite on the bunny's ear.

MC: Wait!

Ayn lifted his head, the bunny ears in his mouth following as he went, his voice slightly confused.

Ayn: What, you want to eat it too?

MC: ...No. But you haven't made a wish yet...

Ayn: Oh.

I took the opportunity to grab a handful of cream from the cake box while he had his eyes closed, quickly shooting my hand out towards his face.

MC: Let me add a little blessing to that wish of yours~

Just as I was about to touch him, he appeared to have opened his eyes out of pure instinct, and quickly reacted by shifting his head to the right, almost completely avoiding my cream assault on him.

However, my fingertips still managed to make contact with his face at the very last moment. He could have avoided that if he wanted to, yet he didn't...

I forgot what I had originally intended to do after that for a moment, only hearing Ayn's soft voice by my ear.

Ayn: (Y/n), do you want to know what I wished for?

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⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

MC: You can't go voicing your wishes out, or it won't work come true anymore.

Ayn: Alright then.

Ayn looked a little disappointed.

MC: If you really want to tell me, then you've got to do it secretly.

I leaned towards him, making him stiffen before turning his head away.

Ayn: Then… Close your eyes first.

He looked pretty serious; a tad different from his normal self. The distance between us was short; so close that… I, myself, was starting to feel a little nervous.

Ayn: Scared?

MC: Am not.

Ayn: Close your eyes then.

MC: …...

I looked at him, blinked, and eventually closed my eyes.

⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

In the darkness, I could feel some warmth near my cheek, as if someone was so close at hand that I could feel their breath,

I heard a soft voice, so soft, that I had an inkling that he was deliberately making it so that I wouldn’t hear him clearly.

Ayn: Actually, I have a wish that's related to you.

Following that, I could feel fingertips touching my cheeks. It was only a mere brush, fleetingly quick, as was its curt retreat.

At the same time, the sound of breathing that accompanied it moved further away as well.

Ayn: You can open your eyes now.

I opened my eyes and looked at Ayn. The expression he had on his face was a little unnatural, a hint of a curious blush flashing across his features.

Ayn: Oh, right. Help me clean off the cream.

MC: You look hella cute now...

Ayn: You're not allowed to call me cute.

MC: Right, didn't you just say that you have a wish related to me? ...What is it?

Ayn: It's a secret.

Alright then, another secret it is.

Saying so, he handed an unopened dessert spoon to me; who knew where he had found two of them from.

In the hut shrouded by the winter’s sun, came the fine sound of music flowing from the record player.  A sweet scent enveloped us, as we both shared the same cake. This place is his secret base, one of his many hideouts. However, he’d always single me out from the rest of the crowd, inviting me into this little world of his. 

I recalled that he’d dubbed all those other people “boring”, which made me a little tempted to ask him: “What about me?”

MC: Then, what about me?

I might have been shone into a daze by the afternoon sun when I suddenly asked him out of nowhere.

Ayn gave me a look, and I thought that he must be thinking that I was spouting nothing but nonsense. What he did, however, was something I never expected. He took his phone out and shook it in front of me.

Displayed on it, was the image of us sharing the cake earlier. I didn’t know when he had set it as his phone’s screensaver.

Ayn: You’re (Y/n); the one and only limited edition of (Y/n) in this entire world.

[fizzyxcustard]

Something Borrowed (1)

Fandom: North and South (modern AU)

Summary: Requested by the wonderful @dabisburntnut Your eldest sister is getting married and you have been invited. However, your family are quite pushy about hooking you up with someone, so you ask your boss (and friend), John Thornton to go with you. 

Pairings: Modern!John Thornton x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Silliness, insecurity, drunkenness, very slight anxiety mention, slight overweight!reader mention. 

Word count: 1544

Comments/Notes: My newest tag list is still under construction, so by all means send me an ask or message if you want to be added for all fics, a particular series or fandom. I’m using Lucas North as my modern!John Thornton. Come on, it’s RA anyway. ;) 

Music listened to while writing this piece: ASMR video by FredsVoice ASMR on YouTube.

Masterlist of fan fiction here

It was your lunch break. You plopped down in the seat opposite John, your boss and owner of the factory where you worked as his receptionist. “Can I borrow you for the weekend?” you asked, grinning.

John looked up from the stack of papers on his desk and gave a tired smile.

“You bloody well need it by the looks of it,” you said, seeing the dark circles beneath your friend’s eyes. Had John been sleeping at work again? A couple of times you’d come in at half seven, only to find him asleep in his chair, arms and head on the desk.

“Isn’t your sister getting married?” John asked, stretching back in his seat.

“She is, and my mum is pushing at me to take a guest with me, preferably a man,” you sighed.

“Ahh, a means to an end?” John chuckled wryly.

“No. I didn’t say that,” you replied. “I was thinking of asking you before, but you’ve been so snowed under with all these orders and signing them off, and opening up the new factory, I didn’t think you’d want to go. Or have time to. I’m comfortable with you, John. I don’t feel that with many people.”

John couldn’t help but smile shyly at you. “Well, I’m glad you feel like that.”

“The wedding is at some large country townhouse. Most of what my sister tells me just goes in one ear and out the other, so I don’t really know. All I know is that I’m getting a lift up with my auntie and uncle. We don’t want to take too many cars, so we’re all piling in as few as we can.”

John leaned forward in his chair and watched you, your arms moving this way and that as you explained everything to him. He loved watching you gesticulate; you were so passionate and every word you spoke always sounded so heartfelt. You did nothing by half measure. So if he had been invited to such a close family member’s wedding, then you must have really thought a lot of him.

When you left the office, John sighed to himself and leaned back in his chair, looking out the window behind him. His heart was finally beginning to settle back down to its normal rhythm. You always had this effect on him, but he enjoyed every second of it. The only thing he didn’t enjoy was pondering constantly if you actually felt something for him as he did you. Each lunch break you shared with him; you text each other regularly out of work and, a few times, John had even given you a lift to and from work when your car was being repaired.

***

For the next three days, you began searching for your dress. Of course, like you normally did, you left things to the last minute if they were things you didn’t want to do. Seeing your sister get married was not something that particularly bothered you; she had always seemed to dislike you, constantly taking the opposite stance to you in debates, and she made it clear that her life was more complete because she now had a man she was about to marry and had three children from a previous relationship. Her husband to be wasn’t much better either. Most of the time he ignored you, only passing pleasantries because he felt obliged. The saving grace in all of this was John. He would be your comfort and your familiarity. None of your family made sense to you. Your parents were middle-aged, fairly well off, and found more interest in their twice yearly holidays in Spain and Italy. Your two sisters had their own lives to lead now, and you rarely saw them.

It hadn’t come as a surprise that your sister hadn’t chosen you to be a bridesmaid or her maid of honour. Those titles went to your sister’s best friends, more people who looked down on you like you were a piece of excrement they had just trod in.

By the time you chose your dress, it was almost closing time, two days before the big day. You had settled on a lilac strap dress. It was quite modest, simple and wouldn’t (hopefully) bring too much attention to your thicker curves.

***

On the morning of your travel to the wedding venue, you got up and began your normal routine of shower, breakfast and podcasts on your phone. John would be arriving at ten and then your aunt and uncle at eleven to pick you both up. Your uncle was nearing eighty now so you had asked John if he would possibly take over driving half way as the town house was about a two-hour drive away in the middle of nowhere.

Your small suitcase was ready for the two-night stay away. The voice of a kind man spoke into your ears as he discussed ways of combating anxiety and making the most of your life. Listening to podcasts in a morning and journaling always encouraged you to meet the day with a brave face, and today you would desperately need that brave face. The thought of all your judgemental family in one place didn’t particularly please you. If only the earth could open up and you could disappear somewhere for a couple of days.

John arrived at ten promptly. You let him in and closed your eyes, basking in his wonderful aroma as he wafted past you. “Do you want any breakfast?” you asked.

“I already ate before I came out,” he replied. John placed his weekender bag down in the hallway next to your wheelie suitcase.

***

The drive to the venue was quite uneventful. Your uncle Mike drove slowly and you couldn’t help but keep looking across at John from your seat, ready to laugh at the speed. In the middle of you was your five-year-old niece, Lily. She kept looking up at John, grinning.

“Is this your boyfriend?” Lily asked you.

“No, he’s my friend,” you replied, blushing hard.

“Come on now, dear. You’d make a lovely couple,” your aunt Janet chuckled.

John folded his arms and looked out of the car window. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for him; his long legs made him look incredibly uncomfortable, as though he had been folded over many times to fit in the car.

“You should be looking for a nice husband, you know?” uncle Mike said, looking at you through the review mirror. “Mr. Thornton here seems like a good match.”

“Can we just change topic, please?” you insisted. “I think you’re embarrassing him.”

“We didn’t mean anything by it,” aunt Janet replied, sounding sad for upsetting you both.

Once you had arrived at the large house, the grounds covered in acres of trees, plantations and fountains, you all grabbed your belongings from the car and began a steady walk to the hotel which was situated just behind.

Lily held your hand, and for the first time you wondered why she had been forced to come with you. Why hadn’t she gone with your mum and dad? Not that you minded your niece coming along, but it seemed quite harsh breaking her up from her siblings. At least she was with family.

“Auntie (y/n)?” Lily asked politely.

“Yes, sweets?”

She beckoned you down with her small hand so she could whisper in your ear. Her high pitched, melodic voice became low in your ear. “Can you ask Mr. Thornton to dance with me?”

“I’m sure he won’t mind,” you replied, looking over at John.

“Pardon?” John asked, still looking a little uncomfortable and out of place.

“Lily was asking if you’d dance with her at the reception.”

John bent down to the little blonde haired girl and smiled. “You’ll be first on my list,” he said.

The sight of John interacting with your niece made you feel something warm in your chest and it spread outward through you.

“Come on, darlings,” aunt Janet called.

The hotel behind the main venue was a lot more modern, having television screens in the reception and plenty of coffee machines. “Hello,” a well set, dark-haired man said, offering you all a smile. He was dressed in a black suit and you noticed the name Peter on his name badge. “You must be part of the group for the wedding planned for this weekend?”

“We are,” aunt Janet said.

You still kept hold of Lily’s hand and watched John avert his gaze towards the door, as though he wanted to disappear and never be seen again.

“You’ve all been booked into rooms. Can I take all of your names, please?” Peter asked.

Of course you knew that Lily would have to check in properly with her mum and dad, who were strangely absent. Considering that your uncle drove so slow, you seemed to be the first group who had arrived.

Peter then turned to you and John. “I see we just have a ‘plus one’ for you, Sir,” he told John. “But can we take a name.”

“John Thornton.”

“That has all been checked for you. A king-size room is now available for you both.”

You blanched. “Is that one bed or two?” you asked.

“It’s one large bed.”

Oh, shit!

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[promethes]

how an idiot like me got into good schools

A quick run-through of my academic history and how I got into good colleges will be below the cut! I’m also including a list of some of the schools I got into for reference. I apologize in advance for how messy this is, but my memory is shitty and I remember random things that I keep throwing in lol. (and for people congratulating me, thank you very much, but I got into all these schools last year lol! so keep in mind I graduated high school in 2019)

If all you came for are the basic stats and you don't want my rambling: I went to a public school GPA: around 4.4 on 4.0 scale (3.9 unweighted) SAT: 1520/1600 APs: 10 (4 3s, 2 4s, 4 5s) Extracurricular: mainly NHS (around 300 volunteering hours), StuCo, Varsity Golf, and Quiz Bowl

EDIT: comments made by the readers who reviewed my application are available here!

First off, I am not an einstein! I am blessed that I pick up on stuff easily and gifted in academics, but I’m nowhere near a genius. For a little backstory, I went to a public school in Michigan for the entirety of my pre-k - 12 education. When I was in the third grade, the district introduced an accelerated program. We took a quasi IQ test and if we tested high enough (I think the threshold was 80%? If I remember correctly I got a 97) we were put in a class that was 2 years ahead in English and Math. We stayed grouped together for the rest of our public schooling, basically a core group of around 20 people. Since we were the first year of the program and our grade was exceptionally gifted for some weird reason, it was a very high achieving group of students, so I’m going to include their stats along with mine for comparison because colleges also factor in your peers when they look at your stats.

I’ll start off with basic stats:

I got a 1520 on the SAT. My grade had around 5 - 10 people achieve over 1500. Some of them had been studying for years, while others (me) did not know that the SAT existed until that year and couldn’t afford any private tutoring and had no patience for the study books from the library. I’m lucky to have an aptitude for the skills they were testing. I did not take any SAT subject tests.

For GPA, I think I ended up with around a 4.4 on a 4.0 scale. I was around 15/350 when it came to class standing, so I was far from the valedictorian. I think our valedictorians got around a 4.6 or 4.7.

I took 10 AP tests. I got a 3 in APUSH, World History, Language and Comp (I fell asleep lol), and Chem (I will get into this class a little later). I got a 4 in Literature (I fell asleep. Again.) and in Psychology. I got a 5 in Calc AB & BC, Comp Sci Principles, and Environmental Science.

AP classes were really pushed in my high school, especially onto my grade, and I don’t like being told what to do lol so I pushed back and took fewer AP classes than most of my peers (valedictorians ended up with maybe 15? It’s crazy) and basically only took classes I was interested in or that I had to take because I had exhausted the rest of the curriculum.

I also dual-enrolled in 2 classes at the local community college since I’d exhausted the curriculum at my high school for things I wanted to do (english and comp sci). I want to make it clear that I never sat down and planned how I was going to maximize my schedule or how I’d take the most advanced classes, I just fell into it since we had already essentially skipped two grades. Most people didn’t dual enroll since they wanted the AP GPA boost.

For extracurriculars, I mainly focused on Quiz Bowl, Golf, NHS (volunteered around 350 hours in 3 years I think) and Student Government. I never had any leadership positions and just kind of fucked around most of the time. Most of my peers held several leadership positions throughout the years and did like a bazillion things. 5 of them even traveled to Europe for some science research thing where they presented their research. I was not that big of a nerd.

In junior year, I stumbled on something called Questbridge and decided to apply because I wanted the money for the scholarship. I became a Questbridge college prep scholar, which then led me to apply for the National College Match. I didn’t rank any binding schools so I didn’t match, but I did apply to several schools with their application. If you are a low-income high achieving student, I highly recommend looking them up. I was the first person in my school to do this program and encouraged my peers to do it too. I think 4 of us were Questbridge scholars.

As you can see, I had good numbers, which probably got me past the first wave of application look throughs. However, I’m fairly confident that what made me stand out was my essays. I always stress this to whoever asks me for advice: do not write a perfect essay, write YOUR essay. I can only imagine how bored those poor people are of reading about someone winning a soccer game or a spelling bee. Add some pizzazz in there. Talk about your flaws and your mistakes and your unique life experiences! 

For example, my personal essay wasn’t even in essay format! I wrote it like journal entries, focusing on my sophomore year when my life was Extra Tumultuous and I was going through homelessness. I did not say I was homeless once in the essay. I just did day by day entries of what my life was like during that time and through that the readers were able to see that I loved to read, that I am fiercely protective of my single-parent family, and they saw how I handled adversity. I want to stress that I’m not encouraging poverty porn at all. I did not write it to make the reader feel bad. I simply relayed what I thought about in a day, focusing on both big and small.

I also wrote about funny things related to academics, partly to explain my transcript and partly to be funny. This is the AP Chem thing. I actually dropped out of it after one term (so about a third of the way through) so I could dual enroll in a class I was interested in instead. My chem teacher HATED that since I was good at chemistry (hate it. Hate that subject so much) and tried to convince me to stay. One of the things he said was “You’ll never be ready for college if you don’t take this class! You wouldn’t even be able to pass the AP test!” so I said bet. dropped the class and signed up for the AP test that same day and showed up almost every day for the rest of the year and dicked around the entire class, taking naps in the back of the lab, sitting on his desk, cracking jokes about whatever he was teaching. I got a 3 on that exam purely out of spite with only half the information I needed. So write about stuff like that. It’s fun.

The fact that I had no guidance in writing the essays was actually really good for me since I just kind of let loose. My UChicago essay read like I was on crack, and they loved it so much that they literally mentioned it during the welcome speech for their little college visit in April.

And don’t sweat over the small stuff! The short answers don’t have to be perfect and mind-blowing, just answer honestly. For the “why Yale” supplemental essay I just ranted about how beautiful their library is for a good 300 words (at some point I said I needed my inhaler because it was that breathtaking. I made a Yale admissions officer read that.) I ranted about Howl’s Moving Castle to Columbia. I told them my favorite magazine was the American Girl ones for their arts and crafts! I have a friend at Columbia who literally sent them a picture of her in a duck costume as a supplement. They loved it. So don’t lose your mind trying to sound worldly and educated. You’re like. 17. Just answer honestly and don’t think too hard about it.

I was also extremely lucky to have a dedicated counselor who sat down for hours with each individual student to write fantastic letters of recommendation. She really made it clear what I had achieved and what challenges I’d faced.

So. tl;dr: I got lucky. Unless your parents donated a couple billion to the school, there are no guarantees. Sometimes you can have the stats and perfect essays and amazing extracurriculars and you can still get rejected because they don’t think you’re a good fit with the school compared to the rest of the applicants. There’s limited space in the student body. I got into schools my valedictorians didn’t get into even though I was academically less than them in every possible way. So let yourself shine through your essays and know you’ll end up in an environment that values the person they saw in those essays.

I got into a lot of schools, and don’t really have a record of all of them, but here are some of the top ones I can remember off the top of my head:

Yale, Columbia, University of Chicago (likely letter), Northwestern, University of Michigan, Northeastern, CWRU, UNC Chapel Hill, and a couple other schools here and there that slip my mind at the moment.

[needs-to-stop-looking-at-valves]

RID2001 CHARACTER REVIEW!!(1/3):

Disclaimer; I will only include characters I want to talk about. If I missed someone, send it in as an ask, and I’ll do it. Also, I will not include EVERY form for every bot, mainly because of Megatron. With that, let’s get started with the autobots!

*Might contain swearing and or lewd comments.

Optimus!!;

Every series has their own version of a hero, and this version has a rather classic Optimus! Noble, prone to long species, and very open in the spark. Imma be honest with you, I was surprised at just how much this one wears his heart on his sleeve. TFA Optimus, one being much younger and inexperienced in war, had nowhere NEAR as much naivety, especially in terms of the enemy. I saw this Optimus for the first time, and was kinda surprised at this? I think he’s the most gullible Optimus of them all, and I think that makes him sort of fun, especially in this series. He’s also just a really sweet mech in general, and I’m kinda into it. 8/10. I’d give him more if maybe they had an episode specially about him. It’s really him with his brother, or him with his team. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, he’s just not as in depth as I’d like him to be.

Side Burn!!;

Ah, what to say about this red ride racing, flirt fanatic, absolute mess of a himbo? He’s personally my favorite autobot, just because he’s a bit of a Smokescreen-esque character. Fun, good lines, with a huge spark for Koji, his brothers, and Red cars. What I love about him especially, is his reactions with other bots. He really makes the ‘youngest brother’ character, without being just fucking annoying in terms of needing to be watched over. 10/10 for me. He’s fun, he’s sweet, he’s SUPER pretty, and his brothers love him so much. Definitely my favorite of the autobot brothers 💙.

Prowl!!;

The middle brother of the autobot brother trio. He’s handsome, but the only stiffy you’re gonna get out of him, is him in regards to the law. He’s a bit firm handed when it comes to the law, and isn’t exactly the mech you’ll catch thinking outside the box, but you appreciate the fact that he loves his two brothers very much. Even if Prowl has to keep arresting Side Burn for his day to day antics. Arguably the one with the only braincell, Prowl gets a 7/10 from me. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but I feel like we could've gotten a Prowl exclusive episode from him.

Ex Brawn!!;

The eldest of the autobot brothers! A true cowpoke at spark, this guy’s favorite thing to do (when he’s not giving a bronco blast to some baddies) is going off-roading! Up hills, under water, on rocks, dude likes any path that puts a pep in his step. Don’t let his gruff preferences fool you however, this here is a real gentlemech. He treats ladies with a bit more respect, even going so far as to call T-AI ‘darlin’, and getting really pissy when the bad guys make his usual driver upset. All in, he’s a fun character who has a lot of love for his two little brothers, and I know he’d risk his hide for them. 9/10. 

Tow-Line!!;

listen, I know he came out in one or two episodes (one episode where he was the focus, one semi cameo, and third in the finale), but he is SO cute. He’s a bit of a one trick pony, towing ANYTHING that violates no parking rules (including children’s bikes), but he has very good intentions. He just wants to help the autobot cause and keep order. While this makes him a bit annoying to bots like Side Burn, as well as easily to manipulate, he will help out the team in ANY way he can. He’ll even give others praise for doing their jobs, and will do so quite willingly. 9/10, I want to invite him over for cookies and lemonade, then wipe the crumbs off his cutie wooty face.